THE eternal battle of the old and the new, of present effort against mere tradition, which I traced in the last chapter, now enters upon a fresh phase, with the rise of the new school of landscape painters.
At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, landscape painting in France had sunk into an unequalled condition of decadence. Since the days of Poussin, Dughet and Claude Lorrain, no artists, save Watteau and Fragonard, had attempted to rescue landscape from the utter deadness and artificiality which had overtaken it. And even Watteau’s delightful landscapes, though extra-ordinarily true to nature in colour, light and atmosphere, are in a sense artificial, as was all art in the eighteenth century.
Such of the classical artists as were not servile imitators of Poussin, went out in the summer to collect motifs ; and then mixed them up on canvas into a carefully arranged, well-balanced composition, full of cascades, rocks, broken bridges, gnarled and blasted trees and well-preserved ruins, all painted in those deadly browns that were supposed to be the colour of landscape. To these they added groups of heroes, philosophers, nymphs, or other personages, who have as little to do with the landscape as each of its parts has with the other.
Take, for instance, the description of the picture in the Louvre by VICTOR BERTIN (1775-1842), a ” view of the ” city of Phoenos and the Temple of Minerva “. ” A river ” traverses the middle distance, and divides the picture ” in two parts. In the foreground, on the right, two men ” crOss a small bridge and seem to direct four other per-” sons who land from a little boat. On the further bank ” stands a temple dominated by high mountains.” This is a good specimen of a classic landscape of the year 9. Nature as she is, was never thought of.
But with the beginning of the new century, a new spirit made itself felt, which may be traced to two distinct influences. In literature Jean Jacques Rousseau, Bernadin de St. Pierre, Chateaubriand, had already taught the world to look on nature as something infinitely beautiful and sacred. And with the Romantics in literature came one of her truest worshippers and vindicators, Georges Sand. But yet another influence was at work. For in the twenties the pictures of Constable and Bennington were becoming known in Paris. We must never forget that to the school of the Cromes and Constable belongs the honour of having been the first to go back to the teachings of the old Dutch and Flemish masters, and to study nature honestly. In the Paris Salon of 1824, Constable received a gold medal for the Hay Wain. And his pure and brilliant colour was a revelation and inspiration to French artists.
The ” Romantics ” of whom I treated in the last chapter, were emancipating the painting of history, poetry, and real life, from the classic trammels. And now a band of men arose, born in the first few years of the century while the breath of Revolution was still in the air, who were to free landscape from its false and classic bonds, and paint nature as she is, not as they considered she should be.
That these men should meet with desperate opposition from the school of Classic landscape was but natural. We have only to compare a picture in the Louvre by Bidault, with one by Paul Huet, or still more by Rousseau, to see how deep was the gulf between the style, treatment, aims, and out-look on nature of the two schools.
Bidault, the first landscape painter admitted to member-ship of the Institute, on account of his serious and correct manner of expressing ” inanimate nature ” ; and Raoul Rochette, the permanent Secretary, were sworn to crush this new heresy of Naturalism. They were backed by the whole weight of the École des Beaux Arts under the direction of Ingres. And the bitterness of their opposition to the brilliant group of landscape painters, which included Corot,. Dupré, Paul Huet, Marilhat, Rousseau, Diaz, Daubigny,. Troyon and others, is almost inconceivable to us in these days of greater freedom of thought and action. For thirty years Corot never sold a picture. Théodore Rousseau’s life was marred and embittered to the very end, by the treatment he received from those in authority. And the rest only slowly won their way to favour and fame.
The aims and ideals of these men were singularly different, from those of their opponents. Not content merely to break with the classic and tedious landscape of the past, they fought for life, for truth in Art. ” Ils étaient ainsi,” said Théophile Gautier, ” les violents de 1830 ; fous de poésie,. ” enragés d’art, éperdus de vérité.” They sought to penetrate into the very essence and being of natureto lift the veil that hides her secrets from our duller eyes. And they have taught us of the nineteenth century, amateurs, artists, and the public at large, to see a thousand beauties in the world about us, which would have remained unknown or unnoticed had they not first been revealed to us through the pictures of these men.
This, known as the French landscape school of 1830, is one of the most important artistic movements that has been seen in Modern Europe. Its influence and results are in-calculable ; for it has affected, in greater or less degree, the art of both hemispheres. To it we owe the Mauvesthe Marisesthe Mesdags of the Modern Dutch school. To it we owe an increasing number of the younger English artists. To it the growing American school of landscape, which. promises to take an important place in the art of the civilized world in the next fifty years, almost owes its existence. While on French artists its influence has been unlimited.. For to all artists of the latter half of the nineteenth century, it has given new standards of colour and method. It has given new and lofty aims and ideals. It has taught them to seek for the poetic representation of nature, while at the same time they endeavour to give the actual truth of her endless moods and aspects.
Before passing on to the great painters of 1830, it is necessary to speak of a few of the classic school who were more or less involved in the movement.
