I
have been late getting to see it, but the wonderful little exhibition, Cézanne's Card Players, which has been at the Metropolitan Museum
for the past couple of months, is quite extraordinary and very much worth
seeing before it closes on 8 May.
Cézanne's Card Players
February 9, 2011–May 8, 2011
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Special Exhibition Galleries, 1st floor
Organized by the Met
and the Courtauld Gallery of London, it is a small
exhibit, in that it focuses on a single theme 
in Cezanne’s work, and it does
not contain all that many works; but it is also huge, in that the depth and
intensity of the experience it provides is so enormously profound. It centers on Cezanne’s magnificent The
Card Players of ca. 1890-92 from the Met’s own collection (above, at right;
Oil on canvas; 25 5/8 x 31 7/8 in.).
There are two other versions in
the exhibition, both of which we were familiar with: one from the collection of the Musée d'Orsay
in
and the other similar version from the
Courtauld Gallery in
There are two versions that are
only represented in the exhibit by back and white photographs: one from the Barnes Collection, and another,
more interesting one, from a private collection. (In addition, The Smoker, from the
Hermitage in
There
are a few spectacular studies in the show that Cezanne did for some of the
figures. These paintings are largely
unfinished; but the very fact of this adds to their evocative power. I had two favorites which I thought were
incredibly wonderful.
The
first is The Cardplayer from
the Musée d'Orsay in
The second
is Man with a Pipe from the Marion and Henry Bloch
Collection, Courtesy of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (at
right; ca. 1890–92, oil on canvas; 15 3/8 x 11 7/8 in.).
One of
the treats of this exhibition is watching how Cezanne developed, played with,
and varied the cast of characters he chose for this drama; how he manipulated,
altered, and adjusted the composition across these various paintings; and, as
always with this most masterful of all painters, how he dealt with the
subtleties of the interplay of color and form, brushstroke and texture, surface
and depth, and—in the most exciting sense—representation and the beginnings of
abstraction. Lest I commit a grave
error, I must mention the examples of his wonderful drawings that are part of
this exhibition. Cezanne was an
exquisite draftsman when he wanted to be.
The exhibition concludes with a
room of portrait-like single-figure paintings of some of the characters from
the Card Players paintings—some of which actually are, in fact, portraits of specific people. I found three of them irresistible.
My very
favorite—and one of my favorite works in the show—is Peasant (at left: ca. 1890–96
Oil on canvas; 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in.), a painting from a private collection which
I do not recall ever having seen before.
It is an exquisite painting in its gentle power and its profound
subtlety (neither of which, unfortunately is done justice in any way by this
reproduction). The subject may be “a
peasant,” but Cezanne captures a sense of his stature and almost sublime
depth. And the marvelous use of color
powerfully draws one into this work visually every 
bit as much as the subject draws
one in psychologically.
Meanwhile,
the Man in a Blue Smock (at right;
ca. 1890-96, oil on canvas; 31 1/2 x 24 3/4 in., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort
Worth, TX), is another treat, albeit not quite so sublime.
The Smoker, from the Kunsthalle in
I am a great
Cezanne fan. In fact, he may well be my
favorite painter of all time. So, I may
be biased. But I think this is one
terrific show…and I suggest you see it while it is still in town.
