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 561
Les Quatre Saisons: Le Printemps
1860–61
Alternate titles: Frühling; Le Printemps; Les Quatres Saisons; The Four Seasons: Spring
Rewald (4): 1860–61; Venturi (4)
Wall painting, detached and mounted on canvas
123 5/8 x 38 3/16 in. (314 x 97 cm)
Signed lower right: INGRES
Provenance
Exhibition History
Galerie Hessel, Paris, [Quatre panneaux décoratifs de Cézanne], April 1918.
Petit Palais, Paris, Un siècle d'art français, 1850–1950, 1953, no. 400, ill., pl. 37, as Les Quatre Saisons: Le Printemps, 1859-1862.
Royal Academy of Arts, London, Cézanne: The Early Years 1859–1872, April 22–August 21, 1988, no. 1c, ill. p. 6 (p. 19 French ed.) fig. 4 photograph of the alcove in the salon of the Jas de Bouffan with Les quatre saisons. 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.
Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany, Die großen Sammlungen VII: Von Ingres bis Cézanne, Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung des Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, May 27–September 27, 1998, no. 192, ill., as Le Printemps, 1861-62.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Cézanne in Provence, January 29–May 7, 2006, no. 2, lent by Petit Palais, shown in Aix only. Traveled to: Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 9–September 17, 2006.
Palazzo Reale, Milan, Cézanne: Les ateliers du midi, October 20, 2011–February 26, 2012, no. 2, ill. lent by Petit Palais, musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris.
National Art Center, Tokyo, Cézanne: Paris-Provence, March 28–May 11, 2012, no. 16, ill.
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, Le décor impressionniste: aux sources des nymphéas, March 2–July 11, 2022, no. 26, ill., p. 60.
Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France, Cezanne au Jas de Bouffan, June 28–October 12, 2025, no. 27, ill., as Les Quatre Saisons: Le Printemps, dated c. 1860.
Published References
Pératé, André. "Le Salon d'Automne." Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 38, periode 3 (November, 1907), p. 388.
Le Curieux. "Quatre panneaux décoratifs de Cézanne." La Renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe (Paris), vol. 1, no. 2 (April 1918), pp. 33-34, ill. p. 32, as Le Printemps.
Rivière, Georges. Le Maître Paul Cézanne. Paris: Librairie Floury, 1923, pp. 8, 37 (detail), 196 (listed), as Le Printemps.
Fry, Roger. "Cézannes Udvikling." Samleren 6 (July, August, September 1929), p. 100, ill. (detail).
Rivière, Georges. Cézanne: Le Peintre solitaire. Paris: Librairie Floury, 1933, p. 3, ill.
Di San Lazzaro, Gualtieri. Paul Cézanne. Paris: Chroniques du Jour, 1936, fig. 38.
Venturi, Lionello. Cézanne: Son Art, Son Oeuvre. Paris: Editions Paul Rosenberg, 1936, no. 4, ill. vol. II, as Les Quatres Saisons.
Mack, Gerstle. La Vie de Paul Cézanne. Translated by Nancy Bouwens. Paris: Gallimard, 1938, opposite p. 129.
Rivière, Georges. Cézanne: Le Peintre solitaire. Paris: Librairie Floury, 1942, p. 5, ill.
Sargent, Winthrop. "Cézanne: The Great Paintings of a Frustrated Recluse Changed the Whole Course of Modern Art." Life 32, no. 8 (February 25, 1952), p. 78, ill.
Elles, Iris. Das Stilleben in der französischen Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts. Zurich: Origo Verl, 1958, pp. 100–01.
Schapiro, Meyer. Paul Cézanne. Translated by Louis-Marie Ollivier. Paris: Nouvelles Editions Françaises, 1973, ill. p. 54.
Harris, Nathaniel. The Art of Cézanne. London: Optimum Books, 1982, p. 16, ill. in color.
Ely, Bruno. "Cézanne, L'Ecole de dessin et le Musée d'Aix." In Cézanne au Musée d'Aix. Aix-en-Provence: Musée Granet, 1984. Exhibition catalogue, ill. p. 175.
Gasquet, Joachim. Joachim Gasquet's Cézanne. Translated by C. Pemberton. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 1991, p. 66, ill.
Cachin, Françoise, and Joseph Rishel. Cézanne. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1995. Exhibition catalogue, p. 89, fig. 1.
Rewald, John. The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols. In Collaboration with Walter Feilchenfeldt and Jayne Warman. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996, no. 4, ill. vol. 2, and p. 21, ill. col. vol. 1, as Les Quatre Saisons: Le Printemps.
Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Nina M. Cézanne and Provence: The Painter in His Culture. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003, p. 82, fig. 2.30, as Les Quatre Saisons: Le Printemps.
Lewis, Mary Tompkins. "Cézanne's Paintings in the Grand Salon at Jas de Bouffan." In Jas de Bouffan: Cézanne, Société Paul Cézanne. Aix-en-Provence: Hexagone, 2004, fig. 43, ill. in color.
Colrat, Jean. Cézanne: Joindre les mains errantes de la nature. Paris-Sorbonne: PUPS, 2013, p. 334, pl. 156.
Nagaï, Takanori. "Cézanne and the meaning of 'copying.'" Bijutsu Forum 21, no. 31 (May 2015), p. 118, ill.
Nagaï, Takanori. "Cézanne and Jas de Bouffan." In Le "basho" dans l'art moderne français. Tokyo: Sangensha, 2016, p. 112, ill.
Lobstein, Dominique. "Biographie." In Paul Cezanne, Le chant de la terre. Martigny: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 2017. Exhibition catalogue, p. 350, ill.
Cezanne, Jas de Bouffan: art et histoire. Under the scientific direction of Denis Coutagne and François Chédeville. Lyon; Aix-en-Provence: Fage édition; Société Paul Cezanne, 2019, fig. 84a p. 100 (figs. 226, 227 digital reconstitutions of the Jas de Bouffan's Grand Salon before and after 1867 pp. 242-243).
Notes
Cézanne painted four panels in the curved alcove of the salon in the Jas de Bouffan, each panel depicting one of the four seasons. A portrait of his father reading a newspaper (no. 398) was flanked by two each of the four seasons, Spring and Summer to the left and Winter and Autumn to the right.
Les Quatre Saisons were detached from the wall in 1912, along with the portrait of Cézanne's father and Le Baigneur au rocher (no. 900).
The salon of the Jas de Bouffan with Cézanne's murals still in place, circa 1900.
John Rewald Archive, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Related work
Record last updated May 3, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Société Paul Cezanne. "Les Quatre Saisons: Le Printemps, 1860–61 (FWN 561), Wall painting, detached and mounted on canvas." In The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne: An Online Catalogue Raisonné. www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=20 (accessed on July 15, 2025).
