,,masterpieces ,,in ,,colour ,,edited ,,by-- ,m4 ,,henry ,,roujon ,,fromentin 7#ahbj-ahgf7 ,,in ,,the ,,same ,,series ,,reynolds ,,velasquez ,,greuze ,,turner ,,botticelli ,,romney ,,rembrandt ,,bellini ,,fra ,,angelico ,,rossetti ,,raphael ,,leighton ,,holman ,,hunt ,,titian ,,millais ,,luini ,,franz ,,hals ,,carlo ,,dolci ,,gainsborough ,,tintoretto ,,van ,,dyck ,,da ,,vinci ,,whistler ,,rubens ,,boucher ,,holbein ,,burne-,,jones ,,le ,,brun ,,chardin ,,millet ,,raeburn ,,sargent ,,constable ,,memlinc ,,fragonard ,d,,rer ,,lawrence ,,hogarth ,,watteau ,,murillo ,,watts ,,ingres ,,corot ,,delacroix ,,fra ,,lippo ,,lippi ,,puvis ,,de ,,chavannes ,,meissonier ,g,r,,me ,,veronese ,,van ,,eyck ,,fromentin ,,mantegna ,,perugino ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i4--,a ,,halt 7,collection of ,m4 ,sarlin7 ,it is hardly necessary to call attention to the art with which ,fromentin has succeeded in arranging his masses of colour so as to secure a harmonious distribution of light4 ,could anything be more perfectly balanced1 in point of composition1 than this alluring canvas8 ,,fromentin ,,by ,,georges ,,beaume ,,translated ,,from ,,the ,,french ,,by ,,frederic ,,taber ,,cooper ,,illustrated ,,with ,,eight ,,reproductions ,,in ,,colour ,illustration3 ,,in ,,sempiternum4 ,,frederick ,a4 ,,stokes ,,company ,,new ,,york--,,publishers ,,copyright1 #aiac1 ,,by ,,frederick ,a4 ,,stokes ,,company ,printed in the ,united ,states of ,america ,,contents ,page ,the ,first ,steps #aa ,the ,promised ,land #bi ,an ,evolution #de ,the ,master and ,his ,destiny #eh ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,plate ,i4 ,halt of ,horsemen ,frontispiece ,m4 ,sarlin's ,collection ,,ii4 ,the ,arab ,encampment #ad ,muse du ,louvre ,,iii4 ,thirst #bd ,m4 ,jacques ,normand's ,collection ,,iv4 ,the ,sirocco in the ,oasis #cd ,muse du ,louvre ,v4 ,an ,arab ,fantasia #dj ,m4 ,sarlin's ,collection ,,vi4 ,egyptian ,women on the ,bank of the ,nile #ej ,muse du ,louvre ,,vii4 ,hunting with the ,falcon #fj ,muse du ,louvre ,,viii4 ,halt of ,horsemen #gj ,muse du ,louvre ,i4--,,the ,,first ,,steps ,eugne-,samuel-,auguste ,fromentin-,dupeux was born at ,la ,rochelle on the twenty-fourth of ,october1 #ahbj4 ,his family was a very old one and held in high honour throughout ,aunis and ,saintonge4 ,aunis1 one of the ancient provinces of ,france1 glows languidly beneath the caresses of a humid sun1 enveloped in a thin veil of ocean mists1 and at times she seems to float in the midst of her waves and her sands1 beneath a sky bounded by remote and indeterminate horizons1 vague and immense1 like some vast wreckage overgrown with gardens and oases4 ,for more than a century1 she was downtrodden by the ,english4 ,but if she owes them the pain and humiliation of defeat1 they at least inspired her with a passion for commercial greatness and a desire for wealth4 ,through her shipowners and bankers1 she amassed riches that permitted her to devote a goodly share of her days to leisure and festivities1 for the betterment of her material welfare and the embellishment of her mind4 ,thus in the midst of this industrious community1 faithful to its duties1 jealous of its liberty1 there was slowly formed a powerful and cultured bourgeois class1 eager for all forms of intellectual improvement4 ,eugne ,fromentin's family was1 on the father's side1 attached by ancient roots to the soil of ,aunis4 ,his ancestors were nearly all of them lawyers and judges1 and as far back as they can be traced1 even to the beginning of the eighteenth century1 formed a part of this bourgeois class1 which1 in that region of ardent ,protestantism1 constituted a sort of aristocracy4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,the ,,arab ,,encampment 7,muse du ,louvre7 ,against the sombre verdure of the oasis1 the whiteness of the tent stands out in sharp relief4 ,the ,arabs are resting3 meanwhile their horses1 untethered1 roam at will4 ,this essentially simple scene1 undoubtedly drawn straight from life1 owes its charm to ,fromentin's admirable art1 and his ability to throw some gleam of light even into his densest masses of shade4 ,his father was a physician of great ability1 and for thirty-three years was director of the ,lafond insane asylum1 which he had founded not far from ,la ,rochelle4 ,he had a reputation for wit1 but indecision and suspicion stifled the better impulses of his nature4 ,fromentin's mother1 whose educational advantages had been slight1 had by contrast a sensitive and warmhearted disposition4 ,it was she whom the painter resembled in all the details of his physical nature and in all the qualities of his moral nature1 while ,charles1 his elder brother1 practical and taciturn1 resembled their father1 whose vocation he followed4 ,the mentality of ,eugne ,fromentin developed early4 ,at school1 he surprised all his instructors by his ability to assimilate knowledge and to think things out for himself1 and he was loved by them all4 ,later on1 he confessed that 8his childhood had been very lively1 almost boisterous40 ,but somewhere during his fifteenth year1 a marked change took place in him4 8,i had involuntarily formed the habit10 he confessed further1 8of reserve and silence1 a habit that was often to my disadvantage1 and which was respected quite as much through pity as through tolerance4 ,yet it is to this habit that ,i owed the chance to develop in accordance with my nature2 otherwise1 ,i should have grown up warped and unfit40 ,and ,m4 ,pierre ,blanchon1 from whose admirably documented volume#a these details are borrowed1 adds further3 8,his views upon art and poetry clashed with the bourgeois ideas of his environment2 the doctor looked upon them as mere nonsense1 while his mother feared that they would lead him into temptation40 ,as a matter of fact1 at the very period when he was passing through the moral crisis of adolescence1 a romantic attachment shook his soul to its very depths with the emotions of love4 #a ,eugne ,fromentin1 ,lettres de ,jeunesse4 ,about half a league from town1 just before entering the village of ,saint-,maurice1 the ,fromentins owned a country place4 ,the country roundabout is nothing but a level plain1 fertile and bare1 stretching away to the coast1 where the sea1 harnessed by ,richelieu1 loses1 among its encroaching capes and islands1 all its grandeur and poetry4 ,among their country neighbours there happened to be a certain ,madame ,x41 left1 at the age of forty-three1 the widow of a captain in the merchant marine4 ,she spent her winters at ,la ,rochelle and her summers at ,saint-,maurice4 ,she had a daughter1 born at ,port ,louis1 in the island of ,martinique1 in #ahag1 and consequently three years older than ,eugne ,fromentin4 ,madeleine--let us1 from a feeling of pious respect1 refer to her only by the name she bears in ,dominique--,madeleine1 being of ,creole blood on her mother's side1 had the darkest of hair and eyes1 combined with a fair and almost colourless complexion4 ,we know next to nothing about her4 ,he had conceived for her a violent attachment4 ,brusquely1 she was snatched from the heaven in which the secret hopes and dreams of his fifteen years had framed her4 ,she became the wife of an assistant collector of taxes4 ,fromentin suffered impotently from jealousy1 and all the more because his passion was sincere and ingenuous4 ,his light-heartedness vanished1 together with his self-assurance2 he mistrusted his own sentiments1 he probed and analyzed his thoughts4 ,to retire to the comforting privacy of his fireside and bury himself in literary work1 poetry1 critical essays1 fragments of drama1 such was his way of healing his wounds4 ,some of these productions of his adolescence reveal him as a student well grounded in rhetoric1 very serious-minded and painstaking1 nurtured on the solid substance of the best classics1 and possessed of an uneasy spirit1 in which there had already awakened a taste for big1 fundamental ideas1 together with a goading ambition to achieve1 through his own unaided efforts1 some creative work of beauty4 ,furthermore1 these early efforts show a great facility of expression1 an abundant and substantial eloquence that seeks distinction1 not by affecting strange mannerisms1 but by frankly employing the simplest of methods4 ,having completed his college course1 ,fromentin lived for a year somewhat at haphazard4 ,his literary efforts became known in ,la ,rochelle1 and before long won him the esteem of the numerous men of letters who1 in those days1 to us the legendary days of the post-chaise and stage-coach1 were drawn to a city where the social life was so distinctive and so intense4 ,from time to time1 he would steal out in the evening and furtively slip a manuscript in prose or verse into the letter-box of the ,journal de ,la ,rochelle4 ,the next morning the poem or story or critical paragraph would appear1 without signature1 in the columns of the journal4 ,but everyone who read it would1 without hesitation1 mentally sign the name of ,fromentin4 ,he was now beginning to sketch and paint4 ,the morose doctor1 his father1 who was himself an amateur artist of no mean ability1 initiated him into the rudiments of the craft4 ,the hour had come1 however1 for choosing some serious career for the lad4 ,charles was in ,paris1 studying medicine4 ,eugne was piloted in the direction of the law4 ,he left ,la ,rochelle in ,november1 #ahci1 not without some pangs1 for he was leaving behind him1 perhaps forever1 the woman whom he had worshipped with all his soul2 and1 sensitive and nervous as he was1 he experienced a genuine dread of invading unknown territory1 the huge city of ,paris1 so far away from his own kindly province1 which had been so indulgent to his early efforts1 so tender to the first dreams of his heart4 ,at this time1 his figure was slender and well proportioned1 save that he was somewhat too short in the leg4 ,his head was comparatively a trifle large4 ,his pale complexion was at times tinged with a faint flush4 ,his long brown hair fell upon his shoulders4 ,his cheeks were full1 the contour of his face formed a fine1 elongated oval4 ,his lips1 surmounted by a budding moustache1 were heavy2 his forehead high and rounded and very handsome4 ,his nose1 which in later years filled out and assumed an aquiline form1 was at that time perfectly straight4 ,his eyes1 beneath well-formed eyebrows1 were brown1 and perhaps somewhat too large1 but very attractive and very gentle1 far more so than they were later on2 in moments of enthusiasm1 which in those days were fairly frequent1 or when under the influence of astonishment or sadness1 he would raise them towards heaven with an expression of profundity4 ,in ,paris1 he lived at first by himself and in seclusion4 ,his aversion to vulgarity and extravagances of speech or manners was ridiculed by some of his comrades1 who nicknamed him 8little ,monsieur ,comme-il-faut40 ,he followed the courses in the law school only halfheartedly1 but was assiduous in his attendance at the lectures of ,michelet1 ,quinet1 and ,sainte-,beuve1 in the ,sorbonne4 ,as a connoisseur of the beautiful in human handiwork1 ,fromentin soon learned to love ,paris and to appreciate1 in her environs1 ,versailles1 ,saint-,germain1 ,montmorency1 those picturesque landscapes that combine the charm of nature with the glorious high-lights of history4 ,although without a teacher1 he spent more and more time in sketching the changing forms of life1 and strove1 so far as it lay in him1 to retain in his drawings the secret tremors of the soul4 8,these are his first stumbling utterances as a landscape painter10 wrote ,m4 ,louis ,gonse in his extensive and admirable work1 critical as well as biographical1 in which he has reproduced the earliest known sketch by ,fromentin1 a scene from ,chatterton1 drawn the morning after a performance of ,de ,vigny's drama at the ,thtre ,franaise4 ,this pen-and-ink sketch1 dated ,april #b1 #ahda1 shows facility1 sureness of touch1 and a certain felicity in composition4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4--,,thirst 7,collection of ,m4 ,jacques ,normand7 ,fromentin1 who was a precise observer as well as a brilliant artist1 noted all the picturesque scenes of the desert4 ,how many times he must have witnessed such halts as this beneath the burning ,african sun1 which parches the throat6 ,it is worth while to note the truth of the native's attitude as he greedily drinks the water of the oasis4 ,one should also notice the art with which the painter has grouped his figures and garments in this unfinished work1 in such a way as to fling a violent and joyous note across the sombre monotony of the desert4 ,far from relinquishing his literary efforts1 ,fromentin applied himself1 from this time onward1 with increased ardour1 and1 throwing off the trammels of romanticism1 produced poems1 critical studies1 and even a comedy1 written in collaboration with his friend1 ,emile ,deltrmieux4 ,from this time onward1 ,fromentin held firmly to a conviction on which all his efforts as painter and author were destined to be based3 namely1 that an artist1 instead of imitating the masters1 should draw his inspiration solely from himself1 from his own emotions and memories1 and that1 if he aspires to speak sincerely1 in a new and original language1 he ought to belong to some one country1 to reflect its image and to repeat its accent4 ,as a matter of fact1 he himself was not1 excepting in appearance1 uprooted from his native soil4 ,in the depths of his inmost consciousness1 there always resounded the echo of his province4 ,but for the time being1 while he amused himself in studying the reasons for things and administering to himself doses of his own keen analysis1 he suffered from that curious affliction of dual personality which1 twenty-five years later1 he described in ,dominique3 8,that cruel gift of being able to look on at one's own life as at a performance given by someone else4 ,sensibility is an admirable gift2 in the order of creation it may become a rare power1 but on one condition3 namely1 that one does not turn it against oneself40 ,having taken his licentiate's degree1 ,fromentin pursued his studies for the doctorate4 ,he entered the law office of ,m4 ,denormandie4 ,there he met1 as fellow clerks1 the future lawyer1 ,m4 ,nicolet1 and ,forcade de la ,roquette1 destined later to become minister4 ,here ,fromentin spent his time chiefly in drawing sketches on the desk pads1 the margins of legal pleadings1 and even the panels of the doors4 ,one day he descended into the courtyard and covered the coach-house1 stable1 and party-wall with his artistic efforts4 ,he paid long and frequent visits to the ,louvre4 ,the ,italian school left him wellnigh indifferent4 ,in the ,french school he ranked ,chardin above all the rest4 ,but already his chief enthusiasm was reserved for the ,dutch4 ,the ,ford1 by ,wynauts1 with figures by ,berchem1 and ,ruysdal's ,sunstroke and ,dyke beaten by the ,sea