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The Art Review  Volume 1   Issue: 6  June 1890  Page: 166
 
 Paris Causerie By C. Nicholson
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PARIS CAUSERIE
 
THE Annual Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, or the Salon — for whatever surprises and good things may be in store for us at the rival Exhibition of the National Society of Fine Arts, which opens on the 15th, the gallery in the Champs-Elysées will always be the Salon for the general public — is now open, and if opinions differ as to the quality of the exhibits, in quantity they leave nothing to be desired. The catalogue contains a grand total of 2480 pictures and 1258 pieces of sculpture. If a certain number of well-known names are absent, on the other hand, Bouguereau, Bonnat, Benjamin Constant, Henner Lefèbvre, Munkacsy, Dubois, Falguière, and Barrias are among the exhibitors, nor must we omit Mme. Sarah Bernhardt, who has sent a pretty bust of a child entitled ‘Bellona’!

We will not venture to encroach on the privileged ground of the ‘influential critics’ whose business it is to extol, or abuse, or damn with faint praise, but will be content to flâner through the rooms, noting as we pass what is really good, giving a hearty welcome to newcomers, and stopping here and there before a picture, not so much for its excellence as a work of art as for some deeper purpose we perceive, or fancy we perceive, in it, — for the art of painting consists not merely in mixing colours with brains, but, often, with a little of the artist's own heart’s blood: some pictures have a history far sadder than the one depicted on canvas. But let us walk into the Salon Carré, where our attention is at once attracted by M. Lefèbvre's ‘Lady Godiva’, a fine piece of work, vastly superior to the overrated production of the Belgian, Joseph van Lérius, which figures in the Musée Moderne at Antwerp. The life-size nude figure of Lady Godiva is chaste and charming. Seated on a mauve-coloured mantle, which is thrown over the saddle of her white palfrey, with downcast eyes, her arms crossed with a pretty gesture on her snow-white bosom, she is led down the deserted High Street of Coventry by an elderly female attendant. There are a few faults of detail, and the architecture of the background of houses is perhaps more Continental than English, but the principal figure is charming. In the same room is hung M. Munkacsy's ceiling for the Museum of the History of Art in Vienna, — ‘allegorical of the Italian Renaissance’ adds the catalogue. It is of course very difficult to judge of the merit of a decorative work intended to be placed overhead when you see it on a flat and vertical surface, but as far as one can judge the effect of the ceiling will be very striking; the nude allegorical figures are boldly modelled, the groups of savants and artists, among which latter Mr. Munkacsy himself figures, are well drawn. The bituminous backgrounds common to the Hungarian master’s work are here absent: the scene is set in a glowing, luminous atmosphere, with the bright blue sky overhead.

The clou of the Salon is the work of a foreigner, ‘The Roman Chariot Race’ by M. Ulpiano Checa, ‘pupil of the Academy of Madrid’ says the catalogue. The Circus Maximus is crowded; the race is almost finished; in a cloud of dust the chariots come rushing along; the leader is about to turn the corner of the spina, when the central shaft of the chariot strikes the wall — there’s a crash! and chariot, charioteer, and horses become a chaotic struggling mass. The horses, maddened with fear and pain, kick and plunge, while the unfortunate charioteer tries in vain to free himself from amidst the tangled reins and harness. Two other chariots are almost on him, though the charioteers are straining nerve and muscle to steer clear of the wreck; the spectators have started from their seats, and are looking on in every attitude of surprise, horror, and excitement, while in the background the sun throws a golden hue over the cloud of dust which covers the arena. It is a fine picture, full of furia, life, and energy. M. Checa made a very modest début at the Spanish gallery of the Universal Exhibition last year, a small picture representing the interior of a church; his ‘Chariot Race’ now places him in the foremost rank of those who are running the race of success. M. Detaille’s ‘En Batterie’ is another spirited picture, quite different from the cabinet pictures he has hitherto produced; besides, he has emerged into the broad, open air. The central figure, a colonel of artillery of the Garde Impériale, mounted on a fiery black charger, is leading his battery to the front. Rising in his stirrups, brandishing his sword, you almost fancy you can hear him shouting En avant! to the men and guns galloping after him. This picture marks a great stride made by M. Detaille towards a broader way of treating military subjects. A military picture which also attracts public attention is M. Bloch’s ‘Moustache’. ‘At the battle of Austerlitz the last remnant of a grenadier regiment was surrounded by Austrians; a deadly struggle took place for the possession of the regimental flag, which was on the point of being taken, when “Moustache”, the dog of the regiment, tore the tattered remnant of the flag from an Austrian soldier and carried it off to the French lines. As a reward for this glorious action, “Moustache” was decorated by Marshal Lannes’ (‘Les chiens militaires dans l’Armée Française’ par le Lieutenant Jupin.) M. Bloch represents the brave ‘Moustache’ rushing across the bloodstained snow with the debris of his regiment’s flag in his mouth.

Another picture will probably have the privilege of attracting the attention of the Sunday unsophisticated visitors. In the stable-yard of a provincial gendarmerie stands a fresh-groomed white horse, looking
The Art Review  Volume 1   Issue: 6  June 1890  Page: 167
 
 Paris Causerie By C. Nicholson
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expectantly at a little girl who is carried by her father, a good-natured gendarme. The child holds out a piece of sugar to the horse, who is stretching his neck in order to reach the coveted douceur. Such is the subject of M. Paris ‘Le Sucre a Coco’ a simple, unpretending picture, well painted, with no exaggerated realism about it, yet far more pleasing to the vulgar eye than more ambitious subjects. Indeed, there are many clever and interesting works among the genre paintings; for instance, M. Humbert’s charming version of the first meeting of Louis XIII and Mdlle. de Montfort, M. Chigot’s ‘Prière’ — three fishermen at sea who stop work to pray on hearing the sound of the distant church bells; M. Vibert’s amusing scene from the ‘Malade Imaginaire’ in which the artist himself is portrayed as M. Purgon, his charming wife (Mme. Lloyd, of the Comédie-Française) as Beline, and her comrade, M. Garraud of the Comédie-Française, as the Malade Imaginaire. M. F. Flameng’s ‘Halte’ and others we must leave unnoticed.

