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J THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LIBPvARY
HOLLAND EDITION
BOUSSÛD, VALADON & C°
PARIS & NEW YORK
SALON OF 1896
SALON of i8g6
Wiib text in Englisb, translated bv HENRY 'BACON
Vellum Edition. — Text and engravings on Vellum Paper.
Holland Edition. — Limited to i a5 copies. — Text and engravings on Holland Paper, each copy numbered : front i to 125.
SALON OF i8q6
With text in French.
Vellum Edition. — Text and engravings on Vellum Paper.
Holland Edition. — Text and engravings on Holland Paper, each copy numoered.
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WILL IT BE FINE?"
THIÉBAULT-S1SSON
GOUPIL'S
PARIS SALON OF 1896
One Hundred Plates — Photogravures and Etchings
ONK WATKR COLOR FAC-SIMILE
BV
GOUPIL & C°
With text in English, translatée! by HENRY BACON
BOUSSOD, VALADON & C(
PARIS & NEW YORK H
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THE SALON
CHAMPS-ELYSÉES
f we are to believe the critics in the daily papers — or at any
rate the greater number of the critics — the Salon of 1896
is amorphous, no new tendency is to be discerned in it,
and the only characteristic to note would be the same as
that stamped on former Salons, a singular want of coherency.
We cannot subscribe to this opinion.
At the same time, we find no reason for surprise at its prevalence. The habit of hasty and incomplète work to which the necessity for giving an account of the Exhibitions before their opening has led in the daily papers, makes ail serious criticism impossible. At the Champ de Mars, where the number of works is limited, they hâve some chance; but at the Champs-Elysées, where paintings, water-colors,
2 THE SALON OF 1896
and pastels amount this year to the enormous number of 3, 166, where sculpture and medal work amount to 793. and engraving, architecture and various artistic objects number one thousand, how
can it be supposed that the most hard-working and best-informed critic can, in thèse days. receive anything but a very superfîcial and consequently often false impression '-.
So we must ascribe to such immature opinions a merely relative value, and while respecting those judgments, generally well founded, that are pronounced on individual works, we must form our own as to our impression of the whole exhibition.
This impression is decidedly favorable. Though it may be true that in the Champ de Mars, for instance, French painting, represented by very various kinds of talent with no common point of contact, shows signs of real decay, though after due examination we recog- nize only one great work, that of M. Puvis de Chavannes, only one great attempt, M. Dagnan-Bouveret's " Last Supper,'" it is no less true that a tribe of young artists, MM. Collet, Lucien Simon, and René Ménard at their head, display striking vitality. Breaking completely with the tradition started about ten years since by a too loose style of painting which accepted the Approximate as its sole guide, they hâve discovered that drawing is not a thing to be despised, and that bright harmonies of color hâve their value.
At the Champs-Elysées the first effect is not satisfactory. Artists who hâve already won success fill up "the line," and neither those " hors concours' nor other successful painters hâve made any change whatever in the program on which their success and réputation were founded. But if we look doser, matters are dilferent. Above the huge, commonplace canvases, arrtong the assertive or uninteresting works forming the contributions of the elders — of the greater part of the elders, 1 should say — you will rind certain little portraits, care- fully worked up without insipidity, delicately painted interiors, and Hrm handling, which, as compared with the work of récent years, are very striking. Thèse contributions from young and unknown
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men, which nobody remarks at a first glance but which attentive study reveals, and of which the individuality is really amazing, are found on careful examination to hâve the same characteristic stamp as the works of the younger school at the Champ de Mars. They show a no less marked reaction, and a not less évident tendency towards serious work. They contradict with the greatest energy the
: I AU D _ À S9uaUl*
superficial judgment pronounced by the first-come critics. In short, they allow us to state, on sufficient authority, a clear and unbiassed opinion. This opinion, with the conclusion it forces upon us, is as follows :
The day of the anaemic school of painting is over. The system of no color applied to easel pictures, by an annoying extension of the principles proper to monumental painting, lias no more than a limited popularity. Young artists are returning with ail their
4 THE SALON OF 1896
might to the glowing power of color : thcy avoid the facile harmonies obtainable by lowering the intensity of every hue to its minimum. They seek lull and rich keys of color, steady harmonies, pure tones, and uiuler favor of this tendency, drawing is resuming its sway over the minds which impressionism had for a time led astray. Painters no longer allow themselves to he tempted, as they hâve been, to sacrifice for m in order to catch a fugitive flash of light, a gleam, a reflection, a spot of crude color. The texture is more studied, the modeling is shewn. In a word, a return to conscientious work is the characteristic of this Salon.
And while the younger men, learning from the déplorable examples of which they hâve seen so many among their seniors, warned by the repeated failures which hâve been the resuit and the lesson, are striving after a more serious training, the elder men, in the autumn of of life, are showing a delightful ambition to prove that they can work as firmly and with as splendid mastery as they did in the triumphant days of their youth. Bonnat, Humbert, Jules Lefebvre, Benjamin- Constant, Bouguereau, Henri Pille, in a magnificent séries of por- traits, Jean-Paul Laurens, in a Byzantine empress and a pretty picture of sound workmanship in which anecdote assumes the dignitv of history: Henner, in his "Christ before Burial ; " Harpignies and Bernier in their grand landscapes, so solidly handled, so fine in feeling, so severely bëautiful in their Unes, can bear comparison without fear with their best early work. They combine, with the works of Henri Martin, of Duvent, Baschet, Steck, Buland, Bourgonnier, Barillot, Besson and Bonis to produce a gênerai effect which gives hopeful promise for the future.
I DECORATIVE PAINTING
In no foreign school shall we find anything at ail like the fine friezes executed by MM. Henri Martin and Bonis for the Hôtel de
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Ville in Paris, of which they exhibited the Hrst portion last year. Their compositions, intended to decorate the upper part of walls pierced with round arches, had to be arranged in length and are of various height. Thèse conditions gave lise to peculiar difficultés. The point aimed at, in spite of the curves of the arcades, was to give apparent unity to the subjects and to satisfy the eye by a little arti- fice, notwithstanding the too évident disproportion of the length of the frieze to its heiffht.
M. Henri Martin lias solved the problem in a way no less satis- factory than ingenious. In his décoration he had to deal with Music, Sculpture and Poetry ; the figure of Clémence Isaure draped in the legendary white robe suggested a symbolic ligure for the last ; he lias identified Music with Massol, the composer of Tou- louse, and Sculpture with Dampt, the wonderful craftsman who models in clay, chisels marble, works in gold, ivory, and steel, with incredible delicacy. Between thèse figures in the spandrils of the arches and larger spaces, winged figures corne and go with exquisite grâce of movement, while a number of children, most picturesquely grouped in the background, recite or sing passages written in verse by the poet, or set to music by the composer.
The children and the winged figures hâve their being in a dream- like landscape seen through a row of young beech-trees placed at wide intervais, their heads rising against the sky. By thus dividing the frieze into a number of parallel strips, ail running upwards, the artist guides the eye to look up. Thus, by an ingenious précaution, he conceals the shallowness of the frieze and at the same time gives it unity. Nothing could seem simpler ; nothing could in fact be more difficult to hit upon.
The scheme had been invented last year ; this year it is brought to perfection. Happier combinations of détail give a simpler effect to the impression, and the brush-work lias gained in freedom. It lias gained no less in the matter of coloring. The useless juxtaposi- tions in which the artist so long indulged hâve given way to a calmer
THE SALON OF 1896
key and softened harmonies of which the resuit hère is exquisite. M. Henri Martin also seems, so far as it is possible to judge with the unaided eye, to hâve altered his brush-work ; he still works with pure color. but instead of laying it on in little dashes he lays it in broad strokes which are not too abruptly contrasted. This is a new charm.
M. Bonis. in his tw In- tellectual Exercise,"' lias remained faithful to the scheme imposed upon him in his former com- position by the very nature of the subject.
" Physical Exercise" could only be fully worked out in the open air : and it is in the open air that we this year see youths in antique costume, though of very modem type and aspect, gravely listening to a lesson in Mineralogy given on a flint pebble by a professor, others chasingagaudy buttertly with a net. to pin it to an entomological drawer, classifying many plants in a botanical herbal. or drinking in the words of the philo- sopher who expatiates on the nature of things. Ail thèse groups, isolated by the arches between them, are brought together by the atmosphère they move in, by the noble line of the landscape which is continuous, forming a harmonious whole so broadly executed as to be in the highest denrée grand and décorative.
M. Steck's "• Gentle Autumn," though it is not painted foi anv
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SALON DE 1696
KNOCKED OUT
SALON DE 1896
PAINTING 7
particular position, must be classée! rather with décorative work than with landscape, from the spirit in which it is composed, its low key of coloring, and also its dimensions. It is late in the afternoon ; the sun must be dying- in the distance on the horizon, its last rays, lighting up the gilded tops of the huge trees whose tangled bran- ches for m the background of a clearing, shed luminous golden peace. The meadow is already in shadow, and women's dresses, hère and there, are spots of light color against the subdued green. A young man, lying at the foot of a tree, turns with a look of rupture to his wife who smiles at him, and to the little daughter whose hand she holds. It is a perfect poem of confiding quiétude and gentle joy, in sweet harmony with the landscape, and rendered as to the expression of feeling with equal tenderness and réticence. There is the same tenderness, the same réticence in the key of color, at once rich and reserved. Solemn greens, golden greens, tender greens melt into rose-color, lilac and pale yellow, with a richly mellow effect. The success is unique of its kind.
It will be ail the better appreciated when we hâve seen the attempts of every kind displayed in the same Salon by painters, full of talent for the most part, but who none of them seem to hâve a suspicion that décorative art has its own rules, and that those rules cannot safely be disregarded. They imagine that the same scheme of composition may be applied to a hanging or a panel as to a picture, or that for the former, it is not even necessary to know how to compose.
They adapt, for better for worse, some subject which at the best is suited for an illustration. Thus, in a décoration for a theater where there is a marble fountain into which water falls with mo- notonous variety, a few nude figures are placed in groups which du not prétend to hâve any meaning and which, in fact, mean nothing. The figures, devoid of character, are flabby, and the landscapes, not studied at ail, lack contour. The color, employed without selectness, is as monotonous and cold as the rest. This is supposed to be décorative art ; it is simply a bad picture.
8 THE SALON OF 1896
This is M. Gorguet's blunder. Far from suggesting " Paphos," his large canvas lias the effect of a set task courageously faced , but worthless.
There is more to interest us in the vast composition intended by M. Lévy to decorate the Hôtel de Ville at Lyons. Under a semi- circular portico, supported on two rows of columns between which we see glimpses in the distance of the city churches and towers, " Burgundy," represented by a little vvoman of élégant proportions but commonplace enough, accepts the bornage of the great men produced by lier fertile soil, arranged by the painter in sympathetic groups around lier.
Hère is Bossuet with the men of the grand siècle ; there de Brosses and the freethinkers of his day ; further ofF we see Carnot and Lamartine.
Three young female figures, in transparent drapery, standing in front of the allegorical figure of Burgundy, and symbolizing, as it would seem, the three departments into which the province was divided, look uncomfortable among the fine gentlemen. A Genius, tor whose présence there is no excuse, unless perhaps a space to be filled, looks on with infinité pathos. He is not wanted, nor are the young ladies ; still, the work as a whole has some style ; the arrange- ment and combination of architecture and landscape are happy ; the background is refined, well studied. and full of charming color ; the figures, placed in easy attitudes, are at once to be recognized and identified. The artist has done ail he could with an uninspiring subject. He has acquitted himself creditably, and on the whole we bave only praise to offer him.
M. Béroud's case is somewhat différent. He has painted for a wealthy American an immense panel he imagines to be décorative, it represents " Beauty. the Queen of Kings."' He has done it, we admit, with matchless tact. Just as last year, he took the opportunity of a scène in the Senate House to represent, not the orators' tribune, but a glaring study of the nude, he has now taken as a setting
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SALON DE 1896
PAINTING 9
the Lady Chapel of the parish church of Saint-Sulpice. He lias put the same obtrusive Beauty, first undressing her, in the place of the statue of the Virgin. This is the only change he has made. And in front of this lady two kings are groveling on their knees. For her men, also nude, are killing each other. Perched on the
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confessionals, on the paneling, on the mouldings, they take each other by the throat in Académie attitudes and the cheerful pose of athlètes. It is a mass of incoherency, matched only by the crudeness of the tone, in défiance alike of good taste and the laws of harmony in color.
MM. Yarz and Debat-Ponsan hâve painted for the Hôtel de Ville at Toulouse, the former a décorative panel of powerful exécution, the latter an historical anecdote, pleasantly told if a little thin. h
io THE SALON OF 1896
represents the Archbishop and Governor of Toulouse, Loménie de Brienne, visiting the open air studio of the sculptor François Lucas, and studying the fine bas-relief of the "Mouth of the Garonne," to which the artist was putting the finishing touches in 177?- The scène is tastefully composed, but painted in a washed-out key of color, which deprives the work of ail solidity. It is. in fact. a pièce of genre, which treated on a more modest scale, would hâve been brilliant ; enlarged out of ail measure it is somewhat cold.
M. Tapissier lias a fine sensé of the balance of niasses, and of the qualities of simplicity of composition and breadth of treatment needed in décorative work. His "• Sirens," to be sure, do not in any way answer to their name. On the shore of a noble river, its ripples flashing in the sunshine, three nude women are sporting under a pine tree, amusing themselves with a parrot perched on a branch, and a nionkey showing his teeth. But the figures are drawn with accurate decisiveness, the attitudes are stamped with original grâce, and the flesh, painted with an impassioned touch, harmo- nizes admirably with the powerful coloring of the whole picture.
Nothing is more difficult to compose than a ceiling. The part to be played in it by figures is restricted to a mère patch of color in conséquence of the height at which it is usually placed. The point, then, is to combine thèse patches in a manner pleasing to the eye, and to place the lines in graceful curves. M. Gervais has understood this, and the ceiling he exhibits, in which he has sought no subject, but has confined himself to balancing the figures with much taste, and distributing the brighter color, is certainly one of the most successful that we hâve seen.
M. Maignan has great gifts as a colorist : he has lavished them on the ceiling intended for the Chamber of Commerce at Saint Etienne. He has filled the long parallelogram he was required to decorate with two groups, both illustrating the industry of the district. In one, female figures seated on clouds seem to be strug- gling with serpentins : they symbolize the ribbon manufacture.
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Glowing furnaces, driving belts , cog-wheels, draw-bridges, and hammerers striking the anvils with powerful blows, represent metal- lurgy. The middle of the space is empty.
Need we speak at ail of the ceiling composed by an American painter, Mr. Dodge, for the National Library at Washington ? The subject he lias chosen to illustrate is " Ambition." To symbolize the fatal passion that leads conquerors to their ruin and nations to their fall, he has fallen back on the dusty old paraphernalia whîch allegory and mythology combined hâve placed at the artist's service. It has not struck him as too old-fashioned. He has dug at hap-hazard into the property store of classical art, and has brought out Famé, Pegasus, Phaeton and his chariot ; he has invested thèse ideas, somewhat meagre in themselves, in warrior-like forms of the most stalwart académie type ; over ail he has shed a grey, cold tone, and his work cornes a little late to please or amuse the French public.
M. Marioton is nothing if not daring. In a light, subtle, tender sky he has erected marble terraces on which he has set figures con- versing. A plane-tree springs up into the blue, and its crown, full of Cupids and lighted Venetian lanterns — and yet it is broad daylight — overhangs the void. There is nothing on the opposite side to balance this architecture and scenery. M. Marioton must hâve bet that he would be absurd ; he has won the wager.
In a rectangular panel, framed with garlands of flowers, a female figure, elegantly draped in lilac, is mounting to the sky on a chariot of clouds. From her pretty fingers flowers drop into space, flowers which, to Mademoiselle Louise Abbéma's mind, are symbolical of " Fragrance." The painting in itself is charmingly refined and full of insinuating grâce. As a wall panel it would be irreproachable, framed in the mouldings of a cornice it would certainly be open to criticism as not suggesting a ceiling.
The same fault attaches to M. Blanchon's " Angels' Kitchen."' Other faults may be noted, and of a more serious character. What
12 THE SALON OF 1896
a strange notion is this, of representing in the middle of the sky a stove on which a seraph turnspit is tossing heaven knows what omelette of celestial eggs, with ail sorts of ridiculous antics. And how poor his painting is ! What a melancholy mixture of pink and buff? Can it be believed that this artist ever h ad any genuine gifts? But he has shown them before now, in solid workmanship. Under what fatal influence hâve they deteriorated, almost vanished in thèse ten years ? Lack of conviction and defective cultivation are, I fancy, the causes. M. Blanchon is a man overboard.
II. GREAT SUBJECTS.
Thèse, as usual, are plentiful ; it is one of the miseries of this year's Salon. The désire to be singular, to attract attention at any cost, spurs and stimulâtes the madness of artists at least once in their life-time. The surest way, as they think, to stamp their name on the public mind and force themselves on the notice of critics, is to cover a colossal canvas with a subject full of ill-regulated fancy. Blâme or praise, it mat ter s not which. u Slate me if you like," said a young painter to me at the entrance of the Salon, " but mention me, I entreat you." And so long as the Salon is the Salon, so long as the Palais de l'Industrie exists with its vast area, bright with crude daylight, this spirit will survive.
There would, no doubt, be a way of hindering young artists from devoting themselves to this fruitless labor, and cutting short this orgy on broad canvases. It would be enough to add a rule, a little harmless rule, to the régulations for exhibitors, to this effect : "Every canvas measurinç more than 1 meter 5o in each dimension will be rigorously rejected. Only such artists as can show an order from the Government or from a Municipality for a public work, or from a
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building committee for a church, will be allowed to exhibit a work
on a large scale.
But what jury will dare to adopt this radical and simple remedy ? It would expose them at one fell stroke to ail the fury of the youno- ; and in thèse days of struggle for life, the young are ferocious.
No, the rules will not be altered, and large pictures will pour in, as of old, till the day when the Palace of Fine Arts is reconstructed on a new plan with a s m ail number of large gal- ler ies lighted from above, and an endless number ofsmall rooms lighted from the side only ; thus compelling artists to give up the acres of canvas, which remain on their hands, or, if purchased by the State, dishonor pro- vincial Muséums al- ready crowded with second-rate work. This plague of pictures, useless for anything, is just novv more terrible than ever, owing to the fluctuations of fashion. Formerly, history supplied the subjects chosen by the painters of thèse intol- érable affairs ; and history, having at any rate a logic of its own, gave some colorable pretext to their inanities. Now Allegory pré- dominâtes, and such Allegory ! In thèse rampant inventions idiotcy
BENJAMIN - CONSTANT _ Arma, of tÀc .•/'•
,+ THE SALON OF (896
and pretentiousness dispute for the palm ; the extravagant oddness of the ideas emphasizes theîr vacuity. There is a mania for symbolism, anarchy is the iule, and a new view of life is being taught. "I a m an ' intellectual.'" crics the artist; and thinks him- self excused from being a painter. Nay, lie may be a painter, and a good painter, and forget it. This is what lias happened to M. Pelez.
This artist lias endeavored to epitomize. in a singularly absurd picture, ail the contrasts that shock us in a senile and somewhat dislocated society like ours. A double line of figures are seen grouped on a carefully-raked path of the Parc Monceau, edged by a grass slope as bright as an emerald. To the left are none but haggard créatures with tired eyelids, fevered looks, and dull skins. To the right are comfortable middle-class, or rich women, with buxom nurses and rosy, merry children, enjoying their walk in the warm and kindly sunshine.
And the'poor cast envious looks at the rich, while a girl, gaudily conspicuous, stares at them with impertinence that they return. To the right again of this group, a workman is making a great display of extravagant gesture over a worthy citizen who lias gone to sleep, and whose smooth, round face evidently symbolizes to the painter the degraded proletarian, the man of the people enslaved to the rich, and transformed into that despised thing stigmatized by the word ••tlunkey."
