Page 95 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong

Lot 2511 Detail 局部 elegant compositions of multiple maidens in acts of worship or
Lot 2511 Detail 局部 dance in a seemingly effortless style.

In Women with Offerings (Lot 2511), the branches of the trees
overhead, as well as the surrounding stone figures lead the
viewer's eye from the foreground, where three women sit with
their offerings, up to the standing maiden who mirrors the
strength and verticality of the altar behind her. The effect of
the composition is rhythmic, full of movement, and lyrical. One
can almost hear the sound of the fabric worn by the dancers
brushing the ground, smell the incense and the scent of
trampled frangipani blossoms underfoot.

Le Mayeur's careful landscaping of his garden offered multiple
opportunities to depict the play between light and shadow
in his work. In the painting, we see dappled sunlight shining
through gaps in the overhead foliage, producing high contrast
and the illusion of depth, a wonderfully apt setting for an
impressionist palette. Impressionists see nature in terms of
colour and light, and abandoned the traditional methods of
painting using tone and form. Just as Claude Monet (1840-
1926) declared, "When you go out to paint, try to forget what
objects you have in front of you, a tree, a field. Just think, here
is a little square of blue, there is an oblong of pink, here's a
streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact
colour and shape, until it gives your own naive impression
of the scene." (Discovering The Great Paintings: Monet,
Fabbri Publishing UK Ltd., edit, The Artisan Press Ltd, United
Kingdom, p. 6).

As seen in this lot, Le Mayeur used contrasting colours and
spots of paint to form a visual representation of what he saw.
At different times of the day, the quality and distribution of the
light in Le Mayeur's garden must have afforded the artist an
endless source of inspiration to best express his mood.

Le Mayeur's use of multiple strokes of thick paint to produce
lively, colourful impasto in this painting communicates the
spontaneity of each moment that the artist sought to depict.
Each short brushstroke becomes a leaf, a flower petal, or a
spot of sunlight gracing the naked skin of a dancer's back. It is
through the artist's multiple iterations of a scene he had come
to know as well that he was able to so succinctly and elegantly
produce the shapes and forms of the dancers, the fabric they
wore and the surrounding flora alike with his deft brushstrokes
and choice of colour. The contrast between the stone gods and
the toned bodies of the dancers is achieved to masterly effect,
with the painting juxtaposing the solid forms of the stone
against the suggestion of toned muscle holding up the graceful
human forms.

Even though the subject matter of his art would remain
consistent throughout his career, Le Mayeur's ability to create
so many different iterations of the same subject testifies to his
ingenuity, and his unending quest to capture the intoxicating
beauty of the island that he loved so much.

11880-1958 Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès: Painter Traveller,
Pictures Publishers, The Netherlands, 1995, p. 120

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