DOI Heft:
No. 136 (July, 1904)
DOI Artikel:Jourdain, Frantz: Modern French pastellists: J. F. Raffaëlli
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19882#0168
Modem French Pastellists
m
ODERN FRENCH PASTEL- the origin of the sentiments revealed in the features,
LISTS: J. F. RAFFAELLI. or the cause of this or that gesture—resumes, in a
BY FRANTZ JOURDAIN word, by a few strokes of the brush, the psychology
of a human being. There is something of Daumier
Like Minerva of the legend, emerging helmeted and something of Zola in this rough and sometimes
and lance in rest, in full and immortal maturity, brutal analyst, who ignores the pretty and the trivial,
from the brain of Jupiter, so M. Raffaelli has burst who knows naught of concessions, whose conscience
into the world of art, without doubting, without never fails.
feeling his way, without showing the least hesitation Realising that in art beauty and ugliness have
as to the road he intended to tread. Ancient no existence, and that talent, the omnipotent
history left him cold; he preferred the fait divers, magician, magnifies the most vulgar, even the
the news of the day, the lively anecdote—his own most repulsive, subject, whereas affectation dis-
time, in fact—the landscape of life, the unchanging honours the most admirable ideas, M. Raffaelli
and inspiring beauty of the Real. Never having turned straightway towards that kind of nature
been intoxicated by the education taught at the which appealed to his temperament without obscur-
Ecole des Beaux-Arts—which he had the inestim- ing his vision by any foolish trifling with the em-
able good fortune to know by reputation only—the pirical formulas of the Institut. He was full of
artist has been spared from
offering the saddening and _
frequent spectacle of a
young man, worn and
withered like an elder,
without vitality or initia-
tive, painfully stammering 1%
a lesson learnt by rote, . ^* ■^oiSm^v
copying works of which he
does not know the beauty,
atrophying himself over a
degrading task of sheer
routine, like a schoolboy.
Energetic and deter-
mined, M. Raffaelli as-
serted himself from the
very first, and took a place
of his own in the modern
school—the admirable
modern school, which, long
misunderstood, may by dint
of its brilliancy, its power,
its diversity, its respect for
truth, challenge compari-
sons with the most glorious
periods in the history
of humanity. The keen,
deep observation of this t ^■^BO£oi^Hnaf£c^
Independent, who has
never rubbed his brushes 1^31
on any palette save his ■ : \ ' *"
own, fixes the charac- > >**/',jt'm
teristics of a personality, BVtfrjfl
underlines the significant
points in a face, em-
phasises the definite - mN&:..:
value of a tone, explains "flowers and fruit" from the pastel by j. f. raffaelli
146
m
ODERN FRENCH PASTEL- the origin of the sentiments revealed in the features,
LISTS: J. F. RAFFAELLI. or the cause of this or that gesture—resumes, in a
BY FRANTZ JOURDAIN word, by a few strokes of the brush, the psychology
of a human being. There is something of Daumier
Like Minerva of the legend, emerging helmeted and something of Zola in this rough and sometimes
and lance in rest, in full and immortal maturity, brutal analyst, who ignores the pretty and the trivial,
from the brain of Jupiter, so M. Raffaelli has burst who knows naught of concessions, whose conscience
into the world of art, without doubting, without never fails.
feeling his way, without showing the least hesitation Realising that in art beauty and ugliness have
as to the road he intended to tread. Ancient no existence, and that talent, the omnipotent
history left him cold; he preferred the fait divers, magician, magnifies the most vulgar, even the
the news of the day, the lively anecdote—his own most repulsive, subject, whereas affectation dis-
time, in fact—the landscape of life, the unchanging honours the most admirable ideas, M. Raffaelli
and inspiring beauty of the Real. Never having turned straightway towards that kind of nature
been intoxicated by the education taught at the which appealed to his temperament without obscur-
Ecole des Beaux-Arts—which he had the inestim- ing his vision by any foolish trifling with the em-
able good fortune to know by reputation only—the pirical formulas of the Institut. He was full of
artist has been spared from
offering the saddening and _
frequent spectacle of a
young man, worn and
withered like an elder,
without vitality or initia-
tive, painfully stammering 1%
a lesson learnt by rote, . ^* ■^oiSm^v
copying works of which he
does not know the beauty,
atrophying himself over a
degrading task of sheer
routine, like a schoolboy.
Energetic and deter-
mined, M. Raffaelli as-
serted himself from the
very first, and took a place
of his own in the modern
school—the admirable
modern school, which, long
misunderstood, may by dint
of its brilliancy, its power,
its diversity, its respect for
truth, challenge compari-
sons with the most glorious
periods in the history
of humanity. The keen,
deep observation of this t ^■^BO£oi^Hnaf£c^
Independent, who has
never rubbed his brushes 1^31
on any palette save his ■ : \ ' *"
own, fixes the charac- > >**/',jt'm
teristics of a personality, BVtfrjfl
underlines the significant
points in a face, em-
phasises the definite - mN&:..:
value of a tone, explains "flowers and fruit" from the pastel by j. f. raffaelli
146