,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,illustration ,illustration3 ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,after the portrait by himself ,imp4 ,chardon-,wiltmann1 ,paris ,illustration ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,,and ,,his ,,art4 ,a ,,memoir1 ,,by ,,andr ,,theuriet ,illustration ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,,as ,,artist1 ,,by ,,george ,,clausen1 ,a4,r4,w4,s42 ,,modern ,,realism ,,in ,,painting1 ,,by ,,walter ,,sickert1 ,n4,e4,a4,c42 ,,and1 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff1 ,,by ,,mathilde ,,blind ,illustration ,,illustrated ,,with ,,reproductions ,,of ,,bastien-,,lepage',s ,,and ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff',s ,,works ,illustration ,,london3 ,t4 ,,fisher ,,unwin1 ,,paternoster ,,square4 ,,mdcccxcii4 ,,contents4 ,illustration ,,page ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,,and ,,his ,,art3 ,a ,,memoir4 ,,by ,,andr ,,theuriet #aa ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,,as ,,artist4 ,,by ,,george ,,clausen1 ,a4,r4,w4,s4 #ajg ,,modern ,,realism ,,in ,,painting4 ,,by ,,walter ,,sickert1 ,n4,e4,a4,c4 #abi ,a ,,study ,,of ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff4 ,,by ,,mathilde ,,blind #ade ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations4 ,illustration ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage4 ,,after ,a ,,portrait ,,by ,,himself4 ,frontispiece ,,page ,,grandfather ,,lepage4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #be ,,the ,,communicant4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #ca ,,the ,,hayfield4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #dc ,,sarah ,,bernhardt4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #ea ,,joan ,,of ,,arc ,,listening ,,to ,,the ,,voices4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #ee ,,the ,,beggar4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #fa ,,father ,,jacques1 ,,the ,,woodman4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #ga ,,sketch ,,for ,,father ,,jacques4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #ge ,,the ,,inn4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #aja ,,bas-,,relief ,,portrait ,,of ,,bastien-,,lepage4 ,,by ,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens #aaj ,,the ,,little ,,sweep4 ,,by ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage #acb ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff4 ,,from ,a ,,portrait ,,by ,,herself #adh ,a ,,meeting4 ,,by ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff #afi ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff4 ,,from ,a ,,photograph #ahg ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,,and ,,his ,,art4 ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,,as ,,man ,,and ,,artist4 ,in the month of ,june1 #ahef1 the chances of a ,civil ,service noviciate compelled me to live for six weeks at ,damvillers1 a small town on the ,meuse1 half-way between ,verdun and ,montmdy4 ,damvillers was formerly fortified1 and had the honour of being besieged by ,charles ,v41 but there is now nothing left to recall the memory of those warlike days4 ,the whole aspect of the place is peaceful and rural4 ,the people are occupied with agriculture4 ,orchards now cover the ground where the fortifications once stood1 and form a circle of verdure round the scattered houses1 in a valley where the ,tinte winds through osier beds and meadows4 ,on the right a vine-covered mound like the back of a camel1 on the left a succession of wooded slopes1 enclose the little town4 ,the grey1 blue hills are low4 ,the monotony of the fields and meadows is broken only by rows of poplars4 ,the ill-kept solitary streets bordered by the labourers' houses with grey or dingy yellow fronts1 have the same washed-out look as the landscape4 ,for a young fellow of twenty-two there was nothing here particularly attractive4 ,i spent my solitary evenings with my elbows on my window-sill watching the twilight descend upon the brown-tiled roofs which enclose the great square as with a horizontal frame4 ,in one corner the large green waggon of a travelling pedler was resting by the side of rows of earthenware1 whose polished surface reflected the lights from the window of the neighbouring inn4 ,my only amusement consisted in listening to the chatter of some girls sitting at the tinner's door1 or the shouts of the children playing at ball by the wall of the corn-market4 ,i little thought then that among these urchins1 with torn pinafores and tangled hair1 was to be found a future master of contemporary painting1 and that the name of ,bastien-,lepage thrown to and fro each evening by the children's voices1 and repeated by the echoes of the solitary square1 would come to be known1 and received with acclamations throughout the world1 by all who are interested in ,art and in ,artists4 ,i4 ,jules ,bastien-,lepage was born at ,damvillers1 on ,november #a1 #ahdh1 in a house which forms one of the corners of that square of which ,i have just spoken2 a simple1 well-to-do farmer's house1 the front coloured yellow1 the shutters grey4 ,on opening the outer door one finds oneself at once in the kitchen1 the regular kitchen of the ,meuse villages1 with its high chimney-piece surmounted by cooking utensils1 with its rows of copper saucepans1 its maie for the bread1 and its dresser furnished with coloured earthenware4 ,the next room serves at once as sitting-room and dining-room1 and even1 at need1 as bed-chamber4 ,above are some apartments not in general use1 and then some vast granaries with sloping rafters4 ,it was in a room on the ground floor1 with windows looking to the south1 that the painter of ,les ,foins 7,hay7 and of ,jeanne d',arc first saw the light4 ,the family consisted of the father1 a sensible1 industrious1 methodical man2 of the mother1 a woman of the truest heart and untiring devotion2 and of the ,grandfather ,lepage1 formerly a collector of taxes1 who now found a home with his children4 ,they lived in common on the modest produce of the fields1 which the ,bastiens themselves cultivated1 and on the grandfather's small pension4 ,at five years old ,jules began to show an aptitude for drawing1 and his father was eager to cultivate this dawning talent4 ,he himself had a taste for the imitative arts1 employing his leisure in light work that required a certain manual skill1 and to this he brought the scrupulous exactness and conscientious attention which were his ruling qualities4 ,from this time1 in the winter evenings1 he required that ,jules should draw with pencil on paper the various articles in use upon the tablethe lamp1 the jug1 the inkstand1 etc4 ,it was to this first education of the eye and of the hand that ,bastien-,lepage owed that love of sincerity1 that patient seeking for exactness of detail1 which were the ruling motives of his life as an artist4 ,in thus urging him to draw every day1 the father had no idea of making his son a painter4 ,at that time1 especially at ,damvillers1 painting was not looked upon as a serious profession4 ,the dream that he cherished1 along with the grandfather1 was to put ,jules in a position to choose later on one of the administrative careers1 such as overseer of forests1 or bridges1 or high-ways1 which are always easiest of access to those who have been well trained in drawing4 ,so1 as soon as he should be eleven years old1 he was to leave the communal school1 and go to the ,college4 ,this involved great sacrifice1 for the resources of the family were low1 and in the interval a second boy was born2 but they redoubled their economy1 and in #ahei they managed to send ,jules to the ,college of ,verdun4 ,it was at the drawing class that he worked with the greatest zeal4 ,the correctness of his eye and the dexterity of his hand astonished his master4 ,when the boy went back to ,damvillers for the holidays he drew everywhere2 upon his books1 upon the walls1 upon the doors1 and long afterwards traces of these rough outlines might be seen on the orchard palings4 ,his mother carefully preserved books full of pencil sketches of the little brother ,emile in all sorts of poses4 ,his habit was to express any thought that possessed him by a drawing4 ,he already attempted to reproduce with his pencil1 passages that struck him in reading1 and his first composition was ,abraham's ,sacrifice4 ,classical stories made more impression on his mind at this time than the rustic scenes which met him everywhere in his wanderings in the open air4 ,at this age1 the surroundings in which we live1 and which custom renders familiar to us1 excite neither our surprise nor our imagination1 but they enter our eyes and our memory1 and1 without our knowing it1 become deeply engraven there4 ,it is only in later years that1 by comparison and reflection1 we feel their powerful charm and their original grace4 ,in his walks across the fields1 ,bastien-,lepage received impressions of country life1 and assimilated them like daily food4 ,gatherers of faggots carrying their bundles of wood2 fishers for frogs wet to the knees1 crossing the meadows with their fishing tackle on their shoulders2 washerwomen wringing out their linen by the banks of the ,tinte2 loungers sitting under a willow tree1 while the lunch of cheese is carried to the workers2 the village gardens in ,april at the time of the spring digging1 when the leafless trees spread their shadows over borders adorned only by the precocious blossoms of the primrose and the crown imperial2 potato fields1 where fires of dried stems send up their blue smoke into the red ,october eveningall these details of village life entered the eyes of the child1 who instinctively stored them up in his memory4 ,literary studies had little interest for him1 while on the contrary he had a strong liking for mathematics4 ,at one time when he was leaving the fourth form he thought of preparing for the examination for ,st4 ,cyr4 ,this is not surprising in a department essentially military1 whose remarkable men have all been generals or marshals2 but this fancy1 in which he was led more by imitation of others than by his own true calling1 soon passed away1 and during his last years at college his thoughts were constantly turned towards drawing1 and when his course of philosophy came to an end1 he made known to his parents his wish to go to ,paris to study painting4 ,great was the astonishment in the home at ,damvillers4 ,while recognizing his son's skill as a draughtsman1 ,father ,bastien persisted in declaring that painting was not a careernothing certain1 a long and costly apprenticeship1 and then ten chances of failure to one of success4 ,let us talk rather of an honourable appointment in the administration of the state1 where one is sure to get one's pay every month1 with a prospect of a provision for one's old age6 ,they held a family council4 ,the grandfather considered the adventure hazardous and shook his head2 the mother was frightened above all at the dangers of ,paris and the life of privation to be undergone there1 but1 conquered at last by the persistency of her son1 she murmured timidly1 8,yet1 if ,jules wishes it6'''0 ,a way was found for settling everything4 ,a friend of the family1 who held a superior employment in the ,central ,postal ,administration1 advised ,jules to go up for examination for admission into that department1 promising him that on his being received1 he would have him called to ,paris1 when it could be arranged for him to study at the cole des ,beaux ,arts in the hours that were free from his postal service4 ,they took this advice2 ,bastien passed the examination1 was named supernumerary1 and set out for ,paris about the end of #ahfg4 ,he divided his time between his postal duties and his studies in the ,school4 ,this could only be done under great disadvantages4 ,the requirements of his position in the ,post ,office made consecutive and serious study very difficult4 ,by the end of six months he was brought to the conclusion that this double work was impossible2 that he must choose between the ,office and the ,school4 ,he did not hesitate2 he gave up the ,post ,office1 and1 furnished with a letter from ,m4 ,bouguereau1 he entered the ,cabanel studio after having been received in the ,school with the number one4 8,all beginnings are painful10 says ,goethe4 ,bastien-,lepage had a harsh experience of this4 ,he had burnt his ships in leaving the ,post ,office1 and he found himself alone in ,paris with very limited means of existence4 ,at ,damvillers there was more self-denial4 ,the mother1 always valiant1 herself went to work in the fields1 that she might have something to add to the little sum sent every month to the young painter4 ,the ,council ,general of the ,meuse had voted him an allowance of1 ,i believe1 six hundred francs2 all this together scarcely furnished him with bed and board4 ,but ,jules was endowed with a robust faith1 a firm will1 a never-failing cheerfulness1 and the magical power of these three enabled him to endure bravely the many trials of the years of his apprenticeship4 ,in #ahgj he sent his first picture to the ,salon4 ,it passed unnoticed4 ,i have just seen this picture again4 ,it is the portrait of a man1 quite young1 dressed in a coat of strong green1 the whole flooded with a greenish light4 ,it is rather in the manner of ,ricard1 but the solid construction of the head and the expression of the face already indicate a painter who sees clearly and seeks to enter into the character of his model4 ,a short time later the war broke out4 ,jules ,bastien enlisted in a company of volunteers1 commanded by the painter ,castellani1 and did his duty bravely at the outposts4 ,one day in the trenches a shell burst near him and sent a clod of hardened earth straight at his chest4 ,he was taken to the ambulance1 where he remained during the last month of the siege1 while another shell fell upon his studio1 and there destroyed his first composition1 a nymph1 nude1 her arms clasped over her blonde head1 and bathing her feet in the waters of a spring4 ,on the re-opening of communications he hastened back to his village1 where he arrived1 like the pigeon in the fable1 disabled1 8,trainant l'aile et tirant le pied40 ,there he spent the remainder of the year #ahga1 recovering his shattered health in his native air1 making long excursions as far as to the ,moselle1 and painting various portraits of relations and friends4 ,he did not return to ,paris until sometime in the year #ahgb4 ,then the struggling life of the dbutant began again4 ,in order to make both ends meet he tried to get some of his drawings into the illustrated journals2 but his manner of illustrating was not what was wanted by the editors1 who sought above all things to please the ordinary public4 ,weary of the struggle he began to paint fans4 ,one day a manufacturer of antphelic milk 7lait antphelique7 asked him to make a sort of allegorical picture intended for an advertisement for his ,elixir of ,youth4 ,the artist1 making a virtue of necessity1 painted a bright gay picture1 after the manner of ,watteau's landscapes1 with groups of young women dressed in modern style approaching a fountain1 where ,cupids were gambolling4 ,the painting finished1 ,bastien explained to the manufacturer his intention to exhibit it first of all in the ,salon4 ,the perfumer wished for nothing better1 but insisted on one condition2 above the fountain was to be placed on a scroll of all the colours of the rainbow1 the name of the cosmetic1 and the address of the place where it was sold4 ,naturally ,bastien refused1 and the tradesman1 disappointed of his advertisement1 left him the picture for his trouble4 ,this painting was exhibited in the ,salon of #ahgc1 under the title of ,au ,printemps 7,in ,spring72 being placed very high it attracted no attention4 ,jules was not discouraged1 but he was a prey to that restless and feverish indecision which commonly besets beginners4 ,the teaching in the school troubled him1 and being a great admirer of ,puvis de ,chavannes1 he was tempted to try decorative and allegorical painting4 ,his second picture1 ,la ,chanson du ,printemps 7,the ,song of ,spring71 exhibited in #ahgd1 is conceived and executed under this influence4 ,it represents a young peasant girl seated at the edge of a wood1 bordered by a meadow which slopes down to a ,meusian village1 whose red-tiled roofs are seen in the distance4 ,the girl is sitting1 with wide-open eyes1 her arm passed through the bowed handle of a rustic basket strewn with violets1 while from behind her nude little children with butterflies' wings and blowing upon pipes1 whisper to her the song of the growing grass1 and tell her of coming womanhood4 ,this light and spring-like picture1 half realistic1 half symbolical1 would1 perhaps1 in spite of its simple charm1 have left the public indifferent if it had not been accompanied by another1 which suddenly brought the artist into the light1 and was the success of the ,salon of #ahgd4 ,during his last holiday at ,damvillers1 ,bastien-,lepage had conceived the idea of painting the portrait of his grandfather1 in the open air1 in the little garden which the old man loved to cultivate4 ,illustration3 ,,grandfather ,,lepage4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 ,the grandfather was represented seated in a garden chair1 holding on his knees his horn snuff-box and his handkerchief of blue cotton4 ,his striking face stood out well detached from the background of trees2 the black velvet cap sloping jauntily towards his ear gave effect to the shrewd ,socratic face2 his blue eyes twinkled with humour2 the nose was broad and retrouss2 the white forked beard spread itself over an ancient vest of the colour of dead leaves2 the hands1 painted like life1 were crossed upon the grey trousers4 ,before this picture1 so true1 so frank1 of such marvellous intensity of familiar life1 the public stood delighted1 and the name of ,bastien-,lepage1 unknown before1 figured the next day in the first place in the articles on the ,salon4 ,,ii4 ,it was in front of this picture that ,i first met ,jules4 ,having looked in my catalogue for the name of the painter1 ,i was delighted to find that he was from the ,meuse1 and born at that same ,damvillers where ,i had once lived4 ,the heavy soil of our department is not fruitful in artists4 ,when it has produced one it takes a rest for a few centuries4 ,since ,ligier ,richier1 the celebrated sculptor1 born at the end of the fifteenth century1 the ,meuse could only claim credit for the painter ,yard a clever decorator of churches and houses in the time of ,duke ,stanislas2 so ,i was quite proud to find that ,bastien-,lepage was a fellow countryman of mine4 ,a few moments later a mutual friend introduced us to each other4 ,i saw before me a young man1 plainly dressed1 small1 fair1 and muscular2 his pale face1 with its square determined brow1 short nose1 and spiritual lips1 scarcely covered with a blond moustache1 was lighted up by two clear blue eyes whose straight and piercing look told of loyalty and indomitable energy4 ,there was roguishness as well as manliness in that mobile face with its flattened features1 and a certain cool audacity alternated with signs of sensitiveness and sparkling fun and gaiety4 ,remembrances of our native province1 our common love of the country and of life in the open air1 soon established kindly relations between us1 and after two or three meetings we had entered upon a close friendship4 ,the portrait of the grandfather had won for him a third medal1 and had ensured him a place in the sunshine4 ,it was not yet a money success1 but it was a certain degree of fame2 he might go back to his village with his heart at rest1 his head high4 ,the ,state had just bought his picture1 ,la ,chanson du ,printemps 7,the ,song of ,spring71 and orders were beginning to come in4 ,in #ahge ,bastien-,lepage reappeared in the ,salon with ,la ,communiante 7,the ,communicant7 and the portrait of ,m4 ,simon ,hayem1 two excellent works which gave1 each in its way1 a new mark of his originality4 ,the portrait of ,m4 ,hayem was best liked by men of the world2 artists were most struck by ,la ,communiante4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,communicant4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 ,this young girl's simple awkward bearing1 as she stands out from a creamy background1 with all the stiffness of her starched white veil1 navely opening her pure hazel eyes1 and crossing her fingers1 ill at ease in the white gloves1 is a marvel of truthful painting4 ,it reminds one of the manner of ,memling and of ,clouet1 though with quite a modern feeling4 ,it is interesting1 as being the first of those small1 lifelike1 characteristic portraits1 in a style at once broad and conscientious1 which may be reckoned among the most perfect of this painter's works4 ,at the time of these successes in the ,salon1 ,bastien joined in the competition for the ,prix de ,rome4 ,the subject chosen for #ahge was taken from the ,new ,testament,l',annonciation aux ,bergers 7,the ,annunciation to the ,shepherds74 ,i remember as if it were yesterday that ,july morning when the gates of the ,palais des ,beaux ,arts were opened1 and the crowd of eager inquirers rushed into the hall of the competition4 ,after a few minutes ,bastien's picture was surrounded1 and a buzz of approval arose from the groups