Bastien Lepage

MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR EDITED BY M. HENRY ROUJON

(Museum at Verdun)
This is one of the artist's earliest works. A certain embarrassment may be noted in the manner in which the Cupids are treated; even at this period, it is easy to see that allegory is not suited to the precise and realistic talent of this painter; yet the young girl is designed with a vigour which already foreshadows the masterly art of Hay-making.
BY FR. CRASTRE
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER
ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY NEW YORK—PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
March, 1914
THE·PLIMPTON·PRESS NORWOOD·MASS·U·S·A
There are certain beings who bear the stamp of the divine seal and are preordained to receive the highest favours within the gift of glory; they are fated to pass through life like those brilliant meteors which are seen to flash across the heavens and disappear in the same instant. Bastien-Lepage was one of these meteors. But while the others leave behind them only a luminous trail that swiftly vanishes, this rare artist, snatched so prematurely from the field of art, traced his passage in a furrow of dazzling splendour, the radiance of which has not even yet begun to fade.