2006 – Cézanne centenary

In 2006 two exhibitions will mark the centenary of the death of Paul Cézanne, one at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the other in Aix-en-Provence. These events might revitalise the market for Cezanne’s works, that has lost steam over the last five years.
Paul CÉZANNE’s artistic career can be divided into three distinct periods.
The first covers his early works, from 1861 (year in which his application to Beaux-Arts was rejected) to 1871. During this ten year period, Cézanne’s work eschewed classical forms in favour of a more personal style that was much influenced by the painters he met at the “Salon des Refusés” in 1963. There are portraits, erotic compositions and landscapes with contrasting colours.
In the second period, influenced by Pissarro (with whom he worked in Pontoise after 1872), Cézanne painted “real-life” outdoor landscapes and his works were regularly shown alongside those of impressionist painters until 1877.
However – gradually moving away from the impressionists – by 1878 Cézanne had adopted a more formal style in which shape and chromatic structures increasingly began to take precedence over the content (landscapes, still-lifes and portraits).
Over time, Cézanne gradually became a recluse working in and around Aix-en-Provence until his death in 1906. In 1895, Ambroise Vollard organised a successful retrospective with 150 of his works. Although previous to that date Cézanne had been rejected by the Parisian art community and little appreciated when showing alongside the impressionists, from that date onwards Cézanne’s reputation as an artist began to take off, with further exhibitions at Vollard’s and works appearing at the independent artists Fair and the Autumn Fair.

The most sought-after works by Paul Cézanne are the paintings he produced after the mid-1880s – whatever the subject matter. In terms of value, Cézanne’s auction price record was generated by a still-life from 1893-1894 entitled Rideau, cruchon et compotier from the Whitney collection. The piece, estimated at USD 25-35 million, sold for EUR 55 million on 10 May 1999 at Sotheby’s. However, works Cézanne produced before 1872 are much harder to sell and seldom reach the USD 1 million mark, with three exceptions: two portraits painted around 1866 and Une Moderne Olympia painted in 1870 and inspired by Manet’s masterpiece. The latter sold for USD 5.4 million in 1997, i.e. USD 600,000 below the lowest estimate, and in 2003 the same piece was bought in after being estimated at USD 5-7 million.
Indeed, there are fewer and fewer Cézannes on the market with a value potential beyond USD 1 million, and over the past four years the annual turnover generated by Cézanne’s corpus has been below USD 30 million. Compared with 18 paintings sold in 1997, only four changed hands in 2005. However, after four years of contraction (2001 – 2004) the resulting shortage is today driving the price of Cézanne’s paintings back up again, although his drawings have not yet joined the trend.
Eight drawings were sold last year, compared with 53 in 2003. One of these was Homme près d’une femme nue a small gouache watercolour that sold for GBP 45,000 (EUR 65,000) at Christie’s London.

His prints account for more than half of the artist’s annual turnover. 70% sell for less than EUR 1,000. On 9 June last year, a Cézanne etching from 1873 entitled Tête de jeune fille sold for EUR 850 at Piasa in Paris.