Still Life in Watercolors

Figure 10
Paul Cezanne
Sketchbook Page with Two
Studies of Paul Cezanne
(Son), a Female Half-Figure
Study, a Bather, and a Class
(recto), c. 1878
Graphite, with ink blot,
on paper, 24.8 x 30.8 cm
(9 3 /4 x 121/8 in.)
Vienna, Albertina 24088
back are penciled in, followed on the next page by another view of the sleeping Paul,
shown half lost to the blank of the page like a swimmer half submerged in water. The
verso of that page, in turn, shows another view of the head and hand of Cezanne fils.
This time the hand is to the left and the head to the right, the hand is shown from
the side, palm side down but in a similar gesture as before, and the head, eye closed
and mouth half open, is again shown half drowned in pillows as if they were ripples
of water. Curiously, the hand, which is probably the hand of the sleeping son, is pre
sented as if it might be a drawing (or writing) hand, with the index finger curled over
a gently flexed thumb. (Something of the same gesture is found in the supine hand
on the first of these four pages.) Thus the hand movements of drawing, the unconscious
gestures of sleep, the intimate relations of the family, and the sequence of
notebook pages are linked to one another in a somatic chain.
23
THE BIOGRAPHY OF OBJECTS