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| Paul Cézanne Self Portrait ca. 1872 oil on canvas Hermitage, St Petersburg formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
"The Havemeyers were back in Paris in April [1901] for the opening of the Champ de Mars Salon in the Grand Palais, where Maurice Denis's Homage to Cézanne was attracting much attention. The painting depicted a still life by Cézanne on an easel with a group around it that included younger artists, as well as the critic André Mellerio and Cézanne's dealer, Ambrose Vollard. This exhibit was not Louisine and Harry's only opportunity to take notice of Cézanne, but it was evidence that the painter was beginning to receive public recognition."
"There were other indications that Cézanne's star was slowly rising among the "progressives" of the Parisian art world. His prices at auctions had gone up substantially; at the sale in 1899 of the well-known collection of Count Doria, none other than Claude Monet paid the astonishing price of 6,750 francs ($1,350) for a winter landscape by Cézanne. Shortly afterward, Monet encouraged Count Carmondo, Harry's arch rival as a collector, to purchase Cézanne's House of the Hanged Man for about the same amount at the estate sale of Victor Chocquet, Cézanne's long-time friend and passionate patron. Monet also convinced Paul Durand-Ruel to take advantage of the large offering of Cézannes, more than thirty works, at the Chocquet sale; the dealer bought about half of the pictures, although he did not put them immediately on the market. Harry Havemeyer must have known of these events, both of which had been widely reported."
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| Paul Cézanne Still Life with Bottle ca. 1890 oil on canvas private collection formerly owned by Mary Cassatt |
"Mary Cassatt herself owned an extremely beautiful still life by Cézanne. She would say in 1910 that she had acquired this painting some twenty-five years before, but it seems more likely that she bought it during the 1890s. Having met Cézanne at Giverny in 1894, Cassatt, though startled by his appearance and horrified by his table manners, was impressed by his artistic integrity. Louisine must have spent considerable time studying her friend's still life; she recalled it hanging in Cassatt's drawing room together with several works by Degas and a gesso relief by Donatello propped on an easel in a corner. Certainly Mary Cassatt and Louisine had frequent discussions about Cézanne and his work. Perhaps Louisine also saw the two Cézanne landscapes displayed in the Luxembourg Museum after 1896 in the Caillebotte Bequest."
"According to a newspaper interview with Louisine shortly before her death in 1929, she was the Havemeyer who first went to Vollard's and requested to be shown some Cézannes. Vollard's own recollections directly contradict this account, telling of Harry coming alone to his shop in 1898 and selecting two pictures by Cézanne. The solitary Havemeyer who went to Vollard's gallery to satisfy a curiosity about the work of the still-controversial Cézanne was most probably Louisine. She may have kept her visit secret at the time, thinking that her husband would not yet be responsive to Cézanne's vision."
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| Paul Cézanne Flowers in a Glass Vase 1872-73 oil on canvas Timken Art Gallery, San Diego formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
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| Paul Cézanne Still Life: Flowers 1879-80 oil on canvas private collection formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
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| Paul Cézanne Winter Landscape of Auvers 1873 oil on canvas private collection formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
"In any case Cassatt and Louisine must have decided in the spring of 1901 that Harry should become personally acquainted with Vollard's little shop on the rue Laffitte. Mary Cassatt alerted the dealer of his impending arrival: 'I've been talking to Mr. Havemeyer about you. So do put all your best things aside for him. You know who I mean by Havemeyer?' However, on this occasion the Havemeyers were not quite ready for the best of Cézanne; following their practice when first acquiring the work of a particular artist, they started off modestly. They probably selected two still lifes of flowers, neither of which was revolutionary. Indeed, one of them, Flowers in a Glass Vase, looked like a Manet both in its brushwork and color tonalities, which was perhaps why it appealed to Harry. They may also have chosen then Cézanne's Auvers landscape, another early and unexceptional picture. But it was important that they had begun buying Cézanne's paintings; their choices were among the first works by him to find a permanent home in America."
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| Paul Cézanne Still Life with Ginger Jar and Eggplants 1893-94 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
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| Paul Cézanne Landscape with Viaduct (Mont Sainte-Victoire) or Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley 1882-85 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
"After this initial visit, the Havemeyers went often to Vollard's little shop. They were encouraged by Mary Cassatt, who recognized the thirty-four-year-old dealer's astuteness and admired his aggressive entrepreneurship. Relatively new at the vocation of art dealing (he had opened his gallery in 1893), Vollard was willing to take risks and to follow the advice of artists. Encouraged by Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro, he had organized Cézanne's first one-man-show in 1895. Although he had since earned the respect of the avant-garde in the Parisian art world, he was still having difficulties making ends meet in 1901, as Cassatt well knew."