The exécution is by no means conimonplace, but unfortunately it is unequal. The paupers hâve absorbed ail the painter's best powers ; they are living and carefully studied. The middle-class group, on the other hand, dressed in light colors, bright with délicate touches, hâve lost ail their solid relief, being crushed by the greens of which the artist lias struck every note in the scale for his background.
This is not ail. Beyond this foreground a fantastic figure attracts the eye. In the middle of the grass-plot stands a cross, and from
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this cross, on which He is dying, a cadaverous phantom Christ gazes down sadly on his work ; he sees that it is lamentable and re- pents of it.
Such is the scheme of this picture, over which the socialist papers had made a great preliminary fuss. They hâve had their pains for nothing. Merely to describe such a work, to show thèse figures with scarcely any connection, placed one after another in a row like puppets, and above them ail an anarchist Christ, is to criticise it. A realism which was in no way imperative lias inspired it ; for a week it was the delight of the public, who found it exhilarating and who reveled in glee before it. This gave way to absolute indifférence. When once the Salon is closed, will even a memory remain of this work which shows indeed a remarkable effort, but of which the exécution is as purely artificial as the con- ception ?
The subjects which M. Jean Béraud looks at through the dimi- nishing end of the télescope, M. Rochegrosse sees through the other end. Excepting in size, the bearing of u Human Misery" is the same as that of "-The Struggle," of which M. Béraud gives the foretaste at the Champ de Mars. To the left is the black and dismal panorama of a great town of factories, endless chimneys, lurid lights and smoke ; to the right a grave-yard ; in the middle a scarped rock. In a sulphurous sky piled with livid clouds, hover two female figures, winged and smiling, clothed like the rainbow in gar- ments of iris-hues, and equally intangible. Thèse, no doubt, are Illusion and Dreams, and towards them, up the scarped rock, a crowd rushes with shouts — men and women in modem costume, bail dresses and blue jackets, black coats and uniforms. They are struggling over each other, trampling the foremost down, and in despair at being unable to seize or even to gct near the un- attainable, they kill each other or roll down in avalanches on the cemetery.
The figures, of the size of life, are set forth with a striking
i6 THE SALON OF 1896
Stamp of détermination ; the exécution is certainly superior to any the artist has hitherto given us ; but the mastery with which he paints the figures and the realism he has infused into them makes his work ail the more pain fui. The cruel scène is simply odious ; it is one of those that cannot be rendered in painting. Kven in literature it is a perilous attempt, requiring rare powers of expres- sion in the writer or poet. Under the brush it inevitably becomes too real ; it is paînful and vulgar.
We are not at an end of thèse grimly grotesque subjects. After M. Rochegrosse behold M. Trigoulet. "The Way of Death " is the name of his picture. Again a lurid and fantastic sky, and on earth a ragged procession of men and women. old men, cripples and children. The procession moves on towards an abyss above which a gigantic skull opens its formidable jaws and deliberately devours the pilgrims. Edgar Poë and Mother Goose's taies in one !
Still, there is talent, great talent, in this childish composition, excusable on the score of the artist's youth. He distinguished him- self, several years running, in the compétition for the Prix de Rome. He constantly failed ; but not ingloriously. He is casting his skin, it is a transient distemper which will pass off, and next year we shall no doubt see him using his gifts to better purpose and with less ostentation.
M. Tattegrain, in his "Bouches inutiles," brings us back to history, but history as lugubrious in its way and far more répulsive than the alle<rorical svmbolism of which we hâve ciosed the list.
It is the siège of Château-Gaillard at Les Andelys, by Philippe- Auguste. It is cold weather. The hills along the right bank of the Seine on which stands the feudal stronghold, follow the curve of the river and close in the distant horizon. Buried in snow, as the fortress is also, as twiligfht falls thev hâve assumed a tender slate grey hue, and the waters of the Seine, lighted up by the last reflections of su'nset, roll a muddy tlood between the frozen banks.
To the left the glacis of fortress, divided from the heights by
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a ravine on which the King's army has established itself with its movable wooden towers, and has drawn up its forces of ballistœ, mangonels and catapults. In the ravine, between the besieged and the besiegers, there is a nameless crowd of spectral forms. Thèse are the bouches inu- tiles, the useless eaters, women, child- ren and old m en, driven forth from the town at the beginning of the siège, and re- jected by the attack- ing foe. The hapless, vvorn-out wretches are dyingof hunger. They dig in the hard earth with their fingers to get up some herbs or fragments of roots ; they are s t e a 1 1 h i 1 y watchingf each other — each looking for his
neighbor's death, to fall upon him and feed, cannibal-like, on his flesh. The artist has not spared us a single détail of the spectacle. He has not thought that the snow splashed with red stains was sufficiently graphie évidence of thèse horrors, and sets them unhesitat- ingly before our eyes. In the foreground a victim is being eut up ; from his ribs and thighs strips of warm flesh are being sliced off. It is impossible to conceive of anything more disgusting. The sicken- ing effect it produces is its sufficient condemnation.
I regret this ail the more because the landscape in this huge
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,8 THE SALON OF 1896
canvas is exquisite, delightfully true in the distance and touched in the foreground with a stern solidity which must appeal to every spectator. The figures, cleverly grouped, are in keeping with the scène; they hâve air ail round them, in studio parlance, and the technical qualities they display bear witness to such progress in the artist's powers as we cannot fail to recognize. He is a colorist, too, and eminently conscientious. But what dismal use he makes of his conscientiousness !
It is a relief to turn from thèse horrors to lesser horrors. Two subjects from Flaubert's "Salammbô: " M. Thivier' s "Défilé de la Hache," and M, Surand's •• Massacre of the Barbarians,'' appear mild by comparison with the ancient chronicles illustrated by M. Tatte- grain. And yet the scènes they give us are painful. Hère we hâve the Barbarian league, whom Hamilcar is charging in cold blood with his monstrous éléphants, their tusks armed with iron spikes. Under their huge feet the maddened foe are falling, reduced to hideous pulp. M. Thivier shows us the Gaulish mercenaries shut into the ravine, and appealing for mercy to the Carthaginian légions commanding them from the heights. In M. Surand's work the composition is sincerely thought out; it is dramatic and to the point. M. Thivier gives us a landscape with a charming sensé of color. But of what use are thèse vast studies of history? Who on earth really cares for them : And who would ever think of buying them ':
We can say no less of "Germanicus finding the Relies of Varus," of which M. Lionel-Rover lias been çuiltv. Well known is the fine passage in Tacitus where he describes with dramatic soberness the feelings of the Roman army on discovering in the forest depths of Teutbercr the field of carnage where the massacred levions of Yarus lay strewn on the ground. The artist might easily hâve represented the scène with ail its painful interest if only he had concentrated the subject, restricted it within suitable limits and abjured supertluous détail. On the contrary he has drowned himself in détails. The soil is strewn with skeletons — skeletons of animais, skeletons of men
A MONCHABLON
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— laid out in perfect order, as in a muséum, in rows of admirable symmetry, as if there had been no struggle, as orderly and neat as though the vast charnel-house had not tempted the hungry tooth of the wolf or the bear. The exécution reminds us in tone of the colored stenciling that was the joy of our childhood. It looks not so much like a picture as like a huge sheet of wall-paper. It is in- credible that the jury should hâve awarded a gold medal to so flat a pièce of work.
The Virgin is crossing the stony bed of a torrent shrunk by the summer's droujdit to a shallow stream of running water. She is holding her precious Babe carefully in her arms. As she springs from one stone to another to avoid touching the water she is struck by a vision in the clear mirror of the brook. A cross lies there in lines of fire, and on the cross who is it that hangs nailed ? The Child she holds clasped to her heart, but the Child grown to be a man. An anguish of terror cornes over her. This is the subject that M. Salgado has though t it well to treat on a canvas measuring at least two or three meters in height and four or Hve in breadth ; and the picture, though painted with a certain freedom in a suffi- ciently pleasing scale of light color, is perfectly ridiculous. Even if it were borrowed from the Gospel the story would be too slight for such a large work. But this legend, if it is not wholly the inven- tion of the painter's fertile brain, has no foundation in any sacred record. At most tnight it be found in the apocryphal Gospels. Thus it ceases to be a religious picture and is a pièce of genre. Though admissible or even interesting on a small scale, in this disproportionate treatment it annoys us, seeming ail the more pre- tentious and vapid.
I greatly prefer, among religious pictures, "'The Martyrdom of St. Léo,'1 as M. Berges represents it. The Bishop of Bayonne, as the biographers of the saint tell us, was preaching a little way out- side the walls of the town. Some pirates in search ot a stroke of mischief saw him. They hastily landed and the little band of
2o THE SALON OF 1896
hearers fled ; Léo and his brother Gervais remained alone. Both were beheaded by the sword. But while Gervais lay on the ground, the body of the saintly prelate picked up its head and carried it as far as one of the city gâtes. The pirates, terror-stricken, fled back to their boats and made their escape.
This is the moment M. Berges has chosen for the action of his picture. The martyr, wearing his sacerdotal vestments, is walking slowly away in the direction of the city, of which the red brick walls fill up the background. This bit of landscape is delightful. Nature seems to be making holiday in the hot sunshine, and the light plays in délicate and ingenious variety in the brilliant southern sky, on the droughty powdery earth, on the strong harmonious tones of the brick- work. The accessory figures of the pirates are treated with the same truth of movement, the same conscientious care as that of the Bishop. A clear atmosphère surrounds them ail in bright, broad light. Though intended, of course, for a church, the picture would not be out of place anywhere. This is a great charm.
Subjects from the antique catch the eye though they are not numerous. Whatever sincerity of effort and happy results I may discern in M. Foreau's " Pagan Procession," I still see in it no more than a sketch on a large scale and agreeably composed. I cannot call it a picture. This evening landscape. in which Dionysus, languidly reclining on his car, is drawn by wild créatures made tame by the sweetness of love, is full of réminiscences of Corot; and those réminiscences ahvavs hâve a hold on us. At the same time the
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artist has not made up his mind to give them prédominance in his work by assigning the leading factor to nature as his subject ; on the other hand he has not wholly thrown himself into mythology. This is the capital defect of his work ; it is neither altogether landscape nor altogether a classic composition. It is just such a compromise as shows a lack of maturing of the idea, and as hybridizes and weakens the work by leaving the conception vague. M. Abel Boyé, who exhibited last year a "Homer" inspired by
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Chénier's fine poem L Aveugle, this year sends a " Nausicaa." Hère we hâve a bevy of young girls in the hollow of a meadovv where, towards sundown, they are enjoying a variety of open-air sports. He lias set a number of pretty female figures in graceful attitudes and light nimble movements, in a nook of green landscape which is not devoid of style though first-hand notes are legible in the painting. His exécution, last year somewhat weak, has acquired breadth and char- acter ; his color too has gained in truth and force. We see real promise in this work.
The best subject from the antique is undoubtedly M. Paul Butfet's " Procession." Inspired by Phidias' famous frieze, this long file of figures marching between the dense throngs of gazers, up the slopes of an Acropolis crowned by a Doric temple, is an ingenious, bright and spirited reconstruction of the public and religious life of the Greeks. It is pitched in a key of amber tones which is very pleasing, and we could praise it unreservedly if the masses of the crowd, instead of sticking to the rock like tapestry figures, had some appearance of movement and seemed alive.
This it not the only historical work to be mentioned. In the Salon d'Honneur there is a large canvas by M. Rouffet of very startling efïect : a scène of the Campaign in Russia. The Impérial Staff, under a grey sky, makes its slow way across the snows ; the standards, torn by shot and yet more forlorn in the cold, follow the Emperor in melancholy procession. The composition is not devoid of grandeur, an epic breath has blown over it.
I need only note briefly an " Ishmael" for which Madame De- mont-Breton has found no very interesting inspiration in the Script- ure narrative; and a picture of a Roman amphithéâtre, "The Arena," in which M. de Laubadère as given us some good work from the nude but not enough émotion. The composition is ill-arranged and cold.
Ail thèse pictures again are very large. They are anecdote painting on a vast scale. How much more delightful is the style
22 THE SALON OF 1896
in which a Bslgian artist, M. de \'riendt, gives us his historical illustrations. The '"Création of the Order of the Golden Fleece," and the " Transfer of the Relies" of some nameless saint, hâve alForded him the subjects oftwo pictures in which his worship of the old masters betrays itself with the utmost candor. A love of truth shows itself not less clearly hère than in the miniatures of Mem- ling's school which enrich so many precious manuscripts, and the very moderate dimensions of his canvas allow him to insist on every détail with dexterous brilliancy of exécution.
The modem Belgian school, with its audacious naturalism and gift of vital force, has produced one of its strongest works in M. Luy- ten's épisode of a strike. A tavern parlor, a crowd of workmen in blue jackets, a red flag hoisted over a table, pushing, shoving, oustretched arms, tierce faces, in one corner a wounded man who has just been brought in, thèse form the subject of the picture. It is alive with frantic movement ; the thing is speaking, acting, shouting ; it is like the stir of a pack of hounds. As to the exécution it matches the rest, bewildering in color and rapid with undreamed- of fire. From a strictly pictorial point of view this is perhaps the finest work in the Salon. M. Luyten will do great things.
III.
THE NUDE.
The nude becomes less and less popular. Of the faithful few who still do it service the greater number are of a past génération. M. Georges Ferrier is the only man who, without the smallest pro- vocation, has rushed into a debauch of the nude in his >l Paradise of Flowers." The idea of thèse women-flowers is not his, however. The " Knight of the Flowers," exhibited two years since by M. Ro- chegrosse, is probably responsible for it . 1 cannot undertake to trace its paternity.
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The work, such as it is, commends itself by undcniable technical merits. Each portion taken separately is the work of a skilled hand. But the whole does not hold together. The figures hâve no atmo-
sphère and their heaviness, in a subject which ought to be aerial, is quite a shock.
M. Guinier's nude will be more acceptable. Richly painted, fine in form, harmonizing in tone with the evening landscape, they live such an intensely poetic life that we find it hard to part from them. There is charm and dexterity, very great dexterity, in a fine study of the nude by another new painter, M. Larteau. The " Wood Ané- mone,'* by M. Raphaël Collin, has the same qualities of sweet grâce
2+ THE SALON OF 1896
and chaste delicacy. A " Woman Bathing," by M. Souza-Pinto, is a very careful bit of work, and yet fresh and free. M. Fantin Latour's female figures are, as usual. enjoyable, full and round, but stamped by élégant distinction. M. Wencker, in his "Nymphs," has merely sought a pleasing pièce of décoration, and M. Danger in "Fireflies" has done no more.
Given a perfectly modem room, and a man dressed like the rest of us, place by him a nude figure of a woman without the intended contrast producing any shock : this is a problem, a wager, on which M. Weber has ventured. He shows cleverness , knowledge and daring. The allegory hidden under his picture of "A Man with Puppets" saves the unpleasant side of the scène. He has painted it with refined art in the détails, with interesting experiments in color, but on the other hand with some faults in the modeling which hère and there lacks solidity.
M. Emmanuel Benner, like many others, has gone back to the ever-renewable subject of '* Saint Jérôme," lying fiât on the ground in the désert, and completely bare of clothing : it is an interesting work by sheer force of conscientiousness. But the palm for the nude must still be given to the fine artist who has so often interpreted its dignity and expressed ail its gradations in so masterly a manner, Jean Jacques Henner.
At the foot of the Cross itself, on a white winding sheet already funereal in the growing twilight, he has laid the bloodless body of the Christ. He has emphasized its palor by a tragic back- ground of clouds ; he has shown Him as ideally beautiful in death, without any regard for reliffious sentimentalitv. The resuit is an original work, fautless in the anatomy, learned in the drawing, and to compare with the finest pictures known for beauty of color. M. Lucien Berthault, eager for notice at any cost, has had an idea which may perhaps commend itself as highly spiced to the "old gentlemen" of whom Yvette Guilbert sings, but which to simple folks seems perfectly outrageous. In an open meadow on a
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PAINTING 25
heaps of hay, he shows an undressed studio model ; he has empha- sized her nakedness by an attitude of coarse and ignoble indecency. If he ever should sell this picture it can only be for squalid uses. It would not perhaps be out of place in a bar. In a drawing-room or a picture gallery it would be disgusting.
The fair one who , in M. Franc Lamy's picture "Under the Willows," exposes her nude person to the sunshine subdued by a light screen of foliage is chaster in pose and feeling. The painter may indeed be accused of a slight touch of mannerism, and the grâce of the figure is not devoid of mawkishness. He did better last year, and next season will no doubt recover himself and give us a more solid study of bolder exécution.
The fine open-air study exhibited by M. Lavalley under the name of " Flora" has already been seen at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, amongst the pictures sent home by its pupils in Rome. Under the shades of the Villa Medici garden, where the painter, as a change from copy- ing the old masters, has attempted the most modem effects, he has placed, on a sloping path, a female figure of juvénile freshness. He has thrown, on the rosy tints of her skin and the pearly whiteness of her flesh, a not ungraceful play of light, so brilliant as to rouse by its rather daring impressionism the wrath of that hide-bound and conventional Institute. We find good reason for being less severe. There are indications in this work of individuality of tempérament, and the bril- liancy of coloring is after ail perfectly legitimate. A keen eye has noted it, and its boldness is redeemed by the aerial lightness of touch.
"The Last Gleam," by M. Paul Chabas, is conceived in the same modem key, and imbued with the same light and airy quality. It is a creek of a river whither three young women hâve corne to bathe. On the verdurous background of the opposite bank of the stream, the Sun, low on the horizon, flings a mitigated glow and slowly dying light. Two of the bathers are seen reclining in a boat in the foreground, and faint shadows show the delightful and refined modeling of their bare shoulders. A third, wrapped in lilac dra-
THE SALON OF 1896
pery, is about to join lier companions, her feet splashing through the clear water with évident enjoyment. It is an exquisite and very simple scène, full of a well-directed naturalism tinged with poetry that is delightfully idyllic ; the exécution, judiciously refined, bears witness to no less learnino- than facilitv.
"The Dauo-hters of Atlas" are out huntinç. On the barren plains of Africa, fringed on the horizon by hills of granité of a softened rose-color, they hâve been ail the morning following the rare game, and now, overtaken by fatigue, are resting on the top of a rock that commands a view of the plain. While enjoying their well- earned repose they survey the distance with watchful eyes, and from their coi°;n of vanta^e note the movements of the swift and timid gazelles. Their approach no doubt is imminent, for one of the fair archers is already preparing to bend her bow. In this very carefully studied picture there are some excellent passages ; the landscape is the work of a genuine orientalist who knows and loves Algerian nature. It is painted in a sweet and harmonious key, and the tone of the flesh is brought into admirable keeping by its fresh and rosy carnations. Still, the painting of the figures is weak, the grouping is too scattered and the composition lacks any centre of interest. M. Leroy owes us compensation and is quite capable of doing it handsomely.
