Cezanne Sketchbook

c. 1877/1900

Paul Cezanne

Artist, French, 1839 - 1906

Paul Cezanne

Attributed to

This tan-colored, fabric-covered sketchbook cover is marked with a few smudges of dark gray and white paint. The binding is to the left in this photograph. The cover is wide and has a cream-colored rope wrapped around the narrower end to our right. The weave of the fabric is visible. A few swipes of gray paint are spaced along the binding, to our left, and there are tiny touches of white, lavender purple, and brick red marking the cover.

Media Options

Skip thumbnail navigation
Back to thumbnail navigation
This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    sketchbook with 71 drawings in graphite, pen and brown ink, and watercolor; the sketchbook contains 46 sheets, several which are blank; the end papers, the recto of the first page, and half the verso of the final page were used for notes, lists, and arithmetical figuring; a draft of a letter to the critic Octave Mirbeau is on page II (recto)

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

  • Dimensions

    page size: 15.2 x 23.7 cm (6 x 9 5/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1992.51.9.a-zz

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Chappuis 1973, no. 1149, State and others

Associated Artworks

See all 71 artworks

The Plaster Mill (La Moulin à plâtre)

Paul Cezanne

1889

Drawn with delicate, overlapping lines and bold, parallel lines for shading in graphite on beige-colored paper, a person hunches over a surface and writes with one hand. The person’s head, hulking shoulders, hands, and the paper on which he writes fill most of the composition. His face is close to the page, and his head tips to our right. Shading suggests eyelashes, nose, ear, and jawline. The background is blank, and the edges of the page and sketchbook are visible.

The Artist's Son Writing

Paul Cezanne

1887

A Man seen from Behind

Paul Cezanne

1880

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Paul Cezanne (the artist's son), Paris; Paul Guillaume, Paris; Adrien Chappuis, Tresserve, Switzerland, 1933; Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA, 1967; gift to NGA, 1991

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1991

  • NGA Anniversary 1991, 176.

1999

  • An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999-2000.

2012

  • Cézanne and the Past. Tradition and Creativity, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2012-2013, no. 27, repro.

2015

  • Victor Chocquet: Freund und Sammler der Impressionisten Renoir, Cézanne, Monet, Manet, Sammlung Oskar Reinhart "Am Römerholz", Winterthur, 2015, no. 32.

Bibliography

1936

  • Venturi, Lionello. Cézanne: son art, son oeuvre. 2 vols. Paris, 1936.

1967

  • Chappuis, Adrien. Album de Paul Cézanne (sketchbook facsimile). Paris: Berggruen & Cie, 1967.

1973

  • Chappuis, Adrien. The Drawings of Paul Cezanne. 2 vols. Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, 1973.

1983

  • Rewald, John. Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1983.

Inscriptions

various notations overall

You may be interested in

Loading Results