Bulletin 19, 1972

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

by Douglas W. Druick

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Notes

88 Both works were in the possession of Vollard until his death in 1939. The Ottawa version entered the National Gallery of Canada in May 1940, along with many other works from the dealer's collection. There it was housed for thirty years until its purchase by the Gallery in 1970. The dimensions of the sheet on which the lithograph is printed are slightly larger than in the case of the sheets of the regular edition; the paper (Canson Frères or Fils -"Ingres" variety) is also of different manufacture from that used, seemingly exclusively, in the regular edition (MBM Arches -"Ingres" variety). This indicates that the impression may have been pulled specifically in order to be used in the preparation of a maquette. Pin-pricks in the corners of the sheet indicate that the work was pinned to a board by the printer in order to serve as a convenient reference.

The version in the collection of Mrs Steinberg passed from the Vollard estate into the hands of Édouard Jonas, who was involved in the settlement of the estate. The dealer M. Marcel Guiot purchased the work from Mr Jonas, but the latter re-acquired it from M. Guiot in 1953 and sold it to Mrs Steinberg in 1954. (I am indebted to the following persons for having provided me with the information which allowed me to establish the provenance of this work: M. Marcel Guiot, Paris, letter dated 27 January 1971; M. Marcel Lecomte, Paris, letter dated 25 March 1971; Mr Mark Weil, St. Louis, letter dated 25 January 1971; M. A. C. Mazo, Paris, in a conversation, June 1971.) The margins of this work were trimmed during framing and the paper is glued down. It is, therefore, impossible to discover the original size and condition of the sheet, as well as the manufacture of the paper, and thereby to make comparisons with the Ottawa maquette.

89 The Baigneurs et baigneuses (V .110, c. 1895) and the Study for « Les baigneuses, » c. 1895 (fig. 16) are good examples for comparison with the Ottawa and Steinberg maquettes. In each, the overall effect is achieved through the orchestration of purplish-blue, blue, greenish-yellow, yellowish-green, and bluish-green. Comparison of the watercolours with the Ottawa maquette reveals noticeable similarities in the details of colour application: the pale red which appears in the cheeks of the bathers in V. 1110 and in the Study also appears in the face of the centre bather in the Ottawa maquette. The comparable figures of the bather, far left, of the Ottawa version (fig. 2), and the bather at left in the Study (fig. 16), have both been given a touch of pink in the left heel. Furthermore, in both works pale-red washes are similarly applied over areas of blue and green. The use of ochres is comparable in V. III0 and in the Ottawa maquette.

90 Roger-Marx, Les lithographies de Renoir, under catalogue entry no. 5. The colour print is reproduced opposite catalogue entry no. 5b.

91 An example of this state, referred to by collectors as the demi colorée, is in the Brooklyn Museum, inv. no. 41.1091.

92 This maquette, which I have seen, was purchased by M. Mazo from Clot's son (information kindly supplied by M. A. C. Mazo, Paris, in a conversation in June 1971).

93 Information kindly supplied by M. A. C. Mazo, Paris, in a conversation in June 1971.

94 Information kindly made available by M. Hubert Prouté, Paris. While Johnson indicates that the "Tirages à cent exemplaires no...," was written in manuscript (op. cit., p. 69), both the inscription and the signature beneath it are, in fact, in the stone. Only the numerals which seldom accompany the inscription were added by hand - a hand probably not Cézanne's.

95 Vollard's inclination to utilize all possible marketable resources is underscored by the fact that in the early 1900s the dealer purchased some pastels from Mary Cassatt from which he then had Clot execute counterproofs. CL Adelyn 

96 Cf. Jean Goriany, op. cit., p. 123. Between the two states, Goriany notes only "various slight modifications in the colour  painting:." Comparison of examples of both states (collection of Paul and Hubert Prouté, Paris) revealed differences in the forms of the colour areas. Particularly noticeable in the foliage of the tree at left and in the hillock on which the figure, left, sits, these differences can be discerned in the reproductions included in Goriany's article (p. 124).

97 The demi colorée state follows the Mazo maquette with considerable fidelity. Similarly, as will be noted, the Large Bathers colour lithograph follows the Ottawa maquette in almost every detail.

98 Information kindly supplied by M. A. C. Mazo, Paris, in a conversation in June 1971.

99 In the catalogue entry for the Large Bathers, Johnson (op. cit., p. 68) records "Signature: 'P. Cézanne' lower right margin." Furthermore, she notes that there exist "several trial proofs before the signature on the stone." It is unclear whether this is a reference to the black (that is, keystone) impressions or the impressions in colour. In fact, the signature "P. Cézanne" in the lower right corner of the image is in the keystone and appears in all impressions that I know of. The trial proofs of the first state do, however, lack the printed inscription and the second signature ("P. Cézanne") in the lower right margin of the sheet (cf., for example, the colour impression, Museum of Modern Art, New York,
no. 4.34).

100 Many of the colour forms are precisely retained only in the state represented by the Metropolitan's impression (see for example, fig. 15, diagram areas nos 3, 6, 9). In the preparation of the colour stones for the second state, the tracings were not as scrupulously executed. Colour forms are more generalized (fig. 17). This is particularly evident in the ground plane. For details which are altered only in the second state, see, for example, diagram are as nos 2, 11, 13. Closer conformity to the maquette is, however, evident in diagram area no. 1 of the second state. Furthermore, absence of colour in diagram area no. 13 marks a return to the maquette.

Next Page | Notes 101 to 113

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