ART’S DEBT TO FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 151, 22 March 1939, Page 9

ART’S DEBT TO FRANCE

Civilizing Influence ITALK BY MR. A. D. CARBERY ‘•The spirit of France has been one of the main civilizing forces in European history,” said Mr. A. D. Carbery in an address in the National Art Gallery, Wellington, last night on “French Schools of Painting from Poussin to .the Impressionists.” In his address he made reference to facsimilies now on exhibition in the gallery. “During the seventeenth century the French decorative arts set the modes for all countries,” he said. “Since the middle of the nineteenth century Paris has displaced Home as the cosmopolitan school for art for the whole world. Right back in the middle ages there were artists and craftsmen of ability in France. The cathedrals of Rheims, Chartres and Amiens are treasure houses of me’iaeval art, but the painters of those days were usually Flemings or Italians. The pieta, or altar piece from the church of Villaneuve-les-Avignon, painted in 1470, and one of our finest reproductions, is by an unknown master. The Clouets, whose portraits rival those of Holbein, came to France (from Bruxelles under Francis I. The portrait of Elizabeth of Austria, by Francis Clouet, the son of John, is admirably reproduced. This young wife of Charles IX lived through the horrors of the St. Bartholomew massacre. “French painting is said to begin with Poussin,” said Mr. Carbery. “Our reproduction of ‘The Return of Flora’ is delightfully fresh and graceful. The classical tradition was followed by Poussin. He lived most of his life in Italy and died in Rome. Claude Lorraine was his contemporary, but we have no reproduction by this fine landscape painter, who inspired our own Turner. During the lifetime of these French artists the Dutch school of painting arose and Van Dyck and Velasquez gained celebrity and immortality. “Deliciously Frivolous.”

“The eighteenth century of France was said to be the age of reason, but iu painting it was the most deliciously frivolous of all time. A picture by Watteau, ‘Children Dancing’ is a faithful reproduction, and a self portrait of Chaudin makes up for the absence of this painter’s admirable works. Boucher and Fragonard carry on the traditional but lapse into the sensuous vein, in accord with the boudoir spirit of the times. Boucher’s portrait of the Pompadour is well produced, if a little on the small side, and Fragonard, a very much better artist, has but a poor showing in ‘The Stolen Kiss.’ The reproductions of Corot here represents the romantic period, and do him justice, specially in his figure subject. His landscape ‘The Bent Tree,’ so sweetly romantie, made an appropriate background to the ballet ‘Les Sylphides,’ but much' of Corot’s work is mere scene painting. “Edouard Manet is said to be the founder of all contemporary painting,” said Mr. Carbery. His ‘Dejeuner a (’Here.’ rejected by the Salon in 1863, was realism with a vengeance? Ours is an admirable reproduction. The impressionists’ group, Claude Monet, Camille Pisarro, and Alfred Sissley, Were at first all adherents of Manet. They learnt his realistic methods of painting, but they became convinced that unless they painted their pictures completely in the open air they could not represent light faithfully. Their pictures have, unfortunately, darkened with time, and do not reproduce well. The water-lily pond by Claude Monet, painted in his old age, is our best reproduction, though those after Pisarro are brilliant, and give possibly a good account of the original. “Post impressionism forms the last act in the drama of French painting. Our study of the French schools of painting again emphasizes how much art owes to France. All contemporary work acknowledges the debt.”