"Edmonde Maître" after Frédéric Bazille (Day 1)

After a long hiatus (almost a year) I returned to the National Gallery today to start a new copy. I had stretched a canvas to what I thought was the proper size of at least 2" smaller than the original, and was all set to begin copying a Cezanne landscape. However, when the Registrar in charge of copyists measured my canvas, she found that one of the sides was only 1 and 15/16" smaller than the original, instead of the required two inches. Only a sixteenth of an inch, but she wouldn't budge, because Rules are Rules. Luckily, I still had a canvas in the locker room for this painting, "Emonde Maître" by Frédéric Bazille, which I had been going to paint last summer, but instead took the aforementioned hiatus. She renewed my permit for that painting, and I shifted mental gears, and started copying M. Maître.

Turns out, this is an engaging portrait to copy. The subject had a very delicate bone structure, visible because of his leanness. I took this photo after working all morning on getting everything correctly drawn on my canvas. I spent a lot of time carefully measuring and remeasuring. After lunch, I adjusted my drawing and covered almost all the canvas with paint - my first shot at getting the colors and values right. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture at the end of the day, so you have to wait until next Friday. I'll photograph it before I get started next week so you can see how far I got on Day 1. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Woman with a Parasol" after Claude Monet

"Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son" by Claude Monet

This is one of my very favorite paintings in the museum, and Monet is one of my very favorite artists. This painting is either going to be very easy or very challenging.

Day 1: I spent today measuring and sketching the composition on my blank canvas, after first toning the canvas a light greyish beige. If you look closely at the original, you see that Monet left some blank canvas showing, and this beigey color is what is there. The white of the clouds is very obvious on top of this raw canvas color.

The strange thing about copying this painting is that Monet did it in one quick session, but I have to plan it very carefully. I did my careful planning and plotting out the drawing today, but next time I'm going to jump in with lots of paint and color. It's either going to be done very quickly, or I'm going to have to wipe it down and try again.

One thing I noticed today on looking at the painting closely, I believe that Monet may have added the figure of the little boy later. The sky seems to have been painted first, behind the boy, because I could see the brushstrokes of the sky under him, as if he had been added after the sky was dry.

Day 2, when I broke for lunch.

Day 2, end of the day.
Day 3: I've done all I can do, so I'm done.