- 41
Paul Cézanne
Description
- Paul Cézanne
- Paysage aux environs d'Aix-en-Provence
- Oil on canvas
- 16 by 23 3/8 in.
- 40.5 by 59.5 cm
Provenance
Jas de Bouffan, Aix-en-Provence
Henri Boissin, Aix-en-Provence (gift of Maxime Conil, the artist's brother-in-law, 1965)
Mme Marquetty, née Boissin (by descent from the above)
Mme Bachollet, née Marquetty, Paris
Sale: Sotheby's, London, December 1, 1982, lot 8
Insel Hombroich, Germany
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Gana Art Gallery, Seoul (sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 17, 1998, lot 243)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy of Arts; Paris, Musée d'Orsay & Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art, Cézanne, The Early Years, 1988-89, no. 11, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Cézanne, les anneées de jeunesse, 1988-89, no. 11
Literature
John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, New York, 1996, no. 79, vol. 1, catalogued p. 87; vol. II, illustrated p. 26
Condition
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.
Catalogue Note
An exceptionally verdant view of the Provençal landscape is Cézanne's focus in this rare canvas from the mid-1860s. The abundance of surface texture, invoking the sensory appeal of the landscape, is achieved with thick layers of paint applied by palette knife and broad, vigorous strokes. It is as if Cézanne was so overwhelmed with the richness of what he saw that he needed to capture it by means of more than just his paintbrush. John Rewald provided the following analysis of the artist's working method: "The foreground is of an extremely bright and "troweled" green, and the mountains are of a uniform gray, whereas the lightly clouded sky seems executed with a palette knife In other places, particularly the foliage and shadows of the very dark trees, the artist appears to have used a small spatula" (J. Rewald, op. cit., p. 87).
In the exhibition catalogue in 1988, Lawrence Gowling wrote the following about this early period in Cézanne's career: "Cézanne was the first man [among the Impressionists], perhaps the first man in history, to realize the necessity for the manner in which paint is handled to build up a homogenous and consistent pictorial structure. This is the invention of forme in the French modernist sense -- meaning the condition of paint that constitutes a pictorial structure. It is the discovery of an intrinsic structure inherent in the medium and the material," (Lawrence Gowing, op. cit., p. 10).