ABSTRACT
HERE is an attempt to make a portrait, or rather a collective portrait, like one of those pictured corporations by an old Flemish master. Here is a portrait of the French village of Janac in Upper Languedoc, taken from the door of the Hôtel Sestrol. You will perceive in the centre the figures of Monsieur and Madame Sestrol and their son Raymond; grouped about them are the baker, the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the épicier-cobbler, the ex-American soldier, the mad priest, the garde champêtre, the juge de paix, etc., fading into a mass of villagers and peasantry, some suggested, others merely indicated. The picture, admittedly, suffers from the disadvantages of the portrait—it is seen from one angle only and in one lighting.
