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| Jules Bastien-Lepage, Portrait of my Grandfather, 1874 |
Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) was one of the founders of Naturalism. A critic in 1883 said, "The whole world paints so much today like M. Bastien-Lepage that M. Bastien-Lepage seems to paint like the whole world."
Roger Fry said that the public acceptance of Impressionism owed much to the pioneering work of M. Bastien-Lepage. Monet's popularity, he said, "required the teaching of men like Bastien-Lepage, who cleverly compromised between the truth and an accepted convention of what things looked like, to bring the world gradually around to admitting truths which a single walk in the country with purely unbiased vision would have established beyond doubt."-----
Jules Bastien-Lepage on Wikipedia
Book: Jules Bastien-Lepage
6 comments:
I can't stop looking at the tufts of hair above his right (left in the painting)ear. So beautifully observed.
Thanks James. I like the quote about the single walk in a country side.
I have a question. I have a desire to go see some master artist works in person, like Sargent, Bouguereau, Rockwell, Cornwell, Muchas, Frazetta and many more. Old masters to golden age.
What are the best places to go to see works by these and those of similar nature?
I'd really appreciate knowing what museums are on the top of your list and whose work you would see there, as I trust your taste. I know there are gallery shows with limited time frames. I am looking for places I can go to any time of year, preferably in Canada/US, though please share favorites from other countries if you have them.
Thank you.
Anthony, here's a post with a list: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/03/academic-and-illustration-museums.html
the trees in Bastien's Portrait of His Grandfather remind me of Manet's background trees of his famous "Déjeuner sur l'herbe".
Thanks for the list.
When I look at the Bastien-Lepage painting of the peasant woman I see a serious work of social comment, about the class and agricultural system in the 19th century, the exhausting toil which will trap her during her whole life. She knows she will probably never rise above the fields which have conquered her fellow peasant sprawled in the grass. Someone from our own contemporary culture will see these characters differently.
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