From Douanier Rousseau to Séraphine; Flora and Fauna...

Before the heavy, grey mist of lockdown descended in early March, I was lifted into a universe of light, bright colour ; the exhibition From Douanier Rousseau to Séraphine at the Musée Maillol in Paris. Brought together for this experience of a world parallel were the paintings of the artists collectively referred to as ‘modern primitives’ or les Naïfs. Key to the exhibition was the art of le Douanier-Rousseau and one of his jungle scenes figures on the poster, already setting the tone. His name alone is familiar to us today – curiously synonymous with the exotic, painted in a bold, direct manner. The glaring, bestial eyes that peer out from luxuriant yet oddly flattened undergrowth, with their expressive yet undefinable gaze no longer have the shock of the new, but still mesmerize us, drawing us in, with the same power as William Blake’s poem The Tyger. Here, however, were the exhibits of other Naïve artists, assembled as a stunning whole, largely from the collection of Dina Vierny (1919-2009) - creator of the Musée Maillol - Fondation Maillol – and private collections. 

Rousseau - Détail Deux lions à l’affût dans la jungle - 1909

Overlooked for many decades, the unique artistic vision and productivity of these other grands maîtres naïfs is brought to our attention. These were artists living some hundred years ago in unprecedented times and often extreme circumstances, and their lives fascinate us today. Séraphine de Senlis (1864–1942) is a case in point. Dazzling portraits of flowers, fruit and foliage burst out from the canvas, all born from the humble hand of this recluse whose existence was one of drudgery and ended in the confines of a lunatic asylum. Yet her vision soared high and free and found expression in a form of art unlike any other. Over the last decade, Séraphine has risen out of oblivion, largely thanks to the 2008 film, Séraphine, and the display of her art in Musée Maillol and in her home town, Senlis, where I first saw her paintings. With this latest exhibition, at the Maillol, other great artists are now able to shine out, their art illuminating the rooms on a dull winter’s day ; André Bauchant, Camille Bombois, Ferdinand Desnos, Dominique Peyronner, Louis Vivin, Jean eve and René Rimbert. I definitely had a weak spot for Bauchant’s myriads of beautiful flowers and jewel-like birds !

Séraphine - Pomme aux Feuilles - 1928-1930.

The work of these modern primitives is displayed as a retrospective whole ; all is different, yet characteristics overlap. Dizzying colour arrangements abound – either subtle, monochromatic tones, or bright, blazing colours ; odd perspectives puzzle us whilst unsettling content focus troubles our assumptions ; a wide range of theme and subject matter nevertheless lead us to a shared response of questioning. As the references we expect to find are absent, or are used in a seemingly non-sensical manner, we wonder what the artist is driving at. Is there a message to be read ? If so, how do we interpret it ? Or are we quite literally been led up the garden path – as in the case of Bauchant’s work ? Are we permitted to just enjoy art, without finding a meaning ?

Séraphine - Pomme aux Feuilles - 1928-1930.

In fact, we are fascinated by an artistic approach that is not part of an acknowledged school. These artists brought together here for our benefit were not actually affliated to some established movement at a set moment in time. Rousseau may have been considered lynchpin to this naïve artistic style, inspiring many over the decades, yet he was not necessarily a recognized catalystic inspiration for all the artists featured in the exhibition. 

We might now identify common traits and shared elements in the art displayed, but the individuals themselves did not openly exchange ideas and aspirations in their lifetime. Each worked in isolation, having their own personal agenda which was in turn affected by their own specific circumstances – both material and private. Many of them were self-taught, coming to art at a later stage in life, having no artistic background or formal training and certainly did not refer to themselves using the naïve label. The absence of inflated theories and set terminology adds to the strange charm operated by this unique artistic style and merits the play on words used to describe its creators ; des génies ingénus.

Rousseau 

Gauguin described the primitive as being ‘the milk of sustenance’ for art. Without a reliance on the academic, the paintings of the modern primitive artists were not weighed down by strict, normalising codes in terms of content or technique and could grow unfettered. From such freedom rose a certain legerity ; modern primitive art flows towards other spaces, places and values. The artists’ vision of the world around them is reflected in a figurative manner ; it is representational, not realist or symbolist. Furthermore, the customary references that prop up our typical experience and understanding of a piece of art become mere visual props, providing no real guide as to how we should actually read the work. Unsurprisingly, an anthropocentric world view is largely absent here. Equal importance is placed on inanimate objects , static urban scenes, the natural world and the animal kingdom. 

