Bordeaux Musée des Beaux-Arts. Part 2. The Bonheur Wing.

The Bonheur Wing, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux.

Behind the Palais Rohan, the seat of the City of Bordeaux whose gardens it shares, the Museum of Fine Arts offers a panorama of the main currents of Western art from the Renaissance to the present day. It occupies two twin wings added to the Palais Rohan in 1851 and opposite, the Galerie des Beaux-Arts completes its permanent collections by regularly hosting temporary exhibitions.

The north wing (Bonheur Wing) is dedicated to modern and contemporary art, presenting the main themes of the 19th Century (romanticism, academicism, and realism), landscapes (Corot, Diaz de la Peña, Boudin), animal paintings (Rosa Bonheur, René Princeteau) and portraits (Thomas Couture, Carolus-Duran, Fantin-Latour and Berthe Morisot).

As the wing of the museum was named to honour the Bordeaux-born artist, Rosa Bonheur, the first couple of paintings in the Bonheur wing of the museum I am showing you are by her or about her.

Rosa Bonheur in her studio by George-Achille Fould (1893)

As the wing of the museum was named to honour the Bordeaux-born artist, Rosa Bonheur, the first couple of paintings in the Bonheur wing of the museum I am showing you are by her or about her.    Rosa Bonheur was born in Bordeaux on March 16th 1822.  She was known best as a painter of animals (animalière). She also made sculptures in a realist style.

This portrait of Bonheur in her studio was painted by Georges Achille-Fould.  In the painting we can see a detail taken from her monumental painting, Wheat Threshing in the Camargue.  Bonheur can be seen wearing trousers which were forbidden at that time for women. However, Bonheur argued for authorisation from the prefecture to wear them during her drawing sessions at the slaughterhouses!   She was passionate about animals, and owned a whole menagerie, including a lion, quails, dogs and even some sheep.   For her contemporaries, Rosa Bonheur was truly a phenomenon! Her talent was recognized in 1865 when she became the first female artist to be awarded the Legion of Honour.

Georges Achille-Fould en japonaise, portrait by Léon Comerre (1863)

The artist who completed this portrait of Bonheur was Georges Achille-Fould. Georges Achille-Fould and her sister Consuelo, both painters, were adopted by Gheorghe Bibescu, who bequeathed to them the Chateau de Bécon, which today houses the Roybet Fould Museum, where numerous works by Consuelo and Fernand Roybet, her tutor, are displayed, alongside many works attributed to Achille-Fould, who signed them simply “Achille-Fould”.

Wheat Threshing in the Camargue by Rosa Bonheur

Rosa Bonheur started on her largest painting, (313 x 651 cm), Wheat Threshing in the Camargue, in 1864 but on her death in 1899, thirty-five years later, it remained unfinished. This is oil on canvas work is the largest format ever painted by the artist and is a genre scene depicting a dozen horses treading wheat in the Camargue. It is said that Rosa’s ideas for the depiction came from her reading the Mirèio, a long poem consisting of twelve songs by French writer Frédéric Mistral, written in 1859 after eight years of effort. It tells of the thwarted love of Vincent and Mireille, two young Provençal people of different social backgrounds.   It was a story about a miserly farmer who made his horses work tirelessly at fulling and who was punished by lightning that set fire to his barn and an earthquake that engulfed his family. In her work, Rosa Bonheur wanted to show “the fire that comes out of the horses’ nostrils, the dust that gushes out under their hooves

Rolla by Henri Gervex (1878)

Now to a completely different type of painting.  Rolla was a painting completed by Henri Gervex and is at the museum but on loan from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.  Gervex was a French painter and was the son of Joséphine Peltier and Félix Nicolas Gervex, a piano maker. When he was 15, a friend of the family helped him get admitted to the atelier of Pierre-Nicolas Brisset. Three years later, he served in the 152nd Battalion of the National Guard. In 1871, aged 19, he was accepted into the École des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel, where he studied for five years. His early work belonged almost exclusively to the mythological genre, which served as an excuse for the painting of the nude, but not always in the best of taste.  He had already been awarded a medal at the Salon, which in theory made him an “outsider” in terms of the competition and therefore any painting he put forward to be included at the Salon was guaranteed inclusion into future exhibitions without having to satisfy the Salon jurists.  It therefore came as a shock to him to have his painting, Rolla, for the upcoming 1878 Salon, rejected as the authorities deemed the depiction of his painting Rolla to be “immoral”.

The inspiration for Gerex’s painting came from a long poem by Alfred de Musset entitled Rolla which he completed in 1833.  The long poem narrates the story and the destiny of a young bourgeois, Jacques Rolla, who descends into a life of idleness and debauchery. Along the way, he meets Marion, a teenager who has discovered that the life of a prostitute was her only escape from misery. In the painting we see Rolla standing by the window, his eyes turned towards Marion who lies abandoned on the bed. He is desolate and about to commit suicide by taking poison.

Gervex found his inspiration in a long poem by Alfred de Musset (1810-1857), published in 1833. The text recounts

With a melancholy eye Rolla gazed on

The beautiful Marion asleep in her wide bed;

In spite of himself, an unnameable and diabolical horror

Made him tremble to the bone.

Marion had cost dearly. — To pay for his night

He had spent his last coins.

His friends knew it. And he, on arriving,

Had taken their hand and given his word that

In the morning no one would see him alive.

When Rolla saw the sun appear on the roofs,

He went and leaned out the window.

Rolla turned to look at Marie.

She felt exhausted, and had fallen asleep.

And thus both fled the cruelties of fate,

The child in sleep, and the man in death!

So why did the Beaux Arts authorities ban the painting?  If the scene had been judged indecent, surely it was not because of Marion’s nudity, which is not unlike the portrayal of nudes by many artists of the time. It appears that the underwear strewn besides the bed denotes Marion’s consent in the sex act and hints at her status as a prostitute. Look at the abandoned clothing and we see a walking stick emerging from the midst of the garments which many believe acts as a metaphor for sexual intercourse.

Following Gervex’s painting Rolla being excluded from the Salon, he exhibited it for three months in the gallery of a Parisian art dealer. The scandal, which was covered in all the newspapers, attracted large crowds to the gallery. In an interview many years later, which was published in 1924, Gervex remembered the pleasure when he witnessed the constant procession of visitors who queued to see the work. Many cynics believed that Gervex had anticipated the reaction to his painting by the authorities and gladly provoked the scandal.

The Lion Hunt by Eugène Delacroix (1855)

In 1855, Delacroix was commissioned by the French State and Napoleon III to produce a monumental work for the that year’s Paris Universal Exposition.  Delacroix had studied Rubens’ hunting scenes and was fascinated by the theme of lions. Delacroix often painted hunting scenes and animals fighting. This work is part of a lion hunt series he painted in the 1850s. The subject reflects a fascination for exoticism and the culture of the Muslim countries in North Africa. During a visit to Morocco in the 1830s, Delacroix had studied and made sketches of the landscape, horses and hunters on horseback – themes that were later used when he painted his lion hunts. These dramatic scenes, with their energetic compositions and warm hues, convey the new aesthetic ideals of the time.

The dimensions of his painting, The Lion Hunt, was monumental at 175 x 360cms.  Delacroix had spent much time at the Ménagerie part of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. These regular visits allowed him to capture not just the ferocity of the cats and their musculature, but also the colour of their fur which allowed him to develop a more authentic form of animal paintings.

The Tiger Hunt by Rubens (1618)

When Delacroix had completed the painting in 1855 it was deposited at the Museum of Fine Arts of Bordeaux, the city where the painter once lived as a young man when his father was prefect there. Bordeaux was also a city Delacroix occasionally came to pay his respects at the Chartreuse Cemetery, where his father and brother were buried.   Bordeaux was also the city in which Peter Paul Rubens had his painting, The Tiger Hunt displayed and which the Bordeaux museum had been exhibiting since 1805, and which is believed to have been a strong influence on Delacroix.  

The deputy director and curator in charge of 19th/20th-century collections at the museum, Chloé Theault, believed that the two works would complement each other.  The first thing that catches your eye when you study Delacroix’s work is it appears that the top of the painting is missing. In fact, the upper third of it no longer exists, as on December 7th, 1870, a fire ravaged through the town hall in Bordeaux destroying part of the work.  The entire upper part of the painting disappeared into the ashes.

The Lion Hunt by Odile Redon (1860-1870)

Today, some sketches and copies, and notably one by Odilon Redon, exists which allow us to imagine what the upper third of Delacroix’s painting would have looked like with the two missing horse riders that were once in the upper section.

The Heirs by Eugène Buland (1887)

Eugène Buland was born on October 26th, 1852.  He was the son of an engraver and entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts under the tutelage of Alexandre Cabanel. His earliest works were Symbolist paintings of antique scenes, but he quickly turned towards depicting scenes of everyday life.  Eugène Buland entered just one painting, The Heirs, at the Salon in 1887 which gained him a second-place medal.  It depicts his predilection for subjects taken from daily life in the countryside. 

In this figurative work, Buland concentrates on a study of provincial behaviour, conveying the peaceful, quiet lifestyle and the impression of time almost standing still.   In the same way as the French writer, Maupassant, Buland tells short stories, novels in his depictions. The strange ambiguity of the scene here is striking. The tight framing of the scene strengthens the almost oppressive atmosphere of this private meeting in which the stone-faced characters, deep in their own thoughts, wait for the will to be read.  The touches of red contrast with the dark austere colours and direct our eye towards the open safe, seals, the official banner and finally the will, the focus of everyone’s attention.

Freeing himself from the teachings of his master Alexandre Cabanel, Buland became influenced in naturalism. He was concerned with the detail and drawing inspired by photographic precision which made him a rare artist and a hyperrealist ahead of his time. 

The Day of the Dead by William Bouguereau (1859)

The last selection I am offering you from the Bonheur Gallery of the Bordeaux Musée des Beaux Arts is, like the previous painting, a quietly sombre depiction.  There is none of the excitement depicted in the previous seascapes or the savagery of a lion hunt.

The painting entitled The Day of the Dead is by the French academic painter William Bouguereau which he completed in 1859.  Bouguereau was born in La Rochelle on November 30th 1825.  During his life, he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honours, and received top prices for his work

The painting The Day of the Dead, depicts a mother and daughter mourning the loss of a husband and father as they kneel at the foot of a tomb.   The work captures the essence of the Mexican tradition of Día de Muertos.  It is a depiction of death with the black of the mourning clothes, which are illuminated by the luminous yellow of the wreath of immortelles, the cross and winter itself.  Bouguereau creates a painting full of restraint, serious and dignified, one of remarkable beauty. With restraint of feelings, the theme conveys an exaltation of the traditional values of the classical cultural ideal and the Christian faith.

The painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1859, this work was the subject of many glowing reviews.

Bordeaux Musée des Beaux Arts. Part 1. The Lacour Wing.

Last week I spent a few days in the French city of Bordeaux and besides visiting must-see museums such as Cité du Vin, Musée d’Aquitaine, the cathedral and sampled the red wine and French cooking, I spent half a day looking around the Musée des Beaux Arts which had an excellent selection of paintings. The Musée des Beaux Arts Bordeaux is the oldest of Bordeaux’s museums and was founded in 1801 under the guidance of painter Pierre Lacour. This establishment ranks among the most significant art galleries in France beyond the confines of Paris.

Lacour wing of the Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux

Bonheur Wing of the Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux

The museum is located in the heart of Bordeaux, next to the town hall gardens.  It is a veritable treasure trove of art and history, offering an exceptional selection of European painting and sculpture from the 15th to the 20th century. The museum consists of two buildings, housed in the north and south wings of the Palais Rohan, the current town hall.  Its extensive permanent collection features major works by Flemish, Dutch, Italian, and French artists. Highlights include paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Eugène Delacroix, and Odilon Redon, offering a journey through various artistic movements. The museum is not limited to old masters. It also has a fine selection of works from the 19th and early 20th centuries, reflecting the artistic developments of these periods.

In this first of two blogs I want to look at some of the works which were on show in the south wing of the museum, The Lacour Wing.

In the Lacour Wing the permanent exhibition starts with Renaissance art from Italy and Northern Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries with Titian amongst the paintings. The 17th century exhibition includes Baroque art with works of Paul Rubens and a section of Dutch painters including Jan van Goyen.  Finally, in this wing there is an exhibition of 18th century paintings including a painting of the port and quais of Bordeaux by the building’s namesake, Pierre Lacour.

The view of the Chartrons and Bacalan Harbour and Waterfront Area in Bordeaux by Pierre Lacour Snr. (1804-1806)

The Port de la Lune, Bordeaux’s port since the Middle Ages, takes its name from the crescent-shaped bend of the Garonne on which the city was built. Since the 17th century, this panoramic view has been a favourite subject for artists from Bordeaux and beyond. Originally from Bordeaux, Pierre Lacour Snr. is one of the tutelary figures of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, a French painter and lithographer known for his views of the city and its surroundings. A professor and then director of the Academy of Painting, Lacour trained many generations of artists. Between 1804 and 1806, Pierre Lacour, the museum’s first curator, captured this urban landscape in his own vision of Bordeaux. The depiction takes in the view that depicts the facades of the Chartrons and Bacalan.

The Artist Painting a Family Portrait by Pierre Lacour Snr. (1798)

The Chartrons dates back to the 14th century when the Carthusian monks,  the “Chartreux” in French, settled here giving the district its name. By the 17th century, the area had become the headquarters of Bordeaux’s booming wine trade.  The Bacalan is the northern part of the city built around the port.  For me, the joy of the painting is its focus on the smallest detailing of the human activities in this lively district.   As day comes to an end, we see carters and their teams loaded with stones, also carriages and cabriolets.  Shipwrights maintain the hulls of the canoes. In the background, a porter is unloading a cargo of stave wood used to create wine barrels. Further on, a carter is trying to pull up his team, loaded with stones, with his whip, while, further back, barrels are rolled on the ground from a barge, then pulled by means of ropes towards the warehouses.  The work highlights all the socio-professional categories at the origin of the city’s economic prosperity: merchants, craftsmen, and boatmen. An impressive fleet of canoes and skiffs sailed around the tall ships that came to trade.

The young girl in the left foreground carrying a parasol is the painter’s daughter, and the man to whom she is addressing is Pierre Lacour himself. Leaning over the fence next to them is Pierre Lacour Jr.

Portrait, said to be of Aubin Vouet by Simon Vouet (c. 1620), Arles, musée Réattu

Aubin Vouet was a French painter, the son of Laurent Vouet and younger brother of Simon Vouet, both also painters. Aubin joined his brother Simon in Rome six years after his eldest brother had moved there. They were there together around 1619-1620 and they both lodged on Vicolo di San Silvestro. In Rome Aubin was strongly influenced by Caravaggio, as can be seen in this painting David Holding Goliath’s Head, and this influence labelled him as one of the Caravaggisti.  Aubin returned to France, whereas his brother stayed in Rome a further six years until 1627. In 1621, on his return to France, Aubin was made painter in ordinary to Louis XIII.

David holding the head of Goliath by Aubin Vouet (c.1620)

The battle between the Philistine giant Goliath and the young Jewish shepherd David, recorded in the Old Testament, ended the war that divided these two peoples as described in the First Book of Samuel, XVII, 48-54:

“…As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.  So, David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him.  David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.  When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.  Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath[f] and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.  When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.  David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent…”

Driven by his faith, David – often referred to as a “child,” “young,” and “handsome” defeated Goliath, a seasoned warrior, through trickery. Armed only with his slingshot, he knocked out his enemy with a stone and then took his sword to cut off his head.   This biblical tale was favoured by many artists of the early seventeenth century such as Caravaggio and his emulators Domenico Feti, Artemisia Gentileschi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Nicolas Régnier or Valentin de Boulogne. The theme depicted in this painting was favoured by artists during the first third of the 17the century. They all had a real liking for this biblical episode, the conclusion of the fight made it possible to represent the revulsion of death.

It is thought that Aubin Vouet was seduced by the violence of the Caravaggio masterpieces he had seen in Rome.  In this work he chose to characterise David as the victorious hero, with his eyes lowered and his pout disdainful. The way in which Vouet has depicted youthful nudity is believed to be inspired not only by Florentine Renaissance sculpture but also by Caravaggio’s depictions of adolescents, and it cleverly contrasts the young man’s virile features with Goliath’s imposing head. The young David’s body is highlighted by the framing of two-thirds of the body, represented in a clever chiaroscuro. The elegance of the hat braided in gold and adorned with an ostrich feather adds a touch of refinement to David.

The Oak Struck by Lightning or The Fortune Teller by Jan Josephsz van Goyen (1638)

I have often written about my love of Dutch Golden Age paintings so it would be remiss of me not to include an example of work from this period. Jan Josephsz. van Goyen was one of the main pioneers of naturalistic landscape in early 17th-century Holland. His many drawings show that he travelled extensively in Holland and beyond. In 1634 he is recorded painting in Haarlem, in the house of Isaac, the brother of Salomon van Ruysdael, who was another of the pioneers of realistic landscape painting in the north Netherlands.  Van Goyen was born at Leiden, and trained in Haarlem with Esaias van de Velde. After returning to Leiden he moved to The Hague in 1631, where he chiefly worked until his death. His earliest dated painting is from 1620.  His daughter married his pupil Jan Steen, the famous painter of genre scenes, in 1649.

This painting, The Oak Struck by Lightning also known as The Fortune Teller,  is one of the Dutch painter Jan Josephsz van Goyen’s masterpieces. The work is typical of the quasi-monochrome style van Goyen had developed between 1633 and 1644 in The Hague, after initially training in Haarlem.  Before us we see a highly detailed view of a tree, which had been struck by lightening,. The depiction then opens out into an extensive panorama under a threatening dark sky which looms above this tree. The range of colours used by the artist is reduced down to simple shades of yellow and grey and changes towards a monochrome palette. In front of the tree, we see a bohemian-looking figure reading the palm of a villager.  

On the left of the painting, we see a well-dressed gentleman walking his dogs.  This is a self-portrait of van Goyen !

The owl

The Palm Reader

However, this is not simply a picturesque landscape scene.  It is in fact an allegorical one.  Van Goyen was a devout Christian who wanted to add a narrative to his painting.  We need to look closely at some of the details to discover what van Goyen was “saying”.   The red of the man’s beret symbolizes his inability to ignore superstition. The owl, perched in full daylight on a bare, dead branch of the oak tree, represents man’s blindness to chiromancy, the supposed prediction of a person’s future from interpreting the lines on the palms of their hands, in other words, palmistry which was a practice forbidden by the Church. Finally, the lightening evokes divine punishment. 

The Ploughing Lesson or The Agriculture Lesson or Agriculture by François-André Vincent

The next painting from the Lacour Wing of the museum which I am showcasing is The Ploughing Lesson by François-André Vincent, a French neoclassical painter.    He was the son of the miniaturist François-Elie Vincent and studied under Joseph-Marie Vien.  François-André Vincent was a pupil of École Royale des Éleves Protégés. From 1771 to 1775 he studied at the French Academy in Rome.

Germanicus Calms Sedition in his Camp by François-André Vincent (1768) Beaux-Arts Paris

He travelled to Rome after winning the Prix de Rome with his painting, Germanicus Calms Sedition in his Camp, in 1768, and it was then that he was installed at the Palais Mancini, where he painted numerous portraits, inspired by Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s style, who also was visiting Rome and Naples at the same time.  He was a leader of the neoclassical and historical movement in French art, along with his rival Jacques-Louis David, another pupil of Vien. He was influenced by the art of classical antiquity, by the masters of the Italian High Renaissance, especially Raphael. François-André Vincent was one of the principal innovators of the subjects and themes in French art of Neoclassical style and his works were of a high standard.

The Ploughing Lesson, a genre painting completed in 1798, also features a series of portrait paintings as members of a wealthy family observe their son’s lesson in ploughing, aligning with the belief that a knowledge of agriculture was of vital importance following the French Revolution. In the background we have depicted the Pyrenees mountains.  The painting was commissioned by the industrialist, financier and politician from Bordeaux and Toulouse, François-Bernard Boyer-Fonfrède. He was also an important patron of the arts who ran a cotton mill in Toulouse as well as a “Free School of Industry” for children from poor families who worked in the factory.  The painting was intended to be part of a series, illustrating the virtues and the foundations of a good education.  The painting was meant to depict that work in the fields was a noble occupation for children.  This bringing together of the bourgeoise and the peasant suggests an idyllic alliance of two opposing social classes.

The painting depicts a strong-bodied farmer explaining to his pupil, a boy from a good family with fine features, how to hold the plough as it is pulled by a pair of oxen.  Witnessing this lesson is the young man’s family. The painting was shown at the 1798 Paris Salon and was accompanied by a vignette:

“…Penetrated by the truth that agriculture is the basis of the prosperity of States, the painter has represented a father of a family who, accompanied by his wife and young daughter, comes to visit a ploughman in the middle of his work. He pays homage to him by attending the lesson he has asked him to give to his son, whose education he would consider imperfect without this knowledge. Note – Commerce and other interesting parts of education must form a sequel to this first table which, as well as this suite, are intended for citizen Boyer-Fonfrède, of Toulouse…”

Some art critics criticised the posture of the novice as being unseemly because the boy’s head is hidden, when by convention it should be turned towards the viewer.

