Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe. Lunch on the Grass. The Picnic. by Paul Cézanne, 1839-1906

Paul Cézanne, 1839-1906
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Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe. Lunch on the Grass. The Picnic.

Lithograph in nine colours - drawn on the stone by Auguste Clot from a maquette by Cézanne; supervised by Cézanne. c.1898. From the only edition of c.100 impressions. Commissioned by Ambroise Vollard, probably for the third but unpublished Album d'Estampes de la Galerie Vollard', c.1900. Edition printed at the studio of Clot, Paris 1914.
Ref: Cherpin - Cézanne Graphic Work 9. Leymarie-Melot 9.

Extremely fine totally fresh impression with excellent unfaded colours. On off-white chine volant paper. Excellent condition. With full margins as issued - 1/4 to 3/4 inch at top and foot, c.1 1/2 ins at sides. With the irregular sheet edges as issued. Image overall: 13 x 15 ins
(330x380mm).

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'Le Déjeuner sur L'Herbe' was the last of the four lithographs which Ambroise Vollard commissioned from Cézanne at the end of the 1890's, and which comprise the whole of his oeuvre in the medium. It was probably Vollard's original idea to include this lithograph in a proposed album of prints which he was planning in c.1900 but which, in fact, never came to fruition. Lithographs like 'La Charette' by Guillaumin and 'Les Jockeys' by Degas are other instances of works probably intended for the same album.

Whereas Cézanne had himself drawn the black stones and directly supervised the colour work in the lithographs of 'The Bathers', and may perhaps have intended colours for the 'Self Portrait', in the case of the 'Déjeuner sur l'Herbe' Vollard arranged that the master-printer Clot, at whose studio Cézanne had worked for the other lithographs, should work from a watercolour maquette prepared by Cézanne, who would then approve the lithographic work. Clot was one of the greatest master-lithographers of the era and he interpreted to perfection the structure and the tonality which Cézanne required.

The theme of the 'Déjeuner sur l'Herbe',/I> was deliberately derived from Manet's seminal painting of the same title. By adapting and changing Manet's composition Cézanne sought to illustrate how, through plane and perspective, he wanted the art of painting to develop from the interpretation of 'visual sensation' in Impressionism into art of the stature of the Classic