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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The French Impressionists (1860-1900) + +Author: Camille Mauclair + +Release Date: November 15, 2004 [eBook #14056] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS +(1860-1900)*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the lovely original illustrations. + See 14056-h.htm or 14056-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/5/14056/14056-h/14056-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/5/14056/14056-h.zip) + + + + + +THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS (1860-1900) + +by + +CAMILLE MAUCLAIR + +Author of _L'art en Silence_, _Les Mères Sociales_, etc. + +Translated from the French text of Camille Mauclair, by P. G. Konody + +London: Duckworth & Co. +New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. +Turnbull and Spears, Printers, Edinburgh + +1903 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +AT THE PIANO] + + + + +To + +AUGUSTE BRÉAL + +TO THE ARTIST AND TO THE FRIEND + +AS A MARK OF GRATEFUL AFFECTION + +C.M. + + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + +It should be stated here that, with the exception of one reproduction +after the Neo-Impressionist Van Rysselberghe, the other forty-nine +engravings illustrating this volume I owe to the courtesy of M. +Durand-Ruel, from the first the friend of the Impressionist painters, +and later the most important collector of their works, a friend who has +been good enough to place at our disposal the photographs from which our +illustrations have been reproduced. Chosen from a considerable +collection which has been formed for thirty years past, these +photographs, none of which are for sale, form a veritable and unique +museum of documents on Impressionist art, which is made even more +valuable through the dispersal of the principal masterpieces of this art +among the private collections of Europe and America. We render our +thanks to M. Durand-Ruel no less in the name of the public interested in +art, than in our own. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + I. THE PRECURSORS OF IMPRESSIONISM--THE + BEGINNING OF THIS MOVEMENT, THE + ORIGIN OF ITS NAME + + II. THE THEORY OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS--THE + DIVISION OF TONES, COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS, + THE STUDY OF ATMOSPHERE--THE IDEAS OF THE + IMPRESSIONISTS ON SUBJECT-PICTURES, ON + THE BEAUTY OF CHARACTER, ON MODERNITY, + AND ON STYLE + +III. EDOUARD MANET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + IV. EDGAR DEGAS: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + V. CLAUDE MONET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + VI. AUGUSTE RENOIR: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + VII. PISSARRO, SISLEY, CAILLEBOTTE, + CÉZANNE, BERTHE MORISOT, MARY CASSATT; + THE SECONDARY ARTISTS OF + IMPRESSIONISM--JONGKIND, BOUDIN + +VIII. THE MODERN ILLUSTRATORS CONNECTED WITH + IMPRESSIONISM: RAFFAËLLI, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, + FORAIN, CHÉRET, ETC. + + IX. NEO-IMPRESSIONISM: GAUGUIN, DENIS, + THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE--THE THEORY OF + POINTILLISM--SEURAT, SIGNAC AND THE + THEORIES OF SCIENTIFIC CHROMATISM--FAULTS + AND QUALITIES OF THE + IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT, WHAT WE OWE + TO IT, ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE + FRENCH SCHOOL--SOME WORDS ON ITS + INFLUENCE ABROAD + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + +RENOIR. At the Piano (Frontispiece) + +MANET. Rest + +MANET. In the Square + +MANET. Young Man in Costume of Majo + +MANET. The Reader + +DEGAS. The Dancer at the Photographer's + +DEGAS. Carriages at the Races + +DEGAS. The Greek Dance--Pastel + +DEGAS. Waiting + +CLAUDE MONET. The Pines + +CLAUDE MONET. Church at Vernon + +RENOIR. Portrait of Madame Maitre + +MANET. The Dead Toreador + +MANET. Olympia + +MANET. The Woman with the Parrot + +MANET. The Bar at the Folies Bergère + +MANET. Déjeuner + +MANET. Portrait of Madame M. L. + +MANET. The Hothouse + +DEGAS. The Beggar Woman + +DEGAS. The Lesson in the Foyer + +DEGAS. The Dancing Lesson--Pastel + +DEGAS. The Dancers + +DEGAS. Horses in the Meadows + +CLAUDE MONET. An Interior after Dinner + +CLAUDE MONET. The Harbour, Honfleur + +CLAUDE MONET. The Church at Varengeville + +CLAUDE MONET. Poplars on the Epte in Autumn + +CLAUDE MONET. The Bridge at Argenteuil + +RENOIR. Déjeuner + +RENOIR. In the Box + +RENOIR. Young Girl Promenading + +RENOIR. Woman's Bust + +RENOIR. Young Woman in Empire Costume + +RENOIR. On the Terrace + +PISSARRO. Rue de l'Epicerie, Rouen + +PISSARRO. Boulevard Montmartre + +PISSARRO. The Boildieaux Bridge at Rouen + +PISSARRO. The Avenue de l'Opéra + +SISLEY. Snow Effect + +SISLEY. Bougival, at the Water's Edge + +SISLEY. Bridge at Moret + +CÉZANNE. Dessert + +BERTHE MORISOT. Melancholy + +BERTHE MORISOT. Young Woman Seated + +MARY CASSATT. Getting up Baby + +MARY CASSATT. Women and Child + +JONGKIND. In Holland + +JONGKIND. View of the Hague + +THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE. Portraits of Madame van Rysselberghe and her + Daughter + + + + +NOTE TO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +The illustrations contained in this volume have been taken from +different epochs of the Impressionist movement. They will give but a +feeble idea of the extreme abundance of its production. + +Banished from the salons, exhibited in private galleries and sold direct +to art lovers, the Impressionist works have been but little seen. The +series left by Caillebotte to the Luxembourg Gallery is very badly shown +and is composed of interesting works which, however, date back to the +early period, and are very inferior to the beautiful productions which +followed later. Renoir is best represented. The private galleries in +Paris, where the best Impressionist works are to be found, are those of +MM. Durand-Ruel, Rouart, de Bellis, de Camondo, and Manzi, to which must +be added the one sold by MM. Théodore Duret and Faure, and the one of +Mme. Ernest Rouart, daughter of Mme. Morisot, the sister-in-law of +Manet. The public galleries of M. Durand-Ruel's show-rooms are the place +where it is easiest to find numerous Impressionist pictures. + +In spite of the firm opposition of the official juries, a place of +honour was reserved at the Exposition of 1889 for Manet, and at that of +1900 a fine collection of Impressionists occupied two rooms and caused a +considerable stir. + +Amongst the critics who have most faithfully assisted this group of +artists, I must mention, besides the early friends previously referred +to, Castagnary, Burty, Edouard de Goncourt, Roger Marx, Geffroy, Arsène +Alexandre, Octave Mirbeau, L. de Fourcaud, Clemenceau, Mallarmé, +Huysmans, Jules Laforgue, and nearly all the critics of the Symbolist +reviews. A book on "Impressionist Art" by M. Georges Lecomte has been +published by the firm of Durand-Ruel as an _edition-de-luxe_. But the +bibliography of this art consists as yet almost exclusively of articles +in journals and reviews and of some isolated biographical pamphlets. +Manet is, amongst many, the one who has excited most criticism of all +kinds; the articles, caricatures and pamphlets relating to his work +would form a considerable collection. It should be added that, with the +exception of Manet two years before his death, and Renoir last year at +the age of sixty-eight, no Impressionist has been decorated by the +French government. In England such a distinction has even less +importance in itself than elsewhere. But if I insist upon it, it is only +to draw attention to the fact that, through the sheer force of their +talent, men like Degas, Monet and Pissarro have achieved great fame and +fortune, without gaining access to the Salons, without official +encouragement, decoration, subvention or purchases for the national +museums. This is a very significant instance and serves well to complete +the physiognomy of this group of independents. + + + + +I + +THE PRECURSORS OF IMPRESSIONISM--THE BEGINNING OF THIS MOVEMENT AND THE +ORIGIN OF ITS NAME + + +It will be beyond the scope of this volume to give a complete history of +French Impressionism, and to include all the attractive details to which +it might lead, as regards the movement itself and the very curious epoch +during which its evolution has taken place. The proportions of this book +confine its aim to the clearest possible summing up for the British +reader of the ideas, the personalities and the works of a considerable +group of artists who, for various reasons, have remained but little +known and who have only too frequently been gravely misjudged. These +reasons are very obvious: first, the Impressionists have been unable to +make a show at the Salons, partly because the jury refused them +admission, partly because they held aloof of their own free will. They +have, with very rare exceptions, exhibited at special minor galleries, +where they become known to a very restricted public. Ever attacked, and +poor until the last few years, they enjoyed none of the benefits of +publicity and sham glory. It is only quite recently that the admission +of the incomplete and badly arranged Caillebotte collection to the +Luxembourg Gallery has enabled the public to form a summary idea of +Impressionism. To conclude the enumeration of the obstacles, it must be +added that there are hardly any photographs of Impressionist works in +the market. As it is, photography is but a poor translation of these +canvases devoted to the study of the play of light; but even this very +feeble means of distribution has been withheld from them! Exhibited at +some galleries, gathered principally by Durand-Ruel, sold directly to +art-lovers--foreigners mostly--these large series of works have +practically remained unknown to the French public. All the public heard +was the reproaches and sarcastic comments of the opponents, and they +never became aware that in the midst of modern life the greatest, the +richest movement was in progress, which the French school had known +since the days of Romanticism. Impressionism has been made known to them +principally by the controversies and by the fruitful consequences of +this movement for the illustration and study of contemporary life. + +[Illustration: MANET + +REST] + +I do not profess to give here a detailed and complete history of +Impressionism, for which several volumes like the present one would be +required. I shall only try to compile an _ensemble_ of concise and very +precise notions and statements bearing upon this vast subject. It will +be my special object to try and prove that Impressionism is neither an +isolated manifestation, nor a violent denial of the French traditions, +but nothing more or less than a logical return to the very spirit of +these traditions, contrary to the theories upheld by its detractors. It +is for this reason that I have made use of the first chapter to say a +few words on the precursors of this movement. + +No art manifestation is really isolated. However new it may seem, it is +always based upon the previous epochs. The true masters do not give +lessons, because art cannot be taught, but they set the example. To +admire them does not mean to imitate them: it means the recognition in +them of the principles of originality and the comprehension of their +source, so that this eternal source may be called to life in oneself, +this source which springs from a sincere and sympathetic vision of the +aspects of life. The Impressionists have not escaped this beautiful law. +I shall speak of them impartially, without excessive enthusiasm; and it +will be my special endeavour to demonstrate in each of them the cult of +a predecessor, for there have been few artistic movements where the love +for, and one might say the hereditary link with, the preceding masters +has been more tenacious. + +The Academy has struggled violently against Impressionism, accusing it +of madness, of systematic negation of the "laws of beauty," which it +pretended to defend and of which it claimed to be the official priest. +The Academy has shown itself hostile to a degree in this quarrel. It has +excluded the Impressionists from the Salons, from awards, from official +purchases. Only quite recently the acceptance of the Caillebotte +bequest to the Luxembourg Gallery gave rise to a storm of indignation +among the official painters. I shall, in the course of this book, enter +upon the value of these attacks. Meanwhile I can only say how +regrettable this obstinacy appears to me and will appear to every free +spirit. It is unworthy even of an ardent conviction to condemn a whole +group of artists _en bloc_ as fools, enemies of beauty, or as tricksters +anxious to degrade the art of their nation, when these artists worked +during forty years towards the same goal, without getting any reward for +their effort, but poverty and derision. It is now about ten years since +Impressionism has taken root, since its followers can sell their +canvases, and since they are admired and praised by a solid and +ever-growing section of the public. The hour has therefore arrived, +calmly to consider a movement which has imposed itself upon the history +of French art from 1860 to 1900 with extreme energy, to leave +dithyrambics as well as polemics, and to speak of it with a view to +exactness. The Academy, in continuing the propagation of an ideal of +beauty fixed by canons derived from Greek, Latin and Renaissance art, +and neglecting the Gothic, the Primitives and the Realists, looks upon +itself as the guardian of the national tradition, because it exercises +an hierarchic authority over the _Ecole de Rome_, the _Salons_, and the +_Ecole des Beaux Arts_. All the same, its ideals are of very mixed +origin and very little French. Its principles are the same by which the +academic art of nearly all the official schools of Europe is governed. +This mythological and allegorical art, guided by dogmas and formulas +which are imposed upon all pupils regardless of their temperament, is +far more international than national. To an impartial critic this +statement will show in an even more curious light the excommunication +jealously issued by the academic painters against French artists, who, +far from revolting in an absurd spirit of _parti-pris_ against the +genius of their race, are perhaps more sincerely attached to it than +their persecutors. Why should a group of men deliberately choose to +paint mad, illogical, bad pictures, and reap a harvest of public +derision, poverty and sterility? It would be uncritical to believe +merely in a general mystification which makes its authors the worst +sufferers. Simple common sense will find in these men a conviction, a +sincerity, a sustained effort, and this alone should, in the name of the +sacred solidarity of those who by various means try to express their +love of the beautiful, suppress the annoying accusations hurled too +light-heartedly against Manet and his friends. + +[Illustration: MANET + +IN THE SQUARE] + +I shall define later on the ideas of the Impressionists on technique, +composition and style in painting. Meanwhile it will be necessary to +indicate their principal precursors. + +Their movement may be styled thus: a reaction against the Greco-Latin +spirit and the scholastic organisation of painting after the second +Renaissance and the Italo-French school of Fontainebleau, by the century +of Louis XIV., the school of Rome, and the consular and imperial taste. +In this sense Impressionism is a protest analogous to that of +Romanticism, exclaiming, to quote the old verse: "_Qui nous délivrera +des Grecs et des Romains?_"[1] From this point of view Impressionism has +also great affinities with the ideas of the English Pre-Raphaelites, +who stepped across the second and even the first Renaissance back to the +Primitives. + +[Footnote 1: Who will deliver us from the Greeks and the Romans.] + +This reaction is superimposed by another: the reaction of Impressionism, +not only against classic subjects, but against the black painting of the +degenerate Romanticists. And these two reactions are counterbalanced by +a return to the French ideal, to the realistic and characteristic +tradition which commences with Jean Foucquet and Clouet, and is +continued by Chardin, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, Watteau, La Tour, +Fragonard, and the admirable engravers of the eighteenth century down to +the final triumph of the allegorical taste of the Roman revolution. Here +can be found a whole chain of truly national artists who have either +been misjudged, like Chardin, or considered as "small masters" and +excluded from the first rank for the benefit of the pompous Allegorists +descended from the Italian school. + +Impressionism being beyond all a technical reaction, its predecessors +should first be looked for from this material point of view. Watteau is +the most striking of all. _L'Embarquement pour Cythère_ is, in its +technique, an Impressionist canvas. It embodies the most significant +of all the principles exposed by Claude Monet: the division of tones by +juxtaposed touches of colour which, at a certain distance, produce upon +the eye of the beholder the effect of the actual colouring of the things +painted, with a variety, a freshness and a delicacy of analysis +unobtainable by a single tone prepared and mixed upon the palette. + +[Illustration: MANET + +YOUNG MAN IN COSTUME OF MAJO] + +Claude Lorrain, and after him Carle Vernet, are claimed by the +Impressionists as precursors from the point of view of decorative +landscape arrangement, and particularly of the predominance of light in +which all objects are bathed. Ruysdael and Poussin are, in their eyes, +for the same reasons precursors, especially Ruysdael, who observed so +frankly the blue colouring of the horizon and the influence of blue upon +the landscape. It is known that Turner worshipped Claude for the very +same reasons. The Impressionists in their turn, consider Turner as one +of their masters; they have the greatest admiration for this mighty +genius, this sumptuous visionary. They have it equally for Bonington, +whose technique is inspired by the same observations as their own. They +find, finally, in Delacroix the frequent and very apparent application +of their ideas. Notably in the famous _Entry of the Crusaders into +Constantinople_, the fair woman kneeling in the foreground is painted in +accordance with the principles of the division of tones: the nude back +is furrowed with blue, green and yellow touches, the juxtaposition of +which produces, at a certain distance, an admirable flesh-tone. + +And now I must speak at some length of a painter who, together with the +luminous and sparkling landscapist Félix Ziem, was the most direct +initiator of Impressionist technique. Monticelli is one of those +singular men of genius who are not connected with any school, and whose +work is an inexhaustible source of applications. He lived at Marseilles, +where he was born, made a short appearance at the Salons, and then +returned to his native town, where he died poor, ignored, paralysed and +mad. In order to live he sold his small pictures at the cafés, where +they fetched ten or twenty francs at the most. To-day they sell for +considerable prices, although the government has not yet acquired any +work by Monticelli for the public galleries. The mysterious power alone +of these paintings secures him a fame which is, alas! posthumous. Many +Monticellis have been sold by dealers as Diaz's; now they are more +eagerly looked for than Diaz, and collectors have made fortunes with +these small canvases bought formerly, to use a colloquial expression +which is here only too literally true, "for a piece of bread." + +Monticelli painted landscapes, romantic scenes, "fêtes galantes" in the +spirit of Watteau, and still-life pictures: one could not imagine a more +inspired sense of colour than shown by these works which seem to be +painted with crushed jewels, with powerful harmony, and beyond all with +an unheard-of delicacy in the perception of fine shades. There are tones +which nobody had ever invented yet, a richness, a profusion, a subtlety +which almost vie with the resources of music. The fairyland atmosphere +of these works surrounds a very firm design of charming style, but, to +use the words of the artist himself, "in these canvases the objects are +the decoration, the touches are the scales, and the light is the tenor." +Monticelli has created for himself an entirely personal technique which +can only be compared with that of Turner; he painted with a brush so +full, fat and rich, that some of the details are often truly modelled in +relief, in a substance as precious as enamels, jewels, ceramics--a +substance which is a delight in itself. Every picture by Monticelli +provokes astonishment; constructed upon one colour as upon a musical +theme, it rises to intensities which one would have thought impossible. +His pictures are magnificent bouquets, bursts of joy and colour, where +nothing is ever crude, and where everything is ruled by a supreme sense +of harmony. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE READER] + +Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Turner and Monticelli constitute really the +descent of a landscapist like Claude Monet. In all matters concerning +technique, they form the direct chain of Impressionism. As regards +design, subject, realism, the study of modern life, the conception of +beauty and the portrait, the Impressionist movement is based upon the +old French masters, principally upon Chardin, Watteau, Latour, +Largillière, Fragonard, Debucourt, Saint-Aubin, Moreau, and Eisen. It +has resolutely held aloof from mythology, academic allegory, historical +painting, and from the neo-Greek elements of Classicism as well as from +the German and Spanish elements of Romanticism. This reactionary +movement is therefore entirely French, and surely if it deserves +reproach, the one least deserved is that levelled upon it by the +official painters: disobedience to the national spirit. Impressionism is +an art which does not give much scope to intellectuality, an art whose +followers admit scarcely anything but immediate vision, rejecting +philosophy and symbols and occupying themselves only with the +consideration of light, picturesqueness, keen and clever observation, +and antipathy to abstraction, as the innate qualities of French art. We +shall see later on, when considering separately its principal masters, +that each of them has based his art upon some masters of pure French +blood. + +Impressionism has, then, hitherto been very badly judged. It is +contained in two chief points: search after a new technique, and +expression of modern reality. Its birth has not been a spontaneous +phenomenon. Manet, who, by his spirit and by the chance of his +friendships, grouped around him the principal members, commenced by +being classed in the ranks of the Realists of the second Romanticism by +the side of Courbet; and during the whole first period of his work he +only endeavoured to describe contemporary scenes, at a time when the +laws of the new technique were already dawning upon Claude Monet. +Gradually the grouping of the Impressionists took place. Claude Monet is +really the first initiator: in a parallel line with his ideas and his +works Manet passed into the second period of his artistic life, and with +him Renoir, Degas and Pissarro. But Manet had already during his first +period been the topic of far-echoing polemics, caused by his realism and +by the marked influence of the Spaniards and of Hals upon his style; his +temperament, too, was that of the head of a school; and for these +reasons legend has attached to his name the title of head of the +Impressionist school, but this legend is incorrect. + +To conclude, the very name "Impressionism" is due to Claude Monet. There +has been much serious arguing upon this famous word which has given rise +to all sorts of definitions and conclusions. In reality this is its +curious origin which is little known, even in criticism. Ever since +1860 the works of Manet and of his friends caused such a stir, that they +were rejected _en bloc_ by the Salon jury of 1863. The emperor, inspired +by a praiseworthy, liberal thought, demanded that these innovators +should at least have the right to exhibit together in a special room +which was called the _Salon des Refusés_. The public crowded there to +have a good laugh. One of the pictures which caused most derision was a +sunset by Claude Monet, entitled _Impressions_. From this moment the +painters who adopted more or less the same manner were called +_Impressionists_. The word remained in use, and Manet and his friends +thought it a matter of indifference whether this label was attached to +them, or another. At this despised Salon were to be found the names of +Manet, Monet, Whistler, Bracquemont, Jongkind, Fantin-Latour, Renoir, +Legros, and many others who have since risen to fame. Universal ridicule +only fortified the friendships and resolutions of this group of men, and +from that time dates the definite foundation of the Impressionist +school. For thirty years it continued to produce without interruption +an enormous quantity of works under an accidental and inexact +denomination; to obey the creative instinct, without any other dogma +than the passionate observation of nature, without any other assistance +than individual sympathies, in the face of the disciplinary teaching of +the official school. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE DANCER AT THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S] + + + + +II + +THE THEORY OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS--THE DIVISION OF TONES, COMPLEMENTARY +COLOURS, THE STUDY OF ATMOSPHERE--THE IDEAS OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS ON +SUBJECT-PICTURES, ON THE BEAUTY OF CHARACTER, ON MODERNITY, AND ON STYLE + + +It should be stated from the outset that there is nothing dogmatic about +this explanation of the Impressionist theories, and that it is not the +result of a preconceived plan. In art a system is not improvised. A +theory is slowly evolved, nearly always unknown to the author, from the +discoveries of his sincere instinct, and this theory can only be +formulated after years by criticism facing the works. Monet and Manet +have worked for a long time without ever thinking that theories would be +built upon their paintings. Yet a certain number of considerations will +strike the close observer, and I will put these considerations before +the reader, after reminding him that spontaneity and feeling are the +essentials of all art. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +CARRIAGES AT THE RACES] + +The Impressionist ideas may be summed up in the following manner:-- + +In nature no colour exists by itself. The colouring of the objects is a +pure illusion: the only creative source of colour is the sunlight which +envelopes all things, and reveals them, according to the hours, with +infinite modifications. The mystery of matter escapes us; we do not know +the exact moment when reality separates itself from unreality. All we +know is, that our vision has formed the habit of discerning in the +universe two notions: form and colour; but these two notions are +inseparable. Only artificially can we distinguish between outline and +colour: in nature the distinction does not exist. Light reveals the +forms, and, playing upon the different states of matter, the substance +of leaves, the grain of stones, the fluidity of air in deep layers, +gives them dissimilar colouring. If the light disappears, forms and +colours vanish together. We only see colours; everything has a colour, +and it is by the perception of the different colour surfaces striking +our eyes, that we conceive the forms, _i.e._ the outlines of these +colours. + +The idea of distance, of perspective, of volume is given us by darker or +lighter colours: this idea is what is called in painting the sense of +values. A value is the degree of dark or light intensity, which permits +our eyes to comprehend that one object is further or nearer than +another. And as painting is not and cannot be the _imitation_ of nature, +but merely her artificial interpretation, since it only has at its +disposal two out of three dimensions, the values are the only means that +remain for expressing depth on a flat surface. + +Colour is therefore the procreatrix of design. Or, colour being simply +the irradiation of light, it follows that all colour is composed of the +same elements as sunlight, namely the seven tones of the spectrum. It is +known, that these seven tones appear different owing to the unequal +speed of the waves of light. The tones of nature appear to us therefore +different, like those of the spectrum, and for the same reason. The +colours vary with the intensity of light. There is no colour peculiar +to any object, but only more or less rapid vibration of light upon its +surface. The speed depends, as is demonstrated by optics, on the degree +of the inclination of the rays which, according to their vertical or +oblique direction, give different light and colour. + +The colours of the spectrum are thus recomposed in everything we see. It +is their relative proportion which makes new tones out of the seven +spectral tones. This leads immediately to some practical conclusions, +the first of which is, that what has formerly been called _local colour_ +is an error: a leaf is not green, a tree-trunk is not brown, and, +according to the time of day, _i.e._ according to the greater or smaller +inclination of the rays (scientifically called the angle of incidence), +the green of the leaf and the brown of the tree are modified. What has +to be studied therefore in these objects, if one wishes to recall their +colour to the beholder of a picture, is the composition of the +atmosphere which separates them from the eye. This atmosphere is the +real subject of the picture, and whatever is represented upon it only +exists through its medium. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE GREEK DANCE--PASTEL.] + +A second consequence of this analysis of light is, that shadow is not +absence of light, but light of _a different quality_ and of different +value. Shadow is not a part of the landscape, where light ceases, but +where it is subordinated to a light which appears to us more intense. In +the shadow the rays of the spectrum vibrate with different speed. +Painting should therefore try to discover here, as in the light parts, +the play of the atoms of solar light, instead of representing shadows +with ready-made tones composed of bitumen and black. + +The third conclusion resulting from this: the colours in the shadow are +modified by _refraction_. That means, _f.i._ in a picture representing +an interior, the source of light (window) may not be indicated: the +light circling round the picture will then be composed of the +_reflections_ of rays whose source is invisible, and all the objects, +acting as mirrors for these reflections, will consequently influence +each other. Their colours will affect each other, even if the surfaces +be dull. A red vase placed upon a blue carpet will lead to a very +subtle, but mathematically exact, interchange between this blue and this +red, and this exchange of luminous waves will create between the two +colours a tone of reflections composed of both. These composite +reflections will form a scale of tones complementary of the two +principal colours. The science of optics can work out these +complementary colours with mathematical exactness. If _f.i._ a head +receives the orange rays of daylight from one side and the bluish light +of an interior from the other, green reflections will necessarily appear +on the nose and in the middle region of the face. The painter Besnard, +who has specially devoted himself to this minute study of complementary +colours, has given us some famous examples of it. + +The last consequence of these propositions is that the blending of the +spectral tones is accomplished by a _parallel_ and _distinct_ projection +of the colours. They are artificially reunited on the crystalline: a +lens interposed between the light and the eye, and opposing the +crystalline, which is a living lens, dissociates again these united +rays, and shows us again the seven distinct colours of the atmosphere. +It is no less artificial if a painter mixes upon his palette different +colours to compose a tone; it is again artificial that paints have been +invented which represent some of the combinations of the spectrum, just +to save the artist the trouble of constantly mixing the seven solar +tones. Such mixtures are false, and they have the disadvantage of +creating heavy tonalities, since the coarse mixture of powders and oils +cannot accomplish the action of light which reunites the luminous waves +into an intense white of unimpaired transparency. The colours mixed on +the palette compose a dirty grey. What, then, is the painter to do, who +is anxious to approach, as near as our poor human means will allow, that +divine fairyland of nature? Here we touch upon the very foundations of +Impressionism. The painter will have to paint with only the seven +colours of the spectrum, and discard all the others: that is what Claude +Monet has done boldly, adding to them only white and black. He will, +furthermore, instead of composing mixtures on his palette, place upon +his canvas touches of none but the seven colours _juxtaposed_, and leave +the individual rays of each of these colours to blend at a certain +distance, so as to act like sunlight itself upon the eye of the +beholder. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +WAITING] + +This, then, is the theory of the _dissociation of tones_, which is the +main point of Impressionist technique. It has the immense advantage of +suppressing all mixtures, of leaving to each colour its proper strength, +and consequently its freshness and brilliancy. At the same time the +difficulties are extreme. The painter's eye must be admirably subtle. +Light becomes the sole subject of the picture; the interest of the +object upon which it plays is secondary. Painting thus conceived becomes +a purely optic art, a search for harmonies, a sort of natural poem, +quite distinct from expression, style and design, which were the +principal aims of former painting. It is almost necessary to invent +another name for this special art which, clearly pictorial though it be, +comes as near to music, as it gets far away from literature and +psychology. It is only natural that, fascinated by this study, the +Impressionists have almost remained strangers to the painting of +expression, and altogether hostile to historical and symbolist painting. +It is therefore principally in landscape painting that they have +achieved the greatness that is theirs. + +Through the application of these principles which I have set forth very +summarily, Claude Monet arrived at painting by means of the infinitely +varied juxtaposition of a quantity of colour spots which dissociate the +tones of the spectrum and draw the forms of objects through the +arabesque of their vibrations. A landscape thus conceived becomes a kind +of symphony, starting from one theme (the most luminous point, _f.i._), +and developing all over the canvas the variations of this theme. This +investigation is added to the habitual preoccupations of the landscapist +study of the character peculiar to the scene, style of the trees or +houses, accentuation of the decorative side--and to the habitual +preoccupations of the figure painter in the portrait. The canvases of +Monet, Renoir and Pissarro have, in consequence of this research, an +absolutely original aspect: their shadows are striped with blue, +rose-madder and green; nothing is opaque or sooty; a light vibration +strikes the eye. Finally, blue and orange predominate, simply because in +these studies--which are more often than not full sunlight +effects--blue is the complementary colour of the orange light of the +sun, and is profusely distributed in the shadows. In these canvases can +be found a vast amount of exact grades of tone, which seem to have been +entirely ignored by the older painters, whose principal concern was +style, and who reduced a landscape to three or four broad tones, +endeavouring only to explain the sentiment inspired by it. + +And now I shall have to pass on to the Impressionists' ideas on the +style itself of painting, on Realism. + +From the outset it must not be forgotten that Impressionism has been +propagated by men who had all been Realists; that means by a reactionary +movement against classic and romantic painting. This movement, of which +Courbet will always remain the most famous representative, has been +_anti-intellectual_. It has protested against every literary, +psychologic or symbolical element in painting. It has reacted at the +same time against the historical painting of Delaroche and the +mythological painting of the _Ecole de Rome_, with an extreme violence +which appears to us excessive now, but which found its explanation in +the intolerable tediousness or emphasis at which the official painters +had arrived. Courbet was a magnificent worker, with rudimentary ideas, +and he endeavoured to exclude even those which he possessed. This +exaggeration which diminishes our admiration for his work and prevents +us from finding in it any emotion but that which results from technical +mastery, was salutary for the development of the art of his successors. +It caused the young painters to turn resolutely towards the aspects of +contemporary life, and to draw style and emotion from their own epoch; +and this intention was right. An artistic tradition is not continued by +imitating the style of the past, but by extracting the immediate +impression of each epoch. That is what the really great masters have +done, and it is the succession of their sincere and profound +observations which constitutes the style of the races. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +THE PINES] + +Manet and his friends drew all their strength from this idea. Much finer +and more learned than a man like Courbet, they saw an aspect of +modernity far more complex, and less limited to immediate and grossly +superficial realism. Nor must it be forgotten that they were +contemporaries of the realistic, anti-romantic literary movement, a +movement which gave them nothing but friends. Flaubert and the Goncourts +proved that Realism is not the enemy of refined form and of delicate +psychology. The influence of these ideas created first of all Manet and +his friends: the technical evolution (of which we have traced the chief +traits) came only much later to oppose itself to their conceptions. +Impressionism can therefore be defined as a _revolution of pictorial +technique together with an attempt at expressing modernity_. The +reaction against Symbolism and Romanticism happened to coincide with the +reaction against muddy technique. + +The Impressionists, whilst occupying themselves with cleansing the +palette of the bitumen of which the Academy made exaggerated use, whilst +also observing nature with a greater love of light, made it their object +to escape in the representation of human beings the laws of _beauty_, +such as were taught by the School. And on this point one might apply to +them all that one knows of the ideas of the Goncourts and Flaubert, and +later of Zola, in the domain of the novel. They were moved by the same +ideas; to speak of the one group is to speak of the other. The longing +for truth, the horror of emphasis and of false idealism which paralysed +the novelist as well as the painter, led the Impressionists to +substitute for _beauty_ a novel notion, that of _character_. To search +for, and to express, the true character of a being or of a site, seemed +to them more significant, more moving, than to search for an exclusive +beauty, based upon rules, and inspired by the Greco-Latin ideal. Like +the Flemings, the Germans, the Spaniards, and in opposition to the +Italians whose influence had conquered all the European academies, the +French Realist-Impressionists, relying upon the qualities of lightness, +sincerity and expressive clearness which are the real merits of their +race, detached themselves from the oppressive and narrow preoccupation +with the beautiful and with all the metaphysics and abstractions +following in its train. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +CHURCH AT VERNON] + +This fact of the substitution of _character_ for _beauty_ is the +essential feature of the movement. What is called Impressionism is--let +it not be forgotten--a technique which can be applied to any subject. +Whether the subject be a virgin, or a labourer, it can be painted with +divided tones, and certain living artists, like the symbolist Henri +Martin, who has almost the ideas of a Pre-Raphaelite, have proved it by +employing this technique for the rendering of religious or philosophic +subjects. But one can only understand the effort and the faults of the +painters grouped around Manet, by constantly recalling to one's mind +their predeliction for _character_. Before Manet a distinction was made +between _noble_ subjects, and others which were relegated to the domain +of _genre_ in which no great artist was admitted to exist by the School, +the familiarity of their subjects barring from them this rank. By the +suppression of the _nobleness_ inherent to the treated subject, the +painter's technical merit is one of the first things to be considered in +giving him rank. The Realist-Impressionists painted scenes in the +ball-room, on the river, in the field, the street, the foundry, modern +interiors, and found in the life of the humble immense scope for +studying the gestures, the costumes, the expressions of the nineteenth +century. + +Their effort had its bearing upon the way of representing persons, upon +what is called, in the studio language, the "_mise en cadre_." There, +too, they overthrew the principles admitted by the School. Manet, and +especially Degas, have created in this respect a new style from which +the whole art of realistic contemporary illustration is derived. This +style had been hitherto totally ignored, or the artists had shrunk from +applying it. It is a style which is founded upon the small painters of +the eighteenth century, upon Saint-Aubin, Debucourt, Moreau, and, +further back, upon Pater and the Dutchmen. But this time, instead of +confining this style to vignettes and very small dimensions, the +Impressionists have boldly given it the dimensions and importance of big +canvases. They have no longer based the laws of composition, and +consequently of style, upon the ideas relative to the subjects, but upon +values and harmonies. To take a summary example: if the School composed +a picture representing the death of Agamemnon, it did not fail to +subordinate the whole composition to Agamemnon, then to Clytemnestra, +then to the witnesses of the murder, graduating the moral and literary +interest according to the different persons, and sacrificing to this +interest the colouring and the realistic qualities of the scene. The +Realists composed by picking out first the strongest "value" of the +picture, say a red dress, and then distributing the other values +according to a harmonious progression of their tonalities. "The +principal person in a picture," said Manet, "is the light." With Manet +and his friends we find, then, that the concern for expression and for +the sentiments evoked by the subject, was always subordinated to a +purely pictorial and decorative preoccupation. This has frequently led +the Impressionists to grave errors, which they have, however, generally +avoided by confining themselves to very simple subjects, for which the +daily life supplied the grouping. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +PORTRAIT OF MADAME MAITRE] + +One of the reforms due to their conception has been the suppression of +the professional model, and the substitution for it of the natural +model, seen in the exercise of his occupation. This is one of the most +useful conquests for the benefit of modern painting. It marks a just +return to nature and simplicity. Nearly all their figures are real +portraits; and in everything that concerns the labourer and the +peasant, they have found the proper style and character, because they +have observed these beings in the true medium of their occupations, +instead of forcing them into a sham pose and painting them in disguise. +The basis of all their pictures has been first of all a series of +landscape and figure studies made in the open air, far from the studio, +and afterwards co-ordinated. One may wish pictorial art to have higher +ambitions; and one may find in the Primitives an example of a curious +mysticism, an expression of the abstract and of dreams. But one should +not underrate the power of naïve and realistic observation, which the +Primitives carried into the execution of their works, subordinating it, +however, to religious expression, and it must also be admitted that the +Realist-Impressionists served at least their conception of art logically +and homogeneously. The criticism which may be levelled against them is +that which Realism itself carries in its train, and we shall see that +esthetics could never create classifications capable of defining and +containing the infinite gradations of creative temperaments. + +In art, classifications have rarely any value, and are rather damaging. +Realism and Idealism are abstract terms which cannot suffice to +characterise beings who obey their sensibility. It is therefore +necessary to invent as many words as there are remarkable men. If +Leonardo was a great painter, are Turner and Monet not painters at all? +There is no connection between them; their methods of thought and +expression are antithetical. Perhaps it will be most simple, to admire +them all, and to renounce any further definition of the painter, +adopting this word to mark the man who uses the palette as his means of +expression. + +Thus preoccupation with contemporary emotions, substitution of character +for classic beauty (or of emotional beauty for formal beauty), admission +of the _genre_-painter into the first rank, composition based upon the +reciprocal reaction of values, subordination of the subject to the +interest of execution, the effort to isolate the art of painting from +the ideas inherent to that of literature, and particularly the +instinctive move towards the "symphonisation" of colours, and +consequently towards music,--these are the principal features of the +aesthetic code of the Realist-Impressionists, if this term may be +applied to a group of men hostile towards esthetics such as they are +generally taught. + + + + +III + +EDOUARD MANET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + +As I have said, Edouard Manet has not been entirely the originator of +the Impressionist technique. It is the work of Claude Monet which +presents the most complete example of it, and which also came first as +regards date. But it is very difficult to determine such cases of +priority, and it is, after all, rather useless. A technique cannot be +invented in a day. In this case it was the result of long +investigations, in which Manet and Renoir participated, and it is +necessary to unite under the collective name of Impressionists a group +of men, tied by friendship, who made a simultaneous effort towards +originality, all in about the same spirit, though frequently in very +different ways. As in the case of the Pre-Raphaelites, it was first of +all friendship, then unjust derision, which created the solidarity of +the Impressionists. But the Pre-Raphaelites, in aiming at an idealistic +and symbolic art, were better agreed upon the intellectual principles +which permitted them at once to define a programme. The Impressionists +who were only united by their temperaments, and had made it their first +aim to break away from all school programmes, tried simply to do +something new, with frankness and freedom. + +Manet was, in their midst, the personality marked out at the same time +by their admiration, and by the attacks of the critics for the post of +standard-bearer. A little older than his friends, he had already, quite +alone, raised heated discussions by the works in his first manner. He +was considered an innovator, and it was by instinctive admiration that +his first friends, Whistler, Legros, and Fantin-Latour, were gradually +joined by Marcelin Desboutin, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, +Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot, the young painter Bazille, who met his +premature death in 1870, and by the writers Gautier, Banville, +Baudelaire (who was a passionate admirer of Manet's); then later by +Zola, the Goncourts, and Stéphane Mallarmé. This was the first nucleus +of a public which was to increase year by year. Manet had the personal +qualities of a chief; he was a man of spirit, an ardent worker, and an +enthusiastic and generous character. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE DEAD TOREADOR] + +Manet commenced his first studies with Couture. After having travelled a +good deal at sea to obey his parents, his vocation took hold of him +irresistibly. About 1850 the young man entered the studio of the severe +author of the _Romains de la Décadence_. His stay was short. He +displeased the professor by his uncompromising energy. Couture said of +him angrily: "He will become the Daumier of 1860." It is known that +Daumier, lithographer, and painter of genius, was held in meagre esteem +by the academicians. Manet travelled in Germany after the _coup d'etat_, +copied Rembrandt in Munich, then went to Italy, copied Tintoretto in +Venice, and conceived there the idea of several religious pictures. Then +he became enthusiastic about the Spaniards, especially Velasquez and +Goya. The sincere expression of things seen took root from this moment +as the principal rule of art in the brain of this young Frenchman who +was loyal, ardent, and hostile to all subtleties. He painted some fine +works, like the _Buveur d'absinthe_ and the _Vieux musicien_. They show +the influence of Courbet, but already the blacks and the greys have an +original and superb quality; they announce a virtuoso of the first +order. + +It was in 1861 that Manet first sent to the Salon the portraits of his +parents and the _Guitarero_, which was hailed by Gautier, and rewarded +by the jury, though it roused surprise and irritation. But after that he +was rejected, whether it was a question of the _Fifre_ or of the +_Déjeuner sur l'herbe._ This canvas, with an admirable feminine nude, +created a scandal, because an undressed woman figured in it amidst +clothed figures, a matter of frequent occurrence with the masters of the +Renaissance. The landscape is not painted in the open air, but in the +studio, and resembles a tapestry, but it shows already the most +brilliant evidence of Manet's talent in the study of the nude and the +still-life of the foreground, which is the work of a powerful master. +From the time of this canvas the artist's personality appeared in all +its maturity. He painted it before he was thirty, and it has the air of +an old master's work; it is based upon Hals and the Spaniards together. + +The reputation of Manet became established after 1865. Furious critics +were opposed by enthusiastic admirers. Baudelaire upheld Manet, as he +had upheld Delacroix and Wagner, with his great clairvoyance, +sympathetic to all real originality. The _Olympia_ brought the +discussion to a head. This courtesan lying in bed undressed, with a +negress carrying a bouquet, and a black cat, made a tremendous stir. It +is a powerful work of strong colour, broad design and intense sentiment, +astounding in its _parti-pris_ of reducing the values to the greatest +simplicity. One can feel in it the artist's preoccupation with +rediscovering the rude frankness of Hals and Goya, and his aversion +against the prettiness and false nobility of the school. This famous +_Olympia_ which occasioned so much fury, appears to us to-day as a +transition work. It is neither a masterpiece, nor an emotional work, but +a technical experiment, very significant for the epoch during which it +appeared in French art, and this canvas, which is very inferior to +Manet's fine works, may well be considered as a date of evolution. He +was doubtful about exhibiting it, but Baudelaire decided him and wrote +to him on this occasion these typical remarks: "You complain about +attacks? But are you the first to endure them? Have you more genius than +Chateaubriand and Wagner? They were not killed by derision. And, in +order not to make you too proud, I must tell you, that they are models +each in his own way and in a very rich world, whilst you are only the +first in the decrepitude of your art." + +[Illustration: MANET + +OLYMPIA] + +Thus it must be firmly established that from this moment Manet passed as +an innovator, years before Impressionism existed or was even thought of. +This is an important point: it will help to clear up the twofold origin +of the movement which followed. To his realism, to his return to +composition in the modern spirit, and to the simplifying of planes and +values, Manet owed these attacks, though at that time his colour was +still sombre and entirely influenced by Hals, Goya and Courbet. From +that time the artist became a chief. As his friends used to meet him at +an obscure Batignolles café, the café Guerbois (still existing), public +derision baptized these meetings with the name of "L'Ecole des +Batignolles." Manet then exhibited the _Angels at the Tomb of Christ_, a +souvenir of the Venetians; _Lola de Valence_, commented upon by +Baudelaire in a quatrain which can be found in the _Fleurs du Mal_; the +_Episode d'un combat de taureaux_ (dissatisfied with this picture, he +cut out the dead toreador in the foreground, and burnt the rest). The +_Acteur tragique_ (portrait of Rouvière in Hamlet) and the _Jésus +insulté_ followed, and then came the _Gitanos_, _L'Enfant à l'Epée_, and +the portrait of Mme. Manet. This series of works is admirable. It is +here where he reveals himself as a splendid colourist, whose design is +as vigorous as the technique is masterly. In these works one does not +think of looking for anything but the witchery of technical strength; +and the abundant wealth of his temperament is simply dazzling. Manet +reveals himself as the direct heir of the great Spaniards, more +interesting, more spontaneous, and freer than Courbet. The _Rouvière_ is +as fine a symphony in grey and black as the noblest portraits by +Bronzino, and there is probably no Goya more powerful than the _Toréador +tué_. Manet's altogether classic descent appears here undeniably. There +is no question yet of Impressionism, and yet Monet and Renoir are +already painting, Monet has exhibited at the _Salon des Refusés_, but +criticism sees and attacks nobody but Manet. This great individuality +who overwhelmed the Academy with its weak allegories, was the butt of +great insults and the object of great admiration. Banished from the +Salons, he collected fifty pictures in a room in the Avenue de l'Alma +and invited the public thither. In 1868 appeared the portrait of Emile +Zola, in 1860 the _Déjeuner_, works which are so powerful, that they +enforced admiration in spite of all hostility. In the Salon of 1870 was +shown the portrait of Eva Gonzalès, the charming pastellist and pupil of +Manet, and the impressive _Execution of Maximilian at Queretaro_. Manet +was at the apogee of his talent, when the Franco-German war broke out. +At the age of thirty-eight he had put forth a considerable amount of +work, tried himself in all styles, severed his individuality from the +slavish admiration of the old masters, and attained his own mastery. And +now he wanted to expand, and, in joining Monet, Renoir and Degas, +interpret in his own way the Impressionist theory. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE WOMAN WITH THE PARROT] + +The _Fight of the Kearsage and the Alabama_, a magnificent sea-piece, +bathed in sunlight, announced this transformation in his work, as did +also a study, a _Garden_, painted, I believe, in 1870, but exhibited +only after the crisis of the terrible year. At that time the Durand-Ruel +Gallery bought a considerable series by the innovator, and was imitated +by some select art-lovers. The _Musique aux Tuileries_ and the _Bal de +l'Opéra_ had, some years before, pointed towards the evolution of this +great artist in the direction of _plein-air_ painting. The _Bon Bock_, +in which the very soul of Hals is revived, and the grave _Liseur_, sold +immediately at Vienne, were the two last pledges given by the artist to +his old admirers; these two pictures had moreover a splendid success, +and the _Bon Bock_, popularised by an engraving, was hailed by the very +men who had most unjustly attacked the author of the portrait of Mme. +Morisot, a French masterpiece. But already Manet was attracted +irresistibly towards the study of light, and, faithful to his programme, +he prepared to face once again outbursts of anger and further sarcasms; +he was resolved once again to offer battle to the Salons. Followed by +all the Impressionists he tried to make them understand the necessity +of introducing the new ideas into this retrograde _Milieu_. But they +would not. Having already received a rebuff by the attacks directed for +some years against their works, they exhibited among themselves in some +private galleries: they declined to force the gate of the Salons, and +Manet remained alone. In 1875 he submitted, with his _Argenteuil_, the +most perfect epitome of his atmospheric researches. The jury admitted it +in spite of loud protests: they were afraid of Manet; they admired his +power of transformation, and he revolted the prejudiced, attracting them +at the same time by the charm of his force. But in 1876 the portrait of +_Desboutin_ and the _Linge_ (an exquisite picture,--one of the best +productions of open-air study) were rejected. Manet then recommenced the +experience of 1867, and opened his studio to the public. A register at +the door was soon covered with signatures protesting against the jury, +as well as with hostile jokes, and even anonymous insults! In 1877 the +defeated jury admitted the portrait of the famous singer Faure in the +part of Hamlet, and rejected _Nana_, a picture which was found +scandalising, but has charming freshness and an intensely modern +character. In 1878, 1879 and 1880 they accepted _la Serre_, the +surprising symphony in blue and white which shows Mr George Moore in +boating costume, the portrait of Antonin Proust, and the scene at the +_Père Lathuile_ restaurant, in which Manet's nervous and luminous +realism has so curious a resemblance to the art of the Goncourts. In +1881 the portrait of Rochefort and that of the lion-killer, Pertuiset, +procured the artist a medal at the Salon, and Antonin Proust, the friend +of Manet's childhood, who had become Minister of Fine Arts, honoured +himself in decorating him with the legion of honour. In 1882 appeared a +magnificent canvas, the _Bar des Folies-Bergère_, in which there is some +sparkling still-life painting of most attractive beauty. It was +accompanied by a lady's portrait, _Jeanne_. But on April 30, 1883, Manet +died, exhausted by his work and struggles, of locomotor ataxy, after +having vainly undergone the amputation of a foot to avoid gangrene. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE BAR AT THE FOLIES-BERGÈRE] + +It will be seen that Manet fought through all his life: few artists' +lives have been nobler. His has been an example of untiring energy; he +employed it as much in working, as in making a stand against prejudices. +Rejected, accepted, rejected again, he delivered with enormous courage +and faith his attack upon a jury which represented routine. As he fought +in front of his easel, he still fought before the public, without ever +relaxing, without changing, alone, apart even from those whom he loved, +who had been shaped by his example. This great painter, one of those who +did most honour to the French soul, had the genius to create by himself +an Impressionism of his own which will always remain his own, after +having given evidence of gifts of the first order in the tradition +handed down by the masters of the real and the good. He cannot be +confused either with Monet, or with Pissarro and Renoir. His +comprehension of light is a special one, his technique is not in +accordance with the system of colour-spots; it observes the theory of +complementary colours and of the division of tones without departing +from a grand style, from a classic stateliness, from a superb sureness. +Manet has not been the inventor of Impressionism which co-existed with +his work since 1865, but he has rendered it immense services, by taking +upon himself all the outbursts of anger addressed to the innovators, by +making a breach in public opinion, through which his friends have passed +in behind him. Probably without him all these artists would have +remained unknown, or at least without influence, because they all were +bold characters in art, but timid or disdainful in life. Degas, Monet +and Renoir were fine natures with a horror of polemics, who wished to +hold aloof from the Salons, and were resigned from the outset to be +misunderstood. They were, so to say, electrified by the magnificent +example of Manet's fighting spirit, and Manet was generous enough to +take upon himself the reproaches levelled, not only against his work, +but against theirs. His twenty years of open war, sustained with an +abnegation worthy of all esteem, must be considered as one of the most +significant phenomena of the history of the artists of all ages. + +This work of Manet, so much discussed and produced under such tormenting +conditions, owes its importance beyond all to its power and frankness. +Ten years of developing the first manner, tragically limited by the war +of 1870; thirteen years of developing the second evolution, parallel +with the efforts of the Impressionists. The period from 1860 to 1870 is +logically connected with Hals and Goya; from 1870 to 1883 the artist's +modernity is complicated by the study of light. His personality appears +there even more original, but one may well give the palm to those works +of Manet which are painted in his classic and low-toned manner. He had +all the pictorial gifts which make the glory of the masters: full, true, +broad composition, colouring of irresistible power, blacks and greys +which cannot be found elsewhere since Velasquez and Goya, and a profound +knowledge of values. He has tried his hand at everything: portraits, +landscapes, seascapes, scenes of modern life, still-life and nudes have +each in their turn served his ardent desire of creation. His was a much +finer comprehension of contemporary life than seems to be admitted by +Realism: one has only to compare him with Courbet, to see how far more +nervous and intelligent he was, without loss to the qualities of truth +and robustness. His pictures will always remain documents of the +greatest importance on the society, the manners and customs of the +second Empire. He did not possess the gift of psychology. His _Christ +aux Anges_ and _Jésus insulté_ are obviously only pieces of painting +without idealism. He was, like the great Dutch virtuosos, and like +certain Italians, more eye than soul. Yet his _Maximilian_, the drawings +to Poe's _Raven_, and certain sketches show that he might have realised +some curious, psychological works, had he not been so completely +absorbed by the immediate reality and by the desire for beautiful paint. +A beautiful painter--this is what he was before everything else, this is +his fairest fame, and it is almost inconceivable that the juries of the +Salons failed to understand him. They waxed indignant over his subjects +which offer only a restricted interest, and they did not see the +altogether classic quality of this technique without bitumen, without +glazing, without tricks; of this vibrating colour; of this rich paint; +of this passionate design so suitable for expressing movement and +gestures true to life; of this simple composition where the whole +picture is based upon two or three values with the straightforwardness +one admires in Rubens, Jordaens and Hals. + +[Illustration: MANET + +DÉJEUNER] + +Manet will occupy an important position in the French School. He is the +most original painter of the second half of the nineteenth century, the +one who has really created a great movement. His work, the fecundity of +which is astonishing, is unequal. One has to remember that, besides the +incessant strife which he kept up--a strife which would have killed many +artists--he had to find strength for two grave crises in himself. He +joined one movement, then freed himself of it, then invented another and +recommenced to learn painting at a point where anybody else would have +continued in his previous manner. "Each time I paint," he said to +Mallarmé, "I throw myself into the water to learn swimming." It is not +surprising that such a man should have been unequal, and that one can +distinguish in his work between experiments, exaggerations due to +research, and efforts made to reject the prejudices of which we feel the +weight no longer. But it would be unjust to say that Manet has only had +the merit of opening up new roads; that has been said to belittle him, +after it had first been said that these roads led into absurdity. Works +like the _Toréador_, _Rouvière_, _Mme. Manet_, the _Déjeuner_, the +_Musique aux Tuileries_, the _Bon Bock_, _Argenteuil_, _Le Linge_, _En +Bateau_ and the _Bar_, will always remain admirable masterpieces which +will do credit to French painting, of which the spontaneous, living, +clear and bold art of Manet is a direct and very representative product. + +There remains, then, a great personality who knew how to dominate the +rather coarse conceptions of Realism, who influenced by his modernity +all contemporary illustration, who re-established a sound and strong +tradition in the face of the Academy, and who not only created a new +transition, but marked his place on the new road which he had opened. To +him Impressionism owes its existence; his tenacity enabled it to take +root and to vanquish the opposition of the School; his work has enriched +the world by some beautiful examples which demonstrate the union of the +two principles of Realism and of that technical Impressionism which was +to supply Manet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley with an object for their +efforts. For the sum total of all that is evoked by his name, Edouard +Manet certainly deserves the name of a man of genius--an incomplete +genius, though, since the thought with him was not on the level of his +technique, since he could never affect the emotions like a Leonardo or a +Rembrandt, but genius all the same through the magnificent power of his +gifts, the continuity of his style, and the importance of his part which +infused blood into a school dying of the anaemia of conventional art. +Whoever beholds a work of Manet's, even without knowing the conditions +of his life, will feel that there is something great, the lion's claw +which Delacroix had recognised as far back as 1861, and to which, it is +said, even the great Ingres had paid homage on the jury which examined +with disgust the _Guitarero_. + +[Illustration: MANET + +PORTRAIT OF MADAME M.L.] + +To-day Manet is considered almost as a classic glory; and the progress +for which he had given the impulse, has been so rapid, that many are +astonished that he should ever have been considered audacious. Sight is +transformed, strife is extinguished, and a large, select public, +familiar with Monet and Renoir, judge Manet almost as a long defunct +initiator. One has to know his admirable life, one has to know well the +incredible inertia of the Salons where he appeared, to give him his full +due. And when, after the acceptance of Impressionism, the unavoidable +reaction will take place, Manet's qualities of solidity, truth and +science will appear such, that he will survive many of those to whom he +has opened the road and facilitated the success at the expense of his +own. It will be seen that Degas and he have, more than the others, and +with less apparent _éclat_, united the gifts which produce durable works +in the midst of the fluctuations of fashion and the caprices of taste +and views. Manet can, at the Louvre or any other gallery, hold his own +in the most crushing surroundings, prove his personal qualities, and +worthily represent a period which he loved. + +An enormous amount has been written on him, from Zola's bold and +intelligent pamphlet in 1865, to the recent work by M. Théodore Duret. +Few men have provoked more comments. In an admirable picture, _Hommage à +Manet_, the delicate and perfect painter Fantin-Latour, a friend from +the first hour, has grouped around the artist some of his admirers, +Monet, Renoir, Duranty, Zola, Bazille, and Braquemond. The picture has +to-day a place of honour at the Luxembourg, where Manet is +insufficiently represented by _Olympia_, a study of a woman, and the +_Balcony_. A collection is much to be desired of his lithographs, his +etchings and his pastels, in which he has proved his diversified +mastery, and also of his portraits of famous contemporaries, Zola, +Rochefort, Desboutin, Proust, Mallarmé, Clemenceau, Guys, Faure, +Baudelaire, Moore, and others, an admirable series by a visionary who +possessed, in a period of unrest and artificiality, the quality of rude +sincerity, and the love of truth of a Primitive. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE HOTHOUSE] + + + + +IV + +EDGAR DEGAS: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + +I have said how vain it is to class artistic temperaments under a title +imposed upon them generally by circumstances and dates, rather than by +their own free will. The study of Degas will furnish additional proof +for it. Classed with the Impressionists, this master participates in +their ideas in the sphere of composition, rather than in that of colour. +He belongs to them through his modernity and comprehension of character. +Only when we come to his quite recent landscapes (1896), can we link him +to Monet and Renoir as colourist, and he has been more their friend than +their colleague. + +Degas is known by the select few, and almost ignored by the public. This +is due to several reasons. Degas has never wished to exhibit at the +Salons, except, I believe, once or twice at the beginning of his +career. He has only shown his works at those special exhibitions +arranged by the Impressionists in hired apartments (rue le Peletier, rue +Laffitte, Boulevard des Capucines), and at some art-dealers. The art of +Degas has never had occasion to shock the public by the exuberance of +its colour, because he restricted himself to grey and quiet harmonies. +Degas is a modest character, fond of silence and solitude, with a horror +of the crowd and of controversies, and almost disinclined to show his +works. He is a man of intelligence and ready wit, whose sallies are +dreaded; he is almost a misanthrope. His pictures have been gradually +sold to foreign countries and dispersed in rich galleries without having +been seen by the public. His character is, in short, absolutely opposed +to that of Manet, who, though he suffered from criticism, thought it his +duty to bid it defiance. Degas's influence has, however, been +considerable, though secretly so, and the young painters have been +slowly inspired by his example. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE BEGGAR WOMAN] + +Degas is beyond all a draughtsman of the first order. His spirit is +quite classical. He commenced by making admirable copies of the Italian +Primitives, notably of Fra Angelico, and the whole first series of his +works speaks of that influence: portraits, heads of deep, mat, amber +colour, on a ground of black or grey tones, remarkable for a severity of +intense style, and for the rare gift of psychological expression. To +find the equal of these faces--after having stated their classic +descent--one would have to turn to the beautiful things by Ingres, and +certainly Degas is, with Ingres, the most learned, the most perfect +French draughtsman of the nineteenth century. An affirmation of this +nature is made to surprise those who judge Impressionism with +preconceived ideas. It is none the less true that, if a series of +Degas's first portraits were collected, the comparison would force +itself upon one's mind irrefutably. In face of the idealist painting of +Romanticism, Ingres represented quite clearly the cult of painting for +its own sake. His ideas were mediocre, and went scarcely beyond the +poor, conventional ideal of the Academy; but his genius was so great, +that it made him paint, together with his tedious allegories, some +incomparable portraits and nudes. He thought he was serving official +Classicism, which still boasts of his name, but in reality he dominated +it; and, whilst he was an imitator of Raphael, he was a powerful +Realist. The Impressionists admire him as such, and agree with him in +banishing from the art of painting all literary imagination, whether it +be the tedious mythology of the School, or the historical anecdote of +the Romanticists. Degas and Besnard admire Ingres as colossal +draughtsman, and, beyond all, as man who, in spite of the limitations of +his mind, preserved the clear vision of the mission of his art at a time +when art was used for the expression of literary conceptions. Who would +have believed it? Yet it is true, and Manet, too, held the same view of +Ingres, little as our present academicians may think it! It happens that +to-day Impressionism is more akin to Ingres than to Delacroix, just as +the young poets are more akin to Racine than to Hugo. They reject the +foreign elements, and search, before anything else, for the strict +national tradition. Degas follows Ingres and resembles him. He is also +reminiscent of the Primitives and of Holbein. There is, in his first +period, the somewhat dry and geometrical perfection, the somewhat heavy +colour which only serves to strengthen the correctness of the planes. At +the Exposition of 1900, there was a Degas which surprised everybody. It +was an _Interior of a cotton factory_ in an American town. This small +picture was curiously clear: it would be impossible to paint better and +with a more accomplished knowledge of the laws of painting. But it was +the work of a soulless, emotionless Realist; it was a coloured +photograph of unheard-of truth, the mathematical science of which left +the beholder cold. This work, which is very old (it dates back to about +1860), gave no idea of what Degas has grown into. It was the work of an +unemotional master of technique; only just the infinitely delicate value +of the greys and blacks revealed the future master of harmony. One +almost might have wished to find a fault in this aggravating perfection. +But Degas was not to remain there, and already, about that time, certain +portraits of his are elevated by an expression of ardent melancholy, by +warm, ivory-like, grave colouring which attracts one's eye. Before this +series one feels the firm will of a very logical, serious, classic +spirit who wants to know thoroughly the intimate resources of design, +before risking to choose from among them the elements which respond best +to his individual nature. If Degas was destined to invent, later on, so +personal a style of design that he could be accused of "drawing badly," +this first period of his life is before us, to show the slow maturing of +his boldness and how carefully he first proved to himself his knowledge, +before venturing upon new things. In art the difficulty is, when one has +learnt everything, to forget,--that is, to appear to forget, so as to +create one's own style, and this apparent forgetting cloaks an +amalgamation of science with mind. And Degas is one of those patient and +reticent men who spend years in arriving at this; he has much in common +with Hokusai, the old man "mad with painting," who at the close of his +prodigious life invented arbitrary forms, after having given immortal +examples of his interpretation of the real. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE LESSON IN THE FOYER] + +Degas is also clearly related to Corot, not only in the silvery +harmonies of his suave landscapes, but also, and particularly, in his +admirable faces whose inestimable power and moving sincerity we have +hardly commenced to understand. Degas passed slowly from classicism to +modernity. He never liked outbursts of colour; he is by no means an +Impressionist from this point of view. As a draughtsman of genius he +expresses all by the precision of the planes and values; a grey, a black +and some notes of colour suffice for him. This might establish a link +between him and Whistler, though he is much less mysterious and diffuse. +Whenever Degas plays with colour, it is with the same restraint of his +boldness; he never goes to excess in abandoning himself to its charm. He +is neither lyrical, nor voluptuous; his energy is cold; his wise spirit +affirms soberly the true character of a face or an object. + +Since a long time this spirit has moved Degas to revel in the +observation of contemporary life. His nature has been that of a patient +psychologist, a minute analyst, and also of a bitter ironist. The man is +very little known. His friends say that he has an easily ruffled +delicacy, a sensibility open to poetry, but jealous of showing its +emotion. They say that Degas's satirical bitterness is the reverse side +of a soul wounded by the spectacle of modern morality. One feels this +sentiment in his work, where the sharp notation of truth is painful, +where the realism is opposed by colouring of a sober distinction, where +nothing, not even the portrait of a drab, could be vulgar. Degas has +devoted himself to the profound study of certain classes of women, in +the state of mind of a philosopher and physiologist, impartially +inclined towards life. + +His work can be divided into several great series: the race-courses, the +ballet-dancers, and the women bathing count among the most important. +The race-courses have inspired Degas with numerous pictures. He shows in +them a surprising knowledge of the horse. He is one of the most perfect +painters of horses who have ever existed. He has caught the most curious +and truest actions with infallible sureness of sight. His racecourse +scenes are full of vitality and picturesqueness. Against clear skies, +and light backgrounds of lawn, indicated with quiet harmony, Degas +assembles original groups of horses which one can see moving, +hesitating, intensely alive; and nothing could be fresher, gayer and +more deliciously pictorial, than the green, red and yellow notes of the +jockey's costumes strewn like flowers over these atmospheric, luminous +landscapes, where colours do not clash, but are always gently +shimmering, dissolved in uniform clearness. The admirable drawing of +horses and men is so precise and seems so simple, that one can only +slowly understand the extent of the difficulty overcome, the truth of +these attitudes and the nervous delicacy of the execution. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE DANCING LESSON--PASTEL] + +The dancers go much further still in the expression of Degas's +temperament. They have been studied at the _foyer_ of the Opera and at +the rehearsal, sometimes in groups, sometimes isolated. Some pictures +which will always count among the masterpieces of the nineteenth +century, represent the whole _corps de ballet_ performing on the stage +before a dark and empty house. By the feeble light of some lamps the +black coats of the stage managers mix themselves with the gauze skirts. +Here the draughtsman joins the great colourist: the petticoats of pink +or white tulle, the graceful legs covered with flesh-coloured silk, the +arms and the shoulders, and the hair crowned with flowers, offer +motives of exquisite colour and of a tone of living flowers. But the +psychologist does not lose his rights: not only does he amuse himself +with noting the special movements of the dancers, but he also notes the +anatomical defects. He shows with cruel frankness, with a strange love +of modern character, the strong legs, the thin shoulders, and the +provoking and vulgar heads of these frequently ugly girls of common +origin. With the irony of an entomologist piercing the coloured insect +he shows us the disenchanting reality in the sad shadow of the scenes, +of these butterflies who dazzle us on the stage. He unveils the reverse +side of a dream without, however, caricaturing; he raises even, under +the imperfection of the bodies, the animal grace of the organisms; he +has the severe beauty of the true. He gives to his groups of +ballet-dancers the charming line of garlands and restores to them a +harmony in the _ensemble_, so as to prove that he does not misjudge the +charm conferred upon them by rhythm, however defective they may be +individually. At other times he devotes himself to the study of their +practice. In bare rooms with curtainless windows, in the cold and sad +light of the boxes, he passionately draws the dancers learning their +steps, reaching high bars with the tips of their toes, forcing +themselves into quaint poses in order to make themselves more supple, +manoeuvring to the sound of a fiddle scratched by an old teacher--and he +leaves us stupefied at the knowledge, the observation, the talent +profusely spent on these little pictures. Furthermore there are humorous +scenes: ballet-dancers chatting in the dark with _habitués_ of the +Opera, others looking at the house through the small opening of the +curtain, others re-tying their shoe-laces, and they all are prodigious +drawings of movement anatomically as correct as they are unexpected. +Degas's old style of drawing undergoes modification: with the help of +slight deformations, accentuations of the modelling and subtle +falsifications of the proportions, managed with infinite tact and +knowledge, the artist brings forth in relief the important gesture, +subordinating to it all the others. He attempts _drawing by movement_ as +it is caught by our eyes in life, where they do not state the +proportions, but first of all the gesture which strikes them. In these +drawings by Degas all the lines follow the impulsion of the thought. +What one sees first, is the movement transmitted to the members by the +will. The active part of the body is more carefully studied than the +rest, which is indicated by bold foreshortenings, placed in the second +plane, and apparently only serves to throw into relief the raised arm or +leg. This is no longer merely _exact_, it is _true_; it is a superior +degree of truth. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE DANCERS] + +These pictures of dancers are psychologic documents of great value. The +physical and moral atmosphere of these surroundings is called forth by a +master. Such and such a figure or attitude tells us more about Parisian +life than a whole novel, and Degas has been lavish of his intellect and +his philosophy of bitter scepticism. But they are also marvellous +pictorial studies which, in spite of the special, anecdotal subjects, +rise to the level of grand painting through sheer power of +draughtsmanship and charm of tone. Degas has the special quality of +giving the precise sensation of the third dimension. The atmosphere +circulates round his figures; you walk round them; you see them in their +real plane, and they present themselves in a thousand unexpected +arrangements. Degas is undoubtedly the one man of his age who has most +contributed towards infusing new life into the representation of human +figures: in this respect his pictures resemble no one else's. The same +qualities will be found in his series of women bathing. These interiors, +where the actions of the bathers are caught amidst the stuffs, flowered +cushions, linen, sponges and tubs, are sharp visions of modernity. Degas +observes here, with the tenacious perfection of his talent, the +slightest shiver of the flesh refreshed by cold water. His masterly +drawing follows the most delicate inflexion of the muscles and suggests +the nervous system under the skin. He observes with extraordinary +subtlety the awkwardness of the nude being at a time when nudity is no +longer accustomed to show itself, and this true nudity is in strong +contrast to that of the academicians. One might say of Degas that he has +the disease of truth, if the necessity of truth were not health itself! +These bodies are still marked with the impressions of the garments; the +movements remain those of a clothed being which is only nude as an +exception. The painter notices beauty, but he looks for it particularly +in the profound characterisation of the types which he studies, and his +pastels have the massiveness and the sombre style of bronze. He has also +painted café-scenes, prostitutes and supers, with a mocking and sad +energy; he has even amused himself with painting washerwomen, to +translate the movements of the women of the people. And his colour with +its pearly whites, subdued blues and delicate greys, always elevates +everything he does, and confers upon him a distinctive style. + +Finally, about 1896, Degas has revealed himself as a dreamy landscapist. +His recent landscapes are symphonies in colours of strange harmony and +hallucinations of rare tones, resembling music rather than painting. It +is perhaps in these pictures that he has revealed certain dreams +hitherto jealously hidden. + +And now I must speak of his technique. It is very singular and varied, +and one of the most complicated in existence. In his first works, which +are apparently as simple as Corot's, he does not employ the process of +colour-spots. But many of the works in his second manner are a +combination of drawing, painting and pastel. He has invented a kind of +engraving mixed with wash-drawing, pastel crayon crushed with brushes of +special pattern. Here one can find again his meticulous spirit. He has +many of the qualities of the scientist; he is as much chemist as +painter. It has been said of him, that he was a great artist of the +decadence. This is materially inexact, since his qualities of +draughtsmanship are those of a superb Classicist, and his colouring of +very pure taste. But the spirit of his work, his love of exact detail, +his exaggerated psychological refinement, are certainly the signs of an +extremely alert intellect who regards life prosaically and with a +lassitude and disenchantment which are only consoled by the passion for +truth. Certain water-colours of his heightened by pastel, and certain +landscapes, are somewhat disconcerting through the preciousness of his +method; others are surprisingly spontaneous. All his work has an +undercurrent of thought. In short, this Realist is almost a mystic. He +has observed a limited section of humanity, but what he has seen has not +been seen so profoundly by anybody else. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +HORSES IN THE MEADOWS] + +Degas has exercised an occult, but very serious, influence. He has lived +alone, without pupils and almost without friends; the only pupils one +might speak of are the caricaturist Forain, who has painted many small +pictures inspired by him, and the excellent American lady-artist Miss +Mary Cassatt. But all modern draughtsmen have been taught a lesson by +his painting: Renouard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Steinlen have been +impressed by it, and the young generation considers Degas as a master. +And that is also the unexpressed idea of the academicians, and +especially of those who have sufficient talent to be able to appreciate +all the science and power of such an art. The writer of this book +happened one day to mention Degas's name before a member of the +Institute. "What!" exclaimed he, "you know him? Why didn't you speak to +me about him?" And when he received the reply, that I did not consider +Degas to be an agreeable topic for him, the illustrious official +answered vivaciously, "But do you think I am a fool, and that I do not +know that Degas is one of the greatest draughtsmen who have ever +lived?"--"Why, then, my dear sir, has he never been received at the +Salons, and not even been decorated at the age of sixty-five?"--"Ah," +replied the Academician a little angrily, "that is another matter!" + +Degas despises glory. It is believed that he has by him a number of +canvases which will have to be burnt after his death in accordance with +his will. He is a man who has loved his art like a mistress, with +jealous passion, and has sacrificed to it all that other +artists--enthusiasts even--are accustomed to reserve for their personal +interest. Degas, the incomparable pastellist, the faultless draughtsman, +the bitter, satirical, pessimistic genius, is an isolated phenomenon in +his period, a grand creator, unattached to his time. The painters and +the select few among art-lovers know what considerable force there is in +him. Though almost latent as yet, it will reveal itself brilliantly, +when an opportunity arises for bringing together the vast quantity of +his work. As is the case with Manet, though in a different sense, his +powerful classic qualities will become most prominent in this ordeal, +and this classicism has never abandoned him in his audacities. To Degas +is due a new method of observation in drawing. He will have been the +first to study the relation between the moving lines of a living being +and the immovable lines of the scene which serves as its setting; the +first, also, to define drawing, not as a graphic science, but as the +valuation of the third dimension, and thus to apply to painting the +principles hitherto reserved for sculpture. Finally, he will be counted +among the great analysts. His vision, tenacious, intense, and sombre, +stimulates thought: across what appears to be the most immediate and +even the most vulgar reality it reaches a grand, artistic style; it +states profoundly the facts of life, it condenses a little the human +soul: and this will suffice to secure for Degas an important place in +his epoch, a little apart from Impressionism. Without noise, and through +the sheer charm of his originality, he has contributed his share towards +undermining the false doctrines of academic art before the painters, as +Manet has undermined them before the public. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +AN INTERIOR, AFTER DINNER] + + + + +V + +CLAUDE MONET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + +With Claude Monet we enter upon Impressionism in its most significant +technical expression, and touch upon the principal points referred to in +the second chapter of this book. + +Claude Monet, the artistic descendant of Claude Lorrain, Turner, and +Monticelli, has had the merit and the originality of opening a new road +to landscape painting by deducing scientific statements from the study +of the laws of light. His work is a magnificent verification of the +optical discoveries made by Helmholtz and Chevreul. It is born +spontaneously from the artist's vision, and happens to be a rigorous +demonstration of principles which the painter has probably never cared +to know. Through the power of his faculties the artist has happened to +join hands with the scientist. His work supplies not only the very +basis of the Impressionist movement proper, but of all that has followed +it and will follow it in the study of the so-called chromatic laws. It +will serve to give, so to say, a mathematic necessity to the happy finds +met by the artists hitherto, and it will also serve to endow decorative +art and mural painting with a process, the applications of which are +manyfold and splendid. + +I have already summed up the ideas which follow from Claude Monet's +painting more clearly even than from Manet's. Suppression of local +colour, study of reflections by means of complementary colours and +division of tones by the process of touches of pure, juxtaposed +colours--these are the essential principles of _chromatism_ (for this +word should be used instead of the very vague term "Impressionism"). +Claude Monet has applied them systematically, especially in landscape +painting. + +There are a few portraits of his, which show that he might have made an +excellent figure painter, if landscape had not absorbed him entirely. +One of these portraits, a large full-length of a lady with a fur-lined +jacket and a satin dress with green and black stripes, would in itself +be sufficient to save from oblivion the man who has painted it. But the +study of light upon the figure has been the special preoccupation of +Manet, Renoir, and Pissarro, and, after the Impressionists, of the great +lyricist, Albert Besnard, who has concentrated the Impressionist +qualities by placing them at the service of a very personal conception +of symbolistic art. Monet commenced with trying to find his way by +painting figures, then landscapes and principally sea pictures and boats +in harbours, with a somewhat sombre robustness and very broad and solid +draughtsmanship. His first luminous studies date back to about 1885. +Obedient to the same ideas as Degas he had to avoid the Salons and only +show his pictures gradually in private galleries. For years he remained +unknown. It is only giving M. Durand-Ruel his due, to state that he was +one of the first to anticipate the Impressionist school and to buy the +first works of these painters, who were treated as madmen and +charlatans. He has become great with them, and has made his fortune and +theirs through having had confidence in them, and no fortune has been +better deserved. Thirty years ago nobody would have bought pictures by +Degas or Monet, which are sold to-day for a thousand pounds. This detail +is only mentioned to show the evolution of Impressionism as regards +public opinion. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +THE HARBOUR, HONFLEUR] + +So much has Monet been attracted by the analysis of the laws of light +that he has made light the real subject of all his pictures, and to show +clearly his intention he has treated one and the same site in a series +of pictures painted from nature at all hours of the day. This is the +principle whose results are the great divisions of his work which might +be called "Investigation of the variations of sunlight." The most famous +of these series are the _Hay-ricks_, the _Poplars_, the _Cliffs of +Etretat_, the _Golfe Juan_, the _Coins de Rivière_, the _Cathedrals_, +the _Water-lilies_, and finally the _Thames_ series which Monet is at +present engaged upon. They are like great poems, and the splendour of +the chosen theme, the orchestration of the shivers of brightness, the +symphonic _parti-pris_ of the colours, make their realism, the minute +contemplation of reality, approach idealism and lyric dreaming. + +Monet paints these series from nature. He is said to take with him in a +carriage at sunrise some twenty canvases which he changes from hour to +hour, taking them up again the next day. He notes, for example, from +nine to ten o'clock the most subtle effects of sunlight upon a hay-rick; +at ten o'clock he passes on to another canvas and recommences the study +until eleven o'clock. Thus he follows step by step the modifications of +the atmosphere until nightfall, and finishes simultaneously the works of +the whole series. He has painted a hay-stack in a field twenty times +over, and the twenty hay-stacks are all different. He exhibits them +together, and one can follow, led by the magic of his brush, the history +of light playing upon one and the same object. It is a dazzling display +of luminous atoms, a kind of pantheistic evocation. Light is certainly +the essential personage who devours the outlines of the objects, and is +thrown like a translucent veil between our eyes and matter. One can see +the vibrations of the waves of the solar spectrum, drawn by the +arabesque of the spots of the seven prismatic hues juxtaposed with +infinite subtlety; and this vibration is that of heat, of atmospheric +vitality. The silhouettes melt into the sky; the shadows are lights +where certain tones, the blue, the purple, the green and the orange, +predominate, and it is the proportional quantity of the spots that +differentiates in our eyes the shadows from what we call the lights, +just as it actually happens in optic science. There are some midday +scenes by Claude Monet, where every material silhouette--tree, hay-rick, +or rock--is annihilated, volatilised in the fiery vibration of the dust +of sunlight, and before which the beholder gets really blinded, just as +he would in actual sunlight. Sometimes even there are no more shadows at +all, nothing that could serve to indicate the values and to create +contrasts of colours. Everything is light, and the painter seems easily +to overcome those terrible difficulties, lights upon lights, thanks to a +gift of marvellous subtlety of sight. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +THE CHURCH AT VARENGEVILLE] + +Generally he finds a very simple _motif_ sufficient; a hay-rick, some +slender trunks rising skywards, or a cluster of shrubs. But he also +proves himself as powerful draughtsman when he attacks themes of greater +complexity. Nobody knows as he does how to place a rock amidst +tumultuous waves, how to make one understand the enormous construction +of a cliff which fills the whole canvas, how to give the sensation of a +cluster of pines bent by the wind, how to throw a bridge across a river, +or how to express the massiveness of the soil under a summer sun. All +this is constructed with breadth, truth and force under the delicious or +fiery symphony of the luminous atoms. The most unexpected tones play in +the foliage. On close inspection we are astonished to find it striped +with orange, red, blue and yellow touches, but seen at a certain +distance the freshness of the green foliage appears to be represented +with infallible truth. The eye recomposes what the brush has +dissociated, and one finds oneself perplexed at all the science, all the +secret order which has presided over this accumulation of spots which +seem projected in a furious shower. It is a veritable orchestral piece, +where every colour is an instrument with a distinct part, and where the +hours with their different tints represent the successive themes. Monet +is the equal of the greatest landscape painters as regards the +comprehension of the true character of every soil he has studied, which +is the supreme quality of his art. Though absorbed beyond all by study +of the sunlight, he has thought it useless to go to Morocco or Algeria. +He has found Brittany, Holland, the _Ile de France_, the _Cote d'Azur_ +and England sufficient sources of inspiration for his symphonies, which +cover from end to end the scale of perceptible colours. He has +expressed, for instance, the mild and vaporous softness of the +Mediterranean, the luxuriant vegetation of the gardens of Cannes and +Antibes, with a truthfulness and knowledge of the psychology of land and +water which can only be properly appreciated by those who live in this +enchanted region. This has not prevented him from understanding better +than anybody the wildness, the grand austereness of the rocks of +_Belle-Isle en mer_, to express it in pictures in which one really feels +the wind, the spray, and the roaring of the heavy waters breaking +against the impassibility of the granite rocks. His recent series of +_Water-lilies_ expressed all the melancholic and fresh charm of quiet +basins, of sweet bits of water blocked by rushes and calyxes. He has +painted underwoods in the autumn, where the most subtle shades of +bronze and gold are at play, chrysanthemums, pheasants, roofs at +twilight, dazzling sunflowers, gardens, tulip-fields in Holland, +bouquets, effects of snow and hoar frost of exquisite softness, and +sailing boats passing in the sun. He has painted some views of the banks +of the Seine which are quite wonderful in their power of conjuring up +these scenes, and over all this has roved his splendid vision of a +great, amorous and radiant colourist. The _Cathedrals_ are even more of +a _tour de force_ of his talent. They consist of seventeen studies of +Rouen Cathedral, the towers of which fill the whole of the picture, +leaving barely a little space, a little corner of the square, at the +foot of the enormous stone-shafts which mount to the very top of the +picture. Here he has no proper means to express the play of the +reflections, no changeful waters or foliage: the grey stone, worn by +time and blackened by centuries, is for seventeen times the monochrome, +the thankless theme upon which the painter is about to exercise his +vision. But Monet finds means of making the most dazzling atmospheric +harmonies sparkle upon this stone. Pale and rosy at sunrise, purple at +midday, glowing in the evening under the rays of the setting sun, +standing out from the crimson and gold, scarcely visible in the mist, +the colossal edifice impresses itself upon the eye, reconstructed with +its thousand details of architectural chiselling, drawn without +minuteness but with superb decision, and these pictures approach the +composite, bold and rich tone of Oriental carpets. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +POPLARS ON THE EPTE IN AUTUMN] + +Monet excels also in suggesting the _drawing of light_, if I may venture +to use this expression. He makes us understand the movement of the +vibrations of heat, the movement of the luminous waves; he also +understands how to paint the sensation of strong wind. "Before one of +Manet's pictures," said Mme. Morisot, "I always know which way to +incline my umbrella." Monet is also an incomparable painter of water. +Pond, river, or sea--he knows how to differentiate their colouring, +their consistency, and their currents, and he transfixes a moment of +their fleeting life. He is intuitive to an exceptional degree in the +intimate composition of matter, water, earth, stone or air, and this +intuition serves him in place of intellectuality in his art. He is a +painter _par excellence_, a man born for painting, and this power of +penetrating the secrets of matter and of light helps him to attain a +kind of grand, unconsciously lyrical poetry. He transposes the immediate +truth of our vision and elevates it to decorative grandeur. If Manet is +the realist-romanticist of Impressionism, if Degas is its psychologist, +Claude Monet is its lyrical pantheist. + +His work is immense. He produces with astonishing rapidity, and he has +yet another characteristic of the great painters: that of having put his +hand to every kind of subject. His recent studies of the Thames are, at +the decline of his energetic maturity, as beautiful and as spontaneous +as the _Hay-ricks_ of seventeen years back. They are thrillingly +truthful visions of fairy mists, where showers of silver and gold +sparkle through rosy vapours; and at the same time Monet combines in +this series the dream-landscapes of Turner with Monticelli's +accumulation of precious stones. Thus interpreted by this intense +faculty of synthesis, nature, simplified in detail and contemplated in +its grand lines, becomes truly a living dream. + +Since the _Hay-ricks_ one can say that the work of Claude Monet is +glorious. It has been made sacred to the admiring love of the +connoisseurs on the day when Monet joined Rodin in an exhibition which +is famous in the annals of modern art. Yet no official distinction has +intervened to recognise one of the greatest painters of the nineteenth +century. The influence of Monet has been enormous all over Europe and +America. The _process of colour spots_[1] (let us adhere to this +rudimentary name which has become current) has been adopted by a whole +crowd of painters. I shall have to say a few words about it at the end +of this book. But it is befitting to terminate this all too short study +by explaining that the most lyrical of the Impressionists has also been +the theorist _par excellence_. His work connects easel painting with +mural painting. No Minister of Fine Arts has been found, who would +surmount the systematic opposition of the official painters, and give +Manet a commission for grand mural compositions, for which his method is +admirably suited. It has taken long years before such works were +entrusted to Besnard, who, with Puvis de Chavannes, has given Paris +her most beautiful modern decorations, but Besnard's work is the direct +outcome of Claude Monet's harmonies. The principle of the division of +tones and of the study of complementary colours has been full of +revelations, and one of the most fruitful theories. It has probably been +the principle which will designate most clearly the originality of the +painting of the future. To have invented it, is enough to secure +permanent glory for a man. And without wishing to put again the question +of the antagonism of realism and idealism, one may well say that a +painter who invents a method and shows such power, is highly +intellectual and gifted with a pictorial intelligence. Whatever the +subjects he treats, he creates an aesthetic emotion equivalent, if not +similar, to those engendered by the most complex symbolism. In his +ardent love of nature Monet has found his greatness; he suggests the +secrets by stating the evident facts. That is the law common to all the +arts. + +[Footnote 1: _Procédé de la tache._] + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +THE BRIDGE AT ARGENTEUIL] + + + + +VI + +AUGUSTE RENOIR AND HIS WORK + + +The work of Auguste Renoir extends without interruption over a period of +forty years. It appears to sum up the ideas and methods of Impressionist +art so completely that, should it alone be saved from a general +destruction, it would suffice to bear witness to this entire art +movement. It has unfolded itself from 1865 to our days with a happy +magnificence, and it allows us to distinguish several periods, in the +technique at least, since the variety of its subjects is infinite. Like +Manet, and like all truly great and powerful painters, M. Renoir has +treated almost everything, nudes, portraits, subject pictures, seascapes +and still-life, all with equal beauty. + +His first manner shows him to be a very direct descendant of Boucher. +His female nudes are altogether in eighteenth century taste and he uses +the same technique as Boucher: fat and sleek paint of soft brilliancy, +laid on with the palette knife, with precise strokes round the principal +values; pink and ivory tints relieved by strong blues similar to those +of enamels; the light distributed everywhere and almost excluding the +opposition of the shadows; and, finally, vivacious attitudes and an +effort towards decorative convention. Nevertheless, his _Bathers_, of +which he has painted a large series, are in many ways thoroughly modern +and personal. Renoir's nude is neither that of Monet, nor of Degas, +whose main concern was truth, the last-named even trying to define in +the undressed being such psychologic observations as are generally +looked for in the features of the clothed being. Nor is Renoir's nude +that of the academicians, that poetised nude arranged according to a +pseudo-Greek ideal, which has nothing in common with contemporary women. +What Renoir sees in the nude is less the line, than the brilliancy of +the epidermis, the luminous, nacreous substance of the flesh: it is the +"ideal clay"; and in this he shows the vision of a poet; he transfigures +reality, but in a very different sense from that of the School. +Renoir's woman comes from a primitive dream-land; she is an artless, +wild creature, blooming in perfumed scrub. He sets her in backgrounds of +foliage or of blue, foam-fringed torrents. She is a luxuriant, firm, +healthy and naïve woman with a powerful body, a small head, her eyes +wide open, thoughtless, brilliant and ignorant, her lips blood-red and +her nostrils dilated; she is a gentle being, like the women of Tahiti, +born in a tropical clime where vice is as unknown as shame, and where +entire ingenuousness is a guarantee against all indecency. One cannot +but be astonished at this mixture of "Japanism," savagism and eighteenth +century taste, which constitutes inimitably the nude of Renoir. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +DÉJEUNER] + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +IN THE BOX] + +M. Renoir's second manner is more directly related to the Impressionist +methods: it is that of his landscapes, his flowers and his portraits. +Here one can feel his relationship with Manet and with Claude Monet. +These pictures are hatchings of colours accumulated to render less the +objects than their transparency across the atmosphere. The portraits are +frankly presented and broadly executed. The artist occupies himself in +the first place with getting correct values and an exact suggestion of +depth. He understands the illogicality of a false perfection which is as +interested in a trinket as in an eye, and he knows how to proportion the +interest of the picture which should guide the beholder's look to the +essential point, though every part should be correctly executed. He +knows how to interpret nature in a certain sense; how to stop in time; +how to suggest by leaving a part apparently unfinished; how to indicate, +behind a figure, the sea or some landscape with just a few broad touches +which suffice to suggest it without usurping the principal part. It is +now, that Renoir paints his greatest works, the _Déjeûner des +Canotiers_, the _Bal au Moulin de la Galette_, the _Box_, the _Terrace_, +the _First Step_, the _Sleeping Woman with a Cat_, and his most +beautiful landscapes; but his nature is too capricious to be satisfied +with a single technique. There are some landscapes that are reminiscent +of Corot or of Anton Mauve; the _Woman with the broken neck_ is related +to Manet; the portrait of _Sisley_ invents pointillism fifteen years +before the pointillists; _La Pensée_, this masterpiece, evokes +Hoppner. But in everything reappears the invincible French instinct: the +_Jeune Fille au panier_ is a Greuze painted by an Impressionist; the +delightful _Jeune Fille à la promenade_ is connected with Fragonard; the +_Box_, a perfect marvel of elegance and knowledge, condenses the whole +worldliness of 1875. The portrait of _Jeanne Samary_ is an evocation of +the most beautiful portraits of the eighteenth century, a poem of white +satin and golden hair. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +YOUNG GIRL PROMENADING] + +Renoir's realism bears in spite of all, the imprint of the lyric spirit +and of sweetness. It has neither the nervous veracity of Manet, nor the +bitterness of Degas, who both love their epoch and find it interesting +without idealising it and who have the vision of psychologist novelists. +Before everything else he is a painter. What he sees in the _Bal au +Moulin de la Galette_, are not the stigmata of vice and impudence, the +ridiculous and the sad sides of the doubtful types of this low resort. +He sees the gaiety of Sundays, the flashes of the sun, the oddity of a +crowd carried away by the rhythm of the valses, the laughter, the +clinking of glasses, the vibrating and hot atmosphere; and he applies +to this spectacle of joyous vulgarity his gifts as a sumptuous +colourist, the arabesque of the lines, the gracefulness of his bathers, +and the happy eurythmy of his soul. The straw hats are changed into +gold, the blue jackets are sapphires, and out of a still exact realism +is born a poem of light. The _Déjeûner des Canotiers_ is a subject which +has been painted a hundred times, either for the purpose of studying +popular types, or of painting white table-cloths amidst sunny foliage. +Yet Renoir is the only painter who has raised this small subject to the +proportions and the style of a large canvas, through the pictorial charm +and the masterly richness of the arrangement. The _Box_, conceived in a +low harmony, in a golden twilight, is a work worthy of Reynolds. The +pale and attentive face of the lady makes one think of the great English +master's best works; the necklace, the flesh, the flounce of lace and +the hands are marvels of skill and of taste, which the greatest modern +virtuosos, Sargent and Besnard, have not surpassed, and, as far as the +man in the background is concerned, his white waistcoat, his +dress-coat, his gloved hand would suffice to secure the fame of a +painter. The _Sleeping Woman_, the _First Step_, the _Terrace_, and the +decorative _Dance_ panels reveal Renoir as an _intimiste_ and as an +admirable painter of children. His strange colouring and his gifts of +grasping nature and of ingenuity--strangers to all decadent +complexity--have allowed him to rank among the best of those who have +expressed childhood in its true aspect, without overloading it with +over-precocious thoughts. Finally, Renoir is a painter of flowers of +dazzling variety and exquisite splendour. They supply him with +inexhaustible pretexts for suave and subtle harmonies. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +WOMAN'S BUST] + +His third manner has surprised and deceived certain admirers of his. It +seems to mix his two first techniques, combining the painting with the +palette knife and the painting in touches of divided tones. He searches +for certain accords and contrasts almost analogous to the musical +dissonances. He realises incredible "false impressions." He seems to +take as themes oriental carpets: he abandons realism and style and +conceives symphonies. He pleases himself in assembling those tones +which one is generally afraid of using: Turkish pink, lemon, crushed +strawberry and viridian. Sometimes he amuses himself with amassing faded +colours which would be disheartening with others, but out of which he +can extract a harmony. Sometimes he plays with the crudest colours. One +feels disturbed, charmed, disconcerted, as one would before an Indian +shawl, a barbaric piece of pottery or a Persian miniature, and one +refrains from forcing into the limits of a definition this exceptional +virtuoso whose passionate love of colour overcomes every difficulty. It +is in this most recent part of his evolution, that Renoir appears the +most capricious and the most poetical of all the painters of his +generation. The flowers find themselves treated in various techniques +according to their own character: the gladioles and roses in pasty +paint, the poor flowers of the field are defined by a cross-hatching of +little touches. Influenced by the purple shadow of the large +flower-decked hats, the heads of young girls are painted on coarse +canvas, sketched in broad strokes, with the hair in one colour only. +Some little study appears like wool, some other has the air of agate, +or is marbled and veined according to his inexplicable whim. We have +here an incessant confusion of methods, a complete emancipation of the +virtuoso who listens only to his fancy. Now and then the harmonies are +false and the drawing incorrect, but these weaknesses do at least no +harm to the values, the character and the general movement of the work, +which are rather accentuated by them. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +YOUNG WOMAN IN EMPIRE COSTUME] + +Surely, it would be false to exclude ideologist painting which has +produced wonders, and not less iniquitous to reproach Impressionism with +not having taken any interest in it! One has to avoid the kind of +criticism which consists in reproaching one movement with not having had +the qualities of the others whilst maintaining its own, and we have +abandoned the idea of Beauty divided into a certain number of clauses +and programmes, towards the sum total of which the efforts of the +eclectic candidates are directed. M. Renoir is probably the most +representative figure of a movement where he seems to have united all +the qualities of his friends. To criticise him means to criticise +Impressionism itself. Having spent half of its strength in proving to +its adversaries that they were wrong, and the other half in inventing +technical methods, it is not surprising to find that Impressionism has +been wanting in intellectual depth and has left to its successors the +care of realising works of great thought. But it has brought us a sunny +smile, a breath of pure air. It is so fascinating, that one cannot but +love its very mistakes which make it more human and more accessible. +Renoir is the most lyrical, the most musical, the most subtle of the +masters of this art. Some of his landscapes are as beautiful as those of +Claude Monet. His nudes are as masterly in painting as Manet's, and more +supple. Not having attained the scientific drawing which one finds in +Degas's, they have a grace and a brilliancy which Degas's nudes have +never known. If his rare portraits of men are inferior to those of his +rivals, his women's portraits have a frequently superior distinction. +His great modern compositions are equal to the most beautiful works by +Manet and Degas. His inequalities are also more striking than theirs. +Being a fantastic, nervous improvisator he is more exposed to radical +mistakes. But he is a profoundly sincere and conscientious artist. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +ON THE TERRACE] + +The race speaks in him. It is inexplicable that he should not have met +with startling success, since he is voluptuous, bright, happy and +learned without heaviness. One has to attribute his relative isolation +to the violence of the controversies, and particularly to the dignity of +a poet gently disdainful of public opinion and paying attention solely +to painting, his great and only love. Manet has been a fighter whose +works have created scandal. Renoir has neither shown, nor hidden +himself: he has painted according to his dream, spreading his works, +without mixing up his name or his personality with the tumult that raged +around his friends. And now, for that very reason, his work appears +fresher and younger, more primitive and candid, more intoxicated with +flowers, flesh and sunlight. + + + + +VII + +THE SECONDARY PAINTERS OF IMPRESSIONISM--CAMILLE PISSARRO, ALFRED +SISLEY, PAUL CÉZANNE, BERTHE MORISOT, MISS MARY CASSATT, EVA GONZALÈS, +GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE, BAZILLE, ALBERT LEBOURG, EUGÈNE BOUDIN. + + +Manet, Degas, Monet and Renoir will present themselves as a glorious +quartet of masters, in the history of painting. We must now speak of +some personalities who have grown up by their side and who, without +being great, offer nevertheless a rich and beautiful series of works. + +Of these personalities the most considerable is certainly that of M. +Camille Pissarro. He painted according to some wise and somewhat timid +formulas, when Manet's example won him over to Impressionism to which he +has remained faithful. M. Pissarro has been enormously productive. His +work is composed of landscapes, rustic scenes, and studies of streets +and markets. His first landscapes are in the manner of Corot, but bathed +in blond colour: vast cornfields, sunny woods, skies with big, flocking +clouds, effects of soft light--these are the motifs of some charming +canvases which have a solid, classic quality. Later the artist adopted +the method of the dissociation of tones, from which he obtained some +happy effects. His harvest and market scenes are luminous and alive. The +figures in these recall those of Millet. They bear witness to high +qualities of sincere observation, and are the work of a man profoundly +enamoured of rustic life. M. Pissarro excels in grouping the figures, in +correctly catching their attitudes and in rendering the medley of a +crowd in the sun. Certain fans in particular will always remain +delightful caprices of fresh colour, but it would be vain to look in +this attractive, animated and clear painting for the psychologic gifts, +the profound feeling for grand silhouettes, and the intuition of the +worn and gloomy soul of the men of the soil, which have made Millet's +noble glory. At the time when, about 1885, the neo-Impressionists whom +we shall study later on invented the Pointillist method, M. Pissarro +tried it and applied it judiciously, with the patient, serious and +slightly anxious talent, by which he is distinguished. Recently, in a +series of pictures representing views of Paris (the boulevards and the +Avenue de l'Opéra) M. Pissarro has shewn rare vision and skill and has +perhaps signed his most beautiful and personal paintings. The +perspective, the lighting, the tones of the houses and of the crowds, +the reflections of rain or sunshine are intensely true; they make one +feel the atmosphere, the charm and the soul of Paris. One can say of +Pissarro that he lacks none of the gifts of his profession. He is a +learned, fruitful and upright artist. But he has lacked originality; he +always recalls those whom he admires and whose ideas he applies boldly +and tastefully. It is probable that his conscientious nature has +contributed not little towards keeping him in the second rank. +Incapable, certainly, of voluntarily imitating, this excellent and +diligent painter has not had the sparks of genius of his friends, but +all that can be given to a man through conscientious study, striving +after truth and love of art, has been acquired by M. Pissarro. The rest +depended on destiny only. There is no character more worthy of respect +and no effort more meritorious than his, and there can be no better +proof of his disinterestedness and his modesty, than the fact that, +although he has thirty years of work behind him, an honoured name and +white hair, M. Pissarro did not hesitate to adopt, quite frankly, the +technique of the young Pointillist painters, his juniors, because it +appeared to him better than his own. He is, if not a great painter, at +least one of the most interesting rustic landscape painters of our +epoch. His visions of the country are quite his own, and are a +harmonious mixture of Classicism and Impressionism which will secure one +of the most honourable places to his work. + +[Illustration: PISSARRO + +RUE DE L'EPICERIE, ROUEN] + +[Illustration: PISSARRO + +BOULEVARDE MONTMARTRE] + +[Illustration: PISSARRO + +THE BOILDIEAUX BRIDGE AT ROUEN] + +[Illustration: PISSARO + +THE AVENUE DE L'OPÉRA] + +There has, perhaps, been more original individuality in the landscape +painter Alfred Sisley. He possessed in the highest degree the feeling +for light, and if he did not have the power, the masterly passion of +Claude Monet, he will at least deserve to be frequently placed by his +side as regards the expression of certain combinations of light. He did +not have the decorative feeling which makes Monet's landscapes so +imposing; one does not see in his work that surprising lyrical +interpretation which knows how to express the drama of the raging waves, +the heavy slumber of enormous masses of rock, the intense torpor of the +sun on the sea. But in all that concerns the mild aspects of the _Ile de +France_, the sweet and fresh landscapes, Sisley is not unworthy of being +compared with Monet. He equals him in numerous pictures; he has a +similar delicacy of perception, a similar fervour of execution. He is +the painter of great, blue rivers curving towards the horizon; of +blossoming orchards; of bright hills with red-roofed hamlets scattered +about; he is, beyond all, the painter of French skies which he presents +with admirable vivacity and facility. He has the feeling for the +transparency of atmosphere, and if his technique allies him directly +with Impressionism, one can well feel, that he painted spontaneously and +that this technique happened to be adapted to his nature, without his +having attempted to appropriate it for the sake of novelty. Sisley has +painted a notable series of pictures in the quaint village of Moret on +the outskirts of the Forest of Fontainebleau, where he died at a ripe +age, and these canvases will figure among the most charming landscapes +of our epoch. Sisley was a veteran of Impressionism. At the Exhibition +of 1900, in the two rooms reserved for the works of this school, there +were to be seen a dozen of Sisley's canvases. By the side of the finest +Renoirs, Monets and Manets they kept their charm and their brilliancy +with a singular flavour, and this was for many critics a revelation as +to the real place of this artist, whom they had hitherto considered as a +pretty colourist of only relative importance. + +[Illustration: SISLEY + +SNOW EFFECT] + +[Illustration: SISLEY + +BOUGIVAL, AT THE WATER'S EDGE] + +[Illustration: SISLEY + +BRIDGE AT MORET] + +Paul Cézanne, unknown to the public, is appreciated by a small group of +art lovers. He is an artist who lives in Provence, away from the world; +he is supposed to have served as model for the Impressionist painter +Claude Lantier, described by Zola in his celebrated novel "L'Oeuvre." +Cézanne has painted landscapes, rustic scenes and still-life pictures. +His figures are clumsy and brutal and inharmonious in colour, but his +landscapes have the merit of a robust simplicity of vision. These +pictures are almost primitive, and they are loved by the young +Impressionists because of their exclusion of all "cleverness." A charm +of rude simplicity and sincerity can be found in these works in which +Cézanne employs only just the means which are indispensable for his end. +His still-life pictures are particularly interesting owing to the +spotless brilliancy of their colours, the straightforwardness of the +tones, and the originality of certain shades analogous to those of old +faience. Cézanne is a conscientious painter without skill, intensely +absorbed in rendering what he sees, and his strong and tenacious +attention has sometimes succeeded in finding beauty. He reminds more of +an ancient Gothic craftsman, than of a modern artist, and he is full of +repose as a contrast to the dazzling virtuosity of so many painters. + +[Illustration: CÉZANNE + +DESSERT] + +Berthe Morisot will remain the most fascinating figure of +Impressionism,--the one who has stated most precisely the femineity of +this luminous and iridescent art. Having married Eugène Manet, the +brother of the great painter, she exhibited at various private +galleries, where the works of the first Impressionists were to be +seen, and became as famous for her talent as for her beauty. When Manet +died, she took charge of his memory and of his work, and she helped with +all her energetic intelligence to procure them their just and final +estimation. Mme. Eugène Manet has certainly been one of the most +beautiful types of French women of the end of the nineteenth century. +When she died prematurely at the age of fifty (in 1895), she left a +considerable amount of work: gardens, young girls, water-colours of +refined taste, of surprising energy, and of a colouring as +distinguished, as it is unexpected. As great grand-daughter of +Fragonard, Berthe Morisot (since we ought to leave her the name with +which her respect for Manet's great name made her always sign her works) +seemed to have inherited from her famous ancestor his French +gracefulness, his spirited elegance, and all his other great qualities. +She has also felt the influence of Corot, of Manet and of Renoir. All +her work is bathed in brightness, in azure, in sunlight; it is a woman's +work, but it has a strength, a freedom of touch and an originality, +which one would hardly have expected. Her water-colours, particularly, +belong to a superior art: some notes of colour suffice to indicate sky, +sea, or a forest background, and everything shows a sure and masterly +fancy, for which our time can offer no analogy. A series of Berthe +Morisot's works looks like a veritable bouquet whose brilliancy is due +less to the colour-schemes which are comparatively soft, grey and blue, +than to the absolute correctness of the values. A hundred canvases, and +perhaps three hundred water-colours attest this talent of the first +rank. Normandy coast scenes with pearly skies and turquoise horizons, +sparkling Nice gardens, fruit-laden orchards, girls in white dresses +with big flower-decked hats, young women in ball-dress, and flowers are +the favourite themes of this artist who was the friend of Renoir, of +Degas and of Mallarmé. + +[Illustration: BERTHE MORISOT + +MELANCHOLY] + +[Illustration: BERTHE MORISOT + +YOUNG WOMAN SEATED] + +Miss Mary Cassatt will deserve a place by her side. American by birth, +she became French through her assiduous participation in the exhibitions +of the Impressionists. She is one of the very few painters whom Degas +has advised, with Forain and M. Ernest Rouart. (This latter, a painter +himself, a son of the painter and wealthy collector Henri Rouart, has +married Mme. Manet's daughter who is also an artist.) Miss Cassatt has +made a speciality of studying children, and she is, perhaps, the artist +of this period who has understood and expressed them with the greatest +originality. She is a pastellist of note, and some of her pastels are as +good as Manet's and Degas's, so far as broad execution and brilliancy +and delicacy of tones are concerned. Ten years ago Miss Cassatt +exhibited a series of ten etchings in colour, representing scenes of +mothers and children at their toilet. At that time this _genre_ was +almost abandoned, and Miss Cassatt caused astonishment by her boldness +which faced the most serious difficulties. One can relish in this +artist's pictures, besides the great qualities of solid draughtsmanship, +correct values, and skilful interpretation of flesh and stuffs, a +profound sentiment of infantile life, childish gestures, clear and +unconscious looks, and the loving expression of the mothers. Miss +Cassatt is the painter and psychologist of babies and young mothers whom +she likes to depict in the freshness of an orchard, or against +backgrounds of the flowered hangings of dressing-rooms, amidst bright +linen, tubs, and china, in smiling intimacy. To these two remarkable +women another has to be added, Eva Gonzalès, the favourite pupil of +Manet who has painted a fine portrait of her. Eva Gonzalès became the +wife of the excellent engraver Henri Guérard, and died prematurely, not, +however, before one was able to admire her talent as an exquisitely +delicate pastellist. Having first been a pupil of Chaplin, she soon came +to forget the tricks of technique in order to acquire under Manet's +guidance the qualities of clearness and the strength of the great +painter of _Argenteuil_; and she would certainly have taken one of the +first places in modern art, had not her career been cut short by death. +A small pastel at the Luxembourg Gallery proves her convincing qualities +as a colourist. + +[Illustration: MARY CASSATT + +GETTING UP BABY] + +[Illustration: MARY CASSATT + +WOMEN AND CHILD] + +Gustave Caillebotte was a friend of the Impressionists from the very +first hour. He was rich, fond of art, and himself a painter of great +merit who modestly kept hidden behind his comrades. His picture _Les +raboteurs de parquets_ made him formerly the butt of derision. To-day +his work, at the Luxembourg Gallery seems hardly a fit pretext for so +much controversy, but at that time much was considered as madness, +that to our eyes appears quite natural. This picture is a study of +oblique perspective and its curious _ensemble_ of rising lines sufficed +to provoke astonishment. The work is, moreover, grey and discreet in +colour and has some qualities of fine light, but is on the whole not +very interesting. Recently an exhibition of works by Caillebotte has +made it apparent that this amateur was a misjudged painter. The +still-life pictures in this exhibition were specially remarkable. But +the name of Caillebotte was destined to reach the public only in +connection with controversies and scandal. When he died, he left to the +State a magnificent collection of objets-d'art and of old pictures, and +also a collection of Impressionist works, stipulating that these two +bequests should be inseparable. He wished by this means to impose the +works of his friends upon the museums, and thus avenge their unjust +neglect. The State accepted the two legacies, since the Louvre +absolutely wanted to benefit by the ancient portion, in spite of the +efforts of the Academicians who revolted against the acceptance of the +modern part. On this occasion one could see how far the official +artists were carried by their hatred of the Impressionists. A group of +Academicians, professors at the _Ecole des Beaux-Arts_, threatened the +minister that they would resign _en masse_. "We cannot," they wrote to +the papers, "continue to teach an art of which we believe we know the +laws, from the moment the State admits into the museums, where our +pupils can see them, works which are the very negation of all we teach." +A heated discussion followed in the press, and the minister boldly +declared that Impressionism, good or bad, had attracted the attention of +the public, and that it was the duty of the State to receive impartially +the work of all the art movements; the public would know how to judge +and choose; the Government's duty was not to influence them by showing +them only one style of painting, but to remain in historic neutrality. +Thanks to this clever reply, the Academicians, among whom M. Gérôme was +the most rabid, resigned themselves to keeping their posts. A similar +incident, less publicly violent, but equally strange, occurred on the +occasion of the admission to the Luxembourg Gallery of the portrait of +M. Whistler's mother, a masterpiece of which the gallery is proud +to-day, and for which a group of writers and art lovers had succeeded in +opening the way. It is difficult to imagine the degree of irritation and +obstruction of the official painters against all the ideas of the new +painting, and if it had only depended upon them, there can be no doubt +that Manet and his friends would have died in total obscurity, not only +banished from the Salons and museums, but also treated as madmen and +robbed of the possibility of living by their work. + +The Caillebotte collection was installed under conditions which the +ill-will of the administrators made at least as deplorable as possible. +The works were crowded into a small, badly lighted room, where it is +absolutely impossible to see them from the distance required by the +method of the division of tones, and the meanness of the opposition was +such that, the pictures having been bequeathed without frames, the +keeper was obliged to have recourse to the reserves of the Louvre, +because he was refused the necessary credit for purchasing them. The +collection is however beautiful and interesting. It does not represent +Impressionism in all its brilliancy, since the works by which it is +composed had been bought by Caillebotte at a time, when his friends were +still far from having arrived at the full blossoming of their qualities. +But some very fine things can at least be found there. Renoir is +marvellously represented by the _Moulin de la Galette_, which is one of +his masterpieces. Degas figures with seven beautiful pastels, Monet with +some landscapes grand in style; Sisley and Pissarro appear scarcely to +their advantage, and finally it is to be regretted, that Manet is only +represented by a study in black in his first manner, the _Balcony_, +which does not count among his best pictures, and the famous _Olympia_ +whose importance is more historical than intrinsic. The gallery has +separately acquired a _Young Girl in Ball Dress_ by Berthe Morisot, +which is a delicate marvel of grace and freshness. And in the place of +honour of the gallery is to be seen Fantin-Latour's great picture +_Hommage à Manet_, in which the painter, seated before his easel, is +surrounded by his friends; and this canvas may well be considered the +emblem of the slow triumph of Impressionism, and of the amends for a +great injustice. + +It is in this picture that the young painter Bazille is represented, a +friend and pupil of Manet's, who was killed during the war of 1870, and +who should not be forgotten here. He has left a few canvases marked by +great talent, and would no doubt have counted among the most original +contemporary artists. We shall terminate this all too short enumeration +with two remarkable landscapists; the one is Albert Lebourg who paints +in suave and poetic colour schemes, with blues and greens of particular +tenderness, a painter who will take his place in the history of +Impressionism. The other is Eugène Boudin. He has not adopted Claude +Monet's technique; but I have already said that the vague and inexact +term "Impressionism" must be understood to comprise a group of painters +showing originality in the study of light and getting away from the +academic spirit. As to this, Eugène Boudin deserves to be placed in the +first rank. His canvases will be the pride of the best arranged +galleries. He is an admirable seascape painter. He has known how to +render with unfailing mastery, the grey waters of the Channel, the +stormy skies, the heavy clouds, the effects of sunlight feebly piercing +the prevailing grey. His numerous pictures painted at the port of Havre +are profoundly expressive. Nobody has excelled him in drawing +sailing-boats, in giving the exact feeling of the keels plunged into the +water, in grouping the masts, in rendering the activity of a port, in +indicating the value of a sail against the sky, the fluidity of calm +water, the melancholy of the distance, the shiver of short waves rippled +by the breeze. Boudin is a learned colourist of grey tones. His +Impressionism consists in the exclusion of useless details, his +comprehension of reflections, his feeling for values, the boldness of +his composition and his faculty of directly perceiving nature and the +transparency of atmosphere: he reminds sometimes of Constable and of +Corot. Boudin's production has been enormous, and nothing that he has +done is indifferent. He is one of those artists who have not a brilliant +career, but who will last, and whose name, faithfully retained by the +elect, is sure of immortality. He may be considered an isolated +artist, on the border line between Classicism and Impressionism, and +this is unquestionably the cause of the comparative obscurity of his +fame. The same might be said of the ingenuous and fine landscapist +Hervier, who has left such interesting canvases; and of the Lyons +water-colour painter Ravier who, almost absolutely unknown, came very +close to Monticelli and showed admirable gifts. It must, however, be +recognised that Boudin is nearer to Impressionism than to any other +grouping of artists, and he must be considered as a small master of pure +French lineage. Finally, if a question of nationality prevents me from +enlarging upon the subject of the rank of precursor which must be +accorded to the great Dutch landscapist Jongkind, I must at least +mention his name. His water-colour sketches have been veritable +revelations for several Impressionists. Eugène Boudin and Berthe Morisot +have derived special benefit from them, and they are valuable lessons +for many young painters of the present day. + +[Illustration: JONGKIND + +IN HOLLAND] + +[Illustration: JONGKIND + +VIEW OF THE HAGUE] + +We do not pretend to have mentioned in this chapter all the painters +directly connected with the first Impressionist movement. We have +confined ourselves to enumerating the most important only, and each of +them would deserve a complete essay. But our object will have been +achieved, if we have inspired art-lovers with just esteem for this brave +phalanx of artists who have proved better than any aesthetic +commentaries the vitality, the originality, and the logic of Manet's +theories, the great importance of the notions introduced by him into +painting, and who have, on the other hand, clearly demonstrated the +uselessness of official teaching. Far from the traditions and methods of +the School, the best of their knowledge and of their talent is due to +their profound and sincere contemplation of nature and to their freedom +of spirit. And for that reason they will have a permanent place in the +evolution of their art. + + + + +VIII + +THE MODERN ILLUSTRATORS CONNECTED WITH IMPRESSIONISM: RAFFAËLLI, +TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, FORAIN, CHÉRET, ETC. + + +Not the least important result of Impressionism has been the veritable +revolution effected by it in the art of illustration. It was only +natural that its principles should have led to it. The substitution of +the beauty of character for the beauty of proportion was bound to move +the artists to regard illustration in a new light; and as pictorial +Impressionism was born of the same movement of ideas which created the +naturalist novel and the impressionist literature of Flaubert, Zola and +the Goncourts, and moreover as these men were united by close relations +and a common defence, Edouard Manet's modern ideas soon took up the +commentary of the books dealing with modern life and the description of +actual spectacles. + +The Impressionists themselves have not contributed towards illustration. +Their work has consisted in raising to the style of grand painting +subjects, that seemed at the best only worthy of the proportion of +vignettes, in opposition to the subjects qualified as "noble" by the +School. The series of works by Manet and Degas may be considered as +admirable illustrations to the novels by Zola and the Goncourts. It is a +parallel research in modern psychologic truth. But this research has +remained confined to pictures. It may be presumed that, had they wished +to do so, Manet and Degas could have admirably illustrated certain +contemporary novels, and Renoir could have produced a masterpiece in +commenting, say, upon Verlaine's _Fêtes Galantes_. The only things that +can be mentioned here are a few drawings composed by Manet for Edgar A. +Poe's _The Raven_ and Mallarmé's _L'Après-Midi d'un Faune_, in addition +to a few music covers without any great interest. + +But if the Impressionists themselves have neglected actively to assist +the interesting school of modern illustration, a whole legion of +draughtsmen have immediately been inspired by their principles. One of +their most original characteristics was the realistic representation of +the scenes, the _mise en cadre_, and it afforded these draughtsmen an +opportunity for revolutionising book illustration. There had already +been some excellent artists who occupied themselves with vignette +drawings, like Tony Johannot and Célestin Nanteuil, whose pretty and +smart frontispieces are to be found in the old editions of Balzac. The +genius of Honoré Daumier and the high fancy of Gavarni and of Grévin had +already announced a serious protest of modern sentiment against academic +taste, in returning on many points to the free tradition of Eisen, of +the two Moreaus and of Debucourt. Since 1845 the draughtsman Constantin +Guys, Baudelaire's friend, gave evidence, in his most animated +water-colour drawings, of a curious vision of nervous elegance and of +expressive skill quite in accord with the ideas of the day. +Impressionism, and also the revelation of the Japanese colour prints, +gave an incredible vigour to these intuitive glimpses. Certain +characteristics will date from the days of Impressionism. It is due to +Impressionism that artists have ventured to show in illustration, for +instance, figures in the foreground cut through by the margin, rising +perspectives, figures in the background that seem to stand on a higher +plane than the others, people seen from a second story; in a word, all +that life presents to our eyes, without the annoying consideration for +"style" and for arrangement, which the academic spirit obstinately +insisted to apply to the illustration of modern life. Degas in +particular has given many examples of this novelty in composition. One +of his pastels has remained typical, owing to the scandal caused by it: +he represents a dance-scene at the Opera, seen from the orchestra. The +neck of a double bass rises in the middle of the picture and cuts into +it, a large black silhouette, behind which sparkle the gauze-dresses and +the lights. That can be observed any evening, and yet it would be +difficult to recapitulate all the railleries and all the anger caused by +so natural an audacity. Modern illustration was to be the pretext of a +good many more outbursts! + +We must now consider four artists of great importance who are remarkable +painters and have greatly raised the art of illustration. This title +illustrator, despised by the official painters, should be given them as +the one which has secured them the best claim to fame. They have +restored to this title all its merit and all its brilliancy and have +introduced into illustration the most serious qualities of painting. Of +these four men the first in date is M.J.F. Raffaëlli, who introduced +himself about 1875 with some remarkable and intensely picturesque +illustrations in colours in various magazines. He gave an admirable +series of _Parisian Types_, in album form, and a series of etchings to +accompany the text of M. Huysmans, describing the curious river "la +Bièvre" which penetrates Paris in a thousand curves, sometimes +subterranean, sometimes above ground, and serves the tanners for washing +the leather. This series is a model of modern illustration. But, apart +from the book, the entire pictorial work of M. Raffaëlli is a humorous +and psychological illustration of the present time. He has painted with +unique truth and spirit the working men's types and the small +_bourgeois_, the poor, the hospital patients and the roamers of the +outskirts of Paris. He has succeeded in being the poet of the sickly and +dirty landscapes by which the capitals are surrounded; he has rendered +their anaemic charm, the confused perspectives of houses, fences, walls +and little gardens, and their smoke, under the melancholy of rainy +skies. With an irony free from bitterness he has noted the clumsy +gestures of the labourer in his Sunday garb and the grotesque +silhouettes of the small townsmen, and has compiled a gallery of very +real sociologic interest. M. Raffaëlli has also exhibited Parisian +landscapes in which appear great qualities of light. He excels in +rendering the mornings in the spring, with their pearly skies, their +pale lights, their transparency and their slight shadows, and finally he +has proved his mastery by some large portraits, fresh harmonies, +generally devoted to the study of different qualities of white. If the +name "Impressionist" meant, as has been wrongly believed, an artist who +confines himself to giving the impression of what he sees, then M. +Raffaëlli would be the real Impressionist. He suggests more than he +paints. He employs a curious technique: he often leaves a sky completely +bare, throwing on to the white of the canvas a few colour notes which +suffice to give the illusion. He has a decided preference for white and +black, and paints very slightly in small touches. His very correct +feeling for values makes him an excellent painter; but what interests +him beyond all, is psychologic expression. He notes it with so hasty a +pencil, that one might almost say that he writes with colour. He is also +an etcher of great merit, and an original sculptor. He has invented +small bas-reliefs in bronze which can be attached to the wall, like +sketches or nick-nacks; and he has applied his talent even to renewing +the material for painting. He is an ingenious artist and a prolific +producer, a roguish, but sympathetic, observer of the life of the small +people, which has not prevented him from painting very seriously when he +wanted to, as is witnessed among other works by his very fine portrait +of M. Clemenceau speaking at a public meeting, in the presence of a +vociferous audience from which rise some hundred of heads whose +expressions are noted with really splendid energy and