變動的圖像:插畫書的再定義——以《巴黎愛湊熱鬧者:聚集, 街道的群像》為例

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(1)國立臺灣師範大學藝術史研究所碩士論文 National Taiwan Normal University Graduate Institute of Art History Master’s Degree Thesis. 變動的圖像:插畫書的再定義——以《巴黎愛湊熱鬧者:聚集, 街道的群像》為例. Images in Transition: Redefining the Illustrated Book in Badauderies Parisiennes—Les Rassemblements. 指導教授 Advisor：Dr. Valentin Nussbaum 胡馨月 Hu, Hsin-Yueh. 中華民國 106 年 01 月 January 2017 . i .

(2) Contents Abstract ...........................................................................................................................i 中文摘要...................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................... v Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 State of Research............................................................................................................ 5 Chapter One: Old and New: Two Contradictory Styles of Illustration ......................... 9 1.1. The Publisher’s Intention: Two Styles of Illustration Coexisting in One Book 10 1.2. A Controversial Technique ............................................................................ 19 Chapter Two: The Crowd as a Transitional Motif ....................................................... 25 2.1. The Book Jacket............................................................................................. 27 2.2. Vallotton’s Crowd.......................................................................................... 31 2.3. Flâneurs and Badauds ................................................................................... 38 2.4. The Badaud in Fait Divers ............................................................................ 42 Chapter Three: The Relationships Between Image and Text: Coherences and Incoherencies ............................................................................................................... 49 3.1. Image and Text in Nineteenth Century France .............................................. 50 3.2. Vallotton’s Prints and their Verbal Complements ......................................... 54 3.3. Apparent Incoherencies and the “Merit of the Varied and the Unexpected” 63 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 66 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 70 Figures.......................................................................................................................... 74. ii.

(3) Abstract. Published in 1896, Badauderies Parisiennes is an illustrated book in which Octave Uzanne (1851-1931) requested Félix Vallotton (1865-1925) to design thirty relief prints related to contemporary Parisian street life in the late 19th century. His ambition was to ask fifteen writers from the avant-garde revue La Revue Blanche to write thirty stories after Vallotton’s prints which would at their turn been enlivened by over one hundred vignettes realized by François Courboin (1865- 1926). With the illustrations made prior to the text, this singular production process initiated by Uzanne for an illustrated book underscores the priority of images over words. Uzanne proclaims his ambition in the preface that this publication was meant to play a transitional role by combining the art of illustration of the past with that of the future. This study is based on this premise and examines to which extent Badauderies Parisiennes plays a transitional role in the history of illustrated books. This thesis is divided into three chapters, each one centering on aspects that may help understand at different levels the intrinsic transitional dimension of the book. Chapter one examines the book from the perspective of the medium by comparing the illustrations of Vallotton and Courboin who respectively epitomize a modern and a traditional style. Besides, it focuses on the controversial issue of the printing technique at stake in Badauderies Parisiennes and discusses its transitional role in terms of printing technique. Chapter two analyzes the book’s thematic perspective, by recontextualizing the specificity of Vallotton’s book jacket, the thirty relief prints and his previous depictions of the urban crowd at the time when sociological theories of the crowd were reaching their peak. Built upon this sociological background, the contrast between the badaud and the flâneur will be underlined. In addition to Vallotton’s fascination with and depiction of the badaud, this chapter will also bring into discussion how this figure was gradually shaped in Fait divers, a newspaper column, around the end of 19th century. i.

(4) France. Such a comparative study on the badaud in Fait divers will provide a context for a more thorough understanding of its depiction in Vallotton’s work. Chapter three studies the relationship between image and text in terms of the history of illustrated books. Resting upon the priority of image over text in the production process of Badauderies Parisiennes, this chapter argues that such a unique phenomenon heralds the emergence of the Artist’s Book and thereby manifests the transitional role that Badauderies Parisiennes embodies in the history of illustrated books.. Keywords: Félix Vallotton, Octave Uzanne, La Revue Blanche, crowd, illustration, badaud, flâneur, image and text, transition, Paris, Fin-de-Siècle. ii.

(5) 中文摘要. 本論文旨在探討《巴黎的愛湊熱鬧者：聚集，街道的群像》一書，在法國插畫書歷史中的時代意涵。此本書內容是以藏書家 Octave Uzanne 邀請畫家 Félix Vallotton 製作三十幅描繪巴黎當代街道的生態景象版畫作為主軸，並伴隨著受 Vallotton 版畫所啟發的十五位《白雜誌》（La Revue Blanche）作家所創作的三十個短文故事及版畫家 François Courboin 超過百幅的插畫。在此圖先於文的情況下，此本書的圖像已不再像傳統般隸屬於文字之下，而是它自身賦予自身的意義。再者，Uzanne 在此書序文中表示，此本書中的圖樣是「過往圖樣與未來圖樣的轉捩點」，本論文便是基於上述的脈絡，透過「圖像風格」、「主題呈現」、以及「圖文關係」的三重脈絡分析，意欲論證《巴黎的愛湊熱鬧者：聚集，街道的群像》具有重新定義插圖書的意圖，收錄於此書的圖像亦因此具備變動的性質。本論文分三章。第一章「圖像風格」一開始探討 Uzanne 邀請 Vallotton 製作群眾版畫的動機，接著比較 Vallotton 及 Courboin 在此插畫書中的插畫風格的差異，進而理解這兩位插畫家分別代表了傳統及現代的藝術風格。在比較兩者差異之後，突顯了此本書的圖像在插畫書歷史中有承先啟後的效果，進而理解 Uzanne 雇用兩位插畫家的意圖。再者，藉由討論次本書的插畫技法，確立不僅是在圖像視覺表現上，而在圖像技法運用上也都有著承先啟後的意圖。第二章是「主題呈現」分成兩個部分來討論。第一部分研究 Vallotton 的群眾圖像，研究 Vallotton 替此書製作的書皮及三十幅版畫，並比較之前作品，討論 Vallotton 的藝術風格，進而帶出此本書的主角—群眾。在十九世紀末，社會學有關群眾的理論到達高峰，第二部分便在群眾研究脈絡下，藉由研究十九世紀法國報紙社會新聞欄的圖像 (Fait divers) 討論愛湊熱鬧者（Badaud）是如何在十九世紀末被視覺化，並比較相對概念的漫遊者（Flâneur）之間的關係。此章藉由爬梳愛湊熱鬧者（Badaud）的視覺形塑轉變，確立 Vallotton 的群眾圖像的時代意涵。第三章「圖文關係」研究在十九世紀插畫書的圖文關係中，插畫的地位漸漸地超越了文字，而由於此本書的圖先於文之前，在插畫書的歷史中是相當獨特 iii.

(6) 的，而在這樣圖文關係之下，揭示了藝術家之書(Artist’s Book)的出現。透過此三重脈絡分析，檢視此本插畫書展現出的時代變動性質。關鍵字：費利克斯·瓦洛(Félix Vallotton)、歐克達夫· 余詹(Octave Uzanne)、白雜誌、群眾、插畫、愛湊熱鬧者、漫遊者、圖文關係、轉捩點、巴黎、世紀末. iv.

(7) Acknowledgement This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance of my advisor Professor Valentin Nussbaum and every other professor who have inspired me in the field. In the writing process, my brother helped me arrange ideas to a line of argument. I've also received the mental and financial support from my friends and parents, without any of which all these years of writing would have become an endless process of pain and suffering. Therefore, my sincere gratitude goes to all of them.. v.

