DOI issue:
Nr. 119 (February 1903)
DOI article:The new solid oil-colours: interview with M. J. F. Raffaëlli
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19878#0036
The New Solid Oil-Colours
sculpture, was that the methods of encaustic and
distemper painting their artists practised froze up
their genius. The metier must not be slow, arduous,
and difficult."
" But the masters of old—Rubens, Rembrandt,
Velasquez—they did not complain ? "
"They were not troubled by certain sensibilities
which we possess nowadays, and which complicate
our art to an unlimited extent. Rubens painted
all his pictures in a conventional light, being quite
content therewith. Perhaps he was right, but we
to-day have invented 'values,' reflections, atmo-
sphere (moral and otherwise), plein-air, etc., etc.,
and in all these things we are really lost with the
old process of oils and brushes ! Rembrandt cared
so little for atmosphere and real light, as we under-
stand them now, that for centuries past the art
critics have been arguing over his Night Watch,
some declaring that Rembrandt intended to convey
an effect of sunshine, while others declare he meant
it to be a real night effect! What do you say to
that ? I consider, too, that we have lost the sense
of the grand decorative style because we have no
longer around us sights calculated to inspire it. .. . "
" But, Puvis de Chavannes ? "
" Puvis de Chavannes was an exception. More-
over, his work does not for one moment make one
think of painting in oils. His pictures are great
flat drawings, and he would certainly have been
delighted to use my colours, just as would Millet,
who was never greater than in his pastels and his
drawings. Had Millet painted these things with
my colours they would be absolutely indelible."
" So you contend that with your sticks of colour
one may replace both oil-colours and pastels ? "
"Absolutely ! And the exhibition of seventy-five
works done with my colours has proved it beyond
discussion ! At this same exhibition was seen a
magnificent Source, by Besnard, which had the
freshness of a water-colour and the velvety tone of
an oil-painting. One saw too, several Thaulows,
of a warmth, a strength of colouring, and a trans-
'LE PONT DES SAINTS PERES" FROM THE PAINTING EXECUTED IN THE NEW SOLID OIL-COLOURS
BY J. F. RAFFAELLI
24
sculpture, was that the methods of encaustic and
distemper painting their artists practised froze up
their genius. The metier must not be slow, arduous,
and difficult."
" But the masters of old—Rubens, Rembrandt,
Velasquez—they did not complain ? "
"They were not troubled by certain sensibilities
which we possess nowadays, and which complicate
our art to an unlimited extent. Rubens painted
all his pictures in a conventional light, being quite
content therewith. Perhaps he was right, but we
to-day have invented 'values,' reflections, atmo-
sphere (moral and otherwise), plein-air, etc., etc.,
and in all these things we are really lost with the
old process of oils and brushes ! Rembrandt cared
so little for atmosphere and real light, as we under-
stand them now, that for centuries past the art
critics have been arguing over his Night Watch,
some declaring that Rembrandt intended to convey
an effect of sunshine, while others declare he meant
it to be a real night effect! What do you say to
that ? I consider, too, that we have lost the sense
of the grand decorative style because we have no
longer around us sights calculated to inspire it. .. . "
" But, Puvis de Chavannes ? "
" Puvis de Chavannes was an exception. More-
over, his work does not for one moment make one
think of painting in oils. His pictures are great
flat drawings, and he would certainly have been
delighted to use my colours, just as would Millet,
who was never greater than in his pastels and his
drawings. Had Millet painted these things with
my colours they would be absolutely indelible."
" So you contend that with your sticks of colour
one may replace both oil-colours and pastels ? "
"Absolutely ! And the exhibition of seventy-five
works done with my colours has proved it beyond
discussion ! At this same exhibition was seen a
magnificent Source, by Besnard, which had the
freshness of a water-colour and the velvety tone of
an oil-painting. One saw too, several Thaulows,
of a warmth, a strength of colouring, and a trans-
'LE PONT DES SAINTS PERES" FROM THE PAINTING EXECUTED IN THE NEW SOLID OIL-COLOURS
BY J. F. RAFFAELLI
24