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Lot Essay
In 1916 Gris executed a series of studies based on figure paintings by Paul Cézanne (see also lot 332). Gris was drawn early in his career to Cézanne's achievement in still-life painting; the master's influence is apparent in the Spanish painter's similar use of tilted planes, spatial ambiguities, complex arrangements of still-life elements and emphatic modeling of forms.
Gris executed the Cézanne studies as a means of preparing for his own great figure paintings of 1916, most notably his Portrait de Madame Josette Gris (Cooper, no. 203; private collection), and he continued to explore Cézanne's work during the next several years. The present drawing is based on Cézanne's Madame Cézanne au fauteuil jaune, 1888-1890 (Rewald, no. 572; coll. Art Institute of Chicago), which was then in the collection of gallery-owner Paul Rosenberg, the brother of Gris's dealer, Léonce Rosenberg. Although Gris probably knew the painting first-hand, he very likely worked from a reproduction. Concentrating on Madame Cézanne's face, Gris abstracts a planar foundation from Cézanne's painting, flattening and simplifying the modeling of form. Gris also painted a copy of Cézannes picture which was completed by March 1918 (Cooper, no. 257).
Gris executed the Cézanne studies as a means of preparing for his own great figure paintings of 1916, most notably his Portrait de Madame Josette Gris (Cooper, no. 203; private collection), and he continued to explore Cézanne's work during the next several years. The present drawing is based on Cézanne's Madame Cézanne au fauteuil jaune, 1888-1890 (Rewald, no. 572; coll. Art Institute of Chicago), which was then in the collection of gallery-owner Paul Rosenberg, the brother of Gris's dealer, Léonce Rosenberg. Although Gris probably knew the painting first-hand, he very likely worked from a reproduction. Concentrating on Madame Cézanne's face, Gris abstracts a planar foundation from Cézanne's painting, flattening and simplifying the modeling of form. Gris also painted a copy of Cézannes picture which was completed by March 1918 (Cooper, no. 257).