Lot Essay
Situated midway between Aix and the outlying village of Le Tholonet to the east, Château Noir was built in the second half of the nineteenth century, according to the local lore, by a coal merchant who painted it black. Another tradition holds that the first resident was an alchemist who obtained his skills, Faustlike, from a pact with the devil; the house was also known as the Château du Diable. By Cézanne's time the building had the familiar ochre color of stone cut from the nearby Bibémus quarry.
Not unlike the works Cézanne painted near the caves above Château Noir (such as nos. 432-436), this motif appears representational only to one who knows the site. The narrow, shaded path that leads from the terrace in front of Château Noir to the bend where an abandoned millstone stands by the cistern (see no. 425) is seen as it passes a small well. At its left a square block protrudes; pails or jugs were placed on it while the water, hoisted from the well with a rope dangling from wooden poles, was poured into them. Every detail has been observed: the few straight lines of the well, the low block, and the poles surrounded by abundant vegetation. At the bottom of the sheet there is a curve in the path; near the top some naked branches undulate. (J. Rewald, Paul Cézanne, The Watercolors, 1983, p. 190)
This watercolor was included in Cézanne's first one-man show in New York, which included twenty watercolors, held at the photographer Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, where New Yorkers could see the most advanced art from Europe. The present work was the only one sold during the exhibition; it was purchased by the painter Arthur B. Davies for $200. Davies soon showed his purchase to Lillie Bliss, the generous New York patron of the arts, and in doing so began the process by which Cézanne's work was introduced to a wider circle of influential American collectors.
Because the Davies-owned work was the only Cézanne watercolor in America at this time, Rewald surmised that Davies lent the work anonymously to the landmark 1913 Armory Show in New York, in which Davies had an active role. It was the only watercolor in Cézanne's installation at the Show, which was otherwise comprised of thirteen oil paintings and proofs of several lithographs.
Not unlike the works Cézanne painted near the caves above Château Noir (such as nos. 432-436), this motif appears representational only to one who knows the site. The narrow, shaded path that leads from the terrace in front of Château Noir to the bend where an abandoned millstone stands by the cistern (see no. 425) is seen as it passes a small well. At its left a square block protrudes; pails or jugs were placed on it while the water, hoisted from the well with a rope dangling from wooden poles, was poured into them. Every detail has been observed: the few straight lines of the well, the low block, and the poles surrounded by abundant vegetation. At the bottom of the sheet there is a curve in the path; near the top some naked branches undulate. (J. Rewald, Paul Cézanne, The Watercolors, 1983, p. 190)
This watercolor was included in Cézanne's first one-man show in New York, which included twenty watercolors, held at the photographer Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, where New Yorkers could see the most advanced art from Europe. The present work was the only one sold during the exhibition; it was purchased by the painter Arthur B. Davies for $200. Davies soon showed his purchase to Lillie Bliss, the generous New York patron of the arts, and in doing so began the process by which Cézanne's work was introduced to a wider circle of influential American collectors.
Because the Davies-owned work was the only Cézanne watercolor in America at this time, Rewald surmised that Davies lent the work anonymously to the landmark 1913 Armory Show in New York, in which Davies had an active role. It was the only watercolor in Cézanne's installation at the Show, which was otherwise comprised of thirteen oil paintings and proofs of several lithographs.