Description

Mention of 4th edition on cover.

SIGNED AUTOGRAPH CONSIGNMENT :
"To Mr Belval,
In memory of his kind knowledge of Cézanne's country
Emile Bernard
This was probably Emmanuel Belval (1861-1940), an insurer from Aix who acquired several works by Paul Cézanne.

This account was published after the painter's death in issues 247 and 248 of Mercure de France 1907, then published by the Société des Trente in 1912 and finally by the Aesthetic renovationa magazine co-founded by Émile Bernard and Théodore Goutchkoff.

The young Émile Bernard discovered Cézanne's canvases by buying his colours in the Parisian shop on rue Clauzel. He soon joined Pont-Aven, where he took part in the development of Cloisonnism and Synthetism, but fell out with Gauguin, whom he accused of taking credit for all the group's inventions. A ten-year stay in Egypt followed, during which Émile Bernard devoted himself to Orientalist painting. On his return from Africa in 1904, Émile Bernard stopped off in Aix, where he hoped to meet Cézanne, whom he considered to be his painting master. He stayed there for a month, visiting the painter every day. During this period, Émile Bernard photographed Cézanne in his studio, published an article in theWest These interviews helped to establish his reputation, and this collection of memories is a rare record of Cézanne's last years.
Between 1891 and 1926, Émile Bernard published a dozen articles devoted to Cézanne and the Pont-Aven School.

"For twenty years of his life, the writer of these lines was a fervent admirer of Paul Cézanne. At a time when misunderstanding, malice and jealous spite surrounded the works of the artist he called his master with hostile laughter or obscure silences, he deciphered the canvases (rare at the time) that could be seen by this painter in a small shop in the rue Clauzel in Paris. He was far from expecting the resounding success that has since made Paul Cézanne's slightest attempts works of special interest; he was indignant at the silence of the critics, the contempt of his friends and the ignorance of the painters, his contemporaries, quite simply.nt."