| Our
next painting we call ‘Suzanne in the garden’. It was
probably executed in 1886/87, size
51x44,5 cm. This
painting can be considered to be another missing link. No painting
is, until today, known with Suzanne sewing. Several paintings are
however known, with both Camille and Alice Hoschedé
sewing, (Monet’s second wife).
What first strikes us, is to see the
fascinating outline sketching, masterly and quickly drawn. In
Monet’s finished works, this sketching can be hard to discover,
since he continued to paint in several layers.
”To lay out the compositions was the envy of
his friends; Monet has the great ability, he looks, and
straight-way, draws in proportion, (Cezanne); Degas, too, warmly
praised the intuitive accuracy of Monet’s eye.” (House, ch. 3,
p. 46).
The painting ‘Suzanne with sunflowers’,
mentioned earlier, shows however, exactly the same vigorous strokes.
(These two paintings have much more in
common - more about this further on.)
Unfortunately we have no colour photo to compare with here.
(The
painting was sold at Christie’s in London 2nd December, 1985,
Mandolina sale 3276, lot 8.)
Thus it is hard to really see the strong relationship between
these two paintings from our black & white photocopy.
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Please click
HERE for mirror turned comparison. |
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Suzanne with sunflowers |
If someone, reading
this, happens to have the original photo of the catalogue, it would
be of great value to have access to it, in order to improve the
quality of comparison. If so, please e-mail us! The real hit would,
of course, be to get the chance to compare these paintings side by
side!
Monet once said: “I would
like to paint like the bird sings”. Please have a look at the
composition of our ‘Garden scene’. You will most certainly find it
delicate. Your eyes will focus on Suzanne’s face and her hand. We
can feel her concentration at her work. It is a wonderful afternoon.
Can you hear the birds singing? The sun is shining from behind us.
Some sun rays are finding their way through the foliage, splashing
on the gravel walk. Monet is busy painting, he is, as you know,
already familiar with the motif, after having painted both Camille
and Alice in the same scene. Today, we also have an old friend and
colleague to Monet, paying a visit here in the wonderful garden at
Giverny – Alfred Sisley! How do we know that?
You have to wait and see. You
will soon find out…!
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