BIDAULT, JEAN-JOSEPH-ZAVIER (b. Carpentras, 1758 ; d. 1846).I have already mentioned Bidault’s opposition to the landscape painters of 1830. This probably in future will be his strongest claim to fame ; although in 1823 he became a member of the Institute, in succession to Prud’hon ; and received the Cross of the Legion of Honour.
Paysage, 19 ; Vue de Subiaco, 20 ; Vue de la Ville d’Avezzano, Louvre, 21.
BERTIN, VICTOR (b. 1775 ; d. 1825).-Victor Bertin was also one of the school of Classic landscape. But he had many distinguished artists among his pupilsMichallon, Cogniet, Roqueplan, Corot, etc. The Government, attracted by his own work and the success of his school, created a new prix de Rome for landscape, which for several years was carried off by his pupils.
City of Phoenos and Temple of Minerva, Louvre. 11.
ALIGNY, THÉODORE CARUELLE D’ (b. Chaumes, 1798 ; d. 1871).Aligny was also a Classic. But he had a much more honest feeling for nature than his predecessors. And his friendship for Corot and appreciation of his talent when they met in Rome in 1826, had an immense effect on Corot’s work for many years. His pictures are rigid in execution, and composed with extreme care, according to the best traditions of the Classic school.
Prométhée, 1 ; and Villa Italienne, 2, Louvre. Amalfi, Fontainebleau.
Two Landscapes, St. Étienne du Mont.
MICHEL, GEORGES (b. Paris, 1763 ; d. 1843).-One of the elder school, who shows an admirable feeling for nature is Georges Michel. He might be compared to the Cromes and some of the early English landscape painters, with his pale, clear skies, against which dark trees and almost always a windmill are thrown in strong contrast.
Sir John Day possesses six fine paintings by this delightful artist.
Of ” La Plaine ” and ” Le Moulin ” in the Retrospective Exhibition of 1889, Paul Mantz said : ” They are excellent ” examples of the second and best manner of this solitaire ” silencieux, whose works, without any trade value, found their ” way noiselessly into certain studios. . . . Michel always “pays more attention to the effect of masses than to the ” drawing of detailand it is on this point that he was an ” initiatora latent onefor under the Restoration Michel ” was only known in the purlieus of second-hand dealers.”
Aux environs de Montmartre, Louvre. 626.
Intérieur de Forêt (palier de la Marine), Louvre. 627.
Six Landscapes, Hon. Sir John Day.
View near Paris, J. P. Heseltine, Esq.
La Bouille, near Rouen, E. E. Leggatt, Esq.
MICHALLON, ACHILLE-ETNA (b. Paris, 1796 ; d. 1822).-Michallon is the first artist who gives a suggestion in his work of ” Romantic ” landscape. His aim was to be a second Salvator Rosa. His glory, that he was the first to induce Corot to take to painting and study with him. Though not very naïf himself, he encouraged naïveté in his pupil ; and his advice to Corot when he took him into the country, sounds like a precept from the most modern of teachers in the present day. ” Se mettre en face de la nature ; tâcher de “la rendre exactement ; faire ce qu’on voit et traduire “l’impression reçu.”
Paysage, 623; La Mort de Roland, 624; Thésée poursuivant les Centaures, 625, Louvre.
Two Landscapes, Barnard Castle.
FLERS, CAMILLE (b. Paris, 1802 ; d. 1868). With Camille Flers we come to one of the regular Romantic schoola companion of Roqueplan, Decamps, Paul Huet ; and the master, while still a very young man, of a brilliant pupilCabat. Flers’ father was director of the then celebrated porcelain manufactory of the brothers Nast. And after studying with an aged portrait painter, Demarcy, who had learnt the use of pastel from La Tour, young Camille was for a time attached to the manufactory. He then showed such serious talent that he was placed with Cicéri, the famous scene painter. Seized, however, with a desire to see Brazil, Of which a friend had given him marvellous accounts, he started for Rio Janeiro as a cookdrawing throughout the voyage. After acting as cook to a planter who treated him much as a negro slave, Flers returned to Rio, and made his début as a character dancer before the Emperor. Then, after two years of adventures worthy of a hero of Dumas, he found himself back once more in Paris at M. M. Nast’s manufactory, and settled down to paint in earnest.
In 1831 he exhibited a Swiss landscape at the Salon. And then devoted himself chiefly to pictures of Normandy and Picardy. In these he irritated the academic artists by daring to paint two things that had hitherto been ignoredapple trees in full blossomand the French sky in its limpid clearness. ” Flers excelled in a certain fine and spirituelle ” harmony.” And he exercised a distinct influence on his contemporaries by his technique, and his method of giving impressions of nature.
Paysage, Environs de Paris, Louvre. 286.
HUET, PAUL (b. Paris, 1804 ; d. 1868).-” Paul Huet ” will make a mark in the history of our epoch by the part ” he played in the first movements of the Artistic Renais-” sance of Romanticism. He perceived at a time when no ” one any longer painted, that the business of a painter is to ” paint.
