Here is a lovely little song. The music is by Italian composerGiovanni Battista Pergolesi (4 January 1710 – 16 March 1736). My translation is mostly literal. So, please do not expect a beautiful poem. I wanted to translate the words. This song is a very simple pastoral.
Why am I not the fern/ Where, towards the end of a beautiful day,/ My shepherdess rests/ And love watches over her?/ Why am I not the gentle breeze,/ That refreshes her charms,/ The air her mouth breathes,/ The flower born under her steps.
Que ne suis-je l’onde pure
Qui la reçoit dans son sein ?
Que ne suis-je la parure
Qui la couvre après le bain ?
Que ne suis-je cette glace,
Où son minois répété
Offre à nos yeux une grâce
Qui sourit à la beauté ?
Why am I not the pure mist/ That receives her into its bosom/ Why am I not the ornament/ That covers her after her bath?/ Why am I not that mirror,/ Where her sweet little face repeats itself/ Offeringto our gaze a grace/ That smiles at beauty?
Why am I not, as in a dream,/ Holding her heart bewitched?/ And why can I not from a lie/ Go on to the truth?/ The gods who gave me life/ Made me too ambitious,/ For I would like to be/ All that pleases her eyes!
My purpose is to show images. Two are by Milo Winter (The Æsop for Children, EBook #19994) and one is the work of Ferdinand Hodler, perhaps the finest Swiss artist of the 19th century. I would like to show you more of his work.
Ferdinand Hodler (14 March 1853 – 19 May 1918) was born in Berne, Switzerland. He was soon the only surviving member of his family. All died of tuberculosis. This experience coloured his life. For instance, Hodler painted several portraits of his mistress and former model Valentine Godé-Darel during the years she was dying of cancer. The video I am inserting in this post documents her “disintegration” Interestingly, Hodler also painted some 20 portraits of himself. These may be a chronicle of the gradual metamorphosis that characterizes human life.
After Ferdinand Hodler’s father died, his mother married a decorative artist. This may explain Hodler’s career as illustrator. He apprenticed at Thun and then moved to Geneva. He is associated with many movements: from realism to expressionism, including symbolism and Art Nouveau (see “Adoration III” at the bottom of this post). We have seen the work of Alphonse Mucha (24 July 1860 – Prague, 14 July 1939) who was a Czech Art Nouveau artist.
In order to improve his skills, Hodler travelled so he could study the work of other artists. He was particularly interested in the art of Hans Holbein.
Hodler painted several landscapes and portraits. Favourite subjects were women and people going about their daily activities, genre painting. However he was also an illustrator.
This is not an ordinary post. I wish to publish my findings regarding the migration of Reynard the Fox and Æsopic fables to North-America. I have to revise these posts so they are brief articles, but the editors of the Journal to which these will be submitted will require the information that follows. It is not complete, two papers are missing (applied linguistics) and it is not an abundant list, but I faced obstacles. The first consisted of Chronic illnesses: chronic fatigue syndrome and migraines.
The second was a motivation on the part of certain administrators not to have on staff a person who may fall ill if overworked. I was overworked and I fell ill. That was unfortunate, but life does not always unfold according to our expectations. I had to teach courses in several areas of learning and prepared language lab components. Let us say I had an accident. Unlike the victims of the Boston bombings, I did not lose a limb, but I lost what was dear to me, as dear as life itself.
Publishing while preparing new courses and language lab components is almost impossible, especially if one has to go to bed early in the evening. I will therefore publish some of the following articles online. It is my intention to publish my PhD thesis, but firm plans have yet to be determined. I will require research privileges from a large university and money to purchase books. I am a former President of the Canadian Association of College and University Teachers of French (APFUCC), which may help.
I would like to live in an English house again and near friends.
PUBLICATIONS:
Articles :
2002.
« La Patrie littéraire : errance et résistance », Francophonies d’Amérique.
http://www.erudit.org/revue/fa/2002/v/n13/1005247ar.pdf
1998.
« Le Récit d’Acadie : présence d’une absence », in Les Abeilles pillotent,255-275. Université Saint-Anne, Pointe-de-l’Église, Nouvelle-Écosse, .
