BASTIDE (Provencal bastida,

See also:

• BUILDING

building)  , a word applied to the fortified towns founded in south-western- France in the middle ages, and corresponding to the villes neuves of northern France . They were established by the abbeys, the nobles and the crown, frequently by two of these authorities in co-operation, and were intended to serve as defensive posts and centres of population for sparsely-inhabited districts . In addition, they formed a source of revenue and power for their founders, who on their part conceded liberal charters to the new towns . They were built on a rectangular plan, with a large central square and straight thoroughfares running at right angles or parallel to one another, this uniformity of construction being well exemplified in the existing bastide of Monpazier (Dordogne) founded by the English in 1284 . Mont-de-Marsan, the oldest of the bastides, was founded in 1141, and the movement for founding them lasted during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, attaining its height between 1250 and 1350 . See E . Henault, Les Vales Neuves, leur origin et leur influence daps le mouvement communal (Paris, 1868) ; Curie-Seimbres, Essai sus les villes forages clans le sud-ouest de la France sous le nom de bastides (Toulouse, 1880) . BASTILN-LEPAGE, JULES (1848-1884), French painter, was born in the village of Damvillers, Meuse, France, on the 1st of November 1848 and spent his childhood there . He first studied at Verdun, and prompted'bya love of art went in 1867 'to Paris, where he was admitted to the lcole des Beaux-arts, working under Cabanel . After exhibiting in the Salons of 187o and 1872 works which attracted n0 attention, in 1874 he made his mark with his'" Song of Spring," a study of rural life, representing a peasant girl sitting on a knoll looking down on a village . His " Portrait of my Grandfather," exhibited in the same year, was not less remarkable for its artless simplicity and received a third-class medal . This success was conirmed in 1875 by the " First Communion," a picture of a little girl minutely worked up as to colour, and a " Portrait of M .

Hayem:" In 1875 he took the second Prix de

Rome with his " Angels appearing to the Shepherds," exhibited again in 1878 . His next endeavour to win the Grand Prix de Rome in 1876 with " Priam at the Feet of Achilles " was again unsuccessful (it is in the Lille gallery), and the painter determined to return to country life . To the Salon of 1877 he sent 'a full-length " Portrait of Lady L." and " My Parents " and in 1878 a "Portrait of M . Theuriet" and "The Hayfield." The last picture, now in the Luxembourg, is regarded as a typical 'work from its stamp of realistic truth . Thenceforth Bastien-Lepage was recognized' in France as the leader of a school, and his " Portrait of 'Mme Sarah Bernhardt " (1879), painted in a light key, won him the cross of the Legion of Honour . In 188o he exhibited a small portrait of M . Andrieux and " Joan of Arc listening to the Voices "; and in the same year, at the Royal Academy, the little portrait of the " Prince of Wales." In 1881 he painted " The Beggar " and the "-Portrait of Albert Wolf "; in 1882 "Le Pere Jacques "; in 1883 "Love in a Village," in which we find some trace of Courbet's influence . His last dated work is " The Forge " (1884) . The artist, long ailing, had tried in vain to re-establish his health in Algiers . I He died in Paris on the loth of December 1884, when planning a new series of rural subjects . Among his more important works may also be mentioned the portrait of " Mme J . Drouet" (1883); " Gambetta on his death-bed," and some landscapes; " The Vintage " (188o), and The Thames at London "(1882) .

" The Little

Chimney-Sweep " was never finished . An exhibition of his collected works was opened in March and April x.885 . See A . Theuriet, Bastien-Lepage (1885—English edition, 1892); L. de Fourcaud, Bastien-Lepage (1885) . (H .