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+ <title>
+ The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bastien Lepage, by Fr. Crastre.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bastien Lepage, by Fr. Crastre
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Bastien Lepage
+
+Author: Fr. Crastre
+
+Translator: Frederic Taber Cooper
+
+Release Date: June 26, 2011 [EBook #36533]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BASTIEN LEPAGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Hunter Monroe and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p>MASTERPIECES<br />
+IN COLOUR<br />
+EDITED BY <br />
+M. HENRY ROUJON</p>
+
+<h1 class="p2">BASTIEN-LEPAGE</h1>
+<h2>(1848-1884)</h2>
+<hr class="r65" />
+
+<h2>IN THE SAME SERIES</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="series">
+<tr><td class="tdl">REYNOLDS</td><td class="tdl">CHARDIN</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">VELASQUEZ</td><td class="tdl">MILLET</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">GREUZE</td><td class="tdl">RAEBURN</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">TURNER</td><td class="tdl">SARGENT</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">BOTTICELLI</td><td class="tdl">CONSTABLE</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">ROMNEY</td><td class="tdl">MEMLING</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">REMBRANDT</td><td class="tdl">FRAGONARD</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">BELLINI</td><td class="tdl">DÜRER</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">FRA ANGELICO</td><td class="tdl">LAWRENCE</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">ROSSETTI</td><td class="tdl">HOGARTH</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">RAPHAEL</td><td class="tdl">WATTEAU</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">LEIGHTON</td><td class="tdl">MURILLO</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">HOLMAN HUNT</td><td class="tdl">WATTS</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">TITIAN</td><td class="tdl">INGRES</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">MILLAIS</td><td class="tdl">COROT</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">LUINI</td><td class="tdl">DELACROIX</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">FRANZ HALS</td><td class="tdl">FRA LIPPO LIPPI</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">CARLO DOLCI</td><td class="tdl">PUVIS DE CHAVANNES</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">GAINSBOROUGH</td><td class="tdl">MEISSONIER</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">TINTORETTO</td><td class="tdl">GÉRÔME</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">VAN DYCK</td><td class="tdl">VERONESE</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">DA VINCI</td><td class="tdl">VAN EYCK</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">WHISTLER</td><td class="tdl">FROMENTIN</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">RUBENS</td><td class="tdl">MANTEGNA</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">BOUCHER</td><td class="tdl">PERUGINO</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">HOLBEIN</td><td class="tdl">ROSA BONHEUR</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">BURNE-JONES</td><td class="tdl">BASTIEN-LEPAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">LE BRUN</td><td class="tdl">GOYA</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class="figcenter p2" style="width: 320px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="320" height="412" alt="Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter p4" style="width: 320px;"><a name="I" id="I"></a>
+<a href="images/illus04.jpg"><img src="images/illus04_thumb.jpg" width="320" height="460" alt="PLATE I." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a href="images/illus04.jpg">PLATE I.&mdash;THE SONG OF SPRINGTIME</a></span></div>
+
+<p class="center"><small>(Museum at Verdun)</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">This is one of the artist's earliest works. A certain embarrassment
+may be noted in the manner in which the Cupids are treated; even
+at this period, it is easy to see that allegory is not suited to the precise
+and realistic talent of this painter; yet the young girl is
+designed with a vigour which already foreshadows the masterly art
+of Hay-making.</p>
+
+<hr class="r65" />
+
+<h2 class="p4">Bastien Lepage</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><b>BY FR. CRASTRE</b></p>
+
+<p class="p2 center"><small><b>TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH</b></small><br />
+<small><b>BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER</b></small></p>
+
+<p class="p2 center"><b>ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT</b><br />
+<b>REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR</b></p>
+
+<div class="p2 figcenter"><img src="images/illus05.jpg" width="320" height="297" alt="IN SEMPITERNUM" title="" /></div>
+
+<p class="center p2"><big><b>FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY</b></big>
+<big><b>NEW YORK&mdash;PUBLISHERS</b></big></p>
+
+<p class="p4 center">COPYRIGHT, <small>1914</small>, BY<br />
+FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="p4 box">March, 1914</p>
+
+<p class="p4 center">THE&middot;PLIMPTON&middot;PRESS<br />
+NORWOOD&middot;MASS&middot;U&middot;S&middot;A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="r65" />
+<table class="p2" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="contents">
+
+<tr><td colspan="2"><p class="header"><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</p></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="tdr">Page</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><a href="#HIS_YOUTH">His Youth</a></td><td class="tdr">16</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><a href="#HIS_BEST_YEARS">His Best Years</a></td><td class="tdr">31</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><a href="#HIS_PREMATURE_END">His Premature End</a></td><td class="tdr">65</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td colspan="4"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></td></tr>
+</table>
+<hr class="r65" />
+<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="contents" class="p4">
+<tr><td colspan="4" ><p class="header">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</p>
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">Plate</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="tdr">Page</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td><td class="tdl"><a href="#I">The Song of Springtime</a></td>
+<td class="tdl">Museum at Verdun</td><td class="tdr">Frontispiece</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">II. </td><td class="tdl"><a href="#II">Portrait of M. Wallon</a></td>
+<td class="tdl">Museum of the Louvre</td><td class="tdr">14</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">III. </td><td class="tdl"><a href="#III">The Artist's Mother</a></td>
+<td class="tdl">Collection of É. Bastien-Lepage</td><td class="tdr">24</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">IV. </td><td class="tdl"><a href="#IV">The Hay-making</a></td>
+<td class="tdl">Museum of the Luxembourg</td><td class="tdr">34</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">V. </td><td class="tdl"><a href="#V">Portrait of M. Hayem</a></td>
+<td class="tdl">Museum of the Luxembourg</td><td class="tdr">40</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">VI. </td><td class="tdl"><a href="#VI">Portrait of M. X&mdash;&mdash;</a></td>
+<td class="tdl">Museum at Verdun</td><td class="tdr">50</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">VII. </td><td class="tdl"><a href="#VII">The Little Boatman</a></td>
+<td class="tdl">Collection of &Eacute;. Bastien-Lepage</td><td class="tdr">60</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdr">VIII. </td><td class="tdl"><a href="#VIII">The Artist's Uncle</a></td>
+<td class="tdl">Museum at Verdun</td><td class="tdr">70</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl"></td></tr>
+</table>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 160px;">
+<img src="images/illus11.png" width="160" height="200" alt="Page 11" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="r65" />
+<p>There are certain beings who bear the stamp
+of the divine seal and are preordained to
+receive the highest favours within the gift of glory;
+they are fated to pass through life like those brilliant
+meteors which are seen to flash across the
+heavens and disappear in the same instant. Bastien-Lepage
+was one of these meteors. But while the
+others leave behind them only a luminous trail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+that swiftly vanishes, this rare artist, snatched so
+prematurely from the field of art, traced his
+passage in a furrow of dazzling splendour, the
+radiance of which has not even yet begun to fade.</p>
+
+<p>Bastien-Lepage was a painter in the noblest
+acceptation of the term; it may even be asserted
+that he would have exercised considerable influence
+upon the art of his epoch if Destiny had not
+stupidly mown down the sturdy flower of his
+genius in the very hour of its brightest blossoming.
+Born into this world with a solid tenacity
+of purpose which seems to be a special gift of
+the soil of Lorraine to her sons and daughters,
+he had a clear-cut and unalterable conception of
+what painting should be. His mind was receptive
+only of simple ideas, his eye perceived only
+visions that were tangible, such as were unobscured
+by any shadow or any artifice. He was
+the apostle of clearness, both in conception and
+in execution. Every time that he tried experimentally
+to turn aside from his chosen path, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+ceased to be himself, he fell below his own standards.
+What interested him most of all, in the life
+of this world which he observed so eagerly, as
+though he had a presentiment of his early end, was
+nature's most precise and most uncompromising
+manifestation, both in line and in relief; namely, the
+peasant and the environment which frames him.
