// ppgen source henner-src.txt for Henner
// last edit: 08-Oct-2014
.dt The Project Gutenberg eBook of Henner, by Fr. Crastre
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Transcriber's Note:
On some devices, clicking an illustration will display it in a larger, higher-quality format.
Additional transcriber's notes are at the #end of the book:backtn#.
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MASTERPIECES
IN COLOUR
EDITED BY--
M. HENRY ROUJON
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HENNER
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(1829-1905)
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IN THE SAME SERIES
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REYNOLDS |LE BRUN
VELASQUEZ |CHARDIN
GREUZE |MILLET
TURNER |RAEBURN
BOTTICELLI |SARGENT
ROMNEY |CONSTABLE
REMBRANDT |MEMLING
BELLINI |FRAGONARD
FRA ANGELICO|DÜRER
ROSSETTI |LAWRENCE
RAPHAEL |HOGARTH
LEIGHTON |WATTEAU
HOLMAN HUNT |MURILLO
TITIAN |WATTS
MILLAIS |INGRES
LUINI |COROT
FRANZ HALS |DELACROIX
CARLO DOLCI |FRA LIPPO LIPPI
GAINSBOROUGH|PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
TINTORETTO |MEISSONIER
VAN DYCK |GÉRÔME
DA VINCI |VERONESE
WHISTLER |VAN EYCK
RUBENS |FROMENTIN
BOUCHER |MANTEGNA
HOLBEIN |PERUGINO
BURNE-JONES |ROSA BONHEUR
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PLATE I.--THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE BLUE RIBBON
(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
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This little portrait, charmingly delicate and delightful in colouring,
belongs to the first period of the painter's life. None the less,
it is remarkable in execution and in truth.
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PLATE I.--THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE BLUE RIBBON
(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
This little portrait, charmingly delicate and delightful in colouring,
belongs to the first period of the painter's life. None the less,
it is remarkable in execution and in truth.
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HENNER
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BY FR. CRASTRE
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER
ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT
REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR
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[Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.]
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FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
NEW YORK--PUBLISHERS
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COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
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Printed in the United States of America
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CONTENTS
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|Page
The First Years |#18:ch01#
The Arrival at Paris |#29:ch02#
The Years in Rome |#37:ch03#
The Works of Henner |#44:ch04#
The Portrait Painter |#72:ch05#
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
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Plate||
I.| The Little Girl with the Blue Ribbon |#Frontispiece:plate1#
|Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts |
II.| The Reclining Nymph |#14:plate2#
|Luxembourg Museum |
III.| Portrait of Mlle. L |#24:plate3#
|Luxembourg Museum |
IV.| The Little Writer |#34:plate4#
|Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts |
V.| Bara |#40:plate5#
|Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts |
VI.| The Comtesse Diana |#50:plate6#
|Luxembourg Museum |
VII.| The Naiad |#60:plate7#
|Luxembourg Museum |
VIII.| The Magdalen with the Crucifix |#70:plate8#
|Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts |
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.ca Line drawing of Henner
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There is no one who has not chanced, sooner
or later, to pass the window of some picture
dealer and find himself irresistibly attracted by a
canvas forming a patch of fluid gold, a luminous
vapour bathing the white body of a woman, white
with that rich, warm whiteness that reveals, through
the transparency of the skin, the inner flame, the
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bounding blood, the pulsing life. Such a picture was
a Henner. And when you have come into contact,
if only for once, with a work by this incomparable
artist, the effect is lasting; you recognize any and
all of his works at the first glance, just as you recognize
a friend in the street, even before he is near
enough for you to distinguish his features. So personal
is Henner's manner, and so original his product,
that it is impossible to confound him with any
other painter, just as no other painter has ever been
able or even attempted to imitate a type of which he
alone possessed the magic secret. Although the tomb
has barely closed above him, Henner has already
entered upon his heritage of glory. Or should we
not rather say that he had entered upon it during
life, and that the unanimity of admiration which
always followed him was in the nature of a definitive
judgment, which posterity has nothing left to
do but ratify? Among the most illustrious of our
modern painters, Henner is the one who possesses
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to the highest degree the art of imprisoning light,
of playing with it, of making it vibrate, of using
it to illumine the most profound woodland shades,
or to set it palpitating over feminine flesh. We
must not seek within our own times for any other
with whom to compare him; for this we must
look backward, far backward, to the period of
that glorious Venetian school of which he seems
to be a direct product. From Giorgione he derives
his warm and living flesh tints; it would
seem that Titian had bequeathed to him his profound
and powerful mastery of colour; and if
Correggio could see the Nymphs and Bathing
Women of Henner, he would certainly recognize
in them that same velvety delicacy and vaporous
lightness with which he himself was wont to envelop
his female forms.
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PLATE II.--RECLINING NYMPH
(Luxembourg Museum)
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In accordance with Henner's favourite formula, the dazzling whiteness
of the nymph's body acquires an astonishing relief through
contrast with the sombre verdure, yet even the very shadows are
penetrated by a warm and vibrant light.
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PLATE II.--RECLINING NYMPH
(Luxembourg Museum)
In accordance with Henner's favourite formula, the dazzling whiteness
of the nymph's body acquires an astonishing relief through
contrast with the sombre verdure, yet even the very shadows are
penetrated by a warm and vibrant light.
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For Henner was, above all else, a painter of
women. "It was in the female form that he
sought and found perfect Beauty, complete, indisputable,
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and undisputed, a victorious, compelling
Beauty that silences all criticism, all indecision by
its multifold splendour, the infinite variety of its
complex forms, a Beauty embodied in contrast,
harmony, charm, freshness, and grace, but with
no element of the merely pretty or fantastic."
Henner's women are without affectation, or morbidness,
or coquetry, or pretence. They are tall,
strong, supple, stately, superb, like the antique type
itself. Their beauty is without a flaw. Their flesh
is steeped in light, their hair a tissue of living
radiance. Such is the clue to their irresistible
seductiveness.
It has been said of Henner that he was the painter
of blondes. He was more especially the painter of
the red-blonde type, for the reason that light, falling
upon the ruddy glint of their tresses, awakens flame-like
reflections and emphasizes the satiny grain of
their skin. This tawny, golden sheen is the most
alive, the most vibrant, yet the most unobtrusive of
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all, and consequently the most harmonious and the
most beautiful. But Henner also painted brunettes
with an incomparable mastery; to be convinced of
this, one needs only to refer to any of the innumerable
portraits of dark-haired women that
have come from his brush, notably those of Mme.
Noetzlin, of Mme. Duchesne-Fournes, of the Comtesse
de Jacquemont, and that of Mme. Karakehia
which produced such a marked sensation in the
Salon of 1876.
