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diff --git a/41674-0.txt b/41674-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09b53fa --- /dev/null +++ b/41674-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1050 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41674 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 41674-h.htm or 41674-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41674/41674-h/41674-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41674/41674-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/corotocad00allnuoft + + + + + +Masterpieces in Colour + +Edited by--T. Leman Hare + +COROT + +1796-1875 + + * * * * * + +"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. + HOGARTH. C. LEWIS HIND. + MURILLO. S. L. BENSUSAN. + WATTS. W. LOFTUS HARE. + INGRES. A. J. FINBERG. + COROT. SIDNEY ALLNUTT. + DELACROIX. PAUL G. KONODY. + +_Others in Preparation._ + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: PLATE I.--DANSE DES BERGERS. Frontispiece + +The "Danse des Bergers" is the living memorial of a happy mood--one of +those moments of lyrical ecstasy of which Corot experienced so many, and +which, by his genius, those less fortunate are enabled to share. The +"feeling" in the drawing and painting of the trees is reminiscent of +some words spoken by the painter when Paris was oppressing him--"I need +living boughs. I want to see how the leaves of the willow grow from +their branches. I am going to the country. When I bury my nose in a +hazel-bush, I shall be fifteen years old. It is good; it breathes +love!"] + + +COROT + +by + +SIDNEY ALLNUTT + +Illustrated with Eight Reproductions in Colour + +[Illustration] + + + + + + + +London: T. C. & E. C. Jack +New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Plate + I. Danse des Bergers Frontispiece + Page + II. L'Etang 14 + + III. Les Chaumières 24 + + IV. Le Soir 34 + + V. Paysage 40 + + VI. Le Vallon 50 + + VII. Souvenir d'Italie 60 + + VIII. Vue du Colisée 70 + + All the illustrations are taken + from the Louvre, Paris + + + + +[Illustration] + + +The work of Jean Baptiste Camille Corot has been steadily rising in the +estimation of the instructed ever since he won his first notable +successes in 1840. During the greater part of the artist's life-time the +rise was very gradual, and he would have been astonished indeed if he +could have known how rapid it was to be after his death. It is by no +means only a rise in the selling prices of such of his works as come +into the market--a Corot has something more than a collector's value; +but figures are in their way eloquent, and when we find a work ("Le Lac +de Garde") for which the painter was glad to get 800 francs selling for +231,000 francs within thirty years of his death, the rapid growth in the +fame of the painter is materially evidenced. + +There are fashions in art as in everything else: for reasons which the +dealers could often disclose if they would, this or that artist's work +is suddenly boomed, and for a time commands absurdly big prices in the +auction rooms, only to find its proper level again when it is no longer +to anybody's interest to maintain an artificial valuation. But it is +difficult to believe that the passing of years will do anything to +diminish the fame of Corot, or lessen the prices which connoisseurs are +willing to pay for the possession of his work. Rather will both +increase, there is reason to think, as under the winnowing of Time's +wings the chaff is separated from the grain, and many a painter hailed +as a master to-day is scorned if not forgotten. For whatever may happen, +it is impossible to believe that the work of Corot will ever become +old-fashioned. There is in it something that does not belong to one +time, but to all times; not to one place, but to all places. It is +elemental and universal, and instinct with a vitality and youth that +unnumbered to-morrows can have no power to destroy. + +Even those critics who most strongly opposed the canons Corot +professed--and there were many of them--were often unable to condemn a +heresy in which faith was so justified by works: coming to curse, like +Balaam, they remained to bless. A far more trying ordeal the artist had +to undergo in the intemperate rhapsodies of enthusiastic admirers. But +neither censure or praise, the scepticism of his own people, or the +indifference of the picture-buying public, could tempt him to deviate +from the path that for him was the right one. "Vive la conscience, vive +la simplicité!" he used to say. His creed was in the words, and he lived +up to it. + +He claimed for the artist an entire independence. "You must interpret +nature with entire simplicity, and according to your personal sentiment, +altogether detaching yourself from what you know of the old masters or +of contemporaries. Only in this way will you do work of real feeling. I +know gifted people who will not avail themselves of their power. Such +people seem to me like a billiard-player, whose adversary is constantly +giving him good openings, but who makes no use of them. I think that if +I were playing with that man, I would say, 'Very well, then, I will +give you no more.' If I were to sit in judgment, I would punish the +miserable creatures who squander their natural gifts, and I would turn +their hearts to cork." Again he says--"Follow your convictions. It is +better not to exist than to be the echo of other painters. As the wise +man says, if one follows, one is behind." And again--"Art should be an +individual expression of the verities, an ardour that concedes nothing." + +[Illustration: PLATE II.--L'ETANG. + +"Beauty in art is truth bathed in the impression, the emotion that is +received from nature.... Seek truth and exactitude, but with the +envelope of sentiment which you felt at first. If you have been sincere +in your emotion you will be able to pass it on to others." So said Corot +to a pupil, and "L'Etang" would in itself be sufficient to prove that he +knew how to practise what he preached. It is a variant on a simple +motive that he was never weary of, and that he knew how to invest with +new beauties every time it came to him.] + +It is on the face of it rather a hopeless task to attempt to trace the +artistic pedigree of a painter who, at all costs, will be individual +with "an ardour that concedes nothing"; and it would not help much +towards an understanding of him. At the same time, it would be a mistake +to suppose that Corot was quite so independent of the influences around +as, perhaps, he imagined himself to be. "Artists," says Shelley in a +notable utterance, "cannot escape from subjection to a common influence +which arises out of an infinite combination of circumstances belonging +to the times in which they live, though each is in a degree the author +of the very influence by which his being is thus pervaded." + +Thus Corot took his part in the revolt against classicism in France, +with which the name of the