Bulletin 19, 1972

Home
Français
Introduction
History
Annual Index
Author & Subject
Credits
Contact

Cézanne, Vollard, and Lithography: The Ottawa Maquette for the "Large Bathers" Colour Lithograph

by Douglas W. Druick

Pages  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  

            12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |  17  |  18

Notes

71 Four Americans in Paris: The Collection of Gertrude Stein (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1970), p. 155.

72 Rewald, Paul Cézanne: A Biography, p. 220.

73 Ambroise Vollard, Paul Cézanne (Paris: Galerie A.
Vollard, 1914), p. 71.

74 Ibid., p. 74. Vollard does not specify the rime of year but it was probably between January and June, since in June Cézanne left Aix (cf. Rewald, Paul Cézanne: A Biography, p.220).

75 Vollard, Paul Cézanne, p. 74.

76 Rewald, Paul Cézanne: A Biography, p. 220.

77 Ibid.

78 Melvin Waldfogel, "Caillebotte, Vollard and Cézanne's Baigneurs au repos," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 65 (February 1965), p. 114.

79 In particular, the example of Fantin-Latour strongly suggests that indeed Clot encouraged the artists whose work he printed to involve themselves directly in the medium. Between 1876 and 1895, Fantin had produced 115 lithographs using the transfer method. In 1895 he collaborated with Clot in producing Les brodeuses, a lithograph executed directly on the stone (cat. no. 123 in Germaine Hédiard, Fantin-Latour: catalogue de l'oeuvre lithographique du maître [Paris: Librairie de l'art ancien et moderne, 1906]). In the following year, Fantin prepared three transfer drawings to be printed by Clot (Hédiard, cat. nos 125, 130, 131). The three lithographs by Fantin which Clot printed in the following year (Hédiard, cat. nos 133, 136, 137) were, however, all drawn directly on the stone. That Clot encouraged the artist to work in this unaccustomed manner is confirmed by the fact that none of the twelve lithographs Fantin did between 1895 and 1897 for other printers was drawn on the stone.

80 For example, Bathers Under a Bridge, V.1115, 1895-1900, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

81 This maquette, present whereabouts unknown, is cited by Venturi, op. cit., vol. I, p. 287. Formerly in the collection of Gaston Bernheim de Villiers, it was reproduced in the Album Cézanne (Paris: Bernheimleune, 1914), pl. 50. There is no apparent reason to doubt the authenticity of this work.

82 The maquette was formerly in the collection of Ambroise Vollard. It was reproduced in his book on Cézanne in 1914, op. cit., p. 90. In the index to the reproductions, the work is described as follows: "Portrait de Cézanne, maquette à l'aquarelle pour une litllo en couleurs" (p. 179). I have been unable to locate the present whereabouts of this work.

83 The published information on this work is incomplete and in part, incorrect. While both Venturi and Johnson (op. cit., p. 69) maintain that colour as well as black-and-white impressions of this work exist, I know of no one who has encountered an example of the former. Their existence seems doubtful. The valuation of the Clot estate, made by the Paris firm of Paul Prouté, uncovered no colour impressions amidst an important group of proofs, trial proofs, and supplementary impressions of the Cézanne lithographs which were in the printer's possession (information kindly supplied by M. Hubert Prouté in a conversation in June 1971). The Johnson catalogue describes the edition as having consisted of 100 impressions in black and also in colour. The size of the edition is actually closer to 300 or more impressions, and, while there are no impressions in colour, there are at least 200 impressions printed in grey ink (information kindly supplied by M. A. C. Mazo, Paris, in a conversation in June 1971 ). M. Mazo purchased 200 impressions of the grey printing from Lucien Vollard (brother of the dealer) in the early forties. Comparison reveals that both grey and black impressions were printed from the same stone. It is believed by some collectors that the grey impressions represent the keystone printings for the colour print, over which the colour stones were to have been printed (information kindly supplied by M. Hubert Prouté and M. A. C. Mazo, Paris, in a conversation in June 1971). This would seem to be rather unusual since customarily the dark keystone is printed last; to print colour over black or grey usually produces a muddy effect.

84 Neither I nor the dealers and collectors with whom I have been in contact know of any other such proofs.

85 The application of the watercolour in the Chicago version (fig. 13) is based on either the Ottawa watercolour or the printed versions. The handling of the medium excludes the possibility that Cézanne was the author of the work. The printing of the lithograph indicates that it may have been coloured in Clot's studio. The black impression to which the watercolour was added is incompletely printed. Some of the lines which did not print were crudely drawn in with black crayon (e.g. the left upper arm of the center figure; the upper contour of the head and facial features of the reclining figure). Some areas of shading which did not print were brushed in with India ink (e.g. in the rock on which the bather at right rests his foot). It is hardly likely that an impression in this condition would have come on to the market.

This work entered the collection of the Art Institute as a gift in 1941. The donor, William Eisendrath, had purchased it from the dealer Mr R. G. Michel, Paris, in 1928 (information kindly supplied by the Art Institute of Chicago). The records which would enable the work to be traced back further no longer exist (information kindly supplied by Mr R. G. Michel, Paris, in a conversation in June 1971).

86 It should be noted that in the book of plates which constitutes the second volume of the Venturi catalogue raisonné, the photographs under the numbers V. 1156, 1157, 1158 do not reproduce the lithographs entered in the first volume under the corresponding numbers. Rather Venturi reproduces the hand-coloured proofs which are mentioned in the course of the catalogue entries (that is, figs 5, 7, 12 of present text) for the colour lithographs.

87 The maquette cited by Venturi appears in Fritz Burger, Cézanne und Hodler (Munich: Delphin Verlag, 1920), Vol. II, pl. 

Next Page | Notes 88 to 100

  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  

12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |  17  |  18

Top of this page