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Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)

The Banks of the Seine(Bords de Seine)

1891

unsigned and undated

Oil on canvas

h 45.7 cm x b 60.8 cm

WRM Dep. FC 706

Brief Report on Technology and Condition

Brief Report

Caroline von Saint-George, Katja Lewerentz: Gustave Caillebotte – The Banks of the Seine, Brief Report on Technology and ConditionResearch Project Painting Techniques of Impressionism and Postimpressionism, Online-Edition www.museenkoeln.de/impressionismus, Köln 2008 2

Gustave Caillebotte – The Banks of the Seine Brief Report on Technology and Condition

The Seine, with its green banks, picturesque houses and boats was one of Caillebotte’s favour-ite motifs at this time [Berhaut 1994, pp.224-231, cf. Caillebotte WRM Dep. FC 603]. For the present pic-ture, the artist chose a fine, net-like canvas pre-primed in white, not dissimilar to the commercially available study-grade canvases known as toiles étude or toiles pochade. With brisk dark brush-strokes, he sketched the outlines of houses, trees and boats on the white ground before underpaint-ing the individual motifs in thin applications of the respective local colour (figs 7, 8, 9). The picture was then completed in broad brushstrokes briskly, and largely wet-in-wet (figs 10, 11, 12).

In the bottom left corner there are semi-circular traces of smearing and scratching, which clearly date from when the paint was still wet (fig. 6). While they cannot be attributed with certainty to a partic-ular object, they could point to the picture’s having been fastened and transported in the open air. The appearance of the picture we see today is heavily influenced by the fact that it has been lined, which has resulted among other things in clear deforma-tions and flattening of impasto paint applications, and not least the removal of the original turnover edge and a slight reduction in overall size.



Picture support canvas

Standard format P 12 (60.0 x 46.0 cm) horizontal

Weave tabby weave

Canvas characteristics 15 threads per cm vertical and horizontal, very fine, open, almost net-like weave

Stretching not original; the original turnover edge was cut off, presumably in the course of the lining process, and the canvas was then stretched on a new and apparently somewhat larger stretcher, whereby the new turnover edge, while parallel, no longer corresponded with the old (on the right-hand edge of the picture the discrepancy amounts to about 5 mm); along the bottom edge there are weak stretchmarks at intervals of app. 8-9 cm, presumably going back to the stretching of the canvas for priming

Stretcher/strainer stretcher with vertical centre-bar, chamfered verso; it is most prob-ably no longer the original stretcher, which must have been a few millimetres smaller, exactly matching the standard P12 format (see above)

Stretcher/strainer depth 2.0 cm

Traces left by manufacture/processing –

Manufacturer’s/dealer’s marks none visible on account of the lining



Ground

Sizing not determined

Colour white

Application thin, smooth and even ground, presumably applied before cutting-to-size and stretching (original turnover edge is however no longer present); the textile structure remains visible although all the yarns are covered; raking light reveals fine stripes, pointing to application with a brush (fig. 8 )

Binding medium presumably oil

Texture the ground is homogeneous and even; no microscopic pigment par-ticles are discernible

Composition planning/Underpainting/Underdrawing

Medium/technique in weakly bound black paint with a proportion of blue, probably oil, applied with a brush; microscopic inspection reveals that black parti-cles predominate; isolated particles of green are also present; a previ-ous charcoal underdrawing cannot be totally excluded (fig. 8)

Extent/character houses, boats, bank and trees were clearly outlined with a brush, the resulting contours still being visible in the finished painting as outlines or shadow lines (figs 7, 8); there is thus a seamless transi-tion from the underdrawing to the underpainting; in the process of the latter, some black particles from the underdrawing lines have become integrated into the paint

