International studio (19.1903)

temperament. For years, with wonderfui tenacity
and adaptabiiity, he forced himseif to paint pretty
fans and other trifies of the sort mostiy affected
by young iadies as a drawing roorn pastime. Now
and again, however, drawn out of doors by the
free air, the glowing life of the streets, the sight
of the shop fronts, the exhibitions, the gaiieries,
he wouid rush away and paint for his own pieasure,
paint in obedience to the fresh and eager taient
biossoming within him.
Each year the Salon received one of these timid
studies, sincereiy conceived in his spare hours in
the fult iight of day and in the open air. And whiie,
in this modest way, his reputation, destined to grow
great, was being made secure, Frederic Houbron,
tormented, as aH true coiourists are, by the materiai
difhcuities which, together with certain strong
advantages, are presented by water-colour painting,
gradualiy came to use the combination of water-
coiours and oils wherewith later he produced such
striking effects. Thus he was enabied to attempt
the boid studies from nature in which he skiifuiiy
appiied various sorts of coiourihg materiais. His

process, in reiation to the evcr-changing poem of
the iandscape, was of extraordinary service to him.
It may be said that, having created his own
technicai instrument, he used it to the fuii extent of
his naturai taient, appiying himseif, according to the
iesser or greater duration of the impression, to note
his open-air studies alternateiy in water-colour and
in oil, and on the same ySuwKvw.
Soon his sphere began to widen, and feeling
more confident in the resources of his palette, he
was seized with a desire to attempt subjects to
which he might apply tiie resuits of his experi-
ments in new processes. The simpiicity of rurai
scenes, the happy cahn of the toiiing country,
attracted him with theirrustic poetry. So Houbron
studied the meadows and the fiocks, and with
attentive touch painted the harvesters working in
the fieids. The banks of the Seine, whose
capricious course made him acquainted with aii
the lovehest spots in the Ile de France, reveaied
to him the restiess iife of the waters, the refiec-
tion of tree and cioud, the inhnite shimmering of
its rippies in the suniight. He ioved these green


"sous LE PONT LOUIS PHILIPPE
84

BY FREDERIC HOUBRON