Studio: international art (32.1904)

Felix Bracquemond

■ ' ' *

\

study of trees by felix bracquemond

THE WORK OF FELIX BRACQUE- Baron Vita by Bracquemond, Cheret, and
MOND. BY HENRI FRANTZ. Besnard.
Felix Bracquemond was born in Paris in 1833.
Of Bracquemond it may be said that In temperament, as in character, he is a real Parisian
he holds a place almost unique and entirely of Paris, a personality of good Gallic stock, keen
enviable in the art world of to-day. There is no on work, hard to please as to himself, but most
artist more generally recognised than he : none has indulgent and kind to others, blessed moreover
more friends, none fewer detractors. Some there with plenty of humour, good spirits, and "go." So
are doubtless who do not see eye to eye with him, Bracquemond has passed through the various stages
but none can deny the man's high talent and con- of his artist life, with now a failure, now a success ;
siderable achievement. Every one
needs must incline respectfully before' /
his half-century of labour, before the
proud aspect of his works, before his
incessant, varied, and prodigious output.

Yes, prodigious is the word! for
turning over the pages of the excellent
volumes which that discriminating critic
Henri Beraldi, has devoted to the
engravers of the nineteenth century,
one observes that almost a fourth
of one of these books consists of a
catalogue of Bracquemond's produc-
tions. And even this list, long though
it be, is necessarily incomplete, for
since the appearance of the volume
the great engraver has produced a large
number of plates. And he is more
than the aquafortist whom all the world
knows ; he has been, and is, a painter ;
at the same time he has devoted himself
to industrial art, and shown himself a
delicate ornamenter, and a ceramist,
master of all the secrets of his trade.
Those who visited the Salon of 1902
must still have in their mind's eye the
vast decorative ensemble executed for portrait of felix bracquemond. from a photograph

XXXII. No. 136.—July, 1904. 93