DOI article:
MacChesney, Clara T.: American artists in Paris
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0108
American Artists in Paris
TOILERS OF THE SEA BY JOHN NOBLE
fortunate possessor. It shows a nude woman
lying on a mauve shawl on a river bank, an open
parasol is placed at the upper right corner. Flecks
of sunlight coming through the trees fall on the
exquisitely modelled rose and mauve tinted body.
The picture has rare beauty and great poetic
charm. Frieseke has outdone himself.
Summer, which is reproduced here, is one of the
most successful of the many similar subjects he
has painted the past eight years. The partial in-
troduction of two figures on the left is a new and
successful departure. The reclining figure is a
marvel of execution, seen in a blaze of sunlight;
all shadows are made hot and luminous. The
indication of the limbs under the dress, the paint-
ing of the still life, the fruit, carafe of water and
tea things is a great achievement.
Among the newer men, John Noble is the
most poetic, and has a technique peculiarly his
own (with apologies to the critic above men-
tioned). His early life was spent at Wichita, in
the Osage Indian reservation, now part of Kan-
sas. From a sheep-herder to an artist is a far cry.
Numerous were the adventures and varied the
life until he drifted into the Cincinnati Academy.
From there he went to the Mecca of all art stu-
dents, Paris, and studied under J. P. Laurens at
Julien’s. For nine years he has lived in and
painted the fisher-folk of Brittany. The last five
years he has been a member of the art colony at
Trepied, a village near well-known Etaples in the
north of France.
The half-tone above is of his picture now on
exhibition at Shepherd’s Bush, and represents the
Breton fishermen pulling a boat out of the surf.
He generally sees nature in a mist of
blue and rose. He sometimes ad-
vances far into the field of the im-
pressionist and gives us bold, crude,
decorative effects, in direct contrast
to his more finished pictures. Of his
Moonlight on the Sea, enveloped in a
fog, a French critic says: “An artist
must be both painter and poet to
bathe his pictures in an atmosphere
so poetic and so true. He has given,
with an infinite delicacy, the pale,
unreal light of the morning fog. It
would be impossible to find more
feeling or sensitiveness in a picture
than Noble has here expressed.
His technique is marvellously suited
to the subjects he treats.” A true
artist creates his own point of view.
This is a sign of genius. Noble has undoubtedly
his particular viewpoint.
Roy Brown, equally forceful, but vastly dif-
ferent in conception, is a landscapist. He sees
the dunes, the lanes, the pines of Trepied, from
a bold, vigorous standpoint, which is sometimes
decorative. Breadth and great simplicity are his
aim. He lays on the paint in thick, broad strokes,
and his colour is often as brilliant as the pigment
allows. His Haystacks at Shepherd’s Bush is one of
the strongest of his canvases which it has been my
CONSOLATION BY ELIZABETH NOURSE
XXV
TOILERS OF THE SEA BY JOHN NOBLE
fortunate possessor. It shows a nude woman
lying on a mauve shawl on a river bank, an open
parasol is placed at the upper right corner. Flecks
of sunlight coming through the trees fall on the
exquisitely modelled rose and mauve tinted body.
The picture has rare beauty and great poetic
charm. Frieseke has outdone himself.
Summer, which is reproduced here, is one of the
most successful of the many similar subjects he
has painted the past eight years. The partial in-
troduction of two figures on the left is a new and
successful departure. The reclining figure is a
marvel of execution, seen in a blaze of sunlight;
all shadows are made hot and luminous. The
indication of the limbs under the dress, the paint-
ing of the still life, the fruit, carafe of water and
tea things is a great achievement.
Among the newer men, John Noble is the
most poetic, and has a technique peculiarly his
own (with apologies to the critic above men-
tioned). His early life was spent at Wichita, in
the Osage Indian reservation, now part of Kan-
sas. From a sheep-herder to an artist is a far cry.
Numerous were the adventures and varied the
life until he drifted into the Cincinnati Academy.
From there he went to the Mecca of all art stu-
dents, Paris, and studied under J. P. Laurens at
Julien’s. For nine years he has lived in and
painted the fisher-folk of Brittany. The last five
years he has been a member of the art colony at
Trepied, a village near well-known Etaples in the
north of France.
The half-tone above is of his picture now on
exhibition at Shepherd’s Bush, and represents the
Breton fishermen pulling a boat out of the surf.
He generally sees nature in a mist of
blue and rose. He sometimes ad-
vances far into the field of the im-
pressionist and gives us bold, crude,
decorative effects, in direct contrast
to his more finished pictures. Of his
Moonlight on the Sea, enveloped in a
fog, a French critic says: “An artist
must be both painter and poet to
bathe his pictures in an atmosphere
so poetic and so true. He has given,
with an infinite delicacy, the pale,
unreal light of the morning fog. It
would be impossible to find more
feeling or sensitiveness in a picture
than Noble has here expressed.
His technique is marvellously suited
to the subjects he treats.” A true
artist creates his own point of view.
This is a sign of genius. Noble has undoubtedly
his particular viewpoint.
Roy Brown, equally forceful, but vastly dif-
ferent in conception, is a landscapist. He sees
the dunes, the lanes, the pines of Trepied, from
a bold, vigorous standpoint, which is sometimes
decorative. Breadth and great simplicity are his
aim. He lays on the paint in thick, broad strokes,
and his colour is often as brilliant as the pigment
allows. His Haystacks at Shepherd’s Bush is one of
the strongest of his canvases which it has been my
CONSOLATION BY ELIZABETH NOURSE
XXV