TEACHERS’ RESOURCE MAKING MYTHS CONTENTS

1: MAKING MYTHS: THE STORIES TOLD BY ARTISTS, CURATORS, COLLECTORS AND CONSERVATORS

2: COLLECTING GAUGUIN: CURATOR’S QUESTIONS

3: RE-INVENTING MYTH: FORM AND FUNCTION IN SOME EARLY MODERN ‘MYTHOLOGICAL’ WORKS FROM THE COURTAULD GALLERY

4: MANET, DEGAS, RENOIR AND THE THEATRE OF EVERYDAY LIFE

5: TAKEN AT FACE VALUE? SELF-STAGING AND MYTH-MAKING IN THE WORK OF GAUGUIN AND VAN GOGH

6: THE MATERIAL LANGUAGE OF PAINTINGS: CONSERVATION AND TECHNICAL ART HISTORY

7: REGARDE! FRENCH LANGUAGE RESOURCE: GAUGUIN ET LA POLYNÉSIE

8: GLOSSARY

9: SUGGESTIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM

10: TEACHING RESOURCE IMAGE CD

Compiled and produced by Carolin Levitt and Sarah Green Design by JWDesigns SUGGESTED CURRICULUM LINKS FOR EACH ESSAY ARE MARKED IN RED

TERMS REFERRED TO IN THE GLOSSARY ARE MARKED IN BLUE

To book a visit to the gallery or to discuss any of the education projects at The Courtauld Gallery please contact: e: [email protected] t: 0207 848 1058 WELCOME

The Courtauld Institute of Art runs an exceptional programme of activities suitable for young people, school teachers and members of the public, whatever their age or background.

We offer resources which contribute to the understanding, knowledge and enjoyment of art history based upon the world-renowned art collection and the expertise of our students and scholars. I hope the material will prove to be both useful and inspiring.

Henrietta Hine Head of Public Programmes The Courtauld Institute of Art

This resource offers teachers and their students an opportunity to explore the wealth of The Courtauld Gallery’s permanent collection by expanding on a key idea drawn from our exhibition programme. Taking inspiration from the 2013 summer display Collecting Gauguin: Samuel Courtauld in the ‘20s, the focus of this teachers’ resource is ‘Making Myths’.

Resources are written by early career academics and postgraduate students from The Courtauld Institute of Art with the aim of making the research culture of this world renowned, Specialist University accessible to schools and colleges. Essays, articles and activities are marked with suggested links to subject areas and Key Stage levels. We hope teachers and educators of all subjects will use this pack to plan lessons, organise visits to The Courtauld Gallery and for their own Cover image: professional development. Paul Gauguin Maruru (Offerings of Gratitude/ Thank you), from the Noa Noa series, 1893-4. Woodcut print Sarah Green 20.5 x 35.6 cm Gallery Learning Programmer Image 2: The Courtauld Institute of Art Paul Gauguin (detail) Te Rerioa (The Dream), 1897 Oil on canvas 91.5 x 130.2 cm

Unless otherwise stated all images © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London 1: MAKING MYTHS: THE STORIES TOLD BY ARTISTS, CURATORS, COLLECTORS AND CONSERVATORS Caroline Levitt

In 1910, an exhibition took place at the go beyond simple appearances and that Grafton Galleries in London that would help to build an understanding of human define not only the British understanding life and thought. Artists of the nineteenth of recent French painting, but also the and twentieth centuries have sometimes category by which a certain group of artists drawn on the content of ancient myths has been known almost ever since: Manet or on the conventional style of painting and the Post-Impressionists was curated used to depict them as a means of either by Roger Fry - critic, painter and friend undercutting or exploring earlier ideas: of Samuel Courtauld. The poster [image Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe 1] used a print of one of Paul Gauguin’s (c.1863-8) [for the Courtauld version see paintings, Poèmes barbares (1896). As essay 4] plays on the traditional depiction a result of the exhibition, Gauguin, Paul of nude nymphs cavorting freely in an Cézanne and Vincent Van Gogh became idyllic landscape, but subverts this with the understood as both ‘Post-Impressionists’ inclusion of clothed art students alongside and descendants of the flat, outlined, modern women, undressed with their ‘modern’ painting style of Edouard clothes strewn around the scene, painted Manet. The term post-impressionist has in Manet’s characteristically flat style. The proven almost as poorly understood painting caused much controversy when it as it has useful, but it is a key example was first made, and has itself gained almost of the ways in which terminology and mythical status as a starting point for the public understanding can be shaped by need to be refused from official exhibiting the activities of critics and curators. As spaces in order to be considered truly a collector, Samuel Courtauld had the ‘modern’. The very fact that Courtauld’s opportunity to shape the British public’s version of the painting is one of at least understanding of the painters whose works three copies that Manet himself made of he collected, defining and responding to the original is proof of its importance at the the popularity and value of one artist over time as well as now. another by his choice of acquisitions for both his personal collection and the public So, aside from the literal depiction of galleries for which he purchased works. myths, we can think about the ways in Collecting as a practice is a central tenet which the methods of depicting scenes, of The Courtauld Gallery’s 2013 summer including the process of staging a scene display Collecting Gauguin, the occasion before painting it, can be considered in on which this teachers’ pack is produced. terms of making something essentially However the myth-making potential of fabricated seem real and at the same time promotional or self-promotional activity - full of meaning. The essay ‘Manet, Degas, from curating, collecting and critiquing, to Renoir and the Theatre of Everyday Life’, portraiture and self-portraiture, whether examines the practice of using models in visual or literary - is a theme that emerges the work of Renoir and Manet in order to and that can be considered in a number of paint scenes that are often considered to ways. function as snapshots of everyday activities in nineteenth century Paris. Far from being The presence of myths and mythology in straight documents, however, we must painting has an extensive history, which consider very carefully the ways in which goes back to the depiction of figures and the artists have set up these paintings to Image 1: events from epic tales, perhaps as create a specific image of the working and Poster for the First Post-Impressionist Exhibition a showcase for the artist’s talent and leisure classes of the time. Manet, Degas 1910. breadth of understanding, or with the and Renoir were, in this sense, makers of 76.3 x 50.9 cm intention of morally educating the viewer: myth in their own right. this is the subject of Naomi Lebens’ Image 2: Pierre Auguste Renoir essay, ‘Re-inventing Myth’. From the use The idea of staging and promotional Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, of specific stories such as that of Cupid portraiture collide very neatly in Renoir’s 1908 and Psyche by Sir Joshua Reynolds [see Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1908) [Image Oil on canvas essay 3] to the evocative inclusion of 2]. Renoir shows Vollard, one of the art 81.6 x 65.2 cm Greek and Roman architectural references dealers and collectors of himself, Cézanne, by artists such as Rubens, myths, stories Gauguin and Picasso (amongst others) CURRICULUM LINKS: KS3+ and their settings are a vessel for artists gently caressing a sculpture, quite possibly Art and Design, History, Art History, and (as well as writers) to express ideas that a small 1900 plaster study of a crouching other Humanities THE PROCESS OF STAGING A SCENE [...] CAN BE CONSIDERED IN TERMS OF MAKING SOMETHING ESSENTIALLY FABRICATED SEEM REAL AND AT THE SAME TIME FULL OF MEANING. ”

these places was not always that depicted in his canvases. Indeed, the poet Charles Morice warned viewers of Gauguin’s first exhibition of Tahitian works in 1893 that ‘to find your way around the island his work would make a bad guide, if your soul is not akin to his’. Whilst the women of Brittany would dress up in traditional dress to assist the tourist industry, the practices of farming in that area were in fact more advanced than Gauguin would have us believe in Haystacks. Likewise, the ‘barbarism’ he insisted upon in the South Seas was a rapidly fading fantasy as these islands, French protectorates, were increasingly affected by Catholic missionaries and other marks of colonial rule. The ‘Regarde!’ activity in this pack is designed to help with language learning through looking at the work of Gauguin, but it also highlights the myth-making potential of both imagery and language, in particular that used by Gauguin in his prints. If the 1910 poster for Fry’s Grafton Galleries exhibition can nude by Aristide Maillol. Vollard, who has the ability to shape what we know of be held responsible for the widespread was described by those who knew him pictures, as described by Alysia Sawicka understanding of Gauguin, Van Gogh as having ‘bulldog features‘ is shown in her essay ‘The Material Language of and Cézanne as ‘Post-Impressionists’, the here quite differently, to be a bourgeois Paintings’. Conservation should perhaps be painting Poèmes barbares (Barbaric Poems) gentleman and a conoisseur, engrossed considered alongside the work of collectors depicted on it can perhaps also be seen in the art that he loves and oblivious to his and curators as a part of the way in which as emblematic of Gauguin’s activity as an own slightly unkempt appearance - look, artworks come to us: rarely directly from the artist: his paintings, and those of so many for example, at the protruding handkerchief artist, but often through the lens of those other artists, are like poetry - creating or perhaps even tear in his right jacket who have studied and interpreted them in atmosphere and weaving narratives out pocket. Renoir would have been fully a variety of ways. Ultimately, the essays and of pieces of shifting reality. To unpick the aware of the flattering light in which he was activities gathered here are intended to narrative of painting completely would be portraying Vollard, who had commissioned challenge visitors to The Courtauld Gallery to destroy its beauty and effectiveness; to the portrait himself, and it would of course to look beyond the surface of paintings, interpret and better understand its roots have been within Renoir’s interests to both physically and metaphorically, and and the process by which it has been please his dealer. The essay, ‘Taken at to investigate in more depth the ways in assembled is one of the aims of Art History. Face Value?’ will take this theme further, which art is made, promoted and received. looking at the self-staging of Gauguin The notions of authenticity or biography and Van Gogh, not only through their own may prove far less important as a result work and writings, but also through their than understanding the rich variety of later promotion in popular film and fiction. interpretations that might be possible when It is one of the roles of Art History to try different viewers look at a single painting. to navigate such firmly held biographical and anecdotal myths, extracting what is Finally, one key inspiration for the theme of important in the analysis of artworks from myth-making is caught up with the content the complex web of promotion, self- of Gauguin’s paintings themselves. It was, promotion and fiction that often exists. interestingly enough, Ambroise Vollard Suggested activities in this pack will help who first sold Gauguin’s paintingHaystacks FURTHER READING: students and teachers to investigate this (1889) [see essay 6] which is itself part of John House (ed.), Impressionism for theme further through practice or research. Gauguin’s personal myth-making of place. England: Samuel Courtauld as Patron and In an attempt to escape what he saw as the Collector (London: Courtauld Gallery, 1994) The practice of painting conservation stifling atmosphere of civilised urban Paris, allows for the investigation of artworks as Gauguin famously withdrew first to Brittany Karen Serres (ed.), Collecting Gauguin: physical objects, and whilst it can reveal and then to the islands of Polynesia. Samuel Courtauld in the 20s many previously hidden truths, it also However the lifestyle he discovered in (London: Courtauld Gallery, 2013) 2: COLLECTING GAUGUIN: CURATOR’S QUESTIONS Karen Serres

