DOI issue:
No. 319 (October 1919)
DOI article:Mourey, Gabriel: French decorative art, [1]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21359#0022
FRENCH DECORATIVE ART
and the frankness of fine craftsmanship.
M. Eugene Gaillard, again, is a flawless
logician, a highly skilled constructor, with
unswerving convictions based on a sure
method and on a most ample acquaintance
of the technical possibilities of his art. M.
Paul Follot, for his part, has an overflowing
imagination ; bold, passionate, fanciful, he
is enamoured of novel effects, of charming
colour-schemes, of unexpected linear com-
binations. M. L:on Jallot, on the other
han L is of soberer, more evenly balanced
temperament, saner too and stronger, with
a mastery over his means which is incon-
testable ; some of his single pieces of furni-
ture and some of his ensembles which I have
seen will, I imagine, long preserve their
strong and beautiful qualities undiminished.
So with the work of M. Jaulmes, whose
style, founded as it is on close familiarity
with the best models of other days, and
even guided by a strong desire to do honour
to the old-fashioned expressions of bygone
art, is nevertheless marked by striking
originality. M. Jaulmes is indeed endowed
with the rare gift of charm. Quite remark-
able, too, are the productions of the brothers
16
Selmersheim : those of Tony Selmersheim
subdued, firmly grounded and bearing the
stamp of a craftsman's temperament, at
once generous and honest; while the crea-
tions of Pierre Selmersheim, more compo-
site perhaps than those of his brother, and
less firmly rooted in the French traditions
of simplicity and logic, are full of ingenious
fancy. 00000
I must not forget to include among
the best of the ensembliers MM. Ruhl-
mann, Rapin, Gallerey, Francis Jourdain,
and Mme. Chauchet-Guillere, while keep-
ing a place apart for three audacious artists
—often so happy in their audacities—whose
speciality, so to speak, it has become to
march at the head of the modern decora-
tive movement : MM. Andre Mare, Louis
Sue, and Groult. Special mention must
also be made of the work of M. Gaston Le
Bourgeois, the wood-carver, whose sculp-
tures of humans and of animals preserve
the richest traditions of the Middle Ages
and the first Renaissance, made original—
if one may so express it—by a most lively
sense of modernism. 0 0 0
But while the merit of these artists, these
and the frankness of fine craftsmanship.
M. Eugene Gaillard, again, is a flawless
logician, a highly skilled constructor, with
unswerving convictions based on a sure
method and on a most ample acquaintance
of the technical possibilities of his art. M.
Paul Follot, for his part, has an overflowing
imagination ; bold, passionate, fanciful, he
is enamoured of novel effects, of charming
colour-schemes, of unexpected linear com-
binations. M. L:on Jallot, on the other
han L is of soberer, more evenly balanced
temperament, saner too and stronger, with
a mastery over his means which is incon-
testable ; some of his single pieces of furni-
ture and some of his ensembles which I have
seen will, I imagine, long preserve their
strong and beautiful qualities undiminished.
So with the work of M. Jaulmes, whose
style, founded as it is on close familiarity
with the best models of other days, and
even guided by a strong desire to do honour
to the old-fashioned expressions of bygone
art, is nevertheless marked by striking
originality. M. Jaulmes is indeed endowed
with the rare gift of charm. Quite remark-
able, too, are the productions of the brothers
16
Selmersheim : those of Tony Selmersheim
subdued, firmly grounded and bearing the
stamp of a craftsman's temperament, at
once generous and honest; while the crea-
tions of Pierre Selmersheim, more compo-
site perhaps than those of his brother, and
less firmly rooted in the French traditions
of simplicity and logic, are full of ingenious
fancy. 00000
I must not forget to include among
the best of the ensembliers MM. Ruhl-
mann, Rapin, Gallerey, Francis Jourdain,
and Mme. Chauchet-Guillere, while keep-
ing a place apart for three audacious artists
—often so happy in their audacities—whose
speciality, so to speak, it has become to
march at the head of the modern decora-
tive movement : MM. Andre Mare, Louis
Sue, and Groult. Special mention must
also be made of the work of M. Gaston Le
Bourgeois, the wood-carver, whose sculp-
tures of humans and of animals preserve
the richest traditions of the Middle Ages
and the first Renaissance, made original—
if one may so express it—by a most lively
sense of modernism. 0 0 0
But while the merit of these artists, these