George P. A. Healy: Symbolical Painting

"Pierrot in Criminal Court" by Thomas Couture

"Thomas Couture's love for symbolical painting grew with years, developed probably by solitude. In the very retired life which he led he did not follow the movement of modern art. He even refused to see what other artists did, declining to let them see his own works.

His love of symbolical pictures sometimes carried him to the verge of caricature, as in his series of pictures of lawyers. He had two pet hatreds - lawyers and doctors. For example sketches of lawyers speaking before the court, or sleeping during the discourse of their brother lawyers. 

[In the above painting, Couture used two famous masked characters, Pierrot and Harlequin, to satirize and critique the public and the judicial system of the 19th century. The pathetic Pierrot represents a lower-class fool on trial for stealing food from a restaurant. The stolen items are depicted lying on the courtroom floor as an indictment of his guilt. His accusers sit on the left, while Harlequin, his lawyer, argues theatrically for the defense. The artist's contempt for the legal profession and the court system is plain in the figures of the sleeping judges. A mid-19th-century observer may have sympathized with Pierrot, who for his own survival cunningly subverts authority in order to satisfy his needs.]

As to doctors, he never would allow one in his house. He was so violent in his animosity that, when he fell ill, he refused all medical aid. And his was a terrible disease, which could not be cured, although his sufferings might at least have been somewhat allayed.

My poor friend died of a cancer in the stomach on the 27th of March, 1879. His loss was a great sorrow to me. We had been young men together. We had seen years roll on without bringing any change in our mutual feelings, and when one of us experienced some success in life, it was a joy to the other. For his talent I had a sincere and profound admiration. For his strong and manly nature the great sympathy. He was a friend in the broadest and best sense of the word."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter" by G. P. A. Healy.)