DOI issue:
Nr. 197 (July, 1913)
DOI article:Frantz, Henri: The Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43453#0049
The Salon of the Societe Nationale, Paris
■depicted the monuments of the Capital with figures
•of famous men appearing among the clouds.
Works of large dimensions are less numerous
than usual this year. M. Besnard, that great
decorator, sends only a fine portrait of a man, but
M. Auburtin, on the contrary, has remained
faithful to decorative painting. His Nocturne,
depicting an aged faun playing upon his flute in
the trunk of a tree, while little nymphs har-
moniously grouped listen to his melodious piping,
is among these beautiful works. The moonlit
landscape is most happily treated.
M. Levy-Dhurmer is another artist who exhibits a
large decorative work of beautiful composition and
delightful conception, entitled Malgre les Parques,
in which the Fates are symbolised by young women
before whom all nature in springtime unfolds her-
self, and we see how admirably the master’s idea is
•expressed and developed in this painting.
As to M. Gaston La Touche, whose three large
■works Jeunesse, La Lecon d?Anatomie and La Nuit
joyeuse decorate a whole panel of the salle in which
they hang, there will be no dissentient voice raised
when I affirm that this artist is unquestionably in
the full tide of his talent. M. La Touche is
possessed of a masterly grace of vision and an
imagination which transforms all the scenes of
daily life into a dazzling fantasy. A supper-party
at a masked ball is for him an opportunity to play
brilliantly upon all the most unexpected notes in
the colour scale, and once again La Touche shows
himself as the prodigious master-colourist.
Menard, Simon and Cottet are always among the
most interesting exhibitors at the Nationale.
Menard shows only one work, a pine wood on the
shores of a pool in which two women are bathing,
but it is an exceedingly beautiful canvas. Lucien
Simon, on the other hand, is represented by several
pictures all very different in style; one is a kind
of oriental fantasy entitled Le Parc, which affords
him an excellent pretext for some powerful colour
effects ; in another, a large nude, very different from
BY FRANCOIS AUBURTIN
37
‘nocturne”
■depicted the monuments of the Capital with figures
•of famous men appearing among the clouds.
Works of large dimensions are less numerous
than usual this year. M. Besnard, that great
decorator, sends only a fine portrait of a man, but
M. Auburtin, on the contrary, has remained
faithful to decorative painting. His Nocturne,
depicting an aged faun playing upon his flute in
the trunk of a tree, while little nymphs har-
moniously grouped listen to his melodious piping,
is among these beautiful works. The moonlit
landscape is most happily treated.
M. Levy-Dhurmer is another artist who exhibits a
large decorative work of beautiful composition and
delightful conception, entitled Malgre les Parques,
in which the Fates are symbolised by young women
before whom all nature in springtime unfolds her-
self, and we see how admirably the master’s idea is
•expressed and developed in this painting.
As to M. Gaston La Touche, whose three large
■works Jeunesse, La Lecon d?Anatomie and La Nuit
joyeuse decorate a whole panel of the salle in which
they hang, there will be no dissentient voice raised
when I affirm that this artist is unquestionably in
the full tide of his talent. M. La Touche is
possessed of a masterly grace of vision and an
imagination which transforms all the scenes of
daily life into a dazzling fantasy. A supper-party
at a masked ball is for him an opportunity to play
brilliantly upon all the most unexpected notes in
the colour scale, and once again La Touche shows
himself as the prodigious master-colourist.
Menard, Simon and Cottet are always among the
most interesting exhibitors at the Nationale.
Menard shows only one work, a pine wood on the
shores of a pool in which two women are bathing,
but it is an exceedingly beautiful canvas. Lucien
Simon, on the other hand, is represented by several
pictures all very different in style; one is a kind
of oriental fantasy entitled Le Parc, which affords
him an excellent pretext for some powerful colour
effects ; in another, a large nude, very different from
BY FRANCOIS AUBURTIN
37
‘nocturne”