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FRENCH PICTURES
AND THEIR PAINTERS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
PICTURES AND THEIR PAINTERS
AMERICAN PICTURES AND THEIR
PAINTERS
WHAT PICTURES TO SEE IN AMERICA
WHAT PICTURES TO SEE IN EUROPE
WHAT SCULPTURE TO SEE IN EUROPE
FAMOUS PICTURES OF REAL BOYS
AND GIRLS
FAMOUS PICTURES OF REAL ANI-
MALS
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
Frontispiece
Saint Genevieve Overlooking Paris. Puvis de Chavannes.
Pantlieon, Paris.
FRENCH PICTURES
AND THEIR PAINTERS
BY
LORINDA MUNSON BRYANT
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1922
COPTRIOHT, 1922,
By DODD. mead AND COMPANY, Inc.
FEINTED IN V. S. A.
.\
4^
^n Pan
TO
MY COUSIN
ANTOINETTE BRYANT HERVEY
INTRODUCTION
Never has France been dearer to us than
she is today. And never have we longed
more deeply to know more about her people. Our
boys and her boys lie side by side over there.
The underlying cause that brought them together
was the same, and very quickly they recognized
in each other the spirit that was theirs in com-
mon. This spirit rose above the trench and the
battle front and gave them, sometimes in pathos
and sometimes in fun, pictures that appealed to
each alike. And after all what goes deeper into
our hearts than the pictures of a nation? For-
tunately genius in any line of art is not circum-
scribed by a particular language, for it speaks
a tongue of its own understandable to like gen-
iuses among all people.
In "French Pictures and their Painters" I am
bringing before you the men and women and
children of France who have made history, and
that means everybody in the French nation from
the eleventh century until today, and also the
prainters who had the gift of portraying char-
FRENCH PICTURES
acteristics underlying the events which made or
marred the welfare of the people.
We find that the artists of the various centuries
were the real historians. Sometimes these artists
were big enough to picture underlying motives
that brought about a revolution- or constructed a
republic ; then again the artists simply reflected
the surface life of the time, but both have given
invaluable material from which to construct a
vivid word picture of each period of the time.
The more familiar we can become with French
pictures given us by painters who were living
witnesses of the scenes, the closer we will come
to that glorious nation whose people have indeed
come up through tribulation.
As we proceed from century to century in
studying the events and peoples portrayed "by
French painters, we find that we too become inti-
mately associated with France. And to know
France and her history through pictures is to
know more about our own country and the men
and women who brought it into being:
Then, too, in searching out the whereabouts of
various artists' pictures we have come upon rare
treasures in small collections in out-of-the-way
places little known to the world.
Again in many a tiny village and hamlet, now
so familiar to our boys who were in France, are
AND THEIR PAINTERS
certain old rustic houses beloved by the natives
because a world artist had been born there and
lived as one of them. I wonder how many
American boys when in the Duchy of Lorraine
hunted out in the tiny hamlet of Champagne the
old home at the end of the street leading to a
common pasture-ground and read from the tab-
let: ''Here was born in 1600 Claude Gellee Lor-
rain, who died in Rome, November 25, 1682."
And yet we cross the ocean to see Claude's pic-
tures; and collectors pay tens of thousands of
dollars to own one of his originals, for with him
began the long list of French painters. The little
Claude grasped in his tiny hands the national
binding-cord that always has held France together
and ever has helped her to consolidate her forces
and constantly to draw other thinking peoples
closer to each other. That national binding-cord
is art — a reality founded on the laws of God.
L. M. B.
New York City.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction
CHAPTEE
I Queen Matilda — Clouet — 'Poussin —
LORRAIN I
II Le Sueur — Lebrun — Rigaud — Mignard
— Champaigne 14
III Watteau — iNattier — Chardin ... 24
IV Boucher — La Tour — Fragonard —
Greuze 36
V David 51
VI Gerard — Madame Lebrun .... 63
VII Prudhon' — Gros — Ingres — Vernet . ^2
VIII Gericault — Delacroix — Delaroche . 85
IX Decamps — Fromentin — Ziem — Isabey . 95
X Gerome — T. Frere — Bida . . . .104
XI Corot 113
XII Millet 122
XIII RousSEAu^ — Dupre — 'Diaz .... 132
XIV Daubigny — Troyon — Jacque — Breton . 143
XV Gleyre — Flandrin — Daumier — Cou-
ture 156
XVI Meissonier — Pils — Delaunay . . . 167
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAQH
XVII COURBET — HaRPIGNIES — CaZIN — BOUDIN I78
XVIII Puvis De Chavannes 189
XIX MoREAU^ — Monti celli — Cabanel — Bou-
GUEREAu — Gardner — Ribot . . .199
XX BoNHEUR — Van Marcke — Legros —
JULIEN DUPRE — VOLLON .... 2IO
XXI BaUDRY — BONNAT — C. DURAN LaURENS
— Regnault — B. Constant , . .219
XXII Manet — Degas — Monet — Sisley —
Renoir 233
XXIII GUILLAUMET ViBERT RoYBET MoRI-
SOT DE NeUVILLE — MoROT — De-
TAILLE 245
XXIV DoRE — De Monvel — Tissot .... 253
XXV L'Hermitte — Lerolle — Carriere —
Roll — Besnard — Martin .... 262
XXVI Pissarro — Cezanne — Gauguin — Van-
Gogh — Matisse 271
XXVII Bastien-Lepage — Raffaelli — Dagnan-
BoUVERET FORAIN 283
XXVIII Aman-Jean — Blanche — L. Simon —
Menard — Cottet — Garrido . . . 292
XXIX Caro-Devaille — Dufau — Oberteuf-
fer — A. Laurens — B. Boutet De
Monvel — Marchain — Montezin . 299
ILLUSTRATIONS
Saint Genevieve Overlooking Paris. Puvis de Chavannes.
Pantheon, Paris Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Fig. 1 — Battle of Hastings (Tapestry Detail) Matilda.
Hotel de Ville, Bayeaux 4
Fig. 2 — Harold Marches to War (Tapestry Detail)
Matilda. Hotel de Ville, Bayeaux 5
Fig. 3 — Elizabeth of Austria. Clouet. Louvre, Paris . 5
Fig. 4 — Arcadian Shepherds. Poussin. Royal Museum,
Liverpool, England 8
Fig. 5 — Landscape. Lorrain. Louvre, Paris .... 8
Fig. 6 — Landing of Cleopatra at Tarsus. Lon-ain. Na-
tional Gallery, London 9
Fig. 7 — The Mendicants. Le Nain. Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art, New York City 12
Fig. 8 — Jesus and the Magdalene. Le Sueur. Louvre,
Paris 18
Fig. 9 — Christ in the Desert Waited on by Angels. Le-
brun. Louvre, Paris 18
Fig. 10 — Portrait of Louis XIV. Rigaud. Palace at
Versailles, France 19
Fig. 11 — Portrait of Duchess of Portsmouth. Mignard.
Portrait Gallery, London 22
Fig. 12— Portrait of a Child. Mig-nard 23
Fig. 13 — Portraits of Mother Catherine and Sister
Catherine. Champaigne. Louvre, Paris .... 23
Fig. 14 — Gilles. Watteau. Louvre, Paris .... 26
Fig. 15 — Embarkation for Cythere. Watteau. Louvre,
Paris 27
Fig. IG — Gersaint's Sign Board. Watteau. Royal Pal-
ace, Berlin 27
Fig. 17 — Portrait of Queen Leczinska. Nattier. Palace
of Versailles, France 30
Fig. 18 — The Magdalene. Nattier. Louvre, Paris . . 31
Fig. 19 — The Blessing. Chardin. Louvre, Paris ... 31
ILLUSTRATIONS
TAOINQ PAGE
Fig. 20— still Life. Chardin. Louvre, Paris .... 31
Fig. 21 — The Morning Toilet. Chardin. National Muse-
um, Stockholm 34
Fig. 22 — Nei:)tune. Boucher. Grand Trianon, Versailles 38
Fig. 23 — Mdme. de Pompadour. Boucher. Louvre, Paris 39
Fig. 24 — Mdme. de Pompadour. La Tour. Louvre, Paris 40
Fig. 25 — The Dauphine. La Tour. Louvre, Paris . . 41
Fig. 26 — Portrait of Manelli. La Tour. Museum Saint
Quentin, France 41
Fig. 27 — Now Listen! I Want You to Say Please.
Fragonard. Louvre, Paris 42
Fig. 28 — The Swing. Fragonard. Wallace Collection,
London 43
Fig. 29 — Portrait of Benjamin Franklin. Fragonard.
Private Collection 46
Fig. 30 — The Broken Pitcher. Greuze. Lou\Te, Paris 48
Fig. 31 — Maidenhood. Greuze. National Gallery, Lon-
don 49
Fig. 32 — The Village Bride. Greuze. Louvre, Paris . 49
Fig. 33 — ]\Iichel Gerard and Family. David. Le Mans
Museum, France 56
Fig. 34 — Portrait of Mdme. Recamier. David. Louvre,
Paris 57
Fig. 35 — Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine. David.
Louvre, Paris 57
Fig. 36 — Portrait of Pius VII. David. Louvre, Paris 00
Fig. 37 — Portrait of Bonaparte Crossing the Alps.
David. Versailles, France 61
Fig. 38— Portrait of Mdme. de Stael. Gerard ... 64
Fig. 39 — Portrait of Isabey and Daughter. Gerard.
Louvre, Paris 65
Fig. 40 — Portrait of Mdme. Recamier. Gerard. Louvre,
Paris 68
Fig. 41 — Marie Antoinette and Her Children. Mdme.
Lebrun. Versailles, France 68
Fig. 42 — Portrait of Marie Antoinette. Mdme. Lebrun.
Ver.sailles, France 69
Fig. 43— Portrait of Artist and Daughter. Mdme. Le-
brun. Louvre, Paris 70
Fig. 44 — Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime.
Prudhon. Louvre, Paris 74
ILLUSTRATIONS
rACINQ PAGB
Fig. 45 — The Assumption of the Virgin. Prudhon.
Louvre, Paris 74
Fig. 4(3 — i^ancis I and Charles V Visiting Royal
Tombs, St. Denis. Gros. Louvre, Paris ... 74
Fig. 47 — Oedipus. Ingres. Louvre, Paris .... 76
Fig. 48 — Portrait of Mdme. Leblanc. Ingres. Metro-
politan Museum of Art 77
Fig. 49 — La Source. Ingres. Louvre, Paris .... 77
Fig. 50 — Preparing for the Races. Vemet. Metro-
politan Museum of Art 82
Fig. 51 — Portrait of the Artist's Mother. Gericault.
Brooklyn Museum 86
Fig. 52— Raft of the Medusa. Gericault. Louvre, Paris 88
Fig. 53 — Massacre of Scio. Delacroix. Louvre, Paris 88
Fig. 54 — Portrait of Chopin. Delacroix 89
Fig. 55 — Abduction of Rebecca. Delacroix. Metro-
politan Museum of Ait 90
Fig. 56 — Death of Queen Elizabeth. Delaroche. Louvre,
Paris 91
Fig. 57 — Execution of Lady Jane Gray. Delaroche.
Wallace Museum, London 94
Fig. 58 — Single Figure from Hemieycle. Delaroche.
Eeole des Beaux Arts, Paris 94
Fig. 59 — The Night Patrol. Decamps. Metropolitan
Museum of Art 96
Fig. 60 — Sehooltime. Decamps. Brooklyn Museum . 97
Fig. 61 — The Fomidling. Decamps. Luxembourg, Paris 98
Fig. 62 — The Falcon Hunt. Fromentin. Louvre, Paris 98
Fig. 63 — Arabs Crossing a Ford. Fromentin. Metro-
politan Museum of Art 99
Fig. 64 — Arab Camp. Fromentin. Louvre, Paris . . 100
Fig. 65 — An Inundation of the Piazza of San Marco.
Ziem. Metropolitan Museum of Art 101
Fig. 66 — Street Scene in Algiers. Isabey. Brooklyn
Museum 102
Fig. 67 — Boy of the Bischari Tribe. Gerome. Metro-
politan Museum of Art 106
Fig. 68 — Prayer in the Mosque Amrou, Old Cairo.
Gerome. Metropolitan Museum of Art .... 107
Fig. 69— Pollice Verso. Gerome 108
Fig. 70 — L'Eminence Gris. Gerome. Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston 108
ILLUSTRATIONS
TACINQ PAQB
Fig. 71 — Cairo; Evening. Frere. Metropolitan Muse-
um of Art 109
Fig. 72 — Environs of Jerusalem. Frere. Metropolitan
Museum of Art 110
Fig. 73 — Massacre of the Mamelukes. Bida. Metro-
politan Museum of Art Ill
Fig. 74 — Villa d' Avery. Corot. Metropolitan Museum
of Art 114
Fig. 75 — Landscape. Corot. Layton Art Gallery, Mil-
waukee 114
Fig. 76 — Dante and Virgil. Corot. Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston 116
Fig. 77 — Landscape. Corot. Institute of Art, San
Francisco 117
Fig. 78 — Dance of the Nymphs. Corot. Louvre, Paris 120
Fig. 79 — La Lac. Corot. Rheims Museum, France . 121
Fig. 80 — The Wood Gatherer. Corot. Corcoran Art
Gallery, Washington, D. C 121
Fig. 81— The Sower. Millet. Private Collection . . 124
Fig. 82— The Return of the Flock. Millet. Institute of
Art, San Francisco 124
Fig. 83 — The Angelus. Millet. Chauchard Collection,
Paris 125
Fig. 84 — The Harvesters at Rest. Millet. Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston 126
Fig. 85 — Feeding the Nestlings. Millet. Lille Museum,
France 128
Fig. 86 — Bringing Home the New Born Calf. Millet.
Art Institute, Chicago 129
Fig. 87 — Solitude. Millet. Pennsylvania Museum, Phila-
delphia 130
Fig. 88 — Foot-path Among the Rocks. Rousseau. Pri-
vate Collection, Paris 134
Fig. 89— Edge of the Woods. Rousseau. Metropolitan
Museum of Art 135
Fig. 90 — Landscape. Rousseau. Institute of Art, San
Francisco I35
Fig. 91— Outskirts of Forest of Fontainebleau. Rous-
seau. Louvre, Paris 138
Fig. 92— The Old Oak. Dupre. Metropolitan Museuni
of Art 139
ILLUSTRATIONS
TAOINQ PAGE
Fig. 93— The Hay Wagon. Dupre. Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art 1'*^
Fig. 94 — No Admittance. Diaz. Private Collection,
Antwerp 140
Fig. 95 — Descent of the Bohemians. Diaz. Museum of
Fine Art, Boston 141
Fig. 9G— Morning on the Seine. Daubigny. Metro-
politan Museum of Art 144
Fig. 97 — Hamlet on the Seine. Daubigny. Corcoran
Art Gallery, Washing-ton, D. C 144
Fig. 98 — Village Scene. Daubigny. Institute of Art,
San Francisco 145
Fig. 99 — Oxen Going to Work. Troyon. Louvre, Paris 145
Fig. 100 — Return from Market. Troyon. Art Institute,
Chicago 146
Fig. 101 — Drinking Place. Troyon. Corcoran Art Gal-
lery, Washington, D. C 148
Fig. 102— Cattle. Troyon. Institute of Art, San Ftan-
cisco 148
Fig. 103 — The Sheepfold. Jacque. Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art 149
Fig. 104 — The Watering Place. Jacque. Institute of
Art, San Francisco 149
Fig. 105 — The Gleaner. Jules Breton. Luxembourg,
Paris 152
Fig. 106 — The Grand Pardon. Jules Breton. Metro-
politan Museum of Art 153
Fig. 107— The Song of the Lark. Jules Breton. In-
stitute of Art, Chicago 154
Fig. lOS — Lost Illusions. Glevre. Louvre, Paris . . 158
Fig. 109— Etude or The Pearl Diver. Flandrin.
Louvre, Paris 159
Fig. 110 — Portrait of Daubigny. Daumier. National
Gallery, London 160
Fig. Ill — Les Avocats. Daumier. Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art 101
Fig. 112 — Scene de la Revolution. Daumier. Private
Collection, London 164
Fig. 113 — Romans of the Decadence. Couture. Louvre,
Paris 165
Fig. 114 — Day Dreams. Couture. Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art 165
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGB
Fig. 115 — La Rixe (The Brawl). Meissonier. Royal
Palace, London 168
Fig. IIG — The Reader in White. Meissonier, Chau-
chard Collection, Paris 169
Fig. 117 — Friedland, 1807. Meissonier. Metropolitan
Museum of Art 172
Fig. 118— "1814." Meissonier. Chauchard Collection,
Paris 172
Fig. 119 — First Singing of the Marseillaise. Pils.
Louvre, Paris 176
Fig. 120 — The Pest at Rome. Delaunay. Luxembourg,
Paris 176
Fig. 121 — Deer in the Forest. Courbet. Museum of
Art, Minneapolis 180
Fig. 122— The Wave. Courbet. Louvre, Paris . . .181
Fig. 123— Village Giris. Courbet 181
Fig. 124— Giri with a Mirror. Courbet 182
Fig. 125 — Cottage in the Woods. Harpignies. Brooklyn
Museum 182
Fig. 126 — Winter Woodland. Harpignies. Petit-Pal-
ace, Paris 183
Fig. 127 — ^Village Square, Herisson. Harpignies. Petit-
Palace, Paris 184
Fig. 128 — Suburbs of Antwerp. Cazin. Carnegie In-
stitute, Pittsburg 184
Fig. 129 — Hagar and Ishmael. Cazin. Luxembourg,
Paris 186
Fig. 130 — Inner Harbor. Boudin. Brooklyn Museum . 187
Fig. 131 — Peace. Chavannes. Museum de Picardie,
Amiens, France 188
Fig. 132 — The Childhood of Saint Genevieve. Chavannes.
Pantheon, Rome 189
Fig. 133— Winter. Chavannes. Hotel de Ville, Paris . 192
Fig. 134 — Charity. Chavannes. City Art Museum, St.
Louis 193
Fig. 135 — Sacred Grove. Cliavannes. Sorbonne, Paris 194
Fig. 136 — The Poor Fisherman. Chavannes. Luxem-
bourg, Paris 194
Fig. 137 — L'Apparition. Moreau. Luxembourg, Paris 200
Fig. L38 — The Court of the Princess. Monticelli. Metro-
politan Museum of Art 201
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACIN'O PAGE
Fig. 139 — Cleopatra Testing Poison on Her Slave, Cab-
anel 206
Fig. 140 — Birth of Venus. Bouguereau. Luxembourg,
Paris 206
Fig. 141 — The Judgment of Paris. Madame Bouguereau
(Miss Gardner). Luxembourg, Paris .... 207
Fig, 142 — Saint Sebastian. Ribot. Luxembourg, Paris 207
Fig. 143 — Plowing in Nivemais. Bonheur. Luxembourg,
Paris 210
Fig. 144 — Barbara After the Hunt. Bonheur. Pennsyl-
vania Museum, Philadelphia 210
Fig. 145 — The Mill. Van Marke. Metropolitan Museum
of Art 214
Fig. 146 — Edge of the "Wood. Legros. Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art 214
Fig. 147 — Cow. Julien Dupre. Institute of Art, San
Francisco 215
Fig. 148 — A Farm Yard. Vollon. Metropolitan Museum
of Art 218
Fig. 149 — Single Figures. Baudry. Opera House, Paris 219
Fig. 150 — Germany in Music. Baudry. Opera House,
Paris 219
Fig. 151 — Portrait of John Taylor Johnson. Bonnat.
Metropolitan Museum of Art 222
Fig. 152 — Portrait of Leon Cogniet. Bonnat. Luxem-
bourg, Paris 223
Fig. 153 — Beppino. Carolus-Duran 224
Fig. 154 — Death of Saint Genevieve. Laurens. Pan-
theon, Rome 228
Fig. 155 — Horses of Achilles. Regnault. Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston 229
Fig. 156 — Salome. Regnault. Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York 230
Fig. 157 — Justinian in Council. Benjamin-Constant.
Metropolitan Museum of Art 231
Fig. 158 — The Bov with a Sword. Manet. Metropolitan
Museum of Art 234
Fig. 159 — The Beggar. Manet. Art Institute, Chicago 235
Fig. 160 — La Dan.'^cuse. Degas. Luxembourg, Paris . 236
Fig. 161 — La Danseuse. Degas. Luxembourg, Paris . 237
Fig. 162 — La Source. Degas. Brooklyn Museum . . 238
Museum 238
ILLUSTRATIONS
TACING PAQK
Fig. 163— The Coast of Brittany. Monet. Knoedler Gal-
lery, New York City . . ^ 239
Fig. 164^ — "Moret au roueher du Solier, Octobre," Sis-
ler. Knoedler Gallery, New York City .... 240
Fig. 165 — Portrait of Madame Carpentier and Children.
Renoir. ]\Ietropolitnn Museum of Art, New York . 242
Fig. 166 — Canoticrs a Chaton. Renoir. Knoedler Gal-
lery, New York City 243
Fig. 167— The Desert at Sunset. Guillaumet. Penn-
sylvania ]\fuspum, Philadelphia 246
Fig. 168— The Startled Confessor. Vibert. Metropol-
itan Museum, New York City 247
Fig. 169— The Game of Cards. ' Roybet. Metropolitan
Museum of Art. New York City 248
Fig. 170 — Jeune Fille. Morisot. Private Collection
Mosps Joseph Reinaeh 249
Fig. 171 — Reichsoffen. Morot. Versailles. France . . 250
Fig. 172 — The Last Cartridges. De Neuville. Luxem-
bourg, Paris 252
Fig. 173 — The Dream. Detaille. Luxembourg, Paris . 252
Fig. 174 — Dante and Virgil in the Inferno. Dore.
Southern Museum, Los Angeles, California . . . 254
Fig. 175 — Dante and Virgil. Dore. Illustration from
Inferno 255
Fig. 176— A Fairy Tale. Dore 256
Fig. 177 — Jeanne d'Arc. De Monvel. Church of Dom-
remy, France 256
Fig. 178— The Tannery. De Monvel. Albright Art Gal-
lery, Buffalo 257
Fig. 179 — The Magnificat. Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.
John H. Eggers Company, New York City . . . 260
Fig. 180— The 'Hai-\-esters' Meal. L'llermitte. Brook-
lyn Museum 262
Fig. 181 — Among the Lowly. L'Hermitte. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York City 262
Fig. 182 — The Organ Recital. Lerolle. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York City 264
Fig. 183— A Family Scene. Carrier 265
Fig. 184— The Old Quarr^onan. Roll 265
Fig. 185— Tlie Strike of the Miners. Roll. Valenci-
ennes Museum, France 266
Fig. 186 — Decoration (detail). Besnard. Ecole de Phar-
macie, Paris 268
ILLUSTRATIONS
TACING PAGE
Fig. 187— The Reapers. Martin 2G9
Fig. 188 — The Great Bridge. Pissarro. Carnegie In-
stitute, Pittsburg 272
Fig. 189 — La Petite Bonne de CampagTie. Pissarro . . 273
Fig. 190 — Pommes sur une Table. Cezanne .... 276
Fig. 191 — Taliiti. Gauguin. Brookh-n Museum . . . 277
Fig. 192— Com Shocks. Van Gogh' 278
Fig. 193— Old Shoes. Van Gogh 279
Fig. 194 — Baig-neuses. Matisse 280
Fig. 195— Le Chapeau de Cuir. Matisse 282
Fig. 196 — The Wood Gatherers. Bastien-Lepage. Lay-
ton Art Gallery, Milwaukee 284
Fig. 197 — Jeanne d'Are. Bastien-Lepage. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York City 284
Fig. 198— Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt. Bastien-Lepage 286
Fig. 199 — Boulevard des Italiens. Raffaelli. Carnegie
Institute, Pittsburgh 287
Fig. 200 — Place St. Germain des Pres, Paris. Raffaelli.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York .... 287
Fig. 201 — Madonna of the Rose. Dagnan-Bouveret.
Metropolitan Mu-seum of Art, New York City . . 290
Fig. 202— The Law Courts. Forain 291
Fig. 203 — Les Elements. Aman-Jean. New Sorbonne,
Paris 292
Fig. 204— The Artist's Daughter. Aman-Jean . . .293
Fig. 205 — Portrait of Duchess of Rutland. Blanche.
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh 293
Fig. 206— The Communicants. Simon 294
Fig. 207 — Family Portraits. Simon. Pennsylvania Mu-
seum, Philadelphia 295
Fig. 208— Wood NjTnphs. Menard 296
Fig. 209 — Marine. Cottet. Pennsylvania Museum, Phil-
adelphia 297
Fig. 210— The Fish-Wife. Garrido 298
Fig. 211— Ma Femme et Ma Petite Fille. Caro-Devaille 300
Fig. 212— Parrots. Mdlle. Dufau. Rostand's Villa,
near Cambo, France 301
Fig. 213— Peacocks. Mdlle. Dufau. Rostand's Villa,
near Cambo, France 301
Fig. 214— Mdlle. Libert. Mdlle. Dufau 302
Fig. 215 — The Children. Mdme. Oberteuffer. Arlington
Gallery, New York City 303
ILLUSTRATIONS
yACINO PAQB
Fig. 21G — Tho Concert. Paul Laurens. Brooklyn Mu-
seum 303
Fig. 217— The Blue Cart. De Monvel. BrookljTi Mu-
seum 304
Fig. 218 — Evening, in Brittany. Marchain. Brooklyn
Museum 305
Fig. 210 — Autumn. Montezin. Owned by Mr. James K.
Frazer, New York City 306
FRENCH PICTURES
AND THEIR PAINTERS
FRENCH PICTURES
AND THEIR PAINTERS
CHAPTER I
QUEEN MATILDA— CLOUET—
POUS.SIN— LORRAIN
PROBABLY in no country have artists been
more intimately connected with the history of
its people than in France. N'ot that France has
always produced great masters in the arts but that
her geniuses seem to have developed under some
particular stress of the country, whether the
stress was a revolution, a war, or a time of na-
tional stagnation. I think you will find this was
specially true of the painters even when the pic-
tures were made on linen with coloured wool.
The earliest piece of European art work of
particular interest to France is the Bayeux Tap-
estry, in the Museum of the Public Library,
Bayeux, France. It is really needlework in-
stead of genuine tapestry. The history of its
origin is still a question. The latest authority, I
think, says that it was ordered by Bishop Odo,
2 FRENCH PICTURES
brother of William the Conqueror, as an orna-
ment for the nave of the Bayeiix Cathedral and
was worked by Norman craftsmen in that city.
But why deprive Queen Matilda, the wife of
William the Conqueror, of the honour of having"
designed it, particularly as it was her husband
whose exploits are so vividly represented on it.
Queen Matilda probably had no thought of in-
dexing the character of French art. She was
simply picturing events in the life of her conquer-
ing spouse, William I, and his treacherous oppo-
nent, Harold, and also keeping an eye on the dec-
orative effect of the gaily coloured strip as it
grew under the nimble fingers of herself and her
maids. Yet the very same incentive that
prompted Matilda to make both historical and dec-
orative this famous work of art is a striking char-
acteristic of French painters.
There was no more picturesque period in the
dramatic history of France than when the Nor-
mans laid claim to England — and Matilda was
quick to recognize the picture quality of the va-
rious scenes of the drama. She begfins her story
with Edward the Confessor, on the throne of
West Saxony and, carrying it through successive
scenes of intrigues, meetings, preparations for
war and battles, ends the contest between I larold
AND THEIR PAINTERS 3
and the Norman prince for the EngHsh throne by
the flight of the EngHsh. WiUiam the Con-
queror is crowned King of England in 1066.
So vivid are these pictures — usually sepa-
rated from each other by a tree with a Latin in-
scription — that many of the costumes and cus-
toms, manners and mode of warfare, are easily
recognized. In the scene of "The Battle of Has-
tings," Hotel de Ville, Bayeux (Fig. i), we note
how true are Matilda's perceptions of the horrors
of the battlefield. Even to-day we shudder at
the carnage of those primitive weapons of far
off days. Her portrayal of the deeds of hatred
perpetrated nearly a thousand years ago could
well tell the same story today and possibly her
simple crude style would be more effective than
the pictures we have of war scenes. Then in the
detail of "Harold Marches to War," Hotel de
Ville, Bayeux, France (Fig. 2), the aggressive
spirit is wonderfully shown in each figure of the
procession. Even the horses and dogs have the
assertive air of would-be conquerors.
The pictures are embroidered on a strip of linen
or canvas — over two hundred feet long and forty
inches wide — in various colours of woollen thread.
There are fifteen hundred figures — men, horses,
dogs, buildings, ships, boats, trees, etc. — por-
4 FRENCH PICTURES
trayed with such skill that we can trace certain
customs and manners as well as the artistic de-
velopment of the eleventh century.
Often the subjects chosen by early French
painters for decorative purposes were religious
though Christianity was not the motive power of
the French as it was of the early Italian artist.
Illuminated missals of rare beauty and exquisite
workmanship are among the treasures of French
art, also stained glass windows were made early
in the thirteenth century.
Almost from the beginning French pictures
showed the effect of the influence of invading
nations on their painters. When Rome ruled
France in the fifth century mural decorations fol-
lowed Italian methods. Then in a. d. 800 Charle-
magne brought in the Byzantine element; Irish
decorations were introduced and Flemish influ-
ence was at work. There was no real French art
before the fifteenth century and even then the
methods were derived from other nations.
When Francis I ( 1494- 1547) beautified and en-
larged the buildings of Paris he not only en-
couraged home talent but invited the best artists
of other countries to the French capital. Leon-
ardo da Vinci and Andrea del Sarto came to
assist in the decorating of the new palace at
Fontainebleau. Naturally these masters influ-
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AND THEIR PAINTERS S
enced the native artists and even established a
"Fontainebleau School." Many of the French
painters, however, were being trained in the
Flemish school and quite a strife grew up between
the two methods — the Italian with its beautiful
form and colour scheme and the Flemish with
its love of detail and its sincerity and love of
truth.
The native French artists who really attracted
any attention in the fifteenth century were the
Clouets and they were of Flemish origin. Two
men of this family, Jean and Frangois, were noted
for their portraits. In them they showed the
delicate finish of the Van Eycks, also the same
transparency of colour and careful drawing.
One of the most interesting portraits of Frangois
Clouet is that of "EHzabeth of Austria," in the
Louvre, Paris (Fig. 3). This young woman,
the daughter of Maximilian II of Austria, be-
came the wife of Charles IX of France, in 1570,
about the time this portrait was painted and two
years before the horrible tragedy of St. Bartholo-
mew. Little wonder that Clouet foreshadows in
the sensitive young face a faint understanding
of the terrible time in which she has found herself.
She must have realized that the bitter strife be-
tween the Huguenots and the Catholics was a
growing hatred, yet when the awful massacre
6 FRENCH PICTURES
came not only France but the whole world w^as
staggered at the crime.
For ten years the storm gathered; as early as
1562 the first blood drops fell; then in 1565, seem-
ingly to add to the fury of the deluge, Charles IX
and his mother, Catherine de' Medici, consulted
the infamous Duke of Alba of Spain, as to the
means of ridding France of the heretics. This
drew forth the reply,
"Take the big fish and let the small fry go ; one
salmon is worth more than a thousand frogs."
A study of the faces of the Clouets' portraits
reveals something of the passions that religious
fanaticism develops. It is quite worth our study
to pry into the motives that govern various
phases of the world's history through the artist's
interpretation of particular periods. Artists gain
an insight into the workings of the human mind
as expressed in the lineaments of the face and
body that few laymen understand.
I think we are a little surprised when we begin
to look into the art of a country to see how late
the artist is in seeing pictures in the surrounding
landscape. In fact some countries like Greece
and Italy never developed a pure landscape art;
and not until the nineteenth century was there
anywhere in the western world a definite land-
scape school. It is interesting, however, to watch
AND THEIR PAINTERS 7
the evolution of the pictorial value of trees and
fields, valley and plains, clouds and running
streams just for their own sake. This is particu-
larly true with French pictures and their painters.
It is the seventeenth century before the art
of France is strong enough to have its own school
of sculpture and painting and even then most of
the artists' work was done in Rome. This did
not prevent their strongest men from expressing
French traits in their works even if the method
used was learned from the Italians. When such
a painter as Nicolas Poussin (i 593-1 665), who
was born in Andelys on the Seine, painted land-
scape settings for his classic scenes, the trees and
grass and streams show the moist luxuriance of
the deciduous trees and moss covered stones of
France rather than the sun scorched hill-sides of
the more tropical Rome of Italy.
Poussin was a student; he knew his Bible and
his mythology. Legend and tradition were so
familiar to him that when he painted "The
Arcadian Shepherds," Royal Institute, Liverpool
(Fig. 4), we feel that they might have stepped
from Homer's galaxy of gods. These people
bear no relationship to the Norman peasants
neither are they playing at court life, yet a cer-
tain joyous lightheartedness keeps us mindful of
the French national characteristic. As we study
8 FRENCH PICTURES
the picture more closely we find the shepherds and
the maiden are reading the inscription "Et
Arcadia ego" on the old tombstone which they
have found.
Poussin, though the founder of the classic and
academic in French art, was too largely steeped
in classic art to definitely establish a native school.
Sir Joshua Reynolds expressed it in a nutshell, in
discussing Poussin's love of ancient sculpture and
the antique, when he wrote, *'He may be said to
have been better acquainted with them than with
the people who were about him." We are glad
that Louis XIII had the good sense to recognize
the real worth of Poussin. But even the pension
and a home in the Tuileries, given the artist on
his return to France in 1639 at the invitation
of the king, could not allay the jealous bickerings
of his rivals in France, so in three years Poussin
returned to Rome where he died at seventy-two.
In the Duchy of Lorraine only three miles
north of Charmes — the little city so familiar to
our soldier boys in 1918 — in the tiny hamlet of
Champagne is a tenderly cared for old house near
the end of the street leading to the common pas-
ture ground. This quaint old house attracts us
not because it is picturesque but that on its front
is a serpentine tablet inscribed with these
words: —
Fig. 4. — Arcadian Shepherds. Poussin. Royal Museum, Liverpool,
England.
Fig. 5. — Landscape. Lorrain. Louvre, Paris.
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 9
"Here was born in 1600 Claude Gellee, called
Lorrain, who died at Rome, November 25, 1682."
He was a stupid boy, this Claude Gellee; so
dull that his parents despaired of his even learn-
ing to bake a pie. An uncle advised, "If your
child is good for nothing else he will be good for
the church." Even this- was beyond the stolid
brain of Claude but to the good fortune of France
he finally became the servant of a Flemish artist
who took him to Rome — and then was born in
this French peasant lad the true art of France!
Little did the Flemish master's Italian friends
dream that the dullard who cooked the meals and
tended the table would outshine them all in their
chosen profession, painting. It matters little
whether Claude Lorrain was stupid and began his
art career in Rome as a servant or, according to
other authorities, that his relatives began early
to have him trained for an artist with the usual
ups and downs of bringing a hoped for genius
in the family to world fame. We do know that
today he stands as a master in painting.
As we look at the pictures of that wonderful
trio of painters — Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lor-
rain and the Italian, Salvator Rosa, we begin to
realize that they are seeing nature with under-
standing eyes even in classic Rome. And of
the three men Claude had the deeper vision.
10 FRENCH PICTURES
Again and again we find ourselves lingering be-
fore some painting of his like the "Classic Land-
scape," in the National Gallery, London (Fig.
5), feeling instinctively his appeal to our very
souls. He loved the classic but he loved nature
better. Look at these trees at the riijht. How
suggestive they are of the clumping together of
trees near a body of water in a native grove.
His loving sympathy allying him with nature's
preferences is seen in the overhanging clouds
peering at themselves in the placid water.
Classic! of course it is in the dismantled tower
and pillared shrine yet the people enjoying the
'Oool shade and smiling lake could mingle with
us and understand our daily problems.
Then, too, his classic knowledge was that of
one who appreciated the master attainments of
the past and realized their value in raising the
tone of the present. In his art we feel indeed
that ''Men may rise on stepping stones of their
dead selves to higher things." As we look at .
the ''Landing of Cleopatra at Tarsus," Louvre,
Paris (Fig. 6), we can no more rid ourselves of
the glorious history of the old city of Tarsus and
the part Cleopatra and Paul played in it, than
we can of the momentous events that were stir-
ring the people under Cardinal Richelieu, Maza-
rin, and Madame Pompadour in Claude's own
AND THEIR PAINTERS ii
day. Tarsus! how the very name stirs us.
Hark! we can almost hear Paul say to the chief
captain in Jerusalem, "I am a man which am a
Jew of Tarsus, a citizen of no mean city" (Acts
21 : 39). This city of Tarsus, a seaport in the
south east corner of Asia Minor, was a Greek
colony as early as b. c. 2000, then the Assyrians
and Persians laid claim to it, and in b. c. 334
Alexander came to the country. Pompey made
Latin Celicia a Roman province and Anthony
made Tarsus a free city about fifty years before
Christ. Tarsus, combining as it did the luxuri-
ance of the east and the enterprise of the west,
formed a wonderful setting for the young and
beautiful Cleopatra arriving in state. Claude
portrays the royal galley with a true oriental
spirit. The heavily ladened boats are approach-
ing the landing filled with treasures — gifts for
the haughty, powerful, vacillating, ease-loving
Mark Anthony. The meeting of these two in
Tarsus — Cleopatra of Egypt and Mark Anthony
of Rome — marked the retrogression that unfail-
ingly follows the lapse of the West into the life
of the luxury loving East.
There were three of the Le Nain brothers.
Though born outside of Paris, at Laon, naturally
they gravitated to that city as the centre of art
life brins^ing with them, however, the healthy in-
12 FRENCH PICTURES
fluence of Franz Hals. One of the brothers,
Louis Le Nain, called the Roman (1593?-
1648), was a man of the people reproducing with
his brush the simple daily tasks of those around
him. His paintings in the Louvre represent such
humble scenes as "The Family of the Smith"
where the man at the anvil turns expectantly to
the door as if watching for a customer. Another
interesting painting is a peasant family at their
simple meal, and still another "The Return from
the Fields" — all are portrayed so simply that they
are quite modern in their realism. It after all is
these natural artists of the people who pictured
the simple things of life that from the beginning
has coloured the whole art of France with delight-
fully national traits.
As we look at "The Mendicants," in the Metro-
politan Museum of Art (Fig. 7), we feel at once
that Le Nain (possibly the work of all three
brothers) has seen just such a scene many times.
There is nothing unusual to attract our atten-
tion, in fact, it is the very usualness of the scene
that holds us. We have passed these mendicants
in Paris even today but Le Nain, and other
artists like him, had to help us see them. See
how graciously the gentleman, apparently in a
hurry, stops to give to the beggar. Profession-
als ? of course they are, and the man knows it too
J
Fig. 7. — The Mendicants. Le Nain. Courtesy of the Metropohtan
Museum of Art, Xew York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 13
— yet who can resist a woman with a baby even
though said baby is happy in being strapped to
its mother's back? The archway is probably a
meeting-place for mendicants in general as those
with leisure and money often pass that way. Le
Nain's colour note of yellow-brown, alive under
the varying tints, perfectly fits the scene.
It is the genre artists of every age who, dealing
with the fundamentals of living, give us the na-
tional characteristics of a nation. If it were not
lor these history-recorders of the simple things
of life our knowledge of Egypt, Assyria, Baby-
lonia and other ancient peoples would be limited
indeed. The very fact that they deal with the
elemental, unchangeable needs of living creatures
makes their work understandable in any age and
enduring for all time.
CHAPTER II
LE SUEUR— LEBRUN—RIGAUD—
MIGNARD— CHAMPAIGNE
AFTER nearly two hundred years critics are
still disagreeing as to the influence of Louis
XIV (1638-1715) on the development of France.
The famous Cardinal Mazarin, who was the real
prime minister during the minority of Louis XIV,
and who had known the young king from baby-
hood was probably correct in estimating his char-
acter when he said, "He has in him the making of
four kings and one honest man."
Louis, the Great, a king at five years old, as-
sumed full power at fourteen and for seventy-
two years was absolute ruler of France. During
the early years of his reign the country was
weakened by a scheming court and harassed by
wars with bordering peoples. But gradually
Louis assumed all power until united the nation
gained the respect of the French people and was
feared by outside countries. He enlarged and
beautified Paris, the capital of his beloved France,
14
AND THEIR PAINTERS 15
organized and enriched her institutions and pat-
ronized her men of genius. Naturally when the
king began to encourage native talent many
writers, men of science and artists began to at-
tract public attention. The Academy of Paint-
ing and Sculpture founded during the regency of
Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, was
enlarged and a French School created in Rome.
Unfortunately few painters of real genius re-
sponded to the need of the hour — literature
reached a height unknown in France before —
but not so art. Poussin and Lorrain, living most
of their time in Rome, were too engrossed in
their own ideals to take up the bickerings that per-
tain to the workings of an Academy especially
when the work must reflect suggestions of the
dictators of the court.
There were a few artists in Paris at this time,
however, big enough to hold their own ideals and
who under more favorable circumstances might
have risen to the rank of great masters. Among
these was Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655), who
unfortunately died just as he reached his prime.
Le Sueur was born in Paris. He had his early
training in art under Simon Vouet. Later it was
his sfood fortune to meet Poussin who had re-
turned to Paris at the invitation of Louis XIII.
A warm friendship grew up between the two and,
i6 FRENCH PICTURES
when Poussin was being persecuted by the petty-
jealousies of the other painters, Le Sueur was
quick to defend the master. This friendship was
invaluable to young Le Sueur. The lofty senti-
ments of the older man strengthened the young
painter's earnest, sympathetic nature and wid-
ened his spiritual vision — a vision which later
captivated the hearts of the people. Many of
Le Sueur's pictures were of religious subjects
and the lives of the saints. Most of them he
painted for the Convent of Carthusians, w^here
he died; and on the walls of many churches of
Paris. His purity of style, sincerity in treatment
and joyous delicacy of colour were in strong con-
trast to the pomposity of much of the art of
the time.
In the Louvre we are attracted by his *'Jesus
•and the Magdalene" (Fig. 8), because of the
strong human element shown in the attitude of
the Magdalene. A moment before she was filled
with despair as she knelt before the empty tomb.
The supposed gardener pronounced her name.
She turns with outstretched arms to adore the
crucified One. We seem to hear the beloved
voice, saying, "Touch me not ; I am not yet as-
cended to my Father : but go to my brethren, and
say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and
your Father, and my God, and your God."
AXD THEIR PAINTERS 17
The arrangement of the picture is much Hke
that of Titian and Correggio's but in it is a cer-
tain element of faith that is lacking in the Italian
painters. True the artistic value of the picture
does not equal those masterpieces of a hundred
3'ears before yet we recognize the childlike belief
of Le Sueur and love his earnest striving to keep
the truth before his pleasure loving companions.
That he was called the "French Raphael" is evi-
dence of his hold on the hearts of his brother
workers.
Never in the history of art was there a more
propitious time for painters to cover themselves
with glory than under the rule of Louis XIV.
Walls of numerous palaces were to be decorated ;
tapestries to be designed ; public men and women
ready to have their portraits painted and a king
eager to foster the fine arts. But a walk through
the palace of Versailles soon convinces one that
favourable opportunities do not necessarily create
master painters; in fact, it often hinders the de-
velopment of true genius.
Charles Lebrun (1619-1690) was not a mas-
ter. He was a courtier and knew how to play
his cards well. His appointment as first painter
to the king and director of the Gobelin Tapestry
Works and of the Academy kept him in close
touch with Louis XIA^ until the day of his death.
i8 FRENCH PICTURES
And what a position of power and influence for
one man to hold — and that man not big enough
for his job! If only Rubens could have been the
man how magnificent would have been the art
treasures bequeathed to the world.
Lebrun was original in composition but his
fecundity in that direction was invariably to
flatter the overweening vanity of the king. To
be represented as an Alexander, and as a Caesar
with the palm of victory in his hand was most
pleasing to Louis and Lebrun found it the best
means to further his own high standing at court.
Even Charles Lebrun's religious subjects are
unique in selection. His "Christ in the Desert
Waited on by Angels," in the Louvre (Fig. 9)
is certainly a most unusual choice in Biblical
story. It is strange that none of the great artists
ever thought of selecting that verse : ''And behold
angels came and ministered unto him," for a
picture. If Lebrun's conception could have been
worked up with the magic of a master how dif-
ferent would have been the picture. To repre-
sent a figure balancing in mid-air with artistic
effect requires more genius than Charles Lebrun
possessed. The position of the angel is awkward
and uncertain and even the wings are of little
use either as assistance or ornament. Then, too,
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Fig. 10. — Portrait of Louis XIV. Kigaud. Palace at Versailles, France.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 19
his handling of light and colour has little of merit
to recommend it.
Lebrun was more fortunate in his designs for
tapestry. The Gobelins, the well known works
owned by the French Government, got its name
some hundred years before Louis XIV's time.
Jehan Gobelin, a Flemish dyer, came to Paris,
and monopolized the dyeing business. He built a
curious sort of unsightly building, later known
as "Gobelin's Folly." In this building was estab-
lished the manufacture of tapestries which be-
came famous as ''Gobelin Tapestry." Louis XIV
in 1667 enlarged and reorganized the plant, made
Lebrun the director, and ordered hangings for
the remodeled palace of Versailles. Lebrun was
in his element in making cartoons for tapestry
workers.
The most famous of his patterns reproduced
was, "The Battles of Alexander the Great." Of
course typifying Louis XIV. It was entirely in
keeping with Lebrun's policy that one cartoon
should represent "Louis XIV Visiting the Gobe-
lins." This tapestry is in the exhibition room
of the Gobelins factory today. Naturally
Lebrun represents the king in all the pomp and
glory of a supreme monarch. No one catered
more to Louis' excessive love of display than Le-
20 FRENCH PICTURES
brun yet he always painted him a sovereign —
after all is said Louis XIV was a King.
But not even Lebrun's portraits of the king
has equalled Hyacinthe Rigaud's (1659-1743)
portrayal of the grand monarch. This ''Portrait
of Louis XIV," Palace at Versailles, France (Fig.
10) will stand for all time as the epitome of a
ruler who brought absolutism to its highest mark
yet held the loyalty of his people. Rigaud un-
derstood what constituted good portraiture — his
portraits of his mother prove that — but it is this
portrait of Louis XIV that everybody remem-
bers the artist by. Not that this portrait stands
for great merit in portraiture but Rigaud was
really big enough to rise above the demands of
the vain ruler and paint a true likeness of him.
