In the excellent, “identical” book “Family Europe” (1959), recalling the topography of the pre-war Vilnius, Czesław Miłosz writes:
"Traded judaic neighborhoods resembled akin neighborhoods around the planet and were subject to advertising law, so frontons of houses adorned a large number of colored signs on which painters placed lions and tigers as if taken from the paintings of Customsman Rousseau, gloves, stockings and bras" [1].
In order to explain who this Customsman Rousseau, whose bestiary went all the way to the rails of Vilnius stores in the east of Europe, 1 must first say a word sounding unusual and threatening: primitive.
In short sketches about painting I tried to show earlier that in the Western era we are dealing with manifestations of returning to conventional art [2]. Primitivism was 1 of the most crucial specified manifestations, if not the most important. "Realistic" and academic art, frequently referred to as synonymous with conservatism in aesthetics, appeared as a product of modernity, or gathering a worldview rationalism. It was not the conventional art of ancient and archaic societies, and it was known in the mediate Ages. In the modern age conventional art survived partially in the form of church art, and most of all – folk art. Primitiveism comes from folk art.
Modernity brought solstice, breakdown and self-destruction to modern rationalism (and good that it did). By breaking down its tight walls, the art could besides return to depicting reality in the way they perceived it, lived and portrayed people in the planet of Tradition. conventional man sees the planet as an icon—a holy image—and besides portrays it as an icon. Hence, the work of primitives shows a similarity to icon painting, for example in the way of portraying key human figures, enlarged and emerging from the landscape.
I remember 1 time in college I was told to read the text of Ignacy Czuma "The economical Primitism of the russian Revolution" from 1929. The lecturer explained to us that the word utilized in the title is not a pejorative but neutral, descriptive word – it means extreme, exaggerated (willfully or not) simplicity. possibly the authors themselves didn't realize how accurate the timing was. For the word "primitism" is more than a simple indication of what was primal, what was earlier, first – before the emergence of an exuberant civilization. "La Mentalité primative" – this is the title of the 1922 book by the prominent investigator of conventional societies, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl.
The modern man’s work of primitiveism allowed him to see the planet again as a man of old saw him. But not just them. besides Paul Gauguin's painting, which I wrote separately [3]. Or Marc Chagall, as the spiritual scholar, philosopher and traditionalist Mircea Eliade pointed out. Let me reiterate the comments that Eliade made in his preparation for writing an article: “I would like to take this chance to make the conclusions that I have reached more in item and coherently, reflecting on the question of the further, yet masked, presence of the sacrum in modern art. Here is Brâncuşi, the finder of the sacrilege in rough matter, approaching the “beautiful” stone with the emotion and reverence of the palaeolithic man; here is Chagall, through his donkeys and angels professing longing for Paradise.” [4] The work of primitives specified as André Bauchant or Polish (Lemkowski) artist Nikifor would deserve a separate discussion. But before them, Rousseau, the first “primitist” to gain merit.
He was born in 1844, in the "small, ancient town" of Laval [5], in an equally old region, before cutting the borders of modern departments by the French revolution known as Maine County. He was born as the boy of a local metallic man. He wanted to devote himself to music. In 1864, against his father's will, he enlisted in the Army of the Second Empire and joined the regimental orchestra. And it happened that shortly after, he left with the army overseas.
In the 1960 ’ s there was a civilian war between conservatives and liberals in Mexico. The second was led by president Benito Juarez, the fierce anticlericist and the enemy of the Church. abroad powers were active in the war. Napoleon III decided to usage it to fulfill his imperial ambitions. He agreed with Mexican supporters of the restoration of the monarchy. Mexico broke distant from Spain in 1821 and struck independency as an empire, and on the imperial throne sat, as it turned out briefly, Emperor Augustine I Iturbide. French troops landed on Mexican dirt in 1861 and hit Juarez troops. Mexican monarchs under the cover of the French army offered the throne to the younger brother of the Austrian ruler, Francis Joseph.
