Brief Report

According to the signature, Bazille painted the study, depicting a young woman in the midst of vines, in his home town of Montpellier in 1869. The same year he painted the two-part work Études pour une vendange (Studies for a grape harvest) with a similar subject and use of colour [Schulmann 1995, p. 197, cat. no. 54]. The present small sketch was executed by Bazille on a commercially prepared artists’ board primed in white. The picture support, with rounded corners, in the standard F5 size has the format stamp verso (fig. 2). The paint applications do not cover the whole area of the board, but run out towards the corners. The artist underscores the basic function of the pale ground for the light and colour effects by leaving numerous unpainted areas between the brushstrokes. In addition, in two places in the foreground he has scraped small areas, where the paint was evidently applied too dense, free of paint right back to the ground (fig. 10). The brushwork is visible throughout, and is highly varied, while the paints were invariably applied wet-in-wet, all of which lead to the conclusion that the paint was of a pasty, viscous consistency (figs 7-9). It is open to question whether the robustness and the obviously short drying times of his paints were due to the addition of a siccative, or whether this was the inevitable result of working in hot weather in the south of France, presumably en plein air. Only the signature appears to have been added after the rest of the painting had already dried (fig. 5).

Frédéric Bazille
Young Woman among Grapevines, 1869, oil on artist board, 27.0 x 34.9 cm, WRM Dep. 811

Frédéric Bazille

born on 6 October 1841 in Montpellier,
died on 29 October 1870 near Beaune-la-Rolande

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso with format stamp


Fig. 03

UV-fluorescence


Fig. 04

Detail, signature and date, partially glazed, presumably not by the artist, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 05

Artists’ board picture support, lower edge, side view, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 06

Off-white ground with discernible pigmentation, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 07

Detail, lively surface structure in raking light


Fig. 08

Detail, varied brushwork


Fig. 09

Wet-in-wet paint of a very firm, quick-drying paint, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 10

Detail, brown paint, partially scraped-off in order to incorporate the pale ground more strongly into the total colour scheme, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 11

Detail, applications of green paint, based on blends of only one green pigment, according to VIS spectrometry, viridian


Fig. 12

Pale efflorescence on green, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)