Max Weber 1881-1961
Framed dimensions: 28 1/4 x 25 1/4 inches
Signed lower right: MAX WEBER
Weber's immersion in the avant-garde living and working in Paris was central to his stylistic development. With money saved, Weber left for Pairs in 1905 and enrolled at the Académie Julian. He frequented the circles that surrounded Henri Matisse (1869-1954)—his instructor for less than a year—and encountered the works of Cézanne, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), and the emerging Fauves. It was the work of Cézanne, however, that would be especially formative for Weber. The young artist arrived in Paris at a time when Cézanne's posthumous exhibitions, notably the 1907 retrospectives at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery and Salon d'Automne, were revolutionizing the principles of modern painting. Cézanne's insistence on the geometric foundation of nature—that all visible forms could be reduced to "the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, putting everything in proper perspective, so that each side of an object or plane is directed toward a central point"—offered Weber a conceptual framework for reimagining the structures of his compositions. (J. Rewald, Cézanne: A Biography, New York, 1986, p. 199)
In Three Tulips, Weber evidently internalizes this principle from Cézanne, translating the fruit, vase, flowers, table, and chair into interlocking, faceted shapes. In the present work, the conventional hierarchy between subject and ground dissolves and he transforms the table and its contents into a dynamic interplay of color and contour. Like Cézanne, Weber employs a sophisticated modeling technique to his still lifes and uses rhythmic brushwork to render each object's natural form. However, Weber's engagement with Cézanne's work goes beyond formal emulation, as he abandons Cézanne's measured classicism for a more expressive, painterly sensibility. The resulting image is one that seems to vibrate with psychological energy and anticipates his later arguments that modern art should penetrate beneath the surface and uncover the essence of form.
Three Tulips also reveals the influence Cézanne's approach to color had on Weber, as he observed that Cézanne used color not as a surface ornament but as a constructive agent—modulating warm and cool hues to create spatial depth without relying on the technique of chiaroscuro. Weber's adoption of this principle with expressive intensity is evident in the present work, as the reds, oranges, yellows, and greens generate a pulsing rhythm that both unifies the composition and infuses the inert objects of the scene with a latent energy. These color harmonies ultimately demonstrate how Cézanne's approach could be reinterpreted with a more emotive, symbolist sensibility. In Three Tulips, Weber synthesizes Cézanne's structural and chromatic principles into a distinctly expressive vernacular that marks a critical moment in his transition toward modernist abstraction.
Provenance
Estate of the artist;Bernard Danenberg Galleries, Inc., New York, from the above, by 1970;
Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, transferred from the above, 1971;
Mr. and Mrs. Jack L. Stein, acquired from the above, 1971;
James Reinish & Associates, Inc., New York, from the above, 2011;
Acquired by the late owners, Jay and Mary Jayne Jones, from the above, 2011 until 2025;
Bonham's, New York, American Art, November 18th, 2025, lot 18
Exhibitions
New York, Bernard Danenberg Galleries, Inc., Max Weber: The Years 1906-1916, May 12–June 6, 1970, pp. 8, 15, no. 9, pl. 9, illustrated, and elsewhere.Los Angeles, University of Judaism, 1990.