A Nice experience: 2009

I took a break from the Paris and had a weekend in the country with LEP and visited the kind of area around Paris frequently painted by the Impressionists. Now their paintings are extremely popular and the idea that they were political radicals seems bizarre. However they struggled against the authoritarian systems in the France of their time, most directly the Salon system, which regulated access to the public, but also against the general, authoritarian political system of their early years.

I was lucky enough to be able to stay at LEP's place, near Fontainebleau, which was quite a contrast with the bustle of central Paris:

In his garden one could listen to the bird-song:

On Saturday we went to nearby Moret-sur-Loing:

The Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley had spent his last decade there, sadly in poverty:

Sisley was born in Paris to affluent English parents ... At the age of 18, Sisley was sent to London to study for a career in business, but he abandoned it after four years and returned to Paris. Beginning in 1862 he studied at the atelier of Swiss artist Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre, where he became acquainted with Frédéric Bazille, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. ... Sisley and his friends initially had few opportunities to exhibit or sell their work. Unlike some of his fellow students who suffered financial hardships, Sisley received an allowance from his father until 1870 [when his father's business collapsed following the Franco-Prussiian War], after which time he became increasingly poor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sisley

Now of course his paintings sell for millions and there is a "Point Sisley" in the town celebrating his life and work.

The spry eighty-something man inside pointed to the photograph of him (above) and said that it was the cigarettes which killed him, at only 59.

Sisley by Renoir:

In his time the streets were traffic-free:

Street-in-Moret(Porte-de-Bourgogne-from-across-the-Bridge)-large

Now people like ourselves fill the streets and the narrow bridge over the Loing with cars, especially at the weekend:

Impressionists and Politics, Philip Nord

But it's still a pretty, idyllic place:

Some people seem to fully abandon themselves to the experience:

But, of course, the countryside is not always idyllic; as I started this there was a report on French TV about the high level of suicide amongst those working in agriculture, a symptom of wider hardship.

Progressive art

The political views and activities of the Impressionists are not widely known, despite the many popular books about them; just like the CIA backing for Abstract Expressionism in the Cold War (see Rapallo diary). Books tend to concentrate on the formal aspects of their work and on the personal lives of the artists, reinforcing the romantic image of the artist as individual concerned with the expression of feeling and formal issues. But this is misleading, they were social beings, involved in history and in politics of a progressive and sometimes radical kind. In part it was a generational rebellion, against the academic painting of people like Charles Gleyre, in whose studio some of them studied:

Impressionists and Politics, Philip Nord

Ibid.

It's important to understand the aesthetic and related political context. When the future Impressionsts began their careers the respected painters were people like their teacher, Charles Gleyre. He was recognised for his very academic paintings on mythological and religious themes, such as The Dance of the Bacchantes:

The Impressionists came to reject this style and at the same time the political context which it reflected:

Ibid.

The Separation of the Apostles, Gleyre

The critics who defended them attacked the classical style, calling for paintings of modern French life and emphasised the connections between art and politics:

Moulin de la Galette, Renoir

Ibid.

Gare St. Lazare, Monet

This is not to say that the Impressionists produced overt political propaganda, and they did rely on middle-class as well as some wealthy collectors, but even these often shared their progressive views.

Ibid.

Later some of them, such as Degas and Renoir, became more right-wing, deploring the new urban society, while Monet and Pissarro stayed more radical.

Pissarro the anarchist

One of the most politically committed was Pissarro, who was scornful of those painters he regarded as supportive of reactionary forces in French society:

Ibid.

Ironically you now need to be very rich to be able to afford a painting by Pissarro, and exhibitions of his work are accompanied by smart parties for the bourgeoisie:

The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, is curently showing an exhibition of works by Camille Pissarro, The First Impressionist. And ironically, while contemporary local anarchists will be celebrating ten years of the Black Star on March 4th, Melbourne's yuppies will be celebrating the opening of the exhibition at a "Parisian soiree". Join them, if you wish, "for a beautiful French inspired evening with live entertainment, wine, canapés and a preview of the exhibition." Admission is available to anyone with $55.00 to spare ...

Camille Pissarro is revered today as a father of Impressionism. But the radical spirit of one of the world's most revolutionary art movements stayed with him all his life, much to the horror of his dealer.

"He was an active supporter of anarchist politics well into middle age, at a time when anarchists were bombing restaurants, theatres and horse-drawn taxis," says the National Gallery of Victoria's senior curator of international art, Ted Gott.

... Still, the millions (upon millions) of victims of European capitalism and imperialism weren't Presidents or Prime Ministers, Kings or Queens, so who cares? In fact, I expect that contemplating their fate -- and the reasons why Pissarro dedicated much of his life and work to overthrowing the social structures responsible for their deaths -- would only spoil, say, "a beautiful French inspired evening with live entertainment, wine, canapés and a preview of the exhibition". And let's face it, which is more important?
...

Of course, Pissaro's politics is not the only remarkable fact about Pissarro, Impressionism, or, importantly, their legacy to the local Victorian economy:

[The Pissarro exhibition] follows the NGV's 2004 Impressionism exhibition that generated $25.7 million for the Victorian economy and attracted more than 380,000 visitors, including 78,000 from interstate and overseas...

An outcome that would, no doubt, generate joy in Pissarro's heart were he alive today. (Then again, probably only if he could use it to subsidise local anarchist projects.) ...

http://slackbastard.blogspot.com/2006/02/camille-pissarro-anarchist_28.html

Small Meadows in Spring, Sisley

One year after Sisley died in poverty, one of his paintings sold for 400 times the original price - the serious speculative process had begun and with it went the ideological suppression of the political dimensions of the development of the movement - even Degas had been progressive in his early years. Impressionism was no longer shocking and the subject of bourgeois ridicule, it adorned the homes of even right-wing millionaires and even Pissarro's work provided a decorative background for yuppie parties.

Some people at Patricia's soirée on Sunday expressed interest in visiting the Trois Mailletz, my favourite Parisian bar, so we arranged to meet there on Tues 16th June:

On the way I did my own little tour in the tracks of Sartre and De Beauvoir, partly because I'm reading a book about them: "Dangerous Liasons".

Jardins du Luxembourg, where they were taken as children:

and where they went as students to study, flirt and discuss ideas:

De Beauvoir's early life was dominated by the Catholic religion - this is just round the corner from where she lived in Rue de Rennes:

The Ecole Normale Superiere, where Sartre was a student (she was at the Sorbonne) and where they both took their exam in philosophy for the aggregation, Sartre coming first and she second:

Trois Mailletz, Rue Galande, which is now to be Patricia's street

Ariane, from Germany, watches Meiko, who was studying opera at the Conservatoire last time I was in Paris:

Judy, from Australia:

Vanessa (US), Colin (UK), Patricia (US):

On the left, Catherine (US):

"You played it for her, you can play it for me - play it.":

Then I went on to the Caveau de la Huchette again. A lot of people were dancing, even in the interval, when I arrived:

The Brad Leali Swing Groupo (USA):

This time there were a couple of dancers I'd first seen three years ago, they looked like dance teachers, and gave a wonderful performance:

Unfortunately I was over-optimistic about just how late the Metro ran, and, at the first change of line, they announced there were no more trains:

So it was a cab back - worth it for another very good night in Paris: