Cézanne – Pear Tree and Bathers

Painted around 1890, this work was commissioned to decorate the home of Cézanne's patron, Victor Chocquet — which may explain its unusually elongated format.

The painting also carries a turbulent history. Originally a single large canvas just as we see it today, it was cut into three separate pieces by an unknown hand around 1904 and kept apart for decades. Domenica Walter, an admirer of Cézanne's work, later donated two of the three fragments to the French state, and in 1973 all three pieces were finally reunited, restoring the painting to its complete form. Look closely and you can still make out where the three sections were joined.