Cornelius Krieghoff (19 June 1815 – 8 April 1872), was born in Amsterdam, but is usually described as a “Canadian painter.”
For instance, on 29 November 1972, when a Canadian post stamp was issued to commemorate artist Cornelius Krieghoff, Charles C. Hill, the then Curator of Canadian Art at the Canadian National Gallery (Ottawa), stated that:
Krieghoff was the first Canadian artist to interpret in oils… the splendour of our waterfalls, and the hardships and daily life of people living on the edge of new frontiers. (See Cornelius Krieghoff, Wikipedia.)
Although born in the Netherlands, Krieghoff, married Louise Gauthier a French-Canadian woman who worked in New York. He spent several years in the province of Quebec, Canada, and his subject-matter is largely Canadian, which may explain his being considered a Canadian painter.
He painted landscapes, “habitants,” portraits, animals and Amerindians (Native Americans) living in Quebec. Some of his paintings of habitants are genre paintings. Krieghoff was mostly a genre artist. In the mid 1840, he befriended Mohawks, (living in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, near Montreal). In this respect, i.e. subject-matter and venue, Krieghoff is a ‘Canadian painter,’ best known for his winter landscapes.
The Blizzard, by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1857 (National Gallery of Canada)
The Toll Gate, by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1859 (Photo credit: Wikimedia)
Training: Europe
However, Krieghoff was trained in Europe. He was introduced to painting by his father, but as of c. 1830, he studied art the Academy of Fine Arts in Germany. Krieghoff returned to Europe on three occasions. Between 1844 and 1846, he copied masterpieces of the Louvre as a student of Michel Martin Drolling (7 March 1789 – 9 January 1851). Drolling was a neoclassic French portraitist and painter of history. Consequently he was an academicist, one of the painters whose artworks could be exhibited at the biannual Paris Salon, then the most important exhibition in the world. Krieghoff also travelled to Europe in 1854, “visiting Germany and Italy,” and lived in Europe from 1863 to 1868. (See Cornelius Krieghoff, Wikipedia.)
Cornelius Krieghoof in North America
In 1836, aged 22, Krieghoff moved to New York and joined the US armed forces. He made sketches of the second Seminole War, which he later transformed into oil paintings. The Seminole Wars (1816 – 1858) will not be discussed in this post.
Until the abolition of the Seigneurial System, in 1854, which occurred eleven years before the abolition of slavery in the United States, an “habitant” was a French Canadian living on the thirty acres of land allotted him by his Seigneur. Nouvelle-France had been divided into Seigneuries.[i] The “habitant” was not a slave, but his duties included the corvée, “a day’s unpaid labor owed by a vassal to his feudal lord.” The corvée seigneuriale is sometimes considered a form of taxation. The meaning of the word corvée is “chore.” As for the word “habitant” (inhabitants), it has acquired a pejorative connotation, that of “uncouth.” Be that as it may, Krieghoff revelled in painting habitants (literally, “inhabitants”). (See Corvée seigneuriale (FR), Wikipedia.)[ii]
Habitants, by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1852 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Amerindians
Cornelius Krieghoff’s depiction of Amerindians, or Native Americans, is a precious legacy. These images linger in the memory of those who have had the privilege of seeing them. As you may know, the first French settlers often married Amerindian women. There were very few women in New France in the first half of the 17th century. The Filles du Roi (FR), or King’s Daughters, did not start arriving in New France until 1663. During the Seminole Wars, the 2nd, Krieghoff had also met Amerindians, but not those he painted.
The French-Canadian voyageurs also created a Métispopulation. Those who wintered at fur-trading posts signed a three-year contract. Many married Amerindian women and it could well be that some had two wives. The most famous among these Métisis Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885), a Canadian politician, the Father of Manitoba and one of the Fathers of Confederation.
However, Krieghoff’s Amerindians inhabited Quebec. I have chosen a video that shows depictions of Amerindians by Cornelius Krieghoff. We therefore have pictures.
Cornelius Krieghoff died in Chicago, where he had retired, on March 8, 1872, at the age of 56. He was buried in Chicago’s Graceland cemetary. Krieghoff had been exceptionally prolific. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, he made “1500 to 1800 paintings and prints.” The Great Quebec Fire of 8 June1881 destroyed many of his sketches, then owned by John S. Budden. (See Cornelius Krieghoff, Wikipedia.)
