DOI issue:
No. 201 (December, 1909)
DOI article:Uzanne, Octave: Madame Debillemont-Chardon's miniatures
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0236
Mine. Debillemont-Chardon's Miniatures
Fortunately, nothing which indubitably belongs to
the domain of aestheticism, can ever entirely perish.
There is tradition in every branch of art, and
vestals will always be found who will keep the
sacred fire ever burning. So it is with this art of
miniature painting—it is undergoing a renaissance,
and again, it can count its priests, and especially its
priestesses, who are earnestly striving to revive it,
and to bring it into contact with modern life, and
who, less desirous of imitating their predecessors
in the past than of producing new and original
work, seek to be personal and independent in their
methods.
Among contemporary miniaturists of real im-
portance who have been indefatigable in renewing
the sacred fire upon the too-long neglected altar,
Mme. Gabrielle Debillemont-Chardon appears in
the forefront. Referring to this so conscientious
artist M. Leonce Benedite, director of the Musee
du Luxembourg, has written : " She has taken a
most prominent part in the movement to resurrect
the art of miniature painting, for her works, so
fresh, so living, so alert, so intellectually conceived,
while appearing to be improvised, yet all the while
supported by sound and solid drawing, are among
those which have maintained the reputation of this
old French art during the period of stagnation
through which it has passed ... It is her excellent
example which has encouraged the greater number
of the young miniaturists of to-day who are so
actively working in co-operation."
Gabrielle Debillemont-Chardon was born at Dijon
during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Her
father was a distinguished musical conductor and
composer of studies, symphonies, operas and ballets.
Mme. Debillemont's vocation was strongly marked
out for her, and luckily she found no obstacle
placed in the way of her following it by a family
of independent spirit and artistic tendency. About
the age of eighteen, having brilliantly passed the
examinations of the city of Paris, she received her
certificate as teacher of drawing, and sought for a
position as head of a school, successfully obtaining
such a post some few years later in the 10th
arrondissement of Paris. After seven years of
professorship the young woman became anxious
to assure herself greater liberty, and was full of a
belief that she could attain some eminence in the
branch of miniature painting, which at that time
had become so debased in the hands of the fair
unmarried girls who wiled away the time spoiling
ivories with their villainous daubs. M. de
Pomeyrac, miniature painter to Napoleon III.,
was her first adviser and her guide in the new
214
technique to which she now desired to devote her
talents. After her first timid essays and her
earliest stippled drawings, she grew bolder to the
point of desiring to innovate and to wander in
untrodden paths. She sought to gain a freedom
of execution that should not exclude delicacy and
grace of modelling. A visit that she paid to
Flanders and Holland sufficed to enlarge her
conceptions and to arouse in her the determina-
tion of equalling the work of certain petits-maitres
in the Netherlands, and of doing for her epoch
what they had done for theirs.
Born under a lucky star, Mme. Debillemont-
Chardon had no time to become impatient, for
success came to her at once. Her contempo-
raries appreciated her original talent, and the
acknowledged beauties of the beau-monde made
it a point of vanity to be painted in miniature by
the young artist. In 1894, and again in 1901,
she received the medal of the Salon des Artistes
Francais, and is to-day hors concours. The Musde
du Luxembourg in Paris and the Walker Art
Gallery, Liverpool, acquired examples of her most
original work. Her reputation established, pupils
came to her from all parts of the world, and these,
for the most part, in their turn have attained an
"REVERIE" BY GABRIELLE DEBILLEMONT-CHARDON
Fortunately, nothing which indubitably belongs to
the domain of aestheticism, can ever entirely perish.
There is tradition in every branch of art, and
vestals will always be found who will keep the
sacred fire ever burning. So it is with this art of
miniature painting—it is undergoing a renaissance,
and again, it can count its priests, and especially its
priestesses, who are earnestly striving to revive it,
and to bring it into contact with modern life, and
who, less desirous of imitating their predecessors
in the past than of producing new and original
work, seek to be personal and independent in their
methods.
Among contemporary miniaturists of real im-
portance who have been indefatigable in renewing
the sacred fire upon the too-long neglected altar,
Mme. Gabrielle Debillemont-Chardon appears in
the forefront. Referring to this so conscientious
artist M. Leonce Benedite, director of the Musee
du Luxembourg, has written : " She has taken a
most prominent part in the movement to resurrect
the art of miniature painting, for her works, so
fresh, so living, so alert, so intellectually conceived,
while appearing to be improvised, yet all the while
supported by sound and solid drawing, are among
those which have maintained the reputation of this
old French art during the period of stagnation
through which it has passed ... It is her excellent
example which has encouraged the greater number
of the young miniaturists of to-day who are so
actively working in co-operation."
Gabrielle Debillemont-Chardon was born at Dijon
during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Her
father was a distinguished musical conductor and
composer of studies, symphonies, operas and ballets.
Mme. Debillemont's vocation was strongly marked
out for her, and luckily she found no obstacle
placed in the way of her following it by a family
of independent spirit and artistic tendency. About
the age of eighteen, having brilliantly passed the
examinations of the city of Paris, she received her
certificate as teacher of drawing, and sought for a
position as head of a school, successfully obtaining
such a post some few years later in the 10th
arrondissement of Paris. After seven years of
professorship the young woman became anxious
to assure herself greater liberty, and was full of a
belief that she could attain some eminence in the
branch of miniature painting, which at that time
had become so debased in the hands of the fair
unmarried girls who wiled away the time spoiling
ivories with their villainous daubs. M. de
Pomeyrac, miniature painter to Napoleon III.,
was her first adviser and her guide in the new
214
technique to which she now desired to devote her
talents. After her first timid essays and her
earliest stippled drawings, she grew bolder to the
point of desiring to innovate and to wander in
untrodden paths. She sought to gain a freedom
of execution that should not exclude delicacy and
grace of modelling. A visit that she paid to
Flanders and Holland sufficed to enlarge her
conceptions and to arouse in her the determina-
tion of equalling the work of certain petits-maitres
in the Netherlands, and of doing for her epoch
what they had done for theirs.
Born under a lucky star, Mme. Debillemont-
Chardon had no time to become impatient, for
success came to her at once. Her contempo-
raries appreciated her original talent, and the
acknowledged beauties of the beau-monde made
it a point of vanity to be painted in miniature by
the young artist. In 1894, and again in 1901,
she received the medal of the Salon des Artistes
Francais, and is to-day hors concours. The Musde
du Luxembourg in Paris and the Walker Art
Gallery, Liverpool, acquired examples of her most
original work. Her reputation established, pupils
came to her from all parts of the world, and these,
for the most part, in their turn have attained an
"REVERIE" BY GABRIELLE DEBILLEMONT-CHARDON