little village of Barbizon is so inseparably +associated. He coloured it, and was coloured by it--so much was +inevitable; but his intense individuality none the less preserved him in +an aloofness from what I may be permitted to call the broad path of the +movement. And as he grew older, so far from becoming more affected by +his contemporaries, he only seemed more and more to discover himself. + +Before all things Corot was an idealist--a painter of ideas rather than +of actualities; which, of course, does not in any way discount his +simple sincerity. His landscapes give the idea of a place or an effect +rather than its exterior appearance. The rendering of a beautiful +passage of colour, of a gracious form, or a delicate play of light and +shade, was never held to be sufficient. Within the body of phenomena he +saw the throbbing heart and luminous soul of Nature revealed; and it was +the very heart and soul of his subject that he strove to prison in his +pigments. At the same time, dreamer as he was, there was always in him a +healthiness and sanity rare indeed amongst those who are given to seeing +visions. + +I remember a studio gathering at which Corot was discussed. I wish the +master, who always loved to be praised by those who could understand and +were sincere, could have heard what was said of him. At length some one +said, "Corot was a great artist. It is true that he also happened to be +a great painter." The words seemed to me to have meanings. + +A painter is a man who does something; an artist one who is something. +The statement may not be new, but it is true; and what it involves is, I +think, too often forgotten. + +In considering what a painter has done it is natural enough to be +preoccupied with his method, to become immersed in an analysis of his +technique. There will be an attempt to determine whether he is +faithfully obedient to the accepted canons, or modifying and adapting, +if not it may be defying them. In the latter case an endeavour must be +made to find a solution for the question whether these progressive or +revolutionary activities are justified in their result. + +It is criticism of this sort that fills innumerable studios with a +jargon unintelligible to all but those who are, so to say, "in the +trade" in one way or another, and can speak with a craftsman +knowledge--of technical terms if of nothing else. Such talk is often +futile enough, a breaking of butterfly nothings upon a ponderous wheel +of words; though it can, on occasion, be useful enough. In any case only +a few, comparatively speaking, are likely to be either interested or +benefited. + +It is altogether another matter when an artist is approached. How he +conveys his message is of much less importance than what is conveyed. He +may be poet, painter, or musician, but the need for understanding what +he does is infinitely less than that of learning what he is. This is not +to say that, in the case of the artist, technique is beneath +consideration; but it is to say that it must not be considered first. +Trembling script sometimes give the authentic gospel its birth in words, +and a true vision may be recorded by an uncertain hand. To lose sight +of the artist in contemplating the technique of the work by which he +reveals himself is to sacrifice the substance for the shadow. + +Corot was a great artist. To him his art was not a trade or an +amusement, still less a trick, but a religion. He worshipped with an +unceasing diligence and intensity before the chosen altar of his +adoration. Less than his best he dared not offer there. Nothing that was +not wholly honest and true could be acceptable. What a magnificent +character he gives to himself, all unconsciously, in confessing to M. +Chardin an artistic sin! "One day I allowed myself to do something chic; +I did some ornamental thing, letting my brush wander at will. When it +was done I was seized with remorse; I could not close my eyes all night. +As soon as it was day, I ran to my canvas, and furiously scratched out +all the work of the previous evening. As my flourishes disappeared, I +felt my conscience grow calmer, and once the sacrifice was accomplished +I breathed freely, for I felt myself rehabilitated in my own sight." + +What would some of our painters say to a conscience so tyrannous? + +It is, for me, impossible to look at Corot's work without feeling that +his was, if I may put it so, a monastic nature. Here is a serene and +cloistered art, something secluded from the traffic of the everyday +world, a vision intense rather than wide. I think of Corot as a priest +at the altar of one of Nature's innermost sanctuaries celebrating +sacramental mysteries. Every picture that came from him is an elevation +of the Host. + +This is the quality in his work, much more than a fastidious refinement +nearer the surface, that gives it so high a distinction. Hung in a +gallery among other pictures, a Corot does not clamour for notice. It +is much too quiet in matter and manner for that; but, after awhile, it +draws the eye, and when it has done so its hold is secure. The +surrounding canvases almost invariably begin to look a little vulgar in +its neighbourhood. And this not only because rioting colour might well +look blatant by the side of the tender greys and greens and rose flushes +that the artist loved so well, but because the spirituality of which +those tones are merely the expression places the Corot upon another and +a higher plane. + +To come upon a Corot in a gallery is like stepping out of the noisy +glare of the market-place into the cool stillness of a church. +Market-places are good things, and the noisy crowd is perhaps only noisy +because it is doing its appointed work in a right hearty fashion; but +the Presence seems nearer in the silence of the church. The silence is +not dead, but quick with soundless speech. So with a Corot picture; +its quietness is the very antipodes of stagnation. It seems to spread +far beyond the limits of the frame in ever-widening waves, until +everything around is subdued. + +[Illustration: PLATE III.