Conservator’s Note
Cézanne primarily used transparent watercolor, but here applied light blue opaque watercolor (gouache) over the black design in the background pattern. Most of the graphite pencil lies beneath the watercolor as an underdrawing.
Archives: Paintings
Conservator’s Note
High magnification reveals pencil marks that cross over watercolor strokes, evident particularly in the vertical stroke along the gnarled tree at the center, implying that Cézanne reinforced some areas with graphite after he applied color washes.
Conservator’s Note
Evident from the many tackholes around the edges and in the corners, it is likely that Cézanne worked on this watercolor in several stages, allowing the moist strokes to dry completely before overlapping them with additional strokes of translucent paint.
Conservator’s Note
In this unfinished oil portrait, large areas of the ground are visible, particularly on the left side of the painting and in the child’s neck. Cézanne applied the paint thinly, without the buildup that is evident in his landscapes.