Jules Bastien-Lepage and his art

JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE After the portrait by himself Imp. Chardon-Wiltmann, Paris
JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE AND HIS ART. A MEMOIR, BY ANDRÉ THEURIET
JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE AS ARTIST, BY GEORGE CLAUSEN, A.R.W.S.; MODERN REALISM IN PAINTING, BY WALTER SICKERT, N.E.A.C.; AND, A STUDY OF MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF, BY MATHILDE BLIND
ILLUSTRATED WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF BASTIEN-LEPAGE’S AND MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF’S WORKS
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, PATERNOSTER SQUARE.  MDCCCXCII .
JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE AND HIS ART.
JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE
In the month of June, 1856, the chances of a Civil Service noviciate compelled me to live for six weeks at Damvillers, a small town on the Meuse, half-way between Verdun and Montmédy.
Damvillers was formerly fortified, and had the honour of being besieged by Charles V., but there is now nothing left to recall the memory of those warlike days. The whole aspect of the place is peaceful and rural. The people are occupied with agriculture. Orchards now cover the ground where the fortifications once stood, and form a circle of verdure round the scattered houses, in a valley where the Tinte winds through osier beds and meadows. On the right a vine-covered mound like the back of a camel, on the left a succession of wooded slopes, enclose the little town. The grey, blue hills are low. The monotony of the fields and meadows is broken only by rows of poplars. The ill-kept solitary streets bordered by the labourers’ houses with grey or dingy yellow fronts, have the same washed-out look as the landscape.
For a young fellow of twenty-two there was nothing here particularly attractive. I spent my solitary evenings with my elbows on my window-sill watching the twilight descend upon the brown-tiled roofs which enclose the great square as with a horizontal frame. In one corner the large green waggon of a travelling pedler was resting by the side of rows of earthenware, whose polished surface reflected the lights from the window of the neighbouring inn.