Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-13
Page From the Experiences
of Abel Faivre, II * art
caturist, Who is
a Master.

Special Correspondence Of The stfr.
PARIS, July I, 1907.
A young caricaturist of Montmartre be-
came suddenly famous by tie humor of
his subjects-and the violence of his le
gends.
Generally he arranged" C'laid out'D
the bourgeois (serious French middle class,
so prudent, savlng-and compromising.
Ugly and temporizing as he may be. the
Paris bourgeois Is almost man like an
other. with mans impulses and aspirations
And Abel showed 1t.
l have just turned down an album of
his cartoons as quite impossible to present
to our public. Suffice to say. they are the
limit, even for Paris; While his peculiar
bent against French doctors still remains
a mystery for most Frenchmen; you will
learn why, His special doctor number of
the anarchstic "Butter-Plate French
slang for graft was OF unheard-of ferocity
against the learned corporation that re-
mains, in France, almost a priesthood.
Then. suddenly, at the New Salon, there
was seen a surprising modern painting, of
such exquisite charm and freshness Of col
oring. of such mysterious deicacy of SEN
timent and execution, that scarcely glanc-
ing at the painters name, the critics nailed
a modern master The mans name is
Abel Faivre''
1t took Paris three months to realize
that the two Faivres could be one and the
same-the known carcaturist with his mon
sters of ugliness and vice and this new
type of utter loveliness. at once called by
every one The Girl with the Fan"
immediately the French government
bought The Girl with the Fam for the
Luxembourg. We Americans who have
been following the English, wild over
Hellcu's Clique. do we know that Helleu
has not even a drawing in the LuXem-
bourg?
In any case. YOU now know enough to
understand the story of the false girl with
the fan-the false one first.
1t was during the first year of the paint
ing's celebrity. At the Grand Cafe, Boule
ward DIES Cepucines, the waiter Auguste
hurried to young man of no Importance,
saying:
Let Monsieur S go quick to my row
on the terrace. There's interesting
number"
(Auguste's judgment is sound. Years ago
he made q fiutter In the Latin quarter.
where he took fine girls away from men
fore the client took the trouble to get up
and wander to the sidewalk. where four
rows of chairs and tables underneath the
awning make the terrace"
He saw a charming young person.
AT once he struck by something
curlously familiar in her eyes. AS soon as
good manners would permit it he said
II know who You are. You are the
model Of Abel Faivre's Girl with the
Fam"
She opened mouth and eyes in wide as
tonishment and interest. like a beautiful
young heller who watches the passing rail-
way train. and then grew troubled, saying:
why does everybody ask me that? I
have done nothing wrong. l have no fan.
My name is not Faivre. My name is
Durand. and Il just arrived In Paris from
Foully-les-Chausettes.
Taken to the Luxembourg.
All. me! Though slightly slack of infor-
nation and bit slow on the trigger. she
was a delicious young person. The next
day the man of no Importance had the
grace to take her to the Luxembourg, to
make her understand. 1t was delicious to
watch her before the painting.
All pretty girls know it-how they look.
This little demi-peasant saw Immediately
the strange resemblance she had with the
painting. Faivre has put into 1t the occult
living Interrogation found only In one other
painting that I know-the immortal por-
trait of all time, Leonardi's "Joconde."
The girl had 1t. too.
Alone, this alive look disarms all criti-
cism in detractors of THE Girl with the
Fan"
The girl was very much impressed. I'm
fortunately, so was the crowd in the Lux
embOurg. 1t gathered. People whispered.
There she is-the model" The girl was
impressed still more. Like the young man