Backgrounder:
CÉzanne in Provence and “CÉzanne 2006”

The year 2006 marks the centenary of the death of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), and the exhibition Cézanne in Provence is a commemoration and celebration of the artist’s achievement. It is universally recognized that Cézanne was one of the greatest and most influential artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: one hundred years after his death, most modern artists would name Cézanne among their most significant predecessors.

Cézanne in Provence marks the first time the artist’s engagement with his home in the town of Aix-en-Provence and the surrounding countryside, known as the pays d’Aix, has been examined in an exhibition. The last major Cézanne exhibition in the United States took place 10 years ago at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1996.

Each year a committee appointed by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication designates a number of national celebrations: cultural icons recently honored include Victor Hugo (2002) and Jules Verne (2005). Paul Cézanne has been chosen for 2006. To mark the celebration, Cézanne’s hometown of Aix-en-Provence has been nominated to organize a season of special events, known as “Cézanne 2006.” The season will be constructed around the Cézanne in Provence exhibition, which has been designated “an exhibition of national significance” by the ministry.

The exhibition owes its conception to cocurators Philip Conisbee, senior curator of European paintings and curator of French painting at the National Gallery of Art, and Denis Coutagne, conservateur en chef du patrimonoine and directeur de Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence. In 2000 Conisbee and Coutagne had initial discussions with Henri Loyrette (now president-directeur of the Musée du Louvre) and Françoise Cachin (now director honoraire of the Musées de France). The Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, under the director of Administrateur Général Thomas Grenon, has greatly facilitated the organization of the exhibition in France. The Musée Granet has been closed for renovations for more than four years, but will reopen in advance to host Cézanne in Provence from June 9 through September 17, 2006.

Both the National Gallery of Art and the Musée Granet have mounted compelling exhibitions devoted to Cézanne. Aix, which held its first Cézanne exhibition at the Musée Granet in 1953, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death in 1956 with an exhibition of 70 of his canvases at the Pavillon Vendôme. In 1990 the Musée Granet presented an exhibition focusing on Cézanne’s depictions of Montagne Sainte-Victoire. At the National Gallery of Art, Cézanne is richly represented in the permanent collection, which includes 22 oil paintings and 88 works on paper by the artist. In 1989 the National Gallery of Art presented the exhibition Cézanne: The Early Years, 1859–1872, which was also on view at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The ties between the United States, the National Gallery of Art, and Aix extend even further. The great Cézanne specialist and author of the catalogues raisonnés of the artist’s oil paintings and watercolors, the American John Rewald, bequeathed his Cézanne archive to the National Gallery of Art. It was Rewald and the American writer James Lord who successfully gathered the necessary funds from American admirers of Cézanne to purchase the artist’s studio, the Atelier des Lauves. Thanks to this American intervention, the studio became the property of the University of Aix in 1954 and was ceded to the city of Aix in 1969; it has been open to the public ever since. (See backgrounder in this press kit on John Rewald, Cézanne, and the National Gallery of Art for further information on Rewald’s contributions to Cézanne scholarship.)

Cézanne in Provence has been organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Musée Granet and Communauté du Pays d’Aix, Aix-en-Provence, and the Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris.

The exhibition is made possible in Washington by a generous grant from the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation Fund. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:

Press Office
National Gallery of Art
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Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

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Backgrounder: CÉzanne in Provence and “CÉzanne 2006”

Backgrounder:
CÉzanne in Provence and “CÉzanne 2006”