Paul Cézanne: Madame Cézanne
This exhibition (19.11.2014 - 15.03.2015) of
paintings, drawings, and watercolors by
traces
his lifelong attachment to Hortense Fiquet (French, 1850–1922), his wife, the
mother of his only son, and his most painted model. Featuring twenty-four of the
artist's twenty-nine known portraits of Hortense, including Madame Cézanne in the
Conservatory (1891) and Madame Cézanne in a
Red Dress (1888–90), both from the Metropolitan
Museum's collection, the exhibition explores the profound impact she had on
Cézanne's portrait practice.
The works on view were painted
over a period of more than twenty years, but despite this long liaison,
Hortense Fiquet's prevailing presence is often disregarded and frequently
diminished in the narrative of Cézanne's life and work. Her expression in the
painted portraits has been variously described as remote, inscrutable,
dismissive, and even surly. And yet the portraits are at once alluring and
confounding, recording a complex working dialogue that this unprecedented
exhibition and accompanying publication explore on many levels.
The depictions of
Hortense in oil, watercolor, and graphite provide the only material clues to
her partnership with Cézanne, which began in Paris in 1869, while she was
working as a bookbinder. Although the circumstances of their first encounter
are unknown, an early portrait from 1872 (now lost) suggests that she was
modeling for Cézanne by the age of twenty-two. Cézanne took great pains to
conceal his mistress and their only child, Paul, from his family, fearing his
authoritative father's disapproval. This complicated subterfuge led to separate
residences, frequent and often desperate appeals for funds, and long periods of
living apart, even after their marriage in 1886. Despite this seeming neglect,
the portraits attest to the constancy of a relationship that was critical to
the artist's practice and development. Their story is a compelling one indeed,
perhaps all the more so for the absence of its particulars.
Highlights of the
painted portraits in the exhibition include Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair (ca. 1877) from the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston; Madame
Cézanne (ca. 1885)
from the Nationalgalerie, Museum Berggruen in Berlin; Portrait of Madame Cézanne (ca. 1885–87) from the Philadelphia
Museum of Art; Madame
Cézanne in a Striped Dress (1883–85)
from Japan's Yokohama Museum of Art; Madame
Cézanne in Blue (ca.
1888–90) from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the aforementioned canvases
from the Metropolitan Museum's collection. Highlights of the works on paper
include three striking watercolors, fourteen drawings, and three rare
sketchbooks containing affectionate studies of Hortense and young Paul. (Text: Metropolitan Museum of Art)