The Champlain tercentenary

by New York . Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission; Henry Wayland Hill

II. THE ALLEGORICAL BUST, “LA FRANCE,” AND THE PERSONNEL AND MISSION OF THE FRENCH DELEGATION

As the memorials neared completion, it was learned through His Excellency, Jean Adrien Antoine Jules Jusserand, the French Ambassador, that His Excellency, Clément Armand Fallières, President of the Republic of France, and the French people were raising funds to purchase and present to the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions, which was to become a part of the Champlain memorial at Crown Point Forts, an allegorical bust by one of their noted sculptors. The cordial relations existing between the people of France and the people of America, as a result of the Champlain Tercentenary Celebration, awakened in the two peoples something of that friendship, which naturally springs from the pursuit of common purposes, similar ideals and like humanitarian impulses. The Tercentenary tributes to the God-fearing Champlain, whose noble qualities of mind and heart and whose unrequited services to mankind afford the occasion for the intermingling of the two races and the interchange of expressions of good will and cordial greetings, touched the hearts of the French people as nothing else had done, since the time when the people of this country bestowed their tributes on that other distinguished Frenchman and patriot, Marquis de Lafayette, whose services to this nation have ever since provoked the praises of our countrymen. This appears from what followed.

Through the columns of Le Figaro of December 22, 1911, His Excellency, Albert Auguste Gabriel Hanotaux, of the French Academy and President of the Franco-American Committee, which assumed the undertaking of procuring the Rodin allegorical bust, “La France,” appealed to the people of France to support the Committee in its undertaking. In the course of this appeal (rendered into English), he said:

Of the three names (Champlain, Jacques de Liniers and F. de Lesseps), perhaps the greatest is that of Champlain. He was at once both founder and originator. Canada owes its existence to him. Quebec celebrated three years ago the memory of the man who having full consciousness of what he did placed the first stone of the French metropolis in America. He had also “great plans and vast thoughts.” A man of action, he was a man of imagination. He dreamed of the establishment for the benefit of France, of an immense dominion covering the American continent from Canada to Louisiana and Florida, through the valley of the Mississippi. This was neither more nor less than the idea of the future Republic of the United States, but in Champlain’s thought it was a matter of a French America. On the very first page of his book (now so rare and so much sought for by book-lovers), a book which he dedicated to the Cardinal Richelieu, the only one capable of comprehending him, Champlain explains his thought in terms of thrilling clearness. “It is necessary,” he wrote in 1632, “that under the reign of King Louis the Just, France beholds herself enriched with a country, the extent of which exceeds sixteen hundred leagues in length and more than five hundred in width, and that in a continent which leaves nothing to be desired in the bounty of its lands and in the profit which can be drawn from them, both for foreign commerce and for the delights of life therein. The communication of the great rivers and lakes, which are like seas stretching across these countries, affords so great facility for all discoverers in the remote regions that one can go to the seas of the west, of the east, of the far north, or even to the south.” When I cited this same page in 1898, I added: “Sixteen hundred leagues by five hundred! These are proportions over which one can now labor only in Africa.”

No doubt the great cities which will one day grow up on the banks of the Sangha, of the Oubanghi, and of the Congo, will celebrate Brazza, even as the United States prepare to glorify Champlain.

Some months ago our Ambassador at Washington, M. J. J. Jusserand, called the attention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the frequency of French commemorations in the United States. He mentioned especially the approaching erection on the borders of Lake Champlain of a monument consecrated to the memory of our compatriot and he asked the Government to act so that France would not be “absent” from these exercises so honorable to her. The Minister of Foreign Affairs laid the matter before the Franco-American Committee, who in turn makes its appeal to the public.

It is not desirable, indeed it is not proper that France absolutely ignore what is being done for her. Can she forget past services? Nations have the right to be ungrateful, but they cannot neglect courtesies—that would be inexcusable. A lack of good manners is worse than a fault. Since North America, or, to speak more exactly, the states of New York and Vermont, wish to remember, would we not be obstinate to forget?

