From Civic To Ethnic Classicism The Cult of The Greek Body in Late Nineteenthcentury French

From Civic to Ethnic Classicism: The Cult of the Greek Body in Late Nineteenthcentury French
Society and Art

Author(s): Athena S. Leoussi
Source: International Journal of the Classical Tradition, Vol. 16, No. 3/4 (Sep. - Dec., 2009), pp.
393-442
Published by: Springer
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40388970
Accessed: 17-08-2015 20:47 UTC
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DOI 10.1007/S12138-009-0137-Z
Fromcivictoethnicclassicism:
thecult
oftheGreekbodyin latenineteenthFrenchsocietyand art*
century
ATHENAS.LEOUSSI
SpringerScience+BusinessMedia B.V.2009
The ancientGreek cult of the body became the focus of a classical revival in France
duringthelast quarterof thenineteenthcentury.Classical civilisation,whose gravitational centrewas perceived, during the 1880s, as the perfectionof the body in a
Mediterraneanclimate,was re-claimedin Franceas a French"golden age", an inheritancefromGreekancestors.This ethno-classicismwhich called fornationalregeneration throughreturnto the "authentic"Frenchselfand its Mediterraneanhome, was
combinedwitha Catholic revivalunder conditionsof militarydefeat.The essay sets
the work of Czanne and Renoir in the contextof the two revivals, classical and
Catholic,and shows the ways in which their"classicism" gave Impressionismorder
and solidityand re-mouldedthemodernbody intoa strong,healthy,and, at thesame
time,pious body.
theearlier,universalist,
Franco-PrussianWarof 1870-71transformed
and the
individualistand civic classicismof the FrenchEnlightenment
naturalistand ethno-racial
collectivism
Revolution,intoa particularism
classicism.The new Frenchattachmentto principlesoriginatingin Greekand
motiffromtheclasRomanantiquityrejectedthecityand turnedto a different
*
I would like to thankProfessorWolfgangHaase forbeing even morethanan excellenteditor- an outstandingteacher.I will remaingratefultohimformakingthe
workon mysubmissionto thisjournala remarkableeducationalexperience.Without his meticulousreading and painstakingadvice over a long time,thisarticle
would be much poorer.I also want to thankthelate ProfessorVojtechJirat-Wasito thedevelopmentofmyknowledge,unutynskiforhis substantialcontribution
derstandingand ideas. I remainindebted to ProfessorIrvingLouis Horowitz's
appreciationof my work.Finally,as always, I thankProfessorDavid Marsland.
Athena S. Leoussi, School of Languages and European Studies, Universityof ReadReading RG6 6AA, UNITED KINGDOM
ing,Whiteknights,
Vol.16,No. 3/4,September/
December
International
2009,
Journal
oftheClassicalTradition,
pp. 393-442.
394
2009
International
I September
/December
Journal
oftheClassicalTradition
sical repertoire:theGreekcultof thestrongand healthybody.It was a return

to yetanotherthemefromtheancientGreekand Roman worlds whose close
linksand exemplaryqualities fortheWesternworld have caused themto be
termed,jointly,"classical civilisation".*The desire to look Greekthroughreturnto theGreekphysicalideal and theinstitutions
thathad realisedit- athletics and physical exercise in the open air - was justifiedwith scientific
arguments:ethnic/genealogicaland racial.These argumentswere produced
by and takenfromthenew life-science:physicalanthropology.
In mybook, Nationalism
and Classicism:TheClassicalbodyas NationalSymbolin Nineteenth-Century
Englandand France,I have consideredthe details of
theriseof theidea of race in late eighteenth-and nineteenth-century
Europe,
and especially England and France: the ways in which the ancient Greeks
were idealised as thefullestembodimentof thesuperiorwhiterace to which
theEuropeansbelonged,and, indeed,ofhumanityas such. In thatbook I also
examinedtheimplicationsoftheseideas fornationalidentity,
educationalinstitutionsand general patternsof artisticpracticein these countries.2In the
presentessay I re-visitsome of these ideas, summarisingthemand adding
additionalmaterialregardingculturaland institutional
changein Franceafter
theFranco-Prussianwar,in orderto introducetheterm"ethno-classicism"or
"ethnicclassicism". This new termoffersa more specificway of describing
and therebyunderstandinga distincttypeof "classicism",i.e., orientationto
and appropriationof aspects of ancientGreekand Roman civilisation,which
markednot onlyFrench,but also Englishand Germansocietiesand theirart
in thelate nineteenth-century
and beyond.
I have termedattachmentto the ancientGreekphysicalideals and institutionsofstrengthand health"ethno-classicism",
because theimitationofthe
ancientGreekcultofthebody thatthisnew classicismadvocated was justified
racial continuity
by descent,thatis, by beliefin genealogical-cum-physical/
of themodernFrenchwiththeancientGreeks.3
Ethno-classicismwas one of manyclassicismsand classicisingdoctrines
thatmarkedthe turn-of-the
centuryFrenchsearch fora specificallynational
culture. Some of these classicisms have been identifiedand examined in
to thevolume edited by Hargrove
greateror lesserdepthby thecontributors
and McWilliam,Nationalismand FrenchVisualCulture,1870-1914* As Neil
McWilliamshows in thatvolume, the termclassicismacquired such a wide
1.
On theEuropean fascinationwiththeancientGreekand Roman worlds,whichis

evidentin much of post-antiqueEuropean art,see, forexample,Michael Greenin Art(London: Duckworth,1978),"Introduction."
halgh,TheClassicalTradition
2. Athena S. Leoussi, Nationalism
and Classicism:TheClassicalBodyas NationalSymbolin Nineteenth-Century
Englandand France(Houndmills: Macmillan,1998).
3. This termis based on the distinctionbetween 'ethnic' and civic' nationsimplied
in Hans Kohn's analysisofthedifference
between 'Western'and 'Eastern'nations
in Europe. See Hans Kohn, TheIdea ofNationalism(New York:Macmillan,1944).
See Leoussi, Nationalism
and Classicism(as in n. 2), fora detailedhistoryofthedevelopmentofphysicalanthropologyin Europe as it applies to thebody oftheancientGreeks.
4 . The essays by Neil McWilliam,"Actionfranaise,Classicism,and the Dilemmas
of Traditionalismin France,1900-1914"(esp. p. 270), and Gaetano DeLeonibus,
"The Quarrel over Classicism: A Quest forUniqueness", both in Hargrove and
395
Leoussi
varietyof meaningsthatthe criticGaston Sauvebois would refer,in 1911,to

Nevertheless,whatis importantabout whatI have
"l'quivoquedu classicisme".5
termed"ethno-classicism",a classicismwhich is not consideredin thatvolume, is thatit was a conditionformost ifnot all of the otherattemptsto revive thisor thataspect of ancientGreekand Roman civilisation.For at a time
when racial determinism,the beliefthatrace or biological inheritanceinfluwas a dominantdoctrine,a people could justify"classical"
enced everything,
inclinationsor aspirationsonly on thebasis of Greekethnicity(i.e.,blood relation),and possession of a healthyand strongbody,thatis to say,a Greek
body.6
In our effortto understandthe classical traditionor receptionin all its
various guises and selectionsfromamong the principlesthatruled the ancientGreekand Roman worlds,itis importantto identifyand distinguishterminologicallyand substantivelydifferenttypes of "classicism". The term
I offerhere,in addition to the
"classicism"by itselfis not always sufficient.
term"ethno-classicism",its distinctionfrom"civic classicism" which it succeeded. This distinctionis an adaptationofHans Kohn's insightful
analysisof
now refer
that
scholars
in
formation
nation
of
modern
different
Europe
types
to as "civic" and "ethnic".7
In thisessay,I also show therelevanceto theunderstandingof themore
and causes of what I have termedFrench"ethno-clasgeneralcharacteristics
and FrenchVisualCulture(as in n. 5), illustratemost
McWilliam(eds.) Nationalism
and the confusionover the meaning of
'classicisms'
of
the
proliferation
clearly
'classicism' in Francein thelate nineteenthand earlytwentiethcenturies.
5. JuneHargrove and Neil McWilliam(eds.) Nationalismand FrenchVisualCulture,
1870-1914(New Haven: Yale UniversityPress,2005),270.
'
Shaw's observationin her essay Frenchness,memory,
6. See, forexample,Jennifer
andFrenchVisual
and abstraction",in Hargroveand McWilliam(eds.), Nationalism
Culture,1870-1914(as in n. 5), that"the issue of race haunts the discussion of the
Frenchnessof Puvis' art" (p. 156). In the same book, DeLeonibus, in his essay
"The Quarrel over Classicism", also confirmsthe importanceof the belief,expressed by Louis Bertrandand inspiredby Hippolyte Taine, thatculturalproduction,and especially "all classical art",depended on the health of a race: "la
de toutartclassique,c'est direvraietncesaire
santdela raceestla condition
premire
remarksin theessay cited
humain"(p. 296-97).Shaw further
mentsocialetvraiment
and attitudesofclassical
the
that
belief
the
same
find
we
that
tastes,
ideas,
above,
of Charles Maurras
in
the
of
full
constitutive
were
thought
humanity,
antiquity
(p. 160). As I show below, the claim thatclassical civilisationembodied fullhuthathumanBut forthephilosophes
manity,was also made by theEnlightenment.
not
all
be
accessed
could
nations,
groups.
only
by
specific
by
ity
7. The term'nationalistclassicism'which Neil McWilliamuses to describetheclasFrench culture is rather inadequate. See
sicism of early twentieth-century
McWilliam'sessay "Actionfranaise,classicismand thedilemmas of traditionalism in France, 1900-1914",in Hargrove and McWilliam (eds.), Nationalismand
classicismalso
FrenchVisualCulture,1870-1914(as in n. 5), 269. For Enlightenment
had nationalistimplications,such as, forexample, the belief thatFrance had a
principlesof the 1789 Revolutionto all
unique role to spread the Enlightenment
of
the
the
motives
one
of
was
that
Napoleonic wars. On this,see, forexhumanity,
(Cambridge:CambridgeUniofNationalism
ample,AvielRoshwald,TheEndurance
181.
versityPress,2006),
396
2009
Tradition
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/September/December
Journal
oftheClassical
sicism" of the work of AnthonyD. Smithand JohnHutchinsonon modern,

post-1789,nationalrevivalmovements.Accordingto Smith,nationalrevivals
recoverearlierperiods of greatnessof a community.Triggeredoffby sudden
socio-culturalchange or politicaltrauma,revivalsof past "golden ages" reveal to the communityits "authentic"(usually pre-industrialand rural)self;
stimulatea regenerationof the communityby bidding it to realise thisperfectselfunder modernconditions;suggest"potentialthroughfiliation":they
stressthe inherentcapacityof the descendants,throughblood relationship,
to re-createthe golden age thattheirancestorshad achieved; and give the
Smithand Hutchinsonhave stressed
communitya sense ofcollectivedestiny.8
thatrevivalsof"golden ages" do notsimplyimitatetheearlierperiods,but are
innovative,transmutingselectedaspects of the "golden" past intonovel creations,adapted to modernproblems.
AdoptingtheSmith-Hutchinson
hypotheses,thisessay considers:
firstly,
Frenchidentification
withtheancientGreeksand theancientGreek
cultureofthebody as a movementofnationalrevivalin two senses: a) as
an attemptto regeneratetheFrenchnationphysicallyand morallyby imitatingtheancientGreeks;and b) as a revivalof a "golden age" fromthe
Frenchnational past. As a French"golden age", ancientGreece showed
modernFrenchmen and women,humiliatedand demoralisedby defeat,
their"authentic"self.The revivalofthis"golden age", i.e.,theimitation
of the old ancestralways, and, most crucially,of Greekpositiveevaluationof thebody as a centralculturalvalue, and care forit throughphysical exercisein theopen air,promisedtherecoveryof an essentialpartof
Frenchcollectiveidentity.The beliefin Greekancestrygave Frenchpeople a sense ofunityand of greatcommondestinythroughthedeterminism of racial-biologicalinheritanceand the proven effectivenessof the
old ways.
secondly,the association of thisclassical revivalwitha Catholic revival.
The essay shows how different"golden ages", here the classical and
conCatholic,selectivelyre-definedunder particularhistorico-cultural
ditions,were reconciledand combinedintonew visionsofthecollective,
nationalself.
And thirdly,
theclassical re-orientations
oftheartofCzanne and Renoir.
This essay is an attemptto widen and deepen the contextualand theoreticalfieldswithinwhichto look at thelaternudes and batherscenes of
thetwo artists.The essay thussetstheartofCzanne and Renoir,fromthe
1880s-onwards,in the contextof France's revivalof her "golden pasts":
itshows theinnovativeways in whichtherevivedancientGreekideal of
was incorporated,
re-vivedand
physicalhealthand strength
re-imagined,
in
the
work
of
two
of
the
most
modern
of
French
artists.It exprojected
plores theways in which the two artists,by returningto and reworking
an ideal whichhad been thecentralmotifofancientGreekartand which
had been so much part of European artistictraditionsince the Renais8. Anthony
D. Smith,
MythsandMemories
oftheNation(Oxford:OxfordUniversity
Nationsas ZonesofConflict
Press,1999),263-4;JohnHutchinson,
(London:Sage,
2005),74.
Leoussi
397
sance, creatednew styleswhich reconciledmodernity(with its striving

forthe new) with traditionand stroveto renew this tradition.It exameach in his own way,in
how thetwo artists,by participating,
ines,finally,
thetwo culturalimpulsesoftheirtime,theclassicaland theCatholic,contributedto theirreconciliationand the creation,in Frenchart,of a new
"golden age" a new Renaissance which,like theItalianRenaissance of
and
Michelangelo, affirmedboth Christianand pagan sentiRaphael
ments.9
Fromneo-classicismand thecityto ethno-classicismand thebody
AftertheRenaissancethemostimportantEuropeanclassicalrevivalwas eighIts importancelay largelyin its association
Neo-classicism.10
teenth-century
French
Revolutionwhich revivedtheclassithe
and
withtheEnlightenment
cal (Athenianand Roman Republican)values of "liberty","reason" and "patriotism".As Isaiah Berlinhas stressed,to proponentsof the Enlightenment,
like Voltaire,these values and the classical formsand stylesin which they
wereexpressedwere timelessand universal- "thefinesthoursofmankind";11
hence the apparentbackward glance. These primarilypolitical values were
thepoleis.They
thevalues whichhad governedtheancientGreekcity-states,
made the citythe centreof thenew politicallifeushered in by theAmerican
WarofIndependenceand theFrenchRevolution.In theirmodernadaptations,
ofthewill ofthedemos.And theygave rise,in
theyproduced representatives
both the new and the old worlds, to new, public buildings, which housed
them.These buildings, like the Palais Bourbon in Paris and the Capitol in
Washington,became the centralsites where the classical ideals of self-governmentand law-makingby means ofrationaldebate,whichconstitutewhat
we now call liberal democracy,were revived.And the architecturalstyleof
There were several attemptsin France at thattimeto combineChristianitywith
's analysis
form.See, forexample,Mark Antliff
classicism,each takinga different
of Georges Sorel's "embraceof classical cultureand Neo-Catholicaesthetics"(p.
andFrenchVisualCulture,1870307) in Hargroveand McWilliam(eds.), Nationalism
1914 (as in n. 5), as well as theessay by Shaw, citedabove (n. 6), and thatby Laura
Morowitz,"Mediaevalism,classicismand nationalism",in thesame volume. The
desireto reconcilepagan and Christiansentimentswas also feltin England in the
second halfof the nineteenthcentury.We findit,forexample,in art,visuallyexin WalterPater's
and in literature,
pressedin theworksofthelate Pre-Raphaelites,
Studiesin theHistoryoftheRenaissance(1873) and MatthewArnold's essay,"Pagan
and ChristianReligious Sentiment",firstpublished in CornhillMagazine,vol. IX
(April 1864).Arnold's essay can also be foundin R. H. Super,ed., Lecturesand EsProseWorksofMatthewArnold(Ann Arbor:
vol. 3 of TheComplete
saysin Criticism,
UniversityofMichiganPress,1962),pp. 212-31.
10. Hugh Honour, Neo-classicism(1968), rev.ed. (London: Penguin, 1991); Francis
Haskell and Nicholas Penny,Tasteand theAntique:TheLureofClassicalSculpture,
1500-1900(New Haven: Yale UniversityPress,1982).
11. Isaiah Berlin,TheCrookedTimberofHumanity(London: MontanaFress, IWUj, b;
see also Ian Jenkins,"Ideas of anitiquity:classical and otherancientcivilizations
in: Enlightenment:
in theage of Enlightenment,"
DiscoveringtheWorldin theEighBurnett
with
Andrew
Kim
Sloan
ed.
teenth
(London: The BritishMuCentury, by
seum Press,2003),pp. 168-177.
9.
398
2009
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/September/
Journal
the
the debating houses of the representativesof the people was, fittingly,
"GreekStyle".
The late eighteenthand earlynineteenthcenturiesbuiltstateslike magnifiedclassical cities,in both the old and thenew worlds. The second halfof
thenineteenthcenturyabandoned thecityand turnedto anotherside ofclassical civilisation:its cultof thestrongand healthybody.
Through its association with anthropologicaltheories of race, which
made the mind depend on the body, the cult of the body conferredon the
body and, above all others,on theGreekbody,a power whichithad neverbefore attained.It turneditintoa racialattribute- an inherited,permanent,alldivisive trait.Thus, mankindwas
and therefore
determining,
group-specific,
no longerbornfreeand equal, as civicclassicismhad imagined,but once again
became limitedand unequal by birth.12
"[H]ereditarypeculiaritiesof conformation",as the greatFrenchnaturalistGeorges Cuvier (1769-1832)had described human physical variation,
divided mankindintoraces whichwere unequal in all respects,in bothmind
and body. The superior race was the white race, also called the European,
Indo-Atlantic,Indo-European or Aryan race.13As Arthurde Gobineau, the
"fatherof racistideology", observed in his Essai sur l'Ingalitdes RacesHude la beaut,de l'intelmainesof 1853-55,thewhiterace possessed "le monopole
was takento be the
of
the
white
race
}*
The
et
de
la
best
force"
exemplar
ligence
of
ancient
Greece.
of
the
athletes
body
young
Accordingto racial theorists,thebody oftheancientGreekswas muscular,symmetrical,
regularlyproportionedand healthy.Indeed, its underlying
mathematicalharmonywas seen as a justificationof the superioraesthetic
value of the ancientGreek physique. This physique was made possible not
only by biological inheritance,but also by lifein the gymnasia,the open air
and thesun.15Thus,throughcarefullyconsideredphysicaleducation,Greece,
and especiallyAthens,in her "golden age", thefifthcenturyBC, had further
moulded the naturalbeauty of the race to absolute aestheticperfection.16
It
was a physicalperfectionwhichembodied thecultureofthatage: reason and
order.The Mediterraneanclimatehad also played itspartin theformationof
thisphysique,an idea which wentback to JohannJoachimWinckelmann.
Physical anthropologistsand, more generally,racial theorists,claimed
that the physical type of the ancient Greeks had been recorded in ancient
Greeksculpture.ForGobineau,forexample,theancientGreeks"onteu la gioire
12. Leoussi, Nationalismand Classicism(as in n. 2); Michael Banton,Racial Theories