(8) Introduction. My research focuses on Badauderies Parisiennes—les Rassemblements, physiologies de la rue (Episodes of Parisian Gawking: Gatherings, Physiologies of the Street) (Fig. 1), an illustrated book that depicts the crowd on the Parisian street scene of the end of the nineteenth century.1 It constitutes the first printed work published by the Bibliophiles Indépendants—a publishing house founded by the critic and bibliophile Octave Uzanne (Fig. 3) in 1896—and edited by Henri Floury in the Libraire de la société.2 Of a small size—only 23.6 x 17.6 x 2.8 cm, it was printed in 220 copies.3 It is composed of a series of thirty stories, each of which is accompanied with one photomechanical relief print by Swiss artist Félix Vallotton (Fig. 4) and a number of vignettes by French engraver François Courboin.. In Badauderies Parisiennes, the crowd itself is the protagonist. This collective protagonist is called badaud in French. Different from Baudelaire’s philosophical figure of the flâneur, the badaud is a gathering of individuals that are curious and overreact to everything they see in the street. Félix Vallotton illustrates these appealing moments in which the crowd of passers-by and idlers transform into gawkers and gather to watch some events, or non-significant events as diverse as a horse tumbling in a traffic accident (Fig. 5), acrobats performing on the street (Fig. 6), a poster-hanger displaying a new advertisement (Fig. 7), an angler fishing on the river embankment (Fig. 8), gentlemen having arguments outside the National Assembly (Fig. 9), a drown 1. Octave Uzanne ed., Badauderies Parisiennes —les Rassemblements, physiologies de la rue, with contributions by Paul Adam, Alfred Athys, Victor Barrucand, Tristan Bernard, Léon Blum, Romain Coolus, Félix Fénéon, Gustave Kahn, Ernest La Jeunesse, L. Muhlfeld, Thadée Natanson, Edmond Pilon, Jules Renard, Pierre Veber et Veek and illustrated by Félix Vallotton and François Courboin, Paris 1896. 2 Willa Z. Silverman, The new bibliopolis : French book collectors and the culture of print, 1880-1914, Toronto 2008, p. 54. 3 Badauderies Parisiennes’ size information is from Museum of Fine Arts Boston: http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/les-rassemblements-physiologies-de-la-rue-badauderiesparisiennes-250517( access on 26 May 2016); only 220 copies were printed, 200 of which were addressed to the subscribers of the Bibliophiles Indépendants while 20 were reserved to the literary and artistic collaborators of Badauderies Parisiennes. The book information page indicates the book’s owner and its printing number. 1.

(9) body found on the river bank (Fig. 10), an army parade walking on the street (Fig. 11), well dressed women and gentlemen listening a summer concert (Fig. 12), a hawker selling his goods to passersby (Fig. 13), police officers arresting an offender (Fig. 14), road workers digging road (Fig. 15), a couple of bride and bridegroom in a wedding (Fig. 16), a drunkard mocked by naughty children (Fig. 17), people lifting a coffin to hearse in a funeral (Fig. 18), policemen guarding a bomb (Fig. 19), suspects arrested and put inside a police van (Fig. 20), firemen climbing a ladder to rescue people from a fire (Fig. 21), and of course, the gawkers themselves.4 These eye-catching or nonsignificant events provide thirty themes for the equivalent number of chapters. Each of them presents two different elements: first, the visual illustrations by Félix Vallotton displayed on a full page; second, the texts written by the authors of La Revue Blanche (The White Review) enliven by François Courboin’s vignettes (Fig. 2).. The multi-participatory aspect of this book is due to its singular production process. Its idea derives from a project initiated by Uzanne who firstly requested the artist Vallotton to contribute with thirty drawings on the theme of street disturbance. Uzanne then invited fifteen writers from La Revue Blanche—a French art and literary avant-garde magazine that ran between 1889 and 1905 and also shared close ties with the Nabis group—to write thirty stories based on Vallotton’s prints.5 In the traditional sense, the illustrated book translates a situation depicted by the text into its visual form. In such a translating process, the illustration—either as a full-page picture or as a vignette—follows the text as closely as possible since the role of the illustration is a supplementary one whose task is to stay faithful to the text and offer a visual explanation to what the text seeks to present.6 However, such a common habit in the 4. Richard S. Field, “Exteriors and Interiors: Vallotton’s Printed Oeuvre,” in: Sasha M. Newman ed., Félix Vallotton, New Haven 1991, pp. 43-91, p. 68. 5 Translations of this thesis are all mine except for those indicated. Octave Uzanne, “Prologue: Félix Vallotton et l’origine de ce Livre des Rassemlements; La bibliophilie et la jeunesse littéraire contemporaine,” in: Badauderies Parisiennes, i-v: “An idea came to me to ask him a series of brutal prints on the Parisian gawkers…” (L’idée me vint de lui demander une série d’estampes brutalistes sur la Badauderie parisiennes…). 6 Ulrich Finke, “French painters as book illustrators: from Delacroix to Bonnard,” in: French 19th century painting and literature: With special reference to the relevance of literary subject-matter to 2.

(10) field ceases to exist in the case of Badauderies Parisiennes. The initiator of the book under scrutiny is no longer a writer but an illustrator. This fact shows that the illustrator played the initiating role in the fabrication process of Badauderies Parisiennes. With the image made before the text, such a production process deconstructs the traditional hierarchy of the illustrated book, according to which the text precedes the image in terms of the creation process and thereby secures a superior role in its relationship with the image. This mode of fabrication grants the image a status of independence as well as autonomy, a status which has to be considered as groundbreaking in the history of the illustrated book.. Uzanne, the initiator of this groundbreaking book, explains his ambition at the beginning of the book, in the preface, mentioning that this publication attempts to be a transitional one that combines the art of illustration of the past with that of the future. As he claims in the preface:. “[The editor] … he specially attempted to show a work of transition, indicating the heterodox marriage between the illustration of yesterday and that of tomorrow, with all foreseen possibilities for obtaining a divorce without lacerations or illtreatment”7. As can be seen in the above citation, Uzanne’s ambition to present an illustrated book—whose visual contents will embody a transitional role in the history of illustration—is loud and clear. Borrowing from the analogy of a heterodox marriage, he anticipates a positive career for Badauderies Parisiennes in which the combination between the past and future illustrations is groundbreaking. However, what comes French painting, Ulrich Finke ed., New York 1972, p. 339. 7 “[L’Editeur]…il a surtout prétendu montrer une œuvre de transition, indiquant le mariage hétérodoxe entre l’illustration d’hier et celle de demain, avec toutes possibilités prévues pour un divorce à obtenir sans lacérations ni sévices.” Octave Uzanne, “Prologue: Félix Vallotton et l’origine de ce Livre des Rassemblements; La bibliophilie et la jeunesse littéraire contemporaine,” in: Badauderies Parisiennes, VIII. 3.

(11) along with such great ambition is also Uzanne’s concern for the risk associated with the possible inability of Badauderies Parisiennes to live up to the stated expectation. This thesis is based on this expectation and examines whether this analogy of a heterodox marriage of the past and future illustrations succeeds in reconciling them or ultimately fails in an inevitable divorce.. 4.

(12) State of Research Since François Courboin’s vignettes and the stories by the writers of La Revue Blanche were inspired by Félix Vallotton’s relief prints, it makes sense to focus on the latter’s creation. In the studies on Félix Vallotton, there is a tendency to prefer his paintings to his printing artwork. Such a preference results in a potential risk of overlooking Vallotton’s contribution to the printing field. Besides, researches on Vallotton’s woodcuts had paid much attention to Intimités (Intimacies) in an attempt to focus on the issues of femininity and interiority, while Badauderies Parisiennes— one of his illustration book—has not yet been received the attention it deserves.8 Thus, I want to bridge the gap in the studies of Félix Vallotton by means of exploring his printing artwork with the example of Badauderies Parisiennes.. Richard S. Field is one among the early scholars who have discussed Badauderies Parisiennes. In the article “Exteriors and Interiors: Vallotton’s Printed Oeuvre” published in 1991, Field demonstrates that two notions could be differentiated in “Vallotton’s printed oeuvre: the exterior and the interior.”9 Field employs the notion of the exterior to show how the crowd in Vallotton’s printing works reflects a social and political phenomenon that can be connected with Gustave Le Bon’s 1895 book, La Psychologie des Foules (The Psychology of Crowds). Even though Field does draw on issues associated with the technique of Vallotton’s prints in Badauderies Parisiennes, he only uses this publication as one among many elements that will shape up his line of argumentation for the distinction between exterior and interior.. In 1999, Luce Abélès published the essay “Tradition et modernité: Les Rassemblements, un livre de transition.” This is the first research entirely devoted to. 8. Lise Holst, Felix Vallotton’s Intimités: Le Cauchemar d’un Erudit, Thesis, Oberlin College, 1975; Nicole Schwager, Considering Ideologies of Femininity in the Bourgeois Interiors and Commercial Spaces of the Fin-de-Siècle Prints of Félix Vallotton, Thesis, University of Colorado, 2011. 9 Field, (as note 4), pp. 43-91. 5.

