Detail from At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was born into an aristocratic family, but unfortunately, the wrong one. He suffered from a number of congenital health conditions and a skeletal abnormality related to decades of inbreeding between relatives – his parents were first cousins, as were other members of the family.By the age of 15, he had broken both of his thigh bones, neither of which healed properly; the result was that his legs no longer continued to grow. As an adult he stood only 4ft 8in tall, and had difficulty walking, relying on the use of a cane. The handicap left Lautrec unable to participate in activities enjoyed by most boys of his age. Frequently bedridden, he immersed himself in art instead. But despite his mother’s hope that he would pursue this interest and become a well-respected painter, Lautrec began haunting Montmartre, then considered home to the underbelly of Parisian society.
It was certainly popular with artists: rents were low, the bars plentiful, and the atmosphere less socially constrictive than the rest of Paris. Here, Lautrec befriended the local prostitutes, and enjoyed the seedier side of bohemian life, only very occasionally painting a landscape or two.
Operations Michael and Georgette were to be a triumph for German infiltration tactics, but the enemy didn’t count on the superior materials of the Allied armies
German propaganda imagery shows German soldiers in Bailleul, north France, during Operation Georgette
The severe fighting in the Villers-Bretonneux area continued through the night. Yesterday morning, after a terrific bombardment lasting about four hours, the Germans attacked on a front of between four and five miles. The first attacks were beaten off, but later the enemy succeeded in forcing back the left of the British line and last evening saw them in possession of Villers-Bretonneux.
By noon today it appears to have been again in our hands. The attack which rewon the village was made by Australians, with some British battalions cooperating. Savage fighting went on in the streets and on the roads, and it is the kind of fighting at which one Australian is better than many Germans. We are closing in and reducing the last enemy nests in the village, and by evening I believe the original positions will be restored.
One interesting feature in this attack has been the first employment of the much-talked-of German Tanks. It is not known that more than five were engaged, but these assisted in the attack on Villers-Bretonneux. They came round on our positions in the village from south and west. Eye-witnesses say that they are bigger than ours, with large turrets. At least one passed clear over a trench held by men of the Middlesex Regiment, who fired at it with rifles and revolvers as it went. Four or five enemy Tanks fell in with two of ours, and the first engagement between land ironclads took place. One of our machines was crippled, when a third British Tank hove in sight and joined in the attack. The newcomer knocked out one of the enemy, and the rest appear to have made their escape. Elsewhere on the battlefield British light Tanks were engaged and did fine work, some of them coming back with sides splashed with blood, for, besides using their guns, they were able to ram the enemy, and managed in several cases to get into bunches of Germans.
Besides this severe fighting on the south of the British front, the Germans this morning began the long-expected renewal of their attacks in the Kemmel area. With other troops in reserve, they are in strength enough for very heavy fighting, but we have complete confidence in the French, who hold the most critical positions, and in the cooperation of the two Armies.
The Times History of the War plus war reports, letters and
comment as selected from The Times Archive
War Volunteers
This week's chapter
examines the old regiments, early difficulties, the Brassard, "Special
units", the Honourable Artillery Company, the London Scottish, the
National Reserve and Royal Defence Corps, trench-digging, the four
classifications, defaulters, camp life the National Guard, the Volunteer
Training Corps, volunteer officers and cadet units, ambulances and hospitals,
the Artists' Rifles, station work and motor cyclists, special recognition.
Nothing damped the ardour of the citizen who had enrolled. He
paid his subscription, he hired or bought his Martini or dummy, he paid for
his uniform, and if he went in for a little camp work or firing practice at a
range, he bore his own expenses
Though no one fears the landing of a large force, the
vulnerability of Great Britain to attack is the extent of its coast line, and
no place can be left quite denuded of troops
To the Editor of The Times
Sir, There is no war organization been through more vicissitudes than the Volunteers, and it can only be the essential soundness of its purpose that has enabled it to survive.
There was a time when even drilling was forbidden them, and it was only the persistency of some of us that the Volunteers got leave to train. When the first recognition did come, it was so hedged round with restrictions that many thought the force could not survive. But enthusiasm triumphed: meetings were held, literature circulated, and corps formed in every town and village.
