Madame Cézanne

1886 - 1887

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

Paul Cézanne painted over two dozen portraits of his wife, Hortense Fiquet, whom he first met as a nineteen-year-old model in 1869. She eventually became Cézanne’s most frequent portrait subject, enduring a famously difficult process of posing for the artist, which took numerous sittings and required absolute stillness for many hours.

In this portrait, Hortense is recognizable, but her features are significantly altered by an exaggerated hooked nose, tightly pursed lips, and receding chin. Her hair, austerely pulled up and parted in the center, follows closely the rounded outline of her head, framing a narrow forehead. The truncated sleeves of the dress cover Hortense’s disproportionally shortened arms. The impression that her body is strangely contracted is amplified by her surroundings: the towering mass of a thick drapery behind her on the left and the tear-drop motif wallpaper to the right. Hortense and the background are composed of layers of pigments as well as areas that appear unresolved. The driving force behind the portrait appears to be the construction of the image through form and color, following, in Cézanne’s words, “a new and original logic.” Yet, the sitter’s apparent emotional withdrawal also conveys a sense of psychological tension.

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. ----------

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

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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, please visit:

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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.

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Published References

Salon d'Automne. Exh. cat., 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, Pennsylvania, 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. Exh. cat., Bignou Gallery. New York, 1935, cat. 2, (repr.).

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

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

Watson, F. "The Innocent Bystander." American Magazine of Art 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 36, no. 26 (March 1938): p. 138, (repr.).

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

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

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, pp. 2 (ill.), 9, 15, 27.

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

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

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

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

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

Art News 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 exhibition].

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

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

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

100 Masterworks from The Detroit Institute of Arts. 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., Kunsthalle Tübingen. Tübingen, 1993, cat. 39 (repr.). Reprint, Adriani, G., ed. Cézanne Paintings. Cologne, 1993, pp. 140-142, cat. 39, (repr.) [in English].

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

Rewald, J., 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. Exh. cat., Fondation Beyeler. Basel, 1999-2000, pp. 22, 74, cat. 15, (repr.).

Cézanne Finished Unfinished. Exh. cat., Kustforum and Kunsthaus. Vienna and Zurich, 2000, pp. 170-171, cat. 21, (repr.) [dates 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.), 121, cat. 40 [dated ca. 1888].

Cézanne and Beyond. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2009, pp. 130, 176, 398, (pls. 36, 135) [dated, ca. 1886].

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

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

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