Jules Bastien-Lepage | |
|---|---|
 Self-Portrait | |
| Born | (1848-11-01)1 November 1848 Damvillers,Meuse, France |
| Died | 10 December 1884(1884-12-10) (aged 36) Paris, France |
| Education | École des beaux-arts |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Naturalism |
| Signature | |
 | |
Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a Frenchpainter closely associated with the beginning ofNaturalism, an artistic style that grew out of theRealist movement and paved the way for the development ofImpressionism.Émile Zola described Bastien-Lepage's work as "impressionism corrected, sweetened and adapted to the taste of the crowd."[1]
Hisen plein air depictions of peasant life in the countryside were highly influential on many international artists, includingGeorge Clausen in England andTom Roberts in Australia. He also won renown for his history paintings, among the most famous beingJoan of Arc, now held at theMetropolitan Museum of Art inNew York.[2]
Bastien-Lepage was born in the village ofDamvillers,Meuse, and spent his childhood there.[3] Bastien's father grew grapes in a vineyard to support the family. His grandfather also lived in the village; his garden hadespaliered fruit trees of apple, pear, and peach up against the high walls. Bastien took an early liking to drawing, and his parents fostered his creativity by buying prints of paintings for him to copy.
Jules Bastien-Lepage's first teacher was his father, himself an artist.[4] His first formal training was atVerdun. Prompted by a love of art, he went toParis in 1867, where he was admitted to theÉcole des Beaux-arts, working underAlexandre Cabanel.[3] He was awarded first place for drawing, but spent most of his time working alone, only occasionally appearing in class. Nevertheless, he completed three years at theécole.[4] In a letter to his parents, he complained that the life model was a man in the pose of a mediaeval lutanist. During theFranco-Prussian War in 1870, Bastien fought and was wounded. After the war, he returned home to paint the villagers and recover from his wound. In 1873 he painted his grandfather in the garden, a work that would bring the artist his first success at theParis Salon.
After exhibiting works in the Salons of 1870 and 1872, which attracted no attention, in 1874 hisPortrait of my Grandfather[5] garnered critical acclaim and received a third-class medal. He also showedSong of Spring, an academically oriented study of rural life, representing a peasant girl sitting on a knoll above a village,[3] surrounded by wood nymphs.
His initial success was confirmed in 1875 by theFirst Communion, a picture of a little girl minutely worked up in manner that was compared toHans Holbein, and aPortrait of M. Hayern. In 1875, he took second place in the competition for thePrix de Rome with hisAngels appearing to the Shepherds, exhibited again at theExposition Universelle in 1878. His next attempt to win the Prix de Rome in 1876 withPriam at the Feet of Achilles was again unsuccessful (it is in theLille gallery), and the painter determined to return to country life.[Note 1] To the Salon of 1877 he sent a full-lengthPortrait of Lady L. andMy Parents; and in 1878 aPortrait of M. Theuriet andHaymaking (Les Foins).[3] The last picture, now in theMusée d'Orsay, was widely praised by critics and the public alike. It secured his status as one of the first painters in the Naturalist school.
After the success ofHaymaking, Bastien-Lepage was recognized in France as the leader of the emerging Naturalist school. By 1883, a critic could proclaim that "The whole world paints so much today like M. Bastien-Lepage that M. Bastien-Lepage seems to paint like the whole world."[6] This fame brought him prominent commissions.
_par_Jules_Bastien-Lepage_(1848-1884)_-_1879.jpg)
HisPortrait of Sarah Bernhardt (1879), painted in a light key, won him the cross of theLegion of Honour. In 1879 he was commissioned to do a portrait of the Prince of Wales. In 1880 he exhibited a small depiction of M. Andrieux and an historical painting ofJoan of Arc (now in theMetropolitan Museum of Art); and in the same year, at the Royal Academy, the small portrait of the Prince of Wales. In 1881 he paintedThe Beggar and thePortrait of Albert Wolf; in 1882Le Père Jacques; in 1885Village Love, in which we find some trace ofGustave Courbet's influence. His last dated work isThe Forge (1884).[3]
Between 1880 and 1883 he traveled in Italy. The artist, long ailing, had tried in vain to re-establish his health inAlgiers. He died in Paris in 1884, when planning a new series of rural subjects. His friend,Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch,[7] was with him at the end and wrote:[4]
At last he was unable to work anymore; and he died on the 10th of December, 1884, breathing his last in my arms. At his grave's head his mother and brother planted an apple-tree.
In March and April 1885, more than 200 of his pictures were exhibited at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1889 some of his best-known work was shown at theParis Exposition Universelle.
Among his more important works, may also be mentioned the portrait of Mme J. Drouet (1883);Gambetta on his death-bed, and some landscapes;The Vintage (1880), andThe Thames at London (1882).The Little Chimney-Sweep was never finished.[3] A museum is devoted to him atMontmédy. A statue of Bastien-Lepage byRodin was erected in Damvillers.[4] An obituary by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch, appeared in theMagazine of Art (Cassell) in 1890.[4]
The influential English criticRoger Fry credited the wider public's acceptance of theImpressionists, especiallyClaude Monet, to Bastien-Lepage. In his 1920Essay in Æsthetics, Fry wrote:[8]
Monet is an artist whose chief claim to recognition lies in the fact of his astonishing power of faithfully reproducing certain aspects of nature, but his really naive innocence and sincerity was taken by the public to be the most audacious humbug, and it required the teaching of men like Bastien-Lepage, who cleverly compromised between the truth and an accepted convention of what things looked like, to bring the world gradually around to admitting truths which a single walk in the country with purely unbiassed vision would have established beyond doubt.
Ukrainian-born painterMarie Bashkirtseff formed a close friendship with Bastien-Lepage.[9] Artistically, she took her cue from the French painter's admiration for nature: "I say nothing of the fields because Bastien-Lepage reigns over them as a sovereign; but the streets, however, have not still had their...Bastien."[10] Her best-known work in this naturalist vein isA Meeting (now in the Musée d'Orsay), which was shown to wide acclaim at theParis Salon of 1884. By a curious coincidence she succumbed to chronic illness the same year as her colleague and friend.
The highest price reached by one of his paintings in the art market was when hisPortrait of Sarah Bernhardt (1879) sold for $2,280,000 atChristie's, on 20 October 2022.[11][12]
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Frantz, Henri (1911). "Bastien-Lepage, Jules". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 502.