TRUE SINCERITY

The painter Ingres had his violin... It happens that writers enjoy handling the brush. Emile Bergerat washed watercolors, Camille Mauclair succeeded in interesting pastels, Max Jacob painted in oils and also, not long ago, Léon Dierx, prince of poets.

He would sit outdoors, in front of a high easel and conscientiously impasto his canvas. But an indiscreet person noticed that Léon Dierx never copied the landscape he had in front of him.

— Master, he said to him one day, I am looking for what motif you have chosen and shall I admit it to you? I cannot discover it.

—Know, Sir, replied Léon Dierx superbly, that I turn my back on nature so as not to be impressed by it.