Pierre Mignard (i 610- 1695), nearly ten years
older than Lebrun, lived five years longer — long
enough to be appointed royal decorator. Louis
XIV, like many another tyrant, became very re-
ligious near the close of his life. Under the in-
fluence of Madame de Maintenon, whom he had
married in 1683, he became Jesuitical in persecu-
tions and then built churches and chapels as thank
offerings. These were decorated by Mignard. In
the church of Val de Grace is one of his frescos
though not very well preserved.
Mignard spent most of his time in Rome but he
AND THEIR PAINTERS 21
did leave some most valuable French portraits.
In the Portrait Gallery, London, is his famous
"Portrait of Louise de Keroual, Duchess of
Portsmouth" (Fig. if). Famous, possibly, be-
cause of the part Louise played during the Com-
monwealth when she was considered "a. national
nuisance," as mistress of Charles II, of England.
Louise appeared in England as maid of honour
to Henrietta, wife of the brother of Louis XIV
and sister of Charles II. Although, in 1673 she
was naturalized in England and created duchess
of Portland and her son by Charles II was created
duke of Richmond, she deserted the king in his
time of need. She did, however, hang weeping
over his dying form only to hear him whisper of
another mistress, "Do not let poor Nellie starve."
A portrait of Nell Gwyn, by Sir Peter Lely, hangs
in the same room with this portrait of the Duchess
of Portsmouth. After the death of Charles
Louise returned to France and spent the remain-
der of her Hfe in Aubigny, a fief granted her by
Louis XIV.
Mignard's "Portrait of a Child" (Fig. 12) has
a glimmer of real little girlhood in it. The prim
precise pose of the little miss is delicious in its
unconscious following of explicit directions. The
child is entering into having her picture painted
as part of her day's fun. She really could run
22 FRENCH PICTURES
and play though Mignard had no idea of giving
that impression. Even the bright eyed dog is
waiting for the word "go!" Mignard has come
near a genuine picture possibly because the child
is waiting for a frolic with him as soon as the
sitting is over.
Philippe de Champaigne (1602- 1674) was born
in Brussels but early in his art career he went to
France. His portraits alone raised him to the
rank of a master among the French artists. In
them we learn the manner of men and women
gathered at the court of Louis XIV. Unafraid
he dared give in the likeness of his sitters what
lay beneath the surface. He did, however, give
in detail the fashion of ornaments, the exact cut
of shoes, gloves and collar, the curl of the wig
and the placing of the beauty spot, for such de-
tails were not trifles in the eyes of the public of
that day.
While Champaigne's strength is in his por-
traits, yet when he combines his religious art
with the former he really shows his best side.
This is especially true in his ''Portraits of Mother
Catherine Agnes Armand and Sister Catherine
of St. Susan," Louvre, Paris (Fig. 13). And
when we recall that this picture is a thank-offer-
ing for the recovery of the artist's young daugh-
ter we begin to realize the spirit of prayer filled
Fi(i. 11. — Portrait of Duchess of Portsmouth. Mignard. Portrait
(Jallery, London.
Fig. 12.— Portrait of a Child. Mijiiianl.
Fig. 13. — Portraits of Mother Catherine and Sister Catherine.
Chanipaigne. Louvre, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 23
with thanksgiving. The daughter sitting in the
chair below the simple cross shows in her peace-
ful face and lightly folded hands the glad ex-
pression of one who feels the beautiful vigor of
youth returning to her. In the Latin inscrip-
tion above the mother superior Champaigne has
expressed his great gratitude for the recovery of
his precious child. That these are portraits of
people the artist knew, loved and respected is evi-
dent in every line of the work. They are like-
nesses that not only no friend would fail to recog-
nize but they interpret to us the character of
those women of two hundred years ago. It is
not surprising that both France and Flanders
wish to claim Champaigne among their list of
artists.
CHAPTER III
WATTEAU— NATTIER— CHARDIN
IT is hopeless to look for artists big enough to
rise above the absolutism of Louis XIV. The
whole court was one grand pose. Louis, abso-
lute monarch at fourteen, enveloped in the robes
and manners of the all powerful, succeeded in
bringing France to a marvellous point of glory,
yet in the end the frail human figure under those
robes and manners failed to come up to true
greatness, and poor France again declined. That
the seventeenth century produced brilliant intel-
lects none will deny. That great movement — the
French Academy of Painting and Sculpture —
started in the right direction to develop funda-
mentally an artistic nation. But when it comes
to individual painters who could have stood
shoulder to shoulder with the great Italians of
Michael Angelo's time there were none.
The reign of Louis XIV stands as a peculiar
example of strength and weakness in the history
of the French nation. That the French nation
had never before — and certainly not since — at-
24
AND THEIR PAINTERS 25
tained so wide a material reach, or such heights
of prosperity in material riches, or such lavish
embellishment of Paris and its environs, no one
can gainsay. But all these spectacular acquire-
ments which brought the nation to the crest of
greatness could not hold it there for lack of ade-
quate foundations. Possibly when Bolingbrooke
wrote of Louis XIV, "If he was not the greatest
king, he was the best actor of majesty, at least,
that ever filled a throne," he put his finger on
Louis' weakest point — an actor of majesty.
The artists of Louis XIV's time were either re-
corders of passing events or portrayers of indi-
vidual men and women producing those events.
But they were not masters either in historic sub-
jects or in portraiture. For nearly a century
there was not a painter in France who could keep
alive the great art of the past or give to French
art a national character. The eighteenth cen-
tury marks another period in French history and
French art. When Louis XIV died in 171 5, the
very absolutism which in his hands brought
France to the height of her glory was the cause
of her downfall. A reaction set in and an un-
precedented reign of pleasure began.
Antoine Watteau (i 684-1 721) stood at the
parting of the ways. Though really of Flemish
origin, for his native city, Valenciennes, was in
26 FRENCH PICTURES
Flanders until captured by the army of Louis
XIV and assigned by treaty to France in 1678,
he became so pronouncedly French that he stands
as the first real exponent of French art. He saw
little of the pomp and splendour of Louis XIV,
for the real glory was rapidly giving place to a
fantastic mood that deteriorated into simply play-
ing at living. Watteau's life was really at vari-
ance to his art and his pictures are a constant
surprise to us. Restless, irritable, unsatisfied and
physically ill he continually changed his place of
abode always wishing it was some other spot than
he one he had chosen, yet the tranquillity that per-
vades his canvasses fill us with the joy of con-
tentment. Not the slightest suggestion of world
weariness creeps into his pictures. Could any-
thing radiate the pure joy of living more than
"Gilles," Louvre, Paris (Fig. 14)? He is every
inch a fun maker. No wonder that when he ap-
peared the audience was ready to shout with
lau,s:hter. There he stands as much at ease as
a child and with much the same look of wonder
that comes to a child's face when he suddenly sees
a crowd of people. Only Gilles will not cry out
with fright, for in his eyes is a merry twinkle
of understanding. When Watteau gave "Gilles"
to the world he forever quieted the critic who as-
serted that his talent lay in little figures, for here
Fig. 14. — Gilles. Watteau. Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 15. — Embarcation for Cj'thcre. Wattcau. Louvre, Par.s.
Fig. 16. — Gersaint's Sign Board. Wattcau. Royal Palace, Berlin.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 27
is a masterpiece in French art that belongs to
the ages. See how the simple white costume
sparkles and gleams in the quivering air. And
how tantalizing the other figures appearing from
below; and the doctor on the donkey at the left,
what is it that so amuses him? The picture is
full of the poetry of elusive Hght, of trembling
shadows, of bewitching colour, yet it is the indi-
viduality of Gilles and his companions who fasci-
nate us.
We realize as we look at Watteau's "Embar-
cation for Cythere," Louvre, Paris (Fig. 15),
that the longed for glory of Louis XIV repre-
sented in the portrayal of great achievements,
has given place to a scene of joy and happiness.
There is no lack of dignity and decorum in this
company gathering to take boat for the wonder-
ful island, possibly Crete, where Aphrodite had
her realm. The FrencH people fairly caught
their breath at the glory of the picture. Never
had such splendour of colour, ease and grace of
figures, delicate handling of flowers and foliage,
and poetic quality of composition been seen in
French art before. Watteau at once became the
idol of art-loving Paris. He painted two pic-
tures of this subject — the first, our illustration,
gave him admission to the French Academy
though it was scarcely more than a sketch. The
28 FRENCH PICTURES
picture has the undefinable radiance of an in-
spired impulse — a rare moment even in a true
genius.
The French picture dealer, Edme-Franqois Ger-
saint, a very close friend of Watteau, tells a curi-
ous tale about the artist painting "Gersaint's
Sign Board," Royal Palace, Berlin (Fig. i6).
He says that Watteau came to him one day in
172 1, and asked if he might paint him a sign
board "in order to limber up his fingers." Ger-
saint thought it a waste of Watteau's precious
time but gave his consent. The signboard, now
in two parts, was painted direct from actual
scenes and so wonderfully true to life that not
only the people" but the artists from far and near
came to see it. Watteau did the work in eight
days painting only in the mornings. Gersaint
says that the artist confessed, "It is the only one
of his works that in any way aroused his self-
conceit."
Playing at living that characterized the eight-
eenth century in France naturally lowered the
moral and intellectual tone of the people and any
artist of this century who could picture the ten-
dency of the times, as Watteau did, without be-
coming petty and insignificant in his art was cer-
tainly a master. He never erred in giving
charm to his compositions and" his keen apprecia-
AND THEIR PAINTERS 29
tion of the decorative effect of delicately elusive
colour is perfect, while his bolder hues give per-
manence to his pictures. It would scarcely be
possible to form a just judgment of the reign of
Louis XV without Watteau's pictures. Young
as the artist was, he died at thirty-seven, he un-
derstood the canker that was sapping the virility
of France. But with an artist's instinct he
masked the creeping paralysis under exquisite
gowns and elaborate coiffeurs, decorated with fin-
est laces and sparkling jewels. So bewitching
were the styles of his flowing folds that the
"Watteau Pleat" became the fashion of his day
— a fashion many times in vogue since then.
Jean-Marc Nattier was born in Paris in 1685,
a year later than Watteau, and lived for eighty-
one years (died 1766). He saw the absolutism
established by Louis XIV become in the weak
hands of Louis XV and his advisors the ruin of
France. What a pity that Nattier with this won-
derful opportunity to read the signs of the times
in the faces of his numberless royal and noble sit-
ters, saw nothing below the surface. If only he
had had the penetrating insight that Watteau
showed in his interpretation of the times, his gal-
axy of French portraits would be invaluable as a
biographical history.
Both Nattier's parents were artists and from
30 FRENCH PICTURES
early childhood Jean-Marc made wonderful copies
of the old masters*' works. He copied Rigaud's
portrait of Louis XIV (see Fig. lo) with such
skill that it was shown to the monarch who re-
marked to the child/'Monsieur, continue to work
thus and you will become a great man." The
architect, Mansart, of Mansart roof renown,
was so pleased with the boy-artist's copies of
Lebrun's battlepieces that he gave him a small
allowance from the Academy benefit-fund for de-
serving people. However, neither the precocious-
ness of youth nor the patronage of the great could
make Nattier a great" artist. No one will deny
that Nattier was a genius in painting faithful
likenesses of royal princesses and court favour-
ites and yet always making them beautiful. Just
what he did to transform ugliness of face and
form into comely likenesses on canvas was the
artist's own secret. Naturally Nattier w-as the
idol of the hour. Every beauty and would-be
beauty wanted her portrait painted — he rarely
painted until he was fairly swamped with com-
missions. His portraits of Louis XV's family, a
wife and ten children — eight of them daughters
— alone testify to his marvellous industry. And
the portraits of the queen are the most perfect ex-
amples of his ability to flatter truthfully.
As we look at the "Portrait of Marie Lecz-
Fig. 17. — Portrait of Queen Leczinska.
France.
Nattier. Palace of Versailles,
Fig. is.— The Magdalene. Xaltier.
Louvre, Pari.s.
i'lG. lU. — The Blessing. Chardin. Louvre,
Paris.
Fig. 20. — Still Life. Chardin. Louvre,
Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 31
niska, Queen of France," Versailles, France (Fig.
.17), we are convinced that something more than
skill in laying on pigment belonged to Nattier.
However much we admire her exemplary conduct
amid the flimsy, immoral, unstable life of the de-
generate court we know that she was not brilliant
of mind nor beautiful in person. Her marriage
to the beautiful young king, then fifteen while she
was twenty-two, was one of convenience. That
no word of scandal ever touched her in the great
Palace of Versailles may have inspired Nattier
with the motif in her personality most charming
to us. The queen was fifty-five ( i74cS) when this
portrait was exhibited. Her robe of red velvet
trimmed with dark fur and the filmy lace cap, neck
piece and sleeves set against the soft green cur-
tain, give even greater brilliancy to her lovely
pink and white skin. No wonder that the people
loved this gentle woman. Those tender eyes
and smiling lips were never harsh in judgment
though they brooked no breach of court etiquette.
Not even the "Penitent Magdalene," Louvre
(Fig. 18), with eyes swimming in tears could
Nattier paint otherwise than a dainty posed
maiden with every accessory used as a foil to en-
hance her beauty of person and posture. The
whole picture is such a travesty of the subject that
it would be absurd only that its Frenchy charm
32 FRENCH PICTURES
captivates. That the little lady is about as peni-
tent as any Magdalene of that day would be is
very evident. Playing at penitence was only an-
other phase of the light, frothy game of living.
The great popularity that was Nattier's in middle
life could not last and he came to realize, his
daughter Madame Tocque writes, "That he had
outlived his reputation."
Probably of all the French artists of the eight-
eenth century Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
(1699-1779) remains still a world master for ex-
cellence. Why? Because he told the truth sim-
ply and artistically. His art career is one of
those anomalies in the life of individuals that no
psychological reasoning explains. Living as he
did when false standards were popular, when sur-
face values were above par, when reputation
counted for more than character, when artists
were catering to a shallow, fickle public Chardin
saw beauty in the humdrum doings and surround-
ings of the common or vulgar. This man with a
vision was a true artist. Chardin was born of
the people. Not even the fact that his father
made billiard-tables for the king could fill the
family larder or give his children distinction
above the middle class. But fortunately the
elder Chardin did recognize little Jean's talent
AND THEIR PAINTERS 33
for painting and sent him to the studio of Cazes,
a history painter of the day.
The first we really hear of Chardin's work as
an artist is a sign board he painted for a barber-
surgeon friend who had stipulated that the imple-
ments of his trade should be represented. But
this was not Chardin's idea of a sign board.
Without betraying his intentions he took a board
fourteen feet wide by two feet high and portrayed
a scene that was happening before the surgeon's
/ery door. A man having been severely wounded
in a street brawl is being attended by the barber-
surgeon while the gathered crowd are watching
proceedings with the greatest excitement.
Early one Sunday morning Chardin put the
sign board in place above the shop. Very soon a
crowd began to gather but when the owner saw
what Chardin had done he first was ready to tear
his hair with vexation but as more and more peo-
ple kept coming to view the picture, he found his
business was increasing and vexation turned to
joy.
These homely scenes of daily life appealed to
the hearts of the people. Nothing could be more
charming than this little painting of "The Bles-
sing," Jahan-Marcille Collection. Paris (Fig.
19), yet it attracted so much attention that the
34 FRENCH PICTURES
artist painted five of the same subject. He has
added the extra figure to the left in the illustra-
tion. The arrangement is simplicity itself. The
little one on the low stool with her hands clasped
is intent on saying her own little blessing before
she, too, may have the dish of soup her mother has
ready for her. Exquisite in colour and palpita-
ting with light it sooths and charms like music
from a perfectly tuned instrument.
Chardin pictures not only the family around the
table but the implements used in preparing the
meal. Look at this bit of ''Still Life," La Case
Collection, Louvre (Fig. 20), and see how free
from pettiness is his detailed description of the
brass kettle and the other articles. Such a kettle
is a parlour ornament indeed! Most of his early
paintings were still life — dead life, as the French
say, — subjects that belong to all time, but his do-
mestic scenes are so intimate that we feel the
warmth of personal contact with those French
homes of the eighteenth century.
Is it possible that the "Morning Toilet," Na-
tional Museum, Stockholm (Fig. 21), is only a
painting. There is such an atmosphere of reality
about it that we wonder if the toilet is not actu-
ally being made before us. Surely the little girl
will speak when her mother has finished tying the
bow. It is impossible to tell why such a picture
Fig. 21. — The Morning Toilet. Chardin. National Museum, Stockholm.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 35
gets into our very being. We know that Chardin
was master of everything that enters into the
making of a picture. As a colourist his contem-
porary, Diderot, exclaimed,
"He is the painter who understands the har-
mony of colour and reflections. O, Chardin, it is
not white, red nor black that you grind to powder
on your palette ; it is the very substance of the ob-
jects themselves. It is the air and light that you
take on the point of your brush and fix upon the
canvas."
CHAPTER IV
BOUCHER— LA TOUR— FRAGONARI>—
GREUZE
FRANCOIS BOUCHER (1703-1770) holds a
strangely peculiar position in the history of
French art in the eighteenth century. He was a
man of so many parts that he knew no limitations.
Louis XIV was dead and with him died the bom-
bast of the times but not the extravagances. This
grand monarch, like Augustus Caesar, found a
Paris of brick and made it a city of marble.
Palaces sprang up over the country of France
where before were only marshes and bare plains.
And then came Madame de Pompadour and
Francois Boucher ! True Louis XV was king in
name but so completely was he under the baleful
influence of the marchioness that her word was
his law. She placed men in high places perfectly
incompetent; generals and ministers were ap-
pointed and dismissed with such rapidity that
Voltaire described them as ''tumbling over each
other like figures of a magic lantern." Extrava-
gance of court, ruinous taxation and terrible in-
3G
AND THEIR PAINTERS 37
justice to the people had aroused pubHc opinion —
a pubHc that inchided all classes — until disaster
was so imminent that even the selfish king was
aroused only, however, to remark, "Matters will
go on as they are so long as I live: my successor
may get out of the difficulty as well as he can."
And, ''After us, the deluge," repeated Madame
Pompadour.
We can well understand what kind of an art to
expect with such a background. And no one was
more fitted to accommodate himself to the varying
whims of monarch and mistress than the versatile
Frangois Boucher. Pie could paint allegory or
religious subject, the gods of Olympus or the
beauties of Louis XV court with equal facility.
Or he could model a palace, lay out a garden, de-
sign dainty costumes or plan sumptuous meals
with the same consummate skill. That he never
rose to the height of a master in any of these call-
ings is true but it is equally true that he chron-
icled unerringly the instability of the times. His
numberless pictures in fresco and pastel and on
canvas were in every royal residence, and his sub-
jects were so varied that they fitted into church,
theatre, or palace without a jarring note. There
is always a lack of the permanent element in these
decorative displays of Boucher's that is evident in
the froth of a ball room.
38 FRENCH PICTURES
Many of his pictures are still in their original
settings but even they give the tawdry effect
of the day after the ball. As we stand before
his decorations in the Grand Trianon, Versailles,
and examine "Neptune and Amymone" (Fig.
22) the artificiality palls on us. There is lacking
the genuine love of beauty for its own sake.
Even the story of Amymone does not seem to
have warmed Boucher's heart. Wrapped up in
this legend is one of the oldest allegories of the
near East. Amymone was one of fifty daughters
of Danaos, who was the grandson of Neptune.
(Poseidon), and the founder of Argos in
Greece. Amymone discovered a well in Argos
when the country was suffering from drought,
in this manner: Neptune loved Amymone and
allowed her to take his trident to touch the rock.
A spring gushed forth with three outlets. Amy-
mone's father Danaos had a twin brother Egyp-
tos who had fifty sons. These sons married the
daughters of Danaos and taught the Argives
to dig wells in Argos, because the soil was like a
sieve, and irrigate their fields like the Egyptians.
But the daughters of Danaos were displeased
with the marriage arrangements and all but one
murdered her husband on the wedding night. As
a just judgment they all were compelled in Hades
to everlastingly draw water with sieves from
Fig. 22. — Neptune. Boucher. Grand Trianon, Versailles.
Flu. 23. — Mdme. de Pompadour. Boucher. Louvre, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 39
deep wells. According to Bucher's version Nep-
tune seems to have remembered his love for
Amymone and has come to rescue her.
Naturally Boucher painted many pictures of
Madame de Pompadour. For twenty years she
was the most powerful woman at the French
court. No one did her bidding more often than
Boucher. They consulted together daily over
garden fetes, and masked balls, over wall decora-
tions and appropriate furnishings, in fact every
detail of living was submitted to the artistic
taste of these two. In most of the portraits of
Madame de Pompadour, Boucher really sums up
the rococo of the eighteenth century. No one
stood for that decadent, unorganized art more
than he did. This is seen even in the gowns
where ruffle and rouche and flower, bow, lace
and ribbon follow each other in amazing pro-
fusion of crimps and crinkles and shimmers.
However, Boucher does paint one "Portrait of
Madame de Pompadour," Louvre (Fig. 23),
where the texture of the silk alone is ornament
enough to set off the charms of the lady. But
even here stone balustrade and statues are be-
decked with scrambling vines in a meaningless
mass both confusing and annoying.
This style of art, still seen in the homes and
grounds of the parvenu and also copied by his
40 FRENCH PICTURES
followers, is the bane of art lovers today. Over
decoration is never good form even when each
flower, leaf and bud is done delicately and with
artistic taste. That Boucher has given a most
accurate picture of the mental calibre of his day
is no doubt true but that in so doing he recorded
the dominent characteristics of the French race
is not true. Voltaire spoke much truer in his
cutting invectives, sarcastic witticisms, and
wholesale revelation of injustice. What cared
he for prison walls! His was the spirit of
France aroused to see the wrongs of her people.
A strange genius was Maurice-Quentin de La
Tour (1707- 1 788). As a worker in pastel few
have ever equalled him, and none made more per-
manent his finished work than did La Tour. The
joy of the ''Portrait of Madame de Pompadour,"
Louvre (Fig. 24), is its pristine beauty of colour
and tone after nearly two hundred years. No
modern loom could impart a finer sheen to white
satin or give richer tints to gold embroidered
designs than La Tour worked into that brilliant
gown. Then, too, the books on the table and the
music in her hands show that he understands
the early tactics of the wily marquise to hold the
variable Louis XV. She probably is just begin-
ning (1755) to realize, as her listening attitude
indicates, that she must regulate not music and
Fig. 24. — Mdiuc. do roiupadour. La Tour. Louvro, Paris.
Fig. 25. — 'Ihv Daupliiiic. L:i Tour.
Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 26. — Manelli. La Tour. Museum Saint Quentin, France.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 41
reading alone but affairs of state as well if she
is to be supreme.
A curious story is told with the history of this
portrait of La Tour's arrogance that even the
king had to endure. Only after the most per-
suasive entreaty would he consent to go to Ver-
sailles and then with the promise that no one
should interrupt them at the sittings. When La
Tour presented himself at Madame de Pompa-
dour's he proceeded to make himself at home.
He removed his wig and hung it on a candle-
stick, took off his garters, unbuckled his shoes,
donned a silk cap and began to work. Very
shortly the door opened and the king walked in.
La Tour laid down his crayons, took up his wig
and garters and said, retiring, ''You promised,
Madame, that your door should be closed to
visitors." Even to the king's good-natured re-
quest that he go on with his work, he replied, "It
is impossible for me to obey your majesty. I will
return when Madame is alone. I don't like to
be interrupted." The surprising fact is that this
strange man held sway over his patrons until
his death at eighty-four years of age.
This ''Portrait of Louis, Dauphine of France,"
in the Louvre (Fig. 25), La Tour made ten years
before he was made painter to the king and when
the young prince was about ten years old (1740).
42 FRENCH PICTURES
The boy is every inch a prince from rose-coloured
coat crossed by a band of blue watered ribbon,
of the Order of the Holy Ghost — to the decora-
tions marking his royal birth. At sixteen the
Dauphine married the youngest daughter of
Philip V of Spain. The girl-wife died within a
year. At once another wife was sought from
among the princely families of Europe. The
authorities decided on Marie Josephine, the
daughter of the Elector of Saxony, King of Po-
land. This was not a happy union but fortu-
nately the prince soon died which saved him from
being Louis XVI — and from the scaffold.
It is delightful to get away from royalty with
its stupid, scheming underlings and see what real
people are doing in the eighteenth century. And
where could one find more real life than in a
company of strolling Italian opera singers. In
the "Portrait of Manelli, the Leading Buffoon,"
Museum of St. Ouentin, France (Fig. 26), La
Tour portrays a grin that is contagious from its
very genuineness. The man could no more help
grinning at the absurdities of life than he could
help breathing. And then the audacity of La
Tour in exhibiting the portrait ! When this troup
of Italians came to Paris, at once the whole city
was divided as to which nation had the better mu-
sic — Italy or France. Naturally the king and
X
^
c
fo
Fig. 28. — The Swing. Fragonard. Wallace Collection, London.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 43
Madame de Pompadour decided in favour of
France and just as naturally La Tour favoured
Italy. But the king, having the greater author-
ity, banished the Italians from France and La
Tour, having the greater talent, immortalized the
Italian buffoon, Manelli — and sent the portrait
to the Salon of 1753. Exit Louis XV! Enter
Manelli ! !
If possible every one ought to see or to have
seen (it is doubtful if much remains of the town
today) La Tour's collection of portraits in the
museum of his native town, St. Quentin, France.
Such a typical array of notables seen through
the eyes of one who could read the inward parts,
could scarcely be imagined. Beginning with
Louis XV, his queen, Marie Leczinska and his
two famous mistresses, Madame de Pompadour
and Madame du Barry; then follows men and
women representing every phase of mental ac-
tivity. There was the philosopher Rousseau, the
dancer Mademoiselle Camaigo, the Alarshal
Saxe, the economist Forbonnais, the Prince Xa-
vier of Saxony, the Abbe LIuber, the painter
Chardin and a host of others all looking out at us
with an intelligence that fairly startles in its
insistence. We can forgive La Tour's physical
weakness, real or imaginary, that prevented him
from painting in oil so long as he was a master
44 FRENCH PICTURES
in pastel and spared no time nor stren^^th in re-
cording the underlying forces at work in the
eighteenth century. His portraits are priceless
treasures in portraiture.
We find ourselves halting between two opin-
ions in estimating Jean-Honore Fragonard's
( 1732-1806) work. No one could call him a great
master though he perfectly reflects the last gasp
of the decadent court. The efl'ort required to
play at living was requiring a constant spur.
Red-blooded men of afifairs were at a premium.
Enjoyment like a flash in the pan, came only
with fresh and unusual incentives and Frags —
the artist's pet name — was a genius in represent-
ing just this glitter and sparkle on the surface
of things that tickled the fancy. He did not hesi-
tate at times to captivate the jaded pleasure seeker
with scenes dangerously near the borderland of
propriety, but his true artistic sense kept him on
safe ground. It is really impossible to under-
stand the wonderful restraint of an artist like
Fragonard whose versatility and personal respon-
siveness were excessive without remembering the
degeneracy of the age and the constant demands
for appropriate decorations in the palace of each
new favourite.
An unusually attractive picture of his, and one
that must have brought a genuine spark of en-
AND THEIR PAINTERS 45
thusiasm is, "Now listen! I want you to say
Tlease,'" Louvre (Fig. 27). It is astonishing
that any artist at this time should have thought
of using these really human children and Frago-
nard was just the man to dare make the combi-
nation of court lady and rag-a-muffins. The
little vagrants are full of the mischief of
childhood. What care they that their fun
is simply to amuse the jaded beauty ! caresses and
food is what they want. Surely Fragonard has
been with little tots and learned of them.
In "The Swing," the Wallace Collection, Lon-
don (Fig. 28), the exquisite light and shade, the
delicate play of colour and the gnarled and twisted
tree form a charming setting for the swinger.
The gay abandon of the scene annuls the criticism
of its being frivolous. Fragonard was born in
the south of France, at Grasse, a little town
near Nice. His southern inheritance grafted
on the court life of Louis XV was just the combi-
nation to make him peculiarly fitted to represent
French art of the eighteenth century.
We like to believe that this "Portrait of Benja-
min Franklin" (Fig. 29), is a genuine Fragonard.
We wonder what mutual bond brought these
two men together.
The portrait was bought by the American
painter, Mr. P. A. Gross, some years ago. French
46 FRENCH PICTURES
critics believe the picture to be by Fragonard.
The facts are well known that the artist and
Franklin were friends and that the former made
an allegorical engraving of the famous Quaker.
Strange coincidence that these two men so un-
like in temperament, training and environment
should have become friends. One represented a
people standing for belief in God, moral upright-
ness and integrity; the other for a people in
the last stages of a born-to-rule kingdom, but a
kingdom out of which was to come the glorious
French Republic of today. Who knows but
that Franklin recognized in this artist of diversi-
fied talents the spirit that would finally triumph,
though a revolution of bloodshed must needs
come first. One cannot come in close touch with
the artists of France during the reigns of Louis
XIV and XV without being convinced that the
fundamental principal in art is the cord that holds
the nation and binds it to all free peoples on the
earth. This elemental cord made up of truth, sim-
plicity and harmony, has been drawing on human-
ity since time began. Not always are its twists
and turns understandable; and many times it
binds too tight and again too loose, but neverthe-
less it constantly tends to unify the human race.
No one can look at the Assyrian Lioness of 4000
B. c. and Barry's lion of the Tuileries 1900 a. d.
Fig. 29. — Portrait of Benjamin Franklin. I'ragonard.
Private Collection.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 47
without recognizing that the same elemental cord
is in them both. Certainly Fragonard failed in
making this elemental cord felt in many of his
pictures, yet when a personality like Franklin's
touched him a hidden strength was awakened and
a new power shone out from his canvas. We are
fortunate in having the frescos of an entire room
of Fragonards. Mr. Pierpont Morgan brought
these frescos to the United States and now they
are in place in Mr. Henry Frick's new home on
Fifth Avenue, New York City.
When Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805)
painted "The Broken Pitcher," Louvre (Fig. 30),
all Paris was eager to do him honour yet when
he came to the end of life and Napoleon heard of
his death, he exclaimed, "Dead! Poor and neg-
lected! Why did he not speak? I would gladly
have given him a pitcher of Sevres filled with
gold for every copy ever made of his 'Broken
Pitcher.' " Public taste is as variable as the
w^eather cock on the steeple but like the prover-
bial cock with its teeterings this way and that it
does trend toward right judgment in the final
reckoning. The surprise is that any art so in-
sipid as Greuze's held the public taste at all. The
only possible excuse must be the nauseated condi-
tion of the public, fed up on pictures of royalty
until any antidote was acceptable. Greuze chose
48 FRENCH PICTURES
his subjects from among the people and used
his art to point a moral. But unfortunately
Greuze was not a Hogarth though he thought
to purify society with his brush.
The one subject Greuze did treat with fair
success was ''Maidenhood," National Gallery,
London (Fig. 3). Over and over again he
painted the young girl of France but not the
universal young girl who is,
"Standing with reluctant feet
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet!
Gazing, with a timid glance.
On the brooklet's swift advance,
On the river's broad expanse!"
•No, no, the guiding spirit of childhood has turned
away from his worldly-wise maidens. They no
longer hear voices or see visions; they have lost
the wistful, hesitating charm of innocent wonder-
ing that Longfellow understood so well was the
girl's birthright a half century ago. Greuze
did paint well the physical charms of youth —
none knew better than he how to fluff the hair,
tint the cheeks, pout the cherry-red lips, open the
startled eyes or slyly peep from under the droop-
ing lids. But no awakening soul shines in the
opening flower. No spiritual element breathes
from the physical beauty.
-J
tiG. 30. — Thi' broken I'iu-lKM-. Creuze.
Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 31. — Maidenhood. Greuze.
National Gallery, London.
Fig. 32. — The Village Bride. Greuze. Louvre,
Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 49
Greuze's inordinate vanity in his own work
would show itself in such expressions as, "Here
is a picture which astonishes me who painted it.
It is perfectly incomprehensible how a man can
put so much life into a canvas." This self praise
made him very unpopular with artists and even
his friends — men like Diderot, who was at first
loud in his praise, would say, ''He is a little vain,
our painter, but his vanity is that of a child, the
indication of genius. Take his naivete from
him and you take away his spirit ; the fire would
be extinguished and all his charm gone."
Greuze really specialized in two subjects, the
young girl and illustrative pictures. Of the lat-
ter he planned a series of twenty-six on "The
two Educators." Something on the order of Ho-
garth's "Industry and Idleness," but this he never
finished. When "The Village Bride," Louvre
(Fig. 32), w^as exhibited in 1761 the public knew
no bounds in its praise of the painting; and no
doubt, as Diderot wrote, "It certainly is the best
thing he has painted," which does not, however,
make it a masterpiece. Diderot does go to say
that it "does him honour both as a painter skilled
in his art and as a man of taste and genius."
It seems strange that so brilliant a man as the
art critic, Diderot, should have been so blinded
to the weakness of Greuze. That "The Village
50 FRENCH PICTURES
Bride" was more than acceptable at the time of
mirest and storm, when home centres were being
contaminated with loose, disintegrating ele-
ments is natural. Doubtless some thinking peo-
ple — yes, and unthinking ones too, felt conscience
tweaking a little and were eager to welcome any
sign that indicated a return to purer ideals. If
only Greuze could have given a semblance of
truth and sincerity in picturing this scene so preg-
nant with higher thoughts. A picture showing
a return to the belief that the marriage ceremony
was indeed a holy wedlock entered into with the
blessing of God was unique because such a be-
lief was rare in these degenerate days. We feel
that the yearning gesture of the old father's
trembling arms does give a glimmer of real
feeling and that the blushing bride does faintly
suggest serious thoughts stirring in her silly head.
CHAPTER V
DAVID
THERE are people not really great who,
somehow in the march of events, are
markers along- the way indicating progress, and
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was one of
these markers. The French were tired of being
fed on "Rococo" in everything that pertained to
life. Things spectacular, sentimental and un-
real had distorted the mind and warped the judg-
ment until everything was in a state of ferment.
The Revolution had become a reality. Playing
at living was at an end. How to get back sta-
bility was the burning question. Fortunately
art, which never fails as a source of strength, was
found a steadying force. It matters little how
low men drag these elemental forces, they never
kill the producing germs.
David, a native of Paris, grew up in the atmos-
phere of revolution and evolution. At a very
early age he began drawing from the antique
and during this formative period he was under
the instruction of the painter, Joseph Marie Vien,
51
52 FRENCH PICTURES
in Rome, who had studied the classic Greek first
hand. At twenty-two David decided to win the
Grand Prize of Rome but failed to gain the
honour. Then, like many another sensitive art
student, he proceeded to starve himself to death.
When he came to himself, or rather when his
friends brought him to himself, he was given
an order, by an opera dancer, to finish some rococo
decorations begun by Fragonard. Success in
this work put life into him and again he competed
for the Prize of Rome and won. And now began
the real development of the man who was to
be "the great high priest of classicism." But, as
is usually true, this movement toward the classic,
headed by David, also struck the extreme and then
another upheaval in art followed.
An account of the life of David is really a his-
tory of France from the time Louis XVI sat in-
securely on the throne, through the revolution,
the marvellous career of Napoleon even to the re-
turn of the kingdom with Louis XVIII as king.
The history of David's art career embodies the
growing discontent in the Academy its division,
with David as the head of the insurgents, and
the development of an entirely new attitude
toward art. Both these movements were the
natural products of the destruction of royalty
and the construction of a republic. David, how-
AND THEIR PAINTERS 53
ever, did not live to see the latter ; he only heard
faint murmurings of the great Barbizon awaken-
ing. Portraiture was really the high water mark
of David's art. His classic training kept the
accessories simple and restrained while his in-
tense nature, eagerly absorbing every changing
aspect of national affairs, gave him an insight into
the mental attitude of his sitters. The struggle
between royalist and radical usually found him
leaning to the one in power — first he was painter
to Louis XVI, then he was Napoleon's right hand
man — ever swinging with the ruling force.
This weakness often lost him his liberty and
nearly his life.
David, so constantly mixed up with affairs
of state — posing to keep faith wnth the extreme
royalist on the one hand and the extreme re-
publican (the "Sansculotte," ragged-fellow) on
the other — has given many side lights revealing
the men who held the real binding cord that was
ever saving France. In this picture of "Michel
Gerard and his Family," Museum of Le Mans,
France (Fig. 33), he gives us a portrait of the
man elected by the people of the city of Rheims,
France, to represent them in the National Con-
vention during the Revolution. He it was who
answered the question of what he candidly
thought of this Parliamentary work, with the
54 FRENCH PICTURES
honest, cutting words, 'T think that there are a
good many schoundrals among us." Carlyle
most aptly remarks, *'So walks Father Gerard:
solid in his thick soles, whithersoever bound."
Nothing could be more unconventional than
this family group yet each member is posed to
emphasize the importance of the father. The
two boys dressed in the conventional costumes
of the period have that look of pride that public
recognition of a parent always stamps on the
children. We fix our eyes on the fine face of
that father. Yes, Carlyle is right, "The name
Gerard, or Pere Gerard, Father Gerard, as they
please to call him, will fly far; borne about in
endless banter; in Royalist satire, in Republican
didactic almanacs." If only Father Gerard
could have had his way some of the horrors might
have been averted in that awful period of French
history. His strong, kind face with the steady
eyes seeing through the pretence into the motives,
reveals the real solidity of this torn and bleeding
nation. Such a picture coming out of the turmoil
of the last gasp of the eighteenth century is a
lightning flash showing that so long as true
family centres exist and home fires burn nations
cannot fall asunder.
When a boy David received a blow on his jaw
that, as he grew older, was not only a disfigure-
AND THEIR PAINTERS 55
ment but so increased his natural hesitancy of
speech that public speaking was impossible. But
even this impediment did not hinder his election as
President of the National Convention and also
as a member of that terrible ''Committee of
Public Safety." And in 1793 he was one of the
convention who voted for the death of Louis XVI
— his former patron. Carlyle's scathing words
fittingly sum up this side of the artist's character
— fortunately, however, characters are not al-
ways revealed in one phase of a person's life. We
realize, though, that no one flopping with the
governments as David did, could be unlike "A
man bodily and mentally swoln-cheeked, dispro-
portionate; flabby-large, instead of great; weak
withal in a state of convulsion, not strong in a
state of composure: so let him play his part." Is
it possible that this is the man who painted the
portrait of Father Gerard?
We are constantly made to see that David's
fickle patriotism (?) has worked to our advantage
in the vivid pictures he painted revealing the
various phases of the changing governments.
And these pictures often give intimate character-
istics, especially portraits, of world-famed men
and women. This is specially true of the "Por-
traits of Lavoisier and his Wife," De Chazelles
Collection, Paris. No student in Chemistry today
56 FRENCH PICTURES
is ignorant of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-
1794), the founder of modern chemistry. He
exploded the "phlogistic principle" — a system
assuming that the above was in all combustible
substances and that it was set free in the process
of combustion. A special service was held hon-
ouring this triumph of truth over ignorance in
which Madame Lavoisier, acting as high priest-
ess, before an altar gave to the flames the "phlogis-
ton principle," where it went up in smoke accom-
panied by a requiem to the peace of its soul. Al-
though Lavoisier belonged to the privileged
"farmer-generals," we cannot believe him one of
the profiteers for he was appointed director of the
government powder-mills in 1776. Nothing could
save him, however, when the "Farmer-Generals"
came under the Revolutionary tribunal. He asked
for a fortnight to finish some experiments but
"the Republic does not need such." All Farmer-
Generals must give an account even to "putting
water in the tobacco," and all must die — April
22, 1749. We could weep as we look into the
beautiful face David has bequeathed to us only
that we know the spirit of the great man has been
leading France and the world up to Victory.
This wonderful spirit that deals with eternal
verities!
But with all his frailties. David could paint a
Fig. 33. — Michel Gerartl and I'aniily. David. Le Mans
Museum, France.
Fi(i. 34. — rorir.iil of Mtline. Uccainicr. David. Ivouvrc,
Paris.
Fio. 35. — Coronation of Napoleon and Joseiihine. David. Louvre, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 57
"Portrait of Madame Recamier," Louvre, Paris
(Fig. 34), which will ever stand as a true likeness
of that noted woman. She was only sixteen when
she married Monsieur Jacques Recamier, a man
nearly three times her age. It was a natural
sequence that many admirers courted the young
wife but only Prince Augustus of Prussia seems
to have won her love and a promise to marry
him. But the kindly willingness of M. Recamier
to grant her freedom — he had lost his property
— so touched her heart that she refused to leave
him in his need. Later, after her husband's
death, the great Chateaubriand, author and states-
man, wished to make her his wife but she declined
the honour. We remember Madame Recamier
best in her friendship for that other great
woman of the time, Madame de Stael (see page
63 ) . Wonderful indeed were the Salons of these
two brilliant women ! In them were gathered the
greatest intellects of all Europe. Little wonder
that Napoleon feared the twor royalist women and
exiled them from France.
David was painting this portrait of Madame
Recamier in 1800, but for some unknown reason
the noble lady decided she did not like the picture
and never came to have it finished. She, how-
ever, had Gerard, David's pupil, paint her (see
Fig. 38) little realizing that the unfinished por-
58 FRENCH PICTURES
trait would be the one to far outrank Gerard's.
As we enter the long gallery where it hangs it
is almost the first picture among hundreds of
others to catch our eye. Its simplicity suggests
a Greek goddess in her shrine. The tiny lamp
with its faint cloud of incense stands guard over
the couch of the fair one as she turns to look out
on life's allurements. Her white robe unadorned
with lace or frill is in perfect keeping with the
severity of the couch; her gracefully curved arm
carries out the lines of the bent ends and rounded
pillows of the sofa. In the arrangement of the
hair David gives a glimpse of the girlish beauty
of a charming woman but even here the band of
black velvet holds the locks from too riotous lib-
erty. This picture was never finished according
to David but to us it is one of his best paintings.
Again the national kaleidoscope shifts and with
it shifts David. Now we find him at work on
large canvases glorifying Napoleon. In the
Louvre, Paris, is his "Coronation of Napoleon
and Josephine" (Fig. 35), a picture measuring
some eleven yards in width and seven yards high.
The scene, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame,
Paris, December 2, 1804, is almost the exact
counterpart of the original coronation. On the
steps of the high altar with raised hands stands
Napoleon holding the crown he is to place on the
AND THEIR PAINTERS 59
head of the kneeHng Josephine. Behind Napo-
leon sits Pope Pius VII who has just crowned
him. To the right and left are the high dignita-
ries, princes of the royal family and the new
Emperor's brothers. Back of the central group,
on a tribune above sits Napoleon's mother — not
present at the real ceremony but introduced in
the picture at her son's wish — and above her is
David himself sketching the group. David was
given a studio in the old church of the College of
Cluny near Notre Dame and there Napoleon went
in state to view the finished picture January 4,
1808. David and his assistants stood in silence
waiting the verdict. At last came the words,
*'It is well done, David, very well. You have
divined my thoughts ; you have represented me as
the embodiment of French chivalry. I am in-
debted to you for handing down to posterity this
proof of affection which I have desired to show
her who shares with me the cares of government."
The Emperor then stepped up to the artist and
raising his hand with that spectacular display he
was so fond of creating, said in a loud voice,
"David, I salute you !" The deeply aft'ected artist
answered, "Sire, I receive your congratulations
in the name of all artists, happy indeed to be the
one you deign to address." After Napoleon's
first abdication the original painting of the Cor-
6o FRENCH PICTURES
onation of Napoleon and Josephine was destroyed
by order of the Bourbons, but on the return of
Napoleon to Paris, this one was ordered from the
artist.
As a fit climax to this painting is David's
''Portrait of Pope Pius VII (Fig. 36), I_x)uvre.
We can imagine the silent contention going on
in these great minds — Napoleon and Pius VII —
when with arrogant authority the little emperor
took the crown from the hands of the Holy
Father and himself placed it on the head of
Josephine. David unwittingly expresses the real
reason of the apparent submission to royal pre-
rogative in the face of Pius VII. Those pene-
trating eyes reading the signs of the times knew
that Rome held France only as she held Napoleon
and to hold Napoleon meant yielding when a
rupture was imminent. Even that, however,
did not save the pope from imprisonment or the
annexation of the Papal States to France.
Always quick to catch the slightest hint to
strengthen his hold on his patrons it is not sur-
prising that he catered to Napoleon's weakest
point — his inordinate vanity. David's portraits
of this marvellous man form an interesting study
in the development of vanity into the monstrous
ambition that caused his downfall. How true to
life is the portrait "Bonaparte Crossing Mount
Fig. 36. — Portrait of Pius VII. David. Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 37. — Portrait of Bonaparte Crossing the Alps. David. Versailles,
France.
AND TPIEIR PAINTERS 6i
St. Barnard," Versailles, France (Fig. 37). Na-
poleon had accomplished his end in Italy and of
course wanted David to make a new portrait of
him but on his own terms. "No, my dear
David," he said, to the suggestion that he have a
sword in his hand, "it is not with the sword that
battles are won. I would be painted calm and
serene upon a fiery steed." As we look back on
these makers of history from our vantage ground
we, too, exclaim, "There were giants in the earth
in those days !" Not that David was equal to the
task of making a great picture of this theatrical
figure set ready for the curtain to rise, far from
it, yet the spirit of conquest that ignored snow-
capped peaks and pushed through the heart of
mountains carries beyond the picture to the deeds
that are still making history.
But who shall decide whether this man, David,
was a genius or a genie who at will without good
looks or grace of speech could draw royalist or
common people under his influence and obtain
from them the highest honours in state and art?
Certainly a strange power was his that held
people ; and an equally strange nature was his that
responded to the spectacular whatever the politi-
cal trend. Possibly it was the latter that kept his
head on his shoulders when the guillotine was
insatiable. He never failed to satisfy the public
62 FRENCH PICTURES
demand with an appropriate scene to celebrate an
event whether the event was decapitating a crowd
or crowning a head.
David's spectacular career ended with Na-
poleon though he might not have been exiled
after the Restoration if he had humbled himself
to ask it. He spent the remainder of his life
in Brussels where he died in 1825. The French
Government refused to have his body returned
to its native soil and he lies today in the cemetery
of Saint Josseten-Noode, Brussels.
