International studio (36.1908/1909(1909))

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torpor of a life untouched by external infiuences,
the melanchoiy streets, as though meditating in
siience and negiect; these squares beneath the
Cathedral's shade, where here and there one
meets the hgure of some stray worshipper going
to devotions; these rampart corners, where the
giories of the piace lie buried, to aii seeming;
where the futility, the nothingness, of human
carnage may be read in the oblivion of men and
things ; these hollow byeways, dark and high like
tunnels, and opening out into the dazzling sun-
light, azured and verdant; these cattle markets,
these canalswinding theirway amid the corbelled
line of decayed and irregular houses—all these
enticing scenes, expressed with an emotion and
a sincerity so intense as to produce a sensation
of absolute artlessness, captivated me to such a
degree as to make me long to know their author,
the poet-artist who has succeeded so completely
in realising the pathetic, whimsical spirit of these
ancient towns, despoiled of their erstwhile pros-
perity when Flanders, in the grip of Spain, made
frequentwarlike incursions into this Picardy of "APRRs LA PLutE, ABEEviLLE" BY A. LECHAT
ours.
It was not alone the artist's talent in water- might aimost be termed mystical—and with a rest-
colours, nor his skilful workmanship, nor his vir- ful sense of picturesque beauty.
tuosity, that captured my attention here, but rather To be sure, there is nothing boisterous about
the simple honesty, the absolute frankness, the M. Lechat's palette; noise and violence would be
ambient poetry in the atmosphere of these paint- altogether out of place in these tranquil scenes,
ings, which are simply impregnated with luminous where existence murmurs on in a gentle whisper,
truth, with delicate comprehension of values—they seldom bursting forth, save at fair times or in rustic
assemblies, whose passing
excitements he does not
consider worth reproducing.
M. Lechat's talent is not
essentially material; by
solid methods, without
"faking" of any sort, he
has the art of hrmly plant-
ing his and making
them live, and, as with the
hand of a visionary, a clair-
voyant, of imparting to
them all kinds of emotion,
condensed but fuily ex-
pressed, thanks to the con-
scientiousness, the sensb
tiveness, and the honesty
of his interpretation. In a
word, the artist grasps,
analyses, and expresses the
harmony of his subjects;
his picturesque translations
"unE PLACE, DOULLENs, soMME" BY A. LECHAT give one a deep sense of
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