Dissertation
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DISSERTATION Titel der Dissertation „Before Impressionism: The 1870s as a Transitional Period in the English Press Reception of French Painting“ Verfasser Philipp Malzl Angestrebter akademischer Grad Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) Wien, im Juni 2009 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 092 315 Dissertationsgebiet lt. Studienblatt: Kunstgeschichte Betreuer: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Walter Krause TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: English art criticism evolves; publications, foreign 7 painters and exhibition venues multiply 1. Evolution of professional art criticism in England 8 1.1. Middle class requires mediation 8 1.2. Art criticism before 1860 10 1.3. Art criticism after 1860 14 2. Newspapers and periodicals multiply 24 2.1. Types of publications 26 3. Foreign painters in London 35 3.1. International imports before 1870 36 3.2. Franco-Prussian war brings continental painters to London 41 4. Exhibition venues multiply 50 4.1. Problems and solutions at the Royal Academy 51 4.1.1. Press Day in 1871 55 4.1.2. The Royal Academy and ‘outsiders’ 58 4.2. Alternatives for ‘outsiders’ 60 ii 4.2.1. Paul Durand-Ruel and the Society of French Artists 63 4.2.2. The Grosvenor Gallery 67 5. Conclusion 77 CHAPTER TWO: The stereotypical view of the French national 79 character 1. Historical basis for French national character 79 1.1. Norman invasion 80 1.2. Revolutions 81 1.3. Louis-Napoleon’s coup d’état 83 1.4. Travel reports 85 1.5. Crystal Palace Exhibition 87 2. Franco-Prussian War and Commune solidify French stereotypes 90 2.1. Inability to learn from adversity 92 2.2. Pride 94 2.3. Childishness 95 3. Conclusion 97 CHAPTER THREE: The increased presence of foreigners results in critical 98 analysis of the ‘other’ 1. Stereotypes initially not a factor in art criticism 98 1.1. Starting in 1850s, French painting admired in England 98 iii 1.2. French painting of early 1870s still acceptable 103 2. Increased focus on national identity due to heightened foreign presence 109 2.1. Critics allow flexibility in nationality for non-French foreigners 109 2.2. French nationality determines artistic expression 115 2.3. National types 122 2.4. Moral implications of modern subject matter 133 2.5. Moral implications of French painting methods 137 3. Conclusion 147 CHAPTER FOUR: Critical self-examination fosters competitive tone 149 in art criticism 1. Interest in foreign perceptions of England 149 1.1. Periodicals reveal national self-consciousness 150 1.2. Evaluating England in relation to France around mid-century 151 1.3. Evaluating England in relation to France after 1870 154 2. Art critics examine the state of the English School of painting 159 2.1. Critique of the English School during the 1870s 163 2.2. Looking to the past for a remedy to England’s artistic dilemmas 175 2.2.1. The ‘Father of British painting’ 175 2.2.2. Celebrating the past: British influences on French painting 180 3. Conclusion 188 iv CHAPTER FIVE: Press Reception of French Art of 1880s and 1890s as 190 a heritage of issues from 1870s 1. Historical background to Impressionism in England 190 1.1. Monet, Pissarro and Durand-Ruel in London 191 1.2. Impressionism not properly acknowledged until early 1880s 193 2. Negative reception echoes issues from 1870s 196 2.1. Impressionism as a product of the revolutionary French character 197 2.2. Sketchy technique and modern subjects lead to moral decadence 207 3. Conclusion 222 CHAPTER SIX: Despite critical opposition to French art, a following 224 emerges 1. Supportive critics 224 2. English painters follow French movements 227 3. Private galleries support French art 237 4. Conclusion 240 CONCLUSION 242 FIGURES 247 BIBLIOGRAPHY 266 ABSTRACT / ZUSAMMENFASSUNG 272 CURRICULUM VITAE 279 v INTRODUCTION Art critics in England did not give serious attention to French Impressionism as an artistic movement until the early 1880s, when the French picture dealer Paul Durand-Ruel mounted the first exhibition of the avant-garde group in London. Their reception in the Victorian periodical press was, similar to that in Paris, at first predominately negative. The accusations were varied, including the charge that Impressionist painters deliberately left their canvases unfinished, that their unconventional manner of painting reflected the revolutionary French character and that they were seducing young, ‘impressionable’ English artists with their modern subjects and sketchy execution techniques. However, the 1880s were not the first time that paintings by French artists elicited a negative response from the English periodical press. This study will attempt to prove that the critical reception of French Impressionism in the English press was neither novel nor