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Meissonier's Souvenir de guerre civile Author(s): Constance Cain Hungerford Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Jun., 1979), pp. 277-288 Published by: CAA Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3049893 Accessed: 02-01-2020 23:44 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms CAA is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Art Bulletin This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Meissonier's Souvenir de guerre civile* Constance Cain Hungerford Today, as it hangs in the Louvre, Ernest Meissonier's Souvenir de guerre civile never fails to shock the viewers who move nearer in order to determine the subject of the tiny panel (Fig. 1).1 On a surface measuring only 112/5 x 87/10" (29 x 22cm) is depicted the corpse-strewn rubble of a demolished barricade. The scene is one discussions of nineteenth-century realism.3 It is striking, however, that since the first Salon reviews and the monographs of Valery C. O. Greard (1897) and Leonce Benedite (1910),4 the painting has never been examined in the context of Meissonier's own life and art. In its subject the painting is indeed unique in his art.5 But from the June days of 1848, when armed insurrection the Souvenir de guerre civile is by no means unrelated to broke out in the streets of Paris in opposition the other work. Above all, the style in which it the to artist's moderate republican regime, which in February had had more precedents than has sometimes is painted replaced Louis-Philippe's monarchy. Universally disbeen thought. cussed when it was publicly exhibited for the first Although time perhaps better known for later Napoleonic at the Salon of 1850-51, and the painting that Baudelaire military scenes, such as 1807, Friedland (1875, Metropoli- remarked as the artist's greatest,2 La Barricade (the tan Museum) and 1814, The Campaign of France (1864, Louvre), Meissonier's artistic production until around works. Recently, its contemporary and potentially 1860 is much more appropriately typified by another political subject has prompted its inclusion in broad painting shown at the Salon of 1850-51, A Painter Show- Souvenir) remains one of Meissonier's more familiar * I have benefited greatly from the knowledge and attention of incomplete and not always accurate. Jacques De Caso, who supervised the Ph.D. dissertation from 5 Meissonier did undertake comparable subjects on a subsequent which this article developed. I am also deeply appreciative of theoccasion of civil disorder, but his treatment was significantly differgenerous support and encouragement of the Samuel H. Kress ent. In 1871, returning to Paris after the destructive period of the Foundation, which made my research possible. I would like finallly Commune, the artist was struck by a telling scene-the faqade of to thank J. Kirk T. Varnedoe for his sensitive suggestions about the the fire-gutted Tuileries Palace framed a view of the sculptural manuscript. 1 Sometime before 1863 the painting was acquired by the noted Belgian connoisseur and statesman Jules van Praet. After 1884 it passed into the collection of Carlos de Beistegui, who included it in his impressive bequest to the Louvre in 1942. 2 ,". .. La Barricade, le meilleur tableau de M. Meissonier ... ." C. Baudelaire, "Oeuvre et vie d'Eugene Delacroix," Oeuvres completes, Gallimard, Paris, 1961, 1137. 3 Linda Nochlin (Realism, Baltimore, 1971, 103-111), citing its contemporary subject, relates the painting to developments in European realism, which she characterizes in part by Daumier's axiom, "Il faut etre de son temps"-the artist must paint his own times. T. J. Clark (The Absolute Bourgeois, London, 1973, 24-29) interprets the specific political and social implications of the image and the manner in which he believes the artist has represented it. Gerald M. group atop the Arc du Carrousel, with Victory, who seemed to move away into the distance, turning her back on a defeated France. Meissonier commented on the resulting painting: Au fond, la victoire semble s'en aller sur son char, elle nous quitte ... En arrivant la, en 1871, j'ai 6te saisi par le tragique aspect des choses (un vers latin l'explique au bas). Les deux noms de victoire, epargnes par le feu, sont "Austerlitz, Marengo," deux noms de victoire pure etincelants dans l'histoire. Emporte par l'6mo- tion, j'eus la vision subite du tableau, et j'en ai fait immediatement une aquarelle. . . . Par deux fois, la, aux Tuileries, et rue de la Mortellerie, en 1848, pour le tableau de la barricade, j'ai eu la chance de passer au moment saisissant. (Exposition Jean-LouisErnest Meissonier, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1893, 6-7). Meissonier's conception was thus considerably more deliberately meaningful than his modest and straightforward image of 1848. As well as the pointed use of the Carrousel sculpture, he painted in the Cf. his introduction to the Dayton Art Institute exhibition, JeanLatin inscription "Gloria Maiorum Flammas usque Superstes Leon Ger6me (1972, 9-15) and his review of Nochlin's Realism Maius," (Art underlining the tragedy of the scene. He also chose to paint Bulletin, LV, 1973, 466-469). this vision of a monumental canvas measuring 53 x 372/5" (1.36 x 4 The two most useful publications on Meissonier are L. Benedite, .96m) (Ruines des Tuileries, Mus6e du Second Empire, Compibgne). In 1870-71 Meissonier sketched an even more ambitious project, an Meissonier (Paris, 1910), which incorporates Philippe Burty's firsthand documentation of the 1860's and is usually reliable, allegorical and composition dealing with the Siege of Paris (Louvre), in Ackerman has also discussed Meissonier in the context of realism. which the figure of Paris (modeled on the woman who became V. C. O. Greard, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, ses souvenirs, ses entretiens Meissonier's second wife) stands amid the victims of the Prussian (Paris, 1897), which is most comprehensive, although all the opinions and recollections quoted date to the 1870's and 1880's. I give my while Famine, bearing the Prussian eagle on her wrist, flies attack, translation of the French original, together with references to both over the scene of destruction. Both paintings reflect Meissonier's the Paris and the New York editions. Published in 1897 in New York loftier ambitions as he matured as a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, to which he was elected in 1861. and London, the English translation (Meissonier, His Life and His Art) is This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 278 THE ART BULLETIN r r~~~?9 'p~s~? ra? I? I ~ra~ ~B~Wll~i~k~LS rr ?r? "; i-, r- r.a t i~ ;? Y. ir ~I r~~ FPIJ. j( ?.? T r? ?I~?-;LR~ ?r luPr;~r ?~P 1~ r-? I I C' fj? o i . i?? r r ??r ~U? : ?L. Q , ?. ? YY-'_~ia;~P ~ r~r~ ?' ?r ? L'le .Ji~L~iXt~ re S?i~ : siSjr. :??? 1I,?1 "b II C-^ I ? rr ~a,~L~1 a ~? ?r: .?. u~l r ??._.? r* RIP - --~ ~L~. :~-uls r r ;II ?:?`~ le r ~ ~AC i~ ~Ba~l?-~L( a ~i. -~Glb~T~ga:---~C~St IC~l~a~-? r~C ? -~C -- 1`~" ~1 I - :?1~R:IL '3t;. r It I: '' an; s~i181~4?_- ? sllb~amll~pLI- dp-rr:- .~i?g~ ?~L~lil r'? ?Ir "~C~fl~~rt~-?~---91 I ~sf~ I r :'? A) ?i_ ;- ?qC,-~-- . ~b~rC. -~? -~L` ? -? r ~-?