fascinated him4 ,at times1 he conceived a fine passion for ,rubens4 ,rembrandt1 however1 from first to last1 was very nearly1 if not quite1 incomprehensible to him4 8,he reproached ,ingres10 records ,m4 ,louis ,gonse1 8for being an imitator of ,raphael2 nevertheless1 he declared1 after seeing one of ,ingres' sketches1 that he was a sculptor of the first order4 ,as regards music1 he knew ,mozart and ,beethoven only by reputation2 he loved ,bellini1 ,donizetti1 etc41 and the entire sensualistic school of ,rossini40 ,apparently ,fromentin was now hesitating between two paths1 that of the fine arts and that of belles-lettres4 ,it is my own deep conviction that his choice had already been made4 ,he knew that literature1 worthily conceived and liberally practised1 cannot become a career capable of supporting the man who follows it4 ,he saw daily1 with his wise and prudent judgment1 that painting1 on the contrary1 can guarantee bread and fuel to an artist of real talent1 respectful of his art and loyal in his efforts4 ,accordingly1 he wrote henceforth in his leisure hours1 and when the mood was on him1 economizing his strength and hoping only that the art of his written word might attract attention and perhaps awaken sympathy4 ,at last1 unable to endure any longer the legal dust of ,m4 ,denormandie's office1 he boldly confided to a friend of the family his horror of judicial procedure1 and confessed his desire to devote himself wholly to painting4 ,this friend1 ,charles ,michel1 promptly went to ,la ,rochelle1 to open negotiations with ,dr4 ,fromentin2 and the latter1 after a vigorous protest1 ended by yielding4 ,but1 priding himself on his knowledge of such matters1 he insisted upon choosing ,eugne's instructor1 and selected the painter ,rmond1 who at that time represented the academic school of landscape painting4 ,fortunately for him1 ,eugne did not remain long in ,rmond's studio1 but left it to enter that of ,cabat4 ,a correct and careful artist1 and one of the best1 next to ,dupr and ,rousseau1 ,cabat had opened a new path for landscape painting--a path in which it would not be very hard to discover the influence which this celebrated master of the landscape exerted over the earlier manner of his pupil1 through his sympathetic understanding of his subjects and the grace and distinction of his art4 ,,ii4--,,the ,,promised ,,land ,in the month of ,march1 #ahdf1 ,fortune suddenly smiled upon ,eugne ,fromentin4 ,his friend1 ,charles ,labb1 the orientalist-painter1 was starting to attend his sister's wedding at ,blidah4 ,fromentin1 in whom an ardent curiosity regarding the lands of sunshine had been awakened by an exhibition of aquarelles1 brought back from the ,east by ,labb himself1 by ,delacroix1 ,decamps1 and notably by ,marilhat1 enthusiastically accepted his friend's invitation to accompany him4 ,had he some intuition that a new world of sensations and of colours awaited him in ,algeria8 ,he set forth1 without even notifying his family1 light of pocketbook1 but buoyant with hope and faith4 ,to his dazzled eyes1 to his soul seething with ambition1 it proved to be literally the promised land4 ,within two days after his arrival at ,blidah1 he wrote3 8,everything here interests me4 ,the more ,i study nature here1 the more convinced ,i am that1 in spite of ,marilhat and ,decamps1 the ,orient is still waiting to be painted4 ,to speak only of the people1 those that have been given us in the past are merely bourgeois4 ,the real ,arabs1 clothed in tatters and swarming with vermin1 with their wretched and mangy donkeys1 their ragged1 sun-ravaged camels1 silhouetted darkly against those splendid horizons2 the stateliness of their attitudes1 the antique beauty of the draping of all those rags--that is the side which has remained unknown4444 ,in short1 from the point of view of my work1 ,i have nothing to complain of1 and at the rate at which ,i am progressing1 ,i can promise you that ,i shall bring back a fairly interesting sketch-book40 ,he was especially appreciative of ,marilhat and ,decamps2 the absolutely new brilliance of their works haunted him constantly1 in the midst of his own labours4 8,that talented pair1 ,marilhat and ,decamps1 so ,thophile ,gautier writes me1 are oddly close neighbours1 yet they do not trespass on each other's ground2 where the one has the advantage in fantasy1 the other offsets it in character40 ,reinstalled in ,paris1 ,fromentin painted with desperate zeal1 lacking the gift1 so he said1 of inventing what he had not seen4 ,he forced himself to escape from that spirit of imitation which is at once a pleasure and a danger1 and up to the present he had accomplished nothing save to rid himself of those borrowed qualities which he had acquired1 without succeeding in gaining others which he could call his own4 ,he had1 however1 learned--and this knowledge is an essential virtue of every artist--that the real masters have never attempted to reproduce any object actually1 but only the spirit which animates it to the point of rendering it a treasury of life and of beauty2 he learned1 day by day1 more thoroughly1 that poetry is everywhere1 like the spark in the flint2 that the artist must study technique from the masters and truth from nature1 but that he can find nowhere1 except within himself1 the innate image of beauty4 ,in #ahdg1 he sent to the ,salon1 which at that time was held in the ,louvre1 three little pictures1 which were unanimously accepted3 ,a ,farm in the ,outskirts of ,la ,rochelle1 ,a ,mosque near ,algiers1 ,the ,gorges of ,chiffa4 8,the first of the pictures10 says ,m4 ,gonse1 8is characteristic of ,fromentin's earliest manner4 ,looked at only from the surface1 it is heavy and pasty4 ,it was a timid work1 but in nowise silly or vulgar4 ,the ,gorges of ,chiffa forms the curtain-raiser to ,fromentin's ,algeria40 ,but ,fromentin was exercising more and more his power of self-analysis2 he knew that his paintings were nothing more than a certain equilibrium of secondary qualities1 approximately correct in design and agreeable in colour1 but destitute of motive power4 ,he had also learned the cause of alteration in certain tones2 the colours which he had been employing were not susceptible of combination4 8,he had learned that mineral blue and indian yellow1 combined with white1 especially with white of lead1 turned black and produced a leaden tone 444 also that paint was less enduring on white canvas than on canvas already prepared with a ground colour40 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4--,,the ,,sirocco ,,in ,,the ,,oasis 7,muse du ,louvre7 ,fromentin was not only a past-master of colour4 ,the ,sirocco proves1 by the prodigious cataclysm that it represents1 how supple and varied was this painter's talent4 ,and one must marvel at such evidence of power in the author of so many works of exquisite and lyric charm4 ,algeria had won him once and forever4 ,it was decreed by fate that he should understand that ,african land which offered certain points of resemblance with the land of ,aunis and of ,saintonge4 ,the same flat1 level stretch1 abandoned to the rages of the sun1 or lashed by the fury of the tempests1 or shivering beneath the shadow of clouds2 the same voice of silence and of solitude to which he had so often listened with beating heart in the habitually melancholy fields surrounding ,la ,rochelle1 he heard again in these desolate reaches of the desert1 across the burning sands1 whose infinite extent is rendered almost sad by