Jules Bastien-Lepage

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Self-portrait of the painter from 1880

Jules Bastien-Lepage (born November 1, 1848 in Damvillers , Meuse , Lorraine , † December 10, 1884 in Paris ) was a French painter. His work can be assigned to naturalism .

Life

As the son of a large farmer from Lorraine, Bastien-Lepage studied with Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1868 . After a serious war wound from the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, he initially returned to his home village. In 1875 and 1876 he took part, albeit unsuccessfully, in the competition for the Prix ​​de Rome in Paris. In the years 1879 to 1882 he first made a trip through England. Already seriously ill with cancer , he was traveling through Algeria in the year of his death.

Jules Bastien-Lepage was friends with the Russian painter and writer Marie Bashkirtseff . He died almost simultaneously with her in 1884 at the age of 36 and was buried in the cemetery of his hometown. The mausoleum was created by his brother, the architect Émile Bastien-Lepage (1854–1938).

plant

After completing his studies, he soon departed from the academic manner of his teacher to the point that he professed an unadulterated naturalism aimed at reproducing reality. Already in the portrait of his grandfather from 1874 the striving for meticulously accurate reproduction of all coincidences of nature was evident, and the Communicant (1875) and the Adoration of the Shepherds moved in the same direction . His second subject was scenes from the life of the peasants. Following on from the works of Jean-François Millet , he did not begin until 1877 with haymaking , which was the trend-setting in so-called open - air painting. Since 1878 he regularly took part in the Paris Salon with his pictures, including portraits and scenes from home . At the time, his works were controversial and met with both harsh criticism and great approval. In 1879, the potato harvest followed in October . His Jeanne d'Arc (Johanna von Orleans), presented in the Paris Salon in 1880, is considered one of the outstanding works of his oeuvre. The beggar (main work) followed in 1881, the brushwood collector in 1882 and love in the village in 1883 . These works consolidated his position as a "mediator" between impressionism and salon painting , so that he was finally honored with an exhibition in London's prestigious Grosvenor Gallery .

Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon describes his style as follows:

"With a sketchy treatment of the background and neglect of the air, the main value is placed on the naturalistic development of the life-size figures and the perfect brightness of the tone that harmonizes with nature."

Honors and today's appreciation

In the churchyard of his hometown, a statue designed by Auguste Rodin and cast in bronze commemorates the artist. Just one year after his death, a street in the 16th arrondissement of Paris was named after Bastien-Lepage. Since 1895, the Montmédy citadel has housed a museum dedicated to him. In 2007, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris hosted a major exhibition of his works, which were scattered around the world.

Factory selection

Other paintings by Jules Bastien-Lepages are in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC , in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and in the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco.

Web links

Commons : Jules Bastien-Lepage  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Angela Schneider, Anke Daemgen, Gary Tinterow: French masterpieces of the 19th century from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York , Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-88609-584-1 .
  • Philippe Pagnotta, Claude Médard, William Steven Feldman, Christian Debize: Hommage à Jules Bastien-Lepage 1848-1884 , exhibition catalog, Musées de la Meuse, Verdun, Montmedy, 1984.
  • Marie-Madeleine Aubrun: Jules Bastien-Lepage 1848-1884, catalog raisonnée de l'oeuvre , ( catalog raisonné ), Imprimerie Chiffoleau, Paris, 1985.
  • Bernard Ponton: Jules Bastien-Lepage - peintre lorrain , Charenton-le-Pont, Citedis, 1999, ISBN 2-911920-26-0 .
  • Serge Lemoin et al. a .: Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) , (exhibition catalog of the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, March 6 to May 18, 2007), Nicolas Chaudun, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-35039-033- 8 .
personal data
SURNAME Bastien-Lepage, Jules
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Damvillers , Meuse department
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1884
Place of death Paris