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Catalogue entry

FWN 395
Tête de femme (portrait présumé Gabrielle Meley)
1864
Alternate titles: Etude de Femme; Portrait présumé de Gabrielle Meley; Tête de femme (portrait présumé de Madame Zola)
Rewald (75): 1864; Venturi revised: 1864; Venturi (22): 1864; Rivière: 1864
Oil on canvas
18 1/8 x 15 in. (46 x 38 cm)
Signed lower left: P. Cezanne 1864
Vollard archives: photo no. 317, Annotated by Cezanne's son: circa 1865
Christie's, New York

Keywords

Provenance
Émile Zola, Médan;
Zola Collection, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Mar. 9–13, 1903, no. 117, ill.
Auguste Pellerin, Paris
Private collection, London
Private collection
Christie's, New York, May 4, 2011, no. 51, ill.
Exhibition History
1907a Paris
Salon d'Automne, Grand Palais, Paris, Rétrospective d'oeuvres de Cézanne, October 1–22, 1907, no. 6, as Étude de femme, lent by Pellerin.
Published References
Rivière 1923
Rivière, Georges. Le Maître Paul Cézanne. Paris: Librairie Floury, 1923, pp. 163, ill., 196, listed, as Etude de Femme.
Raynal 1936
Raynal, Maurice. Cézanne. Paris: Editions de Cluny, 1936, pl. LXIV p. 96.
Venturi 1936b
Venturi, Lionello. Cézanne: Son Art, Son Oeuvre. Paris: Editions Paul Rosenberg, 1936, no. 22, ill. vol. II, as Étude de femme.
Dorival 1948
Dorival, Bernard. Cézanne. Paris: Pierre Tisné, 1948, pp. 24, 91, 133.
Adhémar 1952
Adhémar, Jean. Emile Zola. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1952. Exhibition catalogue, no. 52, as Portrait présumé de Gabrielle Meley, photograph shown in exhibition.
Émile Zola 1952
Émile Zola. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1952. Exhibition catalogue, no. 52 (a photograph of this picture was shown).
Adhémar 1952a
Adhémar, Hélène, and Jean Adhémar. "Zola et la peinture." Arts 389 (December 12–18, 1952), p. 10, ill.
Adhémar 1960
Adhémar, Jean. "Le cabinet de travail de Zola." Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 56, periode 6 (November 1960), pp. 293 et 294 (no. 129), fig. 13, p. 297.
Laborde 1963
Laborde, Albert. Trente-huit Années près de Zola: La Vie d'Alexandrine Emile Zola. Paris: Éditeurs Français Réunis, 1963, p. 30.
Rewald 1996
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. 75, ill. vol. 2, as Tête de femme (portrait présumé de Madame Zola).
Cezanne 2021
Cézanne, Philippe. Paul Cezanne dépeint par ses contemporains. Lyon: Fage éditions, 2021, fig. 65.
Notes

Gabrielle-Alexandrine Meley sat for Cézanne in 1864. Some have speculated that she may have been Cézanne's mistress before she married Emile Zola in 1870. This hypothesis is based on characters in Zola's novel Madeleine Férat (1868). It is the story of a young woman torn between her first lover and the man who marries her. Both men coincidentally are childhood friends. Rewald (1996, p. 84) raised doubts about the liaison.

Record last updated November 23, 2020. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Société Paul Cezanne. "Tête de femme (portrait présumé Gabrielle Meley), 1864 (FWN 395)." In The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cezanne: An Online Catalogue Raisonné. www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=90 (accessed on April 19, 2024).