The Bend in the Road

1900/1906

Paul Cezanne

Artist, French, 1839 - 1906

A road or path curves away from us, past a tall formation, perhaps rocks, to our left, and into a valley filled with trees and a low hill beyond in this stylized, vertical landscape. The painting is created almost entirely with patches of vibrant colors mostly in burnt orange, peach, salmon pink, cobalt and sky blue, and lime and spring green. Most of the patches are applied with visible vertical strokes. Areas of unpainted canvas create white patches, especially on and around the path in front of us. The tall formation to our left is painted mostly in oranges and pinks. The trees in the valley are painted entirely with blues and greens, and the low hill enclosing the scene in the distance comes about three-quarters of the way up the canvas. The sky above is blocked in with pale aquamarine blue and a few touches of shell pink along the horizon.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 84

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 82.1 x 66 cm (32 5/16 x 26 in.)
    framed: 106 x 90.1 x 8.8 cm (41 3/4 x 35 1/2 x 3 7/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1985.64.8

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Ambroise Vollard [1867-1939], Paris); sold to (Etienne Bignou, Paris and New York).[1] (Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles). Aline Barnsdall [1882-1946], Los Angeles, by 1941.[2] Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bareiss, Greenwich, CT, by 1956, until at least 1965.[3] (Eugene Victor Thaw and Co., New York); sold April 1973 to Mr. Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, VA; gift 1985 to NGA.
[1]Exhibited at the Bignou Gallery in New York in 1940.
[2]Lent by Barnsdall to 1941 exhibition in Los Angeles, in the catalogue of which Hatfield is listed as a prior owner. The picture was not included in the 24 April 1952 sale of Barnsdall's estate held at Kende Galleries, New York.
[3]Lent by Bareiss to exhibitions at Yale in 1956, New York in 1958, and Munich in 1965.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1940

  • Bignou Gallery, New York, 1940, no. 8

1941

  • Aspects of French Painting from Cezanne to Picasso, Los Angeles County Museum, 1941, no. 12, as Turning Road, St. Anthonin.

1956

  • Pictures Collected by Yale Alumni, Yale University Art Gallery,New Haven, 1956, no. 112, repro.

1958

  • 50 Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bareiss, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958, no. 11, repro.

1965

  • Sammlung Walter Bareiss, Neue Staatsgalerie München, 1965, no. 999, repro.

1977

  • Cezanne: The Late Work, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1977, no. 44, repro.

1986

  • Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist

1999

  • An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, no cat.

2014

  • Cézanne Site/Non-Site, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2014, no. 14, repro.

Bibliography

1996

  • Rewald, John. The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: a catalogue raisonné. 2 vols. New York, 1996:no. 930, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20190674

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