diff options
Diffstat (limited to '41621-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 41621-8.txt | 1708 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 1708 deletions
diff --git a/41621-8.txt b/41621-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 63fc059..0000000 --- a/41621-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1708 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Watteau, by C. Lewis Hind - -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: Watteau - -Author: C. Lewis Hind - -Release Date: December 14, 2012 [EBook #41621] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WATTEAU *** - - - - -Produced by sp1nd, David E. Brown and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - MASTERPIECES - IN COLOUR - - EDITED BY - T. LEMAN HARE - - - - - WATTEAU - - 1684-1721 - - - - -"MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR" SERIES - - ARTIST. AUTHOR. - - VELAZQUEZ. S. L. BENSUSAN. - REYNOLDS. S. L. BENSUSAN. - TURNER. C. LEWIS HIND. - ROMNEY. C. LEWIS HIND. - GREUZE. ALYS EYRE MACKLIN. - BOTTICELLI. HENRY B. BINNS. - ROSSETTI. LUCIEN PISSARRO. - BELLINI. GEORGE HAY. - FRA ANGELICO. JAMES MASON. - REMBRANDT. JOSEF ISRAELS. - LEIGHTON. A. LYS BALDRY. - RAPHAEL. PAUL G. KONODY. - HOLMAN HUNT. MARY E. COLERIDGE. - TITIAN. S. L. BENSUSAN. - MILLAIS. A. LYS BALDRY. - CARLO DOLCI. GEORGE HAY. - GAINSBOROUGH. MAX ROTHSCHILD. - TINTORETTO. S. L. BENSUSAN. - LUINI. JAMES MASON. - FRANZ HALS. EDGCUMBE STALEY. - VAN DYCK. PERCY M. TURNER. - LEONARDO DA VINCI. M. W. BROCKWELL. - RUBENS. S. L. BENSUSAN. - WHISTLER. T. MARTIN WOOD. - HOLBEIN. S. L. BENSUSAN. - BURNE-JONES. A. LYS BALDRY. - VIGÉE LE BRUN C. HALDANE MACFALL. - CHARDIN. PAUL G. KONODY. - FRAGONARD. C. HALDANE MACFALL. - MEMLINC. W. H. J. & J. C. WEALE. - CONSTABLE. C. LEWIS HIND. - RAEBURN. JAMES L. CAW. - JOHN S. SARGENT. T. MARTIN WOOD. - LAWRENCE. S. L. BENSUSAN. - DÜRER. H. E. A. FURST. - MILLET. PERCY M. TURNER. - WATTEAU. C. LEWIS HIND. - COROT. SIDNEY ALLNUTT. - - _Others in Preparation._ - - - - -[Illustration: PLATE I.--A PASTORAL. Frontispiece - -(In the Louvre, Paris) - -The attribution to Watteau of this pretty pastoral has been questioned. -It is thus described in the Louvre catalogue, "At the foot of a knoll, a -shepherdess, with a yellow dress and a red bodice, sits turning to the -left, to listen to a shepherd, seen from the back, wearing pink breeches -and a violet vest, who plays on the flute; on the right a sheep and a -dog. Landscape in the background."] - - - - - Watteau - - BY C. LEWIS HIND - - ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT - REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR - - [Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.] - - LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK - NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO. - - - - -CONTENTS - - Page - - Prologue 11 - - I. His Life 18 - - II. His Art 36 - - III. His Place in Art: Predecessors and Influence 48 - - IV. His Critics and Admirers 63 - - Epilogue 76 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - Plate - - - I. A Pastoral Frontispiece - In the Louvre, Paris - - Page - - II. The Ball under a Colonnade 14 - In the Dulwich Gallery - - III. L'Indifférent 24 - In the Louvre, Paris - - IV. The Embarkment for Cythera 34 - In the Louvre, Paris - - V. Jupiter and Antiope 40 - In the Louvre, Paris - - VI. The Fountain 50 - In the Wallace Collection - - VII. Fête Champêtre 60 - In the National Gallery of Scotland - - VIII. The Music Lesson 70 - In the Wallace Collection - - - - -[Illustration] - -PROLOGUE - - -The apparition of Watteau in France in the early eighteenth century may -be likened to the apparition of Giotto in Italy in the early fourteenth. -Each was a genius; each broke away from the herd; each gave to the world -a new vision; each inspired a school. But there the resemblance ends. -Giotto's art was Christian, Watteau's Pagan; or, in other words, Giotto -lived in an age when the aim of art was to teach religion, -Watteau--well, his pictures were designed to delight. Giotto sought to -remind men of Christianity, to bring them humbly to their knees with -representations (marvellously fresh in those days when art was still -groping in the Byzantine twilight) of the life of the Founder of -Christianity, all its pathos, pity, and promise. Watteau gave joy and -exhiliration to a generation temporally dull and morose, chilled by the -academical art of the period, and apparently content with it. Watteau -appeared: the little world about him looked at his pictures and, what a -change! "Paris dressed, posed, picnicked, and conversed à la Watteau." - -Poor Watteau! He gave, he gives joy, but he was sad, discontented, -distrustful of himself and others. Sometimes Nature makes a great effort -and unites genius to the sane mind and the sane body, as in a Titian, a -Leonardo, a Shakespeare, a Goethe; more often she breathes genius into a -fugitive and precarious shell, as in a Keats, a Francis Thompson, a -Watteau, and ironically, or perhaps blessedly, gives them the phthisical -temperament so that they crowd youth, adolescence, and age into a burst -of hectic performances before they depart. - -[Illustration: PLATE II.--THE BALL UNDER A COLONNADE - -(In the Dulwich Gallery) - -This picture has suffered somewhat from time. But how delightful it is -still; how gracious and debonair are the two dancing figures; how -fascinating the colour in the woman's green striped rose skirt, and in -the man's blue butterfly dress. There are seventy-three figures in this -small canvas 1 ft. 7-3/4 ins. by 2 ft. 1/4 ins.] - -In the following pages the life and art of Watteau are considered, also -the curious effect of that life and art upon his biographers, also, -frightening word! his technique, his marvellous technique, which is a -veritable tonic to painters, who know the almost intolerable -difficulties of expression. - -His life? Why, it could be told in a page. His art? It is all stated in -any one of his significant pictures. He belonged to that class of -unfortunates who are never at rest in this world. Life to him was a -wandering to find home. Always beyond the hills, any place where he did -not happen to be at the moment, gleamed the spires of the City of -Happiness and Contentment, beckoning, waiting, rising against the sky -like the towers of New Jerusalem in Taddeo di Bartoli's "Death of the -Virgin." He fled from the boredom of his home in Valenciennes, yet he -died longing to return. - -Watteau revealed his temperament, on the wing as it were, in his -masterpiece "The Embarkment for Cythera." These ethereal and butterfly -pilgrims of love should be happy enough in their enchanted garden on -the border of the azure sea, but no! they are preparing lackadaisically -to depart, to be wafted in the ship with the rose-coloured sail to the -Island of Cythera, the abode of Venus, whom they worship for the joy of -worship, without any desire of possession. On those lovely shores they -will find no continuing city. Watteau knows that. Oh! but he was a cynic -was this Watteau whose palette was a rainbow, and whose vision was like -the flash of a kingfisher's wing in sunlight. Do you remember his "Fête -Champêtre" at Dresden, with the little exquisite figure of a woman -seated on the ground turning away from the spectator? Oh, her bright -hair, and the dress--I am a man; but what a dress! What skill and -knowledge in the drawing and painting of it! This little lady is -essentially Watteau, who loved pretty clothes and budding figures, and -whose drawing was as dainty as the frocks he composed; yet I do not -think she is the real Watteau. Cast your eye to the left of the picture -where stands an elderly, disdainful dandy. You meet this looker-on again -and again in Watteau's pictures; he is in the Fête Champêtre and yet -not of it; he knows how little all this affectation of gaiety really -signifies; how transient is this commerce with joy, and yet he lingers -there because in Watteau's world there is naught else to do. Yet he -himself was always doing--a great worker. He knew, like Zola, that work -is the anodyne for the "malady of the infinite" or of self, whichever -you like to call it; but he had no wish to teach. He used his art to -escape from the world to a dream-realm, where the sun always shines and -where Monday morning never comes. - -What was he like, this "exquisite little master," restless, changeable, -obstinate, irritable, and misanthropic, whose influence on art has been -so great? In his portrait of himself engraved by Boucher, the slight, -nervous figure, alert, on the point of a petulant outbreak, looks a -genius, but a man "gey ill to live with." I have a keener if a sadder -vision of him in a portrait