Description
Paul Cezanne – The Abduction
| Year of creation: | 1867 |
| Original size: | 117 cm x 90 cm |
| Painting style: | Post-impressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
The motifs of violence, eroticism and romantic fantasy were common motifs in Cézanne’s work in the years 1866–71. There are several explanations for the oil motif in The Abduction. One theory says that the painting shows Hercules rescuing Alcestis from Hades. A more established theory is that it is Pluto’s abduction of Persephone, as described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
The oil on canvas The Abduction was originally owned by Emile Zola, as it was painted in his house in Paris in 1867,
