Madame Cézanne

A new account of C zanne's complex relationship with his wife, who served as the subject of some of his most iconic portraits

Paul C zanne's (1839-1906) portraits of Hortense Fiquet (1850-1922), his wife and the subject of some of his iconic portraits, rank among the most powerful of their kind in French modernism. Yet, posterity has not been kind to Madame C zanne. She was called a distraction, blamed for her husband's "lackluster" landscapes, and disdained for her impenetrable expression in the paintings. The reality is more complex, for while Fiquet may not have been the passion of C zanne's lifetime, she was a willing accomplice, as model, mother of his only son, and unwavering partner against all odds.

Madame C zanne examines this unique relationship as it looks at C zanne the painter, draftsman, and portraitist. Featuring 24 of C zanne's oil portraits of Fiquet and most of the known drawings, Madame C zanne both reevaluates, with insight and compassion, the long-held misconceptions about the C zannes' unconventional marriage, and shows how C zanne's portraits of his wife provide a lens through which to better understand his overall technique.