Recently, two gorgeous books on the work of Paul Cézanne have gracefully arrived in our lives. These rather scholarly publications have been produced on the occasion of two exhibitions (one in Manchester, and one in London) and, published by Ridinghouse, they stand testament to Karsten Schubert’s enduring passion for publishing art historical connoisseurship.

Karsten was our friend and very sadly he passed away last summer. The influential London-based gallerist, collector, author and publisher has a legacy which is rivalled by few. His personal collection of Cézanne paintings and drawings on paper is celebrated in a special exhibition at the Whitworth art gallery here in Manchester. He generously gifted these rare artworks by the French Post-Impressionist master to the university gallery, where they will remain for the public to enjoy for the foreseeable future. The exhibition, Cézanne at the Whitworth is on at the Whitworth, Manchester until 1st March.

Reconstructing Cezanne: Sequence and Process in Paul Cezanne’s Works on Paper was an exhibition at Luxembourg & Dayan in London late last year. Its superb accompanying catalogue ensures that the ground-breaking forensic research into the very fabric of Cézanne’s work on paper remains accessible. A watercolour version of one of the artist’s most recognisable landscape pictures, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1885–87) is the subject of in-depth analysis by the Cézanne expert Fabienne Ruppen who is Lecturer at the Chair for the History of Fine Art at the Art History Institute of the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

We are in no doubt that Karsten would be proud and pretty thrilled about both of these exhibitions and books. Schubert and Cézanne make quite a pair!

Image credit: Paul Cézanne, detail of La Montagne Sainte Victoire (1885-87), Courtauld Gallery, London.