the excessive ardour of the light of heaven4 ,africa became the second land which he wished to cherish with all his heart and which belonged to him3 he made it his own by the right of his genius1 through the works of his brush and the works of his pen4 ,from a new journey which he undertook in #aheb1 a wedding journey1 radiant with every promise of happiness--since he had just wedded the sister of his friend1 ,dumesnil1 who understood him and whom he loved--he brought back two volumes1 ,a ,summer in the ,sahara and ,an ,army in ,sahel4 ,the first of these appeared in the ,revue de ,paris and the second in the ,revue des ,deux ,mondes4 ,in the world of letters these two works produced a great sensation4 ,with what finished and majestic simplicity ,fromentin painted his white page with colours which his poet's eyes had unerringly retained6 8,the weather is magnificent4 ,the heat is augmenting rapidly1 but so far its effect upon me has been stimulating rather than exhausting4 ,for the past eight days not a cloud has appeared on any part of the horizon4 ,the sky is an ardent and sterile blue that gives promise of a long period of drought4 ,the wind1 fixed in the east and almost as hot as the air at rest1 blows intermittently1 morning and evening1 but always very lightly1 and as if only for the purpose of keeping up a gentle swaying of the palm trees1 similar to that of the ,hindoo panwa dance4 ,for a long time past1 everyone has worn the thinnest of clothing and broad-brimmed hats1 and no one ventures out of the shade4 ,i cannot1 however1 bring myself to adopt the siesta40 ,thus1 through two masterpieces1 a new writer1 of strong and pure ,french stock1 suddenly revealed himself4 ,the most distinguished novelists and critics of the day1 ,george ,sand1 ,thophile ,gautier1 ,sainte-,beuve1 sent him their heartiest congratulations and sought his friendship4 ,in both of these books1 ,fromentin showed himself to be not only a curious and close observer1 but a subtle and trained psychologist4 ,he studied not only the outward forms of people and of things1 he probed the depths as well1 the underlying spirit2 and having found it1 he revealed it to others with keen and original discernment4 ,what he saw in those tribes and peoples1 as new to him as they are to us1 was not merely the picturesqueness of their attitudes and the exuberant brilliance of their land1 but the whole predestined history of the race from its origins1 as revealed in the practice of their strange customs and the passionate intensity of their instincts4 ,for ,fromentin was not one of those who find satisfaction solely in the contemplation of beauty4 ,he was above all one of the kind that wants to understand the meaning and the cause of beauty1 in order to enjoy more keenly its possession4 ,it is interesting to compare with ,fromentin the painter1 who paints best of all with his pen1 a poet of the highest rank1 who came later than he in this same region of ,saintonge3 ,pierre ,loti4 ,roving1 restless1 concerned solely with the misery of his own soul and the beauty of the world1 ,loti carries his dreams with him to the remotest shores1 and in order to distract his thoughts from life which bores him1 he has gathered together extraordinary colours1 the brilliant dust of picturesque ruins1 and has created for himself a capricious and sensual world1 in which nothing1 perhaps1 is real excepting his own melancholy1 yet which amuses and enchants him with its prodigious fund of poetry4 ,like ,loti1 ,fromentin also had an eye for rich and dazzling hues and knew how to render them with his pen4 ,but being less feverish1 more self-controlled in heart and mind1 he did not write merely for the sake of depicting faces and backgrounds2 he developed his robust and harmonious phrases for the purpose of interpreting1 and preferably in their most vivid aspects1 the dominant impulse of a race1 the art with which a picture is composed1 the design of a landscape1 the emotion of an hour1 or the spirit of an epoch4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4--,,an ,,arab ,,fantasia 7,m4 ,sarlin's ,collection7 ,movement1 life1 colour1 an eddying cloud of brilliant fabrics1 beneath the luminous vault of an ,african sky3 such are the ingredients of this magnificent composition1 as beautiful and as vigorous as any that the artist ever produced4 8,to ,fromentin10 writes ,gabriel ,trarieux1 8the function of an adjective is to appeal1 not to the eye or ear1 but to the moral sense4 ,nature1 to this psychologist1 is not an inert colour1 but an inner voice4 ,he shows us ,africa1 and more especially his own heart4 ,is such conscientiousness1 such self-revelation1 a distinctive mark of the native of ,charente8 ,for my part1 ,i think it is40 ,his offerings to the ,salon continued uninterruptedly1 year after year4 ,only the more famous need be mentioned3 ,the ,moorish ,burial 7#ahej72 ,the ,negro ,boatmen 7#ahei72 ,horsemen returning from a ,fantasia1 ,couriers from the ,land of the ,ouled ,nals 7#ahfa72 ,the ,arab ,bivouac at ,daybreak1 ,the ,arab ,falconer1 ,hunting with the ,falcon in ,algeria1 ,the ,quarry 7#ahfc72 ,windstorm in the ,plains of ,algiers 7#ahfd72 ,heron ,hunting1 ,thieves of the ,night 7#ahfe72 ,a ,tribe on the ,march through the ,pasture ,lands of ,tell1 ,a ,pool in an ,oasis 7#ahff72 ,arabs attacked by a ,lioness 7#ahfh72 ,halt of the ,muleteers 7#ahfi72 and his last five pictures1 ,the ,grand ,canal and ,the ,breakwater 7#ahgb72 ,the ,ravine 7#ahgd72 ,the ,nile and ,view of ,esneh 7#ahgf74 ,with the second picture that he exhibited1 ,the ,place of the ,breach in ,constantine1 the talent of the painter was officially recognized by the bestowal of a ,second ,class ,medal4 ,fromentin1 nevertheless1 knew his weaknesses4 ,what distressed him the most was that he still saw what was pretty1 rather than what was great2 a defect of instinct which is particularly conspicuous in ,the ,moorish ,burial 7#ahej7 and ,the ,gazelle ,hunt 7#ahei74 ,he strove1 by consulting nature ceaselessly1 to rid himself of this almost-but-not quite tendency1 of which he could never have been cured by mere studio work4 ,he soon began1 as a matter of fact1 to acquire a truer and broader vision4 ,he grasped this singular fact1 peculiar to tropical lands3 namely1 that1 howsoever discordant the details of a landscape may be1 they form a sum total that is always simple and easy to transcribe upon a canvas4 ,since he never played false1 either with himself or with nature1 he mirrored back accurately1 through the crystal clearness of his mind1 the form and colour of the objects before him4 ,looking to-day at such pictures as ,an ,audience before the ,caliph1 ,the ,negro ,boatmen1 and a host of others1 we breathe in1 just as we do in reading his books1 that indefinable odour of the ,orient which comes from the smoke of the camp fires and the tobacco1 from the orange trees and from the persons of the natives themselves2 we delight our eyes with the venerable olive trees of the sacred grove at ,blidah1 with the plain bounded on the north by the long chain of the hills of ,sahel1 low-lying1 gray in the morning1 ruddy at noon1 with just one white spot toward the northeast1 at ,colah1 where there is a vast gap1 formed by the course of the ,mazapan ,river1 through which we get a glimpse of the sea4 ,the entire series of sketches and notes which1 from ,constantine to ,biskra1 by way of ,lambessa1 ,fromentin collected during his journey into the heart of ,algeria1 he was