There are collectors who have built outstanding art collections through foresight and devotion, disseminating them widely with the help of public museums. Among these collectors were Samuel Courtauld in London and Rasmus Meyer in Bergen. Both focused on unique artists: for Courtauld, it was Paul Cézanne; for Meyer, Edvard Munch. The KODE Art Museums in Bergen are showing masterpieces by Cézanne from the holdings of the Courtauld Institute London in Bergen. To mark this collaboration, the volume focuses on the question of how collectors and artists became aware of Cézanne. Along with key works, this publication presents eyewitness accounts that describe Cézanne’s great influence on the Norwegian art scene around 1900. The book includes essays by Barnaby Wright, Øystein Sjåstad, and Karen Serres, an introduction by Line Daatland and forewords by Petter Snare and Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen.

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839–1906) was a French painter. His works and ideas continued to influence the work of many artists and art movements, especially Cubism. Both Matisse and Picasso are said to have declared that Cézanne is “the father of us all.”