Much of Paul Huet’s youth was passed on the Île Séguin in the Seine, near St. Cloud. It is now stripped of its noble trees, and given over to pigeon shooting, and noisy bourgeois restaurants. But it was then haunted by wood-stealers and poachersa delightful tangle of meadow and forest, with huge elms like those of an English park. And a singular analogy exists between the early studies of Paul Huet on the Ile Séguin in 1820 and 1821, and English landscape painting of the same date. The same methods and aims are apparent in both, though Huet had never seen Constable, who did not exhibit in Paris till 1824.
Paul Huet was a pupil of Gros and of Pierre Guérin. His first real encouragement came from Delacroix, who saw some of his studies. He was henceforth closely associated with the Romantic movement, and may be considered to belong more to the Romantic school than to that of the hardier and more vigorous painters of nature. In 1831 he sent four water-colours and nine oil-paintings to the Salon, and had an immediate success. As Michelet said of him, ” Il était né triste, fin, délicat, fait pour les nuances fuyantes, ” les pluies par moment soleillées. S’il faisait beau, il ” restait au logis. Mais l’ondée imminente l’attirait.” A perfect example of his work is the ” Calme du Matin ” at the Louvre, which also possesses his fine “Inondation de Saint Cloud “. Paul Huet also illustrated Paul et Virginie for Curmer, and published several sets of admirable landscape lithographs. But his etchings form a most important part of his work ; and his portfolio of six, published in 1838, had a lasting influence on Jeanron, Charles Jacque, Daubigny, and others.
L’Inondation de St. Cloud, Louvre. 412.
Calme du Matin, Louvre. 413.
Vallée de la Toucque, Luxembourg.
Eight Decorative Panels, Hotel Lenormant.
Vue de Rouen, Musée de Rouen.
Vue de la Campagne de Naples, Musée de Bourges.
Palais des Papes A Avignon, Musée d’Avignon.
DUPRÉ, JULES,’ O.* (b. Nantes, 1812 ; d. L’Isle Adam, 1889).-With Jules Dupré we reach the leader and thinker of the group of landscape painters of 1830. Son of a porcelain manufacturer at Nantes, he began his artistic career like many of his contemporaries by painting on china, at his uncle, M. Arsène Gillet’s. His first picture, exhibited in that memorable Salon of 1831, was bought by the Duc de Nemours.
i This artist should not be confused, as he often is, with Julien Dupré, an excellent animal painter, but of secondary importance.
A man of wide reading and deep thought, whose criticisms on all matters artistic, Théophile Gautier was always glad to obtain, he was the first who showed the direct return of Art towards reality. He was the initiator of the movement. The first to conquer the truth of nature, the intimate and delicate phases of landscape. The first who instinctively turned to expressive detail, the result of close and honest observation. The first to reveal the beauties of the soil of Francethe forestthe villagethe pasture land. Few masters have more finely interpreted the fierce and stormy effects of nature. Corot called him ” the Beethoven of Landscape “. And this is specially true of his ” Marines “. For his sea-pieces were the result of the Franco-Prussian War, when he was shut up for six months at his house at Cayeux-sur-mer. And the agony of his country seems suggested in the noble gravity and sadness of these pictures.
In early days Dupré used to give a Spartan dinner every fortnight, to those who had been maltreated by the Jury of the Salon. It was always well attended. The company conspired openly against the tyranny of the Academy ; and endeavoured to start an organization based on the statutes of English Art Societies.
Some remarkably fine examples of Dupré’s work are to be seen in the collection of Sir John Day. Mr. Alexander Young of Blackheath also owns some. Many others are in New York and Boston ; in M. Chauchard’s collection in Paris ; and in public collections in France.
Le Matin ; and Le Soir, Luxembourg.
Port Saint Michel, Paris ; and Soleil couchant, Chantilly.
Mare dans la forêt de Compiègne, Baroness N. de Rothschild.
Passage d’animaux sur un Pont, Berri ; etc., Coll. M. Chauchard.
Crossing a bridge, Hertford House.
MarineFishing boat in storin ; Trees against stormy sky ; Pond with boat, Hon. Sir John Day.
Barques échouéesclair de lune, General Hopkinson. The open sea, J. S. Forbes, Esq.
COROT, JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE (b. Paris, 1796 ; d. Paris, 1875).-Although Jules Dupré must be regarded as the leader of the great group of landscape painters of 1830, Camille Corot was the eldest in years, and will always re-main the poet par excellence. The son of a small mercer at the corner of the rue du Bac and the Quay, he was for eight years a ” commis ” in the cloth trade. At the age of twenty-six, however, he at last obtained his father’s unwilling consent to abandon trade and devote himself to painting, with an allowance of 160 a year. He first studied with Michallon. And with him he obtained a glimpse of ” Romantic ” landscape. Michallon, however, died a few months later, in 1822. And Corot entered the studio of Victor Bertin (see p. 305), one of the leaders in Classical landscape. In 1826 Corot went to Rome and there made the acquaintance of Aligny, whose influence left a mark on his work for many years. These early pictures of Corot’s are distinguished by strong lines, precise drawing, and deliberate soberness of detail.