The Académie nude still has its ardent partisans. M. Bouguereau is at once the pontiff and the past master of this style of work. He shows his consummate mastery in his allegory of "The Wave." On the smooth sandy shore, a nymph as pretty as pretty can be, and beautifully, though rather fully, modeled, is kneeling in an attitude which reminds us of the crouching \'enus of the ancients, to receive the caress of a wave curling high behind her. The exécution is, as usual, highly finished ; but the painting has the smooth enameled lustre which may be pleasing in porcelain but which is scarcely endurable in a picture. The brush-work is overwrought and reflects the light like a lacquered panel ; it produces an effect annoying to the eye, like that of a polished hard surface. After
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ail, it is a matter of taste. We must own that it is not to ours. Mrs. Elizabeth Gardner, like M. Bouguercau, is faithful to this treatment of the nude. The picture she has called "In the Fields"' shows us an infant lying under the guardianship of a dog, in the shade of a thick screen of trees — the child of a rustic couple reaping in the distance. And this child of peasant parents looks to me, so
pretty and mannered is he, as though some day, in a fit of disgust, he must disown his pro- genitors. Therewillbe plenty of sentimental soûls ready to adopt him and make his lot envi- able in some luxurious mansion beyond the sea. The painter, we are sure, would be delighted, and so should we; and MM. Piot, Perrault and Rodrijniez would be green with envy. " Slumber" and " A Daughter of Eve," by the first, " Spring- time" and "ANymph," by the second, and "Luli," by the third, are not inferior either in affected élégance of attitude or in polish of exécution to Mrs. Gardner's pink and white babies. They hâve the same kind of attractiveness, and display no less knowledge; but the lady is the fashion, and a great success, whatever it may do for lier, is hers. Fortune has her vagaries and they are law.
We will not quit our review of the nude without doing the justice
M** E MURATON _ A FamUy Pvty
28 THE SALON OF 1896
it deserves to a small and délicate pièce of work by M. Lebayle. Under a sunlit arbor, a fair and very youthful female figure, elegantly modeled, holds with one hand on her knees a white drapery, green in the transparent shadows and reflected lights ; with the other hand she shades her brow from the sunbeams that treacherously peep through the foliage. This pretty figure is modeled with incompar- able freedom, the shadows of the leaves lie on it with perfect pré- cision but with a very true sensé of gradation, and the whole resuit is full of innocent grâce, exquisitely chaste.
We may also mention " Sappho," by M. Lenoir, throwing herself into the sea with a well-conceived movement ; 'lA Woman with Doves," by Madame Dubé, pleasing, but shallow ; a pretty nude female figure of " Memory,0 by M. Chantron ; and to conclude, an exquisite study by Mademoiselle Dufau called tlPastime." It repre- sents, I imagine, a model resting, and the girl, without taking the trouble to dress or throwing anything over her shapely bosom but a light gauze scarf, lias opened a book of prints which she is studying with absorbed interest.
This artist attracted attention last year by a pleasing study of a bather. A boy just out of the water, was amusing himself by tnaking ducks and drakes on a calm clear river; the drawing was exceptionally sincère. It is not less so in 'l Pastime," but in this year's work there is a marked improvement in coloring. The artist's eye has gained practice, the feeling for tone is more subtle, the har- mony of hue is happier. Add to this a very refined sensé of grâce and charming freedom in the attitude ; and join me in congratulating an artist whom I believe to be young and whose talent is not merely a matter of promise.
IV. PORTRAITS.
The return to conscientious work, which in my opinion char-
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acterizes the Salon of the Champs-Elysées, is brilliantly conspicuous in the portraits.
This view of course refers only to the works of the younger painters. It would be puérile to apply such a remark to those masters whose very name in synonymous with conscientious work- manship. We shall not therefore dwell long on the works by which they once more earn the admiration of the crowd, and the respectful sympathy of the critic. In the portraits of " Monsieur Ricard," the retired Keeper of the Seals, and of " Madame Bodley," we find the exact observation, the stern and sober energy, the solid and brilliant exécution which M. Bonnat invariably brings to his renderings of the living being. More especially will the spectators delight in the lady's dress, with full sleeves brightened with the prettiest roses. There are gleams in it, a sensé of true and reflected light of the rarest skill and the daintiest brilliancy of hue.
M. Jules Lefebvre is correctness itself, as usual ; a somewhat cold correctness , no doubt, but deliberate, full of a tact and sin- cerity which do not lack character, in a portrait of a girl in white.
M. Bouguereau, in an admirably drawn portrait of a young woman, is, as ever, amazingly sure of himself, but always himself alone ; his immaculate perfection is disconcerting.
M. Henner lias portrayed his friend, u M. Carolus Duran,'1 in a curious half-naturalistic style. It is painted with the retouched effect, the facility and delicacy to which he has accustomed us.
M. Benjamin-Constant, sumptuously décorative and rich in texture in a full length portrait of Mrs. W., whose husband is the proprietor of the English Times newspaper, handles black with consummate ability in a portrait of his own son, broad and solid work which his admirers may ère long hâve the pleasure of seeing again at the Luxembourg Gallery, for which it is purchased by the State.
A picture of a young lady in a green velvet bodice with a purple-red rose at her waist, will be remembered as one of the best
3o
THE SALON OF 1896
portraits by a man who lias nevcr painted any but good ones. In this masterly example by M. Paul Dubois everything is striking, the rîchness and frankness of color, the simplicity of attitude and rare distinction of the sitter. The artist has expressed with infinité charm her fresh color and the look, so difficult to render, of timid grâce and
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M. Aimé Morot, in a very fine portrait of a man, brings to bear his distinguishing qualities of solid modeling, severe accuracy, thorough workmanship and life-like reality. We shall find similar qualities, but used in a manner in which M. Bonnat's influence is so manifest as to overpower the painter's individuality, in a powerful profile painted by M. Crès, of a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Chas- seurs.
M. Pharaon de Winter has studied lovingly and rendered with vigorous exactitude and rich tones some pathetic heads of nuns, wrinkled by old âge. Still, he shows less individuality than in his
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last year's work. We are conscious of a réminiscence of Delacroix, whose "Portrait of my Housekeeper," lias certainly been the subject of the painter's careful study.
Apart from the others let us finally name an artist, better known as an illustrator than as a painter, M. Henri Pille, whose portrait of " Doctor Laffon in his Laboratory," is a masterpiece. The acces- sories surrounding the sitter — glass retorts with endless taps, test- tubes filled with variously colored liquids, an electric machine worked by a powerful dynamo — are handled with dexterous realism and great breadth. They surround the principal figure, mute witnesses to his life's work, silent aids to his progress ; they do not interfère with him.
M. Chartran has brought home from America a portrait of "Sarah Bernhardt," admirably depicted in the part of Gismonda, which she played last winter in New York. In this clear-cut, and précise study, delicately finished in exécution , he has set forth ail the witchery by which the great artiste holds us spell-bound. He has given us a portrait which exactly expresses her, with her factitious charm and her real charm, the whole of her ; a portrait that will be handed down to posterity and which to succeeding générations will be uniquely authentic. A portrait of a man, not less thoroughly studied and which looks like a very close reproduction of nature, is exhibited with this of Sarah Bernhardt. This is a twofold and brilliant success.
No one needs to be told that M. Humbert is one of our finest colorists, and that in his presentments of women he can be both very artistic and ingeniously truthful. His portraits, incomparably high- bred in quality, are élégant, calm and refined. He adds dignity to distinction and lends expression to grâce ; in short he excels above ail others in makino- his colorinc harmonize with the character of the sitter. Thus, in his portrait of "Madame P. S.," note the happy sympathy of the grey hues with the look of rather weary dignity and the somewhat melancholy expression of the head. In the picture of '' Madame Héglon,'1 of the Opéra, on the other hand, does not the fur
32 THE SALON OF 1896
cape with its russet tones set off to perfection the clear smiling eyes and the brilliantly fresh complexion? The full, fluffy quality of the color in this work is an admirable auxiliary to the lady's look of delight in pleasing and évident gladness of life.
So much for the past masters. Now let us turn to the younger aspirants and see what they can do.
Their contributions are, generally speaking, characterized by symplicity of arrangement, an attentive study of the countenance, accurate and severe draughtsmanship, and rich effect of color. One of the best, on thèse several grounds, is the portrait of tlthe Artistes Father," exhibited by a former prizeman, M. Victor Marec. M. Paul Leroy, in a portrait of himself, gives a pièce of the soundest work- manship, in which the carefully elaborate atmosphère has had no ill resuit on the solidity or relief of the head.
We find the same qualities in the portrait of a young painter sitting at his easel by AI. Guillonnet. The portrait of a lady by M. Ypermann, and one of a girl by M. Morisset, hâve not a point in common. In the first we see a deliberate exclusion of everything that can divert interest from the face, in the second there is pains- taking harmony of color : a green velvet dress, a délicate fair face and a background of Liberty-stuff with a small green pattern on a yellow ground. In both we find conscientious purpose, both are alike successful.
M. Constantin Le Roux, whose rustic interiors with their softened light, interested us greatly last year, has painted in amber tones, with similar atmospheric effect, an intimate portrait of a man with a beard. He has infused into it a very new feeling of individuality. M. Lynch, who had from the first adopted genre as his style, has now attempted portraiture with great mastery. Nothing can be better studied, or more solidly painted, more délicate or refined, than his young " Com- tesse de D." in a pale pink bail dress. We should gladly dwell at length on a work of such rare quality, and point it out with delight to the amateur.
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The excursions which M. Léandre allows himself into the domains of caricature, where, with his exceptional gifts of draughtsmanship he shows such a keen sensé of the ridiculous, hâve not hindered him this year from distinguishing himself in a portrait of a young lawyer in a cap and toga, under a fine effect of light. He has placed the model in his studio, under a tawny red screen lighted by the sun so as to cast tender rosy reflections. Thèse tones,
thrown on the fair young face, add to its freshness, and accentuate the modeling by a charming effect of shrouded light.
We find the same happy choiceness in a pretty portrait of a young girl in a park, the figure thrown up without any loss of subtlety by a bright and cheerful background of sunlit verdure.
M. Calbet, in a portrait of a dark lady in a straw-colored dress : M. Braut, in a simple female profile ; Mademoiselle Jenny Fontaine, in a fine portrait of an old lady ; M. H. L. Lévy, in a bright, solidly-painted portrait of a girl ; M. Léon Félix, in a very
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well considered silhouette of a woman in black ; M. Aviat, in a " Girl with a Mandoline;" M. Charlet. in a portrait of Henri Rochefort sitting at his writing-table ; M. Bellery-Desfontaines, in a group of well-sketched portraits, show very various individualities, but each effort is remarkable in its way and deserves high praise.
Décorative portraiture is represented with no particular distinc- tion by MM. Gervais, Schommer and Franzini. The first has painted, in a light key of color, with a background of tapestry, a young woman of élégant and refined beauty, with two charming little boys. The drawing-room in which the painter has grouped his models is a pleasing and unobtrusive setting ; the arrangement of the figures is natural and happily conceived. On the other hand we might wish for more vigor in the rendering of the figures, more character and expression in the heads. M. Schommer loves the play of light on silk ; he has a fine sensé of sumptuous texture, but he has nothing else, and this is not enough. M. Franzini would hâve earned nothing but praise if his sitter's fluffy red hair did not look like part of the tapestry against which the face stands out — or rather into which it is inlaid.
M. Marcel Baschet, in successfully carrying on a séries of which each work has been quite excellent, shows us " M. Bris- son," the Président of the Chamber of Deputies, a noble and genuine countenance not spoiled by useless détail . M. Louis Chalon, whose picture of "M. Mesureur," formerly Minister of Commerce, is too assertive, has not taken sufficient care in this florid portrait to subordinate accessories to the likeness.
The public seem to hâve been startled by the full-length por- trait of a young lady in a purplish dress, by M. Henri Martin. It has not been understood that, though the rigid attitude and the pretentious air with which the model holds in her hand a sunflower, dear to décadent literature and to London esthètes, mav seem lau^h- able, the work, as a picture, has great charm in its artifîcial and mystical grâce. We may also add that in this portrait, even more
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than in his décorative work, the artist has improved on the brush- work in which he has indulged for the last ten years. This return to common sensé will be satisfactory to ail who appreciate his talent, but fail to relish his extravagance.
We must not overlook the minute portraits painted by M. Axilette, with his usual précision, original though somewhat dry. We examine, not with pleasure but with real interest, his likeness of Paul Hervieu, the novelist, looking as if it had been stamped out. M. Marcel Baschet and M. Henri Guédy are not less précise, but are less dry in their portraits of UM. Henri Lavedan " and of the painter u Albert Maignan."
The little picture of a lady in a red dress by M. Hébert is a colorist's treat, and M. Lemeunier has shown real taste in his treatment of the portraits of "M. Félix Faute " as major of the Mobiles of the Seine-Inférieure, 1870; and of "M. Edouard De- taille " as sub-lieutenant of the reserve corps of Infantry Chas- seurs, 1880. The background of figures against which M. Félix Faure stands forth is animated and busy, a pleasing épisode ; the grove of trees behind M. Edouard Détaille is ingeniously com- posed, and charming as an effect of color. Thèse unobtrusive little pictures are excellent.
The foreigners, whose art as portrait-painters is, at the Champ de Mars, so full of individuality and so superior to our own, would not hère deserve particular mention but for the importance of the English portrait-painters. America is well represented by a portrait of a lady, in which Mr. Seymour Thomas harmonizes grey and white with much dexterity, and by a study by Mr. Louis Loeb. Austria-Hungary sends some praiseworthy examples. England exhibits only three portraits, but thèse are masterpieces of the highest class. We hail them with ail respect.
Hère, against a background of buff hangings, we see a lean thick-set old man, with fresh, clean-shaven cheeks and a brick-red complexion. He stands in a riding-dress — top-boots, doeskin breeches
36 THE SALON OF 1896
and a black coat — with calm décision, on legs whose strength is undiminished by âge. His hunting crop is under his left arm, his right hand lies firmly gripping the left. in which he holds his tall hat and gloves. We feel hère one of those tenacious natures which hâve expended their surplus energy in military service, and which are preserved in manly vigor to the last verge of old âge by the habit of violent exercise. This is ki Colonel Anstruther-Thonison," painted by Mr. Lorimer. English art has never produced a more manly pièce of work in the small portrait form. or pitched in a happier key of sober coloring.
Mr. Orchardson has in his own country a still greater réputa- tion than Mr. Lorimer, and it is well merited. He has always painted genre and portrait, hand in hand, and in each has pro- duced works of high interest. We saw last year, a picture by him at the Champs Elysées, 'lThe Salon of Madame Récamier," which was much admired. and a maie portrait which was no less successful. He is represented hère, this year, by a genre picture, 'lThe Young Duke," and another portrait of a man . For the moment we will look only at the portrait. The arrangement is easy and pictorial. The sitter, in front of a table loaded with papers, books and pamphlets, is seen in profile, gazing absently before him. Some mental préoccupation absorbs him and has brought a smile to his lips. Xothing more simple can be ima- gined by way of attitude. It is easy, free, without being loose ; its unpretentiousness lacks neither dignity nor style. The type of head, on the other hand, is studied with a clearness of vision which is shown in a thousand characteristic détails, nowhere over- insisted on. It is a model of a Family portrait in a setting of supe- rior culture, and the somewhat shallow painting, the monotony of coloring — light brown and hempen yellows predominating — do not detract from the effect produced by the work as a whole. Better painting than this can be donc in France, but nothing that is more impressive.
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I hâve kept till the last the large canvas on which Mr. Herkomer has revived, with singular power, and calm, full harmony, the portrait-group style of a past time. This painter, born in 1849 in a little Bavarian village not far from the town of Landsberg, and taken
to England when he was but eight years old, is English by éducation, English in his life and in his art ; but he has preserved a tenderness for the land of his birth and shows it by fréquent and touching évidences of affection. The last is this picture, wherein he has represented the Mayor of Landsberg in his Council Chamber, surrounded by the town councillors.
We see a large room with three windows in the wall opposite. Those to right and the left are wide open, and reveal a charming scène — a public square with a lountain crowned with a statue of the Virgin, old German houses with battlemented gables, or copings eut into broad curving outlines. A soft, grey atmosphère hangs over the distance and throws it back, giving it the indispensable effect of remoteness. The middle window is screened by a dark blue curtain, and the outer daylight modifies its raw tone very agreeably. On a shelf across the recess stands a bust of the Prince Régent of rich bronze hues. A secretary with his back tu the window is sitting at a long table, next the Mayor, who stands dressed in his officiai costume —
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black velvet coat and breeches, a silver chain round his neck.
The Burgomaster, his hands resting on the table, stands in the side-light, evidently tnaking a speech to the Council, and the ten councillors, seated five and five on either hand, in high-backed stalls of oak, listen in various attitudes of attention.
A German by birth, an Englishman by adoption, the artist on both grounds owed it to himself to give care to every détail. He lias handled them as a skilled workman, with the greatest care but wîth judicious reserve. Neither the piles of red-edged books that fill the corners, nor the brightly polished floor on which the Hght plays, nor the bronzed bust of the Régent, intrudes itself on the spectator to the détriment of the heads, which are admirably studied. modeled with décision and a full brush, full of intense vitality. The soft light that pervades the room falls tenderly on men and things with equal truth, and the skill with which it is distributed bears witness to a spécial sensitiveness of eye. In a word, it is a finely balanced composition, sober, full of délicate illumination, and most firmly painted. The religion of nationality, while inspiring the artist, has raised his powers of expression to a pitch he lias never before reached. He has made a really great work, out of a commonplace subject.
INTERIORS.
In paintings of interiors , as in the larger pictures , painful subjects abound, but they are not aggravated by insistency and are represented on a more modest scale, a double and important advantage.
In the subject attacked by M. Bourgonnier under the rather far-fetched title of " Mater Dolorosa," \\c hâve the physical tor- ture of child-bearing. A young woman lies stretched on an iron
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bedstead , stiff with spasmodic pain , lier hands clenched , one holding on to lier husband's rigid arnis, the other on her mother's. At the foot of the bed stand three young women — sisters or near relations — watching the painful scène with alarmed solicitude. Two of them are holding lamps screened with lace shades, of which the light falls on the principal group. In the shadowy background there is a touch of white ; a cradle, trimmed with muslin, awaits the expected infant whose first cry will bring a smile to the mother's lips.
The scène is most skilfully arranged. The persons grouped round the sufferer's bed hâve the right expression of face and are perfectly natural. Their faces reflect to admiration their émotions of sympathy mingled with hope, and the effects of the light about them are noted with subtle delicacy. The color is a pleasing harmony of light hues. Whites, pale violets, lilac, soft pink and light yellow, combine in judicious juxtaposition, without harshness or unnecessary fuss.
A Belgian painter, M. Struys, whose powerful qualities of technique were noticeable last year in "A Visit to the Sick," has reappeared with a " Viaticum," in which we see the same richness of color, the same full and heavy impasto, the same forcible relief, the same vigorous and rather heavy handling. Pre- ceded by the sacristan in his gown, the priest, wearing a cope, is crossing a low roorn on his way to the room where lies the dying man to whom he is bearing the holy oil. While the mother goes to prépare the sufferer to receive the consolations of religion, the father has thrown himself into a chair, and the wife or sister, kneeling by a straw-bottomed chair, hides her tear-stained face in her hands in despair. The scène, brutally natural, is piercingly true.
M. Dierckx, like M. Struys a Belgian, has similar qualities as a painter. He has to some extent spoilt them this year by striving after a liiïhtness and freedom of brush-work, and an airiness which
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do not suit his tempérament. His ': Corner of a Table at a Charity Meal " is not by a long way so good as the " Smoking-room in a Workhouse," which he exhibited previously. Thèse groups of women and children seated in disorder on benches, are but clumsily arranged, and the quaintness of the room, the lower portion showing a sort of chequered pattern, adds in no small degree to the incohérent impression produced by the whole picture.
Much interest was felt last year in a picture of a u Workroom of Grey Sisters," painted by M. Boquet — a low room lighted by dim daylight, where half a dozen orphan girls were sewing. The subject having proved successful, the artist has returned to it, content to modify it a little. It is a fète-day and a procession is to pass through the town. The curé of the parish has called upon the best girls of the school to strew llowers on the ground before the Sacred Eléments. A good Sister, in a large white cap, is busy in the parlor of the refuge, putting finishing touches to their cos- tume. One of the orphan girls holds a pin-cushion from which the Sister takes pins to be stuck in hère and there, to fasten the white veil to the white frock, and the white ribbon round the child's throat. A window opening on an inner court-yard sheds a cold light on this pleasing scène, and the young painter has caught the effect with a light accuracy that is quite charming. His choice and study of heads is no less excellent ; the attitudes of the Sister and the girls are harmonious by their simplicity ; they hâve the instinctive grâce which young and guileless créatures naturally display in their movements. Not one is forced, and the rapture of the tiny child who clasps her hands in a transport of admira- tion is ail the more expressive because it is evidently direct from nature.
