DOI Heft:
No. 131 (February, 1904)
DOI Artikel:Geffroy, Gustave: The modern French pastellists: Charles Milcendeau
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19881#0042
Charles Milcendeau! s Pastels
unworthy of le grand art. He did not understand his pupils are to be found the heirs of his
it, and he never understood. conscience.
Happily, Milcendeau stood firm. We should As to the form of Milcendeau's drawings, I
have made a lot of progress if he, like so many firmly believe it to be strictly his own. Originality
others, had exhibited his Jasons and Helens and of this kind is born with an artist. It is this sort
Ulysses according to the master's formula! What of originality which finds confirmation and gains
is past is past, and it is useless indeed to continue development by contact with the Masters—every
it and repeat it. Milcendeau has regained the one of them; and Milcendeau, I think, went to
open, has gone back home to his cottages, his all, not only the Italians who inspired Moreau,
cabarets, his meadows and his streams, and there but also to Rembrandt, Rubens, Velasquez,
he has found the elements of his own work ; which Delacroix, and the others.
is infinitely better than to have gathered up the He has the good fortune to possess an indi-
crumbs from the work of another. At the same vidual style of drawing, and he has his native land,
time, he owes something, of course, to Moreau : home and race—herein is the artist's inexhaustible
the discipline and the honesty of work, the spirit to store. In his own country he recovers himself,
do, the courage to struggle hard. Gustave Moreau gathers fresh strength because he has sprung from
was of high moral worth, and one may hope that in its very soil. A supply of sap has, been, as it were,
his heritage, and he knows
where that supply may
be renewed. In the case
of Milcendeau, this store
of force is in Vendee and
in Brittany. Amid these
familiar landscapes and
villages, surrounded by
folk long and well known,
he feels at his ease;
he knows what he is going
to say and how he is
going to say it. Thus the
slightest of his sketches
has an inimitable accent
of its own. Compared
with the pages he has
brought back from his
native place, all the
mises-en-schie of tourist
painters appear insipid,
without emotion, without
conviction.
With Milcendeau there
is the deep touch, the
sensitive mark—the parent-
age, so to speak. Look
at these old peasants sit-
ting in the chimney corner,
or at the table, eating
their soup, or out of
doors, looking after their
pastures. Everything
about them — their stiff,
bent frames, their lean
faces, their hard, suspici-
; ENFANTS " FROM THE PASTEL BY CHARLES MILCENDEAU OUS, obstinate eyes-tells
26
unworthy of le grand art. He did not understand his pupils are to be found the heirs of his
it, and he never understood. conscience.
Happily, Milcendeau stood firm. We should As to the form of Milcendeau's drawings, I
have made a lot of progress if he, like so many firmly believe it to be strictly his own. Originality
others, had exhibited his Jasons and Helens and of this kind is born with an artist. It is this sort
Ulysses according to the master's formula! What of originality which finds confirmation and gains
is past is past, and it is useless indeed to continue development by contact with the Masters—every
it and repeat it. Milcendeau has regained the one of them; and Milcendeau, I think, went to
open, has gone back home to his cottages, his all, not only the Italians who inspired Moreau,
cabarets, his meadows and his streams, and there but also to Rembrandt, Rubens, Velasquez,
he has found the elements of his own work ; which Delacroix, and the others.
is infinitely better than to have gathered up the He has the good fortune to possess an indi-
crumbs from the work of another. At the same vidual style of drawing, and he has his native land,
time, he owes something, of course, to Moreau : home and race—herein is the artist's inexhaustible
the discipline and the honesty of work, the spirit to store. In his own country he recovers himself,
do, the courage to struggle hard. Gustave Moreau gathers fresh strength because he has sprung from
was of high moral worth, and one may hope that in its very soil. A supply of sap has, been, as it were,
his heritage, and he knows
where that supply may
be renewed. In the case
of Milcendeau, this store
of force is in Vendee and
in Brittany. Amid these
familiar landscapes and
villages, surrounded by
folk long and well known,
he feels at his ease;
he knows what he is going
to say and how he is
going to say it. Thus the
slightest of his sketches
has an inimitable accent
of its own. Compared
with the pages he has
brought back from his
native place, all the
mises-en-schie of tourist
painters appear insipid,
without emotion, without
conviction.
With Milcendeau there
is the deep touch, the
sensitive mark—the parent-
age, so to speak. Look
at these old peasants sit-
ting in the chimney corner,
or at the table, eating
their soup, or out of
doors, looking after their
pastures. Everything
about them — their stiff,
bent frames, their lean
faces, their hard, suspici-
; ENFANTS " FROM THE PASTEL BY CHARLES MILCENDEAU OUS, obstinate eyes-tells
26