International studio (58.1916)

The Lithographs of Corot

quality he sought to achieve so that “ the swallows
could fly through”; nevertheless it is to be
observed that many of his finest pictures—the most
subtle, the most poetic—were painted in the brief
period between the cessation of the Avar in 187 r
and his death in 1875.
The question whether a drawing on transfer
paper can be properly designated a lithograph has
sometimes been disputed, and the fact remains that
these are not drawn directly on the lithographic
stone from which they are printed. The trans-
ference from the autographic paper to the stone
is, however, merely a mechanical piece of work
that any ordinarily intelligent workman can accom-
plish, and in my view it is quite proper to call
these prints lithographs, as it is through the litho-
graphic process that they are multiplied.
There was once a famous lawsuit over this very
point. In the “Saturday Review” of December
26, 1896, an article by Mr. Walter Sickert appeared
which argued that for Mr. Joseph Pennell, whose
work was in discussion, to pass off drawings made
on paper as lithographs was “misleading” and
“ amounted to a charge of dishonesty.” An apology
was demanded and refused, and in the following
April Mr. Pennell, supported by Mr. Whistler,
brought an action against the writer, and was
awarded ^'50 damages. I remember the excite-
ment of the trial, which made some good reading
in the newspapers of the time ; and as I was one of
the witnesses, I attended throughout. When the
case was half-way through I was unwise enough to
declare that I was sure Mr. Pennell would win and
that he would get /200 damages, and my dis-
appointment at the smallness of the sum awarded
was severe. But perhaps the amount was large
from the point of view of a British jury, for the
courts had awarded Whistler only one farthing
in the famous Ruskin trial nearly twenty years
before.
It was this transfer paper that Whistler used in his
lithographic work, and he always carried it with him
when not employing colour. I well remember
sitting beside the fascinating artist in my own
drawing-room while he sketched in and completed
the now well-known lithograph of my daughter.
And I also remember on another occasion piloting
Whistler, who had his litho-paper in his hand, down
to Blackheath to visit that sympathetic collector
Mr. Alexander Young and his wonderful gallery;
yet Whistler found no subject that day, and
returned home with me rather disappointed, and
with an empty drawing sheet.
Of the eight subjects we reproduce from the series

of 1872 four were executed in Arras and four
in Douai, and the titles printed are those given
by Alfred Robaut when he prepared a list of all
the artist’s work. Our first plate, Le Repos des
Philosophes, is one of the most characteristic of
Corot’s subjects, and it was also the first in the 1872
portfolio. The little figures, as was almost always
the case in Corot’s pictures, are treated only as part
of the general composition, and the real charm is
conveyed in the interlacing tree trunks and above
all in the softness and lightness of the foliage. In
the next, Le Clocher de Saint-Nicolas-lez-Arras,
the feathery trees are again in full evidence, and
altogether this is one of the most charming of the
number.
Le Rencontre au Bosquet is the most hastily pro-
duced of all, and the indication of the trees to the
left is a kind of shorthand sketching which is inter-
esting to see when made by a master, but in a less
skilful hand would be unintelligible. The figures
are also hinted at rather than drawn. The fourth
(of the mill of Cuinchy near Douai) has points in
common with the earlier and the later works by
the artist. The cottages recall the form he
employed in his earlier days ; while the trees, and
especially the one fallen across the foreground,
remind one of the picture of the Route d’Arras
in the Thomy-Thiery collection, where the same
idea is employed to enrich the front plan of the
composition. The fifth, Souvenir LItalie, is a
very careful and complete composition, and was
certainly produced from one of Corot’s earlier
studies. The castellated building was frequently
employed by our artist in his early years, and no
point in a picture seems to have impressed itself
so much on him during the whole course of his
artistic career. He returns again and again to it,
and it must be allowed with unfailing success. In
this print the tones of the landscape are most
carefully and accurately rendered, and altogether
it is one of the best of Corot’s lithographs.
Of the remaining three lithographs, Le Coup
de Vent is only a brilliant recollection of one
of his best known pictures, while La Tour Lsolee
is a pen-drawing made on transfer paper, and
therefore has less quality of tone than the others,
which were drawn with crayon or chalk. In the
last, Le Dormoir des Vaches, the masses of the
trees are much more heavily represented than in
most of the others, and the general arrangement is
almost suitable to be worked in tapestry.
A word may be added respecting the four
remaining subjects of the portfolio which are not
here reproduced. Le Cavalier dans les Roseaux

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