Paul Cézanne

Camille Pissarro, Paris (a gift from or in exchange with the artist)
Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Roger Bernheim, Paris
Durand-Ruel, Paris & New York (acquired from the above on 1^st September 1937)
Miss Helen Bicknell, Findlay, Ohio (acquired from the above in 1948)
Bradford Junior College, Bradford, Massachusetts (a gift from the above)
Sale: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 17^th April 1969, lot 117
Sam Salz, Inc., New York
Acquired from the above by the present owners circa 1970

Berlin, Paul Cassirer, 1909, no. 25
London, Grafton Galleries, Manet and the Post-Impressionists, 1910-11, possibly no. 61 (titled Maison à Anvers)
New York, Durand-Ruel, Exhibition of French Paintings from 1870 to 1880, 1938, no. 2
New York, Durand-Ruel, Exhibition of Masterpieces by Cézanne, 1938
New York, Durand-Ruel, Boudin to Cézanne, 1938, no. 5
Palm Beach, Society of the Four Arts, 1946
Pittsfield, Mass., Berkshire Museum, 1946

Ambroise Vollard archves, photo no. 247
Ambroise Vollard, Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1914, pl. 12, illustrated opposite p. 38 (titled La Chaumière dans les arbres)
Gustave Coquiot, Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1919, p. 68
Georges Rivière, Le Maître Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1923, listed p. 201
Ikouma Arishima, Cézanne, Tokyo, 1926, illustrated pl. 15
Kurt Pfister, Cézanne, Gestalt, Werk, Mythos, Potsdam, 1927, illustrated fig. 27
Lionello Venturi, Cézanne: son art - son oeuvre, Paris, 1936, vol. I, no. 139, catalogued p. 97; vol. II, no. 139, illustrated pl. 36 (titled Chaumière dans les arbres, à Auvers)
Edward Alden Jewell, Paul Cézanne, New York, 1944, illustrated in colour p. 26
A Selection of Paintings from the Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, 1948, illustrated pl. VII
Paul Gachet, Cézanne à Auvers - Cézanne graveur or Souvenirs de Cézanne et de Van Gogh - Anvers, 1873-1890, Paris, 1953, illustrated
Gaëtan Picon & Sandra Orienti, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Cézanne, Paris, 1975, no. 143, illustrated p. 93 (titled Chaumière dans les arbres, à Auvers)
David Bjelajac, Private Visions, The Paul and Mary Haas Collection of Art, New York, 1987, illustrated in colour
John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne. A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1996, vol. I, no. 196, catalogued pp. 149-150; vol. II, no. 196, illustrated p. 67

Entrée de ferme, rue Rémy, à Auvers-sur-Oise was executed in 1873, a pivotal year in the development of Cézanne's painting. It was during the course of 1873 that the artist embraced the genre of landscape, and replaced the dark, romantic palette of his earlier works by the more subtle, light-filled style of the Impressionists. In the following year Cézanne participated in the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris with three oils, two of which were views of Auvers-sur-Oise. With its free, spontaneous brushwork and its bright, sun-filled colours, the present work is a magnificent example of the new development that took place during this pivotal period in Cézanne's art.

The first owner of the present work was Camille Pissarro, who was during this time a great friend and mentor of Cézanne, and received this painting either as a gift from the artist or in exchange for a painting of his own. In August 1872 Cézanne moved to Pontoise, where he joined Pissarro who was living there with his family, and soon afterwards settled in the neighbouring town of Auvers-sur-Oise. Cézanne spent 1873 at Auvers with his wife Hortense and their son Paul, and he frequently walked to Pontoise where he painted alongside Pissarro. It was under Pissarro's influence and guidance that he painted from nature, paying considerable attention to rendering the effects of light on the landscape and houses. He developed a more precise gradation of tonal values, using various shades of green and yellow and painting every leaf with a single brushstroke. The vibrant hatching technique visible in the present work anticipates his later style, as does the placement of trees on the left and right, used as a device for rendering depth and perspective.  

Arriving in Auvers towards the end of 1872, Cézanne took up residence near Doctor Paul Gachet, who lived in a house on the rue Rémy. Gachet was a great early supporter of the Impressionist artists, and himself an amateur painter. In the company of Pissarro and Guillaumin, Cézanne often visited Doctor Gachet's studio, where they made etchings, encouraged by the physician who put his printing press at their disposal. Cézanne made an etching after the present painting, showing a reversed view of the same subject (L. Venturi, op. cit., no. 1161). It is annotated by Gachet as having been executed in July 1873, probably shortly after the painting.

Entrée de ferme, rue Rémy, à Auvers-sur-Oise probably depicts the area near Doctor Gachet's house on the same street, where he lived from April 1872. Cézanne was greatly inspired by his new surroundings at Auvers, which offered him a range of motifs, from panoramic views of the houses and fields around the village, to close-ups of various buildings, including the house occupied by Gachet. As John Rewald observed: 'In Auvers Cézanne could work at ease without being watched by curious spectators (whom he loathed), whether he painted on the road that led to Gachet's house or out in the fields. And he did so with untiring zeal' (J. Rewald, Cézanne. A Biography, New York, 1986, p. 95). Over a decade later, the picturesque houses at Auvers were painted by Van Gogh (fig. 3), who spent the last two months of his life here.

Discussing the important change that occurred in Cézanne's art in 1873, Birgit Schwarz wrote: 'Under the influence and tutelage of his friend and mentor Pissarro, Cézanne embarked on the Impressionist phase of his landscape painting [...] Systematic working directly from nature - '''sur nature''' - brought about a fundamental change in Cézanne's painting. With increasing force he began to realize that, as a self-contained entity, the work of art is ruled by other laws than those of open, unbounded nature. In his paintings Cézanne, who perceived nature as ''chaotic, fleeting, confused, without logic, beyond all reason'', sought to create a landscape that was ''lasting, accessible to feeling, categorized, participating in the mode of being, in the drama of ideas''. Cézanne's criticism of Impressionism was directed at its tendency to embrace the flux, the ephemeral character of all natural phenomena. Although he adopted the Impressionist doctrine according to which individual forms are dissolved by light, he incorporated these forms in a strict, organic pictorial structure. By means of classical principles of composition, such as those embodied in the work of Nicolas Poussin, he attempted to lend firmness and stability to the fleeting natural impression' (B. Schwarz in Cézanne: Finished - Unfinished (exhibition catalogue), Kunstforum, Vienna, 2000, p. 269).