Morning journal and courier., 1883-07-30
Thomas Couture.

AS we wandered about among the trees and strawberries, found little need of talking; my companion, it seemed, liked nothing bet ter than to hold forth. With his arm drawn through mine a favorite habit of his when walking with any one, he stumped along in his wooden shoes, and was the picture of good nature and bonhomie. A short and thick man, as I have said, with great shock of iron-gray hair protruding from under his old straw hat small but very bright eyes, set in rather heavy and puffy face, of 8 pale and salIow hue; nose large, with open and very sensitive nostrils; clean shaved, save for heavy, dropping gray mustache, which concealed large, sensuous mouth finally, receding chin, almost lost in a thick neck, suggestive of epoplexy,-not handsome man, certainly. At the same time, despite his small stature, he gave you 8 sense of power that was unmistakable; there was 8 flash in his eyes that revealed the sacred fire, and you felt that he was no common man, as his outward aspect might lead you at first to imagine. He was ungraceful, but with cer- tain old-fRshioned courtesy, especially with ladies, that made up for the want of polish that could hardly be expected from his ori- gin.
 He often made fun of his awkwardness, and told amusing stories of going to recep- | tions at the Tuileries in the days when he ! was in high favor with Napoleon; of putting his feet through great ladies' trains, and com | VI | the more accomplished courtiers.
 found him anything but the bear he had | been depicted, and, with the exception of ex- | treme sensitiveness to any imagined slight, | the most good natured of men very fond of | telling stories, and quite willing to laugh at | himself but unwilling to be laughed at very | sure that he was the greatest painter living,
 and that all others were mere daubers, and | very sore at the ill-treatment he fancied he | had received at the hands of the French Gov \ ernment and artists; in word, a chlldllke | nature, within rough exterior, but very | lovable. Driven into voluntary exile by the | jealousy of other artists and intrigues in high places, for ten years he did not touch a brush. ' Living on the reputation made in his younger I days he could not consent to enter the arena l a second time, and notwithstanding his love ! of money he was content to remain idle, un- | less spurred on to do something by the inn portunity of buyers seeking him out. I never succeeded in getting at the right of the case in his quarrel with the world.
 The ill-treatment, the sights cast upon l him by other artists, and his breaking with I the government when in the midst of large commissions, because, as he alleged, he ! would not give present to the Minister of Fine Arts for procuring him these orders, i may have been in great part due to his over- | sensitive imagination. To crown all, he | rashly wrote book. ''Oh, that mine ene- | my had written book!" All the art-world of Paris set up howl, and it's echoes still finger in the ateliers on either. bank of the | Seine. He retired to nurse his wrongs at Villiers le Bel, and so entirely did he become | thing of the past that most lovers of art, \ if they thought about him at all, thought of him as dead, and wondered why his great painting of Les Remains de Ia Decadence was not removed to the Louvre, as is the | custom with works owned by the State after
 the artist has been dead ten years. What | L ! L | slight sketch of his life, given an account of
 his method of painting, and dared to criti | else, but perhaps without sufficient prudence, | the works of other painters. If he had had more worldly wisdom he would have held his | tongue.
 The "methode Couture" has bsen 8 by | word in the ateliers of Paris ever since. Not
 that it was not good enough system in itl
 way and as employed by him but yet it wa | 8 difficult method to copy, especially wheI ! learned only from his book, and, like 8 writ
 ten constitution, the too exact formulation
 of ideas gave chance for cavaliers to fnt
 fault. To many, to paint by rule, and no
 by inspiration, seemed absurd His systen
 was either misunderstood or misapplied, an'
 certainly has never been successfully held t.
 by any of his pupils. Pupils of other mel
 have been allowed to follow in the footstep
 of their masters without discredit, but thos
 of Couture have been pursued relentlessly a
 long as any trace of the masters method ha
 remained.
 Why this should be I cannot say. Wh
 bitumen used by Couture is any more sinfu
 than when used by others I do not know
 but so it is. His great aim was freshnes
 and purity of color, which he sought to SC
 by mixing or stirring the colors together a
 little as possible, and by placing on the can
 vas the exact tint as nearly as he could hit it
 and not disturbing it afterwards. Rathe
 than disturb 1t, he preferred either to remov
 an unlucky touch with the palette knife an
 bread, or leave it till dry, and then repaint it S+a+o oCorrssnoDdaDoo