FORAIN, PAINTER AND PRINTMAKER
by Joan K. Yanni
It is hard to believe, when looking at the painting At Court (Au Tribunal) by Jean Louis Forain (54.1), that the artist once exhibited with the Impressionists and was a follower and friend of Degas. This work is from a period in the artist’s life when he had abandoned scenes of gaiety and high living and turned to bringing the plight of the poor to the attention of the public. Little known in the United States, Forain is highly regarded in France as an illustrator, printmaker and cartoonist as well as a painter.
At Court presents a woman and two children standing before a judge, anxiously waiting for his decision. We assume that the woman is a widow because she is wearing black. The judge leans forward, gesturing with his left hand. Is the trio being sent away, with no help for their misery? Or is Forain a cynical Frenchman who believes that they are frauds, feigning poverty to gain monetary aid? Forain's life and art suggest that it is the former.
The painting is monochromatic, made up of mostly browns and black, so dark that we can barely see the spectators in the background and a uniformed officer of the court standing behind the judge. A hint of red in the clothing of one spectator—or perhaps a woman waiting her turn before the judge—relieves the dark palette. A touch of red is repeated in the hat of the bailiff and in the onlookers at top right. The faces of the main characters stand out against the dark of the rest of the composition. The mood of the picture is somber, depressing. The artist is commiserating with those he considered to be treated unjustly by a prejudiced, hypocritical, self-centered society.
Forain (1852-1931) was born in Rheims in sight of the famous cathedral. His father was a house painter, and the family moved to Paris so that their son would have a chance to study and improve his social standing. When he chose to study art, his parents were understandably disappointed. The sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was his first teacher. Carpeaux had seen the teen-ager copying Old Masters at the Louvre and invited him to work at his studio. When this relationship ended, André Gill befriended Forain, now living in poverty, and taught him to paint. This was the extent of Forain's training. He learned most by copying museum masterpieces, with a particular love for Hals and Rembrandt, whose sharp dark/light contrasts he adopted. While drawing at the Bibliothèque Nationale, he chanced upon a portfolio of Goya and was both astonished and delighted. This was what he wanted to be able to do. He bought a notebook and began to sketch everything and everyone in the streets of Paris. His avid sketching was interrupted only when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870 and he was recruited.
It is not clear when Forain met Degas, but the artist became Forain's mentor and life-long friend. Through Degas, Forain met Manet and attended meetings of the Impressionists. Forain had always been interested in the life around him. The Impressionists appealed to him because they, too, painted scenes of everyday life—people, landscapes, or a combination of both. In addition, the Impressionists were interested in something new: the behavior of sunlight and its resulting shadows. Fascinated, Forain lightened his palette and began to use short brush strokes and complementary color juxtapositions.
His earliest known paintings date from about 1872. He was particularly successful in painting Parisian women and backstage scenes at the Opéra and the Folies-Bergère as well as the racetrack. In 1879 he was invited by Degas to join the fourth Impressionist exhibition, and he exhibited with the group three times.
Forain began printmaking in the mid 1870s. His first etchings (1875-1890) were backstage views and cafés, similar to his paintings. His first published drawing appeared on the cover of Le Scapin in 1876, and by 1887 he was working regularly for Le Courrier français in the manner of Honoré Daumier. His drawings for this publication became so popular that the public looked daily for his witty, biting cartoons. “Have you seen the latest Forain?" they would ask. He also began drawing intermittently for Le Figaro, a relationship that lasted over thirty years. In 1892 his fame was assured when 250 of his caricatures were published under the title La Comédie parisienne.
After 1900 Forain's painting style changed, both in technique and subject matter. He began to paint biblical and courtroom scenes, and, in 1915, scenes inspired by World War 1. Among his most moving religious pictures are the oil painting The Prodigal Son and a series of etchings on the same subject. His court scenes contrast the vulnerability of the defendant with the indifference or histrionics of the lawyers. His colors became somber, his figures solid, in keeping with his themes. In 1910 a retrospective of over 400 of his works was displayed at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. The exhibit revealed the scope of his work and established him as a major artist.
In February 1915, at 62, Forain joined the camouflage corps and later became a correspondent for Le Figaro, covering all phases of World War I with satirical images of the futility of war. His palette later brightened again and his figures became fluid and less solid. Though he continued with religious and legal subjects, he also returned to the theme of the dance and the jazz rhythms of the café.
By the end of his career, Forain was President of the Societie Nationale des Beaux-Arts, member of the Academie Française and Commandant of the Legion d’Honneur. Degas, Manet and Cézanne admired his work, and a generation of social realists was influenced by his satiric pictorial censure of injustice, greed, lust, and the horrors of war.
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