~nr ~h ~ c,-i :T i ~ 1 .r M This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms MEISSONIER'S SOUVENIR DE GUERRE CIVILE 279 pastimes. Little, if any, physical activity is involved and the moment depicted is one that could be prolonged indefinitely. There is none of the dramatic narrative 1 ~c interest of history painting, which isolates exceptional events. There is, rather, a modest presentation of tran- quil and inconsequential genre occupations. They are removed from the viewer's own experience largely by their eighteenth-century setting, a historical distancing on which Meissonier always insisted, because he felt that nineteenth-century man presented a lamentably shoddy appearance. Replying in the 1880's to critics like Philippe Burty, who regretted that the artist's keen observation and craft in recording appearances should not be applied to preserving the poetry of his own epoch,7 the artist explained: If I were to respond to the accusation of having mul- r Ir~ r ?`3 ii tiplied my Readers of another epoch: "It's because they were numerous then," I would say, "in those days gone by, when people really read, delicately holding their volumes, like an amateur in love with good books and beautiful bindings." If I did a Reader today, I would have to put a newspaper in his hand, and as the library background, there would be visible a series of pamphlets scarcely worth the trouble of i.. gar- ? binding. Oh yes, certainly, one-franc editions.8 Another characteristic of Meissonier's work, and the 2 Meissonier, A Painter Showing Some Drawings. London, Wallace Collection (by permission of the Trustees) ing Some Drawings, now in the Wallace Collection in London (Fig. 2).6 The subject, an artist, who in the seclusion of his own studio shares his drawings with an appreciative connoisseur, is one version of a theme one most popularly associated with his name, is the painstaking precision of his execution. He worked on a remarkably small scale: A Painter Showing Some Drawings measures 141/2 by 111/4" (36.9 x 28.6cm). He succeeded nevertheless in incorporating into each of his scenes an astonishing amount of detail, all of it rendered with the greatest delicacy. In A Painter Showing Some Drawings, every area of the painting is embellished with telling accessories. The two men, suitably costumed, stand in a limited space, crowded with furniture, and littered often depicted by Meissonier. Like his scenes of gen- with loose drawings. On the rear wall hang elaborately tlemen smoking long-stemmed pipes, reading quietly framed paintings, which even allude to Meissonier by a window, or playing chess, this painting deals with himself, since they include a large version of his neveranonymous, private individuals engaged in reflective finished Samson Battling the Philistines (Louvre),9 a self- 6 In the Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings (London, 8 "Si j'avais a repondre A l'accusation d'avoir multiplie mes Liseurs 1968), it is suggested that An Artist Showing His Work (P325) may be d'une autre 6poque: 'C'est qu'alors ils 6taient nombreux,' dirais-je, the Amateur de tableaux chez un peintre, shown at the Salon of 1857. The 'en ce temps d'autrefois, ou on lisait vraiment, en tenant d6licate- panel is signed with Meissonier's initials, but bears no date. Descriptions in the criticism of the Salons of both 1850-51 and 1857 ment son volume en amateur amoureux des bons livres et des belles reliures.' make it clear, however, that P325 must be Un Peintre montrant des dessins, No. 2171 at the Salon of 1850-51. Between 1834 and 1850-51, "Si je faisais un Liseur aujourd'hui, il faudrait lui mettre un journal en main, et comme fond de bibliotheque, je devrais voir une Meissonier's exhibited oeuvre was largely composed of two paint- serie de brochures qui ne valent pas le peine d'etre reliees, a coup ings representing chess players, three dealing with artists, one stir, des editions a un franc!" Greard, Paris, 216; New York, 235. reader, two musicians, three smokers, three guardroom scenes, and Meissonier did represent gentlemen in contemporary environments six portraits. when doing portraits of such friends as Alexandre Dumas fils (1877, 7 P. Burty, "Livres d'art: Les Contes Remois ..."Gazette des beaux- Versailles). arts, xI, Aug. 11, 1861, 188. Meissonier had provided illustrations to 9 Samson abattant les philistins, ca. 1845, 113/5 x 151/2" (29.8 x 39.7 cm), Louvre, R. F. 1252. Louis de Chevign6's verses, which were set in the 18th century. This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 280 THE ART BULLETIN than suchat orthodox portrait, and the Smoker, which had appeared the sources, however, was the artist's experience designing wood-engraved book illustraSalon of 1842.10 Finally, on the mantel is a casual display tions. of still-life objects, including a statuette, a pot of the 1830's brushes, an assortment of bottles, ewers, andInjars, and and 1840's the old technique of wood engraving experienced a major revival, especially a porcelain vase with fresh blossoms. A mirror doubles among of romantic authors and editors of each of these small possessions. Avoiding the publishers coarse surface of canvas, and preferring insteadthe to burgeoning paint on popular journals, such as L'Artiste wood, Meissonier depicted each minute detail with (1831), Le Magasin pittoresque (1833), and L'Illustration (1834).14 The wood-engraving technique was economisuch virtuoso meticulousness that delighted critics cally advantageous, since the blocks, though incised hailed him as the court painter to the Lilliputians. withGulliver's a linear pattern in the manner of intaglio, were Seemingly brought back to Europe in another printed likeapwoodcuts and therefore could be inked and pocket, he painted with a refined accuracy that peared miraculous." I run through the press at the same time as the type. In the hands of.imaginative editors like Leon Curmer, the The demonstration of his talent for choosing and medium also lent itself to fanciful innovations in page painting secondary motifs is such an important comdesign, because ponent of Meissonier's personal style that other ele- illustrative blocks could actually be inments tend to be subordinated to it. In A Painter terspersed Showing among those of type, permitting complete of the image with the text. As well as servSome Drawings, space is visually limited integration in extension ing as marginalia-initial letters, page headings (tetesand complexity. Colors are muted and orchestrated into de-page), decorations at the foot of the page (culs-desimple harmonies of red, green, or brown, withor only lampe)-motifs small passages of bright, local color, as in the flowers. A might appear entirely embedded in the diffuse light filters into the studio from antext. unspecified was responsible for the nine-volume series, source, picking out the diverse surfaces ofCurmer porcelain, metal, crystal, and fabric. The sources for Meissonier's aesthetic, as it is man- Les Franqais peints par eux-memes, which appeared be- tween 1839 and 1842, with illustrations by Daumier, ifested in his genre paintings, are diverse. His only Gavarni, Grandville, Monnier, Jeanron, and Meisexperience in a traditional studio, that of Leon Cog- sonier. Curmer's most celebrated editorial achieveniet, lasted only four or five months and Meissonier ment, however, was his presentation of J.