For fifteen years he strove with the traditions of Classic landscape. But he gradually freed himself from its trammels, and developed a style absolutely his own.A style in which with delicate and silvery colour, he endeavours to express the veriest poetry of nature, while at the same time he remains true to her actual facts.
His first picture, a ” vue prise à Narni,” appeared in the Salon of 1827, hung between a Constable and a Bonnington. And he exhibited regularly, as he was not considered dangerous or important enough to merit exclusion. But for thirty years he never sold a picture. Alfred de Musset was the first critic who observed upon his work, in the ” Salon ” of 1836. And Gustave Planche mentioned him in 1837 and 1847. Architects were not aware of his existence. So that his only chance of decorative work was in the studios of his brother artists, who not only loved the man but admired the master (see Daubigny). Indeed it was not until he was nearly sixty that the public began to take him into favour. And when fame and fortune came to ” the Theocritus of the brush,” as he has well been called, his whole desire was to help those who were less fortunate than himself.
One of the most lovable of men, Corot’s pictures seem a reflection of his own sunny, tender, tranquil nature. ” Corot’s ” art is a casement thrown open upon nature,” Albert Wolff has said. But perhaps his friend Jules Dupré best summed up his genius, when he said, ” Corot éthérée, le grand artiste ” Corot, peignait, pour ainsi dire, avec des ailes dans le dos “.
Corot’s pictures are now well known in London, and deeply appreciated. Mr. J. S. Forbes’ collection is of special interest and value, as in it we are enabled to see the sequence and growth of Corot’s work in some sixty canvases, from some of his earliest pictures in Rome, to work done in the last year of his life.
Une Matinée, 138; Vue du Forum Romain, 139; Vue du Colysée à Rome, 140; Chateau de St. Angelo, Rome.
Concert Champêtre, Chantilly.
La Fête Antique, Musée de Lille.
Étangs de Ville d’Avray, Musée de Rouen.
Diane et ses Nymphes, Musée de Bordeaux.
L’étoile du soir, Musée de Toulouse.
Ronde des Nymphes, Coll. M. Barbedienne.
Le Matin ; Le Soir, M. Crabbe.
Biblis, Coll. M. Otlet.
White Cliffs ; and Le Bateleur, Coll. M. Mesdag. L’arbre brisé ; and The bent tree, Coll. Alexander Young, Esq.
Pastorale, Souvenir d’Italie ; and La Saulaie, Coll. J. Forbes White, Esq.
Danse des Nymphes (upright), late Charles Dana, Esq., New York.
Danse des Nymphes (oblong), T. G. Arthur, Esq. The Ravine ; Les Bavardes ; A hot day ; and eight other pictures, Coll. Hon. Sir John Day.
Le Lac Lac de Garde ; and many other pictures, Coll. J. S. Forbes, Esq.
Le Hêtre, Art Gallery, Cardiff.
St. Sebastien ; Macbeth and the witches, Walters Coll., Baltimore.
ROUSSEAU, THÉODORE (b. Paris, 1812 ; d. Barbizon, 1867). Théodore Rousseau was the son of a tailor, who came originally from Salins in the Jura, and the boy showed an early aptitude for drawing. At thirteen he was taken by an uncle, who had an interest in some saw mills, to the forests near Besançon. Here Rousseau first experienced the fascination of the forest. And his uncle wisely persuaded his parents to allow him to enter Rémond’s studio in Paris, instead of the École Polytechnique for which he was destined. The first picture he painted from naturea study from the Butte Monmartrealready showed a mastery of his brush, a sense of pure air, clear light, and delicate detail. From 1828 to 1831, he worked in winter with Guillon-Lethière, who though a Classic was not a bigoted one ; and in the summer in the open air in Auvergne, Compiègne, and the environs of Paris. In 1831 he sent his first picture to the Salon” Paysage, site d’Auvergne “. In 1833 he sent in a ” Vue prise des Côtes, Granville,” which is now in Russia ; and he began his studies in the Forest of Fontainebleau. In 1834 he showed a ” Lisière de bois coupé, forêt de Compiègne,” for which he obtained a third medal. It was much remarked ; and was bought by the young Duc d’Orléans. But instead of this bringing him success, as might have been expected, it was the beginning of his terrible struggle against misfortune and opposition. The landscape painters of the Institute, alarmed at his growing reputation, and at the power of his work, closed the doors of the Salon to him. Two years later they refused his magnificent ” Descente des Vaches “the herds coming down in autumn from the high pastures of the Jura. And the next year rejected his celebrated “Avenue des Châtaigners “. This was a direct attack by the authorities of that day upon the supposed heresy of Naturalism. And Rousseau, finding that his public career was hopelessly spoilt, retired to Barbizon, where he lived almost entirely, in close friendship with J. F. Millet and the other members of the so-called ” Barbizon ” School, until his death in 1867.
