Cézanne aimed to portray his transitory sensations in response to landscape while communicating the underlying order in nature. This is one of several works executed around the Château Noir, about three miles from Aix-en-Provence, where he lived. By applying varied tones of colour in distinct but overlapping brushstrokes, he achieved a sense of depth, light and structure. Shortly before his death, he wrote: 'I am becoming more lucid before nature, but with me the realising of sensations is always painful. I cannot attain the intensity that is unfolded before my senses.'