Boy in a Red Vest

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Boy in a Red Vest: Paul Cezanne

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Paul Cezanne Oil Painting - Boy in a Red Vest

Keywords: Boy, Red, Vest

Work Overview: Boy in a Red Vest
Paul Cezanne
Date: 1889
Style: Post-Impressionism
Period: Mature period
Genre: portrait
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 80 x 64.5 cm
Location: E.G. Bührle Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland

The Boy in the Red Vest (Le Garçon au gilet rouge), also known as The Boy in the Red Waistcoat,[1] is a painting (Venturi 681) by Paul Cézanne, painted in 1889 or 1890.[2] It is a fine example of Cézanne's skilled, nuanced, and innovative mature work after 1880.

Cézanne painted four oil portraits of this Italian boy in the red vest, all in different poses, which allowed him to study the relationship between the figure and space.[3] The most famous of the four, and the one commonly referred to by this title, is the one which depicts the boy in a melancholic seated pose with his elbow on a table and his head cradled in his hand. It is currently held in Zürich, Switzerland. The other three portraits, of different poses, are in museums in the US.[4]

The Foundation E.G. Bührle, which currently owns the work, notes the painting's picturesqueness, adding that "There is a perfect balance here of high compositional intelligence and spontaneous painterly intuition."[2] In 1895, art critic Gustave Geffroy said it could stand comparison with the finest figure paintings of the Old Masters.[2]

The colors of the painting are rich, dense, and festive. The composition is organized with three main diagonals: the angle of the boy's tilted back and head, the angle of the deep-green curtain behind the boy, and the long angle of the seat and table rising from the lower left. These three angles are countered by the angles of the boy's thighs and arms, creating a tightly articulated structure of intersecting diagonals.[2]

This painting was acquired from Cézanne by art dealer Ambroise Vollard, probably in 1895, and successively acquired by art collectors Marcell Nemes in 1909 and Gottlieb Reber in 1913. Art collector and patron Emil Georg Bührle purchased it from Beber in 1948. Following Bührle's death in 1956, his heirs donated the painting to the Foundation E.G. Bührle in 1960.[5]

In February 2008, the painting was stolen from the Foundation E.G. Bührle in Zurich.[6] It was the museum's most valuable painting and was valued at $91 million.[7] It was recovered in Serbia in April 2012.

The sitter was a young Italian whom Cézanne painted four times in relaxed poses. He was at ease with the world, as his pose suggests. For purposes of compositional balance, Cézanne felt justified in making the youth's right arm unnaturally long.

The tension of this painting derives from the distribution of areas of colour.

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Here's the plot: Back in the the 1890"²s, painter Paul Cézanne was in Paris.

One of his impressionist paintings depicted a boy dressed in a red vest.

Many years later, the painting became the prized possession of a private museum in Zurich, Switzerland — but four years ago it was stolen.

The trail went cold.

Until now, when Serbian police announced they've recovered "The Boy in The Red Vest".

Now here's the Quiz: can you name the two cities where Serbian police busted the suspected art thieves?

One's easy — it's the capital of Serbia.

The other is a central city, about 100 miles to the south of the capital, in the Morava River valley.

The answer: Serbian police conducted raids in Belgrade and the central city of Cacak. Journalist Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade tells anchor Marco Werman about the investigation that led to the recovery of the Cézanne.

This work by Paul Cézanne is one of the few paintings that has the distinction of having been stolen twice.

To start, we have the questionable circumstances under which Boy in the Red Vest ended up at the world famous Bührle Collection in th first place. Emil Georg Bührle was an arms dealer to the wrong side in World War II. He amassed a huge collection of art during the war, when much art was stolen, or "appropriated" from Jewish families. He built one of the most prestigious private art galleries in the world on shaky moral ground.

Then, in 2008, one of the largest art heists in Europe took place at his museum. Three armed men entered the museum at closing time. Within three minutes they made off with four of the most treasured masterpieces in the collection. Boy in the Red Vest, valued at around $91 million, was the most expensive painting stolen. They also got one each by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, but those two were discovered in the backseat of an abandoned car in the parking lot of a nearby mental institution pretty soon after the crime.

Our lad in red however, and another painting by Edgar Degas, remained missing. Boy in the Red Vest wasn't recovered until 2012. It was in Serbia hanging out with a gang of organized criminals. The Degas, unfortunately, is still MIA.

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A SHORT ART BIOGRAPHY OF PAUL CÉZANNE
At the beginning of his artistic career, Cézanne painted romanticism and realism with naturalistic works, later he is a big influence in Impressionism.

Until the 1890s Cézanne's works are criticized in public and perceived as unattractive. When the art dealer Ambroise Vollard established a solo exhibition with Cézannes works at the Gallery Manzi-Joyant in 1895, Cézannes reputation rose in the art secene . Since the 1890s, Cézanne is prefers to paint outdoors in his hometown of Aix-en-Provence. He starts to reduce the natural forms into geometric figures and therefore develops the painting era further.
THE STORY OF THE PAINTING "LE GARÇON AU GILET ROUGE"
Cézanne's paintings from 1890 was acquired in 1895 by Ambroise Vollard in Paris, probably in conjunction with Vollard exhibition at Galerie Manzi-Joyant that is solely dedicated to Cézanne . Cézanne is the secret in the art scene in Paris, and the prices of his paintings hundredfold in the next few years.

