DOI issue:
Nr. 193 (März 1913)
DOI article:Paris, William Francklyn: The French Institute and "American" art
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43452#0368
The French Institute and “American" Art
THE LAST REBELS
BY BENJAMIN CONSTANT
ENGRAVED BY L. QUARANTE
The french institute and
“AMERICAN” ART
BY W. FRANCKLYN PARIS
The budget of information upon
which that portion of New York’s population
which devotes itself to art has had to depend in
the past for its theories of technique, its history
and its general rhetoric of form and color, has been
enriched in the past few weeks by the gift to the
recently launched French Institute and Museum
of French Art in the United States of a very com-
plete library of books treating the subject of art
in nearly every conceivable form of its application.
Although the collections of writings on art pos-
sessed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
the New York Public Library are notable in many
respects, the new collection is unique in that it
contains a great many works not usually accessible
to the general public. These are for the most part
volumes written and published under the patron-
age of the Ministry of Fine Arts of France and
containing rare plates, many of them of art works
which have since been destroyed, some of them
during the evil days of the French Revolution and
others during the Commune.
The gift of these priceless writings is made to
the French Institute by the French Government
and comes as a further proof of the interest felt
in French official circles for the Institute’s welfare
in this country.
Less than a month ago the French committee of
the Institute, hearing that the project had pro-
gressed to the point where headquarters had been
rented, insisted upon assuming a share in the ex-
pense of decorating the main exhibition room, and
to that effect forwarded to the chairman of the
board of trustees of the Institute, the Hon.
McDougall Hawkes, a splendid collection of
prints, etchings and woodcuts, all after famous
paintings.
Thanks to this generous double gift of the
French nation, the Institute was able to formally
dedicate its “local” at Madison Avenue and
Forty-seventh Street last month. On this occa-
sion the French ambassador, M. Jules Jusserand,
renewed the pledge of official support of the Insti-
tute given last April in behalf of France by
Gabriel Hanotaux, former minister of foreign
affairs, and announced a series of lectures and
exhibitions.
The first of these lectures was delivered on
December 8 by Louis Hourticq, Inspector of Fine
Arts of the city of Paris, on the subject of painting
and society in France in the eighteenth century.
As for the exhibits, two are under preparation and
a third is likely. The first is to reveal to American
appreciation the work of Albert Besnard, a master
of color, whose fame has long been established in
France but whose work is as yet but little known
in this country.
The other two exhibits will consist, one of archi-
tectural drawings and the other of paintings.
The architectural exhibit will present the work
xv
THE LAST REBELS
BY BENJAMIN CONSTANT
ENGRAVED BY L. QUARANTE
The french institute and
“AMERICAN” ART
BY W. FRANCKLYN PARIS
The budget of information upon
which that portion of New York’s population
which devotes itself to art has had to depend in
the past for its theories of technique, its history
and its general rhetoric of form and color, has been
enriched in the past few weeks by the gift to the
recently launched French Institute and Museum
of French Art in the United States of a very com-
plete library of books treating the subject of art
in nearly every conceivable form of its application.
Although the collections of writings on art pos-
sessed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
the New York Public Library are notable in many
respects, the new collection is unique in that it
contains a great many works not usually accessible
to the general public. These are for the most part
volumes written and published under the patron-
age of the Ministry of Fine Arts of France and
containing rare plates, many of them of art works
which have since been destroyed, some of them
during the evil days of the French Revolution and
others during the Commune.
The gift of these priceless writings is made to
the French Institute by the French Government
and comes as a further proof of the interest felt
in French official circles for the Institute’s welfare
in this country.
Less than a month ago the French committee of
the Institute, hearing that the project had pro-
gressed to the point where headquarters had been
rented, insisted upon assuming a share in the ex-
pense of decorating the main exhibition room, and
to that effect forwarded to the chairman of the
board of trustees of the Institute, the Hon.
McDougall Hawkes, a splendid collection of
prints, etchings and woodcuts, all after famous
paintings.
Thanks to this generous double gift of the
French nation, the Institute was able to formally
dedicate its “local” at Madison Avenue and
Forty-seventh Street last month. On this occa-
sion the French ambassador, M. Jules Jusserand,
renewed the pledge of official support of the Insti-
tute given last April in behalf of France by
Gabriel Hanotaux, former minister of foreign
affairs, and announced a series of lectures and
exhibitions.
The first of these lectures was delivered on
December 8 by Louis Hourticq, Inspector of Fine
Arts of the city of Paris, on the subject of painting
and society in France in the eighteenth century.
As for the exhibits, two are under preparation and
a third is likely. The first is to reveal to American
appreciation the work of Albert Besnard, a master
of color, whose fame has long been established in
France but whose work is as yet but little known
in this country.
The other two exhibits will consist, one of archi-
tectural drawings and the other of paintings.
The architectural exhibit will present the work
xv