Paul Cézanne

Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Galerie Zak, Paris
Pierre Lévy, Troyes (acquired from the above in 1939 and sold: Maîtres Boisseau et Pomez, Troyes, Succession Pierre Lévy, February 2-4, 2007, lot 529)
Acquired at the above sale

Troyes, Hôtel de Ville, À la découverte de la collection Pierre Lévy, 1976, no. 15

John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1996, no. 52, illustrated p. 18 (dated circa 1865)
Lionello Venturi, Cézanne: son art–son oeuvre, Paris, 1936, no. 33 (dated 1865-1866)
Michel Hoog, Cézanne Puissant et solitaire, Paris, 1989, illustrated p. 33

The canvas has been relined, probably in the 1960s. There is a thick impasto and the work has been varnished. Under UV light: two small areas of retouching are visible in the upper right hand corner as well as a very thin intermittent line running vertically from the center of the upper edge, from the sky towards the top of the trees, to correct some minor shrinkage in the impasto. Otherwise this work is in very good 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.

In 1865, in Paul Cézanne’s first known letter to Camille Pissarro, the painter from Aix feistily announces his plans to present canvases at the Salon that will “make the Institute red with rage and despair." He signs off with the playful challenge: “I hope that you will have painted some beautiful landscapes” (quoted in Paul Cézanne, Correspondance, Paris, 1978, pp. 112-13, translated from the French). The word “beautiful” (beau) is precisely chosen: the two young artists aimed to reclaim and redefine the term, reversing traditional notions of aesthetic beauty. “Beau,” in their parlance, meant capable of shocking the establishment, and consequently the “beauty” of a painting was judged according to its audacity.

This rare early landscape, probably painted the following year, certainly fulfills these criteria. If the darkly subtle palette and mingling of rocks and foliage are reminiscent of Courbet, the bold abundance of surface texture and daring application of pigment bear witness to a young artist striving to find a new means of expression that would surpass that of his predecessors and challenge his audience. Thick layers of paint are applied with a palette knife, highlighting the physical materiality of the picture and drawing attention to the process of its construction. Thus Cézanne implicates the viewer in his artistic process and uses the canvas to reveal his working methods. Lawrence Gowling wrote the following about this stage 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, Cézanne, The Early Years (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Arts, London; Musée d'Orsay, Paris & The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-89, p. 10).

By 1866, since moving to Paris, Cézanne had twice been rejected by the Salon and had subsequently participated in the notorious Salon des Refusés alongside Manet and Pissarro. If the capital offered many gifts to the young artist, the lure of his native Aix-en-Provence nevertheless endured and he returned often to find inspiration in the surrounding countryside. The rocky hillside and shady forests were furthermore ideal subject matter for his experiments with painting en plein air as recommended by Pissarro. Cézanne was delighted with the results of this new technique and wrote to Zola, “But you know all pictures painted inside, in the studio, will never be as good as those painted outside. When outdoor scenes are represented…the landscape is magnificent. I see some superb things, and I must resolve to paint only outdoors” (letter from Cézanne to Zola, October 19, 1866). The fruits of this decision can certainly be seen in this densely verdant composition. Indeed Cézanne’s fascination with the wildly dramatic scenery of Provence would prove to be a defining feature of his art throughout his iconoclastic career, lending his paintings a personal poignancy even as they transcend genres and generations.

This work has a prestigious provenance, as it was a treasured possession of Pierre Lévy (1907-2002), the renowned patron of the arts who made his fortune with textile factories and together with his wife Denise amassed one of the most important French collections of the twentieth century. Much of their vast collection was bequeathed to the French state, leading to the creation in 1982 of the Musée d’art moderne in their hometown of Troyes. In his memoirs, Pierre Lévy describes how he began collecting art and recounts in fascinating detail how he acquired the present work: “One day in 1939…in Mme Zak’s store…There was a sombre little Cézanne with lots of impasto, representing the landscape of Aix. I asked the price. Mme Zak…stated that it is a canvas ‘for a connoisseur’” (Pierre Lévy, Des artistes et un collectionneur, Paris, 1976, p. 7, translated from the French). Pierre Lévy’s close friend the painter Marinot was delighted to witness the purchase of a painting by “the God of modern painting, he who had enabled everything, he who had opened all the doors, he who had understood everything and without whom there would have been neither Cubism, nor Orphism, nor Fauvism, or anything that we admire today. Cézanne had synthesised painting from Piero della Francesca to Courbet. That day I felt a rush of excitement to carry under my arm this little canvas that still holds a special place in my heart!” (ibid., p. 7). For Lévy, this first auspicious acquisition was a pivotal moment in his vocation as a collector of modern art, and the picture was one that he would cherish throughout his life.