A major exhibition of the works of influential post-impressionist artist Paul Cezanne opened at London's Tate Modern this week.

The famous museum was founded to showcase modern art. Now the work of a man some dub "the father" of most of the works that have come through it since its 2000 opening is adorning its walls.

Until March 2023, an impressive range of the works of the ground-breaking French painter will be on display, in the first exhibition of its kind in the UK for a quarter of a century.

Cezanne ripped up a centuries-old rule-book and promised to "astonish Paris" with his early still life work. His 1893 work The Basket Of Apples was among a series of early brushstrokes that did just that by taking a familiar scene, often seen as the lowest denominator in artistic academic discipline, and transforming it with an 'impressionist' colour and form that turned that dull reality into something entirely new.

"Art made a huge transition in the 19th century, where it had been mostly trying to be realistic," according to critic Tabish Khan, who attended the press preview event. "Then along came Monet and Cezanne, capturing the impression of an era rather than just the objects as accurately as possible. From there we went into the abstract and modernist eras. So basically all contemporary art can trace its roots back to Monet and Cezanne."

Even his peers saw Cezanne as the master of this new style. The seeds of future greats are evident on the walls throughout the Tate Modern, particularly perhaps in a room dedicated to the artist's revered in-depth studies of bathers, in which the tension and discomfort of the scene is depicted, along with the activity itself. 

His landscapes, showing the area around his Aix-en-Province home, picture Cezanne's respite from a modern world he increasingly struggled to comprehend.

A century after his death, there remains something fresh and new in his work.

"Building on the back of recent research, we can see that from the early stages of his career he was very much engaged in social issues, in contemporary society," explained Tate Modern's Michael Raymond.

Paintings such as The Conversation (1870-71) show the often more subtle but trademark application of such themes, unlike some of Cezanne's more overt contemporaries, during an era of massive upheavel in France.

The Tate has gathered some personal touches as well, such as a corridor showing Cezanne's paint palates, while more recent well-known artists provide commentary on his enduring legacy.

"What Tate has tried to do is put in the voice of artists that are around today, to see how they continue to be influenced by his work" said Khan. "That's how they've tried to bring a new spin to these works. And there are some that have not been seen before," he added, the work having been part of private collections.

After a difficult couple of years for galleries, afflicted by the COVID-19 lockdowns, Tate Modern is banking on a blockbuster to boost its fortunes.