International studio (48.1913)

Henry Caro-Delvaille

resulted. The artist was a lad of twenty-four, a
chap with jet-black hair, an alert face, a serious-
minded worker, full of enthusiasm, deadly in
earnest, a painter by the grace of God, who was so
overcome by his unexpected good fortune that he
jumped into a cab and rode about Paris that he
might hide his smiles and curb his crazy joy •
Yet this was about all the vacation he allowed
himself, for his profession was his life. Away
from his easel he moped, pined. His was the
gospel of work and again work. Not mere labor,
but intelligent work, scheming, studying, analyz-
ing, preparation to the end that he should make
the most of his endowments. And from that time
his life has been uneventful, save as he has passed
certain milestones in the road of art. Three years
later came a work that was yet a serious advance,
a portrait group of his wife and her sisters. Here,
in the splendid pride of maternity, sat Madame
Caro-Delvaille, with her first-born at her breast,
the mother clad in evening dress, her lovely, illu-
mined face looking out at you with breeding and
charm. At a table two handsome young girls play
chess. Over the shoulder of one of these lovingly
leans still another sister, while the last of the quin-

tette, a young child almost, passes somerefresh-
ments. A family party such as one might be per-
mitted to see “chez eux.” Indeed, so free was the
canvas from any suggestion of pose, one really felt
intruding at gazing at the intimate gathering of
the sisters. Apathetic Paris was again stirred.
The Minister of Fine Arts bought the work for the
Musee de Luxembourg, and there came that simple
scrap of red ribbon that means so much in the
world of art, for Monsieur Caro-Delvaille had
been created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor!
To tell more simply would be to chronicle a
series of continued successes, of portraits of the
great in their various walks of art, for M. Caro-
Delvaille has painted people congenial to him,
leaders of the dramatic and operatic stage, writers,
artists like himself. Mme. Rostand sat to him
and the Rostand house was embellished by the
man’s beautiful decorations. In this field he has
accomplished much and of a varied sort and com-
missions came to him a-plenty. He was born at
Bayonne, France, close to the Spanish border from
which country came his forebears to settle at Bay-
onne. From there, too, came his master, the dis-
tinguished portrait painter, Leon Bonnat, with
whom he studied at the
Ecole des Beaux Arts, in
Paris. M. Caro-Delvaille
at present is in New York,
where he will remain for
some months, completing
portrait commissions, and,
later in the season, we are
promised an exhibition of
his works at the galleries
of E. Gimpel & Wilden-
stein, 636 Fifth Avenue.
Even now one may see
there two of his better-
known canvases, one a por-
trait of the distinguished
French actress, Mme. Si-
mone, now playing here,
the other a group of the
painter’s wife and two
children.
It is always a stimulus
not only to the lay ob-
server but to the painters
of this country as well
when a European of such
marked brilliancy and chic
as M. Delvaille exhibits.

PORTRAIT OF MADAME LACLOCHE BY HENRY CARO-DELVAILLE


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