DOI issue:
No. 175 (October, 1907)
DOI article:Frantz, Henri: The Chardin-Fragonard exhibition in Paris
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20776#0051
The Ckardin-Fragonard Exhibition
can applaud without reserve this apotheosis of delicate art. The very important series of works
the two eighteenth-century masters, J.-B. Simeon from the Henri de Rothschild collection must be
Chardin and Jean Honore Fragonard. studied one by one in order fully to appreciate its
Naturally these splendid artists, long neglected extraordinary variety. No matter how insignificant
and despised, are now among the best-known and be the objects placed upon a table the painter can
the most widely appreciated of the painters of make them attractive; the slightest tints he made
their century ; their chief canvases have been to sing by the amazing cleverness of his brush, and
popularised by engravings, and quite an extensive above all by his admirable sincerity,
library has been devoted to them; but the chief Chardin was prodigious, too, as a portraitist. In
interest of an exhibition such as this lies in the his company how far removed we are from the
fact that it serves to familiarise one with works ceremonial portraits of the painters of his period!
less famous, with sketches and studies which en- How serious, how simple he is, how astonishing
able one to penetrate deep into the artist's the note of truth he strikes in such paintings as
nature, and to become familiar with his methods the two little portraits of boys (Le Toton) or the
of composition, of work, and of execution. Teune homme au violon from the Trepard Collection,
Here the diversity between Chardin and which have been bought by the Louvre for, it is
Fragonard becomes more than ever accentuated. said, a colossal sum. Among the best genre pieces
Fragonard was the maddest, most pleasure-loving must be mentioned Le Souffleur, which, besides
artist of his day; under
the magic of his brush,
within the joyous set-
ting of garden and park,
with plashing fountains
and frolicsome couples
making love in the di-
vinest of lights, we take
part in the fairest fes-
tivals of the eighteenth
century, and live the
most delicious and the
most unreal of dreams.
Chardin, on the other
hand, saw life in its
truest' aspect; while
Fragonard seems to
know nought beyond
the society of the great,
Chardin, dwelling amid
the humble surround-
ings of the poor, had
an entirely different
vision of life; his brush
had none of the rapture
of Fragonard's; he
treated more serious
subjects more sagely.
But in the first place
Chardin is incontest-
ably the master of still-
life ; he was the equal,
and probably the su-
perior, of the most
famous of all those
who essayed this most ''still life:' (The proierty of M. Alexis Vollon) by j.-b. chardin
29
can applaud without reserve this apotheosis of delicate art. The very important series of works
the two eighteenth-century masters, J.-B. Simeon from the Henri de Rothschild collection must be
Chardin and Jean Honore Fragonard. studied one by one in order fully to appreciate its
Naturally these splendid artists, long neglected extraordinary variety. No matter how insignificant
and despised, are now among the best-known and be the objects placed upon a table the painter can
the most widely appreciated of the painters of make them attractive; the slightest tints he made
their century ; their chief canvases have been to sing by the amazing cleverness of his brush, and
popularised by engravings, and quite an extensive above all by his admirable sincerity,
library has been devoted to them; but the chief Chardin was prodigious, too, as a portraitist. In
interest of an exhibition such as this lies in the his company how far removed we are from the
fact that it serves to familiarise one with works ceremonial portraits of the painters of his period!
less famous, with sketches and studies which en- How serious, how simple he is, how astonishing
able one to penetrate deep into the artist's the note of truth he strikes in such paintings as
nature, and to become familiar with his methods the two little portraits of boys (Le Toton) or the
of composition, of work, and of execution. Teune homme au violon from the Trepard Collection,
Here the diversity between Chardin and which have been bought by the Louvre for, it is
Fragonard becomes more than ever accentuated. said, a colossal sum. Among the best genre pieces
Fragonard was the maddest, most pleasure-loving must be mentioned Le Souffleur, which, besides
artist of his day; under
the magic of his brush,
within the joyous set-
ting of garden and park,
with plashing fountains
and frolicsome couples
making love in the di-
vinest of lights, we take
part in the fairest fes-
tivals of the eighteenth
century, and live the
most delicious and the
most unreal of dreams.
Chardin, on the other
hand, saw life in its
truest' aspect; while
Fragonard seems to
know nought beyond
the society of the great,
Chardin, dwelling amid
the humble surround-
ings of the poor, had
an entirely different
vision of life; his brush
had none of the rapture
of Fragonard's; he
treated more serious
subjects more sagely.
But in the first place
Chardin is incontest-
ably the master of still-
life ; he was the equal,
and probably the su-
perior, of the most
famous of all those
who essayed this most ''still life:' (The proierty of M. Alexis Vollon) by j.-b. chardin
29