Jules Bastien Lepage (1848-1884) French Art Book

This is the French edition of the exhibition catalogue relating about Jules Bastien-Lepage.
This student of Cabanel, who was at the height of his powers when he died at the age of 36, made a significant mark in the world of naturalist painting.
In October 1868 he came first in the competition for admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and went on to become a major figure of the Salon after receiving the third-class medal in 1874. His portraits and figure paintings were always eagerly awaited by the critics, and regularly reviewed. They brought him much recognition, and several paintings were bought by the State.
"He had a tendency to place his figures on the frontal plane of his canvas, making them dominate the composition and causing them to often to be silhouetted against a receding composition or a low horizon.   His models stand on the frame of his paintings almost ready to walk out of them. (Zorn saw  this. So does Scott Powers )  He painted from a standing position as he believed it to be crucial in our understanding of the relationship of figure to their surroundings.
Bastien-le Page applied himself to the particular. He chose one particular task, performed by one particular person at a specific moment and recreated it on his canvas.  The basic tenet of his belief was that he could achieve the realism he desired only by painting en plein air. He was a gifted with an assured talent as both draughtsman and painter, qualities that were carefully honed through an academic career as a pupil of Cabanel in Paris." Bell
Bastien-Lepage owed his success to the originality of his works that reflect a remarkable synthesis of the influence of his training and the most innovatory movements of the time. From the 1870s on, he brought together, above all, the realism of rural life and grand tradition, while also using lighter colors and dynamic compositions in the style of the new Impressionism.
This catalog retrospective is an opportunity to see a significant series of his creative works, and to recognize today the fundamental role which his contemporaries had already attributed to him.

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