MPS MEN PORTRAITS SERIES
n°2 English text menportraits.blogspot.com © Francis Rousseau 2011-2020
Transla4on : Anne Menuhin
DOUBT
MEN PORTRAITS _____________________ Doubt
Raffaelo Sorbi (1844-1931) Portrait of Emilio Zocchi, 1868 Private Collection
The first doubt is self-doubt. In general, human beings do not particularly like this doubt because one is projected into a cycle which we tend to consider as dangerous. However, there is nothing dangerous in doubting oneself. Doubt is the obligatory companion of evolution: if one does not question one's certainties, one will never accept any criticism. Doubt is at the center of the ordeal that constitutes for each individual personal evolution. The Florentine sculptor Emilio Zocchi (1835-1913) represented here, was never in harmony with the movements of his time. Mostly known for his busts, bas-reliefs and statuettes of individuals in the Renaissance style, he shunned fashions and took refuge in a classicism appreciated by his Florentine bourgeois and / or patrician clientele but despised by artistic circles. Taciturn by temperament, he liked to pay homage to Michelangelo whom he sculpted in different situations, the most famous being Michelangelo as a child which is preserved in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Did Zocchi doubt that by choosing the academic style rather than impressionism, he had made the right artistic choice? Never. Yet his gaze in this portrait questions the viewer. He seems to be saying, "You who are looking at me, wherever you are in time or in space - maybe even a century away - what do you think? " The painter Raffaelo Sorbi, author of this portrait of Zocchi, was of the same artistic mood. Florentine like Zocchi, he produced small canvases, sold by the Galerie Goupil in Paris, many of which were in the Neo Pompeian style inspired by ancient Rome or Tuscan history.
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Are they still alive? This is the question posed by these faces that arise with intensity from a very distant past, these "Fayoum portraits", a set of paintings dating back to Roman Egypt, executed between the 1st and the 4th centuries of the Christian era. . They are so called because of the place of their initial discovery, in 1888, the Fayoum region of Egypt. These are indeed funeral portraits painted on the bark of the fig-sycamore tree and inserted into the mummy's strips at the level of the face. (see below). These deceased, more alive than dead, are always depicted as frontal busts. The "Fayoum portraits", which thus stare straight into our eyes from the depths of EgyptianRoman antiquity, continue the funeral tradition of the mummy of ancient Egypt and the decorated sarcophagus. They enrich it, however, with influences concerning the representation of the body, linked to invasions and immigration, notably Greek and then Roman. The mummy's face was not the only function of the "Fayoum portraits". Above all, they had the capacity to help the living to remember the deceased as he was during his lifetime and whom the portrait should resemble as much as possible, according to Roman tradition. This fitted perfectly with Egyptian culture and its own cult of imagery linked to the body of the deceased developed throughout the Pharaonic era. In Egyptian culture, the deceased had to survive physically and spiritually, and his body served as a physical attachment to those intangible parts of a being ( the ka and ba). The Egyptian tradition went further than the Roman tradition in doubts about the condition of the dead. The Egyptians went so far as to preserve the mummy of the deceased inside the house and involve it in every meal. With a Fayoum at one's table, some could almost doubt that he was dead. It’s also the same doubt about death which still persists today in these portraits and makes them so disturbing and fascinating, 20 centuries after their creation ...
Three portraits of Fayoum 1st- 4th century
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In the late 1940s, 24-year-old Yukio Mishima (pseudonym Kimitake Hiraoka) wrote the Confession of a Mask. It is an autobiographical work depicting a man who has to hide his homosexual desires. He immediately became famous in his country and, in just a few years, all over the world. At that time, Mishima doubting himself, absolutely wanted to change the situation by bartering his appearance of a fragile young man for that of an athlete. He forced himself to do extremely restrictive physical exercises. In 1955, he had an athletic body. He maintained it until the end of his life, practicing Kendo, the Japanese sword fencing of the Samurai. After considering an alliance with Michiko Shō da - who later became Empress of Japan having married Emperor Akihito - in 1958 he married Yoko Sugiyama with whom he had 2 children. This tidy life was not a choice but a sacrifice to satisfy the "desire of his mother". Everyone knows that the writer led a double life: he was seen in the gay bars of Tokyo which he claimed to frequent "as an observer"; he was said to have links with foreigners passing through or with various Frenchmen when he stayed in Paris, etc ... Although Mishima's homosexuality appears clearly in his works, in Japan this theme remained taboo, even several decades after his death. In 1995, his family sued the novelist Jiro Fukushima who published a book, accompanied by letters, on his affair with Mishima. Before being totally banned, the book sold more than 90,000 copies. As for the photos where Mishima exhibits his body (like this one), they have since become the iconic standard bearers of homosexual aesthetics. In 1968, Mishima even went so far as to play himself in a
Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) photographed in 1967 with his Kendo sabre 3 years before his suicide
film - which has become legendary - The Black Lizard, alongside the onagata (the transexual) Akihiro Miwa, and was said to have been her / his lover! Mishima's own western biographer Henry Scott-Stokes formally sweeps away the doubt over Mishima's homosexuality, recalling that the very death of Mishima, his shinjū (double suicide) was a way of authenticating the love that Mishima and Morita had for one another. In fact, during 1970, Mishima completed his sumptuous tetralogy The Sea of Fertility with his fourth volume: The Decomposing Angel. On November 25, he posted the end of the manuscript to his editor, then went to the Ministry of Defense where he held a general hostage and summoned the troops to whom he gave a speech in favour of the restoration of Imperial authority. It was an attempted coup! The reaction of the 800 soldiers present was hostile. Confronted by the boos, Mishima theatrically withdrew and returned home to immediately kill himself by seppuku in front of his lover, Masakatsu Morita, who according to tradition, finished the deed by decapitating him. Morita immediately followed Mishima to his own death. This coup was meticulously prepared for more than a year, and had even been described identically in his novel Escaped Horses(1969). Before committing suicide, Mishima smoked an Onshino Tabako, the special cigarettes from the Imperial Household in Japan. On the occasion of the publication of his essay, Mishima or the Vision of the Void (1980), Academician Marguerite Yourcenar said in the Apostrophes program: "Mishima's death was one of his works and the most carefully prepared".
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Andrea Solario (1461524) Man with a pink carnation, 1495 National Gallery London
This man, who was a senator from Venice, ostensibly holds a pink carnation in his right hand, which is not, one will easily agree, the primary vocation of a senator, even a Venetian senator. If on the other hand we remember that the pink carnation was a symbol of commitment and we bring see this sign in relation to the very beautiful blue and gold ring that the senator wears on his thumb, we can quickly deduce that this man with such a proud bearing is preparing to be married! Venetian tradition has it that on the day of the wedding, the bridegroom offers his bride a pink carnation which she hastens to hide in her clothes. No more doubt: this portrait is therefore that of a senator on the very day of his marriage. Although his identity is unknown to us, his outfit tells us that he was a high-ranking Venetian. The hat and the stole (the piece of fabric folded on his chest) attest to the maturity of the personage. His tunic, on the other hand, suggests that he may have been a magistrate because only members of one of the city councils were allowed to wear red. Venice, in the 1490s, was at the center of portrait innovations thanks to the adoption of new techniques and new conceptions of painting from the Netherlands. Solario painted the man according to all the canons of the latest fashion, using a three-quarter pose, rather than in profile, against the backdrop of a green valley. Solario was originally from Milan although he mainly worked in Venice.
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Benedict the Moore (1526 - 1589) or Benedict the Black or Benedict of Palermo was an Italian Reformed Franciscan, recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church. He is the patron saint of the Black community in North America. Benenedict the African was the son of Christophe, a slave of Yoruba or Ethiopian origin and of the Sicilian Diane Manasseri, who became Christians. His parents agreed to conceive a child only on condition that he would be freed ... but, despite the promises, being a boy, he was born a slave and remained so until the age of 18. For the next ten years, he made a living as a day worker, sharing his meagre salary with the poor and devoting his free time to caring for the sick and meditation. Because of his ethnic origin, he was a subject of mockery, but always answered humiliations with kindness and dignity. During one of these taunts, the sweetness of Benoît's responses caught the attention of Jérôme Lanza. Shortly after this incident, Benedict was able to dispose of his rare goods and join Jérôme Lanza's small group of hermits, who took him under their protection.
