Paul Cézanne

Estate of the artist

Ambroise Vollard, Paris, and Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (acquired from the above in February 1907)

Bernheim-Jeune, Paris

Auguste Pellerin, Paris (acquired from the above on November 14, 1908, thence by descent and sold: Sotheby’s, New York, November 13, 1997, lot 112)

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Orangerie, Cézanne, 1936, no. 16

Paris, Orangerie, Hommage à Cézanne, 1954 no.19

London, Royal Academy of Arts; Paris, Musée d'Orsay; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Cézanne, The Early Years 1859-1872, 1988-1989, no. 40

Basel, Kunstmuseum, Paul Cézanne: Die Badenden, 1989, no. 4

Paris, Grand Palais, Impressionnisme, les Origines 1859-1869; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Origins of Impressionism, 1994-1996, no. 27

Paris, Grand Palais; London, Tate Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cézanne, 1996, no. 27

Julius Meier-Graefe, Cézanne und sein Kreis, Munich, 1918, illustrated p. 96 (various editions: Munich, 1920, illustrated p. 96; Munich, 1922, illustrated p. 109)

Gustave Coquiot, Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1919, illustrated opp. p. 144

Curt Glaser, Paul Cézanne, Leipzig, 1922, illustrated pl. 4

Georges Rivière, Le Maître Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1923, p. 202, illustrated opp. p. 50 (as dating from 1875)

Roger Fry, "Le développement de Cézanne," Amour de l'Art, Paris, December 1926, illustrated p. 391 (In English: Cézanne: A study of his Development, New York, 1927, illustrated pl. III, pp. 16-17)

Julius Meier-Graefe, Cézanne, London, 1927, illustrated pl. XI

Alan Burroughs, "David and Cézanne, presenting the case of Thought versus Feeling," Arts, September 1929, New York, illustrated p. 111

Roger Fry, "Cézanne's Udvikling", Samleren, 1929, illustrated p. 103

Eugenio d'Ors, Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1930, illustrated pl. 33 (English edition: New York, 1936, illustrated pl. 46)

Georges Rivière, Cézanne, Le Peintre solitaire, Paris, 1933, illustrated p. 53 (second edition: Paris, 1942, illustrated p. 53)

Nina Iavorskia, Cézanne, Moscow, 1935, illustrated pl. 11

Maurice Raynal, Cézanne, Paris, 1936, illustrated pl. XVI

Lionello Venturi, Cézanne: Son Art, son Oeuvre, Paris, 1936, vol. 1, p. 90, no. 106; vol. II, no. 106, illustrated pl. 27

Giorgio di San Lazzaro, Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1938, fig. 46, illustrated 

Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia, The Art of Cézanne, New York, 1939, no. 33, illustrated p. 178

Goran Schildt, Cézanne, Stockholm, 1946, fig. 16, illustrated

Bernard Dorival, Cézanne, Paris, 1948, illustrated pl. VIII

Liliane Guerry, Cézanne et l'expression de l'espace, Paris, 1950, fig. 3, illustrated

M. Florisoone, "Van Gogh et les peintres d'Auvers chez le Dr. Gachet," Amour de l'Art, Paris, 1952, illustrated p. 20

Kurt Badt, Die Kunst Cézannes, Munich, 1956, p. 76

S. Lovgren, The Genesis of Modernism, Stockholm, 1959, illustrated p. 33

Sara Lichtenstein, "Cézanne and Delacroix," Art Bulletin, New York, March 1964, fig. 9, illustrated

Meyer Schapiro, Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1973, illustrated p. 56

Lionello Venturi, Cézanne, Geneva, 1978, illustrated p. 60

Mary Louise Krumrine, "Cézanne's Bathers: Form and Content," Arts, New York, May 1980, p. 115

Mary Thompkins Lewis, Cézanne's Early Imagery, Berkeley, 1989, fig. 107, illustrated p. 201

John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, London and New York, 1996, vol. I, p. 137, no. 171; vol. II, no. 171, illustrated p. 59

In 1865, Edouard Manet's Olympia (see fig. 1) was shown at the Salon des Refusés to the great scandal and shock of the Parisian public. Among those profoundly affected by seeing this work was Cézanne, who wrestled with the image until 1870 when he decided to produce a "modern" version of it. According to Götz Adriani: "Cézanne worked on the assumption that he could only achieve a comparable succès de scandale by developing Manet's technical and iconographical innovations even more uncompromisingly, creating examples of even more bold sensuality with which to confront the public. And what better to build on than Olympia, the Salon outrage, which upset the public and the press as no painting had done before" (Götz Adriani, "‘La lutte d'amour,’ notes on Cézanne's early figure scenes," in Cézanne The Early Years 1854-1872, exhibition catalogue, London, 1988, p. 45).

