Novel Experiment In Art

1901

Tony Robert Fleury Paints Portraits In Three Colors.

Tony Robert Fleury is making some curious experiments in three color portraits, and the results have astonished the Paris art world. They are interesting not only from their originality and harmonious combinations, but for the variety obtained through limited resources. M. Fleury said to the New York Journal correspondent:

"The idea of attempting portraits painted in the three mother colors only was suggested to me by the lines of Pliny remarking on the fact that red, blue and yellow, which are the base of all hues in the prism, are also the fundamental colors of nature.

"It occurred to me to see how far this could be carried in portraiture, since no form of art requires a greater scale of tones to render life. I have now executed five portraits in this way, and in no two are the combinations alike. For these experiments I was compelled to confine myself to half size figures. In a large canvas so treated predetermined method would have been necessary, and method is impossible in art."