Marie-Hortense Fiquet
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Paul_C%C3%A9zanne_-_Madame_C%C3%A9zanne_em_Vermelho.jpg/250px-Paul_C%C3%A9zanne_-_Madame_C%C3%A9zanne_em_Vermelho.jpg)
Marie-Hortense Fiquet Cézanne (22 April 1850 – 1922) was a French artists' model. She is best known for her marriage to Paul Cézanne and the 27 portraits, mostly in oil, he painted of her between 1869 and the late 1890s.[1]
Life
She was born in Saligney, France on 22 April 1850. In 1869, she met Cézanne at an art school in Paris called Académie Suisse. This art school was used by a number of major artists as a place to meet each other and to paint the models who worked there. Fiquet's main job was as a bookseller or bookbinder, but she combined this with part-time work as a model. They started a relationship and when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1871, they left Paris together for L'Estaque in the south of France. Afraid of offending his father, Louis-Auguste Cézanne, a well-to-do banker, and compromising his allowance, he went to great lengths to conceal his liaison with Fiquet. The existence of their child Paul, born in 1872, was kept from Louis-Auguste for some years.[2]
Fiquet and Cézanne married on 28 April 1886, in the presence of the artist's parents, though by that time he had publicly said that he no longer had any feelings for her. Described by one scholar as "high-maintenance", Fiquet was to live separately from her husband for much of their married life.[3] After the death of Louis-Auguste Cézanne that same year, Cézanne and his wife separated, the artist moving in with his sister and mother and declaring, "My wife only cares for Switzerland and lemonade".[2] The psychological distance between husband and wife appears to be reflected in the portraits where she gives the impression of being self-absorbed.[4]
She eventually settled in Paris.[5] Although he continued to paint his wife until the 1890s, he disinherited her. After her husband's death in 1906, their one child, Paul (1872–1947) inherited his father's entire estate. The settlement that Hortense received from her son was squandered through gambling.[6]
In literature
Hortense may have provided inspiration for a character in L'Œuvre, an Émile Zola novel which appeared in serial form the year before the Cézannes' marriage. Zola was a friend to Cézanne from their schooldays, although the novel caused some tension between them.[7]
In the novel, Christine, also a model, marries a painter. However the book is not biographical in the strict sense; while the fictional painter bears some relation to Cézanne, Christine poses nude, a far cry from Cézanne's chaste portraits of Fiquet, and more reminiscent of Le déjeuner sur l'herbe by Édouard Manet.[8]
Gallery
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Paul_C%C3%A9zanne%2C_1888-90%2C_Madame_C%C3%A9zanne_%28Hortense_Fiquet%2C_1850%E2%80%931922%29_in_a_Red_Dress%2C_oil_on_canvas%2C_116.5_x_89.5_cm%2C_The_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art%2C_New_York.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
- Madame Cézanne in a red armchair, 1877. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Madame Cézanne in a Garden, 1879-1880, Musée de l'Orangerie
- Portrait of Mme Cézanne, c. 1885, Berggruen Museum
- Portrait of Madame Cézanne, 1885, Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Portrait of Marie-Hortense Fiquet, 1885–1887, Musée Granet
- Madame Cézanne, c. 1886, Oil on canvas, The Detroit Institute of Arts
- Portrait of Madame Cézanne, (1885–1887) Barnes collection
- Portrait of Madame Cézanne with Loosened Hair, c. 1883 – 1887, Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Madame Cézanne in Blue, 1890, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- Madame Cézanne in the Greenhouse, 1891–1892. Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Portrait of Mme Cézanne in a yellow armchair, 1893–1895
- Woman in a Green Hat. Madame Cézanne, 1894–1895. Barnes Foundation
- Madame Cézanne, 1885–87. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
See also
- Portrait of Madame Cézanne (Roy Lichtenstein)
References
- ^ Cohen, Patricia. "Author Gives Voice to Artists’ Silent Muses, Their Wives". New York Times, September 3, 2008
- ^ a b Lindsay
- ^ Laura Gascoigne, Carpenter of Colour[permanent dead link], The Spectator, 8 July 2006
- ^ Susan Sidlauskas, Emotion, Color, Cézanne1 (The Portraits of Hortense)
- ^ "Marie-Hortense Cézanne". 10 February 2015.
- ^ Ruth Butler, Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: The Model-Wives of Cézanne, Monet, and Rodin. Yale University Press, 2008.
- ^ "Cézanne and I (Cézanne et moi): The relationship of painter Paul Cézanne and novelist Émile Zola". 24 October 2019.
- ^ This painting was posed by Manet's wife Suzanne.
Sources
- Garb, Tamar. The Painted Face, Portraits of Women in France 1814–1914. Yale University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-300-11118-7
- Lindsay, Jack. Cézanne: His Life and Art. Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society, 1969
- v
- t
- e
- List of paintings
- The Negro Scipion (1867)
- The Overture to Tannhäuser (1869)
- L'Estaque, Melting Snow (c. 1871)
- The Hanged Man's House (1873)
- L'Après-midi à Naples (c. 1876)
- The Eternal Feminine (c. 1877)
- View of Auvers-sur-Oise (1879–80)
- Three Bathers (1879–1882)
- Portrait of Louis Guillaume (1879–1882)
- Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley (1882–1885)
- Chestnut Trees and Farm at Jas de Bouffan (c. 1884)
- Mont Sainte-Victoire seen from Bellevue (1885)
- House in Provence (1885)
- Chestnut Trees and Farm at Jas de Bouffan (c. 1886)
- Mont Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine (c. 1887)
- Portrait of Madame Cézanne with Loosened Hair (1883–1887)
- The Banks of the Marne (1888)
- Pierrot and Harlequin (1888–1890)
- Still Life with Peaches and Pears (1888–1890)
- View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph (late 1880s)
- The Basket of Apples (c. 1893)
- Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier (1893–1894)
- The Boy in the Red Vest (1894–1895)
- Portrait of Gustave Geffroy (1895)
- Bridge Across a Pond (1895–1898)
- Seated Peasant (c. 1892–1896)
- Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1899)
- Pipe Smoker Leaning on a Table (1895–1900)
- Women Bathing (c. 1900)
- Lady in Blue (c. 1900)
- Pyramid of Skulls (1901)
- Forest (1902–1904)
- The Bunch of Flowers (1902–1904)
- The Bathers (1898–1905)
- Still Life with Teapot (1902–1906)
- La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue du bosquet du Château Noir (1904)
![Self-Portrait with Palette, 1890](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Paul_C%C3%A9zanne%2C_c.1890%2C_Portrait_de_l%27artiste_%C3%A0_la_palette%2C_oil_on_canvas%2C_92_x_73_cm%2C_Foundation_E.G._B%C3%BChrle.jpg/80px-Paul_C%C3%A9zanne%2C_c.1890%2C_Portrait_de_l%27artiste_%C3%A0_la_palette%2C_oil_on_canvas%2C_92_x_73_cm%2C_Foundation_E.G._B%C3%BChrle.jpg)
- The Card Players (1890–1895)
- Mont Sainte-Victoire (1904–1906)
- Marie-Hortense Fiquet (model and wife)
- Homage to Cézanne (1900 painting)
- The Impressionists (2006 series)
- Cézanne and I (2016 film)
- Cézanne (crater)
- Corbarimys cezannei
External links
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