DOI Heft:
No. 61 (April, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Lees, Frederic: Henri Harpignies
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18391#0163
Henri Harpignies
ENRI HARPIGNIES. BY
FREDERIC LEES.
It would seem to be in the nature
of things that those who point out
new principles, whether in science, art, or philoso-
phy, should hardly, if ever, during their lifetime
receive full recognition; that the benefit of their
thought and teaching should accrue to their fol-
lowers. Take the case of Camille Corot, the
artist who, as we think of him rising early for a
period of fifty years to wander into the fields of
France to paint under his large white parasol until
an hour which made further work impossible, stands
prominently before us as the very ideal of a land-
scape painter. He was the first who saw the
necessity, with Rousseau, Daubigny, and Francais
—to mention the principal only of the reactionaries
to the work of Poussin—of returning direct to
Nature for his materials, and of renouncing every-
thing against which there might be brought the
charge of artificiality. The most insignificant
corner of a pasture or of a forest was to Corot of
more interest than the most imposing landscape,
if that landscape was full of incongruities. Yet
his work did not at first receive the attention which
it merited. In private as well as in official circles
historical painting reigned supreme, and even as
recently as 1873 the niedaille d'honneur of the Salon
was withheld from him and given to Gerome for his
UEminence Grise. Opinion was, however, about
to change : the time was close at hand when land-
scape would no longer in France be considered a
genre inferieure. That time has now arrived.
Within the past five years the Salon has twice
bestowed the high distinction which it refused to
accord to Corot upon landscape painters—once to
Francais and once, last year, to Henri Harpignies,
the inheritor of the gifts and, in some respects, the
rewards of the artist who is said to have opened up
the way for " impressionism."
And bravely and well has Henri Harpignies
carried on the work of his forerunners. He has
gone direct to Nature for his pictures, but not to
copy her servilely. No one has been more con-
scious than he that the duty of the landscape
W 1
1 .
A
' if:
henri harpignies ix his studio
XIII. No. 61.—April, 1898.
FROM A PHOTOGRArH
143
ENRI HARPIGNIES. BY
FREDERIC LEES.
It would seem to be in the nature
of things that those who point out
new principles, whether in science, art, or philoso-
phy, should hardly, if ever, during their lifetime
receive full recognition; that the benefit of their
thought and teaching should accrue to their fol-
lowers. Take the case of Camille Corot, the
artist who, as we think of him rising early for a
period of fifty years to wander into the fields of
France to paint under his large white parasol until
an hour which made further work impossible, stands
prominently before us as the very ideal of a land-
scape painter. He was the first who saw the
necessity, with Rousseau, Daubigny, and Francais
—to mention the principal only of the reactionaries
to the work of Poussin—of returning direct to
Nature for his materials, and of renouncing every-
thing against which there might be brought the
charge of artificiality. The most insignificant
corner of a pasture or of a forest was to Corot of
more interest than the most imposing landscape,
if that landscape was full of incongruities. Yet
his work did not at first receive the attention which
it merited. In private as well as in official circles
historical painting reigned supreme, and even as
recently as 1873 the niedaille d'honneur of the Salon
was withheld from him and given to Gerome for his
UEminence Grise. Opinion was, however, about
to change : the time was close at hand when land-
scape would no longer in France be considered a
genre inferieure. That time has now arrived.
Within the past five years the Salon has twice
bestowed the high distinction which it refused to
accord to Corot upon landscape painters—once to
Francais and once, last year, to Henri Harpignies,
the inheritor of the gifts and, in some respects, the
rewards of the artist who is said to have opened up
the way for " impressionism."
And bravely and well has Henri Harpignies
carried on the work of his forerunners. He has
gone direct to Nature for his pictures, but not to
copy her servilely. No one has been more con-
scious than he that the duty of the landscape
W 1
1 .
A
' if:
henri harpignies ix his studio
XIII. No. 61.—April, 1898.
FROM A PHOTOGRArH
143