--LES CHAUMIÈRES + +Luminous and almost uncannily true in tone, "Les Chaumières" takes high +rank among the finest productions of Corot's maturer years. It is the +work of a man who "knows," who is able to take hold of essentials, and +let non-essentials go, with a certainty of discrimination. Profound +knowledge, so thoroughly assimilated as to be instinctive in its +application, can alone account for both the completeness and simplicity +of the landscape, the result achieved with apparently so absolute a lack +of effort.] + +The only other works of art which have ever given me quite the same +impression in this direction are one or two of those dreaming Buddhas +that, wherever they may be, seem to be shrined in a stillness emanating +from themselves. + +From first to last Corot was as independent as he was industrious. He +strove always to see Nature with his own eyes, and to keep his vision +clear and simple. Whether or not other painters had a grander or nobler +vision was nothing to him. It mattered only that he should be true to +the grace that was his own. "I pray God every day," he said, "that He +will keep me a child; that is to say, that He will enable me to see and +draw with the eye of a child." That prayer was surely answered, for +never did an artist look out upon the world with a more direct +simplicity, or with eyes more delicately sensitive to the appeal of +beauty. + +It was seldom the obviously picturesque that appealed to him. He seemed +instantly to apprehend the most elusive of the beauties in the scene +before him. That death-bed utterance of Daubigny is significant: "Adieu; +I go above to see if friend Corot has found me new landscapes to paint." +That was it: Corot never failed to find new landscapes to paint, for his +eye was keen enough to pierce through what seemed commonplace, and +discover the underlying beauty. Starting off on one of his innumerable +sketching excursions, he remarks to a friend that he has heard bad +accounts from painters of the country for which he is bound, but adds +that he has no doubt he will find pictures there. And, of course, he +found them. The pictures are always there, though the faculty of seeing +them is rare. + +No one ever worked more constantly and faithfully from Nature, or became +more intimately acquainted with the subtle outward expressions of her +innermost moods; but the profound knowledge thus gained was only treated +as the poet treats a wide vocabulary; as a means of expression, not as +in itself worth exploitation. The scene before him was not recorded as a +collection of facts, but as it had stirred his emotions, and as it was, +in a sense, transformed by his vivid imagination. The resulting picture +is the record of an adventure of the soul; the outward reality is not +lost, but rather realised in a strange intensity. "See," said Corot, +pointing to one of his landscapes, "see the shepherdess leaning against +the trunk of that tree. See, she turns suddenly. She hears a field-mouse +stirring in the grass." + +Of how the artist went to work when he had "found" a new landscape some +notion may be gained from M. Silvestre's description. "If Corot sees two +clouds that at first sight appear to be equally dark, he will, before +building up the whole harmony of his picture on one or other of them, +apply himself to discover the difference he knows must exist. Then, when +he has decided on the darkest as well as the lightest tone in the scene +before him, the intermediate values readily take their places, and +subdivide themselves indefinitely before his discerning eyes. These +values, from the most positive to the most vague, call to one another +and give answer, like echo and voice. When the artist sees he can divide +the principal values of the landscape before him into four, he does so +by numbering the different parts of his rough sketch from 1 to 4, 4 +standing for the darkest and 1 for the lightest patch, while the +intermediate tones are represented by 2 and 3. This method enables +Corot, with the help of any old pencil and any scrap of paper, to make +records of the most transitory effects seen upon a journey. Corot was +not a man to make an inventory of his sentiments, and the fact that he +made such records proves that they were sufficient for his own purposes. +As a rule he first of all puts in his sky, then the more important +masses in the middle of the composition, then those to the left and to +the right; he then picks out the forms of the reflections in the water, +if there is water, and so establishes the planes of his picture, his +masses falling in one behind the other while one watches him. Sometimes +he proceeds in a less orderly way; for it goes without saying that his +methods are the methods of freedom, and not the invariable recipes of a +pedant. He runs an unquiet eye over every part of the canvas before +putting a touch in place, sure that it does no violence to the general +effect. If he makes haste he may become clumsy and rough, leaving here +and there inequalities of impasto. These he afterwards removes with a +razor, as if he were shaving his landscape, and leaving himself free to +profit by such accidents of surface as are happy in effect." + +The picture of Corot sketching in shorthand shows him when the long and +close study of Nature had enabled him to generalise with confidence, and +when a memory, always retentive, had been trained to a pitch that made +it far more reliable than any sketchbook memoranda. Although he always +expressed impatience with the idea that anything worth doing could be +done merely by taking pains, Corot was the least apt of men to spare any +pains that were essential to his purpose; and nothing could be farther +from the truth than the suggestion sometimes made, that he was wanting +in this respect. To generalise as he generalised is not to be careless +of detail, but the very reverse: it implies a knowledge so complete of +every element in a landscape that those belonging to a particular view +of it can be selected with an unerring judgment, and what is +non-essential eliminated. "Put in as much as you like at first, and +afterwards efface the superfluity," is a bit of advice that comes from +Corot himself. It was not a strikingly original remark, but it could not +have been made by other than a conscientious worker. + +It is certainly a mistake to suppose that Corot was careless of details +in the sense that he did not give them due consideration; but he always +realised that details were details after all. "I never hurry to the +details of a picture," he said; "its masses and general character +interest me before anything else. When those are well established, I +search out the subtleties of form and colour. Incessantly and without +system I return to any and every part of my canvas." + +There is a note in Mr. George Moore's _Modern Painting_ that seems to +throw some illumination upon Corot's manner of looking at his subject. +Mr. Moore came upon the artist, an old man then, "in front of his easel +in a pleasant glade. After admiring his work, I ventured to say: 'What +you are doing is lovely, but I cannot find your composition in the +landscape before us.' He said, 'My foreground is a long way ahead.' And +sure enough, nearly two hundred yards away, his picture rose out of the +dimness of the dell, stretching a little beyond the vista into the +meadow." + +I think Corot's foreground had a habit of being a considerable way +ahead. + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.