MASP

Paul Cézanne

The Great Pine, 1890-96

  • Author:
    Paul Cézanne
  • Bio:
    Aix-en-Provence, França, 1839-Aix-en-Provence, França ,1906
  • Title:
    The Great Pine
  • Date:
    1890-96
  • Medium:
    Óleo sobre tela
  • Dimensions:
    85,5 x 92,5 cm
  • Credit line:
    Doação João Chammas, Antonio Adib Chammas e Geremia Lunardelli, 1951
  • Object type:
    Pintura
  • Inventory number:
    MASP.00089
  • Photography credits:
    Eduardo Ortega

TEXTS



The son of a banker, Cézanne studied law in Aix, but following his first trip to Paris, in 1861, he decided to dedicate himself to painting after seeing the classical works in the Louvre, by Courbet (1819-1877) and Manet (1832-1883). Until the 1880s, his production possessed romantic lines, inspired above all by the lyricism and pictorial technique of Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), an artist whom he admired from afar all his life. He participated, unsuccessfully, in the exhibitions of the impressionist group in 1874 and 1877, later withdrawing to Provence. Cézanne was much admired by a small group of young artists, even though he was unrecognized by the public and rejected at the official exhibitions. From 1899 until after his death, however, interest in his work grew, and he is now considered a cornerstone for the development of modern art. The Great Pine (1890-96) looks just like another three paintings by Cézanne. The upper part of the canvas was enlarged by 12 cm, to make the composition more proportional and balanced. A letter from Cézanne to his friend Émile Zola (1840-1902) tells how it was under that tree, growing at the edge of a chasm, that he protected himself from the sun in his childhood. More than just an object in a landscape, the tree has an individuality, it is a sort of hero for the painter: its trunk is vigorous and the leaves nearly touch the sky. It is believed that this painting was made based on a photograph.

— MASP Curatorial Team




By Luciano Migliaccio
During the painting process of The Great Pine, Cézanne added a strip nearly twelve centimeters wide to the upper canvas margin, showing his quest for perfect proportion, comparable to Poussin’s. A dissatisfied Cézanne probably restarted the work at least three times (Kostenevitch). The landscape seems to be the same as in Great Pine Tree near Aix (St. Petersburg, Hermitage), Great Pine Tree and Red Rocks (Lecomte Collection, Paris), and the watercolor Study of a Tree (Zurich, Kunsthaus). The dating of this work in critical literature has varied. Javorskaya and Reff have dated it between 1895 and 1897; Rewald, between 1890 and 1895, and Cooper, between 1889 and 1891. Probably the canvas was painted in Montbriant at the property of Conil, Cézanne’s brother-in-law, between 1892 and 1896 (Camesasca 1979, p. 72 and 1989, p. 118). Schapiro considers that the tree portrayed must have been dear to the artist since his childhood days. In fact, Cézanne mentioned it in letter of 1858 to Zola: “Do you remember the pine tree planted on the Arc, unfolding its long-haired head over the gorge opening at its feet? The pine tree that with its branches shielded our bodies from the sun’s heat. Ah! May the gods deliver it from a woodcutter’s ax!”. Cézanne referred to the same tree in the following verse he wrote in 1863: “And the tree swung by the raging wind, waves in the air as an immense body / Its galled, bowed branches gliding in the mistral.” In Schapiro’s opinion, in this picture a lyric conception prevails in which the tree is represented as a heroic individuality denoted in each of its parts, from the tortured, though uniquely vigorous trunk to the leaves that nearly reach the sky. In this phase of his life, Cézanne tended toward a homogeneous and synthetic solidity, which he achieved through a fluid and transparent color fusion. Instead of taking up the massive form of columns, his trees assume a more ample relief, with their languid and wavy branches. The composition itself deserves to be viewed for what it is. In no other picture does Cézanne’s landscape demonstrate such a high degree of independence in relation to previous tradition. Perhaps the work of Théodore Rousseau, Journal de l’Été (Paris, Louvre), may be seen as a predecessor of this trend, though in a very distant manner and with a different iconography. At least on one occasion, in Snow under the Sun in Fontainebleau (New York, Museum of Modern Art), Cézanne used a photograph, which was found in his studio after his death, as source of inspiration. Camesasca (1989, p. 120) suggests that, to paint the picture in the Masp Collection, Cézanne may have used a calotype produced by Fox Talbot, in 184o, presently conserved at the London Science Museum.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

Source: Luiz Marques (org.), Catalogue of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo: MASP, 1998. (new edition, 2008).



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