Modern Times in "Teeming"

Francois Bonhommé, Coulée de fonte, 1865,

Écomusée Creusot-Montceau, Collection: Académie Bourdon, photographer: T. Schleper

World Trade 1867, Paris
L'Illustration, Nr. 1272, 13.7.1867, S. 21f

The Frenchman Françoise Bonhommé is regarded as the first European painter who tried to depict both the new dimensions of iron works and the collective of the new working class in order to grasp the modern reality of industrial production in iron works. The monumental painting "Teeming", has been one of the attractions of the World Trade 1867 in Paris and Adolf Menzel, the famous German painter of the later "Eisenwalzwerk", took the opportunity to see that work of art. No surprise, the team of the museum counts itself lucky as - after repeated attempts - the Academy Bourdon just has accepted the loan to the exhibition "Feuerländer" in Oberhausen.

Bonhommé called the workmen "soldiers of industry" and wanted to grant to them a special dignity - in spite of the hierarchy within the production process. Therefore, this work is painted as a tribute to the new labour class. On the other hand, however, the painter applies a wide-angle perspective to the scene. It’s the perspective of the owner, who likes to get a quick overall view of his capital investment and its useful exploitation. The modern argument between labour and capital is present at this painting. Because of it, Bonhommés "Teeming" became a key work in the history of industrial painting: for the following artists and their interpreters as well.

The museum wasn’t able to do without Bonhommé and now it needs not renounce his work of art. "Teeming" represents a crucial point of the "Feuerländer" as a gate to modernity.