and upholsterer, who was employed to make billiard-tables for Louis
XIV. After studying under Pierre Jacques Cazes, Chardin entered the
studio of Noël Nicolas Coypel. Before he was thirty he had made a
name as a painter of still-life. In 1728 Chardin was admitted to the
Académie Royale and eventually became its treasurer. In 1752 Louis XV
bestowed a pension upon him and in 1757 gave him rooms in the Louvre.
In his middle period Chardin struck out in a new path--that of frank
realism, selecting for subjects scenes from the domestic life of the
_bourgeoisie_; but he treats everything, however, with the distinction
and taste that belonged to France in the Eighteenth Century. Therefore,
he throws a poetic glamour around a loaf of bread, a bunch of
grapes, a plate of peaches, a sleeping cat, or a copper _casserole_.
Consequently, while his subjects are similar to those of the “Little
Dutch Masters,” Chardin introduces an elegance and a quality of which
those painters never dreamed. Neither Pieter de Hoogh, nor Vermeer,
excelled Chardin in effects of light, atmosphere, and iridescence.
“Chardin,” Élie Faure writes, “did not paint much because he paints
slowly with a laborious and passionate application. He has no models,
but his wife, children, a few familiar animals, the everyday tableware,
and cooking-utensils and then there are meat, vegetables, bread, and
wine brought that same day from the butcher, the meat-roaster, the
baker, and the vegetable seller. With these he writes the legend of
domestic labor and of obscure life: his images speak to us after the
manner of La Fontaine’s words and he is, with Watteau and Goya, the
greatest painter there is in Europe between the death of Rembrandt and
the maturity of Corot and of Delacroix.”
Chardin is an artist beloved by artists. In a sympathetic criticism,
Armand-Dayot writes:
“It is not by accident that I am using this word _métier: beauté
du métier_--all is comprised in that phrase. By this phrase the
greater number of the French artists of the Eighteenth Century should
be judged. _La beauté du métier_--that expresses all their
efforts. And, indeed, what formula could better define Chardin than the
_beauté du métier_? An illumination, meticulous and systematic,
because it has been so well ordered and arranged; light departing
from one point to appear at another and showing the various objects
according to the place they occupy with relation to the distance from
the luminous centre; a beautiful paste of the best composition in its
own day and which time has converted into a transparent and limpid
enamel; and, above all, that classical arrangement, which is like that
of Poussin, Le Brun, Le Sueur and Claude Lorrain, add to the play
of great sweeps of color; the enchanting reflections that cross one
another and that are superimposed without breaking the original balance
of the contrasting colors; and the rigorous drawing--such are the
reasons why we class Chardin high in the French traditions of clarity
and beautiful arrangement of light. In his richness of color he is
derived from the Venetians and he became the ancestor of Fantin-Latour.”
Chardin’s vogue is increasing day by day, for he belongs to that small
group of great masters who have played with light. Perhaps, more than
any other painter, Chardin succeeded in producing the most subtle
overtones of color. M. Armand-Dayot, as we have just seen, claims
Chardin as the ancestor of Fantin-Latour. May we not also suggest that
in Chardin, Matisse has found inspiration for his delicate and tenuous
effects in the upper reaches of the color scale?
We get a glimpse of Chardin at work from Diderot who, after a visit to
his _atelier_, wrote:
“Chardin, who has such a keen feeling for color, keeps his eyes glued
upon his canvas: his mouth is half-open; and he breathes heavily.
His palette is a picture of chaos and into this chaos he dips his
brush. From it he draws his work of real creation,--birds with all the
delicate _nuances_ of tint in their plumage; flowers with velvet
petals; trees of varied foliage and greenery, the blue of the sky, the
spray of water, animals with their soft fur and the fire flaming from
their brilliant eyes. The painter rises, walks some distance away, and
throws a rapid glance upon his picture; then he seats himself again
before this canvas and you soon see appear flesh tints, cloth, velvet,
damask, taffetas, transparent muslin, or heavy linen. You also see the
ripe yellow pear falling from the tree and the green grapes hanging on
the vine.”
LES DEUX CONFIDENTES.
_François Boucher
(1703–1770)._
_Collection of
Mrs. William R. Timken._
Madame de Pompadour was the first owner of this picture and it looks
as if it might have been painted at her suggestion. It is signed and
dated 1750 and measures 32 × 29 inches,--a perfect size for a boudoir
or a small _salon_. Next the picture was in the Collections of
Pillet-Will, the Marquis de Marigny, and the Marquis de Menars.
