Full text of "French painting"

FRENCH PAINTING

TIM- J ,-

LATE I

Puns, Ijjiivrc

FRANC;OIS CLOUKT (15 10-1572)
Kli/.abcth of Austria, Queen of France

FRENCH
PAINTING

R. H. WILENSKI

author of

"an istroduction to dutch art,"

"the modern movement in art," etc.

ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON

HALE, CUSHMAN & FLINT, INC.

PUBLISHERS

THE KEV/ YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY

567710A

ASTOR, LtNOX AND

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

R 1931 L

First printed, 1951

PRINTED IN ENGLAND

HARRY LAWRENCE

WHOSE KNOWLEDGE AND ENTHUSIASM

HAVE HELPED ME

IN COMPILING

THIS BOOK

CONTENTS

PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi

PREFACE

i. The Importance of the Present xxiii

ij. A Picture is an Object xxiv

ii j. We cannot understand a picture by Just looking at it xxv

iv. The Importance of Money xxv

V. Do we need these Gentlemen and Fanatics ? xxvi

vi. Continuities in French Painting xxvii

vij. Difficulties of my Task xxxi

viij. Acknowledgments xxxii

PART ONE. THE FRENCH PRIMITIVES

A. FROM SAINT LOUIS TO AGINCOURT

i. Painting in Feudal France 3

ij. The First School of Avignon 5

iij. The First School of Paris 7

iv. The First School of Burgundy 8

V. The Due de Berri's Manuscripts 9

jB. from AGINCOURT TO FRANCOIS I

i . The Second School of Burgundy 1 z

i j . Rene of Anjou and Nicolas Froment 1 5

iij. The Second School of Avignon 14

iv. Charles VI I ^ Louis XI and Jean Fouquet 16

V. Jean Fouquet 17

vi. Charles VIII y Louis XII and the Mditre de Moulins 19

vij. The Mditre de Moulins 20

viij. The New Italian Taste 21

vii

CONTENTS

PART TWO. FRENCH RENAISSANCE PAINTING

PACE

A. THE SCHOOL OF FONTAINEBLEAU

i. Frangois I and the Palace of Fontaimbleau 25

ij. hater work at Fontaimbleau 27

iij. The Fontainehleau Style

B. FRENCH RENAISSANCE PORTRAITS

i. The Portrait Albums 3^

ij. The Clouets and Corneille de Lyons 33

PART THREE. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

A. THE AGE OF THE CARDINALS

i. The Transformation of Paris 37

ij. Simon Vouet 39

iij. Eustache Le Sueur 41

iv. The Influence of the Low Countries 47

V. The Brothers Le Nain 48

vi. Georges Dumesnil de la Tour 5 3

vij. Portrait Painters 54

viij. French Artists in Kome 5^

ix. Claude de Lorrain 5 ^

X. Nicolas Poussin "4

B. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV

i. Louis XI Vy Court Spectacles and Versailles 74

ij. Charles Le Brun 7^

iij. The Kojal Academy of Painting and Sculpture 82

iv. Pierre Mignard 88
V. Louis XIV — the Last Phase
vi. Hyacinthe Rigaud
vij. Nicolas de Largilliere

viii

CONTENTS
PART FOUR. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

A. ANTOINE WATTEAU ^^^^

i. Watteau's Friends loi

ij. Wat tea us Life 104

iij. Watteau's CEuvre 106

iv. Watteau's Art 116

V. Watteaus Character 120

vi. Watteaus Followers 121

B. THE AGE OF LOUIS XV AND LOUIS XVI

i. The Louis XV Stjle 125

ij. Portrait Painters 126

iij. Pastellists 129

iv. Genre Painting 132

V. Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin 133

vi. The Academy and the Salons 140

vij. Francois Boucher 144

vii j . La Pompadour and La du Barry 151

ix. Jean-Honore Fragonard 153

X. Tableaux de Modes 164

xi. Louis-Leopold Boilly 166

xij. Jean-Baptiste Greu-:^e 168

xiij. French Eighteenth-century Landscape 171

xiv. Mmes Vigee-Le Brun and Labille-Guyard 173

PART FIVE. FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE
SECOND EMPIRE

i. The Revolution 179

ij. Jacques Louis David 181

iij. The First Empire and A.-J. Gros 189

iv. Pierre Prudhon 191

V. Painting under Louis XVIII 193 .

vi. /. .^1, D. 7;;^;-fj" 195
i' ix

CONTENTS

PACE

vij. The Komantic Movement 203

viij. Theodore Gericault 206

ix. 'Eugene Delacroix 208

X. 'Franco-Dutch L,andscape Painters 214

xi. Camille Corot 216

xij. Realism and the Salon Public ziz

xiij. Gustave Courbet zz/i^

xiv. Daumier and Guys 230

PART SIX. THE IMPRESSIONISTS

i. The Impressionist Movement z^j

ij. Edouard Manet \ 244

iij. Claude Monet ^ 256

iv. Auguste Renoir \ , 261

V. Edgar Degas '' 271

vi. Henri de Toulouse-JLautrec zj6

PART SEVEN. THE POST-IMPRESSIONISTS

i. Post-Impressionism 287

ij. Paul Gauguin 288

iij. Vincent Van Gogh 295

PART EIGHT. THE CUBIST-CLASSICAL
RENAISSANCE

i. Character of the Movement 307

ij. Paul Ce:(anne 308

iij. Georges Seurat 318

EPILOGUE

i. The Douanier Rousseau ^zj

ij. Matisse and Picasso 329

iij. The Sur-Realists 331

INDEX 335

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A. In Colour

I. FRANCOIS CLOUET

II. CLAUDE LE LORRAIN

III. ANTOINE WATTEAU

IV. J. B. S. CHARDIN

V. J. H. FRAGONARD

VI. LOUIS DAVID

VII. CAMILLE COROT

VIII. H. HARPIGNIES

IX. SISLEY

X. CAMILLE PISSARRO

XI. VINCENT VAN GOGH

XII. PAUL CEZANNE

Elizabeth of Austria,
France {louvre)

Queen of

Frontispiece

FACING PACE

Landscape : The Flight into Egypt

{Dresden) 60

Gilles (Italian Comedians), {luouvre) 108
The Admonition (La Governante),

(JJechienstein) 132

The Stolen Kiss (Le Baiser a la

d€r:ohtt)y {Hermitage) 160

Mme Rccamier {Louvre) 180

Souvenir de Morte Fontaine {Louvre) 220
Saint Prive {Birmingham ^ Art Gallery) 228
La Route de Versailles {Scotland,

Mclnnes Collection) 240

Mi-careme sur les Boulevards {Lon-
don, Luc i en Pissarro Collection) 268
Sunflowers {Tate) 300
Les Grands Arbres {London, S.
Courtauld Collection) 308

jB. In Monochrome

FIRST SCHOOL OF AVIG-
NON

GLASS PAINTING (THIR-
TEENTH century)

JEAN MALOUEL

J. MALOUEL AND H. DE

BELLECHOSE
JEAN FOUQUET

ENGUERRAND
TON

CHAREN-

Virgin and Child with Saint and
and Donor {Worcester {Mass.),
Art Museum) xxiv

Heads from Windows {Chartres
Cathedral) xxv

Pieta {Louvre) xxxii

Last Communion and Martyr-
dom of St. Denis {Louvre) i

Virgin and Child {Antwerp,
Museum) 2

Coronation of the Virgin ( K/7-
leneuve-les-Avignon) 3

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

ya. JEAN FOUQUET Charles VII (Louvre) 6

yb. FRENCH SCHOOL, c. 1470 St. Louis and St. John the Bap-
tist (Louvre) 6
8. MAiTRE DE MOULINS The Virgin. Detail of The

Nativity (Autun, Eveche) 7

9a. NICOLAS FROMENT King Rene of Anjou (Aix-en-

Provencey Cathedral) 8

9b. NICOLAS FROMENT Jeanne de Laval (Aix-en-Pro-

vefjce. Cathedral) 8

loa. FRENCH SCHOOL, c. 1470 The Altarpiece of the Parlia-
ment of Paris (Louvre) 9
lob. NICOLAS FROMENT The Altarpiece of the Burning

Bush (Aix-en-Provence, Cathe-
dral 9

II. SECOND SCHOOL OF AVIG- Y\^\.2i {l^UVre) 16

NON

12a. MAITRE DE MOULINS Virgin and Child with Donors

(MoulinSy Cathedral) 17

12b. ENGUERRAND CHAREN- Coronation of the Virgin (1>7/-

TON leneuve-les- Avignon Museum) 17

13a. SECOND SCHOOL OF AVIG- Christ standing in the Tomb

NON {Louvre) 1 8

13b. SECOND SCHOOL OF AVIG- Head of Christ (L<?.w/'^) 18

NON

14. ROSSO Pieta (Louvre) 19

15 a. JEAN CLOUET V i2.n(^o\s 1 (Louvre) 22

15 b. ANTOiNE CARON Princess Sibylle of Julich Cleve

(Munich) iz

1 6a. SCHOOL OF FONTAINE- Flora and Attendants (Montpellier,

BLEAu Private Collection) 23

1 6b. BRONZING Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time

(N.G.) 23

17a. SCHOOL OF FONTAINE- Louise de Lorraine (?) as Venus

BLEAU (Rouen, Museum) 24

17b. JEAN COUSIN //f Artemisia (Paris, Private Coll.) 24

17c. JEAN COUSIN pere Eva Prima Pandora (Lo^z^r^) 24

18. JEAN CLOUET Fran5ois II as Dauphin (Ant-

werp. Museum) 25

xii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

19a. SCHOOL OF FONTAINE-

BLEAU
19b. SCHOOL OF FONTAINE-

BLEAU
20a. EL GRECO

20b. AMBROISE DUBOIS

2 1 a. SIMON VOUET

2 lb. NICOLAS POUSSIN

22a. NICOLAS POUSSIN

22b. SIMON VOUET

23a. EUSTACHE LE SUEUR

25b. EUSTACHE LE SUEUR

24. EUSTACHE LE SUEUR

25. EUSTACHE LE SUEUR

26. LOUIS LE NAIN

FACIKC PACE

Gabricllc d'Estrees in her Bath

{Chantillj) 3 2

Diana {louvre) 32

The Martyrdom of St. Maurice

{Escorial)
The Baptism of Clorinda

{Lj)uvre)
The Rest on the Fhght {Grenoble^

Museum)
The Fhght into Egypt {Uech-

tensteiti)
Inspiration of the Poet (Detail),

{louvre)
Wealth {louvre)
Qio, Euterpre and Thaha

{louvre)
Melpomene, Erato and Polym-

nia {L/)uvre)
The Death of St. Bruno (Louvre)
The Mass of St. Martin of

Tours (Louvre)
Portrait of a Nun {Avignon^

Musee Calvet)
Peasant Family {Louvre)

27a. LOUIS LE NAIN

27b. ANTOiNE AND LOUIS LE The Village Pipe {Detroit)

NAIN

28a. LOUIS LE NAIN

28b. PAUL POTTER

29. DUMESNIL DE LA TOUR

30a. MATHIEU LE NAIN

30b. MATHIEU LE NAIN

31a. NICOLAS POUSSIN

31b. NICOLAS POUSSIN

32a. NICOLAS POUSSIN

La Halte du Cavalier {London,

Victoria (& Albert Alas.)
Young Bull {The Hague)
St. Sebastian mourned by

Women {Berlin)
Venus in the Forge of Vulcan

{Rheirns, Museum)
Peasant Meal {Detroit)
Self Portrait {Louvre)
Apollo and Daphne {Louvre)
Bacchus and Erigone {PariSy

Private Coll.)

35
33
34

35
35

38
39

41
48
48

49
49

57
64

64
65

Xlll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

32b.

, NICOLAS POUSSIN

33a.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

33b.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

34a.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

34b.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

35a.

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN

35b.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

36a.

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN

36b.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

37a.

CHARLES LE BRUN

37b.

CHARLES LE BRUN

38.

CHARLES LE BRUN

39a.

HYACINTHE RIGAUD

39b.

QUENTIN LA TOUR

40a.

HYACINTHE RIGAUD

40b.

NICOLAS LARGILLIERE

40c.

HYACINTHE RIGAUD

41a.

SCHOOL OF LARGILLIE

41b.

HYACINTHE RIGAUD

4IC.

PIERRE MIGNARD

PACING PAGE

42. ANTOINE WATTEAU
43a. ANTOINE WATTEAU

Echo and Narcissus {Lj)uvre) 65

Midas before Bacchus {Munich) 6G
Apollo and Daphne {SchJeis-

sheim. Castle Mus. 66
Rape of the Sabines {Richmond^

Cook Coll.) 67

Finding of Moses {Louvre) 67
The Port of Ostia : Departure

of St. Paula {Prado) 70

Funeral of Phocion {Louvre) 70

Parnassus {Boston) 71

Landscape with Two Nymphs
{Chantilly) yi

Detail of Ceiling {Versailles) 80

Alexander entering Babylon

{Louvre) 80

Illustrations to lecture : Human
and animal heads {Louvre) 81

Eli2abeth Qiarlotte Dowager
Duchess of Orleans {Ver-
sailles) 88

The Lawyer Laideguive {Paris,
Wildenstetn Coll.) 88

Presentation in the Temple

(Louvre) 89

J. B. Tavernier {Brunswick, Mus.) 89

Louis XIV at the age of sixty-
two {Louvre) 89

Duchesse d'Orleans ( Versailles) 9 8

The Financier Montmartel and
his wife {Cherbourg, Mus.) 98

La Marquise de Seignelay as
Thetis with Achilles and
Cupid {London, N.G.) 98

The Judgement of Paris {Paris,
Louvre) 99

L'Accordee de Village {London,
Soane Mus.) 102

xiv

LIST OF

43b.

ANTOINE

WATTEAU

44a.

ANTOINE

WATTEAU

44b.

ANTOINE

WATTEAU

44c.

ANTOINE

WATTEAU

45a.

ANTOINE

WATTEAU

45b.

ANTOINE

WATTEAU

45c.

ANTOINE

WATTEAU

46a.

ANTOINE

WATTEAU

46b.

GIORGIONE

47-

ANTOINE

WAl'l'hAU

ILLUSTRATIONS

riCINC PACE

48. .\NTOINE WATTEAU

49.

ANTOINE WATTEAU

50.

ANTOINE WATTEAU

51a.

NICOLAS LANCRET

51b.

ANTOINE WATTEAU

52a.

ANTOINE WATTEAU

52b.

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH

53-

NORBLIN DE LA GOUR-

DAINE

54a.

NICOLAS LANCRET

54b.

CARLE VAN LOO

55a. JEAN BAPTISTE PATER

55b. NICOLAS LANCRET
3 6a. JEAN MARC NATTIER
36b. JEAN MARC NATTIER

37a. MAURICE QUENTIN DE LA
TOUR

Dctachcmcnt faisant altc {Glas-
gow^ Art Gallery) 102

L'Amour au theatre fran^ais

(Detail), {Berlin) 105

LeMezzetin {Jdermitage) 103

La Finette {Juouvre) i o 3

La Perspective {Boston) 104

L'Amante inquiete (Chantilly) 104

Le faux pas (Lauvre) 104
L'Amour paisible {Berlin^

Charlottenberg Castle) 103

Concert Champetre (Louvre) 103

L'Embarquement pour I'ile de

Cythtre. {Berlin, Castle Mus.) 112

Les Amusements Champetres

{Wallace) 113

Drawing {London, British Mus.) 114
L'Enseigne de Gersaint (detail),

{Berlin, Charlottenhurg Castle) 115

Mile Camargo dancing ( Wallace) 118
La Danse {Coll. former reigning

Prussian house) 118

Antoine de la Roque 119

Mr. Plampin (P. M. Turner Coll.) 119
Fete Galante {Paris, David Weill

Coll.) izz

The Hunt Luncheon {Detroit) 123

Dejeuner de Chasse (detail),

{Louvre) 123
Le Bain {New York, Simpson

Coll.) izG
Les deux Baigneuses {Hermitage) 1 26
Mile Beaujolais {Chantilly) 127
Mme Victoire as Diana {Ver-
sailles) I If
The actor Manelli {St. Ouentin,
Mus.) ^ 128

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

57b.
57c.

57d.

58a.

58b.

58c.

58d.
59-

60a.
60b.

61.

62a.

62b.

63.

64a.

64b.
65.

66a.

66b.

JEAN-BAPTISTE PER-
RONEAU

Le Comte de Bastard (Pans,
David Weill Coll.)

MAURiCE-QUENTiN DE LA Mile Fel (St. Quentin^ Mus.)

TOUR

Mme de Sorquainville (Paris,
David Weill Coll.)

The Toper (Worcester (Mass.),
Art Mus.)

Jeune fille et sa grandmere
(Marseilles, Mus.)

Le Souffleur (louvre)

JEAN-BAPTISTE PER-
RONEAU

JEAN GRIMOU
JEAN RAOUX

JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMEON
CHARDIN

JEAN RAOUX

JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMEON
CHARDIN

La Liseuse (Louvre)

Les Tours de Cartes {Hermitage)

Les Amusements de la vie
privee (Stockholm, Mus.)

PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAIGNE La Mere Catherine- Agnes

Arnaud et la Sceur Catherine
de Sainte-Suzanne (l^ouvre)

La Toilette du Matin (Stock-
holm, Mus.)

Still life (Boston)

JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMEON
CHARDIN

FRAN9OIS BOUCHER

FRANCOIS BOUCHER
FRANCOIS BOUCHER

FRANCOIS BOUCHER

Still life with Hare (Paris, Wil-
de nstein Coll.)

La Recureuse (Glasgow, Hun-
terian Mus.)

The Toilet of Venus (Neiv
York, Metropolitan Mus.)

The Bath of Diana (L,ouvre)

Mme de Pompadour (Vienna,
Baron M. de Rothschild Coll.)

Mme Boucher (Pans, David
Weill Coll.)

The Bagpipe (La Musette),
(L,ouvre)

xvi

128
128

128

129

129
129

129

135

137

138
139

139
142

143
143

144
145
145

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

rACINC PACE

67.

68.
69.

70a.

70b.
71-

72a.

72b.

75-
74a.

74b. LOUIS-LEOPOLD BOILLY
75 a. MME VIGKE-LE BRUN

75 b. MME LABILLE-GUYARD

76a. MME VIGEE-LE BRUN
76b. MME LABILLE-GUYARD

JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD Lcs Pins dc la Villa Pamphili

(drawing), {Paris, David Weill
Coll.) 152

JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD La Fontainc d'Amour (K^*?//^^^) 153

jean-honorh FRAGONARD Lcs Souvcnirs (Les Confidences),

{New York, Frick Coll.) 134

jEAN-HONORt FRAGONARD Lcs Pctards (drawing), {Paris,

David Weill Coll.) 155

jE.\N-HONOR^ FR.\GONARD Balgneuscs {Louvre) 155

JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD La Letttc {Paris, David Weill

Coll.) 158

JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD La Resistance Inutile {Paris,

David Weill Coll.) 157

JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD The Schoolmistress {Wallace) 159

HUBERT ROBERT Les Fontaines {Chicago) 168

LOUIS-LEOPOLD BOILLY L'Enfant au fard {Paris, Mttsee

Cognacq) 169

L'Arrivee de la Diligence (de-
tail), {L,ouvre) 169

Mme du Barry {Coll. of MM.
Wildenstein et Cie, Paris c>°
New York) 176

Self portrait with her pupils
{Coll. of MM. Wildenstein et
Cie, Paris e> New York) 176

Marie Antoinette and her chil-
dren {Versailles) 177

L'Artiste {Paris, David Weill

Coll.) 177

Paris and Helen (detail), {Louvre) 1 84

Jupiter and Thetis {Aix-en-

Provence, Mus.) 185

Summer {Cleveland, Mus. oj Art) 192

Death of Marat {Brussels, Mus.) 193

Death of Bara {V. Avignon,
Muste Calve t) 193

Mme Riviere {Louvre) 194

xvii

77. LOUIS DAVID

78. J.-A.-D. INGRES

79. PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
80a. LOUIS DAVID
80b. LOUIS DAVID

81, J.-A,-D. INGRES

82.

84a.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

J.-A.-p. INGRES

FACING PACE

J.-A.-D. INGRES
LOUIS DAVID

84b. EUGE>JE DELACROIX

85. EUGENE DELACROIX

86. EUGENE DELACROIX
87a. CAMILLE COROT
87b. CAMILLE COROT

88a. PIERRE PRUDHON

88b. CAMILLE COROT

89. GUSTAVE COURBET

90. JEAN-FRAN(JOIS MILLET
91a. LOUIS-LEOPOLD BOILLY

91b. HONORE DAUMIER

92. HONORE DAUMIER

95. HONORE DAUMIER

94a. GUSTAVE COURBET
94b. EDGAR DEGAS

95. EDOUARD MANET

96. EDOUARD MANET

97a. MARC ANTONIO

97b. EDOUARD MANET
98. EDOUARD MANET

Portrait Drawing {New York,

Metropolitan Mus.) 195

Francesca da Rimini {Chantilly) 198
Head of a Girl {LofjJofi, Sir

Philip Sassoon Coll.) 199

Hesiod and the Muse {New Yorky

A.. 'Lewisohn Coll.) 199

Oriental Lion Hunt {Chicago) 208
Pieta {Boston) 209

Venice {Australia, Melbourne Mus. ) 2 1 6
Honfleur-Maisons sur les Quais

{Paris, MM. Paul Rosenberg

Coll.) 216

Mme Dufresne {Paris, David

Weill Coll.) 217

Dans I'atelier {Lyons, Mus.) 217

Deer in a Forest {Minneapolis,

Institute of Arts) zz^

La Soupe {Marseilles, Mus.) 225
Les Amateurs d'Estampes

{Louvre) z^z

Les Amateurs d'Estampes

{'London, Messrs. Reid c^

Lefevre Coll.) 232

Les Amateurs de Peinture

{Cleveland, Mus. of Art) 233

Don Quixote {London, S. Cour-

tauld Coll.) 234

La Curee (The Quarry), (5(?j"/o/;) 235
Le Depart {U.S.A., Private Coll.) 23 5
Victorine en costume d'Espada

{New York, Metropolitan Mus.) 238
Jesus insulted by the Soldiers

{Chicago) 239

Engraving after Raphael : The

Judgement of Paris (detail) 242
Le Dejeuner sur I'herbe {Louvre) z^z
Le Balcon {Louvre) 243

xviii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PACING PACS

99. EDOUARD MANET

100. EDOUARD MANET

lOia. EDOUARD MANET

10 lb. EDOUARD MANET

102a. CLAUDE MONET

102b. CLAUDE MONET

103. AUGUSTE RENOIR

104a. AUGUSTE RENOIR

104b. AUGUSTE RENOIR

105. AUGUSTE RENOIR

106. AUGUSTE RENOIR

107. AUGUSTE RENOIR

108. AUGUSTE RENOIR

109a. AUGUSTE RENOIR
109b. AUGUSTE RENOIR
II O. AUGUSTE RENOIR
ma. EDOUARD MANET
1 1 lb. GEORGES SEURAT
112a. EDGAR DEGAS
112b. AUGUSTE RENOIR

Eve Gonzales (Ta/e N.G.) 246

Le Linge (Pan's, Gallimard Coll.) 247
La Servante de Bocks {Taie) 248
Le Bar des Folics Berg^rcs

{London, S. Court auld Coll) 248
The Seine {New York, A.

h^wishon Coll.) 249

La Falaise de Fecamp {Aberdeen,

Art Gallery) 249

Petite fille a rarrosoir {New

York, Mr. <& Mrs. Chester

Dale Coll.) 256

La Place Pigalle {London, S.

Court auld Coll. ) z^^-j

Le Moulin dc la Galette {jJ.S.A.,

Private Coll.) 257

Baigneuses {Philadelphia, Tyson

Coll.) 238

Femme allaitant son enfant

{London, Mrs. Chester Beattj

Coll.) 259

Circus Children {Chicago) 262

Les Chapeaux d'ete {Chicago,

Art Institute, Rjerson Coll.) iG^
Femme allaitant son enfant

{Paris, Pierre Renoir Coll.) 264
The Shoelace {London, S.

Courtauld Coll.) 264

Gabrielle aux bijoux {Paris,Paul

Guillaume Coll) 265

Les Courses a Longchamp

{Chicago) 272

Le Phare, Honfleur {London,

Messrs. Keid & Lefevre Coll.) 272
Diego Martelli {London, Messrs.

Reid <i^ Lefevre Coll.) 273

Le Dejeuner des Canotiers

{Washington, Phillips Memorial

Gallery) 273

xix

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PACE

H. DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

113a

113b. EDGAR DEGAS

114a. FRANCOIS BOUCHER

114b. EDGAR DEGAS

115a. EDGAR DEGAS

115b. EDGAR DEGAS

116. EDGAR DEGAS

117. H. DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

1 1 8a. H. DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

1 1 8b.

EDGAR DEGAS

1 1 8c.

EDOUARD MANET

119a.

PAUL GAUGUIN

119b.

PAUL GAUGUIN

120.

PAUL GAUGUIN

I2ia.

PAUL GAUGUIN

i2ib.

PAUL GAUGUIN

122. VINCENT VAN GOGH

123a. BERTHE MORISOT
123b. VINCENT VAN GOGH
124a. RAPHAEL

Au Moulin Rouge {Chicago, Art
Institute, Birch Bartlett Coll.)

Un Cafe : Boulevard Mont-
martre (pastel), {louvre)

Cupid a Captive {Wallace)

Le Ballet (pastel), {Glasgow^
Private Coll.)

La Danseuse au bouquet saluant
sur la scene {JLouvre)

Le Foyer de la danse {Scotland,
Private Coll.)

Aux Ambassadeurs {Lyons, Mus.) z-j^

Au bar : Alfred la Guigne {New
York, Mr. (& Mrs. Chester
Dale Coll.)

A la mie {Scotland, D. W. T.
Car gill Coll.)

L' Absinthe {louvre)

Le Buveur dAbsinthe {Copen-
hagen, Carlsberg Mus.)

Stacking Hay {London, S. Cour-

tauld Coll.)
Jacob wrestling with the Angel

{Edinburgh, National Gallery

of Scotland)

la Orana Maria (Ave Maria),
{New York, A. Lem'sohn Coll.)

Te Reriva (La Case), {London, S.
Courtauld Coll.)

Nevermore {London, S. Cour-
tauld Coll.)

L'Arlesienne {New York, A.
Lewishon Collection)

La Toilette {Chicago)

Bedroom at Aries {Chicago)

The School of Athens {Rome,
Vatican)

274

274
275

275

278

280

281
281

281

288
289
298
298

299

302
302

303

LIST OF ILLUSTRA^nONS

24b. PAUL CEZANNE
PAUL CllZANNE

rACIKC PACE

26a. ANDRE DERAIN

26b. CLAUDE LE LORRAIN

27. PAUL CHZ.^NNE

28a. CLAUDE LE LORRAIN

157a.

Lcs grandcs Baigneuses {Paris,
Pellerin Coll.) 303

La Montagnc Sainte-Victoire
{Landon, S. Courtauld Coll.) 304

The Wood {Hinchitigbrooke, Earl
of Sandwich Coll.) 305

Drawing. The Wood {Haarlef»y
Teyler Mus.) 305

Le Lac d'Annecy (London, S.

Courtauld Coll.) 306

Drawing. The Tiber above

Rome {London, British Mus.) 307

Paysage du Midi (Paris, Paul
Guillaume Coll.) 307

L'homme a la pipe {London, S.
Courtauld Coll.) 310

Gustave GefFroy {Paris, Pellerin
Coll.) 311

Still life {Amiens, Mus.) 312

Still life with clock {Collection of
MM. Wildenstein et Cie, Paris
<^ New York) 5 1 2

Le Pot de Fleurs {London, S.
Courtauld Coll.) 313

Apples {Paris, Etienne Bignou Coll.)^ 1 3

Un Dimanche d'Ete a la Grande
Jatte {Chicago) 314

Le Pont de Courbevoie {London,
S. Courtauld Coll.) 315

Landscape study for La Grande
Jatte {London, Mrs. Chester
Beattj Coll.) 3 1 5

Le Cirque {Louvre) 3 1 8

Le Chahut {The Hague, Mvie
Kroller-Muller Coll.) 319

LE DOUANiER ROUSSEAU Flowcr Piece {Paris, Collection of

the Galerie Georges Petit)

28b.

ANDRE DERAIN

29.

PAUL CEZ.AN^E

30.

PAUL CEZANNE

31a.

JEAN BAPTISTE SIMtON

CHARDIN

31b.

PAUL CEZANNE

32a.

PAUL CE Z.ANNE

32b.

PAUL CEZANNE

33-

GEORGES SEURAT

34a.

GEORGES SEURAT

34b.

GEORGES SEURAT

35-

GEORGES SEURAT

36.

GEORGES SEURAT

;20

XXI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

137b. LE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU
138a. LE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU

138b. LE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU
139.

140. PABLO PICASSO

141. ODILON REDON
142a. PABLO PICASSO

LE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU

142b.

143.

144. HENRI MATISSE

GEORGES BRAQUE
PABLO PICASSO

Fleurs de Poete {Paris, Paul
Guillaume Coll.)

Jungle with Wild Beasts {New
York, Mr. €>* Mrs. Chester
Dale Coll.)

Jungle with Monkeys (U.S.A.,
Private Coll.)

The Wedding {Paris, Paul Guil-
laume Brandon Davis Coll.)

Petite Fille a 1' Eventail {Paris,
MM. Paul Rosenberg Coll.)

Orpheus {Cleveland, Mus. of Art)

Abstract Composition {New
York, V. Dudensing Coll.)

Still Life Abstraction {Paris,
Private Coll.)

Mother and Child {Berlin, Col-
lection of the Gallery Flechtheim)

Jeune Femme accoudee {New
York, A. hewisohn Coll.)

320

321
321
322

323
326

327
327
328
325)

ABBREVIATIONS

Berlin

Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin

Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Chantilly

Chicago

Detroit

Musee Conde, Chantilly
Art Institute, Chicago
Institute of Art, Detroit

Hague

Hermitage

Liechtenstein

The Mauritshuis, The Hague
Hermitage Gallery, Leningrad
Prince Liechtenstein's Coll., Vienna

Louvre

Paris, The Louvre

Munich

Alte Pinakothek, Munich

N.G.
Prado

National Gallery, London
Madrid, The Prado

Tate

Wallace

National Gallery of British Art, Millbank
Wallace Collection, London

XXll

PREFACE

i. The Importance of the Present

The study of art-history is stupid and dangerous pedantry
unless it helps us to understand and appreciate the
original painting of our own day.

\\'e have not made the most of a visit to Chartres Cathedral
unless the direct observation and calligraphic technique of the
glass paintings (PI. 2) have helped us to understand the direct
observ^ation and calligraphic technique in the work of The
Douanier Rousseau (PI. 139) who died in 19 10, and of M. Henri
Matisse (PI. 144), who is painting in Paris to-day.

\\"e have misunderstood the art of Claude le Lorrain unless
we realise that his approach to nature, as revealed in his drawings
(Pis. 126b and 128a), was the same in character as that of
Cezanne (Pis. 125, 127, and XII) and of the modern painter AI.
Andre Derain (Pis. 126a and 128b).

\\"e have missed the most helpful significance of the intimate
contact with root simplicities that we find in the Virgin (PI. 8),
ascribed to the Maitre de Moulins, unless it has enabled us to
enjoy the same quality in ha petite filk a I'evantail (^\. 140) by
Pablo Picasso, the central artist of the Ecole de Paris in the first
quarter of our own century.

According to most art-historians painting always becomes
chaotic and decadent about the moment they were born. Rose
Kingsley wrote in 1899 a well-informed History of French Art,
1 100-1899, ^^ which she had assistance from Leonce Benedite,
Conservateur du Musee du Luxembourg, Andre Michel, Conservateur
ati Musee du louvre, and Roger Marx, Inspecteur principal des
Musees ; in this book the names of Cezanne, Seurat, Gauguin
and Van Gogh are not mentioned though in 1899 Cezanne was
sixty, Seurat had been dead nine years, Van Gogh eight, and
Gauguin had already painted all his most celebrated pictures.
M. Louis Hourticq, an art-liistorian of enormous erudition and
brilliant powers of analysis and synthesis, writing the liistory of
French art as recently as 1919, thirteen years after Cezanne's
death and sixteen years after the death of Gauguin, speaks of
them as " ai'ant garde " painters, and describes their work as

xxiii

PREFACE

" decadent " — the art-historian's favourite adjective for recent
or contemporary painting which he does not understand ; and
even Spengler, in his majestic attempt to master the principles
of the morphology of art history, has clearly imagined that art
became " chaotic " somewhere about 1870.

I have not, I hope, fallen into that particular error in this
book. I know that the art of the present is more important to
us than the art of the past ; I know that French art did not
cease after David and Ingres, or after the Impressionists, or after
Gauguin and Van Gogh ; and I know that it has not ceased
after the Cubist-Classical Renaissance. I know that Degas was
important because he made the work of Toulouse-Lautrec
possible ; that Cezanne and Seurat were important because
they opened paths for Picasso and Matisse ; and that these
artists in their turn are important because they have opened up
fresh fields for the original artists who have succeeded them.
I know that the business of the art-historian is to try to under-
stand the original work of his own day and to regard the art
of the past as material for that end ; and I know that in so doing
the historian is approaching the art of the past in exactly the
spirit in which it has always been approached by original
artists themselves.^

ij. A Picture is an Object

A picture is an object. Behind that object there stands the
artist ; in front there stands the spectator.

Art history is concerned with these objects and the artists who
made them. Art critics, aesthetic philosophers, and recorders of
their own reactions — ^whom we may call " writers on art " to
distinguish them from the art-historians — are concerned with
the objects and the spectators.

It is the fashion among writers on art at the moment to
maintain that art history is dull and useless, and that only
writing about art is of value.

I do not agree. Firstly because, as I have said, art history can
help us to understand contemporary production ; and secondly

^ As Watteau, for example, approached Giorgione in 1716, and Manet
approached Giorgione in 1863 (cf. Pis. 46a, 46b, 97b).

xxiv

Worcester (Mass.). Art Miisctoii

FIRST SCHOOL OF A\ IGNON. \'in;in and Child with Saint and Donur.

Chartres Cathedral

GLASS PAINTING (Xlllth CENTURY). Heads from Windows.

PREFACE

because in a restaurant where Kedgeree is always on the
menu I want to know what every dish is made of before I
begin to eat it.

iij. We cannot understand a Picture by just looking at it

An interest in an object involves an interest in its character,
which can only be discovered when we know the purpose of
the object and the conditions of its production.

\\"e cannot understand and discover the real character of a
picture by just looking at it. We can only discover it by finding
out the aims of the artist and learning something of his
environment.

iv. The Importance of Money

A picture is an object made by a man. A man cannot paint
unless he is alive. A man cannot remain alive unless he owns,
makes, or is given money.

At all periods pictures have been produced as trade objects to
make money. At some periods there have also been pictures
that can only be described as products of the spirit.

The first thing to discover in order to understand a picture is
whether it belongs to the one category or the other.

It is only in this way that we can arrive at its social or meta-
physical significance.

At the present moment there are literally thousands of men
painting pictures all day all over Europe and America. Unless
the work of these men has a metaphysical or social justification
it is worthless.

There have been times, as I show in this book, when the
necessity of a social justification for picture-painting was taken
for granted, and when artists were expected to earn their living
by their work.

At the present moment it is fashionable to maintain that a
picture-painting need have no social justification ; that it is
purely a metaphysical activity.

In practice this means that the artists who are now ranked
most highly are the artists with independent incomes and the
fanatics who regard the painting of pictures as a vocation of

d XXV

PREFACE

such value that it should absolve them from the necessity of
earning their living and justify them in demanding to be kept
by other people.

v. Do we need these Gentlemen and Fanatics ?

\X e have arrived at this point of view because since the French
Revolution all the most conspicuously original artists have been
Frenchmen or foreigners working in Paris ; and in Paris since the
Revolution there has been no real social demand for pictures.

In these circumstances the artists have fallen inevitably into
two classes. In the one class there have been the popular
artists who painted pictures that flattered the spectator in one
way or another and thereby extracted for themselves the money
they required ; and in the other we have had {a) original artists
like Corot, Courbet, Manet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne,
Seurat, Gauguin and Van Gogh, who had independent incomes
or were kept by their relations, {b) original artists who were kept
by one or two patrons and dealers, as Monet and Renoir were
kept (and as Watteau had been kept at the beginning of the
eighteenth century), and (c) original artists who also produced
popular work for a livelihood — Ingres, for example, who drew
pencil portraits, and Daumier who drew political and social
cartoons for the newspapers.^

The artist in the first position has an obvious social justifica-
tion of the same kind as the music-hall performer or the popular
novelist. The artist in the second must be regarded either as a
spiritual benefactor of humanity, or a social parasite, according
to our hghts.

The artist who regards liimself as following a vocation which
can only be metaphysically justified is now a characteristic
phenomenon in social life ; and society may soon have to decide
either {a) that it must take steps to propagate these gentlemen

^ For the distinction between original and popular art cf. my Modern
Movement in Art, passim. Very broadly the difference corresponds to the
two types of production to which I refer here — trade objects produced to
make money and products of the spirit. Popular artists who flatter the
familiar experience of some type of spectator can, of course, always make a
living if they know their business.

xxvi

PREFACE

and fanatics for its own spiritual benefit, or else {h) that it can
get what it requires from the popular artists, the illustrated
newspapers, and the cinema, and can dispense with the activity
of the vocational artists altogether.

Whether society will decide one way or the other is obviously
a matter of vital importance to the original artists of to-day and
to-morrow, and it may prove to be a matter of vital importance
to society itself.

To discover the metaphysical and social character of the
pictures of the past, by discovering how far they have been
products of the spirit and how far trade objects produced to
make money, is, therefore, now not only a matter of importance
for the student of art histor}% but also a matter of importance for
ever\^ thinking man.

I believe that, at this juncture, the most useful way to study
art histor}' is to begin {a) by inquiring who painted each picture,
when and why ; and who, if any one, bought or commissioned
it, and when or why ; and then {b) to look at the picture and then
(c) to go on looking at it.

In approaching this inquiry, I have therefore begun by an
attempt to discover what the position of French artists was
before the modern concept of the gentleman-or-fanatic-artist
appeared ; and the reader will find that I have been able to tell
him in most cases how men like the French Primitives and the
French seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artists contrived to
spend all their days painting pictures (many of which were pro-
ducts of the spirit), and at the same time to be regarded as people
who justified their existence from the social point of view.

vi. Continuities in French Painting

French art, as the illustrations in this book indicate, has
manifested itself in many forms. But certain continuities run
all through it. I have tried to demonstrate these continuities
in my choice of illustrations.

The French have always shown the greatest hospitality to
foreign artists. From the earliest times they welcomed Flemish
and Italian painters and encouraged them to settle in their
midst. But they have never worshipped strange gods ; they

xxvii

PREFACE

have always induced the strange gods to come and worship at
the feet of France, by the simple process of making France an
exceptionally agreeable place to live in. In this way French art
has been continually fertilised by original artists bom in other
lands ; and this process continues to this day.

French painting has been able by this means repeatedly to
derive sustenance not only from the architectural genius of the
Italians but even from the popular genre tendencies of the Low
Countries ; and in the eighteenth century we find artists like
Riguad, Chardin, Nattier, Fragonard and others deriving tricks
and inspiration from the art of Rembrandt.^

We can trace the contribution of the Italian architectural
genius from the First School of Avignon through Le Sueur,
Claude and Poussin, Chardin, Louis David, Puvis de Chavannes,
Cezanne and Seurat to the work of the modern Spaniard M.
Pablo Picasso whom the French, in accordance with their tra-
ditions, have encouraged to make Paris his home.^

But the French artists have always applied the power and
knowledge thus acquired to their own ends ; and they have
drawn on these foreign elements for the pageant and decorative
painting which their civilisation has repeatedly encouraged, and
for that expression of intimate contact with root simplicities
to which I have already referred.^

A special aspect of this engaging contact with root simplicities
can be seen in French pictures with the Mother and Child motif
from the time of the Primitives to the present day. Fragonard
(PI. 72b), Millet (PI. 90) and Renoir (PI. 106) all felt the same
about a baby's feet.*

In the French pageant-pictures we observe a change of
material after the French Revolution. Before that time the

^ Cf. Plates 40, 56b, 58, 62b, 63, 71 and 72.

2 Cf. Plates 5, 25, 35, 126a, 128b, 31b, 34, 35b, 36c, 62a, 71, 73, 77, 78, 79,
84b, 97b, 105, 108, 109b, 110, iiib, 124b, 131a, 131b, 132a, 132b, 135, 142a,
142b, and 145.

^ For the continuity of this most engaging aspect of French painting cf.
Plates 2, 8, 23, 26, 27a, III, 59, V, 90, 103, 107, 113a, 115b, 129, 139. This
quality in French painting also takes possession of the foreign artists in
France such as Van Gogh and Picasso (cf. Plates 122, 125b, 140).

* Cf. Plates I, 5, 12a, 72b, 90, 106, 109a. Here, again, we find French
influence on the foreign artists of the Idcok de Paris (cf. PI. 143).

xxviii

PREFACE

pageant-pictures were influenced by the ecclesiastical plays
with three stages (cf. PI. 12b), and later by court spectacles and
theatrical and operatic performances — professional and amateur;
after the Revolution the artists began to seek and find pageantry
not only in the theatre but also in other places of public
entertainment with their garish decorations and bright
lights.^

Drama, properly so called, has always also been a feature of
French art ; we can trace it from the Primitive Martyrdoms and
Crucifixions (Pis. 5, 4 and loa) and the great Avignon Pieta (PL
1 1), through Le Sueur's Death of Saint Bnmo (PI. 24) and Poussin's
Rape of the Sabiries (PI. 54a) to the light comedy of Fragonard's
Lf Baiser a la derohee (PI. V) and l^a Resistance Inutile (PI. 72a),
the sordid drama of the underworld in modern cities as portrayed
by Lautrec (Pis. 117 and 11 8a), the mystic drama of Rcdon
(PI. 141) and the architectural drama of M. Picasso (PL
142a). 2

French painters up to the twentieth century have always
produced characteristic portraiture. In our own day portrait
painting makes no appeal to original French artists who as
intelligent people surrender to the popular artists and to the
camera that which the camera can do indisputably well. But
from the Clouets to Rigaud and Largilliere, from \X atteau,
Boucher, Nattier, La Tour and Perroneau to David and Prudhon,
from Ingres to Degas, Lautrec, Cezanne and The Douanier
Rousseau, there has hitherto been uninterrupted production in
this field.'

Landscape-painting has been practised by French artists with
ever-increasing enthusiasm from the landscape backgrounds in
the early pictures (PL 7b) through the achievements of Claude
and Poussin in the seventeenth centur\% of Watteau, Hubert
Robert, Louis-Gabriel Moreau, and Claude-Joseph Vemet in the
eighteenth, to those of Corot, the Impressionists, and the artists

^ Cf. Plates 23a, 23b, 37a, 37b, 41b, 41C, III, 44a, 47, 51a, 56b, 64a, 66b,
114a, 67, 73, 77, 78, 83, 95, loib, 104b, 114b, 115a, 116, 117, 133 and 136.

- For this continuity as illustrated here cf. Pis. 3, 4, 10, 11, 14, 24, 29, 34a,
IV, 72a, 74, 80a, 80b, 83, 85, 86, 87, 96, 113b, 117, ii8a, 119b, 141, 142a.

^ Cf. Plates 15a, 15b, 18, 40b, 39a, 40a, III, 44a, 44c, 45b, 66a, 65, 39b, 36,
57a, 37b, 37c, 37^, IV, 84a, 88a, 81, 82, 99, 112a, 130, 139.

xxix

PREFACE

of the Cubist-Classical Renaissance (Pis. iiib, 134a, 134b, 125,
127, XI, 126a, i28b).i

The Romantic movement of the nineteenth century was partly
an Anglo-German creation, but the French painters about 1825
notoriously developed it in striking forms. The substitution of
the Romantic search for unusual emotive fragments for the
Classical search for formal harmony and order was definitely
made by the French Romantic movement; and the French
Romantic painters from 1825 to the present day exhibit an
intensity in their emotive stresses and a courage in their emotive
distortions that have never been approached or rivalled except
by Michelangelo and Rembrandt.^

Lastly, we have the French as the painters of women. Here
we can trace continuities and metamorphoses from the gravity of
Fouquet (PI. 5), Charenton (PI. 6), and the Maitre de JMoulins
(PI. 8), through the Fontainebleau school, to a new gravity in
Le Sueur (Pis. 23a, 23b and 25) and Louis Le Nain (PI. 26) ;
from the discreet flamboyance of the women portrayed by
Largilliere and Nattier to the daintiness of Watteau's ha Finette
(PI. 44c) and the majesty of his second model (Pis. 42, 45b, 50) ;
and from the modish elegantes of Boucher (Pis. 64a, 65, 66a) and
the calm ladies of Chardin (PI. 60a) to Fragonard's petites jemmes
(Pis. 70a and 70b, and 71) — who created the petites femmes of
the estampe galante and h,a Vie Parisienne. At the eve of the
Revolution we get a different concept in the lecherous " pretty
girls " of Greuze,^ and the desirable lassies of Boilly (Pis. 74a
and 74b). Louis David started a new tradition, Ingres another,
Manet a third. Degas a fourth that culminated in Lautrec ; and
finally we get Renoir — perhaps the greatest painter of women
who has ever lived.*

^ For the full series illustrated cf. Pis. 7b, 12b, 28a, 21b, 31b, 33b, 34b,
35a, 35b, 36a, 36b, 43, 45, 47, 48, 53, 67, 73, VII, 87a, 87b, VIII, IX, X,
iiib, 134a, 134b, 125, 127, XI, 126a, 126b, 128a, 128b. M. Matisse has also
painted many landscapes.

^ Cf. Plates 8, 13a, 78, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 90, 92, 93, 112a, 113a, 114b, 117,
1 1 8a, 1 18b, 119b, i2ib, 139, 144. Here, too, we get Van Gogh and
M. Picasso influenced (Pis. 122, 123b, 123b, 140).

^ No plates.

* Pis. 104b, 105, 106, no.

XXX

PREFACE

vij. Difficulties oj my Task

Most writers on art appear to suffer from a complex against
facts and figures. They continually refer to pictures without tell-
ing us where they can be seen, and they rarely provide informa-
tion about the time of their production. Even the compilers of
art-dictionaries indulge in writing on art, instead of sticking to
art-history, and generally give us more adjectives than dates.

I have felt it necessary to discover and record the present
whereabouts of every picture I have mentioned, and wherever
possible to give dates.

The lists of Characteristic Pictures and their whereabouts,
which figure at the head of my notes on some of the outstanding
artists, are not put forward as complete catalogues but as repre-
senting the minimum of works by the particular artists of which
the student must have some knowledge before he can form a
reasonable estimate of the range and character of that artist's
work. I have seen the majority of the pictures which I have
chronicled ; of the others I have had photographs before me at
the time of writing.

The compilation of these lists and the discovery of dates have
been matters of great difficulty — chiefly by reason of the art-
writers' complexes stigmatised above. But in certain cases I
have been able to use recent catalogues compiled by art historians
and in such cases I have referred to them in the text.

Another difftculty with which I have had to contend is the
disgraceful condition of the pictures in the Louvre. A large
proportion of the most interesting French pictures have passed
in various ways, which I have indicated in the text, to the
national collection. Most of the Louvre pictures are in need
of cleaning and conditioning. Many are so covered with
filth and discoloured varnish that it is quite impossible even to
guess at their real appearance. The same applies to the condition
of most of the pictures in French provincial museums. Wherever
possible I have had, therefore, to supplement my studies in the
French galleries by the study of examples in galleries and private
collections where the pictures have been properly cleaned.

I make no claim to have discovered any new facts or pictures. I
have, of course, availed myself of the labours of the many erudite

xxxi

PREFACE

French historians who have written works about the various
periods. But I can, I think, claim that the information assembled
does not exist in any recent book on the subject in English, and
that the reader would have to wade through a number of large
unindexed French volumes to collect it for himself.

I make, of course, no claim to have written a complete
history of French painting, which would be quite impossible
in a book of this size.

viij. Acknowledgments

I am greatly indebted to the private collectors who have
allowed me to reproduce their pictures. In particular I must
thank on my own behalf and that of my readers M. David Weill,
of Paris, Mr. Samuel Courtauld of London, and Mr. Adolph
Lewisohn of New York, who all threw their doors open to me
and gave me a general permission to reproduce as many pictures
as I liked. As the reader will see I have availed myself freely of
these generous permissions. I am also indebted to the brilHant
art scholar M. Charles Terrasse, Charge de mission an Musk du
Louvre^ who facilitated my recent studies in the Louvre ; and to
MM. Wildenstein et Cie, Paris and New York, M. Etienne
Bignou and M. Paul Guillaume of Paris, Messrs. Reid and
Lefevre of London, Messrs. Knoedler, London and New York,
and the Directors of the Leicester Galleries, London, for expert
assistance, photographs, and books. Wliile I have acknowledged
most of the photographs underneath the illustrations, I should
Hke to thank also the Curators of the following Museums :
Metropolitan Museum, New York ; Cleveland Museum of Art,
Ohio ; Art Institute of Chicago ; Detroit Institute of Arts ;
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ; Worcester (Mass.) Art Museum ;
Minneapolis Institute of Arts ; and for permission to reproduce,
the following photographers: Messrs. Mansell, Giraudon,
Alinari, Anderson, Hansfstaengl and Braun.

I have to thank Sir Robert and Lady Witt and their librarians
who have been most kind and helpful on the many occasions
when I have consulted their library of photographs ; Mr. W. F.
Mansell who lent me several hundred photographs from his
collection and allowed me to keep them for many months ; and
my secretary Miss Muriel Skillington who has helped me in
countless ways.

xxxii

ri.ATh

Piiris. Louxre

JEAN MALOUEL. Picta.

Plate 4

PART O^N^E
THE FRENCH PRIMITIVES

-I. FROM SAINT LOUIS TO AGINCOURT

i. Painting in Feudal France

ij. The First School of Avignon
iij. The First School of Paris
iv. The First School of Burgundy

V. The Due de Berry's Manuscripts

B. FROM AGINCOURT TO FRAN9OIS I

i. The Second School of Burgundy
ij . Kene of Anjou and Nicolas Froment
iij . The Second School of Avignon
iv. Charles Vll^ Fouis XI a?id fean Fouquet
V. fean Fouquet
vi. Charles VIII, Louis XII and the Mattre de

Aloulifis
vij. The Alattre de Moulins
viij . The New Italian Taste

JtAN FOUQUET. \irgin and Child.

Villeneuve-les-A vignon .

ENGUERRAND CMARENTON. Con.nati-.n ..f the \ iruin. Detail of Plate 12b.

THE FRliNClI PRIMITIVES

A. FROM SAINT LOUIS TO AGINCOURT

i. Painting in Veudal I ranee

The artist in the modern world refuses to be ranked among
artisans or tradesmen ; he claims the right to be regarded
as a member of a liberal profession and sometimes to be following
a vocation. I le is nobody's servant and nobody is responsible
for his existence.

No French artists attained or aspired to this position till the
reign of Louis XIII. ^ In Feudal France there were at first
artist-valets, artist-monks and artist-artisans ; and when the
first independent artists appeared they were artisan-tradesmen
without pretension to any other rank.

The artist-valets were originally in the regular service of the
King. They were attached to the Lord Chamberlain's depart-
ment of the King's household. They bore the title oi peintre et
valet de chambre du rot ; they were concerned with the King's
comforts and pleasures, and they were expected to be architects,
sculptors, decorators, painters of easel pictures, designers of
tapestry, cabinet makers, book makers, pageant masters and so
forth. When King Jean le Bon (13 5 0-1564) was brought as a
prisoner to England he was accompanied by an artist-valet, one
Girard of Orleans, who had made him at various times a litter,
a number of chairs, a tailor's dummy and a set of chessmen.
W hen the royal establishments became larger and the number of
artist-valets increased, their functions were divided, and the
man considered suitable was selected for the post of premier
peintre du roi with jurisdiction over all the decorative works in the
Lord Chamberlain's department. This system remained in force
with modifications till the Revolution.^

The artist-monks were in the regular service of the Church.
They worked in monasteries where they wrote and illustrated

' Cf. pp. 7, 58, 83, 84.

* The system was imitated in the establishments of other members of
the royal family and at the noblemen's Courts. From the thirteenth
century to the Revolution Queens, Princes and nobles as well as Kings had
artists attached to their establishments.

PAINTING IN FEUDAL FRANCE

ecclesiastical manuscripts. These manuscripts were used in the
monasteries and they were also sold for ecclesiastical purposes ;
sufficient survive to indicate that the style of the monks' illustra-
tions was based on traditions which went back to the earliest
Christian art at Byzantium. Illustrated manuscripts had been a
powerful instrument in the propagation of the faith among
illiterate populations in the early middle ages. It was thanks to
the manuscripts that the Byzantine conceptions of the appearance
and attributes of the sacred characters permeated to all Christian
countries and were adopted everywhere by the Church for early
mediaeval sculpture and mosaics and for the painted windows
of the great cathedrals. The formal character of this style is well
known. It persisted in Russia right up to the recent Revolution.
Its essence was the deliberate dehumanisation of sacred figures
in order that they might appear impressive and aloof. The
French artist-monks drew such figures in their manuscripts in
the thirteenth century.

The artist-artisans were in the regular service of the builders
of the Gothic cathedrals ; they had incessant occupation all
through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ; they covered
the porches with sculpture and filled the windows with painted
glass. From the many examples of this glass painting which
have fortunately survived we know that the painters were
influenced by the illustrated manuscripts — though it must be
noted that these glass paintings in turn influenced later genera-
tions of illustrators who found that the patterns of the leading
in the windows gave them new ideas.

These superb cathedral windows are outside my subject. But
I must note, in passing, that, though the glass painters in a
cathedral such as Chartres were ordered by the Church to retain
the former Byzantine style when representing sacred characters,
they were given a relatively free hand in narrative scenes in which
they recorded their fresh and direct observation of the life around
them. I reproduce some thirteenth-century heads from the
Chartres windows (PI. 2). In our photograph-sodden age it is
hard for the layman to appreciate this naif calligraphic art, where
every line is a record of a new realisation of life as expressed in
form, and not a record of some momentary appearance of form
in light. But its qualities have been fully realised by certain

THE FIRST SCHOOL OF A\aGNON

intelligent and widely cultivated artists of the modern French
school. i\I. Matisse and the I'am'es have made great efforts to
recapture the vitality of these paintings by their countrymen who
worked as simple artisans seven centuries ago ; and when we
come to the latest aspects of French painting we shall find them,
in appearance, most singularly like the first.

Independent artist-artisans were very exceptional figures in
thirteenth-centur)' France, and it would seem from the records
that they were shopkeepers and tavern-keepers who illustrated
manuscripts in their spare time and offered them for sale. But
in the fourteenth ccntur}^ the independent painter becomes less
exceptional, especially in Paris, which was now the seat of the
monarchy, with a Court, a University and a considerable number
of well-to-do citizens willing to buy not only ecclesiastical, but
also secular manuscripts. A new class of independent book-
making-artisans accordingly arose in response to this demand,
and these men with secular customers to please soon found them-
selves abandoning the fixed traditions of the Byzantine st}-le,
though there was still a tendency to retain them when delineating
the sacred figures. A pioneer among these new illustrators was
one Jean Pucclle, who won so high a reputation that he was
commissioned by Charles IV (13 22-1 3 28) to paint a Book of
Hours for the Queen ; he also painted the celebrated Breviaire
de Belleville preserved in the Biblioth^que Nationale in Paris.

At the same time we note the appearance in Paris of the first
independent painters of easel pictures. But before considering
their productions we must glance at the Papal Court at Avignon,
an art centre from which the Parisian painting w^as derived.

ij. The First School of Avignon

The Papal Court at Avignon played a most important part in
the development of French Gothic painting. The Papacy was
established in Avignon in 1309 and remained till 1370; two
Antipopes reigned there between 1378 and 1424. The Palace
of the Popes was primarily a fortress, since the Papacy had
migrated to France for security ; but within the fortress there
was a palace, and this dual character is apparent to this day. The
Avignon Popes, though not Italian, were in touch with Italian

THE FIRST SCHOOL OF AVIGNON

art. The structure of the Palace is Italian, not French, in style ;
and Italian artists were summoned to decorate the walls. The
Sienese master Simone Martini went to Avignon in 1339 and
died there five years later. In the Audience Chamber and the
Chapels of St. John the Baptist and St. Martial in the Palace
we can still see frescoes, representing saints and sacred subjects,
in the Sienese-Florentine fourteenth-century style. In the
Garderobe Tower, moreover, we also see frescoes (now much
repainted) representing outdoor scenes, hunting, bathing, fruit-
gathering and so forth in a style resembling the "verdure"
type of Gothic tapestry which inspired William Morris.

In addition to the frescoes in the Palace numerous easel
pictures were produced at and round Avignon in this Papal
period. These works of this first School of Avignon were
fundamentally Italian in st}de, but they also show cosmopolitan
elements. For the Papal Court itself was cosmopolitan ; Avig-
non lay on the main route to Italy ; there was continual passage
through the city of French and Flemish artists to Italy, and of
Italian artists to the North ; travellers, artists and dealers came
and went bringing Italian pictures for royal and noble patrons
in Flanders and France. In particular there was continuous
contact with Milan where the Cathedral, begun in 1386, gave
work to artists of many different nationalities.^

As an example of the cosmopolitan style of this first School
of Avignon, which was the foundation of the first School of
Paris, I reproduce the charming Virgin and Child with Saint and
Donor (PI. i), in the Museum of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Here we have the gentle spirit and the formalism of Sienese art
together with characters in the drapery that recall the early
pictures of the School of Catalonia.''

1 Between 1386 and 1401 many French artists of eminence were working
there ; and a Parisian architect, Philippe Bonaventure, who went there in
1 3 89, was in charge, apparentlj'^, of the whole operations for two years. The
French architects and artisans were welcomed at Milan for the first fifteen
years of the construction of the Cathedral. After that, presumably because
they became so numerous that the Italians became jealous, the work was
carried on exclusively by Italians. Traces of French — notably Burgundian-^ —
architecture, attributed to these migrations to Milan, are to be found in
various Italian cathedrals and churches.

^ Many of these are preserved in the Museum at Barcelona.

JEAN FOUQUET. Charles VII.

Paris. LoHvri-

FRENCH SCHOOL, c. 1470. St. Louis and St. John the Baptist.
Detail of Plate loa.

MAITRE DE MOULINS. The \'iru'in. Detail <.f The Nativity.

THE FIRST SCMOOT. OF PARIS

iij. The I'irst School of Paris

King C;h:irlcs V (1364-13 80) built the fortress castle of the
Bastille and the fortress-palace known as the Old Louvre. His
predecessor, Jean le Bon, already referred to, had ordered his
artists to decorate the walls of his Chateau de V'audreuil with
religious subjects and hunting scenes ; Charles V ordered his
artists to paint similar frescoes in the Louvre and in the Queen's
palace of St. Pol. The frescoes in the Queen's palace are said to
have represented " a forest of trees covered with fruit, mingled
with shrubs and flowers, among which birds and other animals
disported and cliildren ran eating fruit and picking flowers."
From this description it is clear that this Parisian decorative
style resembled the paintings in the Garderobe Tower at
Avignon.

The first easel pictures produced by the independent artists in
Paris date from the reign of Charles VI (13 86-1422), who lives
in history as Charles le Fou. In the early part of his reign there
was a temporary cessation of the war with England, a brief
period of peace before Henry V led his army to Agincourt in
141 5. In this period Paris enjoyed prosperity. The royal and
feudal courts were extravagant and willing to buy objects of
luxury of all kinds, more indeed than could be supplied by the
artists attached to their establishments. In these conditions the
independent painters of easel pictures arose and prospered. By
the end of the century they had become so notable they were
recognised as a distinct class of trading artisans, and in 1391
they were granted a Charter on the basis of which they were
subsequently organised as the Guild of St. Luke, known as the
Maitrise}

From this time forward the Parisian artists all belong either to
the class of royal or ducal domestics or to the class of indepen-
dent artisans organised in their own trade association, which soon
adopted the Guild system of apprenticeship terminating in the
rank of Master. In Feudal France neither class was sutiiciently

^ The Maitrise was a corporation and the members had the dual status of
artisan and merchant, the second being considered the more reputable as it
carried with it certain civic rights — the exact opposite of the relative status
of the artist and the dealer in later times. (Cf. pp. 83, 84, 122 and 175.)

THE FIRST SCHOOL OF BURGUNDY

numerous for any conflict to arise. The demand for art still
greatly exceeded the supply. But later, under Louis XIII and
Louis XIV, the mutual jealousy of the two classes created a
third class consisting of members of the Royal Academy, which
was founded in 1648.^

The few easel pictures which survive from tliis first School
of Paris are works of much interest and charm. The Louvre
has a grisaille (monochrome) on silk and two paintings with
gold backgrounds, by unnamed artists of tliis School. The
grisaille — which is known as the Parement de Narbonne (because
it was discovered and bought by the painter Boilly in Narbonne,
before it reached the Louvre in 1 8 5 2) — consists of a central panel
of the Crucifixion, with Charles V and Queen Jeanne de Bourbon
as donors, and six other panels with scenes from the Passion.
The paintings on gold backgrounds are an Hntombmejit and a
circular Pieta. All three paintings, originally in elaborate
settings, were intended for private apartments or chapels.

iv. The First School of Burgundy

In addition to Avignon and Paris there was a third important
art centre in France between the accession of Charles VI and
the English occupation of Paris after Agincourt. This was the
city of Dijon, where Piiilippe le Hardi, Due de Bourgogne,
held his court. This Duke of Burgundy was Charles le Fou's
uncle, and with his brother, Jean Due de Berry, he was the King's
guardian during his minority — for Charles was eleven years old
when he succeeded. The two Dukes lived in great magnificence,
giving entertainments where their courtiers wore the most
fantastic costumes, embroidered with pearls, hung with gold
chains and trimmed with furs. To support their extravagances
they were rapacious in the vast areas which they administered,
— Philippe in Burgundy and Flanders (he inherited Flanders in
1 3 84) and Jean in the regions round Bourges and Poitiers, in the
Auvergne and Languedoc. From the standpoint of the student
of French painting both men were figures of outstanding
importance ; for both were enthusiastic patrons of the arts and
both employed artists who were born in Flanders.

1 Cf. pp. 82-88.

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FRENCH SCHOOL, c. 1470. The Altarpiecc of the Parliament of Paris.

NICOLAS FROMENT. The Altarpiecc of the Burning Bush.

THE FlRSr SCHOOL Ol' BURGIINDY

'I'lic Duke of Burgundy, even befcjre he became (>)unt of
Flanders, had Flemish artists at his court in Dij(jn. He had
summoned one Jean de Beaumetz in 1375, and two years later
one Melchior Broederlam, who painted two triptychs for the
("hartreuse Monastery at Champmol, one of which is preserved
in the Museum at Dijon. The next Flemish artist invited was
lean Malouel, painter of the Pieta (PI. 3), in the Louvre. In this
picture, despite the Flemish origin of the painter, we perceive
an Itahan rhythm in the spacing and Italian colour on a gold
ground.

Philippe of Burgundy died in 1404 and was succeeded by
Jean san Peur, who summoned Llenri dc Bellcchose from Bra-
bant. The picture called ^Vbe hast Co/nmimion and Martyrdom of
St. Denis (PL 4), in the Louvre, is believed to have been begun
by Malouel and finished by Bellechose. In this we see the Cruci-
fixion in the centre ; on the left St. Denis receives the Com-
munion through the bars of his prison ; on the right is the
execution scene, where we see the saint three times: — first stand-
ing resigned to his fate, then kneeling at the block, and then
with his head severed from his body on the ground. The
picture has the same stylistic qualities as Malouel's Pieta ; the
colours are lovely on the gold ground, and even the swing of
the excutioner's axe makes a tranquil curve in the rhythmic
lines of the composition. Malouel's Pieta (PL 3) and the
Malouel and Bellechose Last Com m union and Martyrdom of St..
Denis (PL 4) are the key pictures for the study of the first
Burgundian School. All other pictures of this period described
as Burgundian have been grouped round them.^

V. The Dtic de Berry's Manuscripts
I have referred to the misgovernment of his command by
Jean Duke of Berry, the Duke of Burgundy's brother. This

^ The Cleveland (Ohio) Museum has an interesting picture, A Sealed
Bishop, catalogued by the Museum authorities as " Southern French or
Spanish (?) about 1425 ". Judging by an excellent photograph kindly
supplied to me it must be grouped with the first School of Burgundy.

The Burgundian Portrait of a Young Lady of Sixteen in Philadelphia (J. G.
Johns(.)n Collection), is a little later, i.e. about 1450.

C 9

THE DUG DE BERRY'S MANUSCRIPTS

was so serious that Charles VI, when he took the reins into his
own hands, made a ceremonial progress through Languedoc
and burned the Duke's chief tax-collector to appease the public
discontent. When the King succumbed to the madness which
has earned him his title, the Duke of Berry became Governor of
Paris and there again his exactions were so unmerciful that
popular risings destroyed his chateaux of Nesle and Bicetre.
But the man lives in history as the most enthusiastic French art
patron of his age. He built himself magnificent castles ; he
borrowed Beaumetz and other artists from the Duke of Bur-
gundy ; he covered his castles with sculpture ; he collected
tapestries and jewels. It was above all for manuscripts that he
seems to have had a passion. No fewer than forty books
adorned with miniatures are known to have been produced to
his order. His Psalter (Bibliotheque Nationale) was the work of
Beauneveu and other artists ; his Grandes Heures (Bibliotheque
Nationale) of Jacquemart de Hesdin ; and his name is immor-
talised in Les Tres Riches Heures du Due de Berry now preserved
in the Musee Conde at Chantilly.

In the superb Chantilly manuscript, the work of Paul, Jean
and Armand of Limbourg, the artists painted a calendar which
marks an early stage in the history of the genre picture as an
ohjet-de-luxe. Here, for January, we see the Duke himself at
dinner in a tapestried hall ; he is burly and red-faced and is
waited upon by servants in his livery. For February we see a
snow-covered landscape and within doors a lady who dries her
petticoat by the fire at which her male and female servants,
destitute of underclothes, also warm themselves with their
gowns pulled up above their knees ; for March we see peasants
ploughing and pruning their vines ; for July harvesting ; for
September the vendange ; and so forth. In the background
of each picture one of the Duke's castles is exquisitely por-
trayed. The October picture which is particularly famous
presents peasants sowing and, in the background, the old
Louvre.

All the Duke of Berry's artists were of Flemish birth ; they
all worked also at architecture, sculpture and easel painting,
though their miniatures alone can be ascribed to them with
certainty ; and they must all be assimilated to the Burgundian

THH DUG Dl' BiaiRY'S MANUSCRIPTS

School to which they contributed new aspects of develop-
ment.^

' In the Duke's Psalter, for example, Beaunevcu drew saints and apostles
which stand extremely close to figures in the easel pictures by Malf)ucl and
Bellcchosc, and closer still to those in the charming painting known as the
Wilton Diptych, which many scholars regard as English work and which, it
will be remembered, was acquired in 1929 from Lord Pembroke for the
London National Gallery as an essential feature of Britain's artistic heritage
for ^^"90,000. Beauncvcu's name has also been associated with the celebrated
portrait of Richard II in Westminster Abbey.

B. FROM AGINCOURT TO FRANCOIS I

i. T/je Second School of Burgundy

Between Agincourt and the English evacuation in 1453 con-
ditions in France were not favourable to painting. Many nobles
were killed in the war and more were ruined. The English
occupied Paris from 1420 to 1436, and when Charles VI moved
to Bourges the first School of Paris came to an end. The Court
held at Bourges by Charles VII (who succeeded in 1422) was
an impecunious makeshift affair in distressing times, when half
France was occupied by the invaders and their ally, Phillipe le
Bon, the new Duke of Burgundy, The Duke's fortune, however,
was in striking contrast to that of the King. The Duke had
inherited from his father and his grandfather, the patrons of
Malouel and Bellechose, their vast domains in Burgundy and
Flanders. He increased them by the purchase of Luxembourg,
and by various territorial concessions when he made terms
with the King in 1435. At the height of his power he ruled
over Burgundy, Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland. He
was immensely rich ; his Court at Bruges was luxurious ;
and he had admirable artists. While Jeanne d'Arc was being
bullied in a trial that lasted five months, Jan Van Eyck,
the Duke's chief painter, was working on the Altarpiece of
the hamb ; and when the Duke died in 1467 the Flemish
school had already been enriched by the whole production
of Roger van der Weyden and most of the pictures by Dirck
Bouts.

The reputations of the Van Eycks and of Roger van dcr
Weyden soon spread to France where notabilities began to desire
their pictures. Jan Van Eyck's The Virgin with Chancellor Kolin
in the Louvre, was commissioned by Nicholas Rolin, Chancellor
of Burgundy, and presented by him to the collegiate church of
Notre Dame at Autun. This became a widely celebrated picture
and it was imitated both by Flemish and by French artists. The
altarpiece at Beaune, probably by Roger van der Weyden, was
commissioned by the same chancellor, and this work also must
have attracted much attention. The influence of Roger van der
Weyden is clearly seen moreover in the fine work known as the
Altarpiece of the Parliament of Paris (Pis. 7 and loa), now in the

RT'Nl- OF ANJOU AND NICOf.AS FROM 1 'NT

Louvre.^ The Van F'yck tradition on the other hand is the
foundation of the AnnutKiatinn by an unknown master in the
Madeleine Church at Aix, and of the National Gallery pictures
by Simon Marmion.- Flemish influence also permeated to
France in this period in the persons of the Flemish painters who
frescoed Notre Dame de Dijon and those whom another eminent
art patron of the period, King Rene of Anjou, invited to his
courts at Angers and Aix-en-Provence.

ij . Kcne of Atyoii and Nicolas Fro went

W'e know the appearance of/? bon roi Rene at the age of sixty-
six from the picture painted by Nicolas Froment(Pls.9aand lob).
Though as unicsthetic to look upon as his uncle, the Due of
Berry, Rene was equally enthusiastic as an art patron and he
wrote poetry and painted pictures himself.^

From 1442 to 1471 Rene held his Court at Angers ; then he
was dispossessed by Louis XI and during the remaining eleven
years of his life he held his Court at Aix. At Angers his Court
painters were imported from Flanders. At Aix, as Comte dc
Provence, he commissioned Froment (whose home was Uzes
above Nimes) to paint the Altarpiece 0} the Burning Bush (PI. lob)
for the cathedral of Aix, which can still be seen there.

Apart from its subject, the Altarpiece oj the Burning Bush is
rather a dull picture. In the central panel we see the Virgin and
Child in the Burning Bush appearing to Moses ; a flock of sheep
and goats and a large dog are in the foreground between Moses
and an angel. Rene and his wife Jeanne de Laval (Pis. 9a and 9b)

1 Cf. p. 16.

2 The Christ before Caiaphas in Philadelphia (J. G, Johnson Collection)
is ascribed to Simon Marmion's School.

^ The vicissitudes of Rene's career are typical of the period. He was the
nephew of Charles V, the brother of Charles VII's Queen, the father of
Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI of England, and the son of Louis of
Anjou, who had been crowned King of Naples by the Antipope Clement
VII at Avignon. On paper he was King of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem,
Duke of Anjou, of Lorraine and Bar and Count of Provence. But his father
had never been able to make good his claim to Naples, and Rene was not
able to do so either or even to retain the Dukedom of Lorraine until he had
suffered imprisonment at the hands of another claimant and paid him
a large ransom.

THE SECOND SCHOOL OF AVIGNON

appear in the side panels as kneeling donors in the traditional
attitude. Rene is accompanied by a small dog. The colours
in this picture, which struck me when I last saw it as in need of
cleaning, are lifeless ; and the hybrid nature of the style — which
gives us a Flemish angel opposite a Venetian Moses — is curiously
disconcerting. The convincing passages are the admirably
incisive portraits.^

ii j . The Second School of Avignon

The composite nature of Froment's altarpiece is characteristic
of all Provencal work of this period where a second and most
interesting School of Avignon was now flourishing. The
Papal Legates who now occupied the Palace of the Popes con-
tinued the traditions which had made Avignon a centre of art
production. The Legates Cardinal de Foix and Cardinal della
Rovere were notable art patrons ; and there are records of
numerous commissions given by convents, monasteries, churches
and rich citizens of the Avignon region. The second School of
Avignon was in fact as influential as the first and it was quite as
cosmopolitan.

Three splendid works survive from this second School of
Avignon : — a Pieta and a Christ standing in the Tomb, both by
unknown masters and both in the Louvre, and a Coronation of
the Virgin, by Enguerrand Charenton in the Hospice of Vil-
leneuve-les-Avignon.

The Pieta (Pis. 1 1 and 13b) is one of the world's most affecting
pictures. It was in the Chartreuse of Villeneuve-les-Avignon
till the Revolution. It has been disgracefully neglected and it
is now in need of conditioning. But the artist's majestic design
and his deep restrained passion are still tremendously moving.
All the noblest elements in the cosmopolitan world of the
Avignon School seem to have combined to produce this master-

1 Hardly anything is known of Nicolas Fromcnt. This altarpiece which
was painted in 1475 and a Resurrection of hcr^arus painted in 1461, and now
in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, are the only pictures which are ascribed
to him with certainty. Some scholars give him the portraits of Rene and
Jeanne de Laval in the Louvre and a Saint Siffrein Bishop of Carpentras in
the Musee Calvet at Avignon. A triptych in Philadelphia (J, G, Johnson
Collection) is ascribed to his school.

THE SECOND SCHOOL OF AVIGNON

piece. W c have Italian rhythm, Flemish pathos, Spanish drama
and I'lench tenderness. And the disparity in style between the
sacred group and the donor is not disconcerting because, whereas
in Fromcnt's Buming Bf/sb, against all the traditions of Christian
art, the angel is naturalistic-Gothic and Moses is formal-Italian
in design, here the traditional relations arc maintained — the
sacred figures are hieratic and the donor is realistically por-
trayed.'

The Chris f staiulhig in the Tomb (PI. 13a) emanates from the
Church of Boulbon (Bouches-du-Rhone). It has been even more
neglected in the past than the Vieth^ but it has now been restored.
In this impressive and most curious work, Christ stands in the
tomb ; behind we see the instruments of the Passion, and,
withered to the bone, the hand which received the thirty pieces
of silver ; in the foreground is the pillar of the flagellation ;
behind the kneeling donor is the figure of St. Agricola ; behind
the saint there is a coat of arms showing a stork — a reference
to the legend of St. Agricola who obtained by prayer a flight
of storks which destroyed a plague of snakes in the country-
side.

In Charenton's attractive Coronation of the Virgin (Pis. 6 and
1 2b) the large flat design of the central group comes from Italy ;
but beneath we have a completely Gothic landscape and city
with the Crucifixion, and lower still we see the blessed received
by an angel and the damned suffering torture from devils in
hell.

The Coronation of the Virgin is in fact a three-tier picture which
can be assimilated, to the church performances on three stages
where the top stage represented heaven, the middle earth, and
the lower the regions after death.^

^ It has been suggested that the picture is the work of a Spanish artist
working in Avignon ; the Moorish city in the background is pointed to in
support of this view,

^ Cf. note p. 75. Charenton worked at Avignon from 1447 onwards.
He also painted the Virgin of Pity, in the Musee Condc at Chantilly as
a commission at Avignon in 1452. The Coronation of the Virgin was com-
missioned for the Chartreuse of Avignon in the same year.

CHARLES VII, LOUIS XI AND JEAN FOUQUET ]

iv. Charles VII, houis XI and Jean Fouquet

1 have referred above to the unhappy Court of Charles VII
(the CharUe of Bernard Shaw's '* Saint Joan ") at Bourges. We \
know Httle of the painters of this sovereign. We know however
that Jean Fouquet painted his portrait (PI. 7), which survives in j
the Louvre.^ i

Jean Fouquet was also Court artist under the sly and sinister
Louis XI (1461-1483). But of other painters at this Court we
again know very little, though it is recorded of Colin d'Amiens, ;
who was one of them, that he was commissioned to design a
sepulchral effigy of the King in which the face was to be ''jeune et
plein " and the head, it was expressly stated, was not be shown
as bald.

Apart from the productions of Jean Fouquet the outstanding \
surviving picture of this reign is the Altarpiece of the Parliament
oj Paris (PI. loa) already mentioned. In this picture, which was
in the Chambre Doree of the Parliament till the Revolution, I
have noted the influence of Roger van der Weyden. The picture j
shows us the Crucifixion in the centre ; on the left stand Saint j
Louis (with crown and sceptre and robe embroidered with
fleur-du-lys), and Saint John the Baptist ; Saint Denis and '
Charlemagne are on the right ; a quaint dog is at the feet of |
Charlemagne ; the background contains views of contemporary |
Paris (PL 7b). The choice of the figures of Saint Louis and !
Charlemagne for this particular work may have been, I submit, '
a symbolic reference to the accord betwen Louis XI and the ]
Emperor Maximilian when the Dauphin was affianced to his j
daughter Margaret. ^ ;

We know nothing of the artist who painted the Altarpiece oj \
the Parliament of Paris, but in Jean Fouquet, whose work'j
dominates this reign, we meet for the first time an artist whose
life and activities can be envisaged in some measure as a whole.

^ Cf. p. 17 and PI. 7a.

2 A similar reference may reside in the National Gallery fragment, The
Aleeling of Joachim and Anna, ascribed to the Maitre de Moulins (cf. pp. 20 and \
21 and pis. 8 and 12a), where we see Charlemagne, who is obviously balanced '.
I y another figure — probably Saint Louis — in the lost half of the picture. 1

16 !

Moulins. Cathedral

MAITRE DE MOULINS. Virgin and Child with Donors.
(Central panel ot triptych).

V liiciwuvc'iii, .ivij^Hon. Muii-iiiii

ENGUERRAND CHARENTON. Coronation of the \'irgin.

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Antwerp.
Berlin.

Museum

Kaiser Friedrich

Museum

JEAN FOUQUET

V. jean I'ouquet

BORN TOURS C. 1415 DIED TOURS C. 1 48 1

CUAKACTEKISTIC PICTURES

Charles VII

Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins
Virgin and Child

Etienne Chevalier and his patron, St.
Etienne

CHARACTERISTIC MINIATURES

London. British Museum Page from Le Eivre d'lleures d'Etientie

Chevalier
London. H. Yates Thompson Pages from Historie ancienne jusqu'd

Collection Cesar

Paris. Louvre Pages from Le Litre d'lleures d' Etienne

Chevalier
Paris. Louvre Pages from His/oire ancienne jusqu'd

Cesar
Paris. Bihliotheque Page from Ee Eivre d'lleures d'Etienne

Nationale Chevalier

Chantilly. Musee Conde Forty pages from Ee Litre d'Heures

d'Etienne Chevalier

Jean Fouquct made his first reputation in his native town of
Tours, and he was under thirty when he painted the remarkable
portrait of Charles VII (PI. ya). The deep melancholy imprinted
on the features in this portrait makes it an intensely interesting
document. The physiognomy fits in with the character of this
neurasthenic prince who was shaken from his lethargy by
Jeanne d'Arc and later dominated by Agnes Sorel. In style the
picture is tied to the Franco-Flemish miniature tradition ; there
is no hint in it of the trans-alpine Renaissance. But shortly after
painting it Fouquet went to Italy and thereafter Italian influence
is apparent in his work.^

^ In Italy Fouquet painted a portrait of Eugenius IV. This Pope, a
Venetian, followed Pope Martin V, who was a member of the great and
wealthy Roman house of Colonna. Eugenius claimed from the Colonna
family their vast inheritance from Martin V as Papal property, and when
they refused to surrender their wealth he joined with their rivals the Orsini,

D 17

JEAN FOUQUET

Fouquet returned from Italy about 1447 and again found
employment at Charles VII's Court. He was looked on with
favour by Agnes Sorel and by Etienne Chevalier, who had risen
from the position of the King's secretary to that of Treasurer of
the Realm. Probably before 1450, the year in which Agnes Sorel
died, he painted a diptych for Etienne Chevalier which was
originally at Loches. The right hand panel of this diptych, T/'i?
Virgin and Child (J?\. 5), is now in Antwerp, It shows us Agnes
Sorel as the Virgin, surrounded by scarlet angels on a blue
ground. This superb work which harks back to the first School
of Paris is hieratic in conception. It follows the old tradition
which prescribed formal treatment for the sacred figures, and-
it is perhaps the last great mediaeval picture painted in France.^

The celebrated portrait, Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins^ in the
Louvre, was painted about 1465. The subject was Chancellor
of France and a notability under both Charles VII and Louis XL
He is depicted with elaborate renaissance architecture in the
background and the broad silhouetting of the composition is
entirely Italian in character. No other existing paintings can be
attributed with any certainty to Fouquet, though it is known
that he painted pictures for Notre-Dame-La-Riche, at Tours. ^

But though we have only four paintings by Fouquet we have
a number of his illustrations to manuscripts. The series of
miniatures known as " The Forty Fouquets " exhibited in the
Musee Conde at Chantilly is from a Livre d'Heures painted by
him for Etienne Chevalier ; and he also painted books for Marie
of CI eves, for the Duke of Nemours, and others.

and imprisoned various members of the Colonna family and seized their
castles and belongings. The populace, urged on by the Colonna faction,
rose in revolt and Eugenius had to fly from Rome by the Tiber where the
ship that carried him was assailed with shot and stones. That was in 1433.
By 1443 he was back in Rome ; in 1447 he died ; Fouquet's commission
probably belongs to the Pope's last years.

^ The left-hand panel of this diptych, which is now in Berlin, is much
less interesting. It shows Etienne Chevalier on his knees with his patron,
St. Etienne, standing behind him in a handsome Italian apartment. Both
figures are painted as portraits.

2 A Calvary, Crucifixion and Deposition in Notre Dame at Loches is
ascribed to his school.

J'ans. Louxn-

SECOND SCHOOL OF A\ ICiNON. Christ standing in the Tomb.

Piiris. I.Pir.r,-

SECOND Sc;ilOt)L Ol A\ ICNON. I Ica.i ..t" Christ. Detail of Plate ii.

CHARLIiS VIII AND LOUIS XII

vi. Charles I 7//, \j)uis XU and the Mattrc de Moulins

Darkness descends again in respect of the painters of the
period of Charles VIII (1483-1498) and Louis XII (1498-15 15).
We have seen that Jean Fouquct came from Tours and that city
would appear to have had a group of independent artists, pro-
bably working as a local Guild. In the last quarter of the
century these Tours artists had a reputation as makers of illus-
trated manuscripts ; their works represent the last important
production in this art which, destroyed by the invention of the
printing press, developed to the art of the wood-cut and the
copper-plate engraving.

One Jean Bourdichon (145 7-1 521) passed from this School
at Tours to the Royal service in the reign of Charles VIII, and
he painted pictures for this sovereign and also for Louis XII.
None of these paintings survives, but a triptych with Scenes from
the life 0} St. Anne in Philadelphia (J. G. Johnson Collection),
and a Virgin and Child with angels in the Minneapolis Institute of
Arts, are ascribed to his School and we have from his hand a
very celebrated series of miniatures, the L.ivre d'Heures (Biblio-
theque Nationale), which he painted for Anne de Bretagne,
Charles VIII's Queen. Bourdichon is believed to have worked
also for Francois I.

To this period we must also ascribe the exceedingly curious
Annunciation to the Virgin in the Fogg Art Museum at Har\^ard
University. Here we see Flemish influences that go back to the
Van Eyck tradition combined with echoes of the early Venetian
genre painters if not indeed of Carpaccio himself.

The most mysterious figure of the period is, however, one
Jean Perreal, known also as Jean de Paris, who was a Court
painter in both reigns and who, it is recorded, painted portraits,
designed effigies and pageants and the decoration of pageants
on royal tours. There are no surviving works by this artist
and it has been suggested that he is identical with the artist
known as the Maitre de Moulins whom we must now con-
sider.

Moulins.

THE MAITRE DE MOULINS

vij. The Maitre de Moulins

BORN BEFORE 1480 DIED AFTER I 3 20

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURE

Cathedral

Triptych. The Virgin and Child in
Glory with Pierre Due de Bourbon,
the Duchesse Anne de France and
their daughter as donors

ASCRIBED PICTURES

London,

National Gallery

Meeting of Joachim and Anna

Glasgow.

Art Gallery

Saint with Donor. .•

Philadelphia.

J. G. Johnson
Collection

Portrait of a Young Man

Paris.

Louvre

Woman as donor with St. Mary Mag-
dalen

Autun.

Eveche

Nativity

Munich.

Alte Pinakothek

Charles II of Bourbon

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Charles II of Bourbon

Brussels.

Museum

Virgin and Child with angels

The Maitre de Moulins is one of those mysterious figures in
art history who is not a person but merely a name. He is the
artist who painted the triptych, Virgm and Child with Donors (PI.
12a), in the Cathedral at Mouhns. That is really all we know
about him.

The donors represented in this picture are Pierre Due de
Bourbon and his wife, Anne de France. It is therefore clear
that the artist was commissioned to paint the altarpiece by the
Bourbons, then immensely powerful, since the Duchess was
Louis XTs remarkable daughter, who was Regent during the
minority of her brother, Charles VIII, and earned for herself the
tide of " Madame la Grande."

The altarpiece is obviously the work of a very able artist,
who must have been widely famous in his day both on the
strength of his talents and by reason of his connection with the
Bourbon Court. But there is no record of the commissioning
of this Moulins picture.

On the other hand there are numerous records of an artist,

THE NIAX' ITALIAN 'lASTi;

Jean Pcrrcal, already mentioned, to whom no works can be
ascribed. We have thus at one and the same period a picture
of outstanding quahtics but no artist, and an artist of wide cele-
brity but no pictures. Some scholars accordingly suggest, as
noted, that Jean Perreal is the missing artist. But this is not yet
established ; and until proof is forthcoming the painter of the
Moulins picture must remain the Maitre dc Moulins as before.
Various pictures are ascribed by scholars to this mysterious
Maitre dc Moulins on the ground of their real or imagined
resemblance to the Moulins picture. I have set down some of
them above. But these ascriptions it must be remembered arc
purely conjectural. The Chantilly picture is probably a copy of
the picture in Munich. Two pictures in the Louvre, wings of
an altarpiece, showing the same Due de Bourbon and the
Duchess Anne, now catalogued as by the " Maitre de 1488," can
be approximated to the list above. I reproduce the figure of the
Virgin from the Nativity (PI. 8) at Autun, which is equally
charming whether the ascription to the Maitre de Moulins is
justified or not.

viij. The New Italian Taste

Though we are thus in almost complete ignorance of French
painting under Charles VIII and Louis XII, we have certain
knowledge of the trend of aristocratic taste in painting. This
was the period of the fantastic quarrels about the Kingdom of
Naples and the beginning of the Italian wars. In these wars the
Kings and notables of France came into contact with Italy in
the full flush of the Renaissance ; and this contact caused
inevitably a revolution in artistic taste in France. When Charles
VIII returned from Italy in 1495 he brought back Italian pictures
from Naples, and he immediately attempted the foundation of an
art centre at home. Louis XII in Milan endeavoured to induce
Leonardo da Vinci to work for him, and in his reign various
Italian artists were imported from Italy. Benedetto Ghirlandaio
came to France and painted an Adoration of the Magi in the Church
of Aigueperse in Auvergne ; and other Italian artists painted
frescoes in the Cathedral of Albi.

The most enthusiastic of the many French patrons of Italian
art at this period was the Cardinal d'Amboise who owned a

THE NEW ITALIAN TASTE

Descent from the Cross^ by Pemgino and summoned Solario from
Milan to paint frescoes in the chapel of his Chateau de Gaillon
which he built in the new Italian style and made a centre for the
new Italian taste.

Francois I, who is usually credited with the introduction of
Renaissance art to France, did indeed consolidate and disseminate
new standards. But at the time of his accession the new move-
ment was in fact already launched.

22 I

PART Tiro
FRl'KCH RliNAISSANCE PAINTING

A. THIi; SCHOOL OP FONTAINEBLEAU

i . Franfois I and the Palace ofFontahieblean
ij. Juiter work at Fontainebleau
iij. The Fontainebleau St jle

B. FRENCH RENAISSANCE PORTRAITS

i. The Portrait Albums
ij. The Clouds and Cornel lie de Lj'ons

k'niicii. Must lull

SCF-IOOL OF FONTAINEBLEAU

Louise (Jc Lorraine (?) as \'enus.

I'aris. I'rivitt,- ' '■.;!. tw;

JEAN COUSIN fits. Artemisia.

l\irii. Lo-.iX,

|i AN (A)LSIN pin. Eva Trima Pandora.

Anturrp. Museum.

JEAN CLOUET. Frangois II as Dauphin.

RENAISSANCE PAINTING IN FRANCE

^l. THE SCHOOL 01- FONTAINEBLliAU

i . FratJ(0!S I and the Palace of i'oniainebleau

Francois I was twenty when he ascended the throne.
He was a fine figure of a man, physically courageous,
attractive to women, and a lover of the arts. His taste from the
outset was for the new Italian movement ; and he already had
several Itahan artists in his service — including one Bartolomeo
Guetti, who was later to paint nymphs and satyrs round the
Tennis Court of the new Louvre. His reign opened with the
victor)' of Marignano in which he personally played a valiant
part. He returned to Paris in 1 5 16 to a Court of men who lauded
him as a hero and of women who were ready to fall into his
arms. The monarchy, moreover, had been much strengthened
towards the end of the preceding century. By one more turn
of the wheel Francois became in fact as well as in name an
absolute King with a plentiful supply of money. He set out to
make the most of all aspects of the position and, iuter alia^ to
indulge in his taste for art.

After Marignano Frangois had visited Milan, Pavia and
Bologna. At Bologna he had a four-day conference with Leo X
— when their talk was doubtless more of Michelangelo and
Raphael than history records. In Milan he continued the inter-
course with Leonardo da Vinci begun by Louis XII. As all the
world knows, Leonardo accepted his invitation to go to France
and the King gave him an estate near Amboisc where he lived
till his death in 15 19. Andrea del Sarto accepted a similar
invitation from the King ; he arrived in 1 5 1 8, painted the Charity
in the Louvre, and some other pictures, and returned to Italy.
Then began the long struggle between Frangois and the Emperor
Charles. The defeat of Pavia was in 1525 ; Francois was for six
months a captive in Madrid ; when he returned to France he
began to build the Palace of Fontainebleau which is so closely
associated with his name.

In the first period Francois had lived partly at St. Germain-
en-laye and partly at Blois, which he enlarged, and other places.
In 1 5 19 he had begun the building of the vast Chateau dc
E 25

FRANCOIS I AND THE PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU

Chambord, which in fact he rarely occupied. Later he embarked
on rebuilding the Louvre, and began the structure which we
know. On Fontainebleau, begun in 1528, he spent immense
sums of money. He filled it with treasures and he made it a
monument of his personal taste.

To decorate the interior Frangois summoned further artists
from Italy — Giambattista di Guasparre, known as Rosso, a
young Florentine who had made his reputation with an indivi-
dual style ; and Francesco Primaticcio, a pupil of Giulio
Romano in Bologna. Rosso arrived in 15 31, Primaticcio two
years later. Both artists were accompanied by Italian assistants ;
they were joined possibly by the Italian artists who had come to
France with Leonardo and Andrea del Sarto ; and they also
employed French artists as assistants.

Hardly anything now remains of the actual paintings done at
Fontainebleau by these artists. But we can still see the general
schemes of the painted panels and the stucco ornaments sur-
rounding them. Rosso was responsible for the Gallery of
Frangois I. This had panels of mythological subjects which
were repainted by Couder under Louis Philippe and again later
by one Brisset. Primaticcio finished Rosso's Gallery, colla-
borated with him in various other work in the Palace and was
himself responsible for the Chamber of the Duchesse d'Etampes,
the King's mistress, of whom Benvenuto Cellini has said some
hard words in his account of his sojourn at the French King's
Court. The Chamber of the Duchess, which can still be seen
to-day, was decorated with painted panels supported by stucco
female nudes of great elegance. The panels, depicting the story
of Campaspe and Alexander, with allegorical allusions to the
relations of the King and the Duchess in the taste of the time,
were all repainted by Abel de Pujol under Louis Philippe.

Primaticcio also designed the King's Bathing Hall which
was decorated with paintings of the story of Calisto ; and he
was in charge of the ante-chamber to this bathroom where,
curiously enough, the King kept favourite pictures from his
collection which included the Virgin of the Kocks^ and other
pictures by Leonardo, the Charity,^ by Andrea del Sarto,
Raphael's ha Belle Jardiniere'^ and Jeanne d'Aragon,^ Michelangelo's

^ Now in the Louvre.

LATER WORK AT FONTAINI-IBLILAU

heda^^ a Magdalen^ by 'J'itian, and Bronzino's J^efms, Cupid^
Folly and Time^ (PI. i6b). Primaticcio also fitted up and decorated
a fantastic grotto in the gardens where, it has been said, the ladies
of tlic Court were wont to bathe and where by an ingenious
arrangement of mirrors the King could observe them.

ij . hater work at Fontaimbleau

Rosso committed suicide in 1541. Fran9ois I died in 1547.
But the work continued. Under Henri II (1547-1559) Prima-
ticcio painted the Ball Room (known as the Gallery of Henri II)
and the Ulysses Gallery which had been commenced in the
previous reign. He was now joined by Niccolo del Abbate
from Italy and with his aid he painted, in the Ball Room, a
series of compositions symbolising the Seasons (which were
repainted by Toussaint Dubreuil in the time of Henri IV and
again in the nineteenth century by Alaux), and, in the Ulysses
Gallery (now demolished), fifty-eight pictures of the story of
Ulysses on the walls and ninety-eight panels of mythological
subjects on the ceiling.

Under Frangois II (1559-1560) and Charles IX (15 60-1 5 74)
various other decorations were carried out at Fontainebleau by
Italian and French followers of Primaticcio, who died in 1570,
and of Niccolo del Abbate, who died in 1571. The troubled
period that followed the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572)
naturally caused a decline in artistic patronage and production,
Henri III (15 74-1 5 89), however, patronised one Antoine Caron,
who designed decorative compositions, fetes and pageants and
painted portraits (PI. 15 b).

Henri IV (15 89-1 610), who added to the Louvre, also put in
hand extensions and new decorations at Fontainebleau where he
observed the traditions by ordering elaborate decorations of the
apartments allotted to his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrees. These
new decorations depicting scenes from the stor}' of Hercules
were the work of Toussaint Dubreuil (1562 ?-i6o2). In the
same apartment Ambroise Dubois (i 543-1614) painted Gabrielle

^ Copy ascribed to Rosso now in the London National Gallery.

' Now in the Bordeaux Museum.

' Now in the London National Gallery.

THE FONTAINEBLEAU STYLE

d'Estrees as Diana with hounds and cupids. None of these paint-
ings now exists. Later the King ordered for Marie de Medici a
set of decorations for the famous Gallery of Diana ; these paint-
ings, which were destroyed under the Empire, were the work of
Ambroise Dubois who also painted the Salon of Louis XIII (who
was born there in 1601), and a series of pictures in the apartment
known as the Clorinda Chamber. The pictures in the Salon of
Louis XIII represented the story of Theagenes and Chariclea,
some of which, repainted, can still be seen there. One of the
Clorinda series, The Baptism of Clorinda by Tancred (PL 20b), is
preserved in the Louvre.

iij . The ¥ ontainehkau Style

The School of Fontainebleau thus lasted for some ninety
years. It represents French decorative and pictorial art between
the beginning of the age of Francois I and the beginning of the
age of Richelieu and Mazarin. It begins with Rosso, who came
from Italy, and ends with Ambroise Dubois, who was born at
Antwerp. Fontainebleau was regarded as one of the marvels
of the age. It was the Sistine Chapel, the Doges' Palace of France,
till its reputation was eclipsed by the Louvre and Versailles.