--LE SOIR + +"My 'Soir,' I love it, I love it! It is so firm," said Corot, standing +before his picture in the exhibition gallery in company with an +appreciative friend. It is "firm" enough beyond question, and the sky +especially is a marvel of delicate, palpitating colour. But it is much +more, a moment of magic beauty, evanescent as the reflected picture on a +bubble-bell, seized and made permanent; an emotion of pleasure cast into +a material shape.] + +To most, Corot is "the man of greys," the painter of the twilight. +Without for a moment suggesting that this is true in so far as it +seems to hint that his art had very narrow limitations, I am certainly +inclined to believe that the general eye has fixed itself upon his most +characteristic and most valuable work. The two dawns, as the old +Egyptians called them, Isis and Nephthys, the dawn of day and the dawn +of night, revealed themselves to Corot with a fulness to be measured +only perhaps in part by the manner in which he has revealed them to us. +The stillness, the freshness, the indescribable tremor of awakening +life, the curious sense of a remoteness in familiar things, the +expectancy as of some momentous revelation, all that goes to make the +mystery and magic of the dawn, he knew how to translate into subtle yet +easily understandable terms of form, and tone, and colour. It was a +miracle to which he seemed to have found the key--perhaps by means of +that prayer to be "kept a child." Over and over again he invoked the +dawn to appear upon his canvas, and never in vain. In ever-varying robes +of loveliness, but the same in all of them, the dawn responded to his +call. + +Grey dawn! The words had a cold and gloomy sound until Corot interpreted +them, taking the gloom away and leaving of the cold only the delicious +shiver of the morning freshness. Beautiful almost as the dawn +itself--born of it as they were--are those wonderful pearly greys of +his. His palette seemed to hold an infinite range of them, each pure and +perfect in itself, and each in a true harmonic relation to the others. + +And if the painted dawns are beautiful, they are also true; they carry +instant conviction of their absolute verity. There is only one thing +that can make a painted canvas do this, and that is truth of tone, and +of tone-values Corot made himself a master, mainly because he never +ceased to be a student. He retained the eye of a child, but his mind +became stored with the accumulated experience of many long hours that +were only not laborious because the work was a delight. And great as the +store grew in process of time, he was adding to it up to the last. + +Here is a picture by Albert Wolff of the artist at the age of 79, when +the hand of Death was already stretched out towards him. "An old man, +come to the completion of a long life, clothed in a blouse, sheltered +under a parasol, his white hair aureoled in reflections, attentive as a +scholar, trying to surprise some secret of nature that had escaped him +for seventy years, smiling at the chatter of the birds, and every now +and again throwing them the bar of a song, as happy to live and enjoy +the poetry of the fields as he had been at twenty. Old as he was, this +great artist still hoped to be learning." + +It is altogether an important thing about Corot that he was always +singing--in season and out of season I was about to say, when I +remembered that he would probably have declared that it was always +singing-time. He went to his work carolling like a lark, though with a +somewhat robuster organ, and snatches of song punctuated his brush +strokes. The day's work done, he broke out into melody in earnest, and +sang to himself, to his friends, at home or abroad, with equal vigour +and enjoyment. We are told that on one occasion his irrepressible song +broke out at an official reception, doubtless to the confusion of +dignities and the shocking of many most respectable people. + +I cannot but think that something of music found its way into Corot's +pictures. They look as if they could have been done in music as well as +they were done in paint. In a way they were: if there was always a +song on his lips, surely there was also a song at his heart. One may +say that his paintings were built to music like the walls of Thebes. +They are haunted by sweet harmonies, and seem charged with hidden +melodies that tremble on the verge of sound. + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--PAYSAGE + +The play of light filtering through foliage has never been more +beautifully rendered upon canvas, or with a closer approximation to the +truth of Nature, than in the "Paysage," reproduced here. The manner in +which the tree has been portrayed, the body and soul of it, is not less +astonishing. The landscape is a masterpiece among masterpieces, and an +impressive witness to Corot's amazingly sensitive faculty of +apprehending what was in front of him, both with eye and mind.] + +Many of those who read may shake their heads at this attempt to make a +confusion of two arts, but my apology shall take the form of a quotation +from Corot himself. Moved to sudden emotion by a magnificent view, he +exclaimed, "What harmony! What grandeur! It is like Gluck!" I think the +man who said that may possibly have painted a little music, without +caring for a moment whether he was confusing the arts or not. Perhaps he +felt that painting and music were more nearly related than a certain +school of critics can allow itself to admit. But that is by the way. + +When in Paris he was frequent in his attendances at concerts and the +opera, and indeed music always drew him with a power only second to that +of his chosen mistress--painting. As the twig is bent the tree will +grow--it may be that had the accidents of his early environment been +other than they were, his name would be famous as that of a great +composer instead of a great painter. Fortunately we do not know what we +may have missed, while we are fully conscious of what we have gained. + + * * * * * + +The father of Corot the painter was Louis Jacques Corot, who, if he +escaped being altogether a hairdresser, only did so by a narrow margin. +One would rather like to imagine him as another "Carrousel, the barber +of Meridian Street." + + "Such was his art, he could with ease + Curl wit into the dullest face; + Or to a goddess of old Greece + Lend a new wonder and a grace. + The curling irons in his hand + Almost grew quick enough to speak; + The razor was a magic wand + That understood the softest cheek." + +Such was Carrousel, according to Aubrey Beardsley's ballad, and such +Louis Jacques Corot should surely have been, if only to make his son +more easily explainable; but, as a matter of fact, he appears at an +early age to have forsaken the high art of hairdressing for more +strictly commercial pursuits. He became a clerk, and his wife's +assistant manager. + +For Madame Corot was a business woman--very much so. She was a native of +Switzerland, and evidently of the practical nature that so often +distinguishes the Swiss people. A woman of property in a moderate way, +and two years older than her husband, as well as a capable manager, she +does not appear by any means to have allowed marriage to submerge her +own personality. As a _marchande de modes_ she was a distinct success. +Fashion