In 1840 he made a journey with Jules Dupré into Berry. And later on painted some of his finest works with Dupré in the environs of l’Ile Adamsuch as ” Le Givre “the ” Lisière de Bois “and finally the superb “Avenue de l’Ile Adam,” now in the collection of M. Chauchard, in Paris, one of the greatest landscapes of the century. After the Revolution of 1848, Rousseau began to be known and appreciated by the public, who for fourteen years had been unable to see his work through the determined prejudice of the Classic school in authority. But though he received a first medal in 1849, and the Legion of Honour in 1852, though his pictures began to sell and he became fairly well appreciated, his life was an unhappy and unsuccessful one to the end.
Rousseau’s distinguishing characteristic was that he de-lighted to go deep into the infinite details of nature. In his pictures he gives us thesethe delicate differences of plants and weeds, brushwood, mosses, dead leaves, pebbles and lichenswithout losing the breadth and majesty of his picture as a work of art. The best example of this careful analysis ,of detail, and great breadth of conception and execution, may be seen in his ” Marais dans les Landes ” in the Louvre. Rousseau also was the first to paint the vivid greens of spring. And this raised a furious outcry ; for the accustomed russet tree and brown grass of classic landscape, made all other colours seem almost indecent.
Many of his pictures have been injured, some wholly destroyed, by his use of bitumens. The dangerous preparation was introduced to him by Ary Scheffer ; and both artists paid dearly for the passing brilliancy of colour obtained by its use. But his later method of successive delicate glazes of pure colour one upon the other, produces the most superb effect in his best pictures. Rousseau’s influence on his contemporaries and followers has been immense. And among the great French landscape painters he is by some given the first place, because he is in many ways the most complete master.
Examples in Louvre :
Sortie de Forêt, a Fontainebleau, coucher de soleil,. 827 ; Lisière d’une Forêt, 828 ; Le Vieux Dormoir du Bas Bréau, 829; Le Marais dans les Landes, 830 ; Bord de Rivière, 831; Effet d’orage,, 832.
Avenue de l’ale Adam ; and Effet d’orage, Coll. M.. Chauchard.
La Descente des Vaches, Coll. M. Mesdag, Hague. Le Givre ; and Early Summer afternoon, Coll. Mr.. Walters, Baltimore.
Sunset ; Mountain Road ; Village Sunset, etc., Coll.. Sir John Day.
Les Marais, Coll. Alex. Young, Esq.
Le Soir, Coll. T. G. Arthur, Esq.
Several fine examples in the Coll. J. S. Forbes, Esq. Clair Bois, Forêt de Fontainebleau, James Donald,. Esq.
DIAZ DE LA PENA, VIRGILIO NARCISSE (b. Bordeaux,. 1808 ; d. Mentone, 1876).-Diaz was the son of a Spanish bourgeois, who fled to Bordeaux for political reasons and died soon after. Mme. Diaz settled at Sèvres teaching Spanish and Italian ; and on her death, a Protestant pastor took charge of the ten-year-old boy. Owing to the bite of a venomous fly, while lying asleep on the grass at Meudon, the boy lost his right leg ; but his vigorous temperament never allowed this misfortune to stand in his way ; he fished, swam, fenced, and even danced with the best. At about fifteen he was placed in M. Arsène Gillet’s studio, to learn china, painting, where Jules Dupré, Cabat, and Raffet were working. But he soon tired of this work ; and spent his spare time in painting Romantic and Eastern scenes. About 1830, while he was still painting on porcelain, Diaz met Rousseau in Paris ; and this acquaintance, which ripened in course of time into the closest friendship, had an untold effect on his, career. For Rousseau taught him how to use those pure and brilliant colours which delight us in his pictures. .
Diaz is the fantaisiste of the great group of French landscape painters. None were more truly original than this fiery Franco-Spaniard, whose flashing colour and extra-ordinary vigour of treatment speak of his southern origin. ” C’est le grand virtuose de la palette, qui se joue des difficuités ; tout est chez lui du premier jet ; ses oeuvres sont ” fait de verve sous le coup des enchantements du coloris.” 1
Diaz began by painting nymphs and bathers, figure subjects mythologic and sacred, and oriental pictures, in which latter the colour is so fine that it seems incredible that he never was more than a few hundred miles from Paris. All these gave him that singular flexibility of brush and pencil, for which he is so remarkable. But his friendship with Rousseau, and the enchantment of the Forest, caused him to turn his mind almost wholly to landscapeto those beautiful forest pictures with light glancing on the tree stems by which he will always be known.
In 1831 he exhibited his first picture in the Salon ; and went to Fontainebleau about the same time as Rousseau, in 1837. And by 1844, though he could still say he was ” learning to draw,” he had reached his full strength. He produced with great rapidity and success figures, flowers, and landscapes, which were soon much sought after. Both his landscapes and his figures are well represented in the collections of Mr. J. S. Forbes, Mr. Alexander Young, and Sir John Day. There are also two small pictures by Diaz at Hertford House. But there are none in any other public collections in Great Britain.
