The distinctive silhouette of Mont Saint-Victoire rises above the Arc River valley near the town of Aix. To paint this scene, Cézanne stood close to Montbriand, his sister’s property, at the top of the hill just behind her house; the wall of the neighboring farmhouse is barely visible. Cézanne sought to reveal the inner geometry of nature, "to make of Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of museums." Indeed the railroad viaduct that cuts through this pastoral scene is evocative of a Roman aqueduct, recalling paintings by Nicolas Poussin.
#6326. Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River
Valley
Credit Line:H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Object Number:29.100.64
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, ca. 1899–1901; stock book A, no. 3753; bought from the artist for Fr 250; one of seven pictures apparently sold for Fr 19,000, then shipped June 5, 1901 to Havemeyer]; Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, New York (1901–his d. 1907); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (1907–d. 1929; cat., 1931, pp. 56–57, ill., as "Landscape—Paysage du Midi")
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 6 (as "Landscape") [2nd ed., New York, 1958, no. 62].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscape Paintings," May 14–September 30, 1934, no. 54.
New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European & American Paintings, 1500–1900," May–October 1940, no. 342 (as "Mont Ste. Victoire").
Art Institute of Chicago. "Cézanne: Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings," February 7–March 16, 1952, no. 53.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cézanne: Paintings, Watercolors & Drawings," April 4–May 18, 1952, no. 53.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 149 [withdrawn early?].
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nice. "Cézanne: Peintures, Aquarelles, Dessins," August 8–September 12, 1953, no. 14.
Grenoble. Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture. "Cézanne: Peintures, Aquarelles, Dessins," September 15–November 1, 1953, no. 14.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 81).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Impressionist Epoch," December 12, 1974–February 10, 1975, not in catalogue.
Athens. National Pinakothiki, Alexander Soutzos Museum. "Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Memories and Revivals of the Classical Spirit," September 24–December 31, 1979, no. 102.
Aix-en-Provence. Musée Granet. "Cézanne," June 12–August 31, 1982, no. 4.
Naples. Museo di Capodimonte. "Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani," December 3, 1986–February 1, 1987, no. 5.
Milan. Pinacoteca di Brera. "Capolavori Impressionisti dei Musei Americani," March 4–May 10, 1987, no. 5.
Edinburgh. National Gallery of Scotland. "Cézanne and Poussin: The Classical Vision of Landscape," August 1–October 19, 1990, no. 38.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A74 (as "Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley").
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Cézanne," September 25, 1995–January 7, 1996, no. 89 (as "La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de Bellevue").
London. Tate Gallery. "Cézanne," February 8–April 28, 1996, no. 89.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Cézanne," May 30–September 1, 1996, no. 89.
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "La collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme...," October 20, 1997–January 18, 1998, no. 37.
Musée de Grenoble. "Le sentiment de la montagne," March 1–June 1, 1998, no. 208.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Cézanne in Provence," January 29–May 7, 2006, no. 67 (as "Montagne Sainte-Victoire Seen from Montbriand").
Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence. "Cézanne in Provence," June 9–September 17, 2006, no. 67.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," September 14, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 36.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," February 17–May 13, 2007, no. 36.
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "De Cézanne à Picasso: Chefs d'oeuvre de la galerie Vollard," June 19–September 16, 2007, no. 26.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Cézanne and Beyond," February 26–May 31, 2009, unnumbered cat. (pl. 199).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Making The Met, 1870–2020," August 29, 2020–January 3, 2021, unnumbered cat. (fig. 147).
"Havemeyer Collection at Metropolitan Museum: Havemeyers Paid Small Sums for Masterpieces." Art News 28 (March 15, 1930), p. 43, ill.
"The H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Parnassus 2 (March 1930), p. 7, tentatively dates it 1880–85; calls it a "thoroughly mature work" that is "as severely and consciously organized" as a Poussin.
Alan Burroughs. "The Links of Tradition: A Study of the H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Creative Art 7 (November 1930), pp. 333–34, 337, ill., compares it to Poussin's "Orpheus and Eurydice" (MMA 29.100.20) [now catalogued as Style of Poussin].
Frank Jewett Mather Jr. "The Havemeyer Pictures." The Arts 16 (March 1930), pp. 450, 469, 483, ill., calls it "Landscape" in the caption and "A View Near Arles" in the text, commenting that it is "that rare thing, a lyrical Cézanne"; suggests that Arthur B. Davies advised Mrs. Havemeyer to purchase her Cézanne paintings.
