"But behold the advantage of art; painting endures"

Cézanne, Paul, French painter (1839-1906). Autograph letter signed ("Paul Cézanne").

€ 25.000,00

To Camille Pissarro ("Mon cher Pissarro"), on all the current news of post-Impressionist circles. Cézanne speaks frequently of business gossip: Monet has sold a painting for a large sum ("la Japonaise de Monet c'était vendu 2 mille francs"), and Manet has yet again faced rejection from the Salon, to much furor ("Il parait d'ápres les journaux que le Refus au Salon de Manet a fait beacoup de bruit"). Cézanne closes his letter by noting that he, too, has been rejected from the Salon this year. In between, he discusses a fascinating array of events, paintings, and personal grudges: the reception of the second Impressionist Exhibition at Durand-Ruel, mentioning a hostile review by Albert Wolff in Le Figaro (after which Monet still had no trouble selling his painting for two million francs), and explaining the confusion over a review by the journalist Authier (alias Jean-Lubin) which erroneously described Monet and Pissarro as 'imitators' instead of 'initiators.' His note of his personal circumstances in wintery Aix is quite poetic: "Here with us the frost has been so severe that all the fruit and vine harvest is lost. But behold the advantage of art; painting endures" (transl.).

This long letter was written at the time of the month-long second Impressionist Exhibition at Galerie Durand-Ruel which began on 2 April 1876. Of the nearly 300 works exhibited, Pissarro showed twelve paintings, Monet eighteen works and Degas twenty-four. The exhibition is particularly known for introducing the artist Gustave Caillebotte, who also put up the majority of the finance. Neither Cézanne nor Manet exhibited, although Manet, as this letter reveals, chose instead to exhibit at his own home. It is one of six letters to Pissarro published in Rewald's edition of Cézanne's letters.