Rose Cézanne, born in 1854, was Cézanne's younger sister. On February 26th, 1881, she married a lawyer from Aix named Maxime Conil. A few months later, in June, the newlyweds spent a few days to Paris where they visited Cézanne: “Sunday morning, my sister being sick, I was obliged to send them off again for Aix. The first Sunday of the month, I had accompanied them to Versailles, the city of the great king, to see the pools and fountains”. (Letter to Zola, 1881). Maxime Conil owned Montbriant, located west of Aix-en-Provence, on the southern slope of the hill of Valcros. On December 2nd, 1886, after the death of Louis-Auguste Cézanne, Rose Conil, with her share of the inheritance, bought the neighboring country house, Bellevue, including a main residance, various outbuildings, and a dovecote, for the sum of 38,000 francs. Cézanne painted his sister's house at least eight times, in oils and in watercolors.