1988.
« Le Misanthrope, ou la comédie éclatée », in David Trott and Nicole Boursier, eds., L’Âge du théâtre en France/ The Age of Theatre in France, 53-61. Edmonton: Academic Printing and Publishing.
1984.
« L’Échec d’Arnolphe : loi du genre ou faille intérieure? » Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, 11, No. 20: 79-92.
1984.
« Le Poids de l’histoire : à la recherche d’une pédagogie. » The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 40, No. 2: 218-227.
Rpt. in Mosaïque (APFUCC [Association of Canadian University and College Teachers of French], 1984).
Rpt. in Courrier “F” (Ghent, Belgium : Société belge des professeurs de français 2e et 3e langue, 1985).
1981.
« Tartuffe : masques, machines et machinations. » In Actes du XXIVe congrès annuel de l’APFUCC, 491-508. APFUCC/Signum, 1981.Edited Books :
1988.
Mosaïque III : tendances et pratiques actuelles en didactique du français langue seconde. APFUCC.
1986.
Mosaïque II : tendances et pratiques actuelles en didactique du français langue seconde. APFUCC.
1984.
Mosaïque : tendances et pratiques actuelles en didactique du français langue seconde. APFUCC.
Edited Section of Journal:
1984.
« Molière et la nouvelle critique. » In Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, 11, No. 20: 11-92.
Lectures:
2001.
« Renart : éloquence d’un silence, silence d’une éloquence. »
2001 meeting of the International Reynard Society, Hull, England.
2001.
French-Canadian Literature (in French), University of Stuttgart, Germany.
English-Canadian Literature (in English), University of Stuffgart, Germany.
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“Sous les ponts de Paris”
Lucienne Delyle
This motif is associated with Norwegian folktales (Aarne-Thompson 2) and also appears in Reynard the Fox (Aarne-Thompson 2). Le Roman de RenartFR. There are fables and folktales in which the fox, the bear, or the rabbit loses its tail, but these are not trickster stories.
The Norwegian Tale
The Norwegian tale resembles Branch III of the Roman de Renart in that our Norwegian bear is fooled into fishing with his tail through a hole in the ice by a fox. He is then attacked and loses his tail running away from probable predators. The tail gets stuck in the hole through which the bear is tail-fishing.
The missing tail motif
The Roman de Renart
In the related Roman de Renart, the wolf Ysengrin plays the same role as the bear. Ysengrin is fooled by the fox into fish with his tail. This episode takes place in branch III of Renart.
In Le Roman de Renart, the fishing-tail story unfolds as follows:
Smelling grilled eels, Ysengrin knocks at Renart’s door. Renart tells him that he is entertaining monks. “Would that I were a monk,” says Ysengrin! Renart obliges by throwing boiling water at Ysengrin to shave off some of his fur and, thereby, make him look like a monk (la tonsure). (See Samivel’s illustration at the bottom of this post.) He then leads Ysengrin to a hole in the ice of a frozen pond and tells him he will certainly catch fish. Renart leaves a bucket behind attaching it to the wolf’s tail and tells his foe not to move while he is fishing. The wolf’s tail gets stuck in the hole. When morning comes, hunters pounce on the fox whose tail is mistakenly cut off. Ysengrin runs away without asking that his tail be returned to him.
Renart ties a Bucket to Ysengrin’s Tail (Branch III) Bibliothèque nationale de France
Jean de La Fontaine’s Fox who has lost his tail, Le Renard ayant la queue coupée(Vol. 1. Book V. v.), is based on a Æsopic fable entitled The Fox Who Had Lost His Tail (Perry Index 17). In La Fontaine’s fable, the fox is not the trickster fox of the Roman de Renart. In this fable, a fox who has lost his tail invites fellow foxes to have theirs removed. However, they ask the fox to turn around so they can see his behind. When le renard turns around, the other foxes start booing him. The proposed trend stops at the sight of the fox’s rear end.
A FOX caught in a trap escaped, but in so doing lost his tail.
Thereafter, feeling his life a burden from the shame and ridicule
to which he was exposed, he schemed to convince all the other
Foxes that being tailless was much more attractive, thus making
up for his own deprivation. He assembled a good many Foxes and
publicly advised them to cut off their tails, saying that they
would not only look much better without them, but that they would
get rid of the weight of the brush, which was a very great
inconvenience. One of them interrupting him said, “If you had
not yourself lost your tail, my friend, you would not thus
counsel us.”
Temporary Conclusion
There are many Severed-Tail stories based on Aarne-Thompson Motif 2, The tail-fisher is a favorite motif. Morever, there are short tail stories. One of my former students told me there is a “why the rabbit’s tail is short” in Glooscap, Abenaki mythology. But I have yet to find this particular version of “why the rabbit’s tail is short,” but it could be that my student’s testimonial suffices. She has Amerindian ancestry. A former and very well-educated Nova Scotia neighbor often used the following expression: “There is always something to keep the rabbit’s tail short.”
I will pause here and discuss Winnie-the-Pooh in another post.
Yesterday, I wrote a blog on the subject of Bill 14, now under discussion in the Quebec Legislature,[i] but did not post it. I needed to “sleep on it” and did. If enacted, Bill 14 would make Quebec communities where the percentage of English-speaking citizens falls below 50% into French-speaking communities, but it is more complex. It would also put limits on the number of French-speaking Québécois who attend Quebec’s Cégep (grades 12 and 13). After obtaining their DEC Diplôme d’études collégiales) or DCS (Diploma of College Studies), students may enter graduate programs, such as Law and Medicine.
A will to remain within Canadian Confederation
When Jacques Parizeau, a former premier of Quebec, lost the last referendum on sovereignty, held in 1995, he commented that the Parti Québécois had lost because of “money and the ethnic vote.” This cannot be altogether true. Among the c. 51% of the population who voted against sovereignty, there were many French-speaking voters. There are French-speaking Quebecers who wish to retain a close partnership with Ottawa. In fact, this percentage has grown significantly since Madame Marois has become the Premier of Quebec. She leads a minority government and has effected cutbacks and disappointed students. I can state, therefore, that there is, among Québécois, a will to remain within Confederation, a closer bond than that which unites the United States.
French-Canadians Studying English
An excellent indication of this will is the large number of French-speaking Québécois who enrol in English-language Cégeps as well as institutions such as Bishop’s University, in the Eastern Townships, where I reside, with the purpose of learning English. English-speaking Quebecers are willing to accept compromises and, among French-speaking Québécois, many wish to learn English. Because of the operations I have undergone in the last five months or so (cataracts and bunions), I know that it is entirely possible in Sherbrooke, Quebec, to receive medical attention in Canada’s two official languages. For instance I was provided with information on the removal of cataracts in a bilingual booklet. As well, when my second bunion was removed, there were Anglophones waiting for surgery and they were addressed in fluent English and in a friendly, caring manner by French-Canadian doctors and the hospital’s staff.
Bilingualism
Bilingualism is not an evil. On the contrary. It is as a student at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, and Marianopolis College, in Westmount (Montreal), that I studied French systematically. These were English-language institutions. As a result, I know that in English one “makes a decision” and that in French one takes a decision (prendre une décision). In other words, although French is my mother tongue, I perfected my knowledge of both French and English taking courses intended for English-speaking students. I studied French as a second-language. Later, after finishing my PhD, I taught applied linguistics, or what is involved in the teaching and learning of second or third languages (second-language didactics), at McMaster University, in Ontario. I love studying languages.
Opposing Bill 14
Now that Bill 14 is being discussed, I wish I could provide the Legislature with my personal testimonial. I can do so in fluent and correct French. Consequently, I am opposed to a Bill that would further limit access to the study of English to French-speaking Quebecers. One has to be realistic. If Québécois do not learn languages other than French, English in particular, they will be facing obstacles that have nothing to do with their being part of the Canadian Confederation. They are citizens of the world.
I am also opposed to Bill 14 because it takes away from English-speaking Quebecers the rights I enjoyed in mostly English-language provinces of Canada. The majority of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, but there are a great many French-speaking Canadians living outside Quebec. They have their schools or they may enter a French-immersion program. Canadian Parents for French remains a strong lobby and several members of this association look upon French-immersion schools as the better public schools or private schools within the public system.
Sir George-Étienne Cartier
The French-Canadian Legacy
French-speaking Canadians outside Quebec can listen to French-language radio and watch French-language television networks from coast to coast and they are respected by English-speaking Canadians who have been flocking to French-immersion schools from the moment Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his party implemented bilingualism. It is no longer possible for me to speak French at a restaurant table in Toronto or Vancouver expecting that no one will understand what I am saying.
In other words, the battle has been fought and won. I have mentioned Pierre Elliott Trudeau‘s government, but he had predecessors who paved the way for a bilingual Canada. Among these leaders are Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, KCMG (October 4, 1807 – February 26, 1864), Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, PC (September 6, 1814 – May 20, 1873), a father of Confederation, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, GCMG, PC, KC, (20 November 1841 – 17 February 1919). It’s time to cease and desist. If not, more English-speaking Quebecers will leave their province as well as French-speaking Québécois many of whom had moved to Quebec from France, Belgium, and other war-torn countries. A large number left in the 1970s. They had fled strife.
Strife is what Lord Durham, John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, GCB, PC (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), observed and noted in the report he submitted after investigating the mostly misunderstood Rebellions of 1837-1838 (entry from the Canadian Encyclopedia). Lord Durham commented that French-speaking Canadians were “without history and without literature” and recommended that they be assimilated, but this recommendation was never put into effect. Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, a French-Canadian, was Prime Minister from September 26, 1842 – November 27, 1843. His term began a year after the Act of Union (1841), also recommended by Lord Durham, was proclaimed. Responsible government became the more important objective, as would extending Canada from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
The Rebellions of 1837-1838
Québécois who study the history of Canada should be taught that the Rebellions of 1837-1838 occurred in both Canadas (see Upper Canada Rebellion, Wikipedia). There were patriots in Toronto and rebels were hanged in the current Ontario (Toronto and London). Recently, I met a lady who told me she did not know about the Upper Canada Rebellion and was sorry she had not been taught Canadian history in a more accurate manner.
Conclusion
It would be my opinion that souverainistes are now “fighting windmills” (Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes). They are also harming all French-speaking Canadians living outside Quebec. Above all, consider the benefits of living harmoniously and in prosperity.
Featured artist
My featured artist is Claude Lorrain, the byname of Claude Gellée (born 1600, Champagne, France—died Nov. 23, 1682, Rome [Italy]), whose landscapes may have been an inspiration to Whistler in that they are lyrical and an earlier expression of a degree of tonalism.[ii]
Peter Matthews (1789 – April 12, 1838; by hanging [Toronto])
Samuel Lount (September 24, 1791 – April 12, 1838; by hanging [Toronto])
Joshua Gwillen Doan (1811 – February 6, 1839; by hanging [London, Ontario])
REFERENCES
CTV News (François Legault)
CBC News (Coalition Avenir Québec, François Legault)
CBC News (Dawson College, Cégep, priority to Anglophone students)
The Montreal Gazette Loss of identity)
Quebec’s main political parties and their leaders (le chef) are:
The North Sea, 1883 (watercolour)
Green and Silver: The Bright Sea, Dieppe, 1883-85 (gouache and watercolour)
Blue and White Covered Urn (no date)
Photo credit: Wikipaintings.orgThe Athenæum
I do not know the name of the lady who sat for Whistler’s Head of a Young Woman (1890). This portrait was painted at the height of Whistler’s career, two years after his marriage to Beatrix Birnie Philip, when the couple resided in Paris.
Interestingly, Whistler was not altogether wrong when he claimed he was born in Saint Petersburg. He was in fact born in Lowell, Massachusetts, but he moved to Russia in 1843, a year after his father, George Washington Whistler, a prominent engineer, was hired to build a railroad connecting Saint Petersburg and Moscow. He was 9 years old when he joined his father in Russia. Those were formative years. It could be said that Whistler was an “expat,” and one of the first American artists to settle in Europe, mingle with soulmates and enjoy both a bohemian lifestyle and the pleasures of a café society.