While adhering to his own strongly personal manner,
Henner nevertheless experimented in the most
diverse types of painting, as we shall see in the course
of the present study, and he was excellent in all of
them, because he brought to them all those masterly
qualities which make the greatness of a painter:
impeccable line-work, a powerful command of colour,
and a perfect knowledge of his art acquired through
the constant pursuit of beauty and of truth.
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THE FIRST YEARS
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Jean-Jacques Henner was born, on the 15th of
March, 1829, in the village of Bernwiller, not far
from Belfort, on the confines of Alsace.
This origin explains the strongly personal character
of his talent. Offspring as he was of a land that
once was German,--and that, alas, has once again
become so, after having been impregnated for several
centuries with the refinement and the good taste of
France,--Henner unites in himself the dominant
qualities of both races: from Germany he derives
his laborious energy, his tenacity, his spirit of research,
his poetic dreaminess; to the French imprint
he owes the delicacy, the good taste, the grace, the
subtlety, the careful weighing of effects, that distinguish
all his work.
Jean-Jacques Henner was the youngest child of
a numerous family. His parents were modest tillers
of the soil, who nevertheless had won the general
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esteem of the neighbourhood. Of little education,
but honest and industrious, Henner's father was
rewarded for his integrity and blameless life by being
appointed to the office of village tax collector. With
as little learning as her husband, his mother possessed
a dreamy spirit and a very keen intelligence.
It was she who first discerned in the thoughtful and
rather backward boy the germs of his future talent;
it was also she who encouraged and sustained him
with her wise affection when the first promise of his
future talent was revealed.
His vocation manifested itself at an early age.
Little Jean-Jacques could barely read when he had
already begun to adorn the walls with charcoal figures
that "fairly stood on their feet," and proved that
the child possessed a precocious power of observation.
In some of these sketches it was easy to recognize
certain frequent visitors to the house, friends
and neighbours; and the good-hearted villagers used
to come and admire these attempts. Quite surprised
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at these proclivities, his father, instead of interfering
with the boy's natural bent, did his best to encourage
it. Being unable to provide him with a drawing-master,--and
for that matter the child was still
too young,--he supplied him with models, in the
shape of the familiar Epinal coloured prints which
little Jean-Jacques tried to reproduce to the best
of his ability. It certainly was not through the aid
of these naïve and rudimentary essays in colour work
that Henner learned the art of drawing, but they
at least served to strengthen his desire to learn, and
gave him facility in handling his pencil.
The father of little Jean-Jacques served him as
best he could; it was he who laid the corner-stone
of his son's future glory. In that humble household,
where each member had his appointed task, from the
father down to the frailest child, Jean-Jacques was
the only one who took no part in the labour of the
fields; he was exempted in order to continue his
education and develop his taste for drawing.
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Even the neighbours, astonished at his precocity,
aided him as best they could. One brought paper,
another an old picture, another some prints found
in an out-of-the-way corner of the house, still another
a supply of paints. Thus equipped, the child worked
with unflagging zeal, undertook to learn the use of
colours, and in order to repay his benefactors, he
made portraits of them, which are still preserved in
those Alsatian households and which already reveal,
in more than one of those likenesses that he always
caught so well, the first germs of those qualities of
a great portrait painter, such as he was one day
destined to become.
"You will be a great artist," his father used to
say, as he kissed him; for the good man foresaw,
almost by divination, the glorious destiny that awaited
his son. And addressing his other sons, all of them
older than little Jean-Jacques, and all of them destined
to pass their days in the hard labour of tilling the
soil, he told them:
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"When I am no longer here, I commend your
brother to you. Aid him and sustain him. Help
him to achieve his career. You will be repaid for
it; this I promise you, in the name of the good God."
The brothers carried out piously and to the letter
these commands of their father; while Henner, for
his part, promised himself to fulfil his share of the
bargain. He never forgot what he owed to his older
brothers; and he paid them back a hundredfold for
all the benefits that he had received.
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PLATE III.--PORTRAIT OF MLLE. L.
(Luxembourg Museum)
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This is one of the most curious portraits painted by the artist inasmuch
as it attains a maximum of perfection in spite of a combination
of the most unfavourable possible means. Notwithstanding
the sombre garments that barely stand out against the dull blue
background, the face reveals an extraordinary intensity of life.
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PLATE III.--PORTRAIT OF MLLE. L.
(Luxembourg Museum)
This is one of the most curious portraits painted by the artist inasmuch
as it attains a maximum of perfection in spite of a combination
of the most unfavourable possible means. Notwithstanding
the sombre garments that barely stand out against the dull blue
background, the face reveals an extraordinary intensity of life.
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At the age of seven, young Henner was required
to go to church every day for the purpose of learning
his catechism. In the chapel where the good
curé of Bernwiller expounded the doctrine, there
happened to be a picture representing St. Sebastian.
This picture attracted the attention of the child
irresistibly and was the cause of many moments of
inattention which brought upon him the paternal
rebukes of the priest. It was wasted severity. Little
Jean-Jacques had eyes for nothing else than the
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saint, whose widely gaping shirt revealed the muscular
throat and hairy chest; and he continued to stare
at their robust anatomy which so strongly resembled
that of the peasants whom he saw all about him in
the village.
By a singular coincidence, this painting in by-gone
days once reposed for quite a long time in the home
of his grandfather, where Henner himself was born.
An architect named Kléber, and destined to become
later a famous general, was occupied in building the
parish house in one of the neighbouring villages to
Bernwiller. Coming by chance to Bernwiller, he
saw the painting of St. Sebastian, which he found
had been greatly impaired by age. He took steps
to obtain its restoration and, while waiting for the
appointed artist to arrive from Strassburg, he had it
transferred to the house of Henner's grandfather. It
was there that the artist from Strassburg repaired
the painting, and it would almost seem as though
there were some sort of obscure connection between
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this fact and the powerful impression which the picture
produced upon the mind of little Jean-Jacques,
and as though it were a sort of secret bond between
the glory of the great warrior and that of the great
painter.
A little later, young Henner was sent to attend
school at Altkirch. Not however in the capacity of
a boarding pupil, for the family did not have the
means. Every day he had to cover on foot the two
hours' journey, in order to reach school, and the same
to return. But the child possessed the sacred fire:
the kilometres seemed to him no more than a pleasant
walk.
As good luck would have it, the school at Altkirch
possessed a drawing-master, named Goutzwiller, an
artist of real talent. He quickly divined the possibilities
of his new pupil, encouraged him, grounded
him, and became a true friend and, in a certain sense,
a second father to him.
After three years of study at this school, Henner
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left Altkirch, in accordance with M. Goutzwiller's
advice, in order to go to Strassburg, where he entered
the studio of the artist, Guérin. Here it was that
he exchanged the pencil for the brush. From his
first attempts he manifested a pronounced taste for
oppositions of shadow and light, the latter acquiring
greater vigour by force of contrast. Henner's first
attempt at Strassburg was a copy of Heim's Shepherd,
the original of which was burned in 1870, at
the time of the fire resulting from the bombardment.
