Friday, March 15, 2024

Alfred Stevens: A Grand Finale

"The Japanese Mask" by Alfred Stevens
"In 1890 Alfred Stevens joined the group which left the traditional Salon to show separately at the Champs de Mars, calling themselves the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts. He had eleven exhibits. In September of that year the first of a series of blows fell upon him. His beloved brother, Arthur, died. Only six months later, Marie Stevens, his wife of over thirty years, passed away, and the following year, Joseph, his elder brother was also lost to him. The final blow was of a different nature - a lack of money.

Stevens, in common with so many artists, had had little idea of money or accounts, and spent his money freely in the firm belief that he could always paint another picture and replace it. The letters to his children are pitiful, but nothing prevented his painting well. 

Having been unable to exhibit in the previous year's Salon, he had now sixteen paintings on display and enjoyed having his son's work on show with his. He had a successful exhibition in Brussels at La Maison d'Art the following year. He tried to paint himself out of debt and in doing so the quality sometimes suffered, but to the end, he could pull himself together and paint fine paintings when he had a mind to.

In 1899, he fell by accident, failed to recover properly and was confined to a wheelchair. This could have been a sad ending for Stevens, but his friends rallied round and wrote to the authorities asking for a retrospective exhibition for him at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. This honour had never been awarded to a living artist, but the Minister granted the request. We can imagine the joy for Stevens of being wheeled around the exhibition of over a hundred and eighty of his paintings. He died in 1906 and was given a grand funeral and endless obituaries in the press."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Alfred Stevens" by Peter Mitchell.)


Thursday, March 14, 2024

Alfred Stevens: Panorama of the Century

A Fragment with Sarah Bernhardt of Stevens'
"Panorama of the Century"
"In the late 1880's , Alfred Stevens embarked on a project that only a man of his energy would undertake in his mid-sixties. The idea came from his friend Henri Gervex. Alfred, his brother Arthur and others put up the capital to paint a 'Panorama of the Century' to be exhibited in the Tuileries Gardens during the Exposition Universelle of 1889. 

The subject was a commemoration of one hundred years of French history from the Revolution of 1789 to the present day, in the form of 641 portraits of all notable figures standing in imaginary, elaborate architectural settings based in the Tuileries where the Rotunda would be erected. The idea of a panorama was not new, but the artist wanted to make accurate portraits of the celebrities included, whether live or from research. It would be nothing less than a pageant of the century.

Gradually the project took shape and a team of assistants was assembled, including Alfred's eldest son Leopold. Months of research were needed, and much time was spent in libraries to find accurate records of women's fashions if, indeed, such documents had been preserved. The sketching of the different scenes had taken two years, and it was time to transfer the four large oil sketches which had been made, and which fortunately have survived, unlike the Panorama itself.

The transfer to the 120-meter-long canvas meant that each drawing had to be enlarged to eight times the original onto large sheets or cartoons. The outline was pricked through in the time-honoured method of the Italian fresco painters. When powder was applied to the holes it went through and the outline was there ready on the canvas to be worked up. Prominent scenes from each reign had been chosen and the team set to work to paint them working among 'a disorderly array of stuffs, uniforms, helmets, and objects of all kinds, the bric-a-brac of a century.' 

When it was completed the visitor to the circular structure could, upon purchase of a one-franc ticket, walk round from the doomed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to Napoleon III and beyond, into the present day of the Third Republic. Many people of the day had tried to get themselves included in the last scene offing substantial sums for the privilege. 

Alas, the careful planning did not include what was to happen to the Panorama after the Exposition was over. After the Exposition, the panorama was exhibited in Chicago, Saint Louis, Brussels, and Barcelona. But, unable to secure a permanent exhibition space, Stevens was forced to cut the work into sections for dispersal, in one case, as far away as Florida, where it is now on display in the Ringling Museum. The Ringling’s portion shows prominent dramatists, writers, and musicians, but its real star is Stevens’s adored friend, the actress Sarah Bernhardt. Dressed in the costume she wore as the Queen in Victor Hugo’s Ruy Blas, a stiff, white meringue of a gown which renders her utterly striking in a crowd of men in dark suits"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Alfred Stevens" by Peter Mitchell.)

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Alfred Stevens: A Sea of Possibilities

"La Villa des Falaises a Sainte Adresse" by Alfred Stevens
"Two events happened in 1880. Firstly, the Paris authorities made a compulsory purchase of Alfred Stevens' house and demolished it to make a new road and passageway, which they named after the artist. He was compensated a handsome 300,000 francs for it.