Harry B. Wehle. "The Exhibition of the H. O. Havemeyer Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25 (March 1930), p. 58, calls it "Mont Sainte-Victoire" and comments on its "stirring, restless near-harmony".
H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 56–57, ill., calls it "Landscape—Paysage du Midi".
Lionello Venturi. Cézanne: son art—son oeuvre. Paris, 1936, vol. 1, p. 162, no. 452; vol. 2, pl. 132, no. 452, dates it 1885–87.
Élie Faure. Cézanne. Paris, [1936], fig. 9, calls it "La vallée de l'Arc" and dates it about 1890.
Ambroise Vollard. Recollections of a Picture Dealer. London, 1936, p. 142, calls it "Aqueduc aux pins parasols"; states that the Havemeyers purchased it from him for Fr 15,000; records Mr. Havemeyer's comments before this picture, comparing it to a fresco that he admired at Pompei, and adding, "I wonder what there is in it that reminds one of so many things?".
Sam A. Lewisohn. Painters and Personality: A Collector's View of Modern Art. [New York], 1937, pl. 17, illustrates it alongside Poussin's "St. John on Patmos" (Art Institute of Chicago).
Fritz Novotny. Cézanne. Vienna, 1937, p. 10, pl. 43, dates it 1885–87; states that Cézanne painted the series of landscapes featuring Mont Sainte-Victoire and the viaduct from Bellevue, in the region south of the Jas de Bouffan, where his brother-in-law, M. Conil, had a farm.
Ambroise Vollard. Paul Cézanne: His Life and Art. [2nd English ed.]. New York, 1937, ill. opp. p. 54 (color).
Fritz Novotny. Cézanne und das Ende der Wissenschaftlichen Perspektive. Vienna, 1938, pp. 11, 21, 49, 94 n. 89, p. 203, no. 85.
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. 154.
Albert C. Barnes and Violette De Mazia. The Art of Cézanne. New York, 1939, pp. 357, 412, no. 95, compare the foliage in this painting to that in "View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph" (MMA 13.66).
R. E. Turpin. "Cézanne Still Dominates the Era He Launched." New York Times Magazine (January 15, 1939), ill. p. 6, calls it "Landscape".
Alfred M. Frankfurter. "383 Masterpieces of Art." Art News (The 1940 Annual) 38 (May 25, 1940), pp. 43, 64, 66, ill., describes it as an effort "to recreate space in terms of tonal values".
Erle Loran. Cézanne's Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs. [2nd ed., 1946]. Berkeley, 1943, p. 124, illustrates a photograph of Mont Sainte-Victoire taken by John Rewald.
Edward Alden Jewell. Paul Cézanne. New York, 1944, ill. p. 18, calls it "Sainte-Victoire Mountain".
Bernard Dorival. Cézanne. [English ed., 1948]. Paris, 1948, pp. 54, 159, pl. 88.
Fritz Novotny. Cézanne. New York, 1948, pl. 39, calls it "View of the Arc Valley, with Mont Sainte-Victoire and a Railway Viaduct".
Liliane Guerry. Cézanne et l'expression de l'espace. [1st ed.; 2nd ed., 1966]. Paris, 1950, pp. 193–94 n. 47, calls this painting and three others (V454, R599; V455, R598; and V457, R767) "les plus parfaites réussites de cette série".
Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 233, no. 149, colorpl. 149, calls it "a splendid example of the artist's mature style," which combines Impressionist color with his own sense of structure and order.
Meyer Schapiro. Paul Cézanne. 1st ed. New York, 1952, pp. 27, 66–67, 74, ill. (color), compares it to "Mont Sainte-Victoire" (Courtauld Gallery, London; V454, R599).
Erle Loran. "Cézanne in 1952." Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 46 (February 1, 1952), ill. pp. 10–11.
Benjamin Storey. "Retrospettiva Cézanne." Emporium 115 (May 1952), ill. p. 198.
Bernard Berenson. Seeing and Knowing. New York, 1953, pp. 37, 48, pl. 88, erroneously locates it in a private collection.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). [English ed., New York, 1953]. Amsterdam, 1954, unpaginated, colorpl. 12.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 17.
Charles Biederman. The New Cézanne: From Monet to Mondriaan. Red Wing, Minn., 1958, pp. 36–37, 39, figs. 11 and 12.
