Gavarni visited this country in 1847, but does not appear to have recommended himself personally to his hosts. He may be counted fortunate in the fact of his having, in spite of a certain spirit of contradiction in his character, impressed the value of his work upon his fellows during his lifetime. Great men, like angels, but too often come upon us unawares, and it is only upon their leave-taking, or after, that we become sensible of the loss of a gracious presence.
The delicate and refined art of Jean Louis Hamon was especially suited to the fan. For a considerable period he was associated with the Royal Porcelain works at Sèvres, producing a number of designs of that light fanciful character with which we are familiar in his paintings. He continued this style of composition, says M. Walther Fol, but applied it to the decoration of fans, in which he excelled. ‘In every sovereign court they were a coveted possession, and if he had desired to supply all demands he could have produced nothing besides.’ The subjects of these delicate fancies in almost every instance have reference to love or marriage. There were Loves who shot arrows transfixing two hearts at once; there was Love with outspread wings, seated upon the raised end of a see-saw, while Hymen, crowned with flowers, held him on high by his weight.
A dress fan made by Alexandre, and painted by Hamon with the subject of ‘An Entomologist,’ and groups of flowers on either side by a well-known flower painter, was presented to the Countess Granville by the foreign commissioners of the Universal Exhibition, Paris, October 26, 1867. The stick is of ivory, carved by C. Rambert with dancing Cupids and foliage, enriched with ormolu and jewelled turquoise. The gift was accompanied by a graceful letter from Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Cole, the British Commissioner, referring to the fan as a work of fine art by ‘two distinguished French painters and one sculptor.’ It is, however, more valuable as a souvenir of an interesting occasion, and for the beautiful carving of the stick, than as a representative example of Hamon’s work.
In 1862, J. L. Hamon journeyed to Rome, where he painted ‘L’Aurore,’ exhibited in Paris in the following year, and purchased by the Empress Eugénie. He died in 1874 at the early age of fifty-three.
Wattier signed a number of fans, of which an exceedingly rich example, an elaborate composition of nymphs and Cupids, is in the possession of the Countess Granville. He was born at Lille in 1800, and died in 1868.
The fan leaf, ‘Le Cerf de St. Hubert,’ by Rosa Bonheur (born 1822, died 1897), is dated 1896, and is consequently one of the latest works of this illustrious painter, whose fame has become universal. The legend of St. Hubert and his Christ vision, an unusual subject with modern artists, though greatly favoured by the painters of the Renaissance, engaged the attention of Rosa Bonheur as early as 1868, when she produced a crayon study, similar in treatment to this fan leaf, with the stag shown a little more in perspective, illustrated in Rosa Bonheur, sa Vie, son Œuvre, Anna Klumpke, 1908. The stag of the fan leaf, reversed however, presents many similarities to the famous picture ‘Le Roi de la Forêt,’ painted in 1878, the same studies probably being utilised for both works. The leaf is of silk, the painting in transparent pigment, with very little body colour introduced. It appeared at the Franco-British Exhibition in 1908, and is in the possession of M. Georges Caïn, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, by whose courtesy we are enabled to give the illustration. Another fan, ‘Trois Vachers,’ is referred to in the above-mentioned biography.
| Le Cerf de St Hubert, by Rosa Bonheur. | M. Georges Cain |
Claudius Popelin is an artist of the Napoleon III. epoch, who, in addition to his work in enamel, produced a number of fans, examples of which appear in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. These are mostly flowers and objects of natural history, drawn with considerable skill. He was much befriended by the late Princess Mathilde (cousin of Napoleon III.) who presented a fan of her own work to the Empress Eugénie. In the same collection appear two fans by Ch. Chaplin, whose graceful work in painting is well known here as on the Continent.
In the art library, Victoria and Albert Museum, is a small collection of designs for fans, acquired from the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and typical of the work done during the middle of the century; the fans from these designs being made, in each instance, by Alexandre. Amongst these is a silk leaf representing the four ages of Infancy, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age, forming one group in a large cartouche, occupying three-fourths of the entire space, extremely ably painted, somewhat recalling the style of the French painter Flandrin; the colour scheme being a monotone of mauve with gold embellishments, the panel on a green ground with lightly designed ornaments, signed F. Fossey, MDCCCLXIII. A group of Watteau figures dancing, cleverly touched on a light buff silk mount, and a shepherd piping, with shepherdess and Cupid, a circle of Cupids hovering round a tree, also in the Watteau style, are examples of the lighter and daintier style of mount affected by the French artists of this epoch; the last named signed by Madame Callamatta.