The Judgment of Paris Read online

  The

  JUDGMENT

  of

  PARIS

  The Revolutionary Decade

  That Gave the World Impressionism

  ROSS KING

  Copyright © 2006 by Ross King

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Walker & Company, 104 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.

  Published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., New York

  Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers

  ART CREDITS

  Corbis: plates 2B and 8A. The Bridgeman Art Library: (both images); plates IA, IB, 2A, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 6A, 7A, 7B, 8B. The Fogg Museum at Harvard University. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: and plate 6B. The Art Institute of Chicago. Ross King.

  All papers used by Walker & Company are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in well-managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  King, Ross, 1962-

  The judgment of Paris : the revolutionary decade that gave the world Impressionism / by Ross King.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references.

  eISBN: 978-0-802-71841-9

  1. Painting, French—-19th century. 2. Manet, Édouard, 1832—1883—Criticism and interpretation.

  3. Meissonier, Jean Louis Ernest, 1815—1891—Criticism and interpretation.

  4. Impressionism (Art)—France. 5. Art and society—France—Paris—History—19th century. I. Title.

  ND547.K47 2006

  759.409'034—dc22

  2005031089

  First published in 2006 by Walker & Company

  This paperback edition published in 2007

  Visit Walker & Company's Web site at www.walkerbooks.com

  First U.S. edition 2006

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Typeset by Westchester Book Group

  Printed in the United States of America by Quebecor World Fairfield

  "King has made a career of elucidating crucial episodes in the history of art and architecture (Brunelleschi's Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling). This time he's at play in the fields of French art and society from 1863 to 1874, years when France preferred academic painters, with their lusty goddesses and uplifting battle scenes. But what France preferred was under challenge by a rising (and sometimes backbiting) new group of artists. At the same time, the vainglorious Emperor Louis-Napoléon was stumbling into the calamities of war and revolution. Eventually art would imitate life; all the old orders would come crashing down; and Manet, Monet and Cézanne would emerge from the wreckage. King's account of that all-important crack-up is full of smart pleasures."

  —Richard Lacayo, Time Magazine

  "King's meticulously researched history of this epic art movement . . . focuses on the engrossing story of two vital but opposing forebears: Ernest Meissonier, the most famous painter of the mid-19th century, celebrated for his exacting devotion to a pictorial reportage style of mostly Napoleonic war scenes, and Édouard Manet, constantly derided for his impulsively vigorous brushwork and lascivious subject matter. Manet lost many a battle in his time (he challenged one critic to a duel), but painted his way out of a stagnant academic style and won the war for art's future. 'A'"

  —Michele Romero, Entertainment Weekly

  "[The Judgment of Paris] has the stylistic grace, the abundance of entertaining anecdotes and the shrewd marshaling of facts that made King's Brunelleschi's Dome a best-seller and his Michelangelo and the Pope s Ceiling a National Book Critics Circle award finalist . . . If this lively book sparks a Meissonier revival, it won't be a surprise." —Charles Matthews, San Francisco Chronicle

  "King writes in an engrossing style. His research is fastidious, and he leaves readers with a detailed picture of how the politics of art and the art of politics intertwine."

  —Susan Lense, Columbus Dispatch

  "The painters themselves might admire King's skill in using this backdrop to highlight the artists in the foreground. [The Judgment of Paris] offers a clear sense of how the politics and personalities of late 19th-century Europe fused to push art in a new direction."

  —Ed Nawotka, Austin American-Statesman

  "King writes art history as tapestry."

  —Matthew Price, Newsday

  "An engrossing account of the years from 1863—when paintings denied entry into the French Academy's yearly Salon were shown at the Salon des Refusés—to 1874, the date of the first Impressionist exhibition. To dramatize the conflict between academicians and innovators during these years, [King] follows the careers of two formidable, and very different, artists: Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, a conservative painter celebrated for detailed historical subjects, and Édouard Manet, whose painting Le dejeuner sur I'herbe caused an uproar at the Salon des Refusés. Many other artists of the day, among them Courbet, Degas, Morisot, Monet and Cézanne, are included in King's compelling narrative, and the story is further enhanced by the author's vivid portrayal of artistic life in Paris during a turbulent era that saw the siege of the city by the Prussians and the fall of Napoléon III."

  —Publishers Weekly, starred review

  "A fluid, engaging account of how the conflicting careers of two French painters—the popular establishment favorite Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier and the oft-reviled newcomer Édouard Manet—reveal the slow emergence of Impressionism and its new view of painting and the world. King has crafted an exciting chronicle about political and cultural change . . . Many great characters in cultural history appear—Baudelaire, Zola, Henry James—not to mention the painters whose names are now Olympian. Delacroix, Monet, Cézanne, Rossetti, Renoir—they all strut a bit on King's stage, as do political figures, most notably Napoléon III. The author does not neglect the military history of the period, [but he] illustrates that the clash of ideas is even more exciting than the clang of swords."