Part of this post is borrowed from an earlier post that featured Mary Cassatt (22 May 1844 – 14 June 1926). At the time I wrote my earlier post, we had not discussed the influence of Japanese art on Western artists. However, we have now opened that door by showing how Japonism had an impact on the art of Toulouse-Lautrec. But Japonism also influenced other artists, one of whom is Mary Cassatt.
Japonism left its imprint in many ways, but we will focus on two ways: subject matter and style. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (11 July 1834 – 17 July 1903) and William Merritt Chase (1 November 1849 – 25 October 1916) featured an oriental subject matter: kimonos, blue and white porcelain, folding screens, fans, etc. As for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, his “Japonisme” was, to a large extent, a matter of composition. Theretofore, artists had usually arranged their subject matter using the Greek “Golden Section.” (See Golden ratio, Wikipedia.) Without stating that beauty is an absolute, the Greeks had noticed that an artwork was considered more beautiful by a large number of people if a certain template was used. This template is the Golden Section, which looks like an off-centre crucifix and it does indeed characterize the composition of a large number of drawings, prints and paintings.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Given that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a trained artist, I would presume he was familiar with the Golden Section. However, in Lautrec’s works, one of the two intersecting lines of the Golden Section, is a diagonal line, which is a departure from the usual vertical line intersecting an horizontal line. That is a feature of Japonism.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec‘s Japonisme was therefore expressed in his compositional technique. As for colour, it is a flat colour, which is consistent with printmaking. If one looks at the dress worn by May Belfort in Jardin de Paris, May Belfort (1883; Art Nouveau) (please click on the link to see the artwork), one notices that May’s dress is evenly red. Lautrec rendered dimensionality by using lines, which is also a feature of Japonisme. His Moulin Rouge, La Goulue with her Sister(1892; Art Nouveau) is an example of linearity. There is a line on one side of La Goulue’s dress. Which takes us to Mary Cassatt.
Mary Cassatt (22 May 1844 – 14 June 1926) was an American artist of French descent born to an upper-middle-class family in what was becoming Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was educated in the United States and various European countries: Spain, Italy and Holland. However, although she began studying the fine arts in the United States, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, it would not be long before she moved to Paris and became a permanent “expat.” She did so in 1871, but returned to the United States almost immediately, the Franco-Prussian War (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871) having erupted.
Mary Cassat’s Japonisme shows affinities with that of Toulouse-Lautrec in that it is our second type of Japonism, Japonism revealed in the manner an artist creates his or her work rather than in his or her choice of subject matter. From the point of view of composition, the art of Mary Cassatt resembles that of Lautrec. We have an off-centre Golden Section and one of the intersecting lines is a diagonal line, a discreet diagonal line.
Moreover, her colours are flat colours whose dimensionality is expressed mostly through the use of lines. The art of Mary Cassatt is otherwise unrelated to that of Toulouse-Lautrec. Mary Cassatt did not make posters showing the Moulin Rouge and can-can dancers. Moreover, compared with Toulouse-Lautrec, her colours are subdued.
Although I have stated that Mary Cassatt’s subject matter was not Oriental, she sometimes featured a woman holding a fan. However, her main subject matter are the Madonna and Child of the Renaissance, women and genre painting, depictions of people going about their daily activities. Genre painting was introduced by artists of the Dutch Golden Age and is a characteristic of Japanese meisho “famous places” prints, but in a context so different from Western art as to be a negligible similarity.
The Paris Japanese Arts Exhibition of 1890
Mary visited the Paris Japanese Arts Exhibition of 1890 and so loved the works she saw that she devoted the following year to making prints. She had an admirer and close friend in Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917). He was impressed with her work and encouraged her to show it at Impressionist exhibits, which she did eventually. Degas, whose pastels she loved, taught her how to make etchings. To this day, artists often learn to make prints as several copies of their art are produced which makes their artwork more affordable. But, in the case of Mary Cassatt’s work, learning to make etchings benefitted her Japonism probably more than it benefitted her clients. She could and did produce prints that may well be our best example of Japonisme.
