The Bare Trees at Jas de Bouffan

The estate in this picture belonged to Cezanne's father, a hat dealer turned banker who bought it outside Aix in 1859 and disapproved of his son's painting for most of his life. Cezanne worked there constantly through the 1880s, on the chestnut avenue, the pool, the farm buildings and the wall. He set up for this one near the back gate, with the branches bare, and the museum in Tokyo dates it 1885 to 1886. In October 1886 his father died and left him the house and enough money that he never had to think about money again. The family sold Jas de Bouffan in 1899, seven years before Cezanne's own death, and this canvas went through dealers in Paris, Winterthur and New York before Tokyo bought it in 1978.