Richard Mandin, Oil on cardboard "Sunday in the park"

The decor is set in a park, certainly Borely Park in Marseille on a Sunday. Two trees represent the vegetation, a third is suggested in the lower left. Three autonomous scenes animate this painting. In the upper left, three well-dressed ladies, one of whom is arm in arm with a gentleman, walk about talking; a fourth stands near his greyhound. Below, a woman is sitting on a bench. She watches two children play in front of her. A man, her husband or a courtier if she is a nurse, stands behind her. On the right, a loving couple faces each other. He holds her by the waist. The girl's dog is lying at her side, the young man's horse is not far away. These three independent scenes have a meaning to induce the nature of the place.

The characters, their poses and their movements are suggested by a fair gesture, imposed by the stroke. The undecided color of a creamy paste completes it in a remarkable way by endowing this living scene with poetry conducive to reverie. When one knows the inseparability of Mandin's painting and music, one begins to hear a harpsichord tune in the mistral's gentle breath.