But the copy remains, and bears witness to the
painter's early love for sombre backgrounds, shot
through with shimmerings of light.
During his vacations, which were passed at Bernwiller,
Henner paid numerous visits to Basle and to
Colmar, where he went for the purpose of studying
the old German masters, Holbein, Schongauer, and
Dürer. Holbein especially delighted and inspired
him: he loved his honest, firm, frank line-work, no
less than he appreciated the spirit of poetry with
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which the early master imbued all his models. What
a schooling for a painter really enamoured of his
art! In this ardent study of Holbein, Henner confirmed
the opinion, that had already taken shape
in his mind, that there is no good painting where
there is not good drawing, and that no one has the
right to claim to be a painter if he cannot lay his
colours upon a solidly built foundation. The craftsman
must always precede the artist.
In the case of Henner, at this time, the craftsmanship
was perfect; nothing remained but to open
a career for the artist. The young painter had faith,
courage, and ambition; he dreamed of continuing
his studies, of perfecting himself, of having other
teachers. But these teachers were precisely what
Strassburg could not furnish; and Paris, the great
city, the centre of learning and of art, Paris was not
far distant. What joy, if he could only go there!
At this juncture, Guérin died. Having lost his master,
Henner had nothing else to detain him in
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Strassburg. Accordingly, he put his trust in Providence,
and, with his heart pulsing with hope, started
on his way to the capital.
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HIS ARRIVAL IN PARIS
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Henner arrived in Paris, light of purse but full
of courage. He presented himself at the studio of
Drolling, a compatriot, where he proceeded to toil
like a galley-slave. In order to subsist, he gleaned
here and there a little something by painting portraits;
but, alas, these were rare and wretchedly
underpaid! They by no means brought him a living;
he experienced the keenest privations, and
before long was unable to pay his monthly contribution
of twenty francs towards the rental of the
studio. What was he to do? Drolling was an artist
with a big heart, and he loved his young pupil: Henner
had only to confide in him, but he was too proud to
admit his poverty. Should he appeal to his brothers?
He did not even dream of doing so, for he knew how
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hard they found it, back there at home, to make
both ends meet, even though they turned and returned
the natal soil without respite. Accordingly, he chose
the heroic part of returning to Alsace. There he
passed the next two years, painting portraits and depriving
himself even of necessities in order to economize
and save up a fund. When his savings seemed
to him sufficiently large, he set forth once more for
Paris and returned to Drolling. The latter was
stupefied at the progress Henner had made.
"But why," he demanded, "why did you leave
the studio like that, without a word of warning?"
Hereupon Henner confessed the cause for his departure;
and on hearing his story, the tears rose up
in the kind old artist's eyes, while at the same time
he grew red with anger:
"People don't do such things," he said, "and
they don't show false pride when they have a talent
like yours; but instead, they compete for the Prix
de Rome, and they win it!"
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The Prix de Rome! A dream, which perhaps
Henner had already vaguely glimpsed, but the
realization of which seemed to him at that time
too audacious and chimerical! That he, the little
painter from Alsace, friendless and unknown, might
obtain this supreme distinction which proclaims a
talent! He did not dare to believe it, and yet his
old master, Drolling, was an authority in art and
not prodigal of his praise. Drolling did even better
than encourage Henner, he made use of his friendship
with the prefect of the department of the
Lower Rhine to obtain an annuity for him. At
the request of this official, the general council of
the department granted Jean-Jacques Henner an
annual pension of five hundred francs. This was
very little, no doubt, but at least it meant his
daily bread!
Henner never had the pleasure of thanking Drolling;
a rapid illness ended the life of the aged master
in a few days, before the matter in question had
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been adjusted; but the young artist always retained
a grateful memory of him.
While awaiting the Prix de Rome, it was necessary
to earn a living: for, as may easily be imagined,
the meagre subsidy of five hundred francs could not
suffice for all of Henner's needs. He had the good
luck to make the acquaintance of a painter who
worked mainly for Americans. He was a portrait
painter and possessed a numerous clientèle from
Yankee-land. As he could not keep up with the
demand single-handed, he made a proposition to
Henner that the latter should paint the coats, cravats,
and linen of his "puppet-show," as he called them,
reserving for himself the task of putting in the faces,
mistrusting, no doubt, the competence of his collaborator.
However humble the work, Henner accepted
gratefully, for it enabled him to better his lot, to put
aside a reserve fund, and even to come to the aid of
the family left at home.
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PLATE IV.--THE LITTLE WRITER
(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
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This unkempt but earnest little worker, diligently bending over
his copy-book, is a portrait of the artist's own nephew. This picture
for a long time adorned the wall of his studio in the Place
Pigalle.
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PLATE IV.--THE LITTLE WRITER
(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
This unkempt but earnest little worker, diligently bending over
his copy-book, is a portrait of the artist's own nephew. This picture
for a long time adorned the wall of his studio in the Place
Pigalle.
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Shortly afterwards, he won a medal from the École
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des Beaux-Arts, which gave him the right of free
admission to the studio of the artist Picot.
Henner was at this time twenty-seven years
of age. He felt that he was now ready to enter
the lists for the Prix de Rome. Boldly he set
himself to his task. The subject assigned was as
follows: Adam and Eve Discovering the Body of Abel.
Henner's conception of the subject was admirable.
Abel stretched at length under the shadow of dense
foliage, and beside him, on her knees and heart-broken
with grief, Eve suffers the terrible blow of
divine malediction, while Adam, standing petrified
with horror, seems not yet to have realized the immensity
of his loss.
In this painting, the manner which is destined to
become distinctive of this artist declares itself: a
luminous profundity of landscape that emphasizes
the whiteness of Abel's flesh. Although satisfied
with his work, Henner was doubtful of the result.
He trembled, for he had staked his entire future upon
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this picture. But he found unexpected encouragement
from the little model who had posed for him
and his competitors, in the character of Abel.
"Have no doubt about it," the child told him,
"you will win the prize. None of the others can
compare with yours."
And Henner, only too glad to believe, went to
work with redoubled zeal, to justify the admiration
of his little model. His composition, however, when
finished, proved to be incomplete: he had forgotten
to include the club which Cain had used to strike
down Abel. At the last moment he added this
accessory so dexterously that the arrangement of
the picture as a whole was undisturbed.
There was no discussion regarding the bestowal
of the prize. Henner was unanimously declared the
winner.
It is easy to imagine Henner's joy. Nevertheless
a shadow dimmed it: that of not having been able
to give his mother the final consolation of his triumph.
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That worthy and courageous woman died but shortly
before, blessing and encouraging him almost with
her final breath.
