The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne
An Online Catalogue Raisonné under the Direction of Société Paul Cezanne
(Formerly directed by Walter Feilchenfeldt, Jayne Warman and David Nash)
FWN 1987
Trois crânes
1902–06
Alternate titles: Les trois crânes; The Three Skulls; Three Skulls
Rewald (W611); Venturi revised: c.1904; Venturi (1131): 1900–04
Graphite and watercolor, touches of gouache on wove paper
18 7/8 x 24 3/4 in. (48 x 62.8 cm)
Vollard W stockbook: no. 2856, têtes de mort; aquarelle, 47 x 62 (10,000)
Provenance
Exhibition History
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, The Nineteenth Century: French Art in Retrospect (1800–1900), November 1–30, 1932, no. 69.
Jacques Seligmann Gallery, New York, Water Colors by Cezanne, November 16–December 7, 1933, no. 3, as The Three Skulls.
Leicester Galleries, London, Water-Colours and Drawings by Modern French Masters, June 22–July ? 1934, as The Three Skulls.
Orangerie, Paris, De David à Toulouse-Lautrec: Chefs-d'oeuvre des collections américaines, April 20–July 5, 1955, no. 57, ill., pl. 71, as Les trois crânes, c. 1900-1904, lent by The Art Institute of Chicago.
Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, Still Life Painting since 1470, September 1956, no. 10, ill. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, October 1956.
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, Painted Papers: Watercolors from Dürer to the Present, 1962, no. 31, ill.
Knoedler Galleries, New York, Cézanne Watercolors, April 2–20, 1963, no. 55, pl. LIII, as Les trois crânes, 1900-1904, lent by The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis L. Coburn Memorial Collection.
Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis, Nineteenth adn Twentieth Century Artists and Draughtsmen, March 13–April 8, 1966.
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Cézanne: An Exhibition in Honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Phillips Collection, February 27–March 28, 1971, no. 57, ill. Traveled to: The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, April 17–May 16, 1971; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, June 1–July 3, 1971.
Cabinet des Dessins, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Dessins francais de l'Art Institute de Chicago: de Watteau a Picasso, 1976–77, no. 63, ill.
Städelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago, February 10–April 10, 1977, no. 71, ill.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Reunion des Musees Nationaux, Paris, France, Cézanne: The Late Work, October 7, 1977–January 3, 1978, no. 74, ill., pl. 156, as Three Skulls, 1902-06, lent by The Art Institute of Chicago. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, January 26–March 19, 1978; Grand Palais, Paris, Cezanne: Les dernières années (1895–1906), April 20–July 23, 1978 (see Paris 1978a for a separate listing because the catalogue numbers are different from the two American venues).
Grand Palais, Paris, Cézanne: Les dernières années (1895–1906), April 20–July 23, 1978, no. 26, ill. in color, as Trois crânes, 1902-06, lent by The Art Institute, Chicago.
Grand Palais, Paris, Cézanne, September 26, 1995–January 14, 1996, no. 215, ill. in color, p. 494, as Trois crânes, 1902-1906, lent by The Art Institute of Chicago, shown in Philadelphia only. Traveled to: Tate Gallery, London, February 8–April 28, 1996; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, May 26–September 1, 1996.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Cézanne in the Studio: Still Life in Watercolor, October 12, 2004–January 2, 2005, pl. 9, as Three Skulls.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Cezanne, May 15–September 5, 2022, no. 141, ill. Reflection: "Trio" by Julia Fish , p. 211. Traveled to: Tate Moderrn, London, October 6, 2022–March 12, 2023.
Published References
Venturi, Lionello. Cézanne: Son Art, Son Oeuvre. Paris: Editions Paul Rosenberg, 1936, no. 1131, ill. vol. II, as Les trois crânes.
Rich, Daniel C. "A Masterpiece in Watercolor by Cézanne." Quarterly (Art Institute of Chicago) vol. XLIII, no 3 (Sept. 15, 1954), pp. 46-47, ill.
Neumeyer, Alfred. Cézanne's Drawings. New York and London: Thomas Yoseloff, 1958, no. 63.
Murphy, Richard W. The World of Cézanne, 1839–1906. New York: Time-Life Books, 1968, p. 131, ill.
Joachim, Harold, and Sandra Haller Olsen. French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Nineteenth Century. Chicago, 1978, pp. 14–15, no. 1C8.
Kelder, Diane. The Great Book of French Impressionism. New York: Abbeville Press, 1980, pp. 389, ill. and 434.
Rewald, John. Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné. Boston: Little, Brown; London: Thames & Hudson, 1983, no. 611, ill.
Düchting, Hajo. Paul Cézanne: Natur wird Kunst. Cologne: Benedict Taschen Verlag, 1989, p. 194, ill.
Wadley, Nicholas. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing. New York: Penguin Books, 1991, p. 214, ill.
Baron, Jean-Marie and Pascal Bonafoux. Cézanne: Les Natures Mortes. Paris: Editions Herscher, 1993, p. 58, ill.
Kitschen, Friederike. Cézanne: Stilleben. Ostfildern-Ruit: Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1995, fig. 60.
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. 81, fig. 31, as Three Skulls, Art Institute of Chicago.
Wood, James N. and Mancoff, Debra N. Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago. New York, p. 230, ill.
Machotka, Pavel. Cézanne: The Eye and the Mind, 2 vols. Marseille: Editions Crès, 2008, vol. 1, fig. 392; vol. 2, p. 248, as Trois crânes.
Lloyd, Christopher. Paul Cézanne, Drawings and Watercolors. London and Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson and John Paul Getty Museum, 2015, p. 308, fig. 224.
Lloyd, Christopher. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawings. New York: Thames & Hudson Inc., 2019, p. 99, ill., as Three Skulls.
Ruppen, Fabienne. "Tackling Cezanne's Paper: On the Reconstruction of Loose Sheets." In Reconstructing Cezanne. London: Ridinghouse and Luxembourg & Dayan, 2019. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 12.
Muir, Kimberly, Kristi Dahm, Giovanni Verri, Maria Kokkori, and Clara Granzotto. "'A Harmony Parallel to Nature' – Color, Form, and Space in Cezanne's Watercolors and Oil Paintings." In Cezanne. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2022, pp. 49–50, figs. 1 and 5 (details).
Record last updated March 20, 2023. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Société Paul Cezanne. "Trois crânes, 1902–06 (FWN 1987)." In The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne: An Online Catalogue Raisonné. www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=1594 (accessed on April 25, 2024).
