Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The Plaster Cupid

Paul Cézanne
1839-1906

The Plaster Cupid

ca. 1902-1904
18 15/16 x 8 15/16 inches (483 x 228 mm)
Watercolor and graphite.
2017.31

Thaw Collection.

Notes
Watermark: none visible
On several occasions and in various media, Cézanne depicted a plaster cast of a Roman cupid that he kept in his studio. The most famous of these representations is a painting of 1894 at the Courtauld Gallery, London, but studies such as this sheet both pre-and postdate that work: Cézanne perhaps knowingly toyed with the idea of the "original" and the "copy after," which the cast itself evokes. As in many of Cézanne's late drawings, subtle touches of watercolor and repeated lines frame the statue, emphasizing the rippling contours of its silhouette. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"
Associated names
Cézanne, Paul, 1872-1947, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
Bibliography
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 47, repr.
Denison, Cara D. et al. The Thaw Collection : Master Drawings and New Acquisitions. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1994, no. 84.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department