Marigene Butler describes the painting as follows (1):

“The layer structure is complicated by the horizontal landscape’s having been painted over a vertical portrait of Madame Cézanne; examination with infrared reflectography instrumentation indicates the portrait was carried out to a fair state of completion. The face tones have been repeated in the water above. The dark blue costume has been worked into the blues and greens of the surrounding landscape and one can readily make out the location of the sitter’s shoulders and arms. Parallel strokes are especially prominent in the foreground where stronger greens and oranges have been applied with low impasto. Distant space is made lighter and airier with intermittent strokes which permit the use of the white priming of the fabric as part of the design. Cross sections show a white priming measuring 32-120 µm in thickness. Above this is the usual single layer of paint, 16-48 µm thick, in samples from two areas of foliage. A third sample of foliage has three paint layers; this includes layers from the background of the portrait below the landscape, creamy yellow, and pale gray.”

References

(1) Marigene H. Butler, An Investigation of the Materials and Technique Used by Paul Cézanne,  American Institute for Conservation: Preprints, 12th Annual Meeting. 20-33 (1984). Available as web publication and as pdf at the website of The McCrone Group.

Cézanne painted the view of the Bay of Marseille from the small village of L’Estaque close to Marseille.

Click on the image to view the actual Google map

The following pigment analysis of Bay of l’Estaque is based on the examination of the painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1).

1 White cloud: lead white and carbon black

2 Rose landscape: lead white, vermilion, yellow ochre, artificial ultramarine and a small amount of carbon black

3 Shrimp coloured roof: lead white, vermilion, red (rose) lake, yellow ochre, and chrome yellow

4 Yellow building:  lead white and chrome yellow

5 Tan coloured rocks: calcite, lead white, vermilion, orpiment, emerald green, artificial ultramarine and a small amount of carbon black

6 Yellow-green leaves: green earth and emerald green
7 Blue-green leaves: lead white, vermilion, and ultramarine
8 Medium-green leaves: emerald green, viridian, carbon black and artificial ultramarine
9 Dark green leaves: vermilion, a small amount of red (rose) lake, emerald green, artificial ultramarine, and charcoal black

10 Dark-blue leaves: lead white, vermilion, orpiment, emerald green, artificial ultramarine, and charcoal black

11 Light blue sky: lead white, orpiment, and ultramarine

12 Blue water: lead white, vermilion, and ultramarine
14 Sea green water: lead white, small amount of red (rose) lake, emerald green, and artificial ultramarine

13 Medium-blue water: lead white, vermilion, a small amount of orpiment, emerald green, viridian, artificial ultramarine, cobalt blue and carbon black

References

(1) Marigene H. Butler, An Investigation of the Materials and Technique Used by Paul Cézanne,  American Institute for Conservation: Preprints, 12th Annual Meeting. 20-33 (1984). Available as web publication and as pdf at the website of The McCrone Group.

References

(1) Marigene H. Butler, An Investigation of the Materials and Technique Used by Paul Cézanne,  American Institute for Conservation: Preprints, 12th Annual Meeting. 20-33 (1984). Available as web publication and as pdf at the website of The McCrone Group.

(2) Daniel Robbins, Cézanne and Structure in Modern Painting, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. Available online.

The Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings of Paul Cezanne, An online catalogue raisonné under the direction of Walter Feilchenfeldt, Jayne Warman and David Nash