(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1990).
13. Leoussi, Nationalism
and Classicism(as in n. 2), 3-24.
14. JosephArthurde Gobineau, Essai sur l'Ingalitdes RacesHumaines(Paris: Pierre
Belfond,1967).
15. See Leoussi, Nationalismand Classicism(as in n. 2), on nineteenth-century
measurementsof the anatomical characteristics
of the ancientGreeks and of antique
figuraisculpture,3-24 and 35-55.On themakingof theGreekbody see also ibid.,
3-24.
16. Athena S. Leoussi, "Pheidias and 'l'espritmoderne':the studyof human anatomy
in nineteenth-century
Englishand Frencheducation",EuropeanReviewofHistory,
vol. 7, no. 2, 2000,167-188.
399
Leoussi
Roman copy of about 100 BQ of a bronze originalof

Fig. 1. Polycletus,Diadoumenos,
about 430 BC
defournirles modlesadmirablesde la Vnus, de VApollon et de l'Hercule Farnese".17
The indeterminacy
thatsurroundedtheexactdatingofantiquitiesin thenineteenthcenturyas well as theirstatus as eitheroriginalsor copies, was not a
problemforracial theoristsas it was forthe archaeologists.Nevertheless,by
themiddleofthenineteenth
centurya consensushad been establishedthatthe
mostaccuraterecordsof theGreekphysique in its fullestdevelopmentcould
be foundin fifth-century
BC Athenian-basedfiguraisculpture,in theworksof
Polycletus,Myron,and, above all, Phidias (in the so-called "Elgin Marbles"
fromtheParthenonin Athens),workswhich displayed a high degree of naturalism(fig.I).18 This sculpturerepresented"thehighestformofclassicalart"
17. Gobineau, Essai sur l'Ingalitdes RacesHumaines(as in n. 14), 124.
18. On the indeterminacyof dating antiquitiesin the nineteenthcentury,and especiallythe Venus de Milo, see Caroline Arscott'sand Katie Scotfs introductionto
400
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2009
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and the model of human physicalperfection.19

It embodied what Gobineau
and otherscalled "la Grceclassique": thehighestpeak of ancientGreekcivilization.20
As Holt, Pick,Leoussi, Garb and othershave shown,physicalactivityin
theopen air and sunshinein imitationof the ancientGreekexample became
an objectof public concernand stateeducationalpolicy in manypartsof Europe.21This was a reactionagainstwhat was seen as thephysicallydegenerativenatureofmodernindustrialcivilisation,whose centreswere thenorthern
European cities.Physicaleducation and, more generally,physicalactivityin
the open air took many formsin Europe. And it was combinedwithcompetitionof one European nation to be more "Greek" than the other,both ge22
nealogicallyand physically.
Ethno-classicismand theFrenchbody
In France,thesiteofnationalregenerationthroughtheimitationoftheGreek
itsMediterraneancoast.23For as Hobcultofthebody became,mostfittingly,
and nineteenth-century
sbawm has observed,undertheimpactofeighteenthnationalisms"the heritageof sections,regionsand localitiesof what had beIn this
come 'the nation' could be combined into an all-nationalheritage".24
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
Caroline Arscottand Katie Scott(eds.), Manifestations

of Venus:Artand Sexuality
(Manchester:ManchesterUniversityPress,2000), esp. 9-11.On Winckelmann's
classificationsofantique sculpture,see Alex Potts,Fleshand theIdeal:Winckelmann
and theOriginsofArtHistory(New Haven: Yale UniversityPress,1994),160.On art
and sciencemoregenerally,see also, TimothyF. Mitchell,Artand Sciencein German
LandscapePainting1770-1840(Oxford:Clarendon,1993),134-5.
and Aesthetes
Ian JenkinsArchaeologists
(London: BritishMuseum Press,1992),28;
Vol. 7,
see also Athena S. Leoussi "Mythsof ancestry",Nationsand Nationalism,
and Classicism(as
Issue 4, October2001,pp. 467-486;and also Leoussi, Nationalism
in n. 2), 3-24and 35-55.
l'Orientetl'Iran,Vol. 1:1816- 1860:proGobineau quoted inJeanBoissel,Gobineau,
et
essai
Klincksieck,
1973),118.
(Paris:
lgomnes
d'analyse
RichardHolt,Sportand SocietyinModemFrance(London: Macmillan,1981),Daniel
A EuropeanDisorder,c. 1848-c.1918 (Cambridge:CamPick FacesofDegeneration:
TamarGarb, BodiesofModernity:
Press,
1989);
figureandfleshin
bridgeUniversity
France(London: Thames & Hudson, 1998). For France and Germany
fin-de-sicle
towhatitis due (firstpubi, in
see also Edmond Demolins,Anglo-SaxonSuperiority:
French,1897),rev.ed. translatedfromthetenthFrenchedition(London: The Leadenhall Press, 1899); forBritain,see RichardHolt, Sportand theBritish:A Modern
and
History(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,1990); see also Leoussi, Nationalism
Classicism(as in n. 2), on the developmentof physical education in nineteenthcenturyEngland and France,esp. 108-130.
andClassicism(as in n. 2), and also Leoussi, "PheiOn this,see Leoussi,Nationalism
dias and 'l'espritmoderne"'(as in n. 16), and Leon Poliakov,TheAryanMyth(London: Sussex UniversityPress,1974).
Andr Rauch, Vacancesen Francede 1830 nosjours,ser.La vie quotidienne.L'histoireen marche(Paris : Hachette,2001).
since1780 (Cambridge:CambridgeUniEricHobsbawm, Nationsand Nationalism
PeasantsintoFrenchmen
90.
See
(Stanford:
Weber,
also,
Press,
1990),
Eugen
versity
StanfordUniversityPress,1976).
Leoussi
401
However,unlikeelsewherein Euway,la rgionwould contributeto la patrie.25

rope,especially in England and Germany,the Frenchconscious and Greekinspired re-orientationtowards physical education and life in natural
an attemptto correct
surroundingscame late,and almostas an afterthought:
was triggeredby thedevastatingnaa fatalmistake.The change in life-style
tionalexperienceof defeatin war and by thedesirefornationalsurvivaland
spiritintensifiedfromthe 1880s onwards. It was the
revenge.The revanchiste
Frenchdefeatin the Franco-Prussianwar of 1870-71and the explanationof
that
this defeatin termsof Frenchphysical degenerationand low fertility,
changed Frenchopinion, and with it Frenchlife,under the Third Republic.
Before1871,and despiteefforts
by boththestate,especiallyby Napoleon Ill's
Victor
ministerofeducation,
Duruy (1811-94),and individualslikeHippolyte
Taine(1828-93),a positivist,an advocate oftheidea ofrace and thearch-champion of classical Atheniannotionsof physicalstrength "la force" French
opinion had resistedthe idea of race and the care forthe body which it imto modernscience
plied.26FrenchCatholicopinionhad been eitherindifferent
etla scienceen dsacor opposed to itsrationalismand secularism- "la religion
cord"}7And it had generallybeen held thatgymnasticswere "unseemlyor
degradingactivities/'especiallyby middle and upper-classParisianSalon soAfter1871 therewas "broad agreeciety,devoted to "mind gymnastics".28
to
work
must
ment"that"thecountry
outstriptheGermansin theveryareas
and theeducationofitscitizens"
excelled:
which
science,
in
warfare,
Germany
It was then thatTaine became influential.
which emphasized gymnastics.29
And it was thusthatthecult of thebody was introducedintoFrenchschools
intoFrenchlife.30
Indeed,as TamarGarbhas shown,jourand, moregenerally,
nals such as La Revue Athltique,founded in 1890, or La CulturePhysique,
foundedin 1904,with theirillustrationsof statuesof ancientGreekathletes,
indicatenotonlythespread of thecultofthebody in FranceaftertheFrancofromthe 1830s on25. For Frenchstate-sponsoredand grass-roots,amateurefforts,
wards, to cultivatelocal and regionalsentimentsand memories,in orderto promoteboth local pride and nationalunity,see StphaneGerson,ThePrideofPlace:
France(Ithaca,NY: CorLocalMemoriesand PoliticalCulturein Nineteenth-Century
L. Shaw, DreamStates:Puvis de Chanell UniversityPress,2003); see also Jennifer
and theFantasyofFrance(New Haven: Yale UniversityPress,
vannes,Modernism,
2002),69.
and Classicism(as in n. 2), 8726. Fora moredetailedanalysissee Leoussi, Nationalism
108-130.
107,
27. This was Taine's diagnosis of the conditionof modern Frenchsociety,"le rgime
and the FrenchRevolution.See Paul
in thewake of theEnlightenment
moderne",
et sociologue,Bibliothque Sociologique Internationale
Lacombe, Taine,historien
XXXVIII(Paris: Giard et Brire,1909),book II, chapter3, "La religionet la science
en dsaccord",240-62.
28. RichardHolt,Sportand SocietyinModemFrance(as in n. 21),42; see also Demolins,
AnvlO'SaxonSuperiority
(as in n. 21), 26.
29. JacquesRevel, "Introduction"in Jacques Revel and Lynn Hunt (eds.), Histories:
FrenchConstructions
ofthePast, vol. 1, PostwarFrenchThought(New York:New
Press,1995),5.
30. For a fullerdiscussion of the introductionof physical education in France,see
Leoussi, Nationalismand Classicism(as in n. 2) and also Holt, Sportand Societyin
ModernFrance(as in n. 21).
402
2009
International
/September/December
Journal
ofvoluntarygymPrussianwar,but also itsGreekmodels.31The proliferation

nasticassociations duringthisperiod was anothermanifestationof the new
physical concerns of the Frenchwhich Flaubert satirized in his Bouvardet
And in 1898 we findthe Frenchanatomists,Mathias Du val and
Pcuchet.32
Edouard Cuyer,who championed the ideas of Taine at the cole des BeauxArtsthroughtheirmanuals of artisticanatomy,advocatingthisclassicismin
thefollowingterms:
... au lieude raliserl'antiqueet classiqueformulequi demandeuneintelligencesaine dans un corpsrobuste(menssana in corporesano), nous
ditecivilisetendrecommetypeversun
voyonstropsouventVhumanit
...
dbile
corps
... insteadofrealisingtheancientand classical formulathatrequires
a healthymind in a healthybody (menssana in corpore
sano),we see,
too often,so-called civilisedhumanity,tend towardsa weak physical type...33
withGreecehad alreadybeen promotedby Napoleon III
Ethnicidentification
duringthe 1850s and 1860s.He took a personal interestin thearchaeological
of the pass national.And this Greek pediand ethnographicreconstruction
gree of the Frenchnationhad been incorporatedin theidea, firstmade popularby theabb SieysduringtheFrenchRevolutionin his pamphletQu'est-ce
of theGallic or Celticancestryof themass of theFrenchnaque le Tiers-tat?,
tion. The Gallic and Gallo-Greek(and Roman) identityof ordinaryFrench
people was opposed to theFrankishor Germanicidentityof theFrencharistocracy34These ideas were disseminatedthroughthe artsby state commissions,competitionsand purchasesof worksof artportrayingeminentGauls,
such as Vercingtorix,
or narratinglafondation
deMarseille?5
TTielatterbecame
thesubjectofthe1865competitionfortheprixde Rome. TakenfromLaureau,
the author of Histoirede FranceavantClovis,of 1789,the subjectproclaimed
theGreekancestryof theFrenchthroughintermarriage
ofGauls withGreeks
who settledin Provencefromthe6thcenturyB.C. onwards.36In thesame vein,
31. Garb,BodiesofModernity
(as in n. 21), 55-57.
32. Holt, Sportand Societyin ModernFrance(as in n. 21).
33. Mathias Duval and Edouard Cuyer,Histoirede l'AnatomiePlastique:lesMatres,les
Livreset les corchs,ser. Bibliothquede l'Enseignementdes Beaux-Arts(Paris:
Socit Franaised'ditions d'Art,1898 ), 9.
34. Napoleon III took a personal interestin the archaeologicaland ethnographicreconstructionofthe"passnational",and especiallytheGallic past. In 1862he launched theexcavationofAlesia, theGallic fortress
whichCaesar besieged and where
he capturedVercingtorix
in 52 B.C. He also founded a "musedes Antiquitsnationales"in thechteau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
whichopened on 12 May 1867.
See Anne Pingeot(ed.), La Sculpture
Franaiseau XIXesicle,exh. cat.,Grand Palais,
Paris, 1986 (Paris : ditionsde la Runion des muses nationaux,1982),374. On
withtheRomans,see, forexample,Jennifer
i.e.,theFrenchidentification
Latinity,
Shaw's essay,"Frenchness,memory,
and abstraction",
in Hargroveand McWilliam
and FrenchVisualCulture(as in n. 5), 156.
(eds.), Nationalism
35. Pineeot,La sculptureFranaiseau XIXe sicle(as in n. 34), 50.
36. FernandBraudel,Memoryand theMediterranean
(New York:AlfredA. Knopf,2001),
223.
Leoussi
403
Puvis de Chavannes,theleading Frenchmuralpainterof thetime,in his decorativecycle forthe Muse des Beaux-Artsof Marseille (1865-69),affirmed
the Greek connectionof the place, with the painting,Marseille,GreekColony
(1869).
withancientGreecewas not
Of course,Frenchethno-racialidentification
of
ofEuropeanelites
tradition
cultural
identification
the
long
given
surprising,
morewidelywiththeancientGreeksand Romans.Ethno-racialidentification
and even justifiedthisspiritualsymwiththemonlydeepened, strengthened,
pathy and attachmentto classical civilisationas a frameworkwithinwhich
experiencecould be understood.VictorHugo, forexample, would interpret
the fallof Paris under Germansiege in 1870 as akin to the fallof Troyin his
published in 1872.37
poem Vanneterrible,
Officialand elite identificationof modern France with ancientGreece
gained wider appeal afterthe Franco-Prussianwar. It posited the MediterraneanSouth,and especiallyProvence(ratherthan,forexample,Languedoc),
as theplace whichlinkedFrancewithGreecenotonlygenealogically,but also
of topographyand climate.For example,
fromthe point of view of affinities
Paul Vidal de la Blache,appointedin 1898chairin geographyat theSorbonne,
referred,in his Tableau de la Gographiede la France of 1903, to the "affinits"of
Provencewith"la Grce"?*Furthermore,
accordingto Louis de Laincel,since
the
borne
Aix
had
theseventeenthcentury
sobriquetof "Athnesdu Midi" for
Afterthemid-nineteenth
theclarityof its light.39
century,theappreciationof
thesunlightofProvence"morphedintoa mythologyofsun-kissedsalubrity",
and was contrasted,as a "new Attica" and a "Grceazure"with a muddy
Paris withoutsun.40
Thus,by thelast quarterofthenineteenthcenturyProvencehad come to
be regardedas the truehomeland of the French:the place where therewere
stillFrenchmen and women who lived on thesiteand in themannerof their
Greekancestors;and theplace to whichFrenchmen and women had to return
like themythicalfigand live in theold ways, therebyregainingtheirvitality,
ure of Antaeus, who was strongonly as long as he was in contactwith his
motherEarth(Gaia) - as long as he touchedtheground.We may tracetheorigin of the summerwaves of Frenchmen and women to the Mediterranean
coast thatwe stillwitnesstoday,'la saisonbalnaire',to thismentality- even
thoughthemotivationhas changed.
37. VictorHugo, OeuvresCompltes6 = Posies3 (Paris: Laffont,1986); cf.AlbertPy,
Les mythes
grecsdansla posiede VictorHugo (Genve & Paris:LibrairieDroz, 1963),
75.
38. Quoted by ChristopherGreenin his essay,"A denationalizedlandscape", in Harand FrenchVisualCulture(as in n. 5), 264,
groveand McWilliam(eds.), Nationalism
n.45.
dans le Midi (Avignon:
suiteau voyagehumouristique
39. Louis de Laincel,La Provence,
Paris:
Oudin
and
frres,
26,
1881),
frres,
quoted by BenedictLeca , "Sites
Seguin
of Forgetting:Czanne and the ProvenalLandscape Tradition"in Philip Conisexh. cat.Washington:National
bee and Denis Coutagne (eds.), CzanneinProvence,
Runion des muses naMuse
Granet
Provence:
Aix-en
of
(Paris:
Art;
Gallery
tionaux;New Haven: Yale UniversityPress,2006),56.
40. Leca in ibid, and quotation in Frenchby J.Adamtaken fromFranoise Cachm,
de Courbet Ma"C'est l'den retrouvee",in FranoiseCachin (ed.), Mditerrane
tisse(Paris: Runion des Muses nationaux,2000), 18.
404
2009
International
/September/December
Journal
The geo-culturalrelocationof Frenchlife and the change in life-style

whichitimpliedto make Francewhole again, affectedbothmen and women.
Theirmores
However,itwas thewomen who had to changemostprofoundly.
of cupidity,their "soifdu plaisir",their abandonment of motherhood,of
"motherlove",41were held responsibleforFrenchdegeneration,forthesmall
size of the Frenchpopulation in relationto the German,and ultimatelyfor
Frenchdefeat.Numerous books encouraged motherhoodand good parentUnion des SocitsFranaisesde Gymnasing.42The mottoof therevanchiste
nousenferonsdessoldats!"43
deshommes
tique,foundedin 1873,was: "Faites-moi
and
This period also witnesseda Catholicrevival.It also demanded virginity
motherhoodof young Frenchwomen. The Neo-Catholic movement,which
began in 1850,was intensifiedaftertheFranco-Prussianwar. Centredon the
venerationof the VirginMary,"la Viergeet la Mre",it made her a "national
unifyingsymbol".Indeed, theperiod 1850 to 1950 has been describedas the
"Marian Age".44
There were also Catholic argumentsin favourof the Greek cult of the
healthyand strongbody. These Catholic attemptsto combineclassical with
Christianideals are exemplifiedin the ideas of Charles Rochet (1815-1900).
Rochet was an ardentnationalist,Catholic,and anti-Darwinianartist-cumanthropologist.He was anothersupporterof Taine and taughtat the cole
des Beaux-Arts.In his books and in his verypopular public lecturesat the
Sorbonnebetween 1869 and 1872he advocated that:
Touttrehumaindoitavoirun beaucorps,commeil doitavoirunebonne
commetantson oeuvreque l'trebeauet
sant;le Crateurne reconnat
en bonnesant45
Every human being must have a beautifulbody, as well as good
health; the Creatordoes not recogniseas being His Creationother
thanbeautifuland healthybeings.
To thisend he advocated the imitationof "la vie naturelle"of "la belleracedes
Hellnes"who, in thisway,had preservedthestrengthand beautyoftheoriginal mankind,as well as the colour of its skin,"rouge"or "cuivr"- bronzed
du beausoleil"were the"vrais
by thesun. For,accordingto Rochet,"leshommes
de Dieu".46For Rochet,statuessuch as theDiscobolus or the"beautorse
enfants
de Ilissusde Phidias"exemplifiedthephysicallyperfectGreekmale adult,and
the Venusde Milo and the CrouchingVenusthe female (fig.2). Moreover,he
claimed thatthe undisputed beauty of the Venusde Milo was due to her virginity,evidentin her hips which he saw as narrow:"La Femmen'estparfaite41. Neil McWilliam,"Race, Remembrance
and 'Revanche':Commemorating
the
Franco-Prussian
WarintheThirdRepublic",
ArtHistory
19,no.4 (1996):487.
42. TamarGarb,"Renoirand theNaturalWoman,"TheOxford
ArtJournal
8, no. 2
(1985):11.
43. QuotedinHolt,SportandSociety
inModern
France(as inn. 21),191.
44. BarbaraCorradoPope,"Immaculateand Powerful:The MarianRevivalin the
Nineteenth
in ClarissaW.Atkinson
et al.,Immaculate
andPowerful:
The
Century"
Female
inSacred
ImageandSocialReality
(Boston.MA: BeaconPress.1985.184.173.
45. Charles Rochet,Traitd'Anatomied'Anthropologie

et d'Ethnographie
appliquesaux
Beaux-Arts
(Paris: LibrairieRenouard,1886),262.
46. Ibid. 246,232.
405
Leoussi
Fig. 2. Venus de Milo, c.lOOBC

mentbellequ' l'tatde vierge.... La Vnus de Milo est vierge:c'est la Viergephysique
des anciens".47
Rochetwenton to identifytheFrenchwiththeancientGreeksby virtue

of theirdark hair,and to contrastboth with the Germans:"Le blondestavant
toutAllemand,Scandinave,Anglo-Saxon".The Frenchwere thus similarto the
And as origGreeksin thatbothnationswere southern- "Brunsmridionaux".
inal mankindhad also had "les cheveuxd'un beaunoir",theFrenchwere superior to the Germans because the latter's blond hair was a deviation from
originalperfection:"le Brun... estl'hommesuprieur".48
47. Ibidv 197,265.

