Villagers' Party in Provence II

(Also refers to 2017.096) By the age of 21, Morris received £100 as a yearly allowance, but the artist expressed conflicting feelings regarding his privileged position. Morris stated, ‘The thing was what to do. I thought very hard and I thought to myself that I wanted to go to Paris… I went and told my father, whom I was not crazy about. He was a gent, you know. Did nothing.’(1) In 1925, the artist went on a painting excursion to Provence, the birthplace of Cézanne, in order to find fresh inspiration for his work. Rather than depict the landscape of the region so closely associated with the major Post-Impressionist, however, Morris turned to lively genre scenes of French peasant figures (also refer back to 'Belly Dancer', 2017.077). There is an active sense of dynamic fraternity amongst the figures in these pencil drawings, 'Villagers' Party in Provence' I and II. The representation of peasants shifted in the art historical canon from portrayals of libidinous behaviour in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to heroic representations of labourers toiling in the fields in the nineteenth century. In 'Villagers' Party in Provence' I and II, Morris depicts ‘the myth of the happy [French] peasant’.(2) In the first drawing, Morris presents a stable community; people engage with one another, while others go about their day. Even the small dog proceeds with his business. In the second drawing, a festive gathering takes place. Couples can be seen dancing with one another and others are simply sitting back and enjoying themselves. 1. Garden Museum Archive, 1/DOC/100100/829. 2. Harvey Goldberg, "The Myth of the French Peasant", 'The American Journal of Economics and Sociology' 13, no.4 (July 1954): pp. 363-378.

Presented by Maggi Hambling and Robert Davey, trustees of the artist's estate, 2017