International studio (14.1901)

Jean-Francois Raffaelli

a tree, for example, painted indoors, differ abso-
lutely from the outline and the colour of a house
or a tree painted in the open air.”

According to the foregoing definitions it would
seem justifiable to dub M. Raffaelli an Impressionist.
Yet it would be rash to do so, for much as he has
been indebted to the example and the encourage-
ment of the Impressionist comrades whose names
I have mentioned, he does not, I am sure, regard
himself as forming one of their group. It is
advisable, therefore, to listen to what the painter

has to say of himself, his
work and his ideas, and
this information may be
obtained from the pages
written by him as a sup-
plement to the catalogue
of an exhibition of his
works given in 1884 in
a shop rented for the
purpose in the Avenue
de l’Opera. Although
these fifty pages, modestly
entitled “Etude des Mouve-
ments de lArt Moderne
et du Beau Caracteriste,”
are marked by a certain
obscurity, they contain
the wherewithal to enable
one to obtain a fairly
accurate idea of M.
Raffaelli’s manner of re-
garding art.

At the time when he wrote these notes, “Roman-
ticism,” “Classicism,” and “Realism” had, in the
artist’s opinion, ceased to exist. Ingres—the great
Ingres—one of the most admirable masters of the
French School, was, to quote M. Raffaelli, “ nothing
more than an esprit suffering from those traditions,
with which, in true provincial fashion, he had surfeited
himself, without leaving a single work of art which
can be called really French—restless and soured by
the growth of new ideas springing up around him, and
after all his doubtings and angry obstinacy, leaving