DOI Heft:
No. 41 (August, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Keyzer, Frances: Eugène Carrière
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17297#0157
Eugbne Carridre
from us, we can only see the faces of the Carriere, like all great men, has been attacked
men and women intent upon the drama that is and misconstrued, his very sincerity questioned,
being unrolled before them. The theatre is in But now, when his hour of triumph has come, it is
semi-darkness, there is an inscrutable depth from interesting to know the opinion which two great art-
the half-circle described by the gallery to the pit critics of France, the late Edmond de Goncourt
below. The only light is received from the lowered and Gustave Geffroy, expressed at the beginning
oil flame through a red lantern on one side, and a of his career. I select a passage at hazard written
ray of silver light on the other, dimly showing the by M. Geffroy upon Carriere's first exhibition in
eager, watching people, some standing, some sitting, 1891, at MM. Boussod-Vallodon's. " The hands,"
but all intent upon catching each sound that issues he says, " which he describes and models in a few
from the stage, and following every movement of strokes of the pencil, can bear comparison with the
the play. Gallery audiences have been depicted most celebrated hands in the most impeccable of
over and over again, but nobody before Carriere drawings. For Carriere's hands are endowed
has attempted to give an insight into the minds of with a separate existence and are specially indicative
the listeners, many of whom have lived that life of of character. He seems to caress with infinite
misery or crime that is being reproduced on the delicacy the tiny, dimpled hands of childhood, the
stage, and which Carriere shows so plainly in their subtle, dreamy hands of woman, and is penetrated
bended figures and their
intent expression.
The exhibition of his
works, to which I referred
in the opening paragraph,
has been a revelation to the
public, and even to those
who have always ranked
him among the great mas-
ters. An exhibition of
paintings by one artist, like
a programme of the music
of one composer, is the
supreme test of greatness.
There is always the fear of
monotony. When we gaze,
however, on this marvel-
lous collection, we find an
extraordinary variety, a
variety we must not seek
in either the colour or the
subject. It is the fertility of
the poet's mind that imparts
to every work a different
charm ; were he to repeat
each subject a dozen times,
each would contain another
thought and teach another
lesson. We find the tender
and the tragic sides in h;s
great subject, and feel the
poet's influence in the union
of yesterday and to-day in
the same beings, in the
blending of to-day with to-
morrow, which will so soon
become yesterday. portrait of m. gabriel seailles and child by e. carriere
141
from us, we can only see the faces of the Carriere, like all great men, has been attacked
men and women intent upon the drama that is and misconstrued, his very sincerity questioned,
being unrolled before them. The theatre is in But now, when his hour of triumph has come, it is
semi-darkness, there is an inscrutable depth from interesting to know the opinion which two great art-
the half-circle described by the gallery to the pit critics of France, the late Edmond de Goncourt
below. The only light is received from the lowered and Gustave Geffroy, expressed at the beginning
oil flame through a red lantern on one side, and a of his career. I select a passage at hazard written
ray of silver light on the other, dimly showing the by M. Geffroy upon Carriere's first exhibition in
eager, watching people, some standing, some sitting, 1891, at MM. Boussod-Vallodon's. " The hands,"
but all intent upon catching each sound that issues he says, " which he describes and models in a few
from the stage, and following every movement of strokes of the pencil, can bear comparison with the
the play. Gallery audiences have been depicted most celebrated hands in the most impeccable of
over and over again, but nobody before Carriere drawings. For Carriere's hands are endowed
has attempted to give an insight into the minds of with a separate existence and are specially indicative
the listeners, many of whom have lived that life of of character. He seems to caress with infinite
misery or crime that is being reproduced on the delicacy the tiny, dimpled hands of childhood, the
stage, and which Carriere shows so plainly in their subtle, dreamy hands of woman, and is penetrated
bended figures and their
intent expression.
The exhibition of his
works, to which I referred
in the opening paragraph,
has been a revelation to the
public, and even to those
who have always ranked
him among the great mas-
ters. An exhibition of
paintings by one artist, like
a programme of the music
of one composer, is the
supreme test of greatness.
There is always the fear of
monotony. When we gaze,
however, on this marvel-
lous collection, we find an
extraordinary variety, a
variety we must not seek
in either the colour or the
subject. It is the fertility of
the poet's mind that imparts
to every work a different
charm ; were he to repeat
each subject a dozen times,
each would contain another
thought and teach another
lesson. We find the tender
and the tragic sides in h;s
great subject, and feel the
poet's influence in the union
of yesterday and to-day in
the same beings, in the
blending of to-day with to-
morrow, which will so soon
become yesterday. portrait of m. gabriel seailles and child by e. carriere
141