  —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

  "Best-selling author King {Brunelleschi's Dome) does not disappoint with this fast-paced romp through the Parisian art scene between 1863 (the first Salon des Refusés exhibition) and 1874 (the first Impressionist exhibition). King diligently assembles a swath of anecdotes and evidence, coaxing lively color and fascinating detail from even the most stolid of historical facts and documents. The book serves as an entertaining if broad account of a revolutionary transformation in vision—not least of all through art. Recommended."

  —Prudence Peiffer, Library Journal

  "King is a master at linking pivotal moments in art history to epic rivalries. In his third supremely engaging and illuminating inquiry, King summons forth mid-nineteenth-century Paris and vividly portrays two diametrically opposed artists . . . Writing with zest and a remarkable command of diverse and fascinating facts, and offering keen insights into the matrix of art, politics, social mores, and technology, King charts the coalescence of a movement that not only changed painting for all time but also our way of seeing the world. And perhaps most laudably, he resurrects a discredited and forgotten figure, the marvelous monomaniac [Ernest] Meissonier, a man King has bemused affection and respect for, and an artist readers will be delighted to learn about."

  —Donna Seaman, Booklist

  For my three sisters

  Karen, Maureen, and Wendy

  In this bitch of a life, one can never be too well armed.

  —Édouard Manet

  CONTENTS

  List of Illustrations

  Chapter One: Ch
ez Meissonier

  Chapter Two: Modern Life

  Chapter Three: The Lure of Perfection

  Chapter Four: Mademoiselle V.

  Chapter Five: Dreams of Genius

  Chapter Six: Youthful Daring

  Chapter Seven: A Baffling Maze of Canvas

  Chapter Eight: The Salon of Venus

  Chapter Nine: The Tempest of Fools

  Chapter Ten: Famous Victories

  Chapter Eleven: Young France

  Chapter Twelve: Deliberations

  Chapter Thirteen: Room M

  Chapter Fourteen: Plein Air

  Chapter Fifteen: A Beastly Slop

  Chapter Sixteen: The Apostle of Ugliness

  Chapter Seventeen: Maître Velázquez

  Chapter Eighteen: The Jury of Assassins

  Chapter Nineteen: Monet or Manet?

  Chapter Twenty: A Flash of Swords

  Chapter Twenty-one: Marvels, Wonders and Miracles

  Chapter Twenty-two: Funeral for a Friend

  Chapter Twenty-three: Maneuvers

  Chapter Twenty-four: A Salon of Newcomers

  Chapter Twenty-five: Au Bord de la Mer

  Chapter Twenty-six: Mademoiselle Berthe

  Chapter Twenty-seven: Flying Gallops

  Chapter Twenty-eight: The Wild Boar of the Batignolles

  Chapter Twenty-nine: Vaulting Ambitions

  Chapter Thirty: The Prussian Terror

  Chapter Thirty-one: The Last Days of Paris

  Chapter Thirty-two: A Carnival of Blood

  Chapter Thirty-three: Days of Hardship

  Chapter Thirty-four: The Apples of Discord

  Chapter Thirty-five: A Ring of Gold

  Chapter Thirty-six: Pure Haarlem Beer

  Chapter Thirty-seven: Beyond Perfection

  Chapter Thirty-eight: The Liberation of Paris

  Epilogue: Finishing Touches

  Political Timeline

  Acknowledgments

  Notes

  Bibliography

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Ernest Meissonier

  The Brawl (Meissonier)

  The Grande Maison

  Édouard Manet

  The Absinthe Drinker (Manet)

  Théophile Gautier

  Boulevard Saint-Michel

  The Comte de Nieuwerkerke (J-A-D Ingres)

  The Judgment of Paris (Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael)

  Study for (Manet) Music in the Tuileries

  James McNeill Whistler

  Emperor Napoléon III

  The Palais des Champs-Élysées

  Gustave Courbet

  The White Girl (James McNeill Whistler)

  Polichinelle (Meissonier)

  Eugène Delacroix

  Study of Victorine Meurent (Manet)

  Nadar

  Drawing of Manet (Edgar Degas)

  Lithograph of The Races at Longchamp (Manet)

  Meissonier and family

  The Studio (Charles Meissonier)

  Claude Monet

  Menippus (Diego Velázquez)

  Beggar in a Cloak (Manet)

  Émile Zola

  Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro

  The Universal Exposition of 1867

  Émile Zola pamphlet on Édouard Manet

  Charles Baudelaire

  Lithograph of The Execution of Maximilian (Manet)

