Paul Cézanne is rightly remembered for his important contribution to the rise of Modernism in the twentieth century. His paintings introduced a novel visual language of form, perspective, and structure, challenging age-old conventions in the formal arrangement of a picture. "Trees and Houses near the Jas de Bouffan" was painted "sur le motif," directly from nature, its view taken south of the Jas de Bouffan, the Cézanne family residence near Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne treats his subject with great economy: his brush marks are lean and articulated, his palette of yellows and greens is relatively simple, and areas of the canvas are unbrushed, exposing ground in patches that read as color. All his life, Cézanne played with spatial relationships in nature, whether working from life or from memory. Here the bare, attenuated trees appear as a frieze against the zones of recessive color, applied as though watercolor, not oil, were the medium.
Ambroise Vollard, Paris; The Paul Guillaume Gallery, London, by 1929; Brandon Davis (1875-1931), London; Gabriel Cognacq, Paris, by 1936; Cognacq sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, May 14, 1952, no. 27, pl. 25 (as Paysage--Arbres et maisons); purchased at the 1952 Cognacq sale by Sam Salz, New York; acquired from Sam Salz, New York, by Robert Lehman, New York 1952.
Alois Riegl. Ein Orientalischer Teppich vom Jahre 1202 N. Chr. und die Altesten Orientalischen Teppiche. Berlin, 1895, pp. 224, 232, ill.
Paul Guillaume Gallery. Les Arts à Paris no. 16 (January 1929), p. 24, ill. (as Le Tholonet, The Paul Guillaume Gallery, Londres).
Robert Laurent. "The Hamilton Easter Field Foundation." The Arts (May 1930), p. 622, ill.
Georges Grappe. "Cézanne." L'Illustration 97 (1939), p. 402, color ill. (as Arbres et Maisons; Collection Gabriel Cognacq).
Adrien-Piere Bagarry. "Le Centenaire de Cézanne." La Renaissancede l'Art Français 22 (March 1939), p. 2-8, ill.
Sheldon Cheney. The Story of Modern Art. [4th reprint, 1947]. New York, 1941, p. 223, ill.
Pierre-Marie Auzas. Peintures de Cézanne. Paris, 1946, pl. 13.
Bernard Dorival. Cézanne. [English ed., 1948]. Paris, 1948, pp. 71, 158, colorpl. 83.
Francis Jourdain. Cézanne. Paris, 1950, n.p., ill.
Pierre-Marie Auzas. Peintures de Cézanne. Paris, 1950, pl. 13.
Unknown. "Extraordinary Prices for French Nineteenth-Century Masters." Illustrated London News (May 4, 1952), p. 891, ill.
Unknown. "Cézanne Painting Brings $94,281 in Sale of Big French Collection." New York Times (1952), p. 33 (as Countryside, Trees and Houses).
John Rewald. Cézanne: Paysages. Paris, 1958, pl. 8 (as La Maison Derrière les Arbres [Environs du Jas de Bouffan]).
Enio Sindona. Galleria della Pittura Europea. Exh. cat.Milan, 1961, p. 230, color ill.
Musée de l'Orangerie. Collection Jean Walter-Paul Guillaume. Exh. cat.Paris, 1966, p. 31, no. 10.
Sandra Orienti. The Complete Paintings of Cézanne. New York, 1972, no. 400 (as Houses).
Meyer Schapiro. P. Cézanne. Paris, 1973, pl. 18.
George Szabó. The Robert Lehman Collection: A Guide. New York, 1975, pp. 92-93, colorpl. 95.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born in or before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1980, vol. 1, p. 26, vol. 3, p. 616, ill.
Musée de l'Orangerie. Catalogue de la Collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume. Exh. cat.Paris, 1984, p. 30 under no. 9, ill.
Richard Kendall, ed. Cézanne by Himself: Drawings, Paintings, Writings. London, 1988, p. 143, color ill.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 467, ill. (as House Behind Trees on the Road to Tholonet) .
John Rewald. The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné. Vol. 1 and 2, New York, 1996, vol. 1, no. 548 (as Arbres et Maisons, 1885-86), p. 370 vol. 2, p. 180, ill.
Viviane Rosé. Temps, affect, sensation: De Cézanne à Matisse. Vol. 2, Lille, 2004, pp. 104-5.
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Paintings in the Robert Lehman Collection. vol. 3, New York, 2009, pp. 84-92.
Scott G Davis. Believing and Acting: the Pragmatic Turn in Comparative Religion and Ethics. New York and Oxford, 2012, p. 5.
JoAnne Bauer. Drawn Parallels: a Woman's Life in Poetry and Art. March 2014, p. 53.
Ivana J. Marcikić Marijana V. Paunović. "Inverse Perspective in Cézanne's Art." FME Transactions 45 no. 2 (2017), pp. 301-306.
Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
1873
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