This is the largest of four paintings Cézanne made of this model, named Michelangelo di Rosa, created when the artist was living in Paris. While the subject of a figure posed in classic contrapposto, in which the body twists, draws from a long artistic tradition, the flattened space of the room, the nearly abstract shapes of the background, and Cézanne’s use of color are innovations that drew on and shaped current artistic debates of the day.