M. Buland has hitherto adhered to a spécial line of rural types studied with keen but bitter incisiveness. We recall his interiors of forges, churches and taverns ; his " Archery," his " Pleaders in a Police-court." Rarely has the rustic frame of mind been
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marked in genre pictures by such carefully-studied countenances or such précise and clear characterization. If the artist had added to his powers of relief some qualities of texture and some sensé of atmo- sphère, his painting would hold the first rank. Has M. Buland understood this himself ? Has lie of his own accord accepted the
advice so freely given him by his critics, in spite of their sympathetic appréciation ? It matters not. The fact remains that he has ceased to give us in his work a race of men carved out of wood. His "Empty Cradle " betrays a radical change in his manner of painting. He shows us, seated on chairs, on their return from the funeral, a young peasant couple in mourning, staring at the little vacant bed. Their dazed attitudes, their stricken faces, their awkwardness em- phasized by their Sunday dress, are rendered with the intelligence that is to be seen in ail this artist's work. From the black dresses in contrast with the whitc curtains of the cradle he has çot effects of
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color of which we should hitherto hâve believed him to be incapable. We can find nothing in the picture to complain of, excepting the back- ground against which the figures stand out — a chimney-hanging with a border of blue cloth edged with braid and fringe, entirely out of place in a peasant dwelling. Such an improbability as this, such an useless détail injudiciously introduced, is enough to bring a charge of insincerity against the artist and compromise his success beyond retrieving.
Neither simplicity nor artlessness are ot seek in M. Baugnies' " Reading the Will." The heirs, in attitudes of attention, are grouped round the lawyer and his clerk, sitting in the recess of a window in full daylight. The efforts they are making to understand the précise sensé of the document through the légal formulas is shown in their heavy position, leaning over the basket that rests on their knees placed close together, and in the mechanical action with which they pinch the cloth of their Sunday trousers. And we feel that the old mother herself, in the corner where she sits alone, even under her affected attitude of despair, shares her children's agitation, and is listening anxiously to the reading. The exécution, as regards the figures, is perhaps a little heavy, but the effect of light is happy, and the work is fine in tone and gênerai harmony.
In a gaver key, Mr. Joseph Bulfield's "Breton Barber" is as good a pièce of work as a study of character. It is superior in vivacity and a sort of sly fun, as well as in exécution, variety, lightness and facility.
A " Breton Tavern," by M. Menesson, is especially meritorious in point of color ; it is, strictly speaking, no more than a sketch, but a powerful sketch, painted with no less décision than sincerity. A " Book-binder," by M. Debaene; an "Interior," by M. Jules Petit; a " Gem-cutter," by M. Burdy ; a " Shoeing Forge," by M. Delahaye, are more elaborate works, but reveal an identical purpose. This characteristic is common to ail the younger painters, no matter whose studio they may hâve worked in. It is equally
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conspicuous in the pupils of M. Benjamin-Constant or Cormon, Jules Lefebvre or Gérôme, and in those of M. Gustave Moreau ; and the little portrait of "M. Mounet-Sully," in the part of Aretino, by M. Albert Laurens, is not less explicit on this point than the "Woman's Head" or the "OldWoman Sitting by her Chimney Corner," painted by M. Fernand Sabatté.
M. Gustave Moreau's pupils, however, are distinguished from the rest by their préférence for black. They use every note in the scale of black, often with more détermination than felicity ; and most of their pictures look as if they had been painted in a cellar rather than in a studio. The " Dead Christ bewailed by the Holy Women," by M. Rouault is quite uncomfortable from this point of view ; and while we do homage to the composition , which has much picturesque quality, and to the feeling which is genuinely emotional, we cannot but regret the absence both of ail sensé of tone, and of even the very slightest regard for atmosphère.
It is a pleasure to turn from this heavy opaque painting to the little domestic scènes set in bright interiors exhibited by MM. Paul Thomas, Dantan and Bréauté, to M. Alfred de Richemont's " Last Rays ; " to "The Almshouse of the Holy Ghost, at Liibeck," by Mr. Simonson, and to three canvases which must be ranked among the best sent to the Salon : "The Lord be with you," by M. Du- vent; " Folding Cloth in an Alsatian Factory," by M. Zwiller; and "Children at Play," by Madame Laura Mùntz.
The first represents the interior of a church in Brittany while Mass is going on. By the pillars of the nave and on benches, Breton women are kneeling in their black petticoats and white caps ; old men too are humbly on their knees. The daylight, coming through stained glass that blazes with crimson fires, is diffused in subdued tones under the vaulting, warming the old stones and falling tenderly on the crowd of worshippers. Ail the accidents of this illumination are painted with ingenious fidelity ; ail that is useless is skillfully passed over, only what is pictorial is retained. Hence an unity
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of effect whicfa gives to the whole scène the refined and sober har- mony that at once rests and satisfies the eye.
M. Zwiller is an Alsatian, and finds ail his subjects in Alsace. He lias always chosen them with taste, and his patriotism is answerable for none but good pictures. He excels in interiors of schools and factories with daylight pouring in through large glass windows.
In the L- Folding Room" he now exhibits, he has used the effects he delights in with greater skill than ever, and greater art. \Ye cannot but take pleasure in his fresh-faced working girls, modeled against the light with such délicate finish, and the cheerful variety of light hues for which the pièces of stutï in many-colored piles hâve afforded an excuse.
In a home-like drawing-room, with a subdued light, two tiny pink and white children in mauve frocks are trying to dance. The little things hold each other's hands and are slipping and turning to the measured music of a piano, with exquisite awkwardness on the waxed boards of a polished floor. In the background, grand- mamma looks on in delight, and the young mother, while lier fingers wander over the keys, turns round and watches the little dancers with admiration. This is the subject which Madame Laura Miintz has treated with consummate skill in her " Children at Play." She has a feeling for the vague movements and instinctive grâce of infancy ; she renders them with refinement and tact unspoiled by any pretentious sentimentality, and enhanced by the freshest coloring, the freest,the most airy, the most flowing handling. I must confess, though at the risk of offending many persons, that I find far more solid qualities in this little picture of domestic life than in the scènes of genre so carefully studied and so ingeniously set forth, of which the English school has secured the productive monopoly. Like Mr. Orchardson and Mr. Lorimer, whose "Young: Duke*" and ••Mariage de Convenance'* are models of the style. Madame Laura Miintz is English by birth ; but she acquired her training in Paris
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under masters of the French school. We do not see that her talent has lost anything by this.
To the pictures already enumerated we must add two others of great interest. "A Village School in Brittany"' and "A Franco- Arab School at Tlemcen.'" Both are by the same painter. This clever artist is M. Jean Geoffroy, who produces with equal mastery thèse bright scènes of school interiors, and the melancholy aspects of dispensaries, charitable institutions and night-asylums. Perhaps he did best in this class of subject. He threw into them a firmer accent, and brought to them great insight in the study of human expression. We might fancy that in contact with childhood he has feared to be too realistic, and has thought himself obliged to give a certain prettiness to the actors in the scène, the more to enlist our sympathies.
His powers of exécution, however, hâve lost nothing. He has never shown greater ease, richer variety of coloring, or a lighter and more délicate touch than in the school-interiors he hère sets before us. The Franco-Arab school is one of the most delirrhtful studies of light and shade that we hâve seen at the Salon for many years. The setting is picturesque, the grouping of the little people is full of grâce, and the pictures would be faultless but for an open door in the back wall of the room through which the light pours in. The contrast with the subdued tone of the large hall in some degree destroys the harmony by its harshness. On the other hand, we hâve nothing but praise for the "School in Brittany."
The composition is charming in its simplicity. In the background, the little girls in black frocks and white caps are diligently writing out their tasks. In front, on the left , the school-mistress, also wearing the Breton costume, is teaching a group of little ones to read out of a book she holds wide open before them. Two tiny children, too young yet to understand or care for what is going forward, sit with clasped hands, lost in an ecstatic dream in which their companions very certainly play no part.
46 THE SALON OF 1896
The exécution is of the most refined delicacy, as in ail this artist's work. The treatment of the rich black, the more or less subdued whites, the tender greys, is perfect ; and the silvery light that falls on the baby faces like a nimbus is a real joy to the eye. It may perhaps be objected that the children's attitudes are hère and there rather affected, their demeanor too élégant for little girls who are certainly not Parisian, and their prettiness rather fine-drawn ; still, as a picture there is no fault to find with it. The technique is consummately skillful.
VI PICTURES OF INCIDENT.
We now turn to what we may call anecdote painting.
The subject may be trivial, but from the point of view of technique a picture is never uninteresting from the wonderfully dexterous and prodigiously facile hand of M. Tito Lessi. There is, indeed, no intense interest of subject in his lt Gil Blas Interceding in Favor of Gardas" or in his " Convent Garden ;" but what a charming interior is the Archbishop's roora, and how serene is this terraced walk where the Dominican Sisters, on a suramer afternoon, are enjoying the delights of far niente under the guise of work !
A pretty room indeed is this of the Archbishop of Granada, with its massive table, sumptuously covered with red velvet, braided in a scroll pattern of gold. The harmony is rich, and yet sober, of the red table cover and the episcopal hood, and of thèse reds with the green that is the dominant note in the wall-hangings. And how subtly witty is the action of the story, the obsequiousness of the licentiate, the quiet irony of the secretary, and the haughtiness of the Prince of the Church. We are evidently in our rights when we say that we prefer to this little picture the Book-collector's library in which the artist reveled last year, lavishing on it ail his gifts with the utmost freedom, and lending an intensely living aspect to old books and the
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dignified élégance of the finest Louis XV. paneling that can be imagined. But though he was more admirable in the work of yesterday, we will not pick holes in the picture of to-day. His inven- tiveness,his dexterous manipulation, his refined taste, are not inferior, and the play of color is as charming.
From M. Tito Lessi to M. Alberti, who has drawn on real life, showing us u Yvette Guilbert" in her dressing-room, is a very long leap. The drawing is not absolutely sure , there is some indécision in the movement, but the effect of light is not unpleasing, and the artist, who is young, shows an advance on his former efforts.
Serious qualities are not lackingin an interesting little picture by M. Lam- bert, " Five oVlock." The attitude of the young mother, suckling her baby of a few months old, as she sits by the stove where the soup is simmering, is exactly and amusingly truthful. The two little girls by the fïre, contentedly munching their dry bread, are naturally and expressively grouped, and the scène in its domestic key would be touching enough if the painter had been content with less display of wit in his title. To give the pretentious name of u Five c'cloc^" by which French snobs designate in English an afternoon tea, to the suckling of an infant in swaddling clothes, strikes me as supremely ridiculous. It is the sort of witticism relished by commercial travelers, but by them alone.
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One of the personages of romance whom it is most difficult to transfer to the realm of art is Manon Lescaut. The erring heroine, brought into the world by the venturesome Abbé who bore the name of Prévost, and who somewhat discredited the clérical robe by the scandalous follies of his youth, is too complex a character for the brush to succeed in any attempt to represent lier. M. Lynch, to interest us in lier fate, lias indeed chosen the moment when the sentence pronounced on the courtesan falls on lier like a deadly blow and so simplifies lier émotions.
The King's ship, which is to bear lier off beyond seas to Louisiana, lies rocking majestically at anchor in the distant roadstead, and the boat that conveys the disreputable damsels is being pulled with ail oars out to get to her. The herd packed into the boat are in mad spirits. Hussies with coarse faces are talking to the boatmen, and their jests are no doubt highly spiced, for they are laughing loudly. Others, younger and less hardened, smile calmly at the future. Des Grieux, at the prow, seated by Manon, who is wrapped in her cloak and sunk in a sort of stupor, supports lier with a loving ami. We cannot conceive otherwise of the departure and the attitude of the stricken lovers. The natural grouping and subtle grâce of the scène, the firmness of the drawing and the skillful exécution, make this well- balanced and carefully-studied picture one of the best to be seen of
its kind.
If we were to take the word of certain folks who go into ecstasies over everything that cornes from England, Orchardson's " Young Duke" must be a perfect wonder. We do not share this view. We see in it the work of an expert, no doubt, but of an expert who, in our opinion, holds observation and truth too cheap. Analyze this large work in détail. In a luxurious eighteenth century dining- room, with elaborately-carved and gilt paneling , stands a large horse-shoe table. In the central seat of honor sits a melancholy- looking youth. In vain hâve his companions risen, glass in hand, to drink to his health, for they are keeping his birthday, their enter-
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tainer préserves the same forced smile ; the same expression of disenchantment is legible in his weary countenance and features drawn by debauchery.
The subject, it must be allowed, is not novel. It has been rife in every studio, for Menander among the Greeks, and Terence among the Latins, hâve 'dealt with the story of the heir left too early to himself, dissipating his fortune in folly, and deriving no pleasure from it after ail.
What means, then, has the artist hère adopted to rejuvenate the old story ? We look for them in vain. Ail the guests hâve preciselv the same profile. Under the various heads of hair, some fair, some dark, some rufous, we find the same studio-model, capable no doubt of giving an appropriate attitude for each person he sits for, but incapable of varying his expression and character.
As to the exécution of thèse figures, it is very thin ; and if the picture did not recommend itself by some delicacy of handling in the détails, if the table loaded with flowers and fruit, silver and crystal, were not a fine study of still-life, we should be hard on this pièce of commonplace art.
The painting is of sterner quality in Mr. Lorimer's "Mariage de Convenance." Though hère again the subject has no novelty, though the sight of a young bride in white, sobbing under lier veil as if her heart would break when her bridesmaids corne to escort lier to the church, is a subject we hâve seen a hundred times before, still we are conscious in this work of a détermination to get a grip on nature, which in spite of everything lends it interest. Perhaps this dexterous, neatly-finished brush-work is a little dry; perhaps, too, the little landscape seen through an open window is rather aggressively near ; but the work is nevertheless that of an artist unusually sure of himself, and certainly curious.
The exécution is but second-rate in the picture exhibited by M. Chocarne-Moreau, " Opportunity," but the incident has at least the merit of being amusing. Outside a wooden booth occupied by
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a news-vender, a pastrycook's boy is ecstatically staring at the last numbers of Le Journal Amusant and Le Rire. Tempted by the cakes displayed in his flat basket, two sweeps are quietly annexing some of them.
Madame Maximilienne Guyon's " Fortune-teller " is full of
observation and cleverness. The proficient in chiromancy, seated at her table, with a large book open before her, and studying the slim hand held out by a pretty client, is a complète spécimen of the old impostor ,and the patient's anxiety,andthemerelyinquis- itive attitude of the friend who accompanies her, are admirably true. We may add that Madame Maximilienne Guyon has ne ver shown greater refinement or pur- pose in her technique. This little painting is irreproach- able and charming-. We must be content merely to mention M. Kaemmerer, as crisp and florid as ever, in " Mountebanks ; *' M. Gérôme, who has had a fancy to "restore," with the learning of an historian and the accuracy of an archaeologist, a water-party by night in the gardens of Ver- sailles in the later days of Louis XIV.; M. Wagrez, whose " Tann- haûser in the Venusberg " is cleverly and delicately enticing ; M. Brispot, with his poetical "Village Bell-ringers," and a little family scène, "Too fond," very delicately rendered ; M. Bom- pard, whose " Bead-threading, Venice," is one of the best-imagined pictures he has ever set before us, living, busy, brilliant in color,
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and remarkable as a study of the types and manners of the Venetian populace.
M. Laissement's "In the Anteroom " is not to be despised. The exécution lacks brilliancy and is cold ; still, the light and shade are pleasing, and the play of expression is well imagined. Again, we must mention a student of Greek life , M. Ralli, with his " Woman Selling Tapers in a Greek Church;" M. Clairin with his " Return to Murano ;" Mr. Finn's " Knocked Out ;" M. Eugène Le Roux1, u Rustic Inn," with lovers in Directoire costumes very prettily got up ; Madame Euphémie Muraton's "Family Party;" Mr. Bacon's " Interior of a Country Church," fresh and bright in tone ; M. Boucher, with his " New Cider." Then we hâve an ingenious and novel composition by M. Paupion of the " Repose of the Virgin-/1 M. Deuilly's "Proposai;" Mrs. Wentworth, with a picture of " Prayer ; " an expressive study, " Will it be Fine?" by M. Gustave Jacquet; " Morning Prayer," by M. Poilleux Saint- Ange; "A Quarrel," between two little rascals, by M. François Reynaud ; "An Old Woman," by M. Hirsch ; "An Intruder," by M. Mayet ; and " Fishing for Eels" by M. Ravaut.
We must make spécial mention of M. Edouard Gelhay. His " First-born " and " Waiting in Vain" reveal him as a most refined painter of open-air effects. In the first, a young mother is playing hide-and-seek with a baby in a pink frock, under the trees of a park. In the second, on a garden seat, a forlorn damsel yields to despair under the conviction that lier lover lias forgotten his promise and cornes not. The subject is in itself trivial, but the artist, by treating it simply, with a very subtle and well-apprehended effect of light, lias given the stale motive a very new and unexpected variety. He lias earned unstinted praise.
Nor is there any réservation in the praise given by every good judge to an English artist, Mr. P. Melton Fisher, for his " Sunimer Night, Venice." It is nine in the evening. Dinner is over ; we hâve left the hôtel dining-room and are standing on the balcony
52 THE SALON OF 1896
beneath which gleams the Grand Canal. There is not a Sound. At this hour the vaporino lias ceased to ply, and only the gondolas glide over the dark water with a soft rippling. This is the hour chosen by the town-singers to corne in a boat dressed with flags, and sérénade foreign visitors under the windows of the Grand Hôtel. Round the heavy barge a dense crowd of gondolas soon collects, while on the balcony, amid the dying sparks of lanterns , the œsthetic and the curious of both sexes, overcome by the all-pervad- ing languor, give themselves up to endless day-dreams of inexpress- ible sweetness. Mr. Fisher lias rendered this night scène with equal truth and charm. His picture is full of dreaminess, but the dream does not hamper the reality ; the figures, though softened by the darkness, stand out in full relief, ail the more striking as capricious and startling effects of light accentuate them hère and there. The work is as successful as it is daring.
VII.
MILITARY PICTURES.
Studies of military life are relatively few this year. Anecdote lias superseded them. Following the public taste, painting lias renounced the heroic vein, which is, indeed, out of place in homely drawing-rooms , to dévote itself to amusement. In the whole Salon there is but one military picture characterized by genuine feeling ; it is the huge canvas called "-Aigles," in which M. Rouffet lias symbolized with noble feeling the lamentable spectacle of an army routed by the cold. A trace of the same patriotic émotion is to be found in the composition by M. Chelminsky, showing Joseph's staff-officers crossing the pass of " Guadarrama" in Spain, under a snow-storm. M. Benoît Lévy, in his " Defence of Ram- bervillers ," sets forth with remarkable vital power the conflict between a Prussian column and some French sharp-shooters. The
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Polish hussars and lancers marching past Napoléon in an indescribable glow of enthusiasm, in i8i3, after the mémorable charge at Hanau,
are not lacking in vigor. A foreigner, Mr. Charlton, whose name is new to us, has illustrated with strik- ing power the fine passage in Zola's Débâcle, in which he describes the day after defeat, and shows us the maddened herd of horses, whose riders were killed in the fight,rushingacross the field of battle full tilt over the dead.