of young people gathered round that work1 so real1 so strongly conceived and executed that the other nine canvases disappeared as in a mist4 ,the artist had understood and treated the subject in a manner utterly different from the usual style of the ,academy4 ,it was familiar and touching1 like a page of the ,bible4 ,the visit of the angel had surprised the shepherds sleeping by their fire in the open air2 the oldest of them was kneeling before the apparition1 and prostrated himself in adoration2 the youngest was gazing with half-closed eyes1 and his open lips and hands1 with fingers apart1 expressed astonishment and admiration4 ,the angel1 a graceful figure1 with childlike almost feminine head1 was showing with outstretched arm to the shepherds1 ,bethlehem in the distance surrounded by a miraculous halo4 ,this picture1 which has both the charm of poetic legend and a manly grip of real life1 was executed with uncommon grace and vigour2 its very faults contributed to the realization of the effect aimed at4 ,most of those who saw this work of ,lepage declared that he would carry off the ,prix de ,rome with a high hand2 yet the jury decided otherwise4 ,it was an older and more correct competitor who was sent to the ,villa ,medicis at the cost of the ,state4 ,for a moment ,bastien-,lepage was troubled and discouraged by this decision4 ,not that he felt himself strongly attracted towards ,rome and ,italian art1 but he knew that many people judge of an artist by his success4 ,among the people down in his province and in his own family the ,prix de ,rome would have been considered as an official recognition of his talent1 and he regretted1 above all1 not being able to give this satisfaction to his relations1 who had undergone so many privations in order to maintain him at ,paris4 ,that he did not soon forget this unmerited check1 we may gather from this fragment of a letter to a friend3 8,i learned my business in ,paris1 ,i shall not forget that2 but my art ,i did not learn there4 ,i should be sorry to undervalue the high qualities and the devotion of the masters who direct the school4 ,but is it my fault if ,i have found in their studio the only doubts that have tormented me8 ,when ,i came to ,paris ,i knew nothing at all1 but ,i had never dreamed of that heap of formulas they pervert one with4 ,in the school ,i have drawn gods and goddesses1 ,greeks and ,romans1 that ,i knew nothing about1 that ,i did not understand1 and even laughed at4 ,i used to say to myself that this might be high art2 ,i wonder sometimes now if anything has resulted from this education'''40 ,however1 he did not consider himself beaten4 ,the following year1 at the same time that he was exhibiting his portrait of ,m4 ,wallon1 he went in again for the ,prix de ,rome competition4 ,this time it was less for his own sake than to give a satisfaction to his family and friends4 ,he did not enter with any real feeling into this competition1 the subject for which was3 ,priam suppliant ,achille de lui rendre le corps de son fils ,hector 7,priam begging ,achilles to restore to him the body of his son ,hector74 ,this picture1 though a vigorous composition1 tells almost nothing of the deep and poignant emotion of this episode of the ,iliad4 ,once more he failed to gain the prize1 but this time he did not take it much to heart4 ,he was occupied with more absorbing prospects3 his last visit to ,damvillers had bent his mind toward another ideal4 ,whatever he might say1 his studies in the school had not been without their use to him4 ,they had developed in him the critical faculty4 ,his repugnance to factitious and conventional art had driven him with more force to the exact and attentive observation of nature4 ,at ,paris he had learned to compare1 and to see better4 ,the ,meuse country1 so little heroic1 with its low hills1 its limited horizons1 its level plains1 had appeared to him suddenly more attractive and more worthy of interest than the heroes of ,greece and ,rome4 ,our labourers driving the plough across the field2 our peasant women with their large liquid eyes1 prominent jaws1 and widely opening mouths2 our vine-dressers1 their backs curved with the labour of the hoe1 had revealed themselves to him as models much more attractive than those of the atelier4 ,it was a work for a great artist to bring out the poetry pervading the village folk and their belongings and to give it a real existence1 as it were1 by means of line and colour4 ,to represent the intoxicating odour of the mown grass1 the heat of the ,august sun on the ripe corn1 the life of the village street2 to bring into relief the men and women who have their joys and sorrows there2 to show the slow movement of thought1 the anxieties about daily bread on faces with irregular and even vulgar features2this is human art1 and consequently high art4 ,this is what the ,dutch painters did1 and they created masterpieces4 ,bastien1 while lounging among the orchards of ,damvillers and the woods of ,rville1 resolved that he would do as they had done1 that he would paint the peasants of the ,meuse4 ,the list of studies begun or completed at this time shows us the progress of this dominant idea3 ,la ,paysanne au ,repos 7,the ,peasant ,woman ,reposing71 ,la ,prairie de ,damvillers 7,the ,meadow at ,damvillers71 the two sketches for the picture ,les ,foins 7,the ,hay71 ,les ,jardins au ,printemps 7,gardens in ,spring71 ,les ,foins ,mrs 7,ripe ,grasses71 ,l',aurore 7,dawn7all these canvases bear the date of #ahgf4 ,it was in the autumn of the same year that we carried out a long-talked-of plan for making an excursion together on foot into the ,argonne4 ,i went to join him in ,september at ,damvillers4 ,thanks to him1 ,i saw with a very different feeling the town that formerly ,i thought so dull4 ,cordially and hospitably received in the house at the corner of the great square1 ,i made the acquaintance of the father1 with his calm1 thoughtful face2 of the grandfather1 so cheerful in spite of his eighty years2 of the mother1 so full of life1 so devoted1 the best mother that one could wish for an artist4 ,i saw what a strong and tender union existed between the members of this family whose idol and whose pride was ,jules4 ,we set out along with one of my old friends and the painter's young brother4 ,for a week we walked with our bags on our backs through the forest country of the ,argonne1 going through woods from ,varennes to ,la ,chalade1 and from ,islettes to ,beaulieu4 ,the weather was rainy and unpleasant enough1 but we were none the less gay for that1 never winking when the rain came down1 visiting the glass-works1 admiring the deep gorges in the forests1 the solitary pools in the midst of the woods1 the miles of green and misty avenues at the foot of the hills4 ,jules ,bastien was always the leader4 ,when we arrived at our resting place in an evening1 after a day of walking in the rain1 he almost deafened us with scraps of caf-concert songs1 with which his memory was stored4 ,i seem still to hear in the dripping night that voice1 clear and vibrating1 now silent for ever'''4 ,as we went along he told me of his plans for the future4 ,he wanted to tell the whole story of country life in a series of large pictures3 hay-making1 harvest1 seed-time1 the lovers1 the burial of a young girl'''4 ,he also wanted to paint a peasant woman as ,jeanne d',arc1 at the moment when the idea of her divine mission is taking possession of her brain2 then1 a ,christ in the ,tomb4 ,together we made a plan for publishing a series of twelve compositions3 ,les ,mois ,rustiques 7,the ,months in the ,country71 for which he was to furnish the drawings and ,i the text4 ,from time to time we stopped at the opening of a wood or at the entrance of a village1 and ,jules would make a hasty sketch1 little thinking that the wild and simple peasants of the ,argonne would take us for ,germans surreptitiously making notes of their roads and passes4 ,at ,saint ,rouin1 while we were looking on at a ,pilgrimage1 we had nearly been taken as spies4 ,i have told this story elsewhere4#a ,the remembrance of it amused us for a long time4 ,after eight days of this vagabond life we separated at ,saint ,mihiel1 where ,bastien wished to see the group of statues of the sepulchre1 the chef d'uvre of ,ligier ,richier1 before beginning his ,christ in the ,tomb4 ,shortly afterwards he gave an account of this visit in a letter to his friend ,baude1 the engraver3 8,our too short walk through the ,argonne has been very interesting1 and ended with a visit to the grand chef d'uvre of ,ligier ,richier at ,saint ,mihiel4 ,you must see that some day4 ,i have seen nothing in sculpture so touching4 ,france ought to know better and to be prouder of that great ,lorraine artist4 ,you will see a photograph of this masterpiece when you come to me'''40 ,he had scarcely been six weeks at ,damvillers again when he lost his father1 who was suddenly carried off by pulmonary congestion4 ,death entered the house for the first time1 and it was a rude shock for a family where each loved the other so well4 8,we were too young to lose such a good friend10 he wrote to me2 8in spite of all the courage one can muster1 the void1 the frightful void is so great1 that one is sometimes in despair'''40 8''' ,happily remembrance remains 7letter to ,m4 ,victor ,klotz71 and what a remembrance it is6 ''' the purest that is possible2he was goodness and self-abnegation personified2 he loved us so6''' ,what is to be done8 ,we must try to fill the void with love for those who remain1 and who are attached to us1 always keeping in mind him who is gone1 and working much to drive away the fixed idea40 ,and indeed he did work furiously3 at ,damvillers1 at a ,job that remains unfinished1 and at ,paris at the full-length portrait of a lady1 which was exhibited in the ,salon of #ahgg4 ,he had left the ,rue ,cherche ,midi and had settled in the ,impasse du ,maine1 where his studio and his apartment occupied one floor of a building1 at the end of a narrow neglected garden1 whose only ornaments were an apricot tree and some lilac bushes4 ,his brother ,emile1 who just then came to an end of his study of architecture in the school1 lived with him4 ,his studio was very large1 and was simply furnished with an old divan1 a few stools1 and a table covered with books and sketches4 ,it was decorated only with the painter's own studies and a few hangings of ,japanese material4 ,i used to go there every morning at this time to sit for my portrait4 ,i used to arrive about eight o'clock1 to find ,jules already up1 but with his eyes only half awake1 swallowing two raw eggs1 to give himself tone1 as he said4 ,he already complained of stomach trouble1 and lived by rule4 ,we used to smoke a cigarette1 and then he began to work4 ,he painted with a feverish rapidity1 and with a certainty of hand quite astonishing4 ,sometimes he would stop1 get up and roll a cigarette1 would closely examine the face of his model1 and then1 after five minutes of silent contemplation1 he would sit down again with the vivacity of a monkey and begin to paint furiously4 ,the portrait1 sketched in during the snows of ,january1 was almost finished when the apricot tree began to put on its covering of white flowers in ,april4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,hayfield4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 ,immediately after the opening of the ,salon1 ,bastien packed up his baggage and fled to ,damvillers to prepare for his great picture ,les ,foins 7,the ,hayfield71 which occupied him all the summer of #ahgg1 and of which he gave me news from time to time4 8,july4,i shall not say much about my work2 the subject is not yet sufficiently sketched in4 ,what ,i can tell you is that ,i am going to give myself up to a debauch in pearly tones3 half-dry hay and flowering grasses2 and this in the sunshine1 looking like a pale yellow tissue with silver threads running through it4 8,the clumps of trees on the banks of the stream and in the meadow will stand out strongly with a rather ,japanese effect'''40 8#aeth ,august4,your verses are just the picture ,i should like to paint4 ,they smell of the hay and the heat of the meadow'''4 ,if my hay smells as well as yours ,i shall be content'''4 ,my young peasant is sitting with her arms apart1 her face hot and red2 her fixed eyes seeing nothing2 her attitude altogether broken and weary4 ,i think she will give the true idea of a peasant woman4 ,behind her1 flat on his back1 her companion is asleep1 with his hands closed2 and beyond1 in the meadow1 in the full sun1 the haymakers are beginning to work again4 ,i have had hard work to set up my first ideas1 being determined to keep simply to the true aspect of a bit of nature4 ,nothing of the usual willow arrangement1 with its branches drooping over the heads of the people to frame the scene4 ,nothing of that sort4 ,my people stand out against the half-dry hay4 ,there is a little tree in one corner of the picture to show that other trees are near1 where the men are gone to rest in the shade4 ,the whole tone of the picture will be a light grey green'''40 8,september4,why didn't you come1 lazy fellow8 ,you would have seen my ,hay before it was finished4 ,lenoir1 the sculptor1 my neighbour in the ,impasse1 liked it4 ,the country people say it is alive4 ,i have little more than the background to finish4 ,i am going to harness myself to the ,reapers1 and to a nude study of a ,diogenes the cynic1 or rather1 the sceptic'''40 ,les ,foins was sent to the ,salon in #ahgh4 ,it had a great success1 though it was warmly discussed4 ,in the hall where it was placed1 among the pictures which surrounded it1 this picture gave an extraordinary sensation of light and of the open air4 ,it had the effect of a large open window4 ,the meadow1 half mown1 went back bathed with sunshine1 under a summer sky1 flecked with light clouds4 ,the young haymaker sitting drooping in the heat1 intoxicated with the smell of the hay1 her eyes fixed1 her limbs relaxed1 her mouth open1 was wonderfully real4 ,there was nothing of the conventional peasant whose hands look as if they had never touched a tool1 but a veritable countrywoman accustomed from childhood to outdoor work4 ,one felt that she was weary with fatigue1 and glad to breathe a moment at her ease1 after a morning of hard work in the sun4 ,this picture of life in the fields1 so carefully studied1 so powerfully rendered1 had a considerable influence on the painting of the day4 ,from the time of this exhibition many young painters1 many foreign artists especially1 threw themselves with enthusiasm into the new way opened out by ,bastien-,lepage1 and1 without intention on his part1 the painter of the ,meusian peasants became the head of a school4 #a ,see ,la ,chanson du jardinier in ,sous ,bois4 ,,iii4 ,bastien did not allow himself to be spoiled by success1 but continued his life of assiduous labour and conscientious research4 ,he divided his time between ,paris and ,damvillers1 giving the larger part to his village4 ,we have a long list of his works done in #ahgh and #ahgi4 ,portraits of ,m4 and ,mme4 ,victor ,klotz and of their children1 of ,,mm4 de ,gosselin1 of ,m4 ,a4 ,lenoir1 of ,m4 de ,tinan1 of the publisher ,george ,charpentier1 of ,emile ,bastien1 of ,sarah ,bernhardt1 and lastly that ,saison d',octobre1 or1 ,recolte des ,pommes de terre 7,october1 or ,the ,potato ,harvest7 which is the companion picture to ,les ,foins 7,hay74 ,this was in a graver key1 with warm yet sober colours1 and an exquisite savour of the country in the late summer2 it was powerfully executed and full of health and serenity4 ,the portrait of ,sarah ,bernhardt and ,the ,potato ,harvest1 less discussed than ,the ,hay1 made a deep impression on the mass of the public4 ,illustration3 ,,sarah ,,bernhardt4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 ,dating from this time1 ,bastien's success1 both artistic and monetary1 was secure4 ,his first care was to let his friends at ,damvillers join in his good fortune4 ,they had been with him in his difficulties1 they should now share his pleasure1 and he brought them to ,paris in the summer of #ahgi4 ,he was happy to return to them1 in all sorts of kind attentions1 a little of what he owed them for so much affectionate devotion4 ,he was grateful to them for having believed in him in his time of difficulty as a beginner1 and he experienced a tender pride in being able to show them that they had not been mistaken4 ,when he received his first important gains he took his mother to a large shop and had silks for dresses spread out before her4 8,show some more10 cried he4 8,i want ,mama to choose the best40 ,and the poor little mother1 frightened at the sight of black satin that could stand upright of itself1 in vain protested that 8she would never wear that40 ,she was obliged to give way4 ,he took his grandfather through the avenues of the ,bois and the principal boulevards1 expecting that he would be delighted2 but in this direction his zealous efforts failed utterly4 ,the old man remained indifferent to the splendours of ,parisian luxury and to the scenery in the theatres4 ,at the opera he yawned openly1 declaring that all this commotion was deafening1 and he went back to ,damvillers determined that they should never take him away again4 ,after having seen his people into the train for their return1 he set out for ,england1 where he painted the ,prince of ,wales4 ,decorated in the following ,july1 he hastened to ,damvillers to show his red ribbon to his friends1 and also to go on with the work he loved best4 ,he had managed to arrange a studio in the spacious and lofty granaries of the paternal house1 and there he worked hard4 ,he hoped at last to realize his dream1 so long deferred1 of painting a ,jeanne d',arc4 ,he had meditated much on this subject1 and we have often spoken of it4 ,his idea was to paint ,jeanne in the little orchard at ,domrmy at the moment when she hears1 for the first time1 the mysterious voices sounding in her ears the call to deliver her country4 ,to give more precision to the scene1 ,bastien wished to show1 through the branches of the trees1 the 8blessed saints10 whose voices encouraged the heroic shepherdess4 ,in this ,i differed from him4 ,i maintained that he ought to suppress these fantastic apparitions1 and that the expression of ,jeanne's face alone should explain to the spectator the emotion caused by the hallucination to which she was a prey4 ,i reminded him of the sleep-walking scene in ,macbeth3 the doctor and the chamber-woman1 ,i said1 do not see the terrible things that dilate the pupils of ,lady ,macbeth1 but from her face and gestures they know that there is something terrible2 the effect is only the greater1 because1 after having perceived this1 the imagination of the spectator increases it4 ,suppress your phantoms and your picture will gain in sincerity and dramatic intensity4 ,but ,jules held to the personification of the voices1 and our discussions ended without either the one or the other being convinced4 ,nevertheless1 my objection had impressed him1 and he wanted to show his work to his friends before it was quite finished4 ,illustration3 ,,joan ,,of ,,arc ,,listening ,,to ,,the ,,voices4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 8,come10 he wrote to me1 about the #aeth of ,september1 8,f4 is quite disposed to come2 he really wants to come to ,damvillers4 ,everything will go beautifully4 ,you will see my picture of ,jeanne d',arc well advanced1 and somebody coming from ,paris will do me no harm'''40 8,if you knew how ,i work 7letter to ,ch4 ,baude7 you would be less surprised4 ,my picture is getting on1 and getting on well2 all1 except the voices1 is sketched1 and some parts are begun4 ,i think ,i have found a head for my ,jeanne d',arc1 and everybody thinks she expresses well the resolution to set out1 while keeping the charming simplicity of the peasant4 ,also1 ,i think the attitude is very chaste and very sweet1 as it ought to be in the figure that ,i want to represent2 ''' but if ,i am to see you soon1 ,i prefer to leave you the pleasure of surprise and of the first impression of the picture2 you will judge of it better1 and you will be able to say better what you think of it'''40 ,jeanne d',arc appeared in the ,salon of #ahhj1 with the portrait of ,m4 ,andrieux4 ,it did not produce all the effect that ,jules expected4 ,the picture had its enthusiastic admirers1 but also passionate detractors4 ,the critics attacked first the want of air and of perspective2 then1 as ,i had foreseen1 the voices1 represented by three symbolical personages1 too slightly indicated to be understood1 and yet too precise for apparitions4 ,but the public did not do justice to the admirable figure of ,jeanne1 standing1 motionless1 quivering1 her eyes dilated by the vision1 her left hand extended1 and mechanically fingering the leaves of a shrub growing near4 ,never had ,bastien-,lepage created a figure more poetically true than this ,lorraine shepherdess1 so pure1 so human1 so profoundly absorbed in her heroic ecstasy4 ,the rapid and brilliant success of the young master had ruffled the amour propre of many2 they made him pay for these precocious smiles of glory by undervaluing his new work4 ,he had hoped that the medal of honour would be given to his ,jeanne d',arc2 this distinction was given to an artist of talent1 but whose work had neither the originality1 