(13) the Badauderies Parisiennes. 10 Abélès’s article attempts to define the transitional place occupied by Uzanne’s book from three perspectives.. The first perspective departs from a literary tradition of physiology that became trendy around 1840s in Paris.11 Since the complete title of the book is Badauderies Parisiennes—Les Rassemblements, Physiologies de la Rue, Abélès examines its physiological aspect. The literary tradition of physiology is said to provide a panoramic view of the whole of the French contemporary population. 12 Abélès retraces the derivation of this sort of literature of physiology through comparing Badauderies Parisiennes and many other publications of the same type.13. The second perspective undertaken by the French scholar focuses on the illustrations. In this part, Abélès examines Vallotton’s style by comparing it with Vallotton’s previous works on the crowd. In the article, Abélès focuses only on Vallotton’s prints and leaves Courboin’s contribution unexamined. Such an omission might be the consequence for developing a study devoted to Vallotton alone; however, without an appropriate discussion of Courboin’s works, the transitional role of Badauderies Parisiennes would be hard to underscore since the stylistic counterpart to Vallotton is absent from critical attention.14. The third point analyzed by Luce Abélès concerns the texts. In this part, she examines first the reason why Uzanne, the initiator of the book, engaged authors who were all members of La Revue Blanche, then emphasizes the fact that the illustrations were made before the texts, and finally analyzes their content.15 However, this part 10. Only one essay mainly discuses the book Badauderies Parisiennes: Luce Abélès, “Tradition et modernité: Les Rassemblements, un livre de transition,” in: L’illustration: Essais d’iconographie; Actes du Séminaire CNRS, Paris (GDR712), 1993-94, ed. Maria Teresa Caracciolo and Ségolène Le Men, Paris 1999, pp. 311-330. 11 Roger Chartier and Henri-Jean Martin ed., (as note 22), p. 438. 12 Luce Abélès, “Tradition et modernité: Les Rassemblements, un livre de transition,” in: L’illustration: Essais d’iconographie. Maria Teresa Caracciolo and Ségolène Le Men ed., Paris 1999, p.311. 13 Abélès, (as note 12), pp. 311-314. 14 Abélès, (as note 12), pp. 314-318. 15 Abélès, (as note 12), pp. 318-321. 6.

(14) does not clearly show the book’s transitional place but only presents its avant-garde dimension. Abélès’s article constitutes nevertheless a landmark in the scholarship about Badauderies. It is oftentimes cited as a working material in support of the latest contributions by Willa Z. Silverman and Bridget Alsdorf.. In 2008, Willa Z. Silverman published one monograph, The New Bibliophiles: French Book Collectors and the Culture of Print, focusing on book collectors and print culture in nineteenth century. In her book, Silverman shows how the public reacted in front of the new reproduction technologies used for prints, and discusses how the collectors demonstrated their admiration for the medium and became in that era the new bibliophiles.16 In this context, Silverman chose Uzanne as the key example to illustrate the emergence of a new bibliophilic culture at the turn of the century. Though she assigns a portion of the discussion to Badauderies Parisiennes, she does not pay due attention to the publication in question, but treats it as one among many examples that characterize the development of bibliophilia.. Finally, in 2015, Bridget Alsdorf published an essay entitled “Félix Vallotton’s Murderous Life.”17 In the first part of this essay, Alsdorf centers on Vallotton’s mockautobiographical novel, La Vie Meurtière (The Murderous Life) published in 1907, to explore his unique visual language in both image and text with topological connections to his fin-de-siècle prints.18 In the second part of her discussion on the Paris scene depicted by the artist, Alsdorf begins to focus on Badauderies Parisiennes, considering that Vallotton’s accidental vision of The Murderous Life is inspired from his mid-1890s images.19. In this part, she connects Badauderies Parisiennes to the theories of the psychology of the crowd that developed during the late nineteenth century. She 16 17 18 19. Silverman, (as note 2). Bridget Alsdorf, “Félix Vallotton's Murderous Life,” in: The Art Bulletin 97:2, 2015, pp. 210-228. Alsdorf, (as note 17), pp. 210-218. Alsdorf, (as note 17), pp. 218-224. 7.

(15) discusses the badaud, a figure for the attractions of urban spectatorship that is distinct from the far more studied flâneur. In the part devoted to Badauderies Parisiennes, she mainly emphasizes on the issue of the crowd rather than the book’s visual presentation, in her analysis of the book jacket.20. In this light, this thesis will take up the line of analysis devoted to Vallotton’s work and recontextualize it in an attempt to fill in the discursive gap surrounding the transitional role that Badauderies Parisiennes embodies. I will compare both Vallotton and Courboin’s illustrations and analyze the whole book as a collective work made by the two illustrators at issue here and the different authors who wrote texts to accompany the illustrations. I will trace the relationship between the images and the texts and examine how this book produced at the end of the nineteenth century plays a transitional role if we consider the historical progression that progressively gave a priority to the image over the text, and how the former gradually breaks free from its subservient status. Furthermore, in order to measure plainly the transitional place occupied by this book, I will analyze more in detail its main protagonist—the badaud—by comparing it with the notion of the flâneur and recontextualize the theories on the crowd that developed at that time.. 20. Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 219. 8.

(16) Chapter One Old and New: Two Contradictory Styles of Illustration. As an illustrated book, Badauderies Parisiennes is mainly composed of two elements: illustration and text. Generally, the text constitutes the main content for an illustrated book and the illustration is responsible for translating it into a visual form. Under this context, the illustration is usually subordinated to the text. 21 However, Badauderies Parisiennes constitutes a special case, since the illustration was made before the text.. In this case, illustrations were made by two illustrators, Félix Vallotton and François Courboin. The former made thirty relief prints playing the initiating role in the process of producing the book; the latter made over hundred vignettes to company Vallotton’s illustrations within the text. In the history of illustrated books, collaborative projects for producing an illustrated book were not without precedents. The result could always reach a coherent style through the collaboration of several illustrators, for instance, Les Français peints par eux-mêmes, one illustrated revue published from 1840 to 1842, in which many well-known illustrators such as Daumier, Grandville, P. Gavarni, Pauquet among others collaborated.22 However, if we juxtapose Vallotton’s and Courboin’s illustrations, their styles are almost contradicting: the style of the former is flat while the style of the latter is three dimensional. Following this context, it is necessary to ask what was Uzanne’s intention to gather in one illustrated book these two illustrators whose styles differ completely.. Thus, this chapter aims not only to answer the previous question but will also analyze how Badauderies Parisiennes through the display of two radically different types of images plays a transitional role in the context of the illustrated publications of 21. Finke, (as note 6), p. 339. Roger Chartier and Henri-Jean Martin ed., Histoire de L’édition française 3, Le temps des éditeurs: du romantisme à la Belle époque, Paris 1990, p. 336.. 22. 9.