Meanwhile, the sympathies of the Lieutenants of Counties were enlisted and a military organization on a territorial basis set up. Thousands of men have found their own equipment, rifles have been bought, drills put in, until at last the very efficiency of the Force has compelled the respect of the military. Job after job has been thrust on them; whenever an emergency has arisen the Volunteers have been called out to fill the gap. General Smith-Dorrien has used them on the railways, the Ministry of Munitions to guard unprotected factories, the Royal Flying Corps to provide landing places, the Ordnance to establish a new store centre, the officer in charge of lines of communications to protect railways when there were large movements of troops, and the Admiralty to patrol the coast; but the men had no status; they had no legal right to act, and were not subject to discipline. Their claim to become part of the armed Forces of the Crown was pressed without avail, and in despair Lord Lincolnshire presented his Bill to the Lords. It was accepted by the Government, went through the Upper House without a division, but because of political exigencies - for which the Volunteers were in no way responsible - did not reach the Commons. That was last November; but, largely through the efforts of Mr Walter Long, the situation was saved by the promise of the Government, early in February, to revive the old Act of 1863.
The new order has not been applied with undue haste; I make no complaint, but no one can say the terms are on the side of generosity; but they are a big step forward in that they transform the Volunteer from a civilian into a soldier. The Force, meanwhile, has been depleted by delay and other causes. The men are now called on to attest with very restricted liabilities, and they are only bound to come out - for the purpose of repelling an enemy in the event of an invasion being imminent.” Other services can be accepted if they volunteer for them. But before they undertake to put themselves in the hands of the military they wish to be sure their services are really required; they want a call for sacrifice, and with that call not only will they roll up in their thousands, but bring their neighbours with them.
I was present last night when Lord Kitchener made his speech. I did not read in it the want of sympathy that some of the Press has seen in it. He made clear there was work for them to do, but seemed possessed with the fear that too generous recognition of their services would lead to undue clamour for money and equipment at the expense nf more urgent claims. The Volunteers are reasonable people; they will take what they can get, but they want to know that they are really wanted and their sacrifices are not in vain.
The concluding paragraph of the speech of the Secretary of State for War did make it clear that they were of use, but 18 months’ association with politicians has made him over-cautious in his language, and, though an impression has been conveyed that there is no great enthusiasm for their services, I am sure there was no intention to convey that idea.
I can assure Volunteers that Lord French and the General Headquarters have allocated duties to Volunteers that on a rota system would give employment to double their numbers. If they do not enrol, Regular troops will have to be retained that otherwise would be free to go to the front.
The need for economy in our resources of men and money is being ardently pressed on the nation by Ministers on every occasion. The Volunteers without being withdrawn from their trade or occupation and without being a charge on the State, are able to perform military duties which, if they did not exist, would require the calling up of more men.
Though no one fears the landing of a large force, the vulnerability of Great Britain to attack is the extent of its coast line, and no place can be left quite denuded of troops. To complete the chain of defence would require a very large force, but the existence in each town of Volunteer Corps ready to be called out at a moment’s notice is not only an additional security in war time, but makes it possible to concentrate the Regular Forces for home defence and work on much smaller numbers. Many of them have rifles, but I am satisfied that sufficient arms will be forthcoming to enable the Volunteers to maintain adequate guards and patrols where required.
On Saturday, June 17, Lord French is to inspect the County of London Volunteers, and the turn-out of the men will show the nation that they have in the Volunteers a reserve of strength that increases the potential fighting value of the Regular Forces.
Yours, &c.
PERCY A. HARRIS, Central Association Volunteer Training Corps, Judges’ Quadrangle, Royal Courts of Justice, WC, May 31.
Oficer Dywizji Morskiej uzbrojony w rewolwer Webley Mk.VI oraz żołnierz z karabinem Lee-Enfield Mk.III
Piechur australijski z karabinem Lee Enfield SMLE Mk III
Żołnierz piechoty tureckiej uzbrojony w karabin Mauser wz. 1890
In the autumn of 1914, the Allies realised that Turkey, crucial because of its control over routes of contact between Russia and the Allies in the west, was not going to remain neutral as had been hoped, and action would have to be taken.
Two days before the outbreak of war, Germany and Turkey had agreed on an alliance against Russia, although this did not commit Turkey to military action. Events in the next few months, however, including the British requisitioning of two battleships built for the Turkish Navy in Britain, meant that the entry of Turkey into the war seemed increasingly likely. By September 1914, German command had been extended to the Turkish Navy, and the Bosphorus waterway had been closed in contravention of international law. Turkey was now firmly in the German camp. Following an ultimatum to the Turkish government, hostilities officially began on 31 October 1914. By early 1915, it was obvious that the war would be protracted, and that Russia was stretched fighting on two fronts. Into this context was born the plan to attack the Dardanelles.