48. Ibid.,222, 223,222,235.
406
International
2009
/September/December
Journal
Ethno-classidstnand thereturnofFrenchmodernart to classical art

the disenchantmentwith modern life,and the
The national transformation,
returnto French"national"traditions,one classical,theotherCatholic,correspond to theso-called"crisisofImpressionism"ofthe1880s.49This "crisis"led
to radical changes in theworkof theleading Impressionistartists.
conservatism,and ossified
By 1880 artisticreactionto thetraditionalism,
classicismof theAcadmie des Beaux-Arts,which had begun withneo-classicism and culminatedwith the Salon des Refussof 1863,was complete.It
was thisreactionthathad given birthto the independentexhibitionsof the
"Impressionists"thatbegan in 1874 in finalprotestagainst officialtasteand
exhibitionpractice.And itwas thisreactionthathad produced a varietyofinsome distinctlyorientedto capnovations,in both styleand subject-matter,
theterm
whichby mid-century
reactions
modernist
life.
These
modern
turing
Realismcame to encompass ensuredthemostdecisivebreakwithtradition.50
Theypartookofthisnew,"modernage" whichbegan blushinglywiththeEnand came to be associated witha conditionof "permanentrevolightenment
lution" an optimisticand progressive embrace of constant innovation,
spontaneityand directobservationof theworld as it reallyis, strippedof traditionalconventions.51
- to show ever-changAs thenew ambitionto be peintrede la viemoderne
ing modernlifein ever-changing"modern"styles,and in so doing breakfree
fromas manybonds withtraditionas were conceivable- touched thenude:
indeed,it changed it,oftenbeyond recognition.It moderniseditby placing it
in emphaticallymodernurbanand suburbansettingsin thebath,theboudoir,
the brothelor the picnic, and painting it in eitheracademic style,as did
Courbet,or the new stylesassociated with Manet and the Impressionists.52
Manet's oeuvre,his Musiqueaux Tuileries(1862),his Djeunersurl'herbe(1863),
(1878-1882),exh. cat.,Museum ofArt,Uni49. JoelIsaacson, TheCrisisoflmpresionism

Arbor:
Arbor
Ann
of
(Ann
Universityof MichiganPress,1980).
versity Michigan,
see Jane
50. For theintentionsand politicsunderlyingthe"Impressionist"exhibitions,
and theFrenchState(1866-1874)(Cambridge:CamMayo Roos, EarlyImpressionism
bridgeUniversityPress,1996),204. For a morerecentgeneralaccountof thecivil
war thattook place in Paris in the 1860s and 1870s between officialSalon artists
("the finishers"),approved by the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts,and those dismis"thesketchsivelylabelled "Impressionist"artists(also called,again derogatorily,
Decadethatgave
ers") see also, Ross King,TheJudgement
ofParis:TheRevolutionary
theWorldImpressionism
(London: Chatto & Windus, 2006). For earlierreactions
David (Lonforexample,Anita Brookner,Jacques-Louis
the
see,
academy,
against
don: Chatto& Windus,1987) and Linda Nochlin,Realism,ser.Styleand Civilization(Harmondsworth:PenguinBooks, 1971).
51. The bibliographyon modern cultureis massive. For some distinguishedsocioEthicand theSpiritofCapitalism
logical accounts,see Max Weber,The Protestant
=
undderGeistdes KapitalisDie
York:
Ethik,
Scribners,
1976)
(New
protestantische
mus (Tbingen: Mohr, 1934), Ernest Gellner,Nationsand Nationalism(Oxford:
Blackwell,1983),TalcottParsons,TheSystemofModernSocieties(Englewood Cliffs,
NJ:PrenticeHall, 1971).
and themakingofmoder52. AntheaCallen, TheArtofImpressionism:
paintingtechnique
Yale
Haven:
UniversityPress,2000).
nity(New
Leoussi
407
au
his Olympia(1863), his Nana (1877), painted increasingly"sans rfrence
pass",is iconicof theimpulse to change,to rebel.53
beHowever,after1880 manyof thervolts,
paintersof "la viemoderne",
came painterswho revived"la vieancienne"in a varietyofways, and without
entirelyabandoningmodernpractices.They removedthebody fromthecity
and placed it in sunny Mediterraneanlandscapes, on riversidesand coastThese new,
lines,bathing,wrestling,runningor restingafterphysicalactivity.
idyllicMediterraneanpaintingsechoed the shiftin geo-culturalfocus from
thegrey,sterileand disfiguringindustrialand urbanParisiannorthto thenatural MediterraneanSouth.54They were imaginingsof a new France.
Among these avant-gardeartistswho included Seurat, Signac, Cross,
Denis and Matisse,werealso Czanne and Renoir.55
Throughthem,theearlier,
modernismreturnedto thepast. Theiralignmentwithclassifuture-oriented
cal principlesincorporatedthesetwo artists,along withothermembersofthe
intothecentral,nationaltraditionofFrenchclassicism,whichthey
avant-garde,
re-vitalisedand modernised,not in reactionagainst it,but in sympathyand
reconciliationwithit.56As RobertHerberthas observed,by theearlytwentieth centuryartistsand criticswould group RenoirwithCzanne and Seurat
Theirinterestin tradition,in thiscase theclassical traas "'classical' artists".57
artwithancientGreece throughPoussin and the
linked
French
which
dition
Italian students of the Greeks, and, at the same time, in innovation,also
flat
aligned themwithPuvis de Chavannes.58Puvis' attachmentto primitivist
and simplifieddesigns was seen as innovativeand thus "modern" and rejuvenated academic visions of classical "idealism" withouthim ever abandoning the academy. In 1890, Maurice Denis called such tendencies
In what follows I shall tryto show, afterSmith and
"Neotraditionism".59
but
Hutchinson,thatitis possibleforrevivalsoftraditionnottobe retardataires
and
resoluinnovation
of
ratherto include moments astonishingcreativity,
tionoftheproblemsofmodernity;and thatour understandingofmodernism
53. FranoiseCachin et al., Manet,exh. cat.,Galeriesnationalesdu Grand Palais, Paris
(New York:MetropolitanMuseum ofArt& Abrams,1983),392
54. See Anne Dymond, "A politicisedpastoral:Signac and theculturalgeographyof
MediterraneanFrance",ArtBulletinLXXXV,no. 2 (2003): 353-70;and Margaret
Werth,TheJoyofLife:TheIdyllicin FrenchArt,circa1900 (Berkeley:Universityof
CaliforniaPress,2002).
on the
55. JohnHouse, "That Magical Light:Impressionistsand Post-Impressionists
Matisse
Riviera",in KennethWayneet al., Impressions
oftheRiviera:Monet,Renoir,
exh. cat.,PortlandMuseum ofArt,Portland,ME (Portand TheirContemporaries,
of Art;Seattle:Distributedby Universityof WashMuseum
Portland
ME:
land,
10-25.
Press,
1998),
ington
56. AthenaS. Leoussi, "The ethno-culturalrootsof nationalart",Nattonsand Nationalism10,nos. 1-2(2004): 141-157.
Arts(New
on theDecorative
Renoir'sWritings
57. RobertL. Herbert,Nature'sWorkshop:
Haven: Yale UniversityPress,2000),83.
58. See Shaw, "Frenchness,memory,and abstraction",in Hargrove and McWilliam
(eds.), Nationalismand FrenchVisualCulture(as in n. 5), 161. For an excellentdisthatthisacand thecentrality
cussionofRenoir'smoregeneralreturnto tradition,
Nature's
see
around
in
his
(as in n.
Herbert,
1910,
work,
Workshop
especially
quires
57).
59. Shaw, DreamStates(as in n. 25), 3-8.
408
International
December
2009
/September/
Journal
is greatlyenrichedifwe realise its debt to the revivaland re-workingof tradition.

The so-called "crisisof Impressionism"was a rebellionagainstrebellion
and a returnto tradition.It generateda new stylewhich,while maintaining
the visual truthand colourism of Impressionistplein-airpainting,rejected
freedomand spontaneityin favourofpatternand a searchfororderin life,natureand art. It also involved a change in subject-matter.
A new imageryof
Mediterraneanlandscapes and coastswithbathingnudes appears in thework
of thetwo artistsfromthe 1880suntiltheend of theirlives. The figures,both
male and femalein Czanne, and exclusivelyfemalein Renoir,eitherderive
fromspecificfiguraiprototypesin Graeco-Romanart,such as statuesof the
Venus;or are genericallyclassical - nudes in landscapes.
These nudes are nottheacademic femalenudes oftheSalon,pale, listless,
coquettishand lascivious thatwe findin Cabanel, Baudryand Bouguereau.60
Neitherare theythe male and femalenudes of neo-classicism.They are not
those figuresof unattainable,ideal beauty,with littleor no muscle,bone or
blood, of the laterperiod of classical art which theApollo Belvedere exemRather,theygo back,through
plified,and whichWinckelmannhad preferred.
themuscularand substantialnudes of theItalianHigh Renaissance,to naturalistGreek art: to Praxiteles'traditionof firmand robustfemalenudes, of
whichthe VenusdeMilo in theLouvre was supposed to be an example,and to
the 5thc. BC statues of athletes and heroes described by Winckelmannas
the traCzanne and Renoirtransformed
"grand and square". Furthermore,
ditionalimage of thenude in a landscape intomorenaturalistimages where
the nude is fused with the landscape throughcolour. It was this naturalist
classicismwhichconstitutedtheirPost-Impressionism.
And, morethanshowworkswere in fact
ing simplyfiguresin landscapes, thesePost-Impressionist
in
French
re-attachment
to
In
nature.
what
I
follows, shall explorehow
essays
Czanne and Renoirclassicised theImpressionistlandscape and re-moulded
themodernbody intoa healthyand strongbody along classical lines.61
60. AcademicimagesofVenusaboundintheSalonthroughout
thenineteenth
century,
fromthemiddleofthecentury
onwards,and evenmore
increasing
considerably
after1870.See Leoussi,Nationalism
andClassicism
See also,Jen(as inn.2),133-42.
niferShaw,"ThefigureofVenus:rhetoric
oftheidealand theSalonof1863",in
Caroline Arscottand Katie Scott(eds.), Manifestations

of Venus:Artand Sexuality
(Manchester:ManchesterUniversityPress,2000),90-108.
61. ElizabethCowling and Jennifer
Mundy (eds.) On ClassicGround:Picasso,Lger,de
Chiricoand theNew Classicism1910-1930,exh. cat.,Tate Gallery,London (London:
TateGallery,1990).See esp. J.Mundy's commentsin entryforcat. no. 38, p. 82, on
De Chirico's RomanWomen.Accordingto Mundy,De Chirico's RomanWomenof
Frenchpainting."
1926,have "a fleshinessfamiliarfromlaternineteenth-century
See also p. 18 in the same volume; fora connectionbetween De Chirico and
Czanne, involvingthelatter'sStillLifewithPlasterCupid(ca. 1895),and in an incontextsee RosemaryBarrow,"FromPraxitelesto De Chirico:Artand
terpretative
11 (2004/05),346-48.More
Journal
reception,"International
see
Kenneth
The
Nude (Harmondsworth:Penguin,1980).
Clark,
generally
Leoussi
409
Naturalist classicism and therevival of thebody in Cezanne's Bathers

a.) Revivingthebody "en terreprovenale"
The classical characterof Provence,whichbecame afterthe Franco-Prussian
war theleading centreofFrenchnationalrevival,founditsmostoriginaland
intenselyclassical expressionin Cezanne's artfromthe1880suntiltheend of
his life in 1906. Cezanne's luminous and serene bathing nudes of the last
twentyyearsofhis life,setin theProvenal,Mediterraneancountrysidewhere
he was also born,and to which he finallyretreatedin themid-1880s,return62
ing only occasionallyto Paris, were a new subjectin his art. As Lawrence
Gowinghas observed,Cezanne's laterbathercompositionscontrastedsharply
with his earlierRomantic,thicklypainted, dark,passionate and embattled
These end in
male and femalenudes engaged in La Lutted'Amour(c.1875-6).63
kind of nude, the
the mid-1870swhen Czanne began paintinga different
bather,whichwas to become a constantpreoccupation,givingriseto a whole
seriesofbathingscenes.64In thisseries,thetwo sexes tend to be separated in
alternateimages of Baigneursand Baigneuses,
ending in Baigneuses.65
sexual motive,theselater
without
and
thus
indeterminate
Oftensexually
more
a
show
of
bathers
bodies
innocent,brighterand calmerimage of
young
human lifeand ofthehumanbody whichalmostechoes Winckelmann'sclassical ideal of "edle Einfaltund stille Grosse" (noble simplicityand calm
grandeur).Throughthisseries,culminatingin Les GrandesBaigneusesof 1906
in Philadelphia, his finalstatement,Czanne finallycame to "worship at a
classic shrine" (fig.3).60SpecificallyGreek formalreferencesabound in this
last painting,with reproductionsof Greek statues of Venus - the muscular
torso and draped lower parts of the Venusde Mito,the folded figureof the
Venus,theVnus la coquilleand the Vnusde Vienne- and ofL'HerCrouching
in the
itselfan offspringof Venus. The Diane chasseresse
endormi,
maphrodite
Louvre can also be recognisedin thestridingfigureon theleft.67
The classicismof Cezanne's laterwork expressed his regionalism.This
ofProvencewas amplifiedby his intimateknowledge
classical interpretation
ofcertainancientGreekand Latinwriterswhom he had read and withwhom
he had identifiedin his youth.His memoriesof thisexperiencewere revived
62. Cowling and Mundy (eds.), On ClassicGround(as in n. 61), 68.
63. LawrenceGowing,"The EarlyWorkofPaul Czanne", in LawrenceGowing (ed.),
Czanne:TheEarlyYears1859-1872,exh.cat.RoyalAcademyofArts,London (London: RoyalAcademyofArts,In associationwithWeidenfeldand Nicholson,1998),
18.
64. See MaryLouise Krumrine'sessay in Gowing (ed.), Czanne:TheEarlyYears(as in
n. 63), "Parisian writersand theearlywork of Czanne", 27.
65. MaryLouise Krumrine,Paul Czanne:TheBathers(London: Thames and Hudson,
2000),33.
66. Gowing, "The Early Workof Paul Czanne" in Gowing (ed.), Cezanne:TheEarly
Years(as in n. 63), 17-8.For a studyexploringthepossibilitythatCzanne, in his
paintingsof bathers,may have transposedthe eroticimplicationsof his subjects
fromtheirbodies to the formaland materialqualities of thepaintings,see Aruna
Modernism
and theEroticsofPaint,Refiguring
D'Souza, Cezanne'sBathers:
Biography
8 (UniversityPark,PA: PennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress,2008).
67. Krumrine,Paul Czanne:TheBathers(as in n. 65), 214.
410
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Fig. 3. Paul Czanne, Les GrandesBaigneuses,1906
by his friendshipwiththeyoungJoachimGasquet and his literarycircle,the

Thus the classical characteristics
of his laterpaintingswere
"Symposiasts".68
an artisticexpressionof enracinement,
of ethnicattachmentto thenativeland
thatwas Provence.Indeed, Czanne called himselfa "man of theSouth".69It
was thislove forProvencewhich also motivatedhis resistanceto death as he
approached his sixtiethyear and his health and vigourbegan to decline: "...
I should
were itnotthatI am deeply in love withthelandscape ofmycountry,
notbe here".70And as Provencewas believed to be thecradle of Frenchcivilisation,indeed the site of Frenchnational regeneration,the regionalismof
Cezanne's laterworkhad nationalimplications.
68. See Paul Smith'sarticle,"JoachimGasquet, Virgiland Cezanne's landscape 'My
beloved Golden Age'", Apollo(Oct. 1998): 11-23,and his essay, "Cezanne's Late
(as in n. 39),59Landscapes" in Conisbee and Coutagne (eds.), CzanneinProvence
74 and also 69 on the "Symposiasts".
69. Krumrine,Paul Czanne:TheBathers(as in n. 65), 35.
70. RichardKendall (ed.), Czannebyhimself
(London: The Folio Society,1989),12. His
healthfurtherdeterioratedby diabetes,diagnosed in 1890. See Conisbee's essay,
"Cezanne's Provence" in Conisbee and Coutagne (eds.), Czannein Provence(as
in n. 39), 16-17.
Leoussi
411
Accordingto Gowing,the"passionateinvolvementin natureand theloyto

alty a native countrysidewere incorporatedin Cezanne's laterattitudeto
essentialto itin his lastyears".71
Cezanne's
paintingand [became]increasingly
and
was
whom
he met
praised by JoachimGasquet,
recognised
regionalism
in Aix in April1896and who became his friend.Gasquet, muchyoungerthan
Czanne, was thenstudyingphilosophyat the Universityof Aix.72Czanne
Gaswas to givesome of his major "Provenal" works to his young friend.73
quet became an influentialsource on Cezanne's thoughts,throughhis book
about theartist,called Czanne,of 1921.Accordingto TheodoreReff,JohnRewald, RichardShiffand others,Gasquet's accountof Czanne is not entirely
of Cezanne's thinking"
reliable,consistingof "a very liberal reconstruction
withtheconsequence that"no particular'fact'in theaccountcan be accepted
withoutcorroboration".74Nevertheless,"Gasquet's Czanne" remainsvalid
and particularlyilluminatingregarding,at least,the receptionof Cezanne's
and especiallyby nationalistcircles,such as Acworkby his contemporaries,
tion franaise which Gasquet supported.75Action franaise,founded by
Charles Maurras in 1898,was a nationalistmovementwhich advocated the
restorationin France of the classical spirit,i.e., the civilisationof ancient
Greece and Rome, which it definedas reason,clarity,beauty and discipline.
Maurraspresentedthisspiritas a specificallyFrenchculturaland, to an extent,
ethnicheritage.This cultural tradition,he believed, was lost with the Enand the1789Revolutionand had to be revivedfortherevitalisalightenment
tion of France defeated by Germany.76In this spirit,Gasquet, himself a
Provenalpoet, triedto revivein his poetrytheregion'sclassical traditionas
well as itsfolk,peasant cultureand saw Cezanne's artas expressingthespirit
of Provence.
It is importantto considermore closely Cezanne's associationwith the
regionalistand nationalistmovementsof the Third Republic. Nina Maria
71. Gowing, "The EarlyWorkof Paul Czanne" in Gowing (ed.), Czanne:TheEarly
Years(as in n. 63), (as in n. 63), 5.
The
CzanneandProvence:
72. Ibid.,217. See also Nina Maria Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,
Painterin His Culture(Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press,2003), 179.
73. See Conisbee's essay, "Cezanne's Provence", in Conisbee and Coutagne (eds.),
Czannein Provence(as in n. 39), 21.
74. Shiffreportingthescholarlydebate regardingthereliabilityofGasquet's account
ofCzanne in his introductionto ChristopherPemberton(ed.), Joachim
Gasquet's
Czanne:A MemoirwithConversations
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1991),16,23;
et Gasquet (Paris: Quatre-Cheminssee also, John Rewald, Czanne, Geffroy
Editart,1959),and Theodore Reff,"Czanne and Poussin", Journal
oftheWarburg
and CourtauldInstitutes,
1960,23, no. 1/2, 1960,150-74.
75. See Shiffin Pemberton(ed.), Joachim
Gasquet'sCzanne(as in n. 74), as above, 1524.
76. See McWilliam'sessay ("Action franaise,Classicism,and the Dilemmas of Traditionalismin France,1900-1914")on Maurrasand L'Actionfranaisein Hargrove
andFrenchVisualCulture(as in n. 5), 269-291.For
and McWilliam(eds.), Nationalism
theintellectualsourcesofMaurras' own "classicism",and especiallytheinfluence
ofCharles-AugustinSainte-Beuve,a leading theoreticianand propagatorof "classicism" in literatureand the arts,with strongpoliticalassociations,see, Christoculturewars
and thenineteenth-century
pher Prendergast,TheClassic:Sainte-Beuve
Oxford
(Oxford:
UniversityPress,2008).
412
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Athanassoglou-Kallmyerhas traced Cezanne's regionalistsympathiesand

theirexpressionin his artin her award-winningbook, Czanneand Provence:
ThePainterin His Culture.According to Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,Czanne
shared with Gasquet, and other prominentMridional regionalists like
FrdricMistraland the Flibres,theirbeliefin the Greco-Latinethnicand
culturalrootsof modernProvence.As Gasquet poeticallyput it
Les hommesde ma race leur sang sont lis.
Dans la Provenced'orflottel'air de l'Hellade ....
The men of my race are linkedto theirblood.

In thegolden Provencefloatstheair of Hellas ...,77
As Athanassoglou-Kallmyeralso observes, the Mridional regionalistsreGreco-RomanProvenceas theregion(and therace) desgardeda "historically
tined to spearhead a cultural and national renewal forFrance".78And she
classical revivalin the
locates the originsof thisnew and ethnically-justified
wake oftheFranco-PrussianWar,becomingespeciallypotentin the 1890s.In
thecontextofmountingnationalresentment
againstGermanImperialism,the
Greco-Latinideal posited Frenchsupremacyover "inferior"and "barbaric"
Anglo-Germaniccultures.79
sharedtheideals
Czanne further
AccordingtoAthanassoglou-Kallmyer,
in Paris,Nabased
that
was
movement
ofanotherclassically-inclined
literary
Emile
Zola who
was
leader
in
Naturism's
founded
1894.80
turism,
spiritual
was made an honorarymember.Naturistswere united in theircommonnationalist,classical and Latin creedand praised theregionalperipheryand esZola,
pecially Provence as the repositoryof authenticFrench traditions.81
himselfa Provenaland Cezanne's childhood friend,explicitlydescribed,in
the 1890s,the town of Aix-en-Provencewhere theyboth grew up as Greece:
"It was Greece,withitspure sun and themajestyof itshorizons".82
The aestheticideals ofNaturismconsistedessentiallyofa rejectionofRomanticismand symbolismas foreign,Anglo-Germanicimports:"L'espritgermanique ne nous sduit plus'' [The Germanie spirit does not seduce us
Instead,theNaturistsadvocated classicism,"La Renaissanceclasanymore].83
sique",whose sense ofordertheyviewed as theessence ofFrenchness,"l'esprit
77. Gasquet,quotedin Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,

CzanneandProvence
(as in n. 72),
fromhispoem,"Chantfilial"of1899,inFrenchinn. 100,292and intransi.,
216.
78. Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,
Czanne
andProvence
(as inn. 72),216.
79. Ibid.
80. Fora summary
ofNaturism,
see ibid.216-220,
andibid,fora bibliography
on Na292n. 101.AsAthanassoglou-Kallmyer
Richard
Shiff
was first
to
turism,
observes,
relatetheNaturist
movement
toCzanneand Gasquet,ibid.,293n. 114.Joachim
ofNaturism
inhis"Notespourservir l'histoire
Gasquetalsowrotea brief
history
du Naturisme",
La plume9 (1897):674.
Czanne
andProvence
(as inn. 72),217.
82. QuotedinTheIndependent,
Saturday6thOctober1990inan articlebyGillianTindall.See alsoAthanassoglou-Kallmyer,
andProvence
Czanne
(as inn. 72),201-2.
83. Saint-Georges
de Bouhlier,quoted in Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,
Czanneand
Provence
andp. 217intransi,andfirst
(as inn.72), inn. 112,p. 293,inFrench,
publishedin "UnManifeste",
inLa RevueNaturiste
(March1897).
Leoussi
413
national"**
Beliefin thespecificallyethnicconnectionbetweentheFrenchnation and the classical spirit was clearly expressed by the Naturist Louis
Bertrandin his importantprefaceto Gasquet's collectionofpoems, Les Chants
sculairesof 1903:
Cettedisciplineclassique n'est pas unefantaisieclosedans la cervelled'un

bel esprit.Elle fut l'expressionde ralitshistoriques,ethniques,physioloet des individusont t ngiques. Une nation,une race,des tempraments
viables.
des
uvres
cessairespour qu'elle put produire
This classical discipline is not a fantasyborn of the brain of some

brightintellect.It expresseshistorical,ethnic,and physiologicalrealities.A nation,a race, temperamentsand individuals have been
necessaryso thatit [i.e., classical discipline] could produce viable
works.85
As Paul Smithhas discovered,in a letterto Gasquet of 25 June1903 Czanne

admittedhis sympathyforwhat Smith calls, Bertrand's"racist preface."86
Bertrand'semphasis on race is absolutelyclear.Indeed, his prefacecontinues
in the same vein, stressingthe fixityand continuityof biologicallyinherited
He urges the Frenchto rise against
physicaland intellectualcharacteristics.
ofthemselvesbecause, as direct
to
be
and
proud
Germany,
meaning
barbarity,
heirsofRome and Athens,theyare carriersofcivilisation.He finallypointsto
theimportanceofhealthyProvencefortherecoveryof ailing France.Thus:
les dispositionsinnes et hrditaires... ne sont pas seulementphysiques,
encoreunefois enface de
elles sontencoreintellectuelles.... Affirmons-nous
l'univers, car il est tropsr que nous Latins, hritiersdirectsde Rome et
Athnes,nous sommesla civilisation!En ce moment,le Barbare,qui en est
le pireennemi,est dresscontreelle .... Si le corpsde la patrieest gangren,
quelques membressont restssains ... en terreprovenale,-je le sais ! il
est encorede beauxfils de France ... qui sont avides de continuerla vie des
anctresselon son idal de gloire,justice et raison.87
innateand hereditaryinclinations... are not only physical,but also

intellectual.... Let us assert ourselves, one more time before the
world,foritis absolutelycertainthatwe, Latins,directinheritorsof
Rome and Athens, representcivilisation!At thismoment,the Barbarian,who is theworstenemyofcivilisation,has risenagainstit ....
Ifthebody of(our) homelandis gangrenous,some partsofithave remained healthy... in the land of Provence,- 1 know it! - thereare
stillsome beautifulsons of France ... who are eager to continuethe
lifeof theirancestorsaccordingto its ideal of glory,justiceand reason.
Czanneand Provence(as in n. 72),

84. Bouhlier,quoted in Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,
in n. 120,p. 294,in French,and p. 219 in
fromthesame source,La RevueNaturiste,
transi.
Czanneand Provence(as in n. 72),
85. Bertrand,quoted in Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,
218.
86. Smith,"JoachimGasquet" (as in n. 68), 19.
87. Ibid.,23 n. 69.
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The classicismwhich the Naturistsadvocated was not the cold, stereotyped

and conventionalclassicismoftheacademic artschools,but rathera naturalist classicism.This fusionof naturalismand classicismwas promotedby the
Naturistsas modern.It took a numberof forms.For example,
dsormais
un moderne
pourrapeindreun siteentierde rocs,de bois,deprs
etdefleurs,ety parsemer
des thories
d'phbesou de canphores.
fromnow on a modem (painter)will be able to paint a whole landscape of rocks,of meadows and of flowers,and spread in themprocessionsofephebes or canephores(classicalmaidensbearingbaskets
of fruitand flowers).88
I shall show below how Czanne interpretedNaturismihow he combined
classical principlesand motifswiththe direct,outdoor experienceof nature,
his "sensations".89
Gasquet's supportof theNaturistsled themto invitehim,in 1898,to become the leader of the Provenal branch of the movement.According to
itwas throughGasquet thatCezanne's regionalloyAthanassoglou-Kallmyer,
alties were strengthened.The two men's enthusiasmforProvenceand their
mutual admirationin thisenthusiasmare evident in theircorrespondence.
For example, in a letterto Gasquet and his wife of January1897 Czanne
praised thecouple fortheirown loyaltyto Provence,ending theletterwitha
triumphant"Long live Provence!" In anotherletterof 22 June1898, in response to Gasquet's praise ofhis paintingsof Provenalpeasants in thejournal Pays de France,Czanne wrote back "having read your superb lines
exaltingtherace of Provence...."90And itwas throughGasquet thatCzanne
embracedNaturism.In turn,Naturismsaw in Cezanne's art,in his peasants,
his landscapes and his bathers,itsvisual, artisticexpression.AthanassoglouKallmyer makes a telling comparison between Gasquet's writings and
Cezanne's scenes of bathers.She quotes the followingpassage by Gasquet
which alludes to Naturism'syearningforman's physicalfusionwithhis native natural environment,in which he is organicallyrooted and which has
shaped him as a racial and historicalbeing:
Vivreharmonieusement
lafaondesarbresetdesfleuves,
le libre
favoriser
de
tous
les
instincts
en toi,tre
panouissement
qui vagissentobscurment
un belanimalaux yeuxirradisde soleil,au frontbaignd'azur...
To live harmoniouslyin the mannerof the treesand the rivers,to
favorthe freeefflorescence
of all theinstinctswhich mutterconfus-
88. EdgarBaes,quotedin Englishtranslation

on p. 220ofAthanassoglou-Kallmyer,
CzanneandProvence
(as in n. 72),fromBaes' article"Le Paysagedu Naturisme"
inla Plume,
no.205(1 November1897),p. 677.
89. On Cezanne'spractice
ofoutdoorpainting,
see,forexample,theessaysbyPhilip
Conisbee,"Cezanne'sProvence"(esp. p. 12) and "TheAtelierdes Lauves"(pp.
230-42),in Conisbeeand Coutagne(eds.),CzanneinProvence
(as inn. 39).
90. QuotationsfromCezanne'sletters
citedinAthanassoglou-Kallmyer,
and
Czanne
Provence
letters
(as in n. 72),220,221andtakenfromJohnRewald,PaulCzanne:
(New,NY:HackerArtBooks,1984).
Leoussi
415
edly withinyou, to be a beautifulanimal with eyes radiatingwith

sun, witha foreheadbathed in theblue of thesky ....91
Such passages matchCezanne's laterscenes ofbathers,such as his Hermitage
Baigneurs(c.1890-91)and theLondon GrandesBaigneuses(1894-05).As in Gasoffiguresand landscape, whose
quet's passage, througha uniformtreatment
one
another
and
are
echo
and
built up with shortblocks of
parallel
shapes
colour, Czanne immerses the figuresin the surroundinglandscape and
makes thelandscape subsume thefigureswhose foreheadsare bathed in the
The recognitionofCzanne as a Naturistis also evidentin the
blue ofthesky.92
factthatin 1900 his name featuredamong thoseof thehonorarymembersof
theCollge d'esthtiquemoderne,theartschool of theNaturists.93
b.) Naturalistclassicismand Poussin
Cezanne's desire to revive the classical world in Provence as well as to expresstheclassicalqualitiesoftheregion,orderand reason,led him to Poussin,
the founderof Frenchclassicism, as is well known. Richard Verdi has describedCezanne's relationshipto Poussin notas one ofmentorand pupil,but
There
as one ofkinship:thetwo mastersshared thesame artisticsensibility.94
was no creativedependence of Czanne on Poussin. It was rathertheircommon orientationtowardsorderand reasonthatmade Czanne regardPoussin
as "an importantprecursorof his own approach to landscape painting"and
led him to revivePoussin.95But ifPoussin foundorderand reason in nature
as a whole, Czanne foundthemin Provence.To thesehe added the colourfulnessthatwas his own and Impressionism'sresponseto theobservationof
naturallightout of doors.
Accordingto Emile Bernard,Cezanne's intentionin thebatherseries was to
entirement
surnare-doPoussin entirelyafternature:"ImaginezPoussinrefait
ture".96
Czanne saw in theworkof thisartistwho had been one of thearchitects of the French classical tradition,a way of renderingthe Provenal
landscape in all itsorderliness,and of combiningthiswithhis own directobservationswithoutlosinghis Impressionistattachmentto lightand colour,his
Czanneand Provence(as in n. 72), in
91. Gasquet quoted in Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,
n. 167,p. 296 in Frenchand p. 227 in translation.
92. See also ibid.,225.
93. Ibid., 221.
94. RichardVerdi,Czanneand Poussin:TheClassicalVisionofLandscape(Edinburgh:
National Galleries of Scotland in association with Lund Humphries, London,
1990),58.
95. Ibid.,44, 58. On the mostrecentscholarshipexaminingPoussin's landscapes, including some reflectionson the links with Czanne, see Pierre Rosenbergand
Keith Christiansen(eds.), Poussinand Nature:ArcadianVisions,Catalogue of the
exhibitionat the MetropolitanMuseum of Art,New York,February12-May 11,
2008 and at the Museo de Bellas Artes,Bilbao, October8, 2007-January
12, 2008
(New York:MetropolitanMuseum ofArt;New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress,
2008).
96. Kendall (ed.), Czannebyhimself
(as in n. 70), 225. And P. M. Doran (ed.), ConversationsavecCzanne(Paris: CollectionMacula, 1978),80.
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"sensation".
By re-doingPoussin "surnature",Czanne producedhis own form
of naturalistclassicism.
Accordingto RichardShiff,thisfamousstatementto Bernard,which"existsin manyvariations,has neverbeen definitively
attributedto Czanne himself'.97Nevertheless,thereis no doubt, first,as Shiffremarks,thatCzanne
was viewed by many of his contemporaries,including his critics,such as
Camille Mauclair,98
as "a new Poussin, even a new Greek,and certainlyclassical";99and second, as Theodore Refffinallyadmitted in that early and
fiercelycriticalarticleon thatstatement,"Czanne and Poussin",of 1960,that
througha purelystylisticexaminationof Cezanne's art "Cezanne's stylistic
affinitieswith Poussin can of course be observed".100Furthermore,what
emergesfromReffs articleand is consistentwiththeconcernsof thepresent
and interpretation
of the classical orientastudywhich are the identification
tionsin Cezanne's laterwork,is thatPoussin becomes importantin precisely
thatlaterphase of his work. As Reffput it, "Czanne became interestedin
Poussin only ratherlate in his career".101
And Cezanne's Poussinismeconstituted,at least partly,Cezanne's classicism.
in his
Accordingto Reff,Cezanne's interestin Poussin is evident,firstly,
copies of figuresfromPoussin paintings,mostnotably,Et in ArcadiaEgo and
TheConcert,
bothin theLouvre.102
On thebasis of theirstyle,Reffdated these
to
the
1890-95.
However, Czanne is firstrecorded studying
copies
years
Poussin's art in the Louvre earlier,in 1864.103
Secondly,it is evident in the
of
c.
which
1906,
Philadelphia Baigneuses
reproduce the symmetriesand
highlyformalisedgroupingsofPoussin. The crossedtreesand theechoingof
theshapes of figuresin theshapes of treesor otherelementsof thelandscape
are compositional devices also derived fromPoussin, forwhom, as Pierre
Rosenberghas observed,landscape was transformed,
especiallyin his mature
from
mere
to
work,
background figuraicompositions,to "a directand active
in
the
These devices serve to integratefiguresand
participant
painting".104
into
an
and
harmonious
whole. Czanne explicitlystated
landscape
orderly
his desirefora formaland therebyintellectualand emotionalmergingofman
withnaturein themannerof Poussin, as follows:"I would like,as in the TriumphofFlora,to join thecurves of thewomen to theshouldersof thehills. ...
Like Poussin, I would like to put reason in thegrass and tearsin thesky."105
97. Shiffin his introductionto Pemberton(ed.), Joachim
Gasquet'sCzanne(as in n. 74),
24n.22.
98. As Shiffnotes,in 1919,Mauclair wrotethatCzanne had "aspiredin his confusion
to give impressionisma kind of classical stylization",but in theend he produced
littlemorethanpaintingsof "brutal,barbaricgaudiness". See ibid, 19.
99. Ibid., 20.
100.Reff, "Czanne and Poussin"(as in n. 74). 173.
101.Ibid., 171.
102.Ibid.
103.Reffcited in RichardVerdi,Czannean Poussin(as in n. 94), 44, froma laterarticle Reffpublished in 1964.
104.Reff,"Czanne and Poussin"(as in n. 74),171-72,and PierreRosenberg,"EncounteringPoussin", in Rosenbergand Christiansen(eds.), 2008 (as in n. 95), 5.
105.Czanne quoted in Rosenbergand Christiansen(eds.j, PoussinandNature(as in n.
95), 7.
Leoussi
417
According to Reff,the Philadelphia Baigneuses,this much-discussed

painting,"is in factalmost unique in Cezanne's oeuvre".Nevertheless,it is a
centralwork in this oeuvre.The centralityof the Philadelphia Baigneusesin
Cezanne's oeuvreis due to thefact,explicitlyadmittedby Reffhimself,thatit
was his "largest and most ambitious undertaking,on which he worked
throughoutthe last decade of his life,attemptingto achieve a monumental
We may thusconclude thatifthe
summationofhis earlierbatherpictures".106
notcorrespondto Cezanne's
sur
does
entirement
"Poussin
nature",
refait
phrase
ofhis
actual words,itdoes correspondto his actualpractice.As an affirmation
corroboratedby and consistent
naturalistclassicism,thisstatementis further
with thatotherand similarlyfamous passage quoted in Gasquet: "What I
want is to be a trueclassic and rediscovera classic path by means of nature,
As Shiffhas observed in relationto the latterstatement,if
by sensation".107
"these are not Cezanne's actual words, he did, at least, express related
thoughtsin several of his letters(and so did his old mentor,Camille Pissarro)".108
For Czanne, doing Poussin overagain fromnaturemeantcombininghis
"sensation",or directobservationof nature,translatedintobright,primary
colours,whichhe learntfromPissarro'sImpressionismduringtheearly1870s,
withPoussin's rationalorganisationof the sensorydata. This approach,this
"shiftfromthe perceptual to the conceptual", as Rubin has described it,
yielded an increasinglyformalconstructionof the surface of the canvas,
painted with small, separate and disciplined rhythmicalbrushstrokesand,
eventually,an underlyinggeometricalrenderingof nature that recalls the
cubes and pyramidsofEuclidean geometry.109
However,contraryto his practice,Czanne, in his much-quotedletterto EmileBernardof 15 April1904,advocated the renderingof nature according to curved geometricalsolids:
la sphre,le cne...." [Treatnatureby means of
"Traitezla naturepar le cylindre,
thecylinder,thesphere,thecone].110
Nevertheless,the geometricalunderstandingand renderingof nature
was centralto Cezanne's thinkingin his lateryears,an understandingwhich,
as Michael Doran has observed,he shared with the youthfulcirclethathad
formedaround him and included Gasquet, Bernard and Maurice Denis.111
106.Reff,"Czanne and Poussin" (as in n. 74), 171-73.

