Brief Report on Technology and Condition

Transcription

1 Albert Marquet ( ) Suburb of Paris (Banlieue de Paris) 1899 signed bottom left marquet Oil on artists board h 23.8 cm x b 31.3 cm WRM Dep. FC 671

2 Brief Report This small painting on an F4 size artists board is characterized by an unusual perspective and a dramatic surface structure. Having made a brisk sketch in black pencil or black chalk on the white ground (figs 5, 7), Marquet used a brush, a palette knife and, it seems, his fingers to execute the painting: intensively, impasto and wet-in-wet (figs 4, 8, 9). Numerous traces of smearing testify to this treatment of the paint. The picture was doubtless painted en plein air. Round pressure marks with a nail-hole at their centre bear witness to the use of typical spacers (taquets bois) for the transport of the work while it was still damp (fig.10). An interesting feature is the narrow black margin applied to the picture after the work was finished, marking its completion, like the signature, which was also applied to the dry paint (fig.6). The picture has been cropped by about 17 mm on the right-hand edge, and the varnish also seems to be a later addition. Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

3 Picture support board Standard format F4 (33.0 x 24.0 cm) horizontal, format stamp 4 (figs 2, 11) Thickness Characteristics Color Manufacture/modification app. 2.5 mm groundwood; even distribution of fibres; several layers without clear boundaries between; sieve impressions verso; lined with paper verso brownish presumably industrially produced millboard Producer s/dealer s marks Ground Sizing Colour Application Binding medium Character and appearance undetermined white clear brushmarks as far as the edge; the ground was applied in one layer in horizontal strokes; as there is no ground on the edges, it is likely that the board was cut to size after being primed; this in turn suggests that it was primed by the manufacturer presumably oil very fine-grained, non-absorptive Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

4 Composition planning/underpainting/underdrawing Medium/technique: soft black pencil, possibly black chalk (fig. 7) Extent/character Pentimenti all the important elements of the composition were briskly and sketchily laid-in, exploratory lineation (fig. 5) unlike all the other areas the figure is not underdrawn and thus probably only added during the painting process Paint layer Paint application/technique and artist s own revision Painting tools Surface structure Palette Binding mediums brisk wet-in-wet application incorporating the ground, heavy impasto areas numerous very different brushes, palette knife; especially conspicuous are the traces of smearing, where fingers or flat utensils were pressed into the still damp paint-layer and pulled away again markedly impasto areas; in addition at top and bottom left and bottom right there are pressure marks, cropped by the edge of the picture, of spacers with two and three nail holes; these indicate that the freshly painted picture was fastened thus for transport (fig. 7) visual microscopic inspection reveals: white, lemon-yellow, orangeyellow, pale red, dark madder, two different pinks, two blues, green; almost always, blends of two or three pigments were used; VIS spectrometry: yellow ultramarine, cadmium yellow, chrome yellow(?), vermillion, alizarin(?), cobalt blue, viridian presumably oil; paint from tube (no analysis) Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

5 Surface finish Authenticity/Condition present varnish not original, only applied after the format was changed Signature/Mark When? applied after the paint-layer had dried (fig. 6) Autograph signature not determined; the black paint used for the signature was not used in the painting; the paint is thinner and less viscous than the paints used in the picture, but matches that used for the black margin; applied with a brush Serial Frame Authenticity postdates the picture State of preservation The board has been cropped on the right-hand side slightly obliquely by up to 17 mm; the board has a bulge of app. 3 mm; the layers have separated at the edges; the fibres have browned; slight abrasion and small scratches in the paint-layer; numerous pressure marks on the impasto areas; the painting has been subject to one or more restorations, involving the reduction of the format, some retouching, and application of the varnish. Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

6 Additional remarks There is an inscription verso in black ink: Banlieue 1904 Literature Budde/Schaefer 2001: Rainer Budde, Barbara Schaefer, Miracle de la Couleur (exhib. cat. Cologne, Wallraf- Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, 8 September-9 December 2001), Cologne 2001, cat. no. 103, p. 236 with ill. Winsor & Newton 1896: Winsor & Newton, Cataloque pour le commerce en gros seulement, London 1896 (limitted version in French) Source of illustrations Fig. 10 uses a detail from Winsor & Newton 1896, p. 117 All further illustrations and figures Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud Examination methods used 3 Incident light 3 VIS spectrometry 3 Raking light Wood identification Reflected light FTIR (Fourier transform spectroscopy) Transmitted light EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis) 3 Ultraviolet fluorescence Microchemical analysis 3 Infrared reflectography Cross-section False-colour infrared reflectography X-ray 3 Stereomicroscopy Author of examination: Lena Reuber Date: 04/2005 Author of brief report: Hans Portsteffen Date: 10/2007 Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

7 Fig. 1 Recto Fig. 2 Verso Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

8 Fig. 3 UV fluorescence Fig. 4 Raking light Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

9 Fig. 5 IR reflectogram Fig. 6 Detail, signature Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

10 Fig. 7 Detail, IR reflectogram; stroke made by a soft pencil Fig. 8 Detail, raking light, traces left by palette knife Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

11 Fig. 9 Detail of the paint layer under raking light, showing traces of smearing made by an object or finger(?) Fig. 10 Detail, top left-hand corner, impression left by a standard commercially available spacer (see illustration), designed to keep the still wet picture apart from another picture or wrapping Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln

12 Fig. 11 Detail, verso, format stamp 4 half covered by a sticker (arrow) Fig. 12 Paint-layer, application wet-in-wet, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm) Research Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition Köln