DOI issue:
No. 191 (January, 1913)
DOI article:Hoeber, Arthur: Henry Caro-Delvaille
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43451#0429
Henry Caro-Delvaille
PORTRAIT OF MADAME SIMONE CASIMIR PERIER
BY HENRY CARO-DELVAILLE
Only once in a great while does it
happen that the painter finds recogni-
tion from the very beginning of his career.
Such good fortune is the exception to the rule
in art where the tale is generally one of struggle
against odds, of patience well-nigh exhausted,
of hope deferred till the heart is sick. A'promi-
nent case in point happily of labor .rewarded, of
searchings culminating in appreciation, of com-
missions following serious application, of honors
supplementing earnest endeavor, is that of the
Frenchman, Henry Caro-Delvaille, today the
vogue in Paris, both as a painter of portraits and a
maker of decorative panels, a man barely thirty-
six, recognized, holding a place entirely his own,
and all this in a land where one has to be much out
Henry caro-delvaille
BY ARTHUR HOEBER
of the commonplace to attract attention, for your
French public has to be thoroughly convinced
before it will yield its capricious favor or, once
yielding it, continue to be loyal. “A picture,”
said a writer once, “is nature seen through a tem-
perament.” Surely it is late in the history of art
to see anything specially new in human nature, to
make of the portrait an accomplishment that shall
set the world talking. Singularly enough, how-
ever, this is what M. Caro-Delvaille has done and
done it by the most simple, direct methods.
A little more than a decade ago there appeared
in the Paris Salon a canvas so novel in arrange-
ment, so personal in color, so happy in the disposi-
tion of light and shade that the jaded public of
Gaul’s capital sat up and took notice. A charm-
ing, well-bred young woman half reclined on a
divan, while an elderly woman in black, with bon-
net on, manicured the nails of the younger lady.
Ordinarily one would say not an inspiring theme
for a painter! Yet there was the touch of nature,
the intimacy of a refined household. There were
grace and naturalness to the poses and, in spite of
everything, the canvas held one. A new note had
been struck. A painter far out of the common-
place had arrived. It was M. Caro-Delvaille’s
debut in the French official exhibition and, quite
unheralded, quite without influence, the picture
found instant favor with the jury and a medal
LXV
PORTRAIT OF MADAME SIMONE CASIMIR PERIER
BY HENRY CARO-DELVAILLE
Only once in a great while does it
happen that the painter finds recogni-
tion from the very beginning of his career.
Such good fortune is the exception to the rule
in art where the tale is generally one of struggle
against odds, of patience well-nigh exhausted,
of hope deferred till the heart is sick. A'promi-
nent case in point happily of labor .rewarded, of
searchings culminating in appreciation, of com-
missions following serious application, of honors
supplementing earnest endeavor, is that of the
Frenchman, Henry Caro-Delvaille, today the
vogue in Paris, both as a painter of portraits and a
maker of decorative panels, a man barely thirty-
six, recognized, holding a place entirely his own,
and all this in a land where one has to be much out
Henry caro-delvaille
BY ARTHUR HOEBER
of the commonplace to attract attention, for your
French public has to be thoroughly convinced
before it will yield its capricious favor or, once
yielding it, continue to be loyal. “A picture,”
said a writer once, “is nature seen through a tem-
perament.” Surely it is late in the history of art
to see anything specially new in human nature, to
make of the portrait an accomplishment that shall
set the world talking. Singularly enough, how-
ever, this is what M. Caro-Delvaille has done and
done it by the most simple, direct methods.
A little more than a decade ago there appeared
in the Paris Salon a canvas so novel in arrange-
ment, so personal in color, so happy in the disposi-
tion of light and shade that the jaded public of
Gaul’s capital sat up and took notice. A charm-
ing, well-bred young woman half reclined on a
divan, while an elderly woman in black, with bon-
net on, manicured the nails of the younger lady.
Ordinarily one would say not an inspiring theme
for a painter! Yet there was the touch of nature,
the intimacy of a refined household. There were
grace and naturalness to the poses and, in spite of
everything, the canvas held one. A new note had
been struck. A painter far out of the common-
place had arrived. It was M. Caro-Delvaille’s
debut in the French official exhibition and, quite
unheralded, quite without influence, the picture
found instant favor with the jury and a medal
LXV