Examples in Louvre :
Etude de Bouleau, 252 ; Sous Bois, 253 ; La Reine Blanche, 254 ; Les Bohémiens, 255 ; La Fée aux Perles, 256.
Plafond de la chambre de Mme. la Duchesse, Chantilly. Les coupeuses d’Herbes, and twenty-seven other pictures, J. S. Forbes, Esq.
Stormy sunset, or The fisherman ; L’orage ; Sous bois, Alex. Young, Esq.
Pond in the Forest ; and three other pictures, Hon. Sir John Day.
Venus and Cupid ; and Fountain in Constantinople, Hertford House.
Sous Bois, Charles Roberts, Esq.
L’orage, Walters Coll., Baltimore, U.S.
Forêt de Fontainebleau ; The Bathers, Vanderbilt Coll., New York.
Someil des Nymphes, J. Inman, Esq.
TROYON, CONSTANT (b. Sèvres, 1810 ; d. Paris, 1865).-The father of Constant Troyon, an employé at Sèvres, died early, and his widow supported herself and her two sons by making dainty little feather pictures. The boys began while quite young to earn their livelihood by painting on china at the manufactory. But all their spare time was spent in roaming over the country sketching from nature. In 1842 Constant Troyon left Sèvres and went to Paris. And entering the studio of Roqueplan, he found the great school of landscape painters in its glory. ” From the day that he became a ” painter of animals, Troyon took a place of his own in ” the School,” says Charles Blanc. And without doubt he is one of the greatest animal painters since Cuyp and Paul Potter. His animals are not specimens from a show-yard : but living beasts in their natural surroundings. For Troyon was truly a landscape painter ; and the landscape in his pictures is not a mere setting, but as important a part of the whole as the animals themselves. The weather, the time of day, the season of the year, are all dwelt on with absolute sincerity, and have their own value in the picture.
For many years Troyon was hampered by the methods of porcelain painters. ” He was nearly forty before he acquired ” the power that has since made him famous ; and all his ” good pictures were produced in the last fifteen years of his ” lifethat is between 1850 and 1865.”
His famous ” Boeufs allant au Labour ” is in the Louvre ; and the Cabinet picture of the same subject is in the priceless collection of M. Chauchard. Mr. J. S. Forbes, Mr. Alexander Young, Sir John Day, Mrs. Guthrie, and other English collectors have fine specimens of his work. And many of his best pictures are in America, in the Walters and Vanderbilt collections, and that of Quincy Shaw, Esq., Boston.
Boeufs se rendant au labour, Louvre. 889.
Le retour de la Ferme, Louvre. 890.
Cabinet picture of Les Boeufs, Coll. M. Chauchard.
Vallée de la Toucque, Coll. M. Chauchard.
Le Matin, départ pour le Marché ; and La Vache Blanche, M. Prosper Crabbe.
Approaching storm ; and Landscape with Cattle, Hertford House.
DAUBIGNY, CHARLES FRANÇOIS (b. Paris, 1817 ; d. Paris, 1878).Charles Daubigny inherited a taste for paintinghis father being a second-rate landscape painter, and an uncle and aunt miniaturists. The child was delicate, and was sent to Valmondois on the Oise, where he grew to boyhood in the delightful country he afterwards made his own. As a mere boy he painted decorations on clocks, fans, glove boxes, etc. At seventeen he set up for himself ; and with his friend Mignon contrived to save £56, upon which the two lads started on foot for Italy. But after a year there, the money being exhausted, they returned to Paris. In 1838 Daubigny got his first picture into the Salon, ” The Apse of Notre Dame from the East “. And in 1840 he exhibited a ” St. Jerome in the Desert “. He then worked for six months in Paul Delaroche’s studio, and intended to compete for the Prix de Rome. But owing to a mistakea fortunate one for his admirershe was prevented doing so. And he turned to the study of landscape which he felt was his true vocation, while the figure drawing gave him new power both in appreciation of colour and drawing. His first landscapes were on the Oise near the house of his old nurse, La Mère Bazot.
From 1841 to 1847 he sent landscapes to the Salon pretty regularly, as well as etchings. And these latter, which, as I have said, were largely inspired by Paul Huet’s work, are of immense value. ” In the latter mode of expression he ” greatly excelled, and a complete set of Daubigny’s etchings ” is a veritable treasure house.”‘ This was an arduous part of his life, for he was working hard to support not only his own family, but that of his widowed sisterpainting all day, and drawing illustrations on wood or stone at night. But in 1848 his circumstances improved. He received a second class medal at the Salon for his five beautiful landscapes ; and the State began to buy his pictures for provincial museums. In 1857 he exhibited the well-known ” Printemps,” now in the Louvrea sort of idealization of the very spirit of spring, with its cloud of apple-blossoms and young trees and green corn. And henceforth honours came thick upon him.
