Paul Cézanne

Victor Chocquet, Paris (sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Chocquet Collection, 1st-4th July 1899)
Eugène Blot, Paris (sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Blot Collection, 10th May 1906, lot 18)
Maurice Gangnat, Paris (sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Gangnat Collection, 24th-25th June 1925, lot 165)
Purchased at the above sale by the family of the present owner

Paris, Grand Palais, Salon d'Automne, 1907, no. 40
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Cinquante Ans de peinture française, 1952, no. 28
Aix-en-Provence, Musée Granet & Nice, Musée Massenas, Cézanne: peintures, aquarelles, dessins, 1953, no. 17

Ambroise Vollard archives, photo no. 103, annotated by Cézanne's son Copie de Delacroix, circa 1885
Georges Rivière, Le Maître Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1923, listed p. 212 (as dating from 1885)
La Renaissance, Paris, 1925, illustrated p. 169
L. Werth, 'La Collection Gangnat', in Amour de l'Art, 1925, illustrated p. 54
Lionello Venturi, Cézanne, son art - son œuvre, Paris, 1936, vol. I, no. 644, catalogued p. 204; vol. II, no. 644, illustrated pl. 206 (as dating from 1888-94)
Basil Taylor, The Impressionists and Their World, London, 1953, illustrated pl. 49
John Rewald, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, July-August 1969, p. 94
Gaëtan Picon & Sandra Orienti, Tout l'œuvre peint de Cézanne, Paris, 1975, no. 744, illustrated p. 120 (as dating from 1888-94)
John Rewald, Studies in Impressionism, London, 1985, mentioned p. 183
John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne. A Catalogue Raisonné, London, 1996, vol. I, no. 498, catalogued p. 333; vol. II, no. 498, illustrated p. 160

The canvas is lined. There are three very thin horizontal lines of retouching running across the top left of the sky, a very thin intermittent vertical line of retouching running down from the upper left corner, some minimal spots and lines in the upper right corner, and an area on the right framing edge, visible under ultra-violet light. Otherwise this work is in good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly fresher and richer in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted circa 1881, La Rivière  dates from a pivotal period from Cézanne's career. During the previous decade, his art was largely under the influence of Camille Pissarro, alongside whom he painted during his stays at Pontoise. While often moving between Paris, Pontoise and Aix-en-Provence, from 1882 he worked mainly around Aix, where he painted some of his most celebrated works, including views of Mont Sainte-Victoire. The present composition, depicting a lush landscape surrounding a bend in a river, is dominated by a group of tall, slender trees, reaching up towards the blue sky. The predominantly blue-green palette is punctuated by passages of warmer ochre tones of the sand and the red of the trees in the distance. As John House commented: 'Ever since the 1870s, Cézanne had returned continually to subjects dominated by trees, using them to give pictorial structure against which he could play off the other elements in the scene' (J. House in Post-Impressionism: Cross Currents in European Painting (exhibition catalogue), Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1979-80, p. 56).

 

Executed in soft brushwork, La Rivière, however, presents a departure from the style that dominated his painting at the time, characterised by an increasing use of wide vertical and diagonal brushstrokes (fig. 1). It has been suggested that the present work was inspired by a painting by Delacroix, as noted by Cézanne's son on a photograph of the work (J. Rewald, op. cit., 1996, p. 333). Furthermore, in his Studies in Impressionism, Rewald recounts that Cézanne was 'supposed to have copied a river landscape after Delacroix (V. 644). This painting was owned by Eugéne Blot who, in his memoirs (Histoire d'une collection de tableaux modernes [Paris, 1934], p. 36), speaks of a 'copy of a small Delacroix which I later rediscovered and bought at the Count Doria sale.' Cézanne knew Doria, but since it is also known that at least in one instance Chocquet and Doria traded paintings, this small Delacroix landscape could conceivably have belonged to Chocquet before entering the Doria collection' (J. Rewald, op. cit., 1985, p. 183).

 

The first owner of La Rivière was Victor Chocquet (1821-1891), a nineteenth-century art collector who was an important early patron of Impressionist painters as well as the first collector of Cézanne's works. Chocquet worked as a French customs official, and having inherited a modest family fortune, as a young man began collecting works by Delacroix. Later in life, in the mid-1870s, he discovered Renoir's works, and immediately approached the artist, commissioning him to paint a portrait of his wife. It was Renoir who subsequently introduced him to Cézanne who, in turn, introduced him to Monet. Chocquet eventually amassed an impressive art collection, including over thirty works by Cézanne, as well as a number of paintings by artists such as Renoir, Monet and Manet. After Chocquet's death in 1891 his collection passed to his widow, and was sold after her death in 1899 over a three-day auction in Paris.

 

Having befriended some of the leading artists of the time, Chocquet had his portrait painted by many of them, including several oils by Cézanne (fig. 2) and Renoir, which are now in major international museums. John Rewald wrote about the collector: 'Victor Chocquet was without doubt one of the most engaging personalities among the small group of supporters gathered around the Impressionists in the early years of their struggle for recognition. Yet little is known about the man whom Monet described as the only person he ever met 'who truly loved painting with a passion', while Renoir naïvely but admiringly called him 'the greatest French collector since the kings, perhaps of the world since the Popes! And Théodore Duret, the first historian of Impressionism, went so far as to assert that after 1877 Cézanne spent 'part of his time painting for him, in the city and in the country' (J. Rewald, op. cit., 1985, p. 121).

 

 

 

Fig. 1, Paul Cézanne, Village encadré par des arbres, circa 1881, oil on canvas, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Fig. 2, Paul Cézanne, Portrait de Victor Chocquet assis, 1877, oil on canvas, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. Victor Chocquet was the first owner of the present lot.