Cézanne and America

Book excerpt: The classic work by internationally acclaimed Cézanne scholar John Rewald In Cézanne and America, John Rewald presents a full account of how Paul Cézanne’s reputation and influence became established in America between 1891 and 1921, and of how some of the world’s largest collections of his works were formed in the United States. This is the fascinating story of enthusiastic young American artists who took up Cézanne’s cause after they discovered him in Paris. It is also the story of the discerning early American collectors of his work—Leo and Gertrude Stein, the Havemeyers, and John Quinn, among others—many of whom made their first purchases from Cézanne’s wily dealer Ambroise Vollard in Paris, or from the dealer Alfred Stieglitz in New York, and of the beginning of the famous collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes. Each chapter is illustrated not only with Cézanne’s works but also with portraits of collectors and critics and with previously unpublished pages from diaries, dealers’ ledgers, and Cézanne’s own correspondence.