Allegorical Figure of France
Page 14 (recto) from Sketchbook I
Paul Cézanne, French, 1839 - 1906. After a figure painted by Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish (active Italy, Antwerp, and England), 1577 - 1640.
Geography:
Made in France, Europe
Date:
1882-1890Medium:
Graphite pencil on wove paperDimensions:
Sheet: 7 3/16 x 4 9/16 inches (18.3 x 11.6 cm)Curatorial Department:
Prints, Drawings, and PhotographsObject Location:
1987-53-12aCredit Line:
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg, 1987
Made in France, Europe
Date:
1882-1890Medium:
Graphite pencil on wove paperDimensions:
Sheet: 7 3/16 x 4 9/16 inches (18.3 x 11.6 cm)Curatorial Department:
Prints, Drawings, and PhotographsObject Location:
Currently not on view
Accession Number:1987-53-12aCredit Line:
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg, 1987
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Paul CA swift, sketchy copy after the figure at the far right in Rubens's Exchange of the Two Princesses, one of the pictures in the Maria de' Medici cycle in the Louvre. Contrary to what one might expect, Cézanne preferred Rubens to Poussin among the old masters, and the Maria de' Medici paintings were by far his favorite group of works, to judge from the number of copies he made after figures in them: twenty-three in all, including two others in this sketchbook (see Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1987-53-12b) and four in Sketchbook II (see Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1987-53-49b, 1987-53-57a, 1987-53-68b, 1987-53-70b). In the present drawing he seems to have been concerned primarily with the swirling rhythms of the powerfully twisting form of the figure of France, bending over to introduce the princesses to each other. Theodore Reff, from Paul Cézanne: Two Sketchbooks (1989), p. 59.