"Harry Havemeyer must have appreciated Vollard's uncommon shrewdness, for he allowed himself gradually to be won over by the persuasive dealer. Vollard may even have managed to convince the Havemeyers to acquire two other significant paintings by Cézanne: Still Life with Ginger Jar and Eggplants and Landscape with Viaduct, in which the background reminded Harry of a fresco he had recently admired in Pompeii. Harry evidently realized the importance of Vollard's efforts to introduce new styles of art and did not want him to have to abandon his enterprise. He must have advanced the struggling dealer a substantial sum of money, because ten years later, Mary Cassatt would write to Louisine: 'Vollard has made a fortune. . . . He hasn't forgotten Mr. Havemeyer having saved his financial life in 1901. You remember when he [Harry] came back from Italy.' Harry may have made an arrangement whereby he would reduce Vollard's debt by selecting pictures from him over the next several years."
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| Paul Cézanne The Abduction 1867 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
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| Paul Cézanne Man in a Straw Hat - Portrait of Gustave Boyer ca. 1870-71 oil on paper, mounted on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
"While in Paris [in 1903], the Havemeyers bought pictures by Manet, Degas, and Puvis de Chavannes from the Galerie Durand-Ruel, and two more Cézanne paintings, their first documented purchases of works by that artist. Cézanne's The Abduction, an intensely sensuous, romantic landscape with nude figures, had belonged to Emile Zola. Vollard had bought it at Zola's estate sale early in March 1903, and soon afterward Durand-Ruel obtained it from him, apparently at the Havemeyers' request. Durand-Ruel also purchased from Vollard on their behalf Cézanne's Man in a Straw Hat – Portrait of Gustave Boyer, another early work by the artist, showing the influence of Manet."
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| Paul Cézanne The Banks of the Marne ca. 1890-92 oil on canvas Hermitage, St. Petersburg formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
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| Paul Cézanne Still Life: Flowers in a Vase ca. 1885 oil on canvas private collection formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
"During the summer of 1906, [Mary Cassatt] informed her friends that Vollard was sending them 'some photos of Cézannes which he says he can get.' The dealer was most like referring, among other works, to two landscapes – one probably The Banks of the Marne – and a floral still life. . . . Louisine and Harry may have been steadily acquiring works from Vollard against the sum that the dealer owed to Harry since Harry's advance of 1901."
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| Paul Cézanne Rocks in the Forest ca. 1894 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
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| Paul Cézanne Still Life with Jar, Cup and Apples ca. 1877 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York formerly owned by Louisine Havemeyer |
"It was surely during Louisine's 1909 visit to Paris that she had been prompted to dispose of some of her Cézannes, since Mary Cassatt's previous admiration for this artist had undergone a reversal. Cassatt had written to Théodore Duret in 1904 that she had no intention of selling her Cézanne still life, but now she did exactly that; shortly thereafter Louisine sold two of her Cézannes [the Self-Portrait and The Banks of the Marne]. Cassatt's indignation had been aroused by Cézanne's new staunch supporters who dared to rate him above the masters Cassatt revered: Courbet, Manet, and Degas. Nor did she approve of the new wave of Cézanne collectors, such as Gertrude and Leo Stein. In 1908 Cassatt had attended one of the Steins' Saturday "evenings" at 27 rue de Fleurus and found herself, much to her distaste, among dealers, collectors, and young painters of assorted nationalities, together with a crowd of her hosts' friends, relatives, and acquaintances. But what really horrified Cassatt was the abundance of "dreadful" paintings, particularly by Matisse and Picasso, among which were also works by Cézanne; in the eyes of the highly judgmental Mary Cassatt, the Cézannes suffered by association. The "farceur" Matisse even collected Cézanne's paintings and watercolors!"
"In 1910 Cassatt would write to an artist-friend in Philadelphia, who was then in Florence: 'The dealers had nothing else to sell so boomed Cézanne as against such men as Manet. To be sure those who have the money buy Manets. I sold my Cézanne for which I paid 100 francs twenty-five years ago (I was one of the first to see merit in his pictures), for 8,000 francs [about $1,600] and immediately added something to it and bought a Courbet. Cézanne's nude figures are almost a copy of some of Greco's; he was always more influenced by pictures than nature, except in his still life.' Mary Cassatt, now sixty-six years old, could not extend her once progressive attitude to the art of any painters more recent than the Impressionists. She felt threatened by Cézanne's influence on the young generation and thought his work was overestimated for the wrong reasons. Naturally Cassatt's disdain for the avant-garde art of the early twentieth century affected Louisine's point of view, but Louisine kept her own counsel; she valued her remaining eleven Cézannes and did not consider selling them."
– quoted texts from The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America by Frances Weitzenhoffer (New York: Abrams, 1986)