focus romantism

MUNICIPAL MUSEUM OF LIER
AND THE ROYAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS ANTWERP (KMSKA)
PRESENT
FOCUS
on
ROMANTISM
Joseph Lies
-VISITORS GUIDE-
THE ROYAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
ANTWERP (KMSKA) IS CLOSED FOR
RENOVATION UNTIL 2017.
SO, FOR THE TIME BEING, THE MUSEUM’S
VAST COLLECTION CANNOT BE ADMIRED
AT THE FAMILIAR PREMISES IN ANTWERP’S
ZUID (‘SOUTH’) DISTRICT. IT WILL HOWEVER
REMAIN LARGELY ACCESSIBLE TO THE
PUBLIC, AS HIGHLIGHTS ARE ON DISPLAY
AT VARIOUS HOST VENUES ELSEWHERE IN
THE PROVINCE OF ANTWERP.
ONE SUCH VENUE IS LOCATED IN LIER,
WHERE THE MUNICIPAL MUSEUM IS
STAGING AN EXHIBITION ENTITLED
BRUEGELLAND. BUILT AROUND NUMEROUS
LOANS FROM KMSKA, THE SHOW EXPLORES
THE PROFOUND INFLUENCE OF THE
BRUEGEL DYNASTY ON SUBSEQUENT
GENERATIONS OF ARTISTS FROM THE LOW
COUNTRIES.
FOCUS
on
ROMANTISM
Joseph
Lies
FROM 28 MARCH 2013 TO 30 MARCH 2014
For a whole year, the special focus in the Bruegel Land exhibition is on a selection of
ten Romantic paintings by Joseph Lies (1821 – 1865). Lies was particularly interested in
figures, events and art from the 16th century. Pieter Bruegel was his great example. The
paintings of Joseph Lies are hyper-romantic. They convey a simple message: the world
ought to be a place where life can unfold like an idyll, where people rich and poor can
enjoy a carefree and peaceful existence. But apart from tender, amorous scenes, the
artist also portrayed heartrending historical war scenes, featuring murderous soldiers,
burning towns and prisoners who are carried off amidst pleas from their loved ones.
Back in the 19th century, Lies’s work, like that of Ferdinand and Henri De Braekeleer,
Henri Leys and François Lamorinière, was internationally known. Today, it is all but
forgotten, yet absolutely worth rediscovering.
I
The peasant scenes by Pieter Bruegel the Elder are iconic: they are known the
world over and etched into our collective memory. Bruegel is almost synonymous
with feasting and brawling, fun and fracas. No wonder that countless taverns and
eateries bear the Old Master’s name. Bruegel’s colourful image is due largely
to Felix Timmermans, the famous author from Lier, who in 1928 published a
romanticised biography of the artist. In actual fact, though, the book tells us more
about the adulation of artistic personalities in the early twentieth century than
about Bruegel as an individual. Timmermans took considerable historical license,
turning the intellectually inclined artist that Bruegel was into a hedonist.
Bruegel was already very popular during his own lifetime. Kings and emperors
paid large sums of money for work by his hand. And the bourgeoisie, too, acquired
a taste for Bruegel’s folk scenes, which read as a catalogue of the wicked,
reprehensible behaviour from which they wished to distance themselves. In
order to keep up with demand, Bruegel’s sons and grandsons produced dozens of
copies, though rarely from the original compositions. The subdued earthy palette
of Bruegel the Elder gradually made way for brighter, more fashionable colour
schemes. The various versions also diverge in their pictorial detail.
4
OLD COPY AFTER PIETER BRUEGEL I
The Dance of the Bride
The painting depicts guests at a peasant wedding who are dancing to bagpipe
music. The bride, who is recognisable by her loose hair and dark dress, has joined
in. Although the peasants are dancing in pairs, the overall effect is that of a whirling
motion without beginning or end. This panel is a rather faithful, most probably
contemporary, copy of the original painting by Pieter Bruegel I held by the Detroit
Institute of Arts. The upper plank of the panel was replaced in the nineteenth century
and does not follow the original.
In this version, the bird’s eye view of the scene stretches to four dark-trunked trees.
Dancing with flailing arms and legs was regarded as unsophisticated. Townsfolk used
to dance in line and keep their arms pressed tightly against their bodies. Learning
to control one’s posture, especially in public, was an important part of youngsters’
education. The behaviour of the peasants in the picture is of course precisely the
opposite.
6&­7
PIETER BRUEGHEL II
Proverbs, 1607 / Proverbs
Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Proverbs is one of the best known Flemish paintings of the
16th century. It survives in twenty or so copies. Both the Municipal Museum in Lier
and KMSKA possess a version by Bruegel’s son Pieter. The version in the collection of
Lier is the earliest known copy. If you look closely, you will no doubt spot some of the
differences between the two paintings.
The people, animals and objects in the composition illustrate a hundred or so proverbs
in a rural setting by a river. They refer to the folly and futility of human behaviour on
the one hand and to dishonesty and deceit on the other.
Proverbs were a popular subject matter in 15th and 16th-century literature and art.