CHAPTER VI
GERARD^MADAME LEBRUN
AS we turn to Baron Frangois Pascal Gerard's
(1770-1837) "Portrait of Madame de
Stael" (Fig. 38), we can well understand why
she was styled the homeliest woman in Europe,
but how she could talk ! No wonder that Napoleon
was afraid to meet her fearing her eloquence
would win him. Madame de Stael and Madame
Recamier were both royalists and consequently he
banished them both. What a Salon that must
have been where the most beautiful woman and
the finest conversationalist in all Europe were the
entertainers. Madame de Stael spent most of
her girlhood at the court of Louis XVI where her
father, Jacques Necker, was prime minister, and
naturally she was constantly in touch with the
greatest thinkers of the time — and never had
France greater problems to solve than at this
time. Gerard's picture certainly is that of a
woman keenly alive to the issues of the day but the
pity is that he was not big enough to grasp the
soul behind those powerful features. Oh, that a
63
64 FRENCH PICTURES
Titian or V^elasquez or Rembrandt could have
arisen to this occasion! Gerard became one of
the most sought after portrait painters of his day;
he had charm of manner and was a brilliant con-
versationalist yet his real talent lay in choosing
famous sitters, such as Talleyrand, Duke of Wel-
lington, etc.
There were times, however, when Gerard did
reveal something of the mental attitude of his
subjects possibly because of an intimate friend-
ship between them. This is true of his ''Portrait
of Isabey and his Little Daughter," Louvre (Fig.
39). The two artists, Isabey and Gerard, were
personal friends and nearly the same age — Isabey
was three years older (1767) but he outlived
Gerard twenty years ( 1855 ) . Isabey was nearly
thirty years old when Gerard painted this picture
and was then miniaturist to Marie Antoinette and
other notables while Gerard was still unknown.
But a turning point in Gerard's art career came
with the exhibition of this portrait of Isabey, for
it was a great success. Then followed a portrait
of Madame Bonaparte that established Gerard's
position as a portrait painter.
Certainly there is something very attractive
about this portrait of Isabey and his little daugh-
ter. Gerard seems to have caught them just as
they were ready for a walk. How well the dog
Fiti. 3S.— I'orlrait of .Mdiiic. dc Stacl. (icninl.
Fig. 39. — Portrait of Isabey and Daughter. Gerard. Louvre,
Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 65
in the doorway emphasizes the fact of an inter-
rupted walk without in the least protesting that he
was dragged in to complete the scene! The
whole picture is one of those happy inspirations,
vouched to even mediocre artists at times, that
give masterpieces to the world.
When Gerard painted the "Portrait of Mad-
ame Recamier," Louvre (Fig. 40), her ladyship
may have been better satisfied than she was with
the one David painted (see Fig. 34) but surely we
are not. Such incongruous uniting of classic and
modern clearly stamps the weakness of the artist.
As a likeness this picture no doubt was more
pleasing to Madame Recamier, for she is indeed
beautiful, but the too evident pose to bring out
her beauty is disconcerting to say the least. We
suspect that if fame had not pronounced her the
most beautiful woman in Europe Gerard would
scarcely have held his own with this picture.
Napoleon appointed Gerard official painter to
the court in 1806. We owe this artist a debt of
gratitude for numberless portraits of noted per-
sons in the public eye. Many faces of men and
women who were making history at the time
would not have been familiar to us if Gerard had
not painted their portraits.
Marie Elizabeth Louise Vigee Lebrun (1755-
1842) holds a unique place in French art in that
66 FRENCH PICTURES
she is the first woman of France since Queen Ma-
tilda to be pubHcly recognized as a paint-
er. France was quick to acknowledge her ex-
ceptional women as leaders — and she has had
a goodly number in many and varied capac-
ities pertaining to the nation's welfare except in
the field of art. In that branch of the nation's
eonomic needs few women have qualified.
France, however, is not an exception in this
peculiar dearth of women artists. This is a
strange lapse in nature when we remember the
tremendous women who stand out all along the
centuries as leaders at critical points in the his-
tory of world-nations.
Madame Lebrun was only seven or eight years
old when her artist father, seeing a sketch of a
man's head that she had made by lamplight, ex-
claimed proudly, "You will be a painter, my child,
if ever there was one." She had just entered her
teens when her beloved father died, and in her
words we learn of her grief. *'So heartbroken
was I that it was long before I felt equal to taking
up my pencil again. Doyen used to come to see
us sometimes, and as he had been my father's best
friend his visits were a comfort. It was he who
urged me to resume the occupation I loved, and in
which, to tell the truth, I found the only consola-
tion for my grief."
AND THEIR PAINTERS 67
At fifteen Madame Lebrun was recognized as a
full fledged artist and her studio was the collect-
ing place for diplomats of the time. This is not
surprising for her rare beauty and simple charm
of manner endeared her to all. Her extreme
youth, combined with a talent that mature artists
might envy, captivated the cleverest statesmen
and most distinguished artists. Even those of
noble blood and the most wily courtiers came to do
her honour. It was amusing, the wisdom of the
little artist when the admiration of these great
men bordered on the vanishing point of whole-
some friendship. She said, 'T used to paint them
looking another way and then at the least move-
ment of their pupils toward me I would cry/Now
I am doing the eyes.' This was of course rather
trying to them." And then she added, "And my
mother, who Avas always present, used to laugh
quietly to herself."
Madame Lebrun's life was peculiarly full of in-
cidents connected with royalty. It is said that
she painted more reigning monarchs than any
artist who has ever lived. We are specially in-
terested in the friendship that grew up between
the artist and Queen Marie Antoinette. The
awful days of the Revolution are drawing near as
these two women sit together day after day in the
Palace of Versailles. In that deserted palace to-
68 FRENCH PICTURES
day we look upon the sweet sad face of "Marie
Antoinette and her Children" (Fig. 41), as
Madame Lebrun has pictured it for us. The
picture was painted when the popularity of the
queen had waned and already the people were
looking on the illfated woman as a cause for the
downfall of France. The portrait was accepted
with enthusiasm because of the artist and shown
in the Academy of 1787. After the close of the
Salon the king, Louis XVI, had it sent to Ver-
sailles and on conversing with Madame Lebrun
about it, he said, 'T do not know much about
painting, but you make me love it."
This picture really gives us the best under-
standing of the family of Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette extant. The boy, holding the curtain
aside, is the Dauphin next in line to be king.
Fortunately he died (1789) before the storm
that broke engulfed the royal household. The
empty cradle probably refers to the recent death
of the baby sister, Princess Sophie. The little
two-year old. Due de Normandy, sitting in the
queen's lap is the child whose awful existence
during the fearful cataclysm that shook the very
foundations of the French nation, can never
be forgiven by humanity. It is one of the black-
est crimes of the French Revolution, the treat-
ment of this innocent child. Authorities differ
CI
hi
O 'ft
i^'.
(3
Fia. 42. — Portrait of Marie Antoinette. Mdme. Lebrun. Versailles,
France.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 69
as to the final destiny of the httle Louis. Some
assert he died in prison; others that he escaped
and Hved in exile in England and still others that
he came to America.
The little girl leaning against the queen is
Princess Marie Terese — the only one of the
royal family who survived the Reign of Terror.
It is from her that we have many details of the
horrible time. When the storm had partly spent
itself — after both king and queen were beheaded
— she was released fpom prison on her seven-
teenth birthday, December 18, 1795. Her life
story for the next fifty years covered the time of
Napoleon and the growth of the Republic of
France.
Now let us stop for a moment and look at this
"Portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette," Palace of
Versailles (Fig. 42), Is it possible that this was
the woman that roused the vindictive hatred of
the French people scarcely a century and a quarter
ago? There is nothing in that lovely face to
indicate traits that would rouse a whole nation
to fury. Was it this woman or was it that other
feminine monster La Guillotine, that had turned
the brain of the people until rolling heads — it
mattered little whose — was their ruling passion?
Madame Lebrun has lightened the gloom of those
terrible days in giving us these intimate pictures
70 FRENCH PICTURES
of the royal family. We feel that amid all the
tragedy of the time love and beauty and purity
still remained.
Madame Lebrun painted some twenty por-
traits of herself. This "Portrait of the Artist
and her Daughter," Louvre (Fig. 43), is a popu-
lar one of the mother and child together. As we
look at the bright, happy face of the young mother
it is hard to realize that already the tragedy of
her life had begun. Her marriage to M. Lebrun
was anything but a blessing. He was a spend-
thrift and a gambler, selfish and penurious to
the last degree. All the earnings of the talented
young wife were used for his own comfort while
she was relegated to two small rooms in the
mansion he built for himself with her earnings.
In these rooms, however, the elite of Paris
gathered and found it no hardship to sit on the
bed and floor to bask in the radiating charms of
the wonderful woman. And now look at the
daughter. Does it seem possible that this inno-
cent child was to be a counterpart of her detesta-
ble father? She was scarcely grown before her
wilful selfishness, a constant sorrow to the de-
voted mother, led into a marriage at seventeen to
a man twice her age. This marriage proved dis-
astrous and turned the girl still further away
from her mother. These portraits of Madame Le-
I'lu. 43. — Portrait of Artist and JJaufiiitor. Mdiiic. Le-
brun. Louvro, I'ari.s.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 71
brun and her daughter have rarely been equalled
in the portrayal of the close devotion of a mother
to a growing- child — and the clinging dependence
of the young offspring.
Madame Lebrun, unlike David, remained loyal
to the royal family, for which she was banished
from France by Napoleon. Her life was full
of change and great domestic unhappiness and
only after three score years was she really free
from family animosities. She continued to love
the social life of the young until her death at
eighty-seven.
CHAPTER VII
PRUDHON—GROS— INGRES— VERNET
IT is simply impossible to estimate an artist
like David without considering the time in
which he lived. And to consider his art with-
out connecting it intimately with the affairs
of the nation, whether the nation be governed
by king or people, is equally impossible. But
in Pierre Paul Prudhon (i 758-1 823), who was
trained in the same school of life as David,
we find a man whose art stood apart from the
turmoil of his day. He allowed neither the
prescribed tenets of art nor the demands for
specialized pictures of events or functions of
state to turn him from his own ideals. Though
not claimed by the purely classic he never ignored
the fundamentals of that school. In fact he
vivified its formal rules in drawing and com-
position until what is cold and lifeless in David
is warm and throbbing from Prudhon's brush.
This was due to his intimate understanding of
colour as a medium for expressing moods.
His intensely sympathetic nature was strained to
72
AND THEIR PAINTERS yz
the breaking point as year by year friend after
friend fell under the awful monster "La Guillo-
tine," yet he never faltered in his art only that
his colour grew more and more mysteriously
soothing to the heart of afflicted humanity.
No one can look at "Justice and Divine Ven-
geance pursuing Crime," Louvre (Fig. z^), and
not feel lifted above the tragedies that come in
everyday life to the bigger purpose of existence.
Prudhon painted this picture in 1808 for the
Criminal Court. Could any scene be a more
powerful reminder to the presiding judge that
justice and right are inexorable in their demand
for a sane unpredjudiced judgment after the most
profound consideration of the greatest good to
both condemned and condemner? Very power-
fully Prudhon has expressed the deed of darkness
by illuminating it with soft moonlight. The
delicate flesh of the victim — ^still quivering under
the receding life blood — is as firm and wholesome
as a growing boy's while the ugly look on the
face of the criminal is that of evil thoughts that
have tainted his whole body. The pursuing fig-
ures show no vindictiveness in face or action and
their pursuit is of evil rather than of the evil
doer. Never has the story of that first great
crime been more vividly told in picture. The
simple words, "And the Lord set a mark upon
74 FRENCH PICTURES
Cain, lest any finding him should kill him," be-
fore his punishment was meted out are so subtly
portrayed in the picture that they apply to every
murderer, of every country, for all time. Prud-
hon no doubt expressed in this masterpiece a
little of the agony of heart that still gripped the
French people. He could never in his art throw
off the memory of the Revolution and yet that
memory was softened by his belief in the deeper
import of art and this belief makes his art uni-
versal in its appeal. Every court room in every
land would be a better place of justice with a
copy of Prudhon's masterpiece hung on its walls.
As we turn to the ''Assumption," in the
Louvre (Fig. 45), not only Prudhon's strength in
drawing strikes us but his unique conception of a
much used subject. The ease and grace of the
two figures supporting the virgin are well ex-
pressed and accentuate the idea of the virgin's
own supernatural ascent into heaven. See how
well he contrasts the clear light and rich colour of
the foreground with the delicate flesh-tints of the
phantom-like cloud of witnesses and the hazy-
blue atmosphere of the background:
Prudhon was born in Cluny, a town noted
for its Benedictine Abbey Church, next in size
to old St. Peter's, a massive Romanesque with
seven towers, double aisles and double trans-
Fig. 44. — Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime.
Prudhon. Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 45. — The .\ssuini)li()n of tlie Vir-
gin. Prudhon. Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 46. — Francis I and Charles \'
visiting Royal Tombs, St. Denis.
(Jros. Louvre, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 75
septs. The monks were expelled from Cluny in
1789 just as Prudhon went to Paris after seven
years study in Rome. The church was all but
destroyed in the Revolution — only one south
transept and its tower remain and two beauti-
ful chapels. The old town or rather small city,
has more renown from its son, the artist Pierre
Paul Prudhon, than from the hundreds of Bene-
dictine monks who made their home there.
Some artists stand definitely for the classic —
in France classic meant perfection of form — as
David, and some swing completely to the roman-
tic, — romantic meant imaginings resembling life
— as Delacroix. But such a man as Jean Antoine
Gros (1771-1835) stands as a connecting link
holding to the classic with one hand but opening
the way — a way so full of charm that those who
entered were legion — into the romantic with the
other hand. It took courage for Gros to break
away from the formalism of his master David,
but how could he do justice to the sun flooded,
colour soaked "The Pest at Jaffa," swimming in
the glorious sea air of the Mediterranean, without
giving place to action, to colour, to light and to at-
mosphere? Of course this temerity on the part
of his pupil aroused the fighting blood of David
and unfortunately, Gros finally gave way to the
older man, not to his advantage however. Fail-
-^G FRENCH PICTURES
ing in his attempt in competing with the roman-
tics he closed his studio, saying bitterly, "I know
no misfortune greater than to survive one's
self."
One of Gros' pictures that admirably illustrates
his skill in overcoming the formality of the clas-
sic without losing its repose and dignity is ''The
Visit of Francis I and Charles V to the Royal
Tombs at St. Denis," Louvre (Fig. 46). Why
Gros should have chosen this lugubrious subject
is strange except that anything pertaining to
royalty was acceptable just after the Revolution.
He has shown a marked degree of restraint in
arranging the royal party with an eye to the
pictorial effect of the gorgeous costumes against
the massive stone pillars. The subdued light in
the old cathedral breathes a sense of mystery over
the gathered crowd in the galleries and tones the
glorious colour of doublet and plumes and gold
lace into a harmonious bouquet in the central
group. Notice how beautifully the light falling
on the grey stone slabs gives life to the royal
visitors.
After Napoleon's campaign into Italy, Gros
was appointed as one of the committee to go and
select the works of art to be taken from the con-
quered cities of Italy to France. That he selected
well the "Travelled Horses" of San Marco gives
Fig. 47. — Oedii)us. Ingres. T.ouvro, Paris.
Fig. 48.— Portrait of Mdine. Le-
l)lanr. IriKros. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New Yoriv City.
Vm. 19. — Iva Suurce. liigre.'s. Louvre,
Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS -jj
proof — but we are glad they were returned to
their rightful home again. Napoleon made the
artist a baron and he became a member of the
Institute in 1816. These honours did not, how-
ever, allay his bitter humiliation at the cutting
criticisms over his vacillation in adhering to the
new art stand that he himself had founded. His
mind snapped under the strain and he committed
suicide in the Seine.
Jean-Antoine-Dominique Ingres (1780- 1867)
spent more than half his long life of eight}^-
seven years bringing the French people to the
point of believing in him as an artist. Even
his father was determined he should be a musician
because he learned to play the violin very young
and at twelve played in the theatre of Toulouse.
Then, too, the money prospects were greater in
music than in painting, the father thought. But
the boy at sixteen, making his own choice, be-
came a permanent pupil of David's studio for
four years. His rapid progress made him a
favourite pupil but when his work elicited the
praise of other artists, especially Flaxman, the
English sculptor, David's jealousy was aroused
which ended the close friendship of master and
pupil. Undoubtedly the loss of David's prestige
worked against Ingres' acceptance in the Paris
art world.
78 FRENCH PICTURES
After several years more of study in Paris he
went to Italy. For five years, as a pensioner of
the French Academy — he had gained the Grand
Prize of Rome in 1706, — and for eighteen
years he studied the old masters, particularly
Raphael.
Ingres sent his first picture, "CEdipus and the
Sphinx," Louvre (Fig. 47), two years after he
went to Rome. This work showing plainly his
divergence from the classic training of David,
aroused still greater criticism of his methods,
which proved him a power to be reckoned with.
No one could look at the vigorous young Greek
bending so carelessly before the monster yet with
stern eye holding the opposing power at bay,
without feeling the human element as against
the cold formality of the old classic school. Of
course Ingres held to the classic spirit but he
recognized that representing life was something
more than cutting figures in stone.
The old Greek legend, in the hands of Ingres,
assumed some of the life of the original story
when the monster sphinx — half woman and half
brute — ^was destroying all men who could not
solve her riddle. When the handsome (Edipus
met her on her own ground and boldly explained
that her creature of four feet in the morning, two
feet at noon and three feet at night was MAN.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 79
So great was the chagrin of the sphinx that she
herself fell over the cliff and was killed, thus rid-
ding the country of her ravages and saving
Thebes.
This humanized picture, however, was not at
all to the liking of his countryman. Year after
year he grew in his art gaining nothing in repu-
tation or money, but never wavering from the
high standard he had set for himself. His con-
stant remark was, "I count my old age to avenge
me," a prophecy that came true.
A beautiful romance came to Ingres while in
Rome, from his native city, Montanban, in a
young woman who became his inspiration, as his
wife. She heard of his discouragement through
friends and deliberately sought him out and for
over forty years faithfully and lovingly stood
by his side. His native city, too, at last recog-
nized his worth and through the French adminis-
tration of Fine Arts he painted ''The Vow of
Louis XIII," for the Cathedral of Montanban.
The picture was exhibited at the Salon of 1824
where it received universal sanction and Ingres,
returning to Paris after eighteen years, sprang
into renown. This did not last however, for now
the romanticists took up the cudgel and again
Ingres left Paris for Rome and nearly another
eighteen years passed before his country was
8o FRENCH PICTURES
ready to receive him with honour, and this time,
in 1 84 1, the honour was genuine.
Fortunately we have Ingres' "Portrait of Ma-
dame Leblanc," in the MetropoHtan Museum of
Art (Fig. 48). This famous portrait and the one
of M. Leblanc, once owned by Degas, the artist
(see page 236) was bought in Paris at the sale of
the Degas collection in March 1918, after the
last German offensive of the great war. The
pictures were stored in France until transporta-
tion was safe, and now they are in their new
home.
About twenty studies of this portrait of ^la-
dame Leblanc are in the Museum of Montanban
which gives some idea of the joy Ingres must
have had in painting this beautiful woman. The
hands alone he drew over and over and no won-
der, for they are as expressive as her face. Ingres
painted these portraits in 1822 and 1823,
when he was in France after a stay of
fourteen years in Rome. Still unrecognized
by his own country he nevertheless was
producing works far more worthy of fu-
ture recognition than those of his critics.
In fact even the names of many of the latter are
forgotten and their works are fit only for the
scrap heap. While Ingres was not great in the
use of his brush yet few artists have been so con-
AND THEIR PAINTERS 8i
sistent in adhering to definite principles
in reproducing natural objects. This quality of
mind shines forth in his portraits and simpler
pictures in a personal style that is most alluring.
We feel a sense of personal charm clinging not
only to Madame Leblanc but to the artist who
has given us a continuing remembrance of the
fascinating lady.
There is no question but that "La Source,"
Louvre (Fig. 49), is Ingres' masterpiece. No
one can pass through the connecting room be-
tween the "Victory" on the stairs and the Carre
gallery without lingering before this exquisite
painting. No wonder criticism against Ingres
collapsed when it was exhibited in Paris. One
hopes that the critics still had sufficient honour to
acknowledge that the rejected one had produced
a master work. But the hypercritical die hard.
An amusing incident occurred just a few years
ago in a large western city. A second-class
postmaster held up an art magazine because of
a.reproduction of "La Source," stating that nude
figures were prohibited in the mail. It took the
Washington authorities and many press com-
ments to convince the would be reformer that this
particular nude had been sanctioned for nearly a
hundred years — he evidently had just heard of it.
Ingres has brought the sister arts, painting and
82 FRENCH PICTURES
sculpture, in very close communion in this pic-
ture. Caught as it were centuries ago in the
virgin marble, this child of nature full of dignity
and grace has waited for Ingres to release her
from the cold grasp of the stone with his life-giv-
ing brush. How intimately she fits into the niche !
The little plant feels her living presence as its
tiny flowers nod approvingly at her feet. Even
the austere grey rock gives a sense of protection
while the pouring water from the emptying urn
adds its testimony of purity as it sparkles in the
limpid pool. Study the face for a moment and
try to understand wherein Ingres' insight pene-
trates the superficial into the very soul of in-
nocence.
Thus at seventy-six Ingres had honours thrust
upon him until his death eleven years later. Art
Academies of every country and state simply
deluged him with special appointments. He is
buried in Pere-lachaise where, even in the
crowded city of the dead, his isolation from con-
temporary artists is proverbial. I know of no
place so big with the spirit of the living dead as
Pere-lachaise. Visit it if possible.
If the gift to paint increased in proportion to
inheritance surely Emile Jean Horace Vernet
(1789- 1 863) ought to have been a master with
the brush, for he was the third generation of
Fig. 50. — Preparing for the Races. V'ernet. Courtesy of the MetropoHtan
Museum of Art, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 83
Vernet painters. However this is not a law of
nature and Horace became just what he was him-
self, a painter standing apart. Not that his iso-
lation argued a great genius to be reckoned with
ever after, not at all. But when he struck the
note of popularity with military people through
his battle scenes — Versailles is full of them — he
gave a new version of war. This he could do
for the greater part of his own early life was
spent in camp. The tap of a drum never failed
to give him thrills of patriotic emotion. Later
he turned to Arab scenes — really genre pictures
— which attracted the general public. Neither of
these subjects encroached upon the classicism of
David nor the rebellious assertions of Ingres so
he went his own way unmolested.
One could scarcely look upon his battle scenes
as great works of art yet they do serve to visualize
the historic struggles of the French, to coming
generations. We feel that he is convincing and
interesting in many of his smaller canvases.
For instance in "Preparing for the Races,"
Metropolitan Aluseum of Art (Fig. 50), he has
aroused the excited expectancy that comes so
naturally to both horse and rider at such a
time. Even the accident of the thrown jockey
intensifies the feeling of tenderness in the prelimi-
nary manoeuvres. In a measure this growing
84 FRENCH PICTURES
excitement in man and horses offsets the lack of
warmth in colour and harmony in design. It is
a pity that Vernet had so little feeling for colour
in dealing with the colourful Arab.
Vernet is buried in Montmartre Cemetery
— second cemetery in size to Pere-lachaise —
where are many kindred spirits in art, as Ary
Scheffer, Ernest Renan, Alexander Dumas, fils,
Berlioz, etc. This is another spot filled with the
presence of great spirits.
CHAPTER VIII
GERICAULT— DELACROIX— DELAROCHE
WHAT a wonderful inheritance is ours when
an artist paints for the world a portrait of
his mother. We somehow get at the fountain
head of the man's own worth. And when that
''Portrait of the Artist's Mother," Brooklyn
Museum, (Fig. 51), grips us as Jean
Louis Gericault's (1791-1824) does you may be-
lieve that the son himself has something unusual
in him. As we look into that mother's face we
can readily believe that the son was capable of
starting the Romantic movement in France and
not simply abetting what was already set in
motion. I am sure that nothing would deter this
mother from advocating what she considered
the right course and her judgment of that course
would be sane and wholesome. Look at that
balanced face! The stubborn chin has the far
seeing, merry eyes to keep it from being dogmatic
and the determined nose is guided by the active,
penetrating brain. That mother can smile and
chide and her counsel would be helpful to any
8s
86 FRENCH PICTURES
young son or daughter however highly gifted by
nature.
Certainly when Gericault painted "The Raft of
the Medusa," Louvre (Fig. 52), he startled
thinking France out of its usual self. Among
the artists a storm was started that has been
gathering force ever since. The conservatives
were simply beside themselves with rage and
the young men grinned with delight. Here was
this callow art student daring to paint a real
scene and call it art! What was the art world
coming to? Then his unprecedented method of
working up the subject! Think of going to real
life and watching the death struggles of real
people.
The terrible reality of the wreck so filled the
soul of the young painter that he took a studio
near a hospital where he might know first hand
the contortions of the human body under the
strain of mental and physical pain. And to still
further enhance the vividness of the scene he
hunted up the only survivor of the Medusa, the
ship's carpenter, and had him build an exact
duplicate of the raft. The strivings of those per-
ishing souls are so full of the agonies of death
that one shudders with real horror. Of course
the scene is not a pleasant one but it is so vitally
true that art was lifted out of the dead formali-
Vir,. 'A. — Portrait of the Artist's Mother. Gericault. IJrooklyn Museuin,
Brooklyn, New York.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 87
ties of David and his followers into pulsating
power — a power that is slowly permeating every
civilized people.
Unfortunately Gericault did not live — he died
when only thirty-three — to see how his temerity
was the entering wedge that split asunder the
man-formed rules of art. This new movement
was called romantic as opposed to classic yet
neither term describes the true meaning of the
two factions. So called classic art as it existed
in France was far from being a model of excel-
lence accepted as a standard of value, for the
classic spirit was dead and what remained was
cold formalism, while in the romantic move-
ment we feel the spirit of the great masters stir-
ring again. In fact the awakening of the indivi-
dual souls of these new seekers after truth
revealed to them that the spirit of true art was
always classic. Art is never haphazard; its prin-
ciples are laid down in nature and to go back to
nature to learn these principles is to give life to
a work of art. This is far from copying nature
— for a copy is as dead as a classic French work
— it is building up a scene so true in all its parts
that, as Whistler remarked sarcastically, "Nature
is looking up a bit !" which is true romanticism.
Art is not nature yet she never sins against her.
Though Gericault died just as the conflict
88 FRENCH PICTURES
began he left a good fighter in his contemporary
Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (1799-
1863). When the ''Massacre of Scio," Louvre
(Fig. 53), was exhibited the furor for and
against Delacroix was even greater than over
'The Raft of the Medusa." Even Baron Gros
went so far as to call it ''the massacre of art,"
which was a crushing criticism as Gros himself
had held out against David and his clique, only
to be overruled at last, and submitted to more
criticism himself.
However, Delacroix was too thoroughly con-
vinced that he was right to be thwarted or turned
aside. That a man so young could shake the
very foundation from under the artists of the
day was unthinkable yet he did it. They con-
demned the scene of bloodshed and horror but
they must have felt the spirit of murder that
the Turk was spreading over the fair isles of
Greece. Although Delacroix had not been in
the Orient when he painted this picture, his
sensitive appreciation of the colour tones neces-
sary to express various emotions was so keen
that not a false note mars the reality of the scene.
But the very fury of the colour-drenched brush
seems to arouse the classicists to greater indig-
nation, yet to-day, says Theophile Gautier, "The
•Massacre of Scio has become classic in its turn;
Fig. 52. — Raft of the Medusa. GericauU.
Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 53. — Massacre of Scio. Dela-
croix. Louvre, Paris.
c ''■■■' ' •' />. \\
i//V\
Fig. 54. — Portrait of Chopin. Delacroix.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 89
we copy it, we study it, we admire it. It is the
Orient and its cruelty in man and nature: pest
and murderer."
It is not surprising with Delacroix's great love
for music that he should have known Frederick
Chopin personally. This intimacy with the great
musician was probably during the years when
George Sand was making her ''psychological"
study in her infatuation for Chopin. Whether
Delacroix made this "Drawing from Life of
Chopin" (Fig. 54) while George Sand was say-
ing of the great musician, "The delicacy of his
constitution rendered him interesting in the eyes
of women," or after she grew tired of her play-
thing when he was to her a "high-flown con-
sumptive, an exasperating nuisance!" we do not
know. But judging from the expression of the
sombre face with its pitiful look in the eyes we
believe it must have been after the break. Natur-
ally these two sensitive natures, Chopin and Dela-
croix, warmed under the approving words of the
brilliant woman. Chopin believed George Sand
was sincere in saying to him, "The full yet grace-
ful cultivation of his mind, the sweet and capti-
vating originality of his conversation, gained
for him the attention of the cleverest men ; while
the less cultivated liked him for the exquisite
courtesy of his manner." She probably was sin-
go FRENCH PICTURES
cere when she said it but alas, the fickleness of
woman ! George Sand's praise of Delacroix was
no less full only he was never her lover so the
praise was allowed to pass unchallenged. What
she said truly describes the artist. "Delacroix is
a complete artist. He feels and understands music
in a manner so superior that it would have made
him a great musician had he not chosen rather
to be a great painter. He is an equally good
judge of literature; few minds are so accom-
plished and clear as his."
Delacroix's career was one of hard work. He
devoted his life to his art with very little society
and few intimate friends. He never married for
his art filled his heart and he felt nothing should
interfere with his devotion to it. Though physi-
cally frail his tense nervous system held him at
high pressure until the last few years of his life.
The character of his compositions tell plainer
than words the strain under which he worked
for he lived each scene as he painted it.
As we look at the ''Abduction of Rebecca,"
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 55), so in-
tense is the action that the whole scene of the
burning castle of Front de Boeuf and Bois Guil-
bert's making ofif with Rebecca thrills us as when
we read the story of Ivanhoe. Rebecca is spe-
cially interesting to us for the original, Rebecca
Fig. 55. — Abduction of Rebecca. Delacroix. Courtesy of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Vic. 5G. — Death of Queen Elizabeth. Delaroche. Louvre, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 91
Gratz, was a young Philadelphia Jewess whom
Washington Irving knew and whose character he
described to Sir Walter Scott. Rebecca Gratz
is buried in a little church yard in the Quaker
city.
Delacroix spent some time in Morocco on a dip-
lomatic mission and while there made many
sketches of Arabs which served as suggestions
in his many oriental pictures. Then, too, his pas-
sionate love of colour responded tremendously
to the colour-soaked richness of northern Africa.
And his nature, also, responded intelligently to
the lavish abundance of sun-kissed objects because
of the years of careful study of the colour scheme
of the Venetian artists, especially Veronese. It
was said of him that at the beginning of his career
he spent weeks and months on a ladder before
Veronese's "Marriage at Cana," in the Carre
Gallery, Louvre. There he absorbed the rare
colour sense of that great master. Delacroix
fairly lived colour so no wonder his canvases
throb and glow with colour radiance.
If Hippolyte (Paul) Delaroche (i 797-1 856)
had been as big as was his desire to break away
from the special schools of the classic and roman-
tic and still reserve the best from all art, he would
have been a genius and a master, as it was he
simply started the eclectic movement in France.
92 FRENCH PICTURES
Raphael three hundred years before him gathered
the best but he passed that best through his own
marvellous personality and produced masterpieces
for all time. Delaroche stood alone in his attempt
to retain the good without falling into the manner-
isms of the weaker men of the two factions but
he failed in originality in adapting the best he
advocated. His portrayal of historic events was
very popular with the public for he was a good
story teller. Bible scenes became real events
and high lights in past history lived again under
his brush. He drew well, his arrangement was
good, his colour was pleasing and his treatment
was historically correct — in fact the principle on
which he founded his eclectic school was sound
but he gave no personal element from his own
mental laboratory to individualize it.
When Delaroche was thirty years old he
painted "The Death of Queen Elizabeth (1603),"
Louvre (Fig. 56). Poor Queen, she ruled all
powers but Death! And now as Death beckons
she turns to her court sycophants but not a spark
of love or sympathy can she demand. The old
days of her power and glory are gone and those
who await her death are angling for favours
under the coming ruler. Delaroche has chosen
the historic moment in the last hours of Elizabeth
of England when Lord Robert Cecil, insisting
AND THEIR PAINTERS 93
that she must go to bed, rouses the queen to f ury
by the word "must." She cries, "Must! is must
a word to be addressed to princes? Little man,
Httle man ! thy father, if he had been aUve, durst
not have used that word." Then her passion
dies out Hke an exhausted fire brand and she mur-
murs, "Thou art so presumptuous, because thou
knowest I shall die." Delaroche has preserved
the spirit of that historic period, and in the
tragic figure of the defeated queen sums up the
strength and weakness of her powerful person-
ality.
In no other historic scene has he given any-
thing so charming as the figure of the sixteen
years old martyr in "The Execution of Lady
Jane Gray," Wallace Gallery, London (Fig. 57).
Curiously he was wont to choose the most lugu-
brious subjects out of a period when tragedy and
comedy made lightning changes as easily as a
face under a skillful caricaturist. In the death
scene of Queen Elizabeth Delaroche just escaped
making a caricature of the old queen, but his
Lady Jane Gray is a being of exquisite grace and
beauty. Not even the too prominent implements
used in perpetrating the hideous crime against
the innocent victim can detract from the artistic
charm of the lovely girl.
In working out the single figures, seventy-five
94 FRENCH PICTURES
of them, from the various epochs in his "Hemi-
cycle," Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, Delaroche
has shown a wonderful constancy of purpose
in execution. The painting- commemorates paint-
ing, sculpture and architecture from Pericles,
the fourth century b. c, to Louis XIV. At the
lower front of the central group is ''The Genius
of the Arts" (Fig. 58), a charming nude figure
distributing laural wreaths to crown the heads
of those who have joined the immortals. The
finished study for the "Hemicycle," entirely by
Delaroche, is one of the rare treasures of the
Walters Gallery, Baltimore. Almost destroyed
by fire, it was restored by other hands. As a
piece of decorative art the work is worthy of
the highest praise. It is done on a strip of can-
vas only four inches wide and of the seventy and
more heads in a row no two are on the same level.
The figures have every conceivable pose and ges-
ture with costumes varied in colour and drapery.
The tall, beautiful woman with a citron green
and light buff robe and pale lavender under-
dress standing on a lower step with a model of a
Gothic church, is Delaroche's wife, the daughter
of Horace Vernet (see page 82). Of Delaroche's
pupils Jean Frangois Millet stands alone as a mas-
ter.
Fig. 57. — Execution of Lady Jane Gray. Delaroche. Wallace
Museum, London.
Fig. 58. — Single Figure from
Hemicycle. Delaroche.
ficole des Beaux Arts, Paris.
CHAPTER IX
DECAMPS— FROMENTIN—ZIEM—ISABEY
ALEXANDER GABRIEL DECAMPS
(1803-1860) used to say that he was
"Born on the third day of the third month of the
third year of the century," then he would add,
whimsically, "That was the only remarkable thing
about my childhood." He did say, however, when
he was sent to school and made to study Latin
and his own language that he "resembled a young
fox tied by the neck to the leg of a chair." This
last remark is an index to Decamps' character as
a man and an artist. Impatient of restraint he
soon broke away from all conventional teaching.
While he spent a little time with various artists
and in the regular studio, they one and all bored
him. He took matters in his own hands and
young as he was began to record little scenes
from his own boyhood when like a young fox,
he used to wander alone through fields and woods.
At once these small pictures captivated the public
but they did not satisfy Decamps. Like many of
his contemporaries the lure of the Orient called
JP5
96 FRENCH PICTURES
him. There the wild picturesque Hfe of the Arab
fascinated him and the rich luxuriance of the
Turk fired his brain with subjects and local colour.
In 'The Night Patrol at Smyrna," Metropol-
itan Museum of Art (Fig. 59), the rule of the
Turk is felt in every line yet never for a moment
has he lost the spell of colour, of light, of atmos-
phere, in that land of rugs and figs and opium.
These gorgeous low toned Turkish guards, led
by their officer on his splendid white horse, dash
through the narrow city street with all the im-
petuosity of a real need for immediate action.
And yet how we are held captive by the brilliant
sunlight on the golden cream plastered wall and
the glorious rug hanging from the Moorish bal-
cony above. Then the strip of blue sky at the
end of the narrow street at the left, — how it
calls us! It is the mystery of the Orient that
beckons. Wonderful Smyrna ! filled with Homer
— his birthplace, with the Ionian League, with
St. John's Revelation to the Seven Churches,
with its all but total annihilation and rebuilding
— little wonder that the impetuous Decamps felt
your charm.
Children must have been specially delightful
to Decamps, and certainly no artist had more
intimate knowledge of the restless, inquisitive,
unheeding child*of early school age than he. His
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 97
pictures of schools, east or west, are accurate
records of growing young human animals. One
feels in the collected children the muscular impulse
to stretch, to twist, to turn, to be constantly on the
move that is a part of all growing creation. And
we feel just as strongly the guiding power of
authority in each group. This little band of eager
pupils, in "Schooltime," Brooklyn Museum (Fig.
60), entering the doorway of knowledge, is re-
peating its impulse to learn since the beginnings
of civilization until now. It was Decamps, how-
ever, who saw the picture value of a huddled
crowd of school children. The lights and shades
of a glaring Eastern day became a wonderful
revealer of colour and design in his hands. Each
child is a precious bit in a mosaic framed in
crude weather-beaten surroundings. The whole
is a delightful picture interesting alike to young
and old.
Another specially attractive picture is his
"Eastern School" at Chantilly. Decamps never
came up to the ideals he had set for himself. He
realized too late that his own method of training
was not equal to continuous early study under
direction. Restless under his limitations he con-
stantly changed his methods, at times pleasing
the public and a^ain as he came nearer his own
ideals, at variance with it.
98 FRENCH PICTURES
Decamps has touched the cord that vibrates
in the heart of all humanity in 'The Foundling-,"
Luxembourg, Paris (Fig. 6i). How elemental
the appeal of that wee one with its little arms
stretched out for help. And how simple the pic-
ture is. Only a tiny baby in swaddling clothes
lying on a stone step — yet it is a universal story.
Every nation and all time is included in that
deserted bit of humanity. But for the accident
that ended Decamps' life prematurely — he was
thrown against a tree in the Forest of Fontaine-
bleau — he no doubt would have continued to
develop a still stronger art in the quiet, sooth-
ing atmosphere of Barbizon where he had made
his home.
George Sand gives a vivid word picture of
Eugene Fromentin (1820- 1876) when she de-
scribes him as ''small and delicately constituted:
his face striking in its expression ; his eyes mag-
nificent." And then she reveals his character as
a man and artist. She continues, "His con-
versation like his paintings and writings — bril-
liant and strong, solid, coloured, full. One could
listen to him all one's life. Happy those who
live in the intimacy of this man, exquisite in
every respect." Fromentin with these graces of
body and mind, used these talents in that sane
and proper manner that encountered little oppo-
I' Hi. 61. — The Foundliiifi. Decamps. Luxembourg,
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 99
sition but on the other hand which, from lack
of vigorous individuaHty, kept him from leaving
any special impression with his painting. His
oriental scenes, however, speak the language of
the Arab; no one could mistake one of his pic-
tures of the sensitive four-footed friend, the
horse, so dear to the Arab's heart. In the *Tal-
con Hunt," Louvre (Fig. 62), those splendid
animals appreciate the success of the hunt quite
as much as their masters. The eager tension of
the beautiful heads show the understanding of
centuries of association with the masters of the
desert. And see what a vital part of the scene
are the birds. A very tender bond of affection is
that of the falcon and the falconer. See how
caressingly the man on the black horse holds the
bird and how closely the falcon presses against
his cheek. Fromentin knew how to center the
interest on the hunters and their horses and fal-
cons rather than on the prey. Then, too, he has
enveloped that wild, craggy scene with an atmos-
phere palpitating with life.
As we turn to ''The Arabs Crossing a Ford,"
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 63), again
the charm of the Orient envelops the scene. Even
so simple an incident as crossing a ford has an
element of dignity among these people of desert
freedom. Centuries of roaming at will over a
100 FRENCH PICTURES
land unmolested by civilization has engendered
in man and beast an attitude of body and mind
indictive of masterhood. Fromentin, with sen-
sitive appreciation of the colourful tones of red-
dish-brown in bush and rock, and the answering
grey-blue of stream and sky has given a sense
of elation to the scene as if we, too, had been
freshened by the splash of the water. The quiver
of life is over all.
And again in the "Arab Camp," Louvre (Fig.
64), Fromentin gives the intimate and harmo-
nious note of one who would not be an intruder
among these creatures of nature. These horses
might well stand for any fabled prodigies. Even
Pegasus could not have been more beautiful or
the horses of Achilles more intelligent.
Fromentin was a writer and a painter sensitive
to life principles. Nothing was dead matter to
him for all was a part of the living, throbbing
whole. He had no patience with surface imita-
tion — the affecting of eastern ways even to
costumes and manners of speech was foreign to
him. His love of the East was a genuine joy
in the wild untrammelled inhabitant and the
sunbleached earth with its strange vegetation.
His poetic nature vibrates to the varying colour
and light and atmosphere revealing and conceal-
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tesy of (lie Mi'ln)i)olitan Mu.scuni of Art, New York Cit\.
AND THEIR PAINTERS loi
ing the actions and intents of the people. His
pictures speak frankly of common occurrences
and are veritable genre scenes yet always one feels
a certain mystery enveloping those turbaned fig-
ures. Even his portrayal of the loving under-
standing existing between the Arab and his horse
seems to have an occult element in it. Of all the
orientalists Fromentin's subtle insight of the
spirit of the East never sounds a false note.
Fromentin was born at La Rochelle, on the
south-west coast of France — that historic city
so intimately interwoven with the great events
moulding the French people. Only five years
later ( 1825) Bouguereau (see page 204) first saw
the light in the same city, but very unlike were
these two artists in life history and artistic
career.
Perhaps, if we could make a class of the
French artists who looked eastward for subjects,
we miq-ht say Felix Ziem (1821-1911) has given
the clearest picture of Byzantine architecture in
Venice and Constantinople. His whole being
was saturated with the varied aspects of these
cities under the morning and evening lights. All
these men were colourists and naturally they
were fascinated in this sun-kissed country with
its iridescent quality of weather worn stone
102 FRENCH PICTURES
and wood and metal and the changing radiance
of the water under the hanging dew, the whis-
pering breezes and sapphire sky.
Ziem's Venetian scenes almost out — Venetian
Venice in their splendour. He robes the bewitch-
ing queen of the Adriatic in garments fitting every
mood of the changing hours. He brings her
suitors from every port clothed in gaily-tinted
robes that swell in the breeze as they lay at
anchor at her feet. He even notes a special ca-
price of her restless subject, usually held at bay,
when its pleasure was '*An Inundation of the
Piazza of San Marco," Metropolitan Museum
of Art (Fig. 65). This was a daring act for the
Adriatic to break its bounds but not an unnatural
one. The bond that binds this ever moving water
to the restless, high strung beings resting on its
bosom is so close that little wonder liberty slips
into license at the least provocation. It is really
a small matter, however, for the long nosed gon-
dola readily pokes its nose a little closer to its
queen. Ziem preserves all the glory of the varied
tints of San Marco, the Campanile, and the Doges
Palace under the storm-brewing grey-blue of the
sky — in fact no passing fury of rain-storm or
wind cloud could rob Venice of its colour.
Eugene Louis-Gabriel Isabey (iSo4-i8cS6)
was born in Paris under most favourable condi-
Fig. 66. — Street ^iccue iu Algicra. lsubc\'. Courtesy of the Brooklj-n
Museum, Brooklyn, New York.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 103
tions to develop his predilection to art as his
father was a noted miniaturist under Napoleon.
He had the love of colour that marked those men
who sought the Orient and, fortunately for him,
was sent to Algiers in 1830 as royal marine
painter. There is much in this "Street Scene,"
Brooklyn Museum (Fig 66), that suggests Al-
geria. The old dilapidated houses, their acute-
gables serrated against the sky, quiver and glow
in the hot luminous air like great semi-precious
stones under the blazinng sun of Africa. That
narrow passage-way leads into uncanny byways
full of the mystery of the Arab. But Isabey
never quite lived up to his early promise. We
wonder why when we look into his face as
Gerard painted it for us (see Fig. 39). Pos-
sibly the public accepted him too quickly because
of his father's standing. Early success seems
to have dwarfed his power for progressive work
and what his first paintings promised never came
to fruition. He painted many historic and
marine pictures.
CHAPTER X
GEROME— T. FRERE— BIDA
THE eminent French critic Gautier, wrote in
1847, of the birth of Jean Leon Gerome
(1824-1904), "Let us mark with white this kicky
year, for unto us a painter is born. He is called
Gerome. I tell you his name today, and tomor-
row it will be celebrated."
This *'Boy of the Bischari Tribe," Metropol-
itan Museum of Art (Fig. 67), painted by
Gerome interests us exceedingly for he stands as
a representative of Ham, the son of Noah. His
country lies between the Nile and the Red Sea
with soil so black that it gave the name Ham
(meaning black soil) to the inhabitants. In the
'Bible these people were called Cushites and Her-
odotus refers to them as Ethiopians. Gerome's
picture is one of those fine portraits of his own
where he reveals individual traits throu^^h his
intellectual understanding of racial characteris-
tics. Nothing could be finer in physique than
this dark skinned boy. He firmly grasps the
cross-hilt of his sword yet carelessly throws his
right arm over his shield. This detached figure
104
AND THEIR PAINTERS 105
is probably one of a band of young marauders
ready to spring into action at the least sign from
the leader. Never did Gerome paint a finer bit
of genre than this young giant. He might well
be a descendant of "Nimrod the mighty hunter
before the Lord," only this hunter has degener-
ated into a plunderer of man. And note how
Gerome preserves the dominant features of the
race yet shows the modifying quality gained by
contact with the Egyptian. And how true is his
estimate of modifying influences when race predi-
lections intervene.
Gerome never fails to picture minutely every
detail with almost photographic exactness. This
exactness many times detracts from the bigness
of the theme he has conceived. It is almost im-
possible to get away from the multiplicity of ma-
terial things employed in materializing the scene.
