Part 1
MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR EDITED BY-- M. HENRY ROUJON
HENNER
(1829-1905)
_IN THE SAME SERIES_
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
HENNER
_BY FR. CRASTRE_
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER
_ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY NEW YORK--PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
_Printed in the United States of America_
CONTENTS
Page The First Years 18 The Arrival at Paris 29 The Years in Rome 37 The Works of Henner 44 The Portrait Painter 72
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate I. The Little Girl with the Blue Ribbon Frontispiece Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts
II. The Reclining Nymph 14 Luxembourg Museum
III. Portrait of Mlle. L 24 Luxembourg Museum
IV. The Little Writer 34 Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts
V. Bara 40 Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts
VI. The Comtesse Diana 50 Luxembourg Museum
VII. The Naiad 60 Luxembourg Museum
VIII. The Magdalen with the Crucifix 70 Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts
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 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 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.
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, 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 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.
THE FIRST YEARS
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 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 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.
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:
"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.
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 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 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 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 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 Strassburg. Accordingly, he put his trust in Providence, and, with his heart pulsing with hope, started on his way to the capital.
HIS ARRIVAL IN PARIS
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 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!"
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 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.
Shortly afterwards, he won a medal from the École 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 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. That worthy and courageous woman died but shortly before, blessing and encouraging him almost with her final breath.
THE YEARS IN ROME