+Having deliberately chosen such models, Bastien-Lepage
+could not pretend to be the painter of
+the Beautiful, nor did he ever become so. He
+did not even adorn his subjects with that special
+sort of idealism with which Millet embellished
+even his most uncouth rustic types, a slightly
+melancholy idealism obtained by a sombre toning
+down of colour, which Bastien-Lepage held in horror.
+His peasants stand out boldly, in the crude glare
+of flamboyant noontide, under a summer sun that
+refuses to leave hidden any part of their ugliness
+or their defects. He painted them as he saw
+them, with the searching rays striking them full
+in the face; and his brush was a stranger to any
+compromise, intolerant of even the slightest betterment,
+in the course of the literal transference of
+his model to his canvas. It made no difference
+how handsome or how homely a given subject
+might be, Bastien-Lepage would always render
+him precisely as nature, in a grudging or indulgent
+mood, had made him,&mdash;that is to say, truly
+and sincerely, with a precision that would be
+almost photographic, if the minuteness of his
+technique were not ennobled by the high quality
+of his art. With such gifts, Bastien-Lepage was
+foreordained to be a marvellous interpreter of
+rural life, and such he was in the highest degree; in
+like manner, he could not fail to become a portrait
+painter of the first order, and it was in this
+capacity also that he enrolled himself among the
+most interesting and vigorous artists of our epoch.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p2" style="width: 320px;"><a name="II" id="II"></a>
+<a href="images/illus15.jpg"><img class="p2" src="images/illus15_thumb.jpg" width="320" height="416" alt="PLATE II" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a href="images/illus15.jpg">PLATE II.&mdash;PORTRAIT OF M. WALLON</a></span></div>
+
+<p class="center"><small>(Museum at Verdun)</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">Few artists have been able to endow their models with such
+an animated expression of life. All the keenness, intelligence and
+austerity of this prominent personage, known by the name of
+Father of the Constitution, are eloquently transferred to this page,
+with a sobriety of means that still further emphasizes its vigour.</p>
+
+<hr class="r65" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+<h2 class="p2"><a name="HIS_YOUTH" id="HIS_YOUTH"></a>HIS YOUTH</h2>
+
+<p>Jules Bastien-Lepage was born at Damvillers,
+in the department of the Meuse, on the first of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+November, 1848. His parents were of the well-to-do
+farming class, occupied from one year's end
+to the other with the work of the fields. Consequently,
+all the early boyhood of the artist was
+passed in daily contact with the soil of Lorraine
+and with the sons of that soil. He knew them,
+one and all, in his native village; he grew up among
+them; he went to school side by side with the
+other little rustics of his own age: he understood
+the peasant class, with all their faults, their virtues,
+their habits of life; he learned to read in
+their faces, which were a sealed book to the outsider,
+the opinions and emotions which they had
+in common with him.</p>
+
+<p>These childhood impressions were destined to
+abide with him throughout his life; he cherished
+to the end a fervent love for his native land,
+and he felt that he had an infinitely noble task in
+painting that life of the fields which the Second
+Empire affected to despise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But though he came of peasant stock, it was
+Bastien-Lepage's good fortune that these same
+peasants were in prosperous circumstances and
+could afford to give him an education. They were
+ambitious for him; and it hurt them to see their
+little Jules, who was so wide-awake, so intelligent,
+and at the same time so frail, leading the hard
+and monotonous life of the fields, following the
+plough, tilling the soil. It needed only a few
+household economies to enable him to continue his
+studies; so, when the time came, young Bastien-Lepage
+wended his way towards Verdun, where he
+entered upon his college course.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing that marks in any particular
+way these years of study, nothing to indicate that
+the boy was a youthful prodigy, nor that he showed
+any special aptitude for drawing. But he was
+studious, diligent, and anxious to avoid repremands
+and to fulfil the expectations of his parents.
+In due time he obtained his bachelor's degree,
+which at that period was highly prized. His father,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+filled with pride, already began to form brilliant
+projects for his future, already foresaw him a
+distinguished official, supervising some great branch
+of the public service. As a matter of fact, a
+position was found for the young baccalaureate
+in a government department which was neither
+the most desirable nor the one of least importance;
+namely, the Post Office Department. Bastien-Lepage
+was not vastly delighted with the
+choice, but, dutiful son that he was, he accepted the
+modest clerkship offered him. One circumstance
+contributed, in a large degree, towards overcoming
+his reluctance: the post assigned to him from
+the start was in Paris, of which he had often heard
+marvellous things, and in which he hoped that he
+would be able to follow his secret inclination. For,
+in the interval his vocation had revealed itself; he
+had conceived a passion for drawing, for colouring,
+for painting; and, like Correggio, he was
+eager to say in his turn, "I too am a painter!"</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly he set forth, leaving behind him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+no suspicion of his purpose. Upon arriving at
+the capital, he acquitted himself scrupulously of
+his official duties, but every leisure moment was
+consecrated to visiting the museums and exhibitions.
+He saturated himself with the wealth of
+beauty strewn broadcast through the Louvre, and
+was thrilled with admiration at contact with the
+masters of every school and country. He did not
+care equally for them all, in spite of their genius;
+his intimate preferences leaned to the side of
+Flemish rather than Italian art; but he was not
+insensible to the lofty inspiration, the severe harmony,
+the faultless composition, which have made
+the great masters of the Renaissance the most
+astonishing prodigies in the history of painting.</p>
+
+<p>But while the older schools of art delighted
+him, he followed with no less attention the movement
+of contemporary painting. At the hour when
+his critical spirit awoke, certain new elements and
+new formulas had come to light and had been put
+into practice by two audacious and gifted artists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+by the names of Courbet and Manet. Although
+the prolonged struggle between the classicists and
+romanticists had not yet come to an end, these
+two rival schools were entrenched in their positions
+and refused to stir forth from them. Supporters
+of Delacroix and of Ingres confined themselves
+strictly to their respective hostile formulas, doing
+nothing either to expand or to rejuvenate them.
