DOI Heft:
No. 228 (March 1912)
DOI Artikel:Honoré, Léopold: An Alsatian landscpae painter: Henri Zuber
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21156#0130
Henri Zuber
has, in fact, no absolute formulas—in the past as
in the present Beauty is always Beauty, Truth is
always Truth, and Goodness remains ever Goodness.
Henri Zuber had the faculty of becoming ever
inspired anew with true aesthetic feeling, and this
it was that enabled him, without becoming merely
a contemplator of the past or in any degree sacri-
ficing his own individuality, to follow in the steps
of the greatest masters of landscape and at the
same time to keep quite free from anything in the
nature of plagiarism. In a word, traditions in art
form as it were links in a long chain, links more or less
bright and luminous according as the artists of any
given epoch are more or less devoted to their art.
To use a familiar expression of Henri Zuber’s,
“ The language of the sky, the earth, and the sea
is eternal! ” This is the theme which each land-
scape painter must develop and express anew with
something of his own individuality. What sincerity
and tender feeling do we not find in Zuber’s inter-
pretation of the theme? With what clearness of
vision, what harmony, with what true aesthetic
sense has he lent wings to his imagination and
honoured nature in his transcriptions of her
never-failing beauty !
As soon as he returned from China, where he
had made the sketches for his first picture, exe-
cuted the following year, Zuber threw himself heart
and soul into his new work. He entered the studio
of Gleyre, and only interrupted his studies to take
part in the campaign of 1870-7 r, as a member
of the naval brigade which assisted at the defence
of Paris. His duty to his Fatherland accomplished,
he once more took up his palette and brushes, which
he was destined never again to abandon till death
intervened. He made his first appearance at the
Salon des Artistes Francais in 1869, with two
pictures, Grande rue a Pekin, and Tour de Porce-
laine du Palais d’Ete, and in 1870 were seen his
Tonque chinoise, and Rockers de San Montana.
His contributions to the Salon, forcibly interrupted
during the war, were resumed in 1873, when he
sent Bain des Nymphes, whichuwas purchased by
the State; in 1874 he was represented by Hylas et
les Nymphes, now in the art gallery at Brest, and he
continued to exhibit practically without interruption
until the year of his death.
The various stages of the artist’s career succeeded
one another rapidly and brilliantly. In r875 he
obtained a medal of the third class with Id Etang
r 10
has, in fact, no absolute formulas—in the past as
in the present Beauty is always Beauty, Truth is
always Truth, and Goodness remains ever Goodness.
Henri Zuber had the faculty of becoming ever
inspired anew with true aesthetic feeling, and this
it was that enabled him, without becoming merely
a contemplator of the past or in any degree sacri-
ficing his own individuality, to follow in the steps
of the greatest masters of landscape and at the
same time to keep quite free from anything in the
nature of plagiarism. In a word, traditions in art
form as it were links in a long chain, links more or less
bright and luminous according as the artists of any
given epoch are more or less devoted to their art.
To use a familiar expression of Henri Zuber’s,
“ The language of the sky, the earth, and the sea
is eternal! ” This is the theme which each land-
scape painter must develop and express anew with
something of his own individuality. What sincerity
and tender feeling do we not find in Zuber’s inter-
pretation of the theme? With what clearness of
vision, what harmony, with what true aesthetic
sense has he lent wings to his imagination and
honoured nature in his transcriptions of her
never-failing beauty !
As soon as he returned from China, where he
had made the sketches for his first picture, exe-
cuted the following year, Zuber threw himself heart
and soul into his new work. He entered the studio
of Gleyre, and only interrupted his studies to take
part in the campaign of 1870-7 r, as a member
of the naval brigade which assisted at the defence
of Paris. His duty to his Fatherland accomplished,
he once more took up his palette and brushes, which
he was destined never again to abandon till death
intervened. He made his first appearance at the
Salon des Artistes Francais in 1869, with two
pictures, Grande rue a Pekin, and Tour de Porce-
laine du Palais d’Ete, and in 1870 were seen his
Tonque chinoise, and Rockers de San Montana.
His contributions to the Salon, forcibly interrupted
during the war, were resumed in 1873, when he
sent Bain des Nymphes, whichuwas purchased by
the State; in 1874 he was represented by Hylas et
les Nymphes, now in the art gallery at Brest, and he
continued to exhibit practically without interruption
until the year of his death.
The various stages of the artist’s career succeeded
one another rapidly and brilliantly. In r875 he
obtained a medal of the third class with Id Etang
r 10