Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses | Paul Cézanne | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelCézanne rarely painted flowering plants or fresh-cut bouquets, which were susceptible to wilting; purportedly, he preferred artificial flowers that could withstand his protracted painting sessions. All told, he included potted plants only in three still lifes, two views of the conservatory at Jas de Bouffan, and about a dozen exquisite watercolors made over the course of two decades (from about 1878 to 1906). Cézanne seems to have reserved this particular table, with its scalloped apron and distinctive bowed legs, for three of his finest still lifes of the 1890s.

This view of Chinese primroses was once owned by the ardent gardener Claude Monet.

Provenance[Julien-François (père) Tanguy, Paris]; Paul Helleu, Paris (until 1894; sent as a gift in late March via Durand-Ruel to Monet); Claude Monet, Giverny (1894–d. 1926); his son, Michel Monet, Giverny; [Paul Rosenberg, Paris]; [Bernheim-Jeune, Paris and Knoedler Galleries, Paris and New York]; Adolph Lewisohn, New York (by 1929–d. 1938); his son, Sam A. Lewisohn, New York (1938–d. 1951)

Exhibition History

Paris. Musée des Arts Décoratifs. "Cinquante ans de peinture française, 1875–1925," May 28–July 12, 1925, no. 12.

New York. Museum of Modern Art. "First Loan Exhibition: Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, van Gogh," November 8–December 7, 1929, no. 29.

New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Exhibition of Modern European Art," October 4–25, 1933, unnum. checklist.

New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Summer Exhibition: Painting and Sculpture," July 10–September 30, 1933, no catalogue.

Toledo Museum of Art. "Cézanne, Gauguin," June–August 1935, unnumbered cat.

London. New Burlington Galleries. "Exhibition of Masters of French 19th Century Painting," October 1–31, 1936, no. 89.

Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Cézanne," May–October 1936, no. 70.

Paris. Palais National des Arts. "Chefs d'œuvre de l'art français," July–September 1937, no. 253.

New York. Durand-Ruel. "Exhibition of Masterpieces by Cézanne," March 29–April 16, 1938, no. 18.

New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European & American Paintings, 1500–1900," May–October 1940, no. 346.

New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Art in Progress," 1944, unnumbered cat.

New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "Cézanne," March 27–April 26, 1947, no. 51.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Lewisohn Collection," November 2–December 2, 1951, no. 13.

Art Institute of Chicago. "Cézanne: Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings," February 7–March 16, 1952, no. 83.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cézanne: Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings," April 4–May 18, 1952, no. 83.

Rotterdam. Museum Boymans. "Vier Eeuwen Stilleven in Frankrijk," July 10–September 20, 1954, no. 109.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 15, 1970–February 15, 1971, not in catalogue.

Fort Lauderdale. Museum of Art. "Corot to Cézanne: 19th Century French Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 22, 1992–April 11, 1993, no catalogue.

Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19.Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 76.

References

Paul Cézanne = Mappe. Munich, 1912, pl. 10.

Cinquante ans de peinture française, 1875–1925. Exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Paris, 1925, p. 7, no. 12.

Stephan Bourgeois and Waldemar George. "The French Paintings of the XIXth and XXth Centuries in the Adolph and Samuel Lewisohn Collection." Formes nos. 28–29 (1932), p. 301, ill. after p. 304.

Mid-Week Pictorial 38 (October 14, 1933), ill. p. 10.

"Cézanne's Paintings and Watercolors Exhibited in Fine One Man Loan Show at the Paris Orangerie." Art News 34 (August 15, 1936), pp. 6, 13, ill.

Élie Faure. Cézanne. Paris, [1936], fig. 40.

René Huyghe. Cézanne. Paris, 1936, pp. 44, 48, 66, fig. 36.

Jacques de Laprade. "L'exposition Cézanne à l'Orangerie." Beaux-Arts no. 177 (May 22, 1936), p. 2, ill. p. 10.

Exhibition of Masters of French 19th Century Painting. Exh. cat., New Burlington Galleries. London, 1936, pp. 40–41, no. 89, pl. IX.

John Rewald. "Cézanne et son oeuvre." L'art sacré special number (May 1936), p. 8, fig. 15.

Charles Sterling. Cézanne. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1936, p. 96, no. 70, pl. XXXVII.

Lionello Venturi. Cézanne: son art—son oeuvre. Paris, 1936, vol. 1, pp. 57, 194, no. 599; vol. 2, pl. 194, no. 599.

Sam A. Lewisohn. Painters and Personality: A Collector's View of Modern Art. [New York], 1937, p. 37, pl. 18.

Fritz Novotny. Cézanne. Vienna, 1937, pl. 74.

Alfred M. Frankfurter. "Cézanne: Intimate Exhibition." Art News, no. 26, section II, 36 (March 26, 1938), pp. 17, 30, ill.

Alfred M. Frankfurter. "Cézanne in New York." Burlington Magazine 72 (May 1938), p. 243.

Robert J. Goldwater. "Cézanne in America: The Master's Paintings in American Collections." Art News, section I (The 1938 Annual), 36 (March 26, 1938), p. 160, ill. p. 143.

Fritz Novotny. Cézanne und das Ende der Wissenschaftlichen Perspektive. Vienna, 1938, pp. 71–72 n. 64.