-H. Bernardi attributed little formative influence to it. 12 More signif- de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie suivie de la chaumikre inicant was the example of previous artists, principally dienne, which he published first in serial installments, those of eighteenth-century France, such as Greuze beginning in March, 1836, and finally in a bound vo and Chardin, and Dutch and Flemish artists, such as ume in 1838. Curmer's personal concern for the quality Rembrandt, and especially the "little masters" of the of the book is everywhere evident, in his use of the bes seventeenth century, Metsu, Mieris, Teniers, Ostade, English engravers, for example, and especially in h and Ter Borch, whose works Meissonier studied in the close working relationship with the artists to whom h Louvre and in reproductions.13 Far more important ultimately dedicated his "typographical monument. earliest 10 It was this painting that was reproduced in an etching by Meis- ones: Bourgeois flamands (1834, Wallace Collection) and a "sujet flamand," which was rejected by the Salon of 1835 (Archives des Musees Nationaux, *KK29, No. 1850). Critics almost universally 11 E.g., ". . le roi de Lilliput l'aurait choisi assur6ment pour son explored the Dutch-Flemish analogy in their remarks, even when peintre ordinaire" (T. Gautier, "Salon de 1840," La Presse, Mar. 24, the painting under discussion would not seem to suggest the com1840); "Quelle charmante galerie lilliputienne l'on pourrait faire des parison. The persistence of the reference is in part attributable to tableaux de M. Meissonier" (T. Gautier, "Salon de 1841," Revue de sonier in the Cabinet de l'amateur et de l'antiquaire of 1843. the fact that, in a period of growing interest in the field of history, it Paris, III, 28, 1841, 261). "M. Meissonier est sans doute le peintre was very much a convention of the literary genre of Salon criticism ordinaire de l'empereur de Lilliput; un Gulliver dont Swift a n6glige6 that the writer make educated allusions to earlier art, whether of the d'6crire l'histoire, I'a rapporte dans sa poche par megarde car on ne Greeks, the Italian Renaissance, the 17th-century Lowlands or peut comprendre que nos mains grossieres arrivent a un tel degre Rococo France. de d6licatesse" (T. Gautier, "Salon de 1845," La Presse, Apr. 16, 1845). 14 For "Patience, je trouverai demain mes deux Gulliver dans l'ile de an introduction to the wood-engraving revival see D. Blan of Book Illustration, London, 1958, 276-300; R. Blun, Le Liv Brobdingnag" (T. Burette, "Salon de 1840," Revue de Paris, A III,History 16, franCais, 1840, 136); and others. Such remarks exemplify a major concern in Paris, 1948, chap. 5; G. C. Johnson, "English Wood Engrav ers and French Illustrated Books," in U. Finke, ed. French Nineteent criticism lauding Meissonier's gifts-an interest in entertaining through colorful descriptions and comments. 12 Greard, Paris, 254, 282; New York, 274, 298-99. 13 Meissonier declared his admiration for the "little masters" not Century Painting and Literature, Manchester, 1972, chap. 15; A. Lejar The Art of the French Book, Paris, 1947, 87-112; and H. Zerner's ent "Romantisme: Les Arts graphiques et le livre illustre," in the Enc clopaedia Universalis, Paris, 1968, xrv, 375-78. only in the appearance of his paintings, but in the titles of the This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms MEISSONIER'S SOUVENIR DE GUERRE CIVILE 281 r. ~t i (' 1)? ,: ~. These included Paul Huet, Louis Franqais, Eugene Isabey, Tony Johannot, and, most outstandingly, Ernest Meissonier. For it was in the course of this project, in ?c~ipr~?' "~ i""~B~t~;a~rlsae;,?;~:~?,~; r: which he necessarily worked within prescribed limits, that Meissonier emerged from artistic anonymity and i ,? first acquired a reputation as a leading creative talent. 15s It was here, too, that he evolved what may properly be ~C *ryYCr .~.~~Lr~~??-C-~..--:OCI..,J-called the "vignette" aesthetic, which brought him sucisez donec, 11101 ils. Lescesssanot only as a book illustrator, but later as a painter, ..i? ?k:a ~II ;r c; T r :1 . /.LTR~YI~~P---. NLg?LL~ II Is --?~a?~,-~?nTy~illrl~l~?F~ . I~ -r '2- Ac as well. , ges qui ont dcrit avant now. A fused page heading and initial from Paul et Virginie (Fig. 3) typifies the vignette, the decorative illustra- , sont des voyageurs quti tion, nousat its most distinctive. Avoiding mere duplication of the narrative in the verbal account, it complements , out prcededs dans les senithe text by elaborating on a lesser detail, expanding on what is only mentioned briefly and inciden, tiers de I'iinfortune, qui nous tendentvisually la main, tally in words. The arrangement of the books on the , et nous invitent ai nous joindre leur colmp{,apage of text describing Paul's solitude focuses attention a single ,, gnie, lorsque tout Itous abanltdolne.onUn boiiaspect of the written commentary: the boy , livre est un bon ami. is urged to occupy himself by reading. Meissonier chose motifs like this one, composed largely of incon- sequential still-life objects, because human figures or h! s'ecriait Paul je would l'avais pas major,action be inadvisable in such a small format, in this case only 21/s by 31/2 " (5.4 x 8.9cm). But he ,, besoin de savoir lire quandf lavished all his gifts on such accessories, creating com- -. r s- ~~i~is~ ~u~g~a~C~?~ .r: positions of maximum variety and minute detail. Twenty-four books of all sizes, together with several , Virginie dtail ici. Elle n'avait r; ~f;-'~i~S jZ 1?! , pas plus etudie (que moi; Inais I quand elle me regardait ent :-~t--,-~n? ~-=s~FYCr--;! , ll'zppelant sonl anli, ii m'dtait impossible d 1", voir dri ciha(rinll. loose pages, are scattered over the top of a desk and on a simple stool to the lower left. Some volumes lie flat, while others stand upright at odd angles. Some books remain closed, others fall open to varying degrees. A few have their page edges facing out, while others dis- play their finely bound spines. Two have clasps, one has marbelized end papers, and another is markedly battered. So detailed are the thumbnail-size objects 3 Meissonier, Books, from Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Paul et Virginie, L6on Curmer, 1838, 228 (photo: author) that one can read not only the date 1836 on a loose paper and the artist's name labeling one binding, but also the names of several authors: Plutarch, Xenophon, and Cicero. In its small scale, the rich image is indeed, in Meissonier's own words, "seductive."16 This same exploitation of the fascination exercised by tiny, astonishingly crafted detail constitutes a primary quality in the diminutive genre paintings, of which A Painter Showing Some Drawings is but one example. In the painting, even the figures, although endowed with is Curmer's account books for this project, conserved in the figures half-length, in order to make the heads more legible, or Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, show a full-length. In the end, he opted for the latter alternative: ". . . Au steady increase in the number and importance of the assignments lieu de faire une foule de petits bonshommes, j'ai pense que je Meissonier received. His name figures ever more prominently in pourrais seulement faire les individus a mi-corps; je pourrais ainsi the advance publicity on future issues, which was included in mieux each indiquer les tetes et ce serait plus facile A graver .... Je livraison, and in the final bound volume he was honored with a rouvre ma lettre, . . . . J'ai pens6 toute le nuit (faqon banale de medallion portrait. His name on the title pages of later illustrated parler, vu que je dors la nuit) . . que je ferais d6cid6ment mieux de books was a recognized