1869-1870
Huile sur toile
98 x 128,5 cm - 38 9/16 x 50 9/16 in.
Signé en haut à droite : F. Bazille 1870
Paris, Musée d'Orsay, France - Inv. RF 2449
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-03-13 15:22:30
Référence : MSb-58
Marc Bazille, frère de l'artiste - Legs aux musées nationaux, 1924 - Don d’André et Frédéric Bazille, neveux de l’artiste, au musée du Luxembourg en 1925 - Musée du Louvre, 1931 - Musée du Louvre-Galerie du Jeu de Paume, 1947 - Paris, musée d’Orsay, 1986.
Paris, Grand Palais, 1910, Rétrospective Bazille, n° 21 - Paris, Palais du Louvre, Pavillon de Marsan, 1922, Le décor de la vie sous le Second Empire, n° 18 - Montpellier, Exposition internationale, 1927, n° 27 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1941, n° 35 (repr.) - Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1952-1953, Zola (Hors catalogue) - Londres, Tate Gallery, 1954, Les Impressionnistes du musée du Louvre - Londres, The Arts Council of Great-Britain, 1954, Manet and his Circle, n° 52, repr. pl. X - Detroit Institute of Arts, 1954, De Cézanne à nos jours - New York, 1955, Jubilée du musée d’Art moderne - New York, Museum of Modem Art, 1954-1955, 15 Paintings by French Masters of the Nineteenth Century, p. 15 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1959, n° 29 - Tokyo, Kyoto, 1961, Exposition d'Art français, 1840-1940, n° 59 - Madrid, musée Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1971, Les impressionnistes français, n° 26 - Paris, galerie Durand-Ruel, 1974, Hommage à Paul Durand-Ruel, 100 ans d’impressionnisme, n° 35 - Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978, The Artist and the Studio in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, n° 7 (repr.) et p. 19 - Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 51, repr. p. 106 - Paris, Grand Palais, 1994, Impressionnisme. Les origines 1859-1874, n° 12, pp. 335-336, repr. pl. 355 - New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994-1995, Impressionism. The Origins [La même exposition. Les références sont du catalaogue en français] - Taïpei, musée national d'histoire, 1997, L'âge d'or de l'impressionisme, repr. p. 143 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 2001 (s.n.) - Paris, musée Marmottan Monet, 2003-2004, cat. 22. repr. p. 45 - Séoul, Hungaram Museum, 2007, De Millet à Bonnard, n° 4 (repr.) - Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 2008, Impressionist Interiors, n° 9, repr. p. 71 - Madrid, Fundacio Mapfre, 2010, Impressionismo. Un nuevo renacimiento, cat. 13, repr. p. 121 - Turin, Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea, 2013-2014, n° 4 (repr.) - Wuppertal, Von der Heydt-Museum, 2018, n° 14, repr. p. 30 - Tokyo, The National Art Center, 2014, Naissance de l'impressionnisme, n° 6, repr. p. 57 - Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano, 2015-2016, n° 3, repr. p. 52 - Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 57, repr. p. 251 et 166-167 et pp. 113, 150, 163 (Détails) [Les références sont du catalogue en français].
