- [Narrator] "On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt," 1868.
"On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt"
is the only surviving work
from Monet's stay there in spring 1868,
with his future wife, Camille Doncieux,
and their baby, Jean.
Areas of the painting's surface have generated much debate.
Monet's compositional adjustments
are visible to the naked eye, but difficult to interpret.
In the water to the right of Camille,
there appears to have been another figure.
Instead of scraping or blocking out this figure,
Monet painted directly on top of it.
His brushwork is loose and rough,
leaving glimpses of peach skin tones.
The figure's head and body,
outlined with thick, lead-white-rich brushstrokes,
are clear in an X-ray,
but details of their pose and dress remain indistinct.
The artist roughly painted over
the upper part of the figure,
while he incorporated some of the white brushstrokes
in the lower area into the final work.
Some think the white form may be a dog,
similar to the one that appears
in another portrait of Camille,
or the couple's infant son, Jean.
Both the painted-out figure
and the final figure of Camille
were laid on top of the landscape.
The dried brushstrokes of the buildings' reflections
are visible underneath Camille's head.
The water, grass, and foliage peek through
the open brushwork of her clothing.
The bright blue paint of the water next to Camille
shows through the stripes of her dress,
while the green and yellow paint
from the grass and flowers is exposed
through the sketchy brushwork of her skirt.
We now know that Monet revised
and reworked this personal scene.
Why he made these enigmatic changes,
visible on the surface
and through advanced imaging technology,
remains open to interpretation.
