Old world masters in new world collections

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

The delightful painting, which is signed, came to its present owner from the J. P. Morgan Collection.

L’INVOCATION À L’AMOUR.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

The picture (31¾ × 25 inches) came directly from the de la Fare family to its present owner.

THE FOUNTAIN IN THE PARK.

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.

Hubert Robert plays on two themes: one, the ruins of antiquity—especially Rome—and the other, garden-scenes. In fact, his success with ruins as subject-matter gave him the sobriquet of “Robert des Ruines.” Hubert Robert was born in Paris in 1733 and after some preliminary art education went to Rome in 1754, where he studied for eleven years, devoting himself almost exclusively to antiquities. On his return to Paris he was made a member of the Academy and his pictures brought him instant fame. He lived in the studios in the Louvre until the outbreak of the Revolution, when he was imprisoned for ten months; but during this time he painted and produced a Taking of the Prisoners by Torchlight in Open Carts from St. Pélagie to St. Lazare. He was lucky in his release, which occurred through the mistake of the jailer, who sent another prisoner of the same name to the guillotine. Hubert Robert died in Paris on April 15, 1808. Equal to his reputation as a painter was his reputation as a landscape-gardener. He was the successor of Le Nôtre, whose style had given place to the Anglo-Chinese gardens. Hubert Robert, as architect of the King’s Gardens, designed the Baths of Apollo in the Park of Versailles in 1784, and he laid out the very famous grounds of Mézéville near Étampes-in-Beauce, in which work Joseph Vernet was associated.

The distinguished picture shown here (57½ × 39 inches) from the Collection of M. S. Bardac, Paris, presents the artist also as a garden-lover. All the poetry produced by a tossing stream of spray among green trees is expressed here.

“Hubert Robert,” writes Henri Frantz, “is one of those who, brought back into fashion by the de Goncourts and their generation, enjoy a reputation increasing every day; and thus drawings in red chalk or in water-colors which one might easily have picked up years ago in the boxes of the petty dealers of Paris or of Rome are found to-day in museums and in the most celebrated Collections and fetch the highest prices in European sales. Moreover, Hubert Robert did not go out of fashion till the commencement of the Nineteenth Century and no artist was fêted and admired by his contemporaries more than he.”

Hubert Robert has again become the fashion.

MADAME LABILLE-GUIARD AND TWO PUPILS.

Here we have a picture painted in the grand style, a beautiful composition, a marvellous expression of technique, and a portrait-group including a self-portrait of the artist.

Madame Labille-Guiard, a handsome women of dashing style, is seated before her easel busy at work, wearing a very handsome costume and not one exactly appropriate to working in a studio. However, the painter being as delightfully feminine in her tastes as she was masculine in her artistic performance, has the vanity of her sex to wish to be perpetuated in rich and fashionable attire,—comme il faut in every respect.

The two young ladies, who are observing the work of Madame Labille-Guiard are her favorite pupils, Mesdemoiselles Capet and Rosemond.

Madame Labille-Guiard’s dress is blue-grey satin with lace at neck and sleeves and hat of golden straw with blue-grey ostrich feathers matching the dress. The chair in which the artist is seated is upholstered in green velvet. The pupil in front wears a dark brown dress. Most beautifully is painted the diaphanous ruffle at her elbow.

The picture of large dimensions (82½ × 60 inches) is signed and dated 1785 and was exhibited at the Salon in that year. From the Collection of Madame Griois, a descendant of the artist, the painting came to its present owner, Mr. Edward J. Berwind.

Adélaïde Labille-des-Vertus was born in Paris, April 11, 1749. She studied art under François Élie Vincent, a clever miniature-painter and afterward under Latour. She married twice: first, the sculptor Guiard, and, after his death, François André Vincent, the son of her former teacher, himself a capable painter and etcher. Madame Labille-Guiard became an Académicien in 1783 at the same time with Madame Vigée Lebrun. She painted a great number of large oil-portraits and miniatures, and in 1787 and 1789 attracted attention by her portraits of the King’s daughters, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire. She also painted a large picture for Monsieur (afterwards Louis XVIII), called the Initiation of a Knight of Malta, which was finished at the outbreak of the Revolution; but which was destroyed. Madame Labille-Guiard died in Paris on Floréal 4, An XI. de la République, or April 8, 1803.