Jules Bastien-Lepage was born at Damvillers, in the department of the
Meuse, on the first of 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.
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.
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.
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, 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!"
Accordingly he set forth, leaving behind him 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.
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 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 _Olympia_ 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.
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.
[Illustration: PLATE III.--THE ARTIST'S MOTHER
(Collection of E. Bastien-Lepage)
What a kindly and gentle face this is, the face of the woman to whom the
artist applied the tender endearment of "Good little mother!" 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.]
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.
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 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.
This lack of success in no wise discouraged him, for he had faith. It
was in the year 1874 that he exhibited _The Song of Springtime_. 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 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 naive innocence of simple souls. _The Song of Springtime_ was
Bastien-Lepage's first attempt in that vein of realistic painting in
which he was soon destined to excel.
That same year he produced _Grandfather's Portrait_, which also
attracted much attention. 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.
Bastien-Lepage had now acquired a name. His _Song of Springtime_ won him
a third class medal, and the State purchased the painting for the museum
at Verdun, where it at present hangs.
In the following year he exhibited _Her First Communion_, 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 Francois Cluet: his little communicant is
infinitely artificial in her spotless finery, yet infinitely alive under
the thin surface wash of colour which recalls the _Elizabeth of
Austria_, wife of Charles IX, as painted by the greatest of the French
primitives.
Simultaneously with this picture he exhibited the _Portrait of M.
Hayem_, 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.
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
_Prix de Rome_. Accordingly, the painter of _The Song of Springtime_ and
_Her First Communion_ might shortly after have been seen entering the
lists like any ordinary nobody. He obtained only the second prize.
He presented himself again the following year, but with no better
success. The subject assigned for the competition was _Priam at the Feet
of Achilles_. 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.
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.
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.