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innova ti o n . Basqui at neve r got close. Of course, he was ho rribly young
and by all reports, in pretty desperate shape when he ove rdosed, but given
the evidence of the show, it 's hard to il11 agin e how hi s small talent might
have furth er evo lved . T hat o nl y makes th e story of hi s sho rt, violent life
even sadder and the Whitney's effort to eleva te him to a new pantheon of
Ameri can arti sts mo re patheti c.
By co in cid en ce,
Frederic Baz i/lc: Prop hct oj IlIIprcss io/l islII ,
at the
Broo klyn Mu se um fr om mid-Novemb er thro u gh J anu ary (a nd in
Memphis at the Di xon Gallery throu gh April 25 th), o ffered a nineteenth–
century parallel to Basqui at's sto ry. Bazille also di ed fa r too young, killed
in the Franco-Prussian W ar befo re he was twenty-nin e. His ca reer as a
painter similarly spanned a brief eight yea rs, but instead of the superabun–
dance o f Basqui at's legacy, only sixty- five of Bazill e's wo rks survive . He
doesn ' t fi gure in the popular no ti on o f Impress ioni sm , sin ce he died be–
fo re the first Impressio ni st exhibiti o n in 187 4, but he was an intimate
fri end and som etime stu d io- and roommate of Manet, M o net, R enoir,
and Sisley. (H e's that tall , lanky fell ow in th e gro up po rt ra its of the
Impressioni st circl e at the Musee d'Orsay .) Pissa rro desc ribed him as "one
o f the gi fted among us." Until the exhibi t in Brookl yn , a version of a ret–
rospective o rga ni zed by the Musee Fabre , Montpellicr, to commemorate
the one hundred-fifti eth anni ve rsary o f hi s birth in 1841, Bazille was any–
thing but fa mili ar to Ameri ca n audi e nces. T he show and its excellent,
well-researched catalogue sho uld change that.
Bazille emerged as clea rly tale nted, se ri o us, intelli gent , and
yOlll/g,
a
little cauti o us but recepti ve
to
the advice o f his mo re daring contempo–
ra ri es . M anet's exampl e, like that of the young M onet, was evident in the
juicy paint- handling and fo rth right approach of some fi ne still li fes, while
a coupl e of ambiti o us pa intings of young wome n seated outdoors and
some fres h landscapes made it plain that he lea rn ed a good deal from
C orat and Courbet, as well. But Bazill e seems to have listened too much
to his good fri end R eno ir. A large o ri entali zing painti ng o f three women,
a study in the contrast between blac k and w hite skin , nudity and exotic
costume, fu r and fl esh , betrayed a sentimentality and a softening of touch
that suggest the asce ndancy o f R eno ir's influence.
On the w hole, the most modest pi ctures bo re o ut Pissarro's judg–
ment: a lush , painterly still life o f two golden herrings, a sensiti ve portrait
of an Afri can woman w ith a vase of fl owe rs, a stu d io interior - homage to
D elacro ix and Coro t - and the intensely colo red , in te nsely fel t landscapes,
w ith their nod to Courbet. Bazill e's last large fi gu re paintings, such as the
o ri ental fa ntasy, we re ai med at the Sa lo n , w hi ch , alo ng w ith R enoir's
example, may explain hi s re trea t from bold brushin ess and a direct attack.
T he increas in g conse rva tism o f this " late" work made the characteri zation
