The Three Skulls

ca. 1898

Paul Cézanne French, 1839-1906

On View

Modern, Level 2, Central Wing

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Markings

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

Title The Three Skulls

Artwork Date ca. 1898

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: 13 3/4 × 24 in. (34.9 × 61 cm) Framed: 20 × 30 × 2 7/8 inches (50.8 × 76.2 × 7.3 cm)

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. 70.163

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

(Ambroise Vollard [1866-1939], Paris, France)

1935, (Galerie E. Bignou, New York, New York, USA)

1938-1940, sold by (Angus Whyte Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA)

1940, puchased by Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1969] (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA) [for $12,500]

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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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Published References

Paul Cézanne. Exh. cat., Bignou Gallery. New York, 1936, cat. 26 (ill.).

Venturi, L. Cézanne. Paris, 1936, vol. 1, p. 338, no. 1567; vol. 2, pl. 396.

Venturi, L. "Sûr les dernières années de Cézanne." Minotaure, no. 9 (1936): (fig. 1).

Bourgeois, S. "A Vivid Panorama of Cézanne." Art News (November 7, 1936): pp. 8-10, 22 (ill.).

Magazine of Art. December 1936, p. 826 (ill.).

"A Cezanne Exhibition." Burlington Magazine (1937): pp. 44-45 (ill.).

Vollard, A. Paul Cézanne: His Life and Art. New York, 1937, pl. 8.

Cézanne. Exh. cat., Gallery Alex Reid and Lefevre. London, 1937, no. 24.

Twentieth Century French Masters. Exh. cat., Whyte Gallery. Washington, D.C., 1938, cat. 2 (ill.).

Robinson, F. "Two Works by Paul Cézanne." Bulletin of the DIA 20, no. 4 (1941): pp. 31-32.

Laporte, P. "Cézanne and Whitman." Magazine of Art 37, no. 6 (October 1944): p. 224 (ill.).

Grigaut, P.L. Two Sides of the Metal. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1954, pp. 54, 56, cat. 103 (ill.).

Cézanne Watercolors. Exh. cat., Knoedler Galleries. New York, 1963, p. 53.

The Robert Hudson Tannahill Bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1970, pp. 9, 15, 27, 37 (ill.).

Cummings, F. "Tannahill Taste." Art News 69 (May 1970): p. 33 (ill.).

Cummings, F. and C. Elam, eds. Illustrated Handbook of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1971, p. 161.

Reff, T. "Painting and Theory in the Final Decade." Cézanne: The Late Work. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Fine Arts. New York and Houston 1977, pp. 13-53, pp. 32-33, pl. 153. [as ca. 1902.]

Shiff. R. "Seeing Cézanne." Critical Inquiry 4 (Summer 1978): (fig. 6), pp. 769-808, pp. 782, 784, 795, 805-06.

Irving Penn Recent Still Life. Exh. cat., Marlborough Gallery, Inc. New York, 1982, p. 4 (ill.).

Reff, T. "Cézanne: The Severed Head and the Skull." Arts Magazine 58, no. 2 (October 1983): p. 99 (fig. 18).

Shiff, R. Cézanne and the End of Impressionism. Chicago and London, 1984, pp. 191-193; 212-213, (figs. 42, 52).

100 Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, p. 17 (fig. 10).

Rewald, J. Cézanne, a Biography. New York, 1986, p. 264.

Kendall, R., ed. Cézanne by Himself. London, 1988, p. 250 (ill.).

Darragon, É. Cézanne. Paris, 1995 no. 93, pp 83-85 (ill.).

Cézanne. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Tate Gallery, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. Paris, London, and Philadelphia, 1995, pp. 491, 493 (fig. 1), cat. nos. 212-217. [as ca. 1898-1900].

Rewald, J., W. Feilchenfeldt, and J. Warman. The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné. New York, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 492-493, no. 821; vol. 2, p. 286 (ill.). [as ca. 1898-1900.]

Cézanne and Japan. Exh. cat., Yokohama Museum of Art and Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art. Yokohama and Nagoya, 1999, pp. 138-139, cat. 90 (ill.).

Fell, D. Cézanne's Garden. New York, 2003, p. 88 (ill.).

Picasso et les maîtres. Exh. cat., Grand Palais. Paris, 2008, p. 279 (ill.).

Borchardt-Hume, Achim, Gloria Groom, Caitlin Haskell, and Natalia Sidlina, eds. Cezanne. Exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago and the Tate. New Haven and London, 2022, p. 212 (ill. cat. no. 142).

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