asset. faire des petits bonshommes car de jolis petits bonshommes sont s6duisants." Letter dated Sept. 13, 1836, quoted in G. Vicaire, Man16 Working on another vignette for the same book, Meissonier de- uel de l'amateur de livres au XIXe sikcle, 1801-1893, Paris, 1894-1920, vii, bated in a letter to Curmer whether to represent several conferring 61. This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 282 THE ART BULLETIN center at first appears to be yet alive: his head is human personalities, are arranged and meticulously propped up by the body behind him, while his listless depicted like so many still-life objects. Such concern for hand, resting against another comrade, seems raised in the choice of vignette-like subject and style charac- further gesture of protest, perhaps now against terizes almost all the paintings Meissonier one exhibited, death as the much as any mortal adversary; his eyes remain from the year of his Salon debut in 1834, through open as ifwas in pained bewilderment. Nothing lives now years between 1840 and 1845 when his reputation on this street of shuttered houses and store fronts, becoming fully established, and long thereafter. Thus, whose features it is especially striking at this point that he should rep- are blurred and streaked. Viewed from opposite side of the street, the row of unarticulated resent with awful precision a subject like thethe barricade of a popular insurrection, an event at oncefaqades unflinchstreams monotonously back to the left, until the of its recession is almost blocked by the buildings ingly modern and the dismal contradictionview of all the on the left side of the street. The cul-de-sac of death finer accomplishments of civilization on which his becomes as visually inescapable for the viewer as it was genre paintings so lovingly dwell. Yet his choice is not in life for the dissidents. Coloristically, too, the scene is due to any particular wish to take up a new theme. bleak. The paint is often thinly applied, allowNeither does it signal the ambition to becomeutterly a history ing 1859.17 the brown panel underneath to show through. painter, a desire which was to emerge after Overall, Quite simply, the painting originates in the rude grays im- and browns predominate, suggesting the twilight hour. The only notes of color are the pact of reality itself upon the artist. Painting dreary the scene, of the victims' clothing and the vivid red of the in this manner, was the most natural means blues by which bloodstains. Meissonier could come to terms with a profoundly Devastating in the unrelieved clarity of its imagery, shocking personal experience. On June 25, 1848, Meissonier had been onMeissonier's duty as a painting represents his coming to terms with a haunting experience. He explained in the later captain in a National Guard artillery unit assigned to defend the H6tel de Ville in Paris. As he recalled in a letter: "When I executed it [the preliminary watercolor, letter written shortly before his death in 1891, he Fig. wit- 4], I was still in the grip of the terrible spectacle I had just seen, and believe me . . ., these things penenessed and participated in the successful attack on the trate into your very soul. When one reproduces them, it barricade in what is now the rue de l'H6tel-de-Ville, isn't just to make a work. It's because one has been just off the rue Geoffrey de l'Asnier: stirred to the depths of one's being and because this memory must endure."19 I was then an artillery captain in the National Guard. For three days we had been fighting. I had had menThe title the artist ultimately gave to the painting also confirms the special nature of the painting as a perkilled and wounded in my battery. The insurrection sonal commemoration of events witnessed. Meissonier surrounded the H6tel de Ville, where we were, and in the moments after this barricade in the rue de la first submitted the panel to the Salon of 1849, titling it Mortellerie had been taken, I saw it in all its horror,Juin, and thus identifying it with the specific historical the defenders slain, shot down, thrown from the moment. Since by 1849 the artist was hors concours (he windows, covering the ground with their corpses, could submit his works directly for exhibition, without obtaining the approval of the admissions jury), and the earth having not yet drunk up all the blood. 18 since that year he was himself on the jury, the painting This is the terrible spectacle that Meissonier starkly and could hardly be rejected. Meissonier, however, withaccurately presents in his painting. The defensive wall, drew it from the Salon before the catalogue was edited, erected across the narrow street, is now reduced to a perhaps in response to the suggestions of friends, col- leagues, and administrators that the work was too tumbled heap of paving stones. The resolute, impromptu garrison, stripped of its weapons, lies dead, strong to be shown so soon after the traumatic events the bodies sprawled awkwardly on top of each other as that had occurred. He sent the picture to the Salon they fell. One particularly horrifying casualty in the again in 1850, but this time the painting bore the title 17 As early as 1840, Meissonier had enunciated his ambition to ocwas shown at the same Salon as 1814, la campagne de France (1864, cupy the highest rank in the hierarchy of genres. In signing his Louvre), the first in Meissonier's long series of works depicting the daughter's birth registration, he had identified his profession asfirst emperor of the French. Periodically, too, the artist tried to "peintre d'histoire" (Paris, Archives de la Seine, Etat Civil, 9e ar-memorialize current historical events in appropriate visual form, rondissement, d6claration de naissance de Jeanne Marie Margueritenotably in the images inspired by the Franco-Prussian War and the Th&rse Meissonier, 22 mai 1840). Paintings such as Samson abattantCommune of 1871 and in the never-completed decorations for the les philistins may be seen as the first attempts toward the fulfillmentPantheon, for which Meissonier received a commission in 1874. of this ambition. But it was only in 1859 that the artist made his 18 See Appendix. most decisive commitment by obtaining a government commission 19 Ibid. to represent the Emperor during the current military campaign in Italy. Completed in 1863, Napoleon III la bataille de Solferino (Louvre) This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms MEISSONIER'S SOUVENIR DE GUERRE CIVILE 283 Souvenir de guerre civile.20 No longer did the certing artist refer transformation of the terrifying subject. The pointedly to a particular period in the Revolution, craft bestowed equally on the representation of everywhich had lingering political and social associations. thing that lies in the street results in an unsettling de- Instead, the scene was generalized as one of civil war of the tragedy, as the inert bodies are humanization and, above all, identified as a personal souvenir, a memrobbed of any visual, and hence psychological, uniqueory. ness. Especially distracting are the paving stones in the Meissonier's painting is particularly striking in the artist's apparently noncommittal attitude toward the implications of his scene: Meissonier declares no out- right sympathy with the insurgents, but neither does he seem to condemn them or insinuate that their fate is immediate foreground, each stone as scrupulously individualized as a fallen