André Bauchant - Oiseaux Exotiques - 1947

In the realm of Naïve art, Man does not necessarily reign absolute. As a result, the key actors in the various settings are not pinned down by meaning and we too are liberated from it. We instinctively understand that this apparent ‘artistic anarchy’ does not hide some heavy message or secret agenda. There are none. Just as the artists, we too enter a naîve world of simple observation and appreciation. We may not know where the objective ends and the subjective starts in this imaginary, dream-like world that resembles our own, but we can simply enjoy our experience of it. Without needing to justify ourselves, or act as responsible adults we are likewise free to meander, child-like, from A to Z in a naïve aesthetic. In 1891, the artist Félix Vallotton drew attention to this very quality in Rousseau’s work; a juvenile self-sufficiency. He went on to  declare that Rousseau’s Surpris ! (1891) was ‘the alpha and omega' of painting. 

André Bauchant - Ours dans la Forêt - 1925

Just as some of the paintings are lifted by an almost spiritual quality, the devotion of these artists to their art transcended the constraining practicalities of life. And yet he majority of the primitifs modernes did not come from privileged backgrounds – far from it - and had to work hard all their lives. Frequently beset by financial concerns, they were only able to paint at night, on Sundays or later in life on retirement. Often, they barely managed to make ends meet and had to make personal sacrifices and/or impose these on their families. It is difficult to know how far the different milieux and life experiences formed and forged the art of these artists and vice versa, but these individuals frequently followed a trajectory peppered with events that would be deemed ‘colourful’ by anyone’s standards. 

André Bauchant -

Traits of quirkiness, blatant eccentricity, or plain insanity often governed the artists’ lives. These implacable artistic impluses led them to create their art regardless of their situation in life – to remarkable ends. Like the incomparable home of Picassiette or the Facteur Cheval’s ‘ideal palace’, their artistic careers were constructed piece by piece, built up stone by stone. 
Rousseau never failed to believe in his own legend, despite the indifference or scorn that his work actually inspired in the art world for most of his life. His stubborn view of his own worth and capacity developed undaunted, as did his devotion to his art, even when he had to resort to busking as a violinist to survive. His mythomaniac proclamations merely added to his reputation as ‘un original’, both endearing and well-meaning.

André Bauchant - Tigres - 1925

His few, fervent supporters from the art world even perpetuated the myth – notably the poet Apollinaire who had been captivated by the work, Le Rêve (1910). This avant-garde talent was finally recognized by the German art collector, Wilhelm Uhde, in 1907, and likewise drew the attention of Picasso who acquired several of his works. Nevertheless, Rousseau’s real success was to be posthumous. Whilst Uhde and Apollinaire were obliged to organise an auction of Rousseau’s art to pay for funeral costs on his death in 1910, within several decades, the price of his pieces had exploded. The fact that Rousseau never actually ventured onto the exotic soils of distant Mexico now seems irrelevant and makes of him an even greater figure that, like his art, defies categorisation. 

André Bauchant - Self-portrait - 1938

In André Bauchant (1973-1958), the art collector Uhde identified an artist with ‘le cœur sacré’ ; a pure and pious heart like Séraphine. His profilic creativity that had started during his involvement in the First World War led to work covering numerous themes. Most of his compositions, however, present intricate static scenes that use strange perspective which lead to a unique enigmatic mood, close to the mystical. For Uhde, Bauchant’s art bore the primitive simplicity of the Middle Age artists, and was reminiscent of quattrocento frescoes and in particular the work of Giotto. He was one the first painters in this style to be noticed by Dina Vierny and she supported his work over the years, exhibiting it in the inauguration of the Musée Maillol – Foundation Dina Vierny in 1995.

Originally a gardener/ horticulturist, he turned to art in his late forties and vibrant, jewel-like studies of flowers frequently feature in his work – especially dahlias. His beautiful bird portraits create the same calm quality as in his other pieces, with ‘frozen’ feathered forms floating on the foliage. Many of these were apparently inspired and copied from stuffed birds in a nearby aviary. Like many of the other Naïfs, he would use sources where he could find them, thus gaining access to the most exotic realms from the most humdrum. 

