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Description: Portrait de Paul C‚zanne oil on canvas 213/4 x 181/4 in. (55.3 x 46.5 cm.) Painted circa 1895 PROVENANCE Ambroise Vollard (stockbook no. 4179 [A]) and Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris. Auguste Pellerin, Paris. (acquired from the above, 7 July 1904). Jean-Victor Pellerin, Paris (by descent from the above). Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York. Acquired from the above by the present owner. LITERATURE C. J. Holmes, Notes on the Post-Impressionist Painters, Grafton Galleries, 1910-11, London, 1910, p. 20, no. 10. M. Denis, "C‚zanne-Part I", The Burlington Magazine, vol. XVI, no. 82, January 1910, p. 207 (illustrated, p. 209). E. Faure, Portraits d'Hier, 1 May 1910 (illustrated on the cover). E. Faure, "Paul C‚zanne," L'Art D‚coratif, vol. XIII, no. 157, October 1911, p. 126 (illustrated). C. L. Hind, The Post-Impressionists, London, 1911, pp. 4-5 (illustrated). C. L. Borgmeyer, The Master Impressionists, Chicago, 1913, p. 134 (illustrated). F. Burger, C‚zanne und Hodler, Munich, 1913, p. 85, (illustrated, pl. 67). A. Brunius, "Kubismens F쳌oruts„ttninger," Konst och Konstn„rer, 1913, no. 3-4, p. 43 (illustrated). F. Burger, C‚zanne und Hodler, Munich, 1913, p. 85, (illustrated, pl. 65). A. Dreyfus, "Paul C‚zanne," Zeitschrift f쳌r bildende Kunst, vol. XXIV, no. 9, June 1913, p. 197 (illustrated). (possibly) E.M. Stuart, "C‚zanne and His Place in Impressionism," Fine Arts Journal, vol. XXXV, no. 5, May 1917, p. 328 (illustrated). F. Burger, C‚zanne und Hodler: Einf쳌hrung in die Probleme der Malerei der Gegenwart, Munich, 1920, p. 76 (illustrated, pl. 68). J. Gasquet, C‚zanne, Paris, 1921 (illustrated on the frontispiece). E. Bernard, "C‚zanne's Technik," Zeitschrift f쳌r bildende Kunst, vol. XXXII, 1922, p. 125 (illustrated). C. Glaser, Paul C‚zanne, Leipzig, 1922, pl. 2 (illustrated). T. Klingsor, C‚zanne, Paris, 1923, pl. 37 (illustrated). G. RiviŠre, Le MaŒtre, Paul C‚zanne, Paris, 1923, p. 222. I. Arishima, C‚zanne, Tokyo, 1926, pl. 10 (illustrated). E. Faure, Paul C‚zanne, Paris, 1926, pl. 17 (illustrated). K. Pfister, C‚zanne, Gestalt, Werk, Mythos, Potsdam, 1927, fig. 40 (illustrated). A. Basler and C. K쳌nstler, La Peinture ind‚pendante en France, Paris, 1929, vol. II, pl. 3 (illustrated). R. Huyghe, C‚zanne, Paris, 1936 (illustrated on the cover). L. Larguier, Paul C‚zanne ou le drame de la peinture, Paris, 1936 (illustrated on the cover). L. Venturi, C‚zanne: son art--son oeuvre, Paris, 1936, vol. I, p. 190, no. 578 (illustrated, pl. 186). J. Rewald, "Iconographie de C‚zanne," L'Amour de l'Art, vol. XVII, no. 5, May 1936, p. 160 (illustrated, fig. 5). L'Art Sacr‚, May 1936, p. 18 (illustrated, fig. 12). La Renaissance, vol. XIX, nos. 5-6, May-June 1936 (illustrated on the cover). Illustrated London News, 20 June 1936, p. 1129 (illustrated). "C‚zanne's Paintings and Watercolors Exhibited in Fine One Man Loan Show at the Paris Orangerie," Art News, 15 August 1936, vol. XXXIV, no. 39, p. 6. O. Benesch, "C‚zanne: Zur 30. Wiederkehr seines Todestages am 22. Oktober," Die Kunst, vol. LXXV, 1937, p. 65 (illustrated). L. Goldscheider, ed., Five Hundred Self-Portraits from Antique Times to the Present Day in Sculpture, Painting, Drawing and Engraving, London, 1937, p. 54 (illustrated, fig. 430). F. Novotny, C‚zanne, Vienna, 1937, pl. 62 (illustrated). L'Amour de l'Art, vol. XVIII, no. 5, May 1937, p. 38 (illustrated, fig. 91). A. Barnes and V. de Mazia, The Art of C‚zanne, New York, 1939, p. 360, no. 108 (illustrated, p. 252; titled Self-Portrait on Blue Background ; dated 1888-1892). G. Schildt, C‚zanne, Stockholm, 1946, fig. 37 (illustrated). L. Larguier, C‚zanne ou la lutte avec l'ange de la peinture, Paris, 1947, p. 145 (illustrated). G. Jedlicka, C‚zanne, Bern, 1948, fig. 41 (illustrated). L. Venturi, da Manet a Lautrec, Florence, 1950, p. 118 (illustrated, fig. 133). L. Venturi, Impressionists and Symbolists, New York, 1950, p. 134 (illustrated, fig. 133). H. Perruchot, La Vie de C‚zanne, Paris, 1956 (illustrated on the frontispiece). H. Perruchot, "Les Peintures de l'Ile Saint-Louis," Jardin des Arts, no. 39, January 1958, p. 202 (illustrated). P. de