nor the qualities of execution1 nor the importance of ,bastien's picture4 ,he felt this injustice strongly and went to ,london2 there the reception and appreciation of ,english artists and amateurs consoled him a little for this new mortification4 ,the two years that followed were fruitful in vigorous work of different kinds3 ,les ,bls ,mrs 7,ripe ,corn71 the ,london ,docks1 ,the ,thames1 ,le ,paysan allant voir son champ le dimanche 7,the ,peasant ,going to ,look at his ,field on ,sunday71 ,la ,petite ,fille allant l'cole 7,the little ,girl ,going to ,school72 the portraits of ,m4 and of ,mme4 ,goudchaux1 of ,mdlle4 ,damain1 of ,albert ,wolff1 and of ,mme4 ,w41 ,la ,marchande de ,fleurs 7,the ,flower ,girl72 last of all1 the two great pictures ,le ,mendiant 7,the ,beggar71 and ,pre ,jacques1 exhibited in the ,salon in #ahha and #ahhb4 ,his stay in ,london and the reading of ,shakspeare had inspired him with the idea of painting one of the heroines of the great poet1 and in #ahha he went back to ,damvillers full of a project for painting the ,death of ,ophelia4 8,i have been painting hard0 7letter to ,ch4 ,baude1 ,august1 #ahha71 8for ,i want to go away and travel for two or three weeks4 ,at the end of ,september you will come and see us4 ,that is settled1 is it not8 ,shooting1 amusements1 friendship4 ,since my return ,i have painted a haymaker and worked at a little picture of an interior3 ,the ,cuvier ,lessive 7,the ,washing ,kitchen72 all the detail requires much time4 ,besides ,i have begun and already advanced a large picture of ,ophelia4 ,i think it will be well to do something as a contrast to my ,mendiant 7,beggar74 ,it is to be a really touching ,ophelia1 as heartrending as if one actually saw her40 8,the poor distracted girl no longer knows what she is doing1 but her face shows traces of sorrow and of madness4 ,she is close to the edge of the water leaning against a willow2 upon her lips1 the smile left by her last song2 in her eyes1 tears6 ,supported only by a branch1 she is slipping unawares2 the stream is quite close to her4 ,in a moment she will be in it4 ,she is dressed in a little greenish blue bodice1 and a white skirt with large folds2 her pockets are full of flowers1 and behind her is a river-side landscape4 ,one bank under trees1 with tall flowering grasses1 and thousands of hemlock flowers1 like stars in the sky2 and in the higher part of the picture1 a wooded slope2 and the evening sun shining through birches and hazel bushes2 that is the scene'''40 ,this picture was never finished4 ,the landscape and flowers were rendered as the artist wished1 but the face and the costume of ,ophelia recalled his ,jeanne d',arc too much4 ,bastien-,lepage no doubt saw this1 and for this reason put the picture on one side to return to his peasants4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,beggar4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 ,the more he become master of his brush1 the more the rustic work haunted him4 ,he was still a thorough countryman4 ,although he had now at intervals the refinements of elegance and little bursts of worldliness2 although he had exchanged the modest atelier in the ,impasse du ,maine for a house in the ,quartier ,monceau1 the world soon wearied him1 and he was glad to go back to his village4 ,this six weeks' absence1 of which he speaks in his letter to his friend ,baude1 was spent in an excursion to ,venice1 and in ,switzerland4 ,he came back only half delighted1 and brought back only a few unimportant sketches4 ,italy and the splendours of ,venetian art had left him cold4 ,in this world of history and mythology he was not at home4 ,he sickened for his meadows and his ,meusian forests4 ,during his rapid visits to ,paris in #ahha and #ahhb1 the painting of various portraits1 notably that of ,madame ,juliette ,drouet1 and the compulsory tax of visits and soires occupied him almost entirely4 ,we saw but little of him4 ,but these successes1 and the adulation lavished upon him in ,parisian drawing-rooms1 did not change him4 ,he was still the loyal1 joyous comrade1 faithful to old ties2 very good1 very simple2 happy as a child when he found himself in a circle of intimate friends4 ,we were both members and even founders of an ,alsace-,lorraine dinner1 the ,dner de l',est1 which was always given in summer in the country4 ,one of the last meetings at which he was present1 took place at the end of ,may1 #ahha4 ,a boat had been engaged1 which was to take the diners to the bridge at ,suresnes1 and to bring them back at night4 ,when we arrived at the landing-stage1 a blind man was standing by the footbridge1 attended by a young girl1 who held out her sebilla to the passers-by4 8,come1 gentlemen6 all of you1 put your hands in your pockets60 gaily commanded ,bastien1 and he passed over first1 preaching by example4 ,and the eighty1 or a hundred guests of the ,dner de l',est1 passed one after another over the footbridge1 each one leaving in the child's sebilla a coin1 large or small4 ,when we were on the deck1 ,bastien turned round to look at the blind man and his girl1 who were amazed at this unexpected windfall1 and were slowly counting their money4 8,what a lovely group80 he said to me4 8,how ,i should like to paint that child60 ,while waiting for dinner we walked in the ,bois de ,boulogne4 ,the acacias and hawthorns were in flower4 ,the lawns1 newly shorn1 gave out a perfume of mown grass4 ,jules1 joyfully drawing in this air impregnated with country odours1 laughed like a happy child4 ,at that moment all was going well with him4 ,his ,mendiant had had a great success at the ,salon2 his last visit to ,england had been very prosperous2 his head was full of fine projects for pictures4 8,it is good to be alive60 he exclaimed1 as he played with a flower he had plucked from the bushes'''4 ,on the way back he gave himself up to all sorts of roguish fun4 ,mounted on the prow of the boat he sang1 with his full voice1 the ,chant du ,dpart4 ,the vibrating tones resounded powerfully between the two sleeping river banks2 the sky was splendid1 twinkling with innumerable stars4 ,from time to time ,bastien lighted a rocket and sent it up overhead1 shouting a loud hurrah6 ,the fuse mounted slowly into the night1 showering down many-coloured sparks1 then fell suddenly and sank in the dark water4 ,alas6 it was the image of the short and brilliant years that remained for him to live4 ,,iv4 ,on the death of ,gambetta1 ,january #a1 #ahhc1 ,bastien was commissioned to make a design for the funeral car in which the great orator was to be conveyed to ,pre ,lachaise2 he spent a week in the little room at ,ville d',avray1 painting the picture representing the statesman on his deathbed4 ,the cold was extreme at this time1 and1 his work scarcely finished1 he went away1 feeling ill1 to ,damvillers1 where he hoped to finish the great picture he had began of ,l',amour au ,village4 ,his native air1 the simple life1 and his mother's loving care restored him1 and he began to work again with his usual eagerness4 ,muffled in a warm jacket and a travelling cloak that covered him down to the feet1 he made his models pose for him in the piercing days of ,february1 in the little garden where he had already painted the portrait of his grandfather4 ,in ,march the work was well advanced1 and he invited me to go and see it at ,damvillers before it was sent to the ,salon4 ,i left ,verdun on a freezing afternoon1 accompanied by the old friend who had walked with us through the ,argonne1 and we were set down at ,damvillers at night-fall4 ,our hosts were awaiting us on the doorstep2 the grandfather1 always the same1 with his ,greek cap and white beard1 and his ,socratic face2 the painter and the little mother1 with smiles and outstretched hands4 ,around them ,basse the spaniel1 and ,golo and ,barbeau were bounding and barking joyfully to give us a welcome4 ,the next morning1 early1 we went up to the studio to see ,l',amour au ,village1 which was to go to ,paris that day4 ,the subject of this picture is well known2 it is one of the most real and the most original that the artist has painted3 the daylight is waning2 at the gate of a village garden1 a lad of twenty1 who has been binding sheaves1 and still wears his leggings of leather1 is talking1 leaning against a fence1 with a young girl1 who turns her back to the spectator2 what he is saying to her may be guessed from his awkward manner of twisting his stiff fingers1 and also from the attentive but embarrassed air of the young girl4 ,one feels that they are not saying much1 but that love exhales from every word1 so difficult to speak4 ,around them summer spreads the robust verdure of the country4 ,the fruit trees stand lightly silhouetted against a background of kitchen herbs1 gently sloping up to the houses of the village1 whose brown roofs and pointed spire come against the soft and misty twilight sky4 ,all this1 bathed in a subdued light1 is marvellously painted4 ,the young girl1 her short plaits falling over her shoulders1 her neck bent1 the form of her back1 so young1 so delicate1 is an exquisite figure2 the face of the young harvester1 so energetic1 so ingenuously in love1 is charming in expression2 the treatment of the hands1 the bust1 the dress1 is masterly4 ,there is in this picture a true and manly poetry1 which is strengthening and refreshing1 like the odour of ripe corn4 ,bastien was glad to have completed this difficult work1 and his satisfaction enabled him to bear with cheerfulness the pains in his loins1 and the digestive troubles which were becoming more and more frequent4 ,it was long since ,i had seen him so gay and unreserved4 ,this happy holiday-week spent at ,damvillers was the pendant to the walk through the ,argonne4 ,the sullen sky1 continually blotted out by chilling showers1 allowed us few walks in the open air2 but every morning we went up to the studio4 ,jules dismissed the little sweep1 who was sitting for a picture that he had on hand1 and1 taking a sheet of copper1 he made us pose for an etching4 ,i have this plate before me now2 it did not bite well4 ,it represents the whole family1 including the grandfather1 making a circle round our friend ,f41 who1 standing up and very grave1 is reciting one of ,la ,fontaine's fables4 ,while ,i look at it1 ,i seem to hear again the merry laughter which filled the studio1 alternating with the rattling of the hail against the windows4 ,in the evening1 after supper1 we placed ourselves at the round table1 and played at ,diable or ,nain rouge4 ,jules1 throwing away his best cards1 always managed to let the grandfather win2 and when the octogenarian1 quite proud of his success1 took up the stakes1 he would pat him on the shoulder1 and cry out1 with a merry twinkle of the eye1 8,ha6 what a lucky man6 he will ruin us all60 and the laughter began again4 ,we did not go to bed till well on into the night1 after having roused the little domestic1 ,felix1 who had dozed off in the kitchen while copying a portrait of ,victor ,hugo4 ,illustration3 ,,father ,,jacques1 ,,the ,,woodman4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 ,in the intervals of sunshine1 ,bastien-,lepage took us to visit 8his fields40 ,he had a peasant's love for the land1 and he employed his gains in adding to the paternal domains4 ,he had just bought an orchard situated in the old moat of the town1 which had belonged to an unfrocked priest4 ,he intended to build a chlet there1 where his friends1 painters or poets1 might come and live in their holidays and dream at their ease4 ,he explained to us with the delight of a child1 his plans for the future4 ,when1 with his portraits1 he should have gained an independent fortune1 he would execute at his ease and in freedom1 the grand rustic pictures that he dreamed of1 and among others1 that burial of a young village girl1 for which he had already made many notes and sketched the principal details4 ,we only took one long walk1 and it was in those woods of ,rville which form the background of his landscape1 ,ripe ,corn4 ,the weather had remained cold1 and there were still patches of snow on the backs of the grey hills1 though the sun shone sometimes4 ,except a few downy buds on the willows1 the woods were without verdure2 but the ploughed fields had a beautiful brown colour2 the larks sang2 the tops of the beeches began to have that reddish hue1 which indicates the rising of the sap1 the swelling buds4 8,look10 said ,bastien to me1 when we were in the forest1 8my ,wood-cutter in the last ,salon was reproached with want of air'''4 ,well1 here we are in a wood1 and the trees are still without leaves1 yet look how little the figure stands out from the undergrowth of trees and bushes4 ,there is a great deal of routine and prejudice in that criticism of the perspective of my pictures done in the open air4 ,it is the criticism of people who have never looked at a landscape1 except crouching down or sitting4 ,when you sit down to paint1 you naturally see things quite differently from the way you see them standing4 ,sitting1 you see more sky and you have more objectstrees1 houses1 or living beings standing out sharply in silhouette against the sky1 which gives the illusion of a greater distance and a wider atmosphere4 ,but it is not in this way that we generally see a landscape4 ,we look at it standing1 and then the objects1 animate or inanimate1 that are nearest to us1 instead of being seen in profile against the sky1 are silhouetted upon the trees1 or upon the fields1 grey or green4 ,they stand out with less clearness1 and sometimes mix with the background1 which then1 instead of going away1 seems to come forward4 ,we need to renew the education of our eye1 by looking with sincerity upon things as they are in nature1 instead of holding as absolute truths the theories and conventions of the school and the studio40 ,all the afternoon passed thus happily away in friendly talking and slow smoking along the wooded paths4 ,the blackbirds were whistling2 from time to time we discovered a flower in the open spaces1 which showed that spring was surely coming2 a wood anemone1 with its milk-white petals1 or a branch of mezereon1 with its pink flowers opening before the leaves1 and its ,japanese appearance4 ,jules stopped and gathered a stem of black helebore4 8,ah1 how beautiful60 he said4 8,how one would like to make a careful study of these leavesso decorative1 so finely cutof dark green1 almost brown1 out of which comes this pale green stem1 with its clusters of greenish flowers edged with pale rose-colour4 ,what lovely forms1 and what a variety of tender shades6 ,this is what they ought to give as a copy to the children in the schools of design1 instead of the eternal and wearisome ,diana de ,gabies60 ,illustration3 ,,sketch ,,for ,,father ,,jacques ,we did not return till evening1 when there was a magnificent sunset1 which crimsoned the smoky roofs of ,rville1 and made the light clouds scattered over the sky look like a strew of rose-leaves4 ,the next day was the last of my visit4 ,we took leave after long embraces1 making fine plans for returning to ,damvillers for the ,september holiday1 while the grandfather1 shaking his hoary head1 murmured sadly1 8,who knows if you will find me here80 ,and ,barbeau1 and ,golo1 and ,basse bounded and barked round the omnibus that took us away with tremendous noise4 ,i did not see ,jules again till a month later1 at the opening of the ,salon1 in front of ,l',amour au ,village1 which had a full success4 ,he was ill1 and complained of pains in the loins more acute than formerly2 then he suddenly disappeared mysteriously4 ,the door of the atelier in ,rue ,legendre was closed1 and visitors were told that the painter was gone into the country4 ,we did not know till later that he had hidden himself1 to undergo a sharp and painful treatment1 and that1 scarcely convalescent1 he had gone to breathe the sea air in ,brittany1 at ,concarneau4 ,he spent his days there1 in a boat1 painting the sea1 and forgetting his pains by the help of work4 ,when he came to see us again in ,october1 he appeared to be recovered2 but digestion was still a difficulty1 and his habitual gaiety was1 as it were1 clouded over4 ,his character was changed4 ,there were no more of those trenchant affirmations of which his comrades sometimes complained2 he was indulgent1 and even affectionate1 much more than was usual with him4 ,he did not stay long in ,paris1 but hastened back to ,damvillers1 to get seriously to work again4 ,he arrived in time to be present during his grandfather's last moments4 ,the old man departed loaded with years2 but1 though surely expected1 his death was a painful blow to the survivors4 8,the house10 he wrote1 8is empty more than one could believe4 ,only a few days ago1 at any moment1 a door would open and the grandfather appeared1 without motive1 without object1 without speaking or being spoken to2 but the sight of his kindly face was enough4 ,one kissed him1 and he went away1 as before1 without object1 sitting down1 going into the garden1 coming back1 and always with the same kind face4 ,i remember now that he has been growing paler for some days'''4 ,no1 you can have no idea how empty the house is4 ,i cannot get accustomed to it4 ,we often talk of him with my motherwith what pleasure6 ,it is not that we weep for him with tears2 we reason about it1 and we appear resigned and courageous2 but behind all that there is a sad feeling of want1 of absolute loss4 ,it is the touch one wants'''4 ,i have been ill with it1 and am so still4 ,i have not been able to work2 to-day1 for the first time1 ,i went out to shoot larks2 the weather was fine1 the sun was shining1 and the country beautiful4 ,this did me good40 ,indeed1 the health of the artist1 far from improving1 was becoming daily more uncertain4 8,it is the digestive tube10 said he1 8that is out of order40 ,nevertheless1 he worked with his usual courage1 overlooking his ,concarneau studies1 planning a new picture1 and only stopping to go out shooting or to saunter through the woods4 8,our evening walks are the best part of the day07letter to ,ch4 ,baude1 ,nov4 #bg1 #ahhc78that is1 from the setting of the sun till it is dark4 ,every night the spectacle is new4 ,the programme changes with the weather4 ,sometimes the subject of the piece is dramatic2 the next day it is soft and charming2 and1 with the constant rain1 our inundated meadows reflect the brilliant scenery4 ,can you imagine all our pleasure1 in your dingy ,paris8 ,the next morning is too slow in coming2 one wants so much to put down last night's impression2 so that ,i am making a heap of sketches1 and find much pleasure in it4 ,thenhere is a surprise6,i have a new picture on the way'''4 ,guess6''' ,the subject is a wounded deer taken by the dogs4 ,the scene is1 naturally1 the wood1 and the wood at this time of year3 only a few leaves of brilliant yellow against the marvellous rosy-grey of the branches of the trees2 then the violet tone of the dead leaves flattened on the soil1 and a few green briars round a pool under a willow4 ,the place was not chosen by me4 ,the deer chose it himself to die there2 for ,i killed him the other day1 and he went there to be taken1 a hundred yards from where he was shotjust opposite the spot where ,minet killed a hare4 ,it was then that this picture struck me4 ,afterwards ,i sketched in and reconstructed the scene2 and1 as ,i wanted a model1 ,i killed a second deer'''40 ,here is a characteristic symptom3 he who formerly only wrote the shortest of notes1 scribbled in haste at the corner of a table1 now sent long1 expansive letters to his friends1 showing signs of redoubled love of life1 of art1 of the beauties of nature3 8,my dear friends0 7,jan4 #c1 #ahhd71 8if you could see your poor ,bastien1 with this heap of letters to write1 you would certainly say3 #8,how he is changed6'''' ,if my wishes had the extraordinary virtue of fulfilling themselves1 ,i should like that you1 whom ,i love1 should profit by it1 and that #ahhd should bring health and happiness and success to all4 ,my mother's wishes are the same as mine1 and she rejoices that we are to see you soon4 ,ah1 my dear friend1 what pleasure you would have in living upon the woods1 as ,i feed upon them now almost every day1 along with ,golo and ,barbeau6 ,what marvellously delicate tones6 and the fading out of daylight1 and when the evening comes on6 ,the woods are exquisitely fine1 with their tall1 dry1 ivory-coloured grasses2 they are so tall in some of the open spaces that they caress your face as you pass1 and the cool touch upon your face and hands1 hot with walking1 is a delicious sensation4 ,i rarely leave the woods before night1 for ,i must send up a few salutes to the wild ducks with my gun before going in4 ,one hears them coming from a great distance1 but it is difficult to judge if they are far away or near1 from the peculiarity of their cry2 so they have often passed1 and are already a good way off1 before one finds out that one has missed them4 8,this is to let you know that ,i am not a stay-at-home1 as you might think4 ,i find it important to walk a good deal1 for in this way ,i regain a little health4 ,my stomach was beginning to get wrong1 but it is better6'''0 ,a few days after this ,i met a mutual friend of ours4 8,well10 he said to me1 8our poor ,bastien is very ill'''4 ,they think it is hopeless40 ,v4 ,indeed he was very ill4 ,the treatment he had