FRANCE 



became increasingly apparent in 

 other fields of literature ; as in the 

 revival of the poetic drama with 

 Bornier, Coppee, and Rostand. 

 Liberated from the cramping 

 theories of pseudo-scientific real- 

 ism, all French literature indeed 

 has since developed with healthy 

 freedom along many independent 

 lines. In two departments in par- 

 ticular France still keeps her high 

 place : in the drama, as in the plays 

 of Lemaitre, Hervieu, Brieux, 

 Donnay, Bataille, and Bernstein ; 

 in fiction, as in the novels of 

 Anatole France, Loti, Bourget, 

 Bazin, Prevost, Barres, Boylesvo, 

 and Bordeaux. w. H. Hudson 



Bibliography. Histoire de la 

 Litterature Fran9&ise du Moyen 

 Age aux Temps Modernes, E. 

 Geruzez, 1857 ; Histoire de la 

 Litterature Franchise Depuis ses 

 Origines Jusqu'a la B.evolution, E. 

 Geruzez, 1861 ; Histoire de la 

 Langue Franaise, M. P. E. Littre, 

 1863 ; History of French Literature, 

 H. Van Laun, 1876-77 ; Historical 

 Grammar of the French Tongue, A. 

 Brachet, Eng. ed. P. Toynbee, 1896 ; 

 A History of French Literature, 

 E. Dowden, 1897 ; Histoire de 

 la Langue et de la Litterature 

 Francaise, ed. L. Petit de Jxilleville, 

 1896-99 ; Manual of the History of 

 French Literature, F. Brunetiere, 

 Eng. trans. R. Derechet, 1898 ; 

 Histoire de la Litterature Fran;aise, 

 G. Lanson, llth ed. 1910; A Short 

 History of French Literature, 

 G. E. "B. Saintsbury, 7th ed. 1917. 



ART. It is generally conceded 

 that French art, more than that 

 of any other country, reflects the 

 national aesthetic judgement and 

 feeling. Just as a Frenchman can 

 be identified as such before he 

 begins to speak, so is a French 

 painting or piece of sculpture un- 

 mistakable by its particular quali- 

 ties. For a long time, indeed, in 

 the fine arts at any rate, the 

 national quality overshadowed the 

 personal ; and though of late years 

 the cosmopolitan spirit has affected 

 French art like everything else, it 

 is still true that the idiosyncrasies 

 of individual French artists are 

 much less remarkable than their 

 mutual affinities. 



The Classic Tradition 



The outstanding characteristic of 

 French art is its high standard 

 of competence. Nowhere in the 

 world is so high a level of accom- 

 plishment reached. On the other 

 hand, the predominant element in 

 that competence is an intellectual 

 one ; and this leaves little room for 

 spirituality such as is found in the 

 best Italian work, or for the poetry 

 inherent in a good deal of British 

 art. The intellect of the French- 

 man is clear cut, extremely logical, 

 almost untouched by<sensuousness, 

 and his art is endowed with pre- 

 cisely parallel qualities. 



3304 



Hence comes his devotion for 

 classicism. The main stream of 

 French art has always been classic, 

 whatever sporadic manifestations 

 there may have been of other ten- 

 dencies, romantic, impressionist, 

 expressionist, and so forth. In 

 no phase is the strength of the 

 classic ideal more clearly shown 

 than in architecture. French 

 Gothic certainly had its own 

 character and beauty, but it was 

 a style imposed on France by the 

 religious orders, and fostered by 

 a temporary religious exaltation, 

 rather than the product of the 

 national genius. The great French 

 cathedrals began to be built in the 

 second quarter of the 12th century ; 

 but though these still remain as 

 monuments to the period, Gothic, 

 as a building style in France, had 

 exhausted its strength before the 

 end of the 15th century, and was 

 virtually extinct by the middle of 

 the 16th never to be revived. 

