DOI issue:
No. 160 (July, 1906)
DOI article:Frantz, Henri: The salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20715#0154
The Salon of the Socle te Nationale
technique of enamelling upon porcelain previously
unapproached; a little further on the remarkable
bust of a man (M. Gilbert de Voisin) by Fix-
Masseau, and statuettes by the same artist quite
Florentine in their elegance ; then again the small
mask of a woman (Allle. Renee Parmy) in terra-
cotta, which revealed the skilful sculptor Vallgren
as a portraitist of incomparable dexterity and
insight. After this achievement, indeed, M.
Vallgren owes us an entire series of contem-
porary beauties ; it proves definitely to us that he
is a born portraitist of the modern Parisienne.
The happy arrangement of these three rooms, in
which the exhibits were disposed so as to be perfectly
enjoyed, had such a success with the public as
should encourage the organisers of the Societe
Nationale to persevere in this course.
There were several large canvases of great import-
ance this year. Everybody has agreed in recognis-
ing that M. Rene Mdnard’s two large decorative
works, commissioned by M. H. Marcel two years
ago for the Salle de Travail at the Ijlcole des
Hautes £tudes de la Sorbonne, are ’"among the
painter’s capital achievements. One of them,
Terre Antique (ruins of a temple), is a motij
which Menard has already treated in smaller
canvases, but in these great proportions it attains a
quite particular majesty. The simple and noble
arrangement of the columns which align them-
selves before us, the harmonious lines of the land-
scape, the magnificent forms of the heavy white
clouds that fill the vast sky with their clear whites
and reds : all these form an ensemble classical in
the highest sense. The other panel is equally
remarkable. It is a Gulj oj Epirus seen at sunrise
the semicircle of the coast is still bathed in shadow
while the snow-clad crests of the mountains begin
to be lighted up. The technique of both, very
different from Menard’s usual manner, is broad and
vigorous, lending itself perfectly to its decorative
aim. M. La Touche had also a large and very
successful panel. It was a Fete de Nuit, commis-
sioned for the Elysee, in which this highly individual
artist, under the fairy-like effect of rockets against
“LE CHATEAU DE COMBOURG (WURTEMBURG)
BY G. GRIVEAU
133
technique of enamelling upon porcelain previously
unapproached; a little further on the remarkable
bust of a man (M. Gilbert de Voisin) by Fix-
Masseau, and statuettes by the same artist quite
Florentine in their elegance ; then again the small
mask of a woman (Allle. Renee Parmy) in terra-
cotta, which revealed the skilful sculptor Vallgren
as a portraitist of incomparable dexterity and
insight. After this achievement, indeed, M.
Vallgren owes us an entire series of contem-
porary beauties ; it proves definitely to us that he
is a born portraitist of the modern Parisienne.
The happy arrangement of these three rooms, in
which the exhibits were disposed so as to be perfectly
enjoyed, had such a success with the public as
should encourage the organisers of the Societe
Nationale to persevere in this course.
There were several large canvases of great import-
ance this year. Everybody has agreed in recognis-
ing that M. Rene Mdnard’s two large decorative
works, commissioned by M. H. Marcel two years
ago for the Salle de Travail at the Ijlcole des
Hautes £tudes de la Sorbonne, are ’"among the
painter’s capital achievements. One of them,
Terre Antique (ruins of a temple), is a motij
which Menard has already treated in smaller
canvases, but in these great proportions it attains a
quite particular majesty. The simple and noble
arrangement of the columns which align them-
selves before us, the harmonious lines of the land-
scape, the magnificent forms of the heavy white
clouds that fill the vast sky with their clear whites
and reds : all these form an ensemble classical in
the highest sense. The other panel is equally
remarkable. It is a Gulj oj Epirus seen at sunrise
the semicircle of the coast is still bathed in shadow
while the snow-clad crests of the mountains begin
to be lighted up. The technique of both, very
different from Menard’s usual manner, is broad and
vigorous, lending itself perfectly to its decorative
aim. M. La Touche had also a large and very
successful panel. It was a Fete de Nuit, commis-
sioned for the Elysee, in which this highly individual
artist, under the fairy-like effect of rockets against
“LE CHATEAU DE COMBOURG (WURTEMBURG)
BY G. GRIVEAU
133