destined to make use of later on1 to guard himself from ever falsifying4 ,and if the colours of his paintings are often timid1 it is precisely for the reason that in the seclusion of his studio1 remote from ,africa1 he lacked that pulsation of generous light1 with which he needed to be enveloped1 in order to kindle his palette to the required glow4 ,,iii4--,,an ,,evolution ,eugne ,fromentin will be remembered as the painter of ,algeria1 or at least as one of the first who revealed it in such a way as to make it beloved4 ,not the ,algeria of the ,south1 lost amid a furnace of sunshine and of sand1 but the ,algeria which is accessible to all1 that of the ,arabs1 with peaceful cities set in the midst of ruins1 and grateful palm groves forgotten1 like baskets after a festival1 on the border of the desert2 the ,algeria of ceremonious and brilliant fantasias1 of mosques1 of battle-fields still smoking1 and of vagabond tribes4 ,it may be regretted that he contented himself with seeing the ,arab exclusively outside his tent1 in the open light of sand and sky1 and that1 instead of confining his studies to external phases of life1 he never ventured to penetrate to his hearthstone1 in the intimacy of his family life4 ,yet who would reproach the artist for his scrupulous delicacy and discretion8 ,jules ,claretie was quite right in declaring that ,marilhat brought back from the ,orient landscapes imbued with profound melancholy1 ,decamps scenes distinguished for their dazzling brilliance1 ,delacroix spectacles of majestic grandeur1 and that ,fromentin in his turn discovered in that land of light a personal note which his predecessors would have sought in vain1 since he carried it within himself4 ,the colour scale of ,fromentin is a subdued one2 his favourite shades are the half-tones4 ,in the presence of that brilliant land1 ennobled by centuries of history1 ,fromentin remained1 nevertheless1 a ,parisian of the purest stock4 ,his ,arabs are all keenly alert1 down to the very folds of their burnooses4 ,he could not bear to behold ugliness2 he transformed it through the golden warp of his imagination4 ,although his pictures lack the harsh vibration of the desert and a sense of its far-reaching monotony1 the desert nevertheless loses nothing of its grandeur2 because his poet's understanding1 more infinite than the expanses of the dunes1 passed of its own accord beyond the bounds of a horizon which1 unlike that of the sea1 is not void save for the passerby who is incapable of emotion and comprehension4 ,beneath his sober brush1 the ,arabs retain all their strange attractions1 which he amply indicates by a single dash of light1 just as in his books he evokes a landscape or an individual by a single word4 ,his eyes took in the outward form of things as completely as his mind penetrated the minds of others4 ,his unwearied power of observation neglected nothing that pertained to light2 consequently the accuracy of his paintings1 comparable to that of historic documents1 is attested by every traveller4 ,the ,fantasia1 for example1 gives an admirable presentment of the open country around ,algiers and of one aspect of ,arab manners and customs4 ,it shows us a numerous cavalcade galloping at headlong speed1 with clamorous shouts and discharge of guns1 across a broad plain toward a knoll on which the mounted emir sits in judgment4 ,this mingling of motley garments and of horses galloping in all directions produces a scene of extraordinary animation and a liveliness of tone that contrasts sharply with the bare immensity of the plain and the uniformity of the sky4 ,suddenly1 in #ahfa1 ,fromentin's manner was marked by a complete evolution4 ,not that he abandoned the fine and delicate methods habitual with him1 the methods of a poet seeking to interpret his visions and his sentiments through his skill in animated composition4 ,nothing of his originality was sacrificed4 ,his power1 on the contrary1 was increased1 because he had learned1 in regard to the inspiration of his works1 how to see reality more truly1 and in regard to the resources of his art1 how to understand better the superior methods of his compeers and his masters4 ,but he had seen ,corot1 and his admiration of him increased day by day2 it was the influence of the painter of ,the ,farm ,wagon that induced him to render the value of colour tones in accordance with their harmonies rather than their contrasts4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,egyptian ,,women ,,on ,,the ,,bank ,,of ,,the ,,nile 7,muse du ,louvre7 ,in this attractive1 verdant nook1 lighted by a luminous patch of brilliant fabrics1 the artist has harmoniously placed a group of women4 ,while some of them1 stretched at length beneath the shade1 gossip together while they rest1 two of their number are standing1 and watch the flow of the sacred river1 the mysterious ,nile1 witness of so many things1 contemporaneous with so many illustrious civilizations4 ,this picture is a masterpiece of composition and colour4 ,beginning with ,the ,verge of an ,oasis during the ,sirocco1 one can see how ,corot's dexterous and delightful gray came to life again under ,fromentin's brush4 8,it was a rare distinction10 writes ,m4 ,louis ,gonse1 8in that period of ardent romanticism1 to have realized instinctively the value of gray1 its caressing softness1 its modest yet insistent appeal4 ,silver gray1 amethystine and turquoise gray1 these were the tones of which ,fromentin was soon vaunting the delicate and tender charm4 ,i remember an interview which ,i had with him one morning1 in his studio1 regarding the painter of that unique masterpiece1 a ,souvenir of ,marissal4 ,fromentin was in fine good humour and buoyant spirits4 ,all that he said to me about ,corot1 his place in art1 his daring innovations1 his inimitable feeling for light1 his exquisite sense of the exact tone1 was well worth remembering4 ,it was a marvellous offhand estimate1 the substance of which summed up deep-seated convictions4 ,beneath that flashing1 swift-winged flight of words1 ,i felt the earnestness of opinions born of long reflection40 ,from #ahfa onward1 ,fromentin deserted the ,sahara in favour of ,sahel1 exchanged the consuming heat of summer for a milder sunshine4 8,he sought10 recorded ,louis ,gonse1 8to paint in lighter1 fresher colours3 his instinct counselled him to avoid black as a mortal enemy--that black which certain painters deliberately affect1 thinking that in this way they are imitating the old masters4 ,all those soft grays1 which are luminous half-tones of white1 appeared imperceptibly beneath his brush4 ,after having won distinction as a colourist1 he became and remained to the end a master of tonal harmony in the subtlest sense4 ,according to the opinion of ,sainte-,beuve1 #8he attained his greatest effects by combining the simplest methods in a marvellous manner4' ,and since his ambition was of steady growth1 his progress in his craft was uninterrupted40 ,among ,fromentin's productions of this period are3 ,the ,shepherds on the ,high ,plateaus of ,kabylia1 an austere spectacle witnessed on the road from ,medah to ,boghar2 ,the ,bed of the ,oued ,mzi2 and the charming canvas of ,turkish ,houses in ,mustapha-in-,algiers4 ,in #ahfc1 he produced ,the ,arab ,bivouac at ,daybreak1 which1 by its presentment of salient details and its sympathetic understanding of the slightest gesture1 sets before us the impressive melancholy of the nomad life2 he produced further ,the ,arab ,falconer1 one of