FRENCH PAINTING.
SIXTEENTH, SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Amorini, _Vita del celebre pittore
Francesco Primaticcio_; Berger, _Histoire de l'École
Française de Peinture au XVII^{me} Siècle_; Bland, _Les
Peintres des fêtes galantes, Watteau, Boucher, et al._;
Curmer, _L'OEuvre de Jean Fouquet_; Delaborde, _Études sur
les Beaux Arts en France et en Italie_; Didot, _Études sur
Jean Cousin_; Dimier, _French Painting in XVI Century_;
Dumont, _Antoine Watteau_; Dussieux, _Nouvelles Recherches
sur la Vie de E. Lesueur_; Genevay, _Le Style Louis XIV.,
Charles Le Brun_; Goncourt, _L'Art du XVIII^{me} Siècle_;
Guibel, _Éloge de Nicolas Poussin_; Guiffrey, _La Famille de
Jean Cousin_; Laborde, _La Renaissance des Arts à la Cour de
France_; Lagrange, _J. Vernet et la Peinture au XVIII^{me}
Siècle_; Lecoy de la Marche, _Le Roi René_; Mantz, _François
Boucher_; Michiels, _Études sur l'Art Flamand dans l'est et
le midi de la France_; Muntz, _La Renaissance en Italie et
en France_; Palustre, _La Renaissance en France_; Pattison,
_Renaissance of Art in France_; Pattison, _Claude Lorrain_;
Poillon, _Nicolas Poussin_; Stranahan, _History of French
Painting_.
EARLY FRENCH ART: Painting in France did not, as in Italy, spring
directly from Christianity, though it dealt with the religious
subject. From the beginning a decorative motive--the strong feature of
French art--appears as the chief motive of painting. This showed
itself largely in church ornament, garments, tapestries, miniatures,
and illuminations. Mural paintings were produced during the fifth
century, probably in imitation of Italian or Roman example. Under
Charlemagne, in the eighth century, Byzantine influences were at work.
In the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries much stained-glass
work appeared, and also many missal paintings and furniture
decorations.
[Illustration: Fig. 56.--POUSSIN. ET IN ARCADIA EGO. LOUVRE.]
In the fifteenth century René of Anjou (1408-1480), king and painter,
gave an impetus to art which he perhaps originally received from
Italy. His work showed some Italian influence mingled with a great
deal of Flemish precision, and corresponded for France to the early
Renaissance work of Italy, though by no means so advanced.
Contemporary with René was Jean Fouquet (1415?-1480?) an illuminator
and portrait-painter, one of the earliest in French history. He was an
artist of some original characteristics and produced an art detailed
and exact in its realism. Jean Péreal (?-1528?) and Jean Bourdichon
(1457?-1521?) with Fouquet's pupils and sons, formed a school at Tours
which afterward came to show some Italian influence. The native
workmen at Paris--they sprang up from illuminators to painters in all
probability--showed more of the Flemish influence. Neither of the
schools of the fifteenth century reflected much life or thought, but
what there was of it was native to the soil, though their methods were
influenced from without.
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING: During this century Francis I., at
Fontainebleau, seems to have encouraged two schools of painting, one
the native French and the other an imported Italian, which afterward
took to itself the name of the "School of Fontainebleau." Of the
native artists the Clouets were the most conspicuous. They were of
Flemish origin, and followed Flemish methods both in technic and
mediums. There were four of them, of whom Jean (1485?-1541?) and
François (1500?-1572?) were the most noteworthy. They painted many
portraits, and François' work, bearing some resemblance to that of
Holbein, it has been doubtfully said that he was a pupil of that
painter. All of their work was remarkable for detail and closely
followed facts.
The Italian importation came about largely through the travels of
Francis I. in Italy. He invited to Fontainebleau Leonardo da Vinci,
Andrea del Sarto, Il Rosso, Primaticcio, and Niccolò dell' Abbate.
These painters rather superseded and greatly influenced the French
painters. The result was an Italianized school of French art which
ruled in France for many years. Primaticcio was probably the greatest
of the influencers, remaining as he did for thirty years in France.
The native painters, Jean Cousin (1500?-1589) and Toussaint du Breuil
(1561-1602) followed his style, and in the next century the painters
were even more servile imitators of Italy--imitating not the best
models either, but the Mannerists, the Eclectics, and the Roman
painters of the Decadence.
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--CLAUDE LORRAIN. FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. DRESDEN.]
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING: This was a century of great development
and production in France, the time of the founding of the French
Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and the formation of many picture
collections. In the first part of the century the Flemish and native
tendencies existed, but they were overawed, outnumbered by the
Italian. Not even Rubens's painting for Marie de' Medici, in the
palace of the Luxembourg, could stem the tide of Italy. The French
painters flocked to Rome to study the art of their great predecessors
and were led astray by the flashy elegance of the late Italians. Among
the earliest of this century was Fréminet (1567-1619). He was first
taught by his father and Jean Cousin, but afterward spent fifteen
years in Italy studying Parmigianino and Michael Angelo. His work had
something of the Mannerist style about it and was overwrought and
exaggerated. In shadows he seemed to have borrowed from Caravaggio.