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THE YEARS IN ROME
.sp 2
Rome, that prodigious repository of art! with
what reverential admiration the young artist approached
her! What fascinated him from the start,
offspring that he was of fair and undulating Alsace,
was the Roman Campagna with its violent contrasts,
its wide expanses ablaze with sunlight, cleft
here and there with dense shadows, profound and
nevertheless luminous. Here before his eyes, within
reach of his palette, was not this the ideal landscape,
such as his artistic instinct had taught him
to prevision? Shadow and light clashing, interpenetrating,
in order to form an imponderable and
luminous dust, the light vivifying the shadow, the
shadow sifting out the crudities of the light,--picture
his joy at having foreseen all this instinctively,
.bn 046.png
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without having seen it, solely by his artistic
intuition!
The five years which he passed in Rome were
one perpetual enchantment. The proof of this is
found in his correspondence with M. Goutzwiller,
his first drawing-master, who remained his best
friend. One receives the impression, in reading it,
that he lived in a continuous ecstasy, in a world
of fairyland.
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PLATE V.--JOSEPH BARA
(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
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This subject, consecrated to the glory of the young hero of the
Revolution, had already been magnificently treated by David; none
the less, Henner's Bara is not inferior to the other, and if perhaps
it inspires a less degree of pity, there is something truly dramatic
in the outstretched body, under the lowering sky.
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PLATE V.--JOSEPH BARA
(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
This subject, consecrated to the glory of the young hero of the
Revolution, had already been magnificently treated by David; none
the less, Henner's Bara is not inferior to the other, and if perhaps
it inspires a less degree of pity, there is something truly dramatic
in the outstretched body, under the lowering sky.
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.if-
And with what admiration and reverence he
speaks of the great masters! How he loves them,
and how well he understands the prodigious greatness
of certain ones among them! The Venetians
especially, those incomparable colourists, fired his
ardour. He went to Venice, in order to worship them
on the spot, in the presence of their works. But he
was without prejudice; his taste was eclectic, like
his own talent. His love for Titian and Giorgione
did not prevent him from valuing Raphael and Leonardo
da Vinci. He loved them all, because he
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.bn 048.png
.bn 049.png
.bn 050.png
.bn 051.png
.pn +3
understood them all and because in each one of them
he recognized the marvellous gift of genius. But
none the less he had one preference, and he could
avow it unashamed, for its object was one of the most
extraordinary of all masters of design and colour:
Correggio. Everything in the work of that admirable
artist fascinated him; his dexterity, which verges
upon the miraculous, his prodigious foreshortenings,
the magic of his palette, and above all his mastery of
chiaroscuro, which no other artist, not even Rembrandt,
has surpassed. This time Henner had found
his true master, the one with whom he was destined
to impregnate himself permanently, as regards the
harmonious distribution of lights and shades.
When he awoke from his contemplation of Correggio,
it was in order to shut himself into his studio
and feverishly endeavour to recapture with his own
brush those exquisite colour tones that still dazzled
his vision and possessed his spirit. What amazed
him above all was the simplicity of means employed
.bn 052.png
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by the great masters to obtain all their effects, even
those that seem the most complicated. "See," he
said, "they have on their palettes only a few colours,
and those the simplest: red, green, yellow, blue,
black, and white! It is the modern painters who
have invented the mixtures, that are so far removed
from primitive simplicity!" Following the example
of the earlier masters, Henner never employed any
other colours than the simple ones. He always
showed a marked aversion for mixed tints. His
colours were always frank and sincere, even when
toned down in order to avoid glaring and harsh effects.
And it may justly be said of him that, "even on his
palette his colours have already imprisoned light."
His studies in Rome did not make him forgetful
of his obligations: he worked very seriously at his
future exhibits. His five years' sojourn was distinguished
by five masterpieces. He sent successively
to the Beaux-Arts Christ in Prison and The
Child with the Orange, pictures of rare perfection,
.bn 053.png
.pn +1
each of which received the award of a medal, and
both of which were purchased by the museum at
Colmar, which wished to possess the first works of
the young Alsatian artist. The following year, he
sent in The Chaste Susannah, now one of the
treasures of the Luxembourg Museum. The model
who posed for Susannah was named Chiara. She
was very handsome and well known in the artist
world of Rome, and possessed an education much
above her station. She exhibited much pride in
having served as model for such a masterpiece.
The picture was exhibited at the Salon of 1865,
and, curiously enough, it by no means met with the
success that it deserved. The critics, accustomed
to a very different type of painting, did not understand
this new and unfamiliar method. Théophile
Gautier was the only one who proclaimed its merit.
It is only fair to add that his opinion was easily worth
all the others. "It is not alone," he wrote, "the
style and beauty of line that form the distinction
.bn 054.png
.pn +1
of this beautiful Jewess, but also and more especially
the fine instinct for colour. This is no statue that
is bathing here, it is a very genuine woman."
At this same Salon, Henner exhibited two portraits
of superior workmanship: that of Schnets,
director of the École de Rome, and that of M. Joyau,
architect of the same school.
.sp 4
.h2 id=ch04
THE WORKS OF HENNER
.sp 2
In 1865, Henner returned to Paris and installed
himself in the house in the Place Pigalle which he
occupied during the rest of his life. This house is
full of memories. It has sheltered, either successively
or at the same time, many illustrious painters: Jules
and Victor Dupré, Théodore Rousseau, Puvis de
Chavannes, Boldini, etc. Henner occupied the lower
floor to begin with, but later, after the death of Pils,
who had been living on the second floor, he took
the latter's studio, because the light was better.
And, from the day of his return to Paris, Henner
.bn 055.png
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entered upon a life of unremitting toil and fecundity
that never ceased to cause astonishment. Few
painters have left behind them such a volume of
productions; his genre pictures, his landscapes peopled
with nymphs are innumerable; as to his portraits,
women's portraits especially, it would require far
more ample limits than those of the present study
merely to give a list of them. And what evokes
genuine admiration is the fact that it is impossible,
in the midst of this extraordinary multiplicity of
widely varied works, to find a single one that is not
evidently equal to his best. And this is because
Henner, notwithstanding his facility, bestowed an
infinite conscientiousness upon even the least important
of his paintings. He regarded it as dishonesty
to produce merely for the sake of producing, or, to
sum it up in a word, to do fake work.
Indefatigable workman that he was, Henner allowed
himself few diversions; his life was as strictly ordered
as that of a monk. Always an early riser, he devoted
.bn 056.png
.pn +1
his mornings to his landscapes and genre paintings,
and his afternoons to his portraits. From four until
seven he was in the habit of receiving a few friends
or would bury himself in a book, for he was a great
reader. It was an exceptional thing for him to dine
away from home, and when he went out it was always
for the purpose of visiting the Louvre or some exhibit
of paintings. As a matter of fact, he was never
happy away from his studio, that celebrated studio
which he had fitted up with so much taste and magnificence.
