Brief Report

This study was painted on artists’ board, but in view of its considerable weight and small size, as well as the robust priming on both sides, one might easily confuse the support at first with a thin wood panel. Thanks to a company label, still preserved but today covered by another sticker (figs. 2, 5), we know that this board is a product of the English company Winsor & Newton. According to contemporary product catalogues, as well as previous investigations of the company’s artists’ boards, it seems to be of the type described as “Prepared Millboard – ordinary thickness” [Schaefer 1993, p. 166-168]. Taking account of the known dimensions of these pre-primed artists’ boards and the discovery that the support was subsequently trimmed along the top edge, we can presume an original picture size of 22.9 x 33.0 cm (= 9.0 x 13.0 inches) [Winsor & Newton 1886, p. 85] (fig. 4). A trimming at the top edge by app. 2.6 cm would be entirely compatible with an originally complete, but now cropped, depiction of the mast of the boat (figs. 1, 4, 9). The overall thin paint-layer seems hardly to follow any preliminary drawn sketch. What is very interesting, however, are the individual strikingly fine and straight scratches in the ground, visible only under the microscope in the area of the lower mast (fig. 8). As they can only be seen in part and in their detail no longer accord with the depiction as we see it, the function and context of these scratches have not yet been explained. The paint was generally applied wet-in-wet, and often semi-transparently. The brushwork is visible in many places. Above all near the edges and in the sky the ground was also originally more visible. These absent or transparent sections of the paint layer are today overpainted with very fine dashes (figs. 10-12). These additions probably date from immediately after the cropping of the top edge of the board, and constitute an attempt to re-shape the top of the mast (fig. 9). The manner and extent of the overpainting suggest that the intention was to make the study look more complete. Particular attention should also be given to the still-visible label of the Paris-based Wandenberg company, which today covers the Winsor & Newton label described above (fig. 6). According to the inscription, this company specialized in painting (requisites?), gilding, mirrors and framing “in the French style”. As they refer expressly to their new company location from 15 March 1875, the question arises as to the context in which this sticker was applied, thereby completely covering the English label. Insofar as they offered this artists’ board with their own company label, this study could only postdate the date on the label (March 1875). If this study was entrusted to Wandenberg for the purposes of framing or the like, this could in turn be seen as very early evidence of its appreciation.

Edouard Manet
Black Boat near Berck, 1873, oil on artist board, 20.3 x 33.2 cm, WRM Dep. FC 777

Edouard Manet

born on 23 January 1832 in Paris,
died on 30 April 1883 ibidem

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso


Fig. 03

Raking light


Fig. 04

Digital reconstruction of the original format with continuation of the motif (boat’s mast)


Fig. 05

Verso with comparative illustrations; below right:
IR-reflectogram of the company label, which allows the Winsor & Newton company label beneath it to be seen; above right:
a Winsor & Newton company label from a painting on artists’
board dating from not long after 1840


Fig. 06

Detail, label of the Parisian company Wandenberg


Fig. 07

Detail, signature


Fig. 08

Foremast of the boat with discernible scratching in the ground, which is exposed here, microscopic photograph
(M = 1 mm)


Fig. 09

Detail, boat’s mast at top edge with paint applications added later


Fig. 10

Detail, UV fluorescence photograph of the righthand
edge of the picture, where brush-strokes added later appear dark


Fig. 11

Detail, UV fluorescence photograph of the sky above and to the left of the boat; here too brushstrokes added later
stand out dark from the original paint layer


Fig. 12

Right-hand edge of picture with brushstrokes added later,
microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)