PAUL CÉZANNE | ÉTUDE POUR "LA PARTIE DE PÊCHE"

Estate of the artist

Paul Cézanne fils, Paris (by descent from the above)

Valentine Gallery, New York

Mrs. Philip B. Stanley, New York (acquired from the above on January 27, 1937)

Frances Stanley Stout, United States (by descent from the above in 1970)

Sam Stout, Connecticut (by descent from the above in 2009)

Acquired from the above 

Paris, Galerie Renou et Colle, Aquarelles et baignades de Cézanne, 1935, n.n.

Ambroise Vollard, Paul Cezanne (exhibition catalogue), Paris, 1914, illustrated p. 73

Lionello Venturi, Cézanne, son art-son oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1936, no. 1211; vol. II, no. 1211, illustrated pl. 339 (titled Pêcheurs à la ligne and dated 1872-75)

Adrien Chappuis, The Drawings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, London, 1973, no. 259; illustrated vol. II, n.p. 

This charming sketch is a study for two paintings Cézanne made in 1873-74 depicting a group of young people fishing by a riverbank, one of which is now in the Yale University Art Gallery (see image 5). A woman in a dress, at left, watches as the young man lowers his fishing rod into the stream. The present lot offers incredible insight into the artist's working process. In the present sketch, we see the artist experimenting with additional figures in the background, eventually deciding on a pared down composition.