Simply, the original plan was the forcing of the Dardanelles by a squadron of battleships, which were considered expendable. This would open the waterway for Russian ships and hopefully cause the downfall of the Turkish government. This would be followed by landings on the peninsulas. Plans developed, and a large number of powerful ships, with a force of British, French, Australian and New Zealander divisions (ANZAC forces), were allocated for the campaign.
The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin (detail) by Jan van Eyck Jan Van Eyck is often credited as the inventor of oil painting. Yet although he is certainly the first artist who fully mastered the technique, in fact oils had been used in Indian and Chinese paintings as far back as the fifth century.
Nevertheless, the many who have admired Van Eyck’s extraordinary The Arnolfini Portrait (1434), at the National Gallery, will appreciate that he truly was a visionary. This small painting is not only sublimely beautiful, it is so rich with puzzling detail and metaphor that it has transfixed artists since it was completed. Van Eyck even signed the painting unconventionally: an inscription on the wall above the convex mirror in the background, “Jan Van Eyck was here 1434”.
In an attempt to surprise Cumberland, Charles and his able general Lord George Murray made a night March toward Inverness, only to find the English ready for them at dawn. Barraged by heavy artillery fire, the tired Highlanders nonetheless attacked, but were quickly repulsed by the well-equipped Hanoverians. With nearly double the number of forces and superior firepower, the English defeated the Jacobites in less than an hour.
At the battle’s end some 750 Jacobites lay dead, in contrast to the loss of about 360 Hanoverians. Charles fled, while ‘Butcher’ Cumberland oversaw the slaughter of the wounded and imprisoned, ushering in an era of severe repressive measures against Highland society. The battle of Culloden marked the end of the Stuart cause.
The Military Service Bill was read a third time in the House of Commons by 301 votes to 103. The Prime Minister and Mr Barnes, the representative of Labour in the War Cabinet, pledged the Government to do everything in their power to secure the passing of the Home Rule Bill into law. In an encouraging speech the Prime Minister told the House that he had just seen a general returned from the front, who said that General Plumer, facing great odds, was quite confident. “We have lost territory,” he said, “but nothing vital.” That was the view not merely of our generals, but of General Foch: he was sorry to say that the enemy had inflicted heavy losses; but they were nothing to the losses he had sustained. If the Allies stood together, not giving way to fear or panic, they would win through.
Before the Irish clause was reached, on the invitation of the Government, the House struck out the section extending the obligation to military service to ministers of religion. Mr Denman regretted the decision to refuse to accept some hundreds of Grade 1 men for service, and declared that it would excite no good feeling towards the Churches among the laity. Mr Pringle asserted that the real reason was a revolt among the Nonconformist ministers in Wales. Sir George Cave explained that the Government had taken this course because the inclusion of clergymen would curtail religious ministrations and would only make a slight addition to our manpower.
Mr Dillon opened the Irish debate with the assertion that no power on earth had a moral right to conscript a single Irishman resident in Ireland except a body representing the Irish nation. He warned the Government that they were embarking on a course which might have consequences as far-reaching as the treatment of the American colonies.
Mr Barnes, speaking as a lifelong Home-Ruler, asked Irishmen not to cry out before they were hurt. He exhorted them to reflect that, if the war were to be lost because of Ireland, Home Rule would not be settled in this generation.
The Prime Minister made it clear once more that Home Rule was not offered as a bargain, and told the Nationalists frankly that if they were to reject the Bill that would be their responsibility. The House retained the Irish clause by 296 votes to 123.
The lord Mayor listen s to the band of the Coldstream G uards on the steps of the Royal Exchange
This week's chapter
examines British finance from January 1916 to September 1918, the growth of
war expenditure, higher taxation, methods of borrowing, sales of Exchequer
bonds, expansion of floating debt, national war bonds, borrowings abroad,
United States loans to Allies, British and Allied borrowings in South
America, Switzerland, Japan and Spain, British loans to Allies and Dominions,
growth of the British National Debt and the rise in the cost of living.
