One-Man Show

LONDON—For the first time in its 75-year history, London’s Courtauld Gallery is displaying the entirety of its world-class collection of works by Cézanne—some 20 oils, watercolors, drawings and prints—in a single exhibition: “The Courtauld Cézannes,” on view from June 26 through October 5. The featured pieces, largely from the collection of British textile mogul Samuel Courtauld, who made his trove public in 1932 (thus launching the gallery), range from earlier etchings, such as Head of a Girl, 1873, to still lifes and landscapes, including Montagne Sainte-Victoire, circa 1887, from Cézanne’s later years in Provence. In addition, there are nine never-before-displayed letters, including one in which the artist famously advised a protégé to “treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere and the cone.” And thanks to a yearlong infrared-imaging project, undertaken with Italy’s University of Perugia, the exhibition contains a wealth of new insight into his use of color and line.

"One-Man Show" originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2008 Table of Contents.