10
PIETER BRUEGHEL II
Kermis of Saint George
On 23 April, archery guilds celebrate their patron Saint George. But as so often in
the kaleidoscopic compositions after Bruegel I, there is no particular focal point. In
the background, the archery competition is still under way and a procession has just
arrived at the church, but elsewhere the merrymaking has already begun. The taverns
are filled to bursting point and people have spilt into the streets, dancing and drinking,
including some children. Some folks have already had too much and are out of control
or feeling sick. Women are trying to keep their husbands’ out of drunken brawls, and a
child hangs from its father’s clothes. Some boys have abandoned their ball and hoop
as a jester catches their attention. And amorously frolicking couples are scattered
across the picture. People are dancing to the beat of a drum. A second musician,
possibly a travelling minstrel, is playing a Jew’s harp as he leans against a basket
containing a recorder and other musical instruments.
12
PIETER BRUEGHEL II
A Wedding Procession
A wedding processions passes a windmill, a tradition that was believed to enhance the
couple’s fertility. A bagpipe player leads the way to church, followed by the groom,
the groom’s father and father-in-law, and the rest of the men. A second bagpipe
player accompanies the bride and the other women. At the farms in the background,
preparations are under way for the wedding banquet.
The windmill immediately catches the viewer’s eye. There are various old Dutch
sayings that compare marriage to a millstone or to milling. Stacked against the base
of the mill are sacks of grain, a metaphor for fertility and procreation.
II
Adriaen Brouwer tweaked the tradition of Bruegel by applying a stronger focus
on the psychology and behaviour of the folk characters inhabiting his paintings.
They bear expressions of happiness, anger or pain, or plain drunkenness. Brouwers
not only influenced Flemish artists such as Van Craesbeeck and Teniers, but also
had many admirers in Holland, as is apparent from the tavern scenes by Van
Ostade and the interiors by Jan Steen. His small but striking compositions were
to the taste of many 18th-century art enthusiasts, who used them to liven up their
cabinets. So the success of genre painting continued up into the late 19th century,
though the subject matter did become mellower, with fewer raw details, in order
not to affront the bourgeoisie.
13
IMITATEUR D’ADRIAEN BROUWER
Village Fair
The respectable townsfolk who tended to buy these kinds of paintings clearly saw the
subject matter as a way of distinguishing themselves from the uncultivated masses.
In their eyes, a village fair was perhaps the apex of boorishness, where brawling and
amorous frolicking was the order of the day, and with people drinking to abandon and
throwing up. And all this would go on in public, out in the street and right up to the
doorstep of the village church. In this picture, the fun is already in full swing: a figure
standing on a barrel is playing the bagpipes as a crowd dances around a tree; elsewhere,
a man shows a nice hand of cards and, towards the church, a group are playing bowls.
But there is also evidence of fracas: a table is overturned and clubs are wielded.
18
ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE
The Smoker, 1655
A man holding a pipe is relaxing by the window. Beside him on the table rests a
glass and some loose tobacco in a folded piece of paper alongside a match. The
composition is fanciful in the sense that the man’s appearance does not tie in
with the interior, particularly the precious stained glass. Moreover, his delicate
stoneware pipe is of an expensive type produced mostly in Gouda. The scene may
be a symbolic representation of the sense of smell, although the smoke emanating
from the pipe may also be associated with idleness and the fleetingness of existence:
all goes up in smoke eventually.Tobacco has a mildly narcotic effect and, in the
eyes of the bourgeoisie, this entailed a danger of loss of control, with potentially
grave consequences for one’s wellbeing and wealth. The upward gaze of the man
suggests that he has been drinking, or perhaps it represents symbolically that he is
‘blowing his wealth’. Smoking and drinking were considered to be complementary
activities: drinking encourages smoking and smoking dries the throat. Hence the
glass on the table. Cardinal sins such as gluttony and idleness were likewise closely
associated: they were regarded as mutually enhancing and as leading to certain ruin.
22
JAN STEEN
Peasants Brawling
Playing cards was a popular pastime, but it could also end in drunken brawls. Here,
an enraged player draws a knife and grabs his opponent by the hair. The aggressor
is a personification of Ira or rage. A barrel is overturned, sending a pewter jug, some
cards, dice and coins scattering across the floor. Gambling appealed to people from
all rungs of society, but it could sometimes ruin them or, worse still, cost them their
lives. Note the onlooker from behind the corner. And what to make of the axe in the
picture?
26
FERDINAND DE BRAEKELEER I
The Village Schoolhouse, 1854
This painting is Ferdinand De Braekeleer’s lively interpretation of the motif of the
strict schoolmaster. An old, surly schoolmaster uses his cane to maintain order in an
overcrowded classroom. The satirical print representing the Ass in the School, after
Pieter Bruegel I, was an influential example for chaotic classroom scenes.