According to Germaine Greer, “[t]he exhibition of Japanese art at the Palais des Beaux-Arts had revealed [to Mary Cassatt] the lightness and grace of the alternative aesthetic, beside which the pompous works of recognized artists seemed all the more laboured, explicit, heavy and lustreless.”[i] Mary was so impressed by the prints she saw and studied that she devoted the year 1891 to making prints, working in drypoint. Having traced her drawing on copper, as is the practice in etchings, she “laid in a soft ground over the part that she wished to colour and applied the colours all at once, by a technique that she called ‘à la poupée’ (doll-like), working with rags tied over little sticks. She and her printer then ran the plates by hand through the press.” (Greer, p. 112).
These prints were shown and Mary’s friend Degas was astonished: “I will not admit that a woman will draw so well.” Using the technique she devised, artist Mary Cassatt drew lines and put in a flat colour, in which her art resembles that of Toulouse-Lautrec. Moreover, from the point of view of composition, Mary also used Lautrec’s diagonal lines, albeit discreetly. Grace permeates not only the prints created in 1990-1991, but it also does all of her paintings.
For instance, although the work featured at the top of this post is not a print, we can observe readily the influence of Japanese woodblock printing and, more precisely, that of ukiyo-e, “pictures of the floating world,” prints. As is the case with Toulouse-Lautrec’s prints, Mary’s prints are linear and the colour, mainly flat. However, to return to the painting featured at the top of this post, the manner in which artist Mary Cassatt depicted the lady’s hair reflects Western art. The lady’s hair is not a flat black, but her hairdo shows Japonism. This Japonism is one of subject matter, our first form of Japonism, but marginally.
Germaine Greer writes that, “[Mary Cassatt’s] designs are as deceptively simple and self-effacing as a haiku.” (Greer, p. 112). A haiku is a very short Japanese poem, usually 17 on in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively. Such poetry expresses an “essence,” and can therefore be associated with Impressionism, or an attempt to capture the evanescent moment when light touches and molds the subject, giving it constant newness. (See Impressionism, Wikipedia.)
Biographical Notes
In nineteenth-century France, women were denied access to the Paris École des Beaux-Arts, not to mention the right to vote, a cause Mary Cassatt would embrace especially in her later years, when cataracts all but blinded her. Therefore, given the exclusion of women from the Paris École des Beaux-Arts, Mary Cassatt studied privately under academicistJean-Léon Gérôme.
The above were “realist” works that showed the influence of Gustave Courbet (10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877). However, as of 1877, Cassatt’s work would no longer be accepted by the Paris Salon. At Degas’s request, Mary therefore showed eleven of her works at the Impressionist exhibit of 1879. She then joined the Impressionists in shows that took place in 1880, 1881, and 1886.[ii] Yet, Mary Cassatt’s Japoniste prints and paintings cannot be associated with Impressionism, except by date. Let us say that Cassatt had a Japoniste period.
As mentioned earlier, once she returned to France, via Italy,[iii] in 1874, Cassatt also received guidance from painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917). Moreover, she was inspired by the art of Camille Pissarro (10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903). Degas and Pissarro were forerunners of Impressionism. As do many apprentices, Mary went to the Louvre on a daily basis and copied the masters. These visits to the Louvre also allowed her to meet other artists.
The Madonna and Child: Feminity and Motherliness
Mary decided not to marry. She felt she could not combine the duties of a wife and mother and the demands of a career as artist. However, as I have noted, her artwork are depictions of the Madonna and Child, particularly as of 1890. So there is femininity and motherliness in her art. Mary Cassatt also painted children and women and did genre work, depictions of domesticity. The Visit (please click on the title to see the artwork) and The Lamp, prints shown above, are examples of her genre painting. So are The Coiffure Study and The Bath. Intimacy pervades Cassatt’s art. This art cannot be associated with Impressionism, except by date.
Post-Impressionism, Fauvism (Henri Matisse) and Cubism (Georges Braque, Picasso, etc.), movements that followed Impressionism, were not to Mary’s liking. Besides, she developed various health problems, including cataracts. She continued to paint despite poor eyesight and, according to Wikipedia, “she took up the cause of women’s suffrage and, in 1915, she showed eighteen works in an exhibition supporting the movement.” She died eleven years later, on 14 June 1926, at Château de Beaufresne.
Mary Cassatt’s Japonisme, an intimate, feminine and motherly Japonisme, reached excellence as did most of her work. She was a fine artist who earned the of her peers. In 1894, she was described by Gustave Geffroy as one of “les trois grandes dames” of Impressionism along with Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot. Very few women are ever called “grandes dames.” (See Mary Cassatt, Wikipedia.)
