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diff --git a/43792-8.txt b/43792-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 129b149..0000000 --- a/43792-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16223 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Modern Painting, Volume 1 -(of 4), by Richard Muther - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The History of Modern Painting, Volume 1 (of 4) - Revised edition continued by the author to the end of the XIX century - -Author: Richard Muther - -Release Date: September 22, 2013 [EBook #43792] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF MODERN PAINTING, VOL I *** - - - - -Produced by Marius Masi, Albert László and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - -THE HISTORY OF MODERN PAINTING - - -[Illustration: ANTON GRAFF PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST] - - - THE HISTORY OF - MODERN PAINTING - - - BY RICHARD MUTHER - PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY - AT THE UNIVERSITY - OF BRESLAU - - - IN FOUR - VOLUMES - - [Illustration] - - VOLUME - ONE - - - - - REVISED EDITION - CONTINUED BY THE AUTHOR - TO THE END OF THE XIX CENTURY - - LONDON: PUBLISHED BY J. M. DENT & CO. - NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. MCMVII - - - _Printed by_ - MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED - _Edinburgh_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix - -INTRODUCTION - - Old and new histories of art.--Seeming "restlessness" of the - nineteenth century.--To recognise "style" in modern art, and to - prove the logic of its evolution, the principles of judgment in the - old art-histories are also to be employed for the new.--The - question is, what new element the age brought into the history of - art, not what it borrowed eclectically from earlier ages 1 - -BOOK I - - THE LEGACY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY - -CHAPTER I - - COMMENCEMENT OF MODERN ART IN ENGLAND - - The commencement of modern art in England.--Two divisions of modern - art since the sixteenth century.--Classic and naturalistic - schools.--English succeed the Dutch in the seventeenth - century.--William Hogarth: his purpose and his inartistic - methods.--Sir Joshua Reynolds.--Thomas Gainsborough.--Comparison - between them.--Reynolds, an historical painter; Gainsborough, a - painter of landscape.--Pictures of Richard Wilson show the end of - classical landscape.--Those of Gainsborough, the beginning of - "paysage intime" 9 - -CHAPTER II - - THE HISTORICAL POSITION OF ART ON THE CONTINENT - - English influence upon the art of the Continent from the middle of - the eighteenth century.--Sturm-und-Drang period in - literature.--Rousseau.--Goethe's "Werther."--Schiller's - "Robbers."--Spain: Francis Goya, his pictures and - etchings.--France: Antoine Watteau frees himself from "baroque" - influences, and directs the tendency of French art towards the Low - Countries.--Pastel: Maurice Latour, Rosalba Carriera, - Liotard.--Society painters: Lancrat, Pater.--The decorative - painters: François Lemoine, François Boucher, Fragonard.--"Society" - turns virtuous.--Jean Greuze.--Middle-class society and its - depicter, Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin.--Germany: Lessing frees the - drama from the classical yoke of Boileau, and, following the - English, produces in "Minna" the first domestic tragedy.--Daniel - Chodowiecki as the portrayer of the German middle class.--Tischbein - goes back to the national past.--Posing disappears in portrait - painting.--Antoine Pesne.--Anton Graff.--Christian Lebrecht - Vogel.--Johann Edlinger.--The revival of landscape.--Rousseau's - influence.--English garden-style succeeds the French - style.--Disappearance of "nature choisie" in painting.--Hubert - Robert.--Joseph Vernet.--Salomon Gessner.--Ludwig Hess.--Philip - Hackert.--Johann Alexander Thiele.--Antonio Canale.--Bernardo - Canaletto.--Francesco Guardi.--Don Petro Rodriguez de Miranda.--Don - Mariano Ramon Sanchez.--The animal painters: François Casanova, - Jean Louis de Marne, Jean Baptiste Oudry, Johann Elias - Riedinger.--An event in the history of art: in place of the - prevailing Cinquecento and the "sublime style of painting" degraded - at the close of the seventeenth century, a simple and sincere art - succeeds throughout the whole of Europe.--Return to what Dürer and - the Little Masters of the sixteenth century and the Dutch of the - seventeenth century originated 41 - -CHAPTER III - - THE CLASSICAL REACTION IN GERMANY - - The influence of the antique at the end of the eighteenth century - shows no advance, but an unnatural retrograde movement, and notes - in Germany the beginning of the same decadence which had happened - in Italy with the Bolognese, in France with Poussin, and in Holland - with Gérard de Lairesse.--The teachings of Winckelmann, Anton - Rafael Mengs, Angelica Kauffmann.--The younger generation carries - out the classical programme in the value it sets upon technical - traditions.--Asmus Jacob Carstens.--Buonaventura Genelli 80 - -CHAPTER IV - - THE CLASSICAL REACTION IN FRANCE - - In France also the classical tendency in art was no new thing, but - a revival of the antique which was restored to life by the - foundation of the French Academy in Rome in 1663.--Influence of - archæological studies.--Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun.--The Revolution - heightens the enthusiasm for the antique, and once more gives - Classicism an appearance of brilliant animation.--Jacques Louis - David.--His portraits and his pictures in relation to contemporary - history.--David as an archæologist.--Jean Baptiste - Regnault.--François André Vincent.--Guérin 98 - - -BOOK II - - THE ESCAPE INTO THE PAST - -CHAPTER V - - THE NAZARENES - - Influence of literature.--Wackenroder.--Tieck.--The - Schlegels.--Instead of the antique, the Italian Quattrocento - appears as the model for the schools.--Frederick Overbeck.--Philip - Veit.--Joseph Führich.--Edward Steinle--Julius Schnorr von - Carolsfeld.--Their pictures and their drawings 117 - -CHAPTER VI - - THE ART OF MUNICH UNDER KING LUDWIG I - - Peter Cornelius.--Wilhelm Kaulbach.--Their importance and their - limitations 141 - -CHAPTER VII - - THE DÜSSELDORFERS - - On the Rhine, a school of painting instead of a school of - drawing.--Wilhelm Schadow, Carl Friedrich Lessing, Theodor - Hildebrandt, Carl Sohn, Heinrich Mücke, Christian Koehler, H. - Plüddemann, Eduard Bendemann, Theodor Mintrop, Friedrich Ittenbach, - Ernest Deger.--Why their pictures, despite technical merits, have - become antiquated 157 - -CHAPTER VIII - - THE LEGACY OF GERMAN ROMANTICISM - - Alfred Rethel and Moritz Schwind oppose the Roman with the German - tradition.--Their pictures and drawings 167 - -CHAPTER IX - - THE FORERUNNERS OF ROMANTICISM IN FRANCE - - Last years of the David school wearisome and without character, - except in portrait painting.--François Gérard, the "King of - Painters and Painter of Kings"; his portraits of the Empire and - Restoration periods.--Commencement of the revolt: Pierre Paul - Prudhon; his pictures and the story of his life; Constance - Mayer.--Revival of colouring.--Antoine Jean Gros and his pictures - of contemporary life; discrepancy between his teaching and his - practice 189 - -CHAPTER X - - THE GENERATION OF 1830 - - The revolt of the Romanticists against Classicism in literature and - art.--Théodore Géricault and his early works.--"The Raft of the - Medusa."--Eugène Delacroix: protest against the conventional, and - renewed importance of colour.--Delacroix's pictures; influence of - the East upon him.--His life and struggles.--The Classical - reaction.--J. A. D. Ingres and the opposition to Romanticism.--His - classical pictures.--Excellence of his portraits and drawings 219 - -CHAPTER XI - - JUSTE-MILIEU - - Moderation the watchword of Louis Philippe's reign, in politics, - literature, and art.--Jean Gigoux, a follower of Delacroix and an - inexorable realist.--Eugène Isabey.--Middle position occupied by - Ary Scheffer between the Classical and the Romantic schools; - decline of his popularity.--Hippolyte Flandrin, as a religious - painter a French counterpart to the Nazarenes.--Paul Chenavard, - compared to Cornelius.--Théodore Chassériau; his short and - brilliant career.--Léon Benouville.--Léon Cogniet and his - pictures.--Transition from the Romantic school to the historical - painters.--The great writers of history: renewed activity in this - field: historical tragedies and romances.--Art takes a similar - course: popularity and facility of historical painting.--Eugène - Devéria; Camille Roqueplan.--Nicolaus Robert Fleury; Louis - Boulanger.--Paul Delaroche; his popularity and its causes; his - defects as a painter.--Delaroche's pictures.--Thomas Couture 255 - -CHAPTER XII - - THE POST-ROMANTIC GENERATION - - France under the Second Empire; the society of the period not - represented in French art.--Continuation of the old traditions - without essential change.--Alexandre Cabanel.--William - Bouguereau.--Jules Lefébure.--Henner.--Paul Baudry: his pictures; - decoration of the Grand Opera House.--Élie Delaunay: his pictures, - decorative painting, and portraits.--The "Genre féroce"; - predilection for the horrible in art.--Numerous painters of this - school.--Laurens.--Rochegrosse and his pictures.--Henri Regnault 278 - -CHAPTER XIII - - THE HISTORICAL SCHOOL OF PAINTING IN BELGIUM - - Belgium to 1830.--David and his school.--Navez, Matthias van - Bree.--Gustav Wappers, Nicaise de Keyzer, Henri Decaisne, Gallait, - Bièfve.--Ernest Slingeneyer, Guffens and Swerts.--The Exhibition of - Belgian pictures in Germany 301 - -CHAPTER XIV - - THE REVOLUTION OF THE GERMAN COLOURISTS - - Anselm Feuerbach, Victor Müller.--The Berlin school: Rudolf - Henneberg, Gustav Richter, Knille, Schrader, and others.--The - Munich school: Piloty, Hans Makart, Gabriel Max.--The historical - painters and the end of the illustrative painting of history 317 - -CHAPTER XV - - THE VICTORY OVER PSEUDO-IDEALISM - - The Historical Picture of Manners as opposed to Historical - Painting, an advance in the direction of intimacy of feeling.--The - Antique Picture of Manners: Charles Gleyre, Louis Hamon, Gérôme, - Gustave Boulanger.--The Picture of Costume from the sixteenth and - seventeenth centuries.--France: Charles Comte, Alexander Hesse, - Camille Roqueplan.--Belgium: Alexander Markelbach, Florent - Willems.--Germany: L. v. Hagn, Gustav Spangenberg, Carl - Becker.--The importance of Hendrik Leys, Ernest Meissonier, and - Adolf Menzel as mediators between the past and ordinary life, - between the heroic art of the first half of the nineteenth century - and the intimate art of the second half 363 - -BIBLIOGRAPHY 391 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - -PLATES IN COLOUR - - - PAGE - ANTON GRAFF: Portrait of Himself _Frontispiece_ - REYNOLDS: Mrs. Siddons 20 - GAINSBOROUGH: The Sisters 38 - GREUZE: The Milkmaid 58 - CHARDIN: The House of Cards 64 - WATTEAU: Fête Champêtre 74 - ANGELICA KAUFFMANN: Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal 86 - ELIZABETH VIGÉE-LEBRUN: Portrait of the Painter with her - Daughter 100 - CORNELIUS: "Let there be Light" 144 - SCHWIND: The Wedding Journey 182 - REGNAULT: General Prim 300 - MEISSONIER: A Cavalier 378 - - -IN BLACK AND WHITE - - BAUDRY, PAUL. - Portrait of Baudry 286 - Charlotte Corday 287 - Truth 288 - The Pearl and the Wave 289 - Cybele 290 - Leda 291 - Edmond About 292 - - BENDEMANN, EDUARD. - The Lament of the Jews 165 - - BIÈFVE, EDOUARD. - Portrait of Bièfve 314 - The League of the Nobles of the Netherlands 315 - - BOUGUEREAU, WILLIAM ADOLPHE. - Brotherly Love 281 - - CABANEL, ALEXANDRE. - Portrait of Cabanel 279 - The Shulamite 280 - - CARSTENS, ASMUS JACOB. - Portrait of Himself 88 - Scylla and Charybdis 90 - Argo Leaving the Triton's Mere 91 - Children of the Night 92 - Priam and Achilles 93 - - CHARDIN, JEAN SIMÉON. - Portrait of Himself 63 - Grace before Meat 65 - - CHASSÉRIAU, THÉODORE. - Apollo and Daphne 259 - - CHODOWIECKI, DANIEL. - Portrait of Chodowiecki 66 - The Family Picture 67 - All Sorts and Conditions of Women 68, 69 - The Morning Compliment 70 - The Artist's Nursery 71 - - COGNIET, LÉON. - Tintoretto Painting his Dead Daughter 261 - The Massacre of the Innocents 263 - - CORNELIUS, PETER. - Portrait of Cornelius 143 - From the Frescoes in the Friedhofshalle, Berlin 145 - Marguerite in Prison 146 - The Apocalyptic Host 147 - The Fall of Troy 149 - - COUTURE, THOMAS. - Portrait of Couture 271 - The Love of Gold 273 - The Romans of the Decadence 275 - The Troubadour 277 - - DAVID, JACQUES LOUIS. - Portrait of David 102 - Madame Récamier 103 - The Oath of the Horatii 105 - The Rape of the Sabines 107 - Helen and Paris 109 - Belisarius asking Alms 111 - The Death of Marat 113 - - DELACROIX, EUGÈNE. - Portrait of Delacroix 226 - Dante's Bark 227 - Hamlet and the Grave-diggers 230 - Tasso in the Mad-house 231 - Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople 233 - Jesus on Lake Gennesaret 235 - Horses Fighting in a Stable 237 - Medea 238 - The Expulsion of Heliodorus 239 - - DELAROCHE, PAUL. - Portrait of Delaroche 264 - The Assassination of the Duke of Guise 265 - The Princes in the Tower 267 - Strafford on his Way to Execution 269 - - DELAUNAY, ÉLIE. - Diana 293 - Boys Singing 294 - Madame Toulmouche 295 - - FEUERBACH, ANSELM. - Portrait of Himself 318 - Hafiz at the Well 319 - Pieta 321 - Iphigenia 322 - Portrait of a Roman Lady 323 - Mother's Joy 325 - Medea 327 - Dante Walking with High--born Ladies of Ravenna 329 - - FÜHRICH, JOSEPH. - Portrait of Führich 126 - From the "Legend of St. Gwendolin" 127 - Ruth and Boaz 128 - The Departure of the Prodigal Son 129 - Jacob and Rachel 130 - - GAINSBOROUGH, THOMAS. - Portrait of Gainsborough 34 - Mrs. Siddons 35 - Wood Scene, Village of Cornard, Suffolk 36 - The Market Cart 37 - The Duchess of Devonshire 38 - The Watering Place 39 - - GALLAIT, LOUIS. - Portrait of Gallait 312 - Egmont's Last Moments 313 - - GENELLI, BONAVENTURA. - The Embassy to Achilles 94 - Thetis lamenting the Fate of Hector 95 - Odysseus and the Sirens 96 - Portrait of Genelli 97 - - GÉRARD, FRANÇOIS. - Portrait of Gérard 190 - Mlle. Brongniart 191 - Madame Visconti 192 - Cupid and Psyche 193 - Madame Récamier 194 - - GÉRICAULT, THÉODORE. - Portrait of Géricault 221 - The Wounded Cuirassier 222 - Chasseur 223 - The Raft of the Medusa 224 - The Start 225 - - GÉRÔME, LÉON. - The Cock-fight 367 - - GESSNER, SALOMON. - Landscape 75 - Landscape 76 - - GOYA, FRANCISCO. - Portrait of Himself 42 - The Majas on the Balcony 43 - The Maja Clothed 44 - The Maja Nude 45 - De Que Mal Morira (from "Los Capriccios") 46 - Soplones (from "Los Capriccios") 47 - Se Repulen (from "Los Capriccios") 48 - Que Pico de Oro (from "Los Capriccios") 49 - Volaverunt (from "Los Capriccios") 50 - Quien lo Creyera (from "Los Capriccios") 51 - Linda Maestra (from "Los Capriccios") 52 - Devota Profesion (from "Los Capriccios") 53 - Otres Leyes por el Pueblo 54 - - GREUZE, JEAN BAPTISTE. - Portrait of Greuze 58 - Head of a Girl 59 - Girl carrying a Lamb 60 - Girl looking up 61 - Girl with an Apple 62 - - GROS, ANTOINE JEAN (BARON). - Saul 215 - Portrait of Gros 216 - The Battle of Eylau 217 - - GUARDI, FRANCESCO. - Venice 77 - - HAMON, LOUIS. - My Sister's not at Home 365 - - HENNEBERG, RUDOLF. - The Race for Fortune 330 - - HENNER, JEAN JACQUES. - Susanna and the Elders 284 - The Sleeper 285 - - HILDEBRANDT, THEODOR. - The Sons of Edward 161 - - HOGARTH, WILLIAM. - Portrait of Himself 12 - The Harlot's Progress (Plate VI.) 13 - The Rake's Progress (Plate II.) 14 - The Rake's Progress (Plate VII.) 15 - The Rake's Progress (Plate VIII.) 16 - Marriage à la Mode (Plate V.) 17 - The Enraged Musician 18 - Gin Lane 19 - - INGRES, JEAN AUGUSTE DOMINIQUE. - Portrait of Ingres 242 - The Maid of Orleans at Rheims 243 - Portrait of Himself as a Youth 244 - Bertin the Elder 245 - Study for the Odalisque in the Louvre 247 - The Source 248 - Oedipus and the Sphinx 249 - Paganini 251 - Mlle. de Montgolfier 252 - The Forestier Family 253 - - KAUFFMANN, ANGELICA. - Portrait of Herself 86 - - KAULBACH, WILHELM. - Portrait of Kaulbach 151 - The Deluge 152 - Prince Arthur and Hubert 153 - Marguerite 156 - - DE KEYZER. - Portrait of de Keyzer 308 - The Battle of Woeringen 309 - - LAURENS, JEAN PAUL. - The Interdict 298 - - LEFÉBURE, JULES. - Truth 283 - - LESSING, CARL FRIEDRICH. - The Sorrowing Royal Pair 164 - The Hussite Sermon 335 - - LEYS, HENDRIK. - Portrait of Leys 369 - A Family Festival 370 - The Armourer 371 - Mother and Child 372 - - LUMINAIS, EVARISTE. - Les Énervés de Jumièges 297 - - MAKART, HANS. - Portrait of Makart 341 - The Espousals of Catterina Cornaro 343 - The Feast of Bacchus 345 - - MAX, GABRIEL. - Portrait of Max 347 - A Nun in the Cloister Garden 349 - The Lion's Bride 351 - Light 353 - The Spirit's Greeting 355 - Adagio 356 - A Winter's Tale 357 - Madonna 359 - - MAYER, CONSTANCE. - Portrait of Mayer 201 - The Dream of Happiness 202 - The Tomb of Prudhon and Constance Mayer at - Père-Lachaise 203 - - MEISSONIER, ERNEST. - The Man at the Window 373 - A Man reading 374 - Reading the Manuscript 375 - Polcinello 376 - A Reading at Diderot's 377 - A Halt 378 - - MENGS, ANTON RAFAEL. - Portrait of Himself 84 - Mount Parnassus 85 - - MENZEL, ADOLF. - Portrait of Menzel, 1837 379 - Frederick the Great and his Tutor 380 - The Round Table at Sans-Souci 381 - Frederick the Great on a Journey 383 - Illustration to Kugler's History of Frederick the - Great 384 - Portrait of Frederick the Great 385 - Reifspiel 387 - When will Genius Awake? 388 - - OVERBECK, FREDERICK. - Portrait of Overbeck 118 - The Annunciation 119 - The Naming of St. John 120 - Christ Healing the Sick 121 - Christ's Entry into Jerusalem 122 - The Resurrection 123 - The Seven Lean Years 124 - Portrait of Himself and Cornelius 140 - - PESNE, ANTOINE. - Portrait of Himself and Daughters 72 - - PILOTY, CARL. - Portrait of Piloty 336 - Girdonists on the Road to the Guillotine 337 - Under the Arena 339 - - PRUDHON, PIERRE PAUL. - Portrait of Himself 195 - Joseph and Potiphar's Wife 196 - Study directs the Flight of Genius 197 - Le Coup de Patte du Chat 198 - Cupid and Psyche 199 - The Unfortunate Family 204 - The Rape of Psyche 205 - Le Midi 206 - La Nuit 207 - L'enjouir 208 - Marguerite 209 - Les Petits Dévideurs 210 - The Vintage 211 - The Virgin 212 - Christ Crucified 213 - Madame Copia 214 - - REGNAULT, HENRI. - Salome 299 - The Moorish Headsman 300 - - RETHEL, ALFRED. - The Emperor Otto at the Tomb of Charlemagne 169 - The Destruction of the Pagan Idols 170 - Hannibal's Passage over the Alps 171 - Death at the Masked Ball 172 - Death the Friend of Man 173 - - REYNOLDS, SIR JOSHUA. - Portrait of Himself 20 - Dr. Johnson 21 - Garrick as Abel Drugger 22 - Heads of Angels 23 - Samuel Richardson 24 - Miss Reynolds 25 - Edmund Burke 26 - Mrs. Abington 27 - Edmund Malone 28 - Oliver Goldsmith 29 - Lady Cockburn and her Daughters 30 - Bishop Percy 31 - The Girl with the Mousetrap 32 - Dr. Burney 33 - - RICHTER, GUSTAV. - Portrait of Himself 331 - A Gipsy 332 - - SCHEFFER, ARY. - Portrait of Scheffer 257 - Marguerite at the Well 258 - - SCHNORR VON CAROLSFIELD, JULIUS. - Portrait of Schnorr 125 - Adam and Eve after the Fall 125 - - SCHRADER, JULIUS. - Cromwell at Whitehall 333 - - SCHWIND, MORITZ. - Portrait of Schwind 175 - From the Wartburg Frescoes 176 - From the Wartburg Frescoes 177 - Wieland the Smith 178 - From the Story of the Seven Ravens 179 - A Hermit leading Horses to a Pool 181 - Nymphs and Stag 184 - Rübezahl 185 - The Fairies' Song 187 - - SLINGNEYER, ERNEST. - The Avenger 311 - - SOHN, CARL. - The two Leonoras 163 - The Rape of Hylas 166 - - STEINBRUCK, EDUARD. - Elves 162 - - STEINLE, EDUARD. - The Raising of Jarius' Daughter 131 - "I have trodden the Winepress alone" 132 - Portrait of Steinle 133 - Book Illustration 134 - The Violin Player 135 - - SYLVESTRE, JOSEPH NOËL. - Locusta Testing in Nero's Presence the - Poison prepared for Britannicus 296 - - VEIT, PHILIP. - Portrait of Veit 136 - The Arts introduced into Germany by Christianity 137 - The two Marys at the Sepulchre 139 - - WAPPERS, GUSTAV. - Portrait of Wappers 303 - The Sacrifice of Burgomaster van der Werff - at the Siege of Leyden 305 - The Death of Columbus 307 - - WATTEAU, ANTOINE. - Portrait of Watteau 56 - La Partie Carrée 57 - The Music Party 73 - The Return from the Chase 74 - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -The historian who wishes to relate the history of painting in the -nineteenth century is confronted with quite other demands than await him -who undertakes the art of an earlier period. The greatest difficulty -with which the latter has to cope is the deficiency of sources. He -manifestly gropes in the dark with regard to the works of the masters as -well as to the circumstances of their lives. After he has searched -archives and libraries in order to collect his biographical material, -the real critical problem awaits him. Even amongst the admittedly -authentic works, those which are undated confront those whose chronology -is certain. To these must be added those nameless ones, as to whose -history there is a doubt; to these again, those whose origin is to be -ascertained. It needs a quick eye to separate the schools and groups, -and finally to recognise the notes which are peculiar to the master. - -With none of these difficulties is the historian of modern art -confronted. The painters of the nineteenth century have very seldom -forgotten to attach a name and date to their works, and the -circumstances of their lives are related with an accuracy that was, -earlier, rarely the lot of the foremost men in history. It is all the -more difficult, face to face with such a chaos of pictures, to discover -the spiritual bond which connects them all, to construct a building out -of the immense supply of accumulated bricks, the piled-up mass of rough -material. The evolution of modern painting is more complicated and -varied than that of the art of an earlier period, just as modern life -itself is more complicated and varied than that of any previous age. - -How quietly, slowly, and surely was the evolution of that older period -carried out. One simple proportion was maintained between art and the -universal life of culture. Customs, views of life and art, were so -intimately bound up together, that the knowledge of the age in general -naturally comprises that of art. Standing before some old altar-piece of -the school of Cologne, it is as though one were watching in some broad -high dome; everything is quiet all round, and the august figures in the -picture lead their calm, grave existence in illustrious grandeur. The -message of Christianity, "My kingdom is not of this world," meets in -art, too, with a clear expression. Humility and devotion are joined -together, making for a refinement in the feeling of life that is -unsurpassed in its hieratic tenderness and gracious innocence. In the -fifteenth century, the age of discoveries, a new spirit entered the -world. Commerce and navigation discovered new worlds, painting -discovered life. The human spirit grew freer and more joyous; it was no -longer satisfied with yearning for the other world alone, it felt itself -at home also in this world, in the glory of the earth. Pictures, too, -were inspired with some of those joyous perceptions with which the -citizens of the fifteenth century issued from their narrow walls out -under God's free heaven, something of that Easter Day mood in _Faust_. -People still went on painting Madonnas and saints, subjects of a -religion which had spread from the far East over the whole West; but -with the severe simplicity of the heavenly, there was universal -awakening of all the charm and roguery and energy of the earthly. It is -the first virginal contact of the spirit with nature. On men's works -there rests the first morning-dew of spiritual life; they remind one of -woodlands in spring: Botticelli, Van Eyck, Schongauer. - -After the Italians had become vigorous realists in the fifteenth -century, they rose in the sixteenth, the century of inspired humanism, -to majesty. The time of hard grappling with the overwhelming fulness of -actuality is over. Those great masterpieces ensue in which the -unlaboured effort shines forth in the most felicitous achievement: -Raphael, Michael Angelo, Titian. At the same time the German manner is -most directly opposed to the Romance. They disdain to ingratiate -themselves into men's minds by outward grace of form, but win the heart -by their deep religious feeling and intimate sensibility. They are -German to the core, racial even to the stiffness of the German -character, but full of feeling and truth to life. Dürer in his woodcuts -and copper engravings is "_inwendig voller figur_"; in them he offers -the "concentrated, homely treasure of his heart." Holbein is great by -the incomparably real art of his portraits. The century of that joyous -revival of Paganism, the Olympian vivacity of the Renaissance, is -followed by the age to which the Jesuits gave life and character. For -those stately churches in the Jesuit style, with their _fortissimo_ -effect, their huge, sculptured ornaments and their gleaming, gold -decorations, the classic quietness of the old masters ceases to be -appropriate. It is a question of a more stirring and impressive -treatment of sacred subjects, wherein the whole passion of renewed -Catholicism should be brought to expression. Spain, the country of the -Inquisition, set the classic stamp on this enhanced religious feeling. -Here all that monarchical and sacerdotal impulse which founded and -aggrandised the Spanish nation, founded too its true representative in -painting. Painters endowed their church pictures with a passionate -fervour and a flush of extravagant sensuousness of the national, -Spanish, local colour, such as are found united in the art of no other -age or country. Necessarily, moreover, such a feudal system as that of -Spain, with its grandees and princes of the Church, involved also an art -of portrait painting which ranks with the highest that has issued in -this kind from any country whatever: Murillo, Velasquez. In Flanders, -the second stronghold of the Jesuits, we have the titan Rubens. A -joyously fleshly Fleming, he seizes nature by the throat and drags her -there where he stands erect, as though he were lord of the world. -Freedom had found its way into victorious and Protestant Holland. Here -there flourished an art neither courtly nor fostered by the Church. It -stood in the closest connection with the burgesses, showed clear signs -of the struggle through which country and people had won independence. -In the first place, painting celebrated as its worthiest subject the -free burgher, the tighter in the heroic struggle for freedom. At no time -was portrait-painting practised to such an extent, and the sitters not -aristocratic courtiers, but proud burgesses of a free community; the men -grave, strong, self-reliant; the women faithful, pure, and modest. The -workmanship is correspondent: simple, solid, domestic; and soon there -followed the glorification of that which they prized the more after -their struggles had been accomplished: the quiet, comfortable delight of -hearth and home. - -During the War of Independence the Dutch had learnt to love their -fatherland, and they were the first, as artists, fully to grasp the -poetry of landscape. Art now no longer shines only upon the eyes of Mary -and the Hosts of Heaven: it settles upon arid country hills, streams -upon the sea waves, is at home in peasants' houses and the dark woods, -wanders through the streets and alleys, makes a temple of every market. -The religious sentiments, however, which stirred Protestant Holland had -to find appropriate expression; the living essence of biblical subjects -was to be released from a narrow, ecclesiastical sphere, and approached -anew with all the deep, German inwardness. These tendencies were all -united in Rembrandt--perhaps of all masters, since the Christian era, -the mightiest proclaimer of the great Pan; to him the cosmic powers of -light and air signified the divinity that Michael Angelo had painted -under a beautiful human form. - -Finally, in the eighteenth century, comes _rococo_, with its rustling -_frou-frou_ and its delicate charm. The whole life of that noble -society, which exchanged court costume for silken pastoral garments, -formality and rank for charm and grace, was a lively play, an -extravagant game. The king played with his crown, the priest with his -religion, the philosopher with his wisdom, the poet with the art of -rhyme. They did not hear as yet the hoarse threatening voice of the -disinherited, "_Car tel est notre plaisir_." What this age possessed of -beauty and charm, its peculiar grace and wanton vivacity, its reckless, -inassailable frivolity, was proper also to its art. Light and gracious -as the whole life of that harmless, merry generation, it glided through -the age untroubled, led by Cupidons, and kissed by the wandering winds. -It is only to-day that we understand once more the charming masters of -that elegant century. - -The painters of every epoch looked at nature with their own eyes, and -also with the eyes of their age and of their country. So the art of -every period appears as "the mirror and abstract chronicle" of its age. -With irresistible majesty, and conscious of its inspiration, it lays -hold of the external world, and gives back to it its own picture -infinitely exalted. It is the enlightened expression of the age, as -upright, as fresh, as fanatic, or as unnatural as its generation. -Therein lies the strength of the painters of _rococo_, that they painted -the artificiality of the time with such unsurpassable naturalness. It is -just these infinitely various manners of paying court to -nature--unceasingly throughout the course of centuries, now violently, -now softly and tenderly, at times, too, not without passing -infidelity,--it is just these which determine the beauty and value, the -mystery and essence of art, and are in the history of art all that tends -to its variety and unsurpassable charm. - -The nineteenth century not only shows a new age, but probably begins a -new section of universal history. It is probable that in contrast with -this epoch of stirring movement, during which the readjustment of all -political and social relations, the new discoveries in the instruments -of commerce, trade, and industry have given an entirely new aspect to -the world, the next thousand years will sum up all the previous -centuries as the "old world." New men require a new art. One would be -inclined to surmise from this that the art of the nineteenth century -presented itself as something essentially personal, with a sharply -distinctive style. Instead of this it offers at first view, in contrast -with those old ages of uniform production, a condition like that of -Babylon. The nineteenth century has no style--the phrase that has been -so often quoted as to have become a commonplace. In architecture the -forms of all the past ages live again. The day before yesterday we built -Greek, yesterday Gothic; here _Baroque_, there Japanese: but amidst all -these products of imitative styles there rise up stations and -market-places which, with the robust elegance of their iron colonnades, -herald the greatness of fresh conquests. In the province of painting -there are similar extremes. In no other age have minds so diverse -flourished side by side as Carstens and Goya, Cornelius and Corot, -Ingres and Millet, Wiertz and Courbet, Rossetti and Manet. And the -existing histories excite a belief that the nineteenth century is a -chaos into which it is possible only for some later age to bring order. - -Perhaps, however, it is already quite possible, if one only resolves -uncompromisingly to apply to the new age those principles which have -been tested in the treatment of the _old_ histories of art, if one -endeavours to study those artists who are in part still our -contemporaries as objectively as though they were masters long dead. -That is to say: one is wont, in a review of an older period in art, not -to inquire what it had caught from an earlier age, but rather what it -had introduced that was new. It was not because they imitated in their -turn that the old masters became great; not because they looked -backwards, but rather because they went forwards, that they made the -history of art. We are not grateful, for instance, to the Dutchmen of -the middle of the sixteenth century--Frans Floris and his -contemporaries--that they forsook Dutch naturalism, and bootlessly -exerted themselves in the way of Michael Angelo and Raphael. We can see -no remarkable merit in the fact that the Bolognese at the beginning of -the seventeenth century gathered their honey from the flowers of the -Cinquecento. And we are even less inclined to see in the contemporaries -of Adrian van der Werff, who endeavoured to refine the rugged, primeval -Dutch art by the study of the Italians, more than clumsy imitators. - -Just as much will the interest of the historian of the art of the -nineteenth century be bestowed in the first degree upon the works which -have really created something independent and transcending all the -earlier ages. He will not give especial prominence to those domains -which had their flowering-time in other days than our own, but he will -ask: Where is that distinctive element which appertains to the -nineteenth century only? What are the new forms which it has found, the -new sentiments to which it has given expression? Not those whose -activity lay in clothing--however cleverly--the artistic necessities of -the age in the store of already transmitted forms, but the pathfinders, -who went forwards and created anew, require our attention. Even if, -after the old masters, they can only be granted a place in the third or -fourth class, they must nevertheless always take precedence of those -others, because they exhibited themselves as they were, instead of -making themselves large by standing on the shoulders of the dead. Many -of those who were once valued highly, who, thriving on the inheritance -of the past, accomplished what was apparently of importance, measured by -this standard will arouse little interest, because their artistic -speech, depending on a foundation of the established canonical works of -old, is not their own but borrowed. In others, on the contrary, who, -apart from the dominating tendency, had the courage rather to be -insignificant, and yet remain themselves, observing with their own eyes -nature which surrounded them, or naïvely abandoning themselves to the -disposition of their artistic fantasy, in them will be seen the -essential vehicles of the modern spirit. And then it will be apparent -that the art of the nineteenth century as well as that of every earlier -period had its peculiar garment, even if for official occasions it -preferred to unpack from its wardrobe the state costumes of earlier -ages. It is only because this distinction between the eclectic and the -personal, the derived and the independent, has not yet been carried out -with sufficient strictness, that it has hitherto, in my opinion, been -found so difficult to discover the distinctive _style_ of modern art, -and to make clear the logic and sequence of its evolution. - - - - -BOOK I - -THE LEGACY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY - - - - -CHAPTER I - -COMMENCEMENT OF MODERN ART IN ENGLAND - - -If the question arises, why modern art has been compelled to find -expression for itself in a form different from that of the art of the -earlier centuries, we must first call attention to the change that has -taken place in the fundamental conditions of society. Formerly, the -chief supporters of art were the two leading powers of Church and King. -The most noted works of Raphael and Michael Angelo, of Velasquez and -Murillo, of Rubens and Van Dyck, were executed either for the churches -or for the reigning princes of their country. The patron of modern art -is the citizen. The old culture of the clerics and aristocrats has been -superseded by that of the middle classes, and the beginnings of modern -art must therefore be sought in the country in which this class first -developed its distinctive character--in England. - -England, as early as the eighteenth century, was already a land of -citizens. At a time when there was to be found on the Continent acute -mockery of what was old and outworn, conjoined with the most -enthusiastic and joyous faith in the future, the great and wealthy -England had established herself in the van of the new age. Here Voltaire -saw with astonishment for the first time, when he arrived in London as -an exile at the age of thirty-two, the free, open life of a great -people; here he learnt to know a country where there is "much difference -of rank, but none that is not based on merit; where one could think -freely without being restrained by slavish terror." Here was the idea of -a modern free state already accomplished at a time when, upon the -Continent, the thunderclouds of the impending storm hardly cast their -first shadow. Here the notion of a united family life had first -developed, upon the foundation of a civil order and security. Here, -therefore, were first broken down those barriers around the territory of -literature and art within which the spirit of the Renaissance had raised -its wonderful flowers, and the road was begun along which the nineteenth -century should advance. - -Simultaneously with the growth of the middle classes there arose the -need for a domestic, practical literature. Books were required which -people could read by their fireside, in the seclusion of the family -circle, in country districts. For that, the stiff and antiquated poetry -of courtiers and academicians, which had hitherto been poured out upon -the world from France, was hardly suitable. - -To the cold Classicism represented by Pope, there succeeded in English -literature--far earlier than was the case elsewhere--the delineation of -what was immediately contemporary. At the same time that Mdlle. de -Scudéry--when it was a question of describing the court of the Great -King, the society of Louis XIV--felt herself bound to translate her -theme into the antique and write a _Cyrus_, the English novel had taken -its motives from actual life. Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_ is the first -book in which man and nature are depicted without the introduction of -antique types or fairies; the first novel in which the details of real -life are displayed, and what had been hitherto neglected is granted an -exact delineation. At a time when people in other countries were -occupied with representations of the antique, the English novelists had -embarked on the intimacy of the family circle. After Richardson, who -laboriously yet with animation described everyday life, followed -Fielding, with his sharp observation, homely and humorous; then -Goldsmith, with his serene outlook of untroubled equanimity, his -unsurpassed miniatures; Smollett, with his crude and satirical character -sketching; and the audacious and witty Laurence Sterne, whom Nietzsche -has called the most "gallant" of all authors. At the same time tragedy, -too, descended from the court and the nobility into the sphere of -domestic life; showing that here too were significant fortunes and -conflicts, which stories strike a truer human note than those of kings -and heroes. - -Painting moved along the same road; and whilst in other countries, with -the beginning of the century, the high, aristocratic art, which was the -offspring of the Renaissance, gradually waned, the plebeian paintings of -Hogarth laid the foundations of that art which prevailed in the -_bourgeois_ nineteenth century. English art had this advantage in -playing a pioneering part, that it had no old traditions to stand in its -way; it had no great past. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries -England had been content to offer hospitality to Holbein and Van Dyck, -and to collect the works of foreign masters in her galleries. Her art -sprang into existence suddenly and unexpectedly at the beginning of the -eighteenth century, and thence developed exclusively on native lines. -Since the English could not lean either upon an old or a foreign model, -nor enter into a round of subjects that had already been brought to -perfection, they turned from the outset quite naturally into the road -which was only to be trodden later by the other nations still in the -bondage of tradition. They took up, to a certain extent, the thread -which the Dutch, who appeared in the seventeenth century as the most -modern people in art, had let drop: the progressive ideas of Holland had -come over to England with the "glorious revolution," with William of -Orange and Queen Anne; whilst in Holland itself the French invasion of -1672 had caused a reaction to the courtly idea, against which the -English took up an attitude of conscious and rigid protest. This -opposition is clearly expressed by the English æsthetic writers. - -The most important name to be mentioned is that of Shaftesbury. Beneath -the favour of the court in France, he says, art has suffered. We -Englishmen live in an age in which freedom has arisen. Such a people -does not require, in order that art may prosper, an ambitious king to -breed, by means of his pensions, a race of flattering Court painters. -Our civil liberty affords us a sufficient foundation, and our liberty -leads us to _absolute verity_ in art. - -Thus did Shaftesbury enunciate his leading æsthetic doctrine; it was his -constant message, and it was constantly repeated with great emphasis: -"All beauty is truth." "The search after truth leads you to nature." -"Truth is the mightiest thing in the world, since it exercises sovereign -rights over the creations of the imagination." - -But what must art be in order to produce truth? "The strictest imitation -of nature." By this word Shaftesbury does not understand what we -understand by the word "nature"; not, in the first instance, so much the -nature surrounding us, in its outward manifestations, but, above all, an -intimate human reality. Let the painter represent the reality of human -_inwardness_. Still life, the animal world, landscape,--all that, -Shaftesbury explains, is most valuable. But another and a higher life -exists in man than in the beasts and the woods, and there is the true -object of art. In no case should the artist proceed from external -vision; for then he will obtain fashionable attitudes, theatrical -unreality, or, in the most favourable instance, a formal, decorative -embellishment. Of what value is that in comparison with a single real -presentation of character? How insignificant would every external form -seem in contrast to each single feature of this intimate manner! Here is -the second characteristic of English painting. It proceeds neither, like -that of the sixteenth century, from formulas, nor, like the Dutch, from -the picturesque, but, like to the English novel of character, from an -intellectual impulse; it strives not after beauty of form and physical, -sensuous grace, but, in the first place, after intellectual expression. - -And from this there follows immediately a third trait. If art is to make -the inwardness of man its subject, the artist cannot remain an -indifferent portrayer. He will make great distinctions, will bring into -prominence what is meritorious or censurable in every character--he will -become a moralist. Only so can he conform to that last and highest -function which Shaftesbury assigns to the painter. - -The liberty which the English nation had fought for in the "glorious -Revolution" brought forth, in the course of years, while Shaftesbury was -writing, a fruitful crop of dissoluteness and licence. The mortification -of the flesh of the Puritans was followed by so violent a recrudescence -of sensuality that it was as though the whole menagerie of the passions -had been unchained. London swarmed with criminals; drunkenness was an -epidemic. The moral idea awoke amongst the cultivated classes. Might it -not be possible, with the help of education, for that to be overcome? -And so Shaftesbury's view of art comprised a third, and very dangerous, -element; namely, that to fulfil the most serious mission of that culture -which had ensued from the free and natural conditions in England--even -in the realm of æsthetics--the painter, like the poet, must appear as -the moral teacher of his age. Imagine an artist who fulfils these -conditions and you have, as a result, _Hogarth_, with all his qualities -and defects. - -[Illustration: HOGARTH. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -What marks the greatness of Hogarth is his freedom from foreign and -ancient influences. The eighteenth century came in as an academic age in -art. Turning away from life, it spent itself in allegory and the -imitation of typical figures that had been inherited from the -Renaissance and petrified into academic work. Gods, in whom no one any -longer believed, hovered, at least in paint, over a race which was -without enthusiasm. Then came Hogarth, and his quick vision discovered -the new way. He looked out upon the life surrounding him, with its -manifold idiosyncrasies, and felt himself with pride to be the son of a -new age, in which rigid, conventional forms were everywhere penetrated -by the modern ideas of free thought, the rights of man, conformity to -nature in morals and manners. This world which confronted him he -depicted truly as it was, in all its beauty and its ugliness. With him -was the origin of modern art. Before his paintings and engravings pale -idealism disappeared. It was he who resolved and set out to bring into -the world a new and independent observation of life. He was a painter -who, with as little aid from foreign influences as from those of the -past, went his own way and kept to it, and devoted his art, unblemished -by the pallor of a borrowed ideal of beauty, soberly and exclusively to -the realities of surrounding life. - -"It seemed to me unlikely," writes he, "that by copying old compositions -I could acquire facility for those new designs which were my first and -greatest ambitions." Works of old Italian masters, artistic -contemplations, which went back to Raphael and the Caracci, were -ignored and ridiculed by him. His rude strength of painting, directed to -the living truth, was a protest against all that idealism which was the -heritage of the Renaissance, and had grown quite bombastic under the -hands of its imitators. Nature, he writes, is simple, plain, and true in -all her works; and with this principle he has founded a strong English -school on the solid foundation of truth to nature. - -[Illustration: HOGARTH. THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS, PLATE VI.] - -An Englishman by birth, character, and disposition, he depicted his -fellow-countrymen; he made his sketches in the midst of the hubbub of -the street. His world is London, the world-city, "old merry England," -which, in contrast with the Puritanism of to-day, still lived through -its golden age of riot. In such a world--a world existing to this day, -only more decently berouged--moved Hogarth; in the company of -wine-bibbers, in gambling hells, in rooms of poets, in cellars of -highwaymen, in the death-chambers of fallen maidens. "The Harlot's -Progress," which he produced in a series of pictures, brought him his -first success. He then published further series of similar careers over -crooked courses--"The Rake's Progress," "Marriage à la Mode." He painted -the rabble of London, their society and their morals; those who went in -cotton and rags and those in satin and silk. In his writings he censures -the old painters plainly because in their historical style they had -quite passed over the middle classes. And he went with great knowledge -to these new subjects. In the National Gallery, which possesses the -originals of "Marriage à la Mode," one is astounded at the technical -qualities of Hogarth's painting. Whoever has been misled by the engraved -reproductions, and looks for bad, distorted drawing, may here learn to -know him as a painter in the fullest sense of the word. There is no sign -left of the defective caricature which disfigures the engravings; there -is a severe, unadorned manifestation of realism, of an art that has from -the outset rooted itself in modern life. Under the manners and graces of -the age Hogarth stands a "self-made" man, a healthy Anglo-Saxon -personality, full of sturdy independence and impeccable common sense. He -attracts by a sharpness of observation, a penetration into -idiosyncrasies of character, a grip upon the most trivial changes in -men's emotions and play of features, the like of which is to be found in -hardly one of his predecessors. - -[Illustration: HOGARTH. THE RAKE'S PROGRESS, PLATE II.] - -Against these qualities it must be understood that an equal number of -defects is to be set off. The inartistic part of him was that he -followed the æsthetic theories of the age, and looked upon art as merely -a means to ends alien to itself. With him painting was an instrument to -disseminate the inventions of his poetic-satiric humour; it was a form -of speech to him. He is not unjustly called on that account a comedian -of the pencil, the Molière of painting. We look at other pictures, but -his we read. The commentaries on them are in some respects the rendering -back of the pictures into their proper element. Lessing called the drama -his pulpit; with Hogarth his art was a pulpit. He wanted, like Hamlet, -to "hold the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn -her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and -pressure." Pictures beneath his hands became moral sermons. - -In the six pictures in "The Harlot's Progress," with which he started in -1733, and which to-day, since the originals have perished, can be -considered only in the copper engravings after them, all these -attributes are recognisable. Mary Hackabout comes innocent from the -country to the town with the intention of seeking a situation as a -servant-girl. She speedily falls a victim to temptation, becomes the -mistress of a Jewish banker, whom she soon loses by her infidelity, -descends to be a thief, and comes to the work-house. Released from -there, she becomes the companion of a highwayman, until she ends her -pitiful life in a disorderly house, leaving behind her a poor crippled -boy, who, at his mother's funeral, is playing with a top. The conclusion -of the paintings shows how the other women bid farewell to the corpse, -and buoy themselves up for their coming pleasures by drinking from the -spirit bottle, which stands on the coffin, while the priest, who is come -to give the blessing, announces his visit for the evening. - -The second series, which is to be seen to-day in the Soane Museum, -describes in eight tableaux the somewhat similar life of a young man, -the "Rake." As an Oxford student he has promised marriage to a pretty -but poor girl, when suddenly the death of a wealthy uncle throws him -into the vortex of London life. He wishes to buy himself freedom from -his sweetheart, but she disdainfully refuses the money and supports -herself and her child honestly with the labour of her hands. The -seducer, winning fame in the world of women and sport, rapidly paces the -road to ruin; yet he repairs his finances once again by a marriage with -a rich and one-eyed old lady. Once more on his feet, he flings himself -into games of chance, and comes to the sponging-house, whither his -better half follows him. It is the last straw when a play which he has -offered to a manager is refused, and he can no longer buy himself a pint -of ale; there remains only the final fall into the misery of frenzy, and -in the last picture we find him amongst the lunatics bound in chains as -a madman. Only his student love, Sarah Young, of Oxford, whom he had -treated so scurvily, cannot forget him, and, with tears, seeks him out -again in the madhouse. - -[Illustration: HOGARTH. THE RAKE'S PROGRESS, PLATE VII.] - -The third and most famous series was completed many years after the -"Rake"--in 1745. Hogarth has admittedly taken particular pains with the -six oil paintings of "Marriage à la Mode," which have been placed in the -National Gallery; and these painted novels reveal in strength and beauty -of execution the high-water mark of his work as a painter. The whole is -quieter, simpler, less overloaded with ingenious accessories. The -impoverished lord has married his son, who is already worn out with -excesses, to the strong and healthy daughter of a city alderman. A girl -is born; then they go their separate ways. The husband surprises the -wife with a lover, and is stabbed by him; the unfaithful wife, moved by -this, begs her dying husband for forgiveness. As a young widow, deprived -of her woman's honour, she goes back to the _bourgeois_, Philistine -ennui of her father's house, and when she learns of her lover's -condemnation she escapes from the burden of her misery by means of -poison. The father is sufficiently provident to take the wedding ring -off her finger before the body is cold, lest it should be stolen from -the corpse. In the last sequence Hogarth passed over completely to the -moral sermon and the study of crime. The series "Industry and Idleness," -in 1747, was comprised in twelve sheets, which he produced only in rough -engravings, as he wished exclusively to influence the masses. Two -apprentices enter a cloth-weaving business at the same time, of whom one -rises, through his zeal for the interests of the business, to a marriage -with his master's beautiful daughter, to the rank of alderman, and -finally to be Lord Mayor of London. The idle apprentice grows, on the -down grade, from a gambler into a vagabond. He is transported, comes -back again, and ends on the scaffold. The two comrades meet for the last -time when the honest man announces his death-warrant to the knave. - -[Illustration: HOGARTH. THE RAKE'S PROGRESS, PLATE VIII.] - -Garrick, as we can see from his epitaph on Hogarth, has not unjustly -characterised his art, in these words-- - - "Farewell, great painter of mankind! - Who reached the noblest point of art, - Whose pictured morals charm the mind, - And through the eye correct the heart." - -[Illustration: HOGARTH. MARRIAGE À LA MODE, PLATE V.] - -Hogarth painted stirring and humorous scenes, full of effective -morality, with which he sought to cheer, terrify, and improve humanity. -His five-act tragedies end always with the triumph of Virtue and the -punishment of Vice. As one of his contemporaries said, he exercised the -art of "hanging in colours." The twelve plates of the parallel -biographies of "Industry and Idleness" he employed as an illustrated -weekly sermon for the benefit of the working classes, and he was able to -observe with satisfaction that they had an actual influence on the -conduct of the people, as instanced in the diminution of gin shops. Yet -for all that, in the elevation of public morality, the highest aim of -art is not, as Garrick asserted, fulfilled. Who has ever seen such a -painter? Would he be a painter? It is exactly by this moralising with -the brush that Hogarth stands in such abrupt opposition to his -predecessors, the Dutch. They were painters, nothing but painters, and -in their painting reckoned on eyes which could appreciate their -pictorial subtilty. Man was for them a patch of colour; the real delight -of their eyes was the rich light that came mellowed through the shadows, -and played upon the ruffed garments and the clumsy forms. With Hogarth, -in the place of the idea of colour, the anecdote is brought in. He saw -the world not so much with the eyes of the painter, as with those of the -physician, the criminologist, the pastor. The familiar element, that -serene and comfortable observation of an everyday occurrence upon which -Dutch art was based, has altogether disappeared in his pictures. He did -not paint because something pictorial urged him, but saw in men the -actors of the parts which he had in his mind. This departure from the -purely picturesque is in part explained by the predominance of -literature in England at that time. In a country where the tragedy of -familiar life as well as the domestic novel had arisen there was -imminent peril that a young school of painting working without -traditions should branch off also on to those lines. Hogarth desired to -give painting a new manner; he seized upon what was epic or dramatic, -and painted the pictorial counter parts to Smollett's and Richardson's -novels. In the age of enlightenment the painter makes way for the -writer. With this idea he himself wrote: "I have endeavoured to treat my -subjects as a dramatic writer; my picture is my stage, my men and women -my players, who, by means of certain actions and gestures, are to -exhibit a dumb show." - -[Illustration: HOGARTH. THE ENRAGED MUSICIAN.] - -Moreover, to explain the growth of this sort of literary hybrid, one is -forced to consider the changed conditions under which painting was -introduced into England at large. Art, which hitherto had shone forth -her enchantment upon the few, was conducted from the first in free -England along the broad road of popularity, and given over to a public -which had to be educated to art by degrees; and this admission of the -mass of the people to the enjoyment of art, in a proportion hitherto -unheard of, must inevitably have a retrogressive effect upon painting -itself. Instead of the earlier amateur of really distinguished culture, -there stood "the People." - -But just as in the Middle Ages works of art were seen to be a sort of -picture-writing for the people--_picturis eruditur populus_, said -Gregory the Great,--so now the new patrons could hardly require other -than those works of art in which a story was pictorially told. These -could be understood even by the man whose understanding was otherwise -wholly closed to matters of art; and hence it came about that almost all -the _genre_ painters--for very nearly a century--followed with more or -less intelligence in the footsteps of Hogarth. To treat him, as is -frequently done, because of this popularisation of art, because of this -transformation of the picture into the picture story, as a pattern -instance of tastelessness, would lead to very dangerous consequences, -and should be the less employed because Hogarth's pictures are, at -least, comparatively well painted, whereas many of his successors could -escape the deluge only in the Noah's Ark of their talent for narration. -What Hogarth could do when he put off the schoolmaster, he has shown -moreover in his portraits. There he is an entirely great painter. His -pictures have none of that Van Dyck elegance, which had become the mode -in England before him; they are robust, crude, Anglo-Saxon, strongly and -broadly painted withal, sketches, in the best sense of the word. His -"Shrimp Girl," in the National Gallery, for instance, is a masterpiece -to which the nineteenth century can hardly produce a rival. - -In the history of painting it is notorious that the latter half of the -last century belongs especially to portraiture, and here the English -occupy the first rank. Neither Hogarth nor Reynolds nor Gainsborough was -a genius like Titian, Velasquez, or even Frans Hals. Their art is not to -be compared with that of the greatest of all portrait painters, but they -surpassed all the painters of the eighteenth century; they were not only -the greatest in England since Van Dyck, but the first portrait painters -in Europe at the time. - -[Illustration: HOGARTH. GIN LANE.] - -Reynolds and Gainsborough lived almost at the same period. The former, -born in 1723, died in 1792; the latter, born in 1727, died in 1788. They -had as models men and women of the same society. They went the same -road, side by side. Many celebrities strayed from one studio to the -other, and were painted by Reynolds as well as by Gainsborough. These -are just the pictures which show us so distinctly how widely the two, -who were usually mentioned in the same breath, differed from each other -in spite of having grown up on the same soil. Even their outward man -displays this dissimilarity. - -Reynolds appears in his "Portrait of Himself" in the Uffizzi Gallery at -Florence, in the red mantle of the President of the Academy, the -official cap on his head, while the hand resting on the table holds a -copy of his _Discourses_; close by is a bust of Michael Angelo. The -complexion is that of a man who sits much within doors. A pair of -spectacles with large, round glasses leads one to conclude that he -injured his eyesight early with much reading. Gainsborough, with his -refined Roman nose, the haughty, curved sensuous lips, and the -expression of his face which speaks at once of innocence and refinement, -gives an impression far more than Reynolds of the child of nature and -the gentleman. His cheeks are fresh and rather ruddy; a depth of soul -lies within the large blue eyes, that are somewhat melancholy, yet have -such a free outlook upon life. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -_Joshua Reynolds'_ father was a clergyman, a most learned man, who kept -a Latin school. He gave the boy, it is recorded, that most uncommon -Christian name, for the remarkable reason that he hoped thereby to draw -the attention of a great personage, who bore the same name, towards his -young namesake. His son was to become a physician. But books on other -subjects which he read at his desk at school made a greater impression -on the boy. In the well known _Treatise on Painting_, by Richardson, he -discovered his vocation. From the perusal of this book he developed a -taste for things artistic, studied the works on perspective of Pater -Pozzo, read everything he could find on art, and copied as a preliminary -all that fell into his hands in the way of woodcuts and copper -engravings. One of the earliest drawings which remain from his childhood -represents the interior of a library. At the age of nineteen he came to -London to a well-known master, Hudson, the favourite painter with the -gentry of the day, who required £120 with a pupil. He was already -convinced that only in London could he find the means to attain fame, -and even as early as 1744 he took a fine establishment and kept open -house in order to attract attention. He was soon in a position to -complete his artistic education by means of residence in Italy. In 1746 -he had painted the portrait of a Captain Keppel, who shortly afterwards -was appointed Commodore of the Mediterranean squadron, and invited the -young painter to go for a cruise in his ship. They sailed in 1749, and -Reynolds was able to spend three years in Italy. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - REYNOLDS. MRS SIDDONS.] - -His first impression was one of bitter disappointment. Where was that -rich colouring in the Italian classics which he had been led to expect -from English mezzotints? Everything struck him as lifeless, pale, -insipid. Whereupon he affected the opinion that there was no more to -be seen in Rome. Raphael, in particular, appeared to him to be a -mediocre painter, whom only a remarkable chance had brought to such a -pitch of fame. Surrounded by the great masterpieces of the Cinquecento, -he employed himself in drawing caricatures, and made a sort of travesty -of the _School of Athens_, in which he drew caricatures of the English -colony in Rome at that time, in the attitudes of figures in the pictures -of Raphael. But he very speedily changed his opinion, and began to -follow the paths of the great dead. He went indefatigably through the -galleries of Rome, from Rubens to Titian, from Correggio to Guido and -Raphael. He studied so hard in the Vatican, that he took a chill in the -cold rooms, which left him all his life a little deaf. That sojourn at -Rome was to Reynolds what, a hundred years later, his visit to Spain was -to Lenbach. - -He had already at Hudson's acquired great facility as a copyist, and of -Guercino, in particular, he had made numerous copies. During this -Italian tour, however, he became the greatest connoisseur of old masters -that the eighteenth century possessed. - -It is related that the Chevalier Van Loo, when he was in England in -1763, vaunted himself one day, in Reynolds' presence, upon his unfailing -discrimination in telling a copy from an original. Whereupon Reynolds -showed him one of his own studies of a head, after Rembrandt. The -Chevalier judged it to be, indisputably, a masterpiece by the great -Dutchman. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. DR. JOHNSON] - -He left Rome in April 1752, and made a further visit to Naples, to the -cities of Tuscany, and to Venice. The careless notes of travel that he -made on this journey show the clear insight which he had attained into -the Italian schools. They all deal with questions of technique, on -effects of light and shadow, on the mystery of _chiaroscuro_. For -Titian, in particular, he had an extravagant devotion,--he would ruin -himself, he said, if he might only possess one of the great works of -Titian. - -When he returned to England in 1752, at the age of thirty, his talent -was fully developed, and the connoisseurs were unanimous in hailing him -as a new Van Dyck. With the portrait of Miss Gunning, afterwards the -Duchess of Hamilton, he appeared in 1753 as a power in English art. As -early as 1755, when Hogarth was compelled to give up portrait painting -for lack of patrons, one hundred and twenty-five persons sat for -Reynolds, and after that about one hundred and fifty people were painted -by him annually; and this brought him in a yearly income of about -£16,000. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. GARRICK AS ABEL DRUGGER.] - -At first he took up his quarters in St. Martin's Lane, which was then -the most fashionable place of residence for artists; but in 1760 he -bought a house, No. 47 Leicester Square, the most select quarter of -London, and furnished it with the most palatial splendour. The studio, -which he built for himself, was as large as a ballroom, and furnished -with a quite modern luxury. The large corridor that led to it had a -gallery of pictures by old masters. It was the age of the great literary -and dramatic revival in England. Garrick stood at the zenith of his -popularity, Burke had already made himself a name, Johnson had produced -his _Dictionary_, Richardson had reached the summit of his fame, -Smollett had written _Peregrine Pickle_, Gray had attracted notice by -his verse. All these and others who set the vogue in literature and the -drama, the principal figures in politics, the leaders of fashion, -lounged in that luxurious studio and gossiped with Reynolds of the -theatre, both before and behind the scenes, of the doings in Parliament -and the scandal of the Court, of literature and of art. At the time when -Goldsmith was putting the finishing touches to his _Travels_ he was a -guest of the house. Gibbon, the historian, and Sterne, whose -_Sentimental Journey_ was just then the talk of the town, spent their -vacant hours with him; and Burke as well, while he discussed with him -his treatise on the _Sublime and the Beautiful_. All these claimed a -niche in Reynolds' portrait gallery, where all the talents were met -together. The whole English nobility also flocked to him. For forty -years onwards from 1752 it was considered the proper thing to be painted -by him. His pictures were multiplied immediately at the hands of the -engravers. In the complete catalogue of Reynolds' works, Hamilton -counts, so far back as 1820, no fewer than 675 plates, engraved after -Reynolds by more than a hundred artists, and amongst these the -mezzotints of Samuel Cousins are by far the finest. Only an incredible -industry, enabling him for a long succession of years to paint almost -without intermission with a facility and regularity like that of Rubens, -rendered it possible for Reynolds to complete, exclusive of portraits, -quite a number of religious and mythological pictures, of which he -himself was especially proud. He painted with great speed and dexterity, -rose very early, breakfasted at nine o'clock, was in his studio -punctually at ten; and there till eleven he worked on pictures which had -been commenced. On the stroke of eleven the first sitter arrived, who -was succeeded by another an hour later. Thus he painted till four -o'clock, when he made his toilette, and thenceforward belonged to -society, for in spite of his scholarly temperament one can by no means -consider Reynolds as a solitary eccentric. Although he remained a -bachelor after Angelica Kauffmann had declined his hand, his house was a -central gathering-point for noble London. He gave balls to which the -whole of "Society" was invited, and drove in a magnificent carriage, -with coachmen in blue and silver liveries. The Literary Club was founded -at his instigation, where with Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, Gibbon, and -Garrick he shared in conversation both profound and brilliant. He was -made a baronet, and when the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, became -its first president. The dinners of the Academy, which he organised at -the distribution of prizes, play a part in the history of English -cookery. Reynolds had promised that on each of these reunions he would -speak on some question of art. In this manner originated, during his -twenty-three years of office, those fifteen discourses upon painting -which show the highest result of his literary energy. They were not his -maiden essays. As far back as 1758 Johnson had invited him to publish an -article upon Art in a journal which he had founded, _The Idler_. In 1781 -he made a journey through Holland and Flanders, upon which, anticipating -Fromentin, he wrote an exceedingly fine book. In his _Discourses_ so -high a degree of literary talent was displayed that they were at one -time said to be the work of Johnson or Burke. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. HEADS OF ANGELS.] - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. SAMUEL RICHARDSON.] - -They are æsthetic treatises and essays in the history of art, of an -enduring value. Originating from a vast insight, and expressed in a -precise style, they treat of the laws of classic art, the variation in -styles, the causes of the finest bloom in art. Certainly eclecticism is -preached too. The modern artist, it is declared, can only stand on the -shoulders of his forebears. The great Italians must be his models, and -of these the greatest is Michael Angelo. His last essay closes with -these words: "I reflect, not without vanity, that these discourses bear -testimony of my admiration of that truly divine man, and I should desire -that the last words which I should pronounce in this Academy, and from -this place, might be the name of Michael Angelo." - -When he died, his friend Edmund Burke wrote in the funeral oration which -he dedicated to him: "Sir Joshua Reynolds was, on many accounts, one of -the most memorable men of his time. He was the first Englishman who -added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his -country. In taste, in grace, in facility, in happy invention, and in the -richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the greatest masters -of the renowned ages.... In full affluence of foreign and domestic fame, -admired by the expert in art and by the learned in science, courted by -the great, caressed by sovereign powers and celebrated by distinguished -poets, ... the loss of no man of his time can be felt with more sincere, -general, and unmixed sorrow." He was buried with great pomp in St. -Paul's Cathedral. The pictures left unfinished at his death fetched at -auction £37,000; the whole fortune which he left is estimated at -£80,000. - -The biography of _Thomas Gainsborough_ reads quite differently. - -The traveller who rides from London to Birmingham passes through some of -the fairest scenery in the island. He finds himself in the heart of -fresh and tender English nature. Small rivulets flow through the gently -undulating country. Wide meadows clothe the soft hollows in the valleys -with abundant green. In grassy enclosures deer and roes are feeding; -they push forwards inquisitively as the train passes. Fragrant linden -trees rise dreamily in the suave, park-like landscape, through which the -Stour winds along like a riband of silver. On the bank of this -enchanting stream Thomas Gainsborough, the son of a simple clothier, was -born. Reynolds' vocation had been brought about through the perusal of a -book. In the scenery and the woods that were in the neighbourhood of his -home, Gainsborough, who was so alive to all the beauty of nature, -received the decisive impression of his life. Here he roamed as a boy, -while he neglected his school lessons. "Tom will be hung some day," -reflected his schoolmaster; "Tom will be a genius," thought his parents. -He sketched the parks and castles of the neighbourhood. In his later -life he used to say that there was no picturesque old tree trunk, no -meadow or woodland glade or stream within a four-mile radius of Sudbury, -that he did not retain a recollection of from his childish years. Like -Constable, when he was an old man, he still thought with gratitude of -his home, of all that beauty upon which he had looked, and which had -made him a painter. Here, in the green woods and fresh pastures of his -birthplace, he trained himself. At the age of ten he was a painter. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. MISS REYNOLDS.] - -A sojourn of four years in London seems to have added little to his -ability. Elegant in his manners, lively in his conversation, a born -gentleman, he might have become completely the man of fashion. But he -was far too diffident, with his naïve simplicity, to force himself -amongst the stars of the world of art in London, far too distinguished -and retiring to join in the race after the favour of the public, and so -at the age of eighteen he returned to his native place with the -unencouraging prospect of playing the part of a simple painter in the -provinces. First and last, the woods remained his chief delight. One -morning, as he was painting there, he looked up from his easel and saw a -young and beautiful girl in a light summer dress, peeping coquettishly -from behind the trunk of a tree. She blushed, he spoke to her shyly. -Soon afterwards Margaret Burr became his wife, and the whole history of -his life with her remains a charming idyll, like the spring morning on -which he made her acquaintance. Married at the age of nineteen, he -installed himself at Ipswich, his wife's native place, and there he -spent fifteen years in great happiness, firm in the conviction that he -would end his days there. There he painted his first portraits, which, -from 1761, were forwarded by a carrier's cart to London for exhibition -in the Royal Academy. From Ipswich he went to Bath, the fashionable -watering-place, where he painted the visitors who came in the summer for -the cure. Finally, in the end his portraits met with approval in London. -That gave him courage in 1764 to proceed thither himself; and there he -took very modest rooms. On his arrival he was as yet very little known; -he came from the provinces, which he had till then never left, at a time -when Reynolds stood at the pinnacle of his fame, and had visited Italy -and Spain. Yet he gradually won a reputation. Franklin was one of the -first to sit to him. Soon he became the favourite painter of the king -and the royal family. George III was painted eight times by him, Pitt -seven times, Garrick five. Lord Chancellor Camden, Sir William -Blackstone, Johnson, Laurence Sterne, Richardson, Burke, Sheridan, Mrs. -Graham, Lady Montagu, Mrs. Siddons, Lady Vernon, Lady Maynard, and the -names of many other celebrities and beauties are bound up with his. His -life-work, excluding sketches, consists of no more than three hundred -pictures, of which two hundred and twenty are portraits--a very small -number in comparison with the four thousand paintings of Joshua -Reynolds. Thomas Gainsborough painted irregularly. Even when he was in -his studio he might be seen standing for hours gazing out of his window -dreamily at the grass. In other features of his life too he was equally -different from Reynolds: unaccountably, he was one moment a brilliant, -animated companion, the next plunged in melancholy. He dreamed much, -while Reynolds painted and wrote. In the evenings he usually sat at home -with his dear little wife, completed no treatises or discourses on his -art, but made sketches or sometimes music. Reynolds was a -scholar-painter, Gainsborough a painter-musician. It was said of him -that he painted portraits for money and landscapes for amusement, but -that he made music because he needs must. He collected musical -instruments as Reynolds did a library. Even in his pictures he gives his -people, for preference, violins in their hands. To the Musical Club -which he had founded in Ipswich he remained faithful all his life, and -in that neighbourhood, or in Richmond or Hampstead, he spent the summer -every year. Here amidst that green nature it was also his wish to be -buried. His funeral was a very quiet one. In the peaceful graveyard at -Kew, Thomas Gainsborough sleeps tranquilly under the shady willows, far -from the noise and tumult of the great city. Sir Joshua said at his -grave: "Should England ever become so fruitful in talent that we can -venture to speak of an English school, then will Gainsborough's name be -handed down to posterity as one of the first." Yes, one might say -to-day, as the first of all. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. EDMUND BURKE.] - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. MRS. ABINGTON.] - -Joshua Reynolds is certainly a great painter, and deserves the high -veneration in which his compatriots hold him. It is not without a -certain awe that, in the Diploma Gallery of the Royal Academy, one can -look upon the armchair that he used during his sittings, upon which all -who were famous in eighteenth-century England have sat. Reynolds is one -of the greatest English portrait painters, and, resembling most the -classical masters, showed in the highest degree the qualities we admire -in them. His colouring is of an amazing softness, depth, and strength; -his _chiaroscuro_ is warm and vaporous. There are portraits by him -which, in the subtlety of their tone, resemble the best of Rembrandt's; -others, whose noble colouring approaches the _chef-d'oeuvres_ of Van -Dyck. Master of the whole mechanism of the human body, he possessed in -the highest degree the rare art of setting persons surely and -unconstrainedly on their feet. His portraits are pictures; one needs no -whit to be acquainted with the persons they represent; they satisfy as -works of art in themselves, and as psychological studies by a man who -had the capacity of sounding the depths of the human heart. The complete -catalogue of all those who sat for Sir Joshua during the space of half a -century forms an uninterrupted commentary on the contemporary history of -England. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. EDMUND MALONE.] - -There we see the skilful portrait of Sterne, with his look of witty -mockery; the marvellous Bohemian, Oliver Goldsmith, who even then had -the manuscript of his _Vicar of Wakefield_ in his pocket; Johnson, who, -in one, sits at his writing-table, on which stands an ink-pot and a -volume of his _English Dictionary_, and in another is peering into a -book with his short-sighted eyes screwed up tightly, and his whole -posture awkward and unwieldy. Garrick, who went from one studio to the -other, appears also more than once in Reynolds' portrait gallery. -Amongst his portraits of military dignitaries, that of General Lord -Heathfield, the famous defender of Gibraltar, whom he painted in full -uniform, is one of the most noticeable. Strong as a rock he stands -there, with the key of the fortress in his hand. What a contrast between -these figures and those of the contemporary French portraits! There, -those friendly and smiling ministers, those gallant and dainty -ecclesiastics, those scented, graceful marquises, who move with such -elegant ease about the parquet floor, and from whose faces a uniform -refinement has erased all the roughness of individuality; here, -expressive, thoughtful heads, characters hardened in the school of life, -many of the faces coarse and bloated, the glance telling of cold -resolution, the attitude full of self-reliant dignity and gnarled, -plebeian pride. The same _bourgeois_ element predominates in the -pictures of the ladies. Van Dyck's noble, eminently intellectual figures -always wore the glamour of the Renaissance. In the background an -artistically arranged curtain, a column, or the view of the quiet -avenues of some broad park. From Reynolds we get strong active women in -their everyday clothes, and with thoughtful countenances: good mothers, -surrounded by their children, whom they kiss and enfold in a tender -embrace. The idea of half-symbolical representation has vanished, and in -its place is introduced the idea of home and the family. The pictures of -children by this childless old bachelor were an artistic revelation to -the existing generation, and are the delight of the world of to-day. In -other portraits of ladies, that noticeable characteristic of the English -nation, their predilection for domestic animals and for sport, finds an -expression. The beautiful Duchess of Devonshire he painted as she gently -restrained with her finger her little daughter's caresses, which would -fain have disordered her _coiffure_; a whole gallery of noble ladies he -represented feeding their poultry or petting their lap-dogs; Lady -Spencer in her riding-habit, her whip in her hand, her horse reined in, -her cheeks flushed from her gallop. Nelly O'Brien looks an actress, a -woman who turned men's heads, and she does it still to-day in Reynolds' -picture. There lurks something enigmatic, perplexing in the smile of -this sphinx--only Monna Lisa had such a smile, but Nelly's eyes are -deeper, more desirous. One feels that in the three centuries since Monna -Lisa love has taken on a new and subtler _nuance_. The portrait of Mrs. -Siddons is the most famous of the pictures of actresses which Reynolds -painted, and Mrs. Siddons, of all the women of that time, is the one -whose portrait occupied the painters most. She was the daughter of Roger -Kemble, the actor, and sister of that pretty actress, Mrs. Twiss, whose -portrait by Reynolds (in 1784) we also have, and of the famous John -Philip Kemble, who figures so often in the portrait gallery of Lawrence, -as Hamlet, Cato, Coriolanus, Richard III, etc. Born to the boards, as it -were, she had, when still a child, joined her parents on their Thespian -pilgrimages, and had had many engagements in the provinces, at -Birmingham, Manchester, and Bath, before she was recruited by the -playwright Sheridan for the Drury Lane company in London. She made her -_début_ there on 10th October 1782, and was hailed forthwith as the -greatest actress of her time. Lady Macbeth was her great part; in that -she was painted both by Romney and Lawrence. Reynolds painted her as the -Tragic Muse. A diadem encircles her hair, she sits upon a throne, the -throne rests upon clouds. Behind her stand two allegorical beings, Crime -and Remorse, two quite unfortunate figures. But the principal figure is -truly great, in its noble, regal attitude, and quite unconstrained in -its dramatic pose. Reynolds had the composition in his mind many weeks -before Mrs. Siddons sat for him in the autumn of 1783. "Take your seat -upon the throne for which you were born, and suggest to me the idea of -the Tragic Muse." With these words he conducted her to the pedestal. "I -made a few steps," the actress relates, "and then took at once the -attitude in which the Tragic Muse has remained." When the picture was -finished, says Sir Joshua, gallant as ever: "I cannot lose this -opportunity of sending my name to posterity on the hem of your garment." -And he, who hardly ever signed his pictures, wrote in large characters -his name and the date on the gold-embroidered border of the dress. The -original picture has been in the possession of the Grosvenor family -since 1822; a second copy is in the gallery at Dulwich. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. OLIVER GOLDSMITH.] - -Reynolds loved to depict his sitters in mythological or historical -settings. Thus he painted Mrs. Hartley, her son as a nymph and the -youthful Bacchus, the three Misses Montgomery as the Three Graces -crowning a term of Hymen, a little girl sitting on the grass as the "Age -of Innocence," Lady Spencer as a gipsy telling her brother's fortune, -Mrs. Sheridan as St. Cecilia. The five "Heads of Angels," as they are -called, in the National Gallery, are five different studies of the -lovely child-head of little Isabella Gordon. Garrick, in one of his -pictures, is set between the allegorical figures of Tragedy and Comedy. -Reynolds himself was frankly proud of these portraits in the mood of -history. He was, as he said, in general only a portrait painter because -the world required it; that which he aspired after was the great manner -of historical painting. Nevertheless, pictures, such as the "Little -Hercules with the Serpent," "Cupid unfastening the Girdle of Venus," -"The Death of Dido," "The Forbearance of Scipio," "The Childhood of the -Prophet Samuel," or "The Adoration of the Shepherds," do not cause us to -deplore too bitterly that he rarely found time for such mythological and -historical pictures. His _putti_ are derived from Correggio; in the -arrangement of drapery he resembles Guido; in his "Venus" he is a -coarser Titian. Reynolds' own manner in these pictures is merely the -eclectic accumulation of the peculiarities of the old masters--he -brought no new element into historical painting. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. LADY COCKBURN AND HER DAUGHTERS.] - -And herein lies his principal weakness. Hogarth declared: "There is only -one school, that of nature." Reynolds: "There is only one doorway to the -school of nature, and of that the old masters hold the key." The great -men of old were for him the object of constant and conscious thought. He -has endeavoured in his writings to propound a sort of general foundation -of painting, has adopted the principles of the best painters in every -land, was indefatigable in exploring the secrets of the old -masterpieces, and has therefore won the praise of having set the English -school, which had hitherto possessed no perfected tradition of painting, -technically on firm feet. He was the founder of a scientific technique -of painting derived from the ancients,--the Lenbach of the eighteenth -century. Upon the mixture of colours, the gradations of light and shade, -technically and æsthetically, no artist has pondered more than he, who -knew the great Netherlanders, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Rembrandt, as well -as, or better than, his particular favourites, the Italians. He made -experiments all his life long to discover the stone of the wise -Venetians; but he met with the same experience as Lenbach. And these -experiments in the direction of the colour effects of the old masters -were the bane of his pictures' durability. It was well said by Walpole: -"If Sir Joshua is content with his own blemished pictures, then he is -happier than their possessors, or posterity. According to my view, he -ought to be paid in annual instalments, and only so long as his works -last." And Haydon opined that "Reynolds sought by tricks to obtain -results which the old masters attained by the simplest means." He -endeavoured by means of asphaltum to give his pictures the artistic -tones of the galleries, with the result that, to-day, the majority have -lost every sign of freshness. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. BISHOP PERCY] - -With regard to the pose also, and similar conceptions, one can never -quite get away from the thought of Van Dyck and other old masters. -Reynolds' chief endeavour, not only as regards colouring, but also in -other respects, was to resemble the ancients, and this has brought into -his pictures something imitative and laboured. He dearly loved the -Romans and Venetians; we believe to-day that he loved almost too dearly -the Bolognese. And just that fine, artistic education which he received -in Italy and Holland, and the scientific method in which he practised -his art, did harm to Reynolds, and brought into his pictures too much -reminiscence, too many alien touches. He has in most cases understood -it--how to bring into uniformity the numerous borrowings of his palette, -all that he had taken from Leonardo, Correggio, Velasquez, and -Rembrandt. Yet he has never quite forgotten the old masters and looked -only at his model, for the sake of the very daintiest lady or the -freshest English boy. For his children he thought of Correggio's -"Cherubim," for his schoolboys of Murillo, for the portrait of Mrs. -Hartley of Leonardo da Vinci, for that of Mrs. Sheridan of Raphael. -There lacked in him that spontaneity which denotes the great master. By -his erudition in art, Sir Joshua elevated himself on the shoulders of -all who had preceded him. He obtained thereby the piquant effects in his -portraits, but it was at the price of the penalty that from many of his -works it is rather a rancid odour of oil and varnish which exhales than -the breath of life. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. THE GIRL WITH THE MOUSETRAP.] - -Gainsborough can certainly not be compared with Reynolds in the mass of -his work. He was master neither of his powers of industry nor of his -smooth and brilliant methods of painting that were always sure of their -effect. In many of his pictures he gives the impression of a self-taught -man, who sought to help himself to the best of his power. Just as little -has he the psychological acuteness of Reynolds. A portrait painter puts -no more into a head than he has in his own; thus the acute thinker, -Reynolds, was able to put a great deal into his heads, whilst -Gainsborough, the dreamer, was often enough quite helpless when he -confronted a conspicuously manly character. In his whole temperament a -painter of landscape, before his model too he sat as before a landscape, -with eyes that perceived but did not analyse. What, with Reynolds, was -sought out and understood, was felt by Gainsborough; and therefore the -former is always good and correct, while Gainsborough is unequal and -often faulty, but in his best pictures has a charm to which those of the -President of the Academy never attained. Gainsborough, too, at his death -murmured the name of an old master. "We are all going to Heaven, and Van -Dyck is of the company." But what distinguishes him from Reynolds, and -gives him a character of greater originality, is just his naïve -independence of the ancients, which resulted partly from the different -nature of his education in art. Reynolds had lived for two years in Rome -and explored all the principal cities of Italy, had visited Flanders and -Holland, learnt to wonder at Rembrandt, and developed an enthusiasm for -_chiaroscuro_. Gainsborough in his rural seclusion had been able neither -by travel on the Continent to study the great masters of the past, nor -to assimilate the traditions of the studio. He contented himself with -the beauties which he saw in his native country, studied them in their -touching simplicity, without troubling himself about academic rules. He -lived in London until his death, without once leaving England; and that -gives to his pictures a distinct _nuance_. The one studied pictures and -books, the other only the "book of nature." His portraits never aim at -any external effect, nor are they raised into the historical; they seek -to give no other impression than that of a quite subjective truth to -nature, both in arrangement and in colouring. Nothing intruded between -his model and himself, no "sombre old master" obscured his canvas. His -execution is more personal, his colour fresher and more transparent. The -very personages seem with him to be more elegant, more gracious, more -modern than with Reynolds, in whose work, through their kinship to the -Renaissance, they received a suggestion of style, classical and ancient. - -In his pictures the Englishman is clearly revealed, an Englishman of -that delicacy and noble refinement which is present to a unique degree -in the works of English painters of the present day. - -[Illustration: REYNOLDS. DR. BURNEY.] - -The passage from Hogarth to Gainsborough marks a chapter in the history -of English culture. Hogarth is the embodiment of John Bull; you can hear -him growl, like some savage bull-dog. That brutal, indecorous robustness -of England's aggressive youth becomes, in Gainsborough's hands, -agreeable, refined, gentle, and seductive. Reynolds, with his robustness -as of the old masters, might be best compared with Tintoretto; -Gainsborough, in his quite modern and fantastic elegance, is a more -tender, subtle, and mysterious spirit, poet and magician at once, like -Watteau. There one listened to the full, swelling chords of the organ; -here to the soft, dulcet, silvery notes of the violin. Reynolds loved -warm, brown and red tones; Gainsborough essayed for the first time, in a -series of his happiest creations, that scale of colour, coldly green and -blue, in which to-day the majority of English pictures are still -painted. Everything with him is soft and clear; the tone of those blue -or light yellow silks, which he loved especially, is that of the most -transparent enamel; the background fades away into dreamy vapour, the -figures are surrounded with an atmosphere of seduction. What a -masterpiece he has created in the "Blue Boy," his most popular and most -individual picture. One can describe every piece of the clothing, but -it is impossible to reproduce the harmony of the painting, the rich, -pure blue of the costume, which stands out against a lustrous, brown -background of landscape. How the stately youth stands, noble from head -to foot, in the brown and green autumn landscape, with its canopy of -sky! Master Bootall was by far the most elegant portrait painted in -England since Van Dyck, and withal of a nervosity quite new. See that -youthful pride in the gaze, that mobile sensibility in the pose! - -[Illustration: THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH.] - -Have men grown different, then, or does the painter see further? One -finds in Van Dyck no such expressively _nervous_ physiognomy. The -suggestion of melancholy, the deep reverie, the noble, aristocratic -haughtiness,--Gainsborough was the first to discover that, and give it -its full expression. And the same man who painted the noble elegance of -this youthful _grand seigneur_ depicted also peasant children coming -fresh from the green fields and woodlands of their village homes. In Sir -Joshua's children there was often something borrowed from Correggio; the -children of Gainsborough breathe a rustic charm, an untamed savagery; -they are the very offshoots of nature, who disport themselves as freely -as the wild things in the woods. But his women in particular are -creatures altogether adorable. While Reynolds, the historical painter, -liked to promote his into heroines, those of Gainsborough, with their -pure, transparent skins, their sweet glances (in which there lies so -admirable a mixture of languishing fragility, innocence, and coquetry), -are the true Englishwomen of the eighteenth century. His "Mrs. Siddons" -is not in theatrical costume, but in a simple walking-dress; no Tragic -Muse, but the passionate, loving woman who once, a romantic, impulsive -miss, escaped from a convent at the risk of her life, to join a handsome -young actor of her father's troupe who had entirely fascinated her. What -a charming grace in the pose, what fine taste in the arrangement, what -wonderful purity of colouring! With the exception of Watteau, I know of -no older master who could have painted such moist, dreamy, sensuous, -tender eyes. The marvellous "Mrs. Graham," in the National Gallery of -Scotland, is, from the purely pictorial standpoint, perhaps the greatest -of all his works. Yet how beautiful is the double portrait of that young -married couple, the Halletts, who, tenderly holding hands, pass along a -deserted path in some secluded garden; or that pale, languishing "Mrs. -Parsons," with her enchanting smile, and that mysterious language of the -eyes. Gainsborough was no keen observer, but he was a susceptible, -sensitive spirit who intercepted the soul itself, the play of the -nerves, the slightest suggestion of spiritual commotion. There moves -through the majority of his portraits a pathetic tenderness, a breath of -dreamy melancholy, that the persons themselves hardly possessed, but -which he transfused into them out of himself. Melancholy is the veil -through which he saw things, as Reynolds saw them through the medium of -erudition. Reynolds was all will and intelligence, Gainsborough all soul -and temperament; and nothing can show the difference between them better -than the fact that Reynolds, who had formed his style on early models, -when he had no sitters painted historical pictures; whilst Gainsborough -in like circumstances painted landscapes. Herein he was a pioneer, -whilst Reynolds was an issue of the past. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GAINSBOROUGH. MRS. SIDDONS.] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GAINSBOROUGH. WOOD SCENE, VILLAGE OF CORNARD, SUFFOLK.] - -In the domain of landscape painting, too, the new germs of naturalism, -which had ventured above ground on all sides in the fifteenth century, -had been again stunted in the Great Renaissance. The theory had been -promulgated in the sixteenth century--in accordance with the idealistic -methods of the age--that it behoved the painter to improve upon nature -just as much as upon the human body. With the lofty style of the great -figure painters, and their artfully pondered composition, there -corresponded a school of landscape which was likewise conceived of, in -the first degree, as an honourable, architectural framing for a -mythological episode. England too possessed, in _Richard Wilson_, a -believer in this doctrine, which became so widely promulgated in the -seventeenth century through the influence of Claude Lorraine. The home -of his soul was Italy. He scraped together a small sum of money by -portrait painting, borrowed the rest, and felt himself in his element -for the first time when he had reached Venice. Here, at the instance of -Zucarrelli, he became a painter of landscapes, and was aided in his -endeavours by Joseph Vernet in Rome. He was on the way to become a -painter in great request, and in many of his pictures he shows a most -delicate notion of well-balanced and gracious composition in the manner -of Claude. But his success was of no long duration. Wilson, like so many -other of his contemporaries, had the fixed idea that the Creator had -only made nature to serve as a framework for the "Grief of Niobe" and as -a vehicle for classical architecture. The interpolated stage scenery of -trees and the classic temples of this English Claude, contain nothing -which had not been already painted better by the Frenchman. When the -king, in order to assist him, asked him on one occasion to represent Kew -Gardens in a picture, he composed an entirely imaginary landscape and -illuminated it with the sun of Tivoli. The king sent him back the -picture, mordant epigrams appeared in the journals, and Reynolds scoffed -at him in his Discourses. After that Wilson spent his days in the -alehouse, until he got delirium, and died half starved at the age of -seventy. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GAINSBOROUGH. THE MARKET CART.] - -The patriotic English were too much bound up with their own soil to -acquire a taste for the exotic, ideal scenery of Wilson. There existed -in them that patriotism, that feeling for home, which had turned the -Dutch of the seventeenth century into landscape painters. In this -province also they were destined to step in, as the inheritors of the -Dutch, to bring the germ of intimate landscape to its full fruition. -Lovely and luxuriant valleys with their soft grass, sweet woodlands with -their vari-coloured foliage, golden, swaying cornfields and picturesque -little cottages, with that indescribable softness of atmosphere, must of -themselves direct the eye of the writer and the painter to all these -beauties. It was an Englishman who in the eighteenth century wrote the -most memorable book upon the charms of nature. James Thomson, in his -_Seasons_, is the first great nature painter amongst the poets. Taine -finds the whole of Rousseau anticipated in him. "Thirty years before -Rousseau, Thomson had forestalled all the sentiments of Rousseau, almost -in the same style." He has not only, like Rousseau, a profound feeling -for the great wild aspects of nature, for the forms of clouds, effects -of light and contrasts of colour, but he delights also in the smell of -the dairy, in small birds, in the woodland shadows, and the light on the -meadows,--in all things sequestered and idyllic. - - "Nature! great parent! whose unceasing hand - Rolls round the Seasons of the changeful year, - How mighty, how majestic are thy works! - With what a pleasing dread they swell the soul - That sees astonished and astonished sings." - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GAINSBOROUGH. THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE.] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GAINSBOROUGH. THE SISTERS.] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GAINSBOROUGH. THE WATERING PLACE.] - -It was a remarkable chance which ordained that Thomas Gainsborough, the -first man who as a painter depicted the gracious charms of the country -of his birth, the comeliness of its expanses of deep green lush meadows, -the strength of the lofty, wide-spreading trees, as seen with the eyes -of a lover, should be born in the spring of the same year in which -Thomson's _Spring_ appeared. That he knew and admired Thomson is proved -by his dedication to him of that delightful "Musidora" in the National -Gallery, a lovely woman bathing her feet in some shady forest pool. It -is said that he only sent half a dozen landscapes to the Academy during -the eighteen years that he exhibited there. On the other hand, they hung -in his house in Pall Mall in long rows on the walls of his studio. After -his death his widow held a sale, at which fifty-six landscapes were -sold. Gainsborough must be accounted one of the moderns, so naïve and -intimate is the impression which his pictures produce. He, who passed -his whole youth in the idyllic loveliness of the woods, was fitted to be -the delineator of that mellow English nature. He understood the murmur -of the brooks and the sighing of the winds. Like his own life, so -regular and peaceful, gently swaying as though to the friendly -elements, are the trees in his pictures, with their peaceful -tranquillity; no storm disturbs the calm of a Gainsborough picture. His -was a contented, harmonious spirit, like Corot's. His landscapes know no -tempestuous grandeur; they are a playground for children, a place for -shepherds to rest. "The calm of mid day, the haze of twilight, the dew -and the pearls of morning," said Constable, "are what we find in the -pictures of this good, kindly, happy man.... As we look at them the -tears spring to our eyes, and we know not whence they come. The solitary -shepherd with his flock, the peasant returning from the wood with his -bundle of faggots, whispering woods and open dales, sweet little peasant -children with their pitchers in springtime,--that is what he loved to -paint and what he painted, with as much sought-out refinement as with -tender truth to nature." His landscapes are like windows opening on the -country, not compositions, but pieces taken straight out of that -fruitful English nature. Every year he used to return to his green -pastures, and paint very early, when the sun rose. Before him rose a -cluster of trees, all round the farm the flocks were grazing, thousands -of busy bees flew buzzing from flower to flower; goats, with their kids, -were feeding in the meadows, wild doves cooed, and the birds in the wood -sang their praises to the Creator. Thus do the landscapes of -Gainsborough affect us. They are soft and tender as some sweet melody in -their discreet intimacy, without colorist effects, as wonderfully -harmonious as nature herself. A thatched cot, that peeps timidly from -between the great trees, a silvery dale shut in by weeping willows, a -bridge leading to some lush, green meadow,--those are Gainsborough's -materials. The famous "Cottage Door" is now at Grosvenor House. A young -peasant woman, with her youngest child in her arms, is standing by the -door of a country cottage, before which her other children are playing, -some half naked; deep contentment is all around, huge old oaks spread -their sheltering branches over the roof on both sides; golden rays of -sunshine dance across the meadow. Only Frederick Walker has, in later -days, painted such peasant women and such children, at once so tender -and so natural. Of the four pictures in the National Gallery, "The Wood -Scene," "The Watering Place," "Market Carts," and "Peasant Children," -"The Watering Place" is the most celebrated. In the foreground a quiet -pasture with cows, close by the herdsman, a Suffolk labourer; in the -background a noble old Norman castle, perhaps Hedingham Castle, near -Sudbury. It is through pictures like these that England has become the -native-land of intimate landscape--_paysage intime_. - -As figure painters, as well as landscape painters, the English in the -eighteenth century laid a course of their own, and it was not long -before the other nations followed them. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE HISTORICAL POSITION OF ART ON THE CONTINENT - - -Goethe compared the history of knowledge with a great fugue: the parts -of the nations first come to light, little by little; and this analogy, -already once made by Hettner, holds true in a very high degree of the -history of art during the eighteenth century. The three great nations of -culture--the German, the English, and the French--take up their parts in -turn, and through all there sounds one common, equal, dominant note. -England was in the vanguard of that great period of struggle known as -the age of enlightenment. Since the middle of the eighteenth century -English influences had begun to fertilise the Continent. The truth and -naturalness of English ideas were introduced as models, and England -became in her whole culture the schoolmistress of the Continent. In -every region war was declared against the pedantry brought over from the -past, while new conditions were aimed at. Obviously it was not so easy -for other nations to take their stand on the basis of modern society. -England had accomplished her revolution in the seventeenth century; -France was only preparing herself for hers. For all other nations, too, -the eighteenth century was a transition period, in which the old and the -new civilisation of culture were parting--an age of prodigious -controversy, full of _Sturm und Drang_. Men did homage to every kind of -extravagance, and went into ecstasies over virtue. The sarcasm of -scoffers went hand in hand with the deepest sentimental feeling for -nature; superstition flourished by the side of enlightenment and -learning; in the _salons_ of the aristocracy courtly abbés file past -with the greatest thinkers, glowing with a holy zeal for the rights of -man. And, in the midst of all this contradiction, there exists that -simple, virtuous middle class which is preparing to make the ascent -which will lead it to power. - -One may imagine oneself in a salon of the _ancien régime_, in which wit -is lord, and laughter and merriment reign. Into that salon enters -abruptly a rough plebeian, with none of the fine tact of that company, -yet a great, aristocratic spirit, a man who despised such a society and -would make the world anew. Such is one's impression of the effect -produced at the time by the appearance of Jean Jacques Rousseau. -Voltaire was the first on the Continent to break through social -barriers, but none the less he coined his heart for gold in society. -Rousseau signifies a great advance: he gave up his place, laid aside -rapier, silk stockings, and perruque, and clothed himself after the -manner of a common man in order to earn his bread as a copier of music. -He is, as Weigandt has called him, the first man of the _bourgeois_ -century, the first pioneer of the new age. Against the traditions -bequeathed by the past, which in the course of time had become -over-refined and corrupt, he set up the natural conditions demanded by -reason. His fight against inequalities of rank is, as it were, a -foretaste of the revolution. "What hellish monsters are these -prejudices. I know no dishonourable inferiority other than that of -character or education. A man who is trained to an honourable mind is -the equal of the world; there is no rank in which he would not be in his -place. It is better to look down upon nobility than upon virtue, and the -wife of a charcoal-burner is worthy of more respect than the mistress of -a prince." Those were words in which the coming revolution was presaged. - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF GOYA. BY HIMSELF. - - _From: "Los Capriccios."_] - -The _Nouvelle Heloise_ appeared in 1761. Thirteen years later followed -Goethe's _Werther_, that history of a young Titan whose zeal for liberty -felt all the partition walls of Society to be prison walls, and who rose -against everything that was ceremonial, against all the subordinations -of the social hierarchy, against all trivial and rigid rules of prudent -everyday life. Werther abhorred rules in every sphere. "One can say much -in favour of rules, about as much as one can say in praise of -_bourgeois_ society." He scoffed at the Philistines, who daily went -along the same measured way. He saw in "Society," having hitherto moved -in the simple world of the _bourgeois_, "the most sacred and the most -pitiful emotions wholly without clothing." And this Society outraged -him, and sent him with contumely from its midst. "Working folk carried -him to the grave, and no minister of religion followed him." - -Soon afterwards young Schiller came upon the scene with his first works, -which were a declaration of war against all the foundations of human -society, those manifestoes of revolution which, were they new writings -to-day, no Court Theatre would dare to produce. The fierce, rampant -lion, with the inscription "In Tyrannos," which was displayed on the -title-page of the second edition of the _Robbers_, was an intimate -symbol of the deep revolutionary spirit that inspired the whole age. "I -grew disgusted with this ink-stained age, when I read in my _Plutarch_ -of great men. Fie, fie upon the flaccid, castrated century, that has no -other use than to chew over again the deeds of the past. Let me imagine -an army of fellows like you, and I see a republic arising in Germany, in -comparison with which those of Rome and Sparta would be convents of -nuns." In a loud voice _Ficsco_ proclaims itself on the very title-page -to be a "republican" tragedy. _Intrigue and Love_ even aims full at the -rottenness and corruption of the actual time. It can be traced--and -Brandes has done it in his _Haupströmungen_--how in the literature of -the age, the life of sensibility and idealism prevailing in the previous -century gradually dwindles, and in its stead quite modern progressive -views--religious, political, and social--surge up in an ever-increasing -wave. The authors were the bold inciters to the battle. They were all -leaders in the battle for liberty against fossilised tradition,--some in -the field of poetry only, others in the whole sphere of intellectual -life. These are they who gave the signal for the war-cry of the -Revolution--Liberty, Equality, Fraternity; who rent asunder the old -society, inaugurated the age of citizenship, and were at the same time -the first to lose, as quite modern spirits, their faith in another -world. - -[Illustration: GOYA. THE MAJAS ON THE BALCONY.] - -A wonderful chance ordained that, in the province of art, the most -powerful figure of that storm and tumult, the one artist of the age of -the race of Prometheus, to which belonged the young Goethe and the young -Schiller, should be born in the most mediæval country in Europe, on -Spanish soil. Against an art that was more catholic than catholicism, -courtly and mystical, there came by far the greatest reaction in Goya. -From Roelas, Collantes, and Murillo to him there is hardly any -transition. - -_Francisco Goya_ preached Nihilism in the home of belief. He denied -everything, believed nothing, doubted of everything, even of that peace -and liberty which he hoped to be at hand. That old Spanish art of -religion and dogma was changed under his hands to an art of negation and -sarcasm. His attitude is not that of an insolent and impetuous youth, -who puts out his tongue at the Academy and strikes with audacious hand -at the academicians' high powdered perruques; it is the attitude of the -modern spirit, which begins by doubting all things which have been -honoured hitherto. His Church pictures are devoid of religious feeling, -and his etchings replete with sneers at everything which was previously -esteemed as authority. He scoffs at the clerical classes and the -religious orders, laughs at the priestly raiment which covered the -passions of humanity. Spanish art, which began in a blind piety, becomes -in Goya revolutionary, free, modern. - -[Illustration: (_Laurent, photo._) - - GOYA. THE MAJA CLOTHED.] - -Goya is, in his whole nature, a modern man, a restless, feverish soul; -nervous as a _décadent_; temperament to his finger-tips. His style in -portraiture, his art of composition, his whole method,--all speak to our -artists to-day in a language easily understood, and on many of them the -influence of Goya is unmistakable. He is one of the most fascinating -figures of the beginning of the century. As audacious as he was clever, -as versatile as he was fantastic, a keen observer as well as a strong -creative spirit, he fascinates and astonishes in his pictures, just as -in his wonderful etchings, by a remarkable mixture of the bizarre and -the original. His pictures, whether they be violent or eccentric, tender -or hard, gloomy or joyous, nearly always move and palpitate with life -itself, and they will always keep their attraction. There is no one of -Goya's pictures, not even the flimsiest sketch, at which one can look -coldly. - -He was born in a village in the province of Aragon, the son of a small -landed proprietor, in 1746. At the age of fourteen, having already -painted frescoes in the church of his native-place, he went to Saragossa -as an apprentice; and there he showed himself to be vivacious and -passionate, and soon became the champion among his comrades in all their -pastimes and brawls. Restless, and always thinking of adventure, he -refused every regular kind of education, disarranged everything in his -master's studio, worked when he could, drew his sword when he had a mind -to, nourished in his head dark thoughts on liberty, came and went and -loved, dallied with his knife, snapped his fingers at the Inquisition, -which was after him, and fled from Madrid,--such was he at twenty, and -such he remained all his life. - -[Illustration: (_Laurent, photo._) - - GOYA. THE MAJA NUDE.] - -Italy, whither he fled on account of a duel, did not alter him. There -were new love quarrels. He fought, stabbed a rival, was wounded himself, -amused himself extremely, studied little, observed, admired, but neither -painted nor copied anything. It was thanks to this indolence that the -great past did not take him prisoner. He did not know much, but for what -he knew he could thank himself. He loved the old painters, but -platonically; their works did not lead him astray. In this lies the -explanation of his qualities and his faults: that marvellous mixture of -seductive grace and visible weakness, of subtlety and brutality, of -refinement and ignorance. He merits equally sympathy and blame, is as -genial as he is unequal. But one would not wish him to be otherwise: if -there had been more order and proportion in his works his good qualities -would have been lost. He would have suffered in spontaneity, vivacity, -originality, and quietly taken his anchorage in the sleepy haven of -mediocrity. As he is, he is wholly the child of his country: from head -to foot a Spaniard of the eighteenth century, a son of that downfallen -Spain that was dying from loss of blood. For hundreds of years a black -cloud, extinguishing all joy, had hung over Spanish life, a cloud out of -which, only here and there in dismal lightning flashes, there emerged -obscure figures of sombre despots, sick ascetics, and silent martyrs. -All mundane inclinations were suppressed, all sensuous desires -prohibited. Men spent their nights with their eyes fixed upon the gory -histories and passionate exhortations of the Old Testament, hearing in -imagination the menacing, thunderous voice of a dreadful God, until at -last in their own hearts the fanatical inspiration of the prophetic seer -awoke anew, and their feverish forms were torn asunder by ecstatic -visions and religious hallucinations. When Goya began his career the -sinister country of the Inquisition had grown frivolous. A breath of -revolution was passing over men's minds. An intoxicating odour of -mundane voluptuousness penetrated everywhere, even into the convents -themselves; the figures of the French Rococo Olympus had brought -confusion into the Christian paradise. Spain no longer believed; it -laughed at the Inquisition, trembled no more when it was threatened with -the pains of Hell. It had grown frivolous, wanton, epicurean, full of -grace and laughter. The rosy-red and blue shepherds of the Trianon had -made an entry into the sombre Court of Aranjuez. Literature, taste, and -art were infected by French influences, Parisian sparks of wit, -lightning _esprit_, and Parisian immorality; and the same rumbling -earthquake which wrecked the throne of France was soon to shatter that -of Spain. In Goya's works there is a refulgence of all this. But, like -every great artist, he is not only the expression of his epoch, but also -its leader; he almost anticipates the age which shall succeed it. Like a -figure of Janus, on the border-line between two centuries, standing in a -manner between two worlds, he was the last of the old masters and the -first of the moderns--even in that special sense in which we employ the -word to-day. - -[Illustration: GOYA. DE QUE MAL MORIRA. - - _From "Los Capriccios."_] - -Through a commission to design cartoons for the Spanish manufactories of -tapestry, he was brought into contact with the Court. Member of the -Academy of San Fernando in 1780, Pintor del Rey, with an income of -12,500 francs in 1786, he became soon afterwards the Director of the -Madrid Academy--the drollest Director of an Academy that man can -imagine! Goya, the peasant youth, with his bull neck and matador-like -strength, lived at the Spanish Court in the midst of the enervated -scions of a dissolute aristocracy, who, with their sickly and anæmic -features, indolent and impotent, skulked through life, young men -prematurely old. Naturally he was the idol of the women, hated by the -courtiers on account of his caustic wit, a terror to all husbands -because of his perpetual intrigues, and at the same time feared as the -best swordsman in Madrid, who drew his rapier with the indifference with -which we light a cigarette. - -It is only as the outcome of such a personality that his works are to be -understood. - -[Illustration: GOYA. SOPLONES. - - _From "Los Capriccios."_] - -Goya was far too great a sceptic to put a religious sentiment into -matters in which he no longer believed; his talent was far too modern -for the religious abstraction to be able to seize him. His "Christ on -the Cross," therefore, in the Museo del Prado, is simply tedious, a bad -academical study. His frescoes in San Antonio de la Florida, at Madrid, -exhibit a pretty, decorative motive--considerable movement, grace, and -spirit. But amongst them are angels who sit there most irreverently, -and, with a laugh of challenge, throw out their legs _à la_ Tiepolo. The -chief picture represents St. Antony of Padua raising a man from the -dead. But all that interested him in it were the lookers-on. On a -balustrade all around he has brought in the lovely, dainty faces of -numerous ladies of the court, his _bonnes amies_, who lean their elbows -on the balcony and coquette with the people down below. Their plump, -round, white hands play meaningly with their fans; a thick cluster of -ringlets waves over their bared shoulders; their sensual eyes languish -with a seductive fire; a faint smile plays round their voluptuous lips. -Several seem only just to have left their beds, and their vari-coloured, -gleaming silks are crumpled. One is just arranging her coiffure, which -has come undone and falls over her rosy bosom; another, with a -languishing unconsciousness and a careless attitude, is opening her -sleeve, whose soft, deep folds expose a snow-white arm. There is much -_chic_ in this Church picture. One very immodest angel is supposed to be -the portrait of the Duchess of Alba, who was famed for her numerous -intrigues. - -[Illustration: GOYA. SE REPULEN. - - _From "Los Capriccios."_] - -In his portraits, too, he is unequal. He became the fashionable painter -at the court. The politicians, poets, scholars, great ladies, actresses, -all the famous folk of his epoch, sat to him. He daubed more than two -hundred portraits; but they were good only when the subject amused him. -His portraits of the Royal Family have something vicious and plebeian. -He is too little in earnest, too little of an official, to paint court -pictures. One might imagine that he with difficulty restrained himself -from laughing at the pompous futility which stood before him. It -irritated him to be obliged to paint these great lords and ladies in -poses so ceremonial, instead of making them, like the angels of San -Antonio, throw up their legs and skip over parapets. The Queen, Marie -Louise, is frankly grotesque; and the family of Charles IV look like the -family of a shopkeeper who have won the big prize in a lottery, and been -photographed in their Sunday clothes. But, ah! when something gives him -pleasure! In the Exhibition of Portraits at Paris, in 1885, there was -the portrait of a young man, dressed in gray, which excelled -Gainsborough for grace. With what a noble nonchalance this young elegant -stands there, reminding one, in attitude and costume, of the -_incroyables_ of Charles Vernet. With what equanimity does he look out -on life, in his satisfaction at the good fit of his clothes. The -wonderful harmony of the grey tones was rendered with all Gainsborough's -delicacy. The same man who in those pictures of ceremony let himself go -in a manner so brusque and frenzied, here revelled, a very Proteus in -his chameleon-like qualities, in soft and mellow and seductive tones. -One might say that he has thought here of Prudhon and Greuze, and joined -their study to the cult of Velasquez. - -[Illustration: GOYA. QUE PICO DE ORO! - - _From "Los Capriccios."_] - -Still more charming was he in his pictures of young girls, when he was -himself fascinated by the attractions of his subjects. The infantile -Donna Maria Josefa (at the Prado) and the twelve-year-old Queen Isabella -of Sicily (at Seville) are admirable pictures. In them the candour and -grace of budding youth, the whole poetry of young maidenhood, have won -life and expression from the enamoured tenderness of an artist hand. -Seduced by beauty, he renounced all irony, thought only of those big, -wide-opened eyes of velvet, those rosy young lips; of that warm -carnation and the elegant slimness of that soft young neck that rose in -delicate contour from the shoulders. Or again, that marvellous double -portrait of La Maja in the Academy of San Fernando: a young girl painted -once clothed and once nude, both pictures in exactly the same pose, and -both flooded with the same extraordinary sensuous charm. This is not the -uncertain, sarcastic painter of those State pictures. It is an attentive -observer, who depicts with sensitive devotion the harmonious lines of -the irradiating, young, human body so worthy of celebration. The -transparent stuff that covers the body of "La Maja clothed" reveals all -that it hides; in the other picture the unveiled nudity sings the high -pæan of the flesh. The drawing is sure, the modelling of a marvellous -tenderness. The heaving bosom, the slender limbs, the tantalising -eyes--every part of that nervous body, with its ivory whiteness, -stretched out on the milk-white couch made for love, breathes of -pleasure and voluptuousness. - -In pictures of this kind Goya is wholly one of us. Grown independent of -every traditional rule, he abandoned himself entirely to his own -impressions, and produced enduring works, vibrating with life, because -he was himself fascinated with nature. He showed here an idea of -modernity that almost makes him seem a contemporary of our own--that -zeal for the pictorial, for colour and light, which attracts us so much -to-day. Very characteristic also of the changed aspect of the age are -his designs for the famous tapestry in Santa Barbara, with which he made -his début at Madrid. They are very crude in decoration. Two or three -neat young girls, with big, black, moist eyes, here and there pleasing -details--a couple of men carrying a wounded companion--are unable to -gloss over the heaviness of the composition and colour. But it was of -great consequence that Goya should have had courage for so bold a step -as to make use of character scenes in decorative painting at a time when -everywhere else, without exception, _fêtes champêtres_ predominated. - -[Illustration: GOYA. VOLAVERUNT. - - _From "Los Capriccios."_] - -In his oil paintings he went much further in this direction. In that -impetuous manner peculiar to him he endeavoured to get a firm grip on -the pictorial side of Spanish life, at home and in the streets, wherever -he found it. The most fearful subjects--such as the two great slaughter -scenes in the French invasion, painted with such breadth and -fierceness--alternate with incidents of the liveliest character. -Everything is jotted down, under the immediate influence of what has -been observed, by rapid methods, and on this account produces an effect -of sketches taken with complete directness from nature. In those -careless pictures, swept with large strokes of the brush, there rises -before us the mad drama of public holiday in the streets and in the -circus: processions, bull-fights, brigands, the victims of the plague, -assassinations, scenes of gallantry, national types--all observed with -the acuteness of a Menzel. The Majas on the balcony in the Montpensier -Gallery, the "Breakfast on the Grass," the "Flower Girl," the "Reaper," -the "Return from Market," the "Cart attacked by Brigands," are the most -piquant, vividly coloured of these pictures. The "Romeria de San -Isidoro" is full of such a sparkling, stirring life as the most modern -of the impressionists alone have learned again to paint. A few dashes of -colour, a few well-placed, bold strokes of the brush, and at once one -sees the procession move, the groups passing each other by just as, in -the marvellous sketches of the funeral of Sardina, in the Academy of -San Fernando, one can see the young couples revolve madly in the dance, -and the lances of the bull-fighters redden the sand of the arena. - -The superabundance of such phantasy could not, of course, be achieved by -the tardy brush. He required a quicker medium, that would permit him to -express everything. Therefore he executed his numerous etchings, by -which he was rendered famous, before people had learnt to appreciate him -as a painter: the "Capriccios," the "Malheurs de la Guerre," the -"Bull-fights," the "Captives"--those marvellous and fantastic pages in -which he expressed everything that his feverish, satirical soul had -accumulated for contempt, and hatred, and anger, and scorn. The etcher's -needle was the poisoned dagger with which he attacked all that he wished -to attack: tyranny, superstition, intrigue, adultery, honour that is -sold and beauty that lets itself be bought, the arrogance of the great -and the degrading servility of the little. He made an awful and jovial -hecatomb of all the vices and the scandals of the age. Whomsoever he -pilloried was laid bare in all respects; physically and morally, no -single trait of him was forgotten. And he did it so wittily that he -compelled even the offended person to laugh. Neither Charles IV himself, -nor the Court, nor the Inquisition, which bled most beneath his thrusts, -dared to complain. - -[Illustration: GOYA. QUIEN LO CREYERA! - - _From "Los Capriccios."_] - -In his "Capriccios" Goya stands revealed as a figure without even a -forerunner in the history of art. Satirical representations of popular -superstitions, bitter, mordant attacks on the aristocracy, the -government, and all social conditions, unprecedented assaults on the -crown, on religion and its doctrines, inexorable satires upon the -Inquisition and the monastic orders, make up this most remarkable book. -It had hardly appeared in 1796 before the Inquisition seized it. Goya -parried this stroke, however, by dedicating the plates to the king. - -A painter and a colorist, in this book he displays his genius as an -etcher. The outlines are drawn with light and genial strokes only; then -comes the _aquatinta_, the colouring which overspreads the background, -and gives localisation, depth, and light. A few scratches of the needle, -a black spot, a light produced by a spot of white ingeniously left -blank--that sufficed to give life and character to his figures. - -[Illustration: GOYA. LINDA MAESTRA! - - _From "Los Capriccios."_] - -The "Misères de la Guerre" are intrinsically more serious. All the -scenes of terror that occurred in Spain as a sequel to the French -invasion and the glory of Napoleon here utter their cry of lamentation. -A few plates amongst them are worthy of comparison with the finest of -Rembrandt's,--the sole classic for whom Goya cherished a veneration. All -the undertakings which followed these--the "Bull-fights," the -"Proverbs," the "Captives," the fantastic landscapes--tell of a long -study of the great Dutch master. Especially celebrated were the -seventeen new plates which he added to the "Malheurs de la Guerre" in -1814, at the time of the restoration of Ferdinand VII. They are the -political and philosophical testament of the old liberal, the keen -free-thinker, the last and utmost fight for all that he loved against -all that he hated. With sacred wrath and biting irony he waged war -against the intrigues and hypocrisy of the obscurantists who throttle -progress and suppress freedom of thought. With passionate wrath he -rushed upon kings, priests, and dignitaries. It seems incredible that -the plate entitled "Nada"--a dead man, who comes out of his grave and -writes with his corpse-fingers the word "Nada" (nothing)--that this -plate can be the work of a Spaniard of the eighteenth century. -Everywhere there is the same hatred of tyranny, of social injustice, of -human stupidity, the same incredulous effort after a dimly conceived -ideal of truth and liberty. - -It is neither the amiable fairyland of Callot nor the _bourgeois_ -pessimism of Hogarth. Goya is more inexorable and acute; his phantasy, -borne on larger wings, takes a higher flight. He sees direful figures in -his dreams, his laugh is bitter, his anger rancorous. He is a -revolutionist, an agitator, a sceptic, a nihilist. His _chronique -scandaleuse_ grows into the epos of the age. One understands why such a -man should no longer feel secure in Spain, and, towards the close of his -life, go into exile in France. - -There, too, in the home of the revolution, art, ever since the beginning -of the century, had freed herself more from the tradition of the -Renaissance, and betaken herself to the new way, which the Dutch, and -soon afterwards the English, had laid down in the seventeenth century. - -[Illustration: GOYA. DEVOTA PROFESION. - - _From "Los Capriccios."_] - -All that had been produced in Paris, up to the close of the seventeenth -century, had had its birthplace in the Italy of Leo X. The light of the -Italian Renaissance had suffused France ever since the appearance of -Rosso and Primaticcio. Rome had been the cradle of Simon Vouet and -Nicolas Poussin. France endeavoured, in rich decoration and masterly -swing of lines, to overtop the Italians, whose formulæ were studied -partly in Rome and partly in the Palace of Fontainebleau, that Rome _in -petto_. Those religious pictures of Lebrun, arranged in panels, appeared -with their theatrically elegant attitudes and their flowing drapery, -with their slim, oscillating limbs and their florid gestures. All -Olympus, all the saints and the heroes, were set to work to do honour to -the great king. Was it necessary to glorify his acts, then it was done -by portraying him as Cyrus or Alexander. The people of the seventeenth -century did not exist for painters. Lebrun and Mignard, as inheritors of -Roman culture, hovered over life without seeing it. Their ideals were a -hundred and fifty years old, ingenious variations on the -sixteenth-century pattern. - -Then came the death of the _Grand Monarque_, and with him the tradition -of the Renaissance went also to its grave. The old age was outworn, and -the new began to supersede it. The world was weary of the majestic, the -stiff, and the pompous, whose glamour had blinded it for sixty years. -The sun-king was dead, and the sun of the Italian Renaissance had set. -French society breathed once more. The ostentation of the court had -become an onerous ceremony, the monarchical principle an unendurable -constraint. The nightmare that had oppressed it, the ennui that had come -from Versailles, disappeared. Air and light and mirth penetrated the -salons. People shook off the heavy yoke of majesty from their shoulders, -abandoned their heroic, ostentatious palaces, and bought themselves -_petites maisons_ in the _Bois_. They had suffered, they wished to be -glad; they had been bored, they wished to be amused. Enough of -pater-nosters and stately etiquette! they wished to live. Away with the -antique temples and goddesses of Poussin! away with those devoted -martyrs who mortified themselves and killed the flesh! Away with the -semblance of the heroic, with pomp and glamour, with the service of God -and the service of lords! Here's to the service of the ladies. Here's to -the thatched roofs of farmhouses; the woods in whose thickets one can -lose one's way and exchange a kiss; rosy flesh and little turned-up -noses; everything which gave a thrill of voluptuousness after the -unapproachable, icy-cold nobility of the past. Long live Love! - -[Illustration: "_L'Art._" - - GOYA. OTRES LEYES POR EL PUEBLO.] - -So thought France when Louis XIV was dead, and the man was already grown -up in the Low Countries who was chosen to give a shape to these dreams, -to abolish the ascendency of gods and kings and heroes, and to show the -upper classes their own image reflected in the mirror of art. - -_Antoine Watteau_, who guided the stream of French art into this new -channel--of the Netherlands--was by birth and training a Fleming. His -birthplace, Valenciennes, although French territory since the Peace of -Nymeguen, resembled in its whole character a Flemish town. In the church -here he first saw any of Rubens' pictures. Here, through Gérin, he -became instructed in Flemish traditions. Rubens and Teniers are the two -masters from whom his own art sprang. During the years when the war of -the Spanish Succession had changed the French frontier provinces into a -huge military camp, he painted soldiers and camp scenes, such as the -"March" in the collection of Edmund Rothschild, where a party of -recruits are straggling along a high plain in a fierce storm. Later came -pictures of country life in the manner of Teniers, like the "Retour de -Guinguette," engraved by Chedel, a landscape in which on the right a -party of rustics are carousing at a table in front of a farmyard, while -on the other side half-drunken men and women are going home. Louis XIV -had made before the pictures of Teniers his well-known _mot_: "_Otez moi -ces magots_." Now, through Watteau, the _magot_ makes its entrance into -French art. Thus in his chief picture in this manner, "La Vraie Gaieté," -the figures are unmistakably after Teniers. The men are short and -sturdy, entirely Flemish. Only the costumes have changed with the mode. -But the women are not in the least Flemish. The clean caps and tidy -kerchiefs, the freshly ironed aprons, and neat little feet that trip so -lightly and quickly along the street that no dirt seems to soil them, -give these peasant girls a certain desirability in which it is not hard -to discover the transition to French grace. The elegant motions and fine -heads point to that Watteau who was to become soon afterwards the -unsurpassable delineator of feminine coquetry. - -Gillot and Rubens led him into the new road. The Teniers-like character -of his figures disappeared, they became gracious and noble. In place of -the _magot_ came elegant French society. Gillot was the first in Paris -to break with the pompous Louis XIV style, and to begin the -representation of the cheerful life of comedians, to replace the -dwellers in Olympus by characters of the French and Italian stage. -Rubens had been the first in his "Garden of Love," of the Dresden and -Madrid Galleries, to invite to the embarkation for the Island of -Cythera. Watteau acquired something from everyone he studied, and yet -resembles none. After having hitherto sought his personages on the -highways and in camps, he was now to become the painter of _fêtes -galantes_, the painter of "Society." For in his shepherds and -shepherdesses there lives the elegance of France. The gods of the -Renaissance, in whom no one any longer believed, glided into the -costumes of Harlequin and Pierrette. In lieu of the great and the -pathetic there came the small, the gay, the graceful, the dainty. The -architectural symmetry of composition disappeared, and the stiff -stage-scenery character of landscape vanished. The grave formality of -geometrical construction is changed into freedom and joyousness, just as -the rhetorical, exact, measured periods of Boileau were relaxed, under -the hands of Voltaire, into sentences unconstrained, buoyant, and crisp. -Watteau's art betokened the triumph of naturalism over the mannerism -into which the French art of the seventeenth century, based on the -Italian Renaissance, had dwindled. As it is said in an old poem-- - - "Parée à la Françoise, un jour Dame Nature - Eut le desir coquet de voir sa portraiture. - Que fit la bonne mère? Elle enfanta Watteau." - -Watteau became for French art what, a hundred years before, Rubens had -been for Flemish--the deliverer. He delivered them from the oppressive -yoke of the Italian tradition. In his world, where there were no longer -any naked goddesses, but where the corset was opened only just wide -enough to reveal a rosy bosom, there was nothing more left of the past. -It is no longer antique beauty, no longer the plastic cold of the "Venus -di Milo," no longer the marble perfection of Raphael's "Galatea." Into -those tender, feminine hands, into those lace sleeves, out of which -snow-white arms come languishingly forth, into those slender waists, and -teasing, dimpled chins, something of coquetry, of sensibility, something -subtle and spiritual, has entered, that seems to transcend physical -beauty. His young men are tall and supple, his women entirely -indescribable, with their air of quiet roguishness and their exquisite -coiffures. Quite modern is that distinguished sense for costume which -made him a leader of fashion. Mysterious landscapes, that exhale peace -and happiness all around! Rightly has Edmond de Goncourt called him a -lyric poet, the great poet of the eighteenth century. - -[Illustration: ANTOINE WATTEAU.] - -[Illustration: WATTEAU. LA PARTIE CARRÉE.] - -In this way the development proceeded. The pompous representation which -portrait painting had practised hitherto was gone. People would no -longer be masters of the ceremonies, but human beings. New forms of -technique were discovered, such as pastel painting. No other material -was capable of rendering the peculiar fragrance of this fugitive flower -nature, the graceful appearance of this _rococo_ style, of these ladies -with the touch of powder in their hair, and their moist, dreamy eyes, as -Maurice Latour, Rosalba Carriera, and later the Swiss, Liotard, painted -them. Of those who endeavoured, on the model of Watteau's style, to -depict the life of the fashionable world, none approached the delicacy -of that national genius. _Lancret_ and _Pater_ followed him, but more -roughly, more soberly, more drily. Lancret in his whole conception, -compared with Watteau, is a homely, often a somewhat cumbrous -journeyman; Pater, an artist of greater elegance, has the fickleness of -the virtuoso. Both in conviction and in art they lacked that poetic, -glorifying breath which pervades Watteau's creations. In Watteau one -_believes_ that these gracious beings, these tall and nervous cavaliers, -these amiable coquettes and comely women, actually represent originals -in noble society; whereas in the works of his disciples it often happens -that the paid model, selected from a lower circle of society, appears to -us to be not congruous with the elegance of her wardrobe. These dancers, -huntsmen, and noble maidens are not wholly what they should represent. -But how delicious they are, these French gossips, so long as one is -mindful _not_ to think of Watteau! What grace is theirs too! What innate -tact! With what a pleasant adroitness do they understand how to rivet -our attention, and to keep far, far away from the tedium in which their -classical ancestors, with their natural heaviness, waded! Instinctively -and without effort they rejected the rhythmically balanced composition -and correct nobility of form of the classics, and found a characteristic -expression for unconstrained gestures, pleasing movements, and refined -elegance. - -[Illustration: GREUZE. "_L'Art._"] - -Even the decorative painters abandoned more and more the much-worn paths -of the Italians. _François Lemoine_ gave them, by Rubens' aid, the -transition to a manner peculiarly French, elegant, sensuous, charming. -His pupil, _François Boucher_, followed him. Like the sons of the -seventeenth century, he made exhaustive use of mythological subjects and -was often a superficial artist, and in his later works he became -entirely a mannerist; but he was not so at the beginning. It was a great -advance for France when Boucher gave his pupils the advice to abstain -from imitation of the great Italian masters, and not to grow "as cold as -ice." And what a great naturalist he is in his numerous drawings and -etchings, and in those marvellous groups of chubby children who are -playing and tumbling about on clouds, or playing musical instruments -shooting arrows, or sporting with flowers! "It is not every one who has -the stuff to make a Boucher" even his great antagonist David has said of -him. - -In _Fragonard_, again, there was summed up all the joy of life and the -frivolity, the lustrous, luxurious talent, the charming amiability and -nimble sureness, of French art in the eighteenth century. Fragonard has -painted everything. His great decorations are careless inspirations, -sparkling with spirit and life. With him pastoral scenes alternate with -episodes of everyday life--children, guitar players, women reading. -Fragonard is a piquant, ingenious painter. Perhaps hardly any other -painter has so much kissing in his pictures. His etching, "L'armoire," -of 1778, is well known. In that he already stood on the sure ground of -popular life. The old rustic, who is armed with a formidable cudgel, is -beating open, with the assistance of his wife, the doors of a great -clothes cupboard, in which a handsome young fellow has hidden himself; -close by is a pretty farm girl, weeping in confusion into her apron; in -the background the curious and amazed little sisters are looking on. - -[Illustration: GREUZE. THE MILKMAID.] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GREUZE. HEAD OF A GIRL.] - -_J. F. de Troy_ had, at the same time, abandoned himself to a more -frolicsome manner, had played upon painting in pictures such as "The -Proposal of Marriage" and "The Garter" with something of that frivolity -which later came into fashion through Baudouin. That, however, was only -for a very short time. Life was beginning to be in earnest--that is -rather the impression one receives much earlier, from turning over the -engravings of those years. Amongst the elders of the actual _rococo_ -age, contentment and gaiety still rule. As the heirs of an old -civilisation, the aristocracy understood, with a refined and unique -understanding, how to turn life into a feast. Silk trains rustle over -the parquet, silk shoes trip, eyes gleam, diamonds flash, white bosoms -heave. Tall cavaliers advance to their sprightly partners, gossip and -smiles fly around, Knights of Malta and abbés hang over the chairs and -pay their court. Yes, this autumn of the old French culture was of a -marvellous beauty for the fortunate, and those fortunate ones knew, as -no other generation has ever done, how to enjoy life with serenity, in a -fairy glamour of rooms gleaming with Venetian chandeliers, where rosy -Cupidons laughed down bewitchingly from their light, gold moulded -panels. Under Louis XVI the French salon acquired another aspect. Its -walls, its whole architecture, were more sombre. The Cupidons still -sported on the ceiling, but they were forgotten, like ghosts of the -past; their shafts were already impotent. The vivacious, dancing couples -have disappeared. Festivity has been banished from the big rooms: here -and there is seen an earnest conversational party; gentlemen playing -cards or ladies reading philosophical books. Social and political -interests have sprung up with which people of education prefer to occupy -themselves. Numerous works on commerce and constitutional methods have -appeared during the last fifty years. In place of scandal there crop up -arguments, for and against the Parliament, for and against the Jesuits. -Enlightenment had won its victory. Henceforth development is no longer -compatible with sensuous delight. It is still the same society as -before, but without pleasure. One almost breathes the air of 1789. -Gaming is only a struggle against ennui; the foreheads of women are -furrowed with reading. Society has grown serious and sombre, as it were, -with a presentiment of what is to come, as though destiny might thus be -set aside. The writings of Diderot afford the clearest instance of this -changed spirit of the age, and art too must become virtuous, and work -for the amelioration of the world. Thus Diderot upheld the sentimental -and emotional subject against the _fêtes galantes_ of the _rococo_ -painter. Boucher derived his inspiration from the slough of -prostitution; only a moral upheaval could tend to a high style. With -Boucher the idea of honour, of innocence, has become something strange; -the new age requires virtue, _bonnes moeurs_. But where are the virtues -to be found? Naturally, there alone, where Rousseau had discovered them. -Rousseau taught that man by nature was good, that he was noble, -conscious of his moral obligations, self-sacrificing and uncorrupted -when he came from the hands of his Maker, and that it was civilisation -which first corrupted him. It followed that the most civilised are the -most corrupt, and virtues are to be met with, if anywhere, amongst the -lower orders, who are the least affected by culture. Not beneath an -embroidered waistcoat, only beneath a woollen smock, can a noble heart -beat. The happy ignorance of the young Savoyard, eating his cheese or -his oranges in a church porch, lies nearer to the original perfection of -mankind than the most subtle erudition of the most ingenious of the -encyclopædists. Amongst nature's noblemen one must seek for the secret -of virtue, which has been lost by the aristocracy in the stream of -civilisation. Thus beneath the ægis of Rousseau's philosophy the Third -Estate makes its entry into French salons. From the man of the people -society wanted to learn how to become once more simple, unassuming, and -virtuous; and it was a gruesome irony of fate that this "man of the -people" should reveal himself later, when the guillotine stood in the -Place de la Concorde, as by no means so lamblike, modest, and -self-sacrificing as that noble society had imagined him. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GREUZE. GIRL CARRYING A LAMB.] - -_Greuze_ represented this phase of French art when the riotous carnival -of _rococo_ had come to an end, and the Ash Wednesday of rule and -fasting and penitence had ensued. It was considered that the aim of art -must be to instruct and elevate, not merely to amuse; it should set an -example to raise and inspire the good, to serve as a warning for the -bad. "_Rendre la vertu aimable, le vice odieux, le ridicule saillant, -voilà le projet de tout honnête homme qui prend la plume, le pinceau ou -le ciseau._" In these words Diderot formulated his programme. It was his -wish that the corrupt man, when he went to an exhibition, should feel -pricks of conscience at the pictures and read in them his own -condemnation. "_Si ses pas le conduisent au Salon, qu'il craigne -d'arrêter ses regards sur la toile._" Educational effects, "moral -stories told in pictures," that is the keynote of Diderot's demands upon -the painter, and of the accomplishment of Greuze in answer to this -claim. He is the French Hogarth, whether he paints in sombre colours the -misery that the drunkard brings upon his family, and the horrors of -poverty, or depicts in brighter tones the love of children for their -parents and the works of charity; and with him too, as with the -Englishman, his title was chosen with a didactic after-thought to -heighten the effect of his picture. Thus such scenes as these occurred: -"The Father's Curse," "The Consolation of Age," "The Son's Correction," -"The Ungrateful Son," "The Beloved Mother," "The Spoilt Child," "The -Lame Man tended by his Relations," and "The Results of Good Education." -He had this, too, in common with Hogarth: he liked to develop his moral -stories in long series, which invariably ended with the triumph of -virtue and the punishment of vice. The didactic story of _Bazile et -Thibaut_ attempted to relate in twenty-six chapters the influence of a -good education on the formation of a whole life; and, just as in -Hogarth's story of the two apprentices, here too, at the conclusion, the -well-educated Thibaut pronounces sentence of death over his old friend -Bazile, the badly educated, and now condemned murderer. The fact that in -other things the two moral apostles differ greatly from each other is -accounted for by the difference in the national characteristics of those -to whom they variously appealed. - -Hogarth _scourged_ the vices of the Third Estate in order to raise them -to morality. Rape, bloodshed, debauchery, disorderliness, gluttony, and -drunkenness--that was the channel through which in England at that day -the furious flood of the uncontrolled spirit of the populace poured -itself, foaming and raging with fearful natural force. Hogarth swung -over these human animals the stout cudgel of morality in the manner of a -sturdy policeman and Puritan _bourgeois_. With such people a delicate -forbearance would have been misplaced. At the foot of every prison-scene -he inscribed the name of the vice that he had pilloried there, and -subjoined the predicted damnation from Holy Writ. He reveals it in its -hideousness, he steeps it in its filth, traces it to its retribution, so -that even the most vitiated conscience must recognise it and the most -hardened abhor it. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GREUZE. GIRL LOOKING UP.] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GREUZE. GIRL WITH AN APPLE.] - -Greuze employs the Third Estate as a _mirror of virtue_, sets forth its -noble qualities as an edification to an aristocracy that has grown -vicious. Less primitive and, for that very reason, less original than -Hogarth, he never forgets that he lives in the most refined social -period in history. He does not strangle his culprits to provide -terrifying examples, but nearly always leaves a corner open for -repentance. He knew that he dared not exact too much from the nerves of -his noble public; he merely wished to stir them to a soft vibration. He -did not paint for drunken English people, but for those perfumed -marquises who, later on, bowed with so courtly an elegance before the -guillotine; for those sensitive ladies in whom virtue now excited the -same sensual delight that vice had done before. They welcomed in him the -high priest of a sort of orgie of virtue, to whose festivals they had -grown reconciled. The century which in its first half had danced as -light-heartedly as any other the can-can of life, becomes, in its second -half, sad of soul, enthusiastic over the reward of justice, the -punishment of transgressors, over honour and the naïveté of innocence. -Time after time do his contemporaries praise precisely that sense of -virtue in the art of Greuze. So that in France, as in England, the -burden of interest was laid no longer upon the art, but upon an -accessory circumstance. For since, in the hands of Greuze, the picture -had been turned into an argument, in France, as in England, art ceased -to be an end--it became only a means. He made painting a didactic poem, -the more melodramatic the better, and was driven thereby on the same -sandbank upon which Hogarth, and all _genre_ painters who _would be_ -more than painters, have made shipwreck. In order to bring out his story -with the utmost possible distinctness, he was too frequently compelled -unduly to accentuate his point. The effect became affected, the pathos -theatrical. His picture of the "Father's Curse" in the Louvre, with the -infuriated old man, the son hurrying wildly away, and the weeping -sisters, resembles the last act of a melodrama. "The Country Wedding," -where the father-in-law has given the young bridegroom the purse with -the dowry, and now pathetically observes, "Take it, and be happy," might -just as well have been entitled "The Father's Last Blessing." In the -picture in which a noble dame takes her daughter to the bedside of two -poor persons who are ill, to accustom her in early life to works of -charity, the personages in the picture, arranged exactly as if upon a -stage, must have been themselves uncommonly moved by the touching and -praiseworthy action. Greuze was the father of _genre_ painting in -France--that barbaric, story-telling art which replaced _tableaux -vivants_ based upon the literary idea by the Dutchmen's picturesque and -well-observed selections from nature. Beyond that, however, it must not -be forgotten that he, like Hogarth, psychologically opposed to the -earlier art, showed practical progress in many of his works. There were -few in French art before him who depicted the emotions of the soul with -such refinement as Greuze in his "Reading of the Bible." In proportion -to the understanding and character of the individual is the impression -of the listener reflected on his countenance. That was something new in -comparison with the laughing gods of Boucher. And that Greuze was also -capable of the most highly _pictorial_ magic when he could once bring -himself to lay aside the moral teacher is proved by his rosy, inspired -heads of young girls. He never grew weary of painting these pretty -children in every situation and attitude at that seductive age which -hides the charming feet beneath the first long gown. Blonde or brunette, -with a blue ribbon in the hair, a little cluster of flowers in the -bodice, they gaze out upon life with their big, brown child eyes, full -of curiosity and misgiving. A light gauze covers the soft lines of the -neck, the shoulders are as yet hardly rounded, the pouting lips are -fresh as the morning dew, and only the two rosy, budding breasts, that -fight lustily against their imprisonment, and seem, like Sterne's -starling, to cry, "I cannot get out," betray that the woman is already -awake in the child. Greuze's name will always be associated with these -girl types, just as that of Leonardo is with the dreamy, smiling -sphinx-like head of Mona Lisa. In them he has given an unsurpassable -expression to the ideal of innocence at the end of the eighteenth -century, and provided in them a new thrill of beauty for his -contemporaries. And a _blasé_ society which had indulged in every -licence bathed itself with passionate delight in the unknown mystery of -this surging flood. Yes, after the stimulating champagne of _rococo_, -people had even come to delight in simple black bread. And so, out of -_bourgeoisie_ itself, a school of painting was developed as fresh and -healthy as this. - -[Illustration: _"Gaz. des Beaux Arts."_ - - CHARDIN. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -_Chardin_, the carpenter's son, is at the head of this domestic art in -the eighteenth century. After Greuze, the painter of refined taste, he -seems, a comfortable, healthy, _bourgeois_ master in whom the Dutchman -of the best period once more appears upon earth. - -After the king had, up to the close of the seventeenth century, been the -centre round which everything turned, the solitary personality which -dared to appear independent, and upon which the rest of the world formed -itself; after the circles round the court had next freed themselves, and -gained the right to enjoy life and art for themselves, there still -remained a third step to surmount. "Society" abdicates in favour of a -free and healthy _bourgeoisie_. - -A surgeon's sign was the first work which brought the young man, who had -received no systematic education, into notice. The surgeon is in his -shop attending to a man who has been wounded in a duel, grouped around -are curious bystanders, while the commissary of police investigates the -case with a grave countenance. It is the first picture of the Parisian -life of the people. And Chardin, with his middle-class origin, remained -the advocate of middle-class domestic life. He is the Watteau of the -Third Estate. Greuze owes his success, in the first place, to the -ingenious manner in which he made himself the spokesman of the moral -tendency of his age. It interested contemporary society to be told that -it is beautiful to see married folk live together in happiness; that -young mothers do a good action in nursing their children, when it is -possible, themselves; that man should repent of his sins; and that he -who honours his father and mother lives long in the land. Nowadays we -thank him for these wise counsels, but say, at the same time, that we -could have done without them. We no longer see the necessity of -illustrating the ten commandments, and notice now all the more the -mannerisms, the rhetorical strokes of advocacy which the painter must -employ in order to plead successfully. Chardin's effect is as fresh -to-day as it was a hundred years ago, because he was a sheer artist, who -did not seek to tell a story, but only to represent,--a realist of the -finest stamp, belonging in his exquisite sense of colour values to the -illustrious family of the Terburgs. His pictures have no "purpose." The -washerwoman, the woman scraping carrots, the housewife at her manifold -tasks--that is Chardin's world; the atmosphere in which these figures -move, the shimmering light that floats in the half-dark kitchen, the -wealth of sun-rays that play upon the white tablecloths and -brown-panelled walls--those are his fields of study. Chardin lived in an -old studio, high up near the roof, a quiet, dark room that was usually -full of vegetables which he used for his "still life." There was -something picturesque about the dusty walls where the moist green of -vegetables mingled so harmoniously with the time-worn, sombre brown of -the wainscoting, and the white table-cloth was flooded with the silvery -green which poured in from a little skylight. In this peaceful and -harmoniously toned chamber were laid those small domestic scenes, which -he so loved to paint, and which were called by the French, in contrast -to the _Fétes Galantes_, "_Amusements de la Vie Privée_." The clock -ticks, the lamp burns, water is boiling on the homely tiled stove. There -is an effect in every one of his pictures, as though he had lived them -himself, as if they were reminiscences of something dear to him and -familiar. In contrast to Greuze he shunned all critical moments, and -depicted only the quiet life of custom, everyday life as it befell in a -constant, regular routine. There are no hasty movements with him, no -catastrophes nor complications; he has a preference for "still life" in -the world of men, just as in nature. He is _par excellence_ the painter -of _Intimität_ (intimate life); which is not the same as _a genre_ -painter. Painters who in the manner of _genre_ have depicted domestic -scenes in rooms are to be found in every school; but how few have known -how to depict the poetry of the family life with such truth, with such -an absence of affectation and insipidity! With Chardin art and life -are interfused. - -[Illustration: J. B. S. CHARDIN THE HOUSE OF CARDS] - -[Illustration: CHARDIN. GRACE BEFORE MEAT.] - -No Dutchman, however, had penetrated into the nursery. Chardin, in -surprising the child-world at their games, in their joys and sorrows, -has opened out to art a new province. And with what affectionate -devotion has he not absorbed himself in the spirit of the little people! -I know of no one before him who has painted the unconscious spiritual -life of the child with such discreet tenderness: the little hands that -grasp at something, the lips that a mother would like to kiss, the -dreamy wide-open young eyes. In this Chardin is a master. It is not only -obvious expressions of joy and sorrow, but those refined shades, so -difficult to seize, of observation, thoughtfulness, consideration, calm -reflection, quaintness, obstinacy or sulking, which he analyses in the -eyes of the child. There is the little girl playing with her doll, and -lavishing on her all the love and care of a tender mother. There is an -elderly, half-grown-up little lady teaching her younger brother the -mysteries of the alphabet. Then come the games and the tasks. They build -card-houses, blow bubbles, or are wholly engrossed in their -drawing-books and home-lessons. How attentive the little girl is whose -mother has just given her her first embroidery materials. How charmingly -embarrassed is the small boy whom she hears his lesson. And what trouble -she takes in the morning, that her darling shall be clean and tidy when -he goes to school. In one picture the cap on the little girl's head is -crooked, and her mother is putting it straight, whilst the child with a -pretty pride is peeping curiously in the glass. Again, there is the boy -just saying good-bye. He is neat and well combed; his playthings, too, -have been nicely tidied up, and his books are under his arm. His mother -takes his three-cornered hat off again in order to brush it properly. -When school is over, you see them sitting at dinner. The table is laid -with a snow-white cloth, and the cook is just bringing in a steaming -dish. It is touching to see how prettily the small boy clasps his hands -and says his grace. And when they are again off to afternoon school the -mother sits alone. She looks charming in her simple house-dress, with -the loose sleeves, her clean white apron and kerchief, her striped -petticoat and coquettish cap. Soon she takes her embroidery on her lap -and stoops forward to take a ball of wool out of her basket. Next she -sits before the fire in a cosy corner against a folding screen. A -half-opened book rests in her hand, a tea-cup stands close by, a homely -atmosphere of the living room hovers round her. Then, like a true -housewife, she takes up her house-keeping book, or goes into the kitchen -to help the cook, while she scrapes carrots or scrubs the cooking -utensils or brings in the meat from the larder. It is all rendered with -such truth and simplicity that one acquires an affection for Chardin, -who with his art got to the root of family life and bestowed upon it the -subtlest gifts of observation and generous comprehension, while none the -less his domesticity never became commonplace. - -[Illustration: DANIEL CHODOWIECKI.] - -His contemporary, _Étienne Jeurat_, painted scenes at country fairs, and -_Jean Baptiste le Prince_ pictures of guardrooms and similar subjects. -In Holland _Cornelis Troost_ went on parallel lines with him. He -depicted the life of his age and of his nation--comic scenes, banquets, -weddings, and the like--in pastels or water colours, and that without -seeking inspiration from any of the Dutch classics, but with a vivid, -intelligent comprehension. Even Italian art ended in two "_genre_ -painters," the Venetians Rotari and Pietro Longhi, who have bequeathed -to us such charming little pictures of the life of that -age--fortune-tellers, dancing-masters, tailors, apothecaries, little -boys and girls at play or at their tasks. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - CHODOWIECKI. THE FAMILY PICTURE.] - -Germany presented no such great manifestation as Chardin, although there -too the tendency was the same. There too, after the devastation of the -Thirty Years' War, a moral, active _bourgeoisie_ had at last sprung up -that was prepared to take up the line which had been already laid down -by the English. Lessing was the first in this magnificent struggle for -evolution. He wrote, in his _Miss Sarah Sampson_, the first German -tragedy without the support of great mythical or historical heroes, and -without the stiff ponderousness of the Alexandrine. He declared, like -Moore, that helmets and diadems do not make tragic heroes; he even in -his _Minna_ set vividly before the eyes of his contemporaries something -in the immediate present, the Seven Years' War. And just as Lessing -liberated the German drama from the jurisdiction of Boileau, so art -began to mutiny against the classicism which had come in through the -medium of France, and which had been inherited from the age when it was -the pride of German courts to be small copies of Versailles. - -"How exceedingly abhorrent to me are our berouged puppet painters," -cries the young Goethe, in his essay on German style and art, "I could -not sufficiently protest; they have caught the eyes of the women with -theatrical poses, false complexions, and gaudy costumes; the wood -engravings of manly old Albrecht Dürer, at whom tyros scoff, are more -welcome to me.... Only where intimacy and simplicity exist is all -artistic vigour to be found, and woe to the artist who leaves his hut to -squander himself in academic halls of state." - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - CHODOWIECKI. ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF WOMEN.] - -_Daniel Chodowiecki_, with all his commonplaceness, is a genuine -expression of this phase of German art. He in Germany, Hogarth in -England, and Chardin in France, are products of the same tendency of the -age. After Lessing had produced in _Minna_ the first domestic German -tragedy, Chodowiecki, following the road of Hogarth and Chardin, was -able to become the painter of the German middle class. He is not a -master of such penetrating strength as they were, but he is no less an -artist of notable merit. He is certainly no genius--in fact almost a -handicraftsman, sober and philistine, but, like Hogarth, a self-made man -who in his whole artistic and personal outlook was rooted in the soil of -his city and of his age. Berlin society of that day was the basis of his -art, the daily life of house and street his domain. He began by -illustrating poems and depicting scenes out of the _Seven Years' War_ -and the _History of Charles the Great_, and went on from that to the -pleasant, homely life of the small _bourgeoisie_. Himself of the middle -classes, he chiefly worked for them, and with his sensitive and -dexterous graving tool he kept the liveliest and most exhaustive -chronicle of the German _bourgeoisie_ of that age. At times almost too -reasonable and prosaic, a genuine Nicolai, he has in other plates an -enchanting freshness, and--which should not be forgotten--is more of an -artist than Hogarth, since he is neither moralist nor satirist. His -object, without any moral after-thought, was the true and kindly -observation of life as displayed in the world around him. He took the -wholly naïve delight of the genuine artist in turning everything he saw -into a picture. These chronicles of his have some, it may be but a -particle, of the spirit of Dürer. Simultaneously, the young _Tischbein_ -delved into the past of the nation, the age of Conradin and the -Hohenstaufen, with the intention of finding there the simplicity which -the academic pictures had come to lack; and, later on, he painted in -Hamburg extremely realistic historical pictures of his own period, such -as that which is to be found in the Oldenburg Gallery: "Entry of General -Benigsen into Hamburg, 1814." He did good work too as a portrait -painter. In his best picture, "Goethe amongst the Ruins of Rome," the -head of the poet is energetic and full of strength, the colouring of an -excellent clear grey. - -In portrait painting in general, the revolution is reflected with -especial clearness. The artificial manner that had been copied from the -seventeenth century, the age of long perukes, gives way, slowly but -surely, to an ever-growing naturalness, simplicity, and originality. At -that time, while the spirit of Louis XIV still hovered over everything, -the passion of the individual to be king in his own sphere had -penetrated into the family. The honest citizen, therefore, would not let -himself be painted as such, but only as a prince,--he, himself, in gala -dress, with a pompous air, as stately as though he were giving an -audience to the spectator, his wife in silk and gold and lace; she has a -great mantle of state worn loose over her shoulders and hips, and looks -down with an assumption of grandeur on her grandchild, who is half -respectful and half inclined to make fun. The frame is as rich as the -costume, and probably bears a crown. We are with difficulty persuaded -that these are pictures of simple citizens, that the man, apart from the -hours during which he sat to the painter, is an industrious tradesman, -and the wife, glancing out so haughtily, most probably darned his -stockings. Their portraits seem to form part of an ancestral gallery. - -This age of princely state was followed by that of fraternity. In place -of berouged and postured portraits with allegorical accessories, there -appeared simple, unpretentious likenesses of human beings in their -work-a-day clothes; in place of stiff attitudes, _genre_ motives with -the easy naturalness of everyday life. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - CHODOWIECKI. THE MORNING COMPLIMENT.] - -In Berlin, ever since 1709, _Antoine Pesne_ had been for half a century -the centre of artistic life, and in his works the revolution may be -traced. Something familiar and intimate takes the place of that stately -pomp. The princes, hitherto, had liked to be represented in mediæval -armour or antique equipment; Pesne painted them in the costume of the -time. And in his portraits of his friends and his family circle he has -been still more unconstrained. There is the charming picture of 1718, in -the New Palace at Potsdam, which shows the painter himself with his wife -and his two children; the portrait of Schmidt the engraver, in the -Berlin Museum; and the beautiful picture of 1754 in the collection of -Colonel Von Berke, at Schemnitz, which depicts him again at the age of -seventy-one with his two daughters. Pesne is revealed in these -characteristic portraits, as well as in his character pictures in the -Dresden Gallery ("The Girl with the Pigeons," 1728, "The Cook with the -Turkey-hen," 1712), as a thoroughly sane and strong realist, of a kind -which became almost extinct in Berlin a hundred years later. - -In the next generation, in the _Sturm-und-Drang_ period, _Anton Graff_, -the Swiss, took the lead with his simple, domestic, honest, real -portraits. It was a happy disposition of fate that Graff's activity -just corresponded with the great period of the awakening of intellectual -life in Germany, that Lessing and Schiller, Bodmer and Gessner, Wieland -and Herder, Bürger and Gellert, Christian Gottfried Körner and Lippert, -Moses Mendelssohn and Sulzer, and a long succession of other poets and -scholars of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, -found in him a portrait painter whose quick and agile hand left us their -features in the truest and most authentic manner. What and how robust -his art is, how clear and plastic the execution of the heads, how adroit -and infallible the technique! - -Besides Graff, there worked in Dresden _Christian Leberecht Vogel_, -likewise a most independent, picturesque, and sensitive artist, who, if -only for his pictures of children, deserves a place of honour in the -history of art in the eighteenth century. In the portrait of his two -boys, in the Dresden Gallery, the naïveté of child-life is observed with -such tenderness and rendered with such vigour as only Reynolds -understood. The boys are sitting close together on the ground. One, in a -brown frock, is holding a book on his knees, which the other, in a red -frock, with a whip in his hand, is looking at. The thoughtful expression -of the little ones is quite charming; the execution broad and strong, -the colour treatment delightful and tender. - -In Munich lived the excellent _Johann Edlinger_, the most industrious of -these sturdy masters, who were so modest and yet so capable. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - CHODOWIECKI. THE ARTIST'S NURSERY.] - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux Arts._ - - ANTOINE PESNE. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF AND DAUGHTERS.] - -In the domain of landscape the Continent produced no one who could be -compared with Gainsborough; but here, too, the English influence made -itself felt. It can be traced how the same feeling for nature which had -given birth to Thomson's _Seasons_ and Gainsborough's landscapes, -afterwards found expression in France and Germany, and dissipated the -prevailing taste in gardens. The seventeenth century--with the exception -of the Dutch--had set nature in order with the garden shears. As Lebrun -in his historical compositions endeavoured to outdo the Italians, so -Lenôtre's garden style exemplified the perfection and exaggeration of -the gardens of the Italian Renaissance, which themselves again were laid -out on the plan of the old Roman gardens from existing descriptions. A -garden reminded one more of state apartments, which one could only walk -through with measured steps, quietly and respectfully, than of nature, -where one is, and dares to be, human. Corresponding to this formally -planned, correctly measured style of garden there was a school of -landscape which improved nature on "artistic" principles, and, by the -arrangement of bits of nature, produced a world peculiarly full of -style. Landscapes were nicely laid-out parks, which, like the figure -pictures, made for an abstract beauty of mass and lines, and which, by -means of accessories, such as classical ruins, would turn one's thought -to the ancient world. Nature must not, as Batteux taught, be the -instructor of the artist, but the artist must select the parts and build -up his picture. Out of many leaves he takes only the most perfectly -developed, puts only such perfect leaves on one tree, and so obtains a -perfect tree. Let the essential of his production be _nature choisie_, a -selection of objects that "are capable of producing agreeable -impressions"; his aim "_le beau vrai qui est représenté comme s'il -existait réellement et avec toutes les perfections qu'il peut -recevoir_." The eighteenth century went back from this "noble," -improved nature, step by step to the divine beauty of unimproved nature; -just as those masters untouched by the Romans, Dürer and Altdorfer, -Titian and Rubens, Brouwer and Velasquez, had painted her. The great -Watteau, too, was here for the most part in advance of his age, in that, -instead of the stiffly designed stage scenery of Poussin, he gave -Elysian landscapes,--abodes of love, that now glisten in the sunshine of -the young morning, now are suffused with golden light and the misty -shadows of the evening twilight. The rose in her young bud is odorous, -the nightingale sings, the doves coo, the light boughs whisper to the -soft west wind, bright silver rivulets ripple, the wind sighs through -the tall branches. Watteau knew nature and loved her, and rendered her -in her transparent beauty with the intoxicated eyes of a lover. The -spirit of nature, not of humanity, dominates in his pictures. It is only -because nature is so lovely that man is so happy. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ _Photo, Mansell._ - - WATTEAU. THE MUSIC PARTY.] - -But still more modern is the effect, when instead of painting Elysian -landscapes with happy inhabitants, he drew mere bits of rural nature, -poor solitary regions in the neighbourhood of big towns, where -bricklayers are working on the scaffolding of some house, or peasants -are riding with their horses over some stony byway. Out of a number of -spirited drawings, this side of his perception in landscape is -especially notable in the picture in the New Palace at Potsdam, in the -left background of which a small stream flows past a farmhouse, whilst -in front a peasant is laboriously dragging a two-wheeled cart over the -rough ground. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ _Photo, Mansell._ - - WATTEAU. THE RETURN FROM THE CHASE.] - -It is interesting to observe, at that time, after Watteau and his -English predecessors, the widespread growth of this new feeling for -nature. Thomson was followed by Rousseau, who, on his lonely wanderings, -looked with moved eyes at "the gold of the corn crop, the purple of the -heather, the majesty of the trees, and the wonderful variety of flowers -and grasses." He delighted in the blossoming of spring, the copses and -rivulets, the song of birds, shady woods, and the landscapes of autumn, -where the reapers and vine-dressers were working. He is the author of -that lively feeling for nature that henceforth was aroused through the -whole of Europe. A breath of pure mountain air, a wholesome draught of -fresh water from Lake Leman, were brought suddenly into the sultry -atmosphere of salons, and filled people's hearts with a new and charming -sensation when Rousseau's works appeared. It was over with all efforts -of "stylists" as soon as Rousseau declared that everything was good just -as it came out of the lap of the universal mother, nature. - -[Illustration: WATTEAU. FÊTE CHAMPÈTRE.] - -Goethe, the pupil of Rousseau, presages, in his whole conception of -nature, something of the manifestation of the school of Fontainebleau. -He had something of Daubigny when, as Werther, he lies on the bank of -the stream and looks down thoughtfully at the worms and small -insects. He makes one think of Dupré or Corot when he says: "As nature -declines upon autumn, within me and around me it grows autumn"; or, "I -could not now draw so much as a stroke, and I have never been a greater -painter than at the present moment"; or, "Never have I been happier, nor -has my perception of nature, down to the pebble or the grass beneath me, -been fuller and more intimate. Yet,--I know not how I can express -myself, everything swims and oscillates before my soul, so that I can -seize no outline. A great, shadowy whole waves before my soul, my -perception grows indistinct before it, even as my eyes do." - -[Illustration: GESSNER. LANDSCAPE (ETCHING).] - -Thus were the French gardens delivered by the English. Just as figure -painting renounced lofty, architectural, formal composition, so those -bisected and upholstered gardens were supplanted by irregular and, as it -were, accidental bits of nature. People took no more trouble, in -Rousseau's phrase, "to dishonour nature by seeking to beautify her," but -laid out gardens in harmony with Goethe's remark in _Werther_: "A -feeling heart, not a scientific art of gardening, suggested the plan." -Close to Versailles, near the box-tree patterns of Lenôtre, lay the -Petit Trianon, with its pond, its brook, and its dairy, where the -unfortunate Marie Antoinette used to dream. And if painting still -loitered on its preliminary return to nature, that only implied that the -great artists--they only came in 1830!--were not yet born. Great artists -can only raise themselves on the shoulders of their predecessors, whose -value lies in their utility. The French landscapes of the eighteenth -century, seen in the light of historical development, are of no -importance; but, nevertheless, they gave a considerable stimulus in -that they sought to animate the style of Poussin with a closer -perception of nature. Hubert Robert is certainly strongly decorative, -but he has a light touch; one cannot take him at his word, but he is -intelligent, and has sometimes grey and green tones that are soft and -beautiful. Joseph Vernet painted coast scenery, views of harbours, -storms at sea, likewise with decorative, superficial effects of light; -he let flashes of lightning streak black clouds, sun-rays dance over -lightly ruffled waves, silver moonshine play mysteriously upon the -water, and caused conflagrations to break out and red flames to shoot up -to heaven. He is somewhat inane and motley in his colouring. But he had -ceased to see in the parts of nature nothing but materials for the -construction of nicely fitting scenery. He no longer attempted to speak -to the reason by means of lines, but to touch the soul through humour, -and he employed in his scenery not only buildings and ruins, gods and -ancient shepherds, but also modern groups of every kind. - -In Switzerland, the charming etchings and water-colours of _Solomon -Gessner_ must be especially mentioned. Ludwig Richter, indeed, pointed -them out as the eighteenth century works which, after the engravings of -Chodowiecki, he loved the best. Gessner venerated Claude, and had an -enthusiasm for Poussin, but his pictures have no traces of the lofty -style of the heroic school of landscape. He sketched his native meadows, -trees, and brooks; he loved all that was small and secluded and cosy, -arbours and hedges, quiet little gardens and idyllic nooks. He -approached everything with a very childlike and faithful observation of -nature. A second Swiss, Ludwig Hess, dedicated a similar subtile sense -of nature and loving zeal as much to his native Switzerland as to the -Roman Campagna. - -[Illustration: GESSNER. LANDSCAPE (ETCHING).] - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - GUARDI. VENICE.] - -The German _Philip Hackert_ has been prejudiced rather than profited by -the monument which Goethe erected to him. As Goethe's enthusiasm was not -in due proportion with Hackert's importance, he ceased later to attract -attention, though this he did not merit, as he was always a vigorous and -healthy landscape painter. He did not see nature with the tender -sensibility of the Swiss. He looked at a landscape somewhat insipidly, -as Chodowiecki at his models. But his drawing is sober, the atmosphere -of his pictures clear and fresh; he cannot be tedious in his -composition. In Dresden there lived Johann Alexander Thiele, who roamed -through Thüringen and Mecklenburg as a landscape painter. Even in Italy -landscapes were the most independent performances which the eighteenth -century had brought forth there. There worked in Rome the Netherlander, -Vanvitelli, who depicted in graceful water-colours Roman and Neapolitan -street life; and Giovanni Paolo Pannini, the _peintre des fêtes -publiques_, in whose pictures groups of richly coloured figures moved -through splendid palaces. Venice was the home of the Canaletti. In -_Antonio Canale's_ town pictures of Venice, Rome, and London there is at -once so subtle an atmospheric movement, the water is so clear, the air -so transparent, that even if they represent mere streets and buildings, -they yet leave an impression of landscape achieved in a broad, pictorial -method. _Bernardo Canaletto_ produces an effect by the fine, cool, damp -light of his northern studies even simpler and more intimate, while by -his discovery that sunshine does not--as it was hitherto believed--gild -but silver the object it falls on, he became one of the fathers of -realistic landscape. The most ingenious, however, of the school of -Canale, not to say one of the cleverest landscape painters of the -century, was _Francesco Guardi_. Antonio Canale was a great artist, and -shows it never better than in his distinguished etchings, but as a -painter he interests the collector more than the connoisseur. There his -qualities are too often petrified into an excessive formality; he shows -something too much of the _camera obscura_. Guardi is ingenious and -startling. Where you have accuracy in Canale, in him you find spirit. -Canale shows us the real Venice, Guardi shows it as we have dreamed it -to be. He has not Canale's knowledge of perspective and architecture, -but he fascinates us. He is a musician and a poet whose palette resounds -with the purest harmonies. In his pictures the whole seductive legend of -the fallen Queen of the Adriatic abides. Garlanded gondolas glide -peaceful and fairy-like, majestic as vessels in some distant wonderland, -over the clear, green water of the canals, beneath the high, marble -palaces, which mirror their columns and balconies, their arches and -their loggias in the stream. Foreign ambassadors pass in great state -through the Piazza di San Marco; all that proud, Venetian nobility -greets them; and thick throngs of people in their Sunday attire move to -and fro beneath the Hall of the Procuration. Gay bands of musicians row -along the Piazzetta and the Riva. A moist breeze sweeps over the water; -the sunshine, now subdued and mellow, now dancing coquettishly, plays -upon the water or on the houses. Francesco Guardi, the magician of -Venice, is an animated, exquisite, always ingenious _improvisatore_, -strong as few others are in the direct transference of his personal -impression to canvas. Every stroke of his brush takes effect,--in each -one of his pictures one sees the nervous exaltation of the hand; and -that gives him a power of attraction which, compared with Canale, is -like that of the clay model, in which the hand of the sculptor is still -perceptible, compared with the cold, marble statue. - -Even Spain, which, except for the colossal figure of Velasquez, had so -far produced no painters of landscape--even Spain, after the middle of -the century, turned into this road. _Don Pedro Rodriguez de Miranda_ -painted his broad, clear, and vigorously observed highland studies; _Don -Mariano Ramon Sanchez_ his small views of towns and harbours. - -And, as in England, hand in hand with that came paintings of animals. - -In France, _François Canova_ was working, the painter of huge battle -scenes and small pictures of animals; _Jean Louis de Marne_, who was -famous for his cattle, market scenes, village pictures, and the like; -and the great _Jean Baptiste Oudry_, who painted with breadth and -freedom animals alive and dead, wild and tame, still-life of every kind. -In Augsburg lived _Johann Elias Riedinger_, whose field of activity -embraced the entire animal world, dogs and horses, stags and roes, wild -boars, chamois, bears, lions, tigers, elephants, and the -hippopotamus--which he depicted with fine observation, both in their -proud solitude and at strife with men. - -If we cast one more glance back to the road which art had travelled -since the commencement of the century, we can have no doubt as to the -end which was proportionately aimed at in all countries. Until quite -recently a courtly, aristocratic art had shed its light upon the whole -of Europe. In the seventeenth century the Dutch alone had maintained -their isolation. They who entered fresh into art, and had to break with -no tradition, gave at that time the first expression to the new spirit, -in that they resolutely recalled art from its courtly surroundings to -the humbler dwellings of the middle classes. They _painted_ what Dürer -and the "little masters" had only graved upon wood blocks and copper -plates. Still, they wished to paint these things less for their own -sakes than because so intimate a light was shed upon them. Through -elements of light they contrived to cast over everyday moments a sort of -fairy inspiration. Watteau and his successors made a further advance in -the conquest of the visible world, in that they desired to paint their -age, for its own sake, in all its grace; and by the middle of the -century we find this new, intimate, familiar art, independent of ancient -tradition, triumphing all along the line. "Sublime" painting is more and -more forsaken. Art becomes more and more indigenous to her world and -age. Aristocratic Watteau is succeeded by Hogarth, Greuze, Chardin, and -Chodowiecki, who treat the Third Estate no longer in the Dutch -_chiaroscuro_, but in all its heavy reality as a valid object of art. -Instead of that lofty, majestic, vainglorious painting of mere -representations, which was the outcome of Cinquecento, and which at the -expiration of the seventeenth century had sunk, through abstraction, -into something uniform, trivial, and tedious, there appeared on all -sides an art which was simple and sincere, which plunged into the life -of every day, observed man in his relations with nature, with his -fellows, with his faithful animals, and with his household goods--an art -which created the variety of its representations out of its own -experience. So with landscape, the most modern branch of art; it reached -in the schools of all nations a greater significance--at least, in -extent--than it had ever possessed in the history of art. And this -development proceeded without its being established that any one country -had direct influence on any other. The ideas hung in the atmosphere; -they were the ideas of the century. It is as though the departing age -would hold a mirror before us--a magic mirror--which foretells the -future; as though it would point out that nineteenth century art, -advancing further along this road, should be domestic-human, and that it -should find in landscape its most appropriate expression. - -It was not given to painting to proceed straight forward in this course, -for through favour, partly of the changed current of literature, partly -of the revolution, the flame of reactionary classicism shot up brightly -once more before it expired. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE CLASSICAL REACTION IN GERMANY - - -A hundred years ago there lived a man of the name of Asmus Carstens; and -he was the pioneer and founder of the new German art. That has become -since Fernow a standing maxim in manuals of the history of art. -Dilettantism, however, is not an element, but an end. It is on this -account, therefore, that later times will see in Carstens, not a -pioneer, but only one of the close followers of that tendency of which -the founders were the brothers Caracci, and the offshoots Lebrun, -Lairesse, and Van der Werff. It is, at all events, historically clear -that Hogarth and Gainsborough, Watteau, Greuze, Chardin, and Goya were -the men to whom the future belonged. Their art survived the overthrow of -the Classicalism represented by Mengs and Carstens, which, through -external circumstances, once more got the upper hand for a short time, -and it became the foundation on which, after the disappearance of this -tendency inherited from the past, the moderns built further. The former -represented progress, because they moved forwards; Carstens and David, -reaction, because they looked backwards--backwards to an age which had -long ago been buried. - -There is always danger to a living art in the contact with any great art -of the past. Only those who are themselves highly gifted may hope to -emulate the great ones of the earlier centuries; lesser geniuses perish -in the attempt. Painters like Leonardo and Raphael, like Titian and -Poussin, taking the Greeks as their masters, produced immortal works, -and Goethe and Schiller proved to us that the Hellenic spirit is still -alive and active in our midst. But would anyone dare to mention Mengs -and Carstens in the same breath with these giants? - -The close of the eighteenth century was a period of antiquarian revival. -The ruins of Pæstum had been brought to light, Greek vases and Roman -monuments had become known to the public by the works of Hamilton and -Piranesi. In 1762 Stuart and Revett published their splendid work on the -_Antiquities of Athens_. To a German, however, was to fall the honour of -becoming the hero of the archæological period. The _History of Ancient -Art_, by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, appeared in 1764, and this writer -devoted his literary energies to the hymning of the glories of the -re-discovered treasures of antiquity. In the realm of pictorial art he -may also be looked upon as the chosen of fate. Already, nine years -before the appearance of his _History of_ _Art_, he had given, at the -age of thirty-eight, his first writing to the world, _Thoughts upon the -Imitation of Greek Works_, in which the reformation motive is epitomised -in this sentence: "The sole means for us to become--ay, if possible, -inimitably great--is the imitation of the ancients." - -From Winckelmann the stone kept on rolling. "In Greek sculpture the -painter can attain to the most sublime conception of beauty, and learn -what he must lend to nature in order to give dignity and propriety to -his imitation," writes Solomon Gessner in 1759. In 1762 Hagedorn of -Dresden deplored, in his _Treatise on Painting_, that "Terburg and Metsu -never showed us fair Andromache amongst her industrious women, instead -of Dutch sempstresses." In 1766 Lessing wrote his _Laocoön_, and, like -Winckelmann, saw in the sculpture of the Greeks the ideal to be -imitated. From this point forward he despised landscape and _genre_ -painting, and especially everything which illustrates intimate emotions -and actions, and would confine the composition of pictures to an -arrangement of two or three "ideal figures which please by physical -beauty." Soon afterwards, with almost astonishing partiality, Goethe -intervened in a notable manner on behalf of Classicism with the most -flagrant contradiction of the ideas of his youth. "Nature alone," he had -said in _Werther_, "makes the great artist"; and in his essay upon -_German Method and Art_ he aimed this sentence at Winckelmann and his -followers: "You yourselves, admirable beings, to whom it was given to -enjoy the highest beauty, you are hurtful to genius; it will be raised -up and borne along on no strange wings, were they even the wings of the -dawn." In the same essay occurs the beautiful passage: "If art is -produced out of an inward, single, independent conception, untroubled -by, unconscious indeed, of, all that is extraneous, then whether she be -born of rough wildness or of cultivated sensibility, she is complete and -living." Soon afterwards he wrote again these great words: "Rembrandt -appears to me in his biblical subjects as a true saint who saw God -present everywhere, at every step, in the chamber and in the fields, and -did not need the surrounding pomp of temples and sacrifices to feel -drawn towards Him,"--an observation made at a time when the academic and -erudite writer on art was still for years to perceive in the biblical -pictures of the great Dutchman only a crude conception of form. In -another passage, upon the frescoes of Mantegna, in the Church of the -Anchorite, at Padua, there occur the following sentences, showing the -deepest historical perception: "How sharp and sure a modernity stands -out in these pictures! From this modernity, which is quite real, and not -merely seeming, with factitious effects, speaking only to the -imaginative faculty, but solid, detailed, and conscientiously -circumscribed, and which at the same time has something austere and -industrious and painstaking--from this issued subsequent painters such -as Titian; and now the liveliness of their genius, the energy of their -nature, enlightened by the spirit of their predecessors, built up -through their strength, was able to soar ever higher and higher, to rise -from earth and create divine but real figures." But, alas! later on he -did not draw the conclusion which followed quite logically from these -observations for the judgment of contemporary German art. He came back -from Italy as a disciple and follower of Winckelmann's writings on art. -"Art has once for all, like the works of Homer, been written in Greek, -and he deceives himself who believes that it is German." - -Something pagan entered into his soul, a breath from the calm of -Olympus. He derided his earlier Gothic inclinations, contemptuous of all -that was opposed to Greek notions of form, mild and indulgent to all -that bore at least the outward semblance of the antique. He preferred a -cold ideal manner to what was natural, and held Greek art the absolutely -valid model. From it should be derived a fixed canon, a table of -accepted laws, to be the standard for the artist of our own days, and of -every age. The _Prize Essays_, which he published with Heinrich Meyer in -the _Propyläen_, and later in the _Jena Literary Journal_, required the -treatment of subjects exclusively from the Hellenic legendary cycles, -"whereby the artist should become accustomed to come out from his own -age and surroundings"; the composition of pictures was to correspond -strictly with the style of the antique frieze. - -Amongst his contemporaries voices were not wanting to point out how -fatal this programme was. Notably, Wilhelm Heinse, in 1776, wrote this -golden sentence: "Art can only direct itself to the people with whom it -lives. Every one works for the people amongst whom fate has thrown him, -and seeks to plumb its heart. Every country has its own distinctive art, -just as it has its own climate, its scenery, its own taste, and its own -drink." - -Similarly, Klopstock opposed Winckelmann's theories in these lines-- - - "Nachahmen soll ich nicht und dennoch nennet, - Dein ewig Lob nur immer Griechenland. - Wem Genius in seinem Busen brennet, - Der ahm' den Griechen nach!--der Griech' erfand." - -Again, in the _German Republic of Letters_, in the chapter "On High -Treason": "It is high treason for any one to maintain that the Greeks -cannot be surpassed." In a letter to Goethe, in the year 1800, Schiller -wrote: "The antique was a manifestation of its age which can never -return, and to force the individual production of an individual age -after the pattern of one quite heterogeneous, is to kill that art which -can only have a dynamic origin and effect." Madame de Staël, in her book -on _Germany_, says: "If nowadays the fine arts should be confined to the -simplicity of the ancients, we should not then be able to attain to the -original strength which distinguished them, while we should lose that -intimate, composite feeling for life which is especially found in us. -Simplicity in art would easily turn with the moderns into coldness and -affectation, whereas with the ancients it was full of life." In 1797 -Counsellor Hirth published in Schiller's _Horæ_ his well-known treatise -on _Beauty in Art_, which, in opposition to the inanimate type of beauty -of Winckelmann, upheld the characteristic as the first principle in art. -Most remarkable, however, is the breadth of historical outlook which was -peculiar to Herder, and the stern actuality with which in his _Plastik_, -and in the _Vierten_ _Kritischen Wäldchen_, he turned against "those -pitiful critics, those wretched and narrow rules of art, that -bitter-sweet prattle of universal beauty, through which the younger -generation is being ruined, which is nauseating to the master, and -which, nevertheless, the rabble of connoisseurs takes in its mouth as -words of wisdom.... Shadows and sunrise, lightning and thunder, the -brook and the flame the sculptor cannot model; but is that therefore to -be a reason why it should not be done by the painter? What other law has -painting, what other power and function, than to depict the great scheme -of nature with all her manifestations, in their great and beautiful -aspect? And with what magic it does this! They are not clever who -despise landscape painting, the fragments of nature of the great harmony -of creation, who depreciate it or entirely forbid it to the sincere -artist. Is a painter not to be a painter? Is he to turn statues with his -brush, and fiddle with his colours, just as it may please their antique -taste? To represent the scheme of creation seems vulgar to them; just as -though heaven and earth were not better than an old statue.... Doubtless -Greek sculpture stands in the sea of time like a lighthouse, but it -should be only a friend and not a commander. Painting is a scheme of -magic, as vast as the world and as history, and certainly not every -figure in it can or ought to be a statue. In a picture no single figure -is everything; and if they are all equally beautiful, no one then is -beautiful any longer. They become a dull monotony of long-limbed Greek -figures with straight noses, who all stand there and parade and take as -little part in the action as possible. Now, when this misrepresentation -of beauty cries scorn at the same time upon the whole conception, upon -history, upon character, upon action, and this openly attacks that as a -lie, there comes a discord, something insupportable, into painting, -which certainly the antique pedant is unaware of, but which is felt all -the more by the true friend of the antique. And finally, our own actual -age, the most fruitful subjects of history, the liveliest characters, -all feeling of a simple truth and precision, will be _antiquarianised_ -away. Posterity will stand and gape at such fantasies in practice and -theory, and will not know what we were, in what age we lived, nor what -brought us to this wretched folly, to the wish to live in another age, -in another nation and climate, and thereby to abandon, or vitiate -deplorably, the whole order of nature and history." - -These sentences, however, stood in isolation, or else they came too -late. Immediately after it had been heralded by the literary movement, -after the archæologists had verbally announced its aim, formulated its -principles and laws, German art turned into the new paths. "It happened -for the first time in the history of art," wrote Goethe, "that important -talents took pleasure in disciplining themselves by the past, and so -founding a new epoch in art." - - "Des Deutschen Künstler's Vaterland, - Ist Griechenland, ist Griechenland" - -was sung in the academies. And this violent grasping after the ideal of -a foreign race brought a bitter revenge, since not one of the artists -who now appeared had the genius to create anything new out of the old. - -[Illustration: _Photo Union, Munich._ - - MENGS. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -The disciples of Winckelmann had not been, like Goethe and Schiller, -vigorous naturalists until the spirit of ancient times had looked upon -them, and they were consequently still less able to resist her glance. -They entered upon the new road not with that generative impulse of the -creative mind, whose superabundance did not know what course it should -take, what stream it should find. They adopted the forms, as they had -been provided by the greater ages, without any doubt as to their -absolute excellence, or the least attempt at any happy innovation. And -if they "have better understood" the Greeks than their predecessors in -Italy and France were able to do, then one is never less like an -original nature than when one imitates them faithfully. Winckelmann's -road to inimitability led not only to a more hollow and lifeless -Classicism than there ever had been, to a more cheerless and unpleasant -art than any which the school of Bologna had produced. It tended, above -all, since the thinking people had thought out the classic idea--which -the other nations had not--to the sacrifice of all pictorial technique, -of the whole knowledge which the age had up till then possessed. There -is a legend in the history of the Church, that at the time of the -donation of Constantine a voice was heard from Heaven: "This day has -poison entered into the body of the Church." To the German art of our -century this poison was the writings of Winckelmann. - -First of all it was _Anton Rafael Mengs_, whose originally strong and -great talent was distorted by the counsels of the learned. As in the -works of the Caracci, those only are to-day of any interest which reveal -themselves least as eclectics and most as children of the seventeenth -century, so with Mengs--he is only enjoyable now where he did not try to -be antique, but sympathised without too much reflection on the -traditions of his age. He is particularly so in his fine pastel -portraits in the Dresden Gallery, which are wholly influenced by the -taste for _rococo_, and are its last expiring manifestation. They are a -testimony that it was not without some justice that the Apelles of -Dresden was called by his contemporaries the most remarkable German -painter of the eighteenth century. Rosalba Carriera and Liotard seem -weak and insipid beside him; Reynolds only at his best had that -characteristic clearness, that plastic energy of modelling, and that -life-like colouring. There is nothing insipid or affected, nothing of -that simpering affability that his successors brought into vogue. And -when we remember that they proceeded from a youth of sixteen, the -strength and simplicity of intuition seem incredible. In his later -portraits, too, painted in oil, the better ones are directly classic; -very noble in their clear, subtile, grey tone, strikingly alive, and, -withal, of an extraordinary independence which shows no leaning upon any -other master whatever. Mengs belongs to those portrait painters who look -into the souls of their sitters, and he ranks, in works like his -portrait of himself, in the Munich Gallery, amongst the best portrait -painters of the eighteenth century. - -[Illustration: MENGS. MOUNT PARNASSUS.] - -In his huge ecclesiastical paintings he is the son of that period which -had just commenced to be touched by the pallor of thought, and groped -eclectically now in this direction and now in that. "First of all must -the weeds be rooted up," wrote Zanotti in his _Directions to a Young Man -upon Painting_. "And then we must go back again to Cimabue and Giotto, -and again, a few years later, to Buonarotti and Sanzio, and their noble -successors whose footsteps are no longer sought or followed by any one. -But when such a happy resurrection will take place, God knows!" The old -Ismael Mengs believed that that was his concern; he chose Antonio da -Allegri and Rafael Sanzio as sponsors for his son. Anton Rafael should -become the eclectic reformer of art, and as he was probably the first -painter who, by the express permission of the Elector of Saxony, was -allowed to visit the hitherto inaccessible Dresden Gallery, this wish -was easy of accomplishment. - -[Illustration: ANGELICA KAUFFMANN. _Cassell & Co._] - -He was quick in freeing himself from the immediate tradition of the age, -and in harmony with the teaching of the Caracci, in returning to the -so-called "higher" models of painting. When one runs across such of his -pictures in some gallery--notably his altar pieces--they strike one as -the works of some good master of the seventeenth century whose name one -cannot, for the moment, recollect. His famous "Holy Night," in which he -wished to enter into rivalry with Correggio, has something of a Maratti -about it, only the heads are more vacant and insipid. - -It is that unfortunate "Parnassus" in the Villa Albani which first marks -the collapse of this great talent. When, upon the advice of his friend -Winckelmann, he turned from the study of Raphael and Correggio to that -of the antique, Mengs forfeited not only the remnant of all that was -essentially natural, but even all the picturesque qualities which had -hitherto distinguished him. After painting had so long taken sculpture -in tow, now sculpture seemed anxious to be revenged on it, and there was -a manifestation of those prettily painted figures in plaster which for -some score years afterwards paraded in every German picture. - -For Winckelmann's mistake, as Herder had already pointed out with great -justice, consisted not only in this, that he set up for imitation a -departed ideal for the consciousness of his contemporaries, but notably -in that he obtruded principles upon modern painting which might be valid -in ancient sculpture. Since the antique ideal was solely a plastic one, -and neither the Greek Prussian nor, later, Meister Ephraim was clear as -to the difference between sculpture and painting, they practically -recommended the painter to work after plastic models. - -The fact that Lessing, in discussing the limits of painting in his -_Laocoön_, took a work of sculpture as his starting-point, proves that -to him the laws and conditions of both arts were valued as the same. -They denounced the confusion of the art of painting with poetry, and -instead advocated the confounding of painting with sculpture, which was -no less hazardous. - -[Illustration: ANGELICA KAUFFMANN. PORTRAIT OF A LADY AS A VESTAL.] - -In this manner there came an alien element into Mengs' hitherto quite -pictorial apprehension; a vain and exclusively reproductive ideality -deprived his figures of the last remnant of truth to nature which he had -formerly understood how to give them. It is difficult to believe that -Winckelmann's paroxysm of friendship should have burst out, upon the -completion of the "Parnassus," into this pæan: "During the whole of the -new age a more beautiful work has not appeared in painting; even Raphael -would have bowed his head." The whole is nothing more than a -_mélange_ of plagiarism and _banal_ reminiscences, without soul or -perception, without freshness or individuality; a mere plastic -warehouse, and not even a painted antique group, but a daubed -compilation of solitary statues, colder and more lifeless than any -Baltoni ever painted. There was an audacious, strong aim, genial -strength and an overwhelming flow of fantasy in the contemporary works -of the great _décorateur_ Tiepolo; here there is a mere work of -intellect which with philological aid builds up the composition entirely -of borrowed materials. The only thing which even still points in this -work to the good old times is a more solid study of form and colour than -all that which originated in Germany during the next fifty years. The -figures are painted with a strength and bloom which are still quite -worthy of the _rococo_. - -The "good _Angelica_" is the second representative of this phase of -transition. She, too, at the persuasion of her friend Winckelmann, -clothed herself as an ancient Vestal, but her true woman's nature left -in her classical raiment still a neat fashion of _rococo_. Through her -intercourse with Winckelmann she became somewhat of a "blue-stocking," -and studied the historians of antiquity in order to find there subjects -like Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, Agrippina with the urn of -Germanicus, Phryne, and the like. Still more there were the tender -legends of the ancients, out of whose store she satisfied her patrons: -Adonis at the chase, Psyche, Ariadne abandoned by Theseus or found by -Bacchus, the death of Alcestis, Hero and Leander. In these she is soft -to the point of sentimentality, and pleasant to the point of nausea. -Goethe says of her with justice: "The forms and traits of the figures -have little variety, the expression of the passions no force, the heroes -look like gentle boys, or girls in disguise." But he also says of her: -"The lightness, grace in form, colour, conception, and treatment is the -one ruling quality of the numerous works of our fair artist. No living -painter has surpassed her either in grace of representation or in the -taste and capacity with which she handles her brush." And this decision, -too, can still be endorsed. Angelica knew how to impart to those clear -lines and forms demanded by Winckelmann a grace now coquettish, now -sentimental, but always extremely lovable. She has struck soft -and--notably in her portraits of women--very tender colour chords. - -She and Mengs were the last who still possessed considerable technical -knowledge. Almost everything which has survived of the tradition of -craftsmanship in Germany in the nineteenth century is traceable to -Mengs' influence, and that fact so offended his successors that they no -longer counted him as one of them, but put him contemptuously aside as a -"mannerist painter by recipe." "Such technical knowledge," wrote Goethe, -"hinders that complete abstraction and elevation over the real, which is -asked of identical representations in sculpture, which merely furnish -forms in their highest purity and beauty." "Colouring, light and -shadows, do not give such value to a painting as noble contour alone," -wrote Winckelmann, and these sentences became the starting-point of the -next generation. Winckelmann's error when he recommended the imitation -of Greek sculpture to the modern painter consisted still further in -this, that he confused "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" with lack -of colour and coldness. Herder had written well: "In distinction to the -compact harmony of form in sculpture, painting has her harmonious unity -in colour and light. I do not know why many theorists should have spoken -so contemptuously of what is called _chiaroscuro_, the grouping of light -and shade; it is the instrument of genius with every scholar and master, -the eye with which he sees, the flashing, spiritual sea with which he -sprinkles everything, and on which, indeed, every outline also depends. -This divine, spiritual sea of light, this fairyland of adjusted light -and shade, is the business of painting: why should we fight against -nature, and not allow every art to do what it alone can do and do best?" - -[Illustration: _Photographic Union, Munich._ - - CARSTENS. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -His words died away. The philosophic tendency of the century, which -sought to penetrate into the "soul" of things, and to recreate things -from the throne of the universe of the abstract, tried its hand also -upon painting. By abstracting from the manifestation of colour, and -touching upon form and line, it came to believe that in these plastic -elements it had discovered the Essential of which it was in search. - -Once on the road to execute statues in paint, the question ensued, Ought -we to paint our statues? And as that age, following in Winckelmann's -track, understood no word of the significance which the specific, -picturesque principles had for the Greeks, it was only logical that they -should endeavour to reconcile the idea of immaculate whiteness with that -of classical beauty, to see pure beauty in absence of colour, and in -consequence to accentuate the question, Ought we to paint our -_pictures_? To painters the most suspicious element in a painting became -the paint! There is nothing more urgent for them to do than to deprive -themselves ascetically of all coloristic means of expression. Painting -is shown to be an essential form of corruption--"The brush is become -the ruin of our art," wrote Cornelius--and there commences the era of a -cartoon style hitherto unprecedented, which is to be carried on by the -most highly endowed in the most earnest fashion. While during the -_rococo_ the sense of colour had reached, through a piquant arrangement -of the most tender and variegated tones, its highest point of -refinement, there followed now as a reaction an absolute lack of colour. -The ideal is seen in an abstract beauty of line, colour as a secondary -matter and a vain show. It was of as much value as a vari-coloured -dress, which nature could put on or off, without being less nature -thereby. Amongst painters there was talk of nothing but outlines. This -line style, whose world is not the wall or the canvas, but white paper, -can do with a proportionately meagre study of nature. Why, therefore, -when the ideal was so easy of attainment, drudge in the academy, where, -moreover, since the introduction of Mengs' Classicism, universal -desolation of the spirit and doctrinaire pedantry reigned? As Mengs had -broken with the taste of the _rococo_, so the younger generation broke -with its technique, whilst they left the academy in open -dissatisfaction, and threw off in contempt the whole paraphernalia of -technical traditions. - -_Carstens_ plays the momentous rôle in German art as the first who trod -this path. He has more individuality than Mengs; _antiquarianising_ with -him is not exclusively an external derivation and a cold imitation: he -lives in the antique; the world of the Greek poets is his spiritual -home, and their profound thoughts find in him a subtle interpreter. But -he has, at the same time, the melancholy fame of being the first of the -frivolous to renounce the national inheritance, the knowledge bequeathed -by the _rococo_ age, and so definitely to cut the chain which should -otherwise have connected German art of the nineteenth century with that -of the eighteenth. - -Through the _Investigations of Beauty in Painting_, by Daniel Webb, -which was founded on Winckelmann's _Thoughts on Imitation_, the seed of -Hellenism was already sown in the youth's soul. He heard talk of the -dwarf intelligences of the age; how the studios of inferior artists were -full of gaping visitors, whilst the halls of the Vatican stood deserted. -"Learn the taste for beauty in the antique," the cooper's apprentice -learns from Webb's works. "Let us meditate upon the style of the -painter's art in the 'Laocoön,' with regard to the fighter. Notice the -sublimity in the divine character of Apollo. Let us stand hushed before -the exquisite beauty of the Venus di Medici. These are the extreme -incentives of the art of drawing.... The Belvedere Apollo and the -daughter of Niobe offer us an ideal of nobility and beauty. Raphael's -drawing never reached to such a height of perfection as we find in the -statues of the Greeks.... Whither do you carry me, gods and demigods and -heroes who live in marble? I follow your call, and, Imagination! thy -eternal laws. I go into the Villa Medici and breathe there the purest -air. I stretch myself on a flowery plot, the shadow of the orange trees -covers me;--there, unmolested, I gaze at a group full of the highest -feminine beauty. Niobe, my beloved, beautiful mother of beautiful -children, thou fairest among women, how I love thee!" So dreamed Asmus -Jacob in the wine-cellar at Eckernförde, or in his solitary chamber by -the dim light of his lamp, as he had been seized with giddiness before -all the great and marvellous revelations of art which this book had -afforded him. In his enraptured fantasy he painted the hour nearer and -nearer when he should attain to a sight of the works which were -described. Could he have looked into the future, what a picture would -have come before his eyes! Would he have recognised himself in the -broken-down man, with the pale countenance, the grief-marked expression, -and the decrepit figure, who in Rome gazed spellbound at the Colossus of -Monte Cavallo? - -[Illustration: CARSTENS. SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.] - -Our Holsteiner was two-and-twenty years old when he discarded the -cooper's apron and entered the Copenhagen Academy, being then too old -for any regular training. His head was so full of "inventions" that "it -could not enter his mind to begin from the beginning." "Drawing from the -life did not satisfy me; the fellow, too, who sat as my model, although -he was for the rest well built, seemed to me, in contrast with the -antique from which I had attained a higher ideal of beauty, so petty and -imperfect that I thought I could easily learn to draw a better figure if -I only confined myself to that. I resolved not to visit the academy, in -spite of the other artists impressing upon me the importance and -utility of academic study." He stayed daily, instead, for hours together -before the casts in the antique room, and "a holy feeling of adoration, -almost compelling me to tears, pervaded me. There I never drew at all -after an antique. When I attempted it, it was as though all my emotion -was chilled by it. I thought that I should learn more if I gazed at them -with great studiousness." - -[Illustration: CARSTENS. ARGO LEAVING THE TRITON'S MERE.] - -Thus he reached, as Fernow says, the method whereby he "did not tread -the ordinary way of imitation, gradually progressing to a special -invention, but began at once with invention." There he was the true -child of his age. At a period whose creative power found its highest -expression in philosophy and poetry, the painter strove for the -reputation only of being the _poet_ of his pictures. And Carstens -encountered the old tragedians and philosophic writers with a fine, -poetic understanding. "The Greek Heroes with Cheiron," "Helen at the -Skæan Gate," "Ajax," "Phoenix and Odysseus in the Tent of Achilles," -"Priam and Achilles," "The Fates," "Night with her Children," "Sleep and -Death," "The passage of Megapenthes," "Homer before the People," "The -Golden Age"--all these prints have really something of the noble -simplicity and quiet harmony of Greek art. - -[Illustration: CARSTENS. CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT.] - -It can be understood, then, that such subjects should be in the highest -degree interesting to an archæologist. When Carstens, in April 1795, was -organising the famous exhibition of his collected works in Rome, Fernow -published in Wieland's _Deutscher Merkur_ a discourse in which he -celebrated him as the creator of a new epoch. From the very first, -however, an equally resolute opposition was excited in artistic circles. -The painter Müller, nicknamed "The Devil's Miller," who at that time -wandered about Rome as a cicerone, proves that Winckelmann's principles, -even at the threshold of the century, by no means met with universal -acceptance. The _Writing of Herr Müller, Painter in Rome, upon the -Exhibition of Herr Professor Carstens_, with the motto _Amicus Plato, -Amicus Socrates, magis amica veritas_, was published in 1797 in -Schiller's _Horæ_. Carstens imitated; he worked rather by reminiscence -and understanding than by fantasy. Isolated figures do not bring their -individuality to an expression. Then he pointed out the models, -discussed the lack of colour, and proved numerous sins of the -draughtsman against nature in detail. The artist must ever seek to find -characteristic expression; composition comes in the second degree. -Technique, even if the previous age has been an epoch of fabrication, -must always stand in the foreground; it is not only from the artist, but -from the connoisseur, that knowledge is demanded, and in consequence of -this exhibition Carstens is recommended to forbear from his fantastical -geniality, observe nature, and achieve a picture exactly, since it is -only from nature that the ideal springs, and consequently nothing can -be great and beautiful in the representation which is not right and -true. In almost similar words, later on, Koch, in his _Thoughts on -Painting_, and with him the majority of artists, has censured Carstens. -And posterity cannot but allow them to be in the right as against the -archæologists. - -[Illustration: CARSTENS. PRIAM AND ACHILLES.] - -Admirable in Carstens is the zeal with which he defended his ideal, the -sacred fire which burned within him and sustained him, even during those -years when his sickly frame was weakened by consumption. Art was, as he -wrote, his element, his religion, his beatitude, his existence. And it -is already something great to wear oneself out alone for the sake of an -ideal. Carstens was a sublime dreamer. It will not be forgotten of him -that, in an age when abundant mediocrity and manufacture were -all-prevailing, he once more pointed, unfaltering in his noble and pure -intention, to the sublimity of artistic creation. The history of art, -however, has not to deal with hearts, but to judge logically by results; -and it would not be doing justice to the old masters, nor to those -earnest _rococo_ painters who sat at their easels with less noble -intentions, but with so much greater knowledge of their craft, if one -were to proclaim Carstens, in consideration of the self-sacrifice and -renunciation which he showed in the fight for his ideal, as a martyr and -a genius, a pioneer of German art. He was not a genius, as he thought -himself, and announced so proudly to Heinitz, the Minister; for that he -possessed too little originality. It is not imagination, but -reminiscence, which created his works. The outlines of his plates are -done with fine sentiment, but sentiment taken from the Greeks, and he -required no genius to recognise in his recollection and his hand a -transcript of Greek forms. What pleases us in Carstens is in substance -not Carstens, but an echo of what we like in the Greek statues and -vases, in Michael Angelo and other old masters. - -[Illustration: GENELLI. THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES.] - -He was not a martyr, because in his struggles he met with assistance and -encouragement such as were granted to no old master, and if, in spite of -that, he never rose above the cares of life, that is only a proof of the -limitations and partiality of his art. He had lost all decorative -facility; still more was the inheritance of oil painting first naturally -mislaid by him, and by draughtsmanship alone not even Dürer nor -Rembrandt could have lived. - -This deficiency in technique must even debar him from claiming any -higher signification than that of a clever dilettante. He is not an -artist who does not in the midst of his exaltation think to put himself -in possession of the means which can turn the lispings of genius into a -fully intelligible language. Carstens' plates seduce by a certain wavy -treatment of the lines, but no one of them can sustain critical -appreciation. It is inconsistent to work in the beautiful and not to -become free of ugliness, to move in the great, in the sublime, and at -the same time to fall from one defect of form to another, from coarse -uncouthness into the most elementary sins against drawing and -proportion. Carstens was a draughtsman who could not draw, and, with -this limitation of his genius, by no manner of means a founder of German -art. One cannot call him a mannerist, because with him art and -individuality corresponded; but, nevertheless, like Mengs and Lairesse, -he gave art at second-hand, and only differs from them in that with him -commences that complete abandonment of the idea of colour which after -him disfigured German art. For the future it was quite indifferent that -Thorwaldsen took suggestions from Carstens, and Genelli trod in his -footprints as a draughtsman. - -[Illustration: GENELLI. THETIS LAMENTING THE FATE OF HECTOR.] - -_Bonaventura Genelli_, if one takes for once the standpoint of the -painters of his time, who desired to be the "poets" of their works, is -certainly a not unremarkable poet. In him, who was born in the year of -Carstens' death, the spirit of the little Holsteiner was raised to life, -and the figure which he assumed in this new incarnation actually made an -impression like a picture out of beauty-illuminated days of Hellas. The -muscular, thick-set figure of a youthful Hercules, with a broad chest -and sturdy neck, a head of short brown curly hair, full lips fringed by -the compact beard of a Sophocles, the short Greek nose, grave eyes -glancing out from beneath the strong brows--such was Genelli, a Hellene -left stranded in Germany, the last Centaur, as Heyse has depicted him in -his novel--"an antediluvian, mythological enigma on four sound legs -sprung upon our godless world." Thus he sat, as he himself writes, in -Rome, "in his dirty chamber, bare except for a chair or two, rickety or -quite broken down, and on the wall a pair of hawks nailed up, whose -pinions served as models for his winged figures." Thus he sat later in -his little house in the _Sendlingergasse_ at Munich, and lived in his -world of imagination. Perhaps, had he been the child of a more fortunate -period in art, he might have become a strong and memorable painter; as a -successor of Carstens he has left behind him a legacy of two suites of -copper prints--the two tragedies of the "Profligate" and the "Witch." He -existed, moreover, only in contour; he never rose above harmoniously -outlined silhouette. It was only to this point that his talent would -sustain him. The more he wished to produce shadow, water-colour, or even -oil, the more tedious and pale and vague did he become. And even in his -drawing he shares with Carstens the desolate generalisation of form, the -eternal euphony which so soon becomes wearisome and monotonous. To -beauty of line everything is offered up. The blank characterlessness of -the faces is even more noticeable with him than with Carstens, who had, -after all, in his youth drawn excellent portraits in crayons, and on -this account was able to give even to his Greeks more individual traits -and a certain variety of expression. With Genelli the heads are treated -as no more than parts of the body, and as they gave no opportunity for -flowing lines, they have not even the same graciousness as the limbs. -His women fared worst, for whilst he could be his own model for his men, -he created the _ewig Weibliche_ out of his inner consciousness. In men -and women the eyes, in particular, are merely animal. - -[Illustration: GENELLI. ODYSSEUS AND THE SIRENS.] - -Carstens' influence on German art has been then entirely a negative one. -It was not on such a foundation that a German art could arise. He -prepared no ground for his successors on which they could build further; -but through his abandonment of the whole capital which, since Stephen -Lochner, had been handed down at compound interest from one generation -of painters to another, he rather cut away the ground from under their -feet. "For very easily can art go astray, but it is a difficult and -lengthy process for her to recover herself." - -The art which was born in that humble studio in Rome to the sickly, -neurotic man, the "famous draughtsman," needed later, in order to become -technically healthy again, an impulse replete with life from abroad. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - BONAVENTURA GENELLI.] - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE CLASSICAL REACTION IN FRANCE - - -In France also modern art began with a stream of antiquarianism which -flowed from the same archæological source. De Brosses published a -history of the Roman Republic, and wrote on Herculaneum. Leroy produced -his _Ruines des plus anciens monuments de la Grèce_ in 1758. Shortly -afterwards the _Recueils d'Antiquité_ of Caylus and Hamilton were -published. The former undertook his great journeys, and presented the -Academy of Inscriptions with a succession of archæological treatises. He -is perhaps the first since Batteux and Coypel who again makes of the -modern painter a positive demand for a quiet beauty of lines after the -"_manière simple et noble du bel antique_." The architects begin to take -counsel of Vitruvius, and to work after some model borrowed from the -antique. Soufflot rebuilt the Pantheon, and produced the Temple of -Pæstum. - -Even in 1763 Grimm could write: "For some years past we have been making -keen inquiry for antique ornaments and forms. The predilection for them -has become so universal that now everything is to be done _à la -Grecque_. The interior and exterior decorations of houses, furniture, -dress material, and goldsmiths' work all bear alike the stamp of the -Greeks. The fashion passes from architecture to millinery: our ladies -have their hair dressed _à la Grecque_, our fine gentlemen would think -themselves dishonoured if they did not hold in their hands _une boîte à -la Grecque_." Even Diderot's preference for the ethical and emotional, -as Greuze had painted it--and as Diderot himself had dramatised -it--veered round at the commencement of the sixties into an enthusiasm -for the antique. After 1761 he carried on in the salons a war of -extermination against poor old Boucher, and lectured him in a menacing -voice upon the "great and severe taste of antiquity." He twitted him -with possessing neither reality nor taste, and produced in proof the -fact that, in the whole catalogue of Boucher's figures, not four could -be found which could be employed in relief, or even as statues. The new -taste demanded pure and simple lines, the beauty of sculpture; it went -back to the antique. When a French translation of Winckelmann appeared -in 1765 he spoke out, on the occasion of a review of the book, clearly -and plainly: "_Il me semble qu'il faudrait étudier l'antique pour -apprendre à voir la nature_." In the same vein Watelet pronounced on -Boucher: "_Jamais artiste n'a plus ouvertement témoigné son mépris pour -la vraie beauté telle qu'elle a été sentie et exprimée par les -statuaires_ _de l'ancienne Grèce_." Thus the change in the artistic -outlook was heralded long before the curtain went up upon the events of -1789. - -_Madame Vigée-Lebrun_, the French Angelica Kauffmann, possessed of a -tender, soft, sympathetic talent, is perhaps the truest representative -of this gracious, entirely French transition style, over which like a -breath, but only like a breath, hovers the antique. She has in her -portraits, in an especially refined manner, fixed that age when noble -ladies desired to forget the Marquise and Duchess, to exhibit only the -wife and mother, and believed that by unconstraint of attitude in their -simple white robe, the scarf thrown modestly over the shoulders, they -had effected a return to antique simplicity. Boucher, moved to the -depths of his consciousness by Diderot, resolved to paint a picture -taken from ancient history. Greuze painted "Severus and Caracalla," -Fragonard "Choereas and Callirhöe." Hubert Robert grew more and more -archæological, and played in his landscapes with ancient remains and -classical ruins. Vien became enthusiastic over antique gems, and thought -he must draw the conclusion, from the noble calm of these figures, that -the amiable coquetry and capricious garments of _rococo_ were without -nobility. His plan was "to study the antique--Raphael, the Caracci, -Domenichino, Michael Angelo, and, in one word, all those masters whose -works convey the character of truth and grandeur." - -But what gave far other significance to the French classicism of the -ensuing period was that great event in the world's history, of which -France became the theatre at the close of the eighteenth century. In the -secluded gardens of Versailles, where the goat-footed Pan embraced the -tall, white nymphs by an artificial water-fall, the noble lords and -ladies, clad as Pierrots and Columbines, overheard in the midst of their -whispered flirtations the menacing earthquake which was announced in -thunder from Paris. Soon they beheld the earth crack and burst asunder, -as that time came when the air was filled with the smoke of powder, when -the first notes of the Marseillaise rang out, and in the Place de la -Concorde, where to-day the loveliest fountains in the world are playing, -blood ran from a dozen guillotines. That "_après nous le deluge_" of the -Marquise de Pompadour had become a dire, prophetic truth, and in that -flood of blood and horrors the artistic ideal of the eighteenth century -was also washed away. The Revolution gave the death-blow to _rococo_. At -one stroke it overthrew the most pleasant of all French periods, the -truest presentiment of French grace and _esprit_, the noble and amiable -art of Louis XV, which the melancholy, life-emitting Watteau, Boucher, -and Fragonard cause to hover before us as in the clouds of a dream. -Classicism, however, attained through it a new and stronger basis, a -certain connection with modern life, since it was transposed by it from -the Museum of Antiquity into the middle of the Place de la Concorde -beneath the guillotine. - -What the age of the Revolution demanded of art was at all events not a -"noble style," as Vien had required of it, but rather in the first place -a Spartan virtue. Various philosophical writers had drawn a parallel -between the organisation of the old and the modern state; they had -exerted themselves to show that the old Republics were models of an -almost absolute perfection, which the modern should, in so far as it was -possible, imitate. They had contrasted the moral conditions of Sparta -and the Roman Republic with the moral constitution of contemporary, -monarchical France. They had quoted on every opportunity the acts of -virtue, renunciation, courage, and patriotic sacrifice of the great men -of antiquity; they had used these deeds as a means of proving their -thesis, and their ideas aroused deep echoes in men's hearts. - -[Illustration: ELISABETH VIGÉE-LEBRUN. PORTRAIT OF THE PAINTER WITH - HER DAUGHTER.] - -The sentiment of Rome had entered into the people as a thing of flesh -and blood even before the catastrophe had ensued. "We were more -prepared," wrote Nodier, "for the particular tone of the language of the -Revolution than people would have believed, and it cost us little pains -to pass from the studies of our _gymnases_ to the strife of the forum. -In the schools we had prize compositions set of this kind: Who stands -higher, the elder Brutus who judged his children, or the younger Brutus -who judged his father? And so Livy and Tacitus have done more to -overthrow the monarchical system than Voltaire and Rousseau." It was -evident then that France, so soon as she had freed herself from her -kings, so soon as she had spoken the word "Republic," must take the -_Roman_ Republic as her pattern. People lived in an atmosphere of -antiquity; the great citizens of Rome and Athens were ranged with the -French National Convention; Scævola, Scipio, Cato, Cincinnatus, were the -idols of the populace. The speakers in the council cited the ancients in -preference; Madame Vigée-Lebrun gave _soupers à la Grecque_. "Everything -was ordered according to the _Voyage d'Anacharsis_--garments, viands, -amusements, and the table, all were Athenian. Madame Lebrun herself was -Aspasia; M. l'Abbé Barthélémy, in a Greek dress with a laurel wreath on -his head, recited a poem; M. de Cabierès played the golden lyre as -Memnon, and young boys waited at table as slaves. The table itself was -set entirely with Greek utensils, and all the viands were actually those -of ancient Greece." Children were given Greek and Roman names. People -called themselves "Romans." "_Mais, je l'aimais, Romains!