actual portraits, his own townspeople have taken such dire offence at what appeared to them as hits at themselves, that they have so far boycotted the satirist that he willingly banishes himself from the town in which he passed his youth, It is even reported that one old lady said, quite seriously, that if he ever dared to draw her she would disfigure him for life with vitriol, Possibly this is the marvellous person, in a good temper, whose physiognomy appears on the cover of the Huard number of "L' Album."
Of course it is not to be denied that Huard has "made game" of the provincials; and, knowing the inherent pettiness of the classes he has held up to ridicule, it is small wonder that they resent fun poked at their expense by one who to them can appear to be no less than a traitor, Huard, however, is never spiteful or malicious; he sees better and further than his neighbours, and he knows how to tell the truth about what he has seen, without being warped by local influences.
A perusal of "Province," and other works to be mentioned, will, I am sure, prove the truth of these remarks.
His figures are as a rule set in fitting urban landscapes, every whit as truthful as the personages they frame. Look at the drawing among those classed Les Officiels, entitled Midday Mass is far the most aristocratic — wherein a procession of regular church-goers debouches out of a picturesque, half-hearted,