Apollinaire, Chroniques d'art, 1910, Salon d'automne, p. 156 - Alexandre, Le Figaro, 30 sept. 1910 - Thiébault-Sisson, 1910, Le Petit Temps (n.p.) - Hamel, Les Arts, nov. 1910, p. 13 - Blanche, De David à Degas, 1919, p. 36 - Henriot, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, juillet-août 1922, p. 97 - Joubin, Les Beaux-Arts, 15 avril 1924, pp. 119-121, repr. p. 120 [Dans l'article : Bulletin des musées] - Poulain, L'Eclair du Midi, 1er nov. 1926, p. 2 - Moreau-Nélaton, Manet raconté par lui-même, 1926, p. 116 - Charensol, L'Amour de l'Art, janv. 1927, n° 1, pp. 25-28 - Masson, Catalogue des peintures, sculptures du musée national du Luxembourg, 1927, pp. 12-13 - Rey, 1928, p. 34 (repr.) - Focillon, La peinture aux XIXe et XXe siècles, 1928, p. 212 - Poulain, Bazille et ses amis, 1932, n° 40, pp. 179-180, 219 - Fiérens, Journal des Débats, 12 juillet 1932, p. 3 - Laver, French Painting and the Nineteenth Century, 1937, repr. pl. 66 - Scheyer, Art Quarterly, printemps 1942, pp. 128-129 - Guérif, A la recherche d'une esthétique protestante, 1943, p. 29 - Rewald, Histoire de l'Impressionnisme, 1946, n° 43, pp. 196, 224 et 1976, t. I, pp. 285-286 - De Baudelaire à Bonnard, 1947, repr. p. 20 - Musée des Impressionnistes, 1947, n° 25, p. 18 - Drucker, L'Impressionnisme au Jeu de Paume, 16 mai 1947 - Prinçay, Cahiers du sud, 1947, p. 869 - Sarraute, Catalogue de l'œuvre de Frédéric Bazille, 1948, n° 37, pp. 87-91 [Thèse de l'Ecole du Louvre non publiée] - Sarraute, Catalogue exp. Bazille, galerie Wildenstein, Paris, 1950, (n.p.) [Non exposé] - Daulte, Bazille et son temps, 1952, pp. 90, 131-133 et pp. 186-187, n° 48 (repr.) [Thèse sous la direction de Gaston Poulain] - Soby, printemps 1955, vol. 22, n° 3, p. 7, repr. p. 15 - Bazin, 1958, Trésors de l'impressionnisme au Louvre, n° 6 - Bazin, Impressionisme, 1958, p. 122 - Adhémar, Sterling, Musée national du Louvre. Peintures, 1958, n° 43 (repr.) - Cooper, Burlington Magazine, mai 1959 - Jardin des Arts, octobre 1959, n° 60 (repr.) - Courthion, Autour de l'impressionnisme, 1964, p. 26, repr. coul. pl. 26 - Blunden, Journal de l'impressionnisme, 1970, repr. coul. p. 43 - Jacobus, Art in America, sept. 1972, p. 31 - Adhémar, Dayez, Musée du Louvre - Musée de l'impressionisme, Jeu de Paume, 1973, repr. p. 9 - Wildenstein, Catalogue raisonné Claude Monet, 1974, pp. 39, 45, n° 289 - Georgel, L'image de l'atelier depuis le romantisme, 1976, pl. 49 (repr.) - Adhémar, Distel, Catalogue du musée du Jeu de Paume, 1977, repr. p. 12 - Deitcher, Arts Magazine, avril 1978, fig. 13 (repr.) - Daulte, L'Oeil, avril 1978, Une grande amitié Maître et Bazille, repr. p. 41 - Kelder, Le grand livre de l'impressionnisme, 1981, p. 122 (repr.) - English, American Artists, fév. 1981, p. 54 - Denton, Artscribe, mars 1981, p. 30 (repr.) - Druick, Hoog, Fantin-Latour, 1982, p. 206 - Georgel, Catalogue exp. Dijon, 1982-1983, p. 148, fig. 266 - Gache-Patin, Lassaigne, Sisley, 1983, repr. p. 62 - Jacobus, Art in America, déc. 1983 - Adhémar, Dayez, Musée du Jeu de Paume, 1983, p. 151 - Chefs-d'œuvre impressionnistes du musée du Jeu de Paume, 1984, repr. p. 16 - Bonafoux, 1984, Les peintres et l'autoportrait, repr. p. 78 - Chefs-d’œuvre impressionnistes, 1984, p. 16, repr. p. 17 - Renoir, Auguste Renoir, mon père, 1985, p. 60, repr. fig. 1 - Distel, Catalogue exp. Paris, Boston, 1985-1986, Renoir, fig. 1, repr. p. 60 - Hauptman, Catalogue exp. Lausanne, musée cantonal, 1985, p. 39 - Bonafoux, Les impressionnistes. Portraits et confidences, 1986, p. 74 - Lacambre, Laclotte, La peinture au musée d'Orsay, 1986, repr. p. 52 - Hermet, Les portraits impressionnistes, 1986, repr. p. 73 - Bonafoux, Connaissance des Arts, janv. 1987, pp. 28-35, repr. p. 33 [Titre de l'article : Regards croisés] - Denvir, The Impressionists at First Hand, 1987 (repr.) - Distel, Les collectionneurs des impressionnistes, 1989, p. 15, pl. 8 - Rosenblum, Les peintres du musée d'Orsay, 1989, repr. p. 226 - Denvir, Encyclopedia of Impressionism, 1990, repr. p. 28 - Daulte, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1992, pp. 91, 127-130 et pp. 178-179, n° 56 (repr.) [Réédition de 1952 avec photos en couleur] - L'Oeil, juillet-août 1992, Frédéric Bazille et ses amis impressionnistes (repr.) - Pitman, Catalogue exp. Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, fig. 19, repr. p. 47 - Bajou, Frédéric Bazille, 1993, p. 157 (repr.) - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 58, repr. p. 205 - Romand, La Gazette, 16 février 1996, repr. p. 72 - Pitman, Bazille : Purity, Pose and Painting in the 1860s, 1998, pp. 5, 56, 141-142, 175, 184-187 - Champa, Pitman, Catalogue exp. Francfort, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, 1999, Inneleben. Die Kunst des Interieurs, fig. 3, repr. p. 316 - Catalogue exp. Atlanta, High Museum, 1999, fig. 28, repr. p. 59, pp. 57-59 et fig. 31, repr. p. 73 - Ottawa, Chicago, Fort Worth, 1997-1998, Les portraits de Renoir. Impressions d'une époque, fig. 63, repr. p. 57 - Nord, 2000, Impressionists and Politics. Art and democracy in the 19th and 20 th Centuries, pl. 1.1 (repr.) - Catalogue exp. La Haye, Gemeetemuseum, 2002, De tijd van Degas, repr. p. 67 - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné - Supplément 1, 2006, repr. p. 25 - Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano, 2008, Renoir. La maturita tra classico e moderno, fig.13, repr. p. 45 - Catalogue exp. Madrid, Fundacion Mapfre, 2013, Impressionistas y post-impressionistas : El nacimiento del arte moderno, fig. 32, repr. p. 52 -Berrado, Cogeval, Guégan, Catalogue exp. Madrid, Fundacion Mapfre, 2020, Impresionismo, un nuovo renacimiento, n° 13, repr. p. 121 - Hilaire, Jones, Perrin, Catalogue exp. Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 57, repr. p. 251 et pp. 166-167 et pp. 113, 150, 163 (Détails) [Les références sont du catalogue en français] - Murrell, Catalogue exp. New York, 2018, fig.4, repr. p. 11, repr. p. XII (Détail) - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 58.
Three years have passed since Bazille painted his Studio on the rue Visconti: The Studio in the rue La Condamine shows the extent to which the artist had freed himself from his anxieties and found fulfillment.
The tradition was not new to represent himself in his own studio or to paint his friends in theirs. But what differences there are between, for example, Les Ménines by Velázquez, Fantin-Latour's Hommage à Delacroix and Bazille's Studio on the rue La Condamine.
Our painter moved into his new studio in January 1869 and remained there until April 15, 1870. Here, the space and light prove the artist's evolution. The room is spacious and opens widely on the outside thanks to the immense bay window through which one sees Parisian buildings. The organization of the space here is very different from that of the earlier studios. Bazille has chosen to show us this one, no longer empty but animated. When we enter, we are first seduced by the height of the ceiling, by the perspective on the roofs of Paris, by the wooden staircase, the whole offering a pleasant volume.
Bazille's intimate world is no longer confined. In the middle of the painting, this desired impression of space is reinforced by a void; Bazille has indeed decided to leave this area free, which is furnished only by an armchair upholstered in green velvet already present in The Artist's Studio in the rue de Furstenberg. The bay window is half-closed by a huge black curtain that particularly catches the eye; in a letter from the Summer of 1868, Renoir gives the measurements: "4 meters high by three wide..."
The interest of this studio, Bazille understood, is its view on the rue de Rome. How can we prevent from thinking here of the Rue Halévy vue du sixième étage and of Le Balcon sur le Boulevard Haussmann by Caillebotte [Bérhaut, Catalogue raisonné Caillebotte, 1978, nos. 116 and 136]?
Bazille arranged few objects in this vast rectangular room. On the right, a stove, reddened like the one in The Artist's Studio in the rue de Furstenberg, is reminiscent of L'Atelier by Delacroix, whose attribution is now questioned. Against the right wall, a small round table with the flaps folded back; in the corner, a black piano that we see for the first time, a symbol of Bazille's passion for music and his friendship with Edmond Maître. Facing us, against the wall, a pink sofa is the most visible element of comfort in the painting.
The spatial organization of the studio - that emptiness we've been talking about - highlights two preoccupations that concern Bazille. The first is to show himself in the midst of his friends, the second is to exhibit his paintings.
