Paul Cézanne

Edouard Béliard, Paris

Ambroise Vollard, Paris

Auguste Pellerin, Paris (by 1900)

Bernheim-Jeune, Paris

Ambroise Vollard, Paris

Paul Cassirer, Berlin

Eduard Arnhold, Berlin (acquired from the above in 1911)

Sam Salz, Inc., New York (by 1952)

William and Edith Mayer Goetz, Los Angeles (sold: Christie's, New York, November 14, 1988, lot 7)

Wildenstein Gallery, Tokyo (acquired at the above sale)

The Ishizuka Research Institute, Ltd. (acquired from the above)

Acquired by the present owner in 1998

Paris, Grand Palais, Centennale de l'art français de 1800 à 1899, 1900, no. 87 (titled Paysage)

Chicago, The Art Institute & New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cézanne, 1952, no. 17, illustrated in the catalogue

San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William Goetz, 1959, no. 12, illustrated in the catalogue

Los Angeles, City National Bank, Selected Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William Goetz, 1967, no. 16, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Hugo von Tschudi, "Die Jahrhundert-Ausstellung der französische Kunst," Die Kunst, October-November 1900, illustrated p. 61

Frederick Lawton, "Paul Cézanne," Art Journal, Paris, 1911, illustrated p. 58

Richard Muther, Geschichte der Malerei, Berlin, 1912, illustrated p. 232

C. Borgmeyer, The Master Impressionists, Chicago, 1913, pp. 231 and 273, illustrated

Evelyn Marie Stuart, "Cézanne and His Place in Impressionism," Fine Arts Journal, New York, May 1917, pp. 331 and 334

Julius Meier-Graefe, Cézanne und sein Kreis, Munich, 1922, p. 74

André Salmon, Cézanne, Paris, 1923, illustrated pl. 6

Charles Saunier, Anthologie de la peinture française, La peinture du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1923, illustrated p. 184

Marie Dormoy, "La Collection Arnhold," Amour de l'Art, 1926, illustrated p. 245

C. Camoin, Kunst und Künstler, March, 1927, illustrated p. 215 (titled Landschaft im Auvers)

Kurt Pfister, Cézanne, Gestalt, Werk, Mythos, Potsdam, 1927, illustrated fig. 50 (titled Landschaft mit Fluss)

Lionello Venturi, Cézanne, son art, son oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1936, no. 152, catalogued p. 100; vol. II, no. 152, illustrated pl. 41 (titled Dans la vallée de l'oise and as dating from 1873-75)

René Gaffé, Introduction à la peinture française, Paris, 1954, illustrated p. 83

Alfonso Gatto & Sandra Orienti, L'opera completa di Cézanne, Milan, 1970, no. 157, illustrated p. 93

Barbara Paul, Hugo von Tschudi und die moderne französische Kunst im Deutschen Kaiserreich, Mainz, 1993, fig. 38, illustrated

John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, vol. I, New York, 1996, no. 224, catalogued pp. 163 and 164; vol. II, no. 224, illustrated p. 74

Michael Dorrmann, Eduard Arnhold (1849-1925), Eine biographische Studie zu Unternehmer - und Mäzenatentum im Deutschen Kaiserreich, Berlin, 2002, in situ photograph of the present work in Arnhold's home pl. 19 and catalogued appendix A, no. 6

The canvas is relined. Under ultra-violet light, there is no evidence of restoration. The surface is fresh, and this work is in very good condition. Colors: The colors are a bit more subtle in reality.
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.

In Vollard's stockbook, the dealer described this work as Paysage à Auvers.  Maisons et arbres se reflétant dans l'eau. Ciel moutonné.   John Rewald provided the following description of this work in his catalogue raisonné: "The brushstrokes seem more fluid here than in the majority of other canvases of Auvers-sur-Oise from this period."   Painted largely in shades of dark green and ochre with touches of blue and white, the present work was executed at a turning point in Cézanne's development. It is impossible to overestimate the influence of Pissarro (fig. 2) on Cézanne in these pictures from the early 1870s (figs. 1 & 3), as he gradually moved away from the feverish romanticism of his early work.  Now his pictures were much more Impressionist in style with a calmer and refreshed palette.   

Joseph J. Rishel has summarized the relationship of the two artists as follows:   "In August 1872, several months after the birth of his son, Cézanne left Paris for the village of Pontoise, about an hour west of the city. The principal attraction of this place was Pissarro, who had lived and worked there since 1863. At the end of the year Cézanne moved with his family to the nearby town of Auvers-sur-Oise. This short move did not interrupt the close working relationship he had developed with the older artist. Pissarro is justly credited with having transformed Cézanne's style and, to some degree, his temperament by encouraging him to interact more fully with nature and by initiating him into a more deliberate, less subjective approach to his craft. The mutual influence that ensued between these two artists over the next ten years is one of the great chapters in the history of nineteenth century painting.  At its beginning, the sage Pissarro endeavored to calm the ferocious young Cézanne, but, as time passed, the pupil progressively found himself in the lead, encouraging the older artist to follow his example in testing the limits of Impressionist landscape painting" (Cézanne (exhibition catalogue) Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris;  Tate Gallery, London; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995-96, p. 229).

A great early champion of Cézanne's work was the English critic Roger Fry, who considered the artist's Auvers compositions to be "the first pictures of purely Impressionist inspiration that exist."  This picture is a seminal example of the type of painting that won Fry's approval. Fry went on to say that "the marvellous nicety of Cézanne's colour sense prevails above all.  He was evidently excited, liberated and enriched by what the Impressionist vision revealed to him in nature, and instead of losing his way in the infinitude of atmospheric colour, as so many weaker natures have done, he seems to have known from the first how to dominate its complexity and render it organic.  The summary synthesis of this earlier colour is here completely abandoned, and he enters into all the complexities with nature, seen from this angle, reveals.  The smallest facet of stone wall becomes, for his analytic and searching gaze, of unspeakable richness (R. Fry, Cézanne, a study of his development, New York, 1959, p. 36).