Chapter I: Front Matter

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE

After the portrait by himself

Imp. Chardon-Wiltmann, Paris]

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE AND HIS ART.
A MEMOIR, BY ANDRÉ THEURIET

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE AS ARTIST, BY
GEORGE CLAUSEN, A.R.W.S.; MODERN
REALISM IN PAINTING, BY WALTER
SICKERT, N.E.A.C.; AND, A STUDY OF
MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF, BY MATHILDE BLIND

ILLUSTRATED WITH
REPRODUCTIONS OF
BASTIEN-LEPAGE’S AND
MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF’S
WORKS

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN,
PATERNOSTER SQUARE. MDCCCXCII.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE AND HIS ART: A MEMOIR. BY ANDRÉ
THEURIET 11

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE AS ARTIST. BY GEORGE CLAUSEN,
A.R.W.S. 107

MODERN REALISM IN PAINTING. BY WALTER SICKERT, N.E.A.C. 129

A STUDY OF MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF. BY MATHILDE BLIND 145

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE. AFTER A PORTRAIT BY HIMSELF.
_Frontispiece_

PAGE

GRANDFATHER LEPAGE. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 25

THE COMMUNICANT. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 31

THE HAYFIELD. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 43

SARAH BERNHARDT. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 51

JOAN OF ARC LISTENING TO THE VOICES. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 55

THE BEGGAR. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 61

FATHER JACQUES, THE WOODMAN. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 71

SKETCH FOR FATHER JACQUES. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 75

THE INN. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 101

BAS-RELIEF PORTRAIT OF BASTIEN-LEPAGE. BY AUGUSTUS
SAINT-GAUDENS 110

THE LITTLE SWEEP. BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE 132

MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF. FROM A PORTRAIT BY HERSELF 148

A MEETING. BY MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF 169

MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH 187

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE AND HIS ART.

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE

AS MAN AND ARTIST.

In the month of June, 1856, the chances of a Civil Service noviciate compelled me to live for six weeks at Damvillers, a small town on the Meuse, half-way between Verdun and Montmédy.

Damvillers was formerly fortified, and had the honour of being besieged by Charles V., but there is now nothing left to recall the memory of those warlike days. The whole aspect of the place is peaceful and rural. The people are occupied with agriculture. Orchards now cover the ground where the fortifications once stood, and form a circle of verdure round the scattered houses, in a valley where the Tinte winds through osier beds and meadows. On the right a vine-covered mound like the back of a camel, on the left a succession of wooded slopes, enclose the little town. The grey, blue hills are low. The monotony of the fields and meadows is broken only by rows of poplars. The ill-kept solitary streets bordered by the labourers’ houses with grey or dingy yellow fronts, have the same washed-out look as the landscape.

For a young fellow of twenty-two there was nothing here particularly attractive. 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 frame. In one corner the large green waggon of a travelling pedler was resting by the side of rows of earthenware, whose polished surface reflected the lights from the window of the neighbouring inn.

My only amusement consisted in listening to the chatter of some girls sitting at the tinner’s door, or the shouts of the children playing at ball by the wall of the corn-market.

I little thought then that among these urchins, with torn pinafores and tangled hair, was to be found a future master of contemporary painting, and that the name of Bastien-Lepage thrown to and fro each evening by the children’s voices, and repeated by the echoes of the solitary square, would come to be known, and received with acclamations throughout the world, by all who are interested in Art and in Artists.