107.Translationby Shiffin his introductionto Pemberton (ed.), JoachimGasquet's
Czanne(as in n. 74), 21. Accordingto Bernard,Czanne used theterm"classical"
also to mean, more generally,belonging to traditionand being close to the old
masterswhose greatnessderived fromtheirknowledge of nature.See also, P. M.
avecCzanne(as in n. 96), 80.
Doran (ed.), Conversations
108.Shiff(as inn. 74), 21.
109.WilliamRubin,"Czannisme and the Beginningsof Cubism", in WilliamRubin
(ed.), Czanne:TheLateWork,exh. Cat., Museum of Modern Art,New York(New
York:Museum of Modern Art;Boston:distributedby New YorkGraphicSociety,
1977), 161. On the cerebralqualities of Poussin's landscapes, see also Rosenberg
and Christiansen(eds.), Poussinand Nature(as in n. 95), especially Philippe de
Montebello'sand JavierViar's "Directors'Foreword",pp.vii-x.
avecCzanne(as in n. 96), 27.
110.P. M. Doran (ed.), Conversations
111.Ibid., 208,n. 17.
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Moreover,its connectionwith ancient Greek thought,"[L]es anciens",was

made by membersof thiscircle,and mostnotablyby Emile Bernard.112
In thesame letterto Emile Bernardof 15 April 1904,we findfurther
evidence ofCezanne's conscious attachmentto thoseprincipleswhich,since the
Renaissance, were seen as characteristicof ancient Greek civilisationat its
peak. These were theprinciplesof reflectionand calculationand orientation
to a singlecentre.Czanne advised Bernardto renderthevarious objectsobserved in natureby means of the cylinder,the sphere and the cone, and to
arrangethem"in perspectiveso thateach side ofan objector of a plane is directedtoward a centralpoint". In theoriginalFrench:"Traitezla natureparle
cylindre,la sphre,le cne,le toutmis en perspective,soit que chaque ctd'un objet,

d'un plan, se dirigevers un point central".m
This need forreflection,

thisuse oflogical procedurein artas opposed to
theearlierRomanticand Impressionistexpressivenessand spontaneity,
is also
in
a
dated
21
addressed
Czanne
later
letter
to
Bernard,
specifically
by
September1906,just beforehis sudden death froma chillin October1906:
je croisau dveloppementlogique de ce que nous voyonset ressentonspar
l'tude sur nature.... Les grands que nous admironsne doiventavoirfait
que a.
I believe in the logical developmentof what we see and feelwhen

we studynature....The great[artists]whom we admirecannothave
done anythingotherthanthis.114
As Jennifer
Shaw has elucidatedin herstudyofPuvis de Chavannes,thepracticeof logical elaboration,simplification
and abstractionfromthecarefulobservationof naturein searchof theunderlyingpatterns,thelaws of nature"je tchedesavoirLA LOI" [I tryto discoverTHE LAW] - whichPuvis also followed, was seen by nationalistcircles,includingMaurras, as a specifically
This
classical,i.e.,Greek,and thusFrenchintellectualand artisticprocedure.115
was
to
that
of
Nordic
such
as
the
nations,
procedure
diametricallyopposed
whose
art
a
search
for
the
in
as
nature,
English,
expressed
particular
typified
in theartof thePre-Raphaelites.116
Cezanne's classical,i.e., logical and specificallygeometricalapproach to
natureis most clearlyevidentin his landscapes of Mont Sainte-Victoire,culofthemountain,
minatingin or centredon thegreatpyramidalre-construction
as in La MontagneSainte-Victoire
ofc.1886-8in theCourtauldGalleries,London
(fig.4). Indeed, accordingto RichardVerdi,Cezanne's magnificentviews of
the Gulf of Marseilles and of the Mont Sainte-Victoirecompleted between
112.See Bernard'sconversation
withCzannethatwas publishedin theMercure
de
France
of1June1921,andreproduced
inDoran(ed.),Conversations
avecCzanne
(as
inn. 96),esp.p. 163.
113.TheEnglishtranslation
is fromMichaelDoran(ed.),Conversations
withCzanne
ofCalifornia
versionis fromthe
Press,2001),29.TheFrench
(Berkeley:
University
Frencheditionof Doran's,Conversations
avecCzanne(as inn. 96),p. 27.On basic
TheCivilization
see,forexample,JacobBurckhardt,
conceptsoftheRenaissance
of
theRenaissance
inItaly(New York:PenguinClassics,1990).
114.Czanne Quotedin Reff."Czanne and Poussin" ias in n. 74V 1.52

115.Shaw, "Frenchness,memory,and abstraction"(as in n. 6), 169,n. 21.
116.Ibid., 162.
419
Leoussi
c.1886-8
Fig. 4. Paul Czanne, MontagneSainte-Victoire,
1885-90,constitute "by general agreementthe most austere and classical

is also evident
This classicism,thisattachment
to geometry,
phase ofhis art".117
in thatgreattriangle,suggestedby thesoaringbare trunksofthearchingtrees
and the ground, which measures and encompasses the Philadelphia
This compositionaldevice is also classical in itsintendedassocibaigneuses.118
ationwithclassicalphilosophywhichconnectedman withnatureand defined
This
human perfectionas a harmonisationwdthand integrationin nature.119
harmony between man and nature was most tellingly symbolised in
Leonardo's Vitruvianman,similarlymeasured and encompassed by thenatural and regularshapes of the circle,the square and the triangle.Finally,the
crossed treesin the Philadelphia Baigneusesseem to forma classical and, as
Paul Smithhas observed more generallyin relationto Cezanne's provenal
an enclosed and pleasantplace
landscapes,specificallyVirgilianlocusantoenus,
to be. Cezanne's Virgilianloci amoenirecall Poussin's mythicallandscapes,
such as LandscapewithOrpheusand Eurydice,
ofc.1650,in theLouvre,in which
Intreesgatherround thesingingOrpheus to createsuch a pleasant place.120
117.RichardVerdi,Czanneand Poussin(as in n. 94).
118.JohnRewald, ThePaintingsofPaul Czanne:A CatalogueRaisonn,vol. 1 (London:
Thames and Hudson, 1996),509-10.
119.For an analysis of nineteenth-century
views of Greekphilosophicalideas regardand Classicism(as in
ing theharmonyof man and nature,see Leoussi, Nationalism
n. 2), 35-55.
120.Smithand Athanassoglou-Kallmyer
have shown theearlypersonal identification
ofCzanne and his friends,includingEmile Zola, withcharacterstakenfromVir-
420
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oftheClassical
deed, Poussin himselfhad found his most importantsources of inspiration

also known as Et in ArcadiaEgo,in theLou(e.g., forTheArcadianShepherds,
as
well
as Ovid.
in
the
of
vre)
poetry Virgil,
formal
their
Poussinesque
analogies betweenthefiguresand the
Through
treeswhose shapes and lines parallel each other,thePhiladelphia Baigneuses
epitomisethenational desire fororderand regenerationthrougha returnto
nature and re-rootingin the soil of the native countryside,and especially
Provence.In fact,all theevocationsof Poussin in thePhiladelphia Baigneuses
and in thetwo otherlargecompositionsof femalebathers,theone in theNationalGalleryin London, of 1894-1905,and the otherin the Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA, of 1895-1906,on which Czanne worked more or less
and retreat
simultaneously,would seem to reinforcethemessages of fertility
to thecountrysideso closelyassociated withPoussin's landscapes, and so urin
gentin France at thattime.Indeed, we may recognisethe idea of fertility
Cezanne's baigneuses,if we consider them as the real-lifeequivalents of
Poussin's mythicalnymphs,symbolsof nature'sfecundity.
Poussin's laterlandscapes, those produced after1640,are idealisations
oftheRoman Campagna. In them,he emphasised theorderand permanence
of naturethrough,forexample, the use of verticaland horizontalelements,
liketreesand a placid lake,thecubic formsofbuildings,and by arrangingthe
clouds in sequentialplanes. It is thusimportantto note thatPoussin's classical landscapes are poetic: theyare not topographicalviews, of which,in any
case, he produced only a few.For Czanne, however,theProvenalcountryand naturallyclassical. Indeed, Czanne recogside was itselfpre-eminently
nised in theProvenallandscape a classical landscape, an orderlylandscape
a landscape whichhad to be understood
ofcubes and pyramids,and therefore
and paintedby workingwithboth themind and theeye. Thus:
The greatclassical landscapes,our Provenceand Greeceand Italyas
I imaginethem,are thosewherelightis spiritualized,wherea landwithkeen intelligence.121
scape is a smile flickering
By revivingand modernisingPoussin, Czanne was attachinghimselfto the
long Frenchand European classical tradition,thatarcadian traditionofpainting landscapes withfigures.This time,however,boththelandscapes and the
They
figureswere real,i.e.,observed notmythical,imaginaryor historical.122
were also national
gil whom theyread as youngmen.See in particularSmith,"JoachimGasquet,Virgil and Cezanne's landscape 'My beloved Golden Age'" (as in n. 68), 17. On
Poussin's own interestin classical literarysources, especially Virgil,see Claire
ofmind': The themeofretreatand Poussin's
Pace's essay,"'Peace and tranquillity
Christiansen
and
in
(eds.), PoussinandNature(as in n. 95),
landscapes", Rosenberg
pp.73-89.
(New Jersey:
121.Quoted in Englishin Marcel Brion,Czanne:TheGreatImpressionists
ofhis "classical" landscapes,
ChartwellBooks,1973),23. On Poussin's construction
see Philippe de Montebello's and JavierViar's "Directors'Foreword",in Rosenbergand Christiansen(eds.), Poussinand Nature(as in n. 95), p.viii.
on the Riv122.House, "That Magical Light:Impressionistsand Post-Impressionists
Cezanne's statementabout
iera" (as in n. 55), 25. On the problemof interpreting
remakingPoussin, Reff,"Czanne and Poussin" (as in n. 74), 156,notes thatthe
Leoussi
421
c.) Classicism and Catholicism

It should be noted here thatCezanne's classical landscapes, with or without
Christianmotifsand
figures,werenotpagan. Rather,theyfusedclassicalwith
In thesame letterof
ideas. Cezanne's Catholicismwas re-awakenedin 1891.123
15 April 1904 mentionedabove (pp. 417-18),he told Bernard,also a believer,
of thedivine originof natureand how to suggestit in painting:
[L]ines parallel to thehorizongive breadth,thatexpanse ofnatureofthelandscape - thatthePateromnipotens,oeterne
or ifyou prefer,
(sic) Deus, spreads out beforeour eyes.124
In the contextof Cezanne's intensifiedCatholicism,the crossed treesin the
Philadelphia Baigneusesmay also be read as forminga Gothicarch,thereby
According
creatinga divine home forthe figures,reminiscentof a church.125
to Krumrine,in thePhiladelphia BaigneusesCzanne "seems to constructhis
And she quotes fromZola's
churchout of elementsprovided by nature".126
novel La Fautedel'abbMouret,of1875,a passage whichindicatesthecurrency
of thebeliefin thenaturaloriginsof Gothicarchitecture:
Ils entrrentenfinsous lesfutaies, religieusement,avec une pointede terreursacre, commeon entresous la vote d'une glise. Les troncs,droits,
blanchisde lichens,d'un gris blafardde vieillepierre,montaientdmesurment,alignaient l'infinides enfoncementsde colonnes. Au loin des nefs
; des nefstrangementharse creusaientavec leurs bas-cts,plus touffs
dies, portespas des piliers trs minces,denteles,ouvrages,si finement
fouilles,qu'elles laissaientpasser de toutesparts le bleu du ciel
They finallyenteredthe forest,religiously,with a twingeof sacred

fear,as one entersunder the vault of a church.The straighttrunks,
whitenedby lichen,the pale greyof old stone,rose immeasurably,
Far away,naves were dug
deeply rootedcolumnsaligned infinitely.
Poussin
term"vivifier"
appears in one of the versionsof thisstatement:"Vivifier
d'aprsnature".This termhas seemed to latercommentatorsto be moreauthentic
This termalso seems to me clearerand more revealing,for,as apthan "refaire".
the
to
paintingof the landscape of Provence,it suggeststhatdoing so was
plied
like paintingPoussin's visions of theclassical world fromdirectobservation,instead of fromimagination;and, by implication,thatmodern Provence,with its
classical features,was a tableauvivantof Poussin's paintings.See also Conisbee's
essay, "The Atelier des Lauves", in Conisbee and Coutagne (eds.), Czanne in
Provence(as in n. 39), 233,on theEuropean traditionofdepictinglandscapes with
figures.
123.See Gowing, "The EasrlyWorkof Paul Czanne" (as in n. 63), 1988,217.
withCzanne(as in n. 113),29.
124.See Doran, Conversations
125.The Christianmeaningof the archingtreescan also be foundin EnglishRomantic and mediaevalistart,and particularlyin Constable's SalisburyCathedral
from
theBishop'sGrounds(exhibitedat theRoyalAcademy 1823). In thispainting.Conas well as theunitybestable suggeststhenaturaloriginsof Gothicarchitecture,
tween God and nature,by creatinga rhythmof pointed arches made up of the
Cathedral's risingpointed spire in the backgroundand the pointed arch of the
treesin theforeground.
126.Krumrine,Paul Czanne:TheBathers(as in n. 65), 241.
422
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oftheClassical
out,as were theirmorestiflingside aisles; strangelyaudacious naves
supportedby theslenderestpillars,as delicatelyornamentedas lace
thattheyeverywherelet in theblue of thesky.127
thesteepleofan actualchurch,whichwe findin thecentreofthe

Furthermore,
painting'sbackground,eliminatesany remainingdoubt about the Christian
ofthepainting.The GothicvaultingofthePhiladelphiaBaigneuses
significance
also
be
associated with Frenchnessin two ways: firstly,
throughthe
may
Frenchclaim,stronglyheld at thetime,as Paul Hayes Tuckerand Laura Morowitzhave shown, thatthe Gothicstylewas a specificallyFrencharchitectural achievement, not a German one;128and secondly, through the
identificationof the Gothic stylewith FrenchCatholicism.Catholicismwas
conthrustintohighreliefat thattimeas an attributeofFrance- traditionally
sidered lafilleanede l'glise- not onlybecause of themilitaryconfrontation
with,and Frenchdefeatby,the ProtestantPrussians,but also because of the
anti-Catholicismof thePrussian-ledKulturkampf.
Krumrinehas recognisedthe combinationof pagan withChristianrituals in Cezanne's monumentalpaintingsof male and femalebathersfromhis
late years. She has pointed to Cezanne's tendency,from1880 onwards, "to
paint picturesin which male and femalenudes take part in what appears to
be thepagan ritualofbathing... oftenwithsuggestionsoftheChristianritual
ofbaptism".129
A good example of thebaptismalgesturecan be foundin the
Saint Louis Baigneursof 1892-94.Krumrinegoes on to recall the meaningof
waterin the two traditionsand the significanceof both forCzanne: "in the
Christiantraditionit [water]representsthe spiritualcleansingthroughBaptism;in the pagan traditionit is associated with the Fountain of Youth and
And she conphysicalrejuvenation.Czanne makes use ofbothtraditions".130
cludes thattheunderlyingthemeof thebathercompositionsis "the washing
away of guilt and the renewal of life",concernswhich had a wider cultural
resonance.131
Finally,Czanne can be associated withthedesirefora synthesisof classicism with ChristianitythroughGasquet. Such a culturalsynthesisis suggestedin Gasquef s book ofverse,UEnfant,of 1900.Thisbook,whichGasquet
dedicated to Czanne, was theproductof the summerof 1897 partof which
thetwo men spenttogetherin a farmhousenear thevillage of Le Tholonet.132
In UEnfant,as Paul Smithhas shown, the Child is associated withboth the
Christ-Childand thedivine childin Virgil'sfamousstoryofthe"golden age"
127.Quotation fromZola's novel in Krumrine,Paul Czanne:TheBathers(as in n. 65),
p. 267,n. 36 in Frenchand p. 241, in transi.
128.Paul Hayes Tucker,Monetin the"90s: The SeriesPaintings,exh. cat. Boston:Museum of Fine Arts (Boston: Museum of Fines Arts;New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1989), 192-99.Laura Morowitz,"Medievalism, Classicism, and Nationalism:The AppropriationoftheFrenchPrimitifs
in Turn-of-the-Century
France",in
and FrenchVisualCulture(as in n. 5),
Hargroveand McWilliam(eds.), Nationalism
225.
130.Ibid.,241.
131.Ibid., 240.
132.Smith,"JoachimGasquet, Virgiland Cezanne's landscape 'My beloved Golden
Age'" (as in n. 68), 11-12.
Leoussi
423
in his FourthEclogue. In Virgil'sstory,which the Christianfathersand the

