Travelling in a Palimpsest

MARIE-SOFIE LUNDSTRÖM Travelling in a Palimpsest FINNISH NINETEENTH-CENTURY PAINTERS’ ENCOUNTERS WITH SPANISH ART AND CULTURE TURKU 2007 Cover illustration: El Vito: Andalusian Dance, June 1881, drawing in pencil by Albert Edelfelt ISBN 978-952-12-1869-9 (digital version) ISBN 978-952-12-1868-2 (printed version) Painosalama Oy Turku 2007 Pre-print of a forthcoming publication with the same title, to be published by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Humaniora, vol. 343, Helsinki 2007 ISBN 978-951-41-1010-8 CONTENTS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 5 INTRODUCTION . 11 Encountering Spanish Art and Culture: Nineteenth-Century Espagnolisme and Finland. 13 Methodological Issues . 14 On the Disposition . 17 Research Tools . 19 Theoretical Framework: Imagining, Experiencing ad Remembering Spain. 22 Painter-Tourists Staging Authenticity. 24 Memories of Experiences: The Souvenir. 28 Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity. 31 Sources. 33 Review of the Research Literature. 37 1 THE LURE OF SPAIN. 43 1.1 “There is no such thing as the Pyrenees any more”. 47 1.1.1 Scholarly Sojourns and Romantic Travelling: Early Journeys to Spain. 48 1.1.2 Travelling in and from the Periphery: Finnish Voyagers . 55 2 “LES DIEUX ET LES DEMI-DIEUX DE LA PEINTURE” . 59 2.1 The Spell of Murillo: The Early Copies . 62 2.2 From Murillo to Velázquez: Tracing a Paradigm Shift in the 1860s . 73 3 ADOLF VON BECKER AND THE MANIÈRE ESPAGNOLE. 85 3.1 The Parisian Apprenticeship: Copied Spanishness . 96 3.2 Looking at WONDERS: Becker at the Prado. 102 3.3 Costumbrista Painting or Manière Espagnole? . 123 4 THE DICHOTOMY OF HISPANICISM: OLD MASTERS AND POPULAR THEMES. 133 4.1 Espagnolisme and Juste Milieu ......................................... .135 4.2 Velázquez-fever in Paris. 141 4.2.1 Edelfelt’s later History Painting. 141 4.2.2 The Impact of Velázquez’s Portrait Painting. 148 4.3 Recycling Old Spanish Masters in Parisian Ateliers . 165 4.3.2 Velázquez: The Epitome of Manliness? . 174 4.4 “Goya – the most eccentric colourist who ever existed” . 182 4.5 The Impact of Mariano Fortuny. 187 4.5.1 Reproducing Fortuny . 191 4.5.2 “Retailing” Spain: Fortuny, Modernity and the Juste Milieu. 195 5 ALBERT EDELFELT’S IMAGINED SPAIN. 207 5.1 An Italian Interlude (1876). 208 5.2 Preparing for the Journey. 214 5.3 Spain and Orientalism: Constructed Otherness. 218 5.3.1 The Painter as Connoisseur: Experiencing Otherness . 230 5.3.2 The Lost Paradise: Visiting the Alhambra . 237 6 THE ROMANTIC LURE OF THE SOUVENIR. 247 6.1 Edelfelt Staging Reality: Gitana Dancing. 249 6.1.1 The Gypsy Myth in Paris. 265 6.1.2 Manet’s “Spain”. 270 6.1.3 Une Andalouse de Batignolles . 273 6.1.4 Remembering Spain: Souvenirs and Kitsch. 282 6.2 Hosts and Guests: Appropriating the Picturesque . 293 6.2.1 “Mariano”, the Epitome of Tourism Iconography. 300 7 CHANGE AND THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE. 309 7.1 Cultural Heritage Tourism: A Quest for Authenticity?. 314 7.1.1 Consuming Popular Culture: The Iconography of the Tourist Experience . 320 7.1.2 Entering Paradise? Venny Soldan in Seville . 326 7.2 Fábrica de Tabacos: An Object of Desire. 332 7.3 Travel Pictures and Plein Air–“Impressionism” . 339 7.3.1 San Telmo Sevilla – recuerdo de la Feria. 342 7.3.2 Painted Souvenirs and Photography . 346 8 THE ROMANTIC CRAZE FOR HISTORY. 353 8.1 Centre and Margin: Madrid in Relation to the Provinces. 355 8.1.1 Edelfelt in Cordoba: Ghosts in a Dead City . 364 8.1.2 A Refuge in Time and Space. 368 8.2 Edelfelt in Toledo: Collecting Picturesque Views. 372 8.2.1 The Alms. 378 9 SPAIN REMEMBERED: TRAVELLING IN A PALIMPSEST. 387 9.1 Living in a Palimpsest . 387 9.2 A Finnish Émigré in Paris in Pursuit of the Exotic . 389 9.3 “All History was a Palimpsest”. 399 APPENDICES A: Sources . 405 Abbreviations. 405 B: Works cited. 408 C: Table of Figures. 437 Photographic References and Credits. 447 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I want to comment on the title of my thesis, Travelling in a Palimpsest. The word “palimpsest” has, of course, to be understood metaphorically. My adoption of this rather odd term should be credited to research fellow Churnjeet Kaur Mahn (University of Glasgow), who employs the term in a similar manner. Listening to her short presentation on the textu- alisation of Greek landscape in nineteenth-century British travel writing at a conference in Leeds in 2004 (Visualising Paradise: the Mediterranean), the last pieces of my puzzle on nineteenth-century painters in Spain fell into place. My presentation, at the same conference, of Albert Edelfelt’s short stay in Granada 1881, also convinced her that our research tasks have many similarities and connecting points, particularly from a theoretical point of view. My choice of title was preceded by many years of research. My