Paul Cézanne
Cezanne worked at the Villa des Arts studios in 1898 and 1899, and painted the portrait of Ambroise Vollard there.
Villa des Arts, 15 rue Hégésippe-Moreau
Still standing
Outside only
Someone else
The purpose-built studio complex below Montmartre where Paul Cézanne worked in 1898 and 1899 — one of his last Paris addresses, and where he painted the portrait of Ambroise Vollard.
- 15 rue Hégésippe-Moreau, 75018 Paris
- Cézanne worked here in 1898 and 1899
The place, briefly
The Villa des Arts is a block of purpose-built artists' studios put up in the 1880s on a lane below Montmartre: high north-facing windows, generous ceilings, and rents that a working painter could meet. Renoir, Signac and later Duchamp all had space there.
Paul Cézanne worked here in 1898 and 1899, by then almost sixty and finally, after Vollard's 1895 exhibition, a name that younger painters spoke about with something close to awe.
The portrait of Vollard was painted in this studio. Vollard's own account of the sittings became one of the standard anecdotes about Cézanne's method — more than a hundred sessions, the sitter required to hold still to an inhuman degree, and the picture finally abandoned with two small patches of bare canvas on the hand, which Cézanne said he could not fill without starting again.
He left Paris for good soon afterwards and spent his last years in Aix. The studios are still studios and are private.
Key facts
- A block of purpose-built artists' studios from the 1880s
- Worked here in 1898 and 1899
- The portrait of Ambroise Vollard
- Reportedly over a hundred, and the canvas still left unfinished
- Renoir, Signac, later Duchamp
- Private working studios — exterior only
Timeline
Cézanne works at the Villa des Arts and paints Vollard's portrait.
He moves to the rue Ballu, and soon afterwards leaves Paris for Aix.
He dies at Aix.
On the map
Questions before you go
Where did Cézanne paint the portrait of Vollard?
At his studio in the Villa des Arts, 15 rue Hégésippe-Moreau, in 1899. Vollard described sitting more than a hundred times, and the canvas was left with unpainted patches on the hand.
Can you visit the Villa des Arts?
No. It remains a private complex of working artists' studios.
People who knew this place
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