We all vaguely understand that in life a vast
amount of specialized skill is necessary to pro-
duce an agreeable effect but somehow we rebel
when we are compelled to take notice of it — and
that is just what Gerome forces us to do. The
details are beautifully and daintily expressed — in
fact so accurate are they that each process can be
traced. But by no stretch of the imagination
could Gerome's careful and accurate rendering of
arabesque and tapestry be placed by the side of
io6 FRENCH PICTURES
the 'kittle Dutch Masters." One is troubled
about many things and the other is big in small
things.
As we study Gerome's 'Trayers in the Mosque
of Amrou, Old Cairo," Metropolitan Museum
of Art (Fig. 68), we are at once impressed with
his profound knowledge of humanity. Even
when that humanity is all Moslem. This com-
pany of worshippers gathered with one accord to
honour God and his prophet, Mohammed, is as
diverse as an American crowd. In the fore-
ground standing on the oriental rug is a mussel-
man — meaning a professor of submission to the
faith — an orthodox Mohammedan with a red
velvet robe and yellow silk under-sleeves. The
rug with its red centre and two borders, figured
black and yellow, is spread with pointed prayer
end facing Mecca. The row upon row of Turks
are facing toward Mecca in the first attitude of
prayer — they stand, they bow low, they kneel with
face touching the floor. The Mohammedan's
robes are mostly bright coloured with white tur-
bans. Note the nude boy just back in the middle
distance. Is it not our Boy of the Bischari tribe ?
The Turk and the Arab, the Egyptian and the son
of Ham all come together at the muezzin's call
to prayer. The Mosque of Amrou is the oldest
religious building in .Cairo. It was built by the
Fig. 67. — Boy of the Bischari Tribe. G6r6me. Courtesy of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
l''iG. ()S. — Prayer in the Mosciuc Amrou, Old Cairo. (i6r6inc.
Courtesy of the Metropolitan IMuscuiii of Art, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 107
Mohammedans about 622 a. d. — the first cen-
tury of Hegira.
Gerome, true to his literary instincts, pictures
this scene with a historic accuracy. It empha-
sizes the claim of the prophet on all his followers
to the end of time. Certainly the French oriental
artists with their historical knowledge and keen
sense of artistic values were pioneers in showing
the western world the power of the Turk under
the teaching of Mohammed. The pity is that we
have profited so little. More than a hundred
years ago they began picturing incidents and
episodes from the daily life of the peoples along
the Nile and in Constantinople, in Palestine and
the near East. These scenes represent almost
every phase of racial characteristics and had we
been wise many a lesson could have been learned
and many a blunder saved.
The versatility of Gerome led him into almost
every school of painting; and his wide knowledge
and extensive travel gave him an unlimited choice
of subjects. His literary interpretation in
"Pollice Verso," (Fig. 69), has accurately repro-
duced a form of gladiatorial contest at Rome.
Not the least emotion sways that crowd of specta-
tors. Really the turned down thumb of historic
significance is the only indication of vital interest
in the vanquished one — the "Pollice Verso" warns
io8 FRENCH PICTURES
the gladiator not to kill the fallen one. Gerome's
tragic scenes, no matter how ghastly, have no
more human element than has the puffing engine
after mangling its passengers.
Gerome was an artist of many parts. He un-
derstood his theme; he was master of his tools;
he never erred in historic value; he held the
interest with his varied subjects; he was cool,
collected, masterful, yet he never swayed the
judgment or warmed the heart. Surely his cor-
rect drawing, good colour, and interesting sub-
jects ought to have made him a master but mas-
ters are not made : they are born.
Was ever a composition more carefully ar-
ranged to express the significance of the times
than "L'Eminence Gris," Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston (Fig. 70). The stage setting is Louis
Xin on the throne of France (1625-1643) and
Cardinal Richelieu, his prime minister, enlarging
the king's domain in every direction. Pere Jo-
seph, "L'Eminence Gris," is confidential adviser
and secret secretary to the cardinal ; and the court,
ready to make capital of the least scrap of in-
formation, is on the alert. The character of
"L'Eminence Gris" (His Gray Eminence) Is
expressed in every line of the tall figure garbed
as a monk. Standing at the turn of the palace
stairway he sees to a nicety, without raising his
Fk;. 69. — Pollice Verso. Gerome.
Fig. 70. — L'Eminence Gris. Gerome. Courtesy of the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 109
eyes from his prayer-book, the exact degree of
humihty in the obeisance of the assembhng
church dignitaries and court nobles. No move-
ment is lost on this sagacious, astute man — and
well that bowing train knows the advisability of
outward reverence. Now why did not Gerome
refrain from noting every button, feather, shoe
latchet and glistening cloak? And why need he
pick out every iron leaf and scroll in the stair
banister and a multitude of other details too
numerous to mention? The subject is tremen-
dous in import and as simple as tremendous.
The apparently oblivious L'Eminence Gris stand-
ing alone and the obsequious train saluting hold
the attention with all the fascination of a real oc-
currence.
It scarcely seems possible that both Gerome
and Millet (see pages 104 and 122) studied under
Delaroche (see page 91). Few of Gerome's pu-
pils followed his methods of painting, yet his care-
ful teaching in drawing has been of inestimable
value to artists all over the world.
Not often two of the same family gain distinc-
tion yet the two brothers, Charles Theodore
Frere (1815-1888) and Pierre Edouard Frere
(1819-1886) were artists of considerable merit.
Theodore, the elder, was another orientalist. He
not only enters into the spirit of the eastern peo-
no FRENCH PICTURES
pie but pictures their camels with comradely
warmth only possible to one who knew them well
— and to know that wise ship of the desert is
knowledge indeed. The fascination of that line
of camels in "Cairo; Evening," by Theodore
Frere, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 7),
gets into the blood. But the whole scene is won-
derfully well managed. Look at the low lying
dust keeping in close touch with the swaying
train as if protesting at being disturbed. See
with what dignity the women balance their water
jars on their heads; they are fit companions for
the stately palms along their path. Wonderfully
harmonious are those long black robes and tall
yellow-grey jars with the luminous sand and
glistening water. Was ever a city bathed in a
more glorious light ! A yellow pink radiance ex-
alts minaret and gilded dome, marble palace and
secluded roof-garden. Surely the New Jerusa-
lem could scarcely shine with greater glory than
does this city of Cairo under the long rays of the
setting sun. This is a view to sigh for if it has
not been a reality and to rejoice in if it brings
back the real.
Now turn to "J^^usalem from the Environs,"
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 72), for the
oriental atmosphere of Arabs and tents and
Vic. 7;5. — Massacre of the Mainelukes. Bicla. Courtesy of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS iii
camels. Naturally our eyes travel along rolling
mountains up to Jerusalem set on a hill in the dis-
tance. The spell of ''Behold we go up to Jerusa-
lem" envelops the scene. That familiar group in
the foreground has probably been gathering in
that particular spot for forty centuries, never
changing in costumes or customs, yet ever vary-
ing in individual thoughts and manners. We
owe an inestimable debt to these French artists
who have brought us in such close touch with the
spirit of the near East. Their sympathetic un-
derstanding of the sacredness of ancient rites and
ceremonies is brought out again and again in
their pictures. These scenes do not necessarily
indicate that a religious significance was intended
by the artist but it was impossible to represent
these people without that element entering in.
When Alexander Bida (1813-1895) began to
paint oriental subjects he showed how deeply he
had studied the religious side of the people. His
marvellous set of drawings illustrating the Bible
are among our greatest treasures in illuminating
religious oriental customs to us. While he was
in the Orient studying and travelling Gerome
(see page 104), who was his close friend, was
often his companion. One day he showed
Gerome the drawing he had made of 'Trayer on
112 FRENCH PICTURES
the Housetop." After a few moments of silent
admiration, Gerome said, "I have done nothing
to equal this."
In "The Massacre of the Mamelukes," Metro-
politan Museum of Art (Fig. y^))^ '^ve have one of
his rare historic scenes that not only arouses inter-
est in the cause of the carnage but thrills with its
rich, vivid Cairoese setting. 1811 was the turn-
ing point in the history of the Mamelukes — the
word means slave. They originally were Turks
sold by Genghis Khan to the Egyptian sultan in
the thirteenth century. They rapidly gained
power in Egypt; established their own govern-
ment making their chiefs sultans until in 15 17
Selim I of Turkey overthrew them and also the
Arab rule in Egypt. The Mamelukes then be-
came a part of the Egyptian army as a cavalry
corps. In 181 1 they plotted secretly to capture
the old palace at Cairo and under a false pretext
convened at the gate. The plot was discovered
and the Mamelukes were nearly exterminated by
the soldiers of Mehemmet Ali. Bida has chosen
the opening fire of the Albanians as they shoot
down from rock and windows the fleeing Mame-
lukes. Carnage and bloodshed are not pleasant
subjects but the artist has so tempered the scene
with splendid architectural settings, rich colour-
ful trappings and quivering atmosphere that we
are scarcely conscious that it is a massacre.
CHAPTER XI
COROT
IF, on our arrival in Paris, we go at once to the
dear little village of Barbizon and wait quietly
there for a few days, we surely will feel the spell
of the same spirit — the spirit of nature calling —
creeping over us that crept over the French art
world a hundred years ago. Not every artist at
that time was willing to heed the new spirit that
was stirring abroad, but those who did heed made
that dear little hamlet at the edge of the Forest of
Fontainebleau the greatest centre of the new cre-
ation of art since the Italian Renaissance. But
these men who finally crystallized around the Bar-
bizon-Fontainebleau centre were at first part and
parcel of the artists we have watched gather and
disperse in the ateliers of Paris. These men
however, were creative destructors and their pro-
tests carried them back to the very fundamentals
of art where nature furnished incentive and
varied themes. One strange fact was that they
all worked individually, not to form a school, but
113
114 FRENCH PICTURES
simply to express themselves. Possibly the inci-
dent that brought them together was Constables'
exhibition of "The Haywain," in Paris in 1824.
When they saw this picture they recognized the
elemental undertone of truth which was just the
stimulus they needed in crystallizing the 1830
Barbizon-Fontainebleau school.
W class Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-
1875) with this school because he drew his inspi-
ration direct from nature though he never broke
away from his classic training. "Papa Corot,"
as he is lovingly called, is a unique figure in
French art. I once heard an aged artist say, as
he stood before a Corot and Daubigny, 'Tt is a
Corot! there is nothing more to be said," and then
turning to the Daubigny, he continued, "And
this Daubigny — how we love him!" A Corot!
who can describe his pictures ?
First let us look at "Ville d' Avery," Metropol-
itan Museum of Art (Fig. 74), and in imagina-
tion walk through the village and turn in between
a break in the line of houses and go down the
steps to a fountain facing the tiny lake. There
on an old slab, we read, "Veri diligentia"
(search after truth), and beneath is "Corot, Jean-
Baptiste Camille; born at Paris July 26th 1796;
died at Paris February 23d 1875." Then oppo-
site the fountain across the lake we will see a sub-
Fig. 74. — ^Villa d' Avery. Corot. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art, New York City.
Fig. 75. — Landscape. Corot. Courtesy of the Lajiion Art Gal-
lery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 115
stantial country house, Corot's home, with noth-
ing changed since dear pcre left it.
Now the house nearly hidden across the lake in
the picture, becomes a living thing. The spirit
of the master is there for it is he who is showing
it to us. We are standing by his easel and see-
ing with his eyes. And w^hat a scene it is!
Gould we have poetized those straggly trees and
the bit of lake mirroring them? Would that
white house have been more than a house among
the trees if Corot had not gripped us with the
mystery of the great soul living in it? And the
woman in the foreground — a spot of colour —
little did she realize that she, too, was a vital part
of Corot. I love to repeat Corot's own story of
his spots of colour. He says, ''Oh, the beautiful
fawn coloured cow ! I am going to paint her . . .
crack! there she is! Famous, famous!" He
sees Simon, a peasant, not daring to approach.
He calls him.
"Well, Simon, what do you thi-nk of that?"
pointing to the cow.
"Oh, well, Monsieur," says Simon, "it's very
beautiful, of course!"
"And you see what I meant to paint" ; asked
Corot.
"Why of course I see what it is," Simon
insists, "it's a large yellow rock you've put
ii6 FRENCH PICTURES
there !" This pleased the master but the "yellow
rock" is still singing in our hearts.
Corot was past his first youth when he began
to paint. In after years he would show his first
picture and say to his friends, "It is as young as
ever ; it marks the hour and the time of day when
I did it; but Mademoiselle Rose, who worked at
my mother's and who looked at me while at my
work, and I, where are we?" The very essence
of this painter is everlasting youth. Each morn-
ing and each evening was a new creation to him
as he sang their praises with ever varying tones.
No two were alike yet the same note of joy runs
through them all. He was up at dawn to do
homage to the first faint tint of the rising sun and
worked at night until the last gleam of the setting
sun. "Well I must stop," he would say, "my
heavenly Father has put out my lamp."
No doubt this "Landscape," Layton Art Gal-
lery (Fig. 75), shows the little lake Corot looked
on from his room. Here he would often spend
much of the night leaning on the sill of the open
window absorbing that mysterious something
hanging over land and water curtaining the sky
and screening bush and tree. That filmy, mys-
terious veil glistening with moisture became in
these night watches a part of his very soul. He
shows his wonderful penetration into the secret
Fig. 76. — Dante and Virgil. Corot. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 117
beginnings of new life in every spring landscape
he painted so lovingly. Never has twig and leaf
bud been caught in their nascent state more ten-
derly. The very stretching of birth is upon them
as they seem to expand before our very eyes.
The gleam of the developing chlorrophyl follow-
ing the ascending sap flashes out at us at every
turn and the overhanging grey sky seems to smile
complacently for it is good.
While Corot was no reader yet he sometimes
drew his subjects from classic story. In "Dante
and Virgil," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Fig.
76), it is easy to see that he has followed the text
closely. The opening sentence of the Inferno
gives a vivid word picture of Corot's scene.
Dante says,
"Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost."
Dante wanders all night full of sleep and
in the morning comes to the foot of a mountain.
He begins to ascend the desert slope but is met by
"A panther light and swift exceedingly."
He thinks to return but
"The time was the beginning of the morning,"
nature is awakening. A lion comes,
ii8 FRENCH PICTURES
"He seems as against me he were coming,
With head upHfted and with ravenous hunger,
And a she- wolf that withaU hungerings
Seemed to be laden in ugliness."
Dante g-fves up the ascent, and says,
"While I was rushing downward to the lowlands,
Before mine eyes did one present himself."
It is Vergil who has come to guide him to his
beloved Beatrice. As he says.
With her at my departure I will leave thee."
So much for the classic story but it has taken
Corot to picture the early morning light creep-
ing into the sombre forest. Unusual as is the
scene for Corot none could portray the glittering
film of dewy radiance dispelling the lingering
gloom of the night as he alone knows how to do.
It is no assumed mannerism that holds us in
Corot's landscapes. His moisture-laden atmos-
phere is as much a part of them as is the merry
glance of his eyes a part of himself. Moisture
seems to be the medium through which he passes
his own loving nature from the real scene to the
ideal one. What could there be of interest in
this ''Landscape," Institute of Art, San Fran-
cisco (Fig. yy^, if we had looked at it through
our own eyes? Would we have watched that
AND THEIR PAINTERS 119
cluttered up little pond struggling to reflect the
feathery trees if it had not been for Corot? Who
can define the thing — the essence — that marks a
Corot landscape?
Probably the most familiar of all of Corot's
landscapes is, *'The Dance of the Nymphs,"
Louvre (Fig. 78). It is not the nymphs
that hold us in this picture; they only
add a dancing band of colour as of the
swaying flowers — again it is Corot him-
self in his trees. And what a collection! Not
great symmetrical oaks but bent, gnarled,
broken, dead, nondescript trees; some clothed,
others naked! But Corot has touched them and
behold, a miracle ! A poem in paint — a symphony
in colour! Did you ever stop to think how few
his colours are? He plays with green until it
becomes the most delicate grey and the sombrest
black and expresses every tone of growing vege-
tation. Then he decorates sparingly from the
sodium line of the spectrum.
Corot was born of hard-headed, warm-hearted
tenacious Normandy extraction which may ac-
count for his persistence in holding a narrow
range of colour and subject. His simplicity,
which provoked much sly humour from his con-
temporaries — but not so sly as his own — was
gained by the most thorough training and a most
120 FRENCH PICTURES
conscientious masking of the technical means in
attaining results. 'T am only a lark, singing
little songs in my grey clouds," he would say.
Yes, exquisite little songs in which the swaying
trees, nodding flowers and sailing clouds still con-
tinue to trill in the surrounding grey atmosphere.
Was ever anything more understandable than
"Le Lac," Rheims Museum (Fig. 79). It enters
our souls and becomes a part of our being. Of
course we cannot mistake a Corot yet no two
pictures are alike any more than two meetings
with an interesting friend are the same. He is
never monotonous. How can a creative person-
ality be tiresome? Each approach is from a
different point of view. Here are the same trees,
and water, and sky yet was that tall, crooked,
almost branchless yellow poplar ever so interest-
ing? And that deciduous clump hugging so close
together, were ever trees shrouded under a more
cooling veil? Even the cows feel its soothing
effect.
Yes, Corot was the happy one of the "Pleiades"
group. He and Millet never quite understood
each other. Corot's undisturbed life kept his
outlook placid and serene. He never married and
had no family problems to solve and no financial
difficulties to unravel. His life was just the op-
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Fic. 7!). — La Lac. Corot. Pihritiis Miisouiii, l''raiico
l''iri. SO. — The Wdod (iatlicrcr. Corot. ("ourlcsy of llic Corcoran Art.
(iailcry, Wushiaigton. D. C
AND THEIR PAINTERS 121
poslte of Millet's existence. Corot's pictures
soothe us into thoughtful, contemplative moods.
Millet's arouse us to the living work of the bread-
winner. Both have joy in them — one the joy of
nature, the other the joy of labour.
Corot's painting of the "Wood Gatherer,"
Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D. C, (Fig. 80),
is his benediction to us. He signed it after he
was confined to his bed and just a few days before
he died. Corot's first motive for this picture was
from an old study of another artist — a landscape
with St. Jerome at Prayer — but this was too re-
stricted for his comprehension of God's first
temples. His wood choppers praise the Creator
as they gather to distribute comfort to others.
This might have been the landscape he saw in
those last moments when he moved his right
hand to the wall as though he were painting, and
said, 'Took how beautiful it is! I have never
seen such an admirable landscape."
CHAPTER XII
MILLET
NO two men could be more unlike than Corot
and Jean-Frangois Millet (1814-1875).
They both loved nature and both saw her in his
own individual way; both were of the Barbizon
group but Millet became a definite part of the tiny
village and today it is Millet who fills its every
nook and corner.
Millet was born at Gruchy, the second of nine
children. I wonder how many of our boys lifted
their eyes, as they landed at Cherbourg, to the
granite cliffs above where stands the hamlet of
Gruchy on the coast of La Manche — the sleeve,
the French name for the English Channel. This
rock-bound and stormy coast was literally his
play ground, if he ever played. The house is still
standing where Jean-Franqois was born and where
three generations lived under the same roof.
Blessed with a gentle refined father and a loving
mother and triply blessed with a grandmother
who loved nature and nature's God. In one of the
last letters this grandmother wrote her gifted
122
AND THEIR PAINTERS 123
grandson, as late as 1846, she entreats him never
to forget that he is a painter for eternity, but
to keep the presence of God and the sound
of the last trumpet ever in his mind. The sound
of that trumpet must have been very real to the
peasant folk at Gruchy, for the roar and rumble
of the sea was ever in their ears — yet otherwise
quiet reigned. *'A stranger," said JNIillet, "was
rarely seen there and such a silence reigned that
the clucking of a hen or the cackling of a goose
created a sensation." Though near the sea the
soil was rich and the valley covered with grass,
corn and herds.
It was a usual sight to see "The Sower," Met-
ropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 81), go forth to
sow the grain. See him swing along over hill
side and level plain with the rhythmic precision
of a pendulum keeping time with the seasons,
and the ploughman on the hill-top bathed in light,
the harbinger of the coming harvest. I was
standing before "The Sower" one day when a
stray sunbeam suddenly fell on the plougher and
his oxen. It was as though the golden gate had
opened and a light never on land or sea glorified
the group. I shall never forget the thrill of exul-
tant joy that shot through my heart at the vision.
Surely, thought I, this is the sower that went
forth to sow in the parable.
124 FRENCH PICTURES
Just stop a moment and look at "The Return
of the Flock," Institute of Art, San Francisco
(Fig. 82). Is she not calling her sheep by name
— possibly admonishing when the pushing be-
comes unseemly. How well the stretched necks
and flattened heads mark the eager haste for the
evening mess. Only a bit of pencil drawing yet
the touch of the master is in it. That narrow
path cut through the embankment ; the ease of the
girl leaning on the rustic gate ; the huddled sheep ;
the long grass; the bunch of bushes and two
trees — how prosaic! Just a few pencil lines and
behold a picture to be remembered!
When 'The Angelus," Chauchard Collection,
Paris (Fig. 83), was exhibited in America twen-
ty-five years ago our picture-loving people flocked
to see it. The numbers who saw it seemed legion
and they came away enthusiastic because it was
understandable. The buzzing opinions of critics
pro and con made little impression at the time.
From the sentimental point of view the pity was
that the artist himself could not have known that
America believed in him. While the picture itself
is far from Millet's best nevertheless it threw a
flood of light on what a sincere truth-loving artist
could do in revealing the beauty of humble life.
Incidentally the bringing of that picture to Amer-
ica was one of the many influences at work in
Fig. 81. — The .Sower. :\Iillot.
Private Collection.
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Fig. 82.— The Return of the Plock. Millet. Courtesy of the
Institute of Art, San Francisco., California.
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 125
arousing our people to a love of good pictures —
influences that have broadened until now inter-
national exhibitions are quite the order of the
day.
Millet completed the Angelus in 1859, before he
was in full command of his marvellous power in
projecting and detaching his figures into their
surroundings. In his anxiety, as he told his
friend Sensier, that we too "hear the tones of
the Angelus bell," he has faltered in his hold
on the two workers in the actual scene. And yet I
remember as we stood so still before the illumined
picture in the darkened room, twenty-five years
ago, I seemed to hear those peasants murmuring
their prayer, ''Angelus Domini mimtiavit Ma-
riae," as well as the tone of the distant bell. After
all no amount of art criticism can keep the human
heart from responding to the true artist. We
make too little of the human side of art — pictures
are not for the artist, they are for the people.
Millet was constantly thinking of the people in
terms of work — in other words he knew that
only through work was there any salvation for
the human race. He replied to some of his
friends complaining of the lack of joy among
his works, "Have you seen joy in nature? For
my part I have never seen it ; as its nearest ap-
proach I have seen some hours of calm and
126 FRENCH PICTURES
peacef Illness." What a reproach to those who
are constantly looking for happiness — happiness
is a state of being realized after it is gone.
Do you think these people in the "Harvesters
Resting," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Fig.
84), feel joy? The interest expressed for the girl
in the faces of the actors of the group is one of
kindliness. The man's open hands plead for the
stranger who, like Ruth, was to come at meal time
and eat of the bread and sit by the harvesters.
The scene is wonderfully composed. Those
men and women each resting in his own indi-
vidual way have that abandon that is characteris-
tic of workers when eating and resting. The
picturesque costumes of the group beautifully
harmonize with the golden straw stacks and the
glorious sunshine of the noon day.
Not by any means does Millet always picture
the sordidness of the French peasant. He was
ever striving to picture life in the living. True
it was not a life of thrills yet it was the simple
joys of daily doings. Could anything be fuller
of home joy than this picture of "Feeding the
Nestlings," Lille Museum, France (Fig. 85).
Those darlings in the doorway are typical of well
trained French children. How many times we have
sat waiting our turn for a mouthful from the
coveted bowl knowing well that the littlest one
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 127
must have the lion's share! Look how curious
the old hen is. She is an essential part of the
scene for she has a share in that bowl too. It is
Millet's intimate understanding of the close rela-
tionship of nature's human children to all her
other children that gives him such power in pic-
turing these homely scenes. To him everything
was beautiful. He would often ask, ''Which is
the more beautiful, a stately tree, isolated in the
middle of a field, or a knotted, twisted, stunted
tree gnawed by the wind and deformed by the
stroke of the tempest? Neither the one nor the
other: all depends on the work in which that
tree is to take its place, and the effect which its
presence there produces."
Look how touchingly real is his "Bringing
Home the New Born Calf," Art Institute, Chicago
(Fig. 86). Millet knew this scene for he was
born a peasant and spent his life going and com-
ing among them at their daily tasks. One day he
came upon some men cutting grain. One of
them called to him: "Monsieur Millet, this is
very different from your work. I would like to
see you take a sickle."
"I'll take your sickle," said Millet, "and reap
faster than you and all your family." And he
did.
It was no unusual occurrence for mother cow
128 FRENCH PICTURES
to steal away and expect her baby to be brought
home on a barrow. And these boys and their
mother knew just the attention the new baby
needed. It is beautiful, this homely scene. See
the stoop of the taller boy as he holds the bed
level for the precious burden. Can you not feel
the thrill of the household over the arrival of the
little stranger? A greater sense of thrift enters
into the daily work. A new calf and an abun-
dance of fresh milk opens a vista of wide possi-
bilities. Even the little ones in the doorway feel
the joy of the occasion.
Millet went to Paris to study in 1837. He says
of this time, *T came to Paris with my ideas all
formed in art, and I have not judged it a propos
to modify them. I have been more or less fond
of such and such masters or such and such form
of expressing art; but I have made no changes
in the fundamentals." Millet stayed in Paris sev-
eral years but he could never adapt himself to
the tenets of the atelier of the day. He was too
strongly impressed with Michael Angelo and
Poussin to be patient under the weakness of De-
laroche, though he admired the works of Dela-
croix. His fight for existence was always a hard
one and in Paris not only getting bread and butter
vexed him but the contentions of the critics over
his peasant pictures. He would say again and
Fig. 85." — 1 Ludmg the Xestlings. Millet. Lille Museum, France.
Fici. 86. — Bringing IIoiiic ilic Xcw-Iiorii Calf. Millet. Courtesy of the Art
In.stitute, Chicago.
AND THEIR PAIN i ERS 129
again, ''Let them not believe that tl.^y will force
me to lessen the types of the soil — ah, no, peas-
ant I was born peasant I shall die." Then he
would add, "When I get to the ground then I
shall be free." And yet during these Paris days
he had become master of the nude with flesh
tints approaching the great Rubens himself.
It was about 1830 when Millet went to Bar-
bizon with his friend Jacques. Some of the 1830
men were already there and had established cer-
tain test rules to be accepted before others could
enter the circle. One test was that each new
comer must smoke Diaz's pipe that hung on the
wall of the inn. And the kind of rings he blew
would place him. Jacques' rings showed a col-
ourist but Millet's were unclassable.
"Oh well! don't trouble about it," exclaimed
Millet. "Put me down in a class of my own."
"A good answer," said Diaz, "and he looks
strong and big enough to hold his own in it."
And he was indeed in a class of his own !
Now that Millet is settled at Barbizon we must
have a mental picture of the little village, the
breeding place of such marvellous masterpieces.
It is nestled so close to the Forest of Fontaine-
bleau that the primeval boulders are now guard-
ing both the trees of the forest and the people of
the hamlet. In fact some have grown so curious
130 FRENCH PICTURES
that they have overstepped their bounds to form
resting places for belated lovers almost in the
public highway. Low stone houses border the
one wide street and among them what remains of
Alillet's home behind a high tight board fence.
It is exasperating trying to see anything through
the cracks but fortunately for me some one came
out of the gate and as it closed I was inside the
garden. The wonderful vision lasted only a
moment, but Oh, that moment! and then
I was on the outside again. What is it
that bewitches us as we walk through the com-
monplace little village of Barbizon, who can
tell? The spirits who have left an inheritance
incorruptible and that fadeth not away seem
hovering near. What a privilege to have lived
among such giants and yet, the neighbours pro-
bably thought them quite ordinary men.
And then to wander in that forest! Probably
Millet had in mind some of its lonely spots when
he painted "Solitude," Pennsylvania Museum,
Philadelphia (Fig. 87). Note how he intensifies
the feeling of loneliness by that solitary stone gate
post intimating a human dwelling deserted.
There is always a feeling of disappointed expec-
tancy haunting us in the solitude left by man
that we do not feel in nature's solitudes. In the
latter it is the isolated remoteness from our kind
AND THEIR PAINTERS 131
that oppresses us instead of the sense of an irre-
trievable loss. How satisfying this composition
is with its wide open space of untrodden snow
in the foreground and the fascinating background
of innumerable trees — a fit place for the fairies
to dwell. Millet loved to picture nature undis-
turbed to show just how she managed her own
afifairs. To him any pruning of her children
caused him sorrow. He would say, after a walk
in the forest.
''The tiny branches of all kinds were
perhaps the most beautiful of all. It seems
to me that nature wishes to make( them take
their revenge and to show that they are not in-
ferior in anything, those poor, humiliated things."
Millet's countrymen were slow of heart in
recognizing his merit and slower still in paying
for it. His was the old story of unappreciated
talent until too late. Post-mortem honours are
far too common in the art world. He was never
more than able to keep the wolf from the door
and often suffered many privations. These anxi-
eties served to aggravate the terrible headaches
that followed him through life — headaches so
agonizing that often several days each week he
could do nothing but nurse his head. Today the
least scrap from his pencil or brush literally
brings a thousand times its weight in gold.
CHAPTER XIII
ROUSSEAU— DUFRE— DIAZ
PROBABLY no two artists ever made more
money for picture dealers and less for them-
selves during their life time than did Millet and
Pierre-Etienne-Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867).
The tragedy of these two lives, whose works are
among the great uplifting influences of the world,
is repeating itself in every age and the pity is that
no remedy is yet discovered to prevent it. It is
fitting that these Barbizon artists should have a
special memorial in Barbizon and that it should
unite them in some way to the great forest so dear
to their hearts. High up on the huge boulders
that have elbowed their way close to the little
village is a large bronze placque with finely
modelled "Portraits of Rousseau and Millet" on
it, done by Chapu as a labour of love. Looking
into the faces of these grand, simple-minded men,
one sees in them the strength that is drawn from
nature and nature's God.
Rousseau inherited artistic tendencies. He was
an only child, born in Paris, of parents who fos-
132
AND THEIR PAINTERS 133
tered his predilections and gave him many early-
advantages. But, unfortunately, his father, gen-
erous to a fault and unwise in business ventures,
decided the boy must follow a profession to bring
prosperity in the future — he chose civil engineer-
ing. This was not to Theodore's liking and with-
out asking permission he put together an artist's
outfit and took French-leave. When his cousin-
uncle saw the sketches he made at Butte Mont-
martre in front of the old church, he took the
boy to Compiegne and set him to making studies
from nature. This settled his career at fourteen.
Rousseau was never satisfied with any teacher
or in any atelier but his own, and that was usu-
ally out-of-doors. He disliked instinctively the
classic school of landscape and pictures made di-
rect from nature were too new and radically at
variance to the old methods to be accepted by the
Academic artists. Thus at the very beginning of
his artistic career adverse criticism was his lot.
Again and again he was refused the Grand Prix
de Rome but he would not subscribe to the com-
mittee's rule of thumb. At last, when only
nineteen, he determined that hereafter nature
should be his only teacher and immediately
started south to the Cantal Mountains. This was
the beginning of Rousseau's intimate knowledge
of nature's convulsions in world making. Not
134 FRENCH PICTURES
until 1836 did he go to Barbizon where he became
one of the Pleiades. And there close to the
great forest did he find some comfort. Nothing so
typifies the terrible agony of mind and soul that
poor Rousseau endured in his hours of depression
as does the upheavals found in the depths of the
Forest of Fontainebleau. He would seek out
these broken spots and there find peace in some
"Footpath Among the Rocks of Apremont" ( Fig.
88), a peace that smiled on him with all the
warmth and joy he has expressed in this picture.
Not always could he bring joy out of these scenes
but he painted this picture at his happiest time
between 1850 and 1855. Not a hint of sorrow
is in the lovely blue sky and sporting clouds.
Every tree is lit with the steady glow of virile
youth and age. Even in his smiles Rousseau
leads where enjoyment is earned. Simply he
tells of the rock pasture, the peasant, the beast
of burden, the boulders with the path between
them, the birch and beech trees, making of it all
a harmony of exquisite colour and design.
Of all nature's children Rousseau loved her
trees best. He would often say *T wish to con-
verse with them, and to be able to say to myself,
through that other language — painting — that I
have put my finger upon the secret of their gran-
deur." Certainly he had learned their secret
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Fig. 89. — I'Mjic of tlu; Woods. lioiLsscau.
Courtesy of the IVIetropolitan Museum of .Vrt,
New York City.
Fia. 90. — Landscape. Housseau. Courtesy of the Insti-
tute of Art, San Francisco, California.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 135
when he painted 'The Edge of the Wood," Met-
ropoHtan Museum of Art (Fig. 89). That tough
old sentinel standing guard over the young sap-
Hngs has defied the marauding hurricane for
many a year. How proudly he lifts his head as
much as to say, "You have me to deal with. Look
out !" The rugged growth of those storm-tossed
children is not unlike that of the artist. And he
felt that in them was true comfort. Days at a
time he hung close to them and many a night
found him resting at their feet, his head pillowed
against their trunks and his body gaining strength
from their roots. It wasn't that Rousseau could
not live with his fellow man that he sought the
solace from nature but that he might have a
deeper insight into her way himself, in order to
help others to go to her oftener for wisdom.
His constant eifort was to overcorne the artificial
that was strangling the visions of the spirit.
None of those 1830 men was so sensitive to
the changing moods of times and seasons as
Rousseau and none knew so intimately the
struggles of vegetation against wind and weather.
In the ''Landscape," Institute of Arts, San Fran-
cisco (Fig. 90), he has shown us "The very pulse
of the machine," that is twisting and moulding
trunk branch, tendril and leaf into comely
covering for the bare rock and clod. No won-
136 FRENCH PICTURES
der that Rousseau sought out such a spot as this
for his dwelling. Only fundamentals are brought
out in this study of nature's processes. Only
Rousseau who had been admitted to the inner
circle through patient waiting could have touched
so lovingly the awkward awakening — for the
first pushings of plant life are ungainly — and
made them seemly and interesting on canvas. Of
course his pictures did not fit in with the work
of the Academicians ; those men seemed to think
life was always in dress parade attire; and of
course it took time to convince even the public
that pictures of a God-made out-of-doors world
were more inspiring and helpful than those of
a man-made one conceived in the studio.
Rousseau's life was one long striving to re-
veal the thoughts and feelings of trees. He ap-
proached them from every angle and under most
varying circumstances yet it was rare indeed for
him to be satisfied with his work. When he
painted the "Outskirts of the Forest of Fon-
tainebleau, Sunset," Louvre (Fig. 91), his studio
door and that of his faithful friend, Jules Dupre,
opened side by side in the little village of Mon-
soult. Dupre watched anxiously his beloved
friend touch and retouch this picture until finally
unable to restrain himself longer for fear the
picture would be ruined, he begged Rousseau to
AND THEIR PAINTERS 137
leave it for a month with its face to the wall. At
the end of the time the two friends examined
it together. After a short silence Rousseau said,
"I am going- to sign it ; it is finished." No wonder
that many critics pronounce this beautiful gem
a perfect landscape painting. Even that bent
tree has assumed a fascinating personality.
Some particular bond of sympathy must have ex-
isted between it and the artist for over and over
it is brought into his pictures. There is nothing
ungainly or sinister in the deformity of that trunk
— rather it is a blessing in disguise with its far
spreading shade.
Jules Dupre (1812-1889) was the first artist of
the famous group to go to Barbizon and the last
one to leave the little village. As a friend he
could remain faithful under injustice and win
out by loyalty. His own success always meant
greater opportunity to help his friends. We have
learned from Millet, Corot and Rousseau and
shall continue to learn from the other men of the
group — Troyon, Diaz and Daubigny, that con-
stant struggle against scofiing ignorance was
their lot. Dupre seemed to be the one man who
could in a measure compel the public to stop!
look!! listen!!! and finally buy of these artists
whose vision was reclaiming the nation and the
world. Not that he was as strong as the trio —
138 FRENCH PICTURES
Rousseau, Millet and Corbt — ^but he had that
indefinable something that attracts people in gen-
eral which naturally gave him a better chance
to interest the public in his work.
Dupre was born in Nantes. He painted porce-
lain in his father's factory until he was eighteen
then he went to Paris. From the very first his
work was popular and though so young he was
big enough to recognize the greater merit of the
other landscape painters. Dupre and Rousseau,
the same age ( 1812), both drew inspiration direct
from nature — the one a happy interpreter of
nature as a helpmeet to man, the other an earnest
seeker to know nature's moods and learn her
secrets.
'The Old Oak," Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Fig. 92), has an attitude of friendliness that
draws us to its shade and makes us feel that
others of our kind have rested there and that we
are welcome. There is not the life mystery cling-
ing to it that is in Rousseau's bent tree. We feel
no special longing to get at the secrets hidden
within the rough bark. The glory of light, of
colour, of atmosphere is here playing around and
over the scene and lifting us into a more joyous
mood. Those meadow lands in the distance en-
large our vision and the grazing cows steady
our restlessness.
o3
m
3
S
O
CO
Vic. 92.- The Old Oak. Dupro. Courtesy of the Metropolit.iti
Museum of Art, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 139
Dupre knew instinctively the rustic scenes that
would please. The charm of "The Hay Wagon,"
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 93), is the
human interest expressed in overcoming the dif-
ficulty of rounding that curving hill-side road.
A storm is brewing. The family hurrying home,
have come to a sandy sidling road leading around
a curve. The woman with the child beside her on
the hay, guides the horse, while the man pushes
the wagon from behind. The sense of strain in
the low-lying body makes one feel the heavy road
and creaking wheels ploughing through the loose
sand. The picture is a delicious colour harmony
for no one knew better than Dupre how to make
colour sing. To every man and woman of the
farm this scene is a breath from home. And
see how wonderfully the bordering trees are
lighted up by the radiant cloud flecked sky.
It was sad indeed for Dupre as he watched his
old friends one by one slip away from him until
he was left alone at Barbizon. After they were
gone he felt the old home calling him in the
forest of LTsle — Adam, a few miles north of
Paris, where his mother had kept house for him
and Rousseau and there he died ten years later
than the others.
When Narcisco Vergaleo Diaz de la Pefia
(1809-1876) died at Mentome his wife brought
I40 FRENCH PICTURES
his remains to Paris. Jules Dupre, one of the
pall-bearers, said sorrowfully, "The sun has lost
one of its most beautiful rays." These two art-
ists were friends from early boyhood when they
worked together in a porcelain factory learning
design and decorating plates, jam-pots and
apothecaries' gallipots — afterwards they were
often styled the Barbizon school decorator-pamt-
ers.
Diaz was of Spanish parentage. His father
and mother fled to France during the Spanish
troubles of 1809, reaching Bordeaux where the
little Diaz was born. Diaz is from Diaz de la
Pefia meaning "days of suffering." Quite ap-
propriately his name is suggestive of the hard-
ships his mother endured. Later in lif e'he too went
through great physical pain and finally lost his
leg through the effects of a snake bite. What
seemed at the time a great calamity was really a
source of good fortune in giving the boy time
for study and meditation. He never had much
training in his art but a fertile imagination gave
him a great variety of subjects, and he loved
brilliant colour. The two elements in his nature
— Spanish inheritance and French environment
— are easily recognized in his pictures in the rich
colour and dense shadows of the former and
poetic feeling of the latter.
Fig. 93. — The Hay Wagon. Dupre. ("ourtcsy
of tlie Metropolitan Mu.seum of Art,
New York Citv.
Inc.. 94.— Xo
Admittance. Diaz.
Antwerp.
Private Collection,
Fig. 95. — Descent of tlic liohciniaiis. J)iaz. Courtesy of tlu> Musciiin
of Fine Art, Boston, Mas.s.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 141
One of the few figure pieces which illustrates
this combination of inheritance and adopted en-
vironment most perfectly is "No Admittance," in
a private collection, Antwerp (Fig. 94). Those
full blown goddesses with their warm flesh tints
and cool black hair of the southland illumined
by brilliant coloured drapery and framed in the
open arches of the sombre-toned architecture
are full of the poetry of youth and perfection.
Little cupid finds a cold reception among these
glorious creatures still enamoured of themselves.
Standing in the full light with a cloud-flecked
sky smiling down on them nothing could give
greater charm to their ripened womanhood.
When Diaz painted the "Descent of the Bohe-
mians," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Fig.
95), he seemed to have taken tribute from the
hues of every known bird, gem and flower.
That goodly company winding down the
forest defile sparkles and glitters under the danc-
ing sunbeams like humming-birds in a garden
full of bloom. A strearn of precious stones
pouring down a mountain stream could not be
more bewitching in colour and dazzling light.
One can gain no conception of the brilliancy of
the picture without seeing it. The harmony of
every tint, tone and hue, the perfect balance in
light and shade, the poetic rhythm of line and mass
142 FRENCH PICTURES
and the joyous swing of the moving company —
all held together by the most subtle atmospheric
film — mark this picture as a masterpiece for all
time.
Diaz was among the first to go to Barbizon
after Dupre, and it was his old pipe that Millet
smoked when he entered the charmed circle (see
page 129). None knew better than Diaz, with
his big heart and practical ideas, how to comfort
and cheer.
CHAPTER XIV
DAUBIGNY— TROYON— JACQUE—
BRETON
CHARLES FRANCOIS DAUBIGNY
(i8i 7-1878), was the youngest of the men
forming the Barbizon group. He was born in
Paris but it was not the city, with its marvels of
art, of antiquities, of all sorts and conditions of
men that aroused the boy's artistic soul; it was
the river — that mysterious secret-keeper named
after the river deity, Sequana, that called him —
and later the river Oise. He never went to
Barbizon to live though the bond of friendship
between him and the others was warm and tender.
He chose rather the constant companionship of
his beloved river. Even today an old dilapidated
house-boat is still shown at Auvers as the one he
used for home and studio. He used to pass up
and down the Oise sketching quiet nooks, spread-
ing fields and tall church spires, and peasant
cottages clustered close by the river.
No scene was too humble for Daubigny's
143
144 FRENCH PICTURES
beauty-finding brush, and no hour too early or too
late so long as the sun was there. He was out
early when he caught the first image of the sun
mirrored in the water that "Morning on the
Seine," Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 96).
And the ducks, too seem to have caught that
image as they crinkle the water in hurrying to
the cozy edge of the bank. Daubigny loved
the atmosphere, the feathery trees, the low-lying
grove in the distance and the tiny hamlet at the
highest point; all are intimately bound together
with that impalpable something that marks all
his scenes. Karl Daubigny, the artist's son, has
inscribed on the back of the painting that it was
done by his father.
Daubigny, in a frank, straightforward manner
shows us scenes lying right before us. Look at
the landscape of "A Hamlet on the Seine," Cor-
coran Art Gallery, Washington (Fig. 97), and
note how carefully he shows us interesting bits
of detail yet how comprehensive his conception
of the scene. We enjoy with him the ducks and
the patches of water, the women gathering roots,
the flufify trees, the straight roadway and
the tidy barns, the church in the village and the
buildings in the distance. These details are
neither confusing nor insistent they simply awak-
en our minds to the beauties of common scenes
Fig. 96. — Morning on the Seine. Daubigny. Courtesy of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Fig. 97. — Hamlet on Ilii' Seine. Daubigny. Courte.s\- of the Corcoran
Art Gallery, Washington, D. C.
Fit;. UN. — Village Spcno. D;uil)igiiy. ('oiirtcsy
of the Institute of Art, San T'lancisco, Calif.
Fig. 99. — Oxen Going to Work. Troyon. Louvre,
Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 145
and help us to change our point of view — and be
comforted.
It is always the homely, homey scenes that seem
to attract Charles Daubigny most. Take the
"Village Scene," Institute of Art, San Francisco
(Fig. 98). Was ever anything more suggestive
of the daily doings of home life? The clothes
on the line tell the story of early morning hours
in the suds and rinse water, the short shadows
point to high noon and the woman in the
doorway suggests a thrifty housewife with the
meal ready and waiting for the return of the
field toilers. Over and over Daubigny shows the
community spirit of the French peasant in their
little homes snuggled close together where the
farm labourers live and where morning and even-
ing they discuss their joys and sorrows,
work and ambitions as one great family. We feel
that the artist has made no efifort to attract us to
this special home but that he is simply recording
what he has seen many times. I wonder if we
were in Auvers today we would recognize these
houses and the stone wall at the end of the street.
I hope so. Daubigny's rendering of nature, like
the rest of the Barbizon men, was of the essence
of things. He was a naturalist pure and simple.
Corot and Daubigny lie near each other in the
Pere-Lachaise.
146 FRENCH PICTURES
The real genius of the Barbizon artists lay in
their ability to make us feel the scene as they felt
it. It was not a photographic reproduction of
some special spot, but they worked into their
pictures the atmosphere, the undefined vitality
that lingers in the mind long after material vision
is erased. This is particularly true with the land-
scapes of Constant Troyon (1810-1865). His
living, breathing cattle come in as a natural part
of the changing scene. "The Oxen Going to
Work," Louvre (Fig. 99), could no more be left
out of that morning scene than could the fields
— one is dependent on the other to make a com-
plete whole. As we step into the long gallery of
the Louvre, where the picture hangs, we feel
that largeness of conception is one of the qualities
that makes Troyon's pictures understood — he
speaks to that great majority of picture-lovers
who feel the truth but cannot explain how. We
stand before the picture and are alone with it.
We watch the sun just peeping above the horizon
send a flood of light over men and cattle; we
feel the crisp morning air catch the breath of the
plodding oxen and hold it in millions of globules
while the sunlight, dancing over them, turns them
into tiny rainbows. We seem to hear the crunch
of the vielding soil under the heavy tread and see
Fig. iuu. — lleiuni mjiii
-NiaiivLi. Troj'on.
tute, Chicago.
Courtosj' of the ^Vrt Insti-
AND THEIR PAINTERS 147
how the quivering sides move rythmically with
each breath.
