After Cézanne

After Cezanne is a large, irregular shaped, obtuse painting done in oils on canvas, begun in 1999 and completed in 2000 by the British artist Lucian Freud.^[1] The top left section of this painting has been 'grafted' on to the main section below, and closer inspection reveals a horizontal line where these two sections were joined.^[2]

The crease where the two parts of the painting were joined is visible as a faint horizontal line running through the woman just above the tray she is carrying.

After Cézanne
Artist	Lucian Freud
Year	1999–2000
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	232.2 cm × 232.2 cm × 16 cm (91.4 in × 91.4 in × 6.3 in)
Weight	165 kg
Location	National Gallery of Australia
Accession	2001.36

The painting is one in a select group of canvases where Freud engages in a dialogue with past masters, this work being a variation on a theme of the work L'Après-midi à Naples ('Afternoon in Naples'; circa 1875) by the French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne.^[1]

In 2001 the work was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, which also owns Cézanne's L'Après-midi à Naples,^[3] for $7.4 million.^[4][5] The decision was somewhat controversial at the time, but this perception changed in 2008, when Freud's painting Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for "just under [...] $35 million."^[6]

See also

• 2000 in art