In the genre of familiar épisode M. Orange holds a good place with his "Narghileh." The scène takes place during the Egyptian Campaign. A handsome negro,squatting on his heels, has been smoking a magnificent narghileh , blowing forth clouds of fragrant smoke that hâve stirred the envy of a hussar. He has snatched the pliant pipe and stuck the amber mouth pièce between his teeth to the great wrath of the protesting Moor. It is well painted, though with more than a suspicion of dryness.
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54 THE SALON OF 1896
M. Chaperon, who exhibits a capital portrait of an officer, has amused htmself with painting "A Hait "—a trooper ingratiating himself with a sergeant by offering him a drink. M. Berne-Belle- cour shows us another trooper billeted on llA Native," who has at once set to work to provide brush-wood for the cook. M. Petit- Gérard makes marked progress every year, and his two épisodes of the autumn manœuvres will find admirers : kt A Meeting" and •• A Siège Train."
VIII. LANDSCAPE AND OPEN-AIR STUDIES.
There are two ways of seeing and rendering nature. It may be painted just as it is, with a détermination to make its variety tell as much as possible, emphasizing designedly, by the power of color, everything that is susceptible of emphasis. This is the line taken by the Mediterranean painter Olive, and such northern artists as Nozal and Petitjean, Gagliardini, Thurner and Tanzi. The resuit is some- times quite admirable.
Certain effects of dazzling sunlight, certain wild tracks of country, certain broad contrasts of a sky loaded with threatening clouds and a land carpeted with spring flowers of the tenderest shades , are congenial to this rather rough-and-ready manner, and owe to it. not indeed their charm, for that is absent, but to the peculiar interest that they certainly hâve. This aspect of landscape-painting, which is admirable in gallery pictures, seen under a harsh light, and among surroundings that are generally adverse to subtle harmo- nies, has on the other hand given no great work to the taste of the amateur.
■\Yhat effect, for instance, would be produced in a quiet room, lighted by ditïused and softened daylight, by such pictures as the "Village of Roussillon, Provence," by M. Gagliardini? They would
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seem detestably gaudy — as they are. Unless the artist can infuse a sensé and sentiment of subdued tone, as M. Dameron has done in his " Evening Light," M. Dainville in his "Twilight," and M. Cor- nellier in his " Environs of Marseilles," he is condemned to brilliant but almost meaningless effects, and that redundancy and decla- matory pomp of which M. Nozal year after year exhibits a gorgeous monotony.
Nature may be viewed otherwise, and will be viewed otherwise more and more in years to corne. A tendency is evidently di- verting our artists from the deceptive effects of literal transcripts to lead them to a more individual appréhension and more ideal- ized rendering of nature. They are beginning to perceive once more that there is a soûl in things, and great joy to be found in revealing that soûl while representing the things.
But, even so, they are perfectly distinct from their immédiate predecessors. They, in their interprétations, tried to reconcile their love of accuracy with their désire for a nobler interpréta- tion. Of thèse is the aged, but still stalwart, Harpignies. His large canvas, "The Loire," is splendid in style. Anyone who has seen the great river in summer, idly flowing over the shifting sands of its bed, must recognize it in the master's picture and pronounce it a perfect likeness. But though the gênerai aspect is truth itself, the artist has not felt bound to exactitude in the détails of the com- position. He has altered and re-arranged to his taste the beautiful woods that group themselves on the banks, and frame the flood with proud dignity. We find the same feeling in a fine work by M. Camille Bernier : the " Forest of Kerlagadic, Brittany."
The more modem idealists, on the other hand, seem rather to prefer the way which M. Pointelin first eut out for himself ; they love the vague outlines and uncertain shapes given by an evening light to even the sternest scenery. In this key we find a very remarkable quality in the dream-like landscapes of M. Albert Gos- selin, in M. Noirot's "Mont Saint-Michel," and in the exquisite
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moonlight effect which M. Eymieu calls a "Nocturne." Equally noteworthy are M. Japy's " Spring Dawn," M. Didier Pouget's l< Moorland, Pink Heather," M. Adrien Demont's " Promised Land;" M. Paul Lecomte's uWeir;" and, in a stronger manner, M. Cham- peaux's two pictures, "Moonlight after at Storm a Sea" and " Mac- Gillycuddy's Reeks."
Not to be overlooked are M. Kreyder's flowers and fruit pièces, Madame Mac Nab's roses, nor the admirable still-life studies by M. Chrétien. We must pay brief tribute to the pleasing Parisian flavor shown in the works of MM. Luigi Loir, Caquiart and Guil- lemet ; to Mr. Chetwood-Acken's " Mariners' Cross," Mr. Ridgway Knight"s " Shepherdess," to Mademoiselle Carpentier*s "Candies," and M. Vayson's " Laborer's Meal." We must remember, too, that there is a school of orientalists, painters who are increasingly popular and constantly improving in mastery. We may point to the Algerian landscapes, blazing with light, but that light made delightfully soft and harmonious, by M. Rigollet, to the "Fatigue Party Carrying Forage," by M. Paris, to " Evening" and " Fetching Wood," by M. Gustave Pinel, and u Floating Dwellings on the Red River," by M. Gaston Roullet.
Of the marine pièces we must be content to name "A Rising Tide," a masterly work by M. Ravanne, and a brilliant picture by M. Chabanian, " Moonrise on the Atlantic, from Beg Meil." To thèse we add two animal painters, M. Bisbing and M. Barillot, thus ending with two capital pièces of painting. Neither Troyon nor Van Marcke hâve done anything better than M. Bisbing's Dutch cows lazily stretched out in the afternoon light, on the meadows by the Scheldt. And the bulls and heifers M. Barillot portrays in landscapes studied in Normandy, are full of energy, often very subtle energy, proclaiming him undoubtedly a master.
SCULPTURE.
Sculpture, this year, makes on the whole but a poor show. It could hardly hâve been otherwise. Masterpieces cannot be produced every year, and the rich harvest of last season had exhausted our sculptors. Paul Dubois, wholly absorbed in the new statue of Joan of Arc, promised to the city of Reims and lately inaugurated with so much splendor on the Cathedral Square of the old Archbishopric, exhibits nothing. Some of the best qualified of his brethren appear before the public with nothing but small carvings and works of secondary importance ; and though a few of the younger sculptors hâve produced work worthy of serious attention, the greater number hâve o-iven us good craft rather than high art.
The supple figure of a "Dancing Girl," whose suggestive and slender nudity M. Falguière lias reproduced in marble, with her voluptuous sway, and lean, exaggerated torso full of youthful verve, will be remembered among this master's naturalistic efforts, as one of the most expressive, if not the most stately.
The "Saint Michael" exhibited by M. Frémiet in plaster before executing it for the State, in repoussé brass, in the dignified ease of the attitude and the triumphant charm of the face, reminds us of the religious images of the Middle Ages with their exquisite ingenuity ; the costume too is learnedly exact and the arrangement is well invented. Nevertheless, the inspiration and feeling under the coat of mail that protects the saint are essentially modem ; and the Archangel's wings, widely spread, will hâve a fine effect on the top of the great tower on Mont Saint-Michel which looks down on the proud strong- hold of conventual buildings.
The commemorative monument in which M. Adolphe Mercié lias
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représentée! allegorically the heroic résistance to the Prussians, in 1870, of the town of Chàteaudun, lias attracted gênerai attention, and is in every way worthy of such appréciation. This figure of a woman crouching over a man's body, between the legs of a National Guard who is aiming at an invisible enemy, is strikingly beautiful. Her bodice unfastened, with haggard eyes, and hair hanging in disorder, she is holding a horse-pistol clenched in her right hand and is ready, we can see, to sell her life dearly. It is a work of thrilling power and executed with noble breadth.
The State, in a happy moment, had officially purchased before the opening of the Salon a group of " Fighting Panthers," which com- peted with the fine décorative group by M. Gustave Michel, called "Inspiration." It strikes me as being on the whole quite the newest idea and most characteristic work in sculpture this year. The two wild beasts in their fury are tearing each other with their claws, and biting with their sharp teeth. The amazing suppleness of their bodies and the prodigious tension of their muscles hâve been rend- ered by the artist with unerring certainty, and a vivid sensé of vital force. We greet M. Gardet, the artist, as a worthy successor to Barye, who, if he had still been living, would hâve found in him a rival.
In a différent class of work, M. Alfred Boucher's " Convolvulus " has a crowd of enthusiastic admirers, who delight in the chaste grâce and ingenuous delicacy of this figure of a girl in high relief, with its background of shrubbery chiseled in the solid marble with delightful refinement. It was a serious risk to venture on so perilous a subject, a work of such subtle genre, without fear of degenerating into mère prettiness. M. Boucher has acquitted himself triumphantly, which will surprise no one.
A romantic artist, born out of due season, M. Becquet, has infused into a " Dead Christ," executed with patient finish and the most invet- erate conscientiousness, ail that the subject could suggest of sincère and intense pathos. M. Pezieux has for many years shown himself
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a master in figures of strikingly modem feeling combinée! with really antique grâce. In his statue of "Méditation" lie seems to
hâve attempted to revive the long forgotten tradition of those ambi- guous forms dear to the art of Greece, a sort of compromise between the woman and the boy, so soft are the limbs, and so élégant the modeling. Connoisseurs, who know how skillfully this artist handles marble, and what unexpected refinement he gives to the forms he
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créâtes, while seeking no more than the gênerai mass in the original model, expect great things from the finished work, for the plaster is beau ti fui.
Among the crowded ranks of young sculptors, about half a dozen show good promise. "The Tempest," by M. Larche, is a group of genuinely tragic feeling. Female forms are seen writhing in a whirl of clouds that lie on the tossing waves ; the idea is strangely power- ful, the attitudes wild and grandiose. The City of Paris has purchased this fine work to its own honor.
A bas-relief sent from Rome by M. Gasq, " Hero and Leander," has also made a sensation. The conception is quite modem, in a style which it seemed difficult to revive. The attitudes are su- premely graceful but without injury to the severe study of the model. Certain hollow spots of shadow are observable which, in bronze, would not seem forced, but which in marble are too strong. Nevertheless, there are great hopes of an artist still so young.
Another Roman student, M. Lefebvre, has wrought an ema- ciated Christ sinking under the burden of the Cross and falling to the ground on the hill of Calvary. This, with M. Just Bec- quet's " Dying Christ." is the only sample of religious sculpture we hâve seen for many years that has any solid qualifies of exécu- tion.
But M. Becquet has brought very moderate powers of expression to second his qualities of exécution. The dead body of a God and the dead body of a man are alike. There is much more to be done with a God in agony. M. Lefebvre has rendered the God in agony with piercing intensity of émotion; his marble statue is one of the noblest, dramatically speaking, and at the same time one of the simplest ever inspired by Christian art.
Two more efforts by beginners arrest our attention ; the " Psyché" shown us by M. Roger Bloche, being borne away on a soft bed of clouds by Cupid transfigured by idéal love ; and the antique couple, so youthfully chaste, modeled by M. Jean-Marie Boucher. In the
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former there is a réminiscence of Prud'hon's poetical inventions ; a sort of transposition into sculpture of his soft and airy grâce. The newness of the attitudes and the ingenious composition are, in M. Boucher's group, not less striking than the exquisite purity of feeling.
In décorative work M. Claussade's "Venus teasin^ Love," and M. Massoulle's marble vase are not to be overlooked. The move- ment of the Venus is very happy ; it skillfully gives emphasis to the thorough modeling of a youthful figure, set off, in the style of the eighteenth century, by a suggestion of smiling frivolity. The female figures wïth which M. Massoulle has graced the handles of his vase form an élégant curve ; they do not interfère with the outline, they emphasize it, and the gênerai harmony is delightful.
But to balance this dozen or so of exceptionally good works, what a mass of senseless efforts ! By dint of search we may indeed find some ingenious ideas pleasingly set forth ; the monumental stone for Chaplin by M. Denys Puech, M. Houssin's " Desbordes-Valmore,"' M. Richer's " Sower," M. Greber's " Fire-damp," and M. Laporte's " Mother's Love." If to thèse we add from the commonplace array of busts some faces full of purpose, " Basson" and " Ambroise Tho- mas," by M. Bernstamm, the " Président of the Republic, " by M. Her- cule, the "Marquis of Salisbury," by Mr. Bruce-Joy, we hâve exhausted the list of really good pièces of sculpture in the Salon. This poor resuit is a matter for surprise and fills us with appré- hensions for the future. Our artists, it is true, are still and always craftsmen whose conscientiousness is above suspicion, their learning solid and undeniable. But as for originality, where is it ? The same types are constantly repeated, dull and conventional ; and no one tries to create anything fresher.
Ail the pièces of sculpture exhibited hère are more or less alike, with the likeness of near relationship. They might ail be wrought by the same hand — ail sisters. This has been going on for a long time, and it would, no doubt, last eternally if the worthy public
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should not weary of it at last. But there is a rumor current that it is growing weary, and sculptors arc repeating this from studio to studio. They still work on in the same groove, but they hâve been startled ; and their uneasiness is évident in attempts, every year more numerous, to introduce color into sculpture.
Some apply wax to the surface of the marble ; they thus tinge it
yellow, softening the outlines down to insipidity. and thinking them-
selves very clever when they can vie with modeling in lard. Others,
more audacious, paint the marble, as formerly stone was painted, or
figures carved in wood. Thèse again are in the wrong. The tones
of nature in a portrait are perfectly admissible ; in the nude figure
they are détestable. Only nations in their infancy can take pleasure
in the resuit ; to them a statue should cheat the eye, and it charms
them more in proportion as it is more like the real thing. And even
thèse restrict color to stone and wood. M. Michel has understood
this judicious distinction in his coloring of the group of 'lThe Blind
Man carrying the Cripple." He has thought, not without reason,
that only the coarser texture of stone lends itself to such treat-
ment; and the innovation he has hit upon of substituting for
paint, which obscures the surface, a stain that pénétrâtes it, showing
the grain, certainly deserves encouragement. Who knows whether
\ve mav not see sculpture transformed as a resuit of attempts of
this kind, by the very tact that the material will be différent, and
that sculptors, neglecting marble, will more frequently work in
stone.
This idea may seem startling; it is, however, only rational. There is no more radical way of transforming an art than by compelling the artist to modify or alter his technique. Now the technique of sculpture is not the same for workîng in marble as for working in wood or stone. Hence there are real reasons for supposing that if our sculptors fall back on other materials than marble, this altération, by influencing their treatment, may modify their inspiration. This is so true that M. Alfred Boucher who placed his tl Diana " in the
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hands of a potter for reproduction in earthenware, had to work the whole figure over again. And by this process he lias given it fresh charm.
No material lends itself so well to the reproduction of sculpture as earthenware on whatsoever scale it may be. It is as plastic as terra-cotta, lending itself with admirable ease to the most délicate modeling. The small amount of shrinkage in the firing does not spoil the proportions, nor has it any effect on the modeling as executed by the artist.
It is, however, quite possible that it would never hâve occurred to a sculptor to avail himself of so simple a method of reproduction if an enterprizing and well-known potter, M. Emile Mùller, had not perceived that earthenware might be used for reproducing large statues and other pièces of sculpture as well as small objects.
Understanding the impulse that was tempting sculptors to the use of color, he discerned what an advantage it would be to them to work in so versatile a material ; it was his dream to make it available not merely for statuettes, but for statues, and even for colossal compositions. He appealed to sculptors and they saw the cogency of his reasoning. This is why, this year, we hâve the Salons peopled with brilliant statues with a fine surface, the work of our best masters.
Besides Boucher's " Diane," hère are u Out of School," a fine rustic group by Falguière, "An Ox," and "A Gryphon," both fantastically modeled by Frémiet — originally for Pierrefonds ; Fagel's monumental slab, Escoula's life-like busts, Aubé's allegorical figures ; some powerful bas-reliefs by Meunier, and èxquisite compositions by Dampt.
It is impossible to imagine how good an effect is produced in the Palais de l'Industrie, among plaster casts and marbles, by Falguière's uOut of School." This simple figure of a woman bending down with the sweetest smile to the little school-girl, while a still younger sister hails her with dclight, has gained a quality from the rich color-
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ing of the earthenware, which the original statue lacked, and we see no work in bronze which can hold its own by the side of this fine spécimen of what may be called a new art. glowing with rich blues broken in places by equally rich reds, the resuit of the caprice of fire.
The whole effect of the statues and busts is completed by an interesting attempt of iM. Mùller's to reproduce, also in earthenware, the famous frieze of lions brought from Susa by M. Dieulafoy, who found it there. The reproduction is absolutely exact ; still, it strikes me that the colors hâve a crudity which does not faithfully repro- duce the tones of the antique in the Louvre. Be this as it may, such rich hues hâve a great charm, and after seeing this fine décora- tive work we can but regret that architects hâve as yet made so little use of a material which would yield such original and novel results.
NATIONAL FINE ART
SOCIETY.
PAINTING.
M. PU VI S DE CHAVANNES.
ÎWLVjg F lt were necessary once more to prove that a work of art m%ë)- 'las no concern w'tn tne uteral transcript of nature which Ijfcjfè realism lias taken for its prime article of belief, \ve should hâve only to go into the Salon in the Champ de Mars for évidence.
Every school has its représentatives there. Every cuit performs
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its rites, and dashing displays of exécution according to every known formula abound; still, the only perfectly satisfactory work to be seen there is highly idealistic. M. Puvis de Chavannes, in his com- positions intended for the Boston Library— even more radiant, if possible, than his Muses last year— leaves the fullest and most per- manent impression on the eye, the feeling and the brain ; but of reality, in the strict sensé of the word, there is none ; you will not find either landscape or figures copied from nature. On the contrary, the artist has used nature as a documentary record, which lie has long thought over and at last interpreted in his own way.
In thus interpreting it, however, he has not weakened the indivi- duality of what he has seen. While modifying the objects of his study, he has done it with an admirable sensé of fitness. Even while remodeling them, he has left them a flavor of truth, which pervades and perfumes his inspiration, and gives the whole work vitality and solidity.
On the other hand, no inspiration can be simpler. In the panels of which the présent work consists, the painter has divided and distributed the central idea of his last year's composition. He has represented the favorite pursuits of each Muse in characteristic figures and simple allegory, and we hère see five out of nine of thèse separate compositions.
Hère, in a mountain landscape, in what we feel to be a still, soft night. under a brilliant powdering of stars, pensive figures are absorbed in watching the circling planets and calculating their orb- its : this is Astronomy, invented by Chaldean shepherds.
There, in a gently undulating meadow, broken hère and there by boulders and shut in by a background of forest, a brook winds and sparkles, while cows corne down to drink. Straw thatch pro- tects some hives; beech-trees rise tall in the air, as straight as tlag-poles and clothed only with a few leaves, their summits pale and grey. A poet, laurel-crowned, in a white tunic belted with
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light blue drapery, leans meditatively against a tree in the calm, harmonious scène : this is Virgil and bucolic life.
Next we hâve /Eschylus and dramatic poetry.
On the distant horizon lies the sea, the ideally blue sea that washes the steep crags, infinitely jagged, of Hellas. A light, clear atmosphère floats over it ; tiny wavelets ripple the surface and hère and there splash the blue with.white, tumbling foam. It is broken by sharp-toothed reefs; an unchangeably calm sky bends over it. Under the shade of a rock, on the moss-grovvn granité of a cliff, a solitary dreamer is reveling in the peace that favors poetic vision. He lies stretched on the ground and robed in woollen stuff, dyed in some Tyrian factory, of a violet purple hue. Leaning on his elbow, his nude and powerfully-modeled torso is half raised, and while the fine, thoughtful head, supported on one hand, betravs the travail of the brain, the dream he sees takes substance at the painter's bidding and hovers embodied over the waves. On the peak of a rock a human form hangs chained and writhing; a vulture soars above, and from the depths of the sea rise a flight of white weeping forms, whose songs are to soothe the victim's torment and lull his pain : the Oceanides are consoling Prometheus in his chains.