Even in the "Return from the Market," Art
Institute, Chicago (Fig. 100), where the sheep
and horses fill the larger part of the canvas, Troy-
on's large conception of the big-out-of-doors
dominates the picture. The sky is aglow with the
long rays of the low sun. The flying dust parti-
cles, acting as prisms, set the air quivering and
tint trees and roadside with rainbow glory. That
Troyon understands animals is true, for no one
could have portrayed jaded sheep with so much
truth without a personal knowledge of animals
after the market is over and they have had a long
hot journey home.
Troyon was born in Sevres, that little city
less than three miles from Paris, so famous for
its exquisite porcelain for one hundred and fifty
years. Naturally Troyon served an apprentice-
ship at decorating in the Sevres factory. Jules
Breton (see page 150), gives a personal glimpse
of Troyon after he was known to fame. Breton,
seventeen years younger than Troyon, received
a visit from the master. He had come to see
Breton's picture of the "Benediction of the Wheat
in Artois." "One morning," says Breton, "a man
of great size knocked at my door, having a slight
148 FRENCH PICTURES
rustic aspect. 'I am Troyon,' said he to me. They
have spoken to me of your picture and I wish to
see it — !' He looked at the canvas a long time, a
very long time without opening his mouth." Bre-
ton insisted that he make some criticism. When
at last Troyon said, "Yes, there are faults, but
you will correct them sufficiently soon, and that
will be perhaps so much the worse."
We feel sure that this cow going to the "Drink-
ing Place," Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington
(Fig. loi), was just in time to get into Troyon's
picture. The picture would have been empty
without her! And how intimate a part of the
landscape she is. In fact were she not there
that wide expanse might almost give a feeling
of desolation. She is the note that binds us
close to the distant horizon, the sturdy willows,
the isolated pool and the artist. We love Troyon
for he loved Nature in a big, wholesome way.
It is just as possible to think of Troyon's ani-
mals without a landscape as it is to think of the
reverse. What a strange scene these "Cattle,"
Institute of Art, San Francisco (Fig. 102),
would make without that glorious cloud-decked
sky and the low lying, far stretching, straggling
land with its oozy pools in the hollows. It took
those cattle and sheep and Troyon to find the
wealth hidden away in that remote spot.
Fig. 101. — Drinking Place. Trojon. Courtesy of the Corcoran Art Gal-
lerj-, Washington, D. C.
mmppppMUiMUJiiLinuq
Fic. 102. — Cattle. Troyon. Courtesy of tlie Institute of .\rt. San
Francisco, California.
Fl(i. 103. — 'Jlic Slu'C'ijlold. Jacciuc. Courlc.s\' of tlu; Metropolitan
Musoum of Art, New York City.
Fig. 104. — The Watering Place. Jacqiic. Courtesy of the
Institute of Art, San Francisco, California.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 149
Charles Jacque ( 1813-1894) was born in Paris.
He was trained in geological engineering and
worked in England before he went to Barbizon
with Millet where he found himself in the rustic
life of peasants. These same peasants proba-
bly laughed in their sleeve at the young artist's
lack of practical sense in trading his new wheel-
barrow for an old one. They little realized that
that same weather-worn, dilapidated barrow was
to become famous the world over. To Jacque
rustic meant the spirit that dwells among work-
ers of the soil and none knew better than he how
to picture the effect of that spirit. Could a real
''Sheep fold," Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig,
103), give a truer sense of the huddling, pushing
stupidity of sheep and the wisdom of the shep'herd
regulating the senseless flock than Jacque has
given in this picture? The tumbled hay in the
rack, the scattered straw on the ground and the
biddies scratching for choice morsels are full of
the spirit of farm life. This is an actual scene
seen through the eyes of one who never gave
a false note in portraying the habit of use that
comes to animals or things by being used.
In this drawing signed by the artist of "The
Watering Place," Institute of Art, San Francisco
(Fig. 104), we realize that Jacque understood
the habit of horses as well as that of pigs and
150 FRENCH PICTURES
sheep. He was often called the ''Raphael of
Pigs" and, after looking at this sheep picture we
add the ''Raphael of Sheep," only to find on
further knowledge of his paintings that we might
extend the term to the "Raphael of Animals."
These horses with the typical eagerness of the
equine family when consumed with thirst, show
how well Jacque understood animals in general
and that he was not confined within the limits
of a particular scene. The drawing is especially
valuable for in it he embodies the essence that
makes all his scenes a living reality. The trees,
wind-blown and storm-tossed, have the vigour of
young life making good against odds. Although
Jacque's smoke rings from Diaz's pipe marked
him a colourist he was not always true in colour
sense, but he never fails to give the charm of life
tha makes us feel its truth.
Victor Hugo wrote to Jules Adolphe Breton
1827-1906), after his publication of "Jeanne,"
in 1875, "To be twice the poet ; to be as Lamertine
and as Corot ; to be a poet both by the strophe and
by the palette; — that has been given you." It
means a great deal to have the personal opinion
of such men as Victor Hugo and Troyon on
Breton for few artists have provoked such varied
criticisms as he. The fact that he was a finan-
cial success with his art almost from the begin-
AND THEIR PAINTERS 151
ning of his career blinded the pubHc to the real
worth of his work and also aroused much jealous
cavil among art circles. That he chose for his
theme the same peasant farmers as Millet and yet
pictures them from an entirely different stand-
point provoked much needless controversy. If
we will stop a moment and Hsten to the two men,
Millet and Breton, as they sit together discussing
their art and their ideals, we will find that the
older master with his deep insight into the big-
ness of life understands and explains the differ-
ent points of view. He says, "We are both seek-
ing infinite nature. We are free to follow the
furrow which we love, preferring, you, the con-
volvulus in the wheat and I the rude potatoes."
Bearing this thought in mind let us look at
"The Gleaner," Luxembourg, Paris (Fig. 105),
with a clearer idea of Breton's point of view.
He saw more in this French girl than a gleaner
in the fields. His was the vision that, when the
call came, lifted France above the toiler with bent
back and bowed head, and the butterfly with her
paint-pot and powder-box. France was alive be-
cause of the unrest seething in those same
peasants that Millet saw. This young woman is
just as fit in intention and power to glean and
hoe with any of those, her companions, who are
gleaning in the wake of the reaper. Let her
152 FRENCH PICTURES
straighten herself and look out on the world. She
will work the better for the new vision. The
convolvulus in the wheat has gladdened many
a heart even though a little extra work was neces-
sary because she put her smiling face in the wrong
place.
Breton was born in the little town of Courriercs
in the province of Pas-de-Calais not far from
Arras. Though his mother died when he was
quite young yet his childhood was a wholesome
and happy one under the care of his maternal
grandmother. His father's garden was his
greatest delight. He used to say of it, ''A true
French garden with its vegetable beds and its
flower borders — here, among the flower and
the insects, my first reveries had birth." He was
given unusual school advantages and at sixteen
began regular lessons in art first at Ghent then
Antwerp and at nineteen he was sent to Paris
to complete his art studies.
Breton soon found that his forte was the genre
of the fields though he first tried historical sub-
jects, indeed he went so far as to send, in 1853,
one of the latter — "Encampment of Bohemians
in the Ruins of the Abbey of St. Bavin" — to the
Brussels exposition. At the suggestion of his
brother he also sent "The Little Gleaners." To
his surprise the latter was hung in the place of
Fig. 105. — The Gleaner. Jules Breton. Luxembourg,
Paris.
3
o
'Si
r^.
5^
■ O
o
o
P4
AND THEIR PAINTERS 153
honour. He loved the peasant life of his home
province and spent most of his life painting
among them.
Breton was greatly interested in the curious and
quaint customs of Brittany and made several
extended visits among the Bretons to gather
material. One of his large canvanses picturing
the "Grand Pardon in Brittany," is in the Met-
ropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 106). Brittany
is the land of Pardons. During the summer
scarcely a village or hamlet but has one. For two
hundred years they have remained unchanged,
a remnant of the ancient Feast of the Dead.
Breton has caught the spirit that prompted these
people to come together — simple devout worship-
pers, perfectly sincere, with no pretence, no
striving for effect. We wonder how he could
ever have overcome the monotony of white caps
row upon row and numberless bare headed men
moving between, until we study the faces and
then suddenly that band of pilgrims becomes a
great personal whole and each individual is a
living soul. Who could ever forget the charm of
those women! Every shade of holy joy is ex-
pressed in their manner and look. And those
splendid men. How well the artist has portrayed
the vigour of manhood and the feebleness of age.
The soft flowing hair of those men has no savour
154 FRENCH PICTURES .
of eccentric idiosyncrasies but rather the noble
dignity of a time-honoured custom. It is night
and the procession is on its way from the church
to the special shrine to kneel before the tall cross
on which is the figure of the crucified Saviour.
These "Pardons" are unlike any of the feasts
or fasts that pertain to religious ceremonials in
Roman 'Catholic countries or even other sections
of France. A certain honest conviction fills
every man, woman and child in the community
during a 'Tardon" that is felt to be from the
heart. To be a part of one of these ceremonials is
to enter into the spiritual life that guides and
governs the daily life in Brittany. A 'Tardon"
is simply the spontaneous overflowing of grati-
tude in the Brittany children to God and his
blessed Son, for all temporal and spiritual bless-
ings. The very simplicity of their faith is the
charm that draws us to them.
When Breton painted ''The Song of the Lark,"
Institute of Art, Chicago (Fig. 107), he gave in
the simplest manner the highest expression of
his art. He has caught the unspoiled child of
nature at the moment of her soul's awakening to
the exquisite music of one of God's feathered
creatures. The lark has risen from her very feet
and in tones almost divine is winging its way
to the presence of its maker. Her native grace
^*-
^tar^
Fig. 107. — The Song of the Lark. Jules Breton. Courtesy of the
Institute of Art, Chicago, Illinois.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 155
is that of the child unspoiled by art. The exulta-
tion on her lips and the light in her eyes show
entire unconsciousness of self, of surroundings,
of scene — she is wholly absorbed catching the
last glimpse and sound of the bird as it mounts
higher and higher into the blue depths. She
might well say to us, in the words of Words-
worth,
"Up with me ! up with me into the clouds !
For thy song, Lark, is strong;
Up with me, up with me into the clouds!
Singing, singing
With clouds and sky above thee ringing,
Lift me, guide me till I find
That spot which seems so to thy mind !"
Very wonderful is the depth and distance of
that sky and horizon. Proudly, like a young
creature apart from the workers, does she step
along the dirt path, her bare feet answering to
the spring of the loose earth and her comely arms
swinging in rhythm with the music! The sun,
slowdy appearing in the east, is marking her every
move and adding his glory to the joy and glad-
ness of the scene. It is the soul of that young
reaper and others like her who will bring a new
France to a glorious power for good in the world's
League of Nations.
CHAPTER XV
GLEYRE— FLANDRIN— DAUMIER—
COUTURE
WE found as we grouped a number of artists
and called them the Barbizon school that we
simply made time and place points of likeness
and not the artists themselves, for each artist
was distinctly individual in every particular.
True they all were breaking away from the cut
and dried convention of the Academy and the
majority of them found the little hamlet at the
edge of the great forest exceedingly helpful.
And now we come to a group of other men who
were quite as individual artists ; the common meet-
ing ground seems to be the great art center, Paris,
yet each is as isolated in his work as though
living in the Forest of Fontainebleau.
Marc Charles Gabriel Gleyre (1806-1874) was
born in Chevilly, Canton Vaud, Switzerland. Fie
is more French than Swiss for Vaud was not
added to the Swiss Cantons until 1803, only three
years before Gleyre's birth. Nevertheless the
mystery and poetic charm of the sturdy little re-
156
AND THEIR PAINTERS 157
public were in his blood and from the snow-capped
mountains he gained a certain independence that
characterized him and his works. Then, too,
the mysterious blue water of Lac Leman doubt-
less awakened his sensitive imagination and set
him dreaming dreams and seeing visions. When
Charles was quite young his parents moved to
Lyons — that city so filled with the spirit of the
great men — and in that atmosphere was fostered
his artistic nature.
Gleyre was neither a classicist nor a romanti-
cist. He was a quiet, patient worker absorbed
in his own meditations, disliking public applause
and devoted to his friends. He did study a short
time with Hersent after he went to Paris in 1824,
but the rest of his training came from copying
the old masters in Italy in 1828.
The one picture by which Gleyre will be remem-
bered is his "Lost Illusions," in the Louvre (Fig.
108). A curious state of mind came over him
one time while sitting on the banks of the Nile,
in Egypt. The vision that presented itself be-
fore him persisted in keeping itself clear in his
mind for eight years, then he transferred it to
canvas. In the picture he has replaced him-
self by an old poet. Notice that lying on the
ground is a lyre and a shepherd's crook and that
he sits on the banks of the river apparently gazing
158 FRENCH PICTURES
into space. This motionless figure is like a bronze
statue full of mysterious lore. In an Egyptian
barge gliding by sits a beautiful maiden sur-
rounded by a group of young girls. The two
angels standing at the left singing add great
charm to the scene and the nude boy on the edge
of the boat dropping roses on the water is just
the note needed to harmonize the age old river
with the ethereal beings floating away so lightly.
The calm waters stretching away in the distance
are bathed in the most delicious atmosphere and,
but for the birds flying about and the swell of the
single sail, one might imagine that nature was
holding her breath before a scene so lovely. This
picture is sometimes called "Evening."
Gleyre's life was an uneventful one except that
his pictures brought him some recognition. His
death came suddenly from the rupture of a blood-
vessel of the heart while he was visiting an Al-
sace-Lorraine exhibition May 4, 1874. A writer
of the time summing up Gleyre, says, "He had the
talent of lending real and precise form to the most
fugitive dreams — whatever he undertook was ex-
ecuted with scrupulous conscientiousness, without
either fraud or artifice."
One thing we can be perfectly sure of as we
pass these splendid French artists before our
mind's eye — they never said, 'Tf I had money and
■ ' •'W
>
o
01
3
03
o
X
o
Fig. 109.— Elude or 'I'hc Pearl Diver. Flandrin. Louvre, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 159
pull I would do so and so." The great majority
of them have risen to grand heights without
money and prestige. We find a fine example of
this in Jean Hippolyte Flandrin (1890-1864).
He was very poor — so poor that he walked from
Lyons to Paris in 1829 and lived there in poverty
in order to study his beloved painting. Did it
pay? Today he is called the "religious painter
of France," and "Flandrin without fault."
Flandrin was born in Lyons and spent the
first twenty years of his life in that city of wealth
and culture. In three years after going to Paris
he won the Prix de Rome which gave him five
years study in the Eternal City. His first picture
to receive a medal in the French Salon, in 1836,
was "Dante and Vergil," now in the museum of
Lyons.
Flandrin was particularly strong as a drafts-
man. One of the splendid examples of his keen
understanding of the muscular development of the
human body is in "Etude," sometimes called the
"Pearl Diver," in the Louvre (Fig. 109). The
ease and grace of that nude figure is superb. It
is not an easy position to take — try it ! yet Flan-
drin has so perfectly adjusted the body that every
joint and sinew is working in harmony under the
control of the elastic muscles.
Flandrin did many monumental works in
i6o FRENCH PICTURES
church decoration. In fact it is his religious
paintings that have brought him the greatest
fame. As early as 1840 he was commissioned to
redecorate one of the oldest churches in Paris —
St. Germain-des-Pres. The two most noted of
these mural paintings are in the choir — "Entry
of Christ into Jerusalem," and "Bearing the
Cross." When St. Vincent de Paul was finished,
1844, the decoration of it was offered to Ingres
and Delaroche but they both refused the com-
Tiission. This was Flandrin's opportunity. Ex-
tending around the nave he painted his justly
famous frieze, "The Nations of the World ad-
vancing toward the Gates of Heaven." The
work is fashioned in the manner of the early
Christian Ravenna-mosaics. Over the entrance
door are St. Paul and St. Peter preaching the
gospel. St. Louis IX is one of the principal
figures in the centre of one group of believers on
the right. The decorations were finished in 1854.
Flandrin's two brothers, who were artists,
often worked with him in his mural painting.
But Hippolyte far outranked them as a painter.
During the last of his life Hippolyte devoted
himself to portrait painting. He was so success-
ful in captivating the public that more orders
came to him than he could possibly execute. An
amusing story is told of one very beautiful
Fig. 110. — Portrait of Dauhigny. Dauniicr. National Gallery, London.
L^MIm'j:':^.
Fir;. 111.— Lcs Avocats. Daumicr. Courtcsv of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York Citv.
AND THEIR PAINTERS i6i
woman offering him 80,000 francs if he would
paint her portrait but he simply bowed her from
his studio in silence.
We have become so used to thinking of Honore
Daumier's (1808-1879) art in terms of cari-
cature that we are taken by surprise when we
come on his fine "Portrait of Charles Daubigny"
(see page 143), in the National Gallery, London
(Fig. 1 10) . What a splendid tribute to a friend !
The personalities of both artists are brought to
the front. Daumier is giving the very essence
of the man who saw in swampy, unclaimed land
the poetry of light and atmosphere and lifted
the humble truck-gardener's home into regions
of beauty and love. This man saw deeper than
surface slime and weeds. To him all God's out-
of-doors was for man to use and the blessings
coming from proper use. Daubigny and
Daumier might have been taken for brothers in
looks though the latter was nine years older,
and they both died within a year of each other.
At the beginning of Daumier's career his caus-
tic pencil put him in prison six months, for cari-
caturing the citizen-king, as Louis Philippe was
called. This did not damp his ardour, however,
for exposing the weak points of those in high
places or emphasizing strong traits in those ad-
vocating a cause.
i62 FRENCH PICTURES
Nothing could be finer than his keen percep-
tion as shown in this painting of "Les Avocats,"
MetropoHtan IMuseum of Art (Fig. III). In
the background is a group of women. The
weeping one is evidently the client of the haughty
lawyer. The two opponents, men at law have
thought to make game of the lawyer for the
defence, but their fun falls flat under his scathing
sarcasm. No wit is keen enough to stand against
the look of scorn and indifference turned upon
them. We watch the three men with the interest
>ve would give to a like incident in real life. If
only we could catch the words of banter and the
reply cutting like a two edged sword. Daumier
understood perfectly how to place those figures
by the sun-lit wall to emphasize every pose and
gesture ; and also knew the rich low tones needed
to give balance to the whole. He never sacri-
fices the laws that make for good art to point a
moral or adorn a tale consequently his caricatures
are always interesting pictures. It is little won-
der that he was not taken up by the rich dilettante
collector ; his art was too subtle for them to dare
expose their foibles to his probing brush.
Daumier was born in Marseilles. His father,
a glazier, once published a book of poetry which
may account for the son's poetic ability with
brush and pencil. Honore was not only a poet
AND THEIR PAINTERS 163
but he was far-seeing with a vision that at times
was prophetic in its penetration into causes that
would bring forth events — events that came.
One of the finest of Daumier's large works
is "Scene de la Revolution," the Rouart Collec-
tion, London (Fig. 112). In no painting does
he more fully justify the title of ''French Michael
Angelo," than in this. Those few figures rep-
resent the spirit of the Revolution in its entirety.
That central enthusiast flings herself across the
canvas as if the fire of the ages were impelling
her forward. Was ever a figure more firmly
modelled ? It might have been chiselled from the
virgin marble by the great Italian master. The
impelling impetus of the youth with the dark hair
is tremendous. In those two figures Daumier em-
bodies the idealist leading a gathering crowd with
the zeal of an impassioned seer and the hot headed
fanatic knowing no reason. The cynic at the
left and the anarchist at the right plainly suggest
how quickly the mob spirit would manifest itself
were the leader struck down. No one of his time
sensed more accurately the temper of a French
crowd. He lived among the people keeping his
finger on the public pulse and recording each
fluctuation as only he could.
But very sorrowful days were coming to Dau-
mier. In 1850 his eyes began to fail until after
i64 FRENCH PICTURES
ten years total blindness overcame him. He was
blessed with the noblest of friends. Among the
number w^re Victor Hugo, Balzac, Rousseau,
Diaz, Daubigny, Alillet, Courbet and Corot. It
was through the kindness of Corot that he had a
home in his helplessness, at Valmondois-on-Seine-
et-Oise, where he died at fifty years of age never
having been able to earn a living at his art. Not
until the twentieth century came in did the public
recognize him as a painter. Today his works
are among the greatest treasures sought for by
those with long bank accounts.
Thomas Couture (i 815-1879) was born at
Senlis, north of Paris. He studied art under
Delacoche but soon broke away from any school
or particular teacher. Couture really began the
Semi-classic movement though he was not big
enough to do more than protest against the art
of the time. The one picture that brought him
fame "The Romans of the Decadence," Louvre
(Fig. 113), promised much that he never ful-
filled. Here he has taken a classic subject and
by freedom of treatment and rich colouring has
given it a realism far beyond the academic work
of the time. That scene of unbridled passion
might well represent the condition of the French
people under the spell of the Revolution and its
baleful aftermath. The public recognized that
Fic. 112. — Scene de la Revolution. Daumier. Private Collection, London.
Fig. 113. — Romans of the Decadence. Couture. Louvre, Paris.
»T
f^.
Fig. 114. — Day Dreams. Couture.
Courtesy of the Metropohtan Mu-
seum of Art, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 165
here was a painter daring enough to picture re-
ality and consequently his fame spread and many
pupils came to him — Chavannes and Manet
among them. Couture must have strengthened
the thinking powers of his pupils to keep these
two opposing men who stand for definite points
of departure from tradition in painting.
Once grumbling before Chavannes' attempt to
render flesh tints in a grey light he mixed his
usual formula — white, Naples yellow, vermilion
and cobalt — and touched up the picture. Puvis
exclaimed, "What Monsieur Couture, is that the
way you really see the world?" This ended the
lessons for Puvis de Chavannes (see page 189).
As a teacher Couture never failed to hold his
pupils up to the highest ideals, even if he fell
short himself in reaching those ideals. He would
say to them, "Go paint flowers as they grow in
the fields ; do not pluck them, for they wither and
die." In "Day Dreams," Metropolitan Museum
of Art (Fig. 114), his interpretation of the
dreamy child is that of one who personally knew
what those bubbles reveal to the imagination.
That boy may have nothing in common with the
base ball fan of the public school contest yet his
visions may open to wider activity than the "fly"
of the batter. Couture's dream of more ro-
mance without the extravagantly f^antastic and
i66 FRENCH PICTURES
less classic without losing the spirit of classicism
was in the right direction. But unfortunately
the "meanest" is usually lacking in sparkle and
falls flat because he is ordinary. This picture
of a child, beautiful in physical development and
graceful in pose, does not hold the interest be-
cause the rendering is neither realistic nor ro-
mantic — it is commonplace lacking the element
of life.
CHAPTER XVI
MEISSONIER— PILS— DELAUNAY
JEAN - LOUIS - ERNEST MEISSONIER
(1815-1891) is another French artist born in
the city of Lyons. Again and again has Genius
stopped at a home in this city and made the world
its debtor by its visit. True Httle Jean early left
his native place and settled in Paris with his
parents, but, fortunately, the beauty and aliveness
of Lyons never lose their hold on the men and
women leaving the city.
We know very little of Meissonier's early life
except that it was full of struggle and discour-
agement. His mother, from whom he inherited
his artistic instinct, died when he was young and
his father determined he should be a chemist like
himself. Finally at seventeen Jean begged for
three hundred francs promising that nothing
more should be heard from him until he had
made a name. His father gave him the money
with the not very encouraging remark, "Very
well, try your hand at painting, but let us under-
167
1 68 FRENCH PICTURES
stand each other. I give you a week to find a
master, and a year to show that you really have
talent. At the end of that time, if you have not
succeeded, I withdraw my consent, and back you
go to the shop." Needless to say that he never
went back to the shop.
Meissonier proceeded to break all rules of prog-
ress in learning to paint, for his first picture at
twenty-five was technically as perfect as those of
mature years; and his last pictures show no
diminution in the skilful handling of his brush
though he was seventy-six. This picture of
"The Brawl" (La Rixe), owned by King George
of England (Fig. 115), done when Meissonier
was thirty, is one of his very finest paintings. He
had been doing numberless tiny masterpieces
which had captivated the public and immediately
brought him great fame. Then the critics, ever
ready with destructive remarks, intimated that he
could not paint action. The picture scarcely
catches our eyes before we are drawn into the
brawl as though we too were as much a part of
the quarrel as the men looking in at the door.
It is said that Meissonier requested his model,
the one in white, to make every effort to free
himself from the two stout men in order that he
might paint truthfully the muscular strain of
a
o
7i
o
tn
to
ci
Fig. 116. — The Reader in White. Meissonicr. Chauchard Collection,
Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 169
really angry men in a fight — incidentally the
model died from playing his part so well.
The secret of the artist's great success in por-
traying special incidents was his ability to bring
the scene absolutely within his own mental vision
as though he were an actual eye witness himself.
Although "The Brawl" represents a brawl among
men of the early seventeenth century the spirit of
it is of the artist's time whenever he lived. If
you study the wonderful arrangement of those
struggling men you will see how adroitly the
action is centralized in the outstretched hand
threatening the nearing face of the furious as-
sailant. The delicately moulded face and neck
distorted with passion assailed by fingers as rigid
as steel form a never-to-be-forgotten silhouette on
our memory, "The Brawl" was painted in 1854
and exhibited in the Universal Exposition held in
Paris. It was bought by Napoleon III and pre-
sented to Prince Albert during the visit of Queen
Victoria and her Consort to Paris.
Messioner's marvellous power in painting
details has out-Dutched the Dutch. It makes no
difference whether his pictures are composed of
many figures or one the same painstaking work
in elaborating brass buttons, delicate filigree or-
naments and perfect costuming is evident. But
with all his microscopic details Meissonier is
170 FRENCH PICTURES
never petty. The next year after he painted
"The Brawl," in 1857, this incomparable little
picture, "The Reader in White" (Le Liseur
Blanc), Chauchard Collection, Paris (Fig. 116),
commanded unbounded praise and gave him
v^orld-wide fame. It is only a fourth longer
than the reproduction yet it is a scene so complete,
so Frenchy, so realistic, so altogether charming
that the French critic, M. Andre Michel, says,
*Tt is in his single figures, his monologues, that
Meissonier attains perfection.'' The artist
painted many of these "Readers," no two alike
and each with the vitality of a personal entity.
What a privilege to own one of these little mas-
terpieces. We wonder how it was possible to
paint anything so perfect as "The Reader in
White." We go over it with our magnifying
glass and then examine it across the room from
us. It is exquisite in its perfection. The com-
position with this simple figure is as technically
true as it is in "Friedland, 1807" (see Fig. 117)
with its many figures. Regardless of the interest-
ing accessories we are held with the reader him-
self. His expression is that of one whose mind
is seeing more than he reads. He has opened the
book at random and finding it interesting rests
against the table half sitting half standing, an
attitude common with men searching for some
AND THEIR PAINTERS 171
special bits of information. What cares he that
the Hght is directly on his face — Meissonier is
bigger than the laws of lighting when he has
found a choice morsel to tickle his fancy. The
furnishings in these little pictures of "readers"
are exactly suited to those who find pleasure
in reading. That table alone is a most interesting
study in still life. Those well thumbed leather
bound books and ragged pamphlets on the green
velvet cover that hangs against the glittering
mahogany legs of the table, and the chair arouse
our curiosity. The light that comes boldly in at
the window and floods the reader from top to
toe plays hide-and-seek with those books as
though it, too, would peep between the covers.
While Meissonier's series of "Readers" have
many features in common — ^the window is always
on one side and the table cover, books and papers
are much the same — yet these pictures are never
monotonous. All his compositions are interest-
ing whether they contain dozens of figures or
one because never for one moment does he let
his own interest flag in w^hat he is painting. It
is simply impossible to catalogue Meissonier. He
had no dealings with the classicists — although
his exact, precise, almost photographic repro-
duction of things would have put them to shame
— neither would he join the ranks of the roman-
172 FRENCH PICTURES
ticists, yet his breadth of view in natural scenes
and his keen understanding of visions vizualized
well might have been their despair.
Meissonier painted a series of Napoleonic pic-
tures representing the great general at various
stages of his campaign. The largest and most
noted of these paintings is "Friedland, 1807,"
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 117). A
heated controversy among prominent critics as to
the merit of the picture is easily aroused. One
faction will assert that it is the artist's finest
achievement," the other that it is, ''one of the
worst pictures he ever painted." However the
artist himself cherished it as his masterpiece. The
picture was painted for A. T. Stewart — the fa-
mous merchant of New York City who had the
temerity to start a dry goods store away up town
on Tenth Street in 1862. He paid $60,000 for
it. Meissonier worked on ''Friedland" fourteen
years. It is said that he bought a field of growing
wheat and hired a troop of cuirassiers and riding
with them charged through the field that he might
note the action of the horses and riders In tram-
pling the grain and breaking the earth clods.
Meissonier's own words best describes the pic-
ture. He says,
'T did not intend to paint a battle, I wanted
to paint Napoleon at the Zenith of his glory; I
[^
^-^'^^■^
Fig. 117. — Friedland, 1807. Meissonier. Courtesy of the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, New York City.
Fig. 118. — "1814." Meissonier. Chauchard Collection, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 173
wanted to paint the love and the adoration of the
soldiers for the great captain in whom they had
faith and for whom they were ready to die. For
the picture '1814' (see Fig. 118), the heart rend-
ing end of the imperial dream, my palette did
not have colours sad enough; but in Triedland,
1807,' wishing everything to appear brilHant at
this triumphant moment, it seemed to me that I
could not find colours sufficiently dazzling. No
shade should be upon the emperor's face to take
from him the epic character I wish to give him — .
The men and emperor are in the presence of
each other. The soldiers cry out to him that they
are his, and the great chief, whose imperial will
directs the masses that move around him, salutes
his devoted army."
Of "1814," Chauchard Collection, Paris (Fig.
118), the artist says, "When I made the sketch
for '18 14,' I was thinking of Napoleon returning
from Soissons with his staff after the battle of
Laon. It is the campaign of France, not the
return from Russia, as has been sometimes sug-
gested. For this theme I could scarcely find
colours sad and subdued enough. The sky is
dreary, the landscape devastated. The dejected,
exasperated faces express discouragement, possi-
bly even treachery."
M. Meissonier's son has told that his father
174 FRENCH PICTURES
spared no time nor pains in his preparations to
paint this scene. He waited long for the snow
to fall and then he had the snow-covered ground
trampled down by his servants ; then broken up by
heavy carts until the ruts were a mass of muddy
snow. The weather was bitter cold but he set to
work with his model on horseback. When he came
to Napoleon the model was too large a man for
the emperor's clothes but nothing daunted Meis-
sonier put them on himself and found them a
perfect fit, and mounting the white horse — from
the imperial stables — with a mirror set up before
him he painted that immortal figure of the de-
feated autocrat. The son says,
"The weather was intense; my father's feet
froze to the iron stirrups, and we were obliged
to place foot warmers under them and put a chaf-
ing dish near him, over which he occasionally
held his hands." The picture is about twenty
inches high by thirty wide.
If Isidore Pils (1813-1875) had never painted
any other picture than ''Rouget de Lisle Chan-
tant la Marseillaise," now in the Louvre (Fig.
119), he would always be remembered. Never
was a piece of music and verse written that so
gripped the heart of a nation as ''La Marseillaise."
It was terrible times in France when Claude Jo-
seph Rouget de Lisle (1760-1836), the young
AND THEIR PAINTERS 175
captain of the Engineers, in a fit of enthusiasm
wrote the song. He was dining at his friend
Dietrich's, the mayor of Strasburg. The meal
was only a small portion of soldier's bread, a little
smoked ham — for a famine was in the land — and
one small bottle of wine was found in the once
bountiful cellar. Rouget went to his solitary
room his brain and heart on fire with pity and
love for his country. No sleep came but some-
thing was taking shape in his soul; hours went
by when at last burst forth the air and words of
the great national song. He took up his instru-
ment and sang it through. Overwhelmed at the
sublime inspiration his head dropped on his in-
strument and he slept until day broke. His friend
Dietrich was overjoyed, for "the hymn of the
country was found!" Alas, April 24, 1792, it was
to be the hymn of terror too, for Dietrich, a few
months later marched to the scaffold to its music.
The song flew from village to village in popular
opera. The city of Marseilles adopted it to be
sung at the beginning and end of the meeting of
clubs. At first it was called ''Chant de guerre
I'armee du Rhine," then "Chant des Marseillaise,"
and finally "La Marseillaise." It has been used
in Salieri's opera "Palmira," in Orison's ora-
torio "Esther," in Shumann's song of the "Two
Grenadiers." So familiar has this wonderful
1/6 FRENCH PICTURES
music become that it awakens the most genuine
enthusiasm for love of country in all parts of the
globe.
It is probably that Pils knew Rouget personally
— he was twenty-one when the song writer died —
at least he had absorbed some of Rouget's spirit
that brought forth the inspired music, for he
stirs anew in us the love of country as we con-
template his picture of the memorable morning
in the mayor's house.
Jules Elie Delaunay (i 828-1 891) was born in
Nantes, that city so near the Atlantic ocean that
the building and sending of ships must have fired
the boy's mind with old world stories. One of
his best known pictures is "The Pest at Rome,"
Luxembourg, Paris (Fig. 120). He treats the
scene taken from the Golden Legend with such
realistic details that one feels the deep hold of
classic lore on the artist's mind. It is not a pleas-
ant story he has chosen though he holds us with
it. You may remember the legend. A terrible
plague ravaged Italy during the reign of King
Humbert. A good angel went from house to house
striking the door one, two, three — a bad angel
followed killing as many as the number struck.
The dead were in number more than the living.
Terror was on all until it was revealed to a rich
man of Pavia that an altar erected to St. Sebas-
Fig. 119. — First Singing of the Marseillaise. Pils. Louvre, Paris.
Fig. 120.— The Pest at Rome. Delaunay. Luxembourg,
Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 177
tian would stay the plague. This was done and the
body of the saint was brought from Rome. De-
launay shows the pestilence at its height with the
good and bad angels still bringing disease. All
stages of its progress lurk in the victims from
the dead on the pavement to the women cursing
the statue of .^sculapius and the wailing figures
at the foot of the stairs. It is horribly inhuman,
but what about the battle scenes of the war of
1870? Nothing could be finer than the artist's
skill in rendering power in swift motion in the
good angel and of intense force in the bad angel.
His manipulation of the light is most interesting.
CHAPTER XVII
COURBET— HARPIGNIES— CAZIN—
BOUDIN
TWO very individual French artists were born
in 1819 — Courbet (1819-1878) and Har-
pignies (1819-1917). Gustave Courbet, born in
Ornans, died too soon to gain much credit for his
views but Harpignies lived to have his work
recognized and also to pass through many-
phases of French history to within a few months
of the closing of the great world war. These
men, coming at the time of the Barbizon move-
ment, did not arouse the enthusiasm that was
really their due. They, too, were breaking away
from the Academic but their almost brutal frank-
ness in interpreting nature was not so attractive
to the general public as the more tender portrayal
of the 1830 men.
It really was not necessary for Courbet to
assume the rough exterior that he did in order
to establish his genius. Emphasized eccentrici-
ties are after all nothing more than excessive
selfishness — the ego grown to undue proportion
in its own eyes. Courbet went so far in his self
178
AND THEIR PAINTERS 179
importance as to defy not only all essential laws
of polite society, but to assume that he was law
even to the destruction of public property. The
consequence was that after he caused the Ven-
dome Column to be thrown down the government
exiled him and took his property to rebuild it — a
most just judgment. Yet with all his distorted
ideas of personal rights Courbet was really an
artist of great merit.
When we look at 'The Deer in the Forest,"
Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minn. (Fig. 121),
we find none of the brutal qualities that so pro-
voked the antagonism of the French people. In
some of his paintings he seemed to gloat in pictur-
ing scenes that would shock the sensibilities of
society-bound Paris. But in this picture the art-
ist is showing just what he saw with no comment
as to the sentiment and no disturbing details.
The forest is there and the lure of the depth is in
the underbrush and crowded trees. The light
playing over the glossy fur of the mother and her
faun and creeping up the tree trunk is superb and
yet no longing stirs within us. Art without senti-
ment is no more satisfying than social reform
without the touch of human love and sympathy.
Courbet says of himself, "I am not only a so-
cialist, but a democrat and a republican . . , and
a sheer realist, which means a loyal adherent to
i8o FRENCH PICTURES
the Verite vraie (true truth)." When he ex-
hibited in the Salon of 1850-185 1 — the year the
realistic school of the nineteenth century had its
birth — his paintings, particularly *'A Burial at
Ornans," in the Louvre, bore testimony to his
being a "sheer realist." Among men and women
represented in the picture, about forty of them,
each a portrait, is Courbet's friend, Urbain Cue-
not, mayor of his native town, Ornans. These
marvellous portraits show to us likenesses so ex-
act that each would be recognized, and sometimes
because of an ugly imperfection of features. It
seems as though Courbet even sought out the
ugly mars to emphasize them. But Bas-
tien Lepage (see page 283) was right in his
estimate of the "Interment of Ornans," when he
said, "There you have absolute truth, the
truth of grief, a truth which we all of us feel."
As a landscapist Courbet shows his greatest
skill, for in this the finer instincts of his nature
are apparent. In his seascape, "The Wave,"
Louvre (Fig. 122), he gives a fine illustration
of his power in handling attributes of nature, re-
vealing them in a large free manner — he hated
petty details. The black clouds and tumbling
waves are simply elemental sources of power.
No sentiment lurks in that devastating scene.
The stranded boats are paying the penalty of being
Fii;. I'Jl. — DciT in the Forest. CouiIjl'I. Cuurle.sy of
Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1 Ir- Mu.sciiin of
p
n^f^
m
r.. , *:.r-
HHMHMiiiiiy
Ik
^.'jii^gk?
-. -v. "
Fig. 122.— The Wave. Courbet. r.ouvrc, Paris.
Fia. 123.— Village Girls. Courbet.
AND THEIR PAINTERS i8i
in the path of natural effects from specific causes.
There is nothing in the picture to arouse the
sHghtest emotion. Very different are our emo-
tions when looking at Homer's ''Gale," in the
Worcester Museum of Art. In one nature bears
no relationship to man; in the other man feels her
power and becomes a part of it.
A very pleasing picture of Courbet's is "The
Village Girls" (detail, Fig. 123). There is
the same severe treatment in picturing the hill-
side, the sheer rocks falling into the black gulch
and the straggling stream cutting its way through
the meadow, yet the young women are exceedingly
attractive, possibly because of the rugged setting.
Courbet's dense shadows remind one of the late
Italian though he avoids the excesses that marked
those decadent artists of the Renaissance.
A strange friendship grew up between Cour-
bet and Whistler — two artists as unlike as one
could imagine. In 1865 the two spent the sum-
mer together at Trouville — the famous water-
ingplace in Normandy near le Havre. These men
apparently had little in common in the process of
searching out elemental truths though each ar-
rived at the same starting point of all truth, the
mystery of nature. Courbet, with his unashamed
frankness revealing ugly blots in all their hide-
ousness and Whistler with keen cutting irony lay-
i82 FRENCH PICTURES
ing bare dressed up falsehood seemed to react on
each other. We feel that possibly the bare facts
of the one may have softened a little and the
human element become stronger in the other.
No one can look at "The Woman with a Mir-
ror" (Fig. 124), without recognizing a new ele-
ment in Courbet's art — the personal equati'on.
This woman, with the copper-coloured hair, is
more to the artist than a woman's head adorned
with a growth of tangled hair glittering at every
angle like Don's copper kettles. She is a human
entity. Every feature of that face and every mus-
cle in those hands express the widening power
of the spirit governing them. Such women com-
prehend human life.
Henri Harpignies was not coarsely frank in
his realism. Fundamental to him meant reveal-
ing the underlying cause not emphasizing the
ugly results. The distorted growth of vegetable
and tree under the stress of wind and weather
makes us feel the tremendous grip on life of the
tiny rootlets and the far reaching root trunks
that held on regardless of whipping gale and beat-
ing hail. 'The Cottage in the Wood," Brooklyn
Museum (Fig. 125), is not a specially homey
place biit a secure place and one fitting the en-
vironment. No storm, however terrible, could
shake those walls; neither sunshine nor bird song
Fig. 124. — Girl with a Mirror.
Courbet.
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FiG. 125. — Cottage in the Woods. Harpignies. Courtesy of the
Brookhn Museum, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Fig. 120. — Winter Woodlan<l. Uarpignies. Petit-Palace, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 183
could penetrate them. Those stern old trees
though gnarled and bent certainly can smile under
the golden radiance and I suspect feathered song-
sters gaily tip and balance on their rugged
branches until every nook and corner of that
desolate spot resounds to melody. The solid
frame work of the cottage and trees give a sense
of security that easily becomes a feeling of joy.
Harpignies was born in Valenciennes. His
father, expecting him to become a business man,
sent him out on the road to represent the firm
in the interest of iron and sugar. As he travelled
from village to village his mind and heart were
full of the wonderful scenes he passed through
and his note-book sketches were of wayside
nooks and spreading trees instead of remarks on
commerce and trade. At last his father, recog-
nizing the hopelessness of making a tradesman
out of an artist, allowed the boy, then twenty-
seven, one hundred and fifty francs a month and
sent him to Paris with the city druggist then
Minister of the Interior. He was very slow in
developing his talent and, at the suggestion of
his master, A. Chard, finally went to Italy. Har-
pignies later said of his work there, "It was Rome
which found, created, sustained me — and which
sustains me still; it is to Rome that I owe not
only my most noble emotions but my finest in-
i84 FRENCH PICTURES
spirations. That is what should be said above
everything, that all who desire to learn can go
there and face to face with beauty realize how
enchanting it is."
The world will always be debtor to Harpignies
for his sturdy good sense in water colour paint-
ing. He stamped out the wishy-washy methods
of the past and opened our eyes to the real worth
of water-colour pictures when properly painted.
Such a water colour as ''Winter \\' oodland Scene
in the Allier," Petit-Palace, Paris (Fig. 126)
is full of the strength and verve of old winter.
Those buffeted sycamore giants are as uncon-
cerned under the pelting of rain and snow as was
Gulliver to the fistl-cuffs of the pigmies. Fresh
and inspiring is each brush stroke in the hands
of this master. For fourteen years he worked
perfecting himself in this branch consequently
no fumbling of purpose is found in his water-
colour pictures. M. Leon Bonnat (see page 222)
said of Harpignies, "With him there disappears
one of the most glorious representatives of that
admirable period of landscape painters who cast
so much splendour on the French school."
Harpignies was very chary of the joy note, in
fact one finds it only as one feels the permanence
of verities. In "The Village Square, Herisson,"
Fig. 127. — ^^^illago Square, Herisson. Harpignies. Petit-
Palace, Paris.
Fic. 128. — Siihurhs of Anlwcri). C'azin. Courtesy of the Carnegie
Institute, Pittsljurgh, Pa.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 185
Petit-Palace, Paris (Fig. 127), the first impres-
sion is severity. Those houses stand four square
to the pubHc with no semblance of having yielded
an inch in the hundreds of years since they
were placed there. But lurking around the corner
of the exact right angle a tiny grape began to
grow — a note of joy! and the artist expands
that joy-note until every living, moving creature
in that ancient village sports under that vine.
Harpignies is a master. He has led us bit by
bit until he has compelled us to see a beauty of joy
in gnarled and battered life that continues to
function naturally after coming through storms.
The artist spent many years along the banks of
the river AUier. He loved this shallow river.
Its sandy bottom and rocky sides ; its small islands
and sleepy villages were ever giving him a deeper
understanding of man and nature. The quaint
old ruined chateaux fittingly placed and artisti-
cally built were constant reminders of the intimate
relationship that existed between the builder and
material things in those far off days. His Salon
pictures of the 1872 exhibition, "The Ruined
Chateau of Herisson," is a fine example of artis-
tic understanding. There it stands high above
the river on a rock foundation. The building as
substantial as the rock itself, a picturesque finish-
i86 FRENCH PICTURES
ing of nature's work. What a pity that the
vandaHsm of man must destroy what was almost
a part of nature herself.
Harpignies' love of trees, particularly the oak,
gave him the familiar name of "Old Oak." When
under the influence of his "oaks" we are again
reminded of that quaint old legend of the young
nobleman and the monks of Diimwald. To outwit
their unjust claim on his land the young man
promised to relinquish his hold on the land if he
were allowed one more harvested crop. He
sowed acorns. Monks came and monks went
and still the land remained in the nobleman's
family.
A realist of an entirely different order was
Jean Charles Cazin (1841-1901).
He was decidedly individual if he was at times
a little prosaic in that ever present envelop of
blue-grey haziness, yet he was himself. In the
painting of a "Suburb of Antwerp," Carnegie
Institute, Pittsburg (Fig. 128), the rank growth
along the stream and the old rambling house are
perfectly harmonious in the grey atmosphere.
And the lovely light from the sun-lit sky reflected
in the turbulent stream gives a note of gladness
that makes the whole scene sing with joy. Cazin
was a very rapid painter and some of his compo-
Fig. 129. — Hagar and Ishmacl. Cazin. Luxembourg, Paris.
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 187
sitions show a lack of care that detracts from
their real value as works of art.
One might say that Cazin very nearly be-
longed to the original Barbizon men. Though
he was not a landscapist pure and simple yet his
figure pieces all have a natural setting full of
poetry and are exceedingly individual. He de-
lighted in using a simple palette of limited range
and then by sheer personality he produced works
full of originality. Often his desert scenes
as in "Hagar and Ishmael," Luxembourg, Paris
(Fig. 129), are mere seashore sand dunes with
little of desert expanse in them yet the feeling
of desolation is there and gives emphasis to the de-
serted mother and son. Perhaps no one understood
the sandy waste along salt water fronts better
than Cazin and surely no one felt a keener more
poetic sympathy toward mother earth strug-
gling to clothe her restless body with verdure.
He lived for many years at Boulogne-sur-Mer,
where he owned a line of desert tracts, and
there the varying lights and shadows and the con-
stantly shifting sand and clouds played on his
poetic nature. His desert scenes are the antith-
esis of Balzac's idea of a desert where "God
is and man is not."
