Art

When masters meet

PICASSO-CEZANNE 2009

Fifty years after Picasso’s arrival in Aix-en-Provence at the Château de Vauvenargues, at the foot of the Montagne Ste-Victoire eight miles east of the town, the Musée Granet has opened an exhibition which brings together for the first time some of his finest work with that of the great artist from Aix, Cézanne. With 80 to 100 works by both masters – paintings, sculptures, drawings, and etchings - from public and private collections from all over the world including Washington’s National Gallery of Art, the Courtauld Collection, and the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the exhibition will demonstrate the influence of Cézanne on contemporary painting, and especially on Picasso, who with his kindred spirit Georges Braque was inspired by Cézanne’s work to take the first steps into what would evolve into the cubist movement.

Picasso was 42 years younger than Cézanne and never met him, but was the first to acknowledge the debt modern painting owed to the grand maître from Aix. “Cézanne is the father of us all,” he said soon after the French painter’s death in 1906. The exhibition explores this relationship in four main themes:

1. Picasso’s first encounters with Cézanne’s work during his stay in Paris from 1900 to the end of the Cubist movement

2. Picasso’s collection of Cézanne’s works: an avid collector himself, Picasso gave pride of place to several important works by the French master

3. Shared Themes and Subjects: Harlequins, bathers, seated models, as well as the usual nature morte, by both painters are presented together and compared

4. Picasso’s residence at the Château de Vauvenargues, in the spiritual homeland of Cézanne, within view of “Cézanne’s” Montagne Ste-Victoire

Château de Vauvenargues

The exhibition forms part of a larger wide-ranging festival of Picasso in Provence entitled Picasso-Aix 2009, with events and exhibitions in more than 30 venues in and around Aix. Included is the opening to the public of the Château de Vauvenargues, where Picasso is buried, for the first time in decades.

This exhibition took place in 2009