Letters on Cézanne
The painter of January's banner image - Cézanne - inspired a lot of people. Among others, Rainer Maria Rilke.
Still life with apples, 1893-94
(Source: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/102380/paul-cezanne-still-life-with-apples-french-1893-1894/)
Rainer Maria Rilke, the poet, lived in Paris for about a decade among Impressionist artists of the Paris Salon. He was Rodin's secretary for a year and besides him, it was Cézanne who had the biggest impact on Rilke. His letters about Cézanne to his wife were published under the title of "Letters on Cézanne". Here is a short quote:
"...He certainly would not have shown another human being his love, had he been forced to conceive such a love; but with this disposition, which was completely developed now, thanks to his strangeness and insularity, he turned to nature and knew how to swallow back his love for every apple and put it to rest in the painted apple forever. Can you imagine what that is like, and what it’s like to experience this through him?" (Quote from Letters on Cézanne, Macmillan Publishers, 2002)
A portrait of Rilke by Cézanne via https://harpers.org/blog/2009/08/rilke-the-duty-to-those-who-follow/