(17) the late nineteenth century. In order to reach this goal, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between the publisher and the illustrators.. 1.1. The Publisher’s Intention: Two Styles of Illustration Coexisting in One Book Uzanne and Vallotton Uzanne, the initiator of the Badauderies Parisiennes was a well-known bibliophile by the end of the nineteenth century.23 He was also an author himself, a journalist, and a publisher who founded three reviews devoted to books as well as two bibliophiles companies.24 Before Uzanne invited Vallotton to make the prints for the Badauderies Parisiennes, he had already shown him his admiration in 1892 in one of his reviews, L’Art et l’Idée (1892-93), in an article entitled “La Renaissance de la gravure sur bois: Un Néo-Xylographe M. Félix Vallotton” (“The Woodcut’s Renaissance: a Neo- Xylographer Mr. Félix Vallotton”).25. In this essay, Uzanne mentions that the speed proper to the industrialization had been responsible for a new type of printing technique, named Gillotage that tended to respond to the market of the illustration. By comparing the old and new techniques, he retraces the history of xylography and discusses its revival that took place around 1830 and 1840, giving the example of two illustrated books, the Diable à Paris and the Français peints par eux-mêmes. 26 According to him, contemporary xylographers forgot the attitude and the essence of their predecessors, because they were too busy. 23. “Octave Uzanne, the Bibliophile’s dream!” exclaimed by the Belgian Symbolist painter Félicien Rops (1833-1898). Willa Z. Silverman, “Books Worthy of Our Era?: Octave Uzanne, Technology, and the Luxury Book in Fin-de-Siècle France,” in: Book History 7, 2004, p. 239, quoted from the letter of Félicien Rops to Léon Dommartin. 24 Le Livre : Bibliographie moderne (1880-89), Le Livre Moderne (1890-91) and L’Art et l’Idée (189293) ; One is the Société des Bibliophiles Contemporains (1889-94), and the other is Société des Bibliophiles Indépendants (1896-1901); Mme Evanghélia Stead, “L’Illustration. Essais d’iconographie,” in : Romantisme 126, 2004, p. 126. 25 Octave Uzanne, “La Renaissance de la graveur sur bois: Un Néo-Xylographe M. Félix Vallotton,” in: L’Art et l’Idee, 1892, p. 113-119. 26 “…Gavarni’s characters in le Diable à Paris and the illustrations of Les Français peints par euxmêmes—What a virtuosity! what a grace!! what a splendor!!! ” (…les personnages de Gavarni dans le Diable à Paris et les illustrations des Français peints par eux-mêmes—Quelle virtuosité! quelle grâce!! Quelle splendeur!!!) Uzanne, (as note 25), p. 116. 10.

(18) competing with the delicacy and preciseness of photographic reproduction. Uzanne emphasizes that:. “It is not through the polishing up of the wood that they will rediscover the glory and success of the vanished masteries, it is rather through the brutality of the means, through a return to the primitive craftsmanships…”27. According to this quotation, Uzanne urged woodcutters to abandon their senseless war with the precision of photomechanical technique.28 Instead, they should embrace the ‘desired awkwardness’ as well as the ‘primitive craftsmanship’ of sixteenth and seventeenth century xylographers such as Holbein and Dürer, or like some nineteenth century successors such as Gavarni.29. For Uzanne, Félix Vallotton’s primitive woodcuts solved properly this situation. The Swiss artist printmaker, painter and critic born in 1865 in Lausanne, Switzerland, who changed his artist career to oil painting after 1902, made his reputation with his stylistically simple and distinct black and white woodcuts produced in Paris in the 1890s. 30 Vallotton exemplifies this turn toward traditional craftsmanship. 31 The brutality of means praised by Uzanne could be seen in the simplicity and humorous tone of the two woodcuts Un enterrement en province (Funeral in Province) (Fig. 22), and Une foule à Paris (Crowd in Paris) (Fig. 23) ; these are the two works that he would mention once again in the preface of Badauderies Parisiennes.. 27. “Ce n’est pas par le fignolage du bois qu’ils retrouveront la gloire et le succès des maîtrises évanouies, c’est plutôt par la brutalité des moyens, par un retour aux factures primitives …” Uzanne, (as note 25), p. 117. 28 Silverman, (as note 2), p. 54, quoted from Uzanne, (as note 25), pp. 115-117. 29 Silverman, (as note 2), p. 54, quoted from Uzanne, (as note 25), pp. 115-117. 30 Belinda Thomson, Félix Vallotton, Oxford Art Online, access in 10 April 2015; Céline ChichaCastex, “Vallotton graveur,” in: Nouvelles de l’estampe 233/234, 2011, p. 69; Oxford Art Online; Lise Holst, “Felix Vallotton’s Intimites: “Le Cauchemar d’un Erudit,” in: Bulletin/ Allen Memorial Art Museum 37, 1979, p. 96. 31 Silverman, (as note 2), p. 54. 11.

(19) Made between 1891 and 1892, a few years before the release of the Badauderies Parisienne, both of the works treat the theme of the crowd at the moment when people are gathering together. In the first engraving mentioned by Uzanne, Vallotton intuitively balanced the scene of the funeral that is taking place in a graveyard with the shapes and rhythms of the gravedigger’s hard and individualized work on the left side with the massed, bent, dazed postures of the mourners on the right side.32 The poor widower and his son are downgraded timid and silent to the background of this play.33 Two women on the right side, too upset by the situation, cover their face with a white fabric in order to wipe their tears.34. In the second woodcut, Vallotton organizes a diagonal view in order to play out the juxtaposition of the crowd, herded by a policeman.35 This trapped throng wants to move on to see what happened on the street but the event is not shown in the image. Obviously, the focus is on the crowd rather than the event. Vallotton appears enthusiastic about enlarging the crowd as the main subject. Both woodcuts are treated with the contrasts of pure blocks of black and white and stark contours which Uzanne called “ombres chinoises.”36 Actually, Vallotton’s woodcuts with their shadow effects of black and white contrasts and stark contours—like the flat effect we can find in the works of other painter-printers such as August-Louis Lepère, Henri Guérard or Henri Rivière—were under the direct influence of Japanese woodcuts.37. For Uzanne’s urge to come back to the primitive craftsmanship, Vallotton’s primitive style and his predilection for crowds can explain why Uzanne chose Vallotton as the main illustrator of the Badauderies Parisienne. As Uzanne explains in the preface:. 32. Field, (as note 4), p. 48. Field, (as note 4), p. 48. 34 Their attitude refers to the tradition of the medieval pleurant that had already been shown in Gustave Courbet’s painting (Fig. 24); Field, (as note 4), p. 49. 35 Field, (as note 4), p. 51. 36 Uzanne, (as note 25), p. 119. 37 Uzanne, (as note 25), p. 119. 33. 12.

(20) “It seems to me that Félix Vallotton has always enjoyed depicting the movement of the street and the flâneur life of Paris while being vaguely sarcastic about it. It is with this notion of taste dominating his artworks that the idea came to me to ask him a series of brutalist prints on Parisian Badauderie which is so pleasant to observe in unceasing avatars of a bulimic curiosity of unforeseen events.”38. Two aspects are stressed in this passage: on the one side, the crowd as the main topic of the book derives directly from Vallotton’s depiction of Paris streets. On the other side, Vallotton’s primitive and brutal style was what Uzanne pursued for combating the popular delicacy and preciseness of the style of the time.. Vallotton and Courboin The transitional role Uzanne aimed to achieve in the illustrations of the Baudauderis Parisiennes is exemplified by the simultaneous display of two illustrators in the book. As Uzanne articulates his concern in the prologue, since Vallotton made all the main plates in the book, the chapter’s title and vignette’s design would naturally consign to him. 39 However, as Uzanne mentioned in the prologue: “This feasible technique appeared slightly aggressive to an audience still insufficiently prepared for the absolutism of his craftsmanship.”40 He worried that Vallotton’s style could be too aggressive and that the public would not be prepared enough to accept it.. 38. “Félix Vallotton m’a toujours paru prendre plaisir à exprimer, en l’ironisant vaguement, le movement de la rue et de la vie flâneuse de Paris. C’est avec la notion de ce goût dominant son oeuvre que l’idée me vint de lui demander une série d’estampes brutalistes sur la Badauderie parisienne si plaisante à observer dans les incessants avatars d’une curiosité boulimique d’événements imprévus.” from Badauderies Parisiennes, p. V. 39 Octave Uzanne, “Prologue: Félix Vallotton et l’origine de ce Livre des Rassemlements; La bibliophilie et la jeunesse littéraire contemporaine,” in: Badauderies Parisiennes, p. VIII. 40 “Ce procédé réalisable a paru un peu agressif pour un public encore insuffisamment préparé à l’absolutisme de sa facture.” Octave Uzanne,” Prologue: Félix Vallotton et l’origine de ce Livre des Rassemblements; La bibliophilie et la jeunesse littéraire contemporaine,” in: Badauderies parisiennes, p. VIII. 13.

