"A REVOLUTION IN OIL PAINTING."

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 47, 23 August 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

"A REVOLUTION IN OIL PAINTING."

Our English files give details of the new discovery in oil painting reported by The Times's Park correspondent to have been made by M. J. lUffaelli, one of the most celebrated of tiie genr? painters among living French artists. M. Raifaelli, in describing to French and foreign painters Jus curious discovery, and combining practical demonstration with theory, began by expounding the general principles of his discovery : —"I have always beeo struck, and almost instated," he said, "at the inconveniences and complications which arise in the practice of oil painting. As long as an artist paints in his studio these inconveniences are not so numerous. Tho .painter has his brushes, his oil colours, his palettes, his eraser, and all the utensils nebessary for his work. When the prepared colours begin to run on account of the oil with whioh they are mixed, the palette can be wiped, the brushes and accessories cleaned, and according as the painter it accustomed to do this himself or employ a pupil or servant there v more or let* waste of time, but this is all. When, however, you paint a landscape or make a portrait at the sitter's house or in the open air all these troublesome details break the unity of your thought, so that you have to reconstitute your original conception, and the interruption generally becomes perceptible in the finished work. The pastel has not this inconvenience, but it hai a much, greater one ; the colour falls off and loses its tone. Even if you put a glass over it, it rarely after a time retains its original beauty and lustre. For many years I have been trying to combine the advantages of the pastel, its fine soft velvet colouring, with those of oil painting, to which time adds a> new beauty. I fancy I have succeeded, and I have therefore invited you to see a demonstration. I have contrived to put oil colours' in small solid sticks like crayons, which I rub against the canvas, wood, ivory, or paper. I have procured, as you see, one of the most complex piotures in colour and design. I shall reproduce the principal parts of it before .you, and you will be able to judge of the perfection with which this is done. As soon as it is quite dry, which will be very soon, nrv picture will be unalterable without any of those impedimenta which embarrass the painter." M. Raffaelli accordingly reproduced under our eyes a portion of the model, which it was impossible to distinguish from the original. The enthusiasm was very great, and M, Bernard, a great colourist, on looking round the pictures in the studio, exclaimed, "It is wonderful j it is a revolution in ■oil painting."