The Four Seasons by Paul Cézanne.

In 1859, when Paul Cézanne was a young man who reluctantly studied law, his father, Louis-Auguste Cézanne, purchased a country estate called Jas de Bouffan ("La Demeure des Vents", or "The house of the Winds") just outside Aix-en-Provence, France.

The imposing and neglected seventeenth century house,  surrounded by woods and ample cultivated lands, became the Sunday retreat for the family of this wealthy banker, whose fortune had begun with a hat shop.

Louis-Auguste, a severe and practical man, expected his only son to become a lawyer or a notary, and arranged his education accordingly. However, music and painting became soon more interesting, and, supported by his mother, Paul was allowed to attend the Ecole Gratuite de Dessin (Free Drawing School) in Aix-en-Provence. His father also allowed him to exercise his talent decorating the walls of the rooms at the ground floor at Jas de Bouffan, rooms used as storage.

In a corner of a large hall, Paul painted four narrow and tall panels representing the four seasons, as four women carrying appropriate flowers and fruits. Spring and Summer opposite to Autumn and Winter, and, in the middle, there was the portrait of his father reading a newspaper. Paul found inspiration for this work in the illustrations of Le Magasin Pittoresque, a popular illustrated magazine, following a theme that, from ancient times, was celebrated in arts as an allegory of the cycle of life.
Maybe Paul’s intentions were not so serious. He signed the panels "Ingres", adding the year 1811 on the left corner of the panel dedicated to winter, with clear reference to the picture “Jupiter and Thetis” signed by Ingres and dated Rome, 1811, on display at the Museum Granet in Aix-en-Provence. By comparing his young talent to that of the well-known painter, Paul was sending an ironic message to his father, who stubbornly refused to let him go to Paris. Eventually, Paul left Aix-en-Provence in 1861, but he often returned, and he settled there permanently in 1877.

Jas du Buffon, the family house from 1870, was sold in 1899, after his mother’s death. The house, with its quiet and silent environment, the long entrance alley of chestnut trees, the garden, the pond and views of the countryside, offered inspiration for nearly forty years. Nature was different in the painter’s mature eye: basic geometric shapes, lines and colours to define the design, to give depth and perspective, to add contrasts and light. Paul's palette is listed in Emile Bernard’s small book of memories. Yellows: brilliant yellow, naples yellow, chrome yellow, yellow ochre, raw sienna. Reds: vermilion, indian red, burnt sienna, madder lake, carmine lake, burnt crimson lake. Greens: viridian, emerald  green, green earth. Blues: cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, prussian blue, peach black, lead white.

In his last years, Paul lived on 23 rue Boulegon in Aix-en-Provence, but his studio was in the countryside, near a road called chemin des Lauves, on a hill. Inside the building, there were the objects that he painted in his last still lifes, outside, there was the inspiring Provencal landscape, a nature he never failed to observe.


Further reading:
Emile Bernard, Mi ricordo Cézanne, Milano, Skira editore, 2011.

Photos:
The Four Seasons: Wikipainting.
Flowers: Travelinagarden.

Pomona Artificiale - Artificial Pomona.

I would like to have a room, an empty room.

On a cold day of winter, when the sun melts dirty snowdrifts and deceives impatient citizens tired of winter, I would open my glass showcases and prepare a list, choosing, among the fruits and vegetables on display, those to be planted in my garden.

The glossy apples, pears, plums, grapes, peaches, figs, cherries, apricots, pomegranates, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, turnips and fungi are beautiful artificial fruits moulded by the Italian craftsman and artist Francesco Garner Valletti (1808-1889) around the middle of the nineteenth century. First trained as confectioner, he soon left the art of pastry and the town of Turin, in northern Italy, to create artificial flowers in Milan. His work impressed the Austrian Governor, who introduced Garnier Valletti to the court of Vienna. Here, he began the production of artificial fruit made in wax, continued, a few years later, at the court of the Tsar in St Petersburg, Russia.

