All these works, acrimoniously discussed and unjustly attacked by the
critics, made the name of Puvis de Chavannes widely known without
augmenting his reputation. The general public, habituated to the
stereotyped, elaborate, ornate school, understood nothing of such
deceptive simplicity. His canvases would not sell. Even the government
had made no more purchases since its acquisition of _Peace_. It had even
refused to acquire _War_, when the artist offered it. As we have already
said, sooner than have the two pictures separated, Puvis made up his
mind to donate it.
Commissions failed to come in, and nothing afforded hope that this
condition of affairs was likely to change, when chance threw in the path
of Puvis de Chavannes a man whose providential intervention completely
transformed his destiny.
At about this epoch the city of Amiens had started to build a museum.
The architect of this enterprise, M. Diot, came to see Puvis de
Chavannes and said to him:
"I saw your paintings in the Salon of 1861, and was greatly pleased with
them. In the edifice which I am at present constructing, there are some
vast surfaces to be covered. Are your two pictures, _Peace_ and _War_,
still in your possession? I could find immediate use for them."
Puvis de Chavannes replied that the two paintings in question belonged
to the State. The city of Amiens immediately solicited the concession of
them, which was courteously granted.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.--LUDUS PRO PATRIA
(In the Museum, Amiens)
This great composition, of which the present plate gives only a
fragment, is numbered among the most beautiful productions of Puvis de
Chavannes, because of the harmony of its parts, the nobility of the
postures and the charm of its detail.]
The paintings were placed in the grand gallery on the first floor, where
they produced a most beautiful decorative effect. Puvis de Chavannes,
delighted at this unhoped-for good fortune, offered to complete the
decoration of the gallery, by painting the panels occupying the
spaces between the windows. The illumination is exceedingly bad, but
with infinite art the painter succeeded in harmonizing his compositions
with the atmosphere and light of the room. It should be noted further
that the subjects treated in the panels on the right gallery relate to
the picture of _War_, which faces them; they are a _Standard-Bearer_ and
a _Woman weeping over the ruins of her home_. The same holds true of the
painting consecrated to _Peace_, the corresponding panels being a
_Harvester_ and a _Woman spinning_.
Puvis de Chavannes considered himself fortunate in having two of his
works which he so greatly loved find a place in a museum. The
municipality of Amiens was none the less delighted in possessing them;
it gave proof of this by once more sending its municipal architect to
him on a special embassy:
"I need two more mural paintings to decorate the main staircase of the
museum. Do you happen to have what I need ready made, as you did the
other time?"
The architect was jesting. Puvis de Chavannes betook himself to a
corner of his studio, and unrolling two canvases, presented them to M.
Diot:
"Here are what you want. These two pictures are of the same dimensions
as _Peace_ and _War_; they represent _Repose_ and _Labour_ and form part
of the same series. Will they serve your purpose?"
They served the architect's purpose to perfection. Unfortunately the
city of Amiens did not have the money to pay for them. The difficulty
was explained to the artist who, with his customary disinterestedness,
made a present of both the paintings. They were soon stretched in the
places for which they were intended, in a framework of fruits and
flowers, and produced an admirable effect. The municipality of Amiens
was so well satisfied with these paintings that it decided at the cost
of great sacrifices to commission Puvis de Chavannes to prepare a large
composition destined to occupy the entire upper panel of the staircase
on the side of the grand gallery. This panel was intersected by two
doorways.
Puvis de Chavannes set to work immediately. In the Salon of 1865 he
exhibited his _Ave Picardia Nutrix_, destined for the Museum of Amiens.
The painting produced a veritable sensation. Even the unskilled in art
experienced an instinctive emotion in the presence of this important
canvas which they did not fully understand, but which they felt to be
sincere; as to the artists, they were obliged to acknowledge that the
painter whom they had scoffed and derided, and who had now produced the
_Picardia Nutrix_, was unquestionably a master.
The _Ave Picardia Nutrix_ is a glorification of the fertility and
richness of the land of Picardy. The artist has wished to represent in a
succession of episodes, harmoniously related one to another, all the
products of the soil and all the local industries from which Picardy
draws its prosperity.
To this end he has grouped his figures in the setting of a Picardian
landscape, quite faithful in colour and in line. M. Marius Vachon
analyzes the painting as follows:
"Beneath the orchard of a vast estate some peasants are turning a flour
mill; women are bringing apples for a keg of cider; masons are building
the walls of a house, and an old woman is spinning on her distaff the
native hemp. Along the banks of a stream, women are weaving fish nets;
carpenters are constructing a bridge; boatmen are steering heavy-laden
barges. Add to these professional labours the incidents of work-a-day
life, which are taking place on every side, charming incidents,
picturesque and touching; a little lad, carrying a heavy basket of fruit
on his head, eager to show his strength before his elders; a mother,
nursing her youngest born; some women bathing under the shadow of the
willows. The composition is abundantly suggestive of delicate
impressions; and it forms a magnificent decoration for the edifice in
which it has been placed."
