DOI issue:
No. 63 (May, 1902)
DOI article:Mourey, Gabriel: The art of M. Lucien Simon
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22773#0177
Lucien Simon
HE ART OF M. LUCIEN SIMON.
BY GABRIEL MOUREY.
Among our modem French artists
tttere are, to my thinking, few who display more
c°nspicuously than M. Lucien Simon certain of
those qualities which may be regarded as the
m°st precious a modern painter can possess:
Nearness, striking independence of vision, spon-
taneity and truly prodigious freedom of execution
"in a word, the gifts of plastic perception and
exPression in all their fulness. Not one of his
canvases but reveals an absolute unity between the
eye of the artist and the hand of the executant, the
ci°sest cohesion between the feeling of the man
and the technique of the painter.
ht. Lucien Simon is a masterly realiser. Pre-
ClSe and sober, energetic and sane, he knows
exactly what he desires, and whither he is going ;
0lle imagines him armed with a firm will, ever
c°nscious and conscien-
ces, ever master of him-
Self- He is one of the - T .,,.,
Str°ng : strong in his por-
traits, as in his scenes de
niaiUrs, strong in his types
ed his characters, in every-
lng passionately devoted
° truth, simple and direct.
e rs endowed with the
^°urage that enables him
0 look Nature in the face,
atlC to confront life as it is,
"^mediate contact with
^ality having no terrors
him. He knows no-
.6 of the languors from
lch so many artists suffer
^adayS;
he is proof
rrst the seductions of
°Se complexities which
''°rh such ravage among
ls fellows, and he has pre-
etved himself from all
Coritagion of the sort by
j^tfently studying his own
feulties, while keeping
j r*ctly aloof from external
tfefcnces. The glamour of
success has failed to
, te him from the path his
^attand brain had chosen;
CC fer this he must be ad-
reh and congratulated.
pT No. 63.—May, 1902-
It follows that his work is marked by complete
unity and a clear and logical spirit. In composing
his pictures his first thought has been to simplify
and to balance; exceptional spectacles do not
concern him at all. His main object has always
been to produce a strong and deep impression of
nature and of life, with exactness and precision.
As for the artist—his joys and sorrows, his mode
of life, his moral self—you will look in vain for any
trace of such things in these canvases. He keeps
himself absolutely apart—one might almost say
absent—from them ; the more deeply to move us
he hides his emotions. Unlike so many others
who, by design or by accident, or because they
cannot do otherwise, make a parade of their
sensibility, he studiously conceals his inner self.
For this reason his art appears to me as impersonal
as that of Gustave Flaubert.
His portraits, his studies of bourgeois life, his
Bohemian scenes, are all absolutely authentic
FROM A WATER-COLOUR BY LUCIEN SIMON
r57
HE ART OF M. LUCIEN SIMON.
BY GABRIEL MOUREY.
Among our modem French artists
tttere are, to my thinking, few who display more
c°nspicuously than M. Lucien Simon certain of
those qualities which may be regarded as the
m°st precious a modern painter can possess:
Nearness, striking independence of vision, spon-
taneity and truly prodigious freedom of execution
"in a word, the gifts of plastic perception and
exPression in all their fulness. Not one of his
canvases but reveals an absolute unity between the
eye of the artist and the hand of the executant, the
ci°sest cohesion between the feeling of the man
and the technique of the painter.
ht. Lucien Simon is a masterly realiser. Pre-
ClSe and sober, energetic and sane, he knows
exactly what he desires, and whither he is going ;
0lle imagines him armed with a firm will, ever
c°nscious and conscien-
ces, ever master of him-
Self- He is one of the - T .,,.,
Str°ng : strong in his por-
traits, as in his scenes de
niaiUrs, strong in his types
ed his characters, in every-
lng passionately devoted
° truth, simple and direct.
e rs endowed with the
^°urage that enables him
0 look Nature in the face,
atlC to confront life as it is,
"^mediate contact with
^ality having no terrors
him. He knows no-
.6 of the languors from
lch so many artists suffer
^adayS;
he is proof
rrst the seductions of
°Se complexities which
''°rh such ravage among
ls fellows, and he has pre-
etved himself from all
Coritagion of the sort by
j^tfently studying his own
feulties, while keeping
j r*ctly aloof from external
tfefcnces. The glamour of
success has failed to
, te him from the path his
^attand brain had chosen;
CC fer this he must be ad-
reh and congratulated.
pT No. 63.—May, 1902-
It follows that his work is marked by complete
unity and a clear and logical spirit. In composing
his pictures his first thought has been to simplify
and to balance; exceptional spectacles do not
concern him at all. His main object has always
been to produce a strong and deep impression of
nature and of life, with exactness and precision.
As for the artist—his joys and sorrows, his mode
of life, his moral self—you will look in vain for any
trace of such things in these canvases. He keeps
himself absolutely apart—one might almost say
absent—from them ; the more deeply to move us
he hides his emotions. Unlike so many others
who, by design or by accident, or because they
cannot do otherwise, make a parade of their
sensibility, he studiously conceals his inner self.
For this reason his art appears to me as impersonal
as that of Gustave Flaubert.
His portraits, his studies of bourgeois life, his
Bohemian scenes, are all absolutely authentic
FROM A WATER-COLOUR BY LUCIEN SIMON
r57