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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Paul Gauguin Digital Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.
Painted in 1880, the present work was executed after Paul Cézanne's Nature morte au compotier of 1879-1880 (Rewald, no. 418; fig. 1). Gauguin owned this masterpiece of Cézanne's and considered it one of his most treasured possessions, commenting in 1888 in response to Claude-Emile Schuffenecker's offer to purchase it, that “the Cézanne you enquired about is an absolute gem...I treasure it and unless it became absolutely necessary I would not sell it until after I had sold my last shirt” (letter from Pont-Aven, June 1888, quoted in B. Thompson, ed., Gauguin by Himself, London, 1993, p. 85).
As one of his most prized possessions, the Cézanne traveled with Gauguin when he and Mette moved to Copenhagen in November 1884. Although he left much of his art collection with his wife when he returned to Paris in June of the following year, he must have either taken this work with him, or had her send it to him at a later date. Mette eventually sold some of Gauguin's collection to support herself and her family, but Gauguin would part with neither this work nor a Cézanne landscape he owned (Rewald, no. 437; Burrell Collection, Glasgow City Art Gallery). Grudgingly, Gauguin eventually instructed Mette to sell the landscape but doggedly kept hold of Nature morte au compotier. In 1890, the work was with Gauguin in Brittany and he included it in his Portrait de femme à la nature morte de Cézanne (Wildenstein, no. 387; The Art Institute of Chicago), occupying the entire background of his painting. At other times, he hung the work in a place of honor in his studio in Paris where he was known to give impromptu lectures to his followers on the genius of Cézanne. According to a Polish friend, he even took it to Madame Charlotte's restaurant so he could expound on his favorite subject to a wider audience. Gauguin eventually did part with the painting but only under extreme circumstances when he needed money for hospital treatment in Tahiti in 1897.
Cézanne's influence is visible throughout Gauguin's work of the 1880s, particularly in his still-lifes. Gauguin's admiration for Nature morte au compotier is evident from the present work, the only known direct version of Cézanne's subject by Gauguin, despite the fact that he owned the oil for more than twenty years. However, the differences between the two works are telling; Gauguin has altered Cézanne's composition by omitting the glass and the knife and simplifying the background in an attempt to concentrate on Cézanne's complex composition and the spatial relationship between the fruits and the compotier. The addition of the curtain on the right is another interesting compositional device which creates an enclosed sense of space that is typical of Gauguin's intimate early still lifes and interiors.
The present work has a fascinating provenance. It remained in the Gauguin family in Copenhagen for nearly forty years after it was executed. According to Paul Renée Gauguin, his father Pola (the artist's son) then sold the work to a close friend, Halfdan Nobel Roede, sometime in the 1910s. Roede's daughter Kirsten Platou remembers the work hanging in their home near Oslo, where they lived until 1919. After several decades in Roede's collection, during which time the work was exhibited at the Kunstnerneshus in Oslo, it was purchased in the 1960s through a Norwegian dealer and remained in this Scandinavian collection until it was offered for sale at Christie’s in 2004, when it was purchased by the late owner.
Painted in 1880, the present work was executed after Paul Cézanne's Nature morte au compotier of 1879-1880 (Rewald, no. 418; fig. 1). Gauguin owned this masterpiece of Cézanne's and considered it one of his most treasured possessions, commenting in 1888 in response to Claude-Emile Schuffenecker's offer to purchase it, that “the Cézanne you enquired about is an absolute gem...I treasure it and unless it became absolutely necessary I would not sell it until after I had sold my last shirt” (letter from Pont-Aven, June 1888, quoted in B. Thompson, ed., Gauguin by Himself, London, 1993, p. 85).
As one of his most prized possessions, the Cézanne traveled with Gauguin when he and Mette moved to Copenhagen in November 1884. Although he left much of his art collection with his wife when he returned to Paris in June of the following year, he must have either taken this work with him, or had her send it to him at a later date. Mette eventually sold some of Gauguin's collection to support herself and her family, but Gauguin would part with neither this work nor a Cézanne landscape he owned (Rewald, no. 437; Burrell Collection, Glasgow City Art Gallery). Grudgingly, Gauguin eventually instructed Mette to sell the landscape but doggedly kept hold of Nature morte au compotier. In 1890, the work was with Gauguin in Brittany and he included it in his Portrait de femme à la nature morte de Cézanne (Wildenstein, no. 387; The Art Institute of Chicago), occupying the entire background of his painting. At other times, he hung the work in a place of honor in his studio in Paris where he was known to give impromptu lectures to his followers on the genius of Cézanne. According to a Polish friend, he even took it to Madame Charlotte's restaurant so he could expound on his favorite subject to a wider audience. Gauguin eventually did part with the painting but only under extreme circumstances when he needed money for hospital treatment in Tahiti in 1897.
Cézanne's influence is visible throughout Gauguin's work of the 1880s, particularly in his still-lifes. Gauguin's admiration for Nature morte au compotier is evident from the present work, the only known direct version of Cézanne's subject by Gauguin, despite the fact that he owned the oil for more than twenty years. However, the differences between the two works are telling; Gauguin has altered Cézanne's composition by omitting the glass and the knife and simplifying the background in an attempt to concentrate on Cézanne's complex composition and the spatial relationship between the fruits and the compotier. The addition of the curtain on the right is another interesting compositional device which creates an enclosed sense of space that is typical of Gauguin's intimate early still lifes and interiors.
The present work has a fascinating provenance. It remained in the Gauguin family in Copenhagen for nearly forty years after it was executed. According to Paul Renée Gauguin, his father Pola (the artist's son) then sold the work to a close friend, Halfdan Nobel Roede, sometime in the 1910s. Roede's daughter Kirsten Platou remembers the work hanging in their home near Oslo, where they lived until 1919. After several decades in Roede's collection, during which time the work was exhibited at the Kunstnerneshus in Oslo, it was purchased in the 1960s through a Norwegian dealer and remained in this Scandinavian collection until it was offered for sale at Christie’s in 2004, when it was purchased by the late owner.