Paul Cézanne

Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Robert de Galéa, Paris
Private Collection, Madrid
Sale: Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, March 16, 1978, lot 17
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, New York, 1996, no. 540, catalogued p. 366; vol. II, no. 540, illustrated p. 277

Work is in fairly good condition. Canvas is unlined. Canvas is dirty and appears discolored, particularly in the unworked areas of the sky. Under UV light: some small, scattered dots of inpainting in the foreground, along the left edge and in the worked areas of the sky. There are a few small scrapes to the surface visible in the foreground.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Executed circa 1885, La Route tournante à la Roche-Guyon offers a remarkable and fascinating insight into Cézanne's working methods, as well as providing a good example of his landscape compositions of the early to mid-1880s. The painting shows a panorama of La Roche-Guyon, a small district on the Seine where Cézanne enjoyed a family holiday with Renoir in late June and early July 1885, and forms part of a series of his painted views of the area.

Having spent the previous two years in Provence, the landscape around Paris was relatively new to Cézanne, perhaps accounting for the spontaneity of this picture. Light and brisk pencil marks delineate the angular group of buildings and the contrasting gentle slopes of the background, providing a real sense of the artist's first impressions of the scene. The freshness of color along the curved lines of the road and on part of the town represents his experiment with subtle tonal gradation, which can be interpreted as the first step towards a more resolved work.

The composition itself, which is organized by a clear linear arrangement of road, buildings, hills and sky, is typical of Cézanne's oeuvre and exemplifies different geometric forms. The unfinished nature of the work, however, frees it from the constraints of the artist's typical analytical intensity. Summing up this gift for essentialism, Renoir once remarked that, "Cézanne has only to place a dab of colour on a canvas for it to be interesting; it's nothing and it's beautiful" (quoted in G. Rivière, Cézanne, Paris, 1933, p. 19).

 

Fig. 1  Paul Cézanne, Route tournante à la Roche-Guyon, 1885, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts