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Lot Essay
'This was the only work painted during Modigliani's stay in Leghorn (July-September) that he was anxious to bring back to Paris. He is said to have kept it for several months on the wall of his Rue Falguière studio, before exhibiting it with several drawings and five other paintings at the Salon des Indépendants of 1910.
Cézanne had been the figurehead for an entire generation of painters, the last exhibition of his lifetime was at the 1906 Salon d'Automne, shortly after Modigliani's arrival in Paris and this picture, though painted at Leghorn, clearly shows his influence: the structure of the face and the strokes of intense colour that punctuate its composition, the blue and green in particular, are paricularly reminiscent of his style' (W. Schmalenbach, quoted in 'Les portraits', in exh. cat. Modigliani, L'ange au visage grave, Paris, 2002, p. 122). Modigliani, apparently even made a small watercolour of Cézanne's Garçon au gilet rouge, 1888-90 (Fig. 1, National Gallery of Art, Washington).
The first owners of this painting were the brothers Jean and Dr Paul Alexandre, both of whom Madigiliani painted in 1909 and who regularly commissioned works from him. Jean Alexandre, who acquired the work directly from the artist, loaned it to the Salon des Indépendants in 1910. By 1912 the painting was hanging in a room in Paul's house where it was photographed (Fig. 2). The next owner of the painting was Fréderic-Louis Sauser, better known by his nom de plume Blaise Cendrars, the poet and novelist and a close friend of the artist, whose portrait he painted in 1917.
Cézanne had been the figurehead for an entire generation of painters, the last exhibition of his lifetime was at the 1906 Salon d'Automne, shortly after Modigliani's arrival in Paris and this picture, though painted at Leghorn, clearly shows his influence: the structure of the face and the strokes of intense colour that punctuate its composition, the blue and green in particular, are paricularly reminiscent of his style' (W. Schmalenbach, quoted in 'Les portraits', in exh. cat. Modigliani, L'ange au visage grave, Paris, 2002, p. 122). Modigliani, apparently even made a small watercolour of Cézanne's Garçon au gilet rouge, 1888-90 (Fig. 1, National Gallery of Art, Washington).
The first owners of this painting were the brothers Jean and Dr Paul Alexandre, both of whom Madigiliani painted in 1909 and who regularly commissioned works from him. Jean Alexandre, who acquired the work directly from the artist, loaned it to the Salon des Indépendants in 1910. By 1912 the painting was hanging in a room in Paul's house where it was photographed (Fig. 2). The next owner of the painting was Fréderic-Louis Sauser, better known by his nom de plume Blaise Cendrars, the poet and novelist and a close friend of the artist, whose portrait he painted in 1917.