JACK-PARIS DAYTRIPS-Barbizon, the painter's village (1)
Jack
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PARIS DAYTRIPS-Barbizon, the painter's village (1)
How do we get to Barbizon??
--by train: gare de Lyon for Fontainebleau-Avon. From there only a
taxi is possible to rejoin Barbizon.
--by coach or bus: it is possible but quite complicated. Take the
buses of the S.G.E.A. at metro Villejuif. Info on 0160897990, at
Corbeil-Essonnes. 2 connections a day, only from Monday to Friday. In
the morning departure from metro Villejuif at 7.30, arrival at
Coudray-Monceaux at 8.24 and change. Take now the bus to Barbizon at
8.25. You arrive at 9.07.
In the afternoon same way but departure from Villejuif at 15.30.
Connection at Coudray-Monceaux for Barbizon at 16.24. Arrival at
16.55. This is worse than the galleys!
BARBIZON! A hamlet depending from Chailly until 1903, much frequented
by landscape painters. The village still keeps souvenirs from those
artists who made the notoriety of the region. Already in the 19th
century painters were charmed by the sites around and in Barbizon.
Trotsky himself came here to have a rest of the "permanent
revolution". The Goncourt brothers described the village: "this place
is quite dead to the noises of the capital....it enjoys the peace that
surrounds a great forest, like houses and squares make the shadow of
their cathedrals". From 1825 to 1870, Barbizon became the Mecca of the
landscape painters, in a style called originally "ecole de Barbizon"
of which the most representative was Theodore Rousseau, Millet and
Daubigny. Today it's a long street, bordered by shops, ateliers,
painter galleries and luxurious inns like the "Hotellerie du
Bas-Breau" where R.L.Stevenson stayed and venerable houses crumbling
under the ivy. At almost every house a souvenir of the painters who
lived there is attached thanks to commemorative plaques. This
notoriety turned it into a place of pilgrimage where mainly American
and Japanese tourists are constantly on the march.
In full season it's a very touristy place and the tourist coaches
obstruct a little too much the view, but a visit is highly
recommended. Numerous boutiques ateliers propose their work, just
useless crap good for naive tourists. Nevertheless the visit is very
agreeable. The forest is just next to the village and the famous
gorges d'Apremont are very near.
A few words about R.L.Stevenson (thanks to the courtesy of Anne and
Michael Forest who provided me with most of the info about Stevenson's
stay in Barbizon").
Formerly a much smaller inn, keeping with the size of the village, is
the Hotellerie du Bas-Breau or "Stevensons House". The guest in most
renown was Robert Louis Stevenson, the man who made us dream of far
away pirate adventures with 'Treasure Island" or frightened us with
it's never equalled "Doctor Jekyll and Mr.Hyde". A noteworthy
character in his own right. Stevenson scattered anecdotes about
Mr.Siron (owner of the inn at that time) throughout his novels. He
befriended the painters and the refugees from city life, and spent
some of the most pleasant year of his life in this corner of the foret
de Fontainebleau. Stevenson's health was poor and he needed the fresh,
invigorating air. It is rare to find such a salubrious atmosphere in
plains lying so near a large city. The forest of Fontainebleau acts as
a kind of filter for the air. Therefore, in homage perhaps to a Nature
so kind, he has left us his "Forest Notes".
The Barbizon School
-----------------------------
This movement was born in the countryside and influenced by the
English and Dutch painters. Attracted by the desire to leave the
atelier, to see the motives "live" ", Corot made the trip already in
the early 1820 's and finally Millet in 1849, fleeing the cholera
devastating Paris. These painters, mainly Millet, became the painters
of the peasant life and works. Millet rendered homage to them with
paintings like "Les Grandes Glaneuses", "L'Angelus" or "l'Homme a la
Houe", while Rousseau painted here most of his masterpieces. The
critics labelled them even as "pre-impressionists" due to the
importance they accorded to light in their work and the fact they
painted so many landscapes.
But another, even greater factor, influenced the notoriety of the
Barbizon school. The proximity of Fontainebleau and thus the
protection and patronage of the Imperial court and the bourgeoisie.
They were the ones having the money to pay for their portraits by
artists. And for the painters, painting one of the high royalties or a
big shot was the dream or at least a way of earning his daily bread
for every artist-painter.
Numerous painters moved to Barbizon and not all of the quality of
Millet, Corot, Daubigny but a cultural dynamics of affinities and
sympathies amplified the movement. At a certain epoch that the village
counted 150 painters and artists on 300 inhabitants! The Barbizon
phenomenon was born, and a rush stormed the village from Europe to
America! (a bit like Saint-Germain in the 1950's). Artists like
Cezanne, Renoir, Seurat or Pissarro passed here, as well as Verlaine
and Heredia....Now to judge if the ecole de Barbizon had a great
influence in the history of art, that's another question! One cannot
say that creativity and a formal renewal illustrated the style.
Useful addresses in Barbizon are:
Bureau du tourisme, 55 rue Grande tel 0160664187. Opens only at 11.00
to 12.30, then a French lunch break (?) until 14.00. Open until 17.00
(18.00 in summer)
Rent a bicycle, La Boutique, rue Grande tel 0160664262. It's a small
bazaar renting a few bicycles. Tourist bikes, 50 FF a day, VTT, 80 FF
half a day and 100 FF a day.
Bibliography
A little tour in France, by James Henry (ed.Farrar, New-York 1983),
Guide du Routard 1998 (ed.Hachette), Autour de Paris, by J. Lewis
(ed. Lamaison, Paris 1992)-Middeleeuwen in Parijs en het Noorden, by
J.Groenewoud (ed.Alkmijn,1996)-The Paris belt of historical sites, by
J.Farrar (Pergal, Manchester 1993)-"De school van Barbizon",
J.V.Groening (ed.De Arend, Amsterdam 1995)
Jack
My Paris,daytrips from Paris, Provence, Cote d'Azur, valley of the
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