thebirthof Christ,the "golden
mediaeval Churchinterpretedas prefiguring
without
labour
or
an
of
wickedness, returns,withthebirth
age plenty
age",
of a child throughwhich a new and better,"golden" (aurea) race of men is
The same synthesisof pagan with Christian
born to replace the iron race.133
sentimentand expectationcan be found again in Gasquet's otherbook of
verse,L'Arbreet les vents,of 1901. It describeshow St Peter,while on his way
to Rome, sits under a treewhere Virgilsat, therebyaffirmingthe spiritual
withtheLatin race. 134
of Christianity
affinities
At a timeof greatnationaltraumaand upheaval, Cezanne's latersunny
fromthe1880s onwards,are animatedin
Provenallandscapes and sous-bois,
classical and Christian.They herald
dual
revival:
of
a
messianicexpectation
and bear witnessto thebirthon theirsoil of a new France,a France re-born,
which is both vigorous and pious. It is this new breed of Frenchmen and
women thattheyharbourand nurture.
d.) Baigneursand theGreekideal
In his book on Czanne, Gasquet also associated the artistwith Hippolyte
Taine,quotinghim as saying:"I like muscle,beautifultones,blood. I'm like
The linkbetween Czanne and Taine may help us to understand
Taine ...."135
another aspect of Cezanne's bathers,especially his series of male bathers
which includes,Les Baigneursau reposof 1875-76,in The Barnes Foundation,
Le GrandBaigneurof 1885 in the Museum of Modern Art,New York,the
Baigneursof cl890-91 in the Hermitage,and those of 1895-1900in Baltimore
(fig.5). Gasquet's Czannemakes frequentand positivereferencesto Taine as
an authorityand a guide in both social and artisticmatters.136
HippolyteTaine,appointed Professorof theHistoryofArtand Aesthetics at thecole des Beaux-Artsin 1864,was widely and enormouslyinfluentialduringthelast quarterofthenineteenthcentury.As noted above (p. 401),
in imitation
Taineacceptedracialtheoryand advocated "la culturemusculaire"
133.Ibid.,18.ForVirgil'sFourthEclogue,see Virgil,Theeclogues,trans,by Guy Lee (Harwitha commentaryby John
mondsworth:Penguin,1984),and TheWorksofVirgil,
rev.by F. Haverfield
and
1:
vol.
and
Eclogues Georgics,
HenryNettleship,
Conington
(London: G. Bell, 1898; repr.Hildesheim & New York:Georg Olms, 1979),55-63,
repr.of Eclogueswith a new generalintroductionby Philip Hardie and an introductionto the Ecloguesby Brian W. Breed (Exeter,Devon: BristolPhoenix Press,
2007), XXXIV-XXXIX("Bibliography").For the Early historyof its Christianreceptionsee (missed by Breed) StephenBenko,"Virgil'sFourthEclogue in Chrisund
Welt:Geschichte
derRmischen
undNiedergang
in Aufstieg
tian Interpretation",
KulturRomsim Spiegelder neuerenForschung,vol. II 31. 1, ed. Wolfgang Haase
(Berlin& New York:Walterde Gruyter,1980),646-705.
134.Smith,"JoachimGasquet, Virgiland Czanne s landscape 'My beloved Golden
Age'"(asinn.68),18.
135.Kendall (ed.), CzannebyHimself(as in n. 70), 306. On theclassical interpretation
of Cezanne's art see also Emile Bernard's "Opinions" in L'Occidentof July1904
and also, Cowling and Mundy (eds.), On ClassicGround(as in n. 61), 68-69.
136.ChristopherPemberton(ed.), Joachim
Gasquets Cezanne:A MemoirwithConversations(London: Thames and Hudson, 1991).See forexample,pages 62, 86, 95, 124,
176,183.
424
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Fig. 5. Paul Czanne, Le GrandBaigneur,1885
In his NotessurVAnoftheancientGreeksforFrenchnationalregeneration.137
of 1872,he also praised modernEnglishpublic school and University
gleterre
education forturningyoung English men (but not yet women) into young
For Taine,as indeed formostofhis contemporaries,French
Greekathletes.138
physical regenerationhad become vitallyurgentafterthe Franco-Prussian
War.139
And it was seen as possible because the Frenchbelonged to the same
whichTaine arIndo-Europeanor Aryanrace as theGreeks,an identification
Taine explained thebeautyof Greeknaturalistartby the
dentlyadvocated.140
beauty of Greek youth.Greek physical education - "la culturemusculaire"
the
of
characteristics
furtherdeveloped and perfectedthe innate,inherited
race. Thus, Greekteachers,
137.HippolyteTaine,Notessurl'Angleterre
(Paris: Hachette,1872), 163.
138.Ibid., 148.
139.For a furtheranalysis of this,see Leoussi, Nationalismand Classicism(as in. n. 2),
119.
140.HippolyteTaine,Sa Vieetsa Correspondance
(Paris: Hachette,1905),385.
Leoussi
425
en vritablesartistes,exeraientle corpspour lui donnernon seulementla

vigueur,la rsistanceet la vitesse,mais aussi la symtrieet Vlgance.
likerealartists,exerdsed thebody in orderto give itnotonlyvigour,

resistanceand speed, but also symmetryand elegance.141
Cezanne's modernProvenalyoungmale bathers,withtheirbrokencontours,
theirtensionbetweenrealismand
lack ofnaturalistbeautyand, increasingly,
abstraction,do not exactlyachieve theclassical physicalideals of wholeness,
and elegance. Nevertheless,in theirstatuesquegrandeurand simsymmetry
their
healthynudity,swellingwith muscle,and theirwarm Mediterplicity,
ranean flesh-tones,these bathersare the modern descendants of the Greek
the massive square chest of the male
ancestorsof the region.Furthermore,
batherfacingthespectatorin Les Baigneursau reposof 1875-76,in The Barnes
Foundation,repeatedin Le GrandBaigneurof 1885 in theMuseum of Modern
Art,New York,also conformswithTaine's campaignforstrong,square chests
forFrenchmen,and reproducesthe"grandand square" styleof5thcBC Greek
not
art. In fact,we finda varietyofphysicaltypesamong Cezanne's baigneurs:
and
but
naturalist
still
muscular
also
the
but
and
square",
only the "grand
moreelongatedand slendertypeofLysippus' athletes,as in thethreebathers
on thisside of theriverin theHermitageBaigneurs(c.1890-91).The standing
figureon therightalso seems to replicatetheattitudeofMichelangelo'sDying
In contrast,thedeeply-tannedfigureseated facingus on theopposite
Slave.142
bank of the riverhas a more compactbody witha massive square chest.According to Conisbee, Cezanne's reliance on second-hand images for his
bathersinsteadofmodels increasedtowardsthelastyearsofhis life.These included "his drawingsafterold masterpaintingsand especiallysculpturesin
the Louvre, fromantiquitythroughMichelangelo to the Provenal Pierre
Puget".143Conisbee furtheremphasises the personal significanceof the
bathingthemeforCzanne as a nostalgicrecollectionof the artisfs youthas
well as "a keyexpressionofhis own experienceof,attachmentto,and vision
The GreekassociationsofCezanne's bathers,and especially
of,Provence".144
theirlinkswithGreece'sgolden,"classical" age ofthegrandand calm images
of gods, heroes and athleteswere recognisedearly on by the criticGeorges
Rivire.Rivire commentedon Les Baigneursau reposof 1875-76,shown at the
second impressionistexhibitionof 1877,as follows:
M. Czanne est, dans ses uvres,un grec de la belle poque; ses toilesont
le calme, la srnithroquedes peintureset des terrescuites antiques, et
les ignorantsqui rientdevantles Baigneurs,par exemple,mefontl'effetde
barbarescritiquantle Parthenon....
M. Czanne is,in his works,a Greekofthegreatperiod;his canvases

of
have thecalm and heroicserenityofthepaintingsand terra-cottas
Hl.Taine quoted in Duval and Cuyer (eds.) , Histoirede l'AnatomiePlastique(as in n.

33),15.
143.See Conisbee's essay,"The Atelierdes Lauves" in Conisbee and Coutagne (eds.),
Czannein Provence(as in n. 39), 238.
144.Ibid.,233.
426
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antiquity,and the ignorantwho laugh at the Bathers,forexample,

impressme likebarbarianscriticizingtheParthenon...,145
In addition to thebathingmotif,it is importantto note in thecase of theBaltimoreBaigneursanotherGreek athleticmotif,thatof wrestling,in the two
crossingfigureson theright.Sometimes,Czanne emphasises thecontemporaneityofhis baigneurs
by showingthisor thatmale batherwearingtrunks,as
in Le GrandBaigneurof 1885 or theBaigneursof 1890-94.These young men of
Provencewho had preservedtheirGreekethnicand culturalinheritanceare
the few remaininghealthymen of France,whom the Naturistspraised and
expected to lead the regenerationof the body of France,temporarily"gangren".Cezanne's baigneusesalso presentthesolid and muscularbodies ofthe
images oftheirGreekancestors.However,as Garb has observed,theytendto
be presented in more static attitudes,while the baigneurs"seem poised in
frozenmovement".146
Naturalist classicism and therevival of thebody in Renoir's Bathers
This sectionexaminesthere-mouldingof Renoir's Impressionismintoa distinctlySouthernclassicismofstrongand sun-tannedyoungfemalenudes immersed in Mediterranean landscapes; his synthesis of classicism with
Catholicism;and his association with the Naturistsand with Provenal regionalistcircles,includingCzanne.
a) The Chaste Bather
As mentionedabove, aftertheFranco-Prussianwar theidea thatFrenchphysical regenerationcould not be achieved withoutmoral regenerationbecame
in French
widely accepted. Thus, the war caused a culturaltransformation
mores fromthe sensualism of the Second Empire to the neo-Catholicismof
theThirdRepublic.Religious commentatorscalled upon women to returnto
the moral teachingsof Catholicism which would also increase the French
population:thevirtuesoftheVirginMary,"la Viergeet la Mre"- chastityand
motherhood.147
Renoir's art changed along with the wider culturalchange, in content,
clasfiguraiideals,and style.Itbecame a personalsynthesisofImpressionism,
sicismand Catholicism.148
It mustbe emphasised herethat,in changingthus,
145.Rivirequotedin Conisbee,"TheAtelierdes Lauves"inConisbeeand Coutagne
(eds.),CzanneinProvence
(as in n. 39),p. 233,and takenfromRuthBersonThe
New Painting:Impressionism,
1874-1886.2 vols. (San Francisco,CA: Fine ArtsMuseum ofSan Francisco;Seattle:Distributedby theUniversityofWashingtonPress,
1996),1:182.
146.TamarGarb,BodiesofModernity
(as in n. 21), 211.
147.Pingeot(ed.), La SculptureFranaiseau XIXe sicle(as in n. 34), 213.
148.It is worthnotingthatduringthe 1860s,Catholicopinion had rejectedthefemale
typeof5thc. BC classicalsculpturefromtheParthenonas figuraimodels forChristian subjectsbecause of their"formes
matrielles"
and their"volupt
grossirement
accentuatedby theirdraperiesmouilles,favouringleaner,moreethecharnelle",
real figuraitypes whose bodies would disappear under draperies. See Pingeot
(ed.), La SculptureFranaiseau XIXe sicle(as in n. 34), 205-6.This changed after
Leoussi
427
his artdid notescape, as TamarGarb has claimed,but rathercame to embrace

culturalconcerns.149
Renoir's classicism manifested
the new, contemporary,
For Renoirclassical subjectitselfmost unequivocally in his subject-matter.
of thefemalenude set in nature.Renoir's
matterinvolved therepresentation
femalenudes are eithergeneticallyclassical,as bathers,a typicalmotifin the
classical artistictradition,whichbegins to appear in his artin 1881,or specifically classical, as images of mythologicalpersonages, and especially the
Renoir's classicism
Venus,which emergeat the end of his life,after1900.150
also manifesteditselfin some ofhis later,Southernlandscapes, such as Vines
at Cagues, of c.1908, which he painted afterhis move to Cagnes, on the
Mediterraneancoast,in 1908.AlthoughImpressionistin theirvibrantcolour
and sketchybrushwork,these landscapes are classical, first,in theirrepresentationofMediterranean,and in thissense "classical" naturalsites,and secI
ond, in their compositional structurereminiscentof Claude Lorrain.151
consider below in some detail what JohnHouse has described as Renoir's
"move towards a more classical conceptionof art,based on the primacyof
thehuman form",in thecontextof Frenchpost-warethno-classicism.152
As in Cezanne's work,thethemeof theoutdoorbatherbecame a central
preoccupationin Renoir's laterwork,fromthe 1880s untiltheend ofhis life.
However,Renoirconcentratedexclusivelyon the femalenude. Accordingto
Herbert,"[O]ne of the notable changes in his [sc. Renoir's] work afterabout
1883was thevirtualdisappearance ofadult men exceptin a fewportraits".153
Renoir's series of femalebathersculminatedin Les Baigneusesof c.1918-19,
theFranco-PrussianWar,as notedabove (pp. 404-05),and exemplifiedin theideas

of Rochet.
149.Garb,BodiesofModernity
(as in n. 21), 170.
150. See JohnHouse, Renoir,exh. cat.,Hayward Gallery,London, 30 January-21
April
1985; Galeries nationalesdu Grand Palais, Paris, 14 May-2 September1985; Museum ofFineArts,Boston,9 October-5January1986(New York:Abrams;London:
ArtsCouncil ofGreatBritain,1985),278-9and entryforcat. no. 63, 232.
151.Ibid., entryforcat. no. 123, 288. Renoircomes closer to Claude than to Poussin.
Unlike Czanne, who shared with Poussin a concernforthe order,solidityand
thanthe
permanenceofnature,Renoir,who was moredrawn to theirregularities
withPoussin's friendand fellowartist,
regularitiesof nature,has moreaffinities
was light,and he renderedthemovementand fluidity
Claude. Claude's leitmotif
of naturein whichhe set thenoble formsof a classical templeor Roman villa,s
Philippede Montebeoand JavierViarhave observedin comparingPoussin with
Claude, "Althoughthe two artists[Poussin and Claude] were friendsand made
excursionstogetherintotheRoman Campagna to draw fromnature,thespiritof
... Light ... is the leittheirdrawingsand paintingscould not be more different.
motifofClaude's art.His clouds hang in theskylikeairypuffs;his treesare feathery,theirleaves gentlymoving in the breeze." See de Montebello's and Viar's
"Directors'Foreword",in Rosenbergand Christiansen(eds.), Poussinand Nature
(as in n. 95), p.vii.
152.Ibid.,232.
153.Herbert,Nature'sWorskshop
(as in n. 57), 78. Ifmale figuresappear,nude or clothed,
in his subjectpictures,theydo so as spectators.Even Paris in bothversionsof The
Judgment
ofParis,appears as a rathersecondaryfigure,withhis back turnedto the
viewer.
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oftheClassical
which House has describedas "a rsumof themostimportantthemeof his

career,thefemalenude in landscape/'154
The classical turnin Renoir's artcan be clearlydated to 1881,theyearof
his tripto Italy and his exposure to the art of the Italian Renaissance,especiallyRaphael's decorationsin the Villa Farnesina,and to the antique mural
paintingsfromPompeii which he saw in Naples.155During thistripRenoir's
new femaleideal emergeswhichcame to bear all thefeaturesofwhat was, in
a new nationalfemaleideal. He startsproducinga long seriesofnaked
effect,
young girlswho are innocent,healthy,strong,and, in theamplitudeof their
These girls,shown alone or in thecomforms,especiallytheirhips, fertile.156
of
other
become
moreand moredistantfromthepale copany
girls,gradually
of
Paris
with
quettegirls
flirting
youngmen,and moreand moremonumental
and Southernas all referencesto modernityare eliminatedand theirbodies
become increasinglypink, red or copper-red.These warm colours are suggestive of exposure to the Mediterraneansun, and theyecho Rochet's descriptionof the Frenchas a Southernrace, "rouge"or "cuivr"(see above, p.
404). Indeed,Renoir'sgirlslive as he mistakenlythoughttheyounggirlsofancientAthenslived - bathingfreely,
naked, in thesea and rivers.In fact,itwas
the young girlsof ancientSparta who would appear naked out of doors, as
theyengaged in sports-likeactivity.Nevertheless,the Greek association of
Renoir'swomen bathingout ofdoors is importantforthepurposes ofthisarticle.And itis evidentin Renoir's remark,upon observingthecrowdsofmen
and womenbathingamong therocks,duringhis tripto theisland ofGuernsey
in autumn 1883,thatit was
comme Athneslesfemmesne craignentnullementle voisinaged'hommes
sur les rochersvoisins.
Justas in Athens,thewomen are notat all afraidof theproximityof

men on thenearbyrocks.157
But thereare no men near Renoir's women.
The BaigneuseblondeI of 1881marksthebeginningofRenoir'sbreakwith
theearlierwork of the 1870s.158
The fashionablydressed,sterileand promiscuous young citygirlsof Montmartrewith theirpale bodies deformedand
squeezed by theirtightdresseswhichhad attractedhim fromthe1870sto the
mid-1880sin works like La Parisienne(1874), La Balanoire(1876) or Les Parapluies(c.1881and c.1885),have now been replacedby chaste,ample-shapedfemale nudes, set in nature,touchedby thesun,and uncorruptedby modernity
(fig.6). Theirsexual purityand restraintare oftensuggestedby thepresence
ofwedding rings,as in Baigneuse(known as BaigneuseblondeII) of c.1882and
154.House, Renoir(as in n. 150),288.

155.Ibid.,220.
156.Their"innocence"was recognisedby criticslike Geffroy.
See House, Renoir(as in
n. 150),252.
157.LetterfromRenoirto Durand-Ruel fromGuernsey,dated 27 September1883 and
vol. 1 (Paris: Dupublished in Lionello Venturi,Les Archivesde l'Impressionnisme,
rand-Ruel,1939),126.
158.House, Renoir(as in n. 150),entryforcat. no. 63, 232.
Leoussi
429
Fig. 6. Pierre-Auguste Renoir,La Parisienne,1874
of 1885.159
Renoir's new classical and emBaigneuse(known as La Coiffure),
in thatstrikingBaigneusein
athletic
female
is
evident
phatically
type clearly
theMuse Marmottanin Paris,who, seated in contrappostoand cross-legged
on a rock,supportingher chin with one hand, fuses Michelangelo's seated
male athletes and muscular ignudi in the Sistine Chapel with Raphael's
159.JohnHouse, "Renoir's 'Baigneuses'of 1887 and thepoliticsof escapism", BurlingtonMagazine134 (September1992): 584-5.See also Herbert,Nature'sWorkshop
(as
in n. 57), 79,quotingGarb's view thatforRenoir"Woman,a creaturecorruptedby
modernity"should returnto her perfectprototypeof "fecund,freefemininity".
However,I differfromHouse as well as Garb: Renoir's bathersare not personal
escapist fantasies,but projectionsofa new femaleculturalideal. I also argue,contraryto Garb,thatthewedding rings,farfrommakingRenoir's batherstantaliz(as in
inglyreal and accessible,make theminaccessible.Garb,BodiesofModernity
n. 21),170.
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nereids.As Garb has pointed out, Renoir "placed a high premiumon exercise". And she quotes Renoir:"thebestexercisefora woman is to kneeldown
and scrubfloors,lightfiresor do thewashing,theirbellies need movementof
thatsort".160
Hence, his seriesof women washing by rivers.Inevitably,these
recallwoman's intimateassociationwith the sea, as her symalso
paintings
Shaw has shown,in thenineteenthcenturytheclasbolic essence.As Jennifer
sical mythofVenus,"bornfromthesea", was thoughtto embodytheessence
of womanhood: women's emotionalinstabilityand the femalefluids,espeassociated withit.161
ciallymenstruation,
Renoir'snew femaleideal, healthyand muscular,was recognisedby his
contemporaries.For example, in 1903,the NaturistwriterCamille Mauclair
describedRenoir's latertypeof femalenude as "a luxuriant,firm,healthy...
woman witha powerfulbody,a small head, hereyes wide open, thoughtless,
brilliantand ignorant".Mauclaireven wentas faras describingRenoir'suninas an anisans aucunecrbralit",
tellectualfemalenude, "Son typedefemme,
mal - "C'est un animal buvantle soleil ..."162It is worth noting that the
descriptionoftheheads ofRenoir's girlsas "small" "petitesttes" matches
de
Medicias
the
Venus
contemporaryanthropologicalanalyses of thehead of
a
more
"classical", quality,however,
small. This makes Renoir's girlseven
that Mauclair did not observe in them. Nevertheless,the small heads of
Renoir's women as signs of ignoranceas well as innocence,reinforcewhat
Garb has noted as theartist'spreferenceforunintellectualwomen.163
Accordingto House, the change in Renoir's artcorrespondsto Parisian
debates about northand south and a "widely shared disenchantmentwith
Renoir's rejectionof theParisian
urban modernism",centredin the north.164
can furMediterranean
her
of
favour
in
woman
southern,
counterpart,
young
de
Teodor
Renoir's
of
friend,
therbe understoodby referenceto thewritings
the
with
associated
he
was
when
Provenal
closely
Wyzewa. Writingin 1895,
culturalrevival,de Wyzewa referredto theSouth as therepositoryofeternal
values.165The Southwas theproperhome ofyoungmen,who, sooneror later,
withnervesexhaustedby thecity,lose theirtasteforthe "fairiesofthenorth,
[who] have such charmingvoices but no body,no soul", and are "daughters
of the night",and give themselvesto the "daughters of the sun", who, alRenoirhimthoughtheycannotsinglikethem,are "charitableand tender".166
160.Garb, "Renoirand theNatural Woman" (as in n. 42), 7-8.

