For this commanding still life, with its richly orchestrated play of overlapping shapes, patterns, colors, and textures, Cézanne relied on a stock of familiar objects. The raffia-corded ginger jar, for example, is featured in more than a dozen compositions, including three of comparable verve dating to the early 1890s.
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, ca. 1899–1906, stock book A, no. 3559; bought from the artist for Fr 400; sold on May 4, 1906 for Fr 15,000 through Mary Cassatt to Havemeyer; deposited by Cassatt with Durand-Ruel on May 7 then shipped on May 11 to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1906–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929; cat., 1931, p. 329); her son, Horace Havemeyer, New York (1929–48; consigned September 20, 1948 to Knoedler, no. CA-3141; sold in November to Clark); Stephen C. Clark, New York (1948–d. 1960)
New York. Durand-Ruel. "Loan Exhibition of French Masterpieces of the Late XIX Century," March 20–April 10, 1928, no. 4 (as "Nature morte," lent anonymously).
New York. Century Association. "Trends in European Painting, 1880–1930," February 2–March 31, 1949, no. 6 (as "Still Life," lent by Stephen C. Clark, New York).
New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "A Collectors Taste: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Clark," January 12–30, 1954, no. 13 (as "Nature morte").
Art Institute of Chicago. "Great French Paintings: An Exhibition in Memory of Chauncey McCormick," January 20–February 20, 1955, no. 4 (as "Still Life," lent by Mr. Stephen C. Clark, New York).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Paintings from Private Collections," May 31–September 5, 1955, no. 20 (as "Still Life," lent by Stephen C. Clark).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 1–September 1, 1958, no. 18 (as "Still Life," lent by Stephen C. Clark).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 7–September 7, 1959, no. 11 (as "Still Life," lent by Stephen C. Clark).
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture Collected by Yale Alumni," May 19–June 26, 1960, no. 78 (as "Still Life," lent by Stephen C. Clark).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 6–September 4, 1960, no. 11 (as "Still Life," lent by Stephen C. Clark).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Paintings from the Bequest of Stephen Clark," October 17, 1961–January 7, 1962, no catalogue [not mentioned in press release but probably included in exhibition].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 72 (as "Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants").
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 72.
Kunsthalle Tübingen. "Cezanne: Gemälde," January 16–May 2, 1993, no. 59.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life," May 25–August 26, 1997, unnumbered cat. (pl. 1).
London. Hayward Gallery. "Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life," October 9, 1997–January 4, 1998, unnumbered cat. (pl. 1).
Washington. Phillips Collection. "Impressionist Still Life," September 22, 2001–January 13, 2002, unnumbered cat. (pl. 83).
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Impressionist Still Life," February 17–June 9, 2002, unnumbered cat. (pl. 83).
Williamstown. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. "The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings," June 4–September 4, 2006, no. 54.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 75.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings: The Clark Brothers Collect," May 22–August 19, 2007, no. 54.
Lisbon. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. "A Perspectiva das Coisas – A Natureza-Morta na Europa, Segunda parte: Séculos XIX-XX (1840–1955)," October 21, 2011–January 8, 2012, no. 1.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Making The Met, 1870–2020," August 29, 2020–January 3, 2021, unnumbered cat. (fig. 158).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Cezanne," May 15–September 5, 2022, no. 63.
London. Tate Modern. "The EY Exhibition: Cezanne," October 5, 2022–March 12, 2023, no. 63.
"French Masters Shown at Durand-Ruel's." Art News 26 (March 24, 1928), p. 8, ill.
H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, p. 329.
Lionello Venturi. Cézanne: son art—son oeuvre. Paris, 1936, vol. 1, pp. 57, 194, no. 597; vol. 2, pl. 193, no. 597, calls it "Nature morte" and dates it 1890–94.
Robert J. Goldwater. "Cézanne in America: The Master's Paintings in American Collections." Art News Annual, section I (The 1938 Annual), 36 (March 26, 1938), p. 160, ill. p. 140.
