Please set your monitor brightness to approx 55% of total brightness. If you happen to try 100 % brightness, the white areas that show outside the pictures are so bright that they are 'distractions'. The owner's monitor is a 24 inch size. The horizontal viewing dimension is 20 1/2 inches. The webpage occupies 10 3/4" from the left side of the monitor to a little beyond the center of the screen. This means I have almost as much brilliant white area on the right side as I do 'picture' area on the left -- way too much brightness at 100 % setting.
"Promenade en Foret" by Camille Lesne (1908)
This image is best viewed about 30" to 36" (or 48") from your monitor. Please see photo quality note below!
Click on image to return to P1 European Art Page. Dimensions: 17 3/4 x 14 1/2. Painting size: Purchased at Wally Findlay Gallery in Chicago in 1982. Camille Lesne is a French artist, born 1908. Her technique seems to be "large version of pointillism" laid down on an objects background color to create an "impressionest" image. The result in this case is, perhaps, a "soft rememberance of her times as a young person". In any event, her technique "works" and produces a unique piece of art. Based on her images on the internet, this is one of the best. Value should increase with time. One of our best pieces by any standard.
Important Photo Quality note. On the enlarged image above (and the smaller main page image), one can see small vertical "dashes" of white. These are caused by the minute light reflections from the flood lamps during the photo process, and, were not apparent until the images were uploaded to this site and enlarged. These are very small reflections and were picked up by only one or two pixels in the camera sensor and passed on thru the computer digital process -- strikes one as rather amazing! A high quality Nikon lens was use; had a lower quality zoom lens been used, the reflections would never have registered or been dramatically minimized!
I mention this because they do detract from an otherwise "perfect painting". The owner.
More Bio Information on Camille Lesne: Camille Lesne's native region of France has profoundly influenced her painting. She was born in 1908 in Tracy-le-Mont, Oise, near the forest of Compiegne. The vast reaches of that ancient forest with its huge oak and beech trees growing so densely leave an impression on the mind and spirit of those who wander through it, and this was so for Camille Lesne. She acquired a spirit of serenity and a sense of the mystery of nature, both of which she would later express in her paintings.
The just above middle picture is the same as the top picture, only enlarged to the point that the frame and border are dropped out. This website software fixes the available image area, left to right to approximately 1/2 the horizontal dimension of the monitor being used. By 'dropping' out the frame, the Lesne painting is enlarged by the total amount of the right and left 'frame and border' being elimated from the 'viewable image'.
Bottom Picture.
This bottom picture is taken outside in sunlight and at an angle with respect to the sun; the reason as follows. When the painting is oriented perpendicular to the sun, light reflections off the pointelism paint dots still show up; the purpose of this 'outside' photo is to get rid of the photofloods or a flash in the 'taking' of the picture. Therefore, take the picture outside in the sun, but the picture has to be angled to completely eliminate the 'light reflections'.
In the final analysis, this third 'outside' picture worked out fairly well. The pic was taken with a cheap 'point and shoot' digital camera -- not nearly as precise as the Nikon and the Nikon very high resolution lens that the original pictures were taken with. However, this picture is fine for its purpose -- to prove to the viewer that the 'pinpricks of light' in the primary webpage pictures are, in fact, reflections of the blue flood lights used in the original photography.
The present owner invites any viewer to call with any questions regards the pictures or the explanations provided with the pictures.