drawn by himself, "frightfully thin, almost -deathlike." It is called "Watteau Laughing." Frightfully thin, almost -deathlike, himself drawn by himself--laughing. That is Watteau. - - - - -I - -HIS LIFE - - -It should be an easy task to state the salient facts in the life of a -world-renowned painter who lived but thirty-seven years, and who died in -1721; but until the discovery by the brothers De Goncourt, in a -second-hand book-shop, of the life of Watteau, written by his friend the -Comte de Caylus and read by him before the French Academy in 1748, our -knowledge had to be gleaned mainly from the notes to catalogues of his -collected works. - -The little Flemish town of Valenciennes was ceded to France in -1677--seven years before a son was born to Jean Philippe Watteau and his -wife Michelle Lardenoise. This son was baptized on the 10th of October -1684 and given the names of Jean Antoine. Jean Philippe, his father, was -a tiler, desirous no doubt that his son should succeed him in his own -sensible occupation; but discovering Jean Antoine's predilection for -covering everything he could find with drawings, grotesque and -otherwise, of the strolling players and mountebanks that passed through -the little town, he submitted to fate and placed him with the official -painter of the municipality, named Gerin. Under him Watteau painted "La -Vraie Gaieté," his first important attempt at a picture. This was -followed by "Le Retour de Guingette," and then his master died. The year -was 1701, the age of Watteau seventeen. - -It may be said that with Gerin's death Watteau's boyhood died. His -father, seeing little return for his expenditure, refused to continue to -pay for instruction. Life at home became unbearable to the sensitive -youth to whom his calling was as the call of the sea to the sailor-born. - -If there was so much of interest in Valenciennes for a painter, what -might not the capital offer of spectacular delights? So one morning -Antoine left home and walked to Paris, where he found work with Métayer, -a scene-painter; but Métayer's patronage soon ceased, and Watteau found -himself alone in Paris. Now began his period of penury and the making of -the master; also probably, through hunger and cold, the engendering of -the disease, consumption, which was to force his genius to its rapid -development and from which he was to die. Paris, the marvellous Paris of -his dreams, was beautiful, but without heart. Watteau strolled by her -river's bank, crept for shelter into the great church of Notre-Dame, -wandered out again, and at last found work of a kind that would at least -keep him from starvation. - -On the Pont Notre-Dame there were shops, exposing daubs, painted by the -dozen, for sale. Necessity compelled and Watteau sought and obtained -employment at one of these picture manufactories. He proved himself a -facile workman, and soon his task became so easy that he could paint -from memory the head of St. Nicolas, which it was his duty to repeat -over and over again. The other journeymen artists painted skies, -draperies, heads, hands, saints, angels, to each a set task, and the -payment was proportionate to their skill. Watteau's remuneration for the -week's work amounted to three livres--a little more than three -francs--and a daily bowl of soup! A less determined youth than this -weakling might have succumbed or renounced his ambitions, but Watteau -worked and waited patiently until he could extricate himself from these -uncongenial surroundings. - -The future painter of dainty and luxurious visions of wealth and -breeding was ambitious, if miserable. - -He forgot to be hungry, because his hours of leisure from the tyranny of -the picture manufactory were filled with the joy of drawing incessantly -everything that passed before his eyes, from the turn of a head to the -flutter of a tempestuous petticoat. A bowl of soup for dinner is an -excellent aid to work, and this period no doubt intensified Watteau's -love of work and of Nature. The lifeless things he had to copy at the -manufactory sent him into the realms of the real, and his great gift of -"seeing" was storing up for him innumerable observations which were to -be the structure of his future fancies. - -One lucky day Watteau met Claude Gillot, the decorative painter, who on -seeing his drawings invited him to live in his house and become his -pupil and assistant. So ended his period of absolute want; henceforward -Watteau began to find himself, even as disease had already found and -marked him. - -Claude Gillot's influence upon the formation of Watteau's taste and -talent must not be underrated. He was a man of much ability, quite -unlike the cold and formal painters of his time. His was a gay art: the -mythology of lovers and nymphs, and the light life of the Italian -Comedy--Pantaloon, Columbine, and Pierrot--"strange motley--coloured -family, clothed in sunshine and silken striped." Gillot is certainly one -of Watteau's earliest inspirers: his revolt against convention (even if -revolt be too strong a word) influenced Watteau to the end of his life. -With this happy _rencontre_ began the serious development of Watteau's -art. Life, no longer sordid, became luxurious in thought and -application. Supersensitive, the artist mind of the pupil touched and -extracted the taste of his master, improved upon it, and strengthened -its own tendency for all that was dainty, elegant, and whimsical. -Gillot's was a good influence; a capable craftsman, he gave freely, but -the jealous side of his nature soon recognised in his intuitive pupil -not only an adaptation of his own methods, but also an improvement upon -them. In Watteau, no doubt, he saw his own faults, but he also saw his -own virtues made finer and rarer. Whatever the reason, over-much -similarity of temperament, professional jealousy, or irritability on -Gillot's side; ingratitude, sensitiveness, fickleness, or a sense of -superiority on Watteau's, this mutually helpful friendship of five years -ended abruptly. We may never know the cause of the quarrel, but we do -know that Watteau, although he always warmly praised Gillot's work and -admitted his personal indebtedness, refused to be questioned in regard -to their disagreement, and was silent about it even to his most intimate -friends. Curious to relate, Gillot ceased to paint when Watteau left -him, and became an etcher and engraver. Watteau certainly dated the -knowledge of his own talent from his association with Gillot, his first -real master. - -[Illustration: PLATE III.--L'INDIFFÉRENT - -(In the Louvre, Paris) - -Through Watteau's dream-world trips "L'Indifférent," rainbow-hued, -mercurial, his indifference assumed, not troubling to conceal the sad -thoughtfulness that lurks in his expression. Who can describe Watteau's -colour or his fashion of trickling on the paint? The technique of -"L'Indifférent" is marvellous.] - -Claude Audran, to whom he went in 1708 at the age of twenty-four (taking -his friends Pater and Lancret with him), was keeper or rather doorkeeper -of the Luxembourg Palace, and a painter of the ornamental decorations -then in vogue. Garlands and arabesques were his speciality. He taught -his system of decoration to Watteau, who, sensitive to every artistic -sensation, gleaned perhaps from Audran the sense of rhythmic line and -made it one of his own chief characteristics. - -Living in the Luxembourg Palace he had access to the pictures; he -studied them, especially the works of Rubens. Restlessly he would roam -the gardens of the Palace, enchanted and inspired by the figures -wandering down the paths and grouping themselves under the great trees. -Watteau, dallying in the gardens, remembering the theatrical methods of -Métayer, the subjects of Gillot, the flexibility and fancy of Audran, -the daring of the great Rubens, began to develop into an original. -Gradually, too, he grew restless, feeling that he was not wholly free to -paint his dreams. A vague nostalgia persuaded his artistic temperament -that it was his home he wanted to see--Valenciennes and his people. Be -that as it may, this was the reason he gave for leaving Audran, who had -always been kind and appreciative; although the wily painter of garlands -and arabesques tried to dissuade his _protégé_ from painting pictures, -fearing to lose so able an assistant in his own ornamental work. Before -parting from Audran, Watteau made his first real essay in his second -manner, a picture of "The Departure of the Troops," a reminiscence of -the life at Valenciennes. This work he sold to the dealer Sirois for -sixty livres, and with the money he started for home, despite Audran's -protests. - -Valenciennes at that time was gay with soldiers and _dames galantes_ and -Watteau painted several military pictures--groups