José Montes de Oca (1668-1754) St Benedicttof Palermo, 1730, Minnéapolis Institute of Arts
Benedict then entered the Reformed Minor Brothers' strict observance at the Franciscan convent of St. Mary of Jesus near Palermo where it is said that food multiplied miraculously in his hands. In 1578 he was appointed superior of the order for three years despite his wishes as well as his being unable to either read or write. Benedict's reputation for holiness spread throughout the country and attracted many faithful. He was said to be discreet and ready to hide or move around at night in order to avoid attracting attention. There are, however, representations of this saint, covered in jewellry and feathers that could cast doubt on his legendary discreet nature! Fake news? ! The fact remains that Benedict the African was beatified on May 15, 1743 by Benedict XIV and canonized by Pius VII on May 24, 1807. In 1998, the mayor of Palermo relaunched his cult in Sicily in order to inspire in his citizens a more open vision of race relations. In 2000, his name was given to a chair created by the city in coordination with UNESCO to promote inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue.
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Guido Mazzoni (1450 - 1518) Old man's head, 1480-85 Terracotta, 26 x 17 x 20 cm. Galleria Estensi, Modena .
The success of the painter and illuminator Guido Mazzoni was assured above all by his excellence in an artistic genre which was enormously popular in northern Italy in the 15th century: life-size polychrome statues, isolated or in sacred groups. Already widely used in sacred Spanish art as of the 12th century, this polychrome statuary with immediate expressive impact quickly became very sought after in Italy. Guido Mazzoni's success with the working class was followed very quickly by important recognition from the aristocracy. Thus in 1491, he was called to Naples to the Aragonese court which, being of Spanish origin, was familiar with this statuary art it having been established for several centuries already on the Spanish peninsula. In Naples, he made the bronze bust of Ferdinand I (now kept at the Capodimonte museum). The king of France Charles VIII, discovering Mazzoni during his passage through Naples, decided to take him with him to Paris. The documents of the time mention him as a painter and illuminator. He worked with Giovanni Giocondo at the Château d'Amboise, gaining esteem and admiration. On the death of Charles VIII, he was commissioned to execute the royal tomb intended for the Basilica of Saint-Denis, a sumptuous work in enamelled bronze, surrounded by statues of angels and weeping virtues. The sepulchre was destroyed during the French Revolution. After a brief stay in Italy in 1507, he returned to France in the service of Louis XII. He worked at the castle of Blois, making two statues of the king: one in hunting costume and the second, in stone, as an equestrian monument placed at the entrance of the castle. Who was this old man? Who owned this look that expresses so many doubts? A prince's face? or anonymous? Given the notoriety of the sculptor, there would be, a priori, little chance that the subject was an unknown. Yet Mazzoni, like many artists of his time, loved sculpting the faces of strangers from whom he drew inspiration for his large sacred polychrome groups. It may therefore be that this person was one of those familiar faces that Mazzoni met in the streets of Modena and whom he asked to come to his studio to pose. But truth be told ... we don't know!
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Dick Ket( 1902-1940°, Selfportrait with Red Geranium, 1932, Oil on canvas, 80, 5 x 54 cm Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Dick Ket was a painter known for his still lifes and especially his self-portraits (40 of the 140 paintings he painted). This Self-portrait with Red Geranium directly evokes models of Italian and German Renaissance art, from which often borrowed, such as the oblique regard which expresses an ironic questioning or an existential doubt (Botticelli, Dürer), the bare breast ( Dürer), the hand holding a flower ... His meticulously composed still lifes always revolve around the same themes and almost always represent the same objects, namely bottles (like the one he holds in his right hand), an almost empty bowl (bottom right) often chipped or dirty, eggs, musical instruments, newspapers, children's toys (like the articulated horse hanging on the wall) ... Ket juxtaposed these objects in angular arrangements, seen from above, in an angled perspective, the shadows cast by the objects always creating interesting diagonals. Today he is considered to be one of the most endearing representatives of Dutch magic realism. His technical experiments with different additives in the composition of his pigments, mediums and varnish, had the effect of causing an astonishing result that has been difficult for curators to manage, since some of his paintings are still not completely dry after 80 years !!! The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Arnhem Museum and the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam are among the museums that keep works by Dick Ket at their own risk.