Here we have two young ladies of high degree playing at pastoral life.
Their bare feet and the presence of sheep are the only suggestion that
they are shepherdesses. They are, however, shepherdesses of the kind we
read of in the eclogues of poets.
In every way the picture is charming. The composition is faultless,
the lights splendidly concentrated and diffused, and the colors are
of exquisite beauty. Against the green of the feathery trees in the
background and the verdant turf in the foreground the lustrous silken
dresses--palest blue and palest rose--of the young ladies who are
exchanging confidences (doubtless of faithful or faithless lovers)
appear to the greatest advantage. The flowers, tumbling out of the
basket which has fallen down, are most sympathetically painted by one
who rarely, if ever, omitted roses in any picture. All the colors melt
and mingle in perfect harmony.
Boucher painted at the height of the Louis XV period and of this period
Élie Faure says:
“François Boucher is its soul. Fashion is always present in his facile
and fecund work--on ceilings, screens, carriage-panels, _dessous
portes_, boxes and fans--shepherdesses and pastorales everywhere
and on every thing. Charming in manner, generous, pleasure-loving and
adored by both men and women, Boucher stands with the King’s mistress,
Madame de Pompadour, as the centre of his own revolving circle of
winged Cupids and garlands of flowers.”
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mrs. William R. Timken_
LES DEUX CONFIDENTES
--_François Boucher_]
François Boucher, born in Paris, Sept. 29, 1703, began his career as
an illustrator and engraver and went to Italy with Carle Van Loo.
Returning to Paris in 1731 he frequented the gay society of operatic
and theatrical circles and acquired reputation. In 1734 he was admitted
to the Academy with his picture of _Rinaldo and Armida_ now in the
Louvre. Boucher became associated with the tapestry-manufactory at
Beauvais and also at the Gobelins and in 1765 succeeded Carle Van Loo
as first painter to Louis XV. Boucher attracted the attention of Madame
de Pompadour and decorated her boudoirs and _salons_, and painted
several portraits of this handsome lady. Boucher died in the Louvre in
1770, while painting _Venus at her Toilet_. According to his own record
Boucher painted a thousand pictures and made ten thousand drawings and
sketches.
A YOUNG GIRL READING A LETTER.
_Jean Baptiste Greuze
(1725–1805)._
_Collection of
Mr. John McCormack._
This picture, an oil painting on canvas (27½ × 21½ inches), comes from
the Collection of Alfred Charles de Rothschild, Seamore Place, London,
and represents a young girl seated in an upholstered chair wearing a
white chemise, which has slipped from her shoulders. An open letter is
spread on her lap,--a letter before envelopes were known, for this has
the seal still attached. However, letters bring tidings of delight or
sorrow, with or without envelopes, and we have no clue to the contents
of this one. We gather, however, that the missive is a love-letter.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. John McCormack_
A YOUNG GIRL READING A LETTER
--_Jean Baptiste Greuze_]
Jean Baptiste Greuze was born at Tournous, near Macon, Burgundy, and
was the son of a thatcher. He first studied painting with a travelling
picture-pedlar named Grondon and went with him to Lyons and lived
there for eight years, painting pictures and hawking them about the
country. However, Grondon was the father of the wife of Grétry, the
composer, so Greuze probably had a little taste of art. In 1746 he
went to Paris and worked at the Academy, making some progress in
historical painting and portraits. One day he astonished everybody by
his picture of _Un père de famille expliquant la Bible à ses enfants_
and _Le Paralytique servi par ses enfants_, which caused him to be
received as an _Académicien_. Others of this type of pathetic, or
homely, story-telling in paint followed. This, then new style of art,
won Greuze many admirers, among them Diderot. In 1756 Greuze went to
Rome for two years and on his return to Paris began to exhibit his now
famous busts and heads of beautiful young girls. Between 1755 and 1769
Greuze exhibited about one hundred and twenty pictures at the Louvre
and, after the Revolution, about thirty works. He was entirely broken
by the Revolution and died in 1805 in poverty and oblivion.
YOUNG GIRL.