It was there, in that artistic and sumptuous
setting, that he executed those innumerable
works, whose magnificent flowering we are about to
follow, year by year. It will be impossible for us to
cite them all; we must content ourselves with calling
attention only to the more remarkable.
In 1865, Henner exhibited his Biblis metamorphosed
into a Spring, one of his most beautiful paintings.
In the midst of a sombre landscape, the dazzling
nudity of the nymph forms a luminous spot, but the
.bn 057.png
.pn +1
contrasting tones harmonize in a sort of fine and
golden atmosphere, blending into the profound green
of the foliage, the porcelain blue of the sky, and the
resplendent whiteness of the flesh. And what simplicity
of means he has used to produce this result!
Henner had profited from the lessons of the great
masters; and he was never to forget them.
The following year came his Study of a Young
Girl. This time it was no longer under leafy canopies
that the painter chose to place his model, but in
the presence of the immensity of the blue sea. The
success of this painting was very marked and it earned
the artist a medal of the first class. But the painter
himself was as severe towards his own work as the
critics had been flattering; he was not satisfied with
it, and when the canvas was once again back in his
studio, he destroyed it. What a pity that such a
work should have been lost, but also what a fine
example, and what a rare one, of professional conscientiousness
and integrity!
.bn 058.png
.pn +1
The work exhibited the following year suffered
the same fate. In one of those crises of discontent
which Henner, always severe towards himself, frequently
passed through, he once again ripped up his
own work, the charming painting known as The
Toilet, which nevertheless had received nothing but
praise while at the Salon.
The public, by which I mean the enlightened
public, had now come to appreciate the talent of the
young artist. His reputation was established, and
orders began to come in. Not that he had yet acquired
that world-wide celebrity which was destined
to come later, but people were beginning to understand
the originality of his art, which at first had
provoked so much discussion.
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PLATE VI.--THE COMTESSE DIANE
(Luxembourg Museum)
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.ll -8
This fine portrait of the Comtesse Diane (Mme. de Beausacq) was
executed by Henner at the request of the poet, Sully-Prudhomme,
and bequeathed to the Louvre. But it was necessary that it should
first remain for the prescribed period in the Luxembourg, since no
picture may be admitted into the Louvre until ten years after the
death of its author.
.ll +8
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PLATE VI.--THE COMTESSE DIANE
(Luxembourg Museum)
This fine portrait of the Comtesse Diane (Mme. de Beausacq) was
executed by Henner at the request of the poet, Sully-Prudhomme,
and bequeathed to the Louvre. But it was necessary that it should
first remain for the prescribed period in the Luxembourg, since no
picture may be admitted into the Louvre until ten years after the
death of its author.
.ca-
.if-
Besides, Henner was too passionately devoted to
his art to concern himself about money. He always
showed the greatest disinterestedness. Prosperity
came to him, ample prosperity, but he did not seek it.
It was the natural recompense of this amazing workman,
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.bn 060.png
.bn 061.png
.bn 062.png
.bn 063.png
.pn +3
happily supplemented by the most extraordinary
powers of production. There were instances
when he produced in the space of a few hours pictures
that he sold for twenty-five and thirty thousand
francs.
Wealth, however, did not in any way modify
either his habits or his character. He remained
throughout his life just as simple, just as gentle, and
just as laborious. This is perhaps the right moment
at which to quote the charming word-portrait of this
good and kindly man, drawn by M. Claude Vento,
who knew him well:
"If, by his nature as well as by the vigour of his
genius, Henner deserves to be compared to the Masters
of the past, his very physique suggests that he
is a reincarnation of some one of those great artists
of the Renaissance, whose mould had seemingly been
broken. Robust, squarely built, broad of shoulder,
with energetic head planted on a rather stout neck,
a countenance strong yet gentle, with features strongly
.bn 064.png
.pn +1
marked, and hair surmounted by a black velvet cap,
does not Henner as a matter of fact, clad in his velvet
jacket over a flannel shirt, remind us of the portrait
of Holbein who was his first inspiration? His whole
personality bears the stamp of frankness and of kindliness,
a kindliness possessing a rather rough exterior,
but actually very rare in quality, as you may see in
the depths of his pale blue eyes, as limpid and clear
as the eyes of a little child. There is an element
of naïveté in his sincere face, through which, however,
a deep shrewdness penetrates, a kindliness
that is not free from mockery, when his alert wit
detects insincerity, whereupon, behind a mocking
smile, irony leaps to his lips, like fine and delicate
arrows, but all the more stinging for that. But this
is not customary. Although, like all men who have
had to struggle, Henner is not readily expansive and
guards himself from the importunate, by his somewhat
cold manner, what a hearty hand-grasp, loyal
and true, for his real friends, what a reassuring smile,
.bn 065.png
.pn +1
lighting up his virile features, when sympathy knocks
at his door! With what unceremonious cordiality
he comes in person to answer the bell and open the
door of his studio to the expected visitor! As a
usual rule, Henner talks but little. He listens more
than he talks, and is naturally given to reflection.
But whatever he says is to the point and is well
worth listening to. If in his presence the conversation
chances to turn upon art or literature
or any other lofty subject, but more especially art,
then the passion latent in him all of a sudden
bursts forth and reveals itself, just as a fire suddenly
blazes up from beneath a pile of ashes, and
all the more violently because it has been so long
smouldering. At such times his language is vivid,
highly coloured, vigorous, and full of conviction.
The words come to his lips without effort and flow
in a rapid stream. And the listener realizes that
he is in the presence of a truthful nature, ardent
and resolute, a conscientious judge and a great
.bn 066.png
.pn +1
artist, whose enthusiasms are sincere and whose will
is strong and tenacious."
Here we have the complete picture of the man,
discreet, laborious, modest, an enemy of noise and
notoriety, and revealing himself to the public only
through his signature unfailingly appended to the
lower margin of his immortal canvases.
The series of them is imposing. At the Exposition
of 1867, Henner was represented by The Chaste
Susannah, The Young Bather Asleep, The Reclining
Woman, an admirable masterpiece now in the collection
of the Mulhouse museum, and seven portraits
which bore witness to the artist's prodigious
fecundity and to the infinite variety of his talent.
In 1869, he exhibited only two paintings at the
Salon, but they were two gems: The Woman on the
Black Divan, whose nudity contrasts in dazzling
fashion with the sombre setting of the velvet couch
on which she reposes; and The Little Writer, a charming
portrait of a child, who happens to be the artist's
.bn 067.png
.pn +1
own nephew, diligently bending over his desk. A
#reproduction:plate4# of this latter picture will be found among
the plates of the present study.
The following year, in 1870, The Alsatian Woman
was exhibited at the Salon. It was a personification
of his native land, Alsace, that he loved so dearly,
and that he represented in this picture in the form of
a vigorous peasant woman with a jovial face, who
carries a basket filled with apples, symbolic of abundance
and happiness. At that time, the storm had
not burst over that ill-fated land; and there was
nothing to cause him to foresee it; the Alsatian
woman is laughing and untroubled, unaware of her
terrible destiny.