R. E. Turpin. "Cézanne Still Dominates the Era He Launched." New York Times Magazine (January 15, 1939), ill. p. 7, erroneously locates it in the Durand-Ruel Collection.
B. K. "Reviews and Previews: Trends in Modern Painting." Art News 47 (February 1949), p. 44, ill., erroneously claims that this picture has never before been exhibited publicly.
Introduction by Alfred H. Barr Jr. "Paintings from Private Collections." Museum of Modern Art Bulletin 22 (Summer 1955), pp. 11, 30, no. 20, ill. (installation photo).
"Ninety-first Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1960–1961." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 20 (October 1961), pp. 42, 64, ill., calls it "Still Life with Ginger Jar and Eggplants" and dates it about 1890–94.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 111–12, ill., note that most of the objects in this picture also appear together in "Still Life with Apples" (1893–94; Getty Center, Los Angeles; V598, R770) and separately in several other paintings.
Sandra Orienti inL'opera completa di Cézanne. [French ed., 1975; English ed., 1985]. Milan, 1970, pp. 122–23, no. 793, ill., dates it 1890–94.
John Rewald. Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné. Boston, 1983, pp. 134, 230, under nos. 204 and 563, notes that a similar green Provençal jar appears in the watercolor "Poterie marseillaise" (1880–85; present location unknown; V852) and the rum bottle in another watercolor (1900–1906; private collection, Chicago; V1541).
Götz Adriani. Cézanne Watercolors. Exh. cat.New York, 1983, p. 280, under no. 88.
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 11, 196–97, 254, ill. (color, overall and detail), notes that Cézanne's still lifes from the early 1890s, such as this one, have "more elaborate" compositions; comments that the ginger jar appears in three other paintings from 1890–94.
John Rewald. Cézanne: A Biography. New York, 1986, p. 277, ill. p. 210 (color).
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 142, 178, pl. 107, states that the Havemeyers may have acquired this picture from Vollard [see Rabinow and Warman 2006].
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, pp. 9, 50–51, colorpl. 31, date it about 1890.
Richard Kendall, ed. Cézanne by Himself: Drawings, Paintings, Writings. London, 1988, pp. 188, 315, ill. (color), dates it about 1890–94.
Sidney Geist. Interpreting Cézanne. Cambridge, Mass., 1988, pp. 23–24, 278, pls. 25–26 (overall and detail).
John Rewald with the research assistance of Frances Weitzenhoffer. Cézanne and America: Dealers, Collectors, Artists and Critics, 1891–1921. The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Princeton, 1989, p. 128 n. 44.
Steven Henry Madoff. "Looking at Art, Paul Cézanne: Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants." Arts News 89 (May 1990), pp. 125–26, ill. (color, overall and detail), dates it 1890.
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 230, 246, colorpl. 243, identifies this painting or "Still Life with Jar, Cup, and Apples" (MMA 29.100.66) as the picture called "Fruits" which was bought by the Havemeyers through Cassatt during a trip to Europe in April 1907, deposited with Durand-Ruel on May 7, and shipped to the Havemeyers in New York on May 11 [see Ref. Rabinow and Warman 2006, who date the trip to April 1906, and identify this picture as the one bought during this trip].
Götz Adriani. Cézanne: Gemälde. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Tübingen. Cologne, 1993, pp. 172, 176, 184, 186–88, 210, 242, no. 59, ill. (color) [English ed., 1995], calls it almost Baroque in feeling "because of its wealth of invention, diversity of objects, and distinct color"; asserts that several paintings depict the same blue rug, objects, and background wall with wainscoting, suggesting that the setting is Cézanne's studio at the Jas de Bouffan.
Jean-Marie Baron and Pascal Bonafoux. Cézanne: Les natures mortes. Paris, 1993, pp. 36–37, ill. (color), dates it 1890–94.
Gary Tinterow inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 47.
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 302–4, no. A78, ill.
Maria Teresa Benedetti. Cézanne. [Italian ed., 1995]. Paris, 1995, p. 210, ill. (color), dates it 1890–94.
