On Saturday, I was in London to see this exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
This exhibition, which has just closed, has gathered together more than fifty portraits by this artist. When I was a student (the first time around), I studied Modern Languages, and we were allowed – in fact encouraged – to study the History of Art of the period we were studying. Cezanne fitted in to the ’19th-century French Literature’ category, particularly appropriately in his case, as Paul Cezanne was a close friend of one of the giants of the literary world, Emile Zola.
In the publicity brochure for the event, Cezanne is pictured on the page bottom right. My favourite painting in the whole exhibition was the one on the top left, depicting the artist’s son.
A frequent sitter for the portraits was Marie-Hortense Fiquet, who was an artist’s model. She was the mother of young Paul (see above). She later became Cezanne’s wife. Here she is seated in a red armchair.
But perhaps the most intriguing painting was a one of Madame Cezanne sewing, because her work was divided into squarish planes and looked like nothing so much as a quilt (well, maybe)!
If you would like to look at some more artists’ depictions of women who sew (including a few who knit), you might enjoy looking at an extensive collection (both historical and more modern) by clicking here.
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