(21) Therefore, he invited François Courboin, a widely published illustrator of books and periodicals, including one of Uzanne’s lately publications, Les Modes de Paris (1898).41 According to Uzanne’s description, Courboin belonged to a tradition that was “delightful, unconstrained, slick.”42 Through juxtaposing Courboin’s and Vallotton’s works on the same horizon, Uzanne alleviated potential aversion to the latter: certain clients (or readers) who were still constrained by conventions could be offended.43 This is the reason why this book is finally credited with two illustrators. These two different styles present therefore the two aspects related to a modern and traditional way of illustrating.. In order to present clearly the transitional role of this book, it is necessary firstly to compare briefly the images realized by the two illustrators. For the composition of Badauderies Parisiennes, each chapter depends on the place where the illustrations are displayed. Vallotton’s prints are always independent from the text and occupy a whole page, while Courboin’s constitute vignettes that are integrated within the text.. In the chapter “The Angler” (“Le Pêcheur à la Ligne”), Vallotton displays a single-minded man fishing (Fig. 8) in the middle of the image, his activity appealing the attention of surrounding onlookers. Vallotton’s composition is fairly simple. It has only three main layers: a foreground devoted to the fishing scene, a middle ground constituted with the gawkers’ gathering, and a background presenting passersby in the street. In the foreground, a young boy is sitting beside the angler on the riverbank. In the middle ground, four men and one boy who all have their hands in their pockets are looking behind the angler, while few people in the background are promenading. No one is chatting. Vallotton uses a primitive way to characterize these figures.. 41. Uzanne and Courboin had a continuous collaboration relationship that Courboin produced the illustrations for one of Uzanne’s book: Uzanne, Octave ed., Monument esthématique du XIXe siècle : les modes de Paris, variations du goût et de l'esthétique de la femme, 1797-1897, Paris 1898. Silverman, (as note 2), p.134. 42 Badauderies Parisiennes, p. V; Silverman, (as note 2), p.134. 43 Silverman, (as note 2), p.134. 14.

(22) First, he applies extensive area of black color which corresponds to the black suits of the protagonists, and blurs frequently the boundaries between two figures (Fig. 25). One of the most significant example is the “The Funeral” (“L’Enterrement”) (Fig. 18), in the foreground of which the silhouettes of the men who are raising their hats in homage to the deceased merge into an indistinct single body because of the unitary color of their black suits (Fig. 26). This effect applies also in the middle ground with the group of men carrying the coffin to be placed on a carriage (Fig. 26). The reader could only identify the characters by their gesture or any other part of the body represented in white color.. Secondly, Vallotton uses simple pattern to illustrate the volume of figures or objects. He uses stripes or dots to represent the fabric of clothes rather than pleats as for example with the trousers of two onlookers in “The Angler” which are formed by vertical stripes (Figs. 27). The outlines of the embankment wall on which the angler is sitting are reduced to a superimposition of rectangles (Fig. 28). When Vallotton wants to represent some facial expression he reduces the faces to simple strokes, as we can see on the features of the gawkers, manipulating only some traits to enlighten the onlookers’ faces (Fig. 29).. To sum up, all these two features contribute to the flatness of Vallotton’s style. Under his depiction, the flatness of the crowd is enhanced by the usage of succinct and plain lines.. In comparison with Vallotton’s plate, Courboin’s vignettes present a style that belongs to another aesthetic sphere which is totally opposite to Vallotton’s style. In his version of the “The Angler” (“Le Pêcheur à la Ligne”) (Fig. 30), unlike Vallotton’s composition, Courboin depicts the group of people by taking some distance rather than introducing the scene up close from the point of view of the river. It reverses Vallotton’s point of view and introduces the scene from the street, so that all the protagonists are 15.

(23) seen from their back. We can sum up two major differences after comparing Vallotton’s and Courboin’s illustrations. First, the latter complies with the principle of linear perspective more than Vallotton. Both Vallotton and Courboin use a diagonal perspective, but the latter emphasizes more the depth of field, which provides more information about the setting, such as the buildings standing on the other side of the river bench.. Second, the technique used by both artists are completely different. Courboin’s use of hatchings creates shades on the figures and objects which produces a profound and three-dimensional effect. His delicate style contrasts with Vallotton’s plain and pithy manner. This can be perfectly observed in another vignette belonging to the same chapter, in which we can see an old angler sitting at the terrace of a café, taking a drink after fishing (Fig. 31). The old fisherman’s wrinkles are clearly visible on his forehead and his upset emotion appears to be visible on the profile of his knitted eyebrows. In comparison with Vallotton’s primitive and flat style, Courboin’s design is more three dimensional.. Through these comparisons, the two contrastive styles can be seen as the expression of two moments of the art of engraving, one traditional, the other one definitely modern. The conjoint presence of both styles epitomizes the transitional dimension taken by the illustration in Badauderies Parisiennes. Thus, the following analysis is to feature these two styles and show how they could symbolize respectively tradition and modernity.. Courboin’s delicate and three dimensional style, which can be considered as “worthy but unexciting” if we follow Ulrich Finke’s opinion, obeys to the conventions that were at stake in the illustrated books around 1880.44 In order to understand this worthy but not unexciting trend, it is necessary to analyze some of the books Uzanne 44. Finke ed., (as note 6), p. 381. Finke claims that the illustrated books of 1880s, though with various modifications, retained the favor of collectors for many years, are worthy but unexciting. 16.

(24) published around that time, in order to visualize it. This can be done with La française du siècle: modes, mœurs, usages (1886), illustrated by Albert Lynch (Fig. 32); Le miroir du monde: notes et sensations de la vie pittoresque (1888), illustrated by Avril Paul (Fig. 33); and Bouquinistes et Bouquinistes: Physiologie des quais de Paris, du Pont-Royal au Pont Sully (1893), illustrated by Émile Masse (Fig. 34).These three books of which the illustrations are realized by different illustrators have two common points with Courboin’s: the use of hatching technique and the three dimensional effect.. First, these three illustrators use the same hatching technique. This can be seen in the way the draperies are represented. When comparing Courboin’s “The Barrack’s Entrance” (“À la porte des casernes”) with other three illustrations (Figs. 35, 36, 37 and 38), all draperies are made with hatchings in order to create shadows and present a three dimensional effect. This appears not only on the woman’s dress but also on the man’s suit. Besides, all these four illustrators present shadows cast around the personage’s feet and the object’s margin to emphasize the volume and achieve a three dimensional effect.. Secondly, such a pursuit for a three dimensional effect is a common goal for traditional illustrated books. All these four illustrators, including Courboin, have made the attempt to precise the details in order to pursue a three dimensional effect, for instance, the personage’s hair is clearly illustrated out (Fig. 39). Furthermore, they compose their scenes with a clear linear perspective, as for example in one vignette of Le miroir du monde (Fig. 40) illustrated by Paul Avril. The composition of the port is shaped diagonally complying with the linear perspective. According to the rule of perspective, the ship closer to the reader is bigger, conversely, the ship in the distance is smaller. Courboin also follows this three dimensional trend by displaying a clear diagonal line, for example, in one of his vignettes accompanying the chapter “The Angler” (Fig. 41). By showing the size of the ships proportionally to its distance from. 17.

