Summer Scene

The memory of summers at Méric pursued Bazille even within the gray walls of the capital and in his studio. Bazille conceived the project for this painting in February 1869: "I intend to work a lot at Méric, I even sketch a painting here so that I only have to finish it there", he wrote to his mother. From another letter dated May 2, 1869, we know that he was preparing the Summer Scene with three studies: Study for the Summer Scene , Study for the Summer Scene and Study for the Summer Scene . The Summer Scene is in the same vein as the Fisherman with a Net which was refused at the 1868 Salon. It is one of his last attempts to insert people into an outdoor landscape because neither the Young Male Nude Lying nor obviously Ruth and Booz will they approach this theme in the same way. The Summer Scene , like La Toilette and the Young Male Nude Lying , is a large, squared-up for elarment composition. As much for La Toilette as for the Summer Scene , the choice of this format is the result of a carefully considered decision. This can be seen in the preparatory drawings, particularly in his Study for La Toilette , which Bazille took care to reduce to a squared-up for enlargement. One wonders why this preference, especially in 1869. Until then, Bazille had remained faithful to the purest tradition of the rectangular format. The square format, however, is unattractive and Bazille's gamble daring. Eight people appear in this Languedoc landscape where the green grass contrasts with the dry grass of the View of the Village . In the foreground, a young man with long hair is leaning against a birch tree, his right hand and arm stuck to the trunk, his feet by the water. What is he thinking about, while all the others are frolicking and thus giving the painting a movement that is not usual in Bazille's work? Lonely beside this joyful group, locked in his meditation or dream, he contrasts with his companions by his profoundly romantic position. He has been compared by Ernest Scheyer to a Saint Sebastian, the exhibition catalogue of the 2016-2017 stating that it could be the one attributed to Jacopo Bassano [Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon] but also the shepherd at rest in Laurent de La Hyre's Paysage au berger jouant de la flûte that was part of the Fabre Museum's collections. In the middle of the pond, probably emerging from the water, a young boy extends his arms while looking to the left. He makes think of the child wearing a cap in the lower right in the drawing Children Portraits . Also in the foreground, but this time on the right side of the painting, two men, one helping the other out of the water, the one on the left, in the white and black striped boxer shorts, holding out his right arm to the older bare-chested man with a moustache and pointed beard, who grabs it with both hands. In the center of the painting, another young man lying resting on his right arm looks at the two wrestlers in the background. These are wearing blue and red jerseys respectively, a convenient device Bazille uses to make difference between them. Finally, in the background again, a man on the right is dressing or undressing. Several drawings profile Bazille's early thoughts. The first three, in a classic rectangular format, show struggling bathers in various positions, which will only be partially repeated in the final painting. The drawing framed by a pencil border, however, begins to resemble this. But it is only the square drawing that announces Bazille's idea, not only with the place of the young men but also of the pool of water, which is the central theme of the painting. But above all, we discover the unexpected square format chosen by Bazille. This framing allows Bazille to better insert his characters who are brightening up around a round pond. The round and the square are thus cleverly complementary. If the theme and format caught the eye of the jury, who admitted the work to the 1870 Salon, they also won over the press, which then made a big deal