Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
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Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Homme auprès d'une femme nue

Details
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
Homme auprès d'une femme nue
gouache, watercolour, pen and brown ink and pencil on paper
4 x 6¾ in. (10.2 x 17.1 cm.)
Executed in 1867-1870
Provenance
Ambroise Vollard, Paris.
Galerie de l'Art Moderne, Paris, by 1965 and thence by descent to the present owner.
Literature
A. Vollard, Paul Cézanne, Paris, 1914, p. 1 (illustrated; titled 'Contemplation').
L. Venturi, Cézanne, Paris, 1936, no. 823 (dated '1872-1875').
J. Rewald, Paul Cézanne, The watercolours, A Catalogue raisonné, London, 1983, no. 31 (illustrated).
Special notice
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Lot Essay

Whilst the subject of this watercolour is strongly reminiscent of Cézanne's oil series of 1876-1877, L'après-midi à Naples (R 289-291), Rewald (loc. cit.) related its erotic content to a different context, which the artist had explored in another contemporary watercolour, Le Peintre et la femme (RWC 33). The latter, the man's head shows some of the features of the artist friend Achille Emperaire, who often served as a surrogate for Cézanne himself in the painter's sexually charged compositions. The present work displays a lighter, fresher narrative than the heavy atmosphere of the celebrated oil, with stronger classical references and less intense voyeuristic and lascivious implications.

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