A rare early drawing by Paul Cézanne, found randomly in an inheritance in southern France, was sold for 26,000 euros at an auction on Sunday in Reims, Agence France Press (AFP) reported.
Probably drawn between 1856 and 1857, in Cézanne’s early apprenticeship years (1839-1906), the work consists of two drawings on a double-sided page.
In the front drawing, the post-Impressionism painter used a pencil, brush, and brown ink, to depict a soldier holding a small bottle facing an old, barefoot woman with a flask in her right hand. The back drawing depicts a natural landscape signed by Marie Cézanne, the artist’s younger sister.
“It’s a wonderful rediscovery. This drawing was inherited by Cézanne’s son, and then his grandson before we lost track of it for nearly 60 years,” Thierry Collet, the auctioneer responsible for the sale, told AFP. The price of the rare drawing was originally estimated between 20,000 and 30,000 euros.
