International studio (34.1908)

Emile Wauters


“BARON LAMBERMONT’’ BY EMILE WAUTERS
(In the Brussels Museum)

On coming to Paris, Emile Wauters’ palette, as I
have said, became perceptibly clearer. In order
to please his graceful models, he had for some
time to abandon oil paints for pastel. I have a
vivid recollection of seeing some of his portraits in
pastel, of well-known Society ladies, at one of the
little exhibitions which he held in his fine studio
in the Rue Ampere. In these the painter wielded
his crayon with the same audacity and skill as he
used his brush. The tool was different, but the
method of work was identical—that is to say, always
broad, the pastel being applied flat, as he would
have done had it been a brush. His colour was
alone modified, owing, no doubt, to the richer and
more brilliant circles in which he moved. The
harmony of his work had become sweeter, more
attractive, perhaps more charming; but it seems to

me that, at bottom, it was
less artistic, and, whilst re-
taining his Flemish quali-
ties as a colourist, his
palette lost something of
its robustness and virility.
In the meantime, however,
he has returned to his
brushes, and given us the
more sober and discreet
note of his first portraits.
His recent portraits in oils
include those of Mme.
Hagen of Cologne; the
Comtesse de Gallifet and
her son ; Mile. Cremer of
The Hague (a symphony
in greens and whites) ; the
Presidents of the Belgian
Chambers ; Miss Vickers
of London; and Mrs.
Philippson-Wiener, a mas-
terpiece in blue, green, and
yellow.
In summing up the work
of this eminent painter I
cannot do better than quote
some words written by the
well - known art critic, M.
Thiebault - Sisson, a propos
of the portrait of Captain
Wauters, the painter’s
father, on its exhibition at
the Cercle de l’Union
Artistique. It is charac-
terised by “ a breadth of
treatment, a conscientious-
ness, and a solidity which are exceedingly rare.”
That this is universally recognised is evident
from the honours which have been showered on
Wauters. Nearly all the European academies of
art have honoured the painter by placing him on
their rolls. Of all the distinctions he has received
the one on which he sets greatest store is the
Order of Merit of Prussia, of which there are only
fifty-five holders—men distinguished in art, litera-
ture, and science. It was Menzel, then Grand
Master of the Order, who some twenty years ago
proposed Emile Wauters for this honour. “I am
proud to see my name inscribed side by side with
the names of such an illustrious company,” the
artist said to me on one occasion; “and I am
equally proud of the fact that the great Menzel
acted as my sponsor.” F. L.

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