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 3001-03a
Peintre tenant sa palette
1868–71
Alternate titles: Frenhofer montrant son chef-d'oeuvre; Frenhofer zeigt sein Werk; Painter holding a palette; Peintre au travail; Szenen aus: Das unbekannte Meisterwerk
Chappuis (128); Venturi (1575): 1873–77
Graphite and ink on wove paper, page from the BSA sketchbook
4 1/16 x 6 11/16 in. (10.3 x 17 cm)
Notations in the artist's hand: C'est dans (l'esperance. En attendant) l'espoir que vous / (veuillez) voudrez bien (faire accéder à ma demande / qu'il a l'honneur) lui en accorder / la permission / qu'il a l'honneur d'être / très humble / serviteur.
Exhibition History
Kunsthalle, Tübingen, Germany, Paul Cézanne - Das zeichnerische Werk, October 21–December 31, 1978, no. 12, ill. p. 103, as Szenen aus: Das unbekannte Meisterwerk, 1868-1871, lent by Kunstmuseum Basel.
Palazzo Braschi, Rome, Disegni di Cézanne, February 13–March 30, 1979, no. 45, ill., p. 54.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Paul Cézanne: The Basel Sketchbooks, March 10–June 5, 1988, listed p. 145, fig. 2 p. 14.
Royal Academy of Arts, London, Cézanne: The Early Years 1859–1872, April 22–August 21, 1988, no. 76, ill., as Peintre tenant sa palette, shown in Paris and Washington, D.C. only. Traveled to: Musée d'Orsay, Cézanne: les années de jeunesse 1859-1872, Paris, September 19, 1988–January 1, 1989; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., January 29–April 30, 1989.
Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland, The Hidden Cézanne: From Sketchbook to Canvas, June 10–September 24, 2017, no. 15, ill.
Published References
Venturi, Lionello. Cézanne: Son Art, Son Oeuvre. Paris: Editions Paul Rosenberg, 1936, no. 1575, ill. vol. II, as Peintre au travail.
Chappuis, Adrien. Les dessins de Paul Cézanne au cabinet des estampes du Musée des beaux-arts de Bâle. Olten and Lausanne: Urs Graf, 1962, no. 78, ill., as Frenhofer montrant son chef-d'oeuvre.
Reff, Theodore. "Cézanne Drawings." Review of Les dessins de Paul Cézanne au cabinet des estampes du Musée des beaux-arts de Bâle, by Adrien Chappuis. The Burlington Magazine 105, no. 725 (August 1963), p. 375.
Leonhard, Kurt. Paul Cézanne in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Rheinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1966, p. 99, ill., as Frenhofer zeigt sein Werk.
Reff, Theodore. "Cézanne and Hercules." The Art Bulletin, vol. 48, no. 1 (March 1966), p. 41, note 77.
Dellis, Max. "Notes relatives à quelques dessins de Paul Cézanne." Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 77, periode 6 (March 1971), fig. 2.
Chappuis, Adrien. The Drawings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973, no. 129, ill., as Painter holding a palette.
Koepplin, Dieter. Paul Cézanne: Die Basler Zeichnungen. Basel: Kunstmuseum, 1988, no. 11, ill.
Gowing, Lawrence. Paul Cézanne: The Basel Sketchbooks. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1988. Exhibition catalogue, fig. 2 p. 14, listed p. 145, exhibited.
Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Nina M. "An Artistic and Political Manifesto for Cézanne." The Art Bulletin vol. LXXII, no. 3 (September 1990), p. 487, ill. in b/w p. 488, as Painter holding a palette, c. 1866.
Mori, Gioia. "'La letteratura si esprime con astrazioni mentre il pittore concretizza.' Gli scrittori di Cézanne: Zola, Balzac e Flaubert." In Cézanne: Il padre dei moderni. Milan: Mazzotta, 2002. Exhibition catalogue, ill. p. 86.
Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Nina M. Cézanne and Provence: The Painter in His Culture. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003, p. 80, fig. 2.26.
Notes
The drawing probably illustrates a scene from Balzac's Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu and the painter Frenhofer.
Related work
This work is part of a sketchbook:
Sketchbook 10.3 x 17, 1863–1865, 1869–1873 (3001)
Sketchbook 10.3 x 17, 1863–1865, 1869–1873 (3001)
The sketchbook is unnumbered and was disbanded in the 1930s. Most of the sheets are held in the Kunstmuseum Basel, but some were sold separately. Since the sequence is unknown, the FWN numbers have been randomly assigned. The sheets are listed here as individual pages as opposed to how they may have appeared in the sketchbook with the exception of FWN 3001-01a/b, which was separated on two half-sheets.
Browse complete sketchbookRecord last updated December 21, 2018. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Société Paul Cezanne. "Peintre tenant sa palette, 1868–71 (FWN 3001-03a), page from the BSA sketchbook." In The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne: An Online Catalogue Raisonné. www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=1779 (accessed on May 1, 2025).
