Paul Cézanne

Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Egisto Paolo Fabbri, Florence
Bignou Galleries, New York
Stanley N. Barbee, New York (sale: Sotheby's, New York, 20th April 1944, lot 11)
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 19th January 1950, lot 77
Private Collection, United States
O'Hana Gallery, London
Aliette Olivar (sale: Sotheby's, London, 4th December 1980, lot 515)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Basel Kunsthalle, Cézanne, 1921, no. 38
New York, Bignou Gallery, Paul Cézanne, 1936, no. 2
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Cézanne, 1937
Montreal, W. Scott & Sons, Paintings by French Masters, 1937
Bristol, 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, 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 œuvre, Paris, 1936, no. 94, illustrated pl. 24
Alfonso Gatto, L'Opera completa di Cézanne, Milan, 1970, no. 22, illustrated
Sandra Orienti, Tout l'œuvre 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, p. 164, illustrated fig. 94
Mary Louise Krumrine, Paul Cézanne, The Bathers, Basel, 1989, no. 1, illustrated in colour p. 40
John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue raisonné, London, 1996, vol. I, no. 124, and vol. II, illustrated p. 41
Walter Feilchenfeldt, Jayne Warman & David Nash, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, an online catalogue raisonné, www.cezannecatalogue.com, no. 592 (accessed 18^th May 2015)

The canvas is lined. There is an uneven, milky layer of varnish preventing UV from fully penetrating. However, UV examination reveals some lines of retouching around the body of the figure to the left of the woman and some further small scattered spots of retouchings to her right. There are some fainter old retouchings in places to the background. There are some fine lines of stable craquelure predominantly to the centremost figure. This work is in overall 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. 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."

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, an encounter which would lead him to become the painter he is most recognised for today, preoccupied with light and colour, landscape and structure.

Paul Cézanne’s youth is beautifully documented in the letters written by his childhood friend and literary prodigy Emile 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.’ (Emil Zola in a letter of 1856, 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 60s 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 onto the bare body of a victimised nymph. The present work is reminiscent of another oil painting 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 worldly curtain behind them: disquiet and shadow reign supreme.

Italian artist Egisto Fabbri is among the previous illustrious owners of this work: 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, the work was in the collection of Ambroise Vollard, one of the most important dealers of the twentieth century, a man who offered both financial and emotional support to some of the most seminal contemporary artists, among whom counted 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 œuvre. 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.