Fae Brauer, Contesting "Le Corps Militaire": Antimilitarism, Pacificism
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RIHA Journal 0048 | 24 July 2012 | Special Issue "New Directions in New-I pressionism" This article is part of the Special Issue "New Directions in Neo-Impressionism." The issue is guest- edited by Tania Woloshyn and Anne Dymond in cooperation with egina Wenninger and Anne-!aure "risac-#hra$bi from I%A &ournal. '(ternal peer re)iewers for this Special Issue were %ollis #layson* Andr+ Dombrows,i* #hantal -eorgel* #atherine .eneu(* obyn osla,* and .ichael /immermann. * * * Contesting "Le corps militaire": Antimilitarism, Pacificism, Anarcho- Communism and 'Le Douanier' Rousseau's La Guerre Fae Brauer Abtract When the 1889 Military Law was passed, it established three-year universal conscription and a greater army of citizens to boost military preparedness for war in rench colonies and against !ermany" ar from its ramifications being of no concern to neo- impressionists, it was the sub#ect of bightingly bitter antimilitarist cartoons by Maximilien Luce and antimilitarist paintings by the neo-impressionist outsider, %Le douanier% &ousseau" ar from picturing the patriotic honor of becoming a soldier and the victories of war, as did 'douard (etaille, &ousseau did the opposite" In the heat of military slaughter of families at ourmies, &ousseau revealed how conscription would transform rench citizens into le corps militaire to fight not #ust against their arch- enemy with machine-li*e precision but against their very own people" Contents Intro!uction" #$e Douanier' Rousseau% "Il ne r&'ait (ue !e pai)" A Nation-in-Ar s: *onscriptin+ t,e -,ir! Repu.lic /ol!in+ "$e corps ilitaire"" Repu.lican Sport% *o pulsory 0y nastics an! "le co .attant isol1" In t,e -i e o2 Har ony" De o+rap,ic Di'isions an! t,e /ilitari3e! /e!iterranean *i'il 4ar2are" State /assacres% Franco-Russian Alliance an! Rousseau's $a 0uerre ntroduction: 'Le Douanier' Rousseau, "Il ne rêvait que de paix" +1, -he hanging of 'douard Detaille%s award-winning painting, Le Rêve .1888/, in pride-of- place at the 1889 Exposition Universelle Décennale was serendipitous, if not strategic . ig" 1/.1 0icturing the young, conscripted army as the 1arche sainte1 of the -hird &epublic,2 collectively dreaming of the revanchist victory espoused by !eneral !eorges 3oulanger, it dovetailed perfectly with the Military Law of 14 5uly 1889"6 Li*e other military visual cultures aligning patriotic masculine identity with what 7lain 'hrenberg terms 1le corps militaire,1 it helped to lubricate the passage of the Military law through the 8hamber of Deputies.9 Initially drafted by 3oulanger when Minister of War, this Law, named after the new Minister, 8harles de reycinet, entailed reorganization of the army and three-year universal conscription to establish an army of citizens. :ailed by politicians from 5ules erry to Ligue des Patriotes founder, 0aul (;roul<des, for heralding a new dawn,4 this Law seemed to symbolize, li*e Detaille%s painting, 1the nation%s hopes, 1 When e$hibited at the 1888 Salon des Artistes rançais, Le Rêve won the irst-8lass Medal in 0ainting" 7fter being ac=uired by the >tate, it was hung in the Mus;e de Luxembourg" 2 -his term is used in the catalogue entry for this painting at the Mus;e d%?rsay" 6 3ernard >chnapper, Le Remplacement militaire en rance, 0aris 19@8A (avid &alston, "he Arm# o$ the Republic, 8ambridge 198B" 9 7lain Ehrenberg, Le corps militaire& Politi'ue et pédagogie en démocratie, 0aris 1986" License: -his article is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 RIHA Journal 0048 | 24 July 2012 | Special Issue "New Directions in New-I pressionism" the resum; of all rance%s glories from its heroic epochs to our own days. It was an appeal, a lesson, an act of faith"1@ Cet by no means was this view unanimously held" 1 Edouard Detaille, Le Rêve ;The Dream), 1888, oil on canvas, 3 x 4 m. Musée d'Orsay% Paris (photo ? Fae Brauer) +2, In response to all able-bodied renchmen being conscripted for military training, regardless of their position in relation to war, >ebastien aure, 5ean !rave, Louise Michel, 'mile 0uget, 'lisée &eclus, 0eter Dropot*in and Eo d%7$a, alongside many other antimilitarist anarchists and neo-impressionists, were up-in-arms.B Instantly the anarcho-communist and syndicalist wee*ly #ournal, Le P(re Peinard, launched by 'mile 0ouget on 29 ebruary 1889, proclaimed itself as an anarchist #ournal promoting 1direct action, antimilitarism, anticl;ricalism,1 including 1le sabotage1 and 1le %oycottage"18 rom May 189F it was illustrated with bightingly acidic antimilitarist cartoons, its first 4 5oan L. 8offey, 1 or !od and ranceG -he Military Law of 1889 and the >oldiers of >aint->ulpice,1 in: "he )atholic *istorical Revie+ 8F, 9 .?ctober 2FF2/, @BB-@B8" @ Paris ,llustré .5uly 1889/, 6G 1+H, de la nation espoirs, le resum; de tous les gloires de la rance à partir de ses ;po=ues h;roJ=ues de nos jours" )l s%agissait d%un appel, une leKon, un acte de foi"1 L Mnless otherwise indicated, translations are mine" B 0aul 3" Miller, rom Revolutionaries to )iti-ens& Antimilitarism in rance ./012.3.4, (urham 2FF2" -heir opposition was voiced through La Revue 5lanche, Le 6a ira, Le P(re Peinard, and La Révolte. 