The efforts of the dealer Ambroise Vollard were instrumental in winning exposure for Cézanne's paintings during the last decade of the artist's life, at a time when Cézanne was largely forgotten except by a few close friends and fellow artists. Vollard gave Cézanne his first one-man show, which opened in Paris in November, 1895. Contemporary accounts describe the exhibition as being a complete and comprehensive overview of the artist's career. Cézanne included many watercolors among the 150 works he sent from Aix-en-Provence to Vollard, and it is clear that the artist viewed them as a significant aspect of his creative work.

Vollard soon discovered that there were ready buyers for the watercolors. They were far less expensive than the oil paintings, and collectors who were uncertain about investing in major works by the controversial and intellectually demanding Cézanne, could begin by appreciating the lighter, more lyrical touch in the watercolors, although many viewers were puzzled by their apparent lack of "finish." Indeed, Vollard's success with the watercolors probably induced Cézanne to paint many more. By 1902 Vollard planned to put on an exhibition of only watercolors. This did not take place until 1905, a year before the artist's death. The size of the exhibition and the titles included are not known, but it was generally well-received, and offered the old, reclusive master some of the recognition which had eluded him during many years of hard and lonely work.