marked with truth, yet -full of grace; he also filled his sketch-books with incomparable -drawings. But he could not long resist the call of Paris. Valenciennes -seemed to have grown smaller, less interesting. The painter fretted in -the narrow sphere of the provincial town; once again his wayward feet -were set towards the capital. He arrived in Paris in 1709, and before -long persuaded himself that he would like to visit Rome. With this end -in view he competed for the _Prix de Rome_, but succeeded only in -obtaining second prize. Soon recovering from the disappointment, he -painted a companion picture to the work he had sold to Sirois for sixty -livres, but for the companion he asked and obtained two hundred and -sixty livres. These two pictures he borrowed from Sirois and hung in a -room, where he knew they would be seen by the Academicians as they -passed from one apartment to another. The painter De la Fosse, impressed -by their colour and quality, paused and asked the name of the author. -He was informed that they were the work of a young and unknown man who -craved intercession with the king for a "pension" in order that he might -study in Italy. De la Fosse sent for Watteau, whom he found modest, shy, -and deprecatory of his work. Watteau stated his desire to study abroad. -He was told--the episode in these days seems hardly credible--to his -astonishment and joy, that there was no need for him to study with any -one; that he was already master; that he would honour the Academy if he -would consent to become a member, and that he had only to present -himself to be enrolled. This he did and was duly elected, the -inauguration fee in consideration of his circumstances being reduced to -one hundred livres. And so in 1712, at the age of twenty-eight, the poor -unknown, who failed to win the first prize in the _Prix de Rome_, was -made free of the Academy, was given the new title of _peintre des Fêtes -Galantes_, and became, almost in a bound, famous. - -Ill and moody, he worked incessantly at his drawings and the pictures -which were making it possible for him eventually to produce his -masterpiece, "The Embarkment for Cythera." Always dissatisfied with his -work, he did not ratify his election to the Academy by sending in his -diploma picture until 1717. The patience of the Academy being exhausted, -he was reminded of the rule that each newly elected member must present -a picture. In a brilliant dash he finished "The Embarkment for Cythera," -which was accepted on August 28, 1717, as his _pièce de reception_. - -No longer was there poverty to contend with. Success followed success. -The Academy had set its seal upon him. Everybody wanted Watteaus. In -1716, the year before he sent in his _pièce de reception_, he had gone -to live with M. de Crozat, whose beautiful house in the Rue Richelieu -and his country mansion at Montmorency were filled with works of the old -masters, drawings and paintings. We are told that Crozat possessed four -hundred pictures of the Venetian and Flemish schools, thousands of -drawings, of which two hundred and twenty-nine were by Rubens, one -hundred and twenty-nine by Van Dyck, one hundred and six by Veronese, -and one hundred and thirteen by Titian. In these luxurious houses of his -admiring friend and patron, Watteau might have lived with delight and -profit. The park of the country house at Montmorency became the -background which inspired his Pastorals, the perfection of his art; this -perfection the study of the old masters aided somewhat, no doubt, but -Watteau was now master himself, and in knowing them confronted his -peers. Here too, for the first time, he met his models as an -equal--untrammelled. This man of "medium height and insignificant -appearance," whose eyes showed "neither talent nor liveliness," was on -familiar and friendly terms with the company gathered at M. de Crozat's -house--ladies of fashion, from whom in old days he tried to steal for -his note-book a line of neck, a turn of wrist, furtively and hastily, -asked nothing better than to be party to his pictures in gardens gay -with mondaines, male and female. He observed and painted. We can almost -hear the frou-frou of their garments in his pictures. - -M. de Julienne, another patron, was full of enthusiasm and eager to -possess his works; it was for him that Watteau painted the replica, -carried farther and more finished, of the "Embarkment for Cythera," -which is now at Potsdam. All the world smiled upon Watteau, but the -world's favours only made the more capricious and melancholy this -incurable brooder over the unattainable. Loving no woman as he loved his -art, he longed for tenderness, yet was afraid of it. Cold, shy, -fastidious, reserved, ill, he shunned society now that it sought him, -and drugged himself with work as a refuge from ennui and from nostalgia -for no earthly country. - -He left M. de Crozat's house, independence being more vital to him than -luxury, and found a companion in Nicolas Vleughels, whom he had met at -M. de Julienne's. The two lived together until 1718. Once more the -desire for solitude assailed him. M. de Julienne, who seems always to -have been his devoted friend, admonished the ailing painter and begged -him to be more careful about his material welfare, as indeed all his -other friends did, to whom he retorted, "At the worst there is the -hospital; no one is refused there!" His friends advised him to travel. -Of all places he chose London, and arrived on these shores in 1719, -finding lodgings at Greenwich. - -In London his physician, Dr. Mead, presented him to the king, for whom -he painted four pictures, which are now at Buckingham Palace. His health -showed no improvement, and the English climate aggravated his illness. -In a letter to Gersaint he wrote of "_Le mauvais air qui regne à Londres -à cause de la vapeur du charbon de terre dont on fait usage_." - -Dr. Mead, aware no doubt that his condition was hopeless, advised him to -return to Paris. This he did, and settled in the house of Gersaint, -son-in-law to Sirois, for whom he painted the delightful picture called -"Gersaint's Sign,"--"just to limber up his fingers," as he expressed it. - -Restlessness again seized him. He believed that he would recover in the -country. His friend the Abbé Haranger asked M. le Fèvre to find him -accommodation in a house at Nogent, and thither he went in 1721. - -But the end was near, and Watteau, realising it, proceeded to set his -house in order and to make amends for his shortcomings of friendship and -of temper, the importance of which the dying man magnified. He sent for -his townsman and pupil, Pater, asked forgiveness for having in the -past retarded his advancement through fear of rivalry, and made ample -amends by giving Pater daily instruction and revealing to him his -intimate knowledge of his craft. Pater said, after Watteau's death, that -this was "the only fruitful teaching he had ever received." His townsman -no doubt brought back to the dying painter thoughts of home. Ever -hopeful, like all consumptives, he was sure that a change of air would -cure him! - -[Illustration: PLATE IV.--THE EMBARKMENT FOR CYTHERA - -(In the Louvre, Paris) - -In 1717 Watteau finished, after a long delay, his _pièce de reception_ -for the Academy, the famous first study for "The Embarkment for -Cythera." This picture was painted in seven days, and elaborated, but -hardly improved, in the Potsdam version. Behold these ethereal and -butterfly pilgrims of love preparing lackadaisically to be wafted in the -ship with the rose-coloured sail to the abode of Venus. On those lovely -shores they will find no continuing city. Watteau knows that.] - -He instructed Gersaint to sell everything, and to make preparations for -the journey home. He made the journey home, but not to Valenciennes. He -died suddenly in Gersaint's arms on July 18, 1721. - -He was artist to the end. "Take away that crucifix," he said to the -priest; "it pains me. How could an artist dare to treat my Master so -shockingly." It is said that one of the last remarks of this sensitive, -ill-balanced, disease-stricken man of genius was to beg the Abbé -Haranger to forgive him for having used his face and figure for his -picture of "Gilles." - -So at the age of thirty-seven he escaped finally from reality--that -reality which his art had always avoided so delightfully and so -convincingly. - - - - -II - -HIS ART - - -Watteau's art appeals to everybody, and fascinates all who study it -attentively. The lovely decorative pictures tell their own story; and -for those who require more than a story in a picture, there is his -craftsmanship, his originality, his personality; the delight of -comparing one alluring achievement with another, and the interest in -noting the inferiority of his followers--Lancret, Pater, and the -rest--who annexed his manner but who could not annex the flame of his -genius. Visit the Dulwich Gallery, study and enjoy Watteau's "Ball under -a Colonnade," then go to Hertford House and examine Pater's copy of -Watteau's "Ball." The fire of genius and glory of colour are gone. It is -as stolid as Paul Potter's "Bull." - -I have an especial affection for "The Ball under a Colonnade" at -Dulwich; for until the regal gift of Hertford House to the nation, with -its nine Watteaus, this little "Ball under a Colonnade," and in a -lesser degree its companion picture at Dulwich, a "Fête Champêtre," were -my first wanderings in the lyric land of Watteau. The National Gallery -which, before the present Director came into office, treated the French -school with an indifference that almost amounted to disdain, does not -possess a single Watteau. Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Cambridge own examples -of varying merit, and there is one in that treasure-house of rare and -strange things, Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields. It is -probable that the nation possesses yet another example. "A Watteau in -the Jones' Collection" was the surprising heading of an article in a -recent number of the _Burlington Magazine_ by Mr. Claude Phillips, who -claims that the little Watteau-like picture called "The Swing" in the -Jones' Collection at South Kensington is a veritable Watteau. - -Germany is rich in Watteaus, with ten at Potsdam and five in Berlin. -France, which should be the richest, is poorer in number and importance -than either Germany or England, although there are ten examples in the -Louvre, including the original "Embarkment for Cythera," -"L'Indifférent," and "Jupiter and Antiope." - -[Illustration: PLATE V.--JUPITER AND ANTIOPE - -(In the Louvre, Paris) - -"Jupiter and Antiope" suggests Titian and Rubens filtered through -Watteau. This nude studied from life, not painted from his drawings, is -more laboured than his other pictures, but the loss of spontaneity in -the colour is compensated by the truth and beauty of the abandon of the -beautiful limbs in repose. Brown Jupiter, blonde Venus--no attenuation -of the truth here--lights loaded, browns rich with pearly reflections on -the fair skin.] - -Let us return for a moment to "The Ball under a Colonnade" at Dulwich, -which from its own inherent charm and from its position in that quiet -and reposeful gallery may fitly serve as an introduction to the art of -Watteau. Take a chair--they permit it at Dulwich--and seat yourself -before it. The picture has suffered, alas! somewhat from Time, which has -almost obliterated the fairy-like fountain. But how charming the picture -is still; how gracious and debonair are the two dancing figures; how -fascinating the broken colour in the woman's green-striped, rose skirt -and in the man's blue butterfly dress. There are seventy-three figures -in the small canvas, 1 ft. 7-3/4 in. by 2 ft. 1/4 in. You can almost -hear the musicians playing, the fall of water from the fading fountain, -the rustle of leaves, and the ripple of laughter. Think of the painters, -dead and gone, who have loved this "Ball under a Colonnade." Constable -was one of them. He was not afraid to praise a picture when he liked it. -Listen to this--Constable's criticism of a copy that Leslie had made of -Watteau's "Ball." He asked Constable what he thought of the copy, -and the great man answered:-- - -"Your copy looks colder than the original, which seems as if painted in -honey--so mellow, so tender, so soft, and so delicious; so I trust yours -will be; but be satisfied if you but touch the hem of his garment, for -this inscrutable and exquisite thing would vulgarise even Rubens and -Paul Veronese." - -The amount of work done by Watteau, accused by his friend De Caylus of -idleness, was enormous. A chronological list is almost impossible, -because many of his works are lost or were destroyed during the -Revolution. - -Watteau painted anything and everything, during his connection with -Gillot and Audran, from pictures to powder-boxes, never considering that -his art was too high and lofty for the embellishment of any object -suitable for painting upon. His work may be divided into three classes: -first manner--Italian Comedy and decorative work; second--Military -Scenes; third and finest manner--The Pastorals. - -As a boy he produced some military pictures, and he reverted to them -while with Audran. It is difficult to place chronologically any given -subject, for while we may arbitrarily classify a picture as belonging to -one period or another, his Italian Comedy scenes, belonging to the first -period, persisted to the end. - -With the exception of his boyish endeavours, inspired by Teniers before -he visited Paris, his first manner was almost entirely decorative, and -included paintings on screens, coach panels, and furniture. The military -pictures belong to a short period dating from his success in selling -them to Sirois and their approval by the Academy. They are few in -number--thirteen only were engraved. - -The year 1712 was the beginning of his recognition and the end of -poverty. Between this date and 1716 he produced his marvellous nudes. Of -all Watteau's pictures the nudes seem undoubtedly to have been painted -from Nature and not from drawings. They are too true to life, too well -observed. All his other pictures, even the greatest of his Pastorals, -have the air of being imagined. His drawings were his documents, and -these, like the nudes, were of course made direct from Nature. The -fantasy of his pictures is founded on fact, but it is fantasy which sees -only what it wishes to see--the rhythmic line, the rainbow colour, the -happy melancholy. - -The year 1716 was big with significance to Watteau; he awoke in his own -land--dream-land of his Pastorals. Then he began to live, and there were -before him but five short years of life. He never again left this land -of fantasy--except when, on his return from London, he painted -"Gersaint's Sign," that model of modishness and grace, painted in eight -mornings, representing Gersaint's shop where _élégantes_ buy -masterpieces from shop-keepers as elegant as themselves. This picture, -which is now in the possession of the German Emperor, has for some -mysterious reason been divided into two portions. - -In 1717, as I have related, he finished after a long delay his _pièce de -reception_ for the Academy, the famous first study for the "Embarkment -for Cythera." What can be said of this picture, or of the more finished -replica at Potsdam, that has not already been said a score of times? It -is referred to and described in the Prologue to this book as one of his -significant pictures. It moves in a rhythm of life, of love, of colour; -rose reds, golden yellows, faint purples, greys of every gamut, meeting -and melting--one perfect whole, and over all is a lingering regret of "I -know not what." This picture was painted in seven days, and elaborated, -but hardly improved, in the Potsdam version. - -Turn from this consummate work to his early "La Vraie Gaieté," inspired -by Teniers, which in essence is the same picture as "The Ball under a -Colonnade" at Dulwich, and even the "Amusements Champêtres" and the -"Champs Elysées" at Hertford House. The clothes are changed, the -handling has become lighter and more accomplished--that is all. The -observer, that saturnine, detached, cynical figure, who appears in so -many of Watteau's pictures, is already present in "La Vraie Gaieté." -'This solitary figure is, as I have already said, the symbol of Watteau -himself, ever aloof, ever contemptuous, even when sharing in the scenic -world of Watteau, where life, if not really true, is certainly not -false. His people are lotus-eaters, who are come to a land where it is -always afternoon, where "the charmed sunset lingered low adown in the -red west ... and many a winding vale and meadow, set with slender -galingale." A mild melancholy possesses the inhabitants of this -dream-world, for they are happy and yet a little sad, musing on what can -never be. Through this dream-world "L'Indifférent" trips lightly, -typical of Watteau, rainbow-hued, mercurial, his indifference assumed, -not troubling to conceal the sad thoughtfulness that lurks in his -expression. We do not believe in his snapping fingers and his jaunty -air. What colour are his beautiful garments? Rosy white, greeny white, -lavendar white with rose red knots, and rose red mantle lined with -bluebell blue, white frills falling over the sensitive hands, his -butterfly decorations rustling as he passes--"L'Indifférent." The -technique of the picture, in its modern chromatic use of colour, is -marvellous. The