curiosity about Spain started over fifteen years ago, when Eeva Maija Viljo, acting Professor in art history at Åbo Akademi University, pointed out to me that artistic travels to Spain from Finland had not been thoroughly investigated. I was about to choose a subject for my master’s thesis, and hinted that I would like to write something about artistic travels to northern Africa. Howev- er, back then, in the late 1980s, the recommendation was that only one Finnish art historian should conduct research on one particular subject, and the subject I suggested (the travels of a Finnish painter in Morocco) was already “occupied”. One of the odd consequences of this decision – rather ironically – was that my new choice resulted in my becoming one of a group of art historians in Finland who revised earlier research on Finland’s perhaps most im- portant painter, Albert Edelfelt. I did not set out to study Edelfelt, my subject chose him for me. It was my focus on Spain that ultimately made Edelfelt’s experiences an essential part of my research. In the initial stages, his journey was, nevertheless, only one of many included in a descriptive survey of Finnish painters in Spain during the nineteenth century, a survey that also included painters active during the first two decades of the twentieth century. This was the first step on a long journey.N either my supervisor Viljo nor I could, at that time, imagine that my research into this subject would end up as a doctoral thesis. I com- pleted my master’s thesis in 1991, when Åsa Ringbom was acting Professor, and my licentiate five years later. During that time, I had the pleasure of receiving supervision from the late Professor Sixten Ringbom, who, unfortunately, never saw the outcome of my efforts. My work continued while Dr Annika Waenerberg was acting Professor at our department for a short period, followed by a few years when we worked together in a project concerning artistic travels in general. My ambition was to investigate how the reception of Spain changed during a rather long period, from Adolf von Becker’s journey to Spain in 1863 to the emergence of mass tourism after the Second World War. My licentiate thesis incorpo- rated my master’s in a more or less unchanged form. After completing my licentiate thesis, however, I soon realised that several questions concerning artistic travels to Spain, and how nineteenth-century and later travellers com- 5 prehended “Spanishness”, remained unanswered. Professor Bo Ossian Lindberg had, during the work with my licentiate thesis, repeatedly asked me to define my standpoint in these matters, but at that point my capacity to do so was not sufficient. My licentiate thesis was, nevertheless, well received, and I felt that I had to look deeper into the subject and venture – according to my opinion at that time – into the rather hazardous project of writing a doctoral thesis. During the entire project, Professor Lindberg acted as my “tour guide”. He led me from the initial confusion of a novice researcher through the, perhaps, unavoidable over- ambitious stage and the predictable disorder this causes. Finally we reached the particularly rewarding stage when the supervised feels that her ideas also make sense to her Professor. When Lindberg’s period as Professor came to an end in 2002, I still had the fortune of receiving Professor Emeritus Lindberg’s guidance, however now with the additional help of another adviser, the Professor in art history, Riitta Konttinen (University of Helsinki). She was a considerate reader who could point out where in the manuscript my analyses were farfetched, where they made no sense and when they worked. I particularly value that she unselfishly shared her research material pertaining to Venny Soldan and Helene Schjerf- beck. Furthermore, after a period when the professorship in Art History at Åbo Akademi University had been vacant for one and a half years, yet another professor entered the scene. I believe that the most truthful way to describe Professor Lars Berggren’s role in the comple- tion of my thesis would be to quote the old Swedish adage: “One can lean only against that which offers resistance.” Special thanks go to my two expert readers: Associate Professor Alisa Luxenberg, Uni- versity of Georgia, USA, and the Professor in art history, Ville Lukkarinen, University of Tampere. Their suggestions as how to improve the manuscript have directed my attention to sections of the text where my argumentation has been, at times, unconvincing or con- fusing. I am, in particular, grateful for their complimentary remarks, which increased my confidence in my work. I also appreciate that Professor Lukkarinen disclosed unpublished manuscripts on issues (partly) concerning Edelfelt “as a tourist”; our approaches to Edelfelt’s art have proved to be surprisingly similar.

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