The painting was acquired by the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux in 1830.

……to be continued

Luca Signorelli. Part 3.

Frescos at the Chapel of St Brizio inside the Orvieto’s Duomo

Part 2.

 Destruction of the World by Luca Signorelli

The events of the Apocalypse, in the form of the Destruction of the World, fill the space which surrounds the entrance into the large San Brizio chapel. These Apocalyptic frescos may not influence us now but one has to remember that at the beginning of the 16th century, at the time Signorelli was painting these masterpieces, life in Italy was much different in comparison to our lives now.  Italy was affected with not just wars but various diseases which killed many of its citizens and so, sudden and painful death was looked upon as a distinct possibility causing a sense of spiritual paranoid. This terrible Apocalyptic hysteria jumbled minds and instilled fear into many. Add to this the prophecies of Girolamo Savonarola, a charismatic Dominican friar, regarded as the Antichrist, with his hell-fire sermons and his warnings about the end of time and the great battle between the spiritual and the worldly which would usher in the Last Judgement.   According to the prediction in the Scriptures, the deeds of the Antichrist take place immediately before the end of the world.   Add to this the words of Mark (13:24-27) in the bible recalling the words of Jesus whilst teaching his disciples on the Mount of Olives:

“…But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, And the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.  And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.  And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven…”

The position of this fresco is on the inner side of the Chapel portal.  On looking at the work, we are immediately aware of the drama depicted in the fresco.  The upper part depicts a group of cherubs that seem to blissfully wrestle with a ribbon plaque. At the centre stands a little winged creature holding high the herald of the ‘Opera del Duomo di Orvieto’ (O.P.S.M – the institution that promotes, manages and administers the work of the construction of the Cathedral).

Destruction of the World (detail) by Luca Signorelli

The depiction and narrative is divided on each side of the portal.  To the right is a portrayal of the early signs of the end of times. We can see that the moon is growing dark, the raining of stars and the eclipse. The sky is overcast and the earth trembles in fear. In the background we see stormy waves whipping up the sea and threatening to engulf humanity. Of the people depicted in this fresco, Signorelli divides them into three groups.  The group, on the right, consists of men and women shocked by the destruction of a marbled structure, maybe a temple.  They gaze in horror at the remains of the three truncated pillars and the pile of broken pieces of the columns lie at their feet.  In the foreground we observe the prophets and the philosophers who stand and study the devastation that lies before them in sombre trepidation.

Destruction of the World (detail) by Luca Signorelli

On the left of the portal, we see demons dance amongst the dangerous skies while disgorging floods of fire onto the pitiful survivors. These people under attack fall against each other like broken dolls. We see women with babies at their breasts screaming in pain whilst some men flee on horsebacks to escape the flames, but in vain.  Lower down this side of the fresco Signorelli has depicted individuals of all ages being attacked. The elderly, youths and children are all victims of these savage attacks.  We look at upturned faces, covered ears and fearful eyes which portray this terrible calamity which has befallen mankind

Signorelli had been commissioned originally to complete ceiling frescos that had been begun by Fra Angelico. The cathedral authorities had been so impressed by what he achieved with the vaulted ceiling that they decided to offer him a further commission to paint frescos on the seven side walls of the chapel.   

The Resurrection of the Flesh by Luca Signorelli

The next fresco in the series by Signorelli I am looking at is The Resurrection of the Flesh which is located in the first compartment on the right wall of the Chapel of San Brizio. This was another fresco depicting scenes from the end of time and illustrates the text found in the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:51-52)

“…Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed…”

Signorelli was in his element with this work and his mastery of painting nude figures.   The great art historian Vasari wrote of this artistic ability of Signorelli stating:

“…true method of making nudes and how, though only with craft and difficulty, they can be caused to be alive…”

Of Signorelli, Bernard Berenson the American art historian who specialized in the Renaissance said that he was one of the greatest of modern illustrators, and thanks to which his art is still an extremely important part of our figurative heritage.

Resurrection of the Flesh (detail) by Luca Signorelli

Viewed all together the huge frescoes in the Orvieto chapel give a feeling of overcrowding and of confusion which is far from being attractive, but we need to look closely at what is going on in the fresco.  Look closely at the details and then we begin to recognise the genius of the artist.  In the fresco, Resurrection of the Flesh, we observe the macabre but comical notion of the nude with his back to the observer who is carrying on a conversation with the skeletons.

We see skulls surfacing through the cracks in the ground, who then put on their bodies as though they were a costume, and become human beings once again. This fresco demonstrates Signorelli’s ability to depict naked bodies with all of their well-defined musclature.

The Damned Cast into Hell by Luca Signorelli

The next fresco on the wall of the Chapel San Brizio is entitled The Damned Cast into Hell. It is located next to the altar wall.

The Damned Cast into Hell (detail) by Luca Signorelli

Before us we have a “horror show” confronting the observer with men and women screaming, their nude bodies twisted in pain as they are tortured by gaudily coloured demons. The fresco represents one part of the End of Days narrative, when Christ returns to judge mankind, separating those who are destined to go to heaven designated the blessed from those who were to enter the fires of hell, designated the damned. The fresco depiction was based on the bible passage Gospel of Matthew (25:31-46), which describes the final day:

“…When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…”

In The Damned Cast into Hell, we see naked bodies tumble, twist, and writhe as they are seized by demons depicted in unnatural, acidic colours.  The scene is both violent and chaotic, and yet, it is also amazingly structured, and every figure is anatomically precise a testament to Signorelli’s ability to portray nude figures.  Muscles strain and limbs extend and recoil. Pain is depicted as a physical condition, not just an abstract punishment. Signorelli was constantly attentive to how human figures moved under stress: fear, agony, desperation.  His figures are not emblematic dummies. They have a physicality and are clearly human.

The Damned Cast into Hell (detail) by Luca Signorelli

Above the disturbing melee, below we see standing on small clouds, the three archangels, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.  The triumvirate are fully clad in suits of armour, drawing their swords ready to battle.

The Elect being called to Paradise by Luca Signorelli

The Elect being called to Paradise (detail) by Luca Signorelli

The last two frescos I am looking at are entitled The Elect being called to Paradise and The Damned.  The frescos cover the south wall pierced by three lancet windows. Within the embrasures of the windows are painted the angels and the saints namely St Brizio, St Constantius, Archangel Michael is shown crushing a demon and Archangel Raphael guiding Tobias.   Angels are seen guiding the chosen ones, the faithful, towards heaven. The golden skies radiate with glory while a choir of angels exalt with song and dance. The medieval musical instruments they play are both string and wind based. Once again the figures depicted in the fresco bear out the artist’s ability to portray the body of nude men and women.

The Damned by Luca Signorelli

The Damned (detail) by Luca Signorelli

There is a striking contrast between The Elect being called to Paradise and the fresco entitled The Damned.  In the former the people were joyous having been selected to be taken to heaven by the angels.  In the latter the people who failed to pass the test to enter Heaven were consigned to Hell.  Gone has the joyful singing to be replaced by the shrieks of those condemned to the fires of Hell.  Two archangels, perched above the scene, look down and silently at the divine tragedy. The depiction is derived from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno part of his early fourteenth century narrative poem, Divine Comedy.  Above are fading golden skies and below we see the icy waters of the rivers Styx and Acheron. The two waterways divide the world of the living from the world of the dead with flaming fires roar along the boundaries. Those who have been damned desperately howl and scream at their past foolishness which has brought them to this point. As we look at the raging pit, we can see a demon running around it holding a white flag mocking the sinners.  A group of wailing sinners follow him as he leads them further along the road to Hell.

The Damned (detail) by Luca Signorelli

From Dante’s Inferno we recognise the famous ferryman Charon at the centre of this scene. As described in Dante’s poem, he is a spiteful winged demon. His role was to transport souls of the newly dead across the river into the underworld. The oar he holds was used to strike the stragglers.

In 1508 Pope Julius II summoned several artists to come to Rome, including Signorelli, Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Il Sodoma to paint the rooms he chose as his apartments in the Vatican Palace. Despite making a start on the commission, the Pope terminated their contract deciding that Raphael be solely in charge of the decorations. Luca Signorelli returned to Siena, but most of the rest of his life he lived in his hometown of Cortona. He became a highly respected citizen of the town, even entering the magistracy of the town as early as 1488 and holding a leading position by 1523, the year of his death.

Luca Signorelli. Part 2.

Frescos at the Chapel of St Brizio inside the Orvieto’s Duomo

Part 1. Antichrist and The Destruction of the World frescos

In this second part of the blog looking at the works of Luca Signorelli, I want to examine his frescos in the Chapel of St Brizio at the Cathedral of Orvieto which are considered to be his foremost masterpieces.

The cathedral basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, Ovierto.

The cathedral in Orvieto, the cathedral basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, began to be built in 1290 at the request of Pope Nicholas IV with the intention of creating a single large place of worship for the city to replace the two churches that pre-existed, the episcopal church of Santa Maria and the parish church of San Costanzo, both of which made way for the new cathedral. This change was part of a broader urban redevelopment project driven by the frequent presence of the papal court in the city, which required a grand church for papal ceremonies. The building of the main cathedral was considered architecturally completed in 1532.

The Madonna di San Brizio altarpiece

In 1396, a century after construction began, Tommaso di Micheluccio from Orvieto left a legacy in his will to fund the construction of a chapel dedicated to the Assumption. This chapel was completed in 1444. Until 1622, the chapel was called La Cappella Nuova, as it was the last one to be built  after that of the La Cappella del Corporale (Corporal Chapel)  

La Cappella del Corporale (Corporal Chapel)  

Why was it named the Corporal Chapel? The corporal is an altar linen used in Christianity for the celebration of the Eucharist. It is a small square of white linen cloth, usually somewhat smaller than the width of the altar on which they are used, so that they can be placed flat on top of it when unfolded.  During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, various altar vessels are placed on the corporal, including the chalice, the paten, and the ciborium containing the smaller hosts for the Communion of the laity

In 1263, while a Bohemian priest was celebrating mass in Bolsena, drops of blood came down from the host and went to wet the corporal. Pope Urban IV, knowing of the miraculous episode, had the Holy Linen transported to the city of Orvieto, where, the following year, he instituted the feast of Corpus Christi.  Every year the city of Orvieto commemorates the miracle of Bolsena and the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi with the procession of the Sacred Corporal, accompanied by the parade of the historical procession in medieval costumes.

In 1622,  the venerated image of the Majesty of the Table was transferred to the Capella Nuova.  Legend had it that it was painted by St. Luke, but in reality the work is of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. This relic was also known as the “Madonna di San Brizio”, because in 1464 the image of the saint had been added next to the Virgin, then removed; it ended up giving its name to the entire chapel, La Cappella di San Brizio, known simply as San Brizio,

Chapel of San Brizio

The idea to add the Chapel of San Brizio onto the main building of the cathedral in 1396 was a way to expand the thirteenth-century building.  The actual extension was not completed until 1444.   Three years later, on June 14th, 1447, the Opera del Duomo signed a contract with Fra Angelico to paint frescos on the Chapel vault, on the theme of the Last Judgment.

Frescoed vault by Giovanni da Fiesole known as Fra Angelico, Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio, Cathedral of Orvieto. Italy

Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli began the decoration of the vault but only managed to complete the work on the ceiling depicting Heaven with the Saints, arranged in different ranks, surrounding Christ as the Judge sitting on a throne, before he was summoned to Rome by Pope Nicholas V to work on the Niccoline Chapel in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City. In 1449, work in the Orvieto Cathedral came to a halt. 

In 1489 Pietro Perugino, an Italian Renaissance painte, was approached to complete the work. However, he never began and for the next fifty years the decorations to the chapel were abandoned.  In April 1499 the cathedral authorities approached Luca Signorelli for him to complete the vault frescos which had now been untouched for fifty years following Fra Angelico’s departure.  Signorelli, along with his school of apprentices, assistants, and students, completed the frescos on the vault with scenes of the Choir of the Apostles, of the Doctors, of the Martyrs, Virgins and Patriarchs.

The vaulted ceiling

On completing the work on the vaulted ceiling, the cathedral board were so pleased with the results that in late 1499 they commissioned Signorelli to paint frescoes in the large lunettes of the walls of the chapel. He began in 1500 and the chapel frescos were completed in 1503. Art historians consider the frescoes in the chapel are the most complex and impressive works by Signorelli. As far as the subject matter, The Apocalypse, is concerned, it is one of the most important subjects of Christian iconography. It is likely that for the ceiling frescoes (the groups of Apostles, Angels, Prophets, Patriarchs, Doctors of the Church, Martyrs and Virgins) Signorelli simply completed the programme that had originally been devised by Fra Angelico. But the frescoes on the side walls, although the basic subject would have been planned in accordance with the Cathedral’s administrators and theologians, they are wholly the product of Signorelli’s fertile imagination. The side walls are covered with seven large scenes:

the Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist,

the Destruction of the World,

the Resurrection of the Flesh,

the Damned,

the Elect,

the Paradise,

the Hell.

The works of Signorelli on the vaulted ceiling and on the upper walls represent the events surrounding the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment.

Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist by Luca Signorelli (1500-04)

The Apocalyptic events he depicted began with the Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist, and proceeded to Doomsday and The Resurrection of the Flesh. These frescos occupy three vast lunettes, each of them a single continuous narrative composition.  Signorelli began in 1499 and the chapel frescos were completed in 1503. Art historians consider the frescoes in the chapel are the most complex and impressive work by him.

One such fresco focused on the Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist. It is a vision of apocalyptic deception, mass manipulation, and spiritual warfare.  The Bible (Matthew 24: 23 – 25) recounts Jesus’ warning of false prophets:

“…Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’ – do not believe it. For false Christ’s and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time…”

Fra Bartolomeo: portrait of Girolamo Savonarola

Many believe that Signorelli’s depiction could also have been a reference to Girolamo Savonarola, the notorious Italian Dominican friar and preacher. who was identified as a false prophet.  Savonarola was excommunicated for heresy and sedition and later hanged and burned at stake in Florence on May 23, 1498. Signorelli began the work just a year after the execution of Giralamo Savonarola.  It was at a time people were suffering tyrannical cruelty, resulting in many impoverished citizens were being exploited.  People were becoming obsessed with death, political turmoil, and the meaning of true righteousness.

At first glance, the fresco appears to depict a Christ-like figure giving a sermon to an entranced gathering. But this is not Christ the Messiah. It is the Antichrist whose motions mimic those of the real Christ as seen in traditional scenes of the Sermon on the Mount. However, we need to look closer at the scene.    Just behind the speaker’s ear a demonic figure whispers commands of what the Christ-like figure should say. The portrayal of evil here is not monstrous, it is eloquent. It is believable, and troublingly recognisable. A crowd gathers. For some the speech is fascinating and believable.  For others, it has caused great distress. It is this which reminds us that deception affects us differently depending on the thought process of each listener

Scenes of violence

False raising of Lazarus

In the mid-ground, horrifying scenes unfold, acts of violence, manipulation, and miraculous deceptions, including a false Lazrus-like raising of the dead. In the sky we see the Archangel Michael is heading towards Earth to fight the Antichrist.

In the lower left corner there are two darkly clothed gentlemen; the man to the left is apparently a self-portrait of the artist, while the man to the right is thought to have been a portrait of Fra Angelico.

The Antichrist does not brandish a sword. He simply wields words, ideas, of how to mesmerise the crowd. The Antichrist mimics the divine and offers signs and wonders so as to best influence the senses of the onlookers so that it causes them to find a way to avoid truthful reality.  The depiction prophesises a warning that the art of twisting the truth becomes the most dangerous lie of all.

………………………..to be continued.

Much of the information was gained from Wikipedia plus a few excellent websites:

The Patroclus

Traveling in Tuscany

POTTYPADRE

Web Gallery of Art

Italian Renaissance Art

The Art Story

Duomo di Orvieto

Luca Signorelli. Part 1.

Early life and the Sistene Chapel fresco.

Luca Signorelli self portrait

As we have just had three important days in the Christian calendar I thought I would have today’s blog all about one of the great Italian religious painters, Luca Signorelli, sometimes known as Luca da Cortona because of the town of his birth.   Signorelli is undoubtedly most revered for his portrayal of figures in action together with his incomparable grasp of the human anatomy which can best be seen in the beautiful Orvieto frescoes. Luca was a painter of the High Renaissance period which represents the summit of Renaissance art and the culmination of all the exploratory activities of the quattrocento,  or millequattrocento, which is Italian for ‘fourteen hundred’ and means the fifteenth century. It therefore embraces cultural and artistic activities in painting, sculpture and architecture during the period 1400-1500.

A Corpse-carrying Nude man by Luca Signorelli (1496).  Musée du Louvre

Signorelli’s depictions of the human body were so precise that for him to have gained such knowledge and such levels of accuracy without carrying out actual dissections of the human body would have been impossible as at this time there was not sufficient literature that would have allowed an artist to learn so much about the different aspects of the human body.   Artists sometimes could further knowledge of the human anatomy if they could dissect human bodies whilst others would dissect animals in order to develop their understanding of things like muscle balance. This close study of human anatomy resulted in artists being able to accurately go into much more detail when depicting the human body

Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Luca Signorelli (1502)

Signorelli had built up such a great reputation as a painter that he was invited to form part of an elite group of artists which were sent for by Pope Sixtus IV to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel. The Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer known for his work Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Giorgio Vasari,  said of him:

“…he was an artist who with his profound mastery of design, particularly in nudes, and with his grace in invention and in the composition of scenes, opened to the majority of craftsmen the way to the final perfection of art…”

Luca’s childhood days are poorly documented, but it is thought that Luca d’Egidio di Ventura de’ Signorelli was born around 1450 in Cortona, a small hill town and commune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany.

The Capture of Christ by Luca Signorelli (1502)

As a child he showed an interest in art and in the 1460s, Signorelli signed up to an apprenticeship with Early Renaissance painter, Piero della Francesca.  He was said to have been a talented student and quickly took on board the principles of mathematics, geometry, and perspective that his tutor taught him.  Around 1470, Signorelli, in his early twenties. married Gallizia di Piero Carnesecchi, and the couple went on to have three sons, Polidoro, a future painter and builder, Antonio who became assistant to his father, and Pier Tommaso. The couple also had two daughters, Gabriela, and Felicia. Documents show that in 1472 Luca was known to be living and working in the city of Arezzo, located about fifteen miles from his hometown of Cortona and two years later he was working in the nearby Città di Castello.

Stendardo della Flagellazione (The Flagellation Standa) by Luca Signorelli (c.1475)

One of Signorelli’s earliest extant paintings is his work entitled Stendardo della Flagellazione (The Flagellation Standa) and it is believed that it was completed around 1475.  The work bears the artist’s signature, “OPUS LUCE CORTONENSIS,” confirming Signorelli’s authorship and reflecting his Cortona origins. The Flagellation Standard by Luca Signorelli, created as a double-sided processional banner for the Confraternity of the Raccomandati in Fabriano. Its role was to act as a primary devotional function by inspiring lay participants to engage in acts of penance and charity. The banner was carried during public processions, particularly those involving self-flagellation during Holy Week or times of crisis, with the banner’s vivid depiction of Christ’s scourging encouraging communal meditation on the Passion, fostering empathy and moral discipline among confraternity members who mimicked the Savior’s suffering to achieve spiritual redemption. The work was commissioned by the Confraternita dei Raccomandati di Santa Maria del Mercato church in Fabriano.  The church is now destroyed.  The commission was for a work of art which could be included in processional demonstrations of public flagellation. The depiction is based upon the biblical passages of John 19:1,

“…Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged…”

Jesus had been sentenced to death on the Cross by Pilate. But first he was to be flagellated, and soldiers tied him to a pillar and then scourged him.  In his painting Signorelli depicted the event against an architectural background. The work is dated to the period prior to the artist’s journey to Rome in 1482, probably sometime around 1475.

Nursing Madonna in Glory by Luca Signorelli (c.1475)

Signorelli’s work is thought to be one side of a double-sided panel, with the second side being The Nursing Madonna.  The reason behind the second work being that the fraternity also carried out philanthropic work to help orphaned and abandoned children. At some point between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the two sides were separated. Both sides are now in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, to which they were brought in 1811 after the church’s suppression. The suppression of the Italian Church, particularly the Jesuits, during the Napoleonic era was a significant event in the history of Italy.

Moses’s Testament and Death by Luca Signorelli (1482)

Luca Signorelli was known as a master of fresco painting and one of his frescos can be seen at the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The 15th century decoration of the walls includes the false drapes, the Stories of Moses, and of Christ and the portraits of the Popes.  It was completed by a team of painters made up initially of Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Cosimo Rosselli, Luca Signorelli and their respective workshops, which included Pinturicchio, Piero di Cosimo and Bartolomeo della Gatta.  The fresco by Signorelli depicts the cycle of the life of Moses and can be found on the south wall of the chapel.  Signorelli’s fresco entitled Moses’s Testament and Death illustrates the last chapters in the life of Moses.

Let us look closely at everything that is going on in this multi-populated fresco.

On the right foreground of the fresco sits the hundred-and-twenty-year-old Moses on a rise, holding his staff and with golden rays circling his head. At Moses’s feet stands the ark of the Covenant, opened to show the jar of manna inside and the two tablets of the law.

 In the left foreground of the picture we see Joshua being appointed as Moses’s successor. Joshua kneels before Moses, who gives him his staff.

 In the centre of the background, we see Moses being led by the angel of the Lord up Mount Nebo, from which he will be able to look across to the Promised Land that by the will of God he will never enter.

His death is depicted in the background, in the land of Moab, where the children of Israel mourned him for thirty days. Moses’s followers are shown mourning his passing in Moab. Here, he lays amidst the group, enshrouded in white linen. At the far left is the cave in which he will be entombed.

Art historians believe that Signorelli collaborated on this work with his friend, Bartolomeo della Gatta, a painter, illuminator, and architect.  The more active figures being executed by Signorelli. One such figure, a seated nude youth in the centre of the foreground, is believed to have served as a reference for the twenty nude figures – what Michelangelo called the Ignudi – painted on his famous chapel ceiling 25 years later.

Ignudo, Fresco, Cappella Sistina, Vatican by Michelangelo (1509)

However Signorelli is probably best known for his frescos at the Chapel of St Brizio inside the Orvieto’s Duomo…………………………………..

…………………..to be continued.

The information for this blog came from a number of websites, the main ones being:

The Art Story

The History of Art

Grokipedia

Walter Ufer. Part 2.

Life in Taos, New Mexico

Walter Ufer

Having taken his wife’s advice with regards approaching Chicago’s dignitaries and offering to paint their portraits, Ufer called upon the Carter H Harrison, the 30th mayor of Chicago, who had held office from 1897-1905 and then again from 1911-1915.  Harrison proved reluctant but eventually agreed but added that in his opinion there were better portrait artists than Ufer.  His agreement to sit for the portrait came with a number of provisos.   He told Ufer that he would not pay for commission as the prestige of having it hung in city hall would be sufficient “payment”.   Later however, he grudgingly agreed to pay for the painting materials and frame.  Harrison also said that before the portrait would be hung on the walls of the City Hall it had to be accepted by the jury for submission into the Chicago Society of Artists Exhibition.

Going East by Walter Ufer (1917)

This contact with the mayor proved to be fortuitous as Harrison’s syndicate of German American businessmen, agreed to sponsor three trips for Ufer to travel to Taos, New Mexico along with fellow artist Victor Higgins. Harrison, who like many art patrons of the time, was fascinated by the American West and its indigenous cultures, and viewed it as a distinctively American subject matter.   For Ufer, these journeys to New Mexico gave him an opportunity to observe the natural beauty of the New Mexico landscape, with its intense clarity of the light, and at the same time witness the rich cultural heritage of the Pueblo people. The trips over the next two years were to be an opportunity to record on canvas what they observed.   These journeys to the West proved to be an eye-opener for Ufer who fell in love with the country and its native inhabitants. Ufer made his first trip to New Mexico at the end of the summer of 1914 visiting Santa Fe, Chimayo, and the pueblos of San Juan, Isleta, and Taos. Ufer completed over thirty ten and a half by twelve and a half inch canvases as well as a group of twenty-five by thirty-inch paintings, mostly portraits painted in Isleta and San Juan.

South Pueblo, Taos Indian Pueblo, New Mexico

When Ufer arrived in Taos, which at the time was a small, remote town situated at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The population of town was made up of Catholic Hispanics who worked the land; Native Americans, a farming society, who also worked as servants, artists’ models, and other lowly menial jobs. There were also a smattering of Anglos, such as artists, bankers, and merchants.  Six of the Anglos that Ufer met after he arrived were artists, a painting group that formed the Taos Society of Artists the following year. North of the town was the famous Taos Pueblo, where Native Americans lived in a multi- storied structure similar to ones they had lived in four hundred years earlier.  None had the basic necessities such as electricity or running water.

The Battery by Walter Ufer (1918)

In the Winter of 1918, whilst back in New York, Ufer visited a friend of another of his wealthy patrons, William H Klauer, and completed the bird’s-eye view painting The Battery from the view he had from the apartment window overlooking the Battery district of Lower Manhattan in winter.  It is the depiction of bustling crowds around the square.  Ufer was a patriotic artist and in this work we can see American flags fluttering over tall buildings, one of which housed an army recruiting office.   Soon after the finishing this painting Walter Ufer returned to his beloved Taos where he remained for the rest of his life.

Former members of the Taos Society of Artists photographed by C.E. Lord in the Couse garden, 1932. Back row: Ufer, Dunton, Higgins, Adams. Seated: Hennings, Phillips, Couse, Berninghaus. Front row: Sharp; Blumenschein. Missing: Critcher and Rolshoven.

Soon after Ufer arrived in Taos he was drawn into the town’s artistic community known as the Taos Society of Artists (TSA) that had formed in 1915   The group was formally established by a group of six painters: Bert Geer Phillips, Ernest L. Blumenschein, Joseph Henry Sharp, Oscar E. Berninghaus, E. Irving Couse, and W. Herbert “Buck” Dunton. The Society’s undertaking was to promote the art of Taos and the Southwest, sending traveling exhibitions of their work to major cities across the United States. Walter Ufer officially joined the Society in 1917, and soon became one of its most active and powerful members.

Bob Abbot and his Assistant by Walter Ufer (1935)

The TSA artists, with additional members, also became known as the “Taos Ten” were all captivated by the region’s rugged landscape and its native inhabitants. However, each artist had their own unique style and viewpoint. Walter Ufer came to the group bringing with him his European training and modernist propensities, and he was able to add an individual voice. Ufer was known for his strong compositions, the use of a vibrant colour palette, and a more direct, and less romanticized portrayal of his subjects in comparison to some of his fellow members. However, he still collaborated closely with the other members of the TSA all the time sharing ideas and participating in the Society’s collective efforts to gain national recognition for Southwestern art. The TSA played a very important role in popularizing images of the American West and its indigenous peoples and enhanced the nation’s perception of this unique region.

Indian Corn by Walter Ufer

Ufer had moved to Taos on his own leaving his wife Mary behind in Chicago.  She would not join her husband until 1916.  Shortly after arriving in Taos Ufer was quick to contact the community leaders such as the local doctor, Thomas P. Martin, whom he lodged with for the first summer.  The doctor treated many of the TSA artists and often was paid for his services in the form of paintings.   The same system of payments was also afforded to many of the local businesses.

Anna by Walter Ufer (1920s)

Ufer soon built up a large collection of paintings and exhibited seventeen paintings in the reception room of the Palace of the Governors. His offering achieved excellent reviews with an article in the November 1914 issue of the local newspaper, El Palacio entitled “Exhibit by Chicago Artist,” the reviewer called each of Ufer’s landscapes a gem, although his figures are his forte.”  It was his masterly ability to paint figures that enhanced Ufer’s reputation as an artist, one which would grow most significantly from his work with the human figure even though he was a master of being able to conquer the ambiance of mother nature.

Crossing the Rio Grande (c.1930)

Walter Ufer moved between Taos, New Mexico in the summer and Chicago during the winter months.  He had broken off relations with his former patrons and from 1919 to 1924, the New York art dealer John E. D. Trask had become Ufer’s personal agent. Trask was well-connected in the art community, which had him well positioned to sell his clients’ work.  He was pleased to have Ufer as a client as he believe3d that the artwork of Ufer would create a type of image with a broad appeal and often voiced the opinion that every American home should have a painting by Walter Ufer, an artist whose reputation was well established.

Self portrait, Paint and the Indians by Walter Ufer (1923)

Trask was a great promoter of Ufer’s works and had them placed in several museums, art associations and private collections. Besides Chicago collectors and the Art Institute of Chicago, Ufer’s paintings were acquired by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the National Academy of Design. At this point, the sale of Ufer’s paintings was as strong as any artist working in Taos, perhaps in America and his earnings were high with Ernest Leonard Blumenschein, an American artist and founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, claiming that Ufer was earning $50,000 a year.  This has since been queried as the sales records in Ufer’s archives does not support Blumenschein’s contention. In those archival records Ufer’s gross income totalled approximately $10,000 annually until the middle 1920’s at which time art market collapsed.

The Audience by Walter Ufer (1917)

Things began to go wrong for Ufer once his promoter and agent Trask retired.  Ufer tried to sell his work to galleries in New York and Chicago but with little success and this heralded the start of Ufer’s downfall.  Sales of his artwork fell dramatically and yet Ufer failed to rein in his expensive lifestyle and soon his spending habits were outstripping his earning power.  When in Chicago he continued to stay at the expensive Bismarck Hotel, always on the look-out for a sale while consuming increasing amounts of alcohol. Even though he maintained his Chicago contacts, he had difficulty selling his pictures.  Ufer’s finances took another downward turn with the arrival of the Great Depression, and he was forced to borrow money and yet seemed oblivious to his personal circumstances.  Eventual realisation caused him to turn even more to alcohol and periods of debilitating depression.  By the early 1930s Ufer had lost his battle with alcoholism and found it difficult to paint and even when he did, the results were of poor quality in comparison to his earlier work.

Callers by Walter Ufer (1926)

His wife, Mary, who was living apart from her husband in Chicago begged him to leave Taos and join her in Chicago where, she believed it would be cheaper for two to live.    Regrettably, Walter was adamant that his home and life was in Taos and that he would again enjoy success with his artwork and once again regain his national reputation.  His health had slowly deteriorated and despite the support from afar from his wife and a few friends, the end came on August 2nd, 1936, when Walter Ufer died after experiencing a ruptured appendix.  He died in St. Vincent’’ Hospital in Santa Fe, from peritonitis a fortnight after his sixtieth birthday.

Once again information for this blog came from a number of excellent websites:

Walter Ufer (1876-1936) Essay by Dean Porter, Ph.D. © Illinois Historical Art Project

NICEARTGALLERY

Walter Ufer

Part 1. The Beginning – America and Germany

Self portrait by Walter Ufer (1920)

In the next two blogs I am going to look at an artist and his work, who started life in Germany, emigrated to America with his family where his artistic journey began.  He returned to Germany for a few years before returning to New York and Chicago.  In the second part of the blog we follow his journey to the American Wild West where he spent the rest of his life. Let me introduce you to Walter Ufer.

