Studio: international art (17.1899)

The A rt of 18'gg

seen to perfection in his Sapini'ere, his Brume
dn Soir, his Taches de Soleil, his Coin de Ferme,
his Facades enso/eillees, and his La Berge—
admirable, one and all. There we have true, sane
art, derived straight from Nature herself, without
conventionality of any sort.

Mme. Marie Duhem’s five canvases are very
delightful, especially the Soir de Paques, FEcole
des Sceurs, with its simple sincerity, La Grand route
and Les Pivoines.

From Gaston La Touche we have La Barque,
Le Jet d’Eau, Les Sonneurs, and Printemps, also a
set of little studies of Versailles, full of warmth
and laughing sunshine.

M. L. Levy-Dhurmer exhibits L’Eden, an im-
portant work which marks a notable stage in his
career. It is a triptych, in which we see again the
artist’s Eve of two years ago. The complete
picture is extremely brilliant, the predominating
colours being blues and yellows and pinks, de-
lightfully arranged and harmonised, and breathing
the very spirit of primeval freshness.

M. Renouard displays in his paintings all the
vivacity and the keenness of observation which
mark his well-known drawings. Especially good
are his Chambre des Deputes, and the Sortie de la
Messe aux Lnvalides.

La Mer a Penmarch is the title of a series of six
canvases sent by M. Maxime Maufra. I am glad
to note that this sound artist’s manner has grown
more supple and more assured without any loss of
freedom thereby.

Mile. Lisbeth Carriere, daughter of Eugene
Carriere, contributes some exceedingly delicate
flower studies, and flowers are also painted by
M. Henri Dumont. These last are, perhaps, some-
what anaemic-looking, but there is a good deal of
refinement about them.

M. Bottini makes his first appearance at the
Champ de Mars with five of the charming water-
colours to which I alluded recently in these
columns, together with an interesting work in oils,
called Rosalba.

There are many other excellent things I should
like to mention, or even to describe at length, but
the exigencies of space prevent me from doing
more than recording the names of some of the
best exhibitors in their various styles. Among
them are Mile. L. C. Breslau, M. Emile Bourdelle,
M. Lebourg, M. William Wendt, M. Fernand
Piet, M. Evenepoel, M. Guillaume Roger, M.
Boulard, Mr. Douglas Robinson, Mr. James
Wilson Morrice, Mr. Walter Gay, M. Paul Froment
—a pseudonym hiding the name of M. Durand-
6

Tahier, Secretary of the Societe Nationale, recently
deceased—M. Richon Brunet and M. Ignacio
Zuloaga, a Spanish portrait-painter of decided
power.

In the department of Decorative Painting I
cannot omit to mention the Peche au Gangui dans le
Golfe de Marseille, by M. Auburtin, M. Boutet de
Monvel’s Jeanne d’Arc a Chinon, a mosaic of
gleaming colours, intended to decorate the basilic
of Domremy, M. Bellery-Desfontaines’ decorative
panels for the Hopital Broca, and for the same
building M. Koenig’s Sommeil, and La Foi,
lEsperance, La Charite by M. Guillaume Dubufe,
whose LLommage a Puvis de Chavannes is worthy
of all praise for its “pious” intentions. A final
word as to M. Maurice Denis’ Decoration de la
Chapelle du College Sainte-Croix du Vesinet, which
I take to be one of his best works.

The Drawings and Engravings form a tolerably
rich display. One little room is devoted to Cazin,
and is full of admirable things. There are also to
be seen—and seen with pleasure—the Studies by
La Gandara, water-colours by Duhem, Lucien
Simon, Paul Rossert and Auburtin, pastels by
Paillard, Bourdelle, Cottet, Dinet’s illustrations
for the Poeme d’Antar, those of Giraldon for
Aspasie—Cleopatre—Theodora, and those of Gas-
ton de Latenay for Nausikaa ; also P. L. Moreau’s
Paris scenes, Bejot’s delicate sketches, and some
beautiful studies by Milcendeau.

Among the engravings are a series of coloured
wood-blocks by the incomparable Lepere, etchings
by Heidbrinck, Louis Legrand, Fernand Des-
moulin, and others, wood-engravings by Jacques
Beltrand “after” Lepere, engravings in colour by
Francis Jourdain and Godin, and coloured dry-
points by Raffaelli.

Prominent above everything else in the Sculpture
are the plaster cast of Constantin Meunier’s
Debardear, and Rodin’s two exhibits, his lovely,
mournful Eve so admirably reproduced by Lepere
(See The Studio, Vol. XIV. page 251), and his
bust of Falguiere, both of which must be ranked
among the finest examples of the sculpture of
to-day. Alexandre Charpentier is represented by
a frame of medals and plaquettes—portraits of
Severine, Puvis de Chavannes, Constantin Meunier,
and others, and his remarkable bronze group La
fuite de FHeure; while other distinguished exhi-
bitors are Mile. Clandel, Camille Lefevre, Jef Lam-
beaux, the powerful Belgian artist, Niederhausern-
Rodo and Emile Bourdelle. One notes with
regret the absence of MM. Jules Desbois and
Bartholome.