International studio (20.1903)

"LULOMME MODERKE A L'kcOLE DE t'HARMACtE'

BY ALBERT PAUL BESNARD


decoration in the Sarbonne, Za Zr /a
ZZ77V. The idea is most poetically expressed in the
printed explanation offered to the visitor. This is
the epitome : Life born of Death; the Forces of
Nature ; the principles of Organic Chemistry
creating plants, animals, and men, under the influ-
ence of the sun; Butterflies, the companions of
Decomposition and the bearers of germs. We
turn to the painting to find the translation in the
dead body of a woman in the centre of the canvas,
fertilising the world; butterflies hovering about in
a bright scheme of colour. Beneath the body coils
the serpent, the emblem of mystery ; on the left is

a chasm of fire vomiting a pillar of smoke, curling
upwards in a dense picturesque mass ; on the right
is the Garden of Eden, the golden apples tempting
the man and the woman near a winding stream in
the shade of trees. In the colouring of the ground,
in the wonderful blue tints in the scales of the
serpent, the attention is centred ; but it is only
gradually, by the help of the explanatory notes,
that the composition unifies itself, and that we see
the embodiment of the conception. We cannot
but admire the powerful and brilliant technique in
this colossal work, yet one turns from it with the
impression that the ideas, so clearly defined in the
printed matter, are discon-
nected in the work itself.

' DANS LF. VEKT '
86

BY ALBERT PAUL BESXARD

In the Mairie of the
First Arrondissement, in
the Salle des Manages,
the decorations are: Z<?
ZZ2Z72, Z<? dZ'Zf, Zg AaZ* Z?
/a FZ. The a/
Zf/g is represented by a
youth and a maiden
surrounded by the flowers t
of spring. The sky is
clear. Not even the
smallest cloud darkens
the horizon. Birds of won-
drous shades of mauve
deepening into the purple
of the iris, hover near
the centre figures and give
colour to the scene. The
ZZ'Z-Zay Zz]Z is shown
in the man and woman
in the height of their
physical power; the man