New-York tribune., 1920-04-18
g Jean Louis Foran and Aubrey Beardsley g

Sargent and Bodini. He shared in their
technlque. He was a painter then,
devotion to powerful and flashing
working in pastel and water colors as
we'll as in oils. On rare occasions he
made portrait. Paul Hervieu was
one Of his sitters. Blanche speaks of
large portrait that Forain made of
Nine. Bob Walter in Pompadour
dress. Considering what we are ac
customed to associate with his name.
imagination boggles at the idea of such
work from his hand. Painter as he
was at this time, he was also by in
stinct and unmistakable vocation the
satirical craftsman, with gift for
putting what he saw into a few brief
strokes on a scrap Of paper. 1t was
feverishly gay world he traversed
the world Of Paris ten years after the
Franco Prussian War. Blanche de-
scribes him as watching it from the
point Of view of a spirituelle and caus-
tic spectator. He appears to have been,
If not precisely cynical, at all events
without tenderness or commiseration
for the society which he observed with
erspicacity-and judged.
He moved naturally into the
meter of the satirist for the press,
and not only in his drawings, but In
the legends he composed for them he
developed biting editorial wit. One
OF his great opportunities was offered
in the Dreyfus case. He was the po-
litlcian as much as the artist in the
treatment of that famous affair ant
indeed, in all his satire upon events
Of the day he has been a man .;
thought. as we'll as a type of techn-
cal virtuosity. For all his aristocr ratio
social contacts he has nevertheless
possessed democratic affiliations. The
son of an artisan, he has been a.
close to the people in his sensitive
comprehension as he has been to Il.
denizens Of the great world. Blanche
notes the religious element in Forain's
education. In the essay upon which
re have drawn there is allusion to
ME drypoints of Forain's, scriptural
! subject. There is great seriousness
his temperament. After the rather
ttering period Of his young man.
cd, after much political excitement,
seems to have settled down and
anged himself, prosperous, his famc
ierywhere recognized, at peace with
mself, vegetarian and indulgent."
may recall here, as symbolical,
nct which we have cited before in
eferring to Degas. That master.
'reservlng long and faithful friend
nip with Forain, had table in his
partment which he held sacred cor
re reception of "Le Figaro" with its
precious cartoon. How more felicitous,
could the seal of appreciation have
cen put upon the draftsman's art?
1t is of craftsmen that one would
rdinarily be inclined to speak in dis
ussing the exhibition at the Kraus-
.aar gallery, but the truth is that
7orain's beauty of line is not a new
Tory in New York, and we are irresis-
.ioly tempted to pass at once to the
paintings. They are not only unfamil-
ar, but they are intrinsically works of
great merit and they disclose in pecul-
arly full measure the quality which
.eally transcends the artists manual
iexterity. Forain, as we have said, is a
thinker, and with his superb technique
ne has been free to indulge in that
form of art which is so perilous for
the mediocrity, the painted anecdote.
He is the Balzac of modern French art.
One picture here, "The Dancers" is as
void of human comment as a ballet
sketch by Degas. But all the others
them he shows US that in the present
war, at any rate, he is not. as Blanche
wrote, without tenderness or commits
Grafton. The widow and her children
amid the ruins of their battle-swept
home are depicted with true sympathy
There is pathos in this picture. In his
two court scenes, however, and in his
study of a well-fed picture dealer
haggling in the studio of an emaciated
artist, the note is the same as that
which necessarily recurs in the draw
ings Of Forain's immortal albums, u
the note of piercing comment on the
drab movement of contemporary life
1t is fascinating note as he sounds it
because we are aware with it not only
Of human truth but Of great skill ant
Of that rare element which is called
style. Forain is not a distinguished
colorist. The low tones with which ht
is most successful are significant O.
his long addiction to black and white
But he extracts a sufficient play O.
modulations from his rather sombe
schemes, and we are Indifferent to hi
Indifference to lighter keys. 1t i
enough that he gives US the SAVIOR O
life, enriched by the originality O
genius. He has been compared will
Daumier. In sense he is of the lin,