In 1863, the Austrian archduke inaugurated his reign in Mexico as Emperor Maximilian I, and as heir to the throne he soned his grandson Augustin I. The second Mexican Empire did not last much longer than the first, however, due to the fact that with the shift of rates in global politics the luck shortly turned distant from the young monarch. Juarez's troops regrouped and moved to counteroffensive, reinforced with the support of the United States and Prussia, whose Prime Minister, cold strategist Bismarck, had already prepared a board for the European game about German unification, defeated the armies of Francis Joseph, defeated Austria, and France pressed and weakened in Italy, and where he had the opportunity, which prompted Napoleon III to pull his troops from Mexico. Deprived of their armed assistance, monarchs faithful to the emperor lost the war and in 1867. Maximilian I Habsburg was killed by Juarez firing squad bullets.
The Mexican expedition of Napoleon III bore all the marks of political unrest. But could she not talk to the sensitivity of a young artist? Could something more poetic have happened? As if the legend had become reality: the “self-proclaimed” emperor goes for 7 seas, to the country where the eagle devoured the serpent; the restoration of the fallen empire; the throne for the only since the 13th century of the actual imperial home and yet the bloody sacrifice of the life of the ruler. We have in our own literature 1 memo on the French-Mexican epopei of Emperor Maximilian: a fresh "Spring", placed by Bruno Schulz in the volume "Sanatorium Under the Hourglass". It is no wonder that his stay in Mexico was to make a clear mark on Henry Rousseau's later painting, who took off his uniform in 1869 and later took on work in the Customs Chamber. From there came the nickname: Le Douanier. At the age of forty, he retired and then reached for the brush and the easel.
Mexico has made Customs Rousseau forever a favourite for tropical landscapes and animals inhabiting them. His paintings gained publicity on the same wave of fascination with alleged exoticism in European culture, which at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries allowed the talents of specified artists as Paul Gauguin, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, Ferdinand Ossendowski and Wacław Sieroszewski to be revealed. Rousseau's composition of paintings is an example of double vision, which the artist lends to the viewer: the places presented on them are both real but "exotic", far distant – and fairy-tale lands lying outside of time and history, on another shore.
Similarly the animal: those lions and tigers that Miłosz remembered. Under Customs' brush, the animal appears on 1 side as a real being, an component of nature, an object. On the another hand – as the embodiment of the element, the simple powers: the creature. It's a blurry but dynamic presence in the world, a symbol of force and at the same time a force alone. A beam of light smoothing colorful patterns on the skin, light moons blind, twisted shadow streak – so much of the animal can be seen between bush leaves. That's how he could see the native, the first man. Rousseau in his pictographic kind gave this impression much better than painters giving animals visually chaotic and dangerous qualities.
As an amateur-naturszczyk, Rousseau most likely did not delve into academic theoretical considerations on painting technique, but self-painted the planet with hieratic prayer the same way as the Paleolithic artist in times of Orinian or Magdalen culture, erstwhile he painted on the stone wall the planet of beings and elements that appeared to the eyes of his soul. And it achieved the same effect: a real and symbolic layer of existence, which separates and simultaneously combines only a thin membrane. In this, I believe, the relation of the method with the oldest artist known in human past lies the secret of Henry Rousseau and his “primitivism”.
The self-portrait depicts Rousseau on the riverside boulevard. Behind his back to the waterfront, a ship moors, whose rigging puts multicolored flags on it. He's waiting to rise his sails. The artist stands ready to turn around, get on board, and go to distant lands again.
Dr. Adam Danek
[1] Czesław Miłosz, “Family Europe”, Warsaw, p. 62.
[2] Adam Danek, "(B)arms of the Underworld", "Think Poland", 2018, no. 31; "Art (anti)modern", "Think Poland", 2021, no. 35-36; Juan Miró – iconographer of the planet of Tradition, https://mysmystrebretionala.pl/danek-juan-miro-iconographer-world-traditionala/
[3] Adam Danek, “With Gauguin on Tahiti (and elsewhere)”, “Think Poland”, 2023, no. 15-16.
[4] Mircea Eliade, "My Life. Fragments of diary 1941-1985", trans. Ireneusz Kania, Warszawa 2001, pp. 523. In another place (i.e., p. 489): “The planet of Chagall is transfigured, is burdened with mysteries; for example, take animals (especially donkeys) where I admit Messianic or Paradise syndrome. Chagall's painting is filled with longing for Paradise, etc."
- Natalia Brodskaya, ‘Henri Rousseau’, Leningrad 1977, p. 3.
Think Poland, No. 15-16 (13-20.04.201025)