In the 1920s, Bauchant worked in collaboration with the Delamain brothers for the publishing house Editions Stock, with a project to illustrate a book on ornithology. Although this was never actually realised, the studies were exhibited by Jeanne Bucher, the art gallerist who had already held exhibitions of his work in the late 1920s. This connection enabled Uhde to make his discovery of this unique ‘jardinier-peintre’ and brought the artist to public attention.

André Bauchant 

The architect Le Corbusier went on to become a collector of Bauchant’s art whilst Diaghilev commisioned works for his ballet stage sets. Unlike Rousseau, Bauchant indeed gained notable recognition and acclaim during his lifetime, in spite of living a largely isolated life. Discovering that the war years had led to his wife’s insanity, he set up home in an old mill in the middle of woods in the Indre-et-Loire region and devoted himself to his painting. Surrounded by nature, his artistic career seemed to flourish just as the plants that he had tended from his early years, and just as the flowers he painted, his life was pervaded by a mystical air.

 Ferdinand Desnos - Sangliers au Clair de Lune

Ferdinand Desnos (1901-1958) was likewise drawn to a strange ‘otherness’ and a similar overriding need to follow his artistic instinct, despite all the obstacles that poor health, poverty and relative obscurity lay before him. Like Séraphine, he was one of the most spiritual primitive artists. His work evokes what is hidden behind the visible and shifts the hierarchy of content to enigmatic effect.

Ferdinand Desnos - Portrait Paul Léautaud et Chats - 1953

A love of nature and animals is evident, however, and infuses everything. His portrait of Paul Léautaud and his cats 1953 focuses our attention on the antics of the rather sketchy felines that stare out at us blankly, as does a monkey ! So too in his self-portrait, where the artist does not truly reign centre stage, although I would conclude that here was a man who certainly knew a thing or two about cats. Rousseau likewise gave as much detail and importance to the odd-looking domestic (sour) puss at the feet of the protagonist in his Portrait of Madame M (1890). 

Rousseau - Chat sur Coussin - 1890

In fact, before turning to the drama of exotic beasts in jungles real and imagined at the turn of the century, Rousseau seems to have painted a number of curious pets – from rather lumpen hounds and somewhat mishapen moggies. Nevertheless, It is the creatures depicted in Louis Vivin’s paintings which take animal portraiture onto another level entirely, with a naive approach that attracted Uhde from the outset. 

Louis Vivin - La chasse aux Sangliers - 1926 

Sadly, neither these nor the cityscapes, painted from all manner of supports brought him success, either then or in the ensuing decades. His devotion to his art had been total, all the more remarkable since he had no formal training as such, had never been to an exhibition nor had he ever read any art criticism. It was in the last years before his dealth that he finally become known at the art market (foire aux croûtes) at Montmartre. 

Camille Bombois - Nature morte au Homard - 1932

Animals and flowers also feature in the large repertoire of themes covered by the ‘gentle giant’, Camille Bombois (1883-1970). He followed a different approach to the others, however. Whilst Rousseau was attracted to the somewhat surreal, Bombois favoured everyday scenes. He had worked as a farm labourer before joining the circus as a strong man and then being mobilized in the First World War. He was the only modern primitive to paint nudes, and each portrayal of ‘flesh’ creates a strange atmosphere.

Camille Bombois - Fillette à la Poupée - 1925

The well-built, young girl carressing the odd-looking doll whilst disproportionate cats watch on reminded me of the edginess in Balthus’ work. His use of dense black as a colour, next to red and green, produces a striking effect – rather as in Manet’s work - and I loved the delicate poppies by the robust female form in Nu de Face (1935). Such contrasts seem to reflect and run through the artist’s life too, the powerful man who would execute flower paintings with grace, or paint still lives of such intense, blinding colour that they are almost animate. 

Camille Bombois - Nu de Face - 1935

The exhibition was a feast for the senses in every sense. The weird simplicity of the pieces was invigorating and uplifting. While you initially wonder if these Naïve works really are as simple as they appear to be, you ultimately learn to experience them as you wish to. In response to the remark that ‘anyone’ could paint like this, it is worth remembering that few people actually do, to such natural effect. You cannot force freedom and few of us are able to let go spontaneously, but this exhibition helps to liberate us. 

Camille Bombois - Gerbe de Fleurs -  1932