 The French Renaissance 



The classic revival, spreading out 

 of Italy, appealed at once to 

 French national aspirations, and, 

 first introduced into the country 

 by Italian workmen, was quickly 

 assimilated by the French builder- 

 architects. This " French Re- 

 naissance " was the foundation of 

 the classic style of building that 

 has held the field in France, vir- 

 tually without interruption, up to 

 the present day, and, lasting from 

 about the reign of Charles VIII (d. 

 1498) to the end of the 18th cen- 

 tury, was an era of splendid accom- 

 plishment. The 16th century saw 

 De L'Orme and Jean Bullant at 

 work on the Tuileries, the 1 7th the 

 building of the Royal Palace at 

 Versailles, and the completion of 

 the Louvre by Lemercier, as well 

 as the career of Fra^ois Mansart, 

 one of the most individual geniuses 

 of French and world classicism. 



If the neo-Renaissance buildings 

 of modern Paris seem paltry com- 

 pared with the older master- 

 pieces, it is not the less true that 

 French architecture continues to 

 exercise an immense influence on 

 the building of other countries. 

 The tradition of classicism, bal- 

 ance, perfection of form, justness 

 of proportion, persists very palpa- 

 bly in this phase of French artistic 

 expression, and no survey of other 

 phases would be complete without 

 reference to the general principles 

 it so clearly embodies. The same 

 principles reappear in the more 

 permanent examples of French 

 painting and sculpture. 



French painting owed its be- 

 ginnings to Flemish and Italian 

 artists, in the same way as French 

 architecture was indebted to the 

 Italian craftsmen. An attempt has 



FRANCE 



been made by patriotic French 

 critics to establish the existence of 

 an important national school at 

 Moulins towards the end of the 

 15th century, and the identity of 

 the " Maitre de Moulins," the 

 painter of a well-known triptych at 

 that town, with Jean Perreac, a 

 contemporary artist of French 

 nationality. But apart from the 

 uncertainty surrounding the per- 

 sonality of this Primitive and 

 others, it is difficult to trace any 

 material difference between their 

 work and that of the Flemings of 

 the same time. 



Even Jean Fouquet, the illu- 

 minator of the Chantilly Book of 

 Hours, is identified with several 

 paintings that are Flemish or Ger- 

 man in character, and the School 

 of Tours, in which he was the out- 

 standing figure, seems to have been 

 almost entirely directed bynorthern 

 masters. In the art of Nicholas 

 Froment, of the School of Avignon, 

 who flourished in the third quarter 

 of the 15th century, Italianate 

 influences manifest themselves as 

 well as those of the Low Countries. 

 Jean Clouet (d. c. 1540) and his 

 son Fran9ois (d. c. 1572) were 

 Netherlander domiciled at Tours. 

 Both became court painters and 

 helped to carry on the Flemish 

 manner as opposed to the Italian 

 manner which was then being fos- 

 tered by Rosso and Primaticcio 

 in the decoration of the royal 

 buildings at Fontainebleau. The 

 most notable " French " artist of 

 the Fontainebleau group was Jean 

 Cousin (d. c. 1584), called " The 

 French Michaelangelo." Modern 

 criticism, however, has dubbed him 

 a mediocre follower of Primaticcio. 

 Poussin and Lorrain 



The Fontainebleau decorative 

 school died rapidly, and shortly 

 after the dawn of the 17th century 

 French painting had passed out of 

 the stage of apprenticeship and 

 was evolving on vigorous and char- 

 acteristic lines of its own. The 

 principal foreign impulse came 

 from Rome. It was there that 

 Nicholas Poussin (d. 1665), the real 

 founder of the Classical school of 

 French painting, found his in- 

 spiration. Poussin's art, neverthe- 

 less, represents the most typical ex- 

 pression of the purely intellectual 

 side of French genius. Based on a 

 definite theory of design and com- 

 position, it is coldly classical, 

 wholly unemotional. Even his 

 landscapes testify his devotion to 

 the severely classical ideal, though 

 they also show a genuine, if aus- 

 tere, love of nature. In landscape, 

 however, he was easily surpassed 

 by his great contemporary Claude 

 Lorrain, who, adopting the same 

 classical model in his combinations 



