A fine example of fraternity
About the exhibition "Léon Monet, brother of the artist and collector", to be seen until 16 July at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris.
Would Léon Monet be the big brother without whom Impressionism would not have existed? We won't go that far. But a big brother without whom the leader of Impressionism would have had a harder time getting enough to eat in his early days, certainly. And his friends, too. So obviously, the poster on the gates of the Luxembourg Gardens can be misleading. When you see the portrait of Léon Monet (1836-1917) by Claude Monet (1840-1926) finally revealed, you instinctively have the impression that you are entering an exhibition of Impressionist painters. Not so. The exhibition deals with the family life of the Monets, but also with chemistry, industry, Rouen... Because Léon Monet was not the first patron and collector of Impressionism for nothing: he brilliantly led a career as an industrial chemist in colour and founded the Industrial Society of Rouen, like the one in Mulhouse. In other words, a learned society, one of whose many missions was to promote education through art.
Nevertheless, the exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg is all the more fascinating. It goes far beyond the mere display of works of art next to each other, inviting us to immerse ourselves in a world of yesteryear. "Léon Monet, the artist's brother and collector" allows the curator Géraldine Lefebvre, a doctor in art history specialising in the 19th century, to bring together around a hundred works of art, including paintings and drawings by Monet, Morisot, Sisley, Pissarro and Renoir, as well as colour books, fabric samples, Japanese prints, archival documents and numerous family photographs. It is as if one were invited into the family, professional and friendly circle of another era. The time when one could meet this kind of "cordial and frank" industrialist, with "a lively and quick intelligence", as his contemporaries described the well-dressed and naturally comfortable notable Léon Monet.
Strange as it may seem, it was because Léon Monet did not like the energetic portrait painted of him by his younger brother that this moving painting was forgotten! Jean-François Lasnier recounts the anecdote in the April issue of Connaissance des arts, which devotes an article to the exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, quoting the Rouen artist Joseph Delattre (1858-1912): "Several years ago, M. Claude Monet sketched the portrait of his brother, the brushstrokes were rough and yet from a distance these brushstrokes seemed to be made for each other, they harmonised and the portrait was resembling; Monet was about to proceed with the completion of his portrait when Renoir and Sisley arrived in the studio and, glancing at the portrait, said: 'Don't touch it, you'll ruin it'. And the portrait remained like that, all impregnated with the artist's brutal temperament. Do you know what Monet did, not Claude, but his brother, the chemist from Déville? Well, my dear, he hid it.
Just goes to show that you can love a style of painting... but not be able to see yourself in it! When you think of the dented and monstrously lacerated portraits painted later by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), you think that frankly, Claude Monet's portrait of Léon Monet is quite simply very beautiful... Besides, did Bacon have an older brother? Let's stop joking.
In any case, when Claude Monet painted this portrait in 1874, it had already been two years since his older brother had founded the Société Industrielle de Rouen, which would actively support the Impressionists. It was also two years since the artist, while staying in Le Havre with his wife and son, painted Impression, Rising Sun. The famous canvas that gave its name to the movement after being exhibited at the 1874 exhibition, a canvas that he painted in one session early in the morning in the city of his childhood, whose port was for him the symbol of the industrial revolution of the 19th century. Monet made no secret of the fact that he was inspired by the seascapes, sunrises and sunsets painted before 1872 by Eugène Delacroix, Eugène Boudin, Johan Barthold Jongkind and William Turner.
At a time when collectors were scarce and critics acrimonious, Léon Monet's support for the Impressionist group proved essential. Yes, in the 19th century, there was no rush at the door of art galleries to buy works of art for sale by Monet, Pissarro, Sisley or Renoir! As early as 1864, Léon began buying paintings from his brother: two still lifes and four landscapes from Normandy thus entered his collection, the same one that is now on display at the Musée du Luxembourg. The collection eventually included some twenty paintings by Claude Monet, as well as two rare sketchbooks dated 1856. And Léon Monet obviously did not do this only to provide for his younger brother: sincerely sensitive to the new painting, to the contemporary art of his time, he did not hesitate to buy the works of other Impressionist painters. "In June 1871, for example", wrote the journalist of Connaissances des arts, "Claude solicited Pissarro to provide him with something finished for (his) brother, preluding the acquisition of three paintings by Léon".
"In addition to his traditional activity as a collector and patron, the elder Monet participated in the dissemination and promotion of Impressionist works. In 1872, he showed works from his collection at the 23rd municipal exhibition of fine arts in Rouen in the spring. In particular, Monet's Intérieur and Un canal en Hollande, Pissarro's La maison de campagne and Sisley's Canal Saint-Martin were on display," explains Jean-François Lasnier. "This type of event accompanied the emergence of an art market in the provinces and the emergence of informed art lovers, of which the Rouen industrialist François Depeaux was the most emblematic example. This friend of Léon Monet, who became rich in coal, would soon become one of the most important collectors of Impressionists, as the 2020 exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen reminded us.
Illustration : Claude Monet (1840-1926), Portrait of Léon Monet (detail), 1874 © Private collection