CHAPTER VII · SOME YOUNGER IMPRESSIONISTS: CARRIÈRE, POINTELIN, MAUFRA
“WHENEVER MEN ARE NOBLE THEY LOVE BRIGHT COLOUR, AND WHEREVER THEY CAN LIVE HEALTHILY, BRIGHT COLOUR IS GIVEN THEM IN SKY, SEA, FLOWERS, AND LIVING CREATURES”
RUSKIN
EUGÈNE Carrière is one of those great artists so prolific in France who alone would make the fame of any ordinary country. For his work the writer has always had deep sympathy, and this feeling has strengthened since the days when he copied the works of the master now in the Luxembourg. There can be no better method of studying any artist, and specially is it needed in the case of such a painter as Carrière. It is only during the long patient hours spent in trying to reproduce in facsimile these strange elusive pictures that one can grasp their technical qualities, their poetic intention, their thoughtful nature, and can fully recognise the fine achievement of the artist. As the copyist stands and works for hours, thinking, reasoning, reproducing, the whole history of the man and his art slowly reveals itself.
It has been said of Carrière that he has “le génie de l’œil,” and it is exactly this “genius of the eye” which constitutes the bond of sympathy between all Impressionists. There exists between Carrière, Pointelin, and Whistler, the greatest similitude. Their outlook upon nature is identical, and their method of expression most characteristic. They have found their chief inspiration in rendering misty veiled effects, sometimes the result of natural means, haze, moonlight, river mist, early sunrise; sometimes purposely arranged by means of darkened interiors, and the skilful control and exclusion of strong lights. In each case the result sought after is the same.
Carrière possesses, in almost the highest possible degree, the power of visualisation (one is nearly writing the power of second sight) which Claude Monet also has, though in a different degree. The first has caught in an entrancing style the infinitely varied degrees of luminous light in the evening twilight. He has painted the shadows of shades. The second, in an equally fascinating manner, has rendered the shadows of sunlight. In the works of both artists all exact contours are lost; in Carrière by reason of the semi-obscurity of night, in Monet because of the blinding equalising glare of noon-day sun. The one is as apparently colourless as the other is apparently exaggerated. Yet both are right, true to nature and to their own individual temperaments, in fact true Impressionists.
As a portraitist Eugène Carrière has no rival at the present moment. His marvellous powers of vision have placed him in a position unassailable. The ordinary portraitist, the painter “à la mode” (probably “à la mode” for this very reason), depicts the superficial aspect of his sitter, together with a photographic delineation of the features. Whilst the onlooker wonders at the dexterous skill, the clever schooling and frequent harmonies of colour, he generally passes on unmoved. With Carrière the effect is different; one cannot easily leave such triumphs. On the contrary, we stay to admire, not the technical gymnastics of the artist, but the subtle superhuman manner in which the soul of the sitter has been transferred to the canvas by the brush of a man of rare genius.
His lithographs too are marvellous. Should any reader carp at the use of such word let him carefully examine the portrait-studies of Anatole France, Rodin, Verlaine, Daudet, Geffroy, Madame Carrière, and the artist himself, also the Christ at the Tomb, the Théâtre de Belleville, Maternité, and many others. The more these great works are studied the more real they become. Daudet lives again in a drawing recreating the great novelist in a peaceful atmosphere of dreams which seems to remain the peculiar secret of the artist. Eugène Carrière becomes a clairvoyant when he commences a portrait.
His paintings of the intimate life of the family, the circle round the fireside or the little gatherings in the common room during a winter evening, have a quiet charm which his contemporaries rarely attain. Such groups, it may be said, find little favour from those who issue commissions for family heirlooms, and Carrière has no chance of becoming a fashionable painter of human mediocrity. One remembers though that Mr. Sargent has proved recently that even with mediocrity a genius can do a great deal. Carrière, however, is never likely to wish to rival Bonnat or Carolus-Duran. His scenes are not so much represented as suggested. His drawing is a reproduction of the play of light upon the different planes of the subject, the whole picture becoming a symphonic development of light. His brush manipulates colour much as a sculptor manipulates clay, and the results are real Impressions.