_" cried Coulon -at the death of Mirabeau. Paris is Rome. In the theatre the bust of -Brutus is set opposite that of Voltaire, and the actor says: "_O buste -réveré de Brutus, d'un grand homme, transporté dans Paris tu n'as point -quitté Rome_." And as with the bust of Brutus in the theatre, that of -Mucius Scævola appears in the cafés, which Parisian journalists, still -full of remembrances of ancient history studied in the gymnasium, liken -to the Lyceum and the Porch. In every case ancient Rome is set up as the -exemplar. The Parisian collection of engravings on copper possesses a -reproduction of the guillotine, with the inscription: _A similar machine -was used for the execution of the Roman, Titus Manlius_. A valet -committed suicide, and quoted the illustrious example of Seneca. Had it -been possible, people would have gladly thrown themselves back eighteen -hundred years into the past, with all its grandeur, its simplicity, and -its ruthlessness. Political and social forms did not suffice; even the -implements and costume of the ancients were again brought into honour. -Furniture put on antiquarian shapes; the walls were decorated _à la -Grecque_. The lively frivolity of _rococo_, with its freaks and fancies, -was no longer adapted to the boudoir of the age of revolution, now -transformed into the political council-room. Twists and curves were no -longer permitted: everything had to be straightforward, logical, -ungenerous, inexorable. Men went clad wretchedly, with red Phrygian caps -and no breeches. Women and girls cast aside their ordinary attire and -put on straight, falling drapery, discarded their heeled shoes and bound -sandals round their feet, shook the powder from their locks and tied -their hair in a Greek knot. "Dressed in white raiment without adornment, -but decked in the virtue of simplicity," they appeared in the cabinet of -the president, in order to surrender their jewels for the salvation of -their country, like those Roman matrons in the time of Camillus. - -And, in co-operation with the building up of this new world, painting -also advanced. It was only when it assisted to arouse civic virtue, it -was said at a sitting of the jury at the Salon of 1793, that painting -could possess a right to exist in the new state, and as the handmaid of -this patriotism might fulfil an even higher mission than it had done in -ancient Greece and Rome. "The Greeks and Romans were indeed only slaves, -but we French are by nature free, philosophers in character, virtuous in -our every perception, and artists through our taste." In proportion as -the French Republic transcended the old free states, so too must French -art take the lead of the antique. "All that stimulated art in Greece, -the gymnastic exercises, the public games, the national festivals, is -also accessible to the French, who possess above all that which the -Greeks lacked, the feeling for true liberty. To depict the history of a -free people is indeed quite another mission for the true genius than to -embody scenes out of mythology." - -Through this fresh _nuance_, which classicism thus acquired, the ground -was cut from under the feet of those who devoted themselves to the study -of the antique as conceived by Diderot. The new moral age would have no -traffic with those artists in whom the last smile of the eighteenth -century was personified. Their pictures, full of grace and caprice, fell -into the same disrepute into which everything of yesterday had come, and -it was only with a bitter smile that they followed the course of events. -The younger Moreau, that animated master of _rococo_, became -academically cold and tedious when he designed his book on the French -costume of the Revolution. The good Fragonard, who was only fifty-nine -in 1789, and lived till 1806, saw himself hooted in spite of his -"Choereas." He, the true representative of frivolous tenderness, of fair -and roseate hues, had lost every right to exist in the new world, and -ended his life by a sad death when, after the Reign of Terror, there was -no longer a place for _fêtes galantes_. A delightful portrait of -himself, which he painted in the first period of the Revolution, shows -us an old man, clothed entirely in black, softly melancholy, standing in -a formal, dusky-brown salon. On the table on which his arm rests lies a -guitar, at his feet a portfolio of engravings; but he neither plays the -guitar nor looks at the prints. In the shadows of the falling evening -he reminds himself forlornly of past days, and his bald forehead, where -so many rose-coloured dreams have passed, is overcast with gloomy -shadows. - -Greuze, too, outlived himself. It was no use for him to pretend more and -more to the utmost virtue, and to paint an "Ariadne at Naxos." He died -in misery and oblivion in 1805. The demands which this new classicism -made were able to be satisfied by no one any longer, not even by Vien. -However loudly he might proclaim himself a student of the Greeks, he, -nevertheless, remained a very timid and lukewarm revolutionary. An old -man, cold and peaceful and stolid, moderate in everything, he had -neither the energy nor the audacity of the reformer. He had been the -Court painter of Louis XVI, a most monarchically disposed and loyal man, -and was a suspect on this ground alone to those who were in power in -1789. His pictures, too, describe no more than the end of a world. -Greuze, Fragonard, and Vien, in spite of their assumed seriousness, -survived only as gallant phantoms in the new age, by the side of those -men of more rugged countenance who inaugurated the nineteenth century. - -[Illustration: JACQUES LOUIS DAVID. _L'Art._] - -_Jacques Louis David_ first satisfied the new requirements, and in so -doing lent to French classicism, if only for a few years, a certain -touch of far greater vivacity. He it was who carried through, in all its -consequence, that reformation in taste which Vien had sought in -externals, in costume, furniture and decoration; who inspired the gems -painted by Vien with republican pathos, and became in this way the great -herald of that age which read Plutarch and made Paris into a modern -Sparta. David, _Prix de Rome_ after three successive failures, still -came from that "corrupt epoch" against which Republican prudery was so -excited. At the age of twenty-six he had already painted Soffits, in the -manner of his kinsman "Boucher, to say it with respect." But the journey -to Rome converted Saul into Paul. In 1775 Vien, on his appointment as -director of the Roman Academy, had taken him to Italy as his best pupil, -and hardly dreamt at that time that this young man would strike out on -such an entirely new path from his Roman studies. He did not wait for -the Revolution to be converted; when the hour struck he was ready. Thus -his first pictures were in a manner the prelude to the Revolution. In -them he had already quite consciously entered upon the road along which -he was to go later. His "Oath of the Horatii" and his "Brutus," both -painted in Rome in 1784, proclaimed his programme. The little, rosy -loves, the doves of Venus, and all the charming frivolity and gallantry -of _rococo_, received their final dismissal, and rough men walked in -their stead. He broke his staff over all that he had previously -venerated, and declared loudly that he had sinned when in his youth he -had believed in the flowery palette of _rococo_, and completed in tender -tones those ceiling frescoes which Fragonard had commenced in the house -of Mdlle. Guimard. Capricious frivolities had to make way for a manlier -art, matter "that was worthy to rivet the gaze of a free nation upon -itself." Already, long before the taking of the Bastille, the painting -of young David was valued by the rising generation as the artistic -embodiment of their political ideas, imbibed while they were still at -school. When the "Horatii" was completed it was not only old Pompeo -Battoni who exclaimed, when he saw the picture in David's Roman studio, -"_Tu ed io soli siamo pittori, pel rimanente si puo gettarlo nel -fiume._" In Paris his success was universal; all the critics were -unanimous in praise; David was the man after the heart of the age, for -his picture was the first which spoke clearly and perceptibly of the -pathos of the revolution which stood at the threshold. People saw in it -an "example of patriotism which knew no obstacles," since not even love -for their sister, who was betrothed to the enemy, prevailed upon the -Horatii to refrain from combat with the Curiati. His next picture, -"Brutus" as he received the lictors, when they bring him the bodies of -his sons who have been implicated in a monarchical conspiracy, was -greeted as allegorical of the incorruptible justice of republicanism. -The populace saw in it the "glorification of the chastisement of all -traitors to liberty," and acclaimed David because he "had founded the -sinewy style which should characterise the heroic deeds of the -revolutionaries, children of liberty, equality, and fraternity." And one -understands--when one also adds the influence of Napoleon--this reaction -of military simplicity against the effeminacy of _rococo_. - -[Illustration: DAVID. MADAME RÉCAMIER.] - -David, at the outbreak of the Revolution, no longer a young man, but -forty years old, was the terrible painter of the age, its despotic -dictator. As a deputy in the Convention he not only ruled over painting, -but also imposed his taste upon sculpture, ivory work, goldsmiths' work, -and decoration. He designed the new costumes for the deputies and -ministers. As organiser of public fêtes, he brought to life again the -whole of republican Rome. He was one of those rare artists who are the -men of their hour. To a new plebeian race, to whose feverishly excited -patriotism the soft, luxurious, aristocratically reprehensible art of -_rococo_ must seem as a mockery of all the rights of men, he showed, for -the first time, the man, the hero who died for an idea or for his -country; and he gave this man huge and elastic muscles, like those of a -gladiator who struggles in the arena. He was a second Hercules, -cleansing the Augæan stables; with his own strong shoulders he thrust -back the petulant band of painters who had tarried too long in the -island of Cythera. He applied art to the heroism of the day, gave it the -martial attitude of patriotism, inspired it with the spirit of -Robespierre, St. Just, and Danton. The more obtrusively his heroes -paraded their patriotism, the more people saw in them a picture of the -French nation, as true as a transposition could hope to be. This -strained rhetorical pathos dwelt in the mind of the age. Talma moved the -people to enthusiasm when he played the "Horatii" of Corneille in the -classic cothurnus. When David painted, the state declamations of the -orators still rang in his ears. Robespierre is said to have spoken from -the tribune slowly, rhythmically, artistically: a Bossuet in his -rostrum, a Boileau in his chair, while the volcano quivered beneath his -very feet: his philippics were carefully divided into three sections, -like academic discourses: his patriotism resolved itself into tirades -with correctly composed periods. In David's pictures we have an exact -correspondence with all this: the rigid classicality of his composition, -figures grouped as though on parade; his cold pathos, the counterpart to -that of the orators' fine sentiments set forth in fine phrases. - -The great distinction between the beginning of modern art in Germany and -in France is that in France the new style was not only called forth by -the influence of a scientific programme from outside, but stood in -conjunction with a great transformation in culture, and that it was -compelled at first to concern itself not only with imitation and -philological retrospect, but with the free expression of the -characteristically modern spirit. German art had no new pronouncement to -make through the medium of the antique; it followed, on the other hand, -the programme of an artistically barren scholar who forgot that -archæology is not art, recommended imitation as the path to perfection, -and perpetually reminded the artists who followed him how widely they -deviated from the correct lines of the model. "Afterwards they rebuke -it, and say it is not antique and consequently not good art," as -Albrecht Dürer had complained of such people. In the earnest sentiment, -the exalted Roman spirit, the declaiming over rugged, masculine virtues, -freedom and patriotism, that found expression in David's first pictures, -there lived something of the Catonian spirit of the Terror; and that -still gives them historical value. His enthusiasm was not, first and -foremost, for antique art, but for the ideas of country, duty, freedom, -progress. The words antiquity and democracy were of like meaning to him. - -[Illustration: DAVID. THE OATH OF THE HORATII.] - -And how thoroughly this man was permeated with the spirit of his age is -shown still more when he discarded the cothurnus, boldly attacked the -present, and gave himself up entirely to the delineation of what came -under his direct observation in his own life and experience. There he -became not only a rhetorician, a revolutionary agitator, but a really -great painter. Lepelletier on his death-bed, the assassinated Marat, -and the dead Barre, are works of a mighty _naturalist_. Lepelletier, one -of the many deputies who had voted for the death of Louis XVI, was -treacherously assassinated in Paris, on 20th January 1793, by a valet of -the king's. The body was publicly exhibited; David painted it, and on -29th March presented the picture to the Convention. As the portrait of -the "first Martyr of Liberty," it was hung in the Convention chamber. On -13th July 1793 Marat, the man-of-terror, fell a victim to the knife of -Charlotte Corday. David was presiding at the Jacobin Club when the news -was brought him, and he embraced the citizen who had arrested the girl. -Deputations of the people appeared in the Convention to express their -grief for the heavy loss. Suddenly a voice was heard to cry: "_Où es tu, -David? Tu as transmis à la posterité l'image de Lepelletier mourant pour -la patrie, il te reste encore un tableau à faire._" Silence succeeded in -the Assembly. Then David started up: "_Je le ferai._" On 11th October he -informed the Convention that his "Marat" was finished. "The people asked -for their murdered man back again, longed to look once more on the -features of their truest friend. They cried to me: 'David, take up your -brush, avenge Marat, so that the enemy may blanch when they perceive the -distorted countenance of the man who became the victim of his love for -freedom.' I heard the voice of the people, and obeyed." Thus David spoke -in the Assembly when he presented the Republic with the picture of the -murdered man--one of the most thrilling representations of that awful -age. The body is lying in the bath. Only the naked upper part of the -body, and the head, with a dirty cloth tied round it, and fallen back -upon the right shoulder, are visible; one hand, resting back on the side -of the bath, still holds a paper in a convulsive grip; the other hangs -down limp and dead to the ground. Over this head, with the half-closed -eyelids, and the mouth distorted from the death-throes, Caravaggio would -have rejoiced, there is such keen naturalism in every stroke of the -brush. Like Géricault, in later times, David was then a regular visitor -at the Morgue, attended at executions, and took an interest in the -convulsive muscular movements of the guillotined. And the colour, too, -like the drawing, is of a naturalistic strength to which he never again -attained. The light falls slantingly on the corpse from above and throws -the head, shoulder, and one arm into strong relief, while all the rest -is left in obscurity. In this awful _still-life_ of uncompromising -reality and tragical grandeur he has created a work in the midst of an -age of storm which will survive all storms and all changes of taste. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - DAVID. THE RAPE OF THE SABINES.] - -[Illustration: DAVID. HELEN AND PARIS.] - -His portraits have no less strikingly survived the fiery ordeal of time. -In them, too, he is neither rhetorical nor cold, but full of fire and -the freshness of youth. Face to face with his model, he forgot the -Greeks and Romans, saw life alone, was rejuvenated in the youth-giving -fount of nature, and painted--almost alone of the painters of his -generation--the truth. Here his effect, when otherwise he was lacking in -all naïveté, is actually naïve and intimate. The best painters have -never treated flesh better. He had an aversion to palette tones, and -sought after nature with unexampled attention. The fine pearl-grey of -his colouring is as delicate as it is distinguished; in his portraits, -especially, the relief-tones of blue and light rose seem almost to -anticipate the delicate, toned-down tints of modern Impressionism. -Himself an ardent Revolutionist, he was, as it were, created to be the -portrayer of those men of an austerity like Cato's, and those women with -their free, masculine, proud gaze; that valiant generation that felt -within itself a desire to begin civilisation again and found religion -anew. The portrait of Lavoisier and his wife reminds one in its -refinement of Madame Vigée-Lebrun. The chemist is sitting by a table -covered with instruments; his wife, in an elegant light gown, bends -attentively over him. The picture dates from 1788, and it still looks -like some good work of the age of Louis XVI. Again, how intimate is the -effect of the marvellous portrait of Michael Gérard and his family. The -good man, in his shirt-sleeves, seems to feel really at home; a small -boy is leaning against his knee, a girl is playing on the clavicorde. -There is not the slightest suggestion of pose or a conventional type of -beauty in this stout old gentleman sitting so comfortably in his -_bourgeois négligé_, and with honest eyes gazing out so inquisitively -round him. In a few other pictures the spiritual life of women is -portrayed with remarkable tenderness. One of the earliest is the -exceptionally fine portrait of his mother-in-law, Madame Pécoult, in -1783; then, in 1790, the portrait of the Marquise d'Orvilliers, with -that expression of dreamy languor which plays round the eyes of the -beautiful woman. The Louvre possesses, in the portrait of Madame -Récamier, perhaps the most charming and attractive woman's portrait that -David ever painted. The beautiful Juliette lies stretched on a divan of -antique pattern. She wears a white dress, her soft rosy feet are bare. -The arrangement of the room coquettes primly with that simplicity which -was paraded at the time. Apart from the divan, there is only a huge -bronze candelabra to be seen. Then there is Barere's portrait. He stands -on the tribune, and delivers the speech which is to cost Louis XVI his -life. The face is small and insignificant, the gaze cold and harsh, and -on the mouth there is a shadow of bitter hate and narrow fanaticism. But -the triumph of these portraits of men is that of Bonaparte. David was -one of the first of the men of the Revolution to come beneath the spell -of the Little Corporal. One day, while he was working in his studio at -the Louvre, a pupil rushed in breathlessly: "General Bonaparte is -outside the door!" Napoleon entered in a dark-blue coat "that made his -lean yellow face look leaner and yellower than ever." David dismissed -his pupils, and drew, in a sitting of barely two hours, the stern head -of the Corsican. Thus he passed into the service of Napoleon. - -This man, who viewed himself only as the coping-stone of the -Republic--after the example of Augustus when he transformed the Roman -Republic into the Empire--was unwilling to show any opposition to the -republican tastes. The first painter of the Republic was appointed to be -the Imperial Court painter. What he had been under Robespierre he was -under Napoleon: the dictator of his age, who maintained a supremacy over -the whole of art similar to that which Lebrun held beneath Louis XIV. -The "Marat" was the great work of his revolutionary, the "Coronation" of -his monarchical period,--that colossal picture which, completed between -1806 and 1807, has handed down to posterity a true representation of the -ceremonial pageants that took place in Notre Dame on 2nd December 1804. -The moment selected is when Napoleon places the crown, which is carried -on a velvet cushion by the Duc de Berg, upon the head of the Empress, -who kneels before him in a white robe and a crimson mantle. The picture -contains portraits of all the personages present at the ceremony, -amongst them being David himself, as he stands on a platform and -sketches at a small table. The whole composition of this picture and the -grouping of the figures is full of stately gravity. Real energy and -patience must have been required to paint this immense picture, though -it shows not the least sign of fatigue. With the exception of Menzel's -"Coronation of William I," I know of no historical picture of the -century of as high an artistic value, with the like noble sublimity of -colour, with so tender, quivering a light. There are certain portions of -the "Coronation" in which the white robes, the deep-red velvet of the -mantles, and gold embroideries affect us like a symphony in colours. -When the picture was completed Napoleon visited David's studio, -accompanied by the Empress, his ministers, and his staff. The Court drew -up, and the Emperor moved up and down in front of the picture, hat in -hand, for more than half an hour, examining it in all its details. -Finally, with one of those dramatic effects of which he was so fond, he -lightly raised his hat: "_C'est bien, très bien; David, je vous salue_." - -[Illustration: DAVID. BELISARIUS ASKING ALMS.] - -David had now still better opportunities than at an earlier period of -proving his great capacity as a portrait painter. His portraits of the -Emperor, of the Pope, of Cardinal Caprara, and of Murat symbolise the -brutal greatness of an age which worshipped strength. Even at the close -of his life, when the Restoration had exiled him from France, there -resulted in Brussels graceful and tenderly observed portraits, such as -that of the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, which will perpetuate his -name. One, in the Praet Collection at Brussels--three women of -indescribable ugliness--marks the pinnacle of his pictorial strength and -keen naturalism. They are the "Three Fates" of 1810, and he has painted -them with the true artist's delight, and with a massiveness like that of -Frans Hals. - -When these works were brought together at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, -universal astonishment prevailed when it was discovered what a great -painter this Louis David was. He appeared in these pictures as an artist -who stood completely within his age, who shared its passions and was -permeated by its greatness; he even appeared as a _charmeur_ who handled -the phenomena of colour and light as few others have done. It is true, -David showed himself in this favourable light at the exhibition only -because the entirely archæological side of his talent was not -represented. For at the bottom of his heart he too was an archæologist. -Many of his works, such as "The Death of Socrates," "Brutus," "The Oath -in the Tennis Court," and "The Rape of the Sabines," are specimens of a -barren theory. - -Against all the caprice of the eighteenth century, with its charming, -alluring grace, he opposed a strict, inexorable system, as he believed -he saw it in the antique. Simplicity, however, beneath his hands became -dryness, nobility formal. He saw in painting a sort of abstract geometry -for which there existed hard-and-fast forms. There was something -mathematical in his effort after dry correctness and erudite accuracy. -The infinite variety of life with its eternal changes was hidden from -his sight. The beautiful, he taught with Winckelmann, does not exist in -a single individual; it is only possible to create a type of it by -comparison and through composition. The human being of art ought always -to be a copy of that perfect being, primitive man, whom the Roman -sculptors had still before their eyes, but who had deteriorated in the -course of ages. Thus in France, too, the sensuous art of painting was -converted into an abstract science of æsthetics. The classic ideal -weighed upon French art and prescribed for all alike the same "heroic -style," the same elevation, the same marble coldness and monotony of -colour. _Jean-Baptiste Regnault_, and _François André Vincent_, whose -studios were most frequented after David's, worshipped the same gods. -After David's departure, _Guérin_, in particular, endeavoured to -bequeath to the students those genuinely academic rules which his pupil, -Delacroix, has summed up in these words: "In order to make an ideal head -of a negro, our teachers make him resemble as far as possible the -profile of Antinous, and then say, 'We have done our utmost; if he is, -nevertheless, not beautiful, we must altogether abstain from this freak -of nature, with his squat nose and thick lips, so unendurable to the -eyes.'" When he had to paint his "Insurrection in Cairo," therefore, -Egyptians as well as Arabs must first be supplied with heads of Antinous -and transformed from modern soldiers into ancient warriors, Romans of -the time of Romulus, before they could enter into the kingdom of art. -Everything was sacrificed to line,--an inflexible, inexorable, correct, -and icy line, the conventional, ideal line,--not the true line which -follows from observation of the infinite variety of nature. - -Nevertheless, even in works constructed as these were by rule and line, -we cannot fail to be impressed by the technical ability displayed by the -artist. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - DAVID. THE DEATH OF MARAT.] - -France, who in her outward relations has generally had a feverish -longing for change, has been in literary and artistic respects, as a -rule, exceedingly conservative, has upheld authority, supported an -academy, and prized limitations and proportion above everything. They -had upset the monarchy, murdered the hated aristocrats, built up the -republic, done away with Christianity before they ever thought of -touching the three unities of the drama. Voltaire, who had a reverence -for nothing in heaven or earth, respected the received treatment of the -Alexandrine verse. And David, the great painter of the Revolution, who -cast the pictures of Boucher out of the Louvre, and whose pupils used to -shoot bread-crumbs at Watteau's masterpiece, the "Voyage à Cythère," yet -conveyed with him into the new age, as an inheritance from _rococo_, its -prodigious knowledge. The good old traditions of the technique of French -painting were little shaken by him and his school. The Academy described -by Quatremère as the "eternal nursery garden of incurable prejudices," -was indeed overthrown, but David became immediately the head of a new -one. This age of absorption in politics developed an art to correspond, -more disciplined than ever, girt round by an iron cuirass; and this art, -notwithstanding multifarious phases, at no time lost its touch, -technically, with the acquisitions of former epochs, but evolved itself -in its various directions from one centre, distracted from its path by -nothing brought into it from outside. Géricault, Delacroix, Courbet, and -Manet, widely as they differ from one another, are links in one chain of -evolution. Art comes from knowledge. This maxim, which David held in -honour, has remained to the present day a dominant force in French art, -and by virtue of this knowledge, which David received from the old -masters and guarded as a sacred trust, France became in the nineteenth -century the chief school of technique for all other nations. From the -French the other nations learned their grammar and syntax; through them -they acquired a wider horizon and a deeper insight into the great -mystery of nature. - -[Decoration] - - - - -BOOK II - -THE ESCAPE INTO THE PAST - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE NAZARENES - - -Herein lies the great difference between France and Germany. Although -following along new lines, the art of France did not thereby suffer as -regards the quality of its execution; in spite of all Classicism it -remained the disciplined art of the schools. These favourable -preliminaries were lacking in Germany. It was not allotted to German -painting to grow up in naïve contentment with the technical inheritance -of its forefathers, but, on the contrary, at the entrance of its new -career it broke so completely with its predecessor--the art of the -eighteenth century--that it could no longer adopt even its technical -traditions. It arose out of the negation of earlier art, an absolute -negation such as the world had never seen before. It began with a -self-made man who had never acquired the charter of craftsmanship, who -never learnt to paint. In France, revolutionary pictures inspired with -intense pathos, and frankly naturalistic portraits of masterly -technique; with Carstens, outlines showing refined feeling, but faulty -very generally in execution, sketches drawn roughly with the pencil, -crayon, or red chalk. - -It had taken many generations of painters, whose lives had been spent in -careful devotion to the work, to collect the technical capital which -Carstens so carelessly flung to the winds. - -The next step along this way was taken by the Nazarenes. - -Just as it was inevitable that cold and lifeless Classicism should -follow the brightness and animation of _rococo_, so it was necessary, -according to the law of extremes which alternate in every evolution of -culture, that, next to the antique, should come its exact opposite, the -Gothic or Middle Ages. The antique was so monotonous that people longed -for variety of colour again; it was so cold and statuesque that they -longed for something soulful, so Greek and pagan and severe that they -hankered again after something Christian, would believe again like -children. - -Even in the young days of the old pagan, Goethe, religion formed the -favourite topic of the _beaux esprits_, and in the same year, 1797, that -Carstens died, this cult of the emotional life found, for the first -time, expression in literature. In every library one finds a dainty, -finely printed book in small octavo, without the author's name, with the -title _Herzensergiessungen eines Kunstliebenden Klosterbruders_, and -with a sort of head of Raphael as a frontispiece, in which, with his -prominent eyes, full lips, and long neck, he looks like some -intellectual, Christ-inspired, consumptive enthusiast. It is the pale, -gentle face of Wackenroder. - -[Illustration: FREDERICK OVERBECK.] - -First Winckelmann, then Wackenroder. In the very personalities of these -two the whole opposition between Classicism and the Nazarenes is -reflected. A student barely twenty years old, a mild, modest, -contemplative soul, who had attached himself from early youth with -womanly devotion to his more energetic friend Tieck, and written letters -to him that read like a young girl's effusions to her sweetheart, he -entered the Erlanger University with his friend at the Easter of 1793. -They saw Nuremberg. More than once they made pilgrimages to the old -fashioned town, the treasury of German art; and the spirit of the past -powerfully inspired them. Whilst for Lessing and Winckelmann "Gothic" -art only meant barbarian art, the wonders of Nuremberg were now observed -with fresh eyes. In a sort of intoxication of art the friends wandered -through churches, stood by the graves of Albrecht Dürer and Peter -Vischer, and a vanished world rose before them. The spires and turrets -behind falling walls and ramparts, the old, stately, patrician houses, -which jutted out their oriel windows, as it were with curiosity, into -the crooked streets, were peopled to their imagination with picturesque -figures in bonnet and hose from that great time when Nuremberg was "the -living, swarming school of native art," when "an exuberant, artistic -spirit" governed within its walls, when Master Hans Sachs and Adam Kraft -and Peter Vischer and Albrecht Dürer and Willibald Pirkheymer were -alive. Shortly after that they came to Dresden, and devoted themselves -in the gallery there to an enthusiastic cult of the Madonna. The -_Herzensergiessungen eines Kunstliebenden Klosterbruders_, which -appeared a year before Wackenroder's death in his twenty-sixth year, was -the result of these wanderings and studies. In this tender production of -a visionary youth the spirit of Romantic art found expression. - -Winckelmann was an archæologist; Wackenroder, an enthusiast of the -Middle Ages; on the one side knowledge only, on the other all feeling; -for the one, paganism, for the other, Christ. For it is from the first a -leading principle of the "_Klosterbruder_," that "the finest stream of -life only issues from the streams of art and religion when they flow in -company." He valued the older painters "because they had made painting -the true handmaid of religion"; art was to him an object of devotion. -Picture galleries, he says, ought to be temples; he would liken the -enjoyment of works of art to prayer; let it be a holy feast day to him -if he go with a serious and composed mind to their observance; indeed, -reverence for art and reverence for God were so closely interwoven that -he was fain to kneel down before art, and offer it the homage of an -"eternal and boundless love." This devotion to art, of which he himself -was full, he found nowhere in his times. The age of enlightenment was to -him an undevout and inartistic age. Only in his wanderings through the -uneven streets of Nuremberg did the deepest yearning of his soul seem -satisfied. He applied himself to mediæval, and especially to German art. -His standpoint is the same which the young Goethe had adopted when he -intervened with Herder for "German style and art," and dedicated his -pamphlet on German architecture to the shade of Erwin von Steinbach. He -is reluctant that one should condemn the Middle Ages because they did -not build such temples as the Greeks, any more than that one should -condemn the Indians because they spoke their language and not our own. -"It is not only beneath Italian skies, under majestic domes and -Corinthian columns, that true art thrives, it lives too under pointed -arches, intricately decorated buildings, and Gothic spires." - -[Illustration: OVERBECK. THE ANNUNCIATION.] - -It was all said so simply and heartily that soon the whole world began -to be "Wackenroderite." The ingenious and enthusiastic youth was -succeeded by theoretic reasoners. Tieck, who published his _Phantasies -upon Art_ in 1799, after Wackenroder's death, and amplified it with his -own explanations, was no longer a genuine but a counterfeit -"_Klosterbruder_." He first played with Catholicism, and uttered the -momentous sentence: "The best of the later masters up to the most recent -times have had no other aim than to imitate some one of the primitive or -typical artists, or even several together; nor have they easily become -great by any other method than by having successfully imitated -somebody." His _Sternbald_ is still more haunted by the spirit of -monastic devotion. - -[Illustration: OVERBECK. THE NAMING OF ST. JOHN.] - -[Illustration: OVERBECK. CHRIST HEALING THE SICK.] - -The particular starting-point was in this case too, as it had been -before for Winckelmann, the Dresden Gallery, where, at the turn of the -century, Augustus William and Frederick Schlegel, the two -"_Gotter-buben_," held their cultured rendezvous. "The Schlegels had -taken possession of the gallery," wrote Dora Stock, "and with Schelling -and Gries spent almost every morning there. It was a joy to see them -writing and teaching there. Sometimes they talked to me about art. I -felt myself often quite paltry, I was so far from any wisdom. Fichte, -too, they initiated into their secrets. You would have laughed if you -could have seen them drag him about and assail him with their -convictions." The journal _Europa_, founded by Frederick Schlegel in -1803, became the rallying-point of the new movement, and his articles -published therein contained the germs of all the efforts and errors of -the young school. In his discourse on Raphael he compares the -pre-Raphaelite period with that succeeding it, and considers the -proposition that "indubitably the corruption of art was originally -brought about by the newer school which was marked by Raphael, Titian, -Correggio, Giulio Romano, and Michael Angelo" so unquestionable that he -does not find it in the least necessary to prove it. He casually puts -forward as an _obiter dictum_ dropped in amongst a series of quite -opposed notions the idea that every art ought to have a national -foundation, and that any imitation of a foreign form of art is -deleterious. The result follows that it is to be deplored "that an evil -genius has alienated artists from the circle of ideas and the subjects -of the old painters. Culture can only attach itself to what has been -constituted. How natural it would be, then, if painters were to go on in -the old way, and cast themselves anew into the ideas and disposition of -the old painters." The artist should follow the painters prior to -Raphael, "especially the oldest," should strive to "copy carefully -their truth and simplicity long enough for it to become second nature to -his eye"; or he may "select the style of the old German school as a -pattern." - -[Illustration: OVERBECK. CHRIST'S ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM.] - -[Illustration: OVERBECK. THE RESURRECTION.] - -The latter counsel originated from the discovery in 1804 of the Cologne -Cathedral picture, referred to by Schlegel in his _Europa_. Through the -secularisation of the monasteries, attention was again directed to the -old ecclesiastical pictures which people had hitherto passed by -unnoticed. From the monasteries, churches, guild halls, and castles -which the French had plundered, countless masses of paintings of every -sort were extricated. A great deal perished; nearly all, however, that -had hitherto been kept as heirlooms, and for the most part almost -inaccessible, now became movable, attainable property. The brothers -Boisserée began their celebrated collection, which is to be seen to-day -in the Munich _Pinakothek_. While hitherto one had, at the most, known -of Dürer, now one touched upon an age which lay behind the Reformation, -an age in which Catholicism was flourishing, in which "not great artists -but nameless monks represented art," and it was soon all fire and ardour -over the sweetness, naïveté, and faith of these pictures. Fernow had -still pronounced generally against the capacity of the "Catholic -religion, with its Jewish-Christian mythology and martyrology," to -satisfy the demands of a pure taste in art. Carstens had written down -for himself the sentence from Webb's work: "The art of the ancients was -rich in august and captivating figures: their gods had grace, majesty, -and beauty. How much meaner is the lot of the moderns! Their art is -subservient to the priests. Their characters are taken from the lowest -spheres of life--men of humble descent and uncouth manners. Even their -Divine Master is in painting nowhere to be seen according to a great -idea; His long, smooth hair, His Jewish beard and sickly appearance -would deprive the most exalted beings of any semblance of dignity. -Meekness and humility, His characteristic traits, are virtues edifying -in the extreme but in no way picturesque. This lack of dignity in the -subject renders it intelligible why we look so coldly at these works in -the churches and galleries. The genius of painting expends its strength -in vain on Crucifixions, Holy Families, Last Suppers, and the like." Not -five years had elapsed after Carstens' death when, according to an -impression of Dorothea Veit, "Christianity was once more the order of -the day." William Schlegel's poem, _The Church's Alliance with the -Arts_, from which, later, Overbeck borrowed the thought for his -picture, can be looked upon, as Goethe already wrote, as the true -profession of faith of the young school. Where previously Augustus -William had described in his sonnets the Io, Leda, and Cleopatra of the -Dresden Gallery, it was now the Madonna who received the homage of the -gallant poet. By Frederick, Christianity was recommended to the artist -as a formal model and a source of æsthetic enjoyment,--as it was, at the -same time, by Chateaubriand as _prédilection d'artiste_. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - OVERBECK. THE SEVEN LEAN YEARS.] - -Even more profound did the tendency become during the War of -Independence, which at the same time gave the death blow to Classicism. -Distress taught how to pray. In those years of humiliation the young -generation abandoned the classic ideal for ever, and Schenkendorf cried -imperiously: "We would see no more pagan pictures on any German walls." -French "frivolity" was contrasted with German seriousness, German -Christianity with the free-thought of the French; there was a return -from the cold philosophy of enlightenment to the vigorous feeling of -mediæval faith. - -Frederick Schlegel, the author of _Lucinde_, who had written as lately -as 1799:-- - - "Mein einzig Religion ist die, - Dass ich liebe ein schönes Knie, - Volle Brust und schlanke Hüften, - Dazu Blumen mit süssen Düften," - -was converted to Catholicism. Schelling wrote his _Philosophy of -Revelation_; Görres, the editor of the _Rothen Blut_, ended as the -author of the _Christian Mystic_. - -Here set in the period of the Nazarenes. What Schlegel had said was to -become true, that the German artist has either no character at all or he -must have the character of the mediæval masters, true-hearted and -thoughtful, innocent withal, and somewhat maladroit. In architecture the -Hellenic school is succeeded by the Gothic, painting passes from the -reverence of the Greek statues to that of old Italian pictures. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - JULIUS SCHNORR VON CAROLSFELD.] - -Rome remained for the Nazarenes, too, the centre of influence, only they -no longer made pilgrimages, like the Classicists, to ancient but to -Christian Rome. _Overbeck_ of Lübeck came in 1810 with Pforr of -Frankfort and Vogel of Zürich; the Düsseldorfer, Cornelius, followed in -1811, _Schadow_ and _Veit_ of Berlin in 1815, _Schnorr von Carolsfeld_ -of Leipzig in 1818, the Viennese _Führich_ and _Steinle_ in 1827 and -1828. In all of them there lived the perception that in such a serious -age men should be of high moral endeavour, and art the expression of the -religious capacity of their lives. - -[Illustration: _Wigand, Leipzig._ - - SCHNORR. ADAM AND EVE AFTER THE FALL.] - -There still stands to-day, on a secluded hillock of the Monte Pincio a -small church, whose façade is adorned with the statues of St. Isidore, -the patron of husbandmen, and of St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland. A -court with weather-beaten cloisters and an old well separates the church -from the monastery which lies behind it, where the cells of the monks, -Irish and Italian Franciscans, are placed. Above, on the terrace of the -house, one has a charming view of Rome and the Campagna, of Monte Cavo -and the heights of Tusculum. Below stretch the gardens of the Capucin -Convent, and farther back the grounds and avenues of the Villa Ludovisi. -On the first floor is a large hall, the walls of which have been -decorated by the hand of some old monk with frescoes, and which, -formerly a refectory, is used to-day as a theological lecture-room. This -was the room where Overbeck and his friends in the first period after -their arrival stood for one another as models. Lethière, the director of -the French Academy, had obtained permission for them to install -themselves in the deserted rooms of the monastery of San Isidoro, which -had been spared by Napoleon, for which they paid the small sum of three -scudi monthly. - -[Illustration: JOSEPH FÜHRICH. _Graphische Kunst._] - -"We led a truly monastic life," relates Overbeck; "held ourselves aloof -from all, and lived only for art. In the morning we marketed together; -at midday we took it in turns to cook our dinner, which was composed of -nothing but a soup and a pudding, or some tasty vegetable, and was -seasoned only by earnest conversation on art." Overbeck, as a good -housekeeper, kept accounts; the principal items of the daily outlay -occurred for polenta and risotto, oranges and lemons; every now and then -oil, too, was noted down. The afternoons were dedicated to the study of -the creations of art in Rome. With "beating hearts and holy awe" they -passed over the threshold of the _Stanze_. In the chapel of San Lorenzo -they became "familiar with the seraphic Fiesole, whose frescoes -transcend everything in purity of conception." They shunned the paganism -of St. Peter's, and marvelled with all the more intimate devotion at the -old Christian monuments. The churches of San Lorenzo and San Clemente, -the cloisters of St. John Lateran and St. Paul's-without-the-Walls, made -an ineffaceable impression upon the young men. At the twilight hour they -wandered up on to Monte Cavo. "And of evenings we drew studies of -drapery--glorious folds!