Q: Tell us a bit about your job as curator? Q: Can you tell us about the process of photographs from the 1910s and 1920s putting on a display like this? showing how Gauguin’s works were A: At The Courtauld, I am responsible displayed by their first owners. One depicts for the care and display of paintings from A: After determining the focus of the the Gallery’s wonderful Te Rerioa in a 1200 to 1900, so roughly up to the end display, we put together a list of objects very formal study filled with neo-Rococo of the period called Post-Impressionism. that we want to exhibit and sent out loan furniture. The other represents Martinique In addition to making sure that all of the requests for works coming from outside the Landscape in a simple white frame, which works are in good condition, I decide which Gallery. We made sure that all the works is how Gauguin wanted his paintings to be ones go on public display, where and how were in good enough condition to be shown. It seems quite strange to us now, they should hang. An important part of placed on view. We decided, for example, although the ornate frames chosen by later my job is also undertaking research on to change the mats on the prints as they collectors still on the works today would the paintings and making sure we know as were slightly discoloured. At the same time, probably shock Gauguin. much as possible about the circumstances I carried out research and prepared the of their creation, their meaning and their publication, as well as the didactic material subsequent history. One way to present our that accompanies the works in the display Q: Which of the pieces in the exhibition is findings is through exhibitions and displays, space (introductory panel, labels, etc.). your personal favourite and why? such as Collecting Gauguin. Final decisions concerned the colour of the A: I am always surprised by the power walls, the placement of the works in the of Nevermore. It is such a stunning and Q: What do you enjoy most about being a space and, last but not least, their lighting. disquieting work. The elongated format, curator? And voila! the sinuous lines, the beautiful modeling of the nude figure and the pops of yellow and A: I enjoy the fact that no two days are Q: Have you faced any particular red on either side make it a very appealing alike and that it requires engagement challenges? work, and yet Gauguin has left its meaning in equal parts with the works in my care, ambiguous. The foreshortening of the with colleagues – particularly those in A: One challenge was the arrangement woman’s left foot, coming into our space, is conservation – and with the public. of such an array of works (paintings, both impressive and intrusive. works on paper, sculpture, in addition to Q: What was the inspiration for the some archival material such as invoices Q: To what extent do you think Courtauld’s Gauguin display in particular? and letters). How do you make sure such a disparate group doesn’t clash within collection of Gauguin’s works has shaped A: The Courtauld Gallery has the largest the same space? However, the range of the public understanding of his art? collection of works by Gauguin in the UK, objects on view is also what makes the In the 1920s, Courtauld was amongst comprising three important oil paintings, A: display particularly interesting. The second a small group of wealthy art lovers who two drawings, ten prints and Gauguin’s challenge was the accompanying booklet, overcame public institutions’ mistrust of only signed marble sculpture. These were which is a new format for us. It is smaller modern French art and began collecting purchased by Samuel Courtauld, one of than our exhibition catalogues and we the best examples of Impressionism and the founders of The Courtauld Institute of hope that it will appeal to a wide audience Post-Impressionism with the view of giving Art, in the span of a few years in the 1920s, while maintaining the same level of them to the nation. He provided exposure a key decade for the collecting of Post- scholarship that characterised our previous to these paintings to the British public and Impressionism in Britain. publications. legitimised them as works of art. His sense of the importance of art as a force for social Q: How long has it taken to plan? Q: Do you have any interesting stories good is admirable. A: Visitors are always surprised by how about the works that were uncovered much time exhibitions take to organise; during research? there is a lot of work involved so their A: The focus of the display is not only preparation can take anywhere from three on Gauguin the artist but also on the to five years. The Summer Showcase reception of his work in Europe in the displays focus more on our permanent decades following his death. To examine collection so they take a little less time the twists and turns of the reputation to plan. However, this display includes of a now canonical artist is fascinating. two outside loans, key paintings that Image: What surprised me was that, in the early Paul Gauguin once belonged to Samuel Courtauld twentieth century, Gauguin was deemed Two Tahitian women, viewed from the rear (verso) but were not given to The Courtauld. less controversial than Van Gogh and even 19th Century We approached their current owners, Cézanne because he was a ‘decorative Graphite, gouache (dilute) on paper the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and the painter’. Then he was considered too 27.25 cm x17.8 cm National Galleries of Scotland, a year frivolous and critics turned on him. and a half ago; their support was crucial CURRICULUM LINKS: KS3+ and Collecting Gauguin could not have The booklet accompanying the display Art and Design, History, Art History, and happened without it. also publishes two previously unknown other Humanities THE FOCUS OF THE DISPLAY IS NOT ONLY ON GAUGUIN THE ARTIST BUT ALSO ON THE RECEPTION OF HIS WORK IN EUROPE IN THE DECADES FOLLOWING HIS DEATH. ” 3: RE-INVENTING MYTH: FORM AND FUNCTION IN SOME EARLY MODERN ‘MYTHOLOGICAL’ WORKS FROM THE COURTAULD GALLERY Naomi Lebens

The term ‘myth’ is notoriously difficult ‘mythological’ subjects in early modern to define. Distinct from history, but not visual arts. Yet we must also ask more always simple fiction, myths occupy an specific questions of individual works. ambiguous space between the two. Why did the artists and/or patrons choose However, when used to describe a genre to make particular myths the subject of in the visual arts, the term ‘mythological’ is their representations? What stylistic and more distinct. It usually refers to a specific compositional decisions did the artists category of subject-matter. The imagery make? How far might these decisions have of ‘mythological’ works typically draws been informed by the specific functions upon stories or ‘myths’ from Greek and the works were intended to perform? Roman antiquity. Frequently concerning These sorts of questions are vital when the exploits of pagan gods, these myths exploring mythological works. Far from are best known through the surviving simple imitations or visual ‘re-tellings’ of work of ancient authors. Common known classical stories, the following case themes of mythological paintings include studies demonstrate how myths in the early the adventures from Ovid’s epic poem modern visual arts operated as active sites Metamorphoses; the exploits of the demi- for invention. god warrior Achilles from Homer’s Iliad; and the legendary story of the hero Aeneas The Death of Achilles by the seventeenth- from Virgil’s Aeneid. century Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens, is interesting in this regard [image 1]. Never Subjects like these are most commonly intended as a stand-alone painting, it is a found in the visual and decorative arts of modello made by Rubens and his studio early modern Europe. One major reason in the 1630s in preparation for a series of for this is the attention paid at the time to eight tapestries representing the life of the culture of classical antiquity. From the Achilles. Enlarged from an earlier sketch of closing decades of the fifteenth century the same subject, the Courtauld’s Death until the eighteenth century (and even of Achilles is the culminating scene. It beyond), a great cultural emphasis was depicts the moment in the Achilles story placed upon the remnants of the classical in which Paris kills him by shooting an world. Particularly in noble, intellectual arrow through his heel. Shown here in the and artistic circles, classical histories, temple of Apollo at Thymbra, this occurred literature and art provided an important whilst Achilles was making a sacrifice in focus for learning. Exact attitudes towards honour of his forthcoming marriage to these sources changed over the centuries. Polyxena, Princess of Troy. Achilles was However, there was a continual hope that a demi-god warrior who fought for the they would train early modern minds and Greeks in the Trojan War. This broke out societies to emulate ancient splendour and after Paris, Prince of Troy, abducted the success. As well as familiarising themselves beautiful Helen, wife to the Greek King with subjects from antique literature, early Menelaus. Thetis, Achilles’s sea-nymph modern artists would therefore study mother, dipped her son in the river Styx to surviving examples of ancient sculpture and make him invulnerable during battle. Only architecture. This was seen as particularly the heel by which she held him remained a important for the development of proper weak point, famously dubbed his ‘Achilles’ proportion, balance and beauty in their heel’. work. The way in which Rubens staged his Classical myths would have been designs for the tapestry demonstrates that immediately relevant to artists and patrons he intended to use the subject of Achilles Image 1: engaging within this intellectual world. as a ground upon which to emphasise Peter Paul Rubens Death of Achilles Seeing a painting representing an episode his own creative genius and learning. 1630-5 from a classical myth, often done all’antica, Particularly noticeable is how the action Oil on panel would conjure up memorable scenes from of the Death of Achilles is contained upon 107.1 x 109.2 cm Greek and Roman tales in the early modern a receded platform, set back from the Image 2: mind. But, crucially, this wasn’t all it could immediate foreground of the painting. This Johann König achieve. Emulation and knowledge of the platform is then framed in the foreground Latona Changing the Lycian Peasants into Frogs, 1610-13 ancient world provides a basic context by classical terms at either side, and by a Oil on copper through which we can begin to understand cartouche, two putti and two festoons at 18.5 x 25.4 cm THE PEASANTS OF OVID’S STORY ARE THE NATURAL INHABITANTS OF AN IDYLLIC RUSTIC LANDSCAPE, DESCRIBED IN GREAT DETAIL IN OVID’S NARRATIVE. ”

