Cezanne, Self Portrait 1885 - 1887

 In this painting we see Cezanne depicted by himself in what at fisrt glance may seem to be a compositionally conventional self portrait.
What makes it special (apart from Cezannes painting generally), is that the back of the stretcher is in view, the painting on the other side, however, is out of view.
So what is on the other side? Has Cezaane painted himself in the act of painting us - the viewer? Or, as I like to think, is there a mirror that he is looking into beyond the picture plane where the viewer is standing reflecting himself back? If so, then he would be painting his reflection, as people traditionally do when painting a self-portrait. If this is the case, then the painting hidden from our view is an exact replica of the one we are looking at. This would also in turn have the back of the stretcher with another exact replica of the original on the other side, and so on forever. Another way to illustrate this could be to hold two mirrors so that they are facing eachother, and look as each reflects itself into infinity.
So, does this mean that the painting is made up of something other than paint? Time and space definately. Also a lot of thought, multiplied over and over again and again infinately into paintings historical past, but maybe also into the future of painting. Maybe Cezanne is painting a cardboard guitar or a diamond encrusted skull.