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Portrait
de Cezanne
Delteil 13,
Leymarie & Melot 13*
etching, 1874, on medium-fine
beige wove paper, a fine impression of the only known state,
before the posthumous 1920 edition, printed somewhat dry but
with full detail, with good margins, some slight lightstaining
from the opening in an old mount, a minuscule restoration in
the lower shaded area of the collar without paper loss, otherwise
in very good condition
P. 270x218mm., S. 314x259mm.
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Delteil mentions only
18 to 20 signed impressions in 1874, and subsequently 75 stamped
and numbered impressions in 1920; Cailac added another exceedingly
small (trial?) run of 3 impressions in 1911. It would appear that
the present impression is from this intermediate edition, which
we unfortunately have not been able to document any more fully
given its extreme rarity. It is known that the family proceeded
with trial printings of the master's plates in the years after
his death, and it is possible that Cailac was indeed referring
to these. Whatever may be, the present impression is not from
the known posthumous edition of 1920 by virtue of the type of
paper and the printing style itself.
The early 1870s were
crucial to the development of Impressionism. Having known each
other for over a decade, Cezanne moved to Auvers-sur-Oise in 1872,
initiating a period of close and fruitful collaboration with Pissarro,
often working side by side. The following year Pissarro presented
him to Dr. Gachet, with whom they both practiced etching. And
1874 was the year of the first Impressionist exhibition...
The present portrait
bears witness to this working friendship, and which is one of
the earliest known portraits of Cezanne, ruggedly skillful in
evoking the artist heavily cloaked in his overcoat and cap, typical
of the artist who would stalk the countryside in search of a motif,
painting out-of-doors "en pleine air".
* See also Ludovic-Rodo
Pissarro, "The Etched and Lithographed Work of Camille Pissarro,"
in Print Collector's Quarterly IX, pp. 275-301, 1922; Jean
Cailac, "The Prints of Camille Pissarro," in Print
Collector's Quarterly, XIX, 1932; Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro and
Lionel Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son Art, son Oeuvre,
1939; Ralph Shikes and Paula Harper, Pissarro: His Life and
Work, 1980
