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Lot Essay
Jean Béraud was fascinated by all aspects of la vie Parisienne and is recognized as its most devoted observer. At the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, Béraud abandoned his plans to become a lawyer and instead studied portraiture with one of the leading artists of the Third Republic, Léon Bonnat. Béraud began to move away from strict portraiture around 1875 and instead turned to representing modern life in the French capital. The spectacle of public spaces was a popular subject for French artists in the last quarter of the 19th century. Haussmannisation, the urban planning commissioned by Napoleon III and lead by Baron George Eugène Haussmann, introduced a public element to private life through the creation of wide boulevards for transportation and strolling, green spaces and large parks for carriage rides and overall better street conditions which led to improved health. In depicting the mingling of members of different social strata in these newly accessible social settings, Béraud could capture the modernization of Paris through the actions, dress and appearances of its inhabitants.
Although trained as an Academic artist, Béraud embraced the quick brushstrokes favoured by the Impressionists. Béraud was close friends with Édouard Manet and frequented the same cafés as Edgar Degas, Pierre Renoir and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Like them, he concentrated on urban themes in his art, while other Impressionist artists fled Paris and painted landscapes of the surrounding areas. Although his brushwork and choice of subject matter is imbued with the spirit of Impressionism, Béraud combines this with the more classically accepted styles of the day to create works of a unique character.
In order to create his finished paintings, Béraud travelled the boulevards of Paris in a mobile studio, a converted carriage designed especially so that he might observe first-hand the everyday life of the city. Belle Époque journalist Paul Hourie described the pains the artist took: ‘When you paint scenes from everyday life, you have to place them in their context and give them their authentic setting. This means that, in order to be sincere, you have to photograph them on the spot and forget about the conventions of the studio. As a result, Jean Béraud has the strangest life imaginable. He spends all his time in carriages. It is not unusual to see a cab parked at the corner of a street for hours on end, with an artist sitting inside, firing off rapid sketches. That’s Jean Béraud in search of a scene, drawing a small fragment of Paris. Almost all the cab drivers in the city know him. He’s one of their favourite passengers, because he at least doesn’t wear their horses out’ (P. Hourie, ‘Jean Béraud’, L’Estafette, 13 September 1880).
The journalist Henry Bacon wrote about his own experience in Béraud’s studio on wheels: ‘A cab, with the green blind next to the street down, attracted our attention, showing that someone was paying two francs an hour for the privilege of maintaining stationary. Presently up went the curtain and the familiar head of Béraud appeared. At his invitation, we thrust a head into the miniature studio to see his latest picture. His canvas was perched upon the seat in front, his colour-box beside him, and with the curtain down on one side to keep out the reflection and shield himself from the prying eyes of the passers-by, he could at ease paint through the opposite window a view of the avenue as a background to a group of figures’ (H. Bacon, Glimpses of Parisian Art, p. 425).
In 1889, a Danish visitor to Paris remarked that its boulevards were, ‘the great rendezvous where the whole population flocks together to satisfy its great craving for sociability, where people meet with the wish of being together, and associate with the amiable courtesy and easy approach that is a consequence of the consciousness of being mutually entertaining’ (R. Kaufmann, O. Finch, trans., Paris of Today, New York, 1981, p. 173). It is the impression of this busy, modern life that Béraud captures in the present work.
By the late 19th century, the wealthy and fashionable had mostly abandoned the narrow street of the centre of Paris for the open boulevards of the post-Haussmann era. The expansive and orderly streets were flanked by the neat, plastered façades of grand hôtels with interiors that held all the comforts of modern living. Despite the luxuries of home, the social opportunities waiting out-of-doors were too tempting, and the beau monde spent much of their day, especially Sunday afternoons, riding and promenading on the boulevards and avenues, essentially transforming them into plein air receiving rooms. The boulevards of Paris afforded opportunities to see and be seen; on horseback, in an expensive carriage, or strolling in the newest cut of dress or frock coat, a circuit was made from one end of the avenue to the other, often finishing with a picnic at the Bois du Boulogne. Overall, the new shops, cafés, and entertainments of Belle Époque Paris inspired an entirely new culture: life was now lived in public (D.N. Mancoff, Fashion in Impressionist Paris, London, 2012, p. 8).
In The Champs-Élysées, Béraud combines all the elements that made him so popular with audiences in Europe and abroad. He has captured through the lens of his brush a moment on the Champs Élysées. The speed of the horse and carriages on the boulevard is accentuated by a moment of rest as a conversation is held between two elegantly dressed ladies. It is an autumn day; the trees have lost most of their leaves, with just a few still clinging to edges of their branches overhanging the busy street.