+Whoever dared to venture outside of one of these
+two beaten tracks was regarded as a madman, and
+his attempts were greeted with derisive clamours
+by both parties, who declared a momentary
+truce, for the purpose of annihilating him by a
+joint attack. Courbet, who was scorned by Ingres,
+met with equally harsh criticism from Delacroix;
+and as for Manet, he had managed to call down
+universal wrath upon his head, and at the Salon
+of 1863 it became necessary to place his <i>Olympia</i>
+in the very topmost line upon the wall, in order to
+protect it from the fury of the public, hounded on
+by the hue and cry of the critics.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+Bastien-Lepage made mental notes of all the
+episodes of this struggle; he listened to the criticisms
+and passed them through the crucible of his
+unspoiled mind, in the presence of the very works
+under indictment. His good sense showed him how
+large an element of injustice entered into these
+hostilities. Moreover, his peasant blood inclined
+him to sympathize with those artists who refused
+to bind themselves to seek for beauty only within
+the limits of academic form, and who had the
+ability to make it flash forth from the humblest
+and even the most vulgar type of subject. Furthermore,
+this constant study of matters pertaining to
+art, day by day added fuel to the hidden fire
+smouldering within him; he was conscious of its
+mounting flame. Back of the rude sketches, drawn
+and coloured in the tiny chamber befitting an
+humble postal clerk, he perceived vaguely that he
+also possessed the temperament of a painter, and
+little by little he witnessed the unfolding of his
+artist's soul.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p2" style="width: 320px;"><a name="III" id="III"></a>
+<a href="images/illus27.jpg"><img class="p2" src="images/illus27_thumb.jpg" width="320" height="430" alt="Plate III" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a href="images/illus27.jpg">PLATE III.&mdash;THE ARTIST&#39;S MOTHER</a></span></div>
+
+<p class="center"><small>(Collection of &Eacute;. Bastien-Lepage)</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">What a kindly and gentle face this is, the face of the woman to
+whom the artist applied the tender endearment of &quot;Good little
+mother&quot;! In this work, it is evident that the heart guided the
+hand of the painter. None but a son could have rendered with
+such emotion the humid tenderness of those eyes and the maternal
+caress of those lips. It is a powerful work, which enrolls Bastien-Lepage
+in the foremost rank of portrait painters.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="p4">At last, unable to bear it longer, he resigned
+from the postal service and enrolled his name at
+the Beaux-Arts. At this time, when he entered
+the studio of Cabanel, he was but little more than
+nineteen years of age. Cabanel, to be sure, was
+not the painter of his choice, but Bastien-Lepage
+was not for that reason any the less appreciative
+of a system of instruction which was dominated
+by a worship of line-work. His training under
+Cabanel was not without value to the young artist,
+who throughout his life, even in his most realistic
+paintings, proved himself to be an impeccable
+master of design.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset, however, he was beset with
+difficulties. Now that his salary as a postal clerk
+had ceased and remittances from the family were
+necessarily restricted, Bastien-Lepage exerted himself
+to gain a living by his own efforts. He had
+no lack of courage, and he had in addition that
+Lorraine tenacity which enabled him to confront
+all difficulties with tranquil assurance. He worked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+with desperate energy, and in the intervals of
+respite from his labours he overran all Paris in
+search of orders from business houses. It was an
+inglorious task, but at least it enabled him to live;
+thus it happened that about 1873 he produced a
+widely circulated advertisement for a perfumery
+house. Up to this time he had remained wholly
+unknown; and although he had already exhibited
+one painting, at the Salon of 1870, it was passed by
+unheeded both by the critics and the general public.</p>
+
+<p>This lack of success in no wise discouraged him,
+for he had faith. It was in the year 1874 that
+he exhibited <i>The Song of Springtime</i>. It was a
+veritable revelation. There was no neglect this
+time. The public gathered in throngs before his
+canvas, and the critics, notwithstanding a few
+objections to details, were lavish in their praise
+and hailed him as having the qualities of a true
+artist. Naturally, the picture was not perfect,
+but it well merited the flattering reception which
+it received. In a springtime landscape a young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+peasant girl is seated beneath a tree, looking before
+her over a sunlit plain. Around her skirts a
+whole bevy of Cupids are gathering blossoms and
+offering them to the girl. Here, at the first stroke,
+is an assertion of the young painter's independence,
+his formal determination to emancipate himself
+from the accepted formulas in his treatment of
+the eternal theme of a young girl's soul, opening
+to the first appeal of love. As a matter of fact,
+the allegory is somewhat clumsy; you realize that
+the author's talent does not run to sentimental
+compositions. Yet the young girl is brushed in
+with an energetic hand, and all that rather coarse
+robustness that distinguishes the women of peasant
+stock is blended in a masterly manner with the
+na&iuml;ve innocence of simple souls. <i>The Song of
+Springtime</i> was Bastien-Lepage's first attempt in
+that vein of realistic painting in which he was
+soon destined to excel.</p>
+
+<p>That same year he produced <i>Grandfather's
+Portrait</i>, which also attracted much attention.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+The artist had placed his model in the little garden
+adjoining the home of his birth. This portrait,
+which belongs to-day to the painter's brother, is
+remarkable for its naturalness, its touch of intimate
+understanding, and its vigour of execution.</p>
+
+<p>Bastien-Lepage had now acquired a name. His
+<i>Song of Springtime</i> won him a third class medal,
+and the State purchased the painting for the
+museum at Verdun, where it at present hangs.</p>
+
+<p>In the following year he exhibited <i>Her First
+Communion</i>, picturing a young and pretty country
+girl, stiff and self-conscious under her white
+veil. This work was the product of keen observation,
+and is deliberately stilted and traditional
+in its style of execution, recalling in some measure
+the French primitive school. Bastien-Lepage
+evidently had in mind the portraits by Fran&ccedil;ois
+Cluet: his little communicant is infinitely artificial
+in her spotless finery, yet infinitely alive
+under the thin surface wash of colour which
+recalls the <i>Elizabeth of Austria</i>, wife of Charles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+IX, as painted by the greatest of the French
+primitives.</p>
+
+<p>Simultaneously with this picture he exhibited
+the <i>Portrait of M. Hayem</i>, in which the vigorous
+treatment of the face, with its clear, firm colour
+tones and sober workmanship, proclaimed him
+already a portrait painter of the first order.</p>
+
+<p>His success this time was more marked: he
+received a medal of the second class. A less
+modest artist would have allowed himself to be
+borne tranquilly along by the mounting tide of
+glory; but Bastien-Lepage did not yet feel that
+he was sufficiently sure of himself. He wished
+to continue for a while longer, working, learning,
+perfecting himself; he even conceived the idea,
+in spite of his renown, of competing for the
+<i>Prix de Rome</i>. Accordingly, the painter of <i>The
+Song of Springtime</i> and <i>Her First Communion</i>
+might shortly after have been seen entering the
+lists like any ordinary nobody. He obtained only
+the second prize.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He presented himself again the following year,
+but with no better success. The subject assigned
+for the competition was <i>Priam at the Feet of
+Achilles</i>. It is easy to understand that such a
+theme was little calculated to inspire an artist of
+Bastien-Lepage's temperament; he found it impossible
+to attain full development unless in the
+presence of nature herself. No amount of manual
+dexterity can take the place of inborn faith, and
+the young artist had no faith in antiquity; he
+never could muster any enthusiasm for the Greek
+or Roman gods, nor for historic scenes in which the
+very attitudes are dictated by the rules and regulations
+of time-honoured tradition.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the work is not without merit;
+it is forceful, its colouring is good, and it falls short
+of perfection only in failing to conform sufficiently
+with what we know of ancient life. This painting
+is at present to be found in the Museum at Lille.</p>
+
+<p>This rebuff did not discourage Bastien-Lepage
+unreasonably; but he decided to confine himself
+in the future to painting portraits and picturing the
+life of the fields.</p>
+
+<hr class="r65" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+<h2 class="p2"><a name="HIS_BEST_YEARS" id="HIS_BEST_YEARS"></a>HIS BEST YEARS</h2>
+
+<p>The same year that he failed for the second
+time in the competition for the <i>Prix de Rome</i>,
+Bastien-Lepage painted <i>The Portrait of M. Wallon</i>,
+which is one of his most important works as a
+portrait painter. In spite of its tendency towards
+naturalism, this canvas was nevertheless still conceived
+in accordance with the established technique,
+and the keen and serious visage of the Father
+of the Constitution standing out against its sombre
+background is a fine study in chiaroscuro.</p>
+
+<p>But the following year he struck the naturalistic
+note more strongly in his <i>Portrait of Lady L.</i>,
+the only full-length, life-sized portrait that he
+ever painted; and he declared himself plainly
+and definitely a realist in his picture entitled <i>My
+Parents</i>. It would be impossible to find two
+figures more life-like, more literal, or painted with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+greater sincerity. This canvas amounted to a
+declaration of principles; for an artist whom filial
+piety cannot turn aside from the truth will never
+make sacrifices to convention: he will never consent
+to embellish or idealize his models through
+tricks of his craft; he will paint them as he sees
+them, without correcting any of the imperfections
+and ugliness with which nature has afflicted them.