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This portrait was painted in Saint Petersburg, just two months before the Revolution that led Imperial Russia to the coup d'etat we know. In this year 1917, Remissoff was still a student at the prestigious Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg where he had been for almost 10 years. When the 1917 Revolution broke out, Ilya Répine, a famous painter at the height of his glory, fortified by his numerous Imperial commissions, went to the capital to exchange with other painters. He chaired a meeting which proposed the creation of the "Union of Plastic Arts and Actors" which would reorganise the Academy of Fine Arts, on the model of a "production and knowledge community". It was at this precise moment that he met Remissoff and painted his portrait to illustrate the utopian "production commune". But, while Remissoff was employed as a designer for the magazines Strekoza, Satyricon, and then Novy Satyricon where he published satirical drawings
Ilya Repin (1844-1930) Portrait of Nikolaï Remissoff (1887-1975) painted in 1917 à Saint Petersbourg
on political subjects, a serious doubt seized him as to the interpretation of the revolutionary ideal, especially at the time of the seizure of power by force by a tiny group of rabid Bolsheviks. In 1920, disappointed in his revolutionary expectations, he decided to emigrate and settled, like many Russians, in Paris. He immediately found work there in a painting workshop where he produced advertising posters and political propaganda. He also collaborated as a theater decor painter on more or less obscure Parisian stages… In 1922, new doubts and new beginnings… towards the United States this time where he became in 1939 after several lean years - decorator and then artistic director in Hollywood. This time, success was waiting and between 1939 and 1960, he worked on forty films including Mice and Men or
Turnabout or Let's change sex », something which he never dared do, one area being off limits to his doubts!
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Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) Ecce homo Oil on wood panel, 30x19cm, circa 1493 Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe ,
This famous work by Dürer represents Jesus Christ after he was flogged and mocked by the soldiers, just before he was crucified. Jesus bleeds profusely from his human wounds and he holds in his hands the instruments used to beat him: a whip with three knots and a bundle of birch rods. He wears the crown of thorns. He rests his head on his right hand in a gesture of sorrow. His other hand rests on a ledge from which it protrudes slightly, a device of perspective that Dürer often used to add depth. The face is painted with great realism. On a golden background, Christ looks towards the observer of the painting, expressing resignation at his fate. This devotional panel, although unsigned, was attributed to Dürer in 1941 and has since been widely accepted as one of the finest works of his youth. This extremely moving work, so full of humanity, dates from the time when Dürer was a Companion and it could very well have been produced in Strasbourg, probably in 1493 or early 1494. It bears the title of Ecce Homo, which we can translate by Here is Man in the sense of Here is a Human being, a direct allusion to the Christian dogma according to which God sent his son, embodied as an ordinary man, to save the human race ... who then doubted his divine nature and crucified him. "Eloï, Eloï, lamma sabachtani" (My God! My God! Why have you abandoned me?) Christ's supposed words as he died on the cross. Words reported in the Gospels of Matthew (27,46) and Mark 1 (5,34), thus giving doubt a divine dimension.
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Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929) Watching the sea Private collection
La chair est triste, hélas ! et j’ai lu tous les livres. Fuir ! là-bas fuir! Je sens que des oiseaux sont ivres D’être parmi l’écume inconnue et les cieux ! Rien, ni les vieux jardins reflétés par les yeux Ne retiendra ce cœur qui dans la mer se trempe Ô nuits ! ni la clarté déserte de ma lampe Sur le vide papier que la blancheur défend Et ni la jeune femme allaitant son enfant. Je partirai ! Steamer balançant ta mâture, Lève l’ancre pour une exotique nature ! Un Ennui, désolé par les cruels espoirs, Croit encore à l’adieu suprême des mouchoirs ! Et, peut-être, les mâts, invitant les orages, Sont-ils de ceux qu’un vent penche sur les naufrages Perdus, sans mâts, sans mâts, ni fertiles îlots … Mais, ô mon cœur, entends le chant des matelots !