161.Shaw, "The Figureof Venus" (as in n. 60), 90-4.
Lezanneana
162.House, Renoir(as in n. 150), 273; see also Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,
son esson
and
C.
n.
histoire,
in
Provence(as
Mauclair,L'Impressionnisme:
72), 216,
et
Ancien
de
l'Art
Librairie
ed.
124,
2nd
Moderne,
1904),
ses
(Paris:
matres,
thtique,
123.
163.Garb, "Renoirand theNatural Woman (as in n. 42), 3-15.
164.House, Renoir(as in n. 150), 17.
165. Ibid., 18 n. 76.
166.De Wyzewa quoted in JohnHouse, "Renoirand theearthlyparadise", i neuxjora
ArtJournal
8, no. 2 (1985):23. Here,again,we findthefusionofclassicalwithChristian themes,in thiscombinationof the classical body witha Christianinnerlife,
one of thecardinalChristianvirtues.
and especiallycharity,
-
. . ^_
mm
poti
Leoussi
431
selfwould sometimescall his laternudes "nymphs",whichfurtherindicates

theirSouthern,classical status.167
The changein Renoir'sartfromthe1880sonwardswas notonlythematic,
a turnaway fromimages ofmodernurbanlifetowardsmoreclassical themes,
but also stylistic.The stylisticchange was itselfclassical, in both its artistic
prototypes(the art of Renaissance Italy and antique sculpture) and in its
searchforwhat Renoirdescribedas the "grandeurand simplicityof the ancients",that "noble simplicityand calm grandeur" of which Winckelmann
The differencefrom Winckelmann's ideal was that
had also written.168
Renoir's grandeur was massive. Renoir's search forclarityand solidityin
structureand formwas a reactionagainst Impressionisttechnique.As he famouslywroteto Vollard,in relationto thisartistic"crisis","J'taisalljusqu'au
bout de V 'impressionnisme'etj'arrivais cetteconstatationqueje ne savais ni pein-
dre,ni dessiner"["I had reached the end of Impressionismand had reached

the conclusion thatI could neitherpaint nor draw"]. Accordingto Vollard,
this"crisis"tookplace around 1883.However,Vollard'sdates are not always
His Baigneusesof1887embodyRenoir'smostextremeand rigorous
reliable.169
to
attempt introduceinto his art,instead of the qualities of the avant-garde,
thoseoftheartdesmuses.As House has remarked,withitssharpfrontallighting, its matt,fresco-likecolouringcontainingas littleoil as possible, forms
outlinedclearlyand meticulously,and modelled internallywith nuances of
colour (not chiaroscuro),numerous preparatorydrawings and watercolour
studies,and a carefularrangementoftheelementsofthescene,theBaigneuses
combine the two greatartistictraditionsof representingformin paint: "by
These attributeswhich epitomiseRenoir's
formand tone,and by colour".170
never
entirelyanti-Impressionistorientations
although
post-Impressionist,
fromthe1880sonwards,earned theBaigneusesand workssimilarto themthe
of "Ingresque" and "Raphaelesque". They linkedhim to the
characterisation
artistsof themuseums- to tradition.
Like Czanne, Renoirmaintainedhis Impressionistinterestin lightand
colour. But, unlike Czanne, and despite the influenceof Cezanne's "constructivestroke"on his own brushwork,Renoir still retainedmuch of the
looser, sketchier,Impressionisttouch in his landscapes and the landscape
As House has observed,by combiningworkin
backgroundsofhis figures.171
thestudio and in theopen-air,Renoirre-createdclassical themes"fromdirect
This naturalistclassicismbroughthim close to the Naturists,
experience".172
has discovered,
discussed above (p. 412-15),who, as Athanassoglou-Kallmyer
an
and
with
Czanne
Monet, honorarymemberof
made him in 1900,along
167.House, Renoir(as in n. 150),250. Renoirwas not alone in "seeing" nymphsin the

FrenchSouth; manyotherFrenchartistsofhis timehad thesame visions and expectations.On this,see House, "The Magical Light" (as in n. 55), 25.
168.House, Renoir(as in n. 150),232, quotingKenoir.
'
169.For Renoir'saccountofhis "crisis to Vollard,see A. Vollard,tn coutantCzanne,
Degas etRenoir(Paris:B. Grasset,1938),213-8.See also House, Renoir(as in n. 150),
241.
170. House, Renoir(as in n. 150),242.
171. See forexample,ibid.,entriesforcat. nos. 75, 246 and 77, 247.
172.Ibid.,240.
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The innovativeway in
the board of theirCollge d'esthtique moderne.173
which Renoirreturnedto the classical tradition,adapting Impressionismto
his classicalyearnings,was also recognisedbyJuliusMeier-Graefewho wrote
the firstmonographthatwas published on the artist.Analysingin 1912 the
of 1885,Meier-Graefepraised RenoirforrepresentBaigneuse(or La Coiffure)
the
and
linkbetweenwoman and water(fluids),notin
natural
ing
primordial
thetraditionalmannerof imitatingclassical formalprototypesof a symbolic
and detached fromhernaturalplace
Venus,modelled in thestudio,artificial,
of birth,but,more crediblyto modernideas, by paintinga real woman born
fromthewaves:
Cette Vnus Anadyomnen'emprunteses charmes aucune sculptureantique. Elle prouve son origined'une manireplus croyable nos ides modernes.Elle est vraimentla femmene de Vcume.
And she is brilliantlycoloured not by studio light,but by the atmosphere

which surroundsher - "Renoirfaitsortirson mailbrillantdu charmecolorde
}7AThis integrationthroughcolour of figuresinto theirnatural
l'atmosphre"
was forRenoirhis specificcontribution
to theclassicaltradition:
surroundings,
"I'm tryingto fusethelandscape withmyfigures,"he declared in 1918,"the
old mastersneverattemptedthis".175
Renoir's combinationofclassicismwithImpressionistnaturalismis also
observablein his laterProvenallandscapes. In theselandscapes,too,thesimilaritywith and influenceof Czanne are clear. First,where Czanne did
Poussin over again fromnature,Renoircame closer to Claude, both artists
drawingon therichand long traditionof Frenchclassicism.Second, thecrucial periodofthe1880s,when Impressionismwas transformed,
was forRenoir
a period ofpersonalexplorationoftheMediterraneanlandscape and studyof
Italian Renaissance art,as well as of landscape paintingwithCzanne.176Indeed, during thisperiod he spent timewith Czanne on a numberof occasions: in 1882,when he stayed at L'Estaque, and in 1883 during a tripwith
Monet along theMediterraneancoast. In 1888 RenoirstayedwithCzanne at
Aix-en-Provence.He is also likelyto have spent timeat Aix eitherin 1886 or
1889.177During his visits to Aix he painted subjects which Czanne also
painted,most notablythe mountainof Sainte-Victoire,and used Cezanne's
parallel strokes(fig. 7).178However, Renoir never fullyadopted Cezanne's
brushwork.Sensitiveto both the regularitiesand irregularities
of nature,he
combinedin his artthecontingent
withthepermanentand even contemplated
. This would be an associationof
founding,in 1884,a "socitdesirrgularistes"
"tous les artistes,peintres,dcorateurs,architectes,orfvres,
brodeurs,etc,ayant l'irBut
this
never
materialised.179
rgularitpour esthtique".
project
Czanneand Provence(as in n. 72), 221.
174.JuliusMeier-Graefe,AugusteRenoir:Versionfranaisede A. S. Maillet (Paris: H.
Floury,1912),114 = AugusteRenoir(Mnchen:R. Piper & Co., 1911),118.
175.House, Renoir(as in n. 150),278, quotingRenoir.
176.Ibid.,233.
177.Ibid.,301-304.
178.Ibid.,entryforcat. no. 82, 254.
179.See Venturi,Les Archivesde l'impressionisme,
vol. 1 (as in n. 157), 127-8.
Leoussi
433
c.1888-9
Fig. 7. Pierre-AugusteRenoir,MontagneSainte-Victoire,
Renoir'sconnectionwiththeMediterraneanSouthofFrance,his personal
linkswith membersof the Provenal culturalrevival,both artistsand writers, and his own ideas about the South deserve closer inspection. Unlike
Czanne, whose love of Provenceand supportof Provenalregionalismhad
deep familyroots- therootsof thenative- Renoirdeveloped an attachment
to theSouth thatwas associated with ideas of a much wider scope concerning Frenchnationalidentity.These ideas convergedwithProvenalregionalism revivingProvenalclassical cultureas a national culture.As House has
observed,Renoir's travelsto the MediterraneanSouth of France from1882
onwardsand his finalre-locationin Cagnes,in 1908,togetherwiththechanges
in his arttowards"theClassicismoftheMediterranean",were associatedwith
These
mainstreamFrenchideas about "the revival of Provenal culture".180
ideas were part of the "collectiveculturalconsciousness of late nineteenthcenturyFrance",which insisted"thatFranceitselfembodied a livingpartof
classical antiquity".181
Robert Herbert,too, has seen in Renoir's move to
where
he
Cagnes,
boughtan estate,Les Collettes,and had a house built,"no
the
act
of an aging artist"but his participationin "new attention
longerjust
181.House, "That Magical Light:Impressionistsand Post-Impressionists
on the Riviera" (as in n. 55), 25.
434
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oftheClassical
It was
to theMediterraneanas theresortofFrance'sGreco-Romanorigins".182
this "potent myth,"as House has described it, which pulled to the South,
notonly
along withmasses ofFrenchmen and women seekingregeneration,
and
other
non-native
artists
of
Seurat
but
also
Matisse,Signac,
Renoir,
many
who revivedand renewed theimage of the "golden age".183
theavant-garde
RenoirhimselfrecognisedGreece and Italyin theSouth. In 1894,during
his stayat Saint-Chamas"forhealthreasons",in a letterto BertheMorisot,he
describedtheregionas "themostbeautifulplace in theworld; a combination
Renoirsaw theSouth
ofItaly,Greeceand Les Batignolles,withthesea too".184
as the earthlyparadise, a place of happiness: "In thismarvellouscountry,it
cannotbefallone; one is cossetedby theatmosphere".185
seems as ifmisfortune
he
befriendedthe Provenalpoet JoachimGasquet who
And, like Czanne,
also saw Greece,as well as Rome,in Provence.It was to Gasquet thatRenoir
famouslycommented:
What admirable beings the Greeks were. Their existence was so
happy thattheyimaginedthattheGods came down to earthto find
theirparadise and to make love. Yes, the earthwas the paradise of
theGods .... This is what I want to paint.
Consistentlywithhis ideas, Renoirpainted not only the Mediterraneanparadise in his landscapes of the South, but also the gods descended on this
earthlyparadise, in the mythologicalsubjectsthathe painted afterhis move
to Cagnes. Believing,as he wrotein 1910,in his prefaceto thenew FrenchedithatFrancewas the
tionofCenninoCennini'smedievaltreatise,Librodell'arte,
- "La France,fillede la Grce"- and that the origins of
of
Greece
daughter
Frenchartwere in Greece via Italy- "L'artfranaisnousvientdes Grecsen passantpar l'Italie"- he also came close to the Greek artistsof antiquitywhose
glorious works were inspiredby what he called their"religionmagique",by
theirsuperbgods. RenoirhimselfpraisedGreekartists'engagementwiththeir
religion,forit was thanksto theirworks thatGreece,despite its defeatand
mutilation,remained"une belletoile":
Leur religionpleine d'images merveilleusesa appel l'art. Ils ont cr
Jupitercettefiguremajestueuse.Ils ont cr l'amour ....
Theirreligionfullof marvellousimages called upon art.They (the

artists)created Jupiter,this majestic figure.They created love ....
(meaningVenus)186
Renoir'smythologicalsubjects,setin real and Southernnaturalsurroundings,

also echo the artisticideas of the Naturists,discussed above. One last connectionmay be establishedbetween Renoir,his art,and the various cultural
182.Herbert,Nature'sWorkshop
(as in n. 57), 81.
iera" (as in n. 55), 25; Herbert,Nature'sWorkshop
(as in n. 57), 81.
185.Ibid., 268.
(as
iera" (as in n. 55), 25,quotingRenoir.And Renoirin Herbert,Nature'sWorkshop
in n. 57), 246, 245,246.
435
Leoussi
Fig. 8. Pierre-AugusteRenoir,Les Baigneuses,1918-19
movementsof the late nineteenthand early twentiethcenturies,centredon

Provence,bothregionaland national:ApartfromCzanne and his friendships
withde Wyzewa and Gasquet,Renoirmay also be linkedto thesemovements
throughthe decorativecover thathe made forPaul Gallimardfora copy of
FrdricMistral'sMirrio.187
b) The FertileBatherand theMotherhoodof Venus
In Renoir's art we also findthe otherpost-Franco-Prussian-war
principleof
Frenchfemalelife- motherhood.Under theThirdRepublic therewas an explosion of images representingthe joys of motherhood.Accordingto Garb,
therole of themother"was increasinglyidealised in visual representations"
whichclaimed the religiousrelationshipbetween motherand child,and the
Afterthe First
image of the breast-feedingmotherbecamevery popular.188
WorldWar,maternity
was again to engage theartistsof thenew avant-garde
in bothFranceand Italy,thoseartistswho createdyetanotherclassicalrevival,
largely inspired by later classicising Impressionist art, and especially
Czanne.189
Renoirpainted thesubjectof motherhoodin Maternitof 1886:190
his own
In reallifetoo he contributedto thenew nationalcultureby fathering
children.In Maternithe painted his mistress,Aline Charigot,whom he was
to marryin 1890,nursingtheirfirstson, Pierre,in a rural,naturalsetting.
In fact,the femalenudes of Renoir's classical period,withtheirfirmand
ample bodies, theirfullbreastsand bellies, theirround hips, affirmthe conditions and principle of motherhood.They culminate in Les Baigneusesof
These earthbound,hugelyinc.1918-19,his finalpictorialstatement(fig.8).191
187.House, Renoir(as in n. 150), 18 n. 76.
188.Garb,"Renoirand the Natural Woman" (as in n. 42), 11.
189.Cowling and Mundy (eds.), On ClassicGround(as in n. 61), 11-12.
190.House, Renoir(as in n. 150),entryforcat. no. 79, 248.
191.Garb,BodiesofModernity
(as in n. 21),177.
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de Paris,c.1908
Fig. 9. Pierre-Auguste Renoir,Jugement
flatedand warmly-colouredfiguresepitomiseRenoir's personal interpretais clearlysugtionof theFrenchcult of motherhood.Theircontemporaneity

the
sun-hat
in
the
modern
gestedby
foreground.
Renoir'slate mythologicalsubjectscentredon theVenusmayalso be connectedwithmotherhood,and withhis view ofwomen as embodimentsofjoy,
beauty and love, a view forwhich he found confirmationin Greek culture
But Greek religion
which,like Neo-Catholicism,made woman a religion.192
had no Piets,no sorrow.As Herberthas observed,after1900,"exceptforportraitsof familyand friends,Renoir's artincreasinglytook on overtonesof an
ancientworld of classical inspiration".193
To thismood belong workslike the
in
with the addition of a small
de
Paris
1908
1913-14
of
Jugement
(repeated
of1914,
Greektemplein thedistance)and thebronzestatueof VenusVictorious
one of severalbased on theJugement
de Paris(fig.9).194
The importanceof the subject-matterin the jugementde Paris must be
stressed.The idea of choice which it implies may be understood as an expression and propagation in French minds of the type of woman whom
(as in n. 57), 51.
193.Ibid.,80.
194.Ibid.
Leoussi
437
Frenchmenliked,or should like.This was theVenusNaturalis,the"natural",

generatingwoman, whom Renoir,along with many of his contemporaries,
intellectualand politicalwoman.195
Indeed,
preferredto themodernfeminist,
deParis,Venus,Junoand Minerva,maybe
thethreegoddesses in theJugement
takento representthethreeconceptionsofwomanhood whichbecame available infin-de-sicle
Europe:thenaturalwoman,thepoliticalwoman and theintellectualwoman. Nevertheless,all threegoddesses have the same bodily
type.This type,pink and copper-redfromthe Mediterraneansun, is strong
and healthyand, as Marcia Pointonhas remarked,"possesses theplenitudeof
fromthemuchfleshierand flabby
This typeis different
thematernalform".196
which seems to be theprimary
typethatRubens chose forhis own Judgment
Renoir's
Renoir's.197
of
typeaffirmsthatthe perfect,diiconographiesource
The
cultural
firm
is
and
vine,body
recognitionthatan expanded festrong.
male bodily formis an anatomicalconditionassociated withpregnancyand
wentback throughRaphael's MediterraneanVirginMarysand Grecofertility
withtheirexaggerRoman sculptureto thoseprehistoricfigurinesoffertility
ated breasts and belly.198
Indeed, Venus Victorious,although based on the
painting,is also inspiredby antique Venuses,possibly fromthe Louvre,but
certainlynotthe VenusdeMilo. UnlikeDelacroix,Czanne, Maillol, and other
Frenchartists,Renoir disliked the Venusde Milo, seeing her as a "big genIt is importantto note here thatRenoir,like Maillol, saw the andarme".199
of Venus as chaste,not sexuallypromiscuous.In 1910,again in
statues
tique
his prefaceto Cennini's Librodell'arte,Renoirwrote:
Quoi de flus chastequ'une Vnus antique,qu'une oeuvrede Raphal ou de
Titien?
Whatis morechastethanan antique Venus,thana workby Raphael

or Titian?200
This view can be associated withRenoir's religiousbeliefs.
As Herberthas observed,Renoirwas criticalof Catholicismin theearly
In 1882-3,"his god was nominally
in laterlife.201
1880s,his beliefintensifying
was
of
his
but
Christian"
"decidedly pantheisticand ecconception religion
Catholicchurchhad become
the
and
1910
umenical".202
especially
religion
By
Frenchideals of womanhood, see
195.For a fullerdiscussion of nineteenth-century
on the RivHouse, "That Magical Light:Impressionistsand Post-Impressionists
iera" and Renoir(as in n. 55 and n. 150), and Garb, "Renoir and the Natural
Woman" (as in n. 42).
The Bodyin WesternPainting,1830-1908(Cam196.Marcia Pointon,NakedAuthority:
1990),92.
Press,
bridge:CambridgeUniversity
197.House (as in n. 150) 276.
198.Clark,TheNude(as in n. 61), 64. See fora deeper religiousperspectiveon thosefig"AntikeMadonnenreligion",in AufstiegundNiedergang
urinesEthelbertStauffer,
Welt(as above, n. 133),vol. II. 17.4, ed. WolfgangHaase (1984),1425derRmischen
1499.
(as in n. 57), 80-1.
200.Renoirin Herbert,Nature'sWorkshop
(as in n. 57), 242 fortheFrenchoriginal.
201.Ibid.,20-21.
202.Ibid.,54.
438
International
December
2009
/September/
Journal
more importantin his thought.203

