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A PASSION FOR CÉZANNE: THE CHAPPUIS-BARUT COLLECTION '[Cézanne] teaches us to observe nature. I often noticed how some details recorded by him would be more appropriate than my own visual images. And it happens sometimes, when I feel in communion with nature, that I treat some forms found in his art as my own observations...' (A. Chappuis, Dessins de Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1938, p. 14). In the field of Cézannian studies, if 'Rewald' and 'Venturi' are synonymous with the artist's paintings and watercolours, then the name of 'Chappuis' is synonymous with Cézanne's drawings. Chappuis' collection of works on paper by Cézanne is the ultimate testimony to his lifelong passion for the artist. Chosen with academic discernment, laced with dedication of the connoisseur's eye, these works compose the most important group of drawings by the Provençal painter ever presented at auction. Unusual parallels - beyond their modesty and discretion - bind the lives of Adrien Chappuis and Paul Cézanne. Both came from banking families - Cézanne's father was a founder and partner in Banque Cézanne et Cabassol in Aix-en-Provence; Adrien Chappuis was born in 1898 into a prosperous Swiss banking family. Both men followed a course of studies to satisfy the desires of their family - Cézanne studied for five years in preparation for a career in law, and Chappuis completed a Ph.D. in law but never practised. Both men departed from their set career paths very early, leaving Paris and heading for further locales - Cézanne to Aix-en-Provence and Chappuis, in 1939, to the hills of Tresserve on the edges of the Lake Le Bourget. It was here that he built the house where he would remain until the end of his life - on the same banks of the river where Lamartine in 1817 wrote Le lac, a long, melancholic poem on the pain of broken love which came to represent the romantic spirit of the time. In the introduction of the catalogue dedicated to his collection, published in 1938 by the prestigious 'Editions des Chronique du Jour', Adrien Chappuis asked for understanding - for he did not consider himself an art critic nor an art historian. However, in his text he recognised and paid homages to his sense of belonging to the artist's world, or elective affinity, almost of identification, which never abandoned him. Chappuis' work on the catalogue raisonné of drawings by Paul Cézanne began in 1961 at the request of Lionello Venturi. Pushed-on by his strong spiritual connection to the artist and his respect and admiration for Venturi's passionate method, Chappuis embarked upon this enormous project. Chappuis dissected the master's production on paper with the same 'intellect mediated by feelings' and 'the neat, almost classic vision of things' at the very basis of Cézanne's Cubism (A. Chappuis, Les Dessins de Paul Cézanne au Cabinet des Estampes du Musée des Beaux Arts de Bâle, exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel, 1962, p. 15). His aesthetic appreciation and his unrestrained admiration for the artist's radical innovations guided Chappuis' analysis, as it did Venturi's. He plunged into the archives and files left by Venturi in Rome, pursuing the accepted work and digging deeper in the untouched soil of Cézanne's drawings. Upon the book's publication in 1973, it was celebrated by critics and most notably by the Director of the National Gallery in London, Sir Kenneth Clark: 'A magnificent work' composed with 'a zeal beyond praise'. Chappuis's catalogue raisonné on Cézanne not only represented a lifetime of drawings for the artist, but it became the sum of his life's work, beginning with his very first contact with the artist's graphic work in the early 1920s. Adrien Chappuis, in the first pages of his catalogue raisonné, explained that after the death of Cézanne in 1906, the studies, the carnets, and the large sheets with one or two drawings found on the recto and verso were conserved by the son of the artist, Paul, Ambroise Vollard and a few close friends of the artist. Nearly everyone shared the opinion that Cézanne didn't know how to draw. From a very early time, Cézanne limited himself to three media: pencil, oil and watercolour - he showed no interest in working in pastel nor in print-making. From just these three media came a completely unique production, and only from his work in pencil do we really have access to his intimate world. The innumerable drawings that Cézanne accumulated in these carnets represent and exploration apart from his works in oil. It is therefore not surprising that the majority of the drawings were confined to the reduced surface of the sketchbook, and that the larger scale 'finished' drawings that he might have felt suitable for exhibition are extremely rare in their production. With the exception of Les quatre baigneuses (Chappuis 514), which was illustrated by Vollard in 1898 as the leaflet for one of his exhibitions, Cézanne's drawings were never exhibited during the artist's lifetime. Practically no drawings changed hands prior to 1930. It wasn't until the financial crisis that touched upon France circa 1930 that Paul Cézanne fils, Ambroise Vollard (fig. 2) and Paul Guillame began to sell, singularly or in groups, Cézanne's drawings. In 1928, Adrien Chappuis acquired the most important work in his collection directly from Ambroise Vollard (the artist's lifetime dealer), the large watercolour still-life (R 546), donated in lieu of taxes to the Musée d'Orsay by the Barut family in 2002 (fig. 3). In 1892 Vollard discovered the works of Cézanne through 'pàere Tanguy', Cézanne's first dealer. After the death of Tanguy, Vollard purchased four canvases by the artist from his estate sale. Encouraged by these first purchases, Vollard contacted Paul Cézanne fils, in an effort to organise an exhibition of his father's works, who was already recognised in many circles, however not to the greater public. In 1895, he opened the show with 150 works in his gallery on the rue Laffitte, selling a number of paintings by this 'provincial painter', whom he would not meet personally until 1897. For Cézanne's 1899 portrait in oil of his dealer, Vollard posed 115 times (R 811; Musée du Petit Palais, Paris). The Chappuis-Barut Collection notably includes one of these studies (see lot 346). For the most part, the drawings and carnets in the Chappuis-Barut Collection were acquired from Paul Guillaume, who had known Paul Cézanne fils owing to the number of purchases he had made on behalf of Dr. Albert Barnes. Chappuis acknowledges in the first pages of his catalogue raisonné (London, 1973, p. 23) that he did not regret the fact that the sketchbooks are no longer completely intact. He believed it was sufficient to have a record of the order of the sheets, and consequently each sheet coming from a sketchbook bears a discrete roman numeral, likely placed there by Paul Cézanne fils or another member of the Cézanne family. While the experience of holding an intact sketchbook is extremely moving, Chappuis believed that one can fully enjoy the impact of a drawing by Cézanne when it is presented in isolation. For Adrien Chappuis, it wasn't that he needed to realise the passion for the graphic works of Paul Cézanne through the physical accumulation of his drawings and sketchbooks. The smallest line, the smallest trace, was for Chappuis a source of pleasure and understanding of the artist's larger compositions. For this reason, a simple sketch on a piece of paper allowed him an insight and perspective on the composition of a landscape or a great still-life. The core of the collection comprised of three important sketchbooks (carnets notes as 'CP I', 'CP II' and 'CP IV'), several outstanding watercolours (R 19, 190, 189, 358 and 476), and more than forty drawings of different sizes and subjects (self-portraits; portraits of his son Paul, his wife Hortense, his friend Emile Zola (fig. 1), landscapes, still-lifes, copies from the Old Masters and preparatory studies for oils). These were all closely guarded by the Chappuis family until the expert's wife's death in 1999, and thereafter generously bequeathed to the family of Georges and Jean Barut (respectively father and son), lifelong friends of the scholar and his wife. Adrien Chappius never ceased to express his affection and fondness for the Baruts. He concluded his introduction to the Basel catalogue with a special mention of his gratitude: '...J'adresse enfin un témoignage de gratitude à mes amis Georges Barut et son fils Jean Barut, de Chambéry, qui m'ont rendu de précieux services' ('Finally I express my gratitude to my friends Georges Barut and his son Jean Barut, of Chambéry, who have helped me with precious favours') (op. cit., p. 23). Please note, in the text below, the following abbreviated references: V L. Venturi, Cézanne, son art-son oeuvre, Paris, 1936. C A. Chappuis, The Drawings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, London, 1973. RWC J. Rewald, Paul Cézanne. The Watercolours, London, 1983. R J. Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne. A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1996. CP I 'Carnet Chappuis I' (Sketchbook Chappuis no. 1) CP II 'Carnet Chappuis II' (Sketchbook Chappuis no. 2) CP IV 'Carnet Chappuis IV' (Sketchbook Chappuis no. 2)