Vouet (1590-1649) was a student in Italy of Veronese's painting and
afterward of Guido Reni and Caravaggio. He was a mediocre artist, but
had a great vogue in France and left many celebrated pupils.
By all odds the best painter of this time was Nicolas Poussin
(1593-1665). He lived almost all of his life in Italy, and might be
put down as an Italian of the Decadence. He was well versed in
classical archæology, and had much of the classic taste and feeling
prevalent at that time in the Roman school of Giulio Romano. His work
showed great intelligence and had an elevated grandiloquent style
about it that was impressive. It reflected nothing French, and had
little more root in present human sympathy than any of the other
painting of the time, but it was better done. The drawing was correct
if severe, the composition agreeable if formal, the coloring
variegated if violent. Many of his pictures have now changed for the
worse in coloring owing to the dissipation of surface pigments. He was
the founder of the classic and academic in French art, and in
influence was the most important man of the century. He was especially
strong in the heroic landscape, and in this branch helped form the
style of his brother-in-law, Gaspard (Dughet) Poussin (1613-1675).
The landscape painter of the period, however, was Claude Lorrain
(1600-1682). He differed from Poussin in making his pictures depend
more strictly upon landscape than upon figures. With both painters,
the trees, mountains, valleys, buildings, figures, were of the grand
classic variety. Hills and plains, sylvan groves, flowing streams,
peopled harbors, Ionic and Corinthian temples, Roman aqueducts,
mythological groups, were the materials used, and the object of their
use was to show the ideal dwelling-place of man--the former Garden of
the Gods. Panoramic and slightly theatrical at times, Claude's work
was not without its poetic side, shrewd knowledge, and skilful
execution. He was a leader in landscape, the man who first painted
real golden sunlight and shed its light upon earth. There is a soft
summer's-day drowsiness, a golden haze of atmosphere, a feeling of
composure and restfulness about his pictures that are attractive. Like
Poussin he depended much upon long sweeping lines in composition, and
upon effects of linear perspective.
[Illustration: FIG. 58--WATTEAU. GILLES. LOUVRE.]
COURT PAINTING: When Louis XIV. came to the throne painting took on a
decided character, but it was hardly national or race character. The
popular idea, if the people had an idea, did not obtain. There was no
motive springing from the French except an inclination to follow
Italy; and in Italy all the great art-motives were dead. In method
the French painters followed the late Italians, and imitated an
imitation; in matter they bowed to the dictates of the court and
reflected the king's mock-heroic spirit. Echoing the fashion of the
day, painting became pompous, theatrical, grandiloquent--a mass of
vapid vanity utterly lacking in sincerity and truth. Lebrun
(1619-1690), painter in ordinary to the king, directed substantially
all the painting of the reign. He aimed at pleasing royalty with
flattering allusions to Cæsarism and extravagant personifications of
the king as a classic conqueror. His art had neither truth, nor
genius, nor great skill, and so sought to startle by subject or size.
Enormous canvases of Alexander's triumphs, in allusion to those of the
great Louis, were turned out to order, and Versailles to this day is
tapestried with battle-pieces in which Louis is always victor.
Considering the amount of work done, Lebrun showed great fecundity and
industry, but none of it has much more than a mechanical ingenuity
about it. It was rather original in composition, but poor in drawing,
lighting, and coloring; and its example upon the painters of the time
was pernicious.
His contemporary, Le Sueur (1616-1655), was a more sympathetic and
sincere painter, if not a much better technician. Both were pupils of
Vouet, but Le Sueur's art was religious in subject, while Lebrun's was
military and monarchical. Le Sueur had a feeling for his theme, but
was a weak painter, inclined to the sentimental, thin in coloring, and
not at all certain in his drawing. French allusions to him as "the
French Raphael" show more national complacency than correctness.
Sebastian Bourdon (1616-1671) was another painter of history, but a
little out of the Lebrun circle. He was not, however, free from the
influence of Italy, where he spent three years studying color more
than drawing. This shows in his works, most of which are lacking in
form.
Contemporary with these men was a group of portrait-painters who
gained celebrity perhaps as much by their subjects as by their own
powers. They were facile flatterers given over to the pomps of the
reign and mirroring all its absurdities of fashion. Their work has a
graceful, smooth appearance, and, for its time, it was undoubtedly
excellent portraiture. Even to this day it has qualities of drawing
and coloring to commend it, and at times one meets with exceptionally
good work. The leaders among these portrait-painters were Philip de
Champaigne (1602-1674), the best of his time; Pierre Mignard
(1610?-1695), a pupil of Vouet, who studied in Rome and afterward
returned to France to become the successful rival of Lebrun;
Largillière (1656-1746) and Rigaud (1659-1743).