The monument under construction is admirably adapted to the place and to the claims of the man, which it is designed to celebrate. There is at the extremity of the lake discovered by Champlain, and which bears his name, a lighthouse, throwing its rays over the waters of which, he, first of Europeans, contemplated the immense extent, empty and wild, and which are now traversed by the fleet of great steamboats, the region peopled by a swarm of men. A solid mass of masonry, a crown of columns bearing a terrace, and above all the lantern of the lighthouse, these are from base to summit the members of this powerful architecture. From the mass of masonry rises a rostrum, beneath which Champlain stands like a pilot.

What can France do? What should she do? What stone worthy of her can she bring to the monument? There is but one solution. It is that this stone must be precious.... We are at the house of Rodin. It is known how popular his name is in America. The great sculptor whose renown extends over the world has nowhere more ardent admirers. We hasten through the great rooms of the Hotel Biron. These great bare halls, full of the genius from which administrative barbarism is undertaking to shut out the glory, and among so many masterpieces where admiration exhausts itself, we discover (that is the true word, for the remarkable modesty of the master scarcely pointed it out to us) a bronze bust: France. Imagine the emotion of this finding! We sought an image, a symbol, I may say a signature of our country, to send out there and we find France herself, a darling France, full of grace, of spirit and of courage; a young French woman to the sensitive nostrils, to the full cheeks; to the chin, delicate and obstinate, to the glance, loyal, headstrong and brave; a young woman in whom are summed up our Clotilde, our Blanche, our Henriette and our Jeanne, crowned with her tresses as with a helmet, armed with her attire as with a cuirass. We sought for a French conception and we find the very image of France. It is this figure we wish to send out there, that it may be placed near the monument of Champlain. In front of the mass of masonry, a light construction, an “edicule,” which will be like a stone shrine sheltering and isolating the bust. And thus French art will carry its offering simply and beautifully, associating it with the powerful American commemoration.

If the idea appears good and worthy, worthy of the Government and of the Embassy, which has been confided to us, worthy of the man who was three centuries ago the champion of our country, worthy of the sister republic, then it is necessary that friends sign this visiting-card which will be sent out there in her name.

The inauguration of the monument will take place next July. A French delegation will go to deliver Rodin’s bronze to the building committee. Time presses. We must be ready by the day named. The bronze which requires some alterations will be quickly completed. But it is further necessary that the architect place the edicule, that they cut the stone, that they engrave it in order that the thought of the master make in the ensemble a delicate, proud work, a flower of France, blossoming in good art at the foot of the colossal monument.

A little money is needed. But above all is needed a prompt expression to prevent at once any fault of taste and lack of precision. The Figaro opens its columns to us. The Times, the Matin, the Parisian press aid us. To-day appears the first subscription list. We make appeal to the friends of America and to the friends of France, that it may be rapidly closed up.

To this patriotic appeal generous response was made and the bust was secured. On April 26, 1912, the French delegation on their superb steamship France of La Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in New York harbor was welcomed by members of the New York Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, Viscount de Jean, Secretary of the French Embassy at Washington, M. Étienne Marie Louis Lanel, French Consul-General at New York, Paul Fuller, Jr., representing the Franco-American Committee, Hon. McDougall Hawkes, representing the Franco-American Institute in the United States, and Mr. Henry L. Beadel, one of the architects of the Champlain Memorials. The interchange of greetings between the members of the Tercentenary Commission and the visitors prepared the way for the receptions that were to follow at New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Montreal, Quebec, and elsewhere. The delegation was accompanied by Hon. Robert Bacon, former United States Ambassador to France, and was one of the most representative that had ever come over from France. It included in its membership:

