*THE PORTRAITS OF
ERCKMANN AND CHATRIAN*
[Illustration: EMILE ERCKMANN.
After a portrait by Otto de
Frere, about 1856.]
The popular names of Erckmann-Chatrian, names which recall so many
stirring and patriotic tales, represent, to our great regret, only a
very obscure and unaesthetic iconography. We have but very few pictures
of the authors of _Madame Therese_ and _L'Ami Fritz_. Simple and rural
in their tastes, Erckmann and Chatrian, without at any time parading
that celebrity in which so many authors of "smart" literature take so
much pride, when in the most brilliant epoch of their fame still
preserved that rustic simplicity which characterized their first
appearance. With their genial and upright natures these two Alsatians
never thought to put themselves before their works. They were men of a
bygone age, Nature's philosophers, wise men without vanity. Our task in
respect of them has been difficult, but we hope not altogether
infelicitous. It is not without a certain satisfaction that, by the
side of other personalities so often popularized, we have been able by
dint of persevering research to discover two or three portraits of these
writers.
Thus we have given as frontispiece two pictures of these Siamese twins
of literature, ingenuously painted, in timid and awkward strokes, by one
of those travelling professors of the familiar art of charcoal and
pencil, such as were to be seen in the villages of Alsace about fifty
years ago. It portrays the "Amis Fritz" and the worthy pastors seated
round the tables in the old Gothic inns.
A detached portrait of Erckmann by Otto de Frere, of about the year 1864
or 1865, gives us an opportunity of studying more closely one of the
collaborators. Emile Erckmann, born in 1822, at Phalsbourg, has in the
portrait before us already passed his fortieth year. The calm features
and high bald forehead of the professor leave an impression of gravity
and thoughtfulness. A pair of spectacles which he wears adds to his
pedagogical appearance. Emile Erckmann represents the philosophic and
the contemplative side of this romantic couple. Born in a town which
has given so many chiefs to the French army, he brought to their joint
work a deep and profound study of the Alsatian land, together with the
silent tenacity of his race. The confined life of his province, rural
and industrious in times of peace, implacable and ardent in the hour of
strife, finds in him an able and truthful historian.
[Illustration: Erckmann.
About 1868.]
The first portrait of Emile Erckmann is contemporary with _Madame
Therese_, one of the most admirable and best known of their _romans
nationaux_. A second portrait, which is reproduced here, seems a trifle
older and of about the year 1868. That year the Theatre de Cluny in
Paris produced a piece adapted by the two friends from the novel _Le
Juif Polonais_. Erckmann at that time wore a beard. His dress, like
his appearance, is without care, but in that serious face and behind
those spectacles there shines the profound and concentrated look of one
accustomed to gaze upon the waters and the mountains of the Vosges; and
the expression, brilliant as a fixed star, obliterates all that is crude
and inharmonious in this face, which otherwise reminds one of a German
schoolmaster. In contradistinction to Chatrian, who spent nearly the
whole of his life in Paris and its environs, Erckmann seems to pine for
the green woods and scenery of that beautiful country where the healthy
and simple people are so much in harmony with nature. Thus is he shown
to us here. His features remind us both of Taine and Cherbuliez, though
he possessed nothing in common with them beyond that serene look full of
reflection and deduction. Erckmann worked in Alsace; Chatrian, on the
contrary, whose administrative duties kept him all day at his desk in
Paris, could indulge his taste for novel-writing only in the evenings,
occasionally stealing a few hours in the day out of the time which he
was bound to devote to his Government work. To the calm and quietude of
his companion Chatrian added the animation of an ardent and inventive
spirit. To the reflective and poetic talent of Erckmann, he opposed the
hastiness of his own dashing and spontaneous genius. To his pen, no
doubt, can be assigned all those parts where the story, leaving the
description of rustic life, plunges boldly into dramatic action.
A double portrait, from a photograph taken about 1874, depicts them in
the constrained attitude characteristic of the work of Daguerre and his
followers. Doubtless they were together in that little house at Raincy,
where they often met to discuss the plot of some new work, and where the
photographer must have invaded their privacy.
[Illustration: ERCKMANN AND CHATRIAN.
About 1874. (After a photograph)]
"Only once did I see that little garden at Raincy," writes one of their
friends, "but I can see again the kindly, portly Erckmann seated under
the shade of a cherry-tree, a picture which later on I saw reproduced
again at the Theatre Francais in _L'Ami Fritz_--Erckmann with his calm
face and shrewd eyes, smoking his pipe, and throwing out philosophical
theories between the whiffs of tobacco. He is, as it were, the dream,
and Chatrian the reality in this partnership. Erckmann would willingly
have kept to the fantastic tales of their early days, but it was
Chatrian, the type of the soldier, with the mustache and face of a
somewhat harsh-looking non-commissioned officer, and a strict
disciplinarian, who directed the collaboration towards the Napoleonic
era and the national chronicles. This, in a measure, explains the
portraits and helps us to show them both, united in a work
simultaneously conceived, both simple and great in their baffling
expression, happy in knowing themselves understood by the multitude of
the poor and humble. That photograph dates from the representation of
_L'Ami Fritz_ in the Theatre Francais.
After the defeat of the Alsatians these poets, deeply touched, sing to
us in their heartfelt words of the picturesqueness of their mountains
and forests, henceforth to be under German rule. At that moment (and it
is also the last portrait we have been able to find) Erckmann is aged,
his beard and mustache are silvered, his appearance no longer that of a
professor, but rather that of an old officer whom the close of the war
has thrown out of employment. Chatrian, on the other hand, though only
four years his junior, with hair and beard still abundant, seems alive
with vigour and strength. His glance is keen, frank, and loyal, his
face open and bold, his attitude full of energy. No picture could
express better than this the striking contrast between two temperaments
so widely dissimilar, and yet so well designed to supplement each other
and form a complete whole.
[Illustration: ERCKMANN AND CHATRIAN.
After a caricature by Andre Gill, 1879.]
Andre Gill, in a typical and humorous caricature, has admirably shown
the expressions of the two writers as their faces appear above a jug of
beer, each with an Alsatian pipe in his mouth. A peaceful happiness
marks their brotherly features. They are enjoying the dramatic successes
of the _Rantzau_ and Madame Therese. The final disagreement, which did
not happen until 1890, at Villemomble, and which ended only with
Chatrian's death, had not yet come, like a detestable intruder, to
separate those two strong characters. Their dreams, their work, and
their successes were still joint property at the time Andre Gill drew
this caricature. The two writers have been termed the "Siamese twins"
of historical romance. One cannot understand why these two figures, so
full of contrast, were never delineated in painting nor sculpture, in
view of the large measure of success which directed attention to their
names. Such incomprehensible mysteries do sometimes occur in the lives
of celebrated men, and we fail to find the solution of the enigma, which
forces us to admit that Erckmann and Chatrian left us no portraits, no
important engravings, no great popular lithographs, nor any medallions
or busts. If ever posterity thinks of raising a monument to the memory
of these two curious writers, the artist to whom the task is assigned
will have some difficulty in finding any other valid and interesting
documents than the few pictures which are collected here.