Malherbe

Because over 40 years ago Dealer George Durand-Ruel risked his fortune and his reputation by buying and backing the works of the great French Impressionists, his family and his firm have not had to worry since. Because it will always buy back any picture it sells, the firm can go to its storerooms in either Paris or New York and at a moment's notice produce an exhibition of Renoir, Monet, Degas or the rest, to knock out the public's eye. At long intervals the partners remember their duty to living art, introduce a new talent. They seldom take much of a chance. Any painter sponsored by cautious Durand-Ruel is apt to have enduring ability, and their patronage launches him convincingly. Last week this distinguished firm was showing for the second time in seven years the works of a youthful Frenchman named William Malherbe. Critics immediately wrote him down as a talent to watch.

Painting very faintly in the manner of Bonnard and Renoir, Artist Malherbe is a vivid colorist, specializing in dashing, brilliant-hued landscapes, flower pieces and nudes. His brother Henry is a well-known music critic. Hard working, and after four years in the War almost pathologically shy, Artist Malherbe has just one interest out side his painting: Nornie, his black-saddled wirehaired fox terrier, which he likes to put in figure compositions. Represented in a dozen good collections, Artist Malherbe has a technical peculiarity. He paints everything on panels of soft wood, to ab sorb the excess oil in his pigments, and refuses to varnish any picture until ten years after he has painted it. He believes colors take that long to dry.

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