listens, half fearing the ardent words of the young exquisite who is stealing a conversation with her.
Balluriau also knows how to deal with subjects requiring more vigour of treatment — such as he displays in his Breton figure subjects. His drawing Partance is a case in point. The scene is laid in a sailors' cabaret, on the tiled floor are rough tables, at and on which sit peaceful groups of Breton peasants; and sailor-men and buxom bonnes are bidding each other their last adieux — for the sailors are about to embark in one of the ships we see through the wide-open window.
And in the rare drawings where he touches on poverty and serious tragedy he proves himself impressive and capable of deep feeling. His drawings La Toussaint Heroique, the terrible beer-house brawl, L'Eté, and Un Mendiant Rousse, are worthy of Steinlen.
But it is in his illustrations of classical and allegorical subjects that he stands alone, and shows his greatest individuality.
Such subjects as his Bacchantes, his weird Vers le Sabbat, his Chloé, or his La Mort des Lys, to mention but a few in the Gil Blas alone, could have come from no other hand; for excellency of draughtsmanship combined with trained camposition and an exquisitely refined sense of colour, they are hard to beat.