What a contrast was afforded by his next work,
Alsace, which the misfortunes of France inspired the
ardently French and Alsatian soul of the artist to
produce! What emotion emanates from the woman
clad in mourning, whose features bear the traces of
the grief she has suffered and of the mutilation that
.bn 068.png
.pn +1
has taken place! Nevertheless, ravaged as it is by
sorrow, her face still radiates a serene pride and an
unquenchable hope: the hope of a triumphal revenge
and of the return of France. Henner, alas, died
without having seen the fulfilment of the miracle
awaited by him with so much fervour. It is easy to
imagine the success which greeted this picture at
the Salon of 1871. Stirred to their inmost soul, the
visitors piously took off their hats and felt a wave of
the artist's patriotic fire pass through them. Gambetta
desired to see the painting, was delighted with
it, and promptly purchased it.
After the war, Henner continued, as previously,
to pass his annual vacations at Bernwiller; he could
not bring himself to dispense wholly with his native
air; and yet what sadness was now entailed in returning
home, and how changed and wretched he found
it under the suspicious and harassing administration
of the conquerors! None the less he could still
revisit the companions of his childhood, his brothers
.bn 069.png
.pn +1
and his nephews, whom he delighted to receive at
all hours in the pretty little brick house that he had
had built on the family property.
In 1872 he exhibited The Idyll; it proved to be
the biggest success that he had yet achieved. Two
nymphs are beside a fountain, as night descends; one
of the two is playing on a flute, the other with one
hand resting on her hip, as she leans with her other
on the fountain rim, listening. Both are nude, with
that warm, vibrant nudity that awakens memories
of the flesh of Giorgione's women, in his Rural Concert,
and both are enveloped in the waves of their
tawny tresses.
This magnificent painting earned Henner a medal
of honour which was bestowed upon him by acclamation.
It is at present in the Museum of the Luxembourg,
where it forms one of the most valued
treasures.
To 1874 belong The Good Samaritan, also now
in the Luxembourg, and The Magdalen in the Desert,
.bn 070.png
.pn +1
which belongs to the museum of Toulouse. These
two pictures, following such a long succession of
successful canvases, earned Henner the Legion of
Honour. The modest artist was profoundly touched
by this distinction, which nevertheless he so well
merited.
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PLATE VII.--A NAIAD
(Luxembourg Museum)
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.ll -8
This is one of the most beautiful of Henner's paintings. What
grace there is in the outstretched body, what suppleness and
vigour in those long and slender limbs, how much beauty in the
face, and what a voluptuous abandonment throughout that white
and amber body in its entirety! The luminous and profound
landscape give an admirable impression of a warm and peaceful
twilight.
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PLATE VII.--A NAIAD
(Luxembourg Museum)
This is one of the most beautiful of Henner's paintings. What
grace there is in the outstretched body, what suppleness and
vigour in those long and slender limbs, how much beauty in the
face, and what a voluptuous abandonment throughout that white
and amber body in its entirety! The luminous and profound
landscape give an admirable impression of a warm and peaceful
twilight.
.ca-
.if-
The following year, Henner exhibited #The Naiad:plate7#.
The nymph, quite nude, is lying, with one leg extended,
the other partly flexed, upon the grass, beside
a stream in which the azure of the sky is mirrored.
She leans her head upon her upraised left arm, and
her hair full of golden gleams forms a diadem of fulvous
light around her. The voluptuous mouth is half
open and the eyes have a hint of caresses floating
in their liquid depths. The transparent whiteness
of the flesh seems to sink into the soft carpeting of
dense verdure, while under the massive density of
the great trees a discreet and subtle light penetrates
the entire landscape, softening the shadows, refining
the atmosphere, and caressing with its soft radiance
.bn 071.png
.bn 072.png
.bn 073.png
.bn 074.png
.bn 075.png
.pn +3
the beautiful outstretched body of the naiad.
It was once again the Luxembourg that secured
possession of this incomparable work.
In 1876, Henner essayed an entirely different
subject, and a much severer one, which he nevertheless
treated without in any way modifying his
manner: The Dead Christ. Always an earnest
Christian, Henner loved religious subjects and he
bestowed upon those that he painted all his artistic
power and all the fervour of his faith. In this
picture, he has proved himself the equal of the
greatest masters, and he need have no fear of
challenging comparison with the most illustrious
interpreters of the Crucifixion.
There is still another subject of a religious nature
that Henner undertook the following year: The
Head of St. John the Baptist, a work of striking
realism. At the same Salon, that of 1877, he also
exhibited a pagan subject, Evening, representing a
woman couched upon the grass and viewed from
.bn 076.png
.pn +1
behind, completely enveloped in the masses of her
red-gold hair.
Next came The Naiads, whose sculpture-like silhouettes
are profiled against the silvered background
of a superbly lighted landscape. It was this canvas
which inspired Armand Sylvestre to write a very
charming poem, in which the following lines are
included:
.in +4
.nf l
By dreaming waters under sleeping skies,
Where nature's bowl entraps the widening stream,
A troupe of naiads, hid from mortal eyes,
Toss to the breeze their tresses' golden sheen.
.nf-
.in
At the Salon of 1878, Henner was represented by
several pictures. To begin with, there was Holbein's
Wife and Children, the artist's tribute to the memory
of the by-gone master who had been the source of his
first enthusiasm and first inspiration: furthermore,
The Young Girl in Black and The Lady with the
Umbrella.
.bn 077.png
.pn +1
In 1879 came The Eclogue, a composition of classic
harmony and beauty. With elbows leaning on the
margin of a well, a nymph of resplendent beauty
stands upright in an attitude of reverie. In front
of her, a companion is bending over the mirror-like
surface of a stream which crosses the landscape,
and her glowing hair envelops her wholly, like a
mantle of gold. The sombre verdure of the
great trees emphasizes the dazzling whiteness of the
two female forms; above and beyond the foliage,
a glimpse of blue sky adds its glad and luminous
note.
We must not forget The Magdalen, which was
the most widely discussed work exhibited at this
Salon. The subject was one of which the artist was
especially fond; he treated it a number of times, and
it almost seemed as though he wanted to prove the
variability of a brush that never repeated itself and
of a talent that was continually renewed. This
time the penitent of the Gospel story is crouching
.bn 078.png
.pn +1
in the entrance to a cave, in an attitude of prayer.
In the half shadow cast by the overhanging rock,
the body of the Magdalen radiates brightness, while
ripples of light shimmer through her golden tresses.
This beautiful picture is to be seen to-day in the
Petit Palais, in the room reserved for the works of
Henner.
