International studio (21.1903/1904(1904))

and feel the dignity of poverty, the pathos and
svretchedness which lie behind the drunken
hilarity. To paint the working man and his
commonplace enjoyments one must have touched
thoughts with the simplest of mankind, and iearned
how near to Nature these primitive instincts for
recreation and pleasure lie. It is to sympathy of
understanding that an artist owes his grasp of a
subject, and his power to give it to the world
a-quiver with the life of its kind, and without this
his work can only be an imitation of the spell
which holds the life, and not the life itself.
These are some of the things which every young
artist has to learn for himself, and Mr. De la Bere has
yet to discover that there is a quality in ugliness
itself which calls for something higher in an artist
than a wanton exaggeration of that ugliness. His
sense of humour, and the desire to produce
something altogether bizarre, has so far over-
balanced his sense of good taste and rehnement;
and one will be glad to see his work toned down
to something like actual humanity, however
low-born it may be.
White Mr. De la Bere has received the
usual amount of art supervision from the best
English schools, he has worked out his
technique by himself. His colour sense is
at times rather unrestrained, but this will
improve with time, and some of his low-
toned studies are altogether satisfying, and,
in spite of obvious shortcomings, one may
safely say that the work of this young artist
holds much promise for the future.
T ULES CHERET'S DRAW-
] INGS IN SANGUINE.
ÜHERET, the creator of the poster,
the dainty pastellist, the author of so many
luminous decorations, is an impassioned
draughtsman, and, so to speak, there is not
a day that he does not dash on to paper
some of the nervous a choice of
which he has been good enough to make,
among his most seductive and most character-
istic, for the benefrt of THE STUDIO. These
works, wherein the grace of Watteau's
Sketches is revived, constitute (to say nothing
of their great artistic beauty) an ample harvest
of notes and documents on the Woman of
To-Day. This painter of dreams and aerial
visions and brave herein reveals his
sincerity of observation, his inhnite knowledge
of gesture, his rnanual virtuosity. Most of these
33°

charming were done by the artist in one
sitting sometimes lasting barely an hour. They
are not elaborate, finished drawings, in the manner
of Ingres, but bold, broadly-handled Sketches,
palpitating with life. Often Cheret does no more
than suggest, or rather indicate; but the indications
are so precise, so " right," that these of
his are nevertheless among the most complete of
their kind. It is interesting to note that these
works were not done from Professional models,
whose studied, mechanical movements Cheret
detests, but from among the lady visitors to his
Studio — the y?772772as' whom the artist loves
to catch chatting together in unstudied naturalness.
Hence the suppleness and the nervosity of their
attitudes, the piquancy of their movements.
These countless pages, whereon the artist testihes
day by day to his adoration and his understanding
of the Parisienne, are certainly one of the most
sensitive and most faithful monuments ever inspired
by Woman in honour of her beauty. H. F.


A SKETCH BY JULES CHERET