Studio: international art (17.1899)

Frantz M. Melchers

“ VIE SIMPLE”

FROM A PAINTING BY FRANTZ MELCHERS

towns that he has been exhibiting
since 1890 at various exhibitions
in Brussels and Paris, entitled Les
Simples, Les Bourgeois, Les Aris/o-
crates. Many people will, moreover,
probably fail to find pleasure in a
work of his that has recently been
published, entitled “L’An.” Any
one who takes up this book should
begin by silencing his own realistic
or naturalistic opinions, and should
only regard the work of this artist
with the sincere desire to under-
stand and enjoy it. A considerable
difference lies between the illustra-
tions and the descriptions of
“L’An.” The months, as Braun
describes them, might be nowhere
or anywhere, but as Melchers
shows them to us in his draw-
ings, they are only like those in
Holland. Thus we have the wide
green meadows with the most
beautiful cattle in the world, and
the lonely dreamy “ Polder ” in
Walcheren, and the drowsily sleep-
ing town of Veere. Melchers does
not only copy nature, he explains
it, though of course all his pictures
do not display equally artistic
qualities.

In some of his coloured engrav-
ings Melchers seems to have been
86

FROM A PAINTING

BY FRANTZ MELCHERS