  Study of horses in motion (Meissonier)

  The Luncheon (Manet)

  Berthe Morisot

  Otto von Bismarck

  Rue Castiglione during the siege of Paris, 1871

  Adolphe Thiers

  The Vendôme Column

  Statue of Napoléon from the Vendôme Column

  The Hôtel de Ville, burned during the Commune

  The Barricade (Manet)

  The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil (Manet)

  Manet Painting in Monet's Garden (Monet)

  Marble statue of Ernest Meissonier

  Color Plates

  1A. Remembrance of Civil War (Ernest Meissonier)

  1B. Liberty Leading the People (Eugène Delacroix)

  2A. (Ernest Meissonier) The Emperor Napoléon III at the Battle of Solferino

  2B. (Ernest Meissonier) The Campaign of France

  3A. (Édouard Manet) Music in the Tuileries

  3B. (Gustave Courbet) A Burial at Ornans

  4A. (Alexandre Cabanel) The Birth of Venus

  4B. (Édouard Manet) Olympia

  5A. (Claude Monet) Le Déjeuner sur I'herbe

  5B. originally entitled (Édouard Manet) Le Déjeuner sur I'herbe, Le Bain

  6A. (Édouard Manet) The Races at Longchamp

  6B. (Ernest Meissonier) Friedland

  7A. (Ernest Meissonier) The Siege of Paris

  7B. (Édouard Manet) The Railway

  8A. (Édouard Manet) Le Bon Bock

  8B. (Claude Monet) Bathers at La Grenouillère

  CHAPTER ONE

  Chez Meissonier

  ONE GLOOMY JANUARY day in 1863, Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, the world's wealthiest and most celebrated painter, dressed himself in the costume of Napoléon Bonaparte and, despite the snowfall, climbed onto the rooftop balcony of his mansion in Poissy.

  A town with a population of a little more than 3,000, Poissy lay eleven miles northwest of Paris, on the south bank of an oxbow in the River Seine and on the railway line running from the Gare Saint-Lazare to the Normandy coast.1 It boasted a twelfth-century church, an equally ancient bridge, and a weekly cattle market that supplied the butcher shops of Paris and, every Tuesday, left the medieval streets steaming with manure. There was little else in Poissy except for the ancient priory of Saint-Louis, a walled convent that had once been home to an order of Dominican nuns. The nuns had been evicted during the French Revolution and the convent's buildings either demolished or sold to private buyers. But inside the enclosure remained an enormous, spired church almost a hundred yards in length and, close by, a grandiose house with clusters of balconies, dormer windows and pink-bricked chimneys: a building sometimes known as the Grande Maison.

  Ernest Meissonier* had occupied the Grande Maison for most of the previous two decades. In his forty-eighth year he was short, arrogant and densely bearded: "ugly, little and mean," one observer put it, "rather a scrap of a man."2 A friend described him as looking like a professor of gymnastics,3 and indeed the burly Meissonier was an eager and accomplished athlete, often rising before dawn to rampage through the countryside on horseback, swim in the Seine, or launch himself at an opponent, fencing sword in hand. Only after an hour or two of these exertions would he retire, sometimes still shod in his riding boots, to a studio in the Grande Maison where he spent ten or twelve hours each day crafting on his easel the wonders of precision and meticulousness that had made both his reputation and his fortune.4

  To overstate either Meissonier's reputation or his fortune would have been difficult in the year 1863. "At no period," a contemporary claimed, "can we point to a French painter to whom such high distinctions were awarded, whose works were so eagerly sought after, whose material interests were so guaranteed by the high prices offered for every production of his brush."5 No artist in France could command Meissonier's extravagant prices or excite so much public attention. Each year at the Paris Salon—the annual art exhibition in the Palais des Champs-Élysées—the space before Meissonier's paintings grew so thick with spectators that a special policeman was needed to regulate the masses as they pressed forward to inspect his latest success.6 Collected by wealthy connoisseurs such as James de Rothschild and the Due d'Aumale, these paintings proved such lucrative investments that Meissonier's signature was said to be worth that of the Bank of France.7 "The prices of his works," noted one awestruck art critic, "have attained formidable proportions, never before known."8 Meissonier's success in the auction rooms was accompanied by a chorus of critical praise and—even more unusual for an art world riven by savage rivalries and piffling jealousies—the respect and admiration of his
peers. "He is the incontestable master of our epoch," declared Eugène Delacroix, who predicted to the poet Charles Baudelaire that "amongst all of us, surely it is he who is most certain to survive!"9 Another of Meissonier's friends, the writer Alexandre Dumas fils, called him "the painter of France."10 He was simply, as a newspaper breathlessly reported, "the most renowned artist of our time."11