Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne, Paris (the artist's son)
Jean-Marie Terrin, France
Sale: Guy Loudmer, Palais d'Orsay, Paris, 9th June 1977, lot 11
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Basel, Kunsthalle, Paul Cézanne, 1936, no. 16
Aix-en-Provence, Galerie Lucien Blanc, Exposition d'aquarelles de Cézanne, 1953, no. 8, illustrated in the catalogue

Georges Rivière, Le Maître Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1923, catalogued p. 203 (dated 1877)
Lionello Venturi, Paul Cézanne: Watercolours, Oxford, 1944, no. 2, illustrated p. 6
Arts et Livres de Provence, Marseille, 1953, no. 22, illustrated opposite p. 81
"Paul Cézanne: Pour le centième anniversaire de ses eaux-fortes" in
Arts et Livres de Provence, Marseille, 1972, no. 81, illustrated on the inside cover
Jean Cherpin, "L'Œuvre gravé de Cézanne: Pour le centième anniversaire de ses eaux-fortes" in Arts et Livres de Provence, Marseille, 1972, no. 82, illustrated p. 78
John Rewald, Paul Cézanne: The Watercolours, London, 1983, no. 12, illustrated
Lionello Venturi, Cézanne: Son Art - Son œuvre, San Francisco, 1989, vol. I, no. 815, catalogued p. 238; vol. II, no. 815, illustrated pl. 269

Executed between 1865 and 1867, Paul Cézanne spent much of this period in the region of Aix-en-Provence. His father had acquired a country property known as the Jas de Bouffon, near Aix, in 1859, and Cézanne spent much time working in the area until they moved in 1870. The present work is typical of his watercolour studies of the area which owe much to the excellent quality of light so inspirational to the late 19th Century Impressionists and colourists such as Van Gogh, Gauguin and later Matisse and Picasso. There is no doubt that his bold compositions were strongly influenced by the area in which he painted.

In the present work, the patchy handling of colour to the background and the bold stature of the house is imbued with a stunning resonance typical of Cézanne's early landscapes. Here we see an interesting compositional structure that combines the curved brushstrokes of his academic painting with the more flattened and structured approach seen in his Mont Sainte-Victoire pictures, which proved so influential to the Cubists. Most importantly the present work is a fascinating record of the artist at the cusp of his greatness as an innovator in painting and utimately a forefather of Modern Art.