Gerald Locklin on the Other Side of the
Two Versions of Louveciennes, 1871 & 1873
The latter painting was a copy Cézanne made,
having borrowed Pissarro's original
to study what the latter had learned
From the works of Lorrain and Turner
On a trip to London's National Gallery.
The similarities are so numerous
They were hard to tell apart in photos
(We learn from the exhibition catalogue,
As we learn so very much):
Thick trees to the right,
thin to the left;
The same group of village dwellings,
a blue sky with horizontal fluff of clouds.
In Pissarro, as always, the eye is drawn
To the light of the sky.
Truth is in the details: the hundreds of twigs
And leaves, alive or fallen.
the hand extended by the little girl:
A totality of the moment must be
Painstakingly memorialized.
For Cézanne the elements grow darker, closer,
Yet less distinct. Emotional presence supersedes
Delineation. The scene is more serious, internal,
Personal. Pissarro's is a perfect instant, epiphany;
Cézanne's is prescient of the darkness of the
Century to come.
© Copyright Gerald Locklin 2006