Backgrounder: CÉzanne in Washington
Washington, D.C. has strong ties to the artist Paul Cézanne. Not only is the city home to many of Cézanne’s most famous works, but it also represents an important center of study for Cézanne scholars.
The National Gallery of Art is fortunate in having 22 oil paintings and 88 works on paper by Cézanne as part of its permanent collection. Two of the Gallery’s founding benefactors, Chester Dale and Paul Mellon, gave important Cézanne paintings as part of their very generous gifts of art. Dale gave six Cézanne paintings, including the magnificent still life, The Peppermint Bottle (c. 1893–1895), on view in Cézanne in Provence. Paul Mellon gave five distinguished Cézanne paintings, including the exhibition’s Houses in Provence: The Riaux Valley near L’Estaque (c. 1883), The Bend in the Road (1902–1906), and Antony Valabrègue (1866). Mellon also gave the great majority of the Gallery’s Cézanne watercolors and drawings. Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Paul’s sister, gave the Cézanne oil Riverbank (c. 1895).
Two prominent families with strong Washington ties also bequeathed works by Cézanne to the Gallery. The W. Averell Harriman Foundation gave five Cézanne paintings in memory of Marie N. Harriman; from this group, Still Life with Milk Jug and Fruit (c. 1900) is on view in the exhibition. In addition, four late paintings by Cézanne were given to the Gallery by Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer, parents of the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. The Meyers, who acquired their paintings with the counsel of Edward Steichen, gave these works seen in the exhibition: Le Château Noir (1900/1904), The Gardener Vallier (c. 1905), and Still Life with Apples and Peaches (c. 1905).
There are works by Cézanne as well in Washington’s Phillips Collection, which is lending two oil paintings to the Cézanne in Provence exhibition: Countryside at Bellevue (1892-1895) and The Garden at Les Lauves (c. 1906). The Baltimore Museum of Art is lending Montagne Sainte-Victorie Seen from Bibémus (c. 1897) from its Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland.
Less familiar may be the eight Cézanne paintings in the collection of the White House. They were left to the White House by Charles A. Loeser, an American expatriate who was one of the earliest collectors of works by the artist. Because of the great importance of the paintings and in order to permit them to be seen by the widest possible audience, several have been on loan to the National Gallery of Art for public exhibition. Two works from the White House collection, Hamlet à Payannet, near Gardanne (1885–1886), and Houses on a Hill, Provence (1904–1906), are on view in Cézanne in Provence. Another White House work, House on the Marne (1888–1890), is now on view in West Building Gallery 80.
Art historian John Rewald (1912–1994) undertook a lifelong effort to collect archival sources on Cézanne and to create a comprehensive reference library. In 1979, Rewald began donating photographs of mostly French paintings to what is today the department of image collections in the National Gallery of Art Library. In 1981, Rewald donated almost 1,500 photographs of Cézanne watercolors.
In 1986, recognizing the importance of Rewald’s research materials on Cézanne and other artists, the library purchased Rewald’s collection of almost 15,000 items, including monographs, periodicals, and catalogues, many extensively annotated, as well as the bulk of his photographic archive, including his collection of Cézanne site images. The library also acquired Rewald’s art history research files and the working files for his Cézanne catalogues raisonnés; the latter are now housed in the Gallery archives. Together, these materials constitute an extraordinary resource and have made the National Gallery of Art a center for the study of Cézanne’s life and work.
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