His Excellency, Albert Auguste Gabriel Hanotaux, of the French Academy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, President of the delegation; Hon. Louis Barthou, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, former Minister of Justice; Baron D’Estournelles de Constant, Member of the French Senate and of The Hague International Tribunal; M. René Bazin of the French Academy; General Lebon, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor and Member of the Superior Council of War; M. Étienne Lamy of the French Academy; M. Fernand Cormon, painter, President of the Academy of Fine Arts; Count Charles de Chambrun, Secretary of the French Embassy at Washington, representing President Poincaré of the Council of Ministers; M. Paul Vidal de le Blache, Member of the Institute, representing the University of Paris; Le Duc Choiseul, descendant of an old distinguished French family; Count de Rochambeau, descendant of Count de Rochambeau, in command of the French forces in America during the Revolution; M. J. Dal Piaz, Director-General of La Compagnie Générale Transatlantique; M. Louis Blériot, Engineer and Aviator; M. Antoine Girard, Commercial Explorer; M. Léon Barthou, delegate from the Aero Club of France; M. Gabriel Louis Jaray, Member of the Council of State and Secretary of the General Franco-American Committee; M. Gaston Deschamps, representing “Le Temps;” M. Régis Gignoux, representing “Le Figaro;” M. Roger Gouel, Secretary of the delegation; the Countess de Rochambeau; Madame Blériot; Miss Valentine Girard and Miss Madeline Cormon.

Baron D’Estournelles de Constant, so favorably known to Americans on account of his advocacy of International Peace on a former visit to this country, introduced the members of the delegation to members of the New York Commission, which presented to each visitor one of the official souvenir Champlain badges and later a copy of the first edition of the Official Report of the Tercentenary Celebration. The mission of the delegation was to bring and present to the New York and Vermont Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions the allegorical bust “La France,” by Auguste Rodin, bearing the following inscription:

LE XX JUILLET MDCIX LE FRANÇAIS S. CHAMPLAIN
A DÉCOUVERT LE LAC QUI PORTE SON NOM.
LE III MAI MCMXII LES ÉTATS DE
NEW-YORK ET DE VERMONT
ÉLEVANT CE MONUMENT
UNE DÉLÉGATION FRANÇAISE
A SCELLE CETTE FIGURE DE
“LA FRANCE.”

A. Rodin

The architects of the Crown Point memorial thus described the bust:

The plaque represents France with a head-dress that follows somewhat the form of a liberty cap, and is half-indicated as the skin of a cock. A claw and a comb seem almost discernible in the boldly modelled planes and ridges. “La France” herself is a young woman with a strong face. The nose is modelled in a few bold planes, and is large. The eyes are staring and archaic. The mouth is firm, but is more kindly modelled than the nose, and the chin and cheeks are rounded, and, though firm, more feminine than the rest of the countenance. The pose is alert, even aggressive. It is too masculine to be immediately attractive, but familiarity with it seems to subdue its harshness and bring out its charm, until it is seen to possess that indescribable quality of mystery that belongs to a few famous portraits.

M. Hanotaux said that “it was fit to replace the Mona Lisa.” Perhaps he is right. There is no doubt at least that it is the work of a master. It has been placed on the front of the pedestal that carries the statue of Champlain.

Allegorical Interpretation.

[Suggested by Henry W. Hill, Secretary of the Commission.]

In addition to the foregoing technical description, this chef-d’œuvre may also have another interpretation, for it was designed to symbolize France, through the transformation of ten centuries of turbulence, revolution and evolution, the center of the Republican movement in Europe and finally emerging triumphantly reconstructed and self-reliant, the exponent among Continental nations of the liberty, equality and fraternity of mankind. In her new Renaissance of constitutional government, the spirit of intense patriotism has taken possession of her people and France is another illustration of the solidarity of those communities and stability of those nations, which are actuated by and founded upon popular liberties.

Front View of Rodin Bust “La France”

In contemplating this work, we are made to realize that the French as well as the Italians have an intuitive appreciation of the ideals in æsthetics and they are setting the standards of their ideals in art so high, that France as well as Italy is leading most other nations in artistic achievement as may be seen in the marvelous productions of her modern sculptors, whose works are not only found in the Louvre, the Musée du Luxembourg and in other collections, but also adorn the palaces, boulevards and public grounds of Paris and other municipalities of France.

