Portrait of Paul Cézanne
Medium
Etching on laid paper; only state
Dimensions
sheet: 17 5/8 x 11 1/2 in. (44.8 x 29.2 cm) plate: 10 9/16 x 8 7/16 in. (26.9 x 21.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1928
Accession Number
48.152
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1874, Camille Pissarro created this intimate etching portrait of his fellow artist Paul Cézanne, the young post-Impressionist at age 35. Produced as a single-state print on laid paper—a textured, handmade sheet typical of fine 19th-century printmaking—this work measures a modest plate size of 9/16 x 8 7/16 inches. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it exemplifies the experimental spirit of the era, blending Pissarro's Impressionist sensibilities with etching's precise line work. The portrait emerged during a pivotal moment: 1874 marked the first Imp...
About the Artist
Camille Pissarro|Paul Cézanne · 1831–1903
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) stands as the patriarch of Impressionism, the only artist to exhibit in all eight Impressionist exhibitions and a mentor whose influence shaped the trajectory of modern art. Born Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas to a Jewish-Portuguese merchant family, he abandoned the family business to pursue painting, eventually settling in Paris i...