Traditionally, impressionism always gave us an impression that the impressionists grasped the momentary light and color, started to draw immediately, and stopped suddenly, without any design beforehand and any further portrayed afterwards. How did the impressionists really work? Now, let’s unveil their mysterious face together with Lewerentz, a famous female art restoration expert of the impressionists in Koeln.
Under a microscope, she is observing an impressionist landscape painting drawn by the French impressionist Ganguin and says, “If observing this painting under a microscope, I can clearly see the color chips showing the different drying process. In our opinion, this is enough to confirm that this painting is not drawn at a dash, but gradually. The color is painted layer by layer. The below the layer is not drawn until the above has totally dried.”
When it is enlarged into 90 times, this becomes obvious. In the picture, a layer of green is encircled by a layer of brown purple. Obviously, brown purple is added after the green has totally dried.
Lewerentz continues, “This is definitely different from the typical drawings of the impressionists which add other colors before the original color has dried in order to make them mix up perfectly. Under the microscope, we can find that painters do not wait for a long period when adding varying colors.”
She estimates that the painter may draw the draft in nature but gives it another brush in the gallery afterwards, so this work is not totally impromptu.
Finally, she concludes that not all the impressionists create their paintings off the cuff. She points out, “In my opinion, it’s time for us to correct our impressions about the drawing method of the impressionists. The foundation of their impromptu creation comes from their professional training at academy of fine arts. When they draw the paintings, they will unconsciously use the skills they learn at the academy of fine arts, that is, they conceive the picture in their mind, before having started to paint.”