A great step forward in propaganda and organization was taken
in 1918. Methods of publicity were revised, and the poster appeals were made
more personal and much more incisive. "War Bond Weeks" and
"War Weapons Weeks" were instituted with extraordinary success. Cities
and towns vied with one another in the amounts they could raise in specified
periods, usually a week or a fortnight
The British and French governments have now agreed to confer upon General Foch the title and powers of Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in France. The decision was clearly not premeditated, but has been rendered imperative by the military position in France and Flanders. Until recently the French and British Armies fought, for all practical purposes, in watertight compartments. The point of contact between the two Allied Armies remained clearly marked until the Germans began their great offensive between Arras and La Fère on March 21. In consequence of the retirement of our Fifth Army, and the hasty concentration of French reinforcements, units of both forces found themselves temporarily intermingled. The French were gradually taking over part of our battle line, and very soon were holding about half the battle front. The battle, in short, was at first exclusively British, but it became half French. In these circumstances the compromise adopted by the Supreme War Council at Versailles last winter was rapidly extended, and General Foch, at the joint desire of the British, French and United States Governments, undertook the task of co-ordinating the action of the Allied Armies with the supreme direction of strategy. This arrangement was hardly in working order when fresh complications arose as a consequence of the new offensive initiated by the enemy north and south of Armentières last week. Pressed by superior forces, the British line astride the Lys was slowly withdrawn for a considerable distance, and our Army again became in need of French help. The advent of French units in the northern battle signifies that, for a period the end of which cannot be foreseen, the old conditions under which the French and British Armies fought on separate fronts are over. There has been a fusion of resources, further emphasized by the decision of the United States government to merge many of their available battalions in French and British brigades to complete their training.
The step does not deprive the British Commander-in-Chief of any of his direct authority over the British Army, and we believe that the British peoples will fully share the entire confidence reposed in General Foch by his own countrymen.
At Auchonvillers the Germans at one time got into our positions, and had held them long enough to bring in 11 machine-guns and put themselves in positions of defence. Nonetheless, we re-attacked with great dash, and recaptured the positions and took the machine-guns and some prisoners, among them certain officers who insist on wearing nice new yellow gloves, and generally bearing themselves in a thoroughly Prussian offensive way. Give-and-take fighting has been in progress in the area of Aveluy Wood and Mesnil, but at neither place in the end did the Germans win any ground. In the northern area the German shelling has been fairly heavy and sustained, especially heavy on places south of the river from gun positions on the north side.
The nights nowadays are almost busier than the days, both sides doing much bombing, the Germans choosing towns with civilian populations rather than points of military importance, doubtless from a desire to cause panic among the French. The civilians, however, are being methodically evacuated from the most dangerous areas. The enemy has been bombing Amiens ruthlessly. One bomb missed the Cathedral by a very narrow margin. I have passed through Amiens twice today and seen most of the damage, and can testify to the completely reckless way in which bombs were dropped in all parts of the town. The fine weather continues, and even if it is in favour of the Germans from the military standpoint, one is glad of it for the sake of the refugees, who are passing in considerable numbers along the roads, offering the usual pathetic spectacles of aged men and girls wheeling all their possessions on perambulators, wheelbarrows, or handcarts, and invalid women borne on improvised stretchers of shutters or planks. Many of the poor family parties are accompanied by cows, donkeys, and goats, and all, it seems, by dogs, while the children carry cages with canaries in them. For their sake it is impossible not to rejoice that the weather is fair.
In spite of some geographical gains on the enemy’s part, it has by no means been a day to reduce our confidence. Where we have fallen back, it has been done chiefly without any pressure. Where there has been fighting we have had the best of it in the majority of cases.
The Death of Sardanapalus (detail) by Eugène Delacroix There is still debate about the identity of the artist Eugène Delacroix’s father, both possible candidates having been powerful political figures.What is certain is that, despite being born into privilege in 1798, he was fortunate to survive his infancy. Left for a lot of the time in the care of nannies and housekeepers, he was once almost burnt to death and left permanently scarred when his sleepy nurse overlooked a candle falling into his crib.
Another of his nannies dropped Delacroix into the ocean, when, as she leant over the side of a docking ship to embrace her lover, the child slipped from her arms. He was also accidentally poisoned, nearly choking to death.
Yet, despite these brushes with calamity, Delacroix survived to become one of the vital artists of the French Romantic movement.
His ostensible father was Charles-François Delacroix, the Minister of French Foreign Affairs. Charles-François supported his son’s creative studies and the young artist slowly secured himself a solid reputation within the Salon de Paris. Paintings exploring the Greek War of Independence, such as The Massacre at Chios, painted in 1824 when Delacroix was 26, were well received.
Yet the drama of his infancy seemed to haunt Delacroix like a dark shadow. Doubts were cast over Charles-François’s paternal claim – he was supposedly infertile at the time of Eugène’s conception.
Many historians have argued that the French statesman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was the artist’s biological father, thanks to a physical resemblance between the two, and the support he gave Delacroix.
