International studio (23.1904)

Felix Bracquemond


STUDY OF TREES

BY FELIX BRACQUEMOND


The work of felix bracque-
mond. BY HENRI FRANTZ.
Of Bracquemond it may be said that
he hole's a place almost unique and entirely
enviable in the art world of to-day. There is no
artist more generally recognised than he : none has
more friends, none fewer detractors. Some there
are doubtless who do not see eye to eye with him,
but none can deny the man’s high talent and con-
siderable achievement. Every one
needs must incline respectfully before
his half-century of labour, before the
proud aspect of his works, before his
incessant, varied, and prodigious output.
Yes, prodigious is the word! for
turning over the pages of the excellent
volumes which that discriminating critic
Henri Beraldi, has devoted to the
engravers of the nineteenth century,
one observes that almost a fourth
of one of these books consists of a
catalogue of Bracquemond’s produc-
tions. And even this list, long though
it be, is necessarily incomplete, for
since the appearance of the volume
the great engraver has produced a large
number of plates. And he is more
than the aquafortist whom all the world
knows ; he has been, and is, a painter ;
at the same time he has devoted himself
to industrial art, and shown himself a
delicate ornamenter, and a ceramist,
master of all the secrets of his trade.
Those who visited the Salon of 1902
must still have in their mind’s eye the
vast decorative ensemble executed for
XXIII. No. 90.—August, 1904.

Baron Vita by Bracquemond, Cheret, and
Besnard.
Felix Bracquemond was born in Paris in 1833.
In temperament, as in character, he is a real Parisian
of Paris, a personality of good Gallic stock, keen
on work, hard to please as to himself, but most
indulgent and kind to others, blessed moreover
with plenty of humour, good spirits, and “go.” So
Bracquemond has passed through the various stages
of his artist life, with now a failure, now a success ;

PORTRAIT OF FELIX BRACQUEMOND. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH

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