Studio: international art (8.1896)

Leaves from Dudley Hardy s Sketch-Book

sea stirred by it. There, with a few hasty strokes hydromania. Whether it be wet or fine, cold or

set down in ten minutes, is a complete suggestion warm, windy or calm, the French man and woman,

of people wading and bathing at low tide with the old or young, bathes, and often three times a day.

wind from the west—of course only one who knows This aspect, of course, struck the artist. Look at

can tell the point of the compass. La Belle du Treport. It is a faithful likeness of an

Really it is a great pleasure to see the French at estimable elderly woman

the seaside. In England we have the idea that who was always in the

our old enemies, and friends, suffer somewhat from water, or coming out of it,

hydrophobia. In corroboration, I may say that or going down to it, when

when I was a student—of nothing in particular— we were on the beach,

in the great university city of Montpellier, my The character in the face

collapsible india-rubber tub was the surprise shows, too, with an amaz-
and wonder of all the many ing nicety the

student friends that I had ; they P^r~^ merry Normandy

took their "tubs" in the public ^fr^SK shop-keeper,with

baths from time to time, pro re teeth ruined by

nata the medicals would have said, Jjf \ cider, hard as

but when funds were low, towards \^ fff/ Jf\ \ nails, merry as a

the end of the term, baths were S^^>Jt^^\t\ sand-boy, cun-

rare. Yet they were jolly good ^^ <rr\ ning as a carp,

fellows, and I regret the furnished ^£f I 11 " Consider^raise,

bedroom and sitting-room and the /j^w^ ' w^tn ^e three

lovely little garden in the Rue du —'"-"J fl V folk fascin-

Manege, which, with morning 1 / Ssa-a*^ ated by the water,

coffee, cost me 44 francs a month; fffl and paddling

and the lunches and dinners, un- Iwu their rheumatic,

' _ -i?^ i.'! Mff/ OH LA J°LIE fille

stinted in palatable wine, fruit, j i W ancient legs ,,ROM A SKEXCH BY

fish, cheese, vegetable and salads, I Iffi recklessly. Then dudley hardy

if a little weak in flesh, that cost ! liiJfifi^' there is Ceci vaut

me a franc each, or 43 francs for 1 Jv \jjfj£|K la byciclette, the pretty girl I know that

half a hundred ; the merry com- J? she was pretty—not allowed to " bike,"

rades ; the many bocks—brunes or rSSss^ and reluctant to conceal the fact that

blondes—the lively farces; and the •• le repetiteur a la peche " she is bifurcated. The pencil-work in
"send-off" at the station when I from a sketch by dudley its handling of drapery well deserves
returned to England, by five score hardy consideration. With this sketch should

be taken the old gentleman with the
of lively, tern- green cotton umbrella, who is looking on and
porary " pals," saying to his wicked, ancient self, " Oh la jolie
who invaded the fille / " So full of character is the drawing that
railway station I could write his biography from it.
and alarmed Another aspect of life at Le Treport is the fishing,
officials and Izaak Walton, Dame Juliana Berners, Mr. Bicker-
ordinary passen- dyke, Mr. R. B. Marston, or any other noteworthy
gers by their de- piscicide would have laughed at us trying, with
monstration. clumsy tackle, to take the evasive eel, or a merry

However, I little fish, in shape a ruffless perch, in colour a dace,
must stop this whose identity baffles me, whose local names were
little flow of legion. Look at us in "Qu-a-t-on attrapef crowding
" Tr i 1 b y i s m " in excitement round some one who has caught an
and return to my eel somewhat smaller than the reluctant worm that
subject — the served as bait. Consider, too, the artistic value of
French at the the sketch, treating the church on the height and the
l'espoir " from a sketch seaside. There little crowd on the hot day. There is also L'espoir,
by dudley hardy they suffer from for which I had the dishonour of sitting. I am

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