It is not surprising that Eugene Boudin ( 1824-
1893) loved the sea. He was born at Honfleur
i88 FRENCH PICTURES
overlooking the harbour of Le Havre, in Calva-
dos. Constantly ships were coming and ships
were going and the sea as constantly was chang-
ing its mood. Sometimes Boudin chose the outer
Harbour with its hustle and bustle. Then a more
quiet scene suited him better and he painted the
"Inner Harbor, at Valery," Brooklyn Museum
(Fig. 130). His many years in Paris, where
he died, never marred his love for the sea. A
loving note of human comradery is in his coast
scenes. A peculiar tenderness draws the sea-
farer to the tiny homes in the inlet. Boudin com-
bined lightness of touch with a steady, firm grasp
of rugged principles. There is nothing weak
in the quiet of these sea-going ships. The pal-
pitating strength of endurance is as evident in
them as in the spit of land that holds the water
in check. An atmosphere, rife with life, envelops
the low lying land and water and sky.
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Fifi. 132.— Tlic Cliildliooil of Saint (iencvicvc. Chavannos. Pantlicon,
Rome.
CHAPTER XVIII
PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
WITH Pierre-Cecile Puvis de Chavannes
(1824-1898), mural painting in France
reached its height. And how he fought to bring it
about, and how the pubHc laughed ! For nearly a
decade he sent picture after picture to the Salons
only to be rejected and ridiculed. At first his
paintings were easel pictures, most of them show-
ing his absorption of the old masters in the Louvre
and in Italy. He was young and of course he was
giving out largely what he had taken in but Puvis
himself was growing.
A very commonplace opportunity came to him
when he was thirty — simply blank panels on the
walls of his brother's country home. But these
blank panels "tempted him," as he said, and when
he was through with them the public ceased
laughing and began to admire. His own words
about this work, are:
"One of these subjects I repeated on a larger
scale for the Salon of 1859, calling it, 'Return
from Hunting.' It was accepted; and so de-
189
190 FRENCH PICTURES
lighted was I that I presented the picture to the
museum of Marseilles; and it occurred to me
that something might be done in this mural style
of painting."
His first definite mural paintings, *Teace," and
''War," he sent to the Salon of 1861. They
were accepted and 'Teace" (Fig. 131) was
bought by the government but Puvis, not wish-
ing the panels separated, gave its companion
''War," also to the authorities. Eventually these
panels were given to the city of Amiens for the
New Musee de Picardie. It is only by following
the artist through his process of elimination be-
ginning with these panels to his perfected mural
decorations (see Fig. 135) that we can under-
stand the bigness of his conception of wall paint-
The first thing that strikes us in his pictures
is the colour. That soft, delicate harmonizing
of nature's spectrum until the original red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, purple and violet have sunk
into and become a part of the thing decorated.
His principle from the beginning was that mural
painting must be a part of the wall and harmonize
with the architectural finishings. This was a
startling innovation. When his timid, thin toned
pictures were hung by the side of the full toned,
garish coloured ones of other artists his were
AND THEIR PAINTERS 191
eclipsed and quietly sank into oblivion. But
when Puvis' pictures were in their rightful place
and other artists essayed to have their pictures
there too the verdict was against the intruders
and they fled screaming with pain.
But let us look a moment at "Peace," and see
wherein Puvis is just beginning his crusade in
mural painting. The huddled figures! Yes,
that is the weak point. In the foreground and
background he has assembled crowds to represent
a nation at peace — later he told a bigger story
in ''Winter" (see Fig. 133), with few figures yet
the whole race is involved.
Again, in "The Childhood of Saint Genevieve,"
Pantheon, Paris (Fig. 132), he has brought to-
gether many persons but how different the re-
sult. The central figure the child Genevieve
is the cause the others simply emphasize the
reason why. It is a beautiful story that the
artist tells about the patron saint of France in a
series of pictures on the walls of the Pantheon.
Saint Genevieve was born in Nanterre, a small
town a few miles west of Paris, in 422. When
she was about seven years old the Bishop of
Auxerre, St. Germanus, and the Bishop of Troyes,
St. Loup, passing through Nanterre, stopped to
spend the night. The people gathered to give
homage of St. Germanus, for he was a noted
192 FRENCH PICTURES
prelate. The little Genevieve came running with
the crowd to see the great man. When St.
Germanus saw her coming he perceived the sign
of God's hand on her and as he talked he saw
that her knowledge was of one inspired of God.
Very simply the story is told. The child, the
father and mother and the two bishops make a
never-to-be-forgotten picture. The other figures,
the mother and the child, the feeble couple, the
child in supplication and the mourning women
supplement but do not detract from the central in-
terest. The bit of realism in the foreground
is beautiful. We will see St. Genevieve again
(see Frontispiece).
In the Hotel de Ville, Paris, is Chavannes'
"Winter" (Fig. 133). The grouping of the fig-
ures is truly wonderful. Various centres of in-
terest ! yes, but how each is bound to the whole.
The spell of winter reduced to its lowest
terms regardless of time or country is in the air.
Each scene is perfect in itself yet they are all un-
der the stress of the Frost King. Easily the sen-
sations of joy in the strength of workmen and pity
for the starving child, of comfort in the well-
clad overseer and exultation in the flying horse-
men follow each other. The harmony of colour
that fits the scene into the very wall itself is a con-
stant joy.
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Fig. 134. — Charity. Chavannes. Courtesy of the City Art Museum,
St. Louis, Missouri.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 193
Again we look at the pale flat-toned picture
of ''Charity," City Art Museum, St. Louis (Fig.
134), a feeling of peace because of harmony in
design, in colour and in sentiment is ours. It
is that of a perfectly tuned instrument. Surely
with Puvis a new spirit came into the art of
mural painting in France, a spirit that finally
revolutionized that branch of decoration in
Europe and America. We repeat that no one
was willing to believe in this innovator, even
when he demonstrated that the key-note of mural
decoration is "its clinging to the surface, and
its being easily taken in with the wall in the same
key." Of course his pictures pale in colour and
flat in tone were out of place, to say the least,
among exhibitions at the Salons and naturally the
committee could see no further than the Salon
walls.
The "Sacred Grove," in the Sorbonne, Paris
(Fig. 135), is considered not only Chavannes'
masterpiece but one of the finest mural paintings
in existence. The Sorbonne was founded in 1253
by the confessor of Louis IX, Robert de Sorbon
or Sorbonne. I-t was originally intended for
poor students of theology and their teachers.
However, it soon acquired such high repute that
it became the scholastic centre of theolosrv and its
name a synonym for the faculty and the Univer-
194 FRENCH PICTURES
site de France. Now it stands for the Univer-
sity of Paris. The "Sacred Grove" is on the end
of the wall back of the stage in the amphitheatre,
a hall holding 3500 persons. In the centre of
the picture sits "the sorbonne" with two youths
leaning against her holding laurel crowns and
palm branches with which to reward the worthy.
From the pure stream of learning flowing before
her drink old and young. Eloquence declaims at
her left and on either side are symbolized various
forms of human expression; then philosophy,
history and the sciences and at the left are work-
men excavating antique remains. When in the
presence of these allegorical people, placed as
they are, in a setting so severe in arrangement
and so pallid in colouring, we feel we are in the
region of pure air, where life is clean and holy.
It seems as though the artist has reached the
vanishing point in elimination in "The Poor
Fisherman," Luxembourg, Paris (Fig. 136).
Even the man himself is nearing the limit of
endurance. Was ever forlorn hope more force-
fully expressed? He still stands — waiting for
what? Possibly for the mother and the child,
but more likely because he does not know what
to do while the sinking net fills. The desolate-
ness of the surroundings would be unendurable
but for the flowers and the little life lying among
Fig. 135. — Sacred Grove. Chavannes. Sorbonne, Paris.
^ , ' jw#j Bw . g ftv y^-' ^-Wv.h^.ppj.ft.ilA'
Fig. 130. — The Poor FLshcnnaii. Chavannes. Luxembourg, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 195
them. The young woman with hands full of
blossoms and arms outstretched toward the child
brings a ray of hope that opens a bigger vision.
The scene is laid at the estuary of the Seine, near
Honfleur, a place Puvis used often to visit. The
waste of grey water, the flat coast, the moored
boat and the poverty striken people were familiar
sights — and to him they were a picture. A pic-
ture so illusive that we could not have caught it
without him. This one is an easel picture painted
in 1 88 1 and bought by the French government in
1886.
Chavannes led a rather uneventful life except
for the incidents that gathered around his various
paintings. He had two studios, one in Paris and
a large barn of a place at Neuilly, three and a
half miles from the city. In the latter he painted
his large works. He allowed no one to watch
him at work, with one exception. When he was
thirty the Princess Marie Cantacuzene came into
his life. He loved her and she alone could sit by
him. Her suggestions and criticisms were his
inspiration for over forty years. Not until 1897
were they married after she had nursed him
through a serious illness. But the next August
she died and two months later he went to seek
her.
As we look at ''Saint Genevieve Keeping
196 FRENXH PICTURES
Watch Over Paris," Pantheon, Paris (Frontis-
piece), where the Princess is the model, we real-
ize the sweetness and the charm of the woman
beloved of Puvis de Chavannes. You may
remember that Saint Genevieve came many
times to rescue Paris. It is said that she saved
the city from the ravaging Plun, Attila, and Chil-
deric had great reverence for her even before he
was converted to Christianity, and that through
her influence he built the first Christian church
in Paris and forbade pagan worship. That she
should be the guardian of Sleeping Paris is
most appropriate and no one knew better than
Puvis de Chavannes how to picture her lonely
vigil. Her chamber may be on Notre Dame.
The full moon, watching with her, spreads its
soft glow over the city and illuminates the saint
revealing her very soul to us. How calm and
quiet she is as she broods over her beloved city.
She seems to be saying, as did Wordsworth,
"Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep !
The river glideth at his own sweet will :
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still !"
The artist painted this picture in 1898, the year
he died, which gives to it a special sacredness as
AND THEIR PAINTERS 197
a benediction to his beloved Paris. Then, too,
his model being his own beloved wife, then about
seventy, adds still greater preciousness to the
scene.
Chavannes was born in Lyons — a city famous
for the number of great men connected with it —
Marcus Aurelius, Caracalla, St. Irenaeus, St.
Ambrose, and in the past century Flandrin,
Meissonier and then Puvis. The name Cha-
vannes comes from Chavanne-sur-Suran, a com-
mune of the canton of Treport, the place of the
origin of the family, which traces its ancestors
as far back as 11 52.
It is not known just when Puvis began his art
career but he went to Paris when he was twenty
years old. His training under special teachers
was very limited though he did spend a short
time with Delacroix and a still shorter time in
the atelier of Couture. After these two attempts
at working under masters he struck out for him-
self in a studio in the Place Pigalle and there he
worked until the year before he died. It is in-
teresting to note that his mural paintings are
done on canvas with a medium of wax and then
fastened to the wall with white lead. Kenyon
Cox sums up Puvis de Chavannes as "A classi-
cist of the classicists, a primitive of the primi-
198 FRENCH PICTURES
tives, a modern of the moderns — above all an
individual and an original artist, and to copy
his methods vv^ould be to learn ill the lesson he
teaches."
CHAPTER XIX
MOREAU— MONTICELLI— CABANEl^-
BOUGUEREAU— GARDNER—
RIBOT
GUSTAVE MOREAU (1826-1898) is a
man who stands alone in his individualism
— an individualism that was a species of supreme
selfishness. He had a wonderful colour sense and
considerable talent but he was rich and independ-
ent — two attributes opposed to true art. Un-
fortunately he thought eccentricity meant origin-
ality and that distorted vision was imagination
consequently he did not please his countrymen
neither did he work to benefit art. His curious
imaginings of old themes — myths, Bible legend
and what not — were his own interpretation and
usually did not fit the original in any respect.
"L' Apparition," Luxembourg (Fig. 137), is
a good example of his interpretation of a familiar
Bible story with no regard to the text. Though
the picture sparkles and twinkles as if set in pre-
cious stones its dramatic quality is cheap and
tawdry compared to the word picture in the old
199
200 FRENCH PICTURES
Book. The apparition is supposed to be the head
of John the Baptist appearing to Herod as
Salome is dancing before him. It is doubtful if
Moreau ever heard of such a legend except as it
came from his own brain.
Moreau was born in Paris and lived his life
there. At his death his house, 14 Rue de la
Rochefoucauld, and his pictures were let as a
museum to the government in memory of himself
— a gift of little value historically or artistically
except as a reminder of the foolishness of man.
Adolphe Monticelli (1824-1886) was certainly
a strange genius. His parents, Italian by birth,
settled in Marseilles, France, shortly before
Adolphe was born. The boy, steeped in the
poetic surroundings of the sunny south, early de-
veloped a marvellous sense of the rhythmic quality
of nature. Intuitively harmony became the key-
note of his being. Balancing lines, harmonious
sounds and blending colour played upon his sen-
sitive being like the gentle breeze on the swaying
harp. He ordered his own life like that of a
noble Venetian ; he dressed in velvet and wore a
large grey Rubens' hat making a most distin-
guished appearance among his followers.
When Monticelli first began his painting he
followed Raphael in the careful adjustment of
line to the space filled. But after going to Paris
Fig. 137. — L'Appaiitiou. Morcau. Luxembourg, Paris.
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 201
and coming under the influence of Delacroix his
true rhythmic power came into play and colour
became his medium of expression.
"The Court of the Princess," Metropolitan
Museum of Art (Fig. 138), fairly sings with
riotous joy over its richly dressed and jewel be-
decked visitors. No lapidary ever spread out a
more ravishing display of treasures than has this
princess, in her brilliant coterie of lady attend-
ants. Monticelli's brush seems bewitched with
the magic of colour. Tuneful colour. Let your
eyes rest on each dainty figure as they travel
over the gathered company to comprehend how
each tone blends and enriches its companions like
the singing harmony of some old Venetian stained
glass window. And then that setting of arch-
way and terrace, and castle. Could anything ex-
press the soft radiance of Aladdin's sun-kissed
castle like that? Surely the conjurer of our
childhood has rubbed his lamp and spread this
scene before us.
Monticelli lived and wrought in Paris until
1870 then he fled from the stricken city like a
rat from a sinking ship, going back to his native
city, Marseilles, where he lived in one room hung
with a red curtain — his only furniture two
chairs, a bed and his beloved easel. Is it any
wonder that his glorious colour constantly dis-
202 FRENCH PICTURES
solved itself into deep purple shadows which in
turn gleam with the brilliant visions of his fertile
brain ? He dreamed colour ; he breathed colour ;
he wrought colour. He piled on pigment as few
impressionists dared to do. Blotches and dabs
chase each other leaving rainbow tinted trails
like May-day children dancing and circling
around the pole.
If Monticelli fascinates with his colour Alex-
ander Cabanel (1823- 1889) ought to charm with
his draftsmanship yet how insipid his perfection
is against the sparkling imperfections of Monti-
celli. Cabanel illustrates perfectly the deadening
influence of the cut-and-dried system of the
French Academy of his time. In fact he himself
as head professor in Ecole des Beaux Arts passed
on the perfection that brings the Prix de Rome
but kills progress. Many men of real power —
Bastien Lepage and others — were among his
pupils but with rare good sense they realized that
growth was the struggle to attain, and they broke
away in time to save their originality though ever
remembering the personal charm of their be-
loved master.
Cabanel loved to portray unique historic epi-
sodes often choosing themes specially adapted to
picturesque treatment. In his painting of "Cleo-
patra Testing the Poisan on her Slave" (detail,
AND THEIR PAINTERS 203
Fig-. 139), there was great opportunity for orig-
inality as that particular historic incident had
not been overdone by artists. It is evident from
his portrayal of the effect of the poison on the
slave — not shown in the illustration — that Ca-
banel did not agree with the popular belief that
Cleopatra was poisoned by the sting of an asp.
He probably believed that Plutarch and Rawlin-
son were more correct in their versions. They
assert that she was found dead "without any
mark or suspicion of poison on her body," which
certainly confutes the story of the asp or serpent
sting. Then, too, conscious of her beauty her
pride would have been outraged at the thought of
being disfigured after death and why should she
use an animal when there were so many quick
acting poisons known. Doubtless the whole
story grew out of the asp, an Egyptian emblem of
royalty, carved on a statue or crown of Cleopatra
carried in a triumphal procession of Augustus.
Cabanel not only represents the asp on the queen's
crown but every detail of the picture is an exact
reproduction of the Egyptian luxuriance of Cleo-
patra's time. It should be interesting to note the
various accessories of the scene but we are as
indifferent as is the barbaric queen to the tragedy
of her ordering.
Cabanel was born in Montpellier where Ca-
204 FRENCH PICTURES
thedral, Academy, university gardens and factory
is bathed in the artistic atmosphere of the Medi-
terranean. But how at variance with the free-
dom of the southland was his artistic training;
with the same environment ]\Ionticelli was drink-
ing in the essence that makes for true art.
Another artist of this semi-classic period
was William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905).
Somehow the very name Bouguereau has be-
come a synonym for insipid sweetness. One
artist writer quotes an apt reply of one of Bou-
guereau's pupils to the enthusiastic layman con-
gratulating him on his rare opportunity of being
taught by so famous a man. "Yes, it is good to
be well launched but I am distressingly tired of
all that wax." His drawing was as correct as a
Spencerian copy, but who has any pleasure in
perfect lines without the personal element in it?
Nothing in nature is perfect so why insist on
perfection in man's handiwork? And yet all
Academic training tends toward theoretical ex-
actness rather than individual growth.
The practical value of progressive develop-
ment is leaving the Academy trained theorist far
in the rear, not that all practical ideas are of real
value but they signify an aliveness that promises
better things. The vigorous young French art-
ists were growing exceedingly restive under the
AND THEIR PAINTERS 205
regulated honour system which gave reputation —
what people think of you — rather than character
— what you are. This struggle of the growing
men has toppled over the false standard of such
men as Cabanel, Bouguereau and others who
have been as gods to the people. Gradually the
elemental principles of art that possessed the an-
cients has been entering into the modern artists
and a new race of modern old masters is in proc-
ess of growth.
Of course Bouguereau is not all bad in his art.
We realize in his "Birth of Venus," Luxembourg
(Fig. 140), that a certain purity of motive, com-
bined with perfect line and correct flesh tints,
pervades the scene, but who could live with those
wax-like figures and feel any enthusiasm over
life. Mr. Patterson, who was studying in Paris
when this picture was exhibited in the salon of
1879, says, ''The shocking rumour circulated in
the studios and cafes that Bouguereau had caught
himself in a false harmony and actually had
glazed one of his figures to the proper tone.
Horrible thought! On varnishing day we all
ran to see the iniquity, and found no difficulty
in identifying the sinning figure. . . . Tasteless
good taste is his sin. Wonderful accuracy in
drawing his glory."
A charming romance in Bouguereau's life was
2o6 FRENCH PICTURES
his staunch fidcHty to his lady-love our country-
woman, Elizabeth Jane Gardner, of Exeter, N. H.,
though out of deference to his mother's objection
to an American wife he delayed his wedding
nineteen years. When he became his own mas-
ter at sixty-one they were married.
Miss Gardner was one of Bouguereau's pupils
and naturally has absorbed many of his qualities
though she retains some of her American enthu-
siasm. In "The Judgment of Paris," Luxem-
bourg (Fig. 141), we recognize a child-like sim-
plicity in the group that charms yet the painting
is not a great picture. Most of her works have
an element of truth that somewhat counteracts
the coldness of accurate execution. But why ex-
pect two people who for twenty years subjected
themselves to the whim of a third person to put
into their pictures the exuberance of living. True
art is the expression of the soul and if the soul is
dwarfed the expression is not art.
Theodule Augustin Ribot (1823-1891) might
be called the Franz Hals of France. He had
that keen discernment of the underworld that dis-
tinguished many of the Dutch artists. Instead,
however, of portraying Hille Bobbie with the
coarse joke and the Cavalier with his hearty
laughter, his people are more likely to show the
physical suffering of want and abuse. Many
Fig. 139. — Cleopatra Testing Poison on Her Slave. Cahanel.
u
wLM
B
^ ^3^ -^IH^^^^^H^^^^^H
B
Fig. 140. — Birth of Venus. Blmu^g-
reau. Luxembourg, Pari.'<.
Fig. 141. — The Judgment of Paris. Madame
Bougiiereau (Mi.ss (lanliior). Luxcnihouro;, Paris.
Via. 112. — Saint Sebastian. Ribot. Luxembourg, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 207
times his representation is disagreeably realistic
though his technique is always strong and full
of vitality. He pictures a simple Bible story,
"The Good Samaritan," in the Luxembourg,
Paris, as an example, but leaves nothing to the
imagination. We read, "A certain man went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among
thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and
wounded him, and departed leaving him half
dead" (see St. Luke 10: 30). His black shadows
and brilliant high light and pale flesh strongly
remind us of Ribera while the realism in the brutal
treatment is suggestive of the decadent Italian
artists. But Ribot is no imitator of them; he
responds to the tragedy of life, it is true, but his
conceptions are full of the great problems that
govern universal progress.
It took Ribot, however to humanize the
martyrdom of Sebastian. In his "St. Sebastian,"
Luxembourg (Fig. 142), is real suffering.
Somehow the usual picture with arrows pointing
in every direction as they pierce the young saint's
tender flesh scarcely cause a quiver even when de-
voted women are weeping at his feet. These
good Samaritans, however, show real pity as they
stoop by the lifeless body. Again we have the
startling contrasts of light and shade in the dead
body and the opaque shadows around it. It is
2o8 FRENCH PICTURES
interesting to note how intimately the artist has
worked out the bottom of the foot without in the
least detracting from the painting as a whole.
Sebastian (A. D. 288), born of noble parents,
was one of the earliest Roman martyrs. He was
a favourite guard of Emperor Diocletian. When
it was discovered that he had accepted the New
Faith and could not be persuaded to give it up
the emperor ordered him shot to death with
arrows. He was left as dead but, found by his
friends, he w^as nursed back to life. He again
went to the palace and in sight of the emperor,
— pled for the condemned Christians. The as-
tonished ruler, cried, "Art thou not Sebastian?"
*T am Sebastian," said he, "whom God has de-
livered from thy hand that I might testify to
the faith of Jesus Christ and plead for his ser-
vants." This time the infuriated ruler ordered
him flayed to death and his body cast into the
Cloaca Maxima. Again his friends found him
but only to bury his body in the Catacombs.
Theodule Ribot was born in Saint Nicolas, a
small village in Eure a few miles northwest of
Paris. The Eure section is often called the
granary of France. The artist could as easily
paint genre pictures as religious subjects, and
excel in portraits as in historical scenes yet a
sombre undertone runs through all his pictures.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 209
He really stood apart from the other men of his
time; not that he inaugurated a new method of
painting, rather it was his own personality ex-
pressed in painting.
CHAPTER XX
BONHEUR— VAN MARCKE— LEGROS—
JULIExN DUPRE— VOLLON
ROSALIE MARIE BONHEUR ( 1822-1899)
was not a great artist. I sometimes won-
der if she had been a man would her paintings
have brought such recognition. Not that women
are less talented than men, especially French
women, far from it, but a great genius is simply
a unique personality demanding recognition. It
is strange, however, that with the long list of
brilliant women — queens, stateswomen, philos-
ophers, financiers, scientists, writers, helping all
down the centuries to mould and build this mar-
vellous nation there should be so few, so very
few women artists on the list and they scarcely
masters standing alone on individual merit.
Rosa Bonheur fought her way to recognition
from the beginning of her art career in early
childhood. She was never a student in school
but always a student of life. One of her first
forms of amusement was cutting figures from
paper. She herself describes this early work.
210
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^^^
^^' »^
-arL -r'-iw*.-
^K»
^
■ ^*^^. .--i; .■f;r=>;c^l5
"" *• ^-^
Kk;. 143. — Plowing; in Xivcniais. Bonht'ur. Luxemhourg, Par.'s.
Fig. 144. — liailiaia Aller tliL' Hunt. I'milutir. ( 'oiiiUsy ol llic
I'ciiiisylvaiiia Museum, IMiiladclphia, Pa.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 211
She says, ''First I made long strips of paper,
then with my scissors I cut out the shepherd, then
the dog, then the cow, the sheep and finally the
tree, always in the same order." From her earli-
est recollection she was drawing outlines on the
walls of her father's studio and burying her tiny
hands in the moist modelling clay as she formed
all sorts of funny figures. Her first and only
teacher was her father, Oscar Raymond Bonheur,
who, to support the family, gave drawing lessons
in Bordeaux, where Rosa was born.
Every expedient was tried to induce this free
child of nature to pore over books but like Era
Lippo Lippi she was not cut out for a student of
literature. Various industrial schools were tried
even to needle-work until finally she was placed
in a boarding school in rue de Renilly, Paris.
But very shortly this restraint was too much for
the irrepressible Rosa. To while away the time
and amuse the girls she made coloured caricatures
of the teachers and carefully cutting them out,
stuck them to the ceiling with pellets of bread.
This was shocking the dignity of the teaching
hierarchy so Rosa was condemned to bread and
water though the mistress of the establishment
had the wit to slyly collect and save the iniquitous
drawings, possibly realizing something of their
merit. Later these same drawings of the said
212 FRENCH PICTURES
Rosa became one of the most valuable assets of
the school. The authorities would point with
pride to them as works of the famous Rosa Bon-
heur who was once a dear pupil among them —
the ways of fortune are indeed fickle.
However when we stand before Rosa Bon-
heur's ''Plowing in Nivernais," Luxembourg (Fig.
143), the wisdom of the French government in
purchasing the painting is unquestioned. This
one picture justifies the public recognition that
came to the painter in her own day and on this
picture rests her fame as an artist-painter. She
has here gripped the heart of the lover of the
soil whether he be a bank president or a tiller of
the ground. Oxen are the elite workers of Nor-
mandy. Even the hurried glimpses of them
framed in by car windows command respect and
admiration and when portrayed by one who loved
them and knew their every mood and caprice —
for oxen are as captious as women at times —
the pictures become one of our valued mental
possessions. Look how well she understands
the shirking tendency of the middle pair of oxen.
They are splendid fellows capable of the most
effective efiforts yet responsive only to coercives
of tongue and thong. The mellow upturned
soil rich in its fertilizing power is still holding
the earth damp, the quivering atmosphere gathers
AND THEIR PAINTERS 213
to itself the fresh odours and then spreads them
far and near over the whole scene. Even the
far hillside and the smiling clouds have scented
the joy of the new crop that is starting with these
slow moving oxen. Wise France today is begin-
ning to rejoice again under just such a simple
process of adjustment.
We are not unmindful that "The Horse Fair,"
painted in 1853, is the picture that brought Rosa
Bonheur greatest fame especially in America.
That it was one of the first originals from Europe
exhibited* in this country — and the first by a
woman — may account in a measure for its popu-
larity. Before painting this picture Rosa Bon-
heur spent many days and weeks, dressed in male
attire, visiting horse fairs in the various county
towns around Paris, to give to the scene the at-
mosphere of a real fair. Her self imposed early
training in the slaughter-houses had given her
a thorough knowledge of joints, muscles and
tendons and the play of the skin under action.
She became a familiar personality among the
drovers and butchers who often insisted on
''standing treat to the clever little fellow" making
such true pictures of their animals.
Rosa Bonheur was born in Bordeaux — the city
in the southwest of France important in the
political and commerical history of France from
214 FRENCH PICTURES
the time of the Romans until today. Rosa spent
the first six years of her life in Bordeaux then
her father moved to Paris. After she was well
established as an artist she bought an estate at
By at the east end of the Forest of Fontainebleau
where she made her home until her death in 1889.
Although Rosa Bonheur for convenience
dressed in men's clothes when at work and wore
her hair short she never assumed a masculine
manner of life or speech. One time a friend, who
was visiting at By while the artist was still living
told me that one day she was on the veranda of
their boarding house when a medium sized
woman, with small hands, regular features and
particularly bright dark eyes came and sat be-
side her. Soon they began a friendly chat and
discussed for some time general topics with much
interest and animation. You can imagine my
friend's surprise when she learned later that it
was Rosa Bonheur with whom she had spent
such a deHghtful space of time.
The picture of "Barbara After the Hunt,"
Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia (Fig. 144),
has such an intimate ring to it that we are con-
vinced Barbara was a personal friend of the ar-
tist. We too, feel the physical exhaustion of the
splendid creature but realize that her mental atti-
tude toward the hunt is as keen and unerring as
Fig. 145. — The Mill. Van Marke. Courtesy of the Metropohtan
Museum of Art, New York City.
'Sr
:5%*^ '
Fig. 14C. — Edge of the Wood. Legros. Courtesy of the Metropoli-
tan Museum of Art, New York City.
P'iG. 147. — Cow. Julicii JJuprd. Courte.sy of the Institute of Art, San
I'Vaiifison, California.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 215
ever. Rosa Bonheur's originality in intent and
composition of this picture raises it to a high stan-
dard of excellence. The droop of the body so sug-
gestive of a natural relax after excessive strain
is well carried out in those bracing legs and the
pull of the heavy head on the detaining chain.
The simplicity of the picture is its strength.
As a woman Rosa Bonheur stood and still
stands for all that is womanly and as an artist
she is the first woman to receive Chevalier de la
Legion d'Honneur des Arts. This honour was
proposed in 1855 but refused "Because she was
a woman." Ten years later (1865) when Em-
peror Napoleon III decided her sex should not
interfere with her receiving the cross, the Em-
press Eugenie came to her studio and says the
artist, "Saluting the new knight with a kiss, she
pinned the decoration to my black velvet jacket."
Rosa Bonheur is buried in Pere Lachaise,
Paris, the sacred memorial ground of so many
immortal souls.
The slight resemblance of the works of Emile
Van Marcke (1827-1890) to the paintings of
Constant Troyon, his master, is really the merit
which marks him as a painter. One of the
strange freaks that fortune plays in establishing
the standing of an artist is the blind alleys she
leads public opinion into before allowing it a
2i6 FRENCH PICTURES
balanced judgment. Because Van Marcke's cat-
tle pieces or landscapes with cattle are more
often found in cheap reproductions in America
than the animal pictures of any other French
artists is no reason for judging them as works
of art. Even *'The Mill," Metropolitan Museum,
of Art (Fig. 145), which has some merit cannot
hold its place with the Barbizon men. The
storm clouds and the mill, the splendid dun cow
in the stream and the cattle grazing in the mea-
dow have all the elements of a live country scene
yet the vital force that sets vibrating those par-
ticular elements is not there and the scene is
simply commonplace.
Alphonse Legros (1837-1911) was another
follower of the 1830 innovators in landscape
painting. Though he never reached their stand-
ard of excellence he was an artist of consider-
able power. Legros was born in Dijon, that
old town noted for its historic interest, and as
the native place of many celebrated men. Legros
studied at the Beaux Arts in Paris and early in
his career went to London where he became
professor of fine arts at the University College,
London. Lie first attracted notice to his art by
a portrait of his father, then his painting of
"The Angelus," was greatly admired. His
"Edge of the Woods," Metropolitan IMuseum
AND THEIR PAINTERS 217
of Art (Fig. 146), is reminiscent of Dupre-
Rousseau-Diaz treatment, yet only in catching
the new note that came in with the group rather
than copying them.
That JuHen Dupre's (1851-1910) "Cow," In-
stitute of Art, San Francisco (Fig. 147) is a
fine animal no one will question but that she at-
tracts because of her originality as does Troyon's
"Cow at the Drinking Place" (see Fig. loi), is
unthinkable. One is a cow from a well kept
dairy herd where each cow is kept up to the
standard of excellence in milk quality and the
other is as individual in her likes and dislikes as
are the family cows on the old farm homestead.
Troyon put his intruder in his pictures because
it was her sweet will to be there and it was either
paint her or change his point of view. Dupre
has deliberately made a portrait likeness of this
cow. Julien Dupre was born and died in Paris.
Not since Chardin's day (see page 32) has a
painter of still life equalled Antoine Vollon
(1833-1900). Inanimate objects seem to spring
into life because his brush sets free the atomic
centre of force. Nothing was still life to Vollon ;
everything palpitated with the vitality of his
genius. To him corn basket and chickens lived
as great teeming forces of nature. In his pic-
ture of "A Farm Yard," Metropolitan Museum
2i8 FRENCH PICTURES
of Art (Fig. 148), he has combined the elements
that make up all farm yards in real life with that
familiar something making this special farm
yard. The low irregular buildings with roofs
of thatch and slate and tile are full of the mys-
tery-spirit the farm child knows so well. True
a sinking roof under soggy straw is not com-
mon with us yet the same destroyers, time and
weather, are at work in our bulging, moss cov-
ered shinirles and rottinsf beams. The elemental
force is the same. The horses near the stable
door awaken the imp that made us steal the ride
long ago. And how stupid those chickens with
their interminable scratching.
Vollon's masterful brush work and fine sense
of colour place him among the leading men in
French art. He was born in Lyons and studied
in the Academy of his native city before going
to Paris to study under Ribot (see page 206).
Fig. 149. — SinglejFigures. Baudry. Opera House.
Paris.
Fig. 150. — Germany in Music, iiaudry. Opera House, Paris,
N
CHAPTER XXI
BAUDRY— BONNAT— C. DURAN—
LAURENS— REGNAULT—
B.-CONSTANT
O artist had had a more thorough training
in the principles of mural painting than
Paul Jacques Amie Baudry (1828- 1886) and
none ever was more hampered than he by pon-
derous architectual fittings in his principal work
— decorating the public foyer, Paris Opera
House. Baudry began his art career one might
say communing with the masters, Michael Angelo
and Raphael. He studied their methods and
copied their works. And the closer he came to
them the more he himself grew in originality.
One writer who knew the decorations, says, "No
one who saw them in the Ecole des Beaux Arts
before they were put in place, or who today will
study the cartoons or photographs from them,
but must acknowledge that they are great works
for all time."
''The Muses," (detail, Fig. 149), show how
well he profited by his study of the master. It is
219
220 FRENCH PICTURES
said that after receiving the commission for the
frieze Baiidry copied the prophets in the Sistine
Chapel, Rome, and went to Hampton Court, Lon-
don, to copy Raphael's cartoons. Then came
the war of 1870 with Germany and he shouldered
a gun in defence of his country. It was a year
later, when forty-three, that he began his work.
For three years he lived in the Opera House
where he seemed to become a part of the very
building itself.
Now let us study those dun coloured figures dim ,
as they are in the marvellous public lobby. We
feel that the spirit of the master hovers near.
Even Garnier, the architect, though he compels
attention in size and ornate mouldings and finish-
ings, does not awaken that sense of the imperish-
able as does Baudry in his suggestions — not
copies — of past greatness. The subject of the
original commission was "Music of the Various
Nations" and Baudry added to this at his own
expense eight panels of the muses.
The panel representing "Germany in Music,"
Opera House, Paris (Fig. 150), has a peculiar
significance in revealing the bigness of the artist
himself. Baudry no doubt knew the fact that
"In 1870 Bismarck, when he wished to make war
on France, forged a telegram in order to push
France into the position of being the apparent
AND THEIR PAINTERS 221
aggressor" (Dr. Hugh Black). Yet the artist
was willing to recognize the musical genius of
universal fame coming from the sinning country
and to place that recognition in the most famous
opera house in the world. The panel is espe-
cially attractive in design. In the centre of the
panel the youth, straight and sturdy, marks the
staying qualities that hold the bellying draperies
and intensifies the fantastic rippling of loosened
curls and dancing sunbeams. It is this rectitude
of the great German composers coupled with
fairy fancies that is holding music lovers and
will hold them for all time.
Baudry was born in Roche-sur-Von, in the
province of Vendee bordering the Atlantic Ocean.
He was the third one of twelve children. He
studied in the French Academy but his real
teachers were ]\Iichael Angelo and Raphael until
he came from the Opera House a new man with
a message of his own to humanitv. He went to
Egypt and Greece returning to Paris ''the most
famous and the poorest of the artists of France."
His fame brought him a commission to decorate
the Pantheon with a series of Joan of Arc stories
but the pay was too meagre. He painted many
portraits and easel pictures: among the latter
'The Wave and the Pearl," Kenyon Cox says
"Perhaps the most perfect painting of the nude
222 FRENCH PICTURES
done in modern time." As a man Baudry was
much like Raphael — amiable, friendly and devoted
to his art.
No two artists could have been more unlike
in style and temperament than Gerome (see
page 104) and Leon Joseph Florentine Bonnat
(1833), They were personal friends and Mr.
Blashfield, who studied with them both, says that
they each told him of the other, 'There is no
better master in Europe." That Bonnat's art-
realism often went to extremes no one will deny
yet his wrinkles and freckles are never the raison
d' etre of the portrait as in Denner. One cannot
examine the ''Portrait of John Taylor Johnson,"
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 151), with-
out realizing that he has painted a man worthy
to be the initial president of a growing art museum
in the city of New York. We not only have the
physical appearance of a strong personality but
the actual mental calibre. To paint a masterful
portrait certainly requires the skill of a master-
painter.
It is Bonnat's "Portrait of Leon Cogniet,"
Luxembourg (Fig. 152), that grips us. Prob-
ably we have never heard of Cogniet, the French
artist, but Bonnat compels us to take note of him
just as he is compelling Bonnat to do his best.
The intimate personal quality of the portrait is
Fffi. 151. — Portrait of John Taylor Johnson. Bonnat. Courtesy of
the jNIetropoHtan Museum of Art, New York City.
Fig. 152. — Portrait of Leon Cogniet. Bonnat. Luxembourg, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 223
no doubt due to the dose friendship of the two
as master and pupil. The expectant quahty of
love and trust in those critical eyes has touched
the very main spring of Bonnat's genius as a
portrait painter and the likeness assumes to us
the warmth of a personal friend. Leon Cog-
niet ( 1 794- 1 880) was born in Paris and for many
years was a leading art teacher and critical writer
on Italian artists.
Mr. Blashfield repeats the following conversa-
tion that occurred between M. Maspero, the
Egyptologist, and M. Bonnat, the artist, apropos
to what Bonnat taught. They were at a dinner.
Bonnat turned to his companion and said,
''Maspero, you who are near sighted, tell me
how does M away down there at the foot of
the table appear to you?"
"Well," replied IMaspero, *T see a white spot
which I know is his shirt front, and a flesh
coloured spot which I know is his face."
"Ah," cried Bonnat, "how I wish my pupils
could see things that way."
Bonnat was born at Bayonne on the sea board,
the extreme southwest of France. His parents
moved to Madrid where Bonnat came under the
influence of the works of Velasquez and Murillo.
At twenty-one he studied in Paris and then went
to Italy and travelled extensively in the Orient.
224 FRENCH PICTURES
He was director of the French Academy in Rome.
He painted portraits of many famous men — Vic-
tor Hugo, M. Thiers, Renan.
Charles Auguste Emile Carolus-Duran (1837-
19 1 7, was born in the historic city of Lille, on
the north border of France. He must have in-
herited some of the sturdy qualities of the old
town. His method of work from the beginning
of his art career was independent to the degree
that, startling as he was, he became one of the
most popular teachers in France. He reminds
us in his fearlessness in inaugurating his own art
rules of the famous barber of Lille during the
Austrian siege of 1792, "Who when the bomb
burst beside him snatched up a shred of it, in-
troduced soap and lather into it, crying, 'Voila
mon plat a barbel' my new shaving dish! and
shaved fourteen people on the spot." Ever after
the "Plat a barbe," was the popular shaving dish
and "No patriot of an elegant turn but shaves
himself out of the splinter of a Lille bomb."
The first thing Carolus-Duran did in Paris
when fifteen years old was to copy again and
again da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," in the Louvre.
This daring procedure doubtless provoked criti-
cism — a slip of a boy, how absurd! and then at
twenty-three he went to Rome and lived six
months with the monks at Subiaco, a town thirty-
Fig. 153. — Beppino. Ciirolus-Duian.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 225
three miles east of Rome, where the remains of
Nero's villa and a castle in ruins of the eleventh
century were ample food for his genius.
As a portrait painter Carolus-Duran justly
ranks among the best of his time. His people
Hve. There is no mistake about ''Beppino" (Fig.
153) being a power in the household. She is
the reigning queen and everything revolves
around her. Of course they are willing subjects
for Beppino would win anybody with those eyes
whether or no she will win out by the tyranny
of babyhood. John Singer Sargent was one of
Carolus-Duran's famous pupils. To feel the
master's influence just look at Sargent's portrait
of 'The Boit Children," in Boston (American
Pictures and their Painters, page 158). You
will note that the decorative quality of both pic-
tures is due to personality in the human element.
Each child suggests traits that have come from
generations of ancestors. One could say of these
pictures of children to know them one must go
back to their grandparents.
One of the finest portraits by Carolus-Duran
is that of his wife called, "La Dame au gaut,"
Luxembourg, where he has shown a fine per-
ception of the little personal traits that endear
individuals to us. Often he had watched his
wife pulling off her gloves one finger at a time
226 FRENCH PICTURES
as she related some interesting incident and now
he has fixed the action that in his memory is one
of her dainty characteristics. Of course we
reahze that it is not picture quahty that Carolus-
Duran is seeking but a portrait-hkeness and in
that he pleased the public and consequently was
one of the most popular portait painters of the
day.
The most important scene in the life of St.
Genevieve to be portrayed on the walls of the
Pantheon, Paris — her death-bed blessing to the
world — was given to Jean Paul Laurens (1838-
1921). Laurens in preparation for this great
work painted three other death scenes, "The
Death of the Duke d'Enghein," at the Museum
of Alenqon, and "Francis Borgia before the Dead
Isabella of Portugal," and "The Austrian Staff-
Officers around the Death-bed of Morceau." The
latter was bought by the city of Ghent for about
eight thousand dollars. Naturally no theme in
the history of France is dearer to the people than
that of the life of St. Genevieve (see page 195)
and Laurens has summed up the effect of her
death on high and low, rich and poor as no one
else could have done.
The scene of "The Death of Saint Genevieve,"
in the Pantheon (Fig. 154), is painted on the
AND THEIR PAINTERS 227
wall as a permanent part of the building itself.
No building- in Paris is a more fitting memorial
to this saint of the French nation than the Pan-
theon. The scene may not be the most pleasing
one in the life of St. Genevieve yet Laurens'
sincerity of purpose and deep feeling are so
marked that no one can turn away from it with-
out realizing the strength of the composition.
He not only establishes the historic value of the
saint but gives a sense of reality to the assembled
mourners that makes them a part of the present
day events.
Laurens' portrayal of lugubrious historic sub-
jects was remarkably restrained. The exhibi-
tions of the times — in the seventies — were full of
portraits, landscapes and genre pictures and to
fight the growing indifference to historic subjects
took the kind of courage Laurens possessed.
His firm drawing, splendid composition and de-
termined energy in execution were never more
telling than in the large canvas he sent to the
Salon of 1872 of a savage scene between the
dead Pope Formosus and the living Pope
Stephens VII (about 896). The painting was
pronounced by contemporary critics the best in
the Salon.
Laurens was born in Toulouse, "That blessed
228 FRENCH PICTURES
town," said the artist Constant, "which produces
so many artists that one would think it had a
monopoly in this direction."
War is a tragedy, especially is this true when
it cuts off one who is enriching mankind. The
untimely death of Henri Regnault (i 843-1 871)
has made all mankind the poorer. He was killed
with "possibly the last bullet fired in the Franco-
Prussian war," in a skirmish at Buzenval.
Young as Regnault was in the few short years
of his art career he startled the world with the
realism, the vigour and the vitality of his work.
At twenty-three he won the Prix de Rome. One
of the first paintings of his stay in the Eternal
City was "Automedon Taming the Horses of
Achilles," in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
(Fig. 155). At once we are struck by the in-
tense passion of action, a climax as it were of the
Romanticism of Gericault and Delacroix, where
action is held by a stern sense of form that
curbed any liberties against fundamental laws.
Never were those splendid steeds, Xanthos and
Belios, portrayed more in accord with Homer's
description (see Book XIX, Iliad). The pale
glimmer below the storm-swept sky sheds a sin-
ister light over the calm sea and barren shore
that seems to portend disaster — the death of their
beloved master, Achilles.
Fill. If)!.— Dentil
of Saint (Icnovicve.
tlieon, Roino.
Lnurpns. Pan-
Fi(i. 155. — Horses of Achilles. Rcfiniuilt. Courtosy of tin- Miiscuni of
I'^iiic Arts, liosfoii, Mass.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 229
From Rome Regnault went to Spain and there
painted the famous "Portrait of General Prim,"
now in the Luxembourg, and a year later in
1870 he sent "Salome," Metropolitan Museum
of Art (Fig. 156), to the Salon. This might
justly come under one of Whistler's studies in
colour. Various tones of yellow predominate
and form a startling contrast to the purple-black
hair. This Salome is a barbarian, an unmoral
being gloating with innocent pride over the un-
canny deed. Look into those eyes and study the
caressing fingers handling the glittering blade,
The picture is a sunburst of golden radiance.
At times Regnault's realism was terrific.
When his "Execution without Judgment," in the
Louvre, was first exhibited it created a profound
sensation with both critics and public. Persons
grew faint and dizzy as they stood before the
picture so horrible was the scene yet the sim-
plicity and strength of its execution held one
fascinated. The principal actors are two figures,
the executioner and the victim, on a marble stair-
way bathed in a glowing light. One stands tall
and erect, immovable as a statue as he wipes the
blood from his scimeter on his tunic; the other a
mangled trunk has fallen down the steps, his head
caught in a pool of blood. A contemporary critic
writing of the painting, says, "It is not too much
230 FRENCH PICTURES
to say that this blood mantling on the marble
slab is one of the finest bits of colour in modern
art."
Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902)
lived at Montmaitre, a section of Paris that is
said to represent the brains, the wit and the genius
of France, as also its blarney. However Ben-
jamin-Constant never let the decadence of art,
that was eating the heart out of many an artist
in Montmaitre affect his work; he was far too
indefatigable a worker to be influenced even by
affluence — his by birthright. Not alone as a
painter but as a writer he constantly held the
public conscience up to high standards. A few
of his epigrams will epitomize his character and
his power better than anything we can say of
him. He wrote, "The talent of the real masters
is never discouraged." Again, "Good faith is
the health of the soul." And again, "A master
often does unskilfully a thing that is true, and
a pupil skilfully a thing that is false." And
again, "Where the thought of man ends God
begins."
Benjamin-Constant's use of colour was the
marvel of his time. He would lay it on direct
from the tube with the abandon of a dilettante
while creating a masterpiece. His love of the
Orient gave to each subject of the Orient a per-
Fig. loG. — Salome. Regnault. Courtesy of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York City.
