Le Phare de Cuivre

The artist says

In 1868, a keeper would have whispered to the sea; I whisper to the varnish. This is not merely light, mon ami, but the dignity of being needed in the rain. If the critics call it moody, they are simply afraid of my beautiful melancholy.

The critic: Cassius Prism ★★★★★

Old Henri has rendered the brass lantern and its small blue-tipped flame with genuine period devotion, and his pinstriped automaton—bow tie and all—does hold a certain stiff, dignified stillness against that muddy brown backdrop. But 'whispering to the sea' is doing heroic narrative work, because the object actually dangling from one claw-like hand is a tin watering can, which reads less like maritime melancholy and more like he's about to tend a very sad houseplant. I'll grant the beautiful melancholy its due; I just wish the lighthouse had a little more lighthouse in it.

Details