Talleyrand is a peculiar, intriguing figure: a laicised bishop, politician and diplomat, his role in the French Revolution remains the subject of considerable debate. For some, he is a trusted and integral agent of the French government, for others, a Machiavellian traitor. Yet one fact remains clear: he always protected Delacroix, helping to secure his reputation as an admirable painter amongst diplomats and aristocracy.
Only one of Delacroix’s paintings was not purchased by the state: The Death of Sardanapalus, painted in 1827.
The story of the last Assyrian king has featured time and time again in mythology and legend, most often to illustrate notions of corruption, sloth and debauchery. Sardanapalus is believed to have reigned around the 7th century BC and was notorious for his hedonistic lifestyle.
Delacroix’s painting is lavish in its treatment of colour and texture, depicting Sardanapalus lying in his stately chamber at the moment his armies have been conquered by the enemy. The scene is grotesque, full of writhing naked concubines, servants and even Sardanapalus’s prize horses, all of whom are about to be slain, in order to die with their defeated king.
The free, expressive brushwork and the lush treatment of this nightmarish subject matter contrasted greatly with the painterly norms of the day. Delacroix had eclipsed Neoclassicism, which routinely tended towards orderly form and a sense of realism. His composition is loose and free-flowing, far removed from the grid-like precision of his predecessors.
But The Death of Sardanapalus is far more than a simple exercise in storytelling. For one, it exemplifies Orientalism, a theme that was heavily prevalent in 19th-century painting. At the time, Napoleon was taking an active interest in the efforts of the Ottoman government to reform and modernise itself and art became a propaganda tool, a means by which the culture and history of the Orient could be diminished, substantiating the ambitions of the French to control the region.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s Grande Odalisque (1814), for instance, a painting of a concubine within a harem, encouraged the viewer to associate untethered sexual misconduct and corruption with the Orient. However, as a proselytising device, the work is undone by its own hypocrisy: the concubine – apparently representative of Eastern culture – is, in fact, European, with pale, translucent skin.
In comparison, Delacroix treated the notion of the Orient with respect and neutrality. Unlike many artists of the time – who, despite painting their Oriental scenes with an almost anthropological sense of realism, had never left Europe – before he embarked on Sardanapalus, Delacroix travelled to Morocco, Algeria and Spain. The sketches he made there covered all areas of life: market places, landscapes, seascapes, women and children dressed in traditional attire, families gathered in their living rooms. Delacroix seems to have developed a childlike enthusiasm for discovering how others lived, in a manner completely alien to the stuffy formality of the Salon de Paris.
But, though it seems at first glance to support the political expectations of the era, in fact, The Death of Sardanapalus undermines them. Instead of demonstrating the flaws of the Orient, it diminished the relevance of sovereignty in a France in which the monarchy had only recently been restored, because the character of Sardanapalus reaffirmed the link between royalty and chaos in the French consciousness. Many noted, for instance, that the mighty king remained detached and apathetic in the midst of the horrors surrounding him.
Predictably, the painting was very poorly received. Delacroix had fallen out of favour with the Salon, the brutality and cold-bloodedness of this piece perhaps hitting too close to home, politically speaking. Because its potential for indoctrinating the masses amounted to very little, The Death of Sardanapalus was not acquired by the authorities, and remained hidden from view in the artist’s studio thereafter.
The picture was only brought to light again when the Louvre purchased it, in 1921, more than 50 years after Delacroix had died. Now, it is simply read as a painting of a minor fable. Nevertheless, the work itself is such a tremendous achievement that it transcends any political baggage it may have once carried.
The Large Bathers It is hard to imagine that Cézanne’s paintings were considered disturbingly ugly during his lifetime.When his dealer, the powerful Ambroise Vollard, placed one of his Bather paintings prominently in his gallery window, it drew a hostile response.
Even the progressive critic Charles Morice was appalled, stating: “Cézanne’s paintings alarm the public and delight artists – all of the public, but few of the artists.” A more conservative commentator noted that: “Cézanne never was able to create what can be called a ‘picture’, in truth.”
Paul Cézanne was born in 1839 in Aix-en-Provence, in the South of France. Vollard described Cézanne’s mother as, “vivacious and romantic, but quick to take offence”, a personality trait that the artist would later acquire himself.
Cézanne’s father was a lawyer and successful banker, and encouraged his son to follow the same career path. Although reluctant, Cézanne acquiesced to his father’s wishes, attending the University of Aix Law School for three years, while receiving drawing lessons in the evenings.
