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258 mjR BAiRIS O0BBBSH^I)E3r£. *
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
I Pakis, May 18, 1863.
_Napoleon , and at th . e ® ih . er & Juuteml _* Behind is a jfire-place , ; _silA as one sees in the private apartments of the _Ibileries , The ione
of the whole is sober , and even severe . It is the antithesis M the " _sensation" style of portraitor genre picture . There is
, _nothing in it of regal _grandeur , or Imperial luxury- —no _attempt at a , _heroic—4 hat is to saymelodramatie- _^ attitudeno violent _effects
, , of any kind , anymore than in an antique bust . jLike the artists of ancient Rome , Flandrin strives , and strives
successfully , to combine the ideal with the real , or rather , to eleminate the ideal from nature . Nature with him is the basis , but
not the end , of art . By keeping in mind that the " real " must be _always the starting point of the artisthe keeps dear of the < 3 on- ;
, ceits into which so many of the followers of Ary Seheffer and Delacroix fall . His drawing impresses one too strongly with a
sentiment of its truthfulness not to be rigorously exact . His outlines are bold without effortand severe without baldness .
, * EEis colouring is striking without / being glaring , or even brilliant , and the expression of his heads life-like ,, sometimes penetrating ,
at all times full of character , and free from everything that looks like a straining of the muscles or the tearing of a passion to
tatters . It has been aptly said of him , "II traduit la realite humaine tout en restant poete , et ainsi tout en irepresentant la
tete d ' un homme il exprime sa pensee . " In reproducing faithfully the features of his sitters , Flandrin
does more than depict them physically . He treats the face as though it were but the outward sign of an invisible and living soul .
He has most especially treated thus the head of the Emperor . On it is marked Napoleon's character , his habits , and the history of
his mind . Notwithstanding the quiet tone of the whole , and even a certain repulsive selfishness , a snaky coldness , one cannot help
feeling that there is a providential man—one destined to accomplish some great work which he alone could accomplish . Beneath
the phosphorescent light which plays over the half-closed eye , one discerns even more than the long-sightedness of sagacity—under
it there is strangely combined with the instinct of self-preservation almost pushed to genius , a something that approaches prescience .
With his clairvoyance there is not any of that irritability which belongs to those beings whose fine organizations enable them
to feel coming events . It rather lends firmness to _, obstinacy by -enlightening itand strips self-confidence 'of rashness by leading
the mind to ponder , upon the future , and prepare for the mutations which time will bring about . There is also a slight—a very slight
—tinge of melancholy in the strange , ugly , and still fascinating physiognomy of the Emperorwhich suggests more than it tells of an
introspective life , for such was , his till 1848 . The lines of his face are also marked by years of privation , of disappointment , and of a
mind self-contained , and no less practical than , speculative .
258 Mjr Bairis O0bbbsh^I)E3r£. *
258 mjR BAiRIS O 0 _BBBSH _^ I ) E 3 _r _£ . *
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1863, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061863/page/42/
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