Studio: international art (56.1912)

The Ola and New Salons, Paris

“ UNE FILLE BRETONNE” BY I.UCIEN SIMON

By means purely pictorial, with a perfect sobriety,
by sustained tones and in a restrained range of
colour he has expressed essential truths through
the medium of visible life. He is a painter. He
respects his craft, and has a horror of shoddy
methods and little superficial trickeries ; he possesses
a deep love of Nature and that innate distinction of
soul which leads him unerringly to choose of all the
spectacles which offer themselves to his regard those
alone which are worthy to be noted. He has loved,
above all, work which is proven and conscientious,
and is fond of probing character. He is wonderfully
equipped for analysis, and has the taste and also
the desire to undertake great syntheses. Hence
it is that his pictures always give an impression of
precision and of rightness. He loves to construct
soundly, to build solidly, and his care is always to
express only the essential. Each step he takes
makes for the grand style, and he must be ranked
as one of the most important painters of our epoch.
His work is a durable monument, since it has been
built up on foundations of patience, of knowledge,
and of love. Achille Segard.

The old and new salons in

PARIS.

On every occasion upon which one of our
great spring Salons opens to the public all the
writers on art make it their task at once to inform
their readers regarding the principal works exhibited.
Thus in three or four days one is required to give
a definite pronouncement upon several thousands
of works of art. It may easily be seen, without
unduly insisting upon this point, how dangerous
such a mode of procedure is liable to become.
Does it not seem more desirable to wait a little
time, to make more numerous visits to the Salon,
to see the works on several occasions ? Then,
quite naturally, the interesting pictures will stand
out with greater distinctness, and those of mediocre
talent, which might perhaps at first have given
pleasure, will betray the emptiness of their concep-
tion and the insufficiency of their means.

Of the four thousand and more works shown at
the older of the two Salons, that of the Societe des
Artistes Frangais, those that claim our attention
here are comparatively few in number, for it must
be confessed that the great majority were nothing but
commonplace productions—commonplace and often
really trivial in motif and without any exceptional
technical merits to redeem them from the charge
of banality. For all that, there were certain works
which must be signalised as standing out well above
the average. One of the most remarkable of the
figure-subjects was the Matinte de Septembre by
M. Paul Chabas, depicting the graceful form of a
young girl against the horizon of the Lac d’Annecy.
M. Duprey showed an excellent nude, and M.
Domergue a first-rate portrait of a woman, as well
as a clever costume study, La Robe Jonquille. M.
Henri Martin, always one of our finest decorators,
again displayed his fine talent in two paintings, Les
Dtvideuses and L'Automne; and M. Joseph Bail’s
interior with figures, La Lectrice, should also be
mentioned as one of the most interesting works
of this character in the Salon. Of the various
American artists who send to this Salon, I noted
especially Max Bohm, whose Jeunesse Joyeuse
impressed me as a work of real interest from a
decorative point of view ' and a study of the nude
by Richard Miller compared very favourably with
the numerous other paintings of this kind which
always form a strong feature of the Salon. Among
the figure-subjects by English artists, Mr. Campbell
Taylor’s La Ch&telaine, Mr. Frank Craig’s Dissen-
ters’ Chapel, disclosing a phase of life unfamiliar
to the French public, and Mr. W. E. Webster’s

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