Evmarie Schmitt. Cézanne in Provence. [German ed., 1995]. Munich, 1995, pp. 57, 115, ill. (color), dates it 1893–94.
Philippe Dagen. Cézanne. Paris, 1995, p. 107, ill. p. 82 (color), dates it 1890.
Stéphane Melchior-Durand. L'ABCdaire de Cézanne. Paris, 1995, p. 98.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 468, ill.
Walter Feilchenfeldt inCézanne. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Philadelphia, 1996, pp. 573–74 [French ed., Paris, 1995, p. 573].
John Rewald, in collaboration with Walter Feilchenfeldt, and Jayne Warman. The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné. New York, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 466–67, 571, no. 769; vol. 2, p. 264, fig. 769, calls it "Nature morte aux aubergines" and dates it 1893–94.
Isabelle Cahn inCézanne. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Philadelphia, 1996, p. 387 n. 3 [French ed., Paris, 1995].
Margit Rowell. Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1997, p. 220, colorpl. 1, dates it 1890–94.
Mario Naves. "Masterpieces & Mishmash: 'Objects of Desire' at MOMA." New Criterion 16 (September 1997), p. 46.
Elaine Levin. "Ceramic Still Life, The Common Object." Ceramics: Art and Perception no. 32 (1998), p. 56, states that the ceramicist Karen Koblitz was inspired by this painting in her "Still Life with Red Saucer" (1984).
John McCoubrey in Eliza E. Rathbone George T. M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New York, 2001, p. 40.
George T. M. Shackelford in Eliza E. Rathbone and George T. M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New York, 2001, pp. 27, 164, asserts that Cézanne must have been influenced by Jan Davidsz. de Heem's "The Dessert" (1640; Musée du Louvre, Paris) when he executed the "most precariously balanced of his tabletop still lifes in the late 1880s and 1890s," including this picture
.
Hannah Byers and Eliza E. Rathbone. Impressionist Still Life. Ed. Eliza E. Rathbone and George T. M. Shackelford. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection. New York, 2001, pp. 176, 179, colorpl. 83, compare this picture to "Ginger Pot with Pomegranate and Pears" (1890–93; Phillips Collection, Washington; V733, R735).
Jennifer A. Greenhill in Eliza E. Rathbone and George T. M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New York, 2001, p. 202.
Karen Wilkin. "A Celebration of Painting in Boston." New Criterion 20 (June 2002), p. 59.
Nina Maria Athanassoglou-Kallmyer. Cézanne and Provence: The Painter in His Culture. Chicago, 2003, pp. 125, 127, fig. 3.26 (color), identifies the blue patterned cloth in this picture as an "indienne," brightly colored cotton fabric originally imported from the Levant but also made in Provence since the eighteenth century.
Sarah Lees inThe Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2006, pp. 248, 251, 315, 321, no. 54, ill. on cover (color detail) and fig. 184 (color).
Gilbert T. Vincent and Sarah Lees inThe Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2006, p. 177.
Rebecca A. Rabinow and Jayne S. Warman inCézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Ed. Rebecca A. Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2006, p. 282, state that Havemeyer bought this work from Vollard for Fr 15,000 on May 4, 1906 [see Ref. Stein 1993].
Impressionist & Modern Art. Sotheby's, New York. November 7, 2006, p. 57, under no. 18, fig. 3 (color).
Jayne S. Warman inCézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Ed. Rebecca A. Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2006, p. 340 n. 1, under no. 36.
Susan Alyson Stein inThe Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 109, 191–92, no. 75, ill. (color and black and white).
Susan Alyson Stein inMasterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 125, 225, no. 114, ill. (color and black and white).
Pavel Machotka. Cézanne: The Eye and the Mind. Marseilles, 2008, vol. 1, unpaginated, no. 293, ill. (color); vol. 2, p. 188, ill., as "Nature morte aux aubergines"; dates it about 1893–94.
Jayne S. Warman in Gail Stavitsky and Katherine Rothkopf. Cézanne and American Modernism. Exh. cat., Montclair Art Museum. Montclair, 2009, p. 83.