the top. The use of these motifs, common their subject. A prime example is Latona to classical architecture, immediately changing the Lycian peasants into frogs advertises Rubens’ wider knowledge of (1610-13) [image 2]. This small cabinet the antique world. But, by incorporating painting is attributed to Johann König, a these seemingly decorative elements, little-known German painter active in the he also managed to add another layer of early seventeenth century. It represents a significance to the content of his design. myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses where The classically-styled terms, for example, the goddess Latona, mother of Jupiter’s clearly represent the Greek gods, Venus twins Apollo and Diana, flees from Juno, and Apollo. These figures are significant Jupiter’s wronged and vengeful wife. Whilst with regards to the story of the painting. wandering the earth trying to find refuge, Venus, the goddess of love, and her she attempts to drink water from a pond in companion, Cupid allude to Achilles’ love Lycia. The peasants there refuse her access. for his wife to be, Polyxena. Apollo, the In revenge, Latona turns them into frogs deity of the Trojans, guided Paris’ arrow in and forever condemns them to swim in the killing Achilles. In the centre foreground of murky waters of ponds and rivers. the painting, in the gap created before the receded platform, Rubens also included A relatively unusual subject in the visual a motif of a fox devouring an eagle. This arts, other instances in which this subject additional device neatly encapsulates what is represented often put a great emphasis Rubens wanted to express as the moral upon the landscape. The peasants of of the tale: cunning overcomes strength. Ovid’s story are the natural inhabitants of In the myth, Paris, the inferior warrior, an idyllic rustic landscape, described in overcomes Achilles by underhanded great detail in Ovid’s narrative. In König’s means. version of the myth, the vast majority of the composition is similarly dedicated to Through giving all of his designs for an intricately detailed rendering of a forest the Achilles series theatrical frames, clearing at night. Bathed in moonlight, the and presenting their action on stage- heavenly illumination of the eerie clearing like constructions, Rubens effectively heightens the drama of the action, which emphasised his own role as the director is isolated in the centre foreground of the of a new production of the Achilles image. The potential offered by this setting myth. Each represented episode acts to experiment with a landscape theme may like a freeze-frame of a single scene in a well have been one of the reasons that the play. In the Death of Achilles, the exact myth of Latona was chosen as the subject moment Rubens decided to ‘freeze’ further of König’s painting. It was painted with oil demonstrates his creative skill. Achilles is on copper, which provided a glossy surface shown at a precise moment in between particularly suitable for landscape painting life and death; the arrow is firmly lodged with meticulous detail and dramatic through his ankle as he struggles to get lighting effects. to his feet. His companions at the temple are caught in the immediate throws of But König’s representation of the reaction whilst Paris and Apollo, to the left Latona myth also deserves attention for background of the composition, have not the presentation of its central action. yet turned to make their escape. Through Essentially, König assimilates all of the compositional decisions like these, Rubens important points from the tale into a single clearly strove to present a scene of the picture. Latona, who appears serene in this utmost possible dramatic tension. scene, is shown being refused a drink at the same time as the peasants are turning Unlike the modello, which belongs to a into frogs. According to the narrative, series of works representing a single story, a these things should happen sequentially, great number of early modern mythological one following another. Where Rubens was paintings were stand-alone treatments of able to present different episodes of his artist using the preliminary space of the paper to experiment with the best way to represent Marsyas. In the study to the left, he is sprawled on the floor, arms outstretched, with one leg tied to a tree trunk represented by a few faint lines. In the central study he is in a similar position, though this time with his leg held aloft by another figure, presumably Apollo, who bends over him to begin his unsavoury task. In the final small study, in the upper right hand corner of the sheet, a very sketchy Marsyas is presented upside down as he would appear fully suspended from the tree. At this stage Cigoli was clearly undecided about the exact moment of the story to represent. These rapid studies on paper made with pen, ink and wash, were crucial in helping him to develop his ideas.

This discussion has attempted to illuminate how Greek and Roman myths, frequently encountered in the early modern visual arts, were not just visual recitations of oft-rehearsed tales. Even within a broader context of knowledge about the culture of classical antiquity, early modern artists and patrons approached mythological subjects inventively. By focusing upon the above works from The Courtauld Gallery, we have myth in independent works, König, in his light and colour. The moment of Psyche’s seen some of the different ways in which visual ‘invention’ has tried to put as much discovery of Cupid by candlelight therefore artists could treat mythological subjects in information as possible into a single scene. offered him the perfect opportunity to experiment with contrasting colours and an original manner and use them to serve In other cases a single moment of a chosen sharp chiaroscuro. Inspired by Venetian their own, often diverse, purposes. myth may suit an artist’s needs, with little masters of the sixteenth century, such or no further need for explanation. This as Correggio, we see Reynolds focusing is demonstrated by Sir Joshua Reynolds’s the light in his picture upon his subjects, Cupid and Psyche (c.1789) [image 3]. An highlighting the pearlescent skin of the influential eighteenth-century English sleeping cupid. One contemporary critic painter and theorist, Reynolds had strong commented that Cupid and Psyche was views on the appropriate choice of subject ‘full of every beauty that flesh, colours and for any given painting. He claimed that contrast can give’. He further suggested subjects should be ‘full of grace and that the narrative subject of the myth, of majesty’ and commented that the painter’s lesser concern, was not strictly adhered theme ‘is generally supplied by the Poet to by Reynolds: ‘Psyche is, perhaps not or Historian’. But he warned that ‘as Psyche, but the charm of Cupid, and the the Painter speaks to the eye, a story in play of tints on his body are divine’. which fine feeling and curious sentiment is predominant, rather than palpable situation, gross interest and distinct passion, is not suited to his purpose’.

A story from the Latin novel, A Golden Ass, the myth of Cupid and Psyche tells how the god Cupid is enraptured by the beautiful mortal Psyche and arranges a lover’s tryst with her in his palace at night to hide his true identity. The following evening Psyche secretly creeps into her lover’s bedchamber where she finds him asleep. However, Cupid is awoken by a drop of oil which To add a final emphasis to this sense of spills from her lamp. Enraged, he flies away artists engaging in a creative process and it is only after a series of arduous trials with myths, one more work is worth that the lovers are reunited. A story full of briefly including here. TheThree Studies Image 3: human appeal, raw emotion and dramatic for the Flaying of Marsyas, attributed Joshua Reynolds to the Florentine painter Cigoli, is a suspense, Cupid and Psyche obviously Cupid and Psyche fulfilled Reynolds’s criteria as a subject fit drawing probably made in preparation c.1789 for a painting. Yet his Cupid and Psyche for a painting [image 4]. According to Oil on canvas further isolates the exact moment during the Ovidian myth, the satyr Marsyas 139.8 x 168.3 cm which Psyche discovers the true identity of unwisely ventured into a musical contest Image 4: with the god Apollo. When he lost, he her lover. Surrounded by darkness we see Cigoli Psyche holding a candle and looking at suffered the gruesome consequence Three Studies for the Flaying of Marsyas Cupid, at the point directly before the drop of being tied to a tree and flayed alive. 16th-17th century of wax alerts him to her presence. Next to nothing is known about the exact Pen and ink, watercolour and chalk on paper circumstances in which this drawing 13.6 x 20.2 cm Why did Reynolds freeze this particular was produced. But, crucially, it does moment? One likely reason is that at that demonstrate some of the work that went CURRICULUM LINKS: KS3+ particular time, around 1789, Reynolds was into developing a mythological subject Art and Design, History, Art History, and preoccupied with the representation of into an original composition. We see the other Humanities 4: MANET, DEGAS, RENOIR AND THE THEATRE OF EVERYDAY LIFE Caroline Levitt

THE PRIVATE MAN’S DRAWING ROOM WAS A BOX IN THE THEATRE OF THE WORLD WALTER BENJAMIN, 1935

”It is a widespread myth that Impressionist paintings were all completed rapidly, without preparatory studies, in the open air and in front of the subject they depict. It is another myth that Édouard Manet was an Impressionist. In fact, Manet was of a slightly older generation than the group of young artists who exhibited together for the first time in 1874 and who were to become known as ‘Impressionists’; whilst he influenced and encouraged their practice, he never exhibited alongside them. Impressionism was a movement that encouraged the depiction of the moment, that was both controversial and reflective the 1882 Salon. Beautifully painted bottles whether that meant the effects of light at of the way in which Manet sought to of Champagne, chandeliers, well-dressed certain times of day or the class-bound challenge artistic convention. Aside from Parisians and round moon-like electric daily life of late nineteenth-century Paris. the shock factor of including naked women lights tell us that this painting is set in an Several of the key Impressionist painters, alongside clothed men, critics took offence opulent, bustling, modern interior. The notably Pierre Auguste Renoir and Edgar at the sketchily-painted background of the Folies-Bergère was the largest venue of its Degas, worked predominantly in their composition and the inelegant body and kind in Paris, and we are probably given studios, often from sketches produced confrontational gaze of the woman in the a view into a café-concert, an evening of rapidly in front of the subject which were foreground. The fact that the nude was entertainment provided alongside a meal, then developed and combined to create an accepted and highly regarded subject with drinks available all evening from canvases that may look like momentary of painting and that nude figures could various bars. Manet’s choice of viewpoint snapshots but that have been carefully only be rendered if naked models posed may initially be confusing. Where is the composed to give that impression. for clothed (usually male) artists and art barmaid standing, what is the large band This does not take away from the fact students, was an irony that would not have of pink that cuts across the composition that Impressionist painting aimed in its gone unnoticed by the jury of the annual behind her, and what exactly are the two technique as well as its subject matter to Paris Salon, who rejected the painting. green marks in the top left corner of the emulate the characteristics of modern life: Manet often used close friends and canvas? Manet has focused in on one of whilst the speed of the modern city may be relatives as models in his work, reinforcing several bars, which is situated at the back reflected in the sketchiness of Impressionist the notion that the world in which we live of a section of a horseshoe-shaped theatre, brushwork, the theatricality of modern is a form of theatre. The nude woman in with tiered balconies but no fixed seating: life, with different costumes and activities the foreground is a composite of Manet’s the pink band is a gallery. In fact all the standing for different social groups, and wife, Suzanne Leenhoff, and his favourite activity behind the barmaid is a reflection in spectatorship or ‘people-watching’ the model, Victorine Meurent, whilst Manet’s a vast mirror, at the bottom edge of which recognised activity of the flIaneur, is brother, Gustave, and his future brother is a gilt frame, parallel to the marble bar. reflected in the practice of using models in law, Ferdinand Leenhoff, posed for the The evening’s entertainment appears to as the actors and actresses on the sets of male figures. be a circus act, and the two green marks Impressionist paintings. This is true also of are the feet of a trapeze artist. However the work of Manet. Manet’s last large painting, undertaken Manet suggests that the real spectacle is when he was practically an invalid, saw this interchange between the barmaid and Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) him once again affiliated with the official a client – he allows us to see both figures [image 1], was mentioned in the Parisian art world: A Bar at the Folies- as a result of the reflection, the accuracy of introductory essay to this pack as a painting Bergère (1881-2) [image 2] was shown in which has been much disputed. HER FACIAL EXPRESSION SEEMS MELANCHOLY, AND HER HANDS ARE UN-GLOVED, A SIGN CERTAINLY OF HER POSITION AS A WORKING GIRL AND PERHAPS ALSO OF AVAILABILITY ”