In 1910, Antti Aarne(1875-1925) published a catalogue of motifs in folktales (fairy tales and related stories, including fables) entitled Verzeichnis der Märchentypen. His catalogue was enlarged by Stith Thompson(1885–1976) in 1928 and again in 1961. It has since been the Aarne–Thompson tale type index, a multi-volume catalogue.[1]
Narreme
The manner in which folktales were classified by Aarne-Thompson has been questioned. In his Morphology of the Folktale, published in Russia in 1928, Bulgaria-born Vladimir Propp classifies stories according to their narrative. Narremes or narratemes are the “simplest irreducible narrative elements” in a tale. “After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes the following sequence of 31 functions.” For instance, the 7th of these 31 functions is: the “Victim deceived.” Vladimir Propp’s (29 April 1895 – 22 August 1970) catalogue remained a Soviet mystery until it was translated in 1958. (See Valdimir Propp [31 functions], Wikipedia)
Archetype
Archetypes are also used to classify folktales and other works of literature. The pater familias of comedy is an archetype as is the pharmakos, the person who is blamed for opposing the scheduled marriage, whether or not he is innocent or guilty. He is a scapegoat. Northrop Frye‘s Anatomy of Criticism (1957) brought archetypes to the foreground.
The stock characters of the commedia dell’arte are archetypes. Wikipedia has a long list of stock characters. (See Stock Characters, Wikipedia.) They include damsels in distress, femmes fatales, nerds, mad scientists, noble savages, professors and possibly the rest of humanity: a cast of thousands.
The above classifications are not mutually exclusive. However, recurrence is a sine qua non of classification.
The Weasel in the Granary by Percy J. Billinghurst
Today I will write about what I would call a motif. Getting-stuck-in-a-hole is the motif I have chosen. Usually, it is found in narratives where a silly but famished animal finds its way to an abundant supply of food, overeats and is therefore too swollen to get out using the opening through which it entered the cache. In most, but not all cases, this motif could also be called the swollen belly. If such is the case, the moral of the stories is that one should consider the possible consequences of his or her actions, which is the “Look before you leap” of the Fox and Goat. However, it is possible to get caught in a hole for reasons other than overeating.
We will therefore look at five stories: two, where a fox (2) gets caught in a hole, one where a weasel (1) is trapped in a granary and one, where the victim is a bear (1), and one where the wolf’s wife (1), Hersent, gets stuck in an opening. This last story is part of most Reynard the Fox narratives and, particularly in the Roman de Renart‘s. Renart, the trickster, was born Reinardus in Nivardus of Ghent’s Latin Ysengrimus (1149). The poem runs to 6,574 lines of elegiac couplets. It migrated and became, in France, the Roman de Renart (beginning in the end of the 12th century and flourishing in the 13th century (c. 1170 – 1250). It was written in octosyllabic verse in the vernacular (langue romane), by various authors (Pierre de Saint-Cloud and others).
In a Greek version of the getting stuck in a hole motif, a famished Fox enters a hole in a tree where shepherds have left food and eats so much that he cannot get out. Another fox comes by and tells the trapped fox that he must return to his former famished self in order to get out. This version of our motif was not known to other European countries until the revival of Greek learning in the Renaissance.
“A very hungry fox, seeing some bread and meat left by shepherds in the hollow of an oak, crept into the hole and made a hearty meal. When he finished, he was so full that he was not able to get out, and began to groan and lament his fate. Another Fox passing by heard his cries, and coming up, inquired the cause of his complaining. On learning what had happened, he said to him, “Ah, you will have to remain there, my friend, until you become such as you were when you crept in, and then you will easily get out.”
In one of Horace‘s (8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC) poetical epistles to Maecenas (I.7, lines 29-35), Horace features a fox who eats too much as is told by a weasel that he must lose weight to get out of “a narrow chink into a bin a corn:”
“Once it chanced that a pinched little fox had crept through a narrow chink into a bin of corn and, when well fed, was trying with stuffed stomach to get out again, but in vain. To him quoth a weasel hard by: “If you wish to escape from there, you must go back lean through the narrow gap which you entered when lean.”