found its way to her establishment in the Rue du Bac, and the +name Corot became a hall-mark of elegance. + +Perhaps her son owed more to his mother than has sometimes been +suspected. Corot himself remarked that a skill equal to that of the +painter was often shown by the costumier in the blending of +colours--indeed he went farther, and said as much of a certain +flower-seller of his acquaintance and her bouquet-making. Really, when +one comes to think of it, he may be said to come of artists on both +sides, for if his father was scarcely as much of a hairdresser as we +should like him to be, his paternal grandfather's claim to the +description is beyond criticism. + +Under these circumstances it is a little sad that, when he had completed +his educational career without winning any considerable distinction, it +was decided to make a draper of him. There is every evidence that, in so +far as the attempt went, he made a very bad draper indeed. I do not know +how long it took him to come to the conclusion that he would never make +a good one--not very long, I should say--but after a trial of six years +or so, it would seem that his father had arrived at the same conclusion. +When his son declared his intention of abandoning drapery and of +becoming a painter, Corot _père_ did not offer any strenuous objection. +He thought that the young man was a fool, and said so, with possibly a +little bitterness, but on the whole with resignation. What was more to +the point, he made a small provision, so that his son might live while +"amusing himself." + +The provision in question was certainly a small one--1500 francs a +year--but it prevented Corot from ever knowing the extremities of +poverty to which some of his brilliant contemporaries were reduced. As +he said, he could always count on "shoes and soup"--and shoes and soup, +if not much in themselves, can often bridge the gulf that lies between +hope, or even content, and despair. Moreover, Corot's wants were few. +Throughout his life he had the simplest tastes, and his only +extravagance was a charity that gave without measure and never thought +about return. + +However, figure to yourself Corot fully embarked on his career +as a painter. He is, roughly, twenty-five years of age, and for +stock-in-trade has glowing health, a certain familiarity with pencil and +brush already acquired, an unquenchable enthusiasm, and so many francs a +year. On the whole it is the outfit of a very happy and fortunate young +man. + +Once emancipated from the compulsions of drapery he lost no time in +setting to work. He went straight to Nature, and even at this time +produced work that bore a hall-mark as distinctive as that of his later +years. He worked also in the studios of Michallon and of Bertin, and if +they did him no good (and there is little reason to suppose such a +thing), they at least did him no harm. Already he was too keenly engaged +upon a line of his own. + +Around Ville d'Avray, where his father had bought a house, he found +numberless subjects ready to his hand, subjects of which nothing that he +saw in his wide wanderings could ever make him tired. He also had an +experience in Morvan. I shall venture to quote from Mr. Everard +Meynell's "Corot and his Friends," concerning it. "He went, presently, +to the little hamlet of Morvan, whose blacksmith gave him hospitality. +As a member of a farrier's numerous family, with the forge for +sitting-room, and its fires to assuage the cold of mortals and of +metals, and soup for fuel, and the blue smock of the country for +raiment, Corot saved money. He saved money out of the 1200 francs of his +allowance; even the cost of canvas and paints did not bring his +expenditure to three francs a day. His austerity meant Rome, but it was +not a hard road for him to follow. Never was a man less provoked to any +of the pampered ways of living." + +"It was in Morvan that Corot picked up with the peasant, and found in +him many things fit to be learned. He learnt about soups, and pipes, and +blouses, and the habit of the sunrise; and nothing that he learned did +he forget. Soups, and pipes, and blouses, and the sunrise lasted him +till the end of his life. These things, like the honest humour and +good-comradeship of a man afield, were in his blood; but Morvan and +Morvan's blacksmith, and daily things done with the Morvan peasantry, +developed the peasant in the painter. Corot's was nearer to the +peasant's character than Millet's even; for the emotional gloom of +Millet's outlook, his sense of the price paid for life, his sense of +death and toil, of the significance of the seed and the scythe, made him +a person too great and dreadful to be familiar with those for whom he +thought and felt. Corot's laugh and song, his raillery and content, were +things to be friends with." + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--LE VALLON + +"Le Vallon" is probably one of the best-known and most universally +admired of Corot's works. It does not record one of those tender +twilight effects in which, as may be believed, the painter found his +keenest pleasure, but the quiet glory of a golden afternoon. The simple +landscape is bathed in the most wonderful of painted sunshine, and +possesses an extraordinary verity. The material essentials of the scene +are set down with an unerring regard for truth, but it is in +interpreting its "sentiment" that the most notable success has been +achieved.] + +I think that in the foregoing passage the influence upon Corot of the +Morvan visit, though it may well have been a memorable one, has been +perhaps a trifle exaggerated. Surely he must have "picked up" with the +peasant long before, and found out how much he had in common with the +dweller on the soil. And will the comparison with Millet fully bear +examination? I doubt it. The extraordinary delicacy and refinement of +Corot's vision is at least a thing as foreign to the peasant as the +tense emotionalism of Millet; and I suspect that the deep-rooted content +of the one was as much removed as the implicit revolt of the other from +the people with whom in their several ways they were both so much in +sympathy. That in personal relations Corot got nearer than Millet to his +peasant friends is more than probable. If not more understandable in +reality, he seemed so in daily intercourse with those as simple and +direct as himself. There was nothing in him to repel. His gay and +expansive nature invited a confidence that was seldom withheld, except +by those too distrustful and secretive themselves to understand it. + +The first visit to Italy, undertaken in 1825, marks an epoch in the life +of Corot, as in that of many another painter. But though it widened his +outlook, and taught him much that otherwise he might never have learned, +it did not tempt him to any deviation from the simple principles that +all through his life guided him in the practice of his art. All the +inducements which Italy could offer were