''Portrait of Gustave Geffroy'' is a c. 1895 painting by the French

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

artist

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

. It portrays

Gustave Geffroy Gustave Geffroy (1 June 1855 – 4 April 1926) was a French journalist, art critic, historian and novelist. He was one of the ten founding members of the literary organisation Académie Goncourt in 1900. Geffroy is noted as one of the first histo ...

, a French novelist and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

noted as one of the earliest historians of

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

Background

In March 1894, Geffroy wrote a sympathetic article in the periodical ''

Le Journal ''Le Journal'' (The Journal) was a Paris daily newspaper published from 1892 to 1944 in a small, four-page format. Background It was founded and edited by Fernand Arthur Pierre Xau until 1899. It was bought and managed by the family of Henri ...

'' praising the work of painter

who until then had received little praise in critical circles.Newton, 41-42 Mutual friend

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

arranged for a meeting between the two in November of that year which ended abruptly due to Cézanne's oft-noted erratic behavior.Murphy, 100-01 Nonetheless, Geffroy continued to write favorably of Cézanne, believing, "He is a great teller of truth. Passionate and candid, silent and subtle, he will go to

The Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

."Murphy, 163-64 Cézanne expressed thanks in letters to Geffroy in the months following their meeting and, in a display of gratitude (and possible feeling that Geffroy understood him), he elected to paint Geffroy's

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

Subject's response

The painter sent the critic a request in April 1895, after which Geffroy sat for Cézanne daily over a span of three months in the study at his home in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. After the three months' time, Cézanne, disappointed with the portrait's results, fled both the painting and Paris itself for his home in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

. In a July 6 letter to Monet, he explained, "I am a little upset at the meager result I obtained, especially after so many sittings and successive bursts of enthusiasm and despair." It has also been speculated that, despite his words of gratitude in the same letter to Monet noting Geffroy's patience over the three-month span, the artist had built up feelings of resentment, even hostility, toward the critic, causing his abandonment of the project for seclusion in Aix.Howard, 135 Reasons for the breakdown in relations on Cézanne's part have been attributed to everything from politics to artistic principles to religion.

Legacy

Cézanne was unhappy with the painting and it was never finished, yet ''Portrait of Gustave Geffroy'' became a popular retrospective work after his death.

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

painters were interested in the

geometrical Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...

dimensions of the bookcase and perspective of vast table space in relation to the rest of the pictorial space. Geffroy noted that Cézanne painted the entire canvas at once, leaving the face and hands for last; they were ultimately unfinished. The portrait has been described as angular, with the figure of Geffroy centered as a pyramidal or triangular figure, and surrounded by shelves, books and figurines complementing and converging on top of his profile. The multiple angles of perspective, particularly with the books both in cases and on the table, have been noted for their "zig-zag" effect on the viewer, creating movement within the painting. The portrait has been noted as the continuation of a recurring Cézanne theme: people in their natural environment, reserved and unimposing, immersed in their everyday tasks.Schapiro, 100 It has also been compared to the earlier ''Portrait of Duranty'' by

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

, from which critics have speculated Cézanne drew inspiration. The painting was donated to the French state in 1969 by the family of collector

Auguste Pellerin Auguste Pellerin (20 February 1853, Paris - 18 October 1929, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French entrepreneur and art collector. He was one of the most important collectors of the works of Édouard Manet and Paul Cézanne at the beginning of the 20th ...

and is on permanent display at the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

in Paris.

References

Sources

* Howard, Michael. ''Cézanne''. New York: Gallery Books, 1990. * Murphy, Richard W. ''The World of Cézanne''. New York: Time-Life Books, 1968. * Newton, Joy. ''Cézanne's Literary Incarnations.'' French Studies: A Quarterly Review 61.1, 2007. 36-46. * Schapiro, Meyer. ''Cézanne''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988. * Wadley, Nicholas. ''Cézanne and his art''. New York: Galahad, 1975.

External links