Studio: international art (58.1913)

The Ron art Collection.—The Corots

T

HE ROUART COLLEC-
TION.—I. THE COROTS.
BY HENRI FRANTZ.

The close of the year 1912 witnessed
in Paris the dispersion by public auction
of one of the most famous French art
collections of the nineteenth century
—I refer to that of M. Henri Rouart;
and this sale takes its place as one of
the great events, so far as the art world
is concerned, of our times, because the
man who formed this great collection was
one of those amateurs, rather rare be it
said, like M. Jean Dollfus, M. Duthuit,
and M. Tomy-Thiery, who devote their
whole existence to the formation of
collections which represent their own
deepest predilections, and in acquiring
pictures which give them pleasure, while
completely disdaining any speculative
value in the works they buy. Nowadays
many of the ever-increasing band of ai t
collectors appear to make their acquisi-
tions either because by buying certain
pictures (acting upon advice they have
received) they will be acknowledged by
the public at large as connoisseurs, or

panels of a screen. designed and woven by annie . . , ., . ' , a. , , -

frykholm e'se because they hope that the flight of

a few years will enable them to realise the

lie many degrees of variation, of course, but in fruits of a profitable financial deal. M. Henri Rouart,

every case great weight is laid on colours and their on the contrary, devoted all his intelligence and all

values. In all textile art colour is of essential im- his activity to buying paintings or drawings which

portance, for no material can give us such depths had for him a personal appeal and which he really

of colour as those employed here. If, as I just loved to possess. His collection was the lifework of

said, modern Swedish tapestry art cannot show any a man of taste and artistic perception. So therefore

uniformity as regards decorative style, I am inclined at the. present moment, when this vast collection

to say that the same art, like Swedish textile art in has just been dispersed, it will be by no means

general, is distinguished by a fully uniform sense unprofitable if we devote to it a final souvenir and

of colour which is characteristically Swedish. pass in review certain of the most important works

Just as the songs of a country speak to us of its which composed it.
inhabitants, so do colours too, and both stand in The name of Henri Rouart will ever remain

close connection with the character of the scenery intimately associated with those of certain of the

amid which the people live. In the vast forest- great masters of the nineteenth century. Without

tracts of Northern Sweden the people are far more recapitulating in detail the career of this collector,

serious than those living farther southward, where it is worth while to bear in mind that from the last

the woodland lightens and the plains begin, and years of the Empire, about 1868 to 1870, Rouart

these variations in temperament find expression in had already begun to appreciate the work of such

song and colour. Whether, then, the colours in artists as Corot, Manet, Daumier, Renoir, Millet,

Swedish tapestries are deep, strong, and serious, or Monet, and Degas, who at that time were held in

playful, lightsome, and cheerful, they always express very little esteem by the generality of people. He

something so characteristically Swedish that we was in particular very closely acquainted with

recognise them wherever we may meet them. Millet, Corot, Cals, and Degas; and the last

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