The Candid Canvas of the Barbizon School

Women Picking Daisies (1865-70) by Jean Baptiste-Camille Corot

In the mid-19th century the French village of Barbizon was the artistic equivalent of Big Brother. In a tiny village with a population of 352 – according to the 1872 census – the locals were constantly under observation by the 100 or so artists reportedly living among them. Unlike the painters of the academic style who had dominated French art up until that time, these painters were interested in paying minute attention to the rustic scenes and people around them. Much of the story of this closely observed village and the artistic movement associated with it can be seen in the exhibition now on at the Sompo Japan Museum of Art (formerly the Yasuda Kasai Museum of Art).

"The main interest in the Barbizon school now, amongst both public and collectors, is in its role as a precursor of Impressionism," explains museum curator, Masaru Igarashi. "I think Barbizon painters are especially appealing to collectors, because, at one tenth of the cost of Impressionist paintings, it is a lot easier to build up a decent collection."

This is certainly true in this case as all the works at the exhibition belong to the private collection of Mr. Nakamura, a successful businessman based in Himeji City. This is only the second time he has allowed his collection to be exhibited.

Although their works are more reasonably priced, Barbizon painters, like Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Francois Millet, both of whom are loosely associated with the movement, show many of the same characteristics as the Impressionists. Like the Impressionists they started to paint increasingly out of doors, endeavoring to capture the true nature of light. Also, like the Impressionists, they rejected the idealism of the Academic tradition, with its mythological or heroic subjects, in favor of the representation of reality.

Woman Returning from the Well

This can be seen with almost dramatic effect in Millet's Woman Returning from the Well (1855-60), a frank and stark representation of a pregnant woman heavily-laded with two full buckets of water. The feeling that she is actually posing for the artist makes her burden all the more palpable. There is also an impressionistic softness in the brushstrokes of the face that helps convey the subject's feeling of dull tiredness. In this detail and more widely in Corot's works, such as his idyllic landscapes, Women Picking Daisies (1865-70) and Children Gathering Nest (1872-3), the brushwork clearly betrays a strong Impressionist quality.

The increasing demand for rustic subjects that led to a legion of artists colonizing this tiny village perhaps reflects the increasing alienation of city and country life in the mid-19th century. Earlier in the century the demand had been for the exoticism of mythological and ancient subjects as well as that of 'Orientalism,' with painters like Eugene Delacroix providing the artistic public with Turkish or North African scenes. By the mid-19th century, rural France itself was becoming exotic. Igarashi agrees that this perhaps reflects the change in the art consumer class from a pre-revolutionary aristocracy with links to the country to an increasingly middle class and city-bound one.

The dominant note in Charles-Francois Daubigny's golden-hued Sunset (1858) or Charles-Emile Jacque's studies of shepherds and shepherdesses is clearly one of nostalgia for nature and the countryside. Although these images are consistent with rural realities, there is nevertheless a strong suggestion of the Arcadian idealism of Nicolas Poussin or Claude Lorrain. But alongside this, as in Millet's Woman Returning from the Well, there are other works that present the harsh unvarnished realities of a rural life that was characterized by extreme poverty and backbreaking labor. Jacque-Eugene Feyen's undated Rest after Harvest seems to present us with another idyllic subject as some peasants rest in a field of golden wheat. After appreciating the scenery, we are shocked when we focus on the faces of the three figures and realize that, completely exhausted, they are unable to share our delight in the beautiful rustic scene.

Rest after Harvest

Because of their subject matter, many of the Barbizon painters naturally developed strong humanitarian, social, and political consciences. In Millet's case this was strengthened by the fact that he was himself of peasant stock. His ethereal Returning from the Field (1873) depicts a peasant woman on a donkey with her husband walking alongside. This clearly calls to mind the Biblical story of Mary and Joseph, and, by association, suggests the nobility of poverty.

The work of Jules-Adolphe Breton takes a more strident approach to the exaltation of the rural working poor. While Calling of Evening (1889) presents the soft colors of a rural twilight, the gestures of the two peasant women in the foreground – calling and raising the sickle – hints at the Soviet propaganda art that the more realist works of the Barbizon school later inspired.

The serenity and rustic charm captured in many of the works at this exhibition are liable to leave the viewer with an impression of timeless beauty. Nevertheless, these works were very much the product of the social changes of 19th century France.

C.B.Liddell
The Japan Times
14th August, 2002