“The Phillips Collection to Restore Two Renowned Cézanne Pieces with Bank of America Grant”

“Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1886-1987, Oil on canvas, 23.5 x 28.5 in. (59.6 x 72.3), Acquired 1925, The Phillips Collection”

From a press release:

“The Phillips Collection has been awarded Bank of America’s 2023 Art Conservation Project Grant for the conservation of two paintings by the influential French artist Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). Seminal to the permanent collection of America’s first museum of modern art, Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire (1886-1887) and Self-Portrait (1878-1880)—which are in constant demand for exhibitions and loans—are receiving extensive treatment for the first time in forty-five years. Their conservation will transform the appearance of the two compositions, revealing their strength currently obscured by deteriorated varnishes, while also affording scholars the opportunity to examine the artist’s process in the process.

“Paul Cézanne, Self-Portrait, 1878-80, Oil on canvas, 23.8 x 18.5 in. (60.3 x 46.9 cm), Acquired 1928, The Phillips Collection”

“Cézanne’s works are vitally important to the history of art as well as the history of The Phillips Collection. Our founder Duncan Phillips’s appreciation of Cézanne informed, refined, and educated his eye while broadening his vision of modern art,” says Vradenburg Director and CEO Jonathan P. Binstock. “This Bank of America grant ensures we can provide the careful conservation such meaningful pieces deserve.”

Duncan Phillips purchased the paintings in 1925 and 1928, respectively. As the first Cézanne to enter the collection, Mont Sainte-Victoire was on constant view during Phillips’ lifetime. For decades, Cézanne rendered the mountain from different views and in relationship with changing elements in the landscape like this scene, framed by trees, observed from Bellevue, the artist’s brother-in-law’s estate.

Cézanne’s Self-Portrait was the artist’s first self-portrait to enter an American museum collection. Phillips bought the painting when he was almost the same age as Cézanne was when he painted it. Phillips described it as being for, “ultimate consummation… nothing in the museum can surpass the subtle, solid, modeling of that head of an old lion of a man, the pride and loneliness of him so directly conveyed.”

“The treatment of Mont Sainte-Victoire and Self-Portrait presents the opportunity to study Cézanne’s materials and techniques at distinct moments of his career,” says Elizabeth Steele, The Phillips Collection Head of Conservation, who is overseeing the effort on-site at the museum’s Sherman Fairchild Foundation Conservation Studio. “We’re particularly interested in restoring the volume and depth in the compositions along with brilliance in the artist’s palette.”

The two artworks are part of the museum’s world-renowned unit of six paintings and one print by Cézanne, deemed to be among his finest by many Cézanne scholars. The treatment will result in a unit of fully restored pictures, including previously conserved works such as Ginger Pot with Pomegranate and Pears (1893). These works will be exhibited at The Phillips Collection in spring 2024. Sponsored by Bank of America, the unveiling will feature a symposium and series of programs taking audiences behind the scenes of the treatment process and beneath the paintings’ surfaces.

The Phillips Collection is one of 23 cultural institutions globally to receive the grant and the only recipient in the Washington metropolitan area.”