fervour. + +Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who died recently, insane, leaves a great +work behind him. He had a kind of cruel genius. Descended from one of +the greatest families of France, badly treated by nature who made him a +kind of ailing dwarf, he seemed to take a bitter pleasure in the study +of modern vice. He painted scenes at café-concerts and the rooms of +wantons with intense truth. Nobody has revealed better than he the +lowness and suffering of the creatures "of pleasure," as they have been +dubbed by the heartrending irony of life. Lautrec has shown the +artificiality of the painted faces; the vulgarity of the types of the +prostitutes of low origin; the infamous gestures, the disorder, the +slovenliness of the dwellings of these women; all the shady side of +their existence. It has been said that he loved ugliness. As a matter of +fact, he did not exaggerate, he raised a powerful accusation against +everything he saw. But his terrible clairvoyance passed for caricature. +This sad psychologist was a great painter; he pleased himself with +dressing in rose-coloured costumes the coarsest and most vulgar +creatures he painted, such as one can find at the cabarets and concerts, +and he enjoyed the contrast of fresh tones with the faces marked by vice +and poverty; Lautrec's two great influences have been the Japanese and +Degas. Of the former he retained the love for decorative arabesques and +the unconventional grouping; of the other the learned draughtsmanship, +expressive in its broad simplification, and one might say that the pupil +has often been worthy of the masters. One can only regret that Lautrec +should have confined his vision and his high faculties to the study of a +small and very Parisian world; but, seeing his works, one cannot deny +the science, the spirit and the grand bearing of his art. He has also +signed some fine posters, notably a _Bruant_ which is a masterpiece of +its kind. + +Degas's deep influence can be found again in J.L. Forain, who has made +himself known by an immense series of drawings for the illustrated +papers, drawings as remarkable in themselves as they are, through their +legends, bitterly sarcastic in spirit. These drawings form a synthesis +of the defects of the _bourgeoisie_, which is at the same time amusing +and grave. They also concern, though less happily, the political world, +in which the artist, a little intoxicated with his success, has thought +himself able to exercise an influence by scoffing at the parliamentary +régime. Forain's drawing has a nervous character which does, however, +not weaken its science: every stroke reveals something and has an +astonishing power. In his less known painting can be traced still more +clearly the style and influence of his master Degas. They are generally +incidents behind the scenes and at night restaurants, where caricatured +types are painted with great force. But they are insistently +exaggerated, they have not the restraint, the ironical and discreet +plausibility, which give so much flavour, so much value to Degas's +studies. Nevertheless, Forain's pictures are very significant and are of +real interest. He is decidedly the most interesting newspaper +illustrator of his whole generation, the one whose ephemeral art most +closely approaches grand painting, and one of those who have most +contributed towards the transformation of illustration for the +contemporary press. + +Jules Chéret has made for himself an important and splendid position in +contemporary art. He commenced as a lithographic workman and lived for a +long time in London. About 1870 Chéret designed his first posters in +black, white and red; these were at the time the only colours used. By +and by he perfected this art and found the means of adding other tones +and of drawing them on the lithographic stone. He returned to France, +started a small studio, and gradually carried poster art to the +admirable point at which it has arrived. At the same time Chéret drew +and painted and composed himself his models. About 1885 his name became +famous, and it has not ceased growing since. Some writers, notably the +eminent critic Roger Marx and the novelist Huysmans, hailed in Chéret an +original artist as well as a learned technician. He then exhibited +decorative pictures, pastels and drawings, which placed him in the first +rank. Chéret is universally known. The type of the Parisian woman +created by him, and the multi-coloured harmony of his works will not be +forgotten. His will be the honour of having invented the artistic +poster, this feast for the eyes, this fascinating art of the street, +which formerly languished in a tedious and dull display of commercial +advertisements. He has been the promoter of an immense movement; he has +been imitated, copied, parodied, but he will always remain inimitable. +He has succeeded in realising on paper by means of lithography, the +pastels and gouache drawings in which his admirable colourist's fancy +mixed the most difficult shades. In Chéret can be found all the +principles of Impressionism: opposing lights, coloured shadows, +complementary reflections, all employed with masterly sureness and +delightful charm. It is decorative Impressionism, conceived in a +superior way; and this simple poster-man, despised by the painters, has +proved himself equal to most. He has transformed the street, in the open +light, into a veritable Salon, where his works have become famous. When +this too modest artist decided to show his pictures and drawings, they +were a revelation. The most remarkable pastellists of the period were +astonished and admired his skill, his profound knowledge of technique, +his continual _tours-de-force_ which he disguised under a shimmering +gracefulness. The State had the good sense to entrust him with some +large mural decorations, in which he unfolded the scale of his sparkling +colours, and affirmed his spirit, his fancy and his dreamy art. Chéret's +harmonies remain secrets; he uses them for the representation of +characters from the Italian comedy, thrown with fiendish _verve_ upon a +background of a sky, fiery with the Bengal lights of a fairy-like +carnival, and he strangely intermingles the reality of the movements +with the most arbitrary fancy. Chéret has also succeeded in proving his +artistic descent by a beautiful series of drawings in sanguine: he +descends from Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard; he is a Frenchman of pure +blood; and when one has done admiring the grace and the happy animation +of his imagination, one can only be surprised to see on what serious and +sure a technique are based these decorations which appear improvised. +Chéret's art is the smile of Impressionism and the best demonstration +of the decorative logic of this art. + +These are the four artists of great merit who have created the +transition between Impressionist painting and illustration. It would be +fit to put aside Toulouse-Lautrec, who was much younger, but his work is +too directly connected with that of Degas for one to take into account +the difference of age. He produced between 1887 and 1900 works which +might well have been ante-dated by fifteen years. We shall study in the +next chapter his Neo-Impressionist comrades, and we shall now speak of +some illustrators more advanced in years than he. The oldest in date is +the engraver Henri Guérard, who died three years ago. He had married Eva +Gonzalès and was a friend of Manet's, many of whose works have been +engraved by him. He was an artist of decided and original talent, who +also occupied himself successfully with pyrogravure, and who was happily +inspired by the Japanese colour-prints. His etchings deserve a place of +honour in the folios of expert collectors; they are strong and broad. As +to the engraver Félix Buhot, he was a rather delicate colourist in +black and white; his Paris scenes will always be considered charming +works. In spite of his Spanish origin, the painter, _aquarelliste_, and +draughtsman Daniel Vierge, should be added to the list of the men +connected with Impressionism. His illustrations are those of a great +artist--admirable in colour, movement and observation; all the great +principles of Impressionism are embodied in them. But there are four +more illustrators of the first rank: Steinlen, Louis Legrand, Paul +Renouard and Auguste Lepère. + +Steinlen has been enormously productive: he is specially remarkable for +his illustrations. Those which he has designed for Aristide Bruant's +volume of songs, _Dans la rue_, are masterpieces of their kind. They +contain treasures of bitter observation, quaintness and knowledge. The +soul of the lower classes is shown in them with intense truth, bitter +revolt and comprehensive philosophy. Steinlen has also designed some +beautiful posters, pleasing pastels, lithographs of incontestable +technical merit, and beautifully eloquent political drawings. It cannot +be said that he is an Impressionist in the strict sense of the word; he +applied his colour in flat tints, more like an engraver than a painter; +but in him too can be felt the stamp of Degas, and he is one of those +who best demonstrate that, without Impressionism, they could not have +been what they are. + +The same may be said of Louis Legrand, a pupil of Félicien Rops, an +admirably skilful etcher, a draughtsman of keen vision, and a painter of +curious character, who has in many ways forestalled the artists of +to-day. Louis Legrand also shows to what extent the example of Manet and +Degas has revolutionised the art of illustration, in freeing the +painters from obsolete laws, and guiding them towards truth and frank +psychological study. Legrand is full of them, without resembling them. +We must not forget that, besides the technical innovation (division of +tones, study of complementary colours), Impressionism has brought us +novelty of composition, realism of character and great liberty in the +choice of subjects. From this point of view Rops himself, in spite of +his symbolist tendencies, could not be classed with any other group, if +it were not that any kind of classification in art is useless and +inaccurate. However that may be, Louis Legrand has signed some volumes +resplendent with the most seductive qualities. + +Paul Renouard has devoted himself to newspaper illustration, but with +what surprising prodigality of spirit and knowledge! The readers of the +"Graphic" will know. This masterly virtuoso of the pencil might give +drawing-lessons to many members of the Institute! The feeling for the +life of crowds, psychology of types, spirited and rapid notation, +astonishing ease in overcoming difficulties--these are his undeniable +gifts. And again we must recognise in Renouard the example of Degas and +Manet. His exceptional fecundity only helps to give more authority to +his pencil. Renouard's drawings at the Exhibition of 1900 were, perhaps, +more beautiful than the rest of his work. There was notably a series of +studies made from the first platform of the Eiffel Tower, an +accumulation of wonders of perspectives framing scenes of such animation +and caprice as to take away one's breath. + +Finally, Auguste Lepère appears as the Debucourt of our time. As +painter, pastellist and wood-engraver he has produced since 1870, and +has won for himself the first place among French engravers. It would be +difficult to recount the volumes, albums and covers on which the fancy +of his burin has played; but it is particularly in wood-engraving that +he stands without rival. Not only has he produced masterpieces of it, +but he has passionately devoted himself to raising this admirable art, +the glory of the beautiful books of olden days, and to give back to it +the lustre which had been eclipsed by mechanical processes. Lepère has +started some publications for this purpose; he has had pupils of great +merit, and he must be considered the master of the whole generation of +modern wood-engravers, just as Chéret is the undisputed master of the +poster. Lepère's ruling quality is strength. He seems to have +rediscovered the mediaeval limners' secrets of cutting the wood, giving +the necessary richness to the ink, creating a whole scale of half-tones, +and specially of adapting the design to typographic printing, and making +of it, so to say, an ornament and a decorative extension for the type. +Lepère is a wood-engraver with whom none of his contemporaries can be +compared; as regards his imagination, it is that of an altogether +curious artist. He excels in composing and expressing the life, the +animation, the soul of the streets and the picturesque side of the +populace. Herein he is much inspired by Manet and, if we go back to the +real tradition, by Guys, Debucourt, the younger Moreau and by Gabriel de +Saint-Aubin. He is decidedly a Realist of French lineage, who owes +nothing to the Academy and its formulas. + +It would be evidently unreasonable to attach to Impressionism all that +is ante-academical, and between the two extremes there is room for a +crowd of interesting artists. We shall not succumb to the prejudice of +the School by declaring, in our turn, that there is no salvation outside +Impressionism, and we have been careful to state repeatedly that, if +Impressionism has a certain number of principles as kernel, its +applications and its influence have a radiation which it is difficult to +limit. What can be absolutely demonstrated is, that this movement has +had the greatest influence on modern illustration, sometimes through its +colouring, sometimes simply through the great freedom of its ideas. Some +have found in it a direct lesson, others an example to be followed. +Some have met in it technical methods which pleased them, others have +only taken some suggestions from it. That is the case, for instance, +with Legrand, with Steinlen, and with Renouard; and it is also the case +with the lithographer Odilon Redon, who applies the values of Manet and, +in his strange pastels, the harmonies of Degas and Renoir, placing them +at the service of dreams and hallucinations and of a symbolism which is +absolutely removed from the realism of these painters. It is, finally, +the case with the water-colour painter Henri Rivière, who is misjudged +as to his merit, and who is one of the most perfect of those who have +applied Impressionist ideas to decorative engraving. He has realised +images in colours destined to decorate inexpensively the rooms of the +people and recalling the grand aspects of landscapes with a broad +simplification which is derived, curiously enough, from Puvis de +Chavannes's large decorative landscapes and from the small and precise +colour prints of Japan. Rivière, who is a skilful and personal poetic +landscapist, is not exactly an Impressionist, in so far as he does not +divide the tones, but rather blends them in subtle mixtures in the +manner of the Japanese. Yet, seeing his work, one cannot help thinking +of all the surprise and freedom introduced into modern art by +Impressionism. + +Everybody, even the ignorant, can perceive, on looking through an +illustrated paper or a modern volume, that thirty years ago this manner +of placing the figures, of noting familiar gestures, and of seizing +fugitive life with spirit and clearness was unknown. This mass of +engravings and of sketches resembles in no way what had been seen +formerly. They no longer have the solemn air of classic composition, by +which the drawings had been affected. A current of bold spontaneity has +passed through here. In modern English illustration, it can be stated +indisputably that nothing would be such as it can now be seen, if +Morris, Rossetti and Crane had not imposed their vision, and yet many +talented Englishmen resemble these initiators only very remotely. It is +exactly in this sense that we shall have credited Impressionism with the +talents who have drawn their inspiration less from its principles, than +from its vigorous protest against mechanical formulas, and who have +been able to find the energy, necessary for their success, in the +example it set by fighting during twenty years against the ideas of +routine which seemed indestructible. Even with the painters who are far +removed from the vision and the colouring of Manet and Degas, of Monet +and Renoir, one can find a very precise tendency: that of returning to +the subjects and the style of the real national tradition; and herein +lies one of the most serious benefits bestowed by Impressionism upon an +art which had stopped at the notion of a canonical beauty, until it had +almost become sterile in its timidity. + + + + +IX + +NEO-IMPRESSIONISM--GAUGUIN, DENIS, THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE--THE THEORY OF +POINTILLISM--SEURAT, SIGNAC AND THE THEORIES OF SCIENTIFIC +CHROMATISM--FAULTS AND QUALITIES OF THE IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT, WHAT WE +OWE TO IT, ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH SCHOOL--SOME WORDS ON +ITS INFLUENCE ABROAD + + +The beginnings of the movement designated under the name of +Neo-Impressionism can be traced back to about 1880. The movement is a +direct offshoot of the first Impressionism, originated by a group of +young painters who admired it and thought of pushing further still its +chromatic principles. The flourishing of Impressionism coincided, as a +matter of fact, with certain scientific labours concerning optics. +Helmholtz had just published his works on the perception of colours and +sounds by means of waves. Chevreul had continued on this path by +establishing his beautiful theories on the analysis of the solar +spectrum. M. Charles Henry, an original and remarkable spirit, occupied +himself in his turn with these delicate problems by applying them +directly to aesthetics, which Helmholtz and Chevreul had not thought of +doing. M. Charles Henry had the idea of creating relations between this +branch of science and the laws of painting. As a friend of several young +painters he had a real influence over them, showing them that the new +vision due to the instinct of Monet and of Manet might perhaps be +scientifically verified, and might establish fixed principles in a +sphere where hitherto the laws of colouring had been the effects of +individual conception. At that moment the criticism which resulted from +Taine's theories tried to effect a _rapprochement_ of the artistic and +scientific domains in criticism and in the psychologic novel. The +painters, too, gave way to this longing for precision which seems to +have been the great preoccupation of intellects from 1880 to about 1889. + +Their researches had a special bearing on the theory of complementary +colours and on the means of establishing some laws concerning the +reaction of tones in such manner as to draw up a kind of tabula. Georges +Seurat and Paul Signac were the promoters of this research. Seurat died +very young, and one cannot but regret this death of an artist who would +have been very interesting and capable of beautiful works. Those which +he has left us bear witness to a spirit very receptive to theories, and +leaving nothing to chance. The silhouettes are reduced to almost +rigorously geometrical principles, the tones are decomposed +systematically. These canvases are more reasoned examples than works of +intuition and spontaneous vision. They show Seurat's curious desire to +give a scientific and classic basis to Impressionism. The same idea +rules in all the work of Paul Signac, who has painted some portraits and +numerous landscapes. To these two painters is due the method of +_Pointillism_, _i.e._ the division of tones, not only by touches, as in +Monet's pictures, but by very small touches of equal size, causing the +spheric shape to act equally upon the retina. The accumulation of these +luminous points is carried out over the entire surface of the canvas +without thick daubs of paint, and with regularity, whilst with Manet the +paint is more or less dense. The theory of complementary colours is +systematically applied. On a sketch, made from nature, the painter notes +the principal relations of tones, then systematises them on his picture +and connects them by different shades which should be their logical +result. Neo-Impressionism believes in obtaining thus a greater exactness +than that which results from the individual temperament of the painter +who simply relies on his own perception. And it is true, in theory, that +such a conception is more exact. But it reduces the picture to a kind of +theorem, which excludes all that constitutes the value and charm of an +art, that is to say: caprice, fancy, and the spontaneity of personal +inspiration. The works of Seurat, Signac, and of the few men who have +strictly followed the rules of Pointillism are lacking in life, in +surprise, and make a somewhat tiring impression upon one's eyes. The +uniformity of the points does not succeed in giving an impression of +cohesion, and even less a suggestion of different textures, even if the +values are correct. Manet seems to have attained perfection in using the +method which consists in directing the touches in accordance with each +of the planes, and this is evidently the most natural method. Scientific +Chromatism constitutes an _ensemble_ of propositions, of which art will +be able to make use, though indirectly, as information useful for a +better understanding of the laws of light in presence of nature. What +Pointillism has been able to give us, is a method which would be very +appreciable for decorative paintings seen from a great distance--friezes +or ceilings in spacious buildings. It would in this case return to the +principle of mosaic, which is the principle _par excellence_ of mural +art. + +The Pointillists have to-day almost abandoned this transitional theory +which, in spite of the undeniable talent of its adepts, has only +produced indifferent results as regards easel pictures. Besides Seurat +and Signac, mention should be made of Maurice Denis, Henri-Edmond Cross, +Angrand, and Théo Van Rysselberghe. But this last-named and Maurice +Denis have arrived at great talent by very different merits. M. Maurice +Denis has abandoned Pointillism a few years ago, in favour of returning +to a very strange conception which dates back to the Primitives, and +even to Giotto. He simplifies his drawing archaically, suppresses all +but the indispensable detail, and draws inspiration from Gothic stained +glass and carvings, in order to create decorative figures with clearly +marked outlines which are filled with broad, flat tints. He generally +treats mystic subjects, for which this special manner is suitable. One +cannot love the _parti pris_ of these works, but one cannot deny M. +Denis a great charm of naivete, an intense feeling for decorative +arrangements and colouring of a certain originality. He is almost a +French pre-Raphaelite, and his profound catholic faith inspires him +nobly. + +[Illustration: THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE + +PORTRAITS OF MADAME VAN RYSSELBERGHE AND HER DAUGHTER] + +M. Théo Van Rysselberghe continues to employ the Pointillist method. But +he is so strongly gifted, that one might almost say he succeeds in +revealing himself as a painter of great merit in spite of this dry and +charmless method. All his works are supported by broad and learned +drawing and his colour is naturally brilliant. M. Van Rysselberghe, a +prolific and varied worker, has painted nudes, large portraits, +landscapes with figures, seascapes, interiors and still-life, and in all +this he evinces faculties of the first order. He is a lover of light and +understands how to make it vibrate over flesh and fabrics. He is an +artist who has the sense of style. He has signed a certain number of +portraits, whose beautiful carriage and serious psychology would suffice +to make him be considered as the most significant of the +Neo-Impressionists. It is really in him that one has to see the young +and worthy heir of Monet, of Sisley, and of Degas, and that is why we +have insisted on adding here to the works of these masters the +reproduction of one of his. M. Van Rysselberghe is also a very delicate +etcher who has signed some fine works in this method, and his seascapes, +whether they revel in the pale greys of the German Ocean or in the warm +sapphire and gold harmonies of the Mediterranean, count among the finest +of the time; they are windows opened upon joyous brightness. + +To these painters who have never taken part at the Salons, and are only +to be seen at the exhibitions of the _Indépendants_ (except M. Denis), +must be added M. Pierre Bonnard, who has given proof to his charm and +fervour in numerous small canvases of Japanese taste; and M. Edouard +Vuillard, who is a painter of intimate scenes of rare delicacy. This +artist, who stands apart and produces very little, has signed some +interiors of melancholic distinction and of a colouring which revels in +low tones. He has the precision and skill of a master. There is in him, +one might say, a reflection of Chardin's soul. Unfortunately his works +are confined to a few collections and have not become known to the +public. To the same group belong M. Ranson, who has devoted himself to +purely decorative art, tapestry, wall papers and embroideries; M. +Georges de Feure, a strange, symbolist water-colour painter, who has +become one of the best designers of the New Art in France; M. Félix +Vallotton, painter and lithographer, who is somewhat heavy, but gifted +with serious qualities. It is true that M. de Feure is Dutch, M. +Vallotton Swiss, and M. Van Rysselberghe Belgian; but they have settled +down in France, and are sufficiently closely allied to the +Neo-Impressionist movement so that the question of nationality need not +prevent us from mentioning them here. Finally it is impossible not to +say a few words about two pupils of Gustave Moreau's, who have both +become noteworthy followers of Impressionism of very personal +individuality. M. Eugène Martel bids fair to be one of the best painters +of interiors of his generation. He has the feeling of mystical life and +paints the peasantry with astonishing psychologic power. His vigorous +colouring links him to Monticelli, and his drawing to Degas. As to M. +Simon Bussy who, following Alphonse Legros's example, is about to make +an enviable position for himself in England, he is an artist of pure +blood. His landscapes and his figures have the distinction and rare tone +of M. Whistler, besides the characteristic acuteness of Degas. His +harmonies are subtle, his vision novel, and he will certainly develop +into an important painter. Together with Henri le Sidaner and Jacques +Blanche, Simon Bussy is decidedly the most personal of that young +generation of "Intimists" who seem to have retained the best principles +of the Impressionist masters to employ them for the expression of a +psychologic ideal which is very different from Realism. + +Outside this group there are still a few isolated painters who are +difficult to classify. The very young artists Laprade and Charles Guérin +have shown for the last three years, at the exhibition of the +_Indépendants_, some works which are the worthy result of Manet's and +Renoir's influence. They, too, justify great expectations. The +landscapists Paul Vogler and Maxime Maufra, more advanced in years, have +made themselves known by some solid series of vigorously presented +landscapes. To them must be added M. Henry Moret, M. Albert André and M. +Georges d'Espagnet, who equally deserve the success which has commenced +to be their share. But there are some older ones. It is only his due, +that place should be given to a painter who committed suicide after an +unhappy life, and who evinced splendid gifts. Vincent Van Gogh, a +Dutchman, who, however, had always worked in France, has left to the +world some violent and strange works, in which Impressionism appears to +have reached the limits of its audacity. Their value lies in their naïve +frankness and in the undauntable determination which tried to fix +without trickery the sincerest feelings. Amidst many faulty and clumsy +works, Van Gogh has also left some really beautiful canvases. There is a +deep affinity between him and Cézanne. A very real affinity exists, too, +between Paul Gauguin, who was a friend and to a certain extent the +master of Van Gogh, and Cézanne and Renoir. Paul Gauguin's robust talent +found its first motives in Breton landscapes, in which the method of +colour-spots can be found employed with delicacy and placed at the +service of a rather heavy, but very interesting harmony. Then the artist +spent a long time in Tahiti, whence he returned with a completely +transformed manner. He has brought back from these regions some +landscapes with figures treated in intentionally clumsy and almost wild +fashion. The figures are outlined in firm strokes and painted in broad, +flat tints on canvas which has the texture almost of tapestry. Many of +these works are made repulsive by their aspect of multi-coloured, crude +and barbarous imagery. Yet one cannot but acknowledge the fundamental +qualities, the beautiful values, the ornamental taste, and the +impression of primitive animalism. On the whole, Paul Gauguin has a +beautiful, artistic temperament which, in its aversion to virtuosoship, +has perhaps not sufficiently understood that the fear of formulas, if +exaggerated, may lead to other formulas, to a false ignorance which is +as dangerous as false knowledge. Gauguin's symbolical intentions, like +those of his pupil Emile Bernard, are sincere, but are badly served by +minds which do not agree with their technical qualities, and both +Gauguin and Emile Bernard are most happily inspired when they are +painters pure and simple. + +Next to Gauguin, among the seniors of the present generation and the +successors of Impressionism, should be placed the landscapist Armand +Guillaumin who, without possessing Sisley's delicate qualities, has +painted some canvases worthy of notice; and we must, finally, terminate +this far too summary enumeration by referring to one of the most gifted +painters of the French School of the day, M. Louis Anquetin. His is a +most varied talent whose power is unquestionable. He made his _début_ +among the Neo-Impressionists and revealed the influence upon him of the +Japanese and of Degas. It may be seen that these two influences +predominate in the whole group. Then M. Anquetin became fascinated by +the breadth and superb freedom of Manet's works, and signed a series of +portraits and sketches, some of which are not far below so great a +master's. They are works which will surprise the critics, when our +contemporary painting will be examined with calm impartiality. After +these works, M. Anquetin gave way to his impetuous nature which led him +to decorative painting, and he became influenced by Rubens, Jordaens, +and the Fontainebleau School. He painted theatre curtains and +mythological scenes, in which he gave free rein to his sensual +imagination. In spite of some admirable qualities, it seems as though +the artist had strayed from his true path in painting these brilliant, +but somewhat declamatory works, and he has since returned to a more +modern and more direct painting. In all his changed conditions Anquetin +has shown a considerable talent, pleasing in its fine vigour, +impetuosity, brilliancy and sincerity. His inequality is perhaps the +cause of his relative want of success; it has put the public off, but +nevertheless in certain of this brave and serious painter's canvases can +be seen the happy influence of Manet. + +It seems to us only right to sum up our impartial opinion of +Neo-Impressionism by saying that it has lacked cohesion, that +Pointillism in particular has led painting into an aimless path. It has +been wrong to see in Impressionism too exclusive a pretext for technical +researches, and a happy reaction has set in, which leads us back to-day, +after diverse tentative efforts (amongst others some unfortunate +attempts at symbolist painting), to the fine, recent school of the +"Intimists" and to the novel conception which a great and glorious +painter, Besnard, imposes upon the Salons, where the elect draw +inspiration from him. We can here only indicate with a few words the +considerable part played by Besnard: his clever work has proved that the +scientific colour principles of Impressionism may be applied, not to +realism, but to the highest thoughts, to ideologic painting most nobly +inspired by the modern intellectual preoccupations. He is the +transition between Impressionism and the art of to-morrow. Of pure +French lineage by his portraits and his nudes, which descend directly +from Largillière and Ingres, he might have restricted himself to being +placed among the most learned Impressionists. His studies of reflections +and of complementary colours speak for this. But he has passed this +phase and has, with his decorations, returned to the psychical domain of +his strangely beautiful art. The "Intimists," C. Cottet, Simon, Blanche, +Ménard, Bussy, Lobre, Le Sidaner, Wéry, Prinet, and Ernest Laurent, have +proved that they have profited by Impressionism, but have proceeded in +quite a different direction in trying to translate their real +perceptions. Some isolated artists, like the decorative painter Henri +Martin, who has enormous talent, have applied the Impressionist +technique to the expression of grand allegories, rather in the manner of +Puvis de Chavannes. The effort at getting away from mere cleverness and +escaping a too exclusive preoccupation with technique, and at the same +time acquiring serious knowledge, betrays itself in the whole position +of the young French School; and this will furnish us with a perfectly +natural conclusion, of which the following are the principal points:-- + +What we shall have to thank Impressionism for, will be moral and +material advantages of considerable importance. Morally it has rendered +an immense service to all art, because it has boldly attacked routine +and proved by the whole of its work that a combination of independent +producers could renew the aesthetic code of a country, without owing +anything to official encouragement. It has succeeded where important but +isolated creators have succumbed, because it has had the good fortune of +uniting a group of gifted men, four of whom will count among the +greatest French artists since the origin of national art. It has had the +qualities which overcome the hardest resistance: fecundity, courage and +sure originality. It has known how to find its strength by referring to +the true traditions of the national genius, which have happily +enlightened it and saved it from fundamental errors. It has, last, but +not least, inflicted an irremediable blow on academic convention and has +wrested from it the prestige of teaching which ruled tyrannically for +centuries past over the young artists. It has laid a violent hand upon a +tenacious and dangerous prejudice, upon a series of conventional notions +which were transmitted without consideration for the evolution of modern +life and intelligence. It has dared freely to protest against a +degenerated ideal which vainly parodied the old masters, pretending to +honour them. It has removed from the artistic soul of France a whole +order of pseudo-classic elements which worked against its blossoming, +and the School will never recover from this bold contradiction which has +rallied to it all the youthful. The moral principle of Impressionism has +been absolutely logical and sane, and that is why nothing has been able +to prevent its triumph. + +Technically Impressionism has brought a complete renewal of pictorial +vision, substituting the beauty of character for the beauty of +proportions and finding adequate expression for the ideas and feelings +of its time, which constitutes the secret of all beautiful works. It has +taken up again a tradition and added to it a contemporary page. It will +have to be thanked for an important series of observations as regards +the analysis of light, and for an absolutely original conception of +drawing. Some years have been wasted by painters of little worth in +imitating it, and the Salons, formerly encumbered with academic +_pastiches_, have been encumbered with Impressionist _pastiches_. It +would be unfair to blame the Impressionists for it. They have shown by +their very career that they hated teaching and would never pretend to +teach. Impressionism is based upon irrefutable optic laws, but it is +neither a style, nor a method, likely ever to become a formula in its +turn. One may call upon this art for examples, but not for receipts. On +the contrary, its best teaching has been to encourage artists to become +absolutely independent and to search ardently for their own +individuality. It marks the decline of the School, and will not create a +new one which would soon become as fastidious as the other. It will only +appear, to those who will thoroughly understand it, as a precious +repertory of notes, and the young generation honours it intelligently by +not imitating it with servility. + +Not that it is without its faults! It has been said, to belittle it, +that it only had the value of an interesting attempt, having only been +able to indicate some excellent intentions, without creating anything +perfect. This is inexact. It is absolutely evident, that Manet, Monet, +Renoir and Degas have signed some masterpieces which did not lose by +comparison with those in the Louvre, and the same might even be said of +their less illustrious friends. But it is also evident that the time +spent on research as well as on agitation and enervating controversies +pursued during twenty-five years, has been taken from men who could +otherwise have done better still. There has been a disparity between +Realism and the technique of Impressionism. Its realistic origin has +sometimes made it vulgar. It has often treated indifferent subjects in a +grand style, and it has too easily beheld life from the anecdotal side. +It has lacked psychologic synthesis (if we except Degas). It has too +willingly denied all that exists hidden under the apparent reality of +the universe and has affected to separate painting from the ideologic +faculties which rule over all art. Hatred of academic allegory, +defiance of symbolism, abstraction and romantic scenes, has led it to +refuse to occupy itself with a whole order of ideas, and it has had the +tendency of making the painter beyond all a workman. It was necessary at +the moment of its arrival, but it is no longer necessary now, and the +painters understand this themselves. Finally it has too often been +superficial even in obtaining effects; it has given way to the wish to +surprise the eyes, of playing with tones merely for love of cleverness. +It often causes one regret to see symphonies of magnificent colour +wasted here in pictures of boating men; and there, in pictures of café +corners; and we have arrived at a degree of complex intellectuality +which is no longer satisfied with these rudimentary themes. It has +indulged in useless exaggerations, faults of composition and of harmony, +and all this cannot be denied. + +But it still remains fascinating and splendid for its gifts which will +always rouse enthusiasm: freedom, impetuousness, youth, brilliancy, +fervour, the joy of painting and the passion for beautiful light. It is, +on the whole, the greatest pictorial movement that France has beheld +since Delacroix, and it brings to a finish gloriously the nineteenth +century, inaugurating the present. It has accomplished the great deed of +having brought us again into the presence of our true national lineage, +far more so than Romanticism, which was mixed with foreign elements. We +have here painting of a kind which could only have been conceived in +France, and we have to go right back to Watteau in order to receive +again the same impression. Impressionism has brought us an almost +unhoped-for renaissance, and this constitutes its most undeniable claim +upon the gratitude of the race. + +It has exercised a very appreciable influence upon foreign painting. +Among the principal painters attracted by its ideas and research, we +must mention, in Germany, Max Liebermann and Kuehl; in Norway, Thaulow; +in Denmark, Kroyer; in Belgium, Théo Van Rysselberghe, Emile Claus, +Verheyden, Heymans, Verstraete, and Baertson; in Italy, Boldini, +Segantini, and Michetti; in Spain, Zuloaga, Sorolla y Bastida, Dario de +Regoyos and Rusiñol; in America, Alexander, Harrison, Sargent; and in +England, the painters of the Glasgow School, Lavery, Guthrie and the +late John Lewis Brown. All these men come within the active extension of +the French movement, and one may say that the honour of having first +recognised the truly national movement of this art must be given to +those foreign countries which have enriched their collections and +museums with works that were despised in the land which had witnessed +their birth. At the present moment the effects of this new vision are +felt all over the world, down to the very bosom of the academies; and at +the Salons, from which the Impressionists are still excluded, can be +witnessed an invasion of pictures inspired by them, which the most +retrograde juries dare not reject. In whatever measure the recent +painters accept Impressionism, they remain preoccupied with it, and even +those who love it not are forced to take it into account. + +The Impressionist movement can therefore now be considered, apart from +all controversies, without vain attacks or exaggerated praise, as an +artistic manifestation which has entered the domain of history, and it +can be studied with the impartial application of the methods of +critical analysis which is usually employed in the study of the former +art movements. We shall not pretend to have given in these pages a +complete and faultless history; but we shall consider ourselves well +rewarded for this work, which is intended to reach the great public, if +we have roused their curiosity and sympathy with a group of artists whom +we consider admirable; and if we have rectified, in the eyes of the +readers of a foreign nation, the errors, the slanders, the undeserved +reproaches, with which Frenchmen have been pleased to overwhelm sincere +creators who thought with faith and love of the pure tradition of the +national genius, and who have for that reason been vilified as much as +if they had in an access of anarchical folly risen against the very +common sense, taste, reason and clearness, which will remain the eternal +merits of their soil. This small, imperfect volume will perhaps find its +best excuse in its intention of repairing an old injustice and of +affirming a useful and permanent truth: that of the authenticity of the +classicism of Impressionism, in the face of the false classicism of the +academic world which official honours have made the guardian of a French +heritage, whose soul it denied and whose spirit it deceived with its +narrow and cold formulas. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS +(1860-1900)*** + + +******* This file should be named 14056-8.txt or 14056-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/5/14056 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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G. Konady</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The French Impressionists (1860-1900)</p> +<p>Author: Camille Mauclair</p> +<p>Release Date: November 15, 2004 [eBook #14056]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS (1860-1900)***</p> +<br><br><h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h1> + THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS +</h1> +<center> + <h2>(1860-1900) </h2> +</center><br> +<center><b> + BY +</b></center> +<center> +<h2><b> + CAMILLE MAUCLAIR +</b></h2> +</center> +<p style="text-align: center"> + AUTHOR OF <i>L'ART EN SILENCE</i>, <i>LES MÈRES SOCIALES</i>, ETC. +</p> +<h3><i>Translated from the French text of Camille Mauclair, by P. G. Konody</i>.</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"> + </p> +<center><small> + LONDON: DUCKWORTH & CO.<br> + NEW YORK: E.P. DUTTON & CO. +</small></center> +<center> + 1903 +</center> +<center><small> + TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.</small> + <p> </p> +</center> +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/01renoir.jpg" width="222" height="300" +alt="Renoir - At the Piano"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>RENOIR</b><br><br>AT THE PIANO + <p style="text-align: center"> </p> +</center> +<hr> +<h3>To</h3><br> +<h3> + AUGUSTE BRÉAL +</h3> +<center> + TO THE ARTIST AND TO THE FRIEND +</center> +<center> + AS A MARK OF GRATEFUL AFFECTION +</center> +<center> + <b>C.M. </b> +</center> +<p align="center"> +</p> +<hr> +<p align="center"> + +</p> + + <p><br> + + </p> + +<h2> + CONTENTS +</h2> +<br> + + <a href="#2H_4_0002">AUTHOR'S NOTE +</a> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_LIST">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0004">NOTE TO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0005"><b>I.</b> THE PRECURSORS OF IMPRESSIONISM—THE + BEGINNING OF THIS MOVEMENT, THE ORIGIN OF ITS NAME</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"> + <a href="#2H_4_0006"> + <b>II.</b> THE THEORY OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS—THE + DIVISION OF TONES, COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS, + THE STUDY OF ATMOSPHERE—THE IDEAS OF THE + IMPRESSIONISTS ON SUBJECT-PICTURES, ON + THE BEAUTY OF CHARACTER, ON MODERNITY, AND ON STYLE</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0007"><b>III.</b> EDOUARD MANET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0008"><b>IV.</b> EDGAR DEGAS: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0009"><b>V.</b> CLAUDE MONET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0010"><b>VI.</b> AUGUSTE RENOIR: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0011"><b>VII.</b> PISSARRO, SISLEY, CAILLEBOTTE, + CÉZANNE, BERTHE MORISOT, MARY CASSATT; + THE SECONDARY ARTISTS OF + IMPRESSIONISM—JONGKIND, BOUDIN</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0012"><b>VIII.</b> THE MODERN ILLUSTRATORS CONNECTED WITH + IMPRESSIONISM: RAFFAËLLI, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, + FORAIN, CHÉRET, ETC.</a></p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><a href="#2H_4_0013"><b>IX.</b> NEO-IMPRESSIONISM: GAUGUIN, DENIS, THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE—THE THEORY OF + POINTILLISM—SEURAT, SIGNAC AND THE + THEORIES OF SCIENTIFIC CHROMATISM—FAULTS + AND QUALITIES OF THE + IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT, WHAT WE OWE + TO IT, ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE + FRENCH SCHOOL—SOME WORDS ON ITS INFLUENCE ABROAD</a><br> + + +</p> + +<br><br><a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + <hr> +<h2> + AUTHOR'S NOTE +</h2> +<p> + It should be stated here that, with the exception of one reproduction + after the Neo-Impressionist Van Rysselberghe, the other forty-nine + engravings illustrating this volume I owe to the courtesy of M. + Durand-Ruel, from the first the friend of the Impressionist painters, + and later the most important collector of their works, a friend who has + been good enough to place at our disposal the photographs from which our + illustrations have been reproduced. Chosen from a considerable + collection which has been formed for thirty years past, these + photographs, none of which are for sale, form a veritable and unique + museum of documents on Impressionist art, which is made even more + valuable through the dispersal of the principal masterpieces of this art + among the private collections of Europe and America. We render our + thanks to M. Durand-Ruel no less in the name of the public interested in + art, than in our own. +</p> +<br><hr> + <p><br> + </p> +<a name="2H_LIST"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</h2> + +<h2> + </h2> +<p> + <a href="#image-0001">RENOIR. At the Piano</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0002">MANET. Rest</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0003">MANET. In the Square</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0004">MANET. Young Man in Costume of Majo</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0005">MANET. The Reader</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0006">DEGAS. The Dancer at the Photographer's</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0007">DEGAS. Carriages at the Races</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0008">DEGAS. The Greek Dance—Pastel</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0009">DEGAS. Waiting</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0010">CLAUDE MONET. The Pines</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0011">CLAUDE MONET. Church at Vernon</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0012">RENOIR. Portrait of Madame Maitre</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0013">MANET. The Dead Toreador</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0014">MANET. Olympia</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0015">MANET. The Woman with the Parrot</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0016">MANET. The Bar at the Folies-Bergère</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0017">MANET. Déjeuner</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0018">MANET. Portrait of Madame M.L.</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0019">MANET. The Hothouse</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0020">DEGAS. The Beggar Woman</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0021">DEGAS. The Lesson in the Foyer</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0022">DEGAS. The Dancing Lesson—Pastel</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0023">DEGAS. The Dancers</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0024">DEGAS. Horses in the Meadows</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0025">CLAUDE MONET. An Interior after Dinner</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0026">CLAUDE MONET. The Harbour, Honfleur</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0027">CLAUDE MONET. The Church at Varengeville</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0028">CLAUDE MONET. Poplars on the Epte in Autumn</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0029">CLAUDE MONET. The Bridge at Argenteuil</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0030">RENOIR. Déjeuner</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0031">RENOIR. In the Box</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0032">RENOIR. Young Girl Promenading</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0033">RENOIR. Woman's Bust</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0034">RENOIR. Young Woman in Empire Costume</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0035">RENOIR. On the Terrace</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0036">PISSARRO. Rue de l'Epicerie, Rouen</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0037">PISSARRO. Boulevard Montmartre</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0038">PISSARRO. The Boildieaux Bridge at Rouen</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0039">PISSARRO. The Avenue de l'Opéra</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0040">SISLEY. Snow Effect</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0041">SISLEY. Bougival, at the Water's Edge</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0042">SISLEY. Bridge at Moret</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0043">CÉZANNE. Dessert</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0044">BERTHE MORISOT. Melancholy</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0045">BERTHE MORISOT. Young Woman Seated</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0046">MARY CASSATT. Getting up Baby</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0047">MARY CASSATT. Women and Child</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0048">JONGKIND. In Holland</a></p> +<p> + <a href="#image-0049">JONGKIND. View of the Hague</a></p> +<p><a href="#image-0050">THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE. Portraits of + Madame van Rysselberghe and her Daughter</a></p> + +<br><br> +<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<h2> + NOTE TO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</h2> +<p> + The illustrations contained in this volume have been taken from + different epochs of the Impressionist movement. They will give but a + feeble idea of the extreme abundance of its production. +</p> +<p> + Banished from the salons, exhibited in private galleries and sold direct + to art lovers, the Impressionist works have been but little seen. The + series left by Caillebotte to the Luxembourg Gallery is very badly shown + and is composed of interesting works which, however, date back to the + early period, and are very inferior to the beautiful productions which + followed later. Renoir is best represented. The private galleries in + Paris, where the best Impressionist works are to be found, are those of + MM. Durand-Ruel, Rouart, de Bellis, de Camondo, and Manzi, to which must + be added the one sold by MM. Théodore Duret and Faure, and the one of + Mme. Ernest Rouart, daughter of Mme. Morisot, the sister-in-law of + Manet. The public galleries of M. Durand-Ruel's show-rooms are the place + where it is easiest to find numerous Impressionist pictures. +</p> +<p> + In spite of the firm opposition of the official juries, a place of + honour was reserved at the Exposition of 1889 for Manet, and at that of + 1900 a fine collection of Impressionists occupied two rooms and caused a + considerable stir. +</p> +<p> + Amongst the critics who have most faithfully assisted this group of + artists, I must mention, besides the early friends previously referred + to, Castagnary, Burty, Edouard de Goncourt, Roger Marx, Geffroy, Arsène + Alexandre, Octave Mirbeau, L. de Fourcaud, Clemenceau, Mallarmé, + Huysmans, Jules Laforgue, and nearly all the critics of the Symbolist + reviews. A book on "Impressionist Art" by M. Georges Lecomte has been + published by the firm of Durand-Ruel as an <i>edition-de-luxe</i>. But the + bibliography of this art consists as yet almost exclusively of articles + in journals and reviews and of some isolated biographical pamphlets. + Manet is, amongst many, the one who has excited most criticism of all + kinds; the articles, caricatures and pamphlets relating to his work + would form a considerable collection. It should be added that, with the + exception of Manet two years before his death, and Renoir last year at + the age of sixty-eight, no Impressionist has been decorated by the + French government. In England such a distinction has even less + importance in itself than elsewhere. But if I insist upon it, it is only + to draw attention to the fact that, through the sheer force of their + talent, men like Degas, Monet and Pissarro have achieved great fame and + fortune, without gaining access to the Salons, without official + encouragement, decoration, subvention or purchases for the national + museums. This is a very significant instance and serves well to complete + the physiognomy of this group of independents. +</p> + +<br> <hr> + <p><br> +<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + + </p> + +<h2> + I +</h2> +<h3> + THE PRECURSORS OF IMPRESSIONISM—THE BEGINNING OF THIS MOVEMENT AND THE + ORIGIN OF ITS NAME +</h3> +<p style="text-align: center"> + </p> +<p> + It will be beyond the scope of this volume to give a complete history of + French Impressionism, and to include all the attractive details to which + it might lead, as regards the movement itself and the very curious epoch + during which its evolution has taken place. The proportions of this book + confine its aim to the clearest possible summing up for the British + reader of the ideas, the personalities and the works of a considerable + group of artists who, for various reasons, have remained but little + known and who have only too frequently been gravely misjudged. These + reasons are very obvious: first, the Impressionists have been unable to + make a show at the Salons, partly because the jury refused them + admission, partly because they held aloof of their own free will. They + have, with very rare exceptions, exhibited at special minor galleries, + where they become known to a very restricted public. Ever attacked, and + poor until the last few years, they enjoyed none of the benefits of + publicity and sham glory. It is only quite recently that the admission + of the incomplete and badly arranged Caillebotte collection to the + Luxembourg Gallery has enabled the public to form a summary idea of + Impressionism. To conclude the enumeration of the obstacles, it must be + added that there are hardly any photographs of Impressionist works in + the market. As it is, photography is but a poor translation of these + canvases devoted to the study of the play of light; but even this very + feeble means of distribution has been withheld from them! Exhibited at + some galleries, gathered principally by Durand-Ruel, sold directly to + art-lovers—foreigners mostly—these large series of works have + practically remained unknown to the French public. All the public heard + was the reproaches and sarcastic comments of the opponents, and they + never became aware that in the midst of modern life the greatest, the + richest movement was in progress, which the French school had known + since the days of Romanticism. Impressionism has been made known to them + principally by the controversies and by the fruitful consequences of + this movement for the illustration and study of contemporary life. +</p> +<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/02manet.jpg" width="224" height="300" +alt="Manet - Rest"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>REST +</center> +<p> + I do not profess to give here a detailed and complete history of + Impressionism, for which several volumes like the present one would be + required. I shall only try to compile an <i>ensemble</i> of concise and very + precise notions and statements bearing upon this vast subject. It will + be my special object to try and prove that Impressionism is neither an + isolated manifestation, nor a violent denial of the French traditions, + but nothing more or less than a logical return to the very spirit of + these traditions, contrary to the theories upheld by its detractors. It + is for this reason that I have made use of the first chapter to say a + few words on the precursors of this movement. +</p> +<p> + No art manifestation is really isolated. However new it may seem, it is + always based upon the previous epochs. The true masters do not give + lessons, because art cannot be taught, but they set the example. To + admire them does not mean to imitate them: it means the recognition in + them of the principles of originality and the comprehension of their + source, so that this eternal source may be called to life in oneself, + this source which springs from a sincere and sympathetic vision of the + aspects of life. The Impressionists have not escaped this beautiful law. + I shall speak of them impartially, without excessive enthusiasm; and it + will be my special endeavour to demonstrate in each of them the cult of + a predecessor, for there have been few artistic movements where the love + for, and one might say the hereditary link with, the preceding masters + has been more tenacious. +</p> +<p> + The Academy has struggled violently against Impressionism, accusing it + of madness, of systematic negation of the "laws of beauty," which it + pretended to defend and of which it claimed to be the official priest. + The Academy has shown itself hostile to a degree in this quarrel. It has + excluded the Impressionists from the Salons, from awards, from official + purchases. Only quite recently the acceptance of the Caillebotte + bequest to the Luxembourg Gallery gave rise to a storm of indignation + among the official painters. I shall, in the course of this book, enter + upon the value of these attacks. Meanwhile I can only say how + regrettable this obstinacy appears to me and will appear to every free + spirit. It is unworthy even of an ardent conviction to condemn a whole + group of artists <i>en bloc</i> as fools, enemies of beauty, or as tricksters + anxious to degrade the art of their nation, when these artists worked + during forty years towards the same goal, without getting any reward for + their effort, but poverty and derision. It is now about ten years since + Impressionism has taken root, since its followers can sell their + canvases, and since they are admired and praised by a solid and + ever-growing section of the public. The hour has therefore arrived, + calmly to consider a movement which has imposed itself upon the history + of French art from 1860 to 1900 with extreme energy, to leave + dithyrambics as well as polemics, and to speak of it with a view to + exactness. The Academy, in continuing the propagation of an ideal of + beauty fixed by canons derived from Greek, Latin and Renaissance art, + and neglecting the Gothic, the Primitives and the Realists, looks upon + itself as the guardian of the national tradition, because it exercises + an hierarchic authority over the <i>Ecole de Rome</i>, the <i>Salons</i>, and the + <i>Ecole des Beaux Arts</i>. All the same, its ideals are of very mixed + origin and very little French. Its principles are the same by which the + academic art of nearly all the official schools of Europe is governed. + This mythological and allegorical art, guided by dogmas and formulas + which are imposed upon all pupils regardless of their temperament, is + far more international than national. To an impartial critic this + statement will show in an even more curious light the excommunication + jealously issued by the academic painters against French artists, who, + far from revolting in an absurd spirit of <i>parti-pris</i> against the + genius of their race, are perhaps more sincerely attached to it than + their persecutors. Why should a group of men deliberately choose to + paint mad, illogical, bad pictures, and reap a harvest of public + derision, poverty and sterility? It would be uncritical to believe + merely in a general mystification which makes its authors the worst + sufferers. Simple common sense will find in these men a conviction, a + sincerity, a sustained effort, and this alone should, in the name of the + sacred solidarity of those who by various means try to express their + love of the beautiful, suppress the annoying accusations hurled too + light-heartedly against Manet and his friends. +</p> +<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/03manet.jpg" width="293" height="235" +alt="Manet - In the Square"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>IN THE SQUARE +</center> +<p> + I shall define later on the ideas of the Impressionists on technique, + composition and style in painting. Meanwhile it will be necessary to + indicate their principal precursors. +</p> +<p> + Their movement may be styled thus: a reaction against the Greco-Latin + spirit and the scholastic organisation of painting after the second + Renaissance and the Italo-French school of Fontainebleau, by the century + of Louis XIV., the school of Rome, and the consular and imperial taste. + In this sense Impressionism is a protest analogous to that of + Romanticism, exclaiming, to quote the old verse: "<i>Qui nous délivrera + des Grecs et des Romains?</i>"<a href="#note-1"><small>1</small></a> From this point of view Impressionism has + also great affinities with the ideas of the English Pre-Raphaelites, + who stepped across the second and even the first Renaissance back to the + Primitives. +</p> +<p> + This reaction is superimposed by another: the reaction of Impressionism, + not only against classic subjects, but against the black painting of the + degenerate Romanticists. And these two reactions are counterbalanced by + a return to the French ideal, to the realistic and characteristic + tradition which commences with Jean Foucquet and Clouet, and is + continued by Chardin, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, Watteau, La Tour, + Fragonard, and the admirable engravers of the eighteenth century down to + the final triumph of the allegorical taste of the Roman revolution. Here + can be found a whole chain of truly national artists who have either + been misjudged, like Chardin, or considered as "small masters" and + excluded from the first rank for the benefit of the pompous Allegorists + descended from the Italian school. +</p> +<p> + Impressionism being beyond all a technical reaction, its predecessors + should first be looked for from this material point of view. Watteau is + the most striking of all. <i>L'Embarquement pour Cythère</i> is, in its + technique, an Impressionist canvas. It embodies the most significant + of all the principles exposed by Claude Monet: the division of tones by + juxtaposed touches of colour which, at a certain distance, produce upon + the eye of the beholder the effect of the actual colouring of the things + painted, with a variety, a freshness and a delicacy of analysis + unobtainable by a single tone prepared and mixed upon the palette. +</p> +<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/04manet.jpg" width="195" height="300" +alt="Manet - Young Man in Costume of Majo"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>YOUNG MAN IN COSTUME OF MAJO +</center> +<p> + Claude Lorrain, and after him Carle Vernet, are claimed by the + Impressionists as precursors from the point of view of decorative + landscape arrangement, and particularly of the predominance of light in + which all objects are bathed. Ruysdael and Poussin are, in their eyes, + for the same reasons precursors, especially Ruysdael, who observed so + frankly the blue colouring of the horizon and the influence of blue upon + the landscape. It is known that Turner worshipped Claude for the very + same reasons. The Impressionists in their turn, consider Turner as one + of their masters; they have the greatest admiration for this mighty + genius, this sumptuous visionary. They have it equally for Bonington, + whose technique is inspired by the same observations as their own. They + find, finally, in Delacroix the frequent and very apparent application + of their ideas. Notably in the famous <i>Entry of the Crusaders into + Constantinople</i>, the fair woman kneeling in the foreground is painted in + accordance with the principles of the division of tones: the nude back + is furrowed with blue, green and yellow touches, the juxtaposition of + which produces, at a certain distance, an admirable flesh-tone. +</p> +<p> + And now I must speak at some length of a painter who, together with the + luminous and sparkling landscapist Félix Ziem, was the most direct + initiator of Impressionist technique. Monticelli is one of those + singular men of genius who are not connected with any school, and whose + work is an inexhaustible source of applications. He lived at Marseilles, + where he was born, made a short appearance at the Salons, and then + returned to his native town, where he died poor, ignored, paralysed and + mad. In order to live he sold his small pictures at the cafés, where + they fetched ten or twenty francs at the most. To-day they sell for + considerable prices, although the government has not yet acquired any + work by Monticelli for the public galleries. The mysterious power alone + of these paintings secures him a fame which is, alas! posthumous. Many + Monticellis have been sold by dealers as Diaz's; now they are more + eagerly looked for than Diaz, and collectors have made fortunes with + these small canvases bought formerly, to use a colloquial expression + which is here only too literally true, "for a piece of bread." +</p> +<p> + Monticelli painted landscapes, romantic scenes, "fêtes galantes" in the + spirit of Watteau, and still-life pictures: one could not imagine a more + inspired sense of colour than shown by these works which seem to be + painted with crushed jewels, with powerful harmony, and beyond all with + an unheard-of delicacy in the perception of fine shades. There are tones + which nobody had ever invented yet, a richness, a profusion, a subtlety + which almost vie with the resources of music. The fairyland atmosphere + of these works surrounds a very firm design of charming style, but, to + use the words of the artist himself, "in these canvases the objects are + the decoration, the touches are the scales, and the light is the tenor." + Monticelli has created for himself an entirely personal technique which + can only be compared with that of Turner; he painted with a brush so + full, fat and rich, that some of the details are often truly modelled in + relief, in a substance as precious as enamels, jewels, ceramics—a + substance which is a delight in itself. Every picture by Monticelli + provokes astonishment; constructed upon one colour as upon a musical + theme, it rises to intensities which one would have thought impossible. + His pictures are magnificent bouquets, bursts of joy and colour, where + nothing is ever crude, and where everything is ruled by a supreme sense + of harmony. +</p> +<a name="image-0005"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/05manet.jpg" width="243" height="300" +alt="Manet - The Reader"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>THE READER +</center> +<p> + Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Turner and Monticelli constitute really the + descent of a landscapist like Claude Monet. In all matters concerning + technique, they form the direct chain of Impressionism. As regards + design, subject, realism, the study of modern life, the conception of + beauty and the portrait, the Impressionist movement is based upon the + old French masters, principally upon Chardin, Watteau, Latour, + Largillière, Fragonard, Debucourt, Saint-Aubin, Moreau, and Eisen. It + has resolutely held aloof from mythology, academic allegory, historical + painting, and from the neo-Greek elements of Classicism as well as from + the German and Spanish elements of Romanticism. This reactionary + movement is therefore entirely French, and surely if it deserves + reproach, the one least deserved is that levelled upon it by the + official painters: disobedience to the national spirit. Impressionism is + an art which does not give much scope to intellectuality, an art whose + followers admit scarcely anything but immediate vision, rejecting + philosophy and symbols and occupying themselves only with the + consideration of light, picturesqueness, keen and clever observation, + and antipathy to abstraction, as the innate qualities of French art. We + shall see later on, when considering separately its principal masters, + that each of them has based his art upon some masters of pure French + blood. +</p> +<p> + Impressionism has, then, hitherto been very badly judged. It is + contained in two chief points: search after a new technique, and + expression of modern reality. Its birth has not been a spontaneous + phenomenon. Manet, who, by his spirit and by the chance of his + friendships, grouped around him the principal members, commenced by + being classed in the ranks of the Realists of the second Romanticism by + the side of Courbet; and during the whole first period of his work he + only endeavoured to describe contemporary scenes, at a time when the + laws of the new technique were already dawning upon Claude Monet. + Gradually the grouping of the Impressionists took place. Claude Monet is + really the first initiator: in a parallel line with his ideas and his + works Manet passed into the second period of his artistic life, and with + him Renoir, Degas and Pissarro. But Manet had already during his first + period been the topic of far-echoing polemics, caused by his realism and + by the marked influence of the Spaniards and of Hals upon his style; his + temperament, too, was that of the head of a school; and for these + reasons legend has attached to his name the title of head of the + Impressionist school, but this legend is incorrect. +</p> +<p> + To conclude, the very name "Impressionism" is due to Claude Monet. There + has been much serious arguing upon this famous word which has given rise + to all sorts of definitions and conclusions. In reality this is its + curious origin which is little known, even in criticism. Ever since + 1860 the works of Manet and of his friends caused such a stir, that they + were rejected <i>en bloc</i> by the Salon jury of 1863. The emperor, inspired + by a praiseworthy, liberal thought, demanded that these innovators + should at least have the right to exhibit together in a special room + which was called the <i>Salon des Refusés</i>. The public crowded there to + have a good laugh. One of the pictures which caused most derision was a + sunset by Claude Monet, entitled <i>Impressions</i>. From this moment the + painters who adopted more or less the same manner were called + <i>Impressionists</i>. The word remained in use, and Manet and his friends + thought it a matter of indifference whether this label was attached to + them, or another. At this despised Salon were to be found the names of + Manet, Monet, Whistler, Bracquemont, Jongkind, Fantin-Latour, Renoir, + Legros, and many others who have since risen to fame. Universal ridicule + only fortified the friendships and resolutions of this group of men, and + from that time dates the definite foundation of the Impressionist + school. For thirty years it continued to produce without interruption + an enormous quantity of works under an accidental and inexact + denomination; to obey the creative instinct, without any other dogma + than the passionate observation of nature, without any other assistance + than individual sympathies, in the face of the disciplinary teaching of + the official school. +</p> +<a name="image-0006"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/06degasr.jpg" width="225" height="300" +alt="Degas - The Dancer at the Photographer's"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>THE DANCER AT THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S +</center> +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + + +<h2> + II +</h2> +<h3> + THE THEORY OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS—THE DIVISION OF TONES, COMPLEMENTARY + COLOURS, THE STUDY OF ATMOSPHERE—THE IDEAS OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS ON + SUBJECT-PICTURES, ON THE BEAUTY OF CHARACTER, ON MODERNITY, AND ON STYLE +</h3> +<br><br> +<p> + It should be stated from the outset that there is nothing dogmatic about + this explanation of the Impressionist theories, and that it is not the + result of a preconceived plan. In art a system is not improvised. A + theory is slowly evolved, nearly always unknown to the author, from the + discoveries of his sincere instinct, and this theory can only be + formulated after years by criticism facing the works. Monet and Manet + have worked for a long time without ever thinking that theories would be + built upon their paintings. Yet a certain number of considerations will + strike the close observer, and I will put these considerations before + the reader, after reminding him that spontaneity and feeling are the + essentials of all art. +</p> +<a name="image-0007"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/07degas.jpg" width="400" height="248" +alt="Degas - Carriages at the Races"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>CARRIAGES AT THE RACES +</center> +<p> + The Impressionist ideas may be summed up in the following manner:— +</p> +<p> + In nature no colour exists by itself. The colouring of the objects is a + pure illusion: the only creative source of colour is the sunlight which + envelopes all things, and reveals them, according to the hours, with + infinite modifications. The mystery of matter escapes us; we do not know + the exact moment when reality separates itself from unreality. All we + know is, that our vision has formed the habit of discerning in the + universe two notions: form and colour; but these two notions are + inseparable. Only artificially can we distinguish between outline and + colour: in nature the distinction does not exist. Light reveals the + forms, and, playing upon the different states of matter, the substance + of leaves, the grain of stones, the fluidity of air in deep layers, + gives them dissimilar colouring. If the light disappears, forms and + colours vanish together. We only see colours; everything has a colour, + and it is by the perception of the different colour surfaces striking + our eyes, that we conceive the forms, <i>i.e.