At the Water's Edge

Paul Cézanne painted At the Water's Edge in 1890, an oil on canvas landscape depicting a house and a tree. The work first passed through the Paris dealer Ambroise Vollard, who sold it to Florentine collector Egisto Fabbri. In February 1938 the painting entered the stock of Paul Rosenberg and was acquired by Marie N. Harriman and her husband W. Averell Harriman, who displayed it in their New York gallery.

After the Harriman Foundation inherited the piece, it was donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1972.

At the Water's Edge is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it entered the collection in 1972 as a gift from the W. Averell Harriman Foundation. Its provenance traces through Marie N. Harriman and W. Averell Harriman, who acquired the painting in February 1938 through Paul Rosenberg in Paris, having previously been purchased in Paris, probably through Ambroise Vollard, by Egisto Fabbri of Florence. The work had been associated with the Marie Harriman Gallery in New York prior to its transfer to the foundation and final donation to the NGA.

The sources provided do not document a specific exhibition history or an accession number for this painting.

Paul Cézanne's At the Water's Edge (1890) is catalogued as an oil on canvas landscape painting depicting a house and a tree. The work entered the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., through a documented chain of ownership that began with a purchase from Ambroise Vollard by Egisto Fabbri, passed via Paul Rosenberg in February 1938, and was acquired by Marie N. Harriman and W. Averell Harriman, whose foundation later gifted the piece to the museum in 1972. Its classification within Cézanne’s late oeuvre and its status as a representative example of 19th‑century French landscape art are noted in the museum’s collection records.

Paul Cézanne's oil on canvas painting, At the Water's Edge, dates from approximately 1890. This landscape composition presents a scene featuring a dwelling, a prominent tree, and a solitary female figure. Created during the artist's later period, the work exemplifies his evolving approach to representing natural forms and spatial relationships.