Paris exhibitions
Reassessments
David Wakefield
Watteau (Grand Palais, Paris till 28 January) Diderot et l'Art de Boucher a David (Hotel de la Monnaie, Paris till 6 January) o exhibitions currently on view in
Paris, one devoted to Watteau, the other to Diderot, provide a timely and, perhaps, unique opportunity to re-assess the first great painter and the first real art critic produced by France in the 18th century. Watteau is universally known as the creator of Fete Galante, the embodi- ment of courtly charm and love, set in some distant never-never land of hazy mountains and Elysian fields. This reputa- tion (based on a mere handful of not entirely typical works) is largely that which conditions our response to his art today. In his own lifetime Watteau's pictures were avidly sought after by collectors like Jean du Julienne and the pleasure-loving society of the Regency, but usually dismissed by the critics and academic pundits of the day as quirky, odd and lacking significant content. In the 19th century, especially during the Romantic period, this judgment was dramatically reversed. Balzac's novel Cousin Pons, published in 1835, hailed Watteau as one of the greatest artists of the 18th century. From then onwards, every French poet from Nerval to Verlaine fol- lowed in the same trail, each one produc- ing his own version of Watteau, with slight variations. All shared a readiness to see the painter as a precursor of the mal du siècle, suffering from the same symptoms of ill-defined melancholy and spiritual rest- lessness as their own generation. This Romantic legacy is still with us today. At last we have the chance to test its assump- tions, and our own accumulated critical responses, in front of an exceptional range • of Watteau's paintings and drawings brought together with considerable diffi- culty from all over the world, including those collected by Catherine the Great and the superb works of Charlottenburg Castle in Berlin.
Once we have fixed some degree of attention on some of the many drawings which preface the exhibition — no easY matter, in view of the crowds — we are .struck not so much by the 'poetry' and `magic' of the artist (the two most recur- rent clichés in Watteau criticism) as an undercurrent of burlesque and satirical realism. His favourite subjects in these early drawings were soldiers and actors, or (as in one humorous drawing) actors play- ing at soldiers. Watteau's soldiers are rarely shown fighting, but waiting, loung- ing around, snatching a moment's sleep or showing off to their fellows, brandishing a sword or a musket. A strain of Molier- esque parody comes out in Watteau's draw- ings and portraits of finely dressed gentle- men, shown parading and posturing as if to an audience. He shows the actor PhilipPe Poisson strutting onto the stage with self- conscious panache. The theatre, in fact, played a vital role in the artist's career and helped him to develop his latent talent for the mimetic observation of character, of gesture and fleeting expression. The trouP of 'Italian Comedians' (banished by Louts XIV from France but re-introduced in the early years of the 18th century) provided him with a repertory of stock characters, comic and tragic, who re-appear through" out his oeuvre in various guises and finallY spill over into the more ethereal Fetes Galantes. The central character of these delightful burlesque figures, 'Gilles' the clown, was immortalised in the well-known picture in the Louvre, standing in his short baggy trousers, thrust into reluctant prony inence by the rest of the troup. Watteau's attitude to the 'French Players', on the other hand, was heavily satirical, parodY", ing their stilted acting and conventional gestures. It is clear, in fact, that Watteau had scant respect for the traditions of French classic' al tragedy and the Grand Siècle. In `L'Elr seigne de Gersaint', his last and po"
digiously realistic study of the inside of an art gallery around 1720, a porter mica!,
moniously bundles a portrait of Louis XIY into a packing case. In place of the poll and declamation of the grand mythologjea style which lingered on in French paintingr and theatre, Watteau offered an altogethe new, more appealing, more intimate fort! of art. In French classical tragedy a Pleile was expected to have a beginning, a mideli. and an end. Watteau's pictures coil; cuously fail to meet the demands of t Aristotelian tragedy; instead, they sh°5, indeterminate states of emotion, sn._ pended mid-way between desire and satl:f faction. Love — the subject of so manY.u,e his pictures — is treated with infloluis subtlety, expressed in quick nay° 1, glances and diffident gestures. Occasiona„ ly love achieves its object, like the rum'
lover in `L'Amoureux timide' (Madrid) Proffering sweet nothings to his girlfriend, Who re-appears in `La Declaration atten- due' (Angers) crowned with success. More Often, though, advances from clumsy rus- tics are gently resisted by coyly elegant women. Most poignant of all, Nezzetin' (New York) serenades his beloved without the least hope of return. These and other depictions of love reach their climax in Watteau's richest and most complex paint- ing, `L'Embarquement pour Cythere', rep- resented here in its three successive stages: the early version recently bought by Frank- furt Museum, the best-known and loved one in the Louvre (painted in 1717) and the more elaborate version in Berlin. Here, and in a handful of other works, Watteau finally achieved that fine blend of precision and imagination which puts him on a par With Fragonard as one of the great 18th- century artists.
Denis Diderot, writer, philosopher, Chief instigator of the vast Encyclopaedia, i was also the pioneer of art-criticism n France and regularly reviewed the bi- annual Salon between 1759 and 1781. The exhibition Diderot et l'Art de Boucher et David has ingeniously and imaginatively brought together many of the paintings d. iscussed, praised and vilified by Diderot in his famous Salons, known to most of us Only through the plates in the fine edition Published by Seznec and Adhemar be- tween 1957 and 1967. For the first time we Can compare text and image at close quarters, and the result is highly revealing. Some of Diderot's hetes noires, like Pierre, Halle and Lagrenee, are well represented and allowed to protest against his damning Mdictments. The two vast religious paint- ings, Vien's `St Denis preaching' and Doyens 'Miracle des Ardents', have been removed from the Eglise St Roch and cleaned: the one, calm and impassive, the Other violent and colourful, they are among the most impressive works in the exhibition and revealed in all their splen- dour. It was to Diderot's credit that he Instantly recognised their greatness in 11,767. Despite his classical preference for 'lie grand style, he also wrote some of the most perceptive pages on Chardin ever Written, describing how they literally ,awaken our appetite and tactile sense. In front of a Vernet landscape, Diderot be- comes so actively involved in the creative process that all sense of distance between spectator and object is abolished. Dider- ot s. prose is, in fact, rich, concrete and :ailed, corresponding to the Protean "`°bility of his own temperament. The result is creative criticism of the highest order. As he wrote to Grimm in 1763, the qualities needed of a critic were: 'Taste of Many different kinds, a heart responsive to all delights, a soul capable of an infinity of cclifferent enthusiasms, a variety of style orresponding to the variety of artists. . • _I his kind of generosity of spirit is rare in °_1151 writer or critic, and it may well be that Jar own age has something to learn from this great French humanist.
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