undergone in the summer of #ahhc had not been successful4 ,the pains in the loins and bowels had returned with greater violence at the end of ,january4 ,by the advice of his friend ,dr4 ,watelet he again went to ,paris in ,march to consult ,dr4 ,potain4 ,without any illusions as to the fatal nature of the disease1 the doctors thought that a change of air and of climate might1 morally and physically1 produce good results4 ,they advised that he should go to ,algiers for two months4 ,bastien himself1 seized with that longing desire for movement which often torments invalids who are seriously ill1 had experienced a wish to go to the south4 ,it was decided that he should start as soon as possible for ,algiers1 accompanied by his servant ,felix1 and by his mother4 ,on the morning of the day fixed for starting ,i went to the ,rue ,legendre to say good-bye to him4 ,he had gone to complete some arrangements with his picture-agent4 ,i found only ,mme4 ,bastien1 who was occupied in filling the trunks which were scattered about the studio4 ,the brave little mother1 who had never left her home at ,damvillers for more than a few days together1 was preparing for this long journey to an unknown country quite simply1 with an apparent tranquillity1 as if she were going as far as ,saint ,cloud4 ,the hope that the change might be good for ,jules was enough to give her courage to face this upsetting of all her old ways of living4 ,sometimes only1 when she was carefully arranging the linen in the trunk1 the tears would rise to her eyes and a quiver of pain pass over her lips4 ,upon the chairs and against the walls were placed the recent studies brought from ,damvillers1 and one felt one's heart tighten at the sight of these last works1 where nature had been observed and rendered with incomparable skill1 penetration1 and charm4 ,they were ,the ,frog-fisher1 ,the ,little ,sweep1 ,the ,washerwoman1 ,the ,pond at ,damvillers1 ,the ,edge of the ,wood1 ,the ,church at ,concarneau1 and that study of ,a ,midnight ,sky so original1 with the clouds scattered over an azure that was almost black4 ,at this moment ,bastien-,lepage came in1 and on seeing him walk with difficulty into the studio1 ,i was distressed at the change that had come over him4 ,his thin face had become quite bloodless2 the skin of his neck was peeling off2 his hair seemed to have no life in it4 ,his questioning blue eyes expressed an anguish and weariness that was heartrending4 8,well10 said he1 after having embraced me1 8are you looking at my studies8 ,when people see them at ,george ,petit's1 they will say that the little ,bastien could paint the landscape too1 when he gave himself the trouble6'''0 ,when ,i said to him that his long absence that morning had made his mother anxious1 he added quite low1 and taking me into one corner of the studio3 8,when one is going to take a journey so far1 one must prepare for it'''4 ,i wanted to put my affairs in order4 ,poor little mother60 he went on2 8she has been very brave6 ,down at home she used to spend whole nights in rubbing me for my rheumatism1 and ,i let her think that it did me good'''4 ,now1 perhaps the ,algiers sun will cure me40 ,hope alternated with discouragement4 ,during breakfast he recovered a little4 ,i was to go to ,spain at the end of ,march2 he urged me to change my plans1 and to join him in ,algiers4 ,we ended with a half-promise4 ,we tried hard to appear gay2 we clinked our glasses as we drank to the hope of soon meeting again1 but each one felt his throat tighten1 and turned away to hide from the other his moist eyes4 ,i left the house in the ,rue ,legendre with my heart full of the saddest forebodings4 ,jules left the same night for ,marseilles4 ,they had a good crossing1 and his first letter1 dated ,march #agth1 was reassuring3 8,my dear friends1 there is no getting out of it2 you must come1 for a thousand reasons4 ,here it is just like ,may in ,paris4 ,everything is in flower2 and such flowers6heaps of them1 everywhere4 ,the verdure is delicate and grey1 and1 like patches1 always well placed2 the outlines picturesque and new1 the trees very dark green4 ,and in the midst of all this1 upon the roads1 the ,arabs1 of astonishing calmness and splendid carriage1 under their earth-coloured and ash-coloured draperiesragamuffins as proud as kings1 and better dressed than ,talma4 ,they all wear a shirt and burnous2 not one is like another4 ,it seems as if each one1 at every moment1 gave expression to his thought by his manner of draping his garment4 ,it is once more the triumph of blank truth over arrangement and conventionalism4 ,the sorrowful man1 whether he wishes it or not1 in spite of himself is not draped like the gay4 ,beauty1 ,i am convinced1 is exact truth3 neither to the right nor to the left1 but in the middle4 8,all this without telling you we have hired a house at ,mustapha ,superior4 ,it is half ,arab1 half ,french1 quite white1 with an interior court opening into a garden twice as big as that at ,damvillers4 ,the garden is full of orange-trees1 and lemon1 almond1 fig1 and a quantity of other trees1 the names of which ,i do not know and probably never shall4 ,all this1 not trim like a park1 but left a little la diable1 like our garden at home4 ,then we have the right of walking in a magnificent garden which joins ours4 ,we have at least eight rooms2 in counting them ,i thought of you4 ,in all directions round this house there are delightful walks within reach for invalid limbs2 in short1 it is a ,mahomet's ,paradise1 ''' #8moins les femmes4' ,i have said nothing about ,kasbah1 the old ,arab townmy legs have only let me see it from a distance as yet2 but1 my good friend1 imagine that against a morning sky you have1 sometimes in the palest rose1 sometimes in silvery grey1 sometimes in faint blue1 and so oneverywhere against the pearly skymore or less elongated rectangles1 placed irregularly1 but always horizontally1 in the manner of a line of low hills1 and you will have the delicate colouring of the old town4 ,one would not suppose it was a town with habitations1 so delicate is the tone of it1 but for some little holes of rare windows placed here and there4 ,one could not have a sensation more unexpected1 and never a sweeter and finer joy4 ,so you must come6 ,my mother is counting upon it1 and what1 then1 am ,i8 ,what new things you could say about all this6 ,the sea was very fine at the beginning and end of our crossing4 ,midway some of the passengers suffered3 my mother and ,felix among them1 but they got some sleep4 ,we were twenty hours in crossing1 and we were not tired on arriving4 ,come1 set off2 start6''' ,a good embrace from my mother and from me40 ,his first letter1 as may be seen1 was full of ardour4 ,the climate of ,algeria did him good at first1 and his sufferings seemed to be relieved4 8,i am preparing myself bravely for the ordeal by fire0 7,april letter to ,ch4 ,baude72 8may my rheumatism take flight and depart with the coming attack of the sun6 ,when it is hot here1 it is still quite bearable4 ,apart from these calculations about the heat and these health experiences1 ,i am happy1 even excited1 by all that ,i have seen2 and yet ,i have only seen what any bagman might see who is busy about the selling of his goods2 but it has been enough to give me great delight4 ,what remains of the old ,arab town is marvellous2 one holds one's breath when1 at a sudden turn1 the vision reappears4 ,for those unhappy eyes that only see the colours on the palette1 it is white2 but picture to yourself a long hill1 rather high1 with a depression in the middle1 and sloping as if to the sea1 and this hill all covered with elongated or elevated cubes of which one cannot distinguish the thickness2 all this remaining unnoticed by the eye that is ravished by the delicate tone1 rosy1 greenish1 pale blue1 making altogether white tinted with salmon4 8,if one did not know it beforehand1 one would never dream that amongst these cubes of plaster thousands of men are walking1 talking1 sleepingmen of noble manner1 proud and calm1 and with something very like indifference or contempt for us4 ,and they are right4 ,they are beautiful1 we are ugly4 ,what matter is it to me that they are knaves6 ,they are beautiful6''' 8,yesterday ,i went to take a bath4 ,i had to go three or four hundred steps through streets full of merchants4 ,in a passage a ,jew was selling silks1 pearls and corals2 in front of his shop1 not two yards wide1 were three ,arabsan old man1 another of middle age1 the third about seventeen4 ,there they were1 seated1 attentive1 calm1 wishing to buy1 consulting together1 making scarcely a gesture with their hands1 always kept at full length1 but sitting quietly1 never hurrying1 reflecting enormously1 and keeping all the while under their burnouses the softest1 gentlest attitudes4 ,the youngest was superbso handsome that mama was struck with it4 #8,they are like beautiful statues1' said she4 ,i could not understand the scene and the relations that united these three ,arabs4 ,it was clear they were come to buy2 they had come down from the higher part of the town4 ,they were poor1 for the youngest was in rags1 and the burnouses of the others1 though not in rags1 were very much worn2 but they took such pains in counting the little pieces of false coral that it was clear the ,jew was selling dear to these big children a thing of no value4 ,the one of middle age was counting on the table1 with his flat hand by groups of five1 the little pieces of coral which he chose as he counted them2 thus adding each time five pieces to the heap that he drew towards him4 8,what strikes one is this simple colouring1 these magnificent folds1 and then this serious childishness4 8,i was not able to wait till the end of the scene4 ,it was cold and draughty in this passage1 which brought me back to the fact of my poor crazy legs4 ,i long for the time when ,i shall be a man again2 what lovely things ,i shall see1 and perhaps ,i shall do60 ,april #bcrd 7to the same73 8,now ,i take myself by the ear and drag myself to the letter-paper1 and all the needful things4 ,nothing is wanting1 neither the thousand things ,i have to say1 nor above all the tender affection that ,i keep in store for you4 8,emile says that you are coming1 and soon3 don't be alarmed1 you will not melt in the hot sun4 ,there are cool places in the garden1 where one can stretch oneself1 with a magnificent landscape at one's feet4 ,we have only had the heat since yesterday2 you will see how good you will find it1 your muscles will relax1 and you will go back quite young4 ,we will make some excursions together if ,i am up to it4 ,any way there are plenty all round us to tempt you to make some4 8,you have heard from ,emile that ,i went to ,blidah4 ,i bore the little journey very well at first1 but ,i was tired afterwards4 ,i am going to begin to rest1 and go slowly1 in order that ,i may go farther4 ,i have scarcely done anything till now1 for ,i don't feel myself up to remaining long in the same position1 as a painter must1 who thinks only of his work40 ,the health that he hoped for1 and so anxiously waited for1 did not come4 ,on the contrary1 as the heat increased1 ,jules felt more unwell and more fatigued4 ,the last letter that he wrote to me reached me at ,granada1 in that hotel1 the 8,siete ,suelos10 where ,fortuny and ,henri ,regnault had lived4 ,there was all through it a sentiment of touching melancholy and discouragement4 8,my good friends1 this is delightful4 ,it is too good to get your photographs at the same time as your kind and affectionate letter4 ,i am glad you are going to ,spain4 ,lucky fellows6 ,go along6 while ,i1 who should so like to see a bull fight6''' ,you had not time to come1 and indeed it was selfish to ask you4 ,you could not have stayed more than a few days4 ,but that is to be done some day when ,i am no longer a cripple1 and when we can have two months before us4 ,we are comfortably settled here4 ,at this moment ,i am writing to you under the tent set up in the terraced court of our villa1 with a wonderful view before me4 ,placed a little to the left of a semicircle1 formed by the hills of ,mustapha1 #agj yards above the sea which flows at their base1 we have at every hour of the day1 a different landscape2 for the sides of the hills are full of ravines1 and the sun1 according to the time of day1 throws their slopes into light1 or makes a network of shade1 in a way quite peculiar to this corner of ,africa4 ,little villas gleaming in the sunshine or grey in the shade give effect to the groups of verdure1 the whole looking from the distance like a rich embroidery1 with bosses of green harmoniously arranged4 ,all this runs down toward the ,gulf of ,algiers1 and trending away from here forms ,cape ,matifou4 ,above are the crests of the ,little ,atlas1 far away1 and lost in heaven's blue2 near by1 sloping gardens spread out their golden or silvery verdure1 according as one looks upon olive or eucalyptus4 ,add to this the perfume of the orange and lemon trees1 the pleasure of telling you that ,i embrace you all three1 ,tristan included1 that ,i am a little better1 and you will have the state of my heart4 8,enjoy yourselves1and you1 my dear forester1 with your ,toledo eyes1 what are you going to give to the world after all this delight of sunshine and kindly fellowship and the loving union of the charming trio that you make8 ,it seems to me ,i have the heart and voice to make a fourthwhat say you8 ,ah6 that shall be after the rheumatism6 ,kindest regards from mama and from me4 ,a last embrace to all three of you40 ,the improvement he had experienced on arriving in ,algiers ceased about the end of ,april4 ,his strength and appetite gradually failed2 and at the end of ,may it was decided to take the invalid back to ,france4 ,he settled again in the ,rue ,legendre with the poor little mother1 who never left him afterwards4 ,when ,i saw him again ,i was shocked at the progress the disease had made4 ,his thinness was such that my unhappy friend was nowhere in the garments that were made for his journey4 ,his legs refused their service2 he could no longer work2 and yet he kept a little hope4 ,he had just begun a new treatment1 and talked of going into ,brittany 8as soon as he was strong enough40 ,he drove every day in the ,bois when the weather was fine1 and spent the rest of his day on cushions in the corner of the studio1 occupied in contemplating1 with a heartrending look1 his studies hanging on the walls4 ,this inaction was most distressing to him4 8,ah60 cried he1 8if ,i was told3 ,they are going to cut off your two legs1 but after that you will be able to paint again1 ,i would willingly make the sacrifice'''40 ,he could only sleep now with the help of injected morphine1 and he waited with impatience for the hour when a new supply should give him some relief1 and a factitious drowsiness should make him forget his suffering4 ,in proportion as digestion became more difficult his appetite became more capricious4 ,he wanted to have dishes made which reminded him of the cooking of his village2 then1 when they were brought to him1 he turned away disgusted1 without tasting them4 8,no10 said he1 pushing aside the plate1 8that's not it2 to have it good it must be made down there1 prepared by the ,damvillers people1 with home-grown vegetables40 ,and while he was speaking one saw by his moist eyes a sudden and painful calling up of the impressions of former days2 he saw all at once the old home1 the gardens and orchards of ,damvillers at the fall of evening1 the peaceful village interiors at the time when the fires were lighted for the evening meal4 ,as the season advanced his strength decreased4 ,in ,september his brother was obliged to take him on his back to carry him to the carriage1 and he drove about slowly for an hour in the avenues of the ,bois4 ,he could not read1 and was easily wearied by conversation4 ,his nerves were become very irritable1 and the slightest odours were disagreeable to his sense of smell4 ,his courage seemed to forsake him2 at the same time he was always wanting to know what others thought of his illness4 ,his blue eyes with their penetrating look anxiously searched the eyes of his friends1 and of his mother1 who never left his side4 ,the heroic little woman did her best to dissimulate1 and was always smiling and affecting a cheerfulness and a confidence which were painful to see2 then1 when she could escape for a moment1 she hastened into the neighbouring room and melted into tears4 ,for months this cruel agony was thus prolonged4 ,bastien was only a shadow of himself4 ,on the #ith of ,december1 during great part of the night1 he talked of ,damvillers with his mother and his brother4 ,then at about four in the morning he said to them1 with a kiss1 8,come1 it is time for children to sleep40 ,all three slept4 ,two hours later ,mme4 ,b4 was awakened by ,jules1 who asked for something to drink2 she rose1 and brought him a cup of tea1 and was alarmed on finding that the invalid groped for the cup to guide it to his lips2 he could no longer see2 but he still spoke and even joked about the difficulty he had in moving his limbs4 ,shortly afterwards he dozed1 and sliding gently from sleep into death1 he expired at six in the evening1 ,december #aj1 #ahhd4 ,i saw him next day lying on his mortuary bed1 in the midst of a thick covering of flowers4 ,his poor emaciated face1 with its sightless and deeply sunk orbits1 made him look like one of those ,spanish figures of ,christ1 fiercely cut in wood by ,montanez4 ,on the #abth of ,december a long train of friends and admirers accompanied his remains to the ,eastern ,railway ,station1 whence it was conveyed to the ,meuse4 ,the next day1 ,sunday1 the whole population of ,damvillers waited at the entrance of the town for the funeral carriage1 which brought back ,bastien-,lepage to his native place4 ,the sad procession advanced slowly on that road from ,verdun where the painter had loved to walk at twilight1 talking with his friends4 ,a pale mist blotted out those hills and woods whose familiar outlines he had so often reproduced4 ,the cortge stopped before the little church where he had intended painting his ,burial of a ,young ,girl4 ,the morning was showery2 the wreaths and festoons of flowers1 placed the night before on his coffin1 were revived and refreshed by the moisture2 when they were heaped up upon the grave they seemed to come to life again1 and to send out with their renewed perfume a last adieu from ,paris to the painter of the peasants of the ,meuse4 ,,vi4 ,on the #agth of the following ,march1 at the ,htel de ,chimay1 now connected with the cole des ,beaux ,arts1 the exhibition of the works of him whom we have surnamed the 8,primitif0 was opened4 ,all the works of ,bastien1 with the exception of the ,jeanne d',arc1 were collected there4 ,on visiting this exhibition the most prejudiced minds were struck with the suppleness1 the fecundity1 and power of the talent of this painter1 carried off at the age of thirty-six4 ,for the first time his varied and original work could be judged as a whole4 ,one could study in detail these productions of a thoroughly conscientious artist1 and follow the growth of each composition as one follows the development of a beautiful plantfirst in the drawings1 so pure1 so sober1 and expressive2 then in the sketches so truthful and sincere2 and1 lastly1 in the finished pictures1 so harmonious and luminous4 ,by the side of the great pictures1 ,les ,foins 7,the ,hay71 ,la ,saison d',octobre 7,october71 ,le ,mendiant 7,the ,beggar71 ,pre ,jacques 7,father ,jacques71 and ,l',amour au ,village 7,love in the ,village71 like windows opening upon life itself1 one admired that collection of small portraits in which the most penetrating physiological observation was united with an execution most masterly1 precise1 and delicate4 ,one passed delighted from those interiors worthy of the ,dutch painters1 such as ,la ,forge and ,la ,lessive1 to the landscapes breathing the odours of the fields and of the woods1 such as ,le ,vieux ,gueux 7,the ,old ,beggar71 ,les ,vendanges 7,the ,vintage71 ,la ,prairie 7,the ,meadow71 ,la ,mare 7,the ,pool71 ,les ,bls ,mrs 7,ripe ,corn71 or to those full of air and motion1 like ,london ,bridge and the ,thames2 then one stopped before ,la ,petite fille allant la cole 7,the ,little ,girl going to ,school71 or that poetic ,idyl1 ,le ,soir au ,village 7,evening in the ,village74 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,inn4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 ,in this exhibition containing more than two hundred canvases and a hundred drawings1 there was nothing trifling1 nothing indifferent4 ,the smallest sketches were interesting because they revealed passionate worship of what is simple and natural1 hatred of the almost and the conventional1 and the incessant striving of the artist after his ideal1 which is ,truth4 ,a healthy and robust poetry exhaled from this collection4 ,one left the ,htel de ,chimay with a sensation of strengthening and reviving pleasure1 such as one gets from certain aspects of naturedeep woods1 limpid waters1 and the bright sky of a summer morning4 ,unhappily this joy was mixed with the sad thought of the sudden death of the young man who had produced all this masterly work4 ,on first entering these rooms reserved for his pictures ,i was1 for a long time1 impressed with a feeling