Portrait of Mme. Cézanne

Portrait of Mme. Cézanne of 1883, in the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection in Zurich, is one of the many studies Cézanne made of Hortense Fiquet across the 1880s as his portraiture technique evolved. The Bührle Foundation holds an exceptional concentration of Post-Impressionist work assembled by the Swiss industrialist Emil Georg Bührle, whose collection has since attracted significant scholarly and legal attention regarding provenance. The 1883 portrait shows Hortense in a characteristic pose of quiet containment, her expression neither engaged with the viewer nor entirely absent — the quality of patient attendance that made her Cézanne's ideal portrait subject. The technique reflects Cézanne's mid-career consolidation of his mature method.

The portrait's surface shows Cézanne's characteristic parallel stroke application building the face's form through adjacent colour touches of warm and cool tones. The hair is massed in broad deep tones that contrast with the more modulated face treatment, and the garment is simplified into large colour areas that balance the complex modelling of the head.