_Jean Baptiste Greuze
(1725–1805)._
_Collection of
Mr. William Randolph Hearst._
We hardly know which face to admire the most--that of the little girl
or that of her little dog with the bright, intelligent eyes, so loving
and so trustful.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. William Randolph Hearst_
YOUNG GIRL
--_Jean Baptiste Greuze_]
This picture (14 × 14 inches) Greuze has painted with the tenderest
care,--depicting the budding beauty of the child; and he has, moreover,
used the swirling curves in such a distinguished manner that we think
of the circles and the curves in Raphael’s _Madonna della Sedia_ in
the Pitti. There is a gentle sadness in the face of the little girl of
which the little companion and friend, so confidently nestled in her
loving arms, seems to be conscious; and, perhaps, a little worried as
well.
LA MARQUISE DE BESONS TUNING A GUITAR
_Jean Baptiste Greuze
(1725–1805)._
_Collection of
Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs._
At the Salon of 1757 Greuze exhibited this portrait under the title of
_Madame X Tuning a Guitar_. Many who saw the picture recognized
Madame X as Anne de Bricqueville de la Luzerne, wife of Jacques Bazin,
Marquis de Besons, a very prominent and powerful lord of the Houses
of Hupin, Neuvill, etc., and Lieutenant-General of the King’s armies.
Madame de Besons is wearing a pale pink silk dress with a deep flounce
with sleeves of the favorite Mechlin lace and a large cape with collar.
Her hair is waved in fine shells and adorned with the little spray of
flowers that Madame de Pompadour had made the fashion at this moment. A
necklace consisting of three rows of perfectly matched pearls proclaim
Madame de Besons a lady of wealth. The chair in which Madame de Besons
is sitting is a handsome example of Louis XV furniture, gold frame
upholstered in light green brocade. The background is dark grey. The
painting (37 × 29¼ inches) is an unusual and a most artistic work of
Greuze.
LA MARQUISE DE VILLEMONBLE.
_François Hubert Drouais
(1727–1775)._
_Collection of
Mr. Jules S. Bache._
One is often asked to define the _style Louis XV_. Could there possibly
be a better definition than is expressed in this exquisite portrait
of an exquisite lady,--La Marquise de Villemonble? Is not the very
essence, the spirit, the perfume of the Eighteenth Century seen in the
face, the dress, the pose, the manner, the charm, and the “grand style”
of the Marquise?
[Illustration:
_Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs_
LA MARQUISE DE BESONS TUNING A GUITAR
--_Jean Baptiste Greuze_]
It is very evident that Drouais took deep delight in painting this
aristocratic lady and her beautiful costume as well. We can see with
what pleasure the painter’s brush swept into being the lustre and the
folds of the pale lemon satin dress; traced the delicate pattern of
the Mechlin lace that forms the ruffles of the bell-sleeves and the
garniture of the neck; tied the bows of rich pink satin adorning the
corsage and holding the lace at the sleeves; touched up the cluster of
shaded grey feathers and rounded the pearls in the _coiffure_;
placed the little string of black velvet around the neck; and lingered
upon the sheet of music which the Marquise is holding so gracefully.
The words below the notes show that the lady is a singer. Yet all
these carefully painted details do not detract from the beauty of
the lady herself. Her features are high-bred, sweet, and perfect,
and her expression shows great loveliness of nature. Altogether the
Marquise de Villemonble is a beautiful and charming person and Drouais,
we may be sure, has not flattered her in this beautiful and charming
portrait. The canvas (46 × 35 inches) is signed and dated 1761 and it
is interesting to relate that it came directly from the Villemonble
family to its present owner, Mr. Jules S. Bache.
François Hubert Drouais was born in Paris in 1727 and studied under
his father, Hubert Drouais (1699–1767), a portrait-painter who was
also famous for his miniatures. Young François grew up with the great
painters of the day, who were friends of his father--Nattier, de Troy,
Oudry, and others--and he became a pupil of Carle Van Loo and Boucher.
With such masters is it any wonder that Drouais should have developed
_style_?
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_
LA MARQUISE DE VILLEMONBLE
--_François Hubert Drouais_]
Drouais began to exhibit at the Salon of 1755 and appeared every
year subsequently until his death in 1775. His talents brought him
recognition and he became painter to the King, to Monsieur and Madame,
and practically all the nobility and aristocracy of France sat to
him. Naturally, the world of fashion followed suit. Drouais painted
Madame de Pompadour and owed much to her patronage. He also painted
Madame du Barry many times and his vogue continued through the reign
of Louis XVI. One of his most successful portraits--Marie Antoinette
as Hebe--now hangs at Chantilly and gives a most distinguished
presentation of the young Queen, a proud figure in yellow draperies,
rose-colored waist ribbons, and lilac scarf, holding a golden cup in
one hand and a silver ewer in the other.