Boisdeffre and P. Cabanne, C‚zanne, Paris, 1966, p. 234 (illustrated, fig. 161). L. Brion-Guerry, C‚zanne et l'expression de l'espace, Paris, 1966, pp. 129-130 (illustrated, pl. 35). K. Leonhard, Paul C‚zanne in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten, Rheinbek bei Hamburg, 1966, p. 59 (illustrated). A. C. Barnes and V. de Mazia, The Art of C‚zanne, Merion, Pennsylvania, 1967, pp. 6, 11, 360 and 413, no. 108 (illustrated, p. 252). W. Anderson, C‚zanne's Portrait Drawings, Cambridge, 1970, pp. 38-39 (illustrated, fig. 33). A. Gatto and S. Orienti, L'opera completa de C‚zanne, Milan, 1970, p. 112, no. 576 (illustrated, p. 112). M. Schapiro, Paul C‚zanne, Paris, 1973, p. 61 (illustrated). D. E. Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions, 1900-1916: Selected Catalogue Documentation, Munich, 1974, vol. II, p. 435. F. Elgar, C‚zanne, New York, 1975, fig. 93 (illustrated). G. Picon and S. Orienti, Tout l'oeuvre peint de C‚zanne, Paris, 1975, p. 113, no. 576 (illustrated, p. 112). Horizon, 1977, p. 39 (illustrated). L. Venturi, C‚zanne, Geneva, 1978, p. 113 (illustrated, p. 112). G. N‚ret, C‚zanne, Paris, 1982, p. 17 (detail illustrated). C‚zanne, ou la peinture, en jeu, exh. cat., Aix-en-Provence, Mus‚e Granet, June 1982, p. 278 (illustrated, p. 134). I. Dunlop and S. Orienti, The Complete Paintings of C‚zanne, Harmondsworth, 1985, p. 112, no. 576 (illustrated). R. Pickvance, C‚zanne, exh. cat., Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1986, nos. 34 and 54 (illustrated, pp. 72 and 98). J. Rewald, C‚zanne: A Biography, New York, 1986, p. 199 (illustrated in color). J.-J. L‚vˆque, La vie et l'oeuvre de Paul C‚zanne, Paris, 1988, p. 161 (illustrated in color). R. Verdi, C‚zanne, London, 1992, pp. 174-175 (illustrated, fig. 151). J. Rewald, The Paintings of Paul C‚zanne: A Catalogue Raisonn‚, New York, 1996, vol. I, p. 518, no. 876; also cited p. 340, 564, 568, 569 (illustrated; vol. II, p. 307, no. 876). F. Cachin and J.J. Rishel, C‚zanne, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1996, p. 407 (illustrated, fig. 1). M.T. Lewis, C‚zanne, London, 2000, p. 279, no. 173 (illustrated in color, p. 278). F. Baumann et al, C‚zanne: Finished-Unfinished, exh. cat., Kunstforum, Vienna and Kunsthaus, Zurich, 2000, p. 172 (illustrated, fig. 1). S. Platzman, C‚zanne, The Self-Portraits, London, 2001, pp. 146-147, 151, 153 and 199, no. 25 (illustrated; illustrated again in color, p. 149; detail illustrated in color on the cover and pp. 5 and 8-9). EXHIBITION London, Grafton Galleries, Manet and the Post-Impressionists, November 1910-January 1911, p. 16, no. 10 (titled Portrait de l'artiste ). Paris, Mus‚e de l'Orangerie, C‚zanne, May-October 1936, no. 82 (illustrated, pl. 3). Paris, Palais Nationale des Arts, Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art fran‡ais, 1937, no. 255 (illustrated, pl. LXXXVIII). NOTES This work is recorded in the Vollard archives, photo no. 205 (annotated: 1897 ). The Romantic movement in the early 19th Century left as part of its powerful, lingering influence on later artists a strong interest in exploring the self. As the concept of an avant-garde began to emerge at mid-century, progressive artists began to understand the creative personality as a subjective force whose motivation and impact were increasingly determined by the degree to which it acted in contention with the tastes and mores of society at large. Self-portraiture, hitherto only an occasional genre, acquired greater significance within avant-garde circles as a private statement of this pioneering act of self-definition. Among the major Post-Impressionists at work at the end of the century, Paul C‚zanne, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh left signficant bodies of self-portraiture. These pictorial autobiographies have become for later generations a crucial means of entering the lives of these remarkable men, and these paintings are perhaps the only way that one can still experience the power and complexity of their personalities firsthand. The self-portraits of C‚zanne, numbering 26 in all, tell the longest story, showing the man at intervals in a period spanning almost four decades; the