man. With its liquid, polished surface, the panel perversely suggests an enameled, lovingly worked objet d'art. One contemporary referred to it as a "devastating miniature,"22 and another made other than they deserved.21 In marked contrast to an analogy to the "pitiless fidelity of the daguersuch antecedents as Delacroix's Liberty Leading the Peoplereotype."23 (1831, Louvre), a large, monumental scene of dramatic So distinctive is this "pitiless," jewel-like rendering action, Meissonier's image is entirely lacking in that at least one author has tried to see in it the expresrhetoric and movement. He reduced the scene to the sion of Meissonier's middle-class antipathy to the size of a page and then labored over it with seemingly People, to men who by their behavior, threatening to dispassionate care, rendering each form with a refined the social and economic order, have abrogated their and considered accuracy which effects a rather disconrights to be considered as individuals with personal 20 The possibility exists that in 1849 the painting simply was ionsnot renfermant les principaux episodes des ses derniers moments, Salon de finished in Meissonier's final estimation. Gautier described a visit 1849, No. 6; Amable Delaunay, L'Archeveque Martyr meurt en exprimant to the artist's studio in his review of 1849 and discussed at length ce voeu supreme: "Que mon sang soit le dernier vers6 .. .", Salon de the "tableau de Meissonier qui n'a pu etre acheve pour le Salon" 1849, No. 511; Joseph Felon, Mort de Mgr. Denis-Auguste Affre, Ar("Salon de 1849," La Presse, Aug. 8, 1849). It seems unlikely, however, cheveque de Paris, Salon de 1849, No. 702; Victor de Jonquibres, D&- that Meissonier would physically submit an unfinished painting vouement et mort de Monseigneur l'Archeveque de Paris, a la Barricade St.- and then withdraw it, as the official records indicate (Archives Antoine, des le dimanche 25 juin 1848, Salon de 1849, No. 1134; and J.-E. Mus6es Nationaux, *KK43, No. 2910 and *KK100, No. 2910). MeisLafon, Denis-Auguste Affre, Archeveque de Paris, 25 juin 1848, Salon de sonier's registration is marked "retir6," leaving as his only exhi- 1849, No. 1179). The one scene that sounds somewhat like Meis- bited work Un Homme fumant. For 1850 see *KK44, No. 5274 and sonier's was Eugene Lacoste's Le Premier Travail apris l'insurrection (Salon de 1850-51, No. 1716), whose accompanying comment read: "Inhumer les victims apres l'insurrection, tel est le premier devoir. 21 Meissonier's dispassionately objective rendering must have been Pauvres et riches, citoyens et soldats, tous confondus dans la milbe, particularly striking in contrast to other paintings dealing with the le sont bient6t aprbs sur le pav6 sanglant oii ils ont requ la mort. same events. Few works have been located (Clark reproduces some, Triste et terrible drame, r6sultat des ces combats de frbres, que la together with contemporary newspaper illustrations), but from raison publique, I'honneur national et la religion doivent bannir a what can be determined from the titles and explanations printed in jamais de nos coeurs." Unlike Meissonier's painting, however, the the official catalogues of the Salons of 1849 and 1850-51, most of the focus here on the dead would have been active and purposeful and twenty-odd works representing the Revolution seem to have been the import of the painting, which was commissioned by the govmarked by rhetorical drama or pointed moralizing. A few scenes ernment, overtly affirmative of the established order. Apparerqtly dealt sympathetically or positively with admirable revolutionaries: only the more genre-like paintings adopted unpretentious attitudes one painting depicted the victorious populace sparing the municicomparable to Meissonier's. One example is Adolphe Leleux's Le pal guards of the H6tel de Ville, following its capture in February Mot d'ordre (Salon de 1849, No. 1310, Mus6e de Versailles), which *KK105, No. 5274. (Jean-Adolphe Beauce, La Clemence du peuple vainqueur, 24 fevrier 1848, Salon de 1849, No. 100). Many more were politically and socially conservative in the lessons they taught. One popular anecdote, represented several times, was the pious respect accorded the sacred suggests the role played by the anonymous man in the street. Daumier, too, in unexhibited paintings such as the Uprising (Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.), perhaps dating from around 1849, presents, without editorializing, unnamed figures caught up and objects in the chapel of the Tuileries, when the mob rampaged through the palace in February (cf. Louis-Nicolas Lemasle, Une buffeted by larger historical forces. Scene de la revolution de fvrier, Salon de 1849, No. 1318). An even more frequently treated subject was the tragic death of the Archbishop of politique et littraire, xiii, 1850, 160. Paris, who was mortally wounded by a stray bullet while trying to halt the fratricide on a barricade in the Faubourg St.-Antoine (cf. Raymond-Rene Aiffre, Portrait de Mgr. Affre, entoure de quatre medail- 22 "Foudroyante miniature"; Mery, "Salon de 1850," La Mode, revue 23 "1I l'a attachee a la toile avec l'impitoyable fidelite du daguerreotype;" L. Peisse, "Salon de 1850-51," Le Constitutionnel, Mar. 2, 1851. Peisse errs in identifying the support as canvas: it is panel. This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 284 THE ART BULLETIN Municipal Council in July, 1848.28 tragedies.24 Much of the evidence about Meissonier's Yet,itself the assumption that Meissonier is simply social and political background might indeed lend to a straightforward, class-derived interpretation ing class of his attitudes and grimly recording the jus position in relation to the political and social received realities of by socialists neither follows necessaril 1848.25 As an adolescent, Meissonier had been the momenevidence nor finds support in the paint color scheme seems to impart an acknowledg tarily swept up in the excitement of the Revolution of 1830 and with his school companions had patriotic plotted tointent to the insurgents, since the of the escape from school in suburban Thiais and blue to rush to workers' trousers and smocks, the cr Paris.26 Anti-monarchical sentiments in 1830 of their wounds and spilled blood, and the their shirts were perfectly in keeping with a liberal bourgeois posi- and city-dwellers' pallid skin s tion and Meissonier's background was indeed middle ghastly tricolore. Most important, Meissoni stresses for him was the chief horror of the class. He was the son of a dye merchant in the what Marais quarter of Paris. Although ruined by the Revolution of episode, not "revolution," or "the barricades of the insurgents," but "civil war." In the letter that has already 1830, Meissonier pbre had been able to contribute to his son's career by financing a trip to Italy (a been cholera out-Meissonier mentioned an incident that quoted, break confined the excursion to southern France) likewise and points to his shock at the spectacle that involved fratricide among Frenchmen and indiscriminate by briefly renting a studio for him. The artist inherited a sizeable capital upon his father's death in slaughter 184527 and of the innocent along with the guilty. He re"theimterrible utterance, which, more fully than with this, together with savings from his called already anything else, conveys to what degree, in these pressive income as a painter, he bought a former abbey in Poissy. Although he continued to maintain his frightening old street wars, emotions run out of control. apartment on the quai Bourbon on the Ile'Were Saint-Louis, all these men guilty?' asked Marast [the mayor of Paris] officer of the Republican Guard. 