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THE
FIELD OF ART
Reproduced by the courtesy of Kennedy & Co.
PARIS IN ETCHING
Lavoir. By A. Lepere.
ANY thought of Paris in etching inevitably
brings to mind the name of
Meryon, for his interpretation of the
city is a haunting one. On his few Paris
prints rests the 'fame of that mad genius,
one among the great etchers the world has
known.
A remarkable variety of pictorial viewpoint
and expression has been inspired by
the capital city of France. And various
Americans have made
Paris their own, felt its
spirit, and skilfully recorded
their impressions
in line.
Of the older French
plates many will recall various
bits of Paris by A. P.
Martial, who etched pictures
and text on the same
plate in the 1860's and '70's,
and also made many pictures
of the city during the
war of 1870-71. Similarly
topographical in view-point
and interest are the plates
by Eugene Delatre, who
has preserved numerous
corners in that Montmartre
which has changed so since Le Stryge.
Georges Michel painted its
Reproduced by the courtesy of Frederick
Keppel & Co.
in the Snow," also known as "Winter," may
have been a stretch of the Bois de Boulogne,
with a wolf from the Jardin d'Acclimatation.
It was, apparently, not so much the
truth of locality as the subject and conditions
that attracted him, as is evident in
his view of the Pont des Saints-Peres, in
which you see little but the effect of driving
rain.
Similarly to Martial, Bracquemond made
sketches of the siege of Paris. Maxime
Lalanne's graceful, elegant,
finished craftsmanship
was exercised on
"Souvenirs Artistiques du
Siege " and various views
of the French capital. He
felt the charm of the Seine
as well as of the old, narrow
streets, and lifted
"familiar sights as completely
out of the commonplace
of every-day as does
Meryon's sombre vision."
Some of these artists have
given us only rather dry,
By Charles Meryon.
topographical records.
Leopold Flameng, noted as
a reproductive etcher, did
many quite matter-offact
pictures of Paris qui va
et Paris qui vient (1859),
windmills and mounds, and to which Charles
Jacque also turned several times from his
scenes in the life of the people: "Cabaret du
Lapin Blanc," the morgue, the copyists of the
usual sheep-pieces. Bracquemond's "Wolf Louvre, or "La Californie"(the "restaurant
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