On March 21st, Katie Liddiard lectured about the influential 19th century artist Jules Bastien-Lepage. Here is her lecture for those who could not attend:
Born
on Nov. 1, 1848 In Damvillers, France in the Lorraine region. He
loved his home, which would be a strong thread throughout his body of
work. His father operated a small farm and vineyard to support the
family, though they were not destitute like many of the peasants of
the area. Jules took an early interest in art, perhaps because his
father was also an artist, and his parents encouraged him by buying
prints of paintings to copy.
When
the time came, his parents wanted more for him than working the farm,
so he went away to college in the nearby town of Verdun, possibly at
the commune or monastery. There he met Louis Collin. They became
friends and together decided to become professional artists. He
received his degree which was very valued at the time and was offered
a job in the government in the Post Office Department. Though he
wasn't thrilled to take the job as he had other plans, he accepted
the clerk’s position as the dutiful son that he was. His parents
knew nothing of his desires to become an artist yet. But not all hope
was lost. The job was in Paris which excited him as he’d dreamed of
getting an artist’s education and what better place to
receive it?
Every free moment he had was spent at the museums and
expositions, studying the masters. He seemed to appreciate Flemish
painting over Italian, but respected what the Renaissance had
accomplished. While studying the old schools, he was fully aware of
the new, contemporary ideas that were being pushed by Manet and
Courbet. He sympathized with the efforts of these two men in the
onslaught of criticism they received for not conforming to the well
beaten paths of Classicism and Romanticism. After he could no longer
accept not being a painter, he quit his job and enrolled in the Ecole
des Beaux-arts. (His parents weren't so pleased with this decision.)
He was admitted into Alexandre Cabanel’s atelier at the age of 19
where he met up with his old friend Collin again, who had previously
been studying in Bouguereau’s atelier. They worked alongside
Fernand Cormon, Morot, and Benjamin Constant. Without the income from
the postal job, however, and money from his parents tight, he went
from business to business in search of advertising work. He made
enough to live off of, some advertisements even widely circulated,
though his name was not known even though he had a painting in the
Salon. His first Salon entry was in 1870 with a portrait of a young
man, which is now lost.
Jules was known to only occasionally be in class as he prefered to
work alone. He seemed to agree with Emile Zola’s observation that
“Classical education has deformed everything, and has imposed upon
us as geniuses, men of correct, facile talent who follow the beaten
track”. So though classically trained, he wanted to stay true to
his own vision. He studied with Cabanel for three years during which
time he won a couple drawing prizes, one of them even being a first
place award.
The
the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870 and Jules went to serve in
the army as it directly affected his beloved Lorraine. While fighting
he was severely wounded in the chest. When he returned home he
painted family and local villagers while he recovered. He also tried,
unsuccessfully at illustration work.
In
1874 he entered the Salon again with Song
of Spring and Portrait
of My Grandfather.
These submissions were the first real critical recognition Jules
received for his work and the portrait of his grandfather won him a
third-class medal. These two pieces clearly demonstrate the subjects
Bastien-Lepage naturally excelled at and the ones he did not. Song of
Spring is an allegory which held little interest to him while the
portrait of his grandfather is extremely natural in pose,
observation, handling, and color. During this time he was
commissioned to paint the Prince of Wales which he exhibited in 1880
at the Royal Academy.
The
following year’s Salon he entered First
Communion and Portrait
of M. Hayem.
This time he was awarded a second prize. Though he still felt that he
could do more. He was still not the painter he wanted to be.
So
in 1875 he decided to compete for the Prix de Rome with Angels
Appearing to the Shepherds which received him second place. He applied again in 1876 with Priam
at the feet of Achilles and was again unsuccessful. It could be that the subjects were just
too much of antiquity. He prefered to be in nature, painting what he
knew. These were subjects of ancient tradition to which he felt little connection. He decided that he would stick with what he was most
comfortable and happy painting: portraits, and people of the land and
their fields. That same year he painted The
Portrait of M. Wallon which is a testament to his inclination to paint in a
naturalistic way.
Salon
entries:
1877-
My
Parents
1878-
Portrait
of M. Theuriet
The
Hayfield- inspired by a poem:
“The
reaper stretched out on his bed of fresh grass
Sleeps
with clenched fists while
The
tedder, faint and fuddled, tanned by the sun,
Sits
vacantly dreaming beside him…”
This
piece clearly shows the precursors to Impressionism. Light palette,
close framing, brushy forms.
1879-
Portrait
of Mlle Sarah Bernhardt-
won the cross of the Legion of Honor
October:
Gathering Potatoes- Théodore
de Banville, writing of the Salon of 1879, said: "M.
Bastien-Lepage is the king of this Exposition. Young as he is, he has
started in to produce masterpieces: he is very wise! For in later
years an artist continues to copy himself, with more or less
cleverness and success; but the creative genius has taken wing, like
a bird on whose tail we have failed to drop the indispensable grain
of salt. The October
Season pictures
the harvesting of potatoes. The earth, the encompassing air as far as
we can see, the sky, the solitude laden with silence, are all evoked
for us in this picture by the sincerity of its powerful painter; the
peasant women are done in a masterly manner, and precisely for the
reason that he has seen them apart from all convention and has not
tried to idealize them by any hackneyed device."
