DOI article:
Segard, Achille: A French painter: Lucien Simon
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43450#0106
Lucien Simon
growing will and a budding personality. He
has studied and scrutinised the physiognomy of
the elder, in which the mystery of adolescence is
beginning to appear—the tender softness of
the eyes, the freshness of the cheeks, the warm
colour of healthy life, and the pure and open
countenance. There is no doubt that the young
man seated at the rudder plays his principal role
by introducing into the composition the dark note
of colour with his jersey and the yellow of his
other clothing. But the father has depicted with joy
all there is of virility and frankness in this silhouette
of the youth who holds the tiller of the little vessel
in which his sisters love to lie and dream, who
guards and watches over them, and who later
on will follow the traditions and take upon himself
for their welfare and their protection something of
the parental authority. What gives to this picture
its particular value is the happy proportion of the
masses and the quality of the tones subtending
one another in a restricted gamut of colour. But
the emotional quality which is here revealed and
the projection upon canvas of paternal affection—
this is what gives to the picture its sentimental
appeal. Let us, however, recognise that this
sentimental value is extremely discreet, restrained
almost to excess, and that it is not manifest to all
beholders. It may be that in future pictures this
emotional quality may become less and less pro-
minent as the art of Lucien Simon develops. It
forms, however, in all his works an element of
capital importance, and one which must not be
neglected when we seek to explain why one is so
much attracted by his pictures. It is naturally
more prominent in the numerous compositions in
which the painter has taken as models his wife or
his daughters, but it may be found—if one takes
the trouble to seek for it—in all his productions.
Take as another example the picture entitled
Le Bal (p. ioi). This picture gives us an interesting
side-light upon the manner in which he works. One
cannot imagine that in painting this picture he could
have obtained even a single sitting at which to pose
the figures. How then did he proceed ? He has
himself explained his method in an analogous
case. “ I make a chance entry, and upon the first
“ LE DEBARQUEMENT ”
94
FROM THE OIL PAINTING BY LUCIEN SIMON
growing will and a budding personality. He
has studied and scrutinised the physiognomy of
the elder, in which the mystery of adolescence is
beginning to appear—the tender softness of
the eyes, the freshness of the cheeks, the warm
colour of healthy life, and the pure and open
countenance. There is no doubt that the young
man seated at the rudder plays his principal role
by introducing into the composition the dark note
of colour with his jersey and the yellow of his
other clothing. But the father has depicted with joy
all there is of virility and frankness in this silhouette
of the youth who holds the tiller of the little vessel
in which his sisters love to lie and dream, who
guards and watches over them, and who later
on will follow the traditions and take upon himself
for their welfare and their protection something of
the parental authority. What gives to this picture
its particular value is the happy proportion of the
masses and the quality of the tones subtending
one another in a restricted gamut of colour. But
the emotional quality which is here revealed and
the projection upon canvas of paternal affection—
this is what gives to the picture its sentimental
appeal. Let us, however, recognise that this
sentimental value is extremely discreet, restrained
almost to excess, and that it is not manifest to all
beholders. It may be that in future pictures this
emotional quality may become less and less pro-
minent as the art of Lucien Simon develops. It
forms, however, in all his works an element of
capital importance, and one which must not be
neglected when we seek to explain why one is so
much attracted by his pictures. It is naturally
more prominent in the numerous compositions in
which the painter has taken as models his wife or
his daughters, but it may be found—if one takes
the trouble to seek for it—in all his productions.
Take as another example the picture entitled
Le Bal (p. ioi). This picture gives us an interesting
side-light upon the manner in which he works. One
cannot imagine that in painting this picture he could
have obtained even a single sitting at which to pose
the figures. How then did he proceed ? He has
himself explained his method in an analogous
case. “ I make a chance entry, and upon the first
“ LE DEBARQUEMENT ”
94
FROM THE OIL PAINTING BY LUCIEN SIMON