</i> the outlines of these + colours. +</p> +<p> + The idea of distance, of perspective, of volume is given us by darker or + lighter colours: this idea is what is called in painting the sense of + values. A value is the degree of dark or light intensity, which permits + our eyes to comprehend that one object is further or nearer than + another. And as painting is not and cannot be the <i>imitation</i> of nature, + but merely her artificial interpretation, since it only has at its + disposal two out of three dimensions, the values are the only means that + remain for expressing depth on a flat surface. +</p> +<p> + Colour is therefore the procreatrix of design. Or, colour being simply + the irradiation of light, it follows that all colour is composed of the + same elements as sunlight, namely the seven tones of the spectrum. It is + known, that these seven tones appear different owing to the unequal + speed of the waves of light. The tones of nature appear to us therefore + different, like those of the spectrum, and for the same reason. The + colours vary with the intensity of light. There is no colour peculiar + to any object, but only more or less rapid vibration of light upon its + surface. The speed depends, as is demonstrated by optics, on the degree + of the inclination of the rays which, according to their vertical or + oblique direction, give different light and colour. +</p> +<p> + The colours of the spectrum are thus recomposed in everything we see. It + is their relative proportion which makes new tones out of the seven + spectral tones. This leads immediately to some practical conclusions, + the first of which is, that what has formerly been called <i>local colour</i> + is an error: a leaf is not green, a tree-trunk is not brown, and, + according to the time of day, <i>i.e.</i> according to the greater or smaller + inclination of the rays (scientifically called the angle of incidence), + the green of the leaf and the brown of the tree are modified. What has + to be studied therefore in these objects, if one wishes to recall their + colour to the beholder of a picture, is the composition of the + atmosphere which separates them from the eye. This atmosphere is the + real subject of the picture, and whatever is represented upon it only + exists through its medium. +</p> +<a name="image-0008"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/08degas.jpg" width="239" height="300" +alt="Degas - The Greek Dance - Pastel"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>THE GREEK DANCE—PASTEL +</center> +<p> + A second consequence of this analysis of light is, that shadow is not + absence of light, but light of <i>a different quality</i> and of different + value. Shadow is not a part of the landscape, where light ceases, but + where it is subordinated to a light which appears to us more intense. In + the shadow the rays of the spectrum vibrate with different speed. + Painting should therefore try to discover here, as in the light parts, + the play of the atoms of solar light, instead of representing shadows + with ready-made tones composed of bitumen and black. +</p> +<p> + The third conclusion resulting from this: the colours in the shadow are + modified by <i>refraction</i>. That means, <i>f.i.</i> in a picture representing + an interior, the source of light (window) may not be indicated: the + light circling round the picture will then be composed of the + <i>reflections</i> of rays whose source is invisible, and all the objects, + acting as mirrors for these reflections, will consequently influence + each other. Their colours will affect each other, even if the surfaces + be dull. A red vase placed upon a blue carpet will lead to a very + subtle, but mathematically exact, interchange between this blue and this + red, and this exchange of luminous waves will create between the two + colours a tone of reflections composed of both. These composite + reflections will form a scale of tones complementary of the two + principal colours. The science of optics can work out these + complementary colours with mathematical exactness. If <i>f.i.</i> a head + receives the orange rays of daylight from one side and the bluish light + of an interior from the other, green reflections will necessarily appear + on the nose and in the middle region of the face. The painter Besnard, + who has specially devoted himself to this minute study of complementary + colours, has given us some famous examples of it. +</p> +<p> + The last consequence of these propositions is that the blending of the + spectral tones is accomplished by a <i>parallel</i> and <i>distinct</i> projection + of the colours. They are artificially reunited on the crystalline: a + lens interposed between the light and the eye, and opposing the + crystalline, which is a living lens, dissociates again these united + rays, and shows us again the seven distinct colours of the atmosphere. + It is no less artificial if a painter mixes upon his palette different + colours to compose a tone; it is again artificial that paints have been + invented which represent some of the combinations of the spectrum, just + to save the artist the trouble of constantly mixing the seven solar + tones. Such mixtures are false, and they have the disadvantage of + creating heavy tonalities, since the coarse mixture of powders and oils + cannot accomplish the action of light which reunites the luminous waves + into an intense white of unimpaired transparency. The colours mixed on + the palette compose a dirty grey. What, then, is the painter to do, who + is anxious to approach, as near as our poor human means will allow, that + divine fairyland of nature? Here we touch upon the very foundations of + Impressionism. The painter will have to paint with only the seven + colours of the spectrum, and discard all the others: that is what Claude + Monet has done boldly, adding to them only white and black. He will, + furthermore, instead of composing mixtures on his palette, place upon + his canvas touches of none but the seven colours <i>juxtaposed</i>, and leave + the individual rays of each of these colours to blend at a certain + distance, so as to act like sunlight itself upon the eye of the + beholder. +</p> +<a name="image-0009"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/09degas.jpg" width="300" height="238" +alt="Degas - Waiting"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>WAITING +</center> +<p> + This, then, is the theory of the <i>dissociation of tones</i>, which is the + main point of Impressionist technique. It has the immense advantage of + suppressing all mixtures, of leaving to each colour its proper strength, + and consequently its freshness and brilliancy. At the same time the + difficulties are extreme. The painter's eye must be admirably subtle. + Light becomes the sole subject of the picture; the interest of the + object upon which it plays is secondary. Painting thus conceived becomes + a purely optic art, a search for harmonies, a sort of natural poem, + quite distinct from expression, style and design, which were the + principal aims of former painting. It is almost necessary to invent + another name for this special art which, clearly pictorial though it be, + comes as near to music, as it gets far away from literature and + psychology. It is only natural that, fascinated by this study, the + Impressionists have almost remained strangers to the painting of + expression, and altogether hostile to historical and symbolist painting. + It is therefore principally in landscape painting that they have + achieved the greatness that is theirs. +</p> +<p> + Through the application of these principles which I have set forth very + summarily, Claude Monet arrived at painting by means of the infinitely + varied juxtaposition of a quantity of colour spots which dissociate the + tones of the spectrum and draw the forms of objects through the + arabesque of their vibrations. A landscape thus conceived becomes a kind + of symphony, starting from one theme (the most luminous point, <i>f.i.</i>), + and developing all over the canvas the variations of this theme. This + investigation is added to the habitual preoccupations of the landscapist + study of the character peculiar to the scene, style of the trees or + houses, accentuation of the decorative side—and to the habitual + preoccupations of the figure painter in the portrait. The canvases of + Monet, Renoir and Pissarro have, in consequence of this research, an + absolutely original aspect: their shadows are striped with blue, + rose-madder and green; nothing is opaque or sooty; a light vibration + strikes the eye. Finally, blue and orange predominate, simply because in + these studies—which are more often than not full sunlight + effects—blue is the complementary colour of the orange light of the + sun, and is profusely distributed in the shadows. In these canvases can + be found a vast amount of exact grades of tone, which seem to have been + entirely ignored by the older painters, whose principal concern was + style, and who reduced a landscape to three or four broad tones, + endeavouring only to explain the sentiment inspired by it. +</p> +<p> + And now I shall have to pass on to the Impressionists' ideas on the + style itself of painting, on Realism. +</p> +<p> + From the outset it must not be forgotten that Impressionism has been + propagated by men who had all been Realists; that means by a reactionary + movement against classic and romantic painting. This movement, of which + Courbet will always remain the most famous representative, has been + <i>anti-intellectual</i>. It has protested against every literary, + psychologic or symbolical element in painting. It has reacted at the + same time against the historical painting of Delaroche and the + mythological painting of the <i>Ecole de Rome</i>, with an extreme violence + which appears to us excessive now, but which found its explanation in + the intolerable tediousness or emphasis at which the official painters + had arrived. Courbet was a magnificent worker, with rudimentary ideas, + and he endeavoured to exclude even those which he possessed. This + exaggeration which diminishes our admiration for his work and prevents + us from finding in it any emotion but that which results from technical + mastery, was salutary for the development of the art of his successors. + It caused the young painters to turn resolutely towards the aspects of + contemporary life, and to draw style and emotion from their own epoch; + and this intention was right. An artistic tradition is not continued by + imitating the style of the past, but by extracting the immediate + impression of each epoch. That is what the really great masters have + done, and it is the succession of their sincere and profound + observations which constitutes the style of the races. +</p> +<a name="image-0010"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/10monet.jpg" width="300" height="240" +alt="Monet - The Pines"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>CLAUDE MONET</b><br><br>THE PINES +</center> +<p> + Manet and his friends drew all their strength from this idea. Much finer + and more learned than a man like Courbet, they saw an aspect of + modernity far more complex, and less limited to immediate and grossly + superficial realism. Nor must it be forgotten that they were + contemporaries of the realistic, anti-romantic literary movement, a + movement which gave them nothing but friends. Flaubert and the Goncourts + proved that Realism is not the enemy of refined form and of delicate + psychology. The influence of these ideas created first of all Manet and + his friends: the technical evolution (of which we have traced the chief + traits) came only much later to oppose itself to their conceptions. + Impressionism can therefore be defined as a <i>revolution of pictorial + technique together with an attempt at expressing modernity</i>. The + reaction against Symbolism and Romanticism happened to coincide with the + reaction against muddy technique. +</p> +<p> + The Impressionists, whilst occupying themselves with cleansing the + palette of the bitumen of which the Academy made exaggerated use, whilst + also observing nature with a greater love of light, made it their object + to escape in the representation of human beings the laws of <i>beauty</i>, + such as were taught by the School. And on this point one might apply to + them all that one knows of the ideas of the Goncourts and Flaubert, and + later of Zola, in the domain of the novel. They were moved by the same + ideas; to speak of the one group is to speak of the other. The longing + for truth, the horror of emphasis and of false idealism which paralysed + the novelist as well as the painter, led the Impressionists to + substitute for <i>beauty</i> a novel notion, that of <i>character</i>. To search + for, and to express, the true character of a being or of a site, seemed + to them more significant, more moving, than to search for an exclusive + beauty, based upon rules, and inspired by the Greco-Latin ideal. Like + the Flemings, the Germans, the Spaniards, and in opposition to the + Italians whose influence had conquered all the European academies, the + French Realist-Impressionists, relying upon the qualities of lightness, + sincerity and expressive clearness which are the real merits of their + race, detached themselves from the oppressive and narrow preoccupation + with the beautiful and with all the metaphysics and abstractions + following in its train. +</p> +<a name="image-0011"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/11monet.jpg" width="300" height="235" +alt="Claude Monet - Church at Vernon"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>CLAUDE MONET</b><br><br>CHURCH AT VERNON + </center> +<p> + This fact of the substitution of <i>character</i> for <i>beauty</i> is the + essential feature of the movement. What is called Impressionism is—let + it not be forgotten—a technique which can be applied to any subject. + Whether the subject be a virgin, or a labourer, it can be painted with + divided tones, and certain living artists, like the symbolist Henri + Martin, who has almost the ideas of a Pre-Raphaelite, have proved it by + employing this technique for the rendering of religious or philosophic + subjects. But one can only understand the effort and the faults of the + painters grouped around Manet, by constantly recalling to one's mind + their predeliction for <i>character</i>. Before Manet a distinction was made + between <i>noble</i> subjects, and others which were relegated to the domain + of <i>genre</i> in which no great artist was admitted to exist by the School, + the familiarity of their subjects barring from them this rank. By the + suppression of the <i>nobleness</i> inherent to the treated subject, the + painter's technical merit is one of the first things to be considered in + giving him rank. The Realist-Impressionists painted scenes in the + ball-room, on the river, in the field, the street, the foundry, modern + interiors, and found in the life of the humble immense scope for + studying the gestures, the costumes, the expressions of the nineteenth + century. +</p> +<p> + Their effort had its bearing upon the way of representing persons, upon + what is called, in the studio language, the "<i>mise en cadre</i>." There, + too, they overthrew the principles admitted by the School. Manet, and + especially Degas, have created in this respect a new style from which + the whole art of realistic contemporary illustration is derived. This + style had been hitherto totally ignored, or the artists had shrunk from + applying it. It is a style which is founded upon the small painters of + the eighteenth century, upon Saint-Aubin, Debucourt, Moreau, and, + further back, upon Pater and the Dutchmen. But this time, instead of + confining this style to vignettes and very small dimensions, the + Impressionists have boldly given it the dimensions and importance of big + canvases. They have no longer based the laws of composition, and + consequently of style, upon the ideas relative to the subjects, but upon + values and harmonies. To take a summary example: if the School composed + a picture representing the death of Agamemnon, it did not fail to + subordinate the whole composition to Agamemnon, then to Clytemnestra, + then to the witnesses of the murder, graduating the moral and literary + interest according to the different persons, and sacrificing to this + interest the colouring and the realistic qualities of the scene. The + Realists composed by picking out first the strongest "value" of the + picture, say a red dress, and then distributing the other values + according to a harmonious progression of their tonalities. "The + principal person in a picture," said Manet, "is the light." With Manet + and his friends we find, then, that the concern for expression and for + the sentiments evoked by the subject, was always subordinated to a + purely pictorial and decorative preoccupation. This has frequently led + the Impressionists to grave errors, which they have, however, generally + avoided by confining themselves to very simple subjects, for which the + daily life supplied the grouping. +</p> +<a name="image-0012"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/12renoir.jpg" width="189" height="300" +alt="Renoir - Madame Maitre"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>RENOIR<br></b><br>PORTRAIT OF MADAME MAITRE</center> +<p> + One of the reforms due to their conception has been the suppression of + the professional model, and the substitution for it of the natural + model, seen in the exercise of his occupation. This is one of the most + useful conquests for the benefit of modern painting. It marks a just + return to nature and simplicity. Nearly all their figures are real + portraits; and in everything that concerns the labourer and the + peasant, they have found the proper style and character, because they + have observed these beings in the true medium of their occupations, + instead of forcing them into a sham pose and painting them in disguise. + The basis of all their pictures has been first of all a series of + landscape and figure studies made in the open air, far from the studio, + and afterwards co-ordinated. One may wish pictorial art to have higher + ambitions; and one may find in the Primitives an example of a curious + mysticism, an expression of the abstract and of dreams. But one should + not underrate the power of naïve and realistic observation, which the + Primitives carried into the execution of their works, subordinating it, + however, to religious expression, and it must also be admitted that the + Realist-Impressionists served at least their conception of art logically + and homogeneously. The criticism which may be levelled against them is + that which Realism itself carries in its train, and we shall see that + esthetics could never create classifications capable of defining and + containing the infinite gradations of creative temperaments. +</p> +<p> + In art, classifications have rarely any value, and are rather damaging. + Realism and Idealism are abstract terms which cannot suffice to + characterise beings who obey their sensibility. It is therefore + necessary to invent as many words as there are remarkable men. If + Leonardo was a great painter, are Turner and Monet not painters at all? + There is no connection between them; their methods of thought and + expression are antithetical. Perhaps it will be most simple, to admire + them all, and to renounce any further definition of the painter, + adopting this word to mark the man who uses the palette as his means of + expression. +</p> +<p> + Thus preoccupation with contemporary emotions, substitution of character + for classic beauty (or of emotional beauty for formal beauty), admission + of the <i>genre</i>-painter into the first rank, composition based upon the + reciprocal reaction of values, subordination of the subject to the + interest of execution, the effort to isolate the art of painting from + the ideas inherent to that of literature, and particularly the + instinctive move towards the "symphonisation" of colours, and + consequently towards music,—these are the principal features of the + aesthetic code of the Realist-Impressionists, if this term may be + applied to a group of men hostile towards esthetics such as they are + generally taught. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<h2> + III +</h2> +<h3> + EDOUARD MANET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE +</h3> +<p> + </p> +<p> + As I have said, Edouard Manet has not been entirely the originator of + the Impressionist technique. It is the work of Claude Monet which + presents the most complete example of it, and which also came first as + regards date. But it is very difficult to determine such cases of + priority, and it is, after all, rather useless. A technique cannot be + invented in a day. In this case it was the result of long + investigations, in which Manet and Renoir participated, and it is + necessary to unite under the collective name of Impressionists a group + of men, tied by friendship, who made a simultaneous effort towards + originality, all in about the same spirit, though frequently in very + different ways. As in the case of the Pre-Raphaelites, it was first of + all friendship, then unjust derision, which created the solidarity of + the Impressionists. But the Pre-Raphaelites, in aiming at an idealistic + and symbolic art, were better agreed upon the intellectual principles + which permitted them at once to define a programme. The Impressionists + who were only united by their temperaments, and had made it their first + aim to break away from all school programmes, tried simply to do + something new, with frankness and freedom. +</p> +<p> + Manet was, in their midst, the personality marked out at the same time + by their admiration, and by the attacks of the critics for the post of + standard-bearer. A little older than his friends, he had already, quite + alone, raised heated discussions by the works in his first manner. He + was considered an innovator, and it was by instinctive admiration that + his first friends, Whistler, Legros, and Fantin-Latour, were gradually + joined by Marcelin Desboutin, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, + Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot, the young painter Bazille, who met his + premature death in 1870, and by the writers Gautier, Banville, + Baudelaire (who was a passionate admirer of Manet's); then later by + Zola, the Goncourts, and Stéphane Mallarmé. This was the first nucleus + of a public which was to increase year by year. Manet had the personal + qualities of a chief; he was a man of spirit, an ardent worker, and an + enthusiastic and generous character. +</p> +<a name="image-0013"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/13manet.jpg" width="400" height="193" +alt="Manet - The Dead Toreador"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>THE DEAD TOREADOR</center> +<p> + Manet commenced his first studies with Couture. After having travelled a + good deal at sea to obey his parents, his vocation took hold of him + irresistibly. About 1850 the young man entered the studio of the severe + author of the <i>Romains de la Décadence</i>. His stay was short. He + displeased the professor by his uncompromising energy. Couture said of + him angrily: "He will become the Daumier of 1860." It is known that + Daumier, lithographer, and painter of genius, was held in meagre esteem + by the academicians. Manet travelled in Germany after the <i>coup d'etat</i>, + copied Rembrandt in Munich, then went to Italy, copied Tintoretto in + Venice, and conceived there the idea of several religious pictures. Then + he became enthusiastic about the Spaniards, especially Velasquez and + Goya. The sincere expression of things seen took root from this moment + as the principal rule of art in the brain of this young Frenchman who + was loyal, ardent, and hostile to all subtleties. He painted some fine + works, like the <i>Buveur d'absinthe</i> and the <i>Vieux musicien</i>. They show + the influence of Courbet, but already the blacks and the greys have an + original and superb quality; they announce a virtuoso of the first + order. +</p> +<p> + It was in 1861 that Manet first sent to the Salon the portraits of his + parents and the <i>Guitarero</i>, which was hailed by Gautier, and rewarded + by the jury, though it roused surprise and irritation. But after that he + was rejected, whether it was a question of the <i>Fifre</i> or of the + <i>Déjeuner sur l'herbe.</i> This canvas, with an admirable feminine nude, + created a scandal, because an undressed woman figured in it amidst + clothed figures, a matter of frequent occurrence with the masters of the + Renaissance. The landscape is not painted in the open air, but in the + studio, and resembles a tapestry, but it shows already the most + brilliant evidence of Manet's talent in the study of the nude and the + still-life of the foreground, which is the work of a powerful master. + From the time of this canvas the artist's personality appeared in all + its maturity. He painted it before he was thirty, and it has the air of + an old master's work; it is based upon Hals and the Spaniards together. +</p> +<p> + The reputation of Manet became established after 1865. Furious critics + were opposed by enthusiastic admirers. Baudelaire upheld Manet, as he + had upheld Delacroix and Wagner, with his great clairvoyance, + sympathetic to all real originality. The <i>Olympia</i> brought the + discussion to a head. This courtesan lying in bed undressed, with a + negress carrying a bouquet, and a black cat, made a tremendous stir. It + is a powerful work of strong colour, broad design and intense sentiment, + astounding in its <i>parti-pris</i> of reducing the values to the greatest + simplicity. One can feel in it the artist's preoccupation with + rediscovering the rude frankness of Hals and Goya, and his aversion + against the prettiness and false nobility of the school. This famous + <i>Olympia</i> which occasioned so much fury, appears to us to-day as a + transition work. It is neither a masterpiece, nor an emotional work, but + a technical experiment, very significant for the epoch during which it + appeared in French art, and this canvas, which is very inferior to + Manet's fine works, may well be considered as a date of evolution. He + was doubtful about exhibiting it, but Baudelaire decided him and wrote + to him on this occasion these typical remarks: "You complain about + attacks? But are you the first to endure them? Have you more genius than + Chateaubriand and Wagner? They were not killed by derision. And, in + order not to make you too proud, I must tell you, that they are models + each in his own way and in a very rich world, whilst you are only the + first in the decrepitude of your art." +</p> +<a name="image-0014"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/14manet.jpg" width="400" height="268" +alt="Manet - Olympia"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>OLYMPIA</center> +<p> + Thus it must be firmly established that from this moment Manet passed as + an innovator, years before Impressionism existed or was even thought of. + This is an important point: it will help to clear up the twofold origin + of the movement which followed. To his realism, to his return to + composition in the modern spirit, and to the simplifying of planes and + values, Manet owed these attacks, though at that time his colour was + still sombre and entirely influenced by Hals, Goya and Courbet. From + that time the artist became a chief. As his friends used to meet him at + an obscure Batignolles café, the café Guerbois (still existing), public + derision baptized these meetings with the name of "L'Ecole des + Batignolles." Manet then exhibited the <i>Angels at the Tomb of Christ</i>, a + souvenir of the Venetians; <i>Lola de Valence</i>, commented upon by + Baudelaire in a quatrain which can be found in the <i>Fleurs du Mal</i>; the + <i>Episode d'un combat de taureaux</i> (dissatisfied with this picture, he + cut out the dead toreador in the foreground, and burnt the rest). The + <i>Acteur tragique</i> (portrait of Rouvière in Hamlet) and the <i>Jésus + insulté</i> followed, and then came the <i>Gitanos</i>, <i>L'Enfant à l'Epée</i>, and + the portrait of Mme. Manet. This series of works is admirable. It is + here where he reveals himself as a splendid colourist, whose design is + as vigorous as the technique is masterly. In these works one does not + think of looking for anything but the witchery of technical strength; + and the abundant wealth of his temperament is simply dazzling. Manet + reveals himself as the direct heir of the great Spaniards, more + interesting, more spontaneous, and freer than Courbet. The <i>Rouvière</i> is + as fine a symphony in grey and black as the noblest portraits by + Bronzino, and there is probably no Goya more powerful than the <i>Toréador + tué</i>. Manet's altogether classic descent appears here undeniably. There + is no question yet of Impressionism, and yet Monet and Renoir are + already painting, Monet has exhibited at the <i>Salon des Refusés</i>, but + criticism sees and attacks nobody but Manet. This great individuality + who overwhelmed the Academy with its weak allegories, was the butt of + great insults and the object of great admiration. Banished from the + Salons, he collected fifty pictures in a room in the Avenue de l'Alma + and invited the public thither. In 1868 appeared the portrait of Emile + Zola, in 1860 the <i>Déjeuner</i>, works which are so powerful, that they + enforced admiration in spite of all hostility. In the Salon of 1870 was + shown the portrait of Eva Gonzalès, the charming pastellist and pupil of + Manet, and the impressive <i>Execution of Maximilian at Queretaro</i>. Manet + was at the apogee of his talent, when the Franco-German war broke out. + At the age of thirty-eight he had put forth a considerable amount of + work, tried himself in all styles, severed his individuality from the + slavish admiration of the old masters, and attained his own mastery. And + now he wanted to expand, and, in joining Monet, Renoir and Degas, + interpret in his own way the Impressionist theory. +</p> +<a name="image-0015"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/15manet.jpg" width="210" height="300" +alt="Manet - The Woman with the Parrot"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>THE WOMAN WITH THE PARROT</center> +<p> + The <i>Fight of the Kearsage and the Alabama</i>, a magnificent sea-piece, + bathed in sunlight, announced this transformation in his work, as did + also a study, a <i>Garden</i>, painted, I believe, in 1870, but exhibited + only after the crisis of the terrible year. At that time the Durand-Ruel + Gallery bought a considerable series by the innovator, and was imitated + by some select art-lovers. The <i>Musique aux Tuileries</i> and the <i>Bal de + l'Opéra</i> had, some years before, pointed towards the evolution of this + great artist in the direction of <i>plein-air</i> painting. The <i>Bon Bock</i>, + in which the very soul of Hals is revived, and the grave <i>Liseur</i>, sold + immediately at Vienne, were the two last pledges given by the artist to + his old admirers; these two pictures had moreover a splendid success, + and the <i>Bon Bock</i>, popularised by an engraving, was hailed by the very + men who had most unjustly attacked the author of the portrait of Mme. + Morisot, a French masterpiece. But already Manet was attracted + irresistibly towards the study of light, and, faithful to his programme, + he prepared to face once again outbursts of anger and further sarcasms; + he was resolved once again to offer battle to the Salons. Followed by + all the Impressionists he tried to make them understand the necessity + of introducing the new ideas into this retrograde <i>Milieu</i>. But they + would not. Having already received a rebuff by the attacks directed for + some years against their works, they exhibited among themselves in some + private galleries: they declined to force the gate of the Salons, and + Manet remained alone. In 1875 he submitted, with his <i>Argenteuil</i>, the + most perfect epitome of his atmospheric researches. The jury admitted it + in spite of loud protests: they were afraid of Manet; they admired his + power of transformation, and he revolted the prejudiced, attracting them + at the same time by the charm of his force. But in 1876 the portrait of + <i>Desboutin</i> and the <i>Linge</i> (an exquisite picture,—one of the best + productions of open-air study) were rejected. Manet then recommenced the + experience of 1867, and opened his studio to the public. A register at + the door was soon covered with signatures protesting against the jury, + as well as with hostile jokes, and even anonymous insults! In 1877 the + defeated jury admitted the portrait of the famous singer Faure in the + part of Hamlet, and rejected <i>Nana</i>, a picture which was found + scandalising, but has charming freshness and an intensely modern + character. In 1878, 1879 and 1880 they accepted <i>la Serre</i>, the + surprising symphony in blue and white which shows Mr George Moore in + boating costume, the portrait of Antonin Proust, and the scene at the + <i>Père Lathuile</i> restaurant, in which Manet's nervous and luminous + realism has so curious a resemblance to the art of the Goncourts. In + 1881 the portrait of Rochefort and that of the lion-killer, Pertuiset, + procured the artist a medal at the Salon, and Antonin Proust, the friend + of Manet's childhood, who had become Minister of Fine Arts, honoured + himself in decorating him with the legion of honour. In 1882 appeared a + magnificent canvas, the <i>Bar des Folies-Bergère</i>, in which there is some + sparkling still-life painting of most attractive beauty. It was + accompanied by a lady's portrait, <i>Jeanne</i>. But on April 30, 1883, Manet + died, exhausted by his work and struggles, of locomotor ataxy, after + having vainly undergone the amputation of a foot to avoid gangrene. +</p> +<a name="image-0016"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/16manet.jpg" width="300" height="231" +alt="Manet - The Bar at the Folies-Bergere"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>THE BAR AT THE FOLIES-BERGÈRE</center> +<p> + It will be seen that Manet fought through all his life: few artists' + lives have been nobler. His has been an example of untiring energy; he + employed it as much in working, as in making a stand against prejudices. + Rejected, accepted, rejected again, he delivered with enormous courage + and faith his attack upon a jury which represented routine. As he fought + in front of his easel, he still fought before the public, without ever + relaxing, without changing, alone, apart even from those whom he loved, + who had been shaped by his example. This great painter, one of those who + did most honour to the French soul, had the genius to create by himself + an Impressionism of his own which will always remain his own, after + having given evidence of gifts of the first order in the tradition + handed down by the masters of the real and the good. He cannot be + confused either with Monet, or with Pissarro and Renoir. His + comprehension of light is a special one, his technique is not in + accordance with the system of colour-spots; it observes the theory of + complementary colours and of the division of tones without departing + from a grand style, from a classic stateliness, from a superb sureness. + Manet has not been the inventor of Impressionism which co-existed with + his work since 1865, but he has rendered it immense services, by taking + upon himself all the outbursts of anger addressed to the innovators, by + making a breach in public opinion, through which his friends have passed + in behind him. Probably without him all these artists would have + remained unknown, or at least without influence, because they all were + bold characters in art, but timid or disdainful in life. Degas, Monet + and Renoir were fine natures with a horror of polemics, who wished to + hold aloof from the Salons, and were resigned from the outset to be + misunderstood. They were, so to say, electrified by the magnificent + example of Manet's fighting spirit, and Manet was generous enough to + take upon himself the reproaches levelled, not only against his work, + but against theirs. His twenty years of open war, sustained with an + abnegation worthy of all esteem, must be considered as one of the most + significant phenomena of the history of the artists of all ages. +</p> +<p> + This work of Manet, so much discussed and produced under such tormenting + conditions, owes its importance beyond all to its power and frankness. + Ten years of developing the first manner, tragically limited by the war + of 1870; thirteen years of developing the second evolution, parallel + with the efforts of the Impressionists. The period from 1860 to 1870 is + logically connected with Hals and Goya; from 1870 to 1883 the artist's + modernity is complicated by the study of light. His personality appears + there even more original, but one may well give the palm to those works + of Manet which are painted in his classic and low-toned manner. He had + all the pictorial gifts which make the glory of the masters: full, true, + broad composition, colouring of irresistible power, blacks and greys + which cannot be found elsewhere since Velasquez and Goya, and a profound + knowledge of values. He has tried his hand at everything: portraits, + landscapes, seascapes, scenes of modern life, still-life and nudes have + each in their turn served his ardent desire of creation. His was a much + finer comprehension of contemporary life than seems to be admitted by + Realism: one has only to compare him with Courbet, to see how far more + nervous and intelligent he was, without loss to the qualities of truth + and robustness. His pictures will always remain documents of the + greatest importance on the society, the manners and customs of the + second Empire. He did not possess the gift of psychology. His <i>Christ + aux Anges</i> and <i>Jésus insulté</i> are obviously only pieces of painting + without idealism. He was, like the great Dutch virtuosos, and like + certain Italians, more eye than soul. Yet his <i>Maximilian</i>, the drawings + to Poe's <i>Raven</i>, and certain sketches show that he might have realised + some curious, psychological works, had he not been so completely + absorbed by the immediate reality and by the desire for beautiful paint. + A beautiful painter—this is what he was before everything else, this is + his fairest fame, and it is almost inconceivable that the juries of the + Salons failed to understand him. They waxed indignant over his subjects + which offer only a restricted interest, and they did not see the + altogether classic quality of this technique without bitumen, without + glazing, without tricks; of this vibrating colour; of this rich paint; + of this passionate design so suitable for expressing movement and + gestures true to life; of this simple composition where the whole + picture is based upon two or three values with the straightforwardness + one admires in Rubens, Jordaens and Hals. +</p> +<a name="image-0017"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/17manet.jpg" width="350" height="276" +alt="Manet - Dejeuner"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>DÉJEUNER</center> +<p> + Manet will occupy an important position in the French School. He is the + most original painter of the second half of the nineteenth century, the + one who has really created a great movement. His work, the fecundity of + which is astonishing, is unequal. One has to remember that, besides the + incessant strife which he kept up—a strife which would have killed many + artists—he had to find strength for two grave crises in himself. He + joined one movement, then freed himself of it, then invented another and + recommenced to learn painting at a point where anybody else would have + continued in his previous manner. "Each time I paint," he said to + Mallarmé, "I throw myself into the water to learn swimming." It is not + surprising that such a man should have been unequal, and that one can + distinguish in his work between experiments, exaggerations due to + research, and efforts made to reject the prejudices of which we feel the + weight no longer. But it would be unjust to say that Manet has only had + the merit of opening up new roads; that has been said to belittle him, + after it had first been said that these roads led into absurdity. Works + like the <i>Toréador</i>, <i>Rouvière</i>, <i>Mme. Manet</i>, the <i>Déjeuner</i>, the + <i>Musique aux Tuileries</i>, the <i>Bon Bock</i>, <i>Argenteuil</i>, <i>Le Linge</i>, <i>En + Bateau</i> and the <i>Bar</i>, will always remain admirable masterpieces which + will do credit to French painting, of which the spontaneous, living, + clear and bold art of Manet is a direct and very representative product. +</p> +<p> + There remains, then, a great personality who knew how to dominate the + rather coarse conceptions of Realism, who influenced by his modernity + all contemporary illustration, who re-established a sound and strong + tradition in the face of the Academy, and who not only created a new + transition, but marked his place on the new road which he had opened. To + him Impressionism owes its existence; his tenacity enabled it to take + root and to vanquish the opposition of the School; his work has enriched + the world by some beautiful examples which demonstrate the union of the + two principles of Realism and of that technical Impressionism which was + to supply Manet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley with an object for their + efforts. For the sum total of all that is evoked by his name, Edouard + Manet certainly deserves the name of a man of genius—an incomplete + genius, though, since the thought with him was not on the level of his + technique, since he could never affect the emotions like a Leonardo or a + Rembrandt, but genius all the same through the magnificent power of his + gifts, the continuity of his style, and the importance of his part which + infused blood into a school dying of the anaemia of conventional art. + Whoever beholds a work of Manet's, even without knowing the conditions + of his life, will feel that there is something great, the lion's claw + which Delacroix had recognised as far back as 1861, and to which, it is + said, even the great Ingres had paid homage on the jury which examined + with disgust the <i>Guitarero</i>. +</p> +<a name="image-0018"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/18manet.jpg" width="209" height="300" +alt="Manet - Portrait of Madame M.L."> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>PORTRAIT OF MADAME M.L. +</center> +<p> + To-day Manet is considered almost as a classic glory; and the progress + for which he had given the impulse, has been so rapid, that many are + astonished that he should ever have been considered audacious. Sight is + transformed, strife is extinguished, and a large, select public, + familiar with Monet and Renoir, judge Manet almost as a long defunct + initiator. One has to know his admirable life, one has to know well the + incredible inertia of the Salons where he appeared, to give him his full + due. And when, after the acceptance of Impressionism, the unavoidable + reaction will take place, Manet's qualities of solidity, truth and + science will appear such, that he will survive many of those to whom he + has opened the road and facilitated the success at the expense of his + own. It will be seen that Degas and he have, more than the others, and + with less apparent <i>éclat</i>, united the gifts which produce durable works + in the midst of the fluctuations of fashion and the caprices of taste + and views. Manet can, at the Louvre or any other gallery, hold his own + in the most crushing surroundings, prove his personal qualities, and + worthily represent a period which he loved. +</p> +<p> + An enormous amount has been written on him, from Zola's bold and + intelligent pamphlet in 1865, to the recent work by M. Théodore Duret. + Few men have provoked more comments. In an admirable picture, <i>Hommage à + Manet</i>, the delicate and perfect painter Fantin-Latour, a friend from + the first hour, has grouped around the artist some of his admirers, + Monet, Renoir, Duranty, Zola, Bazille, and Braquemond. The picture has + to-day a place of honour at the Luxembourg, where Manet is + insufficiently represented by <i>Olympia</i>, a study of a woman, and the + <i>Balcony</i>. A collection is much to be desired of his lithographs, his + etchings and his pastels, in which he has proved his diversified + mastery, and also of his portraits of famous contemporaries, Zola, + Rochefort, Desboutin, Proust, Mallarmé, Clemenceau, Guys, Faure, + Baudelaire, Moore, and others, an admirable series by a visionary who + possessed, in a period of unrest and artificiality, the quality of rude + sincerity, and the love of truth of a Primitive. +</p> +<a name="image-0019"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/19manet.jpg" width="300" height="235" +alt="Manet - The Hothouse"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MANET</b><br><br>THE HOTHOUSE +</center> + +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + IV +</h2> +<h3> + EDGAR DEGAS: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE +</h3> +<p> + </p> +<p> + I have said how vain it is to class artistic temperaments under a title + imposed upon them generally by circumstances and dates, rather than by + their own free will. The study of Degas will furnish additional proof + for it. Classed with the Impressionists, this master participates in + their ideas in the sphere of composition, rather than in that of colour. + He belongs to them through his modernity and comprehension of character. + Only when we come to his quite recent landscapes (1896), can we link him + to Monet and Renoir as colourist, and he has been more their friend than + their colleague. +</p> +<p> + Degas is known by the select few, and almost ignored by the public. This + is due to several reasons. Degas has never wished to exhibit at the + Salons, except, I believe, once or twice at the beginning of his + career. He has only shown his works at those special exhibitions + arranged by the Impressionists in hired apartments (rue le Peletier, rue + Laffitte, Boulevard des Capucines), and at some art-dealers. The art of + Degas has never had occasion to shock the public by the exuberance of + its colour, because he restricted himself to grey and quiet harmonies. + Degas is a modest character, fond of silence and solitude, with a horror + of the crowd and of controversies, and almost disinclined to show his + works. He is a man of intelligence and ready wit, whose sallies are + dreaded; he is almost a misanthrope. His pictures have been gradually + sold to foreign countries and dispersed in rich galleries without having + been seen by the public. His character is, in short, absolutely opposed + to that of Manet, who, though he suffered from criticism, thought it his + duty to bid it defiance. Degas's influence has, however, been + considerable, though secretly so, and the young painters have been + slowly inspired by his example. +</p> +<a name="image-0020"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/20degas.jpg" width="229" height="300" +alt="Degas - The Beggar Woman"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>THE BEGGAR WOMAN +</center> +<p> + Degas is beyond all a draughtsman of the first order. His spirit is + quite classical. He commenced by making admirable copies of the Italian + Primitives, notably of Fra Angelico, and the whole first series of his + works speaks of that influence: portraits, heads of deep, mat, amber + colour, on a ground of black or grey tones, remarkable for a severity of + intense style, and for the rare gift of psychological expression. To + find the equal of these faces—after having stated their classic + descent—one would have to turn to the beautiful things by Ingres, and + certainly Degas is, with Ingres, the most learned, the most perfect + French draughtsman of the nineteenth century. An affirmation of this + nature is made to surprise those who judge Impressionism with + preconceived ideas. It is none the less true that, if a series of + Degas's first portraits were collected, the comparison would force + itself upon one's mind irrefutably. In face of the idealist painting of + Romanticism, Ingres represented quite clearly the cult of painting for + its own sake. His ideas were mediocre, and went scarcely beyond the + poor, conventional ideal of the Academy; but his genius was so great, + that it made him paint, together with his tedious allegories, some + incomparable portraits and nudes. He thought he was serving official + Classicism, which still boasts of his name, but in reality he dominated + it; and, whilst he was an imitator of Raphael, he was a powerful + Realist. The Impressionists admire him as such, and agree with him in + banishing from the art of painting all literary imagination, whether it + be the tedious mythology of the School, or the historical anecdote of + the Romanticists. Degas and Besnard admire Ingres as colossal + draughtsman, and, beyond all, as man who, in spite of the limitations of + his mind, preserved the clear vision of the mission of his art at a time + when art was used for the expression of literary conceptions. Who would + have believed it? Yet it is true, and Manet, too, held the same view of + Ingres, little as our present academicians may think it! It happens that + to-day Impressionism is more akin to Ingres than to Delacroix, just as + the young poets are more akin to Racine than to Hugo. They reject the + foreign elements, and search, before anything else, for the strict + national tradition. Degas follows Ingres and resembles him. He is also + reminiscent of the Primitives and of Holbein. There is, in his first + period, the somewhat dry and geometrical perfection, the somewhat heavy + colour which only serves to strengthen the correctness of the planes. At + the Exposition of 1900, there was a Degas which surprised everybody. It + was an <i>Interior of a cotton factory</i> in an American town. This small + picture was curiously clear: it would be impossible to paint better and + with a more accomplished knowledge of the laws of painting. But it was + the work of a soulless, emotionless Realist; it was a coloured + photograph of unheard-of truth, the mathematical science of which left + the beholder cold. This work, which is very old (it dates back to about + 1860), gave no idea of what Degas has grown into. It was the work of an + unemotional master of technique; only just the infinitely delicate value + of the greys and blacks revealed the future master of harmony. One + almost might have wished to find a fault in this aggravating perfection. + But Degas was not to remain there, and already, about that time, certain + portraits of his are elevated by an expression of ardent melancholy, by + warm, ivory-like, grave colouring which attracts one's eye. Before this + series one feels the firm will of a very logical, serious, classic + spirit who wants to know thoroughly the intimate resources of design, + before risking to choose from among them the elements which respond best + to his individual nature. If Degas was destined to invent, later on, so + personal a style of design that he could be accused of "drawing badly," + this first period of his life is before us, to show the slow maturing of + his boldness and how carefully he first proved to himself his knowledge, + before venturing upon new things. In art the difficulty is, when one has + learnt everything, to forget,—that is, to appear to forget, so as to + create one's own style, and this apparent forgetting cloaks an + amalgamation of science with mind. And Degas is one of those patient and + reticent men who spend years in arriving at this; he has much in common + with Hokusai, the old man "mad with painting," who at the close of his + prodigious life invented arbitrary forms, after having given immortal + examples of his interpretation of the real. +</p> +<a name="image-0021"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/21degas.jpg" width="300" height="224" +alt="Degas - The Lesson in the Foyer"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>THE LESSON IN THE FOYER +</center> +<p> + Degas is also clearly related to Corot, not only in the silvery + harmonies of his suave landscapes, but also, and particularly, in his + admirable faces whose inestimable power and moving sincerity we have + hardly commenced to understand. Degas passed slowly from classicism to + modernity. He never liked outbursts of colour; he is by no means an + Impressionist from this point of view. As a draughtsman of genius he + expresses all by the precision of the planes and values; a grey, a black + and some notes of colour suffice for him. This might establish a link + between him and Whistler, though he is much less mysterious and diffuse. + Whenever Degas plays with colour, it is with the same restraint of his + boldness; he never goes to excess in abandoning himself to its charm. He + is neither lyrical, nor voluptuous; his energy is cold; his wise spirit + affirms soberly the true character of a face or an object. +</p> +<p> + Since a long time this spirit has moved Degas to revel in the + observation of contemporary life. His nature has been that of a patient + psychologist, a minute analyst, and also of a bitter ironist. The man is + very little known. His friends say that he has an easily ruffled + delicacy, a sensibility open to poetry, but jealous of showing its + emotion. They say that Degas's satirical bitterness is the reverse side + of a soul wounded by the spectacle of modern morality. One feels this + sentiment in his work, where the sharp notation of truth is painful, + where the realism is opposed by colouring of a sober distinction, where + nothing, not even the portrait of a drab, could be vulgar. Degas has + devoted himself to the profound study of certain classes of women, in + the state of mind of a philosopher and physiologist, impartially + inclined towards life. +</p> +<p> + His work can be divided into several great series: the race-courses, the + ballet-dancers, and the women bathing count among the most important. + The race-courses have inspired Degas with numerous pictures. He shows in + them a surprising knowledge of the horse. He is one of the most perfect + painters of horses who have ever existed. He has caught the most curious + and truest actions with infallible sureness of sight. His racecourse + scenes are full of vitality and picturesqueness. Against clear skies, + and light backgrounds of lawn, indicated with quiet harmony, Degas + assembles original groups of horses which one can see moving, + hesitating, intensely alive; and nothing could be fresher, gayer and + more deliciously pictorial, than the green, red and yellow notes of the + jockey's costumes strewn like flowers over these atmospheric, luminous + landscapes, where colours do not clash, but are always gently + shimmering, dissolved in uniform clearness. The admirable drawing of + horses and men is so precise and seems so simple, that one can only + slowly understand the extent of the difficulty overcome, the truth of + these attitudes and the nervous delicacy of the execution. +</p> +<a name="image-0022"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/22degas.jpg" width="300" height="165" +alt="Degas - The Dancing Lesson - Pastel"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>THE DANCING LESSON—PASTEL +</center> +<p> + The dancers go much further still in the expression of Degas's + temperament. They have been studied at the <i>foyer</i> of the Opera and at + the rehearsal, sometimes in groups, sometimes isolated. Some pictures + which will always count among the masterpieces of the nineteenth + century, represent the whole <i>corps de ballet</i> performing on the stage + before a dark and empty house. By the feeble light of some lamps the + black coats of the stage managers mix themselves with the gauze skirts. + Here the draughtsman joins the great colourist: the petticoats of pink + or white tulle, the graceful legs covered with flesh-coloured silk, the + arms and the shoulders, and the hair crowned with flowers, offer + motives of exquisite colour and of a tone of living flowers. But the + psychologist does not lose his rights: not only does he amuse himself + with noting the special movements of the dancers, but he also notes the + anatomical defects. He shows with cruel frankness, with a strange love + of modern character, the strong legs, the thin shoulders, and the + provoking and vulgar heads of these frequently ugly girls of common + origin. With the irony of an entomologist piercing the coloured insect + he shows us the disenchanting reality in the sad shadow of the scenes, + of these butterflies who dazzle us on the stage. He unveils the reverse + side of a dream without, however, caricaturing; he raises even, under + the imperfection of the bodies, the animal grace of the organisms; he + has the severe beauty of the true. He gives to his groups of + ballet-dancers the charming line of garlands and restores to them a + harmony in the <i>ensemble</i>, so as to prove that he does not misjudge the + charm conferred upon them by rhythm, however defective they may be + individually. At other times he devotes himself to the study of their + practice. In bare rooms with curtainless windows, in the cold and sad + light of the boxes, he passionately draws the dancers learning their + steps, reaching high bars with the tips of their toes, forcing + themselves into quaint poses in order to make themselves more supple, + manoeuvring to the sound of a fiddle scratched by an old teacher—and he + leaves us stupefied at the knowledge, the observation, the talent + profusely spent on these little pictures. Furthermore there are humorous + scenes: ballet-dancers chatting in the dark with <i>habitués</i> of the + Opera, others looking at the house through the small opening of the + curtain, others re-tying their shoe-laces, and they all are prodigious + drawings of movement anatomically as correct as they are unexpected. + Degas's old style of drawing undergoes modification: with the help of + slight deformations, accentuations of the modelling and subtle + falsifications of the proportions, managed with infinite tact and + knowledge, the artist brings forth in relief the important gesture, + subordinating to it all the others. He attempts <i>drawing by movement</i> as + it is caught by our eyes in life, where they do not state the + proportions, but first of all the gesture which strikes them. In these + drawings by Degas all the lines follow the impulsion of the thought. + What one sees first, is the movement transmitted to the members by the + will. The active part of the body is more carefully studied than the + rest, which is indicated by bold foreshortenings, placed in the second + plane, and apparently only serves to throw into relief the raised arm or + leg. This is no longer merely <i>exact</i>, it is <i>true</i>; it is a superior + degree of truth. +</p> +<a name="image-0023"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/23degas.jpg" width="163" height="300" +alt="Degas - The Dancers"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>THE DANCERS +</center> +<p> + These pictures of dancers are psychologic documents of great value. The + physical and moral atmosphere of these surroundings is called forth by a + master. Such and such a figure or attitude tells us more about Parisian + life than a whole novel, and Degas has been lavish of his intellect and + his philosophy of bitter scepticism. But they are also marvellous + pictorial studies which, in spite of the special, anecdotal subjects, + rise to the level of grand painting through sheer power of + draughtsmanship and charm of tone. Degas has the special quality of + giving the precise sensation of the third dimension. The atmosphere + circulates round his figures; you walk round them; you see them in their + real plane, and they present themselves in a thousand unexpected + arrangements. Degas is undoubtedly the one man of his age who has most + contributed towards infusing new life into the representation of human + figures: in this respect his pictures resemble no one else's. The same + qualities will be found in his series of women bathing. These interiors, + where the actions of the bathers are caught amidst the stuffs, flowered + cushions, linen, sponges and tubs, are sharp visions of modernity. Degas + observes here, with the tenacious perfection of his talent, the + slightest shiver of the flesh refreshed by cold water. His masterly + drawing follows the most delicate inflexion of the muscles and suggests + the nervous system under the skin. He observes with extraordinary + subtlety the awkwardness of the nude being at a time when nudity is no + longer accustomed to show itself, and this true nudity is in strong + contrast to that of the academicians. One might say of Degas that he has + the disease of truth, if the necessity of truth were not health itself! + These bodies are still marked with the impressions of the garments; the + movements remain those of a clothed being which is only nude as an + exception. The painter notices beauty, but he looks for it particularly + in the profound characterisation of the types which he studies, and his + pastels have the massiveness and the sombre style of bronze. He has also + painted café-scenes, prostitutes and supers, with a mocking and sad + energy; he has even amused himself with painting washerwomen, to + translate the movements of the women of the people. And his colour with + its pearly whites, subdued blues and delicate greys, always elevates + everything he does, and confers upon him a distinctive style. +</p> +<p> + Finally, about 1896, Degas has revealed himself as a dreamy landscapist. + His recent landscapes are symphonies in colours of strange harmony and + hallucinations of rare tones, resembling music rather than painting. It + is perhaps in these pictures that he has revealed certain dreams + hitherto jealously hidden. +</p> +<p> + And now I must speak of his technique. It is very singular and varied, + and one of the most complicated in existence. In his first works, which + are apparently as simple as Corot's, he does not employ the process of + colour-spots. But many of the works in his second manner are a + combination of drawing, painting and pastel. He has invented a kind of + engraving mixed with wash-drawing, pastel crayon crushed with brushes of + special pattern. Here one can find again his meticulous spirit. He has + many of the qualities of the scientist; he is as much chemist as + painter. It has been said of him, that he was a great artist of the + decadence. This is materially inexact, since his qualities of + draughtsmanship are those of a superb Classicist, and his colouring of + very pure taste. But the spirit of his work, his love of exact detail, + his exaggerated psychological refinement, are certainly the signs of an + extremely alert intellect who regards life prosaically and with a + lassitude and disenchantment which are only consoled by the passion for + truth. Certain water-colours of his heightened by pastel, and certain + landscapes, are somewhat disconcerting through the preciousness of his + method; others are surprisingly spontaneous. All his work has an + undercurrent of thought. In short, this Realist is almost a mystic. He + has observed a limited section of humanity, but what he has seen has not + been seen so profoundly by anybody else. +</p> +<a name="image-0024"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/24degas.jpg" width="300" height="239" +alt="Degas - Horses in the Meadows"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>DEGAS</b><br><br>HORSES IN THE MEADOWS +</center> +<p> + Degas has exercised an occult, but very serious, influence. He has lived + alone, without pupils and almost without friends; the only pupils one + might speak of are the caricaturist Forain, who has painted many small + pictures inspired by him, and the excellent American lady-artist Miss + Mary Cassatt. But all modern draughtsmen have been taught a lesson by + his painting: Renouard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Steinlen have been + impressed by it, and the young generation considers Degas as a master. + And that is also the unexpressed idea of the academicians, and + especially of those who have sufficient talent to be able to appreciate + all the science and power of such an art. The writer of this book + happened one day to mention Degas's name before a member of the + Institute. "What!" exclaimed he, "you know him? Why didn't you speak to + me about him?" And when he received the reply, that I did not consider + Degas to be an agreeable topic for him, the illustrious official + answered vivaciously, "But do you think I am a fool, and that I do not + know that Degas is one of the greatest draughtsmen who have ever + lived?"—"Why, then, my dear sir, has he never been received at the + Salons, and not even been decorated at the age of sixty-five?"