003. Kees van Dongen: Le Coquelicot (The Corn Poppy)

My copy Le Coquelicot

Le Coquelicot (The Corn Poppy) painted by Kee Van Dongen in 1919. Oil on canvas measuring 54.6cm by 45.7cm. Currently on display at the Museum of fine arts, Houston.

Le Coquelicot (The Corn Poppy) painted by Kee Van Dongen

The first thing that strikes me when looking at the original, is the girl looks awfully familiar, a sentiment shared with others I have spoken to. We all know someone who looks like that but cannot put our finger on who they are. It is a fun painting full of confidence and adventure.

Before I jump into the one thing that struck me when painting it spiel, I am going to give a disclaimer first. I am curiously erring on the side of caution when I mention the colour green in old paintings. Why? Because (and I would genuinely like an answer to this), How much green in an old painting was originally there and how much green do we see because old lead and other metals used in pigments are seeping through? With that in mind;

The red hat really pops out in the painting, I believe this is down to the green within the picture. Given Van Dogen use of colour and the fact that green is opposite red in the colour wheel, I went on the basis that this was deliberate and this is what I did in my copy.

Working in green where ever I could

It is surprising where you can work green in when you try, for example, the shadows in the neck, on the iris, in the shadows of the jacket. I believe all these additions of green add to the hat popping out.

I mentioned in my last post my views on a bad workman blames his tools, and I am going to break that belief again. My justification is I hope someone finds this useful and saves them some money.

I bought some canvas panels branded I LOVE ART by the company Gerstaecker. Yes they were cheap, but they are certainly not cheery. I would go further and say they are not fit for purpose.

I base this on the following;

• The adhesive used to apply the canvas to the board is not strong enough. The corners were peeling away. 
• The panel is in fact card, it is clear that there is not enough sealant used so any water you get on the canvas will soak through.
• Both points above mean they warp -  I even measured and it was more than 2cm 
• The surface was “dusty”, I needed to apply some more gesso before I could start painting on them. 

Avoid them - if you are looking for a cheap option consider a paper pad instead.

What I did to sort it out was, firstly gently wetted the board and placed weights on it overnight. I then painted on a large thick cross with Gesso on the back as pictured (the wooden supports were later added to hang the picture which I do with all my pictures).

Painting a cross of Gesso to stop canvas panel from warping