not sufficient to make him +incline to use other eyes than his own when painting. He seems to have +treated the Masters in an unusually cavalier manner. Nature in Italy +interested him much more than Art in Italy: he was more concerned with +sunsets than with Michael Angelo. + +As was his custom, Corot was always at work in Italy, "sitting down" +with his usual happy knack in finding the right spot, and painting what +he saw as he saw it, with careful fidelity to his own beautiful way of +looking at things. Sometimes he worked from models in his room, but +whether indoors or out, day after day found him painting, painting with +unabated enthusiasm and ever-fresh delight. + +And he made friends, as always--among them d'Aligny, who was the first +to take the true measure of the then somewhat awkward young man. +"D'Aligny," says Mr. Everard Meynell, "was the discoverer of his genius +and its advertiser; for having found Corot at work on the 'Vue du +Colisée,' now hanging in the Louvre, he made a formal statement of his +admiration at 'Il Lepre' (a café in Rome much frequented by painters) +that night. 'Corot, who sings songs to you, and to whom you listen or +call out your ribald chaff,' said he, 'might be master of you all!'" + +The friendship lasted until the death of d'Aligny in 1874, and Corot +never forgot the generous praise that had so encouraged him during those +early days in Rome. + +In 1827 Corot exhibited for the first time in the Salon. The two +pictures which bore his name were not unnoticed, but no one was +sufficiently interested to purchase them. It was indeed fortunate on the +whole that he was assured of "shoes and soup" from other sources than +his art, for it was not until 1840 that it brought him any monetary +reward worth mentioning. But it would be beside the mark to say that he +had to endure any remarkable period of neglect. It must be remembered +that his career as a painter did not seriously begin until he was of an +age when many artists have already secured something of a position for +themselves. His work, too, was not of such a description as to make any +sensational impact upon the attention of the art-loving public. + +Before he returned from his first visit to Rome he had, however, made +his mark in some measure, had been hailed by a few discerning critics as +one of the elect. The enthusiastic testimony of d'Aligny and one or two +others had been endorsed with signatures that carried some weight--only +at home was he still held to be an amateur. His right to a place among +the more notable artists of his time was no more questioned, except by +those whom ignorance or prejudice had rendered incapable of sane +judgment. + +Once more, and again, he visited Italy, painting as he went, and what +was much more to the purpose, filling with magic pictures the tablets of +his mind: but I doubt if these subsequent visits carried him far beyond +the point he had arrived at during the first. Each day he was gaining +more knowledge and greater dexterity, but his point of view was never +seriously modified. Italy gave to his delicacy some of its strength, +invested the most tender-hearted of painters with the touch of sternness +that could alone save his work from becoming invertebrate: but it could +not materially alter his habit of vision, or turn into dramatic shape an +inherently lyrical gift. He saw Nature as a song in France first of all +and last of all; Italy only helped him to give the song a more severe +metrical basis than it might otherwise have possessed. Much that was +sweet in Corot it would seem that the relentless landscapes and pitiless +skies of Italy helped to make strong. + +From 1840 onwards one may say that Corot was steadily growing into fame. +In that year two of his pictures were bought by public authorities, and +thus, for the first time, an official imprimatur was set upon his +increasing reputation. He never knew the feverish delight of awaking one +morning to find himself famous. The value of his work was only very +slowly recognised, and as his paintings attracted more and more notice a +heavy fire of hostile criticism was opened upon them: with no more +effect than to make him smile as he went upon his way. + +Some of these egregious criticisms are so utterly beside the mark that +it is difficult to believe them anything but the result of a wilful +misapprehension on the part of the critics. They seem to be inspired by +venom and spite when read to-day: but in their own time they probably +fairly represented the serious opinions of many who thought they were +defending legitimate art against a spreading anarchy. It is even +possible that such as Nieuwerkerke, who, as Mr. Meynell records, was +"overheard describing Corot as a miserable creature who smeared canvases +with a sponge dipped in mud," honestly believed that he was +administering a well-deserved castigation to a charlatan. It is more +than likely that many of us are making mistakes almost as serious +to-day, so we need not find such an attitude incredible. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.--SOUVENIR D'ITALIE + +Corot at the height of his powers is seen in the "Souvenir d'Italie." +The thousand subtle nuances of exquisite colour in the luminous sky, the +refined drawing and firm painting of the trees, and the happy confidence +revealed by every brush mark upon the canvas, make it one of the most +delightful and, we may say, most "lovable" of its creator's works.] + +There were other critics at this same period who were less hampered by +preconceived notions, and came to a very different conclusion than those +who were able to dismiss the whole Nature school with contempt as +"pampered humbugs." Delacroix could see that Corot was not "only a man +of landscapes" but "a rare genius," and he was not alone. Every year, as +one masterpiece after another appeared at the Salon from the +"mud-dauber's" brush, the general body of artists and art-lovers were +more disposed to give him the rank that was his due. + +In 1848 Corot was elected one of the judges for the annual exhibition by +his fellow-artists. He himself sent nine pictures, and one of them, a +"Site d'Italie," was purchased by the State. The following year Corot +was again one of the judges, and in 1850 he was elected a member of the +"Jury de Peinture." He had become a personage in the art-world of +France. Already in 1846 he had been decorated with the Cross of the +Legion of Honour, to the astonishment of his worthy father, who could +not in the least understand on what grounds such an honour had been done +to his failure of a son. + +The history of Corot's following years there is no necessity to follow +in detail. Like the years which had gone before, they were fulfilled +with happy labour. He journeyed through the length and breadth of +France, to Switzerland, and elsewhere, "finding landscapes" with that +apprehensive eye of his, and recording them on canvas or on paper, or +storing them in the