+How clearly we recognize that these likenesses of
+Bastien-Lepage's parents are absolutely true to
+life, and how much better we like them as they
+are, in the simple intimacy of daily life, than if
+they had been decked out, all spick and span, as
+a less scrupulous artist would inevitably have shown
+them to us!</p>
+
+<p>Bastien-Lepage's brother, himself a painter of
+some talent, has preserved in his studio at Neuilly
+a certain number of the artist's works, which he
+surrounds with pious care and feelingly exhibits
+to occasional visitors. The family portraits are
+there, pulsating with life and radiating that gener<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>ous
+peasant kindliness which finds expression in
+a broad and tender smile. The father, seated in a
+chair in his garden, an old man with shrewd yet
+friendly eyes, seems so real, so actual, that we
+almost expect him to step down from his frame
+to bid us welcome. And what a marvel the <i>Portrait
+of my Mother</i> is, which forms a companion
+piece on the same wall! A somewhat wistful
+charm pervades this face, with its deeply graven
+lines, and an infinite tenderness, a true mother's
+tenderness, hovers over the thin, pale lips.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p2" style="width: 320px;"><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>
+<a href="images/illus31.jpg"><img class="p2" src="images/illus31_thumb.jpg" width="320" height="293" alt="PLATE IV" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a href="images/illus31.jpg">PLATE IV&mdash;HAY-MAKING</a></span></div>
+
+<p class="center"><small>(Museum of the Luxembourg)</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+A masterpiece of contemporary painting, because of the truth of
+its attitudes and the vigour of its execution. It would be impossible
+to render more forcibly the blissfulness of rest when the body has
+been racked by the exhausting labour of the soil. In this picture,
+Bastien-Lepage revealed himself as an incomparable painter of
+rural life.</p>
+
+<p class="p4">Perhaps this is the moment, in the presence
+of these pictures, to emphasize Bastien-Lepage's
+great value as a colourist. Few contemporary
+painters have used colour with so much tact,
+such veritable mastery as he. Others have employed
+more dazzling tonal schemes and have
+achieved more gorgeous effects, but no one has
+rendered with such exact truth the tints of the
+flesh, the grayish folds of wrinkles, the profound
+light of the eye. And his colour is always clear,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+always unmistakably employed to produce a sought-after
+effect. There is no artifice, no trick-work,
+it is all straightforward, honest, precise; the opposition
+of light and shade never result in opacity,
+bitumen plays no part in his canvases, the astonishing
+relief of which is obtained by means of
+such perfect simplicity that it recalls the inimitable
+technique of Correggio.</p>
+
+<p>In 1878 he exhibited <i>Hay-making</i>, that magisterial
+page from the life of the fields which to-day
+is the pride of the Luxembourg museum, and
+which the art of the engraver has scattered broadcast
+to the extent of millions of copies.</p>
+
+<p>This picture represents a vast sun-bathed
+meadow, overstrewn with new-mown hay and
+punctuated, here and there, by the rounded cones
+of the stacks. Against the blue background of the
+sky, green hill-tops trace an undulant line. In the
+foreground a robust, bony-armed country-woman
+is seated on the grass, her legs stretched out before
+her in an attitude expressive of the utter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+weariness resulting from the work performed. Her
+head, solidly planted on her massive neck, is a
+marvel of realism; in her vulgar peasant face
+we may read health, strength, and a sort of dulled
+mentality born of physical fatigue. In every fibre
+of her exhausted body the woman is veritably
+resting, and through her half-parted lips it seems
+as though we could detect the passage of her
+hurried breathing. The man beside her, no less
+worn out than she, is stretched at full length on
+the thick couch of grass, and with his hat over
+his face, to shelter it from the sun, he is sleeping
+as though dead to the world.</p>
+
+<p>Every detail of this canvas is perfect, because
+every detail is true, drawn straight from life, the
+fruit of minute observation. In it Bastien-Lepage
+once more affirms his predilection for the open
+country; and nothing could be more impressive
+than these two uncouth, vulgar, homely human
+beings, set amid the splendour of a meadow turned
+golden by the sun. It is an every-day spectacle; it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+would not seem at first sight to contain material
+for a picture. But Bastien-Lepage has succeeded
+in proving indisputably that beauty does not consist
+solely in the harmony of the body, but in
+the impression which emanates from scenes that
+are most humble in outward appearance. In these
+few square feet of canvas the artist has summed up,
+perhaps without intending it, all the majesty of
+nature and all the grandeur of the life of the fields.
+It is scarcely necessary to add that this work is
+a transcript of the soil of Lorraine, that good
+natal soil which he loved so profoundly and to
+which he returned eagerly, year after year.</p>
+
+<p>Bastien-Lepage was exclusively the painter of
+the rural aspects of Lorraine; he loved its horizons,
+its fertile and undulating plains. And when,
+occasionally, he ventured into allegory, the background
+was still Lorraine, and the characters were
+developed in the familiar setting of his native
+village, Damvillers. And how he loved it! How
+he enjoyed the warm atmosphere of affection
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+which always awaited him when his father, grandfather,
+and valiant and devoted "little mother"
+gathered at night around the family table! He
+made his home in Paris, because residence there
+was indispensable, both for business and artistic
+reasons; but the moment that he could escape
+from the capital and its constraints, he would go
+to rest and gather new energy in the midst of
+the family circle. He had a spacious studio installed
+in the second story of the ancestral home;
+and there he worked, absolutely happy so long
+as he could see the old grandfather at his side,
+pipe in mouth, examining the work with a knowing
+air, and the father and mother in a sort of ecstasy,
+as they watched him fill in his canvas.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p2" style="width: 320px;"><a name="V" id="V"></a>
+<a href="images/illus47.jpg"><img class="p2" src="images/illus47_thumb.jpg" width="320" height="353" alt="PLATE V" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a href="images/illus47.jpg">PLATE V.&mdash;PORTRAIT OF M. HAYEM</a></span></div>
+
+<p class="center"><small>(Museum of the Luxembourg)</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">A marvel of discernment and of rendering. The face, to be sure,
+has a strong originality; but there is no slight merit in having expressed
+with such striking truth the piercing intelligence of the
+eyes that twinkle behind the lenses of the spectacles, and the energy,
+tempered with satiric humour, of his whole odd physiognomy.</p>
+
+<p class="p4">Nevertheless, Bastien-Lepage was no studio
+painter; it was not from the height of a window
+that he chose to contemplate nature, but in the
+open fields, in the very heart of the furrows; and
+it was there also, in the midst of the wheat and
+the rye, that he set up his easel and painted his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+peasants in action, in the daily fulfilment of their
+thankless task. And by picturing them thus, without
+artifice, in all their simplicity of gesture and
+coarseness of feature, he imbued his canvases with
+a profound spirit of poetry, through which the
+often brutal realism of his subjects was redeemed
+and ennobled. In the presence of these peasants
+he experienced a joy more genuine than he had
+ever felt before the rarest canvases in any museum.
+Not that he denied or disdained the genius of the
+great ancestors of painting; he had too much
+reverence for his art ever to dream of doing so.
+But when it came to a question of training, he
+could learn more from nature than from them.
+Listen to his own exposition of his ideas:</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity," he wrote, "that we are initiated,
+whether we will or not, into traditions and
+routines, under the pretext that this is the way
+to train us to be artists! It would be so simple
+to teach the use of brush and palette, without
+ever once mentioning the name of Michelangelo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+or Raphael or Murillo or Domenichino! We could
+then go home, back to Brittany or Gascony,
+Lorraine or Normandy, and peacefully paint the
+portrait of our own province; and if some morning
+the book we had chanced to read aroused the
+wish to paint a Prodigal Son, or Priam at the feet
+of Achilles, we could reconstruct the scene to suit
+ourselves, without needing to resort to the museums,
+taking the setting from our own surroundings and
+making use of the models close at hand, as though
+the old drama dated only from yesterday. That
+is the way for an artist to succeed in breathing
+the breath of life into his art and in making it
+beautiful and appealing to the eyes of the whole
+world. And that is the goal towards which I am
+striving with all my strength."</p>
+
+<p>As painter of the open air, he became in a
+certain sense the founder of a school, without
+meaning to be; for his conception of the painter's
+art won over a whole group of young artists who
+united in hailing him as their master. Each year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+his offerings to the Salon were impatiently awaited,
+and his followers gathered in full force before them,
+discussing, comparing, acclaiming; each Salon became
+the occasion for a new success, the critics
+were unanimous in praising him, the public adopted
+his pictures for their own, because they could
+understand his clear and rigorous manner. Whatever
+hostility he met with was among his own
+colleagues, at least among such of them as were discouraged
+and humiliated by his vigorous originality.
