Jean-Pierre (Jan Piotr) Norblin arrived in Poland in 1774 at the invitation of Duke Adam Czartoryski. The artist was initially trained at the workshop of the Venetian painter Francesco Casanova, and later studied at Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and Ecole Royale des Elèves Protégés in Paris. Norblin was a remarkable representative of the late Rococo tradition. Two painting styles intertwine in his works. First of them shows influence of the master of the French painting at the turn of centuries, Antoine Watteau, and is noticeable in his charming and richly ornamented works following the tradition of fête galante and fête champêtre. The second style showing the painter’s flair for “reporting”, great sense of observation and ability to relate current events “on the spot” is brought to light mostly in his works on paper.
The large oil painting entitled Bath in the Park, created circa 1785, represents the first style mentioned above. The colour palette of this painting is typical for Norblin and representative of the Rococo aesthetics. The bottom part of the work is painted with bold brush strokes in earthly colours brightened with warm tones of yellow and ochre. Whereas the trees in the upper part of the painting are of cool green colour. They are depicted against the background of a light blue sky warmed by shades of yellow. The entire painting is filled with warm light imitating natural sunbeams and covered by a light fog, which creates the feeling of idyll and tranquillity.
In terms of its subject, Bath in the Park is placed on the borderland between fêtes galantes, or "courtly entertainment”, and mythological scenes. Such forms of entertainment were an integral part of the court’s life in the 17th century and belonged to the most favourite leisure activities of the aristocracy. They were also the sign of an ideological turn towards an idyllic life in nature, which, as the then elites of the society believed, was lived by simple peasants. In addition, the subject of the painting corresponds with the bucolic traditions having its roots in the Antique culture. Highly popular in the 17th century, the theme of bathing women was usually read through the prism of the mythological motif of nymphs bathing in a lake, even if, as in Norblin’s case, such contemporary elements of its composition as: baldachin, stone pond surround, and the Rococo armchair contradicted it.
The masters of the composition in the tradition of fête champêtre or fête galante were such outstanding representatives of the French painting in the times of Regency and King Louis XV as Antoine Watteau, Jean-Honoré Fragonard or François Boucher. The reign of the former ruler, King Louis XIV, was marked with both: a political and socio-cultural dictatorship. The court of the Sun King consisted of about ten thousand people, including three thousand representatives of gentry. “All these dukes, margraves and counts had actually nothing to do except for adding splendour to his royal highness. Instead, however, they were obliged to take part in all the national and court ceremonies” – writes Władysław Tomkiewicz. The etiquette of these ceremonies was very strict and formal. What is more, self-restraint in erotic behaviour as well as religious bigotry started to rule at the royal court. Madame de Maintenon, the wife of the ruler from a morganatic relationship, who had previously been a tutor of the royal children born out of wedlock, used to guard these “virtues”. The outrage and dislike for such practices increasing in aristocracy found an outlet after the death of Louis XIV in 1715.
His heir, Regent Philippe d’Orléans introduced totally different customs, including that of an ostentatious dissoluteness. The most widely read book of the Baroque period, Ovid’s Methamorphoses, was replaced by another one by this author Ars Amandi, while the place of the stiff courtly protocol was taken by the ludic culture characterized by pursuit of pleasures and indulgence in one’s whims. The representative art of classicising, “cool” Baroque of Louis XIV was exchanged for the intimacy of boudoir and ornamentation of hôtel. Thus, Rococo was created in the atmosphere of hedonism and slackening of morals. The concept of “pastoral life”, or apparently simple, rural existence without obligations but filled with pleasures brought by being close to nature and spending time flirting, was also part of that atmosphere. Painters would undertake this subject quite often. On the paintings, which plot is set in forests, parks and gardens, fashionable ladies play their love games with their admirers.
Educated in the circles of Italian and French masters of Rococo, Jean-Pierre Norblin painted compositions that followed the then current fashion. His paintings in the tradition of fêtes galantes, such as a series of panneaux for Powązki including Śniadanie w parku / Breakfast in the Park (1795), Koncert w parku / Concert in the Park (1785) or the above-discussed Kąpiel w parku / Bath in the Park (1785), constitute inherent parts of the thematic convention of entertainment present in the works created by the artists of the Rococo period. Drawing upon the well-established mythological theme of bathing nymphs allowed for the depiction of obviously erotic content with clear references to contemporary times.
Sources:
• Zygmunt Batowski, "Norblin", Lviv 1910;
• Alicja Kępińska, "Jan Piotr Norblin", Wrocław 1978;
• Władysław Tomkiewicz, "Rokoko", Warsaw 1988.
Author: Magdalena Wróblewska, December 2010
Jean-Pierre Norblin
Kąpiel w parku / Bath in the Park
1785
The National Museum in Warsaw