This School cannot be understood or judged by the repainted
remains now on the walls at Fontainebleau. We have to try to
understand it by considering {a) the paintings produced by Rosso
before he left Italy and by his P/>/^ (PI. 14) in the Louvre ; (^)
the drawings by Primaticcio in the Louvre, at Chantilly and else-
where, one or two paintings ascribed to him, and the pictures
by the Italian artists on whom he based his style — Parmigiano,
Pontormo and Bronzino ; {c) the few easel pictures by Niccolo
del Abbate and unnamed Italian and French artists of the
School which survive in various museums.

Rosso was an eclectic artist and temperamentally a realist.
He was influenced by Michelangelo, Pontormo and Bronzino.
In his Viet a (PI. 14), in the Louvre, we have obvious echoes of
Michelangelo's style in the massive limbs, but the open mouth of
Christ reveals detailed rendering of tongue and teeth, and the
teeth too are delineated in the mouth of the Virgin which is set
in a face founded on some Greek marble head. In his Vietct at

THE FONTAINI'BLF.AU STYLE

Borgo san Sepulcro \vc meet again the stylistic distortions of
Michelangelo, and in the background a hideous noseless, bat-
faced figure, which is among the most nightmarish creations
in art.^

I suspect, indeed, that Rosso had a streak of madness. Various
episodes in his life encourage this suspicion. Mc was always
quarrelsome as we learn from Benvcnuto Cellini who knew
him in his Italian days ; his departure for France was largely
motived by a quarrel with a priest in Borgo ; and his suicide
followed a quarrel with one of his friends in France. Perhaps
physical causes contributed to this condition. When Rome
was sacked in 1527 he was captured and ill-treated by the Ger-
mans, and later a roof fell in upon his head and he suffered fever
and concussion. He was an immensely interesting artist ; but
he never arrived at a symbolic unity in pictorial expression and he
thus lacked the first essential of pictorial style.

The essence of the Fontainebleau style can, however, be
found in Primaticcio, who absorbed the stylistic conceptions of
Parmigiano, Pontormo and Pontormo's pupil, Bronzino. From
these sources Primaticcio evolved the type of female figure which
we regard as characteristic of this School. The figures in his draw-
ings have small heads and narrow shoulders ; and the long torsos
widen into majesty at the hips from w^iich elegant lines flow down
over full thighs and neat knees to shapely calves and slim ankles. ^

The artists of the School of Fontainebleau soon lost the
fundamental stylistic qualities presented to French art by

^ We find the same mixed qualities in Rosso's pictures preserved in Italy
— the Transfiguration at Citta di Castello, and his Betrothal of the Virgin in
the St. Lorenzo basilica in Florence. His Moses and the daughters of Jethro
(Florence Uffizi) is an astonishing mixture of Michelangelo's stylistic dis-
tortions and of personal realistic observation. The central figure in this
remarkable work is a portrait of an individual young girl with an exquisite
face and figure ; the little sensual mouth of this model is open, her breasts
are firm and full ; only her eyes are treated in a way that suggests that the
painter had been studying Greek sculpture.

* Frangois himself was a great admirer of the Italian masters on whose
works Primaticcio's art was based ; we know from Vasari that he was
anxious to possess some pictures by Pontormo ; and he owned Bronzino's
Venus, Cupid, Follj and Time (PI. i6b). We may assume that the conception
of beauty in the female figure which we associate with this School made a
special appeal to his taste.

THE FONTAINEBLEAU STYLE

Primaticcio. There is still a measure of the School's real style
in Niccolo del Abbate's Continence of Scipio and in the Ejva Prima
Pandora (PI. 17c) by Jean Cousin pere {c. 1490-f. 15 61) which
are both in the Louvre. There is charm too in the Rouen
Venus (PI. 17a) which has been ascribed to Primaticcio himself,
but which is more probably a School picture representing
Henri Ill's Queen, Louise de Lorraine. Some French artist
who had not forgotten the lesson of Bronzino's Venus, Cupid,
Foil J and Time, painted the attractive Flora with Attendants (PI. 1 6a),
now in a private collection in Montpellier. But if we compare
the Montpellier picture with Bronzino's we see that the lesson
is but dimly remembered after all.

The middle style of the School can be seen in allegorical
figures called Justice and Peace in the Musee Dobree at Nantes,
in the pretty Artemisia (PI. 17b) in a Parisian collection, ascribed
to Jean Cousin fils (c. 1522-r. 1592), in the celebrated Diana
(PI. 19b) in the Louvre, and the still more celebrated Gabrielle
d'Estrees in her hath (PI. 19a), at Chantilly.^

1 The Gabrielle d'Estries in her bath dates from the fifteen-nineties.
Gabrielle, whom Marguerite, Henri IV's first Queen, always referred to as
cette bagasse, is here seen in a baignoir which is half covered with a tablet
bearing fruits and flowers. Her little son from the King — Cesar, Due de
Vendome, aged about three — is stretching out his hand to reach a fruit ;
her second son, Alexandre de Vendome, is at his nurse's breast. Behind
we see the interior of a kitchen with a serving-woman and a half-opened
window. Commentators on this picture have not, I think, observed that
this kitchen scene is reflected in a mirror on the wall behind the nurse, and
another mirror — in days when mirrors were still luxuries imported from
Venice — appears on the wall beside the fire.

For the use of mirrors in pictures by Le Brun and Velasquez cf. p. 80.
For their use by the Dutch painters of the seventeenth century cf. my
Introduction to Dutch Art, Part VI, Section iii.

Another version of this picture, possibly the original, is in the collection
of Sir Herbert Cook in Richmond ; there is a third in the Musee des Arts
Decoratifs in Paris, and I know part of a fourth (containing only the left-
hand portion) in the collection of Mr. Oliver Brown in London.

The identity of the bather in this picture has been disputed. Diane de
Poitiers and Marie Touchet have been suggested. The picture has been
attributed to Primaticcio, to Francois Clouet (cf. p. 34) and to Antoine
Caron (cf. PI. 15 b). It has been recently suggested that the Richmond picture
is an original by Francois Clouet representing Diane de Poitiers and that
the Chantilly picture is a copy where the head of Gabrielle d'Estrees has
been substituted.

THI- FONTAINEBLEAU STYLE

The last development of the School is seen in the Waptism of
Clorinda (PI. 20b), by Antoinc Dubois, one of the numerous
I'lemish artists who were attracted to Fontainebleau. In this
picture we meet the Italianising Flemish style of the late sixteenth
century. The materials that go to the making of this l^aptism of
Clorinda strike us as so ridiculous in themselves that we cannot
' imagine a tolerable picture resulting from their exploitation.
But the same materials were being used in Spain at almost the
same moment by El Greco, in his Martyrdom of St. Maurice
(PI. 20a), in the Escorial.

B. FRENCH RENAISSANCE PORTRAITS

i. The Vortrait Albums

While French decorative art was thus acquiring and forgetting
an Italian style the members of the Kings' Courts were patron-
ising local talent in the field of portraiture. At the beginning
of the reign of Francois I it became the fashion to summon an
artist to the house and to sit to him for a crayon drawing from
which if required an oil painting was subsequently painted in the
artist's studio. Replicas were sometimes made both of the
drawings and the paintings ; and the drawings were put into
albums, as people put photographs into albums in the nineteenth
century.

Hundreds of these sixteenth-century French drawings have
survived. There are many in the Musee Cond6 at Chantilly
and others at Versailles, in the Louvre, in the Bibliotheque
Nationale, the British Museum, and elsewhere. Thanks to these
drawings we know the features of all the outstanding members
of the Courts of Frangois I and his immediate successors. One
celebrated album in the Museum of Aix-en-Provence belonged
to Mme de Boisy, wife of Gouffier de Boisy, Grand Master of
France, who had fought by the King's side at Marignano. In
this album the portraits of the notabilities bear comments
believed to have been written at the dictation of the King
himself. The commentator is especially outspoken about the
ladies. On the drawing of Diane de Poitiers, who was later
to be Henri II's mistress, we read : " Fair to see and virtuous
to know," on that of Madame de Chateaubrian, " Better figured
than painted " ; another lady is described as " honest, fat and
pleasant at times " ; yet another is praised for her peerless figure.

The character of all these drawings and paintings, apart from
variations in skill, is much the same. The style remained
unchanged throughout the reigns of Francois I, Henri II,
Francois II and Charles IX. The artists were quite uninfluenced
by the prevailing styles in decorative art. They were concerned
with recording the features of their sitters. Their work is
usually less drastically categoric than the similar portraits by
Holbein, and the most attractive of the French drawings are
warmer and more sympathetically observed.

THE CLOUI'TS AND CORNl'lMJ. Ol. T.YONS

ij. The Clone ts and Come i He de Lyons

The ascription of these drawings and tlic pictures painted
from them to the individual artists of the period has been the
subject of much labour by scholars, notably AI. Moreau Nekton,
M. Bouchot and M. Louis Dimier. As a result it seems now
possible to assign a first group to one Jean Clouet, who was
of Flemish birth and was attached to the establishment of
Francois I from approximately 1516 till 1540. A second group
is assigned to his son, Frangois Clouet, who succeeded to his
father's position and held it under Henri II and Charles IX.
Other groups go to artists known as Jean Decourt, Etienne and
Pierre Dumonstier, Frangois Quesnel, and to artists given
reference names such as L'Anonyme Lecurieux and Le peintre
de Luxembourg-Martiques. There is also the able painter known
as Corneille de Lyons, born at The Hague, who painted
Catherine de Medicis, Henri II's Queen, and all the notabilities
of her Court.

The following paintings may be said to be characteristic of
Jean Clouet^ (i486 ?-i54o) : —

Portrait of a Man with a volume of

Petrarch
Portrait of Frangois I (No. 126)
Portrait of Frangois I (No. 127)
The Dauphin Francois, son of Francois I
Claude, Due de Guise

The portrait of Francois I (PL 15a) is of all the portraits of
the King the one which convinces me most as likely to have been
a faithful likeness. It was painted presumably from a drawing
at Chantilly where the curious character of the face is still more
incisively portrayed.- The Hampton Court picture is extremely
expressive and the portrait of the Dauphin (PI. 18), showing the
sitter at the age of two or three, is a most engaging picture.

^ Two portraits in the New York Metropolitan Museum (Havemeyer
Collection) are catalogued as by Jean Clouet or Corneille de Lyons.

^ At Chantilly there is also a very attractive painting of Frangois as Due
d'Angoulcme in his youth. The painter is unknown.

F 55

Hampton

Court

•

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Antwerp.

Museum

Florence.

Uffizi

THE CLOUETS AND CORNEILLE DE LYONS

The following are characteristic paintings by Francois Clouet
(1510-1572):—

Philadelphia. (J.G.Johnson Portrait of a Gentleman

Collection)
Paris. Louvre

Paris. Louvre

Elizabeth of Austria, Queen of France
Portrait. Pierre Quthe
Henri II
Charles IX

The portrait of Elizabeth of Austria (PL i) is one of the
most charming of the whole school. It represents Charles IX's
Queen in the year of her coronation, 1371, when she was
seventeen years old. Brantome wrote of her : " She was a very
beautiful Princess with a fine and delicate complexion . . . she
had a very beautiful figure though she was not tall. She was
very good and virtuous and kind-hearted, she did harm to no one
and never spoke a word that might have offended ; she was very
quiet, spoke little and always in her native Spanish." She
was the daughter of the Emperor Maximilian II, and when
Charles IX died she returned to Vienna ; there she founded a
convent, where she died at the age of thirty-eight.^

The following are characteristic pictures by Corneille de
Lyons {c. 15 10-1574): —

Antoine de Bourbon
Portrait of a Nobleman

Jacques Bertraut

Charles de Cosse, Comte de Brissac

Gabrielle de Rochechouart

The Dauphin Francois

Man in Armour

^ The ascription of this picture to Francois Clouet is now called in ques-
tion by some scholars. In the Louvre catalogue it is now described as
" French School of the XVIth century."

London.
Philadelphia.

Paris.

National Gallery
(J. G. Johnson

Collection)
Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Chantilly.
Chantilly.
Modena.

Musee Conde
Musee Conde
Museum

PART THREE

THK SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

A. THE AGE OF THE CARDINALS

i . The Transformation of Paris

ij. Simon Vonet
i i j . / ins t ache I .e Sueur
w . The Influence of the Tow Countries

V. The Brothers Te Nain .
vi. Georges Dumesnil cJe la Tour
vij. Portrait Painters
viij . French Artists in Kome
ix. Claude le Lor rain

X. Nicolas Poussin

B. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV

i. LuOuis XIV, Court spectacles and

Versailles
ij. Charles Le Brun
ii j . The Royal Academy of Painting and

Sculpture
iv. Pierre Mignard
V. Louis XIV — the last phase
vi. Hjacinthe Kigaud
vij. Nicolas de Largilliere

Tlir: SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

A. THF. AGE OF TIIF CARDINALS

i. T/jc Transformation of Paris

The scventccntli century falls naturally into two periods.
The first, the Age of the Cardinals, extending from 1610
to 1661, covers the reign of Louis XllI and the minority of
Louis XIV. It is the period of the successive dominations of
Richelieu while Marie de Medicis was Regent during the
minority of Louis XIII, and of Mazarin while Anne of Austria
was Regent during the minority of Louis XIV. The second
period, the Age of Louis XIV, extends from the King's assump-
tion of personal government in 1661 to his death in 1715.^

Paris in the first half of the century completely changed its
appearance. New buildings appeared on every hand and new
quarters were laid out. Marie de Medicis built the new Luxem-
bourg Palace ; Richelieu built the Palais Cardinal (which has
been known as Palais Royal since he bequeathed it to Louis
XIII) ; and the King himself conceived the project of cjuad-
rupling the original proportions of the Louvre and built the
Clock Pavilion in 1624."

La Place Dauphine and La Place des Vosges date from this
period ; and the rich nobles and bourgeoisie began to build
magnificent mansions, known as hotels, in the region of the
Luxembourg Palace, round St. Germain-des-Pres and in the
St. Antoine, the Marais, and Ile-St.-Louis quarters.

There was also much ecclesiastical building. Under Richelieu
and Mazarin there was a spectacular religious revival, accom-
panied by a measure of real piety ; the old religious Orders
flourished and new Orders were founded ; and ample money
was forthcoming for building monasteries, convents, and
churches in the new style of architecture which the Jesuits had
introduced from Rome,'

^ Richelieu died in 1642, Marie de Medicis in the same year, Louis XIII
the year after, Mazarin in 1661, Anne of Austria in 1666.

* Catherine de Medicis had built the Little Gallery of the Louvre and
the Long Gallery connecting the Louvre and the Tuilcries. Henri IV added
second stories to both structures. (Cf. note p. 77.)

^ The churches of the Sorbonne and the Invalidcs, Saint Sulpice, Saint

THE TRANSFORMATION OF PARIS

All this ecclesiastical and secular building created a great de-
mand for artists to adorn the interiors with decorations and
pictures ; and a new school of French painting arose in response.
Though Marie de Medicis summoned Rubens to the Luxem-
bourg in 1625 to paint the superb set of pictures now in the
Louvre, and tried in vain to tempt Guido Reni to come to Paris
for other work, it was to French painters and sculptors that the
majority of the countless commissions were now given.

Parisian taste in this period demanded a certain pomposity
and pretension from the decorators. Though the artists patron-
ised were French they were expected to produce pictures that

Gervais, Saint Eustache, Saint Etienne-du-Mont, Saint Paul and the
Val-de-Grace (cf. note p. 55, and pp. 89 and 90) date from this period.

The religious attitudes of the time were very various. It was the age of
Francois de Sales and Vincent de Paul. It was also an age when there were
still armed conflicts between official Catholics and the Huguenots, and
considerable persecution of free thought. The century which opened with
the burning of Giordano Bruno in Rome (1600) continued with the burning
of Vanini at Toulouse (1619) and of Fontanier in Paris (1621). There was
much superstition and brutality. Vanini's tongue was torn out in presence
of the populace and his atheism was said to have been demonstrated because
at the pain he emitted a cry like an ox being killed. When Louis XIII and
de Luynes wanted to follow the assassination of Concini by the removal of
his wife, the confidante of the Queen Mother, they had her burned as a
sorceress (1617) ; she was tried before Parliament, which was satisfied of her
dealings in Black Magic and her frequentation of " Anabaptists, Jews,
magicians and poisoners," when it was proved that in an attempt to cure
herself of chronic neuralgia she had followed the advice of a Jewish doctor
and applied chickens and pigeons to her head — though she had taken the
precaution to have the birds first blessed by a priest. There were no
executions for free thought under Richelieu. The freethinkers {lihertins as
they were called in French) realised that all the Cardinal really asked of them
was discretion and decent conduct and the recognition of the temporal
authority of the Catholic Church. The Cure of St. Pierre de Loudun, who
was burned alive by Richelieu (1654), was indeed described as one who had
sold himself to the devil, but he was really executed for offences against
nuns. Others executed under Richelieu as lihertins were also guilty of
sexual crimes. Richelieu, whose personal religious attitude has puzzled
all his biographers, was superstitious. He had the relics of St. Fiacre brought
to him from Meaux as he believed they would cure his hemorrhoids. Under
Mazarin one Claude Petit was hung and burned for the publication of
" chansons impies " ; and M, d'Ambreville was burned alive for unorthodox
opinions.

I'iiris. Louvre

EUSTACFIE LE SUEUR. The Death of St. Bruno.

SIMON VOUET

recalled Italian painting of some kind. Preference was given
to those who had spent some years in Italy and knew h(nv to
invest their compositions with some characteristic of contem-
porary Italian painting or some echo of the Italian Renaissance
masters. The taste of the time was willing to accept the flam-
boyance of the Italian Baroque style, familiarised by the work
of Rubens, and the more sober compositions of the so-called
Eclectic Italian School which was based on the teachings of the
Caracci ; and it also favoured echoes of the Raphaelesque
tradition. All the artists who worked in the new hotels and
churches complied with these conditions in varying degrees.
The most famous and the most sought after were Simon Vouct
and Eustachc Le Sueur.^

ij. Simon l^ouet

BORN P.\RIS 1590. DIED PARIS 1 649

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

Paris.

Louvre

Louis XIII, with allegorical figures of
France and Navarre

The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Wealth, Faith, Victory, Eloquence (four
pictures)

St. Merry delivering the prisoners

The Assumption

The Entombment
Presentation of the Virgin
The Rest on the Flight
Temptation of St. Anthony
Death of the Magdalen
Christ on the Cross
Apotheosis of St. Eustache

^ Among the other painters thus employed we must note Fran9ois Perrier
(i 590-1636) who painted decorations for the Hotel Lambert, and for the Hotel
de la Vrillierc which is now the Banquc de France ; Laurent de la Hyre
(1606-1656) and Jacques Stella (i 596-1657) who worked especially for
churches and religious Orders ; Charles Errard (1601-1689) who decorated
numerous "hotels, worked in the Louvre and the Luxembourg Palaces,
painted the scenery for Mazarin's production of " Orfeo ", and was
eventually Director of the French Academy of Art in Rome ; and Louis

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.
Paris.

Saint Merry

Saint Nicolas des

Epinal.
Dijon.

champs
Museum
Museum

Grenoble.

Museum

Grenoble.

Museum

Besan^on.
Lyons.

Nantes.

Museum
Museum
Museum

SIMON VOUET

Simon Vouet, son of a decorative painter attached to the
service of Henri IV, showed precocious talent for drawing and
painting. If we are to credit Walpole he was already known as
a portrait painter by the time he was fourteen. At the age of
twenty-one he accompanied some ambassador to Constantinople,
where he is said to have had an audience with the Sultan and to
have painted a successful portrait of him from memory. In
1612 we find him in Venice, in 161 3 in Rome. He remained
in Italy for thirteen years. He decorated the splendid Doria
Palace, in Genoa, and a chapel in the Vatican. His reputation
in Italy eventually became so great that he was made a director,
or Prince as the office was called, of the Roman artists' Academy
of St. Luke. In 1627 he received a royal command to return to
France and Louis XIII made him Premier peintre du rot with a
handsome salary and apartments in the Louvre.^

Vouet painted the King's portrait, gave him lessons in pastel
drawing, and executed to his order some decorations in the
Louvre. From Marie de Medicis he received decorative com-
missions for the Luxembourg, and he was also called on for
numerous decorations for hotels^ and for altar-pieces in the new
churches. He had an army of assistants and of apprentice
pupils. At one moment Le Sueur, Mignard^ and Le Brun^ were
all working in his atelier. His output was tremendous and his
position was unchallenged for many years.

Vouet's ecclesiastical style can be well seen in the K.est on the
Flight (PI. 2 1 a), in the Museum of Grenoble, and in the Louvre
Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, which he painted for the Church
of the Jesuits in Paris to the order of Richelieu. His decorative

Testelin (i6i6?-i695) who decorated the bathroom of Anne of Austria,
and was eventually to formulate a Code of Art for the Academy (cf. p. 87).
Some of these artists belonged to the Matirise and some were peintres du roi
(cf. p. 84).

^ The ground floor, entresol and first floor of the Long Gallery of the
Louvre had been fitted up as lodgings for the artists in the Royal service
by Henri IV, who installed there not only a number of painters and sculptors,
but also an engraver of precious stones, an upholsterer, and one Bourgois,
described as ouvrier en globes mouvants et en constructions mecaniques. Artists
and some craftsmen continued to have lodgings in the Louvre till 1806.

2 Cf. pp. 88-91.

3 Cf. pp. 78-82.

EUSTACHE LE SUI^LR. The Mass of St. Martin of Tours.

.ivienon. Miisie Calvet

LOUIS LE NAIN. Portrait of a Nun.

EUSTACHi: LU SUHUR

style can be seen in the allegorical figures of Wealth (PI. 22b),
\aith, I litory d.v\i\ li/oquf/ue, now in the Louvre.^

His reputation suHcrcd a set-back when Foussin visited Paris
in 1640.* The King, after receiving Poussin in audience,
exclaimed to his Courtiers, " I WA; I ^of/e/ hien attrapt^'' and the
word went round. Vouet suflered further when Lc Brun re-
turned from Italy and intrigued against him at the time of the
foundation of the Academy, In this conflict with Lc Brun lie
would doubtless have been defeated in the end. But he was
spared this humiliation because he died in 1659 before the
Academy was finally established.

Though now completely forgotten Vouet was a most im-
portant figure in the history of French art. His work stands at
the root of nearly all the Parisian ecclesiastical and decorative
painting of the first half of the century ; and his influence is
seen not only in pictures by his pupils, Le Sueur and Le Brun,
but also in certain works of Poussin himself.^

iij. Eustache Le Sueur

BORN PARIS 1616. DIED PARIS 1655

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

The Holy Family

The Angel appearing to Hagar in the

desert
The Descent from the Cross
St. Paul preaching at Ephesus
The Virgin appearing to St. Martin of

Tours
The Mass of St. Martin of Tours
View of the Chartreuse de Paris, with

figures and plan

* Vouet's ecclesiastical style was a compound of all the contemporary
Italian formulae rendered tiresome in a special way by the heaviness of the
figures which is accompanied by attempts at affected grace — (note the
angel's little figure in PI. 21a). In his decorative style we see the influence
of his visit to Venice (cf. PI. 22b).

* Cf. p. 67.

' Cf. Pis. 22a and 22b.

G 41

London.
Paris.

National Gallery
Louvre

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Louvre
Louvre
Louvre

Paris.
Paris.

Louvre
Louvre

EUSTACHE LE SUEUR

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Grenoble.

Montpellier.

Budapest.

Le Mans.

Tours.

Rouen.

Museum

Musee Fabre

Museum

The life of St. Bruno (twenty-two

pictures)
Hotel Lambert, " Cabinet d' Amour "

(seven pictures)
Hotel Lambert, " Chambrc des Muses "

(six pictures)
Portrait group of M. de Chambray and

friends
Tobias receiving instructions for his

journey from his parents
The Angel leaving Tobias
The Wedding Night of Tobias
Tobias returning to his parents
Diana and her attendants hunting
St. Louis tending the sick
The dream of Polyphilus

Eustache Le Sueur is another artist who is largely forgotten
to-day though he painted some of the most charming religious
and decorative pictures of the seventeenth century. I use the
word religious, rather than ecclesiastical, in speaking of this
artist's work, because his best pictures of religious subjects
seem imbued with an intense and simple religious spirit that is
rarely met with in any painting after the early years of the
Italian Renaissance. ^

Le Sueur was born in Paris. His father was a turner. He thus
belonged to the artisan class, and in that class he remained all
through his life. He never went to Italy, and he never aspired
to the fashionable position of Vouet though he worked for some

^ Le Sueur was greatly admired by Reynolds, who spoke of him as con-
stituting with Poussin and Le Brun a colony from the Roman School to
which he assigned rank above the Venetian, Flemish and Dutch. In our
own time he has been the subject of some curious and harsh judgments. M.
Henri Lemonnier classes him with the French genre painters, the Le Nain
brothers, and the engravers Callot and Bossc (cf. pp. 47 and 85). Sir Charles
Holmes has written : " In Lesueur an intellectual temper similar to Poussin's
was joined to a Raphaelesque sense of proportion and the resulting product is
just redeemed from being colourless (his colour is his weakest point) by a
certain rather frigid lead beauty" — a most strange comment on Le Sueur's
colour, Ruskin described Le Sueur's religious pictures as " pure abortion
and nuisance," and he described the Virgin and the saints in the Virgin
appearing to St. Martin as " beautifully buoyant and graceful and tender,
but not religious nor sublime."

EUSTACHl-: LE SUIIUR

people in the fashionable work). I Ic niurrietl the daughter of a
painter, one of his sons was a grocer and one of liis daughters
also had a grocer for her husband. 1 le graduated as Master in
the Mai/rise; when invited to do so he joined the Academy,
without fuss ; and he paid his subscriptions regularly to that
institution which the more fashionable members in the main
omitted to do. He was a kindly, simple man without preten-
sions ; and his character is reflected in his pictures.

He was fifteen when he was apprenticed to Vouet, and he was
doubtless regarded as a dunce by his fellow-pupils, Mignard and
Le Brun, He profited, however, by Vouet's instruction and
absorbed his manner so completely that one of his earliest
pictures, the portrait group, AI. de Chambray and his friends, in the
Louvre, was long ascribed to Vouet himself.^

After leaving Vouet's atelier he began to get commissions to
design frontispieces and vignettes for books, and for pictures
in churches, monasteries and private hotels. His most important
decorative commission was a series of panels for two rooms,
known as the Cabinet d' Amour and the Chambre des Muses, in the
Hotel Lambert, belonging to Nicolas Lambert de Thorigny,
President of the Chamhre des Comptes.

The panels in the Chambre des Muses — (now in the Louvre)
— consist of two large and three small compositions. The large
pictures represent groups of the Muses — the first Clio, Euterpe
and Thalia (PI. 23d), the second Melpomene, Erato and Polymnia,
(PI. 23b); the small pictures represent single figures of Urania,
Terpsichore and Calliope. Here we see Le Sueur in the field
where Raphael's Parnassus in the Vatican reigns supreme.^

But Raphael's fresco is a superb pageant designed by a pageant
master of genius and executed as it were by skilled professional
actors wearing costumes from the best theatrical costumier of the

^ The influence of Vouet is also seen in Le Sueur's Diana and her attendants
hunting (which 1 presume is an early work) in the Lc Mans Museum. This
picture is curiously hybrid. The figures arc painted in the manner of Vouet,
with artificial flying draperies and bare breasts and legs ; and they are
accompanied by realistically painted sporting dogs complete with collars
and chain-rings.

* Lc Sueur, as noted, never went to Italy, but he was familiar with
Raphael's work from engravings.

EUSTACHE LE SUEUR

day. Le Sueut's pictures are tableaux vivants performed by
amateurs who make up in friendliness for their shortcomings in
professional panache.

In the first group the performers, I feel, are the more mature
and experienced of the members of the family who have organised
these tableaux ; they are elder sisters or possibly young aunts.
Clio the Muse of History has a book and the Trumpet of Fame,
Euterpe the Muse of Lyric Poetry plays the flute, and at their
feet Thalia the Muse of Comedy contemplates a mask. They all
wear blue or bluish-grey draperies and Clio has a red drapery
across her knees.

In the second group, on the other hand, we have younger
members of the family. Here Melpomene the Muse of Hymns
is chanting from a book of music, Polymnia the Muse of Tragedy
plays on the bass violin and casts her eyes to heaven in anguish,
and Erato the Muse of erotic poetry, who is discreetly given
no attribute, peeps over Polymnia's shoulder. What could be
more engaging than Melpomene sitting as good as gold upon
the ground with a drapery thrown over her frock and flowers
in her hair, singing so demurely from the book of choral music
— borrowed maybe for the occasion ?^

The Hotel Lambert pictures date from the sixteen-forties.
About the same time Le Sueur was commissioned to paint
twenty-two pictures of the life of St. Bruno, the founder of the
Carthusian Order, for a cloister in the Chartreuse Monastery
in Paris. 2

* Most of these pictures from the Hotel Lambert — for Louvre pictures —
are in very fair condition. But in some cases there has evidently been
clumsy repainting, especially in the red draperies, which have become a
heavy and crude scarlet. Where Le Sueur's work has been preserved the
reds are of a delicate rose- vermilion, and the blues are warmed with a gold
glaze ; in the original passages the surface has a tapestry-like quality that
is very characteristic.

' The Chartreuse Monastery in Paris was situated on a site now occupied
by the Avenue de I'Observatoire and the houses between this avenue and the
rue d'Assas. It is seen in Le Sueur's Louvre View of the Chartreuse of Paris
with plan, which makes an interesting contrast with El Greco's View of
Toledo with plan (in the Casa Greco, at Toledo), which was painted about
fifty years before. The episodes assigned to Le Sueur were those which arc
related in the official Lives of St. Bruno, together with the episode of Raymond
Diocres, which is described by Butler in his L,ives of the Fathers, Martyrs

EUSTACHI'. LR SUFUR

These pictures arc now in die I.ouvrc, hut it is almost im-
possible to judge them in their present condition as they were
originally placed in the open air where they suffered from damp,
exposure, neglect and wilful damage, and since then they have
been completely repainted on three occasions. One picture
alone of the series. The Death of St. Bruno (PI. 24), still conveys
to us the spirit of the artist's work.

We can see Le Sueur's individuality as a religious painter most
clearly in The Mass of St. Martin of Tours (PI. 25), painted for the
Abbaye de Marmoutiers. The episode represented is not that
of St. Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar at the gate of
Amiens, but a similar episode at Tours when the saint gave
his own tunic to a beggar and celebrated the Mass in a cheap
tunic which the archdeacon had intended him to give to a beggar
for whom he had been instructed to provide clothes. In Lc
Sueur's picture St. Martin is celebrating the Mass and above
his head is a globe of fire — the sign that the beggar had in fact
been Christ. Le Sueur has here achieved a \tty lovely work.
There is a gentle serenity in this picture which is not destroyed
by the genre painting of the congregation because the genre
passages are treated with formal simplicity. The colour too is
quite enchanting ; the woman in the foreground wears a rose-

and other Principal Saints as " mere hearsay fiction injudiciously credited by
those who committed it to writing." St. Bruno was born in 1030. " In
his infancy," says Butler, " he seemed above the usual weakness of that age
and nothing childish ever appeared in his manners." After various scholastic
and theological studies he eventually rose to distinction in the Church and
was about to be made Archbishop of Rheims when he felt a call to renounce
the benefits and pleasures of the world. The episode of Raymond Diocres
occurs as the motif for this decision which is otherwise attributed to less
dramatic causes. Raymond Diocres was a famous theological doctor of
Paris whose sermons were attended by the youthful St. Bruno and fired
him with enthusiasm. When Diocres died he was granted the funeral
honours of a holy man. But in fact he was an impostor and when his body
was lying in state the horror-stricken mourners observed it rise in agony
and utter three terrible cries : " By the just judgment of God I am accused,"
" I am judged," " I am condemned." Le Sueur's first picture is St. Bruno
listening to the Sermon of Raymond Diocres ; the second, The Death of Raymond
Diocres; the third. The corpse of Raymond Diocres announcing his damnation ^
represents the writhing, shrieking corpse striking the spectators with con-
sternation.

EUSTACHE LE SUEUR

vermilion skirt, an olive-green bodice and a blue wimple ; the
globe of fire is the same red as the skirt ; the rest of the picture
is composed of delicate blues, whites and greys.^

The Mass of St. Martin of Tours is now in the Louvre. In
another picture by Le Sueur, The Apparition of the Virgin to St.
Martin^ also in the Louvre, the figure of St. Martin is extremely
moving in its intense humility.^

In addition to these commissions for churches and religious
institutions Le Sueur painted a number of religious pictures for
private patrons. The Louvre has a charming Hagar and the
Angel in the Desert, and a scene from the story of Tobias — one
of a series of which others are preserved in the museums of
Grenoble, Montpellier and Buda Pesth. The Montpellier picture
represents The Wedding Night of Tobias, an incident which is rare
in the many pictured versions of the story in Italian and Dutch art
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. ^

^ In Le Sueur's picture the Saint is wearing his own vestments, not the
cheap tunic of the legend.

^ This picture, formerly catalogued as Sf. Scholastica appearing to St.
Benedict, was the object of Rus kin's unfavourable comment quoted in my
note on p. 42.

The most famous of Le Sueur's religious paintings in his day was the St.
"Paul preaching at Ephesus, painted for Notre Dame and now in the Louvre.
This shows the burning of the magic books of those " which used curious
arts," while St. Paul preaches in front of the Temple of Diana and a negro
kneels on the ground and blows the fire. To the modern spectator this
picture makes small appeal. It is too obviously a pastiche put together from
Raphael's Death of Ananias and St. Paul at Athens.

' Tobias it will be remembered was sent by his blind father Tobit to
Rhages in Ecbatana to recover a debt. As Tobit had won favour in God's
sight Tobias was accompanied on his journey by the angel Raphael. On the
journey Tobias washed his feet in the Tigris and was attacked by a fish.
Aided by the angel he killed the fish and became possessed of its liver and
heart and of its gall. At Rhages he recovered his father's money and was
able to win his cousin Sara of Ecbatana as his bride. Sara had been the
victim of an evil spirit Asmodeus ; she had been married seven times and by
the action of the evil spirit her husbands had always died on the wedding
night. Instructed by the angel Tobias burned the liver and heart of the
fish, and the fumes drove away the demon so that he could marry her in
peace ; and when he returned home he was able to cure his father's blindness
by application of the fish's gall. In Le Sueur's picture we see the liver and
heart of the fish being burned in a brasier while the demon departs in the
smoke, and Sara, seated on the nuptial bed, looks on with approbation.

TH1-: INFLUENCE OF THF LOW COUNTRIES

iv. The hi flue nee oj the hew Countries
Side by side with this production of pictures for royalty, the
weahhy, and tiie (-hurch, there was a xwoxc popular production
of small easel pictures resembling the popular descriptive
pictures of the Low Countries. Up to the seventeenth century
popular descriptive art, produced in all countries, had generally
been executed in cheap and fugitive materials. In Renaissance
times art depicting scenes of everyday life was generally in the
form of drawings or of prints on paper from wood-blocks or
copper plates. In France this tradition continued into the reign
of Louis XIII ; Jacques Callot (1592-163 5) made drawings and
engravings describing tramps and gipsies, and he has left us
mordant records of the pomp and the miseries of seventeenth-
century war; and Abraham Bosse^ (i 602-1 676) engraved
scenes of French bourgeois life with sly humour. This popular
art first invaded oil painting in the seventeenth century in the
Low Countries, especially in Holland ; and it was not long
before oil paintings in the manner of Van Ostade, Molenaer,
Paul Potter and Teniers began to be seen in Paris.

There was, moreover, a recognised Low Country colony in
the region of St. Germain des Pres, where various painters whom
Rubens had brought to Paris as assistants had established them-
selves. These Flemish and Dutch artists by the rules of the
Maitrise were not allowed to exhibit their work in Paris or trade
in pictures ; only those who made terms with the Maitrise or
obtained Royal protection were able to do so ; but the others
could expose their work for sale at the St. Germain Fair, in
Februar)^ each year, because St. Germain des Pr^s, then outside
the city, was a privileged place, with its own Guild of artists
not controlled by the central Maitrise in Paris. "^

At the St. Germain Fair, accordingly, the exhibition of little
popular paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists was a regular
feature. These pictures were mainly sold for trifling sums to
the petite bourgeoisie ; but when the Fair began to be visited by
fashionable people from the new St. Germain and Luxembourg
})6tels a few rich dilettanti of independent taste also began to

^ Cf. note p. 85.

2 Cf. pp. 7, 83, 84, 122.

THE BROTHERS LE NAIN

collect them ; and in the later years of the century — (in spite
of the famous comment of Louis XIV, " etileve^ tfioi ces magots ")
— the serious collecting of Flemish and Dutch pictures very
considerably increased. ^

The influence of the Dutch painters is plainly seen in the works
of three most interesting French artists, the brothers Antoine,
Louis and Mathieu Le Nain ; and that of another type of Low
Country painter, Gerard Honthorst, is seen in the pictures by
Georges Dumesnil de la Tour.

V. The brothers Le Nain :
ANTOINE LE NAIN

BORN LAON 1 5 88. DIED PARIS 1648 "i

-J

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES |

London. National Gallery Portrait Group (signed Lenain) |

London. The Countess of Bute The Studio 5]

Glasgow. Art Galleries Interior with figures ]

Paris. Louvre Family Group (signed Le Nain fecit \

1642) , .

Paris. Louvre Portraits in an interior (signed, Le Nain :

fecit 1647) I

Paris. David Weill Collec- The Grace *

tion '^

LOUIS LE NAIN i

BORN LAON I593 ? DIED PARIS 1 648 I

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES |

London. National Gallery Saying Grace 2

London. Victoria and Albert Landscape with figures. (La Halte du J^

Museum Cavalier) I

London. Duke of Rutland Col- Peasants before their house (signed, and i

lection dated 1 640 ?)

Boston. Museumof Fine Arts Peasants before their house

(formerly Earl of

Carlisle Collection)
Detroit. Institute of Arts The Village Piper

(with Antoine Le

Nain ?)

^ Cf. pp. 93, 102, 103, III,

I'iiris. Lvuirc

l.OLIS IJ' NAIN. Peasant Familv.

Ditroit. Institute of Arts

ANTOINE AND LOUIS LI- NAIN. The \illagc Piper.

London. Victoria and Albert Museum

LOUIS LE NAIN. La J Jake Ju Cavalier.

The Hague. Mauritshui^

PAUL POTTF. R. \uuni' Bull.

THE BROTMURS Ll< NAIN

Paris

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Paul Jamot Collec

tion

Avignon.

Mus6c Calvet

Lille.

Museum

The Return from Haymaking. (La

(^harrette) (signed Le Nain fecit 1641)
The Peasant's .Meal (signed Le Nain fecit

an" 1642)
Peasant Family
The Forge

Nativity. (La Creche)
The Return from the baptism (signed

Le Nain f. 1642)
Portrait of a Nun (perhaps La Marquise

de Forbin-Janson) (signed Act. Suae

84. A" 1644 Lenain f')
The Open-air meal

New York.

Metropolitan

Museum

Chicago.
Worcester

Art Institute
Art Museum

(Mass.).
Detroit.

Institute of Arts

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Baronne de Berck-

heim Collection

Paris.

Private Collection

Paris.

Louis Sambon Col-

lection

Paris.

Dr. Mary Collec-

tion

Rheims.

Museum

LcPuy.
Laon.

Museum
Museum

MATHIEU LE NAIN

BORN LAON 1607. DIED PARIS 1 677

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES
The Mendicants

Peasant Family
Children playing Cards

A Peasant meal
Tric-trac players
The little card players
Group of amateurs
The Corps de Garde

fecit 1645)
The Gardener
The dancine lesson

(signed Lenain

Nativity (signed Le Nain f. 1674)

Venus in the Forge of Vulcan (signed

Lcnaun fecit 1641)
Portrait of a Young Man
Portrait of a Young Man (dated 1646)

There is an old tradition that the Brothers Antoine, Louis
and Mathieu Le Nain collaborated on all their pictures ; and
till recently no attempt was made to distinguish the works ot
the three men. But in 1910 Sir Robert \\ itt, on the occasion of
an exhibition of their works at the Burlington Fine Arts Club,

H 49

THE BROTHERS LE NAIN

subjected the exhibits to detailed examination and established
the basis of each man's separate style. Since then M. Paul
Jamot has made an exhaustive study of the subject and com-
pleted the grouping of all the known pictures ascribed to these
artists. I give above lists of the outstanding pictures as now
divided among them.

Antoine Le Nain was the eldest of the three brothers. He
painted little portrait groups. He had a shrewd and humorous
eye but never attained to any great skill in the conduct of a picture.
He was always defeated by problems of proportion ; the heads
of the various figures in his groups are of different sizes, they
are often too big for the bodies, and many of his figures appear
to be dwarfs. The Village Piper (PL 27b) in the Detroit Institute
of Arts which is ascribed to Louis seems to me to contain
passages which seem characteristic of Antoine. On the other
hand the piper himself and the girl on the right seem too com-
pletely realised to be Antoine's unaided work and to be ex-
tremely characteristic of Louis. We can assume here, I submit,
collaboration between the two brothers — and we have the old
tradition to support this view.

Antoine Le Nain never graduated in the Paris Mattrise. But
he acquired the rank of Master in the Guild of St. Germain and
he doubtless frequented the St. Germain Fair and exhibited and
sold his pictures there. We may assume that his brothers were
in the same position till all three acquired Parisian reputations
and were invited to join the Academy when in 1648 it was
selecting members hostile to the Mattrise}

Louis Le Nain was the outstanding artist of the three. His
Peasant Family (PI. 27a) and Peasant Meal, in the Louvre, are
masterpieces. Here we have the Dutch descriptive art of the
period lifted from the level of commonplace genre to the level
of the Velasquez Old woman frying eggs in the Cook Collection
at Richmond, which had been painted about a quarter of a
century before.

Louis Le Nain also painted some outdoor groups in which
again we find a dignity that is usually absent from similar Dutch
pictures. The Louvre has The Keturn from Haymaking of this
character, and there is a fine landscape with figures which the

1 Cf. pp. 82-85.

THE BROTHERS LK NAIN

French critics call La Halte dti Cavalier^ in the lonidcs Collection
at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

These outdoor subjects, especially Im Halte du Cavalier
(PI. 28a), demonstrate, 1 think, that Louis Le Nain was acquainted
with the work of his contemporary Paul Potter, painter of the
celebrated Young Bull (PL 28b) in the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
There is nothing in Louis Le Nain's technique which approxi-
mates to the technique of the majority of contemporary Dutch
and Flemish painters who worked with a light touch and an oily
brilliance of transparent colour. But Paul Potter's handling of
paint was different. His touch was deliberate, the substance of
his pigment w^as thick and opaque, and his colour was pre-
dominantly grey. In the Halt of a Cavalier Louis Le Nain has
handled his paint in just Paul Potter's way ; and there is also a
resemblance to the Young Bull in the general composition of the
picture.^

But even making the maximum allowance for Louis Le Nain's
debt to such Dutch pictures his works remain essentially
individual, and essentially French. The gravity, the restraint,
and the feeling in his work represent an aspect of the French
spirit which is deeply rooted in the permanent simplicities of
life. This aspect, which we find in another form in the pictures
of Le Sueur, found no expression in the French decorative art
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It reappeared in
the eighteenth century in the pictures by Chardin,^ and in the
nineteenth in certain works by Paul Cezanne.^

Scholars are still undecided about the list of Louis Le Nain's

^ Paul Potter worked in Delft, Amsterdam and The Hague. He was
born eighteen years after Louis Le Nain and outlived him by six years. His
Hague Young Bullh dated 1647 — the year before Louis Le Nain died. Other
versions of the picture exist which may have been painted earlier and one
of them or a similar picture may have found its way to the St. Germain Fair.
Potter had many pupils and imitators including Jacob Duck whose works,
notably The Stable in Amsterdam and the Pipe Drunk Woman in Munich,
have various affinities with Lc Nain's. (Cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art,
Pis. 84 and 88.) Judging from a photograph the picture known as Chasse J
I'Epieu ascribed to " Lc Nain " in the Hamelin Collection in Paris would
seem to be a work by Paul Potter.

* Cf. Pis. 59-65.

=« Cf. Pi. 1 29.

THE BROTHERS LE NAIN

portraits. But there is general agreement on the fine Avignon
Portrait of a Nim (PL 26).

Antoine and Louis Le Nain both died in 1648. Mathieu, the
youngest brother, outUvcd them for nearly thirty years. He
was to all intents and purposes an artist of the Dutch popular
school, a species of French Duyster. He painted portraits,
including the clever Portrait of a Youth in the Laon Aluseum,
genre pictures of young men playing tric-trac, bourgeois
interiors, and so forth. The Peasant Meal (PI. 30b) in the
Detroit Institute of Arts and the Tric-Trac Players in the Louvre
are typical of his genre work.

A large painting in the Louvre, the Nativity (La Creche),
attributed by M. Jamot to Louis Le Nain, and described in the
Louvre Catalogue as " Attributed to Louis Le Nain," may also
possibly be a work by Mathieu. It is a curiously eclectic picture
in which we see a Virgin with a Rubens facial type, a young girl
who resembles the favourite model of Caravaggio, and elements
which seem Spanish. It demonstrates the variety of foreign
styles with which the brothers had contact when they frequented
the St. Germain Fair.^

The same applies to Mathieu Le Nain's curious Ve/ws in the
Forge of Vulcan (PI. 30a) at Rheims, where with considerable
gaucherie the artist has attempted a mythological composition
which contrasts strangely with The Forge (in the Louvre) by his
brother Louis on the one hand and with The Forge of Vulcan (in
the Prado) by Velasquez on the other.^

^ It is probable that Italian and Spanish pictures as well as Dutch and
Flemish found their way to the St. Germain Fair. It is impossible to dis-
sociate the gamins in the Le Nains' pictures from the gamins of Murillo.
We may assume that if versions of works by the Spanish masters reached the
St. Germain market, they were not originals but school pieces or copies.

2 Mathieu Le Nain's Torge of Vulcan was painted in 1641 ; the Velasquez
picture in 1630.

GEORGES DUMESNIL DE LA TOUR

vi Georges Dnmesiiil dc la Tour

BORN Ll'NKVILLR BEFORE 160O. DIED LUNl'.VILLR 1652

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

Adoration of the Shepherds

Denial of St. Peter

The Angel appearing to foseph

Peter and the Serving Woman

Mother and Child

A young woman visiting a prisoner

St. Sebastian mourned by Women

Paris. Louvre

Nantes. Museum

Rcnncs. Museum

Epinal. Vosges Museum

Berlin. Kaiser-Friedrich

Museum

Munich. Fischmann Collection Woman's Head illumined by candle-

light

Georges Dumesnil dc la Tour, painter of the striking picture
St. Sebastian mourned by Women (PI. 29), was a very able artist
with a sense of drama and dramatic effect. All the pictures
now ascribed to him are illuminated by candlelight, or torch-
light, and they arc marked by fine serenity and broad simplifi-
cations in the forms.

It is clear that Dumesnil de la Tour was acquainted with the
works of the School of painters known in Italy as the TenebrosL
The art of these painters was based in the first place on Raphael's
night scene, Tbe Liberation of St. Peter, in the Vatican, and in the
second on the spotlight effects in certain pictures by Caravaggio ;
and it was brought to the north by the Dutch painter, Gerard
Honthorst, who went to Rome about 1610 and remained there
till 1622.1

The resemblance of Dumesnil de la Tour's works to certain
pictures by Honthorst is ver)' evident. But we can only guess
at the relation between the two artists because we know next
to nothing of Dumesnil's life.

1 Cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art (pp. 50-54 and Pis. 23, 24, 25 and 26)
where the influence of the Tenebrosi on Rembrandt via Honthorst is dis-
cussed. In Rome Honthorst painted a whole series of candlelight and torch-
light pictures which included a Beheading of St. John the Baptist ^ the Christ
before Caiaphas (now in the London National Galler}'), the Boy singing by
Candlelight and the Girl catching a Flea in her Nightdress (both now in the Doria
Gallery in Rome), and he thereby earned for himself the title of Gerardo
della Notte (Gerard of the Night).

PORTRAIT PAINTERS

We know that he was born in Luneville where he died in 1652,
that he received commissions from Louis XIII, from the
Governor of Nancy, and from Duke Charles IV of Lorraine ;
and that he painted in 1644 a Nativity (perhaps the Louvre
Adoration), in 1648 a Saint Alexis, in 1649 ^ ^^^^^^ Sebastian, and at
other times a Denial of St. Peter 2Lnd other pictures of St. Sebastian.

He thus clearly had influential patrons one of whom may
have provided the money for a journey to Rome. If we put
this presumed journey between 161 3 and 1622 he might have
met Honthorst himself. Alternatively he may have visited
Holland and become acquainted with the works of Honthorst
or his followers in that way. In favour of a Dutch visit there
is the striking resemblance of the formal simplifications in his
pictures to those in pictures by Vermeer of Delft. There is
also, of course, the third alternative that he may have seen
examples or imitations of Honthorst's pictures in France.

Dumesnil de la Tour in any case was no mere pasticheur. His
pictures are not a mere combination of the formal feeling of
Vermeer illuminated by the light effects of Honthorst. They
reveal a personal artist. The St. Sebastian mourned by Women is
one of the most original pictures in French seventeenth-century
production.^

vij . Portrait Painters

The most appreciated portrait painters of this period were
the cousins Henri de Beaubrun (i 603-1 677) and Charles de
Beaubrun (i 604-1 692), Philippe de Champaigne (i 602-1 674),
Claude Lefebre (1632-1675), and Robert Nanteuil (1625-1678).

1 Dumesnil de la Tour is one of the recent discoveries of art-scholarship,
in the sense that in recent years various scholars have recognised his hand
in a number of pictures the authorship of which was previously unknown.

At present we only know two pictures which are signed. The first is
The Angel appearing to Joseph at Nantes (which is known at the Museum as
Sleeping Old Man arvakened by a Girl) and Pe/er and the Serving Woman, in the
same gallery (known as The Denial of St. Peter). The second is dated 1650.

The pioneer work on this artist was done by Herr Hermann Voss in
Archiv fur Kunstgeschichte in 1914. M. L. Demonts followed in Chronique
des Arts in 1922, M. Vitale Bloch in Forwes in December, 1930. At the
moment of going to press 1 learn that M. Landry, of Paris, owns a daylight
subject. The Card Sharpers, by this artist.

PORTRAIT PAINTF.RS

The reputation of the de Beaubruns was immensely high all
through the centurv. In the early part of their career they
painted I.ouis XIV at the age of eight days, and Anne of Austria
some months before he was born — a special commission from
the luiglish Ambassador to celebrate the Queen's condition.^
Most of the French artists of the period came from the middle
and artisan classes ; but the de Beaubruns could boast a family
tree, and they were persons of polite and charming manners ;
they flattered their sitters, and their portraits appealed especially
to Court ladies. Till Henri died they seem to have worked in
collaboration — one presumably painting the faces and the other
the draperies. In their Court commissions they were evidently
embarrassed by the casual conduct of the ladies who neglected
to keep appointments, for a letter survives in which they com-
plain to Colbert that unless the King will be good enough to
speak a word to certain ladies to induce them to take the sittings
more seriously they will not be able to complete their work.

Most of the portraits by the de Beaubruns have now dis-
appeared or are labelled " French Seventeenth-Centur}' School,"
but the manner of Charles can be studied in the portrait (painted
after his brother's death) o^ Mile de I ^alois in the Prado in Aladrid,
and their joint work can be seen in two portraits in the Musee
Conde at Chantilly, one of which shows the celebrated Diuhesse
de Longueville whose beauty moved her admirers to the most
lyrical descriptions even after the smallpox had played havoc
with her teint de perle.

Philippe de Champaigne was born in Brussels, but as he
worked almost exclusively in France he is usually included in
the French School. As a portrait painter he introduced a
categoric realistic manner and impressed his contemporaries
by the " lifelike " quality of the resemblance. He ** modelled,"
as painters say, with vigour and completeness, more especially
in his later years. He was admired above all other portrait
painters by Richelieu, and he painted the celebrated full-length
portrait of the Cardinal, now in the Louvre, and also the

^ In Court and ecclesiastical circles the Queen's pregnancy, after many
years of despair, was regarded as a miracle obtained by special prayers.
Hence the painting of this picture and hence also the first title of Louis XIV :
Dieudonni.

FRENCH ARTISTS IN ROME

extremely interesting full-face and profile head studies now in
the National Gallery in London. The head studies were painted
for a Roman sculptor who made a bust from them, and they
constitute a most valuable record of the Cardinal's real appear-
ance. Two imposing groups, by de Champaigne, are now in
the Louvre. The first represents the architects Francois Mansart
and Claude Perrault, the second ha Mere Catherine-Agnes Arnaud
et la Soeur Catherine de Sainte-Su^anne (PL 6ob).

The picture of the nuns was painted in the convent of Port
Royal in 1662 when the artist had to a large extent withdrawn
from the official world and was frequenting the Jansenists by
whom the institution had been founded. The younger nun on
the chaise longue was the artist's daughter who had been attacked
by fever and paralysis and given up by the doctors, when, as we
read in the inscription, she was miraculously cured by the
prayers of Mother Catherine- Agn^s in a nine days' retreat.^

Claude Lefebre was a pupil of Le Sueur and Le Brun. He
was another favourite portrait painter of the Court, and he painted
Colbert. The Louvre has his Portraits d'un precepteur et son eleve
and a male portrait. From his style he may be presumed to have
studied portraits by Van Dyck.

Robert Nanteuil worked mainly as an engraver and pastellist.
Louis XIV, Anne of Austria, Mazarin and Colbert sat to him.

viij . French Artists in Kome

In all this artistic activity the two greatest French painters
of the period took scarcely any part. Claude Lorrain and Nicolas
Poussin both lived almost entirely in Rome. Claude was there
from 1627 till his death in 1682. Poussin was there from 1624
to 1640 and from 1643 till his death in 1665.

Rome at this time had large colonies of artists from Germany,
Flanders, Holland and France. The artists went there for the
most part in their youth at the expense of a patron to whom they

^ Philippe de Champaigne also executed decorative compositions all
through his life. He arrived in Paris at the age of nineteen and obtained
employment on the decorations of the Luxembourg Palace, where his work
appealed to Marie de Medicis who eventually attached him to her establish-
ment as director of the decorations, which made him independent of the
Parisian Matfrise.

liirriin. Kuntr IruJru h A/wmiiii.

DUMESNll. 1)1 l.\ lOlK. St. Sebastian mourned by Women.

Rhcuiis. Miisi'uin

MATHIEU LE NAIN. \'enus in the Forge of Vulcan.

Detroit. Jiistilutc nf Art^

MATHIEU LE NAIN. Peasant Meal.

FRRNCII AR'lIS'l'S IN ROMl-

sent back specimens of their studies and for whom they made
copies of Old Masters and often collected objets d'ari ; others
worked their way to Italy by painting at various places on the
journey or rendering services to fellow travellers with means,
for such journeys were always made in groups of people who
travelled together for mutual protection. This method of travel
had obvious advantages for a young artist over the express-
train travelling or even the car-travelling of to-day ; for it was
accomplished in short stages, the artists could survey the
country through which they travelled and form an acquaintance
with monuments in the towns and cities on the route. The
journey was in fact an education for an artist in itself.

Arrived in Rome the artists found themselves in an atmo-
sphere where they could not only study contemporary Italian
painting and have contact with the contemporary artistic thought
of the Italian and foreign intelligentsia, but where they were also
able to study the achievements of the Renaissance and the
remains of antiquity. In the Rome which these artists knew
fragments of ancient architecture abounded, sometimes upright,
sometimes lying on the ground. Claude and the Roman-ruin
painters who followed him did not invent the fallen pillars and
deserted temples that figure in their pictures, they actually
saw them. Claude's Vieip of the Campo Yaccino^ for example,
is based on the Forum as it appeared in his day when it was used
as a cattle-market.

The seventeenth-century conceptions of antique art were
different from our own. The artist in Rome in this period knew
little of and cared little for Greek art. The Parthenon and its
sculptures were unknown and the average seventeenth-century
artist even if acquainted with fifth-century and archaic Greek
sculpture paid no heed to them. The most admired statues in
the Vatican collection were the Apollo Belvedere, the haocoon,
and the Varnese Hercules. Poussin, who penetrated more deeply
into the antique spirit, achieved a comprehension that was
personal and unique.

After a few years in Rome the artists generally returned to
their own countries where, if they had been financed by patrons,
they were introduced by tliem to the fashionable world. Oc-
casionally they were able by their own paintings to attract the

I 57

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN

attention of Italian dilettanti and make money and a local
reputation in Rome ; and more occasionally still they had so
much success in Rome that they were able to establish them-
selves as permanent residents in the city — as happened in the case
both of Claude and of Poussin.

In Paris in the first half of the century the majority of artists
were still regarded as fournisseurs of decorative and ecclesiastical
pictures who were expected to submit their designs to their
employers and work in accordance with their employers' taste.
In Rome both Claude and Poussin worked in complete inde-
pendence ; after a period of struggle they both succeeded in
acquiring the liberty to paint what they pleased, to take their
own time about their work, and to obey the dictates of their
own aesthetic ideals. Many of their pictures were commissions ;
but their patrons left them a free hand. Paris could thus offer
nothing that could tempt Claude and Poussin to abandon their
independence, which marked the beginning of the modern
conception of the artist's position ; and when Poussin came into
contact with the old Parisian attitude he soon desired nothing so
much as to return to Rome — and this though Louis XIII and
Richelieu were overwhelmingly gracious and placed at his dis-
posal a comfortably furnished house where he found on his
arrival a stock of fuel and a cask of excellent old wine.

ix. Claude le l^orrain

BORN CHAMAGNE (VOSGES) 160O. DIED ROME 1 68 2

CUAKACTB-MSTIC PICTURES

London.

National Gallery

Seaport at Sunset

London.

National Gallery

Landscape : Cephalus and Procris

London.

National Gallery

Seaport. The Queen of Sheba

London.

National Gallery

Seaport. St. Ursula

London.

National Gallery

Echo and Narcissus

London.

National Gallery

Aeneas at Delos

Philadelphia.

Widener Collec-

Landscape with classical buildings

Philadelphia.

tion
J. G. Johnson
Collection

Sunset on the Bay

Bostoh.

Museum of Fine
Arts

Parnassus

CLAUDi: LI' LORRAIN

La F^tc Villaqcoisc

View of the Campo Vaccino in Rome

Seaport with Sunset

Seaport. The landing of Cleopatra

Landscape : y\encas hunting

Landscape : Mercury and Argus

Landscape with cattle

The Expulsion of I lagar

Hagar and Ismael in the Desert

Seaport

Landscape : Acis and Galatea

Landscape : The Flight into Egypt

Landscape : The Mill (The Wedding of

Isaac and Rebecca)
Port of Ostia : St. Paula departing for

the Holy Land
Roman ruins : The burial of St. Sabina
Landscape : The Finding of Moses
Landscape : Tobias removing the liver

of the fish
Landscape : Peasants and cattle crossing

a stream
Morning. Eliezer and Rebecca (?)
Midday, The Rest on the Flight
Evening. Tobias removing the liver

of the fish

Claude Gellee, known as Claude le Lorrain or Claude Lorrain,
was the son of obscure parents who both seem to have died
before he was twelve. At that age he went to live with an elder
brother at Freiburg-in-Breisgau who taught liim engraving. At
fifteen he attached himself to another relation, a dealer in lace,
who was travelling to Italy. In Rome and Naples he obtained
various employments — (including, according to a contemporary
biographer, employment as a pastry-cook) — and he worked in
the studios of a Cologne painter, Gottfried W'ols or Walls, who
taught him architectural perspective, and of Agostino Tassi
(1565-1644).

He left Tassi's studio in 1625 and visited Venice. From
there he worked his way through the Tyrol to Bavaria and
finally back to his native town. Shortly afterwards we find
him at Marseilles where he met the painter Charles Errard who
was travelling with his father to Rome. Claude arranged to

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Lc^uvrc

Brussels.

Museum

Berlin.

Kaiser Friedrich

Museum

Munich.

Alte Pinakothek

Munich.

Alte Pinakothek

Munich.

Alte Pinakothek

Munich.

Alte Pinakothek

Dresden.

Museum

Dresden.

Museum

Rome.

Dfuia Gallery

Madrid.

Prado

Madrid.

Prado

Madrid.

Prado

xMadrid.

Prado

Madrid.

Prado

Leningrad.

Hermitage

Leningrad.

Hermitage

Leningrad.

Hermitage

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN

accompany them. He reached Rome again in 1627 and remained
there, as noted, till he died.

In Rome he was an obscure figure of the foreign colony
for some years. But gradually his work began to attract atten-
tion and he obtained some local commissions for decorations ;
at the same time he painted easel pictures of seaports and views
of Rome. About 1630 his Sea Port with a rising Sun and View of
the Campo Vaccina (both now in the Louvre) were bought by
M. de Bethune, the French Ambassador. A few years later
another patron appeared in the person of Cardinal Bentivoglio
who launched him among the Roman dilettanti and introduced
him to Pope Urban VIII who ordered four pictures. From
about 1640 onwards he had continuous success. From the
age of forty-five he sold everything he painted to eminent
collectors all over Europe.^ He worked till his death at the age
of eighty-two. He never married. He left a proportion of his
property to a little girl aged eleven whom he had adopted as his
daughter.

Claude's a/wre as we know it consists of numerous pictures
in museums and private collections, of hundreds of drawings (of
which the British Museum has a great collection), and of the
LiberVeritatis, a series of two hundred drawings, kept as records
of his paintings, which belongs to the Duke of Devonshire.

The pictures fall into three types : (a) classical-picturesque
presentations of seaports with figures ; {b) classical-picturesque
views of Rome with genre or other figures, influenced by
Bamboche^ ; (c) classical-picturesque landscapes with biblical,
mythological, or pastoral episodes indicated by the figures.^

^ In one year nineteen of his pictures were acquired by collectors in
England alone.

^ Cf. note, p. 86.

^ I apply the word picturesque to Claude's paintings because the English
word was invented in the eighteenth century to describe effects in nature
which recalled the composition of his pictures, or the type of building
which appears in them. In i8oi the celebrated art critic, Payne Knight,
recommended the buildings in Claude's pictures to gentlemen desirous of
building " picturesque " country homes ; twenty-five years later in a book
entitled Landscape Arcbi/ec/ure, one Thomas Laing Meason engraved a
scries of such buildings for the gentlemen to choose from.

I have added the word " classical " before the word " pictyresque " tO

CLAUDi: LI' LORRAIN

Most of, it indeed not all, the seaports and views of Rome
were painted before 1650 ; and in connection with the seaports
we must remember that Agostino Tassi, with whom C^laude
worked for nine years, had a reputation as a painter of ports and
shipping, and that he was himself a pupil of Paul Bril, the
Flemish landscape painter who painted the Seaport in the Uffizi
(which is founded on the port in Carpaccio's Departure of St.
Ursula in Venice). The Port of Ostia : St. Paula departing for the
Holy Land (PI. 35a), painted with three others for Philip IV of
Spain in 1648, is a good example of Claude's work in this field.'

But though Claude did not invent the seaport and Roman-
ruin types of picture he perfected them and inspired numerous
painters all through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
notably Panini in Italy and Hubert Robert in France.*

His landscapes with small figures have had an even greater
influence on painting. They were the basis of the art of the
Dutch picturesque painters — both, Pynacker and Bcrchem in
the seventeenth century, and of that of Richard Wilson in Eng-
land in the eighteenth ; in France they were known to W'atteau
and Fragonard and to the landscape painters of the eighteenth
ccntun,^ ; and after a period of neglect in the nineteenth century

indicate the architectural character of Claude's compositions and to dis-
tinguish them from the pictures by Crome and Constable, which later in the
century caused English writers to describe thatch cottages and spreading
chestnut trees as " picturesque." Claude's classical-picturesque style must
be distinguished not only from the romantic-picturesque style of the " old
English " painters, but also from the new Cubist-picturesque style which
has appeared in our own day.

^ Paul Bril's Seaport, in the Uffizi, is reproduced as PI. 58 in my Intro-
duction to Dutch Art. In that book also I have discussed the relation of
Claude's seaport The Rmbarkation of the Queen of Sheba (in the London
National Gallery) to Dido building Carthage, painted by Turner as an attempt
to surpass it ; and I have quoted there some of Ruskin's most vigorous
comments on Claude's picture.

Claude knew all the stages of the seaport tradition in painting, because
he was not only acquainted with the work of Tassi and of Bril (who had
painted a number of celebrated decorations in Rome, including a seventy-
foot landscape, with small iigures in the Sala Clementina, in the Vatican),
but he also doubtless saw Carpaccio's seaports in the St. Ursula series when
he went to Venice in 1625.

^ Cf. pp. 171, 172, and PI. 75.

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN

they have again become a source of inspiration to artists of the
present day.

The Dresden ¥Ught into Egypt (PL 11) is typical of these
landscapes. Here we observe first magnificent woods on the
left and a river on the right ; then in the foreground a girl in
classical drapery kneeling to fill her pitcher while a youth,
similarly garbed, plays a pipe to a shepherdess ; then we note
a herd of cattle moving round this group to drink at a pool in
the foreground ; and finally passing through the trees of the
wood on the left we see the Holy Family, with the Virgin
mounted on the donkey, pursuing their journey after resting
by the stream. The sacred episode which gives the title to this
picture, is thus but incidental to the composition as a whole.
This is a characteristic of Claude's paintings ; he was always
mainly concerned with the construction of an architectural
picture in which the figures were regarded as details ; and he
adopted the same procedure when the episodes indicated by the
figures were biblical, mythological or pastoral.^

" Claude," said Ruskin, " set the sun in heaven and was, I
suppose, the first who attempted anything like the realisation
of actual sunshine in misty air." This is almost the only word
of appreciation which we can find among the fierce onslaughts

^ Claude employed assistants to paint the figures in many of his pictures.
The figures in The Port of Osiia : Departure of St. Paula (PI. 35 a) are attri-
buted to Jacques Courtois. In the case of pictures which have been properly
looked after the figures fuse perfectly with the surrounding landscape to
which Claude doubtless " tied " them with final glazes himself. But in
Claude's pictures in the Louvre, which have been shockingly neglected and
stand in vital need of conditioning, the binding glazes seem to have perished
and the figures " jump " forward from their surroundings.

We find genre touches in some of Claude's pictures. There is a laundry
basket, for example, by the side of the shepherdess in the Dresden Flight
into Egypt (PI. II) ; in a landscape in the Prado, a shepherdess wading with
cattle through a stream holds her petticoats above her knees in true peasant
fashion ; in the Kest on the Flight in the Leningrad Hermitage the Virgin
has by her side an ordinary yf^/ro of water or wine. Such genre passages may
well be touches put in by Claude's assistants. But on the other hand Claude
himself may be responsible, since his drawings prove him susceptible to
many kinds of impression. Genre details are not found in the works of
Poussin till the landscapes of the last period, such as the Orpheus and Eurjdice
and the Four Seasons.

CLAUDIA LE LORRAIN

on Claude's infidelities to nature which Ruskin inserted into
** Modern Painters " and subsequent works. But Ruskin, in
fact, missed the point of tlie light effects in Claude's pictures.
For Claude's sun never shines from the vault of heaven but
always radiates towards the spectator from a flat backcloth, and
this backcloth serves to indicate one of the four delimitations
of imagined space symbolised by the picture.

Claude had the classical conception of space. Me reacted
not so much to individual specific forms as to the formal rela-
tions of phenomena i This we observe clearly in many of his
drawings which reveal a man who drew not in order to record
individual boughs of trees or individual mounds of earth or
rocks (though he occasionally did this also), but in order to
arrive at greater comprehension of the formal movement of
one bough in relation to another and of one mound or rock to
another. In his drawings he forestalled the modern Cubist-
Classical Renaissance (cf. Pis. 126a, 126b, 128a, i28b).^

> In my Introduction to Dutch Art (pp. 158 and 139) I have discussed
Claude's system and contrasted his Abraham cliswissing liagar with pictures
ot the same nominal subject by Rembrandt, Jan Steen and Van der Werff.

Ruskin assumed that Claude was always trying to record nature " rightly "
and failing in the attempt. " I know of no other instance," he wrote, " of a
man's working from nature continually with the desire of being true and
never attaining the power of drawing so much as a bough of a tree rightly."
But Claude was not trying to record nature with the eye of a camera's lens
(which was what Ruskin meant by " rightly "; cf. my Modern Movement in
Art, pp. 76-112). He was trying to do something else and admirably
succeeding. We know a good deal about Claude's methods of work from
his friend the German artist, Joachim Sandrart, who accompanied him on
sketching expeditions in the Campagna in the early years. Claude drew
from nature in pen and wash ; he also made colour notes ; and he spent long
hours in contemplation. But all his pictures were painted in his studio.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

X. Nicolas Poussin

BORN VILLERS, LES ANDELYS I594. DIED ROME 1665

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London.

National Gallery

London.

National Gallery

London.

National Gallery

London.

National Gallery

London.

National Gallery

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Devonshire House

London.

Bridgewater House

(Lord EUesmere

Collection)

Richmond.

Cook Collection

Belvoir Castle.

(Duke of Rutland Col-

lection)

Knowsley

(Lord Derby Collec-

Hall.

tion)

Longford

(Lord Radnor Collec-

Castle.

tion)

Dulwich.

Gallery

Dulwich.

Gallery

Dulwich.

Gallery

Liverpool.

Walker Art Gallery

Dublin.

National Gallery

New York.

Metropolitan Museum.

Havemeyer Collection

Philadelphia.

J. G. Johnson Col-

lection

Minneapolis.

Institute of Arts

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Private Collection

ChantiUy.

Musee Conde

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

ChantiUy.

Musee Conde

Chantilly.

Musde Conde

Venus and Satyrs (1628-32)
Cephalus and Aurora
Bacchanalian Festival (1632-37)
Bacchanalian Dance (1638-39)
Landscape with figures (Phocion)

(1648)
Allegory of Human Life (The Dance
to the music of Time) (1638-40)
The Shepherds in Arcady (1632-35)
The Seven Sacraments (Seven pic-
tures) (1644-48)

Rape of the Sabinas
The Seven Sacraments (Seven pic-
tures) (1638-40)
The Finding of Phocion (1648)

The Golden Calf (1637-39)

The Triumph of David (1623-26)
The Inspiration of Anacreon
The Nurture of Jupiter (1633-36)
Arcadian Landscape
Pieta (1643-48)
Orpheus and Eurydice

The Baptism of Christ

Moses defending the Daughters of

Jethro
Forty-one pictures
Bacchus and Erigone (1620-24)
The Massacre of the Innocents

(1627-29)
The Youth of Bacchus (1630-35)
The Annunciation (1641-43)
Landscape with two nymphs (1660-

64)

Paris. Louvre

NICOLAS POUSSIN. Self Portrait.

Paris. Louvre

NICOLAS POUSSIN. Apollo atid Daphne.

Paris. Private Collection

NICOLAS POUSSIN. Bacchus and Eri-one.

Paris. Lnuvre

NICOLAS FOUSSIN. Echo and Narcissus.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

Berlin.

Kaiscr-Fricdrich

Munich.
Schlcissheim.
Vienna.
Madrid.

Museum
Alte Pinakothek
Castle Museum
Liechtenstein Gallery
Prado

Madrid.

Leningrad.

Prado

Hermitage
Hermitage

Leningrad. iiermitage

Landscape with St. Matthew and

Angel (1646-53)
Midas before Bacchus (1632-36)
Apollo and Daphne (1630-35)
The I'light into Egypt (1635-38)
David crowned by Victory (1624-

Landscape with sarcophagus
Landscape with Polyphemus (1649)
Landscape with 1 lercules and Cacus

(1646-50)
The Triumph of Galathea (1638-40)

Nicolas Poussin is now regarded by the French as one of the
greatest of their artists and French critics rank him among the
greatest artists of the world. The Louvre possesses forty-one
of his pictures of all periods painted at different times of his life ;
but nearly all these pictures are so obscured with dirt aad dis-
coloured varnish that we can only guess at their original appear-
ance. To discover the range of Poussin's achievements it is
therefore essential to supplement a study of the Louvre pictures
by a study of others in galleries where the pictures have been
properly cleaned and conditioned ; and this fortunately can be
done since, outside the Louvre, there are at least a hundred of
Poussin's pictures in private collections and museums.^

From his biographers we have images of Poussin as an old
man living peacefully in his house on Monte Pincio in Rome.
\\"e are told of his regular habits, his quiet labours, his morning
and evening walks surrounded by pupils and admirers to whom
he discoursed of art and life. But Poussin was not always old ;

^ But even in galleries where the pictures are properly looked after many
of Poussin's pictures now give us but a faint idea of their appearance when
he painted them, because he often used an Indian red ground and this in
many cases has darkened the colours or completely worked through them.

Hundreds of pictures were formerly ascribed to Poussin. These included
works by his imitators and followers, copies by his pupils, copies by students
at later dates, and forgeries. Gaspard Dughet, known as Gaspard Poussin,
who was Poussin's brother-in-law, was the most important of his followers.

M. Emile Magne and Dr. Otto Grautoff have established what is now
regarded as the master's autre. Dr. Grautoff has established an approximate
chronology. The dates in my list of characteristic pictures above are based
on Dr. Grautoff's catalogue.

K 65

NICOLAS POUSSIN

and we have but to look at his Louvre Self Portrait (PI. 31a) to
realise that he was a man who knew no peace.

Poussin was fifty-six and at the height of his career when he
painted this Self Portrait. It portrays an artist engaged on a
gigantic intellectual task ; an artist who was consciously striving
to create a microcosm of the universe itself.

Compare this Self Portrait with the self portrait painted by
Poussin' s greatest contemporary at almost the same age — or to
be accurate when he was fifty-seven. In the picture known as
Kembrandt as an Old Man^ in the London National Gallery, we see
an artist who, with humorous pessimism, has accepted himself
as a grubby prematurely decayed old drunkard ; an artist content
to be a sensual intuitive muddling man. In Poussin's portrait
we see a man who, with exalted unhumorous optimism, has
tried to be more than mortal and to capture eternal secrets by
the sheer force of his own mind. Under Poussin's picture we
might set the title : " Portrait of a rationalist " and the legend :

" Sure, he that made us with such large discourse
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability, that god-like reason
To fust in us unused." ^

The facts of Poussin's career can be very briefly stated. He
was born in a village in Normandy of humble uneducated
parents. He was apprenticed to a local artist and later worked
under various minor artists in Paris. After seeing drawings by
Raphael and engravings from his pictures and those of other
Italian masters he determined in spite of his poverty to make the
journey to Rome. In a first attempt at the age of twenty-six
he got as far as Florence. In a second some years later he only
reached Lyons. At last in 1624 at the age of thirty he arrived in
Rome where after a period of hardship culminating in illness he
produced the earliest of his pictures that survive. In 1630 he
married the daughter of a French chef and with her dowry he
was able to buy the famous house on Monte Pincio. After this
solution of the most pressing material problems he continued his
work and began to build up his reputation in Italy. In 1640, in

^ This was what Ruskin meant when he wrote of Poussin's " strong but
degraded mind." In Ruskin's view Poussin's rationalism came straight
from the devil.

1^ <^

■^

^^^^p^

i^S^C

Bp,

■N^

u<2

^9tt^^^

MiiisiJi. AlU: Piiiiikoliuk

NICOLAS POUSSIX. Midas bcft)rc Bacchus.

SchUissheim. Caslle Miiseuin

NICOLAS I'OLSSIN. Apollo and Daphne.

Richmond. Cook

NICOLAS POUSSIN. Rape of the Sabincs.

Paris. Louvre

NICOLAS POUSSIN. LindinR of Moses.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

response to repeated ofiicial invitations, he returned to Paris.
There he worked for Louis XIII and Richelieu and was put in
charge of the dccorati(m of the Long Gallery of the Louvre.
But he found himself most ill at ease in the atmosphere of French
official art ; and two years later he went back to Rome and
worked there for the remaining twenty-three years of his life.

Poussin's work falls into four categories : {a) pagan and my-
thological subjects including Bacchanals, {b) religious subjects,
{c) histon'-picturcs, {d) architectural pictures, including land-
scapes with incidental figures.

{a) All Poussin's pagan and mythological pictures (except one,
his xtvf last picture) and all his Bacchanals were painted before
he was forty-five. They are the product of his sensibility and
mind before he became the pedant of the historical compositions
and the great architectural artist of his most significant and
personal works ; and to the superficial observer they are the
most attractive of all his pictures.

I reproduce five pictures in this Category : Bacchus and
Erigone (PL 32a), the Louvre Echo and Narcissus (PI. 32b), the
Schleissheim Apollo and Daphne (PI. 33b), the Dresden Midas
before Bacchus (PL 33 a) and the Louvre Apollo and Daphne (PL 31b).
The first, which is now in a private collection, I beUeve, in Paris,
is one of Poussin's earliest pictures and it demonstrates that
from the outset he was profoundly attracted by antique sculp-
ture. The lovely Echo and Narcissus dates, with the Dulwich
Nurture of ]upiter and Inspiration of Anacreon, from this same
period (1624-26) when the artist, newly arrived in Rome, was
studying the Italian masters, — notably the Carracci and Dome-
nichino (whose studio he frequented), and Titian for whom he
was beginning to acquire a burning admiration wliich led him
in 1629 to copy the Ariadne in Naxos, and probably other pictures
in the same series, then in Cardinal Ludovisi's Palace in Rome.^

^ Titian painted this series for the Duke of Ferrara. It consisted of the
Bacchus and Ariadne in the London National Gallery, the Feast of the Gods
(begun by Bellini and finished by Titian), now in the Widencr Collection in
Philadelphia, the Ariadne in Naxos, sometimes called a Bacchanal, and the
Worship of Venus, now in the Prado, Madrid. Cardinal Ludovisi presented the
Ariadne in Naxos and the Worship of Venus to Philip IV. Poussin's copy of
the Ariadne in Naxos is now in the National Gallery of Scodand in Edinburgh.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

To Titian's influence we must attribute the series of Bacchanals
(in the Louvre, London National Gallery and elsewhere) which
Poussin painted in the next few years. The influence is also
clearly seen in the Schleissheim Apollo and Daphne (PI. 33b). But
Poussin's personality nevertheless is felt all over the Schleissheim
picture ; for here we perceive for the first time his desire to
create an art of a microcosmic character, his desire to make his
picture a symbolic equivalent of some aspect of life as a whole.
In this picture all the ages of man are symbolised ; it shows us
childhood, maturity and old age ; and maturity, as in all
Poussin's works, is symbolised by man and woman at the age
of love. At the same time we observe the artist's preoccupation
with antique sculpture in the figure of the old man that personifies
the river — a figure that occurs again and again in Poussin's works.

The same microcosmic aim, this time with the addition of
contrasts of character, is seen in the Dresden Midas before
Bacchus (PI. 33a). Antique sculpture has here been drawn upon
for Bacchus and the recumbent figure is derived from Titian's
Ariadne in Naxos.^

Poussin's pagan pictures are sensual. But we must distinguish
between Poussin's sensuality at this time and the sensuality of
Titian. In Titian's pagan pictures we meet a care-free sensuality
freely and openly expressed in the most richly sensuous language
that the art of painting has ever yet achieved. In Poussin's
pagan pictures we have an inhibited sensuality which comes to
us distilled through a mind that knows it for what it is ; and this
distillation is set down in a language of almost scientific accuracy
and restraint. For this reason some of Poussin's pagan pictures
have an insidious, because disguised, erotic character that we
never find in pictures by Titian."^

^ Other echoes of the figure in Titian's Ariadne in Naxos occur in the
Sleeping Venus (Dresden), Venus and Satyrs (London National Gallery) and
the Bacchanal in the Louvre, all painted at this time.

Poussin's other pictures of this period influenced by Titian include theYouth
of Bacchus (Chantilly), various pictures of Cupids (based on Titian's Worship of
Venus), the Leningrad Tancred and Herwione and Kinaldo and Armida, the
Louvre Triumph of Flora, Lord Carlisle's Triumph of Bacchus, the Madrid David
crowned by Victory, and the London National Gallery Cephalus and Aurora.

^ The French collector the Comte dc Briennc (cf. note, p. 87), who admired
Correggio, Giorgione and Titian, had a picture by Poussin which would

NICOLAS POUSSIN

The distilled erotic quality in these pagan pictures by Poussin
must also be ascribed to some extent to his study of antique
sculpture. Poussin was perfectly conscious of the distilled
animalism in Greek and the distilled lust in Roman sculpture and
he accepted both. But at the same time he looked to paganism
to contribute to the microcosmic art he was seeking to create.

Poussin's pagan pictures differ in fact from all other pictures
of pagan subjects in the Christian world. The Venetian
painters of these subjects were hedonists, and their pictures
were contributions to the enjoyment of the Renaissance concep-
tion of life. Mantegna and Botticelli were humanists, and their
pictures were contributions to the enjoyment of the Renaissance
conception of literature. The painters of the School of Fon-
tainebleau were decorators, and their pictures were contributions
to royal grandeur. But Poussin was a pictorial architect and a
pliilosopher. He asked paganism to reveal not only its obvious
remains but the secrets of formal harmony and rhythm which
Poussin believed its artists had captured ; he asked paganism
to provide him with material for the architectural picture.^

The climax of Poussin's pagan pictures is the Louvre Apollo
and Daphne (PI. 31b), liis very last work painted after he had
abandoned these subjects for just on twenty-five years. From
what can be seen of tliis picture, through the especially thick
layers of filth which at present obscure it, we can realise that
Poussin here assembled as it were the whole cast of players in
his pagan pictures and set them in a landscape where in the
middle distance we see a herd of cows. The microcosm which
he had been seeking was thus enriched at the last moment by

seem to have been a variant of the Dresden Sleeping Venus ; misfortune
overtook him — partly as the result of gambling — and he was retired to a
seminary ; though he had sold most of his pictures he took the Poussin
with him ; but complaints were made and he was induced to cut off the legs
of his Venus and to insert around her head the Cupids which had previously
been grouped around the legs.

^ Reynolds said that Poussin's mind was " naturalised in antiquity."
He was right. But the antique world into which Poussin penetrated was
not the real pagan world but an ideal pagan world of his imagination — a
world of austere perfection which was quite different from the ideal pagan
world imagined by the hedonists and decorators who thought of the antique
world as a place more agreeable to live in than the world they knew.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

new material. Poussin was paralysed in hand and legs when he
put the last touches to this painting which epitomises, though
it may not achieve, the lofty ideal which he had been seeking
all his life.

{b) Poussin's pictures of religious subjects fall into three types
— ecclesiastical, historical and architectural. The pictures of the
first type were painted in the ecclesiastical-decorative manner
of Vouet and the other French eclectic painters of the time.
The Flight into F.gypt (PI. 21b) in Vienna is a good example. The
pictures of the second and tliird types belong, properly speaking,
to Poussin's historical and architectural styles.

if) Poussin's historical pictures were the foundation of the
whole school oipeinture d'histoire^ or as the English writers of the
eighteenth century called it " history-painting," which was so
much discussed and so highly esteemed from the second half
of the seventeenth till the middle of the nineteenth century when
the Impressionist movement threw it completely overboard.

l"he history-picture was a reconstruction of some dramatic
episode of the past ; it was the concoction of a tableau vivant on
canvas, the crystallisation as it were of a moment in a play. At
the same time — and here it differed from the true tradition of
Christian religious narrative art — it was expected to be a demon-
stration of the painter's technical powers. In history-painting
moreover the illustrative-dramatic content was expected to take
precedence over all others.

In his history-pictures Poussin sometimes selected biblical
subjects and sometimes episodes from the history of ancient
Rome ; the two famous series of the Seven Sacraments which
now belong respectively to the Duke of Rutland and Lord
Ellesmere are examples of the one type, the two versions of the
Kape of the Sabines^ one in the Louvre and the other in Sir
Herbert Cook's collection at Richmond (PI. 34a) are examples of
the other.i

^ The first category of Poussin's history-pictures also includes the Mas-
sacre of the Innocents (Chantilly), the Dulwich Triumph of David, the Louvre
'Plague in Ashdod, Moses and Aaron's Rod, Woman Taken in Adultery, Israelites
collecting Manna, and Judgement of Solomon, and the Leningrad Esther before
Ahasuerus ; the second also includes the Louvre Saving of Pjrrhus, Camillus
and the Schoolmaster and Death of Saphira and the Leningrad Continence of
Scipio.

.U././r:'./. / ■ '

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN. The Port of Ostia ; Departure of St. Paula.

Paris. Loiiirc

NICOLAS POUSSIN. Funeral of Phocion.

Boston. Museum of Fine Art<;

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN. Parnassus.

Chantilly. Musee Condi

NICOLAS POUSSIN. Landscape with Two Nymphs.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

Reynolds said that Poussin was a pedant and in another
passage he refers to his work as ** dry." These judgments are
merited by these histon'-picturcs in which Poussin was at pains
to be accurate in archx-ological details and in which the dramatic
content is without the sap of life. For just as in Poussin's pagan
pictures we get distilled sensuality so in his histor^'-picturcs we
get distilled drama. In Poussin's pictures of slaughter, plague
and famine we look in vain for the fine frenzy of Tintoretto
and Delacroix or the moving intuition of Rembrandt ; in their
stead we have scenes of passion and movement frozen to fright-
ful immobility as by some instantaneous act of God.

But in these pictures, so tedious to modern eyes, Poussin, in
fact, was again attempting to achieve a microcosm ; he was
aiming at the expression of the whole range of human passions
and emotions by gesture and expression. He failed. But the
attempt is not to be despised. ^

In his own day the attempt was supremely higlily rated.
These history-pictures were the real basis of the Academic
concept of Great Art which was formulated into doctrine by
the French Academy in its early years.^ Poussin had paid atten-
tion to archaeological detail, therefore, said the Academicians,
such detail was essential to Great Art ; Poussin had a box in
which he disposed cardboard figures to estabhsh the composition
of his history^-pictures, therefore the disposition of figures as on
a stage must be accepted as a law ; each figure in Poussin's
histor)'--pictures makes a definite gesture and each face has its
definite expression ; therefore, in Great Art, every figure must
strike an attitude and make a grimace.^

If Poussin had never painted any of his history-pictures the
world might have been spared many thousands of miles of
dreary Academic art.

^ Among Poussin's history-pictures I can recall two in which he seems
to me to have achieved the synthesis of human emotions at which he was
aiming — the Weeping over the Dead Christy in Dublin, and The Last Supper^
at Bridgewater House.

2 Cf. pp. 86-88.

^ Le Brun's Alexander and the Family of Darius (cf. p. 80) was held up
as a model to students in the Academy. Lc Brun tried in this picture to
surpass Poussin and every member of the kneeling family of Darius makes
some silly gesture and grimace.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

{d) To the modem student it is Poussin's architectural
pictures that make the deepest and most direct appeal. From
these pictures the influence of Titian's paganism and the
illustrative-dramatic ideal of the history-pictures are alike
excluded. The central content of these works is their formal
harmony and unity. They partake of the character of architec-
ture and the character of music. There are no gestures here to
indicate emotions, no facial expressions. ^

Poussin arrived at his final architectural pictures by successive
stages and he was working towards them all his life. Lord
Radnor's The Golden Calf is at once the last of the Bacchanals
and a stage in the architectural progress ; the Dance in the
Wallace Collection (otherwise called An Allegory of Human Life,
or Fame, Pleasure, Wealth and Poverty dancing to the Music of Time),
the Louvre Inspiration of the Poet (PL 22a), Shepherds of Arcadj
and Finding of Moses (PI. 34b) are others.

The final achievement is heralded by a later Finding of Moses,
also in the Louvre, where the figures are set in a landscape that
stretches back to a remote horizon. For, in his last phase,
Poussin tried to achieve a microcosm with the aid of landscape.
His pictures of this phase are landscapes in which the figures are
reduced to the small size that we find in the landscapes by Claude.
But Poussin's architectural landscapes bear only a superficial

^ In some of these pictures in his architectural manner there are no eye-
balls within the eyes. The esthetic gain of this omission is made manifest
when we compare one of these pictures with an engraving made from it
where the engraver has sought to improve it by putting in the eyeballs,
thereby bringing the figures to life and killing the picture.

A picture where the eyeballs are thus omitted is the celebrated £//q;^r and
Kebecca in the Louvre, which was the subject of many discussions at the
Academy Conferences (cf. pp. 86-88). An Academician, who mistook this
for one of Poussin's history-pictures, complained that he had omitted the
ten camels which, we read in the Bible, Eliezer had brought with him and
to which Rebecca herself supplied water ; but Le Brun replied, from the
same point of view, that the camels were properly omitted because the sub-
ject of the picture was an offer of marriage and as such it depicted " me
entrevue galante et polie " at which bienseance demanded that no camels should
be present. The frieze-like composition of Poussin's picture is in fact
based on the Hellenistic painting known as the Aldobrandini Wedding which
he had copied twenty years before ; and the stance of the famous figure of
the girl by the well is derived from a figure in that work.

NICOLAS POUSSIN

resemblance to Claude's classical-picturesque art. Claude's land-
scapes advance by a few simple planes from the flat wall at the
back of the picture which, as noted, radiates the light. Poussin's
landscapes recede from the front of the picture by a great number
of subtly modulated and related planes to an infinite distance,
and the light is diffused all over the picture. I reproduce two
examples of such architectural landscapes by Poussin, the
Louvre Funeral of Phocion (PI. 35 b) and the Chantilly Latidscape
with two Njmphs (PL 36b), where the characteristics of the
spatial organisation can be plainly scen.^

I must mention one other aspect of Poussin's achievements,
one further attempt to achieve the microcosmic goal. The
Louvre has four very celebrated pictures wliich he painted in the
last years of his life for the Due de Richelieu, whose son wagered
and lost them to Louis XIV at tennis.- These are called Spring:
{The Eartb/j Paradise), Sf/wwer : {Bjith and Boa-:^), Autumn : {The
Return from the Promised Land), and Winter : {The Deluge). In
these pictures Poussin tried to combine history-painting with
architectural landscape. The small figures here are not incidental
as in Claude's pictures and Poussin's own landscapes, they have
illustrative-dramatic significance and their gestures once again
express the gamut of human emotions from the tranquil love of
man and woman in the Earthly Paradise to the extremity of fear
and horror in The Deluge. The architectural content of these
pictures suffers from the illustrative-dramatic interest that per-
vades them ; but considered as liistory-pictures they rank as
Poussin's most expressive works.

* Especially if contrasted with Claude's pictures reproduced in Pis. 35a
and 36a. Claude, however, was influenced by Poussin's landscapes as can
be seen in Pis. II and 36a. The most important of Poussin's final architectural
landscapes, apart from the two I reproduce, are the Louvre Orpheus and
Eurydice and Landscape n-ith Diogenes, the Leningrad Landscape with Polyphe-
mus and Landscape with Hercules and Cacus, the Prado Landscape with three
men. Lord Derby's Finding of Phocion and the London National Gallery Land-
scape with figures {Phocion).

« Cf. p. 87.

B. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV

i. Louis XIV, Court spectacles and Versailles

Louis XIV was five years old when he became King in 1643.
He was just under twenty-three when, in 1661, after Mazarin's
death he undertook the government of France himself. He
was forty-six when he married Mme de Maintenon after the
death of the Queen. He was seventy-seven when he died in

His reign thus falls into three periods. The first, the period
of his minority, was the Age of the Cardinals which produced
the paintings just recorded. The second was the period of his
young manhood from 1661-1684. The third was the period
when he developed into the grim and imposing god-emperor
worshipped with complicated ceremonial by a Court of ten
thousand people at Versailles.

We tend to think of Louis XIV as the Pharaoh of the last period
and to forget that he did not take up his residence at Versailles
till 1682 when the really brilliant period of his reign was almost
at an end. In all fields the dazzling period was from 1 661-1684.
The successful wars were over by 1678. Colbert who re-
organised France for the King's glory died in 1683. From the
age of twenty-three to the age of forty-six Louis XIV was the
Koi Soleil. It was not till later that he became the terrible Louis-
k-Grand.

As the Ro/ Soleil Louis XIV took his duties seriously and
worked hard at the business of the State. But at the same time
he was the centre of a splendid and not yet oppressively pompous
Court. Though Grand Amoureux — (who has not read of his
successive favourites. Mile de la Valliere with her intriguing
limp, Mme de Montespan, Mile de Fontange ?) — he was neither
debauched nor vicious ; Grand Seigneur, rejoicing in his eminence,
he led the Court in a continuous series of brilliant entertainments.
Devoted to music, dancing, the ballet, and the play, he was the
patron of Moliere and LuUy, and he himself took part in masques
and pageants for which he carefully rehearsed.

To the student of French painting the Court entertainments
of the Koi Soleil are important because they were closely con-
nected with the decorative taste of the time and because artists

LOUIS XIV, COURT SPECTACLES AND VERSAILLES

were employed both on the theatrical productions and on the
fetes and also in turn drew material from both.

In the theatrical performances the most elaborate scenic
effects were produced by ingenious and complicated machinery ;
the sun and the moon rose or set shedding golden or silver
radiance ; and pagan gods and goddesses moved through the
air on clouds as we see them in Baroque and eighteenth-century
pictures.^

Mazarin, who loved pageantry, and always moved abroad in
state, had set a standard also in theatrical matters in 1647 when
he produced Rossi's Orfeo at the cost of 500,000 ecus.^ This
took place at the Palais Royal ; the mechanical effects which
enabled the gods to sing in mid-air were the work of Mazarin's
favourite machinist Torelli ; and the scenery and costumes were
entrusted to the painter Errard.^ Louis XIV had tried to surpass
this with the Ballet de la Nuit produced in the Salle du Petit-
Bourbon in 1653 when Torelli brought a whole choir down
from heaven on a cloud, and a house burst into flames before
the eyes of the astonished Court. In this ballet, which repre-
sented various episodes between sunset and sunrise, there were
forty-three " entries," several of which were acted by the King
himself, who had been coached by Lully. The new epoch
opened with a still more ambitious performance — the Herctdle
Amoureux performed in the Tuileries in 1662. This lasted
six hours and the King made several " entries " accom-
panied by Le Grand Conde. But the mechanical operations this
time were on such a scale that the noise of the machines com-
pletely drowned the music and ruined the effect.

Such spectacles continued all through this period and they

1 Theatrical performances have had great influence on painting from the
time of the early Church performances to the Russian Ballet of our own
day. The heavenly regions peopled by sacred figures on the top stage of the
old ecclesiastical plays (cf. p. 15) became the vault of heaven peopled with
the same figures in the vaults of Jesuit-Baroque churches. But meanwhile, in
secular painting, the heavenly regions had become the abode of the gods and
goddesses of antiquity and eventually Venus and Cupid replace the Virgin
and Child as the normal denizens of the region above the clouds.

2 I cannot give an equivalent in our present-day money. But the sum was
considered grossly extravagant and attacked as such by Mazarin's enemies.

' Cf. note, p. 39.

LOUIS XIV, COURT SPECTACLES AND VERSAILLES

culminated in the Triomphe de I' Amour given before the Court
at St. Germain in 1681. In this the Dauphin and the Dauphine
appeared and Mile de Nantes, the seven-year-old daughter of
the King by Mme de Montespan, performed a dance with
castanets ?■

The first great outdoor fete of the Koi Soleil, which was
known as L.e Carrousel^ was held in 1662 on tht place which per-
petuates its name. The King, Monsieur, Le Grand Conde and
the Prince de Conti appeared respectively as a Roman Emperor,
a King of Persia, an Emperor of the Turks and a King of the
Americans ; they wore fantastic jewelled costumes and plumed
helmets and led the Court in processions which included as
minor performers negroes, monkeys and bears. Other fetes
took place at Saint-Germain, at Fontainebleau, and at Versailles,
then still the small chateau of Louis XIII. The first Versailles
fete has also remained in history. It was given for Mile de la
Valliere in 1664 and was known as I^es Plaisirs de Vile enchantee.
It lasted nine days and the entertainments consisted of elaborate
pageants, ballets and aquatic diversions with marine monsters
and nymphs, and performances of Moliere's Tartufe and L,a
Princesse d' Elide. ^

^ Le Triomphe de V Amour was given again later in the same year at the Opera
in Paris when for the first time professional women dancers appeared in
opera. The innovation was due to Lully.

