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Du Mythe À L'homme De Chair Séminaire doctoral commun Les identités culturelles Agathe Cabau Du mythe à l’homme de chair : Réflexions sur un corpus Séminaire doctoral commun d'histoire de l'art et d'archéologie Paris 1/Paris 4 - 2010/2011 Géographies artistiques - séance 4 : les identités culturelles (17 février 2011) Par Agathe Cabau Cette communication s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une recherche doctorale en cours sur l’iconographie amérindienne aux Salons parisiens et expositions universelles (1800 à 1914). Le sujet regroupe environ cent soixante-dix artistes, peintres et sculpteurs confondus, dont trente-cinq étrangers. Douze seulement sont d’origine américaine laissant évaluer l’impact d’un tel thème sur les artistes de cette époque. Le corpus d’œuvres regroupe trente- deux sujets1 tirés du roman de François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), Atala (1801) dont la production s’étale de 1800 à 1910. Par ailleurs, quatre peintures s’inspirent du Dernier des Mohicans (1826), œuvre du « Walter Scott des sauvages »2 selon une expression consacrée de l’époque pour désigner James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851). D’une manière générale, ce corpus d’œuvres se partage entre des collections étrangères et particulières. Un tel sujet portant sur la représentation de l’autre, étendue sur plus d’un siècle, oblige à s’interroger sur le degré de connaissance historique et anthropologique que véhiculent ces images. Dans quelle mesure le regard est-il culturellement construit ? Peut-on parler de perspective commune au récit littéraire et à la narration dramaturgique des œuvres ? Quelle connaissance historique le spectateur doit-il attendre de ces images ? En quoi ont-elles contribué à la création d’un mythe ? Quel impact ont les lieux d’exposition sur l’orientation sémantique des œuvres ? La présente étude se propose d’analyser quelques productions artistiques issues d’une iconographie riche des savoirs qu’elle dispense sur les peuples amérindiens ainsi que d’autres œuvres en marge, qui permettent d’appréhender en creux leurs représentations et d’analyser le regard des artistes du XIXe siècle sur ces peuples étrangers. 1 vingt-six peintures et six sculptures 2 Le Globe, 24 mai 1827 cité par Dominique Kalifa, « Archéologie de l’Apachisme. Les représentations des Peaux-Rouges dans la France du XIXe siècle », Revue d’histoire de l’enfance « irrégulière », Numéro 4, 2002, p. 19-37. 1 Séminaire doctoral commun Les identités culturelles Agathe Cabau Représentations artistiques, évocations littéraires et historiques Avant l’assaut aux Salons parisiens des sujets en référence au roman de Chateaubriand, Atala, les artistes de la toute fin du XVIIIème siècle s’intéressent à une coutume amérindienne exaltant les vertus de l’allaitement maternel et s’insérant dans le concept du bon sauvage3. L’œuvre reproduite en gravure par François Robert Ingouf dit Ingouf le Jeune (1747- 1812) (fig.1), d’après la toile de Le Barbier l’Aîné (1738-1826) présentée au Salon de 1781, porte sur la pratique de l’allaitement funèbre décrite par l’abbé Raynal (1713-1796) dans l’Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes (1770) et le missionnaire jésuite Joseph François Lafitau (1681-1746) dans les Mœurs des Sauvages américains, comparées aux mœurs des premiers temps, publiées en 1724. La mère continue de nourrir son enfant mort en versant son lait sur le feu ou la tombe de ce dernier. A travers cette oeuvre se manifeste la connaissance d’une coutume funéraire amérindienne faisant office de plaidoyer en faveur de l’allaitement maternel et de ses bienfaits. Elle sert de modèle, en conformité avec les conceptions de l’époque sur l’éducation des enfants, développées dans les essais de Madame d’Epinay (1726-1783), et répandues après la publication de l'Émile ou De l’éducation (1762) de Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712- 1778). L’œuvre gravée par Ingouf condense un savoir pré-anthropologique et rend hommage à la dévotion des parents amérindiens envers leur enfant. De ces nombreux témoignages de l’amour parental des Amérindiens, on retiendra particulièrement l’admiration de George Sand (1804-1876) dans sa Relation d’un voyage chez les sauvages de Paris, devant les sentiments partagés d’un couple d’Indiens Osages ayant perdu leur fils lors de leur séjour à Paris en 1845 : « La tendresse maternelle est très développée chez elles ; mais en cela elles ne surpassent peut-être pas les hommes, comme les femmes le font chez nous. Le père indien est un être aussi tendre, aussi dévoué, aussi attentif, aussi passionné pour sa progéniture que la mère. Ces sauvages ont du bon, il faut en convenir. Quoi qu’on en dise, nous leur ôtons peut-être plus de vertus que de vice en nous mêlant de leur éducation. »4 3 Voir à ce sujet Peggy Davis, « Allaitement funèbre et Caritas Indiana : les vertus maternelles d’une race en voie d’extinction au Nouveau Monde », Actes du 3e Colloque du Département d'histoire de l’Université Laval, Québec, CÉLAT/Artefact, 2004, p. 37-58. 