Watercolour 19

Bouleternère

1925

44.7 x 44.7 cm

Donald and Eleanor Taffner, New York

During their second stay in Roussillon from November 1924 to May 1925, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret stayed in Ille-sur-Têt. They stayed in a small hotel which was comfortable, but simple and economical: “l’Hôtel du Midi” located on the RN 27.

The building still exists today: it is now a café and pizzeria. The building has remained in its original state with its balconies made of rockwork (a composition of cement mortar that imitates nature like the trunks of a tree. These dreamlike and baroque creations blossomed in the 19th century).

Four watercolours by Charles Rennie Mackintosh bear witness to this visit to the region, including one entitled “Bouleternère”. Bouleternère is a small village located 4 kilometres southwest of Ille-sur-Têt (see below). The picture shows the west-north-west side of the village perched on two small hills.

In view of the lighting and the shadow cast, the work was probably done in the morning. In this watercolour done in pastel colours of pink and ochre, we can see a massive building dominating the village at the top centre: the Romanesque church of Saint Sulpice, with its bell tower.

A little lower down, slightly to the left, a high tower. This tower is a vestige of the fortifications that surrounded the town in the Middle Ages.

Between the church and the tower you can see the old terraced houses of the village.

On the other hand, under the tower below is another part of the village which does not belong here, but rather to the part of the village which in reality, is on the hill on the left. And finally, at the very bottom of the work, a wall is shown.

C R Mackintosh has thus altered reality by juxtaposing two neighbouring but different planes (points of view). In this way he has created a composition that represents an idealised view of Bouleternère.

Pictorial analysis

  1. This painting is a compilation of two different views of Bouleternère. The upper half consists of a view of the church and surrounding buildings from a relatively low vantage point. Underneath, Mackintosh has pasted an additional strip showing a direct view of the town and the bridge leading to it. In reality it is a separate view from a vantage point a few hundred metres to the west. By merging the two views, Mackintosh gives the modest village of Bouleternère a dramatic dimension by exaggerating its verticality and placing the imposing round tower at the centre of the composition. In Palalda, and especially here in Bouleternère, the shuttered windows which are open like a gaze give a slightly unsettling feeling of being watched. The seemingly disorganised composition has been composed with great care. A dominant white façade has been carefully placed in the centre of the composition. Its chimney is the very heart of it. Professor Pamela Robertson – University of Glasgow with the kind permission of the author.

  2. This square watercolour shows similarities with the one showing Palalda. This stack of houses, a characteristic of the villages of the region built on the hillside, is in fact composed by assembling two views of Bouleternère. The harmony of the warm colours of the roofs and the plaster of the houses contrasts with the shaded parts depicted in cold colours.

Situation of the chair:

The chair is located at the entrance to the bridge on the D16, coming from Thuir-Corbère. The narrow bridge spans the river “le Boulés” and is found just before entering the village.

From this bridge you have a beautiful view of Bouleternère, the orchards and the irrigation channels that run through and around the town.

Itinerary for the chair

In view of the alignment of the monuments we think that the painter settled a little below the bridge (on the left when looking at the town), on a small path which goes down and along the Boulés.

Itinerary for the painter’s position

Bouleternère is a charming village of 940 inhabitants (called “les Boulenecs”). It is located in the Occitanie region. It is the last village of the Roussillon plain before the Conflent and is situated at the foot of the first foothills of the Aspres and at the entrance to the Boulès gorges. Bouleternère is an ancient, fortified Catalan village.

The village is surrounded by orchards irrigated by numerous canals, planted with peach and nectarine trees, providing the whole of France with thousands of tons of fruit. Built on a hill, this medieval village has many vestiges of its past. All the buildings are built on a massif of shale (schist), the exploitation of which was flourishing in the last century.

The fortified village wall had four towers and seven gates. Three gates and two towers, as well as a large part of the ramparts, still exist today.

Things to discover in Bouleternère :

– The old Romanesque church of Saint Sulpice which dates from the 11th century, rebuilt on the 9th Century church, with a bell tower keep.

– The new church of Saint Sulpice, completed in 1659: there is a marble portal surmounted by a statue of Saint Sulpice and, inside, two 17th century altarpieces.

– The towers and remnants of the ramparts as well as several remarkable and well restored houses.

Not forgetting:

– La Chapelle Sainte Anne: a small, recently restored chapel on the edge of the RN 116 on the right, in the direction of Font Romeu.

– The Church of Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell: located in the Boulés gorges and renovated by the association “Els Amics de Sant Nazari de Barbadell”.

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