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RAPHAEL SOYER -3- INTERVIEW: 9/3/69

RS: flowers and also this -- what I saw brought to mind paintings by a French painter, Watteau -- Antonie Watteau, who painted musicians in parks. And I actually used this composition -- this composition was influenced by a well-known painting of Watteau's in the Louvre -- where a single figure stands on a hill -- on a little hill and below are actors. They didn't happen to be musicians at that time. But this is what happened. I saw this. I actually saw this event, and it brought to my mind the painting of Watteau. And I went to my studio and I painted this picture. And, of course, the people who posed for it were not the people who I saw in the park. But I kind of recreated it in my studio. 

SR: I would again like to get back to --

RS: I called this painting "[[strikethrough]] Au [[/strikethrough]] À Watteau" And I put a glass with a rose and I wrote [[strikethrough]] Au [[/strikethrough]] "À Watteau."

LEA: I think though that when you look and see you're using a particular kind of spectacle. You're using different spectacles from those that other people use. You see it through your own experience.

RS: Through myself.

LEA: Through your own -- 

RS: Right. Through myself.

LEA: Through yourself. I mean... Can you tell us what you're spectacles are like. What do they consist of, apart from what we see in your paintings.

RS: (Mr.Soyer was talking at the same time as Dr. Abt -- could not make out what he was saying until Dr.Abt was through)

My work -- my work will show that -- shows that. I can't exactly explain because this is probably I would say -- it's automatic. I mean, it's self-revealing. I mean, I'm