Hi Subscriber,
It's always a treat to hear the interpretation of one master artist on
another, so when I stumbled across this critical analysis of
Bastien-Lepage's work by Sir George Clausen, who was both a
contemporary and worked in the same genre, I know it would be
perceptive.
Enjoy,
BoldBrush Studio Team
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Jules Bastien-Lepage, Joan of Arc, oil on canvas, 1879
Jules Bastien-Lepage, Joan of Arc, oil on canvas, 1879
Sir George Clausen (1852-1944) was just a bit younger than
Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884), but Lepage died at the age of only
thirty-six, so his career was greatly abbreviated. Sir George Clausen
enjoyed a much longer career and like many of the realists of his age
was strongly impacted by Lepage's unique vision of realism, so that in
some ways he carried Bastien-Lepage's legacy into the future. In this
excerpt of Clausen's essay
, written in 1892 in the midst of Clausen's working career,
he comments on one of Bastien-Lepage's most famous paintings, Joan of
Arc, now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. The painting provoked
controversy from the time it was first exhibited in 1879, and Clausen
takes on the debate:
"In spite of the wide range of his (Bastien-Lepage's) work and the
extraordinary versatility of his execution, he kept, as a rule, within
certain limitations of treatment. He did not care for the strong
opposition of light and shadow, and he seems almost to have avoided
those aspects of nature which depend for their beauty on the changes
and contrasts of atmosphere and light. All that side of nature which
depends on memory for its realization was left almost untouched by him,
and yet it is idle to suppose that so richly gifted a man could not
have been keenly sensible to all nature's beauty; but I think he found
himself hedged in by the conditions necessary to the realization of the
qualities he sought. For in painting a large figure-picture in the open
air, the painter must almost of necessity limit himself to the effect
of grey open daylight. This he realized splendidly; at the same time it
may be said that he sought elaboration of detail perhaps at the expense
of effect, approaching nature at times too much from the point of view
of still-life. This is not felt in his small pictures, in which the
point of view is so close that the detail and general effect can be
seen at the same time; but in his large works much that is charming in
the highest degree when examined in detail, fails to carry its full
value to the eye at a distance necessary to take in the whole work.
This was the case with "Joan of Arc" in the Paris Exhibition of two
years ago; and it was instructive to compare this picture with
Courbet's "Stone-Breakers," which hung near it on the same wall.
Courbet had generalized as much as possible--everything was cleared
away but the essentials; and at a little distance Courbet showed in
full power and completeness, while the delicate and beautiful work in
"Joan of Arc" was lost, and the picture flat and unintelligible in
comparison."
Gustave Courbet, The Stone-Breakers, oil on canvas, 1849
Gustave Courbet, The Stone-Breakers, oil on canvas, 1849
For context, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) is considered by many the
first significant artist in the realist movement. He pushed against the
strictures of the Parisian academy and painted works on themes of
social realism. The Stone Breakers was one of his first major works,
and like Joan of Arc after it, occasioned a storm of debate upon its
debut in the Salon of 1850. It was destroyed during World War II, which
is why we have no good image of it today, but even in this reproduction
you can see the strong values and visual hierarchy on which Clausen
comments. Clausen finishes with this assessment:
"No doubt Bastien-Lepage worked for truth of impression and of detail
too, but it is apparently impossible to get both; and this seems to
show that the building-up or combining a number of facts, each of which
may be true of itself and to the others, does not in its sum total give
the general impression of truth. It is but a number of isolated truths.
Bastien-Lepage has carried his endeavour in this direction farther than
any of his predecessors--in fact it may be said that he has carried
literal representation to its extreme limit: so much so as to leave
clearly discernible to us the question which was doubtless before him,
but which has at any rate developed itself from his work, whether it is
possible to attain literal truth without leaving on one side much of
that which is most beautiful in nature? And further, the question
arises, whether literal truth is the highest truth. For realism, as an
end in art, leads nowhere; it is an impasse. Surely it is but the means
to whatever the artist has it in him to express." (Quoted from Jules
Bastien-Lepage and his art. A memoir
. )
In light of Clausen's comments, it's interesting to view his own work
and compare it with that Bastien-Lepage, and evaluate how well Clausen
achieves these goals in his own paintings.
Sir George Clausen, The Girl at the Gate, oil on canvas, 1889
Sir George Clausen, The Girl at the Gate, oil on canvas, 1889
Sir George Clausen, Winter Work, oil on canvas, 1884
Sir George Clausen, Winter Work, oil on canvas, 1884
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