After dramatic poetry cornes Epie poetry.
Still the seas of Greece, still the same clear sky ; but its blue has assumed a turquoise hue. Instead of a steep shore, hère we hâve a strand with rocks lying hère and there. On the shoulder of one of thèse rocks sits a white-haired old man, sheltered from the breeze, near a grove of laurels. His weary eyelids droop over sight- less eyes : he is Homer. His two offspring, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are crowning him. The Iliad has assumed the aspect of a warrior goddess with the helmet of Pallas, armed like Pallas with a spear; the adventurous Odyssey, wearing a mariner's woollen cap, holds an oar ; she, in allusion to the tempests from which Ulysses suffered, is wrapped in a cloak of slaty grey, in contrast with the
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Iliad's chiton, of which the strong color at once suggests warlike trumpets and blasts.
In another of thèse paintings the past is revived and brought to light by History.
The âges one by one hâve corne and gone, overlaying the civi- lizations of the past. Palaces and temples, buried under heaps of dust, hâve formed mounds on the face of the earth, and vast forests hâve grown over them. Hère, unexpectedly, an excavation appears in the side of one of thèse hills, and in the yawning gap \ve see the noble lines of a Doric temple. History, crowned with laurel like the other Muses, with a subdued red drapery over the white palla, is descend- ing the slope on the very edge of the pit in which the ancient temple stands. The genius of Science, bearing a torch, attends her, and History, bending over the unknown, is examining it. We can see, from the commanding action of her uplifted finger, that magical periods are flowing from her lips, and that she is adjuring the âges that are dead to yield up their secrets to the présent.
The allegory is majestically beautiful and enhanced by the dignity of the scenery. The woods in terraces on the crown of the hill stand out with gnarled trunks against the calm sky. On the crumbled slopes of the rift clumps of oleander form a charming contrast with the melancholy gloom of the ruins ; they also harmonize their dull tones with the full, rich red which so finely drapes the divinity. And we find the same sensé of tone, the same power in the group so happily worked out of ^Eschylus and the Oceanides. In every part there is the same breadth of handling and the same sim- plicity of treatment. In the flesh, too, the same solidity, the same fullness of form, the same style and impressive grandeur.
And this is the work of a man of past seventy ! This perennial youth, this constantly renewed freshness and lucidity of conception, this coloring, richer every year, this always perfect concord of the picturesque with true style, are really miraculous ; words fail to do them justice. It is better to be silent and admire.
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But we must nevertheless return to the subject, for thèse five paintings are not ail that M. Puvis de Chavannes lias sent to the Champ de Mars. In the adjoining room he lias exhibited a fine séries of drawings executed at various times for the différent great works which decorate our galleries and Hôtels de Ville, at Marseilles, Lyons, Poitiers, Amiens and Paris. In thèse we see how this incomparable master formed himself, inde- pendently of State in- struction and of the conventionalities of schools.
We see him, at the beginning of his career, endeavoring, by means of resolute study, to inform a pencil line with ail the subtleties and niceties of form. He does not invariably reproduce ail this learned and precious détail with
scrupulous anatomy in a painting, for he is above ail else a decorator, and décoration, as he well knows, purposely excludes ail that is useless, sacrificing whatever is not essential. Hence the fable set afloat by his violent detractors, accusing him of defective drawing and insufficient study. To réfute them, we hâve only to examine this mass of drawings. None of the tricky dexterity of school-work
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is to be seen there, it is true. M. Puvis de Chavannes' drawing is severe and his stern but expressive pencil is averse to every kind of facile skill. From his point of view form is made only to express and render feelings, passions, and ideas. The slightest of his sketches shows purpose as well as outline. His dignity lies in his sincerity.
FRANCE AND FOREIGN SCHOOLS.
Having paid this tribute to the great painter whose manly genius, full of mind, casts so bright a glory on French art in this declin- ing century, we will turn to the motley swartn of artists who form a flotilla round this grand ship of war, a strange medley of frigates and canoës, torpedo-boats and torpedo-catchers, gunboats and mère pleasure craft.
There is something of everything in this crowd ; indisputable talent asserts its présence, and artists of great promise are to be found. But this talent, though formed in the school of French training, is for the most part foreign talent. In our own ranks failures are every year more numerous, and want of balance is more amazing. Those whom we formerly regarded as masters, overcome as it would seem by some exhaustion, hâve lost their firm touch ; and the younger men, with few exceptions, vacillate, undecided and vague, between dying conventionalism and every shade of impres- sionist or décadent eccentricity.
There is nothing strange in this prevailing uneasiness. The Champ de Mars, by the laws of its being, is doomed as an insti- tution. The gallery is far from being an open one. The artists who put their money into the concern naturally look for interest. To secure the best chances of pleasing the public, and consequently selling their pictures, they absorb more and more of the best wall space ; they exhibit as merchants, not as artists. And their customers are very much mixed. The true amateur buys not at the Salon,
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but in the artist's studio, or in a "one-maa" exhibition ; or again, sometimes at a dealer's. As a resuit the founders of this Institute, however clever they are, generally allow themselves to be led into basely flattering the bad taste of the mingled crovvds who, for three or four months, walk slowly past the array of canvas. They are still very dexterous, but they hâve ceased to work for the sake of doing well.
Others hâve not lost any of the refinement which led to their success ; but by dint of staying shut up in Paris, and breathing none but the fevered air of the capital, they hâve lost the habit of renevving themselves as soon as they are ceasing to lose their freshness, of reviving impressions that once were new and sensations that once were spontaneous.
They need isolation, refreshment, to prépare stronger work in the restful peace of nature ; but they stick persistently to Paris. Round and round in the same circle, they waste themselves in useless efforts and vain struggles after an idéal that still éludes them, or in waiting a yet more evasive commission from the State. Under so debilitating a regimen any reserve of vitality must fail !
Foreign art, on the other hand, is overflowing with life, and fresh talents are revealed every day. We will study in order ail the schools where thèse vigorous powers are developed.
THE BELGIAN SCHOOL.
Among the Belgians an admirable group of landscape painters, always in touch with nature, depict it under various but always healthy aspects, conscientiously, but with fresh and serene sincerity. The trained eye of Baertsoen, Marcette, Willaert and Tremerie dis- cerns in the misty atmosphère of Bruges and Ghent a world of subtleties which their hand is skilled to perpetuate, rendering the most délicate shades with ingenious skill. And they are something
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THE SALON OF 1896
better than clever, for they infuse émotion into the quiet streets, the stagnant canals , the silent and desolate monastic buildings — a feeling they hâve known, a tender pathos of pity for the sad aspect of dead things.
And what fine workmanship withal ! What rich and solid painting !
You will find the same qualities with a sterner manner and a sort of savage power in Courtens; with less force and greater weight of style in Verstraete ; with a more modem and less unctuous touch in Claus, vvhose effects of sunshine on rustic homes are extremely refined.
Two artists must hère be especially mentioned : M. Frédéric and M. Jef Lempoëls, who by dint of studying the old Flemish masters, hâve acquired a singularly interesting method of treatment and artistic technique.
The second is indeed but a beginner, and he lacks the most ele-
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mentary good taste. In a Iriptych of antique style he bas repro- duced, in thc middle, the portraits of his parents, with his own and those of his two sisters to the right and left. Photographie exactitude is too obvious, but the work is so conscientious as to promise good results in the future.
The first-named, on the other hand, is a master. He bas often shown want of tact, but never want of talent, and this talent is, in the expression of heads, full of manly power, unequalcd anywhere in Belgium or in any other country. Look at the female torso he calls " Modesty." It is impossible to study the modeling and draw the outline, to set on an arm and give the sensé of relief with surer mastery. The exécution is highly skilled , in a solid and firmly- grained impasto which is as yet unpleasing, the depths being crude, but which in ten or twenty years will hâve a beautiful surface and be most harmonious.
But the picture in which M. Frédéric asserts his talent most dis- tinctly is a portrait of a country girl, fait" and sweet, as she gazes ecstatically at the sky while lier mind takes in with rapture ail the marvels shed on the earth by Spring. There is a powerful harmony of tones between the verdurous landscape that serves as the back- ground to lier figure, and the dull red apron she wears. The paint is less granulated and the color simpler than in the first-named picture. This is a work that will score in the artist's record, as did the 'l Torrent,1' in which he first revealed himself nearly Eve years ago, at the Champ de Mars. Let us hope that it marks a return in the painter's manner to simple and rustic subjects which never lead the artist astray.
HOLLAND AND GERMANY.
Israels, the painter of thc poor, who so worthily upholds in Holland the artistic famé of his country, cornes every ycar to the
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Champ de Mars to give us a lesson in stern art, an impressive and earnest lesson. You must admire this pensive figure of a woman leaning on the window sill, lier anxious gaze through the window- panes lost in the distance on the horizon of the vast sea. This artist*s palette is very much limited to grey, black and whîte ; but what rich combinations lie gets out of them, and what intensity of expression those mournful tones add to the melancholy of his sub- jects.
Another fine painter, akin to the Belgians, and like them, working with a full b'rush, hère is old Mesdag, with his marine epics, where the yellow-grey North Sea is seen capricious but grand, in its treacherous calms, its storms, its impetuous moods following on its dark rage.
A follower of Israels is the German painter Liebermann, whose methods of work are no more amenable to vaporous mildness than his master"s. His views of nature are sad, and lie sélects them in Holland ; but though he has a weakness for the wretched lie does not reject other subjects, and the effects of light under a grey sky. on the backs of some schoolboys at play. their flesh tints red- dencd by the dashing waves, has this year attracted his happier mood.
A Dutchman, M. Willy Martens, has derived inspiration alike from Israels and from his pupil Liebermann. He also chooses familiar subjects, and rustic scènes, but with a sensé of élégance which Lieb- ermann and Israels repudiate, and which weakens the force of his compositions, giving them even a touch of insipidity.
The Dutch landscape-painters, among them some of marked indi- viduality — the brothers Maris for instance, and Ten Kate, who lives in Paris— cxhibit notliing this year. This is to be regretted.
Gotthardt Kuehl, a Bavarian, who lias long selected Dutch sub- jects, is a constant exhibitor in our Salons. He is dexterous in his interiors, in subtle elfects of light ; lie has not fallen beneath himself in his '• Butcher's Shop, Lùbeck. His powers of observation are
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still keen and cunning, and his touch, formerly a little dry by dint of précision, has acquired greater breadth. In M. Gudden, another Bava- rian, who exhibits u A Dutch Interior," we find similar high qualities. Still, in spite of thèse valuable qualities,- Germany cannot hold lier own against France. Of artists of the first rank she has but one first-rate draughtsman , Menzel , whose eightieth birth- day was kept this year at Berlin with splendid festivities , and the portrait-painter Len- bach who studies faces , se ru tinizes soûls, and reveals minds with the pro- digious skill of an analyst. ButLenbach, like Menzel, is unique of his kind. Both must die without heirs or successors.
Among other Ger- man exhibitors at the Champ de Mars we
may mention Madame Dora Hitz, whose improvement as a portrait- painter is remarkable ; M. Armbrustcr, whose '• Weaver's Home," and " Portrait of a Man," in the old thorough German manner are full of character ; and M. Fritz Bùrger whose two large maie por- traits are interesting.
Austria-Hungary is hardly represented at ail. Still she sends as
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an exhibitor M. Rippl Rimai, whose two portraits ofwomen, in pastel and in oil, deserve more than passing mention. They show a fine sensé of color, remarkable freedom of handling, and a very original
feeling for art.
ITALY AND SPAIN.
Italy sends us but one painter, and lie is a Parisian by habit and choice ; but this Italian is not an ordinary man ; his portraits of women are noteworthy for their original flavor and a spice of pleasant eccentricity : his name is Boldini. In the risky art of emphasizing the enticing grâce of his figures by an unexpected move- ment, an exafrçrerated and often indiscreet attitude, Boldini lias not his equal. Worthy of him is the alluring portrait of a lovely young woman, dark. in a rose-colored dress, eut low so as to enhance the beauty of the bust ; and he has surpassed himself in the l' Portrait of Madame M..." She wears a grey dress with shoulder straps of gold braid, and is standing up in a slightly forced attitude which shows otT her slender form but reveals it very strangely.
Spain exhibits regularly at our annual shows. We find in the catalogue of the Champ de .Mars a dozen artists of Spanish birth or name. Two of them, M. de la Gandara, and -M. Rusinol are fine painters in the best sensé of the word.
M. de la Gandara began by painting stilblife studies in which the influence of both Ribot and Ribera might be traced. Some small portraits, drawn with the finest pencil and a softened vagueness of quality that lent mystery to the model, gave him his well-merited réputation in Paris. Oil portraits then attracted him ; he made some very unequal attempts, but this year his pictures hâve placed him in the foremost rank. A fair beauty, tall and exquisitely round in model- ing with a rather haughty graciousness of expression ; a brunette, equally beautiful, with a fine skin and features full of character, hâve
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been the subjects of his two full-length portraits. The lirst wears pink and the second white satin.
He has rendered with élégance and précision the voluptuous grâce, tempered by a look of pride in the fair lady, and the slightly wiry prettiness of the dark one. Whistler's influence, to which he formerly
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yielded with too much enthusiasm, still pervades his work, but in thèse two pictures of superior quality, he has borrowed nothing of his master but the sensé of style and some peculiarity of atmo- sphère. The action of the figures is happy and is his own, and so is the exécution, with its ingenious touches. In short, thèse are good works, distinguished in their arrangement and yet more in their coloring.
M. Casas, whose pretty interiors we admired last year, in their
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key of white on white, lias this season indulged himself in another
fantasia in whitc-major. He lias paintcd a handsnmc olivc-hucd Spanish girl in cala attire, ready to start for the Plaza de Toros, and he has donc lier mantilla the honor of painting it on her shoul- ders, of the size of life. The shawl is worth it.
M. Laureano Barrau loves a smooth, licked method of work — it is too smooth. By excessive finish in the painting of his ligures he makes his work as heavy as lead, and destroys the out-of-doors effect which might be so happy. His "Fête-Dieu in Catalonia'1 is nevertheless a meritorious picture, interesting by its varicty of character.
M. Rusinol has long been seeking his way ; he has now found it. His séries of the " Arab Gardens at Granada" is a rare and bril- liant success. We know from the enthusiastic description of the Generalife, given by Alexandre Dumas in his voyage in Spaîn, how lovely is the scène, made for dreaming in, whither M. Rusinol trans- ports us at every hour of the day; the Sierra in the distance, baked and burnt, wîth its crown of snows ; close at hand the old résidence of the Khalifes with its black walls to which tinie has given adorn- ment ; with its dancing waters, its fountains, its frail and slender arcades ; then the garden itself, quite small, but a paradise of delight, gay with the song of birds, crowded with pomegranates, bay- trees and oranges, fragrant with a myriad scents and shaded by archways and dômes eut out of the dense growth of yew-trecs. M. Rusinol has given ail its charms with refined delicacy of tone, and calm but rich harmonies. Bravo, M. Rusinol!
SWITZERLAND.
The small Swiss group is faithful to our exhibitions. Among them, always interesting in spite of his rather monotonous coloring,
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\ve fincl M. Baud-Bovy, the painter of mist and clouds on Alpine peaks.
M. Burnand, whom \ve saw last ycar in an epic mood with the " Escape of the Téméraire" — rather heavy in style — cornes back in a milder frame with a new scale of feelinj? not known to us hitherto. His "Saint Francis of Assisi," in a green landscape with a flock of sheep, to whom he is speaking ; his " Goats at Rest " in a sunlit clearing in a wood, reveal him as a clever draughtsman and a careful student of light and shade.
M. Giron knows his business as a portrait-paintcr. He proves it by some small, crisply-painted likenesses, light and délicate in touch ; and by a full-length portrait of a young woman, rosy of com- plexion, dressed in black. But again he makes us doubt it by a horrible discord of greens which he styles, heaven knows why, "A Décorative Portrait."
We pass on to M. Delachaux, who paints domestic scènes. His sincerely studied little pictures, pleasing in chiaroscuro and élégant in sentiment, give us a réminiscence of Chardin bereft of the bright- ness of his brush, and reduced to refined amiability.
Mademoiselle Breslau is Swiss only by birth. She is quite French in her facile use of pastels. Neither Perroneau nor La Tour in the last century ever did anything more exquisite than her portrait of a young lady, fait", in a bluc dress trimmed about the throat with white tulle. There is in the attitude an easy and modest grâce which is indescribably touching. The color is sweetly harmonious and at the same time full. It is altogether perfect.
But indeed there are many successful efforts in this year's Salon among the works sent by this lady. Again in pastels wc hâve the portraits of "The Children of M. Joseph Reinach," and of a little man with a very wide - awake expression whosc parents will, we strongly suspect, find him a handful to manage. In oil she exhibits a large décorative panel, a sweet " Sleeping Girl," some flowers, a little girl in a yellow dress ironing her doU's frock
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— ail vigorous portraits, carefully kept low in tone and tull of dis- tinction.
SCANDINAVIA.
We miss Denmark from the Scandinavian group. Sweden and Norway, on the other hand, keep up their connection with us, ail the more easily because many of their artists live in France. M. Zorn s portrait of himself has the brio, the swift exécution, the raciness, the strange efïects of light which are customary with this painter. Ma- dame de Sparre, in an interesting portrait of ayoung man, still makes progress. M. Thaulow is more audacious than ever, and more than ever successful in bis audacity. His daylight efTects are open to criticism ; but his night scènes are admirably conceived and strangely impressive.
M . Albert, whose early attempts hâve been seen for nine years at the Champ de Mars, is not yet so famous as the elder painter : but he will be ère long. Perhaps he may go further, if not in auda- city , at least in endeavor ; but he has not the graceful ease of M. Thaulow. He exhibits, with a free and brilliant sketch, " Sunset on the Oise,"' two pictures of the same spot at Chantilly — in one buried under snow, in a winter twilight : in the other in summer twilight, almost night. Thèse two pictures are wonderfully felt, the sériai perspective is faultless, and the struggle of day and night with its softened misty effects is recorded with unsurpassable skill.
M. Edelfeldt, by birth a Finn, made his first appearance in Paris, but was not trained there. He has gradually acquired our taste for sterner and less careless work. The portrait of tk Doctor Roux," exliibited hère, is not in the least glaring ; its represents the young surgeon standing on the lecture platform, a testing-tube in his hand, giving a démonstration. On the slaty-black ground of a black board the meagre outline. sinewy and full of character ; to the right of
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the professor a very narrow strip of window lets in the light which sparkles on mysterious liquids contained in glass bottles, and sheds a little brightness on the picture. We should be glad if we rather
more frequently met with portraits so sober in key and so earnestly artistic-
ENGLAND, THE UNITED STATES.
Apart from the Belgian school and a few exceptional individuals, we hâve hitherto, in our rapid review, seen only isolated groups without bond or cohésion or any new artistic product. England and the United States afford some novel products. A shifting of the centre of gravity of pictorial art is coming, it would seem, from beyond the Channel and the Atlantic.
When I say this, I ara not thinking of Sir Edward Burne-Jones.
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He never was a painter. An exquisite draughtsman , calling up with consummate art old forms rejuvenescent through his sincère enthusiasm, and qui te the most accomplished représentative of the pre-Raphaelite school, he is nevertheless a mère accident in this évolu- tion of English art, having no permanence and no possible influence- His art is that of a literary man, who aims neither at life nor move- ment, who neither loves nor understands color, and who finds his true value only when translated by the graver — as may be seen from the portrait of a lady he exhibits hère. The celebrity he enjoys and the high prices paid for his pictures deceive us as to his power ; but he exerts no real influence excepting on the outside public.
Abandoning pre-Raphaelitism, artists, even the most académie, hâve rushed into brilliant effects of color : they hâve not always understood the sensé of them. Only the new Scotch school has any gift for it. There it is instinctive, powerful and masterly.