+Nevertheless, the Exposition of 1878, at which he
+had gathered together all his works, was an especially
+triumphant occasion for him; yet when the
+awards were distributed, he discovered that he had
+received nothing but a medal of the third class.</p>
+
+<p>At the Salon of 1879, Bastien-Lepage exhibited
+his <i>Women gathering Potatoes</i>, which formed a
+companion piece to his <i>Hay-making</i>. Here again
+we have the landscape of Lorraine and the eternal
+and infinitely varied theme of rural labour. In a
+sun-parched field two women are toiling to reap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+the harvest of potatoes. While the one in the
+middle distance is stooping to turn up the ripe
+bulbs from the soil, the other, placed in the foreground,
+is striving to empty the contents of her
+basket into a sack which she holds open by a
+wonderfully natural movement of her knee. Nothing
+could be simpler or more humble than this
+subject, and yet one feels drawn towards it, conquered
+by the truth of these two figures, both in
+their attitude and their expression. Involuntarily
+memory conjures up another canvas, <i>The Gleaners</i>,
+and we realize that it is impossible to resist that
+higher appeal which the great artists succeed in
+giving to the most commonplace episode of farming
+life. But, unlike Millet, Bastien-Lepage does
+not awaken in us any compassion for these beings
+who toil, stooping above the earth; no touch of
+bitterness saddens his pictures, and the types
+which he shows to us have the healthy vigour of
+peasants who live their lives in the open air and
+love the soil which nourishes them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This picture, when it appeared, produced a
+sensation. Coming directly after the <i>Hay-making</i>,
+it definitely established Bastien-Lepage's talent and
+placed him in the foremost rank of painters of
+rural life. The critics hailed this powerful canvas
+with enthusiasm. Th&eacute;odore de Banville, writing
+of the Salon of 1879, said: "M. Bastien-Lepage is
+the king of this Exposition. Young as he is, he has
+started in to produce masterpieces: he is very
+wise! For in later years an artist continues to
+copy himself, with more or less cleverness and
+success; but the creative genius has taken wing,
+like a bird on whose tail we have failed to drop
+the indispensable grain of salt. The <i>October
+Season</i> pictures the harvesting of potatoes. The
+earth, the encompassing air as far as we can see,
+the sky, the solitude laden with silence, are all
+evoked for us in this picture by the sincerity of its
+powerful painter; the peasant women are done
+in a masterly manner, and precisely for the reason
+that he has seen them apart from all convention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+and has not tried to idealize them by any hackneyed
+device."</p>
+
+<p>Albert Wolff was no less enthusiastic: "The
+colouring in <i>Women harvesting Potatoes</i> is ingratiating
+and discreet; not a discordant touch
+disturbs the beautiful harmony of this canvas,
+over which the silence of the open country has
+descended, enveloping the obscure toil. It is only
+artists of superior powers who can embody so much
+charm in a single conception."</p>
+
+<p>Another feature of the same Salon was his
+magnificent portrait of <i>Madame Sarah Bernhardt</i>,
+a marvel of expression and of delicate art, embodied
+in a pale symphony of tenderest whites,
+blending harmoniously with the warmest tones of
+gold. The great tragic actress is portrayed draped,
+almost swathed, in a gown of white china silk,
+verging on the faintest yellowish caste; she is
+posed in profile, that cameo-like profile that has
+so often been portrayed. She is seated, with a sort
+of intentional rigidity, on a white fur robe, and is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+examining a statuette of Orpheus, in old ivory,
+which she holds in her hands. Her expressive and
+intellectual features are treated with a vigour
+which does full justice to the classic beauty and
+virile energy of the sitter.</p>
+
+<p>"The work as a whole," wrote the critic of
+the <i>Revue des Beaux-Arts</i>, "possesses supreme
+distinction and an admirable delicacy of colouring.
+The silvery tones of the whites, the warm grays
+of the draped gown lead up to the freshness of the
+delicate, rose-like flesh tints, beneath the crown of
+close curled locks that seem at once massive and
+weightless. The artist's hand was sure of itself;
+it neither groped nor hesitated. The execution is
+such that the drawing of the gown and the lines
+of the face seem to have been traced by an engraver's
+tool. In this case, however, definiteness
+has not resulted in stiffness. The sharp design has
+not imprisoned unwilling forms; it leaves them
+free to move as they please within the limits of
+their contours which are its domain. It is worth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+while to examine with a lens the marvellous process
+which, by the aid of imperceptible half-tones, has
+softened the modelling of the face and hands."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p2" style="width: 320px;"><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>
+<a href="images/illus59.jpg"><img class="p2" src="images/illus59_thumb.jpg" width="320" height="410" alt="PLATE VI" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a href="images/illus59.jpg">PLATE VI.&mdash;PORTRAIT OF M. X&mdash;&mdash;</a></span></div>
+
+<p class="center"><small>(Museum at Verdun)</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">Bastien-Lepage possessed the rare quality of being able to
+bestow the same superior skill upon every part of a portrait. Being
+sincere before all else, he never tried to shirk any difficulty; this is
+seen in the care he took in painting the hands of all his various
+sitters, showing something akin to vanity in the marvellous talent
+he displayed in rendering them. In this portrait&mdash;just as in all
+the others&mdash;the hands are quite as truly a miracle of execution
+as the face itself.</p>
+
+<p class="p4">These two pictures earned Bastien-Lepage the
+Cross of the Legion of Honour and a definite
+recognition of his talent. The artist could not
+keep his delight to himself and, good son that he
+was, wished to share it with his beloved family;
+so he sent for them, to pay him a visit in Paris.
+The grandfather and the "good little mother"
+arrived, full of pride in this famous son, of whom
+the whole world was talking. He showed them
+the sights of the city and was only too happy to
+have a chance to introduce them to his friends;
+he took his mother to the big shops and insisted
+on choosing silk cloaks and silk dresses for her.
+The poor woman protested, saying that they were
+far too fine, that she would never dare to wear
+anything like that. "Show us some more," ordered
+the devoted artist, "I want mamma to have her
+choice of the best there is!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After the old people had returned home to
+Lorraine, Bastien-Lepage set out for England,
+where he was to paint the portrait of the Prince
+of Wales, who afterwards became King Edward VII.</p>
+
+<p>In this portrait of tiny dimensions the Prince
+is represented in fancy costume, after the manner
+of Holbein. His garments recall in a measure those
+worn by King Henry VIII, in the celebrated portrait
+done by the great painter from Basle. The
+Collar of the Golden Fleece is displayed upon his
+breast. In the background of the picture may be
+seen dimly, through a veil of mist, the panorama
+of London and the gray ribbon of the Thames.
+The portrait is a little gem, which Bastien-Lepage
+wrought with the minuteness and affectedly hieratic
+mannerism of Holbein and the French primitive
+school. Although at present in possession of M.