John Rewald. Cézanne, Landscapes. [French ed., Paris, 1958]. New York, 1958, pl. 1.
Michael Levey. A Concise History of Painting from Giotto to Cézanne. London, 1962, p. 310, colorpl. 547.
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. 107–8, ill., call it "Mont Sainte-Victoire"; note that in the four pictures of Mont Sainte-Victoire painted between 1885 and 1887 (private collection, V453, R512; Courtauld Gallery, London, V454, R599; Phillips Collection, Washington, V455, R598), including this one, "the calm sihouette of the mountain is an integral part of the vista," whereas in later works, Mont Sainte-Victoire "dominates the entire scene".
Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill.
Richard W. Murphy et al. The World of Cézanne: 1839–1906. New York, 1968, pp. 154–55, ill. (color), dates it 1885 and discusses it in relation to a later painting of Mont Sainte-Victoire (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; V663, R899).
James White. National Gallery of Ireland. New York, 1968, p. 80, compares it to a watercolor of the same subject in the National Gallery of Ireland (RWC 585).
Frank Elgar. Cézanne. New York, [1969], pp. 141, 216, compares it to other works in the Mont Saint-Victoire series, calling this a tense landscape with "nervous, dense and violent splashes of colour".
Chuji Ikegami. Cézanne. Tokyo, 1969, p. 120, no. 23, ill. (color and black and white, overall and detail), dates it 1885–87.
Sandra Orienti inL'opera completa di Cézanne. [French ed., 1975; English ed., 1985]. Milan, 1970, p. 106, no. 436, ill.
Edith A. Standen inMasterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. New York, [1970], p. 81, ill. (color).
Adrien Chappuis. The Drawings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné. Greenwich, Conn., 1973, vol. 1, p. 216, under no. 896, compares it to a pencil drawing (1883–86; Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam; V1461 verso), which he calls a study for this painting; observes that the viewpoint of the drawing is lower than that of the oil but is from the same direction.
Meyer Schapiro. P. Cézanne. Paris, 1973, unpaginated, colorpl. 18, calls it "La Montagne Sainte-Victoire" and dates it 1885–87.
Lydie Huyghe in René Huyghe. La Relève du réel: la peinture française au XIXe siècle: impressionnisme, symbolisme. Paris, 1974, fig. 190.
Nicholas Wadley. Cézanne and His Art. London, 1975, p. 71, colorpl. 69.
Georges A. Embiricos. "Cézanne et la répétition." Connaissance des arts no. 315 (May 1978), pp. 68–70, ill. (color), compares it to two later versions (former collection Heinz Berggruen; V662, R631 and Baltimore Museum of Art; V766, R837).
James David Draper and Joan R. Mertens. Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Memories and Revivals of the Classical Spirit. Exh. cat., National Pinakothiki, Alexander Soutzos Museum. Athens, 1979, pp. 260–61, no. 102, ill. (color).
Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, p. 430, fig. 774 (color).
John Rewald. Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné. Boston, 1983, p. 142, under nos. 239 and 240, mentions it in relation to two watercolors: one depicting the same isolated pine tree and the viaduct (Albertina, Vienna; V913, RWC 239), and the other depicting the Mont de Cengle and the viaduct (private collection, Zürich; RWC 240).
Richard Shiff. Cézanne and the End of Impressionism. Chicago, 1984, pp. 121, 216–18, figs. 28 and 55, dates it about 1885 and discusses this picture as a mixture of the fabricated and the natural.
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 192–93, 254, ill. (color).
Jill Anderson Kyle. "Cézanne's 'Les Joueurs de Cartes'." Master's thesis, Rice University, 1985, pp. 19, 30 n. 44, dates it 1885–87; cites it as an illustration of Cézanne's endeavor to represent depth "solely by the infinite gradation of hues and values in his paintings".
John Rewald. Cézanne: A Biography. New York, 1986, p. 276, ill. p. 157 (color), calls it "Mont Sainte-Victoire, Seen from Bellevue," also known as "The Viaduct," and dates it 1882–85.
Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 142–43, 256, pl. 108, suggests that Vollard may have encouraged the Havemeyers to acquire this painting and "Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants" (The Met 61.101.4).
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, p. 48, colorpl. 29, date it mid-1880s.
Gary Tinterow et al. Capolavori impressionisti dei musei americani. Exh. cat., Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. Milan, 1987, pp. 20–21, no. 5, ill. (color).
