NAUDET, a picture-dealer who for some years had been revolutionizing the
trade. He put aside the old cautious methods, the watching for pictures
by beginners, bought for ten francs and sold for fifteen. To judge by
his appearance he might have been a nobleman, and his habits were in
keeping; he was, in fact, a pure speculator in pictures, caring nothing
for art. But he unfailingly scented success; he guessed what artists
ought to be taken up, not the ones likely to develop the genius of
a great painter, but the one whose deceptive talent, set off by a
pretended display of audacity, would command a premium in the market. He
speculated, in fact, on the ignorance and vanity of amateurs. It was
he who invented Fagerolles as a fashion, and made large sums out of his
works. His success in forcing up the prices of pictures turned his
head to some extent, and he even talked of crushing out all the other
dealers. The exaggerated rise in the price of pictures came, as was
inevitable, to an end, and in the fall which followed Naudet was
practically ruined. L'Oeuvre.
NEGREL (MADAME), sister of M. Hennebeau, the manager of the Montsou
mines.
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