DOI Heft:
Nr. 187 (October 1908)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: Johann Barthold Jongkind
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20965#0034
Johann Barthold Jongkind
impressive in their calm. Jongkind has moreover
done a number of series of harbour interiors, of
vessels high-and-dry, or crowded one against the
other in some Antwerp or Rotterdam dock-
scenes done at all hours and at all seasons.
He was also an excellent interpreter of Paris, whose
various aspects he rendered with infinite charm.
Does the reader knowhow it was Jongkind excelled
to such a degree in expressing not only the atmo-
spheric effects of Holland, but likewise the firm
outlines of the scenery of the Seine or the streets
of Paris ? It was because side by side with the
colourist there was in Jongkind an impeccable
draughtsman. To satisfy oneself on this point it
is sufficient to study a certain drawing of houses in
the Moreau-Nélaton collection. One needs must
admire therein the certainty, the firmness of touch,
the precision of form, which enable one to pene-
trate one of the essentials of Jongkind’s genius.
For beneath this brilliant exterior, this seeming
laisser-aller often to be found in certain of his
water-colours, there is no mere improvisor ; on
the contrary, behind it all is a worker who never
tires of revising each one of his pictures, who, in a
word, lives with them until they shall seem to him
to have taken definite shape.
Many are the works of Jongkind I should still
like to name, in order to draw therefrom a few
conclusions on the main outlines of his talent ;
many the lovely scenes of Normandy, of the
Nivernais, of the Dauphiné, of Provence, I would
gladly see again and describe ! But I must retire,
and yield place to illustration.
What I would wish, however, to indicate in a
word is the actual influence the artist is exercising
on the modern school. In his impeccable draughts-
manship he is closely allied to the old masters ; he
is the continuation of the Dutch “ petits maîtres,”
carried on by Bonington and Isabey, and influencing
in turn Boudin and Lépine ; and in point of date
he is the first of the great Impressionists, while
ever remaining a great Classic. H. F.
water-colour sketch (Moreau-Nélaton Collection) ^ , by J. b. jongkind
12
impressive in their calm. Jongkind has moreover
done a number of series of harbour interiors, of
vessels high-and-dry, or crowded one against the
other in some Antwerp or Rotterdam dock-
scenes done at all hours and at all seasons.
He was also an excellent interpreter of Paris, whose
various aspects he rendered with infinite charm.
Does the reader knowhow it was Jongkind excelled
to such a degree in expressing not only the atmo-
spheric effects of Holland, but likewise the firm
outlines of the scenery of the Seine or the streets
of Paris ? It was because side by side with the
colourist there was in Jongkind an impeccable
draughtsman. To satisfy oneself on this point it
is sufficient to study a certain drawing of houses in
the Moreau-Nélaton collection. One needs must
admire therein the certainty, the firmness of touch,
the precision of form, which enable one to pene-
trate one of the essentials of Jongkind’s genius.
For beneath this brilliant exterior, this seeming
laisser-aller often to be found in certain of his
water-colours, there is no mere improvisor ; on
the contrary, behind it all is a worker who never
tires of revising each one of his pictures, who, in a
word, lives with them until they shall seem to him
to have taken definite shape.
Many are the works of Jongkind I should still
like to name, in order to draw therefrom a few
conclusions on the main outlines of his talent ;
many the lovely scenes of Normandy, of the
Nivernais, of the Dauphiné, of Provence, I would
gladly see again and describe ! But I must retire,
and yield place to illustration.
What I would wish, however, to indicate in a
word is the actual influence the artist is exercising
on the modern school. In his impeccable draughts-
manship he is closely allied to the old masters ; he
is the continuation of the Dutch “ petits maîtres,”
carried on by Bonington and Isabey, and influencing
in turn Boudin and Lépine ; and in point of date
he is the first of the great Impressionists, while
ever remaining a great Classic. H. F.
water-colour sketch (Moreau-Nélaton Collection) ^ , by J. b. jongkind
12