Research pentimenti

Pentimenti

Miss Lala at the Fernando Circus by Degas is one of a number of sketches made by the artist preparatory to the final artwork now in the National Gallery in  London. In several of the sketches it's possible to see the artist changing his mind about the position of the subject and in the example above it's possible to see that the arm has been redrawn.

Sometimes these alterations are possible to see in the original work and sometimes they have been discovered by X-ray.

Pentimenti can make a work more valuable. This is because their presence evidences that the drawing is an original. For example, Caravaggio rarely made preliminary sketches and this is true of Rembrandt and Titian.

This pen and brown ink drawing is by Rembrandt and is entitled the 'Lamentation'. Not only does it show that areas of black chalk were reworked in oils but pieces of paper have been stuck onto the original; seventeen times in all and a contemporary said that Rembrandt had laboured to get the work 'right'.

Sometimes pentimenti may be made for political purposes as in this portrait of Norvin by Ingres.

Apparently the curtain replaced a bust of a boy's head, linked to Napoleon, and this was redone after the fall of Napoleon. However, other works by Ingres show corrections for the benefit of his own standards of draughtsmanship.

Finally, this example comes from van Gogh.

It's possible to see that van Gogh moved the position of the chain to a higher place on the quayside-possibly in order to improve the overall composition as its previous placement meant that it would have interfered with the position of the oars of the boat.

If any conclusion can be reached about pentimenti it surely is that artists have always made considered changes to their work in order to improve it. Whilst the spontaneous sketches of some are lauded for the energy and vitality they demonstrate sometimes it is equally important to take a more measured approach.