(25) the spectator, it is clear that Courboin attempted to pursue a realistic effect through the usage of the linear perspective.. Nevertheless, when we compare Vallotton’s and Courboin’s prints presented in the same chapter, it will not be difficult to notice the contrast between the two illustrators in terms of the usage of perspective technique. While Courboin adopts a perspective line to achieve a certain three dimensional effect, Vallotton barely uses any perspective-related technique in “The Angler” (Fig. 8). Vallotton builds the perspective only by depicting gawkers in the foreground bigger than the promenading people in the background. Besides, he does not use a clear diagonal line to illustrate the depth of field, instead, he simply juxtaposes the passersby in the background to imply the depth of the street. The absence of perspective achieves a flat effect. Thus, when looking at these two illustrators together as Uzanne’s addresses the reader, Courboin’s pursuit of the the third dimension appears at odds with Vallotton’s flat style which is close to a modern style at that time. Vallotton was at that time closely associated with the avant-garde group of Les Nabis.45 Like his colleagues, he was influenced by the Symbolist art of Paul Gauguin and his expressive use of flat areas of color and rhythmic patterns.. On the first cover of La Revue Blanche published in 1894 (Fig. 42), Bonnard features an elegantly cloaked woman holding a copy of La Revue Blanche and an impish boy gesturing towards it with his thumb, both with reddish faces. In the background, a silhouette of a man’s back lurks in the numerous white ads of La Revue Blanche. The stark contrast between white and black creates a flattened space, a feature we can find in Vallotton’s Japonist woodblock prints. His flat style is involved in a trend of Japanese woodcut.46 This tendency was already widespread by the late 1880s in France, for a major exhibition of Japanese woodcuts was held at the École des BeauxArts in 1890 and it might have well inspired French artists to experiment with the 45. Silverman, (as note 2), p. 54. Lise Holst, Felix Vallotton’s Intimites: “Le Cauchemar d’un Erudit,” Thesis, Oberlin College, 1975, p. 10. 46. 18.

(26) technique.47 The specialty of Japanese woodcuts is urging to create a two-dimensional effect composed of flat areas of solid color and pattern.48 While employing black lines to define the outline of object and divide the areas of color, there is no need to model them with conventional hatching or close-set parallel lines, as Courboin applies in his vignettes.49. To sum up, Uzanne’s strategy to have two illustrators had a dual meaning. On the one hand, by promoting Vallotton, he was supporting the entire young generation of “aesthetic anarchists” who were associated with the La Revue Blanche. In this way, he was legitimizing these artists and writers in front of potential patrons.50 On the other hand, the patrons and the subscribers of the Bibliophiles Indépendants, who were accustomed to a more traditional artistic manner such as Courboin’s could nevertheless cultivate their taste when seeing Vallotton’s prints, thanks to the confrontation staged by Uzanne.51. 1.2. A Controversial Technique The technique of prints in Badauderies Parisiennes is also an element to justify the book’s transitional role in terms of its method of production. It is in this respect not clear whether the prints Vallotton made in Badauderies Parisiennes are woodcuts. It is an issue that is still under discussion among scholars.. In the preface, Uzanne writes extensively to express his opinion about contemporary printmaking techniques. In the beginning of the prologue, he intends to explain his priority by judging the respective merit of xylography, zincography and heliography. Although zincography’s subtle effect could satisfy the need of typographical print, Uzanne regrets that it loses the primitive and ordinary effect proper 47 48 49 50 51. Holst, (as note 46), p. 10. Holst, (as note 46), p. 10. Holst, (as note 46), p. 10. Silverman, (as note 2), p. 134. Silverman, (as note 2), p. 134. 19.

(27) to the carving of wood in xylography.52 Therefore, Uzanne sees in Vallotton woodcuts a “xylographic Renaissance” which he admires. He describes how Vallotton achieves his effects in something he qualifies as interesting, adorable and vivid.53 Uzanne claims that:. “M. Félix Vallotton […] valiantly tried his hand at conveying his inspirations on wood, and, using knife and penknife instead of burin, he engraved on blocks of maple or soft pear-tree various scenes of contemporary life, with the cunning candor of a sixteenth-century xylographer.”54. According to the privileged place given by Uzanne to xylography as well as his praise of Vallotton’s method in this medium, it has been supposed that the prints of Badauderies Parisiennes were woodcuts.55 However, almost all scholars who made researches on Badauderies Parisiennes convene to consider that although Vallotton’s prints look like woodcuts in this book, as they adopt various features which can be compared with the style the artist uses in this medium, they are probably not woodcuts at all but images produced photomechanically from the artist’s drawings. 56 This assumption almost contradicts Uzanne’s statement in the preface.. 52. According to Field’s argument, Uzanne’s usage of the term “zincograph” in the preface is wrong, for “zincograph” is a planographic process that substitutes zinc for limestone. Field considers that what Uzanne referred to is the Gillotype process, which uses zinc for a relief printing surface. Field, (as note 4), p.67, n. 26; Badauderies Parisiennes, pp. II-III. 53 Badauderies Parisiennes, p. IV. 54 Translation from Field, (as note 4), p. 67, n. 26. “ M. Félix Vallotton […] s’est essayé bravement à porter sur bois ses inspirations, et, s’aidant du couteau et du canif plutôt que du burin, il a gravé sur des blocs d’érable ou de tendre poirier des scènes diverses de la vie contemporaine avec la candeur roublarde d’un xylographe du XVIe siècle.” ; Badauderies Parisiennes, p. IV. 55 Xylography is a now semi-obsolete term which describes any type of printing from a wooden block, including both woodcut and wood-engraving. Oxford Art Online: http://0www.oxfordartonline.com.opac.lib.ntnu.edu.tw/subscriber/article/opr/t4/e1806?q=xylography&search= quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit (accessed on 9 May 2016). 56 Field, (as note 4), p.67, n. 26.; Phillip Dennis, “Prints Abound: Paris in the 1890s,” in: Prints Abound: Paris in the 1890s From the Collections of Virgins and Ira Jackson and the National Gallery of Art, London 2000, p. 46, n. 44; Silverman, (as note 23), p. 274, n.85 ; Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 227, n. 68. 20.

(28) The first one who proposed this hypothesis is Richard S. Field after comparing the three surviving preparatory drawings.57 After Field, all the scholars followed his hypothesis. It must be mentioned first that the artist’s own account in books and journals related to Badauderies Parisiennes mentioned only drawings, never woodcuts.58 Secondly, Julius Meier-Graefe, Vallotton’s first biographer and expert on prints, clearly stated in 1898 that these plates were not gravures (as Uzanne had called them in the preface and advertised them on the book jacket), but reproductions after drawings: 30 Reproductionen—nicht Gravüres, wie die Titel sagt! —nach Zeichnungen von Vallotton ( 30 Reproductions—not Gravures, as the title says! —according to Vallotton’s drawings).59 Third, there is internal evidence, as Field points out, that “in the textured passages where the black lines clearly were not executed by the removal of the white shapes, as they would be in a woodcut.”60. Field agrees that the illustrations as published are relief prints (gravures), but he also believes that these relief prints were printed from zinc linecuts, that is, photomechanically made relief surfaces called Gillotype, rather than from woodblocks.61 Nevertheless, he still left this issue open. For him, it is an impossible task to decide whether Vallotton’s illustrations are in fact woodcuts or Uzanne is in some way legitimizing the Gillotype process and his reproductions of Vallotton’s drawings. Though all the following scholars agree with this assumption, this issue still remains mysterious.. Comparing the Vallotton’s Original Drawings and Prints. 57. The new material has been found recently. Vallotton’s thirty original drawings in Badauderies Parisiennes finally entered the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, when the museum bought it from a private collector who wished the original drawings to join the artist’s birthplace in 2012. 58 Field, (as note 4), p.67, n. 26. 59 According to Vallotton’s images, these 30 reproductions are not woodcuts as the title says. Field, (as note 4), p.67, n. 26. 60 Field, (as note 4), p.67, n. 26. 61 Field, (as note 4), p.67, n. 26. 21.

