NARRATOR:
Paul Cézanne was in his late 20s when he painted this portrait of his uncle Dominique Aubert. Slabs of raw color, applied with the palette knife, evoke the sitter’s broad, rough-hewn features. Look, for example, beneath the sitter’s right eye at the swirl of red or at his lip, suggested by a stroke of red. Mustache and goatee are just a thick circle of black paint.
Cézanne gradually refined his bold modeling technique to build form from small, deliberate patches of color. A painter, he noted, must look carefully and consider every brushstroke:
CÉZANNE [ACTOR]:
“He must do everything with much reflection, because every color-touch must contain air, light, the object, the plan, the character, the drawing and the style; in a word, all that which constitutes a painting.”
NARRATOR:
In the summer and fall of 1866, Cézanne made nine paintings of his uncle, depicting him in various guises: as a monk, a lawyer, and a man with a turban. Here, his approach is very straightforward and direct. Cezanne’s aggressive application of paint reflects his interest in the structure and solidity of forms which would ultimately inspire the Cubists at the turn of the following century.
Despite the imagination of this portrait, Cézanne was notoriously difficult to get along with. His fiery temperament and antipathy to people led him to gradually withdraw from society.
To hear how the artist himself described his character and philosophy, press 3271.
Uncle Dominique
1866
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
On View
Staying with his family outside Aix-en-Provence, Cézanne painted nine portraits of his maternal uncle Antoine Dominique Sauveur Aubert in late 1866. He worked quickly, using both a brush and a palette knife and applying paint almost as though it were cement. The resulting works are not only images but also emphatically material objects. As we look at them, we cannot help but consider the process of their making. In the 1870s, Cézanne abandoned this bracing, savage manner in favor of the analytic approach for which he is best remembered today.
Details
- Artist Name: Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
- Title: Uncle Dominique
- Date: 1866
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 18-1/8 x 15 in. (46.1 x 38.2 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1968.31.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris].
Auguste Pellerin (d. 1929) [by 1923], Paris, by inheritance to;
Jean-Victor Pellerin, Paris (sale, Galerie Charpentier Paris, 8 June 1956 to);
[Davey (Knoedlers, stock no. 6380)].
Frances Vogel (Mrs. A. L.) Spitzer, New York, by 1959 - still in 1967.
[Jane Wade, Ltd., New York, sold 17 September 1968 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Auguste Pellerin (d. 1929) [by 1923], Paris, by inheritance to;
Jean-Victor Pellerin, Paris (sale, Galerie Charpentier Paris, 8 June 1956 to);
[Davey (Knoedlers, stock no. 6380)].
Frances Vogel (Mrs. A. L.) Spitzer, New York, by 1959 - still in 1967.
[Jane Wade, Ltd., New York, sold 17 September 1968 to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Homage to Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
- London, Wildenstein & Co., 1939-07 to
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- Novotny, Fritz, Paul Cézanne,pl. 2
- John Elderfield, Cézanne Portraits,2017, Fig. 24 pp. 54-56 ; p. [65] (ill.)
- Rivière, Georges, Le Maître Paul Cézanne, pp. 155, 196
- Shapiro, Meyer, Paul Cézanne, p. 56
- Barnes, Albert; and Violette de Mazia, The Art of Cézanne,pp. 11, no. 13, 74, no. 50, 311, no. 14, 402, no. 5 pp. 11, 74, 311, 402
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