2 Detailed descriptions of this fete and others at Versailles can be found
in John Palmer's " Moliere." Here is one passage : " At nightfall the
candles about the arena were lit. Lully entered with his troop of musicians.
Then came the four seasons : spring, on a Spanish horse. Mademoiselle du
Pare, in a green habit embroidered with silver and flowers ; summer, on an
elephant, richly decked, the Sieur du Pare ; autumn, on a camel, the Sieur
de la Thorilliere ; winter, on a bear, the Sieur de Bejart ; finally. Pan, the
Sieur de Moliere himself, upon a moving mountain of rocks and trees,
and with him Mademoiselle Bejart as Diana, offering to the Queen and her
ladies in poetic numbers, the fruits and meats of a splendid collation, served
in the lists. Lining the barrier leaned the nobility of France, in helmets and
plumes, as when they had jousted that afternoon, assembled to see their
sovereign feed." Here is another : " Moliere had for his stage an entire
garden complete with Satyrs, busts, fountains, terraces and a navigable water-
way. . . . The King went to supper in a gigantic arbour that beggared all
previous descriptions. Its decorations included an artificial mountain with
Pegasus atop, from between whose feet fell a cascade which formed, after

LOUIS XIV, COURT SPECTACLES y\ND VERSAILLES

For this life of pageantry and panache the young King was
now to devise a more imposing setting. He had visions of
magnificent palaces where the triumphal chariots of the proces-
sions would be permanent thrones and the pageants would be
painted on the walls. He began his building enterprises, which
were to assume vast proportions, with the continuation of the
Louvre and the rebuilding of the Gallery of Apollo.^

The next stage was a vision of a palace at Versailles where all
the business of the State and the pleasures of the Court might
be permanently assembled round the person of the King.

Versailles was begun about 1670. The King examined every
plan and ever)' detail of the galleries and staircases, the sculpture
and paintings, the gardens, the fountains, the grottoes and the
lakes. Nothing was too large or too small for his attention. If
the plan was complicated he listened with patience while it was
explained. He delighted especially in the fountains. He would
himself turn the taps in the engine-house and make no complaint
of becoming wet. He was still, we must remember, in the early
thirties, enthusiastic and young.

For the execution of the Versailles concept Louis XIV had
the aid of Colbert who made the King's service in all branches
the centre of focus for all the energies of France. All the
artistic talent of the moment was enlisted for tliis vast under-
taking. The architects Le Vau, Mansart, Robert de Cotte had
armies of assistants ; Le Notre had an army of gardeners to
carry out his projects for the gardens and the park ; and in the
field of interior decoration there was an army of sculptors and
painters who obeyed the instructions of the remarkable person-
ality Charles Le Brun, whose career we must now consider.

much intermediate playfulness, four rivers, frequent with falls and losing
themselves in small brooks upon lawns of moss. The nine Muses were
naturally present with Apollo and his lyre."

^ The apartments in the Louvre known to-day as the Long Gallery and
Gallery of Apollo occupy the position of the second stories, added to the
Little Gallery and the Long Gallery by Henri IV. The old structure was
destroyed by fire in 1661 and the present Gallery of Apollo is the work
carried out for Louis XIV.

CHARLES LE BRUN

ij. Charles Le Brun

BORN PARIS 1619. DIED PARIS 169O

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

Hofatius Codes defending Rome

Massacre of the Innocents

Holy Family (La Benedicite)

The Crucifixion with the angels

Christ in the Desert served by angels

Alexander and the family of Darius

The Entry of Alexander into Babylon

The Elevation of the Cross

The Entry into Jerusalem

Meleager and Atalanta

Neptune and Amphitrite, Evening,

Night
Series of pictures symbolising the glory

of Louis XIV
Ceilings

Jephtha's daughter

Self portrait

The Banker Jabach and his family

Apotheosis of Louis XIV
General with negro servant

Charles Le Brun was the artist whom Louis XIV and Colbert
required at a particular juncture ; he served their purpose and he
saw to it that they also served his. He had great facility in
painting, and as a decorator he had organising abilities that
approached genius. He was also an arrivist of the very first
order.

He was the son of a sculptor who apprenticed hitn at the age
of thirteen to Francois Perrier.^ In Perrier's studio he made a
drawing of Louis XIII on horseback which his father, who was
working for the Chancellor Seguier in his ho^el, showed to his
patron. The Chancellor, impressed by the boy's evidently pre-
cocious talent, arranged for Vouet, who was then decorating
his library, to take him into his studio. Le Brun soon quarrelled

Dulwich.

Gallery

Dulwich.

Gallery

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre (Gallery of

Apollo)

Versailles.

Galerie des Glaces

Versailles.

Salons de la Guerre

et de la Paix

Florence.

Uffizi

Florence.

UfBzi

Berlin.

Kaiser-Friedrich

Museum

Budapesth.

Museum

Vienna.

Museum

^ Cf. note, p. 39.

CHARLUS LE BRUN

with Vouet and, resolving on the first step in his arrivist career,
he painted an allegory of the glory of Richelieu and presented
it to the Cardinal himself. This bold move was rewarded ;
Richelieu commissioned him to paint other pictures and in-
troduced him to the King. Before he was nineteen he was
a peintre du roi.

Le Brun now realised that the next move must be the tradi-
tional journey to Italy. He knew how much of the respect
paid to Poussin by the King and the Cardinal in 1640 was due
to the reputation which Poussin had acquired in Rome. He
took steps to meet Poussin and to express his homage. By 1642
when Poussin was returning to Rome Le Brun had arranged to
accompany him, and he had persuaded the Chancellor Seguier
to provide the money.

In Italy, two years later, he painted Horatias Codes dejetiding
Rome, a deliberate attempt to rival Poussin. He painted this
secretly, exhibited it anonymously, and scored a great success
in the artistic world of Rome. He was now impatient to
conquer Paris to which he returned in 1646.

As 2. peintre du roi of the last reign Le Brun had no difficulty in
getting an appointment among the painters in the new King's
establishment.! But a position in the ranks was intolerable to a
man of his ambition ; and he set to work to found a new
organisation of artists — a Royal Academy — of which he
determined to be the first Director.^

While engaged in negotiations and intrigues about the
foundation of the Academy he obtained commissions to paint
altar-pieces for churches and convents and a picture for Notre
Dame. His success in the ecclesiastical paintings reached the
ears of Anne of Austria, the Queen Regent, who sent for him and
described a vision which had come to her in sleep. Le Brun
transferred the vision to canvas and placed it in the Queen's
oratory. \\"e can see it to-day entitled The Crucifixion with the
Angels in the Louvre.

At the same time he was doing decorative work in several

1 He actually bought or obtained as a gift a post of valet de chamhre.
Cf. pp. 3,83-85.

- For Le Brun's work as organiser and director of the Academy cf.
pp. 83-85.

CHARLES LE BRUN

hotels including the Hotel Lambert where he found Le Sueur
at work and quarrelled with him ; and he was cultivating the
friendship of the richest and most influential collectors and
amateurs, and painting their portraits. The excellent group The
Banker Jabach and his family (now in Berlin) was painted for the
Cologne banker Jabach who was established in Paris in a magni-
ficent hotel with a great collection of pictures.^

Le Brun's first great chance came when he attracted the
attention of Nicolas Fouquet, the charming, cultivated and
fabulously wealthy Surintendant des finances who eventually
engaged him at a handsome salary to direct the decorations at his
Chateau de Vaux. Here Le Brun had an opportunity of organ-
ising decorative works on a large scale. He covered the
Surintendant's apartments with allegorical compositions de-
picting the glory of the owner ; he designed splendid fetes
with tableaux vivants, transformation scenes, and fireworks ; and
he founded Fouquet's private tapestry factory and supplied
designs to the craftsmen.

At Vaux moreover he met Mazarin, and through Mazarin he
was personally presented to Louis XIV for whom he painted the
Alexander and the family of Darius now in the Louvre. A great
deal of this picture was painted in the actual presence of the King
and the assembled Court ; the King was so excited at this
tour deforce that he gave him his portrait in miniature surrounded
with diamonds as a reward. ^

It was Le Brun who designed the celebrated fete at Vaux in
September 1661 which was attended by Louis XIV and followed
by the fall and disgrace of Fouquet who, the gossips said, had
been rude to Mile de la Valliere when she refused his advances.
The fete took place six months after the death of Mazarin and
the King's assumption of the government. Le Brun perceived
that a new era was starting and that Colbert, whom he had also

1 Le Brun's group was painted about 1660. In the background there is
a mirror in which the painter at his easel is reflected. I^as Meninas, where
Velasquez made such ingenious use of mirrors, was painted in 1656. The
curious should compare Le Brun's Jabach group with the group of The
Merchant Geeling and his Famlj by Metsu, painted about the same time and
also now in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum. Jabach's collection of pictures
was afterwards acquired by Louis XIV (cf. note, p. 87).

2 For the character of this picture cf. note, p. 71.

Versa a lis

CHARLHS LR BRIN. Detail of Ccilint

CHARLES LE BRUN. Alexander enterini^ Babylon.

A5^x

-<' w-

Paris. Louvre

CHARLES LE BRUN. Illustrations to lecture ; Human and animal Heads.

ClIARLl.S LI' BRUN

met at Vaux, was now the rising star. The day after Fouquet's
arrest he made Mme Colbert the present of a drawing. Six
months later he was Prewicr peintre du roi.

Le Brun now flung himself with enthusiasm into the service
of Colbert and the King. For Colbert he decorated the Chateau
de Sceaux and designed its fountains and gardens. For the King
he designed the costumes in the Carrousel pageant and in other
entertainments and painted designs for tapestries of which the
gigantic Alexander entering Babylon (PI. 37b), now in the Louvre,
is an example. Then came work in the Louvre itself — the
magnificent decoration of the Gaierie d' Apollo ; and finally
came Versailles.

With the experience of Vaux behind him Le Brun approached
the execution of the King's projects for Versailles with masterly
assurance. He decorated what must have been the superb Grand
Staircase (now only known to us in drawings), and the Salons
de la Guerre et de la PaL\\ and the Grande Gaierie des Glaces which
survive. The paintings on the ceiling of the Gaierie des Glaces
represent his chief pictorial achievements. They consist of
thirty compositions each symbolising a moment of glory in the
King's career. Here we see Mercury proclaiming the King's
assumption of government to the world at large, the King
resolving to chastise the Dutch, the King as conqueror of the
Franche-Comte and so forth : all pictorial equivalents of the
King's " entries " in the ballets and pageants of the day.

At Versailles Le Brun was decorative dictator. The sculptor
Coysevox, who was responsible for the gilt bronze trophies on
coloured marbles and other sculpture in the Gaierie des Glaces^
worked under his direction. Le Notre's gardens follow Le
Brun's plan for the gardens at Vaux. Le Brun designed foun-
tains in the lakes, and the Grotto oj Tethjs, an apartment with
fountains and a triple apse covered with shells and filled with
sculptured groups of mythological figures, based on the Grotto of
Apollo at Frascati. His activity and that of liis assistants and
collaborating artists was prodigious. But he also found time to
w^ork for the King's " hermitage," the Chateau de Marly, which
developed to a miniature Versailles, and to direct and make
designs for the Gobelins factor}^ which produced not only
tapestries but furniture, plate and objects of luxury of all kinds,

M 81

ROYAL ACADEMY OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

including the celebrated silver furniture which filled the Galerie
des Glaces.

Le Brun worked for twelve years at Versailles. But before
his labours were completed the day of his dictatorship was done.
Colbert, who, as Surintendant des Bdtiments, was his official
chief, died in 1683. Le Brun had made many enemies in the
time of his success and immediately his powerful supporter
was removed they combined to dethrone him. The new
Surintendant des Bdtiments was one of his enemies. The painter
Mignard was another. The King himself had seen his projects
carried out and he was no longer so concerned with the artists.
He was moreover on the threshold of the Pharaoh period. The
icy hand of Mme de Maintenon had fallen on his heart. In these
new conditions Le Brun's authority in all quarters was gradually
undermined. His orders were countermanded even at the
Gobelins where hitherto he had personally engaged the whole
personnel and directed every detail of the work. He met the
situation with his customary astuteness. He observed that the
King was becoming pious, that an orthodox religious move-
ment was in the air. He therefore let it be known that he had
drunk the cup of worldly success and found it worthless and
that he had replaced it by the spiritual refreshments of religion.
He owned, in addition to his houses in Paris and Versailles, a
magnificent estate at Montmorency.^ To this estate he now
retired and began a series of pictures of the Life of Christ.
The Louvre Adoration of the Shepherds, Entry into Jerusalem^
Christ Bearing the Cross, Elevation of the Cj-qss, all in the theatrical
ecclesiastical style launched in France by his old master Vouet,
represent this last phase of his activity. In 1690 he was working
at a hast Supper when he died.

iij . The Koyal Academy of Painting and Sculpture

The Academie rojale de peinture et sculpture was founded nomi-
nally in 1648 ; but for various reasons it did not function with
regular authority till 1661 when Colbert became officially its
patron. It owed its existence and its organisation to several
causes : {a) the growing friction between various categories of

^ Cf. p. loi.

ROYAL ACADF.MY OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

artists and the Maitrise, {b) the personal ambition of Lc Brun,
{c) Colbert's conception of the function of the arts.

{a) Up to 1648 the French artists were all either (i) members
of the old Guild of St. Luke, the Maitrise, which employed the
usual Guild system of apprenticeship culminating after the pro-
duction of a diploma work (known as a chef d'mwre) in the rank
of Master, or (ii) artists attached to Royal or noble establishments
or protected by some Royal licence, or (iii) " pirates " with no
official status.

I'he rules of the Maitrise were strict. Till the rank of Master
was granted no student was allowed to exhibit or trade in his
work ; the Maitrise had the right to prosecute in cases of infringe-
ment of its rules and it frequently did so.^ It also had the right
to prosecute foreign and other " pirates " and such artists had
to sell their work in clandestine ways or at the St. Germain Fair
as already noted.^

From very early times, as noted, there had been artists with
the title of valet de chambre attached to the Lord Chamberlain's
department in royal, princely and noble households. ^ These
appointments, in the seventeenth century, were granted or sold to
painters as distinctions which carried with them exemption from
prosecution by the Maitrise and the right to food and lodging
in the Royal household. The posts were obtained by favour,
and holders often solicited their continuation for their sons.'*

In addition to the artists who were valets de chambre in these
households, there had always been others attached to the
personal staffs of the Kings, Queens, Princes, and so forth.
Such artists were given the title oi peintre du roi ot peintre de la
reine or peintre ordinaire ; they received an official licence or
brevet^ and they were also known for this reason as brevetes and
breve taires. They were all subject to the authority of the Premier
peintre du roi of the moment, and were given annual salaries and
lodgings in the Louvre or Tuileries.^

1 Cf. p. 122. 2 Cf. p. 47. 3 cf. p. 3.

*■ Thus Moliere's father who was valet-tapissier to Louis XIII, concerned
with the duty of looking after the King's furniture both in Paris and when
he travelled, secured the reversion of the title for his son, who retained it
without fulfilling the duties.

'" Cf. note, p. 40.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

There were also various other categories of artists exempted
by Hcence from the authority of the Mattrise. From the time
of Henri IV onwards it had been possible to buy the title of
Maitre from the Crown which was accustomed to sell a certain
number of such titles on the occasion of royal marriages, births or
other festive occasions. The artists who held such titles were
known as Mattres de lettres as opposed to the masters elected by
the Mattrise who were known as Mattres de chefs d'ceuvre. There
were also artists among the tradesmen who supplied the Court
and followed it on travel ; an artist of this kind whose position
was only semi-official would describe himself presumably as
Journisseur du rot — to indicate a position equivalent to a tradesman
to-day with a " By Royal Appointment " sign above his door.

The friction between the artists who derived their status from
the Mattrise and those who derived it in one way or another from
the Crown, had been growing ever since the time of Henri IV
and it came to a head under Louis XIII. The Mattrise com-
plained that the granting and selling of the various types of
licence had become an abuse and a scandal. The licensees
charged the Mattrise in the first place with a desire to exercise a
tyrannical monopoly and in the second with degrading the status
of the artist by making him subject to a system properly
applicable only to tradesmen and artisans ; ^ the first charge
against the Mattrise was an old grievance, the second represented
the new conception of the artist as an independent member of a
liberal profession which Claude and Poussin had already adopted
in Rome.

{})) I have already referred to Le Brun's part in the foundation
of the Academy. At a critical point in his career the Mattrise
had brought the quarrel to a head by applying to Mazarin for
strengthened powers against the brevetes. As a hrevete Le Brun
was attacked, and he was too clever to remain content with a
defensive action. He realised that negotiations for a new founda-
tion would bring him into contact with influential quarters
and that in a new organisation he might be able take a leading
place. He therefore intrigued for the new foundation. But
the Academy was of no real service to him till Colbert also saw
in it an instrument for his own purposes.

1 Cf. note, p. 7.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

{c) Colbert's conception of the function of the arts was
simple. " C'est a Vaune des monuments qiion mesure les rois " he
said and he might have added that in his faith the grandeur of a
country was measured in foreign countries by the grandeur of
its King. For Colbert the arts were a means of creating monu-
ments to enhance the glory of Louis XIV and thereby of France.
He believed in art as an instrument of national propaganda. At
the same time he believed in organisation in this field as in every
other. He supported the Academy with Le Brun at the head and
brought it to life by becoming an active patron because he wanted
a body of men who would organise art on the highest standards
for the King's servnce under the control of a dictator responsible
to himself. He had no doubts about the possibility of establish-
ing fixed standards — and no doubt that an official organisation
could produce artists capable of attaining to standards once
efficiently laid down.^

Le Brun took advantage of Colbert's simplicity in this respect
to defeat his rivals. The Academy once effectively established
he set to work to make things unpleasant for artists outside its
ranks. The Academy ran its own art school. Le Brun obtained
an ordinance which prevented the Mattrise from running
another and prescribed fines and imprisonment for any individual
artist who did so.^

Another ordinance directed all the brevetes {pelntres du roi and
others) who had not joined the Academy of their own volition
to join forthwith or forfeit their privilege of immunity of

^ Colbert proceeded on the same principle in the other arts. He founded
the Royal Academy of Music (which also controlled dancing), with Lully
as dictator ; the Royal Academy of Architecture, which he called on to
invent a new Order to be known as the French Order ; the Royal Academy
of Science ; and the Royal Academy of Inscriptions ; and he contemplated
an Academic rojale de spectacles to centralise control and raise the standard
oi carrousels, joutes^ luiies, combats, defiles, chasses d'animaux satwages et Jeux
d' artifice, and a concession was actually granted to a blackguard, Henri
Guichard, who planned to poison Lully because he could not get permission
from him to accompany his spectacles with music. (The Academie franfaise
was an earlier foundation — the work of Richelieu.)

- This was dircctcdagainst the engraver, Abraham Bosse (cf. pp. 47,
1 6s), who had been unwise enough to make unfavourable criticisms of
Le Brun's paintings. Lc Brun had driven him from the ranks of the Academy
and he had opened an art school to retrieve his fortunes.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

prosecution by the Maitrise. This second ordinance was directed
against Le Brun's rival the painter Mignard who was a brevete
and who had refused to join the Academy in a position inferior
to Le Brun.i

But though Colbert allowed Le Brun to use him for his
purposes he was also determined to use him and the Academy for
his own. He had entrusted the Dictatorship of Art to the
Academy ; he now called upon the institution to define the art
which it existed to control and propagate. The result was the
celebrated series of Academy Conferences, or Discourses in which
the Academicians endeavoured to formulate rules for the
creation of Great Art.^

Le Brun's own Conferences were interesting and ambitious.
In one he discussed human physiognomy in its relation to the
physiognomy of animals ; his illustrations to this lecture, some
of which I reproduce (PI. 38), are preserved in the Louvre.
In another Conference, taking the Traite des passions de Vdme by
Descartes as a basis, he tried to work out rules for the correct
delineations of all human passions and sentiments in art. Other
Conferenciers discussed the relative importance of colour and
drawing in pictures ; and the principle that in art le vraisemhlahk
is le vrai was laid down by Sebastian Bourdon. ^

The Academicians who argued in favour of colour instanced
Titian and Rubens ; those who argued in favour of drawing
instanced Raphael and Poussin ; and as concrete examples of
these and other masters they were able to point to the pictures

^ Cf. pp. 88-91. Charles Errard (cf. note, p. 39) was another dangerous
rival. Le Brun had him shipped off as First Director of the branch of the
French Academy which Colbert had just founded in Rome. Vouet by this
time was no longer a rival as he had died, as noted, in 1649.

2 These Conferences were delivered at meetings of the Academy attended
by the members, by students, sometimes by the public, and sometimes by
Colbert himself. The lectures were followed by discussions and, if con-
sidered worthy by Colbert, they were subsequently published.

^ This curious artist (1616-1671) imitated alternately the Italians, Poussin,
and the Dutch painter Pieter Van Laer, who was known as Bamboche.
Van Laer's pictures, known as " Bambochades," were compositions of
Roman ruins and buildings with peasants and genre episodes introduced.
His pictures were imitated by Dutch and French artists for more than a
hundred years (cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art, pp. 172-175, and Pis. 69
and 70).

ROYAL ACADEMY OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

in the splendid royal collection which was then accessible to
all artists, students and visitors to the Louvre.*

I'ATntually after prolonged discussions, dealing largely with
the history-pictures of Poussin, the Academy decided that all
the problems had been solved ; and it instructed Louis Testelin^
to draw up synoptic tables of Rules for Great Art, and this
Table de Vrkcptes was duly compiled and published in 1675.^

* The organisation and immense extension of the Royal collections was
also Colbert's work. The collection inherited from previous sovereigns,
which included the Italian pictures acquired by Frangois I (cf. p. 26), had
been increased by the acquisition of many works from the collection of
Fouquet and that of Mazarin, which contained many of the pictures pre-
viously owned by Charles I. Colbert was responsible for these acquisitions
and he continued to buy right and left on the King's behalf. He imported
shiploads of antiques and Italian pictures from Rome, and he took advantage
of every opportunity at home to buy others — often at very low prices fixed
by Le Brun as expert. In 1671 the banker Jabach (cf. p. 80) was ruined,
and Colbert acquired for the King a hundred of his pictures and five thousand
drawings for a nominal sum. When the Comtc de Brienne, another notable
collector (cf. note, p. 68), was ruined, he stepped in again. In ten years he
acquired six hundred and forty-seven of the pictures now in the Louvre.
At the same time it was intimated that the King would welcome gifts of
pictures, and manv fine works were acquired in this way. Of the twenty-
nine pictures by Poussin in the collection of Louis XIV three were gifts,
five were acquired from the painter Herault, and twelve were won at
tennis by the King from the young Due de Richelieu, who had inherited
them from his father and staked them on a game. In 1681 Colbert had the
King's collection brought from the various palaces and assembled in the
galleries of the Louvre arranged to receive them. They included sixteen
pictures by Raphael, six by Correggio, ten ascribed to Leonardo, eight to
Giorgione, twenty-three by Titian, eighteen by Veronese and fourteen by
Van Dyck. In 1709 the collection numbered two thousand four hundred
pictures available for study by the French artists — (the English National
Gallery was founded with thirty-eight pictures in 1824).

2 Cf. note, p. 39.

^ It was followed by another work by R. de Piles, who drew^ up tables allot-
ting comparative marks to the great artists under various heads. Perfection
was represented by twenty marks, and the tables included the following

isments :
Le Brun

Composition
16

rawing
16

Colour
8

Expression
16

Michelangelo
Rubens

8
18

17
13

4
17

8
17

Poussin

Titian

Rembrandt

PIERRE MIGNARD

The Authoritative Doctrine thus established was doubtless
a source of satisfaction to Colbert. But it served no other
purpose, and could serve no other, because fixed standards have
no meaning in the case of the activity called art.

iv. Pierre Mignard

BORN TROYES 161O. DIED PARIS 1 69 5

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London.
London.

National Gallery
National Gallery

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Eglise du Val de

Grace

Paris.

Chantilly.
Chantilly.
Chantilly.
Versailles.

Comedie-Frangaise
Musee Conde
Musee Conde
Musee Conde
Museum

Versailles.

Museum

Versailles.

Museum

Nimes.

Museum

Aix.

Museum

Avignon.

Museum

Elle.

Museum

Florence.

Uffizi

Descartes

La Marquise de Seignelay as Thetis with

Achilles and Cupid
The Virgin with the grapes
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria
The Road to Calvary
The Grand Dauphin and his family
Mme de Maintenon
Self portrait
" Gloria " in the Vault

Moliere as Cesar

Moliere

Cardinal Mazarin

Louis XIV

Marie de Bourbon as a child

Louis XIV crowned by Victory

Catherine Mignard, Comtesse de Feu-

quieres, as Fame, holding a trumpet

and a portrait of the artist
Portrait of a Magistrate
Mars and Venus
Mme de Montespan and the Due de

Maine
Mme de Maintenon and her niece
Mme de Sevigne

When Le Brun desired to sweep all the artists of consequence
into the Royal Academy and thereby establish his authority
above them, one important artist, Pierre Mignard, resisted him ;
and as already noted Le Brun obtained from Colbert an ordinance

■J
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HYACINTHE RIGAUD. Presentation in the Temple.

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NICOLAS LARGILLIERE.
J. B. Ta vernier.

Paris. Louvre

HYACINTHE RIGAUD. Louis XIV at the
age of sixty-two.

PlLRRii MIGNARD

by which Mignard as brevete'^^s called upon to join. But Mignard
flatly refused, and Colbert himself, with the Royal authority
behind him, could not dissuade him from his decision.^

Mignard and Lc Brun had been enemies since the days when
they were fellow-students in Vouet's atelier. Mignard was there
in 1625. He went to Rome in 1655, and painted a series of
Madonnas of the character of the Louvre Virgin with the Grapes
which are known as Mignardes.

In Rome he also won a great reputation as a portrait painter.
Ihree Popes, Urban VllI, Innocent X (who was subsequently
painted by Velasquez) and Alexander VII sat to him ; and
Poussin in a letter dated 1648 refers to him as the best portrait
painter at the time in Rome although he describes the heads in
his paintings as '' Jroides,fardees^ satis force ni vigneur"

The reputation of Mignard " le Komain,''' as he was then
called, extended to France, and in 1656 Louis XIV recalled him
to Paris. He arrived in France in the following year and stayed
some months with his brother Nicolas Mignard (who was also
a painter) at Avignon. There he met Moliere, who had been
performing at Beziers and Dijon, and there doubtless he painted
the celebrated portrait Moliere as Cesar in " l^a Mort de Vompee "
which belongs to the Comedie Francaise.-

Mignard left Avignon on receipt of an urgent summons from
Mazarin to paint a portrait of the King to be sent to Madrid
in connection with the negotiations for the hand of the Infanta
Marie-Therese. Mignard painted the picture in a few days and
won thereby the favour of Mazarin, the King, the Queen-
Mother, and the new Queen herself. Henceforward, even during
the triumph of Le Brun, he remained a favourite portrait painter
in Court circles ; and he was also commissioned by the Queen
Mother to paint the vault in the Church of the Val-de-Grace

* " Monsieur" Mignard replied to Colbert, " le rot est le maitre, et s'il
m'ordonne de quitter le rqyaume je suis pret a partir. Mais sacher^ bien qu'avec
ces cinq doigts, il n'y pas de pays en 'Europe ouje ne sois plus consider i, et otije ne
puisse faire une plus grande fortune qu'en France."

2 Moliere was under forty at the time of" this first meeting ; and he is
evidently still young in the portrait. In the equally famous portrait at
Chantilly he appears older and rather weary, and the picture was probably
painted in Paris about ten or fifteen years later.

N 89

PIERRE MIGNARD

which she had dedicated ''A Jesus naissant et a la Vierge Mere "
as a thankofFering for the birth of Louis XIV.^

After the defiance of Le Brun in the matter of the Academy
Mignard became the official leader of the artists of the old
Mattrise ; he rallied all Le Brun's enemies and awaited the
moment for his revenge.

He had, in fact, to wait some time, for while Colbert lived
he could really do nothing, though in 1677 while Le Brun was
working at Versailles, he scored a success with the decorations
of Monsieur's Chateau de St. Cloud which the King inspected
and admired. Mignard's day came when Louvois who succeeded
Colbert as Surintendant des Bdtiments commissioned him to work
at Versailles itself. 2

^ Cf. note, p. 5 5 .

Mignard's painting is a circular composition of two hundred figures of
saints fantastically foreshortened adoring the Trinity in a central circle of
clouds and angels' heads ; in an intermediate circle we see Anne of Austria
herself in adoration. The vault is a supreme example of the Jesuit style of
ecclesiastical decoration. As is well known it evoked a panegryic from
Moliere who was evidently inspired as much by friendship for Mignard and
hostility to Le Brun as by the actual work, when in L.a Gloire de Val de
Grace he wrote :

Toi qui, dans ceite coupe a ton vaste genie
Comme un ample theatre heureusenient journie
Es venu deplojer les precieux tresors
Que le Tibre t'a vu ramasser sur ses bords,
Dis-nous, fanieux Mignard, par qui te sont versks
l-.es charmantes beautes de tes nobles pensees . . .
And addressing Colbert directly he wrote :

Attache a tes travaux dont V eclat te renomme
Les res tes precieux des Jours de ce grand horn me.

and he followed this with a direct attack on Le Brun :

Les grands hommes, Colbert, sont mauvais courtisans
Peu faits a s' acquit ter des devoirs complaisans.

Soujfre que, dans leur art s'avangant chaquejour.

Par leurs ouvrages seuls ils te fas sent leur cour.
2 There he painted decorations in the Petits appartements and in La Petite
Galerie ; and when the King asked Le Brun to visit these apartments and
give his opinion on Mignard's work conditions had so altered that Le Brun
thought it more prudent to forget the Royal command.

LOUTS XTV— Tin- LAST PHASR

When Tx Brun died Mignard succeeded to all his honours.
1 le became Prcwicr Peintre dn l\o/\ Director of the Academy and
of the Gobelins factory, and at the age of eighty-five, just before
he died, he undertook a commission for a painting in the vault
of the Invalides.^

Mignard was essentially a portrait painter. His Portrait of a
Magistrate in the Nimcs Aluseum (dimly perceived though it is
through the dirt which now covers the whole surface of the
picture) is a work of acute observation, sensibility and great
skill. His Portrait of A^a^^arin at Chantilly is also excellent ; we
can believe as we look on this effigy the tales of the Cardinal's
avarice and of the hatreds which he inspired. Another admirable
performance is the Louvre portrait oi Mwe de Maintenon as Sainte
Frafi^oise painted two years before the artist died for the Maison
d'Educatiofi at St. Cyr where the former governess of Mme de
Montespan's children was playing the fairy-godmother to a lot of
miserable girls. The charming picture in the London National
Gallery Lm Marquise de Seignelaj as Thetis with Achilles and Cupid
(PL 41c) doubtless represents the sitter as she appeared in some
masque or theatrical diversion, probably with her children.^

V. Louis XIV — the Last Phase

The last twenty-five years of the reign of Louis XIV were a
period of gloom. France w^as depressed by the failure of the
later wars and exhausted by the sacrifice of over a million lives.
The rehgious persecutions that followed the Revocation of the
Edict of Nantes (1685) filled thinking people with horror, and

^ A full-length portrait of Mignard, painted either completely by himself
or by a pupil from a head by Mignard, and representing him seated in his
studio, was presented by Mignard to the Academy when he became Director.
The pose and the disposition of the accessories in the picture are deliberately
the same as those in the portrait of Le Brun by Largilliere which the Academy
already had upon its walls. The pictures, which record the hatred and rivalry
between the two men, can be seen in the Louvre.

2 Mignard as a portrait painter must not be judged by the Portrait of
Descartes in the London National Gallery, which merits Poussin's descrip-
tion of his portraits. The affectation and weakness which pervade this
picture strike us even without recalling the superb Louvre portrait of the
same sitter by Frans Hals.

LOUIS XIV— THE LAST PHASE

when the population was not suffering for religion it was
suffering from brutal repressions of political revolts or the
tyranny of the King's soldiers billeted in the country between
campaigns.^

The Court itself was equally gloomy. The wars, the enter-
tainments and the building of the palaces had emptied the
treasury. " J'ai trop aime les hdtiments " Louis XIV confessed
on his deathbed, and he might have added luxury and luxurious
objects. But now all was changed ; in 1690 the silver furniture
and appointments from Versailles were sent to be melted into
money at the Mint. Life at Versailles had become an onerous
ritual without sparkle or gaiety. Moliere and Lully were both
dead. The King himself was a sick man ; nothing of the old
world remained to him but LuUy's music which he still had per-
formed at all times and seasons — during the lever ^ at dinner, in
chapel, at supper, and wliile he went to bed.

Mme de Maintenon contributed to the prevailing gloom.
She was an open enemy of the arts. She disapproved of the
King's devotion to music. She countermanded the importation
of the copy of a Titian because it had nude figures ; she had
the nudes in Gobelins tapestries decently draped or dressed.
She also tried to abolish the opera and the ballet and succeeded
in creating a new type of didactic performance an example of
which, L^ Triomphe de la Kaison sur T Amour, was played in 1696
to a dejected Court which remembered the glories of l^e
Triomphe de I' Amour. ^

All this brought about a corresponding change in the field
of painting. The Italian tradition fell out of favour ; the pagan
gods and goddesses were dethroned ; religious subjects became
de rigueur ; and when Le Brun's pupil Charles de La Fosse
(163 6-1 71 6) painted The Finding of Moses (Louvre) in the last
year of the century the women are depicted not in classical

1 This tyranny was not however new. Mme de Sevigne wrote in 1676 :
" Void qu'arrivent les troupes pour les quartiers dVjiver ; Us s^en vont cke^i les
pay sans y les volent et les depouillent. . . .lis mirent P autre jour un petit enfant d
la hroche ..."

^ Cf. p. 76. Louis XIV used to refer to Mme de Maintenon as " Madame
la Raison." The title of the austere ballet produced to her taste was perhaps
a piece of flattering symbolism in the old tradition.

LOUIS XIV— THE LAST PHASE

draperies but in complete dresses, and beneath them — for the
first time in the art of the century — they are evidently wearing
stays.

The monument of doctrine constructed on the basis of
Poussin's histor^'-pictures and the Itahan masters by the Academy
was soon challenged. It was now the fashion to look to the pic-
tures of the Low Countries for inspiration. This happened partly
because these painters were felt to be more in keeping with the
new attitude to art, partly because after the death of Le Brun
there was a reaction against the Academy as such, and partly
because in the wars many French notables had visited the Low
Countries and brought back Dutch and Flemish pictures for their
own collections.^

Many aspects of Dutch and Flemish art are reflected in the
French pictures at the turn of the century. Jean Jouvcnet
(1644-17 1 7) imitates Rubens in his Descent from the Cross and the
Dutch painters of church interiors in his High Altar of Notre
Dame ;- still life pictures of flowers and so forth in the Dutch
and Flemish traditions begin to make their appearance ; Charles
Desportes (1661-1743) paints sporting dogs and hunting scenes
in the manner of his Flemish master Nicasius and of Snyders,
and is commissioned by the King to record the rare animals
in the royal menagerie ; and of the two leading portrait painters
of the period Nicolas de Largilliere and Hyacinthe Rigaud the
first appears after an apprenticesliip in Antwerp and the second
is influenced not only by Rubens but also by Rembrandt,
hitherto ignored in France and not represented in the King's
collection.

* Le Grand Conde had begun this. He bought pictures in Holland, and
brought Flemish and Dutch artists to Chantilly. The Due de Richelieu
replaced his Poussins (cf. note, p. 87) by a set of pictures by Rubens. In
1710 the Van Dycks of religious subjects in the royal collection were placed
in the private apartments of the King.

^ Both in the Louvre.

HYACINTHE RIGAUD

Philadelphia.

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Versailles.
Versailles.

Versailles.

Cherbourg.

Aix.

Perpignan.

Munich.
Dresden.

Vienna.

Madrid.
Stockholm.

vi. Hyacinthe Kigaud

BORN PERPIGNAN 1659. DIED PARIS 1 743

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

J, G. Johnson

Collection
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre

Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum

Alte Pinakothek
Gallery

Liechtenstein

Gallery
Prado
Gallery

Self portrait

The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Louis XIV at the age of sixty-two^
Marie Serra the artist's mother
J. F. P. de Crequi, Due de Lesdiguieres,

as a child
Louis XV, aged five
Elizabeth Charlotte, Dowager Duchess

of Orleans^
Portrait of Mignard

The financier Montmartel and his wife
Gaspard de Gueydan with bagpipe
Mme de Gueydan
Portrait of the artist
Christ on the Cross
Cardinal de Bouillon opening the sacred

door in 1700
Christian III, Duke of Zweibriicken
King August III as Elector in armour

with negro attendant
Prince Wenzel-Liechtenstein

Louis XIV in armour
Charles XII in armour

Hyacinthe - Fran gois - Honore - Mathias - Pierre - Martyr - Andre -
Jean Rigau Y Ros, known as Rigaud, was a magnificently coni-
petent painter of portraits. We owe to him the splendid portrait
of Loms XIV at the age of sixty-two (PI. 40c)— the portrait
which has fixed our image of the Pharaoh of the last period,
who has been aptly described as the greatest actor of royalty
in history.

In Rigaud's works we can distinguish two manners. In the
first the Baroque flamboyance of Rubens is adapted to express

1 There is another version of this picture at Versailles.

2 There are other versions of this picture in Brunswick and Buda Pesth.

HYACINTHE RIGAUD

the grandeur and pomposity of the notables of the period and
those who desired to be portrayed as notables. The Financier
Montmartel and his wife (PI. 41b) at Cherbourg is an example of
this manner ; the portraits Gaspard de Guejdan with bagpipe and
of his wife in the Aix Museum, and Prince Wen^^el l^iechtenstein^
surrounded by a veritable tornado of curtains, in the Liechten-
stein Gallery in Vienna, arc others.

Later, as noted above, Rigaud set out to emulate Rembrandt^
and we see the influence of the Dutch master in the Louvre
picture /. F. P. de Creqni as a child, in the celebrated lili'^aheth
Charlotte Dowager Duchess 0] Orleans (PI. 39a), and in the illumina-
tion of the great portrait of The King. This influence is seen
above all in the Louvre Presentation in the Temple (PI. 40a) which
Rigaud painted in the year of his death and left in his will to
Louis XIV.i

Rigaud's production was very large. Like Reynolds, he kept
careful records of his commissions and from these we learn that
he painted from thirty to forty portraits every year.'^

^ Rigaud tried, of course, to improve on Rembiandt, especially in the
portraits, and to adapt Rembrandt's technical procedures to what doubtless
seemed to him more distinguished and worthy ends. Cf. my Inircduction
to Dutch Art, pp. 168-169 and Pis. 33, 65, 66 and 68, where I have compared
attempts to improve on Rembrandt made by the Dutch painter, Van der
Werft (1659-1722) with Rembrandt's own works. For the influence of
Rembrandt on Nattier, cf. PI. 56b and p. 127.

In this connection it must be remembered that many Dutch painters
towards the end of the century borrowed in their turn from French art.
Van der Werft himself was influenced by Claude and Poussin, and Gerard
de Lairesse was influenced by Poussin and Le Brun.

^ He was the son of a tailor and grcat-ncphew of a painter. After working
for s ome years in Perpignan, Montpellier and Lyon he arrived in Paris in
168 1. He was launched on his career in 1688 when he painted a successful
portrait of Monsieur. Wo. did not go to Italy — a fact in itself significant
of the change in taste.

NICOLAS DE LARGILLIERE

vi j . Nicolas de 'Largilliere

BORN PARIS 1656. DIED PARIS 1 746

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

Princess Ragotsky with a negro

attendant
Portraits of Baron and Baroness de

Prangnis
The Provost of the Merchants and

the Sheriffs of Paris (Sketch)
Portrait of Le Brun
The President de Laage
Portrait of the artist with his wife

and daughter
The actress Mile Duclos
Marie de Laubespine (?)
A gentleman of the house of Conde
Mme de Gueydan as a Naiad
The Provost of the Merchants and

the Sheriffs of Paris (Sketch)
Still life
Still life
Jean Forest

J. B. Tavernier
Count K. D. von Dehn
James Stuart the Old Pretender, and
his sister, Louisa, as children

Largilliere is a painter's painter. He captured the secrets of
the sheen and glitter of Van Dyck's painting and the lustre of
Lely's and transformed them to something lighter and more
engaging still. In Rigaud's pictures, even when the disposition
of the drapery is most flamboyant, the touch is rather heavy
and the paint substantial ; but Largilliere spread the colour
as a thin fluid and while it was still wet he brought it to life with
incisive touches of shadow and with little spots of glittering
high light. We see his method to perfection in the Amiens
sketch chronicled in my list above.^

^ The Amiens painting, like the painting in the Louvre, is a sketch for
the official group of the Provost of the Merchants and the Sheriffs of Paris who

London.

National Gallery

New York.

Metropolitan

Museum

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Aix-en-Provence.

Museum

Amiens.

Museum

Amiens.

Museum

Orleans.

Museum

Berhn.

Kaiser-Friedrich

Museum

Brunswick.

Museum

Brunwick.

Museum

Florence.

Uffi2i

NICOLAS Dl-: LARGILLILRK

Largillicrc was born m Paris but he was brought up in
Antwerp where his father had affairs. There he was apprenticed
to a Flemish landscape and genre painter and employed on
painting fiowers, game and iish in his master's works. At the
age of eighteen he went to England where he became an
assistant to Lely and painted the drapery in many of his pictures.
He returned to Paris about six years later and remained there — ■
(except for a flying visit to England to paint James II and his
Queen) — till his death at the age of eighty-seven in the middle
of the reign of Louis XV. ^

In two portraits at Chantilly, the so-called Alwe de haubespine
and Gentle wan of the House oJConde, the light touch of Largilhere's
sketches has been to some extent sacrificed, as in many of his
finished pictures, to completeness of representation. In the male
portrait — where the wig is blonde, the coat red and the drapery
orange — we see the influence of Van Dyck both in the composi-
tion and the colour. In the other, a later work, we have the
wliite powdered face, with blue shadows, the rouged cheeks,
the brilliant eyes and brows, and the powdered hair which we
associate with portraits of the age of Louis XV.

The Brunswick full length/. jB. Tavernier (PI. 40b), in a Persian
robe, is among his finest portraits. Interest also attaches to his
still life paintings of game, fruit and so forth which are preserved

gave a banquet to Louis XIV in 1687, to celebrate his recovery from illness.
The commission was one of several which Largilliere received from the
city dignitaries, who played a considerable role when Paris began to create
its own Hfe in spite of the absence of the King and the Court at Versailles.
During the Versailles period the King only came to Paris to attend the
inauguration of his statues in the 'Place des Conqueles {Place Vendome) and
the Place des VJc/oires, which were built to receive them. The Por/e St.
Denis and the Porte St. Martin were built to celebrate his victories in Ger-
many and Holland at a time when he was not yet established at Versailles.
Largillicre's paintings of Parisian civic dignitaries have all disappeared.
One was burned, some arc lost and some were destroyed in the Revolution.
They represent the equivalents in French art of the numerous civic groups
by the Dutch painters of the seventeenth century. Cf. p. 168.

^ Largilliere amassed a considerable fortune and lost most of it in 1720
in the crash of the East and West India Companies, floated in Paris by the
Scottish banker, John Law, who had founded the Banque royale in 17 16,
and introduced Bills of Exchange into France.

o 97

NICOLAS DE LARGILLIERE

in the French provincial museums noted in my list above. For
here we see Largilliere as the forerunner of the great French
still life painter Jean-Baptiste Chardin whom he was subsequently
to befriend.^

Largilliere's reputation has suffered from the numerous
pictures by his followers which are frequently ascribed to him.
But these School pictures have their own qualities. The
Duchesse d' Orleans (PI. 41a), at Versailles, is typical of the more
attractive of such works.

1 Cf. p. 135.

SCHOOL OI- 1,.\RC;ILLI1:RH. DucHcssc d'Orlcans.

Cherbourg. Museum

inACINTHE RIGALD. The Financier
Montmartcl and his wife.

I.oiiiloii. Siilional CnilUrv

PIERRE MIGNARD. La Marquise de

Seignclay as Thetis with Achilles and

Cupid.

Paris. Louvre

WATTEAU. The Judgement of Paris.

PART FOUR

THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

ANTOINE WATTEAU

llj.

iv.

vi.

Wattean's
Watteau's
Watteau's
Watteau's
Watteau's
Watteau's

Friends

Life

(Eutre

Art

Character

Followers

B. THE AGE OF LOUIS XV AND LOUIS XVI

i. The Louis XV Style
ij. For trait Faint ers
iij. Fastellists
iv. Genre Painters
V. Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
vi. The Academy and the Salons
vij. Francois Boucher
viij. La Pompadour and La du Barrj
ix. Jean Honore Fragonard
X. Tableaux de Modes
xi. Louis-Leopold Boillj
xij. Jean-Baptiste Greu^e
xiij. French Eighteenth-century Landscape
xiv. Mmes Vigee Le Brun and Lahille-Guyard

567710A

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

A. ANTOINE WATTEAU

i. Watteaii's Friends

Paris, as a city with a distinctive spirit, was born at the
beginning of the eighteenth century. When the second
decade opened, the Versailles Court, vicious and brutal beneath
its outward pomp and gloom, was performing its last cere-
monies. But Paris was preparing for the moment of release.
There new values and new standards of luxury and life were in
course of evolution, and a new generation of art patrons was
beginning to appear.

The new patrons, for the most part self-made men, or the
sons of such men, were an important factor in the new Parisian
civilisation ; genuine lovers of the arts, they stood both for
the amenities and the decencies of wealthy bourgeois life ; and
they were unaffected by the wild pursuit of pleasure and the
hysterical speculations that broke out on the advent of the
Regency.

The names of several of these men live in history as the
friends and patrons of Watteau.

The first name is that of Pierre Crozat, who was known as
Crozat le curieux (i.e. " the collector "), and also as Crozat le
pamre, to distinguish him from his still wealthier brother,
Antoine Crozat, who had the monopoly of trade with
Louisiana and was known as Crozat le riche. Pierre Crozat had
been at first associated with his brother in business and finance
but at the age of forty-three he retired and bought himself the
office of Tresorier de France. He was fifty when Watteau was
brought to his notice, and he then owned in Paris a magnificent
hotels which the architect Cartaud had taken ten years to build,
and the Montmorency estate which had formerly belonged to
Le Brun and was later to shelter Jean-Jacques Rousseau.^

* In Rousseau's day the Montmorency park and chateau belonged to
the Due de Luxembourg. Crozat had improved the gardens and extended
the chateau ; he had also built the petit chateau, the work of Gilles-Marie
Oppenordt (cf. p. 104 and note p. 1 10). Rousseau was lodged by the Duke
in this petit chateau and there " dans une continuelle extase " at the beauty ot
his surroundings he worked at " Emile."

lOI

WATTEAU'S FRIENDS

In his town mansion Crozat had an astonishing array of
artistic treasures. He had acquired what remained of Jabach's
collection of pictures after Colbert had made his selection for
Louis XIV, and he had also acquired pictures which had
belonged to Vasari. He had an immense collection of drawings
by Italian, Dutch and Flemish masters, some antique sculpture,
and fourteen hundred engraved gems preserved in cabinets
made at the Gobelins by Boulle. He continued to add to his
collections all liis life ; agents bought for him in London, Ant-
werp and Rome, and he liimself travelled to inspect and acquire
pictures and collections of drawings ; when he died he had five
hundred pictures and nineteen thousand drawings. Crozat was
was also an amateur of music, and his musical parties were
attended by the most cultivated elements in the new Parisian
society. Philippe d'Orleans, the Regent, was among his friends,
and at Crozat's house he forgot his wine and his women and his
exhausting orgies and revealed his passionate interest in works
of art which was equal to Crozat's own.^

The name of Jean de Jullienne is also closely associated with
that of Watteau. Jullienne was an amateur painter, engraver
and musician. At the same time he was the managing director of
a flourishing factory attached to the Gobelins to which he sup-
plied textiles dyed an orange-scarlet colour which was a secret
and monopoly of the firm. Later he became de Jullienne, and
the owner of the business which had belonged to his uncle.

1 In 1715 Crozat went to Italy to acquire some pictures and drawings
and he was commissioned by Philippe d'Orleans to buy other works
for him. The Orleans collection in the Palais Royal included Italian,
Dutch, Flemish and French works from the collections of Christina of
Sweden (who had some pictures which had belonged to Charles I of Eng-
land), of Richelieu, of the Marquis de Seignelay (Colbert's son), and of
M. de Chantelou, who had one set of The Sacraments by Poussin. In 1723,
among his four hundred and ninety pictures, nearly all of the first importance,
he had six works by Raphael, as many by Correggio, and twenty-five by
Titian. His son mutilated a Correggio on the plea of piety ; his grandson
kept the whole collection in storage ; then Philippe Egalite to raise money
for political propaganda in 1792 sold the whole collection which came to
England. The Dutch and Flemish sections passed to various collections ;
the French and Italian sections were acquired by the Duke of Bridgewater
and most of the pictures can still be seen in London at Bridgewater
House.

102

London. Sounc Museum

ANTOINE WATTEAU. L'Accordcc de \illagc.

Glasgow. A rt Gallery

ANTUINL W ATIL.AL. Dciaclunuin taisant altc.

Berlin. Kaise.r-Friedrich Museum
ANTOINE WATTEAU. L' Amour au theatre fran9ais (detail).

From the lleriniiiii;e. i^cnini^raii. Reproduced by courtesy
of MM. Wildcnstein et Cie, Paris and New York

ANTOINE WATTEAU. Ix Mezzctin.

J'aris. Liiuvrc

ANTOINE WATTEAU. La Finettc,

WATTEAU'S FRIRNDS

Jullicnnc began collecting pictures from an early age. He had a
marked preference for works of the Dutch and Flemish Schools
and owned paintings by Rembrandt, Terborch, Metzu, W'ouwer-
mans and Rubens, as well as some by Correggio, Veronese and
Claude. 1 le was twenty-one when he met \Vatteau, who was
then the same age.

Another friend and patron, the Comte de Caylus, was a man of
rather different calibre. He was a nobleman by birth and a
soldier by profession. At the age of fifteen he fought at Mal-
plaquet. When peace came he retired from the army and became
an amateur painter and engraver. He engraved a number of
W'atteau's pictures, and delivered a Conference at the Academy,
which is a main authority for the details of the artist's hfe and
throws valuable sidelights on his temperament and character.
Like Jullienne he was about W'atteau's own age when he made
his acquaintance.

The help and patronage of these wealthy amateurs was rein-
forced by the interest of certain professional men of letters and
certain artists. The names of Pierre-Jean Mariette (publisher,
art liistorian, engraver, collector, and an intimate in Crozat's
circle), of Antoine de la Roque (who wrote operas and later
edited the Mercure de France), of Nicolas Henin {Intendant ordon-
nateur of the King's Buildings and gardens, amateur artist and
engraver (who drew from the model with de Caylus and Watteau
in rooms taken by de Caylus) ) — must be mentioned in the first
category ; those of La Fosse, Oppenordt, Vleughels and prob-
ably of Ch. -Antoine CoypeU and Largilliere must be mentioned
in the second. Finally, there were two art dealers — Sirois and
his son-in-law Gersaint — whose names have been immortalised
through their association with the artist.

It is important for us to-day to realise W'atteau's debt to these
friends and patrons, because he was the first original French
artist who worked in Paris in a situation comparable with that
of the original artist in the modern world to-day. Claude and
Poussin, as noted, had achieved a position of artistic indepen-
dence. They had done this without help from tlie general public
which knew nothing about them, and they had been able to do
it because they lived in Rome, to which the world's richest

^ Cf. note, p. 142.

103

WATTEAU'S LIFE t

dilettanti then habitually looked when they wanted to buy pic-
tures. Watteau had to capture his artistic independence in Paris -'
itself; and he too received no help from the general pubHc ■
which knew nothing of liis existence and nothing of his work till, ''
after his death, it was engraved at Jullienne's expense.^ -
Watteau's contribution to the world's art was made possible ;
by the men I have described. They discovered him, they i
rescued him from hack work, and they supported him with •'
money.2 i

ii. Watteau's Life '']

Antoine Watteau was born in Valenciennes in 1684. He was

the son of a Flemish artisan. ^ He was poor and obscure till the ,

age of twenty-five. He died of consumption at the age of thirty- \
seven.

He arrived in Paris at the age of eighteen. Before that he had

worked as an apprentice in the studio of a local artist. In Paris !

he earned his living for a time by painting little pictures of saints 1

for a dealer who employed a number of hack painters and sold I

their productions to peasants for small sums. From this hack- '

labour he escaped to the studio of a Flemish artist, Claude Gillot, i

with whom he remained for five years. When he left Gillot he i

attached himself to another artist, Claude Audran, who was i

Keeper of the Luxembourg Palace where he had charge of the '

pictures which Rubens had painted for Marie de' Medicis. While i

with Audran Watteau studied the Rubens' pictures and made -
drawings from them ; he also drew in the Luxembourg park,

and he competed unsuccessfully for the Prix de Rome.* Then •

he met the art dealer Sirois who bought some of his easel pic- i

tures, installed him in his house, and introduced him to Crozat 1

who at once recognised his talents and commissioned him to ;

paint four panels in his dining-room. |

In the Hotel Crozat Watteau found Oppenordt^ who was 1

acting as Crozat's domestic architect and decorator, and Charles !
de La Fosse,* who had painted the ceiling of the main gallery

* Cf. note, p. 108. 2 But ^f. pp. 120, 121. n
^ His father was a mattre cotwreur et charpentier (master tile and slate ]

worker and carpenter). /

* Cf. p. 141. ^ Cf. notes, pp. loi and no. ^ Cf. p. 92. j

104 a!

Boston. Miisfuni of Fine Arls

ANTOINE WATTEAU. La Perspective.

'kantilly. Mus,c- Comte Paris. Louvre

JNITOINE W ATTEAU. L'Amantc inquictc. ANTOINE W Ai lEAL . Lc faux pas.

^^i:^

[Berlin. Charlottenburg Castle

ANTOINE WATTEAU. L' Amour paisible.

Paris. Louvre

GIORGIONE. Concert Champetre.

WATTEAU'S LIFE

of the hotel and was installed there (with his wife and niece),
as curator of Crozat's collections. Through the influence of l.a
Fosse he was introduced to the Academy which elected him
<7gr//in 1712.*

W'attcau now estabhshed himself as an independent artist
with a youth named Jean-Fran(;:ois Pater^ from Valenciennes as
his pupil and assistant; and in 171 5 Jullienne appeared and
began to buy his pictures.

In 1 71 6 La Fosse died and Watteau accepted an invitation
from Crozat to occupy the apartment thus vacated in his house.
On this second visit to the Hotel Crozat, Watteau lived in con-
ditions of luxury ; he met all the influential dilettanti of the
time, and he was able to examine Crozat's great collections at
his leisure. From the hotels moreover, he could escape when he
pleased to Montmorency, and draw and wander in the park.

But Watteau only accepted Crozat's hospitality for about a
year. In 1717 we find him again in the house of Sirois painting
his tableau de reception for the Academy — the Louvre Embarque-
nient pour Vile de Cjthere. A year later he left Sirois and went to
live with the artist Nicolas Vleughels who had a house in the
Saint Victor quarter; the air there, it was hoped, would be
beneficial to his health.

In the autumn of 17 19 he went to London, probably to con-
sult a distinguished physician. Dr. Richard Mead. He remained
in London for about nine months and had great success with
his pictures. But during this period there occurred in Paris
the Law crash^ which affected his financial position, and he was
only saved from disaster by JuUienne who was looking after his
affairs in his absence.*

^ This was an important service to Watteau because till then, as he
never attempted to graduate in the Maitrise, he was still a " pirate " liable
to prosecution if the Maitrise considered it worth while (cf. pp. 85 and 122).
The old category of peintres du roi was now restricted to the Academy.
As agrei VC'atteau had to present a tableau de reception to the Academy before
he could become Academicien and peintre du roi. He painted this picture
five years later.

* Cf. p. 122, 3 Cf. note, p. 97.

* Wattcau's drawing (preserved in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford)
and engraved by Caylus with the title of Le Naufrage is an allegorical repre-

P 105

WATTEAU'S (EUVRE

In the summer of 1720 he returned to Paris and lodged with
the art dealer Gersaint, who had married the daughter of his old
friend Sirois ; for this host he painted the celebrated shop-sign
UEnseigne de Gersaint (PI 50), and he renewed relations with
Jullienne and with Cro2at who was giving parties " to meet "
Mme Rosalba Carriera, the Venetian pastellist.^

In the following year he left Paris for a country house which
had been lent him at Nogent-sur-Marne. There he was visited
by Gersaint, by Jullienne, and other friends ; there he sum-
moned his old pupil, Jean-Francois Pater, with whom he had
lost touch in recent years, that he might give him some final
instruction and advice ; and there, after destroying some of his
pictures and drawings which he considered erotic, and painting a
Christ on the Cross as a present for the local cure, on 12th July,
1 72 1, he died.

iij. Watteau's CEuvre

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

La Surprise

The Guitar Player (La Gamme d'Amour)

The Music Lesson (Pour nous prover
que cette belle)

Gilles and his Family (Sous un habit de
Me2zetin)

Harlequin and Colombine (Voule2 vous
triompher des belles)

The Champs I^lysees

Fete in a Park (Les Amusements Cham-
petres)

The Music Party (Les Charmes de la vie)

The Halt during the Chase (Le Rendez-
vous de Chasse)

La Toilette

The Marriage Contract (L'Accordee de
Village)

The Ball (Plaisirs du Bal)

Comediens Italiens

sentation of Watteau rescued from this financial disaster by Jullienne.
M. David Weill has a painting known as Le Rive de Watteau in which we
again see Watteau himself — this time as an artist tortured by a vision of all
the characters portrayed in his auvre.
^ Cf. p, 129.

106

London.
London.

Buckingham Palace
National Gallery

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Soane Museum

Dulwich.
Althorpe.

Gallery

Lord Spencer Col-
lection

W'ATTEAU'S (EUVRE

Fetes Vcniticnncs

The Encampment (Detachcmcnt faisant

aitc)
Breaking up the Camp (Depart de troupe)
La Perspective

Comcdicns francais* (Five figures)
L'embarquement pour I'ile de Cythere
Gilles

L'lndifTcrcnt and La Finette (Pendants)
Jupiter ct Antiope
Pastorale (Le Berger Content)
Assemblee dans un pare
L'Automne
Le Faux Pas

Breaking up the Camp (Depart de
troupe)

La Troupe Italienne (Les habits sont
Italiens

Comedicns Italiens

Le reve de Tartiste

L'Armour desarme

Le Mezzetin

L'Amante inquiete

L' Amour au theatre Italien

L'Amour au theatre frangais

Assemblee galante

Le Dejeuner en plein air*

* When not otherwise described, pictures which were the property
of the former reigning Prussian house are now State property as the
result of the agreement reached between the Prussian State and the
ex-Kaiser in 1926.

This picture was formerly the property of the former reigning Prussian
House which retained it under the agreement. Sir Joseph Duveen acquired
it about 1928.

^ This picture is no longer in Berlin. I have been given to
understand that it now belongs to Herr Reinhardt of Winterthur
(Switzerland).

107

Edinburgh.

National Gallery of
Scotland

Glasgow.

Art Gallery

Glasgow.
Boston.

Art Gallery
Museum of Fine

Arts

New York.

Bache Collection

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Baron Edmond de

Rothschild Col-

lection

Paris.

Baron Edmond de

Rothschild Col-

lection

Paris.

Wildenstein Col-

lection

Paris.

M. David Weill

Collection

Chantilly.
Chantilly.

Musee Conde
Musee Conde

Chantilly.
Berlin.

Musee Conde
Kaiser-Friedrich

Museum

Berlin.

Kaiser-Friedrich

Museum

Berlin.

Kaiser-Friedrich

Museum

WATTEAU'S (EUVRE

Berlin.

Charlottenburg

Castle

Berlin.

Castle Museum

Berlin.

Charlottenburg
Castle

Berlin.

Charlottenburg
Castle

Potsdam.

Schloss Sans-Souci

Potsdam.

Schloss Sans-Souci

Dresden.

Museum

Dresden.

Museum

Madrid.

Prado

Legon d'Amour^
L'Enseigne de Gersaint

L'embarquement pour I'ile de Cythere
La Danse (Iris c'est de bonheur)*
Les Bergers

L'Amour Paisible

La Mariee de Village
Recreation Italienne
Reunion Champetre
Plaisirs d' Amour
L'Accordee de Village
Le Mezzetin^

Watteau's (smre to-day consists of two hundred or more
pictures, a large number of drawings, and ten etchings. We
know that all the surviving pictures were painted in the last
twelve years of his life, but their detailed chronology is largely a
matter of conjecture.*

^ This picture remained the property of the former reigning Prussian
house under the agreement.

^ Cf. caption to PI. 44b.

* Immediately after Watteau's death Jullienne began to compile a record
of his work in the form of engravings made, at his own expense, from
Watteau's pictures and drawings. This monumental work known as the
Kecueil jullienne consists of more than five hundred engravings, and it records
many pictures and decorations which have now disappeared. But it pro-
vides no information about the dates of the painting of the individul
pictures. It was followed by the Catalogue raisonne of Watteau's works,
published in 1773 by Edmond de Goncourt, who was responsible for the
rediscovery of Watteau after a period of neglect extending for nearly a
hundred years. In 191 2 Dr. H. Zimmermann published an illustrated
photographic record of Watteau's paintings in the Klassiker der Kunst series
and attempted a chronological arrangement. Dr. Zimmermann restricted
himself to pictures still preserved but even so his list is incomplete and
many pictures in private collections are omitted because he could not
obtain photographs or for other reasons. In 1922 MM. Dacier and Vuaflart
published a new edition of the Keceuil Jullienne and added a catalogue con-
sisting of Parts III and IV of that work and other engravings after paintings
by Watteau. MM. Dacier and Vuaflart's work is illustrated by three
hundred and sixteen plates. In 1928 M. Louis Reau compiled another
catalogue of two hundred and seventy-nine pictures (including many which

xo8

■, L-.uiic

AN roiM. WATTEAU
Gillcs (Italian Comedians)

WATTEAU'S GiUiniB

In the years of his apprenticeship to Gillot, Watteau worked
as an assistant in the ordinary way. In Gillot's studio he learned
to design arabesque decorations and to make sketches of stage
performances and genre sketches of daily life, and there he also
profited by the originality and versatility of his master.^

Gillot's chief service to Watteau was the directing of his
attention to the Italian Comedy as performed by French actors
in the Parisian Fairs. Gillot frequented these Fairs and doubtless
took Watteau with him.-

have disappeared), seventy-two selected drawings, and ten engravings ;
this was published in M. Louis Dimier's Les Peintres frarifais du XVlllieme
Siecle. I have before me as I write the catalogues of Dr. Zimmermann,
MM. Dacier and Vuaflart, and M. Rcau, and the catalogue of engravings
after Watteau's pictures and drawings by Edmond and Jules dc Goncourt
printed at the end of their essay on Watteau in UArt du XVlllieme Siecle.
The chronology suggested in my comments takes account of the labours
of these scholars and represents my view of the general development of
Watteau's art as I understand it from these sources and from the study of
the pictures.

1 Claude Gillot (1675-1722) was a most interesting artist whose con-
tributions to Watteau's art have only recently been appreciated. An
exhaustive study by M. Emile Dacier of his surviving works can be found
in M. Dimier's book referred to in the note above.

2 In the Italian Comedy the conventional figures — Harlequin, Scapin,
Pierrot, Pantalon, Mezzetin, Scaramouchc, Colombine, the Doctor —
indulged in much impromptu topical dialogue. In one of their perform-
ances in 1697 called l^a fausse prude references to Mme de Maintenon were
made or implied and Louis XIV banished all Italian players in order that
" le sexe " which had applauded " des indecences qui etoient comvie dcs insultes
solennelles faites a sa pudeur " might henceforward be protected. The
Italian Comedians were recalled by the Regent in 171 6. The Franco-Italian
character of the performances at the Parisian Fairs in the interval is recorded
in the legend under Simonneau's engraving (begun by Watteau himself)
of Watteau's La Troupe Italienne belonging to Baron Edmond de Rothschild.

There we read :

" Les habits sont It aliens
Les airs franfois, etje par is
Que dans ces vrays comediens
Git une aimable tromperie
Et qu' I tali ens et fran(ois
Riant de I'humaine folie
lis se moquent tout ^ lafois
De la f ranee et de l' italic."

Watteau's picture was, in fact, a portrait troup (cf. p. iii).

109

WATTEAU'S CBUVRE

In Gillot's studio Watteau had learned " grotesque " decora-
tion and in his next employment he assisted Audran, who
specialised in such work. No " grotesques " by Watteau sur-
vive, but we know from the Rea/eil Jullienne that he executed a
number of decorative commissions in this style and also a series
of Chinese " arabesques '* for the Chateau de la Muette where
the Regent's daughter, the Duchesse de Berry, held her drunken
revels from 171 6 till her death three years later.^

Watteau's first easel pictures were also painted while he was
with Audran or soon after. They are genre and picturesque-
genre subjects in the Dutch-Flemish tradition of cortegaardjes
or camp scenes, in the manner of Palamedes Stevens, Wouwer-
mans and so forth.^ The Glasgow Detachement faisant alte (PL
43b) is an example of this style which was soon developed,
through study of other Low-Country painters, to a personal type
of picturesque-genre seen in UAccordee de Village (PI. 43a) in
the Soane Museum, London.

^ The grotesque style of decoration goes back to Hellenistic painting.
It then appears in Nero's Do?nus Aurea and the Christian catacombs. When
antique decorations of this kind were unearthed in the Renaissance they
were called grotteschi because the buildings in which they were found were
known as grottoes ; the thrones and canopies of Apollos and Aphrodites
then became the thrones and canopies of Madonnas and saints. In the
hands of Gillot and of Audran, the thrones and canopies once more receive
their original inhabitants. In Watteau's "grotesques" they receive pastoral
figures including young women in swings, or Italian Comedians ; in some
cases the ornamental framework is adorned with birds or monkeys, and
the framework itself sometimes includes the shell or rocaille motives which
we associate with the Louis XV style.

This rocaille motive seems to have first appeared in decoration in the work
of Oppenordt who, as noted, was employed in the Hotel Crozat when
Watteau went there to paint the dining-room panels.

The taste for chinoiserie in French decoration had been introduced by
Mazarin who had a collection of Chinese lacquer work and porcelain ;
some French lacquer work in the Chinese style was done at Versailles as
early as 1655 and there were three manufactories devoted to it in Paris at
the end of the seventeenth century. When Watteau designed the " arab-
ques " for La Muette he had before him a collection of Chinese drawings
which had been sent to Paris by some Jesuit missionaries and had greatly
intrigued the amateurs who saw them. There exists a drawing by Watteau
of a Chinaman from life (Albertina, Vienna).

2 Cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art, pp. 170-179, 190-209, and Pis. 69-74,
80-83, ^iid 100.

Iio

WATTEAU'S CEUVRE

This Low-Country basis to W'atteau's art is readidly compre-
hensible. For in the first place he was in fact a Fleming ; his
parents were Flemish (as Valenciennes became French only six
years before he was born), and his first instructors, including
Gillot himself, were also Flemish. Moreover, as a *' pirate "
Flemish artist, not attached to the Parisian Mattrise^ and not yet
attached to the Academy, he naturally began by consorting with
Flemish artists in Paris and thus became familiar with the
Franco-Low-Countr)' production for the popular market.^

In the second place, it must be remembered, there was now a
vogue for the Low-Country styles among Parisian collectors
and that the dealer Sirois, w^hen he bought W'atteau's early pic-
tures and encouraged him to paint more in the same manner, was
catering for this taste. UAccordee de Village (PI. 43 a) was actually
one of the first of his pictures bought by Jullienne, who, as noted,
especially favoured the Low-Country schools.

In the next type of pictures — the Berlin U Amour au Theatre
fratifais (PL 44a) and the Edinburgh Fetes Venitiennes — we get
keen individual characterisation of the figures which, in fact, are
all portraits. This portraiture is explained by W'atteau's method
of work which was the same all through his life. He never
painted from nature but constructed all his pictures from his
collection of drawings which consisted partly of his own and
other copies of drawings by the Old Masters wliich he kept in
portfolios, and partly of his ow^n drawings done from nature
(both out of doors and in his studio), which he kept in bound
sketch-books. As studio properties he had a number of the-
atrical and other costumes, and the figures in his pictures were
painted from drawings of his friends and acquaintances dressed
up in these properties. The comedians in his Itahan Comedy
pictures were thus, for the most part, not drawn from real
Italian or even real Franco-Italian Comedians ; and the figures
in his Fetes were the result of similar procedures. -

^ All through the eighteenth century Watteau was referred to as " peintre
flam and. ^''

2 At the same time Watteau was always extremely interested in stage
performances of all kinds and visited them and made the acquaintance of
the performers whenever an opportunity occurred. He frequented the
Franco-Italian Comedians' performances at the Fairs, as noted, and in 1702

III

WATTEAU'S CEUVRE

The identity of some of the figures in the pictures of this period
is known. The male dancer in the FeUs Venitiennes is Watteau's
friend, the painter Vleughels. The sitter for the girl dancer in
this picture is the same as for the dancer in U Amour an Theatre
franfais (PL 44a) ; she appears also in Baron Edmond de Roths-
child's Troupe Italienne (Les habits sont Italiens), and in La Finette
(PL 44c). She may have been the daughter of Sirois who married
Gersaint in 171 8. The Me^etin in Sous un habit de Me^^etin,
catalogued as Gilles and his Family in the London Wallace Collec-
tion, is Sirois himself; the women are doubtless members of
his family.

In the year which Watteau now spent in the Hotel Crozat
he became artistically educated. From Crozat's treasures he
absorbed the secrets of the Old Masters — especially the secret of
the Venetian contribution to aesthetic. When he left he carried
with him portfolios containing his copies of landscape and
figure drawings by Rubens, Van Dyck, Bassano, Titian, Veronese
and a number after Domenico Campagnola (a Venetian of the
School of Giorgione and Titian) to whom he professed his
particular indebtedness.^

when he first arrived in Paris he saw Dancourt's L,es Trois Cousines and
made the acquaintance of the actress La Desmares who played L,a Pe/erine,
the leading part. The piece ended with a ballet-cortege and the song :

" Vefie^ aVtle de Cy there
Efi pekrinage avec nous,
Jeune fille n'en revient gulre
Ou sans am ant ou sans epoux."

Watteau made a drawing of La Desmares as l.a Pelerine which was
engraved in the Kecueil Jullienne and these impressions were eventually trans-
formed into U'Emharquement pour Vile de Cythere (PI. 47). Watteau also
doubtless frequented the real Italian Comedians when they returned to
Paris.

^ Watteau's work in the next period was certainly influenced by Gior-
gione's Concert Champetre (PI. 46b) which is now in the Louvre. In Wat-
teau's 'La Perspective (PL 45a) in Boston the group on the ground is the
equivalent of the central group in Giorgione's picture and the light standing
figure on the left is the equivalent of Giorgione's standing nude. The
compositional resemblances between Watteau's U Amour Paisible (PI. 46a)
in Potsdam and Giorgione's picture are also very striking ; a shepherd
moreover and his sheep appear on the second plane in both pictures,

Giorgione's picture after being owned successively by the Duke of

112

WATTEAU'S (EUVRB

In the pictures produced between the end of 171 6, when he
left the Hotel Crozat, and his departure for England three years
later, wc see the effects of his drawings from nature in Paris and
at Montmorency and of his copies of the Old Master drawings.
W'atteau used both types of drawing with equal freedom. In the
Boston La Perspec/ire (PI. 45a), the building seen through the
trees is the entrance pavilion of the Chateau de Montmorency.
In Plaisirs du Bal, at Dulwich, we see the influence of Veronese,
and a dog taken from one of the Rubens' panels in the Luxem-
bourg. In the London Wallace Collection, Les Charges de la vie,
we have a view of the Champs Elysees and the Chaussee d'Anain
in the distance, and a dog which comes from another picture in
the Rubens' scries.^

Watteau's study of the Old Masters also fired him with
ambitions to paint some pictures with nude figures. But for
this he had to find a young woman from whom he could make
drawings from the figure. In Paris at this time there were no
professional female models for the nude, and only male figure
models were used in the Academy's school. Every artist who
wanted to draw the female figure from hfe had to find a model
among his own acquaintance. Watteau found one (who, tradi-
tion has it, also acted as his servant) and thereafter the next
aspect of his aitvre begins.-

Mantua and Charles I passed to Jabach's collection ; it was among the
pictures acquired by Louis XIV in 1671. Watteau presumably saw it in
the Royal collections to which, of course, he could have obtained access
through Crozat.

On the other hand certain scholars ascribe the Concert Chatfipitre to
Domenico Campagnola. Is it possible that tlie drawing for this picture was
among those by Campagnola which Watteau copied, and that this is why he
admitted particular indebtedness to this artist ?

For my own part I see no reason to suppose that Giorgione was not the
author of the picture ; and every reason for supposing that Giorgione and
Watteau were kindred spirits in similar situations (cf. pp. 118, 119).

For the relation of Giorgione's Concert Chatnpetre to Manet's Dejeuner
sur I'herbe, cf. p. 239 and PI. 97b.

' Watteau used the same sketch-books and portfolios all through his
career and the figures and details are repeated in pictures of all periods.
Dozens of examples could be quoted.

' The nude by Watteau called L'Awour desarmi in the Musee Conde at
Chantilly was not painted from a drawing made from life but from a drawing

Q 115

WATTEAU'S OBUVRE

The new model appears in the Louvre Judgment of Paris (PI.
42), in which Watteau captured the finer essence of the art of
Rubens. She is a magnificently tall blonde, with a long neck and
a straight nose. It is clear that she had what arti^sts call the " sense
of pose " ; and that Watteau delighted in every turn of her head,
in her simple but proud carriage as she stood erect, in her habit
of sitting on the ground, and in every one of the perfectly
balanced attitudes into which she was, as artists say, continually
falling. The earlier model, immortalised as ha Finette (PI. 44c),
had been petite with a little round head and a snub nose. She
had been amiable, and with engaging gaucherie she would hold
her skirts out and keep the pose which was asked of her (PI. 44a).
But with this new model it was a different matter ; the problem
here was to note with sufficient rapidity the hundreds of
delightful attitudes which she unconsciously assumed (PI. 49).

We see the new model also as the central figure in the Louvre
UEmbarquement pour I' He de Cy there which was painted in 171 7,
and again as the same figure and as the nude statue in the second
version of the subject, painted for Jullienne, which is now in
Berlin (PI. 47). Thereafter heads and figures painted from the
hundreds of drawings which he made from her abound in his
pictures. We see her in the Louvre Ee faux pas (PL 45 c) and in
the Chantilly UAmante inquiete (PI. 45b).

Watteau had now arrived at the personal and characteristic
style which we associate with his name. In the next two years
he painted a number of his most celebrated Fetes including the
W^allace Collection Amusements champ etres (PI. 49) and Champs
E/ysees, and the Dresden Keunion Champetre and Piaisirs d' Amour
which both have statues drawn from the new model. ^

To this period we can also assign a new series of Italian
Comedy pictures, for which Watteau may have used drawings
made from the real Italian Comedians who had now returned to
Paris ; Lord Spencer's group of five figures, Comediens Italiens^
was probably painted in this way, and so probably was the
celebrated Gilles (PL III).

by Veronese (now in the Louvre) which belonged to Marietta, who acquired
it from Crozat.

^ But figures painted from earlier drawings of La Finette also occur in
the later pictures owing to Watteau's habit of using his old sketch-books.

114

t>- ■■' <*

London. British Museum

ANTOINI^ W Al'lLAU. Drawing.

i^cl'n. thai lull, nburg Laslle

ANTOINE WATTEAU. L'Enscignc de Gcrsaint (detail).

WATTEAU'S (EUVKE

There are hardly any records of the pictures which he painted
in England. But we know of two which belonged to Dr.
Mead — a Cowediens Italiens and U Amour paisibky known as
Pastoral Conversation to distinguish it from U Amour paisihle (PL
46a) in Potsdam. The first, now in the Wildcnstein Collection
in Paris, is a composition of fifteen figures grouped on a stage
with architectural setting. The second, now in America, shows
six large figures in a landscape. In both the main figures are
evidently portraits and the Louvre has a life-sized head of an
old man with flowing forked beard, catalogued as Portrait d'un
anglais, which is ascribed to \\ atteau and believed to have been
painted in England.*

In England to-day rich people encourage imaginative artists
by commissioning them to paint " speaking likenesses " of them-
selves and their relations. In W'atteau's day it was probably the
same. In England he was probably driven to portraiture ; and
on his return to Paris his friends noted that he had become
avaricious.-

Tendencies to portraiture and direct genre, combined with
a large scale in the figures, either for this reason or some other,
mark the pictures ascribed to the last year after the return from
England. These pictures include the Berlin UEnseigne de Ger-
saini (PI. 50) (where modish actuality appears for the first time
in W'atteau's work), the portrait of the little girl Iris c'est de bon-
heur avoir I'air de la danse, known as ha Danse (PI. 51b), and
probably the portrait of Antoine de la Koque (PI. jza).^

Many of Watteau's pictures are in bad condition. Plaisirs du
Bal, at Dulwich, is a ruin ; UAccordee de Village, in the Soane

^ M. Gillet's description of this picture is worth quoting : " Cette tete
a une physionomie de vieux mar in, un regard de gin et d'eau salee fait songer ^
quelque loup de merT I have not noticed this myself. The gin and salt
water effect has also escaped M. Jamot who believes the picture to be a
portrait of Dr. Mead.

2 Of the English visit de Caylus writes : " ^ly Jut assei(^ accue/ti et ne laissa
pas de fairs ses affaires du cote de l' utile," and Gersaint writes that there " //
commenca a prendre le gout pour I' argent," though previously " son desinteresse-
ment etoit si grand que plus d'une fois il s' est f ache vivement contre moi, pour avoir
voulu lui donner un prix raisonnahle de certaines chases . . ." De Caylus also
relates of his earlier period that he gave a wig-maker two pictures for a wig
and was worried afterwards lest he had not given him enough.

' Cf. note, p. 122.

115

WATTEAU'S ART

Museum, is very much and very badly repainted ; the
Louvre UEmbarquement pour Vile de Cythere is a ghost of its
former self.^

iv. Watteau's Art

Oest un peintre . . . qui imite a merveille la nature.

Etienne Jeaurat,* 1729.

11 a reus si dans les petites figures qu'il a des sinks, et qu'il a tres bien groupies ;
mais il n' a jamais rien fait de grand, il en etoit incapable.

Voltaire, he Temple du Gout.

he gout qu'il a suivi est proprement celui des bambochades.^

D'Argenville, Abre'ge de la vie des plus fameux peintres^

1745-

N'aiant aucune connoissance de I'anatomie, et n'aiant presque Jamais dessine
le nud, il ne sgavoit ni le lire, ni Vex primer . . . Cette insuffisance dans la pratique
du des sin le mettoit hors de portee de peindre ni de composer rien de heroique ni
d'allegorique, encore moins de rendre les figures d'une certaine grandeur . . . Les
degouts qu'il prenoit si souvent pour ses propres ouvrages, partoient de la situation
d'un homme qui pens e mieux qu'il ne peut executer . . . Aufond, il en faut convenir,
Wateau etoit infiniment manierc.

Le Comte de Caylus. Lecture on Watteau to the Royal Academy

of painting and sculpture 3 Feb., 1748.

Je donnerais dix Watteau pour un Teniers.

Diderot,* Pensees detachees sur la peinture, c. 1760.

Watteau is a master I adore. He unites in his small figures correct
drawing, the spirited touch of Velasquez with the colouring of the Venetian
school.

Sir Joshua Reynolds.

^ For this the Louvre authorities are not, for once, to blame. The
picture which, as noted, was Watteau's tableau de reception, belonged to the
Academy. When David abolished that institution it hung in one of
the apartments of the art school directed by David himself, and it was then
so little esteemed that it was used as an " Aunt Sally " by the students
who pelted it with boulettes de mie de pain.

Watteau himself was largely responsible for the deterioration of his
pictures. We know from de Caylus that he neglected to clean his oilpot
and palette, that he used badly prepared canvases and too much oil with his
colours, and that he resorted to the bad practice known among painters as
" oiling out " when a half-completed picture had " sunk in."

* A genre and decorative painter (1699-1789) who engraved a number of
Watteau's works. ^ cf, note, p. 86. * Cf. p. 144.

116

WATTEAU'S ART

I have learned more from Watteau than from any other Painter.

J. M. W. Turner, R.A.

Wafteau, ce carnaval ou bien dcs cattrs illustres,
Comnies des papillons, errent en flamboyant ,
Decors frais et lexers eclair is par des lustres
Qui versent la folic a ce bal tournojant.

Baudelaire, l^es Pbares, 1857.

Le grand poete du XVI 1 1' siecle est Watteau.

Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, i860.

The French . . . have never produced a single great painter. Watteau,
their best, is still a mere room decorator.^

Ruskin, 1878.

That impossible or forbidden world which the mason's boy saw through
the closed gateways of the enchanted garden.

Walter Pater, 1887.

Son defaut, c'est de voir le monde comme une scene de V Opera, e'clairee aux feux
de Bengale, de n'etre ni passionne ni emu, de sejouer a la surface des chases.

Salomon Reinach, 1904.
II sent qu'il va mourir.

Elie Faure, 1920.

Cette autre . . . e'tait I 'illustration de I'etat d'ame d'un phtisique caracterise . . .
Une maladie est un etat, ce n'est pas necessairement une tare. Rile peut ex alter
out ant que paralyser . . . II est per mis de penser que sans elk ni Watteau, ni Mo':iart,
ni Chopin . . . n'eussent etc tels que nous les ad m irons.

Camille Mauclair, 1920.

Pictorial visions of a world devoted to beauty and idle dalliance.

Sir Charles Holmes, 1927.

It is possible to exaggerate the permanent aesthetic value of his painting,
as it is easy to read into it more spiritual and psychological significance
than is really there. . . . With happy carelessness he scatters his little figures,
like so many glittering butterflies, along the grass under his feathery trees,
rarely troubling about the exact proportion of the groups to the background,
and never about the formal geometry of design.

Sir Charles Holmes, 1927.

Watteau's art must be judged by the pictures painted from
1 71 6 to 1720 — the finest of his Fetes such as UEmbarquement

^ There is no reference to Watteau in the whole of Ruskin's published
works. The comment quoted comes in the MS. for the continuation of The
haws of Fesole which was never completed.

WATTEAU'S ART

pour Vile de Cythere (PI. 47) and Les Amusements Champetres (PI.
48). Those pictures were described in his own day as Fetes
galantes and we must know what the term then meant if we are
properly to understand them.

The word ^^/^;?^ has acquired a pejoratory significance from its
use in connection with the type of French print of the later
eighteenth century known as estampe galante. In Watteau's day
the word galant had not yet acquired this association with dainty
lasciviousness. It was used to describe the new cultural values^
of the most refined sections of Parisian society.

When Watteau was received by the Academy he was described
2Apeintre des jetes galantes} No artist had ever been so described
before because Paris had never loiown a vie galante till it was
created there by the noblesse d'affaires represented by men like
Crozat and Jullienne and the ladies of their world. The parti-
cular quaUties by which Parisian civilisation is still to a great
extent characterised to-day were born at the very moment that
Watteau was painting his pictures. La Finette as transformed
by Watteau was the first " Parisienne," and the afternoon parties
in the park at Montmorency, which Watteau attended, werethe
first expression of a culture that was about to call for the exquisite
applied arts of the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles. Watteau's
sensibility was stirred by contact with this civiHsation which was
all the more attractive because it was still a civiHsation in the
bud, a civilisation which had not yet revealed the imperfections
of the flower.

I have referred above to the influence of Giorgione's Concert
Champetre (PL 46b) on Watteau's work. Watteau, I think,
responded to tliis picture not only on account of its pictorial
and aesthetic qualities but also because the Venetian civilisation
symbolised by Giorgione was parallel to the Parisian civilisation
by which Watteau himself was surrounded in Crozat's park. An
artist can do nothing till he perceives, actually or in imagination,
an aspect of life that holds his attention ; he is sterile till he
feels himself part of an actual or imagined world which he can
contemplate with fascinated interest. Having found such a
world he has to retain his faith in it, and to do this he turns to
the past for evidence that men have been intrigued by such a

1 Cf. p. 141.

118

! /..)iiiM/i. iWi.iaii Ci'llectiiDi

NICOLAS LANCRl.r. Mile. Camargo dancini,^

Colldtton of the /■•riiu-r ri'igiiii;^ I'russian hu^i'

ANTOINE WATTEAU. La Dansc.

ANTOINE WATTEAU. Antoinc dc la Roquc.

London. P. M. Turner CulUtliun

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH. Mr. Plampin.

WATTEAU'S ART

real or imagined workl before. Ciiorgione appeared at the
moment when the new-rich Venetians and their sons were
turning their backs on business and seeking a new civilisation in
villas on the mainland, where for the first time in Venetian
history they could lie upon the grass beneath the shade of trees ;
and he sublimated this new amenity. When W'atteau saw
Concert Champctre he had found the precedent he was seeking.

I say that Giorgione " sublimated " the civilisation which
surrounded him, because the Concert Champetre is not a record of
a social gathering in a Venetian garden, as for example Van
Loo's Dejeuner de Chasse (PL 54b) is a record of a social gathering
at Fontainebleau ; and it was this sublimation that appealed to
W'atteau who knew that the ladies in Venetian gardens did not
habitually wander nude, just as we know that Crozat's guests at
Montmorency were infrequently, if ever, garbed in the clothes
from W'atteau's property-wardrobe or the costumes of mummers
at Fairs. W'atteau saw that Giorgione's picture symbolised the
ideal conclusion of a civilisation which (we now know), in fact,
concluded in the society that Napoleon kicked into the sea ;
and we can see that W'atteau's pictures symbolised the ideal con-
clusion of a civilisation which in fact concluded in the society
that was exterminated by the Revolution and the guillotine.

In our day W'atteau's pictures appeal, as they appealed in their
own day, to the bourgeois spirit in its least Philistine aspect. The
bourgeois when he is a Philistine resents all art except popular
art which is produced to achieve contact with his familiar
experience.^ W hen he is not a Pliilistine he wishes to be trans-
ported by means of art from the realities of every-day life to a
world " devoted to beauty and idle dalliance." But he makes it a
condition that this ideal world shall be one in which he can
imagine himself a regular inhabitant. The imaginative bourgeois
can project himself into Watteau's Fetes galantes ; but he cannot
project himself into the pastoral and mythological world of
Boucher ; therefore he prefers W'atteau to Boucher.

But Watteau's pictures also appeal to those who ask art to
provide a microcosmic concept as a means of focussing life as a
whole. These spectators enjoy the character of the little figures
in W'atteau's pictures and their relation to the woods and parks

^ Cf. my Modern Movement in Art, passim.

119

WATTEAU'S CHARACTER

in which they move. We Hve in an age wearied of nineteenth-
century Romantic individuaHsm with its exaltation of individual
personalities and individual faces. To escape from the Roman-
tic concepts of the last century and the Romantic journalism of
our own to Watteau's Amusements Champetres — where generic
figures seem to have achieved a perfect and simple adjustment to
surrounding life — is to capture, for a moment, a sense of propor-
tion, and with it refreshment and repose.

V. Watteau's Character

Watteau's biographers from de Caylus to M. Camille Mauclaire
have insisted on his wayward personality and his restless dis-
content ; and de Caylus assumed that his discontent was due to
knowledge that his productions fell short of the standards of the
Academic " Grand Manner. "^

The explanation of Watteau's discontent, his irritability, his
depressions, his flight from the Hotel Crozat, and his flight from
the kind offices of his other friends, can be explained, I fancy,
by the eternal opposition between the original creative artist and
the personnel of both the bourgeois and the social-artistic worlds.
Watteau owed his existence as an independent artist to the
friendship of contemporary dilettanti ; without their aid his
poverty might have kept him a hack assistant to others painters
all his life. But the friendship, in which from their good nature
these dilettanti enveloped their patronage, was a source of con-
tinual irritation. Watteau's reason reminded him of his debt

^ De Caylus describes Watteau's personality as follows : "7/ etoit de
moienne taiUe, il n'avoit point du tout de phisiommie, ses jeux n' indiquolent m son
talent ni la vivacHe de son esprit. 11 etoit sombre, melancolique, comme le sont tous
les atrabilaires, naturellement sobre et incapable d'aucun exces. L,a ptirete de ses
maurs lui permettoit a peine dejouir du liber tinage de son esprit, et on s'en apercevoit
rarement dans ses discours."

Gersaint's description reads : " Watteau etoit de mojenne taille et d'une
foible constitution, il avoit le caractere inquiet et changeant, il etoit entier dans ses
volontes, lihertin d' esprit, mais sage de maurs ; impatient, timide, d'un abord froid
et embarrasse, discret et reserve avec les inconnus, bon, mais difficile ami ; misantrope,
meme critique malin et mordant, toujours mecontcnt de lui meme et des autres et
pardonnant difficilement ; il aimoit beaucoup la lecture ; c' etoit V unique amusement
qu'il se procuroit dans son loisir ; quoique sans lettreSy il decidoit asse^ sainement
d'un ouvrage d' esprit."

1 20

WATTEAU'S FOLLOW I'RS

to Crozat and Jullicnnc, but he could never feel at home in the
company of men who, after all, were millionaires with a sense of
values that were inevitably foreign not only to Wattcau " the
mason's boy " but also to Wattcau the painter of Amusements
Champctres and Ulimharquement pour Cythere. From the mil-
lionaires W'atteau might escape to Sirois and Gersaint, well-
meaning petits bourgeois of moderate means ; but there again
W'atteau, the artist, was out of touch with an environment which
regarded pictures, at bottom, as a means of making money ;
though wc know that in their affection for W'atteau neither Sirois
nor Gersaint ever stressed this point of view.

De Caylus, who never appreciated the real character of W'at-
teau's art, has nevertheless provided us with the key to his
character. In the rooms which he hired as studios, where he
drew with Henin and W atteau from the model, W'atteau, he
tells us, " si sombre^ si atrabilaire^ si timide^ et si caustique partout
ailleurs^ n*etoit plus alors que le Wateau de ses tableaux ; c'est a
dire Vauteur qu'ils font imaginer^ agreable, tendre et peut etre un peu
berger^ It was only when W'atteau was working that he could
forget his benefactors — Crozat, Jullienne, Sirois, Gersaint, and
de Caylus himself who was paying for the studio ; and it was
because W'atteau could only feel at ease in the sublimation of the
world around him that he gave that world his delicately
sublimated images of itself.

vi. Watteau's Followers

The influence of W atteau's pictures is seen all over the painted
decoration and the tapestries of the eighteenth century. But that
influence for the most part was not direct. It came to French
applied art through the engravings in the Ke.'ueil Jullienne and
through the works of his followers^

^ Watteau's influence was not confined to France. At Ham House near
London Lord Dysart has a celebrated set of eighteenth-century tapestries
made from engravings after his pictures. One of these reproduces ha
Cascade (now in the London Wallace Collection) which was engraved by
Scotin. These tapestries signed " Bradshaw " were made in the tapestry
factories at Fulham and Exeter which were founded in 1748 by a French
capuchin P. Norbert, known as Parisot, who employed craftsmen trained at
the Gobelins. They arc usually described erroneously as " Mortlake."

R 121

WATTEAU'S FOLLOWERS

Of these followers Jean-Baptiste Pater and Nicolas Lancret
are the best-known figures,

Jean-Baptiste Pater (1696-1736) was a native of Valenciennes
and he worked, as noted, in Watteau's atelier about 171 3. Wat-
teau eventually quarrelled with him and he returned to Valen-
ciennes. There, since he had had some success with his pictures
in Paris, he refused to submit a work to the local Guild of
Luc to qualify as t?mitre^ and when he began to ojffer his pictures
for sale the Guild prosecuted him as ifraudeur de I' art de lapeinture,
and it also prosecuted his father, a well-known local sculptor, as
an accomplice. Pater and his father appealed from Court to
Court and lost every appeal. In the end, driven out of Valen-
ciennes, Pater returned to Paris. This was about 171 9. In the
following year, he was summoned by Watteau to Nogent and
from that time till his death, sixteen years later, he continuously
produced pictures in the manner of his master. He was received
into the Academy in 1728 ^iS peintre de sujets modernes.

Pater's pictures are often impregnated with a delicate blue
haze and seem at first slighter, more ethereal, and less realistic
than Watteau's. But in spirit they are really more actual. They
depict fragments of the life of the time with an eye that is almost
journalistic. The ethereal quality is technical ; the spiritual
quality is genre.

His work stands, in fact, half-way between Watteau's pictures
and the estampes galantes. In Pater's pictures the lovers make
more daring advances, and the ladies who sit before their mirrors
while their maids adjust their hair, or bathe so discreetly in a
lake, are often hoping that some adventurous young gallant is
concealed behind the curtains or among the trees. ^

Watteau's portrait of Antoine de la Raque or the engraving from it (PI. 5 2a)
which is probably reversed, must have influenced Gainsborough's Mr.
Plampin (PI. 52b) painted in his early Ipswich period. In Watteau's picture
the attitude had particular significance because the sitter (cf. p. 103) was lame,
having had his leg shattered at Malplaquet.

Watteau's arabesque decorations were disseminated in the Kecueil Jullienne
and also in engravings published by Gersaint " a l' usage des eventaillistes,
sculpteurs, orfhres, tapissiers et hrodeurs.

1 The Louvre and the London Wallace Collection have pictures by Pater
where gallants in fact are so concealed. In the Louvre picture moreover
the fundamentally genre character of Pater's imagination is seen in the

122

I\ini. Dtiiul HV;7/ ('■^lUdum

NORBLIN 1)1 LA COl Kl) \1M\

lY'tc Ciaiantc.

ir>]

Detroit. Instil

NICOLAS LyVNCRHT. J he Hunt Luncheon.

Paris. Louvre

CARLE VAN LOO. Dejeuner de Chassc (detail).

W A'lTI'.AU'S rOLLOWlLRS

The most important collections of Pater's work are in the
Potsdam Palaces and the London Wallace Collection. There
are others in the Louvre and at Valenciennes. I reproduce a
good example from the Simpson Collection in New York

(PI. 53 a).

Nicolas Lancrct (i 690-1 743) was a Parisian and a fellow pupil
with Wattcau in the atelier of Claude Gillot. He continued
relations with W'atteau, who was six years his senior, for a num-
ber of years, until, tradition has it, W'atteau quarrelled with him
when Julliennc had bought two of his pictures, exhibited in 1714
on the Place Dauphine.^

Lancret's pictures are sometimes discordant in colour ; but
he was a more capable representational draughtsman than Pater
and his figures often show a solidity which appeals to admirers
of genre art. Les deux baigieuses (PI. 5 5 b) shows this aspect of his
draughtsmanship.

Like Pater, he brought Watteau's art back to the genre level ;
and he also carried on the actuality and modishness which
appeared in Watteau's Unseigm de Gersaint (PI. 50). He painted
a number of Italian Comedy pictures in imitation of W'atteau
and also a number of pictures representing contemporary stage
favourites such as the dancer 1m Camargo (PI. 51a) and her rival
La Salle.-

gesture of the maid who warms some undergarments by the fire. This
gesture had not appeared, as my knowledge goes, in French art since the
day when Fouquet drew the miniature of the Birth of St. John the Baptist in
Etienne Chevalier's Livre d'heures (of. pp. 17, 18). The gesture would never
have occurred to Watteau.

^ At this time there was an open air picture show every year on Corpus
Christi Day on the Place Dauphine where the procession terminated at an
altar. The walls of all the adjacent houses and shops were hung with
carpets and draperies from an early hour in the morning and pictures by
Old Masters and contemporary^ artists were attached to them. The exhibi-
tion lasted only till the ceremony was over and then the draperies and
pictures were removed. The pictures which Lancret exhibited there in
1 714 are said to have been mistaken for the work of Watteau himself.

- Lancret may have met both in the salon of the collector Titon de Tillet
who entertained the dancers from the Opera and adopted Corneillc's niece.
Of the rivalr)' between La Camargo and La Salle, Voltaire wrote :

Ah ! Camargo, que vous ites brillante !
Mais que Salle, grands dieux, est ravissante !