--from Pforr's big Venetian mantle, in which we -took turns to pose for one another." Their whole hearts, however, first -swelled when they undertook a journey to Tuscany. In Orvieto, Luca -Signorelli awaited them, whose frescoes especially impressed Cornelius -mightily. At Sienna they found teachers who were still more sympathetic -to them, Duccio and Simone Martino, those masters of a tender, intimate -spirit and a charming sweetness of expression. In the Campo Santo at -Pisa they turned their attention to Fiesole's pupil, Gozzoli. Those -became their great teachers in art. "Just as ardent Christians wander to -the grave of the princes of the apostles in order to confirm their faith -and quicken their zeal, so should zealous young artists derive strength -and illumination from the silent and yet so eloquent speech of the -sublime geniuses of art. An artist of real worth will find in the -masterpieces of painting at Rome everything necessary for him in order -to reach the right path. But, to be sure, a well-made plait of hair does -not certainly constitute one a Raphael, because Raphael, too, arranged -his hair with feeling. Study alone leads to nothing. If since Raphael's -age, as one can almost declare, there has been no painter, that is the -fault of nothing else than of the fact that art has been vanquished by -workmanship. One learnt at the academies to paint excellent drapery, to -draw a correct figure, learnt perspective, architecture--in short, -everything, and yet no painter was produced. There is one want in all -recent painting--heart, soul, sentiment. Let the young painter then -watch, before everything, over his sentiments: let him allow neither an -impure word on his lips nor an impure thought in his mind. But how can -he guard himself from that? By religion, by study of the Bible, the one -and only study which made Raphael. This view now certainly contradicts -the accustomed principles that everything must be systematically learnt; -mere learning produces certainly an instructed but also a cold artist. -On that ground it is not good either to study anatomy from dead bodies, -because one dwarfs thereby certain fine sensibilities, or to work from -female models, for the same reason. Let the painter be inspired by his -subject as those of old were, and the result will be the same. Like -those old painters, let every artist remind himself that the truest use -of art is that which leads it heavenwards, its one function that of -having a moral effect upon men." "How pure and holy," cries Cornelius to -Xeller, as late as 1858, "was the end at which we aimed! Unknown, -without encouragement, without aid, except that of our loving Father in -heaven." - -[Illustration: FÜHRICH. FROM THE "LEGEND OF ST. GWENDOLIN."] - -It is obvious that between the ascetics of the monastery and the -Classicists direct friction must ensue. To them the "ever repeated and -pale reflexions of Greek sculpture" said nothing, while the Classicists -scoffed at the religionists, for whom the sarcastic brawler, Reinhart, -invented the nickname of "Nazarenes," which has since become a -watchword. The opposition was historically immortalised when Bunsen, the -Prussian envoy, invited the whole colony to the christening of his -little daughter, and Niebuhr touched glasses with Thorwaldsen "to the -health of old Jupiter." Only Cornelius joined in; the others started and -looked upon the young Düsseldorfer as a heretic. - -This positive Christian standpoint, which allowed art to be esteemed -only as a religious service, pictures only as a means of ecclesiastical -edification, irritated also the old man of Weimar at the first start. -The effort of the Nazarenes to make piety the foundation of true -artistic activity was to him a continual subject of contempt. Religion -no more bestows talent for the arts than it gives taste. He spoke with -irony of the "valiant artists and ingenious friends of art who had -resort to the honourable, naïve, yet somewhat coarse taste" of the -fourteenth and fifteenth-century masters. He constantly employed of them -the expression "star-gazing." He had already mockingly remarked of -Wackenroder's _Herzensergiessungen_ what an unwarrantable conclusion it -was, that because a few monks were artists, all artists should therefore -be monks. He called the life of the Nazarenes "a sort of masquerade -which stood in opposition to the actual day," and wrote in the pages of -_Art and Antiquity_ that manifesto, the _New German Religious-Patriotic -Art_, or _History of the New Pietistic False Art since the Eighties_, -which so deeply wounded the young enthusiasts. "The doctrine was that -the artist needed piety above everything to equal the work of the best. -What an attractive doctrine! How eagerly we should accept it! For in -order to become religious one need learn nothing." The whole movement -reached nothing beyond a slavish imitation of Giotto and his immediate -followers. Of course, it was inconsistent of Goethe to reproach -contemporary art for imitating that of the Middle Ages, and to praise -the latter only when it imitated the antique. Speaking as a man of -Mengs' school, and merely proposing Hellenic art as a canon instead of -early Italian, he had, after all, no right to be angry if Frederick -Schlegel opposed classical models with mediæval. Otherwise, however, -even to-day little can be added to Goethe's animadversions. - -[Illustration: FÜHRICH. RUTH AND BOAZ.] - -As with Carstens, so with the Nazarenes, we are warned by the idealistic -tendency which inspired the young enthusiasts. There are but few -painters with whom life and art have been in such complete agreement as -with the gentle, mild, and modest Overbeck, the "Apostle John," as he -got to be called, that young man, that serene soul who looked upon art -simply as a harp of David for the praise of the Lord, to whom the "hope -that through his works one soul had been strengthened in faith and piety -was of far more value than any fame," and who ended at last in a sort of -religious mania. With the Nazarenes, too, as with the Classicists, it -was pure exaltation which drove them to free themselves from the -trammels of the school, in order to get back from dead fabrications to -creations of art, which, proceeding out of the living spirit, once more -had a soul. Even the much-despised conversion of the Protestants among -them to the Catholic Church arose out of the deep conviction that they -also, as well as their art, must be united in religion. - -[Illustration: FÜHRICH. THE DEPARTURE OF THE PRODIGAL SON.] - -In a certain sense they even show an advance in art. They found between -themselves and the great painters of the eighteenth century a gulf that -could no longer be spanned. After Carstens had thrown overboard every -colouristic acquisition, it was indeed something that the Nazarenes no -longer saw the highest aim of painting in black and white design, but -turned, though with timidity and hesitation, to the study of the Italian -Quattrocento with its joyous delight in colour, and so became the first -real painters after the cartoon period. Only that was as yet simply an -advance for the nineteenth century, and not especially for the history -of art. This was as little enriched with new forms and discoveries by -the Nazarenes as by the Classicists. The former, too, were imitators, -and only changed masters when they fled from the antique to the Middle -Ages, and copied the old Italians in lieu of the Greeks. The Classicists -had imitated with a certain cold erudition; the Nazarenes out of the -depths of their emotion. As the former used Greeks, so did they use the -fourteenth-century painters, as patterns of calligraphy from which they -made their copies, cut their stencils after the Italian form, and, like -Mengs, were able to reproduce in their works only a very weak reflection -of those departed spirits. As eclectics they would stand on the same -rung with the academics of Bologna, except that the ideal of the latter -school was a combination from Leonardo, Raphael, Michael Angelo, -Correggio, and Titian, and that it possessed an incomparably greater -facility in technique. - -[Illustration: FÜHRICH. JACOB AND RACHEL.] - -The Nazarenes abandoned on principle the employment of the model, from -fear lest it might entice them away from the ideal representation of the -character to be depicted. They sought in a dilettante manner to supply -the control over the material which alone makes the artist, by -enthusiasm for the material. Only Cornelius dared to draw from the -female form. Overbeck refused to do so, from modesty. The Virgin Mary -was to him the highest ideal of womanhood, the paler, the more virtuous, -the more akin to the Lamb of God; and he would have deemed it a -sacrilege to have depicted her as purely womanly. They therefore only -occasionally sat to one another for studies of drapery, and, for the -rest, "in order not to be naturalistic," painted their pictures from -imagination in the seclusion of their cells. As the Catholicism of -Schlegel was an anæmic system, so the painters, too, deprived their -figures of blood and being in order to leave them only the abstract -beauty of line. They are beings who are exalted above everything, even -above correctness of drawing, and who must expire of a lack of blood in -their veins. The command, "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, -and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you," -was carried out by the Nazarenes only too well. - -[Illustration: STEINLE. THE RAISING OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER.] - -They have created only two works which will survive, and which possess -an historical significance as pre-eminent, works of the whole movement -in common--the frescoes of the Casa Bartholdi and of the Villa Massini. - -When the intelligence of the Battle of Waterloo had penetrated even into -the silent cells of the monks, they believed that art too should -participate in this universal elevation, and become a factor again in -the development of the German nation. It must not be used, wrote -Cornelius in his famous letter to Görres, as a mere plaything, or to -tickle the senses, not merely for the delectation and pomp of high and -rich Maecenases, but for the ennoblement and glorification of public -life. The means of this artistic elevation, and at the same time a new -means of popular culture, was to be the introduction of fresco painting. - -[Illustration: STEINLE. "I HAVE TRODDEN THE WINEPRESS ALONE: AND OF - THE PEOPLE THERE WAS NONE WITH ME."] - -And thus the Brothers of San Isidoro re-discovered what had, as a matter -of fact, always been quietly practiced by the "rustics painters," but -since Mengs' time had no longer been employed by the "art painters," and -had been forgotten for half a century. The Prussian consul at Rome, -Bartholdy, gave them the commission. An old mason, who had last arranged -wall-plastering under Mengs, was recruited as technical adviser; Carl -Eggers, of Neustrelitz, zealously made chemical researches; and it is -said to have been Veit who, at Cornelius' request ("Now, Philip, you -make the first attempt!"), was the first to paint the portrait of a head -in fresco, whilst his companions looked on with amazement and delight. -Then the others set to work, "and painted away at it in the name of -God." "Yes, believe me, my friend, it is a desperate matter to paint -over a whole room in a manner which one has never before practised -oneself nor seen practised by others. Every day we tell each other that -we are fine bunglers, and give each other a regular dressing down. You -can have no conception how strange it feels at first when one is -confronted by damp plaster and lime. And nevertheless we construct -daily fresh castles in the air for painting churches, monasteries, and -palaces in Germany." - -The frescoes represent, in six mural paintings and two lunettes, the -history of Joseph in Egypt, from his sale to his recognition by his -brethren. The two latter are the work of Cornelius and Overbeck, the -others of Veit and Schadow. The work was prolonged through many years, -interrupted by manifold difficulties, and when one stands to-day before -the transferred pictures in the Berlin National Gallery one cannot -refrain from admiring them. - -[Illustration: EDWARD STEINLE.] - -There lives within them an unpretentiousness and sincerity of sentiment, -and, in spite of all deficiencies and lack of independence, somewhat of -that lofty inspiration which raises the pictures of really earnest -artists, even if they are faulty, far above any fabricated productions. -An association of young men, which, unconcerned about success and -material profit, contended only for ideal products, found here for the -first time an opportunity to display what it wanted. In the -interpretation of Pharaoh's dream and in the recognition by the -brethren, Cornelius, in formal language, full of character, and without -any phrases and posture, displayed all that he had derived from the -great Italians in nobility of grouping and fine arrangement of lines. -Overbeck reaches the same height in his allegory of the seven lean kine. -But it is not only as youthful works of artists, who, if they belonged -to a period of decadence, yet were, withal, the greatest representatives -of a period of German art, that these pictures are worthy of high -esteem; they are essentially the best that these masters have created. -Cornelius, notably, shows a study, a care for execution, indeed even a -harmony of colouring, that stands in surprising opposition to his later -negligence. From the conception that the artistic performance is -determined in the invention, and the design, but that the pictorial -execution is an indifferent, mechanical accessory which could be -supplied even by other people, he was at that time still free. - -[Illustration: STEINLE. BOOK ILLUSTRATION.] - -When the pictures had been unveiled in 1819 a festival of German artists -was held in Rome. Rückert, Bunsen, the Humboldts, the Herzes were there; -Cornelius, Veit, and Overbeck had arranged the transparencies. "The -centre of all," writes the Danish romantic Atterbom, was the Crown -Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, "the idol of every German artist, whose ruling -passion is for the fine arts and fair ladies. Everything was in old -German masques, the ladies in wide ruffs. The Crown Prince was in the -utmost good humour, and treated the artists as his equals. A toast was -drunk to German unity. The scene struck me like a beautiful dream out of -the Middle Ages." German unity at a Roman fancy ball! The German nation -a beautiful dream out of the Middle Ages! The Crown Prince Ludwig, when -he took Cornelius and Schnorr out of the Roman circle, at least created -a fatherland for German art, and later on the others also found at home -a suitable sphere of activity. - -Philip Veit, who went to Frankfort in 1830 as Director of the Staedel -Institute, was the first to settle down, and for all his energy could -only for a very short time make that city into a seat of the Christian -tendency in art. Of his pictures there, the fresco painted for the -Staedel Institute, "The Introduction of Christianity into Germany by St. -Boniface," is by far the most important. The apostle has hewn down the -oak of Thor, and from where it once stood there flows forth the new -spring of Christianity. The old Germans shrink back timorously, but the -youths listen to the preacher, and follow his direction to the figure of -religion which approaches with the palm of peace. In the background a -church rises, and in the distance, by a limpid river, a flourishing -town, in contrast to the sombre, primeval forest to which the Germans -who reject religion are flying. - -"The two Marys at the Sepulchre," in the Berlin National Gallery, and -the "Assumption," in the Frankfort Cathedral, date from a later period. -It was of no avail to him that he mingled with his Nazarenism a certain -air of the world, which found expression in a less ascetic language of -form and a somewhat stronger sense of colour. In 1841 he had already a -feeling that the restless, struggling age had passed him by. He -abandoned his post and went to meet oblivion as Director of the Gallery -at Mayence. - -[Illustration: _Munich, Albert._ - - STEINLE. THE VIOLIN PLAYER.] - -Overbeck, the only one who could not tear himself from Rome, remained, -till his death in 1869, the "Young German Raphael," as his father had -called him in a letter from Lübeck in 1811: a devout, religious poet, -pure of soul and of fine culture, as one-coloured and one-sided as he -was mild and tender. At the outset he knew, at least, how to extract -from the old masters a certain naïve piety without positive character, -whereas later he lost himself more and more in the arid formalism of -dead dogmas. What was in his power to give he has given in pictures such -as the "Entry of Christ into Jerusalem" and the "Weeping over the Body -of Christ"--both in the Marienkirche at Lübeck, in the "Miracle of -Roses," in Santa Maria Degli Angeli at Assisi, in the "Christ on the -Mount of Olives" in the Hospital at Hamburg, and the "Betrothal of Mary" -in the Berlin National Gallery--pictures which expressed nothing that -would not have been expressed better at the end of the fifteenth -century. His "Holy Family with St. John and the Lamb," of 1825, in the -Munich Pinakothek, is in composition and type a complete imitation of -the Florentine Raphael; his "Lamentation of Christ" in the Lübeck -Marienkirche is reminiscent of Perugino; his "Burial" would never have -existed but for Raphael's picture in the Borghese Gallery. His sentiment -coincided exactly in devotion and godliness with that of Fra Angelico or -of the old masters of Cologne, and when he devoted himself to -programme-painting he lost all intelligibility. In the "Triumph of -Religion in the Arts," which he completed in 1846 for the Staedel -Institute, and in which he wished to embody the favourite ideas of -Romanticism, that art and religion must flow together in one stream, he -has copied the upper part from the "Disputa," the lower part from the -"School of Athens," and worked up both into a tedious and scholastically -elaborated whole. It is only through a series of unpretentious sketches -which he prepared for engravings, lithographs, and woodcuts that his -name has still a certain lustre. Plates such as the "Rest in the -Flight," the "Preaching of St. John," or the series "Forty Illustrations -to the Gospel," the "Passion," the "Seven Sacraments," may be -contemplated even to-day, since in them at least no tastelessness of -colour stands in the way. These plates, too, like his pictures, are less -observed than felt--felt, however, with an innocence and cheerfulness of -heart often quite childlike. - -[Illustration: PHILIP VEIT.] - -It shows above all much self-understanding that all these masters in -their later years restricted themselves exclusively to design, which -better expressed their character. In compositions and sketches of this -kind, which were only _drawn_, and were thus untrammelled by the -fruitless struggle with the difficulties of the technique of painting -and a complete lack of the notion of colour, they moved more freely and -lightly. In their frescoes and oil-paintings, partly through -insufficient technique, partly through their all too servile imitation -of foreign ideals, they went astray. As draughtsmen, they had more -courage to be themselves, and while in the completer paintings many a -fine trait, many an intimate reflection of the soul was lost, or through -the obduracy of the material did not attain a right expression, here -their spiritual and emotional qualities can be better valued. - -Joseph Führich, one of the most staunchly convinced champions of these -reactionary tendencies, has become, entirely owing to his extensive -activity as a draughtsman, somewhat more familiar to our modern -knowledge than most of his contemporaries. He had begun as a -draughtsman. As a student of the Prague Academy he was an enthusiast for -Schlegel, Novalis, and Tieck; and even before his journey to Rome he had -etched fifteen plates for Tieck's _Genoveva_. It was Dürer who exercised -the deciding influence upon his further development. He had been led to -him through Wackenroder, and had copied his "Marienleben" in 1821. "Here -I saw," he says in his Autobiography, "a form before me which stood in -trenchant opposition to that of the Classicists, who are anxious to palm -off as beauty their smoothness and pomposity borrowed from the -misunderstood antique, and their affected delicacy as grace. In contrast -with that absence of character which prevailing academic art mistakes -for beauty I saw here a keen and mighty characterisation which dominated -the figures through and through, making them, as it were, into old -acquaintances." The strong and godly German middle age took then in -Führich's heart the same place which the Italian Quattrocento had filled -in Overbeck's range of thought. And this old-German tendency was only -temporarily interrupted by his sojourn in Rome. After he came to Rome in -1826 he became a Nazarene, and was accustomed there to look back at the -tendencies of his youth as an error; and both at Prague, where he -returned in 1829, after collaborating at the frescoes in the Villa -Massini, and at Vienna, where from 1841 he held the post of professor in -the Academy, he found rich opportunity for putting into practice his -ecclesiastical and orthodox views of art. - -[Illustration: VEIT. THE ARTS INTRODUCED INTO GERMANY BY CHRISTIANITY.] - -His frescoes in the Johannis-und-Altleschenfelder Church in Vienna are, -perhaps, more harmonious in colour, but no more independent in form, -than the works of the others. In his old age he returned once more to -the impressions of his youth, and so found himself again. - -As a boy, in his little native village of Kratzau, in Bohemia, he had -tended the cows in summer time and had acquired a certain sincere -knowledge of nature and shepherd-life. He had to thank Dürer for his -preference for the idyllic and patriarchal family scenes in Sacred -History, and these tendencies found pleasing expression in pictures like -"Jacob and Rachel," or "The Passage of Mary across the Mountains." No -matter that the figures in "Jacob and Rachel" are taken out of the early -pictures of Pinturicchio and Raphael, they are still interwoven, with -their background of landscape, into an idyll of great naïveté and charm. -More especially, however, did the qualities which he owed to Dürer -acquire value--a sturdy characterisation, a naïve art in telling the -story, and a great wealth of fresh traits, straight from nature--in the -serial compositions of his old age. There is no sentimental vagueness, -nothing academical. Führich had a keen eye for what was intimate, -familiar; a tender sense of the individualities of landscape in woodland -and meadow, of the charm of everyday life as well as of the animal -world; and though an idealist, he knew how to assimilate ingeniously -what he had observed with a certain realistic fulness. The old story of -Boaz and Ruth grew beneath his hands into a delicious idyll of country -life. From the story of the Prodigal Son he has extracted with -sensitiveness the purely human kernel, and as late as the winter of -1870-71, at the age of seventy-one, he illustrated the legend of St. -Gwendolen, in which he depicted with tender reverence the escape of a -human soul, withdrawn from the world and resigned to God's will, into -Nature and her peace. - -Edward Steinle, who went from Rome to Vienna in 1833, and settled in -Frankfort in 1838, is called, not very appropriately, by his biographer, -Constantine Wuzbach, "a Madonna painter of our time." His name deserves -to come down to posterity rather for what he created outside the -essential characteristics of his art. In his frescoes in the minster at -Aachen, in the choir of the cathedrals of Strasburg and Cologne, he -stood firm on the standpoint of the Nazarenes; which is as much as to -say they contained nothing novel in the history of art. In his fairy -pictures, however, imagination broke through the narrow confines of -dogma, and entwined itself in creative enjoyment round the vague figures -of fable. His "Loreley," in the Schack Gallery, as she looks down, a -Medusa-like destroyer, from the tall cliff; his watchman who looks -dreamily into space over the houses of the old town; his violin player -on his tower who plays, forgetful of the world,--these have something -musical, poetical, that freshness of sentiment and unsought naïveté -which as an inheritance of his Viennese home was also peculiar in such a -high degree to Schwind. - -The Romantic aspiration is revealed in Steinle, even, in a certain -"yearning after colour." There lives in his works a refined feeling for -colour that, especially in his water-colours, rarely forsakes him. -Take, for instance, the fresh, tinted pen-drawings, engraved by -Schaffer, in which he displayed with the naïveté of Memlinc the life of -St. Euphrosyne; the five aquarelles of Grimm's "Snow-White and -Rose-Red"; or his illustrations to Brentano's poems, such as the -_Chronicle of the Wandering Student_, and the _Fairy Tale of the Rhine -and Radlauf the Miller_, in which he developed a delight in the world -and an idea of landscape that in the ascetic Nazarene excite -astonishment. - -[Illustration: VEIT. THE TWO MARYS AT THE SEPULCHRE.] - -Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld went, after the completion of the Ariosto -Room of the Villa Massini, first to Vienna, then in 1827 to Munich, in -order to paint the _Nibelungen_ in the halls of the royal residence of -that time, and in the imperial halls of the state palace the history of -Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, and Rudolf of Hapsburg. He also, -however, created his best work at the close of his life in Dresden,--the -forcible woodcuts of his _Picture Bible_, which narrated the world's -sacred history in strong and vigorous strokes. - -Strangest to the present-day taste have become the drawings of -Cornelius. His plates to Goethe's _Faust_ have, indeed, a certain -austere strength of conception, which he learnt from Dürer; but also -faults of drawing, exaggerations, crudities, and errors in perspective, -which he did not find in Dürer. - -In his second work, the Nibelungen cycle, an intentional old-German -angularity, with an unintentional modern clumsiness, has effected a -_mésalliance_ even less attractive. - -[Illustration: OVERBECK. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF AND CORNELIUS.] - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE ART OF MUNICH UNDER KING LUDWIG I - - -More than seventeen hundred years ago there reigned a Roman emperor who -loved art passionately. He looked upon it from an intellectual altitude -which few have reached, and he valued it as the monumental consummation -of Græco-Roman culture. Standing upon a plane of intellectual elevation, -himself gifted with artistic intuition, he knew of no higher enjoyment -for a ruler than the cultivation of the architectural and other forms of -art. It was he who opened up to the energy of artists a field such as -has never been offered to them before or since. He spent upon his works -sums incalculable, so that his people grew restless under their -emperor's mania for building. His villa at Tivoli, which attained to the -extent of a town, was in itself a copy of everything that he most loved -and admired in the world. It united nearly all the renowned buildings of -Athens in one masterly reproduction. And then with architecture came the -other arts. The most magnificent collections of sculpture were formed, -for none had better opportunities of acquiring the antique masterpieces -of the Greek towns. Numberless frescoes, scenes from those cities and -regions which had most impressed him on his travels, adorned the walls. - -And yet subsequent generations have viewed with unconcern this halcyon -period in the history of art. Though his contemporaries fancied that the -splendour of the Greek sun was still radiating over them, it was but a -borrowed lustre, which never went beyond the reproduction or copying of -classic examples. Whatever Greek temples the emperor might build and -decorate, he failed to summon into being a Phidias or a Polygnotes to -revive for him the forms of the antique. The names of the artists who -worked for him are forgotten. They had no originality; they copied the -types of the Grecian and Egyptian periods, and their art was but a -repetition of old ideals, without character of age or place. The fifteen -colossal columns of his Olympieion that are still standing impress one -as foreign to Athens, and would seem more in place at Baalbeck or -Palmyra than in this city of the Muses. Epictetus would have smiled at -the emperor diverting himself with an album of the wonders of the world, -as a piece of sentimentality. The age of Hadrian produced thousands of -buildings, statues, and pictures, but no original works. - -Will a different judgment be pronounced in the lapse of time upon the -artistic creations of King Ludwig I? Ludwig also--his biography reads -like that of Hadrian--was an enthusiastic admirer of art. After the -Peace of Vienna, when the political aspirations of Germany had been -frustrated, he alone among the numerous German princes of the old -alliance fostered homeless art, and thus fulfilled a noble mission. The -king's splendid enthusiasm for the ideal significance of art, which he -hoped would lead the German people, then seeking to work out its -individuality, from out of its Philistine narrow-mindedness to nobler -and greater things--this enthusiasm will redound to his enduring honour. -Schiller's idea of educating humanity by æsthetic means had in him grown -into a living and powerful sentiment. - -All that it was possible to accomplish in the cause of art, on the basis -of existing development, his endeavours have fully realised. In the -course of twenty-three years he spent more than £3,000,000 from his -privy purse, and made Munich what it is, the principal art centre of -Germany; changed it from a Boeotia into an Athens; founded its art -collections, and erected the buildings which give the town its -character. Then he offered those new walls to the painter Cornelius, and -commanded him to cover them. "You are my field-marshal, do you provide -generals of division." In 1814 Cornelius had written to Bartholdy: "The -most powerful and unfailing means to restore German art and bring it -into harmony with this great period and the spirit of the nation would -be a revival of fresco-painting as it existed in Italy from the days of -the great Giotto to those of the divine Raphael." And through this royal -command the dream was realised beyond all expectation. No such lively -artistic animation had been witnessed since the great periods of Italian -art; an animation which does not cut the worst figure in German history -in those sad times of political stagnation and reaction. But that there -was a living soul of art in those days posterity will no more -acknowledge than it does in the case of the age of Hadrian. - - "Wie bei Bartholdy als Kind, so in Massimis Villa als Jüngling - Teutshes Fresco wir sehn, aber in München als Mann," - -sang King Ludwig. Now, after two generations, it can be seen that -fresco-painting at Munich from 1820 to 1840 produced less original -conceptions of the German art of the nineteenth than weak reflections of -the Italian art of the sixteenth century. - -Various favourable circumstances combined at that time to cause -Cornelius to be specially looked upon by his contemporaries as an -incomparable master. Since Tiepoli, German monumental art had remained -dormant. The frescoes at Munich were the first attempts made to revive -it. And it seemed as though with Cornelius, German art had at once risen -to the dizzy heights to which Italian art had been led by Michael -Angelo. The lookers-on believed in Buonarotti's resurrection. As in the -Sistine "Last Judgment," the movement of his heroic figures appeared -plastic and pathetic, and his types, not excepting the women, gave that -impression of the terrible, which none but Signorelli and Michael Angelo -had attained before him. His advent, it was said, might almost make one -believe in a kind of metempsychosis; as though the spirit of the great -Florentine master, that giant of the Renaissance, had been restored to -humanity. At that very period the Italian art of the Cinquecento enjoyed -the exclusive favour of the German scholars. It alone was worthy of -imitation; in it the æsthetic philosophers sought for rules and laws to -govern the development of art. And as they thought that all the -qualities of this artistic method were to be found in the works of -Cornelius, it was only logical to arrive at the conclusion which the -Crown Prince Ludwig summed up in the following words: "There has been no -painter like Cornelius since the Cinquecento." - -[Illustration: PETER CORNELIUS.] - -At the same time the intellectual character of his work harmonised with -the wishes of a period in which the leaders of German thought tried to -forget the dreary dulness of life by plunging into the most profound -speculations. "What does it matter," writes Hallman, "if we lack all -joyous, independent national feeling? What though we do not even try to -resuscitate this feeling with wars and battles? We strive after -something higher! The world is beginning to respect German intellect and -learning. We believe that in this we are in advance of other nations, -and we seek a mode of expression, we want to give a form to that lofty -thought through our art, in order that we may bequeath to posterity an -image of our fortunate condition.... Therefore it is a remarkable sign -of the times that painting strives to make the weighty output of -intellectual thought a common treasure of all who are neither able nor -disposed to follow speculation to its dizzy heights, nor erudition to -its lowest depths; that painters try to transform the results of those -investigations into fresh and ever lively conceptions--the element of -art." - -To accomplish this none was better fitted than Cornelius. What a weight -of thought and learning his works display! - -In the Pinakothek, Cornelius' main idea was to paint the life and work -of Nature as illuminated by the figures of the Greek gods. For the -series of paintings in the Hall of the Gods, Hesiod's _Theogony_ offered -a basis upon which to demonstrate the idea of the triumph of the -creative mind in heaven and upon earth. In the second room, human -passion, power, and tyranny were illustrated in scenes of Greek heroic -life from the _Iliad_. The frescoes in the Ludwigskirche were to follow -the Christian apocalypse as a concatenation, and to depict it in -symbolic treatment from the Creation to the Last Judgment. The frescoes -for the Campo Santo at Berlin were meant to represent "the universal and -most exalted fortunes of humanity, the manifestation of divine grace -towards the sins of mankind, the redemption from sin, perdition, and -death, the triumph of life and eternity." Each of these paintings is a -treatise. Each fresco bears a definite relation to the other; deep -philosophic speculations weave their threads from one to the other. Or -else the painter revels in a suite of compositions which trace a network -of intellectual combinations from one picture to the other. As he -himself expressed it, he delivered his diploma lecture through his -paintings. - -And this painted erudition harmonised with the requirements of those -times of dominating intellectual tendencies. The scholars saw in -Cornelius the poet, the doctor-in-philosophy; held that the principal -value of the work of art lay in its intellectual contents, and felt that -their loftiest mission was to express these contents still more -correctly than the painter himself. The idea, they said, was the alpha -and omega of the painter's art, and must be accepted at its full value, -even when represented in the most shadowy external form. - -These opinions have now vanished entirely. A more extended intercourse -with the old masters and with the art of other countries has gradually -cured the Germans too of that mental hypertrophy from which they -suffered in their view of art--a complaint whose characteristic symptom -was the entire lack of sensuousness, of that sensibility to beauty of -form and external charm which always has been and always must be the -predominating mood of a society in which art is to flourish. They have -gradually reached the point at which one interests one's self in a -picture for the sake of the painting of it, looks first at the picture, -and only then asks what the painter's idea may have been, or what the -spectator is to gather from it. No poem will find favour which offers -acceptable thoughts in badly worded, halting, unmelodious verse; nor do -the loftiest thoughts in themselves suffice to make a work of art. -Profundity of thought is a thing that has little to do with pure art; -and the subject alone, however world-stirring the ideas in it may be, -never makes a thing artistic. We have learnt to find the most intense -enjoyment in the mere contemplation of Titian's "Earthly and Heavenly -Love," although we may not yet know what this picture is really meant to -convey. And we know none the less that what renders Raphael's "School of -Athens" immortal is not its catalogue of ideas, which has been drawn up -by an anonymous pedant, but the master's artistic power, the intensity -with which he expresses what was barely showing bud in the material, the -self-reliant strength and sureness with which the form and colour have -succeeded in outlining and creating every figure and every movement in -the picture. - -[Illustration: PETER CORNELIUS. 'LET THERE BE LIGHT'.] - -[Illustration: CORNELIUS. FROM THE FRESCOES IN THE FRIEDHOFSHALLE, - BERLIN.] - -No less has the comparative study of art gradually refined people's -sensibility to originality. We are no longer compelled to place an -artist on the same level with a master of ancient art because of the -outer resemblance of their work. We have progressed so far as to respect -in art none but original genius, and to look upon imitation as a -_testimonium paupertatis_ though Praxiteles or Michael Angelo be the -model. In this we find the explanation of the low esteem in which some -of the old masters are now held. The contemporaries of Mabuse and Marten -Heemskerk thought that in these painters they had found again the great -primeval, Titanic nature of Michael Angelo, his vast motives and -majestic forms. To-day we say of them, and with justice, that they -produced nothing better than caricatures of Michael Angelo, that they -expressed themselves in shallow phrases, that their religious pictures -are cold and inflated, and that their mythological presentations with -naked figures impress us as bombastic and repellent. Houbraken, in his -biography of Gérard de Lairesse, wrote: "A whole book could be filled -with the description of his innumerable pictures and panels, ceilings -and frescoes." To-day we dismiss this unattractive mannerist in a few -lines. What his contemporaries described as his Michaelangelesque and -majestic fierceness appears to us, looking back, as a mere pale -imitation. - -[Illustration: CORNELIUS. MARGUERITE IN PRISON.] - -Measure Cornelius by the same rule, and the result is no less -melancholy. Merciless history paused for a moment to consider whether it -ever saw his equal, and then passed on to the order of the day, as it -did with his predecessors. To us he is no longer the original genius -that he was to his contemporaries, but an imitator. The retrospective -history of art marks a new epoch with him, Heinrich Hess, and Schnorr: -the advance from the paths of the early Italians, trodden by the -Nazarenes, to this link with the golden age of the Cinquecento. The -works of Cornelius are mighty shadows cast into our days by the gigantic -figures of Michael Angelo. But only shadows! There is no blood in them. -A direct line leads from Michael Angelo to Millet; but I doubt whether -the master would delight in Cornelius, who has only used him as a -_gradus ad Parnassum_. The works of Cornelius are the products of a -civilised yet artistically poor period. The idealism of Michael Angelo -had raised itself upon the naturalistic shoulders of Donatello and -Ghirlandaio; this new Cornelian idealism sprang into being full-grown -from reminiscences, and was therefore from the outset without backbone. -It is the fruit of a decadence, not the mature product of a full-blown -art, which has taken centuries to grow and ripen. In Michael Angelo the -aspirations of Italian art, from Giotto onward, attained their zenith. -Cornelius, standing solitary in an inartistic period that had lost every -tradition and all technical method, believed in the possibility of -rising to the same level by making the forms borrowed from Michael -Angelo convey scraps of modern knowledge. In doing this he could not but -confirm the experience, thus described by Goethe in his _Theory of -Colour_: "Even the most perfect models are delusive, by causing us to -pass over necessary decrees of culture, and thus generally carrying us -beyond the goal into a domain of boundless error." - -[Illustration: CORNELIUS. THE APOCALYPTIC HOST.] - -At the same time that Heinrich Hess was carrying on his calligraphic -exercises after Raphael and Andrea del Sarto in the Basilika at Munich, -Cornelius was making his schoolboy sketches after Michael Angelo. What -is great in his master is empty _pose_ in him; what is _furia_ in the -former is a laboured imitation in the latter. While the terrific -Florentine Master found within himself the expression of his superhuman -figures, his learned follower copies attitudes, gestures, -groups--familiar to anyone who has been to Italy and passed a few hours -in the Sistine Chapel. One seems to hear the old Florentine's great -voice toned down through the telephone, and irritating us with false -pathos at moments when pathos is quite superfluous. All the faces are -distorted with grimaces, heads of hair are puffed up as though with -serpents, garments fly about; people shout instead of speaking, open -their mouths wide as though they were giving the word of command to an -army, stretch out their arms as though they would embrace the world. A -mother bearing a child in her arms squeezes it to death. A cook -roasting a leg of mutton bastes it with a Herculean gesture, and a -butler emptying a leather bottle has the air of a river-god meditating a -flood. In order that his human beings may look vigorous and heroic, he -makes them walk in seven-league boots, dislocate their limbs, expand the -gigantic measurement of the body far beyond the human. Every head shows -a different colouring: one red as sealing-wax, another rose-pink, a -third _caput mortuum_. Added to this, the academic drapery arrangements, -those florid garments with their rolling, writhing folds, for which -there is no real justification, and which have no use but that of -ornament. "Ah," says Goethe, in one of his letters, "how true it is that -nothing is remarkable but what is natural: nothing grand but what is -natural: nothing beautiful, nothing, etc., etc., but what is natural." -Michael Angelo is not at all easy to understand; and Cornelius' study of -him resulted in the very same mannerism into which the Dutchmen had -fallen three hundred years earlier,--the only difference being that he -surpassed them in erudition. But although this quality would no doubt -have greatly helped him had he written books, we cannot take it into -account in discussing his artistic merits, any more than we can judge -Gérard de Lairesse by his literary achievements. Nay, more, as he had -elected to confine himself to painting, his erudition became a curse to -him, bringing him to disregard beauty of form in a manner as yet unknown -in the history of art. Not only was he filled with ardour for the -loftier thoughts, without allowing any other forms for their -presentation but those which were mere reminiscences of former art -periods--he did not even give himself leisure thoroughly to assimilate -the forms borrowed from Michael Angelo, and to animate them with fresh -life. Hence the fact that, as an artist, he remains greatly below the -level of the Dutch copyists, in whose work there is at least no faulty -drawing and tasteless colouring to be found. He asked for walls, not as -panels to paint on, but as tablets on which to inscribe his thoughts; -felt exclusively as a poet, a man of learning, brooding ideas. Engrossed -in developing these ideas, he valued form and colour no more than an -author would the embellishing of his manuscript with flowing letters and -an artistic arrangement of inks. It is only by this means that we can -explain the unjustifiable carelessness with which he surrendered his -cartoons to his pupils, and allowed them a free hand in the carrying -them out, or account for the evanescent colouring in the Glyptothek and -in the Ludwigskirche,--a colouring which was even at that time far below -the general level, and which could only be excused in the case of a -self-trained and quite untutored school. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - CORNELIUS. THE FALL OF TROY.] - -A man of this kind, who had nothing to teach that was worth the -learning, and who excelled only in intellectual qualities which could -not be imparted to others, must needs prove the most dangerous -academy-principal Germany has had since she first boasted an academy. So -much the more as his pupils readily submitted to the personal -fascination of this earnest little man with his black clothes, his -pompous appearance, his flashing eagle eye, which made one believe -that, Dante-like, he had looked upon heaven and hell. "As there are men -born to command an army, so Cornelius was born to be the head of a -school of painting," said King Ludwig. We can scarcely help smiling at -Schwind's account of the trembling awe with which, upon his arrival from -Vienna, he presented himself to the master. The red-haired stripling, in -his outgrown clothes, timidly strolling round the rooms of the -Glyptothek suddenly sees Cornelius himself, high on a scaffolding, in -all his glory, in an effulgence such as surrounds the head of Phoebus -Apollo. Accustomed to seeing young artists stoop before him, now -stammering, now paling, now blushing, the demi-god descends to the level -of the unknown mortal. "He is quite a little man, in a blue shirt, with -a red belt. He looks very stern and distinguished, and his black, -gleaming eyes impress you. He descended from his throne, changed his -blue smock for an elegant frockcoat, drank a glass of water with an easy -manner, and made my flesh thrill with a short explanation of what had -been painted and what was still to be done, tucked a few writing books -under his arm, and went upon his business to the academy." - -[Illustration: WILHELM KAULBACH.] - -The reformation of the academy, instigated by him at Munich, -demonstrated the one-sidedness of his point of view. He turned it into a -school for fresco-painting. "A professorship in _genre_ and landscape -painting appears to me superfluous," he wrote to the king in 1825; "true -art knows no subdivision." But as he himself had only partially mastered -fresco painting, he did not even succeed in establishing a school of -fresco painters. It was only one of designers of cartoons. - -"Read the great poets: Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe; do not forget to -include the Bible. The brush has become the ruin of our art. It has led -from Nature to Mannerism." By means of this teaching Cornelius infused -all his own defects into his academy, which for that reason was doomed -from the outset to an early decease. A war of extermination, often -leading to the most burlesque scenes, was declared by the Cornelians -against the Langerians, who were despised because they had retained a -few of the technical acquirements of the peruke period. When Cornelius's -attention was drawn to the fact that in one of his cartoons he had given -a Greek hero six fingers he answered with indifference: "Ay, and if he -had had seven, how would it affect the general idea?" - -[Illustration: KAULBACH. THE DELUGE.] - -It was only natural, therefore, that his pupils should feel above using -a model. It is said that at the time when they were turning Munich into -an Athens, and the painters were covering the city walls with frescoes, -Munich possessed but one model, and the poor fellow died of starvation. -And then, how they hated colours! They were so difficult to manage! Who, -pray, wanted to learn fresco painting by hard labour, and swallow the -chalk-dust? It was much easier to copy their lord and master, whose name -was on their lips, but not a spark of whose genius was in their heads, -with every sort of mannerism. "When nature once produces a new birth she -does so with a lavish hand. Talents, talents enough for centuries!" In -these words Cornelius himself did honour to his pupils--to Carl -Herrmann, Strähuber, Hermann Anschütz, Hiltensperger, and Lindenschmit -the elder, the mention of whose names evokes a painful memory of the -arcades in the palace garden at Munich. - -What survives of Cornelius is only the man, the individual. Posterity -will doubtless always honour him for the unflinching energy with which -he upheld his ideal from youth to failing age; for his courage in -propounding and defending what seemed right to _him_; for refraining -from putting on velvet gloves with the multitude, but frankly showing -them his nails. This high-mindedness of Cornelius, and his lofty -conception of the aims of art, must always command our respect. All his -works are the product of a serene, great, and noble soul. His is a -physiognomy with a proud, vigorous profile, which expresses an -intellectual tendency, and can never be forgotten. He was a man--as a -painter, a curse to German art, but a self-conscious, aristocratic mind. -As he himself said: "Art has its high-priests and also its -hedge-priests"; and when at the end of his life he made his profession: -"Never, under any circumstance of my life, have I lost my pious -reverence for the divinity of art; never have I sinned against it," we -none of us refuse to accept his word. - -[Illustration: KAULBACH. PRINCE ARTHUR AND HUBERT.] - -This unfailing earnestness which suffuses Cornelius's work raises him -high above _Wilhelm Kaulbach_, and secures for him lasting fame, when -that of Kaulbach shall have been buried with the last of the "cultured" -patrons for whom he worked, and by whom he was placed on a pedestal. -Look at both of them from a purely artistic point of view, comparing -them with the old masters, and both of them sink equally into -insignificance. But if we come to accept the problem of art criticism as -a matter of psychology rather than of æsthetics, if we search for the -relations between the work of art and the soul of its author, we cannot -but look upon Kaulbach as by far the inferior. Cornelius endeavoured to -raise the masses to his level, paid for his idealism with unpopularity, -and was never understood. Kaulbach, the humble servant of the public, -changed the Spartan iron of the art of Cornelius for the base coin of -the art unions; to tickle the multitude, he clothed voluptuous -sensuality in the stately garment of the earnest Muse, and was hailed -with jubilation throughout his life. But the valise with which alone, -according to the fairy-tale, one can enter upon the journey to -immortality, was still lighter in his case. Idealistic painting, as -professed by Cornelius, had skimmed all the cream from religious and -mythological subjects; so Kaulbach tried to give something more actual -in its stead. He found this in the philosophy of history, in the images -of epochs in the history of the world which were then so much in vogue, -and handed his public, eager for knowledge, a printed programme upon -which he had catalogued the gigantic thoughts and even weightier -references which the picture was said to contain. As the masses were -awed by the severity of the Cornelian conception of forms, he softened -it down with superficial calligraphic elegance: what was sturdy and -angular in the former was by him changed into a coquettish effeminacy. -This he effected by daubing his pictures, which were in no way colour -conceptions, with insipid combinations of colour, and replaced with -oleographs Cornelius's illuminated monumental woodcuts. By these -concessions to the picturesque he drove the axe into the tree which the -designers of cartoons had planted. The part he plays is that of a man of -compromise between Cornelius and Piloty; his frescoes are too sugary; -his oil-paintings too faulty. It was he who buried the era of cartoons, -although the obsequies were conducted with all pomp. - -A spiritual battle, an aerial battle, the "Battle of the Huns," is the -first of his works. Beneath, a real historical event; above, the same -reproduced in the spiritual world. The battle is over; the field is -hidden beneath the corpses of the slain; but the spirits continue the -combat in mid-air, and strive to turn the occasion to account for a -display of nudity. Next came the "Destruction of Jerusalem," crammed -with