DOI Heft:
No. 195 (June, 1909)
DOI Artikel:Henriet, Frédéric: Léon Lhermitte, painter of french peasant life
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20967#0032
Ldon Lhermitte
He deals more freely with his models; he creates
types, such as, for instance, the old reaper of the
Salon of 1883, who, under a blazing sky, wipes
away with the back of his hand the sweat from his
brow, a symbol of harsh, overpowering, inexorable
toil. He strives to depict general ideas, as in La
Vendange, of 18S4 (New York Museum), which
shows us a fair and buxom village girl with rounded
arms and swelling bosom ; and again in Le Vin
(Salon 1885), which depicts a winepress, where the
newly-pressed juice flows abundantly under the
action of the wheel which two strong vintagers are
laboriously turning. This picture, which now
belongs to the Vasnier Gallery at Rheims, is a
veritable epic of the vine, and who could have
done it better? La Fenaison, of 1887, shows us
an aged labourer hammering the blunted edge of
his scythe with ringing blows that one can almost
hear resounding through
the silence of the field,
and in Le Faucheur (Ex-
position Universelle, 1900)
the mower with the regu-
lar sweep of his scythe
lays the ripe swaths in
parallel lines beneath the
sun.
Meanwhile an official
commission for two deco-
rative panels; destined
for the new Sorbonne,
attracted Lhermitte to
fresh fields. The first was
a portrait of the celebrated
physiologist Clau de-
Bernard, vivisecting before
the eyes of his colleagues
a poor unfortunate rabbit
immolated upon the altar
of Science. The second
represented the Professor
Sainte-Claire-Deville con-
ducting some chemical
experiments before an
audience of savants and
students, skilfully disposed
upon the tiers of the lec-
ture theatre. These two
works, placed in the Salle
des Commissions in the
Faculte des Sciences at
the Sorbonne, form a most
interesting document, con-
taining as they do por-
10
traits of all the leading lights of the scientific, world
of that day. The Department of Fine Arts of the
Prefecture de la Seine, in their turn commissioned
from Lhermitte a painting for the Hotel de Ville,
the subject being one that accorded perfectly with
the tastes and capabilities of the artist—Le Carrcau
des FLal/es, the market square early in the morning,
where the food and provisions daily consumed in
the great city were piled up and displayed,
Lhermitte showed himself, as usual, quite equal
to the new task, which he executed in a compara-
tively short time, for he knew exactly what he
wanted to paint and how to set about it. In this
huge composition (Societe Nationale, 1895) a
great crowd of porters, market-gardeners and pur-
chasers push and jostle one another, struggling
around the piles of vegetables, of bright-hued
fruits, hampers of eggs, crates of poultry, etc.
“LE PETIT FRERE” BY LEON LHERMITTE
He deals more freely with his models; he creates
types, such as, for instance, the old reaper of the
Salon of 1883, who, under a blazing sky, wipes
away with the back of his hand the sweat from his
brow, a symbol of harsh, overpowering, inexorable
toil. He strives to depict general ideas, as in La
Vendange, of 18S4 (New York Museum), which
shows us a fair and buxom village girl with rounded
arms and swelling bosom ; and again in Le Vin
(Salon 1885), which depicts a winepress, where the
newly-pressed juice flows abundantly under the
action of the wheel which two strong vintagers are
laboriously turning. This picture, which now
belongs to the Vasnier Gallery at Rheims, is a
veritable epic of the vine, and who could have
done it better? La Fenaison, of 1887, shows us
an aged labourer hammering the blunted edge of
his scythe with ringing blows that one can almost
hear resounding through
the silence of the field,
and in Le Faucheur (Ex-
position Universelle, 1900)
the mower with the regu-
lar sweep of his scythe
lays the ripe swaths in
parallel lines beneath the
sun.
Meanwhile an official
commission for two deco-
rative panels; destined
for the new Sorbonne,
attracted Lhermitte to
fresh fields. The first was
a portrait of the celebrated
physiologist Clau de-
Bernard, vivisecting before
the eyes of his colleagues
a poor unfortunate rabbit
immolated upon the altar
of Science. The second
represented the Professor
Sainte-Claire-Deville con-
ducting some chemical
experiments before an
audience of savants and
students, skilfully disposed
upon the tiers of the lec-
ture theatre. These two
works, placed in the Salle
des Commissions in the
Faculte des Sciences at
the Sorbonne, form a most
interesting document, con-
taining as they do por-
10
traits of all the leading lights of the scientific, world
of that day. The Department of Fine Arts of the
Prefecture de la Seine, in their turn commissioned
from Lhermitte a painting for the Hotel de Ville,
the subject being one that accorded perfectly with
the tastes and capabilities of the artist—Le Carrcau
des FLal/es, the market square early in the morning,
where the food and provisions daily consumed in
the great city were piled up and displayed,
Lhermitte showed himself, as usual, quite equal
to the new task, which he executed in a compara-
tively short time, for he knew exactly what he
wanted to paint and how to set about it. In this
huge composition (Societe Nationale, 1895) a
great crowd of porters, market-gardeners and pur-
chasers push and jostle one another, struggling
around the piles of vegetables, of bright-hued
fruits, hampers of eggs, crates of poultry, etc.
“LE PETIT FRERE” BY LEON LHERMITTE