hues of the rainbow meander through it all. Who can -describe Watteau's colour or his fashion of trickling on the paint, as -fascinating in its way as the method of Frans Hals, whose seduction is -"the way he paints," not what he paints? Hals, the great master of -character, frank, open, plebeian, is akin in technique to Watteau. What -æsthetic joy these masters of technique give us as we study the -manipulation of their paint. Hals flicks on his ruffles frankly, -joyously--brutally. Watteau, seemingly just for joy in the colour, -trickles--there is no other word for it--one luscious colour over -another, like liquid jewels embedded in gold. One may stand for hours at -Hertford House in front of any of his pictures and quite forget the -subject in delight of the workmanship. - -Consider "The Music Lesson." In colour it is rose and white. The man's -garments are neither rose, nor white, nor yellow, and yet they are all -three. The rose of the woman's rosette repeats the carmines of her -complexion. The composition is charming. The movement, pose, and costume -of the players is the same as the musicians in the "Musical Party," also -at Hertford House. Delightful too in "Gilles and His Family." Gilles is -dressed in thin, white, supple satin, lined with rose and striped with -faint blue, and his white mantle is lined with blue. The dark bias of -the guitar binds the group of people together, all of whom it touches or -crosses. A seated woman nurses a little black and white dog, while a -child nestles up to her, peeping beneath the guitar; the faces are more -alert and smiling than usual, and the picture, although less pearly than -"The Music Lesson," is not less beautiful in colour. - -"Jupiter and Antiope" at the Louvre suggests Titian and Rubens filtered -through Watteau. This nude studied from life, not painted from his -drawings, is more laboured than his other pictures, but the loss of -spontaneity in the colour is compensated by the truth and beauty of the -abandon of the beautiful limbs in repose. Brown Jupiter, blonde -Venus--no attenuation of the truth here--lights loaded, browns rich, -with pearly reflections on the fair skin. - -The attribution of the delightful "Pastoral" at the Louvre, although -generally accepted, has been questioned. The elegant little lady -shepherdess is in rose red, a red that seems to belong only to Velazquez -and to Watteau; she sits watching, not the flock of one sheep and one -wondering dog, no! she is listening to the Arcadian shepherd playing his -flute. Very Watteau-like is the landscape. - -Turn from these little works to the larger pictures, such as "The Return -from the Chase," painted for his patron M. de Julienne towards the end -of his life--a marvel of rhythmic line and tone; and to "Les Amusements -Champêtres"--a bouquet of colour like no other colour, old rose, old -blue, silvery yellow, prune purple, all partaking one of the other. In -the distance people are sitting and standing and dancing in colours -unrivalled. - -So we may pass through the whole range of his production finding -constantly some new surprise of colour, some new mastery in the weaving -of his webs. Call Watteau, if you like, a painter of the frivolous side -of life, but you must also call him one of the few originals whose -pictures vivify because they stimulate, and because they excite interest -in his method which marked a new epoch in art. "We consider Watteau," -says his countryman, M. Camille Mauclair, "the most original and most -representative master of French art; Watteau, Delacroix, and Monet are -the three beacons of that art." - -[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE FOUNTAIN - -(In the Wallace Collection) - -One of his smaller pictures, 17-1/2 ins. high by 13-1/4 wide, called -also "La Cascade." It attracts attention by reason of the somewhat -theatrical way in which the dainty silhouette of the figures is set -against the opening between the trees. But how charming are these -figures bathed in light and mirrored in the pool that ripples at their -feet.] - - - - -III - -HIS PLACE IN ART: PREDECESSORS AND INFLUENCE - - -If I were asked what new thing Watteau gave to the world, I would answer -that he humanised the art of his country and century, and drew men -from pomposity to his own intimate and dream-like reality under the -symbols of gallantry and masquerade. He was also the pioneer of -impressionism, the discoverer of the decomposition of tones, and the -link, to quote M. Mauclair, that connects Ruysdael and Claude Lorrain -with Turner, Monticelli, and Claude Monet. - -The eighteenth century in France which he inaugurated is a sunlit garden -full of flowers compared to a cold court in some prison palace, to which -the seventeenth century of academic imitation of the lesser Italians may -be likened. Correct, pompous, lifeless, Le Brun, Le Sueur, and his other -forerunners, have left us little but a sense of boredom, a warning how -not to paint, and the assurance that, unless a school is founded on a -personal study of Nature, that school dies with its founder. The -decadence of Italian art is said to date from Raphael. Certain it is -that bombastic art dates from the greatest artist--Michelangelo. The -father of the chromo is Correggio. - -Watteau, a "little master," as some are pleased to call him, has had an -influence on art that persists to-day, an influence intimate and human. -Certainly he made life more beautiful. Departing for Cythera with -Watteau's dames and gallants means more to us of intelligence in art -than acres of classic pictures of gods, temples and heroes untouched by -the warmth of personality and incisiveness of observation. We are -fatigued and unconvinced in the rooms at the Louvre devoted to Le -Sueur's series of pictures depicting the life of St. Bruno. We are glad -before the little earnest portraits of Corneille, Clouet, and Fouquet -hanging in the next room. The love of beauty and the simple religion of -the Primitives is transferred to us. We feel it to be true that "Nothing -can wash the balm from an anointed king," in looking at the portrait of -Charles I., king, dandy, and gentleman, touched as it is with Van Dyck's -great gift of personal vision; but Le Sueur and Le Brun say nothing, -except perhaps to make us grudge the wall space their pictures occupy. - -Watteau is the lure that led France back to Nature; his real-unreal -pleasances are the gardens where grew the flowers (slips from older -stock, if you will) called Modern Movement, Impressionism, and -Pointillism. "The Embarkment for Cythera" has been called the first -impressionist picture. Once again through Watteau the natural art of the -North prevailed over the art of the South as in the time of the -Burgundian Franco-Flemish renaissance. - -Watteau is true successor to his masters Teniers and Rubens. Teniers' -subjects may be said to persist to the end of his short but full -artistic life, and his _Fêtes Galantes_, those perfect expressions of -his matured art, are Teniers' subjects made his own; but the uncouth -Flemish peasants become graceful dames and gallants. Teniers' boors -rollick through the day and night boisterously, leaving nothing for -to-morrow, unless it be a headache. Watteau's dames and gallants are -touched with happy melancholy. Their light malady of heartache for -unattained desires is obviously more beautiful pictorially than the -headaches of hilarious boors. - -Your true artist has delicate _antennæ_ and is sensitive to everything -that he sees and feels; but when he retires within himself, the memory -of all that he felt, of warmth or cold, fine or unfine, returns to him. -The influence of many men Watteau felt. I place them in the order of -their influence--Teniers, Rubens, Gillot, Audran, Titian, and Veronese. -The example of each taught him something, but the artist in him selected -ingredients of their genius and combined them into a new and original -one--his own. - -The wholesome influence of Rubens on painters has been enormous. He did -not make imitators, but he inspired many great men to "get the look of -their own eyes," not the look of his; robust, normal, and generous of -nature, the contagion of his truth is so immediate that all who come in -contact with it must look at Nature unblinkingly, and receive a fresh -impulse from his bravery. Velazquez was a better painter after he had -talked and worked on the hillside above the Escorial with Rubens; Van -Dyck was his pupil, and Watteau is of his artistic progeny. The feminine -taste of Velazquez, Van Dyck, and Watteau was made more virile by -contact with Rubens, whose taste many of us may condemn, and whose -influence for good we are so apt to overlook. - -From Titian Watteau borrowed warmth, and from Veronese coolness of -colour; Gillot, the decorative painter, showed him his own inherent -power; Audran, too, helped him, and the Luxembourg Gardens and Gallery -aided his artistic development. - -No doubt the great artist might be shut in a cell, and still his genius -would bring forth its work unnourished by influence or propinquity to -other talents; it might even show a rarer quality. But ninety-nine in a -hundred derive from their forebears, and it is interesting to follow the -career of a great man, to pursue the influences that formed him, and to -see in the end how his individuality asserted itself. It were churlish -in any student and lover of Watteau not to know and acknowledge the -happy effect upon him of the masters he admired. - -Watteau was of Flemish origin, for Valenciennes, where he was born, -became French only seven years before his birth. Conquest cannot in -seven years change the characteristics of a people. Watteau's art is -consequently distinctly Flemish, but modified by French taste; he became -an artistic composite of Flemish technical sanity and French -intelligence and fervour. He was an exotic that shot up in the -forcing-house of his exacting genius, extracting vitality from Rubens -the fertiliser, inspiration from Teniers, colour from Titian and -Veronese, and encouragement from Gillot and Audran. Genius is a great -gift lent by Nature to the few; but Nature is inexorable in demanding -the return of the fruits of the gift, as if man were but a casket for -its safe keeping; when the end comes he must have proved his worth as -custodian, be the time long, as in the case of a Da Vinci or a -Michaelangelo, or short, as in the case of a Raphael or a Watteau. - -The shorter the time given for the justification of the gift the -stronger often is the capacity for effort, so that the sum total of the -achievement of the short life often seems to exceed that of the long -life. - -Michaelangelo lived to be very old. When this "greatest artist" died he -left his work unfinished. Raphael died young, but his achievement was -prodigious. Watteau's short sad life of illness and discontent produced -more than twelve hundred items. - -Watteau began his artistic career influenced in technique by the -_petits toucheurs_, the sympathetic little masters of the Netherlands to -whom he was kin (M. de Julienne calls him in his catalogue "_peintre -Flamand de L'Academie Royale_"). Soon the big touch of Rubens intrudes -and the technique broadens; next Titian obsesses him, and the shadows -under the trees in the Luxembourg Gardens as he watches grow warmer to -the watcher, and colour begins to glow; Veronese intervenes, and cooler -tones are apparent--and these three great masters of breadth and truth, -of warmth and temperament, of chill stateliness, combine in the mind's -eye of Watteau. The pleasant places in the gardens of the Luxembourg are -peopled with ladies and gallants and "little ladies" and "little -gallants," and, as he walks and watches, Teniers' subjects flit across -his vision, and the forms of Rubens' rosy and ample matrons. - -How would Titian have painted yonder dark woman of the warm colour and -deep red hair walking down the glade? The leaves on the trees rustle in -the summer air. Light flickers on silken frocks, cold reflections on -green. Something whispers to his discontent "paint the scene as you see -it," draw the lady sitting on the grass, her back toward you, in the -shot silk frock of bronze and green, and the other standing near, tall -and elegant, in rose and yellow. What colour is it? "The colour of a -sun-browned wood-nymph's thigh." And her hands behind her back. What -hands! "Hands must be better painted than heads, being more difficult." - -Beyond in the gardens fountains and little children play; tall trees -throw shadows on beauty pouting, the indifferent lover tip-toes away, -not so indifferent as he would have the pouting one believe. There is -movement toward the gates of the Palace Gardens; children run tripping -over tiny dogs led by lute string ribbons; soldiers and music. - -Watteau finds himself, not wholly perhaps, but the formative period has -passed. The artist is made; is himself, gives himself. No longer will -the classicists prevail; no longer will art be cold and eclectic. The -youth from Valenciennes will call Paris back to Nature, and through a -temperament will show the world familiar things, will let his -imagination play, taking his good where he finds it, but resolving -it into something that is his own. He will see with his own eyes. He -will paint pictures as he pleases. - -[Illustration: PLATE VII.--FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE - -(In the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) - -Bleak Edinburgh is rich in the possession of this picture of dreamy -colour. The hour is sunset; the place is where you will, but the title, -"Fête Champêtre," suits the scene of dalliance quite as well as any -other name; a similar picture at Dresden is called by M. Mauclair "The -Terrace Party." You perceive here the typical Watteau figures, and -behind is a landscape that has all the idealistic charm of his rendering -of Nature.] - -When Watteau, perhaps unknown to himself, resolved to be himself, a new -school was born in France, a school whose influence still prevails. We -are fond of taking credit to ourselves for the initiation of the modern -school of landscape. We remember with pride the day in 1824 when the -French Salon was illumined with three of Constable's pictures; we also -remember the acknowledgment by French painters of the inspiration of -Turner and Bonnington; but it would be interesting to follow back their -inspiration; and it would not be difficult to trace Monet's division of -tones and envelope of air to Watteau. - -Influence in art and inspiration is a ball that is tossed back and -forth. If Constable, Turner, and Bonnington influenced the French school -they owe allegiance to Watteau, and through him to "the bull in art," -Rubens, who was master to Van Dyck, the founder of the English school. - -Does Gainsborough's lovely "Perdita" in the Wallace Collection owe -nothing of its exquisite femininity, sweet melancholy, and woodland -background, to Watteau? Constable and Turner were but paying old debts, -for the painter of the _Fêtes Galantes_ had shown the beauty of -landscape and made it something more than a setting for figures. He -taught also that Nature is intimate and familiar with accidental beauty -of sunlight and twilight, misty horizons, and lovable little things near -to us; not swept and garnished and coldly unreal, but a world where -human beings may wander happily with Nature on a level with their own -eyes; not a world where only Titans and gods roam through -pseudo-classical scenes. - -In Watteau's pictures poetry and reality dwell in harmony. He proved -their compatibility; he showed that all the world is a vision seen -through a temperament. - -It is unjust to attribute to Watteau's influence only the frivolous -school of painters which immediately followed him; they were incidents -of the reaction of their time against the dull and the pedantic. They -copied him, but they missed his sincerity; they lacked his genius; they -were begotten of their age when dulness tired of being good and grew -wanton. But even his followers have more of life and warmth and beauty -than his predecessors, the frigid and attenuated school of Le Brun. -Fragonard is a master and lives; we are rising to a new appreciation of -him; and Pater and Lancret do not tire us even if they are "soulless -Watteaus." Le Brun and his school are dead, and must one day be buried -in the cellars of the Louvre to make way for their betters--the painters -inspired by the Flemish Frenchman--Antoine Watteau--who made possible -the modern school. From him Constable, Turner, Gainsborough, Corot, -Manet and Monet derived. What an achievement for a short life of -thirty-seven years! - - - - -IV - -HIS CRITICS AND ADMIRERS - - -Most critics of Watteau allow something of his rhythmic sense and beauty -of colour to tinge their appreciations. Ordinary statements of facts -seem inadequate to express the feeling he evokes, whether the writer be -concerned with the "outwardness" of his genius, like the brothers De -Goncourt, or the "inwardness" of it, like M. Camille Mauclair. -Instinctively language becomes flowery, and light and lovely words rise -spontaneously to re-echo in another medium the music of his pictures. - -According to our temperament and taste we are influenced by the -familiar-and-candid friend standpoint of De Caylus; by the De Goncourts' -searching analysis clothed in apt and sparkling words; by M. Camille -Mauclair's soul-search into the effect on Watteau's life of the disease -from