International studio (60.1916/1917)

Henri Harpignies: In Memoriam

La Place d'Hcrisson and Le petit village de
Chasteloy, water-colours of 1876 and 1877; Le
Vieux Noyer and Les Dindons de Mme. Heraut,
two souvenirs of the Allier of 1878 and 1879.
As a water-colour artist, Harpignies was without
a rival in France. His work in this branch of art
cannot be too highly praised, for whilst attaining
pre-eminence he proved himself to be a veritable
pioneer. Having worked incessantly at water-
colours for fourteen years, he at last decided to
exhibit them for the first time at the 1864 Salon,
and although only a chosen few may have imme-
diately recognised how beautifully fresh and limpid
these little works were—how different from the
weak and finicking productions of the water-
colourists of the Second Empire—it was not long
before others were taking their inspiration from
him. As one of the forerunners,
if not the founder, of the modern
school of water-colour painting
in France, his work was much
appreciated abroad, especially in
England and the United States.
It was, I imagine, his water¬
colours rather than his oil paint-
ings which made the work of
Henri Harpignies known among
English art lovers. By some
among us, indeed, his vigorous art
was never recognised at all, as
shown by a curious incident which
arose nearly twenty years ago,
when the great artist, for a magni¬
ficent picture of The Banks of the
Rhone, received the highest Salon
award — the medaille d'honneur.
The year after, Harpignies ventured
to send this superb work, in which
the earth, the water and the trees
formed one of the most enchant-
ing poems of Nature imaginable,
to the Royal Academy. Judge
of his astonishment when he learnt
that the jury had rejected it!
“ He worked until his very last
day,” said M. Leon Bonnat, the
painter of one of the best like¬
nesses of Harpignies, “and his
later works, ever bearing the
impress of his strong originality,
are in no way inferior to those of
his youth and prime. With him
there disappears one of the most
glorious representatives of that
136

admirable pleiad of landscape painters who cast
so much splendour on the French School. But
Harpignies was not only a great painter and the
most devoted of masters to his pupils : he was
also a faithful friend whose charm he who writes
these lines was able to appreciate for nearly sixty
years. Possessing an opinionated character, like
his vigorous art, he was fully conscious of his own
value, and sometimes was not sparing in his
criticism of those who did not share his views;
but he often tempered his severity by the gentle-
ness of his language and the infinite grace of the
intonation of his voice.”
No more fitting tribute than this, pronounced
by the Director of the Ecole Nationale Superieure
des Beaux-Arts at the graveside of the “ Old Oak,”
at Saint Prive, and in the presence of a large


“SPRING” WATER-COLOUR BY HENRI HARPIGNIES
(Zoubalof Collection, Petit-Palais, Paris)