(29) Comparing Vallotton’s original drawings and his prints in Badauderies Parisiennes offers a perspective to examine this assumption. This can be done if we confront the original drawing and the printed image of “The Modern Billposting” (“L’Affichage Moderne”) (Fig. 43) (Fig. 7).. If we focus on the suit of the gentleman who is on the left hand side of the image (Fig. 44), two clues could prove that it is the technique of printing rather than that of woodcut that has created observed nuances. First, if the printed image was a woodcut, the printer would have carved the image into a block of wood. Any white areas in the reproduction would have been cut away along the grain of the wood. The remaining parts would have been covered with ink and appear in black in the reproduction. However, the black line of the checked suit cannot be understood as resulting from the curving away of the white part. Furthermore, in the original drawing, the pattern’s textured line which overpasses the collar of the man suit reappears in the reproduction (Fig. 44). It seems a negligence in the draft. Normally, Vallotton should have paid attention and repaired this oversight from the draft when using his knife in the process of the carving of the wood. However, the fact is that this carelessness still remains in the final printed version. Thus, the technique that was used in the printing process was probably mechanical and couldn’t be controlled totally. At least it couldn’t erase the failures and mistakes already present in the original drawing.. Secondly, after comparing the original drawing and the printed image, it is clear that the black line of the checkered suit in the printed version is as accurate and precise as the original drawing. This accuracy effect is doubtlessly achieved by the Gillotype printing technique which is a purely photomechanical process invented by M. Gillot in 1850 and refined by his son Charles Gillot in 1870.62. 62. Lucien Wolf, Exhibition and Market of Machinery, Implements and Material Used by Printers, Stationers, Papermakers, and Kindred Trades, New York 2013, original edition is published in 1880, p. 96. 22.

(30) Before the last quarter of the nineteenth century, wood-engraving had been the dominant method for illustrating newspapers and books for a long time. 63 These reproductions were described as an “equally exact but artistic rendering” of a work of art. 64 However, they were increasingly being criticized for this “artistic” quality. 65 Photographically produced images, described as “absolutely exact mechanical rendering,” of works were becoming favored.66 Thus, during the period of 1865 to 1900, the growing tendency of demands for high quality photographic images that were accurate, permanent and inexpensive spurred the expansion of photomechanical processes.67. Uzanne used a modern photomechanical technique that was popular at that time even though he clearly showed his admiration and wanted to recall the traditional technique, the xylography, that he admired in Vallotton’s previous works. Uzanne did not follow his own statement in the preface.. The scholar Willa Silverman provided an explanation to Uzanne’s statement. According to her, Uzanne’s intention was that the prints of Badauderies Parisiennes look like woodcuts. As Silverman asserts: “If this is indeed the case, it is possible that Uzanne may have passed off photomechanical images as woodcuts to better woo a clientele that by 1896 was enthralled by the work of artisans associated with English Arts and Crafts movement and susceptible to the cachet of their techniques.”68. Even though Uzanne clearly indicated his intention to pursue a traditional technique, what he put into practice in the process of printing the images offered by 63. Wood-engraving is one of technique of xylography. Another one is woodcut. Rachel A. Mustalish, “The Development of Photomechanical Printing Progresses in the Late 19th Century,” in: Topics in Photographic Preservation 7, p. 73. 64 Mustalish, (as note 63), p. 73, quoted from the Review of W. J. Linton, “Some Practical Hints on Wood Engraving, for the Instruction of Review and the Public,” in: Journal of American Art 1, p.124. 65 Mustalish, (as note 63), p. 73. 66 Mustalish, (as note 63), p. 73, quoted from the Review of W. J. Linton, “Some Practical Hints on Wood Engraving, for the Instruction of Review and the Public,” in: Journal of American Art 1, p.124 67 Mustalish, (as note 63), p. 73. 68 Silverman, (as note 23), p. 274. 23.

(31) Vallotton did not conform to the stated intention. Examined from a retrospective perspective, Uzanne had in fact produced these prints in the photomechanical method instead of the traditional one. The controversial technique of Badauderies Parisiennes demonstrate its transitional role since on the one hand, Uzanne had the intention of recalling a traditional technique, while on the other hand, he embraced a modern innovative technique of reproduction. Seen in this light, the transitional role of the printmaking technique at work in Badauderies Parisiennes seems to have been reaffirmed.. 24.

(32) Chapter Two The Crowd as a Transitional Motif. “Their badauderie continues to feed not by the spectacle but by itself; insatiable, it revels in itself, yawning for yawning.” Pierre Veber, in Badauderies Parisiennes69. In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, Paris witnessed a tremendous population growth along with increasing anxiety surrounding urbanization.70 Under this context, this unprecedented popular uprisings characterizing the political upheavals of nineteenth century threatened the bourgeois democratic order of the day.71 Seen in this light, a number of writers turned their attentions to the crowd treated as a subject.. For instance, in literature, Zola had interest on the relationship between the mass production and the crowd, such as the scene of crowds of shoppers surging into the store in the novel Au Bonheur des Dames (1883).72 From the 1870s through the 1890s, historian, philosopher, and critic Hippolyte Taine published his revisionist history of French Revolution, Les Origines de la France Contemporaine (1875-1893).73 In his research, Taine attributed to the mob far greater responsibility for the Revolution by analyzing the crowd’s behavior in order to explain the destabilizing actions of the growing urban mass. 74 Then the increasingly annoying crowd behavior became an issue and also the impulse for psychological theories. For instance, anticipating Freud’s 69. “Leur badauderie continue de s’alimenter non du spectacle mais d’elle-même; insatiable, se repaît d’elle-même, bâille pour bâille. ” Badauderies Parisiennes, p. 39 70 The population of Paris doubled between the mid-1870s and 1905 according to Louis Chevalier, La formation de la population parisienne au XIXe siècle, Paris 1950, quoted from Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 218. 71 Evonne Levy, Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque, Canada 2004, p. 53. 72 Zola depicted the crowd by repeatedly drawing individuals out of the multitude, effectively disturbing the repetition of figures and faces that constitutes the crowd itself. Nicholas Rennie, “Benjamin and Zola: Narrative, the Individual, and the Crowds in an Age of Mass Production,” Émile Zola, Harold Bloom ed., Broomall 2004, pp. 172 and 177. 73 Levy, (as note 71), p. 53. 74 Levy, (as note 71), p. 54. 25.

(33) psychology of the unconscious, several treatises on the crowd by Gabriel Tarde, Scipio Sighele and Gustave Le Bon appeared during the early and mid-1890s.75. Among these psychological theories, the most known and influential one has to be credited to Gustave Le Bon.76 His well-known book La Psychologie des Foules (The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind) published in 1895 is still regarded as a classic by sociologists today.77 In this study, Le Bon develops a pessimistic point of view, considering that individuals lose their identity when they are within the crowd.78 He enumerates several “special characters of the crowd” that associate it to inferior beings: “the impulsiveness, the irritability, the incapacity to reason, the absence of judgment and critical approach, the exaggeration of the sentiments... which are almost observed in beings belonging to inferior forms of evolution, for instance, women, savages, and children.”79. Expanding upon the above context, this chapter analyzes the protagonist of Badauderies Parisiennes—namely the crowd. Its delineation in Uzanne’s publication is not only an extended reflection in relation to the emerging culture of mass production but also a parallel to the growing interest in the fields of sociology and psychology. Seen from such a thematic perspective, the crowd serves to stand a transitional role in the representation of the urban scenes that took place in the late nineteenth century Paris.. 75. This street psychology tendency appeared in the mid-1890s when Gabriel Tarde, Scipio Sighele, and Gustave le Bon published several famous treatises on the crowd. Gabriel Tarde, “Les Crimes des foules,” in: Archives de l’anthropologie criminelle 7, 1892, pp. 353-386; Scipio Sighele, La Foule criminelle, essai de psychologie collective, Paris 1892; Gustave Le Bon, La Psychologie des foules, Paris 1895, trans. as The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, New York 2002; quoted from Field, (as note 4), pp. 43-91, p. 69. 76 Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 226. 77 Field, (as note 4), p. 69. 78 Field, (as note 4), p. 69. 79 “Parmi les caractères spéciaux des foules, il en est plusieurs, tels que l’impulsivité, l’irritabilité, l’incapacité de raisonner, l’absence de jugement et d’esprit critique, l’exagération des sentiments…que l’on observe également chez les êtres appartenant à des formes inférieurs d’évolution, tels que la femme, le sauvage et l’enfant.” Le Bon, La Psychologie des foules, p. 24, English translation quoted from Le Bon, The crowd: a study of the popular mind, 1995; Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 218. 26.

