DOI Heft:
No. 136 (July, 1904)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: The work of Félix Bracquemond
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19882#0122
Fdlix Bracquemond
pleasure, because it reveals to us a whole page of engraver—Baudelaire and Edmond de Goncourt.
the artist's intimate life, is that entitled La Terrasse One can easily understand that memories such as
de la Villa Brancas. Therein one sees two delight- these attach Bracquemond for ever to his Villa
fully graceful women seated, one being Madame Brancas. Besides, was it not here that he brought
Marie Bracquemond, an artist of high talent, whose up his son Pierre and trained him in his art ?
name is intimately associated with the history of Nearly all the men who were friends of Bracque-
impressionist painting, by reason of the fine work mond—from Balzac to Puvis de Chavannes—have
she has produced in this direction. The terrace posed to the master for etched portraits, and these
of the Villa Brancas !—a spot renowned alike in the form an admirable gallery of our contemporaries,
annals of French art and French literature in the for they are " fixed" with all the minute perfection
nineteenth century. All, or almost all, of any note which one rarely sees save in the works of the old
were frequenters of the place. There were to be masters. What, for example, could be finer than
seen in their turn writers such as Cladel, Alexandre the portrait of Edmond de Goncourt ? Note the
Dumas, Theophile Gautier, de Nerval, d'Echerac, fine face, with its relief of white hair, and the deep,
Burty, and Geffroy ; or artists of the stamp of shining eyes; the hand, so naturally and char-
Legros, Meryon, Rodin, Courbet, Daubigny, Dela- acteristically posed, with a cigarette between the
croix, and Cheret. Two of the most illustrious fingers ; then the composition of the whole work—
children of the last century were friends of the the sculpture, the woodwork, the little Japanese
bronze ; and all so harmo-
nious, so strong, so fascinating!
The extraordinary thing in
Bracquemond is the colour
effects he obtains by means
as simple as those of the
etchings. See this fine ex-
ample, in which the land-
scapist is no whit inferior to
the portrait-painter—Le Loup
dans la Neige. Here we see
all the gradations he has been
able to draw from this
melancholy winter scene, with
the trees stretching out their
withered arms against the grey
sky, their shadows reflecting
on the snow, over which the
animal drags wearily along,
leaving his track behind.
And the same may be said
of this park avenue, with its
long perspective. One feels
that even a painter could not
have got more colour into his
work — could not have ex-
pressed himself more fully.
With Bracquemond, as with
all the great engravers, from
Rembrandt to Whistler, the
various " states" of his en-
gravings have a special interest
for the amateur. All engrav-
ings, whatever be their tech-
nique, have this peculiarity,
'ebats de canards" by felix bracquemond that they preserve positive
IOO
pleasure, because it reveals to us a whole page of engraver—Baudelaire and Edmond de Goncourt.
the artist's intimate life, is that entitled La Terrasse One can easily understand that memories such as
de la Villa Brancas. Therein one sees two delight- these attach Bracquemond for ever to his Villa
fully graceful women seated, one being Madame Brancas. Besides, was it not here that he brought
Marie Bracquemond, an artist of high talent, whose up his son Pierre and trained him in his art ?
name is intimately associated with the history of Nearly all the men who were friends of Bracque-
impressionist painting, by reason of the fine work mond—from Balzac to Puvis de Chavannes—have
she has produced in this direction. The terrace posed to the master for etched portraits, and these
of the Villa Brancas !—a spot renowned alike in the form an admirable gallery of our contemporaries,
annals of French art and French literature in the for they are " fixed" with all the minute perfection
nineteenth century. All, or almost all, of any note which one rarely sees save in the works of the old
were frequenters of the place. There were to be masters. What, for example, could be finer than
seen in their turn writers such as Cladel, Alexandre the portrait of Edmond de Goncourt ? Note the
Dumas, Theophile Gautier, de Nerval, d'Echerac, fine face, with its relief of white hair, and the deep,
Burty, and Geffroy ; or artists of the stamp of shining eyes; the hand, so naturally and char-
Legros, Meryon, Rodin, Courbet, Daubigny, Dela- acteristically posed, with a cigarette between the
croix, and Cheret. Two of the most illustrious fingers ; then the composition of the whole work—
children of the last century were friends of the the sculpture, the woodwork, the little Japanese
bronze ; and all so harmo-
nious, so strong, so fascinating!
The extraordinary thing in
Bracquemond is the colour
effects he obtains by means
as simple as those of the
etchings. See this fine ex-
ample, in which the land-
scapist is no whit inferior to
the portrait-painter—Le Loup
dans la Neige. Here we see
all the gradations he has been
able to draw from this
melancholy winter scene, with
the trees stretching out their
withered arms against the grey
sky, their shadows reflecting
on the snow, over which the
animal drags wearily along,
leaving his track behind.
And the same may be said
of this park avenue, with its
long perspective. One feels
that even a painter could not
have got more colour into his
work — could not have ex-
pressed himself more fully.
With Bracquemond, as with
all the great engravers, from
Rembrandt to Whistler, the
various " states" of his en-
gravings have a special interest
for the amateur. All engrav-
ings, whatever be their tech-
nique, have this peculiarity,
'ebats de canards" by felix bracquemond that they preserve positive
IOO