4 George Sand, Relation d’un voyage chez les sauvages de Paris, Clermont-Ferrand, La petite collection des éditions du sonneur, 2010, p. 59-60. 2 Séminaire doctoral commun Les identités culturelles Agathe Cabau La mort de l’enfant n’est pas sans rappeler le danger qui plane sur l’avenir du groupe. Voltaire (1694-1778) explique le phénomène de dépopulation en Amérique par la mortalité infantile : « Les enfants périssent partout faute d’un soin convenable […] on ne pouvait fournir aux enfants un bon lait, ni leur donner ensuite une substance saine, ni même suffisante »5. La préfiguration de la disparition de la « race » se retrouve en littérature en épilogue d’Atala. Le peuple des Natchez décimé par les Français, à qui l’on a ravi leurs terres en Virginie, est condamné à l’exil. Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) s’empare de l’épisode où la jeune accouchée « fille de la fille de René l’Européen, que Chactas avait adopté »6 raconte le destin tragique de son peuple : « Nous sommes les restes des Natchez. Après le massacre que les Français firent de notre nation pour venger leurs frères, ceux de nos frères qui échappèrent aux vainqueurs trouvèrent un asile chez les Chikassas, nos voisins. Nous y sommes demeurés assez longtemps tranquilles ; mais il y a sept lunes que les blancs de la Virginie se sont emparés de nos terres, en disant qu’elles leur ont été données par un roi d’Europe. Nous avons levé les yeux au ciel, et chargés des restes de nos aïeux, nous avons pris notre route à travers le désert. Je suis accouchée pendant la marche, et comme mon lait était mauvais à cause de la douleur, il a fait mourir mon enfant »7 (fig.2) Le thème de la mort de l’enfant est repris tardivement en sculpture par Emile André Boisseau (1842-1923). Son groupe en plâtre La Fille de Céluta pleurant son enfant8 (fig.3) est acheté au Salon de 1869 par l’Etat puis traduit en marbre. Exposé au Salon de 1872, il figure depuis parmi les collections du Musée d'art et d'archéologie d'Aurillac9. L’évocation de l’extinction des Natchez passe par la description du drame romantique. Les œuvres de Delacroix et du sculpteur Boisseau basculent du côté du pathos, soutenant le récit de Chateaubriand. Pourtant, au moment de l’exposition du plâtre de la Fille de Céluta, Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) dans son commentaire du Salon souligne les exigences nouvelles du public à l’égard de la description des peuples autochtones en relevant le manque d’authenticité du modèle et la retenue descriptive du sculpteur : 5 Cité par Peggy Davis, op. cit., note 25, p. 56. cf Voltaire, Essai sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations et sur les principaux faits de l’histoire depuis Charlemagne jusqu'à Louis XIII, 1761. 6 René de Chateaubriand, Atala, Paris, Librarie Gründ, 1938, pp. 124-125. 7 René de Chateaubriand, op. cit, pp.123-124. 8 L’œuvre est conservée au Musée d'art et d'archéologie d'Aurillac. 9 Cf. Archive municipale, délibération du Conseil Municipal, 5 avril 1874. 3 Séminaire doctoral commun Les identités culturelles Agathe Cabau « Un plâtre ne peut rendre la teinte d’un Peau-Rouge, mais dans la configuration de la tête, dans la saillie des os, certaines particularités indiquent la race. Ainsi l’on peut très bien faire un nègre en marbre blanc. Personne ne s’y trompera. » 10 L’œuvre du peintre américain d’origine allemande Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) exploite l’idée de disparition à travers la métaphore de l’extinction des bisons, fait décisif pour les populations amérindiennes. Bierstadt commence à peindre les peuples amérindiens après un voyage financé par le gouvernement américain dans les montagnes Rocheuses en 1859. Ses peintures témoignent de l’attention qu’il porte au genre du paysage. La Chasse aux bisons (fig. 4) est présentée au Salon des beaux-arts après avoir été rejetée par les membres du comité de la section américaine de l’Exposition Universelle de 1889. Le sujet jugé démodé par ses concitoyens, la toile est écartée de la sélection11. La Chasse aux bisons porte en anglais le titre de The Last of Buffalo soit Le dernier bison. L’œuvre évoque inévitablement le grand bouleversement des années de 1869 à 1880, celles de la disparition du bison des régions des Plaines et des Prairies. Leur chasse fut très productive à la suite de la construction des chemins de fer. Les Etats-Unis employaient le charbon animal pour la purification du sucre12. En dix ans, le nombre de têtes serait passé de plus de 6 millions à moins de 200. Bierstad propose la vision d’une chasse à la lance pittoresque.
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