NARRATOR:
Paul Cézanne wrote:
CÉZANNE (ACTOR):
“There are two things in the painter—the eye and the mind; each of them should aid the other. It is necessary to work at their mutual development—in the eye by looking at nature, in the mind by the logic of organized sensations, which provides the means of expression.”
NARRATOR:
Cézanne looked at his subjects with a conceptual eye, and analyzed their underlying structure. Building the objects and the space around them with equally methodical care, he developed a unique treatment of space, mass, and color, creating a new formal system of painting.
This deceptively simple still life titled Tulips in a Vase is a brilliant asymmetrical composition. The slightest change would disrupt the tightly unified structure of the painting. The round fruit cut off at the left, and the vase tipped a bit toward them, are stabilized by the angled edge of the table abruptly cut off at the right. By painting the table and the background in the same mottled shades of blue, Cézanne made the space between the objects seem as solid as the objects themselves. Look at the leaf at the lower right, and how the space to the left of it echoes its shape….
Cézanne painted this work before 1890, but after he returned from Paris to his childhood home in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. There, he worked in artistic isolation, concentrating on a few subjects: still lifes, bathers in landscape, and views of the local mountain, Mont Saint-Victoire.
Cézanne exhibited little in his lifetime. But shortly after his death in 1906, his art became a fundamental influence on the Cubists, and on virtually all advanced painters of the early 20th century. Almost forty years later, Picasso exclaimed:
PICASSO (ACTOR):
“Cézanne! It was the same with all of us—he was like our father.”
Tulips in a Vase
1888-1890
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
On View
The exuberant vertical format of this still life makes it almost unique in Cézanne’s oeuvre. Though he had begun painting flowers in the 1870s alongside his friend and mentor Pissarro, Cézanne seldom painted tulips. More familiar in his work are the glowing fruits gathered on the table at left, a counterpoint to the bright blooms in the upper half of the composition. Although the artist likely painted this picture while visiting his wife in Paris, the earthenware vase in which the flowers are arranged is a souvenir of his native Provence.
Details
- Artist Name: Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
- Title: Tulips in a Vase
- Date: 1888-1890
- Medium: Oil on paper, mounted on board
- Dimensions: 28-1/2 x 16-1/2 in. (72.4 x 41.9 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon
- Accession Number: M.1976.12.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
The artist, sold ca. 1896 to;
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, stock no. 4040, as Fleur de Lis Rouge dans un Pot Vert qqs Fruits à Côté].
Egisto Fabbri, Florence, sold for 3000 francs to;
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, stock no. 3365, as Nature Morte: Bouquet de Tulipes, by 1904].
[Paul Cassirer, Berlin, in March, 1905, to];
Julius Stern, Berlin by April, 1905 (sale, Berlin, Cassirer und Helbing, 22 May 1916, lot 8, ill., as Rote Tulpen in einem grünen Topf, to);
Sally Falk, Mannheim, sold 11 April 1918 to;
[Paul Cassirer, Berlin, sold 20 April 1918 to];
Meta (Mrs. Franz) Schütte, Bremen, still in 1927, by descent to;
Mme. Irene von Le Suier (née Schütte), Bremen.
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris].
Edith Dunn (Mrs. Alfred Chester) Beatty, London, by 1936, by inheritance in 1952 to;
Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), London and Dublin, consigned December 1961 to;
[Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, sold 15 January 1962 to];
Norton Simon, Los Angeles (sale, New York, Sotheby's, 2 May 1973, lot 8, color ill., as Vase de Tulipes, to);
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, on behalf of];
Norton Simon, gift 22 December 1976 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, stock no. 4040, as Fleur de Lis Rouge dans un Pot Vert qqs Fruits à Côté].
Egisto Fabbri, Florence, sold for 3000 francs to;
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris, stock no. 3365, as Nature Morte: Bouquet de Tulipes, by 1904].
[Paul Cassirer, Berlin, in March, 1905, to];
Julius Stern, Berlin by April, 1905 (sale, Berlin, Cassirer und Helbing, 22 May 1916, lot 8, ill., as Rote Tulpen in einem grünen Topf, to);
Sally Falk, Mannheim, sold 11 April 1918 to;
[Paul Cassirer, Berlin, sold 20 April 1918 to];
Meta (Mrs. Franz) Schütte, Bremen, still in 1927, by descent to;
Mme. Irene von Le Suier (née Schütte), Bremen.
