International studio (17.1902)

The Paris Salons

first-named, with his lie Heureuse, the second
with his tapestry cartoon, Le Parc, and the third,
with his Sejour de Paix et de Joie, worthily main-
tain an art which, owing to indifference on the
part of “the powers that be,” and also to the in-
competency of the majority of those who practise
it, has fallen into a lamentable state of decadence.

There are many portrait-painters. J. E. Blanche
is highly successful in his representations of Charles
Cottet, Paul Adam, and young Philippe Barres;
Lavery sends a Premiere Communiante, in white
and silver greys of the utmost delicacy, also a
portrait of a lady in grey and black. The two
portraits of ladies by T. Austen Brown—especially
the Musicienne— are superb. Antonio de la

Gandara, in his portrait of Mme. S_, as in that

of Mme. F...., maintains his position as our fore-
most painter of feminine grace. The portrait of
Mme. Edouard Dujardin, by Anquetin, is quite
admirable, as are the Portrait de Deux Soeurs,
and M. Lion Delafosse by the incomparable John
Sargent, the portrait of Bjornsterne-Bjornson, by

the Danish painter Kroyer, the portraits of
Americans of both sexes by Cecilia Beaux, Mile.
Poncet, by Aman-Jean, and M. Denys Cochin, by
Besnard.

Lucien Simon, in his Soeurs Queteuses—which
must be regarded as one of the strongest works
in the two Salons—and in his Causerie du Soir,
shows us the two sides of his forceful and original
talent.

Here we find Charles Cottet still faithful to his
Brittany, his Messe Basse en Hiver being one of
the most penetrating things bearing his signature;
Pierre Albert Laurens, whose honest vision is
clearly expressed in a peasant scene—Le Partage ;
Albert Baertsoen, whose Chalands sous la JVeige,
lent by the Mustie de Bruxelles, reveals a certain
sadness of vision and a very personal faculty of
interpretation; also Emile Claus, who, in his Verger
en Flandre, displays his profound love of bright,
healthy nature.

One must needs pause a moment before the
twilights, the snows, the winter-bound gardens of