first was done when the artist was in his mid-twenties, and the last when he was around sixty years old. The career of Rembrandt, the greatest self-portraitist in an earlier era, fills a similar time frame, from the ages of 20 to 63. By comparison, the self-portraits of van Gogh were all done in period of about three-and-a-half years, and of course tell the dramatic story of a life tragically cut short. C‚zanne painted 13, or half, of his self-portraits by 1880, when he was not yet 40 years old, and before 1890 he painted nine more. However, in the final decade and a half of his life, during the time when he created many of his most important paintings and those that would have the greatest impact on the modern painters of the 20th century, he painted only four self-portraits. The present painting is C‚zanne's penultimate depiction of himself, done when the artist was around 55 years old, and the only late self-portrait that is not in a museum collection and remains in private hands. It shows the artist as he appeared to himself at an eventful time in his career, and in a way that seems entirely accessible to the viewer. Notwithstanding his extraordinary achievements as a painter, C‚zanne comes across in this painting as he does in his letters and in firsthand accounts about him, as a man we might easily brush shoulders with, and come to understand as we would a relative or friend. Before the age of thirty C‚zanne appeared to most who knew him in Paris as an uncouth and unkempt Bohemian with provincial manners, a persona that he willfully adopted in order to thumb his nose at both the academic establishment that ran the Salons and the avant-garde of well-dressed "gentlemen" painters centered around Manet. With the exception of friends from his home in Aix, like the novelist Emile Zola, he antagonized almost everyone he encountered, and eventually even fell out with Zola. His paintings were violent and primitive, and pleased no one who could help his career. He fought with his family over his vocation, and had to hide his liaison with Hortense Fiquet from his domineering and disappointed father. Unlike many of the "gentlemen" painters who served during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, C‚zanne sat out the conflict by staying in Aix and L'Estaque; by the end of hostilities he had been declared a draft dodger. The defeat of France in early 1871 and the brutal suppression of the Paris Commune that followed several months later had a devastating effect on the national psyche. The Impressionist movement emerged out of these gloomy times, and to a large extent the attraction of these painters to an idyllic view of the countryside, and their emphasis on transient effects of light over the corporeality of the natural world, reflect an attempt to create a world far removed from this malaise. The nascent Symbolist movement went even further in rejecting the realism of the pre-war era. Now the father of a son, and in these difficult times seeing the need to be more practical and accomodating in his manner, C‚zanne, the perennial outsider, now sought a place within the creative circle. He became friendly with Camille Pissarro (fig. 1) in 1873, and painting by the older man's side in Pontoise, he quickly became proficient in the new technique of the Impressionists, and then moved beyond. "Determining to seek reconciliation, he moved from the radical periphery toward the more moderate middle-ground. To achieve this rapprochement, C‚zanne modified the radical persona that he had so carefully cultivated during the 1860s. Along with his landscapes, still lifes, and portraits of the period, the self-portraits participated significantly in the reconstruction of his public and private identity, fashioning an alternative, moderate self, less likely to discomfit either the critical art public or the embourgeois‚s figures of the avant-garde" (S. Platzman, op. cit., p. 65). C‚zanne's Portrait de l'artiste, 1878-1880 (fig. 2), comes at the end of this crucial decade of personal transformation. Kurt Badt observed that it "shows the man who has learned to see through resignation, through humilitas, his features now grown calm, who with a penetrating