Walk: No
Distance: 0 but home yoga
Ciwt is dusting off her knowledge of art at the Legion of Honor and came across this paper she wrote:
Louis (?) Le Nain, French (1600/1610 -1648)
Peasants Before Their
House ca. 1641
Oil on Canvas
So, why the question mark after the artist’s first
name? Louis was one of three never
married Le Nain brothers who were all born in Laon, formed a workshop together
in Paris, painted similar subjects collaboratively as well as individually,
specialized in paintings of peasant life, stopped dating their works early on and
never signed their work with their first names – just Le Nain. Clearly this has
made life a challenge for art historians, and it has become common to treat
their work as a single artist.
One brother though, Louis, is regarded as the ‘genius of the
family,’ (1) and there is scholarly agreement (although no proof) that this canvas
‘can only have come’ from him. (2) Louis is described as appearing to have been
a somber artist, pensive and self-contained, who shunned elegance and restlessly
explored new horizons.” (3) With their air of melancholy, it could be that he
modeled these peasants on himself.
Everything about this painting is earthbound and everything
on the earth Le Nain paints is bound to each other. This is largely achieved by
his overall use of subdued, chalky greys and ochres. The earth, the clothing, the stone of the
house, the dog, the pet rooster, the skin tones – even the sky - are in these
muted hues. The sole exceptions are the
red cloak, the rooster’s comb and a red sleeve in the background, and one
senses these were simply painterly decisions to add some contrast and energy to
the canvas.
In many technical ways this is a remarkable canvas. Le
Nain’s brushwork is confident and proficient.
At times he paints loosely, openly as in the sky, at others his shading
and attention to detail make for beautiful portraiture, and finally his fine
brushwork carefully delineates the wispy grasses on the shed’s roof and the
details of the mother and child standing on the stairs in the background. The peasant poses are static but varied and
point to Louis’s known ability to “make a thousand different poses taken from
life.”(4) The overall the composition is unified by a network of straight lines
which intersect most dramatically at the man and boy in the foreground and is
noteworthy its unusual and high abstractness. (5)
Besides binding earth and peasant, the monochromatic palette
lends a quiet, stable air of dignity almost serenity to this family
grouping. They may be peasants but we do
not get the sense they are threadbare, destitute, lonely or in emotional or
physical impoverishment. They have each
other, infants, pets, a solid home, things look clean, their bodies appear
strong and healthy. Rather than being
unhappy, they are calm, expressionless, restrained, at worst stoic from
hardship. In many senses their balance
and restraint echoes classicism as does the statuesque stance of the father,
the loose, flowing draping of the clothing worn by the three figures in the
foreground.
However, for all its realistic and sympathetic portrayal of
peasants, there are some critics who question how “taken from life” Le Nain’s
work really was. Are these really
peasants of their time? Assuming Le Nain
painted the peasants with which he was intimate, those of his native Laon,
these peasants were living in the midst of the Thirty Years War. This was a time of severe hardship, anguish,
depredation by cruel armies marauding and living off the countryside. Yet these peasants are portrayed as calm,
almost docilely engaged in homely activities despite real world conditions
around them. Because of this disparity, some scholars have suggested Le Nain
intentionally downplayed any misery to please wealthy urban patrons with these
paintings. (5) I believe this thinking
is reinforced by the miniature Madonna and Child on the steps in the background
which would also have appealed to the patrons who, being French, were almost
entirely Catholic.
But in conclusion, whether or not these peasants were entirely
realistic in their portrayal, it is highly significant that they were portrayed
at all and so masterfully. Their
inclusion as subject matter represents a very original continuation of
Caravaggio’s early Baroque humanism as well as the peasant paintings of 17th
C Holland. More importantly, Le Nain’s
art was placed in the Louvre in 1848, and likely had an effect on Jean Francois
Millet, the influential painter of melancholy scenes of peasant labor, as well
as the great French Realist Gustave Courbet.