+&Eacute;mile Bastien-Lepage, it will eventually find its
+place, together with a goodly number of other canvases,
+in the museum of the Louvre, to which the
+brother of the great artist intends to bequeath them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It should be mentioned here, in connection
+with this work, that Bastien-Lepage continued to
+make more and more of a specialty of portraits
+of reduced dimensions, and that he acquired in
+this respect a reputation of the first order. He
+loved these little canvases, scarcely larger than
+miniatures, and he expended on their scanty surfaces
+an inimitable skill; he embellished them with
+a wealth of accessory detail which brings to mind,
+as we look at them to-day, the formidable labours
+of the illuminators of the middle ages. But this
+goldsmith's work, far from impairing the effect of
+the whole, adds a certain fascination to it. And
+he expended upon the study of the face the same
+degree of devotion that he gave to the rendering
+of a garment. His models relive with an intensity
+of life such as could be expressed only by an artist
+who has made a life-long study of nature in her
+minutest manifestations.</p>
+
+<p>To name over his portraits would be to mention
+an equal number of masterpieces. The catalogue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+would be too long, for Bastien-Lepage was an
+indefatigable workman. We may content ourselves
+with citing those that are most widely known:
+that of <i>M. Andrieux</i>, one-time Prefect of Police,
+whose refined features are rendered with striking
+truth; that of <i>J. Bastien-Lepage</i>, the artist's
+uncle, which is here reproduced and which shows
+him violin in hand, a clear and vigorous piece of
+brush-work, transcribing life in telling strokes,
+with an astonishing simplicity of means. This fine
+example is to be seen to-day in the museum at
+Verdun. And in the same museum there is still
+another that deserves mention; namely, the excellent
+<i>Portrait of M. X.</i> And we must not forget
+the <i>Portrait of Andr&eacute; Theuriet</i>, born, like Bastien-Lepage,
+on the banks of the Meuse and attached
+to the painter by ties of almost fraternal affection.
+One feels that, in this picture, the heart must
+have guided the hand, for it would be difficult to
+find another work more magisterial in execution
+and more delicate in finish. And lastly, there is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+<i>Mme. Bastien-Lepage</i>, the "good little mother,"
+as the great artist and loving son used to call her.
+He posed her in the garden of the home at Damvillers.
+She is seated on a stone bench; on her
+knees rests a large garden hat; her two hands are
+crossed, one over the other, and in the left she
+holds a little bunch of field flowers. She is clad
+in a loose dress of sombre colour, cut with a pelerine;
+and nothing but the one bright spot formed
+by the white collar reveals the severity of the
+costume. The whole attitude of the body in repose
+is perfect in its truth and naturalness; but our
+admiration changes and quickens to emotion when
+we raise our eyes to the level of the face of this
+"good little mother," a bony, irregular face, almost
+ugly, but so gentle, so kind, so touchingly illumined
+by the tender caress in the eyes as they rest upon
+the adored son in the course of painting her.
+Those emaciated features, which not even the
+crown of blonde hair is able to rejuvenate, are
+unmistakably those of a mother; if we had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+known, we should inevitably have divined it; no
+one but a son, and a great artist as well, could
+have crowned the brow of a woman with such an
+aureole of gentleness and love.</p>
+
+<p>Bastien-Lepage, whom those who envied him
+affected to regard as dedicated wholly to the
+reproduction of rustic uncouthness, had no equal
+in catching the radiance of feminine charms, even
+in their subtlest manifestations. No one was more
+skilled than he in seizing and recording the one
+particular trait, often elusive and intangible, which
+characterizes a woman and makes her beautiful.
+What delicious portraits of women we owe to
+him! Where could we meet with a more smiling
+image than that of <i>Mme. Godillot</i>, radiant and
+seductive, a rosy vision in the black velvet of her
+gown, relieved by the brilliant sheen of her white
+satin corsage! And what studied and elaborate
+art was expended on the <i>Portrait of Mme. Klotz</i>,
+whose magnificent brunette beauty emerges like
+a gorgeous lily from the surrounding whiteness of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+her scarf, that is all the more dazzlingly white by
+contrast with her sombre robe! And still again,
+there is the <i>Portrait of Mme. Juliette Drouet</i>,
+another beautiful and noble specimen of portraiture.
+And how marvellously Bastien-Lepage could detect
+the hidden soul lurking in the inmost recesses of
+his models and reveal it behind the transparent
+screen of their eyes! If Bastien-Lepage had not
+achieved eternal glory as an interpreter of rural
+life, he would still have remained celebrated as a
+portrait painter.</p>
+
+<p>But to Bastien-Lepage portrait painting was
+only a side issue, a form of relaxation between
+two landscapes; his predilection, his one object in
+life, so to speak, was to return constantly to his
+peasants, his scenes of toil, his fields of Lorraine.</p>
+
+<p>After his return from England he passed some
+months at Damvillers, when an impulse seized
+him to visit Italy, to which the verdict of a prejudiced
+committee had once upon a time barred
+his way. He proceeded straight to Venice, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+may as well be acknowledged at once, Venetian
+art left him cold, if not indifferent. He had never
+in the least understood any of the big "set pieces,"
+and in spite of all the art of Veronese and Titian,
+in spite of their dazzling flare of colour, he never
+succeeded in understanding their sumptuous allegories
+or in accepting the fantastic interpretation
+of nature which the Venetians allowed themselves.
+He returned to Damvillers, profoundly disillusioned
+and more than ever convinced that nature alone,
+such as he saw it, was deserving of the attention
+of the true artist. There would be no object in
+discussing here how rightly or how ill founded
+such an opinion was; we note it only to indicate
+once more the absolute independence of the painter,
+his fixed determination never to imitate anyone.</p>
+
+<p>And, beyond question, there is no resemblance
+to any other painter in that curious and remarkable
+picture known as <i>Jeanne d'Arc listening to the
+Voices</i>. Lorraine in heart and soul, Bastien-Lepage
+desired to pay his tribute, as so many had done
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+before him, to the glorious heroine who, like him,
+had come from the banks of the Meuse. And he
+wished also to restore her to her natural setting,
+with the greatest degree of historic accuracy.
+Consequently it is in a Lorraine garden surrounding
+a Lorraine cottage that he shows us Jeanne,
+the shepherdess; around her are the familiar garden
+utensils such as peasants use to-day just as they
+did in the fifteenth century. She is standing in
+an inspired and attentive attitude, which gives to
+her whole countenance that forceful character which
+Bastien-Lepage imprints upon all his compatriots.
+For he wished to make her, in a certain sense, a
+composite type of the women of the Lorraine
+race, such as Theuriet has described: "The forehead
+low but intelligent, the eyes with drooping
+lids that half conceal the somewhat sullen glance;
+the bones prominent in cheek and jaw, the chin
+square, indicative of an opinionated race; the
+mouth large, with half parted lips, through which
+one perceives the passage of the deep-drawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+breath." This head is always the same; under
+all the variations in physiognomy we always
+meet with the same local type: it is the head of
+the woman in <i>Hay-making</i> and of the <i>Women
+gathering Potatoes</i>, and it is also that of the
+"good little mother," so fundamentally and emphatically
+representative of Lorraine.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p2" style="width: 320px;"><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>
+<a href="images/illus71.jpg"><img class="p2" src="images/illus71_thumb.jpg" width="320" height="286" alt="PLATE VII" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a href="images/illus71.jpg">PLATE VII.&mdash;THE LITTLE CHIMNEY-SWEEP</a></span></div>
+
+<p class="center"><small>(Collection of &Eacute;. Bastien-Lepage)</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">This attractive picture, full of charm and vigour, belongs to the
+closing years of the artist&#39;s life, at the time when he was enjoying
+the flood tide of his talent. How much force and truth there is in
+this picture of the little chimney-sweep, and what graceful nimbleness
+in the movements of the cats that he is watching at play.</p>
+
+<p class="p4">Nevertheless <i>Jeanne d'Arc listening to the
+Voices</i> was rather badly received by the critics.
+Without disputing the originality and vigour of
+the inspired shepherdess, they reproached the artist
+for the presence of the traditional saints. Bastien-Lepage
+had indicated these under the form of
+luminous vapour, radiating through the branches
+overhanging the garden: St. Michael in the golden
+armour of a knight of the fifteenth century, St.