the most brilliant of his smaller works2 and lastly1 ,hunting with the ,falcon in ,algeria1 which many of his admirers regard as his masterpiece1 and which1 at all events1 is his most famous painting4 ,it may now be seen in the collection in the ,louvre4 ,fromentin repeatedly duplicated1 in crayon1 in aquarelle1 and in oil1 this scene which represents two ,arab chiefs hunting1 accompanied by their attendants4 ,the horseman in the middle of the picture1 an old man holding a falcon1 resembles1 on his motionless horse1 an equestrian statue4 ,the second horseman1 the one in the foreground1 is undoubtedly his son2 he is as attractive as a pretty girl and young like the horse he rides1 a white horse1 of a beautiful1 silvery white1 the lower part of the legs shading off into an exquisite rose tint4 ,the rider is clad in blue1 white1 and gray1 while a saddle of turquoise blue1 enriched with trimmings of glazed vermillion1 adorns the courser1 which is distinguished by a luxuriant mane1 an ample1 flowing tail tinged with ochre and amber1 and a black eye1 profound and full of life4 ,two ,arabs1 kneeling in the pathway1 have taken possession of a hare which the falcons have just killed4 ,the whole effect is that of extreme distinction1 marred perhaps by too much embellishment4 ,in #ahgj1 ,fromentin found his way to ,venice4 ,at the first rumours of war1 however1 he returned precipitately to ,france1 to join his wife and daughter in ,paris and take them to ,saint-,maurice1 his beloved village adjacent to ,la ,rochelle4 ,from ,venice1 he brought back ,the ,grand ,canal and ,the ,breakwater1 two canvases somewhat leaden in tone1 which some critics class in the number of ,fromentin's blunders4 ,the reason may be that they failed to recognize in them the ,venice of their dreams1 the ,venice of tradition1 flamboyant and enchanted4 ,but there is another1 a tranquillized ,venice1 which at times allows her fireworks to burn out4 ,fromentin was not a romantic painter2 it was in their hours of repose that he beheld the ,grand ,canal1 the ,breakwater1 the houses leaning over the water's brink2 and he expressed what he really saw in the midst of a silence that contains a special poetry as well as truth4 ,fromentin exhibited for the last time in the ,salon of #ahgf--two canvases brought back from ,egypt1 ,the ,nile and ,a ,souvenir of ,esneh1 canvases distinguished for their 8cold1 dull colouring1 ranging through a neutral scale of violet lights40 ,the masterpiece of ,fromentin1 the picture in which his qualities of composition1 drawing1 and colour are most clearly revealed1 is1 in the opinion of all artists--who are alone capable of simultaneously appreciating the art and the craftsmanship of a painting--,crossing the ,ford4 ,this picture is now in the possession of ,mme4 ,isaac ,preire4 ,across a canvas measuring little more than two yards1 a group of horsemen are journeying through a waste of sand1 stretching away in long1 pallid dunes1 broken here and there by clumps of sombre growth2 a swarm of women surrounds them1 as light of foot as bees upon the wing4 ,a stream1 bordered on the right by tamarinds with sharp1 narrow leafage1 displays its slender1 mirror-like surface4 ,some of the horses are reserved for the chiefs1 while others are laden with burdens of clothing and provisions4 ,the sky1 partly clear and partly overcast1 occupies the greater portion of the canvas3 in the far distance1 the swelling curve of the horizon conveys a strong impression of infinity and solitude4 ,the central figures are drawn upon a scale hardly exceeding eight inches in height4 ,the horses1 fired with that generous pride which this painter always attributes to them1 seem to know their way even better than their riders4 ,they proceed without haste1 enjoying the gentle breeze stirring fitfully across the vast expanse1 and the time of day1 which is growing late4 ,the colour scheme of the picture is bold and conveys an exquisite savour of gold and gray1 flickering flames vanishing behind the leafage1 as well as along the horizon1 as the dusk shuts down4 ,in this picture1 ,fromentin has produced1 with the simplest and most adaptable resources of his palette1 a work in which1 underneath all the surface charm1 the melancholy which abides in the heart of man1 and above all in the heart of the ,arab1 blends harmoniously with the beauty of the world4 ,,iv4--,,the ,,master3 ,,his ,,personality ,,and ,,his ,,destiny ,one of the masters of to-day1 of a generous and impulsive nature1 who does not wish to be quoted by name1 but whose works may be admired in the ,luxembourg1 consented to give me some information regarding ,fromentin1 whose pupil he once was4 ,i should like1 as a conclusion to this study1 to be able to transcribe literally what he told2 but at least ,i shall draw a pious inspiration from his words4 ,fromentin laid on his colours very thickly4 ,his solid grounds were always most carefully prepared and his composition calculated in advance down to the smallest detail4 ,at the start1 he came under the influence of ,decamps1 ,marilhat1 and more especially ,delacroix1 and in consequence neglected line work1 devoting himself solely to the distribution of colours4 ,delacroix and the romantic school of his time did not interpret ,algeria well1 because they failed to see it well4 ,they saw it through the black holes of windows1 in all the violence of its whites and reds1 in the picturesqueness of its costumes and the long stretches of its dusty streets4 ,but ,fromentin had visited ,italy1 and during his excursions across this museum of diverse aspects he made a special study of the effects of sunshine upon the handiwork of man4 ,it was while still saturated with the brilliance and with the art treasures of ,italy that he first saw the land of ,africa1 or rather that he first conceived the desire to learn to know its secrets4 ,fromentin never put upon his canvases the ,africa of the desert1 in which there is nothing but the white of the burnoose and the gray of the dune1 but ,algeria the ,fair1 ,algeria already civilized4 ,he was enraptured by the sight of it and by the penetrating conception1 full of eager curiosity1 which he had already formed of it4 ,for ,fromentin does not command by the audacity of his colours2 he commands by the charm of his apportionment of light and shadow1 and by the precision of a style which seeks1 irrespective of form1 to show us the soul of people and of things4 ,he sees with the eyes of a poet1 he expresses himself in the manner of a philosopher1 he forces us to reflect4 ,he detests all that is vulgar1 superfluous1 and extravagant4 ,all that pertains to reality has for him a significance1 of which he seeks the cause1 and for which he frequently discovers a definitive expression4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4--,,hunting ,,with ,,the ,,falcon 7,muse du ,louvre7 ,falconry is an episode of ,african life which peculiarly attracted ,fromentin4 ,he has treated it in a number of different pictures1 all equally remarkable4 ,the collection in the ,louvre possesses two3 the one which we give here is distinguished by the cleverness of its composition1 the way in which its component parts are distributed throughout the prospective1 in accordance with the desired effect1 thus lighting up the gray immensity with joyous and violent tints4 ,through his habit of studying the inner workings of the mind of man1 he reached a point1 toward the end of his life1 when he ceased to compose1 even