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 231
sonal twist that was Benjamin-Constant. In
'Thirst, Prisoners of Morocco," he shows a white
waste of sand under the African sun with a tiny
rivulet and three half naked prisoners flat on
the ground in their eagerness to obtain the water
while the Arab captor sits his horse perfectly im-
passive to them. A third Arab keeps watch in
the background. Constant with wonderful
simplicity has infused into the scene the govern-
ing principle that divides the East from the West
— the principle of master and mastered. Very
vividly that vast waste extinguishes every ray
of hope in the captured and intensifies the indif-
ference of the captor. The artist arouses a
deeper interest in the whole subject of the East.
This is specially true in his picture of "Ji^stin-
ian in Council," Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Fig. 157). Ancient Byzantium is now Con-
stantinople. The Emperor Justinian (482?-
565) is head of the Christian church. The fierce
discussion of dogma — a fight between the be-
lievers in the dual nature of Christ (the greens)
and the single nature where the human and the
divine are one in Christ (the blues) — had been
raging in the reign of his uncle, Emperor Justin,
and was still continuing in riots and blood-shed.
Constant has portrayed in the painting the word
picture given by the ancient Byzantine his-
2Z2 FRENCH PICTURES
torian, Procopius (490-565?). He said in part,
''The aged Justinian, seated in a room in his
vast palace and busied late into the nio-ht with
a meeting of grey-headed bishops in explaining
according to his view the 'dogma of Christians.' "
We can understand that such a ruler could quiet
useless controversy. Then too Justinian had a
wonderful wife as a help-mate — the empress
Theodora. She had been an actress in the fa-
mous Hippodrome and thoroughly understood the
temper of the frequenters of the circus. Her
influence was great in helping to quell the up-
risings. Constant must have been influenced
in his colour scheme by the gorgeous mosaics of
Justinian and Theodora that were made as early
as the sixth century.
CHAPTER XXII
MANET— DEGAS— MONET— SISLEY
RENOIR
EDGUARD MANET'S (1833-1883) an-
nouncement that "The principal person in
the picture is light!" struck blind both artists and
lay public. The brilliancy of his teachings, his
works and his social amenities all used to promul-
gate his theory that nature should be painted as
she "impresses" not as she really is caused a
storm of criticism of unprecedented bitterness.
For twenty years Manet fought against the
"dead and alive" condition of the Academy and
Salon. He held that art meant treating all
nature through the medium of light, of air, of
vibrating colour notes. His pictures were not
only refused again and again at the exhibitions
but scoffed at and scorned, laughed at and held up
to ridicule. The younger men felt the truth of
his work though they lacked the courage to fight
with him, yet they entered into his labour when
the battle was won.
It is true that not many of Manet's paintings
233
234 FRENCH PICTURES
were pleasing as pictures but they were beautiful
because they were wonderfully done. One critic
says, "His hand was dowered with the gift of
quality, and there his art began and ended — I
remember a pear that used to hang in his studio,
Hals would have taken off his hat to it — "
Manet once said to a friend, *'I also tried to write,
but I did not succeed; I never could do any-
thing but paint."
'The Boy with a Sword," Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art (Fig. 158), is, however, an excep-
tion in its attractive qualities as a picture. That
boy, so quaint in his childish efforts to hold the
big sword firmly, looks us in the eyes with the
unafraid frankness of a child. Standing alone
in the centre of space — a space felt on all sides
— he represents the very acme of sincerity. Vi-
brant colour sets every feature of the face quiver-
ing and glints the unmodelled eyes with the light
of life. What a comment this ''Boy with a
Sword," must have been to the overweening van-
ity of the would-be artists who were tickling the
public taste with sugar plum art. And yet Manet
was ignored though he was bringing the world
back to seeing nature.
And again take "The Beggar," The Art In-
stitute, Chicago (Fig. 159). It is very strange
that artists were so blind a half century ago that
Via. loS. — -Tlio Boy with a Sword. Mauot. Courtesy of the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, New York City.
Fig. 159.— The Beggar. Manet. Courtesy of The Art Insti-
tute, Chicago, lUinois.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 235
they could not recognize the greatness of the man
who could paint such a picture. Even if much
of Manet's work was experimental these pictures
would justify his protests against false traditions
just because they were traditions. We cannot
linger long before this beggar or a com must
be put in his outstretched hand. Surely Rem-
brandt would have recognized in that hand a
little of the power he himself put in the hand
of the "Alan with a Steel Gorget," Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
"The Guitarist," Metropolitan Museum of Art,
is a striking picture. I say ''striking" yet the
scene is common enough wherever Spanish people
come together. Many artists have seen its
picture value before Manet painted this one — I
doubt if he thought of it at all in terms of picture
value — and behold, a guitarist who remains a
personality ! Other pictures are forgotten though
they may have been more pleasing when first
seen. The accessories in the picture are almost
nil, the colour rather harsh and the fellow is no
Apollo but the picture is compelling.
Today modern art is bigger because of Alanel.
All artists recognize the great debt they owe to
his fight for individual expression in painting —
however, to Manet individual liberty never meant
license in his heart or his life. Unfortunately he
236 FRENCH PICTURES
did not live to bring to full fruition in complete
pictures the principles he inaugurated and that
are the cornerstone of good art.
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
stands quite alone in his art. If there was any-
one thing that seemed to possess his very soul it
was the sense of motion and next was the ability
to transfer that motion to canvas. Yet it is far
more than motion, it is the ability to move; it is
life. Do we want to know intimately the French
dance girl look at this portrayal of her on the
stage, above the footlights, beneath the spot lic^ht,
behind the stage repairing a rent, sewing on a
button, tying a shoe lace, always revealing the
girl as a human element. Many times the sub-
ject of the picture is not pleasing to us simply be-
cause the particular act portrayed offends our sen-
sitive selves but the picture is big with the sim-
plicity of truth.
Degas was trained under Ingres (see page y^j^
who taught that, "In nature all is form." Later
under the influence of Manet he saw that light
transformed from and changed the painted fig-
ures into vitalized human beings. This training
and his intuitive understanding of the under-
tones of growing life sensitized by his knowledge
of the art of Japan gave him an unprecedented
power in interpreting the ugly and the unlovely
Fig. IGO. — La Danseuse. Degas. Luxembourg, Pari.s.
l*'i<;. I()l. — La Danscusc. Degas. Luxembourg, Paris.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 237
that he saw among the people — his people, for he
lived a strange life apart from his fellow work-
ers and from the world in general. He cared
nothing for applause, in fact shunned every ave-
nue that possibly could bring him to the notice
of the public yet, says George Moore, a few
years later, ''Degas now occupies the most en-
viable position an artist can attain — if the high-
est honour is to obtain the admiration of your
fellow-workers. That honour has been bestowed
on Degas"
"La Danseuse," in the Luxembourg, Paris
(Fig. 160), as she stoops to nurse her ankle with
one hand and rests her compact body on her knee
with the other is a curious mixture of the trained
performer and the mere human being feeling
pain.
Very different is "La Danseuse," Luxembourg
(Fig. 161), before the footlights. Balancing on
one toe she whirls and circles as light as a butter-
fly on the wing. A very real part of the picture
is the crowded house she holds with her gesture
and smile. No wonder Degas could criticize a
fellow artist's crowded canvas with the remark,
"A crowd is made with five persons not with
fifty." He pictures a crowd without a person.
No painter but Degas has ever aroused the public
to feel the wear and tear on the entertainer and
238 FRENCH PICTURES
the little appreciation given to the spent human
spirits behind the footlights.
A unique and exceedingly interesting Degas is
Mdlle. Fiori in the Ballet of La Source/' Brook-
lyn Museum (Fig. 162). The colour is of that
marvellous quality that one feels but no words can
describe. The luscious sorrel of the horse, the
auburn hair and dull golden-red dress of the
3^oung woman form a harmony of exquisite tones.
Mdlle. Fiori's dress of silver-tinted blue twinkles
and sparkles as joyous as the surrounding light
and air. The composition is unusual for a
picture though a most natural scene in reality.
It is said that when Claude Monet (1840),
who was eight years younger than Manet,
exhibited the first time at the Salon he sighed
his picture with his surname only. It happened
to be the year that Manet's "Olympia" was
causing commotion and now a second tradition-
breaker, Monet, had the temerity to exhibit too.
Manet saw the signature and perhaps thinking
the artist was plagiarizing his work, asked,
angrily, "Who is this Monet who has the air of
taking my name and who is coming thus to profit
by the noise which I have made?" After this
Monet was careful to sign his name Claude
Monet ; later the two artists became firm friends.
It has been stated again and again that the
Fig. 1G2.— La Source. Degas. Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum,
Brooklyn, N. Y.
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 239
name "Impressionist," is a misnomer in describ-
ing the movement set on foot by Manet in genre
(in its broadest sense) figures, and Monet in
landscape. John C. Van Dyke says, "That these
painters who are seeking effects of h'ght and air
. . . should be called luminists if it is necessary
for them to be named at all." Monet insisted
that nature's shadows are luminous. He then
proceeded to put side by side pure pigments,
yellow, pale red and pale blue which gave the ef-
fect of light without using white at all. He
simply went back to his physics and applied the
rules in optics. He kept a number of canvases
going at once to catch the varied effects of light
and atmosphere under the change of time and
temperature. Of course his laying on of paint
in ridges was an unheard of procedure and at
once aroused adverse judgment against such
liberties in methods of painting. Soon the more
observant began to realize that a certain vital
force seemed to spread over Monet's landscapes
which gave to them the effect of a real scene.
There are the quivering atmosphere, elusive
tones of colour, the luminous light and shades of
nature herself.
Monet did not reach this perfection at once
but through a long experimental stage and then
w^e have such a scene as "The Coast of Brittany,"
240 FRENCH PICTURES
The M. Knocdler Gallery (Fig. 163). No longer
are pigments piled in parallel rows as though
juggling with paints were the main purpose for
the picture existence. Experiment has given
place to a perfect understanding of the material
used and the real Monet has emerged as a recog-
nized power by the public. I wish you would
look at the coast scene again. I have been to the
gallery many times just to feel the joy of the
projecting rock, the exhausted water, the in-
vigorating ocean air and the alluring expanse
of sky and water. Monet has caught the spiri-
tual essence of nature — that something that
brings God close to us.
At first Monet received very little appreciation ;
in fact at the sale of Daubigny's effects a Monet
picture was put out of sight for fear its presence
might injure the sale of the older master's works.
Later that same picture went from eighty francs
to fifty-five hundred francs then to thirty thou-
sand francs and today could scarcely be bought
with money.
This element of investigation, this Manet-
Monet upheaval which set the Academy on edge
and stirred the art world to the very depth, gave
a new impetus to art and no artist could be quite
the same, whether he agreed or disagreed, as be-
fore the insurgents opened his eyes to the new
AND THEIR PAINTERS 241
uses of light and air and colour. Naturally the
followers of the new movement, mostly the
younger men, modified or exaggerated according
to individual temperament and many of their art
products mark a strange epoch in the art world.
The encouraging feature is that
Men may come and men may go,
But art goes on forever,
and no upheaval
in methods, however radical, crushes the true ar-
tist — the creative, the constructive, the individual
who works on indestructible principles laid down
from the beginning of time. Such artists, ever
learning always building, are the balancing power
that steadies progress.
One of the very individual exponents of Monet
was Alfred Sisley (1840-1899). Born in Paris
of English parents Sisley was so essentially
French in his whole manner of life and work
that he used to say he felt he was in a foreign
country when in England. The pathos of his
life from a financial standpoint would wring
tears from a heart of stone. If it had not been
for the big heart of Murer, a restaurant keeper,
who loved literature and art and only fed people
to live, Sisley, Renoir and other impressionists
would have starved to death. On certain days
242 FRENCH PICTURES
the restaurant gave free meals to these not only
unrecognized but scorned and ridiculed artists.
Not three months after Sisley's death his pictures
sold like wild fire for fabulous sums. What
fools we mortals are! Genius starves in our
midst and the ignorant ride in gold trappings!
Monet and Sisley, born in the same year,
seemed to stand apart from the other men of the
new movement. Sisley really the last of the school
never had any recognition until death claimed
him. The monument to him at Moret — a village
at the juncture of the Seine and the Marne, a few
miles southeast of Fontainebleau — stands near
the bridge he so often shows in his pictures.
Possibly in no picture has that bridge become so
intimate as in *'Moret au coucher du Solier,
Octobre," in M. Knoedler Gallery (Fig. 164).
The sun has disappeared but the mottled sky
gleams with wondrous colour — a combination
of tones each struggling to break through the
piles of fluffy clouds chasing each other. No
trees ever posed against a more glorious back-
ground. And the bridge. Is it any wonder the
town's folk chose a spot near it to place the statue
of Sisley? He not only guards it but vitalizes it.
We sometimes wonder what it was that held
tojjether these French seekers for the effect of
light and air. Separately they stood for in-
Fici. 165.— Portrait of Madame Carpentier and Children, llenoir. Courtesy
of the Metropohtan Museum of Art, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 243
dividuality itself; collectively they advised, sug-
gested, shared discoveries — as well as bread —
and were altogether helpful to each other. And
what was it that stirred them to action synchro-
nously? As most of them were born thirty
years before Germany decided again to own
France perhaps the indignant protest against
brute force ruling mankind sensitized their spir-
itual nature until bigger visions of the real
power of France — her art — obsessed her.
While landscape appealed more directly to
lionet and Sisley, Pierre August Renoir (1841-
1920) found his inspiration largely in figure
pieces. He was nearly as poor in worldly goods
and just as determined in spirit as his bosom
friend, Alonet. Many were the meals they ate
together, thanks to the kindness of Murer, then
with renewed strength, but no recognition, con-
tinued their research work.
The "Portrait of Madame Carpentier and her
Children," Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig.
165), wife of M. Carpentier a well known French
publisher, was the turning point in the material
life of Renoir. From great poverty he stepped
into wealth from his pictures. Not that his work
was better now but influence exploited it and
fortunately the patron knew real worth. True
many points in the picture offend today as the
244 FRENCH PICTURES
much decorated table, the over crowded room
and many coloured stuffs but the satisfaction of
enjoying- real, live people full of human interest
places the picture among our valuable treasures.
Renoir was born in Limoges, in southeast
France, in that city rich in the enamel- work it
produced which may have first fired the young
artist with his love of colour. One writer says,
**Limoges paints with fire in liquid glass — and
turns out veritable gems of colour and compo-
sition." Renoir spent most of his time in the
south of France and died in Cannes on Cote
d'Azur, the Blue Shore, as the French half of
the Riviera is called.
A most delightful example of Renoir's out door
scenes is ''Canotiers a Chaton," M. Knoedler
Gallery (Fig. i66). This is impressionism in its
perfection. Light and reflection are coming and
going with the shifting clouds, — they dance and
quiver as things alive; they laugh and sing in the
gaily painted boat (red) and in the lovely rhythm
of water, grass and colonial home across the
river. Yes, the critic is right when he says,
"Light volatilizes design." Renoir has perfectly
poetized light and air into a lyric that expresses
the feeling of joy and contentment.
CHAPTER XXIII
GUILLAUMET— VIBERT— ROYBET—
MORISOT— DE NEUVILLE—
MOROT— DETAILLE
THE decade of 1840 was a fruitful one for
baby-boy and girl artists. And the curious
part is that these embryo painters became definite
personalities in art, and from entirely different
angles. There was Gustave Achille Guillaumet
(1840-1887) who in spite of his training in
Picot's atelier and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, de-
veloped a perfectly distinct treatment of the Ori-
ental spirit. Many men had been painting the
desert in the near East, wonderful pictures too,
but Guillaumet alone gives the thrill that comes
from experiencing the scene oneself. He has
achieved the same aliveness in atmosphere and
light and in colour that characterizes Monet and
Sisley's works though he had nothing else in
common with their art.
In realistic treatment he had simply grown
away from Decamps and Fromentin and painted
what he saw. No one could stand before 'The
Desert at Sunset," Pennsylvania Museum, Phil-
24s
246 FRENCH PICTURES
adelphia (Fig. 167), without feeling the pull of
some mysterious power dwelling in the sea of
shifting sand. The huddled group of animals and
attendants is but a speck in the wide expanse
yet somehow the tall spare figure at the right has
grasped the source from whence the power comes.
The strength and dignity of that man is that of a
god dominating the forces of nature because his
right is to have the dominion of the earth. Un-
like Balzac Guillaumet makes man a vital part
of the desert. The artist lived in Algeria where
he followed the daily life of the Arab. He went
with him into the desert and saw the sun rise
and the sun set. He w^atched the glare of the
noon day and felt the vibrant atmosphere under
the rapidly changing temperature. He saw with
seeing eyes and a sensitive understanding. His
pictures are radiant with light and colour and at-
mosphere.
One scarcely knows where to place Jehan
Georges Vibert (1840-1902) except that his
technique is about perfect and his colour brilliancy
itself. If these two and painstaking detail
work constitute an artist then Vibert would qual-
ify otherwise he falls far below the men who saw
below the surface. After seeing one of Vibert's
cardinals in a red robe one ever thinks of the
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of the
AND THEIR PAINTERS 247
artist in terms of cardinal-red. Red may be one
of the special colour variations that he contributed
to the painter's palette through his chemical re-
search work — at least Vibert's red is peculiar to
him.
He certainly understood the human frailties of
the church clergy and his exceedingly clever and
humorous portrayal of them has no taint of pes-
simism to cause offence. In the "Startled Con-
fessor," Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 168),
it is easy to detect the effect the beautiful woman
produces on the priest. No doubt her aim was
to captivate the attractive young father confessor
and her story is simply the pretext for using her
charms. The brilliant red note in the young
woman's dress and the flower in her dark hair;
the white Spanish lace trimming and the priest's
black habit serve to intensify the scene and
emphasize the story. A^ibert delighted in using
pure pigments even to the extent of outdoing
nature.
Ferdinand Roybet (1840), although born
the same year with Vibert, was his pupil.
His innate love of colour was no doubt intensi-
fied by Vibert but his choice of rich stuffs in
costuming his people is decidedly his own. He
came to Paris when young and almost at once his
248 FRENCH PICTURES
exhibitions began to attract the Parisian art
lovers until in 1890 his "one man" display caused
an unprecedented show of enthusiasm.
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'The
Game of Cards'' (Fig. 169), is a good example
of Roybet's brilliant rendering of a seventeenth
century pastime. No one could mistake the
spirit of the Empire. The brilliant hangings,
decorated furnishings and ornamental costumes
are just the details to animate the scene with the
life of the time. Roybet was born in the an-
cient town of Uzes about twenty-five miles from
the sea. Uzes is on the direct line to Paris, Lyons
and the Mediterranean Railroad.
A French critic wrote, after the death of Ber-
the Morisot (1841-1895), 'There has been no
lack of women painters in the history of art;
there has been a lack of woman painting, that is,
a painting expressing the particular aspect things
should present to a woman's eyes and a woman's
spirit." It is, after all, when women keep their
point of view in their work that gives them
strength and Berthe Morisot proved this to be
true. She was ever herself — a sane, steady self
— painting what she saw the way she saw it.
This was specially interesting because she was a
pupil of Corot, and in 1874, she became the
wife of the brother of Edouard Manet, and was
AND THEIR PAINTERS 249
great granddaughter of Fragonard (see page 44).
She was big enough to see the significance of
Manet's contentions without losing her own iden-
tity, though her works took on the new spirit of
the impressionist. In "J^^^"^ Fillc," Collection
of Joseph Reinach, Paris (Fig. 170), the girl is
a substantial reality treated artistically. Her per-
sonality might be that of the artist herself. She
is looking out on life with seeing eyes already
questioning the whys and wherefores around her.
Berthe Morisot was born in Bruges, she stud-
ied in Lyons and then went to Paris where she
died. She and Mary Cassatt, whom the French
claim though we insist on the prior claim, were
strong personalities in the changing methods of
the last half century. They both stand in the
forming line to claim the title of modern old
masters that time and chastened opinion estab-
lishes.
Aime Nicolas Morot (1850-1913) is an artist
who has given a vivid account of that fateful fall
of 1870. The main army of the French were
shut up in Metz. The German army, far out-
numbering them, was advancing rapidly. Mar-
shall McMahon — afterward second president of
the Republic — to retard the German advance and
cover the French retreat, charged the enemy
at ''Reichsoffen," Versailles (Fig. 171). His
250 FRENCH PICTURES
30,000 men against the 130,000 Germans were
soon overcome yet the splendid courage of Gen-
eral McMahon and the terrific onslaught of his
men gained the enthusiastic admiration of the
enemy as well as of France. Morot has put
into his painting the fire and audacity of the
French character. He has made one feel that
fighting against odds was of little consequence
when fighting for the French home, even the
horses partake of the spirit of their masters.
The artist has given to the onrush a power like
unto the sudden burst of wind clouds sweeping
everything in its path.
Morot was born in Nancy, the city so noted for
its university, academy and schools; for its great
men and beautiful works of art. Morot was
specially noted for his excellent portraits many of
them of the prominent men of his day.
Alphonse Marie de Neuville (1836- 1885)
was probably the most accurate chronicler of the
Franco-Prussian war of all the historians of that
event. His scenes are actual occurrences. He
took notes on the spot and some of his jottings
are so true to life that the Germans often recog-
nized some of their own men in his pictures. As
de Neuville was on the staff he had ample oppor-
tunity to sketch each incident as it occurred.
De Neuville was a man of education and dis-
^dS^j^
3
3
73
'3
AND THEIR PAINTERS
2;i
cretion and his training as an illustrator gave
him a wonderful grasp of salient points and en-
abled him to compose rapidly a perfectly logical
scene embodying the feverish haste of actual-
ity. His portrayal of the terrible spirit of reck-
less valour that marked the individual French
soldier in that unequal contest gives his pictures
an unusual value.
"The Last Cartridges," (Les dernicres Car-
touches a Bilan), Luxembourg (Fig. 172), has
that spirit of desperation that filled the heart of
each soldier in the unequal contest. At the town
of Bilan, a short distance from Sedan, northeast
from Paris, was the most desperate fighting of
1870. The French, taking their stand in the old
house, are fighting unmindful of wounds or odds
against them. The one passion, to kill the enemy,
has taken possession of their very souls. Even
the disabled give no evidence of a cowed spirit.
True it was a defeated army that Napoleon ITT
surrendered on September 2, 1870 but the spirit
of freedom was still burning in the French heart.
De Neuville was born in St. Omer, a few miles
inland from Calais, of a rich and aristocratic
family. His father intended he should follow
the law but Alphonse became a painter instead
much to the chagrin of the family and the detri-
ment of his purse.
252 FRENCH PICTURES
Edouard Detaille (1848-1912), a favourite
pupil of Meissonier, was the younger man by
thirty-three years. Although he followed his
master in careful execution and character of sub-
ject he was too original to be a mere copyist. His
own training in military life in the Franco-Prus-
sian war gave him a deeper insight into the under-
tone of the deadly conflict than a mere battle-
field scene would. Flis "Dream," Luxembourg
(Fig. 173), is far more effective than an actual
battle scene picture. That bloodless encounter
faintly outlined against the moonlit sky is far
more pathetic in its significance. Those thou-
sands of bivouac soldiers stretching away into
the limitless distance watched only by the gun
stacks row upon row are far less sure of their
tomorrow's fate than under the sword of Damo-
cles. In the original painting, unfortunately the
half tone does not show it, Detaille has elaborated
details until each soldier in the foreground has
become a personal element and ''The Dream,"
pictured in the sky, an individual fancy of a
troubled brain. Detaille's carefulness in detail
is that of the famous general's report, **We are
ready, quite ready; we miss not a gaiter button."
It was not petty exactness but a soldier's sense
of good discipline.
Fig. 172. — The Last Cartridges. De Neuville. Luxembourg, Paris.
IiG. 173. — The Dream. IXiailic Lu.\eml)ourg, I'aiis.
CHAPTER XXIV
DORE— DE MONVEE— TISSOT
THERE are three French illustrators whose
names are household words in America —
Dore, Tissot, and Boutet de Monvel. They
belong to no special time or school, yet no history
of French artists, however brief, is quite complete
without mentioning them. Illustrating is not
high art — although some great artists have been
illustrators — and those who have the gift of see-
ing in pictures often lack the finer quality to per-
fect the talent given them. It is comparatively
easy for a genius to sketch at breakneck speed the
imaginings of a fertile brain, but to manipulate
wath a trained, painstaking mind requires thought.
One with a natural talent must cultivate, if he
would deliver at least the talent with usury. It
was just there that Gustave Dore (1833-1883)
failed. He was not willing to pay the price; it
was too easy to dash off first impressions, though
he himself was never satisfied. Being a child-
prodigy is a terrible handicap. Gustave at twelve
published lithographs, at sixteen was illustrat-
253
254 FRENCH PICTURES
ing on a Paris newspaper and at twenty-one his
illustrations of Rabelais made him famous.
Book after book followed in quick succession —
"The Wandering Jew," "Don Quixote," the
"Bible," "Milton," "Dante," "La Fontaine," etc.
Dore's imaginings are marvellous. Sometimes
his scenes reach the highest sublimity; more
often, alas, they lack the coherent quality that
careful study brings and many times the care-
lessness of haste is very apparent. His choice
of masterpieces to illustrate was most fortunate.
He caught the public, but unfortunately he did
not measure up to his own ambitions and that
public today feels his shortcomings.
However, in sifting the best from his vast
multitude of works we are gaining a more just
estimate of Dore as an artist. He reached his
best in illustrating Dante's "Inferno." He fol-
lows Dante and Virgil as they descend from
circle to circle in the realm of the condemned and
when they come to the ninth and last circle where
traitors are punished Dore seems to have con-
centrated his forces until from the concealed mass
of Judases we hear ringing down the centuries,
"Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is
betrayed!" When the travellers come to this
ice circle, Dante says,
"Then I beheld a thousand faces, made
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AND THEIR PAINTERS 2
DD
Purple with cold ; whence o'er me comes a shudder.
And ever more will come, at frozen ponds."
(Inferno, Canto XXXII).
Dore has shown in his painting- of "Dante and
Virgil in the Traitor's Circle," Southern Museum,
Los Angeles (Fig. 174), the dignity of just con-
demners in the attitude of the travellers overlook-
ing the frozen pond that truly accords with the
crimes committed. We gain a better idea of
Dore as an artist in the painting though naturally
his engravings follow the words of the poem more
closely.
In Canto XXXII, line 97 (Fig. 175) Dante
stoops, saying.
"Then by the scalp behind I seized upon him,
"And said : 'It must needs be thou name thyself,
" 'Or not a hair remain upon thee here' "
Some other victim calls out "Bacca!" Dante
spurns the traitor. That traitor who "with
sword in hand, smote and cut off the hand of
Messer Jacopo de' Pazzi of Florence." This side
light on Dante's sympathies in the dramatic
"Conspiracy of the Pazzi," is interesting though
in the light of historic events the Medici cause
seems the more just.
Dore entered into the spirit of the drama and
with Dante he feels the depth of intrigue and
revolution that brought about this horrible retri-
256 FRENCH PICTURES
bution. The contortions of body are those of
great mental agony rather than physical pain,
but their tales of woe gain little sympathy from
the travellers. Such whimperings over just pun-
ishment are common to cowards when caught in
evil. Dante and Dore could illustrate with cut-
ting truth the whinings of the world-war insti-
gators today.
But Dore did not always choose tragic scenes.
Every child in France bears witness that his illus-
tration of Les Contes de Perrault is a constant
source of delight. These tales, published in 1697,
are the Mother Goose of French children. In
fact the controversy still wages as to the French
or American origin of Mother Goose. Our
Boston Mother Goose (Mrs. Goose was the
mother-in-law of Thomas Fleet, a Boston pub-
lisher) was published in Boston in 17 19. Many
French and American fairy tales are the same,
such as: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood,
Puss in Boots, etc.
Any ''Fairy Tale" (Fig. 176) is more fascin-
ating after Dore has touched it. His love for
children set his imagination free, and fancy fol-
lowed fancy in a perfect riot of fun. Children
and animals perfectly understand each other in
every conceivable incident. Bird and cat and
dog and squirrel is the child's equal and can ex-
Fig. 170.— a Fairv Talc. Dor6.
Fig. 177. — Jeanne d'Arc. Dc Monvel. Church of Domremy, France.
ir
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a
a
fe
AND THEIR PAINTERS 257
press itself in a language that both under-
stand perfectly. Dore certainly brings us nearer
to those wonderful men, Jean de la Fontaine
(1621-1695) and Charles Perrault (1628- 1703),
who understood the child's love for the marvel-
lous in story. I wonder how many of our
boys realized when in France that the home where
La Fontaine was born and lived in Chateau
Thierry was the library and museum of the town
and that the German officers used it as a dugout.
It has been our privilege through the courtesy
of Mrs. Cornelia Sage Quinton, Director of the
Buffalo Museum, a close friend of the Boutet
de Monvel family in Paris, to see a collection of
Maurice Boutet de Monvel (1850-1913) at the
Kigore gallery, New York City, en route to
other cities. Certainly our eyes opened wide with
astonishment at his knowledge of the true-to-
nature child, whether an adult child or a real one.
His profound comprehension of the child mind
is a psychologic penetration of humanity. Like
many another artist, de Monvel was forced into
illustration, but unlike the great army in that line
he made it a true art. De Monvel in substance
said, about having only the pen to work with,
''The greatest difficulty was to find something that
would come out well . . . gradually through a
process of elimination and selection I came to put
258 FRENCH PICTURES
in only what was necessary to give character.
I sought in every little figure, every group, the
essence and worked for that alone."
Every child who sees them, wherever he lives,
is the happier because of de Monvel's simple
and beautiful interpretation of French songs.
His Jeanne d'Arc is already a classic. In the
little church at Domremy, the birth-place of the
Maid, is his story told in fresco paintings of the
marvellous career of that unique child of God.
She was about eighteen when the iniquitous trial
began that accused her of every crime possible
from blasphemy to witchcraft. She was impris-
oned and insulted. The great people of the na-
tions came to look upon her — the terrible mon-
ster! Even the Duke of Burgandy came to see
the witch, only to find "J^^^rie, a girl of Eighteen"
(Fig. 177). The scene is most striking in its
simplicity. The lovely flat colour of the blue-
grey predominating, intensifies the cruel curiosity
of the black-robed, black-cowled dignitaries peer-
ing at her while keeping a safe distance.
"The Tannery," (Fig. 178) was the painting
that kept beckoning us to return and sit by the
dull gold, sluggish pond and enjoy the weather-
beaten, ugly structures and feel the red-brown
tan-bark under our feet. The whole is made
beautiful by a glorious light and vibrant atmos-
AND THEIR PAINTERS 259
phere. De Monvel knew that tannery — I won-
der if he had ever worked in it. He knew the
look of tannin stain and the feel of the fine tan-
bark thrown out from the vats. Who ever
thought of glorifying a tannery, yet De Monvel
has caught the sprite that haunts every common-
place scene, if only the eye is taught to see it.
The great majority of us only caught the ugly
smell of tan-bark and turned away in disgust;
he saw the glory of it and made us forget the
disagreeable.
I have a friend, a Parisian, who was in Paris
when James Joseph Jacque Tissot (1836-1902)
first exhibited his pictures of the life of Christ.
She said that never in the history of the French
people was such depth of emotion expressed by
young and old, rich and poor, aristocrat and peas-
ant. They came on the cars, in carriages and on
foot. They entered the gallery of the Louvre,
where the pictures were exhibited, as though per-
forming a religious ceremony — many on their
knees — and spent hours praying and sobbing be-
fore each scene represented, until the sound of
their supplications filled the air. No such demon-
stration was ever recorded of the reception of
religious pictures, not even of Cimabue's "Ma-
donna and Child" in Italy. As we look at the
pictures in the Brooklyn Museum today the ques-
26o FRENCH PICTURES
tion intrudes, "What held the people?" Probably
the earnest sincerity of the artist.
Tissot lived those scenes in Palestine. He
spent ten years putting himself in close touch
with Oriental life and thought. He visited every
spot made dear by the actual presence of the
Saviour. He verified every incident in the Bible
story by scenes from today. No doubt costumes
and customs have changed very little in Palestine
in twenty centuries, and these pictures repro-
duce settings and make more comprehensible
special terms and sayings. But of fundamental
truths, and our Saviour always dealt with ele-
mental truths, the old masters gave a deeper
meaning and a more universal interpretation of
the gospel story. We need to know the history
of yesterday to understand more fully the tend-
encies today, but the visible life of yesterday can-
not be reproduced. Only the unalterable spirit
of truth is permanent, and all earnest thinkers
probe for truth.
In no picture does Tissot grasp Oriental dig-
nity with greater fervour than in "The Mag-
nificat," Brooklyn Museum (Fig. 179). It is
the simple story of the Apocrypha. "But Mary,
being ignorant of all these mysterious things
which the angel Gabriel had spoken to her, lifted
her eyes to heaven and said. Lord! what
Fig. 179. — The Magnificat. Tissot. Brooklin
Museum. Courtesy of Jolui H. E^Krr.s
Company, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 261
am I that all the generations of the earth should
call me blessed?" The look of surprise and won-
der on the faces of the other two carries the con-
viction that the song, "more than a psalm," is a
revelation to them. Opinions differ as to the
author of this marvellous plan of promise and
praise, yet the simple Bible story carries the con-
viction that no controversy shakes. Tissot's con-
ception of the "handmaid of the Lord" is full
of the earnestness of one who could say "Be it
unto me according to thy word." His colour of
the soft Oriental robes under the vine covered
enclosure is exceedingly harmonious, and the rich
settings are in true accord with the wealth of the
Saviour's boyhood days.
Tissot was born in Nantes and became a pupil
of Flandrin (see page 159), the representative of
the religious movement in art of the nineteenth
century.
I
CHAPTER XXV
L'HERMITTE^LEROLLE— CARRIERE—
ROLL— BESNARD— MARTIN
T is the good common sense of Leon Augustin
L'"Hermitte (1844-) that makes him re-
freshing. He paints peasant Hfe as it is and not
as he imagines it ought to be. The men in "The
Harvester's Meal," Brooklyn Museum (Fig.
180), are true workers of the fields. The scene
is primitive in its elemental force, for it leads to
the source of labour — the beginnings of the great
industries that make the world hum today. The
coming of the woman with the midday meal
centres the scene in the home and we have a
keener realization that after all is said the great
problems are solved in the homes. L'Hermitte
gives us something bigger than reaping because
of careful digging and sowing. That stretch of
cultivated ground reaching to the far horizon
and including the little hamlet in the distance
lightens the heart and lifts the soul on wings of
hope. We know from the history of France
down through the years that it is from persons
262
Fig. 180. — The Harvesters' Meal. L'llerniitte. Cour-
tesy of Brooklyn Musemii, Brooklyn, X. V.
Fig. 181.— AnioiiK the IjOwW. L'llennilte.
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Aliisoiim of .Vrt,
Xew York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 263
with such environment that have come the great
builders of the French people. Why? Because
in these primitive people the elemental bigness of
human beings is found.
Again "Among the Lowly," Metropolitan
Museum of Art (Fig. 181), the artist compels
a recognition of the great unseen power that is
tugging and forcing humanity to a higher level.
The world no doubt is like the proverbial cat
getting out of the well but we know that after
each awful disaster there comes out of the quiet
of just existing at the source of material life a
more comprehensive knowledge of what life
means. We all stand before this lowly scene with
uncovered heads for L'Hermitte has here given
the keynote of the reconstructing power at work
in France and in all the world today. I have
seen strong men, gay society women and heedless
youth stand reverently before the picture and
little ones come near to it as though waiting for
the Saviour to bless them too.
L'Hermitte born in Mont-Saint Pere, a small
hamlet in the Aisne in the north, lived most of his
life in Paris. He started under Lecoq de Bois-
babdran of Cognac near Bordeaux, a man who
was more a chemist than an artist but who knew
how to teach. L'Hermitte did not do much with
his art until nearly forty years of age and then
264 FRENCH PICTURES
his pictures of peasant life at once became pop-
ular. L'Hermitte represents without senti-
mentality strong-, vigorous men and women
going about their work. The settings have the
poetry of the big-out-of-doors enveloped in vi-
brant atmosphere under the glow of the varying
sun where lights and shadows are ever bringing
fresh visions.
Henri Lerolle (1848-) is another artist who
understands the life of the humble. AlthouQ-h
his best known pictures are religious subjects as
'The Arrival of the Shepherds," yet it is in "The
Organ Recital," Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Fig. 182), that we recognize the power of the
man. That solid dividing- rail runninof diaofo-
nally across the picture certainly stimulates our
curiosity in regard to the listening congregation.
We fairly feel the stillness of the vast company
gathered to hear the favourite soloist. The other
members of the choir are perfectly subordinated
to the singer. She is superb in her simplicity.
Not even the dress so monstrous in its abnor-
mality — imagine making ourselves human beings
with a hump! — cannot detract from her charm
and personality.
Again an artist of the period with most decid-
edly original ideas, though not always desirable
ones, was Eugene Carriere (1849- 1907). He
y.
c
<5
M
X
Fig. 183. — A Family Scenr*. Carrier.
Fig. 184.— Tlic Uld t^HiHTyi":^- ^^o\l
AND THEIR PAINTERS 265
was born in Gournay not far from Rouen.
He first studied in Ecole des Beaux Arts under
Cabanel but later came under the influence of
Whistler. Cabanel and Whistler were about as
opposite as two artists could well be and between
the two extremes Carriere landed on the ground
most of the time. He even joked at his own ex-
pense. One day standing- before a domestic scene
of his in Luxembourg, ''Voila!" said he,
"some one has been smoking in the nursery."
When he was thirty years old he painted a
''Nursing Mother" now in the Avignon [Mu-
seum, the popularity of which was his undoing.
One critic said at the time, ''From that time on
his dream was fixed."
Over and over again Carriere pictured these
home scenes with an intimate, sympathetic under-
standing. One wonders, however, if always he
painted while puffing a cigar. Every picture is
so enveloped in a haze of smoke that it takes the
livliest imagination to visualize the subject.
"The Family Scene," Luxembourg (Fig. 183),
is one of Carriere's best pictures. One feels how-
ever, that his pictures are not only a historic re-
cord of his own fireside but of all French firesides.
The devotion of the mother is that of one whose
whole being is absorbed into the life of her grow-
ing offspring. She lives their fleeting emtions
266 FRENCH PICTURES
with an intensity that is using her Hfe blood, little
realizing- how futile is such a sacrifice of strength
to early childhood. It is the problems later in
their lives that will need mother at her very best.
There are always persons coming to the front
with such a sense of just proportion that they
gather to themselves the salient traits of parti-
cular movements and give back to the world pro-
ducts replete with their own originality. Such a
man was Alfred Philippe Roll (1846-). He
was born in Paris and studied under Gerome
and Bonnat. The Barbizon protest had borne
its fruit. Manet and Monet were no longer world
wonders. Impressionism was absorbing, distort-
ing, disgusting and correcting in varying degrees.
It takes a genius with wonderful common sense
to incorporate new ideas and not undermine fun-
damentals which destroy the progress of both old
and new. Roll was a man big enough not only
to give an art commensurate with his talent, but
to profit by the wider vision and not lose his soul.
Just to look into the face of "The Old Quarry-
man" (Fig. 184) convinces one of the artist's un-
derstanding of real life. To one who recognizes
the sturdy independence of the rank and file of
the French nation this man stands as a type. It
is easy to see in him the reason why the stability
of the people depends upon the inhabitant of the
AND THEIR PAINTERS 267
rural districts. This man has worked and saved
ail his life. His strength is that of one who has
his surplus wealth within his own grasp. He
lives and dies going through the routine of his
ancestors and nothing of ordinary affairs moves
him. He has no abstract ideas of patriotism but
when his country is threatened through his home
he fights like a roused tigress. Those eyes are
smouldering embers and that frame is still poten-
tial.
Roll's art is many sided. As an official painter
commemorating special occasions he is unrivalled.
His picture of "July 14/' in the Petit Palace,
Paris, represents the Fourth of July celebration
of the French. A jollier scene scarcely could be
imagined. And at Versailles are his two inter-
pretative paintings setting forth the new spirit
of democracy. One is 'The Commemoration of
the Centennial of 1789," with Carnot surrounded
by public celebrities of the time. The scene is
laid in the marvellous park of Louis XIV. A
dull golden light softens the wanton extravagance
that brought forth such a marvel and intensifies
the determined spirit of independence — the signifi-
cant undertone of the gathered multitude.
In the Museum of Valenciennes is Roll's
"Strike of the Miners" (Fig. 185) painted in
1880. In no picture has the artist shown a
268 FRENCH PICTURES
keener understanding of the individual human ele-
ment in a crowd. The scene is powerfully held
together by the underlying cause of the strike,
yet the impelling forces at work in the separate
groups add interest to the whole. Roll shows
his power in his splendid control of the various
actors in the turbulent scene. He holds us by
his ordered manipulation in composition, in his
understanding use of light and shade and the at-
mospheric vitality which permeates the gathering
multitude to the very last straggler on the out-
skirts.
Roll was influenced by the impressionists but
he had the rare good sense to select the best —
that is what all reformers are trying to do but
not always wisely — and at the same time he held
on to the fundamentals governing art since its be-
ginning.
Another man who came under the spell of
the new movement was Paul Albert Besnard
( 1 849-). In fact Besnard was one of the found-
ers of "The New Salon" — a centre that shook the
Academy to its very foundations and its influence
was felt in all western art. Those who came to
the New Salon to laugh at the exhibition — and
there was much to be laughed at — departed to
think, to read, to readjust and to realize that
academic art was in a rut and needed prodding.
Fig. 186.— Decoration (detail). Jit-.-^nanl.
Paris.
liicolc dc I'haniiacie,
AND THEIR PAINTERS 269
No man of the New Salon was so thoroughly
new without being extreme as Besnard. He
was a wonderful colourist and knew perfectly
the effect of light.
Besnard was born in Paris and first studied
under Cabanel. He spent three years in England
after his return from study in Rome under the
Prix de Rome sanction. His first order after his
return to Paris was the decoration of the vestibule
of the School of Pharmacy. This was the begin-
ning of decorating public buildings, the Hotel de
Ville, the Sorbonne, Theatre Francois, etc. Even
in "A Detail," from the Ecole de Pharmacie,
Paris (Fig. 186), we get the artist's decorative in-
stinct. The substantial vertical lines, the build-
ings, trees and figures form a groundwork for
the daintily decorative vines, scrolls, shadows and
flapping clothes as they assert themselves in the
scene ; and the little child in the foreground forms
the key note with her curving body repeated by
the trees on the hill top and her tiny outstretched
arms paralleling the numberless roof-combs and
brow of the hill marking the horizon line. The
lovely colour and joyous light seem to give special
efficacy to the health bestowing institution.
"The Reapers," Toulouse (Fig. 187), is exceed-
ingly attractive in its rhythmic movement. The
row of straight birch trees stretched across the
270 FRENCH PICTURES
middle distance is the harp and the swaying fig-
ures the player's fingers sweeping the strings.
The trembling shadows are the notes now high
and shrill, then low and deep toned until the
whole valley resounds with the music of "The
Reapers." When Henri Jean Guillaume Mar-
tin i860-) decorated the Hotel de Ville and
other buildings of his native city, Toulouse, in
none did he show his mastery of mural painting
more than in 'The Reapers." He may well be
classed with Puvis de Chavannes (see page 189)
as a French decorator. His scenes are mostly
idealized landscapes with enough of the human-
work element to bring them close to us without in-
truding the stress of necessity. His colour scheme
is that of a well balanced poem where the cadence
lingers in the memory long after the words are
forgotten.
CHAPTER XXVI
PISSARRO— CEZANNE— GAUGUIN— VAN
GOGH— MATISSE
CAMILLE PISSARRO (1830-1903) was a
man as well as an artist. If there ever was
a time when real men were needed in French Art
it was when the first wave of impressionism swept
over the country. Impressionism took its name
from painted impressions by various artists be-
ginning with the picture Monet exhibited in the
Salon of 1867 which he called 'Tmpressions."
The public liked the word and hence "Impression-
ism" became the name of the movement. Over and
over again the old Salon refused to exhibit the
works of the impressionists until finally the em-
peror, Napoleon HI, in 1863, gave them a sep-
arate hall, called Salle des Refuses, and there
Manet, Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Pissarro and
others exhibited undisturbed.
When Pissarro came to the front, although he
was older even than Manet, the new movement
was besfinninc: to take root. Pissarro himself
271
272 FRENCH PICTURES
went a step further in the use of pigments and
instead of placing the prism notes in lines side by
side as Monet advocated he used tiny points of
pigment. This method gave a uniform sense of
colour with the canvas nearer the eyes, and be-
came known as Pointillism or Neo-Impression-
ism. This really illustrates most forcefully the
real import of impressionism. To paint things
as they impress the beholder through the
medium of light and air is no doubt the funda-
mental principle of true art, yet certainly light
and air played strange pranks with some of the
followers of the new movement. Surely liberty
is license when the canvas is a blur of pigments
unless a volume of fifteen or more feet of air is
interposed between the beholder and the would-be
picture.
Now look at the ''Great Bridge at Rouen," Car-
negie Institute of Art, Pittsburgh (Fig. i88), as
Pissarro shows it to us. The longer we study
the picture the more the artist's wonderful under-
standing of the effect of light and air impresses
us. Keyed in a high colour note the effect of the
whole is tremendously picturesque and his em-
phasis of certain details is just enough to make us-
feel the intimate quality of that particular bridge.
Flow amusingly effective are those columns of
smoke and steam sturdily ascending into a sky
^::-
j4-.
Fic;. 189. — La Petite Bonne de Camiwigne. Pissarro.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 273
without a cloud. Somehow we feel that the man
Pissarro is watching our enjoyment of the scene
as he sits in one of those boats in the foreground.
Pissarro was born in St. Thomas, Danish
West Indies. He w^as educated in Paris but his
father, a merchant, insisted that he return to
office work in St. Thomas. When twenty-two
he ran off with a Danish painter who was passing
through St. Thomas on his way to study the
flora of Venezuela. The next step in his art
career was his return to Paris where he came
under the influence of Corot and Courbet. Not
until 1866 did he really know the leaders of the
impressionistic movement. Until 1871 Pissarro
lived at Louveciennes, a town on the direct line
of Prussian advance, then he left for London.
His house was occupied by the Prussians where
the destruction of his paintings became the
special delight of the staff. Fine amusement
indeed !
