DOI Heft:
No. 269 (August 1915)
DOI Artikel:Thomson, Croal: The Paris Salon of fifty years ago, [2]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21213#0177
The Paris Salon of Fifty Years Ago
success was immense amongst both his own
countrymen and Americans. In Britain his repu-
tation has never been so high, and there are few
examples of his work in our country. His com-
positions are always carefully arranged and their
drawing correct, while his colour is usually good,
occasionally rising to a very high level. This
picture of the 1864 Salon Une Gar deuse de BHndons,
is a typical example of his style, which was always
concerned with French peasantry of the better sort.
From the note accompanying the drawing it
appears that the artist encountered the remarkable
turkey guardian in the far south of France, on the
border of the Mediterranean Sea. He relates how
he found her sitting motionless on a piece of rock,
her thoughts in the sky, while the turkeys wobbled
around. In the misty distance the Mediterranean
shone like a white line. The artist goes on to say
that he passed close to the strange girl without her
taking any notice, and he watched her figure for
some time. He does not say if he afterwards
persuaded her to sit to him, but only that on
account of the extreme heat he returned to the
village along the olive-shaded road.
The drawing is a clever one, but the bare outline
of the profile without eye or mouth makes it look
rather like a diagram, while the drawing of the left
hand and arm is more than doubtful.
Jules Breton’s pictures in the Luxembourg, La
Benediction des Ble's and the Rappel aux Glaneuses
have brought him unstinted fame, while the payment
by Lord Strathcona of fifty thousand dollars for his
large picture, Les Communiantes, has given him a
position which otherwise his work hardly justifies.
Yet his reputation in France remains at the highest,
and it is remarkable that this reputation is as firm
with the artistic world as with the ordinary public,
and his poetic literary publications are always
spoken of with respect.
The two charming little sketches from pictures
by Gustave Castan (1823-1892) are much better in
black and white than the originals are in colour.
The painter was a Swiss, born at Geneva, and a
pupil of Calame, himself a Swiss artist of the con-
scientious and constrained school. Castan was a
clever and industrious man, and in addition to
being a painter was an engraver and lithographer
of eminence in his day. He reached Paris when
success was immense amongst both his own
countrymen and Americans. In Britain his repu-
tation has never been so high, and there are few
examples of his work in our country. His com-
positions are always carefully arranged and their
drawing correct, while his colour is usually good,
occasionally rising to a very high level. This
picture of the 1864 Salon Une Gar deuse de BHndons,
is a typical example of his style, which was always
concerned with French peasantry of the better sort.
From the note accompanying the drawing it
appears that the artist encountered the remarkable
turkey guardian in the far south of France, on the
border of the Mediterranean Sea. He relates how
he found her sitting motionless on a piece of rock,
her thoughts in the sky, while the turkeys wobbled
around. In the misty distance the Mediterranean
shone like a white line. The artist goes on to say
that he passed close to the strange girl without her
taking any notice, and he watched her figure for
some time. He does not say if he afterwards
persuaded her to sit to him, but only that on
account of the extreme heat he returned to the
village along the olive-shaded road.
The drawing is a clever one, but the bare outline
of the profile without eye or mouth makes it look
rather like a diagram, while the drawing of the left
hand and arm is more than doubtful.
Jules Breton’s pictures in the Luxembourg, La
Benediction des Ble's and the Rappel aux Glaneuses
have brought him unstinted fame, while the payment
by Lord Strathcona of fifty thousand dollars for his
large picture, Les Communiantes, has given him a
position which otherwise his work hardly justifies.
Yet his reputation in France remains at the highest,
and it is remarkable that this reputation is as firm
with the artistic world as with the ordinary public,
and his poetic literary publications are always
spoken of with respect.
The two charming little sketches from pictures
by Gustave Castan (1823-1892) are much better in
black and white than the originals are in colour.
The painter was a Swiss, born at Geneva, and a
pupil of Calame, himself a Swiss artist of the con-
scientious and constrained school. Castan was a
clever and industrious man, and in addition to
being a painter was an engraver and lithographer
of eminence in his day. He reached Paris when