DOI issue:
No. 85 (April, 1900)
DOI article:Mourey, Gabriel: A master draughtsman: Paul Renouard
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19784#0183
A Master Draughtsman
Indeed, there is a mot or an anecdote to be
told about every one of the innumerable portraits
sketched by Renouard. All types come alike to
him, however varied, and all spring to life beneath
his pencil with equal force and intimite. To name
but a few, which have appeared in the Revue
Ilhcstree, in Illustration, and in The Graphic:
Sarah Bernhardt and Sardou, Ambroise Thomas,
Alexandre Dumas fits, Emile Bergerat, Ravachol,
Chevreul, Louis Menard, Meissonier, Saint-Saens,
General Boulanger, together with whole series com-
posed of members of the Institute and of the
Chamber of Deputies ; then we have Sir
Laurence Alma-Tadema, Sir J. E. Millais, Sir
Erederic Leighton, Luke Eildes, and nine sketches
of Sir Henry Irving as Mephistopheles. Par-
ticularly should be noted the gallery of portraits
done in connection with the Dreyfus case, com-
mencing with the first Zola trial and ending with
the Rennes court-martial, where we see, vibrating
with life, all the actors in the great drama so
recently closed. What a mine of " documents"
for the historian of the future ; what a wealth of
sincere and poignant realism !
In fact, the real strength of Paul Renouard's
work lies in its absolute honesty and truth. Here-
in he resembles the great Japanese artists. He
HENRI ROCIIEFOKT BY PAUL RENOUARD
I 70
" LE NEANT" BY PAUL RENOUARD
(From the series entitled "A/ourewcnts, Gestes, Expressions"}
has the same unbiassed way of observing nature,
which he treats neither as an idealist nor as a
realist ; that is to say, he works without regard for
any fixed rules or formulas. In his preface to the
catalogue of a collection of drawings and etchings
by Renouard, exhibited at La Bodiniere in 1894,
M. Tadamasa Hayashi, after announcing that he
was presenting to the Tokio Museum a series of
Renouard's works, very justly observed : "Glancing
back over the history of art in Japan one perceives
that the most ancient school proceeds from Buddhist
art, which sprang exclusively from the art of India.
Then comes the Chinese school, exercising a per-
petual influence. . . . For ten centuries past we
have been on the down grade, and at the present
time our artists are played out because they have
done nothing but copy one another. To recover
the lost ground we need a new element, which is to-
be found in the spirit of modern French art. It is
for this reason I am transporting a Parisian gallery
into the Far East; not that our artists of to-day should
copy these works, but that they should learn there-
from to understand that interesting work can only
be produced from direct observation of nature."
Nothing could be truer than this, and not a
word need be added. It is in this way that work
like that of M. Renouard, work devoid of all
Indeed, there is a mot or an anecdote to be
told about every one of the innumerable portraits
sketched by Renouard. All types come alike to
him, however varied, and all spring to life beneath
his pencil with equal force and intimite. To name
but a few, which have appeared in the Revue
Ilhcstree, in Illustration, and in The Graphic:
Sarah Bernhardt and Sardou, Ambroise Thomas,
Alexandre Dumas fits, Emile Bergerat, Ravachol,
Chevreul, Louis Menard, Meissonier, Saint-Saens,
General Boulanger, together with whole series com-
posed of members of the Institute and of the
Chamber of Deputies ; then we have Sir
Laurence Alma-Tadema, Sir J. E. Millais, Sir
Erederic Leighton, Luke Eildes, and nine sketches
of Sir Henry Irving as Mephistopheles. Par-
ticularly should be noted the gallery of portraits
done in connection with the Dreyfus case, com-
mencing with the first Zola trial and ending with
the Rennes court-martial, where we see, vibrating
with life, all the actors in the great drama so
recently closed. What a mine of " documents"
for the historian of the future ; what a wealth of
sincere and poignant realism !
In fact, the real strength of Paul Renouard's
work lies in its absolute honesty and truth. Here-
in he resembles the great Japanese artists. He
HENRI ROCIIEFOKT BY PAUL RENOUARD
I 70
" LE NEANT" BY PAUL RENOUARD
(From the series entitled "A/ourewcnts, Gestes, Expressions"}
has the same unbiassed way of observing nature,
which he treats neither as an idealist nor as a
realist ; that is to say, he works without regard for
any fixed rules or formulas. In his preface to the
catalogue of a collection of drawings and etchings
by Renouard, exhibited at La Bodiniere in 1894,
M. Tadamasa Hayashi, after announcing that he
was presenting to the Tokio Museum a series of
Renouard's works, very justly observed : "Glancing
back over the history of art in Japan one perceives
that the most ancient school proceeds from Buddhist
art, which sprang exclusively from the art of India.
Then comes the Chinese school, exercising a per-
petual influence. . . . For ten centuries past we
have been on the down grade, and at the present
time our artists are played out because they have
done nothing but copy one another. To recover
the lost ground we need a new element, which is to-
be found in the spirit of modern French art. It is
for this reason I am transporting a Parisian gallery
into the Far East; not that our artists of to-day should
copy these works, but that they should learn there-
from to understand that interesting work can only
be produced from direct observation of nature."
Nothing could be truer than this, and not a
word need be added. It is in this way that work
like that of M. Renouard, work devoid of all