New-York tribune., 1909-01-31
BASTIEN-LEPAGE.
His Picture Of "Joan of Arc" IN the
Metropolitan Museum.

Some Of the most important chapters in the his
tory Of modern French painting relate to various
| solutions Of the great problem of lighting. One
| of these chapters written by Jules Bast1en-
| Lepage, who born at Damvilers in 1S4S and
died in Paris in 1884, in the full tide Of remark
! able career He shared in the feeling. held by
Manet Monet and others of the ImpressioTist
group, that while the Barbizon school and the ro-
mantle movement generally had accomplished a
great deal in the emancipation of French art from
eighteenth century tradition. there still much
| to be done. Manet helped along the forces Of
progress by taking leaf from the book Of We
lssquez Monet and his comrades opened their
doors to the light and air of nature and painted
their subjects with eager solicttude for the
| atmospheric conditions surrounding them. Bas-
tien-Lepage differed from them in that he did not
seek the heeting impression. did not attempt TO
seize broad atmospheric effects by process Of in
Simultaneous observation. Nevertheless, he clearly
recognized the difference between the studio and
the open air. and gave to his work fresh truth
fulness which made him once an Interesting
figure in the Paris Of the seventies.
In the famous painting by him. now IN the
Metropolitan Museum. of which large reproduc-
ton is given in The Tribune to-day, his special
gift Is vividly illustrated He was student or
nature upon delineating its facts with all the
emphasis that sunlight lays upon them. The I'M
pressonist pure and simple finds that light en-
velops and syntheszes these facts, and he treats
them In the mass To Bastien-Lepage light eX-
posed each natural fact in detail. and so. in the
rustic in which he places the Maid OF
Franco he makes the grass as green possible.
paints the leaves and the fruit upon the tree with
minute care, portrays every flower. and IN short.
produces something like q photograph Of nature
He would not subdue his material to the gray
studio light most popular among his contempora-
ries IN France. He would plunge boldly into the
open and report what he there with an un-
fnchins brush. The result a type Of art
which seemed rather violent at the time put Whch
has since met with general appreciation
Bastien-Lepage not only q patnstahdng
transcriber Of fact; he was a man OF IDEAS ana
emotions Being at bottom realist, ne portrayed
Joan Of Arc as every inch the peasant that she
was but he knew how in1agnativey to convey IN
his painting of her face a suggestion Of mystical
rapture St Michael. Offering her the sacred
sword and the other angelic figures hovering
with him in the background, are clearly snaklng
their presence fe't in the mind of this untutored
heroine She hears their voices, Of that we are
made sure by her gesture, hy her eyes, by the
curious note of solemn absorption which Is struck
IN her whole bearing The picture is a noble in
stance of what a painter may make OF a lofty
+beros when he is lowered alike with Imagination
and with the power to reflect the truths or the
v-orld In which he lives. It is the greatest OF
Lepages subject pictures but he IS valued
also for The Hay Makers" The Potato Haf-
vest and a series of brilliant portraits Of Sarah
Rernhsrdt the Prince of Wales, the novehst An
dr4 Theuriet, and the critic Albert " OIL il7
rortrai+s of his grandfather and of other klns-
gratefully takes account of the study mat Ne
Tn.de of carnbetta on his deathted. He was 3
o1ose friend of Marie Bashkirtsefs. anH that
n,e+aortc Young womans journal lntl1ne con
tatns some highly interesting recouectoh5 OF nun
HE rersonslitv was long ago made famlllar III tS
country through the portrait of MIN mode'leo III
relief by Augustus St Gaudens