DOI Heft:
No. 235 (October 1912)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21158#0085
Studio-Talk
ductions, but they show
the interest Rousseau has
awakened in artists.
PORTRAIT OK MME. D El'INAY. FROM THE PASTEL BY LIOTARD IN THE MUSEE
d’histoire et d’art, GENEVA
We are aware also of the pain it gave him to be
obliged to part with a valuable collection of prints
when he was in England.
All these considerations not only show that
Rousseau is of interest from the point of view of
art, but prepare us to appreciate the extraordinary
interest which art has taken both in the man and
his work. The Comte de Girardin in the intro-
duction to his invaluable “ Iconographie de Jean
Jacques Rousseau ” says that of all the remarkable
menof the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries “the
citizen of Geneva” is certainly, after Napoleon I.,
the one whose physiognomy has been the most
frequently portrayed, Voltaire not excepted, the
number of prints in which Rousseau’s person alone
is depicted attaining the phenomenal figure of more
than six thousand portraits. Of course these are
neither all originals nor all equally good as repro-
The Rousseau Society,
then, did well to give so
prominent a position in the
bicentenary celebrations to
its “ Exposition Iconogra-
phique,” and it must be
said that it was in every
way worthy of the event.
The exhibition occupied
five tastefully arranged
rooms in the Rath Gallery,
and the contributions were
so disposed that one was
able to pass with ease from
one phase to another of
Rousseau’s life and work.
As regards the engravings,
one was at once struck by
the artistic conscience and
the imaginative compre-
hension which his illus-
trators—Moreau le Jeune,
Cochin Marillier, Le
Grand, and others —
brought to their task. In
the scenes and episodes
from the life of Rousseau
suggested by or illustrative
of “ Les Confessions,” and
as evoked in the produc-
tions of Le Barbier,
Schall, Monsiau, Roqueplan, Soulange-Tessier after
Duval-Lecamus, Gavarni, Choffard, Boulanger,.
Bergeret, and Huot, one was fascinated by the:
charm and often inimitable grace of that eighteenth-
century art of illustration, there was somethingjat
once so quaint and persuasive about it. Nothing
connected with Rousseau seems to have been
forgotten. _
But the chief interest of the exhibition attached
to the portraits. Here were to be seen the im-
perious head and eagle-glance of Diderot looking
out of Levitski’s powerful portrait; Tronchin, also
the great Genevese gentleman of his time as
he is, painted in the portrait which adorns the
Public Library at Geneva, or again in Liotard’s
“ sanguine ” as the author of the “ Lettres de la
Campagne,” and the adversary and judge of
the author of “ Emile ” and the “ Lettres de la
63
ductions, but they show
the interest Rousseau has
awakened in artists.
PORTRAIT OK MME. D El'INAY. FROM THE PASTEL BY LIOTARD IN THE MUSEE
d’histoire et d’art, GENEVA
We are aware also of the pain it gave him to be
obliged to part with a valuable collection of prints
when he was in England.
All these considerations not only show that
Rousseau is of interest from the point of view of
art, but prepare us to appreciate the extraordinary
interest which art has taken both in the man and
his work. The Comte de Girardin in the intro-
duction to his invaluable “ Iconographie de Jean
Jacques Rousseau ” says that of all the remarkable
menof the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries “the
citizen of Geneva” is certainly, after Napoleon I.,
the one whose physiognomy has been the most
frequently portrayed, Voltaire not excepted, the
number of prints in which Rousseau’s person alone
is depicted attaining the phenomenal figure of more
than six thousand portraits. Of course these are
neither all originals nor all equally good as repro-
The Rousseau Society,
then, did well to give so
prominent a position in the
bicentenary celebrations to
its “ Exposition Iconogra-
phique,” and it must be
said that it was in every
way worthy of the event.
The exhibition occupied
five tastefully arranged
rooms in the Rath Gallery,
and the contributions were
so disposed that one was
able to pass with ease from
one phase to another of
Rousseau’s life and work.
As regards the engravings,
one was at once struck by
the artistic conscience and
the imaginative compre-
hension which his illus-
trators—Moreau le Jeune,
Cochin Marillier, Le
Grand, and others —
brought to their task. In
the scenes and episodes
from the life of Rousseau
suggested by or illustrative
of “ Les Confessions,” and
as evoked in the produc-
tions of Le Barbier,
Schall, Monsiau, Roqueplan, Soulange-Tessier after
Duval-Lecamus, Gavarni, Choffard, Boulanger,.
Bergeret, and Huot, one was fascinated by the:
charm and often inimitable grace of that eighteenth-
century art of illustration, there was somethingjat
once so quaint and persuasive about it. Nothing
connected with Rousseau seems to have been
forgotten. _
But the chief interest of the exhibition attached
to the portraits. Here were to be seen the im-
perious head and eagle-glance of Diderot looking
out of Levitski’s powerful portrait; Tronchin, also
the great Genevese gentleman of his time as
he is, painted in the portrait which adorns the
Public Library at Geneva, or again in Liotard’s
“ sanguine ” as the author of the “ Lettres de la
Campagne,” and the adversary and judge of
the author of “ Emile ” and the “ Lettres de la
63