DOI issue:
No. 84 (February, 1904)
DOI article:Dayot, Armand: The french pastellists of the eighteenth century
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26230#0371
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1793, and, despite the unjust criticisms of Diderot
—rendered at titnes crueily partial by reason of
his exclusive admiration of Greuze— produced
some excellent portraits, of which a goodly number
are still to be seen in the galleries of the Louvre
and at Versailles.
One may be allowed to declare, therefore, that
the art of the pastel is essentially a Lrench art,
although in certain very learned expositions its
paternity is attributed to Alexandre Thiele, of
Erfurt, or to Mlle. Heid, of Dantzig. Certain it
is, too, that at the opening of the twentieth Century,
as throughout the eighteenth, the spirit of our artists
holds the lead, with prodigious skill, in an exquisite
which is, as it were, the tender melody of
painting.
I will take the liberty of advising our present-day
pastellists—who, too often, are just spirited painters
in disguise —to avoid applying the coloured crayon
process where the brush
alone seems to be called
for. Why try to pastellise
the storms of the skies, the
Hinty hardness of therocks,
the raging torrent, the
rough tree trunks, or the
lined and sun-tanned skin
of the peasant? Why try
to express on the Hute the
fury of the "Marseillaise?"
The art of the pastel
should be devoted almost
exclusively to the repre-
sentation of women and
Howers and fruit. The
historic glory of the pastel
springs from the fact that
certain born pastellists
have succeeded by their
special art in expressing
the inexpressible; in fixing,
by means of their quick
and luminous crayon, the
Hower of the Hesh, the
Hesh of the flower, the
velvet of the fruit, the rapid
quivering of the light amid
the tresses' gold, on the
pearly freshness of the
skin, on the softness of
the silky folds.
* * *
Among the names of
the great pastellists of the
320
past that of Quentin-Latour Stands out with incom
parable briliiancy. He is, and must ever be, the
King of the pastel; no one ever attained, no one
will ever attain, to the perfecbion of his technique,
to the penetration of his genius. Not Dürer,-nor
Holbein, nor Rembrandt, each with his keen, strong
brush, has analysed with greater insight the mystery
of the human face than has this astounding artist,
before whom posed in turn Sovereign after Sovereign,
queens of beauty, actresses, high military chiefs,
writers, and philosophers. . . . All that the
eighteenth Century—that age of wit and grace—
boasted of and elegant has been Hxed
definitely by the coloured crayons handled by his
agile Hngers—Hxed in physiognomies of rieh diver-
sity and extraordinary vivacity. The whole life, the
whole intellectuality, of an epoch is here.
let me relate a brief aneedote in Con-
nection with the great Latour. It was, if my
PORTRAIT FROM THE RASTE!. BY SIMEOX CHARMX
1793, and, despite the unjust criticisms of Diderot
—rendered at titnes crueily partial by reason of
his exclusive admiration of Greuze— produced
some excellent portraits, of which a goodly number
are still to be seen in the galleries of the Louvre
and at Versailles.
One may be allowed to declare, therefore, that
the art of the pastel is essentially a Lrench art,
although in certain very learned expositions its
paternity is attributed to Alexandre Thiele, of
Erfurt, or to Mlle. Heid, of Dantzig. Certain it
is, too, that at the opening of the twentieth Century,
as throughout the eighteenth, the spirit of our artists
holds the lead, with prodigious skill, in an exquisite
which is, as it were, the tender melody of
painting.
I will take the liberty of advising our present-day
pastellists—who, too often, are just spirited painters
in disguise —to avoid applying the coloured crayon
process where the brush
alone seems to be called
for. Why try to pastellise
the storms of the skies, the
Hinty hardness of therocks,
the raging torrent, the
rough tree trunks, or the
lined and sun-tanned skin
of the peasant? Why try
to express on the Hute the
fury of the "Marseillaise?"
The art of the pastel
should be devoted almost
exclusively to the repre-
sentation of women and
Howers and fruit. The
historic glory of the pastel
springs from the fact that
certain born pastellists
have succeeded by their
special art in expressing
the inexpressible; in fixing,
by means of their quick
and luminous crayon, the
Hower of the Hesh, the
Hesh of the flower, the
velvet of the fruit, the rapid
quivering of the light amid
the tresses' gold, on the
pearly freshness of the
skin, on the softness of
the silky folds.
* * *
Among the names of
the great pastellists of the
320
past that of Quentin-Latour Stands out with incom
parable briliiancy. He is, and must ever be, the
King of the pastel; no one ever attained, no one
will ever attain, to the perfecbion of his technique,
to the penetration of his genius. Not Dürer,-nor
Holbein, nor Rembrandt, each with his keen, strong
brush, has analysed with greater insight the mystery
of the human face than has this astounding artist,
before whom posed in turn Sovereign after Sovereign,
queens of beauty, actresses, high military chiefs,
writers, and philosophers. . . . All that the
eighteenth Century—that age of wit and grace—
boasted of and elegant has been Hxed
definitely by the coloured crayons handled by his
agile Hngers—Hxed in physiognomies of rieh diver-
sity and extraordinary vivacity. The whole life, the
whole intellectuality, of an epoch is here.
let me relate a brief aneedote in Con-
nection with the great Latour. It was, if my
PORTRAIT FROM THE RASTE!. BY SIMEOX CHARMX