Six people are painted here. Bazille, in front of the easel, gives explanations about the View of the Village and holds a palette in his left hand. The man facing him and listening is Manet. At the piano is Edmond Maître. The other three figures have been the subject of controversial identifications.
According to Moreau-Nélaton, the one to the left of Manet would be Zacharie Astruc; the other two, on the far left of the painting, being Sisley, seated on a corner of the table and Monet, standing on the stairs. Moreau-Nélaton was to confirm this version in a letter sent to Sarraute in 1926, a letter in which he specified that he had received this information from Monet himself.
But Poulain's version, whose source we do not know, is quite different. For him, Monet would be the artist to the left of Manet; on the staircase, we would recognize Zola talking to Renoir, sitting on the corner of the table. Dr. Maurice Leblond, Zola's son-in-law, confirmed that "this person is indeed that of the novelist".
It is, today, impossible to confirm either of these attributions; Rewald and Daulte lean toward Zola and Renoir. If we accept Moreau-Nélaton's identifications, we may, like him, be surprised at the absence of Renoir, whom Bazille was then hosting.
The latter painted all his friends in a convivial attitude. Bazille himself, covered in a large black smock, talked painting with Manet. "I have amused myself so far by painting the interior of my studio", he wrote on January 1, 1870, "and Manet makes me there myself." Manet is said to have said: "Your studio without you, it is not possible". The gesture is sympathetic and proves the cordiality of the relationship between the two men.
On the walls of the studio and on the floor, we recognize several paintings. At the top left is the sketch of the Fisherman with a Net by Bazille; below it, a little girl with blond hair that brings to mind a Monet painting; on the floor, several paintings wit frames. Under the window, on the floor, The Fortune Teller. On the wall above the pink sofa : a landscape that has been identified with the The Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes from South; the Renoir's Femme à l'oiseau and, below it, a still life by Monet. Finally, on the right wall, one can easily recognize The Terrace at Méric by Bazille, with the chestnut tree and the family home. Bazille thus arranged several of the paintings in his collection without forgetting those of Renoir and Monet. One will notice, however, the absence of works by Sisley and Manet, with whom Bazille was less connected.
Remains the painting, largely hidden by the silhouette of Bazille. It is very likely that this is one of his painting, which can be compared to the great size of the painter. As Bazille was 1.88 m tall, it is not impossible that he is presenting here the View of a Village (46) which is 1.30 m high.
The contrast is great between the impressionist paintings with which he chose to adorn his walls and the representation of the studio itself, with the wisdom of its graphics and the classicism of its colors. Everything is indeed wisely arranged and there are few objects with rounded shapes that break the rhythm of straight lines. Only the armchair, the sofa and the stove break this cubic effect. Wisdom of the graphics, then and, we would add, classicism of the colors: gray of the floor and ceiling, light and transparent blues of the walls, black of the curtain that lets the light through; the only more vivid spots of color are those of the green armchair and the pink sofa. In fact, the palette is limited, as it is each time Bazille depicts his studios.
The X-rays of the work was to cause a surprise affecting the painting above the sofa. They did indeed reveal an underlying sketch corresponding to Renoir's Portrait de Femme and Diane chasseresse.
Bazille here seems to have passed a milestone, that of maturity: we think that he finally dares to look at himself as the equal of his friends. In his Studio in the rue La Condamine, he seeks neither to express philosophical ideas like Courbet, nor to present an artistic manifesto like Fantin-Latour, nor to contemplate his own works like Corot. His approach there is closer to that of Degas when, in his Portrait de Tissot, the latter places his character in a studio amidst his favorite paintings.
As Jones writes in the 2016-2017 exhibition catalogue "Among the studio interiors painted by Bazille, it is the third and final painting that is by far the most complex". [P. 165]. It is indeed so because of the presence of his friends, which, beyond the warm conviviality, clearly seems to be an Impressionist artistic manifesto. Bazille's message is subject to many interpretations over time. Clearly, Bazille seems to want to take his friends as witnesses to his ambitions.
The arrangement of the paintings on the walls in his studio in the rue La Condamine has also been much discussed. In his article, Jones properly points out that "the paintings arranged most prominently were all rejected by the Salon jury ... and that the painting is in essence a kind of sly insider's joke that show the works that the obtuse Salon jury rejected without any further process, but that its more discerning colleges appreciate".
