Detail of Madame Cezanne in a Red Armchair by Cezanne in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, June 2010

Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair
about 1877
Paul Cézanne, French, 1839–1906

Dimensions: 72.4 x 55.9 cm (28 1/2 x 22 in.)

Medium or Technique: Oil on canvas

Classification: Paintings
Type: Portrait - Single - Female

Accession Number: 44.776

Cézanne's wife, Hortense Fiquet, was his most frequent model—he painted nearly thirty portraits of her. Posing for Cézanne demanded great patience, for he was a slow and painstaking worker and always required the presence of the model. This early portrait has a serene monumentality, its many small blocks of subtly varied color locked into a harmonious whole. In one of his most frequently quoted statements, Cézanne said, "I want to make of Impressionism an art as solid as that of the museums."

Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/madame-c-zanne-in-a-red-ar...