Lot Essay
This work is recorded in the Vollard archives, photo no. 422 (annotated by Czanne's son: circa 1877)
Although an early watercolor of the subject (Rewald Watercolors no. 34; fig. 1) circa 1866-1867 survives, Rewald has surmised that Czanne's first paintings of this provocative theme are now lost and can be known only from an infamous description in Le Figaro of 8 April 1867. Announcing that the Salon jury had refused two canvases that were bizarre and "worthy of expulsion," the critic Arnold Mortier reported: "These compositions are entitled: Le Grog au Vin. One of them depicts a nude man to whom a very dressed-up woman has just brought a wine grog; the other portrays a nude woman and a man dressed as a lazzarone: in this one the grog is spilt." And even Manet would question Czanne's friend, the painter Antoine Guillemet (who has been credited with their inventive titles and with encouraging Czanne's rebellious, youthful posture), "How can you abide such foul painting?" Though Zola quickly wrote in to Le Figaro to defend his childhood friend, "a young painter whose strong and individual talent I respect extremely," the two paintings were probably destroyed, Rewald suggests, by the artist. Yet in the 1870s, Czanne would take up the subject again in an important series of paintings, watercolors and drawings. Along with his small, early watercolor, they vividly convey his continuing fascination with this erotic, imaginary subject in which elements of Manet's notorious Olympia, Delacroix's romantic paintings of exotic themes, and of Czanne's own emerging modernity are reflected.
With the stage-like theatricality that Czanne reserved for his most conspicuously erotic scenes, the parted drapes in the Pellerin L'aprs-midi Naples open to reveal a pair of sprawling lovers on a rumpled bed. A maid-servant enters from the left with a tray and stands just above the upturned chair, no doubt a reference to vehemence of their lovemaking. Rewald has described this painting in particular as based on a mixture of the artist's imaginings and of his lifedrawings from the Acadmie Suisse. Yet the two sketches that are linked most closely to this version (Chappuis nos. 279 and 283; figs. 2 and 3) seem to underscore the richly fantastic theme and imagery of this work and of the series as a whole, one that has elicited a wealth of critical commentary.
In his ground-breaking study of 1927, the English critic, Roger Fry called the early watercolor version "One of the most disconcerting of all the inventions of the period. It is, however, one of the most fascinating and also the most original. It comes nearer to success along the lines of Baroque design than any of the others" (R. Fry, op. cit., p.29). And, discussing the later versions of the theme, including the present work, Kurt Badt is probably alone in seeing in their compositions a reflection of Poussin's harmonious methods of construction (K. Badt, op. cit., p. 308). Yet Badt, too, also points to the stunning singularity of Czanne's conception in these works: "in their strength and striking power they represent the most stark realism, which permits nothing ideal to appear, only something which 'is.' These paintings are not inspired by outside stimuli, but by the need to express inner emotions which the painter himself had experienced" (ibid., p. 291). And for Meyer Schapiro, such private bacchanals and scenes of violent passion that date to the same period in which the artist embraced Impressionism are crucial to understanding the intricate continuities that govern the whole of Czanne's oeuvre: "These fanciful themes are only a small part of Czanne's later work and had little effect on the main course of his art after 1880. Yet it is worth noting these exceptional pictures--they permit us to see more clearly how the new art rests on a deliberate repression of a part of himself which breaks through from time to time" (M. Schapiro, op. cit.).
Like his two versions of the Moderne Olympia (Rewald nos. 171 and 225), Czanne's L'aprs-midi Naples may once more place us in the company of Manet's celebrated courtesan. Perhaps, Rewald suggests, the "admiring onlooker has now joined the courtesan on her bed" (J. Rewald, op. cit., p. 193). But its voluptuous theme of pervasive eroticism also offers evidence of Czanne's life-long devotion to the painting of Delacroix. As early as 1864, Czanne is known to have copied one of Delacroix's masterpieces in the Louvre, and just a few weeks before his death in 1906, as he noted in a letter to his son, he was still reading Baudelaire's tract on the romantic master's achievement. Following Schapiro, Theodore Reff has outlined how Czanne's fantastic works in this group drew from the example of Delacroix as well as from the painter's own experience:
In this determination to make of painting an instrument of vehement self-expression, he was undoubtedly inspired by Romanticism with its new ideals of freedom and intensity, above all, by Delacroix, who remained his idol long after his own art had become more classical in temper. But if his early works recall Delacroix's in their themes of violence or passion, occasionally also in their exotic settings, they proceed, as Schapiro explains, from fundamentally different sources: no longer illustrations of dramatic episodes in classical or Christian literature, they portray with an outspoken, often crude realism the artist's own obsessing fantasies or fears. Primarily about women, they project conflicting attitudes that appear also in his youthful letters and poetry (T. Reff, op. cit., 1962, p. 113).