1866 was the year of his first visit to England. He was invited by certain English paintersLord Leighton at their headto come to London, having that year exhibited his grand picture ” Moonlight,” at the Royal Academy, where it was so badly hung that Mr. H. T. Wells, R.A., bought it on the opening day as a sort of protest. The ten years from 1864 to 1874 were his best period. It was then that he painted his ” Bords de la Cure, Morvan “the “Villerville sur Mer “the exquisite ” Lever de Lune “the ” Moon-light on the Oise,” and many more. The delightful repose and calm of his pictures make them some of the most popular of all the French landscape school. He was greatly influenced by Corot, who looked upon him almost as a son. And almost Daubigny’s last words on his deathbed were” Adieu ! Je vais en haut voir si l’Ami Corot m’a trouvé des ” motifs de paysage “.
Les Vendanges en Bourgogne, Louvre. 184. Le Printemps, Louvre. 185.
Saint Cloud, Chantilly.
Lever de Lune, Van Gogh Coll.
Villerville sur Mer, M. Mesdag.
Bords de la Cure, Morvan ; St. Paul’s from the Surrey side; Mantes ; Hauling the Nets, Alex. Young, Esq.
Moonlight on the Oise, etc., J. S. Forbes, Esq. MarineSunset over dark blue sea ; The Storks ; and four others, Hon. Sir John Day.
Return of the flock,’ G. A. Drummond, Esq., Montreal.
CHINTREUIL, ANTOINE (b. Pont de Vaux, 1816 ; d. Septeuil, 1873 ). The landscapes of Chintreuil are but seldom mentioned among the works of the landscape painters of 1830. His two large and lovely landscapes in the Louvre, are admirable examples of the artist’s work, which ought to be better known. They are specially remarkable for their pure and brilliant colour, for their atmospheric qualities, and for the infinite delicacy with which the painter expresses passing effects. The flat plain bathed in delicate sunlight, which he calls “Pluie et soleil,” as the light rain clears off, is extremely beautiful.
Pluie et Soleil, 125 ; L’espace, 123 ; Le Bosquet aux Chevreuils, 124.
Effet de Soleil à travers le brouillard, Mme. Esnault-Pelletrie.
JACQUE, CHARLES (b. Paris, 1813 ; d. 1894).A Parisian born, like so many of the most devoted nature-painters of the French landscape school, Charles Jacque began his artistic work by wood engraving and etchings for book illustrations. He began painting in 1845, at which time he was closely associated with Rousseau and Millet. From that time he devoted himself to animals and landscape. His flocks of sheep, whether feeding quietly in the open or along the edge of the forest, while a shepherd or shepherdess watches them in the shade of the heavy foliaged oak trees, or pressing eagerly into the fold or the barn, are well known and always delightful. His studies of poultry are also admirable. He had a special liking for cocks and hens, raising quantities himself, and painting their ways with insight and humour.
Sir John Day has an inimitable little picture of the ” basse cour “a delightful study of bird character.
Though a less powerful artist than his great associates, Charles Jacque is well worthy of his place in the group ; and gained an honourable and meritorious position in nineteenth century art. He was one of those who proposed to form a Nouvelle Société in 1847, as a protest against the old Jury of the Salon. And later he also wished to found a ” Société des Animaliers ” on the same lines as the ” Aquarellistes “.
Troupeau de Moutons, Luxembourg. 166.
The Flock, 200 ; and Forest Scene, 227, Mappin Art Gall., Sheffield.
Crépuscule, Corp. Art. Gall., Glasgow.
The Approaching Storin ; and Forest Pastures, Right Hon. Sir H. D. Davies, M.P.
HARPIGNIES, HENRI, O. (b. Valenciennes, 1819).M. Harpignies is almost the last survivor of the great group of landscape painters of 1830. ” Born, with Courbet, in 1819 ” that is seven years after Rousseau . . . Harpignies ” worked with the older men of 1830 quite as much as a. ” companion and fellow-labourer as a pupil and follower . . . ” and without him the renascence of art in our century had ” wanted a characteristic note.” 1 Harpignies was a pupil of Achard. He also studied in Italy ; and on his return to France in 1852, he at once became one of the new school of landscape painters. In 1853 he had two landscapes in the Salon” Vue prise dans l’Île de Capri ” and ” Chemin Creux, ” effet de Matin, environs de Valenciennes “. Thirteen years later, in 1866, he received his first medal. In 1875 he was made Chevalier and in 1883 Officier of the Legion of Honour, and received the Grand Médaille d’Honneur at the Salon of 1897. Many of his pictures have been painted on the Allier and the Loire, which gave scope for the composition he lovesrocky ground and straggling, wind-driven trees, against the river and the clear sky. But he has also painted a good deal on the Riviera, and the Campagna of Rome. This artist, who, as Mr. Charles Perkins has well said ” stands in ” the first rank of living French Painters,” has been little known on this side of the Channel, until M. Obach’s admirable exhibition of his works in April, 1896, revealed him to the English public as a great nature painter both in oils and water-colours. Sir John Day has some admirable examples of his work, which maintains all its best qualities to-day.
Le Colisée ; Lever de Lune ; Un Torrent dans le Var, Luxembourg.