Secondly, Stevens had developed bronchial problems and on the advice of his doctor went to the seaside for some fresh air, instead of breathing in the turpentine fumes of the studio. He went to Sainte Adresse for two months and took to painting the sea. The great dealer, Georges Petit, must have felt that an artist as good as Stevens could paint anything he chose to paint and duly made a contract with him to take everything he painted in the two-month stay for 50,000 francs! It was a bold decision but a sound one because it would allow people without the resources of a Vanderbilt to own a good painting with a famous signature.

Stevens embraced 'La Mer' as readily as he had 'La Femme.' It was another inexhaustible theme - the sea and shore from calm to storm, with or without beaches, bathers, headlands, fishermen and seagulls. To a painter of cashmere shawls and undulating silk fabrics, Stevens was acutely aware of every nuance of colour, sea, sky and shore presented him with. 

Of course, he soon realized the potential of combining his two subjects. We find ladies at the beach and, often, single figures standing at the water's edge looking with longing to the return of a vessel bearing their loved one. This entire theme culminated in a masterpiece, some consider his last, 'La Villa des Falaises a Sainte Adresse.' The painting was done to order for the Belgian art dealer and collector, Francois van der Donckt, whom Stevens had known since 1866 and who had acquired numerous paintings by him throughout his life. It had to meet specific requirements regarding content which, it is recorded, tested Stevens' abilities to the limit. It contained twelve figures - and two dogs. Towards the end of October, the autumn weather and the sudden absence of any suitable models meant that he had to complete the picture back in Paris. Even so the outcome was a painting that would have struck its new owners as pleasingly modern and, at the same time, wholly in keeping with a rich tradition in French art, that of outdoor scenes of recreation."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Alfred Stevens" by Peter Mitchell and the Sotheby's catalogue note for "La Villa des Falaises a Sainte Adress.")

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Alfred Stevens: At 65 Rue des Martyrs

"Ready for the Fancy Dress Ball" by Alfred Stevens
"Alfred Stevens acquired a large house and garden at 65, Rue des Martyrs, which impressed every visitor. The garden was the setting for Manet's 'Croquet Party,' while the drawing room became the setting for some of Stevens' best-known paintings. 'Ready for the Fancy Dress Ball,' set in the Chinese boudoir, was commissioned by William Vanderbilt senior in 1879. 

The room and its contents are well documented visually, but were also written about by many, including Robert de Montesquiou, who owned several pictures by the artist. One particular first-hand account by Max Sulzberger described the room that as decorated with furnishings “from the Imperial Palace,” brought back by an officer on expedition to China, and also described the painted gold paper walls and the doors and furniture of the most beautiful black Chinese lacquer. Through the open door at right was the artist’s Salon, which Stevens painted the same year as the present work in his complimentary masterpiece, 'Le Salon du Peintre.'

The following year William Vanderbilt's son, W.K., visited Stevens. Having looked at several works, only to be told they were sold or belonged to the dealer Petit, he asked Stevens about the 'Salon du Peintre' and the reply was, 'That belongs to me.' "How much?' W.K. inquired. '50,000 francs.' 'Then,' W.K. asserted, 'it is no longer yours, Mr. Stevens. It is mine!'

The artist's audacity in asking such a huge price was typical of the self-confidence of Stevens. Although 'Les Visiteuses' had already been sold for 60,000 francs just the year before to King Leopold. Indeed 1878 had been another triumph for Stevens with fifteen exhibits, a first class medal, and promotion to Commander of the Legion of Honour.

Then life took a detour."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Alfred Stevens" by Peter Mitchell and from a catalogue note from a Sotheby's auction of "Ready for the Fancy Dress Ball." )

Monday, March 11, 2024

Alfred Stevens: Friendship with Edouard Manet

"The Parisian Sphinx" by Alfred Stevens
"The friendship between Alfred Stevens and Edouard Manet strengthened in the decade of the 1860's. Their relationship was one of mutual respect and admiration. A letter of Manet's survives in which he wrote, 'Yesterday I saw at Hoschede's a SUPERB Stevens, please pass on to him my sincere compliments.' At the Thursday evening gatherings at Madame Auguste Manet's, Stevens regularly met Degas, the mercurial Baudelaire and the Morisot sisters. 

