Description
The Ford (The Flight) – a horse painted green
Two riders cross shallow water. The nearer sits on a horse that is pale yellow-green from muzzle to tail; the rider wears a pink cloth on the head, is turned in profile to the left and has bare thighs. Behind him a second rides, bare to the waist, with a white cloth at his hip; with his right hand he holds a branch above him. His horse is an ordinary dark brown. Beneath the hooves a pale sandy shallows spreads with pink and blue reflections, while on the left stands dark water with red flowers. Along the left edge trunks rise, and between them an orange-red bush glows. At the upper right, in the greenery, two small figures can be made out beside a long boat. At the lower right, on the pink ground, the signature and the year are painted.
The green horse
The colour of the nearer horse is the most unusual thing in the picture. It is not grey, not white, not dappled, but pale green, with a markedly yellow mane. And it is neither a shadow nor a reflection of the surrounding green: the other horse, standing right beside it and in the same light, is quite ordinarily brown. The green is therefore a decision and not an observation. It is this horse that gives the scene its strangeness, although otherwise nothing unusual happens.
Two records that say different amounts
Here one has to be exact. The museum collection page we were able to read gives the title, the painter, the technique of oil on canvas and the inventory number Zh-3270, but not the measurement and not the year. The measurement and the year come from the record of the former State Museum of New Western Art, whose collection passed to the Pushkin Museum: 1901 and 76 x 95 cm, as height by width. We give both records and say which of them states what.
The year the canvas itself confirms
The year does not have to be taken on trust alone. In the lower right corner the signature and the figure 1901 are painted, so that record and painting agree. The provenance register further states that in April 1903 the painter sent the canvas to Daniel de Monfreid to be sold, and that Gustave Fayet bought it from him on 4 August 1903 – some months after the painter’s death in the same year.
How a hand-painted reproduction is made
Every reproduction here is hand-painted in oil on canvas, stroke by stroke. In this motif the green horse is the hardest part: it has to stay green and still look like an animal, or it collapses into a flat shape. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval.
- Subject: two riders in shallow water, the nearer on a pale green horse, the other on a brown one.
- Technique: oil on canvas, strong opposed colours and dark trunks along the left edge.
- Sizes: landscape format, from 40 x 32 cm to 200 x 160 cm; 80 x 64 cm and 100 x 80 cm are often chosen.
- Of note: the horse in front is painted green, while the one standing right beside it is ordinary brown.
If the same period interests you, see also Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, Te arii vahine (The King’s Wife) and Arearea (Joyousness).