pigeon-holes of a memory that in such matters never +failed him. For the rest the record is one of a continually increasing +appreciation of his work. It started in a very small circle, extending +thence in ever-widening ripples. Almost imperceptibly his fame increased +until he became an acknowledged master. + +In view of the sums paid for many of them since, the prices he obtained +for his pictures seem ridiculously small, but there is no reason to +suppose that he was anything but well content with such material rewards +as came his way. Indeed, so much to the contrary, for some time he +looked upon the increasing prices which purchasers were willing to pay +with a mild astonishment and a kind of humorous fear that it was too +good to be true. + +The slighting of his earlier work and the laudation excited by the later +had precisely the same effect upon him--that is none at all. If one had +asked him, I think he would have said both alike were out of +perspective. And he would have spoken without any taint of bitterness: +for, from the very first, he was both confident and humble. + +Of the man Corot there are many portraits both in pen and pencil, that +help to give an outward shape to the more intimate revelation of +personality to be found in his work. + +One of the most interesting is a portrait by the artist of himself as a +young man. He is sitting, a burly, broad-shouldered figure, before his +easel. The face looks out from the canvas square and strong, but the +full-lipped mouth is sensitive, almost tremulous, and betrays the nature +of the man even more surely than the alert eyes; though these eyes, on +the pounce, one may say, and the forehead drawn in the intense endeavour +to _see_--these also tell their own story. + +A pen-portrait of later date by Silvestre describes the artist as "of +short but Herculean build; his chest and shoulders are solid as an iron +chest; his large and powerful hands could throw the ordinary strong man +out of the window. Attacked once, when with Marilhat, by a band of +peasants of the Midi, he knocked down the most energetic of them with a +single blow, and afterwards, gentle again and sorry, he said, 'It is +astonishing; I did not know I was so strong.' He is very full-blooded, +and his face of a high colour. This, with the bourgeois cut of his +clothes and the plebeian shape of his shoes, gives him at first sight a +look which disappears in a conversation that is nearly always full of +point, of wit, and matter. He explains his principles with great ease, +and illustrates the method of his art with anything at hand; and that +generally is his pipe. He so loves to talk about his practices in +painting that, a student told me, he will talk in his shorts and with +bare feet for two hours at a stretch without being once distracted by +the cold." + +Many photographs are in existence to present to us Corot in his autumn +time. Says M. Gustave Geffroy, examining one of these: "The features are +clearly marked. The brow, high and bare, crowned with hair in the _coup +de vent_ style, is furrowed with lines. His glance goes clear, keen, +direct, from beneath the heavy eyelids. The nose, short and fleshy, is +attached to the cheeks by two strongly marked creases. There is a smile +on the lips, of which the lower is very thick--altogether a good, +intelligent, witty face." In general appearance, I may add, these later +portraits of Corot always remind me of the late Mr. Lionel Brough. + +To my mind there is something more in these photographs than M. Geffroy +has called attention to. They are the portraits of a very happy man. A +deep spiritual happiness and content make the old, wrinkled face a +beautiful one. It is the face of one who, to use a lovely old phrase, +"walked with God," and of whom it was said, "_c'est le Saint Vincent de +Paul de la peinture_." + +As one of his friends said, Corot was "adorably good." He was a good +son, for all that he found himself unable to fall in with his father's +desire to make him a successful draper: and the fact that "at home" his +outstanding abilities were never recognised, could not in the least +abate the warmth of his family affections. And he was a good friend. He +never forgot a kindness done to him either in word or deed, although his +memory seemed to be singularly incapable of retaining a record of +anything done to his hurt. It has been said, and the argument could be +powerfully supported, that the same qualities that go to the making of a +good friend make a bad enemy. Very likely it is true in ninety-nine +cases out of a hundred: if so the case of Corot was the hundredth. He +seemed to have a natural incapacity to bear malice or retain a sense of +injury. Perhaps he was too simple or too wise; or, maybe, both. + +Not less characteristic of Corot than his manner of going about always +with a song on his lips, was his incurable habit of giving. The wonder +is that he ever had anything at all left for himself, that even shoes +and soup did not follow after francs. And very reprehensibly, of course, +he gave to almost every one who had recourse to him, as well as to many +who did not. His generosity was all but indiscriminate, and conducted in +a manner that, it may be supposed, would drive a charity organisation +society to distraction. He was victimised often and knew it, but the +knowledge never dulled the edge of an insatiable appetite. To give was +at once a luxury and a necessity to him, as appears, and he was never so +gay as when he had been indulging himself in this direction rather more +recklessly than usual. "He would paint" (I quote from Meynell), "saying +to himself, 'Now I am making twice what I have just given.' Or, again, +having just emptied his cash drawer, he would take up his easel, saying: +'Now we will paint great pictures. Now we will surprise the +nations.'" Rather a foolish fellow evidently: but "one of God's +fools," as I heard an old priest say of a somewhat similar example. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--VUE DU COLISÉE + +The "Vue du Colisée" is a reminiscence of Corot's first visit to Rome. +It plainly shows that even in those early days he had obtained a great +mastery of his medium, and could set down with distinction what he so +clearly saw. Though the subject is a big one, it is handled in such a +fashion that simple dignity is its outstanding characteristic. The "Vue +du Colisée" was one of the paintings that first gained for Corot the +high consideration of the more discerning among his artist friends.] + +Notwithstanding the love that made the keynote of his character, all the +investigations of the curious have not discovered an "affair of the +heart" in Corot's life story. It is a story to all intents and purposes +without a woman in it: or, if that is saying too much, certainly without +a heroine. There has been some attempt to exalt his relations with +"Mademoiselle Rose" to the level of a romance, but it has failed +completely for want of materials. Mademoiselle Rose was one of his +mother's work girls, and in those early days, when he was but newly +emancipated from the bondage of drapery, she used to come to see him at +his painter-work. She never married, and thirty-five years later Corot +still counted her among his friends, and she visited him from time to +time. It is a little romance of friendship, if you like, it may have +been on the part of Mademoiselle Rose something more--who knows?