glance, i.e., a glance that understands surfaces, serenely observes the earthly world that unveils itself to him in its true significance. The features of this prematurely aged man (C‚zanne is not yet forty here) as well as the lapels and folds of his everyday jacket have lost all trace of how much they are affected by time and belong to it. The features here have completely become spirit and soul" (quoted in J. Rewald, op. cit., p. 251). The 1878-1880 self-portrait comes ninth in the chronology of this series, and in it C‚zanne brought his technique to its full maturity, and fashioned a paradigm for many of the self-portraits that were to follow. Thirteen of the later 17 self-portraits show the artist bust-length, in three-quarter view, facing to the right. This direction reflects the normal tendency of the eye to read a picture from left to right, following the width of the head from back to front and quickly focusing on the artist's features near the center of the composition. From photographs we know that C‚zanne held his paintbrush in his right hand, and it would have most comfortable for him to place a mirror on his left side, so that he did not need to look over his painting arm or lower his brush each time he glanced at his reflection. The painted image would therefore face to the right. By the time C‚zanne painted the present self-portrait more than fifteen years later, around 1895, he was entering the late phase of his career. His achievement was known among a widening circle of painters, who highly esteemed his work, but real success had eluded him, or when it came, something else often served to steal away its satisfaction. In 1893 the critic Gustave Geffroy published an article about the Impressionists in which he gave favorable mention to C‚zanne, and in March of the following year he published a second article, this one devoted entirely to C‚zanne. This notice appears to have helped a group of his paintings to sell at a benefit in June for the widow of the dealer and paint supplier PŠre Tanguy. Disappointingly, however, the pictures sold for very low prices, the most expensive at a couple of hundred francs, at a time when Monet paintings sold for thousands. Three paintings had done much better in March 1894 when Georges Petit sold the collection of the writer and critic Th‚odore Duret at auction. Moreover, Durand-Ruel purchased their first paintings by C‚zanne in February, two still lifes, which they sold to New York collector Sarah Hallowell. Around the same time, however, the French government refused to accept three of the five C‚zanne paintings that the recently deceased painter Gustave Caillebotte had included in his bequest to the nation. C‚zanne became very bitter over the episode, prompting Ambroise Vollard, who had just opened his gallery on rue Lafitte, to organize a one-man exhibition for the painter. Many artists and some progressive collectors considered the show to be the event of the season when it opened in December 1895, but the critics, with a few exceptions, were hostile. Since the early part of the decade C‚zanne had been on increasingly poor terms with his wife Hortense, who persisted in living beyond their means. C‚zanne paid for her apartment in Aix while he lived with his mother (who disliked Hortense) and sister Marie on their family estate at Jas de Bouffan in the suburbs. He could escape to Paris for months at a time when necessary. Under Marie's influence, he became a practicing Catholic, attended mass regularly and read the news of the day in a Catholic daily paper. In 1894 the artist began to suffer from the effects of diabetes, which made him increasingly irritable. In the fall of 1894 C‚zanne stayed at a hotel in Giverny, where Monet had his home, and began work on some paintings. Here he met Mary Cassatt for the first time. Matilda Lewis, another American painter, was also staying at the hotel, and described C‚zanne in a letter to a friend: When I first saw him I thought he looked like a cut-throat with large red-eyeballs standing out from his head in a most ferocious manner, a rather fierce-looking pointed beard, quite gray, and an excited way of talking that positively made the dishes rattle. I found that