# Madame Cezanne in a Yellow Chair

**Paul Cézanne** (French, 1839–1906)  
1888–90  
Oil on canvas  
80.9 × 64.9 cm (31 13/16 × 25 9/16 in.); Framed: 106.7 × 90.2 × 11.2 cm (42 × 35 1/2 × 4 3/8 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1948.54. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/62371).

## About this work

Hortense Fiquet, Cézanne’s companion and later his wife, sits with folded hands in a chair upholstered in yellow, wearing a maroon dress, her face calm and unreadable. Cézanne painted her more than twenty-five times, and she sat patiently through long sessions in which he treated her much as he treated his still lifes, as a structure of form and colour. This is one of a group of portraits of her in the same yellow chair, painted in the late 1880s, in which the firm verticals of the chair and the simplified figure create a subtle, carefully weighed balance.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Paul Cézanne painted this in 1888–90, aged 54. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

Painting of a placid-looking, light-skinned woman in a maroon dress, seated in a chair with yellow upholstery, hands folded.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Paul Cézanne](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/paul-cezanne)

French, 1839–1906; born in Aix-en-Provence; died in Aix-en-Provence

Cézanne divided his life between Paris and his native Aix-en-Provence. Encouraged by his schoolfriend Émile Zola and later by Pissarro, with whom he painted at Pontoise and Auvers in the 1870s, he showed at the first and third Impressionist exhibitions. He then withdrew to Provence and worked towards a more structured art, building form from patches of colour in still lifes, bathers and repeated views of Mont Sainte-Victoire. Younger painters, Picasso and Braque among them, saw him as a founder of modern painting.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: France
- The artist was 54
- Real size: about 31 × 25 in (80 × 64 cm). The 20 × 30 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: portraits, chair, interior, portraits: European subject, portraits: female subject, portraits: French subject, emotions, women
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/182.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/182/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/madame-cezanne-in-a-yellow-chair-aic-62371).