REVOLUTION

Fig. 1 François André Vincent, L’Agriculture, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux / F. Deval.
expansion are lost, we know that two of the greatest artists of the day were
called upon to furnish the painted decoration: Charles Meynier (1768-1832), who
was responsible for a series of painted decorations for the so called Salon des
Muses; and his master François-André Vincent, who undertook a suite of works
on the theme of Education, including subjects relating to the Arts, Science, and
Commerce. L’Agriculture was ultimately the only painting in this series completed
by Vincent.
The subject of this ambitious composition ostensibly refects several of the
intellectual preoccupations of the Age of Enlightenment, and most notably
addresses the role of a complete and diversifed education in the formation of
a young adult. The scene is described and interpreted in the handbook of the
1798 Salon, where the larger work was exhibited: ‘Pénétré de cette vérité, que
l’Agriculture est la base de la prospérité des Etats, le peintre a représenté un père de
famille qui, accompagné de sa femme et de sa jeune flle, vient visiter un laboureur
au milieu de ses travaux. Il lui rend hommage en assistant à la leçon qu’il l’a prié
de donner à son fls, dont il regarderait l’éducation comme imparfaite sans cette
connaissance’ (“Impressed by the truth that agriculture is the basis of prosperity
of States, the painter has represented the father of a family who, accompanied
by his wife and young daughter, comes to visit a farmer in the middle of his work.
He pays tribute to the farmer by attending the lesson he had asked to be given
to his son, without the knowledge of which he would consider an education
incomplete”).
The chronology in the development of the Bordeaux picture is not precisely
understood. As the beginnings of this project were initiated by Boyer-Fonfrède,
they almost certainly date to as early as 1794, but Vincent did not complete the
Bordeaux canvas until 1797 or 1798 (it is dedicated to the year ‘VI’ of the French
Revolutionary Calendar and was exhibited in the 1798 Salon). Rarely did Vincent
have so much time to prepare a fnished composition, and he was anxious as
ever to perfect his work and to completely satisfy his client. During this process,
the artist completed multiple studies on diferent supports, beginning with
preparatory drawings quite diferent from the fnal composition (see J.-P. Cuzin, op.
cit., no. 545 D), and culminating in highly refned painted studies like the present
work. Some of the intermediary designs, such as that in the Staatliche Kunsthalle
in Karlsruhe (fg. 2; Cuzin, op. cit., no. 547P), reveal the extraordinary attention
Vincent gave to the fnished work and give scholars important insight into his
method of working.
Considered by Cuzin to have been made almost immediately after the study in
Karlsruhe, likely in 1796, the present work is distinguished by its highly fnished
appearance, which gives the impression that it was conceived as an independent
work in its own right. It relates to the left half of the fnished composition, focusing
on the principal scene of the experienced farmer who directs the young man with
frmness and confdence, pointing to the group of cattle with a gesture that recalls
that of God the Father giving life to Adam in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. The
rest of the family – the mother, father, and the boy’s younger sister, who perhaps
allude to the family of Boyer-Fonfrède – sympathetically observe the activities.
Fig. 1 François-André Vincent, The ploughing lesson, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
In the present arrangement, Vincent is satisfed with the positions of the two
groups of fgures and does not alter them further in the process of fnalizing
the Bordeaux picture. The artist’s highly accomplished technique is beautifully
preserved, and can be appreciated in the splendid impasto and dense colors
similar to those of the fnal work. The precision applied to rendering the plow
and the laborer, as well as to the various costumes of the protagonists, testifes
to the picture’s high level of completion, and supports the theory that, though it
served as a modello for the Bordeaux picture, the present work should itself be
considered a fnished painting.