—"Ah," + replied the Academician a little angrily, "that is another matter!" +</p> +<p> + Degas despises glory. It is believed that he has by him a number of + canvases which will have to be burnt after his death in accordance with + his will. He is a man who has loved his art like a mistress, with + jealous passion, and has sacrificed to it all that other + artists—enthusiasts even—are accustomed to reserve for their personal + interest. Degas, the incomparable pastellist, the faultless draughtsman, + the bitter, satirical, pessimistic genius, is an isolated phenomenon in + his period, a grand creator, unattached to his time. The painters and + the select few among art-lovers know what considerable force there is in + him. Though almost latent as yet, it will reveal itself brilliantly, + when an opportunity arises for bringing together the vast quantity of + his work. As is the case with Manet, though in a different sense, his + powerful classic qualities will become most prominent in this ordeal, + and this classicism has never abandoned him in his audacities. To Degas + is due a new method of observation in drawing. He will have been the + first to study the relation between the moving lines of a living being + and the immovable lines of the scene which serves as its setting; the + first, also, to define drawing, not as a graphic science, but as the + valuation of the third dimension, and thus to apply to painting the + principles hitherto reserved for sculpture. Finally, he will be counted + among the great analysts. His vision, tenacious, intense, and sombre, + stimulates thought: across what appears to be the most immediate and + even the most vulgar reality it reaches a grand, artistic style; it + states profoundly the facts of life, it condenses a little the human + soul: and this will suffice to secure for Degas an important place in + his epoch, a little apart from Impressionism. Without noise, and through + the sheer charm of his originality, he has contributed his share towards + undermining the false doctrines of academic art before the painters, as + Manet has undermined them before the public. +</p> +<a name="image-0025"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/25monet.jpg" width="300" height="229" +alt="Claude Monet - An Interior After Dinner"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>CLAUDE MONET</b><br><br>AN INTERIOR, AFTER DINNER +</center> +<a name="2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<h2> + V +</h2> +<h3> + CLAUDE MONET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE +</h3> +<p> + </p> +<p> + With Claude Monet we enter upon Impressionism in its most significant + technical expression, and touch upon the principal points referred to in + the second chapter of this book. +</p> +<p> + Claude Monet, the artistic descendant of Claude Lorrain, Turner, and + Monticelli, has had the merit and the originality of opening a new road + to landscape painting by deducing scientific statements from the study + of the laws of light. His work is a magnificent verification of the + optical discoveries made by Helmholtz and Chevreul. It is born + spontaneously from the artist's vision, and happens to be a rigorous + demonstration of principles which the painter has probably never cared + to know. Through the power of his faculties the artist has happened to + join hands with the scientist. His work supplies not only the very + basis of the Impressionist movement proper, but of all that has followed + it and will follow it in the study of the so-called chromatic laws. It + will serve to give, so to say, a mathematic necessity to the happy finds + met by the artists hitherto, and it will also serve to endow decorative + art and mural painting with a process, the applications of which are + manyfold and splendid. +</p> +<p> + I have already summed up the ideas which follow from Claude Monet's + painting more clearly even than from Manet's. Suppression of local + colour, study of reflections by means of complementary colours and + division of tones by the process of touches of pure, juxtaposed + colours—these are the essential principles of <i>chromatism</i> (for this + word should be used instead of the very vague term "Impressionism"). + Claude Monet has applied them systematically, especially in landscape + painting. +</p> +<p> + There are a few portraits of his, which show that he might have made an + excellent figure painter, if landscape had not absorbed him entirely. + One of these portraits, a large full-length of a lady with a fur-lined + jacket and a satin dress with green and black stripes, would in itself + be sufficient to save from oblivion the man who has painted it. But the + study of light upon the figure has been the special preoccupation of + Manet, Renoir, and Pissarro, and, after the Impressionists, of the great + lyricist, Albert Besnard, who has concentrated the Impressionist + qualities by placing them at the service of a very personal conception + of symbolistic art. Monet commenced with trying to find his way by + painting figures, then landscapes and principally sea pictures and boats + in harbours, with a somewhat sombre robustness and very broad and solid + draughtsmanship. His first luminous studies date back to about 1885. + Obedient to the same ideas as Degas he had to avoid the Salons and only + show his pictures gradually in private galleries. For years he remained + unknown. It is only giving M. Durand-Ruel his due, to state that he was + one of the first to anticipate the Impressionist school and to buy the + first works of these painters, who were treated as madmen and + charlatans. He has become great with them, and has made his fortune and + theirs through having had confidence in them, and no fortune has been + better deserved. Thirty years ago nobody would have bought pictures by + Degas or Monet, which are sold to-day for a thousand pounds. This detail + is only mentioned to show the evolution of Impressionism as regards + public opinion. +</p> +<a name="image-0026"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/26monet.jpg" width="300" height="198" +alt="Claude Monet - The Harbour, Honfleur"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>CLAUDE MONET</b><br><br>THE HARBOUR, HONFLEUR +</center> +<p> + So much has Monet been attracted by the analysis of the laws of light + that he has made light the real subject of all his pictures, and to show + clearly his intention he has treated one and the same site in a series + of pictures painted from nature at all hours of the day. This is the + principle whose results are the great divisions of his work which might + be called "Investigation of the variations of sunlight." The most famous + of these series are the <i>Hay-ricks</i>, the <i>Poplars</i>, the <i>Cliffs of + Etretat</i>, the <i>Golfe Juan</i>, the <i>Coins de Rivière</i>, the <i>Cathedrals</i>, + the <i>Water-lilies</i>, and finally the <i>Thames</i> series which Monet is at + present engaged upon. They are like great poems, and the splendour of + the chosen theme, the orchestration of the shivers of brightness, the + symphonic <i>parti-pris</i> of the colours, make their realism, the minute + contemplation of reality, approach idealism and lyric dreaming. +</p> +<p> + Monet paints these series from nature. He is said to take with him in a + carriage at sunrise some twenty canvases which he changes from hour to + hour, taking them up again the next day. He notes, for example, from + nine to ten o'clock the most subtle effects of sunlight upon a hay-rick; + at ten o'clock he passes on to another canvas and recommences the study + until eleven o'clock. Thus he follows step by step the modifications of + the atmosphere until nightfall, and finishes simultaneously the works of + the whole series. He has painted a hay-stack in a field twenty times + over, and the twenty hay-stacks are all different. He exhibits them + together, and one can follow, led by the magic of his brush, the history + of light playing upon one and the same object. It is a dazzling display + of luminous atoms, a kind of pantheistic evocation. Light is certainly + the essential personage who devours the outlines of the objects, and is + thrown like a translucent veil between our eyes and matter. One can see + the vibrations of the waves of the solar spectrum, drawn by the + arabesque of the spots of the seven prismatic hues juxtaposed with + infinite subtlety; and this vibration is that of heat, of atmospheric + vitality. The silhouettes melt into the sky; the shadows are lights + where certain tones, the blue, the purple, the green and the orange, + predominate, and it is the proportional quantity of the spots that + differentiates in our eyes the shadows from what we call the lights, + just as it actually happens in optic science. There are some midday + scenes by Claude Monet, where every material silhouette—tree, hay-rick, + or rock—is annihilated, volatilised in the fiery vibration of the dust + of sunlight, and before which the beholder gets really blinded, just as + he would in actual sunlight. Sometimes even there are no more shadows at + all, nothing that could serve to indicate the values and to create + contrasts of colours. Everything is light, and the painter seems easily + to overcome those terrible difficulties, lights upon lights, thanks to a + gift of marvellous subtlety of sight. +</p> +<a name="image-0027"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/27monet.jpg" width="300" height="240" +alt="Claude Monet - The Church at Varengeville"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>CLAUDE MONET</b><br><br>THE CHURCH AT VARENGEVILLE +</center> +<p> + Generally he finds a very simple <i>motif</i> sufficient; a hay-rick, some + slender trunks rising skywards, or a cluster of shrubs. But he also + proves himself as powerful draughtsman when he attacks themes of greater + complexity. Nobody knows as he does how to place a rock amidst + tumultuous waves, how to make one understand the enormous construction + of a cliff which fills the whole canvas, how to give the sensation of a + cluster of pines bent by the wind, how to throw a bridge across a river, + or how to express the massiveness of the soil under a summer sun. All + this is constructed with breadth, truth and force under the delicious or + fiery symphony of the luminous atoms. The most unexpected tones play in + the foliage. On close inspection we are astonished to find it striped + with orange, red, blue and yellow touches, but seen at a certain + distance the freshness of the green foliage appears to be represented + with infallible truth. The eye recomposes what the brush has + dissociated, and one finds oneself perplexed at all the science, all the + secret order which has presided over this accumulation of spots which + seem projected in a furious shower. It is a veritable orchestral piece, + where every colour is an instrument with a distinct part, and where the + hours with their different tints represent the successive themes. Monet + is the equal of the greatest landscape painters as regards the + comprehension of the true character of every soil he has studied, which + is the supreme quality of his art. Though absorbed beyond all by study + of the sunlight, he has thought it useless to go to Morocco or Algeria. + He has found Brittany, Holland, the <i>Ile de France</i>, the <i>Cote d'Azur</i> + and England sufficient sources of inspiration for his symphonies, which + cover from end to end the scale of perceptible colours. He has + expressed, for instance, the mild and vaporous softness of the + Mediterranean, the luxuriant vegetation of the gardens of Cannes and + Antibes, with a truthfulness and knowledge of the psychology of land and + water which can only be properly appreciated by those who live in this + enchanted region. This has not prevented him from understanding better + than anybody the wildness, the grand austereness of the rocks of + <i>Belle-Isle en mer</i>, to express it in pictures in which one really feels + the wind, the spray, and the roaring of the heavy waters breaking + against the impassibility of the granite rocks. His recent series of + <i>Water-lilies</i> expressed all the melancholic and fresh charm of quiet + basins, of sweet bits of water blocked by rushes and calyxes. He has + painted underwoods in the autumn, where the most subtle shades of + bronze and gold are at play, chrysanthemums, pheasants, roofs at + twilight, dazzling sunflowers, gardens, tulip-fields in Holland, + bouquets, effects of snow and hoar frost of exquisite softness, and + sailing boats passing in the sun. He has painted some views of the banks + of the Seine which are quite wonderful in their power of conjuring up + these scenes, and over all this has roved his splendid vision of a + great, amorous and radiant colourist. The <i>Cathedrals</i> are even more of + a <i>tour de force</i> of his talent. They consist of seventeen studies of + Rouen Cathedral, the towers of which fill the whole of the picture, + leaving barely a little space, a little corner of the square, at the + foot of the enormous stone-shafts which mount to the very top of the + picture. Here he has no proper means to express the play of the + reflections, no changeful waters or foliage: the grey stone, worn by + time and blackened by centuries, is for seventeen times the monochrome, + the thankless theme upon which the painter is about to exercise his + vision. But Monet finds means of making the most dazzling atmospheric + harmonies sparkle upon this stone. Pale and rosy at sunrise, purple at + midday, glowing in the evening under the rays of the setting sun, + standing out from the crimson and gold, scarcely visible in the mist, + the colossal edifice impresses itself upon the eye, reconstructed with + its thousand details of architectural chiselling, drawn without + minuteness but with superb decision, and these pictures approach the + composite, bold and rich tone of Oriental carpets. +</p> +<a name="image-0028"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/28monet.jpg" width="192" height="300" +alt="Claude Monet - Poplars on the Epte in Autumn"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>CLAUDE MONET</b><br><br>POPLARS ON THE EPTE IN AUTUMN +</center> +<p> + Monet excels also in suggesting the <i>drawing of light</i>, if I may venture + to use this expression. He makes us understand the movement of the + vibrations of heat, the movement of the luminous waves; he also + understands how to paint the sensation of strong wind. "Before one of + Manet's pictures," said Mme. Morisot, "I always know which way to + incline my umbrella." Monet is also an incomparable painter of water. + Pond, river, or sea—he knows how to differentiate their colouring, + their consistency, and their currents, and he transfixes a moment of + their fleeting life. He is intuitive to an exceptional degree in the + intimate composition of matter, water, earth, stone or air, and this + intuition serves him in place of intellectuality in his art. He is a + painter <i>par excellence</i>, a man born for painting, and this power of + penetrating the secrets of matter and of light helps him to attain a + kind of grand, unconsciously lyrical poetry. He transposes the immediate + truth of our vision and elevates it to decorative grandeur. If Manet is + the realist-romanticist of Impressionism, if Degas is its psychologist, + Claude Monet is its lyrical pantheist. +</p> +<p> + His work is immense. He produces with astonishing rapidity, and he has + yet another characteristic of the great painters: that of having put his + hand to every kind of subject. His recent studies of the Thames are, at + the decline of his energetic maturity, as beautiful and as spontaneous + as the <i>Hay-ricks</i> of seventeen years back. They are thrillingly + truthful visions of fairy mists, where showers of silver and gold + sparkle through rosy vapours; and at the same time Monet combines in + this series the dream-landscapes of Turner with Monticelli's + accumulation of precious stones. Thus interpreted by this intense + faculty of synthesis, nature, simplified in detail and contemplated in + its grand lines, becomes truly a living dream. +</p> +<p> + Since the <i>Hay-ricks</i> one can say that the work of Claude Monet is + glorious. It has been made sacred to the admiring love of the + connoisseurs on the day when Monet joined Rodin in an exhibition which + is famous in the annals of modern art. Yet no official distinction has + intervened to recognise one of the greatest painters of the nineteenth + century. The influence of Monet has been enormous all over Europe and + America. The <i>process of colour spots</i><a href="#note-2"><small>2</small></a> (let us adhere to this + rudimentary name which has become current) has been adopted by a whole + crowd of painters. I shall have to say a few words about it at the end + of this book. But it is befitting to terminate this all too short study + by explaining that the most lyrical of the Impressionists has also been + the theorist <i>par excellence</i>. His work connects easel painting with + mural painting. No Minister of Fine Arts has been found, who would + surmount the systematic opposition of the official painters, and give + Manet a commission for grand mural compositions, for which his method is + admirably suited. It has taken long years before such works were + entrusted to Besnard, who, with Puvis de Chavannes, has given Paris + her most beautiful modern decorations, but Besnard's work is the direct + outcome of Claude Monet's harmonies. The principle of the division of + tones and of the study of complementary colours has been full of + revelations, and one of the most fruitful theories. It has probably been + the principle which will designate most clearly the originality of the + painting of the future. To have invented it, is enough to secure + permanent glory for a man. And without wishing to put again the question + of the antagonism of realism and idealism, one may well say that a + painter who invents a method and shows such power, is highly + intellectual and gifted with a pictorial intelligence. Whatever the + subjects he treats, he creates an aesthetic emotion equivalent, if not + similar, to those engendered by the most complex symbolism. In his + ardent love of nature Monet has found his greatness; he suggests the + secrets by stating the evident facts. That is the law common to all the + arts. +</p> +<a name="image-0029"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/29monet.jpg" width="300" height="221" +alt="Claude Monet - The Bridge at Argenteuil"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>CLAUDE MONET</b><br><br>THE BRIDGE AT ARGENTEUIL +</center> +<a name="2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<h2> + VI +</h2> +<h3> + AUGUSTE RENOIR AND HIS WORK +</h3> +<p> + </p> +<p> + The work of Auguste Renoir extends without interruption over a period of + forty years. It appears to sum up the ideas and methods of Impressionist + art so completely that, should it alone be saved from a general + destruction, it would suffice to bear witness to this entire art + movement. It has unfolded itself from 1865 to our days with a happy + magnificence, and it allows us to distinguish several periods, in the + technique at least, since the variety of its subjects is infinite. Like + Manet, and like all truly great and powerful painters, M. Renoir has + treated almost everything, nudes, portraits, subject pictures, seascapes + and still-life, all with equal beauty. +</p> +<p> + His first manner shows him to be a very direct descendant of Boucher. + His female nudes are altogether in eighteenth century taste and he uses + the same technique as Boucher: fat and sleek paint of soft brilliancy, + laid on with the palette knife, with precise strokes round the principal + values; pink and ivory tints relieved by strong blues similar to those + of enamels; the light distributed everywhere and almost excluding the + opposition of the shadows; and, finally, vivacious attitudes and an + effort towards decorative convention. Nevertheless, his <i>Bathers</i>, of + which he has painted a large series, are in many ways thoroughly modern + and personal. Renoir's nude is neither that of Monet, nor of Degas, + whose main concern was truth, the last-named even trying to define in + the undressed being such psychologic observations as are generally + looked for in the features of the clothed being. Nor is Renoir's nude + that of the academicians, that poetised nude arranged according to a + pseudo-Greek ideal, which has nothing in common with contemporary women. + What Renoir sees in the nude is less the line, than the brilliancy of + the epidermis, the luminous, nacreous substance of the flesh: it is the + "ideal clay"; and in this he shows the vision of a poet; he transfigures + reality, but in a very different sense from that of the School. + Renoir's woman comes from a primitive dream-land; she is an artless, + wild creature, blooming in perfumed scrub. He sets her in backgrounds of + foliage or of blue, foam-fringed torrents. She is a luxuriant, firm, + healthy and naïve woman with a powerful body, a small head, her eyes + wide open, thoughtless, brilliant and ignorant, her lips blood-red and + her nostrils dilated; she is a gentle being, like the women of Tahiti, + born in a tropical clime where vice is as unknown as shame, and where + entire ingenuousness is a guarantee against all indecency. One cannot + but be astonished at this mixture of "Japanism," savagism and eighteenth + century taste, which constitutes inimitably the nude of Renoir. +</p> +<a name="image-0030"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/30renoir.jpg" width="234" height="300" +alt="Renoir - Dejeuner"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>RENOIR</b><br><br>DÉJEUNER +</center><br><br> +<a name="image-0031"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/31renoir.jpg" width="239" height="300" +alt="Renoir - In the Box"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>RENOIR</b><br><br>IN THE BOX +</center> +<p> + M. Renoir's second manner is more directly related to the Impressionist + methods: it is that of his landscapes, his flowers and his portraits. + Here one can feel his relationship with Manet and with Claude Monet. + These pictures are hatchings of colours accumulated to render less the + objects than their transparency across the atmosphere. The portraits are + frankly presented and broadly executed. The artist occupies himself in + the first place with getting correct values and an exact suggestion of + depth. He understands the illogicality of a false perfection which is as + interested in a trinket as in an eye, and he knows how to proportion the + interest of the picture which should guide the beholder's look to the + essential point, though every part should be correctly executed. He + knows how to interpret nature in a certain sense; how to stop in time; + how to suggest by leaving a part apparently unfinished; how to indicate, + behind a figure, the sea or some landscape with just a few broad touches + which suffice to suggest it without usurping the principal part. It is + now, that Renoir paints his greatest works, the <i>Déjeûner des + Canotiers</i>, the <i>Bal au Moulin de la Galette</i>, the <i>Box</i>, the <i>Terrace</i>, + the <i>First Step</i>, the <i>Sleeping Woman with a Cat</i>, and his most + beautiful landscapes; but his nature is too capricious to be satisfied + with a single technique. There are some landscapes that are reminiscent + of Corot or of Anton Mauve; the <i>Woman with the broken neck</i> is related + to Manet; the portrait of <i>Sisley</i> invents pointillism fifteen years + before the pointillists; <i>La Pensée</i>, this masterpiece, evokes + Hoppner. But in everything reappears the invincible French instinct: the + <i>Jeune Fille au panier</i> is a Greuze painted by an Impressionist; the + delightful <i>Jeune Fille à la promenade</i> is connected with Fragonard; the + <i>Box</i>, a perfect marvel of elegance and knowledge, condenses the whole + worldliness of 1875. The portrait of <i>Jeanne Samary</i> is an evocation of + the most beautiful portraits of the eighteenth century, a poem of white + satin and golden hair. +</p> +<a name="image-0032"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/32renoir.jpg" width="183" height="300" +alt="Renoir - Young Girl Promenading"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>RENOIR</b><br><br>YOUNG GIRL PROMENADING +</center> +<p> + Renoir's realism bears in spite of all, the imprint of the lyric spirit + and of sweetness. It has neither the nervous veracity of Manet, nor the + bitterness of Degas, who both love their epoch and find it interesting + without idealising it and who have the vision of psychologist novelists. + Before everything else he is a painter. What he sees in the <i>Bal au + Moulin de la Galette</i>, are not the stigmata of vice and impudence, the + ridiculous and the sad sides of the doubtful types of this low resort. + He sees the gaiety of Sundays, the flashes of the sun, the oddity of a + crowd carried away by the rhythm of the valses, the laughter, the + clinking of glasses, the vibrating and hot atmosphere; and he applies + to this spectacle of joyous vulgarity his gifts as a sumptuous + colourist, the arabesque of the lines, the gracefulness of his bathers, + and the happy eurythmy of his soul. The straw hats are changed into + gold, the blue jackets are sapphires, and out of a still exact realism + is born a poem of light. The <i>Déjeûner des Canotiers</i> is a subject which + has been painted a hundred times, either for the purpose of studying + popular types, or of painting white table-cloths amidst sunny foliage. + Yet Renoir is the only painter who has raised this small subject to the + proportions and the style of a large canvas, through the pictorial charm + and the masterly richness of the arrangement. The <i>Box</i>, conceived in a + low harmony, in a golden twilight, is a work worthy of Reynolds. The + pale and attentive face of the lady makes one think of the great English + master's best works; the necklace, the flesh, the flounce of lace and + the hands are marvels of skill and of taste, which the greatest modern + virtuosos, Sargent and Besnard, have not surpassed, and, as far as the + man in the background is concerned, his white waistcoat, his + dress-coat, his gloved hand would suffice to secure the fame of a + painter. The <i>Sleeping Woman</i>, the <i>First Step</i>, the <i>Terrace</i>, and the + decorative <i>Dance</i> panels reveal Renoir as an <i>intimiste</i> and as an + admirable painter of children. His strange colouring and his gifts of + grasping nature and of ingenuity—strangers to all decadent + complexity—have allowed him to rank among the best of those who have + expressed childhood in its true aspect, without overloading it with + over-precocious thoughts. Finally, Renoir is a painter of flowers of + dazzling variety and exquisite splendour. They supply him with + inexhaustible pretexts for suave and subtle harmonies. +</p> +<a name="image-0033"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/33renoir.jpg" width="242" height="300" +alt="Renoir - Woman's Bust"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>RENOIR</b><br><br>WOMAN'S BUST +</center> +<p> + His third manner has surprised and deceived certain admirers of his. It + seems to mix his two first techniques, combining the painting with the + palette knife and the painting in touches of divided tones. He searches + for certain accords and contrasts almost analogous to the musical + dissonances. He realises incredible "false impressions." He seems to + take as themes oriental carpets: he abandons realism and style and + conceives symphonies. He pleases himself in assembling those tones + which one is generally afraid of using: Turkish pink, lemon, crushed + strawberry and viridian. Sometimes he amuses himself with amassing faded + colours which would be disheartening with others, but out of which he + can extract a harmony. Sometimes he plays with the crudest colours. One + feels disturbed, charmed, disconcerted, as one would before an Indian + shawl, a barbaric piece of pottery or a Persian miniature, and one + refrains from forcing into the limits of a definition this exceptional + virtuoso whose passionate love of colour overcomes every difficulty. It + is in this most recent part of his evolution, that Renoir appears the + most capricious and the most poetical of all the painters of his + generation. The flowers find themselves treated in various techniques + according to their own character: the gladioles and roses in pasty + paint, the poor flowers of the field are defined by a cross-hatching of + little touches. Influenced by the purple shadow of the large + flower-decked hats, the heads of young girls are painted on coarse + canvas, sketched in broad strokes, with the hair in one colour only. + Some little study appears like wool, some other has the air of agate, + or is marbled and veined according to his inexplicable whim. We have + here an incessant confusion of methods, a complete emancipation of the + virtuoso who listens only to his fancy. Now and then the harmonies are + false and the drawing incorrect, but these weaknesses do at least no + harm to the values, the character and the general movement of the work, + which are rather accentuated by them. +</p> +<a name="image-0034"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/34renoir.jpg" width="247" height="289" +alt="Renoir - Young Woman in Empire Costume"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>RENOIR</b><br><br>YOUNG WOMAN IN EMPIRE COSTUME +</center> +<p> + Surely, it would be false to exclude ideologist painting which has + produced wonders, and not less iniquitous to reproach Impressionism with + not having taken any interest in it! One has to avoid the kind of + criticism which consists in reproaching one movement with not having had + the qualities of the others whilst maintaining its own, and we have + abandoned the idea of Beauty divided into a certain number of clauses + and programmes, towards the sum total of which the efforts of the + eclectic candidates are directed. M. Renoir is probably the most + representative figure of a movement where he seems to have united all + the qualities of his friends. To criticise him means to criticise + Impressionism itself. Having spent half of its strength in proving to + its adversaries that they were wrong, and the other half in inventing + technical methods, it is not surprising to find that Impressionism has + been wanting in intellectual depth and has left to its successors the + care of realising works of great thought. But it has brought us a sunny + smile, a breath of pure air. It is so fascinating, that one cannot but + love its very mistakes which make it more human and more accessible. + Renoir is the most lyrical, the most musical, the most subtle of the + masters of this art. Some of his landscapes are as beautiful as those of + Claude Monet. His nudes are as masterly in painting as Manet's, and more + supple. Not having attained the scientific drawing which one finds in + Degas's, they have a grace and a brilliancy which Degas's nudes have + never known. If his rare portraits of men are inferior to those of his + rivals, his women's portraits have a frequently superior distinction. + His great modern compositions are equal to the most beautiful works by + Manet and Degas. His inequalities are also more striking than theirs. + Being a fantastic, nervous improvisator he is more exposed to radical + mistakes. But he is a profoundly sincere and conscientious artist. +</p> +<a name="image-0035"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/35renoir.jpg" width="239" height="300" +alt="Renoir - On the Terrace"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>RENOIR</b><br><br>ON THE TERRACE +</center> +<p> + The race speaks in him. It is inexplicable that he should not have met + with startling success, since he is voluptuous, bright, happy and + learned without heaviness. One has to attribute his relative isolation + to the violence of the controversies, and particularly to the dignity of + a poet gently disdainful of public opinion and paying attention solely + to painting, his great and only love. Manet has been a fighter whose + works have created scandal. Renoir has neither shown, nor hidden + himself: he has painted according to his dream, spreading his works, + without mixing up his name or his personality with the tumult that raged + around his friends. And now, for that very reason, his work appears + fresher and younger, more primitive and candid, more intoxicated with + flowers, flesh and sunlight. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<h2> + VII +</h2> +<h3> + THE SECONDARY PAINTERS OF IMPRESSIONISM—CAMILLE PISSARRO, ALFRED + SISLEY, PAUL CÉZANNE, BERTHE MORISOT, MISS MARY CASSATT, EVA GONZALÈS, + GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE, BAZILLE, ALBERT LEBOURG, EUGÈNE BOUDIN</h3> +<p> + . +</p> +<p> + Manet, Degas, Monet and Renoir will present themselves as a glorious + quartet of masters, in the history of painting. We must now speak of + some personalities who have grown up by their side and who, without + being great, offer nevertheless a rich and beautiful series of works. +</p> +<p> + Of these personalities the most considerable is certainly that of M. + Camille Pissarro. He painted according to some wise and somewhat timid + formulas, when Manet's example won him over to Impressionism to which he + has remained faithful. M. Pissarro has been enormously productive. His + work is composed of landscapes, rustic scenes, and studies of streets + and markets. His first landscapes are in the manner of Corot, but bathed + in blond colour: vast cornfields, sunny woods, skies with big, flocking + clouds, effects of soft light—these are the motifs of some charming + canvases which have a solid, classic quality. Later the artist adopted + the method of the dissociation of tones, from which he obtained some + happy effects. His harvest and market scenes are luminous and alive. The + figures in these recall those of Millet. They bear witness to high + qualities of sincere observation, and are the work of a man profoundly + enamoured of rustic life. M. Pissarro excels in grouping the figures, in + correctly catching their attitudes and in rendering the medley of a + crowd in the sun. Certain fans in particular will always remain + delightful caprices of fresh colour, but it would be vain to look in + this attractive, animated and clear painting for the psychologic gifts, + the profound feeling for grand silhouettes, and the intuition of the + worn and gloomy soul of the men of the soil, which have made Millet's + noble glory. At the time when, about 1885, the neo-Impressionists whom + we shall study later on invented the Pointillist method, M. Pissarro + tried it and applied it judiciously, with the patient, serious and + slightly anxious talent, by which he is distinguished. Recently, in a + series of pictures representing views of Paris (the boulevards and the + Avenue de l'Opéra) M. Pissarro has shewn rare vision and skill and has + perhaps signed his most beautiful and personal paintings. The + perspective, the lighting, the tones of the houses and of the crowds, + the reflections of rain or sunshine are intensely true; they make one + feel the atmosphere, the charm and the soul of Paris. One can say of + Pissarro that he lacks none of the gifts of his profession. He is a + learned, fruitful and upright artist. But he has lacked originality; he + always recalls those whom he admires and whose ideas he applies boldly + and tastefully. It is probable that his conscientious nature has + contributed not little towards keeping him in the second rank. + Incapable, certainly, of voluntarily imitating, this excellent and + diligent painter has not had the sparks of genius of his friends, but + all that can be given to a man through conscientious study, striving + after truth and love of art, has been acquired by M. Pissarro. The rest + depended on destiny only. There is no character more worthy of respect + and no effort more meritorious than his, and there can be no better + proof of his disinterestedness and his modesty, than the fact that, + although he has thirty years of work behind him, an honoured name and + white hair, M. Pissarro did not hesitate to adopt, quite frankly, the + technique of the young Pointillist painters, his juniors, because it + appeared to him better than his own. He is, if not a great painter, at + least one of the most interesting rustic landscape painters of our + epoch. His visions of the country are quite his own, and are a + harmonious mixture of Classicism and Impressionism which will secure one + of the most honourable places to his work. +</p> +<a name="image-0036"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/36pissarro.jpg" width="240" height="300" +alt="Pissarro - Rue de l'Epicerie, Rouen"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>PISSARRO</b><br><br>RUE DE L'EPICERIE, ROUEN +</center> +<a name="image-0037"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/37pissarro.jpg" width="300" height="247" +alt="Pissarro - Boulevard Montmartre"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>PISSARRO</b><br><br>BOULEVARDE MONTMARTRE +</center> +<a name="image-0038"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/38pissarro.jpg" width="300" height="225" +alt="Pissarro - The Boildieaux Bridge at Rouen"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>PISSARRO<br></b><br>THE BOILDIEAUX BRIDGE AT ROUEN +</center> +<a name="image-0039"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/39pissarro.jpg" width="300" height="247" +alt="Pissarro - The Avenue de l'Opera"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>PISSARRO<br></b><br>THE AVENUE DE L'OPÉRA +</center> +<p> + There has, perhaps, been more original individuality in the landscape + painter Alfred Sisley. He possessed in the highest degree the feeling + for light, and if he did not have the power, the masterly passion of + Claude Monet, he will at least deserve to be frequently placed by his + side as regards the expression of certain combinations of light. He did + not have the decorative feeling which makes Monet's landscapes so + imposing; one does not see in his work that surprising lyrical + interpretation which knows how to express the drama of the raging waves, + the heavy slumber of enormous masses of rock, the intense torpor of the + sun on the sea. But in all that concerns the mild aspects of the <i>Ile de + France</i>, the sweet and fresh landscapes, Sisley is not unworthy of being + compared with Monet. He equals him in numerous pictures; he has a + similar delicacy of perception, a similar fervour of execution. He is + the painter of great, blue rivers curving towards the horizon; of + blossoming orchards; of bright hills with red-roofed hamlets scattered + about; he is, beyond all, the painter of French skies which he presents + with admirable vivacity and facility. He has the feeling for the + transparency of atmosphere, and if his technique allies him directly + with Impressionism, one can well feel, that he painted spontaneously and + that this technique happened to be adapted to his nature, without his + having attempted to appropriate it for the sake of novelty. Sisley has + painted a notable series of pictures in the quaint village of Moret on + the outskirts of the Forest of Fontainebleau, where he died at a ripe + age, and these canvases will figure among the most charming landscapes + of our epoch. Sisley was a veteran of Impressionism. At the Exhibition + of 1900, in the two rooms reserved for the works of this school, there + were to be seen a dozen of Sisley's canvases. By the side of the finest + Renoirs, Monets and Manets they kept their charm and their brilliancy + with a singular flavour, and this was for many critics a revelation as + to the real place of this artist, whom they had hitherto considered as a + pretty colourist of only relative importance. +</p> +<a name="image-0040"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/40sisley.jpg" width="300" height="220" +alt="Sisley - Snow Effect"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>SISLEY<br></b><br>SNOW EFFECT +</center> +<a name="image-0041"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/41sisley.jpg" width="300" height="228" +alt="Sisley - Bougival, at the Water's Edge"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>SISLEY<br></b><br>BOUGIVAL, AT THE WATER'S EDGE +</center> +<a name="image-0042"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/42sisley.jpg" width="300" height="230" +alt="Sisley - Bridge at Moret"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>SISLEY<br></b><br>BRIDGE AT MORET +</center> +<p> + Paul Cézanne, unknown to the public, is appreciated by a small group of + art lovers. He is an artist who lives in Provence, away from the world; + he is supposed to have served as model for the Impressionist painter + Claude Lantier, described by Zola in his celebrated novel "L'Oeuvre." + Cézanne has painted landscapes, rustic scenes and still-life pictures. + His figures are clumsy and brutal and inharmonious in colour, but his + landscapes have the merit of a robust simplicity of vision. These + pictures are almost primitive, and they are loved by the young + Impressionists because of their exclusion of all "cleverness." A charm + of rude simplicity and sincerity can be found in these works in which + Cézanne employs only just the means which are indispensable for his end. + His still-life pictures are particularly interesting owing to the + spotless brilliancy of their colours, the straightforwardness of the + tones, and the originality of certain shades analogous to those of old + faience. Cézanne is a conscientious painter without skill, intensely + absorbed in rendering what he sees, and his strong and tenacious + attention has sometimes succeeded in finding beauty. He reminds more of + an ancient Gothic craftsman, than of a modern artist, and he is full of + repose as a contrast to the dazzling virtuosity of so many painters. +</p> +<a name="image-0043"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/43cezanne.jpg" width="300" height="240" +alt="CÉzanne - Dessert"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>C<font face="Times New Roman">É</font>ZANNE<br></b><br>DESSERT +</center> +<p> + Berthe Morisot will remain the most fascinating figure of + Impressionism,—the one who has stated most precisely the femineity of + this luminous and iridescent art. Having married Eugène Manet, the + brother of the great painter, she exhibited at various private + galleries, where the works of the first Impressionists were to be + seen, and became as famous for her talent as for her beauty. When Manet + died, she took charge of his memory and of his work, and she helped with + all her energetic intelligence to procure them their just and final + estimation. Mme. Eugène Manet has certainly been one of the most + beautiful types of French women of the end of the nineteenth century. + When she died prematurely at the age of fifty (in 1895), she left a + considerable amount of work: gardens, young girls, water-colours of + refined taste, of surprising energy, and of a colouring as + distinguished, as it is unexpected. As great grand-daughter of + Fragonard, Berthe Morisot (since we ought to leave her the name with + which her respect for Manet's great name made her always sign her works) + seemed to have inherited from her famous ancestor his French + gracefulness, his spirited elegance, and all his other great qualities. + She has also felt the influence of Corot, of Manet and of Renoir. All + her work is bathed in brightness, in azure, in sunlight; it is a woman's + work, but it has a strength, a freedom of touch and an originality, + which one would hardly have expected. Her water-colours, particularly, + belong to a superior art: some notes of colour suffice to indicate sky, + sea, or a forest background, and everything shows a sure and masterly + fancy, for which our time can offer no analogy. A series of Berthe + Morisot's works looks like a veritable bouquet whose brilliancy is due + less to the colour-schemes which are comparatively soft, grey and blue, + than to the absolute correctness of the values. A hundred canvases, and + perhaps three hundred water-colours attest this talent of the first + rank. Normandy coast scenes with pearly skies and turquoise horizons, + sparkling Nice gardens, fruit-laden orchards, girls in white dresses + with big flower-decked hats, young women in ball-dress, and flowers are + the favourite themes of this artist who was the friend of Renoir, of + Degas and of Mallarmé. +</p> +<a name="image-0044"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/44morisot.jpg" width="300" height="245" +alt="Berthe Morisot - Melancholy"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>BERTHE MORISOT<br></b><br>MELANCHOLY +</center> +<a name="image-0045"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/45morisot.jpg" width="300" height="267" +alt="Berthe Morisot - Young Woman Seated"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>BERTHE MORISOT<br></b><br>YOUNG WOMAN SEATED +</center> +<p> + Miss Mary Cassatt will deserve a place by her side. American by birth, + she became French through her assiduous participation in the exhibitions + of the Impressionists. She is one of the very few painters whom Degas + has advised, with Forain and M. Ernest Rouart. (This latter, a painter + himself, a son of the painter and wealthy collector Henri Rouart, has + married Mme. Manet's daughter who is also an artist.) Miss Cassatt has + made a speciality of studying children, and she is, perhaps, the artist + of this period who has understood and expressed them with the greatest + originality. She is a pastellist of note, and some of her pastels are as + good as Manet's and Degas's, so far as broad execution and brilliancy + and delicacy of tones are concerned. Ten years ago Miss Cassatt + exhibited a series of ten etchings in colour, representing scenes of + mothers and children at their toilet. At that time this <i>genre</i> was + almost abandoned, and Miss Cassatt caused astonishment by her boldness + which faced the most serious difficulties. One can relish in this + artist's pictures, besides the great qualities of solid draughtsmanship, + correct values, and skilful interpretation of flesh and stuffs, a + profound sentiment of infantile life, childish gestures, clear and + unconscious looks, and the loving expression of the mothers. Miss + Cassatt is the painter and psychologist of babies and young mothers whom + she likes to depict in the freshness of an orchard, or against + backgrounds of the flowered hangings of dressing-rooms, amidst bright + linen, tubs, and china, in smiling intimacy. To these two remarkable + women another has to be added, Eva Gonzalès, the favourite pupil of + Manet who has painted a fine portrait of her. Eva Gonzalès became the + wife of the excellent engraver Henri Guérard, and died prematurely, not, + however, before one was able to admire her talent as an exquisitely + delicate pastellist. Having first been a pupil of Chaplin, she soon came + to forget the tricks of technique in order to acquire under Manet's + guidance the qualities of clearness and the strength of the great + painter of <i>Argenteuil</i>; and she would certainly have taken one of the + first places in modern art, had not her career been cut short by death. + A small pastel at the Luxembourg Gallery proves her convincing qualities + as a colourist. +</p> +<a name="image-0046"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/46cassatt.jpg" width="130" height="180" +alt="Mary Cassatt - Getting Up Baby"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MARY CASSATT<br></b><br>GETTING UP BABY +</center> +<a name="image-0047"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/47cassatt.jpg" width="300" height="228" +alt="Mary Cassatt - Women and Child"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>MARY CASSATT<br></b><br>WOMEN AND CHILD +</center> +<p> + Gustave Caillebotte was a friend of the Impressionists from the very + first hour. He was rich, fond of art, and himself a painter of great + merit who modestly kept hidden behind his comrades. His picture <i>Les + raboteurs de parquets</i> made him formerly the butt of derision. To-day + his work, at the Luxembourg Gallery seems hardly a fit pretext for so + much controversy, but at that time much was considered as madness, + that to our eyes appears quite natural. This picture is a study of + oblique perspective and its curious <i>ensemble</i> of rising lines sufficed + to provoke astonishment. The work is, moreover, grey and discreet in + colour and has some qualities of fine light, but is on the whole not + very interesting. Recently an exhibition of works by Caillebotte has + made it apparent that this amateur was a misjudged painter. The + still-life pictures in this exhibition were specially remarkable. But + the name of Caillebotte was destined to reach the public only in + connection with controversies and scandal. When he died, he left to the + State a magnificent collection of objets-d'art and of old pictures, and + also a collection of Impressionist works, stipulating that these two + bequests should be inseparable. He wished by this means to impose the + works of his friends upon the museums, and thus avenge their unjust + neglect. The State accepted the two legacies, since the Louvre + absolutely wanted to benefit by the ancient portion, in spite of the + efforts of the Academicians who revolted against the acceptance of the + modern part. On this occasion one could see how far the official + artists were carried by their hatred of the Impressionists. A group of + Academicians, professors at the <i>Ecole des Beaux-Arts</i>, threatened the + minister that they would resign <i>en masse</i>. "We cannot," they wrote to + the papers, "continue to teach an art of which we believe we know the + laws, from the moment the State admits into the museums, where our + pupils can see them, works which are the very negation of all we teach." + A heated discussion followed in the press, and the minister boldly + declared that Impressionism, good or bad, had attracted the attention of + the public, and that it was the duty of the State to receive impartially + the work of all the art movements; the public would know how to judge + and choose; the Government's duty was not to influence them by showing + them only one style of painting, but to remain in historic neutrality. + Thanks to this clever reply, the Academicians, among whom M. Gérôme was + the most rabid, resigned themselves to keeping their posts. A similar + incident, less publicly violent, but equally strange, occurred on the + occasion of the admission to the Luxembourg Gallery of the portrait of + M. Whistler's mother, a masterpiece of which the gallery is proud + to-day, and for which a group of writers and art lovers had succeeded in + opening the way. It is difficult to imagine the degree of irritation and + obstruction of the official painters against all the ideas of the new + painting, and if it had only depended upon them, there can be no doubt + that Manet and his friends would have died in total obscurity, not only + banished from the Salons and museums, but also treated as madmen and + robbed of the possibility of living by their work. +</p> +<p> + The Caillebotte collection was installed under conditions which the + ill-will of the administrators made at least as deplorable as possible. + The works were crowded into a small, badly lighted room, where it is + absolutely impossible to see them from the distance required by the + method of the division of tones, and the meanness of the opposition was + such that, the pictures having been bequeathed without frames, the + keeper was obliged to have recourse to the reserves of the Louvre, + because he was refused the necessary credit for purchasing them. The + collection is however beautiful and interesting. It does not represent + Impressionism in all its brilliancy, since the works by which it is + composed had been bought by Caillebotte at a time, when his friends were + still far from having arrived at the full blossoming of their qualities. + But some very fine things can at least be found there. Renoir is + marvellously represented by the <i>Moulin de la Galette</i>, which is one of + his masterpieces. Degas figures with seven beautiful pastels, Monet with + some landscapes grand in style; Sisley and Pissarro appear scarcely to + their advantage, and finally it is to be regretted, that Manet is only + represented by a study in black in his first manner, the <i>Balcony</i>, + which does not count among his best pictures, and the famous <i>Olympia</i> + whose importance is more historical than intrinsic. The gallery has + separately acquired a <i>Young Girl in Ball Dress</i> by Berthe Morisot, + which is a delicate marvel of grace and freshness. And in the place of + honour of the gallery is to be seen Fantin-Latour's great picture + <i>Hommage à Manet</i>, in which the painter, seated before his easel, is + surrounded by his friends; and this canvas may well be considered the + emblem of the slow triumph of Impressionism, and of the amends for a + great injustice. +</p> +<p> + It is in this picture that the young painter Bazille is represented, a + friend and pupil of Manet's, who was killed during the war of 1870, and + who should not be forgotten here. He has left a few canvases marked by + great talent, and would no doubt have counted among the most original + contemporary artists. We shall terminate this all too short enumeration + with two remarkable landscapists; the one is Albert Lebourg who paints + in suave and poetic colour schemes, with blues and greens of particular + tenderness, a painter who will take his place in the history of + Impressionism. The other is Eugène Boudin. He has not adopted Claude + Monet's technique; but I have already said that the vague and inexact + term "Impressionism" must be understood to comprise a group of painters + showing originality in the study of light and getting away from the + academic spirit. As to this, Eugène Boudin deserves to be placed in the + first rank. His canvases will be the pride of the best arranged + galleries. He is an admirable seascape painter. He has known how to + render with unfailing mastery, the grey waters of the Channel, the + stormy skies, the heavy clouds, the effects of sunlight feebly piercing + the prevailing grey. His numerous pictures painted at the port of Havre + are profoundly expressive. Nobody has excelled him in drawing + sailing-boats, in giving the exact feeling of the keels plunged into the + water, in grouping the masts, in rendering the activity of a port, in + indicating the value of a sail against the sky, the fluidity of calm + water, the melancholy of the distance, the shiver of short waves rippled + by the breeze. Boudin is a learned colourist of grey tones. His + Impressionism consists in the exclusion of useless details, his + comprehension of reflections, his feeling for values, the boldness of + his composition and his faculty of directly perceiving nature and the + transparency of atmosphere: he reminds sometimes of Constable and of + Corot. Boudin's production has been enormous, and nothing that he has + done is indifferent. He is one of those artists who have not a brilliant + career, but who will last, and whose name, faithfully retained by the + elect, is sure of immortality. He may be considered an isolated + artist, on the border line between Classicism and Impressionism, and + this is unquestionably the cause of the comparative obscurity of his + fame. The same might be said of the ingenuous and fine landscapist + Hervier, who has left such interesting canvases; and of the Lyons + water-colour painter Ravier who, almost absolutely unknown, came very + close to Monticelli and showed admirable gifts. It must, however, be + recognised that Boudin is nearer to Impressionism than to any other + grouping of artists, and he must be considered as a small master of pure + French lineage. Finally, if a question of nationality prevents me from + enlarging upon the subject of the rank of precursor which must be + accorded to the great Dutch landscapist Jongkind, I must at least + mention his name. His water-colour sketches have been veritable + revelations for several Impressionists. Eugène Boudin and Berthe Morisot + have derived special benefit from them, and they are valuable lessons + for many young painters of the present day. +</p> +<a name="image-0048"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/48jongkind.jpg" width="300" height="232" +alt="Jongkind - In Holland"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>JONGKIND<br></b><br>IN HOLLAND +</center> +<a name="image-0049"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/49jongkind.jpg" width="300" height="220" +alt="Jongkind - View of the Hague"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>JONGKIND<br></b><br>VIEW OF THE HAGUE +</center> +<p> + We do not pretend to have mentioned in this chapter all the painters + directly connected with the first Impressionist movement. We have + confined ourselves to enumerating the most important only, and each of + them would deserve a complete essay. But our object will have been + achieved, if we have inspired art-lovers with just esteem for this brave + phalanx of artists who have proved better than any aesthetic + commentaries the vitality, the originality, and the logic of Manet's + theories, the great importance of the notions introduced by him into + painting, and who have, on the other hand, clearly demonstrated the + uselessness of official teaching. Far from the traditions and methods of + the School, the best of their knowledge and of their talent is due to + their profound and sincere contemplation of nature and to their freedom + of spirit. And for that reason they will have a permanent place in the + evolution of their art. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<h2> + VIII +</h2> +<h3> + THE MODERN ILLUSTRATORS CONNECTED WITH IMPRESSIONISM: RAFFAËLLI, + TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, FORAIN, CHÉRET, ETC. +</h3> +<p> + </p> +<p> + Not the least important result of Impressionism has been the veritable + revolution effected by it in the art of illustration. It was only + natural that its principles should have led to it. The substitution of + the beauty of character for the beauty of proportion was bound to move + the artists to regard illustration in a new light; and as pictorial + Impressionism was born of the same movement of ideas which created the + naturalist novel and the impressionist literature of Flaubert, Zola and + the Goncourts, and moreover as these men were united by close relations + and a common defence, Edouard Manet's modern ideas soon took up the + commentary of the books dealing with modern life and the description of + actual spectacles. +</p> +<p> + The Impressionists themselves have not contributed towards illustration. + Their work has consisted in raising to the style of grand painting + subjects, that seemed at the best only worthy of the proportion of + vignettes, in opposition to the subjects qualified as "noble" by the + School. The series of works by Manet and Degas may be considered as + admirable illustrations to the novels by Zola and the Goncourts. It is a + parallel research in modern psychologic truth. But this research has + remained confined to pictures. It may be presumed that, had they wished + to do so, Manet and Degas could have admirably illustrated certain + contemporary novels, and Renoir could have produced a masterpiece in + commenting, say, upon Verlaine's <i>Fêtes Galantes</i>. The only things that + can be mentioned here are a few drawings composed by Manet for Edgar A. + Poe's <i>The Raven</i> and Mallarmé's <i>L'Après-Midi d'un Faune</i>, in addition + to a few music covers without any great interest. +</p> +<p> + But if the Impressionists themselves have neglected actively to assist + the interesting school of modern illustration, a whole legion of + draughtsmen have immediately been inspired by their principles. One of + their most original characteristics was the realistic representation of + the scenes, the <i>mise en cadre</i>, and it afforded these draughtsmen an + opportunity for revolutionising book illustration. There had already + been some excellent artists who occupied themselves with vignette + drawings, like Tony Johannot and Célestin Nanteuil, whose pretty and + smart frontispieces are to be found in the old editions of Balzac. The + genius of Honoré Daumier and the high fancy of Gavarni and of Grévin had + already announced a serious protest of modern sentiment against academic + taste, in returning on many points to the free tradition of Eisen, of + the two Moreaus and of Debucourt. Since 1845 the draughtsman Constantin + Guys, Baudelaire's friend, gave evidence, in his most animated + water-colour drawings, of a curious vision of nervous elegance and of + expressive skill quite in accord with the ideas of the day. + Impressionism, and also the revelation of the Japanese colour prints, + gave an incredible vigour to these intuitive glimpses. Certain + characteristics will date from the days of Impressionism. It is due to + Impressionism that artists have ventured to show in illustration, for + instance, figures in the foreground cut through by the margin, rising + perspectives, figures in the background that seem to stand on a higher + plane than the others, people seen from a second story; in a word, all + that life presents to our eyes, without the annoying consideration for + "style" and for arrangement, which the academic spirit obstinately + insisted to apply to the illustration of modern life. Degas in + particular has given many examples of this novelty in composition. One + of his pastels has remained typical, owing to the scandal caused by it: + he represents a dance-scene at the Opera, seen from the orchestra. The + neck of a double bass rises in the middle of the picture and cuts into + it, a large black silhouette, behind which sparkle the gauze-dresses and + the lights. That can be observed any evening, and yet it would be + difficult to recapitulate all the railleries and all the anger caused by + so natural an audacity. Modern illustration was to be the pretext of a + good many more outbursts! +</p> +<p> + We must now consider four artists of great importance who are remarkable + painters and have greatly raised the art of illustration. This title + illustrator, despised by the official painters, should be given them as + the one which has secured them the best claim to fame. They have + restored to this title all its merit and all its brilliancy and have + introduced into illustration the most serious qualities of painting. Of + these four men the first in date is M.J.F. Raffaëlli, who introduced + himself about 1875 with some remarkable and intensely picturesque + illustrations in colours in various magazines. He gave an admirable + series of <i>Parisian Types</i>, in album form, and a series of etchings to + accompany the text of M. Huysmans, describing the curious river "la + Bièvre" which penetrates Paris in a thousand curves, sometimes + subterranean, sometimes above ground, and serves the tanners for washing + the leather. This series is a model of modern illustration. But, apart + from the book, the entire pictorial work of M. Raffaëlli is a humorous + and psychological illustration of the present time. He has painted with + unique truth and spirit the working men's types and the small + <i>bourgeois</i>, the poor, the hospital patients and the roamers of the + outskirts of Paris. He has succeeded in being the poet of the sickly and + dirty landscapes by which the capitals are surrounded; he has rendered + their anaemic charm, the confused perspectives of houses, fences, walls + and little gardens, and their smoke, under the melancholy of rainy + skies. With an irony free from bitterness he has noted the clumsy + gestures of the labourer in his Sunday garb and the grotesque + silhouettes of the small townsmen, and has compiled a gallery of very + real sociologic interest. M. Raffaëlli has also exhibited Parisian + landscapes in which appear great qualities of light. He excels in + rendering the mornings in the spring, with their pearly skies, their + pale lights, their transparency and their slight shadows, and finally he + has proved his mastery by some large portraits, fresh harmonies, + generally devoted to the study of different qualities of white. If the + name "Impressionist" meant, as has been wrongly believed, an artist who + confines himself to giving the impression of what he sees, then M. + Raffaëlli would be the real Impressionist. He suggests more than he + paints. He employs a curious technique: he often leaves a sky completely + bare, throwing on to the white of the canvas a few colour notes which + suffice to give the illusion. He has a decided preference for white and + black, and paints very slightly in small touches. His very correct + feeling for values makes him an excellent painter; but what interests + him beyond all, is psychologic expression. He notes it with so hasty a + pencil, that one might almost say that he writes with colour. He is also + an etcher of great merit, and an original sculptor. He has invented + small bas-reliefs in bronze which can be attached to the wall, like + sketches or nick-nacks; and he has applied his talent even to renewing + the material for painting. He is an ingenious artist and a prolific + producer, a roguish, but sympathetic, observer of the life of the small + people, which has not prevented him from painting very seriously when he + wanted to, as is witnessed among other works by his very fine portrait + of M. Clemenceau speaking at a public meeting, in the presence of a + vociferous audience from which rise some hundred of heads whose + expressions are noted with really splendid energy and fervour. +</p> +<p> + Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who died recently, insane, leaves a great + work behind him. He had a kind of cruel genius. Descended from one of + the greatest families of France, badly treated by nature who made him a + kind of ailing dwarf, he seemed to take a bitter pleasure in the study + of modern vice. He painted scenes at café-concerts and the rooms of + wantons with intense truth. Nobody has revealed better than he the + lowness and suffering of the creatures "of pleasure," as they have been + dubbed by the heartrending irony of life. Lautrec has shown the + artificiality of the painted faces; the vulgarity of the types of the + prostitutes of low origin; the infamous gestures, the disorder, the + slovenliness of the dwellings of these women; all the shady side of + their existence. It has been said that he loved ugliness. As a matter of + fact, he did not exaggerate, he raised a powerful accusation against + everything he saw. But his terrible clairvoyance passed for caricature. + This sad psychologist was a great painter; he pleased himself with + dressing in rose-coloured costumes the coarsest and most vulgar + creatures he painted, such as one can find at the cabarets and concerts, + and he enjoyed the contrast of fresh tones with the faces marked by vice + and poverty; Lautrec's two great influences have been the Japanese and + Degas. Of the former he retained the love for decorative arabesques and + the unconventional grouping; of the other the learned draughtsmanship, + expressive in its broad simplification, and one might say that the pupil + has often been worthy of the masters. One can only regret that Lautrec + should have confined his vision and his high faculties to the study of a + small and very Parisian world; but, seeing his works, one cannot deny + the science, the spirit and the grand bearing of his art. He has also + signed some fine posters, notably a <i>Bruant</i> which is a masterpiece of + its kind. +</p> +<p> + Degas's deep influence can be found again in J.L. Forain, who has made + himself known by an immense series of drawings for the illustrated + papers, drawings as remarkable in themselves as they are, through their + legends, bitterly sarcastic in spirit. These drawings form a synthesis + of the defects of the <i>bourgeoisie</i>, which is at the same time amusing + and grave. They also concern, though less happily, the political world, + in which the artist, a little intoxicated with his success, has thought + himself able to exercise an influence by scoffing at the parliamentary + régime. Forain's drawing has a nervous character which does, however, + not weaken its science: every stroke reveals something and has an + astonishing power. In his less known painting can be traced still more + clearly the style and influence of his master Degas. They are generally + incidents behind the scenes and at night restaurants, where caricatured + types are painted with great force. But they are insistently + exaggerated, they have not the restraint, the ironical and discreet + plausibility, which give so much flavour, so much value to Degas's + studies. Nevertheless, Forain's pictures are very significant and are of + real interest. He is decidedly the most interesting newspaper + illustrator of his whole generation, the one whose ephemeral art most + closely approaches grand painting, and one of those who have most + contributed towards the transformation of illustration for the + contemporary press. +</p> +<p> + Jules Chéret has made for himself an important and splendid position in + contemporary art. He commenced as a lithographic workman and lived for a + long time in London. About 1870 Chéret designed his first posters in + black, white and red; these were at the time the only colours used. By + and by he perfected this art and found the means of adding other tones + and of drawing them on the lithographic stone. He returned to France, + started a small studio, and gradually carried poster art to the + admirable point at which it has arrived. At the same time Chéret drew + and painted and composed himself his models. About 1885 his name became + famous, and it has not ceased growing since. Some writers, notably the + eminent critic Roger Marx and the novelist Huysmans, hailed in Chéret an + original artist as well as a learned technician. He then exhibited + decorative pictures, pastels and drawings, which placed him in the first + rank. Chéret is universally known. The type of the Parisian woman + created by him, and the multi-coloured harmony of his works will not be + forgotten. His will be the honour of having invented the artistic + poster, this feast for the eyes, this fascinating art of the street, + which formerly languished in a tedious and dull display of commercial + advertisements. He has been the promoter of an immense movement; he has + been imitated, copied, parodied, but he will always remain inimitable. + He has succeeded in realising on paper by means of lithography, the + pastels and gouache drawings in which his admirable colourist's fancy + mixed the most difficult shades. In Chéret can be found all the + principles of Impressionism: opposing lights, coloured shadows, + complementary reflections, all employed with masterly sureness and + delightful charm. It is decorative Impressionism, conceived in a + superior way; and this simple poster-man, despised by the painters, has + proved himself equal to most. He has transformed the street, in the open + light, into a veritable Salon, where his works have become famous. When + this too modest artist decided to show his pictures and drawings, they + were a revelation. The most remarkable pastellists of the period were + astonished and admired his skill, his profound knowledge of technique, + his continual <i>tours-de-force</i> which he disguised under a shimmering + gracefulness. The State had the good sense to entrust him with some + large mural decorations, in which he unfolded the scale of his sparkling + colours, and affirmed his spirit, his fancy and his dreamy art. Chéret's + harmonies remain secrets; he uses them for the representation of + characters from the Italian comedy, thrown with fiendish <i>verve</i> upon a + background of a sky, fiery with the Bengal lights of a fairy-like + carnival, and he strangely intermingles the reality of the movements + with the most arbitrary fancy. Chéret has also succeeded in proving his + artistic descent by a beautiful series of drawings in sanguine: he + descends from Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard; he is a Frenchman of pure + blood; and when one has done admiring the grace and the happy animation + of his imagination, one can only be surprised to see on what serious and + sure a technique are based these decorations which appear improvised. + Chéret's art is the smile of Impressionism and the best demonstration + of the decorative logic of this art. +</p> +<p> + These are the four artists of great merit who have created the + transition between Impressionist painting and illustration. It would be + fit to put aside Toulouse-Lautrec, who was much younger, but his work is + too directly connected with that of Degas for one to take into account + the difference of age. He produced between 1887 and 1900 works which + might well have been ante-dated by fifteen years. We shall study in the + next chapter his Neo-Impressionist comrades, and we shall now speak of + some illustrators more advanced in years than he. The oldest in date is + the engraver Henri Guérard, who died three years ago. He had married Eva + Gonzalès and was a friend of Manet's, many of whose works have been + engraved by him. He was an artist of decided and original talent, who + also occupied himself successfully with pyrogravure, and who was happily + inspired by the Japanese colour-prints. His etchings deserve a place of + honour in the folios of expert collectors; they are strong and broad. As + to the engraver Félix Buhot, he was a rather delicate colourist in + black and white; his Paris scenes will always be considered charming + works. In spite of his Spanish origin, the painter, <i>aquarelliste</i>, and + draughtsman Daniel Vierge, should be added to the list of the men + connected with Impressionism. His illustrations are those of a great + artist—admirable in colour, movement and observation; all the great + principles of Impressionism are embodied in them. But there are four + more illustrators of the first rank: Steinlen, Louis Legrand, Paul + Renouard and Auguste Lepère. +</p> +<p> + Steinlen has been enormously productive: he is specially remarkable for + his illustrations. Those which he has designed for Aristide Bruant's + volume of songs, <i>Dans la rue</i>, are masterpieces of their kind. They + contain treasures of bitter observation, quaintness and knowledge. The + soul of the lower classes is shown in them with intense truth, bitter + revolt and comprehensive philosophy. Steinlen has also designed some + beautiful posters, pleasing pastels, lithographs of incontestable + technical merit, and beautifully eloquent political drawings. It cannot + be said that he is an Impressionist in the strict sense of the word; he + applied his colour in flat tints, more like an engraver than a painter; + but in him too can be felt the stamp of Degas, and he is one of those + who best demonstrate that, without Impressionism, they could not have + been what they are. +</p> +<p> + The same may be said of Louis Legrand, a pupil of Félicien Rops, an + admirably skilful etcher, a draughtsman of keen vision, and a painter of + curious character, who has in many ways forestalled the artists of + to-day. Louis Legrand also shows to what extent the example of Manet and + Degas has revolutionised the art of illustration, in freeing the + painters from obsolete laws, and guiding them towards truth and frank + psychological study. Legrand is full of them, without resembling them. + We must not forget that, besides the technical innovation (division of + tones, study of complementary colours), Impressionism has brought us + novelty of composition, realism of character and great liberty in the + choice of subjects. From this point of view Rops himself, in spite of + his symbolist tendencies, could not be classed with any other group, if + it were not that any kind of classification in art is useless and + inaccurate. However that may be, Louis Legrand has signed some volumes + resplendent with the most seductive qualities. +</p> +<p> + Paul Renouard has devoted himself to newspaper illustration, but with + what surprising prodigality of spirit and knowledge! The readers of the + "Graphic" will know. This masterly virtuoso of the pencil might give + drawing-lessons to many members of the Institute! The feeling for the + life of crowds, psychology of types, spirited and rapid notation, + astonishing ease in overcoming difficulties—these are his undeniable + gifts. And again we must recognise in Renouard the example of Degas and + Manet. His exceptional fecundity only helps to give more authority to + his pencil. Renouard's drawings at the Exhibition of 1900 were, perhaps, + more beautiful than the rest of his work. There was notably a series of + studies made from the first platform of the Eiffel Tower, an + accumulation of wonders of perspectives framing scenes of such animation + and caprice as to take away one's breath. +</p> +<p> + Finally, Auguste Lepère appears as the Debucourt of our time. As + painter, pastellist and wood-engraver he has produced since 1870, and + has won for himself the first place among French engravers. It would be + difficult to recount the volumes, albums and covers on which the fancy + of his burin has played; but it is particularly in wood-engraving that + he stands without rival. Not only has he produced masterpieces of it, + but he has passionately devoted himself to raising this admirable art, + the glory of the beautiful books of olden days, and to give back to it + the lustre which had been eclipsed by mechanical processes. Lepère has + started some publications for this purpose; he has had pupils of great + merit, and he must be considered the master of the whole generation of + modern wood-engravers, just as Chéret is the undisputed master of the + poster. Lepère's ruling quality is strength. He seems to have + rediscovered the mediaeval limners' secrets of cutting the wood, giving + the necessary richness to the ink, creating a whole scale of half-tones, + and specially of adapting the design to typographic printing, and making + of it, so to say, an ornament and a decorative extension for the type. + Lepère is a wood-engraver with whom none of his contemporaries can be + compared; as regards his imagination, it is that of an altogether + curious artist. He excels in composing and expressing the life, the + animation, the soul of the streets and the picturesque side of the + populace. Herein he is much inspired by Manet and, if we go back to the + real tradition, by Guys, Debucourt, the younger Moreau and by Gabriel de + Saint-Aubin. He is decidedly a Realist of French lineage, who owes + nothing to the Academy and its formulas. +</p> +<p> + It would be evidently unreasonable to attach to Impressionism all that + is ante-academical, and between the two extremes there is room for a + crowd of interesting artists. We shall not succumb to the prejudice of + the School by declaring, in our turn, that there is no salvation outside + Impressionism, and we have been careful to state repeatedly that, if + Impressionism has a certain number of principles as kernel, its + applications and its influence have a radiation which it is difficult to + limit. What can be absolutely demonstrated is, that this movement has + had the greatest influence on modern illustration, sometimes through its + colouring, sometimes simply through the great freedom of its ideas. Some + have found in it a direct lesson, others an example to be followed. + Some have met in it technical methods which pleased them, others have + only taken some suggestions from it. That is the case, for instance, + with Legrand, with Steinlen, and with Renouard; and it is also the case + with the lithographer Odilon Redon, who applies the values of Manet and, + in his strange pastels, the harmonies of Degas and Renoir, placing them + at the service of dreams and hallucinations and of a symbolism which is + absolutely removed from the realism of these painters. It is, finally, + the case with the water-colour painter Henri Rivière, who is misjudged + as to his merit, and who is one of the most perfect of those who have + applied Impressionist ideas to decorative engraving. He has realised + images in colours destined to decorate inexpensively the rooms of the + people and recalling the grand aspects of landscapes with a broad + simplification which is derived, curiously enough, from Puvis de + Chavannes's large decorative landscapes and from the small and precise + colour prints of Japan. Rivière, who is a skilful and personal poetic + landscapist, is not exactly an Impressionist, in so far as he does not + divide the tones, but rather blends them in subtle mixtures in the + manner of the Japanese. Yet, seeing his work, one cannot help thinking + of all the surprise and freedom introduced into modern art by + Impressionism. +</p> +<p> + Everybody, even the ignorant, can perceive, on looking through an + illustrated paper or a modern volume, that thirty years ago this manner + of placing the figures, of noting familiar gestures, and of seizing + fugitive life with spirit and clearness was unknown. This mass of + engravings and of sketches resembles in no way what had been seen + formerly. They no longer have the solemn air of classic composition, by + which the drawings had been affected. A current of bold spontaneity has + passed through here. In modern English illustration, it can be stated + indisputably that nothing would be such as it can now be seen, if + Morris, Rossetti and Crane had not imposed their vision, and yet many + talented Englishmen resemble these initiators only very remotely. It is + exactly in this sense that we shall have credited Impressionism with the + talents who have drawn their inspiration less from its principles, than + from its vigorous protest against mechanical formulas, and who have + been able to find the energy, necessary for their success, in the + example it set by fighting during twenty years against the ideas of + routine which seemed indestructible. Even with the painters who are far + removed from the vision and the colouring of Manet and Degas, of Monet + and Renoir, one can find a very precise tendency: that of returning to + the subjects and the style of the real national tradition; and herein + lies one of the most serious benefits bestowed by Impressionism upon an + art which had stopped at the notion of a canonical beauty, until it had + almost become sterile in its timidity. +</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="2H_4_0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + + +<h2> + IX +</h2> +<h3> + NEO-IMPRESSIONISM—GAUGUIN, DENIS, THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE—THE THEORY OF + POINTILLISM—SEURAT, SIGNAC AND THE THEORIES OF SCIENTIFIC + CHROMATISM—FAULTS AND QUALITIES OF THE IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT, WHAT WE + OWE TO IT, ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH SCHOOL—SOME WORDS ON + ITS INFLUENCE ABROAD +</h3> +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0em"> + </p> +<p> + The beginnings of the movement designated under the name of + Neo-Impressionism can be traced back to about 1880. The movement is a + direct offshoot of the first Impressionism, originated by a group of + young painters who admired it and thought of pushing further still its + chromatic principles. The flourishing of Impressionism coincided, as a + matter of fact, with certain scientific labours concerning optics. + Helmholtz had just published his works on the perception of colours and + sounds by means of waves. Chevreul had continued on this path by + establishing his beautiful theories on the analysis of the solar + spectrum. M. Charles Henry, an original and remarkable spirit, occupied + himself in his turn with these delicate problems by applying them + directly to aesthetics, which Helmholtz and Chevreul had not thought of + doing. M. Charles Henry had the idea of creating relations between this + branch of science and the laws of painting. As a friend of several young + painters he had a real influence over them, showing them that the new + vision due to the instinct of Monet and of Manet might perhaps be + scientifically verified, and might establish fixed principles in a + sphere where hitherto the laws of colouring had been the effects of + individual conception. At that moment the criticism which resulted from + Taine's theories tried to effect a <i>rapprochement</i> of the artistic and + scientific domains in criticism and in the psychologic novel. The + painters, too, gave way to this longing for precision which seems to + have been the great preoccupation of intellects from 1880 to about 1889. +</p> +<p> + Their researches had a special bearing on the theory of complementary + colours and on the means of establishing some laws concerning the + reaction of tones in such manner as to draw up a kind of tabula. Georges + Seurat and Paul Signac were the promoters of this research. Seurat died + very young, and one cannot but regret this death of an artist who would + have been very interesting and capable of beautiful works. Those which + he has left us bear witness to a spirit very receptive to theories, and + leaving nothing to chance. The silhouettes are reduced to almost + rigorously geometrical principles, the tones are decomposed + systematically. These canvases are more reasoned examples than works of + intuition and spontaneous vision. They show Seurat's curious desire to + give a scientific and classic basis to Impressionism. The same idea + rules in all the work of Paul Signac, who has painted some portraits and + numerous landscapes. To these two painters is due the method of + <i>Pointillism</i>, <i>i.e.