'Monsieur he thereafter lived and worked increasingly on of hisansuble Maire, you can be sure, not more than a quarter were urban estate. A proper, responsible citizen, Meissonier innocent.'"29 ran, albeit unsuccessfully, for election to the Poissy 24 T. J. Clark has attributed to Meissonier the conscious motive of nalists, students, the middle class, and "the people," who fought showing the grim outcome of resistance to established order as a fearful reminder to those who might contemplate such actions in the future: "Meissonier's intention in the Barricade is clear-to paint together against the Bourbon monarchy, in 1848 the alliance of the bourgeoisie and "the people" had become more tenuous. By June a picture of civil war as a sober warning to the rebels of the future" (p. 27). Clark develops much of his argument with particular refer- ence to the execution of the painting. He writes regarding the camera-like indifference with which the scene is recorded: when the barricades went up in protest against the provisional government's decision to close down the national workshops, which had been established to guarantee to all Frenchmen the righ to work, the potential for division and conflict between classes was closer to becoming a reality and the bourgeoisie began to look upon revolution with considerable uneasiness, especially when it in- volved popular street manifestations by workers and the unThis is the real anonymity of the People, a created sameness, the Karl Marx was to base his Class Struggles in France, 1848result of violence and not of a "natural" fact. That is the point employed. of 1850 and Friedrich Engels his Days of June, 1848 on this struggle. the scrupulous painting, the care taken to articulate every detail of the men in the road. Each of these men is distinct from his Flaubert's scenes from the Revolution in L'Education sentimentale also the lack of sympathy between middle-class property owners, neighbour, every face different, every body has a weight ofreflect its who were qualified to serve in the National Guard, and their mpre own and has died in its own private agony. These are not anonymous men. They become anonymous only because they are unruly compatriots. confused with each other, only because they have been killed and 26 Meissonier reminisced in his old age, "Nous etions dans un ethave fallen together in a heap. Some such confusion is what alrange etat d'effervescence; nous entendions au loin le bruit de la ways makes the People anonymous, to its masters (pp. 28-29). fusillade. A trois ou quatre, nous primes la resolution de nous coucher habilles et de nous relever, aussit6t que la maison serait Clark appears to be saying that the People become anonymous, not endormie, pour franchir les murs bas du jardin qui donnait dans la simply in death, as all men do, but because they acted together in a campagne, et courir A Paris. Mais un lacheur nous trahit . concerted fashion in which their interests were identified en masse Gr6ard, Paris, 10; New York, 9. in opposition to those of their "masters." According to Clark, Meis27 Paris, Archives de la Seine, DQ7 3675: D6claration de succession, sonier's technique, depriving individual forms of separate meanNo. 278, May 18, 1846, Charles Meissonier. ing, expresses a class-based lumping together in the aftermath of 28 Versailles, Archives des Yvelines et de l'Ancien DCpartement de the violence which had threatened the control and property of the "side of order" with which he was allied as a member of the Na- Seine et Oise, 2 M 28/84, Proces verbal des operations de l'As- tional Guard. sembl6e Communale, July 20, 1848. 29 See 25 It should be remembered that whereas a degree of unity hadAppendix. existed in the Revolution of 1830 between liberal politicians, jour- This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms MEISSONIER'S SOUVENIR DE GUERRE CIVILE 285 the technique that seems at such odds with the frightIt is worth remembering that this was Meissonier's ful subject own neighborhood, the area in which he had lived, at of the Souvenir, when viewed in the context of thehad artist's own work, represents the logical applicaseveral different addresses, ever since his family moved to Paris when he was three. He still had a resition again of the "vignette" aesthetic, which Meissonier had evolved in his designs for wood-engraved dence directly across the river, almost within imillustrations and which he subsequently developed in mediate view of the site of this barricade. In a phrase his genre paintings. from the verbal description of his experience that June The Souvenir was given its final appearance through a day, which is often appended to the title, Meissonier identified the street as the rue de la Mortellerie. He process little different from that by which Meissonier created used, then, the former name of the street, which at the his other works. He had first recorded his impressions in a watercolor (Fig. 4). Although it is unrequest of its residents had been changed in 1835 to the that he was equipped with the necessary materue de l'H6tel-de-Ville. Although the name derived likely inirials to make such a sketch while he was fulfilling his tially from the mortar masons who had settled there, military duties, he must have done this work, which is the dreadful appropriateness of the syllable mort, death, and dated 1848 in the foreground, very soon had been demonstrated during the cholera epidemicinitialed of after he witnessed the scene, either from quick nota1832, which, in the space of three months, claimed tions 19,000 victims in Paris, three hundred of them living in made at the time, or from memory, shortly upon the street.30 That Meissonier should use the old name at his return home. Reflecting the immediacy of the artist's inspiration, the relative rapidity with which it was least communicates an element of long-time personal undoubtedly executed, and the fact that it was probably familiarity with this abject street where he may well have grieved to see such an incident occur. Although hedone without any models to imitate, the watercolor has may not actually have known of the reason behind the a directness and expressive impact that is missing in official change in name, perhaps he, too, was struck bythe finished oil, prompting Baudelaire to remark that the allusive potential of the old name. Like the cholera,Meissonier's "talent is conveyed much more energeticivil war is a scourge visiting death on those who all too cally with the simple pencil than with the brush."33 often are blameless and uncomprehending. Delacroix, too, was so struck by the work when he saw Ultimately, however, it was not political, social, and it in the artist's studio that Meissonier was pleased to economic sympathies that determined the appearancegive it to him.34 of Meissonier's scene of the barricade. Although in The page has a spontaneous sketchiness that encomparison to more romantic images of strife, Meis-hances the impression of chaos vividly perceived and sonier's painting may seem to exhibit a "deliberate hurriedly taken down, as if by one unwilling to linger deadpan in the face of horror,"3' it should now be clearon the scene. Broader contrasts