Studio: international art (46.1909)

Portraits in Enamel

me is not indifferent to

able. Painters of our eighteenth-century school
have not always been fortunate in escaping from
this insipid conventionality. When an artist ceases
to betake himself again and again to nature, he
rapidly comes—and to this his successes especially
will speedily drive him—to repeat and to recopy
himself. In proportion as he is himself less
affected by nature, so he ceases also little by little
to stir our emotions, and he ends at length by
pleasing only those who are incapable of real feel-
ing. All who paint from memory have to fear
this stumbling-block. Rene Menard has so far
avoided this obstacle, because he has never ceased
to return to nature. His note-books and sketches
are conclusive proof of his accuracy.

I trust I may be forgiven for having dwelt in
passing upon these biographical details ; our fathers
live again in us, our home circle, our profession,
our friends all emphatically exercise a continuous
influence upon us. Even
the physical aspect of a
man whose work interests

ination threatens unduly to prevail, and he will cer-
tainly take his exalted place in that classic line of
the greatest French painters. Achille Segard.

ORTRAITS IN ENAMEL.
ALEXANDER FISHER.

BY

The most pre-eminent qualities of enamels
are preciousness and imperishability. These two
qualities immediately present themselves to our
minds when we think of an enamel, and make an
irresistible appeal. For, to render permanent the
impermanent, to arrest the ever-changing, is the
insatiable desire of all mankind, and to give the
semblance of permanence is, perhaps, the uncon-
scious aim of all art. To record that which is
fleeting, be it but the smallest fact of life, and make
that record durable amidst the ever-changing uni-
versal flux, is one of the unceasing tasks of the

me, and I like to think
of M. Menard that he is
a man who comports
himself well, and that his
private life is dominated
by a spirit of order and
method such as is appar-
ent in his work, by a
systematic freewill, a
never-ceasing grip of all
his faculties, and a per-
petual stability main-
tained between his ever-
alert comprehension and
his nervous tempera-
ment. Such qualities,
now scarce, gave their
imprint to the master-
pieces of the seventeenth
century, and are those
which have made us
heirs of the most artistic
and logical race of the
world.

Rene Me'nard retains
that most precious gift
of observing Nature, of
being moved by her, and
of returning to her for
new inspiration whenever
either memory or imag-
184.

PORTRAIT IN ENAMFL OF JEANNE DE GENOUILLAC, BARONNE DE RHINGRAVE
RY LEONARD LIMOUSIN