125

WATTEAU'S FOLLOWERS

Lancret is seen above his usual level in a sketch like The Hunt
huncheon (PI. 54a), in the Detroit Institute of Arts, which it is
interesting to compare with Carle Van Loo's capable but rather
prosaic Dejeuner de Chasse (PL 54b) in the Louvre.^

At his worst he achieved a final metamorphosis of Watteau's
style to purely journalistic genre. The celebrated Dejeuner de
jamhon (now in the Musee Conde at Chantilly) depicts a scene of
drunkenness and gluttony which takes us back to the eating-
and-drinking art of seventeenth-century Holland. But the
gluttons and drunkards in Lancret's picture are no longer
peasants or members of the petite bourgeoisie — they are persons of
" quahty " continuing the tradition of the Regent's gluttonous
and drunken suppers. ^

Que vos pas sont legers, et que les siens sont doux !
mie est inimitable, et vous toujours nouvelle.
Les Nymphs sautent comme vous,
£/ les Graces dan sent comme elk.

^ For Van Loo cf. notes, p. 142. His Dejeuner de Chasse was painted for
Fontainebleau (cf. p. 143). The horses are based on the tradition started by
Van der Meulcn, an assistant of Le Brun, who painted the horses in Le Brun's
Triumph of Alexander (PL 37b). Lancret's The Hunt 'Luncheon (PI. 54a) is a
sketch for his La Collation apres la Chasse which was formerly at Potsdam in
the collection of the former reigning Prussian House and now belongs to
MM. Wildenstein & Cie, Paris and New York. The horses in Lancret's
picture also go back to Van der Meulen.

2 The Dejeuner de jamhon was one of four pictures for the petits cabinets at
Versailles arranged for Louis XV, who following the taste of the time
neglected the great galleries and preferred small apartments in the Palace
and in the Grand Trianon (which Louis XIV had built for Mme de Main-
tenon). The other three panels were painted by Jean Francois de Troy
(cf. note, p. 143) ; one of them, Le Dejeuner d'huitres, preserved at Chantilly,
is as much a scene of gluttony as Lancret's picture.

124

B. THE AGE OF LOUIS XV AND LOUIS XVI

i. Tbe Louis Xl'' S/y/e

Louis XV, great grandson of Louis XIV, was born in 1710.
He was five years old when he succeeded, and he was thirteen
when the Regent died in 1723.

His reign, from the standpoint of tlic art-historian, can be
divided into three sections : {a) the Regency and the period from
1726 to 1743, when France was ruled by Cardinal Fleur}% (b)
the period of the influence of Mme de Pompadour, 1745 to 1764,
and (f) the final period of Mme du Barry, 1769 to 1774.

The growth of Paris as a social centre was encouraged by the
Regent, w^io installed himself in the Palais Royal and the King
in the Tuilerics. The theatre, the opera and the public masked
balls instituted at the Opera in 1716 now became features of social
life.^ Later the arcades of the Palais Royal and the boulevards,
with the first cafes, became rende^^-vons of fashion.^ Under the
Regency also, many new private mansions were constructed by
the new rich, who included the Crozats and Jullienne already
mentioned, and this construction continued in the period of
Fleury, who achieved the miracle of balancing the State budget.^

The taste was now for smaller houses and more intimate
apartments ; ladies of a frivolous turn of mind had their boudoirs
for flirtations and others had their Salons where they entertained
artists and men of letters.*

^ The masked balls to which the public paid for admission were the
idea of the Regent who himself attended them. They proved so lucrative
that others were instituted in the galleries of the Academic frati(aise in the
Louvre.

- The cafes, a development of the old cabarets of ill-repute, were at
first tea and coffee houses. The purveyance of " soft " drinks was then,
as now, so fantastically profitable that the number of cafes soon increased ;
in 1723 there were 400 in Paris, in 1788 there were 1800.

^ This was in 1738. It was the only year in which the budget was balanced
between 1672 and the time of Napoleon.

* The seventeenth-century Salons were destroyed by Molicre's 1^(S pre-
cieuses ridicules ; the Salons now founded continued all through the eighteenth
century and were an important factor in the development of the free thought
of an age which began with the tradition of Colbert's King-Statc-Socialism
and passed vii Voltaire to the Back-to-Nature Individualism of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau.

125

PORTRAIT PAINTERS

In these circumstances, as a hundred years earlier, the owners
of the new hotels required artists and craftsmen, and the King
also required them for the new small apartments in his residences.
The Louis XV or rocaUle style in architecture and the applied
arts, which had really begun at the end of the reign of Louis
XIV and was definitely launched under the Regency, was the
result of these demands.

The characteristics of this style are well known because
from France it was exported to and imitated by every country
in the civilised world. It was a style which used the minimum
of straight lines in the architecture and in the furniture and
appointments designed to go with it. Its essential feature was the
Chinese broken curve, which was soon developed to charac-
teristic shell and foliage forms. ^

The vast production of applied art from this period to the
end of the old regime was possible because the organisation of
French art effected by Colbert and Le Brun was still in existence.
The Gobelins factory had passed through serious depression at
the end of the reign of Louis XIV, and had at one time been
closed, but it now recommenced the manufacture of applied art
— especially of tapestry which was also produced in the asso-
ciated factory at Beauvais. In 1738 the Sevres porcelain factory
(which was moved to Sevres in 1756) was established at Vin-
cennes ; and various new establishments of cabinet makers
obtained official patronage about the same time. There was no
lack of skilled operatives because institutions, with royal protec-
tion, trained them all over France, until the whole organisation
was abolished in the Revolution.

ij . Portrait Painters

We are so accustomed to associate the age of Louis XV with
the rocaille style in applied art and with the decorative painting
by Fran9ois Boucher which went with it that we are apt to forget

1 For Chinese influences in French decoration cf. note, p. no. Chinese
motifs occur all over the marquetry in French furniture of this period. I
have referred to Oppenordt as a pioneer of the rocaille style (cf. note, p. 1 10).
Other pioneers of the style were Just Aurele Meissonier, Robert Martin and
Charles Cressent.

126

Xfic York. 61

JEAN-BAPTISTE PAII'R. Lc Bain.

From llu- H,r)in!ii^,-. I ■>:.„>.(,/. I<: f-r .,/,•<.,(
MM. Wilileiisleinct Lie, Paris ami AVtr York

NICOLAS LANCRET. Lcs deux Baitrncuscs.

Cli.inlilly. Musee Condi

JEAN-MARC NATTIER. Mile Bcaujolais.

JEAN-MARC NATTIER. Mmc \ictoirc as Diana.

PORTRAIT PAINTERS

that the age also produced some excellent portraiture. Rigaud
and Largillicrc both practised right up to the advent of Mmc dc
Pompadour, since Rigaud, as noted, lived till 1743 and Lar-
gilli^re till 1746 ; and the same period witnessed the rise and
first successes of Jean-Marc Nattier, and the portrait painting of
Subleyras, Pesne, Aved and Dumont, and much of the work of
the pastelHsts La Tour and Perronneau.

}can-Marc Nattier (168 5-1766) began his career with a com-
mission from Louis XIV to engrave the Rubens panels in the
Luxembourg. In 1717 he made a journey to Amsterdam with
the ambassador of Peter the Great and painted the Czar, who was
then in that city, and the Czarina, then at The Hague. In Holland
he studied the works of Rembrandt and he afterwards adapted
some of Rembrandt's effects of light and some of his composi-
tional motifs to his own ends.^

On his return to Paris he lost most of his money in the Law
crash- but he recovered by creating a vogue for an allegorical
type of portrait in which he painted the first favourites of Louis
XV and other ladies in Court circles.^

Commissioned by the Queen, Marie Leczinska, to paint her

^ In Nattier's portrait Madame Victoire as Diana (PI. 56b) at Versailles we
see in the background the rock aperture which figures in the background of
many of Rembrandt's pictures, a wo/// which Rembrandt himself took over
from Lastman and Pynas (cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art, Pis. 29, 36 and 38).
The same Rembrandtesque background appears in Nattier's L^ Madeleine in
the Louvre. Nattier's portraits of the Czar and Czarina were formerly in the
Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. Since the Russian Revolution they have
been removed to the Hermitage Museum. In Amsterdam Nattier also
painted The Battle of Pultava for the Czar. This picture was believed lost.
It has been discovered since the Russian Revolution in the castle of Sytchevka
and transferred to the Moscow Museum.

2 Cf. pp. 97-105.

' Nattier was not, of course, the inventor of the allegorical portraiture
of ladies in French art. We have already noted such portraiture among the
productions of the School of Fontaineblcau (cf. PI. 17a) ; Mignard's portrait
of the Marquise de Seignelay as Thetis (PI. 41c) painted in 1691 was a little
different as it doubtless recorded some actual charade ; but Largillierc had
painted Mme de Gueydan as a Naiad (Aix-en-Provence Museum) and other
such pictures in Nattier's own day, and Raoux (cf. p. 132) also painted a
number of society ladies in this way. It was however unquestionably
Nattier who launched the vogue for this type of portraiture at this
period.

127

PORTRAIT PAINTERS

daughter Madame Henriette, he produced the celebrated full-
length M??2e Henriette plajing the violoncello which is now at Ver-
sailles. Thereafter he became the official Court painter of the
Princesses and depicted them again in his allegorical manner in a
series of pictures, now at Versailles, where we see Madame Vic-
toire as Diana (PI. 56b), Madame Henriette as Flora ^ Madame
Adelaide as Juno and so forth.

The faithful portrayal of costume in the portrait of the Queen
and in the first series of portraits of the Princesses is found in
other portraits by Nattier. His Mile Beanjolais (PL 56a), for
example, at Versailles, is a charming embodiment of the rose-
and-lace aspect of French civilisation at this time. No painter
has recorded this aspect with more sympathy, delicacy and skill.^

Pierre-Hubert Subleyras (i 699-1 749) went to Rome at the
age of twenty-eight and remained there for the rest of his life.
He painted mostly religious pictures for Italian churches and
occasionally still life and genre subjects. His real talent, how-
ever, was for portraiture as can be seen in his Pope Benoit XIVy
now in the Musee Conde at Chantilly.^

Antoine Pesne (1683-175 7) was another artist who lived most
of his life abroad as he became Court painter to the King of
Prussia. His portrait of Frederic the Great is in the Kaiser
Friedrich Museum in Berlin. The Rouen Museum has his por-
trait, Tbe Artist's Daughter, which Reynolds may also have seen.^

Jacques-Andre-Joseph Aved (i 702-1 766), son of a doctor of
Douai, was brought up at Amsterdam. He was impressed at
an early age by the art of Rembrandt and eventually owned eight
of his pictures and a complete set of his etchings. His portrait

^ Nattier at his best achieved very delicate pearly tints in his flesh painting.
He had a large collection of sea-shells which he studied for their form and
colour. Collections of shells were very fashionable in Paris at this time.
Boucher also had one (cf. p. 149). Reynolds who was in Paris in 1752 and
again in 1771 possibly had Nattier's three-quarter-length portrait of the
Queen (now at Versailles) in his mind when he painted T/)e Countess of
Alhemark (now in the London National Gallery) in 1757-1759.

* The Art Museum at Worcester (Mass.) has another example of his
talent in this field — a portrait of Maria Tibaldi, the miniature painter,
whom he married.

* The Art Museum at Worcester (Mass.) has Pesne's protrait The e»graver
F. G. Schmidt J and the Louvre has his Nicolas Vleughels.

128

61. (Juiiitiii. MuSiUin

MAURICE-QUENTIN DI- LA TOL R.

The actor Manclli.

Paris. Duii i Weill CulUctuiit

JEAN-BAPTISTE PERRONEAU.
Lc Comtc dc Bastard.

>• I'aris. l)iivi,l U'c-ill ColU\:ion

iMAL RU i.-ijL i \ii.\ 131. LA TOUR. JEAN-BAPTISTE PERRONEAU,

.NLllc Fcl. Mmc dc Sorquainville.

Worcester {Mass.). Art Museum

JEAN GRIMOU. The Toper.

Marsi:iUis. Musluiii

JEAN RAOUX. Jeune fille et sa grandmere.

Paris. Louvre Pans. Louvre

JEAN-BAPTISTE-SlMfiON CHARDIN. JEAN RAOUX. La Liseuse.

Le Souffleur.

PASTl'LLISTS

of Mme Cro'^aty painted ia 1741 and now in the .Nfontpcilier
Museum, may also have intlucnccd Reynolds. Aved was
intimate with and had an influence on Chardin.

Jacques Dumont (1701-1781) was a minor history-painter in
the Academic tradition. His name is preserved by the T.ouvre
group of eleven figures, Mwe Alenier, the nurse of Louis XV,
exhibiting the Kings portrait to herjawily^ which is a faithful record
of bourgeois costumes and types in the year 173 1 when it was
painted.

iij. Paste His ts

The vogue for pastel portraits was started under the Regency
by the Venetian pastellist Rosalba Carriera, who came to Paris
in 1719-20 and stayed in the house of Pierre Crozat.^ Before
Rosalba's time there had been a number of French artists who
specialised in pastel. Robert Nanteuil- had used the medium in
the seventeenth century and he was followed by Joseph Vivien
(165 7-1725), who was drawing bold pastel portraits in the
Rigaud manner when Rosalba arrived. But the light touch, the
piquant distortions of drawing, and the vaporous colour in the
Venetian artist's work appealed to those who wanted dainty
ornamental portraits for their boudoirs, and after Rosalba's
return to Venice the fashion which she had started was continued
by Nattier and given a new significance by La Tour and
Perronneau.

Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788) was the son of a
precentor at St. Quentin. Me ran away to Paris at the age of
fifteen to become an artist, and after the usual apprenticeship to
various artists and a certain amount of travelling in search of
work, including a visit to London, he began, about 1730, to
get commissions for pastel portraits in Paris.

In 1737 the Academy organised the first Salon of the reign,^
and there La Tour exhibited two portraits which attracted atten-
tion. Three years later he staggered the Salon public with his
full-length pastel portrait, The President of the Chamhre des
Enquetes du Parlement^ one Gabriel Bernard de Rieux.^ From

^ Cf. p. 106. 2 on p 56 3 Q- p i^j

* This pastel is now in the collection of M. Wildenstcin in Paris.

s 129

PASTELLISTS

this date onwards he had continuous success ; he drew pastel
portraits of the King, the Queen and the Dauphin ; and his
full-length M?}ie de Vompadour, now in the Louvre, was a feature
of the Salon of 175 5 .^

La Tour was a splendid workman and a man of a downright
character. Many stories are related of his independent attitude
in dealing with his sitters and also of the originality and inde-
pendence of his life, which culminated in madness in his last
years. He died at the age of eighty-four. ^

La Tour's art was well calculated to attract attention under the
new conditions of public exhibition inaugurated by the Salons,
where the first essential of success in portraiture, as in other
fields, was the power to produce a work that would destroy its
immediate neighbours by superior vitahty and vigour. His
pastels possess these qualities in a superlative degree. No por-
trait painter has surpassed him in vigorous and accurate delinea-
tion ; no painter has ever made faces that seem more astonish-
ingly vital or more obviously " speaking likenesses " ; and as
the colours in all his portraits are bright and the tones what
painters call " pitched up," any La Tour portrait in any exhibi-
tion arrests even the most listless visitor at once.

^ Cf. p. 152.

2 On one occasion a financier sent his servant to La Tour to explain that
he was unable to come to a sitting. La Tour who was sitting at his easel
waiting to begin work flew into a rage, comprehensible to all artists, and
forced the servant to sit instead of his master. He then sent the portrait of
the servant to the Salon and refused to continue the original commission.

La Tour made all his sitters come to the studio which had been allotted to
him in the Louvre (cf. note, p. 40). He made an exception, however, in the
case of Mme de Pompadour, whom he drew at Versailles ; but he astonished
the Marquise by undoing his shoe-buckles and taking off" his garters, collar
and wig that he might be at his ease before commencing work, and when
the King entered during a sitting he refused to continue work as he never
drew with a third person in the room. He also refused to complete portraits
of the Princesses because they had failed to keep appointments for sittings.

He received large sums for his portraits and he amassed a great fortune,
part of which he spent on founding scholarships for artists and in bene-
factions to his native town. He never married and was for many years
the lover of Marie Fel (PI. 5 7c) the opera singer, who sang Colette in Jean-
Jacques Rousseau's Devin de Village. He drew a portrait of Rousseau, the
study for which is preserved at St. Quentin.

130

PASTELLISTS

La Tour's talents arc seen at their best in the series of studies
prcscr\'ed in the Museum at St. Quentin. From the study.
The Painter Claude Dupouch^ we know not only the sitter's exact
features but also exactly the hours that have passed since he last
shaved — rather inadequately— his lips and chin. In The .Actor
Manelli (PL 57a), we cannot escape the fascination of the dark
quivering eyebrow and the amazing smile framed between the
white of the wig and the pink of the tie on the blue and gold
coat. What face in the history of portrait-painting is more
memorable than Marie Pel (PI. 57c) ? What camera could have
told us more of the French professional man of the period in his
ow^n home than La Tour tells us in The Lawyer Pierre-hoids
Laidegnive (PI. 39b) ?^

jean-Baptiste Perronneau (171 5-1783) was a man of a different
calibre from La Tour and he had a very different career. Retiring
by nature, in no sense a good business man, tentative in his
approaches both as an artist and as a man, he never captured the
favour of the great and spent his time wandering in the French
provinces, in Holland, and even as far as Russia, doing pastel
portraits for a livelihood.-

As a portraitist he is less downright and categoric than La
Tour and the quality of his touch suggests a sensibility that
appeals to many collectors to-day. For students of English
painting he is, moreover, an especially interesting artist because
he stood, in a sense, in much the same relation to La Tour that
Gainsborough stood to Reynolds. I reproduce his dehcately

^ La Tour quite consciously attempted to suggest environment not only
in accessories but also in the actual faces in his pastels. In this connection
he wrote : " II ti'j a dans la nature, ni par consequent dans I' art, aucun etre oisif.
Mais tout itre a du souffrir plus ou moins de la fatigue de son etat. 11 en parte
I'emprelnte plus ou nioins marquee. Le pre/'iicr point est de hi en saisir cette
empreinte . . ." (Cf. note, p. 27'i.)

The portraits of Dupouch, Manelli and Marie Pel are at St. Quentin.
Two other outstanding portraits by La Tour, the Self-portrait pointing hack-
wards and Mile de la Fontaine Solare de la Boissiere^ belong respectively to the
Comte Jean de Polignac and AL Arthur Veil-Picard in Paris. The portrait of
Laideguive belongs to ^L Wildenstein of Paris.

2 When Perronneau arrived in a French provincial town he used to send
the town crier to announce in the market-place his address and his prices
for portraits.

GENRE PAINTING

seen oil-painting Mme de Sorquainville (PL 5 yd) and his expressive
pastel l^e Comte de Bastard (PL 57b), both in the collection of M.
David Weill.i

iv. Ge7ire Painting

The influence of Rembrandt, already noted in portraits by
Rigaud, Nattier and Aved, also appears in the French genre
pictures of the eighteenth century. This influence is evident, for
example, in the Jeunne fille lisant une lettre (PL 5 8d) in the Louvre
and ]emje fille et sa grand were (PL 58 b) in the Marseilles Museum,
by Jean Raoux (1677-173 4), an eclectic artist who also painted
decorative pictures, fetes galantes and allegorical portraits ; and
we see it also in the w^ork of Jean Grimou (i 680-1 740), who was
known as le Kembrandtfran^ais, though his Toper (PL 5 8a) in the
Art Museum of Worcester (Mass.) shows us that he had also
looked at Judith Leyster and other Dutch painters of that
school.^

The paintings by Raoux and Grimou are softer and less
categorically descriptive than those of the Dutch genre painters,
and they are less profound than those of Louis Le Nain and
of Chardin, the outstanding French genre painter of the age
and one of the most interesting of the eighteenth-century
French artists to the student of to-day.

1 M. David Weill also has Perronneau's attractive portrait Mme d'Anglure.
Other French collectors who have good examples of Perronneau's portraits
are M. Arthur Veil-Picard, M. Georges Dormeuil, M. Andre Lazard, and
M. Aicard. His portrait of the Countess of Athlone is in a private collection
in England. The Louvre has his portrait in oils of The Painter J. B. Oudry,
and pastels of an old man Abraham Van Rabais of Abbeville and of Mile
Huquier with a kitten. The St. Quentin Museum has his pastel portrait of
La Tour. The London National Gallery has two pastels : A Girl with a cat
and Madame Legrue.

2 Cf. PL 47 in my Introduction to Dutch Art, which reproduces Judith
Leyster's Merrj Toper in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. Grimou painted
a number of genre portraits of himself.

132

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j. H. S. CHARDIN
The Admonition (La Gmcrnantc)

Lie LiBRAKV \

'V i-CUNDATiONS

CHARDIN

London.
London.

Richmond.

Edinburgh.

Glasgow

University.
Glasgow

University.
New York.

New York.
New York.
New York.

V. ]ean-Wiptiste-Simeon Char din

BORN PARIS 1699. niF.D PARIS 1 779

CWAKACTEKISTIC PICTURES'

National Gallery Still life : Wine bottle, glass and bread,

1754
The Lesson (La petite Maltrcsse

d'Ecole),' Salon 1740
Laundress with boy blowing bubbles

(La Blanchisscuse)^

Kitchen utensils and eggs

National Gallery

Still life

Sir Herbert Cook

C^ollcction
National Gallery

of Scotland
Hunterian Museum The Scullery Maid (La Recureuse), Salon

1738
Hunterian Museum The Potman (La Gargon Cabaretier),*

Salon 1738
Hunterian Museum Drinking tea (Une dame prenant son

the). Salon 1739
Metropolitan Still life : Preparations for a breakfast

Museum
Sir Joseph Duvcen La Mere Laborieuse
Frick Collection La Serinette, Salon 1740
Chester Dale Col- Still life : Jug and peaches
lection
Boston. Museum of Fine

Arts
Boston. Museum of Fine

Arts
Philadelphia. J. G. Johnson Col-
lection
Philadelphia. J. G. Johnson Col-
lection
Philadelphia. J. G. Johnson Col- Girl Drawing

lection
Philadelphia. J. G. Johnson Col- Seven still life pictures

lection
Chicago. Art Institute Still life : Joint of meat and other objects

* For more complete lists of Chardin's pictures the student is referred to
^L Jean GuifTrey's catalogue and to the catalogue contained in Mr. Herbert
Furst's Chardin.

" The National Gallery of Ireland has a similar picture.
^ There are other versions of this picture in the Stockholm Museum, in the
Leningrad Hermitage and in Baron Henri do Rothschild's collection in Paris.

* There are versions of ha Rkurense and Le Cargon Cabarelier in Baron
Henri de Rothschild's Collection in Paris.

Still life : Kitchen table

Still life : Teapot, pear and grapes

Old Man with a light

Old Woman in a studio

133

CHARDIN

Detroit.

Institute of Arts

Still life : Hare and other objects

Paris.

Louvre

Still life (La raie), 1728

Paris.

Louvre

Still life (Le Buffet), 1728

Paris.

Louvre

Portrait of J. A. J. Aved (Le Souffleur),
Salon 1737

Paris.

Louvre

L'Enfant au toton, 1738

Paris.

Louvre

Jeune homme au violon, 1738

Paris.

Louvre

La Mere Laborieuse\ 1740

Paris.

Louvre

La Benedicite,^ Salon 1740

Paris.

Louvre

A monkey as painter, Salon 1740

Paris.

Louvre

Self-portrait (pastel), 1771

Paris.

Louvre

The artist's wife (pastel), 1771

Paris.

Louvre

Twenty still life pictures

Berlin.

Charlottenburg
Castle

Lady reading a letter, 1735

Berlin.

Charlottenburg
Castle

La Fourvoyeuse,^ 1738
La Ratisseuse,* Salon 1739

Berlin.

Kaiser-Friedrich
Museum

Le Jeune Dessinateur, Salon 1738

Carlsruhe.

Museum

Five still life pictures

Vienna.

Liechtenstein

The Admonition (La Gouvernante),

Gallery-

Salon 1739

Vienna.

Liechtenstein
Gallery

La Garde attentive. Salon 1 747

Stockholm.

Museum

Le Dessinateur

Stockholm.

Museum

La Toilette du Matin, Salon 1741

Stockholm.

Museum

Les Amusements de la vie privee. Salon

1746

Stockholm.

Museum

L'Econome^

Stockholm.

Museum

La Fontaine,^ 1733

Leningrad.

Hermitage

Les Tours de Cartes'

1 There are other versions of this picture in the Stockholm Museum, the
Leningrad Hermitage and in Mme Jahan-Marcille's collection in Paris.

2 There is a second version of this picture in the La Caze Collection in the
Louvre and others in the Stockholm Museum and the Leningrad Hermitage.

^ There are other versions in the Louvre, the Liechtenstein Gallery in
Vienna, in the Schleissheim Castle Museum, and Baron Henri de Roths-
child's collection in Paris.

* In the collection of the former reigning Prussian house. There are
other versions of this picture in the Munich Alte Pinakothek, and the
Liechtenstein Gallery in Vienna.

^ This picture which was damaged by fire has not been exhibited since 1885.

® There are other versions of this picture in the London National Gallery
and in Sir Herbert Cook's collection in Richmond.

' There are other versions of this subject in the Doucet Collection in

CIIARDIN

Chardiii was the son of a Parisian cabinet-maker and was
apprenticed in his youth to various academic painters. Later he
was associated, as noted, with the Rembrandt lover, J. A. J.
Aved, from whom he acquired an enthusiasm for Dutch painting
which lies at the root of his art. In his twenties he began to
exliibit at the Place Dauphinc.^ There in 1728 he attracted atten-
tion with two large still-life pieces — rather more Flemish than
Dutch in technique — La Kaie and L,e Buffet^ both now in the
Louvre. He joined the Mattrise and at the same time applied
for election to the Academy where — thanks largely to the
enthusiasm of Largilliere — he was agree and made a member
as peintre de fleurs^ fruits et sujets a caracteres at the age of
twenty-nine.2

He now painted the portrait of Aved (PI. 58c) where we
clearly see the influence of the Rembrandt etchings in Aved's
collection (which doubtless included the portraits of Jan Uyten-
bogaert the Remonstrant, of Cornelis Anslo and Arnold
Tholinx^), and he began the series of genre pictures of bourgeois
life which made his reputation.

The genre pictures consist of {a) studies of children engaged in
simple amusements, drawing, building tours de cartes and so
forth, (/?) studies of ladies engaged in recreations, and {c) studies
of domestic hfe — women engaged in household duties or looking
after their children. The types overlap in point of time. The
Leningrad l^s Tours de Cartes (PI. 59) is an example of the first
type ; lues Amusements de la vie privee (PI. 60a), in Stockholm, is
an example of the second ; The Admonition {La Gouvernante)
(PL IV), in Vienna, La Toilette du Matin (PI. 61), in Stockholm,
La Kecureuse (PI 63) and its companion piece Le Gannon Caharetier,
in Glasgow, and Le Benedicite, in the Louvre, are examples of the
third.

Paris, in the Louvre and in the London National Gallery. The National
Gallery of Ireland has a version with two little girls watching a somewhat
older boy.

1 Cf. note, p. 125.

2 Largilliere, who as noted, was an enthusiast for Flemish art, actually
mistook Chardin's pictures for Flemish works of the seventeenth century
and he became Chardin's champion when he discovered their authorship.

3 Aved is said to have had a complete set of Rembrandt's etchings, as
noted.

CHARDIN

After 1750 Chardin entirely abandoned figure subjects and
for the last twenty-five years he painted nothing but still life in
which he had always been interested.

Chardin married in 1731. His wife died four years later. In
1744 he remarried. His second wife had small private means
but he himself never amassed money and he was happy when in
1754 he was granted a pension by the King and when in 1755 he
was given the salaried post of treasurer of the Academy ; he
was happier still when two years later he was accorded lodgings
in the Louvre.

He was a kindly, simple man, much respected by his acquain-
tance. He lived into the reign of Louis XVL

Chardin first made his reputation by the genre pictures of
domestic subjects which he exhibited in the Academy's Salons.
On the appearance of pictures like ha Gouvernante (PI. IV), ha
Toilette du Matin (PI. 61) and hes Amusements de la vie privee (PI.
60a) he was hailed by the dilettanti as a painter of Tableaux de
modes} His pictures were bought and commissioned for the
Royal collections of Russia, Sweden and Prussia, for that of
Prince Liechtenstien of Vienna, and for that of Louis XV. They
were also bought by a few private French collectors and by one
or two in England — including Dr. William Hunter, whose
acquisitions are now in the Hunterian Museum in the University
of Glasgow. 2

But in spite of his success in this field Chardin painted scarcely
more than thirty genre subjects ; there are less than a hundred
genre pictures in his whole mwre and of these two-thirds are

^ Cf. pp. 165, 166.

^ Chardin's fame has suflfered various mutations. Widespread in his own
day, both in France and other countries, it disappeared in France at the end
of the eighteenth century and was not revived till the de Goncourts pub-
lished their enthusiastic essays in the eighteen-sixties. In England in his
own day Chardin was not taken seriously by the Academic artists, though
engravings after his works were known ; he is not, for example, referred
to in the Discourses of Reynolds. He was equally neglected all through
the nineteenth century ; his name is not mentioned in the thirty-seven
volumes of the works of Ruskin ; he was overlooked by the brilliant
amateurs of French eighteenth-century painting who formed the London
Wallace Collection ; and he was not represented in the London National
Gallery until Lord Savile presented a still life in 1888.

136

Leningrad. Ihrmuugc

JEAN-BAPT1STE-SIM£0N CllARDlN. Lcs lours dc Cartes.

Stockholm. Museum
JEAN-BAPTISTE-SlMfiON CHARDIN. Lcs Amusements de la vie privee.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^S^^^^^^^^^S^^^W^^^^

^^^HPi

^MKa

Paris. Louvre

PHILIPPE dp: champaigne.

La Merc Catherine-Agnes Arnaud ct la Soeur Catherine de Sainte-Suzannc.

CHARDIN

replicas, which he exhibited sometimes ten or even twenty years
after tlie original picture.*

'I'he public which visited the Salons greatly admired Chardin's
genre pictures ; but they did not buy them — they bought
engraved reproductions, for small sums, instead. As I have
already pointed out much of W'attcau's influence on the art of
the eighteenth century had been due to the dissemination of
engravings reproducing his work. But in W'attcau's case the
engravings were made after his death ; in the case of Chardin
they were made soon after each genre subject was exhibited.
They thus represent the beginning of a system which reached a
climax in the Victorian age in England when popular artists in
the Academy's exhibitions vied with one another to attract the
print-buying public and when W. P. Frith, R.A., demanded and
received in one case £5250 for a picture with the copyright to
engrave, and ^(,'1500 in another for the copyright alone.^ Char-
din, however, was not the man to see the commercial possibilities
of this situation ; he seems to have made httle or no money from
engravings after his pictures though there was in fact something
like a " craze " for them in his life-time.'

The Salon public admired Chardin's domestic pictures exclu-
sively for their subjects. As a contemporary put it : " II ne vient
pas la me jemme du Tiers etat qui ne croie que c'est une idee de sa figure,
qui n'j voie son train domestique, ses manieres, ses occupations jouma-
/ereSy sa morale, Vhumeur de ses enjants, son ameuhlement, sa garde-
robe T The publishers of the engravings fully realised the nature

1 Thus 'La Kkureuse was first shown in 1738 and a replica was shown in
1757. Lm Benedicite was first shown in 1740 and replicas were produced in
1746 and 1761. The replicas, some of which show variations, were pre-
sumably painted from first sketches in oils retained in the studio, since
Chardin, it is recorded, did not make many or detailed drawings. Herbert
I'urst suggests in his Chardin that he kept the originals painted from
nature, and sold replicas sometimes wholly or partly executed by his
pupils.

3 The sums received by Frith must, of course, be tripled or quadrupled
to obtain equivalents in the money of to-day.

3 The " craze " was not restricted to France. Plates after Chardin's
pictures were engraved in his day by German and English mezzotinters
and an engraving after Les Tours de Cartes was given away with The
British Magazine in January 1762 (though in Academic circles in England
Chardin, as noted, was not then admired).

T 137

CHARDIN

of their appeal to the. petite bourgeoisie and they placed descriptive
verses beneath the prints to give the subjects additional interest.^

The still-life pictures to wliich Chardin devoted himself after
the age of fifty did not interest the Salon public as much as his
genre pictures had done, and they were not engraved ; but they
were admired nevertheless as trompe I'csil realism.

It is not difficult to project ourselves into the attitude of the
French bourgeois admirers of Chardin's work in his own time.
We can recapture it by opening the door of any loge de concierge
in an unpretentious French apartment house to-day. There we
can see the concierge herself mending her child's frock, or adjust-
ing it as the child leans against her knee, while the hot-pot sim-
mers on the fire and on the table lie a work-basket, a rabbit,
eggs, onions, fruit and cheese. There we can see, and smell,
domestic life as it was known to and enjoyed by Chardin's
admirers — and indeed by Chardin himself. For Chardin worked
and was happy in just such an interior as this. All he asked of
life was warmth, sustenance and quiet human company. He
lived within four walls and never felt the urge to paint fields or
trees ; he never even desired to look out at them ; you will find
no window in any of his domestic pictures. ^

^ Thus under Lepicie's engraving of h,a Gouvernante (The Admonition)
(PL IV), we read :

Malgre le Minois Hipocrite
Ef I' Air soumis de cet Enfant,
Je gagerois qu'il premid'tte
De retourner d son Volant.

Under Lepicie's engraving of Ee Benedicite :

Ea Soeiir, en tapinois, se rit dn petit Jrhe
Qui hegaie son oraison,
Lui, sans s'inquieter, depecbe sa pri^re.
Son ape tit fait sa raison.

Under the engraving of L^ Toilette du Matin (PI. 6i) by Le Bas :

Avant que la Raison I'eclaire,

Elk prend du Miroir les avis Seduisans

Dans le desir et I' Art de plaire

Les Belles, Je le vois, ne sont jamais Enfans.

2 As my knowledge goes there are only two pictures by ^hardin which
show windows — Ea Serinette and its companion piece E'Econome, and in

138

JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIM£0N CHARDIN. La Toilette du Matin.

Boston. AUiseum of Fine Arts

JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMfiON CHARDIN. Still life.

Paris. Wildenstein Colkclion

JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMfiON CHARDIN. Still life with llarc.

CHARDIN

The French bourgeois of the eighteenth century divined with
pleasure le pere Chardin himself iichind his pictures ; and they
took to their hearts this man who obviously cared not a straw if
things were left undusted provided that he was not disturbed by
cleaning and never harassed by a draught — this good, gentle
French bourgeois, for whom it would be a pleasure to prepare the
dejeuner of soupe a l' onion, omelette, and civet de Uevre>

But though we can project ourselves into the minds of Char-
din's contemporaries we know now that they only partly under-
stood him as an artist ; we know now that Chardin himself was
never exclusively interested in the subjects of his pictures and
that in his still-life studies he was not concerned with painting
trompe rail cherries to deceive the birds ; we realise to-day that
even the de Goncourts' delightful appreciation of 1m Toilette
du Matin (PI. 6i) describes only one aspect of the painter's
achievements. 2

both these pictures (which belong not to the domestic series but to the
earlier series of ladies' recreations) only fragments of the windows are seen
in sharp perspective at the side.

In Dutch and English genre interiors, on the other hand, windows and
vistas through them are regular features. Even Van Ostade, who
painted the most sordid interiors, showed windows which were frequently
open.

^ Compared with Dutch pictures of the same subjects Chardin's interiors
are obviously stuffy and dusty. The French taste for small stuffy rooms,
which began at this time with the scented boudoirs of the rich, still continues
to some extent in all classes. The French have never suffered from the
claustrophobia of the English, who are never really happy except in the
open air. It is this claustrophobia, of course, which explains the English
affection for landscape painting and the prevalence of landscape back-
grounds in English portraiture from the time of Hogarth to the present
day.

2 The de Goncourts wrote of I^a Toilette du Matin : " Uomhre de la nuit
commence a s'en aller de la piece. Sur la toilette, encombree de desordre, la chandelle
qui a iclaire le lever et le commencement de I'kabillement hrule encore, decrivant dans
I'air des ronds de fumee. Un peu dejour tomhant de lafenitre, glisse sur le parquet
entre-croise, et va met ire une lueur argentine, la-has, sur Vencoignure ou pose une
pendule marquant sept beures. Au-devant de la ventrue honilloire d'eau chaude, du
tabouret portant le gros Hire de messe de la maman, la mdre en coquelucbon noir, la
iupe au retroussis, arrange des deux mains sur la tite de sa fille le r.aud de sajanchon,
tandis que la petite, impaticnte de soriir, et deja le manchon a une main, coule de
cSte lesjeux vers la glace, en retournant la tite et en se souriant a demi. Le Dimanche,
tout le Dimanche bourgeois, tient dans cette toile. *•

139

THE ACADEMY AND THE SALONS

The developments of French painting at the end of the nine-
teenth century have taught us to recognise an artist's pre-
occupation with formal problems for their own sake when we
encounter it. We have learned the nature of that preoccupation,
and we realise that Chardin when he painted Les Tows de Cartes
(PL 59) was possibly more interested in architectural problems
of formal relation than in the genre scene that gives the title to
the picture ; and that the diagonal movements in the beauti-
fully composed Amusements de la vie privee (PL 60a) must have
given him great satisfaction and delight. This, we now realise,
was why Chardin was always so deeply interested in still-life
painting and why eventually he abandoned all other subjects in
its favour.^

But Chardin did not push his attitude to its conclusion. If we
compare Chardin's Still life (PL 62a), in the Boston Museum,
with some glittering Dutch trompe Vceil production, we see how
far Chardin has advanced from this elementary goal ; but if on
the other hand we compare a work by Chardin with Cezanne's
Still life (Pis. 131a and 131b) we see how much further Cezanne
advanced towards the logical conclusion of Chardin's approach. ^

vi. The Academy and the Salons

The fixed doctrine of Great Art which the Academy had for-
mulated in its early days for Colbert had been challenged, as I

^ His contemporaries could not understand this. They regarded Chardin
as an eccentric, almost as a trifler, who painted, as they said, " que pour son
amusement ."

2 Chardin had a number of followers and imitators who all missed the
architectural aspect of his work. The most successful was Michel-Bernard-
Nicolas Lepicie, son of Frangois-Bernard Lepicie, who engraved a number
of Chardin's pictures. Lepicie's imitations of Chardin's genre pictures
stand in the same relation to the originals as Lancret's pictures stand to those
of Wattcau. He was purely a genre painter. His pictures of children were
essentially popular. The Lyons Museum has a little boy crying called
UEnfant en penitence which is characteristic. M. David Weill has a Petit
dessinateur ; there is a picture of the same subject in the Louvre. The
London Wallace Collection has Une femme montrant a lire a une petite fille and
also Une femme allaitant son enfant which is one of his best works. In the picture
called Lrt demande accordee in the Cherbourg Museum Lepicie has imitated
Greuze. Chardin's still-life pictures were imitated by Mme Vallayer-Coster
(1744-18 18).

140

THH ACADEMY AND 'mi- SALONS

havx noted, when the work of Rubens, Rembrandt and other
painters of the Low-Country Schools began to exercise a general
influence on French painting. But the doctrine, though chal-
lenged, had never been ollicially denied ; and early in the
eighteenth century it was revived and transformed by the main
caucus of the i\cademicians into the doctrine of the Grand Manner
in History-painting — a confused eclectic concept involving
indiscriminate imitations of Rubens and the later Italian Masters.^

All through the eighteenth century the history-painters, who
included the painters of decorations with allegorical and mytho-
logical subjects, were the most highly-ranked artists in the
7\cademy. Only the history-painters were given the higher ofTices
in the Academy and the professorial posts in its art-school ; and
when artists like Watteau and Chardin were made Academicians
they were specifically described as belonging to a different rank.^

The Grand Manner in History-painting was the sole subject of
instruction in the art school, and the Academy's prix de peinture
were awarded exclusively for history-compositions. The subject
when Watteau competed unsuccessfully was David accordant le
pardon de Nobal h Abigail qui lui apporte les vivres ; the subject
when Boucher competed was Hvilmerodach fils et successeur de
Nahuchodonosor delivrant Joachim des chaines dans lesquelles son pere le
retenait deptiis longtemps. The first prix de peinture^ known as the
l?7'ix de Kome^ carried WMth it the Academy's authorisation for the
journey to Rome and a further course of study in the French
Academy in that city.^

^ Reynolds made a brilliant attempt to disentangle this confused eclectic
doctrine in his Discourses.

^ I have already noted the official designations of Watteau, Chardin, Pater,
and Lancret. For the Academy's refusal to admit Grcuze to the rank of
history-painter, cf. p. 170,

^ Sometimes, when the Academy had funds, the prize also carried a
subsidy for the journey. But the Academy's linances in the first half of the
century were very precarious and it is probable that funds for the prize-
winner's journey were frequently collected from private patrons. To
remedy this unsatisfactory situation the King agreed in 1748 to the establish-
ment of ricole royale des elhes proteges^ a special class under the direction
of the Academy to which only the prizewinners were admitted ; the students
in this class were financed by royal scholarships, while they prepared them-
selves for the visit to Rome by passing examinations in Bossuet's Histoire
Vniverselle, RoUin's Histcire anciemiey Calmet's Hisioire des Juifs and the works

141

THE ACADEMY AND THE SALONS

The Academicians, to justify the Academy's existence, had
always, of course, been forced to claim that history-painting
was an activity that could be taught and that they themselves
were the only people who could teach it ; and they had made
good this claim by teaching the activity to their own sons and
relations who became Academicians in their turn.^

In this way the Academicians were able to keep the commercial
advantages of the Academic monopoly in their own families for
several generations ; and these commercial advantages were
considerable because many lucrative commissions were still
being given by churches for paintings in the Jesuit-baroque
tradition, and many others, as lucrative, were being given for
decorative panels in the financier's new hotels. The Academi-
cians had made it their business to discredit the old Mattrise^
which was now regarded as the refuge of the incompetent, and
all the commissions in the eighteenth century fell into their
hands. 2

of Herodotus, Thucydides, Homer, Virgil, Ovid and so forth ; if they
qualified they received a further royal subsidy in Rome itself. While at the
Ecole des elhes proteges the students had the privilege of sending a picture
each year to Versailles to be inspected by the King and thus had opportun-
ities of finding favour in Court circles.

^ Thus Louis BouUogne (1609-1674) was followed by his sons Bon
Boullogne (1649-1717) and Louis de Boullogne (1654-1733), and two
women painters of the same name were made Academicians in 1669 ; Noel
Coypel (1628-1707) was followed by his sons Antoine Coypel (1661-1722),
and Nicolas Coypel (i 690-1 734), and by Antoine's son, Charles-Antoine
Coypel (1694-1752) ; Jacob van Loo (1614-1670) who had come to Paris
from Amsterdam in 1662 was followed by Louis-Abraham van Loo (1640-
1712), whose sons Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1684-1745) and Carle van Loo
(170 5 -1 76 5) were followed in their turn by Jean-Baptiste's sons Charles-
Amedee van Loo (171 5-1795) and Louis Michel van Loo (1707-1771), and
Carle's son J. C. Denis van Loo (1743-1821).

When the art of painting is conceived as the art of producing a certain
kind of picture and as a procedure that can be taught there is nothing to
prevent any intelligent person from learning to produce it. This was
demonstrated by these dynasties of French Academic history-painters and
decorators, and it had been demonstrated before by the popular genre
painters in Holland. (Cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art, p. 185.)

^ Most of these Academic history-painters and decorators appear quite
uninteresting to-day. Carle van Loo was undoubtedly competent and he
was much respected by his pupils ; he departed from the Grand Manner

142

Glassow. ilunUiiUii Mu^tiim

JEAN-BAPTISTE-SL\l£ON CHARDIN. La Rccurcusc.

-W;.' Yor/;. Melropolilan Museum

FRANCOIS BOUCHER. The Toilet of \'enus.

V'^^P^jts'^^B

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Paris. Louvre

FRAN(;01S BOUCHER. The Bath of Diana.

THE SALONS

The Salons

The Academy had held one or two Salons in the seventeenth
century. It held another in 1704. In 1737 the function became
annual ; after 1741 it was held every two years. There were no
other public exhibitions in Paris at this time except the annual
open-air shows on All Saints' Day on the Place Dauphine.^ The
Salons were held in the Louvre and only Academicians and agrees
were allowed to show their pictures — a condition which con-
tinued till the Revolution. To make room for the Salons the
magnificent Royal collections of Old Masters were removed from
the Louvre and dispersed in various apartments at Versailles
where they were not accessible to the public or students,
though privileged artists, presumably, could visit thcm.^

These biennial Salons had far-reaching effects on the history of
painting. They created a public which had contact with art for
a few hours every two years and which formed its standards
from that casual contact ; and they induced the artists to covet
the approbation of this ill-educated public. Chardin, intent on
the solution of his architectural problems, could turn a deaf ear
to the Salon public's applause. But Chardin was an exception in
his age. His colleagues worked for this new kind of applause
and were dehghted when they obtained it.

to paint the Dejeuner dc Chasse (PI. 54b) for Fontainebleau. Jean Fran9ois
de Troy (1679-175 2), who also deserted the Grand Manner to paint the
Dejeuner d' hut t res now at Chantilly (cf. p. 1 24), was a coarse-minded man as we
can see in his Bathsheba at the Bath in Angers and he was not above porno-
graphic double entente in some of his pictures. Nicolas Coypel's Innocence et
I' Amour now in the Louvre forestalled all the Venus and Cupid pictures of
the English eighteenth-century school. Francois Le Moyne (1688-1757),
who committed suicide, evolved a very attractive recipe for flesh painting
which he transmitted to his pupil Frangois Boucher. The work of many
of these artists became attractive when it was translated into tapestry at the
Gobelins and Beauvais.

^ Cf. note, p. 123.

* Thus Watteau certainly saw Giorgione's Concert Champitrt (cf. note,
p. 112). In 1750 as the result of the publication of a protest against the
inaccessibility of the Royal collections the King ordered a hundred of his
most notable pictures to be transferred to the Luxembourg where, with the
Rubens panels, they were on view to the public on two days of the week
and to artists on the others.

FRANCOIS BOUCHER

At the same time the Salons created the professional art critic.
The public felt lost in what they regarded as a multitude of
pictures though the eighteenth-century Salons only contained
about two or three hundred ; and professional students of art
history and men of letters began to write articles in journals and
periodicals and to publish pamphlets to help the more intelligent
sections of the public to understand and assess the exhibits
and to enable the others to talk about the "pictures of the
year."

The most celebrated of the eighteenth-century art critics was
Denis Diderot, the philosopher who edited the celebrated
Encyclopedia. He wrote his first Salon article in 1759 and he
continued for twenty years. Diderot as an art critic anticipated
Ruskin and Tolstoy. He held that a picture should contribute
to public morality and to the appreciation of the domestic
virtues. He was a great admirer of Chardin and he praised his
still-life paintings for their verisimiUtude in representation. But
he failed to appreciate Boucher and he was bluffed by Greuze.

London.
London.
London.
London.
London.
London.
London.

Edinburgh.

vij. Franfois Boucher

BORN PARIS 1703. DIED PARIS I770

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

National Gallery
National Gallery
Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection

Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
Victoria and Al-
bert Museum
National Gallery
of Scotland

Le Billet Doux, 1754

Pan and Syrinx, 1759

Shepherd piping to shepherdess, 1745

The Modiste (Le Matin), 1746

The Visit of Venus to Vulcan, 1754

Cupid a captive, 1754

Venus and Mars surprised by Vulcan,

1754
The Judgement of Paris, 1754
Summer and Autumn Pastoral, 1749
The Rising of the Sun, 1755
The Setting of the Sun, 1753
Mme de Pompadour, 1759
Jupiter surprising Callisto, 1769
Mme de Pompadour, 1758 (?)

Mme de Pompadour, c. 1757

144

.1/. .i:- u :::■.. h::.i ('■::>■,;:■■>:

FRAN'gOIS BOUCHER. Mmc dc Pompadour.

jp J\

Paris. David Weill Collection

FRANCOIS BOUCHER. Mme Boucher.

Paris. Louvre

FRANgOlS BOUCliLR. The Bagpipe (La Musette).

FRANCOIS BOUCIIUR

Glasgow.
New York.

New York,
New York.
New York.
Boston.

Boston.

Detroit.
Paris.

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Besan9on

Amiens.

Berlin.

Vienna.

Munich.

Stockholm.

Leningrad.

Art Gallery
Metropolitan

Museum
Frick Collection
Frick Collection
Yerkes Collection
Museum of Fine

Arts
Museum of Fine

Arts
Institute of Arts
Louvre

Louvre
Louvre
Louvre

Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre

Musee Cognacq
David-Weill Col-
lection
Museum

The Muse of painting, c. 1743
Tiic Toilet of Venus, 175 1

The Seasons, c. 175 1
Decorative panels
The Toilet of Venus
The Halt at the Fountain, r.

1749

Going to Market, c. 1749

The Birth of Venus, c. 1754

Venus ordering arms for Aeneas from

Vulcan, 1752
Rinaldo and Armida, 1754
Pastoral decoration (Le nid), 1737
Pastoral decoration (Les charmes de la

vie champetre), 1737
Interior with figures (Le Dejeuner), 1739
The Bath of Diana, 1742
Portrait of a Y^oung Woman, 1742
Sleeping Shepherdess, 1743
The Bagpipe (La Musette), 1755
The Forge of Vulcan, 1747
The Rape of Europa, 1747
The Toilet of Venus, 1749
Venus disarming Cupid, 1749
Landscape: The Mill, 175 1
Landscape: The Bridge, 175 1
Venus receiving arms for Aeneas, 1757
Cephalus and Aurora, 1764
La Belle Cuisiniere, c. ij^-i
Mme Boucher, 1743

Eight Chinese compositions, 1742 and

.1753
Tiger Hunt, 1737
Crocodile Hunt, 1738
Landscape decor for a stage scene
Venus, Mercury and Cupid, 1742
Baron M. de Roths- Mme de Pompadou r, 1 7 5 6- 1 7 5 7
child Collection

Girl on a Sofa, 1752

The Birth and Triumph of Venus, 1740

The Toilet of Venus, 1740

The Modiste (Le Matin), 1745

Leda, 1760 or 1769

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt

145

Museum
Museum
Museum

Alte Pinakothek

Museum

Hermitage

FRANgOIS BOUCHER

Fran9ois Boucher was the most clear-headed of the French
eighteenth-century Academicians. He reduced the prevaiHng
chaotic concepts of the Grand Manner to a simple decorative
formula and within that formula he produced most admirable
results.

Boucher's father, one of the despised painters of the Maitrise,
apprenticed him at the age of seventeen or earlier to Francois Le
Moyne who had just become an Academician. Boucher is said
to have remained only a few months with Le Moyne but he
learned from him an attractive system of flesh colouring, as I
have already noted. From Le Moyne he went to the studio of
the engraver Jean-Frangois Cars, where he became an expert
engraver and designer of book illustrations and decorations ;
and he soon attracted the attention of Jullienne who comissioned
him to engrave a number of plates in the Watteau series.^ At
the age of twenty-one he competed for and won the Prix de
Rome, and three years later he went to Italy where he looked at
the pictures of the Itahan masters purely in relation to the work
which he himself was intending to do later.^

Back in Paris, in 173 1, he secured election to the Academy
with his Kinaldo and Armida, now in the Louvre (which was
influenced I fancy by Titian's Diana and Actmn now at Bridge-
water House, London, but then in the Palais Royal), and he
began to develop his own style in decorative pastorals and
allegories and also in genre.

l^e Nid and Les charmes de la vie champetre (commissioned at

1 Cf. note, p. 108.

2 He went to Venice and saw the works of Titian and Veronese and
also of Tiepolo who was then about thirty-five and already hailed in
Venice as the heir to the great Venetian decorative tradition. In Rome he
evidently studied the 'Kape of Europa (now in the Colonna Gallery) by
Francesco Albani (i 578-1660) whose works in the French Royal collection.
The Toilet of Venus and Venus and Vulcan^ niay already have been known to
him. (For Albani's influence on Dutch art and notably on Van Poelenburgh,
cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art, pp. 146-147.)

Boucher saw at once that by studying Raphael and Michelangelo he could
only be diverted from his own aim and he accordingly avoided their
works. Years later when Fragonard went to see him before leaving for
Italy he warned him that with his particular talent he must also pay no
attention to Raphael and Michelangelo. *' Je te le dis en confidence amicaky'
he said to Fragonard, " si tuprends ces gens-la au sirieux tu esf. . ."

146

FRANCOIS BOUCIIIIR

this period by Louis XV for Fontaincblcau and now in the
Louvre) are characteristic of his pastoral style which is also
seen in La Musette (PL 66b), painted some years later as an
overdoor.

The allegorical style appears in the Stockholm Kirth and
Triumph of X^enus and the charming ?)ath of Diana (PI. 64b), now
in the Louvre, where Boucher's graceful formula for the female
figure is already perfected.

The genre style appears in one aspect in 1m Belle Cuisinere
(now in the Musee Cognacq in Paris) where the boy and girl
actors of the pastoral decorations act the same charade in a
kitchen ; and in another aspect in the Louvre Le Dejeuner and
the Stockholm The Modiste {Le Matin) which were probably
influenced by engravings after Hogarth.^

To these genre paintings we must assimilate M. David Weill's
Mme Boucher (PL 66a), a dainty portrait of his young wife.^

Boucher painted in these various categories all his life and at
the same time he produced landscapes (there are two in the
Louvre) and he made drawings and a number of designs for
scener}' and costumes in the theatres.^

1 Cf. the admirable catalogue of the Wallace Collection where there is a
smaller version of The Modiste.

2 Boucher had married at the age of thirty in 1733. His wife, who was
of a bourgeois family, was then seventeen and she was twenty-seven when
this portrait was painted. Mme Boucher, who probably sat for l^e Dejeuner,
was herself an amateur artist, and the Glasgow Muse of Painting which
depicts a young woman with an artist's palette may also have been painted
from her. Boucher did not long remain faithful. He was very promiscuous,
but there is no evidence that he ever cared for any other woman. Incessantly
occupied with his prolific artistic production he amused himself for brief
hours with professional girl models, who had now appeared in the Parisian
art world (cf. p. 113) and professional light women whom he did not admit
into his life.

Mme Boucher is said to have consoled herself with the Swedish Ambas-
sador, the Comte de Tessin, who bought Boucher's Birth and Triumph of
Venus from the Salon of 1740 and commissioned The Modiste which was to
t}'pify " Morning " in a series of pictures representing different hours of the
day.

'3 The scener)' at the Opera, which at this time was in the Palais Royal,
was in the hands of the celebrated Servandoni who designed the most
fantastic rocaille and Chinese " sets," with ingenious effects of lighting, for
sixty operas. Boucher worked with him and designed the scenery and

FRANgOIS BOUCHER

At the beginning of the seventeen-forties he was presented
to Mme de Pompadour, then Mme Lenormand d'Etiolles, and
for many years he was her favourite artist. He painted her
portrait (PI. 65) on several occasions, and he designed the
scenery and costumes for the private theatricals with which she
entertained the King. For her Chateau at Bellevue he devised
a Chinese boudoir and a bedroom decorated with panels of
mjthologie galante ; for her bathroom he painted the Toilet of
VenuSy possibly the picture now in the Metropolitan Museum in
New York (PI. 64a) ; and for her chapel he painted an Adoration
of the Shepherds}

In addition to his other work Boucher was incessantly occu-
pied all his life with the painting of pictures to be translated into
tapestry at the Gobelins and Beauvais factories of which he
became Director in 1755 on the death of Oudry with whom he
had worked for a number of years. ^

costumes for the Indes Galantes in 1743 and for other performances in 1746
and 1747. In 1752 Boucher designed for the Opera Comique which was
then a theatre erected at the Saint Laurent Fair. In 1754 he designed for a
theatre at the Saint Germain Fair. In 1764 when Servandoni left the Opera
to execute still more elaborate scenic effects at the Theatre des Tuileries, he
designed a further series of productions for the Opera. The Museum at
Amiens has one of his theatrical designs — a landscape decor.

^ As already noted (cf. p. 142), altar-pieces and decorations were painted
for churches all through the eighteenth century in spite of the religious
scepticism of the fashionable world. Boucher painted a number of religious
subjects including a Nativity also for Mme de Pompadour, which was shown
in the Salon of 1748. I have not been able to discover the present where-
abouts of this Nativity or of the Adoration of the Shepherds. The Leningrad
Hermitage has his Kest on the Flight where the sacred characters are
surrounded by lambs which seem to have escaped from one of his pastoral
decorations, and angels indistinguishable from his habitual Cupids.

2 J.-B. Oudry (1686-175 5) was an able painter who excelled at depicting
hunting scenes with dogs etc., in the Flemish tradition of Snyders which had
appeared in French eighteenth-century painting in the work of Desportes
(cf. p. 93). Louis XV was devoted to hunting, and Oudry, who designed
upholstery for furniture and a whole series of large tapestries, L.es Chasses de
'Louis XVy was his favourite painter. His genre landscape work was also
much admired by the Queen. Cf. note, p. 171.

In 1736 Oudry issued commissions for a series of exotic hunting tapestries
to be executed at Beauvais, and Boucher produced for the purpose in 1757
and 1738 the Chasse au tigre par les Turcs and Chasse au crocodile now in the
Amiens Museum where we can also see three others of the series : the

148

I'RANC^OLS BOLCIIl.R

The brilliant ]</>/>;;' of the Sun and Settw\i^ oj the Sun, wliich
Boucher himself considered his finest pictures, were intended
for CJobclins tapestries ; but the tapestries were never executed
and Mme dc Pompadour obtained the pictures for her collection.
They were painted in 1753 when he was at the height of his
powers and they were followed the next year by the four cele-
brated panels 'Yhe Visitoj\ ^enus to I ' ulcan, Cupid aCaptive (PI. 1 14a)
114a), Venus and Mars surprised by Vulcan and the judge went of
Paris which were painted for Mme de Pompadour's boudoir at
the Motel de I'Arsenal and intended for the special entertainment
of Louis XV. ^

At the apex of his career Boucher was Vrewier peintre du roi and
Director of the Academy. He had a studio in the Louvre where
he kept a collection of prints, including twenty etchings by
Rembrandt, and other collections of bronzes, porcelain, shells,
butterflies and all kinds of precious and semi-precious stones.
He was a very amiable man and very accessible and kind to
students. He was the first artist to exhibit red and black draw-
ings of heads, nudes and so forth in the Salon, and they proved so
great a success that they aroused the jealousy of the print-sellers.

In his old age he suffered from the change in public taste

Chasse a I'autruche par les Tuns by Carle van Loo, the Chasse au lion h\ de
Troy and the Chasse au lion et au tigre en Chine by Pater. These pictures
which anticipate the work of Delacroix (cf. PI. 85), were originally in
the petits appartements or cabinets at Versailles together with Lancret's
Dejeuner de jambon and the feasting pictures by de Troy. Boucher also
painted, for Beauvais tapestry, a series of Chinese subjects now preserved
in the Museum at Besan9on ; these compositions represent a Chinese
Marriage, a Chinese Dance, an audience with the Emperor of China, fishing
in China and so forth.

The colour in Boucher's pictures eventually became rather mechanical
as a result of this continual painting for tapestry. But the tapestries gained
because he tended more and more to use colours which corresponded with
the dyes.

The effect of his association with Oudry is seen in The Bath of Diana
(PI. 646) where the dogs, probably painted from a drawing supplied by that
artist, rather destroy the unity of an otherwise perfectly unified picture.

* These panels were objected to, as indecent, by Louis XVI ; after
various travels they were acquired by Lord Hertford and they now hang in
the Wallace Collection where the Rising of the Sun and the Setting of the Sun
with ten other pictures by Boucher create a gay and brilliajot pageant on the
walls of the Grand Stair.

149

FRANgOIS BOUCHER

which caused the success of Greuze^ ; and Diderot in his
accounts of the Salons attacked him in terms which would not be
tolerated in art criticism to-day.^

Boucher's production was enormous. He painted hundreds
of pictures and made over ten thousand drawings. His work is
the result of a brilliant cold intelligence which achieved a grace-
ful and consistent stylisation of the human figure considered as
a unit in a decorative design. Boucher in his finest decorations
is a master of scale ; the units wliich compose his pictures are
not only architecturally satisfactory in scale in relation to one
another but they are also satisfactory in relation to the units of
scale in rocaille architecture and furniture. His paintings must
not be judged as easel pictures ; they must be judged as part of
the ensemble of a room decorated in the Louis XV style, ^

^ Cf. pp. 168-170.

2 Of Boucher's exhibits in the Salon of 1765, when he was over sixty,
Diderot wrote : ]e ne sais que dire de cet homme-ci. L.a degradation du gout, de
la couleur, de la composition^ des caracie'res, . . . a suivi la depravation des maurs.
. . . Que peut avoir dans V imagination un horn me qui passe sa vie avec les prostituees
du plus has Stage ? . . . J'ose dire que cet homme ne sait vraiment ce que c'est que la
grace ; j'ose dire qu'iln' a Jamais connu la verite ; j'ose dire que les idees de delicatesse,
d'hometetS, d' innocence , de simplicite, lui sont devenues presque etranghes ; j'ose dire
qu'il n'a pas vu un instant la nature, du moins celle qui est faite pour interesser mon
&me, la vStre . . . Toutes ses compositions font auxjeux un tapage epouvantable : c'est
le plus mortel ennemi du silence queje connaisse. . . . Dans toute cette innombrable
famille, vous n'en trouvere^ pas un a employer aux actions reelles de la vie, a etudier
sa legon, a lire, a ecrire, a tiller du chanvre.

The words " c'est le plus mortel ennemi du silence " intended to contrast
Boucher's art with that of Chardin which, as noted, Diderot admired (cf.
p. 142), are the only words of valuable art criticism in the passage.

^ It is important to remember that pictures in Louis XV rooms were
generally hung either above the panels (which often contained mirrors) or
over the doors. This explains the vogue of Nattier's decorative portraits
and also the character of certain paintings by Fragonard (cf. note, p. 161).
When a picture by Boucher was placed on a level with the eye it never had
its own frame within the panel but filled the whole panel and was framed by
it ; if Boucher had used Watteau's scale of decorative units his paintings
would have made the rocaille motifs in the architecture and furoituxe look

150

LA POMPADOUR

viii. ha Pompadour and L^ du Barry

Mme dc Pompadour was interested in art. As Mme Lenor-
mand d'Etiollcs, before she met the King, she had her salon
where she entertained artists and men of letters ; and she was
herself an amateur artist and took lessons in drawing and
engraving from Boucher.

Her name is so much associated witli the rocaille style that it is
sometimes assumed that she was responsible for its success.
But, as I have noted, the style was already launched in the
Regency ; and by the middle of the century its flamboyant
excesses — especially as vulgarised in stage decoration — were the
object of hostile criticism among people of taste.

Mme de Pompadour, in fact, played a part in the campaign
against the excesses oi rocaille^ and her influence was used to assist
the return to the appreciation of antique art which began about
this time.^

In 1 749 she sent her brother, who was later made Marquis de
Marigny, to Italy to study classical architecture and antique
remains. IMarigny was accompanied by Nicolas Cocliin,
engraver and official designer of ceremonies and spectacles at
the French Court, who was a bitter opponent of rocaille and pub-
lished pamplilets against it ; and when Marigny returned to
Paris and became Surintendant des Bdtiments — (an office which
still represented the central official patronage of art as in the
time of Colbert) — the classical style known as " Louis XVI "
was virtually launched. Before Mme de Pompadour died in
1764 the Parisian architects were beginning to build and to make
furniture in this style, and in the fashionable world the classical
and Pompeian styles were so popular that even jewellery and

^ The fashionable world in Paris was much interested in the excavations
at Hcrculancum and Pompeii which began in 1748 and brought to light
many objects used in daily life by the " ancients " of a kind then unknown ;
and there was much discussion of various compilations relating to ancient
art produced by Mariette and de Caylus (whom we have met as Watteau's
friends) and of Winckelmann's Gedanken uber die Nachahmung der Griecheschen
Werken which was published in 1754 and translated into French, When
Winckelmann published his Geschichte dcr Kunst des Alterthums ten years
later it was also widely read in France.

LA DU BARRY

snuff-boxes and the coiffures of fashionable women were " a la
Grecque^ The craze for imitating the " ancients " which cul-
minated in the Directoire and Empire styles, thus really began in
the last quarter of the reign of Louis XV.

Mme de Pompadour's taste in pictures is revealed by her
appreciation of Boucher. She regarded the Academicians'
Grand Manner in History-painting as tiresome and expressed her
opinion to the artists themselves. But in Boucher she recognised
a real styHst ; and a mind as clear and free from scruples as her
own.

This is not the place to describe the character of this domi-
nating woman. But I must draw attention to the aspects of her
personality with which, we learn from her portraits, she desired
posterity to be acquainted.

La Tour's pastel portrait, now in the Louvre, was painted
when she was thirty-four and had already been the King's
mistress for ten years. Here she holds a sheet of music in her
hand, a viola is on a chair behind her, a portfolio of drawings is
at her feet, and on a table by her side stand Diderot's Encyclo-
paedia, Voltaire's " Henriade " and other books together with an
engraving signed Pompadour sculpsit.

Boucher's full-length portrait (PI. 65), which belongs to Baron
Maurice de Rothschild, was painted the year after. In this she
sits surrounded with objects of the finest contemporary crafts-
manship ; behind her a mirror reflects her book-case surmounted
with a clock ; her official seal lies on the table by her side ; a
portfolio and her drawing crayon are on the floor at her feet ;
she has just looked up from her book and like her pet spaniel she
has resigned herself to sit for her portrait.

It is clear that La Pompadour desired us to remember her as a
woman of parts.

Mme du 'Barry

Louis XV spent vast sums of public money on the encourage-
ment of Mme de Pompadour's culture and pleasures and on the
series of her luxurious establishments. He did the same to
support the extravagance of Mme du Barry, who had no culture
to speak of, but who was much prettier than La Pompadour as

152

Paris. DaiiU IVfi/; CulLau'r.

JEAN-HONOR £ FRAGONARD. Lcs Pins dc la Villa Pamphili (drawing).

London. Wallace C olUction

JEAN-HONOR fi FRAGONARD. La Fontaine d'Amour.

JEAN-HONORl-: FRAGONARD

can he seen from her portrait (PL 73a) by Mmc Vigcc Ic
Hruii.'

I'or Mmc du Barry tlic architect Txdoux added a pavilion in the
purest " Louis XVI " style to the Chateau de Louveciennes ;
and the finest productions of the French craftsmen found their
way to Louveciennes and the new favourite's establishments in
Faris.2

In her early days, as a shop assistant, Mme du Barry had come
into contact w^ith an artist in the person of Mile /Vdelaidc Labillc
the portrait painter. =^ She now began to acquire pictures. She
bought Van Dyck's great full-length portrait of Charles I (now
in the Louvre) which she described as 2. portrait de faniille because
some Dubarrys were related to some Stuarts. She also acquired
the celebrated Cruche cassee (now in the Louvre) by Greuze, and
a nude, which she kept curtained, by Van Poelenburg^ ; she com-
missioned Frangois-Hubert Drouais (1727-177 5), a fashionable
portrait painter and follower of Boucher, to paint overdoors at
Louveciennes and to paint her portrait ; and finally she com-
missioned a series of panels from an artist then known as " /^
petit Frago " in the world of Parisian fashion and pleasure.

ix. Jean-Hotjore Vragonard

BORN GRASSE 1 73 2. DIED PARIS 1806

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London. National Gallery The Happy Mother, 1785-1795

London. Wallace Collection The Gardens of the Villa d'Este (Le

Petit Pare), 1760
London. Wallace Collection The Souvenir (Le Chiffre d'Amour),

1762-1767

^ Cf. pp. 174-176.

2 As Lavisse puts it : " E//e aimait les meuhles en hois hlanc satine, ornes de
tableaux de porcelaine, les meuhles garnis de hrorK^e dore, les commodes plaquees en
ibene, les etageres de laque, les etoffes riches^ les bibelots tares ^ les ivoires, les biscuits
de Shres, les miniatures et les c amies. Chaque matin, a sa toilette, defilaient les
fournisseurs, des joaillers . . . les couturieres . . . des marc hands d' etoffes ^ des mar-
chands de dentelles . . . les coiffeurs . . . Elle faisait la mode d Paris et dans toute
I' Europe."

3 Cf. p. 173-

* Cf. note, p. 146.

X 153

London.

London.
London.
London.
London.

New York.

Detroit.
Paris.

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Paris.

JEAN-HONORE FRAGONARD

Wallace Collection The Fovmtain of Love (La Fontaine

d'Amour), 1 762-1 767
Wallace Collection The Swing (L'Escarpolette), 1765-1796
Wallace Collection A boy as Pierrot, 1765-1772
Wallace Collection A young scholar, 1775-1777
Wallace Collection The Schoolmistress (Dites done, s'il vous

plait), c. 1783
J. S. Bache Col- La Cascade, 1760

lection
J. S. Bache Col- L'Allee ombreuse, 1760

lection
E. R. Bacon Col- Le Serment d'Amour^, 1762-1767
lection

Le Rendez-vous (L'Escalade), 1770-

1772
La Poursuite (La Surprise), 1770- 1772

H. C. Frick Col
lection

H. C. Frick Col-
lection

Les Souvenirs (Les Confidences), 1770-
1772
H. C. Frick Col- L'Amant Couronne, 1 770-1 772

lection
H. C. Frick Col- L' Abandon, 1 770-1 772

lection
Institute of Arts
Louvre

Aurora (Decorative sketch), 175 3-1756
Le grand pretre Coresus se sacrifie pour

sauver Callirhoe. Salon 1765
Le Vceu a rAmour,^ 1762-1767
La Legon de Musique, 1768-1771
Bacchante Endormie, 177 5 -1780
La Chemise enlevee, 176 5 -1772
Baigneuses, 1765-1772
La Musique, 1769 or 1775-1779
L'Etude, 1769 or 1775-1779
Portrait de fantaisie, 1769 or 1778-1779
L'Inspiration, 1769 or 1775-1779
L'heureuse Fecondite, 1775-1780
Jacquemart Andre Le Debut du modele, 1 766-1 769

Museum
D. Weill CoUec- La lettre, 1775-1776

tion
D. Weill Collec- Taureau blanc a I'etable, 1775-1780

tion
D. Weill Collec- LTnutile resistance, 1 775-1780
tion

Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Cognac Museum

^ There is another version of this picture in the Tours Museum.
2 This is a sketch for the picture in the Orleans Museum.

154

^^^^^P^V^K -'''

.^.•^••^^^

^H^^

mm^ „

r>^^

j^^^.

^■^^^^K^ -^^1^ jd

*:., .^

^ ■

Nt-w York. Frick Collection

JEAN-HONORfi FRAGONARD. Lcs Souvenirs (Lcs Coutidtnccs).

Paris. David Weill Collection

JEAN-HONORfi FRAGONARD. Les Petards (drawing).

Paris. Louvre

JEAN-HONOR £ FRAGONARD. Baigncuscs.

FRAGONARD'S LIFE

Paris.

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Paris.

Grasse.

Amiens.
Amiens.
Bcsangon
Lille.

Leningrad.

Leningrad.
India.

D. Weill Collcc- Lc rcve du sculptcur, 1775 -1780

tion
D. Weill Collec- Lcs pins h la villa Pamphili (Drawing),

tion 1760

D. Weill Collcc- Danscdcsenfants dans lc pare (Drawing),

tion 1760-1762

D. Weill Collcc- Lcs petards (Drawing), 1765-1769

tion
D. Weill Collec- Danae (Drawing), 1762-1769

tion
D. Weill Collec- Le Maitrc de dansc or Qu'en dit I'Abbc

tion (Drawing), 1775-1780

Charley Collection Jeunc fille a la Fontaine, 1752-1756
Banquc de France La Fete de St. Cloud, 1767-1776
Wildenstein Col- Sketch for Le Verrou, 1762-1769

lection
Pillet-Will Col- La Main Chaudc, 1767-1776

lection
Pillet-Will

lection
Cathedral

Col- Lc Cheval fondu, 1767-1775

Le Sauveur lavant les pieds a ses apotres,

1755
Museum Le Berceau, 1775-1780

Museum Les Lavandieres, 1773

Museum Mme Fragonard (Drawing), c. 1790

Museum Adoration des Bergers, 175 5-1756 or

1766-1769
Hermitage The Stolen Kiss (Le Baiser a la derobee),

1762-1769
Hermitage La Famille du Fermier, 1775-1779

H. H. Gaekwar of Le Verrou, 1762- 1769
Baroda Collection

(a) Fragonard' s Life

Jean-Honore Fragonard, son of a merchant of Grasse, was
brought at the age of fifteen to Paris by his father who had
lost most of his money in bad investments. Articled to a
notary he showed no talent for law but considerable talent for
drawing, and he was taken to Boucher who recommended liim
to apprentice himself to Chardin. After a period in Chardin's
aU/kr he again showed his work to Boucher who now employed
him as an assistant. In 1752, at the age of twenty, he won the
Academy's Prix de Kome and entered the ecole des eleves proteges ;

155

FRAGONARD'S LIFE

and in 1754 and 1755, according to custom, he sent pictures to
Versailles to be inspected by the King.^

In 1756 he went, with a royal scholarship, to Rome, where
after two years in the French Academy, he met Jean-Claude de
Saint-Non, a rich Abbe who preferred the role of amateur
engraver and patron of the arts to a career in the world of politics
or the Church, and who chanced at this time to be in Rome.
Saint-Non adopted Fragonard as his protege and invited him to
the Villa d' Este, at Tivoli, which had been lent him by the
Modenas who then owned it ; at the same time he invited
Hubert Robert, another artist, who was Fragonard's friend. ^

Fragonard was Saint-Non's guest for a year or more ; and at
his expense he visited Venice, where he studied Tiepolo's works
(as Boucher had done), and Naples where he studied the decora-
tions of Solimena (165 7-1747) which were greatly admired at the
time.

In 1 76 1 he returned to Paris and he was made an Academician
and given a studio in the Louvre for L,e grand pretre Coresus se
sacrifie pour sauver Callirhoe (now in the Louvre), which was a
" picture of the year " in the Salon of 1765 and was bought by
Marigny as Stirintendant des Bdtiments for translation into tapestry
at the Gobelins. But though bought, the picture was not paid
for, and Fragonard was completely without money. He began,
therefore, to paint little pictures of sujets galants et grivois which
appealed to rich people — though the artist's friends regarded
them as lamentable " pot-boilers. "^

About this time he executed some commissions for ecclesias-
tical pictures* and others for decorations in private hotels ; and

^ Cf. note, p. 141. The 1754 picture was a subject from the story of Psyche,
the other was l^e Sauveur lavant les pieds /d ses apotres, now in the Cathedral
at Grasse. These pictures may have attracted the attention of Mme de
Pompadour (cf. note, p. 161).

2 Cf. p. 172, and PI. 73.

^ Fragonard was kept waiting eight years for payment for his Coresus.
One of his friends wrote to Marigny imploring him to make a payment on
account because owing to the delay the artist was " oblige de se livrer a des
ouvrages peu conformes a son genie" Diderot referring to Fragonard in 1769
wrote : " On pretend que I'appat du gain I' a detourne d'une belle carriere et qu'au
lieu de travailler pour la gloire et la posterity ^ il se contente de briller dans les
boudoirs et les garde-robes."

^ The Lille Museum has his Adoration des Bergers.

156

FRAGONARD'S LIFE

then good fortune again appeared in the person of the immensely
rich financier, Bergcret de Grancourt, Trcsoricr general dc la
general ite de Montauhan, collector and amateur artist, who
became his friend and protector. The next step was the decora-
tion of apartments in the luxurious hotels of fashionable kept
women, and Fragonard now became a well-known figure in a
world of fantastic pleasure and extravagance, 'xn<\ persona Q/-ata
with the most celebrated of these women — the dancer La
Cjuimard.'

Meanwhile the family Gerard, unsuccessful perfumers of
Grasse, who had some connection with his own family, had sent
him as a pupil Marie-Anne Gerard, aged seventeen, who showed
talent for miniature painting — just as the Pater family of Valen-
ciennes had sent Pater to Watteau ; and in 1769 when he was
thirty-eight he found himself hesitating between marriage with
Marie-Anne Gerard and the continuation of a life where he would
pass as amant de cccur from one kept woman to another He
chose respectability and a quiet life ; and he married Mile Gerard
in that year.

Thus protected he accepted and executed two important
commissions in the next three years. The first was a series
of panels for La Guimard, with whom he quarrelled before
the work was completed. The second was a series of panels
in the Pavilion de Louveciennes commissioned by Mme du

* Of La Guimard, Portalis (cf. note, p. 1 5 9) writes : " £//^ avait trots soupers
dlffcrents par semaine, I'un compose des premiers seigneurs de la cour, V autre d'auteurs
et d' artistes, ' qui viennent aviuser cette Muse ' . . . Au troisieme, veritable orgte,
etaient invitees les filles les plus seduisantes, les plus lascives . . . h.es parades
de son thiatre de Pantin, celebres par leur grivoiserie, n' etaient pas moins suivies.
Les plus jolies filles de Paris y venaient avec les adorateurs, et si une honnite Jemme
s'yglissait par curio site, ce n'etait qu'en loge grillee.

La Guimard was a light and agile dancer but in figure too thin for the
taste of the time. " 11 ne lui manque^'' it was said, " que des graces plus arrondies
dans certaines parties — de son role.'"'' When Fragonard met her she was the
mistress of the Prince de Soubise, who employed the architect Ledoux (who
was about to build the Pavilion de Louveciennes for Mme du Barry) to build
her a hotel in Paris. Later when La Guimard's fortunes waned she organised
a public lottery for the hotel and all the objects of luxury (including the
paintings by Fragonard and Louis David, cf. p. 158) which it contained.
Though many people doubtless bought large numbers of tickets the winner
was a lady of fashion who had bought only one.

157

FRAGONARD'S LIFE

Barry who refused to hang them when they were com-
pleted.^

In 1773 Fragonard and his wife were taken by Bergeret de
Grancourt on a tour in Italy, Austria and Germany. The
journey lasted about nine months and Fragonard was back in
Paris at the end of the following year.^

His establishment in the Louvre now consisted of himself,
his wife, a daughter of four, and his wife's sister Marguerite
Gerard, aged thirteen, who had come from Grasse soon after
his marriage. A son was born in 1780. In the period between
1774 and the Revolution he used his own family as models for
genre pictures, and he developed an amitie amoureuse with Mar-
guerite Gerard when she grew up and became successively his
pupil, his assistant, and a genre artist winning successes of her
own. After 1767 Fragonard made no attempt to secure official
patronage or the applause of the general public by exliibiting
in the Salons. He exhibited his work in his own studio where he
sold from the easel. He was thus the first eighteenth-century
painter who defied the Academicians.^

When Fragonard quarrelled with La Guimard and left his
panels unfinished an ambitious young artist, Louis David,
asked and obtained his permission to complete them. This
gesture on the part of Fragonard stood him in good stead when
the Revolution arrived ; for David, then art-dictator, protected

1 For this refusal cf. p. 162. Mme du Barry hung in their place a series of
panels by Vien (cf. note, p. 181 and p. 183).

2 The company travelled in two coaches. The first contained Bergeret
and a mysterious lady (said to be Mme Bergeret's /^^//;/? de chamhre whom
he married after Mme Bergeret's death) and Fragonard with his wife ; the
second contained Bergeret's son and a chef ; Bergeret's valet and his son's
man travelled ahead as couriers.

Bergeret kept a diary of this tour which is most entertaining. Extracts
are given by Portalis (cf. note, p. 159) and also in Fragonard, by Virgile Josz.
At the end of the journey there was friction between Fragonard and his
host and when they returned to Paris Fragonard brought an action against
him to obtain possession of a number of drawings which Bergeret had
retained. Bergeret lost the action and crossed out of his diary all flattering
references to Fragonard whom he now described as a poltroon. Later the
two men were again on terms of friendship.

^ Greuze who abstained from the Academy after 1769 was the second,
(cf. p. 170).

158

1^)

Paris. Da ;

JEAN-HONOR £ FRAGONARD. La Lcttrc.

Paris. David Weill Collalwn

JEAN-HONOR fi FRAGONARD. La Resistance Inutile.

London. Wallace Collection

JEAN-HONOR fi FRAGONARD. The Schoolmistress.

FRAGONARD'S CEUVKE

him. Thanks to David he was allowed to retain his studio in
the Louvre and he was appointed President du Conservatoire of the
Museum national des arts which tlic Revolutionary Government
had established.^

He had made a good deal of money by his pictures. But
when the rentes stir I'Htat were reduced his income became
almost nothing, and though he made efforts to paint pictures
in the prevailing spirit he was too old to secure success in a
new field.

In 1806 Napoleon suppressed all the artists' lodgings in the
Louvre ; and Fragonard had to leave the studio which he had
occupied for forty years and move his family and property
elsewhere. He was then seventy-four. He died the same
year of cerebral congestion after eating an ice in a cafe when
he was hot from a long walk.

{b) ^¥ragonard's CEttvre ^

Fragonard before his first journey to Italy was an imitator
of Boucher. In Italy, as Saint-Non's guest, he drew monu-
ments and ruins, and the gardens of the Italian villas, and he

^ David recommended him in a report which said : " Fragonard a pour
lui de nomhreaux ouvrages ; chaleur et originalite, c'est ce qui le caracterise ; a la
fois cotwaisseur et grand artiste^ it consacrera ses vieux ans a la garde des chefs
d'auvre dont il a concouru dans sajeunesse a augmenter le nombre " (cf. p. 183).

2 The recorded works of Fragonard consist of about five hundred
paintings, a thousand drawings, and some miniatures, illustrations and
etchings. It is difficult, if not indeed impossible, to ascertain the present
whereabouts of many of these pictures and a certain number have com-
pletely disappeared. The dates of a few works are fixed ; the exact chron-
ology of the others is a matter of conjecture.

The de Goncourts produced the first modern account of his work in 1865.
The Baron de Portalis published his splendid Fragonard, sa vie et son auvre
with a detailed catalogue in 1889; but there are very few dates in his
catalogue and many of the pictures have changed hands since his time. I
am not acquainted with any later book which gives a list of the present
whereabouts of all the existing pictures with a reasoned chronology ; dc
Nolhac's " Fragonard " merely gives a list of pictures which have changed
hands at sales and suggests no reasoned detailed chronology.

My list of Characteristic Pictures above gives the present whereabouts
of some fifty pictures ; the dates represent my conception of the artist's
development as submitted in the text.

FRAGONARD'S (EUVRE

painted a few pictures of similar subjects. The style of his work
at this period shows the influence of Claude, as can be seen in
the delicately formalised drawing Les Phis a la Villa Pamphili
(PI. 67) which is now in M. David Weill's collection.^

In Paris between 1762 and 1769 he produced a series of
pictures that can be grouped round the Academy success of
1765 , L^ grand pre tre Coresus se sacrifie pour sauver Callirhoe. The
drawing in the Coresus is rather simple and severe with few of
the impetuous curves which characterise his later drawing. We
find the relatively severe drawing in all the pictures that I group
round the Coresus. We also find, in all of them, the use of the
same models and the same studio properties.

For the Coresus the models used were a tall blonde girl and a
rather short young man with curly hair f and it is clear that the
studio at this time contained a wreath of artificial flowers which
appears on the heads of all the principal figures.

The girl model appears in the Wallace Collection he Souvenir
(a picture which suggests that Fragonard was acquainted with
engravings after Reynolds), and both models appear in L,e Baiser
a la derobee (PL IV) known as The Stolen Kiss (now in the Hermi-
tage, Leningrad) ; in Le Verrou (now in the collection of H.H.
the Gaekwar of Baroda), and the sketch for it in the Wildenstein
Collection in Paris ; in the Wallace Collection I^a Fontaine
d' Amour (PI. 68) where the figures wear the Coresus wreath ; in
two of the Frick Collection panels painted for Mme du Barry,
U Abandon and Tes Souvenirs (PI. 69) ; and in he Contrat which
was a pendant to he Verrou.^

In addition to the Coresus wreath the studio properties at this
time included a little round table (which is seen in he Baiser a la
derobee and was converted into the altar in the Coresus^ and a
white satin dress which the model wears in he Baiser a la derobee
(PI. IV), he Verrou, he Contrat, h' Abandon and hes Souvenirs
(PI. 69). A home-made shot-silk mantle is worn over the

^ 'Le petit pare in the Wallace Collection is an example of Fragonard's
painting at this period. Two pictures in the Bache Collection in New
York, mentioned in my list, are others.

2 Fragonard himself was under the average in height. The male figures
in his pictures tend to be short.

^ Le Contrat was engraved by Blot. In 1905 it was in the Marquis de
Hautpoul's collection.

160

FRAGONARD'S GlUlliE

dress in Le Ih/ser d la (Urohee ; this was taken off the dress
and used as the young man's dressing-gown in \^e Conirat,
which was evidently painted a little later because the dress
has been renovated by the addition above the tight sleeves
of a puffed over-slecve and the insertion of a new frilled
modes tie}

The impetuous note in Fragonard's drawing begins to be
apparent in the sketcih for Le Verrou and it is still more clearly
seen in the group of works that come next. In these we see
another model, a petite brunette who posed for the delightfully
lively figures in iM. David Weill's drawing hes Petards (PL 70a) —
which represents young girls terrified by fireworks let off by a
boy through a skylight in their bedroom — and for the paintings
ha Chemise enlevee and hes Baigneuses (PI. yob) in the Louvre. ^

In Les Petards (PI. 70a) we observe much the same attitudes as
in Les Baig/jeusesj(]?\. 70b), and in Les Petards there is a remarkable
dog which was about the studio at this time. This dog appears in
the Lefon de Ahisiqae in the Louvre where the seventeen year old
Marie-Anne Gerard lately arrived from Grasse is trying to play
the piano ; it may have belonged to La Guimard as it figures
again in a full-length portrait of the dancer, where the artist,
working in his old Boucher manner, has painted a Boucher
Cupid aiming an arrow at the lady's foot.^

\\"e find a return to Boucher (who began we must not forget
as an engraver of W'atteau) in the famous decorative panel Les
hazards heuretix de I'escarpolette {The Saving) now in the Wallace
Collection, and in the five Frick Collection panels painted for

' Other pictures which belong to the Con'siis group are l^e Van a I' Amour
in Orleans, for which there is a delightful sketch in the Louvre, L^ Serwent
d' Amour in the Bacon Collection in New York, and L^ reve du sculpteur,
in the collection of M. David Weill, a picture said to have been painted
for Mme de Pompadour and therefore produced before 1764.

2 L.a chemise enlevee is a sketch for an easel picture. It is in typically bad
Louvre condition but it is still possible to see that it was painted with great
delicacy of handling and colour, l^es Ba/gneuses on the other hand, which
is coarse both in handling and colour, was certainly an overdoor panel and
intended to be seen at a distance. The four pictures La Musiquey L'E/ude,
Portrait de fantaisie and L' Inspiration (two of which bear the date 1769
written on the back) are similarly coarse in handling and also overdoors.

^ This picture is reproduced in de Nolhac's " Fragonard." I do not know
its present whereabouts.

Y 161

FRAGONARD'S CBUVKE

Mme du Barry. The six pictures form a group in themselves
dating from 1765 to 1772. I

The subject of the du Barry series is known to have been Le
progres de I' amour dans le cccur des jeunes filles. The traditional order
of the panels is : (i) La Poursmte, also known as La Surprise, I
(2) Le Kendeq^-vous, also known as U Escalade, (3) Les Souvenirs, •
also known as Les Confidences (PI. 69), (4) L'Amant Couronne, \
(5) U Abandon.

The reason that these pictures were rejected remains obscure. \
It has been suggested that the faces in Le Kende^-vous resembled
Mme du Barry and Louis XV and that this offended the King, i
But there was, I think, another reason. I believe that Mme du i
Barry or the King saw an offensive double meaning in one of the
pictures and rejected the whole series without giving an
explanation.^

1 believe that the correct order for the pictures is : (i)
L' Abandon which should be called Le Desir,'^ (2) Les Souvenirs \
which should be Les Confidences (PI. 69), (3) La Poursuite, (4) Le '
Kende^-vous which should be L' Escalade, (5) UAmant Couronne. |
Thus arranged we get a continuous design illustrating a \
story ; and the last picture L'Amant Couronne, where the young
couple are posing to the artist, is the calling in of Fragonard to
record the " happily ever after " ending. ^

^ Fragonard himself was doubtless unconscious of the objectionable
effect in this picture which is caused by a shadow that does not appear in ;
the original drawing in the Groult Collection. The subjects of many of
Fragonard's drawings and paintings are grivois in a light way, but I am not
acquainted with any deliberate pornography from his hand. Pornographic
double entente appears however with obviously deliberate intent in some
pictures by Boilly. (Cf. p 167.) i

2 For why should Fragonard paint Mme du Barry as deserted by the King !
— at the very moment of her triumph ? !

^ In his studio, however, Fragonard actually began, I think, with 'Le Dhir
(L.' Abandon), Les Confidences {Les Souvenirs) and L'Amant Couronne, because ]
the tall blonde still appears in all three pictures wearing her satin dress of
which the sleeves have not yet been altered. In these pictures moreover i
we see the old studio property, the Coresus wreath, and the lute, the music
book and the boy's suit and ruffle of the Louvre Legon de Musique. L' Abandon
is not a finished picture but a sketch in monochrome with touches of red.
This does not mean, however, that is was necessarily the last from the illus-
trative standpoint or the last to be produced.

162

FRAGONARD'S (EUVRB

On his Italian journey with Bergcrct in 1773 Fragonard made
a great many drawings mostly of Ba/z/hochade character ;* he
probably painted few if any pictures. But I.es I^vanclieres
in the Amiens Museum I take to be a sketch done in three-
quarters of an hour on tliis Italian tour.

Fragonard's work of 1775-1779 after his return from the
tour shows the influence of his study of Rembrandt in the
German and Austrian collections which he visited with Bergeret.
lie was already acquainted with Dutch pictures which he could
have seen in many collections in Paris, but till then he had been
mainly influenced by Terborch (as in L.e Baiser a la derobee (PL
IV), and still more in he Contrat) and by Frans Hals as in the
four ovcrdoors in the Louvre ;- and the spot-light effect derived
from Rembrandt had already appeared in the sketch for 1^
T ^erron and other works ; but at this period the Rembrandt
influence is so strong that Portalis has assumed that he visited
Holland.3

This Rembrandtesque manner is seen in L^ lettre (PL 71) and
1m resistance inutile (PL 72a) both now in M. David Weill's
collection, and also in genre pictures like 1m, jamille du fermier
in the Leningrad Hermitage and the Taureau hlanc a I'etable
belonging to M. David W eill.^

For the remainder of liis career Fragonard painted genre
pictures of domestic and rustic subjects, making free use of the
Bawbochade drawings which he had made on the Bergeret tour.
The Schoolmistress {Dites donc^ s'ilvousplatt) (PL 72b) in the Wallace

In UEscalade and La Poursuite the model would seem to be Mme Fra-
gonard wearing the satin gown, with the new puffed sleeves of Le Contrat
and the old tight undersleeves now cut completely away, as she also wore it
when posing for Lm. Lefon de Musique.

All this of course is speculative as Fragonard like Watteau painted mainly
from drawings which he might use after the model who sat for the drawing
was no longer available. But he also sometimes painted direct from nature ;
1m Lefon de Musique for example was obviously painted in this way ; Les
Petards (PI. 70a) and L.es Baigueuses (PL 70b) on the other hand both contain
a figure copied from the same study.

^ Cf. note, p. 86. ' Cf. note, p. 150.

' Portalis records a drawing by Fragonard of Rembrandt's Night Watch
and another of a Dutch mill.

* ha fete du St. Cloud in the Banque de France, and the sketches for parts
of it in two private collections, also belong to this period.

165

TABLEAUX DE MODES ;

I
Collection where we see Mme Fragonard and his son, aged ]

about three, as models, is a pleasant example of his domestic '

subjects. j

Fragonard was an artist with great gifts ; and his gaiety is i
irresistible. The verve, the spontaneity, the wit and the delicacy i
in drawings of the character of Les Petards were something new
in art and in these qualities he has never been surpassed. His
more impetuous oil paintings also make a great appeal to those i
who enjoy facility and virtuosity of touch. But compared with
Boucher, he was not a decorator ; and compared with Watteau j
he had no microcosmic aim. He was a painter of easel pictures I
who began as a lyric poet, who developed into the ancestor of \
ha Vie Parisienne draughtsmen and ended as a painter of genre, j

We must recognise that Diderot's criticism at a crucial point
of his career was to some extent justified. There can be no
doubt that Fragonard took the line of least resistance. In lua
Fontaine d' Amour (PI. 68), which was painted, I am convinced, j
before the Coresus, there is an abstract lyrical quality in the j
movement from which those of us who saw Pavlova and
ISlordkin's first entrance in their Bacchanalian dance recapture I
the same thrill. The lyrical movement that blows across L,a
Fontaine d' Amour occurs again in the Louvre sketch for Fe Van
a I' Amour ; and it is present in a slower tempo in Fe Baiser a la \
derobee (PI. IV). But already in the sketch for Fe Verrou the :
movement has become rubato ; when we get to Fes Petards (PI.
70a) and Fes Baigneuses (PI. 70b) the lyrical quality has
disappeared. i

Fragonard's spirit when he drew Fes Pins a la Villa Pamphili
(PI. 67) was still modest ; it had idealism when he painted Fa ,
Fontaine d' Amour : it became irresponsible when he frequented j
La Guimard and the gay world ; and it became bourgeois when j
he married.

In a word he lacked personality. He had sensibility, but not i
much intellect, and hardly any will. !

1
X. Tableaux de Modes \

The eighteenth century in France was marked by the preva- !
lence of engravings known as gravures de modes which represented '

164 I

TABT.FAUX DI-: MODES

fashionable costumes worn by figures placed in appropriate
surroundings. Engravings of this kind had been produced all
over l-'uropc in the seventeenth century and Jacques Caliot and
Abraham Bosse, already mentioned, were among the French
exponents.^

The tradition was continued by W'atteau who drew a number
of fashion plates which were engraved in the Keatcil jullienm^
and it culminated in Lf Monument du Costume, delightful plates
announced as a " Suite d'Estampes, pour servir a I'historie des
maurs et due costume des Francois dans le dixhuitieme siecle " which
perfectly fulfilled the advertisement.'

These engravings, and the dainty and entertaining estampes
^a/antes which sublimate the easy morals of French social life of
the period, are outside my subject. But I must mention the
names of the engravers Nicolas Delaunay (i 739-1 792), Robert
Delaunay (1749-1814), Pierre-Philippe Choffard (1730-1809),
Jean-Baptiste Simonet (1742-18 10), Frangois Dequevauviller
(1745-1807) and the colour printers, J. F. Janinet (1752-1814),
who invented an unsuccessful hot-air balloon, C.-M. Descourtis
(1753-1826), and P.-L. Debucourt (175 5-1832) who made the
brilliant drawings for many of his prints, and retired to the
country- in the Revolution and bred rabbits.

Exquisite gouache drawings and water-colours were made for
these engravings and colour prints by Moreau le Jeunc (1741-
18 14), who designed the most spirited of the plates for L^
Monument du Costume, Pierre-Antoine Baudouin (1723-1769),
Augustin dc Saint- Aubin (173 7-1 807), Gabriel de Saint- Aubin
(1724-1780), Nicholas Lavreince (1737-1807), and S. Swebach-
Desfontaines who drew Lm Cafe des Patriotes where the Jacobins
used to congregate in the Revolution.

Paintings of the character of the gravures de modes had been a
feature of Dutch seventeenth-century production, and Terborch
and Metsu had achieved popular success with their illusionist
texture painting of satin skirts and fur-trimmed jackets which
they painted on lay figures.* When Chardin's paintings of

1 Cf. pp. 47 and 85. " Cf. note, p. 108.

' I^ Monument de Costume was published in instalments between 1774 and
1785.

* Cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art, pp. 236-246.

165

LOUIS-LEOPOLD BOILLY

domestic subjects appeared they were ranked by the dilettanti as
the continuation of this tradition, and some of the early pictures
by Fragonard were regarded in the same way.^

In the Dutch tableaux de modes there was hardly any action.
But the French artists soon began to give their pictures of this
kind the additional interest of movement and incident and their
tableaux de modes eventually developed into records of contem-
porary life and manners as spirited and full of incident as the
engravings.