of dark washes against that many of the terms in which the execution of the the cream color of the paper define the general masses of the forms, emphasize awkward angles of fallen Souvenir de guerre civile has been characterized are not so strange when they follow a discussion of genre paint- bodies, and dramatically silhouette the outflung limbs. ings such as A Painter Showing Some Drawings. Like the Only selectively are details picked out and delineated, scenes of cultivated gentlemen in leisurely genre pur- in a brown that almost suggests dried blood. The suits, the Souvenir depicts a non-narrative, inactive skeletal right hand of the figure in the foreground is a scene. The surprisingly small scale accorded the sub-particularly ghostly example of the greater expressiveject, the painstaking attention to the least details, ness of minimal definition, for with the link to the body which consequently vie with the human elements for left undefined, the languid fingers, indicated only by a visual emphasis, and the high degree of surface finish series of wavy, vertical lines, appear as if altogether are all found in most of the paintings done before the severed from the body. In the background faqades this Souvenir. They, too, as critics like Thbophile Gautiersketchy handling results in a hallucinatory effect of frequently exclaimed, were as exquisite as gems.32 Thusgloom and despair. 30 J. Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, 1963, I, 650-51;34 E The watercolor was auctioned in Delacroix's posthumous sale, Feb. 22-27, 1864, No. 674, for 3,000 francs. The purchaser, Meisand L. Lazare, Dictionnaire administratif et historique des rues et monusonier's brother-in-law Louis Steinheil, offered to sell it to the ments de Paris, Paris, 1855, 420; Marquis de Rochegude, Promenades Louvre, but Louis Reiset refused it, whereupon it was sold for 6,000 dans toutes les rues de Paris par arrondissements, Paris, 1910, Iv, 80. francs, probably directly to Arthur Stevens. Cf. J. Claretie, Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains, 1884, 2e ser., II, 19; Delacroix's reflections in 32 "Un joyau a faire monter en broche et en chaton de bague"; T. his Journal for Monday, March 5,1849, Paris, 1932, I, 270; and Greard, Gautier, "Salon de 1840," La Presse, Mar. 24, 1840. Paris, 218; New York, 238. 31 Clark, 24. 33 "M. Meissonier, dont le talent . . . s'exprime bien plus 6nergiquement par le simple crayon que par le pinceau"; Baudelaire, 1137. This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 286 THE ART BULLETIN ?b'i Ail, ~ ?~R ~ ~?P ? .: -- " 16 o J. ~:~?'- ~ye 5 41 Meissonier, (photo: c ?? "r s ----, i r i ??-c~;~ Stud author) ?~ ?e rl-? --?-?- .? ??? ~?r .~;~5~* r 4 Meissonier, La Barricade. Belgium, private collection (photo: owner) ?.???? .r/ j r? i -?3: c s ~ig~F~jLp~qlj;' .~ .:.\. ?- t~e~t~B~,' ~ Y ??-- -?- ;~3rsrs ~Z1"\ .~-??- ? ??r? i ?? ~1? Despite the evident power of the watercolor, such a : 'r. r :?I?-, ?? loose manner was not Meissonier's accustomed one, in i oils or even in watercolors, and he accordingly proceeded to translate this first version into the highly finished panel, which bears no date beside the artist's c .. .r ?? g; r Ci-?~r;?; initials marked on the curb, but which was finished in time for the Salon of 1849. Meissonier evidently re- 6 Meissonier, Study of an Insurgent. France, private collection turned to the scene to insure the accuracy of the set- (photo: author) ting. He executed at least one precise pencil drawing of the facades in the middle ground, carefully articulating the recesses and projections of doorways and win- dows.35 Observantly, he added to the panel the graceful street light, which was still present in photographs other end of the street. Probably with a model, Meistaken in the 1860's. He slightly altered the perspective of sonier also systematically worked out each figure indithe street, so that where the disaster appears inescapa- vidually (Figs. 5 and 6), exploring the disposition of ble in the watercolor, as the facades rise to block off each body, even where it would ultimately be obscured most of the sky, the oppression of the scene in the oil is by another, and refining the details of shirt folds, relieved by the greater lightness of the patch of sky and shoes, and hands. Such partial studies were generally the slender strip of light marking the opening at the the only preliminary sketches Meissonier did before 35 This drawing is now in a private collection. In ten lots, studies of individual figures in the painting were sold in Meissonier's studio sale (Paris, H6tel Drouot, May 13-20, 1893, Nos. 553-562). Nos. 556, 559, and 561 have been located in private collections. This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms MEISSONIER'S SOUVENIR DE GUERRE CIVILE 287 the barricade, alike flattened, seemed to ebb away into the space of the street. As in the elaborate initial letter of books (Fig. 3) from Paul et Virginie, in which every sort of book is represented from every vantage point ,;, .v4. . . . . . .. . ... ... and in every position, Meissonier's concern seems to have become the display of many bodies in every imag- ....-...---V . inable pose of ungraceful collapse. Indeed, he had al- ready once before labored over such a subject in a wood engraving: for the ruined city of Troy (Fig. 7) in Curmer's edition of Bossuet's Discours sur l'histoire uni-I verselle (1841), he had similarly created several express- ~i.... ..r ive heaps by interweaving a variety of bodies, some strikingly foreshortened. There is, then, ample precedent in Meissonier's work for the style that creates such a disturbing effect of ? . , .:-% .: ................ . - = . .. .......... .-:-- ..:; - 7 aloofness in the Souvenir de guerre civile. If his image of a civil conflict differs from other comparable atrocity scenes, such as Goya's etchings in the Disasters of War series or Daumier's lithograph of 1834 of the rue Transnonain massacre, one cannot therefore assume that Meissonier was any less genuinely moved by his subMeissonier, Ruins of Tr ject. Meissonier was a Salon painter, appropriately universelle, L6on Curme termed an academic because of his election to the Nationale) Acad6mie des Beaux-Arts, but not because he was a product of the academic instruction of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He had little knowledge of how to go about painting a subject with such important human dimenInstead, his on-the-job training had shaped for beginningsions. to paint di an him the modest aesthetic of a decorative illustrator, overall composit tercolor.36 It is in whose purpose was to provide a maximum of engaging detail, serving almost as footnotes to subjectscra and ideas the final developed principally in the text. He was little Meissonier's vignette equipped to reverse the function of his image and now ist fitted together all tience that is characteristic of his treatment of other invest it with all the larger historical and human meaning one might expect of such a subject. The style that still-life arrangements, both in his paintings and in his book illustrations. In the Souvenir, as in his other works, had become the focus of admiration for its own perfection could not now become a vehicle of expression, inthere is the same impulse to fill all available space with tegral with the subject. telling details. Meissonier actually added three more bodies to the number depicted in the