Cézanne painted two versions of Une Moderne Olympia- the present picture, also known as Le Pacha, and the canvas in the Musée d'Orsay, painted 1873-1874 (see fig. 2) and exhibited at the First Impressionist Exhibition of 1874. Both represent a naked courtesan and an attendant being observed by a clothed male figure seen from behind, but differ considerably in style, the earlier of the two extravagantly baroque in feeling, the later far more rococo in its deftness. For the pose of the reclining courtesan Manet had looked back to the nudes of Titian and Goya, treating them with respect but with considerable irony. Cézanne's references to Manet were to be far less respectful. In the watercolors, Le Punch au rhum, 1866-1867 and L'Aprés-midi à Naples, 1870-1872 (John Rewald, Paul Cézanne, The Watercolors, Boston, 1983, nos. 34 and 35), for example, which have been seen as commentaries on Olympia, the cool elegance of Manet is replaced by a deliberately outrageous assault on bourgeois mores and insistence on academic perfection. In the slightly later watercolor in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Olympia (Rewald, ibid. no. 135, see fig. 3), the pose of the nude is analogous to Manet's courtesan but the dynamics of the original composition have been transformed by the inclusion of the male visitor behind the bed on which she lies. The cool elegance of Manet's reclining figure has been replaced by the hunched over position of Cézanne's nude, crouching on her bed. Similar serpentine rhythms unite the courtesan, her attendant, the observer and the gargantuan decorative elements: the red curtain held back by golden cords, the vase of flowers towering over the seated nude and the billows of the bedclothes that swoop down to the left foreground. Even the titan-supported table with its display of overripe fruit is massive in scale.

Like his Déjeuner sur l'Herbe of around 1870, Cézanne's Modern Olympia has an evident relationship to Manet's noted masterpiece. The precise reference, however, is not readily defined. Roger Fry observed that there was a sense of irony inherent in Cézanne's picture, as the vision "clumsy and almost ridiculous as it is, imposes itself on us by its indubitable accent of sincerity" (Roger Fry, "Le développement de Cézanne," Amour de l'Art, Paris, December 1926, p. 391).  In fact, the content of both Manet's and Cézanne's pictures has been the subject of considerable scrutiny. Both of Cézanne's versions depict a figure in the foreground that is identifiable as the painter himself.   However, no figure that could be associated with Manet ever appeared in the canvases that initiated these themes. Indeed, Cézanne had no admiration for impersonality in painting. He and Zola felt rather that the signs of temperament that identified a painter were the essence of his contribution. Similarly, Manet's subtle taches and the neutrality of the atmosphere in which his subjects materialized appear rather conservative in comparison to the bulging volumes and curvaceous outlines of Cézanne's modernized Olympia. The fact that Cézanne's versions of Olympia have always been described as ‘modern', certainly by his wish, is significant. It implies that Manet's style of the 1860s seemed to Zola and Cézanne to be archaic and impersonal.   Their criticism was directed towards Manet's omission of emotion or temperament in his pictures, evidenced by his use of flat patches within defined contours, a technique which was modeled after particular patterns of seventeenth century Spanish painting. The style of Cézanne's compositions were, in contrast, decidedly more original and avant-garde.

The first owner of this work was the great Impressionist collector, Auguste Pellerin (1852-1929, see fig. 4). As the Norwegian consul in Paris, Pellerin became an avid collector of Cézanne's work beginning in the 1890s, amassing a collection of around 150 of the artist's works. The Pellerin family kept this painting in their private collection for nearly 90 years.

Comparables:

Fig. 1, Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay Paris

Fig. 2, Paul Cézanne, Une moderne Olympia, 1873-73, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Fig. 3, Paul Cézanne, Olympia, watercolor, The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Fig. 4, Auguste Pellerin, circa 1900