Bridget Alsdorf. "Interior Landscapes: Metaphor and Meaning in Cézanne's Late Still Lifes." Word & Image 26 (October–December 2010), p. 319, fig. 6 (color), compares components of the still life, like the white cloth and eggplants, to features of a landscape, but notes that the table and vertical white beam behind the objects function as reminders of their actual scale and interior setting; argues that in his late still lifes Cézanne sought to both imaginatively expand the compressed space of the late nineteenth-century bourgeois interior and to question this escapist impulse.
Neil Cox. In the Presence of Things – Four Centuries of Still Life Painting, Part 2: 19th–20th Centuries (1840–1955). Exh. cat., Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Lisbon, 2011, pp. 36–37, no. 1, ill. (color), discusses the painting in terms of Cézanne's "test" of "the relationship between the depths of space and the surface-like nature of vision".
Jean Colrat. Cézanne: Joindre les mains errantes de la nature. Paris, 2013, p. 190, fig. 84 (color).
Walter Feilchenfeldt, Jayne Warman, and David Nash. The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne: An Online Catalogue Raisonné. 2014–?, no. 856, ill. (color) [https://www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=746], as “Nature morte aux aubergines”.
Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer inThe World is an Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cézanne. Ed. Benedict Leca. Exh. cat., Barnes Foundation Philadelphia. Hamilton, Ontario, 2014, pp. 210–11, 216–17, 221, fig. 16 (color), ill. pp. 222–23 (color details), describes the tall green-glazed vessel as an example of the unrefined Provençal kitchen pottery known as “terrailles” or “terres vernissées” and identifies it variously as an olive jar (“douiro”) or a milk jar (“toupin”); argues that the rustic nature of the subject matter, including the plain wood table, locally-made ceramics and fabric, and distinctively southern produce, match Cézanne’s apparently naive manner and project an image of Provençal society as preserved from the effects of industrialization; compares its nostalgic aura to the poems of Joachim Gasquet and Antony Valabrègue.
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 452, no. 415, ill. pp. 415, 452 (color).
Daniel Marchesseau inPaul Cezanne: Le chant de la terre. Ed. Daniel Marchesseau. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2017, p. 248, ill. (color), as "Nature morte aux aubergines" (Still Life with Eggplants).
Jayne Warman. "Les natures mortes au Jas de Bouffan." Cezanne Jas de Bouffan: Art et histoire. Ed. Denis Coutagne and François Chédeville. Lyons, 2019, pp. 189, fig. 185 (color), suggests this and other still lifes dated between 1892 and 1894 (R770, R844, R845, and R846) were painted in a room of the farm adjacent to Jas de Bouffan.
"Works in the Exhibition." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer and Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, p. 251.
Laura D. Corey and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen. "Visions of Collecting." Making The Met, 1870–2020. Ed. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2020, pp. 147, 267 n. 80, fig. 158 (color).
Cezanne. Ed. Achim Borchardt-Hume et al. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 2022, p. 136, no. 63, ill. (color).
Paul Smith. "Looking Slowly with Cezanne." Burlington Magazine 165 (April 2023), pp. 429–30, fig. 12 (color), compares it to Cézanne's "Still Life with Apples" (1893–94, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles) and discusses both pictures in relation to Emile Bernard's accounts of the artist's technique, Julien de la Rochenoire's color manuals, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's ideas on perception.
The ginger jar appears in several other paintings executed between 1890 and 1895, including Still Life with Apples (Getty Center, Los Angeles; Venturi 1936, no. 598; Rewald 1996, no. 770), Ginger Pot with Pomegranate and Pears (Phillips Collection, Washington; V733, R735), Ginger Pot (Barnes Foundation, Merion, Penn.; V737, R773), Still Life with Fruit and Ginger Pot (Sotheby's, New York, November 7, 2006, no. 18; V596, R802), and Fruit and Ginger Pot (Museum Langmatt, Baden; V595, R736).
Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
ca. 1898
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