{"id":84583,"date":"2021-09-02T18:17:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T16:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/uncategorized\/the-abduction\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T12:55:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:55:04","slug":"the-abduction","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/paul-cezanne\/the-abduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul C\u00e9zanne \u2013 The Abduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Abduction \u2013 the earliest C\u00e9zanne in our range<\/h2>\n

The Abduction is a work of 1867, when C\u00e9zanne was twenty-eight and painting darkly, thickly and violently. A muscular man carries a limp female body through a gloomy landscape; in the distance two small figures bathe in the water. Our hand-painted reproduction on canvas brings this early, dramatic work into your home, painted in oil on canvas.<\/p>\n

A painting that belonged to Zola<\/h3>\n

C\u00e9zanne gave the canvas to his childhood friend, the writer \u00c9mile Zola, and for a long time it hung in his house. The friendship between them later broke up, after Zola drew in his novel The Masterpiece<\/em> the figure of a failed painter in whom C\u00e9zanne recognised himself.<\/p>\n

Who is in the painting is not clear<\/h3>\n

The scene is usually connected with ancient stories of abduction \u2013 most often with the rape of Persephone, or with Heracles and Alcestis \u2013 but C\u00e9zanne never explained it, and there is no attribute on the canvas that would identify the figures unambiguously. We therefore treat it as an open question, not as an established fact.<\/p>\n

What you see on the canvas<\/h3>\n

The two bodies are set at the centre as a dark and a light mass; the background is almost nocturnal, with a blue mountain and pale light above the horizon. The paint is thickly laid and the strokes are broad. The original is painted in oil on canvas, by the collection\u2019s record measures 117 \u00d7 90 cm, and is held by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.<\/p>\n

The painting \u00c9mile Zola was given<\/h3>\n

C\u00e9zanne gave this canvas to his childhood friend, the writer \u00c9mile Zola, and for many years it hung in his house. By the settled account their friendship ended in 1886, when Zola drew in his novel The Masterpiece<\/em> (L\u2019\u0152uvre) the figure of a failed, despairing painter in whom C\u00e9zanne is said to have recognised himself. More recent research softens that story \u2013 correspondence that has since come to light shows the two did not break off contact as abruptly as the legend has it. We give the story as the settled reading, not as a proven fact.<\/p>\n

A dramatic canvas for a large room<\/h3>\n

The thick paint and the nocturnal scale are the reason we do not print this subject but paint it by hand. Choose among ten sizes or order to your own measurements. The canvas needs quiet surroundings and enough space around it. Check the frame in a realistic 3D preview. Among our reproductions of famous paintings<\/strong> you will find C\u00e9zanne\u2019s other early compositions: Afternoon in Naples<\/a>, The Large Bathers (Barnes)<\/a> and The Bather<\/a>.<\/p>\n