Conservator’s Note
As in his other paintings, Cézanne kept his palette simple, using a limited number of pigments, which were usually applied pure with little overlapping of strokes. To lighten the value of certain colors, he simply added white lead.
Conservator’s Note
Throughout most of this watercolor, overlapping patches of translucent wash create a third luminous color against the light paper, whereas densely applied patches of color in the bottle create an opaque layer that obscures the paper completely.
Although much of the graphite is an underdrawing beneath the watercolor, an occasional graphite mark crosses over watercolor strokes, indicating that Cézanne returned to the watercolor with graphite. It appears as if he then applied additional strokes of watercolor over some of the graphite, so that a single graphite mark may pass on top of one stroke of watercolor and lie beneath another.
Conservator’s Note
To achieve a dry, pastel look, some of the oil was leached out of the paint before it was applied. The pattern for the background wallpaper was made by first brushing on a faint wash of red paint for the background, and then applying spots of gray and orange paint with the fingers (some fingerprints are visible under magnification).
The bottom quarter of the painting is unfinished, and here one can see a faint pencil sketch followed by a linear brush drawing in thin black, handled much like a watercolor. Just to the right of the leaning tree trunk are five parallel lines of color, each a slightly different hue, as though the artist were using this area to test certain colors that he intended to incorporate in the painting itself.
Conservator’s Note
The composition was executed wet-on-wet, with thin fluid oil paint, handled much like a watercolor.
Conservator’s Note
Many of the overlapping patches of translucent wash throughout were allowed to dry completely between applications; however, a number of strokes were applied wet-into-wet and bleed into one another or have softened edges.
