Avenue

Avenue

ca 1880-82

Oil on canvas

Mått 73,50 x 60,50 cm Ram 96,50 x 83,50 x 8,00 cm

GKM 0946

Gift of Gustaf Werner, 1931

A shady avenue of tall, straight trees is seen in a slightly rising perspective towards the image’s centre, where it ends in a wall of a house. The trees to the left run vertically through the image. The right-hand edge of the walk forms a diagonal that emphasizes the perspective. The entire upper half of the vertical image is occupied by the crowns of the trees, painted with sketchy, diagonal brushstrokes. The tree trunks’ vertical lines and horizontal shadows falling across the avenue counterpose the oblique brushstrokes of the treetops. Alternating cold and warm colours have been spread through the image, making it feel open and alive. Avenue was painted during one of Cézanne’s three visits to Zola’s country house in Médan in 1880–2. The painting has an interesting history. For a time it was in Gauguin’s possession, and came to Scandinavia through his Danish wife. Writing to Pissarro, probably in the summer of 1883, Gauguin remarked: “For now I am having two paintings by Cézanne transferred to new canvases. I managed to force myself to take both for 120 francs from Tanguy. You might as well get all the details: one is a sketchily rendered avenue, the trees lined up like soldiers and shadows rhythmized, gradually, as in a flight of steps.” Cézanne’s disjointed pictorial space and emphasis on geometric forms would prove significant for Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque as they developed Cubism. Gauguin’s Synthetism inspired the turn-of-the-century Symbolists. Van Gogh’s colourful style was immensely important for the Expressionists. Thus Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh, more than any other artists, can be said to have laid the foundations of modernism. Kristoffer Arvidsson from The Collection Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg 2014

Paul Cézanne, 01/10/2022 - 26/02/2023 Paul Cézanne, Chicago, 08/05/2022 - 05/09/2022 Friction of Ideas: van Gogh, Gauguin, Bernard, Göteborg, Göteborgs konstmuseum, 19/07/2014 - 19/10/2014 Cézanne. Site/non-site, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 04/02/2014 - 18/05/2014, no. 7 Impressionismen och Norden. Franskt avantgarde i det sena 1800-talet och konsten i Norden 1870-1920, Köpenhamn, Statens Museum for Kunst, 22/02/2003 - 25/05/2003, no. 14 Impressionismen och Norden. Franskt avantgarde i det sena 1800-talet och konsten i Norden 1870-1920, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, 25/09/2002 - 19/01/2003, no. 14 Cézanne till Picasso. Fransk konst i svensk ägo, Stockholm, Liljevalchs konsthall, 03/09/1954 - 10/10/1954, no. 68

Impressionismen och Norden. Franskt avantgarde i det sena 1800-talet och konsten i Norden 1870-1920, utg. av Torsten Gunnarsson och Per Hedström, Stockholm, 2002, no. 14, p. 110, 140, 305, ill. p. 139 Laurent Salomé, Jeanne-Marie David, Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts et. al., A City for impressionism. Monet, Pissarro, and Gauguin in Rouen, red. Laurent Salomé, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Skira Flammarion, Paris 2010., ill. p. 90 Nils Ryndel, Franskt måleri i Göteborgs konstmuseum. With a summary in English, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg 1961, p. 30-31, ill. p. 29 Guillermo Solana, Cézanne. Site/non-site, red. Erica Witschey, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid 2014., no. 7, ill. p. 58 Barbro Ahlfort, Lena Boëthius, Ingmari Desaix, Folke Edwards, Björn Fredlund, Jonas Gavel, Barbro Löfquist, Anne Pettersson, Håkan Wettre, Göteborgs konstmuseum dess historia och samlingar, red. Håkan Wettre, Palmeblad, Göteborg 1992., p. 34, 83, ill. p. 83 Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Björn Fredlund, Anna Hyltze, Philippa Nanfeldt, Isabella Nilsson, Johan Sjöström, Samlingen Göteborgs konstmuseum, red. Kristoffer Arvidsson, Per Dahlström, Anna Hyltze, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg 2014., p. 274, ill. p. 275 Finn Terman Fredriksen, Theodor Philipsen. En traditionsbevidst nyskaper, red. Finn Terman Fredriksen och Majbritt Løland, Randers Kunstmuseums forlag, Randers 2017., p. 212, ill. p. 212