which he suffered, or by the calm and cultivated mind of Walter -Pater with its rare and sympathetic insight, and that "tact of omission" -which he extolls in Watteau. - -The source of all the biographies is the memoir of the Comte de Caylus, -which was lost from the archives of the Academy, and discovered by the -brothers De Goncourt in a second-hand book-shop. While we are grateful -for the information De Caylus's memoir contains, we can but smile at the -judgment of a friend and admirer on a contemporary so far in advance of -his age as Watteau. Solemn De Caylus entirely failed to understand the -real man and artist. Apart from the details he gives of Watteau's life, -the passages which describe his method of work are the most -interesting. He informs us that Watteau could never be an heroic or -allegorical painter (thank Heaven!), not being trained academically; he -also tells us that his reflections on painting were profound, and that -his execution was inferior to his ideas; that he had no knowledge of -anatomy, having hardly ever drawn from the nude, so that he neither -understood it nor was able to express it. De Caylus also calls Watteau -"mannered," but admits that he was endowed with charm, and so on, and so -on. Watteau's nudes are studied, and, what is more, achieved. Recall any -one of them, "The Toilet," "Antiope," "The Judgment of Paris"--they are -as documentary as his drawings. The values and reflected lights of his -nude bodies are academic enough to satisfy a modern student at Julian's, -the most carping and exacting of critics. - -De Caylus, while deploring Watteau's methods of technique, contributes -the interesting information that he preferred to use his paints liquid; -that he rubbed his pictures all over with oil and repainted over this -surface; also that he was slovenly in his habits, rarely cleaning his -palette, and allowing days to pass without setting it afresh; that his -pot of medium was full of dirt and dust and the sediment of used -colours, and that he was idle and indolent. - -Well, as to Watteau's methods, I prefer to think that the surface of oil -while it mellows preserves also. The worst artists are often the most -solicitous of their mediums, and the laborious industry of the mediocre -painter is often laborious idleness. A man who can leave behind him, -after a short life, the quality and quantity of work bequeathed to the -world by Watteau refutes, by that work, accusations of indolence and -idleness. Neither can I admit that he was mannered. His manner was -different from the clique of painters then in vogue, and it is obvious -that he had a manner, but this very manner is his originality. Of course -his pictures are "invented," but invented from the accumulated facts of -his own drawings, wrested from life hurriedly, for he had very little -time, and yet showing no marks of haste. If, as M. Mauclair says, "There -exists in intellectual consumptives a condition of mind which seems to -concentrate all those preceptions of supreme delicacy conferred on noble -minds by the presentiment of approaching death," we need not grieve -that the lives of such men as Keats, Watteau, and Schubert were short. -"The body's disease caused a mystic exaltation in the soul, whose -productions, far from being touched by debility or decadence, are rather -the concentration of extreme power and violent emotion." This -intelligent and sympathetic critic goes on to say that the very -unwholesomeness of body is marked by "unmistakable health of mind," -which may indeed be a "courageous facing of earthly finality," but is -also a fertile field in which great enterprises are undertaken and -achieved. - -As I have said, according to your temperament you may take Watteau -seriously, lightly, joyously or sadly. There is recompense whether you -feel that he is the great and profound master M. Mauclair calls him, or -whether you range yourself with the De Goncourts, who describe him as "a -painter of Utopias, a beautifier, the most amiable and determined of -liars, a painter of pictures where the fiddles of Lérida play marches -that lead the way to death, where smart La Tulipe struts and swaggers, -and Manon flirts between two gun shots, and a host of little love-birds -flutter, light-heartedly, into war's stern discipline." - -The De Goncourts note that there is in Watteau's work "murmurs of vague -and slow harmony behind the laughing words," and that a "musical sadness -gently contagious exhales from these _Fêtes Galantes_. Like the -seduction of Venice, I know not what veiled poetry breathes sweet and -low to our charmed senses." - -M. Mauclair asserts that no one has ever understood Watteau so well as -Verlaine, and that "his exquisite little volume of poems _Fêtes -Galantes_ is an absolute transposition of the painter's work"; but it is -the brilliant appreciation of the De Goncourts that has had the -strongest influence on subsequent writers, so admirably do they reveal -Watteau, so like the colour of his pictures are the colours of their -words, so adequate is their exposition of one side of Watteau's -fascination. They claim Watteau as the great poet of the eighteenth -century, and then proceed to give in glittering prose a penetrating and -persuasive criticism, apostrophising Watteau's art as "a country -refreshed by fountains, decorated with marbles and statues, and peopled -by naiades, a country lovable and radiant, far from a jealous world, -where baskets of flowers swing from bending trees; where fields are full -of music, gardens full of roses and tangled vines; a France where the -pines of Italy grow, where villages are gay with weddings, coaches, -ceremonies and festal attire, and violins and flutes conduct to a -_temple Jesuite_ the marriage of Nature and the Opera." - -[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--THE MUSIC LESSON - -(In the Wallace Collection) - -Watteau, seemingly just for joy in the colour, trickles--there is no -other word for it--one luscious colour over another, like liquid jewels -embedded in gold. The colour fascinates. Is it rose and white? The man's -garments are neither rose, nor white, nor yellow, and yet they are all -three. The rose of the woman's rosette repeats the carmines of her -complexion. The composition is charming.] - -"_La Mode de Watteau_--that divine tailor whose artist scissors have -fashioned playfully the delight in disorder, the morning _négligé_, and -the beautiful ceremonious garments of the afternoon. Fairy scissors -dowering the times to come with fashions from the 'Thousand and One -Nights.' Beribboned scissors of Watteau, what a delightful realm of -coquetry you cut from the bigoted realm of the Maintenon!" - -How different in manner and method is Walter Pater's "Imaginary -Portrait," called "A Prince of Court Painters: Extracts from an old -French Journal." Calmly this subtle analysis begins, which shows a -deeper insight into the personality of Watteau than either the brothers -De Goncourt, or M. Mauclair, who calls Pater's "Imaginary Portrait" a -"whimsical interpretation." I have read many books about the painter of -the _Fêtes Galantes_, but I always return to Pater's "whimsical -portrait," for it gives the very atmosphere of his artistic descent and -development, from the age of seventeen to the last year of his life. -Missing no dominant event, misusing no legends, cast in the form of a -diary, the narrative is made convincingly real by Pater's sympathetic -imagination. - -These extracts are from an imaginary old French Journal, kept apparently -by an elder sister of Jean Baptiste Pater, Watteau's pupil. This lonely -and sensitive lady, who has evidently lost her cloistral heart to the -unconcerned painter, is living in Valenciennes, Watteau's birthplace. -The first entry is dated:-- - - "VALENCIENNES, _September 1701_. - -"They have been renovating my father's large workroom.... Among old -Watteau's work-people came his son, 'the genius,' my father's godson -and namesake, a dark-haired youth, whose large, unquiet eyes seemed -perpetually wandering to the various drawings which lie exposed -here. My father will have it that he is a genius indeed and a -painter born.... And just where the crowd was busiest young Antony -was found, hoisted into one of those empty niches of the old _Hôtel -de Ville_, sketching the scene to the life, but with a kind of -grace--a marvellous tact of omission, as my father pointed out to -us, in dealing with the vulgar reality seen from one's own -window--which has made trite old Harlequin, Clown, and Columbine -seem like people in some fairyland.... His father will hear nothing -of educating him as a painter." - - "_October 1701._ - -"Chiefly through the solicitations of my father, old Watteau has -consented to place Antony with