However, although motifs remain the cast can change. By the time La Fontaine wrote his The Weazel in the Granary, the fox had fully matured into his foxy self, which means that he would not get stuck inside a tree, or a bin, or a granary, of all places! Alternately, the fox would get stuck accidentally, not foolishly, and would have fooled someone into freeing him leaving his good Samaritan in the predicament he, the fox, was in. In short, the fox is now a weasel and the animal who tells her (la belette) that “[w]ith an emptier belly; You enter’d lean, and lean must sally” is a rat.
Un Rat, qui la voyait en peine,
Lui dit : “Vous aviez lors la panse (belly) un peu moins pleine (emptier).
Vous êtes maigre (lean) entrée, il faut maigre sortir (sally).”
In A. A. Milne‘s (18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) Winnie-the-Pooh, the animal who gets stuck in a hole is Pooh bear himself. Once again, the motif remains but the cast changes.
“In England the story was adapted by A. A. Milne as the second chapter in his Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) ‘in which Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place’. In this case, the bear overindulges in honey and condensed milk while visiting Rabbit and becomes stuck when trying to exit the burrow. It takes a week of starvation before he can be extricated.”
Illumination from a manuscript of the Roman de Renart, end of the 13th century.
As for Reynard or let us see, first, how clever he can be. The following fable is entitled The Lion, the Wolf and the Fox and all Reynard stories are rooted in this one Æsopic fable which is probably rooted in much earlier tales.
In Æsop’s The Lion, the Wolf and the Fox(Perry Index 258?), the Fox overhears the wolf (Isengrim) tell the sick Lion, King Noble, that the Fox has been remiss in not presenting himself at the sick Lion’s bedside. There are several versions of this story. In my favourite version, the Fox goes and gets a large supply of shoes, returns to the Lion’s den, shows him all the footwear he has worn out in search of a cure for the Lion’s illness and that he has found one. The lion must be wrapped in the skin of wolf, the same age as Isengrim. The Wolf therefore loses his skin, the Fox is avenged, against all expectations the Lion is cured, and we have a new motif: the flayed animal, from the villainous wolf in sheep’s clothing to Donkeyskin,Charles Perrault‘s Peau d’âne (Aarne-Thompson type 510B).
“A LION, growing old, lay sick in his cave. All the beasts came to visit their king, except the Fox. The Wolf therefore, thinking that he had a capital opportunity, accused the Fox to the Lion of not paying any respect to him who had the rule over them all and of not coming to visit him. At that very moment the Fox came in and heard these last words of the Wolf. The Lion roaring out in a rage against him, the Fox sought an opportunity to defend himself and said, “And who of all those who have come to you have benefited you so much as I, who have traveled from place to place in every direction, and have sought and learnt from the physicians the means of healing you?’ The Lion commanded him immediately to tell him the cure, when he replied, “You must flay a wolf alive and wrap his skin yet warm around you.” The Wolf was at once taken and flayed; whereon the Fox, turning to him, said with a smile, “You should have moved your master not to ill, but to good, will.”
So let us end this post by telling how the Wolf’s wife, Hersent, gets stuck in a wall of her house and, for the second time, there is a brief romance, Renart takes advantage of her. Needless to say there are children’s versions of the Roman de Renart, but the Roman de Renart was not written for children and Renart is the archetypal scoundrel-we-like. I should mention that the Bibliothèque nationale de France has a fine site on Renart(see BnF). The rape of Hersent takes place in Branch 2 (of 27) of the Roman de Renart. In modern French, roman means novel, but roman as in the Roman de Renart means “in the vernacular” (en langue romane). Foxes used to be called goupils, but Renart’s popularity was such that the goupil became a renard (‘d’ in modern French).
Renart will, of course, be brought to justice, but he will make believe he has become a devout animal who wants to go to the Crusades and will be freed.
(Please click on the small images to enlarge them.)
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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I am working on perhaps two posts dealing with Refus global (1948). Its author was Quebec artist Paul-Émile Borduas (November 1, 1905 – February 22, 1960). There were 16 signatories, listed in Refus global (Wikipedia). Only 400 copies were published, selling for a dollar a piece, half of which did not sell. Refus global says little about abstract art and André Breton‘s surrealist automatism, or stream of consciousness. It’s about Quebec.
The Church being the “repository” of “faith, knowledge, truth, and national wealth,” Québécois were kept unaware of “the universal progress of thought,” or in “complete ignorance” of the “progress of thought” or may have learned about it in an expurgated or “distorted” manner. The paragraph I am quoting provides a mere glance at Refus global, in its totality, but it is revealing. However, the “establishment” is not confined to the Church. Moreover, the manifesto mentions the influence of Jansenism and addresses such questions as ethnocentricity and fear (see the video).
“We are a small people huddling under the shelter of the clergy, who are the only remaining repository of faith, knowledge, truth, and national wealth; we were excluded from the universal progress of thought with all its pitfalls and perils, and raised, when it became impossible to keep us in complete ignorance, on well-meaning but uncontrolled and grossly distorted accounts of the great historical facts.” (Refus global in The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Early comments
I was a child in the province condemned by Borduas and fifteen other signatories. At the time, nuns (sisters) were our teachers and boys and girls attended different schools. The nuns, many of whom came from France, ours did, were so devoted to us. They did not work from nine to five. They were always preparing learning material for us and often used innovative teaching approaches. They made sure we could study music for little or no money, and provided practice-rooms. They played baseball with us. They took us on outings: factories, etc. They fed the children who arrived at school famished and, on cold days, they made sure we returned home dressed to face a blizzard.
Thousands of New Yorkers must find temporary lodgings. Sandy was the storm of a lifetime and a wake-up call regarding the environment. How will voters get to polling stations? It could well be that, compared to the Quebec of my childhood, a Republican administration might soon invite a much sterner Total Refusal than Borduas’sRefus global. However, I would not dare underestimate the citizens of the United States of America as I would insult some of the finest minds in the world, beginning with President Obama.
Baroque period instruments: a hurdy gurdy, a viola da gamba, a lute, a baroque violin, and baroque guitar.
Jean-Philippe Rameau(25 September, 1683, Dijon – 12 September 1764) is a colossal figure in the development of music.[i] In 1722, he published a Treatise on Harmony (Traité de l’harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels) (Wikipedia). Well, 290 years later, textbooks on harmony teach harmony as described by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Once music students have passed their course(s) on harmony, they may stray from Rameau’s treatise, but even then, Rameau’s treatise remains the standard reference.
Rameau and the French Operatic Tradition
Until Rameau, Italian composers entertained the French. Italian-born Lully (Giovanni Battista Lulli; 28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687) had been a favorite of Louis XIV. He and Molière (1622-1673), born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, had collaborated in creating “divertissements” (entertainment) for the king who was immensely fond of ballet. Allow me to quote the Wikipedia entry on Molière.
“Molière’s friendship with Jean-Baptiste Lully influenced him towards writing his Le Mariage forcé and La Princesse d’Élide (subtitled as Comédie galante mêlée de musique et d’entrées de ballet), written for royal “divertissements” at the Palace of Versailles.”
Yet, although Lully collaborated with Molière on comedies, he went on to create French lyric tragedy which Rameau and his contemporaries inherited. However, there was dissatisfaction with respect to the French lyric tragedy, works in the “grand manner,” such as Les Indes galantes or gallantes. Galant is our keyword. Bach’s sons, Wilhelm Friedemann,Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, wrote musique galante and were more successful than their father. In fact, Johann Sebastian was forgotten.
The matter culminated in the Querelle des Bouffons (“Quarrel of the Comic Actors”) which took place in Paris, France between 1752 and 1754. The Querelle des Bouffons is usually considered as a paper war weighing the relative merits of French and Italianopera. Wikipedia defines the Querelle des Bouffons as “a war of words between the defenders of the French operatic tradition and the champions of Italian music.” But it may be more accurate to say that the French longed for music that brought tears to their eyes. The reign of reason, dating back to Descartes’s Discourse on Method (1637), was being replaced by the reign of sentiment.
Despite its reference to buffoons, the Quarrel opposed the loftiest minds of the French enlightenment, including the Encyclopédistes: Denis Diderot (5 October 1713 – July 31, 1784), co-editor of the Encyclopédie,Jean le Rond d’Alembert, co-editor, with Diderot, of the Encyclopédie and a music theorist, (16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783), the Baron Friedrich Melchior von Grimm, a music critic and journalist, French-German Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach (8 December 1723 – 21 January 1789, Geneva-born composer, essayist, author Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778).
When Jean-Jacques Rousseau joined the Encyclopédistes, he championed feelings. Where our Querelle is concerned, Jean-Jacques Rousseau fired the first salvo, but could not have done so had it not been for a performance of Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, or The Maid as Mistress. (See RELATED ARTICLE, below)
Rameau’s Les Indes galantes: the “noble Savage”
Yet, despite the criticism levelled at him, Rameau was an excellent composer and one who an opera-ballet featuring “Sauvages,” or Amerindians, Les Indes galantes. In the eighteenth century, le Sauvage was a bon Sauvage. This is how he is depicted by travellers to North America and, in particular, by a French military officer who served in New France from 1683 to 1693, the Baron de Lahontan (9 June 1666 – prior to 1716). As described by Lahontan, in three works published at The Hague, in 1703, the Sauvage is morally superior to Europeans in general and the French in particular. The age of the “Noble Savage” is the age of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who led the Querelle des Bouffons (1752 and 1754).
A Rondeau: Les Sauvages
The history of Les Indes galantes is particularly interesting in that Rameau drew his inspiration from three kinds of dances performed by Amerindians in the Théâtre Italien. According to Wikipedia, “[o]n 25 November 1725, after French settlers of Illinois sent Chief Agapit Chicagou of the Metchigamea and five other chiefs to Paris, they met with Louis XV, and Chicagou had a letter read pledging allegiance to the crown; they later danced three kinds of dances in the Théâtre Italien, inspiring Rameau to compose his rondeau Les Sauvages.” Changes have been made to Britannica, but the author of its former entry on Les Indes galantes stated that the Amerindians who travelled to France had motivated Rameau to compose his rondeau were from Louisiana, which makes sense.
Somewhat mysterious, however, is whether or not this rondeau, entitled Les Sauvages, is a separate piece of music or part of Les Indes galantes. Well, having searched for a solo rondeau entitled Les Sauvages, the piece I discovered was part of the larger Opéra-Ballet. If I have erred, kindly correct me.
Les Indes galantes premiered in Paris at the Académie Royale de Musique et Danse, on 23 August 1735. It was not a great success and it has a long history of revisions and revivals. The 185th eighteenth-century performance of Rameau’s opéra-ballet was played for the last time in 1761. However, by 1961 there had been 246 performances of Les Indes galantes and, in 2005, “Les Indes galantes (Opus Arte) was given a fanciful reading by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.”[ii]
So my next post features William Christie‘s[iii] “fanciful reading” of Les Indes galantes. I do not have the score of the opéra-ballet, William Christie’s interpretation is not, in my opinion, detrimental to Rameau’s opéra-ballet, as Rameau himself may have envisioned his work.
I must close here, but if you wish to take a peak at Les Indes galantes, my next blog constitutes a short and, in my opinion, delightfully-silly performance Les Indes galantes.
[iii] “William Lincoln Christie(born December 19, 1944 in Buffalo, New York) is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder (1969) of the ensembleLes Arts Florissants.” (Wikipedia)
I have not finished reading my colleagues’ posts, so I apologize. Preparing my posts of Saint-George was time-consuming. However, I have now seen YouTube’s biographical videos. There are several videos and they tell, in English, Saint-George’s entire story.
The Biographical Videos
Yesterday evening, I watched the biographical videos. They provide excellent information, but that period in French history is a little difficult for me to follow. During the French Revolution, the Jacobin calendar replaced to the Gregorian Calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII (7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585) and still in use. As Napoleon rose to power, the Jacobin calendar remained the calendar used by the French and it is a calendar that tends to confuse me. However, there is help on the internet. To convert a Gregorian calendar date to a Jacobin date, click on Jacobin. I suppose the reverse is also possible.
The Military
But, let us return to our Chevalier’s years in the military. He was at first a gendarme and later a soldier. At the age of 19, when he graduated, George was made a Gendarme de la Garde du Roi, created in 1609 by Henri IV. The Garde duRoi‘smission was to protect the dauphin, the name given the heir to the throne of France.
Therefore, as a member of the Garde du Roi, Joseph’s duties had little to do with his future military assignments. As I pointed out in the blog I posted yesterday (September 12, 2012), the Chevalier de Saint-George “served in the army of the Revolution against France’s foreign enemies.” (Chevalier de Saint-George, Wikipedia), but there is more to say. At one point, Joseph took command of a regiment of a thousand free people of color, which brought on his demise.
