DOI issue:
No. 200 (November, 200)
DOI article:Frantz, Henri: The etchings of Jean Francois Raffaelli
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0145
The Etchings of J. F. Raffaelli
praise of the country; there have been noble men
who have passed their lives amid rustic sur-
roundings and whom I admire, but, as for myself,
I have never been able to be other than a dweller
in towns. I love the great cities, these agglomera-
tions of old monuments and of human habitations,
these crowds of people, terrible in their vastness,
which so often dissolve merely into innocent
groups of loungers. I love my fellow-men, moved
as they are in the midst of this great melee by
similar sentiments to those of which I am myself
conscious, and who are in quest of the same
elusive and uncertain happiness as myself. I have
been exalted by all the joys and disturbed by all
the sorrows which rejoice or sadden them all-
middle class, workpeople, women, children, miser-
able outcasts, and those valiant spirits who accept
proudly their lot. Have .I been successful in trans-
ferring to my works as an artist, whether in the
dingy fields of the outskirts or in the shaded
avenues, bedecked with flowers, of the town, some-
thing of this spirit which moves me as a man and
as a human being? This I avow is the sum of
my ambition, and this it is that has replaced as
strongly and with the same ardent flame the fires
of my youthful enthusiasm."
Here, then, are some of Raffaelli's etchings.
With the exception of a luminous and dainty land-
scape, between the trees of which there flows the'
cool, clear water, we have chosen more particularly
some of the Parisian landscapes. Raffaelli is
to- day, par excellence, the painter of the great city,
and is the worthy successor in whose works is
found the consummation of all that pleiad of
artists who for more than a century and a half
past have applied themselves to study the beauty
and the poesy of the delightful Parisian scenes.
For truly this painter does not stand isolated.
Although he is so modern, and although his tech-
nique is so very different, he forms another link
in the chain of the great painters of the capital.
We hail him as descendant of Servandoni or of
Demachy, both of them lovers of beautiful com-
position ; of Louis Moreau, who also painted
skies both liquid and aerial; and of Michel, who
drew out all the picturesque qualities of the mills
123
praise of the country; there have been noble men
who have passed their lives amid rustic sur-
roundings and whom I admire, but, as for myself,
I have never been able to be other than a dweller
in towns. I love the great cities, these agglomera-
tions of old monuments and of human habitations,
these crowds of people, terrible in their vastness,
which so often dissolve merely into innocent
groups of loungers. I love my fellow-men, moved
as they are in the midst of this great melee by
similar sentiments to those of which I am myself
conscious, and who are in quest of the same
elusive and uncertain happiness as myself. I have
been exalted by all the joys and disturbed by all
the sorrows which rejoice or sadden them all-
middle class, workpeople, women, children, miser-
able outcasts, and those valiant spirits who accept
proudly their lot. Have .I been successful in trans-
ferring to my works as an artist, whether in the
dingy fields of the outskirts or in the shaded
avenues, bedecked with flowers, of the town, some-
thing of this spirit which moves me as a man and
as a human being? This I avow is the sum of
my ambition, and this it is that has replaced as
strongly and with the same ardent flame the fires
of my youthful enthusiasm."
Here, then, are some of Raffaelli's etchings.
With the exception of a luminous and dainty land-
scape, between the trees of which there flows the'
cool, clear water, we have chosen more particularly
some of the Parisian landscapes. Raffaelli is
to- day, par excellence, the painter of the great city,
and is the worthy successor in whose works is
found the consummation of all that pleiad of
artists who for more than a century and a half
past have applied themselves to study the beauty
and the poesy of the delightful Parisian scenes.
For truly this painter does not stand isolated.
Although he is so modern, and although his tech-
nique is so very different, he forms another link
in the chain of the great painters of the capital.
We hail him as descendant of Servandoni or of
Demachy, both of them lovers of beautiful com-
position ; of Louis Moreau, who also painted
skies both liquid and aerial; and of Michel, who
drew out all the picturesque qualities of the mills
123