+Margaret and St. Catherine as phantoms so diaphanous
+as to be hardly perceptible. The idealists
+complained that the picture was lacking in idealism;
+the realists were somewhat disconcerted to
+find the apparitions there at all. It must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+acknowledged that Bastien-Lepage ceases to be
+himself the moment that he ventures to attempt
+the supernatural or even allegory pure and simple.
+He feels that he is no longer on familiar ground,
+he hesitates, he fumbles, and the harmony of the
+work suffers in consequence. Nevertheless, in spite
+of this undeniable defect, the face of Jeanne d'Arc
+will be remembered as a piece of powerful painting
+and genuine inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>At all events, Bastien-Lepage was keenly aware
+of the half-way nature of his success, and from
+that day renounced forever the element of the
+marvellous and confined himself to that concrete
+and tangible poetry which emanates from the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Some little time after his <i>Jeanne d'Arc</i>, he
+produced <i>The Mendicant</i>, veteran knight of the
+road, whose lazy life is passed in going from door
+to door, asking charity and compelling it if need
+be; suspicious looking old tramp, perhaps a thief
+as well, who inspires fear and whose sack is often
+filled through unwillingness to provoke him. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+artist has pictured him with a stout stick in his
+hand, stowing away the slice of bread which a
+pretty slip of a girl in a blue apron has just
+given him. This fine and vigorous canvas scored
+almost as much of a success, at the Salon of 1881,
+as the admirable <i>Portrait of Albert Wolff</i>, a critic
+on the <i>Figaro</i> and close personal friend of the
+artist.</p>
+
+<p>In 1882 he won a further success with his
+superb <i>Father Jacques</i>, a masterly study of the
+Lorraine peasant, and with his charming <i>Portrait
+of Mme. W.</i></p>
+
+<p>In 1883 came <i>Love in a Village</i>, one of his
+most popular canvases, in which he depicted with
+charming naturalness the uncomplicated and na&iuml;ve
+courtship of rustic lovers. Here are a pair who
+are untroubled by curious glances; the nearer
+houses of the village are quite close by. Bending
+slightly towards his sweetheart, the man is murmuring
+his avowals in her ear, in a voice that, we
+suspect, is by no means steady. Strapping fellow
+that he is, he evidently lacks the habit of
+making pretty speeches; we can see that from
+the embarrassed air with which he twists his
+fingers. His words, however, are plainly not lacking
+in eloquence, for the girl, type of buxom
+young womanhood that we have already learned
+to know, has bent her head and, although her
+back is turned, we are sure that she is blushing
+as she listens to his declaration. A special atmosphere
+emanates from this picture, as well as that
+profound spirit of poetry which is inseparable
+from the eternal song of love.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="r65" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+<h2 class="p2"><a name="HIS_PREMATURE_END" id="HIS_PREMATURE_END"></a>HIS PREMATURE END</h2>
+
+<p>At this period Bastien-Lepage had already
+begun to incur the first attacks of the disease
+which was destined so soon to end his days. He
+suffered violent pains in the kidneys. He became
+melancholy, nervous, irritable; he shut himself up
+in his studio in the Rue Legendre, and even his
+best friends could not gain admittance. The doc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>tors
+who were called in recognized the gravity of
+his illness and ordered energetic treatment and
+a change of air. The poor artist reconciled himself
+to go for a time to Brittany, and his choice
+fell on Concarneau. The keen sea air produced
+a temporary betterment, and he took advantage
+of it to work, for he could not resign himself to
+lay aside his palette and brushes. He spent entire
+days in a boat and, in spite of his sufferings,
+executed several landscapes of rare beauty. But
+his condition, instead of improving, took a turn
+for the worse. "The digestive tube," he wrote
+to Theuriet, "is always kicking up a row!" The
+pain in the kidneys and bowels became at this
+time so violent that he was forced to decide to
+return to Paris, in order to consult the men of
+science once again.</p>
+
+<p>This time, when Dr. Potain examined him, he
+could no longer deceive himself as to the artist's
+fate; he saw that his patient was irremediably
+condemned. However, a sojourn in a milder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+climate might prolong his life for a few months;
+so he advised Algeria. The prospect of the journey,
+the desire to make the acquaintance of this land
+of sunshine which Delacroix, Decamps, and Fromentin
+had taught him to love, for a few days
+gave a false strength to the poor sufferer, which
+produced a deceptive appearance of renewed health
+and even deceived the artist himself. Besides, Mme.
+Bastien-Lepage, the "good little mother," was to
+accompany him, and this unselfish and tender devotion
+warmed his heart. The poor woman forced
+back her tears in order to smile upon the unfortunate
+son whom she knew to be doomed. And so
+the pitiful pair set forth for the land of sunshine,
+she consumed with grief, and he almost joyous in
+the hope of a speedy cure.</p>
+
+<p>His first letters to his friends bore the imprint
+of good spirits; Algeria aroused his enthusiasm
+by its clear and vibrant colours; his disease declared
+a brief truce and he began to form projects.
+The thought of dying had not yet even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+vaguely occurred to him, though, for that matter,
+he had no fear of death. The previous year he
+had painted <i>Gambetta on his Death-bed</i>; and
+his frequent visits to Ville-d'Avray led him to
+discuss the inevitable end of life. "I am not
+afraid of death," he said, "dying is nothing,&mdash;the
+important thing is to survive oneself,
+and who can be sure of establishing a claim
+upon posterity? But there! I am talking nonsense!
+So long as our work is true, nothing else
+matters."</p>
+
+<p>But before long the ravages of the disease began
+to make headway; the kidneys no longer
+performed their function, and he suffered atrocious
+agonies which stretched him for days at a time
+on his back. Even the burning heat of the African
+sun no longer had strength enough to animate his
+shattered physique; the brush, which the artist
+from time to time still attempted to take up,
+fell from between his fingers. He, Bastien-Lepage,
+painter of the soil, found himself unable to transfer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+to canvas the enchantment of that land of fairy
+tale! And he poured forth his distress in long
+and poignant letters, in which could be read in
+every line the loss of hope and the sure prevision
+of the now inevitable end.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p2" style="width: 320px;"><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>
+<a href="images/illus83.jpg"><img class="p2" src="images/illus83_thumb.jpg" width="320" height="388" alt="PLATE VIII" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a href="images/illus83.jpg">PLATE VIII.&mdash;THE ARTIST&#39;S UNCLE</a></span></div>
+
+<p class="center"><small>(Museum at Verdun)</small></p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Here is still another kindly and vigorous face from Lorraine,
+forcefully modelled, with salient jaw bones, betraying the obstinacy
+of the race. An air of good nature softens the energy of this face,
+and the eyes sparkle with intelligence. This portrait is treated in a
+free-handed manner, with unfaltering strokes, and its colouring is
+especially excellent.</p>
+
+<p class="p4">As no amelioration took place, Bastien-Lepage
+made the return journey to Paris towards the end
+of May, 1884. He went back to his studio in
+the Rue Legendre, where he had formerly passed
+such happy hours in the full enjoyment of a
+talent at its zenith and a constitution apparently
+able to defy all tests. Now, however, he dragged
+around a dying body, with disease gnawing at his
+vitals. He could no longer sleep without the aid
+of powerful doses of morphine. The winter-time
+increased his suffering; his strength rapidly failed
+him; and, on the tenth of December, at six o'clock
+in the evening, he drew his last breath, at the
+age of thirty-six years.</p>
+
+<p>As long as he could hold a brush, Bastien-Lepage
+continued to work, in spite of the sufferings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+which racked him. During the year preceding his
+death, while he was already experiencing frightful
+tortures, he painted <i>The Woman making Lye</i>
+and <i>The Little Chimney-sweep</i>, the latter of
+which is here reproduced. This admirable canvas
+is to be seen now at the studio of the painter's
+brother at Neuilly, and forms part of the legacy
+which M. &Eacute;mile Bastien-Lepage intends to bequeath
+to the Louvre. It has never been shown at
+any Salon, and for that matter there are a good
+many other paintings and portraits which have
+never been exhibited in public and which are not
+for that reason any the less remarkable. We may
