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Catalogue entry

FWN 1848
Le Meurtre
1874–75
Alternate titles: Le meurtre dans un ravin; Meurtre dans un ravin de l'Estaque; The murder
Rewald (W39); Venturi revised: c.1875
Graphite, watercolor, and gouache on paper
5 3/4 x 6 7/8 in. (14.6 x 17.5 cm)
Keith D. Stoltz, Greenville, Delaware

Keywords

Provenance
Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Julie Manet, Paris (later Mme Ernest Rouart)
Albert André, Paris
Private collection, France
Sotheby's, New York, May 3, 2012, no. 139, ill.
Wally Findlay Galleries, Chicago, New York, Palm Beach.
Bruce Norris, Miami
Bruna Mankiewicz, New York;
Christie's, New York, May 14, 1980, no. 7, ill.
Dr. and Mrs. Goodwin Breinin, New York
Keith D. Stoltz, Greenville, Delaware
Exhibition History
1895 Paris
Galerie Vollard, Paris, Paul Cézanne, November 11–December 15, 1895.
1936c Paris
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, Cézanne, May 20–October 11, 1936, no. 189, as Le Meurtre, c. 1874–75, lent by Mme Ernest Rouart.
1953 Aix-en-Provence
Galerie Lucien Blanc, Aix-en-Provence, France, Aquarelles de Paul Cézanne, July 1953, no. 2, as Meurtre dans un ravin de l'Estaque, dated 1870–72, lent by Private collection.
1955 Marseille
Musée Cantini, Marseille, France, Les impressionnistes français: de Cézanne à Renoir, 1955, no. 6, as Le meurtre dans un ravin, c. 1871, lent by Private collection.
1966 New York
Wally Findlay Galleries, New York, Fifty Masters from Renoir to Vlaminck, October–November 1966, no. 14, ill.
2006 Washington, D.C. and traveling
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Cézanne in Provence, January 29–May 7, 2006, no. 39, ill. lent by Rose-Helen and Goodwin Breinin, New York; shown in Washington only. Traveled to: Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 9–September 17, 2006.
2021a New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Cézanne Drawing, June 6–September 25, 2021, pl. 29, Collection Mr. Keith D. Stolz, Wilson, Wyoming.
2022–23 Chicago and traveling
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Cezanne, May 15–September 5, 2022, no. 24, ill. Keith D. Stolz; catalogued but not shown. Traveled to: Tate Modern, London, October 6, 2022–March 12, 2023.
Published References
Venturi 1936b
Venturi, Lionello. Cézanne: Son Art, Son Oeuvre. Paris: Editions Paul Rosenberg, 1936, vol. I, p. 349, listed (Collection Mme Rouart).
Cézanne 1937
Cézanne, Paul. Correspondance. Edited by John Rewald. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1937, fig. 14.
Reff 1962c
Reff, Theodore. "Cézanne's Constructive Stroke." Art Quarterly 25, no. 3 (Autumn 1962), p. 220, fig. 2.
Manet 1979
Manet, Julie. Journal (1893–1899): sa jeunesse parmi les peintres impressionnistes et les hommes de lettres. Paris: Klincksieck, 1979, p. 74.
Rewald 1983a
Rewald, John. Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné. Boston: Little, Brown; London: Thames & Hudson, 1983, no. 39, ill.
Cachin and Rishel 1995
Cachin, Françoise, and Joseph Rishel. Cézanne. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1995. Exhibition catalogue, p. 108, fig. 2, as Le Meurtre, 1874-1875.
Bach 2000
Bach, Friedrich Teja. "The Stake in the Pictorial Flesh: Disruptions in Cézanne's Oeuvre." In Cézanne: Finished, Unfinished. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2000. Exhibition catalogue, p. 66, fig. 5, as The murder, Private collection.
Platzman 2001
Platzman, Steven. Cézanne: The Self-Portraits. Berkeley: University of California, 2001, p. 55, ill.
Dombrowski 2006
Dombrowski, André. "The emperor's last clothes: Cézanne, fashion and 'l'année terrible.'" The Burlington Magazine 148, no. 1242 (September 2006), fig. 2, as The murder, c. 1871.
Dombrowski 2013
Dombrowski, André. Cézanne, Murder, and Modern Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013, p. 191, fig. 73.
Haldemann et al 2017
Haldemann, Anita (ed.). The Hidden Cézanne: From Sketchbook to Canvas. Basel: Prestel, 2017. Exhibition catalogue, no. 48, ill. p. 87.
Blanc 2019
Blanc, Geneviève. L'Oeuvre de Cezanne à L'Estaque, Huiles – Aquarelles – Dessins, 1864–1885. Marseille: Éditions Gaussen, 2019, fig. 37 (discussion p. 45), as Le Meurtre, with contemporary view of the Calanque de Figuerolles, which may have served as a background motif to the imaginary murder.
Cezanne 2021
Cézanne, Philippe. Paul Cezanne dépeint par ses contemporains. Lyon: Fage éditions, 2021, fig. 77.
Notes

Julie Manet, the daughter of Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet (Edouard's brother) recounted in her diary her purchase of this watercolor (November 29, 1895): With Mr. Degas and Mr. Renoir, we went to Vollard's where a Cézanne exhibition was being held. I liked the still lifes less than those I had seen previously, though there was one of apples with a vase of a colorful design that was quite beautiful [FWN779?]. Female nudes enveloped by blue tints in the shade of green trees with light and soft foliage [FWN942?]. Mr. Degas and Mr Renoir drew straws for a magnificent watercolor still life of pears (FWN 1944), and [there was also] a small one representing an assassination in Provence which is not at all frightening, the figures detaching themselves in very harmonious reds, blue, and violet from a landscape that resembles Brittany or the Midi; round trees, masses of ground against a blue sea, in the distance some islands. Mr. Renoir also admired it. I bought it, thinking that it would not be stupid to do so.

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Record last updated February 8, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Société Paul Cezanne. "Le Meurtre, 1874–75 (FWN 1848)." In The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne: An Online Catalogue Raisonné. www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=1016 (accessed on May 2, 2025).