DOI Heft:
Nr. 188 (November 1908)
DOI Artikel:Uzanne, Octave: A painter of old French towns: Albert Lechat
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20965#0157
Albert Léchât, a Painter of Old French Towns
“une vieille place, arras, pas-de-calais
us with really novel, enjoyable and delicate inter-
pretations.
But how comes it that in France, where formerly,
in the romantic days, so many artists delighted to
set up their easels in front of the walls of our
delightful little fortified towns, one fails to meet,
whether on Norman, Breton, Picardian, Bur-
gundian, or Provençal soil, the disciples of Isabey,
Huet, or Hervier, of old
Boulard or Decamps, or
indeed of Turner, Con-
stable or Bonington, gladly
working in the street itself,
translating, for our delight,
with sure and rapid touch,
these vestiges of the past,
these agglomerations of
ancient dwelling places,
these precious specimens
of religious and civic archi-
tecture ? For there is no
country so rich as France
in adorable little sleeping
cities, lying almost dead in
all their beauty. They
abound from North to
South, from East to West.
The tourist is delighted to
discover them on the
banks of the Loire, the
Seine, the Rhone, and the
Garonne, or near the
shores of the Moselle, the
Meuse, the Marne, the
Somme, or the Ranee.
That genius Turner, the
painter of marvellous
water-colours exalting all
that was picturesque in the
old provinces of Great
Britain and the Continent,
lost no time in the course
of several visits to France,
but produced work which
may serve as a guide to
the admirable scenery
abounding in an admirable
land.
I was thinking of all
this, just as one ponders
over the mysteries of
fashion which dominate
everything, when at an ex-
hibition held at Georges
Petit’s in Paris some little while ago I came acioss
a number of scenes from little towns in the north.
Signed Albert Lechat, they achieved a brilliant
success.
This was a delight to me, like the unhoped-for
advent of warm, flowery spring, like the revival of
one of the noble traditions of French art. These
visions of provincial works, lying drowsily in the
BY A. LECHAT
LE port de ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME
BY A. I ECHAT
*35
“une vieille place, arras, pas-de-calais
us with really novel, enjoyable and delicate inter-
pretations.
But how comes it that in France, where formerly,
in the romantic days, so many artists delighted to
set up their easels in front of the walls of our
delightful little fortified towns, one fails to meet,
whether on Norman, Breton, Picardian, Bur-
gundian, or Provençal soil, the disciples of Isabey,
Huet, or Hervier, of old
Boulard or Decamps, or
indeed of Turner, Con-
stable or Bonington, gladly
working in the street itself,
translating, for our delight,
with sure and rapid touch,
these vestiges of the past,
these agglomerations of
ancient dwelling places,
these precious specimens
of religious and civic archi-
tecture ? For there is no
country so rich as France
in adorable little sleeping
cities, lying almost dead in
all their beauty. They
abound from North to
South, from East to West.
The tourist is delighted to
discover them on the
banks of the Loire, the
Seine, the Rhone, and the
Garonne, or near the
shores of the Moselle, the
Meuse, the Marne, the
Somme, or the Ranee.
That genius Turner, the
painter of marvellous
water-colours exalting all
that was picturesque in the
old provinces of Great
Britain and the Continent,
lost no time in the course
of several visits to France,
but produced work which
may serve as a guide to
the admirable scenery
abounding in an admirable
land.
I was thinking of all
this, just as one ponders
over the mysteries of
fashion which dominate
everything, when at an ex-
hibition held at Georges
Petit’s in Paris some little while ago I came acioss
a number of scenes from little towns in the north.
Signed Albert Lechat, they achieved a brilliant
success.
This was a delight to me, like the unhoped-for
advent of warm, flowery spring, like the revival of
one of the noble traditions of French art. These
visions of provincial works, lying drowsily in the
BY A. LECHAT
LE port de ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME
BY A. I ECHAT
*35