French Peasant Woman by Walter Ufer

Walter Ufer was born on July 22nd, 1876, in Hückeswagen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, four years before his parents, Peter, who was an metal engraver of hunting scenes and carver of meerschaum pipes. His wife, the former Alvina Meuser, along with Walter and their sons crossed the Atlantic in search of a new life in 1880.  His parents and his older brother Otto had headed for the Kentucky city of Louisville hoping to achieve a better life for the family.  In 1881 a year after arriving in America, Alvina gave birth to a third child, Herman.  Life proved difficult as his father failed to find a market for his work in Louisville and so, to make ends meet, he turned to carving furniture and, appropriately for a community relying heavily on the tobacco industry, corncob pipes. Eventually, he established himself, making fishing reels, while developing a talent for engraving metalic gun stocks, an occupation he practiced until his death.

Academic figure drawing by Walter Ufer (1913)

Walter Ufer, whilst growing up, was a child who suffered many illnesses, nevertheless, he had to work to help with the family finances.  He sold newspapers and, at age twelve, and later earned money by lighting gas lamps on the streets of Louisville. As a teenager, his father, taught Walter the art of engraving, and the headmaster of his Fourth Ward Grammar School in Louisville encouraged him to pursue art. Walter enjoyed sketching and painting and would often give his classmates pictures of plants, birds, animals, and maps he had drawn.

Old Munich by Walter Ufer

At sixteen, Walter Ufer became an apprentice to Johann Juergens, an engraver for the Courier Journal Job Printing Company, one of Louisville’s major lithographic firms. There he learned the craft of lithography and, importantly, design, on the job as well as receiving private tutelage three nights a week in Juergens’s home.

Woman from Dachau by Walter Ufer (1912)

In 1893, seventeen-year-old Ufer travelled for the first time to Chicago in order to catch a glimpse of “real art” at the World’s Colombian Exposition. Walter was mesmerised by sculptures, paintings, drawings, and engravings, which filled eighty galleries and over a hundred alcoves. Depictions varied from domestic and historical, landscapes, portraits, still lives, mythological and religious. This visual profusion of art excited him and he knew his future lay in the world of art and he believed that Chicago was the place to be for his future artistic career.

Portrait of a Man by Walter Ufer (1912)

And yet Walter Ufer was drawn to Europe and this coincided with Johann Juergens opening his own lithographic firm, Langebartels and Juergens Lithographers, in Hamburg and he was looking for a hardworking young man to work there. The position was offered to Walter Ufer who jumped at the chance to travel to Europe and on November 2nd 1893 seventeen-years-old Walter crossed the Atlantic on the liner SS. Columbia.

One October Evening by Walter Ufer (1913)

His work as an apprentice lithographer and typesetter in Hamburg, allowed him to gain practical skills in graphic arts. He would also study in the evenings at the Hamburg Applied Art School. It is thought that this early introduction to printmaking techniques influenced his later strong sense of design and composition in his artwork but his real desire was to have a future in fine art, and so he embarked on more formal academic instruction in art which led him to Dresden and the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Art. Alas, Ufer’s three-year stay at the Royal Academy ended when he ran out of money and his mother persuaded him to return home.  He hated being forced to return but he managed to get a position as an engraver at the Louisville Courier Journal where Walter remained for two years.

Portrait of Mary (1913)

By 1900, Ufer had had enough of Louisville and returned to Chicago where he found employment as a commercial designer at Barnes-Crosby Company during the day and still allowing him time in the evenings to attend the Francis J. Smith School which was affiliated with the Académie Julien in Paris.  In 1904, Walter became an art instructor at the school where a mutual friend introduced him to student, Mary Monrad Frederiksen.  Friendship turned to love and on April 26th, 1906, twenty-nine-year-old Walter Ufer married his thirty-six-year-old bride.  Was it true love ?  It was a strange coupling as Mary was a woman who came from a socially and culturally prominent background while Walter came from a working-class upbringing, and a man who was said to have an ill-temper.  Was Walter happy with the marriage or was there some doubt in Ufer’s mind as he began to look upon his wife not as an asset and supporter but as someone who would stand in the way of his artistic development.  He once wrote about his misgivings:

“…I was falling in love. Gracious this wouldn’t do — I wanted to get to Europe again. Terrible battles went on within me. I wanted to tell her this, yet I didn’t have the nerve to do it. This was agony …. I wanted to tell her …. that I only wanted to paint …. I admitted to myself that I loved her — but my career — Gone to Hell…!

In 1911 the Walter and his wife returned to Germany and the city of Munich where he resumed his artistic studies at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts, and here he studied under the German painter and illustrator, Walter Thor.  Two years later, in July 1913, Walter Ufer went back to America on the SS Kaiser Franz Joseph I. He travelled alone having persuaded his wife to go and live with her mother in Denmark until he had got settled in America.  Maybe he believed he needed to establish himself in the art world of Chicago before she joined him or maybe it is all about how he believed his wife was becoming burdensome and affecting his artistic output but whatever the reason he and Mary lived apart for the next six months.

Portrait of Mrs Walter Wardrop by Walter Ufer (1916) Mrs. Walter Wardrop (Harriet Sullivan Wardrop) was born in Chicago in 1872 to Irish immigrants. In 1895 she married Walter Wardrop, who began his career in the bicycle industry and eventually became a publisher and authority on commercial vehicles in the early days of motoring. 

Walter Ufer disembarked at New York and set about trying to sell his paintings, many of which he had completed whilst in Europe.   According to his biographer Stephen Good, Ufer hung up a number of his paintings at the Artists Packing and Shipping Company premises and then invited a number of well-known art dealers to attend and view his work.  It didn’t work out for Ufer as these dealers were looking for work by established painters and were not interested in a thirty-seven-year-old painter who had spent much of his professional career in Germany’s academies. Ufer was upset at their lack of interest for his work.

Taos Peak by Walter Ufer (1914)

Ufer left New York and returned to Chicago, leasing a studio in the Beil Atelier Building at 19 East Pearson Street for $50 a month.  In 1913, he submitted some of his work to the jury of the Chicago Art Institute’s exhibition, but all were rejected.  This and the lack of sales for his work depressed Ufer and suddenly he was starting to question his own ability and although his wife continued to offer support, he would not invite her to join him in America.  Mary eventually returned to Chicago in February of 1914, and her husband’s fortunes began to recover and, in that year, Ufer finally had four of his paintings (Old Munich, Portrait, Munich Au, and Coletta) accepted in that year’s Art Institute Exhibition.  Ufer still had to gain financial security, and his wife advised him to paint portraits of the Chicago wealthy dignitaries and for once he heeded her advice. It was taking his wife’s advice and visiting the Chicago mayor to offer to paint his portrait that would change his whole life

………to be continued.

Most of the details for this blog came from two excellent websites:

Walter Ufer (1876-1936) Essay by Dean Porter, Ph.D. © Illinois Historical Art Project

NICEART GALLERY

Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin.

Henri Martin in 1882

The artist whose life and works I am looking at today is the Post-Impressionist painter Henri-Jean Guillaume “Henri” Martin.  He was born on August 5th, 1860, at 127 Grande-Rue Saint-Michel in Toulouse.  His father was a French cabinet maker, and his mother was of Italian descent.

Self portrait by Henri Martin (1910)

The self-portrait hangs in the Musée d’Orsay and their commentary on this work is:

“…In this self-portrait dated just after 1910, Henri Martin makes reference to both the new techniques introduced by the Neo-Impressionists and to the grand pictorial tradition. Thus, there are many borrowings from a re-reading of the past, starting with the arched shape of the painting. This recalls basket-handle arches typical of the Middle Ages.
The palette the artist is holding clearly has an expressive role, symbolising his profession. Martin explicitly quotes primitive painting. Finally, it follows in a long tradition of interior portraits.
On the other hand, the technique of this painting links this work with Neo-Impressionism. By adopting the division of colours, Martin tries to capture the vibrating light of the south of France. He uses dots and stripes of colour, placed close together on an already thick layer, recalling a technique much favoured by Albert Dubois-Pillet, one of the founders of the movement.
Applied to a rigorous but fluid drawing style and to a skilful but seemingly quite natural composition, this technique which surprised in 1884 and shocked in 1886, in 1912 found itself, in this painting, harmoniously integrated into the great French pictorial tradition…”

Orephée by Henri Martin (1878) One of Martin’s early mythological work inspired by the tragic Greek figure Orpheus.

Henri Martin, after completing his schooling, managed to persuade his father to permit him to study to become an artist. His artistic career began in 1877 at the Toulouse School of the Fine Arts, where his tutor was Jules Garipuy, a French painter and educator who would later become director of the city’s Beaux-Arts Academy in 1885.

Les Bords de la Garonne, le poète, by Henri Martin (1906)

In 1879, Martin moved to Paris and where, with the help of a municipal scholarship, he was able to study in Jean-Paul Laurens’s studio.

Paolo Malatesta et Francesca da Rimini aux enfers by Henri Martin

Four years later, in 1883, he received his first medal at the Paris Salon for his painting, Paolo Malatesta et Francesca da Rimini aux enfers.   The depiction comes from a character in The Divine Comedy by Danti Aligheri.   Francesca da Rimini was a contemporary of Dante Alighieri and he used her as a character in his book The Divine Comedy. The Lord of Rimini was at war with Francesca’s father Guido I da Polenta of Ravenna, and so to broker peace between the two families, Francesca was married to the Lord’s cripple son Giovanni Malatesta. It wasn’t a match made in heaven. Francesca ended up having a long-standing affair with Giovanni’s brother Paolo, who was also married. That all ended when Giovanni walked in on Francesca and Paolo and killed them both. In The Divine Comedy, Dante and Virgil enter the second circle of hell (the circle for the lustful) to find Francesca and Paolo swirling in a whirlwind.

Berenice by Henri Martin (1889)

Whilst he had been studying at the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse, he met fellow student Marie-Charlotte Barbaroux, whom he married in 1881. It was thought that Barbaroux modelled for her husband’s mesmeric 1889 painting entitled Berenice.  The depiction of the woman was based upon a short story by the American author Edgar Allan Poe which was first published in 1835.  The story tells of  Egaeus, the narrator, who falls in love with his beautiful cousin Berenice. She suffers from a mysterious debilitating illness, causing her to fall into a trance-like state. As Berenice’s health deteriorates, Egaeus develops intense obsessions, focusing latterly on her teeth. The girl eventually dies and Egaeus is grief-stricken. He visits her grave, as if in a dream, and later discovers her extracted teeth in a box beside him. Henri Martin appears to have been inspired by this passage from Berenice:

‘…The forehead was high, and very pale … and the once jet-black hair fell partially over it, and overshadowed the hollow temples with innumerable ringlets, now of a vivid yellow, and jarring discordantly … with the reigning melancholy of her countenance…”

Mystic Scene by Henri Martin (1895)

In 1885, the year after he won his first medal at the Paris Salon, Martin was awarded a travel scholarship for his painting, Titans Scaling the Sky. The scholarship allowed him to travel to Italy and tour the country, where he was able to study the work of the Italian Masters as well as works by some of  his contemporaries such as the French symbolist painter Edmond Aman-Jean and the French painter and printmaker, Ernest Joseph Laurent, a well regarded figure in the academic art establishment, known for his large-scale historical and religious paintings. 

Le Marquayrol at Labastide-du-Vert by Henri Martin (1905)

Once Henri Martin had left the world of academia, he became interested in Neo-Impressionism but in a more casual style. His style was close to the divisionism of Seurat.  When he was in Italy Martin developed his own particular style, known as Divisionism, which is an artistic technique characterized by the separation of colours into individual dots or patches that interact optically.  It formed the technical basis for Neo-Impressionism.   The difference between divisionism and pointalism is that whereas the term divisionism refers to this separation of colour and its optical effects, the term pointillism refers specifically to the technique of applying dots. Henri Martin’s method was typically softer, less rigid, and more intuitive. He used divided brushstrokes – often short, comma-like marks rather than precise dots as seen in the works of Seurat.  Henri Martin was awarded the Gold Medal for a work he submitted to the Paris Salon in 1889.  The art critics identified it as pointillism.  Also in 1889 Martin became a member of the Legion of Honor.   He was commissioned to execute some important frescoes in the Paris city hall in 1895, and the new huge building of the Capitol of Toulouse.   

Fête de la Fédération au Champs de Mars, le 14 juillet 1790 by Henri Martin

In 1900 at the the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris he was awarded the Grand Prix for his work, Fête de la Fédération au Champs de Mars, le 14 juillet 1790, which is now housed in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse. It depicts the celebration of the centenary of the French Revolution and this work brought him considerable public and critical attention.

The Muse by Henri Martin (c.1896) The painting was presented at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français in Paris in 1898.

His journey around Italy opened Martin’s eyes to a new way of painting. Prior to his trip his artwork conformed to the old Classicism style, a style which held a high respect for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition.  Maybe he was swayed by the clear bright light of the skies in Italy which he encountered.  The change of style could also be due to the influence of the artwork of the Italian Primitives.  In the mid-19th century, the term Primitive Art, was primarily applied to 14th and 15th century Italian and Flemish art, which at the time of Henri Martin, was appreciated for what was looked upon as its simplicity, sincerity, and expressive power which awoke in Martin intense poetic sentiments which he would  bring to his newly found style of painting. A more poetic approach to his painting style.

Banks of the Garonne by Henri Martin

Les Vendangeuses  (The Grape Pickers) by Henri Martin (1920)

A painting by Henri Martin entitled, Les Vendangeuses  (The Grape Pickers) came up for auction at Christies in April 2021 and sold for EUR 218,750.  It was a work commissioned by Martin’s doctor, Dr. Henri Tissier, and remained on the wall of his Art Deco salon for a hundred years.  The Tissier’s home was located on Boulevard Raspail, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.  It was a true Art Deco architectural jewel and had been built by Léon Tissier (Henri’s brother) in 1913.  Henri Martin, who was also the Tissier’s neighbour. Dr. Tissier and his wife were close to many artists, including the sculptor Bouchard and the interior designer Henri Bellery-Desfontaines.   Both contributed to the decoration of the Tissier’s apartment, whose exceptional furniture was presented at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris.  Les Vendangeuses, which Henri Martin completed in 1921, is a depiction of a tranquil, bright rural scene showing women picking grapes.  It is a remarkable example of Henri Martin’s refreshing approach to pointillism.  It is a work with strong post-impressionist accents and is also a tribute to the artist’s native land and a pledge of the friendship that bound him to the Tissier couple.

It is thought that the woman to the right dressed in a pale pink dress that contrasts with the blue of the other clothes, stands out particularly and could well represent Marie-Charlotte Barbaroux, Martin’s wife.

The Capitole of Toulouse

In Toulouse there is no Mairie, but rather a majestic Capitole. An emblematic building which is home to the town hall, a theatre and rooms of state. On the first floor, there are magnificent reception rooms that are decorated with art including ten giant canvases by Henri Martin and, notably, the Salle des Illustres where his paintings retrace the history of Toulouse.

Salle Henri Martin, Capitole de Toulouse.

Salle Henri Martin, Capitole de Toulouse.

 L’été ou les faucheurs (Summer or The Reapers) by Henri Martin (1903) In the Henri Martin Hall, The Capitole Toulouse.

Henri Martin completed many prestigious public commissions, which can be found at the Capitol of Toulouse, the prefecture of the Lot in Cahors, the Sorbonne in 1908, the Paris City Hall, a cabinet of the Élysée in 1908, the Council of State in 1914-1922, the Town Hall of the Fifth arrondissement in 1935.

Henri Martin’s final home at Domaine de Marquayrol at Labastide-du-Vert

Henri Martin was quite an introvert and later in life began to hate living in Paris and hanker after a return to his beloved south-west France.  He moved away from the French capital around 1900 and after a number of years trying to find the perfect place to live, settled on a house, the Domaine de Marquayrol, which overlooked the village of  Labastide-du-Vert, a commune in the Lot department in the Occitania region in Southwestern France. near to the town of Cahors.

The Church at Labastide by Henri Martin (1920)

Labastide du vert village by Henri Martin

It was an area of great natural beauty, a region characterized by rolling hills, vineyards, and the winding Lot River valley. Marquayrol became his primary residence and his artistic sanctuary for the rest of his life. He lived there with his wife, Marie-Charlotte Barbaroux, and their four sons Many art historians believe that Martin performed some of his best work in this new tranquil environment. His mature output depicted tranquil landscapes and village scenes and these canvases, which were rich in soft light and rhythmic brushwork, remain the trademark of his oeuvre.

 Henri Martin died at Labastide-du-Vert on November 12th, 1943, aged 83.

Below are some of the websites I used to get information for this blog:

France info

Le Monde

Outre Journal

Arthive

ArtFund

NICEARTGALLERY

Wilhelm Ferdinand Bendz

Somebody just asked me how I came to write about a certain artist.  In the case of today’s blog it was just a strange coincidence………

In November 2012 I wrote a blog about the Barber Institute, an English art museum on the Birmingham University campus.  The reason for visiting this gallery was to take in the exhibition of the Norwegian painter, with the English-sounding name, Thomas Fearnley. 

Church at Ramsau by Thomas Fearnley (1832)

As I walked into the exhibition that day, the first painting I saw was a plein air oil on paper, laid on canvas work which Fearnley completed in 1832 while on his trek from Germany to Italy. Fearnley painted this finished composition from nature in September 1832. The artist was travelling to Italy when he stopped at the village of Ramsau. The title of the work was simply Ramsau.  This was a town I knew well from the days I travelled around southern Bavaria.  It was a beautiful painting, and I vividly remember the beautiful depiction as if I had just seen it today.  It is a truly magnificent landscape work.

Wilhelm Bendz by Christen Kobke (c.1830)

The reason I mention this work is because the artist I am looking at today, Wilhelm Ferdinand Bendz, also produced an artwork featuring that same church with its mountainous background.  Bendz was principally a painter of figure subjects and his landscapes are rare. This view was painted in September 1832 when he too was making his way from Munich to Rome. He stopped briefly at Ramsau in Austria and made several lively sketches of the church and mountains. His painting was dated the same month and same year as Fernley’s painting !   More about that coincidence later.

Winter Landscape from Funnen by Wilhelm Bendz (1831)

Wilhelm Ferdinand Bendz was born in the Danish town of Odense on the island of Funen on March 20th 1804 His father was Lauritz Martin Bendz, at one time, chief of police in Odense and High Court Judge in Funen and Langeland.  His mother, his father’s second wife, was Regine Christence Bang.  Wilhelm had four brothers and four sisters as well as three stepsisters and one stepbrother from his father’s first marriage.

A Smoking Party by Wilhelm Bendz

Wilhelm Bendz, at the age of sixteen, having completed his schooling in Odense, travelled to Copenhagen where he enrolled at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and studied there from 1820 to 1825.  Here he studied under Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, whowent on to lay the foundation for the period of art known as the Golden Age of Danish Painting, and is referred to as the “Father of Danish painting”. In his final year at the academy, he submitted work in an attempt to win the Academy’s prestigious gold medal prize which came with a travel scholarship.  However, at the time, the Academy only awarded the Gold Medal to history paintings, which at the time was considered to be the most respected painting genre.   Bendz, however, decided to concentrate on portraiture and genre works and his early paintings would often portray his artist colleagues and their daily lives.

A Young Artist  (Ditlev Blunck) Examining a Sketch in a Mirror by Wilhelm Bendz

One such work was his 1826 painting entitled A Young Artist (Ditlev Blunck) Examining a Sketch in a Mirror.  Wilhelm Bendz was a great believer in artists’ new role in life.  He believed they were no longer simply specialist craftsmen but, for him, artists should be viewed as intellectual workers.   The artist in this picture is Bendz’s fellow Academy student, Ditlev Blunck, who is engaged in painting a portrait of fellow student, Jørgen Sonne, a painter who would become known for his battle scenes.   The painting which Bendz completed in 1826 depicts young Ditlev Blunck, a fellow Academy student of Bendz, taking a break from painting to examine a sketch he has made for the portrait.  The artist is standing in a crowded room surrounded by his tools and paraphernalia: a paintbox, palette, and easel as well as a skull and a sketchbook suggesting that careful studies had preceded the final painting.  Only the back of the painting can be seen with the front seen only in the mirror. It is believed that the depiction is indicative of the era’s view of art as a mirror held up to life and signals that his work is serious, and requires thorough study before execution.

Model Class at the Copenhagen Academy by Wilhelm Bendz (1826)

Bendz completed Model Class at the Copenhagen Academy in 1826 and it is considered to be one of his greatest works.

Christian Holm by William Bendz (1826)

Another of Bendz’s works which focused on artists at work was one he completed in 1826 – a portrait of his fellow Academy student, Christian Holm, at work on his painting. Christian Holm became a well-known Danish painter known primarily for his animal and hunting scenes.