The flesh is sad, alas! and all the books are read. Flight, only flight! I feel that birds are wild to tread The floor of unknown foam, and to attain the skies! Nought, neither ancient gardens mirrored in the eyes, Shall hold this heart that bathes in waters its delight, O nights! nor yet my waking lamp, whose lonely light Shadows the vacant paper, whiteness profits best, Nor the young wife who rocks her baby on her breast. I will depart! O steamer, swaying rope and spar, Lift anchor for exotic lands that lie afar! A weariness, outworn by cruel hopes, still clings To the last farewell handkerchief’s last beckonings! And are not these, the masts inviting storms, not these That an awakening wind bends over wrecking seas, Lost, not a sail, a sail, a flowering isle, ere long? But, O my heart, hear thou, hear thou, the sailors’ song!
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) - Brise marine
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) - Brise marine Translated by Arthur Symons for Harper’s Magazine
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Frederick Inman Monsen (1865-1929) Portrait of Poo-wish-ke-ja-le-kiss, Navajo. Painted Desert, Arizona. ca 1900 ,
Photographer Frederick Monsen arrived in Colorado to work as editor of a newspaper for which he began to photograph Native American peoples. He had no idea then that it would become the job of his entire life, to the point that he would end up living with these indigenous peoples of the southwest of the United States. The young Poo-wish-ke-ja-le-kiss, of which Monsen painted the portrait (opposite) around 1900, belonged to the very noble and ancient people of Navajo, direct descendant of the Dineh people who arrived in Alaska from Central Asia, on foot through the Bering Straits around 1200 before the Christian era. The Navajo, however, waited until the 16th century before descending from the north of the American continent and settling in the southwest. By the 17th century, they had become a pastoral people, with an economy based largely on animal husbandry and hunting. During the 18th and 19th centuries, they came into conflict with the Spanish and Mexican settlers. Their contacts with the Spanish were limited but important; the latter introduced horses, sheep and goats, which became vital elements of the Navajo economy.
In 1846, the Navajos concluded a first treaty with the government of the United States, but there were skirmishes with American troops in 1849 and repeated engagements until 1863. That year, the Navajos were captured and sent by foot to the Fort Sumner Reserve, New Mexico. This deportation is known in Navajo history as the "long march". By 1868, more than 2,000 of the 10,000 or so captives had already died. It is from this fearless people that the gaze of the young Navajo youngster photographed by Monsen seems to tell their story several thousands of years old. From the top of this gaze, as Napoleon would have said from the top of the pyramids of Egypt, over 3000 years of history contemplates the new Spanish, English and Dutch peoples of the United States! Navajo spirituality based on the worship of nature and harmony (hozho) is linked to health, beauty, order and harmony. At the end of the 20th century, there has been a noticeable awakening of interest in their philosophy of life..
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Polidoro da Caravaggio 1527, Study of an unknown man's head Royal Collection UK
The Italian painter Polidoro di Caravaggio (1499-1543) - not to be confused with Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), known as "Caravaggio" - was not at all intended for an artistic career but that of a mason. For a long time he was responsible for carrying the shuttle (a container full of quicklime) during the construction of the loggias of the pontifical palace in Rome. His innate sense of drawing, which he practiced on the ground between two shuttles, ended up being noticed by the brilliant artists who worked for the Pope and especially by the great Raphael himself who immediately took him under his protection as a pupil . Polidoro de Caravaggio began his work as a draftsman by making mostly portraits, of children in particular and of strangers whom he met in the street, in hostels or in brothels. Curiously, and his namesake the famous Le Caravage will do the same a century later in his sacred paintings, Polidoro de Caravaggio's models are all thugs ... even outright villains, generally thieves, murderers, crooks or rapists ... or all four at a once ! The two Caravaggios - this coincidence being all the more disturbing since they could not have known one another - used these hoodlums as models for their Christ, their St John the Baptist, their St Sebastian and other legendary saints of the Roman Catholic Church! In his drawings, Polidoro excelled in chiaroscuro and showed his attachment to the classical model. In 1527, the Sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V pushed Polidoro to flee. He took refuge first in Naples where he painted in the chapel of Sainte-Marie-des-Grâce, a particularly well known Saint Peter inspired by a fisherman he had crossed on the port. Very quickly Polidoro felt that he was not well enough recognized in Naples. He embarked for Messina where he was highly considered and he set to work again. Having become famous in Messina, he settled there… but not for long because Tonio Calabrese, who was at the same time his servant, his model and his pupil (but especially a rascally bastard!) assassinated him with a knife in order to rob him of a large sum of money he had just received. Of Tonio Calabrese as a painter, we do not know a single painting nor a single drawing! On the other hand concerning Tonio Calabrese the model, it is most probable that it is he who is represented by the head of the unknown man opposite, preserved in the collections of the Queen of England. Doubt still remains today. What a fate!