AUGUSTE POINTELIN
THE FAMILY · EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE
Eugène Carrière has been inspired by no particular school, and has no special theories to regulate his methods. Yet, in spite of himself, a group, animated by his ideals, has gathered and formulated rules. This group and its system will have but a short duration, for an art so personal and distinguished as is that of Carrière cannot in any possible way be transmitted to pupils or followers. Carrière occupies in painting much the same position as his friend Rodin occupies in sculpture. Such art is not to be copied, much as it may be admired. If there could be any analogy in literature one would cite Edgar Allan Poe. The poet of the shadows has had an enormous influence upon French art and literature, and Carrière has undoubtedly come under his strange spell.
MOTHERHOOD · EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE
Much has been written concerning the exhibited works of this artist, and a bibliography would contain the names of the most celebrated art critics in Paris. The universal opinion is that in Carrière France possesses an artist of exceptional endowments. His gift is a peculiar one, which has not appeared before in exactly the same manner, and, within his own limitations, the painter’s equal will probably never be seen again. A well-known writer upon art subjects has penned an appreciation which conveys a clear insight into the methods of the master. Carrière, he says, is not an inductive painter, he does not construct his whole from parts. He does not work on, wisely, cautiously, from the forehead to the eyes, continuing by way of the cheekbones. In the manner of a sculptor, he builds up his picture as a complete whole, he balances his masses, he constructs. Insensibly the face lights up on the background, the successive veils which enveloped it are torn away and hide his thoughts no longer. This simultaneous process never leaves him quite satisfied, and he constantly reviews his original plans. He lives for the creation to which he gives life. His work is an effort, an attempt, the result of a mysterious genius whose secret is never all told. What he knows before is the impression he expects to obtain, what it will tell, what it will reveal of the character and will express of the invisible reality. And it is thus he approaches those faces which speak to us of an intense inner life. His plans settled, he paints astonishing faces, mobile and quivering as they smile and speak.
A few personal particulars may be added. Eugène Carrière passed his life up to the age of eighteen in Strasbourg, and displayed no special inclination toward the artistic career. But a visit to some galleries awoke the latent fire, and his ambitions were roused. He then entered the atelier of Cabanel. During the war he was captured by the Germans, and sent as prisoner to Dresden, where he studied with diligence in the museums. Upon his return to France in 1872 he worked for five years at the École des Beaux-Arts (he had been there for a short time before the war) and then, none too well equipped for the battle, set up in his own studio. He attempted to gain the Prix de Rome, but failed. Shortly after followed his marriage, together with a semi-retreat to the Vaugirard, where he toiled for five years, turning his family to artistic account as models. These days of unremitting labour proved to be the foundations of his fame, for, when he returned to Paris, he reaped almost immediately the fruits of success and appreciation. As we write, the news comes that the authorities of the Luxembourg have purchased Carrière’s Dead Christ for £1000.
Auguste Pointelin is a passionate Impressionist in the best sense of the word. He paints in low tones (almost monotones) the twilight, moonrise, the sombre and melancholy notes in Nature. He is the poet-painter of those evening hours when—
The sun is set; the swallows are asleep;
The bats are flitting fast in the grey air;
The slow soft toads out of damp corners creep;
And evening’s breath, wandering here and there
Over the quivering surface of the stream,
Wakes not one ripple from its summer dream.
The artist’s character can be read at a glance from these canvases. We see at once that he is a strong man, of nervous and romantic temperament, somewhat a pessimist, perhaps a writer of verse, probably a fine musician, fond of solitude and reverie, yet of good heart and noble mind.
Monet is of the lowlands. He worships the plains and paints the sun hot and keen, and all that it reveals. He revels in depicting great trees, the lustrous brilliancy of corn and poppies, the bubble and iridescence of quick-flowing trout-streams, the flash of white cliffs, the luminous shadows of haycocks, every varying phase of the play of brilliant light upon the face of responsive nature. Pointelin is a man of the hills, delighting to work amidst deep wooded glens or lonely tracks of mountain scenery, trying to reproduce the glints of moonlight upon black bottomless pools. He loves to depict the tranquillity of the long silent valleys, through which roll heavy mists, whilst the rising sun tints with a rosy glow the tips of the neighbouring peaks. Our admiration of Monet does not blind us to the beauty of Pointelin. In a sense the two artists are complementary to each other. The art of Pointelin may be compared to a “Reverie” by Schumann, that of Monet to a “Rhapsody” by Brahms.