+cite at random: <i>The Portrait of M. &Eacute;. Bastien-Lepage</i>,
+<i>The Prince of Wales</i>, <i>Mme. Juliette
+Drouet</i>, <i>A Little Girl going to School</i>, <i>The Little
+Pedler asleep</i>, <i>The Vintage</i>, <i>No Help! The Thames
+at London, etc.</i></p>
+
+<p>The very year of his death, shortly before his
+departure for Algeria, Bastien-Lepage executed a
+delicious little canvas entitled <i>The Forge</i>, in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+the artist expended a surprising amount of talent
+and skill, and which enables us to realize what
+extraordinary heights his ever progressive genius
+might have attained, but for the blind and brutal
+cruelty of Destiny.</p>
+
+<p>His death was a time of mourning for the
+arts; the regrets which he left behind him were
+unanimous. Even those who had been opposed
+to his aesthetic creed paid homage to his great
+conscientiousness as an artist and his noble character
+as a man.</p>
+
+<p>During March and April, 1885, only a few
+months after his death, all literary and artistic
+Paris flocked to the Hotel de Chimay, an adjunct
+to the &Eacute;cole des Beaux-Arts, where a posthumous
+exhibition of his works had been organized.</p>
+
+<p>At this exhibition the entire body of his works
+had been brought together. The museums had
+loaned the canvases which they possessed and
+the private collectors had done their share towards
+the glorification of the artist by entrusting to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+organizers a goodly number of paintings and portraits
+which had never figured in any of the
+Salons.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was made possible to comprehend at
+a single glance the life-work of this remarkable
+artist and to appreciate the distance he had traversed,
+the progress he had made during his brief
+existence, and the brilliant prospects that were
+destroyed by his untimely death.</p>
+
+<p>From all these numerous works, exhibited side
+by side, what stood out most clearly was the unity
+of thought which had conceived them and the
+dogged fidelity to principles which had controlled
+their execution. At the same time they revealed
+the amazing adaptability of his talent, which
+essayed the most diverse and conflicting subjects
+with the same realistic vigour, bestowing even
+upon his vaporous and delicate portraits of women
+a touch which, while light, is unmistakably his
+own, and in which we recognize that noble, conscientious
+workmanship, free from all artifice, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+was the distinctive hall-mark both of his painting
+and of his character.</p>
+
+<p>But the quality which dominates all the rest
+in the work of Bastien-Lepage, and which emanates
+from it like the fragrance which is exhaled by
+certain precious essences, is his ardent and deep-rooted
+love for his native soil. This form of local
+patriotism, determined by the boundaries of Lorraine,
+underwent a noble expansion to the point
+of encircling the entire earth; for while the painter
+chose his models out of the familiar landscape of
+his childhood's home, his observation and his art
+broke out of the bounds of this special setting
+and embraced rustic humanity throughout France
+and even beyond. His peasants are unmistakably
+from the banks of the Meuse in type and in customs,
+but they are from the world at large in
+gesture and in philosophy of life. Whether he
+comes from the North or from the South, the
+tiller of the soil wages the same conflict with
+ungrateful furrows, the spade and the plough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+imprint the same calluses on his bony hands,
+the sun browns his energetic and stubborn features
+to the same deep tan. It is in this respect that
+the art of Bastien-Lepage assumes a higher significance;
+like Millet, it is not a peasant whom he
+paints, but the peasant, forever unchanging in
+spite of latitude. But if his work has attained
+this higher eminence of generalization, it is precisely
+for the reason that the artist's watchful
+eye has succeeded in discovering, in the life of
+the peasantry, that state of mind which is common
+to them all, that immutable gesture which
+they have always made and always will make.
+He has understood and translated with inspired
+eloquence their rugged strength, their na&iuml;ve awkwardness,
+their simple intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Another glorious distinction of Bastien-Lepage
+was that he loved the fields as well as he loved the
+peasants. Not fields drowned beneath melancholy
+shadow and pallid shifting light, but fields bathed
+in sunshine, until the golden tassels of the grain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+crackle like sparks under the fire of the midday
+sun. Always and everywhere he sought for light,
+and in the midst of it his modest protagonists of
+rustic life stand out in all their vigour.</p>
+
+<p>It would be easy to cite, among our best contemporary
+painters, a considerable number of artists
+who are brilliantly continuing the tradition left
+by Bastien-Lepage and emulating his predilection
+for the luminous brilliance of the open air. How
+often, in the presence of a canvas by Lhermitte,
+our thoughts go back to the painter of Lorraine,
+whose vigorous execution and joyous colouring
+seem to have been reincarnated! Art is indebted
+to Bastien-Lepage for having reinstated nature
+in all her literal truth by proving that, in order
+to be beautiful, she has no need of artificial and
+superfluous adornment.</p>
+
+<p>Lorraine, out of gratitude, wished to perpetuate
+the memory of this glorious son of the Meuse,
+who had so eloquently celebrated the vitality and
+poetry of his natal earth. It was at Damvillers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+itself that it was decided to raise a monument to
+the great painter; and around its pedestal there
+were gathered the "good little mother," all in
+tears, the assembled population of the village
+and the whole region round about, and even the
+Government took part in the pious ceremony
+by sending as its representative M. Gustave
+Larroumet, director of the Beaux-Arts. This
+eloquent art critic brought as a tribute to the
+departed painter the official seal of immortality,
+and he pronounced it in terms vibrant with
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"At the moment," he said, "when ordinarily
+the best of artists have done no more than to
+give indications of their originality and when
+ripening years alone begin to keep the promises
+of youth, Jules Bastien-Lepage died, leaving masterpieces
+behind him, besides having liberated an
+artistic formula from the tendencies and exaggerations
+which hampered it, and indicated to the art
+of painting a new pathway along which his young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+heirs are advancing with an assured step. He
+loved nature and truth; he loved his own people,
+and no one ever lived who was surrounded with
+a greater degree of affection; he inspired faithful
+friendships which he himself enjoyed to the full;
+and those whom he left behind soothe their heart-ache
+with the balm of tender memories; he practised
+his art without ever making sacrifice to
+passing fashion or sordid profit; there was no
+place in his mind or in his heart for any other
+than noble and generous thoughts. Let us comfort
+ourselves, therefore, for what his death has
+taken from us by the thought of what his life has
+left to us, and let us assign him his place in the
+ranks of the younger master painters who have
+been mown down in full flower, close beside that
+of G&eacute;ricault and of Henri Regnault."</p>
+
+<p>In his admirable biographic and critical study
+of Bastien-Lepage, whose personal friend he had
+been, M. L. de Fourcaud, by way of conclusion,
+bids him this touching farewell:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Poor Bastien-Lepage, snatched away one winter's
+night, at thirty-six years of age, in the fairest
+flowering of his bright promise, in the richest
+expansion of his personality; may each returning
+month of May bring at least an abundance of
+blossoms to the apple tree beside his grave! For
+the blossoms of the apple were always, in his eyes,
+so fair a sight!"</p>
+
+<p>To-day he sleeps forever in a corner of that
+Lorraine land which he loved so dearly, and perhaps
+in the cemetery of his native village his
+shade can still hear the familiar accents of his
+native dialect. The great painter of Lorraine
+could never have slept his eternal sleep in any
+other soil than that.</p>
+
+<p>Painter of flowers, painter of nature, painter
+of the earth which is forever deathless and forever
+renewed, Bastien-Lepage has chosen that better part;
+his work will live as long as these, his models, and
+will go down through the centuries in all the
+splendour of increasing beauty and eternal youth.</p>
+
+<hr class="r65" />
+
+<p class="p2 header">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<p>Typographical errors have been corrected as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>Page 22: "Bastine" replaced with "Bastien"</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bastien Lepage, by Fr. Crastre
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+</body>
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