John N. Raphael, well known amongst Paris correspondents,
who contributed the clever literary sketches which the drawings by
Reynolds nominally illustrated, explorations were made not only to
those familiar haunts of which the names are known to the veriest
tripper, but into the heart of that Paris which is _terra incognita_
to the casual stranger.
[Illustration: FRIVOLITY.
_Time Sketch: London Sketch Club._]
Thus we have in these drawings a true Paris and the true Parisian--not
the traditional caricature which, though founded possibly on fundamental
facts, has been so elaborated as to bear no more resemblance to the
real thing than the libellous figure with lantern jaws, protruding
front teeth, and side whiskers, generally beloved of the French
artist, bears to the typical Englishman. Take, for example, the
drawing of French workpeople at dinner (page 8), made from a sketch
in a Belleville _cafe_. There is no exaggeration here, but a literal
transcript from life, which reveals, as it were, in one flash, a
whole epitome of town life in working France.
[Illustration]
Consider again his drawings of Parisian types. No portrait could
more nicely hit off the characteristic slouch of the _piou-piou_
(as Tommy Atkins is called in France), nor catch with more delicate
charm the personality of the French grisette of a certain type, than
the pencil drawing "Vive l'Armee" (page 49).
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30