Chardin: 1699–1779 by Pierre Rosenberg (review)

328 Books his own work. Above all. he read Henry Thoreau’s Walden. Milne’s reexposure to Thoreau’s description of his contemplative and selfsufficient life at Walden Pond inspired Milne’s subsequent life-style. Until his death he led a semi-nomadic life, frequently camping out or living in simple shacks he built with his own hands, both in New York State and. after 1929. in his native Ontario, Canada. In addition to establishing his future life style, Walden confirmed Milne’s profound philosophical commitment to the detailed observation of nature, to the discipline of self-education, and to simplicity as the cardinal rule of life and art. Like Thoreau, Milne escaped to the woods by choice, a civilized man equipped to shape his own life and his own artistic vision. By 1920Milne was consciously working in series. Reflections were a recurrent theme. Painting methods, invented to render the reflection of an image in still water, had by 1921 been extended to other subjects and had contributed to Milne’s developing style. Milne began to make drypoints in 1922.As does a reflected image, the print at first appears to duplicate the original plate: in fact, variations in colour, or in the manner of inking or wiping the plate. make each print unique. Improvisation was the greatest appeal of the medium. Drypoints were yet another means of transferring discoveries in one medium to another. Editions of prints were apt to end when Milne was finished experimenting. The record of false turns and temporary setbacks has as much interest for us as the record of success. Milne never cared to conform. In New York he was never one of the ‘Europeanizing’ Ten American Painters, nor one of the ‘democratic’ Eight. At home in Canada, he was never one of the ‘nationalistic’Group of Seven. His dry comment was simply, ‘Iwouldn’t like there to be more than one of me.’ Walden Pond was long considered bottomless. Thoreau, however, made accurate measurements, and brought the local legend to an end. Thoreau mused, ‘What if all ponds were shallow?. ..I am thankful that this pond was made deep and pure for a symbol.’ Milne’s wooded hillside rhymed in glassy water is revealed in this splendid book as a symbol of the boundless vitality of creative growth. Chardin: 1699-1 779. Pierre Rosenberg. Indiana Univ. Press, London, 1979. 423 pp. €15.75. ISBN: 0-910386-49-8. Reviewed by Peter Cannon-Brookes* Art exhibition catalogues can be broadly divided into two categoriesthose intended to be used within the exhibition as guides to the displays and those intended by their sizeand scholarly content to perform a more commemorative function. The catalogue of the 1979-80 Chardin Exhibition combines characteristics of both. Like the French edition, of which it is a translation with few changes, it is rather too heavy for comfortable use in the exhibition itself, and all the catalogue entries for the Paris exhibition are translated, whether or not the works described were exhibited in Cleveland or Boston. In fact, of the 142 works displayed in Paris, 90were shown in the United States. The decision to translate the French catalogue in its entirety, apart from the biography of Chardin which is left in its original French, was undoubtedly right in that Pierre Rosenberg’s closely argued analyses of individual paintings and his cross-references have been preserved intact. More important, the lack of any up-to-date monograph devoted to Chardin meant from the outset that the French and English language catalogues of the 1979 exhibition would inevitably become important works of reference, and thus there was every justification for inclusion of a wide range of Chardin studies in both editions so that they could continue to perform a valuable function long after the exhibition had been dispersed, as well as to be marketed independently as books. In this context it is worth questioning the policy of the RCunion des MusCes Nationaux, maintained by the Cleveland Museum of Art with the Indiana University Press, to publish catalogues of this size and quality only in paperback editions when the basic strategy assumes long-term sales. A cased library edition, despite the increased cost...