The Vase of Tulips

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

c. 1890

Paul Cezanne
French, 1839-1906

The table in this still life of flowers and fruit appears in several of Paul Cézanne’s other paintings, although scholars do not agree about which of the artist’s residences housed this piece of furniture. As is typical of his work, the painting is carefully considered and hard-won, especially in the tense spatial relationships between objects. The traces of at least three other pieces of fruit (presumably oranges) at lower left bear witness to Cézanne’s changing opinion as he struggled to make the composition work.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Paul Cezanne
Title: The Vase of Tulips
Place: France (Artist's nationality)
Date: 1885–1895
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 59.6 × 42.3 cm (23 1/2 × 16 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 1933.423
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“Revue des Ventes,” Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot (July 4, 1899), as Fleurs et Fruits.
Daniel Catton Rich, “The Bequest of Mrs. L. L. Coburn,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 26 (1932), pp. 64 (ill), 70-71.
Tristian-L. Klingsor, Cézanne (1924), pl. 20, as Tulips, illustrated only.
Gerstle Mack, Paul Cézanne (New York, 1935), pl. 26, as Nature morte: Pot de fleurs, ca. 1885 (?), illustrated only.
Lionello Venturi, Cézanne: son art, son oeuvre vols. 2 (Paris, 1936), no. 617 (ill.), as Vase de Tulipes, 1890-94.
Daniel Catton Rich, “Midwest Art Capital,” Town and Country (March 1951), p. 72 (ill.), as The Vase of Tulips.
Theodore Rousseau, Jr. “Cézanne, 1839-1906,” Journal of the American Association of University Women 46, 2 (January 1952), pp. 75-77 (ill. inside front cover).
Theodore Rousseau, Jr., Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) (New York, 1953), pl. 22, as Tulips and Apples, 1890-94.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1956), p. 36, as The Vase of Tulips.
Mayer Schapiro, Paul Cézanne (New York, 1952), pp. 86-87 (ill.), as Tulips and Apples, 1890-94, reprinted in Paul Cézanne (New York, 1988).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 72, 327 (ill.), as The Vase of Tulips, 1890/94.
Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84 (September 1966), p. 203, as Vase of Tulips.
Frank Elgar, Cezanne (New York, 1975), pl. 76, as Vase of Tulips, 1890-94.
John Rewald, “Chocquet and Cézanne,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (July-August 1969), p. 83, no. 13, reprinted in John Rewald, Studies in Impressionism (New York, 1985), p. 166, no. 13, as Fleurs et Fruits.
John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 1970), pp. 100, 101 (ill.), as The Vase of Tulips, 1890-94.
The Art Institute of Chicago: 100 Masterpieces (Chicago, 1978), p. 114, no. 67 (ill.), as Vase of Tulips, 1890-92.
Joseph-Emile Muller, Cézanne (London, 1983), pl. 34.
Richard Brettell, Post-Impressionists (Chicago, 1987), pp. 32 (ill.), 33, 117, as Vase of Tulips, c. 1890/92.
Robert Kendall, Cézanne by Himself (London, 1988), p. 189 (ill.), illustrated only.
Hortense Anda-Bührle, Magrit Hahnlöser-Ingold, and Charles Moffett, ed., The Passionate Eye: Impressionist and Other Master Paintings From the Collection of Emil G. Bührle, Zurich, exh. cat. (Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1990), under no. 42, as Tulips and Apples, 1890-92.
Martha Kapos, The Post-Impressionists: A Retrospective (New York, 1993), pl. 88, as Vase of Tulips, 1890-92, illustrated only.
John Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné vols. 2 (New York, 1996), no. 719, as Le Vase de Tulipes, c. 1890.
Richard Whelan, Impressionist Flowers: Art of the Bouquet (Chesterfield, 1998), p. 97, ill., as The Vase of Tulips, 1890-94, illustrated only.
James N. Wood, ed., Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2000), p. 138 (ill.), as The Vase of Tulips, 1890/92.
Derek Fell, Cezanne’s Garden (New York, 2003), p. 104, as Tulips and Apples.
Richard Brettell and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum vol. 1 (Pasadena, 2006), p. 310, fig. 82b, as The Vase of Tulips, 1890-92.
The Age of Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven and London, 2008), cat. 66, p. 139 (ill.)
Achim Borchardt-Hume, Gloria Groom, Caitlin Haskell and Natalia Sidlina, eds., Cezanne, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2022), 48, 53-59, 138 cat. 65.

