Studio: international art (28.1903)

Frdderic

Houbron

REDERIC HOUBRON: A
PAINTER OF PARIS. BY
OCTAVE UZANNE.

Paris, like Vienna, like Rome, and
like London, has ever had her accredited painters
—artists really fascinated by her beauties and
enamoured of all her charms, whose sole desire
has been to portray them, and who have remained
absolutely faithful to their beloved metropolis.
The story of the illustrators and colourists who
have been captivated by the vision of Paris, and
have devoted their talents to the representation of
its monuments, its prismatic, animated streets, its
incomparable perspectives, and the beautiful and
joyous landscapes on the banks of the Seine—such
a story, particularly from the eighteenth century
onward, would be very interesting, and would
furnish material for valuable observations on the
scope and the expression of the works produced in
accordance with the temperament, the personal

vision of each notator of Art, while it would be
curious to trace, through their various masterly
styles, the dissimilarity of impression, and the suc-
cessive development of the fair city.

M. Frederic Houbron, whose delicate and
vigorous talent is now no longer unknown to the
artistic public, reveals to us a novel view of things,
quite rare in the rigorous sincerity with which it
treats the dazzling, many-hued aspects of the great
city, and while others, whose vision needs space,
feel drawn by the free air of the country, the saline
breezes of the sea-shore, or the atmosphere of the
mountains, M. Houbron, for his part, prefers to
represent the features of his well-loved town, with
its multiplicity of angles. The admirable world
wherein he has sworn to live, palette in hand, is
bounded by the fortifications. None knows better
than he at what hour of dusk this dome or that
church-spire becomes idealised by a special light.
He has traced the image, realised the melancholy
charm of these spacious quays, planted with trees

" POINTE ST. EUSTACHE "

XXVIII. No. 120.—March, 1903.

BY FREDERIC HOUBRON
8l