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Lot Essay
The verso of this sheet was page IX from the sketchbook CP II.
This study, as well as lots 323 and 325 following, is related to the oil painting Baigneur aux bras écartés (R 370; see introduction to this section), a pivotal, mid-career work which has over the years elicited substantial debate about its dating and the sources of its imagery. There is also a smaller version of this composition painted around the same time (R 369; New York, Jasper Johns Collection); the landscape background in the present drawing is similar to the setting in this painting.
Venturi first dated R 370 to the years 1885-1887 (V 549), which in his notes he later revised to 1888-1890. Ambroise Vollard had an archive photograph annotated by the artist's son Paul with the date 1878. Lawrence Gowing ascribed it to the first half of the 1880s (in 'Notes on the Development of Cézanne', in Burlington Magazine, vol. 98, no. 639, June 1958, pp. 185-192). Theodore Reff arrived at a date of 1885-1886 in his important article on this painting ('Cézanne's Bather with Outstretched Arms', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 59, no. 1118, March 1962, pp. 173-190). He observed that the landscape setting resembles the area around L'Estaque, where the artist stayed in 1885. Rewald, however, settled on a date that is earliest of all, 1877-1878, noting that the painting stylistically predated the period of Cézanne's systematic, 'constructive' brushstroke.
The origin of the pose appears to be a third century BC marble, Satyr with Cymbals (Musée du Louvre, Paris, fig. 1). Cézanne's earliest sketch based on it was done in 1874-1875 (C 380, in the carnet now at the Art Institute of Chicago). Both Gowing and Reff believed that the head of the bather is that of Paul fils, and its resemblance with the many sketches of the artist's son in the carnets bears this out. The figure of the bather and two sketches of young Paul's head on the same carnet page may be seen in C 713 (dated circa 1878). The matter is complicated by the fact that other versions of the bather and studies of Paul fils occur over a period of years in the carnets, and studies on the same page may have been drawn at different times. Drawing C 654/835 (sale Christie's, New York, 7 November 2002, lot 101) was executed on a page removed from carnet CP II (see note to lot 330) and was dated by Chappuis to 1883-1886 (bather, recto) - concurrent with the present drawing - and 1882-1883 (study of Paul's head, verso). One may find studies in the carnets that support all but the latest of the ascribed datings for the painting mentioned above.
In some of the studies the figure of the bather may be a young boy, but not so young as Paul fils was in the late 1870s - he was only six years old in 1880. Indeed, the muscular figure of the bather in the oil painting is more clearly a young adolescent, which would support Reff's dating. The solution to this problem is that Cézanne probably fashioned his bather from a composite of the pose derived from the Hellenistic marble, and a head that based on the visage of his son. He must have considered the pose in the 1877-1878 painting to be successful enough that it continued to interest him into the mid-1880s and beyond. It therefore reappears in his sketchbooks (see also lot 330L), while at the same time his son grew into his early teens. The painting R 370 had an important influence on his next major single male bather composition, Le grand baigneur, circa 1885 (R 555; New York, The Museum of Modern Art).
Chappuis notes that the study on the verso is an 'unfinished Provençal landscape…. The various elements in the drawing combine to create an impressive balance' (op. cit., 1973).
This study, as well as lots 323 and 325 following, is related to the oil painting Baigneur aux bras écartés (R 370; see introduction to this section), a pivotal, mid-career work which has over the years elicited substantial debate about its dating and the sources of its imagery. There is also a smaller version of this composition painted around the same time (R 369; New York, Jasper Johns Collection); the landscape background in the present drawing is similar to the setting in this painting.
Venturi first dated R 370 to the years 1885-1887 (V 549), which in his notes he later revised to 1888-1890. Ambroise Vollard had an archive photograph annotated by the artist's son Paul with the date 1878. Lawrence Gowing ascribed it to the first half of the 1880s (in 'Notes on the Development of Cézanne', in Burlington Magazine, vol. 98, no. 639, June 1958, pp. 185-192). Theodore Reff arrived at a date of 1885-1886 in his important article on this painting ('Cézanne's Bather with Outstretched Arms', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 59, no. 1118, March 1962, pp. 173-190). He observed that the landscape setting resembles the area around L'Estaque, where the artist stayed in 1885. Rewald, however, settled on a date that is earliest of all, 1877-1878, noting that the painting stylistically predated the period of Cézanne's systematic, 'constructive' brushstroke.
The origin of the pose appears to be a third century BC marble, Satyr with Cymbals (Musée du Louvre, Paris, fig. 1). Cézanne's earliest sketch based on it was done in 1874-1875 (C 380, in the carnet now at the Art Institute of Chicago). Both Gowing and Reff believed that the head of the bather is that of Paul fils, and its resemblance with the many sketches of the artist's son in the carnets bears this out. The figure of the bather and two sketches of young Paul's head on the same carnet page may be seen in C 713 (dated circa 1878). The matter is complicated by the fact that other versions of the bather and studies of Paul fils occur over a period of years in the carnets, and studies on the same page may have been drawn at different times. Drawing C 654/835 (sale Christie's, New York, 7 November 2002, lot 101) was executed on a page removed from carnet CP II (see note to lot 330) and was dated by Chappuis to 1883-1886 (bather, recto) - concurrent with the present drawing - and 1882-1883 (study of Paul's head, verso). One may find studies in the carnets that support all but the latest of the ascribed datings for the painting mentioned above.
In some of the studies the figure of the bather may be a young boy, but not so young as Paul fils was in the late 1870s - he was only six years old in 1880. Indeed, the muscular figure of the bather in the oil painting is more clearly a young adolescent, which would support Reff's dating. The solution to this problem is that Cézanne probably fashioned his bather from a composite of the pose derived from the Hellenistic marble, and a head that based on the visage of his son. He must have considered the pose in the 1877-1878 painting to be successful enough that it continued to interest him into the mid-1880s and beyond. It therefore reappears in his sketchbooks (see also lot 330L), while at the same time his son grew into his early teens. The painting R 370 had an important influence on his next major single male bather composition, Le grand baigneur, circa 1885 (R 555; New York, The Museum of Modern Art).
Chappuis notes that the study on the verso is an 'unfinished Provençal landscape…. The various elements in the drawing combine to create an impressive balance' (op. cit., 1973).