DOI Heft:
Nr. 144 (March 1905)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: A forgotten artist: Constantin Guys
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20711#0128
Constantin Guys
are quite remarkable; he is not content with a few mental in exercising a profound and durable
attitudes noted at random at parades and reviews. influence on the art of succeeding generations.
He preferred to go into camps and barracks, even Let us not deceive ourselves in this; the art of
into taverns and other resorts, whither the victors Forain, and Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec is closely
of Magenta and Solferino were wont to repair to connected with that of Guys, who, certain un-
rest from the rigours of discipline. This is a sub- deniable failings apart, must indeed be hailed as
ject which he treated many times with rare felicity, an innovator who opened up new paths and broke
and a certain number of water-colours from the fresh ground in the domain of art.
Nadar, Barbazanges, Gallimard, Beurdeley, and Were it for this alone, Guys might claim that
Beltrand collections represent the return of the place of honour among French artists which was so
victorious troops. While he had a strong fancy long refused him; but in turning over these in-
fer depicting scenes of debauchery (the very list of numerable plates, one comes even to love the
Guys' principal works of this kind would occupy artist who makes one realise the whole life of his
pages), he was far from ignoring the elegant side of epoch, makes one feel the half-melancholy charm
life, with its luxurious salons peopled by the quaintly- of these by-gone fashions, these old-fashioned
dressed dandies of the period, with their draught- materials, these faded flowers and these beauties
board trousers, their monumental stove-pipes, their who are no more. Henri Frantz.
tight-waisted coats, their
ornamented waistcoats,
and their Austrian
whiskers.
They are like an idea
of the famous beaux of
other days—the D'Or-
says, the Grammont-
Caderousses, the Sa-
gans, the Houssayes,
the Barbey d'Aurevillys,
and all the other brilliant
successors of Brummel
and Sheridan, who
shone during the Second
Empire.
The "dandy" and
the "lion" apart, Guys
devoted even more at-
tention to the women .
of his day. Looking
through his portfolios
one discovers not merely
a type—the woman with
certain surroundings—
but women of every
kind, stamped with the
characteristic seal of
their period, and en-
dowed with their eternal
grace and charm.
By his fervent love ot
life, by his seeking after
character and his gift of
discovering beauty in
everything and every- "generaux du second empire" by constantin guys
where, Guys was instru- (fit the Gaubert de Sainte-Croix Collection)
ii?
are quite remarkable; he is not content with a few mental in exercising a profound and durable
attitudes noted at random at parades and reviews. influence on the art of succeeding generations.
He preferred to go into camps and barracks, even Let us not deceive ourselves in this; the art of
into taverns and other resorts, whither the victors Forain, and Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec is closely
of Magenta and Solferino were wont to repair to connected with that of Guys, who, certain un-
rest from the rigours of discipline. This is a sub- deniable failings apart, must indeed be hailed as
ject which he treated many times with rare felicity, an innovator who opened up new paths and broke
and a certain number of water-colours from the fresh ground in the domain of art.
Nadar, Barbazanges, Gallimard, Beurdeley, and Were it for this alone, Guys might claim that
Beltrand collections represent the return of the place of honour among French artists which was so
victorious troops. While he had a strong fancy long refused him; but in turning over these in-
fer depicting scenes of debauchery (the very list of numerable plates, one comes even to love the
Guys' principal works of this kind would occupy artist who makes one realise the whole life of his
pages), he was far from ignoring the elegant side of epoch, makes one feel the half-melancholy charm
life, with its luxurious salons peopled by the quaintly- of these by-gone fashions, these old-fashioned
dressed dandies of the period, with their draught- materials, these faded flowers and these beauties
board trousers, their monumental stove-pipes, their who are no more. Henri Frantz.
tight-waisted coats, their
ornamented waistcoats,
and their Austrian
whiskers.
They are like an idea
of the famous beaux of
other days—the D'Or-
says, the Grammont-
Caderousses, the Sa-
gans, the Houssayes,
the Barbey d'Aurevillys,
and all the other brilliant
successors of Brummel
and Sheridan, who
shone during the Second
Empire.
The "dandy" and
the "lion" apart, Guys
devoted even more at-
tention to the women .
of his day. Looking
through his portfolios
one discovers not merely
a type—the woman with
certain surroundings—
but women of every
kind, stamped with the
characteristic seal of
their period, and en-
dowed with their eternal
grace and charm.
By his fervent love ot
life, by his seeking after
character and his gift of
discovering beauty in
everything and every- "generaux du second empire" by constantin guys
where, Guys was instru- (fit the Gaubert de Sainte-Croix Collection)
ii?