The writer Guy de Maupassant visited the was also a late addition, and her active Folies-Bergère and described seeing ‘a looking is a challenge to passive femininity. painted tribe of prostitutes on the prowl’. Thus we can see that Manet went through Whilst there would indeed have been a process of refinement to reach his final actual prostitutes seeking custom, many composition, which is the most daring of all sections of modern Parisian society are the options he had conceived. represented here. The barmaid is of a lower class than the people she serves, and is If the theatre is a slightly hidden theme dressed up in the costume provided for her in Manet’s Bar, two earlier Impressionist by her employers - in fact, the model was paintings, both painted and exhibited a genuine employee of the establishment, in 1874, deal with the subject head-on. named Suzon, and she posed for Manet in Renoir’s La Loge (The Theatre Box) [image his studio behind a carefully reconstructed 3] was included in the first Impressionist bar. Her costume in one sense allows her group exhibition at the studio of the to fit in with her surroundings; however her photographer Nadar, on the Boulevard cheeks are reddened by her evening’s work, des Capucines, Paris, whilst Degas’ Two her facial expression seems melancholy, Dancers on the Stage [image 4] was shown and her hands are un-gloved, a sign at the dealer Durand-Ruel’s London gallery. certainly of her position as a working girl The Boulevard des Capucines was one FURTHER READING: and perhaps also of availability. She leans of the new Grands Boulevards elegantly Walter Benjamin, Paris: Capital of the towards the top-hatted man, who may constructed as part of the modernisation Nineteenth Century (1935), simply be purchasing a drink, but may very plans of Baron Haussmann between 1853 available online at: http://nowherelab. well be seeking to purchase a little more and 1870. It ran into the Place de l’Opéra, dreamhosters.com/paris%20capital.pdf for later in the evening: barmaids, artists’ the site of the new opera house known as Bradford Collins (ed.), Twelve Views models and prostitutes were considered the Palais Garnier, completed in 1875 after of Manet’s Bar, (Princeton: Princeton similarly to one another as girls who sold fifteen years of building. As such, it is a University Press, 1996). either goods or themselves. In light of this, street that resonates with the Impressionist the bar that cuts across the foreground and agenda: the spectacle of the opera blends Belinda Thomson, Impressionism: Origins, makes the woman unattainable seems to neatly with the spectacle of the pavement. Practice, Reception (London: Thames and be an ironic and fragile barrier. Whilst neither Renoir’s theatre box nor Hudson, 2000) Degas’ dancers could have been set in the Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen and Barnaby Far from being quickly and spontaneously Palais Garnier, which was inaugurated the Wright (eds.), Renoir at the Theatre: painted, this is the result of careful year after the paintings were completed, Looking at ’La Loge’ (London: Courtauld preparatory studies, and the reconstruction they too include this blending of spectator Gallery, 2008) of the bar that Manet set up in his studio and spectacle. Indeed, the theatre was an was an elaborate solution to painting ‘from intensely modern pastime, often attended by a well-heeled audience and performed Image 1 life’. However that is not to say that Manet Édouard Manet, did not make changes as he went along. by a lower class of actors and dancers. Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, c.1863-8 In an earlier sketch, the barmaid’s arms are A large number of famous operas and Oil on canvas crossed in front of her body, a gesture that ballets were written in this period: Verdi, for 89.5 x 116.5 cm might have suggested patient waiting for example, composed La Traviata in 1853 and Image 2 the customer to make up his mind. In an Aida in 1871, whist Bizet wrote The Pearl Édouard Manet Fishers for the Theatre-Lyrique in 1863, and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1881-2 x-radiograph of the final canvas, we can Oil on canvas see that Manet initially painted the barmaid Carmen was first performed at the Opéra 96 x 130 cm clasping her left hand with her right Comique on March 3, 1875. Image 3 hand well above the wrist, a gesture that Pierre Auguste Renoir emphasised her glovelessness, but that Degas’ Two Dancers on the Stage gives La Loge, 1874. concealed her sexualised tightly corseted us an insight into the ‘real’ spectacle: the Oil on canvas torso. The final pose of her hands could stage area of the theatre. For his models, 80 x 63.5 cm suggest a gesture of impatience, vulgarity, he used actual dancers, whom he observed Image 4 forwardness and confrontation. The woman backstage and during rehearsals thanks to Edgar Degas Two Dancers on a Stage, c.1874. with a lorgnette in the background, just specially purchased permits. We see the Oil on canvas to the left of the barmaid’s left shoulder, stage not straight on, but from above and 61.5 x 46 cm the performance, the gentleman looking around the theatre through his opera glasses, perhaps perusing other women who sit, like the lady in Renoir’s box, ready to be scrutinised and appreciated but demurely refusing the opportunity to actively look back. The woman rests her opera glasses on the cushion of the box, a sign of passivity rather than confrontation. This couple, it seems, could not be further removed from the figures in Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe. However, this too is a construct, and the figures are once again actors drawn from Renoir’s own entourage: the woman is modelled by Nini Lopez, one of Renoir’s favourite models from Montmartre who was nick-named ‘fish-face’, and the man is Renoir’s brother, Édouard. Renoir picks up on the fact that theatre boxes were as much places to sit in order to be seen as they were places from which to watch a performance: a lot could be understood about the social status, availability and public face of those who sat in boxes by observing the type of box they had rented, who they were with and the outfit they were wearing. For example, the visibility of this well-dressed couple, the woman carefully made up and presented, is in stark contrast to the effect of looking at one of the side-on boxes with a grille across the front, which may have held a couple who could not acceptably be seen in public together.

Renoir’s couple seems to stand for a type of spectator, as opposed to being a specific portrait, and this lack of specificity perhaps in one sense separates his canvas from Degas’ Two Dancers, with its identifiable ballet. Theatre itself is a genre that draws often on types, represented by fictional to the side, as though we are sitting in a and the rose hairpieces of dancers from characters, who may have much to reveal box. This angle not only lends the painting the Ballet des roses, a ballet section added about reality but who are a guise rather a snapshot quality, but also immediately to Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni (1787) for than an explicit critique of anyone in involves us in the image, suggesting Degas’ performances by the Paris Opera from 1866 particular; it is for this reason that theatre depiction to be real rather than carefully set onwards. The stage flats suggest foliage, has often been used as a ‘safe’ form up. However a sense of posed theatricality which would have been appropriate to the of political satire. More than this, the is at the heart of Degas’ subject matter, and garden setting of the Ballet des roses. theatre provided a space not only for the he could not have completed this canvas entertainment of a staged performance, in the theatre itself, but back in his studio but also for the more spontaneous social after the event. Whilst these dancers are entertainment provided by the activities clearly costumed and mid-dance, a third and interactions of different classes figure, who does not seem to be part of and genders. Renoir, with his carefully the main action, is partially visible at the constructed and intricately painted canvas, far left of the canvas, implying that this is plays on this sense of spontaneity, using an image of a dress rehearsal rather than a props, costumes and set to suggest final performance, and that Degas’ interest general ideas about the nineteenth-century lies not in the polished finished product, Parisian public. For Manet, Degas and but in the process of creating it and in Renoir, then, painting was an opportunity the incidental activity of those involved. to stage a version of everyday life that Degas’ composition teeters between being could appear so real that it has often been casual and carefully constructed, as do taken as document, when in fact it is a the dancers themselves: in spite of their means of constructing an impression of exquisite costumes, these are probably real life as seen by the artist. The ‘reality’ of young working-class dancers from the Impressionist painting is yet another story corps de ballet as opposed to principals for us to unravel. as, according to contemporary ideas of physiognomy in which Degas was greatly interested, their features suggest poverty.

For many years it was assumed that Degas’ depiction of two dancers on the stage was Renoir gives us a view of the other side of non-specific, and that the ballet in which theatrical activity: that of the spectators, in they perform was unidentifiable. However this case apparently an aristocratic couple recent work has shown that the costumes in an expensive box from which the stage of the dancers, especially the one on the could be seen straight-on. However, this CURRICULUM LINKS: KS3+ right, match the bell-shaped tutus with impression is undercut in a number of ways. Art and Design, History, Art History, and dark flower sepals falling from the waist Firstly, the couple seems disinterested in other Humanities 5: TAKEN AT FACE VALUE? SELF-STAGING AND MYTH-MAKING IN THE WORK OF GAUGUIN AND VAN GOGH Caroline Levitt

In 2010, two major exhibitions took place in London. The one, Tate Modern’s Gauguin: Maker of Myth, sought to self-consciously examine the ways in which Gauguin was a storyteller, not only in the way he wove a narrative through his paintings, but also in the way he presented himself and lived his life. The show was conceived as an antidote of sorts to what the catalogue described as the ‘embarrassment’ of former critics at the way in which Gauguin perpetuated a myth of Polynesia that was inaccurate and fantastic. It included woodcarvings and writings that demonstrated the extent of his interest in ‘making a myth’ with his paintings and activities. The second exhibition, The Royal Academy’s The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters drew on a vast collection of correspondence, especially between Van Gogh and his brother Theo (who was Vincent’s tenacious dealer-cum-sponsor) to suggest a form of documentation of the artist’s life that could somehow transcend perpetuated myths of a tortured genius in order to present the viewing public with a more accurate picture of the man and his work. The Tate exhibition was driven by the works that Gauguin produced and the themes that cut across these; the Royal Academy show was driven by an interest in biography, and an attempt to uncover the man beneath what are generally considered to be intensely ‘expressive’ canvases. The introduction to the catalogue for the Royal Academy exhibition conceded:

Van Gogh’s correspondence, however captivating in many respects, should not be read as a diary - just as a self-portrait, no matter how good the likeness, should not necessarily be regarded as a faithful reflection of its maker. Both letter-writer and artist paintings, and it is perhaps for this reason who seem most sensational and romantic; seek to achieve an effect, to show a that two intriguing sources, regarded as Cézanne, by comparison, is characterised consciously chosen side of themselves. coming from the context of popular culture as a balanced classicist, and his paintings rather than ‘Art History’, are available to tend to be examined more for their formal As seen in the previous essay, ‘Manet, us: Vincente Minnelli’s filmLust for Life qualities than for the biography behind Degas, Renoir and the Theatre of Everyday (1956) and Martin Gayford’s novelistic them. In fact both form and biography Life’, nothing can be taken at face value, account of the period that Van Gogh and are essential to the understanding of all and what we understand by the term ‘real’ Gauguin spent working together in 1888, three painters, and this essay seeks to is by no means straightforward. The ‘real’ The Yellow House (2006). The two artists break down the image of Gauguin and Van Van Gogh was as much a myth-maker as are often presented as outsiders in modern Gogh as depicted by popular culture and was Gauguin. society, despite their affiliation with other their own paintings and writings and to artists of the time, and as driven by a comprehend the extent to which all these Both Gauguin and Van Gogh have long passion for creativity in spite of a constant things can be seen as ‘myths’ that often been painters whose lives have held a haunting sense of inadequacy. They are conceal as much as they reveal about the certain appeal for the viewers of their the two out of the Post-Impressionist trio paintings themselves. Minnelli, in Lust For Life, portrays Van moments in the film version, dramatic Gogh as a misunderstood, tortured artist, music heralds impending doom, such that a failed preacher, gentle and genuine at even the periods of exuberant activity show heart and yet driven mad by the pressure of signs of ending in tears - or rather in the self-expression. In October 1888, Gauguin famous slicing of Van Gogh’s left ear. Was it moved to Arles to join Van Gogh in what the debate over the importance of nature was to be known as ‘The Yellow House’, versus imagination that caused Van Gogh which Van Gogh had rented and was to mutilate his ear on 23 December 1888? using as a home and studio. Vincent had If Minnelli’s film is to be believed, it was this written several times to Theo of his desire that tipped the already unstable Van Gogh to encourage Gauguin down to the south over the edge and that caused Gauguin to and how he dreamt of setting up an artists’ decide to spend the night in a hotel, only community there; the nine weeks that returning the following morning to discover Gauguin and Van Gogh eventually spent his friend’s violent actions. Films often in each other’s company have become condense events for reasons of length and infamous. Both Minnelli and Gayford convenience, and Gayford in The Yellow present Van Gogh as a nervous host, House elaborates further, describing the intimidated by the forthright attitude of way that Van Gogh presented the mutilated his visitor. The one passionately engrossed part of his ear to a local prostitute, in nature and irretrievably irrational, the Rachel, and surmising that one possible other pedantically tidy and obsessed with significance of his actions in Van Gogh’s ON THE LEFT, A BLANK the imagination, it seems that in spite of mind might have been the biblical link to their similarities, the differences between Saint Peter’s mutilation of the centurion’s CANVAS SUGGESTS THAT the two men were never to be overcome. ear in the garden of Gethsemane. Gayford, THERE IS MORE WORK TO As panning close-ups of Van Gogh’s most however, also makes it clear that the events COME FROM THIS ARTIST, famous paintings fill the screen at relevant of the night can only be pieced together AS INDEED THERE WAS, AND A JAPANESE PRINT ON THE RIGHT RELATES TO ONE OF HIS GREAT ENTHUSIASMS, THIS IS A MANIPULATED COPY OF A REAL PRINT BY SATO TORAKIYO ”