(34) In this context, this chapter not only analyzes how Vallotton used to visualize the badaud, one entity constitutive of the crowd, but also discusses the representation of the badaud in the context of Fait divers—a column newspaper depicting the badaud around the end of the nineteenth century in France. In order to reach this goal, I begin with analyzing the book jacket of Badauderies Parisiennes and take it as the point of departure for reading the whole book.. 2.1. The Book Jacket Vallotton’s print for the book jacket and cover of Badauderies Parisiennes (Fig. 1) presents a commonplace daily life street scene, the background of which is constituted of the intersection of a bridge reaching the other side of la Seine and a street running along with the river—one of the best places to encounter an acquaintance or appreciate the Seine scenery while waiting for the arrival of a friend. As a bustling place, the intersection is crowded with various kinds of people absorbed in miscellaneous activities: a laborer pulling an advertising board on a cart, an absent-minded person standing still in front of a pillar, people going to work—in brief different types of badauds.. This street scene reveals the following contents of the book—the activity of the crowd which can be described counterclockwise, beginning with the man in black suit in the middle of the flagstones pulling a cart on which an advertisement in two parts is displayed. Composed of a slender sign put on the top of a triangular board, the advertisement presents at its top the book’s title in capital letters: BADAUDERIES PARISIENNES while below we find in grand bold letters the second part of the title, namely Les Rassemblements. Just below this inscription we can find an index finger pointing to the subtitle physiologies de la rue. This advertisement can be translated as follows: “Episodes of Parisian Gawking: Gatherings, Physiologies of the Street” (Badauderies Parisiennes—Les Rassemblements, physiologies de la rue). The existence of such an advertising cart that carries the illustrated book’s title delivers two 27.

(35) layers of meaning. First, as a part of the street scene that the cover seeks to portray, the cart’s function for promoting products is well emphasized as a spectacle whose relevance is to draw the attention of the crowd. However, when it comes to the content the cart is advertising, the appearance of the illustrated book’s title calls for further consideration since it is promoting a book that is unavailable to the crowd depicted in the book. Such an addition of the book’s title onto the advertising board does not have the ambition to create an intellectual paradox but to stage a dialogue between the character in the image and the reader reading the image. Apart from its advertising functionality, the advertisement also projects a sort of possibility in which a dialogue could take place between the depicted crowd shown on the cover and the future public in contact with the cover. The interplay of these two layers of meaning created by the existence of the advertising board could be further analyzed as follows. On the cover, a working-class man with his mouth wide open turns away his gaze from the Seine to look back at the advertising board that has caught his attention (Fig. 45).80 Meanwhile, another working-class man (Fig. 46) who keeps his hands on his back with a conscientious face is carefully reading the information at the reverse side of the advertising board. Since the two sides of the board contain the same advertisement promoting the Badauderies Parisiennes, the information received by the two male characters is in accordance with what the readers of the book could possibly receive. The two men are surrogates for our viewing position.81 They are like a mirror that reflects the reader’s reaction when seeing the advertising board.. Secondly, if we move on to the colonne Morris at the crossroad of the bridge and the street in the background, we will notice an absent-minded moustache man (Fig. 47) in white costume standing still.82 Here is another occasion for promoting the authors of Baudauderies Parisiennes. There are three discernable posters on the pillar behind 80. Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 220. Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 220. 82 It was invented by German printer Ernst Litfaß in 1854 and were named Morris after Gabriel Morris, also a printer, who held the concession for advertising it in France in 1868. Danielle Chadych, Dominique Leborgne, Histoire de Paris pour les nuls, Paris 2013, p. 127. 81. 28.

(36) the man related to the advertising of cabarets, toys, and the magazine la Revue Blanche. 83 One among them writes: “LISEZ la revue blanche” (READ the white review). The advertisement which encourages clients to read la Revue Blanche promotes at the same time the publication in which the fifteen writers of the Baudauderies Parisiennes used to write.. Thirdly, since Vallotton’s book jacket of Paris street scene reveals that the main protagonist of the book is the crowd, this entity is naturally not limited to the composition itself. As we can understand through the presence of a little young boy yelling at somebody outside the frame behind the officer standing just at the intersection (Fig. 48), Vallotton makes us understand that there is a vast crowd “out of frame.”84 This invisible crowd corresponds to the community of readers and spectators who are holding the book. This is made clear not only because the advertising sign of the book is clearly meant for the reader’s eyes but also because one of the members of the busy street scene stares back, as if aware of the reader’s gaze.85 This member is the finely dressed young woman (Fig. 48) with the floral hat looking directly at the reader with a pleasant smile.86. Finally, the foreground people who compose all sorts of individuals represent the mixed crowd of professionals. The young man with a flat cap (Fig. 49) who carries a ladder and seems to be about to repair something in the middle of the street is for instance a tradesman; the other individuals wearing bowler hats such as the old bearded man with a refined costume at the center of the foreground (Fig. 50), the other old man with a goatee with his left hand in his pocket (Fig. 51), and the two men seen in profile who are apparently discussing in the back of the composition (Fig. 52), are probably white collars. Vallotton does not limit his list of trades to blue and white collars going. 83 84 85 86. “Read the White Review” (Lisez la Revue Blanche) is the poster’s slogan. Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 219. Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 219. Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 219. 29.

(37) to work, he also depicts other professions such as a postman taking letters (Fig. 53), an officer (Fig. 54) seen from his upper back on the second ground walking with a fashionable lady and an artist who holds a large portfolio of prints or sketches under his arm (Fig. 55), possibly on his way to his atelier. Alsdorf considers this character as a self-portrait of the artist—Félix Vallotton who “conveys a canny self-awareness of how his prints and drawings contributed to contemporary views of Parisian Life.” 87 However, according to another woodcut on which Vallotton had represented himself in 1892 (Fig. 4), four years before the publication of Badauderies Parisiennes, with his face in the same position as in the book jacket, the presence of a moustache and a beard makes us believe that he represented a younger painter than himself.88 Moreover, the artist’s profile alters wildly from the original sketch (Fig. 56) to the final printed book jacket. The embryo figure’s hair (Fig. 57) is longer than the one which figures in the final printed book jacket. In any case, Vallotton’s book jacket teems with citizens of different age, class, gender and trade crossing the streets of Paris and shows the diversity of the badauds.. In order to have a better understanding of the book jacket, it is necessary to focus on the manner the artist introduces the book’s content in two different zones. The first one is the doubled-sided advertising board carried on a cart (Fig. 58). On one side of the board, we can see besides the title the presence of the names of the book’s initiator and those of the fifteen writers. We can also learn on the lateral side that the graphic artist François Courboin made more than hundred drawings within the text. Moving on to the second zone, which is similar to an ad in the form of an open newspaper protruding in to the lower-right corner (Fig.59), information about the publisher, Henri Floury, the publishing house, Bibliophiles Indépendants, and the publishing date – 1896. 87. Alsdorf, (as note 17), p. 219. Vallotton made a lot of woodcut portraits of famous people from different fields in that era, such as Balzac, Rimbaud, Poe, Aubrey Beardsley, etc.. 88. 30.