Currently not on view

Cistern in the Park of Château Noir

Paul Cézanne, 1839–1906; born and died Aix-en-Provence, France

L.1988.62.4

Château Noir (The Black Castle) was constructed by a coal merchant, thought by some to be an alchemist, on the road from Cézanne’s native Aix-en-Provence to the nearby village of Le Tholonet. In his later years, Cézanne rented a room in this Gothic revival country house to store his equipment, and he often painted on the grounds. This view depicts a cistern over a spring, in a spot once intended for a mill, with abandoned stones scattered about. The characteristic pine trees of Provence provided shade from the Mediterranean sun in this cool site in the deforested region, where only evergreens would grow.

View full record

More Context

Special Exhibition

Between 1899 and 1902, Cézanne rented a storage room at the Château Noir estate, on the road from his native Aix-en-Provence to the nearby village of Le Tholonet, and often painted on the grounds. The neo-Gothic buildings of this peculiar country manor were unfinished, giving it the appearance of a ruin. The original owner, who manufactured lampblack (a type of pigment made from soot), had - according to rumor - painted the entire mansion black and practiced black magic, or sorcery, there, supplying the name "The Black Castle." The modern stone cistern at Château Noir seen at the left of this painting contrasts with the ancient boulder at the center; the rock's distinctive shape suggests the flint artifacts unearthed in the region. Local mythology also had it that the surrounding archaeological attractions and strange geological formations housed magical forces. The characteristic pine trees of Provence provided shade from the Mediterranean sun in this cool site in the deforested region, where only evergreens would grow.

Information

Object Number

L.1988.62.4

Maker

Paul Cézanne

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dates

ca. 1900

Dimensions

74.3 x 61.0 cm. (29 1/4 x 24 in.) frame: 97.2 x 84.5 x 6.6 cm. (38 1/4 x 33 1/4 x 2 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation on loan since 1976 to the Princeton University Art Museum

Signatures

Back of stretcher bar, upper left: white rectangular label: Rec?t. #3667-3 6/18/58 to Henry Pearlman/Cezanne: WELL AND THE ROCK Back of stretcher bar, upper center: black handwritten mark [No. 76]? Back of stretcher bar, upper right: blue and white rectangular label: HAYES STORAGE, Inc./P2792-1 Back of stretcher bar, upper right: Rectangular white label, partially torn, with handwriting in black ink: 455/Cézanne No. 2341 Back of stretcher bar, center: handwritten in blue crayon: 455 [underlined] Back of stretcher bar, lower right: Oval stamp in black ink, illegible [DOUANE?] Back of canvas, stamped upside down in brown ink, partly illegible: [M?..]/Vve M CHABO?./M..de..CO?.S/EXTRA FINES/TOILES a TABLEAUX/RUE JACOB 20[?] Back of frame, upper center: white rectangular label with rounded corners, partially concealed: CEZANNE: THE LATE WORK MFA,H/23 January ? 19 March 1978/MFA,H #110/[?..] Back of frame, upper center: white rectangular label, partially concealed: Réunion des musées nationaux [?..] Cardboard backing, upper left: Sterling and Francine Clark/Art Institute/Temp. Reg. No./343/75 Cardboard backing, upper center: inscribed in pencil: Henry Pearlman [?]/136 East 41 St/NY 7 N / 28 Cardboard backing, upper right: yellow label: TEMPORARY LOAN/THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM/TL.1986.143.4/FROM PRINCETON/DATE 4-21-86 Cardboard backing, upper right: White label with crenellated edges: Museum of Modern Art/ LOAN/H./Pearlman/1977.771 [for exhibition Cézanne: The Late Work] Cardboard backing, upper right: Yellow label, TEMPORARY LOAN/THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM/TL.74.110.4/FROM Pearlman/DATE 5-8-74 Cardboard backing, upper center: writing in black marker: PS 1560-11 Cardboard backing, upper center: white label with rounded edges: ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, PICADILLY, LONDON/?1900: Art at the Crossroads?/January 16 to April 3, 2000/Paul Cézanne/Citerne au Parc du Château Noir/Key: 787 Cat: 297/PRINCETON, THE ART MUSEUM, PRINCETON/UNIVERSITY Cardboard backing, upper center: inscribed in pencil: WELL AND ROCK/CHATEAU NOIR Cardboard backing, center: white square label: Exhibition: CEZANNE: THE LATE WORK/Artist: Paul Cézanne/Title/Date: The Cistern in the Park at Château Noir. c. 1900/Medium: Oil/Museum. No. 1977.771/Box. No.: 39/The Museum of Modern Art/11 West 53 Street, New York, New York 10019 Cardboard backing, lower left and lower center: [3 Princeton University Art Museum labels] Cardboard backing, lower right: white rectangular label: THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO/L.82.58.4/LOAN EXHIBITION PAUL CEZANNE: THE COLLECTION OF MR. AND MRS. HENRY PEARLMAN/ LOAN DATES: 6/26/82 through 8/29/82/ARTIST Paul Cézanne/TITLE & DATE Citerne au Parc du Chateau Noir/OWNER Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pearlman/ADDRESS: c/o The Art Museum, Princeton University

Type

paintings

Subject

green (color), blue, trees, cistern, landscapes (representations), Nature, orange

Jos Hessel (1859–1942), Paris, by 1914; [sold to Paul Cassirer, 31 Mar. 1914]; sold to Rudolph W. Vollmoeller, Vaihingen-Stuttgart, 18 May 1916; by descent to Hans R. Vollmoeller, Uster, Switzerland, by 1950; sold to Mr. Richard H. Zinser, Forest Hills, NY, Oct. 1950; sold to Henry Pearlman, 1 July 1952; Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, after 1974.

Cistern in the Grounds of Château Noir

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2207255

Lionello Venturi, Cézanne: son art, son oeuvre, (Paris: Rosenberg éditeur, 1936)., No. 780 (illus.)

269 1936

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/78332525

A loan exhibition of paintings, watercolors and sculpture from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pearlman:for the benefit of Greenwich House, (New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1959)., Cat. 3 (illus.)

399 1959

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/79033130

The Henry Pearlman Collection, (New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1964)., No. 16

404 1964

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/217056126

Cézanne and his contemporaries: The Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pearlman Collection, (Detroit, MI: Detroit Institute of Art, 1967)., Cat. 3

401 1967

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/78171442

Impressionism, Post-impressionism, Expressionism: The Mr. & Mrs. Henry Pearlman Collection of Works by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, Modigliani, Soutine, and Others (Hartford, CT: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1970)., Cat. 3

402 1970

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/487514822

Linda Ferber and Leonore Sundberg, An exhibition of paintings, watercolors, sculpture and drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pearlman and Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, (New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1974)., Cat. 4 (illus.)

988 1974

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/18598514

Richard Kendall, Cézanne by Himself, (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988)., 271 (Illus.)

1618 1988

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/878770717

Rachael Z. DeLue et al., Cézanne and the Modern: masterworks of European art from the Pearlman Collection, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014)., Cat. 12, fig. 87

1696 2014