
XKSS "Paul Cézanne"
The wild elegance of Coventry at the foot of Provence. A masterpiece of mechanical fluidity meeting Cézanne's pictorial geometry, immortalized by its victorious Le Mans DNA and its tragic rarity.
About this archive
The Jaguar XKSS, born in 1957, is the road-going metamorphosis of the legendary D-Type, three-time Le Mans winner. Designed to bring track sensations to the open road, it was envisioned as a bridge between racing glory and the asphalt of the world’s grand boulevards.
Recognizable by its organic curves and finless silhouette, the XKSS stands out through its revolutionary monocoque structure. Beneath its long hood, the straight-six engine delivers 250 horsepower, propelling this machine to over 230 km/h. In this piece, it meets the post-impressionist vision of Paul Cézanne. The raw power of steel immerses itself in the chromatic facets of Mont Sainte-Victoire, where the master's fragmented brushwork echoes the reflections on the car's bodywork.
A true icon of the automotive golden age, it symbolizes an era when design was sculpted by air and speed. The cockpit, stripped to its essence, engages in a dialogue with Cézanne's own quest: reducing nature to its fundamental forms. Each brushstroke seems to sculpt the air around the machine, turning the car’s trajectory into an eternal stroke of paint across the Provençal landscape.
A tragic rarity following the Browns Lane factory fire, the XKSS is more than a car: it is a visual symphony where British engineering fuses with French pictorial heritage, capturing the very essence of motion on canvas.


