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Cézanne at the Whitworth

24 August 2019 – 17 March 2020

Cézanne at the Whitworth

This exhibition celebrated an extraordinary collection of drawings and prints by Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) that has been gifted and placed on long-term loan to the Whitworth by gallerist, collector, author, and publisher Karsten Schubert.

This important act of generosity means that the Whitworth now holds the best collection of Cézanne works on paper in the United Kingdom, including a version of every print produced by the artist. These works will significantly expand the research potential of the Whitworth’s important collection of late nineteenth-century French and Dutch drawings by artists including Van Gogh, Seurat and Gauguin.

Cézanne is widely considered to be one of the most influential artists of the nineteenth century, described by both Matisse and Picasso as ‘the father of us all’. Renowned for his accomplished approach to building form with colour, this exhibition will place focus on his drawings and prints, revealing Cézanne to be a draughtsman of great range and complexity. His lively, deeply personal drawings were never exhibited during his lifetime and were barely mentioned in his correspondence, only being discovered after his death. This exhibition will be the first in the UK since 1973 to focus exclusively on Cézanne’s drawings and prints, giving a new insight into the complexity of his artistic practice and his dedication to overcoming his artistic limitations through careful study of the Old Masters.

An exhibition catalogue published by Ridinghouse in association with the Whitworth accompanies the show. It includes a lead essay by renowned Impressionist scholar Richard Thomson on the significance of the loans to the Whitworth’s collection of nineteenth-century drawings and contributions by Elizabeth Cowling, Yuval Etgar, Rosalind McKever, Karsten Schubert, Colin Wiggins and Edward Wouk.

The Whitworth would like to express our deep gratitude to our friend Karsten Schubert (1961–2019) who conceived and developed this exhibition. We would would like to thank Tom Rowland and Sophie Kullmann of the Karsten Schubert Gallery and Ridinghouse books for their support in realising both the exhibition and publication.

24 August 2019 – 17 March 2020

Image: Paul Cézanne, The Bathers (Large Plate) detail, 1896-7
Presented to the Whitworth by Karsten Schubert in 2019