Final cut

Yesterday as we were visiting an exhibition in Paris ( Nature et Ideal in the Grand Palais) we saw a painting by Poussin that had been cut in two pieces and put back together. There are numerous stories of paintings cut, sliced, almost turned into puzzles.
Last year I did a copy of a section of  the famous"Les Noces de Canaa" by Veronese , exhibited in the Louvre.
The designer I did this for picked up the subject, we discussed together about the section we would pick up, the size and she also asked me to change the women faces a little bit.
I made the one at the top slighly more juvenile and I borrowed another portrait from Veronese to replace the one at the bottom of the composition.
Here is what I had done.

Casein on canvas ( approx. 175x120cm)

I shipped it over to London and a few weeks later the designer called me and said that she really loved the painting but...

it was too big for the wall where she had decided to hang it up.

She asked me to divide it into three smaller paintings ...saving the two ladies and the servant.

I tried to pick up the better proportions for these new artworks, ordered the stretcher bars , sliced up the big one and made three paintings with one ...

Here they are in my studio in the morning light ...

and here is each of them

It was not the first time I had worked from this extraordinary painting of the venetian master.

This is another copy of a section that is slightly higher in the original composition. On this one I had changed the male figure at the top.

Casein on canvas ( coarse linen, approx 95x180cm)

This one is a detail of the lower part , fascinating...water into wine...

Casein on gessoed canvas ( rabbit skin glue, 70x70cm)