Conversations with Cezanne (Documents of Twentieth-Century Art)

Michael Doran has gathered texts by contemporaries of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)--including artists, critics, and writers--that illuminate the influential painter's philosophy of art especially in his late years. The book includes historically important essays by a dozen different authors, including Emile Bernard, Joaquim Gasquet, Maurice Denis, and Ambroise Vollard, along with selections from Cézanne's own letters.

In addition to the material included in the original French edition of the book, which has also been published in German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese, this edition contains an introduction written especially for it by noted Cézanne scholar Richard Shiff. The book closes with Lawrence Gowing's magisterial essay, "The Logic of Organized Sensations," first published in 1977 and long out of print.

Cézanne's work, and the thinking that lay behind it, have been of inestimable importance to the artists who followed him. This gathering of writings will be of enormous interest to artists, writers, art historians--indeed to all students of modern art.

"This is an extraordinary book. It not only contains all the accounts written by those who met Cézanne and spoke with him (including several 'interviews' with the painter), but it also puts these accounts in perspective."--Yves-Alain Bois, Harvard University

"Doran's collection of diverse primary sources recording Cézanne's theories and the early critical reception of his art is an essential monument in the painter's bibliography, previously not accessible. And Gowing's thoughtful essay serves as a superb model for how such primary material should be consulted."--Mary Tompkins Lewis, author of Cézanne

This book gathers the commentary of people who knew the painter Paul Cezanne, especially in his later years. Now seen as one of the most influential of modern painters, in his 40s he returned to his village of Aix-en-Provence where, he worked in near obscurity and with great dedication until his death in 1906.

Michael Doran, who is both an art historian and a practicing artist, was formerly the Librarian of the Courtauld Institute in London.

Preface

Introduction by Richard Shiff

Documents

Gustave Geffroy: Excerpt from Claude Monet, His Life, His Times, His Works

Ambroise Vollard: Excerpt from Paul Cézanne

Léo Larguier: Excerpt from Sunday with Paul Cézanne

Jules Borély: 'Cézanne at Aix' (L'Art Vivant)

Emile Bernard: Letter to His Mother (5 February 1904)

Paul Cézanne: Letters to Emile Bernard (April to June, 1904)

Emile Bernard: 'Paul Cézanne' (L'Occident)

Paul Cézanne: Letters to Emile Bernard (July 1904 to September 1906)

Emile Bernard: 'Memories of Paul Cézanne' (Mercure de France)

Francis Jourdain: Excerpt from Cézanne

R. P. Rivière and J. F. Schnerb: 'The Studio of Cézanne' (La Grande Revue)

Maurice Denis: Excerpt from the Journal

Karl Ernst Osthaus: 'A Visit to Paul Cézanne' (Das Feuer)

Paul Cézanne: My Confessions

Interpretations

Joachim Gasquet: 'What He Said to Me' (excerpt from Cézanne)

Emile Bernard: 'A Conversation with Cézanne' (Mercure de France)

Maurice Denis: 'Cézanne' (excerpt from Theories)

Lawrence Gowing: 'The Logic of Organized Sensations'

Notes

Bibliography

Index