1907 leaves the painting for the first time in France. It is issued in Budapest Nemzeti Szalon. In 1909 the picture on the Hungarian Baron Marczell de Nemes is sold for 20 000 francs. Nemes bought many paintings of the Impressionists and the avant-garde and sets new standards in the art trade. The Baron sends the painting with more pictures on tour, including the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and in the Städtische Kunsthalle Dusseldorf. At one of these places of woolen cloth-producer Gottlieb Friedrich Reber attention to the painting. Since Baron Marc de Nemes cell needs money urgently, many of his paintings are sold. The Boy in the Red Vest therefore returns to the auction in the Paris gallery Manzi-Joyant back.

On June 18, 1913 Reber bought the painting for 56 000 francs and retains it for 35 years. 1925 Reber has sold all its 28 Cezanne - except for the "boys". During the 3rd Reich he puts himself at the service of Field Marshal Hermann Goering - as art buyers. After the 2nd World War Reber is bankrupt and strikes the canon manufacturers Georg Emil Buehrle.

In August 1948 Buehrle bought the painting for CHF 400 000. From then on, the picture with more pictures from the Buehrle Collection on a world tour and always returns in Bührle Villa in Zollikerstrasse 172 in Zurich, today the Foundation Collection EG Buehrle. 60 years is "The Boy in the Red Vest" in the possession of the firearms manufacturers Buehrle - until February 18. 2008.
THE ROBBERY OF "THE BOY IN THE RED VEST"
On Sunday afternoon of February 10, 2008 three masked men penetrate into the Collection Foundation EG Buehrle in Zurich. According to witnesses, the men wear dark conical hoods with eye slits. A masked calls on the museum staff and museum visitors to lie on the ground and to keep quiet.

The other two men go into the large exhibition hall where ten masterpieces of Impressionism hang. Take the first four of the ten paintings from the wall and notice apparently that each painting mi secured glass weighs at least ten pounds. Apparently the two thieves are only able to carry two paintings because they only steal four of the ten major paintings of impressionism, together with the third accomplice disappear the art thieves as quickly as they came.

The four stolen works are: "Ludovic Lepic and his Daughters" (1871) by Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne's "The Boy in the Red Vest" (1888), "Blossoming Chestnut Branches" (1890) by Vincent van Gogh and "Poppies near Vetheuil "(1879) by Claude Monet. The total value: A total of around 130 million euros. The robbery is described as "probably the biggest art robbery in Europe".

What the perpetrators - and apparently the leaders of Buehrle Collection - did not know was: Van Gogh's stolen painting "Blossoming Chestnut" is supposed to be a fake.

The paintings of Monet and van Gogh are already found eight days later in a car with stolen license plate in the parking lot of the Psychiatric Burghölzli. From Cezanne's "Boy in the Red Vest" (worth about 66 million euros) and Degas' Count Lepic and his Daughter "(value: approximately 9 million euros) but is still lacking any trace.

In April 2012, just four years later, 30 investigators come from six different countries an art thief band on the track that leads to Serbia. Shortly afterwards there is contact to the alleged owners of the stolen paintings still: Approximately 1.4 million euros cash to pay the informant the Cid, so that a meeting can be realized. On 11 April 2012, the investigators propose to Belgrade: Four suspects were arrested in a car with the stolen paintings by Cézanne and Degas. The images have cracks and chipped edges, as they have been removed from the frame. In addition, a large amount of cash is ensured and weapons. The Swiss authorities are aware of the detainees: They were taken as heavy criminals in the database for years.

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A Cezanne painting stolen in a raid on a Swiss museum in 2008 has been recovered in Serbia.
Authorities have not named the painting, but local media have reported it is The Boy in the Red Vest, which was taken from Zurich's Emil Buehrle Collection.
Police said three people had been arrested in connection with the theft.
It added an art expert was being flown in to confirm the authenticity of the 1888 painting, worth $109m (£68.3m).
The robbery at the Zurich museum was one of the biggest art thefts in Europe at the time.
The heist was conducted by three armed, masked men who witnesses said spoke German with a Slavic accent.
The Boy in the Red Vest was stolen with three other masterpieces by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas.
Monet's Poppies near Vetheuil and Van Gogh's Blooming Chestnut Branches were discovered undamaged in a car parked outside a psychiatric hospital in Zurich soon after the robbery.
The Degas painting, Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter, is still missing.
Police said the recent arrests in Belgrade and Cacak were conducted in co-ordination with police from several European countries.
Serbia's state prosecutor is expected to issue a statement on the case later on Thursday.
Cezanne's Boy in a Red Vest depicts a boy in traditional Italian dress. Three other versions of the painting are in museums in the US.

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