capricious. Rather, it occurred as a direct result of the unprecedented conditions in the English art world during the 1870s. This ‘transitional period’ provides the context necessary to fully appreciate the initial negative reception of modern French art in Britain. The 1870s mark the first time when older, more conventional French painters as well as younger, more innovative individuals were living and 1 exhibiting in London on a greater scale and in a more or less cohesive fashion. At that time, a series of events created the social, political and artistic atmosphere the Impressionists encountered when their works first agitated English art critics. Art criticism in Britain did not undergo a gradual, clear and unilateral shift from Francophilia to Francophobia. The opinions in the press, rather, became divided as to the merits of French painting and existed parallel to each other. While some critics continued to welcome continental painting for the educational influence it exercised on British artists, others expressed reservation and suspicion regarding that influence, fearing a perversion of English morals. National identity became an increasingly important issue for some art critics, whether they clearly articulated or subtly implied it within their reviews. Moreover, a firm dedication to the promotion of an English school of painting hindered some art critics and painters from fully embracing artistic innovation from France. Frequent reference to primary sources, such as daily and weekly newspapers as well as magazines and academic periodicals will aid in the process of reconstructing the evolution of art-critical opinion towards French painting during the late Victorian age. With this context in mind, the initial inhospitable reception of Impressionism in England will be placed into its proper and hitherto neglected context. 2 To my knowledge, scholarly research has not considered in any particular depth the period in England between 1870 and 1880 as a unique and unprecedented time, both before and after the turn of the century, in terms of a divided Victorian press reception of French art. One of the first to investigate the topic of Victorian art criticism was Helene Roberts in the article “Exhibition and Review: The Periodical Press and the Victorian Art Exhibition System” Published in The Victorian Periodical Press: Samplings and Soundings , 1982. While this serves as a good point of departure for a study of the topic, Roberts does not focus on the relationship between English critics and French artists but rather provides a general account of the development of art criticism into a serious profession in nineteenth-century England. The overwhelmingly negative coverage of Impressionism in the English press has been well researched and documented. Kate Flint is one of the foremost authorities in the field of Victorian art criticism in general. Her book, Impressionists in England: The Critical Reception , published in 1984, is an anthology of articles and reviews which were published in response to Impressionist artists in England. While it is a valuable resource in reconstructing the development of critical opinion, it does not, however, provide the context described above and thus tends to lend the appearance that the negative reception of Impressionism 3 was a self-contained phenomenon, independent of previous non-Impressionist events. Another important, although less specialized article on the topic comes from Elizabeth Prettejohn. Titled “Aesthetic Value and the Professionalization of Victorian Art Criticism, 1837-78”, it was published in 1997. Similar to Roberts, Prettejohn evaluates the professionalization of art criticism in England of the later Victorian period from the perspective of a historiographer, offering useful general information. Most recently, Edward Morris has published an exhaustive and comprehensive study of the reception of French art in England during the nineteenth century. In contrast to others, Morris attempts, quite successfully, to cover the entire century. His impressive account ends, however, where Flint’s anthology begins, namely with the emergence of French Impressionists in England. While he focuses on French artists in England and provides an invaluable account to the scholarship, Morris, like Flint, does not so much emphasize the significance of the Barbizon painters as well as Tissot’s circle to the type of reception the Impressionism received in late nineteenth-century England. That is the emphasis of this dissertation. What, then, makes the 1870s so unique to the history of art criticism in England? During that period the British capital experienced something of an 4 artistic Siege, as numerous French, as well as other foreign, mostly Americans and Germans, flocked to London. A host of new exhibition spaces exposed Londoners to more “modern”