DOI Heft:
No. 234 (September 1912)
DOI Artikel:Uzanne, Octave: Fernand Maillaud: a painter of the old french province of Berry
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21157#0303
Fernand Maillaud
“LA PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, PARIS”
a kind of mystical comprehension of nature which
imbues all his work with a character that is unique.
Maillaud has been particularly attracted by the
great Berrichon fairs, which last sometimes for
several days. These bright assemblages of cattle
and of peasant-folk in their Sunday best here
gathered together from all parts of the country to
effect their necessary transactions, these kinds of
provincial Kermesses where the lengthy and some-
what lively feastings and drinking bouts in the inns
offer so much in the way of expressive and turbu-
lent scenes, appeal to the artist as traditional
evocations of this ancient peasantry. He loves to
watch these scenes, the gipsies, the primitive bands
of musicians, the open-air kitchens, the auctioneers
and exhibitors of cattle, the crowds of horses, the
carts, the herds, the pigs, the flocks of poultry, and
to listen to the indistinguishable clamour of the
sellers, the bargaining of the purchasers, the startled
cries of the animals, and the rhythmic music of folk-
songs and old melodies amid the din of this slow-
moving crowd. His best works are perhaps those in
which he has fixed upon the canvas the ever-varied
■aspects of these fairs of old Berry, the like of which
we find no-vhere^else.
In such a short notice of the work of this
master-painter of Berry it is impossible to discuss
BY FERNAND MAILLAUD
his entire oeuvre in all its diversity, extending as i
does from mural decoration to illustrations of the
verses of the poets Maurice Rollinas and Gabriel
Nigond. We can at least hail in him a conscien-
tious painter of the costumes, the types, and the
characteristics of this old French province, and
bear witness to the admirable efforts of the artist
towards the realisation of his ideal. He has re-
mained a painter of another age, devoted to his art
and conscious of the debt he owes to Nature for the
emotions she gives him ; his is a true child’s soul en-
dowed with the refined sympathies of a grown man.
Here we have decidedly no dexterous executant,
no virtuoso, no striver after celebrity. Maillaud
is known and appreciated by a small circle of the
elite, and this suffices for his glory ; he cares nought
for monetary success, and is quite indifferent to the
patronage of the great picture-dealers.
It is consoling to find amidst the feverish life of
the present day such sincere apostles of their voca-
tion and of their art. Such men are the direct
descendants of pure artists like Eugene Fromentin,
Frangois Millet, and Theodore Rousseau. Painting
to them is a religion; in it they find all the ecstatic
mysteries, and they have no concern with other
things. Let us admire and love these remaining
fervent disciples of art for art’s sake.
281
“LA PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, PARIS”
a kind of mystical comprehension of nature which
imbues all his work with a character that is unique.
Maillaud has been particularly attracted by the
great Berrichon fairs, which last sometimes for
several days. These bright assemblages of cattle
and of peasant-folk in their Sunday best here
gathered together from all parts of the country to
effect their necessary transactions, these kinds of
provincial Kermesses where the lengthy and some-
what lively feastings and drinking bouts in the inns
offer so much in the way of expressive and turbu-
lent scenes, appeal to the artist as traditional
evocations of this ancient peasantry. He loves to
watch these scenes, the gipsies, the primitive bands
of musicians, the open-air kitchens, the auctioneers
and exhibitors of cattle, the crowds of horses, the
carts, the herds, the pigs, the flocks of poultry, and
to listen to the indistinguishable clamour of the
sellers, the bargaining of the purchasers, the startled
cries of the animals, and the rhythmic music of folk-
songs and old melodies amid the din of this slow-
moving crowd. His best works are perhaps those in
which he has fixed upon the canvas the ever-varied
■aspects of these fairs of old Berry, the like of which
we find no-vhere^else.
In such a short notice of the work of this
master-painter of Berry it is impossible to discuss
BY FERNAND MAILLAUD
his entire oeuvre in all its diversity, extending as i
does from mural decoration to illustrations of the
verses of the poets Maurice Rollinas and Gabriel
Nigond. We can at least hail in him a conscien-
tious painter of the costumes, the types, and the
characteristics of this old French province, and
bear witness to the admirable efforts of the artist
towards the realisation of his ideal. He has re-
mained a painter of another age, devoted to his art
and conscious of the debt he owes to Nature for the
emotions she gives him ; his is a true child’s soul en-
dowed with the refined sympathies of a grown man.
Here we have decidedly no dexterous executant,
no virtuoso, no striver after celebrity. Maillaud
is known and appreciated by a small circle of the
elite, and this suffices for his glory ; he cares nought
for monetary success, and is quite indifferent to the
patronage of the great picture-dealers.
It is consoling to find amidst the feverish life of
the present day such sincere apostles of their voca-
tion and of their art. Such men are the direct
descendants of pure artists like Eugene Fromentin,
Frangois Millet, and Theodore Rousseau. Painting
to them is a religion; in it they find all the ecstatic
mysteries, and they have no concern with other
things. Let us admire and love these remaining
fervent disciples of art for art’s sake.
281