7ccording to 3rian (oherty, 1-he irst War on -error1 .Reason.com, 5anuary 2F11/G 1-he number of people who subscribed to the anarchist movement%s many publications was in the tens of thousands in rance alone"1 or an analysis of antimilitarism directly after this period, see Elizabeth 0ropes, 1&e-thinking 7ntimilitarismG rance 1898-1919,1 in: *istorical Re$lections 6B, 1 .>pring 1911/, 94-49" 8 Le P(re Peinard 1B .29 5uly 1889/, 1-2G 1L%action directe, antimilitarisme, anticl;ricalisme1A see 1>uicide d%un soldat,1 Le P(re Peinard 9B .2@ 5anuary 189F/, @-BA 18houette les conscriptsN,1 Le P(re Peinard 98 .9 ebruary 189F/, 9-@A 1&;volte de -roubades,1 1La &age du 8ommandement,1 Le P(re Peinard 4F .26 ebruary 189F/, 9-9A 1F" )t was as vehemently anti-colonial fre=uently addressing the hypocrisy of rance%s 1mission civilisatrice1A see 13arbarie française,1 Le P(re Peinard 94 .12 5anuary 189F/ 189F, 1-6" License: -his article is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 RIHA Journal 0048 | 24 July 2012 | Special Issue "New Directions in New-I pressionism" being commissioned from Maximilien Luce .1848-1991/ to commemorate the eighteenth anniversary of 1bloody wee*1 .1La semaine sanglante,1 21-28 May 18B1/ showing the massacre of 8ommunards by conscripted soldiers from which the figure of Liberty bearing the revolutionary torch and banner arises above the captionG 1'lle n%est pas morte, foutreNNN1 .1 uck, she is not deadNNN1/ . ig" 2/"9 2 Maxi ilien Luce, "Elle n'est pas morte, foutre!!!", lithograph. Le Père Peinard 62 (25 May 1890), 9 (full-page illustration) (photograph by the author with per ission to publish by Bibliothèque Nationale Arsenale, Paris) +6, 'very fortnight, the communist anarchist fortnightly #ournal, La Révolte, published a chapter of ?ctave Mirbeau%s antimilitarist novel, Le )alvaire, under the title, 1La !uerre"11F -o e$pose the brutality of the rench army in 7frica, !eorges Darien drew upon his military e$periences in -unisia to publish his stridently antimilitarist novel, 9 Le P(re Peinard @2 .24 May 189F/, 9" -he first image to be published by the journal, my research also reveals this was the first issue in which this journal increased its scale from hand- size to 79 and 76, able to accommodate lithographs of larger dimensions" 0laced on the bac* cover, this image related to the first article in this issue, page 1, 1La !rande Milraillade &acont;e par les bourgeois" Elle n'est pas morteN,1 narrating how the 8ommunards were gunned-down by their very own people" While developed in the second article, page 6, 1La grande purge,1 in the third article, page 8, 0ouget calls the new &epublic, 1Oouvelles 3astilles,1 an analogy drawn some si$ty years later by Michel oucaultG see 10anopticism,1 in: Discipline and Punish: "he 5irth o$ the Prison, Oew Cor* 1994, 221-228" -he significance of Liberty is stressed in many preceding issues of the #ournalA see 1Pive la Libert;, nom de dieu!,1 Le P(re Peinard @1 .18 May 189F/, 4" License: -his article is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 RIHA Journal 0048 | 24 July 2012 | Special Issue "New Directions in New-I pressionism" 5iri%i, Discipline 7ilitaire, with its cover illustrated by Luce revealing indigenous people being strangled, whipped and buried by rench army officers.11 . ig" 6/ Lucien Descaves, published his scandalous antimilitarist novel, Sous-8$$s, based upon his brutal e$periences as a 8orporal, with a controversial dedication 1to all those whose blood had been sapped by patriotism"112 ollowing prosecution of its publishers for offending the army and violating good morals, Le igaro published a protest signed by fifty writers including 0aul 3ourget, 7lphonse Daudet, !ustave !effroy and 'mile Eola, followed by &;my de !ourmont%s antimilitarist parody, Le 9ou9ou patriotisme ."he patriotism plaything/ published in the 7ercure de rance"16 -heir antimilitarist culturo-political tactics were reinforced by the 0acifist%s strategies. +9, -o address its implications for war, r;d;ric 0assy reconstituted the Société rançaise des Amis de la Paix, formed after the ranco-0russian War, into the Société rançaise pour l:Ar%itrage entre ;ations, which attracted many socialists.19 It was #oined by the Association de la Paix par le Droit, formed under the presidency of 5acques Dumas.14 -he first two of twenty-one congresses for international peace followed before the irst World War, held in 0aris: the )ongr(s International de la Paix and the )ongr(s Universal de la Paix" ar from the 1889 Military Law facilitating the attainment of 1la gloire1 pictured by Le Rêve, they predicted that its outcome would be global annihilation" -his outcome was captured by 1Le Douanier1 :enri &ousseau .1899-191F/ in La <uerre of c.1899 .