Berlin, [Group exhibition], Bruno and Paul Cassirer, 1900, no cat.
London, Grafton Gallery, Pictures by Boudin, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, January – Ferbruary 1905, cat. 46, as Flowers and Fruit, 1880.
Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition Cézanne, December 1-18, 1920, cat. 9, as Fleurs et fruits.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Mrs. L. L. Coburn Collection: Modern Paintings and Watercolors, April 6 – October 9, 1932, cat. 3, as Flowers and Fruit, ca. 1885.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, 1933, cat. 310, pl. 62, as Flowers and Fruit, ca. 1885.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 1934, cat. 294, as Flowers and Fruit, ca. 1885.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Works of Cézanne, October 30 – December 17, 1934, cat. 16, as Flowers and Fruit,, c. 1885.
Cleveland Museum of Art, The Flower in Art, October 31 – December 1, 1935, no cat.
Toledo Museum of Art, Cezanne-Gauguin, November 1 – December 13, 1936, cat. 17, as Flowers and Fruit, ca. 1885, traveled to Columbus Museum of Art.
New York, Durand-Ruel, Cézanne, March – April 1938.
San Francisco, De Young Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Seven
Centuries of Painting: A Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters, December 29, 1939 – January 28, 1940, cat. Y 105 (ill.), as Flowers and Fruit, ca. 1885.
New York, Paul Rosenberg, Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Cézanne, November – December 1942, cat. 16 (ill.), as Vase of Tulips, 1890-94.
Baltimore Museum of Art, Still Life and Flower Paintings, November 2 – December 9, 1945, cat. 26, as Flowers and Fruit, ca. 1885.
Newark Museum, Flower Paintings by European Masters of the 19th and 20th Centuries, May 10 – June 25, 1950, cat. 1 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Cézanne, Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings: A Loan Exhibition, February-April 1952, traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, April – May 1952, cat. 85 (ill.), as Still Life: Flowers and Fruit, 1890-94.
Paris, Petit Palais, De Gericault à Matisse – Chefs’d’oeuvre français des collections suisses, 1959, cat. 21.
New York, Wildenstein and Co., Cézanne, November 5 – December 5, 1959, cat. 38, as Vase de Tulipes, 1890-94.
New York, Wildenstein and Co., Olympia Progeny, October 27 – November 27, 1965, cat. 70 (ill.), as Vase de Tulipes, 1890-94.
Washington, D. C., The Phillips Collection, Cézanne: An Exhibition in Honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Phillips Collection, February 27 – March 28, 1971, traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, April 17 – May 16, 1971 and Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, June 1 – June 3, 1971, cat. 19 (ill.), as The Vase of Tulips, 1890-92.
Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Paul Cézanne, March 29 – May 19, 1974, traveled to Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, June 1 – July 17, 1974 and Fukuoka Culture Center, July 24 – August 18, 1974, cat. 45, as Vase de Tulipes, 1890-92.
Madrid, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Paul Cezanne, March – April 1984, cat. 39, as Florero con tulipanes, 1890-1892.
Tokyo, The Seibu Museum of Art, The Impressionist Tradition: Masterpieces From The Art Institute of Chicago, October 18 – December 17, 1985, traveled to Fukoka Art Museum, January 5 – February 2, 1986 and Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, March 4 – April 13, 1986, cat. 40 (ill.), as Vase of Tulips, c. 1890-92.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg], Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great Paintings From the XIX century to the Beginning of the XXth century From Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago], March 15-May 19, 1988, no cat. no., pl. 34, as Vase of Tulips, c. 1890-92; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988.
Tokyo, ASAHI, Masterworks of Modern Art From The Art Institute of Chicago, 1994, traveled to Nagaoka, Niiagata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art; Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art; and Yokohama Museum of Art, 1994-1995, cat. 15 (ill.), as The Vase of Tulips, 1890/92.
Fort Worth, Tex., Kimbell Museum of Art, The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago, June 29–November 2, 2008, cat. 66 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Cezanne, May 15-Sep. 5, 2022, cat. 65; London, Tate, Oct. 5, 2022-Mar. 12, 2023 [Chicago only].

Victor Choquet (died 1891), Paris; by descent to Mme. Choquet (died 1899), Paris; sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, July 4-5, 1899, lot 13, as Fleur et Fruits; sold for 1,300 francs to Durand-Ruel, Paris [see annotated sale catalogue, the Art Institute of Chicago and Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot, 4 July 1899]; Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York [Durand-Ruel stock no. 8154: Cézanne, Fleurs et Fruits 1880, based on label on reverse and information on Registrar Archival Card]. Mrs. Annie S. Coburn (died 1932), Chicago by 1932; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.

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