* * *
At the age of eleven, young James enrolled in Saint Petersburg‘s Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, where it was soon noticed that he was a gifted artist. While his father was working in Russia, Whistler also visited England accompanied by his mother. He met Francis Haden, a surgeon by profession, but also an artist. Francis Haden married Whistler’s sister and would become the very distinguished Sir Francis Seymour Haden. After his trip to England, James informed his father of his wish to pursue a career as an artist, writing “I hope, dear father, you will not object to my choice” (See James Abbot McNeill Whistler, Wikipedia). However, James was about to lose his father to cholera. George Washington Whistler died in Russia.
After James’ father passed away, the Whistler family was forced to return to the United States. But they left Lowell, Massachusetts to settle in Pomfret, Connecticut, James’ mother’s hometown. Whistler was therefore brought up in a more frugal manner than would otherwise have been the case.
Yet, despite his father’s untimely death, James would become an artist. A career as a minister was Mrs Whistler’s first choice for her son. However, James had no inclination for life as a member of the clergy, nor, for that matter, could he enter the military successfully. He did attend West Point, failed an exam, misbehaved, and was dismissed by no less than Colonel Robert E. Lee. He then worked as draftsman “mapping the entire U.S. coast for military and maritime purposes[,]” but drawing “sea serpents, mermaids, and whales on the margins of the maps, at which point he was transferred to the etching division of the U. S. Coast Survey.” (See James McNeill Whistler, Wikipedia.)
Whistler lasted two months as an etcher, but his training in this medium would be invaluable in the career he would embark upon after a stay with a wealthy friend, Tom Winans. Winans, who lived in Baltimore, provided Whistler with a studio, pocket-money and, in 1855, with the funds that would allow Whistler to leave for Paris to perfect his skills as an artist. Whistler never returned to the United States. He is buried in Chiswick, near London.
Symphony in Grey and Green: The Ocean, 1866-1872 (oil)
Nocturne: The Thames at Battersea, 1878 (lithograph)
Nocturne in Black and Gold: the Falling Rocket, c. 1875 (oil, bottom of post)
Tonalism
When Whistler arrived in France, realism was all the rage. He became a disciple of Gustave Courbet and befriended Henri Fantin-Latour. However, he was also influenced by the art for art’s sake movement, associated with writer Théophile Gauthier. In the early 1860s, after he had settled in London, he visited Courbet and painted seascapes with him. He also visited Brittany (1861) and the coast near Biarritz (1862).
But although his paintings reflect his exposure to realism and, to a certain extent, the Barbizon School (1830 through 1870), Whistler developed a rather personal style called tonalism. Tonalism is also associated with George Inness and, to a certain extent, with the Russian mood landscapes of Aleksey Savrasov[ii] and Isaac Levitan.[iii] It is perhaps best described as a “veiled” form of realism, a subtler art, except that Whistler’s use of colour reflects musical keys. Whistler built a close relationship between his colours or tones, as though they were painted in a key, usually in one of the more plaintive minor keys. Many of his paintings are called “Nocturnes,” à la Chopin, Symphonies, Harmonies and Notes. Whistler’s paintings therefore herald Impressionism as do Édouard Manet’s. However, printmakers practice a certain linearity, a technique not altogether compatible with imprecise Impressionism. Whistler produced several etchings and lithographs.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Whistler is known for his “his paintings of nocturnal London, for his striking and stylistically advanced full-length portraits, and for his brilliant etchings and lithographs.” He is also known for his “congenial themes on the River Thames, and the etchings that he did of such subjects garnered praise from the poet and critic Charles Baudelaire when they were exhibited in Paris.”[iv]
However, when he showed Nocturne in Black and Gold: the Falling Rocket (shown at the bottom of this post), Whistler did not garner praise from eminent British critic John Ruskin. On July 2, 1877, in his Fors Clavigera, John Ruskin wrote:
“For Mr. Whistler’s own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay [founder of the Grosvenor Gallery] ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of willful imposture. I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” (quoted in James McNeill Whistler, Wikipedia)
Modernism was happening across the English Channel. Yet, the jury returned a verdict in favour of James McNeill Whistler.