Manet used Stevens' studio to paint Spanish dancers from the Hippodrome. At another time Manet asked Stevens if he could leave some of his work in his studio so that it might be seen by Durand-Ruel, on one of his visits. The great dealer duly came by and, with characteristic foresight, bought the Manets. 

Stevens, Degas and the Manet brothers were together in refusing to leave during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, and, above all, during the siege of Paris. Stevens, of course, as a foreigner did not have to serve in the French forces but he insisted in volunteering, and this was never forgotten by the French authorities. But he did send Marie and their children to Brussels, writing to her by balloon, and kept his mother with him in Paris.

The fact that the siege did not prevent his painting will hardly surprise the reader. It is difficult to imagine what could have done so! Victorine Meurent, a model shared by Manet and Stevens, appears as the Sphinx Parisien in one of the most ravishing of Stevens' small canvases. Inscribed on the reverse is 'painted during the siege of Paris, Nov. 1870'. 

Later on, when his friend Manet died in 1883, Stevens was one of the pallbearers and, of course, on a committee to campaign for the exhibition of his work."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Alfred Stevens" by Peter Mitchell.)

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Alfred Stevens: Marriage and Success

"Tous les Bonheurs" by Alfred Stevens
"Feeling confident of his art and his future, Alfred Stevens married Marie Blanc, granddaughter of General Sausset. Just as Alfred had been one of four children, so he and Marie would have four: Catherine, god-daughter of Degas, Leopold, a painter, Jean and Pierre. Just as Marie had already appeared as a model and would continue to do in some of the major works of the 1860's, for example 'La Dame en Rose,' so the children would begin to appear in their turn. At the 1861 Paris Salon, 'Tous les Bonheurs' shows Marie feeding young Leopold. 

'Tous les Bonheurs' was so well received by the critics, that the Jury wanted to award Stevens a medal of honour, but were hesitant. Robert-Fleury went to see Stevens unofficially and told him that his subject matter was not worthy of his talents, and that if he would change his genre they would award him with the medal. The reply was brief and to the point: 'You keep your medal and I'll keep my genre.' 

However, 1863 saw the end of officialdom's hesitation. Stevens became Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. What must have pleased the artist above all were the words of the minister at the presentation - 'To gain an honour with the complete approval of your colleagues is to deserve it twice over.'  The success of Stevens here and also at the Brussels Salon of 1866, where his 'La Visite' was purchased by King Leopold, was also a matter of pride for his home country of Belgium. 

There was no greater recommendation that that of royal patronage. The aristocracy and the haute bourgeoisie followed their monarch's example and added his work to their collections. Stevens received a letter from his brother Arthur, who was the king's curator, telling him of the monarch's strong admiration for him and his 'wish' that Alfred was to remain Belgian. [He had now lived and worked for quite a while in France, and his attachments there were strong.]"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Alfred Stevens" by Peter Mitchell.)


Friday, March 8, 2024

Alfred Stevens: Japonisme

"La Parisienne Japonaise" by Alfred Stevens
After more than 200 years of seclusion, foreign merchant ships began to visit Japan. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan ended a long period of national isolation and began exporting its goods to Europe. Japanese art and artifacts began to appear in small curiosity shops in Paris and London. Also a succession of world's fairs displayed Japanese decorative art to millions, and it was picked up by galleries and fashionable stores.

Collecting Japanese art and artifacts became a craze. The art itself, which was so different from Western art, had a strong influence on the painters of that time including Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, James Whistler, Edouard Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, James Tissot, Van Gogh, and many others including Alfred Stevens.

Stevens spent lavishly and had a special room set aside for his collection of screens, porcelain, wall coverings, bibelots, paper parasols, lamps, kimonos and the like, which provided the artist with a mosaic of exotic and sophisticated colours in many of his interiors. He would also have his models frequently pose in kimonos, hold fans and look thoughtfully at the decorative objects. For all of his interest 'le Japonisme,' his own style of painting does not seem to be influenced by it to any significant degree.

In 'La Parisienne Japonaise' (1872) Stevens shows a lovely lady looking dreamily into a mirror. She wears a kimono made of exotic blue patterned silk with an exquisite sash catching and reflecting the light in the room. Her hair is decorated with Japanese combs and ornaments. Her hand lightly holds a transparent fan, with a lovely painted screen reflected in the mirror. Unusual, beautiful items like these obviously inspired Alfred Stevens.

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Alfred Stevens" by Peter Mitchell, and "Japonisme" from Wikipedia.)