DOI Heft:
No. 39 (June, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Mourey, Gabriel: The Salon of the Champ de Mars
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17297#0039
The Salon of the Champ de Mars
work. M. Baertsoen is an artist of whom much is performance, for it is quite lacking in sincerity and
to be expected. His Soir sur I'Escaut, repro- shows unmistakable signs of a straining after theatri-
duced here, appears to me full of intense emotional cal effect. A religious picture like this demands
poetry, with no straining whatever after theatrical more naivete, more fervour, more simplicity,
effect. The calm twilight, the simple lines of the At last we come across something fresh, MM.
far-off horizon, the perfect stillness of the water re- Rene Menard and Charles Cottet being the
fleeting the boats on its surface—all this appeals to artists who have produced it. Their names should
one's soul, while it charms the eye and turns the be remembered, for they are two of the painters of
mind to reverie. How far removed we are here to-morrow. Both of them should go far in their
from the extravagances of the impressionist. We respective directions. M. Menard's Le Crcpuscule,
find ourselves in quite another realm of art, where his Effet d'Orage and his Ctel d'Orage seem to con-
everything is expressed fervently, yet orderly, with- tain all the qualities belonging to the great masters ;
out excess, without bias, simply and logically. It and as for M. Cottet, one may safely predict that,
will certainly always be a great satisfaction to me his youth notwithstanding, if he can only resist the
to have been one of the first in France to appre- sophistries of teachers whose sole interest it is to
ciate M. Baertsoen at his proper value. exploit the rare and original gifts of their pupils, he
M. J. F. Raffaelli's exhibits reveal this most has a splendid career before him. His series, Au
interesting artist in a new manner, which seems to Pays de la Mer, consisting of nine canvases, is the
show that he has thrown off his former method and work of a genuine painter, one who is in no way
gained in clearness and
delicacy thereby. His
Notre-Dame de Paris is a
charming piece of painting ;
and still better is his Por-
trait de ma fille Germaine, a
clear and delicate colour-
scheme like a pastel of the
eighteenth century. No
such praise can be accorded
to M. G. Roger, who, so
far from gaining in strength
and sureness, seems to have
lost tone and forgotten the
secret of those graceful
qualities which charmed us
so greatly in his exhibits last
year. He has three pictures
on the present occasion,
and everything about them,
figures and inanimate ob-
jects alike, seems to be
floating in an impossible
atmosphere, dull and vague
and glaucous, like that of
an aquarium. Just as inde-
fensible is this yellow light
flooding the face of Christ
and his Apostles in M.
Dagnan's La Cine. Despite
all the artist's endeavour to
give character to this work
by deep attention to the
faces of his figures, it can
only be called a second-rate portrait of renan from an engraving by f. desmoulin
24
work. M. Baertsoen is an artist of whom much is performance, for it is quite lacking in sincerity and
to be expected. His Soir sur I'Escaut, repro- shows unmistakable signs of a straining after theatri-
duced here, appears to me full of intense emotional cal effect. A religious picture like this demands
poetry, with no straining whatever after theatrical more naivete, more fervour, more simplicity,
effect. The calm twilight, the simple lines of the At last we come across something fresh, MM.
far-off horizon, the perfect stillness of the water re- Rene Menard and Charles Cottet being the
fleeting the boats on its surface—all this appeals to artists who have produced it. Their names should
one's soul, while it charms the eye and turns the be remembered, for they are two of the painters of
mind to reverie. How far removed we are here to-morrow. Both of them should go far in their
from the extravagances of the impressionist. We respective directions. M. Menard's Le Crcpuscule,
find ourselves in quite another realm of art, where his Effet d'Orage and his Ctel d'Orage seem to con-
everything is expressed fervently, yet orderly, with- tain all the qualities belonging to the great masters ;
out excess, without bias, simply and logically. It and as for M. Cottet, one may safely predict that,
will certainly always be a great satisfaction to me his youth notwithstanding, if he can only resist the
to have been one of the first in France to appre- sophistries of teachers whose sole interest it is to
ciate M. Baertsoen at his proper value. exploit the rare and original gifts of their pupils, he
M. J. F. Raffaelli's exhibits reveal this most has a splendid career before him. His series, Au
interesting artist in a new manner, which seems to Pays de la Mer, consisting of nine canvases, is the
show that he has thrown off his former method and work of a genuine painter, one who is in no way
gained in clearness and
delicacy thereby. His
Notre-Dame de Paris is a
charming piece of painting ;
and still better is his Por-
trait de ma fille Germaine, a
clear and delicate colour-
scheme like a pastel of the
eighteenth century. No
such praise can be accorded
to M. G. Roger, who, so
far from gaining in strength
and sureness, seems to have
lost tone and forgotten the
secret of those graceful
qualities which charmed us
so greatly in his exhibits last
year. He has three pictures
on the present occasion,
and everything about them,
figures and inanimate ob-
jects alike, seems to be
floating in an impossible
atmosphere, dull and vague
and glaucous, like that of
an aquarium. Just as inde-
fensible is this yellow light
flooding the face of Christ
and his Apostles in M.
Dagnan's La Cine. Despite
all the artist's endeavour to
give character to this work
by deep attention to the
faces of his figures, it can
only be called a second-rate portrait of renan from an engraving by f. desmoulin
24