Balinese girls in the garden

A self-professed Impressionist, Le Mayeur remained truthful and steadfast to the artistic style throughout his career. Impressionists see nature in terms of colour and light, and abandoned the traditional methods of painting using tone and form. Just as Claude Monet (1840-1926) declared "When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have in front of you, a tree, a field. Just think, here is a little square of blue, there is an oblong of pink, here 's a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape, until it gives your own naove impression of the scene." (Discovering The Great Paintings: Monet, Fabbri Publishing UK Ltd., edit, The Artisan Press Ltd., United Kingdom, p. 6).

It is very interesting to see how the artist applies this 'Impressionist Manifesto' to the medium of water colour. The 'overall impression' is the central theme for this present lot. At times, the shades of whites are used intently to contrast with the shadow as the sunlight filters through the foliage of the artist's garden at Sanur, Bali; at other times, the whites illuminates the effect of sunlight bouncing off the subjects. For an impressionist artist, even shadow is full of colours and for Le Mayeur, the unique light condition with which his subjects are subjected to each time allows for a multitude of possibilities and variations, thus permitting him to paint the same subjects repeatedly.