Footnotes

Provenance
The artist's family, Aix-en-Provence.
Louis Granel, Aix-en-Provence (acquired in 1899).
Dr. Frédéric Corsy, Aix-en-Provence (by descent from the above).
Anon. sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 17 June 1960, lot 61.
France Art Center, Paris.
Private collection, France.
Anon. sale, Binoche & Giquello, Paris, 30 November 2016, lot 58.
Private collection, France (acquired at the above sale).

Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Élysée Matignon, Cézanne et les maîtres du XXe siècle, 15 November – 20 December 1995 (titled 'Bord de rivière').

Literature
J. Rewald, Cézanne, sa vie - son œuvre, son amitié pour Zola, Paris, 1939 (full mural referenced pp. 44-45).
D. Cooper, 'Au Jas de Bouffan', in L'Œil, Revue d'art, no. 2, 15 February 1955 (full mural illustrated pp. 12 & 13).
L. Gowing, Cézanne, The Early Years 1859-1872, exh. cat., London, 1988, fig. 2 (full mural illustrated p. 5; dated 1860 - 1862).
M. T. Benedetti, Paul Cézanne, Sa vie, son œuvre, Paris, 1995 (full mural illustrated p. 10).
J. Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. I, The Texts, New York, 1996, no. 38 (full mural illustrated p. 75; titled 'Bord de rivière').
J. Rewald, The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, A Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. II, The Plates, New York, 1996, no. 38 (illustrated p. 16; titled 'Bord de rivière').
M. T. Lewis, 'Cézanne's Paintings in the Grand Salon at Jas de Bouffan', in Jas de Bouffan, Cézanne, Aix-en-Provence, 2004, fig. 50 (illustrated).
D. Coutagne, F. Chédeville & Société Paul Cézanne, Cézanne, Jas de Bouffan, art et histoire, Lyon, 2019, fig. 85 (full mural illustrated p. 102).
W. Feilchenfeldt, J. Warman & D. Nash, The Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings of Paul Cézanne, An Online Catalogue Raisonné, online catalogue, no. FWN 12 (illustrated).

Plantes aquatiques is one of eight sections of the mural Paysage romantique aux pêcheurs that was painted by a young and aspiring Paul Cézanne on the walls of the family home shortly after the purchase of the Jas de Bouffan by his father, Louis-Auguste, in 1859.

The full mural, along with another mural in the salon of the Jas de Bouffan, was later hidden under wallpaper for almost fifty years before being rediscovered and removed from the structure. Paysage romantique aux pêcheurs was subsequently mounted onto canvas before later being divided into eight individual works, all of which were offered at Galerie Charpentier in 1960 and became separated.

Paysage romantique aux pêcheurs was a bright, colourful 18th century style landscape, with a blend of conventional and romantic idioms consistent with the classical training of an artist at the time. Executed when the artist had only just persuaded his father to allow him to follow this blossoming passion, the present work is one of the earliest known painted works by Paul Cézanne and is accompanied by an equally unique and intriguing history.