--but it +cannot count as a Corot love-affair on the evidence that is available. + +As far as is known this is the nearest approach to a "love interest" in +the life of the artist. It may have been that he looked upon women too +much with the eye of an artist ever to be able to see them merely as a +man; more probably it was the element of austerity in him that kept him +immune from passion. + +With all his intense delight in life and in living, Corot was always +detached; always preserved, as by a religious habit, from actual contact +with the world around him. Through the midst of the follies, the +extravagances, and the vices of Romanticist circles in Paris of the +thirties, he passed without coming to any harm, and characteristically +enough, without losing his regard for some of the wildest of a wild +company. He took part in much of the "fun" that was going on, but though +often in the set he was never of it, and so far as can be judged it did +not influence him, or colour his outlook upon life, in the slightest +degree. + +I think it was this temperamental detachment, and possibly a sense, +unexpressed even to himself, of being vowed to one particular service, +that prevented Corot from ever "falling in love," as the phrase goes. +Or, to put it another way, his life was so full of his art, that there +was no room within its limits for another dominating interest. + +Simple and single-minded, happily pursuing the occupation that of all +others he would have chosen, he made his life a work of art more lovely +than the most beautiful of his paintings. No one can live in such a +world as this for the allotted span and more without becoming +acquainted with grief, but Corot knew none of those searing sorrows +which scorch their way into heart and brain, until they make existence a +burden hardly to be borne. His faith in "the good God," to whom he +looked up with so childlike a confidence, was so complete that sorrow +for him could hold no bitterness; nor, deeply sympathetic as he was, had +it power over an impregnable content and an unfailing serenity. + +And he died as he had lived. A few days before his death it is recorded +"that he told one of his friends how in a dream he had seen 'a landscape +with a sky all roses, and clouds all roses too. It was delicious,' he +said; 'I can remember it quite well. It will be an admirable thing to +paint.' The morning of the day he died, the 22nd of February, 1875, he +said to the woman servant who brought him some nourishment, 'Le père +Corot is lunching up there to-day.'" + +"It will be hard to replace the artist; the man can never be replaced," +was one fine tribute to his memory; and another, "Death might have had +pity and paused before cutting short so sweet a life-work." + +A sale of some 600 of Corot's works took place in the May and June +following his death. It realised nearly two million francs, or £80,000. +This is, of course, not a fraction of the sum that would be realised +were the same pictures to be put up to auction to-day; but it shows that +his achievement was beginning to be estimated at something approaching +its true value. + +Corot's work, of which at one time he was able to boast he had a +"complete collection," is now scattered to the four corners of the +earth. Paris possesses some splendid examples at the Louvre, and there +are many not less admirable distributed among the provincial galleries +of France. America holds a large number in public and private +galleries, and there are in private ownership in this country Corots +sufficient to make a magnificent collection. Lately the National Gallery +has been enriched, by the Salting bequest, with seven fine paintings +from the master's hand, eloquent witnesses alike to his individuality +and variety. + +To me it is an added joy, when I stand before a Corot picture, to think +of the gracious personality of its creator. It is almost as if his +eager, happy voice were pointing out the manifold beauties of the +miraculously bedaubed canvas, and recalling the "moment," so certainly +made permanent there. + +It is always a "moment" that is seized in Corot's paintings, with the +exception of some of the earliest. Nature is surprised with her fairest +charms unveiled, in a passing emotion, of laughter or of tears. There is +life, movement, the tremble of being, in everything set down. The air is +palpitant with colour, rainbows are dissolved in an atmosphere that +clothes everything in magic and mystery. + +Beneath the gay confidence of the painting, subserving the emotion of +the moment, what knowledge is shown in these pictures! These tree forms, +bold and delicate, with such wonderful subtleties of drawing in them, +give more than externals. They reveal a very psychology of trees, the +soul that the artist so plainly saw in everything around him. He was +concerned to set down far more than the details of the scene before him, +not in the least satisfied to be but a reporter. The higher, or, if you +like, deeper verities were what he strove for, and the universal verdict +to-day is that he did not strive in vain. + +The figure-painting of Corot is comparatively little known, and it is a +subject of too much importance to attempt to deal with adequately in +small space. An enthusiastic critic claims that it includes the +artist's "absolute masterpieces," but I doubt if many would agree, +beautiful as some of these figures are. They show the same faculty of +apprehending a sudden revelation of beauty as is shown by the more +familiar landscapes, the same exquisite sense of graces in form and +colour, which elude the eyes of most of us. But it is still in landscape +that Corot is supreme. + +I have already stated my conviction that he was not greatly influenced +by other artists, his predecessors, or contemporaries. Perhaps +Constable, to mention but one name, helped to open his eyes, but once +open he used them as his own. Again, the classicism which surrounded him +in his youth left gentle memories that in his age were never quite +forgotten; but it was worn as sometimes an elderly gentleman wears a +bunch of seals, and had about as much to do with the essential +personality of the wearer. + +He was always true to himself. His equipment was simple faith, definite +purpose, and unflagging zeal. A clear eye, a dream-haunted brain, and a +great loving heart--that was Corot. + + +The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London + +The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41674 *** |