"Song of Springtime" by Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884)

Song of Springtime (La Chanson du Printemps)

Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884)

Exhibited 1874

Oil on canvas

Height: 149 cm (58.66 in.), Width: 101 cm (39.76 in.)

Musée de la Princerie, Verdun, France

Source: Crastre, Plate I, frontispiece

This painting of a barefoot peasant girl resting on bank near the village, violets in her basket and a blossoming tree in the distance, with cupids paying court to her, was Bastien-Lepage's first big success. [Commentary continues below.]

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Commentary by François Crastre

It was a veritable revelation. There was no neglect this time. The public gathered in throngs before his canvas, and the critics, notwithstanding a few objections to details, were lavish in their praise and hailed him as having the qualities of a true artist. Naturally, the picture was not perfect, but it well merited the flattering reception which it received. In a springtime landscape a young peasant girl is seated beneath a tree, looking before her over a sunlit plain. Around her skirts a whole bevy of Cupids are gathering blossoms and offering them to the girl. Here, at the first stroke, is an assertion of the young painter's independence, his formal determination to emancipate himself from the accepted formulas in his treatment of the eternal theme of a young girl's soul, opening to the first appeal of love. As a matter of fact, the allegory is somewhat clumsy; you realize that the author's talent does not run to sentimental compositions. Yet the young girl is brushed in with an energetic hand, and all that rather coarse robustness that distinguishes the women of peasant stock is blended in a masterly manner with the naive innocence of simple souls. The Song of Springtime was Bastien-Lepage's first attempt in that vein of realistic painting in which he was soon destined to excel (26-27).

Related Material

Bibliography

Crastre, François. Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884). Frederick A. Stokes, 1914. Internet Archive. Contributed by University of California Libraries. Web. 12 March 2020.

Created 12 March 2020