At that time, artificial fruits triumphed as decorations for fashionable hats and courtly tables. Elegant ladies adorned garlands of flowers, created with feathers, silk, crepe, batiste, taffetas and satin, with “quelques cerises, une grappe d’épine-vinette, une tige de fraises,” and compositions of “branches de glands de chêne, [et] de groseillier”[1] gave to their hairstyles a sophisticated look. During banquets, elaborated recipes were displayed in extravagant presentations, surrounded by precious glassware on refined linens hidden by gigantic cornucopias full of beautiful artificial fruits to rejoice the table.

In 1848, Garnier Valletti left St. Petersburg, and, back in Turin, he continued his activity with more scientific and didactic purposes. The accuracy of his reproductions, in fact, interested museums and schools, but also nurseries, which used his fruits as a catalogue to show to their customers the different variety of plants. Garnier Valletti worked for the Museo Pomologico in Turin (Pomological Museum), created at the Stablimento Agricolo Burdin in 1857, producing thousands of specimens. At the same time, he worked in his own laboratory to increase his revenues. He received several important awards and encomium, but just in the last months of his life he could enjoy a certain economic peace.

The first step of the process was the study of the fruit used as model. Garnier Valletti took meticulous notes of the day and place where it had been gathered, adding botanical and agronomic characteristics to help a more faithful reproduction. He also prepared drawings, with great attention to colors, proportions and all different small details. Designs were the starting point for the creation of a mould, obtained from the cast of the original fruit, and filled with a secret mixture. In Turin, after his years abroad, Garnier Valletti left wax for a mixture of resins, gums, chalk, and alabaster powder, of which he never revealed the exact composition. This mixture was more resistant and easily adaptable to different type of fruit with excellent results. The fruit, removed from the mould, was polished and colored. After coloration, it was passed with varnish and gloss and finished, with extreme patience and attention, with all details that characterized each quality of fruit. Peaches and apricots, for example, were covered with a wool powder obtained with a mortar. Garnier Valletti called his pomological collection the “Pomona artificiale.”

The list of the cultivar included in Garnier Valletti’s collection is impressive. Their names exalted the qualities and colors of the fruits, such as the tempting cherries called “Tenerina precoce di maggio” (Tender early May) or “Duracina rossobruno grossa” (Duracina large red-brown). Fruits and vegetables were often named to celebrate famous people or in honour of the creator's proud wife, such as the pear “Alexandrina Bivort.” Today, these names are forgotten as many of these ancient cultivars lost with the development of the global and standardized production. The exhibition held at Orto Botanico of Brera, in Milan, at the beginning of January, displayed artificial perfect fruits that, recalling the richness of the past, are an invaluable source of information to support the renewed interest in biological and local production.

At the end of the day, I would close my glass showcases and leave my room for a region of hills and mountains, vines, hazels and chocolate to transform my list of lost fruits in trees for my orchard.

[1] Mme Celnart, Manuel du Fleuriste Artificiel, ou l’Art d’Imiter d’Après Nature toute espèce de fleurs, Paris, A la Librairie Encyclopédique De Roret, 1829. Accessed: Google Books. Transl.: “some cherries, a bunch of barberry, a stem of strawberries” “branches of acorns of oaks, currant." 

Further reading:

Pierluigi Bassignana, Eligio Malusà, Augusto Marchesini, Giorgio Segre e Daniele Regis, Il museo della frutta, La collezione Garnier-Valletti e la frutticoltura storica piemontese, Torino, Umberto Allemandi & C., 1996.

Il Museo della frutta “Francesco Garnier-Valletti, Torino, Palazzo degli Istituti Anatomici, 2007.

Photos:
Travelinagarden.

Fruits and drawings from the exhibition “Garnier-Valletti, Arte e scienza nei frutti artificiali dell’Ottocento.”  Orto Botanico di Brera, Milan, Jan. 2012.

Decorated table, Petherof Palace, St. Petersburg, 2009.

Links:
Museo della Frutta “Francesco Garnier-Valletti.” Torino.
http://www.museodellafrutta.it/en/