A Sculptor in his Studio Working from Life by Wilhelm Bendz (1827)

A Sculptor in His Studio which he completed in 1827 is one of Bendz’s masterpieces.  It depicts the working environment of a sculptor with meticulous attention to tools, materials, and the creative process. The painting demonstrates his skill with complex interior lighting.  The depiction is of sculptor, Christen Christensen, at work.  Christensen was a Danish sculptor and medallist, who studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and was at the same time articled to the sculptor Nicolai Dajon. He won the Academy’s small and large silver medals in 1824, the small gold medal in 1825 and finally the large gold medal in 1827.

Interior from Amaliegade, Captain Carl Ludvig Bendz Standing and Dr. Jacob Christian Bendz Seated by Wilhelm Bendz (ca. 1829)

Bendz’s two brothers featured in an internal scene, in Bendz’s genre work entitled Interior from Amaliegade.

The Raffenberg Family by Wilhelm Bendz (1830)

The Waagepetersen Family by Wilhelm Bendz

Bendz often received lucrative commissions for family portraits.

Artist in the Evening at Finck’s Coffee House in Munich by Wilhelm Bendz (1832)

After leaving the Academy, Bendz was employed as an assistant at Christoffer Eckersberg’s studio.  In late 1830 Bendz won an award which granted him a travel scholarship allowing him to leave Denmark and travel to southern Europe. After short stop-overs at Dresden and Berlin, he settled for a year in Munich, a city which had developed into a vibrant centre for the arts.  This opportunity exposed Wilhelm to new artistic influences and techniques as well as knowledge of contemporary German painting, known as the Munich School, which seems to have influenced his style.   It was here that he completed one of his most valued paintings, a composed group portrait entitled Artist in the Evening at Finck’s Coffee House in Munich.

The Church at Ramsau by Wilhelm Bendz (1832)

In the autumn of 1832, twenty-eight-year-old Bendz left Munich and continued his exhausting journey over the Alps towards Rome.  On this journey he was accompanied by Joseph Petzl, a German genre painter and Thomas Fearnley, a Norwegian romantic painter. It is here that I return to the start of the blog and the two similar depictions by Fearnley and Bendz of the church at Ramsau.  The answer as to how Bendz and Fearnley completed paintings depicting similar views of the church in the mountains at the same time is now clear.  They were fellow travellers and both had decided to record the beautiful scene.

Mountain Landscape by Wilhelm Bendz (1831)

The three men finally crossed the Alps and made their way to Venice.  The extremely difficult journey took its toll on Bendz and after moving from Venice to Vicenza to stay with a friend before heading to Rome, he collapsed and died of a lung infection on November 14th 1832 aged 28. Wilhelm Bendz’s artistic contribution was not appreciated during his short lifetime but his legacy grew significantly in the decades following, as art historians recognized his technical skill and unique perspective on the Danish Golden Age. Bendz’s technical skill was in the way he handled light, especially in interior scenes and how he enhanced the artistic achievements of the Danish Golden Age. His works displayed both academic precision and personal expression.  He was a master at depicting the social life of artists and intellectuals, and this artwork provided valuable visual documentation of cultural circles in Copenhagen during the 1820s and early 1830s.

Marie de Roode Heijermans and her “infamous” painting.

Marie de Roode Heijermans

The artist I am looking at today is Catherine Mariam ‘Marie’ de Roode-Heijermans who was born in Rotterdam on October 14th, 1859.  She was the daughter of Herman Heijermans, a journalist, and his wife Matilda Moses Spiers. She grew up in a large, liberal Jewish family in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Marie was the second oldest of eleven children and the older sister of Herman a playwright, Louis a community physician, Ida a children’s pedagogue and Helena who was a school principal. Marie did not finish high school but was given drawing lessons from the Dutch painter, Suze Robertson.

She studied at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy of Art, The Hague) and Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Academy of Visual Arts, Rotterdam. One of her teachers was Jan Philip Koelman.   In 1881, aged 22, she obtained the drawing certificate at the Hague Drawing Academy. After leaving the Academy Marie worked as an art teacher for several years.  Following this period as an educator she left for Brussels, where she took more art lessons at the studio of the French painter, Ernest Blanc Garin. Here, in the Life Clas, she was allowed to paint from nude models, something that was not yet allowed to women in the Netherlands. 

Her crowning artistic achievement came in 1892 with her painting ‘Hospice des Vieillards which appeared at the Paris Salon in 1892 and following on from this Marie received a three-year working grant from the Belgian Queen Regent.

Victime de la misère (The Victim of Misery) by ‘Marie’ Heijermans (1897)

Five years later, in 1897, a piece of Marie’s artwork received more publicity but this time, for all the wrong reasons.  The painting is now deemed to be the most outstanding works of the artist’s career. It was a depiction that focused upon social themes, which validates Marie’s artistic commitment to portray the difficult living conditions many people had to endure. The painting entitled Victime de la misère (The Victim of Misery) was exhibited at the World Exhibition in Brussels. King Leopold II of Belgium who saw it considered it to be deeply offensive. and soon after his visit to the exhibition it was removed. Marie Heijermans tried to force its reinstatement through the courts, but all her efforts were in vain.

In the late 1920s the work had been bought by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam but the depiction was criticised by art critics. For them, this purchase by the museum was unacceoptable as the councilors had, in their eyes, believed the musum had spent tax-payer’s money unwisely. Following the bad press the work was relegated to the museum’s basement at the request of the councilors and the museum mitigated their decision stating “lack of space” forced them to do this.

So what was this furore about? What made the depiction offensive? Why hide it from public view?  Why this censorship? Often paintings are censored for political or religious reasons, because the artists who created them desired to communicate through them, a message that upset certain governments and religious groups. However, there are other reasons for censorship such as paintings that affect morality and behaviour.  Censorship in all its forms is a manifestation of the fears and tensions of a time when various groups attempt to prevent conversations and behaviours that are different from their own from spreading in society, and by doing so, believing that they can prevent social changes.  However, this work by Heijermans did not hint at political or religious connotations.

The elderly “client”.

Maybe the title of the painting gives us a clue – Victime de la misère (The Victim of Misery).  From these words we must deduce that the depiction will be somewhat harrowing and maybe it was believed that instead of exhibiting it for its artistic merit, it should be hidden away to avoid upsetting viewers and causing offence.  The canvas had been hung for a month, but when the Belgian king was due to visit the exhibition, those in charge considered it to be too offensive and had it removed. Marie Heijermans tried unsuccessfully through the courts to have it reassigned to the gallery walls.  However, the Belgian and Dutch authorities backed the gallery decision and declared the work to be a disgrace. Only one voice from the media defended Marie’s work and he was Jan de Roode in Het Volksdagblad, the first workers’ newspaper published in the Netherlands.

Top hat and the “payment” for services rendered.

So let us take a closer look at the depiction for clues.  Before us we see a small room, with little furnishing, sparsely decorated with few objects. This could be described as a simple humble room without any luxuries. The painting shows a young naked girl sitting on a stool at the side of the bed.  Surely that is not reason enough for it to be taken off the museum wall and hidden in the basement. 

The Three Graces by Rubens (1638)

Numerous artists over the years have depicted naked young women in their works. They were depictions of goddesses, nymphs, and portrayed young women exhibiting themselves in seductive poses which for some men allowed them to fantasize and romanticize and what could be. These were looked upon as being acceptable due to the concept being mythological. So what makes this work by Heijermans suffer the wrath of the censors? 

Olympia by Édouard Manet (1863)

Heijerman’s painting was not the first to fall foul of the censors for its depiction Édouard Manet’s 1863 famous painting Olympia, reworked the traditional theme of the female nude, using a strong, uncompromising technique. Both the subject matter and its depiction explain the scandal caused by this painting at the 1865 Salon.  Nowadays the sight of the naked woman would not have caused a ripple of disgust, but we need to remember that it was painted in 1897 and moral standards were different in those days. The female nude outside those pre-established contexts of mythology was found unacceptable and deemed immoral, an viewed as an assault on good morals.

This painting depicted prostitution and for many this was an unacceptable reality of life and one which, like the painting itself, should be hidden from view. In the foreground we see the young woman sitting on a large, padded stool next to an empty bed which had just been slept in. Her head is bent downwards.  She appears utterly miserable and so we refer to the paintings title – The Victim of Misery.  The young woman appears to be from a low social class, and her nakedness and an unmade bed points towards her being a prostitute. Look at the end of the bed and next to the woman, we see a chair with some discarded clothes, the man’s top hat and a 20-franc note, the latter is probably the payment she received for her services. In the background, we see  a distinguished elderly gentleman with his back to us, adjusting his cravat, dressing himself in a white shirt and black vest before a mirror and we can deduce he is from a very different societal class compared to that of the woman. He is her customer. There is a stark contrast between the satisfied air of the corpulent gentleman and the dejected look of the young woman.

Now collating this information, we can see what Marie Heijermans had depicted and what was her implied message to the viewers.  She has through this poignant work denounced the fact that this woman (and many like her) were forced into prostitution. In case we were allowed to doubt the truth of what we are seeing Marie has given the work a title that does not allow us any doubt as to what should be apparent – that this young woman was a victim of prostitution and that society had failed her.

Justus Johannes de Roode

Marie Heijermans was a member of the Cercle des Femmes Peintres, a Brussels-based association of visual artists who were active between 1888 and 1893.   On August 23rd 1899 she married the journalist Justus Jan de Roode, who later became editor of Het Volk,  a Belgian newspaper that focused on “news with a human undertone”. He was also staff member of the International Labour Organization. The couple had no children. He had been one of the few people which denounced the removal of Marie’s censured painting.

In the years 1921-1926, the couple stayed in Geneva Switzerland, where De Roode was working for the Bureau International du Travail (BIT).  Heijermans favoured subjects for her paintings were the elderly, nursing homes, hospices and workers. In 1999-2000, the Marie Heijerman’s painting, – Victime de la misère (The Victim of Misery), was included in the exhibition featuring women artists, As you Will: Women artists in Belgium and The Netherlands (1500-1950).  This travelling exhibition was held at the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone in Antwerp and the Museum voor Moderne Kunst in Arnhem. In 2002, the painting featured in the Amsterdam Historical Museum exhibition, Love for Sale, which documented four centuries of prostitution in Amsterdam. The exhibition brought together many amazing documents, photographs and paintings about prostitution.  Heijerman’s Victime de la misère was said to be one of the highlights of the exhibition. In 2014 it was exhibited again, this time at the Stedelijk, in the exhibition Men for Women, 5 Centuries of Art, an exhibition which challenged the notion that women were largely absent from art before the late 1800s.

Heijermans died in Amsterdam on October 26th 1937, aged 78. Her husband Justus Johannes de Roode died on January 14th 1945, three weeks before his 79th birthday.

Below are some of the websites where I was able to get information for this blog.

Women’n Art

Hein Klaver Kunsthandel

Huygens Institute

JStor