Chemin Creux, 1853 ; Un Sauve qui peut, 1857, Musée de Valenciennes.
Vue prise dans le Morvan (water-colour), Musée d’Orléans.
Solitude, which gained the Médaille d’Honneur, Salon 1897, and five other fine examples, Hon. Sir John Day.
Sentier de St. Privé, Alexander Young, Esq.
POINTELIN, AUGUSTE EM., O. * (b. Arbois, Jura).M. Pointelin, among the living artists of France, gives us subtle and poetic renderings of nature, which are of great beauty and value. He is more in sympathy with the art of Corot than that of the Impressionist painters of landscape. His pictures in the Salon of 1897 were considered a triumph of his art.
Soir de Septembre, 231; Côtes du Jura, vues de la plaine, 232, Luxembourg.
Prairie dans la Côte d’Or, Musée de Sens.
Côteau Jurassien, Musée de Besançon.
MONTENARD, FRÉDÉRIC, (b. Paris).M. Montenard, who was created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1890, has been successively a pupil of Dubufe, of Mazerolles, of Delaunay, and of Puvis de Chavannes. He has made the south of France his own ; living between Toulon and Hyères. And no artist in France knows better how to render the light and hot sunshine, the white dusty roads, the blue sky and sea, and the fierce rush of the mistral, in the land of Olive and Cypress. M. Montenard’s pictures may be seen in every salon. And the Luxembourg possesses a fine sea-piece of the ” Corrèze sailing from Toulon “.
La Corrèze quittant la rade de Toulon, Luxembourg. 67.
Village de Six-Fours, près Toulon, Musée de Niort.
Two Landscapes, M. le Dr. Cazalis, Cannes.
Dans les Vignes, Provence, 1892 ; French Battleship, 1897, Coll. John Nicholas Brown, Esq., Providence, RI.
YON, Cu. EDMOND, (b. Paris, 1836), is best known as an engraver. Many of his original wood engravings are of great value. But the “Pont Valentré à Cahors,” now in the Luxembourg, shows that his landscapes in oil are of high excellence.
VUILLEFROY, FÉLIX-DOMINIQUE, (b. Paris, 1841), a pupi of Hébert and M. Bonnat, is an excellent animal and landscape painter, as may be seen by ” Le Retour du Troupeau,” 1880, Luxembourg ; and ” Dans les Prés,” 1883, Luxembourg. This last has been engraved by Yon.
CABAT, LOUIS, O., M. DE L’INSTITUT (b. Paris, 1812 ; d. 1893).A pupil of Flers, and a contemporary of Rousseau and Diaz, he appeared first in the Salon of 1833exhibiting two pictures in the Indre” Le Moulin de Dompierre,” Picardyand ” Un Cabaret à Montsouris “. The next year came the ” Ville d’Avray,” now in the Luxembourg. For a while it seemed as if M. Cabat was to belong definitively to the Romantic and Naturalist camp. But after a time he deserted to the more academic painters ; though he always retained a strong personal affection for his master Flers, and for those with whom he was associated in those moving times. He was made director of the French Academy at Rome, in 1879.
GUILLEMET, I. B. ANTOINE, O. (b. Chantilly, 1842), a pupil of Corot, has a serious and poetic landscape, ” Bercy en Décembre,” in the Luxembourg.
FRANÇAIS, FRANÇOIS-LOUIS (b. Plombières, 1814 ; d. 1897), one of Corot’s most faithful and devoted disciples, is represented in the Luxembourg by a ” Fin d’Hiver ” of great beauty, which shows the influence of the master and friend who died in his arms. A most striking and interesting portrait of Français was painted in 1897, a few weeks before his death, by M. Carolus-Duran. This is now in the Luxembourga precious addition to that great collection. The greater part of M. Français’ work has been reproduced in eaux-fortes, or wood engravings. He furnished numerous drawings for illustrated books.
BILLOTTE, RENÉ, (b. Tarbes), a pupil of Fromentin, is beginning to be better known in London than most con-temporary French painters of landscape. He is the painter of Snow and of Quarries. ” La Neige à la Porte d’Asnières,” Luxembourg, is a fine example of his work. And his contributions to the Salon of the Champ de Mars, 1898, were of a high order of merittrue to nature, and full of real appreciation of colour and poetic insight.
IWILL, MARIE-JOSEPH, (b. Paris), among the younger painters holds a foremost place. His eight pictures in the Champ de Mars in 1897 were one of the most important contributions made by any landscape painter that year. His “Assisi ” was most striking, with the brown bed of the Tiber below. So also was ” Les Grèves de Berck”.
ADAN, LOUIS-ÉMILE (b. Paris, 1839), pupil of Picot and Cabanel(See Imaginative Painters). DAMOYE, PIERRE EMMANUEL (b. Paris), pupil of Corot, Bonnat, and Daubigny LE POITTEVIN, LOUIS (b. La-Neuville), pupil of M. Bouguereau, must also be mentioned, though space fails to enumerate more of the admirable landscape artists of the day.