About This Artwork

Paul Cézanne
French, 1839-1906

The Three Skulls, 1902/06

Watercolor, with graphite and touches of gouache, on ivory wove paper
480 x 628 mm
Olivia Shaler Swan Memorial Collection, 1954.183

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Buffalo, N.Y., Albright Gallery, "The Nineteenth Century," November 1-30, 1932, cat. 69 (ill.).

New York, Jacques Seligmann Gallery, "Watercolors by Cézanne," November 16-December 7, 1933, cat. 3.

Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, "De David à Toulouse Lautrec," 1955, cat. 57, pl. 71.

Milwaukee Art Institute, "Still Life Painting Since 1470," September 1956, cat. 10 (ill.); traveled to the Cincinnati Art Museum, October, 1956.

Santa Barbara Museum of Art, "Painted Papers: Watercolors from Dürer to the Present," March 15-April 15, 1962, n.p., cat. 31 (ill.).

New York, Knoedler and Company, "Cézanne Watercolors," April 2-20, 1963, pp. 52-53, cat. 55, pl. LIII.

St Louis, Mo., Washington University Gallery of Art, "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Artists and Draughtsmen," March 13–April 8, 1966, no cat.

Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection, "Cézanne: An Exhibition in Honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Phillips Collection," 1971, pp. 90-91, cat. 57 (ill.); traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Paris, Musée du Louvre, "Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso," October 15, 1976-January 17, 1977, n.p., cat. 63 (ill.).

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, "Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago," February 10-April 10, 1977, pp. 48-149, cat. 71 (ill.).

New York, Museum of Modern Art, "Cézanne: The Late Work," October 1977-January 1978, pp. 345 and 408, cat. 74, pl. 156, cat. by William Rubin, et. al.; traveled to Houston, Tex., The Museum of Fine Arts, January-March 1978.

Paris, The Grand Palais, "Cézanne: Les Derniès Années (1895-1906)," April 20-July 23, 1978, p. 113, cat. 26.

Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, "Cézanne," 1996, pp. 489 and 493-494, cat. 215 (ill.); shown only at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, May 26-August 18, 1996.

Los Angeles, Calif., J. Paul Getty Museum, "Cézanne in the Studio: Still Life in Watercolors," October 12, 2004-January 2, 2005, p. 66, cat. 9 (ill.).

Publication History

Roger Fry, Cézanne, A Study of His Development, (1927).

Eugenio d’Ors, Paul Cézanne (Paris, 1930), p. 81, pl. XXIII.

Maurice Raynal, Cézanne (Paris, 1936), no. 140, pl. CIV.

Lionello Venturi, Cézanne: son art—son oeuvre, 2 vols. (Paris, 1936), 1:282, no. 1131, II:pl. 325.

Daniel Catton Rich, "A Masterpiece in Watercolor by Cézanne." The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly, XLIII:3 (September 15, 1954), pp. 46-47 (ill).

Alfred Neumeyer, Cézanne Drawings (New York, 1958), p. 54, pl. 63.

Richard W. Murphy, The World of Cézanne (New York, 1968), pp. 105 and 107, fig. 127.

Jiri Siblik, Cézanne (Prague, 1969), pl. 54.

Richard Shone, The Post-Impressionists (London, 1979), p. 107 (ill.).

Harold Joachim and Sandra Haller Olsen, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the 19th Century, II (Chicago, 1979), pp. 14-15, no. 1C8.

Diane Kelder, Great Book of French Impressionism (New York, 1980), pp. 389 (ill.) and 434.

John Rewald, Paul Cézanne, The Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné (Boston, 1983), pp. 246-247, no. 611 (ill.).

Nicholas Wadley, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing (London, 1991), fig. 66b.

James N. Wood and Debra N. Mancoff, Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 2000), p. 230 (ill.).

Carol Armstrong, Cézanne in the Studio: Still Life in Watercolors (Los Angeles, 2004), p. 65-67, pl. 9.

Ownership History

Ambroise Vollard (1867-1939), Paris [Venturi 1936; a letter from Walter Feilchenfeldt of April 19, 2002, in the curatorial file]; sold to Jacques Seligmann, Paris and New York, by 1933 [New York 1933 and Feilchenfeldt letter mentioned above]. Justin K. Thannhauser (1892-1976), Lucerne, by 1936 [Venturi 1936 and Feilchenfeldt letter]. Ambroise Vollard, to 1939 [Feilchenfeldt letter]; Vollard’s estate; Martin Fabiani, Paris [Feilchenfeldt letter]; sold to Marianne Feilchenfeldt, Zürich, 1954 [Feilchenfeldt letter]; sold to the Art Institute, 1954.