It’s the big day. From nine, this morning, visitors will be able to discover the exhibition “Cezanne at Jas de Bouffan”. For this large meeting orchestrated by the Granet museum, 135 works are hung on the picture rails, divided into eight chronological and thematic sections.
The exhibition is rich, abundant. She starts foot in the floor, with, after the school of drawing in the introduction, the reconstruction of the large living room. 70% of the works that decorated it could have been repatriated to Aix by the Granet Museum. A first piece of bravery, therefore, appreciated to his just measure by Sylvain AMIC, President of the public establishment of the Orsay Museum and the Musée de l’Orangerie. “”The reconstruction of the large lounge is stunning“, He said, when he was invited, like all lenders, to discover this” Cezanne at Jas de Bouffan “.
“The genius of Cezanne”
“The exhibition is very spectacular “he continues when asked for his opinion on the quality of Granet’s proposal. “”Each thematic room is a success, there is a point, a quality of hanging. The exhibition is extremely well built and there are fabulous loans“, estimates Sylvain AMIC, whose establishment has lent iconic paintings, with Card players or The woman in the coffee maker. But also The kitchen table, which is in a room dedicated to the still lifes that it simply judges “brilliant“.
This Kitchen table, “It strikes us because there are all the original, unpublished and singular dimensions of Cezanne. There is the plurality of points of view, the ginger pot and the sugar. explains Bruno Ély, director of the Granet museum. This plurality of points of view is important, because cubism will take it. What is even particular is the irregularity, the edge of the table does not continue in the same way on one side and the other of the linen.“ In this other still life, one wonders how the cherries hold on this leaning plate. “”But Cezanne builds a form of stability by a series of instability“, Consider Bruno Ély.
The jas in red thread
It is that the painter, when he worked like this on a favorite theme, is the same as close as possible. “”He is not going to seek his subjects far away, he will revolve around the same patterns“, Underlines Bruno Ély. For the allée des Marronniers for example, he will work on the North-South axis, then on a lateral point of view.”He revolves around From a subject, he always searches, often repeats points of view, as his still lifes always have the same objects. As with his baineurs-baineuses where he always takes the same postures and attitudes. And yet he can each time make a different painting. It is the genius of Cezanne“Observes the museum director.
And it was at the Jas de Bouffan that he embarked on all his experiments. “”The common thread is Jas and it was something that had never been highlighted. His portraits, his still lifes, all of this was done in Jas. And we, at the Musée d’Orsay, is very proud to have contributed to this reading“, Note Sylvain AMIC. Who confides, in passing, that Cezanne will be at the center of a large exhibition in the fall of 2026 at the Grand Palais, in Paris, open to the artists who followed him, under the joint police station of the Musée d’Orsay-Orangerie and the Center Pompidou.
“Cezanne at Jas de Bouffan, from June 28 to October 12 at the Granet Museum. Information and reservations here.
