The subject and technique of ‘Paying the Harvester’(1882) belong to the Naturalist movement. However Lhermitte did not make this painting into a manifesto against the grinding toil of agricultural laborers as Jules Bastien-Lepage did in his painting Haymaking (1877). It is just a scene from the life of French peasantry of the time, with remarkably balanced overall composition and extremely precise rendering of the tiniest details. It is also the work that established Léon Augustin Lhermitte as a member of the Naturalist tradition, because of the rugged accuracy of the presentation and the uncompromising view of rural life.
Monique Le Pelley Fontenay explains the public’s intrigue in his works: “Like Jules Breton and Rosa Bonheur, Lhermitte was appreciated because he represented the ‘good old days.’ …Throughout his life Lhermitte pointedly ignored the Industrial Revolution, fixing instead on the image of society before its disappearance, the vision of a paradise lost for the citizens of big cities, of a time frozen outside the march of history.”
L’hermitte was born during a time that heralded a vast change in the urban and rural landscapes of France. The country was speeding into the modern world as urban spaces became more dense, industrialized, and teeming with activity. France was divided between a more educated, progressive North and a rural South of farm and field laborers.
Urban townspeople imagined rural field-hands as robust, diligent peasant workers, too philistine for the metropolitan world. The urban elite increasingly used stereotypes of the countryside for their own agendas, creating a single view of a rural world in which the morality of labour and a fatalistic resignation to one’s position in life are the dominant social values.
|
||
The scene depicted in the painting is similar to other famous works of his time, in its mood, that of the end of a hard day’s work, depicted here as the payday for the harvesters. Definitely influenced and perhaps inspired by other works like ‘Calling in the gleaners’(1859) by Jules Breton that depicted gleaners leaving the fields at dusk and ‘The Angelus’(1857-59) by Jean-François Millet depicting a peasant couple stop work in the fields to say the Angelus prayer for the poor departed.
The toil of the day is made palpable by the empty stare in the eyes of the peasants. It is the stare of one so tired that the mind fails to register what the eye gathers by nature. Yet, it is neither stoic nor fatalistic. While the hero of the composition is the man in the foreground, his melancholy gaze is only accentuated by the rhubarb of money changing hands around him and the mother nursing the child who too would have pitched in with a wail or two.
Just as the Industrial revolution was changing the landscapes of towns and cities, so too was the Impressionist brigade tugging at the coat-tails of French artistic sensibilities. Just as the French Revolution challenged the accepted notions of state and its subjects, so too were the Impressionists attempting to paint with light and color an art scene that was shocking the traditionalists. Lhermitte, whether a man torn between two art movements or the bridge artist that helped mainstream the Impressionists is a matter of opinion. The fact remains that his work was more readily accepted by the art critics and audiences than other Impressionists since his work did not challenge their preconceived notions of art. Léon Augustin Lhermitte in his early years used progressive stylistic treatments, but relied on imagery in the vein of previous Realists to establish himself as an artist of dual nature, in this ever-changing period of French art.
In his early years L’hermitte was introduced to a type of study of drawing that was based on memorization, a technique also used by James McNeill Whistler. In this way Léon Augustin L’hermitte could view a scene, especially a landscape scene, and more fully execute the painting back in his studio. Produced below are two works executed by him at the same ‘scene of crime’ – A la fontaine – first one in 1895 and the second in 1914.
But no, the loss of detail in the second, cannot be attributed to either fading memory or frailty of the limb. For at the ripe age of seventy in 1914, senility wasn’t the affliction that plagued him. It was the impressionist ideas that nudged him ever so slowly to the other side of the fence.
During the latter part of his career, mainly after 1900, Léon Augustin L’hermitte showed his dependence on the precepts of Impressionism and began to devote more of his compositional space to the landscape and effects of the atmosphere. Whereas earlier in his career, figures would occupy the majority of the composition, thus focusing attention on them and their activity, later in his career Léon Augustin L’hermitte devoted less space to these figures. Equally important is that these figures began to lose their individual identity. Instead of depicting them with unique features, they instead became subsidiary elements to the overall impression of the landscape.
From Realism to Impressionism – the bridge was complete.
Related Posts -
Orientalists - Artists or Peacemakers - Part 1 Ludwig Deutsch On a day that the two largest communities in India ponder over the court judgement over a piece of land, that has been the cause of emotionally charged and sometimes tragically violent responses, I would like to put the spotlight on the role of artists of any discipline in bridging...... -
Latcho Drom - Another experimental documentary In an earlier post about another documentary - "Baraka", I was moved by the power of the image to convey a story. That, like "Latcho Drom" here, was a documentary with no cast, no story, no narrative yet conveyed so much just though images, sounds and clever cinematography and editing....... -
A New Freedom - Provocations by Jehan Georges Vibert At this point in French history, contempt for the clergy had grown to such a level that these humorous attacks were accepted. Clergy members were often shown as mockingly decadent figures, captured at play with one another, sitting lazily in their chair and laughing, playing an instrument, and partaking......
Related Websites -
Bright Automotive's New Plug-In Car Having branched from the Rocky Mountain Institute this January, Bright Automotive is currently building a concept hybrid electric car that can achieve 100 miles to the gallon. The most important part is that the automobile builder will be keeping the car reasonably prices for the consumer, thanks to a reduction...... -
Life After 50 - The Working Life Off-Ramp This week one of the legends in the country music media community announced his plan to retire. Gerry House, a baby boomer who has hosted Nashville's top rated morning radio show for over 30 years, is pulling the plug. Gerry is only 60 and is at the top of his...... - Review L'Oreal Studio Secrets Face Primer Recently one of the magazines that I subscribe to had a sample of L'Oreal Studio Secrets Face Primer in a foil pillow on a postcard/coupon within the magazine. This was my first awareness of the product. I thought it afforded a perfect opportunity to try it, as I like primers......