Madame Cézanne
By: Dita Amory ; with contributions by Philippe Cézanne, Ann Dumas, Charlotte Hale, Kathryn Kremnitzer, Marjorie Shelley, and Hilary Spurling
Contributors: Cezanne, Philippe, writer of supplementary textual content; Dumas, Ann, writer of supplementary textual content; Hale, Charlotte, 1959- writer of supplementary textual content; Kremnitzer, Kathryn, writer of supplementary textual content; Shelley, Marjorie, 1945- writer of supplementary textual content; Spurling, Hilary, writer of supplementary textual content; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Publisher: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Published: 2014
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9781588395467; 9780300208108
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Portraits; French Portrait painting; Exhibitions
Description: "Paul Cézanne's (1839-1906) portraits of Hortense Fiquet (1850-1922), his wife and the subject of some of his most iconic portraits, rank among the most powerful of their kind in French modernism. Yet, posterity has not been kind to Madame Cézanne. She was called a distraction, blamed for her husband's "lackluster" landscapes, and disdained for her impenetrable expression in the paintings. The reality is more complex, for while Fiquet may not have been the passion of Cézanne's lifetime, she was a willing accomplice, as model, mother of his only son, and unwavering partner against all odds. Madame Cézanne examines this unique relationship within the context of Cézanne as a painter, draftsman, and portraitist, and sheds light on the personal relationship between artist and muse. Featuring all 28 of Cézanne's oil portraits of Fiquet and most of the known drawings, Madame Cézanne both corrects, with insight and compassion, the long-held misconceptions about the Cézannes' unconventional marriage, and shows how Cézanne's portraits of his wife provide a lens through which to better understand his overall technique"--Publisher's website.
Notes: Catalog of an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 19, 2014-March 15, 2015.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 186-190) and index.
Table of contents: title: Newly seeing the familiar: Paul Cézanne, Hortense Fiquet, and the portraits  -- Dita Amory; title: My great-grandmother Marie-Hortense Fiquet  -- Philippe Cézanne; title: A template for experimentation: Cézanne's process and the paintings of Hortense Fiquet  -- Charlotte Hale; title: The portraits of Madame Cézanne: changing perspectives  -- Ann Dumas; title: Cézanne as draftsman: sketchbooks and graphite drawings  -- Marjorie Shelley; title: Cézanne and Matisse paint their wives  -- Hilary Spurling; title: Re-imagining Cézanne -- Dita Amory and Kathryn Kremnitzer.