The last artist, whose name is associated with this school is
Louis-Leopold Boilly : he was essentially an oil painter —
though he occasionally drew for the engravers, and his work
and career, both highly significant of the period, must be
separately considered.

xi. houis-LiCopold Boilly

BORN LA BASSEE 1 76 1. DIED PARIS 1 84 5 '

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES '

The Dead Mouse

The visit returned, 1789

The Sorrows of Love, 1790

Reunion d'artistes dans I'atelier d'lsabcy,

1798
L'Arrivee de la Diligence, 1803
Les Amateurs d'Estampes
L' Averse
Seven portraits
La Partie de Dames au cafe Lamblin,

r. 1820
Lucile Desmoulins

L' Enfant au fard • '

La Jeune mere degue (

La Moquerie
La Mere en courrace
L'Innocent
La Serinette
Les Saltimbanques |

^ The influence of Terborch appears, as already noted, in Fragonard's
Ee Baiser a la derobee (PI. IV) and in Ee Contrat. In Ee Contrat moreover
the lady has dropped on to the sofa a coat trimmed with white fur of the
type which occurs in Metsu's pictures.

166

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

London.

Wallace Collection

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Musee Cognacq

Paris.

Musee Cognacq

Paris.

Musee Cognacq

Paris.

Musee Cognacq

Paris.

Musee Cognacq

Paris.

Musee Cognacq

Paris.

Musee Cognacq

Paris.

Musee Cognacq

Paris.

Musce Carnavalet

Paris.

Muscc des Arts

decoratifs

R(H1CI1.

Museum

Lille.

Museum

Lille.

Museum

LOUIS-LiiOPOLD BOILLY

Depart des concrits en 1807
L' Atelier de Houdon

Portrait of Boieldicu
Marat portd en triomphc
Studies tor L' Atelier d'Isabey

Boilly, son of an ornamental sculptor of La Bassee, earned
his living from eighteen to twenty-three by painting portraits in
the provinces ; he is said to have produced three hundred in
Arras alone. Arriving in Paris in 1784 he painted tableaux de
modes which were generally risques, and sometimes indecent by
reason of a double entente. In the Terror he was denounced as
an indecent painter of the old regime and he escaped the guillo-
tine by beginning Marat porte en triomphe (now at Lille) before
the inquisitors arrived at his studio. Having weathered the
storm he became a recorder of social life under the Directorate,
the Consulate, the Empire and the Restoration, and he also
continued to paint portraits and from time to time tableaux de
r/jodes more or less in his old manner.

Boilly 's social pictures are the forerunners of the journalistic
descriptive paintings of the nineteenth century. In h! Arrive e de
la diligence (PI. 74b), painted in 1803, now in the Louvre, we see
a young wife embracing her husband, who has just arrived by
the diligence; a nursemaid holds one of the lady's children
in her arms and blows the nose of another ; in other pictures
we see old cronies playing chess in a cafe and people caught in
a rainstorm in the streets of Paris ;^ and hes Saltimbanques in the
Musee Cognacq shows us open-air acrobats and the crowd
watching them — a picture in the old tradition of The Quack
Doctor started in Holland by Bamboche^ and carried on by Jan
Steen and others.^

We see, in fact, the influence of the Dutch seventeeth-century
pictures in all Boilly's work ; and he revived the Dutch tradition
of portrait groups of men united by occupation or office, which

^ This picture, which was acquired by the Louvre a few years ago, makes
an interesting contrast with Lw Parapluies (in the National Gallery, Millbank)
by Renoir.

2 Cf. note, p. 86.

3 Cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art, pp. 174 and 175 and Pis. 70 and 97.

167

JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE

had already appeared in French art in the work of Largilliere.^
His Atelier d'Isabej in the Louvre, which was painted in 1798,
is a briUiant piece of collective portraiture and a most interesting
record of the continuation of the artists' life in their Louvre
quarters all through the Revolution.^

Boilly gave his paintings the remarkably smooth poHshed
finish which we associate with some of the Dutch pictures and
which we encounter again in certain pictures by Ingres. He
is said to have invented some optical device to assist him in
representational imitation. It was possibly some instrument
of the kind used by the Dutch painter Gerard Dou^ or some
contrivance of the camera oscura variety of the kind used in the
eighteenth century by Canaletto.

As he always delineated costume with great accuracy, and
worked over a period when it changed several times, his pictures
have considerable value from that point of view.

xij. Jean-Baptiste Greu^e (172 5 -180 5)

In the second half of the century there was a reaction in
certain sections against the estampes galantes and the tableaux de
modes and it became fashionable to adopt Diderot's attitude
and ask a picture to tell a moral tale. The " simple life " ideas
of Jean-Jacques Rousseau were also fashionable, and genre
pictures showing the presumed domestic happiness of peasants
in rustic interiors were much admired.*

Fragonard in his later genre pictures was thus working to
achieve contact with a growing taste, but as he did not exhibit his
genre paintings in the Salons he never experienced the popular
success which Greuze achieved with his L'Accordee de Village
in the Salon of 176 1.

Greuze was the son of a builder of Tournes, near Macon, and

^ Cf. note, p. 96.

2 In another group L,' Atelier de Houdon (in the Musee des Arts decoratifs)
we see the sculptor at work on a portrait bust with the sitter on the throne
and the sitter's wife and daughters watching ; Houdon's famous statue of
Voltaire (now in the Musee Fabre at Montpellier) is at the back of the studio.

^ Cf. my Introduction to Dutch Art, p. 280.

* Boucher's rustic interiors had been in the spirit of the estampe
gal ante. (Cf. p. 147.)

168

ChUago. .in hislilKl:

HUBERT ROBHRT. Lcs Fontaines.

Jl'AN-BAl^'llSTl' (,R1,U/I'

he was apprenticed to a painter of J.yons who brought liim to
Paris ; he remained obscure till at the age of thirty, in i755> '^^
submitted a u;enre picture to the Academicians and was aoree 3.nd
allowed to exhibit Lhi pcre cie famille qui lit la Wible a ses enfant s in
the Salon, He was taken to Italy by one of the dilettante Abbes
of the time, and there he met and fell in love with a youni^ Italian
Countess to whom he was giving lessons in drawing. Marriage
being out of the question he returned to Rome in sentimental
mood and fell a victim to a bookseller's daughter whom he
married in 1769. Mme Greuze, he soon discovered, was a
shrew ; she was also, as he discovered later, a harlot ; but she
was pretty^ as we know from a long series of pictures.

L'Accordee de Village, now in the Louvre, was unfinished when
the Salon of 1761 opened and it arrived six days before the
exhibition closed. For these six days — as the de Goncourts put
it, '^ c'etait wie acclamation, une emeute d'enthousiasme, un prodigieux
succes." The picture represents an old peasant handing a
money bag to a young man whom he has just accepted as the
betrothed of his daughter who is seen with her mother and
various sisters on the other side of the peasant interior. The
picture, in character, is a scene in a third-rate melodrama ; but
its false sentiment was well calculated to appeal to the Salon
public at the time.^

In the same Salon Greuze exhibited Alwe Greu-:(e envestale ; and
his genre pictures in the next few Salons were accompanied by
examples of those " fancy " heads and figures of young girls
with which his name is most widely associated. The London
Wallace Collection has a number of well-known examples of
this aspect of his work, of wliich La Priere du Matin in the
Musee Fabre, at Montpellier, is also characteristic.

In 1767 the Academicians, jealous of his success, refused to
allow him to exhibit as he had not yet painted his tableau de
reception^ He therefore painted an agreed subject : " UEwpereur
Severe reproche d Caracalla, son fils, d' avoir voulu I'assassiner dans les

^ And to Diderot who hailed Greuze as the tultilment of his own art
principles (cf. p. 144). " C'esi vraiment la," he wrote, '* ftion homr/ie que Gretcie
. . . c'est la peinturc morale. Quoi done I le pinceau u'a-t-il pas v/e asse^ et trop long-
temps consacre a la debauche et au vice ? . . . Courage, tnon ami Greic:ie, fais de la
peinture morale etfais-en toujours corn me ccla. ..." * Ct. note, p. 105 .

Z 169

JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE

defiles d'Ecosse^ et lui dit : * Si tu desires ma mort, ordonne a Vapinien
de ??ie la donner avec cette epee.'' "^ The Academicians then elected
him — but in the inferior category of peintre de genre, which
excluded him from the higher offices in the Academy.^ This
so incensed him that he abstained from exhibiting at the Salons
and organised exhibitions in his own studio which Marigny had
granted him in the Louvre. ^

Greuze made a great deal of money out of the sale of his
pictures and engravings from them.* But his capital, like
Fragonard's, disappeared in the Revolution ; and he had not
Fragonard's advantage of David's protection. In 1 8oi we find
him writing to the Minister of the Interior : "/W tout perdu, or
le talent et le courage. J'ai soixante quin-:(e ans, pas un seul ouvrage de
cofnmandey In the hope of scoring a popular success he now
broke his resolution and began to send pictures again to the
Salons ; but the triumph of UAccordee de Village was not
repeated ; and he was almost destitute when he died in 1805.

Greuze was a detestable artist. He was coarse and stupid in
his genre subject-pictures in which he never approached the
contact with real simplicities that we find in the works of Louis
Le Nain and Chardin ; and in his " fancy " heads and figures he
was lecherous.^

^ The picture is now in the Louvre.

2 Cf. p. 141.

^ In this, cf. p. 158, he was following the example of Fragonard who was
among his friends. The Salon public flocked to Greuze's studio exhibitions
where many of his best-known pictures, including La Cruche casse'e, were
first shown. La Cruche cassee, bought by Mme du Barry, as noted, passed
to the Louvre when Mme du Barry's property at Louveciennes was national-
ised in the Revolution.

Greu2e believed in keeping his name before the public ; he wrote letters
to the newspapers explaining " how the idea came to him " for a subject
picture or protesting against unfavourable references to his pictures.

* The engravings had an enormous sale ; they hung in countless bourgeois
homes and even collectors oi estampes galantes 2ind gravures de modes competed
to secure them. For Greuze's Portrait of Napoleon^ cf. note, p. 190.

^ I have described some of Fragonard's drawings as ancestors of the
drawings in L,a Vie Parisienne. Greuze was the ancestor of the " pretty
girls' heads " on the covers of popular magazines. But Fragonard at his
worst was better than the best of his imitators ; Greuze at his best was
worse than the worst of his.

170

laGIITRF.NTI I-CF,NTURY LANDSCAPE

xiij. French Yi'ightcenth-century landscape

French landscape painting under the old regime showed few
signs of the collapse into the imitative naturalism of the Dutch
tradition that was to appear in the nineteenth century. The
artists held fast to the picturesque-classical traditi<;n in landscape
and they reinforced the mechanical vision of their eyes to
architectural perception.^

Boucher's landscapes and landscape settings in his composi-
tions were organised with the same cold intellectual clarity that
we find in his other work. There is no haphazard imitation of
casual appearance in l^e Moulin in the Louvre or h.e Moulin de
Charenton at Orleans ; all the units in these pictures are con-
sistently formaHsed and architecturally disposed.

W'atteau, after his first genre period, gave style to his land-
scapes by studying Venetian drawings, and in a picture like the
Wallace Collection Amusements Champetres (PI. 48) he contri-
buted a new space-concept of his own. Fragonard, who started
in the Claude tradition (PL 67), also made a contribution in his
massing of verdure in the Louveciennes panels (PI. 69) and in
]_M Voire de St. Cloud in the Banque de France.-

Apart from these artists who used landscape to some extent
incidentally, there were others, especially in the second half of
the century, who speciahsed in this field. Of these the outstand-
ing names are Joseph Vernet, Louis-Gabriel Moreau and
Hubert Robert.

Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) was sent to Italy by a patron at
the age of nineteen, and he developed there as a painter of

^ I have discussed the fundamental difference between mechanical vision
and perception in The Modern Movement in Art, pp. 17-23 and 76-118.

2 The nineteenth-centur}' collapse was, however, heralded by Oudry
in La 'Per me (painted in 175 1 and now in the Louvre). This picture which
represents a farmhouse and farmyard with animals treated purely as genre
was accurately described in the old Royal inventory as " un tableau dans le
genre flamand." Oudry, as noted (cf. note, p. 148), was definitely a naturalist
of the Low-Country school ; in his animal painting he followed Snyders
and Desportcs and anticipated Courbet.

Louis XV's Queen, Marie Leczinska, who, like Mme de Pompadour,
was an amateur artist, made a copy of l^a Ferme which can be seen to this
day at Versailles.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LANDSCAPE

decorative landscapes and marines in the manner of Claude. He
was recalled to Paris by Mme de Pompadour in 1745 and Marigny !
commissioned him to paint a series of views of French ports.
Fifteen of these views, which exhibit a fine decorative serenity,
can be seen in the Louvre.^

Louis-Gabriel Moreau (1740-1806), known as Moreau I'Aine,
to distinguish him from his brother of Monuwent dn Costume
fame,2 specialised in views in the regions round Paris. His
admirable Vm des coteaux de Bellevue in the Louvre, where little
figures in the foreground give the sense of scale to majestic
trees, is characteristic of the small number of his pictures that
survive.

Hubert Robert (173 3-1 808) was taken at the age of twenty-one ■
to Italy by the French Ambassador. He worked in the French i
Academy in Rome and under Claude's follower Panini. He
became a friend of Fragonard and with him, as noted, a protege
of the Abbe Saint-Non. He painted decorative pictures of
Roman ruins with genre figures of lavandieres and so forth in the
Bamboche-Claude tradition ; and he sometimes recorded actual
scenes in a decorative way. J

When he returned to France he received numerous commis-
sions from owners of Louis XVI rooms with wliich his pictures
admirably accorded. His work also appealed to the Russians
of the Court of Catherine the Great and scores of his pictures
can be seen to this day in Catherine's palace, known as Tsarskoe
Selo, and in the mansions formerly owned by Russian nobles.^

In 1792 he was arrested as a suspect but he managed to escape \
the guillotine and to secure a post with his old friend Fragonard '
on the staff of the Museum. i

Hubert Robert exhibited immense fertility in decorative com-
position. His output was very large but he never repeated !

^ Vernet's Italian pictures, in which he often anticipated Romantic
landscape by suggesting drama and mood, were bought by rich men as '
decorative panels for Louis XVI rooms. The Louvre has several examples I
which entered the museum as nationalised treasures when the owners
emigrated during the Revolution. (Cf. p. 180.)

2Cf. p. 165. .:

^ Cf. Sir Martin Conway's Art Treasures in Soviet Russia, a book which '
serves to remind us of the extent of the export of French art of all kinds
under the old regime. (Cf. pp. 126 and 189.)

^^^f^•.s \i(;i;i. i.i, hRiiM and i..\hii.i.i.-(;U^'ari)

himself. He had ii Hght touch and his |:)icturcs arc agreeable in
colour. I reproduce Les I'otitaines (PI. 73), now in the Art
histitute of Chicago.

xiv. M///CS I Igec-l^e Br/m atid iMbillc-Guyard

\\\ the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries both in Holland
and in France there were many women painters who imitated
the various pictorial tendencies of their day ; and just before the
Revolution there were two women painters, Mme Labillc-
Guyard and Mme Vigee-Le Brun, who had rival reputations as
portrait painters in Paris. ^

Mme Adelaide Labille-Guyard (i 749-1 803) was the daughter
of a Parisian shopkeeper who supphed " dentelles^ rubans et jolies
fatif re Inches " to the Court ; and in her youth she formed a
friendship with Mme du Barry who was then an assistant in the
shop. She studied painting under F. A. Vincent (1746-18 16)
who painted the portrait of Fragonard's friend Bergeret which
is now in the Museum at Besan^on. She married one Nicolas
Guyard, divorced him, and then married Vincent.

Clever and ambitious, she made friends with many of the

' In the field of portraiture they had to compete with H.-P. Danloux
(175 3-1 809) whose excellent Lo/a's- Henry- Joseph de Bourbon at Chantilly was
painted in England (whither Danloux fled from the Revolution) and shows
the influence of Reynolds and Lawrence ; Joseph Boze (1744-1826), painter
of the celebrated full length of Mirabeau making his defiant reply to
Dreux-Breze (now in the Carnavalet Museum in Paris), who worked
all through the Revolution and also painted portraits of Napoleon and
Louis XVIII; J. S. Duplessis (1725-1802), who painted the charming
Mme Lenoir in the Louvre and a portrait of Franklin of which versions are
preserved in the Musee Carnavalet in Paris and in the Museum of Boston ;
Antoine Vesticr (1740- 18 24), painter of the Carnavalet portrait of the
adventurer 'Latude holding the rope-ladder with which he escaped from the
Bastille after thirty-five years' imprisonment, and of pleasing portraits of
women in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the Museum at Bristol
(England) and in the Louvre; and J. Ducreux (1737-1802), who was La
Tour's only pupil and was sent to Vienna to paint Marie-Antoinette's por-
trait. F. H. Drouais (1727-1775), the favourite Court painter at the end of
the reign of Louis XV, and Louis Tocquc (1696-1772), who was Nattier's
son-in-law and another favourite portrait painter in the second half of the
reign of Louis XV, were both dead before Mme Labillc-Guyard and Mme
Le Brun began to attract attention.

^73

MMES VIGEE-LE BRUN AND LABILLE-GUYARD <

Academicians and painted their portraits ; in 1783, at the age of
thirty-four, she was made an Academican, and she then waged a
campaign to secure the admission of women painters to the pro-
fessorial posts from which they were excluded, and to abolish the
then existing limit to the number of women members. She had a
considerable number of young women pupils, two of whom are
seen in the striking full-length picture (PI. 75 b), now in the
Wildenstein Collection, which I reproduce. She received com-
missions from members of the Royal Family and was made
peintre de Mesdames, a post which, it will be recalled, had been!
held by Nattier. When the Revolution came she remained m
Paris and was on terms of friendship with Robespierre who wrote
to her in 1 79 1 : '' Onm'a dit que les graces voulaient faire mon portrait,.^
Je serais trop heureux d'tme telle faveur sije n' en avals senti tout leprlxA

Mnie Labille-Guyard worked in oil and pastel with efficiency]
and vigour. But her vision was rather prosaic, as can be seeij
from M. David Weill's V artiste (PI. 76b), where she was not
aspiring to the " Grand Manner " as in the full-length picturd
(PI. 75b). The critics of her day continually compared her with!
Mme Le Brun and many regarded her as the superior artist.^

Mme Ehzabeth Vigee-Le Brun (175 5-1842), the favouritei
painter of Marie-Antoinette, lived through the Revolution, the
Empire and the reign of Louis XVIII. She was the daughter of
the pastellist Louis Vigee (1715-1767)2 and studied painting
with various artists including Greu2e and Joseph Vernet. Atj
an early age she began to exhibit and have success ; at twentf
she married Jean-Baptiste Le Brun, a picture dealer who became!
the father of the little girl who figures in the two well-knowni
double portraits Mme Le Brun and her daughter in the Louvre. |

1 Mme Labille-Guyard's portrait Mme Eli:iabeth painted in 1787 is at
Versailles ; it depicts the princess on a terrace with a child and a parrot;
and shows the influence of Reynolds. Her pastel portraits of Vincent and:
/.-/. Bachelier are in the Louvre ; the Musee Cognacq in Paris has thd
excellent Comiesse de Cipierre ; and Baron de Gunzbourg has an attractive^
pastel Alme Clodion. '

2 Louis Vigee drew the pastel portrait of Mme de Pompadour en p}lerine\
which now belongs to M. Germain Seligmann of Paris. It dates from 1745!
and represents the sitter in what is believed to 1 : lYxe- costume she wore
when she first met Louis XV at a hal masquS in :bat year. The Comedie
Frangaise has Vigee's pastel Mile Dangeville and the museums of Tours and
Orleans have others.

MMES VIGEE-LE BRUN AND I.ABILLE-GUYARD

Mme Le Brun's portraits were not such good likenesses as
those of Mme Labillc-Guyard, but they were more attractive
pictures, and her sitters liked the brightly-rouged cheeks and the
vivacious elegance with which she presented them. As a result
she found herself *' taken up " by Parisian society as a brilliant
new artist and a personality with charm. In 1779 ^^^ received
her first sitting from the Queen and was appointed her peintre
ordinaire ; she then painted the celebrated Marie Antoinette
with a rose, Marie Antoinette in velvet and Marie Antoinette and her
children (PI. 76a) which are now at Versailles.^

In 1783 — the same year as her rival — she became an Academi-
cian.2 Her diploma picture, an allegorical composition of two
figures, lui Paix ramenant I'Abondance, is now in the Louvre ;
and her composition in the next Salon caused Diderot to write :
" Lorsque je vois Mme Le Brun peindre I'histoire, Je crois voir la
mas sue d'Hercule soulevee par la main des Graces.''* For the next four
years she continued to paint portraits ; just before the Revolu-
tion broke out she painted the portrait Mme du Barrj (PI. 75 a)
at Louveciennes ;^ and in 1789, feeling herself suspect as a
friend of the Queen, she left France.*

^ In contrast to Mme Labille-Guyard, who was short, frapue and pug-
nacious, Mme Le Brun was amiable and graceful, a good hostess and a
woman with a sense of humour.

Marie-Antoinette refused to sit to Mme Labillc-Guyard. She was ex-
actly the same age as Mme Le Brun and became her personal friend. They
used to sing duets together in the intervals of work at the portraits. The
King was delighted with the portrait of the Queen and her children. " Je
ne me connais pas en peinture," he said to the artist, " mais vous me la faifes
aimer " — a more pleasant remark for an artist to hear than " I know nothing
about painting but I know what I like."

2 The Academy, to mark the difference in social status of its members
from that of members of the old Mat/rise, had made a rule that no member
could be directly or indirectly connected with dealing. As the wife of a
picture dealer Mme Le Brun was therefore not eligible for membership. But
the rule was waived by order of the Queen. (Cf. note p. 7 and pp. 83, 84.)

^ Mme Le Brun in her old age published her Souvenirs where she states
that Mme du Barry at this period used no rouge and spent most of her
time visiting the local poor. The portrait which was formerly in the col-
lection of the Due de Rohan is now in the Wildenstein Collection in Paris.

* When Mme Le Brun left Paris she was almost penniless though she
had made considerable money by her portraits. The money, it would seem,
was spent by her husband who looked after her business aff^airs. She

MMES VIGEE-LE BRUN AND LABILLE-GUYARD

During the Revolution Mme Le Brun travelled painting por-
traits and, it is said, landscapes in Italy, Austria, Germany and
Russia. She had no difficulty in making money as she had intro-
ductions to the Courts and the wealthiest people wherever she
went. In Naples she painted several portraits of Lady Hamilton
in Nattier's allegorical tradition.^

In 1 802 she returned to Paris but she refused to be introduced
to Napoleon and, finding herself ill at ease in the new Parisian
society, she crossed to England where she stayed three years.
In 1805 she reconciled herself to the idea of the Imperial regime
and went back to Paris where she painted portraits at Napoleon's
Court. Later she bought herself a house at Louveciennes where
she died at the age of eighty-seven. ^

divorced him before leaving France ; he remained in Paris and acted as
saleroom agent for the Government's purchases at art sales during the
Revolution. (Cf. note, p. 180.)

^ I do not know the present whereabouts of these portraits.

2 Mme Le Brun's reputation was very high in her day. James Northcote,
pupil of Reynolds, has recorded an amusing incident in connection with the
exhibition of some of her portraits in London. " As I had not conceived
that it was worth any painter's trouble to go to see them," he writes, " I
had not gone ; but was glad when I found that he (Reynolds) had seen
them that I might have the opinion of so great a judge. I said ' Pray what
do you think of them Sir Joshua ? ' ' That they are very fine,' he answered.
* How fine ? ' I said. ' As fine as those of any painter,' was his answer.
' As fine as those of any painter, do you say ? do you mean living or dead ? '
When he answered me rather briskly, ' Either living or dead.' I then, in

great surprize, exclaimed, ' Good G ! what, as fine as Vandyke ? ' He

answered tartly, * Yes, and finer.' I said no more, perceiving he was dis-
pleased at my questioning him. I mention the above circumstance to show
his disinclination to oppose the popular opinion, or to say anything against
the interest of a contemporary artist : as it was not his intention to mislead
me, but only to put a stop to my enquiries."

Mme Le Brun's comments on the work of Reynolds were more critical :
" lis sont," she wrote, " d'une excellente couleur qui rappelk celle de Til/en, maiSy
engeneraky sont peu t ermines, d V exception des tHes."

176

T'^fi^r Five

FROxM Till": REVOLUTION TO THE
SECOND EMPIRE

i. T/je KevoluiioH

ij. Louis David

iij. The First F^mpire and A.-]. Gros

iv. Pierre Prudhon

V. Fainting under Loi/is XV 111

vi. /. A. I). Ingres

vij. Fhe Romantic Movement

viij. Theodore Gericault

ix. Eugene Delacroix

X. Franco-Dutch Landscape Painters

xi. Cam ilk Corot

xij. Kealism and the Salon Public

xiij. Gustave Courbet

xiv. Daumier and Guys

2 A

FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE SECOND EMPIRE

i. The devolution

In the last years of the old regime when siijets grivois and genre
pictures of the type of Greuze's UAccordee de Milage were
popular, the number of painters considerably increased. This
happened because it required little skill to paint such pictures
well enough to satisfy a Salon public that asked nothing from
the painter but the power to tell an anecdote in paint. With this
increase in the number of painters the supply of such pictures
began to exceed the demand and the painters began to protest
against the Academy's tyranny and to complain that they had
" nowhere to exhibit " their productions.^

The complaint at the time was largely justified, for the Salons,
as noted, were limited to the works of agrees and members ;
other artists could still only show in the discredited exhibitions
of the Academic de St. Luc, i.e. of the old Alaitrise, and, on one
day a year, in the old open-air exhibition on the Place Dauphine
which was now known as l' exposition de lajeunesse?

In these circumstances a club called La Societe des Amis des
Arts was founded which had a gallery in the Hotel Bullion.
There semi-public exhibitions were held to which collectors
were invited ; and it was there that artists like Mme Labille-
Guyard and Boilly first attracted attention.

When the Revolution broke out the discontented artists be-
came more articulate and in 1791 U Assemhlee Rationale decreed
that the Salon should be open to everyone. As a result the 1791
Salon contained tsvice as many pictures as the Salon of 1789,
and the number of pictures shown in the Salons steadily increased
all through the Revolution.^

In 1792, when David was virtually Art Dictator of the
Republic, he was petitioned by a group of artists to abolish the

^ The same complaint may be heard in Paris to-day though at least
30,000 pictures are now shown there ever}- year.

- Cf. note p. 123 and p. 135.

^ In 1789 three hundred and fifty pictures were shown in the closed
Salon. In 1791 seven hundred and ninety-four were shown in the first
open Salon ; in the Salon of 1793 — the year of the Terror — there were over
a thousand exhibits ; in 1795 there were over three thousand. ( I have
taken these figures from A History of Trench Art, by Rose Kingsley.)

THE REVOLUTION

Academie royale de peinture et sculpture and also all the other
Royal Academies of the old regime. David had a report pre-
pared and in the following year the Academy was abolished
and with it all the old organisations for training craftsmen
in the French provinces that had existed since the days of
Colbert.

In the place of these organisation the Revolutionary Govern-
ment set up a Commune generale des Arts to direct contemporary
production and give employment to artists, as private patronage
had now ceased, and on David's proposal they founded open
competitions for patriotic pictures to be purchased by the
State.

The Government also founded a Museum national des Arts (to
which, as noted, David appointed Fragonard) to inventory and
direct the conservation of the nationalised works of art from the
royal palaces, from churches, and from the houses of emigres.^

The Government further set aside a sum for the purchase
of works of art at private sales in order to prevent the flight
of fine works to foreign countries ; and in the year of the
Terror, on David's proposal, they bought from this fund
pictures by Rubens and Jordaens, and Rembrandt's Holy Family
known as L,e Menage du Menuisier now in the Louvre.^

In 1795 the old Royal Academy was replaced by the Institut
National which included a new Academie de la litterature et des
Beaux Arts as a section ; and this eventually became the
Academie des Beaux Arts. The artists known as Memhres de
rinstitut corresponded to the Members of the old Academy
and soon formed themselves into a caucus in the old way.

The revival of the " antique " in architecture, painting and
the applied arts, which took place during the Revolution, and

^ The majority of the pictures which now form the Louvre Museum are
nationalised property from these three sources. The first public museum of
sculpture and applied art was arranged in a former convent in the year of
the Terror by Alexandre Lenoir who rescued Goujon's Diane Chasseresse
and countless other works from destruction. Such parts of his museum as
were not eventually transferred to the Louvre can be still seen in the court-
yard of the ^ficole des Beaux Arts.

* This was bought on behalf of the government by the picture dealer
Le Brun (Mme Vigee-Le Brun's divorced husband, cf. p. 176) at the sale of
the property of the Due de Choiseul-Praslin, deceased.

180

JACQUI'S-LOUIS DAVID

culminated in the celebrated Dircctoire style in clothes, is very
widely known. This classical revival had really begun, as
noted, under Mme de Pompadour, but in the days of the
Revolution it was greatly developed because the " antique "
styles were then given topical significance through their associa-
tion with the supposed Republican virtues of antiquity.

In painting, this classical revival found a first champion in
Vien^ and a still more powerful champion in Louis David, who
employed the famous cabinet-maker Georges Jacob to build
furniture copied from Greek vases for his classical pictures.

ij. Jacques-Louis David^

BORN PARIS 1748. DIED BRUSSELS 1825

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

Head of a Gid, c. 1800

Mile Charlotte du Val d'Ognes, c. 1800

Portraits of the chemist Lavoisier and

his wife, 1788
Mme de Richemont and her son, c. 1805
Portrait of a Youth

Erasistratus discovering the cause of the

sickness of Antiochus, 1774
IMiner^'a, Mars and Venus, 1771
Portraits of M. and Mme Pccoul, 1784
Belisarius as a beggar recognised by one
of his soldiers, 1784

* Joseph Marie Vicn (17 16-1809) was an Academic decorator under the
old regime and it was his work which replaced Fragonard's panels at Louve-
cienncs (cf. note, p. 1 5 8). Under Louis XV he was Director of the Ero/e des
llhves protigis and under Louis XVI he was Director of the Academy in
Rome. Returning to Paris he was made Premier peintre du roi in 1789 and
claimed to be the originator of the return to the classical style.

In 1796 at the age of 80 he won a prize in one of the open competitions
organised by the Directorate. In 1800 Napoleon made him a member of
the Senate and Commander of the Legion of Honour, and at a great dinner
given in his honour David and his pupils hailed him as the regenerator of
French art.

■•» For a catalogue of Louis David's works and ninety magnificent plates
the student is referred to Cantinelli's Jacques-Louis David.

181

London.

Sir Philip Sassoon

Collection

New York

Metropolitan

Museum

New York

Metropolitan

Museum

New York.

Bcrwind Collection

Philadelphia.

Johnson Collec-

tion

Paris.

Ecole des Beaux

Arts

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Bibliotheque
Nationale

Paris.
Paris.

Fleury Collection
Edmond de Roths-

child Collection

Paris.

Bassano Collection

Paris.

Comtesse Murat

Collection

Paris.

Comtesse Murat

Collection

Paris.

Comtesse Murat

Collection

Paris.

Marquise de Ganay
Collection

Versailles.

Avignon.
Lyons.

Musee Calvet
Museum

Besan^on.
Biarritz.

Museum
Beistegin Collec-

tion

Brussels.

Museum

Brussels.

Museum

Mans.

Museum

Poland.

Branicki Collec-

tion

Leningrad. Hermitage

The vow of the Horatii, 1785

Paris and Helen, 1788

Brutus, First Consul, in his home, after

condemning his two sons to death,

1789
Fragment. Le Serment du Jeu dc Paume,

1790
La Marquise d'Orviliiers, 1790
Mme Chalgrin, 1793
View of the Luxembourg Garden, 1 794
Catherine Tallart, 1795
Portraits of M. and Mme Seriziat, 1795
The Sabines, 1799
Mme Recamier, 1800
The Coronation of Napoleon, 1805-

1807
Leonidas at Thermopylae, 18 14
The three ladies of Ghent, c. 18 18
Portrait of Michel Lepeletier de Saint-

Fargeau
The Death of Socrates, 1787
Drawing : Marie Antoinette on her way

to the scaffold, before 1793
Sketch of Bonaparte, 1798
La Marquise de Pastoret, c. 1795

La Baronne Pauline Jeannin, 18 12

Mme David, c. 1813

Pope Pius XII and Cardinal Caprara,

1805
Bonaparte at the St. Bernard, 1800
The Distribution of the Eagles, 18 10
Death of Bara, 1794
La Maraichere (La Tricoteuse), 1795
Portrait Drawings for the Coronation
Mme de Verninac, 1799

The Death of Marat, 1793

Mars disarmed by Venus and the Graces,

1824
Michel Gerard and his family, c. 1794
Count Potocki on Horseback, 1781

Phaon, Sapho and Cupid, 1809

I»2

DAVID'S LIFE

{a) David's Life

Louis David was the son of a Parisian tradesman ; he was
brought up by two uncles of whom one was a builder and the
other an architect. His early drawings were taken to Boucher
who recommended Vien as a first teacher.

At the age of eighteen he entered the Academy's art school
and there year after year he competed without success for the
Prix de Rome. In 1773 after the fourth failure he attempted
suicide. He was then twenty-four.^

It was after this period of frustration that he asked and
received Fragonard's permission to complete his panels in La
Guimard's hotel.^

In 1774 he competed once again for the Prix de Rome and
won it ; and he set off for Italy with his old master Vien who
was going to take up liis appointment as Director of the
Academy in Rome.

David was twenty-seven — unusually old for a scholarship
winner — when he arrived in Rome ; but perhaps for that reason
the impressions he received there were the more profound.
He remained for three years and when he returned to Paris he
had determined to bring French painting back to the point
where it had been left by Poussin.

In Paris he began at once as a history-painter, and by 1784 he
was a member of the Academy with a studio in the Louvre. In
that year the Comte d'x\ngiviUiers who had succeeded ^larigny
as Surintendant des Batiwenls commissioned from him The VoiP oj
the Horatii {Le Serment des Horaces)^ which is now in the Louvre.^

David determined to make this picture a demonstration of
his passionate reaction against both the genre and the decorative

^ Some of David's biographers ascribe the abolition of the Academy to
the hatred of that institution which he acquired at this time.

' If David nourished hatred against the Academy he was also capable
of remembering a kindness, as the help which he gave to Fragonard during
the Revolution (which has already been noted, cf. pp. 159, 180) bears witness.

^ D'Angivilliers had persuaded the King to commission four or hve
history-pictures every year to encourage the continuation of the Grand
Manner which artists were beginning to neglect. The pictures however
were apparently not actually bought for the Royal Collection unless they
were approved on completion.

183

DAVID'S LIFE

traditions of French eighteenth-century art. He had married
in 1 79 1 tlie daughter of the King's contractor for the Louvre;
in the course of painting the Horatii he decided that he could
only achieve the real classical severity in the atmosphere of
Rome ; his father-in-law provided the money, and with 'his
wife and a pupil-assistant he returned to Rome.

he Serment des Horaces when finished was exhibited in the
artist's studio in Rome and created a sensation. But in the Salon
of 1785 in Paris it was " skied." Nevertheless it attracted
attention and was bought by the King. Thus encouraged David
returned to Paris and painted The Death of Socrates now in the
Fleury Collection. This was ordered by a private collector and
shown in the Salon of 1787. ^

The Louvre Paris and Helen (PI. 77), also a private com-
mission, was painted in 1788 and exhibited in the Salon of 1789
together with the celebrated Brutus (Louvre), which was another
commission from d'AngivilHers on behalf of the King.^

When the 1789 Salon opened the Revolution had already
begun ; the doors were guarded by Academy students acting as
gardes nationaux. The Brutus, imposing in itself, was aided in its
effect by the subject which in the eyes of the excited public
seemed to have topical significance and to exalt the self-sacrifice
of Republican patriots. D'AngivilHers had tried to exclude it

^ All David's biographers state that Reynolds spent ten days in the Salon
contemplating this picture and pronounced it faultless. I3ut this is an
error. Reynolds was not in Paris in 1787. The eulogy referred to appeared
in a London newspaper article called " The State of the Arts in Paris,"
written by a Paris correspondent in October 1777. (Cf. Whitley's Artists
and their friends in England 1 700-1 799.)

^ The full title of the Brutus as exhibited at the Salon was Brutus^ Premier
Consul ^ de retour en sa maison apres avoir condamne ses deux fits qui s'etaient unis
aux Tarquins et avaient conspiri contre la liberte Komaine. Les licteurs rapportent
leurs corps pour qu'il leur donne la sepulture.

The original commission had been for a scene from the life of Coriolanus.
David tried various compositions without success and eventually changed
the subject on his own initiative but without any political idea. The picture
shows the wife and daughters of Brutus struck with horror at the lictors
bearing the two corpses. Brutus sits in shadow in the foreground. The
group of the woman and the two girls based on the antique Niobe has
passages of grace. David, as noted, had the furniture in the picture
specially made in the antique style but on the table he has placed a homely
work-basket and a reel of wool.

184

/'.J':-. Intivri-

LOUIS 1)A\ ID. F.iris and Helen (detain.

Aix-en-Provence. .1

J.-A.-D. INGRES. Jupiter and Thetis.

D.W'ID'S 1.1FR

from the Salon hut the veto iinivcd too hitc ; and David found
himself almost by accident acclaimed as the Painter of the
Revolution.

It was therefore to David that the Jacohins turned with a
commission for a Revolutionaiy propaganda picture : L^
Serment du Jen de Pan/z/e, and they allotted him a church as a
studio in which to produce it.'

In 1792 David became a Deputy in the Convention, a member
of the Comite de I' Instruction and of the Commission des Arts ;
and for two years he was virtually Art Dictator of the Republic.
In this capacity, in addition to the abolition of the Academy and
the organising work already recorded, he designed Revolution-
ar)' propaganda fetes and processions, he suggested a new civil
costume based on " I'Ktrusque, le Grec ou le Romain," and he
painted propaganda pictures recording the deaths, for the
Republic, of Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, of Marat and of the
boy Bara.

In these pictures all the Revolutionary victims are represented
nude in accordance with the classical doctrine. Marat (PI. 80a)
is shown in his bath as David saw him shortly after Charlotte
Corday had delivered the blow, ^ara (PL Sob) who was actually
in uniform at the time of his death, lies naked on the ground and
presses a tricolor cockade to his breast. ^

After the fall of Robespierre in 1 794, David himself became
suspect ; he was attacked in the Convention, arrested, and kept
for four months in the Luxembourg Palace (then used as a prison).
In the following year he was arrested a second time and again
imprisoned for three months. In prison he painted a [ VV;;- of
the l.Mxemhourg Garden from his window and began a design for
a large composition depicting the Sabine women intervening
to stop war. On his release he retired from politics and was
given a studio by the Directorate. There he painted The Sabines
and exliibited it in his studio from 1799 till 1804.^

' David never completed this picture because most of the personages
represented became suspect when he was half-way through his work. A
portion of the project is in the Louvre.

2 The Death of Marat is now in the Brussels Museum. The Death of Bara
is in the Musce Calvet at Avignon.

^ David charged for admission to see this picture and made in gate-
money 70,000 francs (which I am unable to translate into present money).

2 B 185

DAVID^S ART

Napoleon, as First Consul, went to the studio to see The
Sabines and when he became Emperor he appointed David
Premier peintre de VBmpereur and commissioned him to paint a
series of pictures recording Imperial ceremonies, two of which.
The Coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame known as L,e Sacre de
Napoleon I" (now in the Louvre), and The Distribution of the
Eagles now at Versailles, were painted between 1805 and 1809.^

Under the Empire, David tried to become Art Dictator for a
second time. But he was now over sixty ; he no longer had the
fire and energy of his earlier years ; and he was unable to com-
pete with the opposing interests. He accordingly abandoned
the attempt and buried himself in the composition of another
large history painting, the Teonidas before Thermopylce^ now in
the Louvre, on which he worked in 1 8 1 2 and 1 8 1 3 .

At the Restoration of the Bourbons in 18 14 David sent all
compromising pictures from liis studio into the country, and
he was left undisturbed. During the Hundred Days he received
a visit from Napoleon to see the Teonidas, and in a moment of
enthusiasm he signed the Acte additionel for which he was exiled
in 1 8 16 by Louis XVIIL He spent the remaining nine years of
liis life in Brussels.

{b) David's Art

David's work has made a great appeal, since the Cubist-
classical Renaissance, because he really was a champion of
the classical concept. The modern artists look back to David
above the agitations and accidents of nineteenth-century
Romantic and Impressionist, pictures just as David himself
looked back to Poussin over rococo art and the addle-pated
productions of the eighteenth-century Grand Manner.

We must not forget that he was a contemporary of Fragonard
whom he regarded as a gifted but degenerate artist whose
pictures represented self-indulgence. Point d'emportement du

In a manifesto handed to visitors he stated that in demanding gate-money
for the inspection of a picture in his own studio he had precedent in the
practice of the English Royal Academicians. He would not have been
allowed to do this in the old days of the A.cadh>iie royale which actually
expelled a member who attempted it.

1 Napoleon refused to sit for these pictures (cf. p. 190).

186

DAVID'S ART

pinccatt was his motto, lie excluded all parade of handling, all
suggestion of facility from his work. I Ic desired, like Poussin,
to instil the serenity of antique art into his pictures. Me sought
continually the generic image. He endeavoured to thrust
actuality on one side.

But David never attained to the architectural heights of Pous-
sin's outstanding works. He never achieved a coherent space-
concept. Me had a classical concept of forms but not of form.

Moreover, there was something doctrinaire — that came from
his environment — in David's passion for the classical ideal.
Poussin was a philosopher obsessed with a desire to create a
microcosmic image. David was a fanatic obsessed with a hatred
of rococo and Academic art.

David's work, like Poussin's, is often described as cold and
dr\\ But in truth David, like Poussin, was passionate and
sensual and like Poussin he distilled this sensuality through his
mind. This quality appears in his Bara (PI. Sob) and it also appears
in the numerous portraits w-hich he painted at all periods of his
life.

David's portraits pulse with vitaHty beneath a brush that was
always held in check. This controlled vitality is especially
evident in an unfinished portrait like Mme Kecamier (PI. V) in
the Louvre or in a sketch like the Head of a Gir/{]?\. 84a) in Sir
Philip Sassoon's collection in London. The man who painted
these sketches was not lecherous like Greuze but he also was
certainly not cold or dry.

David possibly was more true to himself in his portraits than
in any other aspect of his work. The Sabines and the Uonidas
before Thermopyla, both huge pictures, are magnificent efforts^
but they represent above all an exercise of will and we feel that
the artist, in spite of high intentions, is really working in a field
beyond his powers. In his portraits on the other hand and in l^e
Sacre de Napoleon F' the artist has fulfilled his intentions. He has
not taken the line of least resistance — David never succumbed
to that — but he has aimed at a goal which with an effort he could
reach.^

^ When David painted Le Sacre de Napoleon I"' which contains scoresof full-
length life-size portraits he was nearly sixty. W hen he had decided on the
composition he had the figures made in wax and disposed in a box as Poussin.

187

DAVID'S CHARACTER

David's biographers have fought hard battles about his
character. He has been represented as an arrivist, a turncoat, a
second Charles Le Brun who made the times serve his personal
ambition. He has also been presented as a coward who betrayed
his friends, and a sadist who insulted the dead body of Charlotte
Corday and delighted in the slaughter of the guillotine. On the
other hand, he has been presented as a man of intense enthu-
siasms who flung himself with fanatical zeal into one cause after
another — first into the creation of classical art, then into the
purification of France by the Revolution, and finally into the
glorification of Napoleon.

There are facts to support all these contradictory estimates.
David voted the death of the King ; he made no efforts to save
his artist friends Peyre and Sedaine from execution. The sitter
for one of his warmest, most sympathetic portraits, the Mme
Chalgrin in the Louvre, was a daughter of Joseph Vernet the
landscape painter ; David's picture was painted in the year of
the Terror ; a few months later she was accused of theft and
guillotined and David did nothing to assist her.^

There can be no doubt that David worked side by side with
Robespierre in the days of the slaughter by the guillotine ; and
he used to sit outside a cafe and make drawings of the victims

had done for his compositions (cf p. 77.) For each head he made a por-
trait drawing which was transferred " squared up " to the canvas and
painted in by an an assistant while he sat in an armchair and issued his
instructions. Afterwards he finished each head himself. -Le Sucre de Napoleon
I"" and l^a Distribution des Aigles were painted in the Eglise de Cluny which
was converted into a studio by the Imperial government for the purpose.

^ Madame Chalgrin was accused as an accomplice in thefts from the
Chateau de la Muette (which had been nationalised with its contents) because
she shared an apartment with a daughter of the concierge (curator) of this
former palace (where, it will be recalled, Watteau had painted chinoiseries
in the time of the Duchesse de Berry's riotous occupation (cf. p. no) ). The
inquisitors found fifty pounds of candles in this apartment and this was held
to prove the guilt of Mme Chalgrin, of the concierge's daughter and of her
mother who were all guillotined. Virgile Josz suggests in his " Fragonard "
that David's desertion of Mme Chalgrin was an act of vengeaince because
she had refused his advances when sitting for her portrait.

THF. FIRST F.MPIRr. AND A.-J. GROS

being driven to their doom. Baron F^ldmond de Rothschild
has a drawing Maric-Antoimtte nn her tray to the scaffold — an
unforgettable pen sketch which David drew (as we know
from the inscription upon it) from a seat in a window reserved
for spectators of the procession ; and Mrs. Siddons, the actress,
told the sculptor Nollekens that she was in a room with David
when a rapporteur announced that eighty people had been
guillotined that morning and David exclaimed, " No more ? "
These are facts. But they are facts which must be read in the
light of the hysteria of the period. They can be easily chronicled.
But they cannot be lightly judged.^

iij. The First Empire and A.-]. Gros

When Napoleon became Fmperor in 1804 he called for a new
style to decorate his palaces and the residences of Josephine ;
and the style Empire which resulted was the last phase of the
antique revival which we have followed in its various forms.
The furniture and decoration in this style though sumptuous
and elaborate was coarse in execution, because the French skill
in craftsmanship had been destroyed when David abolished the
provincial organisations in which the craftsmen had been
trained. It was one thing for Napoleon to order the resumption
of the skilled work of the old regime and to desire to renew the
revenue that came to France from export of applied art ; it was
another for designers like Fontaine and Percier to try to revive
French craftsmanship without skilled workmen, especially at a
period when machines were beginning to displace hand labour in
so many ways.

In the field of painting I have already noted Napoleon's use of
Louis David's power to paint propaganda pictures on a large
scale. Napoleon's conception of the painter's art was much the
same as that of Louis XIV. He regarded painting as a means of
celebrating his own career ; and he was quite determined that
his artists should represent him not as he was but as a new
Augustus Cassar or Alexander the Great. In his youth he sat

^ Perhaps the key to David's psychology may be found in the character
of Evariste GamcHn in Anatole France's L^s Dieux ont soij which draws a
convincing picture of the period as a whole.

189

THE FIRST EMPIRE AND A.-J. GROS

once to David for three hours on the eve of his departure for
Egypt (in 1799), but as Emperor he refused to sit to anyone.^

Napoleon believed in art not only as a means of propa-
ganda but also as a means of education and refinement for the
masses. He turned all the artists out of the apartments in the
Louvre (where artists had been lodged since the time of Henri
IV) and completed the installation of the galleries as a national
museum which had been begun in 1793 ; and side by side with
the national treasures he exhibited art treasures which he had
brought back after his victories in Italy and elsewhere. This
additional Musee Napoleon could be seen in the Louvre until the
great pictures it contained were returned to their countries of
origin by the Allies after Waterloo.

The pictures which Napoleon brought back from Italy had
been chosen by an artist Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835), a
pupil of David, who was attached to Napoleon's staff and
afterwards painted pictures of his triumphs. Gros painted
Bonaparte au pont d Arcole (now in the Louvre) in 1796 and
exhibited it in the Salon of 1801; Napoleon had the picture
engraved by the Venetian Giusseppe Longhi who was launched
by the success of this plate. Gros also painted Bonaparte visite
les pestijeres de Jaffa (now in the Louvre) in 1804, and the splendid
Napoleon surle champ de batailled'Eylau (now in the Louvre) in 1 807.
Although a pupil of David he was a Romantic at heart and his
pictures, which are vigorous in handling and full of emotive
movement, herald the Romantic reaction against David's art.
In his later years Gros suffered from melancholia and he even-
tually committed suicide by drowning himself in three feet of
water.

^ " Qu' ave^-vous besoin de modele ? " he said to David. " Croye^-vous que
les grands hommes de Vanti quite aient pose pour leurs portraits ? Qui se soucie de
savoir si les busies d' Alexandre sent ressemblants ? If suffit que nous ayons de lui
une image conjorme a son genie. C'est ainsi qu'il convient de peindre les grands
hommes."

In 1803 Ingres who was twenty-three and Greuze who was seventy-eight
both received commissions from provincial muncipalities for portraits of
Napoleon as First Consul. Napoleon refused to sit to either. But he allowed
them to come together to the Palais of Saint Cloud and to look at him for a
few minutes,

190

PIERRE PRUDHON

iv. Vierre Vriidhon

Pierre Prudhon (175 8-1823), who painted the well-known
portrait lV)e Yimpress Josephine (now in the Louvre), was another
artist of consequence at this period. He was born in the reign of
Louis XV and lived through the Revolution, the Empire and the
reign of Louis XVIIL He had a distressing life, which included
only a few years of prosperity, and his last days were clouded by
a tragedy.

Prudhon was the son of a mason of Cluny and he spent his
youth as a provincial artist doing various kinds of hack painting
and drawing for a living. At the age of nineteen he contracted
a marriage of honour with a young woman of the people who
plagued him for forty-five years and was finally locked up in a
f?iaison de sante after she had forced her way to the Empress to
complain about her husband. In 1782 he won a provincial
travelling scholarship and went to Rome where he remained
doing engraving and other work for seven years.

On his return to Paris he found himself without friends at
the time of the Revolution and he made a meagre living by
engraving and book illustrations. But in 1 804 a friend, who was
Prefer de la Seine, commissioned from him L^ Justice et la Ven-
geance divine poursuivmit le Crime to hang in the criminal court of
the Palais de Justice in Paris, and this picture, now in the Louvre,
made his reputation in the Salon of 1808.^

As a result of this success he obtained commissions for
portraits at the Court of Napoleon and he painted Le Triomphe
de Bonaparte (a sketch for which is now in the Museum at Lyons).
He also painted a Venus and Adonis (now in the London Wallace
Collection) in wliich the nude Venus is traditionally supposed
to have been drawn from the Empress Marie Louise to whom
he gave drawing lessons, and a nude portrait (now in the Beskow
Collection, New York) of Napoleon's sister Pauline Borghese.^

The period of Prudhon's success at the Imperial Court

* This picture is now in a scandalous condition due partly to the artist's
use of bitumen and a noxious medium of his own invention and partly to
the Louvre authorities' criminal negligence in refusing to clean and condition
their pictures.

" This lady also sat nude for the sculptor Canova.

191

PIERRE PRUDHON

coincided with the beginning of a romantic affection for his pupil
and imitator Mile Constance Mayer, a young lady of independent
means who went to live with him and help him with his pictures.
In 1 821 when she was forty-six Mile Mayer became hysterical
and cut her throat with one of Prudhon's razors before her
mirror. Prudhon never recovered from the blow. He died
two years afterwards and was buried in her grave.

Prudhon's pictures have many attractive qualities. In Italy
he acquired an enthusiasm for Correggio and still more for
Leonardo da Vinci of whom he wrote " Pour moije n'j vols que
perfection et c'est la mon fnaitre et tnon heros ..."

His charming portrait Mme Dujresne (PI. 88a) shows the
meUifluous line and twilight chiaroscuro which he imparted to
his work as a result of this enthusiasm ; and this picture (which
is now in M. David Weill's collection) also indicates, I fancy,
that he was acquainted with engravings after portraits by the
masters of the English eighteenth-century school.

In his subject pictures Prudhon brought back the Cupid and
Psyche, and the Venus and Adonis, of French painting in
Boucher's day. But he portrayed the traditional figures in the
soft light and shade used by Leonardo's early followers. His
pictures moreover were not intended to be decorative panels
to accord with a decorative style in interior decoration ; they
were conceived as lyric poems in paint existing in their own
right. Prudhon's subject pictures show what Fragonard's art
might have become if he had pursued the lyric vein of L,a
Fontaine d' Amour (PI. 68), which he afterwards abandoned.

In Rome Prudhon was intimate with the sculptor Canova and
his friendship, I fancy, had an influence on his work ; it probably
induced him to paint his figures as marble statues in black and
white without yellow in the carnations ; and it may be that
we must ascribe to the same influence the mincing grace of the
raised little finger which disfigures his otherwise graceful
Enlevement de Psyche in the Louvre.

The caucus of the Institute exerted all its influence against
Prudhon's success and refused to admit him till 1816 when he
was nearly sixty.^

^ Prudhon's Assumption of the Virgin (now in the Metropolitan Museum
in New York) was painted for the Tuileries Chapel in 18 16.

192

H ' ^AflH^i^^B^^I

Brussels. Museum

LOUIS DAVID. Death .if Maui.

Aiit^Hoii. Mu:>ce Culvei

LOUIS DAVID. Death of Bara.

PAINTING UNDl'R LOUIS XVIll

Paitititig under Louis X I 'HI

III the reign t)f Louis XVllI (1814-1824) the outstanding
artists were the pupils of David and of Jean-Baptiste Regnault,
(1754-1829).

Regnault lived in Rome for some years and was the painter
of the Three Graces (now in the Louvre), a group wliich
resembles the celebrated Three Graces by Raphael (now at
Chantilly), itself based on an antique group in the library of
the cathedral at Siena.

Rcgnault's most notable pupil was Pierre-Narcisse Guerin
(1774-183 3) who painted Napoleonic propaganda pictures that
can be seen at Versailles, and, later, pictures which were in-
fluenced by David and the French classical drama as performed
at the Comedie Frangaise. The Louvre has his Ketour de Marcus
Sextus (1799), Phedre et Hippolyte (1802), Aurore et Cephale (1810),
Clytemnestra (18 17), and Aeneas relating the woes of Troy to Dido

(1813).

David had a large art school from the time he exhibited his
Brutus till he finally left Paris for Brussels, and the principles
which he inculcated became nominally the basis of French
official painting as represented by the Institute. But the
Institute's concept of classical art soon became little more than
a prejudice in favour of classical subjects with nude and draped
figures and an insistence on smooth surface-painting with a
show of detail in the representation. This degenerate pseudo-
Davidian tradition persisted all through the nineteenth century ;
it can be seen in the work of Gerome (i 824-1 904), and
occasionally in the official salons of Paris to this day.^

David's outstanding pupils, apart from Gros, already men-
tioned, and Ingres, whose work will be separately considered,

1 The real Davidian tradition was, however, continued to some extent
by Puvis de Chavannes (18 24-1 8 88) who executed mural decorations for
the Pantheon, the Sorbonne and the Hotel de Ville in Paris, for the Library
at Boston, and for a number of French provincial towns (cf. my Modern
Movement in Art, pp. 66-67). Puvis went twice to Italy and his Summer
(PI. 79), in the Cleveland Museum, which has passages which also occur in
the Hotel de Villc decorations in Paris, shows that he was susceptible to the
charm of Luini's loathing Nymphs in Milan.

2 c 195

PAINTING UNDER LOUIS XVIII

were Girodet de Roucy Trioson (i 767-1 824) and Frangois-
Pascal-Simon Gerard (1770-1837).

Girodet was the painter o£ Le Som?neil d'E^ndymion (1792) and
Atala mise au tombeau (1808), both now in the Louvre. In Atala
mise au tomheau he tried to combine the Davidian tradition with
motifs and chiaroscuro taken from Rembrandt. He also painted
official Napoleonic pictures for Versailles.

Gerard painted Psjche revolt le premier baiser de I' Amour
(Louvre) in 1798 and thereafter he became the favourite portrait
painter of the Courts of Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X
and Louis-Philippe. Many of his portraits can be seen at
Versailles.^

The Napoleonic propaganda pictures created a taste among
the Salon public for history-pictures with figures in contem-
porary clothes ; but when the Bourbons returned in 18 16 the
official attitude encouraged the painting of history-pictures with
subjects taken from the earlier liistory of France in order to
stress the idea that the new regime had restored the continuity
of French history interrupted by the Revolution and Napoleon.
Pictures representing episodes from the career of Henri IV and
other sovereigns, and painted illustrations of subjects taken
from works of literature dealing with past periods, now began
to appear side by side with pictures of classical subjects in the
Davidian tradition.

France had been more or less isolated from the time of the
Revolution to the fall of Napoleon, but with the Restoration of
the Bourbons contact was established with other countries, and
foreign literature became the rage; as Sir Charles Holmes
has put it, " Goethe, Scott and Byron among the modems,
Dante and Shakespeare and Cervantes among the older writers
took the place of Livy^ and Plutarch." This new movement
was known, with a fine absence of pedantry, as le style trouba-
dour ; and later it was known, with equal inaccuracy, as le style
moyen-age.

David saw his pupils one after another succumb to the new
troubadour subjects. The first successes in the style were scored
by a group of artists from Lyons known as the e.cole de Lyons

^ During the Empire and the Restoration titles were given to successful
artists ; Gros, Gerard, Regnault and Guerin were all made barons.

194

P -Mm

Paris. Louvre

J.-A.-D. INGRHS. Mine Riviere.

■'A'

-<.i

A'eif York. Metrupolitaii Museum

J.-A.-D. INGRES. Portrait Drawing.

J. A. 1). INC.RI'S

who included Pierre Revoil (i 776-1 842) and Fleur)' Richard
(1777-18 5 2), who had both been trained to paint classical subjects
in David's school. Revoil's Un Toumo/ an XIV Steele^ now in
the Lyons Museum, a picture which might have been produced
by certain Academic artists in Paris or London in 191 2, was
actually produced in 1812. Richard's Vert-Vert^ a work of the
same character, which can also be seen at Lyons, was painted
before 1822.

But David knew that the tradition of Poussin and his own
conception of classical style could not be compassed by the
average mind. He foresaw the transformation of his classical
concept into the pseudo-classical dogma of the Institute and
he also foresaw the growth of the " troubadour " movement.
In 1808 he wrote : " Dans dix ans, l' etude de I' antique sera delaissee.
yentends hien louer l' antique de tous cotes et, quandje cherche a voir si
on en fait des applications, J e decouvre qu'iln'en est rien. Aussi, tous ces
dieux^ ces heros seront remplaces par des chevaliers, des troubadours
chantant sous les fenetres de leurs dames au pied d'un antique donjon.
La direction que J'ai imprimee aux beaux-arts est trop severe pour
plaire longtemps en V ranee."''

But though he could forgive what he held to be degeneration
in lesser men he could hardly forgive when he obser^^ed its
appearance in the work of his most gifted pupil Jean-Auguste-
Dominique Ingres ; and if he did not actually impede this
remarkable artist he certainly refrained from assisting him in
any way.

vi. /. A. D. Ingres^

BORN MONTAUBAN 1780. DIED PARIS 1 867

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London.

National Gallery

Oedipus and the Sphinx, c. 1808

London.

National Gallery

M. de Norvins, 18 13

London.

National Gallery

Roger delivering Angelica, c. 1819

New York.

Metropolitan
Museum

Portrait of a Man

New York.

Metropolitan

Portraits of M. and Mmc Le Blanc,

Museum

1823

^ For a full account of the life and work of Ingres the student is referred
to his biography by Hcnr)' Lapauze which reproduces four hundred paintings
and drawings.

J. A.

New York.

Metropolitan

Museum

New York,

Metropolitan

Museum

New York.

Frick Collection

Cleveland.

Museum of Arts

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris. (?)

Fitzjames Collec-

tion

Paris. (?)

Bessoneau Collec-

tion

Paris. (?)

Bessoneau Collec-

tion

Paris.

Pereire Collection

Paris.

Baron E. de Roths-

child

Paris.

Baroness James de

Rothschild Col-

lection

Paris.

Due d'Orleans

Collection

Paris.

Comtesse de Fla-

vigny Collection

Paris.

Duchesse de Bro-

glie Collection

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Chantilly.

Musee Conde

Angers.

Museum

D. INGRES

Portrait Drawing : Lady and Boy, 1808

Portrait of Cherubini

La Comtesse d'Haussonville, 1845

Portrait drawing, 1830

Mme Riviere, 1805

Mile Riviere, 1805

Philibert Riviere, 1805

Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1808

La baigneuse, 1808

La Grande Odalisque, 1814

Roger delivering Angelica, 1819

Christ giving the keys to St. Peter, 1820-

1828
Pius VII in the Sistine Chapel, 1820
The Apotheosis of Homer, 1827
Fran9ois Bertin, 1832
Cherubini and the Muse, 1842
The Virgin with the Host, 1854
Jeanne d'Arc, 1854
La Source, 1856
Le bain turc, 1862
Philip and the Marshal of Berwick, 1 8 1 8

The entry of Charles V into Paris, 1821

Aretino and Tintoretto, 1848

L'Odalisque k I'esclave, 1839
- Baronne James de Rothschild, 1848

Raphael and La Fornarina, 18 14

Le Due d'Orleans, 1842

Mme Moitessier, 1 8 5 1

La Princesse de Broglie, 1853

Self portrait, 1804

Mme Devaucay, 1807

Stratonice, 1840

Venus Anadyom^ne, 1807 and 1848

Francesca da Rimini

Francesca da Rimini, 18 19

196

Hayonnc.
li.iyonnc.
Hayonnc.
Bavonnc.
Hayonnc.
Autun.

Montauban.

Montaulian.

Montauban.

Puy.

Rouen.

Aix-cn-Pro-

vcncc.
Toulouse.

Nantes.
Brussels.

Liege.

J. A. D. INGRES

Muscc Bonnat I'rancesca da Kiinini

Muscc Boniiat Mme Dcvaucay, 1807

Musce Bontiat Baigncusc, 1807

Muscc l^onnat Charles X, 1825

Muscc Bonnat Portrait drawings

Cathedral The Martyrdom of St. Symphoricn,

1834

Muscc Ingres Jesus among the doctors, 1862

Muscc Ingres View from the Villa Medici, 1807

Muscc Ingres View of the Villa Borhcsc, 1807

Muscc Ingres Numerous drawings

Cathedral Le vccu de Louis XIII, 1824

Museum Philemon and Baucis ; drawing, c. 1801

Museum La Belle Zelic, 1806

Museum Jupiter and Thetis, 18 11

Museum Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus,

1812

Museum Mme de Senonnes, 1814 — ^

Museum Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus

(fragment), 18 19

Museum Napoleon as First Consul, 1803-1805

Ingres is one of the most puzzling figures in the whole history
of French art. He could be Classical and Romantic, formal and
naturalistic, ascetic and lascivious, majestic and absurd, all in
the same picture. At his best he was unquestionably a great
artist ; at his worst he touches the lowest Academic depths.
One thing only is clear as we study his pictures year by year
throughout his long life of unusual productivity — and that is that
he became gradually less of an artist with each succeeding year.
I lis finest and most intriguing pictures which include the ]upiter
and Thetis (PL 78) and the portrait Mme Kiviere (PI. 81) were all
painted before he was thirty-five. He was still working at the
age of eighty-t\vo and he ended as alternately a pedant and a
degraded photographic eye.^

Ingres was the son of a versatile artist of Montauban who made
architectural and garden sculpture and painted miniatures ; he
became a pupil in David's art school at the age of sixteen, and
kept himself by playing the violin in the orchestra of a theatre

^ And yet this extraordinary artist produced right at the end of his career
he hain tun now in the Louvre — a picture compounded of the rhythmic
grace of the early period and senile concupiscence.

J. A. D. INGRES

in the evenings.^ In 1801, at the age of twenty-one, he was
awarded a Prix de Rome, but as no funds were forthcoming for
the scholarship he had to wait for five years before receiving a
grant for the journey to Italy.

Within these five years he painted for the municipality of
Liege, Napoleon as ¥irst Consul^ which is now in the Museum of
that city. Napoleon as Emperor for the Corps legislatif, now in the
Invalides, the Self portrait now at Chantilly, and the portrait
Alme Riviere (PI. 81) which, with portraits of her husband and
daughter, is now in the Louvre.

Ingres went to Rome in 1806 and remained there till 1820.
He then lived for four years in Florence. He was thus in Italy
for eighteen years ; and there he kept himself, and later his wife
and mother as well, by making portrait drawings in pencil of the
character of A lady and a boy (PI. 82) which is now in the Metro-
politan Museum in New York.^

In Rome Ingres looked at the Renaissance masters, especially
Raphael, rather than at the antique sculpture which was recom-
mended in David's school ; but he also must have studied
antique cameos and we can perceive this influence in- the basso-
relievo effect oi Jupiter and Thetis {VI. 78), now in the Aix Museum,
which he sent to the Paris Salon in 1 81 1 when he was thirty-one.^

The Jupiter and Thetis is probably the most characteristic of all

1 The modern French painter M. Vlaminck did the same thing for a
number of years.

2 Ingres charged small fees for these portrait drawings and his sitters
came from all classes. They included artists and musicians, members of the
French colony in Rome, and foreign visitors to the city (the Musee Ingres,
at Moutauban, has a double drawing of Lord and Lady Cavendish-Bentinck).
They also included members of the petiie bourgeoisie of Rome many of whom
were sent to his studio by a friendly barber. Ingres drew his sitters singly,
in pairs, and in groups. He elaborated the heads and lightly indicated the
whole or half-length figures. The Musee Ingres at Montauban and the
Musee Bonnat at Bayonne have many characteristic examples of these
drawings.

^ The head of Jupiter in this picture is based on the Otricoli Zeus in the
Vatican. In 1806 Ingres painted his friend the sculptor Bartolini holding a
small marble replica of the head of this statue in his hand. The student will
find the picture reproduced by Lapauze who describes it as in the collection
of Drake del Castillo. Bartolini was in Paris in his early years and was
commissioned to make a head of Napoleon for the Colonne Vetidome.

198

Chuiililly. Mtisec CoiuU

l.-A.-D. INGRES. Franccsca da Rimini

London. Sir Philip Sassoon Collection

LOUIS DAVID. Head of a Girl.

Ni-u- York. A. U..i^uhn ( :.......„.

EUGENE DELACROIX. Hcsiod and the Muse.

J. A. D. INGRES

Ingres' pictures and the artist himself retained a preference for it
all his life. But it was badly received at the Salon and found no
purchaser. To critics accustomed to the Davidian tradition all
Ingres' early pictures appeared Gothic. His portrait, Mwe
\\iviere (PI. 8i), when exhibited in the Salon of 1806, had been
denounced as an affected return to the Gothic primitives of the
character of Jan Van l'!.yck and the same charge was made
against the Jupiter and Thetis.^

Delacroix's comment on Ingres in his early years was nearer
the mark ; Ingres, he said, was " un Chinois tgare dans Athenes " ;
and indeed there is something Chinese in the rhythmic flow of
line and in the tactile values of the Jupiter and Thetis and also in
Alme Kiviere.

Also, of course, the Jupiter and Thetis is more a Romantic than
a classical picture. The distortions of natural forms which
characterise it are more in the nature of Romantic distortions
to stress the emotivity of fragments than in the nature of
classical distortions determined by concerns with architectural
form.2

But the Jupiter and Thetis is nevertheless not purely a Romantic
picture ; its formal character is hybrid ; and it shows a strange
mixture of lyric rhythm and the pseudo-tragic grandeur of the
Operatic stage.

In 1 81 2 Ingres painted J^irgH reading the .Aeneid to Augustus,
a finely imagined history-picture in the Davidian tradition,
which is now in the Museum at Toulouse. The celebrated nude
known as La Grande Odalisque, now in the Louvre, was painted
in 1 8 14 and was sent to the Salon of 18 19. This picture, which
resembles the nudes of the French Renaissance School of
Fontainebleau, shows that Ingres had been studying Bronzino and
the Italian masters who influenced that school,^ and the same
quality appears in Kaphael and La Fomarina now in a private

* " L' Academic des Beaux Arts " wrote : " Cef artiste semble plutbt
s^e forcer a se rapprocher de I'epoque de la naissance de la peinture qu' a se pimtrer
des beaux principes qu' off rent les plus belles productions de to us les grands maitres
de I' art, principes dont on ne saurait s'ecarter impunement ..." And the writer
then proceeded to criticise the drawing of the torso of Jupiter and of the
left leg of the kneeling nymph.

- For the distinction cf. The Modern Movement in ^Ir/, pp. 29, 39, 145-153.

* Cf. pp. 28-30 and PI. 17c.

199

J. A. D. INGRES

collection which was painted in 1814, and in the ¥ ranee sea da
Rimmi (PI. 83) at Chantilly, which I assume to have been painted
at the same time.^

ha Grande Odalisque received a hostile reception at the Salon.
Once more Ingres was attacked as a Gothic artist but this time
he was called " a Gothic artist of the school of Cimabue," and he
was reminded that Gothic paintings of the Cimabue character
were " sans harmonie " and that " tout peinture sans harmonie est
barhareT^

In ha Grande Odalisque we can already perceive the direction
in which the artist was about to degenerate. The figure, com-
pared with those in the Jupiter and Thetis^ is over-modelled, and
in the actual painting there is a good deal of unpleasant surface
polish. The equally celebrated Mfne de Senonnes, now in the
Nantes Museum, is a truly Gothic picture where the artist has
aimed at trompe I' ail imitation of trumpery details and textures
in the lady's dress and jewellery and at highly-polished smooth-
ness in the face and hands. Mme de Senonnes anticipates the
Daguerrotype by which Ingres was undoubtedly much influenced
in his later years, ^ but it falls far short of the highest achievements
in this method of painting.^

In 1 8 17 Ingres received a commission to paint a Christ giving
the Keys to 'Peter for the church of Santa Trinita dei Monti in Rome.
His picture, an incredibly dreary Raphaelesque pastiehe, now in
the Louvre, was completed in 1820 ; it was much admired in
Rome and its success procured him a commission for he Voeu de
houis XIII for the Cathedral of Montauban. This picture
represents Louis XIII in a fleur de lys mantle kneeling before a

1 The version of this picture at Angers which lacks the rhythmic quality
and the formal distortions of the Chantilly version is dated 18 19, Ingres
often repeated his pictures with substantial variations at long intervals of
time.

2 La Grande Odalisque was a commission from Queen Caroline Murat of
Naples who was unable to take delivery after the Napoleonic collapse in
1 8 14. The picture found no purchaser at the Salon.

^ Cf. The Modern Movement in Art, pp. 88-92, 95, 96.

* The jewellery in Mme de Senonnes would be seen to be clumsily painted
if compared with the mirror and the beads on the wall in Jan Van Eyck's
picture Jan Arnolfini and his wife in the London National Gallery — or with
the nails in the chair of Vermeer's Lady standing at the Virginals in the same

museum.

200

J. A. D. INGRES

Raphaelesquc Virgin ; it can still be seen in the Montauban
Cathedral.

In 1824 Ingres returned to Paris and exhibited L.e l^au de
Louis XIII in the Salon. This time he scored a triumph ; he
received congratulations from all sides ; he was invited to join
the Institute ; and he was given the Legion of I lonour by
Charles X.»

Le Vau de Louis XIII, as a subject from French history of the
past, was in the taste of the period as already noted ; and Ingres,
who seems to have been aware of this orientation, brought to
Paris at the same time a number of other pictures in this
" tro:d'adour " style. They included Henri IV playing with his
children,- The Ilntrj of Charles V to Paris, ^ Franfois I at the death-
bed of Leonardo da Vinci, ^ Philip V and the Marshal of Berwick,^
Pius VII in the Sistine Chapel (Louvre) and the 18 19 Angers
version of the Francesca da Ki;;/ini to which I have referred above.

He now received commissions for the portrait Charles X
(Musce Bonnat, Bayonne), for the Apotheosis of Homer, originally
painted for the ceiling of a galler}" in the Louvre and now exhi-
bited on the wall, and for the Martyrdom of St. Sjmphorien for
the Cathedral at Autun. He also had commissions for portraits.

The years of his adversity were thus over. Money flowed
into his pockets. He sold the engraving rights of his " trouba-
dour " pictures ; and he opened an art school v>^hich continually
increased in size.

As David was now dead and Delacroix had begun to show his
tumultuous Romantic paintings in the Salons, Ingres — so long
decried as Gothic — now found himself hailed as champion of
the Davidian classical tradition, and even his complete failure
to acliieve a classical picture in the Apotheosis of Homer was
hailed as a success. He accepted the position and became a

^ The Louvre has a picture Charles X distributing the awards in the Salon of
1824 by F. J. Ileim (1787-1865) in which l^e Van de 'Louis XIII is seen on
the wall of the Salon.

'^ I do not know the present whereabouts of this picture.

^ This dreary Academic tableau-vivant reproduced by Lapau/e is catalogued
as in the collection Bessoneau d' Angers.

* I do not know the present whereabouts of this picture.

^ This picture which recalls Le Brun's Louis XIV tapestries is reproduced
by Lapauze and catalogued as Collection de La Comtesse Robert de Fit^ames.

1 D 201

J. A. D. INGRES

pedant of the Institute from which he helped to exclude Dela-
croix for twenty-seven years.

In 1834 he returned to Rome as Director of the Academy and
remained there till 1841. His Stratonke (now at Chantilly) was
painted at the end of this period in Rome. He spent the final
period of his life in Paris.

The climax of his career was the 'Exposition Universelle of 185 5,
when he had a gallery entirely filled with his main production
to that date.^

In his later years he painted a number of portraits of Second
Empire ladies wliich continue the Daguerrotype manner of the
Mme de Senonnes at Nantes.

Ingres made a great many preliminary studies for all his pic-
tures, and some hundreds are preserved in the Musee Ingres at
Montauban. There the visitor will also find the Jesus among the
Doctors — a picture horrible in colour and Raphaelesque in
design — which Ingres painted at the age of eighty-two.^

Had Ingres died, as Raphael and Watteau died, at thirty-seven,
the world would rank him very high indeed. Is it possible that
Raphael and Watteau would also have degenerated had they
also painted till the age of eighty-six P^

1 In this exhibition where Delacroix also had a gallery of his own (cf.
p. 212), Ingres to his intense annoyance only received the second medal;
the first was given to Horace Vernet (i 789-1 863), a painter of military
pictures. Others who received medals were Delacroix, Meissonier (cf. note
p. 251) and the English animal painter Landseer (cf. note, p. 207). The
English Pre-Raphaelites were represented in this exhibition and their work
was remarked by Delacroix.

2 A day in the Musee Ingres at Montauban is a depressing experience.
But the student will find a second day, when he has mastered the relation
of the individual drawings to the artist's awre as a whole, exceedingly
instructive. Ingres appears here as a man of extraordinary zeal and moral
energy especially if we remember that he suffered all his life from rheumatism,
asthma and vertiges.

^ One more judgment on Ingres must be recorded — that of Baudelaire,
a critic who belongs more to our century than his own. To Baudelaire
Ingres was *^ ce pedant dont f aime peu les faculiis ffmlingres." But we must
remember that this was written of the later periods as Baudelaire only
frequented the Salons from 1 845 onwards. He may not have been acquainted
with Mme Kivi^re and Jupiter and Thetis.

202

THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

vij. The Romantic Movement

In the later years of the reign of Louis XVIII, and all through
the reign of Charles X (i 824-1 830) and Louis-Philippe (1830-
1848), liberal thought in France and especially in Paris was in a
state of ferment. Charles X was a grotesque reactionary who
believed that the misfortunes which had befallen Louis XVI
were due to the concessions which he had made to liberal ideas ;
he had nothing but contempt for the English theory of a con-
stitutional monarchy ; he muzzled the Press and tried to put
the clock back to the seventeenth century. The discontent
aroused by this stupidity continued under the more prudent
Louis-Philippe and culminated in the revolution of 1848 and the
establishment of the Second Repubhc.

The celebrated Romantic movement in literature and art
that arose and flourished between 1820 and 1850 was the
artistic equivalent of the individualist liberal thought of the
period.

The official doctrinaire and propaganda painting of the
Revolution, and the official propaganda painting of the Empire,
had been followed, as noted, by official " troubadour " painting
under Louis XVIIL The Romantic movement developed this
" troubadour " style, not as a renew^al with the past but as an
exaltation of Gothic freedom and individualism as opposed to
classical order and control.^

I have discussed the relation of the Romantic movement
to the Cubist-classical Renaissance of 1 886-1914 in The
Modern Movement in Art, where I wrote : " The idea of art
served by the artists of the Romantic movement a hundred years
ago was the idea that the artist's function was to discover and
record unusually emotive fragments. For the creation of a formal
harmony and unity symbolising the harmony and unity of the
universe, which is and always has been the classical architectural
idea of art, the Romantic artist substituted the search for some

^ As M. HauteccEur has put it : " a la beaute il opposa k caractire, a la
raison k sentiment, au dessin la couleur, a l' an ti quite les temps modernes, a Kaphael
Michel- Ange, aux Carraches Rubens, au nu le vttement, a la nature humanisee la
nature sauvage."

203

THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

emotive fragment hitherto regarded as without emotive power.
The fragments chosen by the Romantics were chosen not for their
formal or generic but for their emotive significance ; they were
the fragments which had affected the artist's emotions. Whether,
judged by standards of Greek or Grasco-Roman sculpture or
Renaissance painting, the fragment was beautiful or ugly did
not affect the issue ; if the fragment aroused emotion in the
artist it was ' beautiful ' ; and its reproduction was worth while
on that ground alone." In that book I have also pointed out
that according to the Romantic creed the artist must be in a
state of emotion at the time of working and that this emotion
must be evident in the actual handling of the paint ; and I have
discussed there the general character of the pictures painted as
a result of this new creed, and the effects of that creed on pictorial
technique.^

From the social standpoint the Romantic movement was of
great significance because the Romantic creed created the con-
ception of the artist as an individual charged with the duty of
increasing his sensibility and his emotional receptivity to the
utmost in order to react with the utmost emotional vitality to
emotive fragments of life ; and by the same token it created
the conception of the artist as an eccentric^ an individual outside
society, subject only to laws dictated by the needs of his peculiar
vocation.

The Bohemian artist was the creation of the Romantic move-
ment, because original Romantic art could not be produced by
a hon bourgeois who thought it important to wear the same clothes
as his neighbours and to come home punctually for meals.

As the Romantic movement was part of the liberal individual-
ism of the period, and as the Bohemian artist defied the laws and
standards of bourgeois life, the period also saw the beginning
of that hostility between the artist and the bourgeois which,
together with the conception of the original artist as of necessity
a Bohemian, persists to some extent to-day. The hostility has
been fomented by the popular artists, who, jealous of original
art, have endeavoured to discredit all the original artists of the
last hundred years. ^

^ Cf. The Modern Movement in Art, pp. 15-14, and pp. 14-17, 27-31, 38-40,
55-66, 68, 197-201, 206-212. 2 (3f. pp. 222, 223, 238, 239.

204

THE ROMANTIC ArOVEMRNT

The Romantic movement at the outset was not understood
by the public who looked at its first manifestations in amaze-
ment. But its individualist character was stigmatised by the
artists who remained attached to the Davidian tradition and
opposed their own confused concept of the classical principle
to the new creed.

Both sides painted demonstration pictures, defending their
principles, and sent these pictures to the Salons ; and thus
began the production of pictures, often gigantic in size, which
were painted to attract attention and defend a principle in public
exhibitions, and had no further function when the exhibition
closed.^

^ These huge demonstration pictures were, of course, quite unsuited for a
private house and unless they were purchased by the State they returned as
" white elephants " to the artists' studios.

In the eighteenth century, as we have seen, all the large pictures painted
were either commissioned as decorations for particular places or else
commissions from the Surintendant des Bdtiments for tapestries to be made at
the Gobelins and Bcauvais factories for the Royal palaces or other luxurious
interiors. When this demand began to disappear the production of large
history-pictures was artificially continued by D'Angivilliers and Louis
XVI for the sake of perpetuating the Grand Manner (cf. note, p. 183),
and the pictures thus commissioned, when ultimately purchased by the
State, were sent to Versailles. The Revolutionary Government, as noted
(cf. p. 180), had commissioned and given money prizes for patriotic
histor)'-pictures ; but they could not absorb all the production of such
work, and David himself, who could not sell his Sabines and his Uonidas,
reimbursed himself for the time and money expended on them by charging
for admission to his studio to see them (cf. p. 1^5). During the First Empire
the Napoleonic propaganda pictures, officially commissioned or bought,
were hung in the Tuileries and at Versailles. When, under Louis XVIII,
the pictures in the Musee Napoleon were returned to their countries of
origin (cf. p. 190) the empty spaces on the Louvre walls were partly covered
by the removal of the Rubens Medici panels from the Luxembourg Palace
to the Louvre ; and this was followed in 18 18 by the arrangement of the
Luxembourg as a gallery for contemporary pictures, and the official purchases
of ''' troubadour ^^ pictures in this and succeeding reigns were sent there.
But the Luxembourg eventually became " full up " and then provincial
galleries were instituted to take the overflow. Under the Third Republic
the fund allotted by the Revolutionary Government for the purchase of
contemporary pictures (cf. p. 180) was developed to the caisse des musees and
it became the custom for the State to buy and send to the Luxembourg or
some provincial museum a certain number of pictures every year. As the
choice has usually been for pictures that would otherwise be " white

203

THEODORE GERICAULT

I have already referred to the Classical demonstration Salon
pictures produced by the pupils of David. The earliest Romantic
demonstration pictures were produced by Theodore Gericault,
painter of the celebrated Kadeau de la Meduse^ which was a Salon
sensation in 1819.

Other early exponents of the new creed were E.-F.-M.-J.
Deveria (i 805-1 865), painter of La Naissance de Henri 7K, which
attracted attention in the Salon of 1 827 and is now in the Louvre ;
and Richard Parkes Bonington (i 801-1828), an English pupil
of Gros, who scored successes in the Salons of 1822 and 1824,
and was a friend of Delacroix, the one great artist of the move-
ment.

Vn]^ Theodore Gericault (1791-1824)

Theodore Gericault was a rich amateur who scored a Salon
success at the age of twenty-one with his Officier de chasseurs a
cheval{my^ in the Louvre) where we see an officer of the Imperial
Guard mounted on a rearing horse (copied from an engraving
after Raphael's battle of Constantine). He tried to repeat the suc-
cess in the Salon of 18 14 with he Cuirassier hlesse quittant le feu
(now in the Louvre) which was painted in a fortnight ; but this
picture, where the horse was not copied from Raphael, failed to
impress the public or the critics. In 1816 he went to Italy
where he studied Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel
and the drawings of horses by Leonardo da Vinci. On his
return to Paris in 1 8 1 8 he painted Le Kadeau de la Meduse which
is now in the Louvre.

This picture, which shows shipwrecked men on a raft, made
a sensation in the 1819 Salon because the wreck of the Meduse
was then of topical interest, and the liberals who were accusing
the captain of incompetency were making the disaster an excuse
for attacks upon the Government. For the emaciated survivors
on the raft Gericault made studies in hospitals and from corpses ;
for the central figure he made a study from a friend who was

elephants " in the artists' studios, a visit to most of the French provincial
museums entails a good deal of rapid walking until the works of a more
significant character (which they generally possess as the result of gifts and
bequests) are discovered.

206

THKODORI-: GKRICAULT

suffering from jaundice, and he borrowed the attitude of this
figure from Ugolino and his sons (by Reynolds), engravings
of which were known in the Parisian studios at the
time.

In 1820 Gericault went with he Kadeau de la Meduse to England
where the picture was exhibited and brought him considerable
money. ^

In England Gericault was influenced by the English genre
school which he imitated in lithographs and paintings of urban
and rustic subjects ; he also looked at English sporting prints
and produced Le Derby d'Epsow, now in the Louvre, in
imitation ; but above all he was impressed with the animal
paintings of James Ward and Landseer.^

In luigland Gericault seems to have become (as Watteau
became) avaricious. He now regarded his considerable private
means as insutlicient and returning to France in 1822 he engaged

^ The sum mentioned by his biographers varies from 17,000 to 20,000
francs. I cannot translate this into present values. Gericault must also
have made money from engravings of this picture ; but he never was able
to sell it ; the Louvre acquired it at the sale of his pictures after his death.
The Officier de chasseurs a c/jeval and Le Cuirassier blesse were bought (I believe
at the same sale) by the Due d'Orleans. The Louvre acquired them from the
Louis-Philippe sale.

2 Animal paintings by James Ward (1769-18 5 9) can be seen in the London
National Gallery (Millbank). In his handling of oil paint this most interest-
ing artist, who must be reckoned an early contributor to the Romantic
movement, anticipates Van Gogh. Gericault saw his pictures at the
Academy and the British Institution, where he also saw works by Landseer
who was then under twenty.

Landseer (i 802-1 873) was a very precocious painter. He exhibited
pictures in the Academy when he was thirteen ; and he scored successes at
the British Institution in 1819 with The Cat Disturbed^ in 1820 with Alpine
Alas tiffs reanimating a distressed Traveller, in 1821 with The Sei-::iure of a Boar,
and in 1822 with The harder invaded {01 which he received a ^^150 premium
from the Institution.

Gericault wrote from London to a friend : " Vous ne pom'e-:^ pas vous
faire une idee des beaux portraits de cette annee et d'un grand nombre de paj sages tt
de tableaux de genre ; des animaux peints par Ward et par Landseer, agi de dix-
huit ans ; les mattres n'ont rien produit de mieux en ce genre ..."

Gericault also saw and admired Wilkie's Chelsea pensioners reading the
Waterloo Gazette (which Wilkie painted for the Duke of Wellington whose
descendants still own it). •

207

EUGENE DELACROIX

in business speculations in order to increase them. But the
speculations were unsuccessful and before he died two years later
he was almost ruined.^

ix. Eugene Delacroix

BORN CHARENTON-SAINT-MAURICE I798. DIED PARIS 1863

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London. National Gallery The Baron Schwiter (Refused Salon

1827. Worked on 1830)
London. National Gallery, Attila driving Beauty, Art and Pleasure

Millbank before him (1855?)

London. National Gallery Sketches for the Palais Bourbon decor-

ations
London. Wallace Collection The Execution of the Doge Marino

Faliero, 1826
London. Wallace Collection Faust and Mephistopheles, Salon 1827

London. Victoria and Al- The Good Samaritan, 1852

bert Museum
London. Victoria and Al- The Shipwreck of Don Juan, 1839

bert Museum
New York. Metropolitan The Abduction of Rebecca, 1846

Museum

^ G^ricault died at the age of thirty-three as the result of a fall from his
horse. There is a tendency at the moment in France to overrate his work
which was coarse and derivative (and incidentally the source of the painting
of Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) ).

Gericault had a most disagreeable streak in his psychological constitution.
In Rome he enjoyed and made drawings inspired by the brutal sport known
as the Barberi in which riderless horses with spurs attached to them were
thrashed into racing in Carnival time on the P/«^:^d del popolo. His drawings
for compositions show men thrashing horses and pulling their tails, horses
biting one another, men stunning oxen in the slaughter-house, and negroes
being beaten by slave drivers. He made a terra cotta group (which has
disappeared) called Negre qui brutalise une Jemme ; he chose stallions for
mounts and overrode them.

He did not marry ; as my knowledge goes, he introduced no female
figures into his compositions and he painted no pictures of women except
several studies of mad women, one of which can be seen in the Lyons
Museum.

His Carabinier (in the Louvre), painted when he was twenty-three, is
probably his best picture ; but it is no more than a good art-school study.
The Wilstach Collection, Philadelphia, has the head and bust of a soldier
with his head bandaged which is known as The Wounded Soldier.

208

Boston, Aluseum^of Fine Arts

EUGENE DELACROIX. Picta.

New \'()rk.
New York.
New Yi)rk.

EUGHNU di:lacroix

The Garden of Georges Sand at Nohant
Jesus on Lake Gcnncsarct, 1853

New York.

Boston.

Chicago.

Philadelphia.

Cleveland.

Paris.

Paris.
Paris.

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Paris.

Metropolitan
Museum

A. Lewisohn Col-
lection

Museum of Fine
Arts

Art Institute

Fairmont Park

Museum of Art

Louvre

Louvre
Louvre

Louvre
Louvre
Louvre
Louvre

Louvre

Decorative panels :
Hcsiod and the Muse
The Captivity in Babylon
The Death of St. John the Baptist
The Drachma of the Tribute
The Death of Seneca
Aristotle describes the Animals

Martyrdom of St. Sulpicius (sketch),
<r. 1855

Lion Hunt, c. 1854

Picta, 1848

Dante's Barque

Oriental Lion Hunt, c. 1834

L' Amende honorable, 183 1

Arabs resting in a forest

Dante et Virgile aux enfers, 1822

Les massacres de Scio : Families grec-

ques attendant la mort et I'esclavage,

balon 1824
La Mort dc Sardanapale, Salon 1829
Le 28 juillet 1830. La Liberte guidant

le peuple, 1830
Jeune tigre jouant avec sa mere, 1850
Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement,

1834
Le prisonnier de Chillon, 1834
Noce juive dans le Maroc, 1839
Hamlet et Horatio au cimetiere, 1839
Prise de Constantinople par les Croises,

1840
Le naufrage de Don Juan, 1840
Le Christ en croix, 1848
Lion et sanglier, 1853
L'enlevemcnt de Rebecca par le templier

de Bois Guilbert, 1858
Chevaux arabes se battant dans une

ecurie, i860
Medea furieuse allant poignarder ses

enfants, 1862
Still life with landscape background,

1826

2 E

209

DELACROIX'S LIFE

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Chantilly.

Chantilly.
Chantilly.
Lyons.
Lyons.

Lyons.

Montpellier.
Montpellier.
Montpellier.
Montpellier.

Montpellier.
Montpellier.
Montpellier.

Rouen.
Rouen.
The Hague.
The Hague.

Louvre
Louvre
Louvre (Gallery of

Apollo)
Musee Conde

Musee Conde
Musee Conde
Museum
Museum

Museum

Musee Fabre
Musee Fabre
Musee Fabre
Musee Fabre

Musee Fabre
Musee Fabre
Musee Fabre

Museum
Museum
Mesdag Museum
Mesdag Museum

Portrait of Chopin, 1838

Portrait of Georges Sand

Apollon vainqueur du serpent Python,

1850-1851
Prise de Constantinople par les Croises

(sketch)
Les deux Foscari, 1845
Corps de garde marocain (before 1848)
Odalisque couchee, 1827
Derniers moments de I'Empereur Marc

Aurele, 1844
Assassinat de I'eveque de Liege, 1830-

1831?
Aline la Mulatresse, 1821
Exercise militaire des Marocains, 1832
L'Education d'Achille, 1 842-1 843
Femmes d' Alger dans leur interieur,

1849
Daniel dans la fosse des lions, 1849
Michelangelo dans son atelier, 1850
Orph^e secourt Eurydice mordue par un

serpent, 1862
La bataille de Taillebourg, Salon 1837
La Justice de Trajan, Salon 1840
Descent from the Cross
The Eve of Waterloo

(a) Delacroix's Life

Eugene Delacroix's father was a lawyer, who eventually
became Republican ambassador to Holland and Prefet at
Marseilles. His mother's family included several artists. His
parents had means, and Delacroix himself did not at first con-
template painting as a profession. After completing the
ordinary education of his class he entered Guerin's studio as
an amateur.^

In 1 8 19 after the death of both his parents he found himself
penniless as the result of an unsuccessful lawsuit about the
family property ; and he was never completely without money
difficulties for the rest of his life.

In 1820 he painted a picture for the convent of Les Dames du

1 " Je veux y passer quelque temps" he wrote, "pour avoir au moins un petit
talent d' amateur." (For Guerin, cf. p. 193.)

210

DFXACROIX'S I, IFF

Sacrc-Grur at Nantes which can still be seen there. 'I'his
commission had been passed on to him by Gcricault when he
heard of his financial ditficulties. Delacroix's next picture was
the Dank et l^irgde (now in the Louvre) which was a feature of
the Salon of 1822 and was bought by the Administration des
Bea/Lx Arts. The celebrated Massacres de Scio (now in the
Louvre) was in the Salon of 1824.

In these years Delacroix had been sharing a studio, in con-
ditions of poverty, with an English artist named Fielding. In
1825 he went for a few months to England and stayed with
Fielding ; and there he called on Wilkie, Lawrence and F^tty.^

On his return to Paris Delacroix painted 1m Mort de Sardana-
pale (now in the Louvre) and in the next two years he had
commissions from the Minister of the Interior and from Louis-
Philippe. In 1830 Louis-Philippe bought his l^e 28 juillet 1830:
Lm liherte guidant le peuple (now in the Louvre) from the Salon,
and awarded him the Legion of Honour in recognition of the
picture's political significance. U Amende Honorable^ now in the
W'ilstach Collection in Philadelphia, was painted in 1831.

This ends the first period of Delacroix's activity. He was now
thirty-three and his Romantic demonstration pictures Les
Massacres de Scio and the ha Mort de Sardanapale had brought
him great celebrity and called forth virulent abuse from the
partisans of the Institute. But there was no denying his amazing
facihty as a painter, or the richness of his pictorial conceptions ;
there was no escape from the dramatic appeal of such a subject
as La Mort de Sardanapale with its subtitle in the catalogue which
read : " Couche sur un lit superhe an so m met d'lm immense bucfjer,
Sardanapale donne I'ordre a ses eunuques et aux officiers dn palais
d*egorger ses femmes^ ses pages, jusqu'a ses chevaux et ses chiens
favoris, aucun des ohjets qui avaient servi d ses plaisirs ne devaient ltd
survivre . . ." especially as the excitement of the subject was
carried into the tumultuous rhythms of the picture and the
vigorous touches of a " brosse ivre."

In 1832 Delacroix went to Morocco with the Comte de
Mornay, French Ambassador to the Sultan ; in the following

^ Delacroix admired all these English artists. He also admired Constable.
He stated that he had altered his own method of painting after contemplating
Constable's Hay Wain (now in the National Galler}-) in the Salon of 1824.

211

DELACROIX'S LIFE

year he went to Spain ; on his return to Paris he exhibited
paintings recording his experience on these journeys, and these
pictures were the beginning of tlie wave of so-called " Oriental-
ism " that now invaded the Salons.^

The Oriental Lion Hunt (PI. 85) now in the Chicago Art
Institute, the Lion Hunt in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts,
and the Exercises militaires des Marocains in the Musee Fabre at
Montpellier are typical of Delacroix's " Oriental " pictures
which greatly increased his reputation in Paris. His Femmes
d' Alger dans leur appartement (now in the Louvre) was an official
purchase from the Salon of 1834 and he was commissioned to
paint L'Lntree des Croises d Constantinople (now in the Louvre)
for Versailles, and decorations for the Salon du Roi in the
Palais Bourbon.

It was in fact now realised that Delacroix had superb decora-
tive talents and these commissions for decorations were followed
by commissions in 1 844 for decorations in the Library of the
Palais Bourbon, in 1845 for the Library of the Luxembourg,
and in 1 849 for the Salon de la Paix in the Hotel de Ville and for
the ceihng of Le Brun's Gallery of Apollo in the Louvre. ^

Yet another aspect of his talent is seen in the splendid Pietd
(PL 86) now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which was
painted in 1848 when the artist was fifty.

Delacroix's final triumph came in 1855 at the Exposition
Universelle where he had a gallery of his own filled with thirty-
five of his most important pictures. The Romantic movement
by this time had won all its battles and Delacroix was recognised
by all intelligent people as its central figure though the general
public preferred the work of his less vigorous imitators.

In that year also he received the commission for the decora-
tions in the church of Saint-Sulpice.

In 1837 he had apphed for a vacancy in the Institute and been
refused. In 1838 he had applied again and been again refused.

^ Cf. The Modern Movement in Art, p. 60, where I also refer to the work
of Theodore Chasscriau (18 19-18 5 6) who began as a follower of David and
Ingres and ended as an imitator of Delacroix's " orientalism."