Albert C. Barnes and Violette De Mazia. The Art of Cézanne. New York, 1939, pp. 72, 313 n. 23, pp. 363, 414, no. 121.

Raymond Cogniat. Cézanne. Paris, 1939, pl. 78.

Sam A. Lewisohn. "Personalities Past and Present." Art News, section I (The 1939 Annual), 37 (February 25, 1939), ill. p. 69 (photograph of the interior of Lewisohn's home, with this picture hanging above the mantel).

Alfred M. Frankfurter. "383 Masterpieces of Art." Art News, (The 1940 Annual), 38 (May 25, 1940), p. 66.

Walter Pach in Masterpieces of Art: Catalogue of European and American Paintings, 1500–1900. Exh. cat., World's Fair. New York, 1940, pp. 235–36, no. 346, ill.

Art in Progress. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1944, ill. p. 24.

Walt Kuhn. "Cézanne: Delayed Finale." Art News 46 (April 1947), pp. 15–16, ill.

Bernard Dorival. Cézanne. Fr. ed. [Eng. ed., New York, 1948]. Paris, 1948, pp. 57, 161, pl. 98.

Fritz Novotny. Cézanne. New York, 1948, pl. 68.

Liliane Guerry. Cézanne et l'expression de l'espace. Paris, 1950, pp. 70, 99.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. in The Lewisohn Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1951, pp. 7–8, 13, 43, no. 13, ill.

Daniel Catton Rich in Cézanne: Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. [Chicago], 1952, p. 75, no. 83, ill.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures: Paintings by Paul Cézanne. 35, New York, 1952, unpaginated, ill. (color).

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "Notes on the Cover." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 10 (May 1952), inside front cover, ill. on cover (color).

Bernard Berenson. Caravaggio: His Incongruity and His Fame. London, 1953, pp. 23–24.

Ronald Alley Lawrence Gowing in An Exhibition of Paintings by Cézanne. Exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy Building. Edinburgh, 1954, unpaginated, under no. 40.

Maurice Raynal. Cézanne. Lausanne, 1954, p. 85, ill. (color).

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), ill. p. 53.

Howard Fussiner. "Organic Integration in Cézanne's Painting." College Art Journal 15 (Summer 1956), pp. 304–8, 310–11, fig. 2.

Michel Faré. La nature morte en France. Geneva, 1962, vol. 2, fig. 499.

Don Richardson. Letter to Mrs. Whitney. November 22, 1964.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX–XX Centuries." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 3, New York, 1967, pp. 102–4, ill.

Richard W. Murphy et al. The World of Cézanne: 1839–1906. New York, 1968, p. 134, ill. (color).

Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), p. 40, ill. (color).

Paulette Howard-Johnston. "Une visite à Giverny en 1924." L'Oeil no. 171 (March 1969), p. 30, ill. (color).

Chuji Ikegami. Cézanne. Tokyo, 1969, p. 131, no. 49, ill. (colorpl. 49 and b&w).

Sandra Orienti in L'opera completa di Cézanne. [French ed., 1975; English ed., 1985]. Milan, 1970, pp. 123–24, no. 822, ill.

Bernard Dunstan. Painting Methods of the Impressionists. New York, 1976, p. 94, ill. (color).

Stephen K-M. Tim. Letter to Charles Moffett. April 7, 1982.

Bernard Dunstan. Painting Methods of the Impressionists. rev. ed. New York, 1983, pp. 94–95, ill. (color).

John Rewald. Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné. Boston, 1983, p. 221, under no. 542.

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 11, 184–85, 253, ill. in color (overall and detail).

Christian Geelhaar in Mary Louise Krumrine. Paul Cézanne: The Bathers. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Basel, 1990, p. 302 n. 63.

Roger Hurlburt. "Free Spirits." Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) (December 20, 1992), p. 4D.

Helen Kohen. "Lasting Impressions." Miami Herald (December 20, 1992), p. 6I.

Götz Adriani Walter Feilchenfeldt in Cézanne: Gemälde. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Tübingen. Cologne, 1993, pp. 114 n. 2, 178 n. 1.

Jean-Marie Baron and Pascal Bonafoux. Cézanne: les natures mortes. Paris, 1993, pp. 38–39, ill. (color).

Charles F. Stuckey. Claude Monet, 1840–1926. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1995, p. 225.

Walter Feilchenfeldt in Cézanne. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Philadelphia, 1996, p. 571 [French ed., "Cézanne," RdMN, Paris, 1995, p. 571].

Henri Loyrette and Isabelle Cahn in Cézanne. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 1996, p. 99 n. 2, p. 567 [French ed., "Cézanne," RdMN, Paris, 1995, p. 99 n. 2, p. 567].

John Rewald in collaboration with Walter Feilchenfeldt and Jayne Warman in The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné. New York, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 434, 567–70, no. 680; vol. 2, p. 233, fig. 680.

Sarah Lees in The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2006, p. 245.

Gilbert T. Vincent and Sarah Lees in The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 2006, p. 148.

Susan Alyson Stein in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 110, 188–89, no. 76, ill. (color and bw).

Susan Alyson Stein in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 124, 222, no. 113, ill. (color and bw).

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