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Herbert Ponting (1870-1935) Patrick Keohane on return from the Barriers, 29 January 1912 The Royal Trust Collection Collection of Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II ,
Serving as a ship's master Patrick Keohane (1879-1950) was an Irish member of Robert Falcon ScoM's legendary Antarc4c expedi4on of 1910-1913, the Terra Nova expedi4on. At 30, he was selected by Teddy Evans to join the Terra Nova expedi4on to Antarc4ca aboard the HMS Repulse. It was he who during the trip to the South Pole led one of the ponies which ScoM had embarked to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier. He was then part of the group of 12 men designated to go in search of the pole. He was with Edward L. Atkinson, Charles S. Wright and Apsley CherryGarrard, those who arrived at 85 ° 15 'South on December 22, 1911. During the trip back to Cape Evans, Keohane fell into crevices eight 4mes in 25 minutes with his pony. They nevertheless managed to reach Hut Point on January 26, 1912. On March 27, 1912, Keohane, with Atkinson, aMempted to locate ScoM and his group and bring them back to Cape Evans. They could only progress to a point 8 miles south of Corner Camp. There they lea a week of supplies and returned to Cape Evans. On October 29, 1912, aaer having spent the austral winter on the con4nent, Keohane and his group set off in search of Robert Falcon ScoM's group.
bodies of ScoM, Edward Adrian Wilson and Henry Robertson Bowers 11 miles south of the One Ton food depot. They decided to bring back with them all the documents, statements and watercolors that ScoM's team had produced ... It was at the precise moment of this gruelling return, both physical and moral, that Herbert Pon4ng, a great photographer and also an important witness to the first polar expedi4ons, decided to take the photo opposite. On January 22, 1913, a rare survivor of this tragic and heroic expedi4on, Master Patrick Keohane returned to Europe from Cape Evans aboard the HMS Terra Nova. The ship arrived in Wales on June 14, 1913. Aaer his return, Keohane joined the Coast Guard service and became the Isle of Man coast guard district officer. He then joined the Royal Navy and served during the Second World War. He died in Plymouth, England in 1950 at the age of 71.