These are the images for which Béraud is best remembered, and for which he achieved his reputation as the ‘painter of modern life.’ He discussed his views on his unique kind of art, writing humorously that, ‘You have to vanquish your feelings of artistic modesty so you can work among people who take the most irritating kind of interest in what you are doing. If you cannot overcome your disgust, you will end up locking yourself away in your house, and painting a woman or a still life, like all your colleagues. For some artists, that was all they needed to produce of masterpiece. But I believe that today we need something different (il faut autre chose)’ (J. Béraud, L. 20, Fondàtion Custodia (coll. F. Lugt) Institute néerlandais, Paris, inv. no. 1972-A).
Although trained as an Academic artist, Béraud embraced the quick brushstrokes favoured by the Impressionists. Béraud was close friends with Édouard Manet and frequented the same cafés as Edgar Degas, Pierre Renoir and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Like them, he concentrated on urban themes in his art, while other Impressionist artists fled Paris and painted landscapes of the surrounding areas. Although his brushwork and choice of subject matter is imbued with the spirit of Impressionism, Béraud combines this with the more classically accepted styles of the day to create works of a unique character.
In order to create his finished paintings, Béraud travelled the boulevards of Paris in a mobile studio, a converted carriage designed especially so that he might observe first-hand the everyday life of the city. Belle Époque journalist Paul Hourie described the pains the artist took: ‘When you paint scenes from everyday life, you have to place them in their context and give them their authentic setting. This means that, in order to be sincere, you have to photograph them on the spot and forget about the conventions of the studio. As a result, Jean Béraud has the strangest life imaginable. He spends all his time in carriages. It is not unusual to see a cab parked at the corner of a street for hours on end, with an artist sitting inside, firing off rapid sketches. That’s Jean Béraud in search of a scene, drawing a small fragment of Paris. Almost all the cab drivers in the city know him. He’s one of their favourite passengers, because he at least doesn’t wear their horses out’ (P. Hourie, ‘Jean Béraud’, L’Estafette, 13 September 1880).
The journalist Henry Bacon wrote about his own experience in Béraud’s studio on wheels: ‘A cab, with the green blind next to the street down, attracted our attention, showing that someone was paying two francs an hour for the privilege of maintaining stationary. Presently up went the curtain and the familiar head of Béraud appeared. At his invitation, we thrust a head into the miniature studio to see his latest picture. His canvas was perched upon the seat in front, his colour-box beside him, and with the curtain down on one side to keep out the reflection and shield himself from the prying eyes of the passers-by, he could at ease paint through the opposite window a view of the avenue as a background to a group of figures’ (H. Bacon, Glimpses of Parisian Art, p. 425).
In 1889, a Danish visitor to Paris remarked that its boulevards were, ‘the great rendezvous where the whole population flocks together to satisfy its great craving for sociability, where people meet with the wish of being together, and associate with the amiable courtesy and easy approach that is a consequence of the consciousness of being mutually entertaining’ (R. Kaufmann, O. Finch, trans., Paris of Today, New York, 1981, p. 173). It is the impression of this busy, modern life that Béraud captures in the present work.
By the late 19th century, the wealthy and fashionable had mostly abandoned the narrow street of the centre of Paris for the open boulevards of the post-Haussmann era. The expansive and orderly streets were flanked by the neat, plastered façades of grand hôtels with interiors that held all the comforts of modern living. Despite the luxuries of home, the social opportunities waiting out-of-doors were too tempting, and the beau monde spent much of their day, especially Sunday afternoons, riding and promenading on the boulevards and avenues, essentially transforming them into plein air receiving rooms. The boulevards of Paris afforded opportunities to see and be seen; on horseback, in an expensive carriage, or strolling in the newest cut of dress or frock coat, a circuit was made from one end of the avenue to the other, often finishing with a picnic at the Bois du Boulogne. Overall, the new shops, cafés, and entertainments of Belle Époque Paris inspired an entirely new culture: life was now lived in public (D.N. Mancoff, Fashion in Impressionist Paris, London, 2012, p. 8).
In The Champs-Élysées, Béraud combines all the elements that made him so popular with audiences in Europe and abroad. He has captured through the lens of his brush a moment on the Champs Élysées. The speed of the horse and carriages on the boulevard is accentuated by a moment of rest as a conversation is held between two elegantly dressed ladies. It is an autumn day; the trees have lost most of their leaves, with just a few still clinging to edges of their branches overhanging the busy street.
These are the images for which Béraud is best remembered, and for which he achieved his reputation as the ‘painter of modern life.’ He discussed his views on his unique kind of art, writing humorously that, ‘You have to vanquish your feelings of artistic modesty so you can work among people who take the most irritating kind of interest in what you are doing. If you cannot overcome your disgust, you will end up locking yourself away in your house, and painting a woman or a still life, like all your colleagues. For some artists, that was all they needed to produce of masterpiece. But I believe that today we need something different (il faut autre chose)’ (J. Béraud, L. 20, Fondàtion Custodia (coll. F. Lugt) Institute néerlandais, Paris, inv. no. 1972-A).