There is more to say about Reynard and motifs, but all I can send my readers today are pictures of the women in the life of American-born London-based artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 10, 1834 – July 17, 1903). I have been sick with migraine for the last two days. The second part of my blog will be posted later.
Three Women: jO, Maud and Beatrice
The two loves of Whistler’s life were Joanna “Jo” Hiffernan (ca. 1843 – after 1903) and Maud Franklin (9 January 1857 – ca. 1941). Joanna had been Whistler’s model and helped him raise his son Charles James Whistler Hanson (1870–1935) the result of an affair with a parlour maid, Louisa Fanny Hanson. Whistler’s mother never learned about her grandson.
In 1888, Whistler married Beatrice (“Trixie”) Godwin (née Beatrix Birnie Philip). She had been his pupil and model. She was the former wife of architect Edward William Godwin. They first lived in Paris but returned to England when she was diagnosed with cancer. “Trixie” posed for Harmony in Red Lamplight, 1886. They lived in the Savoy Hotel until her death in 1896. Trixie was 39 at the moment of her death. Whistler himself died seven years later.
Whistler’s Mother
However the woman who dominates Whistler’s life is his mother, born Anna Mathilda McNeill (September 27, 1804 – January 3, 1881). James’ mother had Southern roots. Whistler enjoyed looking upon himself as an “impoverished Southern aristocrat.” James did not want to have been born in Lowell, Massachusetts. Later in life, when he sued John Ruskin for libel, he insisted he was born in Saint Petersburg.
After Whistler settled in England, in the 1860s, she joined him. She did not like her son’s bohemian lifestyle, so accommodations had to be found for “Jo.” Yet, the most famous of Whistler’s painting is the now iconic Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: The Artist’s Mother (1871–72), a portrait of Whistler’s mother. When she died, he added her name, McNeill, to his.
I had to undergo surgery this week. Everything went very well, but I have not been able to write since the operation. I hope to return to my normal activities as soon as possible.
Curtains
Farm at Montgeroult
Here are a few paintings by Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). I tend to associate Cézanne with apples or other fruit. Cézanne painted lovely still lifes. In fact, some of his still lifes feature skulls. Your may remember that during the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age, still lifes were called Vanitas and often showed a skull, an element depicting the brevity of life (See Pieter Claesz, Wikipedia.)
By and large, an artist’s main frame of reference is art itself, but whether or not Cézanne featured skulls intending to underline the brevity of life would be difficult to ascertain. As a post-impressionist, however, he did attempt to catch the brief moment when the light touches an object, suddenly transforming it. That evanescent moment also points to the brevity of life.
Cézanne also painted landscapes, interesting displays of houses, portraits, people playing cards, nudes, groups of nudes, and works, such as “Curtains,” that constitute a lovely example of intimisme,[i] a private space. Intimisme is often associated with impressionism as an impression is by definition a personal and fleeting view.
Cézanne was not very popular in his days, yet both Picasso and Matisse looked upon him “the father of us all.” (See Cézanne, Wikipedia)
Sugarbowl, Pears and Tablecloth
Ginger Jar and Fruit on a Table
The House with Cracked Walls (foot of post)
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As an academic painter, Matisse earned recognition from the start. In 1896, the year he painted his Maid, he was elected an associate member of the Salon – academic – society. Moreover, his Woman Reading (1894), shown in the gallery below, was purchased by the government. However, Matisse’s artistic orientation broadened when he visited Australian artist John Peter Russell who had settled with his wife at Belle-Île, off the coast of Brittany. Russell knew Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, which could explain the Fauvist period of Matisse’s life. Fauvism is characterized by the use of vivid colours. But, generally speaking, Matisse was an eclectic modernist. His training as an academic painter served him well, as did the year he spent in England studying the works of J. M. W. Turner. Matisse’s paintings also reflect the influence of Japanese and Islāmic art but, above all, they stem from an inner and very personal vision. Artists are influenced by what they are seeking.
