A Modern Olympia
by CÉZANNE, Paul, Oil on canvas, 46 x 56 cm
Dr. Paul-Fernand Gachet was an admirer of C�zanne’s paintings. He had come to live in Auvers-sur-Oise. He had met C�zanne through Pissarro, and persuaded him to come and live nearby in Auvers. C�zanne felt happy in the company of Gachet and his wife. One day, the discussion turned to Manet’s painting Olympia, and C�zanne’s version, A Modern Olympia, painted three years previously. C�zanne promptly took up his brush and painted a second version, unusually quickly by his standards. This relaxed painting, full of subtle irony, differs from the earlier version, which was stiffer and clumsier; it has a soft, delicate vividness which captures the sensuality of the scene.