Criticism of the 1897 Nantes exhibition

 

Cover, La Revue nantaise No 4, 15.12.1897
La bibliothèque municipale de Nantes 

Richard Hall held a large solo exhibition entitled Exposition des œuvres du peintre Richard Hall in Nantes from December 6 to 19, 1897. The venue was Galerie Préaubert. I have described the works exhibited in a blog post entitled Exhibition in Nantes in 1897. The local newspaper La Revue nantaise published a review of the exhibition on December 15, 1897. The review is interesting because it also provides some background information on Hall's work at the Melleray monastery. In addition, the five-page review is illustrated with two of Hall's paintings. They depict monks. The images are of rather poor quality, but they still give an idea of the works on display at the exhibition.

La Revue nantaise was a magazine about literature and art that came out twice a month. The first issue of the magazine had come out just a little earlier, in November 1897. The exhibition review was written by Marcel Giraud-Mangin (1872–1949). He was the founder and co-editor of La Revue nantaise. During his lifetime, Giraud-Mangin worked as curator of the Nantes City Library, municipal archivist, and professor of art history at the Nantes Regional School of Fine Arts. He was a member of the Nantes Archaeological and Historical Society. This information can be found on the website of the National Library of France.

La Revue Nantaise magazine was found at La bibliothèque municipale de Nantes, the Nantes municipal library. The magazine had not been digitized, but Helene Hall, Richard Hall's granddaughter who happens to live in Nantes, was very kind and visited the library for me. As a result of her visit, the library digitized the magazine, so I was able to access it despite the distance. I am very grateful for the help I received, without which this wonderful material would not have been found

The work at the monastery

First, Giraud-Mangin notes that it takes real courage for an artist to dare to hold an exhibition in Nantes, because the public is largely indifferent and even hostile. He admires the visitor from the north who dared to settle in the city and succeeded in gaining the approval of the locals. According to the author, Hall settled in Nantes about a year ago, and with the exhibition Moines au Lutrin, he gained popularity and made friends. 

Giraud-Mangin says that Hall moved to Brittany in 1888. He worked there for six years. Hall was taken to the monastery of Melleray by the Viscount of Durfort. Hall had painted the viscount's portrait, so they had apparently met through that. Giraud-Mangin does not say when Hall first visited the monastery, but he mentions that the artist worked there for three months in 1896. During that time, he produced paintings depicting Trappist monks and the monastery, which were exhibited in 1897.

Viscount Durfort may be the same person who attended the opening of Hall's exhibition at the Georges Petit gallery in Paris from May 2 to May 15, 1901. I have written about the exhibition in my blog post Successful Exhibition in Paris 1901. Durfort was probably part of Hall's circle of friends for several years.

Richard Hall: La classe manuelle. École de petites filles (Finistère), 1889
(The crafts class. Girls' school [Finistère])

Oil on canvas, 85 x 142 cm

Musée des beaux-Arts de Rennes, Deposit of the National Contemporary Art Fund, 1891

Photo: Wikimedia  Commons

 Criticism

The exhibition featured nearly a hundred works, which Giraud-Mangin considered too many. He felt that the landscape paintings were mediocre and could have been left out of the exhibition. Similarly, some of the genre paintings could have been omitted. Above all, Giraud-Mangin considers Hall to be a significant portrait painter. On the other hand, he notes that it does not require much imagination.

The central works in the exhibition are subject to criticism. Giraud-Mangin says of the French state-owned work La Classe Manuelle: Dans La Classe Manuelle, ensoleillée d‘un plein soleil d’été, les poses sont quelconques, les fillettes ramassées les unes sur les autres sont peintes sans souci de faire valoir leur type ou leur attitude, pour la simple curiosité de l’effet de lumière.

Freely translated: In La Classe Manuelle, bathed in bright summer sunlight, the poses are ordinary, the girls huddled together are painted without any concern for highlighting their type or attitude, simply out of curiosity for the effect of the light.

According to the critic, the painting La Charité à la Porte lacks light, and despite its sincerity, the characters are depicted too portrait-like. In addition, the color scheme appears to be faded gray. I have not yet found the painting in question, so for now it remains a mystery how it looks like.

However, a few genre paintings depicting monks receive praise: Le Botaniste, which depicts a monk examining a plant leaf with a magnifying glass, is charmingly natural. Similarly, Le Bibliothécaire, which depicts a monk sitting with his books, is, in Giraud-Mangin's opinion, pleasing in its simplicity.

 

Illustration, La Revue nantaise No 4, 15.12.1897
La bibliothèque municipale de Nantes

 

Praise

While Hall's genre and landscape paintings have been criticized, his portraits have been praised. Giraud-Mangin praises Hall as an intelligent and perceptive portraitist who knows how to capture the facial features of beautiful women, bourgeoisie, monks, and workers. Giraud-Mangin's criticism ends with encouraging words that predict a bright future for the artist:

Telle quelle, cette exposition fait honneur au travailleur, qui, sans cesse, dans toutes ses ouvres, s'est efforcé d'arriver au mieux, modifiant sa manière de peindre, cherchant des effets nouveaux par des procédés différents, avec la conscience et peut-être l'angoisse d'un Grand artiste. S'il n'est pas encore maître de son talent, Richard Hall est jeune; ce qu'il a donné déjà est la garantie d'un brillant avenir.

Freely translated: As it stands, this exhibition honors the artist, who, in all his works, has constantly strived to achieve the best, modifying his painting style and seeking new effects through different techniques, with the awareness and perhaps the anxiety of a great artist. Although Richard Hall may not yet have fully mastered his talents, he is young; what he has already produced is a guarantee of a brilliant future.

The critic could not have been more right: a few years later, Hall held a solo exhibition in Paris, which was his definitive breakthrough as a portrait painter. I have written about the exhibition in my blog post Successful Exhibition in Paris 1901.

 

Illustration, La Revue nantaise No 4, 15.12.1897
La bibliothèque municipale de Nantes