Image 1: Vincent Van Gogh Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889 Oil on canvas 60.5 x 50 cm Image 2: Sato Torakiyo Geishas in a Landscape, c.1870-80 Woodcut 60 x 43 cm

CURRICULUM LINKS: KS3+ Art and Design, English, Film Studies, History, Art History, and other Humanities A SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAIN IN THE BACKGROUND SEEMS TO RECALL MOUNT FUJI. EVEN THE MOST APPARENTLY DESCRIPTIVE OF LANDSCAPES CANNOT BE VIEWED STRAIGHTFORWARDLY ”

from two slightly conflicting accounts shows that the context is important. Van provided, retrospectively, by Gauguin Gogh seems almost proud of his actions, himself. and it is true that today he is almost as well-known for cutting his ear as for the Early on in his book, Gayford comments motifs of his most famous paintings. Van that ‘One thing [Gauguin and Van Gogh] Gogh is wearing his overcoat and a hat: is had in common was an intense fantasy life it cold in the studio, or is this a sign of a in which their own real lives merged with lack of permanence? His facial expression their reading.’ Their reading included the is still and melancholy, as though he is Bible and ancient myths, as well as more contemplating his position as an artist, and contemporary French fiction such as Victor yet the composition is confidently, almost Hugo’s Les Misérables and the novels of defiantly, constructed. On the left, a blank Émile Zola; of course both Hugo and Zola canvas suggests that there is more work to could themselves be read as drawing on come from this artist, as indeed there was, biblical or mythological themes to in turns and a Japanese print on the right relates heroise and ridicule their characters. Thus to one of his great enthusiasms. This is a the books that seem to have informed manipulated copy of a real print by Sato Gauguin and Van Gogh’s lives and work Torakiyo [image 2], which Van Gogh owned are caught up in this multi-layered process and had pinned up in his studio. In order to of myth-making that seems so impossible fit his own face into the composition, Van to unpick. Another even more sinister Gogh has shifted the figures and Mount explanation for Van Gogh’s presentation Fuji across to the right. Japan, much like of his ear to Rachel could be related to the Arles, was an exotic place of escape in FURTHER READING: Japanese custom of shinju, a culture of Van Gogh’s imagination, and the two are Nienke Bakker, Leo Jansen and Hans refined prostitution based on the mutual condensed here, much as they are in The Luijten, ‘Van Gogh’s letters: Windows to a exchange of love tokens. This escalated Crau at Arles: Peach Trees in Blossom Universe’ in The Real Van Gogh (London: from love letters, often sealed with drops of (1889) [image 3], also in the Courtauld’s Royal Academy of Arts, 2010). blood, to snippets of hair, finger nails and collection, in which a snow-capped Roger Fry, ‘The Post-Impressionists’ (1910) even severed fingers. Van Gogh described mountain in the background seems to in: A Roger Fry Reader, Christopher Reed the part of his ear that he handed to the recall Mount Fuji. Even the most apparently (ed.) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, prostitute Rachel as a ‘precious’ object to descriptive of landscapes cannot be viewed 1996), pp. 81-5. be treasured. It is hard to know whether straightforwardly. Van Gogh can have been aware of this Paul Gauguin, Noa Noa (1893-4) - link, but the importance of Japan to his art Similarly, when Gauguin claims in a letter available to download in the 1919 English is something that cannot be ignored and to his friend and dealer Daniel de Monfried translation at http://manybooks.net/titles/ that can best be seen by looking at the that with Nevermore [image 4] he intended gauguinpother06noa_noa.html paintings themselves. to use a ‘simple nude’ to suggest ‘a certain Martin Gayford, The Yellow House (London: savage luxuriousness of a bygone age’, we Penguin, 2006) Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Bandaged have to ask what exactly is ‘simple’ about Ear (1889) [image 1] depicts the artist in the this composition. The figure is Pahura, Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven (1845), January following the events of December Gauguin’s Tahitian wife - he had left behind viewable online as an e-book, with parallel 1888, a point at which Van Gogh seems to his European family, including his wife French and English and illustrations by wish to reinstate himself as a painter, blank Mette, when he embarked for Polynesia, Manet at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ canvas at the ready and caught between and his stiff sculptural depiction of Mette files/14082/14082-h/14082-h.htm the studio indoors and the natural world [image 5] could not be further removed Belinda Thomson, ‘Navigating the myth’ that so inspired him outside. However from his painting of Pahura. What does in Gauguin: Maker of Myth (London: Tate, even here, we are presented not so much the expression on Pahura’s face stand for? 2010). with an accurate depiction of Van Gogh in Who are the two figures in the background, his studio, but with a series of clues and and of what are they speaking? The whole symbols. The self-portrait was painted composition suggests a narrative that is FURTHER VIEWING: shortly after Van Gogh returned home not explained, and takes on a sinister air, Vincente Minnelli, Lust for Life (1956) from hospital and the prominent bandage especially given its title. ‘Nevermore’ is a (available on DVD) space to contemplate the extraordinary characteristics of the canvas as a physical object; Alysia Sawicka’s essay will examine further the ways in which Gauguin’s The Dream, for example, is as interesting for its surface texture and pigments as for the picture painted on that surface. Neither Gauguin nor Van Gogh ever sacrificed subject matter completely, but this does not mean that we should see the intense if fantastic narratives of their paintings as an ‘embarrassment’. On the contrary: their willingness to paint in such an honest manner, being transparent about the fact that what we are looking at is in no sense ‘real’, perhaps lends some authenticity to the multi-layered myth that we have been trying to unravel. recurring line, spoken by a raven who visits Was it, then, Gauguin or the island that a poet on cold winter evening in Edgar had been spoilt by the ‘absurdities of Allen Poe’s poem The Raven (1845). The civilisation’? To what extent can we poem had been translated into French, understand Gauguin’s attempted escape first by Charles Baudelaire and then by to a new place as an attempt to flee Stéphane Mallarmé, and would have been the very self which seemed to weigh so part of Gauguin’s repertoire of reading. heavily also on Van Gogh? Perhaps the Whereas the bird in Poe’s poem represents ‘real’ link between these two artists is not the poet’s melancholy remembrance of their designation as Post-Impressionists, his lost love, Gauguin literally translates it nor their troubled attitude to life, but the into a colourful, toy-like creature that sits fact that their mythical self-presentation is in the window frame; he described it as almost impossible to extricate from what ‘the Devil’s bird’. Perhaps the young girl we know of the facts of their paintings. who lies in the foreground is being visited by unpleasant memories and overheard It seems that one of the few routes snippets of conversation. left open to us for navigating this self- presentation is that of form after all. Perhaps, in fact, she stands almost as an Stylistically, both Gauguin and Van allegory for the discomforting nature of Gogh distanced themselves from the Tahiti, where Gauguin had arrived for the Impressionists. As Roger Fry put it in his first time in 1891. Gauguin wrote in his catalogue essay for the 1910 Grafton poetic account of his exotic travels, Noa Galleries exhibition Manet and the Post- Noa (1893-4) that: Impressionists, ‘the Post-Impressionists consider the Impressionists too naturalistic’. GAUGUIN’S STIFF Life at Papeete soon became a By this, he meant to emphasise the ways SCULPTURAL DEPICTION burden.It was Europe - the Europe in which Impressionists such as Monet OF METTE, HIS EUROPEAN which I had thought to shake off had sought to depict exact moments of - and that under the aggravating the day or season, prioritising the effects WIFE, COULD NOT BE circumstances of colonial snobbism, of lighting sometimes to the detriment of FURTHER REMOVED FROM and the imitation, grotesque even clear shapes and outlines. Gauguin, Van to the point of caricature, of our Gogh and indeed Cézanne, on the other HIS PAINTING OF PAHURA, customs, fashions, vices, and hand, were more interested in defined HIS TAHITIAN WIFE absurdities of civilization. outlines and in the expressive qualities of colour and brushwork than they were in Was I to have made this far journey, painting a picture that seemed ‘accurate’ only to find the very thing which I in terms of depicting an exact moment. had fled? Gauguin’s flat areas of colour outlined in Papeete was the capital of the island of black, Van Gogh’s swirling brushwork and ” Tahiti, yet Gauguin describes it here with Cézanne’s multi-faceted surfaces created disdain, as a French colony, and far from using a square brush or palette knife are an innocent and idyllic place of escape. the characteristics that most define them. Despite his translation of Poe’s tale into If the Impressionists sought to capture a colourful and decorative setting in what they saw around them with as Nevermore, Gauguin seems to have been much exactitude as possible, the Post- unable to shake off the sinister melancholy Impressionists sought to digest what they sense of the original poem. Later in Noa saw around them and paint it in a way that Noa, however, Gauguin writes of the would analyse and internalise it, subjecting fecund natural landscape of the island, it to the possibilities of either symbolism Image 3: with its topless women and their appealing (in the case of Van Gogh and Gauguin) or near-abstraction (in the case of Cézanne). Vincent Van Gogh closeness to nature. Reflecting on his own The Crau at Arles: Peach trees in Blossom, 1889. place in this society, he comments: In so doing, these three artists were being Oil on canvas incredibly modern - indeed they have been 65 x 81 cm Here was I, a civilized man, distinctly seen as amongst the first in a long line Image 4: inferior in these things to the savages. of painters, following Manet, who began Paul Gauguin I envied them. I looked at their happy, to emphasise the flatness of the canvas Nevermore, 1897 peaceful life round about me, making and the qualities of paint over content, Oil on canvas no further effort than was essential thus being realistic about the limitations 60.5 x 116 cm for their daily needs, without the least of painting. Canvases were no longer Image 5: care about money. To whom were they supposed to trick the viewer into thinking Paul Gauguin Portrait of Mette Gauguin, 1877 to sell, when the gifts of Nature were that a real event was unfurling before Marble within the reach of every one? them, but were to provide the viewer with 34 x 26.5 x 18.5 cm 6: THE MATERIAL LANGUAGE OF PAINTINGS: CONSERVATION AND TECHNICAL ART HISTORY Alysia Sawicka

The reflection of reality has occupied many artists for centuries. It could be argued that this pursuit links the studious application of Leonardo da Vinci (who sought to understand the complexity of the human anatomy through dissection in order to accurately depict it) with, conversely, the Impressionists’ experimentation with colour and tone in their plein air sketching (an attempt to capture a fleeting moment in perpetually changing nature). However, art historians have long argued for an understanding and exploration of paintings that goes beyond an oversimplified perception of artworks as representations of reality. They have reasoned that paintings are complex documents that can be read in multiple ways as opposed to straightforward technical exercises in reflecting reality.