I later misjudged his appearance, for far from being a cut-throat, he has the gentlest nature possible, 'comme un enfant' as he would say. His manners at first startled me--he scrapes his soup plate, then lifts it and pours the remaining drops in the spoon; he even takes his chop in his fingers and the pulls the meat from the bone. He eats with his knife and accompanies every gesture, every movement of his hand, with that implement, which he grasps firmly when he commences his meal and never puts down until he leaves the table. Yet in spite of the total disregard of the dictionary of manners, he shows a politeness towards us which no other man would have shown. (quoted in J. Rewald, ed., Paul C‚zanne Letters, New York, 1976, p. 237 [letter erroneously attributed to Mary Cassatt]) C‚zanne probably appeared to Miss Lewis very much like the way he looks in a photograph taken around 1890 (fig. 3). While C‚zanne was in Giverny, Monet gave him a reception, to which he invited the politician Georges Clemenceau, Auguste Rodin and other artists and writers, including the critic Geffroy, whom C‚zanne finally met and thanked in person for his articles. In his memoirs Geffroy wrote of the occasion that C‚zanne "seemed a strange person, timid, violent and highly excitable. One can only feel sympathy with the primitive soul of C‚zanne, who at the moment was as sociable as he could be, and through his laughter and his jokes, showed that he felt at home in the present company" (quoted in ibid., p. 236). C‚zanne's behavior could be erratic and unpredictable, as when he suddenly left Giverny after the reception without telling Monet, who had to collect and forward the paintings his guest had left behind at the hotel. In another incident, in June 1895, C‚zanne invited Francisco Oller, a painter and friend from his student days, to accompany him from Paris and stay with him in Aix. Confusion at the station caused Oller to miss the train, and he was later robbed on the way to Aix. C‚zanne was kind and hospitable when Oller finally arrived, but then blew up at his friend for some advice he attempted to give, and went on to disparage both Pissarro and Monet. Oller later reported the incident to Pissarro, who also talked with a doctor who had recently seen C‚zanne in Aix. Pissarro wrote to his wife in January 1896: "[C‚zanne] brought Oller to Aix and stuck him there in extraordinary circumstances. Dr. Aguiard has come to Paris for a few days. He has seen C‚zanne; he is sure he is sick. In short, poor C‚zanne is incensed with all of us, even with Monet, who after all, has been very nice to him" (quoted in J. Rewald, Paul C‚zanne, A Biography, New York, 1948, p. 168). Dr. Aguiard felt that C‚zanne's state of mind did not make him responsible for these peculiar actions. Pissarro wrote his son Lucien, and asked "Is it not sad and a pity that a man endowed with such beautiful temperament should have so little balance?" (quoted in ibid. ). The man that we see, then, in the present self-portrait is one who could be very moody, perhaps even manic, subject to fits of anger, suspicion and despair, which were then followed by periods when he painted with great conviction and enthusiasm -- with "such passion and faith!" as Geffroy described C‚zanne when the artist was working on his portrait (quoted in M. Doran, ed., Conversations with C‚zanne, Berkeley, 2001, p. 6). Prey to ambivalence and doubt, however, C‚zanne abandoned the painting of Geffroy (fig. 4) after numerous sittings, claiming that it was beyond his strength and confessing he was even wrong to undertake it. This is the very same painting that Roger Fry and many later writers consider to be C‚zanne's masterpiece in portraiture. In his landmark 1927 study, Fry described the elderly C‚zanne as "disillusioned, shy, living in obscurity, avoiding all contact with the world, half-conscious of the immensity of his genius and yet ridiculously humble before accepted authority, or exaggeratedly pleased with any recognition" (in C‚zanne: A Study of his Development, New York, 1927, p. 3). This is the commonly held view of the artist that has come down to us; however, in 1895 these traits had yet to fully manifest themselves, and