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING: The painting of Louis XIV.'s time was
continued into the eighteenth century for some fifteen years or more
with little change. With the advent of Louis XV. art took upon itself
another character, and one that reflected perfectly the moral, social,
and political France of the eighteenth century. The first Louis
clamored for glory, the second Louis revelled in gayety, frivolity,
and sensuality. This was the difference between both monarchs and both
arts. The gay and the coquettish in painting had already been
introduced by the Regent, himself a dilettante in art, and when Louis
XV. came to the throne it passed from the gay to the insipid, the
flippant, even the erotic. Shepherds and shepherdesses dressed in
court silks and satins with cottony sheep beside them posed in
stage-set Arcadias, pretty gods and goddesses reclined indolently upon
gossamer clouds, and court gallants lounged under artificial trees by
artificial ponds making love to pretty soubrettes from the theatre.
Yet, in spite of the lack of moral and intellectual elevation, in
spite of frivolity and make-believe, this art was infinitely better
than the pompous imitation of foreign example set up by Louis XIV. It
was more spontaneous, more original, more French. The influence of
Italy began to fail, and the painters began to mirror French life. It
was largely court life, lively, vivacious, licentious, but in that
very respect characteristic of the time. Moreover, there was another
quality about it that showed French taste at its best--the decorative
quality. It can hardly be supposed that the fairy creations of the age
were intended to represent actual nature. They were designed to
ornament hall and boudoir, and in pure decorative delicacy of design,
lightness of touch, color charm, they have never been excelled. The
serious spirit was lacking, but the gayety of line and color was well
given.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--BOUCHER. PASTORAL. LOUVRE.]
Watteau (1684-1721) was the one chiefly responsible for the coquette
and soubrette of French art, and Watteau was, practically speaking,
the first French painter. His subjects were trifling bits of
fashionable love-making, scenes from the opera, fêtes, balls, and the
like. All his characters played at life in parks and groves that never
grew, and most of his color was beautifully unreal; but for all that
the work was original, decorative, and charming. Moreover, Watteau was
a brushman, and introduced not only a new spirit and new subject into
art, but a new method. The epic treatment of the Italians was laid
aside in favor of a genre treatment, and instead of line and flat
surface Watteau introduced color and cleverly laid pigment. He was a
brilliant painter; not a great man in thought or imagination, but one
of fancy, delicacy, and skill. Unfortunately he set a bad example by
his gay subjects, and those who came after him carried his gayety and
lightness of spirit into exaggeration. Watteau's best pupils were
Lancret (1690-1743) and Pater (1695-1736), who painted in his style
with fair results.
After these men came Van Loo (1705-1765) and Boucher (1703-1770), who
turned Watteau's charming fêtes, showing the costumes and manners of
the Regency, into flippant extravagance. Not only was the moral tone
and intellectual stamina of their art far below that of Watteau, but
their workmanship grew defective. Both men possessed a remarkable
facility of the hand and a keen decorative color-sense; but after a
time both became stereotyped and mannered. Drawing and modelling were
neglected, light was wholly conventional, and landscape turned into a
piece of embroidered background with a Dresden china-tapestry effect
about it. As decoration the general effect was often excellent, as a
serious expression of life it was very weak, as an intellectual or
moral force it was worse than worthless. Fragonard (1732-1806)
followed in a similar style, but was a more knowing man, clever in
color, and a much freer and better brushman.
A few painters in the time of Louis XV. remained apparently
unaffected by the court influence, and stand in conspicuous isolation.
Claude Joseph Vernet (1712-1789) was a landscape and marine painter of
some repute in his time. He had a sense of the pictorial, but not a
remarkable sense of the truthful in nature. Chardin (1699-1779) and
Greuze (1725-1805), clung to portrayals of humble life and sought to
popularize the _genre_ subject. Chardin was not appreciated by the
masses. His frank realism, his absolute sincerity of purpose, his play
of light and its effect upon color, and his charming handling of
textures were comparatively unnoticed. Yet as a colorist he may be
ranked second to none in French art, and in freshness of handling his
work is a model for present-day painters. Diderot early recognized
Chardin's excellence, and many artists since his day have admired his
pictures; but he is not now a well-known or popular painter. The
populace fancies Greuze and his sentimental heads of young girls. They
have a prettiness about them that is attractive, but as art they lack
in force, and in workmanship they are too smooth, finical, and thin in
handling.
PRINCIPAL WORKS: All of these French painters are best
represented in the collections of the Louvre. Some of the
other galleries, like the Dresden, Berlin, and National at
London, have examples of their work; but the masterpieces
are with the French people in the Louvre and in the other
municipal galleries of France.