that ,i had already experienced at the exhibition of the works of the talented young artist1 ,mdlle4 ,bashkirtseff1 mown down like ,bastien1 in full youth1 and at the same time as he4 ,this cruel death seemed only a bad dream4 ,on seeing again these unfinished sketches1 these perfect portraits1 these canvases that ,i had seen him paint one after another1 ,i felt as if ,i was conversing with the painter and the friend who had created all this4 ,i felt that he was still living and in possession of all his force4 ,i expected every moment to see him appear among us1 smiling1 happy1 fortified by the now unanimous admiration of the crowd gathered before his work4 ,alas6 instead of himself my eyes only met his portrait1 placed in the first room1 and the mournful eloquence of the wreaths and flowers attached to the frame recalled me harshly to the heartrending reality4 ,the poor 8,primitif0 will paint no more4 ,the atelier at ,damvillers where we have spent such happy hours is closed for ever4 ,the peasants of the village will no more meet their countryman on the roads where he used to work in the open air4 ,the rustic flowers that he used to paint in the foreground of his pictures1 the blue chicory and the groundsel1 will flower again this summer by the edges of the fields1 but he will not be there to study and admire them4 ,among the sketches exhibited by the side of the great pictures there was one that ,i had already remarked at ,damvillers1 and that ,i now saw again with deep emotion4 ,it represents an old peasant woman going in the early morning into her garden to visit her apple tree in blossom4 ,the nights of ,april are perfidious1 and the spring frosts give mortal wounds2 the old woman draws to her a flowering branch and inspects with anxious eye the disasters caused by the hurtful rays of the red moon4 ,bastien-,lepage was like this tree1 full of sap and of promising blossom4 ,for years the heavens had been clement to him1 and the flowers had given many and rich fruits2 then in a single night a murderous frost destroyed allthe open flowers by thousands1 and the tree itself4 ,all that remains is the splendid fruit of past seasons1 but the exquisite flavour of that the world will long enjoy4 ,things truly beautiful have wonderful vitality and last on through the centuries1 hovering above the earth where the generations of men go turn by turn to sleep1and this survival of the works of the spirit of man is perhaps the surest immortality upon which he can count4 ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,,as ,,artist4 ,illustration3 ,,bas-,,relief ,,portrait ,,of ,,bastien-,,lepage4 ,by ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens4 ,,jules ,,bastien-,,lepage ,,as ,,artist4 ,the work of ,bastien-,lepage ranks1 to my mind1 with the very best in modern art4 ,he brought to us what was in some ways a new view of natureone whose truth was at once admitted1 but which was nevertheless the cause of much discussion and criticism4 ,it was objected to mainly1 ,i think1 as not being in accord with established rules1 but nevertheless the objectors expressed their admiration for the skill of the painter2 while1 on the other hand1 for those who accepted him 7chiefly the younger men these71 no praise was too great1 no admiration too enthusiastic4 ,it is only a few years since his untimely death was mourned as a loss to the whole art-world1 for his whole career is so recent that his fellow-students are still young men1 many of them only now beginning to obtain full recognition2 and yet it is perhaps long enough ago to enable his work to be considered as a whole1 and his place in the art-movement to be seen4 ,for although he was an innovator1 and one showing in all he did a strong individuality1 the general direction of his genius was given him by the artistic tendencies of his time4 ,it will be generally admitted that if painting has made any advance in our day1 if it shows in any direction a new departure1 or fresh revelation of the beauty that exists throughout nature1 it is in the development of the problems which have arisen from the study of landscape and of the effects of light4 ,there now prevails a close and sincere study of nature1 founded on the acceptance of things as they are1 and an increasing consciousness on the part of artists 7or perhaps it would be more correct to say an increasing courage on the part of artists to express their conviction7 that a picture should be the record of something seen1 of some impression felt1 rather than be formally constructed4 ,and men have awakened at length to see that all nature is beautiful1 that all light is beautiful1 and that there is colour everywhere2 that the endeavour to realize truly the natural relation of people to their surroundings is better than to follow unquestioning on the old conventional lines4 ,this is1 roughly speaking1 the modern standpoint1 and it cannot be denied that it is an enormous advance on the accepted artistic ideals of thirty or forty years ago4 ,and to the men who have brought this aboutto the ,pre-,raphaelite brotherhood2 to ,millet1 ,corot1 ,rousseau1 ,courbet1 ,manet1 and ,mr4 ,whistlerto all those who have fought the battle and to whom our present clearer outlook is due1 we owe a lasting debt of gratitude4 ,it is a little surprising now1 that the work of ,bastien-,lepage1 based as it is on the simple acceptance of nature1 should have caused so much discussion on its first appearance4 ,for time has justified him2 we feel on comparing his work with other men of his time that it marks a new departure1 and we realize that it has helped to form our present standpoint4 ,but as the majority of people tune their eyes by pictures and not by nature1 and only admire in nature that which is made manifest to them by their artistic prophet1 it may be taken as a compliment to a man of independent genius that when he discloses a fresh view of nature1 it is not for some time accepted4 8,good gracious1 sir60 said an eminent critic1 referring to ,claude ,monet1 8like nature8 ,yes2 of course it's like nature2 but a man has no business to choose that aspect of it60 ,every picture may be said to appeal to the spectator from two sides or points of viewthe literary and the sthetic4 ,a picture may tell its story to perfectionmay point a moral and all the rest of it1 and so fulfil the purpose of its authorand still1 or1 as some extreme persons would say1 thereforemay be bad art1 may indeed be not worthy to rank as art at all4 ,such pictures are frequently seen4 ,and again1 a picture may1 by raising and defining to some inner sense emotions dimly felt by us before nature1 leave us with a fuller sense of beauty1 a feeling of something revealed to us4 ,and yet it need have no subject or story4 ,we are convinced that this picture is beautiful3 that no other form of artistic expression can precisely so touch us4 ,such pictures are rare1 but happily they do exist4 ,yet1 from the nature of things1 it is impossible but that such a picture should speak to someever so slightextent to the mind2 and also the most literary picture is never without evidence of some desire to please the eye4 ,the work of ,bastien-,lepage seems to me to embrace both these points of view4 ,the literary and sthetic sides of art were very evenly balanced in him4 ,if we take any individual work1 as1 for example1 the ,beggar1 we find a most perfect realization of character3 the whole life-history of the man seen and brought before usevidently this was the motive of the picture2 yet the painting is in itself so full of charm1 the perception of colour so fine1 that we feel he was equally interested in that4 ,he tried to hold the balance even4 ,his work shows an extraordinary receptive power1 an unequalled 7almost microscopic on occasion7 clearness of vision1 allied with an absolute mastery of his material4 ,his attitude towards nature is one of studied impartiality1 and seems to show the resolute striving of an intensely sympathetic nature to get at the actual optical appearances and to suppress any hint of his own feelings4 ,and his subjects are presented with such force and skill that their truth to nature is at once felt1 and if a painter1 you cannot fail also to feel the charm of his simple and sincere method4 ,you cannot tally it by any other painter's work3 it stands by itself4 ,his impartial attitude towards his model constitutes one of ,bastien-,lepage's distinctions4 ,i am not sure that it is not the distinct note of all his work4 ,he paints a manand the man stands before you1 and you ask yourself1 8,what is he going to say8 ,what does the artist wish to express80 ,you may make what you can of him2 ,lepage gives you no clue4 ,to me1 ,i confess1 this quality is a very high one2 it seems to indicate a great gift1 and to be1 if ,i may presume to say so1 akin to ,shakespeare's method of presenting his characters without a hint of his own feelings towards them4 ,although it is no doubt owing to ,millet that ,lepage's eyes were opened to the paintableness of country life1 he saw his subjects in his own way and approached them from his own point of view4 ,with ,millet the subject and type were everythingthe individual nothing4 ,he was passionately moved by his subject1 and once its action and sentiment were expressed1 everything was subordinated to them4 ,he cared nothing for the smaller truths of detail provided the general impression were true to his mental image1 and his aim was avowedly to impose his mental impression on the spectator4 ,lepage1 on the contrary1 appears to avoid communicating his mental impression4 ,he will give you the visual impression1 as truly as he possibly can2 you may1 if you please1 findas he has foundpathos and poetry in it3 as before the same scene in nature1 if you have sympathy2 but for his part he will not help you by any comment of his own4 ,and whereas with ,millet the interest always centres in the subject1 in ,lepage it centres in the individual4 ,his pictures become portraits4 ,he chooses a good type1 and sets himself to paint him at his work and amid his natural surroundings1 and1 somehow or other1 the subject1 as motive and reason for the picture1 takes a subordinate place4 ,and yet this is not because anything belonging to the subject is slurred1 but because the attention is taken beyond the subject to the actors in it4 ,for his figures not only live2 they convince us of their identity as individuals1 and gradually we get so interested in them that we begin to forget what they are doing1 and almost to wonder why they are there4 ,we are1 in fact1 brought so close to them that we cannot get away from the sense of their presence4 ,it is no small tribute to ,lepage's skill that his people do so interest us2 but is not this interest a conflicting element in the picture8 ,is it to the advantage of the picture that the interest should be so equally divided8 ,i cannot tell3 when before a picture of ,lepage's ,i accept it in everythingon thinking it over1 ,i begin to doubt4 ,there is no room for doubt about ,millet2 no mistake about what he meant4 ,with him the attention is always concentrated on the business in hand3 and without desiring to qualify the great respect and admiration which ,i have for ,lepage's work1 it seems to me that the point of view of ,millet included more essential truths 7or perhaps excluded those which were not essential to the expression of the subject72 and that for this reason ,lepage's most successful pictures depend least upon the interest of subject1 and most upon the interest of portraiture4 ,for it is in his portraits that the great capacity of the man is best seen2 and they are altogether admirable4 ,his people stand before you1 and you feel that they must be true to the very life4 ,he loves to place them in an even1 open1 light1 and simply accepting the ordinary conditions of his sitters1 produces a surprisingly original result4 ,there is no forcing of effect1 no slurring of detaileverything is searched out relentlessly1 lovingly4 ,there is the same impartial standpointthe same apparent determination to keep himself out of the picture4 ,from the artist's point of view they are altogether delightful2 modelled with the thoroughness of a sculptor1 the colour and atmosphere are always true1 and the execution is unlaboured and direct4 ,it would be difficult to point to any modern portraits which surpass for technical mastery and charm such works as the 8,first ,communion10 the portraits of his parents1 his grandfather1 of ,m4 ,theuriet1 ,albert ,woolf1 ,sarah ,bernhardt1 8,pas ,meche10 and the ,beggar4 ,each of these is a complete picture1 as well as being a portrait4 ,the elaborate dress of the actress1 the cheap muslin and ill-fitting gloves of the child1 in the 8,first ,communion0all the matters of minor detail are dwelt on with1 in each case1 the fullest sense of their literary importance to the picture1 and yet the painting of these things1 as of all else1 is so delightful in itself that the artist desires no other reason4 ,while landscape entered as a matter of course into his rustic pictures1 it was always subordinate to the figures2 although he carried the finish of the foregrounds in these pictures to the farthest possible point1 delighting to express the beauty of everythingweeds1 sticks1 stones1 the clods of earthall was felt1 and shown to be beautiful4 ,but he painted also some admirable landscapes3 of these ,i have seen but few1 and the recollection of one in particular remains with me as one of the most beautiful things ,i have seen4 ,it is a field of ripe golden corn2 beyond are the distant fields and low hills1 and overhead in the clear blue sky a few clouds4 ,the corn is swaying and rustling in the breeze1 and small birds are flitting about4 ,the whole scene is bathed in daylight and fresh air3 with no great stretch of fancy one can see the corn moving1 and hear the singing of the birds4 ,one is filled with a sense of the sweetness of nature and the beauty of the open fields4 ,and the picture is so simpleno effort in design1 no artifice apparentit impresses as a pure piece of nature4 ,this love of nature and resolute determination not to depart from the strict literal truth as he saw it1 marks all the work of ,bastien-,lepage4 ,as far as it was possible for an artist nowadays1 he appears to have been uninfluenced by the old masters4 ,the only lesson he seems to have learnt from them was that nature1 which sufficed for them1 should suffice for him also4 ,it is this attitude of mind which brings him into kinship with the early painters1 and which led to his being styled 8the primitive40 ,he did not set out to form his art on the methods of the older painters1 but going as they did1 direct to nature1 he resolutely put on one side 7as far as was possible to one familiar with them7 the accepted pictorial artifices4 ,he seems to have set himself the task of going over the ground from the beginning2 and the fact that his uncompromising and unconventional presentment of his subjects should be expressed by means of a most highly accomplished1 very modern1 and very elegant technique1 was one of the things which1 while it greatly charmed1 at the same time puzzled and surprised people4 ,it was so different from what had been seen1 or might reasonably have been expected2 and one can understand some critics feeling that a man so thoroughly master of his art1 so consummate a painter1 must be wilfully affected in the treatment of his subjects1 his simple acceptance of nature appearing to them as a pose4 ,but it was not long before he was understood2 and one has only to read the very interesting memoir of ,m4 ,theuriet to see how mistaken this view was1 and how simply and naturally his art developed from his early life and associations4 ,it is seldom indeed that one finds an artist so completely adjusted to his surroundingsso much so that he is able to go back for his mature inspiration not only to his first impressions1 but to the very scenes and1 in some cases no doubt1 the individuals who awakened them4 ,as a rule an artist nowadays is led in many directions before he finds himself4 ,bastien-,lepage had his doubts and hesitations1 of course1 but they were soon over1 and almost from the start he seems to have decided on his path4 ,the advantage of this to him in his work must have been enormous1 as any one who has painted in the country will know2 for villages contain no surplus populationevery one has his work to do2 and the peasant is slow to understand1 and distrustful of all that lies outside his own experience3 so that it is difficult1 and in many cases impossible1 for an artist to get models in a village4 ,but one can imagine ,lepage to have been friends with all his models1 and that his pictures excited as lively an interest 7though1 of course1 on different grounds7 in ,damvillers as in ,paris2 and it was1 ,i think1 due to some extent to this1 as well as to his own untiring energy1 that he was enabled to complete so much4 ,as far as ,i am aware1 he was unique among contemporary artists in being so happily circumstanced2 and it is evidence of the simple sincerity of the man that he found his ideal in the ordinary realities of his own experience3 feeling1 no doubt1 that beauty exists everywhere waiting for him who has eyes to see4 ,it has been frequently said of ,bastien-,lepage that he had no feeling for beautyor1 at any rate1 that he was indifferent to it2 but as it is impossible to arrive at any satisfactory definition of beauty1 this point cannot be discussed4 ,taking the word1 however1 in its obvious and generally accepted meaning1 that of personal beauty1 it seems to me that there is no fair ground for the charge2 for such works as the 8,first ,communion10 the portrait of ,sarah ,bernhardt1 and 8,joan of ,arc10 all show a most refined and delicate appreciation of personal beauty1 and should surely have led his critics to consider whether the man who painted them had not very good reasons for painting people who were not beautiful1 too4 ,for all work cannot be judged from one point of view2 we recognize that a work of art is the outcome of a personal impression1 and that the artist's aim is to give expression to his views2 and the deeper his insight into nature1 the greater the result4 ,and yet1 curiously enough1 the fact that ,bastien-,lepage's insight into nature was exceptionally deep and wide renders it difficult to form a clear judgment1 as his work appeals equally from different points of view4 ,his love of beauty1 for instance1 seems to go hand-in-hand with a psychological1 or even pathological interest3 and this equal prominence of different tendencies is a very puzzling element in his work4 ,we expect an artist to give us a strongly personal view2 but here is one who gives us something very like an analysis1 and whose personal view it is impossible to defineand the premature ending of his career leaves it now for ever doubtful which was the strongest bias of his mind4 ,it seems to me that his sympathies were so wide as to try and include everything1 and that he has helped to widen the bounds of beauty1 by showing its limitless possibilities4 ,the words of ,blake1 8,to see a world in a grain of sand1 and heaven in a wild flower10 suggest1 ,i think1 his general feeling towards nature4 ,in spite of the wide range of his work and the extraordinary versatility of his execution1 he kept1 as a rule1 within certain limitations of treatment4 ,he did not care for the strong opposition of light and shadow1 and he seems almost to have avoided those aspects of nature which depend for their beauty on the changes and contrasts of atmosphere and light4 ,all that side of nature which depends on memory for its realization was left almost untouched by him1 and yet it is idle to suppose that so richly gifted a man could not have been keenly sensible to all nature's beauty2 but ,i think he found himself hedged in by the conditions necessary to the realization of the qualities he sought4 ,for in painting a large figure-picture in the open air1 the painter must almost of necessity limit himself to the effect of grey open daylight4 ,this he realized splendidly3 at the same time it may be said that he sought elaboration of detail perhaps at the expense of effect1 approaching nature at times too much from the point of view of still-life4 ,this is not felt in his small pictures1 in which the point of view is so close that the detail and general effect can be seen at the same time2 but in his large works much that is charming in the highest degree when examined in detail1 fails to carry its full value to the eye at a distance necessary to take in the whole work4 ,this was the case with 8,joan of ,arc0 in the ,paris ,exhibition of two years ago2 and it was instructive to compare this picture with ,courbet's 8,stone-breakers10 which hung near it on the same wall4 ,courbet had generalized as much as possibleeverything was cleared away but the essentials2 and at a little distance ,courbet showed in full power and completeness1 while the delicate and beautiful work in 8,joan of ,arc0 was lost1 and the picture flat and unintelligible in comparison4 ,no doubt ,bastien-,lepage worked for truth of impression and of detail too1 but it is apparently impossible to get both2 and this seems to show that the building-up or combining a number of facts1 each of which may be true of itself and to the others1 does not in its sum total