The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of February 18, 2025

The Pigeon Tower at Bellevue
1890
(French, 1839–1906)
Framed: 95.5 x 113 x 7 cm (37 5/8 x 44 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 65.6 x 81.5 cm (25 13/16 x 32 1/16 in.)
The James W. Corrigan Memorial 1936.19
Location: 222 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism
Did You Know?
Cézanne’s method of compressing space and simplifying forms into flattened, geometric shapes provided the foundation for both Fauvism and Cubism.Description
Paul Cezanne painted this composition in three horizontal planes: the azure blue of the sky; the luminous white of the tower and the farmyard buildings; and the burnt-orange shade of the foreground earth, whose color is indicative of the iron-rich soil of Provence. The shimmering greens of Cezanne’s favorite cypress and olive trees are interspersed across the middle ground. The composition is pared down to its essentials, devoid of extraneous detail; it exemplifies his ambition “to make something solid and enduring, like the art in museums.”- 1899Maxime Conil [1822- ?] Aix en Provence, France, brother-in-law of the artist, sold to Ambroise Vollard, December 18, 18991899-1922(Ambroise Vollard, Paris, France, January 25, 1922, sold to Ralph M. Coe)1922Ralph M. Coe [1882-1959], Cleveland, OH1922-1935Mrs. Ralph M. Coe [1891-1966], Cleveland, OH, November 7, 1935, to Knoedler & Co.for sale1935-1936(Knoedler & Co., New York, NY, January 6, 1936, work returned to Mr. Ralph M. Coe)1936Mr. Ralph M. Coe, Cleveland, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art1936-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Rivière, Georges. Le Maître Paul Cézanne. Paris: H. Floury, 1923. Mentioned: p. 214Milliken, William. "Fifty Years of French Art." The Arts 10 (December 1926): 336-338. Reproduced: p. 336; mentioned: 337Watson, Forbes. "New York Exhibitions." The Arts 13 (February 1928): 106-115. Reproduced: p. 112; mentioned: p. 107Johnson, Erle Loran. "Cezanne's Country." The Arts 16 (April 1930): 521-552. Reproduced: p. 533Wilenski, R. H. French Painting. Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1931. Mentioned: p. 309"List of Paintings." Art Digest 8, no. 17 (June 1,1934): 12-22. Mentioned: p. 17Venturi, Lionello. Cézanne, Son Art, Son Oeuvre; 1,600 Illustrations. Paris: P. Rosenberg, 1936. Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 205, no. 650; reproduced: pl. 208, fig. 650Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition : June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. Mentioned: p. 100, no. 255; reproduced: pl. LXVII, no. 255Francis, Henry S. "The Pigeon Tower at Montbriand by Paul Cezanne." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 23, no. 3 (March, 1936): 30, 33-36. Mentioned: p. 33-36; reproduced: p. 30"Cleveland: A Cezanne for the Museum." ARTnews 34 (March 28, 1936): 11. Mentioned: p. 11"Cezanne's Pigeon Tower at Montbriand." The American Magazine of Art 29 (April 1936): 247-248. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 247-248Milliken, William. "The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art." ARTnews 34 (June 13, 1936): 7-14. Mentioned: p. 14Cézanne, Paul. Paul Cézanne: Exhibition of Paintings, Water-Colors, Drawings and Prints : September 1 Through October 4, 1937. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Art, 1937. Mentioned: cat. no. 26Novotny, Fritz. Cézanne und das Ende der wissenschaftlichen Perspektive. Wien: A. Schroll, 1938. Mentioned: p. 202, no. 75Wilenski, R. H. Modern French Painters. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1940. Reproduced: opp. p. 173Milliken, William. "Silver Jubilee Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no.6 (June 1941): 88-108 Mentioned: p. 106 www.jstor.orgMontreal Museum of Fine Arts. Loan Exhibition of Masterpieces of Painting = Exposition De Chefs-D'oeuvre De La Peinture. Montreal: Museum of Fine Arts, Arts Association of Montreal, 1942. Mentioned: cat. no. 68Loran, Erle. Cezanne's Composition; Analysis of His Form, with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 78-79Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1945. Reproduced: p. 38 archive.orgMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston. A Thousand Years of Landscape East and West : (paintings, Drawings, Prints) : Special Exhibition, October 24 through December 9, 1945, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1945.Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. French Paintings of the 19th Century : [exhibition] November 5-December 9, 1946. Colorado Springs: Publisher Not Identified, 1946. Mentioned: cat. no. 3Visson, Vladimir. A Loan Exhibition of Cezanne: For the Benefit of the New York Infirmary. March 27- April 26, 1947, at Wildenstein ... New York. [New York]: Wildenstein and Company, Inc, 1947. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 44Rewald, John. Paul Cézanne, A Biography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1948. Mentioned: p. 139, 164; reproduced: fig. 88"The Springtime of Impressionsim." Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. Bulletin. 18, no 7 (1948) Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 5Rewald, John. The Ordeal of Paul Cézanne. London: Phoenix House, 1950. Mentioned: p. 132; reproduced: fig. 68Vancouver Art Gallery. The French Impressionists: Including Works by Some Earlier Artists Who Influenced the Movement : March 24 to April 19, 1953, Vancouver Art Gallery. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1953. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 47Raynal, Maurice. Cézanne; Biographical and Critical Studies. [Geneva]: Skira, 1954. Mentioned & reproduced: p. 83Coe, Nancy. The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland. Thesis M.A. Oberlin College, 1956. Reproduced: vol. 2, p. 20Cézanne, Paul. Exposition pour commémorer le cinquantenaire de la mort de Cézanne: Pavillon de Vendôme du 21 juillet au 15 août, 1956, Aix-en-Provence. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 41, pl. xxThe Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 508 archive.orgMilliken, William Mathewson. The Cleveland Museum of Art Collections. 1960. Mentioned: p. 99-101"Pigeon Tower at Monbriand." Apollo: A Journal of the Arts 68 (December 1963): 485-486. Reproduced: p. 486The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 177 archive.orgMoore, Janet Gaylord. The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art. Cleveland: World Pub. Co, 1968. Reproduced: p. 38Murphy, Richard W. The World of Cézanne, 1839-1906. New York: Time-Life Books, 1968. Reproduced: p. 150The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 177 archive.orgOrienti, Sandra. The Complete Paintings of Cézanne. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1972. Reproduced: p. 117, cat. 674D'Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: Vol. 1, no. 46Elgar, Frank. Cezanne. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. Reproduced: p. 63Nakayama, Kimio. Pōru Sezannu. Tōkyō: Kenshū Shuppan, 1975. Reproduced: pl. 60Milliken, William Mathewson. A Time Remembered: A Cleveland Memoir. Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1975. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 108-110Kokuritsu Seiyō Bijutsukan. Masterpieces of World Art from American Museums from Ancient Egyptian to Contemporary Art. Tokyo: National Museum of Western Art, 1976. Mentioned: cat. no. 46, p 77, Reproduced: p. 130The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 219 archive.orgBourges, M. R. Itinéraires de Cézanne. [Aix-en-Provence]: Ville d'Aix-en-Provence, 1982. Reproduced: Valcros, fig. 2Arrouye, Jean. La Provence de Cézanne. La Calade, Aix-en-Provence: Edisud, 1982. Reproduced: p. 86-87"Das Cleveland Museum of Art." Die Kunst und das Schone Heim 95 (August 1983): 531-538. Reproduced: p. 535Paul Cézanne: [exposición] Madrid, marzo-abril 1984, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo. Madrid: El Museo, 1984. Reproduced: p. 235Rewald, John. Cézanne: A Biography. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1986. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 186-187Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 35, 104. cat. no. 12Verdi, Richard, Paul Cézanne, and Nicolas Poussin. Cézanne and Poussin: The Classical Vision of Landscape. London: National Galleries of Scotland, in association with Lund Humphries Publishers, 1990. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 154-155Turner, Evan H. Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 155Verdi, Richard. Cézanne. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 147-148, no. 127Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 33Benedetti, Maria Teresa. Paul Cézanne: La Vita e l'Opera. Milano: A. Mondadori, 1995. Reproduced: p. 182Orienti, Sandra. Tout l'Oeuvre Peint de Cézanne. Paris: Flammarion, 1995. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 116-117, no. 674Lartigue, Charles de. Les Paysages de Paul Cézanne. Lyon: Créations du Pélican, 1995. Reproduced: p. 103Cézanne: Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 25 septembre 1995-7 janvier 1996, Londres, Tate Gallery, 8 février-28 avril 1996, Philadelphie, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26 mai-18 août 1996. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1995. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 310-311, no. 121Blin, Sylvie. “Un Génie Indéfinissable.” Connaissance Des Arts, no. 521 (October 1995): 46–55. Reproduced: p. 54Machotka, Pavel. Cézanne: Landscape into Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. Reproduced: p. 77Les Sites Cézanniens du Pays d'Aix: Hommage à John Rewald. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1996. Reproduced: p. 96Rewald, John. The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996. Mentioned: vol. 1, no. 692; reproduced: vol. 2, fig. 692Toshio, Yamanashi. Sezannu: Zettai no Tankyūsha = Paul Cézanne, à la Recherche de laAbsolu. Tōkyō: Nigensha, 1997. Reproduced: no. 94Callen, Anthea. The Art of Impressionism: Painting Technique & the Making of Modernity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Reproduced: p. 170, no. 234Donahue, Suzanne M. "Modern Men: Inventing/Resisting the Modern in Nineteenth-Century French Visual Culture." Nineteenth-Century Studies 18 (2004): 197-205. Reproduced: p. 202, fig. 3Coutagne, Denis. "Cezanne's Sun." In Right Under the Sun: Landscape in Provence from Classicism to Modernism (1750-1920). Guy Cogeval, and Marie-Paule Vial, ed., 156-181. Montréal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2005. Reproduced: p. 177, no. 36, and cover."La Provence Sous e Regard des Peintres." L'Estampille, l'Objet d'Art. 404 (July/August 2005): 4-5. Reproduced: p. 5Conisbee, Philip, and Denis Coutagne. Cézanne in Provence. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2006. Reproduced: p. 169, no. 60Goetz, Adrien. L'Atelier de Cézanne. Paris: Hazan, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 90Donley, Gregory M., "World Travelers", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 46 no. 01, January 2006 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 7 archive.orgAdler, Kathleen. Renoir: la maturità tra classico e moderno. Milano: Skira, 2008. Reproduced: p. 104, fig. 8Lucy, Martha and John House. Renoir in the Barnes Foundation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. Reproduced: p. 123, fig. 1Cousinié, Frédéric. L'Impressionnisme: Du Plein Air au Territoire. Mont-Saint-Aignan: Presses Universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, 2013. Reproduced: p. 208, fig. 27Smith, Paul. “Cézanne’s ‘Primitive’ Perspective, or the ‘View from Everywhere.’” Art Bulletin 95, no. 1 (March 2013): 102–119. Reproduced: p. 104, fig. 1Girardeau, Cécile. "Pierre-Auguste Renoir au Debut du XX Siecle: Paul Guillanme et la Collection Walter-Guillaume au Musee de l'Orangerie." In Cézanne - Renoir, Regards Croisés: Chefs-d’Œuvre Des Collections Des MuséEs de l’Orangerie et d’Orsay, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 11-16. Martigny, Suisse: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 2024. Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 4
- Lend-Back: Painting the Modern Garden. Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH (organizer) (October 1, 2015-April 30, 2016).Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).Cézanne in Provence. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (January 29-May 7, 2006).Right Under the Sun: Painting in Provence from Classicism to Modernism (1750-1920). Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (organizer) (September 22, 2005-January 8, 2006).Cézanne. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, France (September 26, 1995-January 1, 1996); Tate Britain, London (February 7-April 28, 1996); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (May 26-September 1, 1996).Cézanne and Poussin: The Classical Vision of Landscape. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (August 9-October 21, 1990).Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).Masterpieces of World Art from American Museums. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (organizer) (September 11-October 17, 1976); Kyoto National Museum (November 2-December 5, 1976).The Museum of Modern Art First Loan Exhibition: Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Van Gogh.Exposition pour commémorer le cinquantenaire de la mort de Cézanne. Pavillon de Vendôme, Aix-en-Provence, France (July 20-August 15, 1956).French Impressionists. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (organizer) (May 23-April 19, 1953).Springtime of Impressionism. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (organizer) (April 3-May 2, 1948).Cézanne. Wildenstein & Co. (organizer) (March 26-April 26, 1947).French Paintings of the 19th Century. Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (organizer) (November 5-December 9, 1946).A Thousand Years of Landscape: East and West. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (organizer) (October 24-December 9, 1945).19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).Masterpieces of Painting. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (organizer) (February 5-March 8, 1942).The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).The Age of Impressionism and Objective Realism. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (May 3-June 2, 1940).Paul Cézanne. Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (organizer) (October 8-29, 1937).Paul Cézanne. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (organizer) (September 1-October 4, 1937).Cézanne and Gauguin. The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (organizer) (November 1-December 13, 1936).The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (1934).Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1929).Paintings by Paul Cézanne 1839-1906. Wildenstein Gallery, New York, NY (1928).Fifty Years of French Art. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1926).Inaugural Exhibition. Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (1926).
- {{cite web|title=The Pigeon Tower at Bellevue|url=false|author=Paul Cezanne|year=1890|access-date=18 February 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1936.19