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris].
Edith Dunn (Mrs. Alfred Chester) Beatty, London, by 1936, by inheritance in 1952 to;
Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), London and Dublin, consigned December 1961 to;
[Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, sold 15 January 1962 to];
Norton Simon, Los Angeles (sale, New York, Sotheby's, 2 May 1973, lot 8, color ill., as Vase de Tulipes, to);
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, on behalf of];
Norton Simon, gift 22 December 1976 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Salon d'Automne
- Paris, Petit Palais, 1904-10-15 to 1904-11-15
[Group Exhibition]
- Paul Cassirer (Gallery), 1909-11-17 to 1909-12-12
Erste Ausstellung der freien Secession
- Secession Ausstellungshaus, 1914-04-12 to 1914-09
Exposition Cézanne (1836-1906), organisée a l'occasion de son centenaire au profit de l'oeuvre de l' allitement maternel
- Paris, Paul Rosenberg Gallery, 1939-02-21 to 1939-04-01
Delacroix to Dufy: French Paintings of the 19th and 20th centuries, in aid of the Contemporary Art Society
- London, Reid & Lefevre Gallery, 1946-06 to 1946-07
[on loan]
- National Gallery of Ireland, 1954-09 to
XXVII.-XXVIII. Sonderausstellung. Franzosische Malerei bis 1914 und Deutsche Kunstler des Cafe du Dome
- Hannover, Kestner Gesellschaft, 1919-09-07 to 1919-11-12
Homage to Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
- Wildenstein & Co. (London, England), 1939-07 to
Internationale Kunstausstellung des Sonderbundes westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler zu Köln
- Städtische Ausstellungshalle, 1912-05-25 to 1912-09-30
Special Exhibition for the College Art Association (Mr. and Mrs. Norton Simon Collection)
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1965-01-18 to 1965-04-16
Significant Objects: The Spell of Still Life
- Norton Simon Museum, 2012-07-20 to 2013-01-21
The Nabis
- Norton Simon Museum, 1992-09-24 to 1993-07-18
Reinstallation of South Wing
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
- Vollard, Abroise, Paul Cézanne, pl. 45
- Westheim, Das Kunstblatt, p. 234
- Kunst und Kunstler, p. 203
- Zeisho, Atzouji, Paul Cézanne, fig. 13
- Mack, Gerstle, Paul Cézanne, pl. 26
- L'Illustration,
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- Orienti, Sandra; and Gaëtan Picon, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Cézanne, no. 825 p. 124
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- Kennedy, Brian P., Irish Arts Review, Appendix 4 p. 51
- Stiftung und Sammlung Sally Falk, no. 57 pp. 122, 152
- Rewald, John, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné, no. 721 p. 249
- Paul Cézanne-Mappe. Funfzehn Autotypen, 1912, no. 5
- Meier-Graefe, Julius, Paul Cézanne und Sein Kreis, 1918, pp. 142
- Deri, Max, Die Malerei im XIX. Jahrhundert, 1919, pl. 43 pp. 197-198
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- Duret, Théodore, Histoire des peintres impressionistes, 1939, p. 167
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- Selected Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum Pasadena, California, 1980, p. 117
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- von Nagy, K., Welt am Sonntag, 1987, sec. 6 p. 55
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 159, back cover
- Homburg, Cornelia, The Copy Turns Original: Vincent van Gogh and a new approach to traditional art practice, 1996, no. 385, fig. 75 pp. 122, 149
- Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art, Part I, 2001, fig. 4 p. 41
- Museums Los Angeles, 2004, pp. 6, 38
- Steeves, H. Peter, The Things Themselves: Phenomenology and the Return of the Everyday, 2006, 5.5 p. 93
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 103 p. 257
- Dorothee Hansen et. al., Geburtstagsgäste - Monet bis van Gogh : Gustav Pauli und der Kampf um die Moderne, 2023, Abb. 5 pp. 97-99, p. 98 (ill.), p. 102 (ill.)
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