Albert
Wolff also commented on the piece- "The colouring in Women
harvesting Potatoes is
ingratiating and discreet; not a discordant touch disturbs the
beautiful harmony of this canvas, over which the silence of the open
country has descended, enveloping the obscure toil. It is only
artists of superior powers who can embody so much charm in a single
conception."
This
image brings to mind Millet’s The
Gleaners,
except there is no sorrow or sympathy for the women in
Bastien-Lepage’s work as there is in Millet’s. There’s a sense
of resoluteness in their faces, instead. They’re not downtrodden,
they do their work willingly.
1880-
Joan
of Arc Listening to the Voices- This was a tribute to his native Lorraine as Joan was from
the same region. But the critics were not so keen on the piece,
reproaching him for the use of traditional saints. Idealists claimed
it was not ideal enough, realists claimed the saints should not be
there at all. Again, this was a subject that he was not all
comfortable with as it was more supernatural instead of his
naturalist bend and it shows a bit in the piece.
1881-
The
Beggar
1882-
Le
Pere Jacques
He
also submitted works to the 1883 and 1884 Salons.
His
portraits and figure paintings were always eagerly awaited by the
critics, and regularly reviewed. They brought him much recognition,
and several paintings were bought by the State. With the success and
recognition he received from the Salons, he was able to travel.
Particularly to England, Switzerland, and Italy. Many works were
brought back from these travels.
Bastien-Lepage
was avidly collected in Europe and America, and exerted tremendous
influence on an international group of followers from France,
Germany, England, America and beyond, who took up his Naturalist
approach to painting and made it one of the dominant movements at the
Paris Salons of the 1880s and 1890s. After reviewing the 1883 Salon,
one art critic said, “In each room, on each wall, everywhere you
turn- Bastien-Lepage! Everywhere, constantly, and incessantly. The
whole world paints so much today like Mr. Bastien-Lepage that Mr.
Bastien-Lepage seems to paint like the whole world.” This made it
very difficult to identify true Bastien-Lepage works if they were not
signed and dated. One example is a painting of a young peasant woman. Though it is attributed to him, there were so many imitators
that no one is absolutely sure.
The
first attacks of ill health ailed Bastien-Lepage. Violent pain made
him irritable and cut off almost all outside contact. He consulted
with doctors who told him some sea air would be beneficial. He
traveled to Brittany, which alleviated the symptoms only briefly
before taking a turn for the worse. After travelling back to Paris to
again consult with doctors, who were realizing Bastien-Lepage’s
fate, he travelled to Algiers with his mother. Again in an effort
that the warm African sun and sea air would hurry his recovery. The
trip kept him in good spirits for a time, but again the illness took
hold and he was forced back to Paris. His kidneys and intestines
failed. He would be stricken with horrendous pain for days at a time
that forced him to stay on his back. He could only sleep with
powerful doses of morphine. All the time he worked as best he could,
not being able to stand not painting. Only about a year before he had
been optimistic about death stating "I am not afraid of death,
dying is nothing,—the important thing is to survive oneself, and
who can be sure of establishing a claim upon posterity? So long as
our work is true, nothing else matters." But now he was
shattered with no hope of relief except through the one way that he
did not want just yet. He died in Paris on December 10, 1884 at the
age of 36.
M.
Gustave Larroumet, director of the Beaux-Arts gave a fitting tribute
in honor of the artist after his death as a statue of him constructed
by Rodin was erected in Damvillers. He said, "At the moment
when ordinarily the best of artists have done no more than to give
indications of their originality and when ripening years alone begin
to keep the promises of youth, Jules Bastien-Lepage died, leaving
masterpieces behind him, besides having liberated an artistic formula
from the tendencies and exaggerations which hampered it, and
indicated to the art of painting a new pathway along which his young
heirs are advancing with an assured step. He loved nature and truth;
he loved his own people, and no one ever lived who was surrounded
with a greater degree of affection; he inspired faithful friendships
which he himself enjoyed to the full; and those whom he left behind
soothe their heart-ache with the balm of tender memories; he
practised his art without ever making sacrifice to passing fashion or
sordid profit; there was no place in his mind or in his heart for any
other than noble and generous thoughts. Let us comfort ourselves,
therefore, for what his death has taken from us by the thought of
what his life has left to us, and let us assign him his place in the
ranks of the younger master painters who have been mown down in full
flower, close beside that of Géricault and of Henri Regnault."
In
1885 over 200 of his works were gathered from museums and private
collections and shown at the Ecole after his death. And in 1889 the
Paris Exposition showed some of his best works.
Zola
dubbed Bastien-Lepage the “grandson of Millet and Courbet”. And
certainly he had a pronounced influence on many painters after him.
Roger Fry credited the public’s wide acceptance of impression to
Bastien-Lepage. The works of George Clausen, Henry Herbert La
Tangue, and William Hankey are just a few artists who were
clearly heavily influenced by Bastien-Lepage’s work.
More
of Bastien-Lepage’s work
Plein
air studies
Self
portraits
Studies
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