French Art

It is surprising to realize that this is the first major exhibition of French seventeenth-century art ever to be presented by American museums. Although French art of every other period has enjoyed enormous popularity in America , the period of Louis XIV has not been looked on with favor. Our belief in the infallibility and perfection of democratic institutions could not fail to create suspicion of a period symbolized by the court of Versailles and ruled by a Grand Monarch reputed to have said "L'etat c'est moi." This apparent arrogance, and the fact that Americans have traditionally tended to see history through English eyes, gave rise to a derogatory legend about French civilization of that period. This legend, however, like most of its kind, is misleading and has resulted in our disregarding some of the finest creations of the human spirit.

The Romanesque style, with its honest solidity, and its applied ornament, is the first definite form of French art. Fragments are all that remain to us of an earlier period, and even so, the Roman ruins in France are monuments of an alien civilisation. The Latin basilicas have survived only as memories. The Romanesque churches have endured; they are still in use, and continue to serve the purpose for which they were created. It was in the southern provinces above all that they multiplied. They are very much less numerous in the north of France , either because this style made way for its successor, Gothic, or because it flourished more luxuriantly in the regions where the antique culture had penetrated most deeply.

La Tour lived in a provincial town, which, unlike the capital, maintained a more continuous tradition of painting, less subject to sudden enthusiasms for new styles. It was in such provincial centers that realism, one of the most constant aspects of French art, continued uninterruptedly from the Middle Ages. Although it showed slight differences from century to century it was remarkably consistent and had a strikingly national character. It was modest and simple, without pretense or desire to impress. The mood was usually serious and restrained. Whatever the subject, there was always a homely, human quality, never comical, coarse, or sentimental, as so frequently was the case in other schools.

"Classicism" is the word most commonly associated with French art of the seventeenth century. Its meaning is somewhat confusing because it is used in reference to the work of artists of all kinds: painters, writers, architects, sculptors, and musicians. Sometimes it marks a stage in the development of a style, and sometimes it is used to indicate that inspiration is taken from Greek and Roman antiquity. For some considerable time past, sculptors and painters had been no longer exclusively at the service of their religion. They were attracted by living forms, they were less absorbed in the Christian drama, and more intent on the beauty of human expression. The artists of Italy, and more especially those of Florence, had preceded them on this path; they were at the root of that classicism which was about to revivify French art.