■^ Cf. pp. 77 and 81. Delacroix was able to get these official commissions
because owing to his social position he had many highly-placed personal
friends in political circles. He secured them in spite of the Institute's hostility.

212

Or.T.ACROTX'S ART

III 1 S49 he had applied a third time and been a third time refused,
hi 1853 he applied a fourth time and his application was not even
considered. In 1857 when he was nearly sixty and had only six
years more to live he applied a fifth time and was elected to a
seat vacated by the death of one of his imitators.^

{b) Delacroix's .Art

Delacroix was the last of the Old Masters and the first great
master of the modern school. He picked up the I'^uropean
tradition of decorative painting at the point where it had been
left by the Venetians and Rubens. The art of Rubens had been
the epic art of the Italian High Renaissance and early Baroque
masters translated into Flemish. For the remainder of the
centur)" the followers of Rubens imitated the externals of his
pictures. Then W'atteau translated the Rubens epic into French
lyrics and this in turn was eventually echoed in charming little
tunes by the English painter Charles Conder (i 868-1909) with
whom the tradition breathed its last faint cadences and died.

Delacroix went back behind W'atteau to Rubens himself. The
Rubens series of Marie de Medicis panels was transferred, as
noted, to the Louvre in 181 8 ;2 and in his youth Delacroix had
doubtless seen magnificent works by the Venetians in the Musee
Napoleon ; here were masters who worked on a scale and in a
spirit that aroused his ambition and when the time came to test
liis own capacities he found that he could challenge even in this
majestic field.

To the modern student with his eye and mind attuned to the
Cubist-Classical Renaissance the whole Romantic creed as rep-
resented by the work of Delacroix seems a lamentable heresy.
Most of the material that went to the making of Delacroix's
demonstration pictures seems to us absurd and \Tilgar. Trained
by the classical calm and dignity of the pictures by Seurat,
Cezanne, and the Cubists we can hardly bring ourselves to con-
template the tumultuous rhythms, the drama, and the rhetoric
in Delacroix's pictures. From the modern standpoint which
appreciates David's diztMm pas d'ewportementdupinceau Delacroix's

^ Paul Delarochc (1797-18 5 6), painter of The Princes in the Toner and The
Death of Queen Elii:^abeth, now both in the Luxembourg (cf. The Modern Move-
ment in Art, pp. 57, 59 and 66). • Cf. note, p. 205.

213

FRANCO-DUTCH LANDSCAPE PAINTERS

brosse ivre seems sheer braggadocio, a form of exhibitionism
that leaves us quite unmoved ; and compared with the
architectural deliberation that pervades the work of the new
classical masters a painting by Delacroix seems not so much a
picture as a series of dramatic records of the artistes sensuous
reactions to emotive fragments collected in one frame.

But if we contemplate any individual passage in a picture by
Delacroix, or one of the still life groups which he threw off now
and then as relaxation, we find the artist's verve and use of colour
an intoxicating vintage that it is hard if not impossible to resist ;
and thus it comes that Delacroix seems to us most essentially a
master in a fragment like the decorative sketch Hesiod and the
Muse (PI. 84b) in Mr. Adolph Lewisohn's collection, or in the
individual fragments of the Oriental Lion Hunt (PI. 85) ; and
that he seems above all a master when he abandons the rubato of
his most characteristic pictures and gives us a relatively tranquil
picture like the Pieta (PI. 86) in the Museum at Boston, a work
which recalls Tintoretto by whom it was obviously inspired.

In the later nineteenth century when great interest was taken
in methods of painting Delacroix's technique was much applauded.
His use of broken colour to increase the vitality of the picture's
surface — a device already used by Watteau on a miniature scale
— made a great appeal to the Impressionists. The modern
student is less concerned with methods of painting. The
Romantics and the Impressionists finally established for the
artist a right to dispose his paint upon the canvas in spots or
dashes or in any other manner that he might adopt or invent.
When those movements degenerated it was seen that this free-
dom was, in itself, no aid to the creation of a work of art. But
when Delacroix first proclaimed this freedom he was pro-
claiming a paradox; and by so doing he made possible the
achievements of Manet, Renoir and Cezanne.^

X. Franco-Dutch Landscape Painters

While liberalism and individualism were being symbolised
in Delacroix's pictures, another aspect of the period — the growth

1 Delacroix was a very prolific artist. He has left us over eight h^r\(dj:ed
pictures, a thousand minor works and some six thQ\jsand drawings,

214

FRANCO-DUTCH LANDSCAPE PAINTF-RS

of the middle classes — was being symbolised in a group of
French landscape painters who appeared at the same time.

After the arrogance of Charles X, Louis-Philippe made a
show of democratic sentiment and posed deliberately as le rot
bourgeois ; he walked the streets of Paris, unattended, carrying
an umbrella, and his Queen continued her needlework when
she received the ladies of her Court. Modern bourgeois France
as we know it began in fact about 1830 ; and these conditions
created a new school of popular landscape painting of the kind
which had appeared in similar conditions about 1630 in Holland.*

The leading names among these Franco-Dutch landscape
painters, some of whom worked a good deal in the region of
Fontainebleau forest, are Jules Dupre (18 12-18 89), Theodore
Rousseau (18 12-1867), Charles-Fran9ois Daubigny (18 17-1878),
and Henri Harpignies (1819-1916) ; with them we must associate
Charles Jacque (18 13-1894), who specialised in landscapes with
ducks and geese and cliickens, and Constant Troyon (18 10-1865),
who painted landscapes with cows, sometimes of a considerable
size.

Some of the landscapes produced by this school were less
obviously categoric than the Dutch seventeenth-century pictures
which they resemble and by which they were influenced ; the
artists were affected by the Romantic movement and they often
made their landscapes dramatic and emotive by recording the
effects of light in nature which seem to correspond to human
moods. I'his was notably the case with Theodore Rousseau
whose work, moreover, sometimes shows qualities derived from
the picturesque-classical tradition of French landscape ; and it
was also the case with Diaz de la Pena (i 808-1 876), a French
painter of Spanish parentage, who alternated landscape with little
pictures of nude groups influenced by Delacroix himself.

The Institute adopted an attitude of violent hostility to this
school of popular landscape ; it persecuted the artists with all

* It is usual to ascribe the blame iot these Franco-Dutch landscapes to
the influence of Constable and the English painters of the Norwich School
who had begun to imitate Hobbema and other Dutch eighteenth-centur)'
popular landscape painters a little earlier. But the growth of the French
middle class at this period would in any event have caused a recrudescence
of this and other forms of popular art. (Cf. An Introduction to Dutch Arty
p. 183).

215

COROT'S LIFE

the means at its command ; and it was scarcely less hostile to
Camille Corot, the outstanding French landscape painter of the
period.

xi. Camille Corot^ (1796-187 5)

{a) Corofs hife

Camille Corot was the son of a Parisian coiffeur who married
a Swiss modiste and then opened a Magasin de modes in the rue
du Bac, where he became prosperous and a fournisseur of the
Tuileries. When Camille was nineteen he was an assistant in a
draper's shop in the rue Richelieu ; he already drew and painted
in his spare time but his parents refused to finance him for the
career of an artist. Five years later the situation was much the
same ; but that year saw the death of a poor relation whom
Corot's father had supported and Camille now received this
allowance with parental permission to devote himself to art.

This occurred in 1822 when Corot was twenty-six. He lived
on this small allowance and other funds provided by his father,
without selling a single picture, for the next sixteen years, and
he did not begin to make a regular income from his work till he
was nearly sixty, when he had already inherited his father's
property. '* Camille s'amuse " his father used to remark to his
friends, just as Chardin's contemporaries — astonished at his
later concentration on still-life paintings and liis neglect of his
opportunities for making money — remarked that '* M. Chardin
ne peint que pour son amusement T^

From 1822 to 1825 Corot painted landscapes at Rouen, on
the Normandy coast, and at his father's country house at Ville
d'Avray ; in 1825 liis father provided funds for a three years'
stay in Italy and in 1834 he again provided money for a second
visit with the proviso this time that the visit should not exceed
six months. " Nous ne sommes plus jeuneSy ta mere et moi^'' his
father said to him, " ne nous ahandonne pas trop longtempsT Corot

^ For a catalogue of Corot's paintings and details of his life the
student is referred to the works of Alfred Robaut and Etienne Moreau-
Nelaton.

Most of the leading museums in Europe and America contain examples
of Corot's work ; a characteristic series showing his work at all periods is
dispersed in various galleries in the Louvre. 2 Cf. note, p. 140.

216

; >nu- M!,^::,iK

CAMILLE COROT. Venice.

Paris. MM. Paul Rosciiherg Collection

CAMILLE COROT, HonHcur— Maisons sur les Quais.

COROT'S LIFE

inherited his parents', largeness of heart. When he was himself
an old man and dealers flocked round him he used to send them
pictures by poor artists, whose work he respected, together
with his own,

Corot sent examples of his numerous paintings year after
year to the Salons, but nobody bought them. Eventually the
Due d'Orleans bought two in 1838. The State bought one the
year after and another in 1842. In 1843 the Salon rejected his
picture and the same thing happened the next year. In 1846
when he was fifty he received his first commission — a baptism
of Christy which was ordered for the Church of Saint Nicolas-
du-Chardonnet. In the same year he received the Legion of
Honour. *' Puisque I'on decore Camille, il jaut qu'il ait du talent^^
said his father who thought at first that the decoration was
intended for himself.

In 1 849 a reconstitution of the Salon Jury had a considerable
effect on Corot's situation. Under the Restoration Kings and
Louis-Philippe the Jury was exclusively composed of the Insti-
tute caucus. When, after the Revolution of 1848, the Second
Republic arrived, with Louis Bonaparte as President, the bril-
liant art historian Charles Blanc became a Director of the
Administration des Bea//x Arts, and the exliibition for that year
was thrown open to everyone, without an intervening Jury,
as it had been thrown open in the first Revolution in 1791 .^ The
flood of popular landscapes and other popular pictures was so
enormous at the 1848 Salon that the Jury was re-established in
the following year, but its members were elected not by the
Institute but by the votes of the whole body of exhibitors. In
these conditions Corot found liimself elected to the jury and the
Hanging Committee by the votes of the Franco-Dutch landscape
painters who admired his work.

About this time he adopted his fluffy grey treatment of trees
and foliage wliich the public admired because it resembled trees
and foliage as recorded in photographs ; and dealers began to
think of securing liis production. ^

1 Cf. p. 179.

* The dealers were encouraged by the action of Louis Bonaparte who as
Napoleon III bought of his own volition Corot's Sotwcnir de Marcoussis (now
in the Louvre) in the Exposition Universelle of 185 5.

2 F 217

COROT'S ART

Corot, personally, was a very agreeable companion. As
he had never had to bother about selling his pictures, and
as he had the sense to be content with his small independent
means, he presented the engaging spectacle of a man with
simple tastes who stood outside the struggle for existence
and was always ready to be kind to other people. He spent a
good deal of his time in visits to various friends and wherever
he went he painted landscapes in the surrounding country.

When the Franco-Prussian war broke out he was seventy-
four and by that time he had been making a large income from
dealers for fifteen years. During the war he worked in his
studio in Paris and he sent a sum of money to the mayor of his
arrondissement for " la confection des canons pour chasser les Prussiens
des hois de Ville d'Avray." He died in Paris at the age of seventy-
nine.i

{b) Corofs Art

Corot was the first French artist of consequence to look at
nature with a photographic eye. He worked in his early years
with minor French landscape painters who still retained some-
thing of the picturesque-classical tradition of Vernet, Robert
and Moreau ; he was all his life a student of the work of the Old
Masters ; but, with a natural tendency to mechanical imitation,
he had the misfortune to begin painting just before the arrival-
of the camera and to work in the years of his maturity in the
first flush of the photographic period.

The photographic vision which pervades Corot's ceuvre
inevitably prejudices the modern student against it. We live in
a photograph-sodden age. We have photographs thrust before
us in the morning paper at breakfast and again in the afternoon ;
and many people go of their own volition in the evenings to
establishments that exhibit still more photographs — photographs
that succeed one another with lightning rapidity and are now
accompanied, I am told, by noises that resemble human speech.
The modern student, who has followed the magnificent efforts

^ After Corot's death his pictures were so much sought after by collectors
that they were forged in great numbers. But the number of his genuine
works is extremely large because he never did anything but paint pictures
from the age of twenty-six.

218

COROT'S ART

made by the artists of the Cubist-classical Renaissance to drag
painting from the morass of this photographic vision, cannot
fail to rank Corot as an artist who succumbed. But he will
recognise that Corot could not foresee the photographic tyranny
of our own age ; and that, though he had a photographic vision
and imitated photographs, he also had a genuine simplicity of
outlook that enabled him to steer clear of the Romantic move-
ment, and a lyric quality in his sensibility that lifts his work above
that of other painters of the photographic school.^

Co rot's pictures fall into several types. We have {a) early
landscapes including a number painted in Italy, (J?) subject-
pictures with figures inserted into landscapes in the manner of
Claude, {c) fluffy grey landscapes painted after 1850, and (d)
photographic studies of figures.

In all these periods we find Corot seeking, unconsciously,
for a compromise between the photographic vision and the
achievements of the architectural artists of the past. The
student will find it instructive to compare on the one hand his
Venice (PL 87a), painted in 1834 and now in the Museum of
Melbourne, with the views of Venice painted by Canaletto
(i 697-1 768) who used a camera-oscnra ; and to compare on
the other his sketch Narni : Po?it d' Angus te sur la Nera, painted
in 1826 and now in the Louvre, with Claude's drawing The Tiber
above Ro///e (PL 128a) in the British Museum, and with the modern
French painter Andre Derain's Pajsage du midi (PL 128b) which
I reproduce on the same page.^

Corot's continual contact with tradition will also be seen if
his Saint Jerome, painted in 1837 and now in the church of Ville
d'Avray, be compared with Sai?it Anthony and Saint Paul the
Hermit by Velasquez in the Prado, if his Diane au bain, painted

^ Cf. note, p. 221. I have discussed the characteristics of the photographic
vision in The Modern Movement in Art, pp. 76-1 12.

2 Narni : Pont d'Auguste sur la Nera was a sketch for a picture Le Pont
de Narni which Corot exhibited at his first appearance in the Salon of 1827.
The Salon picture which is worked up into a classical-picturesque composi-
tion with large umbrella pines in the middle distance was hung in the Salon
between paintings by Constable and Bonington ; and Corot at his debut
thus represented the picturesque-classical tradition hung between the Dutch
seventeenth-century popular landscape tradition and the new Romantic
movement.

219

COROT'S ART

in 1855 and now in the Bordeaux Museum, be compared with
landscapes with figures by Claude, or if his Homere et les Bergers^
shown in the Salon of 1845 and now in the Saint L6 Museum,
be compared with The Fmeral of Phocion (PI. 35 b) by Poussin.

There were moments in the period before 1850 when Corot
almost arrived at a conscious concept of architectural space
and the creation of a new type of architectural picture. In
Honfleur-maisons sur les quais (PI. 87b), which was painted about
1830 and is now in M. Paul Rosenberg's collection in Paris, he
was within an inch of such achievement but his photographic
vision was responsible for the rowing boat which has nothing
to do with the picture and was inserted because it happened to
be there at the moment when Corot was making his sketch.

Such incidental and accidental details together with incidental
and accidental effects of light occur in the work of all photo-
graphic artists and the elimination of such elements was the
first achievement of the Cubist-classical Renaissance.

After 1850 Corot made great efforts to recapture the secrets
of the art of Claude and of Poussin's last phase. But by this
time his eye was vitiated by photographs and he had acquired his
degenerate naturalistic formula for the light on foliage and trees.
There was thus a fatal disaccord between the type of picture at
which he was aiming and the means which he employed to pro-
duce it ; and there was a further disaccord because Corot in
these subject pictures was generally more photographic in his
landscape background than in his treatment of the figures.^

In the 'sixties Corot's fluffy photographic foliage, in the grey
colour of photographs, degenerated into a mannerism ; and in
the pictures of this period, turned out for the dealers, he aban-
doned even the attempt to remain in the field of perceptive and
creative art. In his last years he returned to the manner of
Honfleur-maisons sur les quais and he then used compositional
effects which he had observed in photographs. ^

Corot often painted photographic studies from models posed
in the studio, and a series of such pictures dates from the period

^ Cf. The Modern Movement in Art (Pis. loa and lob) where I reproduce
trees and foliage from Corot's Concert Champetre, painted in 1857 ^^^ now in
the Louvre, and a photograph of similar trees and foliage on the same page.

2 Cf. The Modern Movement in Art, p. 99.

220

COROT'S ART

of the Franco-Prussian War when he worked exclusively in his
studio in Paris. L^; Vemme a T atelier (PI. H8b), painted in 1870
and now in the Museum at r>y(jns, is an example of these photo-
graphic studies. Jf we compare this picture with Prudhon's,
Mnie Dnfresne (PI. 88a), which I reproduce on the same page,
we can see the difference between light and shade used as archi-
tectural elements in a picture, and light and shade copied in a
photographic way. Prudhon preceived the model before him
as a series of forms entirely independent of light and shade and
he invented a picture of which an architectural disposition of
light and shadow is an integral part. Corot with half-closed
eyes recorded an accidental effect of light and shade before him
and by so doing a semblance of forms has appeared upon his
canvas ; but the picture itself is as formless as a photograph
because the artist has degraded his perception to the mechanical
vision of the human eye — which is much the same as the vision
of the camera's lens.

In the later nineteenth century when the photgraphic vision
was officially regarded as the vision proper to an artist Corot's
pictures were enormously admired, and his method of painting
— known as painting " by the tone values " — was universally
taught in schools. In the pictures painted " by the tone values "
colour was reduced to a system of tinted greys ; and many
hundreds of thousands of grey pictures were produced in
France. Of these the little marine paintings by Louis-Eugene
Boudin (i 824-1 898) were among the most pleasant; and the
method was seen forced to its extreme photographic limit in
the portraits and figure studies of Eugene Carriere (i 849-1906)
and Fantin-Latour (1836-1904).^

^ All these artists were influenced by photographs. The Daguerreotype
which influenced Ruskin and the English Pre-Raphaelitcs had little influence
in France except, I fancy, on the work of Ingres (cf. p. 200) and Bastien-
Lepagc (i 848-1 884), an artist who substituted a Daguerreotype ideal for the
Romantic elements in the art of Millet (who was himself a good deal
influenced by photographs. Cf. note, p. 250). Corot was not, I think,
influenced by Daguerreotypes. But he was fascinated by photographs and
frequently sat to photographers himself.

221

REALISM AND THE SALON PUBLIC

xij. Kealism and the Salon Public

Corot was the father of the Impressionist movement in
French painting. But between Corot and the Impressionists
there was a movement known as ReaHsm which was an appHca-
tion to figure subjects of the principles of the Franco-Dutch
imitative landscape already chronicled.

The Realist doctrine excluded imagination, invention, archi-
tectural construction, and Romantic comment. Its slogan was
un peintre ne doit peindre que ce que ses yeux petwent voir. The
painters who submitted to this doctrine were popular artists
and their pictures appealed to the Salon public of the time.

This Realist doctrine was launched in the first place by a
man who was not himself a Realist of this calibre but a Romantic
Realist — Gustave Courbet (i 8 19-1877), an artist whose work the
Salon public particularly detested.

Courbet described the aims which he ^ pursued as follows :
" S avoir pour pouvoir, telle jut ma pen see. Etre a me me de traduire
les mceurs, les idees^ I' aspect de mon epoque, selon mon appreciation ;
etre non seulement un peintre, mais encore un horn me ; en un mot j aire de
Part vivant, tel est mon hut^ For Courbet the essential part of
this pronouncement was the qualification selon mon appreciation ;
and it was the evidence in his work of this qualification that
rendered it odious to the Salon public.

It is impossible to understand the treatment to which Courbet
and, later, the Impressionists were subjected by the Salon public
unless we realise that a host of venal purveyors of popular art
had now flattered that public into an attitude of extreme
Philistinism.

In the eighteenth century the Salon public saw relatively few
contemporary pictures ; they began to see more when the
exhibits became more numerous, as noted, in the days of the
Revolution ; in the first quarter of the nineteenth century
the interest excited by the works of the Italian Old Masters in the
Musee Napoleon competed with the interest in contemporary
art ; when the Musee Napoleon was dispersed at the Restora-
tion, the biennial Salons, held in the Salon Carre of the Louvre,
became the centre of focus, and under Louis-Philippe and the

222

REALISM AND THE SALON PUBLIC

Second Republic the Salons became steadily larger, 'i'he public
thus acquired a large experience of popular genre pictures and of
popular demonstration pictures in the pseudo-classical and
pseudo-romantic manners produced in order to attract attention
and advertise the painters' names. ^

The painters of these demonstration pictures posed as the
guardians of our old friend the Grand Manner ; and the
uninstructed public adopted the products of this showmanship
as their standard in judging works of art.

The venal popular and demonstration painters and the public
thus revolved together in a vicious circle. The painters worked
to achieve contact with the Salon public's average experience of
phenomena and with that public's experience of their own
pictures ; and the public, thus flattered into a Philistine attitude,
were entirely convinced that this flattery was the proper function
of fine art.

The vicious circle became still more water-tight after 1855
because in that year the Government constructed for the Exposi-
tion Uiiiverselle the vast Palais de I'lndustrie in the Champs Elysees ;
the Salons thereafter wxre held there and in order to fill the huge
galleries of this new building the number of pictures shown was
enormously increased and the public had correspondingly
increased experience of mediocre and venal popular art
produced to flatter them.^

In these conditions the Salon painters found it easy to lead the
public to the active persecution of original artists ; and perse-
cutions thus fomented have been an unedifying feature of art-
politics in Paris from 1840 to the present day.

The first victim was Courbet whose work and curious career
we must now consider.

^ Paul Delaroche (cf. note, p. 215) and Thomas Couture (cf. pp. 247
and 248) were typical painters of these popular demonstration pictures.
For the Musee Napoleon, cf. p. 190.

- The Salons were held in the Palais de I'lndustrie till 1899 ; it was then
pulled down and the present Grand Palais and Petit Palais were built (with
the Pont Alexandre) for the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Since then the
Salons have been held in the Grand Palais where some eight thousand pic-
tures and large quantities of sculpture are exhibited each spring.

223

GUSTAVE COURBET

Xllj.

Gustave Courhet

BORN ORNANS 1819. DIED LA TOUR DE PEILZ 1 877.

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London.
London,
London.
London.
London.
London.
London.

London.

Scotland.

Scotland.
New York.

New York.

New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.

New York.
New York.
Boston.

Chicago.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia.

National Gallery, Millbank
National Gallery, Millbank
National Gallery, Millbank
National Gallery, Millbank
National Gallery, Millbank
National Gallery, Millbank
Victoria and Albert

Museum
Victoria and Albert

Museum
Sir W. Burrell Collection

Sir W. Burrell Collection
Metropolitan Museum

Metropolitan Museum

Metropolitan
Metropolitan
Metropolitan
Metropolitan
Metropolitan
Metropolitan
Metropolitan

Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum
Museum

Metropolitan Museum
Metropolitan Museum
Museum of Fine Arts

Art Institute
Art Institute
Wilstach Collection
Wilstach Collection
Wilstach Collection

Deer in a Forest
The Pool
Seascape
Self Portrait
Snow Scene
L'Orage
L'Immensite, 1869

Landscape

L'Aumone d'un mendiant a

Ornans, Salon, 1868
Les Laveuses
Nude Woman with a parrot.

Salon 1866
Les Demoiselles de Village,^

Salon 1852
Brook of the Black Well, before

1855
Coast Scene
Snow Scene
The Amazon, c. 1856
The Polish Exile, 1858
The Source, c. 1862
The Young Bather, 1866
The Girl with the Mirror :

Whistlers" Jo,"2 1856
Deer

Marine — the Waterspout, 1876
The Quarry (La Curee), before

1855
La Mere Gregoire, c. 1872
Alpine Scene, 1874
A view of Ornans
A Mountain Stream, 1875
The Waves

in the collection of Mr. Charles

^ Another version of this picture is
Roberts, Leeds.

^ There is another version of this picture, which is also known as La Belle
Irlandaise, in the collection of Messrs Reid and Lefevre, London.

224

Minneapolis. IiisUliili: cj !■

GLSTA\E C;C)L RHI:T. IXcr in a Forest.

Marseilles. Museum

JEAN-FRANgOlS MILLET. La Soupc.

GUSTAVE COURBET

Phihuldi^hi.i.

Academy of Fine Arts

Urbain Cucnot, 18^2

Phihidclphia.

Academy of Fine Arts

Lc grand chcne d'Ornans

Worcester

Art Museum

Low Tide

(Mass.).
Minneapolis.

Institute of Arts

The Roe Covert, c. 1866

Paris.

Louvre

Self Portrait. L'Homme
Blessc, 1844

Paris.

Louvre

Un enterrement a Ornans, 1849

Paris.

Louvre

Berlioz, 1850

Paris.

Louvre

L'homme a la ceinture de cuir

Paris.

Louvre

(self portrait), before 1855
L'Atelier du peintre : Allegoric
reelle, 1855

Paris.

Louvre

Combat de cerfs. Salon 1861

Paris.

Louvre

Remise des chevrcuils. Salon
1866

Paris.
Paris.

Louvre
Petit Palais

Mer orageuse, 1870

Self portrait with a black dog.

Paris.

Petit Palais

1842
P.-J. Proudhon, 1855

Paris.

Petit Palais

Les Demoiselles au bord de la
Seine, Salon 1867

Paris.

Petit Palais

La Sieste, Salon 1869

Paris.

H. Matisse Collection

La blonde endormie

Montpellier.

Musee Fabre

L'homme a la pipe (self por-

Montpellier.
Montpellier.
Montpellier.

Musee Fabre
Musee Fabre
Musee Fabre

trait, 1846)
Baudelaire, 1853
Baigneuses, 1853
Le Rencontre : " Bonjour M.

Courbet," 1854

Montpellier.
Ornans.

Musee Fabre
Hotel dc Ville

Bruyas, 1854

Courbet in prison, c. 1872

Orans.

H6tel de Ville

Le Chateau de Chillon, 1874-76

Ornans

Hotel de Ville

Retour de Chasse

Lille

Museum

Une apres-dinee a Ornans,

Dresden

Museum

Salon 1849
Les Casseurs de pierres. Salon

1850
Mountain Landscape
Recumbent Nude

The Hague.
The Hague.

Mesdag Museum
Mesdag Museum

The Hague.

Mesdag Museum

Chevreuil mort

The Hague.
The Hague.

Mesdag Museum
Mesdag Museum

Au bord du lac
Road in Sunlight

Jean-Desire-Gustav Courbet was bom in the village of
Ornans that lies in the harsh and gloomy country near the Jura

2 G 225

GUSTAVE COURBET

mountains. He was the son of a wealthy farmer and after
refusing to study law he worked in one or two art schools in
Paris. His earliest works, painted when he was about twenty-
three, already reveal a choice of Rembrandt and the Spaniards
as his favourite masters in the Louvre.

In the 1849 Salon, which included Corot, as noted, on an
exceptionally liberal Jury, Courbet exhibited the self portrait
known as UHomme a la ceinture de ciiir (now in the Louvre) and
also l]?ie apres-dinee a Ornans (now in the Museum at Lille) which
was remarked by Charles Blanc, bought by him for the State,
and awarded a medal. ^

In 1850 Courbet took full advantage of his hors concours posi-
tion. He sent nine pictures to the Salon including the celebrated
Un Enterrement a Ornans now in the Louvre, the Casseurs de pierres
now in Dresden, and the self-portrait known as UHomme a la
pipe now at jMontpellier.

The originality of Un Enterrement a Ornans — a group of
intensely romantically observed peasantry round a grave —
horrified both the Salon painters and the public debauched by
popular fare ; and the Salon authorities led the opposition by
suggesting that the subject of this picture and of the Casseurs de
pierres (which depicts an old peasant and a boy breaking stones)
were oifensively socialistic. Courbet who at this period had
nothing but a normal sympathy with the peasants of the regions
round his home thus found himself regarded as a dangerous
socialist in Paris. ^

In the Salon of 1853 Courbet exhited his Baigneuses now at
Montpellier; the Salon painters pointed out that the massive

^ The acquisition of a medal was very important for an artist at this time,
because it placed him hors concours for future exhibitions to which he could
contribute without submitting to the Jury. Courbet's later works would all
have been rejected from the Salons if he had not thus acquired the right to
exhibit at this early stage. For Charles Blanc, cf. p. 217.

2 Stonebreakers entered English art in 1858 when there were two pictures
of this subject in the Royal Academy both praised by Ruskin " because the
humblest subjects are pathetic when Pre-Raphaelitically rendered." The
pictures were The Sionebreaker (which depicted a boy breaking stones and is
now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) by John Brett, and Thou wert
our Conscript (which depicted an old man asleep over his heap) by
A. Wallis.

226

GUSTAVR COURBET

figures of the women showed their plebeian origin and that
this choice of plebeian models showed the painter's socialist
bent.

The BaioncNscs was bought by y\lfred Bruyas, a collector of
Montpcllicr, who became (>ourbet's host and patron about this
time and bought a number of his pictures including the Portrait
of Baudelaire which was painted in 1853.^

In 1854 Courbet went to stay with Bruyas at Montpcllier and
painted the celebrated L^ Kencotitre : Bonjour M. Courbet^ which
shows a meeting between himself and Bruyas on a country
walk.

In the following year, at the age of thirty-six, he painted the
remarkable picture, now in the Louvre, which he called U Atelier
du peintre : ^-Mlegorie reelle. This shows the artist seated at his
easel with a nude woman standing by his side ; one half of the
studio is occupied by a group of the artist's models who had
figured in his realistic pictures — labourers, peasants, the priest
of the 'Enterrement a Ornans and so forth ; the other half is
occupied by a group of his friends including Bruyas, Baudelaire,
Champfieur)^, who was one of the first to praise his pictures, and
the socialist writer Proudhon whose portrait he had painted in
1853.

Courbet sent IJ Atelier, together with Un Enterrement a Ornans,
which he wished to exhibit a second time, to the Exposition
Universelle of 185 5, where his hors concours privilege did not apply,
because there was a special International Jur}'. Both pictures
were rejected. Courbet was indignant. He had plenty of money,
as he had an allowance from Ornans and he had already, as
noted, procured some patrons for his pictures, which he never
sold except for considerable sums, and he accordingly decided
to put up a shed and hold a one-man show of his own in the
Exhibition. In this one-man show he placed the two rejected

^ This passed with the other Courbets in the Bruyas Collection to the
Musee Fabre at Montpellier in 1868. It shows the poet seated at a table
smoking a pipe and reading a book. It is at present in need of cleaning and
conditioning and it is hung at such a height that it cannot be examined in
detail. It would seem, however, to be quite uninteresting as a portrait and
to suggest nothing of the sitter's characteristics except the massive brow.
Baudelaire himself thought nothing of the picture. The portrait of Baude-
laire in U Atelier du peintre was evidently painted from it.

227

GUSTAVE COURBET

pictures and forty others. The show was a failure ; hardly
anyone went in.^

Courbet was very ambitious ; he was also vain and not at all
shrewd. He had collected round himself a number of young
painters who flattered him and called him mattre, and he regarded
himself as an important chef d'ecole. At the same time he began
to live up to his new reputation as a socialist in which he was
encouraged by Proudhon and a group of young socialists ; he
thus began to regard liimself also as a chef de partie and painted
he Ketour de la Conference wliich seems really to have been a
socialist propaganda picture. ^

Courbet's socialism had very little effect on his work. He
only painted two socialistic pictures — I^e Ketour de la Conference
and UAumone d'un mendiant (1868) now in the Burrell
Collection in Scotland ; but it brought him disaster later in his
life.

At the beginning of 1870 he was offered the Legion of
Honour, and he refused it in offensive terms. When the Second
Empire came to an end in September he was thus in the public
eye as a militant socialist and he was called on by the new
regime to act as President of a Commission des Beaux Arts in
charge of the nation's art treasures. In this position he doubtless
indulged in memories of Louis David and dreams of an art-
dictatorship ; and when the Commune arrived in 1871 he became
a Deputy in the Assemblee Nationale. In the civil war that

^ But Delacroix (who was then nearly sixty and had just been refused
membership of the Institute for the fourth time by the Salon caucus, cf. p.
215) went and noted in his Diary : " Je vais voir l' exposition de Courbet. J'j
teste seul pendant pres d'une heure. J'j decouvre un chef d'avre dans son tableau
refuse {L.' Atelier). Je ne pouvais m'arracher de cette vue. ... On a refuse Id
un des ouvrages les plus singuUers de ce temps."

Courbet arranged another independent one-man show of a hundred of his
pictures in the Exposition Universelle of 1867. This also was a complete
failure.

2 L^ Ketour de la Conference was anti-clerical in character. It represented
a procession of priests coming from a Conference where it was obvious that
many had had too much to drink. The picture was huge in size. Courbet
sent it to the 1864 Salon where the Jury, who could not reject it owing
to his hors concours position, procured a special decree of the Government
in order to reject it on political grounds. The picture was subsequently
bought by a religious gentleman and destroyed.

228

''^:

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,.t<!l»'»"**

GUSTAVl- COURBI'T

raged in Paris from March to May of that year the Colomie
Vendome was overthrown. This was a tragic misfortune for
Courbet because as President of the Commission des Bea//x Arts
he had written a memorandum suggesting that this emblem of
the I'jnpirc should be taken down. After the Commune when
the Thiers Government was taking drastic vengeance on the
Communards Courbet was arrested and held responsible for the
destruction of the monument ; and he was condemned to six
months' imprisonment and ordered to reconstruct the column
at his own expense.^

Courbet was a man of means but he was quite unable to pro-
duce the 400,000 francs required by this condemnation. He was
also morally shattered by the failure of his dreams of a Davidian
career. He escaped accordingly, when an opportunity occurred,
to Switzerland, and there a few years later he died at the age of
fifty -eight.

Courbet's main activity as an artist was distinct from his posi-
tion as che] d'ecole and also from his position as chef de partie. He
was a truly original artist who painted numerous figure subjects,
landscapes with animals, and seascapes. He was not content
with the photographic vision but always reinforced it to per-
ception ; and that perception, though harsh, was extremely
personal. Courbet demonstrated that the Romantic stress of
emotive fragments could be accomplished without any of the
accessories — the Arab steeds and waving banners — that we
find in works by Delacroix ; he made it clear that the most

^ The Place Vendome, as noted, was originally Place des Conquetes when
it was laid out under Louis XIV (cf. note, p. 97). It then contained an eques-
trian statue of Louis XIV by Girardon, which is now in the Louvre. The
Colonne Vendome was erected in 1805 to celebrate Napoleon's victories and
it was then surmounted by a bronze statue of Napoleon as a Roman Emperor.
In 1 8 14 the Royalists under Louis XVIII took down the statue, melted down
the metal and remade it as the statue of Henri IV on the Pont Neuf, on the
principle of renewal with the past already noted in the official Restoration
commissions for pictures (cf. p. 194). In place of the statue a fleur-dc-lys
was placed on the column. In 1833 Louis-Philippe replaced the flcur-de-lys
by a statue of Napoleon in uniform and a cocked hat ; in 1863 Napoleon III
removed this to the Invalides and put back a copy of the original statue.
When the column was re-erected after the cornrfiunards had overthrown it the
present statue was made ; this repeats the original type (cf. note, p. 198).
The column itself, of course, is an imitation of Trajan's column in Rome.

229

DAUMIER AND GUYS

familiar fragments can be made emotive when recorded by an
original mind.

Technically he was also a very individual painter. He often
applied his colours with a palette knife instead of a brush — a
procedure which he initiated.^

As a result of this procedure and of his intense perception
Courbet's paintings are often rich in quality and this applies
especially to his pictures of deer in forests such as The Roe Covert
(PI. 89) now in the Minneapolis Institute, and some of his sea-
scapes which are very dramatic. His colour varies a good deal as
he sometimes used a light scale and sometimes a darker one. It
is usually harsh and unsubtle; occasionally — especially in the
seascapes — he achieved a vitreous green that had not appeared
in painting since Rubens.

As Courbet did not succumb to the photographic vision his
work appeals to students of the later nineteenth-century efforts
to escape from that vision. ^

xiv. Daumier and Guys

Under the Restoration Kings and Louis-Philippe there were
fierce battles about the freedom of the Press, and the political

^ Many of Courbet's pictures are partly painted with a brush and partly
with a palette knife. But he sometimes painted the whole picture with a
palette knife ; the Koad in Sunlight, in the Mesdag Museum, in The Hague,
is an example. Cezanne at one period copied this technique (cf. p. 311).

2 Another Romantic Realist, whose vision was, however, on the photo-
graphic side, was Jean-Fran fois Millet (18 14-1874), painter of the well-
known UAngelus in the Louvre.

Millet translated the old Dutch tradition of the peasant genre picture into
the new Romantic language of his day. At moments he achieved the pro-
foundly intimate contact with his subject that we have noted in the work of
Louis Le Nain and Chardin ; 'La Soupe (PL 90), in the Marseilles Museum, is
a picture of this kind.

Millet was himself a peasant and he painted sign-boards and other hack
works for a living for many years. He was nearly sixty before a dealer
assured him a regular income.

He is well represented in the Louvre, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, in
the Chicago Art Institute, and in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Alphonse Legros (18 3 7-1 899) was also a Romantic Realist. He imitated
both Courbet and Millet. He came to England at Whistler's suggestion in
1875 and was made Professor at the Slade School.

230

DAUMIKR AND GUYS
I
cartoons of the period Vere extremely virulent. The history of

these cartoons is outside my subject but I must refer to one

cartoonist, Honorc Dauniicr (i 808-1 879), whose paintings and

drawings are very highly ranked to-day.

Dauniier was the son of a glass painter and his talents were
first discovered by Lenoir, the creator of the first museum in
Paris. ^ He learned to lithograph in his youth and made a meagre
living as a lithographic illustrator all his life.

He began as a political cartoonist on a paper called Caricature^
in 1830, and in 1832 he was imprisoned for six months for a
caricature of Louis-Philippe called Gargantua swallowing hags of
gold extracted from the people. Caricature was replaced by Charivari
in 1835 and Daumier worked on this paper for forty years
producing four thousand lithographs — an average of nine a
month.

In these lithographs Daumier appeared not only a political
cartoonist but also a satirist of social life. He picked up the
tradition of the gravures de modes and transformed it to a tradition
of gravures de meeurs which had already appeared in England in
the work of Hogarth and Rowlandson.-

While he earned his living in this way he also made drawings
of contemporary life, modelled little caricature heads of person-
alities observ^ed in public places, and painted pictures ; but only
his lithographs were known in his lifetime and he was never able
to sell any of his other works.

At the age of sixty-nine his eyesight failed and he retired in
poverty to a country cottage which had been given him some
years before by Corot. The Government of the Third Republic
gave him a small pension as a reward for a lifetime devoted to
republican propaganda. He died two years later. ^

On the staff of Charivari Daumier had Balzac as a collaborator,
and Balzac said of him : " Ce garqon a du Michel-ange sous la peau^
This to some extent was true ; but it was less the spirit of
Michelangelo, the first Romantic, than that of Rembrandt, the

^ Cf. note, p. 180.

2 His most notable follower in this field was Jean-Louis Forain (1852-

1931)-

^ After Daumicr's death all his paintings and drawings were acquired
from his widow by a syndicate of dealers.

231

DAUMIER AND GUYS

second, which resided in Daumier, and the spirit found expres-
sion in a language that was largely borrowed from Delacroix
and Jean-Fran gois Millet — as we see in the celebrated Wagon
de troisieme classe formerly in Sir James Murray's collection in
London and now in a private collection in Canada.

At the same time we find in Daumier's paintings the pre-
occupation with formal relations which we have already
encountered in pictures like l^es A?}msements de la vie privee (PL
6oa) and 'La Kecureuse (PI. 63) by Chardin ; and this quality
gives architectural significance to pictures like Les Amateurs
d'Estawpes (PI. 91b), now in Messrs. Reid and Lefevre's collec-
tion which I reproduce on the same page as Les Amateurs
d'Estampes (PI. 91a) by Boilly who concentrated on surface
polish and the imitation of folds and textures in the tradition of
the tableau de modes >

In his drawings Daumier used Rembrandt's technique and he
worked to some extent in Rembrandt's spirit. But he found it
hard, with a mind blunted by long drudgery at journalistic
lithographs, to escape from caricature. The difference between
the Romantic artist's distortions designed to stress the emotivity
of characteristic features, and the caricaturist's distortions de-
signed to render those characteristics funny, is a very fine one.
Daumier in his most impressive drawings remained on the
Romantic side, but sometimes he was on the caricaturist's side,
as in his lithographs. I reproduce a typical drawing, Ees
Amateurs de peinture (PI. 92), now in the Cleveland Museum of
Art.

We see Daumier at his very highest level in the Don Quixote
painting (PI. 93) in Mr. Samuel Courtauld's collection. This
picture, which is almost a monochrome, achieves an astonishing
result with great economy of means ; it combines the emotivity
of Romantic painting with a large degree of the architectural
stability of classical art ; and Daumier here demonstrates that an
equestrian group can live and move before us though the artist
has not delineated lapels or harness, buttons or bits, eyes or
noses, fingers or toes.

The Salon painters and the Salon public of Daumier's day
would have preferred this picture as it might have been painted
1 Cf. pp. 164-168.

232

Cleveland. Museum of At I

HONORfi DAUMIER. Lcs Amateurs dc Pciiiture.

CONSTANTIN GUYS

by BoilJy. There are possibly people now living who share their
point of view.*

Constantin Guys

Constantin Guys (i 805-1 892) also drew for the illustrated
papers and produced other work that is valued to-day.

He was the son of upper middle-class French parents. At
eighteen he fought with Byron in the Greek War. Four years
later he became a dragon in the French Army. About 1830 he
left the Army and travelled for some years in Spain, Italy, Bul-
garia, Egypt and Algeria where he made a number of sketches.
Returning to Paris he started to sell these drawings and to make
others of operas, ballets and so forth which he sold to the
Illustrated London Neivs. For that paper he then went as war
correspondent to the Crimea and he was present at Inkermann
and Balaclava.

At tliis stage he seems to have quarrelled with his aged
father, who had married a girl of sixteen, and to have gone
in the 'forties to London where he gave lessons in French
and drawing. In the 'fifties he returned to Paris and became
an eccentric recluse ; the numerous dessins de maurs, on
which his reputation rests, date from the 'fifties, 'sixties and
'seventies.

Baudelaire made liis acquaintance in 1859 and published in
1863 in the Figaro the celebrated articles on his work called Le
peintre de la Vie Moderne, in which at the artist's request he
referred to him simply as " M. G."^

In 1885 when he w^as eighty, Guys took several portfolios of
his drawings to the Musee Carnavalet and handed them to the
porter. The drawings were unsigned and the parcel contained
no name or address. The Curator, however, realised that they

^ Other examples of Daumier's drawings and paintings can now be seen
in the L(*idon National Gallery, Millbank, and Victoria and Albert
Museum ; in the Louvre ; in the Metropolitan Museum of New York,
the Chicago Art Institute, and other museums. Mrs. Charles Payson,
New York, has his Audience at the Tl^eatre Franfais.

~ These were written in 1859. But Baudelaire, who after the FIcurs du Mat
prosecution had great difficulty in getting his work published, was not able
to sell them till 1863.

2 H 233

CONSTANTIN GUYS

must be the work of Baudelaire's Veintre de la Vie Moderne and he
carefully preserved them.^

Later in the same year Guys was run over by a carriage in
the street and he was bedridden for the remaining seven years of
his life. He died at the age of eighty-seven.

Guys was a most engaging artist and his drawings and water-
colours constitute a fascinating chronicle of Parisian maurs
under the Second Empire. He drew entirely from memory, and
his mind registered both psychological and architectural impres-
sions. In practice he began by recording his architectural
impressions ; the subject first appeared on the paper as an
architectural arrangement of Ught and shade ; then he went over
this adding specific form and psychological stresses ; finally,
sometimes but not always, he added lines with a pen.

His work had an influence on Manet who was doubtless
introduced to it by Baudelaire. Both Manet and Baudelaire
owned Guys' drawings. ^

1 These drawings, which include many of the finest surviving examples
of Guys' work, are still in the Mus^e Carnavalet.

2 Guys gave Baudelaire a number of his drawings ; and Baudelaire, in
1859, sent a drawing of a Turkish woman by Guys as a Christmas present to
his mother, Mme Aupick, who had lived in Constantinople ; she did not
acknowledge the present and he wrote her three days later : " Do not
scruple to tell me (if it is your opinion) that you think the Turkish lady is
very ugly. I am afraid you are not very strong on the arts but that does
not reduce my affectionate feelings and my respect for you." Mme Aupick
preferred two heads by Greuze which her husband had acquired.

A drawing by Guys (now in Baron Gourgaud's collection in Paris) called
Im Promenade au hois must have been seen by Manet before he painted his
Concert aux Tuileries now in the London National Gallery, Millbank ; in
Baron Gourgaud's collection there is also a full-length wash drawing called
Une Dam, which is known to have belonged to Manet and certainly
influenced his painting.

The student is referred {a) to the hundred and seventy excellent re-
productions that accompany Mr. P. G. Konody's translation of Baudelaire's
articles, published by " The Studio " as The Painter of Victorian Life, and
(b) to Gustave Geffroy's book on Guys which reproduces some of the finest
drawings in the Musee Carnavalet.

234

London. S. Courtauld Collection

HONORfi DAUMIF.R. Don Quixote.

Boston. Museum of Fijie Arts

GUSTAVE COURBET. La Curec (The Quarry).

U.S.A. Private Collection

EDGAR DEGAS. Lc Depart.

PA1(1' SIX

THE IMPRESSIONISTS

i. The Impressionist Movement

ij. Jldouard Manet

iij. Claude Monet

iv. Angus te Kenoir

V. Edgar Degas

vi. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

THE IMPRF.SSIONISTS

i. The Impressionist Movement

The Impressionists adopted Courbet's theory of Reahsm in
respect of their choice of subjects, and in their technique
they followed Co rot's photographic procedures which they
developed to suit their several needs. Manet was the pioneer
of the movement ; Renoir proved himself, in the end, the
great master ; Monet, whose use of colour was architectural,
anticipated the Cubists in this way ; Degas was a Romantic
journalist whose work was pushed to its logical conclusion by
Toulouse-Lautrec.

Other artists connected with the movement were Camille
Pissarro (i 830-1903), Alfred Sisley (i 840-1 899), Frederic
Bazille (i 841-1870), Berthe Morisot (i 840-1 895), Eve Gonzalez
(1850-1883) and iNIary Cassatt (1843-1926).^

^ Pissarro, son of a French Jewish father and a Creole mother, was an
honest intelligent man who had intellectual contact with all the Impres-
sionist masters and also with Gauguin, Cezanne and Seurat, a contact that
was always mutually beneficial (cf. note, p. 280). He was influenced
successively by Corot, Millet and the artists of the later movements ; his
painting was prudent and conscientious. He was one of the first French
artists to experiment with the bird's-eye view that occurs in Japanese prints.
He applied this with success to street scenes in his later years. In Mi-careme
sur les Boulevards (PI. IX), painted in 1897, we see him at his best.

Sisley was born in Paris of English parents. He began as an amateur with
an allowance from his father. In 1870 his father was ruined and thereafter
he lived in real poverty for the rest of his life. In his art he enlivened Corot's
photographic vision with Monet's colour and in this formula he produced
many charming little landscapes of which La route de Versailles (PI. XI) is an
example.

Bazille who was associated with the Impressionist artists in the early days
was killed in the Franco-Prussian War. He might have developed into an
artist of consequence. The Louvre has his Kemion de famille (1869) and La
Robe rose, the Luxembourg his Atelier de l' artiste and Reunion de famille, and
the Musee Fabre, at Montpellier, his Vue de Village (1868), which shows a
young peasant girl against a landscape with a view of Castelnau in the
distance.

Berthe Morisot was a granddaughter of Fragonard and at first an informal
pupil of Corot and afterwards a regular pupil of Manet whose brother she
married. She imitated Manet's technique in his Impressionist pictures and
achieved at times very pleasant effects of spontaneity and colour. La

THE IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT

The Impressionist movement was a studio experiment. The
artists all adopted the position of the research scientist working
in his laboratory to solve a problem of his own selection
considered as an end in itself. They did not regard them-
selves as tradesmen, like the artists of the old Maitrise^ or as
members of a liberal profession like Claude and Poussin, or as
professional craftsmen like Le Brun or Boucher, or as propa-
gandists in a battle of contemporary ideas like Delacroix and
Courbet. They regarded themselves, as Corot, and possibly
Chardin and Watteau had regarded themselves, as servants of a
vocation ; and, therefore, from the standpoint of bourgeois
society, they painted, like Chardin and Corot, for their own
" amusement."^

The persecution to which the Impressionist painters were
subjected had its source, as noted, in the camp of the popular
and demonstration artists of the Salon ; and conditions, when
Manet was ridiculed in 1865, and the other Impressionists were
ridiculed in the 'seventies, were much the same as they had been
when Courbet appeared, except {a) that in 1863 the Salon had
become an annual, instead of a biennial function and the public
experience of popular Salon painting was, therefore, increased,
and (b) that the Salon Jury had again developed to a bigoted
caucus. 2

The ridicule and really scandalous abuse showered on the

Toilette (PI. 123a), now in the Chicago Art Institute, shows the light touch
characteristic of her work.

Eve Gonzalez was a pupil of Manet who imitated the manner which he
employed in painting her portrait (PI. 99). Her picture l^a l^oge, quite a
good imitation, is now in the Louvre.

Mary Cassatt was born in Pittsburg and worked under Renoir and Degas.
She is well represented in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

1 Cf. note, p. 140, p. 216 and Preface § v.

2 After the 1848 Revolution the Jury, as noted, was elected each year by
the exhibitors at the previous Salon. Under the Second Empire the system
was altered, and the Jury was composed partly of members nominated by the
hors concours exhibitors (cf. note, p. 226) and partly of members nominated
by the Administration des Beaux Arts. This system secured the re-election
year after year of the same Jury which systematically excluded originality
and works which might divert attention from their own productions. The
rejections in 1863 were so scandalous that the Emperor permitted the
famous Salon des Kefusis as a protest (cf. p. 240).

238

New York. Mctrupuittan Muicum

EDOUARD MANET. N'ictorinc en costume d'Hspada.

Chicago. Art Institute

EDOUARD MANET. Jesus insulted by the Soldiers.

Till-: IMPRI-SSIONIST MOVEMENT

original French artists of this period were directed partly
against the supposed socialistic and immoral tendencies of their
productions. In the case of (^ourbet the Salon artists had pre-
tended to hnd Socialism in Ufj llnterremeut a Oniatis, Les CasseNrs
de pierres^ and IJ Atelier : Allegorie reelle. In the same way when
Cezanne first appeared they tried to discredit him by describing
his pictures as obviously the work of a Communard. Manet's
Dejeuner sur I'herbe and Olymp'ia were attacked as indecent and
there can be no doubt that the public which had then very little
experience of Romantic-Realistic nude painting were genuinely
shocked by both pictures. It was, of course, the duty of the
Salon painters to explain to the public the real relation between
Manet's Olympia and Giorgione's Venus in Dresden, Titian's
Venus in Florence, and Titian's Venus and the man playing the
Organ in Madrid ; and also the relation of Manet's Dejeuner sur
I'herbe (PL 97b) to Giorgione's Concert Champetre (PI. 46b).
They did not do so because {a) it did not suit their purpose, and
{b) they were probably unacquainted with the Italian works in
question — the bigotry and ill-nature of such artists being fre-
quently accompanied by a remarkable ignorance of the history of
art (cf. note, p. 251).

But the main attacks, in the case both of Courbet and the
Impressionists, were directed against the technical procedures
of the artists.

Courbet, as noted, applied his paint frequently with a palette
knife ; Manet painted his shadows into his lights instead of the
prevailing practice of painting his lights into his shadows ; and
after 1870 all the Impressionists painted in bright tints and with
httle touches of divided or broken colour. Left to themselves
the public would probably have ignored these original artists
as they ignored Corot for forty years, and they would have
been mildly puzzled by these innovations when they chanced to
come their way. There is nothing in the use of a palette knife
for the application of colour, or in the use of bright tints and
spots and dashes, which naturally arouses indignation in an
average common-sensed decent-minded middle-class man. But
the popular Salon artists stigmatised these teclinical devices as
heinous, indeed as almost bestial, crimes, and encouraged the
general public to persecute the criminals and wallow in the

239

THE IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT

pleasure of ridiculing technical procedures which happened to
be new.

The history of the Impressionists' struggles is well known and
can now be briefly told.

From 1859 to 1874 Manet fought the Salon painters and the
Salon public almost single-handed.

In 1863 the Salon Jury's persecution of their rivals reached a
point when protest became inevitable and the rejected artists,
including Manet, Pissarro and Whistler, appealed directly to the
Emperor who ordered a gallery in the Palais de Vlndustrie^ where
the Salon itself was held, to be allocated to the rejected pictures ;
and the Emperor himself accompanie.d by the Empress officially
visited this Salon des Refuses^.

In 1874 a group of thirty artists including Boudin, Pissarro,
Monet, Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Renoir, Degas and Cezanne,
formed themselves into an exhibiting society (with the title
Societe anonjme des artistes, peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs), as a
protest against their treatment by the Salon Jury .2

Boudin was then fifty, Monet was thirty-four, Renoir was
thirty-three, Degas forty, Pissarro forty-four, and Cezanne
thirty-five. Manet, then forty-two, did not join and he never
exhibited with this group — (which later changed its name to
Veintres Impressionistes) — though he helped the members in many
ways.

The Society's first exhibition was held in the same year on the
Boulevard des Capucines in the studio of the photographer
Nadar, an extraordinary man who contrived to be an aeronaut,
a caricaturist and an intimate friend of Baudelaire as well as a
photographer.^

^ Cf. note, p. 238.

^ In so doing they had the precedent of the Sociite des Amis des Ar/s,
founded as a protest against the Academy's tyranny just before the Revolu-
tion (cf. p. 179).

^ In 1863 when Nadar intended to go to London, Baudelaire gave him a
letter of introduction to Whistler in which he said : " Un de mes tneilleurs et de
mes plus vieux amis, M. Felix Nadar, va a I^ondres, dans le but, je crois, de
raconter au public les aventures qu'il a courues avec son grand ballon, et aussi, je
presume, pour faire partager au public anglais ses convictions relativement d un
nouveau mecanisme qui doit etre substitue au ballon."

He also gave him a letter to Swinburne in which he took the opportunity

240

THE IMPRliSSIONIST MOVIiMRNT

The Salon painters and their supporters in the Press encour-
aged the pul^Hc to ridicule this First Impressionist I'.xhibition,
which contained Monet's Impression : Soleil levant that gave the
group its name.^

In 1876 the Second Impressionist Exhibition was held in the
galleries of the dealer Durand-Ruel, who had decided to support
the rebels in 1872, when he bought twenty-two pictures by
Manet in one day.-

At this exhibition the number of the exhibitors was reduced
to sixteen, as the less adventurous members had fallen away.
Gustave Caillebotte (i 848-1 894) appeared as a new member.
Renoir, Monet and Berthe Morisot contributed.^

This exhibition was even more virulently attacked than the first. *

to thank Swinburne for his " merveilleux article " on the Fleurs du Mai in the
Spectator a few months earlier. In this letter Baudelaire stated his art-creed :
" Tout objet d'art bien fait sugglre naturellement et forcement une morale"

Nadar's book on Baudelaire throws valuable side-lights on his character.
Baudclaireans will remember the revealing story of the child and the cake.

* I do not know the present whereabouts of Monet's Impression : Soleil
levant. In 1906 it was in the collection of M. Donop de Monchy. Judging
by a reproduction it would appear to have been influenced by Monet's
introduction to Turner's pictures when he came to England during the
Franco-Prussian War (cf. p. 259).

Charivari held this picture up to ridicule and referred to the whole group as
" Jmpressionistes."

To this exhibition Renoir sent L,a Petite Danseuse, now in the Widener
Collection, Philadelphia, and L.a loge, now in the Courtauld Collection in
London ; Degas Voitures aux courses now in the Boston Museum, Repetition
d'un Ballet sur la Scene, Le Fojer de la danse and Le pedicure, all now in the
Louvre ; and Cezanne La ALaison du Pendu, now in the Louvre.

2 Cf. p. 25 1.

^ I have not been able to discover the identity of the pictures exhibited,
eighteen of which were by Renoir. Cezanne was not represented. For
Caillebotte cf. note pp. 243, 244 and p. 242.

•^ Albert Wolff, art critic of the Figaro, wrote : " On vient d'ouvrir che^
Durand-Kuel une exposition qu'on dit etre de peinture. Le passant inoffensif entre et
a sesjeux ipouvantes s'offre tin spectacle cruel. Cinq ou six al.enes, dont unefemme,
s'j sont donne rende-:^-vous pour exposer leurs aitvres.

" 11 y a des gens qui pouffent de rire devant ces choses-la, moij'en ai le caur serre.
Ces soi-disant artistes s'intitulent les Intransigeants, les Impressionnistes. lis
prennent des toiles, de la couleur et des brosses, jet tent au hasard quelques tons et
signent le tout. C'est ainsi qua la Ville-Lvrard des esprits egares ramassent les
cailloux sur leur chemin et croient avoir trouvi des diamants."

1 I 241

THE IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT

In 1877 the Societe numbered eighteen members, who now
called themselves ofhcially Veintres Impressionistes, and the Third
Impressionist Exhibition was held in an empty house in the rue le
Peletier.i

At this exhibition Cezanne's pictures excited the chief odium ;
the Salon painters and their associates spoke of him as a Socialist
and a species of monster, though he never at any time in his
life took an interest in politics. Discouraged by this stupidity
and malice, he retired to the country, as he had independent
means, and his work was not seen again in Paris for twenty years.
Renoir and Monet shared the abuse that was poured upon him.^

But the artists were now supported by a small number of
patrons and admirers. In the first category there was Chocquet,
a civil servant who overspent his income to secure pictures by
Renoir, in which he delighted, and who was one of the first
people to understand Cezanne ; Georges Charpentier the
publisher ; Caillebotte, a rich naval architect, who owned a
fine house on the river and numerous sailing boats, who bought
pictures by all the Impressionists and Cezanne, and was himself
a gentleman-artist and member of the group ; and the Count
Camondo, who also began to collect about this time.^

The artists were also supported by the critic-collector
Theodore Duret, and Emile Zola, who had both already de-
fended Manet, and by the critics Duranty and Henri Riviere,

^ To this exhibition Pissarro sent pictures of kitchen gardens, and Renoir
L(? Moulin de la Galette (either the picture now in the Louvre or the version
now in a private American collection which I reproduce, PL 104b) ; Cezanne
sent sixteen works, landscapes, compositions of bathers, still-life studies and
the Portrait of Chocquet now in the Pellerin Collection, Paris ; Degas sent
twenty-five works including Un Cafe : Boulevard Mont mar tre (PI. 113b) and
La danseuse au bouquet (PI. 115a), both now in the Louvre ; and Monet sent
l^es Dindons hlancs, a picture (painted in 1873) of which I do not know the
present whereabouts.

2 L(2 Chronique des Arts et des Curiosites wrote : " MM. Claude Monet et
Ce-:(anne, heureux de se produire, ont expose le premier 30 toiles, le second 14. II
faut les avoir vues pour s'imaginer ce qu'elles sont. Elks provoquent le rire et sont
cependant lamentahles. Elles denotent la plus profonde ignorance du dessin, de la
composition, du coloris. Quand les enfant s s'amusent avec du papier et des couleurs,
ils font mieux."

^ The majority of the pictures in the Caillebotte and Camondo Collections
are now in the Louvre (cf. note, pp. 245, 244).

242

MARC ANTON'K^. Engraving after Raphael : The Judgement of Paris (detail).

IDOL \K1) \1 Wl-.T. Le Dejeuner sur Iherbe.

Paris. Louvre

EDOUARD MANET. Lc Balcon.

THE IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT

who published, during the third exhibition, an illustrated weekly
paper called Ulmpressioniste^ which lauded and explained the
pictures. The main support came, however, as noted, from
Durand-Ruel, an art dealer who really knew his business.
Two other names must be mentioned — Muret, a restaurant
keeper, who gave meals to the poor members of the group,
including Monet and Renoir, in return for pictures ; and
Tanguy, an artist colourman who supplied them with colours
on the same terms. ^

The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh Impressionist Exhibitions
were held in 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1882. In 1883 there was no
group cxliibition, but Durand-Ruel arranged a series of one-
man shows by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley in an empty
house on the Boulevard de la Madeleine. The eighth and last
Impressionist Exhibition was held in 1886.2

By this time the Impressionist battle was really won. An
exhibition of pictures by Monet, organised in New York by
Durand-Ruel in 1886, was a considerable success, and all the
leading artists of the group were now recognized — except
Cezanne, who was working out in his retirement a new orienta-
tion for modern art.^

But the Salon painters still encouraged the general public in
hostilit)" to these artists ; they used all their influence to prevent
any expenditure from la caisse des musees on their work. No
Impressionist pictures were ever acquis par I'Etat, and when they
were bequeathed or presented, they were not accepted without
protest, and some were actually refused.*

^ For Tanguy cf. p. 302 and note, p. 512.

* The Impressionists in the years of adversity held two or three auction
sales of their pictures at the Hotel Drouot. The pictures were knocked down
for very small sums amid the jeers of the spectators ; the popular painters'
supporters in the Press added derisive comments.

^ In 1886 Manet had been dead three years, Monet was forty-six, Pissarro
was fifty-six, Degas was fifty-two, Renoir was forty-five, and Cezanne was
forty-seven ; Toulouse-Lautrec, who was twenty-two, had just arrived in Paris.
By this time the Societe des Artistes Indipendants had been formed and Seurat
who was twenr^'-seven had already painted and shown there lui V.aigKade (now
in the London National Galler}', Millbank,) and I^ Grande Jatte (PI. 135)
now in the Chicago Art Institute (cf. note p. 280 and pp. 269, ;o7).

* None of the pictures by the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and by
Cezanne and Seurat now in the Louvre and Luxembourg museums have

243

EDOUARD MANET

The Impressionists' pictures, painted sixty and seventy years
ago, have been imitated by derivative popular painters all over
the world ; these imitations abound in all official exhibitions to
this day. At the present moment Impressionism has taken the
place of History-painting in the Grand Manner as the popular
painters* creed ; and for the last thirty years it has been used
by them as a weapon with which to attack the various forms of
original painting that have since appeared.

ij. Edouard Manet

BORN PARIS 1832. DIED PARIS 1885.

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES^

London. National Gallery-

London. National Gallery, Millbank

London. S. Courtauld Collection

New York. Metropolitan Museum

The Execution of the Emperor
Maximilian. (Two frag-
ments), 1 867-1 870

Concert aux Tuileries, 1860-
1863

Mile Eva Gonzales, 1 869-1 870

La Servante de Bocks, 1877

Mme Manet with a cat, 1877-
1880

Le Dejeuner sur I'herbe (1862-
1864), (first version)

Argenteuil, 1874

Les Pavcurs de la rue de Berne,
1878

Le Bar des Folies Bergeres,
1880-1882

Boy with a sword, 1861

The Woman with a parrot, c.
1862

been purchases. Manet's O/jmpia, offered by subscription in 1890, was at
first refused and only accepted after protracted negotiations. When the
whole of the Caillebotte Collection came to the nation by bequest, in 1895,
the Administration des Beaux Arts refused two pictures by Cezanne, one by
Manet, three by Sisley, eight by Monet and eleven by Pissarro and accepted
the remainder under protest.

^ For a catalogue the reader is referred to Theodore Duret's Edouard
Manet et son auvre. Some changes in ownership have occurred since Duret's
catalogue was compiled. My list gives present whereabouts in a number of
such cases.

244

EDOUARD MANET

New York.
New York.
New York.

New York.

New York.
New York.

New York.
New York.
New York
New York.
New York.
Chicago.

Chicago.
Chicago.

Boston.

Metropolitan Museum
Metropolitan Museum
Metropolitan Museum,

llavemeyer Collection
Metropolitan Museum,

Havemeyer Collection
Metropolitan Museum,

Havemeycr Collection
Metropolitan Museum,

llavemeyer Collection
Metropolitan Museum,

Havemeycr Collection
Metropolitan Museum,

Havemeycr Collection
G. Vandcrbilt Collection
G. Vandcrbilt Collection

A. Lewisohn Collection
A. Lewisohn Collection
Osborn Collection
Chester Dale Collection
Chester Dale Collection
Art Institute

Art Institute

Art Institute, Mrs. Potter

Palmer Collection
Wittemore Collection

Boston.

Wittemore Collection

Boston.

Mrs. Montgomery-Scars
Collection

Philadelphia.

Wilstach Collection

Philadelphia.

J. G. Johnson Collection

Washington.
Paris.

Phillips Memorial Gallery
Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

The Funeral, c. 1870
Jeanne^ — le Printemps, 1880
Victorine en costume d'Hspada,

1862
Dead Christ with Angels, 1865-

1864I
^'oung Man as a Majo, 1863

Matador Saluting, 1866

En bateau, 1874

Lc Chcmin de Per, 1874

L'Acteur tragique, 1866

Lc Repos (Berthe Morisot),

1870-1872
Boy blowing Soap Bubbles, 1868
The Beggar, c. 1863
Le Guitarrero, i860
Mme Michel-Levy
Le Vieux Musicien, 1 862-1 865
Jesus Insulted by the Soldiers,

1864-1865
A Philosopher, 1 863-1 865
Les Courses a Longchamp,

1871-1872
Racing in the Bois. Les

Courses au bois de Boulogne,

1871-1872
The Port of Calais, 1871-1872
La Chanteusc dcs rues, 1862

Marine View in Holland, 1871-

1872
The fight between the Alabama

and the Kearsage, 1 864-1 865
Ballet Espagnol, 1862
Lola de Valence, 1 861-1862
Le Dejeuner sur I'herbe, 1863
Still life. Peonies, 1864
Still life. Fruit, 1864
Le Fifre, 1866
Le Port de Boulogne, 1868-

1869

^ This picture is now on exhibition in the Louvre.

MANET'S LIFE

Paris.

Louvre

Mme Manet at the piano
(pastel), 1 867-1 868

Paris.

Louvre

Olympia, 1863

Paris.

Louvre

Le Balcon, 1 868-1 870

Paris.

Louvre

Portrait of Emile Zola, 1868

Paris.

Louvre

La dame aux eventails, 1873

Paris.

Louvre

La Blonde aux seins nu, 1875

Paris.

Louvre

Stephan Mallarine, 1876

Paris.

Louvre

Clemenceau, c. 1880

Paris.

M. Gallimard Collection

Le Linge, 1 875-1 876

Paris.

Formerly
tion

Pellerin

Collec-

Le Dejeuner, 1 868-1 892

Paris ?

Formerly

tion
Museum

Pellerin

Collec-

Nana, 1876

Tournai.

En Bateau. Argenteuil, 1873-

1874

Tournai.

Museum

Chez le Pere Lathuille, 1878-
1879

Berlin.

Museum

Dans la Serre, 1 878-1 879

Berlin.

Max Liebermann

CoUec-

Asparagus

Berlin.

tion
Max Liebermann

CoUec-

Portrait of George Moore,

tion

1878-1879

Berlin.

E. Arnhold Collection

Jeune femme couchee en cos-

tume espagnol, 1864 ?

Berlin.

E. Arnhold Collection

Le Bon Bock, 1 872-1 873

Frankfort.

Staedelsches Institut

The Croquet Party, 1873-18 74

Copenhagen.

Carlsberg

Museum

Le Buveur d' Absinthe, 1858-

1859

{a) Manet's hife

Edouard Manet, the real originator of the Impressionist
movement, abstained from the first Impressionist exhibition in
1874, because he really belonged to an older generation — the
generation of his friend and champion, Baudelaire.^

Manet, like Baudelaire, came from the upper middle-class.
His father, himself the son of a well-to-do bourgeois, was a
magistrate ; his mother also came of a moneyed bourgeois
family. His parents objected to his desire to be an artist ; and
this was comprehensible seeing that the gentleman-artist

1 Baudelaire's Fleurs du AW appeared in 1857.
1864 and died there in 1867.

246

He retired to Brussels in

Lottdon. Naiiotial OalUry Mxiibank

EDOUARD MANET. Eve Gon2alcs.

Paris. Gallimard CoUeclion

EDOUARD MANET. Lc Lingc.

MANET'S LIFE

was still a relatively rare phenomenon in French social
life.'

In 1850, at the age of eighteen, Manet declared that he would
rather go to sea than study law as his parents wished ; and to
sea he went, with funds supplied by his father, on a merchant
vessel bound for Rio de Janeiro, where he probably acquired
the germs of the paralysis from which he died.

On his return he again insisted on his vocation, and joined
the art school of Thomas Couture, a Salon demonstration painter,
whose Komaitis de la Decadence^ now in the Louvre, was a Salon
success in 1849. Manet worked there intermittently for five
years, and in this period he spent much time in the Louvre, and
copied, among other things, the Cavaliers then ascribed to
Velasquez. 2

In the evenings he took pianoforte lessons from a Mile
Suzanne Leenhoft, who became his mistress, the mother of his
son, and eventually his wife.^

This Haison was kept secret from his father, who now pro-
vided funds for travel in Italy, Germany and Holland. About
1857 he shared a studio with another gentleman-artist, the

^ Gericault and Delacroix were the first ; Corot, who as noted was
financed by his parents all his life, belonged to the lower middle-classes (cf.
p. 216); in the middle of the nineteenth-century artists whose financial
position absolved them from the necessity of making money began to be
more numerous in France. Courbet, Degas, Cezanne, Seurat, and Toulouse-
Lautrec were, like Manet, in this position (cf. Preface, § v).

- This picture is now catalogued as School of Velasquez. In 1850-1856
the only real Velasquez in the Louvre was the half-length of Ulnfante
Marie Marguerite. The full-length of Philip IV (a replica) arrived in 1862 ;
the Aiarie-Therise d'Autriche was presented by La Caze in 1869.

Between 185 1 and 1858 Manet also copied in the Louvre Tintoretto's
Self Portrait, Titian's Vierge au lapiti, and, in the Luxembourg, ha Barque du
Dante, by Delacroix, whose studio he had visited. Ribera's L^ Pied hot,
which we might assume to have been a source of inspiration for his early
work, was a La Caze gift in 1 869. (For the question of his acquaintance with
works by Goya cf. note, p. 2^4.)

^ Manet's picture, Mme Manet au pianOy now in the Louvre, was painted
about 1867. Whistler's Piano Picture, now in the collection of Sir Edmund
Davis, London, was painted in 1859. Fantin Latour's Autour du piano now
in the Luxembourg was painted in 1857 ; Renoir's Jeunes filles au piano (of
which several versions exist) dates from 1891 ; his Enfants de Catulle Mendis,
where three children are grouped round a piano, dates from 1888.

247

MANET'S LIFE

Comte de Balleroy, and at the beginning of 1 8 5 9, when he was
twenty-seven, he painted Le Buveur d' Absinthe (PI. 11 8c), now
in Copenhagen.

Manet invited his master, Couture, to inspect this picture
in his studio. " Mon ami,^^ said Couture, " // n'y a qu'un buveur
d' absinthe ici — c'est celui qui a produit cette insanite.'* The picture
was sent to the Salon and rejected.

In i860 he took a studio of his own and painted ha Musique
aux Tuileries, now in the London National Gallery, Millbank,
a series of figures from a model called Victorine, and another
series of figures in Spanish costumes, some painted from
members of a troupe of Spanish dancers, then in Paris, and others
from Victorine and members of his family dressed up.^

The outstanding pictures of this double series are L,ola de
Valence^ now in the Louvre, Victorine en costume d'Espada
(PI. 95), The Woman with a parrot and the Young Man as a Majc^
all now in the ISIetropolitan Museum, New York, the Ballet
Espagnol, now in the Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington,
and Le Vieux Musicien, now in the Chester Dale Collection,
New York. At this period he also painted the octoroon,
Jeanne Duval^ who played so strange a part in the life of
Baudelaire. 2

After his father's death in 1862 Manet became a man of com-
fortable though not large independent means. He married the
next year.

At the beginning of 1863 he held a one-man show of his
pictures in the gallery of a dealer named Martinet. The pic-
tures were violently abused by the critics ; Ea Musique aux
Tuileries and hola dc Valence^ which both seem to us restrained

^ Manet, like Watteau, had a number of costumes — especially Spanish
costumes — as studio properties and nearly all his Spanish pictures were
painted before he went to Spain. In the same way the sitter for Le Buveur
d' Absinthe was not really an absinthe-drunkard but an out-of-work rag-and-
bone merchant whom Manet had picked up in the Louvre where the poor
wretch had gone for shelter on a cold day (cf. p. 284),

2 This picture, which was never finished, is now, I believe, in Germany.
It represents the sitter in a white crinoline muslin dress lying on a sofa with
a white lace curtain as a background. It was presumably the source of
Whistler's Symphonies in White, the first of which was rejected by the Salon in
1863.

248

i.n::,ioii. .\iii:oiuil OiiiU'ry, Millhank

EDOUARD iMANET. La Scrvantc dc Bocks.

LDOLARD MANl-T. Lc Bar Jc> Tolics BcrL'crcs.

i ..; ,, A.I

CLAUDE MONET. The Seine.

Aberdeen. Art Gallery

CLAUDE MONET. La Falaise dc Fecamp.

AfANl'T'S LIFH

and almost sombre in colour, were described as offendiiij^ by
i<ti harioldoe rouge ^ bleti^ jaune ct mir}

The Dejeuner sur I'hcrhe (PI. 97b), now in the Louvre, was
painted in 1862-3, rejected by the Salon in 1863, and shown
in the Saloti des Refuses of that year. The 1 emperor and impress
led the way in the general condemnation of the picture which
was described as an offence against decency ; no one, it would
seem, perceived that it was painted in emulation of Giorgione's
Concert Champctre (PL 46b) in the Louvre. ^

The Dead Christ with Angels (Havemeyer Collection) was
shown in the Salon of 1864; the Jesus insulted by the soldiers
(PI. 96), now in the Chicago Art Institute, was in the Salon of
1865 together with the celebrated Olympia. The scandal of
the Dejeuner sur I'herbe was repeated by the exhibition of these
pictures, and the critics who supported the popular painters
were violently hostile.^

Manet was much distressed by this hostile reception of his
work ; he particularly resented the suggestion disseminated by
the popular painters that he was merely a vulgar self-advertiser
seeking notoriety by the exhibition of an offensive nude. To
escape from this persecution he went to Madrid, where he met
Theodore Duret, who became one of his most faithful champions
and friends.^

^ The hola de Valence was then even less aggressive in colour than it is
to-day, because it had a plain grey background which was afterwards changed
to the coulisse de theatre background which now appears in it. Of this picture
and l^a Musique aux Tuileries, Paul de Saint- Victor wrote in I^a Presse :
" Imagine:;^ Goya passe au Mexique, devenu satwage au milieu des pampas, et bar-
bouillant des toiles avec de la cochenille ecrasee, vous aure-::^ M. Manet, le realiste de la
derniere beure. Ses tableaux . . . sont des charivaris de palette. Jamais on n' a fait
plus effrojablement grimacer les lignes et hurler les tons. . . . Son ' Concert aux
Tuileries ' icorche lesyeux, commc la musique des foires fait saignerVoreille."

^ Manet took the composition of the central part of this picture from
Marc Antonio's engraving, The Judgement of Paris, after a drawing by
Raphael, The Judgement of Paris (PI. 97a).

^ Saint- Victor wrote : " La foule se presse, comme a la Morgue, devant
' I'Olympia ' faisandee (i.e. high, as of game) et I' horrible ' Ecce homo ' de M.
Manet. Uart descendu si has ne mirite meme pas qu'on le blame." . . . "Neparlons
pas d'eux ; re garde et passe."

* Duret in his Manet et son auvre relates an episode which makes it clear
that Manet at this moment was suffering from an attack of persecution mania.

2 K

249

MANET'S LIFE

In 1866, after his return from Spain, the Salon rejected Le
Fifre, now in the Louvre, and UActeur tragique^ now in the
Vanderbiit Collection, New York.^

In 1867 he was not invited to exhibit at the Exposition
Universelle and, like Courbet, he put up a shed and arranged
fifty of his works as a private exhibition ; hardly anyone went
in, and none of the pictures was sold.

On the other hand, he had now won for himself a number of
admirers, the critics Theodore Duret, Duranty and Theophile
Thore, and Emile Zola, who had written an enthusiastic article
about his work, and lost his post as art critic to UEvenement as a
result.^

These men and the artists who were about to form the
Impressionist group used to frequent the Cafe Guerbois to
meet one another, and especially to meet Manet, whom they all
regarded as their leader.

Le Balcon (PI. 98), now in the Louvre, was in the Salon of
1869, and was greeted literally with roars of laughter; Eva
Gonzales (PI. 99), now in the London National Gallery, Mill-
bank — a portrait for which Manet had forty sittings — had the
same fate in the Salon of 1870.

This continued laughter at his pictures had a bad effect on
Manet's nerves. As after the Olympia scandal, he was for the
moment paranoiac, and in 1866 he quarrelled with Duranty,
with whom he fought a duel.^

But he also tells us that the passport officer at Hendaye called his wife to
look at this painter of scandalous pictures of whom they had read in the
newspapers — which shows that the persecution was as real and widespread
then as it is in the case of certain original artists to-day.

1 About this time Manet sent two pictures — probably these two — to the
Royal Academy in London which rejected them.

2 Zola wrote : " L<7 place de M. Manet est marquee au 'Louvre. . . . 11 est
impossible — impossible, entende^i^-vous — que M. Manet n' ait pas unjour de triomphe
et qu'il n'ecrase pas les mediocrites timides qui I'entourent." This was considered
so fantastic in 1866 that the editor thought his contributor was insulting his
readers by " pulling their legs." Duret, who arranged to write articles with-
out payment on the 1870 Salon in L'Electeur Libre, had to give an undertaking
that if he praised Manet the praise must be attenue et enveloppe de circonlocutions

^ Both survived and were afterwards reconciled. Some time later Manet
quarrelled, over a trifle, with the Belgian painter Stevens, who had been for
many years his friend.

250

MANKT'S LIFE

There was no Salon in 1871, and during the war Manet served
in the garde nationale, where his colonel was the Salon painter,
Meissonier, who took no steps to make his acquaintance.'

He resumed work in 1872, and sent to the Salon Le Kepos
(a portrait of Berthe Morisot), which had the usual bad recep-
tion. But this picture, which is now in the Vanderbilt Collec-
tion, New York, was accompanied by Le Bon Bock (now in a
German collection), which represents a fat man, smoking a pipe,
with a glass of beer in his hand. Pictures of fat men, especially
of fat men eating or drinking, always appeal to Salon publics.
This one was no exception to the rule, and Manet for the first
time heard the Salon visitors make enthusiastic comments on his
work.

Manet now found himself short of money ; in the thirteen
years in which he had been practising as an artist he had only
sold two or three pictures ; he had overspent his income,
especially at the time of his one-man show in the Exposition
Universelle^ when he had gambled on the hope of selling some
works ; and his actual capital was now considerably reduced.
This position was relieved when the dealer Durand-Ruel came
to his studio and bought twenty-two pictures for thirty-five
thousand francs.'^

^ Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), a genre painter, chiefly of
cortegaardjes in the Dutch tradition, was a pillar of the Salons and the first
French artist to receive the Grand Cross of the Legion of Plonour. His work
was much admired by Madame Sabatier to whom Baudelaire wrote the poem
beginning :

Ange plein de gatte, connaisse:^-vous I'angoisse

La honie, les remords, les sanglots, les ennuis

Et les vagues terreurs de ces affreuses nuits

Qui compriment le caur conwie un papier qu'on froisse ?

Ange plein de gaite, connaisse^-vous I'angoisse ?

Meissonier was a very short man who wore a very long beard. Mr. Walter
Pach, the distinguished American art-critic, has described him as " a ran-
corous dwarf." In 1872 when Courbet was victimised on political grounds
by the Thiers Government (cf. p. 229), Meissonier helped to make it
impossible for him to pay the indemnity by urging the Salon Jury to exclude
his work from all exhibitions. " He must be considered by us," said
Meissonier, " as one dead."

* The pictures bought included four port scenes and Victorine as an
Espada (PI. 95), Le Ftfre, L'Acteur tragique. The Woman vith a parrot, Ut

251

MANET'S LIFE

This was Manet's position at the time of the First Impres-
sionist Exhibition. He had only ten more years to hve, and he
was to hear again the Salon public's derisive laughter and to have
his pictures again refused.

In addition to his important figure subjects he had been paint-
ing since the middle of the 'sixties Impressionist seascapes, port
scenes, scenes on the beach, at the races and so forth, and he
now began to use this Impressionist technique in Salon pictures
of outdoor scenes.^

Le Chem'm defer (Havemeyer Collection), shown in the Salon of
1 874, and Argenteuil (now at Tournai), shown in 1 875 , were both
outdoor {plein air) effects painted in the light colours favoured
bv the Impressionist group. The Salon painters and the Salon
public were even more infuriated by these pictures than they had
been by his earlier style. 'Le hinge (PI. 100), with its lovely light
blues, so enraged the Jury of 1876 that they refused it; and
Manet had other pictures refused in 1877 and 1878, years in
which he painted the charming Pare//rs de la rue de Berne, now in
Mr. Courtauld's collection in London, and La servante de Bocks,

Chanteuse des rues. Young Man as a Mojo, Dead Christ n'ith Angels, L^ ballet
espagnol, and Le Repos. Durand-Ruel did not buy Olympia, Le Dejeuner sur
I herhe (PI. 97b), Le Balcon (PI. 98), Lola de Valence, or Jesus Insulted by
Soldiers (PI. 96), which remained with at least a hundred other pictures
in the studio.

1 It must be clearly realised that Manet was the first to paint Impressionist
scenes of daily life and that he was imitated by Monet and Degas in their
early works. Manet painted his first race-course pictures about 1864.
In 1867 he painted a Vue de l' exposition universelle (in the collection of
Mme Angelot, Paris), in which he depicted people on horseback, a man
watering a lawn, a boy with a dog, soldiers and so forth, and a balloon
in the air — a t}^ical Impressionist sketch of the kind which is now
considered rather dashing by Salon painters three quarters of a century
later; he painted La Plage de Boulogne (Faure Collection, Paris) in 1869, Le
Port de Bordeaux (Mendelssohn Collection, Berlin) in 1871 — a picture itself
anticipated by Whister's Thames in Ice which was painted in 1862; Les
Courses a Longchamp (PI. ma), now in the Chicago Art Institute (Mrs. Potter
Palmer Collection), was painted in 1872, and in that year he painted the
Young Ala/: on a Bicycle that was in the Moreau-Nelaton Collection. His
Croquet Party, now in the Staedelsches Institute at Frankfort, was painted in
1874. The first imitations of these pictures by foreign artists date from the
'eighties. Sir John Laver^^'s Tennis Party, formerly in the Munich Neue
Pinakotek, was painted in 1885, two years after Manet's death.

252

jMAnf.t's art

now in the London National Gallery, Millbank; Che^ le pere
Lathuille was derided in 1880.

But in 1 88 1 the Salon Jury was once more reconstituted on
the old plan of election by the votes of all the exhibitors of the
past year, and the Jury thus elected gave Manet a medal for the
strange picture, he Chasseur de lions, which he exhibited in
1 881 ; and this medal was followed in the usual way by the
Legion of Honour.'

Thus Manet had to wait till two years before his death to
secure the hors concours position which gave him the right to
exhibit his pictures without interference from the Jury.

But by this time he was attacked by the paralysis to which he
succumbed in 1883. He painted, nevertheless, before his death,
some Impressionist landscapes (that were imitated by Sargent),
Jeanne — le Printemps, which was a success in the Salon of 1882
and is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the
celebrated Bar aux Folies Bergeres (PL loib), now in the Courtauld
Collection. He painted the later pictures seated in a wheeled
chair.

(h) Manet's Art

Manet was essentially a painter's painter. Like Chardin
and Corot, he " amused himself " by painting. But whereas
Chardin had " amused himself " with architectural explora-
tion and Corot with an attempt to express a lyrical concept
of landscape in photographic technique, Manet " amused
himself" by concentrating on the actual handling of oil
paint. He was the first artist to regard the practice of a
particular method of oil painting as a vocation in itself. He
was the inventor of the notion of " painting for painting's
sake" — a notion elaborated by Walter Pater into the
'* aesthetic " doctrine which is still upheld in our own day
by art critics of one school.

Manet's early pictures were all exercises in his chosen method
of " direct " oil painting. He was attracted by effects noted in

^ 1^ Chasseur de lions which is now, I believe, in Germany, shows the
huntsman kneeling with a dead lion behind him. The model was posed
among the trees in the Champs Elysees.

253

MANET'S ART

over-exposed photographs and tried to capture them in a method
of oil painting which he invented.^

In the subject-content of his pictures Manet took relatively
little interest. He accepted the general doctrine of Realism, of
which he heard a good deal from his friend Zola, and he painted
subjects of everyday life. But he was not an original Romantic
recorder of everyday life like Courbet or Daumier, Degas or
Lautrec. Nor was he an original descriptive recorder. He was
purely a painter who happened to select this material to paint.

Le Dejeuner surVherbe (PI. 97b) is in character simply an attempt
to paint Giorgione's Concert Champetre (PI. 46b) in his own
technique, and it was for this reason that he was content to take
the composition from the Marc Antonio engraving (PI. 97a).
For the Concert aux Tuileries he borrowed, as noted, a composi-
tion by Guys ; The Execution of Maximilian, Victorine as an
Espada (PI. 65), Le Balcon (PI. 98), Olympia, and his pictures of
Spanish bull-fighting, were all probably based on Goya's aqua-
tints and on photographs of his pictures. ^

^ Manet mixed up on his palette a large lump of the general tone which he
desired to be the final tone for each passage ; into this on his canvas he
worked the minimum of shadows. He found the parlour game of acquiring
dexterity in this procedure an enthralling " amusement."

- I have not been able to discover what experience of Goya's work Manet
actually had. There were no paintings by Goya in the Louvre in 1864 and
the two portraits bequeathed by Guillemardet in 1865 were probably not
exhibited there till 1866. Goya's L,a Femme a I'eventail, now in the Louvre,
which would seem to have influenced the Eve Gomiales (PI. 99), was not
acquired by the Louvre till 1898.

The critic Thore described Manet's early paintings as influenced by
Goya ; but Baudelaire in the famous letter of 1864, in which he said that
he himself had written phrases that occurred in Poe's works before reading
Poe, stated categorically : " M. Manet n' a jamais vu de Goya. . . . M. Manet
n' a jamais vu la galerie Pourtales. Cela vous par ait incroyahle mais cela est vrai.
. . . M. Manet ^ a Vipoque ou nous jouissions de ce merveilleux Musee Espagnol que
la stupide Kepublique fran(aise, dans sa respect ah us if de la propriete, a rendu aux
princes d'Orleans, M. Manet etait un enfant et servait a bord d'un navire. On lui a
t ant parte de ses pastiches de Goya que, maintenant, it cherche a voir des Goya.'"''

Manet did not go to Spain, as noted, till the autumn of 1865 after the
exhibition of his Olympia. It is, however, probable that he was acquainted
either with Goya's Maja vestida and Maja desnuda (now in the Prado, Madrid)
or with photographs of these pictures. Baudelaire makes obscure references
to the pictures and to photographs of them in two letters dated May 14th
and 1 6th, 1859, to the photographer Nadar (cf. p. 240), whom he urges to

254

MANET'S ART

In his Impressionist sketches of outdoor scenes, such as
Les Courses a l^ongchamp (PI. ma), in which, as noted, he was
the pioneer, Manet set the fashion for pictures that rival the
ertects of instantaneous photographs ; and when he painted
such scenes in hght colours he was influenced by the general
Impressionist interest in the spectrum palette, which was an
attempt to reduce perception to the vision which the camera
would achieve if it could chronicle colour.^

His pictures of the late 'seventies such as Argenteuil (now in
the Tournai Museum), and l^a Servante de Bocks (PL loia), now
in the London National Gallery, are photographic both in vision
and composition. A good deal of the Bar aux Folies Bergeres
(PL loib), now in the Courtauld Collection, London, was pro-
bably painted from a photograph. ^

No one who has handled oil paints can fail to react to Manet's
masterly technique in this medium ; and it is impossible to
believe that the Salon painters did not deliberately shut their
eyes to it from base motives when they encouraged ridicule of
his Ere Gon^^ales in 1870, and rejected he L,i?ige in 1876.^

obtain or make photographs of the pictures (or versions of them) which it
would seem were then in Paris and for sale for 2400 francs. My own view is
that Nadar did obtain photographs of these pictures and gave them to his
friend Manet. About 1864 Manet painted a sketch, ] erne fern me couchee en
costume espagnole (Arnhold Collection, Berlin), which is based on the Maja
vestida ; he gave this sketch to Nadar, possibly in exchange for the photo-
graphs. It was presumably Nadar who made the photograph of the Oljmpia
which is pinned up on the wall in Manet's Portrait of Zola now in the Louvre.
The composition of Manet's l^e Balcon (PI. 98) is certainly based on Goya's
Majas of the Balcony. But I do not know where he could have seen the original
painting. Three versions of it now exist in private collections in Spain.
There is no version in the Prado.

^ Cf. The Modern Movement in Art, pp. 76-81 and 97-103.

2 For the relation of photographs to the work of Degas cf. p. 276.

^ Every painting by Manet has now been imitated ten thousand times.
L^ Buveur d' Absinthe (PI. 11 8c), his first picture painted just after he had
copied the Velasquez Cavaliers, was painted with thin flowing colour in a
technique which he never repeated. This technique was imitated in all his
full-length portraits by Whistler who was in Paris on and otf from 1856 to
1863, and frequenting the Manet-Baudelaire circle. (Baudelaire wrote
about \\ histler's etchings in 1862, Fantin-Latour painted him in his Hommage
a Delacroix, now in the Louvre, in 1863.) Whistler's various Symphonies in
White, as noted (cf. note, p. 248), were all, I believe, the result of Manet's
portrait oi Jeanne Duval.

^55

CLAUDE MONET

London.

Aberdeen.
New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.
New York.

New York.

Chicago.
Chicago.
Chicago.
Chicago.

Pittsburg.
Pittsburg.
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.

Philadelphia.

iij . Claude Monet

BORN PARIS 1840. DIED GIVENCHY 1 926.

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

National Gallery, Mill- Plage de TrouviUe, 1 870

bank
National Gallery, Mill- Vdtheuil — effet de Neige, 1 8 8 1

bank
National Gallery, Mill- Les peupliers, ^. 1 890

bank
National Gallery, Mill- Le bassin aux nympheas, 1 899-1 908

bank
National Gallery, Mill- Rouen Cathedral, c. 1894

bank
S. Courtauld Collec- Juan-les-Pins, 1888

tion
Art Gallery La falaise de Fecamp, 1881

Metropolitan Museum The Green Wave, 1865
Metropolitan Museum La Grenouillere, 1869
Metropolitan Museum Sunflowers, 1881
Metropolitan Museum Poplars, 189 1
Metropolitan Museum Haystacks in Snow, 1891
Metropolitan Museum The Ice Floe, 1891
Metropolitan Museum Water Lilies. Nympheas, 1899
A. Lewisohn Collec- The Seine, r. 1875

tion
A. Lewisohn Collec- Valley, Giverny, 1883

tion
A. Lewisohn Collec- Venice. The Contarini Palace, 1 908

tion
A. Lewisohn Collec- Waterloo Bridge, 1904
tion

Westminster, c. 1903

La Gare St. Lazare, 1877

Argenteuil, 1868

Boats in Winter Quarters, Etretat,

1880-1886
The Seine at Lavacourt
Water Lilies. (Nympheas)
Amsterdam, Westchurch Tower
J. G. Johnson Collec- Railroad Bridge

tion
Barnes Foundation Madame Manet Embroidering, c.

1880

256

Ryerson Collection
Ryerson Collection
Art Institute
Art Institute

Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute
Fairmount Park

m »

Acu' York. Mr. and Mrs. Chcslcr Dale Collection

AUGUSTE RENOIR. Petite flllc a larrusoir.

ri»

^,.r '

London. S. Courlauld Collection

AUGUSTE RENOIR. La Place Piualle.

t/.S.,'l. Private Collection

AUGUSTE RENOIR. I,c Moulin dc la Galcttc.

CLAUDl' MONET

Worcester

y\rt Museum

(Mass.).

Worcester

Art Museum

(Mass.).

Detroit.

Institute of Arts

Minneapolis.

Art Institute

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Waterloo Bridge, 1903

Water Lilies (N'ympheas), 1909

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Luxembourg

Bremen.

Museum

Frankfort.

Staedelsches '.

neige,

jardin,

Garden Scene

Morning on the Seine

La Charrctte. Effet de

1,865-1867
L'Ete : Femmes dans un

1867
Zaandam, 1871
Carriercs-Saint- Denis, 1872
Grosse mer a Etretat, c. 1875
Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argen-

teuil, c. 1875
Les Barques a I'ancre (Argenteuil),

1875
Les Tuileries, 1875
Les Barques Regates a Argenteuil,

1875
Le Bassin d'Argenteuil, 1875
Les Voiles a Argenteuil
Le Dejeuner, 1875
Un Coin d'appartement, 1876
La Gare St. Lazare, 1877
La Seine a Vetheuil, 1879
Le Givre, 1880
Les Coquelicots, c. 1880
Les Rochers de Belle-Isle, 1886
Fcmme a I'Ombrelle, 1886
La Cathedrale de Rouen : Temps

gris, 1894
La Cathedrale de Rouen : Soleil

matinal, 1894
La Cathedrale de Rouen : Plein

soleil, 1896
Nympheas : harmonic verte, 1899
Nympheas : harmonie rose, 1900
Vetheuil. Soleil couchant, 1901
Londres, le Parlement, 1904
L'Eglise de Vetheuil, before 1879
Camille, La Dame a la robe verte,

1866
Le Dejeuner sur I'hcrbe, 1868

2 L

257

MONET'S LIFE

{a) Monet* s Life

Claude Monet was the son of a grocer of Le Havre. At
the age of fifteen he started to draw caricatures and earn money
by selling them from a shop window. Shortly afterwards he
met Boudin, who taught him to handle palette and brushes. At
sixteen he competed for a Municipal Art Scholarship to take him
to Paris ; he failed to get the scholarship, and in the following
year he went to Paris on money saved from the sale of his
caricatures. In Paris he worked in the studio of Troyon.^

The next year he was due for military service. His parents
offered to buy him out if he would give up painting. He refused,
and served two years in Algeria.

In 1862 he was back at Le Havre painting on the coast with
Boudin and Jongkind.^ At the end of the year his parents
yielded to his determination to become a painter, and provided
funds for a course of instruction in Paris in the art school of
Marc-Gabriel-Charles Gleyre.^

In Gleyre's studio Monet found Renoir, Sisley and Bazille ;
in 1863 they left together — Sisley (whose father was then pro-
viding him with money), in a spirit of camaraderie, Renoir and
Monet to try to earn their living.

Monet's enthusiasms at this time were for Boudin, Jongkind
and Courbet. But in 1865 he saw Manet's one-man show at
Martinet's and Le Dejeuner sur Vherhe in the Salon des Refuses ;
and a new enthusiasm for Manet began to drive out the others.

In 1865, when he was twenty-five, he had two marines
accepted by the Salon ; and he then painted his own Dejeuner
sur Vherhe^ a replica of which is now in the Staedelsches Institut
in Frankfort. In 1866 he was taken to Manet's studio and saw
the imposing array of unsold pictures which it then contained.
He rushed back home and painted — it is said in four days —
Camilky La Dame h la robe verte, which is now in the Bremen
Museum. Camtlle was accepted by the 1866 Salon. In 1867 he

^ Cf. p. 215.

2 Johann-Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891), a Dutch landscape and marine
painter of the school of Corot and Boudin.

^ Marc-Gabriel-Charles Gleyre (i 806-1 876), a Salon painter.

258

London. Mrs. Chester Beatly Collection

AUGUSTE RENOIR. Femmc allaitant son enfant.

