Paul Cezanne, 'Self Portrait', about 1880-1

Self Portrait

Paul Cezanne

Room 44

About the work

Overview

Paul Cezanne was about 40 years old when he painted this self portrait in Paris around 1880–1. He was now middle-aged with a family to support, and the intensity of his earlier self portraits has here given way to a more distant and reflective presence. Although relatively small, the portrait has a monumentality and authority to it. This was a significant period in the artist’s life, as he had stopped exhibiting with the Impressionist group after 1879 and was spending more time in the south of France, away from the capital.

Cezanne stares at us calmly and dispassionately, his face devoid of overt expression. The wallpaper he poses before is not merely a decorative backdrop, but has an important structural role in the composition. By using elements of its pattern throughout the picture, Cezanne has fully integrated himself with his surroundings. Despite the portrait’s simple format, he has created a composition full of subtle echoes and repetitions.

In-depth

Cezanne was about 40 years old when he painted this self portrait in his apartment in Paris around 1880–1. This was a significant period in his life, as he had stopped exhibiting with the Impressionist group after 1879 and was spending more time in the south of France, away from the capital. He was now middle-aged with a family to support, and the intensity of his earlier self portraits has given way to a more distant and reflective presence. Although relatively small, this portrait has a monumentality and authority to it. Despite its simple format, Cezanne has created a composition formed of subtle dualities and repetitions

Most likely looking into a mirror, Cezanne stares at us calmly and dispassionately, his face devoid of overt expression. The light coming in from the left of the picture, probably from a window, illuminates one side of his head and casts the other in shadow, giving volume to the cranium placed against the flat plane of the wall. Cezanne constructed the dome of the head with layers of paint formed of short oblique patches of colour laid down in parallel strokes. He used the whites, reds and ochre we might expect for skin tones, but his ear and the top of his head are outlined in blue, and there are also bluish shadows and touches of light green on the right side of the head. These colours echo tints in the jacket and in the slightly lighter tones of the dull olive-green wallpaper. On the left, a vertical band of plain pale blue relieves the potentially oppressive effect of the dominant olive-brown palette and suggests space beyond.

The wallpaper itself, which appears in other paintings, is not merely a decorative backdrop, but has an important structural role in the composition. By repeating elements of its pattern throughout the picture, Cezanne has fully integrated himself with his surroundings. For example, he positioned himself against the wallpaper so that the triangle formed by his outline is echoed by the two sides of a triangle behind the top half of his head. He has also deliberately halted the diagonal lines of the wallpaper pattern before they reach him. As a result, his pale head not only stands out more clearly against the dark paper, but his curved cranium is both emphasised by and contrasts with the three straight lines of a large diamond. Like a halo it frames the left side of his head, the curve of which is echoed by the right shoulder. The lines of the wallpaper only make contact with Cezanne himself at his upturned left lapel, its zigzag outline repeating the pattern of the paper. Similarly, the wallpaper’s motif of star-crossed diamond-shaped lozenges, which themselves echo the principal pattern of the paper, is repeated by the shape of his right eye and ear. The eyes themselves are not quite symmetrical: the left is flat and set back in shadow, while the right is fully open and alert. A gleam of light on the iris is rendered by a tiny lick of golden-brown paint.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Self Portrait
Artist: Paul Cezanne
Artist dates: 1839 - 1906
Date made: about 1880-1
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 34.7 × 27 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, Courtauld Fund, 1925
Inventory number: NG4135
Location: Room 44
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 17th-century French Frame

Provenance

Said to have been sold by the painter to Bernheim Jeune, Paris, 1902. Purchased from the Independent Gallery, London by the Trustees of the Courtauld Fund, 1925. Transferred from the Tate Gallery, 1961.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, with additions and some revisions by Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc.’, London 1970; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2008

Picasso et les Maîtres

Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais

8 October 2008 - 2 February 2009
2011

Cézanne and Paris

Musée du Luxembourg

12 October 2011 - 26 February 2012
2013

About Face

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

17 May 2013 - 1 September 2013
2017

Cézanne Portraits

Musée d'Orsay

13 June 2017 - 24 September 2017

National Portrait Gallery (London)

26 October 2017 - 11 February 2018

National Gallery of Art (Washington DC)

25 March 2018 - 8 July 2018
2018

Courtauld Impressionists: From Manet to Cézanne

The National Gallery (London)

17 September 2018 - 20 January 2019
2020

In the Picture

Van Gogh Museum

21 February 2020 - 30 August 2020

Bibliography

1926

J.B. Manson, 'The Courtauld Collection', Apollo, 1926, pp. 92-6
1926

R.R. Tatlock, 'The Courtauld Trust', The Burlington Magazine, XLVIII, 1926, pp. 56-65
1927

R. Fry, Cézanne: A Study of His Development, London 1927
1936

L. Venturi, Cézanne: Son art, son oeuvre, Paris 1936
1948

B. Dorival, Cézanne, Paris 1948
1954

D. Cooper, The Courtauld Collection: A Catalogue and Introduction, London 1954
1956

L. Gowing, 'Notes on the Development of Cézanne', The Burlington Magazine, XCVIII, 1956, pp. 185-92
1959

R. Alley, Tate Gallery Catalogues: The Foreign Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1959
1966

M.-T. Lemoyne de Forges, G. Allemand and M. Bundorf, Collection Jean Walter-Paul Guillaume (exh. cat. Musée de l'Orangerie, 1966), Paris 1966
1970

Davies, Martin, and Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc., London 1970
1983

M. Wilson, French Painting after 1800, London 1983
1994

J. House, Impressionisim for England: Samuel Courtauld as Patron and Collector, London 1994
1996

J. Rewald, W. Feilchenfeldt and J. Warman, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné, London 1996
1998

R. Shiff et al., Classic Cézanne (exh. cat. Art Gallery of New South Wales, 28 November 1998 - 28 February 1999), Sydney 1998
2000

M.T. Lewis, Cézanne, London 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

S. Platzman, Cézanne: The Self Portraits, London 2001
2005

A. Bond and J. Woodall, Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary (exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, 20 October 2005 - 29 January 2006; Art Gallery of New South Wales, 17 February - 14 May 2006), London 2005
2006

A. Dumas and N. Ireson, Cézanne in Britain, (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 4 October 2006 - 7 January 2007), London 2006
2008

E. Reissner, 'Ways of Making: Practice and Innovation in Cézanne's Paintings in the National Gallery', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XXIX, 2008, pp. 4-30

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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You've viewed 6 of 13 works

Paul Cezanne, 'Self Portrait', about 1880-1

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Paul Cezanne