Park at Blois
Artist
Arthur B. Davies
(American, 1862 - 1928)
Date1924
MediumGouache and graphite on dark-blue moderately textured, moderately thick laid paper with deckle edge along left, bottom, and right edges, with top edge cut
DimensionsOverall: 9 3/8 x 12 1/4in. (24.1 x 32.4cm)
ClassificationsDRAWINGS
Credit LineGift of Cornelius N. Bliss
Object number41.4
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightNo known copyright restrictions.
Label TextArthur B. Davies painted hundreds of watercolor landscapes in Europe between 1923 and his death in 1928; these accomplished works are among his most beautiful. Davies probably painted this watercolor in 1924, when he visited several Renaissance châteaux on the River Loire southeast of Paris.
Davies painted this watercolor on a piece of high-quality, dark blue paper. He used the dark paper for the sake of contrast rather than the more traditional role of highlights and middle tones. Working from the background forward, Davies applied white pigment to block out the sky. Before the white gouache dried he added passages of blue pigment which bled into the white. If Davies had used a white- or cream-colored sheet of paper for this scene, the white gouache would not have been necessary; he could have simply moistened the paper to create a similar blue effect in the sky. After this layer dried Davies traced the outline of the château’s roof and the crowns of the trees, which he subsequently rendered in muted greens and grays. The work’s subtle harmonies reveal Davies’ exquisite sense of color.
Paul D. Schweizer
2000
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