Brief Report

Rysselberghe chose as his picture support a thin wooden panel which originally served as the lid of a cigar-box, as is proved by a stamp verso (fig. 5, 6). A central nail-hole at the top edge of the picture, a film of glue from a paper(?) hinge stuck along the bottom edge and signs of impact beneath the paint layer also testify to this previous utilization (fig. 7). The use of slats from cigar-boxes at the time of the Impressionists is often casually mentioned in the literature, but this idea has had to be revised in the light of research results; this example is the first concrete proof of such a practice. The lid used here comes from a box used by the cigar maker J. S. Murias of Havana (fig. 6, 12). The fact that this support matches the standard commercial P3 format is striking, and is due to the lid’s having been cut to size along the left-hand edge. The panel was painted on without being primed. The artist first established all the elements of the composition in a pencil underdrawing (fig. 3). The painting is executed in short impasto brush-strokes and follows the black, detailed underdrawing, from which Rysselberghe deviated only in the region of the tree-trunk. The loosely applied paint integrates the colour of the wooden panel, especially in the region of the crown of the tree (fig. 9).

Theo van Rysselberghe
Saint-Tropez, 1895, oil on cedro wood, 19.0 x 26.8 cm, WRM Dep. FC 793

Theo van Rysselberghe

born on 23 November 1862 in Gent,
died on 13 December 1926 in Saint-Clair, France

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso


Fig. 03

Infrared reflectogram reveals the drawn lay-in


Fig. 04

Detail in raking light of the monogram formed from the letters “VR”, black pencil in soft paint


Fig. 05

Detail of verso in raking light, stamp of the cigarmaker
J. S. Murias of Havana covered by paper stuck over it


Fig. 06

Rubbing of the cigar-maker’s mark


Fig. 07

Detail of the top edge, notches in the wood beneath the paint layer point to the panel’s previous use as part of a cigar-box


Fig. 08

Pencil signature in the region of the tree on one of the many areas of the wood left unpainted, microscope photograph
(M = 1 mm)


Fig. 09

Detail in raking light, blue and impasto yellow and white applications of paint in the region of the tree with unpainted areas of the panel clearly visible


Fig. 10

Area painted in unmixed violet, presumably cobalt violet,
microscope photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 11

Detail in raking light, impasto stippled applications of paint in the top left corner; a retouching to improve the appearance of the painting above the horizon is evident as
a result of absence of impasto


Fig. 12

For comparison, a cigarbox from J. S. Murias (Havana), private collection, Finland