Page:The illustrators of Montmartre.pdf/66

 

VII

CHARLES HUARD

UARD has done for the denizens of the godly, deadly dull French villages and provincial towns of France what Steinlen has done for Paris — and he has done it exceedingly well. It is difficult to conceive how these worthy people, so fully convinced of their own importance, so proud of their deviltries and or their little wickednesses, and so full of tittle-tattle about their neighbours could have been better introduced to us.

Huard's collection of one hundred sketches, published in book form, and entitled "Province," should prove a valuable document to future writers on the manners and customs of a section of French provincials at the commencement of the twentieth century. He interests himself mainly with the local official and petit commerçant (or tradesman) classes, deviating occasionally to draw within his net a few stray soldiers, or some dignified member of the old nobility of France.