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拍品专文
Hortense Fiquet had been the artist's companion since 1869. Their son Paul was born in 1872 (see lot 101), and finally overcoming the objections of Cézanne's father, they were married in 1886. In the late 1890s, when the present work was drawn, she was almost fifty years old. Chappuis calls this a "most human and remarkably fine drawing" (op. cit.). One may disagree, however, with his observation that "age, and perhaps sickness, are manifest here," for Mme Cézanne's expression seems more akin to a sense of weariness born of worry and sacrifice that one detects in the oil portrait Madame Cézanne aux cheveux dénoués, 1890-1892 (Rewald paintings, no. 685; coll. Philadelphia Museum of Art).
Cézanne also drew his wife resting, her eyes open, with a spray of flowers that bear her name painted in watercolor, in Madame Cézanne aux hortensias, circa 1885 (Rewald watercolors, no. 209). Although the existence of the watercolor study of the tree branch at right in the present work was cited in Chappuis, this side of the sheet was previously folded back and not seen by Rewald. It was first photographed in full in 1995, the year after Rewald passed away.
Cézanne also drew his wife resting, her eyes open, with a spray of flowers that bear her name painted in watercolor, in Madame Cézanne aux hortensias, circa 1885 (Rewald watercolors, no. 209). Although the existence of the watercolor study of the tree branch at right in the present work was cited in Chappuis, this side of the sheet was previously folded back and not seen by Rewald. It was first photographed in full in 1995, the year after Rewald passed away.