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French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting
French term or phrase:Peinture de circonstance
I'm wanting to know whether this is a specific art genre – it would seem to be, in French at least – or whether I can choose to translate it as I see fit. Here's the sentence and the one before it for more context. It's part of a long interview with the artist and one of two texts in a monograph of his work.
Dans un portrait, il y a très peu de récit, mais tu finis quand même par raconter quelque chose sur l’être humain. Sans parler d’une peinture historique, ou de circonstance, comme par exemple la peinture de Balthus.
I've have been unable to find an equivalent in English, despite searching with every synonym I can think of!
Explanation: Interesting! I don't believe it is a genre in English, and not sure it is in French either? I've never heard or seen of it (nor of "circumstantial painting" /"occasional painting" either).
Here the text is about the (lack of) "récit" of a portrait being contrasted with historical painting (i.e. that depicts some historical occasion and thus is a récit) or a peinture de circonstance, (showcasing/depicting the circumstances) as in "la peinture de Balthus".
So certainly Baltus' painting are not portraits with very little récit but rather incite all sorts of questions and controversies about the models (especially the adolescent girls depicted in very erotic ways) and the stories or récits portrayed.
So I think that is the angle to take here. I really don't think you can come up with a 2 word equivalent in English that will work.
So I'd suggest going with the récit/story aspect. Some thing like
"Dans un portrait, il y a très peu de récit, mais tu finis quand même par raconter quelque chose sur l’être humain,... comme par exemple la peinture de Balthus"
There is very little narrative/story-telling in portrait painting but nevertheless you finish by saying something about the human being (portrayed), like in a historical painting or the occasions and stories that a Balthus painting may showcase/depict/give rise to
I thought of "commemorative" as well and certainly portraits are often commisioned and painted to commemorate occasions but I don't think this can be associated with Balthus though of course the portrait in question may well be!
I thought of "opportunistic art" too, i.e. the artist seizing the opportunity to paint what they see, but again, I don't really see how this would relate to Balthus who certainly "staged" his work
so, difficult to say but I have a feeling the Balthus ref. is a bit of a red herring. After all, this is an artist who refused to give any biographical details or allow these details or descriptions of his works to be shown! It was up to the spectator to decide on the narrative/récit to take from each painting
Hope my thinking aloud has helped!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2019-11-27 19:50:46 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
oops! I meant to highlight/bold some words that may be useful like the occasions and stories that a Balthus painting may showcase/depict/give rise to or other words like narrate, showcase, commemorative (commissioned and painted to commemorate occasions), opportunistic
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2019-11-27 19:54:40 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 day 17 hrs (2019-11-29 11:21:42 GMT) Post-grading --------------------------------------------------
Glad to have helped. I think it's very difficult to categorise Balthus or try to pigeonhole him. Certainly, he can be seen as a modern genre painter but his paintings also fit into the modern genre or narrative art category which seems to be what the context is about here. I'd normally agree with Helen but personally I would not see his works as "satirical" and also would not slot him into a "moral painter" pigeonhole. So, I'd probably work around it rather than settling on one category as I suggested earlier
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But for the purposes of the glossary I'll change the header
That’s fine. I was just leaving my opinion of the term as an art historian for the Asker to make up her own mind, which she has now done. I don’t agree with it, but it doesn’t matter.
Sorry, for not answering before but I'm very busy with my own work right now. Anyway, I believe I'd already made my feelings known. I was aware of the term 'peinture de moeurs' but I would not lump Balthus in with Hogarth as I do not see him as fitting in this category. I also said I don't see him as being satirical. I reproduced the writing about him below and bolded parts of it as I have not come upon any experts claiming that he is either a "satirical" or "moral painter" or for that matter categorising him. Yes, of course his works give rise to lots of questions about morality and immorality and there is most definitely a narrative aspect. But he himself made no comments, never wanted descriptions of his work to be displayed alongside the paintings, didn't want to give interviews or biographical details and left it up to viewers to form their own opinions. So I'm reluctant to pigeonhole him at all...