Consider, in the Champ de Mars, the 'LSimeon Stylites ," by Brangwyn, so warm in tone, with the mountainous background gilt by sunset Ares, so learned in the modeling of the figure, and with such breadth of décorative style; the three portraits by Guthrie, so living, solidly designed and broadly executed, under the inspiration of Velasquez and Whistler ; the picture by Lavery, full of réminis- cences of Spain ; those of Walton, influenced, no doubt, by the national masters, Reynolds in portraiture and Constable in landscape painting. And again, the work of Annie Ayrton, in which power of tone is combined with a spirited exécution acquired in France. You get a sensé as of an organic school, of a movement that is spreading violently, and which, gradually pervading the whole of Great Britain, is destined to revive the great tradition founded with such brilliancy by the masters of the close of the last century.
In the United States we note the same effort, but originating in our French school and assuming a perfectly modem tendency. Mr. Sargent, and a few others trained under M. Carolus-Duran to be absolutely independent, hâve derived from his instruction effects
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of which no one had hitherto dreamed. Resnard too has been of use to them ; he opened the way to loud and daring harmonies. From Whistler they hâve borrowed the liking for a mysterious atmo- sphère and a new sensé of movement. No tradition has hampered them in their swift upward flight ; no kind of atavism has withheld them from expressing what they see with deeper intensity and stronger originality than we in France hâve done.
And look at thèse again in the Champ de Mars. Their numbers grow day by day and they hâve fresh surprises for us every year. You know John Sargent — you hâve seen him before among the Frenchmen ; you will find him hère, with a portrait of a young Englishman of slender and almost féminine grâce — the master of admirable technical qualities, while the parentage of his talents, and his kinship with us are clearly legible.
In mère skill he is outdone by some younger m en — Douglas Robinson, Hopkinson and Humphreys Johnstone. There are some sea pictures by the first-named artist in which the caprices of the waves are apprehended with magical skill, and represented with a full, luminous impasto, vying in brilliancy with the sinking waves by Harrison, and outdoing them iri ingenuity of handling. The same painter excels in landscape. His " Reach of the Seine," near Vétheuil, has a distance of unequaled delicacy ; he is equally successful in the figure ; and I find nothing more delightful than the women's shoulders he displays rising from pink bodices or dark Japanese stuffs accentuated with purple bows.
Mr. Hopkinson affects Whistlerian harmonies, and has found some that are very exquisite ; his pale blue interiors, decked with golden- yellow cushions, his bust of a woman draped in white and watching a gold fish through the iridescent water of a glass bowl, are refined in touch and studied with a keen eye for truth.
Further on a wonderful portrait of an old lady dressed in black, with some curious touches supplied by the dim sheen of fur and the violet lining of a cloak, is signed Humphreys Johnstone. The head
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lias been somewhat sacrificed to préserve the intended harmony of the whole ; it lies a little above the gilt wooden frame of the sofa, and is lost rather than relieved against the background, which is more brown than old gold is. But the harmony the artist lias aimed at is complète ; neither the little red lacquer table with a china cup on it, and a bunch of tea-roses close by, nor the green silk sofa, inter- fères with the powerful charm produced by the combination of thèse tones, whether vivid or subdued, as they strike the eye. It is a magnificent work. Where among our own pictures can we show its match ?
And I hâve not yet done. I hâve not mentioned Mr. Alexander, who has this year reminded us of his existence by a work of no great importance, but who, in last year's Salon, exhibited a picture of extraordinary dexterity and refinement; nor Miss Elisabeth Nourse, whose Dutch interiors, painted in a rich and unctuous manner, are interesting both by the truthfulness of the light and shade and their admirable sincerity of feeling. Nor hâve I spoken of Mr. Cari, who sends a delightful study of the nude, a young woman looking in a long glass at her youthful form, repeated by the mirror. I hâve omitted Mr. Lockwood whose brush, more pliant every year, lends such a peculiar character to the faces he depicts. Nor hâve I yet said that Miss Beaux, competing with Carolus-Duran. has surpassed him ; that her gift of color is exquisite, and that the frank freedom of her brushwork never spoils the scrupulous précision of her draw-
FRENCH ART.
Now let us turn to the French pictures. In contrast with the Champs-Elysées great subjects are not many on thèse walls, and décorative painting is represented by only a small number of works, for the most part of little interest.
First for the great subjects. There are but two, and religious
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history has supplied them both. u The Last Supper," by M. Da- gnan-Bouveret ; and a décoration by M. Delance for a church in the Basses Pyrénées ; this is divided into four séparâtes pictures : the " Garden of Olives," the " Résurrection," "Saint Dominic receiving the Rosary," and the "Purification." There is little to be said con- cerning thèse four composi- tions; the artist has turned them out of the old mould created by the Italians of the Renaissance ; he has been inefficient to renew their youth, or to give them an emotional thrill ; they are dull, and if it were not for the tender gray harmony the painter has shed over them, they would scarcely be worth mentioning.
The case is différent as regards tlThe Last Supper,M though it has been coldly received by the critics, and even by the artist world. M. Dagnan has evidently been influenced by the re- membrance of the lt Last
Supper" painted by Leonardo da Vinci, in his time, for the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria délie Grazie at Milan ; which may indeed still be seen there, but so distorted by endless restoration that it is impossible to form any adéquate idea of the original paint- ing. And M. Dagnan-Bouveret, while accepting the same scheme as his precursor, has taken due care not to follow servilely the composition marred by half-a-dozen daubers . The imitation — if
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imitation there be, for it is of a perfectly independent character — is inspired by the work of Yinci"s best pupil Solario, whose copy of "The Last Supper *' was painted for a convent in the neighborhood of Milan.
This copy is not exact. The arrangement of the figures is the same, but neither the backçround nor the détails are strictly imitated from the original. Thèse altérations, slight indeed, would not suffice to prove inventiveness in the copyist. But where originality is really to be discerned, and that very conspicuously, is in the color- ing, of which the admirable freshness, unimpaired by time, is in the finest style of fresco. The figures, ail alike in complexion, a brick-red as beseems men of the people , mariners burnt in the fierce sunshine and tanned by the sait breeze, are fully draped in robes of which the leading tones are light green and pale rose.
A similar feeling for bright tones is discernible in M. Dagnan- Bouveret's picture. He lias preserved the gênerai harmony em- ployed in Solario*s fresco, but he lias transposed the rose and green to a key of mauve, pale blue. and creamy white. Ail the rest of his efforts hâve been directed to the gênerai arrangements. Leonardo, and Solario, following him, had placed the Apostles in a large room lighted from behind by Windows through which a glimpse of land- scape is seen. M. Dagnan-Bouveret, bent on something différent, lias gone to Rembrandt for inspiration. His figures, seated in a sort of cellar whence the light of day is excluded, are illuminated by a supernatural radiance emanating from the divine person of Jésus, and shedding brilliant touches of pale yellow light on the white cloth, the tender tones of the drapery, and the faces — brick-red, like those of Solario.
The idea in one way is happy ; but why should the body of Christ, which is the source of light, cast strongly marked shadows on the walls of the room ? This contradiction alone is enough to startle the spectator, or, at any rate, to disturb him. As to the effect of light thus treated, it is not pleasing to the eye. To human eyes
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unaccustomed to gaze in the face of the sun. the glory is almost painful. It is no doubt in admirable harmony with the light colors of the draperies and the white cloth on the table ; on the other hand, it is out of keeping with the harsh color of the wine Christ has poured into a glass and is holding up to the Disciples, saving : tlThis is my blood." Finally, it may be observed that in the group of the Apostles the faces are really extravagantly youthful. The Disciples, with the exception of John, were mature men not youths, and much less youths like thèse who, in their attitude, expression and looks, display senti- ments of refinement which are quite discordant with the rustic home- liness of the Apostles.
So much for fault-finding. There is much more to be said in the way of praise. The faces being granted, with their too-marked youthfulness of character, it will be seen that they hâve been treated as portraits with an elaborately careful study of each type. The com- position, too, claims our respect ; it is well balanced in its unity. The finish of détail, if carried a little too far, is exquisite ; especially that of the various objects of still-life that are spread about the table. This is not enough to make the work as a whole a splendid masterpiece ; but it is enough to redeem it from the commonplace, and to give ail who study it a sensé of high and noble effort. In thèse days of lax and slovenly painting this is no small praise.
In the décorative style, M. Guillaume Dubufe has distinguished himself this year by an ingenious and well thought-out scheme for a room, in collaboration with MM. Montenard, Rosset-Granger and La Touche. The library-sitting-room lie has planned, shews us the marvelous scenery of Capri on six panels set in dark blue borders. The landscape basks in serene sunlight. Objection may indeed be taken to the practical part of the scheme, the narrow book-shelves, placed without any very obvious reason each between two views of the sea-shore ; but the purely pictorial part is delightful. The four artists hâve worked together with a rare sensé of that absolute co- opération which décorative art imposes on ail who undertake it.
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MM. Montenard, Rosset-Granger and Dubufe hâve contributed their charming feeling for the open air ; M. La Touche his admirable gift of color, which in his easel pictures, is not seconded by sufficiently firm draughtsmanship or quite sound sensé, but which is ail that is needed in purely fanciful design. The whole resuit of their collabo- ration is most successful.
M. Gervex lias exhibited a décorative work this year. Close by a young mother suckling an infant, and a little child trying to walk, rises an immense raw green cliff overhung by clouds as black as ink. This composition, ungainly as it is, is intended for the Hôtel de Ville in Paris. This picture is not calculated to allay the fears the artist has frequently inspired during the last five years. It is but an extravagantly enlarged sketch, which would lead us to suppose that the painter had altogether collapsed, if the two pictures before described did .not prove that the author of this abortion is capable of better work and better invention.
\Ye go on to portrait and landscape painters. To thèse we owe the best of the pictures which represent French art at the Champ de Mars. We find hère M. Carolus-Duran, more facile and brilliant than ever, in portraits of "M. Leygues,"formerly Minister of the Inte- rior, and of "M. Paul Déroulède," poet of Les Chants du Soldat. By the same artist there are two charming portraits of a child and of a young girl.
The study of ''Alexandre Dumas" in his dressing-gown, exhi- bited by M. Roll is admirably seized and rendered ; it is marvelously "hit off.M Though unfinished, it is infinitely more life-like and truer than the portrait wrought by Meissonier with his accustomed con- scientiousness ; he set his model too stirllv in an attitude. M. Bou- yard fils, in a portrait of a lady, shows himself the worthy son of his father. "Prince Henri d'Orléans," by M. Jean Béraud, is not to be compared with his portrait of " M. Lionel Laroze," painted with a light and spirited touch. Finally we may note a portrait of "Wil- lette," in a Pierrot's costume, by M. Desboutin ; a pretty portrait of
P A I N T I N G 89
a woman by M. Dinet ; by M. René Ménard a melancholy portrait of a fellow-artist, "M. Lucien Simon," and an expressive and manly profile of another, "M. Charles Cottet ; " by M. Besnard a cu- riously elaborated head of a girl ; by M. Aman-Jean a pleasing picture of a young woman, set in a dream-like landscape that forms an exquisite background.
M. Blanche lias learning and accomplishment, but lie is haunted by the English masters of the eiçhteenth centurv and the beginnine of the nineteenth. The spell they hold over him is visible in ail his portraits, in a variety of réminiscences which, far from adding to the merit of his work, do it discrédit. This has marred his portrait of Thaulow and his family. He shows us the Norwegian landscape- painter in the open air, sitting before his easel. Round the fair- haired giant, his children are standing with his wife, and their fresh, rosy faces and smiling countenances form a delightfully svmpathetic group. But why has the artist hung a mass of threatening, inky- black clouds over thèse calm, simple, healthy and flourishing persons ? Simply because Gainsborough and Reynolds in their day did the same. 11 the sitter is a figure of tragic history this may pass muster, but in the case of wholesome citizens, M. Blanche, why S
The landscape-painters are légion. Hère is Cazin, whose green old âge has preserved ail the refinement and captivating charm ot his prime ; Billotte, the conscientious and subtle painter of suburban scenery ; Sisley, the impressionist, whose " Church at Moret" under a grey sky with gleams of sunlight, is in no respect inferior to his former works ; Raffaëlli, who has no sensé of tone, who cannot paint, and who mocks at perspective, and yet has fine artistic insight. Gustave Collin, who can paint, and whose strong sea-pieces with their grey harmonies are superb ; Besnard, whose " Lake of Annecy,1" with the deep verdure of the shore, is strangely and power- fully attractive, while his l' Bathers" — women standing under a watci fall that showers down on theni — shows a dexterity verging on sleight of hand.
9o
THE SALON OF 1896
M. Stengelin has représentée! with perfect truth, and a simplicity not devoid of dignity, the swift race of waves rushing up to take the beach by storm. Under their reiterated shock the fishing boats are slowly beginning to float. As the tide rises past them, and its ponderous breakers dash into foam on the shore, they unfurl their
sails and are wafted away, gently rocking on the swell. This ■•RisingTide" is. with M. Courant's fine sea- pieces and M. Charles Cottet's robust studies, what the Champ de Mars has to show of the best in marine pictures.
For the last three years M. Charles Cottet has gone to Brittany for his sub- jects. He loves its tragic touch, its rough aspect, its wild and melancholy gloom. And he paints that gloom, that wildness, that tragedy with unrivaled grandeur. Only look at thèse stretches of Océan, where white sails mark out the distances with exact précision; at this group of old sea-dogs, so full of character; at the " Old Blind Woman," whose bent shoulders and black gown, though a little heavy in treatment, stand out solidly against the green water, and say if there is not the stuff of which a powerful artist is made, in this young painter who will some day do his country honor.
Not, indeed, that he is alone in the track he has chosen to pursue. Other young artists, coming behind him, form a group ot no small
PAINTING
9i
importance, and of curiously unexpected variety. Hère is Lucien Simon, vvho gave great promise, and has fulfilled it in his " Pardon de Tronoan " — Breton peasants in a long procession of weather- beaten faces and lumbering gestures, at the foot of a granité " Cal- vary." Hère is René Ménard, who has strengthened his method this year by borrowing from Cottet the powerful hues of his palette, to render with more startling energy the délicate purity of a figure against a fine landscape background. And Dauchez, whose night- effects hâve something both of Simon and of Cottet, while his indi- viduality reveals itself, notwithstanding, with genuine char m.
M. Jeanniot, in a meeting of lvWomen in Mourning," in their village, once more gives proof of great talent and indisputable mastery. His drawing is marvelously accurate; he never paints any type that he has not observed with a sincère eye to truth, and a passion for exactitude which place him in the front rank of our genre painters. As to his technique, it gains in firmness and consistency every year, without losing any of its finished delicacy. M. Jeanniot is a born artist.
Such another born artist is M. Lobre. His ''Château de Ver- sailles,'1 at the hour when the last rays of sunset are dying on the window panes, and linger with a parting kiss on the front facing the park, is one of the most attractive pictures at the Champ de Mars. The fugitive impression of the twilight gleam is rendered with its atmospheric softness and pathetic charm by a hand which no difficulty can dismay, and which reproduces every subtlety. Happy is the man who can afford to treat himself to this true and emotional study of nature! Happy the Boston Muséum in owning the "Salon of Marie-Antoinette!" Happy the French gallery on which the State may bestow the " King's Library," which it has
purchased.
A few genre pictures hère deserve spécial mention. Thèse are foi- instance M. Muenier's "Parting," M. de Montzaigles " Demi-Vierges," "Blind-man's Buff," by M. Pierre Carrier-Belleuse, "An Accident,"
92 THE SMON OF 1896
by M. Planels, "The Last of the Summer," by M. Gaston Béthune. M. Chabas. in his u Idéal Land." lias tried with some skill to harmonize décorative landscape with the nude. Madame Madeleine Lemaire. in an élégant figure of k" Phœbe. " shows her usual feeling for grâce. M. Girardot, who exhibited last year such remarkable African land- . scapes, lias this year made an excursion into the realms of mysticism and lias hrought baek "The Little Princess," to which we greatly prefer his Oriental scènes. M. Guignard, in his " Calves for Sale." displays his usual dexterity. a kind of skill curiously made up of sheer trickery and original gifts.
It would be unfair to omit ail mention of MM. Adrien Moreau. Tournés and Biessy. Very captivating, by the first of thèse artists. is "A Landing Stage," with a background of fresh verdure; by the second we hâve ••The Home," full of char m, where a young mother sitting by a round table superintends lier daughter's work : while M. Biessy shows us. in -An Interior." a young girl in a subdued light. arranging a bunch of bright chrysanthemums in an earthenware jar of sober hue. Nothing can be more refined thati thèse two last- named pictures. The atmospheric effects used — and misused — by M. Carrière are employed by MM. Tournés and Biessy with a discrétion and tact which enhance their admirable gifts of color.
Finally we must name the ••Dismal Dawn " which, in a con- scientious work by M. Eckermans, ends a night-watch by the dead; ••On the Way to the River.' by M. Lignier; a "Saint-Martin," in a fine snow-wrapped landscape, by M. de Moncourt : Lt Hanging out Linen." by M. Vidal, a figure easy in niovement and cool in color; "The Spinning-wheel," by M. Crochepierre, well studied as to drawing but the figure dressed in too harsh a rëd; a rustic scène. '• A Con- fession," in which M. David Nillet lias not forgotten Millet's interiors; •Clarisse, by M. Engel, an interesting study of an old peasant- wuman : -A Temple at Yokohama." cleverly dashed in by M. Du- moulin, but a pleasing sketch radier than a picture ; and " Break'fast," by M. l'eters, an amusing baby triumphantly brandishing a spoon.
<
PAINTING
93
This is to the crédit account of the pictures at the Champ de Mars.
We must not conclude without adding a word or two as to an evil which during- the last few years lias attacked French painting, and which may be called photograph fever. It consists in a constant and very annoying use of photography to record a place, or a group of figures in motion, by a u snap-shot. "
Every one knows that there is nothing more difficult in elaborating a picture than the first grouping. It nécessitâtes repeated sketches, and patient study of détail. It takes a great deal of time, and for that very reason is a foe to li hit or miss" workmanship ; the inévitable slowness is a check on precipitancy, and on the careless and incon- séquent work that is the stamp of a too ready dexterity. Photograph fever dispenses with ail this.
A simple print takes its place. The " snap-shot,"" with its merciless veracity is now the one help to which painters in a hurry and devoid of conscience hâve made it their habit to fly as the basis of a painting. Instead of sketching in a pocket-book the movements they think suitable, they store them in their caméra; instead of seeking to balance the proportions of the landscape they mean to represent, they set it out on the canvas just as it is, from a photograph snatched in haste ; then a rapid daub, done in a quarter of an liour, is enough to suggest the coloring of nature. And this is the mémo- randum on which the artist keeps his eye during the course of his work to revive his impression more or less, and give him the effects of color.
This method unfortunately lias its drawbacks. The photographer's caméra is faithful, but only within limitations ; to use it advantageously it would be necessary to work only from the middle distance of the photograph, the foreground being always thrown out of focus by the convexity of the lens. Thus, only the largest sized caméra should be used. This apparatus being difficult to move about, artists are willing to use very small sizes, convenient as to portability. but
94
THE SALON OF i8q6
of very doubtful utility. Hence the shambling style of landscape with which the Salons are crowded, more numerous and more false to nature every year. They form a display ail the more offensive to the critical eye, because, while form and line lose their individuality, color suffers quite as greatly.