give the general impression of truth4 ,it is but a number of isolated truths4 ,bastien-,lepage has carried his endeavour in this direction farther than any of his predecessorsin fact it may be said that he has carried literal representation to its extreme limit3 so much so as to leave clearly discernible to us the question which was doubtless before him1 but which has at any rate developed itself from his work1 whether it is possible to attain literal truth without leaving on one side much of that which is most beautiful in nature8 ,and further1 the question arises1 whether literal truth is the highest truth4 ,for realism1 as an end in art1 leads nowhere2 it is an impasse4 ,surely it is but the means to whatever the artist has it in him to express4 ,i feel convinced that realism was not the end with ,bastien-,lepage4 ,i believe that his contribution to art1 great as it was1 and covering as it does an amount of work which might well represent a whole life's work instead of the work of a few short years1 was but the promise of his full power1 and that1 had he lived1 his work would have shown a wider range of nature than that of any other artist1 except perhaps ,rembrandt4 ,but it was not to be4 ,he gave his best1 and the world is richer for his work2 his name will not die4 8,quiet consummation have2 ,and renowned be thy grave40 ,,george ,,clausen4 ,,modern ,,realism ,,in ,,painting4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,little ,,sweep4 ,by ,jules ,bastien-,lepage4 ,,modern ,,realism ,,in ,,painting4 ,much has been written about ,jean ,franois ,millet1 and mostly from two points of view4 ,the picturesque surroundings of the plain of ,barbizon and the peasant's blouse have tempted the sentimental biographer to dwell on the personal note of poverty1 which we now know was not the dominant one in ,millet's life4 ,the picturesque writer has amplified1 with more or less intelligence1 reflections suggested by the subjects of his pictures4 ,in all this1 the painter's point of view1 which is1 after all1 the only one that matters1 has1 so far as its expression in print is concerned1 been overlooked and omitted4 ,the important fact about ,millet is not that he struggled with poverty1 or that he expressed on canvas the dignity of labour1 but that he was a great artist4 ,as corollaries1 he was a great draughtsman and a great colourist4 ,he was gifted with the comprehension in its entirety of the import of any scene in nature which he wished to render4 ,an unerring analysis enabled him to select what were the vital constituents of such a scene1 and exquisite perceptions1 trained by incessant labour1 to render them in fitting terms in accordance with the tradition which governs the use of each material4 ,it may seem that the process here summarized is after all only that which governs all art production1 and that the work of the second-rate and the ordinary differs only from that of the master in the degree of capacity exercised4 ,but this is not so4 ,it differs totally in kind4 ,the conception1 conscious or unconscious1 of the nature and aim of art is in the two cases different1 and1 as a consequence1 the practice is different4 ,it would be affectation to ignore that1 for good or for evil1 ,paris is the art-centre of ,european painting1 and that the most serious training in drawing and painting that is procurable on ,european lines is procurable in ,paris4 ,i should therefore consider it a service of great utility to serious art if it were possible to make clear the reasons for my conviction that the tendency of the mass of exhibition painting in ,france1 and1 by reflection1 in ,england1 has been in an inartistic direction1 and has led inevitably to the sterile ideal of the instantaneous camera4 ,and1 on the other hand1 that the narrow stream of purely artistic painting1 that has trickled its more sequestered course parallel with the broad flood of exhibition work1 owes its vitality to a profound and convinced reverence for tradition4 ,for the illustration of that tradition ,i can find no more convenient source than the work of ,jean ,franois ,millet1 and for a typical monument of its disregard1 the more fair to cite in that it is respectable in achievement1 the work of ,bastien-,lepage affords me a timely and perhaps the most appropriate example possible4 ,what1 then1 is the main difference8 ,how did ,millet work1 and with what objects8 ,how did ,lepage work1 and what is it he strove to attain8 ,to begin with1 ,millet1 ninety-nine times out of a hundred1 had seen his picture happen somewhere in nature4 ,its treatment generally involved complex difficulties of suggestion of movement1 or at least of energy1 to say nothing of those created by the variety of lighting and atmospheric effect2 the management of sunlight1 of twilight1 of the lighting of interiors4 ,all these elements he was enabled1 by means of a highly-trained artistic memory1 to retain and render in the summary method which we call inspiration1 and which has nothing in common with the piecemeal and futile copying of nature of a later school4 ,dealing with materials in their essential nature living and fleeting1 his execution was in the main separated from his observation4 ,his observation was thus uninterrupted by the exigencies of execution1 and his execution untrammelled by the fortuitous inconveniences incident on the moment of observation1 and undisturbed1 moreover1 by the kaleidoscopic shifting of the pictorial elements which bewilder and mislead the mere plein-airiste4 ,he did not say to the woman at the washtub1 8,do as if you were washing1 and stay like that for me for four or five hours a day1 while ,i paint a picture from you40 ,or to the reaper1 8,stay like that with the scythe drawn back1 pretending to reap40 8,la nature ne pose pas0to quote his own words4 ,he knew that if figures in movement were to be painted so as to be convincing1 it must be by a process of cumulative observation4 ,this truth one of the greatest heirs of the great school of #ahcj has not been slow to understand1 and it is to its further and more exquisite development that we owe the profoundly learned and beautiful work of ,degas4 ,his field of observation is shifted from the life of the village and the labour of the plains1 to the sordid toil of the greenroom and the hectic mysteries of stage illumination2 but the artistic problem remains the same1 and its solution is worked out on the same lines4 ,millet observed and observed again1 making little in the way of studies on the spot1 a note sometimes of movement on a cigarette-paper4 ,and when he held his picture he knew it1 and the execution was the singing of a song learned by heart1 and not the painful performance in public of a meritorious feat of sight-reading4 ,the result of this was that his work has stylestyle which is at the same time in the best traditions and strictly personal4 ,no one has been more imitated than ,millet1 and no one is more inimitable4 ,holding in the hollow of his hand the secrets of light and life and movement1 the secrets of form and colour1 learnt from the visible world1 he was equipped1 like the great masters of old1 for the treatment of purely fanciful themes2 and1 when he painted a reluctant nymph being dragged through the woods by a turbulent crowd of cupids1 he was as much at home as when he rendered the recurring monotone of the peasant's daily labours4 ,my quarrel with the gentlemen who escape from the laws of anatomy and perspective by painting full-length portraits of souls1 and family groups of abstractions1 is1 not that they paint these things1 but that they have not first learnt something about the laws which govern the incidence of light on concrete bodies4 ,it might be well if they would discover whether they can paint their brother1 whom they have seen1 before they elect to flounder perennially in ,olympus4 ,let it also be noted here that the work of ,jean ,franois ,millet was1 with scarcely an exception1 free from a preoccupation with the walls of an exhibition4 ,the scale of his pictures and their key were dictated by the artistic requirements of the subject1 and not by the necessities or allurements of what ,i may call for brevity1 competitive painting4 ,it was never a question with him of the preparation within twelve months of an annual poster1 which was to occupy so much linespace1 and send the betting on him up or down as the case might be4 ,what1 on the other hand1 were the essential ideas of ,bastien-,lepage's work8 ,to begin with1 he was a painter of exhibition pictures1 of what are called in ,paris machins4 ,he was an inveterate salonnier1 with the ideals and the limitations of the typical uncultured ,paris art-student1 the fort of his atelier4 ,faire vrai is the sum and aim of his intention4 ,realists he and his like have been jauntily labelled by the hasty journalist4 ,but the truth in their work is truth of unessentials1 and their elaborate and unlovely realities serve only to cover themes that are profoundly unreal4 ,to begin with1 it was thought to be meritorious1 and conducive of truth1 and in every way manly and estimable1 for the painter to take a large canvas out into the fields and to execute his final picture in hourly tte--tte with nature4 ,this practice at once restricts the limits of your possible choice of subject4 ,the sun moves too quickly4 ,you find that grey weather is more possible1 and end by never working in any other4 ,grouping with any approach to naturalness is found to be almost impossible4 ,you find that you had better confine your compositions to a single figure4 ,and with a little experience the photo-realist finds1 if he be wise1 that that single figure had better be in repose4 ,even then your picture necessarily becomes a portrait of a model posing by the hour4 ,the illumination1 instead of being that of a north light in ,newman ,street1 is1 it is true1 the illumination of a ,cornish or a ,breton sky4 ,your subject is a real peasant in his own natural surroundings1 and not a model from ,hatton ,garden4 ,but what is he doing8 ,he is posing for a picture as best he can1 and he looks it4 ,that woman stooping to put potatoes into a sack will never rise again4 ,the potatoes1 portraits every one1 will never drop into the sack1 and never a breath of air circulates around that painful rendering in the flat of the authentic patches on the very gown of a real peasant4 ,what are the truths you have gained1 a handful of tiresome little facts1 compared to the truths you have lost8 ,to life and spirit1 light and air8 ,the tacit assumption on which the theory and practice of the so-called realist rests1 is that if photography1 instead of yielding little proofs on paper in black and white1 could yield large proofs on canvas in oils1 the occupation of the painter would be gone4 ,what a radical misconception of the nature and function of art this is1 becomes evident when we paraphrase the same idea and apply it in the region of letters4 ,few would be found to defend the proposition that a stenographic report of events and words as they occurred would constitute the highest literary treatment of a given scene in life4 ,a page of description is distinguished as literature from reporting when the resources of language are employed with cunning and mastery to convey1 not a catalogue of facts1 but the result of the observation of these facts on an individual temperament4 ,its value depends on the degree of mastery with which the language is used1 and on the delicacy and range of the writer's personality1 and in no wise on the accuracy of the facts recorded4 ,richter says somewhere that no artist can replace another1 and not even the same artist himself1 at different periods of his life4 ,one characteristic of the work of the modern photo-realist in painting is that almost any one of them could have painted a portion of the work of any other without making any appreciable discord of execution apparent4 ,they are all equipped from the first at the studios with a technique which serves them equally1 once for all4 ,it is known as la bonne peinture4 ,it differs from style in being a thing you can acquire1 and ,i believe it is even maintained1 not only to be perfectible1 but to have been1 on several occasions1 perfected4 ,nothing is more frequently brought home to the student of modern painting than the truth that the work of the salonnier1 the picture1 that is1 that is born of the exhibition and for the exhibition1 wears its air of novelty and interest strictly for the season4 ,if he meet it again in a house1 or in the holocaust of a retrospective exhibition1 its date is stamped upon it with the accuracy of a page of ,le follet or ,le moniteur de la mode4 ,and whether a picture be asserted at the date of its exhibition as advanced1 or the contrary1 as daring or dull1 if it is born of the exhibition1 it dies with the exhibition1 and the brood to which it gives birth hold their life on the same tenure4 ,it was impossible1 on seeing ,bastien-,lepage's ,joan of ,arc at the ,paris ,exhibition of #ahij1 after a lapse of some years since its first appearance1 to resist the conclusion that it falls inevitably under the heading of 8machin40 ,in the composition1 or in what modern critics prefer to call the placing1 there is neither grace nor strangeness4 ,the drawing is without profundity or novelty of observation4 ,the colour is uninteresting1 and the execution is the usual mechanically obtrusive square-brush-work of the ,parisian schools of art4 ,dramatically1 the leading figure is not impressive or even lucid2 and the helpless introduction of the visionary figures behind the back of the rapt maid completes the conviction that it was an error of judgment for a painter with the limitations of ,lepage to burden a touching and sanctified legend with commonplace illustration4 ,a faithful copy of so strange and interesting a subject as ,mme4 ,sarah ,bernhardt cannot fail to be a valuable document1 but ,lepage's portrait has surely missed altogether the delicacy of the exquisitely spiritual profile4 ,the format of the little panel portrait of the ,prince of ,wales evoked in the press the obviously invited reference to ,clouet4 ,the ready writer cannot have looked at so much as a single pearl in the necklace of one of ,clouet's princesses4 ,to judge fairly of an artist1 however1 we must follow him on to his own ground4 ,in his portrait of his grandfather1 at the same exhibition1 it was quite possible to see ,lepage at his best as a workmanlike and photographic copyist of a figure in repose4 ,it was at the same time possible to turn from this picture straight to ,manet's fifre1 and to his bon bock1 and thus to measure the gulf that separates a meritorious workman from an inspired executant of the first rank4 ,no useful end can be gained by obscuring this fact1 and if1 in league with the modern gigantic conspiracy of toleration1 we are to speak of ,bastien-,lepage as a master1 what terms are left us for ,keene and ,millet1 for ,whistler and ,degas8 ,,walter ,,sickert4 ,chelsea1 #ahia4 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff4 ,illustration3 ,in ,possession of her ,mother4 ,engraved by ,c4 ,state4 ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff4 7,from a ,portrait by ,herself47 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff4 ,the brilliant sunshine of a glorious ,october morning poured through the tall windows of ,marie ,bashkirtseff's studio on my last visit to the ,rue de ,prony4 ,this mellow light bathing her canvasses brought them out in fullest relief1 and ,i had never had such a favourable opportunity of judging her work in its entirety4 ,i was struck more than ever by the vigour and vitality of these studies1 sketches1 pastels1 and pictures struck off at a white heat of mental production between the ages of seventeen and four and twenty4 ,hanging above the gallery which runs along one side of the wall were her first studies from life1 which astonished ,julian so much that he pronounced them phenomenal2 here were her numerous sketches showing the sincerity of her efforts to be true to nature2 and her finished pictures full of individuality and power4 ,as the eye rested on these portraits where the keynote of character had been so unmistakably struck1 on these bits of city life in their shabbier aspects1 on these ,paris street children with faces so prematurely sharpened or saddened1 you became at once aware that this artist was a naturalist of the naturalists4 ,her chief object was to seize lifeto seize the flying impression as she happened to see it2 to render it with unflinching faithfulness to nature without any attempt at arrangement1 composition1 or beauty of treatment4 8,oh1 to catch nature60 ,this is the cry of ,marie ,bashkirtseff1 as it is the cry of ,impressionism1 as it was perhaps the cry of the primitive artist who with much labour and wrestling of the spirit modelled the first rude image of the lioness or painted the first likeness of an archer1 bow in hand4 ,not quite the same1 perhaps4 ,for these early workers in clay or pigments saw nature with the eyes of childrenthose visionary eyes to which the leaves of the trees1 the flowers of the field1 the dogs and horses and cats and cows are as much part of the interminable fairy-tale in which they live as the more fantastic figures in more orthodox stories4 ,for these primitive artists looked at the world with the eyes of children1 and though they looked at her with clear1 wide-open eyes1 they could not help seeing her symbolically1 seeing the analogy between men and beasts1 between beasts and plants1 between the articulate and inarticulate phases of nature1 so that whatever they produced not only stood for itself but for a host of subtly apprehended affinities linked together by imaginative insight into the mystery of things4 ,and in tracing the development of this primitive style of art a little further1 in following it to its legitimate development into the loftiest forms of ,greek art1 we cannot help seeing that it was the consummate flower of this archaic symbolism4 ,with this difference1 that while ,egyptian1 ,assyrian1 and ,indian artists invented the most grotesque and fantastic forms to express the wonder and mystery of the world1 the ,greeks tried to find outward expression for that archetype of beauty which has as yet only existed in the mind of man4 ,and nature1 plus the mind of man1 plus that master faculty which refuses and chooses1 and which reaches its highest results by making fresh combinations from what is widely diffused in nature3 that1 surely1 is the secret of art4 ,this faculty of selection and concentration1 within the limits of some more or less conventional form1 seems to belong to every manifestation of art1 which can never under any circumstances be a simple reproduction of nature4 ,how can it1 indeed1 since1 as ,blake so pithily puts it3 8,a fool sees not the same tree a wise man sees08 ,and we question whether any two people1 any two painters would ever see precisely the same thingthe same tree1 however hard they might try to free themselves from the bias of personality2 or would succeed in giving us an identical pictorial representation of any subject whatsoever4 ,for the artist's own mind1 unlike a photographic apparatus1 would always intervene so as to force him to see life through the medium of his temperament4 ,indeed1 will not the circulation of the artist's blood1 the pitch of his nerves1 the thoughts he has thought and the emotions he has felt from the beginning of consciousness1 have to be taken into account as factors in any individual painter's picture of a tree or any other object8 ,for this reason a picture can never be truly likened to a window opening on nature unless1 indeed1 it be a stained-glass window4 ,on the contrary1 the artist for the time being lends us his eyes to see nature with4 ,and as the eyes of a ,titian or a ,turner saw combinations and harmonies of tones and tints whose magnificent effect entirely escapes the eyes of ordinary mortals1 it is much wiser to accept their interpretation than to go into hair-splitting discussions as to the precise exactitude of their copy to a reality which is eternally changing4 ,take only the painters of the realistic modern ,french schoolcan we not tell at a glance1 in going through the ,louvre1 whether it is nature according to ,corot1 to ,rousseau1 or to ,millet that we are looking at8 ,for whether the realists like it or no1 the world will reflect itself in their brains according to the laws of their peculiar individuality1 and the preciousness of all art expression seems precisely to consist in this rare flavour which the artist's self impresses on nature outside himself4 ,this priceless quality which we call style is as inseparable from the genuine artist as the shape of his nose4 ,it clearly differentiates a peasant woman by ,millet from any ordinary peasant woman we may chance on in a field1 and is as marked in his simple pourtrayal of rustic subjects as in the most sublime compositions by ,michael ,angelo4 ,these few inadequate remarks may not be entirely out of place when speaking of the sthetic views of our day2 or of an artist who is peculiarly representative of them4 ,for the new scientific spirit which has revolutionized our views of nature1 has also penetrated the realms of literature and art1 and impelled artists to attempt a perfectly unprejudiced