Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-14
ALFRED STEVENS.
A Painter Of the Fine Ladies and
"High Life" of the Second Empire.

"High Life" of the Second Empire.
From Truth.
Alfred Stevens died last week In the poor
little fiat in which he for some years vege-
tated in the Avenue Trudaine. A Belgian
by birth and early education, he became by
choice a thorough boulevardier at a time
when the bouievards were the literary and
artistic salon of Europe. He caught the
dandyism of the clubmen who frequented
Tortonis. the wings of the old Opera House
and the Sale Ventadour. You can see them
driving themselves in mail and other phae-
tons in the paintings of Lami and J. L.
Brown. They are in all the Bois and
Champs Elysees scenes of these artists.
Stevens took up the feminine side of ''le
high life and sincerely painted it as ii ap-
peared to him. He had really fallen in love
with it, and its glamour had taken him in.
Had it been otherwise he would not have
stood higher as painter than did Arsene
Houssaye as an author, or that poor crea-
ture Imbert st. Arnaud. Imbert writer
was cavaliere servente, and Houssaye
coureur d'alcoves without single illusion.
Want of perspicacity saved Stevens If one
could not fall in love as he did with his fine
ladies one could not help admiring the man
ner of the artist. Like a first-rate chef,
he had often to work on bad materials,
which his skill rendered savory. The sauce
redeemed the ingredients. There We're times
when he turned them into ambrosia. Ste
vens may live as Natter and Lami live. A
Fragonard would have lent to the cocodettes
whom Eugene gathered around her too
much of his esprit for them to be really of
their time. The second empire period
of Philistnism. Stevens, If a man of good
Belgian family, was not exempt from snob-
bishness in his loves.
I admit that a portrait painter-and all
the easel pictures of Stevens were portraits
of femme du monde in fancy surroundings
or engaged in imaginary incidents-must
hold the candle to what Is low and vulgar
in the originals. But there ought to be an
undercurrent of protest ooZng out through
the work. 1t is allowable to hold the candle
to his Satanic Majesty, If one is determined
in so doing to scorch his face. One finds
this determination In the portraits OF La
tour, the greatest artist in the genre of the
eighteenth century. Latour began always
by telling the real truth, whatever it was.
If he saw fox or a wolf behind the counte-
nance of fnancier he set it down cam
vas, or If a Delil2h or De Tincn lurked
behind the smiles of some lovely comedi-
enne or court lady he did not pass her over.
After the third or fourth sitting he embel-
lished according to the tastes of the time
and Of the sitter. Stevens had not pen
etrating eye. 1t must be said that he hard
~ needed it. He only dealt with favorites
of fortune, who hardly neeaed to mask
their propensties. In the arrangement of
details of the toilet he had equal, and
the task was no easy one, seeing what de-
based Spanish taste prevailed. AS a color
ist he must ever take high rank. I should
say that In all his paintings there is not a
single false note or Earring tone of color
and that everywhere his coloring is felici-
tous and captivating. 1t is also to be said
that in painting his cocodettes and their be-
longings he never slid down to the level of
the illustrator. An illustrator may be a
great artist, but illustration is low art.
The fashionable world had for many
years before his death completely forgotten
Stevens. Had he been a Frenchman the
government would have found for him some
post in the fine arts department. Harsh
things are said of Leopold, the millionaire
king, for not recognizing in some handsome
way the talent of the old painter.