Jules Bastien-Lepage

Sale: Neumeister, Munich, September 24, 2003, lot 392, the first illustrated

the first: Paris, École des Beaux Arts, Hôtel de Chimay, Exposition des oeuvres de Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1885 no. 13

the first: Marie-Madeleine Aubrun, Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1848-1884, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1985, no. 13 (location unknown)

Portrait of Emile Bastien-Lepage: Unlined. Craquelure visible in more heavily painted areas such as the face. Under UV: Surface dirt fluoresces on face. Portrait of a Man with a Boater: Unlined. Buckling in lower half of canvas. Craquelure visible throughout canvas with some areas more pronounced than others. Under UV: Inpainting in eye and in nose. Varnish fluoresces green.
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The striking family resemblance of two previously unknown portraits ascribed to Jules Bastien-Lepage enables us not only to propose the artist’s brother, as the subject of the picture of the bare-headed young man, but also to suggest that its companion-piece may be the earliest known portrait of the painter himself. The reasoning here is simple, and it leads us to later portraits of Emile Bastien-Lepage and various late self-portraits of Jules.

Firstly, to confirm its authenticity, the early portrait of Emile is convincingly signed. Although the ‘J’ of ‘J BASTIEN-LEPAGE’ is partially erased, early works, small studies and drawings frequently bear tiny block capital signatures, as here. Angles of letters have been compared and technical examination indicates a consonance of date between inscription and surrounding paint surface. The inscription also contains the telling addition of a tiny ‘+’ beneath the signature. This idiosyncratic mark places it in company with other known early paintings and drawings by the artist.

Close comparison between the features of Emile Bastien-Lepage in the present portrait and the confident young architect presented in the celebrated portrait of 1879, (fig 1) reveal a remarkable similarity. Hair styles have changed, and while the man in the latter portrait is, as we would expect, more mature, the bone structure and facial features – mouth, nose and eyes - in both are essentially the same. The sensitive student of 1872 has become the diligent professional, with ‘t-square’ and other drawing instruments, of seven years later.

The size of the present picture – approximately 60 x 43 cms – enables us to confidently suggest that the present picture is indeed the lost portrait shown at the artist’s posthumous retrospective exhibition in 1885.

The brothers, Jules and Emile, were apparently devoted to one another and having come from a farming family in the Meuse, they, like many of their generation, were keen to acquire fame and fortune in the metropolis. In this respect, the painter was more immediately successful than his brother after his work was taken up by rival London dealers in the early 1880s. But in 1872, this lay in the future. Having served as a franc-tireur in the Franco-Prussian War, in which he sustained a chest wound, Jules spent 1871 convalescing at home in the village of Damvillers, and only returned to Paris the following year. His goal at this point was merely to attain success in the Prix de Rome, and in order to augment his income he painted portraits and Watteau-esque pastiches. Emile was an amenable sitter. After Jules’ premature death however, this dedicated brother tended to Bastien-Lepage’s reputation, retaining carnets containing the numerous press cuttings that referred to his work, and donating important pictures to museums and to the British Royal house.    

The unsigned companion portrait undoubtedly appears to be by the same hand, and facial resemblances suggest that both subjects come from the same family. An early photograph tends to confirm the suggestion that this latter picture is indeed a self-portrait (fig 2).

Much speculation surrounds the jaunty ‘boater’ worn by the young man in the second portrait, recalling a similar hat worn by Léon Leenhoff in Manet’s celebrated Dejeuner dans l’atelier, (Neue Pinakothek, Munich). Although no specific reference is made to Manet’s Salon painting of 1869, we know that Bastien-Lepage admired the artist’s work, particularly his Bon Bock, 1873 (Philadelphia Museum of Art).

Bastien-Lepage also shared Manet’s vanity and love of elegance. We later discover that he was interested in fine clothes and the degree to which they could transform identity. His hostess, Dorothy Tennant (later Lady Stanley) tells us that he ‘would order from the most fashionable London tailor numerous summer suits of delicate grey and fawn shades and he would come to his work in these beautiful coats with new neckties …’ (The Art Journal, 1897, p. 56) and this is evident in the self-portrait he inscribed to her (Aubrun no. 374, Private Collection). We can thus imagine him in front of a mirror arranging his cravat, and carefully adjusting the angle of the boater, both of which convey the sense of youthful élan. 

The case for regarding the present portraits as autograph and representing the brothers Bastien-Lepage is thus a powerful one.

We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.