Studio: international art (10.1897)

A Decorative Modeller

LA TILLE AU VIOLON. EMBOSSED DESIGN BY ALEXANDRE CHARPENTIER

Everything he has produced, from his Tireur with his medals of Edmond de Goncourt, Puvis de
dare, in the 1879 Salon, and his Jeune mere allaitant Chavannes, Leon Hennique, and Meissonier, all
son enfant in the Salon of 1883, down to the series executed with truly admirable power. They are a
of gaufred lithographs in colours {En Zelande) which real triumph of the medallist's art, and something-
he is now publishing—as it were, a sort of note-book more, for in their freedom of treatment and breadth
of a travelling artist,—bears the imprint of com- of touch we discern effects which only the master
plete simplicity and intense naturalness, rendered in hand dare attempt.

aesthetic form. Where many another painter would Up to the present Charpentier's chief production

become mannered and complicated, would lose him- in the department of applied art is his fontaine-

self in a mass of trivial effects, he never fails, for he lavabo, or wash-hand-stand, in the Musee Galliera,

has the great gift of being able to treat his subject wherein his mature and logical style is seen in its

equally well, whether it be in a work of large dimen- fullest development. To the cursory observer this

sions, or in some little knick-knack. In his monu- work will appear to be strangely influenced by the

mental bas-relief, the Bou/angers, intended for the eighteenth century ; and in general contour it cer-

Maison du Peuple, in Brussels—an allegorical idea, tainly recalls the decorative taste of that period,

illustrative of primordial Labour furnishing nourish- But this is nothing more than an intentional, unaf-

ment for the masses—which he is carrying out in fected reminiscence, as though the artist would wish

polychrome enamelled brick-work, in the style of to show what effects he can produce in the manner

the Frise des Aichers in the Louvre, just as in of the lovely examples of bygone days. On this

the medals he has designed in commemoration traditional groundwork he lavishes a delicious growth

of the construction of the Eiffel Tower and other of poetic fancy—a veritable water poem. On the

productions of the kind, one finds the same lid are seen the Danaids, the rain, the storm, the

successful realisation, the same regard for decora- torrent, and the spring; while, bending over the

tive effect. In each and all one recognises a lofty limpid stream is Narcissus, seeking his reflection in

desire to interpret life in its broadest and yet in its the peaceful waters. The purely ornamental por-

most delicate aspects. As with his p'aquettcs, so tion of the work is composed of water plants and

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