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Lot Essay
Cézanne made extended stays in Paris in 1888-1890 in order to escape incessant domestic squabbling in his household in Aix. From December 1888 to September he kept a residence at 15, quai d'Anjou, and rented a studio on the rue Val-de-Grâce. From Paris he traveled to various locations in the Ile-de-France where he painted outdoors, spending as long as five months in Chantilly, a town north of Paris, in the summer of 1888.
This watercolor is related to three paintings that show a large house on the banks of the Marne River east of Paris, which John Rewald ascribed to 1888-1890 (Rewald paintings, nos. 622-624; the first of these is in the collection of The White House, Washington, D.C.). The watercolor probably preceded the paintings, and Rewald (op. cit.) has therefore dated it circa 1888, concurring with Venturi, and identified the site as Alfort. The building is simpler in the watercolor than it appears in the three Marne paintings, in which Cézanne embellished the structure with a tower and spire, giving it the appearance of a church. Venturi related this watercolor to the Marne painting he lists as no. 629 in his catalogue (Rewald paintings, no. 624), although it is actually closer in appearance to the two other versions, one of which (Rewald paintings, no. 622, The White House painting) he had not included in his 1936 publication, but about which he made notes for his planned revised edition.
There is a small drawing on the reverse of this sheet, illustrated in Rewald, which is an interesting complement to this scene. The drawing shows the reverse image of the foliage reflected in the water at lower left in the watercolor, so that it actually describes the foliage on the riverbank with the water flowing beneath it. There is a related watercolor, Villa au bord de l'eau, II, (Rewald watercolors, no. 540) which has been dated circa 1898, although Rewald mentions that "it is by means certain that this second version was executed later rather than simultaneously."
This watercolor is related to three paintings that show a large house on the banks of the Marne River east of Paris, which John Rewald ascribed to 1888-1890 (Rewald paintings, nos. 622-624; the first of these is in the collection of The White House, Washington, D.C.). The watercolor probably preceded the paintings, and Rewald (op. cit.) has therefore dated it circa 1888, concurring with Venturi, and identified the site as Alfort. The building is simpler in the watercolor than it appears in the three Marne paintings, in which Cézanne embellished the structure with a tower and spire, giving it the appearance of a church. Venturi related this watercolor to the Marne painting he lists as no. 629 in his catalogue (Rewald paintings, no. 624), although it is actually closer in appearance to the two other versions, one of which (Rewald paintings, no. 622, The White House painting) he had not included in his 1936 publication, but about which he made notes for his planned revised edition.
There is a small drawing on the reverse of this sheet, illustrated in Rewald, which is an interesting complement to this scene. The drawing shows the reverse image of the foliage reflected in the water at lower left in the watercolor, so that it actually describes the foliage on the riverbank with the water flowing beneath it. There is a related watercolor, Villa au bord de l'eau, II, (Rewald watercolors, no. 540) which has been dated circa 1898, although Rewald mentions that "it is by means certain that this second version was executed later rather than simultaneously."