DOI article:
Segard, Achille: The recent work of Aman Jean
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43455#0104
M. Aman Jeans Recent Work
The recent work of aman
JEAN. BY ACHILLE SEGARD.
At the present moment M. Aman Jean is at
his zenith. He is in the full tide of his maturity, of
his experience, of his talent, and he has succeeded
in retaining a youthful sensitiveness which awakens
ever anew before all the varied spectacles of nature.
Urban and rural scenes, human faces and domestic
interiors, sky effects or the sight of objects bathed
in the intime atmosphere of rooms in which one
can feel the aura of those who inhabit them—all
such are for this artist motives to arouse his
wonder, and each new vision imposes itself through
the medium of his eyes upon his ever-sensitive
imagination. Here we have no realist in the narrow
sense that is customarily attributed to that word.
He does not copy actuality with that devotion to
rigorous exactitude adopted by those painters who
essential factor in this class of picture, constrains
the artist to maintain very closely the contact with
objective reality. It is absolutely necessary that
his observation should be serious, profound, and
attentive ; that it should seize upon all the expres-
sive characteristics of the physiognomy, of the
attitude, of the gestures of the sitter, and that the
observer should be able to recognise in the portrait
the construction of the head and of the body, the
just proportions of the masses, the peculiarities of
the natural colouring, and even those characteristic
details or idiosyncrasies such as, for instance, any
asymmetry of the features or chance deforma-
tion of the hands, the shoulders, or the body in
general. And yet a portrait possessed of no further
merit beyond such exactitude as this would not be
a fine portrait. Over and above the outward
semblance of the sitter, M. Aman Jean strives
always to capture such elusive essentials as his
are devoid of imagina-
tion. What he depicts
is a reflection of the
emotion which nature,
which human faces and
inanimate objects arouse
in himself. Nevertheless,
since that emotion is
always of a pictorial order,
we never find stretched
beyond reasonable
bounds in his pictures
that requisite and indis-
pensable link with reality
which every work of art
must establish and
maintain.
Nor does M. Aman
Jean cling to that ob-
jective reality to which
philosophers have given
the designation ofPrimary
Reality. Through and
beyond this observation
of actualities he desires
to attain to that Secondary
Reality which in the case
of a painter is always of
an emotional nature.
While suggested, in-
deed, by his entire oeuvre,
this fundamental distinc-
tion is particularly in evi-
dence in his portraits.
■
Vv
•■'.L
* q
FUblic liq
CEDAR '
. 1/ JUIT
? A
■ 13^*
■■
The likeness, such an
LII. No. 206.—April 1914
STUDY OF A WOMAN SEATED
BY AMAN JEAN
89
The recent work of aman
JEAN. BY ACHILLE SEGARD.
At the present moment M. Aman Jean is at
his zenith. He is in the full tide of his maturity, of
his experience, of his talent, and he has succeeded
in retaining a youthful sensitiveness which awakens
ever anew before all the varied spectacles of nature.
Urban and rural scenes, human faces and domestic
interiors, sky effects or the sight of objects bathed
in the intime atmosphere of rooms in which one
can feel the aura of those who inhabit them—all
such are for this artist motives to arouse his
wonder, and each new vision imposes itself through
the medium of his eyes upon his ever-sensitive
imagination. Here we have no realist in the narrow
sense that is customarily attributed to that word.
He does not copy actuality with that devotion to
rigorous exactitude adopted by those painters who
essential factor in this class of picture, constrains
the artist to maintain very closely the contact with
objective reality. It is absolutely necessary that
his observation should be serious, profound, and
attentive ; that it should seize upon all the expres-
sive characteristics of the physiognomy, of the
attitude, of the gestures of the sitter, and that the
observer should be able to recognise in the portrait
the construction of the head and of the body, the
just proportions of the masses, the peculiarities of
the natural colouring, and even those characteristic
details or idiosyncrasies such as, for instance, any
asymmetry of the features or chance deforma-
tion of the hands, the shoulders, or the body in
general. And yet a portrait possessed of no further
merit beyond such exactitude as this would not be
a fine portrait. Over and above the outward
semblance of the sitter, M. Aman Jean strives
always to capture such elusive essentials as his
are devoid of imagina-
tion. What he depicts
is a reflection of the
emotion which nature,
which human faces and
inanimate objects arouse
in himself. Nevertheless,
since that emotion is
always of a pictorial order,
we never find stretched
beyond reasonable
bounds in his pictures
that requisite and indis-
pensable link with reality
which every work of art
must establish and
maintain.
Nor does M. Aman
Jean cling to that ob-
jective reality to which
philosophers have given
the designation ofPrimary
Reality. Through and
beyond this observation
of actualities he desires
to attain to that Secondary
Reality which in the case
of a painter is always of
an emotional nature.
While suggested, in-
deed, by his entire oeuvre,
this fundamental distinc-
tion is particularly in evi-
dence in his portraits.
■
Vv
•■'.L
* q
FUblic liq
CEDAR '
. 1/ JUIT
? A
■ 13^*
■■
The likeness, such an
LII. No. 206.—April 1914
STUDY OF A WOMAN SEATED
BY AMAN JEAN
89