New-York tribune., 1922-09-24
What the Late Leon Bonnat
Stood For I'm French Art
Traits of Distinguished Painter Who Died Recently
i'm Paris; His Constructive Influence Upon
Mem i'm the American School

Bonnat's southern yigor shows through,
The reason why he never became a
mere Sa1onnier is that he had too
much vitality, was too ardently lover
of the truth and too sincere q painter
Of it.
The fact comes put the most advan-
tageously for his fame in his por-
traits, especially his portraits of men.
His generation gave him subjects ex-
acty suited to his gifts. Victor Hugo
was one of his sitters. Pasteur was
another. He painted Theirs and Dumas,
Cardinal Lavigerie and Gounod. They
were celebrities. The status of his sit
ter as we'll as his own style was cal
culated to range him as painter of
the "official portrait" He made it a
fairly conventional thing in pose and
feeling. There was nothing impress
sionistic about him, nothing very per-
sonal. And too often he could be, as
has been said, as hard as nails. But
what power there was in his hardness,
and, above all, what artistic rectitude!
That is the secret of this painters
undeniable eminence. He could draw
like a master, and a head painted by
him is nothing if not automatically
built. And while he was not precise
ly painter Of mysterious personal
force, enveloping portrait in atmo-
sphere, charm, he had a distinction
which was his own.
l once sat in the studio Of an Ameri-
can artist, watching him at work upon
a copy of Bonnat portrait. 1t was a
simple example, straightforward
study of man of affairs. The copyist
was himself painter Of ability. His
version was a good one. But when it
came to the craftsmanship in the
original there was a certain flowing
vitality in it, a certain proud strength,
which he couldn't quite capture. In
short, Bonnat was no mechanical acad-
emician. Technically he had in his
way, genius. 1t was the genius of an
idea, Of the discipline cited above, of
the faith in honest workmanship. This
is the virtue that explains the loyalty
Of so many American artists,
trained in the Paris of somewhat
earlier day, to such types as Laurens
! Bouguereau, Ger6me, Lefebvre-and
Bonnat. They do not to-day imi,
tate their old masters. They know per-
fectly we'll that more than one style
formerly triumphant in the Salon il
now as dead as julius Cesar. But OF
the basis of those styles they formed
themselves, the basis of conscientious
craftsmanship. When a man like Bon
nat dies no vivid, actively functi tionint
movement goes with him. But we lose
little of the energy that belongs te
the great ground-swell Of art, funda
mental technique.
Bonnat leaves an enduring monu
ment in his portraiture, in the Ions
series of studies of men which are al
lied with the simple, decisive tradition
of Holbein. And he has anothe,
memorial in the halls of the littl,
Musee Bonnat at Bayonne. To these
he was for years wont to send some o.
his choicest treasures, the drawing
and paintings which he was always
collecting. He had great fair fol
beauty and particularly for that re
vealed in magnificent draughtsman
ship. He collected the drawings 0.
Michael Angelo, Rembrandt, Vatican
Leonardo, Durcr and so on. Like
Degas he had cult for Ingres, and a
Bayonne, besides replica of the fa
nous painting of Madame Devaucay
there is wonderful sheaf of the
drawings. In his home in Paris there
is an even larger and more varied col
lection. There was q rumor some time
ago that it was at his death to be di
vided between the Louvre and Bayonne
We have yet to hear defnitively on this
subject. In any case it is tolerablS
| certain that the treasures will go tc
the public,
They will illustrate perfect taste
and an unmeasured generosity. It was
| like Bonnat to give. He gave, as
have seen, to Bayonne. He gave in hi
| lifetime to Paris. One of the gems
the Louvre is book of Rembranf
drawings that he bestowed upon tn
great museum. He gave to America i
that he helped to train our artists, ah.
there is a pretty episode of his late
years which shows how sympathetic h
was toward US. In 1919, when on ths
invitation of tho Fnerch government an