During the last 20 years of his life, Cezanne repeatedly painted Mount Sainte-Victoire near his home in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. Cezanne painted this view from life at one of his favorite sites, a small road that led from Aix eastward toward Mount Sainte-Victoire. He set up his easel at the edge of the road where he could see two umbrella pines and the mountain towering over the scene. A branch of one of the pines extends from the left of the canvas across the sky, echoing the slope of the mountain, linking the near and the far.