{"id":183716,"date":"2026-08-09T17:55:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/?post_type=product&p=183716"},"modified":"2026-08-09T17:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:56:14","slug":"the-bridge-over-the-marne-at-creteil","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/paul-cezanne\/the-bridge-over-the-marne-at-creteil\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul C\u00e9zanne \u2013 The Bridge over the Marne at Cr\u00e9teil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bridge over the Marne at Cr\u00e9teil \u2013 one canvas, four Moscow institutions<\/h2>\n

The lower half of the canvas is taken up by still water in which trees, bridge and houses are reflected vertically; the reflection is painted at the same density as the thing it reflects. Above it a stone arched bridge spans across, and behind the bridge rise tall green trees and a few houses with reddish roofs. The sky is white and blue, with no clouds in any real sense. This hand-painted painting on canvas<\/strong> reproduces C\u00e9zanne\u2019s work of about 1894, which measures 71 \u00d7 90 centimetres in the original and is held by the Pushkin Museum<\/strong> in Moscow.<\/p>\n

Four museums, one city<\/h3>\n

The provenance of this canvas ends with a run of institutions that follow one another in the same city. On 22 January 1912 the Moscow collector Ivan Morozov<\/strong> bought it. In 1918 it is recorded as belonging to the First Museum of Modern Western Painting<\/em> in Moscow, in 1923 to the State Museum of Modern Western Art<\/em>, and in 1948 the Pushkin Museum<\/strong> takes it over. Four names in thirty years, and the canvas did not leave Moscow in that time. How and why those institutions succeeded one another the record does not say, and we will not supply it; the names and the years are what stand.<\/p>\n

From Vollard to Morozov<\/h3>\n

Before Moscow the canvas belonged to the dealer Ambroise Vollard<\/strong> in Paris. In January 1900 Auguste Pellerin bought it; on 8 September 1911 it passed to the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune \u2013 and the same day back to Vollard. Only from Vollard did it go to Morozov in January 1912. Vollard therefore appears twice in the chain, and Pellerin is one of those collectors who turn up often in the history of C\u00e9zanne\u2019s canvases.<\/p>\n

Three hundred and fifty francs<\/h3>\n

In Vollard\u2019s stockbook this work carries the number 3469 and the price of 350 francs, with the measurement 73 \u00d7 92 centimetres \u2013 a few centimetres more than the catalogue raisonn\u00e9 gives. The date of 8 September 1911 is worth noting too: the canvas went to Bernheim-Jeune and returned to Vollard on that one day, which means a transaction between trading houses rather than a sale to a collector.<\/p>\n

Paris 1895, St Petersburg 1912, Moscow 1926<\/h3>\n

In November and December 1895 the canvas was in the exhibition of C\u00e9zanne\u2019s works at the Galerie Vollard<\/strong> in Paris. In January 1912 it appears in St Petersburg in the centennial exhibition of French art, in the Yusupov mansion at 42 Liteiny Avenue. In 1926 it was in Moscow in Paul C\u00e9zanne, Vincent van Gogh<\/em> at the Museum of Modern Western Art as number 11. In 1936 it travelled back to Paris, to the Mus\u00e9e de l\u2019Orangerie, as number 74 with plate XXVI and under the title Le Pont de Cr\u00e9teil<\/em>, lent by Moscow; in 1937 it was there again for the World\u2019s Fair.<\/p>\n

Water that weighs as much as the bank<\/h3>\n

What is unusual about this canvas is the relation between its two halves. The reflection in the water is painted no softer and no lighter than the thing above it, but with the same density of paint and the same strokes; the vertical lines of the trees continue into the water without breaking. Because of this the lower half does not look like water but like a second, inverted landscape. The bridge across the middle is the one horizontal element dividing the two halves \u2013 and it is that dividing line which holds the work together.<\/p>\n

What Vollard entered beside number 3469<\/h3>\n

The dealer\u2019s description is for once long, and lists exactly what is on the canvas: huile; les bords de la Marne; au 1r plan de l\u2019eau o\u00f9 se refl\u00e8tent les paysages, arbres, pont, maisons; ciel blanc et bleu<\/em> \u2013 oil; the banks of the Marne; in the foreground water in which the landscape, trees, bridge and houses are reflected; sky white and blue. Vollard therefore noticed for himself what matters in this work: that the reflections are listed as objects in their own right. The catalogue names among the locales Cr\u00e9teil and the Marne, and among the motifs the river, the water\u2019s edge, the bridge and the houses.<\/p>\n

This is a calm, horizontal canvas with a great deal of green and blue, suited to a room where the work should settle things \u2013 a bedroom, a study or a hallway. Fifteen sizes are on offer, from 55 \u00d7 43 to 180 \u00d7 142 centimetres, all measurements in centimetres, intermediate measurements made to order, and the effect on the wall is shown by our 3D application<\/strong>. From northern France come The House of the Hanged Man at Auvers-sur-Oise<\/a> and Turn in the Road at Auvers-sur-Oise<\/a>, and on the water stands The Bay of Marseille, Seen from L\u2019Estaque<\/a>.<\/p>\n