in painting1 any works other than those of a man of letters4 ,the keenest intellectual alertness was always ceaselessly pulsating within him4 ,furthermore1 he made a sort of religious cult of life in all its forms1 even the most humble1 and imbued them with an ennobling charm4 ,and for the purpose of understanding the psychology of a race which enwraps itself jealously in a pride of attitude1 the works of ,fromentin offer testimony that bears the stamp of rare sincerity and clear-sighted sympathy4 ,his mind never wastes time over the eccentricities of a tribe or a people1 but bends its whole effort to gathering up1 through a choice of typical details1 the general idea1 the embodiment of a human group4 ,fromentin knew1 better than anyone else1 how great his lack was of elementary training in painting4 ,he knew that no natural gift can replace those initial steps in craftsmanship in any and all forms of production1 and that works which are truly beautiful and worthy of being held in honour through the centuries obtain their right to live solely from having obeyed the laws of order and of clearness4 ,these laws1 as related to pictorial art1 are taught in the studio and the school4 ,a naturally gifted artist may undoubtedly evolve1 out of his own personal inspiration1 an amusing or interesting work2 but that work1 if not constructed according to the syntactic rules peculiar to his art1 will have merely an ephemeral charm1 like the costly baubles of a passing fashion4 ,what proves the necessity of rules of technique is that the masters themselves have not been contented with the possession of genius or talent alone4 ,they have learned their craft down to its profoundest secrets2 and the greatest of these masters are the ones who have succeeded best in practising the methods transmitted by past experience1 and have even in their turn discovered new laws4 ,how many times1 with touching modesty1 ,fromentin deplored his total lack of the essential studies of apprenticeship6 ,beneath the colour of forms and objects1 he grasped the course and movement of life4 ,but his restless hands did not succeed completely1 to his own satisfaction1 in transferring them to his canvas4 ,nevertheless1 his pictures1 because imbued with an emotion1 the contagion of which was communicated to their colours1 far from resembling1 as so many others do1 a sort of clever and inert photograph1 are evocations1 and often magnificent ones1 of some historic hour1 of the destiny of a race1 or the soul of a landscape4 ,under the influence of the romantic school1 as ,i have already said1 ,fromentin's brush sought at first chiefly to dazzle4 ,but one day he awoke to a comprehension of ,corot4 ,the inward emotion which he underwent affected him like the discovery of a new light4 ,a transformation followed rapidly1 not in his ability to feel1 but in his fashion of reproducing what he felt4 ,yielding joyfully to the authority of ,corot1 he began to make use of gray1 and before long it became his dominant tone4 ,like a frail cloud interspersed with invisible rays of red and azure1 enveloping the atmosphere of his scenes and characters1 and blending into his minutely wrought skies1 this gray of his1 which borrowed something of its hue from each of the primary colours1 pleased him by the very discreetness of its opulence4 ,discreetness is one of the hallmarks of refinement2 and ,fromentin was nothing1 if not refined1 in his manners1 his thoughts1 and his speech4 8,just as his painting was never heavy and his writing never dull10 says ,emile ,montgut1 8his physical build was slender1 graceful1 delicate2 yet his slenderness was in no way weakness1 nor his delicacy affectation4 ,no objectionable professional mannerism proclaimed the craft he practised2 still less did he ape the manners of the man of fashion1 in order to hide the fact that he was a man of toil4 ,with all his frankness1 he had the good taste to refrain from betraying his intimate personality to the world at large40 ,it was precisely this use which he made of gray that enabled him1 by its play of half-tones1 to explore the mystery of souls4 ,and quite unconsciously he revealed his own1 a noble soul1 enamoured of all that is great and eternal in civilization and in life4 ,when face to face with an actual scene1 he frequently gave up the attempt to transfer it with his brush4 ,it was not until much later1 after long reflection over the material conditions of a scene whose beauty had delighted his eye1 that he was ready to begin work4 ,consequently there are other artists who have more accurately rendered the colour of this ,african land3 there are1 for instance1 ,guillaumet and ,regnault4 ,with a somewhat austere1 yet precise1 touch1 after the fashion of an extremely well-informed commentator rather than a deeply moved poet1 ,guillaumet shows us1 in all their picturesque authenticity1 the history and architecture of buildings ravaged by the sun1 and outlined against them the stately silhouettes of ,arabs to whom silence appears to be a sort of religious rite4 ,yet the sublime poetry of the desert has also touched his painter's heart in ,the ,evening ,meal1 now in the collection in the ,luxembourg2 the thin blue smoke1 melting away into the calm atmosphere1 is typical of the immobility of the ,sahara1 the sullen oppressiveness of daytime amid the sands4 ,henri ,regnault1 in works that are scarcely more than sketches and have never been exhibited1 transcribed1 with all the ardour of his age1 during too brief a sojourn in ,morocco1 the symphony of divine colours which exhales from the soil of ,africa and from its sky1 that burns like living coals4 ,fromentin did not always dare to undertake to paint his own conceptions4 ,his timidity is betrayed by the very modesty of his canvases1 which scarcely exceed two yards4 ,nevertheless1 the painter whom he loved the most was ,rubens3 ,rubens1 the prodigal dispenser of light1 who poured his inexhaustible and gorgeous imaginings1 like the waters of a mighty river1 over canvases without number4 ,fromentin did not find it easy to give forth the treasures of his brain1 excepting through the medium of writing4 ,he delighted in sumptuousness1 and he found it in ,rubens1 whom he eulogized1 in his ,masters of ,yesterday1 in a truly lyric strain4 ,he did not understand ,rembrandt and despaired of ever understanding him4 ,he studied him constantly1 with a sort of impatience1 striving to glimpse1 through his veils of half-shadows1 the spirit of a genius who was too alien in nature1 country1 and race4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4--,a ,,halt ,,at ,,an ,,oasis 7,muse du ,louvre7 ,the weary caravan has halted1 tempted by the verdure of the oasis4 ,faithful to his manner1 ,fromentin has taken advantage of this picturesque scene to throw a harmony of colour and light over the men and their surroundings4 ,in all its simplicity1 this picture is one of its author's happiest efforts1 because of the impression of life which emanates from this group1 relatively so few in number4 ,among ,fromentin's pupils was ,cormon1 an intractable pupil with a marked individuality2 yet while he ignored his professional authority1 he always proclaimed him1 and with real feeling1 the most intelligent of masters and the most loyal of men4 ,fromentin did not exactly conduct a regular art-school4 ,he had gathered around him seven or eight young artists1 in whom he foresaw a prosperous future3 ,gervex1 extremely brilliant1 ,thirion1 the most