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Paul Cezanne French Post Impressionist Etching

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Paul Cezanne French Post Impressionist Etching
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Paul Cezanne (1839-1906, French). An original etching featuring a portrait of Armand Guillaumin with Hanged Man in the upper left corner. 6 x 4.5 in. (15.2 x 11.4 cm). The creation of original lithographs and etchings played a relatively small role within Cezanne's artistic oeuvre. This is somewhat surprising as one of his closest friends, Camille Pissarro, was perhaps the greatest and most prolific Impressionist etcher. It was only through the insistence of Pissarro, and that of another close painting associate, Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927), that Cezanne experimented with etching. In 1873 Pissarro had invited Cezanne and Guillaumin to stay with him at Pontoise and had also introduced them to Dr. Gachet. Gachet was an enthusiastic amateur etcher and prevailed on all the artists who came to see him to try their hand at etching; he even prepared the copper plates, supervised the biting and pulled the proofs on his own press. In total, Cezanne created five etchings during 1873 at the press of Dr. Gachet. The first attempt was a landscape etching based upon one of Guillaumin's paintings. The second etching was the Portrait of Guillaumin with the Hanged Man. The third etching was a landscape of the valley of the Bievre, the fourth a portrait entitled, Girl's Head, followed by the fifth and final etching, Landscape at Auvers. Each of these etchings was printed in only a handful of contemporary impressions. Cezanne only made nine prints during his lifetime, five etchings and four lithographs. All of the etchings date from July 1873 when he was experimenting with his friend, the painter Armand Guillaumin, who is portrayed in the etching entitled "At the sign of the hanged man." According to Michel Melot, The Impressionist Print (Yale University Press, 1996), the artists made their prints at the studio of Dr. Gachet, who had an etching press and had himself made a number of etchings. Melot describes Cezanne's etchings as characterized by the "extraordinary violence" with which Cezanne attacked the plate, experimenting with a technique in which he had never been trained. Raisonne: Michel Melot and Jean Leymarie, Les Gravures Des Impressionnistes, Paris, Arts et Metiers Graphiques, 1971. PROVENANCE: Private collection, Montreal, QC