DOI Heft:
Nr. 173 (July, 1911)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: The Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43447#0079
The Salon of the Societe Nationale
Rene Billotte, one of our best landscapists, and of
the American, Jules Stewart, whose portraits always
command attention.
It is the very large pictures which first attract
notice as one enters the vast rooms in the Grand
Palais, and for this reason, that while the pictures
of smaller dimensions are to be found in little
exhibitions, these huge works are only to be seen
at the Salon. I shall devote some space here to a
consideration of these large pieces of painting.
The two most important ones bear the signature of
M. Besnard and M. Rene Menard. The latter
has executed for the Savings Bank at Marseilles a
very fine and beautiful work which we reproduce.
Here we have one of those great and noble
classical landscapes of which this artist holds the
secret. The work is one of extreme harmony and
beauty, and is one that
should live to prove to
posterity that, despite the
numerous ugly and inap¬
propriate decorations to be
found in public buildings
and monuments, there have
been artists who have known
how to blend with the
modern spirit in their work
something of the sane and
high classical tradition.
M. Besnard exhibits a big
ceiling for the Theatre
Franqais, painted with all
his fine qualities as a
colourist and decorative
artist, but the work does
not gain by being seen so
close, or by being hung like
an ordinary picture, instead
of being seen high up and
from below. 'Phis must ex¬
plain why the public has
not comprehended M.
Besnard’s luminous com¬
position, to which I hope
we may return when it is
placed in its proper position
and may be seen with proper
lighting.
M. Alfred Roll, the
Society’s eminent President,
has been commissioned by
the Manufacture des Gobe¬
lins to execute a large
panel glorifying San-Martin,
the Liberator of the Argentine Republic; the
artist has produced a most vigorous work, and one
which lends itself admirably to reproduction as
a Gobelin tapestry. In the centre of the compo-
sition is seen the famous General mounted on a
powerful and fiery charger, in the forefront of a
battle, while above his head two figures of Victory
are painted with fine decorative effect. Behind the
Liberator’s horse M. Roll has most happily
depicted the lines of soldier’s who march, full of
enthusiasm, to victory. For the decorative sur-
roundings of the panel M. Roll has taken trees and
plants of the tropics as his motif, and has treated
them with fine effect of harmonious colour.
M. Caro-Delvaille always succeeds in arousing our
wonder by the admirable manner in which he treats
the nude. His picture is a classical composition,
“la i.econ de clavecin”
BY J. A. MUENIER
43
Rene Billotte, one of our best landscapists, and of
the American, Jules Stewart, whose portraits always
command attention.
It is the very large pictures which first attract
notice as one enters the vast rooms in the Grand
Palais, and for this reason, that while the pictures
of smaller dimensions are to be found in little
exhibitions, these huge works are only to be seen
at the Salon. I shall devote some space here to a
consideration of these large pieces of painting.
The two most important ones bear the signature of
M. Besnard and M. Rene Menard. The latter
has executed for the Savings Bank at Marseilles a
very fine and beautiful work which we reproduce.
Here we have one of those great and noble
classical landscapes of which this artist holds the
secret. The work is one of extreme harmony and
beauty, and is one that
should live to prove to
posterity that, despite the
numerous ugly and inap¬
propriate decorations to be
found in public buildings
and monuments, there have
been artists who have known
how to blend with the
modern spirit in their work
something of the sane and
high classical tradition.
M. Besnard exhibits a big
ceiling for the Theatre
Franqais, painted with all
his fine qualities as a
colourist and decorative
artist, but the work does
not gain by being seen so
close, or by being hung like
an ordinary picture, instead
of being seen high up and
from below. 'Phis must ex¬
plain why the public has
not comprehended M.
Besnard’s luminous com¬
position, to which I hope
we may return when it is
placed in its proper position
and may be seen with proper
lighting.
M. Alfred Roll, the
Society’s eminent President,
has been commissioned by
the Manufacture des Gobe¬
lins to execute a large
panel glorifying San-Martin,
the Liberator of the Argentine Republic; the
artist has produced a most vigorous work, and one
which lends itself admirably to reproduction as
a Gobelin tapestry. In the centre of the compo-
sition is seen the famous General mounted on a
powerful and fiery charger, in the forefront of a
battle, while above his head two figures of Victory
are painted with fine decorative effect. Behind the
Liberator’s horse M. Roll has most happily
depicted the lines of soldier’s who march, full of
enthusiasm, to victory. For the decorative sur-
roundings of the panel M. Roll has taken trees and
plants of the tropics as his motif, and has treated
them with fine effect of harmonious colour.
M. Caro-Delvaille always succeeds in arousing our
wonder by the admirable manner in which he treats
the nude. His picture is a classical composition,
“la i.econ de clavecin”
BY J. A. MUENIER
43