Paintings provide an insight into the intentions and preoccupations of the artist who executed them and into those of the patron who commissioned them. They also serve as a commentary on contemporary society, revealing through the choice of subject matter and the manner of its depiction, political, philosophical, religious and socio-economic context. What’s more, paintings are not simply two-dimensional images. They are three-dimensional physical objects whose materiality is tantamount to our experience of paintings ‘in the flesh’. The materials from which paintings are created can tell us much about the accessibility of substances and technological innovations, which broadened the variety of materials on offer to the artist. In short, every painting is endowed with a wealth of information that can be unlocked through careful, technical study and interpretation.

It is the role of a paintings conservator not only to structurally stabilise paintings and preserve them for future generations, but also to present paintings in a way that enables viewers to decipher contextual clues that are hidden to the naked eye. In order to make informed treatment Paul Gauguin decisions, technical analysis is often Image 1: undertaken to better understand the Te Rerioa (The Dream), 1897 material object. The methods of analysis Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 130.2 cm Paul Cézanne Image 2: Image 4: employed enable us not only to understand X-radiograph of Te Rerioa Man with a pipe, 1892-6 the surface of the object, but also to Image 3: Oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm discover what lies beneath uncovering The Haystacks, 1889 Image 5: information that can help us to understand Oil on canvas, 92 x 73.3 cm Infra-red reflectogram ofMan with a pipe LIKE MANY ARTISTS OF THE PERIOD, GAUGUIN’S GENERAL PREFERENCE WAS FOR ABSORBENT GROUNDS COMPOSED OF CHALK AND GELATIN ” the artist’s process and how the painting have used the preparation of the canvas process, as illustrated by the study of has altered through the years. as an opportunity to smooth out the rough Cézanne’s paintings. texture of its coarse surface, he instead The appearance of any painting is not appears to exacerbate its texture with simply governed by the finishing strokes of this uneven application, suggesting his paint. It is also dependent on the buildup engagement with the differing qualities of of materials beneath, each layer of which the unusual support. contributes to the appearance of the final surface. Even the first step that an artist takes when starting a painting, the choice of support, affects the final surface. Typical options are canvas or a wood panel, though artists have used a range of supports according to cost, availability, and desired effect. In most instances, the simple task of examining the reverse of the painting will clarify the support chosen though there are often complicating factors such as the alteration of the original support or its adhesion to a newer secondary support.

This is precisely the case in Paul Gauguin’s In Man with a Pipe (1892-6) [image 4], Te Rerioa (The Dream, 1897) [image infrared reflectography reveals a series 1] which has been adhered to another of sketchy lines, roughly indicating the lining canvas in a past conservation positioning of the man’s features and treatment. In this instance it is possible to the contours of his clothing [Image 5]. examine the support and its preparation These lines are most prominent in the through x-radiography [image 2]. In the man’s left eye, which includes two distinct x-radiograph one can clearly see the Like many artists of the period, Gauguin’s straight pencil lines marking the top of pronounced weave of the coarse, open general preference was for absorbent the sitter’s eyelids, whilst broader, blacker weave canvas, dotted with large dark spots grounds composed of chalk and gelatin, lines correspond to the shadow between indicative of the slumps of poor quality as was used for Haystacks (1889) [image 3]. the man’s nose and his left eye. This canvas. Though Gauguin had made a The use of a lead white oil ground in this demonstrates that Cézanne used both conscious choice when he and Van Gogh instance may suggest that the artist wanted graphite pencil and thicker charcoal stick had experimented with ‘very strong canvas’ to use the opacity of lead white to show off as drawing media, corroborated by the during a painting trip at Arles, the choice the colours of the subsequent paint layers presence of fine, unbound black pigment for Te Rerioa, painted in Tahiti during the to their best advantage; alternatively it particles directly on top of the ground layer. artist’s time in the South Seas, was likely may be that the material was more readily also dictated in part by availability and available at the time. The latter provides a cost; lack of supplies may well have caused convincing explanation in light of the fact the artist to turn to locally available sacking that Gauguin executed the work in only material. ten days, when he took advantage of a ship’s delay to paint and send back another Without the luxury of commercially picture. produced canvases, Gauguin had to prepare his own makeshift canvases for Once the support is chosen, an artist can painting. In the x-radiograph, regular turn to constructing the composition of the arcing strokes that do not correspond to painting, which is often initially sketched the composition evidence Gauguin’s use out on the support before colours and of a lead white ground, which has been forms are blocked in. This initial sketch is vigorously and unevenly applied with a typically executed in a carbon-containing knife. These arcs, most visible in the lower material, such as graphite, ink or paint, right corner, are caused by the scraping in which case it can be visualised with of the knife and the variation in their infrared reflectography. The way in which direction indicates that Gauguin turned the underdrawing corresponds to the final the canvas or changed position whilst appearance can be particularly helpful in applying the ground. Whilst Gauguin could terms of understanding the artist’s working Relating this initial sketch to the subsequent layers of paint, it is evident that whilst some drawing lines are obliterated by opaque paint layers others, such as the contour line indicating the join of the waistcoat, were reiterated a number of times in the painting stages. Edges are repeatedly adjusted as the painting proceeds so that what were originally black contours later consist of greens, blues and reds. Cézanne’s practice blurred distinctions between drawing and painting, colour and line [image 6]. In this way, his working methods can be seen to challenge the notions of drawing in nineteenth- century France, as advocated by the École des Beaux-Arts (from which Cézanne was twice rejected): academic theory insisted on invisible execution and the dominance of line over colour.

much later stages of execution. Further as Gauguin searched for a harmonious examination of Gauguin’s Haystacks reveals composition, abandoning some aspects a number of pentimenti. Notably, a number at the drawing stage (such as the leg of changes were made to the backs of the beneath the neck of the blue cow) and two cows in the foreground: a profusion of some aspects during the painting process Progression from the initial drawing stage lines is visible with infrared reflectography, (interestingly cross-sectional analysis to completion of the painting can vary and there was originally an additional reveals that the blue cow was also originally widely, not only due to artists’ individual woman standing upright to the left of red). In response to the final arrangement working practice but also due to the nature the pair of women on the right [image 9]. of the cows, much lower than originally of each specific painting. In another of designed, it may be suggested that Cézanne’s paintings, The Card Players Gauguin altered the standing figure to [image 7], relatively little dry underdrawing make compositional sense of the picture. can be positively identified from the The effect of these alterations, with the infrared imaging [image 8]. This painting oblique angles of the cows’ backs and the is one of five ‘Card Player’ paintings lyrical arcs of the women’s arms, is to place produced sometime in the period between emphasis on the surface of the painting, 1890 and 1900, for which numerous related flattening the image and accentuating studies of particular sitters and objects in pattern across the picture plane. This the composition exist. Other versions of reflects Gauguin’s development of a new the composition show free and sketchy decorative style in art based on areas of underdrawing and numerous alterations pure colour, strong lines and an almost and adjustments that the Courtauld Card two-dimensional arrangement of parts. Players lack; therefore we might reasonably He referred to the style as Synthetism, conclude that Cézanne was surer of himself by which he meant a style of art in which by the time he painted the Courtauld piece the form (i.e. colour, planes and lines), is and that this is possibly the last of the synthesized with the major idea or feeling series. of the subject.

In stark contrast, examination of Nevermore [see chapter 5 for image] With infrared it is possible to make out demonstrates no visible changes from the her eyes and even the top of her nose, underdrawing to the finished work, perhaps seen in three-quarter profile, suggesting unsurprisingly given that Gauguin reported that the figure was established with detail. that like Te Rerioa he painted Nevermore This appears to be corroborated with the evidence provided by an x-radiograph which demonstrates that Gauguin initially painted in the figure and thus had to apply an opaque layer of paint – probably a Paul Cézanne mixture of lead white and chrome yellow – Image 6: , 1892-6 (close-up) in order to block out the figure. Man with a pipe Oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm Connecting the available evidence, Image 7: which suggests that such changes The Card Players, c.1892-6 were made at a fairly late stage of the Oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm painting’s development, it is possible to assess what effects such alterations Image 8: have had on the final appearance of the Infra-red detail image of The Card Players Alterations to a painting’s conception painting and conjecture as to Gauguin’s Paul Gauguin do not only occur in the initial stages motives. Changes to the cows evidence Image 9: of drawing and modelling, but also at the formulation of ideas on the canvas, Infra-red image of The Haystacks BENEATH NEVERMORE LIES A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PAINTING... ”

accidental or as the result of vandalism. Consequently, paintings often have a secondary physical history of restoration. However even without such interventions, paintings perpetually change. From the moment the artist applies a paint stroke complex chemical interactions occur quickly in order to send it back to France This reuse of the canvas is indicative of between the paint film, pigment particles, with another set of paintings and feared Gauguin’s restricted access to materials as medium and atmospheric components, that, despite a good finish, it was painted previously discussed. which in the short term allow the painting rather badly as a result. However, what the to dry but in the long term can lead to x-radiograph does reveal is that beneath When attempting to unravel the intricate degradation. As oil paint ages, it becomes Nevermore lies a completely different network of information that paintings hold more transparent, resulting in the greater painting [image 10]. Forms of what appear scholars can look to the physical object visibility of underlying layers as in the to be trees are visible across the centre for some form of truth about how artists pentimenti in the cows’ backs in Haystacks. of the canvas, whilst horizontal lines in worked and why. However even beyond Pigments themselves can also discolour, the upper right may indicate a receding the artists’ interaction with a painting, sometimes leading to radical changes in landscape, similar to that depicted in Te it will continue to be subject to physical appearance. For example examination of Rerioa. Samples from the painting analysed changes that give it a unique history that Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Bandaged in cross-section illustrate that Gauguin impacts upon the way we see it today. Most Ear [see chapter 5 for image] reveals that applied a lead white ground over this obvious might be human intervention, two kinds of yellow pigment have been landscape painting to provide a blank ranging from repeated cycles of cleaning used in the painting - appearing grey or support on which to execute Nevermore. to tears, losses and other damage, either black respectively when viewed under ultraviolet light [image 11]; both have deteriorated. The chrome yellow paint of the background appears grey at the surface whilst the deeper yellow used in the Japanese print has browned, particularly at the tips of impasto areas, due to a conversion of the yellow cadmium sulphide pigment to brown cadmium oxide and other cadmium products.