Pentimenti –



Paint layer

Paint application/technique and artist’s own revision the initial outlining of the individual motifs was followed by a paint

application in one or two layers, starting with thinly applied broad non-directional brushstrokes in the respective local colour: the trees on the left bank in grey-green, the bank in yellow ochre, the right bank in grey-brown, the grass in pale green and the surface of the water in dark green (fig. 9); these first applications were evidently al-lowed to dry completely before the areas were painted over in brisk, loose and quite broad brushstrokes, predominantly wet-in-wet and in places highly impasto (figs 11, 12); at this stage, the brushwork is largely oriented to the shapes of the motifs (fig. 10); there are only very few places where the white ground has been left unpainted

Painting tools brushes, presumably bristle, varying in breadth from 0.3-1.5 cm

Surface structure brushwork is clearly visible: thin and wide-ranging in the sky, struc-tured and impasto in the water, the foliage and some of the houses (figs 3, 10)

Palette visual microscopic inspection reveals: pale yellow, yellow ochre, pale red, dark blue, pale green, dark green; white and black only in blends;VIS spectrometry: chrome/cadmium yellow(?), iron-oxide yellow, vermilion, ultramarine blue, copper-based green, viridian

Binding mediums presumably oil

Surface finish

Authenticity/Condition the present varnish is not authentic; around impasto areas there are remains of an older yellowed coating



Signature/Mark

When? –

Autograph signature –

Serial –

Frame

Authenticity not original

State of preservation

The painting has been lined, and at the same time the original turnover edge was removed, and the picture slightly reduced in size; the measure led to serious deformations and flattening of impasto paint applica-tions; the present turnover edge is stuck down with gummed brown paper; pronounced network of aging cracks over the whole picture; two significant losses, repaired and retouched, in the sky and in the middle of the picture (fig. 5); the paint-layer was subject to abrasion and/or damage by solvents when an earlier coat of varnish was removed.

Additional remarks

The picture bears evidence of having been painted outdoors (see above).



Source of illustrations

All illustrations and figures: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud

Examination methods used

3 Incident light 3 VIS spectrometry3 Raking light – Wood identification 3 Reflected light – FTIR (Fourier transform spectroscopy)3 Transmitted light – EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis)3 Ultraviolet fluorescence – Microchemical analysis3 Infrared reflectography– False-colour infrared reflectography – X-ray3 Stereomicroscopy

Author of examination: Caroline von Saint-George Date: 11/2008Author of brief report: Katja Lewerentz Date: 10/2002

Literature

Berhaut 1994: Marie Berhaut, • Catalogue raisonné des peintures et pastels, Paris 1994, cat. no.432, p. 231, with ill.

Budde/Schaefer 2001: Rainer Budde, Barbara Schaefer, • Miracle de la couleur (exhib. cat. Cologne Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, 8 September - 9. December 2001), Cologne 2001, cat. no. 18, p. 55, with ill.

Cz• ymmek 2000: Götz Czymmek, Caillebotte im Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Kölner Museums Bulletin, 3/2000, 51-61

Le• werentz 2008: Katja Lewerentz, Gustave Caillebottes Maltechnik und die Praxis der Freilichtmalerei, in: Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung, 2 (2008), 274-286



Fig. 1Recto

Fig. 2Verso, lined



Fig. 3Raking light

Fig. 4Transmitted light



Fig. 5UV fluorescence

Fig. 6Detail in bottom left-hand corner with traces of smearing and scratching while the paint was still wet, thus possibly pointing to the picture’s having been handled in the open air



Fig. 7Detail, the houses were first outlined in black paint with a brush; these contours remain visible in places as outlines or shadow lines

Fig. 8Details of the underdrawing/ underpainting in the house or shed on the left bank; bottom: microscopic photographs (M = 1 mm)



Fig. 9Detail of the path on the right bank, two-layer paint structure with a first thin layer in the local colour, followed by impasto brush strokes on top

Fig. 10Detail of the trees, brushwork is clearly visible: thin and well distributed in the sky, modelled and impasto in the foliage



Fig. 11Detail of the reflections in the water with wet-in-wet paint applications

Fig. 12Wet-in-wet paint ap-plications, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)

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