A GLADE IN THE WOOD · AUGUSTE POINTELIN
MOUNTAIN AND TREES · AUGUSTE POINTELIN
A ROCKY COAST · MAXIME MAUFRA
Auguste Emmanuel Pointelin was born at Arbois, June 23, 1839, and the first art teaching he received was from the hands of M. Victor Maire. Success was long in coming, and for a livelihood he had to turn to several other professions, the chief being that of a mathematical professor.
Pointelin has received the usual honours France awards to her most distinguished citizens. He has been decorated with the Legion of Honour, is “Hors Concours” at the Salon, and received (amongst many other like trophies) the Gold Medals at the Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900. His work is to be found in many of the public galleries of the country, including the Luxembourg. The note of his art is a certain refinement and aloofness which is rarely found in contemporary Salons. Of him it may be said: “Through his brain, as through the last alembic, is distilled the refined essence of that thought which began with the gods, and which they left him to carry out.”
Some time ago the writer was painting by the edge of the Seine in company with Maxime Maufra, and the artist recounted the origins of his Impressionist tendencies. “I am directly influenced by Turner and Constable,” he said. “I admired and studied their works whenever it was possible during the time I spent as a commercial man in Liverpool twenty years ago. There is no doubt that Monet, Pissarro, and the others of that group, owe the greater part of their art to the genius of the great Englishmen, just as Delacroix and Manet were indebted in a previous generation.”
This testimony is interesting, as it comes from one of the leaders of the modern school of “La peinture claire,” the school of light, of life, and of movement. It is valuable in view of the fact that some of the artists who have profited most by the valuable example of our men of genius seem least inclined to acknowledge their debt. For instance, Pissarro writes: “I have read with great interest your article. I do not think, as you say, that the Impressionists are connected with the English school, for many reasons too long to develop here. It is true that Turner and Constable have been useful to us, as all painters of great talent have; but the base of our art is evidently of French tradition, our masters are Clouet, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, the eighteenth century with Chardin, and 1830 with Corot.” This statement is somewhat at variance with facts as we know them, and does not agree with several letters from Pissarro in the writer’s possession previously quoted.
To attempt to record bright open-air effects, to struggle with all the thousand nuances of the atmosphere, the division of tones, the juxtaposition of colour, the general principles and technical practice adopted by the Impressionists, is to come under a ban. There is an old and well-beloved professor at the Beaux-Arts who taught the writer, a member of the Institute and Officer of the Legion of Honour, a man of much official influence, who, in a single phrase, has summed up the feeling of a large body in France with reference to the Impressionists. “They are a disgrace to French art,” he said bitterly. Such an irreconcilable attitude has compelled a section of the younger artists in France to adopt a style altogether opposite to that discussed in these pages, a reactionary manner in many cases opposed to their natural temperaments. They seek in Nature for the slightest cause which will give them reason for the use of black paint, forgetting that in a world charged with sun and iridescence the only absolute black that can be found is in the heart of a bean blossom, which is black only by the exclusion of the atmosphere. The slightest shadow they paint black, any dark piece of clothing is rendered in black. They have evolved a lugubrious funereal style and choice of subject which is sad, dull, inartistic, dyspeptic. This section of the art community has been named the “Nubians.”