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Une tasse (recto); D'après Antoine-Auguste Préault: Clémence Isaure (verso)

Details

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
Une tasse (recto); D'après Antoine-Auguste Préault: Clémence Isaure (verso)
pencil on paper (recto and verso)
7¾ x 4¾in. (19.5 x 12cm.)
Drawn circa 1880-1883

Provenance

Paul Cézanne fils, Paris.
Acquired from the above by Paul Guillaume, Paris.
Acquired from the estate of the above by Adrien Chappuis, Tresserve, in 1934.
By descent from the above to the present owner.

Literature

L. Venturi, Cézanne, son art-son oeuvre, Paris, 1936, no. 1270, p. 304 (recto and verso).
A. Chappuis, Dessins de Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1938, no. 25 (recto illustrated).
A. Chappuis, Dessins de Cézanne, Lausanne, 1957, no. 50 (verso illustrated; recto illustrated on the back cover).
G. Berthold, Cézanne und die alten Meister, Stuttgart, 1958, no. 172 (verso illustrated p. 108).
A. Chappuis, The Drawings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, London, 1973, vol. I, no. 547, p. 158 (recto); no. 497, p.150 (verso) (illustrated vol. II, nos. 547 and 497).
J. Rewald, Cézanne. A Biography, New York, 1986 (recto illustrated p. 227).

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The verso of this sheet was page VII from the sketchbook CP I.

Clémence Isaure is the mythological figure who was said to have instituted the 14th century jeux floraux, or flower games, in Toulouse. It wasn't until the 16th century that poets and artists began to cultivate her image, and her statue was erected in the city center in 1557. The present study is based upon the statue of Clémence Isaure erected by Antoine-Auguste Préault (1800-1879) in the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris.

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