The materiality of paintings contains a wealth of information to be unlocked, deciphered and interpreted, which can tell us about the ways a painting has evolved, from the artist’s initial preparation to the present day. The materials and techniques employed provide a window into contemporary reality, supplementing conclusions drawn from other types of art historical study that might focus on content or form. It is critical that we learn to understand through a combination of close visual study and the tools of technical analysis what it is we are seeing in our contemporary context. Only then can we accurately translate material language and engage fully in the dialogue which each painting offers.

Image 10: X-radiograph image of GauguinThe Haystacks Image 11: Ultraviolet image of Van Gogh Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear

CURRICULUM LINKS: KS3+ Art and Design, Science, History, Art History, and other Humanities 7: REGARDE! GAUGUIN ET LA POLYNÉSIE FRENCH LANGUAGE RESOURCE: Alice Odin

En quête de liberté artistique et de calme exotique, Gauguin s’embarque pour Tahiti en 1891. Laissant derrière lui une Europe qu’il qualifie d’artificielle et conventionnelle (ainsi qu’une situation financière et maritale désastreuse), il s’installe a Tahiti où il s’acharne à trouver un style de peinture plus pur. S’inspirant de l’exotisme de la Polynésie, des couleurs, de la lumière, du paysage mais aussi de la population, des mythes et des légendes locales, Gauguin approfondit sa recherche artistique. Jusqu’à sa mort en 1903 dans les Iles Marquises (dans l’Océan Pacifique, à environ 1600 km de Tahiti), il esquisse, peint et sculpte ce ‘paradis primitif’, malgré une santé de plus en plus fragile.

Gauguin entretient une relation ambiguë avec la Polynésie et ses habitants. La correspondance qu’il maintient avec ses amis en métropole, ainsi que les essais qu’il rédige pendant cette période dessine un portrait ambigu de Gauguin qui continue de nos jours à intriguer. D’une part, il critique sévèrement la politique française et The Dream (1897) [image 2] mettent Noa (qui signifie simplicité et harmonie de colonisation, ainsi que la présence de en scène des personnages aux caractères mais aussi odorant) ou encore Maruru missionnaires catholiques, et se présente physiques visiblement polynésiens par (merci) sont des mots chargés d’un sens comme défenseur du peuple Tahitien, exemple, dans des espaces aux couleurs important et visuellement très poétiques embrassant les coutumes et le mode de vie vives. Mais c’est dans le détail des décors (étant courts et formés de nombreuses locaux. D’autre part, il cultive des liens avec (le lit sur lequel la jeune femme est voyelles), rehaussant l’exotisme et la ces mêmes pouvoirs français et se montre allongée, le berceau dans lequel le bébé composition visuelle des ces gravures parfois peu respectueux des traditions et dort, motifs décoratifs gravés dans le bois [image 3]. Ces mots permettent à Gauguin coutumes locales. Sa vie personnelle fait ou encore les couleurs du ciel) que le ton de communiquer son amour pour encore débat de nos jours. polynésien est donné. cette terre d’adoption non seulement visuellement mais aussi par le langage. Dans la série de gravures sur bois présentées dans l’exposition, Gauguin ACTIVITÉ: ancre ses images dans l’espace alentour, En utilisant les gravures sur bois présentées en utilisant des mots tahitiens pour dans l’exposition Collecting Gauguin, intituler ses oeuvres. Il est d’ailleurs recréez une histoire mettant en scène les aujourd’hui difficile de connaître le sens personnages, les paysages mais aussi les précis de certains de ces mots, car le mots tahitiens représentés par Gauguin. Tahitien n’était pas encore une langue Mettez chaque gravure dans l’ordre que uniforme à la fin du 19e siècle et il n’est vous voulez. pas certain que Gauguin maîtrisait la langue parfaitement. Quoiqu’il en soit, Soyez encore plus créatifs, et recréez en l’utilisation que Gauguin fait du Tahitien groupe une histoire unique où chaque illustre sa volonté de donner à ses oeuvres membre du groupe, choisit une image et une dimension encore plus locale, peut écrit quelques lignes de l’histoire. Mettez Il est bien difficile de résumer en quelques être plus exotique, loin du français qu’il ensuite vos quelques lignes en commun paragraphes les dynamiques de l’oeuvre utilise dans sa correspondance ou dans le pour créer une histoire certainement de Gauguin à la fin de sa vie, en Polynésie. titre d’autres oeuvres. Ces mots gravés, ont originale ! Cependant, les oeuvres présentées dans néanmoins une place à part entière dans la l’exposition Collecting Gauguin mettent en composition; ils sont utilisés dans le cadre Les gravures sont disponibles sur le CD lumière son voeu d’ancrer son art dans un même de la gravure (et non pas seulement ci-joint, ou en ligne. langage esthétique et formel typiquement en bas, dans le titre), comme s’ils Polynésien. Nevermore (1897) [image 1] résonnaient dans le paysage Tahitien. Noa 7: REGARDE! FRENCH LANGUAGE RESOURCE TRANSLATION: GAUGUIN IN POLYNESIA

Gauguin sailed for Tahiti in 1891, in search in colourful locations. The details in those ACTIVITY: of artistic freedom and exotic peace. paintings are even more evocative of a Using the prints on display in the Collecting Leaving what he called an ‘artificial and Polynesian setting: the bed on which the Gauguin exhibition, recreate a story using conventional Europe’ (as well as disastrous young woman is lying, the wooden crib the landscapes, the characters and the financial and family situations), he settled in which the baby is sleeping, the carved Tahitian words depicted. Put each print in in Tahiti where he strove to find a purer motifs on the furniture or painted on the whichever order you want. style of painting. Polynesia’s exoticism, its walls and the colours in the sky reveal the Make it slightly more unusual by recreating colours, lights, landscapes, people, myths sense of a Tahitian backdrop. this story in a group, with each person and local folklore inspired him and helped choosing a print and writing a few lines him broaden his artistic quest. Until his Gauguin also roots his woodcut prints, on show in the exhibition, in a local Tahitian about his/her chosen print. Try and link death in 1903, in the Marquesas Islands everyone’s stories together! (in the South Pacific Ocean, about 1600 setting by using words from the Tahitian km away from Tahiti), Gauguin painted, language in his works. It is still nowadays difficult to know precisely what these words The prints are available on the attached drew, sketched and sculpted this ‘primitive image CD, or online at: paradise’, despite his failing health. actually mean, as the Tahitian language was not unified at the end of the 19th http://www.artandarchitecture.org. Gauguin had a complex relationship with century, with many dialects still in use. It uk/search/results.html?ixsid=125iVm_ Polynesia and its inhabitants. The many is also not very clear how well Gauguin UAIP&qs=G.1948.SC.182 letters he wrote to his friends back in mastered the language. Yet, Gauguin’s France, and the essays he wrote during use of the language is another way for his time there, depict a controversial him to give a deeper, more exotic feel of man, whose opinions and personality are the Polynesian (or in this case the Tahitian) still debated today. On the one hand, he to his work, very remote from the formal criticises the French colonial policies and French he uses in his correspondence or the Catholic missionaries’ influence, and in some of his other works’ titles. These Image 1: Paul Gauguin (detail) sees himself as the defender of the Tahitian carved words are rather unusually featured Nevermore, 1897 people, taking up local traditions and ways in the prints themselves: they are used within the actual prints (and not merely as Oil on canvas of life. On the other hand, he cultivates 60.5 x 116 cm strong ties with the local French powers titles) almost as if they echoed within the and does not follow local customs when it Tahitian setting displayed. Noa Noa (which Image 2: Paul Gauguin (detail) does not suit him. His personal life remains means ‘simplicity’ and ‘harmony’, but also Te Rerioa (The Dream), 1897 a sore and much debated topic. ‘fragrant’) or Maruru (which means ‘thank you’) for example, are powerful words with Oil on canvas 91.5 x 130.2 cm It is therefore very difficult to summarise a strong visual impact [image 3]. These in a few sentences Gauguin’s works at the short words made of multiple vowels, and Image 3: end of his life in Polynesia. However, the written in sharp but rounded fonts, sound Paul Gauguin Maruru (Offerings of Gratitude/ Thank you), works in the Collecting Gauguin display and look very poetic. In this respect, they heighten the exoticism and the visual from the Noa Noa series, 1893-4. highlight his wish to embed his artworks Woodcut print composition of the prints and enable in an aesthetic and formal language 20.5 x 35.6 cm strongly redolent of his Polynesian vision. Gauguin to communicate his love for this Nevermore (1897) [image 1] and The adopted land in a strong visual and poetic CURRICULUM LINKS: KS4+ Dream (1897) [image 2] for example show language. MFL French, Art, Art History and other characters with typical Tahitian features, humanities. 8: GLOSSARY

