Czanne portraits - John Elderfield

Th is book, like
the exhibition it accompanies, looks at the special
pictorial and thematic
characteristics of
Czanne's portraiture practice, including his creation of complementary
pairs and
multiple versions of the same subject . The chronological development of
the artist's portraiture is also explored , with an examinat ion of
the changes that occurred with respect to
his
style and method, on the one hand, and
his understanding of resemblance and identity, on
the other . Th e extent to which particular sitters inflected the characteristics and development
of his practice is also considered . Czanne Portraits features works that mutually inform each other to reveal arguably the most
personal , and therefore
most human, aspect of his art, and one
that has hitherto received
surprisingly little attention. They range from
Czanne's earliest
surviving self - portraits ,
dating from the
1860s, through
to his final portraits of Vallier, the gardener at his hou se near Aix - en - Provence, made
shortly before
the artist's death in 1906. Exhibition curator John Elderfield contributes an
illuminating introductory essay on Czanne's
portraiture,
while the artist's biographer,
the late
Alex Danchev, provides an informative
dramatis personae on the sitters featured .
The catalogue texts
are
by John Elderfi eld, Mary
Morton and
Xavier Rey , and a chronology
by Jayne Warman
sets the artist's work in the
context of his life.