Morning in Villeneuve

Who misses summer?

This highly detailed work depicts a morning scene at the Villeneuve-l'Étang Park, located just outside Paris in the western suburb of Marnes-la-Coquette (Seine-et-Oise), France. The artist has chosen a quiet section of the park with a view facing towards the east. The greenery suggests the work was painted en plein air during the months of July or August, and possibly finished sometime later in Biva's Parisian atelier.

Unlike works of the Neo-Impressionists or Fauves, in vogue at the time, Biva has gone to great lengths to show even the most minute details of the scene, such as leaves and petals floating on the surface of the water, overlapping blades of grass, superimposed branches and leaves of varying size indicating distance from the observer, reflecting background trees in the rippling body of water, and patches of raking sunlight shimmering seemingly at random throughout carefully selected sections of the composition.

This work was photographed and reproduced as a black and white postcard published for the occasion of the Salon of 1906 in Paris. Beautiful, isn't it?

P.S.  Summer is over! But do you still remember the joy of being on the beach? Click here for a relaxing reminder.

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