M. Benjamin Constant’s exhibits are always interesting, from the artistic as well as from the dilettante point of view. This year they differ strangely, both in subject and style. ‘Victrix’ is a decidedly attractive-looking young lady, nude, lying on her back on a marble pavement; beside her are a scimitar, a helmet, and coat of mail. The old story of Samson and Delilah, I suppose; but the vanquished hero is absent, so we may consider ‘Victrix’ as another etude of the nude with Oriental surroundings, such as M. Benjamin Constant exhibits at each successive Salon. ‘Beethoven — the Moonlight Sonata’ is the title of the second exhibit. In a dark room the master is seated at the harpsichord; a few chosen friends are listening intently to the divine melody; through the open window the moon throws a dim light on the keyboard and the faces of the listeners, while the leonine head of Beethoven remains enveloped in a veil of luminous gloom. A fine picture, of almost puritanical severity; yet I do not think it will win the long-coveted Medaille d’Honneur, which will more probably be awarded this year to M. Harpignies, whose splendid landscape, ‘Twilight’, appears to be the crowning point of a great and noble artistic career. M. Petitjean’s ‘Joinville’ M. Sain’s ‘En Normandie’ M. Français’ exquisite ‘Misty Morning’ and others, maintain the reputation of the French paysagiste school. Among the foreign exhibits, M. Week’s beautiful Indian scene, ‘The Golden Temple of Amritsar’ Miss Leigh’s ‘Woodland in November’ and Mr. J. Swan’s ‘Dead Lion’ deserve more than passing notice. As for Mr. Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Blue and Gold’ and the ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold’ and Mr. Stott’s ‘Endymion’ I believe your readers are already familiar with these works of talent.

The show of portraits is not quite up to the average of preceding Salons, owing to the fact that the best portrait-painters have joined the opposition Society. Yet there are a sufficient number of likenesses of lowly décolleté ladies of high degree to please the special public whose delight it is to congregate on fashionable Friday afternoons in front of the portrait of a ‘fashionable beauty’ or a professional old guy, such as Mme. ----- , or of some celebrity of the day, and talk Art nonsense like so many well-dressed jackdaws. M. Bonnat’s portrait of M. Carnot is disappointing, for he shows us a President of the Republic stiffer in appearance than he is even in the flesh; I hear that M. Bonnat is not at all satisfied with his work, but had to send it nolens volens. It is quite refreshing, with all due respect to honest M. Carnot, to move on and gaze at ‘Miss Gérome on Horseback’ as painted by M. Aimé Morot, or at M. Levy’s likeness of his own charming daughter. Mr. Alma Tadema has sent a highly - finished and excellent portrait of M. Jules de Soria, and Miss Fletcher an interesting likeness of Mme. Darmesteter. Colour-blind, and half-choked with dust, it is a pleasant relief to get downstairs amid the sculpture and verdure. The statuary exhibits are very fine this year. Limited space will only allow me to allude to the leading works, such as M. Falguière's beautifully modelled nude figure, ‘Femme au Paon’ which, but for the artist’s modesty, might be more properly named ‘Juno’. ‘La Penitence’ of Mercié is also very fine, and so is Delaplanche’s ‘Monument to the Memory of Mgr. Donnet, Archbishop of Bordeaux’. M. Fremiet sends an amusing reminiscence of last year’s Grand Exhibition, ‘A Cairo Donkey-Boy’, and a fine equestrian statue of Velasquez. A beautiful marble ‘Danseuse’ and the ‘Monument of Gustave'Flaubert’ are the work of M. Chapu. M. Barrias contributes a most poetical ‘Jeune Fille de Bon-Saada’ in wax: this figure is to be cast in bronze, to be placed on the funeral monument erected to the memory of Guillaumet, the celebrated painter of Algerian scenes, whose fine artistic career came to such a tragic end three years ago. The figure is that of an Arab girl, squatted, according to Eastern fashion, on the tombstone, and dropping flowers one by one on the grave, an essentially graceful and melancholy figure. M. Gérôme, besides two exhibits in the picture-gallery, which are scarcely worthy of his great reputation, has contributed to the sculpture department a nude figure of a woman seated, holding in her uplifted left hand a figurine of a Tanagra dancing-girl. This pretty fantasie is in tinted marble, and entitled ‘Tanagra’. An American sculptor, Mr. Tilden, exhibits a bronze statue, ‘Baseball’ and a life-size plaster cast, ‘The Tired Boxer’ which display a truly artistic temperament. Among the busts is a remarkable likeness of the late and deeply regretted military painter, Alphonse de Neuville, due to the chisel of M. de St. Vidal, who also contributes a handsome bust of poor, beautiful Mme. de Neuville, the widow of the artist, who, still young and handsome, is a bedridden invalid. M. de St. Vidal is the author of the grand fountain which stood under the Eiffel Tower, and of the fine bronze monument erected in Paris to the memory of Alphonse de Neuville by his friends and admirers.
C. Nicholson