Janet Gwendolyn Smith Art

Comparison Research

Man Fishing Comparisons to
Authenticated/Confirmed Artwork by Claude Monet

VISUAL COMPARISONS

The following information is being published without the images to respect the owner’s copyrights. However, all picture images listed are available on the Internet for everyone. The title and Wildenstein catalogue number is referenced. Please use your favorite search engine. The italics are review comments by Janet G. Smith.

W 1380, The Seine at Port-Villez, 1894, Musee Marmottan, Paris, FR
The composition structures are similar to the study, Man Fishing. The sky and mountain are left flat and unaccented.

W 288, The Sheltered Path, 1873, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, USA
W621, The Cliffs of Petites-Dalles, 1880, Museum of Fine Art Boston, MA, USA
W 576, Sunset on the Seine, Winter, 1880 Musee du Petit Palais, Paris, FR
W 644, Moored Boat at Fecamp, 1881, Private Collection
W 779, Lowe Tide at Pourville, Hazy Weather, 1882, Private Collection
W 1024, Boats on the Beach at Etretat, 1885, Art Institute of Chicago,Chicago, Il, USA W 890, The Corniche de Monaco, 1884, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland

These seven examples show the execution of the people in the pictures similar to the image of the man fishing in this study. The results of each picture by digital photograph enlarged similar to “Man Fishing” would be of great interest for research.

W 158, Trouville Beach, 1870, National Gallery, London, England The highlight on the back of the laddered chair is the same color and type of stroke used on the shoreline in the study “Man Fishing”.

W 883, The Castle of Dolce Acqua, 1884, Musee Marmottan, Paris, FR, The trees are similar in the study “Man Fishing” in shape and form.

W 621, The Cliffs of Petites-Dalles, 1880, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA, USA

W 817, Etretat, Sunset, 1883, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, USA The water is similar in these pictures to the study “Man Fishing”.

W 347, The Duck Pond, 1874, Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, USA The water in the lower right of this painting has a swirling motion brush stroke similar to the study, "Man Fishing". The artist appears to mix the pigment lightly on the study.

W 390, The Studio Boat, 1876, Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA, USA The water in the lower left of the painting has a swirling motion brush stroke, similar to the study,“Man Fishing”.

W 274, Poppies, Near Argenteuil, 1873, Musee d’Orsay, Paris, FR

This website shows the color vision of Monet. webexhibits.org/colorart/monet2

Under this website vision photography the Poppies disappear, same as the man fishing in the X-ray and UV photograph.

Man Fishing Comparisons to Authenticated/Confirmed Artwork by Claude Monet

WRITTEN COMPARISONS

The research notes are those of Janet G. Smith, who has personally viewed 137 paintings by Claude Monet. (A listing is available.) Words typed in italics are comments of Janet G. Smith and not the authors of the cited text.

James A. Ganz and Richard Kendall, The Unknown Monet, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, (New Haven and London, Yale UP, 2007), pp.198-200, 1883 (193-illustration) D435 The Two Anglers.

This study information is important during the year 1883 Monet was studying water, fishermen, etc. This is the same year the study “Man Fishing” was created.

The following research is based upon the book Monet Nature into Art, written by John House, published in 1986 by Yale University Press, New Haven and London. ISBN 0-300-03785-6.

Chapter 4, Page 63 - Priming or ground color

1. “our identification of this color may be affected by the colours of the surrounding paint.”

This study’s ground color appears a light white beige. The color of the ground changed with the age. The ground color of the man fishing study is consistent with a date of 1883. The green in the trees affect the perception of the ground color.

Chapter 4, Page 64 - 1800 light brown ground

2. “The light brown ground under many paintings about 1880 must have been a deliberate experiment.”

The ground tone is affected by the surrounding colors in “Man Fishing”.

Chapter 4, Page 65 - 1880s Monet used toned priming

3. “His white or light-toned priming played an important part in the execution of his paintings even when the ground is scarcely seen in the final state of a picture, for it gave his a light based to which he could compare and relate the tones and coulours of his paintings as he worked them up. As he told Trevise, the canvas-ground served ‘to establish my scale of values.”

The priming in “Man Fishing” established a soft luminous under painting supporting the paint layers, which set off the light sky, the water and darker trees. The forensic research x-ray shows the ground stroke in the upper part.

Chapter 4, Page 66 - Monet’s first stage

4. 1888 E. M. Rashdall-describes Monet’s first stage as:

“A system of laying in a picture is to cover the canvas with combinations of slashed of comparatively unmixed color.”

This is evident in the “man fishing” study in the trees with a slashing type brush stroke.

Chapter 4, page 66 - Monet's Golden Rule

5. “The one golden rule from which Claude Monet never departs, is to work on the whole picture together, to work all over or not all.”

This is evident in the vertical strokes-dashes of the water. The water in the study not only shimmers, but appears to be flowing gently and calmly. The brush stroke is varied for the different elements painted, but the study was worked all over. This small study when viewed from a distance, as represented on the "Home page" exhibits the whole picture with no one element dominating the landscape.

Chapter 4, Page 66 - Preliminary drawing

6. “Preliminary drawing on his canvases played no great part in Monet’s work.”

This study was reviewed by forensic imaging technology. No drawing is evident. Drawing would not be expected in a study.

Chapter 4, Page 66 - First layer of paint

7. “The first layer of paint varied according to the textures Monet was trying to suggest. It established in a simple form the tonal structure of the scene, with muted suggestions of its colour relations.”

The study has varied textures in the simplest form: mountain and sky. The water and trees are more worked over.

Chapter 4, Page 66 - Composition

8. A good example is Monet’s 1894 composition- The Seine at Pot Villez.-W 1380

"Monet has indicated the composition structure of the trees and hills reflected in the river, and has established a tonal contract between the trees on the left and the far bank, but the paint areas are left falt and unaccented, with sky and water scantily covered; a few gestures of the brush begin to model the far bank of trees and hill."

This composition is similar to the study because of the structures of the trees and hills. The tonal contrast with the trees on the left and far bank similar to the Man Fishing study. In the study, the mountain and sky are left flat and unaccented. The artist study was focusing on the water and the movement of the water.

Chapter 10, Page 169 - Mountains

9. In Monet’s Antibes, 1888, W1192 the purple/muted blue mountains appear with the horizontal brush stroke.

This is the same tone and the same brush stroke as the mountain in the study-Man Fishing.

Notes and comparisons researched, compiled & written by:

Janet G. Smith, ISA, Member of the International Society of Appraisers, 2007

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