X-Ray photo
X-ray photo taken of the River Scene
painting
In the X-ray photo we can
see the painting in black and white. The white is the effect of the
X-rays reflected by the lead in the colour Lead
White. All Lead
White colour,
used in the painting, is reflected in the same way. What we can see
is the present state, as well as the underlying first state – now
painted over.
X-ray Scenario
See how the picture has been changed!
What can we find out from
this X-ray? In fact something really
sensational! The whole scene has been
radically changed. This is what has
happened: In the first session it was late afternoon, and the sun
was standing low! This is easy to see in the X-ray photo.
Look at the arches of the bridge to the
right. The sunrays were, in the first
state, shining through them, being
reflected on the surface of the water! It is obvious, that the whole
atmosphere has been changed! From late afternoon in this
first state, to noon and the
bright sunshine that we see today!
Close up of the arche in X-ray.
Click for larger image.
When we have learnt about this
change of the scenary, we do get a reasonable explanation to
something that for a long time seemed so puzzling! This is the rose
colour area to the left of the landing-stage – beneath the
water-surface of today and consequently being part of the first,
overpainted version.
Click
HERE for a look at the
underlying rose color.
Please click
HERE for sunset detail!
Click
HERE for rose 'reminiscenses'. |
Looking at the arches of the bridge in the
second state we have today, we simply have to make a comparison with
two other paintings.
Click
HERE for shadow comparison. |
When we separately study the
Bridge paintings by Monet, we can only confirm this fascination of
his, for arches and sunlight, coming
through them and being reflected on the
water surface! (e.g.:
Waterloo Bridge 1899-1900, Santa Barbara Museum of Art,
W.1555).
The Waterloo Bridge
Sunlight translated
Unfortunately you have no chance to see and
feel what in France is called: the
‘enveloppe’ of our paintings, no photo can, in no way, give justice
to the light in them. If you read the following you will, however,
understand what our three paintings look like, when you have them
before your eyes: “Mirbeau who knew Monet well, in 1889 linked
mystery with the enveloppe: The air
visibly bathes every object, endows it with mystery, envelops it
with all the colours’; in 1891, after further consultation with
Monet he enlarged on the qualities of his latest work. He described
Monet, "who knows how to touch the
intangible, express the inexpressible, who enchants our dream with
the whole dream, mysteriously enclosed within nature, with the whole
dream mysteriously scattered in the divine light"
ending by discussing one of his latest figure paintings: ‘Suzanne
with Sunflowers’. (House p.223).
‘The air visibly bathes
every object’, yes that’s it: Suzanne is really ‘bathing’ in the
air, in the sunshine, out there in the boat. “It is about a
moment in time, a few drowsy hours of sunlight that have been
arrested and preserved on canvas. As if it were a page torn from a
diary, Monet offers us a fragment of his own life and it is this
that makes the picture so appealing. Instead of contriving a
fiction, Monet allows the picture to become autobiographical,
holding it up as a window to his life. The subject of his painting
has become as portable as the materials that create it.” About ‘La
Grenouillère’, 1869: "The great mackerel skin of water
dominates the painting; slabs of white and blue paint laid down
beside black, interrupted by notes of warm ochre, miraculously
become rippling water in our minds. The complex image of light
sparkling and winking off the river has been converted into a
vibrant patchwork of broken colour.” (Skeggs: ‘River of Light’,
pp.54, 60).
Looking at the ‘River
Scene’, it is like sitting in a dark room, with an open window
looking out over the River. The warm sunlight is streaming into the
room.
“-
this miraculous alchemy of colour in which sunlight is translated
into touches of paint”, (Skeggs p.60)
Click
HERE for next page
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