International studio (19.1903)

" PONT MARIE

BY FR^DERIC HOUBRON

colour, or even ink or diluted pencil-lead,
the thin surface takes it with equal ease, and
obedientiy receives the iasting imprint of this or
that coiour. The immediate absorption of the
coloured matter greatiy faciiitates ail his open-air
studies.
Water-colour, used aione, does not aiiow the
artist to accentuate his shadows strongly enough,
or to give sufficient vigour to, say, his carnation,
his black, or his vivid biue, and that is where oii is
of great vaiue ; whereas for the discreet treatment
of the lighter tones it is too hard and too massive.
Water-coiour is necessary in such a case. M.
Houbron has ingeniousiy reaiised this. Hence
the charm—at first the inexpiicabie charm —
which springs from these works, wherein we seem
to see joined and biended the brightest and the
softest coiorations possibie. Here is a system oi
inhnite resource, enabiing the painter to seize the
the aspects of nature either in their most fugitive
or their most permanent form. M. Houbron, its
creator, uses it to perfection. No system could be
better adapted to the rendering of his Parisian
scenes, with their happiiy diversihed detaii, or to the
bright and iively air of the urban spots so broadiy
expressed by his agile brush. In his drawings of

old and tortuous streets, with their narrow pave-
ments, and their tottering houses and projecting,
uneven stories, thanks to his individuai manner,
his architecturai knowiedge, his precise drawing, his
skiii in perspective, and his use of pen and pencii
as the basis of his principai lines, he conveys the
exact appearance of age and faded splendour. They
suggest at once the water-colours of Hervier, and
certain drawings by Gustave Dore, as well as some
of the more recent paintings of Lepine or Boudin,
some of whose attenuated greys, dim blues and
milky whites he obtains at times.
The quays, equally with the streets, attract this
wonderful chronicler of the minutise of Paris. With
remarkable ease he realises life in all its aspects,
revealing it by turns gay and full of colour, or
melancholy and pensive. He notes the points of
animation, the banks fringed with barges and
landing-stages, with their throngs of silent fisher-
men or labourers ; the shady walks and the book-
market frequented by the studious; the boats, the
islets, the thousand and one reHections of lights,
and trees, and monuments, and houses. Of such
is his QMnf /'./%?/<?/Tf/Z?, with its municipal
monument, akin to that of Ypres, whose massive,
irregular outline Houbron also painted in the
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