One of the most startling examples of this System, which is
tending to the destruction of painting, is to be seen this year in the
Champ de Mars, in the pictures of M. Adolphe Binet. The artist
is not devoid of merit. He achieved a few years since a great
success which we contributed greatly to secure for him. At this
moment we deeply regret having done so. Consider for a moment
his " Return from Fishing," and his "• Rustic Lovers," in a village
garden with their elbows resting on a white wooden paling, and
sav whether in thèse two pictures there is anything to suggest the
effects of color as seen in nature. In spite of the vividness of hue
lavished with an unjustifiable violence on the more luminous portions,
the whole effect is washed out. It testifies, with blatant emphasis,
that not only has the picture been "set out" from a photograph,
but the indispensable painted study by which an artist must work,
was never made at ail.
Another man overboard !
SCULPTURE
Sculpture hère is weak — oh, how weak !
Not only is the number of exhibits very small, but the works sent, even by acknowledged masters, are not ail above criticism. M. Rodin, whose great talent we should be the last to dispute, though his taste is far from being equal to his powers of exécution, invites our attention to half-a-dozen small marbles, finished, as usual, with
A
I.
: E 1896
SCULPTURE 95
minute delicacy of, chiseling; he has made thc terrible mistake of exhibiting witb thèse two misshapen sketches at which the public hâve laughed long and loudly. The master's fanatical admirers regard them as works which they sentimentally compare witb those of the divine Phidias. The points of resemblance, \ve own, escape us; it is true that we common-sense folk are but Philistines. At any rate, the Philistine majority is a respectable one. M. Rodin , of course, will care nothing for their opinions, no doubt ; the greater pity !
M. Injalbert has wrought in marble, for the town of Pézénas, a monument to Molière in which we recognize once more a talent given to generous redundancy, a little southern perhaps, but quite French nevertheless. He has placed the bust of the writer on the rounded top a column ; a saucy Martine stands on one side doing homage to the dramatist whose effigy she crowns with flowers. On the other side a Satyr sits with crossed legs, personifying satire as it would seem The identification strikes us as more than daring.
A group of " Wrestlers,'1 by M. Jef Lambeaux, will not add to the famé of the great Belgian artist. It is a work of learning and skill, but it reveals nothing beyond learning and does not rise above skill. A vast composition by M. Tegner, a Dane , allegorical alas ! beyond interpreting, simply provcs, in spite of great talent, the in- adequacy of sculpture to represent a too ambitious flight of ideas. M. Marquet de Vasselot, in setting before us the author of La Comédie Humaine — Balzac, in the guise of a winged Sphinx, seems to be less judicious than eccentric.
The best of what is to be seen in this Salon among the groups are " Ubenspiegel," exhibited by a Belgian artist, M. Samuel; and M. Lefèvre's fine group of a mother and child. Madame Cazin, to symbolize "The Standard," has modeled a female ligure which the world agrées to regard as poetical. An austère figure of a field-laborer, and a profile in Mùller*s ware of a " Fisherman," by
96 THE SALON OF 1890
M. Constantin Meunier, hâve given the revered master's admirers sincère and exquisite pleasure.
Among portrait-busts that of Verlaine, by Niederhausen. has been highly appreciated for its remarkable likeness and remarkable insight; two rustic busts by M. Escoula are full of character ; a small figure of a child by M. Schnegg ; the bust of M. Dagnan-Bouveret. by his friend M. Dampt ; the expressive child's head by Mademoiselle Claudel, and a fine bust of a man by M. Cari were also admired. A reproduction in bronze of some fine studies of the nude, exhibited last year in plaster, by M. Bartholomé, and a cistern and washing basin by M. Baffier. whose architecture is disputable though his détails are curious and artistic: complète the list of works in which any feeling for art can be discerned.
THIÉBAULT-SISSON.
LIST OF AWARDS
PAINTINCi
"Médaille d'Honneur." M. J.-J. Benjamin-Constant.
Second Medals. MM. L. Royer, C.-A. Lenoir, J.-H. Lo-
RIMER, J. BOQUET, L. DE ScHRYVER, C. Du- VENT, T.-C. GoTCH, J.-A. MakIOTON. (i.
Popelin, H. Gain, P. Chabas, H. Biva, C.-H.-M. Franzini d'Issoncourt , M. -A.
ZwiLLER.
Third Medals.
MM. P. -M. Fisher, A. Gosski in, MMe J.- M. Fontaine, MM. E. Debon, G. Harcourt, E.-G. Marché, E. Piéters, M. Lévis, L. Fauret, M'"0 M. Abran, M11c M. Carpen- tier, MM. F.-C. Cachoud, M. Réalier- Dumas, L.-M. Pierrey, P. -A. Steck, E.-L. Thivier, A. -S. Cope, P.-E. Mérite, H. Perrault, W. Didier-Poucet, H Guinier, M110 N. Schmitt, MM. E. Paupion, G.-M.-J. Girardot, C. Pattein, N. Gii.let, M M.
Dubé, M. M. Dainville, M11" L. Le Roux, M. H.-J.-F. Bellery-Desfont AINES.
" Mentions Honorables."
MM. .1 Garnelo-Alda, L. Lévy-Dhur- mer, L.-P, de Laubadère, A. -Y. Thomas, A.-E. Artigue, H.-J.-P. Loubat, J.-G.-F.
Saratté, A. Chabaman, J.-G. Besson, II- O. Tanner, L. Alleaume, E. Tapissii r, A. Dubois, M. Demonts, H. Auburtin. E. di Bergevin, M. Heymann, M. -P. -A. Béron- neau, Mn,c J. Hazard, M"0 J. Toornay, MM. M. -T. Dickson, G. [nness, O. de Champeaux, M"° L. Mi ri n i •■ , M E.Gruyer-
Brielman, MM. .(j. -.11. Bj 1 ! . \. Ri NAI IjIN, A. Swij:YhO\VSKI..R. Cllool.l i. M A. CHEYAN.DIER," Al.M. (;.-(!. GaSTÉ, II. Counin, .l.-W. FlNN, I..-M.-.I. RlDEL, R. Santoro, V.'-F. Tariiiki.', J. Corabœuk, Mmes S. de Nathusius, J. Marceron-.M.mi I 1 , MM. J: Finnie, A. -P. Garcement, C.-L. Godeby, E.-F.-A. Deshayes, A. Varin, M. Barthai.i.ot.
SCULPTURE
"Médaille d'honneui"
M. G. Michel.
First Medals.
MM. P. Gasq, J.-M. Mengue. Medal work : M. A. Borrel.
Second Medals.
MM. C.-H. Theunissen, H. Lefebvre, E. Fontaine, J.-M. Boucher, H. Gréber, J. Dercheu. Medal work :MM. P.-C. Gal-
brunner, G. -P. -G. -A. PlLI.ET.
Third Medals.
MM. B. y F. Miquel, A.-J. Octobre, V. -J.-J. -A. Ségoffin, C.-L. Picaud, J.-B.
Ghampeil, S. Salières, P.-H.-R. Roussel L. Madrassi, L.-G. Véber, M11, J. Itasse.
" Mentions Honorables."
MM. C. Antoine, G. -L. Arnault, C.-F.
Bailly, P.-E. Breton, A. Bruce-Joy. (i. Calvet, B -K. Canfiei.i», Cowell, P. Cu- rillon, M"0 E. Curtois, MM. I . Gai di - sart, A. Gauthier, G. Guittet, J -P. Li - GASTELOIS, Mme H. Level, M. A. Lévy, M11'- I. Matton, MM. K.-K.-F. Navellier, C.-T. Perron, L. RosSEX-LO \ Rossello, H. Schmid, M"« R. de ViniM.. Medal work : MM. P. -J.-A. Béville, E. Claus, L.-A. Coudray, A.-E. Damon, M. Favri , W. Trojanowski.
98
LIST OF AWARDS
ARCHITECTURE
" Médaille d'Honneur."
M. L.-H.-G. SCELLIER DE GlSORS.
Second Medals. MM. L.-M.-H. Sortais, F.-E.-L Bou- tron, in collaboration wilh M. X.-F. Schoellkopf, L.-G. Delauney, L.-J. Yper-
MAN, P.-L.-A. LeGRIEL, P. DuSART, P. -11.
Boussac, E. Dupont, in collaboration with M. A. Guilbert.
Third Medals. MM. E. Bertone, J.-L. Chifflot, A. Rey, E. Bourdon.
"Mentions Honorables.''
MM. G.-L. Bacot, J. Bernard. J.-L.-E. Brun, C. Chauvet, A. Forgeot, J.-L. De- perthes, C. Garin, G. Gromort. in colla- boration with M. L. Sue, E. Lecamp, in collaboration with M. G. Mobei., P. Le Cardonnel, E.-L. Longfii.s. L.-A. Mayeux, F. Mottar. M.-A.-J. Prévost. H. -A. -G. Rigaui.t, M. Sainsaui.if.i-, J.-E. Sottas, C.-A. Vasnier, P. Yerdier.
ENGRAVING AND LITHOGRAPHY
" Médaille d'honneur." M. H. Lefort.
First Medals. M. A. Dezarrois Une engraving .
Second Medals.
MM. G. -A. Thévenin (wood engraving) ; L. Alleaume lilhography ; A.-L.-P.-E.-A. Duvivier (etching ; J.-E. Bui.and Une en- graving).
Third Medals.
MM. H.-E. Bourmaud wood engrav L. Dautrey (etching); J. Sourmer Utho-
graphy) ; A. Mayeur \line engraving); C.
Fonce etching ; A.-J.-M. Broquelet, li- thography ; A. Cr.uk Une engraving : L. Salles etching : A. -A. Georges-Sauvage lithography- .
" Mentions Honorables."
M""- M.-.I. Ai.iot-Barran. MM. H. Baur, V. Dutertre, C. Petit (wood engraving ; Mme C.-E. Chauvel, M. F. de Launay, M»" H. Lecocq, MM. L. Bastard. J.-L. Bremond lelchins,; M11*--- M.-H.-L. Bardon, Z. Goldtdammer.MM. J.Ruch, P. Chouette. L. Trinquieu-Trianon lithography) : MM. G. -H. Lavali.ey, A.-J. Vibaut..A.-G. Bessé, L.-E. Pénat, L. Bussiere Une engrav- ing).
SUB-SECTION OF DECORATIVE ART
IN CONNECTION WITH THE 4 SECTIONS)
Second Medals MM. R. Lalique, A. Ledru.
Third Medals. MM. J.-L. Brémond, M. -G. Guerchf.t, L.- R. Carrier-Belleuse.
"Mentions honorables."
MM. J. Rivière. A. -S. Bussv, Noel- Bouton, C.-A.- H. Rouai. rhen. F. Lei.if.vre.
LIST OF WORKS OF ART
PURCHASED BY THE STATE
PA1NT1NG
MM. Auburtin (H.) Effect of Snow in theEngaiine.
Benjamin-Constant Portrait of the Artist's Son.
Besson (J.-G.) In Front of Saint- Sulpice.
Binet (A.-J.) In the Sun.
Bonnencontre |E.| . . . " Le Lit de la Cigale."
Bordes iE.). ... . . The Laborer and his Cluldren.
Bouché (L.-A.) The Village Square.
Bouillon (L.) Nude study.
Bourgogne |P.| Spring Flowers.
Boyé (A.i Sausicaa.
Braut iA.) Woman's Head.
Brouili.et (A.] 4 Haymaker.
Buffet (P.l An Antique Festival.
Burdy IG.-H.) An Engraver of Getns.
Busson (Ch.) The Vale of Lavardin.
Cesbron iA.i M. Français's Wednesdars.
Chigot (E.-H.-A.) A Pilgrimage to Saint- Josse-sur- Mer.
Dameron (E.-C.j The l'aie and Castle of Angles-sur-Anglus.
Dinet iA.-E.) The Day after Ramadhan.
Duvent (Ch.| "The Lord be withyou."
Enders iJ.-J.) Washing Day.
Fouknier i L.-E.l A Shepherd.
Gagliardini iJ.-G.I Roussi lion ; — Provence.
Geoffroy |J.) An Elementary Schoolin Brittany.
Griveau |l..| Place de la Clautre. Périgueux.
Guillemet (J.-B. -A.) .... Paris.
Guiu.ou lA.) Sardine Fishers at Concarneau.
Hareux (E.-V.J The Peak of Villard d'Arène.
Humbert |F.) Portrait of Madame P. S...
Jeanniot iP.-G.) Women.
Joy (G.-W. ) Joan of Arc.
I.aurens (P.-A.) Autumn.
Leroux (M"0 L.) Expectation.
Lobre (M.) The King's Library, Versailles.
Lorimer. (J.-H.l Portrait of Colonel Anstruther-Tkomson.
Lucas-Robiquet(M,mM.-A.). The Temicine Road, Tuggurt.
M arec (V.) The Potiers.
Martel (E.-F.) Peasants by th.' Firesiie.
Matisse iH.-E.) 4 Woinin Riaiing.
Morjsset (F.-H.i Friends.
Motte (Em.i An autopsychic Study.
Poi.AtE (E.-F.) Cigarrerasp
Raffaei.li iJ.-F.i Notre-Dame de Paris.
Rigolot iA.-G.) In the M'/.ab Country, South Algcria.
Rovel (H.) Evening Harmony, Tunis.
Rusinol (S.) Mnorish Gardens, Grenada.
Sabatté (J.-G.-F.) The Fireside.
Sain (P. -J . -M.) An Evening at Avignon.
100
WORKS OF ART PURCHASED BY THE STATE
MM. Saurf.s (L.-D.l Chila Asleep.
Si MON NET (L.) Hoarjr Morning.
Steck(P-A.| Sweet Autumn.
Story IJ.) A Laboratory al Saint- La jare Prison
Sur and (G i -4 Massacre of Barbarians under Hamilcar.
Tarweu (V.-F.) Remembrance.
I m tin i.l -Ch.-C.i The Last Evening Rays.
Thiviek iE.-M.) " Le Défile de la Hache ."
Thomas (P.) A Mandoline Lesson.
WaldenJL.) The Docks at Gardiff.
Weisser (Ch.-L.-A.i . . . A Little Beggarmatd.
Wii.i.aert (F.) Entrance ofthe Béguinage, Antwerp.
WATER-COLORS, PASTELS, DRAWINGS
M. Astruc iZ.i Clematis, water-color.
M1"- Bries (F.l " Une Elégante," water-color.
MM. Lunois |A.) Spanish Dancers, pastel.
Mii.cendeau (Ch.-E.-Th.) . . Peasants of Vendée, Jrawing.
SCULPTURE
MM. Boucher i A. I Casimir- Perier, marble bust.
Captier IF.-E Despair, plaster statue.
Coudier (H.-L.) Artilleryman, bron/e equestrian statue.
Desbois iJ.) Led.i. marble statue.
Desbois i.I.i Destitution, wood statue.
Desbois i.I.i Death, bronze group.
Desruei.les IA.-F.) Jub. plaster statue.
Fagei. II..] Grafter, plaster statue.
Gardet (G.i Hanthers, maible group.
Gasq (P.) Hero and Leander, marble bas-relief.
Gasq |P.] Medea. marble group.
Greber ill i Fire-damp. marble ligure.
Hugues i.I.i Industries, plaster group.
Laforêt (Em.j Ambroise Thomas, marble bust.
Latoub il. .-M i General Changarnier, marble bust.
Loiseau-Bailly (G.| Gambetta, marble bust.
Mi igue .1 -M.) Gain and Abel, marble group.
Mk in i. iG I Thought, marble statue.
Pech (G.-È.-B.) A Great Secret, plaster group.
Perrey (L.-A.) Valbonnais, marble bust.
Pu. et il..) Fontenelle. marble bust.
1<oche(P.) The Struggle ifountaini, plaster.
Savine (L.) Gougeara, Minister of Marine, marble bust.
Schnegg (J.-L.l Bust of a Man, plaster.
Seysses (A.) The Relurn. plaster group.
MEDALS AND ENGRAVED GEMS
MM.Gaulard (Em.-F.) Leda, sardoin cameo
Pillet (Ch.) Primavera, bronze tablet.
DECORATIVE ART
MM. Bigot (A. i Drinking Flask, tlashed stoneware.
Dammouse (A.) Vase, Hashed stoneware.
«^c-^î^5-<«^ÇKê>^)--
TABLE OF CONTENTS
p.,,.
The Salon in the Champs-Elysées i
— — 1 — Décorative Painting 4
— — II — Great Subjects 12
— — III — The Nude 22
— — IV — Portraits 28
— — V — Interiors 38
— — VI -— Pic tures of Incident 46
— — VII — Military Pictures 52
— — VIII — Landscape and Open-air Studies 54
— — Sculpture 5y
National Fine Art Society 65
— — M. Puvis de Chavannes 65
— — France and Foreign Scliools 70
— — The Belgian School 71
— — Holland and Germany 73
— — Italy and Spain 76
— — Swit^erland 78
— Scandinavia 80
— — England and the United States 81
— — French Art 84
— — Sculpture 94
List of Awards, Salon of 1896 97
List of Works of Art purchased by the State from the Salon of 1896 and
from the National Fine Art Society 99
LIST OE ILLUSTRATIONS
PAINTING
Page
Abbéma (M"« L.1 1
Alberti (H.) 9
Baader (L.| 6
Bacon (H.| 20
Baertsoen 86
Barrau (I .| 92
Benjamin-Consiani i3
Benoil-Lévy (J.| 18'
Besnard 06'
Béthune 76'
Biessy 90
Bompard (M.) 42
Boquet (J | 14
Bouchor (J.-F.) 23
Buil'et 58
Cagniart (E ) 24
Carritr-Belleuse 70
Pag».
Chabas 72
Chantron (A.-J.j 37
Charlet (F.) 3o
Chartier (H.) 16
Chartran (T.) 32
Chocarne-Moreau 34
Clairin (G.| 10'
Courtens 78*
Crochepiern.- 6S
Danger (H.-C.) 22"
David-Nillct 82'
Debat-Ponsan 24"
Deully (E j 3o
Dumoulin 88
Eckermans 78
Engel (J . 1. 81
FinntJ.-W.i 0-
102
TABLE 0F CONTENTS
l'ige.
Foreau (H.) 22
Gardner (Miss E.) 26'
Geoffroy (J.) 14'
Gérôme 56
Girardot 76
Giron (C.) 72
Guignard 68'
Guyon (M«« M.) 47
Harpignies 1 H.) 4
Henner (J -J.) 2
Herrmann-Léon 44*
Hirsch (A.) 5o
Israëls 84
Jacquet Frontispiece
Japy (L.) 4*
Kaemmerer iF.-H.) 6
Knight (R.) 28
Kuehl 84
Lafon 74
Laissement (H.) 46
Lambert (Alb.) 3o*
Lecomte (P.) 33
Lemaire |Mmc Mad.) 66
Le Roux (Eug.) 48
Le Roux (H.) 53
Lessi (Tito) 56'
Lignier (J.) 77
Lynch (A.) 60
Martens |W.) ~i
Mayet (L.) 26
Mesdag 80
Monchablon (A.) 18
Montzaigle (de) 70*
Moreau (Ad.; 65
Muenier 72*
Muraton (Mm* E.) 27
Noirot (E.) 41
Orange (M.) 17
Paris (Alf.l 20'
Paupion (E.) 12
Peters (C.) 85
Planels-Ricardo 74'
Poïlleux-Saint-Ange 10
Prat (W.) 5o*
Ralli (T.) 42'
Ravanne (L.) 36"
Ravaut (R.-H.) 36
Reynaud (F.| 3
Rouffet (J.) iô*
Roullet (G.) 54
Stengelin 80"
Struijs 38
Tattegrain 54*
Tavernier (P.) 44
Tournés 82
Yan der Meulen 34*
Vayson (P.) 28"
Vidal (E.) 69
Wagrez iJ.) 8
Wcber (Th.) 5o
Wentworth (Mrs.) 12*
Willaert 94
SCULPTURE
Tage.
Injalbert 90
Lemaire (H.) 64
Marquet de Vasselot 96
Page.
Mercié (A.) 59
Michel (G.) 62