| (...) For my part, during my travels, which I used to do in Paris on a fixed date, I visited comical exhibitions set up in the devil's hut in planks. Friends led me there in a way of amusement and everyone, indeed, was writhing in it. I have noted in passing the names of some painters who seem to me less insane than the others. Will you allow me to read them? But how! my dear colleague. We have a few minutes to spare. Go for it.
Here they are: Bonnard, Cezanne, Luce Couturier, Cross, Maurice Denis, Van Dongen, Henri-Matisse, Laprade, Girieud, Lacoste, Marie Laureinicin, Lebasque, Dufrenov, Espagniat, Flandrin, Forain, Guillaumin, Luce, Marquet, Jacquetine Marval, Puy, Picasso, Odilon Redon, Rouault, KXRoussel, Seurat, Signac, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vallotton, Van Gogh, Valtat, Vuillard, Albert André.
-But it's all the catalog of Independents! - Would you prefer the price list of Rome?
It was painfully silent when the firemen saw the Cubists storm the Villa Medicis.
This scene, which could have been authentic, led to the abandonment of any school bias, of classification, to invite artists as much as possible. Regardless of their etiquette, the Commission des Beaux Arts summoned all the sculptors, all the painters who seemed to him to have to appear, with honor for them, with profit for the visitors, in an Exhibition which will not be a Salon, nor a successful sale but an image as faithful and complete as possible of contemporary art. |