International studio (23.1904)

Felix Bracquemond

pleasure, because it reveals to us a whole page of
the artist’s intimate life, is that entitled La Terrasse
de la Villa Brancas. Therein one sees two delight-
fully graceful women seated, one being Madame
Marie Bracquemond, an artist of high talent, whose
name is intimately associated with the history of
impressionist painting, by reason of the fine work
she has produced in this direction. The terrace
of the Villa Brancas !—a spot renowned alike in the
annals of French art and French literature in the
nineteenth century. All, or almost all, of any note
were frequenters of the place. There were to be
seen in their turn writers such as Cladel, Alexandre
Dumas, Theophile Gautier, de Nerval, d’Echerac,
Burty, and Geffroy; or artists of the stamp of
Legros, Meryon, Rodin, Courbet, Daubigny, Dela-
croix, and Cheret. Two of the most illustrious
children of the last century were friends of the

‘ EBATS DE CANARDS

engraver—Baudelaire and Edmond de Goncourt.
One can easily understand that memories such as
these attach Bracquemond for ever to his Villa
Brancas. Besides, was it not here that he brought
up his son Pierre and trained him in his art ?
Nearly all the men who were friends of Bracque-
mond—from Balzac to Puvis de Chavannes—have
posed to the master for etched portraits, and these
form an admirable gallery of our contemporaries,
for they are “ fixed ” with all the minute perfection
which one rarely sees save in the works of the old
masters. What, for example, could be finer than
the portrait of Edmond de Goncourt ? Note the
fine face, with its relief of white hair, and the deep,
shining eyes; the hand, so naturally and char-
acteristically posed, with a cigarette between the
fingers ; then the composition of the whole work—
the sculpture, the woodwork, the little Japanese
bronze ; and all so harmo-
nious, so strong, so fascinating!
The extraordinary thing in
Bracquemond is the colour
effects he obtains by means
as simple as those of the
etchings. See this fine ex-
ample, in which the land-
scapist is no whit inferior to
the portrait-painter—Le Loup
dans la Neige. Here we see
all the gradations he has been
able to draw from this
melancholy winter scene, with
the trees stretching out their
withered arms against the grey
sky, their shadows reflecting
on the snow, over which the
animal drags wearily along,
leaving his track behind.
And the same may be said
of this park avenue, with its
long perspective. One feels
that even a painter could not
have got more colour into his
work — could not have ex-
pressed himself more fully.
With Bracquemond, as with
all the great engravers, from
Rembrandt to Whistler, the
various “ states ” of his en-
gravings have a special interest
for the amateur. All engrav-
ings, whatever be their tech-
nique, have this peculiarity,
that they preserve positive

BY FELIX BRACQUEMOND

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