by-nc

Armchair (Fauteuil)

Maker

(artist)
1839-1906

Title

Armchair (Fauteuil)

Date of Production

(circa) 1885 - 1890

Medium

graphite, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 32.3 cm
Width: 34.3 cm

Accession Number

D.1978.PG.238

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords




Label Text

In this carefully composed watercolour, Cézanne portrays an aged wooden armchair standing on a typical tiled Provençal floor with a thick quilt resting on the seat. Cézanne took an experimental approach as he chose conflicting viewpoints and showed the chair’s left half frontally, whilst the right is ‘incorrectly’ seen at an oblique angle. The detached leg gives an alternative, corrected view. By drawing attention to the ‘error’ in applying basic rules of linear perspective, Cézanne may have been deliberately – and ironically – rejecting established artistic principles.

Provenance

Ambroise Vollard, Paris (1867-1939) [according to Seilern 1961]; Dr Simon Meller, Budapest, Munich and Paris (1875-1949); purchased from him by Count Antoine Seilern, London (1901-1978), 1937 [according to 1981 catalogue and repeated in publications thereafter, but no evidence for this and no provenance correspondence; and why was it then published in the 1964 catalogue of French paintings in Hungary?]; Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

Impressionism: pastels, watercolours, drawings, Albertina, Vienna, 09/02/2012-13/05/2012

The Courtauld Cézannes, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 26/06/2008-05/10/2008

Cézanne in Britain, National Gallery, London, 04/10/2006-07/01/2007 ...More

Cezanne Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 04/06/2003-31/07/2003

Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Related Drawings from the
Courtauld Collections
, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 11/05/1988-04/09/1988

Mantegna to Cezanne - Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 24/02/1983-19/06/1983

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection A), The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/07/1981-26/01/1982 ...Less

Literature

Christopher Lloyd, Impressionist & Post-Impressionist Drawings, 2019, New York, New York: Thames & Hudson.
ref. on pg. 89
ill. on p. 95

'On Margins and Versos: The Hidden Interrelationships Among Cezanne's Works on Paper' in 'Cézanne: Metamorphoses', Munich, Karlsruhe and Krugzell, Germany; New York, 2017, pp. 84-99
fig. 3 on p. 321

Christopher Lloyd, 'Paul Cézanne: Drawings and Watercolours', London 2015
p. 270
fig. 195 on p. 278 ...More

Impressionism on Paper - Drawings from Manet to Van Gogh, Albertina, Vienna, 2012
cat. no. 18
pl. 18

Prat, Louis-Antoine, Le dessin français au XIXe siècle, Paris 2011
p. 613, no. 1465
ill.
dated c. 1885-90

The Courtauld Cézannes, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2008
cat. no. 15
fig. 67 on p. 126 (IRR)
dated c. 1885-90

Cézanne in Britain, National Gallery, London, 2006-07
cat. no. 24
ill.

Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Related Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1988
cat. no. 8
dated 1885-90

Mantegna to Cezanne: Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 1983
cat. no. 97
ill. on p.104

John Rewald, 'Paul Cézanne: The Watercolours', London 1983
no. 191
ill.

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection A), Courtauld Gallery, London, 1981-1982
cat. no. 132
ill. on p. 94 and colour pl. XXIV

Sailer, Anton, Das private Kunstkabinett: Klassik und Moderne, Kontraste und Vergleiche, Munich 1967
p. 164
ill.

Genthon, István, From Romanticism to Post-Impressonism: French paintings in Hungary, Budapest 1964
pl. 33

Seilern, Count Antoine, Paintings and drawings of Continental Schools other than Flemish and Italian at 56 Princes Gate, London SW7, London 1961; III
no. 238
pl. LXIII
dated c. 1885-90

Novotny, Fritz, Cézanne, Vienna 1937 (1st ed.), 1948 (2nd ed.)
no. 101 (1937), no. 106 (1948)
pl. 101 (1937) and pl. 106 (1948)
dated c. 1885-90

Nicodemi, Giorgio, Cézanne: 76 disegni, Milan 1944
no. 46
ill.

Venturi, Lionello, Cézanne: son art, son oeuvre. 2 vols., Paris 1936
no. 851
ill.
dated c. 1885 (revised 1880-81)

Feilchenfeldt, Walter, Jayne Warman and David Nash, The paintings, watercolours and drawings of Paul Cezanne. An online catalogue raisonné, https://www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/index.php
FWN 1935
ill.
dated 1885-90 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Verso, right centre, monogram: "AGM" [see Notes].

Inscription: Recto: lower left, graphite, faint: "3".

Collector's mark: none.

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