reproduction of life4 ,for the present this has led them to a grim realism1 which loves to dwell exclusively on the material side of existence1 scouting the romantic and ideal as figments of man's fancy to be relegated into the limbo of unrealistics along with the dragons and griffins of the world's childhood4 ,the same movement which has produced the extremely powerful but one-sided novels of ,de ,goncourt1 ,zola1 and ,guy de ,maupassant may also be studied in the works of the realistic ,french painters in their almost fierce insistence on what is natural even to the pitch of repulsiveness4 ,impressionism was in the air when ,marie ,bashkirtseff entered on her artistic career in #ahgg4 ,it would amount to a truism to give any fresh account of her birth1 parentage1 and early life at this time4 ,all the world has read her famous journal4 ,all the world knows that she was born at ,poltava1 in the south of ,russia1 in #ahfj4 ,that her parents were separated after a few years of marriage2 that her mother and aunt came to the ,west of ,europe with the two children,paul and ,marie1 and a cousin ,dina2 that they travelled about after the fashion of their kind1 afterwards settling down first at ,nice1 and later on in ,paris4 ,as ,marie often bitterly laments1 her education was carried on in a rather desultory fashion4 ,but her faculty for acquiring knowledge was so surprising1 her intellect so extraordinary1 that she became an admirable linguist1 a skilled musician1 a splendid singer1 a fair mathematician with a rapidity that seemed to amount to intuition4 ,her powers of observation had probably been much developed by all that she saw and heard on their travels4 ,she had an early opportunity of seeing the master works of all time in ,florence and ,rome1 and was an indefatigable frequenter of museums and picture galleries4 ,at the age of fifteen1 her judgment was already so independent that she had the audacity to speak of the 8cardboard pictures of ,raphael0 and the 8stupid if glorious ,venuses of ,titian40 ,she had never as yet lived in ,paris1 mixed with artists1 or heard the talk of the studios1 yet in many respects she seems already a full-fledged art student1 with the last phrase of the hour on her lips4 ,already she sought in pictures that scrupulous resemblance to nature which was her chief aim when she herself took to painting4 ,but though deeply interested in art1 it did not at that time occupy the chief place in her thoughts4 ,music attracted her more1 and the desire to be a singer was her greatest ambition4 ,in fact1 she laboured under the disadvantage of an embarras de richesses in regard to her natural gifts1 and for several years she found it difficult to make a choice4 ,however1 one day in ,october1 #ahgg1 there entered ,m4 ,julian's now famous life-school in the ,passage des ,panoramas two very tall ladies1 all in black1 accompanied by a young girl dressed in pure white from head to foot1 as if she were a lily of the field4 ,this strange and striking trio made quite a sensation4 ,m4 ,julian himself1 with his happy picturesqueness of phrase in describing the first appearance of ,marie ,bashkirtseff in his studio1 spoke of her as une blancheursomething bright and startling1 which seemed to have little in common with the severe work-a-day routine of studio life4 ,nevertheless1 she had come1 accompanied by her mother and aunt1 to be entered as a pupil2 and in the letter which she brought him from an eminent physician1 he found this curt word by way of introduction3 8,i have sent you a monster40 ,all this was very unlike the usual order of things4 ,but it was there and then settled that ,marie ,bashkirtseff was to attend his classes1 and every morning found her duly at place1 working away as if her life depended upon it4 ,at first1 her master took this wish to paint for the caprice of a spoilt child1 which would soon pass when confronted by the difficulties of execution4 ,before long1 however1 he recognized his mistake2 he felt that she was a power2 that there was something which lifted her out of the ranks and placed her apart among her fellow pupils4 ,something which gave to her first efforts1 however crude and tentative1 a vigour and spontaneity which were truly astonishing4 ,and he discovered1 too1 that so far from playing at art she was in deadly earnest4 ,instead of being less regular in her attendance than the other art students1 she flung herself into her work with the passionate zeal of an enthusiast4 ,morning1 noon1 and night found her either at her easel1 or else taking private lessons in anatomy and modelling1 or haunting sales and picture galleriesalways1 on the alert to improve herself4 ,indeed1 ,julian found her a little monster of energy1 of talent1 of ambition1 of concentrated will4 ,whatever she took into her head to do1 she did and accomplished the seemingly impossible4 ,in a surprisingly short time she had mastered the elements of art1 and her studies from the nude were considered wonderful by her masters4 ,by the intensity of her attention and fever of work joined to her native endowment she managed after only two years of study to produce a picture of a woman reading1 which was hung in the ,salon4 ,it evinces all her characteristic qualitiesmasterly vigour of drawing1 and a vivid and striking manner of painting human faces4 ,her extreme sensitiveness to impressions gave her a peculiar facility for catching likenesses and bringing out the salient and personal traits in her models4 ,after some few years devoted to painting in the studio1 ,marie ,bashkirtseff began to feel very unhappy about her work as a colourist4 ,it fell so far below her own standard as to plunge her into fits of despair4 ,in the midst of this profound dissatisfaction1 in the autumn of #ahha1 she went to ,spain1 and there she seemed to awaken to a new sensefor the first time to awaken to the full1 glorious significance of colour in the painter's sense4 ,in reading those pages of her journal which describe the picturesque ,moorish palaces1 the gloomy ,gothic cathedrals1 the dark1 crooked streets with their groups of gipsies and the treasures of art stored away in museums and churches1 it seems as if they were illumined by a mellower light than the rest of the book4 ,velasquez and ,goya opened her eyes1 and she 8raised herself on tiptoe10 as she says1 to master the secret of their unique method4 ,day after day she steeped herself in those glowing canvasses1 and on her return to ,paris she began to reap the benefit of this enthusiastic absorption4 ,soon afterwards she painted ,the ,umbrella1 in which she made a great leap forward4 ,her method and style of painting now placed her definitely in the same school to which ,bastien-,lepage belonged1 or of which he was the master4 ,it was the school which said3 8,we will let the open air into our pictures4 ,let us paint light just as it is out of doors1 not the artificial studio effects from north aspects and skylights40 ,the ,plein ,air movement of the painters was precisely the same as that which ,zola inaugurated in literature4 ,it was nature taking the citadel of art by stormat least1 what these particular men and artists understood by nature4 ,at the head of this school stood ,bastien-,lepage1 the young painter who so early became what the ,french call ,chef d'cole4 ,his pictures taken fresh from the countryhis ,haymakers1 and ,harvesters1 and ,potato ,gatherers1 and ,rustic ,lovers filled ,marie ,bashkirtseff with boundless delight4 8,he is not only a painter10 she says1 8he is a poet1 a psychologist1 a metaphysician1 a creator40 ,his perfect imitation of nature1 the quality which ranked highest in her judgment1 was beyond all praise in her eyes4 ,many of the ,french critics called her the pupil of ,bastien4 ,but she had of course never been his actual pupil1 having been trained in quite a different school1 and it always gave her much annoyance to be called so4 ,but in spite of the striking contrast between the origin and early associations of these two young painters they were singularly alike in their love of realism1 their early fame1 and premature end4 ,look1 on the one hand1 at ,marie1 this offspring of ,tartar nobles1 with savage instincts lying like half-tamed wild beasts in the background of her consciousness4 ,she was descended from owners of lands and serfs1 and the instinct of command1 the pride of power1 the love of all things splendid became part of her inheritance4 ,she was the idol of two women1 her 8two mothers10 who1 in her master ,julian's incisive phrase1 8would have burned down ,paris to please her1 or had themselves cut into a thousand pieces to satisfy one of her caprices40 ,nature had endowed her with such lavish gifts that her very talents turned into a stumbling-block1 threatening to divert her efforts into too many channels4 ,music1 literature1 sculpture1 the stage1 were successively the goal of her ambition2 and each one of these arts was in her eyes only the means to an endthe one burning desire for fame4 ,however1 as the deep meaning of work1 of the artist's simple and disinterested absorption in what he is fashioning1 became familiar to her she began to forget herself more and more in the things she did4 ,her devotion to art1 her love and delight in it1 grew steadily with her increasing mastery over its technical difficulties4 ,she says truly3 8,outside of my art1 which ,i commenced from caprice and ambition1 which ,i continued out of vanity1 and which ,i now worship2 outside of this passionfor it is a passionthere is nothing40 ,little by littlewith many outcries1 it is true1 and kickings against the traces,marie ,bashkirtseff had begun to discover that there is no royal road to art4 ,that to him only is given who is ready1 also1 to give up much4 ,she found out that however great her natural gift might be1 it would remain a diamond in the rough1 unless she regularly applied herself to the task of acquiring technical mastery4 ,after some years' intense but interrupted application she would have admitted that no work of first-rate talent can be produced without the expenditure of as much courage1 perseverance1 and self-control as might have made a hero4 ,for1 as ,schumann truly says3 8,the laws of morality are also the laws of art40 ,what a widely different lot was that of ,bastien-,lepage4 ,he1 the son of ,french peasant proprietors1 came of people who are perhaps the most thrifty and industrious class in existence3 people punctual to their daily task as the sun himself in his rising and down-going2 clinging to the soil they till with the tenacity of rocks and trees2 working much and wanting little1 asking no joy of life except rest4 ,just as ,marie's parents lived apart in painful disunion1 those of ,bastien were united by the tenderest family affection4 ,the shrewd1 caustic1 clear-headed old grandfathera sort of village ,nestorthe thoughtful father1 the devoted mother1 were helpful influences which unobtrusively helped in developing ,bastien's faculties4 ,he began to draw as naturally as another child learns to talk2 and his father1 noticing his aptitude1 very wisely set him to copy some object or other every evening from the age of five4 ,country life1 with its primitive simplicity and its regular succession of daily tasks1 sank deeply if unconsciously into the little fellow's mind3 it sank as the seed does1 without question or self-analysis1 to hide its time in silence and shoot up strong and vigorous when the appointed hour had come4 ,bastien probably never asked himself whether he should be a painter1 a poet1 a psychologist1 or metaphysician4 ,he became one very likely because he could not help painting4 ,and ,i suppose he never asked himself whether in his pursuit of art he was sacrificing something that might be more precious4 ,but he was not dazzled and enchanted by the sight of ,italian cities and ,carnival festivities and ball-room flirtations4 ,toil and hardship were the rule of life around him1 and in his love for art he was willing to undergo any amount of it4 ,instead of rushing in express trains from ,berlin to ,st4 ,petersburg and from ,st4 ,petersburg to ,paris1 he remained stationary in his low-roofed country home1 seeing the same round of occupation going on year after year3 the labourer following the plough2 the haymakers in the mowing grass with the light beating on their sunburnt faces1 or stretched in the shade of full-leaved trees in the luxury of repose2 reapers reaping the orange-coloured corn2 summer evening in the village1 with the cattle coming home to their stalls1 as their shadows deepen on the bright green meadows4 ,such were the impressions which graved themselves always afresh on the lad's receptive memory1 to turn themselves one day into those pictures of rural life which may truly be called 8the harvest of a quiet eye40 ,though ,bastien-,lepage's lotwho had to make his living by turning post-office clerk while studying at the cole des ,beaux ,artsmay appear so much harder than that of ,marie ,bashkirtseff1 it was in reality more favourable to the development of an artist4 ,for1 according to ,goethe1 8,character is formed by contact with the world1 while talent develops in seclusion40 ,marie ,bashkirtseff1 with her penetrating intelligence1 was quite aware of this4 ,she1 for whom nothing was ever sufficiently fine1 would sometimes quite seriously envy her fellow-students' their poverty1 their humble way of life1 their cares and hard work shared in common in a ,paris garret4 ,a stern necessity seemed to lend dignity to their art work1 while hers was so often patted on the back by her fashionable friends as the pastime of a charming young ,mondaine4 ,i was particularly fortunate this year in finding in ,marie ,bashkirtseff's studio a picture by ,bastien-,lepage1 ,l',annociation au ,bergers1 which he painted in #ahge to compete for the ,prix de ,rome4 ,it was interesting to compare these two artists in their likeness in unlikeness4 ,the same uncompromising realism applied in different ways1 and the same power of catching expression and pinning it down as you would a butterfly without losing any of the delicate shades4 ,this picture of a 8far-off1 divine event0 is treated by ,bastien-,lepage in a surprisingly naturalistic way1 and yet without sacrificing that mystical element which sometimes belongs to the simplest aspects of life4 ,here is none of that conventional treatment of religious subjects against which ,marie rebelled in those 8old dusky pictures in the ,louvre40 ,here was real atmosphere1 there were real shepherds1 rough1 homely1 unsophisticated men1 brown as the soil2 and yet1 in spite of the reality1 this picture gave you a sense of unfamiliar awe4 ,sitting there in the twilight before the fire lit in the open air1 they seem to have been more or less overcome by drowsiness4 ,the first1 an old man1 an expressive1 rugged figure1 has bowed his head in adoration and is kneeling before the angel whose sudden apparition has taken the shepherds by surprise4 ,bewildered and amazed the second leans forward with gaping mouth and outstretched hands as if to assure himself by touch of the reality of what he sees4 ,hardly able to rouse himself from sleep the third one sits huddled together in the distance4 ,it is as true as can be to simple shepherd life4 ,the apparition itself has nothing supernatural4 ,it might be purely human with only the angel light of tenderness beaming from the face4 ,the grace of the figure is suggestive of the 8eternally feminine0 as the celestial messenger shows the shepherds the way to ,bethlehem visible in the distance by the luminous haze encircling it like a halo4 ,this picture with its effect of gloaming light is an idyl of shepherd life4 ,it breathes that simplicity of nature which invests the calling of the herdsman1 the ploughman1 the mower1 the reaper1 with the poetry of primitive existence1 ,i shall never forget the impression once produced on me by a ,highland shepherd and his flock slowly winding along the solitary road of an upland moor4 ,the long white line of the wavering sheep with that sombre figure of the solitary shepherd was thrown into relief by the smouldering purple of the barren hillsides4 ,it was a scene which seemed to carry one back to remote ages4 ,even so in the mythic ,east might the flocks and their shepherds have passed along similar roads in the vast silence of deepening twilight4 ,this same feeling of nearness given to what is dimly remote appeared to me one of the chief attractions of ,bastien-,lepage's work4 ,as ,bastien by the country1 so is ,marie ,bashkirtseff inspired by the town4 ,the boulevards and squares of ,paris became to her what the hay and harvest-fields had been to ,lepage4 ,her pictures were imbued with the atmosphere of ,paristhose delicate1 pearly greys which strike one as its keynote of colour4 ,she caught that misty light which you see clinging to masses of architecture as you look from one of the bridges along the blue-grey ,seine to the picturesque old ,cit with the iron-grey towers of ,notre ,dame outlined against the clouded azure above4 ,effects of roofs and clusters of buildings half seen through the confusing haze of early morning2 drab-coloured walls enlivened by black and white placards and the flashy tints of rival advertisements2 narrow streets with masses of shadow emphasizing the value of light on wall and pavementthese became the dominant note in ,marie ,bashkirtseff's work as a colourist4 ,her subjects1 too1 are usually taken from the every-day life of the ,french capital as you may meet it round every street corner4 ,the blouse of the artisan1 the cap of the milliner1 the rags of the gamin appeared better adapted to ,marie ,bashkirtseff for pictorial treatment than the thousand freaks of fashion with which society annually delights to astonish the world4 ,as a painter she preferred the ,boulevard de ,batignolles or ,avenue ,wagram to the ,champs lyses and the ,bois de ,boulogne4 ,the faces of weary people sitting on public benches casually seen in passing or caught sight of across the counter of a shop had hints and suggestions of meaning which she missed in the sleek features of the swells whom she met in the drawing-rooms of her friends4 ,so it happens that instead of painting the pretty1 neat1 carefully brushed children marshalled by stately bonnes in the ,parc ,monceaux1 she chose in preference the unkempt ragamuffins running wild in the streets4 ,she found more scope there for the exercise of that scrupulous and powerful realism which was the secret of her strength4 ,in the ,jean and ,jacques1 ,the ,girl with the ,umbrella1 ,le ,meeting1 she has vividly rendered some of the incidents in the town life of children4 ,the faces of these little boys and girls1 so pathetic in their premature maturity1 in their shrewd or sad or pathetic outlook on the world1 are extraordinary in their truth to life4 ,with most of the childhood taken out of their childish features1 they look at us1 if we consider them well1 with eyes where experience has already taken the place of innocencethe experience taught them by the teeming streets1 those books of the poor1 for ever unfolding fresh pages before their inquisitive eyes4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,meeting4 7,by ,marie ,bashkirtseff47 ,they cannot be called beautiful1 these pictures1 in the sense that fine forms1 nobility of outline1 charm of expression are beautiful4 ,but they are interesting1 vivid1 quick with life4 ,take that little piteous figure clutching the big1 gamp-like umbrella1 while she draws her battered shawl more closely around her4 ,with what a look of stolid1 inarticulate suffering she seems looking through the rain on the life that is dark and dreary as the prospect before her4 ,you see the hair actually blown back from the forehead1 and one mesh has got caught round the handle of the umbrella as she meets the force of the wind with tight-shut lipsa humble subject1 but remarkable for the solidity of its handling4 ,indeed there is a ,holbeinesque quality in the vigour of the drawing and the truth of the pose4 ,jean et ,jacques1 the picture of two boys1 of seven and four years old1 is an equally striking work4 ,they stand so naturally on their legs1 these little fellows1 their attitudes are so unstudied1 their expressions so admirably true to life4 ,the eldest has already that responsible look which the offspring of the poor acquire so early4 ,with his cap at the back of his head1 a shabby umbrella tucked under his right arm1 he steps along in his clumsy boots with the resolute air of a little man2 the handkerchief tied cravat-wise1 but all on one side1 the leaf stuck between the lips as a make-believe cigar1 show ,marie ,bashkirtseff's close observation of the ways of his kind4 ,with one hand he grips the unwilling ,jacques1 dawdling obstinately on his way to school1 while with the other in his pocket he pensively fingers the seductive marbles that invite him to play4 ,le ,meeting1 her most important work1 is a fine1 powerfully painted1 vividly realized picture4 ,just a group of ,paris gamins met in council at a street corner1 discussing the use to which a piece of string is to be applied1 with the excitement of stockbrokers buying and selling shares on the steps of the ,bourse4 ,it is a triumph of realism4 ,the faces speak1 the limbs are informed with life2 it seems as if any moment their legs and arms might begin to move quite