Paul Cézanne

Paul Meunier Murer, Paris
Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Lucien Vollard, Paris
Mme Edouard Jonas, Paris
E. V. Thaw, New York
Robert Noortman Galleries, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1981

Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, D'après les maîtres, 1910, no. 65

Emile Bernard, Souvenirs sur Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1912, p. 46
Ambroise Vollard, in Cahiers d'Art, 1931, p. 389
Fritz Novotny, in Pantheon, 1967, pp. 276-80
Sidney Geist, in Art International, 20th November 1975, p. 15, illustrated
Denis Coutagne, Cézanne au Musée d'Aix (exhibition catalogue), Aix-en-Provence, 1984, p. 187, illustrated
Roger Benjamin, 'Recovering Authors: The Modern Copy, Copy Exhibitions and Matisse,' Art History, June 1989, p. 188, note 78, illustrated fig. 51
John Rewald, The Painting of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, London, 1996, no. 589, catalogued p. 394; vol. II, no. 589, illustrated p. 196

Paul Cézanne was a great admirer of the Old Masters.  He found his inspiration from frequent visits to the Louvre, where he made pencil sketches after details from works by Poussin, Rubens and antique statues, amongst others.  In two cases he reversed the process and produced an oil painting based on a black and white reproduction of a great masterpiece of the past.  The first of these paintings is an interpretation of a wood engraving after El Greco's La dama de las pieles (see: J. Rewald, The Painting of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, op. cit., no. 568).  The second painting is the present work, which John Rewald analyses in detail: ''indeed, the artist based his 'paraphrase' on a well-known 1647 etching by Adriaen van Ostade representing a Dutch peasant family in a cluttered interior.  Whereas Cézanne may have endeavored vaguely to approximate El Greco's style and chromotacism in the other copy, he showed little or no intention of capturing Ostade's earthy approach in this one.  Here, he was obviously seduced by the amazing richness of details, the interaction of forms and figures, the divergence of lines, the complicated spatial relationships.  His purpose was not to reproduce every clearly defined element of this crowded farm room where Ostade had managed to represent a multitude of objects with perfect precision...  Instead, he proceeded with a brush, freely transforming into spots of color the many components of the print." (J. Rewald, The Painting of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, op. cit., p. 394)

For Cézanne, the interpretation of Ostade's etching was a challenge of the highest importance, as he had to "compensate" his weaker spots, anatomy and composition, with his coloration and his brushing techniques.  As John Rewald suggested, "it was this attitude that prompted Cézanne to translate the intricate organization of Ostade's etching into delicate touches of color, applied with both respect for his model and a remarkable freedom." (J. Rewald,The Painting of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, op. cit. p. 395)