When the painting had been installed in its position in the vestibule of
honour on the main floor, the municipality of Amiens perceived that the
fourth side of the staircase, the only one not decorated, was precisely
the one that best lent itself to the development of a painting, because
of its considerable surface. The ceiling, it is true, darkened this
vestibule, owing to its insufficient window space. It was, furthermore,
adorned by a painting by Barrias. Nevertheless the city determined
to replace the ceiling by a skylight, on condition that Puvis de
Chavannes would paint the vacant panel thus made available.
[Illustration: PLATE V.--REPOSE
(In the Museum, Amiens)
This work is one of the earliest by this great artist. It is very
interesting, because it still shows the influence of Couture's studio,
where Puvis de Chavannes had been a pupil. It serves as a point of
comparison for determining the evolution of the artist's talent.]
However, the resources of the municipality did not permit it to incur so
great an expense. It appealed to the State, which curtly refused its
coöperation. The city fathers of Amiens were in despair, the painter not
less so. What was to be done? Wait until the municipality, through slow
economies, was in a position to order the picture? Puvis de Chavannes,
who had grown enthusiastic over the task, was boiling with impatience
and listened day by day, as he expressed it, to hear if no breeze was
blowing his way from Amiens.
But when the breeze remained persistently unfavourable, Puvis de
Chavannes, growing tired of waiting, decided to execute the panel in any
case, come what might. And he composed the admirable fresco which bears
the name of _Ludus pro Patria_.
Everyone knows the subject of this painting, which has passed into a
legend. In a plain traversed by a running stream, some young men are
engaged in a game of rivalry with spears. On a knoll, an old man,
surrounded by women, serves as umpire. He follows, with attentive eye,
the fluctuations of the game, while a young lad, in a pose charming for
its relaxation, rests one arm around his neck. Behind him a young woman
holds out her baby for its father to kiss. On the left of the picture,
seated at the foot of a tree, or grouped around a fountain, young girls
await the end of the game in which their brothers or their betrothed
take part. One of them leans towards an aged minstrel and begs him to
play some dance music after the game is over.
All these groups are harmoniously disposed in an open-air setting,
dotted over with cottages and stately trees, enveloped in a soft and
mellow light.
This picture reveals the artist's predilection for children, a very
curious and touching predilection to discover in a painter whose own
fireside was never gladdened by childish laughter. Let us examine the
_Ludus pro Patria_; in this picture Puvis de Chavannes has been lavish
of childhood games and pastimes. Notwithstanding that his art was before
all else synthetic, and gained its effects from harmony of attitude
rather than from finish of figures, he plainly expended loving care in
modelling those delicate and charming little bodies, which he has
endowed with infinite grace. Is there anything more adorably exquisite
than the gesture of the infant stretching out its plump arms towards its
father? And does not the child standing before the group by the fountain
reveal the master's tender solicitude for these little beings whose
absence from his domestic life he probably regretted?
The distinguished custodian of the Museum at Amiens showed me the corner
of the balustrade on which the painter rested his elbows, in front of
the group of which that child forms part. After some moments of
contemplation, he might be seen to mount his scaffolding, brush in hand,
to add a few strokes, some new tint to that delightfully modelled little
form.
The _Ludus pro Patria_ is something more and something better than a
beautiful picture; it is a symbolic work in which the noblest
conceptions of patriotism are exalted. With his incomparable synthetic
art, Puvis de Chavannes has endeavoured to show all the diverse manners
of serving usefully one's native land. Young women, bearing the tender
burden of nursing children, are rearing for their country a valiant
generation, which before long will be augmented through the robust girls
grouped on the left, awaiting the advent of husbands. The children,
grown to manhood, will practise games of strength and skill which will
render them capable of defending their common patrimony. The old man
himself has his rôle assigned in this ideal commonwealth; ripened by
experience of life, he supplements the feebleness of his arms by the
wisdom of his lessons; he is the honoured counsellor, the arbiter of
full justice, who restrains the ardor of youth within the path of
reason.
The cartoon for this magnificent panel was exhibited in the Salon of
1881; it achieved a unanimous success. The State acquired it, and at the
same time commissioned Puvis to paint the picture itself for the Museum
of Picardy. The finished work, in its proper dimensions, found a place
in the Salon the following year, and gained its author the medal of
honour from the Society of French Artists.
We have followed Puvis de Chavannes in his decoration of the Museum of
Amiens, from the beginning to the end of his artistic career, without
regard to chronological order, because of the interest which he himself
took in this extensive work, which was, one might say, his constant
preoccupation. Accordingly we must go back in point of time and follow
step by step this astonishing and genial worker whose accomplishment is
disconcerting in its power and its fecundity.
The first works executed for the Museum of Amiens had attracted public
attention to him. The municipality of Marseilles had just crowned the
important enterprise of bringing the waters of the Durance into the
city, by erecting a sumptuous Public Waterworks, bearing the name of the
Palace of Longchamps.
