The Boy in the Red Vest

Cézanne painted this quiet Italian boy around 1889, sitting him down with one elbow on a table and his head tipped into his hand. He made four versions of the same young model in that red waistcoat, working slowly, more interested in weight and structure than in telling you anything about the sitter. What gave the picture its later fame was not the pose. In February 2008 two armed men walked into the Bührle collection in Zurich near closing time and took it off the wall along with three other paintings. It was the most valuable work in the house. For four years no one knew where it was, until it turned up in Belgrade in 2012 and came back to Zurich. Look at the boy's right arm, which Cézanne drew noticeably longer than it should be. He knew, and left it, because the stretch felt right for the slump of the whole figure.