Richard Kendall, ed. Cézanne by Himself: Drawings, Paintings, Writings. London, 1988, ill. p. 144 (color), dates it about 1885–87.
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, pp. 125, 128 n. 44, pp. 311, 347, fig. 70, dates it 1882–85; refers to this and "The Gulf of Marseilles Seen from L'Estaque" (MMA 29.100.67) as "two of the artist's most majestic works".
Anne Distel. Impressionism: The First Collectors. New York, 1990, p. 242.
Hajo Düchting. Paul Cézanne: Bilder eines Berges. Munich, 1990, pp. 12, 59, colorpl. 1, dates it 1882–85.
Denis Coutagne et al. Sainte-Victoire, Cézanne, 1990. Exh. cat., Musée Granet. Aix-en-Provence, 1990, pp. 113–15, 200, 318, 321, 355, colorpl. 65 (overall and detail), calls it "La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de Montbriand" and dates it 1885–87; relates it to Poussin's "Funeral of Phocion" (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff).
Brett Gorvy. "Exhibition Preview: Cézanne and Poussin." Antique Collector 61 (August 1990), ill. p. 17 (color).
Lawrence Gowing. "Edinburgh: Cézanne and Poussin." Burlington Magazine 132 (October 1990), p. 733, fig. 63, tentatively dates it 1887; is "almost [convinced] that there was a real and deliberate affinity" between Poussin's Phocion pictures and Cézanne's views of Mont Sainte-Victoire from Bellevue [see Ref. Verdi 1990].
Richard Verdi. Cézanne and Poussin: The Classical Vision of Landscape. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1990, pp. 7, 35–37, 50, 137–39, 141, 143, 149, 181, 193, no. 38, ill. on cover (color detail) and fig. 16 (color), dates it 1885–87; calls it "one of the most resolved and complete of all Cézanne's landscapes"; analyzes its spatial and compositional organization in relation to Poussin's "Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion" (1648; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool).
Hajo Düchting. Paul Cézanne 1839–1906: Natur wird Kunst. Ed. Ingo F. Walther. [Engl. ed., 1999]. Cologne, 1990, p. 116, ill. p. 119 (color).
Susan Alyson Stein inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 230, dates it about 1885–87.
Götz Adriani. Cézanne: Gemälde. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle Tübingen. Cologne, 1993, p. 117 n. 1, p. 214 n. 1, p. 260 n. 1 [English ed., 1995].
Richard Kendall. "The Figure in the Landscape." Cézanne & Poussin: A Symposium. Ed. Richard Kendall. Sheffield, 1993, p. 88, colorpl. 15.
Gary Tinterow inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 47–48, colorpl. 51.
Gretchen Wold inSplendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, pp. 303–4, no. A74, ill., dates it about 1885–87.
Belinda Thomson. The Post-Impressionists. 2nd ed., reprint [1st ed. London, 1983; 2nd ed., 1990]. London, 1994, p. 160, fig. 164 (color), calls it "Landscape with Viaduct" and dates it 1885–87.
Charles de Lartigue. Les paysages de Paul Cézanne. Lyons, 1995, p. 114, ill. p. 107 (color).
Alan Riding. "Cézanne: The Hot New Artist of the 90's." New York Times (October 24, 1995), ill. p. C13, dates it early 1880s.
Maria Teresa Benedetti. Cézanne. [Italian ed., 1995]. Paris, 1995, p. 157, ill. (color), dates it about 1885–87.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 466, ill.
Karen Wilkin. "Cézanne at the Grand Palais." New Criterion 14 (December 1995), p. 16.
Joseph J. Rishel inCézanne. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Philadelphia, 1996, pp. 252–53, 259–60, 264, 266, 310, no. 89, ill. (color) [French ed., Paris, 1995, pp. 252–53, 259–60, 263, 266, 310, no. 89, ill. (color)], dates it 1882–85 and considers it the first in the Mont Sainte-Victoire series; calls it "the most completely worked and specifically detailed" painting from this vantage point; remarks that the dense, but quickly applied brushwork unifies the composition and would influence abstract artists of the 1940s.
Linda Nochlin. "Cézanne: Studies in Contrast." Art in America 84 (June 1996), p. 64, ill. p. 65 (color).
Walter Feilchenfeldt inCézanne. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. Philadelphia, 1996, p. 574 [French ed., Paris, 1995].