Drouais holds his own with Watteau, Pater, Lancret, Fragonard, Greuze,
Chardin, and de la Tour, for he, too, like these artists of radiant
style, knew how to present with skillful and polished technique,
flowing lines, fluent grace, piquant expression, characteristic
gesture, and fashionable dress. Moreover, his quick observation and
light touch produce something akin to sparkling comedy; and yet in
all the play of his brush and his airy manner Drouais never failed to
create an atmosphere of elegance and distinction.
MADEMOISELLE HELVETIUS.
_François Hubert Drouais
(1727–1775)._
_Collection of
Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff._
That Drouais was a master who could succeed with any subject for
portraiture will be appreciated by comparing this sympathetic
presentation of a pretty little girl with the preceding portrait of La
Marquise de Villemonble, who appears in the full beauty of maturity.
Even Greuze, with all his skill in representing youthful charm, never
produced a lovelier work than this Mademoiselle Helvetius. Here the
little girl looks at us smiling beneath her big “shepherdess” hat,
holding in her dress clusters of purple and jade colored grapes.
Drouais evidently appreciated the decorative beauty of the grape and
its leaves, for he has brought out their character and lusciousness
with a loving surety of touch that shows him to be on a par with any
painter who has specialized in fruit.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff_
MADEMOISELLE HELVETIUS
--_François Hubert Drouais_]
The delightful painting, which is signed, came to its present owner
from the J. P. Morgan Collection.
L’INVOCATION À L’AMOUR.
_Jean Honoré Fragonard
(1732–1806)._
_Collection of
Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff._
The de Goncourts remarked in their _L’Art du Dix-huitième Siècle_ that
the two great--and the only great--poets in France in the Eighteenth
Century were Watteau and Fragonard; and they very fancifully and very
truly said that the saucy little Loves hovering about in the sky of
_L’Embarquement pour L’Île de Cythère_ were “getting ready to fly to
Fragonard and to put on his palette the hues of their butterfly wings.”
Of that tragic painting, _Corésus and Callirhoé_ (in the Louvre) the
de Goncourts, noting the extraordinary movement and whirl in the work,
said “a great mute cry seems to rise in the composition,” and then
added: “This cry of a picture, so new for the Eighteenth Century, is
Passion.”
Fragonard had the genius for expressing movement and emotion to such a
degree that sometimes “a cry” seems to issue from his canvas. This rush
of movement and this torrent of emotion, this outburst like leaping
flames and whirling clouds, is expressed in full power in the picture
represented here, which bears some likeness to the _Fountain of
Love_ in the Wallace Gallery, London.
_L’Invocation à l’Amour_ (20½ × 24¾ inches) was painted between 1780
and 1785. It came into public notice at the La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
Sale in Paris in 1827 and has since belonged to the Collections of M.
le duc de Polignac; to Madame la duchesse de Polignac née Crillon; to
Mr. L. Neumann, London; and to M. Jean Bertoloni, Paris. _L’Invocation
à l’Amour_ was shown at the Fragonard Exposition, Musée des Arts
Décoratifs, Paris in 1921, and came thereafter into possession of Mr.
Mortimer L. Schiff.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff_
L’INVOCATION À L’AMOUR
--_Jean Honoré Fragonard_]
Jean Honoré Fragonard was born at Grasse in 1732 and died in Paris in
1806. He studied under Chardin and Boucher, won the _grand prix_
de Rome at the age of twenty, studied in Rome, visited Naples and
Sicily with Hubert Robert, and, returning to Paris, leaped into fame
with his _Corésus and Callirhoé_ in 1765. Fragonard painted every
subject--love-scenes, portraits, _genre_, and landscape--equally
well and always with the lightest touch, the most delicate colors, and
infinite charm.
“His method,” says Louis Hautecœur, “is even more dexterous than
that of Boucher, because he is better instructed; this rapidity of
brush-work is not negligent, because it is guided by previous study;
this freedom of handling is not hap-hazard: it springs from the joy of
creating; that is what makes Fragonard a great painter. Thus a natural
sensibility, which gave to his works movement, picturesque character,
and color seems to be the master faculty of Fragonard; and out of this
movement, this feeling for the picturesque, and this color arises a
fantasy composed of intelligence and imagination. The _Fête of St.
Cloud_ becomes a fairy scene; the _Garden of Fontainebleau_ the setting
of a dream; and the _Fountain of Love_ flows in a world of mystery.
