The Boatyard c. 1875 Jean-Charles Cazin (French, 1841-1901) France, 19th century Oil on fabric Framed: 105.4 x 149.9 x 15.2 cm (41 1/2 x 59 x 6 in.); Unframed: 77.6 x 122.7 cm (30 9/16 x 48 5/16 in.); Former: 111 x 155.5 x 6.5 cm (43 11/16 x 61 1/4 x 2 9/16 in.) Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin 1977.123 DID YOU KNOW? This painting was submitted to the Paris Salon in 1876 as Cazin’s first major work. DESCRIPTION Cazin exhibited this painting at the Paris Salon of 1876, marking the start of his official career. It depicts a boatyard in the artist's native Boulogne, a port city on the English Channel. The young man in the foreground is melting tar at a smoky fire, while men work on a boat just above him. Cazin was associated with the Realist movement during his early years and later with the Impressionists. JEAN-CHARLES CAZIN Jean Charles Cazin was educated in Boulogne-sur-Mer and England before completing his high-school degree in Lille. He had always shown artistic promise and by 1863 was living in Paris and submitting a landscape painting to the Salon des Refusés. He enrolled at the École Gratuite de Dessin, where he studied drawing under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1802-1897), an innovative and unorthodox instructor who had developed his own teaching method based on drawing from memory. Many other young artists were attracted to his teaching style, including Fantin-Latour (q.v.), Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), and Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Cazin's friendship with his mentor led to a teaching position at the École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris, and he later became the director of the École de Dessin and curator of the museum in Tours. In 1871, after the devastation caused by the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Cazin and his wife, Marie Guillet, an artist who had studied under Bonheur (q.v.), left for England. During this period he turned to the decorative arts and created ceramics influenced by Japonism. Cazin's pottery served to support his family during this time of postwar economic depression; he would eventually hire his own staff to produce the ceramics that he would then decorate. After the traditional tour of Italy and a short stay in Antwerp, he returned to France in 1875 and settled near Boulogne-sur-Mer. There he painted landscapes and the beaches of this coastal town. Cazin received the Légion d'Honneur in 1882, a gold medal at the Universal Exposition of 1889, and a Grand Prix in 1900. INSCRIPTION Signed lower left: c. cazin PROVENANCE Until 1925 Ernest May [1845-1925], Paris, France 1 1933 (Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, France, June 19, 1933 (no. 56), unsold 2 1947 (Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, France, November 24, 1947 (no. 124) 3 1954 (Tedesco Frères, Paris, France, sold to Walter P. Chrysler) 1954-1973 Walter P. Chrysler Jr. [1909-1988], New York, NY, sold to Grégoire Galleries) 1973 (Grégoire Galleries, New York, NY) Until 1976 (Shepherd Gallery, New York, NY, sold to Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin) 1976-1977 Noah L. Butkin [1918-1980] and Muriel S. Butkin [1915-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1977- The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH PROVENANCE FOOTNOTES 1 Ernest May, a banker and art collector, may have purchased the painting directly from Cazin or possibly at the 1876 salon, where the painting was exhibited. On May 2, 1908, Galerie Georges Petit held Cazin’s estate sale, which contained 31 works by the artist, but the CMA picture is not listed. Although May bought back a number of the works included in a June 4, 1890 sale of his own collection, the Cleveland painting is not among the several Cazin works included. In any case, a handwritten note in the CMA curatorial file says that May kept the Cazin until his death in 1925, and indeed, an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs from that year situates the painting in the “Coll. de M. Ernest May.” 2 Hôtel Drouot's annotated copy of the sale catalogue shows that the painting, there titled "Le chantier naval," did not sell. 3 In the catalogue, the painting is titled "Chantier de construction de bateaux." PROVENANCE CITATIONS Shepherd Gallery, bill of sale for Noah Butkin, August 19, 1976, in CMA curatorial file. Allison Termine (Chrysler Museum), email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Nov. 30, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. Jean Zimmerman, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Dec. 1, 2015, in CMA curatorial fil Weisberg, Gabriel P. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing, 1830-1900. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. Jean Zimmerman, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Dec. 1, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. Victoria Sears Goldman, telephone conversation with Jean Zimmerman, Nov. 30, 2015. Chrysler Art Museum. The Controversial Century, 1850-1950: Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. [Provincetown, Mass.]: [Chrysler Art Museum], 1962. Hôtel Drouot. Tableaux modernes. 1947. (Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 19, 1933 (no. 56), unsold Notes on the Ernest May collection, in CMA curatorial file. Musée des arts décoratifs (France). Cinquante ans de peinture française, 1875-1925, du 28 mai au 12 juillet, 1925. Paris: A. Lévy, 1925. CITATIONS Bellier de la Chavignerie, Emile, and Louis Auvray. Dictionnaire général des artistes de l'école française depuis l'origine des arts du dessin jusquà nos jours. Paris, France: Renouard, 1882. A. M. "Charles Cazin." Bulletin de l'Art Ancien et Moderne 93 (March 30, 1901): 97. Mentioned: P. 97 Desjardins, Paul. "En Memoire de Jean-Charles Cazin." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 43 (September 1901): 177-191. Mentioned: P. 182 Bénédite, Léonce. Jean-Charles Cazin. Paris, France: Librairie de l'art ancien et moderne, 1902. Bénédite, Léonce. L'art au XIXe siècle, 1800-1900. Paris, France: Chantier a Boulogne,1905. Thieme, Ulrich, Felix Becker, Fred. C. Willis, and Hans Vollmer. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig, Germany: W. Engelmann, 1907. Reproduced: p. 246, vol. 6 Chrysler Art Museum, and National Gallery of Canada. The Controversial Century, 1850-1950: Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. : Chrysler Art Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1962. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 14 "Notable Works of Art Now on the Market: Supplement." The Burlington Magazine 115, no. 843 (June 1973): 1-60. Mentioned and reproduced: Plate 49 www.jstor.org Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire Critique et Documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs de Tous les Temps et de Tous les Pays. Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1976. Mentioned: Vol. 2, P. 611 Weisberg, Gabriel P. The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing, 1830-1900. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 227-229, cat. no. 199 Weisberg, Gabriel P. "The Realist Tradition." The Connoisseur 205, no. 824 (October 1980): 92-99. Reproduced: P. 98; mentioned: P. 93 Weisberg, Gabriel P. "Jean Charles Cazin-Memory Painting and Observation in The Boatyard." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXVIII, no.1 (January, 1981):2-16. Reproduced: on cover and fig. 1 Kikan Mizue = Mizue 911 (February 1981): 94. Reproduced: P. 94 "Realist Tradition." Scottish Art Review 15 (November 1982): 25-26. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 25-26 Levin, Miriam R. Republican Art and Ideology in Late Nineteenth-Century France. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1986. Mentioned: p. 184; Reproduced: p. 200, fig 17 Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: P. 32 Musée d'Orsay, Association française d'action artistique, and Réunion des musées nationaux (France). Les Oubliés du Caire: Ingres, Courbet, Monet, Rodin, Gauguin : chefs-d'oeuvre des musées du Caire : Musée d'Orsay, 5 octobre 1994-8 janvier 1995. Paris: Association française d'action artistique, Ministère des affaires étrangères, 1994. Reproduced: p. 164 Sullivan, Edward J., and Ruth K. Meyer. The Taft Museum: Its History and Collections. New York, NY: Hudson Hills Press, 1995. Reproduced: p. 244 vol. 1 D'Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part Four; European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. Reproduced: p. 42 Weisberg, Gabriel P. Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. South Bend, IN: Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, 2012 Reproduced: p. 19, fig. 4 EXHIBITION HISTORY Salon. Palais des Champs-Elysées, Paris, France (1876). Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Cinquante ans de peinture française 1875-1925. Paris, France (1925). The Controversial Century 1850-1950: Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, MA (1962); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (September 28 - November 4,1962). Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art. Snite Museum of Art, South Bend, IN: (September 2-December 2, 2012). Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830 - 1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art (November 12, 1980-January 18, 1981); The Brooklyn Museum (March 7-May 10, 1981); Saint Louis Art Museum (July 23-September 20, 1981); Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum (November 5, 1981-January 4, 1982).