Maxime Maufra is an adversary fighting this group of reactionaries, and perhaps his successful example may bring some of these erring ones back to the fold. He has the courage to paint in a light key, because he sees all nature in such a value, and by following the dictates of his artistic temperament he has become the exponent of a beautiful and personal art. He does not aspire to the position of a little Monet, but attempts to carry the master’s methods forward. Maufra maintains that Monet has by no means said the last word in Impressionism. Maufra and his friends are not content with the first illuminated corner presented by Nature, which, save for the sense of illumination, is probably uninteresting and ill-composed. They are equally attracted by beautiful rhythmic line, balance of form, by composition as well as by colour. The ethereal tints in nature which the pioneers were happy to reproduce, does not satisfy the younger men now that the fundamental laws of the Impressionists have been agreed upon.
AN ETCHING · MAXIME MAUFRA
ARRIVAL OF THE FISHING BOATS AT CAMARET · MAXIME MAUFRA
MAXIME MAUFRA
Born at Nantes in 1861, the only regular art education Maxime Maufra received was from M. Le Roux, a local professor. His father, a man of business, decided that the son should follow the same vocation, much to the son’s disgust. After a few years of preliminary training Maufra was sent to Liverpool in order that he might acquire the language and further the commercial interests of his father’s house. Maufra studied English, more or less, and practised art, copying in the museums and private collections, and sketching in the neighbourhoods of New Brighton, Seacombe, and amongst the docks and shipping of the great port. Business was not neglected, but having effected a lucky “deal” which placed him in the possession of a little capital, he cut the cable which joined his life to commerce and sailed into the open sea of art. His family protested, his friends implored him not to take such a rash step. Maxime Maufra became a professional artist. For five years he toiled with his brush, working hard at every different method of technical expression, trying oils, water-colours, and the etching needle. Dealers did not come forward, buyers were never seen. At last, at the very end of his financial resources, he organised a tiny “one-man” show in Paris.
In the “Echo de Paris” M. Octave Mirbeau published a short criticism, which voiced the general opinion of Maufra’s talent. “Yesterday,” writes Mirbeau, “I entered the galleries of de Boutheville, where are exhibited about sixty works by Maufra. I was immediately conquered, for I found myself in the presence of an artist in full control of himself, who, after the necessary indecisions, the usual educational troubles, has realised that style is the most important thing—in fact, the joy of art.”
A few of the paintings were sold, enough to cover the expenses of the exhibition. A better luck awaited Maufra. M. Durand-Ruel casually glanced into the rooms before the close of the modest collection. He asked to see the artist. Maufra was in Brittany, and a telegram called him back to Paris. An interview followed in the Rue Lafitte between artist and dealer, and never since that day has Maufra known the anxieties of living on hope, for M. Durand-Ruel, with characteristic acumen, had arranged for his future.
In the spring of 1901, at the galleries of M. Durand-Ruel, Maxime Maufra organised his last and most successful exhibition, about fifty canvases executed in various mediums being shown. From the admirable preface written by M. Arsène Alexandre, one of the most perspicacious of French critics, the following lines may be quoted: “Maufra continues in the school of the Impressionists in this manner, that the point de départ in each of his pictures is in reality a quick and profound impression. He detaches himself from the school inasmuch as the realisation is a calculated and skilful art; and this is complete Impressionism.” A final quotation from the pen of M. Gabriel Mourey in “Le Grand Journal” aptly sums up the talent of this artist: “One could accuse Maufra at the time of his first exhibition at the de Boutheville galleries of submitting himself to the influence of Claude Monet. Already, however, he reveals his strong personality. Here he is to-day a free man and master of himself, capable of realising whatever his thoughts impel him to. He has his own conception of Nature, and he realises it with a liberty and independence which is veritably masterful. The diversity of his talent is proved in the most striking fashion. Scotland, Brittany, Normandy are evoked with an extraordinary facility, the different characteristics of these three countrysides, their special conditions, their peculiar atmosphere. They are like portraits in which a soul breathes, in which the blood runs beneath the skin, where the mystery of being is declared. The words of Flaubert’s St. Anthony come involuntarily to the lips before these pictures of Nature, sometimes savage, sometimes in a more tender mood: ‘There are some spots on earth so beautiful that one wishes to press Nature against one’s heart.’”
SHIPWRECK · MAXIME MAUFRA
Photo by Braun, Clement & Co.
A GLASS OF GOOD RED WINE · J. F. RAFFAËLLI