Delacroix's sumptuous paean to near-eastern sensuality, his Les femmes d'Algiers of 1834 (Muse du Louvre, Paris) had paired the smokey, cloistered world and languid women of a fantastic harem with a painting style of loosened, sensuous brushwork; its appeal to Czanne and to many of the Impressionists (Renoir claimed he could smell the incense) is easy to imagine. And in his related version of L'aprs-midi Naples (Rewald no. 291; fig. 4), Sarah Lichtenstein has noted a close correspondence, in both its format and exotic details, to Delacroix's exotic paradigm. Yet the series as a whole, she argues, projects essential differences in mood and effect between the two painters: "the gestures, although similar to those of Delacroix, are not indolent but aggressive. Idle sensuousness changes to an eager mood . . . The paintings in this group show how consistently Czanne evoked, in his mature period, Delacroix's conception of eroticism, and how completely he adapted it to his personal expression . . . Czanne's tension and insistent treatment mark his work as idiosyncratic and modern" (S. Lichtenstein, op. cit., p. 59).
(fig. 1) Paul Czanne, Le punch au rhum, 1866-1867.
Private Collection.
(fig. 2) Paul Czanne, study for L'aprs-midi Naples, 1870-1874.
Private Collection.
(fig. 3) Paul Czanne, Femme nue, study for L'aprs-midi Naples, 1872-1875.
Kunstmuseum, Basel.
(fig. 4) Paul Czanne, L'aprs-midi Naples (avec servante noire), 1876-1877.
Australian National Gallery, Canberra.
Although an early watercolor of the subject (Rewald Watercolors no. 34; fig. 1) circa 1866-1867 survives, Rewald has surmised that Czanne's first paintings of this provocative theme are now lost and can be known only from an infamous description in Le Figaro of 8 April 1867. Announcing that the Salon jury had refused two canvases that were bizarre and "worthy of expulsion," the critic Arnold Mortier reported: "These compositions are entitled: Le Grog au Vin. One of them depicts a nude man to whom a very dressed-up woman has just brought a wine grog; the other portrays a nude woman and a man dressed as a lazzarone: in this one the grog is spilt." And even Manet would question Czanne's friend, the painter Antoine Guillemet (who has been credited with their inventive titles and with encouraging Czanne's rebellious, youthful posture), "How can you abide such foul painting?" Though Zola quickly wrote in to Le Figaro to defend his childhood friend, "a young painter whose strong and individual talent I respect extremely," the two paintings were probably destroyed, Rewald suggests, by the artist. Yet in the 1870s, Czanne would take up the subject again in an important series of paintings, watercolors and drawings. Along with his small, early watercolor, they vividly convey his continuing fascination with this erotic, imaginary subject in which elements of Manet's notorious Olympia, Delacroix's romantic paintings of exotic themes, and of Czanne's own emerging modernity are reflected.
With the stage-like theatricality that Czanne reserved for his most conspicuously erotic scenes, the parted drapes in the Pellerin L'aprs-midi Naples open to reveal a pair of sprawling lovers on a rumpled bed. A maid-servant enters from the left with a tray and stands just above the upturned chair, no doubt a reference to vehemence of their lovemaking. Rewald has described this painting in particular as based on a mixture of the artist's imaginings and of his lifedrawings from the Acadmie Suisse. Yet the two sketches that are linked most closely to this version (Chappuis nos. 279 and 283; figs. 2 and 3) seem to underscore the richly fantastic theme and imagery of this work and of the series as a whole, one that has elicited a wealth of critical commentary.
