Le Retour aux Sources or Return to the Source, was originally just called ‘Rock’ in her diary but was renamed a little after its completion. Another one of my mother’s paintings inspired by a dream. Very fortunately, I was able to find and recognize one of the rock photographs she refers to in the diary. Looking at the photograph one can see the shape of a lioness’s head in the upper right, once you see it you can’t unsee it.

If you study the initial layout sketch which I also found (below), you will see that originally the painting had quite different layout and proportions. It is in it’s second iteration, where she mentions moving to a larger canvas, she has reoriented the rock and made it a much larger part of the story in the upper left instead of just behind the right side of the figure. She has also taken a slight artistic license and exaggerated the lioness’s profile just a little. It still surprises me that there this that have to have it pointed out to some as my mother was often inclined to do. I’m sorry that I don’t recall exactly how the painting ended up with it’s final title. And yes the English version is not a literal translation of the French title.

I think the painting is very interesting with the juxtaposition of the rough texture of the palette knife work on the rock against the smooth brush work on the skin and hair of the figure. You can read about her difficulties below as she tried to blend the two.

Diary Entries

Initial Sketch