
Paul CézanneFrench, 1839–1906May one see it?
Saint Petersburg, Russia
On public display.
The Overture to Tannhäuser is an 1869 oil-on-canvas painting by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne, now in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. It came from the Moscow collection of Ivan Morozov. The painting shows two women, usually identified as Cézanne's sisters but possibly the daughters of his uncle Dominique Aubert, at the Cézanne family home near Aix-en-Provence. Its title refers to the work played by the pianist on the left, the overture to Wagner's Tannhäuser.
1864–1869
Annual Rejections by the Paris Salon
The official Salon rejected Cézanne's works every year from 1864 to 1869; he continued submitting until 1882.
early 1869
Meeting Hortense Fiquet
In early 1869, at the Académie Suisse, he met Marie-Hortense Fiquet, a bookbinder's assistant eleven years his junior — his future wife.
1870–1871
Franco-Prussian War: Life in L'Estaque
During the war he lived with Hortense Fiquet in the fishing village of L'Estaque near Marseille and evaded conscription; in January 1871 he was declared a deserter but managed to avoid capture.