DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49256#0128
2
FRENCH SCHOOL.
with some vulgar scene, where the palpitating flesh stands ont boldly from the obscurity of the
ground, they want no more to induce them to give way to their feelings and launch ont into
enthusiasm.
What they admire and hold up to your admiration is the energy of the action, the expression
of the gesture, and the success of the foreshortening in a picture. “ Look !” they exclaim,
“ how well those muscles are attached, and how freely they act ! how naturally those shoulders
are joined on ! how forcibly y ou are impressed with the presence of the boues and the solidity
of the tendons ! The eyes are humid, the nostrils are full of breath, and the blood flows beneath
that flesh !” But not one word do they say of the painter’s intention, or of the thought that
should pervade his work. What matters to them the value of the principal idea and the choice
of the subject ! A band of brigands, seated round a table in some cavern, and singing over their
liquor with courtezans, interests them far more than the Christ on the Mount of Olives, or The
Tomb of Arcadia. They are enamoured of mere matter. They look upon it as a portion of divinity
itself, and cannot understand that there is the least preference to be given to any one of the
different parts of which it is composed. In their eyes, ail forms in nature possess the same charm,
ail members of humanity are of equal value, each one being endowed with some peculiar beauty,
which the spectator must discover for himself. This being the case, the less trouble a paintbr has
taken to choose his subject, the greater is their preference for him, and as mere imitation is quite
suflicient to satisfy their ardent love of form, they do not require matter to think, but merely
to exist. It is especially among these pantheists that the admirers of Valentin are to be
found.
Valentin, one of the most celebrated French painters, was bom in the little town of
Coulommiers, in Brie, the 8th June, 1601, in the Rue du Monteil-Sainte-Foy, at the corner of
the Impasse des Remparts. I do not know why some authors hâve chosen to consider him as
belonging to the Roman school, for if France can claim him as one of her children, it is not
only because she saw him born, but because his taste for painting manifested itself long before
he went to Rome, to seek inspiration among the marvels of the Vatican.*
* It always struckus as an extraordinary circumstance that the «Christian name of a French painter, and especially of
one born in the province of Brie, should be Moïse, according, as it did, but little with the genius of the French nation,
which, especially in the seventeenth century, was greatly prejudiced against the Jews and their customs. However,
as a considérable number of authors always called him Moïse Valentin, and as there were no documents to clear up
our doubts on the subject, we at last believed, as ail other persons had done, that Valentin’s Christian name was really
Moïse. Since then, we hâve received some curions information from a distinguished painter and author, Monsieur
Anatole Dauvergne, and we crave the reader’s permission to transcribe at full length the notes which he has furnished
—notes which are the more interesting as they prove the necessity of always going back to the fountain-head, historical
errors most frequently proceeding from historians of the second or third génération.
The following is an extract from the genealogical table of the family of Boullogne de Coulommiers, drawn up, about
1780, expressly for the family, by Michel Martial Cordier, Juge de Paix at Coulommiers previous to 1789, and a
Member of the Convention, who died in exile, at Brussels, in 1824.
This table was drawn up from documents which are at présent dispersed, but which were then accessible to Monsieur
Cordier. Eighteen of these dates are given as corroborative proofs. The Boullogne family still flourishes at
Coulommiers, and has preserved from father to son a certain pride in its relationship with the painter who is known
by the name of Valentin alone.
I. Stock. Jean de Boullongne, called Basset, in 1495, born at Bologna in Italy, lived at Coulommiers, at the corner
of the Cul-de-Sac, near the Church of Sainte-Foy. This Cul-de-Sac now bears the name of Boullongne. Title-
deeds in 1549. *
II. He had issue : in 1538, Denis de Boullongne : II. Jean de Boullongne.
III. Jean de Boullongne, Ilnd of the name, married at Coulommiers. He had issue (157G) :—
1. Perrin de Boullongne, plumber and glazier.
2. Simonne de Boullongne.
3. Jacques de Boullongne, carrier.
4. Valentin de Boullongne, painter on glass.
66
FRENCH SCHOOL.
with some vulgar scene, where the palpitating flesh stands ont boldly from the obscurity of the
ground, they want no more to induce them to give way to their feelings and launch ont into
enthusiasm.
