International studio (32.1907)

Louis Gillot

“NOTRE DAME DE PARIS” (OIL)

LOUIS GILLOT: PAINTER AND
ENGRAVER. BY HENRI
FRANTZ.

One of the most noted and most personal ex-
hibitors at the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts
in the present generation of painters—which is
junior by several years to that of the Cottets, the
Simons, the Dauchez, and the Menards (the second
generation we owe to the National Society)—is
M. Gillot, who would seem
to be carrying on the tradi-
tion left by the delightful
succession of petits mai/res
of the nineteenth century
— “ little masters ” often
possessed of genius, such as
Jongkind, Hervier, Boudin,
and Ldpine. These pain-
ters, who first and foremost
were masters of the pic-
turesque, preferred, just as
M. Gillot prefers, the more
direct and intimate view
of things to those other
aspects hitherto generally
studied.

Gillot is enamoured of
the big towns of the North,
with their cloudy skies and
their grey waters; these and
the flowers and the quays
of Paris and of Rouen

occupy a very considerable
place in his work. He has
the gift of expressing to
perfection the aspects—so
transitory, so imponderable,
so unattainable — of that
city atmosphere which pre-
sents such magnificent, such
astonishing visions to those
artists who are attracted
by them, and who long to
sound the full depths of
their loveliness. How true
this is may be seen in his
Bateau de Londres au Pont
des Saints - Pires, which
belongs to the Luxem-
bourg collection. At first
sight the subject appears
trivial enough, and hardly
calculated to inspire . the
artist’s imagination; yet what a truly beautiful
thing he has produced therefrom ; how completely
he has succeeded in creating that precious element
—mystery ! The vessel stands before us in the
phantasmagoria of a November fog, its dark bulk
towering above the watery quay where lusty porters
are busy loading her holds with cases scattered
about pell-mell. And beyond is the dome of the
Institut, vaguely showing through the heavy mist.

In Gillot’s recent work one notes a particular

“ f£te aux invalides” (pastel)

BY E. L. GILLOT

io5