DOI Artikel:
Segard, Achille: The recent work of Aman Jean
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43455#0108
M. Aman Jeans Recent Work
indefinable irradiancy which painters are ac-
customed to refer to as the “ atmospheric
envelope.”
All bodies are luminous by virtue of their
radiance. The draughtsmanship of M. Aman Jean
takes cognisance of this radiance. Look, for in-
stance, at the drawing of
a woman seated, which
we reproduce on page 89 ;
around the arms and the
curve of the back one can
almost see the refraction
of the light on the skin
and the little tremulous
reflections which play
upon the surface of the
flesh. This is an entirely
characteristic drawing
produced by the artist in
accord with his own
peculiar vision, and it
is eminently expressive of
his particular shade of
visual and emotional
sensitiveness.
Colour is, however, for
M. Aman Jean par
excellence the medium of
expression. One feels
that this artist thinks in
terms of colour, much
more so than in terms of
line or mass. Colour in
his work is a language by
means of which all visual
emotions may find their
expression. His art has
often been commended
for its novelty, its delicacy,
its charm, and in certain
instances for its power.
But what has not been
placed in sufficiently bold
relief is the rigorous equa¬
tion we find therein estab-
trasts of words. Out of his use of colour arises a
new tongue, entirely his own, by which M. Aman
Jean makes comprehensible to such as look with
sympathetic understanding, nuances of feeling and
refinements of emotion which no other human
language is capable of expressing.
Touching the “arab-
esque.” Here we have
one of the most charac-
teristic peculiarities of
the artist’s conception of
a work of art. It is as
much by the “ arab-
esque ” as by the draw-
ing and the colour, and,
indeed more so than by
the feeling for mass and
modelling, that M. Aman
Jean is a great decorator.
By the reproduction
given of the vast panel
which he has painted for
the Physics Lecture
Theatre at the Sorbonne,
our readers may judge
whether the artist is pos-
sessed of pictorial ideas,
and whether he knows
how to compose a work
with harmony and taste.
But many, even among
the most competent
judges, had not expected
the incontestable and
striking proof afforded by
a great composition like
this that M. Aman
Jean is possessed of the
most harmonious and
refined sense for decora-
tion.
Even in his portraits
of women seen in an
interior, or still more so
in those female portraits
DECORATIVE PANEL
BY AMAN JEAN
lished between the motif of nature, the ardent
emotion of the painter, and its expression through
the medium of colour. Here we have a pheno-
menon worthy of a careful study. Just as we think
by means of words, so does M. Aman Jean think
in terms of tone ; and his harmonies or contrasts
of tone are, to those who love and understand
painting, as clear and as expressive as are, in the
phrases of a writer, novel combinations or con-
posed with a park as a background, where fountains
play and where the scene is enclosed with garlands
of flowers or foliage and the verdure of leafy groves,
we can recognise the quality, so essential in a
decorative artist, of not restricting the significance
of the work to the confines of the interest of the
motif represented, but, on the contrary, of giving
to the entire composition an indefinable something
of wider import. So we find in the pictures of
indefinable irradiancy which painters are ac-
customed to refer to as the “ atmospheric
envelope.”
All bodies are luminous by virtue of their
radiance. The draughtsmanship of M. Aman Jean
takes cognisance of this radiance. Look, for in-
stance, at the drawing of
a woman seated, which
we reproduce on page 89 ;
around the arms and the
curve of the back one can
almost see the refraction
of the light on the skin
and the little tremulous
reflections which play
upon the surface of the
flesh. This is an entirely
characteristic drawing
produced by the artist in
accord with his own
peculiar vision, and it
is eminently expressive of
his particular shade of
visual and emotional
sensitiveness.
Colour is, however, for
M. Aman Jean par
excellence the medium of
expression. One feels
that this artist thinks in
terms of colour, much
more so than in terms of
line or mass. Colour in
his work is a language by
means of which all visual
emotions may find their
expression. His art has
often been commended
for its novelty, its delicacy,
its charm, and in certain
instances for its power.
But what has not been
placed in sufficiently bold
relief is the rigorous equa¬
tion we find therein estab-
trasts of words. Out of his use of colour arises a
new tongue, entirely his own, by which M. Aman
Jean makes comprehensible to such as look with
sympathetic understanding, nuances of feeling and
refinements of emotion which no other human
language is capable of expressing.
Touching the “arab-
esque.” Here we have
one of the most charac-
teristic peculiarities of
the artist’s conception of
a work of art. It is as
much by the “ arab-
esque ” as by the draw-
ing and the colour, and,
indeed more so than by
the feeling for mass and
modelling, that M. Aman
Jean is a great decorator.
By the reproduction
given of the vast panel
which he has painted for
the Physics Lecture
Theatre at the Sorbonne,
our readers may judge
whether the artist is pos-
sessed of pictorial ideas,
and whether he knows
how to compose a work
with harmony and taste.
But many, even among
the most competent
judges, had not expected
the incontestable and
striking proof afforded by
a great composition like
this that M. Aman
Jean is possessed of the
most harmonious and
refined sense for decora-
tion.
Even in his portraits
of women seen in an
interior, or still more so
in those female portraits
DECORATIVE PANEL
BY AMAN JEAN
lished between the motif of nature, the ardent
emotion of the painter, and its expression through
the medium of colour. Here we have a pheno-
menon worthy of a careful study. Just as we think
by means of words, so does M. Aman Jean think
in terms of tone ; and his harmonies or contrasts
of tone are, to those who love and understand
painting, as clear and as expressive as are, in the
phrases of a writer, novel combinations or con-
posed with a park as a background, where fountains
play and where the scene is enclosed with garlands
of flowers or foliage and the verdure of leafy groves,
we can recognise the quality, so essential in a
decorative artist, of not restricting the significance
of the work to the confines of the interest of the
motif represented, but, on the contrary, of giving
to the entire composition an indefinable something
of wider import. So we find in the pictures of