</i> the division of tones, not only by touches, as in + Monet's pictures, but by very small touches of equal size, causing the + spheric shape to act equally upon the retina. The accumulation of these + luminous points is carried out over the entire surface of the canvas + without thick daubs of paint, and with regularity, whilst with Manet the + paint is more or less dense. The theory of complementary colours is + systematically applied. On a sketch, made from nature, the painter notes + the principal relations of tones, then systematises them on his picture + and connects them by different shades which should be their logical + result. Neo-Impressionism believes in obtaining thus a greater exactness + than that which results from the individual temperament of the painter + who simply relies on his own perception. And it is true, in theory, that + such a conception is more exact. But it reduces the picture to a kind of + theorem, which excludes all that constitutes the value and charm of an + art, that is to say: caprice, fancy, and the spontaneity of personal + inspiration. The works of Seurat, Signac, and of the few men who have + strictly followed the rules of Pointillism are lacking in life, in + surprise, and make a somewhat tiring impression upon one's eyes. The + uniformity of the points does not succeed in giving an impression of + cohesion, and even less a suggestion of different textures, even if the + values are correct. Manet seems to have attained perfection in using the + method which consists in directing the touches in accordance with each + of the planes, and this is evidently the most natural method. Scientific + Chromatism constitutes an <i>ensemble</i> of propositions, of which art will + be able to make use, though indirectly, as information useful for a + better understanding of the laws of light in presence of nature. What + Pointillism has been able to give us, is a method which would be very + appreciable for decorative paintings seen from a great distance—friezes + or ceilings in spacious buildings. It would in this case return to the + principle of mosaic, which is the principle <i>par excellence</i> of mural + art. +</p> +<p> + The Pointillists have to-day almost abandoned this transitional theory + which, in spite of the undeniable talent of its adepts, has only + produced indifferent results as regards easel pictures. Besides Seurat + and Signac, mention should be made of Maurice Denis, Henri-Edmond Cross, + Angrand, and Théo Van Rysselberghe. But this last-named and Maurice + Denis have arrived at great talent by very different merits. M. Maurice + Denis has abandoned Pointillism a few years ago, in favour of returning + to a very strange conception which dates back to the Primitives, and + even to Giotto. He simplifies his drawing archaically, suppresses all + but the indispensable detail, and draws inspiration from Gothic stained + glass and carvings, in order to create decorative figures with clearly + marked outlines which are filled with broad, flat tints. He generally + treats mystic subjects, for which this special manner is suitable. One + cannot love the <i>parti pris</i> of these works, but one cannot deny M. + Denis a great charm of naivete, an intense feeling for decorative + arrangements and colouring of a certain originality. He is almost a + French pre-Raphaelite, and his profound catholic faith inspires him + nobly. +</p> +<a name="image-0050"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/50vanrysselberghe.jpg" width="300" height="220" +alt="ThÉo Van Rysselberghe - Mme. Van Rysselberghe & Daughter"> +</center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<center> + <b>THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE</b><br><br>PORTRAITS OF MADAME VAN RYSSELBERGHE + AND HER DAUGHTER +</center> +<p> + M. Théo Van Rysselberghe continues to employ the Pointillist method. But + he is so strongly gifted, that one might almost say he succeeds in + revealing himself as a painter of great merit in spite of this dry and + charmless method. All his works are supported by broad and learned + drawing and his colour is naturally brilliant. M. Van Rysselberghe, a + prolific and varied worker, has painted nudes, large portraits, + landscapes with figures, seascapes, interiors and still-life, and in all + this he evinces faculties of the first order. He is a lover of light and + understands how to make it vibrate over flesh and fabrics. He is an + artist who has the sense of style. He has signed a certain number of + portraits, whose beautiful carriage and serious psychology would suffice + to make him be considered as the most significant of the + Neo-Impressionists. It is really in him that one has to see the young + and worthy heir of Monet, of Sisley, and of Degas, and that is why we + have insisted on adding here to the works of these masters the + reproduction of one of his. M. Van Rysselberghe is also a very delicate + etcher who has signed some fine works in this method, and his seascapes, + whether they revel in the pale greys of the German Ocean or in the warm + sapphire and gold harmonies of the Mediterranean, count among the finest + of the time; they are windows opened upon joyous brightness. +</p> +<p> + To these painters who have never taken part at the Salons, and are only + to be seen at the exhibitions of the <i>Indépendants</i> (except M. Denis), + must be added M. Pierre Bonnard, who has given proof to his charm and + fervour in numerous small canvases of Japanese taste; and M. Edouard + Vuillard, who is a painter of intimate scenes of rare delicacy. This + artist, who stands apart and produces very little, has signed some + interiors of melancholic distinction and of a colouring which revels in + low tones. He has the precision and skill of a master. There is in him, + one might say, a reflection of Chardin's soul. Unfortunately his works + are confined to a few collections and have not become known to the + public. To the same group belong M. Ranson, who has devoted himself to + purely decorative art, tapestry, wall papers and embroideries; M. + Georges de Feure, a strange, symbolist water-colour painter, who has + become one of the best designers of the New Art in France; M. Félix + Vallotton, painter and lithographer, who is somewhat heavy, but gifted + with serious qualities. It is true that M. de Feure is Dutch, M. + Vallotton Swiss, and M. Van Rysselberghe Belgian; but they have settled + down in France, and are sufficiently closely allied to the + Neo-Impressionist movement so that the question of nationality need not + prevent us from mentioning them here. Finally it is impossible not to + say a few words about two pupils of Gustave Moreau's, who have both + become noteworthy followers of Impressionism of very personal + individuality. M. Eugène Martel bids fair to be one of the best painters + of interiors of his generation. He has the feeling of mystical life and + paints the peasantry with astonishing psychologic power. His vigorous + colouring links him to Monticelli, and his drawing to Degas. As to M. + Simon Bussy who, following Alphonse Legros's example, is about to make + an enviable position for himself in England, he is an artist of pure + blood. His landscapes and his figures have the distinction and rare tone + of M. Whistler, besides the characteristic acuteness of Degas. His + harmonies are subtle, his vision novel, and he will certainly develop + into an important painter. Together with Henri le Sidaner and Jacques + Blanche, Simon Bussy is decidedly the most personal of that young + generation of "Intimists" who seem to have retained the best principles + of the Impressionist masters to employ them for the expression of a + psychologic ideal which is very different from Realism. +</p> +<p> + Outside this group there are still a few isolated painters who are + difficult to classify. The very young artists Laprade and Charles Guérin + have shown for the last three years, at the exhibition of the + <i>Indépendants</i>, some works which are the worthy result of Manet's and + Renoir's influence. They, too, justify great expectations. The + landscapists Paul Vogler and Maxime Maufra, more advanced in years, have + made themselves known by some solid series of vigorously presented + landscapes. To them must be added M. Henry Moret, M. Albert André and M. + Georges d'Espagnet, who equally deserve the success which has commenced + to be their share. But there are some older ones. It is only his due, + that place should be given to a painter who committed suicide after an + unhappy life, and who evinced splendid gifts. Vincent Van Gogh, a + Dutchman, who, however, had always worked in France, has left to the + world some violent and strange works, in which Impressionism appears to + have reached the limits of its audacity. Their value lies in their naïve + frankness and in the undauntable determination which tried to fix + without trickery the sincerest feelings. Amidst many faulty and clumsy + works, Van Gogh has also left some really beautiful canvases. There is a + deep affinity between him and Cézanne. A very real affinity exists, too, + between Paul Gauguin, who was a friend and to a certain extent the + master of Van Gogh, and Cézanne and Renoir. Paul Gauguin's robust talent + found its first motives in Breton landscapes, in which the method of + colour-spots can be found employed with delicacy and placed at the + service of a rather heavy, but very interesting harmony. Then the artist + spent a long time in Tahiti, whence he returned with a completely + transformed manner. He has brought back from these regions some + landscapes with figures treated in intentionally clumsy and almost wild + fashion. The figures are outlined in firm strokes and painted in broad, + flat tints on canvas which has the texture almost of tapestry. Many of + these works are made repulsive by their aspect of multi-coloured, crude + and barbarous imagery. Yet one cannot but acknowledge the fundamental + qualities, the beautiful values, the ornamental taste, and the + impression of primitive animalism. On the whole, Paul Gauguin has a + beautiful, artistic temperament which, in its aversion to virtuosoship, + has perhaps not sufficiently understood that the fear of formulas, if + exaggerated, may lead to other formulas, to a false ignorance which is + as dangerous as false knowledge. Gauguin's symbolical intentions, like + those of his pupil Emile Bernard, are sincere, but are badly served by + minds which do not agree with their technical qualities, and both + Gauguin and Emile Bernard are most happily inspired when they are + painters pure and simple. +</p> +<p> + Next to Gauguin, among the seniors of the present generation and the + successors of Impressionism, should be placed the landscapist Armand + Guillaumin who, without possessing Sisley's delicate qualities, has + painted some canvases worthy of notice; and we must, finally, terminate + this far too summary enumeration by referring to one of the most gifted + painters of the French School of the day, M. Louis Anquetin. His is a + most varied talent whose power is unquestionable. He made his <i>début</i> + among the Neo-Impressionists and revealed the influence upon him of the + Japanese and of Degas. It may be seen that these two influences + predominate in the whole group. Then M. Anquetin became fascinated by + the breadth and superb freedom of Manet's works, and signed a series of + portraits and sketches, some of which are not far below so great a + master's. They are works which will surprise the critics, when our + contemporary painting will be examined with calm impartiality. After + these works, M. Anquetin gave way to his impetuous nature which led him + to decorative painting, and he became influenced by Rubens, Jordaens, + and the Fontainebleau School. He painted theatre curtains and + mythological scenes, in which he gave free rein to his sensual + imagination. In spite of some admirable qualities, it seems as though + the artist had strayed from his true path in painting these brilliant, + but somewhat declamatory works, and he has since returned to a more + modern and more direct painting. In all his changed conditions Anquetin + has shown a considerable talent, pleasing in its fine vigour, + impetuosity, brilliancy and sincerity. His inequality is perhaps the + cause of his relative want of success; it has put the public off, but + nevertheless in certain of this brave and serious painter's canvases can + be seen the happy influence of Manet. +</p> +<p> + It seems to us only right to sum up our impartial opinion of + Neo-Impressionism by saying that it has lacked cohesion, that + Pointillism in particular has led painting into an aimless path. It has + been wrong to see in Impressionism too exclusive a pretext for technical + researches, and a happy reaction has set in, which leads us back to-day, + after diverse tentative efforts (amongst others some unfortunate + attempts at symbolist painting), to the fine, recent school of the + "Intimists" and to the novel conception which a great and glorious + painter, Besnard, imposes upon the Salons, where the elect draw + inspiration from him. We can here only indicate with a few words the + considerable part played by Besnard: his clever work has proved that the + scientific colour principles of Impressionism may be applied, not to + realism, but to the highest thoughts, to ideologic painting most nobly + inspired by the modern intellectual preoccupations. He is the + transition between Impressionism and the art of to-morrow. Of pure + French lineage by his portraits and his nudes, which descend directly + from Largillière and Ingres, he might have restricted himself to being + placed among the most learned Impressionists. His studies of reflections + and of complementary colours speak for this. But he has passed this + phase and has, with his decorations, returned to the psychical domain of + his strangely beautiful art. The "Intimists," C. Cottet, Simon, Blanche, + Ménard, Bussy, Lobre, Le Sidaner, Wéry, Prinet, and Ernest Laurent, have + proved that they have profited by Impressionism, but have proceeded in + quite a different direction in trying to translate their real + perceptions. Some isolated artists, like the decorative painter Henri + Martin, who has enormous talent, have applied the Impressionist + technique to the expression of grand allegories, rather in the manner of + Puvis de Chavannes. The effort at getting away from mere cleverness and + escaping a too exclusive preoccupation with technique, and at the same + time acquiring serious knowledge, betrays itself in the whole position + of the young French School; and this will furnish us with a perfectly + natural conclusion, of which the following are the principal points:— +</p> +<p> + What we shall have to thank Impressionism for, will be moral and + material advantages of considerable importance. Morally it has rendered + an immense service to all art, because it has boldly attacked routine + and proved by the whole of its work that a combination of independent + producers could renew the aesthetic code of a country, without owing + anything to official encouragement. It has succeeded where important but + isolated creators have succumbed, because it has had the good fortune of + uniting a group of gifted men, four of whom will count among the + greatest French artists since the origin of national art. It has had the + qualities which overcome the hardest resistance: fecundity, courage and + sure originality. It has known how to find its strength by referring to + the true traditions of the national genius, which have happily + enlightened it and saved it from fundamental errors. It has, last, but + not least, inflicted an irremediable blow on academic convention and has + wrested from it the prestige of teaching which ruled tyrannically for + centuries past over the young artists. It has laid a violent hand upon a + tenacious and dangerous prejudice, upon a series of conventional notions + which were transmitted without consideration for the evolution of modern + life and intelligence. It has dared freely to protest against a + degenerated ideal which vainly parodied the old masters, pretending to + honour them. It has removed from the artistic soul of France a whole + order of pseudo-classic elements which worked against its blossoming, + and the School will never recover from this bold contradiction which has + rallied to it all the youthful. The moral principle of Impressionism has + been absolutely logical and sane, and that is why nothing has been able + to prevent its triumph. +</p> +<p> + Technically Impressionism has brought a complete renewal of pictorial + vision, substituting the beauty of character for the beauty of + proportions and finding adequate expression for the ideas and feelings + of its time, which constitutes the secret of all beautiful works. It has + taken up again a tradition and added to it a contemporary page. It will + have to be thanked for an important series of observations as regards + the analysis of light, and for an absolutely original conception of + drawing. Some years have been wasted by painters of little worth in + imitating it, and the Salons, formerly encumbered with academic + <i>pastiches</i>, have been encumbered with Impressionist <i>pastiches</i>. It + would be unfair to blame the Impressionists for it. They have shown by + their very career that they hated teaching and would never pretend to + teach. Impressionism is based upon irrefutable optic laws, but it is + neither a style, nor a method, likely ever to become a formula in its + turn. One may call upon this art for examples, but not for receipts. On + the contrary, its best teaching has been to encourage artists to become + absolutely independent and to search ardently for their own + individuality. It marks the decline of the School, and will not create a + new one which would soon become as fastidious as the other. It will only + appear, to those who will thoroughly understand it, as a precious + repertory of notes, and the young generation honours it intelligently by + not imitating it with servility. +</p> +<p> + Not that it is without its faults! It has been said, to belittle it, + that it only had the value of an interesting attempt, having only been + able to indicate some excellent intentions, without creating anything + perfect. This is inexact. It is absolutely evident, that Manet, Monet, + Renoir and Degas have signed some masterpieces which did not lose by + comparison with those in the Louvre, and the same might even be said of + their less illustrious friends. But it is also evident that the time + spent on research as well as on agitation and enervating controversies + pursued during twenty-five years, has been taken from men who could + otherwise have done better still. There has been a disparity between + Realism and the technique of Impressionism. Its realistic origin has + sometimes made it vulgar. It has often treated indifferent subjects in a + grand style, and it has too easily beheld life from the anecdotal side. + It has lacked psychologic synthesis (if we except Degas). It has too + willingly denied all that exists hidden under the apparent reality of + the universe and has affected to separate painting from the ideologic + faculties which rule over all art. Hatred of academic allegory, + defiance of symbolism, abstraction and romantic scenes, has led it to + refuse to occupy itself with a whole order of ideas, and it has had the + tendency of making the painter beyond all a workman. It was necessary at + the moment of its arrival, but it is no longer necessary now, and the + painters understand this themselves. Finally it has too often been + superficial even in obtaining effects; it has given way to the wish to + surprise the eyes, of playing with tones merely for love of cleverness. + It often causes one regret to see symphonies of magnificent colour + wasted here in pictures of boating men; and there, in pictures of café + corners; and we have arrived at a degree of complex intellectuality + which is no longer satisfied with these rudimentary themes. It has + indulged in useless exaggerations, faults of composition and of harmony, + and all this cannot be denied. +</p> +<p> + But it still remains fascinating and splendid for its gifts which will + always rouse enthusiasm: freedom, impetuousness, youth, brilliancy, + fervour, the joy of painting and the passion for beautiful light. It is, + on the whole, the greatest pictorial movement that France has beheld + since Delacroix, and it brings to a finish gloriously the nineteenth + century, inaugurating the present. It has accomplished the great deed of + having brought us again into the presence of our true national lineage, + far more so than Romanticism, which was mixed with foreign elements. We + have here painting of a kind which could only have been conceived in + France, and we have to go right back to Watteau in order to receive + again the same impression. Impressionism has brought us an almost + unhoped-for renaissance, and this constitutes its most undeniable claim + upon the gratitude of the race. +</p> +<p> + It has exercised a very appreciable influence upon foreign painting. + Among the principal painters attracted by its ideas and research, we + must mention, in Germany, Max Liebermann and Kuehl; in Norway, Thaulow; + in Denmark, Kroyer; in Belgium, Théo Van Rysselberghe, Emile Claus, + Verheyden, Heymans, Verstraete, and Baertson; in Italy, Boldini, + Segantini, and Michetti; in Spain, Zuloaga, Sorolla y Bastida, Dario de + Regoyos and Rusiñol; in America, Alexander, Harrison, Sargent; and in + England, the painters of the Glasgow School, Lavery, Guthrie and the + late John Lewis Brown. All these men come within the active extension of + the French movement, and one may say that the honour of having first + recognised the truly national movement of this art must be given to + those foreign countries which have enriched their collections and + museums with works that were despised in the land which had witnessed + their birth. At the present moment the effects of this new vision are + felt all over the world, down to the very bosom of the academies; and at + the Salons, from which the Impressionists are still excluded, can be + witnessed an invasion of pictures inspired by them, which the most + retrograde juries dare not reject. In whatever measure the recent + painters accept Impressionism, they remain preoccupied with it, and even + those who love it not are forced to take it into account. +</p> +<p> + The Impressionist movement can therefore now be considered, apart from + all controversies, without vain attacks or exaggerated praise, as an + artistic manifestation which has entered the domain of history, and it + can be studied with the impartial application of the methods of + critical analysis which is usually employed in the study of the former + art movements. We shall not pretend to have given in these pages a + complete and faultless history; but we shall consider ourselves well + rewarded for this work, which is intended to reach the great public, if + we have roused their curiosity and sympathy with a group of artists whom + we consider admirable; and if we have rectified, in the eyes of the + readers of a foreign nation, the errors, the slanders, the undeserved + reproaches, with which Frenchmen have been pleased to overwhelm sincere + creators who thought with faith and love of the pure tradition of the + national genius, and who have for that reason been vilified as much as + if they had in an access of anarchical folly risen against the very + common sense, taste, reason and clearness, which will remain the eternal + merits of their soil. This small, imperfect volume will perhaps find its + best excuse in its intention of repairing an old injustice and of + affirming a useful and permanent truth: that of the authenticity of the + classicism of Impressionism, in the face of the false classicism of the + academic world which official honours have made the guardian of a French + heritage, whose soul it denied and whose spirit it deceived with its + narrow and cold formulas. +</p> + + + <h3> + + +<br><br><b>FOOTNOTES</b><br> </h3> +<a name="note-1"><!--Note--></a> + +<p class="foot"> +<u>1</u> Who will deliver us from the Greeks and the Romans.</p> +<br> +<a name="note-2"><!--Note--></a> +<p class="foot"> +<u>2</u> <i>Procédé de la tache.</i> +</p> + +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS (1860-1900)***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 14056-h.txt or 14056-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/5/14056">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/0/5/14056</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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G. Konady + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The French Impressionists (1860-1900) + +Author: Camille Mauclair + +Release Date: November 15, 2004 [eBook #14056] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS +(1860-1900)*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the lovely original illustrations. + See 14056-h.htm or 14056-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/5/14056/14056-h/14056-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/5/14056/14056-h.zip) + + + + + +THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS (1860-1900) + +by + +CAMILLE MAUCLAIR + +Author of _L'art en Silence_, _Les Meres Sociales_, etc. + +Translated from the French text of Camille Mauclair, by P. G. Konody + +London: Duckworth & Co. +New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. +Turnbull and Spears, Printers, Edinburgh + +1903 + + + + + + + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +AT THE PIANO] + + + + +To + +AUGUSTE BREAL + +TO THE ARTIST AND TO THE FRIEND + +AS A MARK OF GRATEFUL AFFECTION + +C.M. + + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + +It should be stated here that, with the exception of one reproduction +after the Neo-Impressionist Van Rysselberghe, the other forty-nine +engravings illustrating this volume I owe to the courtesy of M. +Durand-Ruel, from the first the friend of the Impressionist painters, +and later the most important collector of their works, a friend who has +been good enough to place at our disposal the photographs from which our +illustrations have been reproduced. Chosen from a considerable +collection which has been formed for thirty years past, these +photographs, none of which are for sale, form a veritable and unique +museum of documents on Impressionist art, which is made even more +valuable through the dispersal of the principal masterpieces of this art +among the private collections of Europe and America. We render our +thanks to M. Durand-Ruel no less in the name of the public interested in +art, than in our own. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + I. THE PRECURSORS OF IMPRESSIONISM--THE + BEGINNING OF THIS MOVEMENT, THE + ORIGIN OF ITS NAME + + II. THE THEORY OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS--THE + DIVISION OF TONES, COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS, + THE STUDY OF ATMOSPHERE--THE IDEAS OF THE + IMPRESSIONISTS ON SUBJECT-PICTURES, ON + THE BEAUTY OF CHARACTER, ON MODERNITY, + AND ON STYLE + +III. EDOUARD MANET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + IV. EDGAR DEGAS: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + V. CLAUDE MONET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + VI. AUGUSTE RENOIR: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + VII. PISSARRO, SISLEY, CAILLEBOTTE, + CEZANNE, BERTHE MORISOT, MARY CASSATT; + THE SECONDARY ARTISTS OF + IMPRESSIONISM--JONGKIND, BOUDIN + +VIII. THE MODERN ILLUSTRATORS CONNECTED WITH + IMPRESSIONISM: RAFFAELLI, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, + FORAIN, CHERET, ETC. + + IX. NEO-IMPRESSIONISM: GAUGUIN, DENIS, + THEO VAN RYSSELBERGHE--THE THEORY OF + POINTILLISM--SEURAT, SIGNAC AND THE + THEORIES OF SCIENTIFIC CHROMATISM--FAULTS + AND QUALITIES OF THE + IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT, WHAT WE OWE + TO IT, ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE + FRENCH SCHOOL--SOME WORDS ON ITS + INFLUENCE ABROAD + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + +RENOIR. At the Piano (Frontispiece) + +MANET. Rest + +MANET. In the Square + +MANET. Young Man in Costume of Majo + +MANET. The Reader + +DEGAS. The Dancer at the Photographer's + +DEGAS. Carriages at the Races + +DEGAS. The Greek Dance--Pastel + +DEGAS. Waiting + +CLAUDE MONET. The Pines + +CLAUDE MONET. Church at Vernon + +RENOIR. Portrait of Madame Maitre + +MANET. The Dead Toreador + +MANET. Olympia + +MANET. The Woman with the Parrot + +MANET. The Bar at the Folies Bergere + +MANET. Dejeuner + +MANET. Portrait of Madame M. L. + +MANET. The Hothouse + +DEGAS. The Beggar Woman + +DEGAS. The Lesson in the Foyer + +DEGAS. The Dancing Lesson--Pastel + +DEGAS. The Dancers + +DEGAS. Horses in the Meadows + +CLAUDE MONET. An Interior after Dinner + +CLAUDE MONET. The Harbour, Honfleur + +CLAUDE MONET. The Church at Varengeville + +CLAUDE MONET. Poplars on the Epte in Autumn + +CLAUDE MONET. The Bridge at Argenteuil + +RENOIR. Dejeuner + +RENOIR. In the Box + +RENOIR. Young Girl Promenading + +RENOIR. Woman's Bust + +RENOIR. Young Woman in Empire Costume + +RENOIR. On the Terrace + +PISSARRO. Rue de l'Epicerie, Rouen + +PISSARRO. Boulevard Montmartre + +PISSARRO. The Boildieaux Bridge at Rouen + +PISSARRO. The Avenue de l'Opera + +SISLEY. Snow Effect + +SISLEY. Bougival, at the Water's Edge + +SISLEY. Bridge at Moret + +CEZANNE. Dessert + +BERTHE MORISOT. Melancholy + +BERTHE MORISOT. Young Woman Seated + +MARY CASSATT. Getting up Baby + +MARY CASSATT. Women and Child + +JONGKIND. In Holland + +JONGKIND. View of the Hague + +THEO VAN RYSSELBERGHE. Portraits of Madame van Rysselberghe and her + Daughter + + + + +NOTE TO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +The illustrations contained in this volume have been taken from +different epochs of the Impressionist movement. They will give but a +feeble idea of the extreme abundance of its production. + +Banished from the salons, exhibited in private galleries and sold direct +to art lovers, the Impressionist works have been but little seen. The +series left by Caillebotte to the Luxembourg Gallery is very badly shown +and is composed of interesting works which, however, date back to the +early period, and are very inferior to the beautiful productions which +followed later. Renoir is best represented. The private galleries in +Paris, where the best Impressionist works are to be found, are those of +MM. Durand-Ruel, Rouart, de Bellis, de Camondo, and Manzi, to which must +be added the one sold by MM. Theodore Duret and Faure, and the one of +Mme. Ernest Rouart, daughter of Mme. Morisot, the sister-in-law of +Manet. The public galleries of M. Durand-Ruel's show-rooms are the place +where it is easiest to find numerous Impressionist pictures. + +In spite of the firm opposition of the official juries, a place of +honour was reserved at the Exposition of 1889 for Manet, and at that of +1900 a fine collection of Impressionists occupied two rooms and caused a +considerable stir. + +Amongst the critics who have most faithfully assisted this group of +artists, I must mention, besides the early friends previously referred +to, Castagnary, Burty, Edouard de Goncourt, Roger Marx, Geffroy, Arsene +Alexandre, Octave Mirbeau, L. de Fourcaud, Clemenceau, Mallarme, +Huysmans, Jules Laforgue, and nearly all the critics of the Symbolist +reviews. A book on "Impressionist Art" by M. Georges Lecomte has been +published by the firm of Durand-Ruel as an _edition-de-luxe_. But the +bibliography of this art consists as yet almost exclusively of articles +in journals and reviews and of some isolated biographical pamphlets. +Manet is, amongst many, the one who has excited most criticism of all +kinds; the articles, caricatures and pamphlets relating to his work +would form a considerable collection. It should be added that, with the +exception of Manet two years before his death, and Renoir last year at +the age of sixty-eight, no Impressionist has been decorated by the +French government. In England such a distinction has even less +importance in itself than elsewhere. But if I insist upon it, it is only +to draw attention to the fact that, through the sheer force of their +talent, men like Degas, Monet and Pissarro have achieved great fame and +fortune, without gaining access to the Salons, without official +encouragement, decoration, subvention or purchases for the national +museums. This is a very significant instance and serves well to complete +the physiognomy of this group of independents. + + + + +I + +THE PRECURSORS OF IMPRESSIONISM--THE BEGINNING OF THIS MOVEMENT AND THE +ORIGIN OF ITS NAME + + +It will be beyond the scope of this volume to give a complete history of +French Impressionism, and to include all the attractive details to which +it might lead, as regards the movement itself and the very curious epoch +during which its evolution has taken place. The proportions of this book +confine its aim to the clearest possible summing up for the British +reader of the ideas, the personalities and the works of a considerable +group of artists who, for various reasons, have remained but little +known and who have only too frequently been gravely misjudged. These +reasons are very obvious: first, the Impressionists have been unable to +make a show at the Salons, partly because the jury refused them +admission, partly because they held aloof of their own free will. They +have, with very rare exceptions, exhibited at special minor galleries, +where they become known to a very restricted public. Ever attacked, and +poor until the last few years, they enjoyed none of the benefits of +publicity and sham glory. It is only quite recently that the admission +of the incomplete and badly arranged Caillebotte collection to the +Luxembourg Gallery has enabled the public to form a summary idea of +Impressionism. To conclude the enumeration of the obstacles, it must be +added that there are hardly any photographs of Impressionist works in +the market. As it is, photography is but a poor translation of these +canvases devoted to the study of the play of light; but even this very +feeble means of distribution has been withheld from them! Exhibited at +some galleries, gathered principally by Durand-Ruel, sold directly to +art-lovers--foreigners mostly--these large series of works have +practically remained unknown to the French public. All the public heard +was the reproaches and sarcastic comments of the opponents, and they +never became aware that in the midst of modern life the greatest, the +richest movement was in progress, which the French school had known +since the days of Romanticism. Impressionism has been made known to them +principally by the controversies and by the fruitful consequences of +this movement for the illustration and study of contemporary life. + +[Illustration: MANET + +REST] + +I do not profess to give here a detailed and complete history of +Impressionism, for which several volumes like the present one would be +required. I shall only try to compile an _ensemble_ of concise and very +precise notions and statements bearing upon this vast subject. It will +be my special object to try and prove that Impressionism is neither an +isolated manifestation, nor a violent denial of the French traditions, +but nothing more or less than a logical return to the very spirit of +these traditions, contrary to the theories upheld by its detractors. It +is for this reason that I have made use of the first chapter to say a +few words on the precursors of this movement. + +No art manifestation is really isolated. However new it may seem, it is +always based upon the previous epochs. The true masters do not give +lessons, because art cannot be taught, but they set the example. To +admire them does not mean to imitate them: it means the recognition in +them of the principles of originality and the comprehension of their +source, so that this eternal source may be called to life in oneself, +this source which springs from a sincere and sympathetic vision of the +aspects of life. The Impressionists have not escaped this beautiful law. +I shall speak of them impartially, without excessive enthusiasm; and it +will be my special endeavour to demonstrate in each of them the cult of +a predecessor, for there have been few artistic movements where the love +for, and one might say the hereditary link with, the preceding masters +has been more tenacious. + +The Academy has struggled violently against Impressionism, accusing it +of madness, of systematic negation of the "laws of beauty," which it +pretended to defend and of which it claimed to be the official priest. +The Academy has shown itself hostile to a degree in this quarrel. It has +excluded the Impressionists from the Salons, from awards, from official +purchases. Only quite recently the acceptance of the Caillebotte +bequest to the Luxembourg Gallery gave rise to a storm of indignation +among the official painters. I shall, in the course of this book, enter +upon the value of these attacks. Meanwhile I can only say how +regrettable this obstinacy appears to me and will appear to every free +spirit. It is unworthy even of an ardent conviction to condemn a whole +group of artists _en bloc_ as fools, enemies of beauty, or as tricksters +anxious to degrade the art of their nation, when these artists worked +during forty years towards the same goal, without getting any reward for +their effort, but poverty and derision. It is now about ten years since +Impressionism has taken root, since its followers can sell their +canvases, and since they are admired and praised by a solid and +ever-growing section of the public. The hour has therefore arrived, +calmly to consider a movement which has imposed itself upon the history +of French art from 1860 to 1900 with extreme energy, to leave +dithyrambics as well as polemics, and to speak of it with a view to +exactness. The Academy, in continuing the propagation of an ideal of +beauty fixed by canons derived from Greek, Latin and Renaissance art, +and neglecting the Gothic, the Primitives and the Realists, looks upon +itself as the guardian of the national tradition, because it exercises +an hierarchic authority over the _Ecole de Rome_, the _Salons_, and the +_Ecole des Beaux Arts_. All the same, its ideals are of very mixed +origin and very little French. Its principles are the same by which the +academic art of nearly all the official schools of Europe is governed. +This mythological and allegorical art, guided by dogmas and formulas +which are imposed upon all pupils regardless of their temperament, is +far more international than national. To an impartial critic this +statement will show in an even more curious light the excommunication +jealously issued by the academic painters against French artists, who, +far from revolting in an absurd spirit of _parti-pris_ against the +genius of their race, are perhaps more sincerely attached to it than +their persecutors. Why should a group of men deliberately choose to +paint mad, illogical, bad pictures, and reap a harvest of public +derision, poverty and sterility? It would be uncritical to believe +merely in a general mystification which makes its authors the worst +sufferers. Simple common sense will find in these men a conviction, a +sincerity, a sustained effort, and this alone should, in the name of the +sacred solidarity of those who by various means try to express their +love of the beautiful, suppress the annoying accusations hurled too +light-heartedly against Manet and his friends. + +[Illustration: MANET + +IN THE SQUARE] + +I shall define later on the ideas of the Impressionists on technique, +composition and style in painting. Meanwhile it will be necessary to +indicate their principal precursors. + +Their movement may be styled thus: a reaction against the Greco-Latin +spirit and the scholastic organisation of painting after the second +Renaissance and the Italo-French school of Fontainebleau, by the century +of Louis XIV., the school of Rome, and the consular and imperial taste. +In this sense Impressionism is a protest analogous to that of +Romanticism, exclaiming, to quote the old verse: "_Qui nous delivrera +des Grecs et des Romains?_"[1] From this point of view Impressionism has +also great affinities with the ideas of the English Pre-Raphaelites, +who stepped across the second and even the first Renaissance back to the +Primitives. + +[Footnote 1: Who will deliver us from the Greeks and the Romans.] + +This reaction is superimposed by another: the reaction of Impressionism, +not only against classic subjects, but against the black painting of the +degenerate Romanticists. And these two reactions are counterbalanced by +a return to the French ideal, to the realistic and characteristic +tradition which commences with Jean Foucquet and Clouet, and is +continued by Chardin, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, Watteau, La Tour, +Fragonard, and the admirable engravers of the eighteenth century down to +the final triumph of the allegorical taste of the Roman revolution. Here +can be found a whole chain of truly national artists who have either +been misjudged, like Chardin, or considered as "small masters" and +excluded from the first rank for the benefit of the pompous Allegorists +descended from the Italian school. + +Impressionism being beyond all a technical reaction, its predecessors +should first be looked for from this material point of view. Watteau is +the most striking of all. _L'Embarquement pour Cythere_ is, in its +technique, an Impressionist canvas. It embodies the most significant +of all the principles exposed by Claude Monet: the division of tones by +juxtaposed touches of colour which, at a certain distance, produce upon +the eye of the beholder the effect of the actual colouring of the things +painted, with a variety, a freshness and a delicacy of analysis +unobtainable by a single tone prepared and mixed upon the palette. + +[Illustration: MANET + +YOUNG MAN IN COSTUME OF MAJO] + +Claude Lorrain, and after him Carle Vernet, are claimed by the +Impressionists as precursors from the point of view of decorative +landscape arrangement, and particularly of the predominance of light in +which all objects are bathed. Ruysdael and Poussin are, in their eyes, +for the same reasons precursors, especially Ruysdael, who observed so +frankly the blue colouring of the horizon and the influence of blue upon +the landscape. It is known that Turner worshipped Claude for the very +same reasons. The Impressionists in their turn, consider Turner as one +of their masters; they have the greatest admiration for this mighty +genius, this sumptuous visionary. They have it equally for Bonington, +whose technique is inspired by the same observations as their own. They +find, finally, in Delacroix the frequent and very apparent application +of their ideas. Notably in the famous _Entry of the Crusaders into +Constantinople_, the fair woman kneeling in the foreground is painted in +accordance with the principles of the division of tones: the nude back +is furrowed with blue, green and yellow touches, the juxtaposition of +which produces, at a certain distance, an admirable flesh-tone. + +And now I must speak at some length of a painter who, together with the +luminous and sparkling landscapist Felix Ziem, was the most direct +initiator of Impressionist technique. Monticelli is one of those +singular men of genius who are not connected with any school, and whose +work is an inexhaustible source of applications. He lived at Marseilles, +where he was born, made a short appearance at the Salons, and then +returned to his native town, where he died poor, ignored, paralysed and +mad. In order to live he sold his small pictures at the cafes, where +they fetched ten or twenty francs at the most. To-day they sell for +considerable prices, although the government has not yet acquired any +work by Monticelli for the public galleries. The mysterious power alone +of these paintings secures him a fame which is, alas! posthumous. Many +Monticellis have been sold by dealers as Diaz's; now they are more +eagerly looked for than Diaz, and collectors have made fortunes with +these small canvases bought formerly, to use a colloquial expression +which is here only too literally true, "for a piece of bread." + +Monticelli painted landscapes, romantic scenes, "fetes galantes" in the +spirit of Watteau, and still-life pictures: one could not imagine a more +inspired sense of colour than shown by these works which seem to be +painted with crushed jewels, with powerful harmony, and beyond all with +an unheard-of delicacy in the perception of fine shades. There are tones +which nobody had ever invented yet, a richness, a profusion, a subtlety +which almost vie with the resources of music. The fairyland atmosphere +of these works surrounds a very firm design of charming style, but, to +use the words of the artist himself, "in these canvases the objects are +the decoration, the touches are the scales, and the light is the tenor." +Monticelli has created for himself an entirely personal technique which +can only be compared with that of Turner; he painted with a brush so +full, fat and rich, that some of the details are often truly modelled in +relief, in a substance as precious as enamels, jewels, ceramics--a +substance which is a delight in itself. Every picture by Monticelli +provokes astonishment; constructed upon one colour as upon a musical +theme, it rises to intensities which one would have thought impossible. +His pictures are magnificent bouquets, bursts of joy and colour, where +nothing is ever crude, and where everything is ruled by a supreme sense +of harmony. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE READER] + +Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Turner and Monticelli constitute really the +descent of a landscapist like Claude Monet. In all matters concerning +technique, they form the direct chain of Impressionism. As regards +design, subject, realism, the study of modern life, the conception of +beauty and the portrait, the Impressionist movement is based upon the +old French masters, principally upon Chardin, Watteau, Latour, +Largilliere, Fragonard, Debucourt, Saint-Aubin, Moreau, and Eisen. It +has resolutely held aloof from mythology, academic allegory, historical +painting, and from the neo-Greek elements of Classicism as well as from +the German and Spanish elements of Romanticism. This reactionary +movement is therefore entirely French, and surely if it deserves +reproach, the one least deserved is that levelled upon it by the +official painters: disobedience to the national spirit. Impressionism is +an art which does not give much scope to intellectuality, an art whose +followers admit scarcely anything but immediate vision, rejecting +philosophy and symbols and occupying themselves only with the +consideration of light, picturesqueness, keen and clever observation, +and antipathy to abstraction, as the innate qualities of French art. We +shall see later on, when considering separately its principal masters, +that each of them has based his art upon some masters of pure French +blood. + +Impressionism has, then, hitherto been very badly judged. It is +contained in two chief points: search after a new technique, and +expression of modern reality. Its birth has not been a spontaneous +phenomenon. Manet, who, by his spirit and by the chance of his +friendships, grouped around him the principal members, commenced by +being classed in the ranks of the Realists of the second Romanticism by +the side of Courbet; and during the whole first period of his work he +only endeavoured to describe contemporary scenes, at a time when the +laws of the new technique were already dawning upon Claude Monet. +Gradually the grouping of the Impressionists took place. Claude Monet is +really the first initiator: in a parallel line with his ideas and his +works Manet passed into the second period of his artistic life, and with +him Renoir, Degas and Pissarro. But Manet had already during his first +period been the topic of far-echoing polemics, caused by his realism and +by the marked influence of the Spaniards and of Hals upon his style; his +temperament, too, was that of the head of a school; and for these +reasons legend has attached to his name the title of head of the +Impressionist school, but this legend is incorrect. + +To conclude, the very name "Impressionism" is due to Claude Monet. There +has been much serious arguing upon this famous word which has given rise +to all sorts of definitions and conclusions. In reality this is its +curious origin which is little known, even in criticism. Ever since +1860 the works of Manet and of his friends caused such a stir, that they +were rejected _en bloc_ by the Salon jury of 1863. The emperor, inspired +by a praiseworthy, liberal thought, demanded that these innovators +should at least have the right to exhibit together in a special room +which was called the _Salon des Refuses_. The public crowded there to +have a good laugh. One of the pictures which caused most derision was a +sunset by Claude Monet, entitled _Impressions_. From this moment the +painters who adopted more or less the same manner were called +_Impressionists_. The word remained in use, and Manet and his friends +thought it a matter of indifference whether this label was attached to +them, or another. At this despised Salon were to be found the names of +Manet, Monet, Whistler, Bracquemont, Jongkind, Fantin-Latour, Renoir, +Legros, and many others who have since risen to fame. Universal ridicule +only fortified the friendships and resolutions of this group of men, and +from that time dates the definite foundation of the Impressionist +school. For thirty years it continued to produce without interruption +an enormous quantity of works under an accidental and inexact +denomination; to obey the creative instinct, without any other dogma +than the passionate observation of nature, without any other assistance +than individual sympathies, in the face of the disciplinary teaching of +the official school. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE DANCER AT THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S] + + + + +II + +THE THEORY OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS--THE DIVISION OF TONES, COMPLEMENTARY +COLOURS, THE STUDY OF ATMOSPHERE--THE IDEAS OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS ON +SUBJECT-PICTURES, ON THE BEAUTY OF CHARACTER, ON MODERNITY, AND ON STYLE + + +It should be stated from the outset that there is nothing dogmatic about +this explanation of the Impressionist theories, and that it is not the +result of a preconceived plan. In art a system is not improvised. A +theory is slowly evolved, nearly always unknown to the author, from the +discoveries of his sincere instinct, and this theory can only be +formulated after years by criticism facing the works. Monet and Manet +have worked for a long time without ever thinking that theories would be +built upon their paintings. Yet a certain number of considerations will +strike the close observer, and I will put these considerations before +the reader, after reminding him that spontaneity and feeling are the +essentials of all art. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +CARRIAGES AT THE RACES] + +The Impressionist ideas may be summed up in the following manner:-- + +In nature no colour exists by itself. The colouring of the objects is a +pure illusion: the only creative source of colour is the sunlight which +envelopes all things, and reveals them, according to the hours, with +infinite modifications. The mystery of matter escapes us; we do not know +the exact moment when reality separates itself from unreality. All we +know is, that our vision has formed the habit of discerning in the +universe two notions: form and colour; but these two notions are +inseparable. Only artificially can we distinguish between outline and +colour: in nature the distinction does not exist. Light reveals the +forms, and, playing upon the different states of matter, the substance +of leaves, the grain of stones, the fluidity of air in deep layers, +gives them dissimilar colouring. If the light disappears, forms and +colours vanish together. We only see colours; everything has a colour, +and it is by the perception of the different colour surfaces striking +our eyes, that we conceive the forms, _i.e._ the outlines of these +colours. + +The idea of distance, of perspective, of volume is given us by darker or +lighter colours: this idea is what is called in painting the sense of +values. A value is the degree of dark or light intensity, which permits +our eyes to comprehend that one object is further or nearer than +another. And as painting is not and cannot be the _imitation_ of nature, +but merely her artificial interpretation, since it only has at its +disposal two out of three dimensions, the values are the only means that +remain for expressing depth on a flat surface. + +Colour is therefore the procreatrix of design. Or, colour being simply +the irradiation of light, it follows that all colour is composed of the +same elements as sunlight, namely the seven tones of the spectrum. It is +known, that these seven tones appear different owing to the unequal +speed of the waves of light. The tones of nature appear to us therefore +different, like those of the spectrum, and for the same reason. The +colours vary with the intensity of light. There is no colour peculiar +to any object, but only more or less rapid vibration of light upon its +surface. The speed depends, as is demonstrated by optics, on the degree +of the inclination of the rays which, according to their vertical or +oblique direction, give different light and colour. + +The colours of the spectrum are thus recomposed in everything we see. It +is their relative proportion which makes new tones out of the seven +spectral tones. This leads immediately to some practical conclusions, +the first of which is, that what has formerly been called _local colour_ +is an error: a leaf is not green, a tree-trunk is not brown, and, +according to the time of day, _i.e._ according to the greater or smaller +inclination of the rays (scientifically called the angle of incidence), +the green of the leaf and the brown of the tree are modified. What has +to be studied therefore in these objects, if one wishes to recall their +colour to the beholder of a picture, is the composition of the +atmosphere which separates them from the eye. This atmosphere is the +real subject of the picture, and whatever is represented upon it only +exists through its medium. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE GREEK DANCE--PASTEL.] + +A second consequence of this analysis of light is, that shadow is not +absence of light, but light of _a different quality_ and of different +value. Shadow is not a part of the landscape, where light ceases, but +where it is subordinated to a light which appears to us more intense. In +the shadow the rays of the spectrum vibrate with different speed. +Painting should therefore try to discover here, as in the light parts, +the play of the atoms of solar light, instead of representing shadows +with ready-made tones composed of bitumen and black. + +The third conclusion resulting from this: the colours in the shadow are +modified by _refraction_. That means, _f.i._ in a picture representing +an interior, the source of light (window) may not be indicated: the +light circling round the picture will then be composed of the +_reflections_ of rays whose source is invisible, and all the objects, +acting as mirrors for these reflections, will consequently influence +each other. Their colours will affect each other, even if the surfaces +be dull. A red vase placed upon a blue carpet will lead to a very +subtle, but mathematically exact, interchange between this blue and this +red, and this exchange of luminous waves will create between the two +colours a tone of reflections composed of both. These composite +reflections will form a scale of tones complementary of the two +principal colours. The science of optics can work out these +complementary colours with mathematical exactness. If _f.i._ a head +receives the orange rays of daylight from one side and the bluish light +of an interior from the other, green reflections will necessarily appear +on the nose and in the middle region of the face. The painter Besnard, +who has specially devoted himself to this minute study of complementary +colours, has given us some famous examples of it. + +The last consequence of these propositions is that the blending of the +spectral tones is accomplished by a _parallel_ and _distinct_ projection +of the colours. They are artificially reunited on the crystalline: a +lens interposed between the light and the eye, and opposing the +crystalline, which is a living lens, dissociates again these united +rays, and shows us again the seven distinct colours of the atmosphere. +It is no less artificial if a painter mixes upon his palette different +colours to compose a tone; it is again artificial that paints have been +invented which represent some of the combinations of the spectrum, just +to save the artist the trouble of constantly mixing the seven solar +tones. Such mixtures are false, and they have the disadvantage of +creating heavy tonalities, since the coarse mixture of powders and oils +cannot accomplish the action of light which reunites the luminous waves +into an intense white of unimpaired transparency. The colours mixed on +the palette compose a dirty grey. What, then, is the painter to do, who +is anxious to approach, as near as our poor human means will allow, that +divine fairyland of nature? Here we touch upon the very foundations of +Impressionism. The painter will have to paint with only the seven +colours of the spectrum, and discard all the others: that is what Claude +Monet has done boldly, adding to them only white and black. He will, +furthermore, instead of composing mixtures on his palette, place upon +his canvas touches of none but the seven colours _juxtaposed_, and leave +the individual rays of each of these colours to blend at a certain +distance, so as to act like sunlight itself upon the eye of the +beholder. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +WAITING] + +This, then, is the theory of the _dissociation of tones_, which is the +main point of Impressionist technique. It has the immense advantage of +suppressing all mixtures, of leaving to each colour its proper strength, +and consequently its freshness and brilliancy. At the same time the +difficulties are extreme. The painter's eye must be admirably subtle. +Light becomes the sole subject of the picture; the interest of the +object upon which it plays is secondary. Painting thus conceived becomes +a purely optic art, a search for harmonies, a sort of natural poem, +quite distinct from expression, style and design, which were the +principal aims of former painting. It is almost necessary to invent +another name for this special art which, clearly pictorial though it be, +comes as near to music, as it gets far away from literature and +psychology. It is only natural that, fascinated by this study, the +Impressionists have almost remained strangers to the painting of +expression, and altogether hostile to historical and symbolist painting. +It is therefore principally in landscape painting that they have +achieved the greatness that is theirs. + +Through the application of these principles which I have set forth very +summarily, Claude Monet arrived at painting by means of the infinitely +varied juxtaposition of a quantity of colour spots which dissociate the +tones of the spectrum and draw the forms of objects through the +arabesque of their vibrations. A landscape thus conceived becomes a kind +of symphony, starting from one theme (the most luminous point, _f.i._), +and developing all over the canvas the variations of this theme. This +investigation is added to the habitual preoccupations of the landscapist +study of the character peculiar to the scene, style of the trees or +houses, accentuation of the decorative side--and to the habitual +preoccupations of the figure painter in the portrait. The canvases of +Monet, Renoir and Pissarro have, in consequence of this research, an +absolutely original aspect: their shadows are striped with blue, +rose-madder and green; nothing is opaque or sooty; a light vibration +strikes the eye. Finally, blue and orange predominate, simply because in +these studies--which are more often than not full sunlight +effects--blue is the complementary colour of the orange light of the +sun, and is profusely distributed in the shadows. In these canvases can +be found a vast amount of exact grades of tone, which seem to have been +entirely ignored by the older painters, whose principal concern was +style, and who reduced a landscape to three or four broad tones, +endeavouring only to explain the sentiment inspired by it. + +And now I shall have to pass on to the Impressionists' ideas on the +style itself of painting, on Realism. + +From the outset it must not be forgotten that Impressionism has been +propagated by men who had all been Realists; that means by a reactionary +movement against classic and romantic painting. This movement, of which +Courbet will always remain the most famous representative, has been +_anti-intellectual_. It has protested against every literary, +psychologic or symbolical element in painting. It has reacted at the +same time against the historical painting of Delaroche and the +mythological painting of the _Ecole de Rome_, with an extreme violence +which appears to us excessive now, but which found its explanation in +the intolerable tediousness or emphasis at which the official painters +had arrived. Courbet was a magnificent worker, with rudimentary ideas, +and he endeavoured to exclude even those which he possessed. This +exaggeration which diminishes our admiration for his work and prevents +us from finding in it any emotion but that which results from technical +mastery, was salutary for the development of the art of his successors. +It caused the young painters to turn resolutely towards the aspects of +contemporary life, and to draw style and emotion from their own epoch; +and this intention was right. An artistic tradition is not continued by +imitating the style of the past, but by extracting the immediate +impression of each epoch. That is what the really great masters have +done, and it is the succession of their sincere and profound +observations which constitutes the style of the races. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +THE PINES] + +Manet and his friends drew all their strength from this idea. Much finer +and more learned than a man like Courbet, they saw an aspect of +modernity far more complex, and less limited to immediate and grossly +superficial realism. Nor must it be forgotten that they were +contemporaries of the realistic, anti-romantic literary movement, a +movement which gave them nothing but friends. Flaubert and the Goncourts +proved that Realism is not the enemy of refined form and of delicate +psychology. The influence of these ideas created first of all Manet and +his friends: the technical evolution (of which we have traced the chief +traits) came only much later to oppose itself to their conceptions. +Impressionism can therefore be defined as a _revolution of pictorial +technique together with an attempt at expressing modernity_. The +reaction against Symbolism and Romanticism happened to coincide with the +reaction against muddy technique. + +The Impressionists, whilst occupying themselves with cleansing the +palette of the bitumen of which the Academy made exaggerated use, whilst +also observing nature with a greater love of light, made it their object +to escape in the representation of human beings the laws of _beauty_, +such as were taught by the School. And on this point one might apply to +them all that one knows of the ideas of the Goncourts and Flaubert, and +later of Zola, in the domain of the novel. They were moved by the same +ideas; to speak of the one group is to speak of the other. The longing +for truth, the horror of emphasis and of false idealism which paralysed +the novelist as well as the painter, led the Impressionists to +substitute for _beauty_ a novel notion, that of _character_. To search +for, and to express, the true character of a being or of a site, seemed +to them more significant, more moving, than to search for an exclusive +beauty, based upon rules, and inspired by the Greco-Latin ideal. Like +the Flemings, the Germans, the Spaniards, and in opposition to the +Italians whose influence had conquered all the European academies, the +French Realist-Impressionists, relying upon the qualities of lightness, +sincerity and expressive clearness which are the real merits of their +race, detached themselves from the oppressive and narrow preoccupation +with the beautiful and with all the metaphysics and abstractions +following in its train. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +CHURCH AT VERNON] + +This fact of the substitution of _character_ for _beauty_ is the +essential feature of the movement. What is called Impressionism is--let +it not be forgotten--a technique which can be applied to any subject. +Whether the subject be a virgin, or a labourer, it can be painted with +divided tones, and certain living artists, like the symbolist Henri +Martin, who has almost the ideas of a Pre-Raphaelite, have proved it by +employing this technique for the rendering of religious or philosophic +subjects. But one can only understand the effort and the faults of the +painters grouped around Manet, by constantly recalling to one's mind +their predeliction for _character_. Before Manet a distinction was made +between _noble_ subjects, and others which were relegated to the domain +of _genre_ in which no great artist was admitted to exist by the School, +the familiarity of their subjects barring from them this rank. By the +suppression of the _nobleness_ inherent to the treated subject, the +painter's technical merit is one of the first things to be considered in +giving him rank. The Realist-Impressionists painted scenes in the +ball-room, on the river, in the field, the street, the foundry, modern +interiors, and found in the life of the humble immense scope for +studying the gestures, the costumes, the expressions of the nineteenth +century. + +Their effort had its bearing upon the way of representing persons, upon +what is called, in the studio language, the "_mise en cadre_." There, +too, they overthrew the principles admitted by the School. Manet, and +especially Degas, have created in this respect a new style from which +the whole art of realistic contemporary illustration is derived. This +style had been hitherto totally ignored, or the artists had shrunk from +applying it. It is a style which is founded upon the small painters of +the eighteenth century, upon Saint-Aubin, Debucourt, Moreau, and, +further back, upon Pater and the Dutchmen. But this time, instead of +confining this style to vignettes and very small dimensions, the +Impressionists have boldly given it the dimensions and importance of big +canvases. They have no longer based the laws of composition, and +consequently of style, upon the ideas relative to the subjects, but upon +values and harmonies. To take a summary example: if the School composed +a picture representing the death of Agamemnon, it did not fail to +subordinate the whole composition to Agamemnon, then to Clytemnestra, +then to the witnesses of the murder, graduating the moral and literary +interest according to the different persons, and sacrificing to this +interest the colouring and the realistic qualities of the scene. The +Realists composed by picking out first the strongest "value" of the +picture, say a red dress, and then distributing the other values +according to a harmonious progression of their tonalities. "The +principal person in a picture," said Manet, "is the light." With Manet +and his friends we find, then, that the concern for expression and for +the sentiments evoked by the subject, was always subordinated to a +purely pictorial and decorative preoccupation. This has frequently led +the Impressionists to grave errors, which they have, however, generally +avoided by confining themselves to very simple subjects, for which the +daily life supplied the grouping. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +PORTRAIT OF MADAME MAITRE] + +One of the reforms due to their conception has been the suppression of +the professional model, and the substitution for it of the natural +model, seen in the exercise of his occupation. This is one of the most +useful conquests for the benefit of modern painting. It marks a just +return to nature and simplicity. Nearly all their figures are real +portraits; and in everything that concerns the labourer and the +peasant, they have found the proper style and character, because they +have observed these beings in the true medium of their occupations, +instead of forcing them into a sham pose and painting them in disguise. +The basis of all their pictures has been first of all a series of +landscape and figure studies made in the open air, far from the studio, +and afterwards co-ordinated. One may wish pictorial art to have higher +ambitions; and one may find in the Primitives an example of a curious +mysticism, an expression of the abstract and of dreams. But one should +not underrate the power of naive and realistic observation, which the +Primitives carried into the execution of their works, subordinating it, +however, to religious expression, and it must also be admitted that the +Realist-Impressionists served at least their conception of art logically +and homogeneously. The criticism which may be levelled against them is +that which Realism itself carries in its train, and we shall see that +esthetics could never create classifications capable of defining and +containing the infinite gradations of creative temperaments. + +In art, classifications have rarely any value, and are rather damaging. +Realism and Idealism are abstract terms which cannot suffice to +characterise beings who obey their sensibility. It is therefore +necessary to invent as many words as there are remarkable men. If +Leonardo was a great painter, are Turner and Monet not painters at all? +There is no connection between them; their methods of thought and +expression are antithetical. Perhaps it will be most simple, to admire +them all, and to renounce any further definition of the painter, +adopting this word to mark the man who uses the palette as his means of +expression. + +Thus preoccupation with contemporary emotions, substitution of character +for classic beauty (or of emotional beauty for formal beauty), admission +of the _genre_-painter into the first rank, composition based upon the +reciprocal reaction of values, subordination of the subject to the +interest of execution, the effort to isolate the art of painting from +the ideas inherent to that of literature, and particularly the +instinctive move towards the "symphonisation" of colours, and +consequently towards music,--these are the principal features of the +aesthetic code of the Realist-Impressionists, if this term may be +applied to a group of men hostile towards esthetics such as they are +generally taught. + + + + +III + +EDOUARD MANET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + +As I have said, Edouard Manet has not been entirely the originator of +the Impressionist technique. It is the work of Claude Monet which +presents the most complete example of it, and which also came first as +regards date. But it is very difficult to determine such cases of +priority, and it is, after all, rather useless. A technique cannot be +invented in a day. In this case it was the result of long +investigations, in which Manet and Renoir participated, and it is +necessary to unite under the collective name of Impressionists a group +of men, tied by friendship, who made a simultaneous effort towards +originality, all in about the same spirit, though frequently in very +different ways. As in the case of the Pre-Raphaelites, it was first of +all friendship, then unjust derision, which created the solidarity of +the Impressionists. But the Pre-Raphaelites, in aiming at an idealistic +and symbolic art, were better agreed upon the intellectual principles +which permitted them at once to define a programme. The Impressionists +who were only united by their temperaments, and had made it their first +aim to break away from all school programmes, tried simply to do +something new, with frankness and freedom. + +Manet was, in their midst, the personality marked out at the same time +by their admiration, and by the attacks of the critics for the post of +standard-bearer. A little older than his friends, he had already, quite +alone, raised heated discussions by the works in his first manner. He +was considered an innovator, and it was by instinctive admiration that +his first friends, Whistler, Legros, and Fantin-Latour, were gradually +joined by Marcelin Desboutin, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, +Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot, the young painter Bazille, who met his +premature death in 1870, and by the writers Gautier, Banville, +Baudelaire (who was a passionate admirer of Manet's); then later by +Zola, the Goncourts, and Stephane Mallarme. This was the first nucleus +of a public which was to increase year by year. Manet had the personal +qualities of a chief; he was a man of spirit, an ardent worker, and an +enthusiastic and generous character. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE DEAD TOREADOR] + +Manet commenced his first studies with Couture. After having travelled a +good deal at sea to obey his parents, his vocation took hold of him +irresistibly. About 1850 the young man entered the studio of the severe +author of the _Romains de la Decadence_. His stay was short. He +displeased the professor by his uncompromising energy. Couture said of +him angrily: "He will become the Daumier of 1860." It is known that +Daumier, lithographer, and painter of genius, was held in meagre esteem +by the academicians. Manet travelled in Germany after the _coup d'etat_, +copied Rembrandt in Munich, then went to Italy, copied Tintoretto in +Venice, and conceived there the idea of several religious pictures. Then +he became enthusiastic about the Spaniards, especially Velasquez and +Goya. The sincere expression of things seen took root from this moment +as the principal rule of art in the brain of this young Frenchman who +was loyal, ardent, and hostile to all subtleties. He painted some fine +works, like the _Buveur d'absinthe_ and the _Vieux musicien_. They show +the influence of Courbet, but already the blacks and the greys have an +original and superb quality; they announce a virtuoso of the first +order. + +It was in 1861 that Manet first sent to the Salon the portraits of his +parents and the _Guitarero_, which was hailed by Gautier, and rewarded +by the jury, though it roused surprise and irritation. But after that he +was rejected, whether it was a question of the _Fifre_ or of the +_Dejeuner sur l'herbe._ This canvas, with an admirable feminine nude, +created a scandal, because an undressed woman figured in it amidst +clothed figures, a matter of frequent occurrence with the masters of the +Renaissance. The landscape is not painted in the open air, but in the +studio, and resembles a tapestry, but it shows already the most +brilliant evidence of Manet's talent in the study of the nude and the +still-life of the foreground, which is the work of a powerful master. +From the time of this canvas the artist's personality appeared in all +its maturity. He painted it before he was thirty, and it has the air of +an old master's work; it is based upon Hals and the Spaniards together. + +The reputation of Manet became established after 1865. Furious critics +were opposed by enthusiastic admirers. Baudelaire upheld Manet, as he +had upheld Delacroix and Wagner, with his great clairvoyance, +sympathetic to all real originality. The _Olympia_ brought the +discussion to a head. This courtesan lying in bed undressed, with a +negress carrying a bouquet, and a black cat, made a tremendous stir. It +is a powerful work of strong colour, broad design and intense sentiment, +astounding in its _parti-pris_ of reducing the values to the greatest +simplicity. One can feel in it the artist's preoccupation with +rediscovering the rude frankness of Hals and Goya, and his aversion +against the prettiness and false nobility of the school. This famous +_Olympia_ which occasioned so much fury, appears to us to-day as a +transition work. It is neither a masterpiece, nor an emotional work, but +a technical experiment, very significant for the epoch during which it +appeared in French art, and this canvas, which is very inferior to +Manet's fine works, may well be considered as a date of evolution. He +was doubtful about exhibiting it, but Baudelaire decided him and wrote +to him on this occasion these typical remarks: "You complain about +attacks? But are you the first to endure them? Have you more genius than +Chateaubriand and Wagner? They were not killed by derision. And, in +order not to make you too proud, I must tell you, that they are models +each in his own way and in a very rich world, whilst you are only the +first in the decrepitude of your art." + +[Illustration: MANET + +OLYMPIA] + +Thus it must be firmly established that from this moment Manet passed as +an innovator, years before Impressionism existed or was even thought of. +This is an important point: it will help to clear up the twofold origin +of the movement which followed. To his realism, to his return to +composition in the modern spirit, and to the simplifying of planes and +values, Manet owed these attacks, though at that time his colour was +still sombre and entirely influenced by Hals, Goya and Courbet. From +that time the artist became a chief. As his friends used to meet him at +an obscure Batignolles cafe, the cafe Guerbois (still existing), public +derision baptized these meetings with the name of "L'Ecole des +Batignolles." Manet then exhibited the _Angels at the Tomb of Christ_, a +souvenir of the Venetians; _Lola de Valence_, commented upon by +Baudelaire in a quatrain which can be found in the _Fleurs du Mal_; the +_Episode d'un combat de taureaux_ (dissatisfied with this picture, he +cut out the dead toreador in the foreground, and burnt the rest). The +_Acteur tragique_ (portrait of Rouviere in Hamlet) and the _Jesus +insulte_ followed, and then came the _Gitanos_, _L'Enfant a l'Epee_, and +the portrait of Mme. Manet. This series of works is admirable. It is +here where he reveals himself as a splendid colourist, whose design is +as vigorous as the technique is masterly. In these works one does not +think of looking for anything but the witchery of technical strength; +and the abundant wealth of his temperament is simply dazzling. Manet +reveals himself as the direct heir of the great Spaniards, more +interesting, more spontaneous, and freer than Courbet. The _Rouviere_ is +as fine a symphony in grey and black as the noblest portraits by +Bronzino, and there is probably no Goya more powerful than the _Toreador +tue_. Manet's altogether classic descent appears here undeniably. There +is no question yet of Impressionism, and yet Monet and Renoir are +already painting, Monet has exhibited at the _Salon des Refuses_, but +criticism sees and attacks nobody but Manet. This great individuality +who overwhelmed the Academy with its weak allegories, was the butt of +great insults and the object of great admiration. Banished from the +Salons, he collected fifty pictures in a room in the Avenue de l'Alma +and invited the public thither. In 1868 appeared the portrait of Emile +Zola, in 1860 the _Dejeuner_, works which are so powerful, that they +enforced admiration in spite of all hostility. In the Salon of 1870 was +shown the portrait of Eva Gonzales, the charming pastellist and pupil of +Manet, and the impressive _Execution of Maximilian at Queretaro_. Manet +was at the apogee of his talent, when the Franco-German war broke out. +At the age of thirty-eight he had put forth a considerable amount of +work, tried himself in all styles, severed his individuality from the +slavish admiration of the old masters, and attained his own mastery. And +now he wanted to expand, and, in joining Monet, Renoir and Degas, +interpret in his own way the Impressionist theory. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE WOMAN WITH THE PARROT] + +The _Fight of the Kearsage and the Alabama_, a magnificent sea-piece, +bathed in sunlight, announced this transformation in his work, as did +also a study, a _Garden_, painted, I believe, in 1870, but exhibited +only after the crisis of the terrible year. At that time the Durand-Ruel +Gallery bought a considerable series by the innovator, and was imitated +by some select art-lovers. The _Musique aux Tuileries_ and the _Bal de +l'Opera_ had, some years before, pointed towards the evolution of this +great artist in the direction of _plein-air_ painting. The _Bon Bock_, +in which the very soul of Hals is revived, and the grave _Liseur_, sold +immediately at Vienne, were the two last pledges given by the artist to +his old admirers; these two pictures had moreover a splendid success, +and the _Bon Bock_, popularised by an engraving, was hailed by the very +men who had most unjustly attacked the author of the portrait of Mme. +Morisot, a French masterpiece. But already Manet was attracted +irresistibly towards the study of light, and, faithful to his programme, +he prepared to face once again outbursts of anger and further sarcasms; +he was resolved once again to offer battle to the Salons. Followed by +all the Impressionists he tried to make them understand the necessity +of introducing the new ideas into this retrograde _Milieu_. But they +would not. Having already received a rebuff by the attacks directed for +some years against their works, they exhibited among themselves in some +private galleries: they declined to force the gate of the Salons, and +Manet remained alone. In 1875 he submitted, with his _Argenteuil_, the +most perfect epitome of his atmospheric researches. The jury admitted it +in spite of loud protests: they were afraid of Manet; they admired his +power of transformation, and he revolted the prejudiced, attracting them +at the same time by the charm of his force. But in 1876 the portrait of +_Desboutin_ and the _Linge_ (an exquisite picture,--one of the best +productions of open-air study) were rejected. Manet then recommenced the +experience of 1867, and opened his studio to the public. A register at +the door was soon covered with signatures protesting against the jury, +as well as with hostile jokes, and even anonymous insults! In 1877 the +defeated jury admitted the portrait of the famous singer Faure in the +part of Hamlet, and rejected _Nana_, a picture which was found +scandalising, but has charming freshness and an intensely modern +character. In 1878, 1879 and 1880 they accepted _la Serre_, the +surprising symphony in blue and white which shows Mr George Moore in +boating costume, the portrait of Antonin Proust, and the scene at the +_Pere Lathuile_ restaurant, in which Manet's nervous and luminous +realism has so curious a resemblance to the art of the Goncourts. In +1881 the portrait of Rochefort and that of the lion-killer, Pertuiset, +procured the artist a medal at the Salon, and Antonin Proust, the friend +of Manet's childhood, who had become Minister of Fine Arts, honoured +himself in decorating him with the legion of honour. In 1882 appeared a +magnificent canvas, the _Bar des Folies-Bergere_, in which there is some +sparkling still-life painting of most attractive beauty. It was +accompanied by a lady's portrait, _Jeanne_. But on April 30, 1883, Manet +died, exhausted by his work and struggles, of locomotor ataxy, after +having vainly undergone the amputation of a foot to avoid gangrene. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE BAR AT THE FOLIES-BERGERE] + +It will be seen that Manet fought through all his life: few artists' +lives have been nobler. His has been an example of untiring energy; he +employed it as much in working, as in making a stand against prejudices. +Rejected, accepted, rejected again, he delivered with enormous courage +and faith his attack upon a jury which represented routine. As he fought +in front of his easel, he still fought before the public, without ever +relaxing, without changing, alone, apart even from those whom he loved, +who had been shaped by his example. This great painter, one of those who +did most honour to the French soul, had the genius to create by himself +an Impressionism of his own which will always remain his own, after +having given evidence of gifts of the first order in the tradition +handed down by the masters of the real and the good. He cannot be +confused either with Monet, or with Pissarro and Renoir. His +comprehension of light is a special one, his technique is not in +accordance with the system of colour-spots; it observes the theory of +complementary colours and of the division of tones without departing +from a grand style, from a classic stateliness, from a superb sureness. +Manet has not been the inventor of Impressionism which co-existed with +his work since 1865, but he has rendered it immense services, by taking +upon himself all the outbursts of anger addressed to the innovators, by +making a breach in public opinion, through which his friends have passed +in behind him. Probably without him all these artists would have +remained unknown, or at least without influence, because they all were +bold characters in art, but timid or disdainful in life. Degas, Monet +and Renoir were fine natures with a horror of polemics, who wished to +hold aloof from the Salons, and were resigned from the outset to be +misunderstood. They were, so to say, electrified by the magnificent +example of Manet's fighting spirit, and Manet was generous enough to +take upon himself the reproaches levelled, not only against his work, +but against theirs. His twenty years of open war, sustained with an +abnegation worthy of all esteem, must be considered as one of the most +significant phenomena of the history of the artists of all ages. + +This work of Manet, so much discussed and produced under such tormenting +conditions, owes its importance beyond all to its power and frankness. +Ten years of developing the first manner, tragically limited by the war +of 1870; thirteen years of developing the second evolution, parallel +with the efforts of the Impressionists. The period from 1860 to 1870 is +logically connected with Hals and Goya; from 1870 to 1883 the artist's +modernity is complicated by the study of light. His personality appears +there even more original, but one may well give the palm to those works +of Manet which are painted in his classic and low-toned manner. He had +all the pictorial gifts which make the glory of the masters: full, true, +broad composition, colouring of irresistible power, blacks and greys +which cannot be found elsewhere since Velasquez and Goya, and a profound +knowledge of values. He has tried his hand at everything: portraits, +landscapes, seascapes, scenes of modern life, still-life and nudes have +each in their turn served his ardent desire of creation. His was a much +finer comprehension of contemporary life than seems to be admitted by +Realism: one has only to compare him with Courbet, to see how far more +nervous and intelligent he was, without loss to the qualities of truth +and robustness. His pictures will always remain documents of the +greatest importance on the society, the manners and customs of the +second Empire. He did not possess the gift of psychology. His _Christ +aux Anges_ and _Jesus insulte_ are obviously only pieces of painting +without idealism. He was, like the great Dutch virtuosos, and like +certain Italians, more eye than soul. Yet his _Maximilian_, the drawings +to Poe's _Raven_, and certain sketches show that he might have realised +some curious, psychological works, had he not been so completely +absorbed by the immediate reality and by the desire for beautiful paint. +A beautiful painter--this is what he was before everything else, this is +his fairest fame, and it is almost inconceivable that the juries of the +Salons failed to understand him. They waxed indignant over his subjects +which offer only a restricted interest, and they did not see the +altogether classic quality of this technique without bitumen, without +glazing, without tricks; of this vibrating colour; of this rich paint; +of this passionate design so suitable for expressing movement and +gestures true to life; of this simple composition where the whole +picture is based upon two or three values with the straightforwardness +one admires in Rubens, Jordaens and Hals. + +[Illustration: MANET + +DEJEUNER] + +Manet will occupy an important position in the French School. He is the +most original painter of the second half of the nineteenth century, the +one who has really created a great movement. His work, the fecundity of +which is astonishing, is unequal. One has to remember that, besides the +incessant strife which he kept up--a strife which would have killed many +artists--he had to find strength for two grave crises in himself. He +joined one movement, then freed himself of it, then invented another and +recommenced to learn painting at a point where anybody else would have +continued in his previous manner. "Each time I paint," he said to +Mallarme, "I throw myself into the water to learn swimming." It is not +surprising that such a man should have been unequal, and that one can +distinguish in his work between experiments, exaggerations due to +research, and efforts made to reject the prejudices of which we feel the +weight no longer. But it would be unjust to say that Manet has only had +the merit of opening up new roads; that has been said to belittle him, +after it had first been said that these roads led into absurdity. Works +like the _Toreador_, _Rouviere_, _Mme. Manet_, the _Dejeuner_, the +_Musique aux Tuileries_, the _Bon Bock_, _Argenteuil_, _Le Linge_, _En +Bateau_ and the _Bar_, will always remain admirable masterpieces which +will do credit to French painting, of which the spontaneous, living, +clear and bold art of Manet is a direct and very representative product. + +There remains, then, a great personality who knew how to dominate the +rather coarse conceptions of Realism, who influenced by his modernity +all contemporary illustration, who re-established a sound and strong +tradition in the face of the Academy, and who not only created a new +transition, but marked his place on the new road which he had opened. To +him Impressionism owes its existence; his tenacity enabled it to take +root and to vanquish the opposition of the School; his work has enriched +the world by some beautiful examples which demonstrate the union of the +two principles of Realism and of that technical Impressionism which was +to supply Manet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley with an object for their +efforts. For the sum total of all that is evoked by his name, Edouard +Manet certainly deserves the name of a man of genius--an incomplete +genius, though, since the thought with him was not on the level of his +technique, since he could never affect the emotions like a Leonardo or a +Rembrandt, but genius all the same through the magnificent power of his +gifts, the continuity of his style, and the importance of his part which +infused blood into a school dying of the anaemia of conventional art. +Whoever beholds a work of Manet's, even without knowing the conditions +of his life, will feel that there is something great, the lion's claw +which Delacroix had recognised as far back as 1861, and to which, it is +said, even the great Ingres had paid homage on the jury which examined +with disgust the _Guitarero_. + +[Illustration: MANET + +PORTRAIT OF MADAME M.L.] + +To-day Manet is considered almost as a classic glory; and the progress +for which he had given the impulse, has been so rapid, that many are +astonished that he should ever have been considered audacious. Sight is +transformed, strife is extinguished, and a large, select public, +familiar with Monet and Renoir, judge Manet almost as a long defunct +initiator. One has to know his admirable life, one has to know well the +incredible inertia of the Salons where he appeared, to give him his full +due. And when, after the acceptance of Impressionism, the unavoidable +reaction will take place, Manet's qualities of solidity, truth and +science will appear such, that he will survive many of those to whom he +has opened the road and facilitated the success at the expense of his +own. It will be seen that Degas and he have, more than the others, and +with less apparent _eclat_, united the gifts which produce durable works +in the midst of the fluctuations of fashion and the caprices of taste +and views. Manet can, at the Louvre or any other gallery, hold his own +in the most crushing surroundings, prove his personal qualities, and +worthily represent a period which he loved. + +An enormous amount has been written on him, from Zola's bold and +intelligent pamphlet in 1865, to the recent work by M. Theodore Duret. +Few men have provoked more comments. In an admirable picture, _Hommage a +Manet_, the delicate and perfect painter Fantin-Latour, a friend from +the first hour, has grouped around the artist some of his admirers, +Monet, Renoir, Duranty, Zola, Bazille, and Braquemond. The picture has +to-day a place of honour at the Luxembourg, where Manet is +insufficiently represented by _Olympia_, a study of a woman, and the +_Balcony_. A collection is much to be desired of his lithographs, his +etchings and his pastels, in which he has proved his diversified +mastery, and also of his portraits of famous contemporaries, Zola, +Rochefort, Desboutin, Proust, Mallarme, Clemenceau, Guys, Faure, +Baudelaire, Moore, and others, an admirable series by a visionary who +possessed, in a period of unrest and artificiality, the quality of rude +sincerity, and the love of truth of a Primitive. + +[Illustration: MANET + +THE HOTHOUSE] + + + + +IV + +EDGAR DEGAS: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + +I have said how vain it is to class artistic temperaments under a title +imposed upon them generally by circumstances and dates, rather than by +their own free will. The study of Degas will furnish additional proof +for it. Classed with the Impressionists, this master participates in +their ideas in the sphere of composition, rather than in that of colour. +He belongs to them through his modernity and comprehension of character. +Only when we come to his quite recent landscapes (1896), can we link him +to Monet and Renoir as colourist, and he has been more their friend than +their colleague. + +Degas is known by the select few, and almost ignored by the public. This +is due to several reasons. Degas has never wished to exhibit at the +Salons, except, I believe, once or twice at the beginning of his +career. He has only shown his works at those special exhibitions +arranged by the Impressionists in hired apartments (rue le Peletier, rue +Laffitte, Boulevard des Capucines), and at some art-dealers. The art of +Degas has never had occasion to shock the public by the exuberance of +its colour, because he restricted himself to grey and quiet harmonies. +Degas is a modest character, fond of silence and solitude, with a horror +of the crowd and of controversies, and almost disinclined to show his +works. He is a man of intelligence and ready wit, whose sallies are +dreaded; he is almost a misanthrope. His pictures have been gradually +sold to foreign countries and dispersed in rich galleries without having +been seen by the public. His character is, in short, absolutely opposed +to that of Manet, who, though he suffered from criticism, thought it his +duty to bid it defiance. Degas's influence has, however, been +considerable, though secretly so, and the young painters have been +slowly inspired by his example. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE BEGGAR WOMAN] + +Degas is beyond all a draughtsman of the first order. His spirit is +quite classical. He commenced by making admirable copies of the Italian +Primitives, notably of Fra Angelico, and the whole first series of his +works speaks of that influence: portraits, heads of deep, mat, amber +colour, on a ground of black or grey tones, remarkable for a severity of +intense style, and for the rare gift of psychological expression. To +find the equal of these faces--after having stated their classic +descent--one would have to turn to the beautiful things by Ingres, and +certainly Degas is, with Ingres, the most learned, the most perfect +French draughtsman of the nineteenth century. An affirmation of this +nature is made to surprise those who judge Impressionism with +preconceived ideas. It is none the less true that, if a series of +Degas's first portraits were collected, the comparison would force +itself upon one's mind irrefutably. In face of the idealist painting of +Romanticism, Ingres represented quite clearly the cult of painting for +its own sake. His ideas were mediocre, and went scarcely beyond the +poor, conventional ideal of the Academy; but his genius was so great, +that it made him paint, together with his tedious allegories, some +incomparable portraits and nudes. He thought he was serving official +Classicism, which still boasts of his name, but in reality he dominated +it; and, whilst he was an imitator of Raphael, he was a powerful +Realist. The Impressionists admire him as such, and agree with him in +banishing from the art of painting all literary imagination, whether it +be the tedious mythology of the School, or the historical anecdote of +the Romanticists. Degas and Besnard admire Ingres as colossal +draughtsman, and, beyond all, as man who, in spite of the limitations of +his mind, preserved the clear vision of the mission of his art at a time +when art was used for the expression of literary conceptions. Who would +have believed it? Yet it is true, and Manet, too, held the same view of +Ingres, little as our present academicians may think it! It happens that +to-day Impressionism is more akin to Ingres than to Delacroix, just as +the young poets are more akin to Racine than to Hugo. They reject the +foreign elements, and search, before anything else, for the strict +national tradition. Degas follows Ingres and resembles him. He is also +reminiscent of the Primitives and of Holbein. There is, in his first +period, the somewhat dry and geometrical perfection, the somewhat heavy +colour which only serves to strengthen the correctness of the planes. At +the Exposition of 1900, there was a Degas which surprised everybody. It +was an _Interior of a cotton factory_ in an American town. This small +picture was curiously clear: it would be impossible to paint better and +with a more accomplished knowledge of the laws of painting. But it was +the work of a soulless, emotionless Realist; it was a coloured +photograph of unheard-of truth, the mathematical science of which left +the beholder cold. This work, which is very old (it dates back to about +1860), gave no idea of what Degas has grown into. It was the work of an +unemotional master of technique; only just the infinitely delicate value +of the greys and blacks revealed the future master of harmony. One +almost might have wished to find a fault in this aggravating perfection. +But Degas was not to remain there, and already, about that time, certain +portraits of his are elevated by an expression of ardent melancholy, by +warm, ivory-like, grave colouring which attracts one's eye. Before this +series one feels the firm will of a very logical, serious, classic +spirit who wants to know thoroughly the intimate resources of design, +before risking to choose from among them the elements which respond best +to his individual nature. If Degas was destined to invent, later on, so +personal a style of design that he could be accused of "drawing badly," +this first period of his life is before us, to show the slow maturing of +his boldness and how carefully he first proved to himself his knowledge, +before venturing upon new things. In art the difficulty is, when one has +learnt everything, to forget,--that is, to appear to forget, so as to +create one's own style, and this apparent forgetting cloaks an +amalgamation of science with mind. And Degas is one of those patient and +reticent men who spend years in arriving at this; he has much in common +with Hokusai, the old man "mad with painting," who at the close of his +prodigious life invented arbitrary forms, after having given immortal +examples of his interpretation of the real. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE LESSON IN THE FOYER] + +Degas is also clearly related to Corot, not only in the silvery +harmonies of his suave landscapes, but also, and particularly, in his +admirable faces whose inestimable power and moving sincerity we have +hardly commenced to understand. Degas passed slowly from classicism to +modernity. He never liked outbursts of colour; he is by no means an +Impressionist from this point of view. As a draughtsman of genius he +expresses all by the precision of the planes and values; a grey, a black +and some notes of colour suffice for him. This might establish a link +between him and Whistler, though he is much less mysterious and diffuse. +Whenever Degas plays with colour, it is with the same restraint of his +boldness; he never goes to excess in abandoning himself to its charm. He +is neither lyrical, nor voluptuous; his energy is cold; his wise spirit +affirms soberly the true character of a face or an object. + +Since a long time this spirit has moved Degas to revel in the +observation of contemporary life. His nature has been that of a patient +psychologist, a minute analyst, and also of a bitter ironist. The man is +very little known. His friends say that he has an easily ruffled +delicacy, a sensibility open to poetry, but jealous of showing its +emotion. They say that Degas's satirical bitterness is the reverse side +of a soul wounded by the spectacle of modern morality. One feels this +sentiment in his work, where the sharp notation of truth is painful, +where the realism is opposed by colouring of a sober distinction, where +nothing, not even the portrait of a drab, could be vulgar. Degas has +devoted himself to the profound study of certain classes of women, in +the state of mind of a philosopher and physiologist, impartially +inclined towards life. + +His work can be divided into several great series: the race-courses, the +ballet-dancers, and the women bathing count among the most important. +The race-courses have inspired Degas with numerous pictures. He shows in +them a surprising knowledge of the horse. He is one of the most perfect +painters of horses who have ever existed. He has caught the most curious +and truest actions with infallible sureness of sight. His racecourse +scenes are full of vitality and picturesqueness. Against clear skies, +and light backgrounds of lawn, indicated with quiet harmony, Degas +assembles original groups of horses which one can see moving, +hesitating, intensely alive; and nothing could be fresher, gayer and +more deliciously pictorial, than the green, red and yellow notes of the +jockey's costumes strewn like flowers over these atmospheric, luminous +landscapes, where colours do not clash, but are always gently +shimmering, dissolved in uniform clearness. The admirable drawing of +horses and men is so precise and seems so simple, that one can only +slowly understand the extent of the difficulty overcome, the truth of +these attitudes and the nervous delicacy of the execution. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE DANCING LESSON--PASTEL] + +The dancers go much further still in the expression of Degas's +temperament. They have been studied at the _foyer_ of the Opera and at +the rehearsal, sometimes in groups, sometimes isolated. Some pictures +which will always count among the masterpieces of the nineteenth +century, represent the whole _corps de ballet_ performing on the stage +before a dark and empty house. By the feeble light of some lamps the +black coats of the stage managers mix themselves with the gauze skirts. +Here the draughtsman joins the great colourist: the petticoats of pink +or white tulle, the graceful legs covered with flesh-coloured silk, the +arms and the shoulders, and the hair crowned with flowers, offer +motives of exquisite colour and of a tone of living flowers. But the +psychologist does not lose his rights: not only does he amuse himself +with noting the special movements of the dancers, but he also notes the +anatomical defects. He shows with cruel frankness, with a strange love +of modern character, the strong legs, the thin shoulders, and the +provoking and vulgar heads of these frequently ugly girls of common +origin. With the irony of an entomologist piercing the coloured insect +he shows us the disenchanting reality in the sad shadow of the scenes, +of these butterflies who dazzle us on the stage. He unveils the reverse +side of a dream without, however, caricaturing; he raises even, under +the imperfection of the bodies, the animal grace of the organisms; he +has the severe beauty of the true. He gives to his groups of +ballet-dancers the charming line of garlands and restores to them a +harmony in the _ensemble_, so as to prove that he does not misjudge the +charm conferred upon them by rhythm, however defective they may be +individually. At other times he devotes himself to the study of their +practice. In bare rooms with curtainless windows, in the cold and sad +light of the boxes, he passionately draws the dancers learning their +steps, reaching high bars with the tips of their toes, forcing +themselves into quaint poses in order to make themselves more supple, +manoeuvring to the sound of a fiddle scratched by an old teacher--and he +leaves us stupefied at the knowledge, the observation, the talent +profusely spent on these little pictures. Furthermore there are humorous +scenes: ballet-dancers chatting in the dark with _habitues_ of the +Opera, others looking at the house through the small opening of the +curtain, others re-tying their shoe-laces, and they all are prodigious +drawings of movement anatomically as correct as they are unexpected. +Degas's old style of drawing undergoes modification: with the help of +slight deformations, accentuations of the modelling and subtle +falsifications of the proportions, managed with infinite tact and +knowledge, the artist brings forth in relief the important gesture, +subordinating to it all the others. He attempts _drawing by movement_ as +it is caught by our eyes in life, where they do not state the +proportions, but first of all the gesture which strikes them. In these +drawings by Degas all the lines follow the impulsion of the thought. +What one sees first, is the movement transmitted to the members by the +will. The active part of the body is more carefully studied than the +rest, which is indicated by bold foreshortenings, placed in the second +plane, and apparently only serves to throw into relief the raised arm or +leg. This is no longer merely _exact_, it is _true_; it is a superior +degree of truth. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +THE DANCERS] + +These pictures of dancers are psychologic documents of great value. The +physical and moral atmosphere of these surroundings is called forth by a +master. Such and such a figure or attitude tells us more about Parisian +life than a whole novel, and Degas has been lavish of his intellect and +his philosophy of bitter scepticism. But they are also marvellous +pictorial studies which, in spite of the special, anecdotal subjects, +rise to the level of grand painting through sheer power of +draughtsmanship and charm of tone. Degas has the special quality of +giving the precise sensation of the third dimension. The atmosphere +circulates round his figures; you walk round them; you see them in their +real plane, and they present themselves in a thousand unexpected +arrangements. Degas is undoubtedly the one man of his age who has most +contributed towards infusing new life into the representation of human +figures: in this respect his pictures resemble no one else's. The same +qualities will be found in his series of women bathing. These interiors, +where the actions of the bathers are caught amidst the stuffs, flowered +cushions, linen, sponges and tubs, are sharp visions of modernity. Degas +observes here, with the tenacious perfection of his talent, the +slightest shiver of the flesh refreshed by cold water. His masterly +drawing follows the most delicate inflexion of the muscles and suggests +the nervous system under the skin. He observes with extraordinary +subtlety the awkwardness of the nude being at a time when nudity is no +longer accustomed to show itself, and this true nudity is in strong +contrast to that of the academicians. One might say of Degas that he has +the disease of truth, if the necessity of truth were not health itself! +These bodies are still marked with the impressions of the garments; the +movements remain those of a clothed being which is only nude as an +exception. The painter notices beauty, but he looks for it particularly +in the profound characterisation of the types which he studies, and his +pastels have the massiveness and the sombre style of bronze. He has also +painted cafe-scenes, prostitutes and supers, with a mocking and sad +energy; he has even amused himself with painting washerwomen, to +translate the movements of the women of the people. And his colour with +its pearly whites, subdued blues and delicate greys, always elevates +everything he does, and confers upon him a distinctive style. + +Finally, about 1896, Degas has revealed himself as a dreamy landscapist. +His recent landscapes are symphonies in colours of strange harmony and +hallucinations of rare tones, resembling music rather than painting. It +is perhaps in these pictures that he has revealed certain dreams +hitherto jealously hidden. + +And now I must speak of his technique. It is very singular and varied, +and one of the most complicated in existence. In his first works, which +are apparently as simple as Corot's, he does not employ the process of +colour-spots. But many of the works in his second manner are a +combination of drawing, painting and pastel. He has invented a kind of +engraving mixed with wash-drawing, pastel crayon crushed with brushes of +special pattern. Here one can find again his meticulous spirit. He has +many of the qualities of the scientist; he is as much chemist as +painter. It has been said of him, that he was a great artist of the +decadence. This is materially inexact, since his qualities of +draughtsmanship are those of a superb Classicist, and his colouring of +very pure taste. But the spirit of his work, his love of exact detail, +his exaggerated psychological refinement, are certainly the signs of an +extremely alert intellect who regards life prosaically and with a +lassitude and disenchantment which are only consoled by the passion for +truth. Certain water-colours of his heightened by pastel, and certain +landscapes, are somewhat disconcerting through the preciousness of his +method; others are surprisingly spontaneous. All his work has an +undercurrent of thought. In short, this Realist is almost a mystic. He +has observed a limited section of humanity, but what he has seen has not +been seen so profoundly by anybody else. + +[Illustration: DEGAS + +HORSES IN THE MEADOWS] + +Degas has exercised an occult, but very serious, influence. He has lived +alone, without pupils and almost without friends; the only pupils one +might speak of are the caricaturist Forain, who has painted many small +pictures inspired by him, and the excellent American lady-artist Miss +Mary Cassatt. But all modern draughtsmen have been taught a lesson by +his painting: Renouard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Steinlen have been +impressed by it, and the young generation considers Degas as a master. +And that is also the unexpressed idea of the academicians, and +especially of those who have sufficient talent to be able to appreciate +all the science and power of such an art. The writer of this book +happened one day to mention Degas's name before a member of the +Institute. "What!" exclaimed he, "you know him? Why didn't you speak to +me about him?" And when he received the reply, that I did not consider +Degas to be an agreeable topic for him, the illustrious official +answered vivaciously, "But do you think I am a fool, and that I do not +know that Degas is one of the greatest draughtsmen who have ever +lived?"--"Why, then, my dear sir, has he never been received at the +Salons, and not even been decorated at the age of sixty-five?"--"Ah," +replied the Academician a little angrily, "that is another matter!" + +Degas despises glory. It is believed that he has by him a number of +canvases which will have to be burnt after his death in accordance with +his will. He is a man who has loved his art like a mistress, with +jealous passion, and has sacrificed to it all that other +artists--enthusiasts even--are accustomed to reserve for their personal +interest. Degas, the incomparable pastellist, the faultless draughtsman, +the bitter, satirical, pessimistic genius, is an isolated phenomenon in +his period, a grand creator, unattached to his time. The painters and +the select few among art-lovers know what considerable force there is in +him. Though almost latent as yet, it will reveal itself brilliantly, +when an opportunity arises for bringing together the vast quantity of +his work. As is the case with Manet, though in a different sense, his +powerful classic qualities will become most prominent in this ordeal, +and this classicism has never abandoned him in his audacities. To Degas +is due a new method of observation in drawing. He will have been the +first to study the relation between the moving lines of a living being +and the immovable lines of the scene which serves as its setting; the +first, also, to define drawing, not as a graphic science, but as the +valuation of the third dimension, and thus to apply to painting the +principles hitherto reserved for sculpture. Finally, he will be counted +among the great analysts. His vision, tenacious, intense, and sombre, +stimulates thought: across what appears to be the most immediate and +even the most vulgar reality it reaches a grand, artistic style; it +states profoundly the facts of life, it condenses a little the human +soul: and this will suffice to secure for Degas an important place in +his epoch, a little apart from Impressionism. Without noise, and through +the sheer charm of his originality, he has contributed his share towards +undermining the false doctrines of academic art before the painters, as +Manet has undermined them before the public. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +AN INTERIOR, AFTER DINNER] + + + + +V + +CLAUDE MONET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE + + +With Claude Monet we enter upon Impressionism in its most significant +technical expression, and touch upon the principal points referred to in +the second chapter of this book. + +Claude Monet, the artistic descendant of Claude Lorrain, Turner, and +Monticelli, has had the merit and the originality of opening a new road +to landscape painting by deducing scientific statements from the study +of the laws of light. His work is a magnificent verification of the +optical discoveries made by Helmholtz and Chevreul. It is born +spontaneously from the artist's vision, and happens to be a rigorous +demonstration of principles which the painter has probably never cared +to know. Through the power of his faculties the artist has happened to +join hands with the scientist. His work supplies not only the very +basis of the Impressionist movement proper, but of all that has followed +it and will follow it in the study of the so-called chromatic laws. It +will serve to give, so to say, a mathematic necessity to the happy finds +met by the artists hitherto, and it will also serve to endow decorative +art and mural painting with a process, the applications of which are +manyfold and splendid. + +I have already summed up the ideas which follow from Claude Monet's +painting more clearly even than from Manet's. Suppression of local +colour, study of reflections by means of complementary colours and +division of tones by the process of touches of pure, juxtaposed +colours--these are the essential principles of _chromatism_ (for this +word should be used instead of the very vague term "Impressionism"). +Claude Monet has applied them systematically, especially in landscape +painting. + +There are a few portraits of his, which show that he might have made an +excellent figure painter, if landscape had not absorbed him entirely. +One of these portraits, a large full-length of a lady with a fur-lined +jacket and a satin dress with green and black stripes, would in itself +be sufficient to save from oblivion the man who has painted it. But the +study of light upon the figure has been the special preoccupation of +Manet, Renoir, and Pissarro, and, after the Impressionists, of the great +lyricist, Albert Besnard, who has concentrated the Impressionist +qualities by placing them at the service of a very personal conception +of symbolistic art. Monet commenced with trying to find his way by +painting figures, then landscapes and principally sea pictures and boats +in harbours, with a somewhat sombre robustness and very broad and solid +draughtsmanship. His first luminous studies date back to about 1885. +Obedient to the same ideas as Degas he had to avoid the Salons and only +show his pictures gradually in private galleries. For years he remained +unknown. It is only giving M. Durand-Ruel his due, to state that he was +one of the first to anticipate the Impressionist school and to buy the +first works of these painters, who were treated as madmen and +charlatans. He has become great with them, and has made his fortune and +theirs through having had confidence in them, and no fortune has been +better deserved. Thirty years ago nobody would have bought pictures by +Degas or Monet, which are sold to-day for a thousand pounds. This detail +is only mentioned to show the evolution of Impressionism as regards +public opinion. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +THE HARBOUR, HONFLEUR] + +So much has Monet been attracted by the analysis of the laws of light +that he has made light the real subject of all his pictures, and to show +clearly his intention he has treated one and the same site in a series +of pictures painted from nature at all hours of the day. This is the +principle whose results are the great divisions of his work which might +be called "Investigation of the variations of sunlight." The most famous +of these series are the _Hay-ricks_, the _Poplars_, the _Cliffs of +Etretat_, the _Golfe Juan_, the _Coins de Riviere_, the _Cathedrals_, +the _Water-lilies_, and finally the _Thames_ series which Monet is at +present engaged upon. They are like great poems, and the splendour of +the chosen theme, the orchestration of the shivers of brightness, the +symphonic _parti-pris_ of the colours, make their realism, the minute +contemplation of reality, approach idealism and lyric dreaming. + +Monet paints these series from nature. He is said to take with him in a +carriage at sunrise some twenty canvases which he changes from hour to +hour, taking them up again the next day. He notes, for example, from +nine to ten o'clock the most subtle effects of sunlight upon a hay-rick; +at ten o'clock he passes on to another canvas and recommences the study +until eleven o'clock. Thus he follows step by step the modifications of +the atmosphere until nightfall, and finishes simultaneously the works of +the whole series. He has painted a hay-stack in a field twenty times +over, and the twenty hay-stacks are all different. He exhibits them +together, and one can follow, led by the magic of his brush, the history +of light playing upon one and the same object. It is a dazzling display +of luminous atoms, a kind of pantheistic evocation. Light is certainly +the essential personage who devours the outlines of the objects, and is +thrown like a translucent veil between our eyes and matter. One can see +the vibrations of the waves of the solar spectrum, drawn by the +arabesque of the spots of the seven prismatic hues juxtaposed with +infinite subtlety; and this vibration is that of heat, of atmospheric +vitality. The silhouettes melt into the sky; the shadows are lights +where certain tones, the blue, the purple, the green and the orange, +predominate, and it is the proportional quantity of the spots that +differentiates in our eyes the shadows from what we call the lights, +just as it actually happens in optic science. There are some midday +scenes by Claude Monet, where every material silhouette--tree, hay-rick, +or rock--is annihilated, volatilised in the fiery vibration of the dust +of sunlight, and before which the beholder gets really blinded, just as +he would in actual sunlight. Sometimes even there are no more shadows at +all, nothing that could serve to indicate the values and to create +contrasts of colours. Everything is light, and the painter seems easily +to overcome those terrible difficulties, lights upon lights, thanks to a +gift of marvellous subtlety of sight. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +THE CHURCH AT VARENGEVILLE] + +Generally he finds a very simple _motif_ sufficient; a hay-rick, some +slender trunks rising skywards, or a cluster of shrubs. But he also +proves himself as powerful draughtsman when he attacks themes of greater +complexity. Nobody knows as he does how to place a rock amidst +tumultuous waves, how to make one understand the enormous construction +of a cliff which fills the whole canvas, how to give the sensation of a +cluster of pines bent by the wind, how to throw a bridge across a river, +or how to express the massiveness of the soil under a summer sun. All +this is constructed with breadth, truth and force under the delicious or +fiery symphony of the luminous atoms. The most unexpected tones play in +the foliage. On close inspection we are astonished to find it striped +with orange, red, blue and yellow touches, but seen at a certain +distance the freshness of the green foliage appears to be represented +with infallible truth. The eye recomposes what the brush has +dissociated, and one finds oneself perplexed at all the science, all the +secret order which has presided over this accumulation of spots which +seem projected in a furious shower. It is a veritable orchestral piece, +where every colour is an instrument with a distinct part, and where the +hours with their different tints represent the successive themes. Monet +is the equal of the greatest landscape painters as regards the +comprehension of the true character of every soil he has studied, which +is the supreme quality of his art. Though absorbed beyond all by study +of the sunlight, he has thought it useless to go to Morocco or Algeria. +He has found Brittany, Holland, the _Ile de France_, the _Cote d'Azur_ +and England sufficient sources of inspiration for his symphonies, which +cover from end to end the scale of perceptible colours. He has +expressed, for instance, the mild and vaporous softness of the +Mediterranean, the luxuriant vegetation of the gardens of Cannes and +Antibes, with a truthfulness and knowledge of the psychology of land and +water which can only be properly appreciated by those who live in this +enchanted region. This has not prevented him from understanding better +than anybody the wildness, the grand austereness of the rocks of +_Belle-Isle en mer_, to express it in pictures in which one really feels +the wind, the spray, and the roaring of the heavy waters breaking +against the impassibility of the granite rocks. His recent series of +_Water-lilies_ expressed all the melancholic and fresh charm of quiet +basins, of sweet bits of water blocked by rushes and calyxes. He has +painted underwoods in the autumn, where the most subtle shades of +bronze and gold are at play, chrysanthemums, pheasants, roofs at +twilight, dazzling sunflowers, gardens, tulip-fields in Holland, +bouquets, effects of snow and hoar frost of exquisite softness, and +sailing boats passing in the sun. He has painted some views of the banks +of the Seine which are quite wonderful in their power of conjuring up +these scenes, and over all this has roved his splendid vision of a +great, amorous and radiant colourist. The _Cathedrals_ are even more of +a _tour de force_ of his talent. They consist of seventeen studies of +Rouen Cathedral, the towers of which fill the whole of the picture, +leaving barely a little space, a little corner of the square, at the +foot of the enormous stone-shafts which mount to the very top of the +picture. Here he has no proper means to express the play of the +reflections, no changeful waters or foliage: the grey stone, worn by +time and blackened by centuries, is for seventeen times the monochrome, +the thankless theme upon which the painter is about to exercise his +vision. But Monet finds means of making the most dazzling atmospheric +harmonies sparkle upon this stone. Pale and rosy at sunrise, purple at +midday, glowing in the evening under the rays of the setting sun, +standing out from the crimson and gold, scarcely visible in the mist, +the colossal edifice impresses itself upon the eye, reconstructed with +its thousand details of architectural chiselling, drawn without +minuteness but with superb decision, and these pictures approach the +composite, bold and rich tone of Oriental carpets. + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +POPLARS ON THE EPTE IN AUTUMN] + +Monet excels also in suggesting the _drawing of light_, if I may venture +to use this expression. He makes us understand the movement of the +vibrations of heat, the movement of the luminous waves; he also +understands how to paint the sensation of strong wind. "Before one of +Manet's pictures," said Mme. Morisot, "I always know which way to +incline my umbrella." Monet is also an incomparable painter of water. +Pond, river, or sea--he knows how to differentiate their colouring, +their consistency, and their currents, and he transfixes a moment of +their fleeting life. He is intuitive to an exceptional degree in the +intimate composition of matter, water, earth, stone or air, and this +intuition serves him in place of intellectuality in his art. He is a +painter _par excellence_, a man born for painting, and this power of +penetrating the secrets of matter and of light helps him to attain a +kind of grand, unconsciously lyrical poetry. He transposes the immediate +truth of our vision and elevates it to decorative grandeur. If Manet is +the realist-romanticist of Impressionism, if Degas is its psychologist, +Claude Monet is its lyrical pantheist. + +His work is immense. He produces with astonishing rapidity, and he has +yet another characteristic of the great painters: that of having put his +hand to every kind of subject. His recent studies of the Thames are, at +the decline of his energetic maturity, as beautiful and as spontaneous +as the _Hay-ricks_ of seventeen years back. They are thrillingly +truthful visions of fairy mists, where showers of silver and gold +sparkle through rosy vapours; and at the same time Monet combines in +this series the dream-landscapes of Turner with Monticelli's +accumulation of precious stones. Thus interpreted by this intense +faculty of synthesis, nature, simplified in detail and contemplated in +its grand lines, becomes truly a living dream. + +Since the _Hay-ricks_ one can say that the work of Claude Monet is +glorious. It has been made sacred to the admiring love of the +connoisseurs on the day when Monet joined Rodin in an exhibition which +is famous in the annals of modern art. Yet no official distinction has +intervened to recognise one of the greatest painters of the nineteenth +century. The influence of Monet has been enormous all over Europe and +America. The _process of colour spots_[1] (let us adhere to this +rudimentary name which has become current) has been adopted by a whole +crowd of painters. I shall have to say a few words about it at the end +of this book. But it is befitting to terminate this all too short study +by explaining that the most lyrical of the Impressionists has also been +the theorist _par excellence_. His work connects easel painting with +mural painting. No Minister of Fine Arts has been found, who would +surmount the systematic opposition of the official painters, and give +Manet a commission for grand mural compositions, for which his method is +admirably suited. It has taken long years before such works were +entrusted to Besnard, who, with Puvis de Chavannes, has given Paris +her most beautiful modern decorations, but Besnard's work is the direct +outcome of Claude Monet's harmonies. The principle of the division of +tones and of the study of complementary colours has been full of +revelations, and one of the most fruitful theories. It has probably been +the principle which will designate most clearly the originality of the +painting of the future. To have invented it, is enough to secure +permanent glory for a man. And without wishing to put again the question +of the antagonism of realism and idealism, one may well say that a +painter who invents a method and shows such power, is highly +intellectual and gifted with a pictorial intelligence. Whatever the +subjects he treats, he creates an aesthetic emotion equivalent, if not +similar, to those engendered by the most complex symbolism. In his +ardent love of nature Monet has found his greatness; he suggests the +secrets by stating the evident facts. That is the law common to all the +arts. + +[Footnote 1: _Procede de la tache._] + +[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET + +THE BRIDGE AT ARGENTEUIL] + + + + +VI + +AUGUSTE RENOIR AND HIS WORK + + +The work of Auguste Renoir extends without interruption over a period of +forty years. It appears to sum up the ideas and methods of Impressionist +art so completely that, should it alone be saved from a general +destruction, it would suffice to bear witness to this entire art +movement. It has unfolded itself from 1865 to our days with a happy +magnificence, and it allows us to distinguish several periods, in the +technique at least, since the variety of its subjects is infinite. Like +Manet, and like all truly great and powerful painters, M. Renoir has +treated almost everything, nudes, portraits, subject pictures, seascapes +and still-life, all with equal beauty. + +His first manner shows him to be a very direct descendant of Boucher. +His female nudes are altogether in eighteenth century taste and he uses +the same technique as Boucher: fat and sleek paint of soft brilliancy, +laid on with the palette knife, with precise strokes round the principal +values; pink and ivory tints relieved by strong blues similar to those +of enamels; the light distributed everywhere and almost excluding the +opposition of the shadows; and, finally, vivacious attitudes and an +effort towards decorative convention. Nevertheless, his _Bathers_, of +which he has painted a large series, are in many ways thoroughly modern +and personal. Renoir's nude is neither that of Monet, nor of Degas, +whose main concern was truth, the last-named even trying to define in +the undressed being such psychologic observations as are generally +looked for in the features of the clothed being. Nor is Renoir's nude +that of the academicians, that poetised nude arranged according to a +pseudo-Greek ideal, which has nothing in common with contemporary women. +What Renoir sees in the nude is less the line, than the brilliancy of +the epidermis, the luminous, nacreous substance of the flesh: it is the +"ideal clay"; and in this he shows the vision of a poet; he transfigures +reality, but in a very different sense from that of the School. +Renoir's woman comes from a primitive dream-land; she is an artless, +wild creature, blooming in perfumed scrub. He sets her in backgrounds of +foliage or of blue, foam-fringed torrents. She is a luxuriant, firm, +healthy and naive woman with a powerful body, a small head, her eyes +wide open, thoughtless, brilliant and ignorant, her lips blood-red and +her nostrils dilated; she is a gentle being, like the women of Tahiti, +born in a tropical clime where vice is as unknown as shame, and where +entire ingenuousness is a guarantee against all indecency. One cannot +but be astonished at this mixture of "Japanism," savagism and eighteenth +century taste, which constitutes inimitably the nude of Renoir. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +DEJEUNER] + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +IN THE BOX] + +M. Renoir's second manner is more directly related to the Impressionist +methods: it is that of his landscapes, his flowers and his portraits. +Here one can feel his relationship with Manet and with Claude Monet. +These pictures are hatchings of colours accumulated to render less the +objects than their transparency across the atmosphere. The portraits are +frankly presented and broadly executed. The artist occupies himself in +the first place with getting correct values and an exact suggestion of +depth. He understands the illogicality of a false perfection which is as +interested in a trinket as in an eye, and he knows how to proportion the +interest of the picture which should guide the beholder's look to the +essential point, though every part should be correctly executed. He +knows how to interpret nature in a certain sense; how to stop in time; +how to suggest by leaving a part apparently unfinished; how to indicate, +behind a figure, the sea or some landscape with just a few broad touches +which suffice to suggest it without usurping the principal part. It is +now, that Renoir paints his greatest works, the _Dejeuner des +Canotiers_, the _Bal au Moulin de la Galette_, the _Box_, the _Terrace_, +the _First Step_, the _Sleeping Woman with a Cat_, and his most +beautiful landscapes; but his nature is too capricious to be satisfied +with a single technique. There are some landscapes that are reminiscent +of Corot or of Anton Mauve; the _Woman with the broken neck_ is related +to Manet; the portrait of _Sisley_ invents pointillism fifteen years +before the pointillists; _La Pensee_, this masterpiece, evokes +Hoppner. But in everything reappears the invincible French instinct: the +_Jeune Fille au panier_ is a Greuze painted by an Impressionist; the +delightful _Jeune Fille a la promenade_ is connected with Fragonard; the +_Box_, a perfect marvel of elegance and knowledge, condenses the whole +worldliness of 1875. The portrait of _Jeanne Samary_ is an evocation of +the most beautiful portraits of the eighteenth century, a poem of white +satin and golden hair. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +YOUNG GIRL PROMENADING] + +Renoir's realism bears in spite of all, the imprint of the lyric spirit +and of sweetness. It has neither the nervous veracity of Manet, nor the +bitterness of Degas, who both love their epoch and find it interesting +without idealising it and who have the vision of psychologist novelists. +Before everything else he is a painter. What he sees in the _Bal au +Moulin de la Galette_, are not the stigmata of vice and impudence, the +ridiculous and the sad sides of the doubtful types of this low resort. +He sees the gaiety of Sundays, the flashes of the sun, the oddity of a +crowd carried away by the rhythm of the valses, the laughter, the +clinking of glasses, the vibrating and hot atmosphere; and he applies +to this spectacle of joyous vulgarity his gifts as a sumptuous +colourist, the arabesque of the lines, the gracefulness of his bathers, +and the happy eurythmy of his soul. The straw hats are changed into +gold, the blue jackets are sapphires, and out of a still exact realism +is born a poem of light. The _Dejeuner des Canotiers_ is a subject which +has been painted a hundred times, either for the purpose of studying +popular types, or of painting white table-cloths amidst sunny foliage. +Yet Renoir is the only painter who has raised this small subject to the +proportions and the style of a large canvas, through the pictorial charm +and the masterly richness of the arrangement. The _Box_, conceived in a +low harmony, in a golden twilight, is a work worthy of Reynolds. The +pale and attentive face of the lady makes one think of the great English +master's best works; the necklace, the flesh, the flounce of lace and +the hands are marvels of skill and of taste, which the greatest modern +virtuosos, Sargent and Besnard, have not surpassed, and, as far as the +man in the background is concerned, his white waistcoat, his +dress-coat, his gloved hand would suffice to secure the fame of a +painter. The _Sleeping Woman_, the _First Step_, the _Terrace_, and the +decorative _Dance_ panels reveal Renoir as an _intimiste_ and as an +admirable painter of children. His strange colouring and his gifts of +grasping nature and of ingenuity--strangers to all decadent +complexity--have allowed him to rank among the best of those who have +expressed childhood in its true aspect, without overloading it with +over-precocious thoughts. Finally, Renoir is a painter of flowers of +dazzling variety and exquisite splendour. They supply him with +inexhaustible pretexts for suave and subtle harmonies. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +WOMAN'S BUST] + +His third manner has surprised and deceived certain admirers of his. It +seems to mix his two first techniques, combining the painting with the +palette knife and the painting in touches of divided tones. He searches +for certain accords and contrasts almost analogous to the musical +dissonances. He realises incredible "false impressions." He seems to +take as themes oriental carpets: he abandons realism and style and +conceives symphonies. He pleases himself in assembling those tones +which one is generally afraid of using: Turkish pink, lemon, crushed +strawberry and viridian. Sometimes he amuses himself with amassing faded +colours which would be disheartening with others, but out of which he +can extract a harmony. Sometimes he plays with the crudest colours. One +feels disturbed, charmed, disconcerted, as one would before an Indian +shawl, a barbaric piece of pottery or a Persian miniature, and one +refrains from forcing into the limits of a definition this exceptional +virtuoso whose passionate love of colour overcomes every difficulty. It +is in this most recent part of his evolution, that Renoir appears the +most capricious and the most poetical of all the painters of his +generation. The flowers find themselves treated in various techniques +according to their own character: the gladioles and roses in pasty +paint, the poor flowers of the field are defined by a cross-hatching of +little touches. Influenced by the purple shadow of the large +flower-decked hats, the heads of young girls are painted on coarse +canvas, sketched in broad strokes, with the hair in one colour only. +Some little study appears like wool, some other has the air of agate, +or is marbled and veined according to his inexplicable whim. We have +here an incessant confusion of methods, a complete emancipation of the +virtuoso who listens only to his fancy. Now and then the harmonies are +false and the drawing incorrect, but these weaknesses do at least no +harm to the values, the character and the general movement of the work, +which are rather accentuated by them. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +YOUNG WOMAN IN EMPIRE COSTUME] + +Surely, it would be false to exclude ideologist painting which has +produced wonders, and not less iniquitous to reproach Impressionism with +not having taken any interest in it! One has to avoid the kind of +criticism which consists in reproaching one movement with not having had +the qualities of the others whilst maintaining its own, and we have +abandoned the idea of Beauty divided into a certain number of clauses +and programmes, towards the sum total of which the efforts of the +eclectic candidates are directed. M. Renoir is probably the most +representative figure of a movement where he seems to have united all +the qualities of his friends. To criticise him means to criticise +Impressionism itself. Having spent half of its strength in proving to +its adversaries that they were wrong, and the other half in inventing +technical methods, it is not surprising to find that Impressionism has +been wanting in intellectual depth and has left to its successors the +care of realising works of great thought. But it has brought us a sunny +smile, a breath of pure air. It is so fascinating, that one cannot but +love its very mistakes which make it more human and more accessible. +Renoir is the most lyrical, the most musical, the most subtle of the +masters of this art. Some of his landscapes are as beautiful as those of +Claude Monet. His nudes are as masterly in painting as Manet's, and more +supple. Not having attained the scientific drawing which one finds in +Degas's, they have a grace and a brilliancy which Degas's nudes have +never known. If his rare portraits of men are inferior to those of his +rivals, his women's portraits have a frequently superior distinction. +His great modern compositions are equal to the most beautiful works by +Manet and Degas. His inequalities are also more striking than theirs. +Being a fantastic, nervous improvisator he is more exposed to radical +mistakes. But he is a profoundly sincere and conscientious artist. + +[Illustration: RENOIR + +ON THE TERRACE] + +The race speaks in him. It is inexplicable that he should not have met +with startling success, since he is voluptuous, bright, happy and +learned without heaviness. One has to attribute his relative isolation +to the violence of the controversies, and particularly to the dignity of +a poet gently disdainful of public opinion and paying attention solely +to painting, his great and only love. Manet has been a fighter whose +works have created scandal. Renoir has neither shown, nor hidden +himself: he has painted according to his dream, spreading his works, +without mixing up his name or his personality with the tumult that raged +around his friends. And now, for that very reason, his work appears +fresher and younger, more primitive and candid, more intoxicated with +flowers, flesh and sunlight. + + + + +VII + +THE SECONDARY PAINTERS OF IMPRESSIONISM--CAMILLE PISSARRO, ALFRED +SISLEY, PAUL CEZANNE, BERTHE MORISOT, MISS MARY CASSATT, EVA GONZALES, +GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE, BAZILLE, ALBERT LEBOURG, EUGENE BOUDIN. + + +Manet, Degas, Monet and Renoir will present themselves as a glorious +quartet of masters, in the history of painting. We must now speak of +some personalities who have grown up by their side and who, without +being great, offer nevertheless a rich and beautiful series of works. + +Of these personalities the most considerable is certainly that of M. +Camille Pissarro. He painted according to some wise and somewhat timid +formulas, when Manet's example won him over to Impressionism to which he +has remained faithful. M. Pissarro has been enormously productive. His +work is composed of landscapes, rustic scenes, and studies of streets +and markets. His first landscapes are in the manner of Corot, but bathed +in blond colour: vast cornfields, sunny woods, skies with big, flocking +clouds, effects of soft light--these are the motifs of some charming +canvases which have a solid, classic quality. Later the artist adopted +the method of the dissociation of tones, from which he obtained some +happy effects. His harvest and market scenes are luminous and alive. The +figures in these recall those of Millet. They bear witness to high +qualities of sincere observation, and are the work of a man profoundly +enamoured of rustic life. M. Pissarro excels in grouping the figures, in +correctly catching their attitudes and in rendering the medley of a +crowd in the sun. Certain fans in particular will always remain +delightful caprices of fresh colour, but it would be vain to look in +this attractive, animated and clear painting for the psychologic gifts, +the profound feeling for grand silhouettes, and the intuition of the +worn and gloomy soul of the men of the soil, which have made Millet's +noble glory. At the time when, about 1885, the neo-Impressionists whom +we shall study later on invented the Pointillist method, M. Pissarro +tried it and applied it judiciously, with the patient, serious and +slightly anxious talent, by which he is distinguished. Recently, in a +series of pictures representing views of Paris (the boulevards and the +Avenue de l'Opera) M. Pissarro has shewn rare vision and skill and has +perhaps signed his most beautiful and personal paintings. The +perspective, the lighting, the tones of the houses and of the crowds, +the reflections of rain or sunshine are intensely true; they make one +feel the atmosphere, the charm and the soul of Paris. One can say of +Pissarro that he lacks none of the gifts of his profession. He is a +learned, fruitful and upright artist. But he has lacked originality; he +always recalls those whom he admires and whose ideas he applies boldly +and tastefully. It is probable that his conscientious nature has +contributed not little towards keeping him in the second rank. +Incapable, certainly, of voluntarily imitating, this excellent and +diligent painter has not had the sparks of genius of his friends, but +all that can be given to a man through conscientious study, striving +after truth and love of art, has been acquired by M. Pissarro. The rest +depended on destiny only. There is no character more worthy of respect +and no effort more meritorious than his, and there can be no better +proof of his disinterestedness and his modesty, than the fact that, +although he has thirty years of work behind him, an honoured name and +white hair, M. Pissarro did not hesitate to adopt, quite frankly, the +technique of the young Pointillist painters, his juniors, because it +appeared to him better than his own. He is, if not a great painter, at +least one of the most interesting rustic landscape painters of our +epoch. His visions of the country are quite his own, and are a +harmonious mixture of Classicism and Impressionism which will secure one +of the most honourable places to his work. + +[Illustration: PISSARRO + +RUE DE L'EPICERIE, ROUEN] + +[Illustration: PISSARRO + +BOULEVARDE MONTMARTRE] + +[Illustration: PISSARRO + +THE BOILDIEAUX BRIDGE AT ROUEN] + +[Illustration: PISSARO + +THE AVENUE DE L'OPERA] + +There has, perhaps, been more original individuality in the landscape +painter Alfred Sisley. He possessed in the highest degree the feeling +for light, and if he did not have the power, the masterly passion of +Claude Monet, he will at least deserve to be frequently placed by his +side as regards the expression of certain combinations of light. He did +not have the decorative feeling which makes Monet's landscapes so +imposing; one does not see in his work that surprising lyrical +interpretation which knows how to express the drama of the raging waves, +the heavy slumber of enormous masses of rock, the intense torpor of the +sun on the sea. But in all that concerns the mild aspects of the _Ile de +France_, the sweet and fresh landscapes, Sisley is not unworthy of being +compared with Monet. He equals him in numerous pictures; he has a +similar delicacy of perception, a similar fervour of execution. He is +the painter of great, blue rivers curving towards the horizon; of +blossoming orchards; of bright hills with red-roofed hamlets scattered +about; he is, beyond all, the painter of French skies which he presents +with admirable vivacity and facility. He has the feeling for the +transparency of atmosphere, and if his technique allies him directly +with Impressionism, one can well feel, that he painted spontaneously and +that this technique happened to be adapted to his nature, without his +having attempted to appropriate it for the sake of novelty. Sisley has +painted a notable series of pictures in the quaint village of Moret on +the outskirts of the Forest of Fontainebleau, where he died at a ripe +age, and these canvases will figure among the most charming landscapes +of our epoch. Sisley was a veteran of Impressionism. At the Exhibition +of 1900, in the two rooms reserved for the works of this school, there +were to be seen a dozen of Sisley's canvases. By the side of the finest +Renoirs, Monets and Manets they kept their charm and their brilliancy +with a singular flavour, and this was for many critics a revelation as +to the real place of this artist, whom they had hitherto considered as a +pretty colourist of only relative importance. + +[Illustration: SISLEY + +SNOW EFFECT] + +[Illustration: SISLEY + +BOUGIVAL, AT THE WATER'S EDGE] + +[Illustration: SISLEY + +BRIDGE AT MORET] + +Paul Cezanne, unknown to the public, is appreciated by a small group of +art lovers. He is an artist who lives in Provence, away from the world; +he is supposed to have served as model for the Impressionist painter +Claude Lantier, described by Zola in his celebrated novel "L'Oeuvre." +Cezanne has painted landscapes, rustic scenes and still-life pictures. +His figures are clumsy and brutal and inharmonious in colour, but his +landscapes have the merit of a robust simplicity of vision. These +pictures are almost primitive, and they are loved by the young +Impressionists because of their exclusion of all "cleverness." A charm +of rude simplicity and sincerity can be found in these works in which +Cezanne employs only just the means which are indispensable for his end. +His still-life pictures are particularly interesting owing to the +spotless brilliancy of their colours, the straightforwardness of the +tones, and the originality of certain shades analogous to those of old +faience. Cezanne is a conscientious painter without skill, intensely +absorbed in rendering what he sees, and his strong and tenacious +attention has sometimes succeeded in finding beauty. He reminds more of +an ancient Gothic craftsman, than of a modern artist, and he is full of +repose as a contrast to the dazzling virtuosity of so many painters. + +[Illustration: CEZANNE + +DESSERT] + +Berthe Morisot will remain the most fascinating figure of +Impressionism,--the one who has stated most precisely the femineity of +this luminous and iridescent art. Having married Eugene Manet, the +brother of the great painter, she exhibited at various private +galleries, where the works of the first Impressionists were to be +seen, and became as famous for her talent as for her beauty. When Manet +died, she took charge of his memory and of his work, and she helped with +all her energetic intelligence to procure them their just and final +estimation. Mme. Eugene Manet has certainly been one of the most +beautiful types of French women of the end of the nineteenth century. +When she died prematurely at the age of fifty (in 1895), she left a +considerable amount of work: gardens, young girls, water-colours of +refined taste, of surprising energy, and of a colouring as +distinguished, as it is unexpected. As great grand-daughter of +Fragonard, Berthe Morisot (since we ought to leave her the name with +which her respect for Manet's great name made her always sign her works) +seemed to have inherited from her famous ancestor his French +gracefulness, his spirited elegance, and all his other great qualities. +She has also felt the influence of Corot, of Manet and of Renoir. All +her work is bathed in brightness, in azure, in sunlight; it is a woman's +work, but it has a strength, a freedom of touch and an originality, +which one would hardly have expected. Her water-colours, particularly, +belong to a superior art: some notes of colour suffice to indicate sky, +sea, or a forest background, and everything shows a sure and masterly +fancy, for which our time can offer no analogy. A series of Berthe +Morisot's works looks like a veritable bouquet whose brilliancy is due +less to the colour-schemes which are comparatively soft, grey and blue, +than to the absolute correctness of the values. A hundred canvases, and +perhaps three hundred water-colours attest this talent of the first +rank. Normandy coast scenes with pearly skies and turquoise horizons, +sparkling Nice gardens, fruit-laden orchards, girls in white dresses +with big flower-decked hats, young women in ball-dress, and flowers are +the favourite themes of this artist who was the friend of Renoir, of +Degas and of Mallarme. + +[Illustration: BERTHE MORISOT + +MELANCHOLY] + +[Illustration: BERTHE MORISOT + +YOUNG WOMAN SEATED] + +Miss Mary Cassatt will deserve a place by her side. American by birth, +she became French through her assiduous participation in the exhibitions +of the Impressionists. She is one of the very few painters whom Degas +has advised, with Forain and M. Ernest Rouart. (This latter, a painter +himself, a son of the painter and wealthy collector Henri Rouart, has +married Mme. Manet's daughter who is also an artist.) Miss Cassatt has +made a speciality of studying children, and she is, perhaps, the artist +of this period who has understood and expressed them with the greatest +originality. She is a pastellist of note, and some of her pastels are as +good as Manet's and Degas's, so far as broad execution and brilliancy +and delicacy of tones are concerned. Ten years ago Miss Cassatt +exhibited a series of ten etchings in colour, representing scenes of +mothers and children at their toilet. At that time this _genre_ was +almost abandoned, and Miss Cassatt caused astonishment by her boldness +which faced the most serious difficulties. One can relish in this +artist's pictures, besides the great qualities of solid draughtsmanship, +correct values, and skilful interpretation of flesh and stuffs, a +profound sentiment of infantile life, childish gestures, clear and +unconscious looks, and the loving expression of the mothers. Miss +Cassatt is the painter and psychologist of babies and young mothers whom +she likes to depict in the freshness of an orchard, or against +backgrounds of the flowered hangings of dressing-rooms, amidst bright +linen, tubs, and china, in smiling intimacy. To these two remarkable +women another has to be added, Eva Gonzales, the favourite pupil of +Manet who has painted a fine portrait of her. Eva Gonzales became the +wife of the excellent engraver Henri Guerard, and died prematurely, not, +however, before one was able to admire her talent as an exquisitely +delicate pastellist. Having first been a pupil of Chaplin, she soon came +to forget the tricks of technique in order to acquire under Manet's +guidance the qualities of clearness and the strength of the great +painter of _Argenteuil_; and she would certainly have taken one of the +first places in modern art, had not her career been cut short by death. +A small pastel at the Luxembourg Gallery proves her convincing qualities +as a colourist. + +[Illustration: MARY CASSATT + +GETTING UP BABY] + +[Illustration: MARY CASSATT + +WOMEN AND CHILD] + +Gustave Caillebotte was a friend of the Impressionists from the very +first hour. He was rich, fond of art, and himself a painter of great +merit who modestly kept hidden behind his comrades. His picture _Les +raboteurs de parquets_ made him formerly the butt of derision. To-day +his work, at the Luxembourg Gallery seems hardly a fit pretext for so +much controversy, but at that time much was considered as madness, +that to our eyes appears quite natural. This picture is a study of +oblique perspective and its curious _ensemble_ of rising lines sufficed +to provoke astonishment. The work is, moreover, grey and discreet in +colour and has some qualities of fine light, but is on the whole not +very interesting. Recently an exhibition of works by Caillebotte has +made it apparent that this amateur was a misjudged painter. The +still-life pictures in this exhibition were specially remarkable. But +the name of Caillebotte was destined to reach the public only in +connection with controversies and scandal. When he died, he left to the +State a magnificent collection of objets-d'art and of old pictures, and +also a collection of Impressionist works, stipulating that these two +bequests should be inseparable. He wished by this means to impose the +works of his friends upon the museums, and thus avenge their unjust +neglect. The State accepted the two legacies, since the Louvre +absolutely wanted to benefit by the ancient portion, in spite of the +efforts of the Academicians who revolted against the acceptance of the +modern part. On this occasion one could see how far the official +artists were carried by their hatred of the Impressionists. A group of +Academicians, professors at the _Ecole des Beaux-Arts_, threatened the +minister that they would resign _en masse_. "We cannot," they wrote to +the papers, "continue to teach an art of which we believe we know the +laws, from the moment the State admits into the museums, where our +pupils can see them, works which are the very negation of all we teach." +A heated discussion followed in the press, and the minister boldly +declared that Impressionism, good or bad, had attracted the attention of +the public, and that it was the duty of the State to receive impartially +the work of all the art movements; the public would know how to judge +and choose; the Government's duty was not to influence them by showing +them only one style of painting, but to remain in historic neutrality. +Thanks to this clever reply, the Academicians, among whom M. Gerome was +the most rabid, resigned themselves to keeping their posts. A similar +incident, less publicly violent, but equally strange, occurred on the +occasion of the admission to the Luxembourg Gallery of the portrait of +M. Whistler's mother, a masterpiece of which the gallery is proud +to-day, and for which a group of writers and art lovers had succeeded in +opening the way. It is difficult to imagine the degree of irritation and +obstruction of the official painters against all the ideas of the new +painting, and if it had only depended upon them, there can be no doubt +that Manet and his friends would have died in total obscurity, not only +banished from the Salons and museums, but also treated as madmen and +robbed of the possibility of living by their work. + +The Caillebotte collection was installed under conditions which the +ill-will of the administrators made at least as deplorable as possible. +The works were crowded into a small, badly lighted room, where it is +absolutely impossible to see them from the distance required by the +method of the division of tones, and the meanness of the opposition was +such that, the pictures having been bequeathed without frames, the +keeper was obliged to have recourse to the reserves of the Louvre, +because he was refused the necessary credit for purchasing them. The +collection is however beautiful and interesting. It does not represent +Impressionism in all its brilliancy, since the works by which it is +composed had been bought by Caillebotte at a time, when his friends were +still far from having arrived at the full blossoming of their qualities. +But some very fine things can at least be found there. Renoir is +marvellously represented by the _Moulin de la Galette_, which is one of +his masterpieces. Degas figures with seven beautiful pastels, Monet with +some landscapes grand in style; Sisley and Pissarro appear scarcely to +their advantage, and finally it is to be regretted, that Manet is only +represented by a study in black in his first manner, the _Balcony_, +which does not count among his best pictures, and the famous _Olympia_ +whose importance is more historical than intrinsic. The gallery has +separately acquired a _Young Girl in Ball Dress_ by Berthe Morisot, +which is a delicate marvel of grace and freshness. And in the place of +honour of the gallery is to be seen Fantin-Latour's great picture +_Hommage a Manet_, in which the painter, seated before his easel, is +surrounded by his friends; and this canvas may well be considered the +emblem of the slow triumph of Impressionism, and of the amends for a +great injustice. + +It is in this picture that the young painter Bazille is represented, a +friend and pupil of Manet's, who was killed during the war of 1870, and +who should not be forgotten here. He has left a few canvases marked by +great talent, and would no doubt have counted among the most original +contemporary artists. We shall terminate this all too short enumeration +with two remarkable landscapists; the one is Albert Lebourg who paints +in suave and poetic colour schemes, with blues and greens of particular +tenderness, a painter who will take his place in the history of +Impressionism. The other is Eugene Boudin. He has not adopted Claude +Monet's technique; but I have already said that the vague and inexact +term "Impressionism" must be understood to comprise a group of painters +showing originality in the study of light and getting away from the +academic spirit. As to this, Eugene Boudin deserves to be placed in the +first rank. His canvases will be the pride of the best arranged +galleries. He is an admirable seascape painter. He has known how to +render with unfailing mastery, the grey waters of the Channel, the +stormy skies, the heavy clouds, the effects of sunlight feebly piercing +the prevailing grey. His numerous pictures painted at the port of Havre +are profoundly expressive. Nobody has excelled him in drawing +sailing-boats, in giving the exact feeling of the keels plunged into the +water, in grouping the masts, in rendering the activity of a port, in +indicating the value of a sail against the sky, the fluidity of calm +water, the melancholy of the distance, the shiver of short waves rippled +by the breeze. Boudin is a learned colourist of grey tones. His +Impressionism consists in the exclusion of useless details, his +comprehension of reflections, his feeling for values, the boldness of +his composition and his faculty of directly perceiving nature and the +transparency of atmosphere: he reminds sometimes of Constable and of +Corot. Boudin's production has been enormous, and nothing that he has +done is indifferent. He is one of those artists who have not a brilliant +career, but who will last, and whose name, faithfully retained by the +elect, is sure of immortality. He may be considered an isolated +artist, on the border line between Classicism and Impressionism, and +this is unquestionably the cause of the comparative obscurity of his +fame. The same might be said of the ingenuous and fine landscapist +Hervier, who has left such interesting canvases; and of the Lyons +water-colour painter Ravier who, almost absolutely unknown, came very +close to Monticelli and showed admirable gifts. It must, however, be +recognised that Boudin is nearer to Impressionism than to any other +grouping of artists, and he must be considered as a small master of pure +French lineage. Finally, if a question of nationality prevents me from +enlarging upon the subject of the rank of precursor which must be +accorded to the great Dutch landscapist Jongkind, I must at least +mention his name. His water-colour sketches have been veritable +revelations for several Impressionists. Eugene Boudin and Berthe Morisot +have derived special benefit from them, and they are valuable lessons +for many young painters of the present day. + +[Illustration: JONGKIND + +IN HOLLAND] + +[Illustration: JONGKIND + +VIEW OF THE HAGUE] + +We do not pretend to have mentioned in this chapter all the painters +directly connected with the first Impressionist movement. We have +confined ourselves to enumerating the most important only, and each of +them would deserve a complete essay. But our object will have been +achieved, if we have inspired art-lovers with just esteem for this brave +phalanx of artists who have proved better than any aesthetic +commentaries the vitality, the originality, and the logic of Manet's +theories, the great importance of the notions introduced by him into +painting, and who have, on the other hand, clearly demonstrated the +uselessness of official teaching. Far from the traditions and methods of +the School, the best of their knowledge and of their talent is due to +their profound and sincere contemplation of nature and to their freedom +of spirit. And for that reason they will have a permanent place in the +evolution of their art. + + + + +VIII + +THE MODERN ILLUSTRATORS CONNECTED WITH IMPRESSIONISM: RAFFAELLI, +TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, FORAIN, CHERET, ETC. + + +Not the least important result of Impressionism has been the veritable +revolution effected by it in the art of illustration. It was only +natural that its principles should have led to it. The substitution of +the beauty of character for the beauty of proportion was bound to move +the artists to regard illustration in a new light; and as pictorial +Impressionism was born of the same movement of ideas which created the +naturalist novel and the impressionist literature of Flaubert, Zola and +the Goncourts, and moreover as these men were united by close relations +and a common defence, Edouard Manet's modern ideas soon took up the +commentary of the books dealing with modern life and the description of +actual spectacles. + +The Impressionists themselves have not contributed towards illustration. +Their work has consisted in raising to the style of grand painting +subjects, that seemed at the best only worthy of the proportion of +vignettes, in opposition to the subjects qualified as "noble" by the +School. The series of works by Manet and Degas may be considered as +admirable illustrations to the novels by Zola and the Goncourts. It is a +parallel research in modern psychologic truth. But this research has +remained confined to pictures. It may be presumed that, had they wished +to do so, Manet and Degas could have admirably illustrated certain +contemporary novels, and Renoir could have produced a masterpiece in +commenting, say, upon Verlaine's _Fetes Galantes_. The only things that +can be mentioned here are a few drawings composed by Manet for Edgar A. +Poe's _The Raven_ and Mallarme's _L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune_, in addition +to a few music covers without any great interest. + +But if the Impressionists themselves have neglected actively to assist +the interesting school of modern illustration, a whole legion of +draughtsmen have immediately been inspired by their principles. One of +their most original characteristics was the realistic representation of +the scenes, the _mise en cadre_, and it afforded these draughtsmen an +opportunity for revolutionising book illustration. There had already +been some excellent artists who occupied themselves with vignette +drawings, like Tony Johannot and Celestin Nanteuil, whose pretty and +smart frontispieces are to be found in the old editions of Balzac. The +genius of Honore Daumier and the high fancy of Gavarni and of Grevin had +already announced a serious protest of modern sentiment against academic +taste, in returning on many points to the free tradition of Eisen, of +the two Moreaus and of Debucourt. Since 1845 the draughtsman Constantin +Guys, Baudelaire's friend, gave evidence, in his most animated +water-colour drawings, of a curious vision of nervous elegance and of +expressive skill quite in accord with the ideas of the day. +Impressionism, and also the revelation of the Japanese colour prints, +gave an incredible vigour to these intuitive glimpses. Certain +characteristics will date from the days of Impressionism. It is due to +Impressionism that artists have ventured to show in illustration, for +instance, figures in the foreground cut through by the margin, rising +perspectives, figures in the background that seem to stand on a higher +plane than the others, people seen from a second story; in a word, all +that life presents to our eyes, without the annoying consideration for +"style" and for arrangement, which the academic spirit obstinately +insisted to apply to the illustration of modern life. Degas in +particular has given many examples of this novelty in composition. One +of his pastels has remained typical, owing to the scandal caused by it: +he represents a dance-scene at the Opera, seen from the orchestra. The +neck of a double bass rises in the middle of the picture and cuts into +it, a large black silhouette, behind which sparkle the gauze-dresses and +the lights. That can be observed any evening, and yet it would be +difficult to recapitulate all the railleries and all the anger caused by +so natural an audacity. Modern illustration was to be the pretext of a +good many more outbursts! + +We must now consider four artists of great importance who are remarkable +painters and have greatly raised the art of illustration. This title +illustrator, despised by the official painters, should be given them as +the one which has secured them the best claim to fame. They have +restored to this title all its merit and all its brilliancy and have +introduced into illustration the most serious qualities of painting. Of +these four men the first in date is M.J.F. Raffaelli, who introduced +himself about 1875 with some remarkable and intensely picturesque +illustrations in colours in various magazines. He gave an admirable +series of _Parisian Types_, in album form, and a series of etchings to +accompany the text of M. Huysmans, describing the curious river "la +Bievre" which penetrates Paris in a thousand curves, sometimes +subterranean, sometimes above ground, and serves the tanners for washing +the leather. This series is a model of modern illustration. But, apart +from the book, the entire pictorial work of M. Raffaelli is a humorous +and psychological illustration of the present time. He has painted with +unique truth and spirit the working men's types and the small +_bourgeois_, the poor, the hospital patients and the roamers of the +outskirts of Paris. He has succeeded in being the poet of the sickly and +dirty landscapes by which the capitals are surrounded; he has rendered +their anaemic charm, the confused perspectives of houses, fences, walls +and little gardens, and their smoke, under the melancholy of rainy +skies. With an irony free from bitterness he has noted the clumsy +gestures of the labourer in his Sunday garb and the grotesque +silhouettes of the small townsmen, and has compiled a gallery of very +real sociologic interest. M. Raffaelli has also exhibited Parisian +landscapes in which appear great qualities of light. He excels in +rendering the mornings in the spring, with their pearly skies, their +pale lights, their transparency and their slight shadows, and finally he +has proved his mastery by some large portraits, fresh harmonies, +generally devoted to the study of different qualities of white. If the +name "Impressionist" meant, as has been wrongly believed, an artist who +confines himself to giving the impression of what he sees, then M. +Raffaelli would be the real Impressionist. He suggests more than he +paints. He employs a curious technique: he often leaves a sky completely +bare, throwing on to the white of the canvas a few colour notes which +suffice to give the illusion. He has a decided preference for white and +black, and paints very slightly in small touches. His very correct +feeling for values makes him an excellent painter; but what interests +him beyond all, is psychologic expression. He notes it with so hasty a +pencil, that one might almost say that he writes with colour. He is also +an etcher of great merit, and an original sculptor. He has invented +small bas-reliefs in bronze which can be attached to the wall, like +sketches or nick-nacks; and he has applied his talent even to renewing +the material for painting. He is an ingenious artist and a prolific +producer, a roguish, but sympathetic, observer of the life of the small +people, which has not prevented him from painting very seriously when he +wanted to, as is witnessed among other works by his very fine portrait +of M. Clemenceau speaking at a public meeting, in the presence of a +vociferous audience from which rise some hundred of heads whose +expressions are noted with really splendid energy and fervour. + +Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who died recently, insane, leaves a great +work behind him. He had a kind of cruel genius. Descended from one of +the greatest families of France, badly treated by nature who made him a +kind of ailing dwarf, he seemed to take a bitter pleasure in the study +of modern vice. He painted scenes at cafe-concerts and the rooms of +wantons with intense truth. Nobody has revealed better than he the +lowness and suffering of the creatures "of pleasure," as they have been +dubbed by the heartrending irony of life. Lautrec has shown the +artificiality of the painted faces; the vulgarity of the types of the +prostitutes of low origin; the infamous gestures, the disorder, the +slovenliness of the dwellings of these women; all the shady side of +their existence. It has been said that he loved ugliness. As a matter of +fact, he did not exaggerate, he raised a powerful accusation against +everything he saw. But his terrible clairvoyance passed for caricature. +This sad psychologist was a great painter; he pleased himself with +dressing in rose-coloured costumes the coarsest and most vulgar +creatures he painted, such as one can find at the cabarets and concerts, +and he enjoyed the contrast of fresh tones with the faces marked by vice +and poverty; Lautrec's two great influences have been the Japanese and +Degas. Of the former he retained the love for decorative arabesques and +the unconventional grouping; of the other the learned draughtsmanship, +expressive in its broad simplification, and one might say that the pupil +has often been worthy of the masters. One can only regret that Lautrec +should have confined his vision and his high faculties to the study of a +small and very Parisian world; but, seeing his works, one cannot deny +the science, the spirit and the grand bearing of his art. He has also +signed some fine posters, notably a _Bruant_ which is a masterpiece of +its kind. + +Degas's deep influence can be found again in J.L. Forain, who has made +himself known by an immense series of drawings for the illustrated +papers, drawings as remarkable in themselves as they are, through their +legends, bitterly sarcastic in spirit. These drawings form a synthesis +of the defects of the _bourgeoisie_, which is at the same time amusing +and grave. They also concern, though less happily, the political world, +in which the artist, a little intoxicated with his success, has thought +himself able to exercise an influence by scoffing at the parliamentary +regime. Forain's drawing has a nervous character which does, however, +not weaken its science: every stroke reveals something and has an +astonishing power. In his less known painting can be traced still more +clearly the style and influence of his master Degas. They are generally +incidents behind the scenes and at night restaurants, where caricatured +types are painted with great force. But they are insistently +exaggerated, they have not the restraint, the ironical and discreet +plausibility, which give so much flavour, so much value to Degas's +studies. Nevertheless, Forain's pictures are very significant and are of +real interest. He is decidedly the most interesting newspaper +illustrator of his whole generation, the one whose ephemeral art most +closely approaches grand painting, and one of those who have most +contributed towards the transformation of illustration for the +contemporary press. + +Jules Cheret has made for himself an important and splendid position in +contemporary art. He commenced as a lithographic workman and lived for a +long time in London. About 1870 Cheret designed his first posters in +black, white and red; these were at the time the only colours used. By +and by he perfected this art and found the means of adding other tones +and of drawing them on the lithographic stone. He returned to France, +started a small studio, and gradually carried poster art to the +admirable point at which it has arrived. At the same time Cheret drew +and painted and composed himself his models. About 1885 his name became +famous, and it has not ceased growing since. Some writers, notably the +eminent critic Roger Marx and the novelist Huysmans, hailed in Cheret an +original artist as well as a learned technician. He then exhibited +decorative pictures, pastels and drawings, which placed him in the first +rank. Cheret is universally known. The type of the Parisian woman +created by him, and the multi-coloured harmony of his works will not be +forgotten. His will be the honour of having invented the artistic +poster, this feast for the eyes, this fascinating art of the street, +which formerly languished in a tedious and dull display of commercial +advertisements. He has been the promoter of an immense movement; he has +been imitated, copied, parodied, but he will always remain inimitable. +He has succeeded in realising on paper by means of lithography, the +pastels and gouache drawings in which his admirable colourist's fancy +mixed the most difficult shades. In Cheret can be found all the +principles of Impressionism: opposing lights, coloured shadows, +complementary reflections, all employed with masterly sureness and +delightful charm. It is decorative Impressionism, conceived in a +superior way; and this simple poster-man, despised by the painters, has +proved himself equal to most. He has transformed the street, in the open +light, into a veritable Salon, where his works have become famous. When +this too modest artist decided to show his pictures and drawings, they +were a revelation. The most remarkable pastellists of the period were +astonished and admired his skill, his profound knowledge of technique, +his continual _tours-de-force_ which he disguised under a shimmering +gracefulness. The State had the good sense to entrust him with some +large mural decorations, in which he unfolded the scale of his sparkling +colours, and affirmed his spirit, his fancy and his dreamy art. Cheret's +harmonies remain secrets; he uses them for the representation of +characters from the Italian comedy, thrown with fiendish _verve_ upon a +background of a sky, fiery with the Bengal lights of a fairy-like +carnival, and he strangely intermingles the reality of the movements +with the most arbitrary fancy. Cheret has also succeeded in proving his +artistic descent by a beautiful series of drawings in sanguine: he +descends from Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard; he is a Frenchman of pure +blood; and when one has done admiring the grace and the happy animation +of his imagination, one can only be surprised to see on what serious and +sure a technique are based these decorations which appear improvised. +Cheret's art is the smile of Impressionism and the best demonstration +of the decorative logic of this art. + +These are the four artists of great merit who have created the +transition between Impressionist painting and illustration. It would be +fit to put aside Toulouse-Lautrec, who was much younger, but his work is +too directly connected with that of Degas for one to take into account +the difference of age. He produced between 1887 and 1900 works which +might well have been ante-dated by fifteen years. We shall study in the +next chapter his Neo-Impressionist comrades, and we shall now speak of +some illustrators more advanced in years than he. The oldest in date is +the engraver Henri Guerard, who died three years ago. He had married Eva +Gonzales and was a friend of Manet's, many of whose works have been +engraved by him. He was an artist of decided and original talent, who +also occupied himself successfully with pyrogravure, and who was happily +inspired by the Japanese colour-prints. His etchings deserve a place of +honour in the folios of expert collectors; they are strong and broad. As +to the engraver Felix Buhot, he was a rather delicate colourist in +black and white; his Paris scenes will always be considered charming +works. In spite of his Spanish origin, the painter, _aquarelliste_, and +draughtsman Daniel Vierge, should be added to the list of the men +connected with Impressionism. His illustrations are those of a great +artist--admirable in colour, movement and observation; all the great +principles of Impressionism are embodied in them. But there are four +more illustrators of the first rank: Steinlen, Louis Legrand, Paul +Renouard and Auguste Lepere. + +Steinlen has been enormously productive: he is specially remarkable for +his illustrations. Those which he has designed for Aristide Bruant's +volume of songs, _Dans la rue_, are masterpieces of their kind. They +contain treasures of bitter observation, quaintness and knowledge. The +soul of the lower classes is shown in them with intense truth, bitter +revolt and comprehensive philosophy. Steinlen has also designed some +beautiful posters, pleasing pastels, lithographs of incontestable +technical merit, and beautifully eloquent political drawings. It cannot +be said that he is an Impressionist in the strict sense of the word; he +applied his colour in flat tints, more like an engraver than a painter; +but in him too can be felt the stamp of Degas, and he is one of those +who best demonstrate that, without Impressionism, they could not have +been what they are. + +The same may be said of Louis Legrand, a pupil of Felicien Rops, an +admirably skilful etcher, a draughtsman of keen vision, and a painter of +curious character, who has in many ways forestalled the artists of +to-day. Louis Legrand also shows to what extent the example of Manet and +Degas has revolutionised the art of illustration, in freeing the +painters from obsolete laws, and guiding them towards truth and frank +psychological study. Legrand is full of them, without resembling them. +We must not forget that, besides the technical innovation (division of +tones, study of complementary colours), Impressionism has brought us +novelty of composition, realism of character and great liberty in the +choice of subjects. From this point of view Rops himself, in spite of +his symbolist tendencies, could not be classed with any other group, if +it were not that any kind of classification in art is useless and +inaccurate. However that may be, Louis Legrand has signed some volumes +resplendent with the most seductive qualities. + +Paul Renouard has devoted himself to newspaper illustration, but with +what surprising prodigality of spirit and knowledge! The readers of the +"Graphic" will know. This masterly virtuoso of the pencil might give +drawing-lessons to many members of the Institute! The feeling for the +life of crowds, psychology of types, spirited and rapid notation, +astonishing ease in overcoming difficulties--these are his undeniable +gifts. And again we must recognise in Renouard the example of Degas and +Manet. His exceptional fecundity only helps to give more authority to +his pencil. Renouard's drawings at the Exhibition of 1900 were, perhaps, +more beautiful than the rest of his work. There was notably a series of +studies made from the first platform of the Eiffel Tower, an +accumulation of wonders of perspectives framing scenes of such animation +and caprice as to take away one's breath. + +Finally, Auguste Lepere appears as the Debucourt of our time. As +painter, pastellist and wood-engraver he has produced since 1870, and +has won for himself the first place among French engravers. It would be +difficult to recount the volumes, albums and covers on which the fancy +of his burin has played; but it is particularly in wood-engraving that +he stands without rival. Not only has he produced masterpieces of it, +but he has passionately devoted himself to raising this admirable art, +the glory of the beautiful books of olden days, and to give back to it +the lustre which had been eclipsed by mechanical processes. Lepere has +started some publications for this purpose; he has had pupils of great +merit, and he must be considered the master of the whole generation of +modern wood-engravers, just as Cheret is the undisputed master of the +poster. Lepere's ruling quality is strength. He seems to have +rediscovered the mediaeval limners' secrets of cutting the wood, giving +the necessary richness to the ink, creating a whole scale of half-tones, +and specially of adapting the design to typographic printing, and making +of it, so to say, an ornament and a decorative extension for the type. +Lepere is a wood-engraver with whom none of his contemporaries can be +compared; as regards his imagination, it is that of an altogether +curious artist. He excels in composing and expressing the life, the +animation, the soul of the streets and the picturesque side of the +populace. Herein he is much inspired by Manet and, if we go back to the +real tradition, by Guys, Debucourt, the younger Moreau and by Gabriel de +Saint-Aubin. He is decidedly a Realist of French lineage, who owes +nothing to the Academy and its formulas. + +It would be evidently unreasonable to attach to Impressionism all that +is ante-academical, and between the two extremes there is room for a +crowd of interesting artists. We shall not succumb to the prejudice of +the School by declaring, in our turn, that there is no salvation outside +Impressionism, and we have been careful to state repeatedly that, if +Impressionism has a certain number of principles as kernel, its +applications and its influence have a radiation which it is difficult to +limit. What can be absolutely demonstrated is, that this movement has +had the greatest influence on modern illustration, sometimes through its +colouring, sometimes simply through the great freedom of its ideas. Some +have found in it a direct lesson, others an example to be followed. +Some have met in it technical methods which pleased them, others have +only taken some suggestions from it. That is the case, for instance, +with Legrand, with Steinlen, and with Renouard; and it is also the case +with the lithographer Odilon Redon, who applies the values of Manet and, +in his strange pastels, the harmonies of Degas and Renoir, placing them +at the service of dreams and hallucinations and of a symbolism which is +absolutely removed from the realism of these painters. It is, finally, +the case with the water-colour painter Henri Riviere, who is misjudged +as to his merit, and who is one of the most perfect of those who have +applied Impressionist ideas to decorative engraving. He has realised +images in colours destined to decorate inexpensively the rooms of the +people and recalling the grand aspects of landscapes with a broad +simplification which is derived, curiously enough, from Puvis de +Chavannes's large decorative landscapes and from the small and precise +colour prints of Japan. Riviere, who is a skilful and personal poetic +landscapist, is not exactly an Impressionist, in so far as he does not +divide the tones, but rather blends them in subtle mixtures in the +manner of the Japanese. Yet, seeing his work, one cannot help thinking +of all the surprise and freedom introduced into modern art by +Impressionism. + +Everybody, even the ignorant, can perceive, on looking through an +illustrated paper or a modern volume, that thirty years ago this manner +of placing the figures, of noting familiar gestures, and of seizing +fugitive life with spirit and clearness was unknown. This mass of +engravings and of sketches resembles in no way what had been seen +formerly. They no longer have the solemn air of classic composition, by +which the drawings had been affected. A current of bold spontaneity has +passed through here. In modern English illustration, it can be stated +indisputably that nothing would be such as it can now be seen, if +Morris, Rossetti and Crane had not imposed their vision, and yet many +talented Englishmen resemble these initiators only very remotely. It is +exactly in this sense that we shall have credited Impressionism with the +talents who have drawn their inspiration less from its principles, than +from its vigorous protest against mechanical formulas, and who have +been able to find the energy, necessary for their success, in the +example it set by fighting during twenty years against the ideas of +routine which seemed indestructible. Even with the painters who are far +removed from the vision and the colouring of Manet and Degas, of Monet +and Renoir, one can find a very precise tendency: that of returning to +the subjects and the style of the real national tradition; and herein +lies one of the most serious benefits bestowed by Impressionism upon an +art which had stopped at the notion of a canonical beauty, until it had +almost become sterile in its timidity. + + + + +IX + +NEO-IMPRESSIONISM--GAUGUIN, DENIS, THEO VAN RYSSELBERGHE--THE THEORY OF +POINTILLISM--SEURAT, SIGNAC AND THE THEORIES OF SCIENTIFIC +CHROMATISM--FAULTS AND QUALITIES OF THE IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT, WHAT WE +OWE TO IT, ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH SCHOOL--SOME WORDS ON +ITS INFLUENCE ABROAD + + +The beginnings of the movement designated under the name of +Neo-Impressionism can be traced back to about 1880. The movement is a +direct offshoot of the first Impressionism, originated by a group of +young painters who admired it and thought of pushing further still its +chromatic principles. The flourishing of Impressionism coincided, as a +matter of fact, with certain scientific labours concerning optics. +Helmholtz had just published his works on the perception of colours and +sounds by means of waves. Chevreul had continued on this path by +establishing his beautiful theories on the analysis of the solar +spectrum. M. Charles Henry, an original and remarkable spirit, occupied +himself in his turn with these delicate problems by applying them +directly to aesthetics, which Helmholtz and Chevreul had not thought of +doing. M. Charles Henry had the idea of creating relations between this +branch of science and the laws of painting. As a friend of several young +painters he had a real influence over them, showing them that the new +vision due to the instinct of Monet and of Manet might perhaps be +scientifically verified, and might establish fixed principles in a +sphere where hitherto the laws of colouring had been the effects of +individual conception. At that moment the criticism which resulted from +Taine's theories tried to effect a _rapprochement_ of the artistic and +scientific domains in criticism and in the psychologic novel. The +painters, too, gave way to this longing for precision which seems to +have been the great preoccupation of intellects from 1880 to about 1889. + +Their researches had a special bearing on the theory of complementary +colours and on the means of establishing some laws concerning the +reaction of tones in such manner as to draw up a kind of tabula. Georges +Seurat and Paul Signac were the promoters of this research. Seurat died +very young, and one cannot but regret this death of an artist who would +have been very interesting and capable of beautiful works. Those which +he has left us bear witness to a spirit very receptive to theories, and +leaving nothing to chance. The silhouettes are reduced to almost +rigorously geometrical principles, the tones are decomposed +systematically. These canvases are more reasoned examples than works of +intuition and spontaneous vision. They show Seurat's curious desire to +give a scientific and classic basis to Impressionism. The same idea +rules in all the work of Paul Signac, who has painted some portraits and +numerous landscapes. To these two painters is due the method of +_Pointillism_, _i.e._ the division of tones, not only by touches, as in +Monet's pictures, but by very small touches of equal size, causing the +spheric shape to act equally upon the retina. The accumulation of these +luminous points is carried out over the entire surface of the canvas +without thick daubs of paint, and with regularity, whilst with Manet the +paint is more or less dense. The theory of complementary colours is +systematically applied. On a sketch, made from nature, the painter notes +the principal relations of tones, then systematises them on his picture +and connects them by different shades which should be their logical +result. Neo-Impressionism believes in obtaining thus a greater exactness +than that which results from the individual temperament of the painter +who simply relies on his own perception. And it is true, in theory, that +such a conception is more exact. But it reduces the picture to a kind of +theorem, which excludes all that constitutes the value and charm of an +art, that is to say: caprice, fancy, and the spontaneity of personal +inspiration. The works of Seurat, Signac, and of the few men who have +strictly followed the rules of Pointillism are lacking in life, in +surprise, and make a somewhat tiring impression upon one's eyes. The +uniformity of the points does not succeed in giving an impression of +cohesion, and even less a suggestion of different textures, even if the +values are correct. Manet seems to have attained perfection in using the +method which consists in directing the touches in accordance with each +of the planes, and this is evidently the most natural method. Scientific +Chromatism constitutes an _ensemble_ of propositions, of which art will +be able to make use, though indirectly, as information useful for a +better understanding of the laws of light in presence of nature. What +Pointillism has been able to give us, is a method which would be very +appreciable for decorative paintings seen from a great distance--friezes +or ceilings in spacious buildings. It would in this case return to the +principle of mosaic, which is the principle _par excellence_ of mural +art. + +The Pointillists have to-day almost abandoned this transitional theory +which, in spite of the undeniable talent of its adepts, has only +produced indifferent results as regards easel pictures. Besides Seurat +and Signac, mention should be made of Maurice Denis, Henri-Edmond Cross, +Angrand, and Theo Van Rysselberghe. But this last-named and Maurice +Denis have arrived at great talent by very different merits. M. Maurice +Denis has abandoned Pointillism a few years ago, in favour of returning +to a very strange conception which dates back to the Primitives, and +even to Giotto. He simplifies his drawing archaically, suppresses all +but the indispensable detail, and draws inspiration from Gothic stained +glass and carvings, in order to create decorative figures with clearly +marked outlines which are filled with broad, flat tints. He generally +treats mystic subjects, for which this special manner is suitable. One +cannot love the _parti pris_ of these works, but one cannot deny M. +Denis a great charm of naivete, an intense feeling for decorative +arrangements and colouring of a certain originality. He is almost a +French pre-Raphaelite, and his profound catholic faith inspires him +nobly. + +[Illustration: THEO VAN RYSSELBERGHE + +PORTRAITS OF MADAME VAN RYSSELBERGHE AND HER DAUGHTER] + +M. Theo Van Rysselberghe continues to employ the Pointillist method. But +he is so strongly gifted, that one might almost say he succeeds in +revealing himself as a painter of great merit in spite of this dry and +charmless method. All his works are supported by broad and learned +drawing and his colour is naturally brilliant. M. Van Rysselberghe, a +prolific and varied worker, has painted nudes, large portraits, +landscapes with figures, seascapes, interiors and still-life, and in all +this he evinces faculties of the first order. He is a lover of light and +understands how to make it vibrate over flesh and fabrics. He is an +artist who has the sense of style. He has signed a certain number of +portraits, whose beautiful carriage and serious psychology would suffice +to make him be considered as the most significant of the +Neo-Impressionists. It is really in him that one has to see the young +and worthy heir of Monet, of Sisley, and of Degas, and that is why we +have insisted on adding here to the works of these masters the +reproduction of one of his. M. Van Rysselberghe is also a very delicate +etcher who has signed some fine works in this method, and his seascapes, +whether they revel in the pale greys of the German Ocean or in the warm +sapphire and gold harmonies of the Mediterranean, count among the finest +of the time; they are windows opened upon joyous brightness. + +To these painters who have never taken part at the Salons, and are only +to be seen at the exhibitions of the _Independants_ (except M. Denis), +must be added M. Pierre Bonnard, who has given proof to his charm and +fervour in numerous small canvases of Japanese taste; and M. Edouard +Vuillard, who is a painter of intimate scenes of rare delicacy. This +artist, who stands apart and produces very little, has signed some +interiors of melancholic distinction and of a colouring which revels in +low tones. He has the precision and skill of a master. There is in him, +one might say, a reflection of Chardin's soul. Unfortunately his works +are confined to a few collections and have not become known to the +public. To the same group belong M. Ranson, who has devoted himself to +purely decorative art, tapestry, wall papers and embroideries; M. +Georges de Feure, a strange, symbolist water-colour painter, who has +become one of the best designers of the New Art in France; M. Felix +Vallotton, painter and lithographer, who is somewhat heavy, but gifted +with serious qualities. It is true that M. de Feure is Dutch, M. +Vallotton Swiss, and M. Van Rysselberghe Belgian; but they have settled +down in France, and are sufficiently closely allied to the +Neo-Impressionist movement so that the question of nationality need not +prevent us from mentioning them here. Finally it is impossible not to +say a few words about two pupils of Gustave Moreau's, who have both +become noteworthy followers of Impressionism of very personal +individuality. M. Eugene Martel bids fair to be one of the best painters +of interiors of his generation. He has the feeling of mystical life and +paints the peasantry with astonishing psychologic power. His vigorous +colouring links him to Monticelli, and his drawing to Degas. As to M. +Simon Bussy who, following Alphonse Legros's example, is about to make +an enviable position for himself in England, he is an artist of pure +blood. His landscapes and his figures have the distinction and rare tone +of M. Whistler, besides the characteristic acuteness of Degas. His +harmonies are subtle, his vision novel, and he will certainly develop +into an important painter. Together with Henri le Sidaner and Jacques +Blanche, Simon Bussy is decidedly the most personal of that young +generation of "Intimists" who seem to have retained the best principles +of the Impressionist masters to employ them for the expression of a +psychologic ideal which is very different from Realism. + +Outside this group there are still a few isolated painters who are +difficult to classify. The very young artists Laprade and Charles Guerin +have shown for the last three years, at the exhibition of the +_Independants_, some works which are the worthy result of Manet's and +Renoir's influence. They, too, justify great expectations. The +landscapists Paul Vogler and Maxime Maufra, more advanced in years, have +made themselves known by some solid series of vigorously presented +landscapes. To them must be added M. Henry Moret, M. Albert Andre and M. +Georges d'Espagnet, who equally deserve the success which has commenced +to be their share. But there are some older ones. It is only his due, +that place should be given to a painter who committed suicide after an +unhappy life, and who evinced splendid gifts. Vincent Van Gogh, a +Dutchman, who, however, had always worked in France, has left to the +world some violent and strange works, in which Impressionism appears to +have reached the limits of its audacity. Their value lies in their naive +frankness and in the undauntable determination which tried to fix +without trickery the sincerest feelings. Amidst many faulty and clumsy +works, Van Gogh has also left some really beautiful canvases. There is a +deep affinity between him and Cezanne. A very real affinity exists, too, +between Paul Gauguin, who was a friend and to a certain extent the +master of Van Gogh, and Cezanne and Renoir. Paul Gauguin's robust talent +found its first motives in Breton landscapes, in which the method of +colour-spots can be found employed with delicacy and placed at the +service of a rather heavy, but very interesting harmony. Then the artist +spent a long time in Tahiti, whence he returned with a completely +transformed manner. He has brought back from these regions some +landscapes with figures treated in intentionally clumsy and almost wild +fashion. The figures are outlined in firm strokes and painted in broad, +flat tints on canvas which has the texture almost of tapestry. Many of +these works are made repulsive by their aspect of multi-coloured, crude +and barbarous imagery. Yet one cannot but acknowledge the fundamental +qualities, the beautiful values, the ornamental taste, and the +impression of primitive animalism. On the whole, Paul Gauguin has a +beautiful, artistic temperament which, in its aversion to virtuosoship, +has perhaps not sufficiently understood that the fear of formulas, if +exaggerated, may lead to other formulas, to a false ignorance which is +as dangerous as false knowledge. Gauguin's symbolical intentions, like +those of his pupil Emile Bernard, are sincere, but are badly served by +minds which do not agree with their technical qualities, and both +Gauguin and Emile Bernard are most happily inspired when they are +painters pure and simple. + +Next to Gauguin, among the seniors of the present generation and the +successors of Impressionism, should be placed the landscapist Armand +Guillaumin who, without possessing Sisley's delicate qualities, has +painted some canvases worthy of notice; and we must, finally, terminate +this far too summary enumeration by referring to one of the most gifted +painters of the French School of the day, M. Louis Anquetin. His is a +most varied talent whose power is unquestionable. He made his _debut_ +among the Neo-Impressionists and revealed the influence upon him of the +Japanese and of Degas. It may be seen that these two influences +predominate in the whole group. Then M. Anquetin became fascinated by +the breadth and superb freedom of Manet's works, and signed a series of +portraits and sketches, some of which are not far below so great a +master's. They are works which will surprise the critics, when our +contemporary painting will be examined with calm impartiality. After +these works, M. Anquetin gave way to his impetuous nature which led him +to decorative painting, and he became influenced by Rubens, Jordaens, +and the Fontainebleau School. He painted theatre curtains and +mythological scenes, in which he gave free rein to his sensual +imagination. In spite of some admirable qualities, it seems as though +the artist had strayed from his true path in painting these brilliant, +but somewhat declamatory works, and he has since returned to a more +modern and more direct painting. In all his changed conditions Anquetin +has shown a considerable talent, pleasing in its fine vigour, +impetuosity, brilliancy and sincerity. His inequality is perhaps the +cause of his relative want of success; it has put the public off, but +nevertheless in certain of this brave and serious painter's canvases can +be seen the happy influence of Manet. + +It seems to us only right to sum up our impartial opinion of +Neo-Impressionism by saying that it has lacked cohesion, that +Pointillism in particular has led painting into an aimless path. It has +been wrong to see in Impressionism too exclusive a pretext for technical +researches, and a happy reaction has set in, which leads us back to-day, +after diverse tentative efforts (amongst others some unfortunate +attempts at symbolist painting), to the fine, recent school of the +"Intimists" and to the novel conception which a great and glorious +painter, Besnard, imposes upon the Salons, where the elect draw +inspiration from him. We can here only indicate with a few words the +considerable part played by Besnard: his clever work has proved that the +scientific colour principles of Impressionism may be applied, not to +realism, but to the highest thoughts, to ideologic painting most nobly +inspired by the modern intellectual preoccupations. He is the +transition between Impressionism and the art of to-morrow. Of pure +French lineage by his portraits and his nudes, which descend directly +from Largilliere and Ingres, he might have restricted himself to being +placed among the most learned Impressionists. His studies of reflections +and of complementary colours speak for this. But he has passed this +phase and has, with his decorations, returned to the psychical domain of +his strangely beautiful art. The "Intimists," C. Cottet, Simon, Blanche, +Menard, Bussy, Lobre, Le Sidaner, Wery, Prinet, and Ernest Laurent, have +proved that they have profited by Impressionism, but have proceeded in +quite a different direction in trying to translate their real +perceptions. Some isolated artists, like the decorative painter Henri +Martin, who has enormous talent, have applied the Impressionist +technique to the expression of grand allegories, rather in the manner of +Puvis de Chavannes. The effort at getting away from mere cleverness and +escaping a too exclusive preoccupation with technique, and at the same +time acquiring serious knowledge, betrays itself in the whole position +of the young French School; and this will furnish us with a perfectly +natural conclusion, of which the following are the principal points:-- + +What we shall have to thank Impressionism for, will be moral and +material advantages of considerable importance. Morally it has rendered +an immense service to all art, because it has boldly attacked routine +and proved by the whole of its work that a combination of independent +producers could renew the aesthetic code of a country, without owing +anything to official encouragement. It has succeeded where important but +isolated creators have succumbed, because it has had the good fortune of +uniting a group of gifted men, four of whom will count among the +greatest French artists since the origin of national art. It has had the +qualities which overcome the hardest resistance: fecundity, courage and +sure originality. It has known how to find its strength by referring to +the true traditions of the national genius, which have happily +enlightened it and saved it from fundamental errors. It has, last, but +not least, inflicted an irremediable blow on academic convention and has +wrested from it the prestige of teaching which ruled tyrannically for +centuries past over the young artists. It has laid a violent hand upon a +tenacious and dangerous prejudice, upon a series of conventional notions +which were transmitted without consideration for the evolution of modern +life and intelligence. It has dared freely to protest against a +degenerated ideal which vainly parodied the old masters, pretending to +honour them. It has removed from the artistic soul of France a whole +order of pseudo-classic elements which worked against its blossoming, +and the School will never recover from this bold contradiction which has +rallied to it all the youthful. The moral principle of Impressionism has +been absolutely logical and sane, and that is why nothing has been able +to prevent its triumph. + +Technically Impressionism has brought a complete renewal of pictorial +vision, substituting the beauty of character for the beauty of +proportions and finding adequate expression for the ideas and feelings +of its time, which constitutes the secret of all beautiful works. It has +taken up again a tradition and added to it a contemporary page. It will +have to be thanked for an important series of observations as regards +the analysis of light, and for an absolutely original conception of +drawing. Some years have been wasted by painters of little worth in +imitating it, and the Salons, formerly encumbered with academic +_pastiches_, have been encumbered with Impressionist _pastiches_. It +would be unfair to blame the Impressionists for it. They have shown by +their very career that they hated teaching and would never pretend to +teach. Impressionism is based upon irrefutable optic laws, but it is +neither a style, nor a method, likely ever to become a formula in its +turn. One may call upon this art for examples, but not for receipts. On +the contrary, its best teaching has been to encourage artists to become +absolutely independent and to search ardently for their own +individuality. It marks the decline of the School, and will not create a +new one which would soon become as fastidious as the other. It will only +appear, to those who will thoroughly understand it, as a precious +repertory of notes, and the young generation honours it intelligently by +not imitating it with servility. + +Not that it is without its faults! It has been said, to belittle it, +that it only had the value of an interesting attempt, having only been +able to indicate some excellent intentions, without creating anything +perfect. This is inexact. It is absolutely evident, that Manet, Monet, +Renoir and Degas have signed some masterpieces which did not lose by +comparison with those in the Louvre, and the same might even be said of +their less illustrious friends. But it is also evident that the time +spent on research as well as on agitation and enervating controversies +pursued during twenty-five years, has been taken from men who could +otherwise have done better still. There has been a disparity between +Realism and the technique of Impressionism. Its realistic origin has +sometimes made it vulgar. It has often treated indifferent subjects in a +grand style, and it has too easily beheld life from the anecdotal side. +It has lacked psychologic synthesis (if we except Degas). It has too +willingly denied all that exists hidden under the apparent reality of +the universe and has affected to separate painting from the ideologic +faculties which rule over all art. Hatred of academic allegory, +defiance of symbolism, abstraction and romantic scenes, has led it to +refuse to occupy itself with a whole order of ideas, and it has had the +tendency of making the painter beyond all a workman. It was necessary at +the moment of its arrival, but it is no longer necessary now, and the +painters understand this themselves. Finally it has too often been +superficial even in obtaining effects; it has given way to the wish to +surprise the eyes, of playing with tones merely for love of cleverness. +It often causes one regret to see symphonies of magnificent colour +wasted here in pictures of boating men; and there, in pictures of cafe +corners; and we have arrived at a degree of complex intellectuality +which is no longer satisfied with these rudimentary themes. It has +indulged in useless exaggerations, faults of composition and of harmony, +and all this cannot be denied. + +But it still remains fascinating and splendid for its gifts which will +always rouse enthusiasm: freedom, impetuousness, youth, brilliancy, +fervour, the joy of painting and the passion for beautiful light. It is, +on the whole, the greatest pictorial movement that France has beheld +since Delacroix, and it brings to a finish gloriously the nineteenth +century, inaugurating the present. It has accomplished the great deed of +having brought us again into the presence of our true national lineage, +far more so than Romanticism, which was mixed with foreign elements. We +have here painting of a kind which could only have been conceived in +France, and we have to go right back to Watteau in order to receive +again the same impression. Impressionism has brought us an almost +unhoped-for renaissance, and this constitutes its most undeniable claim +upon the gratitude of the race. + +It has exercised a very appreciable influence upon foreign painting. +Among the principal painters attracted by its ideas and research, we +must mention, in Germany, Max Liebermann and Kuehl; in Norway, Thaulow; +in Denmark, Kroyer; in Belgium, Theo Van Rysselberghe, Emile Claus, +Verheyden, Heymans, Verstraete, and Baertson; in Italy, Boldini, +Segantini, and Michetti; in Spain, Zuloaga, Sorolla y Bastida, Dario de +Regoyos and Rusinol; in America, Alexander, Harrison, Sargent; and in +England, the painters of the Glasgow School, Lavery, Guthrie and the +late John Lewis Brown. All these men come within the active extension of +the French movement, and one may say that the honour of having first +recognised the truly national movement of this art must be given to +those foreign countries which have enriched their collections and +museums with works that were despised in the land which had witnessed +their birth. At the present moment the effects of this new vision are +felt all over the world, down to the very bosom of the academies; and at +the Salons, from which the Impressionists are still excluded, can be +witnessed an invasion of pictures inspired by them, which the most +retrograde juries dare not reject. In whatever measure the recent +painters accept Impressionism, they remain preoccupied with it, and even +those who love it not are forced to take it into account. + +The Impressionist movement can therefore now be considered, apart from +all controversies, without vain attacks or exaggerated praise, as an +artistic manifestation which has entered the domain of history, and it +can be studied with the impartial application of the methods of +critical analysis which is usually employed in the study of the former +art movements. We shall not pretend to have given in these pages a +complete and faultless history; but we shall consider ourselves well +rewarded for this work, which is intended to reach the great public, if +we have roused their curiosity and sympathy with a group of artists whom +we consider admirable; and if we have rectified, in the eyes of the +readers of a foreign nation, the errors, the slanders, the undeserved +reproaches, with which Frenchmen have been pleased to overwhelm sincere +creators who thought with faith and love of the pure tradition of the +national genius, and who have for that reason been vilified as much as +if they had in an access of anarchical folly risen against the very +common sense, taste, reason and clearness, which will remain the eternal +merits of their soil. This small, imperfect volume will perhaps find its +best excuse in its intention of repairing an old injustice and of +affirming a useful and permanent truth: that of the authenticity of the +classicism of Impressionism, in the face of the false classicism of the +academic world which official honours have made the guardian of a French +heritage, whose soul it denied and whose spirit it deceived with its +narrow and cold formulas. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS +(1860-1900)*** + + +******* This file should be named 14056.txt or 14056.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/5/14056 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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