The Artists' Colony in Paris

Richard Bergh: Den lille krymplingen / Pojke från Concarneau, 1881
(A Little Crippled / Boy from Concarneau)
Oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
Nationalmuseum
Photo: Cecilia Heisser, Nationalmuseum, Sweden

As I mentioned in my blog post on Laurens and Benjamin-Constant, Richard Hall's postgraduate studies in Paris remain shrouded in mystery. The Swedish government's travel grant of 3,000 kronor was intended to cover two years of postgraduate studies. Hall moved to Paris in the fall of 1881, so based on that, we can calculate that the grant lasted until the fall of 1883. After that, he had to trade his studies and freer lifestyle for earning a living by selling his paintings.

We also know that Hall married his Swiss cousin Julie Cornetz in 1881. In addition, he has said that for a few years he shared a studio with his fellow student from Stockholm, Richard Bergh, who was a good friend of his. In the 1880s, Nordic artists formed a close-knit artist colony in Paris. I have not yet found much source material that would indicate Hall's membership in the artist colony. This is suggested by his address from 1883, which was 12 rue Boissonade. It was located near Montparnasse Street, where the artist colony lived. It is also known that Richard Bergh belonged to the artists' colony.

This blog post is based on the memoirs of Swedish artist Georg Pauli (1855–1935), Pariserpojkarne. In it, he recounts the lives of Nordic artists in Paris from the 1870s onwards. The book covers the 1880s and is freely available online thanks to the Runberg Project. Another source is Sixten Ringbom's article Pohjoismainen 80-luku: Todellisuutta, ilmaa ja valoa (The Nordic 1880s: Reality, Air, and Light). It was published in the book Pohjoismainen taide 1880-luvulla (Nordic Art in the 1880s, Amos Anderson Art Museum, 1986).

Artists' colony

According to Pauli, Nordic artists formed their own close-knit colony in Paris, living in the Montparnasse area, sticking together and supporting each other, including financially. Interaction with local artists was quite rare. Art studies and artistic development were more important than getting to know the local culture. The exceptions were art exhibitions, which could be seen not only at salons but also at art dealers' and auction houses' premises. In addition to their studies, artists developed their skills by painting and listening to the criticism of their fellow artists.

Those who attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts formed a close-knit inner circle, where brotherly friendships often lasted throughout life: "Och dessa kände sig alltid som bröder, ett förhållande som för övrigt för tora flertalet fortsatt livet igenom." The wider colony also included artists from other Nordic countries, such as Ville Vallgren and Albert Edelfelt from Finland. According to Pauli's memoirs, the best parties were held at the home of Vallgren and his wife Antoinette.

Claude Monet: Impression, soleil levant (Impression, sunrise), 1872
Oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm
Musée Marmottan Monet
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Impressionism

Impressionism is today the best known of the art styles of the late 19th century. The first Impressionist exhibitions were held in Paris in the 1870s. This completely new style did not interest the young artists of the Nordic artists' colony. Pauli recalls:

De oppositionella, banbrytarna, impressionisterna, vilka redan framträtt, föreföllo oss alls icke lockande, endast kuriösa. En av deras första utställningar 1877 i rue Lafitte, i konsthistorisk hänseende sedermera så betydelsefull - syntes oss vara en samling dilettantarbeten utan form eller teckning. Alla spektrets färger dansade runt med konturlösa föremål.

Freely translated: The opposition, the pioneers, the Impressionists, who had already appeared, did not seem attractive to us at all, only curious. One of their first exhibitions in 1877 on Rue Lafitte, which later became so significant in art history, seemed to us to be a collection of amateur works without form or drawing. All the colors of the spectrum danced around with contourless objects.

Éduard Manet: Olympia, 1863
Öljy kankaalle, 130,5 x 191 cm
Musée d'Orsay
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was also active in Paris at that time. He was a painter who was close to the Impressionists and held them in high regard. Manet was one of the reformers of painting. He depicted subjects that were considered radical, such as prostitution. Pauli has recalled his visit to Manet's studio on Rue St. Petersburg, where Manet was holding a small exhibition. Among the works on display was Olympia, now one of Manet's most famous paintings:

Med alla respekt inför dessa beryktande målningar, kunde jag inte underlåta att göra den reflexionen att om man får slarva så med teckningen samt ej behöver uföra detaljer - så kanske det inte är så stor konst - de fordras blott en god dosis fräckhet!

Freely translated: With all due respect to these notorious paintings, I could not help but reflect that if one can be so careless with the drawing and does not need to execute the details, then perhaps it is not such great art—all that is required is a good dose of audacity.

An untrained eye might consider Olympia, for example, to be a fairly realistic painting, but Paul's view reflects his training at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts: Drawing skills were considered the foundation of everything, and a lot of time was spent practicing them. In addition, academic painting valued the accurate depiction of details. In the most highly regarded form of academic art, history painting, every detail was significant when recounting a historical event through images. Manet broke away from these principles in his art, and his contemporaries noticed the difference.

Realism

In 1880s Paris, another style that differed from traditional academic painting was also influential: realism. In Scandinavian countries and France it is also known as naturalism. It meant a break from the academic style of painting, whose subjects were strictly defined by state art academies and whose color palette was dominated by browns. In realism of the 1880s, works were painted outdoors, the color palette was fresh, and the subjects changed to things that artists observed in their environment—often including social inequality. The subjects of the paintings were ordinary people, including the poor and rural residents.

Realism became the dominant style among Nordic artists. One explanation for this is probably that the artistic approach taught at art academies, which was based on careful drawing and detailed depiction of the subject, was easily applicable. The color palette became brighter and the subjects changed, but the painting technique remained essentially the same. The image above, a painting by Richard Bergh, represents this style.

Although Impressionism and realism were very different in style—in Impressionism, the most important thing was to express the artist's impression, while in realism, it was to depict the surrounding reality realistically—they were united by their departure from the subjects dictated by the state leadership. This change is also evident in Richard Hall's art. He began painting pictures based on his observations of the streets of Paris, which I will discuss later.