Studio: international art (47.1909)

L6on Lhermitte

The picture was first placed in one of the apart-
ments of the Prefect of the Seine, but as the size
of the room did not allow of its being seen to
advantage, it was placed in the Petit Palais of the
Champs Elysees.

Lhermitte has not been content merely to depict
the outward appearance of his models, their
gestures and their picturesque charms, but has
aimed, in certain works of a higher order, at
expressing something of their inner beauty of
character. Such is JJAmi des Humbles (1894 ;
Boston Museum), a modern paraphrase of the story
of the Journey to Emmaus (p. 7). Jesus appears
suddenly to a family of peasants who are about to
partake of their humble meal of soup and remain
spellbound with devout emotion before the un-
expected guest who honours their table. We will
not discuss the intentional anachronisms of the
picture. Even had he merely intended to insist
upon the necessity for each and all of us, rich or
poor, in this lower world, of keeping ever before
our eyes a sublime ideal, one must praise the artist
for. his noble thought. He returns to the same
idea in a beautiful painting, shown in T905 under
a similar title, Chez les Humbles (New York
Museum). Jesus bears the glad tidings of hope
and great joy to some peasants who are invoking
for their little ones a divine blessing. Besides its
excellent qualities of composition and execution,
always a characteristic of the painter, he has
imbued this work with an intensity of expression
which renders it a picture of surpassing beauty.
In his picture, La Mori et le Bucher on, the artist
has shown his ability to portray the terror and
anguish of a poor mortal in extremis. An un-
fortunate woodcutter, crushed by the weight of the
branches he bears, falls to the earth unable to
stagger along any further. He calls for Death,
and when that grim messenger appears, the poor
toiler, ice-cold with fright, begs him to assist him
again to bear his load of faggots. “Ploutot souffrir
que mourir” concludes the good La Fontaine!
This affecting interpretation of the old fable was
acquired by the State at the Salon of 1895, and is
now in the Musee at Amiens.

Concurrently with the elaboration of these works
of highest significance, Lhermitte produced many
easel pictures, always impeccable in execution, and
in which the landscape often played the leading role,
the figures being merely accessories, but neverthe-
less alive and ever in harmony with the decorative
scheme and the scenes in which they were placed.

The pictures of 1908 seem to sum up and crown
in a kind of apotheosis of rustic family life all the

previous achievements of the artist. He has not
deserted his Virgilian themes. At the close of a
fair autumn day, their work done, a family of
labourers gather beneath a rick preparatory to
wending their way back to the farm. A young
couple in the prime of life, the aged parents, the
children, symbolise the three generations which
constitute the normal household, not counting
“trois grands bceufs blancs taches de roux,” which,
if one may believe Pierre Dupont, also form part of
the family. La Famille (p. 3) is a work of noble
proportions and classic in the perfect equilibrium
of the composition.

HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRE WARE
FIG. I. —COPPER LUSTRE AND LIGHT BLUE DISH
(C. 1475 — 15 ro)

FIG. 2.—COPPER LUSTRE AND DARK BLUE DISH
(EARLY XV. CENT.)

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