naturally4 ,there is nothing conventional about these figures1 so fresh in their unstudied attitudes and gestures4 ,these faces1 bathed in the pale air of a ,paris back street1 breathe quite as much of town life as the discoloured walls and palings in the background4 ,how pert1 how ,parisian1 how wide-awake they are1 with their thin1 sharp-edged features and their gimlet eyes which allow nothing to escape them4 ,the biggest of the six1 with his back to the spectator1 is eloquently holding forth to his intently listening comrades1 even as he may one day hold forth to quite a different kind of audience1 when1 after due graduation in the philosophy of rags1 he shall begin to practise the lessons which the stony streets have taught him4 ,quite a different lesson from that which ,bastien-,lepage's shepherds have learnt on the hillsides of the wooded ,meuse4 ,the execution of this picture1 hung in a place of honour at the ,luxembourg1 is extremely good4 ,there is a genuine feeling for colour in the grey and sombre tones in harmony with the nature of the subject4 ,the open-air effect is happily caught1 and the faces stand out in brilliant light4 ,the powerful realism1 scrupulous technique1 and excellence of the painting1 make a great success of ,le ,meeting1 and it is a performance which at once secured a wide recognition for ,marie ,bashkirtseff1 not only in artistic circles1 but from the general public4 ,marie loved to recall ,balzac's questionable definition that the genius of observation is almost the whole of human genius4 ,it was natural it should please her1 since it was the most conspicuous of her many gifts4 ,as we might expect1 therefore1 she was especially successful as a portrait painter1 for she has a knack of catching her sitter's likeness with the bloom of nature yet fresh upon it4 ,she seems to me equally good in her men and women and children1 the contrast of many of her heads showing the range and variety of her power4 ,her portraits are noticeable for that absence of family likeness which is often seen even in the works of great painters1 as if the artist had some ideal head before his mind's eye to which he was unconsciously trying to assimilate the faces of his models4 ,marie ,bashkirtseff's impressionable nature was a safeguard in that respect4 ,all her likenesses are singularly individual1 and we realize their character at a glance4 ,look1 for example1 at her portrait of a ,parisian swell1 in irreproachable evening dress and white kid gloves1 sucking his silver-headed cane1 with a simper that shows all his white teeth1 and then at the head and bust of the ,spanish convict1 painted from life at the prison in ,granada4 ,compare that embodiment of fashionable vacuity with this face1 whose brute-like eyes haunt you with their sadly stunted look4 ,what observation is shown in the painting of those heavily-bulging lips1 which express weakness rather than wickedness of dispositionin those coarse hands engaged in the feminine occupation of knitting a blue and white stocking4 ,again1 take those three heads expressive of different kinds of laughter4 ,and nothing is perhaps more difficult than to paint laughing or singing faces3 the open mouth being apt to give a foolish1 strained1 and unnatural look to the face4 ,but ,marie ,bashkirtseff evinces great skill in painting a natural effect of laughter4 ,the little smiling boneless baby face is a delightfully realistic study of an infant1 and equally good is that of the pert little girl whose mouth bubbles over with a child's artless laugh4 ,much more knowing is the wicked laughter of the young woman with the stylish hat and bunch of violets fastened coquettishly in her sealskin cape4 ,she surely must be laughing at somebodyat some lovelorn swain1 whose antics make all her features twitch with amusement4 ,one of ,marie ,bashkirtseff's first portraits1 and an admirably painted one1 is that of her cousin ,dina4 ,it was her first work exhibited at the ,salon1 and shows a young woman with her elbow resting on a table and her face in her hand4 ,her loose gown of light blue damask1 white muslin fichu and soft1 pale golden hair harmonize very happily with the green plush of the table-cover1 the white of the book1 and the flowers beside the bare arm4 ,the delicate flesh tints of a buxom blonde are admirable in tone1 and the face extremely characteristic4 ,it has the unmistakable ,tartar type in the low brow1 slightly oblique eyes1 flattened nose1 and broad lips with their expression of sensuous indolence4 ,here there is nothing of that vivacious charm which is so marked an element in the portrait of ,mdlle4 de ,canrobert4 ,this sketchy portrait looks as if the painting had been done at the first stroke4 ,the round hat1 the well-fitting clothes1 the plants in the background seem dashed in with the facility of a master4 ,the face sparkles at us from the canvas as if about to utter a witticism4 ,this cleverly-painted figure is all life1 all movement1 and in its style of treatment and freedom of pose is suggestive of ,mr4 ,whistler's manner4 ,her portrait of herself1 palette in hand1 painted in the last year of her life1 is extremely interesting4 ,it is a three-quarters length1 and she is standing looking straight in front of her with a harp a little behind to the left4 ,she is done in that becoming black studio uniform with the broad white frills and jabot which has been so often described1 and the gown fits as if moulded on the body4 ,her deep blonde hair1 thickly coiled on the top of the head1 ends in a fringe over her forehead4 ,her features are more refined and spiritual than we know them from the photographs4 ,it seems as if the invisible presence of death had already laid a finger on her fair body and fined it down to a greater delicacy and had given that expression of questioning pathos to the profound wide-open eyes4 ,it is not possible here to enumerate all her portraits1 admirable as many of them are4 ,her likenesses of ,mdlle4 ,armandine1 of a ,parisienne1 of ,prince ,bojidar ,karegeorgevitch1 of ,georgeth1 and of ,mdme4 ,paul ,bashkirtseff1 have the same convincing air of intense realism which she adored in ,bastien-,lepage's works of that kind4 ,the enthusiastic words1 full of light and colour1 in which she describes his portraits1 might in many an instance be applied to her own without exaggeration4 ,not to be overlooked are some of her landscapes and townscapes1 if one might be allowed to coin such a word4 ,there is an extremely good little picture of a portion of a street near the ,rue ,ampre4 ,a plot of fenced-in building ground gives it a dismally1 unfinished look4 ,the houses and walls behind1 seen through a pale morning mist1 are bathed in an atmosphere1 whose grey tones are delicately touched with pink4 ,two heavy cart-horses are standing at rest in the bit of waste ground1 in the centre of which a flame of fire shoots up from a rubbish heapa spot of brilliant colour amid the general dimness4 ,this is just a finely felt1 finely rendered impression4 ,as characteristic and full of atmosphere is the study of a landscape in autumna long1 straight avenue1 with the look of trees about to lose their foliage4 ,wan clouds1 waning light1 withering leaves blending their tones in a harmony of grey in grey4 ,the mournfulness of the misty avenue is like a feeling in the air4 ,a mood of nature has been caught which corresponds to a mood of the human mind4 ,the sense of desolation1 decay1 and impending death seems to breathe from the canvas1 as from some actual presence1 which though unseen1 is none the less there4 ,i cannot help thinking that the artist's own state must1 by some subtle process1 have literally passed into her canvas4 ,how intensely ,marie ,bashkirtseff had identified herself with this picture is shown by ,julian's remark on meeting her just after she had painted it4 ,without knowing the subject she had been at work upon1 he exclaimed1 8,what have you been doing with yourself8 ,your eyes look full of the mists of autumn40 ,i have only picked out the most important of her works here1 but there are many morebold designs1 original little sketches1 studies of all kinds1 with always a characteristic touch of expression4 ,there is that dare-devil sketch of a nude model sitting astride on a chair looking at the skeleton1 between the lips of which she has stuck a pipe while waiting for the artist4 ,the sardonic humour conveyed by the contrast of this fair young woman in her fresh exuberance of form facing the skeleton with a challenging attitude is an unparalleled piece of audacity for a young girl to have painted4 ,it is especially good1 too1 as an arrangement of colour1 and shows perhaps more originality of invention than anything else this artist did4 ,the ,fisher with ,rod and ,line is an interesting study of a brown ,niois with the deep blue sea-water below4 ,and last1 not least1 there is the unfinished sketch for the picture of ,the ,street by which she was so completely engrossed only a few weeks before her death4 ,the background of houses1 the bench with the people sitting back to back in various attitudes expressive of weariness1 destitution1 or despairone with his head hidden by his arm leaning on the back of the seat1 another with crossed legs staring straight before him with the look of one for whom there is no more private resting-place than thisall these half-finished figures1 even when only consisting of a few scratches1 are as true to every-day life as can be4 ,but when all the preliminary studies for this characteristic picture were done1 when the canvas had been placed and all was ready1 the artist found but one thing missing1 and that1 alas1 was herself6 ,though all the work accomplished by ,marie ,bashkirtseff is strictly modern and realistic1 the dream of her last years was to paint a great religious picture4 ,the subject was to be the two ,maries mourning beside the tomb of ,christ4 ,she imagined these women not as they had hitherto been represented by the old masters1 but as forlorn outcasts1 wayworn and weary1 the 8,louise ,michels0 of their time1 shunned of all pharisaic1 respectable folk4 ,they were to embody the utmost depth of love and grief4 ,her descriptions of this picture that was to be1 as given in her journal1 are highly suggestive and poetical4 ,the figures of these womenone standing1 the other in a sitting posturewould have shown in their pose and attitude different phases of sorrow4 ,the woman on the ground abandoning herself to the violence of unrestrained mourning2 the other as rigid as a statue1 as if in confirmation of ,mrs4 ,browning's line1 8,i tell you hopeless grief is passionless40 ,only a few inadequate sketches1 however1 are left of this pictorial vision in which the crescent moon was described as floating in an ensanguined sunset sky above a waste dark with the coming night4 ,this word-picture never took shape in line and colour4 ,but it haunts you with a suggestion of lofty possibilities to be reached by ,marie ,bashkirtseff as an artist had she only lived to carry out her conceptions4 ,and as the poet declares 8songs unheard0 to be sweeter than any that we may ever hear1 so it is with this unpainted picture as compared to the painted ones2 for1 remarkable as her work is1 it is to a great extent remarkable as having been done by so young a girl after only a few years of study4 ,it is as a promise even more than a performance that it claims our admiration4 ,as we already know1 ,marie ,bashkirtseff belongs to the modern ,french school of naturalists1 more particularly to that branch of it of which ,bastien-,lepage was the most representative man4 ,but her work is not exclusively ,french4 ,there is in it also a pronounced ,russian element4 ,there is a marked race-likeness between her work and that of other eminent ,russian painters and novelists4 ,matthew ,arnold's definition of the ,russian nature in his article on ,count ,leo ,tolsto might with very little alteration be applied to ,marie ,bashkirtseff herself4 8,russian nature10 he says1 8as it shows itself in the ,russian novel1 seems marked by an extreme sensitiveness1 a consciousness most quick and acute1 both for what the man's self is experiencing and also for what others in contact with him are thinking and feeling4 ,he finds relief to his sensitiveness in letting his perceptions have perfectly free play1 and in recording their reports with perfect fidelity4 ,the sincereness with which the reports are given has even something childlike and touching'''40 ,this was ever ,marie ,bashkirtseff's paramount aim1 both as a painter and writer1 to make a perfectly faithful report of nature1 of human nature and what is external to itto give a living picture of gesture and manner as well as of thought and feelingin short1 to produce human documents4 ,her mind and temperament1 happily for her1 were in touch with the times4 ,for the specially ,russian alertness to impressions and its genius for recording them has also become the mark of the latest phase of ,european art4 ,and ,marie ,bashkirtseff took to it as if to the manner born 7as indeed she was71 rather than in imitation of the modern ,french style1 or of ,bastien-,lepage in particular4 ,in realizing this dominant quality1 one wonders how it had fared with this impressionable artist if1 instead of being surrounded by ,parisian influences1 she had lived in her native land1 the ,south of ,russia4 ,supposing she1 with her intense receptivity1 had imbibed those primitive aspects of life still to be found amid the remoteness of the ,steppe8 ,faithful to what lay around her1 ,marie has painted dreary houses blurred by mist1 waifs and strays of the ,paris boulevards1 unlovely children in unlovely rags4 ,the critic who blames her preference for what is ugly and sordid does not do so without cause4 ,but when he asks why she does not paint the elegances by which she is surrounded1 she replies on her part1 8,where1 then1 shall ,i find any movement1 any of that savage and primitive liberty1 any true expression80 ,that natural movement and primitive liberty she could certainly not expect in ,paris night-life4 ,but in the ,ukraine she might have found it without admixture of ugliness2 she might have been inspired by its coquettish villages gleaming white amid orchards2 by the robust and handsome peasantry still clad in their picturesque national garb4 ,what splendid models a realist like herself would have had to paint from in those well-shaped peasant girls1 whose movements had never been hampered by anything more artificial in the way of clothes than an embroidered chemise and a petticoat reaching no further than the ankles4 ,here she would still have met something of the 8savage and primitive liberty0 which her soul longed for preserved in many an old ,cossack custom and village rite4 ,still more so in the aspects of primitive naturein the boundless expanse of the ,steppe1 8that green and golden ocean0 as ,gogol calls it1 8variegated by an infinite variety of iridescent tints40 ,what a virgin soil for an artist in love with nature6 ,what new types6 ,what splendid opportunities for the expression of beauty in form and colour6 ,perhaps it is idle to speculate on such possibilities1 but it seems as if ,marie ,bashkirtseff might have produced work of a much higher order had her astonishing gift for recording impressions found impressions more pictorially attractive to record2 had she lived in an atmosphere bathed in an ampler light1 amid a population still partial to the display of brilliant colours in their dress4 ,however that might have been will never be known now4 ,there is a passage in her ,journal where1 speaking of the sacrifices which art exacts1 she says she has given up more for it than ,benvenuto ,cellini when he burn his costly furniture2 indeed1 it was her life itself which she gave4 ,to quote her own striking words3 8,work is a fatiguing process1 dreaded yet loved by fine and powerful natures1 who frequently succumb to it4 ,for if the artist does not fling himself into his work as unhesitatingly as ,curtius did into the chasm at his feet1 or as the soldier leaps into the breach1 and if when there he does not toil with the energy of the miner beneath the earth1 if1 in short1 he stays to consider difficulties instead of overcoming them like those lovers of fairyland who triumph over ever fresh difficulties to win their princesses1 his work will remain unfinished and die still-born in the studio4 ,the general public may not understand1 but those who are of us will find in these lines a stimulating lesson1 a comfort1 and an encouragement40 ,marie ,bashkirtseff's work1 unfortunately for us1 was left unfinished1 but it has not died still-born in the studio4 ,it is astonishingly alive4 ,more alive to-day than on the day it was painted1 and resembles that plant of basil which throve so luxuriantly1 rooted in a dead man's brain4 ,for the energies of her glowing vitality are now alive in her pictures4 ,i subjoin here a complete list of ,marie ,bashkirtseff's works3 #a4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,bashkirtseff4 #b4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,dinah4 #c4 ,portrait de ,mme4 ,p4 ,b4 #d4 ,jeune femme lisant4 #e4 ,le ,meeting4 #f4 ,fleurs4,salon1 #ahhd4 #g4 ,fleurs4 #h4 ,les trois ,rires4 #i4 ,tte 7tude74 #aj4 ,profil4 #aa4 ,nature morte4 #ab4 ,intrieur d'une chaumire ,nice4 #ac4 ,portrait du ,gnral ,plikan4 #ad4 ,georgette4 #ae4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,bashkirtseff4 #af4 ,esquisse4 #ag4 ,tte d'enfant4 #ah4 ,coco4 #ai4 tude des mains4 #bj4 ,esquisse4 #ba4 ,marine4 #bb4 ,monsieur et ,madame 7tude74 #bc4 ,l',atelier1 ,julian4 #bd4 ,tte 7tude74 #be4 ,tte d'enfant4 #bf4 ,le ,soir4 #bg4 ,ophlie 7tude74 #bh4 ,paysan de ,poltava 7tude74 #bi4 ,tte 7tude74 #cj4 ,grand-,pre malade4 #ca4 ,copie4 #cb4 tude4 #cc4 ,la ,rue4 #cd4 ,avril4 #ce4 ,portrait du ,prince ,bojidar ,karageorgevitch4 #cf4 ,le ,parapluie4 #cg4 ,jean et ,jacques4 #ch4 tude d'enfant4 #ci4 ,paysage d',automne4 #dj4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,dinah4 #da4 tude de femme4 #db4 ,portrait de ,jacques ,rendouin4 #dc4 ,jeune ,garon 7tude74 #dd4 ,tte de femme4 #de4 tude4 #df4 ,coin de ,rue4 #dg4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 de ,canrobert4 #dh4 ,une ,vague4 #di4 tude de mains4 #ej4 ,paysage ,svres4 #ea4 ,paysage ,svres4 #eb4 ,paysage4 #ec4 ,portrait de son frre4 #ed4 ,portrait de femme4 #ee4 tude de ,main4 #ef4 ,vielle femme 7tude74 #eg4 ,tte 7tude74 #eh4 ,esquisse4 #ei4 ,mendiant 7tude74 #fj4 ,projet du tableau3 8,les ,saintes ,femmes40 #fa4 ,les ,saintes ,femmes 7,esquisse7 #fb4 ,mendiant de ,grenade4 #fc4 ,une ,dame4 #fd4 ,parisienne4,salon1 #ahhc4 #fe4 ,tte de ,forat4 #ff4 ,irma 7tude74 #fg4 ,paysage de ,nice4 #fh4 ,copie d'aprs ,velasquez4 #fi4 ,chiffonire4 #gj4 ,la ,rue ,brmontier4 #ga4 tude de mains4 #gb4 ,gommeux4 #gc4 ,la ,bohmienne4 #gd4 ,intrieur d'une boutique au ,mont ,dore4 #ge4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,c4 #gf4 ,intrieur de bric--brac ,madrid4 #gg4 cluse ,asnires4 #gh4 tude d'enfant4 #gi4 tude 7,modle74 #hj4 ,modle4 #ha4 ,pcheur ,nice4 #hb4 ,esquisse4 #hc4 ,au bord de la mer4 #hd4 ,a la fentre4 #he4 ,thrse4 #hf4 ,wanka4 #hg4 ,paysage ,nice4 #hh4 tude4 #hi4 tude4 #ij4 ,marine4 #ia4 ,bb4 #ib4 ,marine4 #ic4 tude pour le tableau3 8,les ,saintes ,femmes40 #id4 ,convalescente4 #ie4 ,mendiant ,italien4 #if4 ,portrait4 #ig4 tude4 #ih4 ,portrait de ,mme4 ,gredelue4 #ii4 ,portrait de ,mme4 ,nachet4 #ajj4 ,japonaise4 ,illustration3 ,,marie ,,bashkirtseff4 7,after a ,photograph47 ,,pastels4 #aja4 ,portrait de ,louis de ,canrobert4 #ajb4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 de ,villevielle4 #ajc4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,eral4 #ajd4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,babanine4 #aje4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,armandine4 #ajf4 ,portrait de ,mdlle4 ,dinah4 ,,dessins4 #ajg4 ,portrait4 #ajh4 ,tte4 #aji4 ,soire ,intime4 #aaj4 ,projet de tableau4 #aaa4 ,coco1 ,chvres4 #aab4 ,un ,monsieur4 #aac4 ,une ,dame4 #aad4 ,le ,sommeil4 #aae4 ,les ,cartes4 #aaf4 ,la ,lecture4 #aag4 ,la ,cigarette4 #aah4 ,un ,monsieur et une ,dame4 #aai4 ,une ,dame4 #abj4 ,une ,dame4 #aba4 ,une ,tte4 #abb4 ,mimi4 #abc4 ,marie4 #abd4 ,rosalie4 #abe4 ,l',orateur4 #abf4 ,ophlie4 #abg4 ,les ,enfants4 #abh4 ,bojidar4 #abi4 ,l',orpheline4 #acj4 ,amlie4 #aca4 ,devant la ,chemine4 #acb4 ,madame ,b4 #acc4 ,une partie4 #acd4 ,salon d'essayage chez ,doucet4 #ace4 ,carnaval de ,nice4 #acf4 ,tte4 #acg4 ,tte4 #ach4 ,mademoiselle ,d4 #aci4 ,les ,cartes4 #adj4 tude4 #ada4 #add4 tudes d'aprs le ,modle4 ,,sculpture4 #a4 ,la ,douleur de ,nausicaa4 #b4 ,femme appuye4 #c4 ,le ,bras4 #d4 ,petit ,garon4 #e4 ,une ,femme4 ,,mathilde ,,blind4 ,the ,gresham ,press1 ,,unwin ,,brothers1 ,,chilworth ,,and ,,london4 ,transcriber's ,note3 ,this book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling4 ,words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text4 ,these have been left unchanged4 ,obsolete words1 alternative spellings1 and misspelled words were not corrected4 ,words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores1 like this4 ,one footnote was moved to the end of the chapter4 ,obvious printing errors1 such as backwards1 upside down1 or partially printed letters and punctuation1 were corrected4 ,final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added4