Sold

Also exhibited as part of The Admiration Series

Won 1st Place in the 6th Annual Arts of Tolland Juried Show, Tolland, CT, 2009

The title French Triad, French Scorn applies to the two major elements seen within the piece; the paint tubes and the postcard. The five tubes of paint are known as the ‘French triad’ or ‘dead palette’. The three colors that make up the core of the triad are yellow ochre, cadmium red and burnt sienna. When variably mixed with titanium white and mars black they can effectively reproduce any human flesh tone.

A perfect example of this is John Singer Sargent’s Madame X, which I have reproduced as a postcard in this still life. If you look closely you will see the provocative draping of her right shoulder strap. This is the way the painting originally looked when Sargent submitted it to the Salon of 1884 in Paris. He was twenty-eight at the time and was already very successful. Yet the overall depiction of Madame Gautreau combined with the placement the strap made the painting too sexually charged for the French public and negativity surrounded it. Sargent immediately fixed the strap, but the damage was already done and he was forced to leave France and moved to England. Madame Gautreau’s image as Paris’ foremost socialite was also tarnished and irreparable.

My still life tribute to Sargent’s portrait came together when I was explaining the importance of the French triad to a fellow painter using a Madame X postcard as an example. The composed objects on the old wooden box naturally made this still life an irresistible subject. It is interesting to note that the entire painting has only been painted using the five tubes of paint that it depicts.