watercolor, drap- It is in some respects paradoxical that Meissonier's "photographic" style should be considered in relationing one more corpse over the center group in the rear, ship to "realism," broadly defined in terms such as conplacing another figure at the bottom of the same heap temporaneity and the artist's commitment to accurate toward the left, and inserting another body along the documentation of physical fact in place of false idealizacurb to the right rear. In so doing he diminished the air tion or dramatization. For his work also marks an early of desolation of the watercolor, in which the men and without sufficient space; or surfaces have had additional pieces 36 Meissonier claimed not to do preliminary compositional sketches added to extend them. Meissonier blithely suggested this (Gr6ard, Paris, 207; New York, 225); but said he simply began on the shortcoming as a means of identifying authentic works: ". .. j'enfinal panel. In 1884 he commented, "Je ne fais presque jamais d'estame n'importe oui, et presque tous mes dessins (meme sans parler quisse, je ne modifie que des d6tails et je fais des 6tudes de mor- des bequets des panneaux peints) ont des rallonges de papier coll6 ceaux" (Exposition Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, tcole des Beaux-Arts, dans un sens ou dans l'autre. En vente, que de fois n'a-t-on pas dit: Paris, 1893, 7). In fact, while partial studies of separate motifs exist 'C'est un Meissonier: il a des b6quets' "; Gr6ard, Paris, 143; New for other paintings, I have found no sketches for full compositions. York, 150. Some panels and drawings reflect the drawbacks of this approach: figures are begun at one end, only to run off the opposite edge This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 288 THE ART BULLETIN stage in the evolution of an art more exclusively dediAppendix cated to formal concerns, an art in which the nominal Meissonier's letter on La Barricade (private collection). The letter, adcontent of the work, even literal reality, would increasdressed to the Belgian painter Alfred Stevens, refers to the watercolor, ingly come to be regarded as extraneous, an art whose didactic function would be denied. Such an outcome originally in the collection of Stevens's brother Arthur, a Brussels art dealer. Portions are quoted in Greard, Paris, 218; New York, 238. was almost definitely not Meissonier's personal intent. But critics at the time of his earliest successes, most important Gautier, repeatedly cited Meissonier's genre paintings as they began to enunciate the aesthetic that came to be known as l'art pour l'art, art for art's sake alone. Praising the beauties of their execution, Gautier signaled paintings such as the Painter Showing Some Drawings as: "A beautiful and fine response to those people who trouble themselves first and foremost with the subject and the meaning of a painting, who ask themselves if it will further mankind's progress along Poissy, 22 octobre 1890 Monsieur Alfred Stevens 15 avenue Frochot Mon cher Alfred, Vous me demandez ce que je pense du dessin de la Barricade que possedait votre cher frere Arthur? Parler de son oeuvre et d'en dire tout le bien qu'il en pense, n'est pas chose facile pour un artiste; mais je n'ai pas a avoir de modestie pour ce dessin et je n'hesite pas a dire que si j'etais assez riche pour le racheter je le ferais de suite, meme de preference au tableau; quand je l'ai fait j'etais encore sous la terrible impression du spectacle que je venais de voir, et croyez le, mon cher the paths of civilization and the future .. ."" He Alfred, ces choses 1a vous entrent dans l'ame, quand on les reproduit, hailed the Smoker as "a very strong example countering those people . .. who are fixated on the subject in paint- jusqu'au fond des entrailles et qu'il faut que ce souvenir reste. J'etais alors capitaine d'artillerie dans la garde nationale; depuis trois jours ing and who only admire a painting according to the degree of interest afforded by the scene represented."38 The Souvenir de guerre civile is far from being a work of art for art's sake, especially in the terms in which that doctrine emerged through the work and writings of Manet, Whistler, and their heirs. In comparison to Manet's Execution of Maximilian (1867, Kunsthalle, Mannheim), painted nineteen years later, Meissonier's horror is still communicated relatively unequivocally, despite the tendency of the style to attract attention in its own right. Nevertheless, in the style that creates a psychological disengagement between the subject per se and the impact of its presentation, the style that grew from the habits formed in designing decorative vig- nette motifs of little meaning, the painting does manifest the gradual and as yet almost unperceived incur- ce n'est pas seulement pour faire une oeuvre c'est qu'on a ete emu nous nous battions, j'avais eu des hommes tues et blesses dans ma batterie, l'insurrection entourait l'h6tel de ville ou nous etions, et quand cette barricade de la rue de la Mortellerie venait d'etre prise je l'ai vue dans toute son horreur, les defenseurs tues, fusilles, jetes par les fenetres, couvrant le sol de leurs cadavres, la terre n'ayant pas encore bu tout le sang. C'est 1a que j'ai entendu ce mot terrible qui mieux que tout, dit a quel point, dans ces epouvantables guerres des rues, les esprits sont hors d'eux-memes. "Tous ces hommes ,taient- ils coupables?" demandait Marast a un officier de la garde republicaine. "Monsieur Le Maire, soyez en bien stir, il n'y eu pas le quart d'innocents." Mais voila, cher ami, que je me laisse entrainer par les souvenirs. Pourrait-il en Stre autrement? La pensee de ce dessin les evoque toujours et la vue m'emeut profondement. Delacroix, ce grand artiste qui m'a aime en fut si frapp6 dans mon atelier qu'une de mes plus grandes joies, devant son emotion, a ete de le lui donner le soir meme. Ce temoignage supreme vous suffit comme a moi, n'est-ce pas? Je vous serre bien affectueusement la main. sion of new aesthetic attitudes into the traditions of art. EMeissonier Swarthmore College "Une belle et bonne reponse aux gens qui s'inquietent avantqu'il toutrepresente.-La peinture n'est pas un drame, et les toiles qui plaisent tant aux bourgeois par les id6es qu'elles du sujet et du sens d'un tableau, qui se demandent s'il fera anecdotiques progreveillent dans leur tate sont les plus souvent d'abominables resser les peuples dans les voies de la civilisation et de l'avenir crofites ... C'est la verit6 du dessin, le choix de la pose, I'assorti. ."; T. Gautier, "Salon de 1845," La Presse, Apr. 16, 1845. Gautier ment d6licat des nuances, I'arrangement des d6tails, le sentiment refers to the unlocated Jeune Homme regardant des dessins. 38 "Le Fumeur est un exemple bien fort contre les gens (il n'yintime a que de la vie, qui font la composition en peinture, et non la representation theatrale d'un fait quelconque"; T. Gautier, "Salon trop de ces gens-lh) qui s'attachent au sujet en peinture et qui n'ad1842," Le Cabinet de l'amateur et de l'antiquaire, I, 1842, 123. mirent un tableau que d'apres le plus ou moins d'int&ret de ladescene This content downloaded from 137.110.36.198 on Thu, 02 Jan 2020 23:44:13 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Ernest Meissonier, Souvenir of Civil War, 1849-1850. 11.5" x 8.5”. Eugène Delacroix, July 28: Liberty Leading the People, 1831. 8.5°x 10.6'.
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