became more clearly noticeable after the death of the artist's mother in 1897 and the sale of the artist's beloved Jas de Bouffan in 1899 to settle her estate. The present self-portrait, the artist's penultimate look at himself, shows him on the threshold of this phase. He is completely gray, and since the 1890 photograph he has grown back his full sage-like beard. The painter displays a questioning and skeptical look, an expression perhaps of ambivalence or uncertainty, which is emphasized by his sharply arched brow. He may seem remote and guarded, but he is no recluse: in his portrait he directly engages the viewer. It is as if he is sitting shoulder to shoulder with us, turning his head slightly and looking at us out if the corner of his eye, and having heard what we have to say, is about to utter some cogent reply. Lionello Venturi wrote that this painting "is perhaps the most human image of himself that he produced. The meetings of the facial planes are as energetic as those of the planes of the rocks in The Montagne Saint-Victoire, and yet they faithfully depict the impression made by C‚zanne's face in reality, his moral nature and his sharp, penetrating glance. The image is perfectly framed in the space, out of which its volume looms like a sudden, impressive apparition" ( op. cit., New York, 1950, p. 134). The present self-portrait is the only one closely related to a watercolor study (fig. 5). In the watercolor the artist adopts a relatively high point of view, so that we look down on him as he sits. In undertaking the painting, however, C‚zanne may have tilted the mirror slightly away from him, raising the image, so that the viewer gazes up at him. Like his beloved Mont-Saint-Victoire, C‚zanne, the old man in the mountain, looms craggily above us. Dr. Albert Barnes and Violette de Mazia described the present painting as "a very powerful portrait, one of C‚zanne's best; [it] compares with the most successful characterizations of Titian, Tintoretto, El Greco and Rembrandt, and is realized by a legitimate use of the plastic means. The figure is alive, the volumes are solid and real, the drawing is neither stiff nor rigid, and the modeling is done without obvious recourse to sharp contrasts or to blocks and facets. The constructive planes and volumes, like the entire figure, are much less angular, more fluid than is usual in C‚zanne; there are no sharp contour-lines, and scarcely any evidence of difficulty in the placing of volumes in space" ( op. cit., p. 360). In his reading of this self-portrait, Steven Platzman determined that the artist is "displeased with his own achievements and with the state of painting in general," and that he "must proceed quickly, pressing onward in his solitary quest for the 'promised land.' Time is of the essence, for old age has already set in and his health is failing" ( ibid. ). In light of the abortive Geffroy portrait, his occasionally angry rants against fellow artists and the onset of diabetes, these conclusions ring true. Moreover, there seem to be a host of other traits that flesh out the portrait of this complicated man in the autumn of his years. There is an admirable nobility in his gray eminence, a sense of pride at having undertaken the struggle even if the outcome is unclear. There is perhaps a glint of mischief in the eye under the cocked brow that harkens back to his Bohemian youth. But most significantly, in the same way that the artist could discern, amid the chaotic transience of nature, certain immutable and enduring forms, he must have been aware that in this picture of himself, with all its worldly cares and appearances, there resides an inner self that is heroic, indomitable and timeless, and that in these qualities people would discover and understand the achievement of his art. (fig. 1) Camille Pissarro, Portrait de C. Pissarro, 1873, Mus‚e D'Orsay, Paris (fig. 2) Paul C‚zanne, Portrait de l'artiste, 1878-1880, Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (fig. 3) Paul C‚zanne, circa 1890, photograph, Mus‚e d'Orsay, Paris (fig. 4) Paul C‚zanne, Portrait de Gustave Geffroy, 1895-1896, Mus‚e d'Orsay, Paris (fig. 5) Paul C‚zanne, Portrait de l'artiste, circa 1895, Private Collection.