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WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
CULT URE No.47 SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 7
By Maria PROKOPENKO,
photos by Mykola TYMCHENKO,
The Day
Fever on the streets and a pompous
cold Empire style, new privileges
for the third estate and the
emergence of an empire which
could rival the Roman one in
grandeur, although it existed for a much
shorter time… The history of France
200 years ago has a lot of figures that can
be easily found in today’s Ukraine. The
proof of this is the exhibit “Freedom vs.
Empire” now being held at the National
Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum
of Arts. Many of the items are exhibited
for the first time. The bulk of the exhibits
are graphic pictures, but what attracts the
greatest attention is caricature. The
exposition also displays porcelain,
Wedgwood plaques, and other historical
items.
● CONCEPT
The project’s idea came up a few years
ago. Oleksandra Isaikova, a senior research
associate at the museum’s graphics
section, who is, together with the section
head Olena Shostak, the curator of
this exhibit, calls it a cultural project,
when various items show a profile of a certain
era or phenomenon. Besides, Isaikova
confesses, the deeper the museum got
absorbed in the subject, the more it understood
that this closely echoes with
20th-century history and today. The story
unfolds from the beginning of the 1789
French Revolution until the exile of
Napoleon to the island of Saint Helena,
where he died.
● A “STOP IMAGE”
OF THE SEIZURE
OF THE BASTILLE
One of the first exhibited works is
Jacques-Louis Bance’s etching “The
Storming of the Bastille.” “This composition
was unbelievably popular. It was repeated
many times, and later artists painted
pictures on the basis of this engraving.
For there were no photo cameras at that
time, and everything is fixed here,” Isaikova
says.
French King Louis XVI seems to be
looking at this scene – for an engraving
by Johann von Mueller, done on the basis
of the monarch’s grand portrait,
hangs on the opposite wall. The museum
people are saying that, as long as this image
of the king was of great ideological
importance, the engraver was specially
invited to Paris to do a drawing. The
master worked on the engraving for
four years, but the work lost its importance
in 1789 because the country’s political
life changed radically. The engraving
was first released in 1793 in
Nuremberg, when the king and his wife
Marie Antoinette were executed.
● REDISTRIBUTING
OPPORTUNITIES
HANDKERCHIEF “THE STAGE OF EUROPE IN DECEMBER 1812”
“Caricature as a genre of art was finally
formed in the 18th century. It is
the French Revolution events that gave
impetus to the development of French
caricature in a situation of new freedoms
and challenges,” Isaikova points out.
The key theme of the cartoons drawn
in 1789-91, at the beginning of the
French Revolution, is the alliance of
three estates – the clergy, the nobility,
and commoners. “There were still illusions
of being able to achieve equality
and fraternity. This is why we can see a
bit idyllic pictures here,” Isaikova adds.
Here the three estates unite in a
dance, and a good-natured caricature is
accompanied with sentimental verses.
And the next cartoon strikes a more
threatening note: a third estate representative
robs an embarrassed noble of
his officer tunic, while a cleric looks on
pensively. “Indeed, sir, I think your
tunic of an officer will suit me better,”
the caption says. This story dates back
to the formation of the National Guard
in Paris on July 14, 1789. The rank of an
officer was usually a privilege of the nobility,
but even a commoner could
achieve a high rank in the National
Guard, if he showed certain abilities and
the leadership liked him. So this insti-
The art of revolution
tution became an important symbol of
A new exhibit at the Khanenko Museum shows
fighting for the third estate’s new opportunities.
how people fought for freedom and ridiculed the empire
PLATE. THE MANUFACTURE NATIONALE DE SEVRES, 1846
THE ULTIMATE IN CANNIBALISM, 1815
● A CANNIBAL ON THE RIVERS
OF BLOOD
Among the displayed caricatures of
the times of Napoleon’s First Empire, the
rarest are those created by royalists. Often
anonymous, they were published in
England, where Napoleon was not liked,
and then smuggled to and distributed in
France in order to undermine the emperor’s
prestige.
“These sheets are from the album that
belonged to Count Henryk Ilinski who had
a manor near Zhytomyr,” Isaikova notes.
“How they found themselves in our museum
is a mystery. Anyway, there is seal
on each sheet with the inscription ‘Count
Henryk Ilinski’ and his personal coat of
arms.”
“The Ultimate in Cannibalism,” a
caricature created in 1815 by Louis Francois
Charon, parodies Napoleon’s fulldress
portrait by the artist Jean August
Dominique Ingres. “The full-dress portrait
depicts Napoleon on the throne in a
mantle and with a scepter. On the caricature,
he also wears a mantle but is
seated on a pile of dead soldiers and, besides,
on the bank of a ‘river of blood,’ as
the caption says. We can see cities reduced
to dust and the attacking troops. My
most favorite detail is a tricolor that
shows the Phrygian cap, a symbol of
freedom, surrounded by chains, while the
caption says: ‘Disguised as freedom, I’ve
chained you,’” Isaikova comments.
Even if royalist masters did not sign,
they could be easily recognized by style and
content. Firstly, a right composition with
a good drawing was typical of such works.
A commoner could have hardly created
this, while aristocratic education included
art exercises. Another particularity is
a huge number of captions in small print.
According to Isaikova, the best examples
of folk caricature comprise fewer inscriptions,
for they should be understood by
large masses of the illiterate populace.
Thirdly, accusations against Napoleon of,
say, crushing a royalist revolt usually
found an echo in the old aristocracy only.
● A DANCE AROUND
THE TREE OF FREEDOM
“Soldiers of the French Revolutionary
Army Are Erecting a Tree of Liberty
in Zweibruecken on February 11, 1793” –
the Ukrainian spectator will easily recognize
the prototype of Kyiv’s notorious
Christmas tree in this caricature by Jean
Godefroy.
The engraving was found this year in
the museum’s repository. It depicts the
French troops that are putting up a Tree of
Liberty, a symbol of the French Revolution.
This symbol came from the US and later
spread all over the world. “The French revolutionary
troops were in the habit of
erecting a Tree of Liberty at every place
they were coming to,” Isaikova says. “The
tree on the engraving really looks like a
Christmas tree, but it was usually an oak
or any other tree. Sometimes it was just a
stick adorned with ribbons. A Phrygian cap
was put on the Liberty Tree’s top, and a celebration
in honor of freedom and equality
was held. It usually consisted of dances,
such as carmagnole or farandole.”
● GREAT VICTORIES AND
DEFEATS
In the hall about the First Empire, you
can see engravings that depict victories of
Napoleon’s army, for example the outcome
of the Battle of Austerlitz. Jean Godefroy
made this engraving after Francois Gerard’s
picture commissioned by Napoleon on
the second day after his victory. The emperor
could not help being proud of this
event, for the enemy considerably outnumbered
his army. As a result, the anti-
French coalition broke up.
The picture portrays Napoleon himself
on a white horse the moment General
Rapp arrives to announce the victory. In
general, there are a lot of historical persons
among the characters. Isaikova points at
marshals Berthier and Bessieres, generals
Duroc and Junot, and the captured Russian
Prince Repnin-Volkonsky.
Next to the image of a great victory is
the print “The Death of Prince Jozef Poniatowski
during the Crossing of the Elster
on October 19, 1813” by Philibert Louis Debucourt,
which shows the defeat of
Napoleon’s troops in the Battle of Leipzig,
after which the emperor abdicated the
throne. The national hero of Poland, Jozef
Poniatowski, died covering the French
army’s retreat.
● HEALTH-FRIENDLY EMPIRE
STYLE
These battle scenes are in contrast
with empire-style household stuffs, such as
porcelain items by French and German
manufacturers, a dainty clock, and plaques.
Some of them, incidentally, bear the portraits
of Napoleon’s enemies: British Prime
Minister William Pitt, Admiral Nelson, and
Admiral Hood. Isaikova notes that the key
sign of the empire style is reference to classical
antiquity and military subjects. Even
those who resisted Napoleon liked this
style which flourished in the emperor’s
hour of triumph.
Refined vessels contrast with rather a
simple desk of the architect made in the
first half of the 18th century. It is a representative
of the then popular folding furniture
called “a la Tronchin” – after physician
Theodore Tronchin who invented it.
“In particular, Tronchin healed spinal
disorders architects complained about.
This doctor understood that architects
just sit uncomfortably at work and invented
a desk at which one can work well
without harming his back. The desk’s
height can be adjusted by means of special
legs. The angle of the desk top’s can also
vary if necessary,” Isaikova says.
● DEATH, CRUTCHES,
AND A WHITE CAT
After the Leipzig defeat, Napoleon abdicated
the throne and was exiled to the island
of Elba. France saw the beginning of
a short period of Restoration, when the
Bourbons regained power. Closely watching
the developments, Napoleon chose a favorable
moment, landed in France with just
a thousand of soldiers, and reaches Paris
in two weeks. This signaled the so-called
Hundred Days period, when Napoleon
managed to stay in power again.
The caricature “The Arrival of Nicolas
Buonaparte at Tuileries on March 20,
1815” shows this moment. The emperor is
accompanied by the figures of Death and
Poverty, and crutches are falling out of the
box on which it is written “War Compensations.”
It is clear from the gloomy faces
of commoners and bourgeois that these people
do not believe Napoleon’s promises. The
most good-natured character here is a
well-fed white cat in the center who says:
“I have velvet paws.” This French idiom describes
a person who pretends to be kind but
has a selfish motive.
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