DOI issue:
No. 72 (March 1899)
DOI article:Mourey, Gabriel: The work of Gaston La Touche
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19231#0089
Gaston La Touche
There never, I believe, was an age when the or for portraits, and return with their pockets full of
sham artist—the mere producer of pictures— dollars or roubles, and their breasts glittering with
succeeded in his impostures so easily as he does Orders. Some even go round lecturing on the
to-day. His smart commercial instinct enables art of which they don't know the rudiments,
him fully to understand that talent, real ability, But enough of this ; the future will, after all, mete
is of quite secondary importance in relation to out justice !
success ; that originality is an element rather detri- M. Gaston La Touche will not be offended, I
mental than favourable—for it repels the public ; think, if I class him among those honest and
and that a good sound artistic reputation is to be original artists who, for the reasons I have just
gained mainly by the application of keen busi- mentioned, find themselves eclipsed by these noisier
ness principles, by a knack of self-advertise- and more commercial-minded confreres, and con-
ment, and by a shrewd sense of the value of sequently fail to attain, either in the estimation of
useful connections. Yes, there are our real the public or in that of certain critics, the high
artists ! The real masters in the art of—getting position to which they are undoubtedly entitled,
on ! These are days of long voyages ; so they go However, he is in good and worthy company in
abroad, to America, to Russia, to make new his misfortune!
markets in preparation for the time when Old I know few painters so gifted, so full of imagina-
Europe shall have grown tired of them. Like the tive charm as he, few who have so great a capacity
true cabotin, they go on tour either for landscapes for appealing even to those who care little or
nothing for matters of tech-
nique. By this I mean
that M. La Touche's work
is altogether comprehen-
sible and direct, and devoid
of all abstruse symbolism
and enigmatic difficulty.
By temperament he
chooses the clearest, the
most intelligible subjects.
In this he is conventional;
and he may be congratu-
lated thereon, for a respect
for tradition in no way
hampers him in the un-
folding of his individuality.
One may, indeed, say that
it is of service to him, for
a temperament so ardent,
an imagination so vivid as
his might overstep all
bounds but for the re-
straining influences of an
eye, a hand and a mind
trained in the strait and
precise methods of the
past.
M. Gaston La Touche
is one who may be said to
be " inspired "—a remark-
able, almost a phenomenal
personality nowadays. His
oil canvases, his pastels and
his water-colours exhale a
gaston la touche's house at saint-cloud spirit offever and delirium;
78
There never, I believe, was an age when the or for portraits, and return with their pockets full of
sham artist—the mere producer of pictures— dollars or roubles, and their breasts glittering with
succeeded in his impostures so easily as he does Orders. Some even go round lecturing on the
to-day. His smart commercial instinct enables art of which they don't know the rudiments,
him fully to understand that talent, real ability, But enough of this ; the future will, after all, mete
is of quite secondary importance in relation to out justice !
success ; that originality is an element rather detri- M. Gaston La Touche will not be offended, I
mental than favourable—for it repels the public ; think, if I class him among those honest and
and that a good sound artistic reputation is to be original artists who, for the reasons I have just
gained mainly by the application of keen busi- mentioned, find themselves eclipsed by these noisier
ness principles, by a knack of self-advertise- and more commercial-minded confreres, and con-
ment, and by a shrewd sense of the value of sequently fail to attain, either in the estimation of
useful connections. Yes, there are our real the public or in that of certain critics, the high
artists ! The real masters in the art of—getting position to which they are undoubtedly entitled,
on ! These are days of long voyages ; so they go However, he is in good and worthy company in
abroad, to America, to Russia, to make new his misfortune!
markets in preparation for the time when Old I know few painters so gifted, so full of imagina-
Europe shall have grown tired of them. Like the tive charm as he, few who have so great a capacity
true cabotin, they go on tour either for landscapes for appealing even to those who care little or
nothing for matters of tech-
nique. By this I mean
that M. La Touche's work
is altogether comprehen-
sible and direct, and devoid
of all abstruse symbolism
and enigmatic difficulty.
By temperament he
chooses the clearest, the
most intelligible subjects.
In this he is conventional;
and he may be congratu-
lated thereon, for a respect
for tradition in no way
hampers him in the un-
folding of his individuality.
One may, indeed, say that
it is of service to him, for
a temperament so ardent,
an imagination so vivid as
his might overstep all
bounds but for the re-
straining influences of an
eye, a hand and a mind
trained in the strait and
precise methods of the
past.
M. Gaston La Touche
is one who may be said to
be " inspired "—a remark-
able, almost a phenomenal
personality nowadays. His
oil canvases, his pastels and
his water-colours exhale a
gaston la touche's house at saint-cloud spirit offever and delirium;
78