Beyond the smoke and the traffic, the hustle and bustle, factories and railroads of modern cities give way to the rolling hills, golden fields, and cozy cottages of the French countryside. Artist Jean Metzinger romantically depicts such an agricultural scene in his 1904 painting, Landscape. The central subject of this oil on canvas is a haystack situated in the middle of a field surrounded by a small cottage and rolling, green mountains. Budding trees frame the cottage and its field, creating a serene and peaceful agricultural setting. Yet Landscape was completed after the industrial revolution, at a time when business and technology began to invade our daily lives. In France, overcrowding of major cities caused industry to spread out into the suburbs and surrounding countryside (Freeman 22). The advent of industry and transportation made farmers less attached to their land and more likely to move resulting in an unbalanced agricultural structure (Soubeyroux-Delefortrie 352-3). Art movements such as Fauvism and Cubism consequently reflected the economic change and modernism experienced in France at this time (Cottington 209). To reject this turn to industry, Metzinger uses both Fauvist and Cubist techniques through color, lighting, linear curvature, and careful positioning to depict an ideal, fantastical countryside setting that glorifies agricultural life.

Metzinger effectively creates a springtime setting while in turn giving a sense of romanticism to the painting through his Fauvistic use of color. Fauvism, an artistic movement popular from 1898-1908 used bright colors and simple shapes to express emotions and ideas (Pioch "Fauvism"). Fauves painted emotions inspired by nature, unlike Impressionistic artists, who simply imitated it (Metzinger). By using a variety of bright pastel colors, especially various shades of greens, pinks, and blues, the artist creates images of freshness and life, therefore symbolizing springtime. The layers of bright pinks and greens covering the foreground of the painting suggest the blossoming of flowers and greenery. Light brown trees and bushes budding with the greenery of new leaves stand along the sides of the painting. Even the sky swirls with a brilliant mixture of light blue and purple that expresses the artist’s emotions of wonderment, while at the same time giving a sense of serenity and romanticism to the painting. In contrast, Francois-Louis Francais’s Valley of the Eaugronne (1899) uses Early Impressionist characteristics such as unmixed, primary colors to realistically express its subject (Pioch "Impressionism"). Darker greens, browns, and grays create a more realistic depiction of the French countryside at the turn-of-the-century.

Along with the use of color, bright lighting helps give the painting a sense of fantasy, while at the same time using contrast to draw attention to its focal points. Although overall a fairly light painting, the field and the haystack, clearly symbols of agricultural life, are illuminated in golden yellows that helps the eye focus on it. The overall brightness and golden blonde quality of the piece helps create a sense of serenity and a feeling that "everything is right" (Tomson 156-7). The use of darker colors for the rolling hills in the background as well as the greenery in the foreground create a greater contrast against the field drawing more attention to it. The unusually bright swirling sky as well as dramatic fading and meshing pinks and greens in the foreground create a surreal atmosphere.

The other landscape painting however has less, but more concentrated areas of light. The painting is fairly dark, except for the fading sun setting behind the trees, and its reflection off the river’s surface and the surrounding hills. Unlike the Metzinger piece, little contrast in brightness draws your eye mainly towards the setting sun in the background, a symbol of the future. This light, especially that which is reflected off the river is simulated by small brushstrokes, a typical characteristic of Impressionistic style (Pioch "Impressionism").

Both Metzinger’s Cubist and Fauvist use of smooth lines and curvature, in addition to contrasting brightness, also contribute to the sense of surrealism while at the same time reflecting the peaceful and serene mood of the countryside. Rarely, if any sharp lines or angles appear throughout the painting. These elements support the Cubist belief that objects should be conveyed as they are conceived by the mind, not as they are seen literally (Pioch "Cubism"). This use of curvature and simple shapes also reflects Metzinger’s Fauvist nature by allowing him to express his view that agriculture should be simple, not complicated with machinery and technology. The curved shapes of the hills, bushes, and trees made by broad round brushstrokes complement the rounded haystack and cottage, making it easy for the eyes to follow from one figure to the next. These broad, thick brushstrokes allow Metzinger to bring objects in closer, rather than distancing them Impressionistically (Freeman 17). The swirling of the brushstrokes in a conical fashion such as the ones in the purple-blue sky add to the painting’s fantastical and serene nature.

Francais however uses smaller, more precise brushstrokes to create a more detailed, and therefore more realistic painting. Critics praised Valley of the Eaugronne for being so accurate and the artist for being so dexterous (House 172). The painting’s complex, detailed figures exemplify this accuracy. The trees in this painting have sharper, more textured branchlines. The sharp angles in Francais’s work such as the sharp corners of the bridge, the sudden bend in the river, and points on the bushes focus on accuracy and reality, creating even more of a foil against Metzinger’s landscape.

Curvature of lines and the placement of figures in the painting collectively bring focus to the central themes of domestication and agricultural life through Cubist techniques. Scientific, often-geometric use of space, and the ability to synthesize many objects into one painting characterized the Cubist movement, which also opposed Impressionism (Roskill 30-31). The tree branches gently curve over the upper left-hand portion of the painting, gently framing the field, cottage, and the haystack, which is the central figure of the painting. The lines of the tree also parallel the outline of the hills, making it easy for the eyes to follow up the left side and across the top of the picture. The eyes can then move down the other side of the painting, tracing over the bushes and trees, and up through the central clearing, finally resting on the haystack. This flow from one object to the next effectively synthesizes the many elements of the French countryside into a main idea of harmonious agriculture. The haystack stands as the focal point because it is the product of this synthesis. Cultivation and the harvest of crops were the most important things in agricultural life, and therefore required a great dependency on nature. The haystack, a product of man’s labor, symbolizes his harmonious relationship with nature (Tomson 156-57).

No focal point in Francais’s painting exists that parallels the haystack; The eyes wander randomly from the farm hands to the fishermen to the traffic upon the bridge. The artist uses symbols of agriculture such as the farm hands to contrast with the bridge and its consequent representation of the spread of transportation and technology. Clearly the artist attempts to portray the struggle between traditional agricultural life and the spread of technology following the Industrial Revolution. The train in the distance proves the most symbolic figure in this painting, exemplifying the push for technology and industry to move ahead. Metzinger chooses not to include these prominent realities in his painting, rejecting these signs of growing industry and leaving them out of his idealistic painting.

Metzinger uses a variety of Fauvistic and Cubistic techniques such as color, lighting, curvature, and placement to create a surreal and fantastical image that glorifies and praises agricultural life. By depicting the countryside in such a fantastical manner, the artist effectively voices his rejection of a life based on technology and industry which had begun to take over at the time of the painting. Metzinger views agriculture at the time of this painting to be an ideal lifestyle, yet one that is fading as a result of industrialization. Picasso once said, "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." Metzinger cleverly lies to his audience by portraying an ideal countryside setting, helping them realize the reality of industrialization and its effects on our surroundings, as well as ourselves.
 
 

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Freeman, Judi. "Surveying the Terrain." The Fauve Landscape. Los Angeles: L.A County Museum of Art, 1990. 13-22.

House, John. Landscapes of France. London: Art Publications, 1996. 172.

"Metzinger". Ackland Online. North Carolina: Chapel Hill, 1999. Online. Internet. 28 Dec. 1999.

Metzinger, Jean. Landscape. The Ackland Art Museum, North Carolina.

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Roskill, Mark. The Interpretation of Cubism. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses. 21-53.

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Thomson, Richard. Monet to Matisse: Landscape Painting in France 1874-1914. Edinburg: National Gallery of Scotland, 1994. 77-159.