Fragonard was not only a _painter_ unique in style, but he was a _poet_
of that century of which he saw the close--a _poet_ whose sensibility
was shown less in the nature of his works than in the manner in which
he treated them: in his golden rays of light; in the shadowy recesses
of the parks; in the cloud forms of a tempest; in the youthful charm of
children; and in the grace of women--and herein lies his originality.”
LE BILLET-DOUX.
_Jean Honoré Fragonard
(1732–1806)._
_Collection of
Mr. Jules S. Bache._
In studying this graceful composition with its subtle harmonies of
color and its amazing play of iridescent reflections and ever changing
lights it is easy to see that Fragonard spent some time in the studio
of Chardin, having the benefit of instruction from that great master.
Charm is the keynote of the picture. The colors are indescribable as
they are constantly changing; but the general tonality is golden-brown
in all the shades of leaves at autumn with sunlight playing upon
them and combined with the softest blue of the sky; and these browns
and blues are so merged and mingled that they shimmer and vary like
“changeable velvet.” The effect is, therefore, both rich and, at the
same time, tender, soft, and brilliant. A few high lights of pink are
discreetly used. The charming, piquant, and lovely lady, is said to be
the daughter of Boucher and was married to another painter, Baudouin,
and, after his death, to M. de Cuviller. The lady is half rising from
her writing-table and is holding in her left hand a bouquet of pink
roses in a conical paper-holder into which she is placing a letter,
addressed to “Monsieur M. C.” Her head is turned a little to the front
and her expression seems to indicate that she does not wish to be
detected in her pretty romance. She is a person of elegance and fashion
and her dress is altogether _comme il faut_, in what we please to
call to-day a “Watteau costume,” with the panniers and the “Watteau
plait” at the back. The material is a very pale blue velvet with
brownish lights. Her hair is dressed fashionably and surmounted by
a modish little “butterfly cap” brightened with pink ribbons, which,
with the pink roses, are the only notes of bright color in the picture.
Lying on the chair and looking directly out of the picture is a darling
little poodle dog. In the “_Billet-Doux_,” Louis Hautecœur says,
“we can best appreciate the skill of the master who delighted in making
a golden light play across a yellow curtain upon a blue robe.”
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_
LE BILLET-DOUX
--_Jean Honoré Fragonard_]
This painting (33¾ × 26⅜ inches) passed through the Collections of the
Baron Feuillet de Conches; Madame Jagerschmidt; M. Ernest Cronier; and
M. Joseph Bardac,--all of Paris. The _Billet-Doux_ was shown at the
Alsace-Lorraine Exhibitions of 1874 and 1927, and is lauded in all the
standard works on Fragonard.
LA MARQUISE DE LA FARE.
_Jean Honoré Fragonard
(1732–1806)._
_Collection of
Mrs. James B. Haggin._
Could anything be lighter, lovelier, and more graceful in the way of
painting than this distinguished representation of the distinguished
Marquise de la Fare? For elegant simplicity as well as technique this
portrait is without a peer. Only Fragonard could have painted it. There
is something here that reminds us of the flicker and flutter and quick
movement and vitality of the flame,--that symbol of the soul and of
eternal life. Unconsciously, perhaps, by these leaping, flashing lines
the painter symbolized his own genius and the spirit of the exquisite
lady he was privileged to portray. With his butterfly touch and his
liquid, rapid brush, Fragonard caught this charming personality. Yet,
behind this quick impressionistic work--as light in key and ethereal in
harmony as Claude Monet or Matisse--what knowledge, what skill! Here
is all the majesty of Greek sculpture at its climax of perfection,
but Greek sculpture rendered dynamic and human. And what a pose! What
exquisite arms and hands! What style! What _chic_! The dress is cream
and the drapery, old rose, harmonizing with the ash-blonde hair and
blue eyes.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mrs. James B. Haggin_
LA MARQUISE DE LA FARE
--_Jean Honoré Fragonard_]
The picture (31¾ × 25 inches) came directly from the de la Fare family
to its present owner.
THE FOUNTAIN IN THE PARK.
_Hubert Robert
(1733–1808)._
_Collection of
Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs._
When Hubert Robert exhibited for the first time in August, 1765, he
won instant recognition. The French public at a period when taste was
supreme, praised the originality of Hubert Robert’s design and his
exquisite delicacy of coloring and decided, moreover, that although his
study of the antique had been thorough and sympathetic, the new artist
was, above all, a Parisian of Parisians.