Studio: international art (24.1902)

G. Dupuis

nasse. « Why can't I dress like you?" exclaimed The first-named of these two books afforded the

the dental apprentice. "It rests with yourself artist an opportunity to study more closely than he

alone," replied the painter. "Take me to see had hitherto done, and With a definite object m

your father, and I guarantee I'll persuade him to view, the popular and working-class centres of

let you come to Paris " Paris > while the second br0Ught hlm mt° °° *
The Toreador cape and the velvet waistcoat, with the unhappy creatures who drag their soul-
together with the persuasive force which naturally less bodies through the gardens and rooms of La
comes to the wearer of such a costume, overcame Salpetriere. How fully he has succeeded in
all opposition, and six months later Dupuis realising the various dolorous types of imbecility
took the train for Paris, in charge of the young may be judged by the drawings now reproduced,
man with the soft felt hat. He was then just which form part of the series. The artists
seventeen technique is steadily broadening, and daily becom-
During'his first year in Paris he attended the ing more and more free from all contemporary
classes at the £cole des Arts Decoratifs, but the suggestion. With delightful frankness M. Dupuis
consciousness of the futility of his work, added to admitted to me how greatly he had been inspired
his growing love for the real life around him, soon by the work of Stemlen.

caused him to discontinue his studies here. Mean- " I hope," he added, " to rid myself entirely of

time he had to live For a period of four years, his influence. This does not mean that my

thanks to stray work for unknown publishers- admiration of this great artist, to whom I owe so

illustrations, book-covers, and vignettes - he much, will be in any way lessened; but I want

managed to make both ends meet; but he by dint of patient, conscientious study and

frankly admits that the things he did were careful observation, to be absolutely and entirely

commonplace enough. This joyless work soon myself."

produced a feeling of deep discouragement. I then inquired who were the artists for whom

Better to give up art and try business. Accordingly, he had the greatest reverence,

with the 2,000 francs he had contrived to save he " Among the modern men, Daumier first of all,

bought a stock of artists' materials, which he sold for he is the master of us all, the master ot all

to his friends, thus enabling them to paint their those who endeavour to express the realities around

pictures, while he was waiting for the opportunity them, to depict the manners of to-day. Among

to do his own At Salon time he also had the the ancients I most admire the primitives

opportunity of assisting his customers to finish they have told everything in perfect form, and with

their canvases, and this brought him in more unequalled expression."

money than he could earn by working on his own Such are M. Dupuis' opinions, but he did

account. He passed his nights nailing canvases not express them so categorically as 1 have

on to their frames, grinding colours, and cutting done, for he is sincerely modest, one may almost

rolls of drawing paper; while on Sundays he say diffident. As for his contemporaries, he

would go away into the country, out into the knows very little about them. He avoids private

open air to drink his fill of Nature and of light, exhibitions and salons alike, not because he

becoming an artist once again for a few hours each despises them, but because, being still young, he

weeki is afraid his enthusiasm might bring him under

At' last fortune smiled on him. His offer to some foreign influence. Thus there is no vanity

illustrate the " Dimanches d'un Bourgeois de in this voluntary isolation, he is simply waiting

Paris" was accepted, and, as we have seen, he at to be more certain of himself before mixing

once claimed attention. Since then-that is to freely in the modern art world. Far be it horn

say, during the past few months-M. Dupuis me to condemn this well-considered resolution,

has been in a position to work as he pleases, Really powerful work is produced by the artist in

and to be what for twenty years he had striven solitude.

to be-an artist, with the right to say what M. Dupuis has but little to show as yet but

he has to say in his own fashion. In the two all the work s.gned by his monogram-black

works which he is at present engaged in illustrating and white and coloured drawings and painted

-"Florise Bonheur," by M. Adolphe Brisson, studies-bears the impress of a real personality,

and a new edition of M. Jules Claretie's "Amours of which a great deal should be heard in the

d'un Interne "-we shall be able to see the pro- future.
gress made by his supple and forcetul taieni.