The moderate encouragement given there to art by the state and the people of the country has undoubtedly stimulated original and creative production in sculpture as well as in painting, notwithstanding the apathy once described by Théodore Duret, who declared that “there is nothing sadder to recount in the whole history of art than the persecution inflicted upon truly original and creative artists of the country.” In this martyrdom of those devoted to æsthetic achievements the world over inheres the truth of the Roman adage, patitur qui vincit. Auguste Rodin, who was born in Paris in 1840 and elected President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Engravers in 1904, has conquered and lives to see his works admired in both hemispheres, notwithstanding his disregard of the canons and conventionalities of the French Institute, which were repulsive to him. He has devoted himself to a mastery of nature, as zealously as did Michael Angelo to the study of anatomy. He is original and creative and his works are now appreciated by members of the Institute as well as by the savants in art the world over. His success in his field of sculptural achievement is largely due to his intense application to nature, as interpreted through the perspective of a vivid imagination, a poetic temperament and a keen appreciation of the beautiful and the sublime. These have impelled him to reject the conventional details, due to uniform rules applying to all alike, regardless of the individual characteristics, apparent in the works of many sculptors and to devote himself to productions, which are the embodiment of individual realism. In “La France,” one appreciates that he has produced a work with an exuberance of detail as stately as the Greek conception of the ideal head, shown in the marble copy of the Athene Parthenos of Phidias. It is a production of marked originality and has the character and the strength of the works of Donatello and of Michael Angelo, which contain “infinitely subtle shades of form in each sinuosity of contour” and are suggestive of living personalities. Whether or not we accept the intuitional theory of æsthetics, propounded by Benedetto Croce and others, that beauty is spiritual activity or expression and nothing more and is not predicable of nature apart from expression, we cannot fail to appreciate that the works of Rodin,[1] which are true to nature or an improvement upon it, are illustrations of perfect æsthetic expression and therefore fall within Signore Croce’s category of æsthetic productions.

The allegorical bust, “La France,” a work of poetic symbolism, reveals something of the culture and the contemplative character and native resolution of that nation, which struggles and conquers and whose intellectual development—through the various stages of a complex and progressive civilization, broadened by the discovery of her navigators and the assumption of the responsibility of colonial government of her own and alien races, ameliorated by the responsiveness of her statesmen to popular ideas, thus solving the perplexing problems of organization and administration, enlightened by the brilliant achievements of her scientists and of her littérateurs, ennobled by the ethical teachings of her philosophers and uplifted by the inspiration of her poets and by the marvelous creations of her sculptors, her painters and her architects—is the fruition of that universal genius, which is regenerating and immortal. This has enabled France to maintain a leading position in the onward march of civilization and to mold her institutions in conformity to the world’s approved ethical and political standards.

It is not necessary to enumerate her contributions to art, to literature or to science further than to call attention to the fact that her celebrated Pierre Simonde de Laplace was the first to unfold the Nebular Hypothesis in his “Exposition du Système du Monde” to account for the formation of the solar system, and that her Charles Messier was the first to catalogue stationary objects so faint as to be hardly observable through his small telescope and by him first named “nebulae.” The diaphanous, spiral convolutions in such of these, as the great green nebula in Orion, the brilliant white nebula in Andromeda and the whirlpool nebula in Canes Venatici, by the aid of powerful telescopes, may now be photographed and by the revelations of the spectroscope, their dimensions, character and composition may be determined.

If these nebulae, first discovered by Messier, be distant universes, not unlike the Milky Way, as suggested by Dr. Edward Arthur Fath, who estimates the diameter of the nebula in Andromeda at thirty-five trillions of miles, we at most have but little conception of their magnitude and the wonders of the realms of infinite space about us. The contributions of Laplace and Messier as well as of Lalande, Leverrier and others to astronomy indicate to some extent the leading position France has always taken in the domain of science and original research. All nations recognize that La France est la patrie des sciences et des arts.

Her contributions to civilization and to the world’s diplomacy entitle her to the gratitude of other civilized nations.

The people of this nation are especially grateful to France for her services in opening up the heart of this continent to its early settlers, for her assistance to our people in their struggle for independence and for other acts of friendship, gratefully acknowledged elsewhere in this Report, the last of which is beautifully expressed in the gift of the Rodin bust, “La France.”