Madame Cézanne

1886 - 1887

Paul Cézanne French, 1839-1906

On View

Modern, Level 2, Central Wing

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Exhibition History

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

Cézanne painted more than two dozen portraits of his wife, Hortense, whom he first met in 1869 as a nineteen-year-old model. Madame Cézanne's emotionless features, severely parted hair, folded hands, plain dress, and conventional attitude make her appear almost lifeless in this picture. Cézanne was not interested in expressing the likeness or personality of his wife, but in conveying his own artistic personality through his original painting technique.

Title Madame Cézanne

Artwork Date 1886 - 1887

Artist Paul Cézanne

Life Dates 1839-1906

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 39 5/8 × 32 inches (100.6 × 81.3 cm) Framed: 49 1/4 × 41 3/4 × 3 inches, 46 pounds (125.1 × 106 × 7.6 cm, 20.9 kg)

Classification Paintings

Department European Modern Art to 1970

Credit Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 70.160

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

(Ambroise Vollard, Paris, France)

collection of Auguste Pellerin (Paris, France)

collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes (Merion, Pennsylvania, USA)

(Étienne Bignou, Paris, France)

(Knoedler & Co., New York, New York, USA)

collection of Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1969] (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

1970-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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Published References

Salon d'Automne. Petit Palais. Paris, 1904, cat. 3.

Pène du Bois, G. "A Modern American Collection," Arts and Decoration (June 1914): p. 305, (repr.).

Vollard, A. Paul Cézanne. Paris, 1914, pl. 45.

Barnes, A. "How to Judge a Painting," Arts and Decoration (1915): p. 219, (repr.).

Barnes, A. Arts and Decoration (November 1920): (repr.).

Mullen, M. An Approach to Art. Merion, PA, 1923, p. 37.

Watson, F. "The Barnes Foundation," The Arts (January 1923): p. 12, (repr.).

Riviere, G. Le Maître de Paul Cézanne. Paris, 1923, p. 229.

Barnes, A. "Cézanne," Journal of the Barnes Foundation (October 1925): pp. 11-19, (repr.).

Zervos, C. "Idéalisme et Naturalisme dans la Peinture Moderne, II. Cézanne, Gauguin van Gogh," Cahiers d'Art, vol. 10 (1927): pp. 329-346.

A Nineteenth Century Selection of French Paintings. Bignou Gallery. New York, March 1935, cat. 2, (repr.).

"The Bignou Opening," Magazine of Art, vol. 28 (April 1935): p. 244, (repr.).

Iavorskaia, N. Paul Cézanne. Milan, 1935, pl. 25.

Watson, F. "The Innocent Bystander," American Magazine of Art, vol. 28, no. 4 (April 1935): pp. 244-245, (repr.).

Venturi, L. Cézanne. Paris, 1936, vol. 1, p. 178, no. 528; vol. 2, pl. 164.

Goldwater, R. "Cezanne in America," Art News Annual, vol. 36, no. 26 (March 1938): p. 138, (repr.).

Barnes, A. & V. de Mazia. The Art of Cézanne. New York, 1939, pp. 79-81, p. 414, no. 113.

Zervos, C. Histoire de l'Art Contemporain. Paris, 1938, p. 30, (repr.).

Wilenski, H. Modern French Painters. New York, 1960, p. 378.

The Robert Hudson Tannahill Bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, 1970, p. 2 (ill.), 9, 15, 27.

Cummings, F. "Tannahill Taste," Art News, vol. 69 (May 1970): p. 32, (repr.).

Young, M.S. "The Delights of Collecting," Apollo, vol. 92, no. 101 (July 1970): p. 64.

Cummings, F. & C. Elam, ed. The Detroit Institute of Arts Illustrated Handbook. 1971, p. 160.

Leningrad. Exhibition of Pictures from Museums of the United States of America. cat., The Hermitage. Russia, 1976, p. 11, (repr.) [catalogue in Russian].

Chefs d'Oeuvre des Musées des États-Unis: de Giorgione à Picasso. Musée Marmottan. Paris, 1976, cat. 27, (repr.).

Art News, vol. 76 (November 1977): p. 82, (repr.).

Reff, T. "Painting and Theory in the Final Decade." In Cézanne, The Late Work. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Grand Palais. New York, 1977-1978, pp. 13-53, pp. 18, 19, (repr.) [not in exh. -- notes that DIA painting appears as part of background of The Smoker-Venturi 688 in the Hermitage].

Shiff, R. "Seeing Cézanne," Critical Inquiry 4 (Summer 1978): (fig. 7), pp. 785, 805.

Reff, T. "The Pictures within Cézanne's Pictures," Arts Magazine, vol. 53, no. 10 (June 1979): p. 99, (fig. 27), [cf fig. 26].

Shiff, R. Cézanne and the End of Impressionism. Chicago & London, 1984, pp. 193, 212, (fig. 41, 51).

100 Masterworks from The Detroit Institute of Arts. DIA. New York: 1985, pp. 122-123, (repr.).

Kendall, R., ed. Cézanne by Himself: Drawings, Paintings, Writings. London, 1988, p. 93, (repr.).

Rewald, J. "Cézanne and America, Dealers, Collectors, Artists and Critics, 1891-1921." In Bollingen Series XXXV, 28. New Haven, 1989, p. 263.

Masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki. Tokyo, 1989/1990, pp. 173, 220, cat. 60, (repr.).

Paul Cézanne. Exh. cat., Tübingen, Kunsthalle. 1993, cat. 39 (repr.). Reprint in English, Adriani, G., ed. Cézanne Paintings. Cologne, 1993, pp. 140-142, cat. 39, (repr.). [exh. organized by G. Adriani].

Message 1995. Exh. cat., DIA and Toyota Municipal Museum of Art. Toyota, Japan, 1995-1996, pp. 64, 204, cat. 17, (repr.).

Rewald, J., with W. Feilchenfeldt and J. Warman. The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné. New York, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 40, 403-404, no. 607, pl. 24; vol. 2, p. 203, (repr.) [as ca. 1888].

Cézanne und de Moderne. Fondation Beyeler. Basel, 1999-2000, pp. 22, 74, cat. 15, (repr.).

Cézanne Finished Unfinished. Kustforum and Kunsthaus. Vienna and Zurich, 2000, pp. 170-171, cat. 21, (repr.) [dates our painting to ca. 1888].

The Mirror and the Mask: Portraiture in the Age of Picasso. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Kimbell Art Museum. Madrid and Fort Worth, 2007, pp. 112, 120, (repr.) p.121, cat. 40 [dated ca. 1888].

Cézanne and beyond. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2009, pp. 130, 176, 398, pl. 36, 135 [dated, ca. 1886].

Madame Cezanne. Exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2014, p. 74, pl. 17 (ill.).

Cézanne Portraits. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery. London, 2017, no. 13.3, pp. 130-131 (ill.).

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