Introduction: Characteristic for the impressionist painting style is that white is rendered with a kaleidoscope of colours. In the snow, a tablecloth, dresses and shirts.
White snow: Monet and Sisley rendered the effect of light on the snow by rendering bluish shadows. Monet gave the lighter parts a more pinkish glow and Sisley more yellowish. Guillaumin gave the snow a kaleidoscope of colours. Renoir once in 1910 said in Munich during a workshop ‘White does not exist in nature. The colour of sky appears in the snow; in the mornings there will be green and yellow; in the evening red and yellow.’ (R1,p210)
Claude Monet, S1869-R2. Now: 1869, CR133, The Magpie, 89×130, Orsay (iR2;R22,no133;M1)
Armand Guillaumin: 1869, CR5, SDbr, Chemin de creux, effet de neige, 66×55, Orsay (iR2;iR35;R3,p69;iR1;R124,no5;M1) =former Gachet collection; =?? SdR-1873-333, Effet de neige par un beau temps
White tablecloths: Here below you find two splendid examples of white tablecloths rendered with a kaleidoscope of colours by Giuseppe de Nittis and by Marie Bracquemond.
Giuseppe de Nittis: 1883-84ca, DMM937, Breakfast in the Garden (Colazione in giardino), 81×117, PGdN Barletta (iR6;iR2;iR35;iR1;R3,p540;R277,no937;M262) =SdAF-1884-1807, Le déjeuner; =Paris-BJ1886-21; =Venice-1914-3, Breakfast in the garden
Marie Bracquemond: 1887, Beneath the lamp (detail 2), 70×110, private (aR16;aR6;iR2;iR6;iR22) =BJ-1919-13, On vient d’allumer la lampe (aR11,p5). Note: also (wrongly) named Le couple Sisley dînant chez les Bracquemond à Sèvres.
White dresses: Marie Bracquemond also was concerned with the effects of sunlight on white, especially on white robes. She often used bluish colours for the shade parts. Namely in her painting On the terrace at Sèvres (1880) she used a kaleidoscope of colours. Geffroy later (1894) described ‘The white dress becomes golden and bluish, the pink dress is in some places faint and in others burning.’ (aR9,p23;R157III)
The same we see in the white dresses that Renoir rendered. But, also in the white dress of Besnard, who used a more detailed way of painting.
Marie Bracquemond: 1877, SDbl, Woman in the garden (Louise Quivoron; detail), 140×60, A2008-12-22 (aR18;iR204;iR2;iR13;iR22;aR6)
Marie Bracquemond: 5IE-1880-1, Portrait = 1880ca (HW: 1877-80ca), The Lady in white (La dame en blanc; detail 2), 180×105, loan Orsay to Md Cambrai (iR2;iR22;R3,p198;R168,p255+302;R90I,p276;R2,p310+316;R90II,p145+159;M1;M251)
Marie Bracquemond: 1880-87ca, On the Terrace at Sèvres (Villa Brancas), 88×115, MPP Geneva (iR6;iR59;iR70;R2,p317;R90II,p145;R3,p194;R89,no28;R168,p237;M144) =Saint-Petersbourg-1912-47, Sur la terrasse =BJ-1919-2, Sur la terrasse à Sèvres.
Marie Bracquemond: 1880-87ca, Le goûter (afternoon tea) (Portrait of Louise Quivoron; detail), 82×62, MPP Paris (iR2;iR6;iR22;M4)
Auguste Renoir: 1892, Girls at the Piano, 116×90, Orsay (iR52;R30,no662;R31,no91;M1) Bought by the State for 4000fr.
Auguste Renoir: 1882-83, CR438, Dance at Bougival (Paul Lhote + Suzanne Valadon; detail white dress), 179×96, MFA Boston (R31,no67;R30,no554;R3,p236;R5,p134/5;M22) Deposited at Durand-Ruel 1883/04; =London-1883-66 (priced 600 pound); =New York AAG-1886-204; =DR-1892-83.
Paul-Albert Besnard (1849-1934): 1886, Portrait de Mme Roger Jourdain (Henriette Marie Dubois de Moulignon), 199×151, Orsay (M1;iR6;iR10;iR1;R231-1+2) Expos: SdAF-1886-208, Portrait de Mme R. J…; =EU-1900-C-34, (à M. Roger-Jourdain; S.1886)
White shirts: Caillebotte rendered the white shirts of men with a kaleidoscope of colours.
Gustave Caillebotte: 4IE-1879-27, Canotiers (pastel) = 1877, SDbr, 1CR77+2CR84, Boaters on the Yerres, pastel, 52×86, private Paris (iR2;R2,p267;R90II,p107+125;R101,no77;R102,no84+p283) Expo: DR1894-98.
