Past Exhibition

Cézanne

A light-skinned man with thick black hair and a squared off black beard, dressed in a black jacket over a gray vest and gray trousers, sits facing us in this vertical portrait painting. This work is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes so some details are difficult to make out. The man's body faces us but he looks down and to our left. The tip of his nose almost matches the coral red of his lips. Two pale peach patches below his mouth break up his beard on his pointed chin. His hands, closed into fists, rest on his thighs, which are cropped by the bottom of the canvas. He wears several layers of clothing. The open black jacket reveals a charcoal-gray vest with a V-shaped opening over another black garment, perhaps an undervest. This is worn over a white shirt, which is visible as bright traingles at this throat and white cuffs at his wrists. The white shirt seems to be tied with a black tie and possibly a gray cravat, but this area is broadly painted. The background is painted with gray strokes over black. The artist signed the painting in black paint in the lower right corner, though it is barely visible: “P. Cezanne.”
Paul Cezanne, Antony Valabrègue, 1866, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1970.35.1

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 73 through 77, 83
A light-skinned man with thick black hair and a squared off black beard, dressed in a black jacket over a gray vest and gray trousers, sits facing us in this vertical portrait painting. This work is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes so some details are difficult to make out. The man's body faces us but he looks down and to our left. The tip of his nose almost matches the coral red of his lips. Two pale peach patches below his mouth break up his beard on his pointed chin. His hands, closed into fists, rest on his thighs, which are cropped by the bottom of the canvas. He wears several layers of clothing. The open black jacket reveals a charcoal-gray vest with a V-shaped opening over another black garment, perhaps an undervest. This is worn over a white shirt, which is visible as bright traingles at this throat and white cuffs at his wrists. The white shirt seems to be tied with a black tie and possibly a gray cravat, but this area is broadly painted. The background is painted with gray strokes over black. The artist signed the painting in black paint in the lower right corner, though it is barely visible: “P. Cezanne.”
Paul Cezanne, Antony Valabrègue, 1866, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1970.35.1

Overview: 54 paintings, 11 drawings, and 3 watercolors, produced by Paul Cézanne during his formative years, were selected from public and private collections in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the USSR, and the United States.

Organization: Sir Lawrence Gowing, curatorial chairman of the Phillips Collection, organized the exhibition. Charles S. Moffett, senior curator and curator of modern painting at the Gallery, was the coordinator at the National Gallery. Gaillard Ravenel and Mark Leithauser designed the exhibition, and Gordon Anson designed the lighting.

Sponsor: Gerald D. Hines Interests supported the exhibition. Additional support was provided by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Attendance: 282,143

Catalog: Cézanne: The Early Years 1859-1872, by Lawrence Gowing et al. Edited by MaryAnne Stevens. London: Royal Academy of Arts in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1988.

Other Venues:

  • Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, 06/09/2006–09/17/2006
  • Royal Academy of Arts, London, 04/22/1988–08/21/1988
  • Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 09/09/1988–01/01/1989

You may also like

Exhibition:  Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985

Exhibition:  The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art