Le Roi des Fleurs—A Citizen of the Republic [pp. 234-236]

LE ROI DES FLEURS
A CITIZEN OF THE REPUBLIC
BY PIERRE N. B3ERINGER
H E is not a painter; he's a botan is,t," said a brother artist as he
looked at a collection of iDe
Longpr6's originals.
The remark set me to thinking. I pondered upon what would seem a frank and
honest criticism of the great painter's
work, and as I wandered from painting to
painting I could not help but acknowledge
that the Malster is a botanist-yea, a ma,ster-hand at botany. And I would go fur —
ther; in flower-painting, De Lo.ngpr6 has
established a'"school" entirely his own.
The published reproductions are misleading in that they convey the idea of a narrow technique, what the French call
finiolan, and which may be liberally translated to "finicky." Nothing is farther from
the truth. And speaking of truth carries
the critic straight back to the subject.
Never has the water-colorist displayed
such purity of pigment laid upon the
paper with such absolute surety of touch.
And upon every petal and leaf is stamped
"truth.".
The great flower-painter's personality
is as charming as his painting. He has
as intense a love for his pet subject as
Omar of old. As a boy, while wandering
about the fie]ds, the desire to paint came
upon him almost as soon as his great love
for the field-flowers of fair France.
He is entirely self-taught. His accent
is unmistakable and stamps him a
Frenchman. But it does not take the
stranger long to discover that De Longpr6
is a Frenchman in name and accent only.
He is an American in all that the word implies, full of an intense patriotism for the
land of his adoption. And this is typical
of his truthful nature and the immense
independence of his character.