Each succeeding year now brought new masterpieces
and new triumphs. Two paintings were shown
in the Salon of 1880: Sleep and The Fountain. The
first of these represents a young girl, almost a child,
sunken in profound sleep. Around the face, in its
golden frame of hair, the artist has diffused an aureole
of peace, candour, and innocence which brings to
mind some legendary saint. Rarely has the artist
achieved such perfection of line and such beauty
of expression. The painting was purchased by the
Prince de Broglie.
In The Fountain we behold a woman, beautiful
with the beauty of red gold, like all of Henner's
.bn 079.png
.pn +1
women. She is resting her hand upon the margin
of a well, and seems to be gazing at her own reflection
in the water.
This same Salon also includes Andromeda in
Chains, which belongs to-day to Mme. Raffalowitz.
From time to time Henner reverted to religious
paintings, for which, after the fashion of the great
masters of the past, he always retained a marked
fondness. Thus it happened that he exhibited at
the Salon of 1881 a St. Jerome, a subject all the more
venturesome to paint because many of the most
illustrious artists, such as Dürer, Tintoretto, and
Veronese, had treated it before him. Yet Henner
might well challenge comparison with these redoubtable
predecessors, and this picture, now in the Luxembourg,
is numbered among his best.
The Spring, which figured at the same Salon,
inevitably challenges comparison with the same subject
formerly treated by Ingres. Employing wholly
different means, Henner achieved the same degree of
.bn 080.png
.pn +1
perfection as that attained by the illustrious author
of The Odalisque. In Ingres' picture of The Spring,
the flesh of the young girl has the freshness of some
delicate and fragile fruit; in that of Henner's, it has
the velvety savour of a fruit that is fully ripe. Both
paintings show the same masterly science of line-work,
the same impeccable sureness of execution, and
also the same profound sense of virginal chastity in
the nude. Henner's Spring was purchased by an
American for eleven thousand dollars (55,000 francs).
This is one of the highest prices ever paid for the
work of a living painter.
In 1882 came Bara, of which we give a #reproduction:plate5#
in the present volume, and which is now to be
seen in the Petit Palais. This was still another subject
which had been previously treated, and by no
less a master than David! Both painters were equally
felicitous in rendering the charming youthfulness
of the small hero who fell so gloriously for his
country. A comparison of the two works is all the
.bn 081.png
.pn +1
more pleasurable because one discovers that, however
dissimilar they may be, they express the same
appreciation of classic beauty and the same reverence
for form.
In 1883 we have The Woman Reading, a dazzling
poem in blond flesh that brings to mind Correggio's
Magdalen Reading, now contained in the Munich collection.
In contrast with the opulence of the above
portrait, we have next a countenance of remarkable gentleness,
ideal in its expression of purity, in the picture
entitled The Nun. She is quite young and quite
fair, and she is kneeling upon the pavement in prayer,
while her pale girlish face emerges from the sombre
frame of her black garb, like an immaculate lily
overgrown with weeds. This time Henner had surpassed
himself; he had interpreted with inimitable
strokes the beauty of renunciation and the purity of
an ecstatic life.
This Salon was one of the most glorious that the
great artist ever knew.
.bn 082.png
.pn +1
Nevertheless, it was the very next year that he
exhibited The Weeping Nymph, his magnificent
nymph prostrate upon the ground, sobbing with her
face in her hands and her whole body writhing with
anguish. After this came Fabiola, that superb, virgin
profile crowned with a red cap, which the engraver's
art has spread throughout the world in the form of
millions of reprints, until its renown is universal.
In 1886, some more Nymphs and The Orphan
Girl, treated in the same manner as Fabiola, and
forming in a certain sense a companion piece.
Then came The Creole, a fascinating woman's
head, done in warm flesh tones, amber-tinted, keenly
alive; a picture which the State promptly acquired.
Then, next in order, Herodiade, a young girl of fifteen,
or thereabouts, clad in a clinging scarlet tunic, her
black eyes gleaming with a fathomless light.
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PLATE VIII.--THE MAGDALEN WITH THE CRUCIFIX
(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
.in +8
.ll -8
This is a subject which Henner treated several times. The Magdalen
here reproduced is, beyond all else, a beautiful and robust
creature, whose repentance finds little testimony in her features
that are barely clouded by a faint shadow of melancholy. Yet it is
difficult to conceive of a more delicious study of a woman.
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PLATE VIII.--THE MAGDALEN WITH THE CRUCIFIX
(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)
This is a subject which Henner treated several times. The Magdalen
here reproduced is, beyond all else, a beautiful and robust
creature, whose repentance finds little testimony in her features
that are barely clouded by a faint shadow of melancholy. Yet it is
difficult to conceive of a more delicious study of a woman.
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We need not go further with our catalogue of
Henner's works; it would only necessitate a continual
repetition of the same praises and monotonous descriptions
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of pictures that the whole world knows, at least
from the engravings of them. Up to the end of his
life, the artist continued to make regular and methodical
progress; up to the end, his talent preserved
its vigour and its youth. It even seems as though
in his latest works his light had acquired more transparency,
his foliage a more vibrant warmth, his
flesh tones a more dazzling splendour.
In the course of time, his success had increased,
his reputation had become world-wide. Americans
outbid one another for his pictures, and purchased
them at fabulous prices. And together with wealth
came honours. I mean the only kind of honours
that would have been welcomed by this modest
and laborious artist, who sought neither the hubbub
of vulgar notoriety, nor the glitter of official
functions.
But, with his passionate devotion to painting,
which had formed the one ideal of his life, he was not
displeased to see honour paid, through himself as
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the medium, to an art that he had constantly striven
to practise with the utmost dignity and the profoundest
love. With undisguised gladness he accepted
the successive decorations bestowed upon him
in the Order of the Legion of Honour. And the son
of the Bernwiller gardener experienced quite a legitimate
pride when the unanimous appreciation of his
peers opened the doors of the Institute to him.
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THE PORTRAIT PAINTER
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It is impossible to speak of Henner, and yet pass
over in silence his success as a portrait painter, in
which capacity he was equal, if not superior, to the
painter of nymphs and Magdalens.
In his portrait work Henner was first of all the
portrayer of women, as indeed, throughout his life,
he had been in all his paintings.
There was no dearth of models. They came
to him in throngs, and his studio in the Place Pigalle
witnessed a procession of the most magnificent
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beauties of France and the world at large. Henner,
however, was never a flattering portrait painter, nor
even a complaisant one. He had too much respect
for himself and for his art to trade upon his professional
integrity; he was too fervent a worshipper of
nature to distort it, or even to paraphrase it. His
portraits are literally portraits, in the highest sense
of the word; I mean that they are faithful copies of
the person represented, and that no trace of adulation
could be found in a single one of them. But he
excelled in extracting from the physiognomy of his
model that one intimate note which each one of us
conceals within himself, and that is now and then
betrayed upon our features in a fugitive yet unmistakable
gleam. It is this hidden note, this inner
flame, this latent nobility, this moral beauty which
Henner had the peculiar gift of divining and
interpreting.
Is it at all surprising, with such advantages, that
Henner's portraits are of such superior workmanship
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that they are almost always masterpieces? Unfortunately,
it is impossible here to enter upon an extensive
study of Henner the portrait painter; we
must content ourselves with citing the most celebrated
of his portraits of women: Mme. Paul Dubois,
Mme. Bonard, Mme. Sédille, a charming countenance,
seen full-face, the black shawl throwing her rich beauty
into relief; Mme. Jules Ferry, Mme. Scheurer-Kestner,
Mme. Charles Hayem, Mme. Koechlin-Schwartz, Mlle.
Formigé, Mme. Pasteur and Mlle. Pasteur, the magnificent
portrait of Miss Eldin, whose regal blond
beauty is framed in a bewitching Gainsborough hat;
Mlle. Marcille, Mlle. Mosenthal, Mlle. Sédille, Mlle.
Gentien, an admirable symphony of black tones, in
which all the accessories, the gloves and fan, are of
sombre colour; this portrait is one of Henner's best;
Mme. Eumont, whose black garments form a curious
contrast to her powdered hair; then, three masterpieces:
the portraits of the three daughters of Mme.
Porgès, and also that of Mme. Porgès herself with her
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youngest child; the Comtesse d'Ideville, whose red
robe forms a warm and luminous contrast to the sombre
background of the picture; Her Imperial Highness,
the Countess of Eu, daughter of Dom Pedro, Emperor
of Brazil; the Princesse de Broglie, née Say, daughter
of the millionaire refiner; Mme. Fournier-Sarlevèze, a
fascinating woman, who died prematurely; Mme. Raffalowitz,
Mme. Oulman, Mme. Henry Fouquier, and
her charming daughter, Mlle. Fouquier, Mme. Rodrigues,
Mlle. Leroux, Mlle. de Morell, Mme. Fougère-Dubourg,
Mme. Kutner; Mme. Daniel Dollfus,
portrayed standing; the Marquise de Mosges; Mme.
Hippolyte Adam; Mme. de Rute, Mme. Jules Siegfried,
Mme. Duplay, Mme. Fabre, Mme. Peltreau, the Baroness
Brincard; Mlle. Hoschedé; Mlle. Chanzy, Mlle.
Fernande Dubourg; Mme. Herzog, Mme. Silhal, Mme.
Brossard, Mme. Loreau, Mme. de Crépy, Mme. Raphael,
Mme. Jules Walfrey, Mme. Charras, Mme.
Marochetti, Mme. Diémer, Mme. Carmian, Mme.
Monthier, in black and with black drapery over her
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shoulders, Mme. de Beausacq (the Comtesse Diane), a
beautiful portrait of which we give a #reproduction:plate6#;
this portrait was executed by Henner at the request
of Sully-Prudhomme and bequeathed to the Louvre;
but it has not yet been transferred to that great
national museum; it is still in the Luxembourg, and is
regarded as one of its choicest treasures.
Furthermore, mention should be made of Mlle.
Valentine Edmond About, Mlle. Brincard, Mme. Jules
Claretie, the Comtesse Kessler, one of the master's
most successful portraits and one that he obtained from
a single sitting; Mme. Shopey, a fascinating Creole
from the island of Bourbon, whose profile has an ideal
beauty that inspired Henner to produce a veritable masterpiece;
he was no less successful in portraying Mme.
Noetzlin, another exquisite exotic beauty, whose languid
indolence and captivating charm he has rendered
with infinite vigour and grace.
But one of his most beautiful portraits is that of
Mme. Karekehia, the mother of Nubar Pacha, who,
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although quite advanced in age, is represented in
a charming pose that emphasizes her natural attractions.
Nowhere else perhaps did Henner rise to such
a height, or obtain such a degree of truth in his interpretation
of a human physiognomy.
And how many other portraits there are, equally
beautiful, equally powerful, if only we might cite
them all!
Painter of women though he was, Henner did
not refuse as a settled policy to paint men, but it
was difficult to make up his mind to do so. Not
that he showed less ability in his portraiture of men.
It was simply that it cost him something to renounce,
even temporarily, the cult of feminine beauty, to
which he had dedicated himself. He loved to make
rays of light play harmoniously over blond flesh,
over silken fabrics, over draperies; and the uniformity
of masculine garments does not lend itself to this
sort of magic. None the less, he produced a few
portraits of men which are absolutely remarkable;
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portraits of personal friends, for the most part, which
he painted with a solicitude that makes itself felt:
such are the portraits of Jules Claretie, of Dr. Leroy,
of the painter Parrot, of the sculptor Paul Dubois,
the poet Sully-Prudhomme, of the publisher Georges
Charpentier, of General Chanzy. Henner also painted
a little portrait of Pasteur, which was never shown
at the Salon, but is nevertheless one of the most
keenly alive and most perfect of his works.
It would also be only fitting to consider Henner's
work from the particular point of view of landscape
painting which occupies so large a place in his pictures;
but the circumscribed space of the present study
does not permit of this.
Henner aged peacefully in the tranquillity of his
studio and the harmonious regularity of an existence
consecrated to labour and to art. In 1900, at the
time of the Universal Exposition, he obtained one
of the four grand prizes bestowed by the judges upon
the greatest artists.
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In this life of Henner's, unmarked by any extraordinary
event, everything is as limpid and as clear
as a woodland spring whose transparent waters flow
peacefully, slipping noiselessly under cover of the
moss. Until the end, Henner retained his modesty,
his natural simplicity, his aversion to notoriety;
and when in 1905 he died, there was no dissenting
voice in the general praise of his character and his
talent.
Henner possessed the rare privilege, not of having
created a type, but of having left upon contemporary
art the imprint of his powerful personality. We
are also in debt to him for a return to the dignity of
the great classic types, to a beauty of form achieved
in accordance with an original and rejuvenated conception.
Like Puvis de Chavannes, he has taught
us to appreciate the majestic harmony of antique
composition, and also, like him, he has given us an
example of a richness of colour carried to the culminating
point by the simplest of means. Steeped in
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classicism beneath its brilliant exterior, grounded on
a mastery of line-work, underneath the gleaming
colours, Henner's art has broken down all opposition,
silenced all criticism, and evoked universal
admiration because it unites these two masterly
qualities which form the basis of imperishable painting:
conscientiousness and genius.
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Transcriber's Note:
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Transcriber's Note:
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The plates and their captions have been moved to paragraph breaks.
Minor printer's errors have been corrected, but variant and irregular spellings have been retained.
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Page 11: A caption was added for the sake of clarity
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#Page 23:Page_23#: "extraodinary intensity of life" replaced with "extraordinary intensity of life"
#Page 77:Page_77#: "culte of feminine beauty" replaced with "cult of feminine beauty"
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