.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
*This lot may be exempt from sales tax as set forth in the Sales Tax
Notice in the back of the catalogue.
The present drawing depicts Cézanne's son Paul, born in January 1872 to Hortense Fiquet, whom the artist married fourteen years later. One of Cézanne's favorite portrait subjects, Paul appears in at least nine oils from the 1880s (Rewald, nos. 463-468, 534, 579, 649; fig. 1), along with numerous drawings. He also posed for the figure of Harlequin in the monumental painting Mardi Gras of 1888 (Rewald, no. 618; Pushkin State Museum, Moscow). In the present drawing, Paul adopts the classic contrapposto stance of ancient sculpture, with his weight on his right leg, his left foot extended, and his right hand resting on his hip. Suggesting momentary repose and incipient movement, this pose was one that studio models were often requested to hold for traditional drawing classes, of the sort that Cézanne took in the early 1860s at the Ecole Municipale de Dessin in Aix. Joseph Rishel has written about the present work, "This pose--graceful and manly--suits [Paul] especially well, and he seems to hold it proudly, mustering all the confidence that his adolescent years will allow. The existence of a similar drawing [Chappuis, no. 849; private collection] suggests that Cézanne was quite taken with the image of his son in this relaxed yet formal pose and was perhaps beginning to think in terms of a future project, the most ambitious composition he would undertake of his family: the Moscow Mardi Gras, in which a slightly older Paul displays a sly self-confidence that is pointedly lacking here" (in exh. cat., op. cit., Philadelphia, 1996, p. 284). In another study of the physique and psychology of an adolescent boy, one of four versions of Le garçon au gilet rouge from 1888-1890 (Rewald, no. 659; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), Cézanne posed the hired model Michelangelo di Rosa in a closely comparable stance.
The present drawing has been dated on stylistic grounds to about 1885, when Paul would have been thirteen. Rishel has noted that Paul's costume of loose trousers, bare ankles, and soft-strapped shoes suggests a southern venue such as Aix, where Cézanne and his family spent most of the mid-1880s (ibid., p. 284). In the background of the drawing near Paul's left hand are traces of a floral motif reminiscent of a distinctive wallpaper pattern that appears in a group of still-lifes from 1879-1882. The wallpaper is thought to have decorated either the house in Melun where Cézanne, Hortense, and Paul lived in 1879-1880 or an apartment at 32, rue de l'Ouest in Paris that they occupied for two years after that. The present drawing, however, must post-date 1882, since Paul appears significantly older than ten. The floral motif might therefore represent a moveable studio prop or may simply be a pattern that Cézanne carried over from the earlier paintings to denote the plane of the wall.
On the verso of the present drawing is a watercolor depicting a bearded man seated on a Gothic throne. He holds a quill pen and a sheet of paper, and he turns to look at a document proffered by a second man in a long robe. Venturi identified the image as a copy after a scene from Faust by Delacroix, but there is in fact no precise source for the watercolor in Delacroix's oeuvre (in op. cit., 1936, p. 246). Theodore Reff has observed similarities between Cézanne's scene and two lithographs by Delacroix, Mephistopheles Receiving the Student (Delteil, no. 63bis) and Goetz de Berlichingen Writing His Memoirs (Delteil, no. 122), but neither represents a direct parallel (in op. cit., 1960, p. 149, note 47). John Rewald has noted that Cézanne's image corresponds in some ways to the first chapter of Balzac's novel La peau de chagrin, in which an old merchant reveals to young scholar a Sanskrit document endowed with magical powers; he suggests that the present work is most likely a copy of a Romantic illustration that has yet to be identified (in op. cit., 1983, p. 100).
Cézanne was indeed a fervent admirer of Delacroix, the Romantic painter par excellence. Sara Lichtenstein has catalogued twenty-two copies and variants after Delacroix in Cézanne's oeuvre, spanning his entire career; the only artist whom Cézanne copied more often was Rubens (in op. cit., p. 56). Cézanne owned at least three paintings and two original lithographs by Delacroix, as well as six reproductions of his work (ibid., p. 55). When Vollard presented Cézanne with a floral still-life by Delacroix that he had purchased at the sale of Victor Chocquet's collection in 1899, Cézanne wrote to thank the dealer "for the magnificent present you made me of the work of the great Master" (quoted in J. Rewald, op. cit., 1996, p. 526). Cézanne long intended to paint a scene of Delacroix's apotheosis, but the project never progressed beyond an oil sketch (Rewald, no. 746; cf. Rewald Watercolors, nos. 68-69). Two years before his death, Cézanne confessed to Emile Bernard, "I do not know if my indifferent health will ever allow me to realize my dream of painting his apotheosis" (quoted in J. Rewald, op. cit., 1983, p. 102).
(fig. 1) Paul Cézanne, Le fils de l'artiste au fauteuil rouge, 1881-1882. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris. BARCODE 25995497
Notice in the back of the catalogue.