MONT-T'S LIFI<

painted L'li/e: Femmes dans un jardin (now in the Louvre), which
was rejected by the Salon ; his pictures were again rejected in
1869 and 1870.

Shortly before the war he married and established himself
at Argenteuil on the Seine. I le was driven out by the German
occupation in 1870 and travelled to Holland, where he accident-
ally discovered Japanese prints, and to London, where he painted
the river and discovered Turner. On his London journey he was
accompanied by Pissarro. y\fter the war he returned to Argen-
teuil, and worked there and in Paris, with occasional visits to
the coast, for the next few years.

From 1874 to 1886 he was associated as noted with the
Impressionist exliibitions, and failed with the others to sell
more than an occasional picture. In 1880 he had a completely
unsuccessful one-man exhibition in a gallery on the Boulevard
des Italiens belonging to Georges Charpentier the publisher, who
has already been mentioned as one of the few people who bought
the Impressionists' work in the early days.^

In 1883 Durand-Ruel arranged a one-man show of fifty-six
of his pictures in an empty house on the Boulevard de la
Madeleine. This exhibition was almost a success, and Monet,
who had lived hitherto in real poverty, was able to acquire a
country^ house at Giverny, where he lived for the remainder of
his life.

The relative success of the 1883 exhibition was continued in
shows organised by Durand-Ruel in 1886 in New York, and in
1887 in Boston, and in an exhibition which Monet held with
the sculptor Rodin in the Galerie Georges Petit in 1889.

After 1 891 Monet was a prosperous artist ; and his pictures
shown in one-man exhibitions in the 'nineties and the beginning
of the present centut)^ were all applauded and bought by dealers
and collectors.

In these later shows he exhibited paintings of Haystacks
in sunlight at different hours of the day (1891), of Kouen
Cathedral in different effects of light (1893), of Poplars on the
Epte (1898), of l^ethenil seen across the river (1902), of the
Thames near Westminster (1904), of I'enice (191 2) and of the
water-lilies (Nj'wpheas) in his garden at Giverny (1891 and
* "^ Cf. p. 242.

259

MONET'S ART

1909). From 1 914 to 191 8 he worked on a series of large
decorative panels based on his Njwpheas.

In 191 8, when he was seventy-eight, his eysight failed. He
died at eighty-six.^

{b) Monet's Art

Monet did not develop his personal style till the beginning
of the 'eighties when he was over forty. Till then his pictures
were influenced successively by Boudin, Jongkind, Alanet,
Pissarro, Turner, Japanese prints, photographs and Renoir.^

In his personal manner he achieved a Marxian grinding of
the face of representational painting to a point which heralded
the Cubist-Classical return to sheer architectural form. He
concentrated on the problem of symbolising the perpetual
movement of light. In so doing he eventually reduced the
representation of specific forms to a minimum, and the formal
content of his pictures to an architectural content of colour.

The colour itself was mainly restricted to the colours of the
spectrum, as he was influenced by the scientific doctrine that

1 Before his marriage Monet painted mainly on the Normandy coast and
occasionally in Paris. From 1874 to 1880 he painted mainly on the Seine,
in Paris and on the coast. In 1880 he worked at Etretat, in 1882 on various
parts of the Normandy coast. From 1883 onwards he worked at Giverny
and also in 1884 at Bordighera, in 1885 and 1886 at Etretat, in 1886 at Belle
Isle, in 1888 at Antibes, in 1889 at La Creuse, in 1892 at Rouen, in 1895 in
Norway. He worked in Holland in 1870 and 1879, and in London in 1871
and between 1900 and 1908.

2 His Dejeuner sur I'herbe, painted in 1866, was influenced by Manet's
Dejeuner surl'herhe (PI. 97b), and by the forest landscapes of Courbet. Monet,
who doubtless knew that Manet was emulating Giorgione's Concert Cham-
petre (PL 46b), tried himself to emulate Van Loo's Dejeuner de chasse (PI.
54b), now in the Louvre.

Monet's Dejeuner sur I' herbs was painted in the forest of Fontainebleau.
Van Loo's picture had been painted for Fontainebleau ; it was not nation-
alised or sold by Louis David's assessors, as they considered it worthless.
It remained rolled up in an attic till 1846, when it was taken to the Tuileries.
It was restored and transferred to the Louvre some years later.

Monet's picture, which would seem to have been sequestered by his land-
lord for rent, was also rolled up and neglected for some time. In 1868
Monet made the replica which is now in Frankfort. The recumbent figure,
based on the figure in the same attitude in Manet's picture, was painted from
Bazille (cf. p. 237).

260

AUGUSTE RENOIR

\vc only perceive colour in terms of light, as it is seen by the
camera. Jn practice this meant the dismissal of blacks and
browns from the palette ; and much of the gaiety and charm of
the colour in his pictures, and in those of Renoir and Sisley who
adopted the same procedure, is due to the exclusion of those
colours.

He painted many of his early pictures and the Haystack series
entirely in the open air; but about 1892 he realised — as all
artists before him had realised — that it is not advisable to do
more than sketch in the open air, because the violence of the
light soon affects the eye, and it becomes impossible to know
what the picture will look like when brought indoors. His
Kouen Cathedral pictures and the Thames series were painted from
windows; after 1892 he worked over all his pictures in the
studio.

I reproduce a fine example of his early work, The Seine (PI.
102a), now in the Lewisohn Collection, New York ; and, as an
example of his more personal work, ha Falaise de Fecamp (PL
102b), which was formerly in Sir James Murray's collection, in
London, and is now in the Aberdeen Art Gallery.

iv. Augusts Kemir

BORN LIMOGES 184I. DIED CAGNES I919.

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London. National Gallery, Mill- The Umbrellas (Les Parapluies),

bank 1883

London. National Gallery, Mill- At the Theatre (La Premiere Sortie),

bank r. 1880

London. National Gallery, Mill- Nu dans I'eau, r. 1888

bank

London. S. Courtauld Collec- In the Box (La Loge), 1874

tion

London. S. Courtauld Collec- La Place Pigalle, 1880

tion

London. S. Courtauld Collec- Portrait of Vollard, f. 1 910 ?

tion

London. S. Courtauld Collec- The Shoelace, c. 191 7

tion

London. H. Coleman Collection La Promenade, r. 1886 ""

London. Paul Maze Collection Figures in a Landscape, c. 191 7

261

AUGUSTE RENOIR

London.
New York.
New York.

U.S.A.
New York.

New York.

Washington.

Boston.

Chicago.
Chicago.
Chicago.
Chicago.

Chicago.

Cleveland.
Cleveland.

Northampton

(Mass.).
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia.

Mrs. Chester Beatty Mother and Child (Femme allaitant

Collection son enfant), 1886

Metropolitan Museum Mme Charpentier and her Children,

1878
Metropolitan Museum, By the Seashore, 1883

Havemeyer Collec-
tion
Private Collection Le Moulin de la Galette, c. 1880

A. Lewisohn Collec- Mme Darras, 1871

tion
A. Lewisohn Collec- Les canotiers a Chatou, 1879

tion
A. Lewisohn Collec- Les Vendangeurs, 1879

tion
A. Lewisohn Collec- In the Meadow, ^. 1894

tion
Mr. and Mrs. Chester Petite fille a I'arrosoir, 1876

Dale Collection
Phillips Memorial Gal- Le Dejeuner des Canotiers, c. 1880

lery
J. T. Spaulding Collec- Girl with a large hat (pastel), 1896

tion
Art Institute Circus Children, 1875

Art Institute Mme Clapisson, 1883

Art Institute Canoeists' Breakfast, c. 1879

Art Institute (Ryerson Les Chapeaux d'ete, 1893

Collection)
Mrs. L. Coburn Col- Sur la Terrasse, 1880

lection
Mrs. L. Coburn Col- Young Women at a table, 1876

lection
Mrs. L. Coburn Col- The Garden, 1878

lection
Mrs. L. Coburn Col- Girl Sewing, 1879

lection
Mrs. L. Coburn Col- Portrait of Sisley, 1879

lection

Le Pont Neuf, 1872

La promenade au bord de la mer,

1890
Mme Maitre

Coe Collection

R. M. Coe Collection

Smith College

Barnes Foundation
Barnes Foundation
Barnes Foundation
Barnes Foundation
Barnes Foundation

Le Dejeuner, c. 1875
Half-nude Girl doing her hair, c. 1875
Mother and Child, 1881
Washerwoman and Child, c. 1886
La Famille Renoir, 1896

262

Chudgo. Art liisliliile

ALGL'STH R1;N()1R. Circus Children.

Chictigu. Art Institute. Ryersoii Collection

AUGUSTE RENOIR. Lcs Chapcaux d'ete.

AUGUSTE RENOIR

Three Girls at an embroidery frame,

c. 1897
La Promenade, 1898
Dejeuner sur I'herbe, c. 1909
Le petit dejeuner, c. 1910
Bathing ( lirls at play, r. 191 5
Baigneuses,* 1885
Petite danseuse, 1874
Bazille, 1867-1868
Mme Th. Charpentier, c. 1872.
La Rose, c. 1872

Paysage aux environs dc Paris, 1873
Mme llartmann, 1874
La Liscusc, c. 1874
Le Moulin de la Galette, c. 1875
La Balan^oire, 1876
Chemin montant dans les hautes

herbes, c. 1878
Les Bords de la Seine a Champrosay.
Jeunes filles au piano,- 1 891-1892
La fiUette au chapeau de paille, 1908
Jeune fille assise, c. 1909
Gabrielle a la rose, c. 1910
La Toilette : femmc se peignant,

1910
Mile Colonna Romano, 191 3
Les Nymphs (two recumbent nudes

and two bathing girls), 1919
Theodore de Banville (pastel)
Torse de jeune fille au soleil
Mother and Child, c. 1901^

La femme enceinte, 1917

Panneaux decoratifs, 1901
Baigneuses, r. 1901*
The Judgement of Paris (bronze),
1915

^ This picture was formerly in the collection of the artist ^L J.-E. Blanche.

2 There is another version of this picture in the Paul Guillaume Collection
in Paris. Mr. Adolph Lewisohn has a version in pastel.

^ This is a free version of the Mother and Child (1886) in Mrs. Chester
Beatt}-'s Collection. Renoir also modelled this group in clay in 1 916. I have
seen a bronze cast at the Leicester Galleries, London.

* This is a repetition in a free handling of the Baigneuses, i88j, in the Tyson
Collection.

263

Philad;

jlphia.

Barnes Foundation

Phi lade

:lphia.

Barnes Foundation

Philad(

.■Iphia.

Barnes I'oundation

Philack

.•Iphia.

Barnes F-oundation

Philadc

.•Iphia.

Barnes Foundation

Phihidc

■Iphia.
.•Iphia.

Tyson Collection

Pliiladi

\\ idener Collection

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre.

Paris,

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris,

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris,

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Pierre Renoir Collec-
tion

Paris.

Pierre Renoir Collec-
tion

Paris.

Jean Renoir Collection

Paris.

VoUard Collection

Paris.

Vollard Collection

AUGUSTE RENOIR

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Paris.

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Paris.

Berlin.

Cologne.

Essen.
Frankfort.
Frankfort.
The Hague.

The Hague.

Durand-Ruel Collection

Wildenstein Collection

Paul Guillaume Collec-
tion

Georges Bernheim Col-
lection

Bernheim Jeune Collec-
tion

M. Kapferer Collection

Jos. Hessel Collection

Jos. Hessel Collection
Jos. Hessel Collection
Jos. Hessel Collection
H. Bernstein Collection
J. Strauss Collection
Bader Collection
National Gallery
Arnhold Collection
Mathiessen Gallery
Thannhaiiser Gallery
A. Gold Collection
Wallruf-Richartz

Museum
Folkwang Museum
R. V. Hirsch Collection
Museum

Kroller-MuUer Collec-
tion
KroUer-Muller Collec-
tion

Femme se coiffant, 1885
Children of Catulle Mend^s, 1888
La Lettre, c. 1892

Gabrielle with the jewel, c. 1909

Le Clown Blanc

Gabrielle aux mains croisees

La Blonde Costumee

Au piano, 1 891-1892

Coco playing with bricks, 1904

Baigneuse s'essuyant, 1910

Baigneuse s'essuyant, 191 7

Baigneuses, c. 1901^

Pot pourri, c. 1892

Jeune fiUe lutinant son amie avec un

crabe, c. 1897
Le Grand Nu, 1904-6
Le Jardin a Cagnes
Nu sur un canape, c. 1909
Self portrait, ^. 1875
Richard Wagner, 1881
Ode aux Fleurs, 1909
Les demoiselles Berard, 1884
Boy with a cat, 1868
Cagnes, 1901

The Judgement of Paris, c. 1908
Idyll, c. 1 914
Sisley and his Wife, 1868

Lise, 1867

Skating, 1868

Le Dejeuner, 1879

Le Clown au Cirque, 1868

Au Cafe, 1877

^ This is a freely painted composition resembling, with some additional
figures, the Tyson Baigneuses (1885).

264

i .it:~. / ;,r'c Ktiluir Cviiturjii

AUGUSTE RENOIR. Fcmmc allaitant son enfant.

Loiiiloii. S. Courtauld Collection

AUGUSTE RENOIR. The Shoelace.

..J^
»»

Paris. Paul Giiitlaume Collection

AUGUSTE RENOIR. Gabricllc aux bijoux.

RENOIR'S LIFE

Wintcrthur.

(). Rcinlunlt Collec-

tion

Moscow.

Stchoukinc Collection

Moscow.

Museum of Modern

Art. Morosoff Collec-

tion

Stockholm.

National Museum

Stockholm.

National Museum

Stockholm.

National Museum

Oslo.

Stang Collection

Oslo.

Stang Collection

Tokio.

Matsugata Collection

Portrait of Chocquet, 1876

Nude. Anna, 1875

Mile Samary (full length), 1879

Chez la mere Antoine, c. 1865
La Grenouillcre, 1868
Conversation, 1879
Baigneusc (blonde), 1 881-1882
Nude with raised arms
Parisiennes habillees en Algeriennes,
1872

id) Refioir's Life

Pierre- Auguste Renoir was the great artist of the Impressionist
group, and one of the greatest masters of the whole French
school, if not, indeed, of European painting. His work was
unequal because, as an essentially original artist, he was always
in process of development. But his finest pictures will hold their
own in exalted company, and the works of his extreme old age,
when his brush was strapped to his paralysed hand, rank with
the great works which Titian and Rembrandt produced at the
very end of their careers.

Renoir was the son of a tailor of Limoges, who came to Paris
and arranged for him to work as a painter in a porcelain factory.
Later he painted blinds and managed to save enough money
to enter Gleyre's art school in 1 862. He left this atelier, as noted,
with Monet and Sisley in the following year, at the age of twenty-
one.

Between 1863 and the end of the Franco-Prussian war he
shared the poverty of Monet, with whom he was all the time on
terms of intimate friendship. In this period he made ends meet
with occasional porcelain painting and other commercial work,
and with a little assistance from his mother.

Between 1870 and 1878 his pictures were regularly rejected
from the Salons and shown at the Impressionist exhibitions as
noted ; in these years he sold pictures to Caillebotte and Choc-
quet and received support from Durand-Ruel.

In the 'seventies, also, he began to paint portraits, and this

2 M 265

RENOIR'S ART

was his main source of income till the middle of the 'eighties.
His chief patrons for portraits were the publisher, Charpentier,
and Mme Charpentier, who procured him a number of
commissions and insured by influence the exhibition in the 1879
Salon of his portrait of theactress,/^^w;^ i'^/^^r>' (Moscow Museum
of Modern Art). The large group, Mme Charpentier and her
children^ painted in 1878, is now in the Metropolitan Museum,
New York.

In 1 880-1 88 1 Renoir went to Italy, visiting Rome, Venice,
Naples and Palermo, where he painted a portrait of Wagner,
which is now in the J. Strauss Collection in Paris. ^

On his way back to France he was attacked by the rheumatic
gout, which was eventually to paralyse him, and he spent the
early months of 1882 in Algeria in the hope of curing it.

When he returned to Paris he received commissions for ten
portraits from a wealthy family named Berard, which put him in
funds. His group, L.es Demoiselles Berard, is now in the National
Gallery, Berlin.

In 1883 Durand-Ruel arranged a one-man show of seventy
of his pictures in the empty house in the Boulevard de la
Madeleine, to which I have already referred. From this time
onwards he benefited by the growing appreciation of Impres-
sionist pictures, and he madebusiness arrangements with Durand-
Ruel which enabled him to support himself and a wife and family
without difficulty.

Soon after 1890 the rheumatic gout began to cripple him,
and he established himself at Cagnes, in the Midi, where he
remained for the rest of his life. In his last years he painted
seated in a wheeled chair with his brush strapped to his hand
which was contracted and paralysed.

{b) Renoir's Art

Renoir's earliest pictures, which he subsequently destroyed,
were Romantic illustrations in the manner of the followers of
Delacroix. He then worked through a moment when he was
influenced by photographs ; of this Lise, which was in the Salon

^ Wagner sat only half an hour for this portrait.

266

RENOIR'S ART

of 1868, and is now in the Folkwang Museum at F.ssen, and
La Cretiouillere in Stockholm, are examples.

In the 'seventies he became a mature and personal artist,
especially intrigued with the play of light. To symbolise this
play of light he banished black and brown from his palette and
applied the colours of the spectrum to his canvas in small
touches.

La petite fille a I'arrosoir (PI. 103), now in the Chester Dale
Collection, New York, Im Place Pigalle (PI. 104a), in the Cour-
tauld Collection, London, Circus Children (PI. 107), now in the
Chicago Art Institute, and Le Moulin de la Calette (PI. 104b),
of which there are versions in the Louvre and in a private
collection in America, are typical of his delightful painting at this
period.^

Renoir regarded portraiture at this period as a form of
potboiling, and when painting portraits he concentrated on
representation and likeness. But even so, he was able to impart
considerable charm to most of his productions.

In the choice of subject at this period he was influenced by
the Realism of Courbet, Manet and Zola, and he sought material
in places where people foregathered for amusement. At the
same time he painted some landscapes and began those studies of
women and children and nudes that he was to continue all his life.

On his Italian journey he was impressed by Raphael and by
Pompeian paintings, and he became dissatisfied with his own
light touch. He decided to abandon painting out of doors and to
seek linear rhythms and more architectural stability in his
compositions. In order to master line, he worked on his return
to Paris in an art school, and eventually he removed, for a time,
the charming madder reds and spectrum colours from his palette
and made efforts to paint severe pictures, with insistence upon
drawing, in a range of colours restricted to red and yellow ochre,
terre verte and black.

^ Other n-pical pictures arc the landscape 'Les Vendangeurs and lus
Canotiers a Chatou in the Lewisohn Collection, New York, Im premiere sortie
in the London National Galler)', Millbank, Lm Loge in the Courtauld Collec-
tion, London, La petite danseuse in the Widener Collection, Philadelphia,
Half-nude Girl doing her hair in the Barnes Foundation, Mcrion, Philadelphia,
Im Balanfoire in the Louvre and Le Deiemer in Frankfort.

267

RENOIR'S ART

The ¥emme allaitant son enfant (PI. io6), in Mrs. Chester Beatty*s
collection in London, and the Baigneuses (PL 105), now in the
Tyson Collection, Philadelphia, are two masterpieces produced as
a result of the new orientation ; both would hold their own in
any collection of great pictures in the world.^

The discipline to which Renoir subjected himself for the
purpose of these pictures was of enormous service to his develop-
ment. La petite fille a Varrosob' (PL 103), a thing of exquisite
colour gradated to pale blues and pinks from the strong Prussian
blue of the child's dress and the strong red of the poppies in the
grass, is an enchanting picture ; but if Renoir had merely
repeated this for ever his work in the end would inevitably have
become flimsy. After the Italian journey all his pictures show
architectural qualities that gradually increase as the years go on.

When the " tight " manner had served its purpose Renoir
abandoned it, and in the last years of the 'eighties and in the
early 'nineties he sought and found a compromise between his
early manner and the severe linear and architectural rhythms,
of which he was now a master. Les Chapeaux d'ete (PL 108),
now in the Ryerson Collection, Chicago, is an example of the
works in which this compromise was achieved.

At the end of the 'nineties he painted versions of most of
the " tight " pictures in the new manner of les Chapeaux d*ete.
His son, M. Pierre Renoir, has, for example, a version of Femme
allaitant son enfant (PL 109a), which it is instructive to compare
with the 1886 picture (PL 106).

^ The " tight," rather dry, manner which Renoir employed in these
pictures was a great disappointment to amateurs who had just begun to
appreciate the loose handhng of the Impressionists and the photographic
snapshot tranche de vie pictures which had been produced by Manet (PI. 1 1 la),
who was now just dead, and by the artists who had followed him in this
manner.

George Moore wrote, about 1886 : " Some seven or eight years ago
Renoir succeeded in attaining a very distinct and personal expression of
his individuality. Out of a hundred influences he had succeeded in extracting
an art as beautiful as it was new. . . . Then he went to Venice. . . . When
he returned to Paris and resolved to subject himself to two years of hard
study in an art school. For two years he laboured in a life class working on
an average from seven to ten hours a day, and in two years he had utterly
destroyed every trace of the charming and delightful art which had taken
him twenty years to build up " (cf. note, p. 270).

268

u iz
^

^«»

X '^:

'^9y

yokk

RFNOIRVS ART

After his retirement to Cagnes he painted no more " subject '*
or exhibition pictures, and very few portraits. y\ll financial
problems having been solved by his arrangements for selling his
work, he was now free to paint " for his amusement." This
he continued to do every day for the remaining twenty-five
years of his life, and he concentrated ever more and more on
the perception of monumental grandeur in simple material and
on the animation of the picture surface into architectural colour.
Gabrielle with the jewel {^\. no) in IVI. Paul Guillaume's collection
is an example of his majestic painting about the age of seventy.

In the last period of all he reduced his palette to a few colours
in which reds predominated ; with his brush strapped to his
hand he replaced manual agility by knowledge derived from
sixty years' incessant study ; and he produced l^a Vemnie en-
ceinte in M. Pierre Renoir's collection, The Shoelace (PI. 109b) in
Mr. Courtauld's collection, and a large number of similar pictures
in which abstract rhythms and architectural relations are the
main preoccupation.

Renoir was thus one of the rare artists who continuously
developed their conception of picture-making all through their
lives ; and this development corresponded to the general
development of the art of painting at the time. From 1868 to
1883 Renoir was a notable figure in the Impressionist-Realist
movement. In 1885 and 1886, with his Baigneuses (PI. 105) and
¥emme allaitant son enfant (PI. 106), he arrived by his own efforts
at the starting point of the Cubist-Classical Renaissance as it was
appearing, at that very moment, in Seurat's Bai^ade (now in the
London National Galler}'-, Millbank) and Un Dimanche d'Ete a la
Grande J atte (PI. 133), now in Chicago Art Institute, which were
then being shown in the Salon des Independants^ where the new
movement was launched. After 1900 he arrived again by his
own efforts at solutions of the same problems which pre-
occupied Cezanne, as we see if we compare The Shoelace (PI.
109b) with the central group of figures in l^es Grandes Baigneuses
(PI. 124b) in the Pellerin Collection, on which Cezanne worked
from 1895 till 1902.

But this development — though intensely interesting to
students of art history — is not sufficient in itself to rank Renoir
among the great masters. He enters that company {a) because

269

RENOIR'S ART

this development was accompanied by the power to make his
work a microcosm of which the great artists alone hold the
secret, and {b) because he achieved intuitively in a superlative
degree that intimate contact with root simplicities which, as
already noted, is one of the characteristics of the French
genius.

For the last thirty years of his life he painted only women,
children and flowers ; but he was not a painter of particular
women, particular children, or particular flowers. He was a
painter — almost perhaps the painter — of la jemme^ V enfant and
fleurs. To Renoir all women, all children and all flowers looked
alike because he perceived them genetically. A nude figure by
Renoir after 1884 is not a painting of a naked girl called Jeanne
This or Henriette That, but a pictorial symbol of the first woman
and the last. A flower piece by Renoir is not a painted imitation
of a bunch of blossoms, just picked by his servant in the garden,
but a painted symbol of the life that flowers convey.

There was a moment when the portrait painting by which for
a time Renoir had to earn his living, almost decoyed him to a
habit of individual characterisation. We see this, for example,
in L<? Dejeuner des Canotiers (PL 112b), now in the Phillips
Memorial Gallery in Washington, which was painted at the time
when Renoir was much engaged with portraits. But after 1884
Renoir became a classical artist, and remained one to the end.^

At the same time he was an artist who retained his contact
with sensual life. He was scarcely conscious of the classical
nature of his preoccupation. Immensely learned in the science
of picture-making, he remained to the last as simple as a child.

Renoir said, " Chacun chante sa chanson s'il a de la voix." The
world has been deliciously enriched by the song that Renoir
sang.

^ he Dejeuner des Canotiers was painted in 1882-1885 ^^ the moment when
Renoir, after his return from Italy, was engaged with the Berard portraits
and was working at drawing in order to equip himself for 'Les Baigneuses
(PI. 105) and Yemme allaitant son enfant (PI. 106). In front of l^e Dijewier des
Canotiers George Moore's judgment (cf. note, p. 268) is quite comprehensible.

270

EDGAR Dl'GAS

V. lldgar Deiias

BORN PARI-i 1834. DIKD PARI^ 1917

CHAKACTEKISTIC PICTURES^

London. National Gallery, Mill- Jeunes Spartiatcs s'excr9ant i la

hank luttc, i860

London. National Gallery, Mill- La Plage, r. 1873

bank

London. National Gallery, Mill- Miss Lola at the Cirque Fernando,

bank 1879

London. National Gallery, Mill- Danseuses, r. 1899

bank

London. Victoria and Albert The Ballet in Roberto il Diavolo,

Museum 1872

London. S. Courtauld Collec- Deux danseuses sur la scene : La

tion pointe,2 c. 1877

London. S. Courtauld Collec- Danseuses : Corsages jaunes

tion (pastel), c. 1883

London. Lord Ivor Spencer Femme s'essuyant (pastel), r. 1895

Churchill Collection

London. F. Hindley Smith Col- Two Women in a Cafe, c. 1879

lection

London. Messrs. Reid and Diego Martelli,^ 1879

Lefevre Collection

Glasgow. Private Collection Le Ballet (pastel), f. 1890

Scotland. Sir William Burrell La Repetition,* 1875

Collection

Scotland. Sir William Burrell Durant)' (pastel), 1879

Collection

Scotland. Private Collection Le Foyer de la danse a I'Opera

(pastel), c. 1878

New York. Metropolitan Museum Woman with chr^'santhemums, 1865

New York. Metropolitan Museum L' Amateur d'estampes, 1866

New York. Metropolitan Museum La Bouderie, r. 1873

New York. Metropolitan Museum Danseuses a la barre, 1875

New York. Metropolitan Museum Interieur, 1875

New York. Metropolitan Museum La Modiste (pastel), c. 1882

^ For a catalogue with eighty reproductions the student is referred to J. B.
Manson's The Life and Work of Edgar Degas.

2 This picture was formerly in the collection of Sir James Murray,
London.

^ This picture was formerly in the collection of Mrs. Workman, London.

* This picture is now on loan at the London National Gallery, Millbank.

271

EDGAR DEGAS

L'Ecole de danse, c. 1875

Jules Finot, 1868

Ballet Scene, c. 1872

Etude pour Danseuse sur la scene,

c. 1876
Duranty (pastel), 1879

Danseuse dans sa loge (pastel), c.

1880
Femme Couchee (pastel), c. 1895

Chevaux de courses, c. 1878
Voitures aux courses, 1873
Uncle and Niece, 1862

Ecole de danse (pastel), c. 1875

Cafe chantant (pastel), c. 1875

Les diseuses (pastel), c. 1880

La loge (pastel), c. 1880

Le Ballet (pastel), c. 1882

Le Depart, c. 1872

Avant le depart, 1862 ?

Portrait de famille, 1866

L'Orchestre, 1868

Le Foyer de la danse, 1872

La femme a la potiche, 1872

Le Pedicure, 1873

A la Bourse, 1875

Repetition d'un Ballet sur la scene,

1874
Classe de Danse, 1874
L' Absinthe, 1 876-1 877
La Danseuse au bouquet saluant sur

la scene (pastel), 1877
Devant les Tribunes, 1879
Aux Courses, c. 1880
Les Repasseuses,^ c. 1884
Apres le bain (pastel), c. 1886
Le tub (pastel), 1886
Un Cafe, Boulevard Montmartre,

1877

^ There is another version of this picture, showing several dressed evening
shirts on the ironer's table, in the Durand-Ruel Collection.

272

New York.

Mrs. C.H.Tweed Col-

lection

New York.

A. Lewisohn
tion

CoUec-

New York.

A. Lewisohn
tion

CoUec-

New York.

A. Lewisohn
tion

CoUec-

New York.

A. Lewisohn
tion

Collec-

New York.

A. Lewisohn
tion

Collec-

New York.

A. Lewisohn
tion

CoUec-

Boston.

Museum of Fine Arts

Boston.

Museum of Fine Arts

Chicago.

Mrs. L. L.
Collection

Coburn

Washington.
Washington.
Washington.
Washington.
Washington.
U.S.A.

Corcoran Gallery
Corcoran Gallery
Corcoran Gallery
Corcoran Gallery
Corcoran Gallery
Private Collection

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Chicago. Art Jitslihili-

EDOUARD MANET. Lcs Courses k Longchamp.

«ttat«>JJ$SP3K:S^

"•>ii311& Jt^ Iflft*^ VPfc' ?P1 T^' ^ ^"^

iOiV.i_--iS> -^,-

Loiuioii. Messrs. Keid and Lejcvrc CulUitiun

GEORGES SEURAT. Lc Pharc, Hontlcur.

London. Messrs. Reid ami Lcfcvrc CoUcition

EDGAR DF.GAS. Hie-.. Maiidl

\Vashini:.ton. I'hiliips Memoriai Guilcrv

AUGUSTE RENOIR. Lc Dejeuner des Canotiers.

DEGAS' LIFE

Paris.

Luxembourg

Danscusc nouant son brodcquin^
(pastel), c. 1876

Paris.

Luxcmliourg

Danseusc sur la scene (pastel), c.
1876

Paris,

A. Vollard Collection

Danseuses and nudes (pastels),
1898-1900

Lyons.

Museum

Aux Ambassadcurs (pastel), 1875

Pau.

Museum

Lc Comptoir de Coton, 1875

Frankfort.

Stacdclschcs Institut.

Musiciensi I'orchcstrc, 1872

Stockholm.

National Museum

Danseuses, 1899

{(i) Degas' Life

r.dgar Degas was the son of a French banker and a Creole
mother from New Orleans. I lis father was a man of means, and
Degas himself was always provided with money.

Degas was first educated for the Law, but found his vocation
in 185 5, at the age of twenty-one, when he entered the Ecole des
Beaux Arts. In 1856 he went to Italy, where he seems to have
remained for two years. He visited, among other places, Rome
and Naples.

On his return to Paris he painted history-pictures in the
pseudo-classical Beaux-Arts tradition and exhibited them in the
Salons ; he also painted portrait groups and interiors influenced
by Courbet and Fantin-Latour.

A few years before the war he began to frequent the Cafe
Guerbois, where he met Manet and the other Impressionists, and
also the critic Duranty, who eventually persuaded him to turn
his back on the Beaux Arts and to join in the Impressionist
movement of his own day.

In 1870 he fought in the war, and in 1871 he took part in the
street fighting of the Commune. In 1873 he went to New
Orleans, where the family business had a branch in which he
himself had an interest. He painted there he Cowptoir du Coton^
now in the Museum at Pau.

On his return he ceased to exhibit at the Salons, and contri-
buted up to 1886 to the Impressionist exhibitions as already
noted.

^ This famous picture really depicts a dancer rubbing her ankle with her
left hand.

2 N 273

DEGAS' ART

After 1886, at the age of fifty-two, he became a recluse and
ceased to exhibit. He had a contract with Durand-Ruel, to
whom he delivered all his pictures. He never married. He
worked incessantly in his studio in Paris till he died in 191 7, at
the age of eighty-three. He was rather ill-natured, and he had a
caustic wit.

{b) Degas' Art

When Degas was persuaded by Duranty to join the Impres-
sionist-Realistic movement, he began by painting descriptive
pictures of racecourses and so forth. Of these he Depart (PI.
94b), now in a private collection in America, and the Voitures
atix courses, now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, are
examples.^

After the war he continued to record life in places where
people foregathered for amusement. He sometimes worked in
oil and sometimes in pastel. The brilliant pastel, Aux Am-
hassadeurs (PI. 116), now in the Lyons Museum, is typical of
his finest achievements in this field.

But Degas was fundamentally a Romantic ; he was intrigued
by the unusually emotive fragment ; he was less interested in
generic than in individual and characteristic form ; and he
was fascinated by occupational gestures. In the second half
of the 'seventies he concentrated on those studies of ballet-
dancers practising — such as l^e Foyer de la danse (PI. 115b), now
in the Cargill Collection in Scotland — and actually dancing on
the stage, as in Fa Danseuse au bouquet saluant sur la scene (PI. 1 1 5 a),
now in the Louvre — by which he is most widely known.

From 1875 to 1885 most of his work was concerned with the
study of occupational gestures. Washerwomen carrying their
baskets y formerly in Sir WiUiam Eden's collection, was painted
in 1879.2 In the same year he painted Miss Fola at the Cirque

1 The Louvre has a racecourse picture by Degas, Avant le Dipart, which
is dated 1862. But Degas worked on this picture in 1880, and I think he
must have dated it then 1862 instead of 1868 or 1872 in error. Anyone who
has tried to get dates out of artists has discovered that they are often quite
unable to remember exactly when they painted their pictures unless they
chance to have some mnemonic.

2 I do not know the present whereabouts of this picture.

274

Chicago. .Irl liisliliiU :■'■'. < u

II. ni- TOULOUSH-LAUTREC. Au Moulin Rouge.

J'tiris. I.ou;rt

EDGAR DEGAS. Lit Clafc : Boulevard Montmartre (pastel).

Atr^

DEGAS' ART

i'cniando, now in tlic London National Giillcr)-, Millbank, which
shows a girl-acrobat hanging by her teeth above the heads of the
spectators at the circus, hes KepasseNses, now in the Louvre,
which depicts women ironing shirts in a laundr)', and lui Modiste ^
now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, are other examples
of these studies of occupational gesture.'

At this time Degas also began a series of pastels of nude
women at their toilet ; and here he concentrated on the indi-
vidual characteristic attitudes of his models.

We find a similar approach in the case of his portraits. Like
the pastellist La Tour, he delighted in the marks which occupa-
tion and environment imprint on the physique, and in his
portraits he always sought to present liis sitters in their environ-
ment. Diego Martelli (PL 112a), formerly in Mrs. Workman's
collection, London, and IJAbsifithe (PL 118), which contains a
portrait of the engraver Desboutins, are typical examples of his
portraiture.^

In his later years he continued the series of pastels of ballet
dancers and the series of intimate female nudes.

Degas must be ranked as a Romantic-Realist ; and he thus
stands nearer to Courbet than to Manet and the Impressionists.
But he also had a keen decorative sense and a delight in pictorial
colour. He looked upon the life in the places where people
foregathered for amusement as a new kind of social pageantr)',
which had replaced the pageantr)' of the old regime. Like the
French painters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, like
le Brun (PL 37b), Mignard (PL 41c), Watteau (Pis. 44a and 47),
and Boucher (Pis. 66b and 114a), he found in the performances
at the theatre material for decorative pageant painting, and in
the eighteenth centur}"" he would have been continuously em-
ployed on decorations.

Degas was both a superb and a subtle colourist. La Kepetition^
in Sir William Burrell's collection, which is fundamentally an

^ At this period Degas was also an observer of prostitutes. His pastel,
Un Cafe, Boulevard Montmartre (PL H3b), now in the Louvre, dates from
1877 ; he made studies in maisons closes in 1879 (cf. p. 281).

- Degas might have written La Tour's comment on this subject quoted
on p. 131. The student should compare his Diego Martelli (PL 1 12a) with La
Tour's The Lawyer Laideguii>e (PL 39b). Diego Martelli is now in the collec-
tion of Messrs. Reid and Lefevre, London. U Absinthe is in the Louvre.

^75

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

occupational record, is rendered decorative by exquisite disposal
of the coloured sashes worn by the dancers ; La danseuse au
bouquet saluant sur la scene (PI. 115a) is a sonorous harmony of
earth-reds, greys and greens ; and in the later pictures the colour
glows and burns with ever more glorious intensity. In a pastel
like Le Ballet (PI. 114b), drawn in 1890, Degas, in fact, arrived
at a new type of picture as decorative, in its way, as Boucher's
Cupid a Captive (PI. 114a), which I reproduce on the same page.

In evolving this new type of decorative picture Degas used
Japanese prints and photographs ; and all through his career
he produced compositions in which the accidental effects of
photographs were deliberately and most ingeniously exploited.^

At the same time we must realise that as a Romantic Realist
he preferred an ugly characteristic face to a smooth pretty one,
and limbs distorted by occupational abuse to the smoothly
rounded limbs of the nymphs portrayed by Boucher. No
French artist before the Romantic movement would have made
the plebeian face of the dancer in Le Ballet (PL 114b) the point
of focus in a decorative scheme.

vi. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

BORN ALBI 1864. DIED MALRAME I90I.

CUAKACTEMSTIC PICTURES^

London. National Gallery, Mill- Femme assise.

bank

London. S. Courtauld Collec- Jane Avril leaving the Moulin

tion Rouge, 1892

London. Messrs. Reid and Maxime de Thomas au bal de

Lefevre Collection I'Opera, 1896

London. F. Plindley Smith Col- La Toilette, 1891

tion

Scotland. D. W. T. Cargill Col- A la mie, 1891

lection

1 Degas was fond of putting a large head or object in the foreground or
cutting off half a figure by the frame.

2 For catalogues of Toulouse-Lautrec's numerous paintings, drawings,
lithographs, etchings and posters, with many reproductions, the student is
referred to Maurice Joyant's two volumes, Henri de Toulouse-'Lautrec^ pub-
lished in 1926 and 1927. Some of the pictures which I mention have been
acquired by their present owners since 1927.

276

TOULOUSE-LAUTRliC

New York. Mr. and Mrs. C. S. La Roussc au jardin, 1891

Sullivan Collection

New York. Mr. and Mrs. C. S. La Toilette, 1891

Sullivan Collection

New York. A. Lewisohn CoUcc- The Opera " Messalina " at Bor-

tion deaux, 1900

New York. A. Lewisohn Collec- Riding to the Bois, 1888

tion

New York. A. Lewisohn Collec- La Liseusc

tion

New York. Mr. and Mrs. Chester Au bar. Alfred la Guignc, 1894

Dale Collection

New York. Mr. and Mrs. Chester The Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge,

Dale Collection 1892

New York. Messrs. Wildenstein Jane Avril dancing,^ 1893

Collection

New York. Private Collection May Belfort singing, 1895

New York. G. Brooks Collection La femme au chien

New York. Messrs. J. Seligmann Oscar Wilde (water-colour), 1895

Brooklyn. Museum La femme a la cigarette, 1 890

Chicago. Art Institute (Birch Au Moulin Rouge, 1892

Bartlett Memorial)

Chicago. Art Institute (Birch Danseuses surlasc^ne, r. 1886

Bartlett Memorial)

Chicago. Art Institute Au Cirque Fernando, 1888

Chicago. W. S. Brewster Col- May Milton, 1895

Collection

Boston. J. T. Spaulding Col- Jcune Femme a I'atelier, f. 1889

lection

Los Angeles. W. P. Harrison Col- Chien couche, 1888

lection

Museum of Art M. Boileau au cafe, 1895

F. A. Ginn Collection La Clownesse Cha-u-Kao, 1895

Allbright Collection La Rousse, 1889

Cleveland

Buffalo.

Paris.

Louvre
Louvre
Louvre

Petit Palais

Luxembourg

La Clownesse, 1895
Paul Lcclerq, 1897
Baraque de la Goulue a la Foire du
Trone

(i) La Danse mauresque
(2) La Danse au Moulin
Rouge, 1895
Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec
conduisant son mail-coach a Nice,
1881
La Femme au boa noir, 1892

^ This picture is a study for the poster where the same figure appears.

277

•LAUTREC y i

Deux Femmes au bar, 1894 v i

La Toilette, 1896 i

A table chez M. et Madame Natan- '

son, 1895
Fcmme nue accroupie, 1897

Chilperic, 1896

May Belfort singing " Daddy

wouldn't buy me a Bow-wow,"

1895
Au lit. Le Baiser, 1892
La Goulue, 1891
La Goulue entering the Moulin

Rouge, 1892
Au Moulin Rouge. La Danse, 1890V/

Femme a sa Toilette, f. 1888

L'Assommoir, 1900 '

Decoration du salon de la maison de

la rue d'Amboise, 1892 j

Artistide Bruant, 1892 j

Une operation de Tracheotomie par I

le Docteur Pean, 1891 j

Geule de Bois, 1889 I

Tenanciers de maison close, 1893 '
Le Blanchisseur de la Maison, 1894
Au Salon : rue des Moulins, 1894
L'Anglaise du Star au Havre, 1899I
Deux femmes : Maison de la rue des 1

Moulins, 1894 I

Yvette Gviilbert : Les gants noirs

(Project for a poster), 1894
Un examen k la Faculte de Medecine

1901 i

Soldat anglais fumant sa pipe, 1898 i
L' Abandon : Les Deux Amies, 1893
Au Moulin Rouge. Les Deux

Valseuses, 1892
La Grosse Marie, 1884
Suzanne Valadon, 1885
M. Delaporte au Jardin de Paris,

1893 1

^ There is another picture of this subject in the collection of Mr. and Mrs.
Cornelius J. Sullivan, New York.

278

Paris.
Paris.
Paris.

Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Jos. Hesscl Collection

Paris.

M. Exsteens Collec-

tion

Paris.

Mme D — Collection

Paris.

Mme D — Collection

Paris.

Mme D — Collection

Paris.

Mme D — Collection

Paris.

Bernheim Jeune Col-

lection

Paris.

Paul Rosenberg Col-

lection

Paris.

Sacha Guitry Collec-

tion

Paris.

Sacha Guitry Collec-

tion

Paris.

Mme. Ch. Pomaret

Collection

Paris.

A. Vollard Collection

Paris ?

Tapie de Celeyran Col-
lection

Albi.

Museum

Albi.

Museum

Albi.

Museum

Albi.

Museum

Albi.

Museum

Albi.

Museum

Albi.

Museum

Albi.

Museum

Albi.

Museum

Berlin.

P. Cassirer Collection

Prague.

Gallery of Modern Art

Stockholm.

Museum

Copenhagen.
Copenhagen.

Carlsberg Museum
Carlsberg Museum

Paris. Louvre
EDGAR DEGAS. La Danscusc au bouquet saluant sur la scene (pastel).

Scotlaihi. Privale Collcclion

EDGAR DEGAS. Lc I-oycr dc la J.inse (pastel).

I.rons. Museum

EDGAR DEGAS. Aux Ambassadcurs.

LAUTRECS LIFE

{a) I^utrec's Life and Work

Henri dc Toulouse-Lautrec, who brought the Romantic-
Reahsm of Degas to a climax, was a direct descendant of the
(founts of Toulouse, and he could trace his family history from
the thirteenth century. His father was an eccentric sportsman
and amateur sculptor who modelled animals in clay ; his uncle
was an amateur painter. He was born on the family estate at
Albi ; and suffered from infancy with weakness of the bones.
In childhood he met with accidents and broke both thighs ;
he thus became a cripple with abnormally short legs.

As a young man he inherited his father's love of open-air
sports and the traditional occupations of country gentlemen, and
he began to paint pictures of horses, grooms and so forth before
he was twent}\ His Alphonse de Toulouse-Lautrec conduisant son
fuail-coach a N/ce^ now in the Petit-Palais in Paris, was painted
when he was seventeen.

In 1 882 ,when he was eighteen, he went to Paris and worked in
the studio of Leon Bonnat for five years ; he then worked for a
few months in the studio of Cormon.^

During these years he painted academic studies (the Stockholm
Museum has his Grosse Marie of 1884) and began to show his
individuality in the portrait drawings of Su':(anne Valadon (now
in the Museum at Copenliagcn) and of Van Gogh, whom he met
in 1886.2

When he abandoned the art schools he shared with a friend a
studio in Montmartre ; this w^as in a courtyard where Degas
also had his studio ; and he seems at this time to have made
Degas' acquaintance. About 1887, when he was twenty-three,

^ Cormon was a Salon artist. Leon Bonnat (183 3-1922) was born at
Bayonne, and spent his early years with his family in Madrid, where his father
had a bookshop. In 1853 his father died and he returned to Paris, where he
worked at the Beaux Arts and won a Prix de Rome. In his early work he was
influenced by Fantin-Latour. Later he painted compositions of religious
subjects and photographic portraits. His collection of pictures and many
admirable drawings by the Old Masters and Ingres can be seen in the Musee
Bonnat at Bayonne.

2 Lautrcc's drawing, w^hich shows Van Gogh in profile seated at a table
in a cafe, is now in the collection of Mme Th. Van Gogh-Bonger.

279

LAUTREC'S LIFE

he made an arrangement with his family which secured him an
independent income, and he took a studio of his own in the
same region. In 1888 and 1889 he painted pictures of the
Cirque Fernando^ and plein air and ateher studies of young
women.^

At this time he became a regular frequenter of the music halls,
bars and dancing establishments of Montmartre, and began his
chronicles of the life he observed there.

In 1 891 his cousin. Dr. Tapie de Celeyran, came to Paris to
work in the Hospital International, founded by the surgeon
Pean. Lautrec witnessed several operations and recorded them
afterwards in pictures. ^

Between 1891 and 1896 he was at the height of his powers.
His most brilliant studies of Montmartre habitues and music
hall singers date from these years. His output was prodigious.
The grim cafe scene, A la me (PI. 11 8a), now in the D. W. T.
Cargill Collection in Scotland, dates from 1891. Au Moulin
Rouge (PI. 113a), now in the Chicago Art Institute, was painted
in 1892. A series of studies of the Moulin-Rouge floor-dancers.
La Goulue and Jane Avril, dates from 1892 and 1893. Au bar :
Alfred la Guigne (PI. 117), now in the Chester Dale Collection,
New York, and the celebrated series of lithographs of Yvette
Guilbert date from 1894. The May Belfort paintings, drawings
and lithographs were produced in 1895.^

^ These studies were painted in a technique influenced by Pissarro-
Lautrec at this time was one of a number of artists whose work was en.
couraged by Van Gogh's brother Theo, who was in the firm of Goupil.
The group included Gauguin, Seurat, and Van Gogh himself from 1886 to
1888, Seurat, who was one of the founders of the Salon des Independants
in 1884, persuaded Lautrec to exhibit there. He sent his first picture in 1889,
and exhibited there regularly afterwards. Pissarro though a much older
man was interested in Seurat's work and theories (cf. p. 237), and though
he did not exhibit at the Independants he was associated with the group, and
influenced it and was influenced by it.

2 Dr. Tapie is the tall figure beside Lautrec in the picture Au Moulin
Kouge (Pi. 113a),

^ The Jane Avril series includes Jane Avril dancing (a study for the poster),
which is now in the collection of Messrs, Wildenstein et Cie, Paris, and
the wonderful Jane Avril leaving the Moulin Kouge^ in Mr. Samuel Courtauld's
collection in London.

Yvette Guilbert appeared in 1890. Lautrec had been a delighted follower

280

New York. ^[r. and ytrs. Clu-sl,? ,

H. DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC. Au bar : Alfred la Guiijnc.

jBiB^^"

\4i

Scotland. D. W. T. Cargiil Cuiieiiiuii

II. DL TOLLOUSH LALTREC. A la mie.

*-",.-•— —

Paris. Louvre

EDGAR DEGAS. L'Absinthe.

Copenhagen. Carlsberg, Museum

EDOUARD MANET. Lc Buveur

d'Absinthc. j

LAUTREC'S LIFE

y\t this period also he made drawings and paintings of the
inhabitants of Maisotis closes (as Degas had done in 1879, and as
(iuys had done some twenty years before), and he decorated the
interior of one of these establishments. He never publicly
exhibited the maison close series, though they are technically
among his finest paintings ; they now can be seen in the Lautrec
Museum at Albi.*

In 1893 he exhibited thirty of his pictures in a gallery on the
Boulevard Montmartre ; none was sold ; and, indeed, he was
never able to sell his pictures at any period of his life. But
he made some money by his numerous lithographs, posters and
illustrations.

Degas visited the exhibition on the Boulevard Montmartre.
" Ca^ Lautrec, on voit que vous etes du hdtiment*' was his comment.

By 1895 Lautrec had begun to take too much alcohol, and
some friend suggested to his father that he ought to go into a
home. " Nonsense," replied the eccentric sportsman, " let him
go to England where tous les nobles s'alcoolisent." And to England
he went several times between 1895 and 1898 ; there he associ-
ated mainly with Whistler and Conder and drank less, in fact,
than he had been drinking in France. He was in London
during the \\ ilde trial, and made a coloured drawing of Wilde
(now in the Jacques Seligmann Collection in New York) after
meeting him for a few minutes.^

of her work, and made many sketches of her from the stalls. In 1894 he
approached her with a proposal to design a poster. She was at first horrified
by his productions and wrote him : " Pour l' amour du del tie me faites pas si
atrocement laide." But her intelligence and wit soon led her to recognise
the merit of the dozens of drawings and lithographs which he devoted to
recording her expressive gestures and grimaces, and the two artists eventually
became friends.

The most famous of the May Belfort studies depicts her singing, " Daddy

wouldn't buy me a bow-wow." It is now in the collection of Mme D

in Paris.

^ After Lautrec's death his mother presented numerous works remaining
in his studio, together with some early works, to his native town ; they are
now exhibited in the Palais Archiepiscopal. A visit to this museum is essential
for the student of Lautrec's work. Au Salon : rue des Moulirts a maison close
picture, and the most important in the museum is, I think, his finest work.

^ The drawing is a head and bust portrait ; it shows Wilde in a blue dinner
jacket with a velvet collar ; there is a deep expanse of shirt front ; the hair is

2 O 281

LAUTREC'S LIFE

In 1896 he drew the intimate and sympathetic lithographs of
young women known as Elles ; and in 1897 a number of nudes,
including the Ve?nme nue accroupie^ now in the Exsteens Collection,
in Paris. In 1898 he had an exhibition in London at the Goupil
Gallery, which created a succes de scandale, but was otherwise a
failure. It had a bad Press ; the critic of the Daily Chronicle
wrote : " M. de Toulouse-Lautrec has only one idea in his head
— vulgarity."

At the end of 1898 he began to be affected by his alcoholic
habits ; and in February 1899, he had a serious nervous break-
down and was removed to a mental home. He recovered after
a few days' abstinence from alcohol, and ten weeks later he was
discharged by his doctors. In the home he produced fifty draw-
ings and lithographs, including a series of Circus subjects,
and the oil pictures. The Keeper and Inmates of the Howe, which
can be seen at Albi.

In July, 1899, he went to Le Havre intending to sail to Ar-
cachon. There he was attracted by an EngUsh barmaid at the
" Star " — a low bar frequented by English sailors. From this
girl he painted UAnglaise au " Star " du Havre (now at Albi), a
work comparable only with Hogarth's Shrimp Girl in the
National Gallery in London.^

In 1 900 he saw at Bordeaux a performance of Isador de Lara's
opera, Messalina, and painted the picture which is now in the
collection of Mr. Adolph Lewisohn in New York. But his
amazing visual memory was now beginning to fail him, and as
aids for the picture he asked his friend Joyant to send him
photographs of the production. In April, 1901, he was back in
aris painting racecourse pictures, scenes at Armenonville,

yellow ; the shadows on the face are green ; the eyes sag. In the back-
ground we see Big Ben.

In addition to these visits to England Lautrec travelled in the 'nineties
to Belgium, where he exhibited some pictures, to Holland, Portugal
and Spain. He was a good sailor and travelled whenever possible
by sea.

^ Lautrec returned to Le Havre in June, 1900, to recapture the bar-
maid, but without success, as we know from a letter to Joyant which reads :
*' Old chump. Les Stars et autres bars sons trh surveillis par la police, rien a
faire ; /'/ n'j a plus de barmaids. . . , A toi, H. L. and Co. {tout ce qu'ily a de
plus limited) "

282

LAUTRECS ART

nudes, and (7; examen a la Vaculte de Medecim^ which is now at
Albi.

In August, 1 901, he felt his end approaching and joined his
mother at the (Chateau de Malramc in the Gironde. In September
he died there at the age of thirty-six.

(/;) Lautrec's Art

Debarred by his infirmity from the open air Hfe and the
pleasures of the world in wliich he was born, Lautrec sought
the world of society's outcasts among whom, as an aristocrat,
he could feel himself a king. By this world he soon became
intensely fascinated. As a Romantic-Realistic artist he sought
for ever closer contact with its realities. He cared little for the
pageantr}^ of lights and colours that had inspired Renoir to
paint L^ Moulin de la Galette (PI. 104b) and Degas to create his
colourful decorations ; the vulgar little face in Degas' L^ 'Pallet
(PI. 114b) was \\\s point de depart, and he peered ever closer into
the sordid drama that lay behind the glamour of the footlights
and of the night haunts of Paris.

Guys in the 'seventies had already drawn the women of the
dance halls performing the Can-can. He had drawn them as
generic figures moving forward with uplifted skirts like lovely
vessels in full sail ; he had extracted architectural light and shade
from the contrast of the white linen and the dark surrounding
clothes. Lautrec drew these women as individuals. They
were so much individuals to him that he imbued them with
the life if not of historical personalities, at any rate, with the
life of the most vivid characters in fiction. No novelist has
created a personality whom we see more vividly than Jane Avril.
Lautrec has shown us her lean legs dancing, her scarlet lips
parted in the dancer's smile, and the green shadows under the
livid cheek-bones as she passed the gas lamp outside the dance
hall when her work was done. In the same way he has shown
us La Goulue, a woman of coarser mould who throned it in the
Moulin Rouge for a brief moment, and then went steadily down-
hill.

Degas, as we have seen, was a social recorder who made
comments on occupational gesture as he drew. But his

283

LAUTREC'S ART

comments are mild and obvious compared with Lautrec's.
Degas drew features and muscles distorted by occupation.
Lautrec drew occupationally distorted souls.

I reproduce together Manet's Le Buveur d' Absinthe (PL ii8c),
Degas' U Absinthe (PI. ii8b) and Lautrec's A la mie (PI. ii8a).
Manet's picture of a dressed-up studio model is mere painting.
Degas has given us an environmental portrait. Lautrec has
portrayed a drama of the underworld that is hideous and true.

Lautrec was a very interesting colourist. He experimented
with green shadows and achieved intriguing and sinister effects.
He studied Japanese prints for his compositions, and from the
Japanese he acquired a calligraphic line that he used ingeniously
in his attractive posters. As a poster designer he still stands,
in fact, supreme. He is the father of the art as it is practised
in Paris to this day.

284

PART SEVE^

THE POST-IMPRESSIONISTS

i . Post- Impressionism
ij. Vaul G(2Ugiiin
iij. Vincent Van Gogh

THE POST-TMPRi:SSIONISTS

i. Post-h/jpressionism

Post-Impressionism is a term of convenience used to describe
the paintings of Gauguin and Van Gogh and of their followers
and imitators. The works of the German imitators of these
artists are described by German critics as " lixpressionismus."

I have traced the growth of the vocational concept of the
artist from Chardin, who gave up his lucrative figure painting
to devote himself to still life, and Corot, who was content to
earn nothing and to be supported by his parents for sixteen years,
to the Impressionists who braved hostile criticism and stuck to
their experimental art. With Gauguin and Van Gogh the story
takes on a new and more sinister aspect.

Gauguin abandoned a lucrative position in a bank, his wife
and family, the society of artists and literary men, and the
amenities of Parisian civilisation in a fanatical belief that popular
painting could be regenerated and the photographic vision
conquered by contact with primitive life in the South Sea Islands.

Van Gogh, who was always an exalte^ poured his vitality,
debilitated by years of hardship, with fanatical prodigality into
his pictures. On the material side both asked of life nothing
but the most meagre necessities ; and even these they were
never able to earn by their work.

xvlonet and Renoir had worked for twenty years in poverty
before fortune began to favour them ; in those years they ad-
justed themselves to conditions, derived what they could from
available amenities, and added nothing of their own volition
to their hard fate ; after the tide turned they both painted in
comfort for another forty years. Gaugin painted in all for only
twenty years and Van Gogh for only eight ; both suflered
extremities of hardsliip unimagined by Monet and Renoir, who
were merely poor, both tormented themselves also at the same
time, and both eventually succumbed.

It is important to recognise that Gauguin and Van Gogh
converted the vocational concept of the artist to a standard of
fanaticism that society has no right to demand or even, perhaps,
tolerate ; because the activity called art as pursued by these men

287

PAUL GAUGUIN

was not only a vocation but also a prolonged, spectacular and
agonising form of suicide.

Gauguin himself discovered this too late. **L^ souffrance vous
aiguise le genie^'' he wrote. " II tfen jaut pas trop cependant sinon
elk vous tue.'^

From the aesthetic standpoint the contributions of Gauguin
and Van Gogh, which were made more than forty years ago,
constituted at once the finale of the Romantic movement and the
overture of the Cubist-Classical Renaissance. In Gauguin's
colour we encounter the drums and trumpets of Delacroix,
which have now taken on the timbre of the tom-tom and the
reed pipe, and with the new timbre we get a less impetuous
though not less compelling rhythm. In Van Gogh's passionate
records of emotive fragments we get the spirit of Delacroix's
Death of Sardanapahis keyed up to what is often an intolerable
pitch. But both Gauguin and Van Gogh had contact with the
pictorial concepts that created the Cubist-Classical Renaissance,
which was the real artistic movement of their day. They
studied Japanese prints, and they were acquainted with Seurat
and Cezanne. They were both conscious of the attempts that
were being made around them to explore the emotivity of
architectural relations of lines and colours, spaces and planes ;
they themselves made explorations in this field. But they were
not temperamentally or intellectually equipped to regenerate
European painting. They were both psychologically abnormal
personalities who painted great autobiographical pictures at the
price of their own lives.

ij. Paul Gauguin

BORN PARIS 18 J I. DIED MARQUESAS ISLES I903

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES^

London. National Gallery, Mill- Tahitian group, r. 1893 ?

bank
London. National Gallery, Mill- Flower piece, 1896

bank

^ I am not acquainted with any satisfactory catalogue of Gauguin's work.
The considerable literature on Gauguin provides very scanty information
about the present whereabouts of his pictures. My list, as all the lists in this
book, consists of (a) pictures which I have seen, and (b) pictures of which

288

Jidinbiirgh. Salioiinl (inlU-ry of SiolUni,!

PAUL GAUGUIN. Jacob wrestling with the Angel

New York < /

PAUL GAUGUIN. la Orana Maria (Ave Maria).

PAUL GAUGUIN

Faa Ihcihc (Tahitian group), 1898

Brittany Landscape. Stacking Hav,

18891
Tc Rcriva (La Case), 1897

Nevermore, 1897

Landscape with the Red Dog (Poul-

du), 1890
The Agony in the Garden, 1889-
Self portrait in a striped jersey, 1889
Jacob wrestling with the Angel,

1888
la Orana Maria (Ave Maria), 1891

Maternitc, c. 1896 ?

The Bathers, 1898

Manao Tupapau (L'esprit veille),^

1892
Poemes barbares, 1896
Arlesiennes going to Church, 1888

Reverie (Tahitian girl in rocking-
chair), 1891

Meyer dc Ilaan* (with " Sartor Re-
sartus " and " Paradise Lost "),
1889

Te Burao (Tahitian landscape), 1892

Mahana no Atua : (The Day of the
God), 1894

Tahitian portrait group, 1901

I have photographs before me. I do not know the present whereabouts of
JLd Femme aux Mangos (1893) (a recumbent Tahitian nude, in the attitude of
Manet's Oljmpia, in a Tahitian landscape) ; Trots Tahltlans (half-length
group with back view of a youth in the centre) ; l^a Reine des Areois (Tahi-
tian woman seated on patterned drapery in a landscape) ; Otahi (Tahitian
woman crouching on the ground with splayed feet).

^ This picture is sometimes erroneously described as l^s MeuUs.

^ This picture in 1924 was in Sir Michael Sadler's collection (Oxford).

^ This picture formerly belonged to Sir Michael Sadler (Oxford).

* The dwarfish figure in Conies barbares (Essen) is also a portrait of Meyer
de Haan.

London.

National Gallery, Mill-

Iniiik

London.

S. Courtauld Collec-

tion

Londt)n.

S. Courtauld Collec-

tion

London.

S. Courtauld Collec-

tion

London.

Maresco Pcarce Col-

lection

England ?

England.

Edinburgh.

Private Collection
Private Collection
National Gallery of
Scotland

New York.

A. Lewisohn Collec-

tion

New York.

A. Lewisohn Collec-

tion

New York.

A. Lewisohn Collec-

tion

New York.

H. C. Goodyear Collec-

tion

New York.

Private Collection

New York.

James W. Barney

Collection

New York.

J. Stransky Collection

Boston.

Mr. and Mrs. Shaw

McKean Collection

Chicago.
Chicago.

Art Institute
Art Institute. Birch
Bartlett Collection

Chicago.

Art Institute. Birch
Bartlett Collection

2 P

289

PAUL GAUGUIN

Self portrait with lute, c. 1889

Woman in Waves, 1,889

Te Faaturuma : La Femme accrou-

pie, 1891
La Belle Angele (Pont-Aven), 1889
Le Cheval blanc, c. 1896
Femmes de Tahiti
Still life
Ravine on the Coast, 1888

Aries Landscape, 1888

Landscape with figures. Mar-
tinique, c. 1887

Laveuses a Tahiti, 1898

Irarote Oviri : The Fruit-bearers,
1891

Arii Matamoe (La fin royale),^ 1892

Tehuro : (Tahitian girl in striped

overall with fan)
Breton Children, c. 1894
Le Christ Jaune, 1889

Head of a Tahitian child with a

flower in her hair
Cote de Belle-Angenay, 1889
Decorative Seascape, 1889
Nave nave Mahana (Jours delicieux)

1896
Noa Noa (Le pays des parfums),

1892
Le Poldu, 1890
Breton Girl, 1894

Arearea (Tahitian pastoral with
flute player and dogs in fore-
ground, idol in background), c.
1892
The blue roofs, Rouen, 1884
Dr. Gachet, 1884

^ Gauguin himself described this picture which has a large idol's head in
the foreground : " Vne tete de canaque coupee bien arrangk sur un coussin blanc
dans un palais de mon invention et gardie par des femmes de mon invention
aussi."

Pittsburgh,

W. S. Stimmel Collec-

tion

Cleveland.

Mr. and Mrs. F. H.

Ginn Collection

Worcester

Art Museum

(Mass).

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Luxembourg

Paris.

Luxembourg

Paris.

Musee des arts decora-

tifs

Paris.

Musee des arts decora-

tifs

Paris.

Private Collection

Paris.

M. Kapferer Collection

Paris.

M. Kapferer Collection

Paris.

Henri Lerolle Collec-

tion

Paris.

Mme Daniel de Mon-

freid Collection

Paris.

A. Vollard Collection

Paris.

Paul Rosenberg Collec-

tion

Paris.

Wildenstein Collection

Paris.

F. Norgelet Collection

Marly-le-roi.

A. Maillol Collection

Lyons.

Museum

Mons.

Private Collection

Brussels.

Mme Maus Collection

Berlin.

Galerie Flechtheim

Berlin.

Galerie Thannhauser

Bremen.

Private Collection

Frankfort.

Private Collection

290

GAUGUIN'S rJFI'.

Tc Mafctc " The world weary,"*

1892
Riders by the Sea, 1902

Contes barhares, c. 1891

I faymakers, 1889

Nafea faai poipo (When will they
marry ?), 1892

Nude \\ oman Sewing, 1880

Gauguin's family with a baby-
carriage in a garden, c. 1881

Garden in Snow, c. 1881

Pont Aven in Spring, 1888

Vahine no te tiarc (half-length por-
trait of a Tahitian woman), 1891

Le Poldu, 1890

Nude Boy, 1889

Interior : Gauguin's home in Paris,
1881

Exotic still life, 1899

D'ou venons-nous, que sommes-
nous, oil allons-nous, 1 897-1 898

Tahitian pastoral with dog in fore-
ground, 1892

Nave Nave Moe. Tahitian pastoral,
c. 1892

Still life. Oiseaux dcs Isles, 1902

{d) Gauguin's Life

The story of Gauguin's life has been repeatedly told.

He was the son of a Parisian journalist and a mother of
Creole origin. In 185 1 his father set off with his family to
Peru and died on the journey. Paul lived at Lima with his
mother for five years in a house where there were negro and
Cliinese servants and a lunatic chained up on the roof — a lunatic
who once escaped and got into the child's bedroom. W hen
he was eight he was brought back to Paris and educated in a

^ This picture, well known from a c( Ic-ur-print, represents a number of
Tahitians sitting on a low seat against a sunlit background ; some of the
figures have flowers in their hair.

291

Frankfort.

Private Collection

Cologne.

Wallraf-Richart/

Museum

Essen.

Folkwang Museum

Basel.

Private (Collection

Basel.

Private Collection

Copenhagen.

Museum

Copenhagen.

Museum

Copenhagen.

Museum

Copenhagen.

Museum

Copenhagen.

Private Collection

Stockholm.

National Museum

Bergen.

Private Collection

Oslo.

National Gallery

Oslo.

National Gallery

Oslo.

Private Collection

Moscow.

Museum of Modern

Art. Morosoff Col-

lection

Moscow.

Museum of Modern

Art. Morosoff Col-

lection

Moscow.

Museum of Modern

Art. Morosoff Col-

lection

GAUGUIN'S LIFE

Jesuit seminary at Orleans, where his father's brother Hved.
At seventeen he went to sea, and remained at sea till he was
twenty-one. He then entered a financial house in Paris, where
he succeeded and made money. In his spare time at this period
he dabbled in painting and sculpture. He married a Danish girl
in 1873.

A year or two later he met Pissarro and began to collect
pictures by the Impressionist group. In 1880 and 1881 he was
himself represented in the Impressionist exhibitions.

In 1883 he gave up his employment and his income and
decided to find some post that would enable him to give more
time to painting pictures. He looked for such posts in Rouen
and in Denmark and found nothing. His wife then quarrelled
with him ; encouraged by her Danish relations she reproached
him for throwing away his income for the senseless mania of
painting pictures and the pleasure of posing as a Bohemian
artist ; in 1885 he left her in Denmark with four of their five
children and took one boy with him to Paris.

There he was soon entirely without money and he got em-
ployment as a bill-sticker ; then he was promoted to the
office of the bill-sticking company and was able to paint in some
spare time. In 1886 he contributed nineteen pictures to the last
Impressionist Exhibition.

Later in that year he went to Pont Aven in Brittany, where
living was cheap. In 1887 he sold everything he possessed and
sailed with an artist friend for Martinique, where he had heard
that living was still cheaper ; to earn money on the way he
took on navvy's work at Panama. After a few months in
Martinique his companion contracted fever and attempted
suicide ; and Gauguin brought him back to Paris.

In the early part of 1888 he was financed for a while by a
friend of his old stockbroking days ; and he began to take an
interest in ceramics and mediaeval stained glass. He also had a
one-man show in a gallery, of which Van Gogh's brother Theo
was manager, and sold a few pictures for small sums. In the
summer he was in Brittany ; from October to December at Aries
with Van Gogh. At Aries he had some intercourse with Cezanne.^

^ In his picture-buying days Gauguin had acquired a still life by Cezanne,
which he retained long after he sold all the others. It figures in the back-

292

GAUGUIN'S ART

In 1889 he was again in Brittany, where he had financial
assistance from the eccentric Dutcli litteratnir^ Meyer dc I faan ;
in 1890 he began to share a studio with Daniel de Monfried,
who remained his friend and confidant and helped him with
money to the end.

At the beginning of 1891 he sold thirty of his pictures by
auction, and made just under 10,000 francs. With this money
and funds raised by a benefit performance and exhibition at the
Theatre des Arts, he went to Tahiti.

Me remained in Tahiti on this first visit for two years.

In August, 1893, he returned to France to take up a legacy of
13,000 francs from his uncle at Orleans. He installed himself in a
studio in Paris, where he dressed and entertained in a fantastic
manner with a Javanese woman as his companion and attendant.
Later in the year he exhibited forty-six Tahitian pictures and
some carvings at the Durand-Ruel Gallcr}" ; they caused a sensa-
tion, but hardly an}^liing was sold.

In 1894 he went to Brittany with the Javanese woman and
had liis ankle broken in a brawl with some sailors. In that year
also he contracted syphilis in Paris.

In Februar}', 1895, he tried to sell the pictures from the
Durand-Ruel exhibition by auction ; but few reached the
nominal reser^xs ; later in the year with such money as he had
made from this sale and what remained of the 13,000 francs he
returned to Tahiti.

During this second period in Tahiti his disease grew upon him,
and he lived in conditions of miser}% continually quarrelling
with the French ofhcials, whom he accused of ill-treating the
natives. In 1898 he tried to commit suicide.

In 1 901 he left Tahiti and moved to the Marquesas Isles.
There he began fresh quarrels of the same kind, and there he
died two years later, at the age of fifty-two.

{b) Gauguin's Art

Gauguin did not become a really personal artist till he had
been painting continuously for five or six years and on and ofl'

ground of his painting, U ArUsienne, which I saw at the Leicester Galleries,
London, in 1924, but of which I do not know the present whereabouts.

293

GAUGUIN'S ART

for ten. His early pictures were influenced by Fantin-Latour and
by Pissarro and the Impressionists.^

The decisive year was 1888 — the year when he studied
mediaeval glass, saw Cezanne's pictures at Aix, and learned
something from a painter named Emil Bernard, whom he met
in Brittany.

The style appears in the pictures painted in Brittany in 1888,
1889 and 1890, such as Jacob wrestling with the Angel (PI. 119b),
now in the National Gallery of Scotland, L,e Christ Jaune^ now
in the Paul Rosenberg Collection in Paris, Stacking Hay (PI.
119a), now in Mr. Courtauld's collection in London, and the
Landscape with a red dog in Mr. Maresco Pearce's collection in
London. It is fundamentally a decorative style appealing by
rhythmic line and arbitrary colour ; but in the religious pictures
Gauguin has also tried to recapture the naif directness of observa-
tion and imagination which he had observed in the stained glass
windows. In Jacob wrestling with the Angel (PL 119b) we see
the episode as it appeared to the Breton peasant women after a
sermon in the village church ; and Gauguin, partly to express
this idea, has used the colours and, to some extent, the technique
of stained glass windows.

In the first period at Tahiti Gauguin's sensibility was enriched
by the experience of his new surroundings ; he developed his
style to symbolise effects of tropical sunlight and shade ; and
the pictures which he painted on this first Tahitian visit are his
finest productions. They include la Orana Maria {Ave Maria)
(PI. 120), now in Mr. Adolph Lewisohn's collection in New
York, and the celebrated U esprit veille, now in Mr. H. C. Good-
year's collection in that city.

In the second Tahitian period Gauguin endeavoured to get
more solidity into his figures and to stress their emotivity on the

^ The most interesting of the early works are the Inferior (now in the Oslo
Museum), which represents his own home, and the Garden scene with a baby-
carriage (now in the Copenhagen Museum), which were painted in 1 88 1 when
he was still an amateur. In these pictures he was working on lines which
have since been developed by M. Pierre Bonnard and M. Edouard Vuillard.

Both Bonnard and Vuillard were born in 1867. Bonnard exhibited at the
Salon des Independants from 1891 onwards, Vuillard from 1901 to 1910.
Both are still living. Their art, based on Impressionism, shows the influence
both of Lautrec and the Cubist-Classical Renaissance.

294

VINCENT VAN GOGH

psychological side. In works like Nevermore (PI. 121I5) and 7>
\\eriva {\m Case) (PI. 121a), in Mr. Courtauld's C(jllLCtion, the
artist's Romantic instinct competes with the decorative concept
and to some extent destroys it.

Gauguin, as I have said, made genuine and abnormal sacrifices
for his painting. But there was also an element v>i \\\q. poseur in
his constitution, 'lall and handsome in a rather barbaric way
he had a very conspicuous personality; he was vain and liked
making an impression and creating a scandal. There was an
element of mumbo-jumbo in all his Tahitian pictures, which was
reinforced by the Tahitian titles which he frequently inscribed
upon them. In the early works this element is incidental to the
decorative splendour of the ensemble ; in the later works it is a
conspicuous constituent of the picture's content.

Gauguin's talent was essentially decorative. He was a magni-
ficent colourist, an admirable designer and a master of flowing
line. Like Degas, he would have found regular employment as a
decorator in the seventeenth or eighteenth century in France.
At the end of the nineteenth century he could not find employ-
ment ; and the task of regenerating European painting, which he
set himself, was accomplished by two men with more brains,
more patience and more humility — Georges Seurat and Paul
Cezanne.

iij. Vincent Van Gogh

BORN GROOT-ZUNDERT 1853. DIED AUVERS 189O

CUAKACTEMSTIC PICTURES^

London. National Gallery, Mill- Sunflowers, 1888

bank

London. National Gallery, Mill- La chaise a la pipe : (The Chair),

bank 1888

London. National Gallery, Mill- Les bles jaunes (Landscape with

bank cypress trees), 1889

1 A catalogue raisonne fully illustrated has been compiled by M. de la Faille
who has also published a supplement referring to some pictures in the
catalogue which, he states, are forgeries.

Van Gogh painted several versions of some of his important pictures. I
have indicated the present whereabouts of other versions in some cases in
this list.

295

VINCENT VAN GOGH

London. National Gallery, Mill-

bank

London.

S. Courtauld Collection

London.

S. Courtauld Collection

London.

C. F. Stoop Collection

London.

Mrs. Sutro Collection

London.

A. J. McNeill Reid Col-

lection

Glasgow.

Maclnnes Collection

New York.

A. Sachs Collection

New York.

Dr. H. Bakwin Collec-

tion

New York.

Chester Dale Collec-

tion

New York.

Chester Dale Collec-

tion

New York.

A. Lewisohn Collection

New York.

Julius Oppenheimer

Collection

Buffalo.

Museum of Modern Art

Buffalo.

Museum of Art

Chicago.

W. S. Brewster Collec-

tion

Chicago.

Art Institute. Birch

Bartlett Collection

Chicago.

Art Institute. Birch

Bartlett Collection

L'herbage aux papillons (Aries),

1888-1889
Pay sage a Aries : Lahaie, 1889
Self-portrait with the bandaged

head,i 1889
Vue a Auvers, 1890
Restaurant Carrel a Aries, 1888
Portrait of J. McNeill Reid,^ 1886-

1888
Le Moulin de la Galette, 1 886-1 887
The Gardens of Aries, 1888
L'Arlesienne,3 1888

Le bebe de Roulin (Marcel Roulin),

1888
Girl in a striped dress (La Mousme)*

1888
L'Arlesienne (Mme Ginoux,)'^ 1888
The First steps (after Millet), 1890

La Maison de la Crau, 1888-1889
Paysage des environs de Saint-

Remy, 1889
Fruit, 1886-1888

Montmartre, 1 886-1 888

Van Gogh's Bedroom.^ (Aries
1888 or Saint-Remy 1889)

* There is another version of this picture in the Fayet Collection at

* This picture is erroneously catalogued by de la Faille as "Portrait of the
Artist. The sitter was the art-dealer who was then studying painting in
Paris and was acquainted with Van Gogh.

^ This picture, which must not be confused with U ArUsienne {Mme
Ginoux), was painted from a drawing by Gauguin which is now in the col-
lection of Dr. F. H. Hirschland, New York. Other versions are in the Muni-
cipal Museum, Amsterdam, and in the collections of Mme Kroller-Miiller
(The Hague), Mr. Durieux-Cassirer (Berlin) and a collection in Munich.

* There is another version of this picture in the Stang Collection,
Oslo.

^ This picture which I reproduce (PI. 122) is one of several versions. A
version in the Friedlander-Fould Collection, in Berlin, has a pair of gloves
and a hunting crop on the table instead of the books.

^ I reproduce this picture (PI. 123b). There are other versions in the
collections of Mr. V. W. Van Gogh and Prince Matsugata.

296

Chicago.
Chicago.
Detroit.

Institute of Arts

Paris.

VTNCRNT VAN (KXilf

Art Institute. Birch La Berceuse (Mme Roulin),' 1889

Bartlett C^)llecti(»n
Art Institute. liirch Still lite. Melon, Fish, and Jar.^
Bartlett Collection

Portrait (if J. McNeill Reid in a

straw hat,^ c. 1888
L'Usinc, 1886-1888
The Postman Roulin,* 1888
Lc Lupanar (la sallc do cafe), 1888
R. Treat Paine CoUcc- The Postman Roulin,'' 1888

tion
G. E, Fuller Collection Street in Saint-Remy (Lcs Paveurs),"

1889
Houses at Auvers, 1890

La Guingette, c. 1887

Restaurant de la Sirene, a Joinville,

c. 1887
Still life : Fritillaire couronne im-

peria'.e dans un vase de cuivre,

1887
Le Pere Tanguy, c. 1887
Portrait de Mile Ravoux, la fille du

cabaretier, 1890
Sunflowers, 1888

Philadelphia. Barnes Foundation

Philadelphia. Barnes Foundation
Boston.

Boston,

Boston.

J. T. Spaulding Collec-

tion

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Musee Rodin

P. Rosenberg Gallery

Jacques Doucet Collec

tion
Jacques Doucet Collec- Iris, 1888

tion
Dr. Paul Gachet Col- Portrait du docteur Gachet, 1890

lection
Fayet Collection Jardin public a Aries, 1888

Paris.
Paris.

Paris.

Auvers-sur-

Oise.
Igny.

^ This represents the wife of the postman of Aries. Other versions are in
the collections of Mr. V. W. Van Gogh (Holland), Mme KruUer-
Muller (The Hague), Mr. R. Staechelin (Bale), Mr. Goldschmidt-Rothschild
(Frankfort), and another private collection in Paris.

2 This picture is not catalogued by de la Faille.

3 This is catalogued by de la Faille as a self-portrait, but it evidently
represents Reid.

* This represents Rovdin against a flowered wall-paper. Other portraits of
this postman with his patriarchal beard are in the collections of Mr. Mayer
(Zurich) and Mme Kroller-Miiller (The Hague).

^ This is a three-quarter length picture. Roulin sits against a plain back-
ground on the cane chair in which Van Gogh painted La Mousnn. He rests
his left hand on a table.

^ There is another picture of this subject in the 1 1. Von Tschudi Collection
in Munich.

2 Q

■97

VINCENT VAN GOGH

Amsterdam.

Municipal Museum

Carnations, c. 1887

Amsterdam.

Municipal Museum

Montmartre, c. 1887

Amsterdam.

Mme van Blaaderen-
Hoogendijk Collec-
tion

Still life (oranges and lemons), 1889

Holland.

V. W. Van Gogh Col-
lection

Van Gogh's House at Aries, 1888

Holland.

V. W. Van Gogh Col-
lection

Pieta (after Delacroix), 1890

Holland.

V. W. Van Gogh Col-
lection

The Drawbridge : Aries, 1888

Holland.

V. W. Van Gogh Col-
lection

Stormy Landscape. Auvers, 1890^

The Hague.

Municipal Museum

Still life. Flowers, c. 1887

The Hague.

Mme Kroller-Mijller
Collection

Le cafe, le soir, 1888

The Hague.

Mme KroUer-Miiller
Collection

Le Pont de I'Anglois, 1888

Berlin.

Durieux-Cassirer Col-

Le passage inferieur du chemin de

lection

fer (Avenue Montmajour), 1888

Berlin.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

La maison de sante a Saint-Remy,

Collection

1889

Berlin.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Collection

Self-portrait, f. 1888

Berlin.

M. Meirowsky

Le Collegien, 1890

Breslau.

Silberberg Collection

Le Pont de fer de Trinquetaille, 1888

Dresden.

Museum

Still life. Pears, 1 888-1 889

Essen.

Folkwang Museum

Armand Roulin, 1888

Essen.

Folkwang Museum

La Moisson. Saint-Remy, 1889

Essen.

Folkwang Museum

Le pare de I'hopital a Saint-Remy,

1889
La Chaamiere, c. 1885

Frankfort.

Staedelsches Institut

Frankfort.

Staedelsches Institut

Portrait du docteur Gachet, 1890

Munich.

Thannhauser Art Gal-
lery

La mere Roulin avec son bebe, 1888

Stettin.

Museum

AUee pres d' Aries, 1888

Prague.

Museum

Les bles verts, 1889

Copenhagen.

Museum

Paysage montagneux. Saint-Remy,
1889

Stockholm.

Museum

Les Meules, 1888-1889

Tokyo.

Museum

Sunflowers, 1888

^ This picture was painted within a month of the artist's death.

298

London. S. CourlauUl CoIU'Llion

PAUL GAUGUIN. Tc Rcriva (La Case).

London. 6. tonriaiiid toilection

PAUL GAUGUIN. Ncvcrmoiv.

New York. A. LeieisohnJOollcctiZh

VINCENT \-AN GOGH. L'Arlcsicnnc.

VAN GOGH'S TJFE

{a) Van Goj^/j's Life'

The ston'' of Van Gogh's life has been told and rc-told.
Stripped of the dramatisation the following would seem to have
been the facts.

He was the son of a Protestant pastor of Groot-Zundert in
Holland. In 1869, at the age of sixteen, he was put to work
in the picture-dealing firm of Goupil at The Hague, with which
his uncle was connected. Four years later he went to the firm's
branch in London where he fell in love with a girl who was
engaged to someone else. In 1875 and the early part of 1876 he
worked in the firm's branch in Paris. Then he left or was
dismissed.

In the summer of 1876 he went again to England and worked
as a schoolmaster at Ramsgate and at Isleworth near London.
He was now a religious zealot and did some lay preaching among
the poor.

In 1877 he returned to Holland to train as a minister of the
Gospel. He was impatent to begin service and did not complete
his training.

In 1878 he procured some work as a lay preacher among the
miners of the Borinage in Belgium. The missionar)^ society
which employed him disapproved of his fanatical ascetism and
at the end of 1879 they dispensed with his services.

After some months of misery and frustration during which
he tried to orient himself by reading Shakespeare, Dickens
Victor Hugo, Michelet and Uncle Tom's Cabin, he decided to
become an artist. His brother Thco, who was in the Goupil
firm in Paris, encouraged and financed him ; and thereafter he
was financed by Iheo all his life.

Van Ciogh began to draw continuously in 1880 at the age of
twenty-seven. He worked for a time under Anton Mauve
(1838-1888), a Dutch follower of Corot.

In 1 88 1 he fell in love with a cousin, a widow. She refused
to have anything to do with him.

In 1882 he established a simple household with a street-woman

* Cf. Meier-Graefe. Vincent Van Gogh, A biographical Study.

299

VAN GOGH'S LIFE

whom he hoped to regenerate. He left her the next year and/;
went to Neunen, a village in Brabant, to which his parents had^
moved. There he had another frustrated love-affair — this timeg'
with a respectable woman who called herself " mystical " and^
was really crazy and ended by committing suicide.

In this period Van Gogh paid visits to the Rijks Museum in
Amsterdam and to the gallery in Antwerp.

In 1886, when he was thirty-three, he went to Paris and
established himself with Theo. There he met Gauguin, Lautrec,
Pissarro and Seurat, and as a result of these contacts he became
the artist that we know.

In February 1888 he went down to Aries in Provence. He
was joined there in October by Gauguin ; and both artists saw
something of Cezanne at Aix.

In December he had an attack of madness. He quarrelled
with Gauguin and threw a glass at his head. In an estaminet he
was asked by a girl to give her a five-franc piece for Christmas ;
he replied that he had not got one ; the girl was playing with
his ears ; " Then give me," she said, " one of these big ears " ;
Van Gogh went home, cut off an ear, and sent it, wrapped up in
a parcel, to the girl. After this Van Gogh went into the local
hospital. Gauguin, when Theo arrived to make arrangements,
went back to Paris.

Van Gogh recovered from this fit almost immediately. (He
never became chronically insane.) After a few days he was
discharged from the hospital (January 7th, 1889).

In February he resumed work in the little yellow house where
he had lived for the past year. The older Arlesians made light
of his attack ; but the idlers and the school children began
to treat him as the village idiot ; they collected outside his
windows and teased him into violent rages. Finally, the
Mayor was petitioned, and in March Van Gogh was taken
to the local lunatic asylum where he continued to paint his
pictures.

In May he went to an asylum at Saint-Remy. He was allowed
to paint in his room and in the garden ; he was allowed also to
go out and he painted in the neighbouring country, between
brief fits of madness that descended upon him periodically.
Theo sent him prints after Delacroix, Rembrandt, Millet, Dore,

300

London, Siitioiiiil Gtillery, Miiihani:

\inci:ni' \ an (icHiH

Sunllowcri

VAN GOGH'S ART

all sorts of artists, and when he was not allowed out Van Gogh
painted pictures from these prints.*

A year later (May 1890) he left Saint-Rcmy, visited Theo in
Paris, and then placed himself under the care of Dr. Gachet at
Auvers. Dr. Gachet collected pictures by the Impressionists
and also by Gauguin and Cezanne with whom he was acquainted.
He was a man who believed he understood artists. At Auvers,
Van Gogh had complete liberty, and in Dr. Gachet he found a
genuine admirer of his pictures. There he painted landscapes
and Dr. Gachet's portrait ; and there, in July, he shot himself.

{b) Van Gogh's Art

Van Gogh was a man who had little education and scarcely
any culture. He had no intuitive comprehension of works of
art. He regarded Rembrandt, Delacroix, Chardin and Millet as
great artists ; he also regarded Meissonier in the same way.
He was always, in fact, addle-pated ; and the amorous and other
frustrations of his early manhood contributed to the confusion of
h'.s brain. Moreover, he was always excessive in liis enthusiasms
and his sacrifices. He entirely lacked the sense of what the
French call la niesure — the quality that creates the even tempo in
the work of Poussin and Chardin, Renoir, Seurat and Cezanne.

He did not become an artist of consequence till he had contact
with Gauguin, Lautrec and Seurat in Paris. Till then he had made
genre drawings and painted gloomy pictures influenced by
Millet and the Dutch popular nineteenth-century artists. His
early work has intensity because in this period of frustration it
represented a channel of release for his inliibitions. If Van
Gogh had died in 1885 we should rank him as a minor Romantic-
Realist — if we chanced to be acquainted with his name.

Meier-Graefe has told us, rightly, that in his early years Van
Gogh " saw in art nothing but a penetration into nature."
In his early work he asked art to help him towards that contact

1 The First Steps {after Millet), now in Mr. Julius Oppenheimer's collec-
tion in New York, and the Pieta {after Delacroix), in Mr. V. \V. Van Gogh's
collection, are pictures painted in this way. They are not copies of the prints,
but free improvisations upon them. The Pietd especially is very chaiacter-
"istic of Van Gogh's later handling and colour.

301

VAN GOGH'S ART

with humble Hfe which he had sought in his missionary activi-
ties. At Neunen he was a kind of hysterical Louis le Nain.

When he met Seurat he was persuaded that man's architectural
conscience was as real as any other aspect of his spirit, and that
the painter's business was to acquire a language that would
achieve contact with that aspect of man's spirit. Van Gogh
accepted this new conception of the painter's function, though
he was temperamentally incapable of architectural creation as
it was understood by Seurat. In Paris he cleared the browns
and greys from his palette and painted La Guingette and Le
Restaurant de la Sirene (both now in the Louvre), where we see
the Impressionism of Pissarro and Monet stiffened on the one
hand by Seurat's doctrines, and rendered on the other more
intense by Van Gogh's temperament and vision. At this time
also he painted Le Pere Tanguy, the artist colourman who was
then storing most of Cezanne's pictures. In Van Gogh's
picture (which is now in the Musee Rodin, Paris) Tanguy is
seen in a short jacket and peasant's hat against a background of
Japanese prints. The background is significant because Japan-
ese prints contributed a great deal to the development of Van
Gogh's art.

Wlien Van Gogh went to Aries, he suddenly had direct contact
with forms of simple happiness which, he recognised, were as
fundamental as the misery of the Borinage and the gloom of his
early years. Here men were not all frustrated. They lived
simply, drank wine, made love without tears, and were burned
brown by the sun. To this harassed Northerner the sun of the
Midi was a continual intoxication ; in Aries the pores of Van
Gogh's skin opened, the sweat poured out, and he felt for the
first time in his life a peaceful and a happy man. He worked
with the energy that can only come in such conditions. He
painted all day, every day. He worked in shadcless places, in the
hottest hours, and he frequently went out without a hat.^

Nearly all Van Gogh's enormous aiwre was painted between
March and December, 1888. In the excitement of his new ex-
perience he forgot all about Seurat and invented his own

1 When Van Gogh had his first attack and cut off his ear, his Arlesian
friends — Roulin, the postman, and his wife {La Berceuse) and Mme Ginoux,
the cafe keeper {U ArUsienne) — ascribed his illness to sunstroke.

302

BRRTME MORISOT. La Toilette.

ssspp^

.\ A

Chiiiigo. .1 '/ 1 i:^!ru

VINCENT VAN GOGH. Bedroom at Aries.

Rome. \'aiican

RAPHAEL. The School of Athens.

PAUL C£ZANNE. Les grandcs Baigneuses.

VAN GOGH'S ART

method to symbolise the vitality that poured into him from the
glorious South, lie broke right away from the Impressionists,
and completely abandoned the photographic vision. Me used
colours as agents producing emotive associations, and used them
for this reason in their fullest intensity. 'I'he blue of the sky in
I 7/;; Goo/j's House at Arles^ in Mr. V. \V. Van Gogh's collection,
is deliberately forced to extreme emotive pitch ; the yellows
in the Smijiowers {\'\. XII), now in the London National Gallery,
Millbank, are pitched up for the same reason and in the same
way. Blue for Van Gogh was not a colour — it was the sky.
Yellow was not a colour — it was sun itself.

At the same time he retained the emotive handling of his
Paris period and increased it — not in the Romantic way to stress
his own emotional condition at the moment of painting,
but in order to symbolise the throb and pulse of life.

In this spirit and in this technique he painted the picture
known as Van Gogh's Bedroom at Aries (PI. 123b), now in the
Chicago Art Institute, which has the qualities of the celebrated
Chaise a la pipe in the London National Gallery, Millbank. I
reproduce Van Gogh's Bedroom at Aries on the same page as
Berthe Morisot's La Toilette (PI. 123a), to point the distance
which Van Gogh travelled from Impressionism when he surren-
dered his frustrated being to the South.

When Gauguin arrived, Van Gogh was reminded not of
Seurat, of whom Gauguin thought nothing, but of the claims
of decoration and of Japanese prints. The figure in U Arlesienne
(PI. 122) is silhouetted against the background like the figures
in the prints behind Vere Tanguy's head.

This version oiL,' Arlesienne^ now in Mr. Lewisohn's collection
in New York, is perhaps Van Gogh's most notable achievement.
The background is a brilliant lemon yellow ; the chair is scarlet ;
the table-cloth is green ; the front book is scarlet ; the open
book has a scarlet edge ; the white of the pages and of the
woman's scarf is a pale bluish green ; the woman's hair and
dress are deep Prussian blue. There is the whole atmosphere
of Aries in this amazing picture — all its curious stillness, its
vitality that seems to have roots in the Forum, and its searching
light.

Van Gogh's terrific desire to achieve contact with his subject

303

VAN GOGH'S ART

comes out in the portrait characterisation of this picture.
UArlesienne is one of the great Romantic portraits of the world.
No artist has ever sei2ed more passionately on a personality as
an individual emotive fragment and rendered the individuality
with more intensity.

Van Gogh's debt to Gauguin appears most clearly in the
last pictures which he painted at Auvers. In Aries he was so
profoundly stirred, so furiously eager to penetrate his surround-
ings, that he rarely paused to co-ordinate his pictures into linear
rhythms. At Auvers, where the sun was milder and the atmo-
sphere more calm, his art became more rational. The lines swirl
and dance, it is true, in a kind of ecstasy, and the colour is more
than ever arbitrary and symbolic ; but the dance obeys a rhythm,
and the lines are lines of growth. Van Gogh's last pictures are
the best organised and the most controlled. He was a little
careful of his vitality in these pictures. At the end of his mad-
ness he painted — perhaps for the first time — as a man who was
completely sane.

It is, however, essential to recognise that the great Aries
pictures are what they are because Van Gogh destroyed himself
to paint them. They thus set a standard of intensity which no
artist who respects his sanity can dare to rival or repeat.

304

mBassBmmmmmammKaM

''rooke. Earl of Sandwich Collection

ANDRE DERAIN. The Wood.

Haarlem. 'J'fvler Mitsettni

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN. Drawin-. The Wood.

P<aRr EICJIT

TllU CUBlS'i-CI.ASSlCAL RLNAIS-SANCE

i. Character of the Movement
ij . Paul Ce-:((in>ie
iij. Georges Seurat

2 R

London. Drilish Museum

CLAUDE LE LORRAIN. Drawinti. The Tiber ahove Rome.

/'.'/; (.iiillauvic Colli-c/i.::

ANDRE DERAIN, Paysage du Midi

THE CUBIST-CLASSICAL RLNAISSANCL

i. Character oj the Movement

I have discussed the Cubist-Classical Renaissance in The
Modern Movement in Art. Here I need only indicate its salient
features and some outstanding dates.

Speaking generally the movement in its intellectual aspect was
a revolt against the Romantic-Realist attitudes of the nineteenth
century ; and in its technical aspects it was a revolt against photo-
graphic and Impressionist procedures in painting. At the same
time it was an effort — and a most amazingly successful effort —
to create classical pictures based on the concept that Architecture
is the Mother of the Arts.

This Renaissance took form between 1884 and 1900. The
pioneers were Renoir, whose Tyson Baigneuses (PI. 105) was
painted in 1885, and Seurat, whose Un Dimanche d'ete a la Grande
jatte (PI. 133), was painted in the same year. Seurat continued
with a series of pictures exhibited between 1884 and 1890 at
the Salon des Independants, of which he was one of the founders
in 1884. Cezanne had begun to work on the classical basis
about 1877, and he arrived at his completely classical manner
about 1893 when he was approaching sixty.

1 he movement has brought about a regeneration of the art of
painting. In 1880 it looked as though the camera had destroyed
the faculties of perception and imagination in all European
painters. France seemed to have nothing to look forward to
but an endless succession of Fantin-Latours and Bonnats pro-
ducing black-and-white photographs in oil colours, and of
Manets painting Kodak snapshots in a formula of pinkish-
yellows for the lights and blues for the shadows. To-day, half a
centur}' later, we see on every hand an art that has completely
abandoned competition with the camera and has become as
fundamentally formal as the art of architecture of which it is a
part.

307

PAUL CEZANNE

ij. Paul Ce:(anne

BORN AIX-EN-PROVENCE 1 839. DIED AIX-EN-PROVENCE I906

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London. National Gallery, Mill- Rocky Landscape, Aix

bank
London. National Gallery, Mill- Self portrait, c. 1882

bank
London. National Gallery, Mill- Bathers. (Four male figures)

bank
London. Lord Ivor Spencer Self portrait with felt hat, c. 1880

Churchill Collection
London. Lord Ivor Spencer Bathers (six male figures), c, 1885 ?

Churchill Collection
London. S. Courtauld Collection L' Amour en platre

London. S. Courtauld Collection L'homme a la pipe, r. 1 891

London. S. Courtauld Collection Les Grands Arbres, c. 1887 ?

London. S. Courtauld Collection Le lac d'Annecy, 1897

London. S. Courtauld Collection La Montagne Sainte-Victoire, c.

