Chestnut Tree Leaves

Henri-Charles Guérard was an ardent collector and admirer of Japanese art, going so far as to learn to write with Japanese characters. In Chestnut Tree Leaves, he used a horizontal swath of yellow silk as the support for his drawing. Using several stencils, Guérard created a frieze of large and small chestnut leaves across the surface. He used a vaporisateur (atomizer) to apply subtle sprays of orange, blue, and green paint, after which he painted the distinctive veins and stems of the chestnut leaves.