What they admire and hold up to your admiration is the energy of the action, the expression
of the gesture, and the success of the foreshortening in a picture. “ Look !” they exclaim,
“ how well those muscles are attached, and how freely they act ! how naturally those shoulders
are joined on ! how forcibly y ou are impressed with the presence of the boues and the solidity
of the tendons ! The eyes are humid, the nostrils are full of breath, and the blood flows beneath
that flesh !” But not one word do they say of the painter’s intention, or of the thought that
should pervade his work. What matters to them the value of the principal idea and the choice
of the subject ! A band of brigands, seated round a table in some cavern, and singing over their
liquor with courtezans, interests them far more than the Christ on the Mount of Olives, or The
Tomb of Arcadia. They are enamoured of mere matter. They look upon it as a portion of divinity
itself, and cannot understand that there is the least preference to be given to any one of the
different parts of which it is composed. In their eyes, ail forms in nature possess the same charm,
ail members of humanity are of equal value, each one being endowed with some peculiar beauty,
which the spectator must discover for himself. This being the case, the less trouble a paintbr has
taken to choose his subject, the greater is their preference for him, and as mere imitation is quite
suflicient to satisfy their ardent love of form, they do not require matter to think, but merely
to exist. It is especially among these pantheists that the admirers of Valentin are to be
found.
Valentin, one of the most celebrated French painters, was bom in the little town of
Coulommiers, in Brie, the 8th June, 1601, in the Rue du Monteil-Sainte-Foy, at the corner of
the Impasse des Remparts. I do not know why some authors hâve chosen to consider him as
belonging to the Roman school, for if France can claim him as one of her children, it is not
only because she saw him born, but because his taste for painting manifested itself long before
he went to Rome, to seek inspiration among the marvels of the Vatican.*
* It always struckus as an extraordinary circumstance that the «Christian name of a French painter, and especially of
one born in the province of Brie, should be Moïse, according, as it did, but little with the genius of the French nation,
which, especially in the seventeenth century, was greatly prejudiced against the Jews and their customs. However,
as a considérable number of authors always called him Moïse Valentin, and as there were no documents to clear up
our doubts on the subject, we at last believed, as ail other persons had done, that Valentin’s Christian name was really
Moïse. Since then, we hâve received some curions information from a distinguished painter and author, Monsieur
Anatole Dauvergne, and we crave the reader’s permission to transcribe at full length the notes which he has furnished
—notes which are the more interesting as they prove the necessity of always going back to the fountain-head, historical
errors most frequently proceeding from historians of the second or third génération.
The following is an extract from the genealogical table of the family of Boullogne de Coulommiers, drawn up, about
1780, expressly for the family, by Michel Martial Cordier, Juge de Paix at Coulommiers previous to 1789, and a
Member of the Convention, who died in exile, at Brussels, in 1824.
This table was drawn up from documents which are at présent dispersed, but which were then accessible to Monsieur
Cordier. Eighteen of these dates are given as corroborative proofs. The Boullogne family still flourishes at
Coulommiers, and has preserved from father to son a certain pride in its relationship with the painter who is known
by the name of Valentin alone.
I. Stock. Jean de Boullongne, called Basset, in 1495, born at Bologna in Italy, lived at Coulommiers, at the corner
of the Cul-de-Sac, near the Church of Sainte-Foy. This Cul-de-Sac now bears the name of Boullongne. Title-
deeds in 1549. *
II. He had issue : in 1538, Denis de Boullongne : II. Jean de Boullongne.
III. Jean de Boullongne, Ilnd of the name, married at Coulommiers. He had issue (157G) :—
1. Perrin de Boullongne, plumber and glazier.
2. Simonne de Boullongne.
3. Jacques de Boullongne, carrier.
4. Valentin de Boullongne, painter on glass.
66