International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

The Chardin-Fragonard Exhibition

can applaud without reserve this apotheosis of
the two eighteenth-century masters, J.-B. Simeon
Chardin and Jean Honore Fragonard.
Naturally these splendid artists, long neglected
and despised, are now among the best known and
the most widely appreciated of the painters of
their century; their chief canvases have been
popularised by engravings, and quite an extensive
library has been devoted to them; but the chief
interest of an exhibition such as this lies in the
fact that it serves to familiarise one with works
less famous, with sketches and studies which en-
able one to penetrate deep into the artist’s
nature, and to become familiar with his methods
of composition, of work, and of execution.
Here the diversity between Chardin and
Fragonard becomes more than ever accentuated.
Fragonard was the maddest, most pleasure-loving
artist of his day; under
the magic of his brush,
within the joyous set-
ting of garden and park,
with plashing fountains
and frolicsome couples
making love in the di-
vinest of lights, we take
part in the fairest fes-
tivals of the eighteenth
century, and live the
most delicious and the
most unreal of dreams.
Chardin, on the other
hand, saw life in its
truest aspect; while
Fragonard seems to
know nought beyond
the society of the great,
Chardin, dwelling amid
the humble surround-
ings of the poor, had
an entirely different
vision of life ; his brush
had none of the rapture
of Fragonard’s; he
treated more serious
subjects more sagely.
But in the first place
Chardin is incontest-
ably the master of still-
life ; he was the equal,
and probably the su-
perior, of the most
famous of all those
who essayed this most ‘‘STILL life'’ (The property of M. Alexis Vollon) By j.-b. chardin

delicate art. The very important series of woiks
from the Henri de Rothschild collection must be
studied one by one in order fully to appreciate its
extraordinary variety. No matter how insignificant
be the objects placed upon a table the painter can
make them attractive; the slightest tints he made
to sing by the amazing cleverness of his brush, and
above all by his admirable sincerity.
Chardin was prodigious, too, as a portraitist. In
his company how far removed we are from the
ceremonial portraits of the painters of his period!
How serious, how simple he is, how astonishing
the note of truth he strikes in such paintings as
the two little portraits of boys (Le Toton) or the
Jeune homme au violon from the Trepard Collection,
which have been bought by the Louvre for, it is
said, a colossal sum. Among the best genre pieces
must be mentioned Le Sonffleur, which, besides

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