But he did not become a Catholic fanatic,
his Catholicism remainingtemperedby his love of Greek humanism and
Greekreligionwhichwas, as Herbertobserves,"at theheart"ofhis religious
As we saw, Greek humanism and Greek religion,which for
conception.204
Renoirwas "la religionde la joie,de la beautet de l'amour"["a religionof joy,
Renoir's
beauty and love"], were also at the heartof his artisticpractice.205
idea of combiningand, indeed, reconcilingChristianitywithHellenism was
not unusual duringthe second halfof the nineteenthcentury.It has already
been addressed in its visual expressionin relationto Czanne (see sectionc.)
"Classicism and Catholicism" [above, pp. 421-23]).We also findit in Pierre
Puvis de Chavannes' 1884-86decorativecyclefortheLyonsMuse des BeauxArts.Here, as Jennifer
L. Shaw has demonstrated,AncientVision and ChristianInspiration
are presentednot just as the two main strandsof the French
but as complepatrimony,an officialview since 1837,nor as contradictory,
This
to
reconcile
and
combine
withtheChristhe
classical
mentary.206 impulse
tian traditionswhich theItalian Renaissance had firstattempted,can also be
found,passionatelydefended,among intellectualsacross Europe. For example,itis presentin HeinrichHeine's essays,MatthewArnold's "Hebraismand
Hellenism"in CultureandAnarchy
(1869),and WalterPater's Studiesin theHistoryof theRenaissance (1873).
Renoir'sdesirein laterlifefora divinepower and fora synthesis

is clearly
in
in
the
to
Cennini's
Libro
dell'arte
1910,
above,
(see
expressed
preface
p. 434).
Therehe congratulatestheCatholicChurchforreintroducing
theinvigorating
humanismofGreeceintoartwhichresultedin theItalianRenaissanceand in
France's threecenturiesof greatart.207
And it is thissame desirefora synthesis thatmay explain how Renoir's Venuses became the carriersof the two
ideals which were so mysticallyand inextricablyassociated with the Virgin
Mary,virginityand motherhood;ideals which were also thebattle-cryof the
neo-Catholicmovement.
Renoir's adoption of classical subjectsand artisticprinciplesfrom1881
in the South of France in
onwards, togetherwith his eventual enracinement
1908, when he made his home there,transformedhim into a specifically
Southern artist.And by becoming "Southern",Renoir became essentially
French.This "Southern"quality of Renoir's art was recognisedby German
artistslike ErnstLudwig Kirchner.Writingin 1925,Kirchnersaw Renoir's art
as typicalof theFrench,"Romanesque" artistictradition:
How fundamentally
different
are theGermanicand Romanesqueapproaches to artisticcreation.The Romanesque artisttakes his form
fromtheobject,fromitsformin nature.The Teutoncreateshis from
imagination,fromhis innervision,and theformof visiblenatureis
forhim a symbol.The model or young girlwill always be recognis203.Ibid., 55.
204.Ibid.
205.Ibid.,241 fortheoriginalFrenchand 51 forHerbert'sEnglishtranslation.Thispassage is fromRenoir's "Long DraftfortheCenniniPreface"thathe wrotein 1910,
and is reproducedbv Herbert.
206.Shaw, DreamStates(as in n. 25), 69, 95; see also above, n. 9.
207.See Herbert,Nature'sWorskshop
(as in n. 57), 51.
Leoussi
439
Hans
able in a Madonna by Renoir.But his Germancontemporary,
von Mares, will produce a goddess froma tart.For the Southern
artist,beautylies in appearances,but theTeutonseeks out what lies
beneath.208
Renoir'sFrenchnessand his attachmentto Francewere also recognisedby his
Frenchcontemporaries.Thus,accordingto Camille Mauclair,writingin 1903,
M. Renoirest un peintrede la joie, un assembleurde bouquets... et
les plusfranaisque l'artnationalait
l'un des tempraments
revenons-y,
trente
ou
constats
quaranteannes.
depuis
M. Renoiris a painterofjoy who puts togetherbouquets of flowers
... and let us say it again, he has one of the most Frenchtemperamentsto be observed in nationalartforthirtyor fortyyears.
For Mauclair, Renoir,in both his bad and good qualities, such as his lightheartedness("lger"),his tendencyto get carriedaway,but also his profound
scrupulousness,and greatsense of colour,Renoiris Frenchand the
sincerity,
race speaks throughhim - "II estFranais... La raceparleen lui". Anotherart
critic,thecelebratednovelist,Octave Mirbeau,in his prefaceto thecatalogue
of an exhibitionof Renoir's work in Paris, ExpositionRenoir,in 1913,characterisedRenoir's careeras a patrioticmission.209
Conclusion
The essay has soughtto show how theancientGreekcultofthebody became
the focus of a classical revival in France duringthe last quarterof the nineteenthcentury.It has argued,
firstly,
thatthebody of theancientGreeks,and especiallythoseof thesocalled "golden age" ofGreece,the5thc BC, whichPheidian sculpturewas
supposed to have recorded,was claimed by the Frenchas the authentic
Frenchbody throughgenealogical descent;
secondly,thattheFrenchtriedto revivetheancientGreekbody and with
it the "golden age" of reason,order,strengthand power whichhad created it,throughphysicalexerciseand naturallifein the Mediterranean
sea and sunshine;
thirdly,
thatthisreturnto thepresumedauthenticFrenchselfwas stimulated by thedesirephysicallyto regeneratethenation,under conditions
of militarydefeat;
fourthly,
ethno-classicalrevivalbecame associated
thatthisbody-centred,
witha Catholicrevivalwhich re-affirmed
chastityand motherhoodand
celebratedanotherFrench"golden age", thatof theGothiccathedrals,an
age ofmoralvirtue.Body-centredclassicismand Mediaeval Catholicism
as Germanartist"inJillLloydand Magdalena
208.MagdalenaM. Moeller,"Kirchner
andBerlinYears,exh.cat.,
TheDresden
M. Moeller(eds.),ErnstLudwigKirchner:
London
of
(London:RoyalAcademyofArts,2003),25.
RoyalAcademy Arts,
209.Mauclair,L'Impressionnisme
(as in n. 162),126and 143;and Mirbeauquotedin
Museumof
exh.cat.,Philadelphia
TheGreatBathers,
Riopelle,Renoir:
Christopher
of
Museum
The
PA:
1990),5.
PA
Art,
Art,Philadelphia, (Philadelpia,
Philadelphia
440
2009
December
Tradition
International
/September/
Journal
oftheClassical
toeachother.
inharmony
as morally
andcomplementary
werepresented
as
modern
to
were
France,physically
Together,
they
expected regenerate
wellas morally;
and fifthly,
thattheideals of thetwo "national"traditions
permeated
evenin theartofsomeofthemostreFrenchartand foundexpression
of Frenchartists,the Impressionists,
bellious and forward-looking
fromthe1880stotheendoftheir
Czanneand Renoir.In theirpaintings
thenew Frenchideal:Franceregenlives,thetwoartistsdemonstrated
homeland
totheMediterranean
andmorally,
erated,physically
byreturn
and way oflife.Theydepicteda new French"goldenage" whichcombinedphysicalvigourwithmoralvirtue.In so doingtheycontributed,
to theanwho also returned
alongwithotherartistsoftheavant-garde
and
in
France
revival
to
a
classical
new
and
the
classical
tradition,
tique
withculturaltradition.
ofmodernity
tothereconciliation
ethno-clasinthebody-centred,
BothCzanneandRenoirenlistedthemselves
and on a longand vitaltradisicistcause,bydrawingon classicalprinciples
tionofartisticclassicism,bothFrenchand morebroadlyEuropean. Their
classicismconsisted
firstly,
ofthenude as theircoresubject,and espeoftherepresentation
of
and
the
healthy strongbody,whichwas foundtobe thearchecially
typalsubjectofancientGreekand Romanart.ButwhileRenoir'snudes
and symbolicreferences,
are sometimesinvestedwithmythological
Cezanne's nudes remainactual,albeit generalised,livingmen and
sea ofProvence;
women,bathingintheriversand theMediterranean
secondly,
from
theantiqueand its
oftheiruse offigurai
taken
prototypes
latertradition;
thirdly,
as thenatuofmorestructured
landscapeswhichtheypresented
ralhomeoftheirhealthyand strongclassicalfigures;
and,
fourthly,
ofa moredisciplined
and constructive
handlingofpaint.
Theseclassicalsubjects,modelsand compositional
and technical
principles
naturalismand
theycombined,each in his own way,withImpressionist
colourism.
withclassicalprinciplesand motifs
By combining
Impressionist
theycreatedimagesofthestrongandhealthy
bodythatpulsatedwithcolour
and a dynamicuse of paint.In so doing,theyrevitalised,
extendedand
modernised
French
classical
tradition.
At
the
same
time,bymaking
thereby
theancientworldpartofthemodernworld,theystrovetocreatea moreorderly,vigorousand stablevisionof modernFrance.Ultimately,
theysucceededinproducing
someofthemostenduring
iconsoftheSouthern
physical
idealwhichmarkedFranceat theturnofthecentury.
Bothartistssynthesised,
each in his own way,the classicalwiththe
Catholicsensibilities
oftheirera.Throughtheirworkstheyshowedthatthere
was no incompatibility
betweenancientGreekand Christianviewsofthe
world.Cezanne'smaleandfemalenudesbatheinwatersofphysicalandspiritualregeneration
andtheirhomeis an orderly
andGod-created
where
nature,
Greekgeometry
and Gothicarchitecture
cometogether.
Renoir's
contrast,
By
thesechaste,comelyand fertile
bathers,
younggirls,arebothVenusand Virwoman,theyarealsohealthy,
ginMary.And,likeVenus,theSouthern
fleshy,
tannedbythewarmMediterranean
sun,happy,and loving.Bythuscombin-
Leoussi
441
ing,albeitinverypersonalways,themesfromtheclassicalandCatholicrepertoires,thetwoartistsproduceda new FrenchRenaissanceas itwere,a new

ofmind,bodyand heart.
reconciliation
ofclassicismto whichCzanneand Renoircontributed
The current
so
modern
as
both
and
that
if
was
so
French,
pre-eminently
creatively
powerful,
this
suchas Picasso,a Spaniard,wishedtobecomea Frenchartist,
a foreigner,
artisthad tobecomeclassical.Thismeantthathe orshehad todraw,innovaInon thisor thatmotiffromtheantiqueand its"classical"tradition.
tively,
Greenhas describedPicasso'sartas "sometimes
serious,
deed,Christopher
Picasso'sclastobelongas a Frenchclassicist".
moreoftenironicapplications
CubismandapartfromrefhisCzanne-inspired
sicismconsisted,
apartfrom
- includingPoussin- and toGreekart,of
erencestoearlierFrenchclassicists
ofthethemeofthebatheras wellas otherclassicalthemes.Examtreatment
attheSpring
Women
of1918and Three
IngresqueBathers
plesincludehisrather
the
Parthenon
and
of1921inspired
ThroughPisculptures.210
byJeanGoujon
of classicismachievedby Czanne and
theresurrection
casso's influence,
as a legitimate
Renoirwas consolidated
pathfortheavant-garde.
Listofillustrations
Roman copy of about 100 BC, of a bronze origi1. Polycletus,Diadoumenos,
nal of about 430 BC, National ArchaeologicalMuseum, Athens,Greece:
1.95 m.
2. Venus de Milo, c.100 BC, Hellenistic marble statue,Muse du Louvre,
Paris,H.: 202 cm.
3. Paul Czanne, Les GrandesBaigneuses,1906, Wilstach Collection, The
PhiladelphiaMuseum ofArt/LicensedbyArtResource,NY,oil on canvas,
210.5 x 250.8 cm.
4. Paul Czanne, MontagneSainte-Victoire,
c.1886-8,The Samuel Courtauld
oil
on
Courtauld
canvas, 66.8 x 92.3 cm (canvas
London,
Trust,
Gallery,
size).
5. Paul Czanne, Le GrandBaigneur,1885,The Museum ofModernArt,New
York/Licensedby ArtResource,NY, oil on canvas, 127x96.8 cm.
210.Christopher
Press,
(New Haven:YaleUniversity
Green,ArtinFrance1900-1940
2000),210.Forthemostcomprehensive
surveytodateofthevitalroleofCezanne's
artinthe
inshapingmuchofEuropeanandAmerican
hisclassicism,
art,including
suchas Matisse,Picasso,Morandi,and othand twenty-first
twentieth
centuries,
andBeyond,
Sachs(eds.),Czanne
ers,see,Joseph
J.RishelandKatherine
Catalogue
at thePhiladelphiaMuseumofArt,February
oftheexhibition
26-May17,2009
Press,
PhiladelphiaMuseumofArt;New Haven:YaleUniversity
(Philadelphia:
withtheold masters
2009).Fora moregeneraldiscussionofPicasso'srelationship
thePast,Publishedto accompanythe
see ElizabethCowling,Picasso:Challenging
to 7 June2009(London:
at theNationalGallery,
exhibition
London,25 February
from
of
tradition
andreception
a
line
For
NationalGallery
2009).
special
Company,
reits19thcentury
ancientGreekand Romansculpture
'archaeological'
through
to Picassosee SeymourHoward,"Picasso'sNeoclasceptionand Impressionists
International
ofConsciousness",
AnArchaeology
sicOutlines:
Journal
oftheClassical
560-66.
2 (1995-1996),
Tradition
442
December
2009
International
I September/
Journal
6. Pierre-AugusteRenoir,La Parisienne,1874,National Museum of Wales,

Cardiff,oil on canvas, 163.2x 108.3 cm.
7. Pierre-AugusteRenoir,MontagneSainte-Victoire,
c.1888-9,Yale University
ArtGallery,USA/Licensed by ArtResource,NY, oil on canvas, 53 x 64.1
cm.
8. Pierre-Auguste Renoir,Les Baigneuses,1918-19,Paris,Muse d'Orsay,oil
on canvas, 110 x 160 cm.
de Paris, c.1908, Paris, Muse d'Or9. Pierre-AugusteRenoir,Jugement
say/LicensedbyArtResource,NY, drawingin sanguineand whitechalk,
750x103 cm.

From Civic To Ethnic Classicism The Cult of The Greek Body in Late Nineteenthcentury French

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From Civic to Ethnic Classicism: The Cult of the Greek Body in Late Nineteenthcentury French

Society and Art

sical repertoire:theGreekcultof thestrongand healthybody.It was a return

On theEuropean fascinationwiththeancientGreekand Roman worlds,whichis

varietyof meaningsthatthe criticGaston Sauvebois would refer,in 1911,to

sicism" of the work of AnthonyD. Smithand JohnHutchinsonon modern,

sance, creatednew styleswhich reconciledmodernity(with its striving

12. Leoussi, Nationalismand Classicism(as in n. 2); Michael Banton,Racial Theories

Roman copy of about 100 BQ of a bronze originalof

and the model of human physicalperfection.19

Caroline Arscottand Katie Scott(eds.), Manifestations

However,unlikeelsewherein Euway,la rgionwould contributeto la patrie.25

ofvoluntarygymPrussianwar,but also itsGreekmodels.31The proliferation

The geo-culturalrelocationof Frenchlife and the change in life-style

45. Charles Rochet,Traitd'Anatomied'Anthropologie

Fig. 2. Venus de Milo, c.lOOBC

Rochetwenton to identifytheFrenchwiththeancientGreeksby virtue

47. Ibidv 197,265.

Ethno-classidstnand thereturnofFrenchmodernart to classical art

(1878-1882),exh. cat.,Museum ofArt,Uni49. JoelIsaacson, TheCrisisoflmpresionism

is greatlyenrichedifwe realise its debt to the revivaland re-workingof tradition.

Caroline Arscottand Katie Scott(eds.), Manifestations

Naturalist classicism and therevival of thebody in Cezanne's Bathers

Fig. 3. Paul Czanne, Les GrandesBaigneuses,1906

by his friendshipwiththeyoungJoachimGasquet and his literarycircle,the

Accordingto Gowing,the"passionateinvolvementin natureand theloyto

Athanassoglou-Kallmyerhas traced Cezanne's regionalistsympathiesand

The men of my race are linkedto theirblood.

77. Gasquet,quotedin Athanassoglou-Kallmyer,

Cettedisciplineclassique n'est pas unefantaisieclosedans la cervelled'un

This classical discipline is not a fantasyborn of the brain of some

As Paul Smithhas discovered,in a letterto Gasquet of 25 June1903 Czanne

innateand hereditaryinclinations... are not only physical,but also

Czanneand Provence(as in n. 72),

The classicismwhich the Naturistsadvocated was not the cold, stereotyped

88. EdgarBaes,quotedin Englishtranslation

edly withinyou, to be a beautifulanimal with eyes radiatingwith

According to Reff,the Philadelphia Baigneuses,this much-discussed

106.Reff,"Czanne and Poussin" (as in n. 74), 171-73.

Moreover,its connectionwith ancient Greek thought,"[L]es anciens",was

cylindre,la sphre,le cne,le toutmis en perspective,soit que chaque ctd'un objet,

This need forreflection,

I believe in the logical developmentof what we see and feelwhen

114.Czanne Quotedin Reff."Czanne and Poussin" ias in n. 74V 1.52

1885-90,constitute "by general agreementthe most austere and classical

deed, Poussin himselfhad found his most importantsources of inspiration

c.) Classicism and Catholicism

They finallyenteredthe forest,religiously,with a twingeof sacred

thesteepleofan actualchurch,whichwe findin thecentreofthe

in his FourthEclogue. In Virgil'sstory,which the Christianfathersand the

Fig. 5. Paul Czanne, Le GrandBaigneur,1885

en vritablesartistes,exeraientle corpspour lui donnernon seulementla

likerealartists,exerdsed thebody in orderto give itnotonlyvigour,

M. Czanne is,in his works,a Greekofthegreatperiod;his canvases

Hl.Taine quoted in Duval and Cuyer (eds.) , Histoirede l'AnatomiePlastique(as in n.

antiquity,and the ignorantwho laugh at the Bathers,forexample,

his artdid notescape, as TamarGarb has claimed,but rathercame to embrace

theFranco-PrussianWar,as notedabove (pp. 404-05),and exemplifiedin theideas

which House has describedas "a rsumof themostimportantthemeof his

Justas in Athens,thewomen are notat all afraidof theproximityof

154.House, Renoir(as in n. 150),288.

Fig. 6. Pierre-Auguste Renoir,La Parisienne,1874

160.Garb, "Renoirand theNatural Woman" (as in n. 42), 7-8.