Interesting Art Stories: 62. The Boy in the Red Vest, Paul Cézanne, ACJ Art Academy

 

 

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Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 62nd story is “The Boy in the Red Vest” by Paul Cézanne.

"The Boy in the Red Vest" is a painting by Paul Cézanne, painted in 1889 (or 1890), and it is one of the paintings showing Cézanne's mature feeling after 1880.

Self-portrait, Paul Cézanne (1875)

Cézanne rarely used professional models when painting figures, but this painting is one of the exceptions. The model for this painting was Michelangelo di Rosa, an Italian boy, and Cézanne painted four oil paintings and two watercolors of this boy in a red vest.

He painted this boy in all different poses, and through this process, he studied the relationship between the figure and space.

The most famous and commonly mentioned of the four oil paintings of the same title, this painting depicts a melancholic boy sitting with his elbow on a table and his head cradled in his hand, looking at the white paper on the table. 

The Foundation E.G. Bührle, which now owns the painting, described it as "There is a perfect balance here of high compositional intelligence and spontaneous painterly intuition." 

Foundation E. G. Bührle Collection

In 1895, art critic Gustave Geffroy also said the painting could stand comparison with the finest figure paintings of the Old Masters. 

Portrait of Gustave Geffroy, Paul Cézanne
(1895)

This painting of rich colors is organized with three main diagonals: the angle of the boy's tilted back and head, the angle of the dark green curtain behind the boy, and the long angle of the seat and table.

In 1895, the art dealer Ambroise Vollard acquired the painting from Cézanne, followed by art collectors Marcell Nemes in 1909 and Gottlieb Reber in 1913. The painting was then taken over by art collector and patron Emil Georg Bührle in 1948, and after Bührle’s death in 1956, his heirs donated it to the Foundation E.G. Bührle in 1960.

Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, Paul Cézanne
(1899)

Emil Georg Bührle

In February 2008, the painting, the most valuable painting of the foundation at the time, was stolen from the Foundation and recovered in Serbia in April 2012.

The following are three other paintings of the boy by Cézanne with the same title during the same period.

Thank you.

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The Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 92. Roger Dutilleul (1919)

 

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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani.

The 92nd work to introduce for this week is “Roger Dutilleul” in 1919.

This work is an expressionist style portrait and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 100 x 65 cm and possessed in private collection.

Roger Dutilleul, born in Paris on December 19, 1872, and died in Paris on January 22, 1956, was an art collector and a patron of artists.

Roger Dutilleul

He began his collection in 1905 with major art dealers, such as Ambroise Vollard or Léonce Rosenberg. In 1907, he met Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, an art collector who had just opened his own gallery at the time, and became one of his first clients.

Ambroise Vollard

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler

Dutilleul once remarked, "There is no such thing as abstract or figurative, there is just good painting." It was a fine motto for him, who collected about fifteen Modigliani works and dozens of works by various artists such as Braque, Derain, Vlaminck, Picasso, Matisse, Leger, and Miro. He was a great bourgeois, a refined man and, like Paul Guillaume, a true lover of avant-garde art. 

Georges Braque

Discovering some of Modigliani's works in Paul Guillaume's gallery, he received an offer for his other works from Constant Lepoutre, an art dealer who introduced him to Zborowski, and then purchased all the works of Modigliani that Zborowski possessed. Then, Zborowski suggested Dutilleul for the model of Modigliani. 

Portrait of Paul Guillaume, Amedeo
Modigliani (1915)

Portrait of Constant Lepoutre, Amedeo
Modigliani (1916)

Portrait of Leopold Zborowski, Amedeo
Modigliani (1919)

Modigliani's portrait of Dutilleul shows an aristocratic elegance comparable to that of his first patron, Paul Alexandre, painted in 1909. The portrait of Dutilleul, painted ten years after Modigliani painted Alexandre's portrait, is characterized by the muted color, the very thin painting and the slightly tilted head compared to Alexandre's portrait. 

Portrait of Paul Alexandre, Amedeo
Modigliani (1909)

Also, as a token of his gratitude to his other patron, Dutilleul, Modigliani portrays him in his work as a benevolent and dignified figure. This portrait was painted in three sessions totaling seven and a half hours.

Thank you.

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