The early work of Raphael . Orchardsons picture would have been explanationenough without the extract in the catalogue. As I hope these pagesmay be read by some outside that small minority, as Voltaire is, perhaps,Orchardsons masterpiece in its class, and as a book is, after all, thebetter for explaining itself, I may be excused if I repeat the story. It is about 1720. A large party is dining with the Due de the guests are the young Arouet de Voltaire and the Chevalierde Rohan-Chabot, notorious for usury and cowardice, vices not oftenallied with the grands noms of France. Voltaire
The early work of Raphael . Orchardsons picture would have been explanationenough without the extract in the catalogue. As I hope these pagesmay be read by some outside that small minority, as Voltaire is, perhaps,Orchardsons masterpiece in its class, and as a book is, after all, thebetter for explaining itself, I may be excused if I repeat the story. It is about 1720. A large party is dining with the Due de the guests are the young Arouet de Voltaire and the Chevalierde Rohan-Chabot, notorious for usury and cowardice, vices not oftenallied with the grands noms of France. Voltaire ventures to contradictsome assertion of the Chevaliers, who thereupon calls out with a sneer : Who is this young man who talks so loudly ? Monsieur leChevalier, replies Voltaire, it is one who, if he cannot boast a greatname, at least knows how to make the name he does bear honoured. Thechevalier goes out in a cool fury, and the company thank his conquerorfor driving him off the field. Presently comes one with a message to. 4 J THE ART OF WILLIAM QUILLER ORCHARBSON 51 Voltaire, seducing him into the street by one of those tales of distress towhich his ears were never closed. A great racket ensues, and in a fewminutes Voltaire reappears in the dining-room, his clothes disordered, hiswig awry, his face inflamed with rage, and calls on his host to avenge anoutrage to himself just consummated on the person of his guest, who hasbeen set upon and beaten by the footmen of Rohan. Sully, with manyshrugs and phrases of regret, excuses himself from avenging a roturier ona ruffian of his own caste. There is the subject, and we cannot deny that it leaves too muchoutside the canvas to be an ideal one for pictorial treatment. On theother hand, it lends itself superbly to design and colour. The splendidroom, the long table with its load of glass and gold, the figures aboutit, richly dressed and expressing a variety of emotions in the subtleway proper to a well-bred crowd, the deprecating duke,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookde, booksubjectraphael14831520, bookyear1895
