DOI Heft:
No. 195 (June, 1909)
DOI Artikel:Henriet, Frédéric: Léon Lhermitte, painter of french peasant life
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20967#0029
Leon Lhermitte
“l’ami des humbles”
work which he had carried to the highest perfection,
and which began to afford him very appreciable
results. From England —it is only fair to remember
it—came his first pecuniary encouragement. A
former student of the Atelier Lecoq, Alphonse
Legros, who for some considerable time had made
London his abode, became a warm supporter of
the young artist, and when, after the war in 1870,
Lhermitte, fearful for the future, deemed it prudent
to try his fortune in London, Legros made him
acquainted with Edwards, Heseltine, Seymour-
Iladen, and introduced him to Ed. Sievrd, who
was engaged at the moment on a publication of
considerable magnitude on the works of art in the
collections of England. Struck by the qualities
of precision and delicacy in the work of the young
draughtsman, Sievre did not hesitate to enrol him
among his collaborators. Legros went further, and
admitted some of his protege’s charcoal drawings
to the Black and White Exhibition, where they
soon aroused interest. In 1873 Lhermitte again
sent to the exhibition, again achieved the same
success, and was unanimously elected a member
of the hanging committee of the society for the
ensuing year. 1874 was a red-letter year for
Lhermitte, for the Jury of Awards of the Paris
BY LEON LHERMITTE
Salon granted him a third medal, expressly voted,
for his large charcoal drawing Lc Benedicite and for
his picture La ALoisson (purchased by the Govern-
ment and placed in the Musee de Carcassonne), thus
showing that in the field of painting he had not
been inactive, and henceforth he worked in both
mediums equally. Lhermitte learnt to paint by
plunging into the midst of difficulties, in the same
■ way as some boys, knowing no fear, learn to swim
by throwing themselves into the water.
Lhermitte has scattered through the world
countless charcoal drawings, themselves amply
sufficient to make an artist’s reputation. What a
precious document we should have if their author
were able to-day to give a list, as certain artists
have done, a kind of Liber veritatis of all the
studies he has made and disseminated ! But he
has flung them far and wide, like the rose tree its
flowers.
A draughtsman so sure of himself, so adroit at
realising by simple contrasts of black and white
all the effects of which that austere monochromatic
medium is capable, would, one supposes, find him-
self not unprepared to use the needle, and, indeed,
at the first attempt Lhermitte proved himself a
successful etcher. It was in London in 1871 that
7
(Boston Museum 0■ Fine Arts)
“l’ami des humbles”
work which he had carried to the highest perfection,
and which began to afford him very appreciable
results. From England —it is only fair to remember
it—came his first pecuniary encouragement. A
former student of the Atelier Lecoq, Alphonse
Legros, who for some considerable time had made
London his abode, became a warm supporter of
the young artist, and when, after the war in 1870,
Lhermitte, fearful for the future, deemed it prudent
to try his fortune in London, Legros made him
acquainted with Edwards, Heseltine, Seymour-
Iladen, and introduced him to Ed. Sievrd, who
was engaged at the moment on a publication of
considerable magnitude on the works of art in the
collections of England. Struck by the qualities
of precision and delicacy in the work of the young
draughtsman, Sievre did not hesitate to enrol him
among his collaborators. Legros went further, and
admitted some of his protege’s charcoal drawings
to the Black and White Exhibition, where they
soon aroused interest. In 1873 Lhermitte again
sent to the exhibition, again achieved the same
success, and was unanimously elected a member
of the hanging committee of the society for the
ensuing year. 1874 was a red-letter year for
Lhermitte, for the Jury of Awards of the Paris
BY LEON LHERMITTE
Salon granted him a third medal, expressly voted,
for his large charcoal drawing Lc Benedicite and for
his picture La ALoisson (purchased by the Govern-
ment and placed in the Musee de Carcassonne), thus
showing that in the field of painting he had not
been inactive, and henceforth he worked in both
mediums equally. Lhermitte learnt to paint by
plunging into the midst of difficulties, in the same
■ way as some boys, knowing no fear, learn to swim
by throwing themselves into the water.
Lhermitte has scattered through the world
countless charcoal drawings, themselves amply
sufficient to make an artist’s reputation. What a
precious document we should have if their author
were able to-day to give a list, as certain artists
have done, a kind of Liber veritatis of all the
studies he has made and disseminated ! But he
has flung them far and wide, like the rose tree its
flowers.
A draughtsman so sure of himself, so adroit at
realising by simple contrasts of black and white
all the effects of which that austere monochromatic
medium is capable, would, one supposes, find him-
self not unprepared to use the needle, and, indeed,
at the first attempt Lhermitte proved himself a
successful etcher. It was in London in 1871 that
7
(Boston Museum 0■ Fine Arts)