Paul Cézanne

French, 1839-1906

Le bassin du Jas de Bouffan (The Pool at Jas de Bouffan), ca. 1878-1879

oil on canvas

support: 29 x 23 3/4 inches (73.66 x 60.32 cm); framed: 36 3/8 x 31 5/8 x 2 7/8 inches (92.39 x 80.33 x 7.3 cm)

Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Fellows for Life Fund, 1927

1927:17

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Provenance

the artist;
collection Joseph Hessel, Paris;
sold to Bernheim-Jeune, March 4, 1918;
sold in Lausanne to Percy Moore Turner, April 18, 1918 [transaction no. 21.115 in the Bernheim-Jeune & Cie records];
purchased by Albright Art Gallery through Ehrich Galleries, New York, January 30, 1927

Class

Paintings

Work Type

Oil painting

This information may change due to ongoing research. Glossary of Terms

The late 1870s were a period of transition for Paul Cézanne. The Pool at Jas de Bouffan foreshadows painterly concepts he would explore extensively later in his career, including cropped motifs, dense composition, and orderly brushstrokes. Cézanne created this work after he became dissatisfied with Impressionist painting’s focus on momentary and transitory perceptions. In 1877, following a grievous reception of his art at the third Impressionist exhibition, he retreated to the countryside and worked in isolation. He claimed to want "to do Poussin over again from Nature" and laboriously strove to find his own pictorial language. Jas de Bouffan, which means “Place of High Winds,” is a country estate northwest of Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne's father purchased the property, which included an eighteenth-century house surrounded by a park and farm.