I'm not sure what you are arguing. The painting of Hogarth, from whom the term 'modern moral painting/scene' comes, was figurative, narrative, etc., but also very satirical. Balthus may or may not be seen as satirical, but he was certainly making a comment on modern mores, which is what the term encompasses. I provide a link, which demonstrates/states that 'peinture de circonstance' is a synonym for 'peinture de moeurs' - the latter being a well-known art historical term for just this approach to critiquing society.
It's what comes of trying to post links and explanations from an iphone late at night. I haven't got time to repost - I've got an art history deadline of my own to meet ;-). I know it is a strange term, stranger still to non-art historian ears, as so much terminology is, but if the Asker reads the book link and the Tate link in my answer, she will see what I mean.
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/balthus/artworks/ "His work...informed his own narrative ability to impart dramatic trajectories to the scenes he portrayed in his paintings of ordinary settings. His investment in figurative image-making helped reinforce the value of representational painting as a critical force in a century which saw many artistic movements turn toward abstraction. "challenge the limits of customary moral acceptability through a traditional, figurative genre. As New Yorker magazine art critic Peter Schjeldahl writes: "Balthus sticks us with a moral conundrum, because he can. His elegantly nuanced violations of taboo won for his conservatively figurative art enthusiastic esteem in the largely Surrealist, devoutly libertine Parisian avant-garde of the nineteen-thirties..." OR https://books.google.ie/books?id=C0JHAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT185&lpg=P...
Hello Helen :) if you are suggesting "moral painting", copy the body of your entry, then delete your original post and repost with the right heading and paste in your discussion (takes 30 seconds to do) I'm not knocking your suggestion, quite the opposite. It should be up there as it is clearly valid and useful but needs the right heading of course Regards SafeTex
That second sentence looks clumsily worded or punctuated to me. As Phil points out, sans parler de doesn't fit there. I wonder if historique & de circonstance are meant to follow récit & raconter—in which case de circonstance means event or happening or occurrence—and Balthus is then brought up as an example of paintings that are not historique or de circonstance but instead are standalone, self-contained, incidental or random.
It doesn't help that online examples of peinture de circonstance seem to have contradictory meanings...but a slight change in punctuation clears things up a wee bit:
Dans un portrait, il y a très peu de récit, mais tu finis quand même par raconter quelque chose sur l’être humain—sans parler d’une peinture historique, ou de circonstance—comme par exemple la peinture de Balthus.
Perhaps bits of the interview were inaccurately transcribed?
@Asker, does the surrounding text or any information you have on the painter and his work shed any light on this?
I think it means "born of history or circumstance", though I'm not sure why they've used Balthus as an example. It's not a particular genre, just how and why it came to be painted. I'm also not sure what "sans parler de" means in this context.
Hello Having now read a bit about Balthus, and if you look at his paintings, they are certainly not historical or of great events. So for that reason, I don't think "de circonstance" is rightly interpreted here as "circumstantial or occasional" but that the interviewee must have meant something else. What however is debatable.
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"paintings for special occasions" (as a phrase) gets a substantial number of hits. You may want to consider it.
Marco Solinas Local time: 02:37 Does not meet criteria Native speaker of: English, Italian PRO pts in category: 8
Notes to answerer
Asker: That's how I understand it but really want to know whether there's a generally accepted 'genre name' for this. Not sure about the use of 'occasional' because it has another more obvious meaning.
Asker: OK, thanks, I'll bear that in mind. I should have noted in my original post that I did check out the artist mentioned. It wasn't much help and can't see how his work relates to painting for special occasions (or any other similar definition, mind you).
Lorraine Dubuc Canada Local time: 05:37 Does not meet criteria Specializes in field Native speaker of: French PRO pts in category: 4
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks. I see that you specialise in this area so I assume this means you've come across 'circumstantial painting' elsewhere, i.e. as a recognised genre, rather than that it's a (good) solution?!