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 MASTERPIECES
 IN COLOUR
 EDITED BY--
 M. HENRY ROUJON

                                 HENNER

                              (1829-1905)

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                          _IN THE SAME SERIES_


                 REYNOLDS           LE BRUN
                 VELASQUEZ          CHARDIN
                 GREUZE             MILLET
                 TURNER             RAEBURN
                 BOTTICELLI         SARGENT
                 ROMNEY             CONSTABLE
                 REMBRANDT          MEMLING
                 BELLINI            FRAGONARD
                 FRA ANGELICO       DÜRER
                 ROSSETTI           LAWRENCE
                 RAPHAEL            HOGARTH
                 LEIGHTON           WATTEAU
                 HOLMAN HUNT        MURILLO
                 TITIAN             WATTS
                 MILLAIS            INGRES
                 LUINI              COROT
                 FRANZ HALS         DELACROIX
                 CARLO DOLCI        FRA LIPPO LIPPI
                 GAINSBOROUGH       PUVIS DE CHAVANNES
                 TINTORETTO         MEISSONIER
                 VAN DYCK           GÉRÔME
                 DA VINCI           VERONESE
                 WHISTLER           VAN EYCK
                 RUBENS             FROMENTIN
                 BOUCHER            MANTEGNA
                 HOLBEIN            PERUGINO
                 BURNE-JONES        ROSA BONHEUR

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: PLATE I.--THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE BLUE RIBBON

(Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts)

This little portrait, charmingly delicate and delightful in colouring,
belongs to the first period of the painter's life. None the less,
it is remarkable in execution and in truth.]

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                                 HENNER

                            _BY FR. CRASTRE_

                       TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
                        BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER

                        _ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT
                        REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR_

                    [Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.]

                      FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
                          NEW YORK--PUBLISHERS

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                          COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
                      FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY


               _Printed in the United States of America_

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                CONTENTS


                                              Page
                      The First Years           18
                      The Arrival at Paris      29
                      The Years in Rome         37
                      The Works of Henner       44
                      The Portrait Painter      72

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                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


       Plate
          I. The Little Girl with the Blue Ribbon   Frontispiece
             Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts

         II. The Reclining Nymph                              14
             Luxembourg Museum

        III. Portrait of Mlle. L                              24
             Luxembourg Museum

         IV. The Little Writer                                34
             Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts

          V. Bara                                             40
             Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts

         VI. The Comtesse Diana                               50
             Luxembourg Museum

        VII. The Naiad                                        60
             Luxembourg Museum

       VIII. The Magdalen with the Crucifix                   70
             Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Illustration: Line drawing of Henner]

There is no one who has not chanced, sooner or later, to pass the
window of some picture dealer and find himself irresistibly attracted
by a canvas forming a patch of fluid gold, a luminous vapour bathing
the white body of a woman, white with that rich, warm whiteness that
reveals, through the transparency of the skin, the inner flame, the
bounding blood, the pulsing life. Such a picture was a Henner. And when
you have come into contact, if only for once, with a work by this
incomparable artist, the effect is lasting; you recognize any and all
of his works at the first glance, just as you recognize a friend in the
street, even before he is near enough for you to distinguish his
features. So personal is Henner's manner, and so original his product,
that it is impossible to confound him with any other painter, just as
no other painter has ever been able or even attempted to imitate a type
of which he alone possessed the magic secret. Although the tomb has
barely closed above him, Henner has already entered upon his heritage
of glory. Or should we not rather say that he had entered upon it
during life, and that the unanimity of admiration which always followed
him was in the nature of a definitive judgment, which posterity has
nothing left to do but ratify? Among the most illustrious of our modern
painters, Henner is the one who possesses to the highest degree the art
of imprisoning light, of playing with it, of making it vibrate, of
using it to illumine the most profound woodland shades, or to set it
palpitating over feminine flesh. We must not seek within our own times
for any other with whom to compare him; for this we must look backward,
far backward, to the period of that glorious Venetian school of which
he seems to be a direct product. From Giorgione he derives his warm and
living flesh tints; it would seem that Titian had bequeathed to him his
profound and powerful mastery of colour; and if Correggio could see the
Nymphs and Bathing Women of Henner, he would certainly recognize in
them that same velvety delicacy and vaporous lightness with which he
himself was wont to envelop his female forms.

[Illustration: PLATE II.--RECLINING NYMPH

(Luxembourg Museum)

In