MEN PORTRAITS _____________________ Doubt The Bri4sh painter Glyn Warren Philpot produced several portraits en4tled Tom Whiskey which, in reality, represented Julien Zaïre, jazz musician performing in Parisian cabarets. These portraits presented the musician as an elegant man, with a refined physique, surrounded by all the trappings of modernity (gramophone, avant-garde decor, etc.), signs which were also linked to jazz which landed in Europe at the end of the First world War. These portraits were presented for the first 4me in 1932 in the United Kingdom. One could well say that they had the effect of a bomb of exo4cism and avant-garde in the circumscribed universe of the painters of the Royal Academy. The images of a dancing Paris, all elegance and refinement, sowed doubt in the narrow minds of the 4me. They carried a strong message which Philpot oaen repeated in the rest of his work, that of a Negritude synonymous with beauty, elegance and
Glyn Warren Philpot, (1884-1937) Tom Whiskey (M. Julien Zaire), 1931 Private collection (Sotheby's London)
intelligence. A message that may seem commonplace these days but which was completely revolu4onary in that era. As for Julien Zaïre, hero of this adventure although he did not leave an imprint in the musical world, we think that he arrived from Mar4nique (exactly like Joséphine Baker) in the wake of the Revue Nègre presented at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, in 1925. What was then called the Harlem Renaissance spread through Paris like lightening making the capital of France nothing less than the world capital of Jazz! The French, with their desire to have fun aaer the trying war years, discovered, thanks to the Americans, new dances like the charleston. The districts of Montmartre and the ChampsElysées hosted jazz clubs such as Le Grand Duc, Le Boeuf sur le toit, Le Théâtre des ChampsElysées and a mul4tude of other small clubs opening and closing according to trends. It is undoubtedly in one of these ephemeral bar-clubs that Julien Zaïre performed, whose
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name would quickly be eclipsed by those more pres4gious of Django Reinhardt, Henri Salvador, or Sidney Bechet… Of Paris at that 4me, nicknamed Paris of the "les Annees Folles", Jean Cocteau would say: “The first 6me I heard jazz, I pricked up the ears of a circus horse. I recognized the music so much desired ... "
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Charles André́ van Loo (1705-1765) Standing man,, 1742. Collection privée
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Charles André van Loo, known as Carle van Loo, was a French painter, son of the painter Louis-Abraham van Loo and brother of the painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1684-1745). He had a brilliant career and became immensely famous, under the protection of the Marquise de Pompadour for whom he worked. He is the best known member of the Van Loo dynasty, established in France since the 17th century. His technical mastery was certainly exceptional, and yet no other artist doubted his talents more than he at this point, as even the model for the splendid engraving opposite seems to be saying. Unsure of himself and poorly educated, he preferred to follow the advice of his friends and allow himself to be more influenced by criticism than to take initiatives. Constantly modifying his compositions, he did not hesitate to destroy some of his works. This was the case, for example, for the first version of one of his most famous works today: The Three Graces. We could perhaps find in this permanent doubting of his talent and his abilities an explanation for the undeniable coldness of his most ambitious paintings, especially when we compare them with his preparatory sketches. Diderot says in his Notice on Carle Vanloo in 1765: “The first rogue confident enough to spout nonsense was capable of destroying his faith in the most beautiful picture with silly criticism; he spoiled more than one based on observations that often lacked common sense; and by dint of changing, he got tired on his subject, and ended up with a bad composition, after having erased an excellent one. " Nowadays, however, we recognise that this permanent doubt which became a basis of his creative process, even if it was not always used wisely, guaranteed Carle Van Loo a considerable public success! In the 18th century, there was no equivalent to this phenomenon of popular success before the craze for Jean-Baptiste Greuze's paintings or the heroic propaganda paintings by Jacques-Louis David.
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Aaron Shikler (1922–2015) Portrait of John F. Kennedy Posthumous official presidential portrait, 1970 The White House. ,
Unlike the many portraits of the President sirng behind his desk, Shikler's portrait represents the 35th President of the United States, J. F. Kennedy (1917-1963), standing, arms crossed, eyes lowered, his face obscured by doubt. Behind this portrait there is a story. Posthumous portrait, painted in 1971, therefore almost ten years aaer Kennedy's death, this achievement was closely supervised by the president's widow, Jackie Onassis. On this subject in 1981, the painter Aaron Shikler declared to People magazine: "The point that Jackie par6cularly emphasized was that she didn't want him to look like the usual portrait where we see him with bags under his eyes and a penetra6ng regard. She said that she was 6red of seeing this picture of him everywhere. " Before making the first preparatory sketches, Shikler consulted the important photographic background devoted to the late president where he came across an image represen4ng Ted Kennedy at the grave of his brother. It is this one that he chose as a source of inspira4on although the pain4ng requested was not at all supposed to evoke the death of Kennedy. According to People, as soon as Jackie saw this sketch, it was her first choice among all the others. "You could take inspira6on from this" she then suggested.
