An Analysis of my Painting ‘La Barbe A Ry’

Leonardo, Vol. 12, pp. 32-34. Pergamon Press, 1979. Printed in Great Britain. AN ANALYSIS OF MY PAINTING ’LA BARBE A RY’ DanielAuthouart” 1. I shall analyze the making of my oil painting ‘La Barbe i Ry’ (The Barber at Ry) (Fig. 1cf. color plate), which in French can be heard as labarbarie (barbarity). I chose this play on words for the title because I and the barber livein the village called Ry (about 120 km from Paris), whose unusual combination of two letters has provoked the villagers to invent numerous puns based on them. Since the barber’s razor is prominently depicted, the play on words is doubly significantfor the painting. (It is said that Gustave Flaubert was inspired to write his novel Madame Bovary by a story about one of Ry’s inhabitants.) Before beginning a painting I firstjoin together into a mental imageideasand impressionsthat wereprovided to me by dreams and by encounters with persons, life situations and events. In my mind, I then imagine the picture in terms of a central theme that pleasesme or is of concern to me. Then I allow this mental image to be modified,mainly subconsciously, over a period of several weeks, only rarely of severalmonths. Someimagesdo not withstand this process, and I discard them [l]. ‘LaBarbe A Ry’had itsbeginningduring my firstvisit to the barbershop at Ry. Sitting comfortably in an old red leather chair, my eyes wandered aimlessly around the room, my face reflected in the fly-spotted mirror. I was especially charmed by the old fashioned marble-topped wash basins and water taps. The setting differed greatly from the stainless steel and plastic decor of present-day barbers’ salons that I was accustomed to in Paris. But the comfortable old shop was only the initial source of the painting. At this time I was working on a large canvas entitled ‘Tout va bien’ (Everything Is Alright) (Fig. 2), which shows newspapers with disturbing headlines being blown around by the sea breeze. I had stored a mental image of these newspapers and I wanted to combine it with the setting of the barbershop. I now felt the need to introduce an element of action. My paintings often remind me of cartoons that permit one to imagine what happened both before and afterwards . I remembered my father shaving with an oldfashioned ‘cut-throat’ razor and how the big blade terrified me the first time it touched my cheek when, as a boy, I was taken to have my hair cut. Since then I feel uneasy wheneverIpass a barbershop.[2J Thus Iwas led to the idea of having in the picture adepiction of a man being shavedwithsuch a razor and, atthe samemoment, I knew who would be the model for the man. Edmond Salleswas an old friend, aretired sailorin Le Havre, who stillshaved with such an instrument, and he had shown me how to sharpen it on a leather strop and how to use it. He was amused when I told him my plan and he gladly posed for me several hours during which I made numerous drawings with colored pencils (Fig. 3). *Painter, ‘Atelier 3’, 76116 Ry,France. (Based on a text in French) (Received26 Jan. 1978) 2. About four weeks after my first visit to Ry’s barbershop I was ready to start the painting. Here are some excerpts based on my studiojournal. Tuesday,22 November 1917 This afternoon I decided to put together the sketches and drawings (Figs. 3 and 4) that I had collected for the painting. I took a beautiful block of paper (Arches)and I made eight compositional studies. As the rough-grained paper was of very good quality, I could’useindia ink and water-color pencils (pencils, the colors of which can be diluted with a brush after having been laid on the drawing; this gives a subtle effectof linesand wash-tint.) I now wanted to make a painting in which the arrangement of the lines and colors would have a highly abstract quality, which would make an impact when viewers first looked at the painting. As these studies proceeded, I decided to minimize the importance of drawings made from life by modifying the appearance...