Cézanne in Provence

January 25 • National Gallery of Art, West Building

THE EVENT
The museum's black-tie preview of its blockbuster Cezanne exhibition highlighted the painter's lifelong ties to Provence. The National Gallery is the fi rst and only U.S. venue for the show, which runs until May 7th before moving to Aix-en-Provence.

THE SCENE
Some 300 art supporters viewed 117 of Cézanne's greatest oil paintings and watercolors. Both French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte and gallery president Vicki Sant praised the artist's contribution to expressionism before a French-inspired dinner in the East Sculpture Hall. "Am I in France or the U.S.?" Amb. Levitte joked, alluding to the number of visiting guests from Aix-en-Provence, where many of Cézanne's works are exhibited.

THE GUESTS
Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, Rep. John Dingell, Russian Ambassador Yuri Ushakov, Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cézanne's great-grandchildren Philippe and Aline Cézanne and the Mayor and leading citizens of Aix-en-Provence.

Buffy Cafritz, William N. Cafritz and Anne Jordan	Mark D. Ein and Sarah Rosenwinkel

Philippe Cézanne and Aline J. Cézanne with Paul Cézanne's Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory	Robert G. Liberatore, Thomas Sidlik, Philip Conisbee in front of Paul Cézanne's Peasant in a Blue Smock

John J. O'Connor III and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with Paul Cézanne's House with the Red Roof (Jas de Bouffan)	Rep. Michael G. Oxley and Pat Oxley with Paul Cézanne's The Large Pine

Dr. LeSalle D.Leffall, Jr. and Chris Matthews	Thomas Sidlik and Sen. Richard G. Luger

PHOTOS BY KYLE SAMPERTON