In 1971 Shikler told the Washington Post: "I followed her sugges6on all the more so considering that it was also my first idea! And this is how I painted the 35th president with his head down, not because I considered him a martyr, but because I wanted to show him as the thinking president that he was in my eyes ... And a president who thinks is a rare thing. " And indeed this president who allowed the first man to tread the soil of the moon and who opposed the construc4on of the Berlin Wall, was a man who obviously thought and thus one who doubted. This portrait in the posi4on of the thinker in doubt was not without cri4cism and according to the Washington Post: "Many poli6cians wondered why Shikler had chosen not to show the eyes of the president". To which the painter replied: "All the portraits of the president describe him looking the spectator straight in the eyes as if to convince him to vote for him! This is not what I wanted! I wanted something more meaningful than an ordinary elec6on poster! I wanted to try to show both this man's courage and his humility in the face of the task he had accomplished, as if he were s6ll wondering if he had been right or wrong in making such and such a decision ... "
MEN PORTRAITS _____________________ Doubt
Hans Leonard Schäufelein (1480-1540) Portrait of a Man (1507) National Gallery, Washington
We know almost nothing about this pain4ng and its painter. Given such doubts, this allows us to imagine anything we want! According to the date wriMen on the top right and the AD monogram on the top lea, this composi4on is by the great Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). And so it was believed to be for a long 4me ... at least un4l the billionaire and great American collector Andrew W. Mellon acquired it in 1928. By looking at this work and its invoice, experts came to the conclusion that if the support was indeed from the beginning of the 16th century, the monogram and the date had probably been added by hand later. Going further, they also concluded that the work was probably not from the brush of Dürer himself but from his most loyal pupil and collaborator, Hans Leonard Schäufelein (1480-1540) who worked in Dürer's workshop from 1504 to 1505 and was inspired over the long term by his style. In reality the collector Andrew Mellon lost liMle in exchange, since in the art market the works of Schäuflein demanded a price almost as important as the works of Dürer! About Hans Leonhard Schäuffelin himself, we hardly know anything ... except that the spelling of his name is very variable and fluctuates between Schauffele, Schäufelein, Schäuffelein, Scheifelin, Schenfelein, Schenflein or Schoyffelin. We also know that he was certainly the pupil of Albrecht Dürer, whose style greatly inspired him throughout his life and on which he built his en4re career. The date affixed on the pain4ng later also sows doubt, because in 1507 we know that Schaufelein had just lea Nuremberg to go to Augsburg where he worked with Hans Holbein the Elder. From this 4me on Schäufelein signed his works with the combina4on of his ligature monogram and a small shovel (Schaufel in German) and certainly not the monogram of his master AD. Schäufelein's very first dated and authen4cated pain4ng with his monogram did not appear un4l 1508. The personage represented remains a total mystery. It was thought for a 4me that it could have been the painter himself or a portrait of his son Hans Schäuffelin , the Younger (1515-1582), who was also a painter but was born 8 years aaer this portrait, or even Albrecht Dürer who loved to paint and be painted… but neither of these solu4ons has ever been validated by experts. Here, the doubt therefore remains intact!
MEN PORTRAITS _____________________ Doubt
Jean Grandjean (1752-1781). Study of a man's head,, 1780 Oil on canvas, Collection privée
douBT : positive oR négative ATTITUDE ? For Socrates (-470 / -399) doubt is synonymous with criticism and questioning of everything that presents itself as definitive knowledge.
For skeptical philosophers like Pyrrhon d'Elis (-360 / -270) or Timon de Philionte, doubt is an attitude of expectation, of suspense: indeed if we consider the precariousness of the human condition, it is preferable not to assert anything with certainty but on the contrary to doubt everything.
For Descartes (1596-1650), radical doubt serves to avoid being be fooled by opinions or false knowledge; it is a method which hopes to purge us of our illusions, and to reach, if not the truth itself in any case something approaching it. For Kant (1724-1804), doubt is necessary for the progress of humanity. Doubt is THE source of the Enlightenment.
And for you ?
MPS MEN PORTRAITS SERIES
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That’s it… For the moment … Because with MPS nothing ever ends… Surprises from the blog will soon enhance these thematic series… menportraits.blogspot.com © Francis Rousseau 2011-2020 Transla4on : Anne Menuhin
