Geraniums and larkspur FWN 720 1873 52cm x 39
The year of 1873 heralded a new beginning for Cezanne, and for France too. And you can see the simple contentedness and joy, the confidence and focus with which Cezanne realizes this beautiful, bubbling still-life. For France, the huge war debt imposed by the German government had all but been paid by public voluntary contributions, German forces had finally withdrawn from French territory, and France was at last a Republic; you could feel the collective sigh of relief, and sense the determined hope for the future. Cezanne spent the whole year with his partner Hortense, and their one year old son, in the Auvers and Pontoise region, North West of Paris; in the delightful company of Camille Pissarro, Julie and all their children. Their neighbour, Dr Gachet, had created a workshop which he encouraged all his friends to share. It was here and in the surrounding countryside that they and the crew would paint together, walk together, talk together, and eat together.
The year was for Cezanne transient, but oh so formative: what he learned and experienced in that year would stay deep in his soul forever. And he never ceased to give thanks for what his mentor Pissarro had given him. Cezanne only did about 30 paintings of flowers through-out his life; he was a slow painter, and the flowers simply did not last. It’s this vibrant, transient simplicity that Cezanne captures, and I think he does it well. Van Gogh was impressed too: he mentions in a letter the beautiful bouquets of Cezanne that he sees when he later stays with Dr Gachet.
It seems to me that the power of the flower is enhanced in recognizing how such transient beauty is essential to the unfolding of the evolutionary process of life; “a most perplexing phenomenon to all who believe in any form of evolution": this is what Darwin wrote about flowering plants to Swiss naturalist Oswald Heer in 1875. It’s somehow humbling and elevating at the same time to understand, as we do so clearly nowadays, that flowering plants have been around more than 200m years, as compared with homo sapiens’ meagre 200,000; and how, together with their cousins the conifers, they support and enable our very existence.
May I take this opportunity to suggest that you save in your favourites the catalogue raisonne under the direction of Walter Feilchenfeldt, Jane Warman, and David Nash (FWN). The first two guys collated Cezanne’s oil paintings into a paper catalogue with the famous devotee John Rewald (R), who passed away just before they finished it; then David Nash, I think he has a gallery in New York, joined the partnership to put all the work on line. As of now (2019), they’ve added Cezanne’s watercolours and everything. It’s well worth a look! I myself started to do a database of Cezanne’s oil paintings in 1999, but they beat me to it! Just to round this off, I should make mention of Lionello Venturi (V) who produced the first attempt at a catalogue of Cezanne’s work in 1936: so we generally have (fortunately only) three reference identifiers: FWN 720, is R226, is V180…..(we do not have an MB123 !!!).
Cezanne puts his signature in red in the band of black, at the bottom of the painting. Funnily enough, Cezanne added his signature later: the story goes that Cezanne paid his bill in the local village grocer’s shop in exchange for this painting; and that the shop owner, a one Armand Rondest, asked him to sign it; Pissarro and family did their shopping there, as did Renoir, and later Van Gogh (they stayed with Dr Gachet): I have this wonderful image of the Rondest Grocer’s shop lined with Cezanne’s, Pissarro’s, Renoir’s and Van Gogh’s, and I only came in for a baguette!
“The beauty of this day doesn't depend on its lasting forever.”
Marty Rubin
Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the truths and the realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
And the experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today, well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well to this day;
Such is the greeting of the ever-new dawn.
Kalidasa (adapted)
Indian poet c 400