DOI Heft:
No. 268 (July 1915)
DOI Artikel:Thomson, Croal: The Paris Salon of fifty years ago, [1]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21213#0114
The Paris Salon of Fifty Years Ago
for another twenty years, so that he might have
stood aside to let the much older man receive the
honour. Would Gerdme’s supporters have had any
chance against Corot in 1915?
Corot was not much in the habit of making
sketches of his pictures either preliminary, or as
recollections of completed work as in this one we
have of the Lac de Nemi. He was continually
making studies from Nature, and carrying on his
paintings a stage further.
In the folio book of “ The Landscapes of Corot ”
issued by The Studio last year, I wrote of the
difficulty every critic encounters in trying to settle
even an approximate date for many of Corot’s
pictures. The only safe time to be put down is
when they were exhibited at the Salon, or when
they were dated; but this only means the period
they were completed, and cannot be held to be the
absolute time of their execution. The “ Souvenirs
d’ltalie ” were all begun twenty-five or thirty years
before they were finished. After the first “rub-in”
and the settling of the composition, when, perhaps,
it was on the easel only one or two days, the canvas
would be set aside, and sometimes years elapsed
before the painter touched it again. Some fine
morning Corot would look it up and carry it a
stage further; and then once more it would join
the heap of canvases standing face to the wall, in a
long row in a corner of the studio. There it
might remain for another term of years before it
was taken up, finally completed and signed, and
allowed to leave the studio.
The last drawing of the present series is the
vivacious sketch of A Soldier of Fortune by Meis-
sonier. It is an illustration to “ L’Aventuriere ” by
Emile Augier, and is a favourable example of an
artist who, celebrated fifty years ago, remains almost
equally well known to-day. Meissonier was an
artist able to meet Gerome on every point where
he excelled and to beat him on all. Our drawing
of The Soldier of Fortune is so well built up
without being over-precise or stilted, that it would
form an excellent piece to copy by an art student
of an advanced stage. It appears to have been
produced entirely with the brush, and the fine
flourish of the feathers of the soldier’s cap produces
a kind of halo around the head which is very
useful in the position.
“SOUVENIR DES ENVIRONS DU LAC DE NEMI ” BY J. B. C. COROT
94
for another twenty years, so that he might have
stood aside to let the much older man receive the
honour. Would Gerdme’s supporters have had any
chance against Corot in 1915?
Corot was not much in the habit of making
sketches of his pictures either preliminary, or as
recollections of completed work as in this one we
have of the Lac de Nemi. He was continually
making studies from Nature, and carrying on his
paintings a stage further.
In the folio book of “ The Landscapes of Corot ”
issued by The Studio last year, I wrote of the
difficulty every critic encounters in trying to settle
even an approximate date for many of Corot’s
pictures. The only safe time to be put down is
when they were exhibited at the Salon, or when
they were dated; but this only means the period
they were completed, and cannot be held to be the
absolute time of their execution. The “ Souvenirs
d’ltalie ” were all begun twenty-five or thirty years
before they were finished. After the first “rub-in”
and the settling of the composition, when, perhaps,
it was on the easel only one or two days, the canvas
would be set aside, and sometimes years elapsed
before the painter touched it again. Some fine
morning Corot would look it up and carry it a
stage further; and then once more it would join
the heap of canvases standing face to the wall, in a
long row in a corner of the studio. There it
might remain for another term of years before it
was taken up, finally completed and signed, and
allowed to leave the studio.
The last drawing of the present series is the
vivacious sketch of A Soldier of Fortune by Meis-
sonier. It is an illustration to “ L’Aventuriere ” by
Emile Augier, and is a favourable example of an
artist who, celebrated fifty years ago, remains almost
equally well known to-day. Meissonier was an
artist able to meet Gerome on every point where
he excelled and to beat him on all. Our drawing
of The Soldier of Fortune is so well built up
without being over-precise or stilted, that it would
form an excellent piece to copy by an art student
of an advanced stage. It appears to have been
produced entirely with the brush, and the fine
flourish of the feathers of the soldier’s cap produces
a kind of halo around the head which is very
useful in the position.
“SOUVENIR DES ENVIRONS DU LAC DE NEMI ” BY J. B. C. COROT
94