Fauvism: Le Salon d’automne, 1905
However, Matisse is linked with an art movement called Fauvism. Following his trip to Belle-Île, Matisse turned to vibrant colours. In 1905, he showed Woman with a Hat at the Salon d’Automne. The Salon d’Automne is an annual art exhibition held in Paris France since 1903. Woman with a Hat, a portrait of his wife Amélie,brought criticism to Matisse. After visiting the Salon d’Automne “Paris critic Louis Vauxcelles called the group les fauves (“the wild beasts”), and thus Fauvism, the first of the important “isms” in 20th-century painting, was born. Almost immediately Matisse became its acknowledged leader.”[i] Other “fauvistes” are André Derain, its co-founder, and Maurice de Vlaminck.
Woman with a Hat, 1905
By 1905, “Matisse’s studies led him to reject traditional renderings of three-dimensional space and to seek instead a new picture space defined by movement of colour. He exhibited his famous Woman with the Hat (1905) at the 1905 exhibition. In this painting, brisk strokes of colour—blues, greens, and reds—form an energetic, expressive view of the woman. The crude paint application, which left areas of raw canvas exposed, was appalling to viewers at the time.”[ii] Matters were remedied when Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) and brother Leo bought the painting which is now the property of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The foremost patron and promoter of Henri Matisse’s art was Sarah Stein, Michael Stein’s wife. As for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967), they had a salon, 27, rue de Fleurus, to which artists and art collectors flocked on an appointed day, Saturday I believe. In 1928, when he was composing An American in Paris,George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) noted that “[his] purpose here [was] to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere.” (See An American in Paris, Wikipedia.) In the 1920s, Gershwin had been a student of famed pianist, composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger (16 September 1887 – 22 October 1979).
Americans in Paris: Gertrude Stein & brothers
At that time in the history of art, the end of the 19th century and early 20th century, the beau monde of the United States, Hemingway and others, lived in Paris, some, on an almost permanent basis, others, as frequent visitors. The Cone (Kahn – Guggenheimer) sisters, Claribel and Etta, visited Paris at every chance and were generous patrons and collectors of modern art. Ironically, the success of modernist artists in France is inextricably linked to America’s Gilded Age and the years preceding the Great Depression. Matisse would soon break from Fauvism and adopt black as a colour. However, as of his Woman with a Hat and the support ofParis’ American colony, he had become an established artist, which gave him some freedom. He lived in relative affluence for the rest of his life, wintering in southern France and traveling.
Alice B. Toklas
On a sadder and somewhat extraneous note, among possessions Matisse’s first American patron, Gertrude Stein, bequeathed to Alice B. Toklas, were works of art, including Picassos. Because Gertrude and Alice were not married, the Stein family repossessed her collection when its value started to rise. According to Wikipedia, “Stein’s relatives took action to claim them, eventually removing them from Toklas’s home while she was away on vacation and placing them in a bank vault.”(SeeAlice B. Toklas, Wikipedia.) Alice was not compensated and died in poverty, which should not have been the case. However, she is buried next to Gertrude in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Matisse’s Last Days
Beginning in 1941, Matisse was in poor health and confined to a bed or a wheelchair. He continued to paint sometimes using a stick to which a pencil or brush was attached. He was cared for “by a faithful Russian woman who had been one of his models in the early 1930s, he lived in a large studio in the Old Hôtel Regina at Cimiez, overlooking Nice.”[iii]
Tiny Gallery
(Please click on the images to enlarge them.)
Crockery on Table, 1900
Detail for Wallpaper, 1952(?)
Woman Reading, 1896 (bought by the government)
Luxe 1, 1907
More Matisses at GooglePhoto credit: Google (all)
Not only has Philip Scott Johnson made the lovely video we saw on 3 April 2013, on Picasso, but he has made a series of videos, one of which is on Matisse. The music is Debussy‘s Arabesque No. 1 in E Major, performed by Peter Schmalfuss, piano.
Yesterday, searching through works by Picasso, I found this portrait. I went looking for it today and could not find it until I watched a short video by Philip Scott Johnson.
I therefore looked at several works by Picasso. Many show distortions and metamorphoses.
The video is very revealing. It is like a key to a mystery.
Micheline Walker©
May 18, 2013
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