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Lot Essay
In 1885 Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo which praised Lhermitte as the ‘master of the figure. He’s able to do what he likes with it — conceiving the whole neither from the colour nor from the local tone, but rather proceeding from the light — as Rembrandt did — there’s something astonishingly masterly in everything he does — in modelling, above all things, he utterly satisfies the demands of honesty' (letter 531, 2 September 1885). In another letter the following month, writing a defense of the greatness of modern art, van Gogh compared Millet and Lhermitte to Michelangelo and Rembrandt, ranking them all as geniuses. 'In the work of Millet, of Lhermitte,’ van Gogh wrote, ‘all reality is also symbolic at the same time. They’re something other than what people call realists’ (letter 533, 4 October 1885).
Lhermitte's early training took place in the atelier of Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, whose students included Legros and Fantin-Latour. He studied the compositions of the Barbizon painters Corot, Millet, Breton and Daubigny, and developed a faculty for rendering physical form by varying the gradations of light and dark, maximizing the effect of shadow in the modeling of his subjects. At his death in 1925, Lhermitte was the last of this illustrious group of the Barbizon painters executing works in the French rural tradition.
Art critic Maurice Hammel compared Lhermitte's robust and often monumental depictions of the peasant to the imagery of Rodin. Lhermitte's peasants are actual, identifiable people from his village, unlike those of Millet's who are in a constant struggle with nature and are personifications rather than individuals. In addition to their strong physique, Lhermitte also portrayed the country folk at work and proud of their toil, creating a romantic nostalgia. The poses of his peasants are often borrowed from the old masters as well as ancient Greek sculptures. This allowed Lhermitte to create a visual vocabulary that was rooted in the classic and elevated his subjects - the local peasantry - to a more refined position. In the present work, for example, the positioning of the central male figure's legs is inspired by the Roman copy of The Dying Gaul, and the sleeping male figure in the back is similarly reminiscent of The Sleeping Hermaphroditus. In Lhermitte's work, the landscapes are filled with light, color and atmosphere and these figures resting from their labors are idealized and dignified. Ignoring the Industrial Revolution and centering on the image of a society prior to its emergence, Lhermitte's peasants are a visualization of paradise lost for the citizens of large metropolises.
Lhermitte's early training took place in the atelier of Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, whose students included Legros and Fantin-Latour. He studied the compositions of the Barbizon painters Corot, Millet, Breton and Daubigny, and developed a faculty for rendering physical form by varying the gradations of light and dark, maximizing the effect of shadow in the modeling of his subjects. At his death in 1925, Lhermitte was the last of this illustrious group of the Barbizon painters executing works in the French rural tradition.
Art critic Maurice Hammel compared Lhermitte's robust and often monumental depictions of the peasant to the imagery of Rodin. Lhermitte's peasants are actual, identifiable people from his village, unlike those of Millet's who are in a constant struggle with nature and are personifications rather than individuals. In addition to their strong physique, Lhermitte also portrayed the country folk at work and proud of their toil, creating a romantic nostalgia. The poses of his peasants are often borrowed from the old masters as well as ancient Greek sculptures. This allowed Lhermitte to create a visual vocabulary that was rooted in the classic and elevated his subjects - the local peasantry - to a more refined position. In the present work, for example, the positioning of the central male figure's legs is inspired by the Roman copy of The Dying Gaul, and the sleeping male figure in the back is similarly reminiscent of The Sleeping Hermaphroditus. In Lhermitte's work, the landscapes are filled with light, color and atmosphere and these figures resting from their labors are idealized and dignified. Ignoring the Industrial Revolution and centering on the image of a society prior to its emergence, Lhermitte's peasants are a visualization of paradise lost for the citizens of large metropolises.