Pissarro delighted in painting domestic scenes
from humble life. He never erred in giving
just the point of view to awaken sympathetic
interest. In this picture "La Petit Bonne de
Campagne" (Fig. 189) nothing could be more
charming than the wee glimpse of the dining
room. The whole room could not thrill us more.
The arrangement is simplicity itself. The pro-
274 FRENCH PICTURES
cess of elimination is so perfect that every re-
maining detail is an absolute necessity to com-
plete the picture. If it tells a story the story is
so much a part of the daily life that it scarcely
claims a thought. The fascination of the child,
of the cup and saucer and flat jug on the table,
of the peep into the room beyond and the luscious
colour and the palpitating atmosphere is so great
that we feel the grasp of the living presence in
it all
Pissarro was very closely associated with the
artists of his time. His big wholesome manhood
drew people to him but he always remained him-
self. As late as 1881 he said in protest,
"They are all throwing Millet at my head.
But Millet was biblical! It is curious but for
a Hebrew I don't seem to have much of that
quality in me."
Pissarro was a teacher of many of the men
who marked the next step in the art upheaval of
the nineteenth century and extending into the
twentieth century. I say upheaval advisedly for
much of the spirit of change that was — no, is yet
— abroad has the destructive quality of a bomb
thrown into a quietly working factory of long
standing. Of course earthquakes, fires, wars,
tornadoes etc. sweep off much worthless trash
which is fine but they also shake foundations
AND THEIR PAINTERS 275
and then must come steady minded, sane men and
women to repair the substructure. Pissarro
was sane in building his art on a firm base and
savouring it always with his own personality.
The men who worked with him and under him
could not fail to be a little stronger though some
of them erred greatly when out from under the
restraint of his cool judgment.
Possibly none of the seeking spirits who
studied under Pissarro was more individual than
Paul Cezanne (1839- 1906). He was forty
years growing up — a time, says he, filled with
''literature and kziness." During this time of
early growing and later with Pissarro he was
taking into and making part of himself elements
of the impressionistic movement, and at the same
time he was revelling in the company of the old
masters in the Louvre, in Holland and in Belgium.
Thus Cezanne's equipment for experimental work
in painting was far beyond the ordinary radical
who was simply breaking away from restraint.
The insurgents, trying to throw ofT the thralldom
of Academic rule, were legion after Manet fought
his fi2:ht, but few indeed were the men well
grounded in fundamental principles. Yet when
such a man as Cezanne, obsessed with the search
for truth, not change, grounded on firm, unalter-
able principles, strikes out on a new hne some-
276 FRENCH PICTURES
thing worth while is attained. The pity is that
the lay public should ever be permitted to witness
the intermediate steps. We all know that
Pelissy's neighbours, or his wife, care not one
whit for his dream-like glaze; all they saw was
the destruction of property and the crazy actions
of one demented.
The public did take intelligent notice, however,
when Cezanne gave it such a still life as "Pommes
sur une Table" (Fig. 190). Rich in colour,
treated in three dimensions bathed in a light
sensitive to the least variation of surrounding
illumination the picture palpitates with life. One
feels the truth of the artist's statement,"Penetrate
what is before you, and persevere in expressing
yourself logically."
From the very beginning of his art career still-
life was Cezanne's joy. He would spend years
perfecting a study of flowers and fruit. We
have his own verdict on a canvas of roses painted
from paper models after three years of work.
He says, in writing to the patron who commis-
sioned the work.
'T find that I must postpone the shipment of
your canvas — I shall delay for another year the
completion of this study. I am not satisfied with
the result so far obtained "
Cezanne was born in Aux-en-Provence and to
I-' Hi. 190. — Poinmcs sur um- 'I'ablc. Cezanne.
^.
'' is
Fig. 191. — Tahiti. Gauguin. Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum,
Brooklyn, N." Y.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 277
that southern country he returned when the
ridicule of the pubHc, the acrid criticism of his
enemies and the cruel admonitions of his friends
cut too deep to be longer endured. And in that
country he died. The worth of Cezanne's experi-
ments and the estimate of his art is still in the
process of valuation.
At varying intervals of time the creative gen-
iuses of the world turn their faces backward to
primitive art. They wish to leap over all inter-
vening epochs and make their beginnings in the
same state of mind of the primitive himself. And
each time the seekers in the quest positively be-
lieve the thing can be done; and each time it fails
so far as we can judge. To become a primitive
after the mind has developed under the influence
of inherited knowledge of the ages is no more
possible than forcing one's adult body into baby-
clothes is possible. And when Paul Gauguii?
(1848- 1 890) and Vincent Van Gogh (185 3- 1890)
assayed to return in mental attitude to the state
of mind of the primitive savage the result was
childish — not childlike.
Gauguin first studied under Pissarro. He
readily absorbed the most radical ideas of the
new movement and quickly broke away from
them to follow his own ideals — ideals that found
no favour with art lovers. He became dissatis-
278 FRENCH PICTURES
fied with the restraints of civilization and sought
reHef in the South Seas. There among the sav-
ages abandoning civiHzed restraints, he gave free
bent to his visions on canvas. He found these
barbaric visions, however, on his return home
were unacceptable to France. Later he again
went to the islands where finally he died among
the savage kindred spirits. His works were
often called "fauves" (wild beasts) which may
have given rise to the term "Fauvists" for rev-
olutionists. He was wont to say to his objectors,
"Your civilization is your disease, my barbarism
is my restoration to health."
No one will deny that Gauguin's intense feeling
for colour and his savage delight in creating
pictures pulsating with the hot brilliancy of a
tropic country gave a new note to decorative art.
Naturally the French public could not accept his
pictures so barbarous in import. Nevertheless
his colour note of riotous joy, his great power in
using colour, line and tone in giving simple visions
bore fruit later in the works of saner men.
One can easily understand in "Tahiti,"
exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum, (Fig. 191)
his wonderful grasp of the decorative element.
Even in black and white the pattern, the repeated
curves and the flat plane make an interesting
picture and when to these elements are added
Bm
•- ti
X
Fig. 193— Old Shoes. Van Gogh.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 279
the luscious colour of his fat palette one can feel
the effect such a decoration would produce on the
walls of a long hall.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) was born in
Brabant, Holland, but all his art life was French
if anything Van Gogh did could have any nation-
aHty. His life was a series of physical and
mental upheavals and consequently much that
he painted was without rhyme or reason. Gau-
guin said of him, ''Van Gogh will never be
contented until he has painted the sun!" which
remark gives mildly in a nutshell the preposterous
cravings of his distorted nature.
Van Gogh was the son of a clergyman and had
a good education. His first venture in business
with an art dealer gave him the advantage of
travel and a wide knowledge of art. Strangely
enough this business opportunity and others of
like nature developed in him a queer mysticism
that turned him to the study of theology ; and then
to preach among the miners. His health soon
broke under the misguided enthusiasm of self-
forgetfulness in his self imposed sacrifices to his
work. After this episode, for each step in his
career was an episode, he began his erratic career
as a painter. Most of his paintings were pro-
duced in the two years between 1887 and 1889
when he lived at Aries in the south of France.
28o FRENCH PICTURES
Gauguin spent several months with him but his
life was in constant danger from Van Gogh's
uncertain temper when he would often insanely
attack him. Gauguin says that at night he would
awaken with a start to find Van Gogh stealing
across the room with a knife. In spite of these
ravings he would paint furiously as many as four
pictures a week — but were they pictures? these
canvases grinning at one with the distorted fan-
cies of a distorted brain?
What is to be the verdict of time and an in-
formed public as to the artistic merit of "Corn
Shocks" (Fig. 192)? It surely gleams with the
colour of a sun-struck brain; and sways and
lurches under the passion of a storm tossed vision.
"Old Shoes" (Fig. 193) is another freak of his
brush for posterity to quarrel over unless the
shoes go to pieces from sheer disintegration.
Those shoes might typify the wear and tear of his
poor brain under the terrible visions beating a
constant tattoo upon it. Van Gogh's end could
scarcely have come otherwise than by suicide.
Henri Matisse (1869-) can scarcely be
classed a futurist, his painting of three nudes
breaks their dictum that the nude must be aban-
doned. Although he was once a revolutionist yet
one could hardly call his works fauvist. As an
eclectic, however, his work is more an evolution
Fig. 194. — Baigneuses. Matisse.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 281
in which he passes through various phases never
losing a certain originality but ever intimating
that *'He has walked through my chapel!" as
Michael Angelo said of Raphael on seeing the
latter's sibyls.
Matisse was born in Cateau, north of Paris,
the ancient city noted for many high lights in the
history of Europe especially the treaty in 1559
between France, Spain and England when France
retained Calais ; later France and Spain returned
most of their acquired possessions. Matisse was
a pupil of the Ecole des Beaux Arts and for years
worked in the Louvre making copies for the
government. It was after this laborious prepa-
ration that, in an article for the Revue des Arts,
he said, "That which I pursue above all else is
expression. I condense the signification of the
body by looking for the essential Hues. . . T
dream of an art of equilibrium, of purity, of tran-
quility."
Sometimes his expressions are in pure form
as in this ''Baigneuses" (Fig. 194), where three
nude figures on the sand express his feeling of
muscular stress in certain attitudes. The stoop-
ing one playing with a turtle is universal in its
appeal. Sometimes the form and colour are
doubtless foreign to our preconceived notions yet
they both make us think.
282 FRENCH PICTURES
We look and wonder at his "Le Chapeatt de
Cuir" (Fig. 195). We turn away and again turn
and look. The ''essential lines" are there and no
one could mistake the physical or mental makeup
of that young woman.
Matisse's home at Issy-les-Moulineaux is
simply one of many even to the personal element
of interior, in kind and arrangement of belongings
— probably the feminine behind the throne was the
regulating power here. It is well for us to heed
the great teacher's mandate in passing on the
merits and demerits of these seekers after the
truth. Judge not, if ye are not willing to be
judged, the more natural rendering. Only a
future judgment of the movement can approx-
imate its value. We do know, however, the
imitators of these men are making a terrible
mess of the movement.
Fig. 195. — Ix? Chapoau dc C'uir. Matisso. Courtesy
of Bornhcim-.Jcune.
CHAPTER XXVII
BASTIEN-LEPAGE— RAFFAELLI— DAG-
NAN-BOUVERET— FOI^IN
JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE (1848-18S5)
used to say, when people asked how he
painted : *T have no fixed rules and no particular
method. I paint things just as I see them, some-
times in one fashion, sometimes in another, and
afterwards I hear people say that they are like
Rembrant or like Clouet." It is very strange
how we always insist on pigeon-holing persons of
genius — as possible a feat as making a plow horse
out of Pegasus. Bastien, the artist assumed his
mother's name, Lepage, began his career just as
the new isms in art were clamouring the loudest.
The usually normal pendulum was swinging with
such violence in its dark chamber that it banged
first one side then the other not knowing how to
regulate itself. Young artists were being caught
in this violent swing. Many were thrown off
but some steadied themselves and grew calm
under the stress. Among the latter was Basticn-
Lepage. He with clear sighted judgment laid
383
284 FRENCH PICTURES
his foundation under severe Academic training.
Then he began to reaHze the joy of his own im-
pressions of nature and was able to give in a
simple natural way without any forced methods
and crude colour such a picture as 'The Wood
Gatherer," Layton Art Gallery, Milwaukee (Fig.
196). It is just an ordinary incident in the life
of the old wood gatherer and his little grand-
daughter. Yet out of that every day scene
Bastien has frankly grasped the essential ele-
ments and given us a bit of real life perfectly
charming in its simplicity.
Bastien-Lepage was big enough to defy the
Academicians in Paris and paint a scene as he
saw it even if it was a wood pile in his own back
yard. Of course he was rebuffed again and
again in contending for the Prix de Rome. His
defeats, however, were spurs to further original
work until finally success came, alas! only as he
laid down his brush at thirty-seven.
One of the best loved pictures in the Metro-
politan Museum of Art is Bastien-Lepage's
''Jeanne d'Arc" (Fig. 197), and without ques-
tion it is the best known picture of the French
peasant girl who dreamed dreams and saw
visions. Bastien paints Jeanne with wide open
eyes seeing spiritual visions and hearing celestial
voices. If she seems too old for thirteen years
Fig. 196. — The Wood Gatherers. Ba-stieii-Lcpago.
Courtesy of the Layton Art Galler\', Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.
Fig. 197.— Jeanne d'Arc. Bastien-Lepage. Courtesy of the
Metropohtan Museum of Art, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 285
we must bear in mind the great mission tlic
voices laid upon the young shoulders and the
opposition she met on all sides. The head officer
to whom she applied for troops cried,
"She is crazy; box her ears and take her to her
father." But Jeanne insisted, exclaiming,
"I will go if I have to wear my legs down to
my knees."
The dramatic scenes that followed each other
so rapidly in the history of France and England
until Charles VII was crowned king of France
at Rheims in 1429 are full of legend and facts.
But we do know that had Jeanne been allowed to
go back to her sheep fold and spinning both coun-
tries would have been spared one of the most dis-
graceful events in their whole history. The trial
of Jeanne d'Arc was held under the direction of
the English and conducted by her own country-
man, Bishop Beauvais. As we look at this pic-
ture of her we say with real sorrow,
'Toor girl ! the very stones of France must cry
out at the injustice of your cruel death."
Bastien was often called the peasant realist of
modern France. His realism, however, has the
quality of nature herself as seen through the en-
veloping atmosphere when we feel the beauty of
the trees and the sunset without wishing to ex-
amine into the whys and wherefores. Possibly
286 FRENCH PICTURES
St. Paul saw nature in the same spirit when he
said to the Corinthians, "Now we see through a
glass darkly" (I Cor. 15: 12). Surely a baffling
uncertainty tantalizing and fascinating does
spread over the fields of France when the sun is
overcast and the air heavy with an impalpable
mist. And no one knew better how to catch the
glory of it than Bastien-Lepage. No wonder
his peasant scenes pleased the people.
When the "Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt"
(Fig. 198), was exhibited in the Paris Exhibi-
tion in 1900, the public at once recognized "the
fair idolatress," and her graven image. The
picture painted in 1879 is in soft grey tones.
The cream flesh and red hair and old-ivory white
image against the steel-grey background framed
in a steel-coloured moulding give exquisite pleas-
ure as a fit setting to the brilliant actress.
A strange fulfilment of a wish came with Bas-
tien-Lepage's death. His desire had been that
his final work should be of his beloved France's
deified heroine. Ten days before he died a clay
image of "Jeanne d'Arc listening to the Voices"
was set up in a brick-yard seen from his bed
room window. In summing up the movement of
the time one critic says, "Manet sowed, M. Bas-
tien-Lepage has reaped."
It was my good fortune to see the first
Fig. 198. — Portrait of Sarali Bernhardt. lia.stieii-Ix'page.
Coptjrt'jhl. i'lt.niyir hif.(iht(
t'iG. 199.— lioulevanl des Italiens. JiulTaelli. Cuurtc!sy
of the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgli.
Fir.. 200.— Place St. Germain des Pr^s, Paris. PafTaelli. Courtesy
of the Metropohtan Museum of Art, New York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 287
exhibition of Jean Frangois Raflaclli's (1850- )
paintings shown in New York City nearly a
score of years ago. My impression was that of a
world decked in white — and a wonderful world
it was too. White was the prevailing tone, white
against white, white superimposed upon white.
Over and over again Raffaelli paints Paris and
the very life and spirit of his beloved Parisians
are in his brush. We feel that he must be sitting
at one of the tables sketching the crowd hurrying
along the "Boulevard des Italiens, Paris," Car-
negie Institute, Pittsburgh (Fig. 199). Look at
the young woman who is in haste to go some-
where yet I doubt if she could tell why she is so
eager only that Paris is in her blood. Paris does
get into the blood and Raffaelli knew it. Paris
is in the man with the dog, in the waiter with
the napkin over his arm, in the man selling
papers, in the woman by the sign post and even
the horses are Paris bus horses.
Rafifaelli is indeed a law unto himself in his
manner of painting. So startling were his pic-
tures that artists of Paris whistled softly, began
to examine them and then to admire. They re-
alized that the peculiar sketching in was not done
with charcoal crayons but apparently with an
unknown medium original with Raffaelli which
proved to be solid oil paint crayons. The artists
288 FRENCH PICTURES
at once accepted the crayons recognizing their
value in the light airy quality of the sketch.
From mere sketching crayons Raffaelli elabo-
rated his discovery making a great variety of
crayons covering the various tints on the artist's
palette until it is possible to paint pictures with
these crayons and not use brushes. Of course
this does not do away with the painter's brush
but it does widen the means at his disposal.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a fine
example of Raffaelli's of the "Place St. Germain
des Pres, Paris" (Fig. 200). The Church of St.
Germain belonged to the famous old abbey of the
sixth century and the present nave of the build-
ing dates back to the eleventh century. The
bronze statue in the little square is of Bernard
Pelissy (d. 1589). Again we feel the delicious
pulsing of Paris in the coming and going of the
figures bathed in that glorious sunlight. How
quiet and peaceful the tall spire raises itself above
the little park. And the cool shadows, how ur-
gently they invite us to sit awhile and meditate.
There could scarcely be artists more varied in
style than the men now bordering on three score
and ten years. This is specially true in France
where so many influences were — and are still —
breaking up the old style and starting new ones.
Naturally none could move along the old beaten
AND THEIR PAINTERS 289
path again and no one man could follow the
numerous vagaries in the air. But a new spirit
was born, a spirit of independence. Each
person realized as never before the necessity
of individual delving or his identity was
lost. Naturally men well trained in the
fundamentals of art started without handi-
caps and Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-
Bouveret (1852- ) was of that number. He
studied under Gerome but just failed in the
Prix de Rome. However, after receiving a first
medal in 1878 the public believed he could make
pictures and artists found he could paint. He,
like many other painters of the generation first
went to Brittany for his subjects. The pictur-
esque costumes and customs gave wonderful
material for his pictures. He painted the Brit-
tany Pardon with its various religious functions,
and gives to the ancient rite the solemnity of an
actual incident. His keen eye in selecting com-
positions both interesting and dignified, his accur-
ate drawing and his delicate sense of the appro-
priate colour notes raise his pictures to a high
standard of excellence. Whether the individual
quality of the man is strong enough to endure is
an open question.
We are bound to acknowledge that the concep-
tion of the ''^Madonna of the Rose," Metropolitan
290 FRENCH PICTURES
Museum of Art (Fig. 201), is a most personal
one. The glowing light around the mother is
Correggionesque though the hidden source of
the radiance is Bouveretesque. A tender home
spirit envelops the group even if the scene is in
a rough work-shop with the carpenter's tools on
the bench and wall. Very lovely is the bowl of
roses reflecting the delicate flesh tints of the
precious child in the mother's lap. This picture
speaks to the great heart of humanity. Few pass
it in the gallery ; not that it tells a story or is un-
usual as a picture but it has human warmth.
Not since Daumier (see page 161) has such a
caricaturist arisen as Jean Louis Forain (1852- ).
Just one look at the "Law Courts" (Fig. 202)
convinces one of his power to cut deep in
exploring crooked practices in the name of the
law. Those six sleek, well groomed lawyers,
like glutted animals of prey, are gradually
closing in on their victims leaving no loop hole of
escape. The poor wreck of humanity in the
centre with his innocent dependents has no more
show than a bleating ewe with her bleating
lambs. Forain is a painter. His compositions
unerringly express in their simplest manner the
thought he has in mind. Absolutely the various
groups in the picture intensify the crying need of
justice. The scene enters our very soul and
Fig. 201. — Marlonna of the Roso. DaRiian-liouvorot. Courtesy of
the Mt'trupolitaii Mu.scum of Art, Xew York Citj'.
O
3
O
O
o
6
AND THEIR PAINTERS 291
asserts that we all are our brother's keeper and
that we must see to it that justice is done. It is
just that that Forain has been doing for France
and all humanity. Caricature to him means more
than surface exaggeration of defects — it means
exposing defects of the soul. He, as an illus-
trator, has raised the standard of all other illus-
trators. Not alone law courts have come under
his scalpel but every department of life, high and
low, rich and poor. Wherever the evil one is do-
ing his work. How splendid it would be to have
Forain's pictures on the walls of every house
harbouring evil. He, like Hogarth, is cutting to
the core of the festering sores that are under-
mining our country. If only evil could be
brought to the light it would die, 'Tor every one
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to
the light, lest his deeds be discovered." (John
3:20).
Forain was born in Rheims. What must he
think of his poor, shattered city? Even he with
his keen unhesitating probe, must be appalled at
the dastardly deeds done there.
CHAPTER XXVIII
AMAN-TEAN— BLANCHE— L. SIMON—
MENARD— COTTET— GARRIDO
THERE are always artists in every age
who seem to stand for good common
sense in their art. They paint . because
they love to make pictures of the people
and objects around them. They see life
and feel joy in living and that to them is art.
One of these real geniuses is Edmond Frangois
Aman-Jean (i860- ) who paints because he loves
to paint.
Aman-Jean was born in Chevey-Cossigny, a
little village at the juncture of the IMarne with
the Seine, about three miles from Paris. Possi-
bly this nearness to the great art centre while still
living surrounded by the big out-of-doors may
have made him sensitive to a wider range in the
field of art. His power to eliminate from nature
scenes everything but the decorative principle has
gVen special significance to his mural decor-
ations. In "Les Elements," a mural panel for
the New Sorbonne, Paris (Fig. 203), his
292
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/^JBp^J*
^
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J
Fig. 204.— The Artist's Daughter. Aman-Jean.
Copi/right Carncu'C luHtilutc.
Fig. 205. — Portrait of Duchess of Ruthind.
Blanche. Courtesy of the Carnegie Insti-
tute, Pittsburgh, Pa.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 293
swing of line and harmony of design have
brought together most forcefully elemental
and acquired attributes. The tremendous de-
structive power swaying the trees and sweeping
over the earth and water beyond is wonderfully
controlled by the idyllic scene in the foreground.
Seemingly there are two distinct themes in the
picture, force and peace. Yet very delightfully
the artist has made each subservient to the other.
The hustle and bustle of the wind and water trail
into lovely garlands, a quiet pool and an abun-
dant harvest where man is the controlling power.
Aman-Jean has absorbed much from Japanese
art which is seen in his flat flower and plant back-
ground and in his simple delicate touch in colour
and line; and also, now and then, he reveals a
Whistler note but this gathering from others
never interferes one whit with his own original
serious-minded art.
As a portrait painter Aman-Jean reveals the
origin of the word portraire, to draw forth. He
does more than make a surface likeness, yes,
and more even than a psychological study for
around his pictures of people hover the warmth
of the individual. He uses an ingenious method
in drawing that seems to extend beyond the out-
line without visibly doing so. In the ''Artist's
Daughter" (Fig. 204), we feel the warmth of
294 FRENCH PICTURES
personality radiating from the contour of the
child. An impalpable distinction surromids her
without making her different from other children.
Jacques Emile Blanche (1862- ) has never
made anything finer than the "Portrait of
Her Grace the Duchess of Rutland," Carnegie
Institute, Pittsburgh (Fig. 205). We frankly
admit thait the artist could scarcely have chosen
a subject around whom gathers a more fascinat-
ing history than that of the Duchess of Rut-
land. Ever since the days of the romance of the
fair Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall when she
eloped with Sir John Manners, son of the Earl of
Rutland, in the sixteenth century, until today a
living interest remains for every Duchess of Rut-
land. The baronial mansion of Haddon Hall is
one of the finest examples of mediaeval architec-
ture in England. Many tourists visit it, espe-
cially Americans, for we remember with gratitude
that it was Sir John Manners, fourth Duke of
Rutland, who protested, in 1775, against the tax-
ation of the American colonies. He inherited
Haddon Hall from his grandfather in 1779.
It is strange how Lucien Simon (1861- )
reached the very heart of the peasant — though he
was born in Paris. He does not picture so much
of the work-a-day world as he does the religious
ceremonies and holiday pastimes. His peasants
Fig. 206. — The Comniunicauts. Simoi
AND THEIR PAINTERS 295
have more joy in their Hves than Alillet's had.
He seems to penetrate through the bread-and-
butter stage and reveal the essence in them that
made it possible to produce such men as Millet.
When we look at such a picture as "The Com-
municants," exhibited in the Panama Pacific Ex-
position (Fig. 206), we are conscious that the
same spirit of devotion that guided Millet's
grandmother is here expressed. Those kneeling
figures represent in the simplest terms the true
spirit of worship. The expression of purity in
the soft white is a fit accessory to the earnest
faces of the devout company.
The group of "Portraits," Pennsylvania ^lu-
seum, Philadelphia (Fig. 207), is particularily in-
teresting in its commonplaceness. A word des-
cription of a group of six persons facing directly
front almost in a straight line is far from pleas-
ing yet Simon has vitalized the group until each
member claims attention. We are first held by
the grandmother and grandson for in those two
is centred the great heart throb of the picture —
the others are simply minor accessories.
We feel that Simon's figure pieces, whether a
collection of portraits or a scene of some incident,
have the attributes of real occurrences with cer-
tain idealized elements of the artist's own person-
ality. His own words, telling his methods of
296 FRENCH PICTURES
work, are most illuminating. He says : ''I make
a chance entry, and upon the first impression I
make a rapid sketch in my note book of the large
masses of the composition and the next day in the
studio I execute the picture from memory."
While we recognize the influence of the 1830
men in Emile-Rene Menard's (i860-) work
and also realize that Bastien-Lepage came into
his life, yet Menard is himself the compelling note.
A room full of his paintings gives a sense of am-
pleness whether the scene be the abundance of
summer or the pent up strength of winter. The
artist, perceiving nature's great reservoir of
supply, paints her with a spirit of abandon that is
particularly joyous. Just to look through the
depth of those trees in "Woodland Nymphs,"
Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia (Fig. 208),
is exhilarating. His mirroring of them in the
tiny lake is specially fine in its reserved emphasis,
Very charming is the shy boldness of the bushy
branch leaning into the picture 'at the left and
seemingly caught in the act by the water belo.w.
The bold outline of the flat top trees against the
radiant sky marks one of the strong character-
istics of Menard's manner. He handles trees
with a surety that gives confidence in his knowl-
edge of them. His trees grow out of the earth
and rightfully demand air and sunshine. The
Fig. 208. — Wood Nymphs. Mi'imrd.
c3
3
3
c3
"5
03
C
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o
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o
AND THEIR TAINTERS 297
classic spirit of nymphs and water sprites which
pervades many of his landscapes inspires whole-
some thoughts and a longing for a simpler living.
Charles Cottet (1863- ) is another man
who knows the life of the people he paints. His
Breton men and women give historic accounts
of tragedies. Not often does the artist portray
actual scenes of disaster but the story is told in
the faces and figures of those whose lives are
linked with the toilers of the sea. Even in the
boats of the "Marine," Pennsylvania Museum,
Philadelphia (Fig. 209), a tragic element lurks in
the trim sails and stolidly built crafts without
detracting, however, from the gaiety of a well
equipped fleet ready for action — an action that
makes for industry and contentment. Cottet is
specially fine in preserving the French orderliness
of character — a prominent trait in daily life of
the people. The sturdy, well ordered preparation
for each enterprise is the essential element in the
French nation that is building the new France
today, and the artists of the people are helpful
in emphasizing that quality.
Leandro Garrido (1869-1909) was born in
Bayonne of Spanish and English parents. This
strange Spanish-English-French mixture gave
the boy a wonderful artistic personality which
no ill health or adverse environment could obliter-
298 FRENCH PICTURES
ate. He lived in England much of his early boy-
hood, then came to his beloved France and studied
at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and in 1906 was
elected to the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts.
Most of his painting was done in Paris and France
claimed him. His landscapes show his devotion
to his adopted country.
Garrido was at his best in general subjects.
It mattered little what subject he chose. "The
Fish Wife" (Fig. 210) is rich and whole-
some in its life problems. It is not surprising
that he was known as "Le rieur Garrido" because
he loved smiling faces. And why should not this
fish wife smile? The children love her. Clean-
ing fish meant a delicious meal and a far more in-
teresting pastime than eternal tatting, at least
more interesting to us. That wrinkled face has
the quality of the "Old Woman Cutting her
Nails." She has lived and grown. She draws
us to her because her philosophy of life holds
good forever.
Garrido died in Gasse in 1909. He felt that
he had only begun his life when the call came for
him to lay it down. France had honoured him
while alive and after his death a special exhibition
of his paintings was accorded him in one of the
Salons.
I'lii. 210. — The Fish-wife, (iarrido
CHAPTER XXIX
C.-DEVAILLE— DUFAU— OBERTEUFFER—
A. LAURENS— B. BOUTET DE
MONVEE— MARCHAIX—
MONTEZIN
T F there is any one thing that guarantees pro-
gress it is W O R K — spelled in capital letters.
And when a young man or woman puts heart and
soul into reaching a definite point, no matter how
hard the work, something of value comes out of
the effort. These remarks lead directly to Henri
Caro-Devaille (1876- ), a young French artist,
who at twenty-one shut himself absolutely away
from everybody and everything and for four
years worked ten and twelve hours daily to perfect
himself in his chosen life work. But in reaching
the point where he could follow what he knew was
his right was not easy, for his father insisted on
business as his life work. At seventeen, a college
man, he entered his father's bank. Two unhappy
years followed, then he went into the army when
fate — man's intelligence or stupidity — decided.
through an injured leg, that army life was not his
calling and that painting was.
299
300 FRENCH PICTURES
Just one look at "Ma Femme et ma Petite Fille"
(Fig. 21 1 ) is proof that the young man was right
in choosing art for a career. Is it as decoration
or a portrait group that the charm of this picture
is the greatest ? The rhythm of the design sings
in every Hne o'f the composition. The swing and
balance of the two figures is that of the swaying
tree and undulating landscape beyond. Caro-
Devaille learned his sanity in decorative quality
from the simple methods of men of old. His
paintings, whether mural or easel, are never lack-
ing in decorative quality though the former natu-
rally is a specialized product.
As late as 1917 the artist himself explains
the requisites in mural painting. He writes:
"Fresco requires not an imitation of reality, but
its transcription in more intelligible terms. It
must be one wit«h the room ; it must neither bore
into the wall deeper than the deepest shadows, nor
be more brilliant than its most brightly lighted
regions. In a word it must be flat."
Mademoiselle Helene Clementine Dufau's
mastery of first principles in painting qualifies
her for equally good work in mural painting and
portraiture. When she was asked to paint panels
for the science department of the Sorbonne, Paris,
her conception of primal forces at once placed her
among the growing artists of today. The sub-
Fig. 211. — Ma Femme et Ma Petite P'ille. Caro-Devaille.
T3
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^.'-J
-lii a
o
AND THEIR PAINTERS 301
jects of gravitation, electro-magnetism, geology
and zoology took on new meanings in their rela-
tionship to man as expressed in mural i)ainting.
Her portrayal shows bigness of conception beyond
the mere material import.
Mile. Dufau is a native of Quinsac, a village
near Bordeaux. Early in her art career she went
to Paris and entered the Academic Julien. There
she was under the training of Bouguereau and
Robert-Fleury, men who taught fundamentals.
On this foundation she is building an art peculiar
to herself. Like Rosa Bonheur, Mile. Dufau has
had the honour of being decorated with the Legion
of Honour by the French government — the second
woman in France.
As early as 1901 she began experimental out-of-
doors painting of the nude in which she de-
veloped an original and penetrating view point.
Her sensitive perception of the quality of light
on living flesh and her skill in catching in paint
the varying reflections has given her jMCtures of
che nude a high standard of excellence.
After Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) built his
villa near Cambo, in the foothills of the Pyrenees,
several French artists were requested to decorate
the walls and among these artists was Mile.
Dufau. In this mural work her exquisite treat-
ment of flesh is lovely in its decorative quality.
302 FRENCH PICTURES
On the stairway are her three oval panels, very
pleasing in space filling and subjects. The exqui-
site colour notes of flesh and the feathery whites
and gay tones in the ''Parrots" (Fig. 212)
are exceedingly gratifying. Rhythm and sim-
plicity, in the "Peacocks" (Fig. 213), give the
impression that the niche was made to fit the
picture. Ease, comfort and content stamp each
curve and line, and the luscious colour notes sing
in perfect harmony. In Mile. Duf au's own words
we learn the secret of her success as an artist.
She says: "An artist's work is only the expres-
sion of his personality and his life. I put into
my pictures what I observe, my thoughts, my
reading."
Mile. Duf au during her recent visit to America,
painted a number of portraits of people more or
less in the public eye. Her portrait of "Mile.
Libert," exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum (Fig.
114), we regret to say was too hastily done to be
entirely satisfactory. It is a daring study in red
and shows a marked understanding of the person-
ality of her sitter. Mile. Libert is the daughter
of M. Gaston E. Libert, the French Consul
General to America.
When Henrietta Amiard Oberteuffer exhibited
a collection of her paintings in the Arlington
Gallery, New York City, in 1921, American artists
Fig. 214.— Mdlle. Libert. Mdllo. Diifau.
Fig. 215.— Till" Children. ( )l)erteuffer. Courtesy ol' tlie
Arlington Gallery, New York City.
Fig. 210.— The Concert. Paul Laurens. Courtesy of the
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N. Y.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 303
commended and the public was enthusiastic.
Well might these two judges recognize this genius
fof she is one of the French painters to be remem-
bered. Her work has the substantial elements
of well trained preparation and on these she has
built an art peculiar to herself. Each picture
showed the individuality of the artist in its treat-
ment and subject without the least touch of
mannerism. In fact her approach to each is like
that of a friend meeting her friends. Each one
calls out a certain personality and only that
personahty could respond to that particular friend
or picture.
The earnestness of the little girls in the painting
of "The Children," Arlington Gallery (Fig. 215),
is delicious in its genuineness. They are entirely
unconscious of an audience. Who but a genius
would have dared dress one of the children in
black yet how perfectly and radiantly the black
note dominates and distinguishes the picture.
Mme. Obertauffer was born in Havre sometime
in the eighties of the nineteenth century. She
went to Paris and studied under Jean Paul
Laurens and Benjamin Constant, two men from
whom she could draw a strong keynote around
which to build a growing art. Willi such a
foundation she could enter the arena of all kinds
of isms and daintily take her way gathering and
304 FRENCH PICTURES
rejecting, always judging Avith a critical under-
standing what would serve her best in her art.
It is thus she stands side by side with the progres-
sive, never accepting without proving each step as
she advances.
P. Albert Laurens is the son of the artist Jean
Paul Laurens (see page 226). That the younger
man is striving to keep bright the honour of his
father's profession Is evident in "The Concert,"
Brooklyn Museum (Fig. 216). The rhythm and
swing of the composition is nicely balanced in the
well filled space. Design and colour vie with each
other in carrying the interest from point to point
yet centring it in the music. The concert may
be a burlesque but the picture has a decorative
quality that sings with the music. M. Laurens
is one of the well trained artists with an inherited
artistic ability, who must give us an art commen-
surate with the needs of France. It must be
something pure and joy-giving with enough of
the progressive to grow and enough sanity to keep
sane.
It is always an awkward position to be the
child of famous parents especially if one wants
to shine oneself. It is like living up to the repu-
tation father gives one when beginning work
with father's special friends. This is just the
position of Bernard Boutet de Monvel (1881- ).
Y.
Fig. 218. — Evening in Brittany. Marchain. Courtesy of the Brook
lyn Museum, Brooklyn, N. Y.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 305
From the very beginning of his art career this
favxtured son of Maurice Boutet dc AFonvci (see
page 257) was accepted by critic and layman. In
fact so enthusiastic were art lovers over the
coloured etchings that they were gathered up
almost from the etching needle until today, when
the artist is scarcely forty years old, they are
rare and looked upon as art treasures. How-
ever, it is wise to pause and take breath — wise
for both artist and public — too much popularity
is confusing to producer and purchaser.
"The Blue Cart," Brooklyn Museum (Fig.
217), is scarcely more than a poster and un-
fortunately does not represent M. de Monvel at
his best. It does have a wholesome spirit of
comradery oozing out from "buddy" and his
horse that awakens kindliness toward all. There
is fitness in the cart and horse and boy in that low-
lying land. The clouds, too, move in harmony
and the sky, gleefully blue, is not to be outdone'
by paint. Travel on boy! you and M. de ^Nlonvel
together will work the better for your inspiration.
''Eveningin Brittany," Brooklyn Museum (Fig.
218), is a picture that carries conviction in every
line. Paul ]\Iarchain knew the low-lying coast of
this inlet. He has seen the tiny row boats adrift
and has watched the breeze fill the sails as the
flying clouds scud away. Pie knew the water
3o6 FRENCH PICTURES
would give no heed to surface ripples and the
homes were safe. But oh, the tragedy those boats
hold! The mother knows it and the father,
though he yearns for the sea, lingers. The
colour, rich in its primal notes, carries the hopes
and fears of the Briton.
Brittany is the home of the thinking artist.
Here he finds land and sky and sea set ready for
the brush. He feels the pulsing of primeval
forces and gains strength and confidence as he
searches out causes. The sun in Brittany has no
note of finality and Marchain with his strong
sense of line and colour and composition grasps
this natural phenomenon — every sunset requires
scientific explanation — as unusual and worthy of
big thought.
Marchain was born at Rochefort-sur-Mer, a
maritime city north of Bordeaux. Over and over
again he paints the sea and always with the
vigorous emphasis of one who recognized ele-
mental forces. Strong and fearless Marchain
stands as one of the modern old masters in French
art.
One of the very strong, sane leaders of French
art today is Pierre Montezin. He was born in
Paris, in 1874, and before the century closed be-
gan to be recognized as a man to be reckoned with
in the art world. His subjects are mostly quiet
l"n;. 219. — Autumn. Montezin. Courtesy of Mr. James K. Frazfr,
Xcw York City.
AND THEIR PAINTERS 307
unobtrusive country scenes where he not only
grasps the colour principles of nature's own work-
shop but reveals something of her processes
of growth and decay. An unerring judgment
holds him to elementals but with a sympathetic
tenderness that appeals at once to the public.
Two splendid examples of his work have found
permanent homes in America. Through the kind-
ness of Mr. James K. Eraser, New York City,
the owner of "Autumn" (Eig. 219), we may enjoy
in half tone a little of the glory of the original
painting. Those swaying saplings at the water's
edge shine like pure gold under the sun's good
night caress. What at first seems confusion in
the composition after a moment's quiet contem-
plation becomes a wonderfully worked design.
Analysing the scene a little, look at the shore line,
was ever anything more rhythmic! and the tall
trunk of the second growth trees shaking loose
their brilliantly dyed leaves, could any song be
more limpid! the filmy atmosphere tantalizingly
revealing and concealing each object, could any
oriental pattern be more mysterious! and the be-
witching colour, surely Montezin has at last dis-
covered the secret of old stained glass !
The very young artists in Erance today —
"legion" is their name — ^are facing a new era.
Not all, no, not a fraction of them will be worthy
3o8 FRENCH PICTURES
of the glorious past, yet each artist has the pos-
sibility of big things and big things are bound to
come. Eternal youth and the true spirit of
French art will build again the France we love
and honour — God bless her.
INDEX
Aman-Jean, Edmond Francois,
292-294
Angelo, Michael, 128, 219, 221,
281
Barry, (?), 46
Bastien-Lepagc, Jules, 180, 202,
283-286
Baudry, Paul Jacques Amie,
219-222
Besnard, Paul Albert, 262, 268-
269
Bida, Alexander, 104, 111-112
Blanche, Jacques Emile, 292,
294
Blashfield, Edwin H., 223
Bonheur, Rosalie Aiarie, 210-
215. 301
Bonnat, Leon Joseph Floren-
tine, 184, 219, 222-224, 266.
Boucher, Francois, 36-40
Boudin, Eugene, 187-188
Bouguereau, William Adolphc,
199, 204-206, 301
Breton, Jules Adolphe, 143, 147,
150-155
Cabanel, Alexander, 199, 202-
204, 265, 269
Carolus-Duran. Charles Au-
guste Emil, 219. 224-226
Carriere, Eugene, 262, 264-266
Cazin, Jean Charles, 178, 186-
187
Cezanne, Paul, 271. 275-277
Champaignc, Philippe de, 22-23
300
Chardin, Jcan-Baptiste-Simcon,
24, 32-35, 43, 217
Chavannes, Puvis de, 165, 189-
198, 270
Clouet, Frangois, 5, 6
Clouet, Jean, 5, 6, 283
Constant, Jean Joseph Benja-
min. 219, 230-232, 303
Corot, Jean Baptiste Camile,
113-121, 137, 138, 145, 150
Correggio (Antonio Allegri),
17
Cottet. Charles, 292, 297
Courbct. Gustave, 178-182
Couture, Thomas, 156, 164-166
197.
Cox, Kenyon, 221
Dagnan-Bouverct, Pascal Adol-
phc Jean, 283, 289-290
Daubigny, Charles Frangois,
114, 137, 143-145. 161. 240
Daumier, Honore, 156, 161-
164
David, Jacques-Louis, 51-62,
65, 71. 72, 75. 77, 78. 83
Decamps, Alexander Gabriel,
95-98, 245
Degas, Hilairc Germain Edgar,
233, 236-238
Delacroix, Ferdinand Victor
Eugene, 7^. 88-01. 128
Detaille, Jean Baptiste £dou-
ard. 245, 2^2
Delarochc, Hippolytc CP-tiiD,
85, 91-94, 109. 128
310
INDEX
Dclaiinay, Jules EHs, 167,
176-177
Devaille, Henri Caro-,299-300
Diaz, Narcisco Vergaleo de la
Pcna, 129, 137, 139, 142, 217
Dore, Gustave, 253-257
Dufau, Mdlle Helene Clemen-
tine, 299, 300-302
Dupre, Julien, 216, 217
Dupre, Jules, 132, 136-139, 142,
217
Flandrin, Jean Hippolyte, 159-
161, 261
Forain, Jean Louis, 283, 290-
291
Fragonard, Jean-Honore, 2>^,
44-47
Frere, Charles Theodore, 104,
109-111
Frere, Pierre Edouard, 104,
109-111
Fromentin, Eugene, 95, 98-iDi,
245
Gardner, Elizabeth Jane, 199,
206
Gerard, Baron Frangois Pas-
cal, 57, 63-65
Garrido, Lcandro, 292, 297-298
Gauguin, Paul, 262, 277-279
Gericault, Jean Louis, 85-88,
228
Gerome Jean Leon, 104-109,
III, 112
Gleyre, Marc Charles Gabriel,
156-158
Greuze, Jean-Bapiste, 36, 47-
50
Gros, Jean Antoine, 72, 7S-77,
88
Guillaumet, Gustave Achille,
245-246
Hals, Franz, 12, 306
Hogarth, William, 49, 291
Harpignics, Henri, 178, 182-186
Ingres, Jean-Antoine-Dom-
inique, 72, 77
Isabey, Eugene Louis-Gabriel,
64, 102-103
Jacque, Charles, 129
Laurens, P. Albert, 299, 304
Laurens, Jean Paul, 219, 226-
228, 303, 304
Lebrun, Charles, 17-20, 30
Lebrun, Madame Marie Eliza-
beth Louise Vigee, 63, 65-
71
Lcgros, Alphonse, 210-216, 217
L'Hermitte, Leon Augustin,
262-264
Lerolle, Henri, 262, 264-265
Lorrain, Claude (Gellee),9, 15
Manet, fidouard, 233-236, 238,
239. 240, 266, 271, 275, 286
jMarchin, Paul, 299, 305-306
Martin, Henri Jean Guillaume,
262, 269-270
Afatilda, Queen, i, 2
Matisse, Henri, 271, 280-282
Meissonier, Jean-Louis-Ernest,
107, 174
Menard, Emile-Renc, 292, 296-
297
Mignard, Pierre, 20-22
Millet, Jean Fran<;ois, 94, 109,
120, 122-131, 132, 137, 138,
142, 151, 274, 294, 295
Monticelli, Adolphe, 199, 200-
202
Monvel, Bernard Boutct de,
299, 304-305
INDEX
3"
Monvel, Maurice Boutct dc, Rousseau, Picrre-Eticnnc-Thco-
253, -'57-259. 305 done, 132-137. 217
Moreau, Gustavc, 199-200 Roybet, Ferdinard; 247-248
Morisot, Bcrthe, 245, 248-249 Rubens, Peter Paul, 200
Monet, Claude, 233, 238-241,
242, 243, 266, 271, 272 Sargent, John Singer, 225
Montezin, Pierre, 299, 306-308 Sarto, Andrea del, 4
Morot, Aime, Nicolas, 245, Simon, Lucicn, 292, 294-296
249-250 ^ Sisley, Alfred, 233, 241-243,
271
Nattier, Jean-Marc, 24, 29-32 Sueur Le, Eustache, 14-17
Neuville, Alphonse Marie de,
245^ 250-251 Tissot, James Joseph Jacque,
Nain, Le, (Brothers), 11-13 253, 259-261
Titian, 17, 64
Oberteuffer, Henrietta Amiard, -pour de La, Maurice-Qucntin,
299, 302-304
Pils, Isidore, 167, 174-176
Pissarro, Camille, 271-275, 277
Poussin, Nicolas, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16
Prudhon, Pierre Paul, 72-75
Rafifselli, Jean Frangois, 283,
287-289
Raphael, Sanzio, 78, 150, 200,
219, 220, 221, 281
36, 40-44
Troyon, Constant, 143, 146-148,
150, 215, 217
Van Gogh, Vincent, 271, 279-
280
Van Marcke, Emil, 210, 215-216
Velasquez, 64
Vernet, Emile Jean Horace,
^2, 82-84
Regnault, Henri, 219, 228-230 Veronese, Paul, 91
Remtrandt, Van Ryn, 64, 283 Vibert, Jehan Georges, 245,
Renoir, Pierre August, 233, 246-247
243-244, 271
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 8
Ribcra, Jose di, 207
Ribot, Theodule Augustin, 199,
206-209, 218
Rigaud, Hyacinthe, 20, 30
Roll, Alfred Philippe, 262, 266-
268
Rosa, Salvator, 9-1 1
Vollon, Antoine, 210, 217-218
Vinci, Leonardo da, 4, 224
Vouet, Simon, 15
Wattcaii, Jean Antoine. 24-28
Whistler. James Abbott Mc-
Neil, 87, 181, 229, 265
Ziem, Felix, 95, 101-102
