Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890 Tarascon), Stagecoach (La diligence de Tarascon), 1888. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
ATLANTA, GA.- The High Museum of Art presents “Cézanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection,” a major traveling exhibition organized by the Princeton University Art Museum featuring 50 modern masterworks, many of which are rarely exhibited.
On view Oct. 25, 2014, through Jan. 11, 2015, the exhibition will offer visitors the chance to view exceptional masterpieces by Cézanne, van Gogh, Manet, Modigliani, Degas, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and others.
Featured works showcase the extraordinary vision of Henry Pearlman (1895-1974), a modest American entrepreneur who amassed an astonishing collection of modern art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including perhaps the greatest collection of watercolors by Cézanne outside of France.
Since 1976, the Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection has resided at the Princeton University Art Museum, and this exhibition marks the first international tour of the entire collection since Pearlman’s death in 1974.
“Cézanne and the Modern” features 24 works by Cézanne, including an exceptional set of 16 watercolors. The exhibition also features 26 paintings and sculptures by Degas, Manet, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier, Oskar Kokoschka, Wilhelm Lembruck, Jacques Lipchitz, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley. Highlights include Cézanne’s “Mont Sainte-Victoire” (ca. 1904–06), van Gogh’s “Tarascon Stagecoach” (1888), and Modigliani’s portrait of Jean Cocteau (1916).
The exhibition also includes seven works by Chaïm Soutine, and in conjunction with “Cézanne and the Modern,” the High will present five portraits by the Expressionist painter, generously on loan from the Lewis Collection.
Over three decades, Pearlman assembled one of the finest collections of European art remaining in private hands. A lifelong New Yorker, Pearlman founded the Eastern Cold Storage Company in 1919, which made important contributions to marine shipbuilding during World War II. He began seriously collecting avant-garde art in the 1940s with the purchase of a canvas by Soutine, an artist known for his bold use of color and expressive brushwork.
Pearlman quickly became interested in Modigliani, another artist of the so-called School of Paris, and eventually began to collect works by some of the artists who influenced them, including Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne.
By building close relationships with a number of dealers in the U.S. and abroad, and befriending artists directly, Pearlman secured numerous paintings that today are deemed masterpieces. He relished the hunt for secreted masterworks and was fascinated by the networks of aesthetic influence and personal relationships among artists.
“Cézanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection” is organized by the Princeton University Art Museum in cooperation with the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation. The exhibition premiered at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, England (March 13–June 22, 2014), then traveled to the Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France (July 11–Oct. 5, 2014) before the High Museum of Art (Oct. 25, 2014–Jan. 11, 2015). Following its presentation at the High, the exhibition will be on view at Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (Feb. 7–May 18, 2015), and the tour will culminate at Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, N.J. (Sept. 12, 2015–Jan. 3, 2016).
The exhibition is co-curated by the Princeton University Art Museum’s Betsy Rosasco, research curator of European painting and sculpture, and Laura Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970, curator of prints and drawings.
Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917), After the Bath: Woman Drying Herself, 1890s. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906), Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1904-1906. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906), Still Life with Carafe, Bottle, and Fruit, 1906. Watercolor and soft graphite on pale buff wove paper. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906), Cistern in the Park of Château Noir, ca. 1900. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906), Trees Forming an Arch, ca. 1904-1905. Watercolor and graphite on buff wove paper. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883), Young Woman in a Round Hat, ca. 1877-1879. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903), Still Life: Apples and Pears in a Round Basket, 1872. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901), The Sacred Grove, 1884. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920), Jean Cocteau, 1916. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Chaïm Soutine (French, born Lithuania, 1893–1943), Self Portrait, ca. 1918. Oil on canvas. Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Chaïm Soutine (French, born Lithuania, 1893–1943), The Little Pastry Chef (Le Petit Pâtissier), ca. 1927. Oil on canvas. The Lewis Collection © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo © 2013 Christie’s Images Limited