Game of Tennis, Luxembourg Gardens 1906

Curator: Peploe's "Game of Tennis, Luxembourg Gardens" from 1906, an oil painting rendered in the open air. What leaps out at you initially? Editor: It’s...fragmented. Almost fleeting. Like trying to remember a perfect summer afternoon. It's pleasant, definitely bright. I am almost persuaded by the sunlight on the grass, with an overall sensation of carefree gentility. Curator: Indeed, Peploe uses these expressive, almost hurried brushstrokes to capture a scene from modern life. This emphasis on brushstroke anticipates some expressionist aesthetics and diverges a bit from Impressionist optical realism. The canvas appears almost like a mosaic of light and color. Editor: A deconstruction of the very idea of a tennis match! I suppose it gets at something deeper—the abstract structure underlying the game itself. This structural reduction does carry certain social critiques in other painting movements, after all. Curator: A tennis match becomes an orchestration of chromatic energy. There is a push and pull of muted greens, blues, and yellows. Peploe had such a keen eye for the tonal harmony, and his brushwork has a textural density to it. Editor: Yes, almost like short staccato notes. He translates movement into blocks of colour and the geometry of tennis playing becomes so self-evident when viewed in this simplified way. This flattening of perspective brings the game almost directly into the same plane as the viewer! Curator: What is so remarkable is Peploe's ability to extract something essential, and render it almost with brutal honesty. His sensitivity for capturing the immediate sensations in nature is apparent, almost like memory imprinted on canvas. Editor: A perfect capture of the impression! Yes, it resonates in my memory more so than in my intellect; there’s almost an ethereal quality to the ordinary.