Deciding that law was not a profession he wanted to pursue, he left for Paris in 1861. Cézanne’s rejection of his father’s ambitions led to a troubled relationship between the two.
Fortunately, however, his father came around to his career choice eventually and Cézanne was financially dependent on him for many years. He received a monthly allowance of 100 francs, and a large inheritance following his mother’s death in 1897. (His father died in 1886.)
Cézanne was a self-taught artist. Arriving in Paris, he hoped to attend the École des Beaux-Arts, but was denied a place – twice. As a result, he had to find a more conventional way of improving his technique, and spent hours in the Louvre copying the great masters, such as Titian, Rubens and Michelangelo.
Soon he was able to join the Académie Suisse, a studio that, for a modest monthly fee, offered students the opportunity to draw from a live model. Here he met fellow aspiring painters Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro.
Cézanne continued with his independent studies and worked diligently to exhibit his paintings at the prestigious Paris Salon, but his work was rejected every time. These submissions came at a price – a price Cézanne was unable to pay on his own. It meant he had to travel back regularly to Aix to secure further funding from his dubious father.
His friend Pissarro encouraged Cézanne to consider trying a brighter palette and livelier, more delicate brushwork. During this period, Cézanne honed his approach, applying repeated exploratory brushstrokes to his pictures. He also began work on a vast series of paintings of the female and male nude, portrayed either singly or in groups, within a landscape setting. Many bore the hallmarks of Titian and Poussin.
Cinq Baigneuses Sous Des Arbres by Paul Cezanne
He also began work on a vast series of paintings of the female and male nude, portrayed either singly or in groups, within a landscape setting. Many bore the hallmarks of Titian and Poussin.
They were mostly painted from memory and using his imagination rather than actual observation. Among them were the three wonderful Bather paintings. The Large Bathers, now at the Philadelphia Museum, was the most resolved of the three, and is today considered one the greatest achievements of modern art. Cézanne worked on this picture for a remarkable seven years, between 1898 and 1905, but he still considered it unfinished.
All three versions of the scene share similar characteristics – the merging of the bathers’s geometric forms with the background, the lack of narrative content, the parallel composition and the amorphous quality of the bathers’ expressionless faces.
It was these distortions that contemporary viewers found unappealing, even though the notion of rawness had become a focus of the avant-garde painting of the time.
This attitude persisted well after Cézanne’s death, reaching a climax in 1937 when the Philadelphia Museum purchased The Large Bathers from a leading American art collector and critic, for $110,000. Criticised by the press as a “scandalous waste of such a vast sum”, the museum was forced to justify the purchase, describing the painting as having the “feel of an unanswered question”, a testament to the “anxiety” Picasso famously declared to be the source of his great interest in Cézanne. The Philadelphia Record pointed out that this money might have been put to better use helping the 40,000 Philadelphian residents without bathtubs, or put towards urban renewal programmes.
The Large Bathers
Cézanne had wanted the painting to defy all genre and style, and to be a timeless work of art. It certainly became an inspiration for some, particularly Picasso and other cubists.
Henri Matisse commented: “At critical moments in my artistic adventure it gave me courage; I drew from it my faith and endurance.” Both Matisse and Picasso agreed that Cézanne “is the father of us all”.
The last decade of Cézanne’s life was mostly spent alone in his studio in Aix, alienated from most of his friends and family due to the onset of diabetes and bouts of severe depression.
In 1906, he was caught in a storm while working in the field. Persistent as ever, he continued for another two hours under heavy showers before finally deciding to return home. The following day the model that he was currently painting called for help, as the artist appeared faint; he was put to his bed and never left – Cézanne had contracted pneumonia, dying a few days later, aged 67.
Like a number of our greatest artists, he barely enjoyed a single day of true recognition of his genius.
High spirits: Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Swing, painted in 1767 Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) is most renowned for his saccharine, congenial depictions of the upper classes at play.
He was undoubtedly at his prime in the late Rococo era, a time synonymous with hedonistic freedom, and the pursuit of all things pleasurable and aesthetically agreeable.
The style emerged in France during the mid-18th century as a reflection of the gaudy embellishments that were then so popular in architecture and furniture. They were considered exceptionally stylish by the bourgeoisie and newly wealthy, who, as they surrounded themselves with all that was resplendent, sought paintings that demonstrated their refinement.
The pinnacle of full-blown Rococo style was the extraordinary Palace of Versailles, which came to be seen as the epitome of decadence and vulgar grandeur.
But then, the French Revolution arrived – bringing with it a brutal finale to the era of opulence.
