Catalogue note
A small white boat sails slowly by in the calm waters of a country stream; its two passengers, a young couple, quietly revel in this idyllic moment. Their white summer attire matches the color of the hull and sails of the skiff. This was the subject of La petite barque, Émile Friant’s entry to the Salon of 1896, and which repeated a theme he depicted often in his paintings, that of the relationship between young lovers. Our painting is Friant’s preliminary study for the final painting.
Friant’s composition is innovative. The boat takes up most of the picture and the front edge of the sail is cropped, informing the viewer that the boat is in motion; perhaps a nod to Friant’s interest in photography, a medium that was increasingly gaining in popularity in his native Nancy. In our study, he has sketched in the water and hills of the landscape using a palette made up of colors ranging from green and brown, but also pink, yellow and orange. This varied palette may have its origins in the innovative landscape studies Friant painted during his travels in North Africa in the late 1880s and early 1890s, as well as in his awareness of recent impressionistic innovations in color.