DOI Heft:
Nr. 154 (December 1909)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: The etchings of Jean François Raffaelli
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19868#0264
The Etchings of J. F. Raffaelli
therefore, surprised at finding in the mode of
execution and in the subjects of these pictures of
Raffaelli all the essential characteristics of his
talent; and further, in all this important series of
etchings, which in themselves form a huge cata-
logue, one finds the same passionate love of the artist
for life in all its manifestations and all its diverse
forms, and the same scrupulous care to render
the subjects with the most conscientious fidelity.
As Raffaelli has himself in other words so excel-
lently written, when a man is sincere and frank—
as he himself surely is—when he strives honestly
to obey the command to "know thyself," nothing
can be more precious than a few lines of auto-
biography. I may mention in passing that
Raffaelli, when in the mood, is a most charming
writer. His book in which he notes down the
strolls he has taken in the Louvre, is, by virtue of
its grace and unaffectedness, one of the best things
an artist has written since Fromentin, and at the
same time his wide knowledge of painting makes
the work an extremely valuable critical essay. It
gives me, therefore, great pleasure to quote Raffaelli's
own words, so delightfully explaining himself:
" I have lived my life just as I have found it,"
he writes, "precarious or assured as it may be. I
have never made any attempt to change my en-
vironment or to discover another nature and
another humanity to those which I know and of
which I myself form a part. From my earliest
years I have had the presentiment, and later on
I came to see, that the phenomena of life are
no more wonderful elsewhere, nor more worthy
of consideration, than in one's immediate sur-
roundings. I have not wandered from country
to country seeking for the picturesqueness which
some of the greatest painters have so fully dis-
covered. I have always lived in places where the
life of nature appeared to me inseparable from
the life of man. In the places where I have
passed my life there have always been houses and
passers-by. Poets whom I adore have sung in
"LA ROUTE DE LA REVOLTE "
122
BY J. F. RAFFAELLI
therefore, surprised at finding in the mode of
execution and in the subjects of these pictures of
Raffaelli all the essential characteristics of his
talent; and further, in all this important series of
etchings, which in themselves form a huge cata-
logue, one finds the same passionate love of the artist
for life in all its manifestations and all its diverse
forms, and the same scrupulous care to render
the subjects with the most conscientious fidelity.
As Raffaelli has himself in other words so excel-
lently written, when a man is sincere and frank—
as he himself surely is—when he strives honestly
to obey the command to "know thyself," nothing
can be more precious than a few lines of auto-
biography. I may mention in passing that
Raffaelli, when in the mood, is a most charming
writer. His book in which he notes down the
strolls he has taken in the Louvre, is, by virtue of
its grace and unaffectedness, one of the best things
an artist has written since Fromentin, and at the
same time his wide knowledge of painting makes
the work an extremely valuable critical essay. It
gives me, therefore, great pleasure to quote Raffaelli's
own words, so delightfully explaining himself:
" I have lived my life just as I have found it,"
he writes, "precarious or assured as it may be. I
have never made any attempt to change my en-
vironment or to discover another nature and
another humanity to those which I know and of
which I myself form a part. From my earliest
years I have had the presentiment, and later on
I came to see, that the phenomena of life are
no more wonderful elsewhere, nor more worthy
of consideration, than in one's immediate sur-
roundings. I have not wandered from country
to country seeking for the picturesqueness which
some of the greatest painters have so fully dis-
covered. I have always lived in places where the
life of nature appeared to me inseparable from
the life of man. In the places where I have
passed my life there have always been houses and
passers-by. Poets whom I adore have sung in
"LA ROUTE DE LA REVOLTE "
122
BY J. F. RAFFAELLI