38
HENRI LEYS
The Guild of the Archers Welcomes Margareta van Oostenrijk, 1860
Henri Leys was one of the most influential history painters of his era. Like a true
historian, he tried to reconstruct everyday scenes from Antwerp’s past. This painting
featuring Margaret of Austria depicts not an important historical event, but a rather
ordinary visit by the young archduchess to the archery guild of St Sebastian. The
guildsmen have done their best to give Margaret, daughter of Maximilian of Austria
and Mary of Burgundy, a fitting welcome. The imperial eagle under the balcony is a
reference to the Holy Roman Empire. The archers stand aligned behind a balustrade
that is decorated with what would appear to be back-to-back letters C, the dynastic
symbol of the Dukes of Burgundy. It represents a so-called ‘steel’, which, together with
a piece of flint, was used to make fire.
47
THÉODORE GÉRARD
Guests at a Wedding
A scene of nostalgia and romantic yearning, or an idealisation of a lifestyle that
never was? The arrangement of the composition is reminiscent of the work of Leys.
The interior with a staircase and mezzanine allows the artist to present a range of
characters, with special focus on their attire. Particularly striking is the silhouette of
the couple dancing towards the window on the balcony.
The Biedermeier style originated in Central Europe, but also became popular in the
Low Countries. The term Biedermeier – constructed from the titles of two poems –
originally had a politico-historical meaning, but it came to denote an artistic style. Fed
up with the Napoleonic Wars and revolution, the middle classes increasingly retreated
to a simple and agreeable domestic life. Biedermeier paintings typically feature
attractive scenes of carefree superficiality.
III
In the nineteenth century, numerous artists drew inspiration from their Early
Netherlandish predecessors. Henri Leys tried to revive Antwerp’s Golden Age, while
Henri De Braekeleer borrowed the motif of open doors and windows from the old
Dutch masters. Around 1900, a new generation rediscovered Bruegel the Elder.
His influence is noticeable in Van De Woestyne’s sharp outlines and poetic idiom.
Smits, Laermans and De Saedeleer clearly had Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow in
the back of their minds when they rendered their winter landscapes. It was Bruegel
who inspired Permeke to stylise his peasant figures into his now trademark angular
forms rendered in a subdued earthy palette. The continued popularity of rural
aesthetics today is apparent in the preference of many Flemings for homes in a
pseudo-rustic style.
64
EDGARD TYTGAT
Bohemians, 1922
The work of Edgard Tytgat exudes a folky simplicity and an endearing freshness and
artlessness. In his painting, he ignored what went on around him to focus time and
again on the familiar realm of his own reveries and childhood memories. In this sense,
his work is akin to the oeuvre of the celebrated Flemish author Felix Timmermans.
How colourful and enticing the bohemian lifestyle must have seemed: city dwellers
and countryfolk marvelled at the skills of these travelling artists. Leaning against a
tree, the Strong Man – profuse chest hair showing – watches a young woman practise
a balancing act on a ball. A boy accompanies her on xylophone. On the steps of the
trailer, a woman is feeding a baby and a second is peeling potatoes. A third girl and a
dog look on.
70
ALBERT SERVAES
Peasant Life, 1920
Albert Servaes was the proverbial father of Flemish Expressionism and a great
innovator of religious art.
Originally entitled Life of the Christian Peasant, this ensemble is made up of four
triptychs, each of which evokes a life phase and a season, in conjunction with an
important religious rite.
The first represents childhood and spring, the time of the first Holy Communion. A girl
leaves her home and, together with her peers, walks to the village church to receive
the Eucharist.
The second triptych evokes adulthood and summer, combined with the sacrament of
marriage. The left wing represents the couple’s engagement and the right depicts the
wedding procession on its way to church.
The third triptych centres on maturity and autumn, which is associated with
parenthood and the sacrament of Baptism. The left wing shows a maternity visit,
and the right wing again depicts the procession to church, where the infant is to be
baptised.
The fourth and final triptych represents old age and winter, together with the rite of
burial. The deceased is placed in a coffin and the burial procession makes its way to
church for the funeral service.
73
GUSTAVE VAN DE WOESTYNE
The Sleepers 1918
A young man tries in vain to wake the sleeping peasants who are neglecting their
herd. Two bible verses on the back of the canvas explain the image.
Much as Pieter Bruegel I transferred Biblical scenes to sixteenth-century Flanders, so
Van De Woestyne transposed the story of Jesus and his disciples at Gethsemane to
his own era: his peasants have closed their eyes to the ravages of war.
78
EUGÈNE LAERMANS
Blind, 1898
The deprived in society occupy a central place in the rather sombre oeuvre of Eugène
Laermans. In this painting, a girl leads a blind man along a road in a gloomily lit
landscape. The work of Pieter Bruegel I was an important source of inspiration to
Laermans, as is apparent in this painting: not only is the subject matter a reference to
Bruegel’s Parable of the Blind, but the landscape is also reminiscent of the style of the
old master.
79
HENRI DE BRAEKELEER
The Man in the Chair (1875)
Henri De Braekeleer frequently used the interior of Brouwershuis (‘Brewers House’)
in Antwerp as a backdrop to his paintings, as did his uncle Henri Leys and indeed
many other artists. The gold leather, the marble floors and the windows provided an
excellent opportunity for artists to show off their skills.
This painting was purchased by Baron Georges Caroly and subsequently donated to
KMSKA in 1920.
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