temperamental of them all1 ,lhermitte and ,humbert1 who was the master's favourite4 ,fromentin saw in ,humbert a second self1 more fortunate in having a chance to learn at the outset the indispensable rules of his craft1 and therefore capable later on of achieving works which he himself could never carry out4 ,without effort1 he won the adoration of his pupils4 ,with an eloquence which came from his heart quite as much as from his brain1 he preached to them the doctrine of sincere labour1 of disinterested ideals1 and of reverence for the past because it has produced the present4 ,he had a combative spirit4 ,he never hesitated to express his opinion about works or about men1 since the nobility of his character forbade that he should be suspected of maliciousness or envy4 ,certain works of his time1 that are still discussed and that our own age has consecrated1 were displeasing to him3 ,millet's1 for example4 ,he professed a profound esteem for the man1 but he did not admit the technical value of the artist nor the importance of his ideas4 ,for a long time ,fromentin's rank as a painter was disputed4 ,he proceeded peaceably on his way toward fortune and glory4 ,his literary successes confirmed and enhanced his triumphs as a painter4 ,through his books his pictures became known and admired by the general public4 ,in #ahei1 he obtained a ,first ,class ,medal and the ,cross of the ,legion of ,honor4 ,the emperor1 ,napoleon ,,iii41 invited him to ,compigne4 ,in #ahfi1 his election as ,officer of the ,legion of ,honor followed upon his exhibition of the ,fantasia in ,algeria and ,the ,halt of the ,muleteers4 ,in #ahfh1 he exhibited a very strange and disconcerting picture3 ,male and ,female ,centaurs practising at ,archery4 ,he wished to show by means of this work1 which evoked much comment and criticism1 that 8the equestrian statue is the last word in human statuary40 8,mingle10 he wrote1 8man and horse1 give to the rest of the body the combined attributes of alertness and vigour1 and you have a being which is supremely strong1 thinking and acting1 brave and swift1 free1 and yet docile40 ,fromentin's aristocratic instincts extended from men to things1 and even to animals4 ,it was he who in a certain sense discovered the horse1 the ,arab horse1 fine and free1 poet of the desert and the sun quite as much as his master4 ,when ,fromentin shows him to us with his long silvery tail and his mane quivering like waves1 one would say that in the swift flight of his course the artist had lent him wings4 8,nevertheless10 writes one critic1 8in spite of his intimate acquaintance with the form and the varied coat of the ,arab horse1 it is perhaps in the little inaccuracies of his drawing of this animal that ,fromentin betrays most obviously the defectiveness of his early studies40 ,what a pity1 let us say once again1 that he lacked the time to acquire1 while still young1 that power and technique in painting which he possessed in literature6 ,each one of his volumes evoked an outburst of admiration and sympathy4 ,he wrote only when he had something definite to say4 ,his novel1 ,dominique1 fired with the spirit of youth1 burning with love and sorrow1 was1 from the date of its publication1 in #ahfb1 in the ,revue des ,deux ,mondes1 hailed as a masterpiece4 ,not everywhere1 however4 ,the poets alone1 the born writers1 those in whom the habit of psychology and criticism had not extinguished that personal flame which burns within the heart1 ,sainte-,beuve1 for example1 and ,george ,sand1 recognized it as a work of genius4 ,it was much discussed and even disparaged1 by professional writers and critics1 even in the ,revue des ,deux ,mondes itself4 ,emile ,montgut1 who combined absolute frankness with a wide range of knowledge and keen understanding1 while not disputing the literary value of ,dominique1 did not hesitate to affirm that the book was not a novel1 but a series of faultily composed scenes and descriptions1 confessions1 and memories4 ,at first1 and for some time afterward1 the public seemed to ratify this opinion4 ,the volume1 issued by ,hachette1 was bought only at rare intervals and out of curiosity4 ,later1 after this initial failure1 it took a fresh start1 and to-day is a recognized classic4 ,for1 while it is true that this prose poem is lacking in intrigue and that its characters are somewhat overwhelmed by the floods of light from its stage-settings1 it diffuses such a redolence of the soil teeming with life1 such a fragrance of warm and pure tenderness1 that every sensitive and ardent soul delights to yield itself to the harmonious flow of its words and colours4 ,the ,masters of ,yesterday has become a breviary for painters who are studying the ,flemish and ,dutch schools4 8,the ,fromentin revealed in ,the ,masters of ,yesterday0 asserts ,emile ,montgut1 8is a second ,taine1 minus the defects for which the latter is reproached1 and minus that sort of harshness which comes from the exclusive use of crude colours and a disdain of half-tones4 ,there is also this further difference between them3 that ,taine puts his battalions of ideas and facts through their manoeuvres with the imperiousness of a general-in-chief commanding an action1 while ,fromentin assembles and reviews his own with the ease of an orchestra leader directing the instruments under his orders by the simple gesture of his bow4444 ,just one word is applicable1 in point of strict definition1 to the temperament and talent of ,fromentin3 that word is perfection4 ,he strove for it all his life4 ,he deserves to be called the classic of that type of picturesque literature1 whose ambition1 at the outset1 looked toward a very different goal from that of gaining this title1 and whose enterprises and audacities the classic school of art could not1 as a matter of fact1 have beheld without alarm40 ,this book is1 without doubt1 ,fromentin's best4 ,for1 while the majority of art critics are merely amateurs posing as craftsmen and judges1 he knew quite well whereof he spoke4 ,while he understood as well as the others1 and even better1 an author's purpose1 he could also see of what material and by what means the work of this same artist was composed4 ,he was not a dilettante1 endowed with a greater or less amount of taste1 but a fellow craftsman1 who knew how to mix his own colours and to analyze the palette of another4 ,his literary works entitled him to a seat in the ,acadmie ,franaise considerably sooner than he could have dreamed of the ,acadmie des ,beaux-,arts4 ,as a matter of fact1 in #ahgd1 he offered himself1 at the urgent entreaty of his friends1 as a candidate for the ,acadmie ,franaise1 quite suddenly and when it was already too late to bring any influence to bear1 while solemn pledges had already been secured by his competitors4 ,in spite of this1 the weight of his name secured him thirteen or fourteen votes4 ,he was preparing a volume of critical studies on the ,french school and planning another on the ,italian school1 when death abruptly cut him short1 at the age of fifty-five1 in the midst of a steady ascension into the light of fame4 ,it was a misfortune for ,france4 ,in the beauty of his character1 as lofty as that of his genius1 he offered an example of the most precious qualities of man and artist3 uprightness1 charity1 good taste in what he admired1 and sincerity in what he tried to do4 ,the name of ,eugne ,fromentin grows greater day by day2 clouds may pass before him1 as before a star1 but without ever effacing him4