Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) | ArtLiveAndBeauty

 

Jules Bastien-Lepage's Paintings

Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) was a French painter who embodied naturalism in painting as a component of realism. Along with the renowned Jules Breton, he was one of the first French artists to show rural life in the spirit of naturalism. Emile Zola was a friend of his and a fan of his work. Jules Bastien-Lepage was born into a family of humble landowners and peasants in Danvilliers, Lorraine, and studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris with Alexandre Cabanel beginning in 1868. At school, he established acquainted with Pascal Danyan-Bouvre, a future realist artist and fellow thinker.

Jules Bastien-Lepage returned to his native hamlet after being critically injured during the German-French war of 1870. In 1875, his piece "The Annunciation to the Shepherds" (l'Annonciation aux bergers) earned him second place in the Prix de Rome competition. He visited England from 1879 to 1882. He travelled to Algiers despite being critically ill with cancer. Jules Bastien-Lepage paintings may be seen in the world's most prestigious museums, including those in Paris, London, New York, Melbourne, and Philadelphia. Two pieces are on display at the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin: "Village Love" (1882, oil on canvas, 194x179 cm) and "Girl with a Rake" (1882, oil on canvas, 194x179 cm) (charcoal, 49.5x38 cm).

If we conclude Bastien-impact Lepage's on Russian painting, we can say that he encouraged Russian painters to utilise plein air principles and gradually oriented them towards light, colours, and air - not as revolutionary as the Impressionists, but gradually. In the 1880s, many Russian painters were at a fork in the path. Classical traditions had essentially devolved into unattractive academicism, the Wanderers' denunciatory aesthetics did not fulfil all desires and interests, and the foreign tendencies of impressionism, symbolism, and modernism appeared a long way away. Bastien-tremendous Lepage's popularity in Russia, which surprised his compatriots, was owing to the fact that his route turned out to be a reaction to the quest for Russian painters. They found an appeal to nature and national traditions in Jules Bastien-Lepage's work (but without the accusatory finger of the Wanderers). By the way, he's correct. For those who wished to study with him, Bastien-Lepage suggested right away that going to Paris was the best option. Here, more than anywhere else, you can learn who writes what and how, and sense where the wind is blowing in today's cultural climate, but after you've had your fill of Paris, you must come home. "Go back to your home nation and compose stories that are personal to you." Bastien-Lepage did not go unnoticed in France, but he did not achieve the same level of success as the Russians. Nonetheless, impressionism "ripened" in Paris over those years. Bastien-Lepage is the greatest that creative Paris has to offer, according to Russian artists pursuing their own way, navigating between academics and Wanderers.

Jules Bastien-Lepage died at the age of 36 in his Paris studio, without having had the opportunity to completely express his creativity. Emile Bastien created and erected a park at his brother's gravesite in Danvilliers, where there was an orchard (Parc des Rainettes). Emil became a landscape painter when his brother died. He was already a well-known architect. Auguste Rodin erected a bronze memorial to Bastien-Lepage in the churchyard. On the 20th anniversary of Armenia's independence, the monument was handed to the country in 2011. On October 7, the ceremonial unveiling of the monument in Yerevan's France Square, which has become a symbol of goodwill between the two countries, took place.