ABSTRACTION: A development in art CONNOISSEUR: A person with a great streets’. A term used to refer to the during the twentieth century that saw deal of knowledge in a particular subject straight, widened streets instated by Baron painters rejecting subject matter and area, often considered to be an expert Haussmann (under Napoleon III) as part of freeing themselves from the need to judge of taste in that area. The term can his plans to renovate and modernise the represent objects. Abstract paintings are sound pretentious and be used with irony. city of Paris between 1853 and 1870. Such typically made up of shapes and colours, boulevards often gave an excellent view of without recognisable forms, and it could CORPS DE BALLET: The ‘chorus’ in a ballet an important building at the end of them. be said that painting itself is the subject in company - dancers of the lowest rank who abstract art. dance as a group rather than as soloists. GROUND: The ground is a layer used to prepare a support for a painting or ALL’ANTICA: Emulating the manner or CRITIC: A person who judges, interprets drawing; its colour and tone can affect the style of the ‘ancients’ - that is of ancient and comments on something, such as art, chromatic and tonal values of the paint or sculptors, artists or writers. often presenting their viewpoint through wash layers applied over it. Traditionally a writing or lecturing. ground would have been gesso (a glue- ALLEGORY: A story, poem, or picture which based plaster compound) for a panel piece can be interpreted to reveal a hidden CURATOR: A person who is responsible or an undercoat of paint on a canvas. meaning, typically a moral or political one. for the permanent collections and/or temporary exhibitions of a museum or IMPASTO: A painting technique that ANECDOTE: A short amusing or gallery, taking responsibility for caring for involves a thick application of paint (usually interesting story about a real incident or the collection and choosing which artworks oil) and makes no attempt to look smooth. person, which may be unreliable. to hang and how. IMPRESSIONISM: A nineteenth-century art ANTIQUITY: The ancient past, especially DEMI-GOD: A term commonly used to movement that originated with a group of the period of classical and other human describe mythological figures with one Paris-based artists that chose to break away civilizations before the Middle Ages. divine and one mortal parent. from the traditional style of painting taught BOURGEOIS: An adjective applied to at the Fine Art school (École des Beaux- EARLY MODERN: In history, the Early Arts). The name came from the title of a person or group of people (especially Modern period follows the late Middle in France) who exhibit characteristically Monet’s 1873 painting Impression, Sunrise, Ages. Although the chronological limits shown at the first group show in 1874, ‘middle-class’ attitudes. As a class of these periods are open to debate, the of people, the Bourgeoisie are often and the artists involved were interested timeframe is usually taken to span from the in depicting their impression of the world positioned against radical, progressive late 15th to the late 18th century. groups and are generally thought to around them, from landscapes to modern operate according to materialistic values FESTOON: A chain or garland of flowers, social activity, often in a style that was and from a conventional or conservative leaves, or ribbons, hung in a curve as a considered sketchy. political position. decoration. INFRARED REFLECTOGRAPHY: Whilst CARTOUCHE: In architecture a cartouche is FLÂNEUR: Coined by Charles Baudelaire in seemingly similar to x-radiography, the use an oval or oblong form, often with a slightly The Painter of Modern Life (Le Peintre de la of infrared beams to photograph a painting convex surface. It is typically edged with vie moderne, 1863), the term flâneur comes can reveal slightly different information. ornamental scrollwork and is used to frame from the French verb “flâner” (to stroll) and Infra-red beams have a longer wavelength another painted or sculptural design. describes a man who strolls through the than x-rays and penetrate deeper, meaning city at his leisure, looking at whatever and that the upper, thinner or lighter layers of CHIAROSCURO: The contrast of light and whomever he pleases. paint appear transparent whilst deeper or shadow in a drawing or painting. darker layers can be clearly seen. FLAY: Peel the skin off (usually a corpse or CLASSICAL: Relating to or inspired by a carcass, but sometimes a live being as a LORGNETTE: A pair of glasses or opera ancient Greek or Roman literature, art, form of torture). glasses held in front of a person’s eyes by a or culture. The classical period is hard to long handle at one side. define, but is often taken to begin with FORM: The shape, appearance or structure the earliest poetry of Homer, around the of something, be it an object, artwork or MASQUERADE: From the word ‘mask’ - a 7th-8th century BC, and to end with the rise piece of writing or music. false show or pretence. To masquerade as of Christianity and decline of the Roman something is to pretend to be something Empire in the 5th century AD. FORMAL: Concerned with the form, shape, other than what is true. composition and appearance of a painting, COLONIAL RULE: The power of one as opposed to its content. ‘Formalism’ is MATERIALITY: The state of being a physical country over another, whereby full or partial a particular way of thinking about art that thing, composed of matter. political control is held over the ‘colonised’ stresses these physical characteristics. nation, which is usually occupied with MEDIUM: The liquid element of paint in settlers and exploited economically. GRANDS BOULEVARDS: Literally ‘large which pigment is embedded: common media include oil, egg white (the basis of PLASTER STUDY: Before a sculpture can egg tempera), gum arabic and water. be made in a permanent material such as bronze or marble, sculptors often produce MODELLO: From the Italian, the term a plaster version, which can then either be modello is often used to describe a study cast into bronze or copied into stone if the or model made in preparation for another sculptor so wishes. Whilst plaster is a fragile work of art or architecture. material, it is also easier to work with and cheaper than other materials. MODERN: Up to date; relating to the present rather than the past. In art, PLEIN AIR: Literally, open air. The term ‘modernists’ are artists who reject the past is used to refer to the practice of certain in subject matter and/or technique. For artists, notably some of the Impressionists, example, Manet rejected classical subjects, of painting out of doors in front of the choosing to paint what was around him, subject they were depicting. and at the same time painted in a style that was flat and strongly outlined, very different POST-IMPRESSIONISM: A term coined from the carefully finished, smooth, three- by Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the work dimensional appearance advocated by the of Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Fine Art school. Literally meaning ‘after Impressionism’, Post-Impressionist painting uses some of MOTIF: A dominant or recurring idea or the ideas invented by the impressionists image. but moves on significantly in terms of style, being more interested in the qualities MYTHOLOGICAL: Relating to, based on of form and colour that in the accurate or appearing in myths, usually of ancient representation of subjects. Greek or Roman origin. The term can be used to mean something that is made up PROTECTORATE: A state that is controlled or based on a story or the imagination as and protected by another (as in a system of opposed to documented or based on fact. colonial rule).

NYMPH: A mythological spirit of nature PUTTI: Figures in a work of art depicted imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting as chubby male children, usually nude and rivers, woods, or other locations. sometimes winged.

PAGAN: A broad term typically pertaining SATIRE: The use of humour, irony, to indigenous and historical religious exaggeration, or ridicule to expose traditions, and primarily those of cultures and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, known to the classical world. particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues: literature is PARIS SALON: The annual (or later a key medium for satire. biannual) official exhibition connected to SUPPORT: The support of a drawing or the Académie des Beaux Arts (Fine Art painting is the object or material on which school) in Paris. It began in 1725 and its the work has been executed, for example glory years were 1748-1890. In order to canvas, wood panel or paper. exhibit, artists had to have their works accepted by a jury with strong ideals, SYMBOL: Something that represents or and participation was a mark of honour. stands for something else, either in pictorial In 1881, the government withdrew official or textual form. sponsorship from the annual Salon, and a group of artists organised the Société TERM: In classical architecture, a term is a des Artistes Français to take responsibility human head and bust that then turns into a for the show, at which point it became pillar-like form. somewhat more forward-thinking. TERMINOLOGY: A body of words (terms) PATRON: A person who gives financial or used to talk about a particular subject. other support to a person, organization, cause, or activity. In art historical writing the TYPE: A person or thing exemplifying term ‘patron’ is frequently used to describe the ideal or defining characteristics of the person who commissioned a specific something - a generalised understanding work, or employed an artist on a regular based on group characteristics rather than basis. a specific person.

MENTI: A visible trace of earlier painting X-RADIOGRAPHY: The process of beneath a layer or layers of paint on a photographing an object using x-rays, canvas. which pass through objects opaque to light and are absorbed to different degrees PHYSIOGNOMY: A person’s facial features by different materials. The resultant picture, or expression, especially when regarded as an x-radiograph, is able to show what is indicative of character or ethnic origin. underneath the surface of a painting (or indeed under the skin when PIGMENT: The coloured element that photographing a body). forms the basis of paint, usually ground into a powder. This must be mixed with a medium to make paint. In the past, pigments were usually derived from natural sources, such as the pinky-red cochineal Image: that comes from beetles, although Paul Gauguin nowadays many artificial pigments are Noa Noa (detail), 1893-4. available. Wood engraving 20.6 x 36.5 cm 9: MAKING MYTHS: SUGGESTIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM

Paintings are often carefully constructed, however true to life they may seem. Sometimes an artist will paint a space that appears very ‘realistic’, but within that space there may well be objects that provide clues as to the era and type of setting, or perhaps that draw attention to certain characteristics of the sitter if the picture is a portrait. We could say that such clues are ‘symbols’, as in Rubens’ Death of Achilles (see the essay ‘Re-inventing Myth’), where the statue of Venus stands for the concept of love. Symbols may be intentionally included by the painter, in a made-up image that is imagined rather than drawn from life. Or they may already be part of the scene, included by the artist because they are part of the ‘real’ setting, but having a symbolic purpose in that scene. Art Historian Erwin Panofsky wrote RESEARCH ACTIVITY PRACTICAL ACTIVITY about this in a 1934 article on the famous Choose one of the following paintings, on When artists paint self-portraits, they often painting by Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait display at The Courtauld, or pick another of ‘stage’ themselves using a setting, costume (1434, National Gallery). He called symbols your choice: or props that will make a statement about that initially appear to be simply part of who they are. Renoir staged the couple • Peter Paul Rubens, the scene ‘disguised’, being deceptively in La Loge (1874) to show them to be rich Family of Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1613-15 ordinary but having a ‘hidden significance’. theatre-goers, using the setting of an In other words, things that seem to fit opulent theatre box, props such as opera • Edouard Manet, perfectly well into a scene without needing glasses and costumes that included lace A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1881-2 explanation might in fact be there for a and pearls. very important reason. Art Historians are • Vincent Van Gogh, Create your own self-portrait, surrounding always looking out for this kind of ‘hidden Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear, 1889 yourself with objects and clothing that will significance’ in paintings, and if you look create a specific image of yourself. These carefully enough, you will find that many • Paul Gauguin, might be things you naturally have in your of the pictures on show at The Courtauld Nevermore, 1897 room that help to define your personality; contain ‘disguised’ symbols. or you might want to suggest that you What clues, or ‘disguised symbols’ can have a different personality from the one you find in these paintings that can help you usually display! You could choose to to tell you more about either the setting, paint or draw the portrait, to have someone FURTHER READING: the people in that setting or the intentions photograph you or even to create a short Panofsky’s article is available to download of the artist? You could print a copy of film of yourself or your surroundings. Be at http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/wells/201/ the picture and then draw arrows to the creative in thinking about the various ways set3/panofsky1.pdf objects, costumes or other details you find you can tell a story about yourself using to be important. Some of these paintings images but no words. are included in the essays in this pack, so could use those to help you. Images can be found on the attached Image CD, or online at www. artandarchitecture.org.uk Image: Paul Gauguin Nevermore 1897 Oil on canvas 60.5 x 116 cm

CURRICULUM LINKS: KS3+ Art and Design, History, Art History, and other humanities. 10: TEACHING RESOURCE IMAGE CD

This CD is a compilation of key images IMAGE CD COPYRIGHT STATEMENT from The Courtauld Gallery’s collection 1. The images contained on the Teaching related to the theme ‘Making Myths’. Resource CD are for educational purposes The Power Point presentation included in only. They should never be used for the CD aims to contextualise the images commercial or publishing purposes, be and relate them to one another. sold or otherwise disposed of, reproduced All the images (and an accompanying or exhibited in any form or manner image list) are also included individually in (including any exhibition by means of the ‘images’ folder. a television broadcast or on the World Wide Web [Internet]) without the express permission of the copyright holder, The FURTHER DETAILS: Courtauld Gallery, London or other • All images can then be copied or organisation (as stated in the teachers’ downloaded: resource pack or accompanying image list).

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PLEASE CONTACT US AT: To download a pdf of this teachers Courtauld Images, resource please visit www.courtauld.ac.uk/ The Courtauld Institute of Art, publicprogrammes/onlinelearning Somerset House, Strand, CURRICULUM LINKS: KS2+ London WC2R 0RN. Art and Design, History, Art History, and [email protected], other humanities. Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 2879. TEACHERS’ RESOURCE Sarah Green MAKING MYTHS Gallery Learning Programmer THE COURTAULD GALLERY Courtauld Institute of Art First Edition Somerset House, Strand LONDON, WC2R 0RN Teachers resources are free to full time teachers, lecturers and other education 0207 848 2705 and learning professionals. To be used for [email protected] education purposes only. All details correct at time of going to Any redistribution or reproduction of any press. materials herein is strictly prohibited.