John Rewald, in collaboration with Walter Feilchenfeldt, and Jayne Warman. The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné. New York, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 346–49, 569–70, 572–73, no. 511; vol. 2, p. 165, fig. 511, dates it 1882–85, after the similar composition of Mont Sainte-Victoire painted "from virtually the same spot" (private collection; V453, R512), which he dates about 1882; considers it "more logical" that ours leads "toward the crisper style of Cézanne's work of the mid-1880s," noting that its looser brushstrokes may be explained by the larger surface of the canvas.
Pavel Machotka. Cézanne: Landscape into Art. New Haven, 1996, pp. 47, 99, 128, fig. 113 (color), as “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de Bellevue”; dates it about 1888; illustrates it alongside his own and John Rewald's photographs of the site; states that its color and the “stepwise organization of the receding fields” were taken directly from the site, but that the viaduct may have been more obscured from Cezanne’s position; notes that the intersection of the viaduct and the tree creates “a peculiarly strong plane close to the viewer” that overrides the “wobbly recession of the river”; suggests that the lone but commanding tree is a metaphor for the artist’s solitude and artistic mastery.
Paul Smith. Interpreting Cézanne. London, 1996, p. 28, fig. 20 (color), as “Montagne Sainte-Victoire Seen from Bellevue”; discusses it in the context of Cézanne’s Poussinism.
Denis Coutagne and Bruno Ely. Les sites cézanniens du pays d'Aix: Hommage à John Rewald. Paris, 1996, p. 236, ill. p. 161 (color).
Gary Tinterow inLa collection Havemeyer: Quand l'Amérique découvrait l'impressionnisme. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1997, p. 71, 106, no. 37, ill. (color), dates it about 1885.
Erik Verhagen inLe sentiment de la montagne. Exh. cat., Musée de Grenoble. Paris, 1998, p. 251, no. 208, ill. (color).
Impressionist, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Works on Paper. Christie's, London. July 1, 1999, p. 28, under no. 831, mistakenly identifies it as Venturi no. 454.
Friedrich Teja Bach inCézanne: Finished, Unfinished. Ed. Simon Lèbe. Exh. cat., Kunstforum Wien. 2000, p. 304, under no. 93, fig. 1, calls it "Mont Sainte-Victoire seen from Bellevue"; discusses a watercolor of a similar pine tree in the Arc River Valley (RWC 239).
Mary Tompkins Lewis. Cézanne. London, 2000, p. 219, fig. 133 (color), as “Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Bellevue”; discusses its ordered composition and notes the antique quality of the railroad viaduct.
Hidemichi Tanaka. "Cézanne and Japonisme." Artibus et Historiae 22, no. 44 (2001), pp. 215, 218, fig. 19 (color), as “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de Bellevue”; dates it 1886–88 in caption and 1882 in text; compares its composition to Katsushika Hokusai’s woodblock print “Shinshu Suwako” (Lake Suwa in Shinano Province) from the series “Fugaku sanjurokkei” (Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji; ca. 1829–33); argues that Cézanne also drew conceptual inspiration from this series for his own unprecedented cycle of thirty-six paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire.
Maria Teresa Benedetti. Cézanne: il padre dei moderni. Exh. cat., Complesso del Vittoriano. Milan, 2002, p. 74.
George S. Keyes. "Reconsideration of Late Variants of Cézanne's Theme of Mont Sainte-Victoire." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 77 (2003), pp. 34, 37 n. 6.
Nina Maria Athanassoglou-Kallmyer. Cézanne and Provence: The Painter in His Culture. Chicago, 2003, pp. 150, 152, fig. 4.1 (color).
Philip Conisbee. "Watercolours by Cézanne." Burlington Magazine 147 (January 2005), p. 70 n. 2, calls it "Mont Sainte-Victoire seen from Bellevue"; considers the painting "Mont Sainte-Victore Seen from Montbriand" (about 1882; private collection; R 512) to be a preliminary study for our picture.
Anne Roquebert 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. 227, fig. 239 (color) [French ed., "De Cézanne à Picasso: Chefs-d'oeuvre de la galerie Vollard," Paris, 2007, p. 328, ill. p. 243 (color)], states that according to Mary Cassatt, the Havemeyers' purchase of this and other Cézanne paintings in 1901 saved Vollard from bankruptcy.
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, pp. 339–40, no. 36, ill., relates that in 1901 Havemeyer advanced Fr 19,000 to Vollard and two months later received seven Cézanne paintings, including this one, and seven frames.
Philip Conisbee in Philip Conisbee and Denis Coutagne. Cézanne in Provence. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2006, pp. 16, 18, 284 [French ed., Paris, pp. 39, 43].
Bruno Ely in Philip Conisbee and Denis Coutagne. Cézanne in Provence. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2006, pp. 159, 319, 339 n. 17, no. 67, colorpl. 67 [French ed., Paris, pp. 179–80, no. 67, colorpl. 67], calls it "Montagne Sainte-Victoire Seen from Montbriand" and dates it later than the similar painting in a private collection (R 512).
Denis Coutagne. Cézanne en vérité(s). [Arles], 2006, pp. 474–75, 512 nn. 175, 182.
Richard R. Brettell and Stephen F. Eisenman. Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum. Ed. Sara Campbell. Vol. 1, New Haven, 2006, pp. 305–6, n. 4.
Jean Arrouye in Philip Conisbee and Denis Coutagne. Cézanne en Provence. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Paris, 2006, p. 306, fig. 10 (color), calls it "Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de Bellevue".
Linda Nochlin. Courbet. New York, 2007, pp. 188–89, fig. 79.
Anabelle Kienle inCézanne and Beyond. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2009, p. 318.
Michael R. Taylor inCézanne and Beyond. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2009, p. 559 n. 31.
Katherine Sachs inCézanne and Beyond. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2009, p. 532, colorpl. 199.
Jayne S. Warman in Gail Stavitsky and Katherine Rothkopf. Cézanne and American Modernism. Exh. cat., Montclair Art Museum. Montclair, 2009, p. 88 n. 34.
Emily Schuchardt Navratil in Gail Stavitsky and Katherine Rothkopf. Cézanne and American Modernism. Exh. cat., Montclair Art Museum. Montclair, 2009, p. 361.
Joseph J. Rishel inGauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia. Ed. Joseph J. Rishel. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2012, p. 168, fig. 163 (color).
Javier Barón inEl Greco & la pintura moderna. Ed. Javier Barón. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2014, pp. 120, 194 n. 131.
Sandra Gianfreda. "The early 'Japonistes'." Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh . . . "Japanese Inspirations" Museum Folkwang. Exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen. Göttingen, 2014, p. 67.
Walter Feilchenfeldt, Jayne Warman, and David Nash. The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne: An Online Catalogue Raisonné. 2014–?, no. 185, ill. (color) [https://www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=500], as “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de Montbriand”; illustrate two studies of the pine tree at center, a graphite sketch (FWN 131) and a watercolor (FWN 1129), as well as photographs of the site by John Rewald and Pavel Machotka.
Anthea Callen. The Work of Art: Plein-Air Painting and Artistic Identity in Nineteenth-Century France. London, 2015, p. 168, fig. 1 (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 445, no. 387, ill. pp. 392, 445 (color).
François Chédeville inPaul Cezanne: Le chant de la terre. Ed. Daniel Marchesseau. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2017, p. 21, fig. 5 (color).
Daniel Marchesseau inPaul Cezanne: Le chant de la terre. Ed. Daniel Marchesseau. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2017, p. 174, compares it to "Aqueduc du canal du Verdon au nord d'Aix" (private collection, Switzerland).
Alexander Eiling inCézanne: Metamorphoses. Ed. Alexander Eiling. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe, 2017, p. 193 n. 10, calls it "Montagne Sainte-Victoire Seen from Montbriand (La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de Montbriand)".
"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. 140, 365 n. 54, fig. 141 (color).
Faya Causey inCezanne to Malevich: Arcadia to Abstraction. Ed. Judit Geskó. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. Budapest, 2021, p. 59, ill. p. 56, fig. 1 (color overall and detail), as "Montagne Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley"; notes its schematic documentation of the site’s surface geology.
Cézanne made some seventy paintings and watercolors of Mont Sainte-Victoire, from the 1870s to the early 1900s. This picture and three others were executed from the same or similar vantage point (about 1882, private collection, Venturi 1936, no. 453, Rewald 1996, no. 512; 1886–87, Phillips Collection, Washington, V455, R598; about 1887, Courtauld Gallery, London, V454, R599).
Publishing and Marketing Assistant Rachel High discusses the work of Marsden Hartley and his relationship to his native state with Marsden Hartley's Maine co-curator Randall Griffey.
Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
1878–80
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