This painting probably depicts a scene outside the grounds of the château de Marcouville, very close to Pontoise. Cézanne's interest in this landscape may be linked to the fact that his friend Camille Pissarro had already painted there five years earlier. However the comparison stops there. The patient search for gentle solutions typical of Pissarro seems far removed from this painting imbued with powerful energy.
Cézanne was interested in the clump of tall trees on the banks of the Viosne. The difficulty was in making this landscape of greenery "readable". To this end, he contrasted the rectilinear aspect of the poplars with the confused mass of the other trees. Between the slanting brushstrokes, characteristic of this period, the white background filters through almost everywhere, bringing luminosity and animation to the surface of the painting.
Clearly Cézanne was seeking to overcome the technical difficulty of representing a view where the only motif was foliage. The difference between this wooded landscape and those of the Barbizon school is significant. Cézanne, like Pissarro, represented trees that had been planted by man rather than those that grew "naturally". He therefore introduced into his paintings signs of human activity organising the landscape, rather than Nature's anarchic growth.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj9sHjK7IVk
This is a sketch I worked on Friday jun 14. I would love to post these daily vids but I can’t seem to get them out in a consistent time. So I have to work in them ahead of time so when I post it post at similar times.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoTmjjqzgJQ
This is one of the most precious Flemish tapestries preserved in Italy. Esther is a heroine of the Old Testament, the young Jewish woman who interceded with the Persian King Ahasuerus (5th century B.C.) to prevent the massacre of her people. The tapestry depicts the moment when Esther is presented to the sovereign, who raises his sceptre to indicate that he intends to listen to her. The king wears a striking hat with peacock feathers, and the costumes of all the other figures thronging the scene are similarly lavish. The weaving is technically close to perfection, executed with an abundance of metal thread and with subtle chromatic combinations of shades of red, yellow, blue, green and brown.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p1CNUhnGaA