Cézanne's father (1798 - 1886) was probably in his early sixties when this portrait was painted. It was painted directly onto an alcove wall in the Salon of Jas de Bouffan, the country residence outside Aix-en-Provence which his father had bought in 1859. A photograph said to have been taken in 1905 shows the portrait still in place, flanked by four paintings of the 'Seasons' (Paris, Petit Palais).