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Lot Essay
Executed between 1885 and 1888, La Vallée de l'Arc is a daring and experimental work dating from a period of intense artistic exploration for Cézanne. For years following the harsh critical reception of his Portrait of Victor Choquet in 1877, Cézanne ceased to interact with the Impressionists, and instead devoted himself to furthering the bounds of his artistic expression. It was during this period that he began to formulate his own unique theories of representation, largely influenced by his mentor Pissarro's painting. Many other factors contributed to the developments in Cézanne's art during this period, not least his marriage in 1886 to Hortense Fiquet, and his reconciliation with his father. This latter point became increasingly important, as Cézanne's father died later that year, leaving a substantial inheritance for his son which allowed Cézanne to ignore financial hurdles and truly dedicate himself to his art.
Cézanne was no longer involved with the Impressioist movement, and his oil paintings were steadily moving away from an Impressionist style. However, his watercolours allowed him to work extremely rapidly en plein air, meaning that he could quickly and effectively capture a scene. Indeed, no other Impressionist made as significant a contribution to the medium - Cézanne's watercolours are, in their unique way, the perfection of an Impressionist technique.
In La Vallée de l'Arc, Cézanne's appreciation of the difference between oils and watercolours can truly be seen to be coming to the fore. In early, unresolved watercolours, he had tried with varied success to capture similar scenes in a manner similar to his oils. At some point he realised that the two media require different treatments. His techniques for depicting the volume and almost tangible physicality of the world around him in oils was wholly unsuited to the diaphanous quality of watercolours, and so he developed a system of contrast between the painted and unpainted areas. He was able to present the world in a different way, demonstrated in his restraint, leaving vast expanses of blank, unmarked paper, manipulating the space itself and making it act as a colour in its own right. This judicious use of the white areas, combined with the vertical treatment of the scene, makes La Vallée de l'Arc reminiscent of old Japanese landscapes.
Cézanne was no longer involved with the Impressioist movement, and his oil paintings were steadily moving away from an Impressionist style. However, his watercolours allowed him to work extremely rapidly en plein air, meaning that he could quickly and effectively capture a scene. Indeed, no other Impressionist made as significant a contribution to the medium - Cézanne's watercolours are, in their unique way, the perfection of an Impressionist technique.
In La Vallée de l'Arc, Cézanne's appreciation of the difference between oils and watercolours can truly be seen to be coming to the fore. In early, unresolved watercolours, he had tried with varied success to capture similar scenes in a manner similar to his oils. At some point he realised that the two media require different treatments. His techniques for depicting the volume and almost tangible physicality of the world around him in oils was wholly unsuited to the diaphanous quality of watercolours, and so he developed a system of contrast between the painted and unpainted areas. He was able to present the world in a different way, demonstrated in his restraint, leaving vast expanses of blank, unmarked paper, manipulating the space itself and making it act as a colour in its own right. This judicious use of the white areas, combined with the vertical treatment of the scene, makes La Vallée de l'Arc reminiscent of old Japanese landscapes.