Lot Essay
Les chaumiéres à Auvers is a wonderful example of the works that Cézanne painted near Pontoise and Auvers between 1872 and 1874. This is in fact almost the twin to a somewhat smaller canvas of exactly the same scene, but after a snowfall, that was formerly in the H.O. Havemeyer Collection (Venturi vol. I, no. 189). There is also a preparatory drawing which shows the same thatched cottages (Chappuis, no. 738).
In 1872 Cézanne and his family moved to Auvers and stayed until 1874, entering the circle of Pissarro and his patron Dr. Paul Gachet, the artist-collector-physician who was to play a crucial role in the final weeks of Van Gogh's life and work. Cézanne learned from Pissarro, and the two often worked side by side facing the same view.
Early as it is, one can begin to see in this gentle landscape Cézanne's ability to deconstruct a composition into its basic elements to reveal its simplicity and essential nature.
This painting will appear as no. 188 in the late John Rewald's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Cézanne's paintings being prepared in collaboration with Walter Feilchenfeldt and Jayne Warman.
In 1872 Cézanne and his family moved to Auvers and stayed until 1874, entering the circle of Pissarro and his patron Dr. Paul Gachet, the artist-collector-physician who was to play a crucial role in the final weeks of Van Gogh's life and work. Cézanne learned from Pissarro, and the two often worked side by side facing the same view.
Early as it is, one can begin to see in this gentle landscape Cézanne's ability to deconstruct a composition into its basic elements to reveal its simplicity and essential nature.
This painting will appear as no. 188 in the late John Rewald's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Cézanne's paintings being prepared in collaboration with Walter Feilchenfeldt and Jayne Warman.