The Nelson Revealed Part 1

At the Nelson this summer they are looking carefully at Monet's Waterlilies. This is one of the Nelson's prized paintings. They are doing the work right in the gallery because the painting is too big to move into the conservator's space. (This also happens to be the same gallery I saw Steve Martin in earlier this year)

Here the conservators x-rayed a portion of the painting. The lead white paint shows up in the x-ray so we can see the underpainting. This tells us that Monet reworked and shifted some of the waterlilies. This painting is a triptych which means Monet meant for it to be seen all together. But don't be sad that the Nelson only have the right piece because the other two are coming! That's right folks, the entire piece is going to be together again in April. This hasn't been done since 1979.

The best part of the gallery talk was the question and answer section. I could listen to these people talk for a long time. I learned about how Monet was rather good at marketing his paintings and make the most money out of all the impressionist. At the time we painting these waterlilies he was quite well off and therefore had the money to buy good paints, which he was rather particular about. He wanted to use paints that wouldn't color shift. This was a big problem for artist as colorists were coming out with new colors. The colors are blended with something, but sometimes the pigments fade leaving just the gray substance it was blending with. Here I knew exactly what the curator was talking about because I have been reading Color by Victoria Finley. Haven't read the whole book yet, but very fascinating about where pigments originate from.

Not a poolside read, but have really enjoyed picking it up occasionally and reading about a color.

Back to the Nelson. I also learned that Monet didn't even want to use varnish because he was afraid of the yellow tint it might give his painting as the painting aged. So if you see a Monet with varnish applied it is very possible to an art dealer applied it later. Monet wanted his paintings out there therefore let the dealers do want they may. This may be why the three paintings were separated in the first place.

Another interesting fact. In the bottom left corner there appears to be Monet's signature. False! It's actually a stamp! The dealer would stamp it with Monet's signature so he could sell his paintings.

More tales from the Nelson to come!