Cézanne was a sentimental man, and he had a deep place reserved in his heart for his family’s beloved estate, Jas de Bouffan. Why then did he agree to sell the property in 1899? The answer remains strangely unanswered and confounding. By the time Cézanne’s mother died in 1897, his two sisters, Marie and Rose, had decided it was time to sell the family estate. Cézanne, however, had become extremely attached to the home, covering its walls with hanged paintings as well as murals directly on the plaster. He had developed his hallmark style in and around the gardens in the 1870’s and 1880’s, had used its many rooms as studios for his portrait and still-life paintings, and had lived there essentially continuously from 1885 to the date of its sale. To show the degree to which he was attached to the house, it is often rumored that, before moving out, Cézanne constructed a bonfire of many of his possessions that most reminded him of the house, including several paintings. Why, then, would he even think to agree to a sale of the house given this amount of passion surrounding the house?
The plot thickens when we add the element of Cézanne’s financial situation and French inheritance law to the mix. By law, when the last parent dies, the land in his or her possession passes, split into equal shares, to the children of that parent. Those children are then responsible for the property and may do as they please with their shares. In 1897, at the time of her death, Cézanne’s mother had left Jas de Bouffan to Cézanne and his two sisters, who both wanted to sell the property. Yet, considering the inheritance he had received from his father, it was perfectly within Cézanne’s means to purchase the other two shares and, consequently, own the house outright. Why didn’t he buy the house which he loved so? Was there some conversation with his family between his mother’s death in 1897 and the sale in 1899 that convinced him otherwise? Was he just plain tired of the same environment after so many years? Even John Rewald, Cézanne’s modern biographer and esteemed scholar of the artist, doesn’t have a clue.
Cézanne, P. Jas de Bouffan, the Pool, c. 1876, Oil on canvas. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.