Wishing on the Moon was another painting of one of the locals in Fayence, Chantal Robert, initially started while painting “Happily Ever After” see the diary entries for details, below. This painting was also sometimes called “The Wish II” or “Le Voeux II” but for clarity I will continue to refer to it as the “Wishing on the Moon” as referenced in her diary.

A further reading of the diary entries explains both the birth of the idea for this painting and why it has the same model and identical pose of the earlier painting. Initially just going by the photographs this had me baffled as “Wishing on the Moon” appeared to be a complete rework of that earlier painting. Instead we read shortly after starting the painting “Happily Ever After” with the same model, she has the idea for a more powerful way of expressing the idea of wishing for a happy married future. Using a second canvas, she reuses the same initial sketches to transfer the identical pose but this time with a much different background in mind. We can see it takes over three months before my mother is able to persuade Chantal to sit again and continue working on this painting. The initial painting now becomes a gift or payment to Chantal herself for sitting for the second, more complex work.

Conceptually, this painting leaves little to the imagination by following the two clichés, “being on top of the world” and “asking for the moon” for one’s future, and then presenting both with strong visuals.

Diary Entries