Discrepancies
According to the YouTube biographical videos, upon his dismissal from the military, on September 25, 1793, Saint-George was condemned to death. This information differs from the information provided in Saint-George’s Wikipedia entry. Joseph was an aristocrat and, as an aristocrat, he could have been guillotined. However, according to Wikipedia, he was accused of using public funds for private gain. Wikipedia does not chronicle a death sentence.
* * *
Given that I would like to send this post as soon as possible, I will close now. There will be a third and final post on the Chevalier de Saint-George.
Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you (Photo credit: Mr. Beattie)
The Melody
According to Wikipedia‘s entry on “Oh Shenandoah,” the song’s melody may be a voyageur melody.
Sea Songs and Shanties, Collected by W.B. Whall, Master Mariner (First edition in Nov 1910), states that the song probably originated from American or Canadian “voyageurs”, who were great singers. Thomas Moore drew inspiration from them in his Canadian Boat Song. The author further goes on and states that he heard it sung over fifty years prior to publishing the book, which place its origin at least a fair bit earlier than 1860. Besides sung at sea, this song figured in old public school collections. (info taken from page one in the sixth edition of the book)[i]
When I read this information, I remembered that Grace Lee Nute states, in The Voyageur,[ii] that the pièce or bale the voyageurs had to carry on their back during portage:
was made up to weigh ninety pounds, and two ears were left at the top by which the voyageur could lift it easily in the manner of a modern flour bag. Two of these pièces made an ordinary load for porraging, but emulation among the men in proof of unusual stregth or endurance caused many an engagé to carry three or four.
Grace Lee Nute then goes on to write the following:
A member of a famous Negro-Indian family of voyageurs, the Bongas, is said to have had such strength that he could carry five.
Therefore, the melody used in Oh Shenandoah could find its origin in the voyageur’s répertoire and we may know how it happened: Bongas.
The Lyrics
As for the lyrics to OhShenandoah, they differ from singer to singer. So, I’ve tried to write down the words used by Paul Robeson. There are words (2nd stanza), I could not make out, but you may.
Wikipedia‘s entry on Plaisir d’amour is very informative. For instance, it even contains the lyrics for the song. I will therefore provide a point-form summary of the story of the song, using the Wikipedia entry. There are several pop music settings of this song. Nana Mouskouri ‘s interpretation is particularly delightful, but I have not been able to embed the video.
(please click on the picture to enlarge it)La Surprise, by Antoine Watteau
Plaisir d’amour
The words, or lyrics, based on a poem by Jean de Florian (1755–1794), were written in 1780;
François Boucher (29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) “was a Frenchpainter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture. He also painted several portraits of his illustrious patroness, Louis XV’s official mistress, Madame de Pompadour.” (Wikipedia)
The son of an artist, François Boucher won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1723. He was influenced by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Peter Paul Rubens. On his return from Rome, he did engravings of drawings by Antoine Watteau. Later, “[a]fter illustrating an edition of Molière’s works, he drew cartoons of farmyard scenes and chinoiserie for the Beauvais tapestry factory.”[i]
News of his talents quickly reached Versailles. He worked for the queen and for Mme de Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV and Boucher’s friend and patron. “He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1734 and then became the principal producer of designs for the royal porcelain factories, as well as director of the Gobelins tapestry factory. In 1765 he became director of the Royal Academy and held the title of first painter to King Louis XV.”[ii]
Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher (please click on the picture to enlarge it)
Rococo art, decoration and architecture are characterized by movement. It is a busy and often features a profusion of fabrics. It followed the baroque, a more restrained style. Rococo æsthetics is in fact an extreme that called for a return to sober depictions and more serious contents that would reflect the intellectual endeavour of the Encyclopédistes. For instance, although Jacques-Louis David was a student of François Boucher, he is a neoclassicist. As for Boucher, his art typifies the lightheartedness that preceded the French Revolution. We see opulence and hear laughter, but a storm is approaching. In this regard, Boucher’s art resembles that of Antoine Watteau (1684 – 1721) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard 1732 – 1806).
© Micheline Walker
29 December 2013
WordPress
The Artist at Niagara, 1858
post stamp issued on 7 July 2000
Canadian Postal Archives