Two great mural surfaces enclose the principal staircase. It was decided
to decorate them with paintings. And when the time came to choose the
artist, a unanimous agreement was reached on the name of Puvis de
Chavannes.
The latter, being notified, accepted joyfully, as he accepted all
occasions of converting a noble vision of art into a reality. And what
finer fortune could come to an artist that to celebrate Marseilles, the
sun-bathed city, vibrant with light, crouching royally on the azure
mantle of the Mediterranean?
Puvis de Chavannes hastened to the ancient Ligurian city. He calculated
the difficulties of composing a great decorative composition, free from
banality, out of the habitual elements of a seaport,--a subject a
thousand times treated and perilous of execution. He sought, he studied,
he promenaded the quays, he strode the length and breadth of the city.
At last the enlightening flash he awaited came in the course of a trip
to the Chateau d'If. In the presence of that noble panorama of the city
seen from the sea, he remained as if dazed, realizing that he had found
what he was in search of. He would not paint Marseilles with the sea as
a decorative background; it was the city herself that should form the
background, and not the sea. He had his two pictures in his grasp.
And without stirring from the spot, while his friends took luncheon, he
remained seated on the rocks, making notes and sketches, in order to
fix fully in his mind "the line and colour of that marvellous maritime
landscape."
The first of these pictures, _Marseilles the Greek Colony_, stands for
the entire history of the Phocian city from its foundation to the
present time. But, following his essentially synthetic method, he
painted, not the successive transformations of Marseilles, but symbolic
figures of the sources to which she owes her grandeur and her
prosperity.
In the background is the strand, which as yet is only a natural harbour.
Along the shore, vessels are seen building; these are the symbol of
activity. Further off, horses are bringing merchandise towards the boats
about to sail, symbol of the commercial instinct; masons, carpenters,
stonecutters, are zealously plying their craft; and palaces,
storehouses, and churches arise, symbols of wealth and of taste in art.
Among the accessory features are a woman vendor spreading before other
women rich fabrics and pearls, and some slaves conveying towards the
city jars of oil and skins filled with wine.
In _Marseilles, Gateway of the East_, a ship is seen, laden with
travellers, making its way into port. All these passengers are
Orientals, recognizable by the gaudiness of their garments: they admire
the panorama of the rich city whose fortifications, churches, and
palaces stand out in bold relief against the ruddy light of evening.
An atmosphere of warmth and brilliance emanates from these two
paintings, of which the city of Marseilles has shown herself justly
proud.
When Puvis de Chavannes received a commission for a mural painting he
gave himself ardently to his task, but at the same time intermittently.
Contrary to a generally accepted belief, his genius was not the result
of "long patience," but rather the realization of a vision. He never
applied himself to a painting if some external cause, no matter what,
had deadened in him the essential inspiration. In such a case, he would
revert to some other work which his mind could "see better" on that
particular day. In this way we can understand how he could carry forward
simultaneously several works of equal importance, and at the same time
paint in addition occasional easel pictures.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE SACRED WOOD, DEAR TO THE ARTS AND THE
MUSES
(In the Museum, Amiens)
This painting, admirable in execution, is quite interesting to study,
because it serves to show in what a purely personal manner, wholly
detached from mythological traditions, Puvis de Chavannes interpreted
Antiquity.]
Following the example of Marseilles and Amiens, the city of Poitiers,
which in 1872 had just completed the building of a City Hall,
commissioned Puvis de Chavannes to decorate the main staircase.
The two subjects chosen by the artist, with the approbation of the
municipality, were as follows:
First panel:--"Radegonde, having retired to the Convent of the Holy
Cross, offers an asylum to the poets and protects Literature against the
barbarism of those days."
Second panel:--"The year 732: Charles Martel saves Christendom by his
victory over the Saracens near Poitiers."
The legend of Radegonde is well known: "The virtuous spouse of Clotaire,
fleeing from the brutality of that crowned free-booter and hiding in a
convent in order to escape his pursuit." But this convent is by no means
a cloister; the practice of arts and letters is pursued alternately with
the singing of psalms.
The door stands open to poets. One of them, Fortunatus, passing through
Poitiers, stops there and is received with cordial hospitality, and
conceiving for the saintly queen a delicate and chaste love, he remains
for twenty years in this abode in which he purposed to spend only a few
days.
Puvis de Chavannes has magnificently rendered the poetic beauty of this
historic episode by representing one of the fêtes given by Radegonde in
the Convent of the Holy Cross.
In the second panel, we see Charles Martel returning to Poitiers,
victorious over the Saracens and receiving the benediction of the
bishops. Here the artist's brush attains a vigour of expression such as
in all his life he found but few occasions to employ. The countenances
of the bishops, notably, stand out with a relief and an energy that are
remarkable.
M. Marius Vachon relates that he once asked the artist, who was a
personal friend, to what documents he had recourse in order to give such
forbidding features to the prelates in his painting:
"I got the suggestion for them," he replied, laughing, "from an old set
of chess men, consisting of the coarse and grouchy faces of knights and
jesters."