1887
London. S. Courtauld Collection Still life. Le Pot de Fleurs, r. 1895 ?

London. S. Courtauld Collection Les Joueurs de Cartes (two figures),

1891
London. Tooth (Brandon-Davis) The House in the Wood (Le

Collection Tholonet)

London. Reid and Lefevre Col- L'Enlevement, 1 867-1 868

lection
Wales. Miss Davies Collection Paysagc Provengale

New York. Metropolitan Museum MardiGras, 1888
New York. Metropolitan Museum The Poorhouse on the Hill (La

Colline des Pauvres)
New York. Metropolitan Museum, Man with a straw hat, 1873

Havemeyer Collection
New York. Metropolitan Museum, L'Estaque

Havemeyer Collection
New York. Metropolitan Museum Landscape with Mont Sainte-Vic-
toire
New York. Metropolitan Museum, Still life

Havemeyer Collection
New York. Metropolitan Museum, Rocks — Forest of Fontainebleau

Havemeyer Collection
New York. Chester Dale Collection Portrait of Louis Guillaume, 1879
New York. Chester Dale Collection Still life. (Liqueur bottle, water-
bottle, glass, fruit and drapery)

308

O 5

PAUL CEZANNF

New York.

A. Lcwisohn Collection

New York.

y\. Lcwisohn Collection

New York.

A. Lcwisohn Collection

New York.

A. Lcwisohn Collection

New York.

Private Collection

New York.

Private Collection

New York.

Dr. H. Bakwin Collec-

tion

New York.

Private Collection

New York.

J. Stransky Collection

New York.

J. Stransky Collection

New York.

Dr. F. H. Hirschland

Collection

Washington.
Washington.
Boston.

Phillips Memorial Gal-
lery

R. Treat Paine Collec-

tion

Boston.

J. Nicholas Brown Col-

lection

Chicago.

Art Institute. Berson
Collection

Cleveland.

R. Coe Collection

Burlington

J. Winterbotham Col-

(Vermont)
Paris.

lection
Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

Pellerin Collection

Paris.

Pellerin Collection

Paris.

Pellerin Collection

Paris.

Pellerin Collection

Paris.

Pellerin Collection

Paris.

Pellerin Collection

Paris.

A. VoUard Collection

Paris.

A. Vollard Collection

Paris.

A. Vollard Collection

Paris,

A. Vollard Collection

Still life. (Primula, apples and
drapery)

L'Estaquc

Mmc Cezanne. (Three-quarter
length ; red dress ; green pat-
terned chair), c. 1890 ?

Head of L'onclc Dominique, <•. 1864

L'homme au bonnet dc coton, c.
1865

Mmc Cezanne, c. 1875 ?

La Fcmme Accoudec, 1.'. 1875

Chocquct in his Study, 1885
The Boy by the Brook, c. 1870 ?
Still life with ginger jar, pears and

drapery, tr. 1885
Gardanne, c. 1885

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire

Self portrait, c. 1890

Self portrait in a cap, c. 1902 ?

Road near Auvers, 1 872-1 877

The Bay from L'Estaque

The Pigeon Tower, c. 1894
Apples and Draper}-, c. 1890

La Maison du Pendu, 1872
Les Jouers de Cartes. (Two

figures), 1 891
Three still-life pictures
Cour de Village, Auvers, 1873
L'oncle Dominique, 1864
Leda au cygnc, 1868
Portrait of Chocquct, 1874
Baigneurs, 1884

Portrait of Gustavc Gcffroy, 1895
Les Grandes Baigneuscs, 1 895-1902
Portrait of Zola, i860
Mile Marie Cezanne, 1865
Portrait of M. Vollard, 1899
Les loueurs de Cartes. (Five

figures), 1892

309

PAUL CEZANNE

Paris.

A. VoUard Collection

Paris.

A. Vollard Collection

Paris.

A. Vollard Collection

Paris.

A. Vollard Collection

Paris.

A. Vollard Collection

Paris.

Kapferer Collection

Paris.

P. Cezanne Collection

Paris.

P. Cezanne Collection

Paris.

P. Cezanne Collection

Paris.

P. Cezanne Collection

Paris.

P. Cezanne Collection

Paris.

P. Cezanne Collection

Paris.

P. Cezanne Collection

Paris.

Wildenstein Collection

Paris.

Wildenstein Collection

Paris.

Jacques Doucet Collec-

tion

Paris.

Jacques Doucet Colllec-

tion

Paris.

Paul Guillaume Collec-

tion

Paris.

Paul Guillaume Collec-

tion

Paris.

Sacha Guitry Collec-

tion

Paris.

E. Bignou Collection

Paris.

E. Bignou Collection

Paris.

Jos Hessel Collection

Paris.

Jos Hessel Collection

Paris.

Dr. Gevres Viau Col-

lection

Lausanne.

C. F. Reber Collection

Lausanne.

C. F. Reber Collection

Lausanne.

C. F. Reber Collection

Munich.

Neue Pinakothek

Munich.

Neue Pinakothek

Helsingfors.

Museum

Moscow.

Museum of Modern

Art. Morosoff Col-

lection

Aisle of Trees, c. 1894 ?

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire, e.

1903
Paysage avec baigneuses, c. 1903
Deux arbres (Les Grands Arbres), c.

1903
Paysan assis, c. 1903 ?
Le Jas de Bouffan, before 1899
Self portrait at the easel, 1888
Self portrait at the easel, 1888
Le Jas de Bouffan, before 1899
Le Cabanon de Jourdan, 1906
Cezanne Pere, 1872
Landscape, I'Estaque
Still life with flowered jug.
Still life with a black clock, c. 1870
Harlequin, 1888
La Femme au chapelet, 1896

Paysage avec rochers, 1883

Mme Cezanne assise (full length)

Mme Cezanne en bleu

Self portrait, 1882-188 5

L'enfant a la poupee, 1 894 or 1 897

Still life : apples

Les Sables rouges

Mme Cezanne sewing, c. 1880

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire et La

Vallee de I'Arc, 1887
Le Gargon au gilet rouge, c. 1888
Mme Cezanne in a striped blouse,

1874-1875
Jeune homme a la tete de mort. (Le

Philosophe), c. 1895 ?
La Tranchee, 1868
Nature morte a la commode, 1883
Fond du ravin, I'Estaque, 1 880-1 885
La Montagne Sainte-Victoire

310

London. S. CuurtuuLi I'vIU^'liw:

PAUL C£ZANNE. L'hommc a la pipe.

Paris, rdlcrin ColUctio

PAUL CfiZANNE. Gustavc Geffroy,

CEZANNE'S LIFE

{(i) Ct^iantw's Life

Paul Cczaruic was the son of a hat manufacturer of Aix-cn-
Provence, who later became a banker and a man of means. He
was trained for the law but soon discovered his artistic bent.
In 1863, when he was twenty-two, it was decided that he wcjuld
adopt painting as his profession and that his father would make
him an annual allowance of 3600 francs. He received this
allowance (equivalent to rather more than ^300 a year in 1 English
money of to-day) for twenty-three years. At the end of that
time when he was forty-six he was still unable to support himself
by his pictures ; he had hardly in fact sold anything at all.^

At an art school in Paris Cezanne met Pissarro ; he saw
Manet's Dejeuner stir I'herbe at the Salon des Kejuses, and later met
Manet himself, Renoir, Monet, Sisley and Bazille. Zola, who
was also an Aixois, was already his friend.

In 1866 he submitted pictures (which have now disappeared)
to the Salon ; the pictures were rejeaed, and he wrote to the
Surintendant des Beaux Arts demanding a new Salon des KeJuseSy
but without result.

In 1867 he saw the one-man shows of Courbet and Manet in
the Exposition Universelle. He married in that year.

He spent some time every year with his family at Aix and in
1870 when war broke out he was staying at his father's country
farm-house, L^ Jas de Bouffan, and painting landscapes. He
remained in the south throughout the war, painting at, among
other places, L'Hstaque on the bay opposite Marseilles.

In 1 872 he returned to Paris. In the summer of that year and
of succeeding years till 1877 he painted landscapes near Paris —
at Auvers, Pontoise and Saint-Ouen-l'xVumone. •^

At Auvers he worked a good deal in the company of Pissarro
and there too he met Dr. Gachet already mentioned in connection
with Van Gogh, ha Mai son du pefidu^ now in the Louvre, was
painted at Auvers in 1872.

^ His fkther died in 1886, and he then seems to have inherited some
property. He succeeded to a third share in the family capital when his mother
died in 1897.

* There are several of these landscapes in the Peilerin Collection.

CEZANNE'S LIFE

In 1873, as already noted, he sent ha Mai son du pendu to the
first Impressionist exhibition, and in connection with this
exhibition he met Chocquet whose portrait, now in the Pellerin
Collection, he painted in the following year. Chocquet was the
first collector to appreciate his work.^

He did not contribute to the second Impressionist exhibition
of 1876, but in 1877 he sent his portrait of Chocquet to the third,
and painted several portraits of his wife. 2

After 1877 he no longer exhibited with the Impressionists ;
from 1878 to 1889 he worked almost exclusively in the
Midi, and only one of his pictures was publicly shown in Paris —
a portrait which he sent to the Salon in 1882.^

By 1889 his name had quite dropped out of artistic life in
Paris ; liis work was under-rated by the Impressionist leaders
and it had not yet been discovered by the new generation of the
Salon des Independants.^

In 1889 he returned to Paris and between 1890 and 1894 he
worked there, at Fontainebleau, and at Aix ; he also made a

1 The 1874 portrait is a head study. In 1885 he stayed with Chocquet at
Hattenville, and painted a full-length portrait of his host in his study (which
is now in a private collection in New York). A third portrait painted in
1885 in Chocquet's garden, shows the sitter in a white jacket with a back-
ground of foliage. I do not know the present whereabouts of the third
picture. Chocquet by 1899 owned thirty-three paintings by Cezanne,
including L.e Mardi-Gras and La Maison du pendu.

2 Cezanne painted portraits of Mme Cezanne at all periods. I have
indicated the present whereabouts of several in the list above. He also
painted self portraits and still-life studies at all periods.

^ One of Cezanne's friends, the painter Guillemet, was on the Salon Jury
in that year. Every member of the Jury had a right to hang one picture
from those rejected by the Jury as a whole.- Guillemet rescued Cezanne's
portrait — which was catalogued as Portrait de M. L.-A. Its identity is not
now known.

* Between 1877 and 1889 he stored his pictures in Paris with the artist-
colourman Tanguy (Van Gogh's P^re Tanguy), who showed them to
artists and amateurs. Tanguy apparently had permission to sell the pictures
on a fixed scale, 40 francs for the small sizes and 100 francs for the large
ones. Very few were sold ; but Duret bought some about 1879 at these
prices. In 1889 one of Cezanne's pictures was shown at the Exposition
Universelle. It was lent by Chocquet, who refused to lend other things which
the' Committee wanted unless it was accepted. In the exhibition the picture
was " skied." I have not been able to identify it.

312

::iiri,s. Miisci,,,,

lEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMEON CIIARDIN. Still life.

ColUrlv'i ■•; -W.U W iiJtftsl,-iit ,1 (I,-, l\ins .nut .Wi, York

PAUL C£ZANNE. Still life with cluck.

London. S. Courtauld Colh-clion

PAUL CEZANNE. Le Por dc Fleurs.

Paris. Eiieiiiie riigiwu Collection

PAUL (.E/ANNL. Apples.

C£ZANNE»S ART

journey to Switzerland where he was not moved to paint. The
well-known pictures called Les Joueurs de Cartes date from this
period. IJbomme a la pipe (PI. 129), now in Mr. Ciourtauld's col-
lection in London, was painted from one of the peasants who sat
for these pictures.^

In 1892, when Cezanne was fifty-three, the dealer, Ambroise
Vollard, began to take an interest in his pictures ; appreciative
articles by the critic Gustave Geffroy began to appear in the
papers ; and Cezanne's work began to be discussed in Parisian
art circles. In 1895 he painted the Portrait of Gustave Gejjrqy (PI.
1 30) and began hes Gratides Baigueuses (PI. 124b), both now in the
Pellcrin Collection ; Vollard opened a shop in the rue Laffitte
to exhibit and sell his pictures ; and the Luxembourg Museum
refused three bequeathed by Caillebotte.^

The superb picture he Lac d'Amiecj (PI. 127), now in the
Courtauld Collection, was painted in 1897. In 1899 he finally
retired to Aix, where he remained (with a short visit to Paris in
1904) till his death in 1906.

In 1899, when he was sixty, he was persuaded by the artists
of the Salon des Independants to exhibit two still-life pictures
and a landscape ; he exhibited in that Salon also in 190 1 and 1902.
In 1904 the Salon d'Automne allotted a room to his pictures ;
the Portrait of Gustave Geffroy (PI. 130) was in the Salon d'Au-
tomne in 1905 . A retrospective exhibition was held in the Salon
d'Automne in 1906.

(b) Ce^anne^s Art

Cezanne n'itait qu'm lamentable rati.

(A. M., Lm Lanterne, 1904).

Cezanne n' a fait ni un tableau ni une awre.

(E. SchufFenecker, Mercure de France, 1905).

Kien d dire des tableaux de Cezanne. C'est de la pe'mture de vidangeur saoul.

(Victore Binet, Mercure de Trance, 1905).

^ Cezanne painted several versions of l^s Joueurs de Caries ; some rep-
resent two figures ; others more. I have indicated the present whereabouts
of several in my list.

- Cf. note, p. 243, 244.

2 S 313

CEZANNE'S ART

Cet honnete vieillard qui peint en province pour son plaisir . . . et produit des
auvres lour des, mal haties . . . n'a jamais pu produire ce qu'on appelle une
auvre.

(Camille Mauclair, Im Revue, 1905).

If the greatest name in 'European painting is not Cezanne it is Giotto.

(Mr. Clive Bell, 1920).

Ce:(anne's organisation of the lines and planes of his pictures will stand as an
even greater achievement than his work with colour.

(Walter Pach, 1925).

With Ci^anne a mere crumpled tablecloth may take on the majesty of a mountain.

(Sir Charles Holmes, 1927).

We can write critically of Ce':(anne now ; we can treat him with as little respect
as we treat Ker/ibrandt, Rubens or Titian.

(Anthony Bertram, 1929),
The fumbling Ce:(anne.

(James Greig, London Morning Post, 193 1).

There is really no mystery about these pictures which we thus
see described on the one hand as " drunken scavenger's paint-
ing " and on the other as the greatest productions of European
painting.

Cezanne began as a follower of Courbet. In the 'sixties
he painted with heavy colours and often applied them
with a palette knife, as in UOncle Dominique^ now in Mr.
Lewisohn's collection in New York. His touch and colour
were still heavy in 1870, when he painted the Still life with a
black clock (PI. 131b), now owned by Messrs. Wildenstein in
Paris.

In these years he was an earnest student in the Louvre. He
admired the Venetians, the Baroque masters, Poussin and
Delacroix. L,' Enlevement^ which now belongs to Messrs. Reid
and Lefevre in London, reveals an impulse to emulate these
masters.

In the early 'seventies when he painted La Maison du pendu,
he was influenced by Pissarro ; but he never saw eye to eye with
the other Impressionists and Manet's Kodak snapshot manner
did not interest him at all. At the end of the 'seventies he
adopted, nevertheless, the Impressionists' light palette, and th6

314

S. Courtauld Collection

GEORGES SEURAT. Le Pont de Courbevoic.

Loudon. Mrx. Chester Jleiitty Collection

GEORGF'^S SEURAT. Landscape study for La Grande Jatte.

Cf:ZANNE'S ART

task which he set himself was the grafting of Impressionism on
to the main tree of classical art.*

From the outset he had been at heart an architectural artist.
If we compare his Still life trith a black clock (PI. 131b) with
Chardin's Still life (PI. 131a) in the Amiens Museum, or with
Chardin's Still lije (PI. 62a) in Boston, we sec the formal character
of Cezanne's preoccupation even in this early work. He is
already less concerned with the objects before him as objects
and more with their formal relations than was the case with
Chardin ; and later, when he had schooled his perception and
mastered his language of expression, he painted still-life groups
in which the formal relations, which include relations of colour,
constitute the central content of the picture as a whole. Le Pot
de fleurs (PI. 132a), in Mr. Courtauld's collection, is an example
of this later style.^

Like Chardin, he never wearied of painting still-Iife ; but he
also attacked the same problems in compositions — usually of
bathers — in figure-studies and portraits, and in landscapes,
painted mainly in the South.

The figure-studies culminate in L^ Gar^onaugikt rouge ^ painted
about 1888, and now in the Reber Collection, Lausanne, L.es
Joueurs de Cartes, painted about 1892, and now in the Vollard
Collection, h,e jeune homme a la tcte de mort, also called l^ Philo-
sopher painted about 1895 and now in the Reber Collection, and
the great Portrait of Gustave Geffroy (PI. 130), now in the Pellerin
Collection in Paris.

These pictures appeal not only by their majestic architecture,
but also by that intimate contact with life which we have
already observed as a characteristic of one aspect of French art.
This quality in Cezanne's figure-studies and portraits, has not,
I think, been adequately stressed by commentators. Fver}'onc
(except my friend the art critic of the London Morning Post)
now recognises that Cezanne was a superb architect and a con-
summate technician. But architectural power and craftsmansliip

^ Cezanne's two definitions of his aims say the same thing in different
ways : " Faire du Poussin sur nature " and ^' /aire de Vlmpressionisme I'art des
musics. "

- Others are the superb still-life groups now in the collections of Mr. and
Mrs. Chester Dale and Mr. Y\dolph Lcwisohn of New York, and of M. P.
Cezanne in Paris.

CEZANNE'S ART

are not in themselves sufficient to place a painter with the small
group to whom the civilised world pays homage as masters of the
very highest rank. Cezanne enters this company, as Renoir
enters it, partly because, at moments, he could use his architec-
tural science to capture contact with root simplicities and the
very springs of life itself. He enters this company partly because
he was not only the painter of Les Grandes Baigneuses (PL 124b),
but also the painter o£ Uhomme a la pipe (PI. 129).

In the history of the regeneration of modern painting Les
Grandes Baigneuses (PI. 124b) is a very important and significant
picture. I reproduce it on the same page as Raphael's School oj
Athens (PL 124a), and from the juxtaposition we can see the
architecture that is the central content of both works. But
Cezanne, who makes Chardin's still-life painting look material,
makes Raphael's seem almost mechanical and cold.

In Cezanne's landscapes we find the same intimate contact
with the spirit of his subject that we find in the figure-subjects
and the portraits. Cezanne was born in the Midi ; he was not
a sun-starved Northerner like Van Gogh ; he could work in the
sun without losing his head ; he knew and loved every foot of
the country which he has immortalised, and his pictures sym-
bolise that knowledge and that love. But he never copied what
he chanced to see before him. His landscapes are among the
most architectural of his works ; and at his highest level, as in
L,e lac d'Annecy (PL 127) and La Montagne Sainte-Victoire (PL 125),
both in Mr. Courtauld's collection, and in the Kock)i Landscape,
in the London National Gallery, Millbank, the planes are dove-
tailed with skill and ingenuity only comparable with Poussin's
skill and ingenuity in the landscape of the Funeral of Phocion
(PL 35 b), in the Louvre.

Cezanne is even more incontrovertibly a master in his land-
scapes than in his figure-studies and his portraits. Like Poussin,
he could make his picture a microcosm by a space concept of
which every imagined particle was realised ; and he was a
greater landscape painter than Poussin because he achieved
the realisation not only in the formal field but also — if the
word can be used of a landscape — in the psychological field as
well.

Cezanne's supreme skill of hand in his later years is not

316

CEZANNE'S ART

apparent to the uninstructcd because he refused to permit
himself the slightest bravura or the slightest fake. Pas d'ewporU-
metit (in pinceau was his motto as it had been the motto of Louis
David. Me meditated every touch. For the Portrait of Gustat'e
Ceffroy (PI. 130) he had eighty sittings ; for a portrait of M.
Vollard, which he eventually abandoned, he had a hundred and
fifteen, and at the end he pronounced himself ''pas mecontent du
dtrant de la cfjemise.'"^

In his later pictures Cezanne began with the architectural
structure. In Le lac d'Atineg (PI. 127), for example, he would
have begun with the arch formed by the boughs of the tree
which join with the sky and mountains at the back of the picture.
If he was not satisfied at any stage that the architecture was
holding together in every direction he abandoned the canvas
and began again. ^

Of this architecture, colour was an integral and central con-
stitutent. Cezanne was one of the world's great colourists. I
know no landscape finer in colour than he lacd'Annecy (PL 127).
He had made an intensive study of the Old Masters in the
Louvre, as already noted, and he knew that the great colourists
never copied the colours that they saw before them ; he knew
that the colour of Titian, Rubens and W'atteau was " artificial " ;
he also knew that Renoir's colour was the same. In his composi-
tions of bathers the exquisite mother-of-pearl flesh tints are
in this great tradition ; and in landscape he founded a new
tradition of " artificial " colour of his own.

Corot and the photographic painters of the nineteenth
century had achieved imitations of effects of light and shade by
destroying local colour and painting " by the tone values.'*
The Impressionists had ignored local colour and substituted
arbitrary colours symbolising light. Cezanne knew that the
Old Masters had rejoiced in local colour and exploited it in
glorious ways ; he, too, rejoiced and exploited local colour,
and he succeeded in painting sunlight at the same time.

* The sittings for this picture have been amusingly described by M.
Vollard in his ^aui Cezanne.

~ In his later manner he used thin transparent colour and every touch
contributed to the final result. This method precluded the drastic alterations
which are possible with opaque colour.

GEORGES SEURAT

It was thus that he converted Impressionism into the art des
musees. In the same way he refused to follow the Romantics,
the photographic painters, and the Impressionists, in their
sacrifice of architecture to the imitation of eiSFects of atmospheric
perspective. He contrived to render that perspective without
sacrificing his architectural concept of defined and dovetailed
space.i

Cezanne's pictures have been understood and valued in most
countries for the last twenty years. His reputation in England
has grown more slowly because relatively few of his finest pic-
tures have been publicly exhibited in London ; and the growth
of his reputation everywhere has been impeded because he left
a great many unfinished pictures and water-colours which,
though intensely interesting to students of his method, mean
relatively little to anyone else.

iij. Georges Seurat

BORN PARIS 1859. DIED PARIS 189I

CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES

London. National Gallery, Mill- La Baignade, 1 8 83-1 884

bank
London. S. Courtauld Collection La Poudreuse, 1890

London. S. Courtauld Collection Le Pont de Courbevoie, 1887

London. Mrs. Chester Beatty Landscape Study for La Grande

Collection Jatte, 1 884-1 886

London. Messrs. Reid & Lefevre Honfleur : L'Hospice et le Phare,

1886
New York. S. C. Clark Collection Boy on the river bank. Study for

La Baignade, 1883
New York. A. Lewisohn Collection Study for La Grande Jatte, 1884-

1886
New York. Private Collection Port-en-Bessin, 1883 or 1888

New York. J. Stransky Collection The Mower, c. 1882
New York. Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Study for the left-hand portion of

Sachs Collection La Grande Jatte, 1884

New York. Private Collection The woman with the monkey.

Study for the right-hand portion
of La Grande Jatte, 1884

^ I have discussed other aspects of Cezanne's technique in Tbe Modern
Movement in Art.

318

Paris. Louvre

GlA)RGi:S Sl-.LRAT. Ix Cimuc-.

The Hague. Mme Kroller-M filler Collection

GEORGES SEURAT. Lc Chabut.

SEURAT'S LIFL:

New York.

Private Collection

New York.

Private Collection

New York.

Messrs. Knocdler Col-

lection

Chicago.

Art Institute (Birch

Bartlett Collection)

Philadelphia.

Barnes Foundation

Paris.

Louvre

Paris.

P. de Marees Collection

Paris.

MM. Beniheim Jeune

Collection

Paris.

Jos Hessel Collection

Paris.

Paul Rosenberg et Cie

Collection

Paris.

Aman-Jcan Collection

The Hague.

Mme Kroller-Miiller

Collection

Drawing for the seated woman with

a sunshade in La Grande Jatte,

1884
Woman Sewing, r. 1883
The Naval base at Port-en-Bcssin,

1888
Ln Dimanche d'Etci a Grande

Jatte, 1 884-1 886
Les Poseuses, 1 887-1 888
Le Cirque, 1890-1891^
Entree du port, Montleur, :886
La Parade, 1 887-1 888

Sketch for La Baignade, 1 884
The Beach at Le Crotoy, 1889

Portrait of Aman-Jean (drawing),

1885
LeChahut, 1 889-1 890

(a) S cur (it's Life

Georges Seurat was the son of a bailiff of La Villette, Paris,
from whom he seems to have received an allowance all his life
sulhcient for his requirements. I can find no record that he was
ever in financial distress or that he made any money by his work.^

After an ordinary education he worked for four years at the
Ecole des Beaux Arts ; then he shared a studio with the painter
Aman-Jean and worked in the Louvre and the Library of the

^ This picture was bequeathed to the Louvre by the late John Quinn of
New York.

2 Coquiot in his Seurat states that he only sold four or five works in the ten
years in which he practised as an artist.

At Seurat's death his paintings and drawings were divided between his
mother, his mistress, and a few friends who included the painter Paul
Signat, first owner of L^ Cirque (PI. 135), Emile Vcrhaeren, first owner of
Honfleur : L' Hospice et le Pbare (PI. iiib), Felix Feneon, first owner of Lm
Baignade, and Edmond Cousturicr, first owner of Un Dimanche a la Grande
Jatte (PL 133).

In 1900, nine years after Seurat's death, one of his pictures was sold at
auction in Paris for twenty-seven francs. In 1901 fifty-three of his works
(paintings and drawings) were collected into an exhibition on the Boulevard
des Italicns, and not one was sold.

SEURAT'S LIFE

Ecole des Beaux Arts studying the Old Masters. Of the nine-
teenth-century painters he admired Ingres and Delacroix —
especially Delacroix's decorations in Saint Sulpice. He also
studied Charle Blanc's La grammaire des arts du des sin and
Chevreul's De la loi du contraste simultane des couleurs et de l^assorti-
ment des ohjets colories either at this period or on his return from
a year's military service where he acquired his first experience of
harbours and ports.

In 1 88 1, at the age of twenty-one, he took a studio and began
an intensive concentration on pictorial problems ; he continued
for ten years, working by day and by night in his Paris studio and
out of doors at various places.

In 1 88 1 and 1882 he worked occasionally in the country round
Paris. In 1883 he made studies of boating and bathing at
Asnieres which culminated in La Baignade^ now in the London
National Gallery, Millbank. In 1884 he began to make studies
on the Island of La Grande Jatte and at Courbevoie on the
same stretch of the Seine ; these studies culminated in Un
Dimanche d'Ete a la Grande Jatte (PL 133), now in the Chicago
Art Institute, and Le Pont de Courbevoie (PI. 134a), now in Mr.
Courtauld's collection in London. In 1884 he took part in the
foundation of the Salon des Independants at which he was a regular
and leading exhibitor for the rest of his life.

In 1885 he worked at Grandcamp and on the Grande Jatte ;
in 1886 and 1887 at Honfleur and at Courbevoie; in 1888 at
Port-en-Bessin and in Parisian music-halls; in 1889 at Le
Crotoy, in 1890 at Port-en-Bessin, and in 1891 at Gravelines.

When in Paris he lived in his studio and took most of his
meals at his mother's house. The sitter for La Poudreuse was
his mistress and the mother of his son. In 1891, at the age of
thirty-one, he was attacked by some infectious form of pneu-
monia of which he died. His little son was infected and died too.

Seurat was very reserved about his private affairs. His most
intimate friends were unaware of the existence of his mistress.
As Seurat painted on a scientific system he could paint by
artificial light and his working day was regularly prolonged into
the night. It is assumed that the pneumonia to which he
succumbed might not have proved fatal had his constitution
not been debilitated by this habitual overwork.

320

'Si'

4Pi

.Trim lif'UDf(l(i

1 (>(«9-'~-^

/'iiris. (■<-;/<■.. '/(-,! 0/ llu- (j.ilene (..■(.ri;,-s /^Wj/

LE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU.

Flower Piece.

I mmtwmmmm9^^''mm

Paris. Paul GuiUitimtf CoUcctioit

LE DOUANIFR ROLo^EAL. 1 kur. Jc l\«.i

A'C!,' York. Mr. and Mn.. ( In iter Dale ColUitwn

LE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU. Jungle with Wild Beasts.

U.S.A. Private Collection

LE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU. Jungle with Monkeys.

SEURAT'S ART

{b) Se Ural's Art

Seurat was a scientific artist of great intellectual powers and
incredible industry and patience. \\ ith Cezanne he set the stan-
dard of conscientious workmanship that has been an outstanding
feature of the Cubist-Classical Renaissance as a whole.

In his ten working years he produced seven important figure
compositions and twenty or thirty pictures of harbours and
ports. The compositions are Im Bai^iade now in the National
Galler)', Millbank, Un Dimanche d'lJe a la Grande JaUe (PI.
133) now in the Chicago Art Institute, Les Poseuses now in
the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, ha Parade now in MM.
Bernheim Jeune's collection in Paris, I .e Chahut {^\. 136) now
in Mme Kr*; ller-Miiller's collection in The Hague, he Cirque
(PI. 135) now in the Louvre, and ha Poadreuse now in Mr.
Courtauld's collection in London.'

The character of Seurat's art is immediately apparent if we
compare his llonfleur : h' Hospice et le Pbare (P. iiib) with
Manet's hes Courses a hongchamp (PI. ma), which I reproduce
above it. Seurat at the ver)^ beginning of the 'eighties had
the intelligence to realise that Kodak-snapshot Impressionism
had already run its course, and that, unless the painter was
prepared to acknowledge defeat by the camera, painting must
be brought back to the classical basis. Like David and Cezanne,
he wrote Pas d'emportement du pinceau and jaire du Poussin sur
nature on his doorpost.

To do this he began by the theoretical study of the laws of
pictorial harmony and contrast ; he made hundreds of drawings
of experimental combinations of lines, and hundreds of charcoal
drawings from nature in which he sought to recapture the
art of chiaroscuro as it was understood by artists before the
camera arrived.

From this he proceeded to a theoretical grasp of the action
of colour, and he made scores of colour experiments in which,
with the aid of Chevreul's book already mentioned, he elaborated
the Impressionists' empirical use of the spectrum palette to a

^ L<7 Poudreuse and ha Baigmde are reproduced in my Modern Movement in
Art.

2 T 321

SEURAT'S ART

complete system with separated spots of colour which took on
the required relations to their neighbours when the picture was
contemplated from a distance as a whole. His large pictures
were painted spot by spot in accordance with this system.^

Seurat eliminated all spontaneity and all records of his
mechanical vision from his pictures. He used the Impressionist
technique for sketches ; he then analysed this material ; and
he then made a synthesis for the final work. For Un Dimanche
d' 'EH a la Grande Jatte (PI. 133), he painted scores of Impressionist
oil sketches as a beginning ; he then worked out in his studio
every aspect of the picture separately considered. Mrs. Chester
Beatty in London has his preliminary worked-out study for the
landscape (PI. 134b) ; Mr. Adolph Lewisohn in New York has
a version of the whole picture which stands half-way between the
first Impressionist sketches and the final work ; and there are
scores of charcoal drawings in which the exact tonal relations
of each figure to the surrounding passages are meticulously set
down.

It should be observed that, like Cezanne, Seurat did not find it
necessary to paint Venus and Adonis, or Paris and Helen, to
indicate his return to the most austere conceptions of classical
art. He accepted the subjects of the Impressionists. He painted
holiday-makers by the riverside, dancers in music halls and
performers in a circus. He took the same material as Renoir
(Pis. 104b, 107 and 112b) and Degas (Pis. 114b, ii8a, and 116),
and in frequenting the circus he was following the example of
his friend Toulouse-Lautrec. But from Seurat's standpoint
these records by Renoir, Degas and Lautrec were journalism.
He foresaw the day when this type of record would appear
every morning in the illustrated newspapers and every evening
in the cinema. The task he set himself was the use of this material
not for descriptive or Romantic but for architectural ends.

In Ees Poseuses and La Grande Jatte (PI. 133) Seurat was con-
cerned with the creation of static compositions, with recaptur-
ing, for example, the stability and serenity of Le Sueur's Mass of
St. Martin oj Tours (PL 25). In L^ Chahut (PI. 136) and L.e
Cirque (PI. 135) he attacked the problem of retaining this
serenity and at the same time symbolising gaiety and movement

^ The system was known as Pointillisme.

322

.■.*Cu,

LL UOL AMl.K. IvOL^M'AU. The Wedding.

I'ans. MM. Pi'ul Rn'.cnhcra Collection

PABLO PICASSO. Petite Fillc a I'fiventail (1905).

SI<URAT'S ART

by linear rliythms. I Ic was still working on this pnjblcm when
he died.

Scurat's death robbed the twentieth ccntur)-" of a superlatively
original artist, (xzanne, of course, was the greater master;
his nature was richer and his mind was less dogmatic. But we
must not forget that Cezanne studied for fifty years, and Seurat
worked for only ten. W'c can set no limit to the possible achieve-
ments of a man who was able to see the path that modern art
was bound to follow and to advance himself, in a brief period, so
far along the way.

325

ei'iLogue

i. The Dotuitiier Kousseau
ij. Matisse and Picasso
iij. The Sur-liea/isfs

.^- ^./.^

Y "'^^

^^HHBpr'#*?S^v

E^ '-'

'^ ■ W^'

^IP

'^ j^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Bf

wtt^^ ^ ' l

pr '" ^^I^^^K

HIJHi

()l)iL( ).\ KinON. Orpheus.

Nr., y..>A'. r. Diiiliiisini; CulUcliuii
PABLO PICASSO. Abstract Composition (1930).

Paris, Private Collection

GEORGES BRAQUE, Still Life Abstraction.

l.Pll.OGUI'

i. The Doihinicr KoNsseat4

By a strange irony of fate Seurat's intellectual achievements
could be compared in successive SaK^ns des Indcpendants
with the pictures by Le Douanier Rousseau (i 844-1910). This
extraordinary artist, the son of an ironmonger, was at one time,
as his sobriquet denotes, an excise olTicial. In his spare time he
played the fiddle and painted pictures. About 1886, when he
was just over forty, he sent his hrst pictures to the Indcpendants,
and some years later he retired from his employment and
devoted all his time to painting.

For the remainder of his life he worked in poverty ; he kept
the wolf from the door by giving violin and painting lessons in
the suburb where he lived ; he hardly ever sold his pictures, and
when he did so he received the smallest sums. Like Chardin,
Corot and Cezanne, il peignait pour son amusement. His pictures
in the Salons des Indcpendants eventually attracted the attention
of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and the painters Picasso and
Braque who made his acquaintance and helped him in the last
ten years.

This uncultured son of the people, who knew nothing of
drawing as it was taught in the art schools, and nothing of
Impressionism, and who never thought about the struggle of art
against the camera, arrived by instinct at a point reached by
Seurat by intellectual effort and endless experiments with
compasses and rules.

I am not suggesting, of course, that the organisation of
Rousseau's pictures (Pis. 157a, 137b, 138a, 138b and 139) has the
complex architectural qualities of Seurat's masterpieces ; but
Rousseau did arrive intuitively at astonishing solutions of
architectural problems ; he had an instinct for scale and propor-
tion and a compelling decorative sense. Moreover, in so far as
Seurat was remarkable for his freedom from the Romantic and
photographic concepts of the nineteenth ccntur\', he was
equalled and surpassed by Rousseau who was free from these
concepts, not because he rejected them, but because they never
came into his head.

327

THE DOUANIER ROUSSEAU

Rousseau, as Charles Marriott has put it, *' refused to be
taught to see." For the public that roared with laughter at his
pictures he had nothing but contempt. To an art critic who had
referred to his work as " naif " he wrote : "y> ne pourrai main-
tenant changer ma maniere que fat acquise par un travail opinidtre^
vous deve:(^ le penser.^^ In a biographical note which he compiled
himself for a publication in 1S95 he wrote : " C'est apres de hien
diires epreuves que M. Kousseau arriva a se jaire connaitre du nomhre
d* artistes qui V environnent . II s'est perfectionne de plus en plus dans le
genre original qu'il a adopte et est en passe de devenir Vun de nos meilleurs
peintres realistes.''^^ He was certain that he was really an artist ;
and he was right.

Rousseau, like the great artists, created a microcosm in his
pictures. As a boy he went to Mexico in a military band, and
years later he painted a series of jungle pictures that are micro-
cosms of a tropical world. I reproduce his Jungle with wild beasts
(PI. 138a), now in the Chester Dale Collection, New York, and
his jungle ivith monkeys (PI. 138b) in another American collection.
Mr. Adolph Lewisohn has liis magnificent he Repas du Lion^
where a lion devours his prey in a landscape of huge tropical
flowers. Another tropical composition. The Snake Charmer ,
formerly in the Jacques Doucet Collection in Paris, is now in the
Louvre. 2

Seurat — in spite of his immensely elaborate method — pre-
served an astonishing freshness in his observation, as we see in
La Grande Jatte (PI. 133) and Le Chahut (PI. 136). But no man
can consciously achieve the freshness and directness of observation
that we encounter in Rousseau's group The Wedding (PI. 139).
The artist here reveals a delight in discovery and immediate
expression that recalls the painters of the windows at Chartres

(pi-^)- . . . .

Rousseau, moreover, was a poet. He had real imagination of
a very fragrant kind. Mr. Marriott has rightly compared him
to the poet Blake. His jungle pictures are pictorial equivalents
of Blake's " Tiger."=^

^ He added that com me signe caracteristique he wore la harhe broussaillante.
2 Bequeathed by M. Doucet.

^ Rousseau, like Blake, suffered from hallucinations. He frequently
" saw spirits," and he believed that his dead wife helped him on days when

328

nc-rliii. Collection of the GalUry Fhchtlu-im

PABLO PICASSO. Mother and Child (c. 1923).

Ne-tC York. A . Leinsohn CoUecHon

HENRI MATISSE. Jcune Fcmmc accoudcc.

MATISSr: AND PICASSO

As a technician Rousseau at liis best was faultless. His hand
did exactly what his niiiul, his spirit uhlI liis imagination
willed.'

ij. Miilisse and Vic as so

The work of living artists is outside the programme of this
book. But 1 must mention the names of two contemporary
masters whose relation to Frencii painting in the first quarter of
the twentieth century is the same as that of Cxzanne and Seurat
to French painting in the last quarter of the nineteenth.

M. Matisse was born in 1869 and is thus now sixty-two. He
began to exhibit in the Salon des Independants thirty years ago.
Like all the artists who have followed Cezanne and Seurat in
working out the Cubist-Classical Renaissance, he is a man of
great artistic erudition. To a knowledge of the pictures in the
Louvre, the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists added a
knowledge of Japanese prints. The artists of the modern move-
ment ha\T far wider artistic experience. 'Jhanks to modern
facilities for travel and the enormous production of illustrated
art-books they are familiar with the art of all times and places —
with the art of India and China, of l-gypt, I'.quatorial Africa and
Peru. The modern artist has to begin by the heavy work of
digesting all this accumulated knowledge.

i\l. Matisse came to the front as a man who had completed this
process of digestion and retained a compelling natural talent
unimpaired. His natural gifts are an instinctive sense of scale
and decoration, a personal and delightful sense of colour, and an
observation which he has contrived to keep as direct and fresh

he was working especially well. There is no doubt that he saw his pictures
complete in his mind before he painted them. He painted nothing from
nature except the faces in his portraits, and some of his flower pieces.

^ Rousseau's work was very unequal — inevitably so, since only the con-
scious and cultivated artist can maintain a consistent level in his work. His
pictures fall into four groups : imaginative compositions, portraits, i;enrc
subjects and flower pieces. The student will find a list with dates and
thirty-nine reproductions (but no inf. »r.nati.)n regarding the whereabouts
of the pictures) in Philippe Soupault's Henri Koussean le Douanier. I have
reproduced and discussed one of Rousseau's genre pictures, Old Joncet's Curt,
which is remarkable for its architectural qualities, in The Modern Movement
in Art.

1 U 329

MATISSE AND PICASSO

as the observation of the Douanier Rousseau (PI. 139), and of
the glass painters of the windows at Chartres (PL 2).

Like Rousseau, he is a brilliant technician ; his hand obeys
exactly the dictates of his mind. His calligraphic language
of expression, based on mediieval glass painting and Indo-
Chinese art, is always perfectly controlled. There is nothing
accidental in his pictures. Every line and every space of colour
has its allotted function in the picture as a whole. I reproduce
his Jeune femme accoudk (PL 144), a fine example, now in Mr.
Adolph Lewisohn's collection in New York.

M. Pablo Picasso is a Spaniard, but he has worked so con-
tinuously in Paris and is so closely identified with modern
French production that historically he must be included in the
French School. He was born at Malaga in 1 8 8 1 , and is thus now
fifty.

Picasso has been the central artist of the French School in
the first quarter of our century ; and he is one of the most
interesting and significant artists now alive. His production
has been enormous ; he has never painted a dull picture or made
a dull drawing ; he has never ceased to enlarge his experience ;
he has attacked incessantly problem after problem ; he has
never abandoned a half-solved problem ; and he has never
consented to repeat a success. His influence can be seen in
paintings all over the civilised world. His followers can be
counted by dozens. His imitators abound in every country in
Europe, in America and in Japan.

He began as a Romantic-Realist impressed by the achievements
of Toulouse-Lautrec. He developed this Romantic-Realism in
the so-called " Blue period " and " Pink period," 1 901-1906.
The pictures of this type produced when he was in the early
twenties are very moving and poetical and definitely on the
sentimental side. I reproduce as an example lua petite fille a
I'eventail (PL 140), which was painted in 1905 and is now in
Messrs. Paul Rosenberg's collection in Paris.

In 1907 Picasso abandoned this Romantic production and
resolved to contribute to the Cubist-Classical Renaissance.
He excluded ever^^thing charming from his work and sought to
achieve a new classical style by studying the architectural aspects
of Negro sculpture. M. Paul Guillaume's Le Corsage Jaime^

330

THF SUR-RRALISTS

which has all the magnetic power of an African idol, expressed
paradoxically in very r^>// colour, is the most imposing produc-
tion of this period.

In 1910, with Cieorgcs Braque he invented CAibism (PI. 142b),
which — as I have tried to explain in The Mnder?i Movemetit in Art
■ — was a drastic forcing hack of the art of painting to the root
character of architecture.

With the ground thus cleared he began in 1919 to rebuild.
He sought to create a new form of monumental painting ; and
for this purpose he turned to the antique as Poussin and David
had turned before him. I reproduce as an example of his monu-
mental " antique " studies the Mother and Child (PL 143), which
was painted about 1923, and is now in the Gallery Flcchtheim
in Berlin.

But even in this monumental manner M. Picasso's Romantic
temperament works through. The picture is as much a con-
tribution to the history^ of the Mother and Child wotif in art as
a contribution to the history of monumental painting.

From 1924 onwards M. Picasso has once more damped down
his Romantic bias ; and he has recently been painting architec-
tural constructions of the character of the Abstract Composition
(PI. 142a), which dates from 1930, and is now in the Dudensing
Collection in New York.^

iij. The Stir-Realists

In M. Picasso's later abstract compositions there is a vitality
that is not purely architectural in kind. It is a disquieting
vitality that evokes the world of nightmares and of dreams ;
and the contemporar}^ movement known as Sur-Realism has
been attempting for some time to develop vitality of this
kind.

The Sur-Realists have the precedent of Odilon Redon (1842-
191 6), who exhibited in the Salon des Independants in the
'eighties. But Redon lived before the days of Freud, when the
dream-world was still associated with vagueness and blurred

1 For numerous reproductions of M. Picasso's work the student is referred
to the monographs by Andre Level and Eugenio D'Ors.

THE SUR-REALISTS

edges, as we see in his Orpheus (PL 141), now in the Cleveland
Museum of Art.

The Sur-Realists, in exploring the dream-world as material for
pictures, start by remembering that we believe dream images, in
spite of their incredible proportions and juxtapositions, because
they are so vivid and so clear.

INDEX

A la niit, by Tuulousc-I.autrcc, 280
Abandon, L', by I'ragonard, 160, 162
Abbatc, Niccolo del, 27, 28, 50
Abraham dismissing Hagar, by Claude,

63 n.
Absinthe, L', by Degas, 275, 275 n.
Abstract Composition, by Picass(j, 5 3 1
Academic royale de peinture et sculpture,

82-88
Accord^e de Village, by Grcuze, 168,

169, 179

by Watteau, no, in, 115

Acteur tragique, L', by Manet, 250,

25 1 n.
Actor Manelli, The, by La Tour, 131
Adelaide^ Mme, as Juno, port, by

Nattier, 128
Admonition, The, by Chard in, 155
Adoration des Bergers, by Fragonard,

1 56 n.
Adoration of the Magi, by Ghirlandaio,

21
Adoration of the Shepherds, by Boucher,

148

by Le Brun, 82

Aeneas relating the Jives 0/ Troj to

Dido, by Regnault, 193
Alber marie. Countess of, by Reynolds,

128 n.
Albi Cathedral, frescoes in, 21
Alexander and the Family of Darius,

by Le Brun, 71 n., 80
Alexander entering Babjlon, by Le

Brun, 81
Alphonse de Toulouse-luiutrec conduisar.t

son mail-coach a Nice^ by Toulouse-
Lautrec, 279
Altar piece of the Lamb, by J. van

Eyck, 12
Altarpiece of the Parliament of Paris,

School of van der Weyden, 12
Am ant Couronne, L', by Fragonard,

162
Amante inquiite, L', by Watteau, 1 14
Amateurs d'Estampes, by Boilly, 232

A'fjateurs d'Esta'fipes, by Dauinicr,

Amateurs de Peinture, hy Daumier, 232

Amboise, Cartiinal tl', 21

Amende Honorable, L', by Dclacr(jix,

21 1
Amour au Theatre franfais, by

Watteau, in, 112
Amour desarme, by Watteau, 113 n.
Amour Paisible, by Watteau, 112 n.,

115
Amusements Champetres, by Watteau,

1 14, 118, 171
Amusements de la vie privee, by

Chardin, 135, 136, 140, 232
Angel appearing to Joseph, by

Dumesnil, 54 n.
Angelot, Mme, 252 n.
Anglaise au " Star " de Havre, by

Toulouse-Lautrec, 282
Anglure, Mme d', by Perronncau,

132 n.
Angouleme, Frangois due d', port.

of, 33
Anne of Austria, 79

port, by Beaubrun, 5 5

Annunciation, School of van Eyck, 13
Annunciation to the Virgin, school of

Bourdichon, 19
Anonyme Lecurieux, 33
Antoine de la Roque, by Watteau, 1 1 5
Apollo and Daphne, by Poussin

(Schleissheim), 67, 68

(Louvre), 67, 69

Apotheosis of Homer, by Ingres, 201
Apparition of the Virgin to St. Martin,

by Le Sueur, 46
Apres-diner a Ornans, bv Courbet,

226
Argenteuil, by Manet, 2w
Arlesienne, L', by Gauguin, 292 n.

by Van Gogh, 303-504

Arrivee de la diligence, by Boilly, 167
.■Irtemisia, School of I'ontaincblcau,

335

INDEX

Artiste, L\ by Mme Labillc-

Guyard, 174
Artist's Daughter, The, by Pesne,

128
Assumption of the Virgin, by Prudhon,

192
Atala mise au tomheau, by Trioson,

194
Atelier de Houdon, by BoiUy, 168 n.
Atelier de I' artiste, by Bazille, 237 n.
Atelier d'lsabej, by Boilly, 168
Atelier du peintre : Allegorie reelle,

by Courbet, 227, 228 n., 239
Athlone, Countess of, port, by

Perronneau, 132 n.
Au bar : Alfred la Guigne, by

Toulouse-Lautrec, 280
Au Moulin Kouge, by Toulouse-
Lautrec, 280
Au Salon : rue des Moulins, by

Toulouse-Lautrec, 281 n.
Audience at the Theatre Franfais, by

Guys, 253 n.
Aumone d'un mendiant, by Courbet,

228
Aurore et Cephale, by Regnault, 193
Autour du piano, by Fantin Latour,

247 n.
Aux Amhassadeurs, by Degas, 274
Avant le depart, by Degas, 274 n.
Aved, Jacques-Andre-Joseph, 128-9

port, by Chardin, 135

Avignon, First School of, 5-6
Avignon, Second School of, 14-15
Avignon Palace, 6

Bacchanal, by Poussin, 68 n.
Bacchus and Erigone, by Poussin, 67
Bachelier, J. -J., by Mme Labille-

Guyard, 174 n.
Baignade, Ta, by Seurat, 243 n., 269,

320, 321
Baigneuses, by Courbet, 226, 227
Baigneuses, Les, by Fragonard, 161,

161 n., 163 n., 164

by Renoir, 269, 270 n.

Bain turc, Le, by Ingres, 197

Baiserdla derobee {The Stolen Kiss), by

Fragonard xxix, 160, 163, 164,

166 n.
Balanfoire, La, by Renoir, 267 n.
Balcon, Le, by Manet, 250, 251 n.,

254, 254 n.
Ballet, Le, by Degas, 276
Ballet espagnol, by Manet, 248, 25 1 n.
Banker Jabach and his Family, by Le

Brun, 80
Baptism of Christ, by Corot, 217
Baptism of Clorinda by Tancred, by

Dubois, 28, 31
Bar aux Folies Bergeres, by Manet, 2 5 3
Bastien-Lepage, 221 n.
Bath of Diana, by Boucher, 147, 148 n.
Bathing Nymphs, by Luini, 193 n.
Bathsheba at the Bath, by de Troy,

143 n.
Baudelaire, 202 n., 233, 254 n,
Baudouin, Pierre Antoine, 165
Bazille, Frederic, 237, 237 n.
Beaubrun, Henri and Charles de,

54, 5 5
Beaujolais, Mile, port, by Nattier, 128
Beaumetz, Jean de, 9
Beauneveu, 1 1 n.

Belle Cuisinihre, La, by Boucher, 147
Belle Jardiniere, La, by Raphael, 26
Bellechose, Henri de, 9, 1 1 n.
Belleville, Breviaire de, 5
Benedicite, Le, by Chardin, 1 3 5 , 1 37 n.
Benoit XIV, Pope, port, by Subleyras,

128
Berard, family of, ports, by Renoir,

266
Bergeret, port, by F, A. Vincent, 173
Berry, Jean, Due de, 8-1 1
Betrothal of the Virgin, by Rosso,

29 n.
Birth and Triumph of Venus, by

Boucher, 147, 147 n.
Blanc, Charles, 217, 226
Boilly, Louis-Leopold, 166-8

pictures by, 166-7

Boisy, Gouffier de, 32

Bon Bock, Le, by Manet, 2 5 1

336

INDFX

BoHiif)urte an fnint de I'Anolf, by

Gros, 190
iionjpiir/e visile des pestiferh de j^ijf'i,

by Gros, 190
Bonhcur, Rosa, 208 n.
Bonnard, Pierre, 294 n.
Bonnat, Leon, 279, 279 n.
Bonnington, Riclianl Parkcs, 206
Borghese, Pauline, port, by Prutlhon,

191
Bosse, Abraham, 47, S5 n.
Boucher, Fran9i)is, 145 n, 144-50,

161, 168 n., 171, 275

pictures by, 144-5

Boucher, Mwe, by Boucher, 147

Boudin, Louis-Eugene, 221, 240

Bourdichon, Jean, 19

Bourdon, Sebastian, 86

Boze, Joseph, 175 n.

Breviaire de Belleville, 5

Brienne, Comtc de, 68 n., 87 n.

Bril, Paul, 61

Broederlam, Mclchior, 9

Bronzino, 27, 28, 29, 199

Brutus, by David, 184

Bruyas, Alfred, 227

Buffet, Le, by Chardin, 135

Burgundy, Philip the Bold, Duke of,

8-9
Burgundy, First School of, 8-9

Second School of, 12-13

Burning Bush, by Fromcnt, 13, 14 n.,

15
BurrcU, Sir William, 275
Buveur d' Absinthe, by Manet, 248,

248 n., 255 n.

Cabinet d' Amour, by Le Sueur, 43-4
Cafe : Boulevard Montmartre, by

Degas, 242 n., 275 n.
Cafe des Patriotes, by Swebach-

Desfontaines, 165
Caillcbotte, Gustavc, 241, 242, 265
Callot, Jacques, 47
Calvary, Crucifixion and Deposition,

School of Fouquet, 18 n.
Camargo, La, by Lancret, 123

Car/tille, La Pa we d la robe verte, by

Monet, 258
Camillus and the Schoolmaster ^ by

Poussin, 70 n.
Camondo, Count, 242
Cano tiers d Chatou, by Renoir, 267 n.
Carabinier, by Gericault, 208 n.
Card Sharpers, by Dumcsnil, 54 n.
Caron, Ant(jine, 27
Carriere, Fugeiic, 221
Cassatt, Mary, 237, 237 n.
Casseurs de pierres, by Courbet, 226,

239
Catalonia, School of, 6
Caylus, Comte de, 103, 121
Cephalus and Aurora, by Poussin,

68 n.
Cezanne, Mme, ports, by Cezanne,

512 n.
Cezanne, Paul, 237 n., 240, 242,

242 n., 243, 295, 508-18

pictures by, 308-10

Chahut, Le, by Seurat, 321, 322, 328
Chalgrin, Mme, by David, 188
Chambray, M. de, and his Friends, by

Le Sueur, 43
Chambre des Muses, by Le Sueur, 43-4
Champaigne, Philippe de, 54, 55-6
Champs Elysees, by \Vatteau, 114
Chanteuse des rues, by Manet, 25 1 n.
Chapeaux d'ete, by Renoir, 268
Chardin, Jean-Baptiste-Simon, 132,

133-40, 170. 287, 515

pictures by, 1 3 3-4

Charenton, Enguerrand, 14, 1 5 , M n.
Charity, by Andrea del Sarto, 25, 26
Charles II of Bourbon, port, by

Maitre de Moulins, 20
Charles IV, King of France, 5
Charles V, — , 7

Charles VII, , 16

port, by Fouquet, 17

Charles VIII, King of France, 19, 21
Charles X, by Ingres, 201
Char me s de la vie, by W'atteau, 1 1 3
Charmes de la vie champetre, by
Boucher, 146

337

INDEX

Charpentier, Georges, 242, 259, 266

Charpentier, Mme, 266

Charpentier, Mme, and her children, by

Renoir, 266
Chartres Cathedral, windows of, 4
Chasse a Vautruche par les Turcs, by

Van Loo, 148 n.
Chasse a VEpieu, by Potter, 5 1 n.
Chasse au crocodile, by Boucher, 148 n.
Chasse au lion, by de Troy, 148 n.
Chasse au lion et au tigre, by Pater,

148 n.
Chasse au tigre par les Turcs, by

Boucher, 148 n.
Chasseriau, Theodore, 212 n.
Chasseur de lions, by Manet, 2 5 5
Chavannes, Puvis de, 193 n.
Chemin defer, by Manet, 252
Chemise enlevee, L.a, by Fragonard, 161
Che^ le phe hathuille, by Manet, 255
Chocquet, 242, 265
Chocquet, Portrait of, by Cezanne,

242 n., 312
Christ bearing the Cross, by Le Brun,

82
Christ before Caiaphas, School of

Marmion, 13 n.
Christ giving the Keys to Peter, by

Ingres, 200
Christ Jaune, Le, by Gauguin, 294
Christ standing in the Tomb, Second

School of Avignon, 1 5
Cipierre, Comtesse de, by Mme

Labille-Guyard, 174 n.
Circus Children, by Renoir, 267
Cirque, he, by Seurat, 321, 322
Cirque Fernando, by Toulouse-
Lautrec, 280
Claude le Lorrain, 56, 58-63, 160

pictures by, 5 8-9

Clouet, Frangois, 30 n., 33

pictures by, 34

Clouet, Jean, 33

pictures by, 3 3

Clytemnestra, by Regnault, 195
Colbert, 81, 82, 85, 86, 88, 102
port, by Lefebre, 5 6

Colin d'Amiens, 16

Collation aprls la Chasse, by Lancret,

124 n.
Comediens It aliens, by Watteau, 114,

Comptoir du Coton, by Degas, 275
Comte de Bastard, Le, by Perronneau,

132
Concert aux Tuileries, by Guys, 234 n.

by Manet, 254

Concert Champetre, by Corot, 220 n.

by Giorgione, 112 n., 113,

118, 239

Confidences, Les, by Fragonard, 162
Continence of Scipio, by Abbate, 30

by Poussin, 70 n.

Contrat, Le, by Fragonard, 160, 161,

163, 166 n,
Cormon, 279
Corneille de Lyons, 33

pictures by, 34

Coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame

{Le Sacre de Napoleon ler), by

David, 186, 187, 187 n.
Coronation of the Virgin, by Charenton,

14, 15
Corot, Camille, 216-21, 237 n., 287
Corsage Jaune, Le, by Picasso, 330
Courbet, Gustave, 222, 224-30, 254,

267

pictures by, 224-5

Courses a Longchamp, by Manet, 2 5 2 n.

by Seurat, 321

Courtauld, Mr. Samuel, 232, 252,

269, 280 n., 294, 295, 313, 315
Courtois, Jacques, 62 n.
Cousin, Jean, pere, 30

fils, 30

Couture, Thomas, 247, 248

Croquet party, by Manet, 2 5 2 n.

Crozat, Antoine, 10 1

Cro':^at, Mme, by Aved, 129

Crozat, Pierre, loi

Cruche cassee. La, by Greuze, 153,

170 n.
Crucifixion with the Angels, by Le

Brun, 79

338

TNDF.X

Cubist-C^lassical Renaissance, ^07
Cuirassitr bltssi qui tt ant le feu, h\

Gcricault, 206, 207 n.
Cupid a Captive, by Boucher, 276

Dame, Vne, hy Guys, 234 n.

Dance, hy Poussin, 72

Danseville, MIU, pastel hy Vigec,

174 n.
Danse, lu2, hy W'atteau, 115
Danseuse au bouquet, by Degas, 242 n.,

274, 276
Dante et Virgile, by Delacroix, 211
Dauhigny, Charles-Francois, 215
Daumier, 231-5, 254
David, Jacques-Louis, 158, 181-9,

pictures hy, 18 1-2

David croaned bj Victory, hy Poussin,

68 n.
Dead Christ with Angels, by Manet,

249, 251 n.
Death of Bara, by David, 185, 185 n.,

187
Death of Marat, hyY^TLx'id, 185, 185 n.
Death of St. Bruno, by Lc Sueur, xxix,

45
Death of Saphira, by Poussin, 70 n.
Death of Socrates, David, 184
Decourt, Jean, 33
Degas, Edgar, 257, 240, 242 n., 254,

271-6, 283-4

pictures by, 271-3

Dejeuner, L€, by Boucher, 147

by Renoir, 267 n.

Dejeuner de Chasse, by Carle Van Loo,

124, 124 n.
Dijeuner de jambon, by Lancrct, 124,

124 n., 148 n.
Dejeuner des Canotiers, by Renoir,

270, 270 n.
Dejeuner d'huitres, by de Troy, 143 n.
Dejeuner sur I'herbe, by Manet, 239,

249, 251 n., 254, 258

by Monet, 258, 260 n.

Delacroix, Eugene, 148 n., 206,

208-14, 228 n., 229, 288

Delacroix, pictures hy, 208-10
Deluge, The, hy Poussin, 73
Demoiselles Berard, ijts, hy Renoir,

266
Depart, Zv, hy Degas, 274
Derby d'lLpsom, hy Cicricault, 207
Desboutins, port, hy Degas, 275
Descartes, port, hy Mignard, 91 n.
Descent from the Cross, by Jouvcnct,

by Perugino, 22

Desir, he, by Fragonard, 162

Desportes, Charles, 93

Detachement faisant alte, by Wattcau,

no
Deux Baigneuses, Les, by Lane ret, 1 23
Dcveria, E.-F.-M.-J., 206
Diana, School of Fontainchlcau, 30
Diana and Actaon, by Titian, 146
Diana and her Attendants hunting, by

Le Sueur, 43 n.
Diane au bain, by Corot, 219
Diane Chasseresse, by Goujon, 180
Diane de Poitiers, 30 n., 31
Diderot, Denis, 144, 150, 164, 169,

175
Diego Martelli, by Degas, 275, 275 n.
Dimanche d'Ete a la Grande Jatte, by

Seurat, 269, 320, 521, 322
Dindons blancs, Les, by Monet, 242 n.
Distribution of the Eagles, by David,

186
Dites done, s'ilvous plait, hy Fragonard,

163
Don Quixote, by Daumier, 232
Dormeuil, Georges, 152 n.
Drouais, Francois-Hubert, 1 5 3, 173 n.
Du Barry, Mmc, 132-5
port, by Mme Vigec-lc Brun,

153.175
Dubois, Ambroisc, 27, 28, 31
Dubreuil, Toussaint, 27
Duck, Jacob, 5 1 n.
Ducreux, J., 173 n.
Dufresne, Mme, by Prudhon, 192,

221
Dughct, Gaspard, 65 n.

339

INDEX

Dumcsnil de la Tour, Georges, Entry of Charles V to Paris, hylngtcs^

53-4

pictures by, 53

Dumonstier, Etienne and Pierre, 33

Dumont, Jacques, 129

Duplessis, J. S., 173 n.

Dupre, Jules, 215

Durand-Ruel, 241, 243, 251, 259,

265, 266, 274
Duranty, 242, 250
Duret, Theodore, 242, 249, 250

Harthly Paradise, by Poussin, 73

Echo and Narcissus, by Poussin, 67

Ecole de Lyons, 194

Econome, L', by Chardin, 138 n.

Eden, Sir William, 274

Elevation of the Cross, by Le Brun, 82

Elie^er andKehecca, by Poussin, 72 n.

Eli:(abeth, Mme, by Mme Labille-

Guyard, 174 n.
Elizabeth of Austria, 34
Elles, by Toulouse-Lautrec, 282
Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, by

Claude, 61 n.
Embarquement pour I'lle de Cjthere, by

Watteau, 105, 114, 116, 116 n.,

Empercur Severe reprocke a Caracalla,

etc, by Greuze, 169
Empress Josephine, The, by Prudhon,

191
Enfants de Catulle Mendh, by Renoir,

247 n.
Engraver F. G. Schmidt, The, by

Pesne, 128 n.
Enlevement, E', by Cezanne, 314
Enlevement de Psyche, by Prudhon,

192
Enseigne de Gersaint, by Watteau,

106, 115
Enterrement a Or nans, by Courbet,

226, 227, 239
Entombment, First School of Paris, 8
Entree des Croises a Constantinople,

by Delacroix, 212
Entry into Jerusalem ^ by Le Brun, 82

201
Errard, Charles, 39 n.
Escalade, L', by Fragonard, 162,

163 n.
Esprit veille, L', by Gauguin, 294
Esther before Ahasuerus, by Poussin,

70 n.
Estrees, Gabrielle d', 27, 30
Ete, L' : Femmes dans un Jar din, by

Monet, 259
Etienne Chevalier, port, by Fouquet,

18
Etoiles, Mme Lenormand d', 151
Etude, L', by Fragonard, 161 n.
Eugenius IV, Pope, port, by

Fouquet, 17 n.
Eva Prima Pandora, by Cousin pere,

30 ^
Examen a la Faculte de Medecine, by

Toulouse-Lautrec, 283
Execution of Maxmilian, by Manet,

254
Exercises militaires des Marocains, by

Delacroix, 212
Eyck, Jan van, 12-13

Falaise de Fecamp, by Monet, 2 5 9
Famille dufermier, by Fragonard, 165
Fantin-Latour, 221, 294
Fauves, The, Relation to primitives, 5
Faux pas, Le, by Watteau, 114
Femme a l' atelier, by Corot, 221
Femme allaitant son enfant, by Renoir,

268, 269, 270 n.
Femme enceinte, by Renoir, 269
Femme nue accroupie, by Toulouse-
Lautrec, 282
Femmes d' Alger dans leur appartement,

by Delacroix, 212
Ferme, La, by Oudry, 171 n.
Fete du St. Cloud, by Fragonard,

163 n.
Fetes galantes, by Watteau, 119
Fetes Venitiennes, by Watteau, m,

112
Fifre, Le, by Manet, 250, 251 n.

340

INDI'X

Financier Mont mar tel and his Wife, hy

Rigaud, 9^
Finding of Moses, hy La Fosse, 92

by Poussin, 72

Finding of P/jocion, bv Poussin, 73 n.
Finette, La, by W'attcau, 114
First Empire, The, 189
First Steps, Fhe {after Millet), by

Van G(\gh, 301 n.
Flemish School, 8-11, 12-13
Flight into F^gjpt, bv Claude, 62

by Poussin, 70

Flora with Attendants, School of

Fontainebleau, 30
Foire de St. Cloud, by Fragonard,

Fontaine d' Amour , by Fragonard, 160,

164, 192
Fontainebleau, Palace of, 25-6

School of, 2^-30

Fontaines, Fes, by Robert, 173
Forge, The, by L. Le Nain, 5 2
Forrain, Jean-Louis, 231 n.
Fouquet, Jean, 16, 17-18
Fouquet, Nicolas, 80
Foyer de la danse, by Degas, 241 n.,

274
Fragonard, Jcan-Honore, 150 n.,

153-64, 186

pictures by, 153-5

Francesca da Kimini, by Ingres, 200,

201
Frangois I, King of France, 25-7,

29 n., 32

port, of, 34

Franfois I at the death-bed of Leonardo

da Vinci, by Ingres, 201
Franfois Mans art and Claude Perrault,

by Champaigne, 56
Franklin, by Duplessis, 173 n.
Frederic the Great, port, bv Pcsnc,

128
French Eighteenth-Century Land-
scape, 1 71-3
Fromcnt, Nicholas, 13, 14 n., 15
Funeral of Phocion, by Poussin, 73,

220, 316

Gabrietle with the jewel, by Renoir, 269
Gachct, Dr., 301, 5 1 1

port. Iw Van Gogh, 501

Gaillon, Chateau dc, frescoes, 22
Gurfon au gtlet rouge, by Cezanne, 3 1 5
Gar f on Cabaretier, Lf, by Chard in,

1 5?
Garden scene with a bahj carriage, by

Gauguin, 294 n.
Garguntua swallowing bags of gold

extracted from the people, by

Daumier, 23 1
Gaspard de Gueydan with Bagpipe, by

Rigaud, 95
Gauguin, Paul, 237 n., 280 n., 287,

288-95

pictures by, 288-91

Geffroy, Gustave, 313

Gellee, see Claude

Genre painting, 132

Gerard, Frangois-Pascal-Simon, 194

Gericault, Theodore, 206-8

Gerome, 193

Gersaint, 103

Ghirlandaio, Benevetto, 21

Gilles and his Family, by W'attcau,

112, 114
Gillot, Claude, 109 n,
Girard of Orleans, 3
Girl with a cat, by Perronneau, 1 32 n.
Glcvre, Marc-Gabriel-Charlcs, 258,

265
Golden Calf, by Poussin, 72
Gon:^ales, Eva, by Manet, 250
Gonzalez, Eve, 237, 237 n.
Goodyear, Mr. H. C, 294
Gourgand, Baron, 234 n.
Gouvernante, Fa, by Chardin, 136
Goya, 254, 254 n.
Grancourt, Bcrgeret dc, 157
Grand pretre Coresus se sacrifie pour

saui'er Callirhoe, by Fragonard,

156, 160
Grande Jatte, Fa, by Scurat, 243 n.,

321, 328
Grande Odalisque, ha, by Ingres, 199,

200, 200 n.

341

INDEX

Grandes Baigmuses, Les, by Cezanne,

^69, 313, 316
Grenouillere, La, by Renoir, 267
Greuze, Jean-Baptiste, 141 n., 150,

168-70
Greuze, Mme, en vestale, by Greuze,

169
Grimou, Jean, 132
Gros, Antoine-Jean, 190
Grosse Marie, by Toulouse-Lautrec,

279
Guasparre, Giambattista di, see

Rosso
Guerin, Pierre-Narcisse, 193
Guilbert, Yvette, studies by

Toulouse-Lautrec, 280
Guillaume, M. Paul, 269
Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins, by

Fouquet, 18
Guingette, La, by Van Gogh, 302
Guys, Constantin, 233-4, 283

Haan, Mayer de, 293

Hagar and the Angel in the Desert, by

Le Sueur, 46
Half-nude girl doing her hair, by

Renoir, 267 n.
Halte, du Cavalier, by Louis Le

Nain, 51
Hamilton, Lady, ports, by Mme Le

Brun, 175
Harpignies, Henri, 215
Haystacks, by Monet, 259
Ha':{ards heureux de I'escarpolette {The

Snmg), by Fragonard, 161
Head of a Girl, by David, 187
Henri II, King of France, 27

Henri IV, , 27

Henry IV playing with his children, by

Ingres, 201
Henriette, Mme, as Flora, port, by

Nattier, 128
Henriette, Mme, playing the violoncello,

by Nattier, 128
Hertford, Lord, 149 n.
Hesiod and the Muse, by Delacroix,

214

Heures du Due de Berry, 10

High Altar of Notre Dame, by

Jouvenet, 93
Holy Family {Le Menage du Menuisier),

by Rembrandt, 180
Homere et les Bergers, by Corot, 220
Homme a la ceinture de cuir, by

Courbet, 226
Homme a la pipe, by Cezanne, 313,

316
Honfleur : L'Hospice et le Phare, by

Seurat, 321
Honfleur-maisons sur les quais, by

Corot, 220
Honthorst, Gerard, 5 3
Horatius Codes defending Kome, by

Le Brun, 79
Hunt Luncheon, The, by Lancret,

124
Hunter, Dr. William, 136

la Orana Maria {Ave Maria), by
Gauguin, 294

Impression : Soleil levant, by Monet,
241, 241 n.

Impressionist Movement, 237

Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique,
195-202, 221 n.

pictures by, 195-7

Inmates of the Home, by Toulouse-
Lautrec, 282

Innocence et V Amour, by Nicolas
Coypel, 143 n.

Inspiration, L', by Fragonard, 161 n.

Inspiration of Anacreon, by Poussin,

Inspiration of the Poet, by Poussin, 72
Interior, by Gauguin, 294 n.
Israelites collecting Manna, by Poussin,
70 n.

Jabach, 80, 87 n., 102

Jacob wrestling with the Angel, by
Gauguin, 294

Jacque, Charles, 215

Jane Avril dancing, by Toulouse-
Lautrec, 280 n.

342

iNr3i:x

Jane ylvril le\3vins>^ the MoiJin Kouge, by

Toulouse-Lautrec, 280 n.
Jean le lion, King, 3, 7
Jeanne d'Aragon, by Raphael, 26
Jeanne Duinil, by Manet, 248
Jeanne — le Printemps, by Manet, 253
Jeanne Samary, by Renoir, 266
Jesus among the Doctors, by Ingres,

201
Jesus insulted by soldiers, by Manet,

251 n.
Jeune femme accoudee, by Matisse, 350
Jeunefemme couchee en costume espagnole,

by Manet, 254 n.
Jeune fille et sa grandmhe, by Raoux,

Jeune fille lis ant une lettre, by Raoux,

132
Jeune bom me a la tete de mort (Le

Pbilosophe), by Cezanne, 3 1 5
Jeunes filles au piano, by Renoir,

247 n.
Joueurs de Cartes, Les, by Cezanne,

51}. 315
Jouvenet, Jean, 95
Judgment of Paris, by Raphael, 249 n.

by Watteau, 114

Judgment of Solomon, by Poussin,

70 n.
Julienne, Jean de, 102
Jungle with Monkeys, by Rousseau, 528
Jungle with wild beasts, by Rousseau,

328
Jupiter and Thetis, by Ingres, 197,

198-9
Justice and Peace, School of Fontaine-

bleau, 30
Justice et la Vengeance divine poursuivant

le Crime, by Prudhon, 191

Keeper, The, by Toulouse-Lautrec,
282

La Fosse, Charles de, 92

La Hyre, Laurent de, 59 n.

La Pena, Diaz de, 215

Lm Koque, Antoine de, by Watteau, 1 1 5

La Tour, Maurice Quentin de,
129-31

p(jrt. by Perronneau, 132 n.

Labille-Guyard, Mme Adelaide,

173-4
Lac d'Annecy, by Cezanne, 313, 316,

Lady and a boy, drawing by Ingres,

198
Lancret, Nicolas, 123
Landscape with a red dog, by Gauguin,

294
Landscape with Diogenes, by Poussin,

73 n.
Landscape with Figures, by Louis

le Nain, 50
Landscape with Figures {P hoc ion), by

Poussin, 75 n.
Landscape with Hercules and Cacus,

by Poussin, 73 n.
Landscape with Polyphemus, by

Poussin, 73 n.
Landscape with Three Men, by

Poussin, 73 n.
Landscape with Two Nymphs, by

Poussin, 73
Largillicre, Nicolas de, 95, 96-8,

127

pictures by, 96

Last Supper, by Le Brun, 82

by Poussin, 70 n.

Latude, by Vestier, 173 n.
Lavandihes, Les, by Fragonard, 163
Lavreince, Nicholas, 165
Lawyer Laideguive, The, by La Tour,

151, 275 n.
Lazard, Andre, 132 n.
Le Brun, 40, 41, 71 n., 78-82, 84,

85. 275

pictures by, 78

Le Brun, Mme Elizabeth Viged,

174-6
lu Brun, Mme, and her daughter, 174
Le jeune, Morcau, 165
Le Moyne, Frangois, 143 n., 146
Le Nain, Antoine, 48-50, 52
pictures by, 48

343

INDEX

Le Nairij Louis, 50-52, 170

pictures by, 48-9

Le Nain, Mathieu, 5 2
pictures by, 49

Le Sueur, Eustache, 41-6

pictures by, 41-2

Le 28 Juillet 1830, by Delacroix,

211
L,efon de Musique, by Fragonard, 161,

162 n., 165 n.
Leda, by Michelangelo, 26
Lefebre, Claude, 56
Legrue, Madame^ by Perronneau,

132 n.
Lenoir, Mme, by Duplessis, 173 n.
Leonidas before Thermopjla, by David,

186, 187
Lettre, La, by Fragonard, 163
Lewisohn, Mr. Adolph, 282, 294,

303, 314
Liber Veritatis, by Claude, 60
Liechtenstein of Vienna, Prince,

136
Liechtenstein, Prince Weni^el, port, by

Rigaud, 95
Limbourg, Paul, Jean and Armand

de, 10
Linge, Le, by Manet, 2 5 2
Lion Hunt, by Delacroix, 212
Lise, by Renoir, 266
Loge, La, by Gonzalez, 237 n.

by Renoir, 241 n., 267 n.

Lola de Valence, by Manet, 248,

249 n., 251 n.
Lola, Miss, at the Cirque Fernando, by

Degas, 274
Longueville, Duchesse de, by Beau-

brun, 55
Lorrain, Claude, see Claude
Louis XI, King of France, 16

Louis XII, , 19, 21

Louis XIII, , 28

Louis XIV, , 74-7, 91-3

port, by Mignard, 89

port, by Rigaud, 94

Louis XV, King of France, 136
Louis XV style, 125-26

Louis XVIII, King of France, port.

by Boze, 173 n.
Louis-Henrj- Joseph de Bourbon, by

Danloux, 173 n.
Louis Philippe, caricature by

Daumier, 231
Louvre, 77, 81
frescoes in, 7

Maison du pendu, by Cezanne, 241 n ,

3", 3M
Maitre de Moulins, see Moulins
" Maitrise," 7

Maja vestjda, by Goya, 254 n.
Malonel, Jean, 9, 11 n.
Manet, Edouard, 234, 237, 239, 240,

244-5 5 , 267

pictures by, 244-6

Manet, Mme, au piano, by Manet,

247 n.
Marat porte en triomphe, by Boilly,

167
Marie-Antoinette, port, by Ducreux

173 n.
Marie Antoinette and her children, by

Mme Le Brun, 175
Marie Antoinette in velvet, by Mme

Le Brun, 175
Marie Antoinette on her way to the

scaffold, drawing by David, 189
Marie Antoinette with a rose, by Mme

Le Brun, 175
Mariette, Pierre Jean de, 103
Marigny, Marquis de, 1 5 1
Marmion, Simon, 13
Martini, Simone, 6
Martyrdom of St. Sjmphorien, by

Ingres, 201
Mary Magdalen, St., by Maitre de

Moulins, 20

by Titian, 27

Mary, the Virgin, see Virgin

Mass of St. Martin of Tours, by Le

Sueur, 45, 322
Massacre of the Innocents, by Poussin,

70 n.
Massacres de Scio, by Delacroix, 211

344

INDEX

Mutin, l^, l)y Bouclicr, 147
Matisse, 329-30

Relation to Primitives, 5

Mauve, Anton, 299

Mazarin, port, by Mignard, 91

Alee ting of joaihiM and Anna, by

Maitre de Moulins, 16 n., 20
Meissonicr, |can-l,ouis l">nest, 25 1 11.
Minage de Menuisier, by Rembrandt,

180
Alercier, At me, the nurse of houis XV,

exhibiting the King's portrait to her

family, by Dumont, 129
AUre, La, Catherine- Agnis Arnaud et

la saur Catherine de Sainte-StC(anne,

by Champaigne, 56
Aii-careme sur les Boulevards, by

Pissarro, 237 n.
Michelangelo, 26, 29
Midas before Bacchus, by Poussin, 67,

68
Mignard, Nicolas, 89
Mignard, Pierre, 40, 82, 86, 88-91,

275

pictures by, 88

Milan Cathedral, 6
Millet, 221 n., 237 n.
Miniatures by Bourdichon, 19
Miniatures by Fouquet, 17, 18
Mirabeau, port, by Boze, 173 n.
Alodiste, La, by Degas, 275
Aiodiste, The {Le Matin), by iiouchcr,

147, 147 n.
Aloliere as Casar, by Mignard, 89
Monet, Claude, 237, 240, 241, 242,

243, 256-61, 287

pictures by, 256-7

Alontaigne Sainte- Victoire, by Cezanne,

316
Alonument du Costume, 165
Moreau, Louis-Gabriel, 171, 172
Morisot, Berthe, 257, 237 n., 240,

Alort de Sardanapale, by Delacroix,

211
Aloses and Aaron's Kod, by Poussin,

70 n.

Aloses and the Daughters of Je thro, by

Rosso, 29
Aluther and Child, i>y Picasso, 331
Aloulin, 1^, by B<jucher, 171
Aloulin de Charenton, by B<jucher, 171
Moulin de la (ialette, by Renoir, 242 n.,

.^.67
Moulins, Maitre de, 16 n., 19, 20 21
Muret, 243

Murray, Sir James, 261
Aluse of Painting, by Boucher, 147 n.
Alusette, La, by Boucher, 147
Musique, La, by Fragonard, 161 n.
Musique aux Tuileries, by Manet,

248

Naissance de Henri IV, by Deveria,

206
Nanteuil, Robert, 129
Napoleon, port, by Boze, 173 n.

port, by David, 189

port, by Greuze, 170, 190 n.

Napoleon as Emperor, by Ingres, 198
Napoleon as First Consul, by Ingres,

198
Napoleon sur le champ de bataille

d'Lylau, by Gros, 190
Narni : Pont d'Auguste sur la Nera,

by Corot, 219
Nativity, by Boucher, 148 n.

by M. Le Nain, 52

by Maitre de Moulins, 20, 21

Nattier, Jean-Marc, 127-8, 176
Naufrage, Le, drawing by W'atteau,

105 n.
Nevermore, by Gauguin, 295
Nid, Le, by Boucher, 146
Night Watch, by Rembrandt, 163
Nurture of Jupiter, by Poussin, 67
Nympbias, by Monet, 259

Officier de chasseurs a cheval, by

Gericault, 206, 207 n.
Old Joncet's Cart, by Rousseau, 329 n.
Olympia, 254
Olympia, by Manet, 239, 243 n.,

25 1 n.

2 Y

545

INDEX

Oncle Dominique, U, by Cezanne, 314
Oriental Lion Hunt, by Delacroix,

212, 214
Orleans, Elizabeth Charlotte,

Dowager Duchess of, port, by

Rigaud, 95
Orleans, Girard of, 5
Orleans, Philippe d', 102 n.
Orpheus, by Redon, 332
Orpheus and Eurjdice, by Poussin,

62 n., 73 n.
Oudry, J.-B,, 148, 148 n.

Painter Claude Dupouch, The, by La

Tour, 131
Painter J. B. Oudrj, The, by Perron-

neau, 132 n.
Paix ramenant I'Ahondance, by Mme

Le Brun, 175
Parade, La, by Seurat, 321
Parapluies, Les, by Renoir, 167 n.
Parement de Narbonne, 8
Paris and Helen, by David, 184
Paris in 17th cent., 37-9
Paris, Jean de, 19
Parliament of Paris, 1 6
Pastellists, 129-32
Pastoral Conversation, by Watteau,

115
Pater, Jean-Baptiste, 122-3
Paveurs de la rue de Berne, by Manet,

252
Pay sage de midi, by Derain, 219
Pearce, Mr. Maresco, 294
Peasant Family, by Louis Le Nain, 5 o
Peasant Meal, by Louis Le Nain, 5 o
Pedicure, Le, by Degas, 241 n.
Peintre de Luxembourg-Martiques,

33
Pere de famille qui lit la Bible a ses

enfants, by Greuze, 169
Pere Tanguy, Le, by Van Gogh, 302
Perreal, Jean, 19, 21
Perrier, Francois, 39 n., 78
Perronneau, Jean-Baptiste, 131-2
Perspective, La, by Watteau, 112 n.,

113

Perugino, 22

Pesne, Antoine, 128

Petards, Les, hy Fragonard, 161,

163 n., 164
Peter and the Serving Woman, by

Dumesnil, 54 n.
Petite Danseuse, La, by Renoir, 241 n.
Petite fille a Varrosoir, by Renoir,

267, 268
Petite fille a I'eventail, by Picasso,

xxiii, 330
Phedre et Hippolyte, by Regnault,

195

Philip V and the Marshal of Berwick,

by Ingres, 201
Philosophe, Le, by Cezanne, 3 1 5
Picasso, Pablo, 330
Pietd, by Delacroix, 212, 214

First School of Paris, 8

by Malonel, 9

by Rosso, 28

Second School of Avignon,

xxix, 14-13
{after Delacroix), by Van Gogh,

301 n.
Pins a la Villa Pamphili, by Fragonard,

160, 164
Pipe Drunk Woman, by Duck, 5 1 n.
Pissarro, Camille, 237, 237 n., 240,

242 n., 243, 280 n., 294, 311
Pius VII in the Sistine Chapel, by

Ingres, 201
Place Pigalle, La, by Renoir, 267
Plage de Boulogne, by Manet, 252 n.
Plague in Ashdod, by Poussin, 70 n.
Plaisirs d' Amour, by Watteau, 114
Plaisirs du Bal, by Watteau, 113, 115
Pompadour, Mme de, 1 5 1-2

ports, by Boucher, 148

port, by La Tour, 130, 152

Pompadour, Mme de, en pelerine, pastel

by Vigee, 174 n.
Pont de Courbevoie, by Seurat, 3 20
Pont de Narni, by Corot, 219 n.
Poplars, by Monet, 259
Port de Bordeaux, by Manet, 252 n.
Port ofOstia, by Claude, 61, 62 n.

346

TNDI'X

Portrait de fantaisif, by Fragf)n.ird,

i6i n.
Portrait de M. L. -.-!., by Cc/annc,

512 n.
Portrait d'tm artp^lais, hy W'attcavi, 1 1 5
Portrait of a Magistrate, by Mit^nard, 9 1
Portrait of a Yoh/ij^ Lady of lO,

Burgundian vSchool, 9 n.
Portrait of a Youn^ Man, by Mail re-
de M(iulins, 20
Portrait of an Artist, by Afnic Labillc-

Guyard, 174
Portrait of Baudelaire, by Courbet, 227
Portrait of Gustave Geffroy, by

Cezanne, 313, 315, 317
Portraits d'un Precepteur et son elhc,

by Lefebre, 56
Poseuses, Les, by Scurat, 321, 322
Post-Impressionism, 287-8
Pot de fleurs, by Cezanne, 3 1 5
Potter, Paul, 5 1

Poudreuse, L^, by Seurat, 320, 321
Pour suite. La (La Surprise), by

Fragonard, 162, 163 n.
Poussin, Gaspard, 65 n.
Poussin, Nicholas, 56, 64-73, ^7 "•>

186, 187, 316

pictures by, 64-5

Premiere sortie. La, by Renoir, 267 n.
Presentation in the Temple, by Rigaud,

Presentation of Jesus in the lemple, by

Vouet, 40
President of the Chamhre des Ltiquctes

du Parlement, by La Tour, 129
Priere du Matin, by Grcuze, 169
Primaticcio, 26, 27, 28, 29, 20
Promenade au bois, drawing by Guys,

234 n.
Proudhon, port, by Courbet, 227
Prudhon, Pierre, 191-2
Psyche refoit le premier baiscr de

I' Amour, by Gerard, 194
PuccUe, Jean, 5
Pujol, Abel de, 26

Quesnel, Francois, 55

Kadeau de la M^duse, by Gcricault,

206, 207
Kaie, l^, by Chardin, 135
Kaoux, Jean, 1 52
Rape of the Sabines, by Poussin,

xxix, 70
Raphael, 26
Raphael and J^ Fornarina, by Ingres,

199
Realist doctrine, 222
Kecamier, Mme, by David, 187
Receuil julienne, 108 n., no
Ricureuse, La, by Chardin, 135, 1 3 7 n. ,

232
Rcdon, (Odilon, 331
Regnault, Jcan-Baptiste, 193
Rembrandt, 127, 128, 132, 232
Rencontre, Le : Bonjour M. Courbet,

by Courbet, 227
Rende^-vous, Le (L'Escalade), by

Fragonard, 162
Rene of Anjou, 13-14
Reni, Guido, 38
Renoir, August, 237, 240, 241, 242,

243, 258, 261-70, 287

pictures by, 261-5

Repas du Lion, Le, by Rousseau, 328
Repasseuses, Les, by Degas, 275
Repetition, La, by Degas, 275
Repetition d'un Ballet sur la Seine, by

Degas, 241 n.
Repos, Le, by Manet, 251, 251 n.
Resistance inutile. La, by Fragonard,

xxix, 163
Rest on the Flight, by Boucher, 148 n.

by Claude, 62 n.

by Vouet, 40

Restaurant de la Sirine, by Van Gogh,

302
Resurrection of Ltr^arus, by Froment,

14 n.
Re tour de la Conference, by Courbet,

228, 228 n.
Re tour de Marcus Sextus, by Regnault,

•93
Return from I fay waking, by Louis Lc
Nain, 50

347

INDEX

Return from the Promised L.and, by

Poussin, 75
Keutuon Champetre, by Watteau, 114
Reunion de famille, by Bazille, 237 n.
Keve de Watteau, by Watteau, 105 n.
Revoil, Pierre, 195
Revolution, The, 179-81
Richard 11, portrait of, 1 1
Richard, Fleury, 195
Richelieu, Cardinal de, port, by

Champaigne, 55
Rieux, Gabriel Bernard de, port, by

La Tour, 129
Rigaud, Hyacinthe, 93, 94-5, 127

pictures by, 94

Rinaldo and Armida, by Boucher, 146

by Poussin, 68 n.

Rising of the Sun, by Boucher, 149 n.

Riviere, Henri, 242

RJviere, Mme, by Ingres, 197, 198, 199

Robe rose. La, by Bazille, 237 n.

Robert, Hubert, 171, 172

Rocky Landscape, by Cezanne, 316

Rodin, 259

Roe Covert, The, by Courbet, 230

Romains de la Decadence, by Couture,

247
Romantic Movement, 203
Rosenberg, M. Paul, 22c
Rosso, 26, 27, 28-9
Rothschild, Baron Maurice de, 1 5 2
Rouen Cathedral, by Monet, 259, 261
Rousseau, Le Douanier, 327-9,

329 n.
Rousseau, Theodore, 215
Route de Versailles, by Sislcy, 237 n.
Royal Academy of Painting and

Sculpture, 82-8
Rubens, 38
Ruth and Boa^, by Poussin, 73

Sabines, The, by David, 185, 187
Sacre de Napoleon ler, by David, 186,

187, 187 n.
St. Anthony and St. Paul the Hermit,

by Velasquez, 219
St. Aubin, Augustin de, 165

St. Aubin, Gabriel de, 165

St. Denis, Last Communion and

Martyrdom of, by Malonel, 9
St. Jerome, by Corot, 219
St. Non, Jean-Claude de, 156
St. Paul preaching at Lphesus, by Le

Sueur, 46 n.
St. Pol, palace of, 7
St. Sebastian mourned by Women, by

Dumesnil, 53, 54
St. S iff rein Bishop of Car pen tr as, by

Froment, 14 n.
Saint, with Donor, by Maitre de

Moulins, 20
Salons, The, 143-4
Saltimbranques, Les, by Boilly, 167
Sandrart, Joachim, 63 n.
Sarto, Andrea del, 25, 26
Sauveur lavant les pieds a ses apotreSy

by Fragonard, 156 n.
Saving of Pyrrhus, Poussin, 70 n.
Scenes from the Life of St. Anne, School

of Bourdichon, 19
Schoolmistress, The, by Fragonard,

163
Seaport with a rising Sun, by Claude,

60
SeatedBishop, Burgundian School, 9 n.
Seine, The, by Monet, 259
Self-portrait, by Ingres, 198

by Poussin, 66

Senonnes, Mme de, by Ingres, 200,

200 n.
Serinette, La, by Chardin, 138 n.
Serment des Horaces, by David, 183-4
Sermentdujeu de Paume, by David, 185
Servante de Bocks, by Manet, 252
Setting of the Sun, by Boucher, 149 n.
Seurat, Georges, 237 n., 243 n.,

280 n., 295, 318-23

pictures by, 318-9

Seven Sacraments, by Poussin, 70
Shepherds of Arcady, by Poussin, 72
Shoelace, The, by Renoir, 269
Sirois, 103
Sisley, Alfred, 237, 237 n., 240, 243,

258

348

INDI':X

Sleeping Venus, hy Poussin, 68 n.
Snake Charmer, The, hv Rousseau,

328
Solario, 22

Sommeil d'llndymion, by Trioson, 194
Sorcl, Apncs, port, by Fouquct, 18
Sorquainville, Mme de, by Pcrronncau,

Sous un habit de Mr::^:ietin, by XX'attcau,

112
Soui'enir, l^, by Fragonard, 160
Souvenir de Marcoussis, by Corot, 2170.
Soui'enir s, Les (Les Confidences), by

Fragonard, 160, 162
Stable, The, by Duck, s i n.
Stacking^ Hay, by Gauguin, 294
Stella, Jacques, 39 n.
Still life, by Cezanne, 140

by Chardin, 140, 315

Still life with a black cloak, by Cezanne,

314. 315
Stolen Kiss, The, by Fragonard, 160
Stratonice, by Ingres, 201
Subleyras, Pierre-Hubert, 128
Summer, by de Chavannes, 195 n.
Sunflowers, by Van Gogh, 303
Surprise, La, by Fragonard, 162
Sur-Rcalists, The, 331-2
Suzanne Valadon, by Toulouse-
Lautrec, 279
Swcbach-Dcsfontaincs, S., 165
Suing, The, by Fragonard, 161

Tableaux dc Modes, 164-6

Tancred and Herminone, by Poussin,

68 n.
Tanguy, 243, 312 n.
Tassi, Agostino, 61
Taureau blanc a I'c table, by Fragonard,

le rcriva, by Gauguin, 295
Tessin, Comtc de, 147 n.
Testelin, Louis, 39 n.
Thames, by Monet, 259, 261
Thorc, Thcophilc, 250, 2^4 n.
Three Graces, by Rcgnault, 193
Tibaldi, Maria, by Subleyras, 128 n.

liber, above Rome, l^y Claude, 219
Titian, 27, 67
'r()ct]ue, Louis, 173 n.
Toilet of Venus, by Boucher, 148
Toilette, La, by Nlorisot, 237 n.
Toilette du Matin, by Chardin, 135

. 139 n-
Toper, in' Cirimou, 132

Toucher, Marie, 30 n.

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de, 237,

254, 276-84

pictures by, 276-8

Tournoi au XIV Sikle, by Rcvoie, 195
Tours de Cartes, by Chardin, 135, 140
Transfiguration, by Rosso, 29 n.
Triomphe de Bonaparte, by Prudhon,

191
Trioson, Girodet de Roncy, 194
Triumph of Bacchus, by Poussin, 68 n.
Triumph of David, by Poussin, 70 n.
Triumph of Flora, by Poussin, 68 n.
Troubadour movement, 194-5
Troupe Italienne, by XX'atteau, 1 1 2
Troyon, Constant, 215
Turner, W. M., 61 n.

Valois, Ml.e de, by Bcaubruns, 55
Van Gogh, Vincent, 280 n., 287-8,

295-304

pictures by, 295-8

port, by Toulouse-Lautrec, 279

Van Gogh's Bedroom at Aries, by

Van Gogh, 303
Van Gogh's House at Aries, by Van

Gogh, 303
Vcil-Picard, Arthur, 132 n.
Vendangrurs, Les, by Renoir, 267 n.
Venice, by Corot, 219

by Monet, 259

Venus, by Bronzino, 27, 29 n., 30

by Giorgione, 239

School ot Primaticcio, 30

by Titian, 239

Venus and Adonis, by Prudhon, 191
Venus and Satyrs, by Poussin, 68
Venus and the man playing the Organ,

liy Titian, 239

349

INDEX

Venus in the Forge of Vulcan, by

M. Le Nain, 5 2
Vernet, Joseph, 171-2
Verrou, Le, by Fragonard, 160, 161,

163, 164
Versailles, 77, 81, 90
Verf-Verf, by Richard, 195
Vestier, Antoine, 173 n.
Vetheuil, by Monet, 259
Vicioire, Madame, as Diana, port, by

Nattier, 128
Victorine en costume d'Espada, by

Manet, 248, 251 n., 254
Vieu, Joseph Marie, 181 n.
Vieux Musicien, Le, by Manet, 248
Vie}]' of the Campo Vaccino, by

Claude, 57, 60
View of the Luxembourg Garden, by

David, 185
Vigee, Louis, pastellist, 174 n.
Village Piper, by A. and L. Le Nain,

Vincent, by Mme Labille-Guyard,

174 n,
Vinci, Leonardo da, 21, 25
Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus,

by Ingres, 199
Virgin, by Maitre de Moulins, xxiii
Virgin and Child, by Fouquet, 1 8
Virgin and Child with Angels, by

Maitre de Moulins, 20

School of Bourdichon, 19

Virgin and Child with Saint and Donor,

School of Avignon, 6
Virgin ofPitj, by Charenton, 15 n.
Virgin of the Rocks, by Vinci, 26
Virgin with Chancellor Rolin, by

J. van Eyck, 12
Virgin with the Grapes, by Mignard,

Vivien, Joseph, 129
Vleughels, Nicholas, by Pesne, 128 n,
Vau a I' Amour, by Fragonard, 164
Vau de Louis XIII, by Ingres, 200

201
Voi lures aux courses, by Degas, 241 n,

274

VoUard, Ambroise, 315

port, by Cezanne, 317

Vouet, Simon, 39-41, 78

pictures by, 39

Vow of the Horatii {Le Serment des

Horaces), by David, 183-4
Vue de I'exposition universelle, by

Manet, 252 n.
Vue de Village, by Bazille, 237 n.
Vuillard, Edouard, 294 n.

Wagner, port, by Renoir, 266
Wagon de troisihme classe, by Daumier,

232
Washerwomen carrying their baskets, by

Degas, 274
Watteau, Antoine, 101-24, 165, 171,

275

pictures by, 106-16

Wealth, by Vouet, 41

Wedding, The, by Rousseau, 328

Wedding Night of Tobias, by Le
Sueur, 46

Weeping over the Dead Christ, by
Poussin, 70 n.

Weill, M. David, 132, 160, 163, 174,
192

Weyden, Roger van der, 12, 16

Wilde, Oscar, drawing by Toulouse-
Lautrec, 281, 281 n.

Wilton Diptych, 1 1 n.

Woman taken in Adultery, by Poussin,
70 n.

Woman with a parrot, by Manet, 248,

251 n.

Wounded Soldier, The, by Gericault,
208 n.

Young Bull, by Paul Potter, 5 1
Young Man as a Majo, by Manet,

248, 25 1 n.
Young man on a bicycle, by Manet,

252 n.

Youth and Bacchus, by Poussin, 68 n.

Zola, Emile, 242, 250, 267

Zola, Portrait of, by Manet, 254 n.

35<

The Mayfiuitfr Press, Plymoulk.
Willi:iiu brciidon & Son, Llil.

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