Paul Cézanne

Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Egisto Paolo Fabbri, Florence (acquired by 1921)
Bignou Gallery, New York
Stanley N. Barbee, New York (acquired at the above sale and sold: Parke Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, April 20, 1944, lot 11)
Private Collection, New Jersey (acquired at the above sale and sold: Parke Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, January 19, 1950, lot 77)
Private Collection, United States 
Aliette Olivar, France (and sold: Sotheby's, London, December 4, 1980, lot 515)
Private Collection, London (acquired at the above sale and sold: Sotheby's, London, June 25, 2015, lot 341)
Acquired at the above sale

Basel, Kunsthalle, Cézanne, 1921, no. 38
New York, Bignou Gallery, Paul Cézanne, 1936, no. 2 (titled Nymphes et faunes)
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Cézanne, 1937, n.n.
Montreal, W. Scott & Sons, Paintings by French Masters, 1937, n.n.
New York, Bignou Gallery, Cézanne and Renoir, 1937, n.n.
Bristol, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, French Paintings of the 19th & 20th Centuries, 1938, no. 8
New York, Bignou Gallery, A Selection of 19th & 20th Century French Painting, 1939, no. 1
New York, Bignou Gallery, Paintings and Watercolors by Cézanne, 1940, no. 3
New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, 1945, n.n.
Basel, Kunstmuseum, Paul Cézanne: Die Badenden, 1989, no. 1, illustrated in the catalogue

Lionello Venturi, Cézanne, son art, son oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1936, no. 94, catalogued p. 87; vol. II, no. 94, illustrated pl. 24
Alfonso Gatto & Sandra Orienti, L'Opera completa di Cézanne, Milan, 1970, no. 22, illustrated n.p.
Gaëtan Picon & Sandra Orienti, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Cézanne, Paris, 1975, no. 22, illustrated p. 87
Sidney Geist, Interpreting Cézanne, Cambridge & London, 1988, n.n., illustrated p. 68
Mary Tompkins Lewis, Cézanne's Early Imagery, Berkeley, 1989, fig. 94, illustrated p. 166
Mary Louise Krumrine, Paul Cézanne, The Bathers, Basel, 1989, no. 1, illustrated in color p. 40
John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, London, 1996, no. 124, catalogued p. 110; vol. II, no. 124, illustrated p. 41
Nina M. Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Cézanne and Provence, The Painter in His Culture, Chicago & London, 2003, fig. 5.8, illustrated p. 197
Francesca Bardazzi, Cézanne in Florence: Two Collectors and the 1910 Exhibition of Impressionism (exhibition catalogue), Milan, 2007, illustrated p. 258
Joseph J. Rishel, "Cézanne, Virgil, Poussin" in Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia, Philadelphia, 2012, fig. 156, illustrated p. 164
Walter Feilchenfeldt, Jayne Warman & David Nash, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, an Online Catalogue Raisonné, www.cezannecatalogue.com, no. 592 (accessed September 13, 2017)

The canvas is lined and the edges have been taped. There is some visible frame abrasion at lower right corner and a pindot loss in the upper right quadrant. Under UV light, the varnish layer is difficult to read through but scattered strokes of inpainting are visible around the figures at left and numerous strokes throughout the background, particularly in upper right quadrant. Work is in generally 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.

The present work is a rare surviving example in private hands of Cézanne’s early, raw and fervent style before meeting Camille Pissarro in 1872. Cézanne’s youth is beautifully documented in the letters written by his childhood friend and literary prodigy Émile Zola. The two boys were inseparable along with their third companion Baptistin Baille, together known as "les trois inséperables," and spent their childhood roaming the countryside, buried in books: "I was 16… we were three friends, three scamps still wearing out trousers on school benches…we had a need of fresh air, of sunshine, of paths lost at the bottom of ravines and of which we took possession as conquerors… Our loves at the time were above all the poets. We did not stroll alone, we had books in our pockets or in our game-bags. For a year Victor Hugo reigned over us an absolute monarch… Victor Hugo’s dramas haunted us like magnificent visions… How often, after a long swim, the two or three of us performed whole acts on the bank of the little river" (Émile Zola in a 1856 letter, quoted in Nicholas Wadley, Cézanne and His Art, London, 1975, pp. 8-9).

The opulent imagery of the sensory and literary lives of the young men form an important theme in Cézanne’s early works as the artist delves into the luxuriant romantic elements of European culture. Cézanne’s paintings of the 1860s are charged with generous energy and lavish imagination. The thick, black, velvety background of the present work creates a shallow space in which the frenetic action takes place, with the satyr contorted as he grips the bare body of a victimized nymph. The present work is reminiscent of another oil by Cézanne, L’Enlèvement, dated to the same period, which was given as a gift to Zola and also exploring the theme of Greek mythology. The bare bodies in both works luminesce against the dark curtain behind them: disquietude and shadow reign supreme.

Italian artist Egisto Fabbri is among the previous illustrious owners of this work. He was a passionate man who fell in love with his muse and settled in Paris to live a Bohemian lifestyle with his fellow creatives. Before this point, the work was in the collection of Ambroise Vollard, one of the most important dealers of the twentieth century who offered significant support to some of the most seminal artists of the period, among them Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. He championed the young artists before the world did, and his ownership of the present work speaks of its importance to the artist’s oeuvre. Satyres et nymphes, among his other few works dating to before 1872, illustrates Cézanne’s extraordinary instinctive talent for rendering narrative and atmosphere. It also sheds an intimate light on the experiences of a boy entranced by the sensual natural world and the romantic literature in which he happily immersed himself in the halcyon days of his youth.