In his ground-breaking study of 1927, the English critic, Roger Fry called the early watercolor version "One of the most disconcerting of all the inventions of the period. It is, however, one of the most fascinating and also the most original. It comes nearer to success along the lines of Baroque design than any of the others" (R. Fry, op. cit., p.29). And, discussing the later versions of the theme, including the present work, Kurt Badt is probably alone in seeing in their compositions a reflection of Poussin's harmonious methods of construction (K. Badt, op. cit., p. 308). Yet Badt, too, also points to the stunning singularity of Czanne's conception in these works: "in their strength and striking power they represent the most stark realism, which permits nothing ideal to appear, only something which 'is.' These paintings are not inspired by outside stimuli, but by the need to express inner emotions which the painter himself had experienced" (ibid., p. 291). And for Meyer Schapiro, such private bacchanals and scenes of violent passion that date to the same period in which the artist embraced Impressionism are crucial to understanding the intricate continuities that govern the whole of Czanne's oeuvre: "These fanciful themes are only a small part of Czanne's later work and had little effect on the main course of his art after 1880. Yet it is worth noting these exceptional pictures--they permit us to see more clearly how the new art rests on a deliberate repression of a part of himself which breaks through from time to time" (M. Schapiro, op. cit.).
Like his two versions of the Moderne Olympia (Rewald nos. 171 and 225), Czanne's L'aprs-midi Naples may once more place us in the company of Manet's celebrated courtesan. Perhaps, Rewald suggests, the "admiring onlooker has now joined the courtesan on her bed" (J. Rewald, op. cit., p. 193). But its voluptuous theme of pervasive eroticism also offers evidence of Czanne's life-long devotion to the painting of Delacroix. As early as 1864, Czanne is known to have copied one of Delacroix's masterpieces in the Louvre, and just a few weeks before his death in 1906, as he noted in a letter to his son, he was still reading Baudelaire's tract on the romantic master's achievement. Following Schapiro, Theodore Reff has outlined how Czanne's fantastic works in this group drew from the example of Delacroix as well as from the painter's own experience:
In this determination to make of painting an instrument of vehement self-expression, he was undoubtedly inspired by Romanticism with its new ideals of freedom and intensity, above all, by Delacroix, who remained his idol long after his own art had become more classical in temper. But if his early works recall Delacroix's in their themes of violence or passion, occasionally also in their exotic settings, they proceed, as Schapiro explains, from fundamentally different sources: no longer illustrations of dramatic episodes in classical or Christian literature, they portray with an outspoken, often crude realism the artist's own obsessing fantasies or fears. Primarily about women, they project conflicting attitudes that appear also in his youthful letters and poetry (T. Reff, op. cit., 1962, p. 113).
Delacroix's sumptuous paean to near-eastern sensuality, his Les femmes d'Algiers of 1834 (Muse du Louvre, Paris) had paired the smokey, cloistered world and languid women of a fantastic harem with a painting style of loosened, sensuous brushwork; its appeal to Czanne and to many of the Impressionists (Renoir claimed he could smell the incense) is easy to imagine. And in his related version of L'aprs-midi Naples (Rewald no. 291; fig. 4), Sarah Lichtenstein has noted a close correspondence, in both its format and exotic details, to Delacroix's exotic paradigm. Yet the series as a whole, she argues, projects essential differences in mood and effect between the two painters: "the gestures, although similar to those of Delacroix, are not indolent but aggressive. Idle sensuousness changes to an eager mood . . . The paintings in this group show how consistently Czanne evoked, in his mature period, Delacroix's conception of eroticism, and how completely he adapted it to his personal expression . . . Czanne's tension and insistent treatment mark his work as idiosyncratic and modern" (S. Lichtenstein, op. cit., p. 59).
(fig. 1) Paul Czanne, Le punch au rhum, 1866-1867.
Private Collection.
(fig. 2) Paul Czanne, study for L'aprs-midi Naples, 1870-1874.
Private Collection.
(fig. 3) Paul Czanne, Femme nue, study for L'aprs-midi Naples, 1872-1875.
Kunstmuseum, Basel.
(fig. 4) Paul Czanne, L'aprs-midi Naples (avec servante noire), 1876-1877.
Australian National Gallery, Canberra.