a teacher of painting here.... Ah! -such gifts as his, surely, may once in a way make much industry seem -worth while.... He is apt, in truth, to fall out too hastily with -himself and what he produces.... Yes! I could fancy myself offended -by a sort of irony which sometimes crosses the half melancholy -sweetness of manner habitual with him; only that, as I can see, he -treats himself to the same quality." - -So this gentle woman continues to record in her diary, as if musing on -the life of one she loved, the salient happenings in Antony Watteau's -career. Nothing escapes Walter Pater's sympathy and understanding, so -that at the end we come to a perfect appreciation of his reading of -Watteau. This essay, in the form of a journal, is a little masterpiece -about a "little master." Under August 1705 we find the following:-- - -"Antony, looking well, in his new-fashioned, long-skirted coat, and -taller than he really is, made us bring our cream and wild strawberries -out of doors, ranging ourselves according to his judgment (for a hasty -sketch in that big pocket-book he carries) on the soft slope of one of -those fresh spaces in the wood, where the trees unclose a little, while -Jean-Baptiste and my younger sister danced a minuet on the grass, to the -notes of some strolling lutanist, who had found us out. He is visibly -cheerful at the thought of his return to Paris, and became for a moment -freer and more animated than I have ever yet seen him, as he discoursed -to us about the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens in the church here." - -Under August 1717 she writes: "Methinks Antony Watteau reproduces that -gallant world, those patched and powdered ladies and fine cavaliers, so -much to its own satisfaction, partly because he despises it; if this be -a possible condition of excellent artistic production--he dignifies, by -what in him is neither more nor less than a profound melancholy, the -essential insignificance of what he wills to touch in all that, -transforming its mere prettiness into grace. It looks certainly very -graceful, fresh, animated, 'piquant,' as they love to say--yes! and -withal, I repeat, perfectly pure, and may well congratulate itself on -the loan of a fallacious grace not its own." - -We are shown his restless nostalgia, his progress, success, and -journeying to and fro, his broidery of the world he painted, until, as -she says of a summer, "a kind of infectious sentiment passed upon us, -like an efflux from its flowers and flower-like architecture." - - "_January 1720._ - -"Those sharply-arched brows, those restless eyes which seem larger -than ever--something that seizes on one, and is almost terrible, in -his expression--speak clearly, and irresistibly set one on the -thought of a summing up of his life." - -And then the end under date July 1721:-- - -"Antony Watteau departed suddenly, in the arms of M. Gersaint, on -one of the late hot days of July. At the last moment he had been at -work upon a crucifix for the good _curé_ of Nogent, liking little -the very rude one he possessed. He died with all the sentiments of -religion. - -"He has been a sick man all his life. He was always a seeker after -something in the world that is there in no satisfying measure, or -not at all." - - - - -EPILOGUE - - -The greatest gift in art is personality. But all masters are not of -equal personality. Indeed, so rare is the gift in its fulness, that in -the whole field of art there are but a few who appear as planets in the -monotony of sidereal excellence. - -Luminous examples of this quality of personality are such originals as -Donatello, Holbein, Vermeer of Delft, and Watteau, to mention only a -few of the most lovable. That something in an artist which finds a new -way to express an old thing is the rarest and most to be desired of -gifts. This gift Watteau had in the highest degree. He originated a -grace unsurpassed in its way--dare I say it?--even by the Greeks. Attic -simplicity of grace is grander, but not more beautiful, not more -intimately beautiful. The Greeks gave us the grand beauty of form; -Watteau gives us the beauty of caprice, of frills and fripperies; but -his people are adorned by garments that lend them grace; his women -walking are rhythmical lines, sitting they are silhouettes of delight, -their garments enhancing beauty, not hiding it. - -Watteau is the great master of the eighteenth century in France, a -century distinctly feminine. To say that he is the most feminine painter -that ever lived is in no sense a disparagement, for to this quality of -grace and daintiness, of coquetry and caprice, of melancholy and -longing, was united a very masculine quality of craft and originality in -craft. - -We tingle with delight in looking at his luscious colour and studying -the mastery of its application. What artist has not known the envious -desire to possess one of his drawings, the part of his achievement which -entitles him to be ranked with the greatest, so truthful, so full of -subtle distinction of line, whether it be a blackamoor's face or a -beauty's back. - -The origin of the broken tone in modern art is his. From him we may -trace the modern impressionist movement, and from him modern -pointillism. What is impressionism, and what is pointillism? - -Impressionism is the elimination of the little, the giving of the large -truth, the instantaneous impression of vision; but all vision is not the -same, and as the lens of the looking eye varies, so the impression will -vary. We may teach ourselves to see little or much, our memory may be -accurate or false, according to our gifts. Emerson says: "Our difference -of wit appears to be only a difference of impressionability or power to -appreciate faint, fainter, and infinitely faintest voices and visions." -This faculty of seeing at the first glance "faint, fainter, and -infinitely faintest," the impressionist claims. He may be so -impressionable, or so little capable of sensitiveness to impression, -that his picture in one instance may be fuller of fine truths than the -most laborious idleness of finish can make it, and in the other his lack -of sensitiveness to impression may be a mere jumble of decomposed colour -understood only by himself. - -Pointillism is the application of pure colour to the canvas in small -streaks or dots, and has become part of the doctrine of the -impressionists. To them it represents the decomposition of light; the -streak and dot--broken colour--is used to increase the appearance of the -vibration of light, which it does in a marvellous manner. The use of -broken colour was one of Watteau's characteristics, and is part of the -charm and originality of his technique. - -Even his inconsistencies have charm. His drawings were from the life; -his nudes were also from the life, so true to Nature are they, so very -modern as to reflection and value, with the added Watteau grace. But, -let me confess it, the modern craftsman more wedded to truth than -inspiration may feel less conviction of his greatness in examining his -pictures because, admire his colour and technique as much as we will, we -cannot but feel that in his "invented" pictures Watteau's inspiration -is what the student in France calls _chic_. And yet who would have them -different? His Pastorals may be "_chic'd_," but there they are, -done--unrivalled, supreme. - -Eighteenth-century art in France means, for most of us, Watteau. He is -the fitting master of a century in which women played so great a part. -He did not immortalise any woman. No Mona Lisa, no Giovanna Tornabuoni, -no Emma Lady Hamilton, lives through his brush. He immortalised -women--not any particular woman; he created a type, the Watteau -type--adorable, dainty, and fragrant as a flower. She has no name, no -place of abode since Watteau died. He saw her in his dream-life, held -her for a moment as she flitted past, so she remains: eternally young, -eternally free. - - "Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave - The song, nor ever can those trees be bare; - She cannot fade, ... - For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!" - - - - -The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London - -The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Watteau, by C. Lewis Hind - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WATTEAU *** - -***** This file should be named 41621-8.txt or 41621-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/6/2/41621/ - -Produced by sp1nd, David E. Brown and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -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. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -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 - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - |