A previously hidden mural by famed French impressionist Paul Cézanne has been found obscured by a wall in his childhood home called "Bastide du Jas de Bouffan" in France's city of Aix-en-Provance, as reported by The Art News Paper.
The 12.3-acre estate was originally bought by Cézanne's father, Louis-August Cézanne, who is similarly an artist like himself, back in 1859. The painting was found during the renovation of this home, as part of a program that will be held in celebration of the French painter's legacy.
Rediscovering Cézanne's Legacy
The momentous find, which was made back in August last year in the main living space of the house, was the latest addition to the previous nine artworks that were identified within the space.
Just like the most recently found mural, all of the prior pieces were painted on the walls of the Cézanne estate, all of which are dated between 1859 and 1869.
These artworks were then transferred to canvases after Cézanne's sisters, Rose and Marie, sold "Bastide du Jas de Bouffant" to the Granel-Corsy family in 1899, one of which was a Jacob Van Ruysdael-inspired composition called "Le Baigneur au rocher" or "Bather and the Rocks.
The canvas-transferred murals were then acquired by established collecting institutions around the world, including Musée d'Orsay and Petit Palais in Paris; the Chrysler Museum of Art in the Virginia city of Norfolk in the US; and Onomichi city's Nakata Museum in Japan.
All of the nine artworks are showcased in John Rewald's 1996 online catalog of Cézanne's pieces, which will also feature the recently found mural soon. That said, the specific date remains unstated.
How the Cézanne Mural was Discovered
The recent addition to Cézanne's "Bastide du Jas de Bouffant" wall paintings was hidden behind numerous layers of plaster and wallpaper. As of now only the top half of the mural is exposed, depicting what looks like a maritime scene filled with pennons and masts.
It seems that this piece follows the theme of the previously found panels in Cézanne's home, that it is work that honors the stylings of painters that went before him.
This particular mural of his, and another called "Entrée du Port" ("Entrance to the Port"), is believed to have been inspired by the work of Claude Lorrain or Claude-Joseph Vernet, both of which were known for their seascape paintings.
The artist himself painted over the mural with his 1864 reinterpretation of Nicolas Lancret's work, "Jeu de cache-cache" ("Game of Hide & Seek"), following his visit to Paris's 1863 "Salon des Refusés" exhibition.
This leads to the working theory of why it was covered up, that it was the Granel family who did so after moving in, probably to finish Cézanne's own cover-up work.
Since this discovery, the order in which the Aix-en-Provence home's murals were painted is currently being re-evaluated. This finding also gives the artist's home city to host a Cézanne work, which it has not done in a long while.
