Thomas Bompard, head of the London department of Impressionist & Modern Art and curator of Actual Size, comments on Cezanne's masterpiece which is being auctioned at Sotheby's:
“This small but exceptional watercolor has all the power and grandeur of a large Renaissance fresco. All of Cezanne's genius is concentrated in this work: like an alchemist, the French artist creates form simply with light and colour. In this rare moment, he brings together two motifs particularly dear to him in a dazzling small-scale tour de force.
At the beginning of the century, the revolutionary works of Paul Cézanne started a process of fragmentation of reality in art that paved the way for the advent of Modernism.
Returning to a subject that had fascinated him since 1860, the artist painted bathers from the great French tradition as a compositional element to achieve a completely new and free aesthetic.
The skilful use of watercolor makes the figures almost weightless and completely immersed in nature. The figures are placed in a pyramidal composition which reveals a glimpse of the famous Sainte-Victoire mountain in the back register.
An entire generation of artists is indebted to the genius of Cezanne who was among the first to see a new world in the multiple possibilities of using space and light. In these few centimeters of paper it is also possible to trace the DNA of Picasso's inspiration for Cubism and his iconic Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Belonging to the last period of his life, the important work will be auctioned at Sotheby's in London on 21 June 2017, for the first time in almost thirty years, with an estimate of 4/6 million pounds.
The illustrious provenance of this work further enhances its quality and palatability, having been included in two of the largest auctions in Sotheby's history, spanning over 273 years. The story of the painting began in the collection of Cézanne's son and later found a home in the legendary collection of the German industrialist Robert von Hirsch, who had assembled one of the most significant collections in the world, which included impressionist and modern paintings, alongside ancient and medieval.
In June 1978 the famous von Hirsch's Sale was held at Sotheby's, still considered a mythical auction today – where the work was purchased by the British Rail Pension Fund for £140.000 ($259.000).
This work also refers to one of the three late Great Bathers, on which Cézanne was working at the time of his death, now held in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Cezanne's watercolors and drawings will be the subject of an extensive exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel from June to September 2017.
Paul Cézanne
Baigneuses, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire au fond
Watercolor and pencil
about 1902-1906
Estimate: £4,000,000 – 6,000,00