The present drawing depicts Cézanne's son Paul, born in January 1872 to Hortense Fiquet, whom the artist married fourteen years later. One of Cézanne's favorite portrait subjects, Paul appears in at least nine oils from the 1880s (Rewald, nos. 463-468, 534, 579, 649; fig. 1), along with numerous drawings. He also posed for the figure of Harlequin in the monumental painting Mardi Gras of 1888 (Rewald, no. 618; Pushkin State Museum, Moscow). In the present drawing, Paul adopts the classic contrapposto stance of ancient sculpture, with his weight on his right leg, his left foot extended, and his right hand resting on his hip. Suggesting momentary repose and incipient movement, this pose was one that studio models were often requested to hold for traditional drawing classes, of the sort that Cézanne took in the early 1860s at the Ecole Municipale de Dessin in Aix. Joseph Rishel has written about the present work, "This pose--graceful and manly--suits [Paul] especially well, and he seems to hold it proudly, mustering all the confidence that his adolescent years will allow. The existence of a similar drawing [Chappuis, no. 849; private collection] suggests that Cézanne was quite taken with the image of his son in this relaxed yet formal pose and was perhaps beginning to think in terms of a future project, the most ambitious composition he would undertake of his family: the Moscow Mardi Gras, in which a slightly older Paul displays a sly self-confidence that is pointedly lacking here" (in exh. cat., op. cit., Philadelphia, 1996, p. 284). In another study of the physique and psychology of an adolescent boy, one of four versions of Le garçon au gilet rouge from 1888-1890 (Rewald, no. 659; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), Cézanne posed the hired model Michelangelo di Rosa in a closely comparable stance.
The present drawing has been dated on stylistic grounds to about 1885, when Paul would have been thirteen. Rishel has noted that Paul's costume of loose trousers, bare ankles, and soft-strapped shoes suggests a southern venue such as Aix, where Cézanne and his family spent most of the mid-1880s (ibid., p. 284). In the background of the drawing near Paul's left hand are traces of a floral motif reminiscent of a distinctive wallpaper pattern that appears in a group of still-lifes from 1879-1882. The wallpaper is thought to have decorated either the house in Melun where Cézanne, Hortense, and Paul lived in 1879-1880 or an apartment at 32, rue de l'Ouest in Paris that they occupied for two years after that. The present drawing, however, must post-date 1882, since Paul appears significantly older than ten. The floral motif might therefore represent a moveable studio prop or may simply be a pattern that Cézanne carried over from the earlier paintings to denote the plane of the wall.
On the verso of the present drawing is a watercolor depicting a bearded man seated on a Gothic throne. He holds a quill pen and a sheet of paper, and he turns to look at a document proffered by a second man in a long robe. Venturi identified the image as a copy after a scene from Faust by Delacroix, but there is in fact no precise source for the watercolor in Delacroix's oeuvre (in op. cit., 1936, p. 246). Theodore Reff has observed similarities between Cézanne's scene and two lithographs by Delacroix, Mephistopheles Receiving the Student (Delteil, no. 63bis) and Goetz de Berlichingen Writing His Memoirs (Delteil, no. 122), but neither represents a direct parallel (in op. cit., 1960, p. 149, note 47). John Rewald has noted that Cézanne's image corresponds in some ways to the first chapter of Balzac's novel La peau de chagrin, in which an old merchant reveals to young scholar a Sanskrit document endowed with magical powers; he suggests that the present work is most likely a copy of a Romantic illustration that has yet to be identified (in op. cit., 1983, p. 100).
Cézanne was indeed a fervent admirer of Delacroix, the Romantic painter par excellence. Sara Lichtenstein has catalogued twenty-two copies and variants after Delacroix in Cézanne's oeuvre, spanning his entire career; the only artist whom Cézanne copied more often was Rubens (in op. cit., p. 56). Cézanne owned at least three paintings and two original lithographs by Delacroix, as well as six reproductions of his work (ibid., p. 55). When Vollard presented Cézanne with a floral still-life by Delacroix that he had purchased at the sale of Victor Chocquet's collection in 1899, Cézanne wrote to thank the dealer "for the magnificent present you made me of the work of the great Master" (quoted in J. Rewald, op. cit., 1996, p. 526). Cézanne long intended to paint a scene of Delacroix's apotheosis, but the project never progressed beyond an oil sketch (Rewald, no. 746; cf. Rewald Watercolors, nos. 68-69). Two years before his death, Cézanne confessed to Emile Bernard, "I do not know if my indifferent health will ever allow me to realize my dream of painting his apotheosis" (quoted in J. Rewald, op. cit., 1983, p. 102).
(fig. 1) Paul Cézanne, Le fils de l'artiste au fauteuil rouge, 1881-1882. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris. BARCODE 25995497