Something to look forward to, as Tate Modern is bringing together a once-in-a-generation exhibition of paintings, watercolours and drawings by Paul Cezanne. The exhibition is expected to include over 20 works never seen in the UK before.

Famously referred to as the “greatest of us all” by Claude Monet, Cezanne remains a pivotal figure in modern painting who gave license to generations of artists to break the rules. Created amid a rapidly accelerating world, his works focus on the local and the everyday, concentrating on the artist’s own personal experiences to make sense of the chaos and uncertainty of modern life.

Opening in October, the exhibition at the Tate Modern will bring together around 80 selected works from collections held across the world, giving UK audiences their first opportunity in over 25 years to explore the breadth of Cezanne’s career.

The exhibition will tell the story of a young ambitious painter from the southern city of Aix-en-Provence, determined to succeed as an artist in metropolitan Paris in the 1860s, yet constantly rejected by the art establishment.

The exhibition will trace Cezanne’s artistic development from early paintings made in his twenties through to works completed in the final months of his life. Highlights will include a room of outstanding paintings depicting the limestone mountain Sainte-Victoire, charting the dramatic evolution of his style through this single motif. Another gallery will bring together several examples of Cezanne’s bather paintings, a lifelong subject for the artist, including The National Gallery’s Bathers 1894–1905, one of his largest and most celebrated paintings created in the final stage of his career.

While Cezanne is often mythologised as a solitary figure, the exhibition will also explore the relationships central to his life, particularly his wife Marie-Hortense Fiquet and their son Paul, and his intense relationship with childhood friend Émile Zola.

The exhibition will open on Wednesday 5th October and run until the middle of March 2023. Tickets should be booked in advance and are already on sale, from here.

Adults: £22 | Concessions £20 | Children (12-18): £5 | Children (<12): Free

Tate members also go for free, and anyone aged 16-25 can visit all Tate exhibitions for £5 by joining Tate Collective.

The catalogue that will accompany the exhibition will feature newly commissioned essays by contemporary artists including Kerry James Marshall, Lubaina Himid and Phyllida Barlow as a testament to Cezanne’s continuing legacy as an inspirational figure to artists today.