Paul Cézanne

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

 

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

John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, New York, 1996, no. 79, vol. 1, catalogued p. 87; vol. II, illustrated p. 26

Very good condition. The canvas has a glue lining. This work has a beautiful, think impasto. Under ultra-violet light, there are a few scattered spots of retouching in the sky and one spot at the extreme right edge. 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.

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).