ingenious references, and elucidated with long, printed -commentaries. This programme-painting played its trump card on the -staircase of the Berlin Museum, where a space of 240 feet by 28 feet is -occupied by "the intellectual manifestations of the historical -_Weltgeist_"; "the total evolution of culture with every people of every -period in its principal historical phases"; those incidents "which, in -the evolution of universal history, mark the important knots with which -the closely entwined threads of the national dramas of the universe are -bound together." The "Battle of the Huns," the "Destruction of -Jerusalem," were included in the series; and to them were added the -"Tower of Babel," the "Rise of Greece," the "Crusades," and the -"Reformation." The whole of Hegel's philosophy was reproduced on the -walls. But as the pictures are not new through any novelty or greatness -of their conception, we need certainly not enter into the "astounding -profundity" of their philosophy. The eye is struck with mere -compositions, built up according to certain formulas, and _tableaux -vivants_, put together with more or less cleverness, theatrical in -effect and crude in colour. - -Of his other large pictures, the "Naval Battle at Salamis" caused a -special stir through its sinking harem. In his "Nero" he contrasted the -orgies of the Romans of the decadence with the enthusiasm for death of -the early Christians. Again, in his great cartoon in charcoal of "Peter -Arbue," he inflated to monumental dimensions a drawing suitable for a -comic paper. - -Kaulbach is not an artist to be taken seriously. Woltmann, who made the -same observation twenty years ago, tried at least to vindicate the -illustrator, and expressed his regret that a man who had the stuff in -him of a German Hogarth should unfortunately have been caught in the -toils of the Cornelian school. But this comparison does little justice -to Hogarth. There is nothing in the illustrations of Kaulbach which many -other artists could not have improved upon. In his "Reynard the Fox" he -adapted, for the benefit of the German public, Grandville's _Scènes de -la Vie privée et publique des Animaux_, published in 1842. His -illustrations for _éditions de luxe_ ("The Women of Goethe," etc.) -marked the first steps of the road which ended in Thuman. And Thuman -stands higher than Kaulbach. The faint, unaccented drawing, the oval -"beauty" of heads, declamatory and expressionless, the academic touch -are common to both of them. But only with Kaulbach do we find the -penetrating perfume of the demi-monde, the voluptuous, satirical -laughter which is not even stilled before Goethe, the pandering -sensuality which cannot touch the purest and tenderest figures in German -poetry without using them as a pretext to fling nudities to the public -like bones to a dog. In his "Dance of Death" suite, Kaulbach turned into -frivolity what Rethel had before expressed solemnly and earnestly. Like -the two augurs, who could not meet without laughing, so at last the -satirical designer began to laugh at his own monumental pictures. After -completing in his series of mural paintings at the Berlin Museum his -"Apotheosis of the Evolution of Human Culture," he explained in his -friezes that the whole was, after all, nothing but a dustbin and a -lumber-room. When he was commissioned to depict a suite of paintings for -the upper walls of the new Pinakothek at Munich, the artistic life of -that town, as glorified by King Ludwig--a suite which the weather has -since been kind enough to render almost invisible--he fulfilled his task -by mocking at what he should have glorified. - - "All die Meister Kunstbahnbrecher, wie die Herren selbst sich nennen, - Wahrlich Widderköpfe sind sie, Mauern damit einzurennen. - Mit dem Loche in der Mauer ist's noch lange nicht geschehen, - Da muss erst der Held erscheinen, siegreich dadurch einzugehen. - Gegen jenes Ungeheuer ziehen sie zu Feld mit Phrasen, - Wie die sieben Schwaben einstmals ritterlich bekämpft den Hasen. - Voran zieht der edle Ritter Schnorr, der Künste Don Quixote, - Seine Rosinante setzt er, statt des Pegasus in Trotte; - Heiliger Hess, sein Sancho Pansa, Du nicht liebst das offene Streiten, - Und du lässt dich sachte, sachte, 'rab von Deinem Esel gleiten. - Was ist denn so grosses Neues in der Neuen Kunst geschehen? - Nichts, als was sie nicht der aften, längst vergangnen abgesehen. - Wände ich auch Lorbeerkränze all um diese Alltagsfratzen, - Würden sie sie doch nur zieren zu bedecken hohle Glatzen." - -This is the commentary written by Kaulbach himself; and Théophile -Gautier called the suite _un carnaval au soleil_. "The king in his youth -spent millions in order to elevate art," says Schwind; "and now in his -old age he pays another thousand pounds in order to be laughed at for -it." Heine's loud, scornful laughter resounds over the grave of romantic -literature; and so the "monumental period of German art" ends in -self-derision. - -Moreover, as the mural paintings of the new Pinakothek, like the -frescoes in the Arcades and most of the other monumental products of the -period, are falling into ruin, and only show traces of their past beauty -in a few faint spots of colour not yet entirely effaced, it is quite -clear that it was an inherent fallacy of Cornelius to expect a -_renovation_ of national German art from fresco painting. The Venetians -of the sixteenth century well knew why they did not take up fresco -painting. Monumental painting, as aimed at by Cornelius, must remain an -imported plant that cannot possibly thrive in a northern climate; and -oil-painting, since the Van Eycks the medium and basis of art-culture -among the Teutonic races, took its revenge upon his one-sidedness and -his Michaelangelesque disdain, in the fact that at Munich it had to be -learnt again right from the beginning. - -[Illustration: KAULBACH. MARGUERITE.] - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE DÜSSELDORFERS - - -On the Rhine there existed a school of painting instead of a school of -drawing, a fact which at that time placed Düsseldorf next in importance -to Munich. Wilhelm Schadow, its first director, was lacking in any -personal distinction as an artist, but he had received from his great -father a tendency towards perfection of technique, which brought him and -his school into direct opposition with the purely philosophical painters -of the severe Cornelian tradition, and which has even in our days been -able to exercise an authoritative influence. In Rome he was the only one -of the Nazarenes amenable to the French influence, while the others -nervously held aloof from the members of the French Academy. And this -formal bent of his talent later gave him the qualifications of a sound -teacher. Immediately upon his arrival at Düsseldorf, in November 1826, -he was escorted by a stately throng of students: Carl Friedrich Lessing, -Julius Hübner, Theodor Hildebrandt, Carl Sohn, H. Mücke, and Christian -Koehler, who were afterwards joined by Eduard Bendemann, Ernest Deger, -and others. These became the mainstay of the celebrated Old Düsseldorf -School, which was soon supported by the jubilant enthusiasm of its -contemporaries. At the Berlin exhibitions the new school of painting -passed from one triumph to the other. Young men fresh from school -suddenly made names that were honoured throughout Germany, by reason of -the remarkable manner in which their works succeeded in expressing the -sentimental romanticism of the time. - -The Wars of Liberty of 1813, which had caused a gust of joyous -enthusiasm to penetrate even into the peaceful seclusion of the -Nazarenes, were not, like the wars of 1870, the outcome of careful -calculation, but the result of a sudden burst of ardour, and the -disillusion had now followed upon the enthusiasm. In 1810, with the -French bayonets gleaming outside the windows, and the French kettledrums -drowning the sound of his voice, Fichte delivered at the Berlin -University his famous speeches which sounded the réveillé for Germany. -At the same time Kleist wrote his _Hermannschlacht_: Napoleon was to be -treated as Hermann had treated Varus. "_Was blasen die Trompeten, -Husaren heraus_," pealed through the air; the song of "_Got, der Eisen -wachsen liess_" rose heavenwards in brazen accords. And not long after, -the same lions who had beaten the Corsican at Leipzig, and had with -Arndt conceived the idea of a great, united fatherland, had once more -become the same easy-going people, drinking their beer and smoking their -pipes in their little duodecimo principalities as of old. Those dreary -times, which saw no prospect of relief in their own days, must needs -nourish a devotion to the past. That haughty antiquity, which had been -possessed of the ideal to which the present had not been able to attain, -became the object of a fanatical adoration. Men lost themselves in the -old storehouses of faded German reminiscences, and fled for inspiration -to the times of a consolidated German Empire. This return to the ruins -of the past was a protest against the grey, colourless present. The -patriotic frenzy of the poets of freedom changed into enthusiasm for the -vanished glories of mediæval Germany. They remembered with longing and -yearning the days when the robber-knights ruled town and country from -their strongholds. Schenkendorff sang hymns inspired by the old -cathedrals, rummaged with holy horror among the skeletons of knights and -heroes in the chapel, and wrote a poem in memory of the thousandth -anniversary of the death of Charlemagne; Arndt, the bard of the wars of -freedom, violently attacked the "industrialism" of the time, declaiming -against steam and machinery; Zacharias Werner composed his poem, "_Das -Feldgeschrei sei: alte Zeit wird neu_." - -This revival of romanticism opened up a wide field to science and -poetry. The apotheosis of the old imperial times was made manifest amid -fairy-like glamour. Poetry grasped the pilgrim's staff, or rode with -beauteous dames on milk-white palfreys through forest and glade. -Enchanted genii, elves, fairies, and goblins were encountered on the -road. Nowhere is there so sweet a scent of blossoms, so innocent a sound -of children's merriment, as in Tieck's delightful and dainty -fairy-tales, or in the works of Clemens Brentano, those precious stories -of Father Rhine, of the water-nymphs and the crystal castles at the -bottom of the green current, pictures full of charming wilfulness, -dreamily winsome, like summer evenings on the Rhine. Uhland sang, as -once had sung the knightly poets with the golden harps-- - - "Von Gottesminne, von kühner Helden Muth, - Von lindem liebesinne, von süsser Maiengluth." - -To this day we seem to peep between the weather-beaten castles, standing -on their grey rocks along the Rhine Valley, into the realm of romance as -into an enigma propounded by mountain and dale. Rhine and romance! - -No spot in Germany was better fitted to become the cradle of a romantic -art than Düsseldorf, the peaceful town on the legend-haunted banks of -the green river. In the fifteenth century, in addition to the school of -Florence, where flowed a rich current of political and human life, where -great buildings, monuments, and frescoes kept architects and sculptors -and painters uniformly busied, there existed in the remote Umbrian -valleys, in the land of miracles and visions, that school of painting in -oils which saw its only eternal ideal in the deep eyes and soft aspect -of the Madonna, and made the visionary aspirations of the soul, -emotions, and sentiment the exclusive subject of their pictures. In the -same manner, in the nineteenth century, we find in contrast with the -Munich school, with its numerous architectural products, its massive -statuary, and the epic-dramatic fresco painting of Cornelius--"wedding -the German to the Greek, and Faust to Helen"--that lyrico-sentimental -Düsseldorf school of painting which embraced Madonnas and prophets, -knights and robbers, gipsies and monks, water-nymphs and nuns with the -same languishing tenderness. In matter and technique it completes the -art of Cornelius and the Nazarenes; that of the Munich master by its -encouragement of oil-painting; that of the Nazarenes by the stress which -it lays upon the more worldly side of mediæval life, upon chivalry, and -in a less degree upon that other pillar of mediævalism the Church. The -Nazarenes are archæological and ascetic; the Düsseldorf school is -insipid in a modern way, feeble, colourless, and sentimental. - -Count Raczynski and Friedrich von Uechtritz have given us interesting -descriptions of life at Düsseldorf at that time, and their story reads -like a chapter of Tacitus' _Germania_. "_Grand dieu! Bons et affectueux -allemands!_" exclaimed a Parisian critic of the Count's book in sad -emotion, and held up this virtuous German life, as an example worthy of -imitation, to his compatriots, the decadents of fashionable artistic -Paris, fallen into modern luxury. Undisturbed by the hum of a big city, -and without any communication with its surroundings, the Düsseldorf -colony of artists lived its life of seclusion. The painters saw none but -painters. They herded together in the studios, and the sole recreation -in the intervals of their work was a visit to another studio. The whole -of the day was devoted to painting; when the picture was complete it -went to the art union; and the hours of tediousness were overcome with -the assistance of a little intrigue. Hildebrandt possessed the nucleus -of a collection of beetles. Lessing, the hunter, collected pipes and -antlers, and only felt himself at home in the little room which he -occupied with Sohn when it assumed the appearance of a gamekeeper's -cottage. Convinced that politics were the ruin of character, they -allowed no questions of the day to interfere with the calmness of their -artistic life. Few of them ever read a newspaper. In the year of -revolution, 1830, their sole interest in the events around them was -concentrated in the fear that a war might disturb their idyllic life. -The end of the day's work saw them in summer-time bent on a pilgrimage -to the Stockkämpchen, to refresh themselves with a cup of buttermilk, to -play at bowls, or to enjoy a race among the cabbage patches of the -garden. In winter they made a point of meeting at seven o'clock every -Saturday night at the inn for a literary reading. Each taking his part -they recited the dramas of Tieck, of Calderon, and Lopez; or Uechtritz -read extracts from German history, the Crusades, the period of the -emperors, the riots of the Hussites. Every Sunday night there met at -Schadow's a very distinguished intellectual circle, consisting of Judge -Immermann (the reformer of the stage at Düsseldorf), Felix Mendelssohn -the composer, Kortum, author of the _Jobsiade_, and Assessor von -Uechtritz, with their ladies. But the great gala-days were the -theatrical performances which took place twice a week. Under the -leadership of Immermann the theatre had become the place whence the -young painters gathered their liveliest suggestions. Some of them went -even so far as to take part in amateur performances, conducted by -Immermann, and given in Schadow's house, under the auspices of the whole -of the distinguished society. And thus the pictures of this school were -not conceived under the influence of life, but of the theatre. The -Düsseldorf artists were youths whose productions were not rooted in -life, but in reading and culture; youths who always moved in good -society, and who had passed through the great ordeals of life, but only -on "the boards representing the universe." - -_Theodor Hildebrandt_ became the Shakespeare of Düsseldorf. The -translation of the works of the English poet by Schlegel had been -published some time earlier, and Immermann, in Düsseldorf, had been the -first to offer Shakespeare a home on the German stage. The performances -of his tragedies were regarded as red-letter days. During the three -years of Immermann's leadership (1834-37), _Hamlet_, _Macbeth_, _King -John_, _King Lear_, _The Merchant of Venice_, _Romeo and Juliet_, -_Othello_, and _Julius Cæsar_ were performed on fifteen occasions in -all.[1] To give the titles of these plays is at once to characterise the -subject-matter of Hildebrandt's paintings. He very often had a hand in -the staging of the plays, and is said to have shown a remarkable -histrionic talent in the performances at Schadow's. He rarely went to -other poets for his inspiration, as in his "Pictures from Faust" and his -"Beware of the Water Nymph," where he honoured Goethe, and in his -"Brigands," where he may have been inspired by one of the many -variations on _Rinaldo Rinaldini_ that flooded the market at the time, -or perhaps also by Byron, whose influence was very marked on the -Düsseldorf school. - -Goethe's _Frauengestalten_, more especially the Leonoras, were -reproduced in oils by old father _Sohn_. _Eduard Steinbruck_ painted -Genevièves, Red Riding Hoods, Elves, and Undines, after Tieck and -Fouqué; _H. Stilke's_ "Pictures from the Crusades" introduced Walter -Scott to the German public. Uhland's first ballads had brought into -fashion the damsels who from the ramparts of their castles wave a sad -farewell to the lonely shepherds; the ancestral tombs, in which the last -knight of his race takes his everlasting rest; the lists, where -melancholy heroes stab themselves. His _Love-song of the Shepherd to the -Shepherdess_-- - - "Und halt ich dich in den Armen - Auf freien Bergeshöhn, - Wir sehn in die weiten Lande - Und werden doch nicht gesehn," - -gave Bendemann the motive for his picture of the same name. Young -Lessing had to thank Uhland for the subject of his first success, "The -Sorrowing Royal Pair," which at one bound made his name one of the most -honoured in German art. - - "Wohl sah ich die Eltern beide - Ohne der Kronen Licht - Im schwarzen Trauerkleide, - Die Jungfrau sah ich nicht." - -After Bürger he painted a Leonora--of course in so-called mediæval -costume, in order "to avoid the unpicturesque attire in fashion during -the Seven Years' War"; and at the same time as Hildebrandt, "A Mourning -Brigand," who, in the full light of the evening sun, sits brooding on a -rock over the depravity of the world. That all of them were frantically -enthusiastic for the Hohenstaufens is due to the publication of Von -Rainer's History in 1823, which took a greater hold of the public than -did Schiller's _History of the Thirty Years' War_, and inspired numerous -dramas. - -[Illustration: HILDEBRANDT. THE SONS OF EDWARD.] - -[Illustration: STEINBRUCK. ELVES.] - -Even the idyllic and touching scenes from the Old Testament and the -Hebrew elegies are easily traced back to theatrical inspirations. With -the exception of the frescoes of the Casa Bartholdy, the subjects of -which were selected with an eye to the religious belief of their -purchaser, the Nazarenes found all the subject-matter they wanted in the -New Testament. The Passion of Our Lord was unable to inspire the -Düsseldorf school. As compared to the few Christian paintings by W. -Schadow, and the dreamy Madonnas of Deger, Ittenbach, and little -Perugino Mintrop, we find a far greater number of scenes from the Old -Testament, which at the time gave birth to numerous dramas. Hübner, -always inclined to idyllic and melancholy scenes, painted Ruth and Boaz, -his first great picture, which established his reputation. After -Klingemann had utilised the whole life of Moses by turning it into a -theatrically effective sequence, Christian Koehler scored a success with -his "Moses hidden in the Bulrushes" and his "Finding of Moses," and -then, incited by Raupach's "Semiramis," abandoned his biblical heroines -for Oriental ones. Theodor Hildebrandt took Tieck's "Judith" as an -inspiration for his picture of this Jewish heroine. Kehren's "Joseph -reveals Himself to his Brethren" was begun after the opera _Joseph in -Egypt_ had been performed at Düsseldorf. Bendemann, in 1832, played his -trump card with his "Lament of the Jews," now in the Cologne Museum, -after Byron had made his propaganda, suggested by the sad lives of the -children of Israel, and Friedrich von Uechtritz had caused his drama, -_The Babylonians in Jerusalem_, to be performed, ending as it does with -the sending of the Jews into captivity in Babylon-- - - "Wein' über die die weinen fern in Babel, - Ihr Tempel brach, ihr Land ward, ach! zur Fabel! - Wein'! es erstart der heil 'gen Harfe Ton, - Im Haus Jehovas haust der Spötter Hohn." - -And his oil-paintings of a later date, "Jeremiah on the Ruins of -Jerusalem" (1834), now in the German Emperor's collection, and the -"Sending of the Jews into Captivity in Babylon" (1872), in the Berlin -National Gallery, were variations on the same theme. - -The productions of the Düsseldorf school were thus in perfect harmony -with the programme issued by Püttmann in his book. Pictorial -representations may be taken from two ranges, History or Poetry; the -painter may choose an historical fact as a subject for representation, -or reproduce in visible form the rhythmically shaped fancy of a -stranger. History shows him figures full of expression, and even a less -powerful artist will find it possible to make a true copy of them. If -the painter works from poems his representations are sure to meet with -approval, as they render the beautiful and the attractive in visible -shape. "But the greatest success lies in store for those works which -depict in harmony with the mood of the times historical or poetical -performances which express human suffering in its various stages, from -homely and everyday griefs to the silent sorrow of irretrievable -catastrophe." - -[Illustration: SOHN. THE TWO LEONORAS.] - -Thus the scale of sorrow from sad melancholy to painful suffering became -the speciality of the Düsseldorf school. At the foot of the scale we -find the pictures which "represent the common, yet keen sorrow of -parents at the death or the sad future of their children." Lessing's -"Royal Pair" mourn the death of their daughter; Hagar grieves because -she is forced to abandon her son Ishmael in the desert; Genoveva, -because the roe is so long in coming to the rescue. The mortal grief of -love is represented by Lessing's "Leonora"; grief of love at separation -by Sohn's and Hildebrandt's pictures of "Romeo and Juliet." Even the -murderers of the "Sons of Edward" mourn at their crime when they see the -children-- - - "Girdling one another - Within their innocent alabaster arms: - Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, - Which in their summer beauty kissed each other." - -Job grieves at the downfall of his house; Hübner's "Ruth," because her -weeping mother-in-law entreats her to depart; Stilke's "Pilgrim in the -Desert," because his horse has died of thirst; Plüddeman's "Columbus," -because he knows himself to be unworthy of the grace of God which -enabled him to discover America; Kiederich's "Charles V", because he has -retired too early to his monastery, and is plagued by the ticking of -his watch. The Hohenstaufens, of course, appealed more to the pity of -the public: the misfortunes of the beautiful Enzin, of Manfred and -Conrad, gave birth to a sentiment of profoundest sadness. Even brigands -mourn at the depravity of the world. The age had come to despise its own -Philistine situation so deeply that it looked up to the brigands, the -adversaries of civil order, as to representatives of justice. All -depravity, it was said, originated with the public functionaries, and to -the noble brigands was allotted the task of revolutionising existing -things. Their ally in this was to be the poacher. At a time when a -revision of the game-laws was the sole timid wish the people ventured to -lay before its princes, it was only logical that the poacher should be -looked upon as the victim of injustice, as the rescuer of the small man -from the claws of feudal despotism. The numerous pictures that glorify -him, as he falls weltering in his blood beneath the guns of the -gamekeepers, make pendants to Raupach's "Smugglers," and to the rest of -the highly esteemed literature which turned the life of the poacher into -sentimental dramas or novels. - -[Illustration: LESSING. THE SORROWING ROYAL PAIR.] - -Fortunately we, in our days, find great difficulty in entering into the -spirit which gave birth to these productions. A world lies between it -and the present, just as between the Germany of to-day and the Germany -of 1830. Men of the younger generation, who were still at school when -Bismarck spoke his word of blood and iron, can hardly understand how -this modern, realistic Germany can have been, two generations ago, a -sentimental Germany. Now the significance of the Düsseldorf school in -the history of civilisation lies in the fact that they are the real -representatives of that age of sentimentality. A generation that melted -away in tearful dreamings must needs enthusiastically recognise its own -flesh and blood in those knights and damsels, squires and pages, monks -and nuns, who, infinitely amorous or infinitely religious, were all -infinitely sentimental; and things that now only evoke a smile or a -shrug must needs have moved them to tears. Look where you will, you meet -the same world. It hung on the walls, it displayed itself in engravings, -lithographs, and coloured prints; if one lay down for a siesta, one -found a lovelorn knight and damsel or a praying nun stitched on the -cushion; if one put one's foot on a carpet, one trod upon noble -hunting-dames on horseback, falcon on wrist; one carried them in one's -pockets on cigar-cases and handkerchiefs; the traveller and the cheap -tripper took them abroad on their knapsacks. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - BENDEMANN. THE LAMENT OF THE JEWS.] - -Technically, the pictures of this school were not without their merits. -"The greatness of Michael Angelo" may not have been Bendemann's, and -Sohn's carnations are far removed from "the melting colouring of -Titian." But as opposed to the one-sidedness to which fresco painting at -Munich was given up, the encouragement of oil-painting at Düsseldorf -must be looked upon as praiseworthy. These painters were the first in -Germany to try again to learn how to paint in oils. The extreme artistic -clumsiness that had reigned under Cornelius was followed by a period in -which, under Schadow, earnest studies and serious work were devoted to -an effort again to master a technical medium. Their friendly emulation -led to surprising progress, which assured to the Düsseldorf school a -technical superiority over all the other German schools of the period. - -[Illustration: SOHN. THE RAPE OF HYLAS.] - -If, nevertheless, their pictures have not maintained their position as -vital works of art, it is due to the fact that they were produced under -the pressure of that mechanical idealism which makes all their -productions so utterly unattractive to us. The ideal "line of beauty" -has turned the figures into bloodless shadows and washed-out theatrical -forms. As philosophy was to Cornelius, so to the Düsseldorfers was -poetry their Noah's Ark. The interest aroused by the poet was their -ally; the breath of the wind that set their boat afloat; the general -poetical tendency made up for the deficiency in artistic interest. Had -it not been for the support of the poets, their sugary, insipid figures -would have from the beginning been unable to hold their own. For after -having been retouched by "Idealism," nothing vital remained in those -romantic kings, fantastic knights, Jews, and stage princesses; nothing -particular and characteristic in their generalisation, nothing generally -human. With them a king is always an heroic prince in black harness, a -woolly beard, and a scarlet cloak. A queen is represented as proud and -dark, or tender and fair-haired. In the much-beloved "couples" from -poems, characterisation goes no further than general contrasts: the -_brunette_ in red attire with white sleeves; the tender _blonde_ with -the complementary garment of pale violet; the one with luxurious -_embonpoint_, the other languidly slender--men brown, women white, -youths rosy. Knights wear silvery helmets with or without plumes; now -with open, now with shut visor; sometimes they sit on poetic palfreys, -now of slender, now of sturdy build. The only impressions they are -subject to may be interpreted with the assistance of the plaster bust: -honour, fidelity, love. And as sentiment and heroism are national -virtues of the Germans, they are bound to show sentimental expression -whilst killing their adversaries. Even the brigands are generalised lay -figures. The Düsseldorf ideal of beauty aimed at a certain tender, -vaguely graceful swing of outline that anxiously avoided all manly and -strong, energetic and characteristic expression, all that could remind -one of nature. They rejected Leonardo da Vinci's advice, to tug at the -nipple of Mother Nature, but looked upon her merely as their aunt; and -for this, despised Nature took her revenge by making their figures -shapeless and phantom-like. And as their "dread of painted stupidities" -did not once bring them to make bold mistakes, we can neither praise nor -censure their pictures, cannot enjoy them or take offence at them, but -look at them _sine ira et studio_, with a lukewarm feeling of utter -indifference. - - -FOOTNOTE: - - [1] As is still the case in most of the German theatres, the - programme changed every night. Two or three consecutive performances - of one play remain a rarity. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -THE LEGACY OF GERMAN ROMANTICISM - - -It was reserved for two younger men to reach the aim that hovered in the -far distance before Cornelius and the Düsseldorfians. And, by one of -fortune's remarkable freaks, the greatest German monumental painter of -the nineteenth century came from the Düsseldorf, the greatest -Romanticist from the Munich school. - -_Alfred Rethel_ was twenty-four years old when he received the -commission to paint the frescoes in the _Kaisersaal_ at Aachen, and had -previously worked in the Düsseldorf Academy, and then with Veit at -Frankfort. But the pictures are suggestive neither of his Düsseldorfian -nor of his Nazarene training. The deeds of Charlemagne, the ancestor of -the German Imperial dynasties, are nobly, and, at the same time, -vigorously embodied in them. Rethel had studied the harsh strength of -his Albrecht Dürer, but only as a kindred spirit studies his kin. -Neither Cornelius nor Schnorr has depicted the old German heroic might -and the vanished imperial grandeur, the great past, the iron Middle -Ages, with such notable traits. How plain in his heroic greatness stands -the mighty conqueror of the Saxons by the overthrown pagan idols; how -simply and majestically does he march into conquered Pavia. What an -inexorable and irresistible warrior he seems, as he rages amongst the -Moors who flock round the cars of their idols; and with what grave -phantom dignity does he gaze in death upon the young Emperor Otto, who -has forced his way into his vault, and kneels trembling before the -lifeless frame of his great forefather. There is no vestige of pose, -nothing superfluous; everywhere simplicity, compression, lucidity. Only -what is necessary is inscribed here, in the lapidary style. No -meaningless phrase interrupts his narrative; the inner meaning is never -sacrificed to any external beauty of line; his forms like his thoughts -are severe and precise. He draws with a sure hand in crisp lines, like a -writer who aims at the utmost brevity and so lays especial emphasis on -his sentences and words. The self-revelation in these pictures is -admirable--the illuminating clearness with which they tell what they -have to say without the aid of any commentator, the directness with -which they present in an artistic aspect the substance to be given. And -with this substance the painting corresponds. - -It is to be deplored that Rethel himself could carry out in colour only -four of his designs, and that the completion of the rest was entrusted -to the painter Kehren, who spoilt by his effort after charm of colour -the collective impression of the series. The pictures painted by Rethel -himself are, in the simplicity of their colouring, in remarkable -accordance with the powerful style of his drawing. Rethel's _painting_ -has something stern and grey, bare and sombre. He belongs to the -stylists whose implement is rather charcoal than the brush; but he had, -although no colourist, a free command of colour, and never committed any -fault of taste, but with a remarkably sure instinct used colour in the -mass, simply, but yet with significant effect. He might have been the -man to create a monumental German art. A tragic destiny! Heinrich von -Kleist, the greatest German poet of the post-classical age, who was -chosen for so high a vocation, the creation of a new dramatic style, -shot himself; and the giant, Alfred Rethel, was to end in madness. -Barely forty years old was he when he walked by the warder's side in the -courtyard at Düsseldorf, picking up flint-stones, a poor, simple madman. -Only two series of designs ensure, apart from the frescoes at Aix, the -immortality of his name: "Hannibal's Passage over the Alps," and the -"Dance of Death." As a draughtsman, just as a painter of frescoes, he is -the same Titan, sounds the same stern, manly note. - -Here the heroic hosts of the Carthaginians stand anxious, yet resolved, -at the foot of the grim Alpine pass; steep, beetling cliffs, precipice, -ice and snow, tower before them. Now the climb begins, and the struggle -with the fierce, barbaric folk of the mountains, who swing themselves on -leaping-pole like wild animals over the gaping crevices in the ice. -Yonder are men, horses, an elephant, hurled into the abyss; some have -spitted themselves on jagged branches of trees in their fall, others -twine themselves together in horrible coils; at last the most advanced -have reached the heights, and the heroic figure of the commander points -out proudly to them, as they breathe once more, the plains of Italy. - -Over his second work there broods the shadow of that mental darkness -which was to surround him. When, in the year 1848, the political storm -burst over the soil of Europe, Rethel's fantasy reaped a rich harvest. -He drew his "Dance of Death," represented Death the Leveller, who drives -poor fools behind the barricades. The ghostly and spectral, that horror -of death that breaks in upon us in the midst of life, had been the -propensity of German art since Dürer and Holbein. Like them, Rethel -loved the world of the diabolical, and similarly chose for his -embodiment of it the sturdy, simple contours of the old German wood -engravings. Death as the hero of revolution makes a commencement. There -he rides as the town-executioner, a cigar between his lips, his scythe -in his hand. He sits shambling in the saddle, his smock and tall boots -dangle on his bony figure. Dressed like a charlatan, he excites the -people before the tavern against the rulers, that he may earn his -harvest at the barricade. He himself stands firm and proud, like a -general on the field of battle, the flag in his hand, and the bullets of -the soldiers whistling harmlessly through his bony ribs. But the -artisans who follow him are not invulnerable as he is; the grape-shot -sweeps them down off the barricade. The contest is over; triumphant, -with a wreath of bay round his skull, mocking venom in his glance, Death -rides with his banner unfurled across the barricade, where the dying -writhe in their gaunt death-struggle, and children bewail their fallen -fathers. The plate, "Death as the Assassin," takes up the story of the -outbreak of cholera at a masked ball in Paris. In terrified haste the -dancers and musicians leave the hall. Only one mummy-like spectre, the -Cholera himself, a shape of horror, keeps his ground, as though turned -to stone, and holds the triumphant scourge like a sceptre in his bony -hand. Death, in a domino, with two bones for a fiddle, plays a call to -the dance; and beneath the awful sounds of his tune the people, -stretched on the ground, in sick convulsions, grinning with distorted -features, behind their jesters' masks, twist and turn. - -[Illustration: RETHEL. THE EMPEROR OTTO AT THE TOMB OF CHARLEMAGNE.] - -There is something of Th. A. Hofmann's wild fantasy of the ague-fit in -this picture,--something morbid, satanic, that suggests Félicien Rops; -yet, at the same time, something so pithy and virile, and in form so -compressed, well-balanced, and correct, that it brings the old Germans, -too, to our recollection. And the reconciliation with which the series -ends is pathetic. In the high steeple, lit by the rays of the setting -sun, the grey old bellringer, his worn hands clasped in prayer, has -fallen quietly asleep in his armchair. A calm peace rests upon his good, -old, devout countenance. The thin hands, with their marks and furrows, -tell a long tale of hard work, sorrow, and longing for rest. And the -weary veteran has made a pilgrimage for the health of his poor soul, as -prove the pilgrim's hat and staff by the wall; and now Death has really -come, the well-known presence indeed, but this time with no grin of -mockery, rather in profound pity. In his ingenious manner of giving an -expression of mockery, cold indifference, or compassion to the head of -the skeleton, Rethel stands on a level with Holbein. To the old ringer, -Death, who before had grinned so diabolically, is a gentle and trusted -friend. Quietly and pensively he performs the task that the old man has -done so often when he attended the departure of some pilgrim of earth -with the solemn notes of his bell. Rethel himself had still to drag -through many years in an obscure night of the spirit before for him, -too, Death, as the friend, rang the knell. - -[Illustration: RETHEL. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PAGAN IDOLS.] - -And now for him who was the most admirable of them all, Lady Adventure's -true knight. - -"Master _Schwind_, you are a genius and a Romanticist." This stereotyped -compliment was paid by King Ludwig to the painter on each occasion that, -without buying anything of him, he visited his studio. And with equal -regularity Schwind, when he had sat down again at his easel, after the -royal visit, to smoke his pipe, is said to have muttered something -extremely disloyal. In this trait the whole Schwind is already -revealed,--free from all ambition, every inch an artist. - -W. H. Riehl has described a series of such episodes, which one must know -in order to understand Schwind, that highly gifted child of nature, who -separates himself from the group of philosophical, "meditative" artists -of his age, both as an individual and as an audacious, original genius -of effervescent wit. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - RETHEL. HANNIBAL'S PASSAGE OVER THE ALPS.] - -When an æsthetic once hailed him as "the creator of an original, German -kind of ideal, romantic art," Schwind repeated very slowly, weighing -each word: "'An original, German kind of ideal, romantic art.' My dear -sir, to me there are only two kinds of pictures, the sold and the -unsold; and to me the sold are always the best. Those are my entire -æsthetics." Or a noble amateur comes to him with the request that he -would take him just for a few days into his school, and instruct him -especially in his masterly art of drawing in pencil. Whereupon Schwind: -"It does not require a day for that, my dear Baron; I can tell you in -three minutes how I do it, I can give you all the desired information at -once. Here lies my paper,--kindly remark it, I buy it of Bullinger, 6 -Residenz Strasse; these are my pencils, A. W. Faber's, I get them from -Andreas Kaut, 10 Kaufinger Strasse; from the same firm I have this -indiarubber too, but I very seldom use it, so that I use this penknife -all the more, to sharpen the pencils; it's from Tresch, 10 Dienersgasse, -and very good value. Now, I have all these things lying together on the -table, and a few thoughts in my head as well; then I sit down here and -begin to draw. And now you know all that I can tell you." Again he asks -"to be decorated with an order," because he "is ashamed to mix in such a -naked condition with his bestarred confrères," and after the bestowal -of the desired decoration he says: "I wore it only once, at the last New -Year's levée, but I vowed at the same time that six horses should not -drag me there again. Before, there was at any rate a beautiful queen -there, and then the court ladies laughed at one; but amongst men only, -the stupidity of it is not to be endured." When he grumbles over -commissions which have been given to others, and adds good-temperedly, -"Indeed, I'm an envious fellow"; when he paints the most delicate -pictures and then growls, "What am I to do with the things, if nobody -buys them?" when he indulges in outbursts of wrath, and a minute later -has forgotten again the abusive words which the others spitefully bring -up against him years afterwards,--then here, too, his happy humour -forces its way everywhere, that divine naïveté which forms the soul of -his and of all true art. - -[Illustration: RETHEL. DEATH AT THE MASKED BALL.] - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - RETHEL. DEATH THE FRIEND OF MAN.] - -Schwind remains a personality by himself--the last of the Romanticists, -and one of the most amiable manifestations in German art. He was free -from the malady of that sham Romanticism which sought the salvation of -art in the resurrection of the Middle Ages, misunderstood, and grasped -sentimentally, and as it were by stencil. He was spiritually permeated -by that which had given Romanticism the capacity to exist: the sense of -that forgotten and imperishable world of beauty which it has again -discovered. The others sought for the "blue flower," Schwind found it; -resuscitated in all its faëry beauty that "fair night of enchantment -which holds the mind captive." He incorporated the romantic idea in -painting as Weber did in music, and his works, like the _Freischütz_, -will live for ever. Many a man listened to him holding forth upon -water-nymphs, gnomes, and tricksy kobolds, as of beings of whose -existence he appeared to have no doubt whatever. On one occasion, while -out walking near Eisenach in the Annathal, a friend laughingly observed -to him that the landscape really looked as if gnomes had made the -pathway and had had their dwellings there. "Don't you believe it was so? -_I_ believe it," answered Schwind in all seriousness. He _lived_ in the -world of legend and fairy-tale. If ever a fairy stood beside the cradle -of a mortal man, assuredly there was one standing by Schwind's; and all -his life long he believed in her and raved about her. Born in the land -where Neidhart of Neuenthal had sung and the Parson of the Kahlenberg -had dwelt, to his eyes Germany was overshadowed with ancient Teutonic -oaks: for him, elves hovered about watersprings and streams, their white -robes trailing behind them through the dewy grass; a race of gnomes held -their habitation on the mountain heights, and water-nymphs bathed in -every pool. In him part of the Middle Ages came back to life, not in -livid, corpse-like pallor, but fanned by the revivifying breath of the -present day. - -For that is what is noteworthy about Schwind; he is a Romanticist, yet -at the same time a genuine, modern child of Vienna. There are three -things in each of which Vienna stands supreme: hers are the fairest -women, the sweetest songs, and the most beautiful waltzes. The -atmosphere of Vienna sends forth a soft and sensual breath which -encircles us as though with women's arms; songs and dances slumber in -the air, waiting only for a call to be awakened. Vienna is a place for -enjoyment rather than for work, for pensive dreaming rather than for -sober wakefulness of mind. Moritz Schwind was a child of this city of -beautiful women, songs, and dances, as may be observed in the feminine -nature of his art, in its melody and rhythm: in music, indeed, it had -its source. In song-singing, bell-ringing Vienna it was difficult for -him to guess in what direction his talents lay; but all his life long he -kept an open eye for the charms of beautiful womanhood. No artist of -that time has created lovelier forms of women, beings with so great a -charm of maidenly freshness and modest grace. Instead of the goddesses, -heroines, and nun-like female saints, whose appearance dated from the -Italy of the Cinquecento, Schwind depicted modern feminine charm. The -group of ladies in "Ritter Kurt" is, even to the movement of their -gloved fingers, graceful in the modern sense. He was a painter of -love--a breath of Walter von der Vogelweide's ideal perfection of -womanhood pervades his pictures. - - "Durchsüsset und geblümet sind die reinen Frauen, - Es ward nie nichts so Wonnigliches anzuschauen, - In Lüften, auf Erden, noch in allen grünen Auen." - -Schwind, too, painted frescoes, and in them he is very unequal. All his -life long he complained of the lack of important commissions; it was -fortunate for him that he did not get more of them. Such a painter as he -can execute no orders but his own,--just as good poems do not come to -order. A long list of wall paintings--the Tieck room and the -figure-frieze in the Habsburg Hall of the new palace at Munich, the -frescoes in the Kunsthall and in the Hall of Assembly of the Upper House -at Karlsruhe, those in the Castle of Hohenschwangau, even the theatre -pieces in the loggia and in the foyer of the Vienna Opera House--could -be easily struck out of Schwind's work, without detriment to his -reputation. Only when the subject permitted him to strike a simple note -of fairy music was he charming even in his wall-paintings, and therefore -those which depict scenes from the life of St. Elizabeth in the -Wartburg are rightly the most celebrated. Like Rethel in the field of -the heroic, so Schwind in that of romantic legend reached the goal which -the former kept before his eyes, for the revivifying of the time when -there was an enthusiasm for fresco painting. His paintings are poor in -colour, motley, magic-lantern views in the style of the heraldically -treated figures seen in the frescoes and stained glass of the Romanesque -and early Gothic Middle Ages, and yet in every line as delightful as the -man himself. Nowhere do we find glaring contrasts, nowhere any violent -agitation in the expression of the faces. It is by the avoidance of all -landscape accessories, and by a hardly noticeable change in the simple -plant-ornamentation in the background, that the events represented are -made to lose touch with actual reality. In the first picture, -bright-hued birds flit here and there among the rose-branches forming -the decorative work; in that which treats of St. Elizabeth's expulsion, -the Wartburg rises in the background, while little singing angels are -perched upon the boughs of the bare winter-stripped trees that overlook -the miserable cell in which St. Elizabeth dies. A touch of the -true-heartedness of the ancient Teuton, a breath of peacefulness, -permeates Schwind's Wartburg pictures like the waft of an angel's wings. - -[Illustration: MORITZ SCHWIND. _Graphische Künste._] - -Schwind, like Rethel, is numbered among the few artists of that period -who were able to preserve their absolute simplicity against the great -painters of Italy. "I went into the Sistine Chapel," he says of his -journey to Rome, "gazed upon Michael Angelo's work, and sauntered back -home to work at my 'Ritter Kurt.' I take the greatest possible pleasure -in my present picture, although the subject is absolutely crazy. I love -to paint trees and rocks and old walls, and I have put plenty of them -into it, besides a fellow on horseback and in full armour. What does it -matter? _One must work according to one's natural capacity. Even at the -time when I was studying at Munich I came to the conclusion that that of -which the mind of itself takes hold, and that which takes hold of it, is -the one only right thing for every man who has a vocation. Art consists -of this unconscious taking hold and being taken hold of. Deus in nobis._ -And therefore the young artist will do well to be careful in visiting -the museums. You go to the galleries where the works of the great -masters are to be seen. There you see, all at once and all together in -confusion, works of every school and of every era. It is extremely -likely that you are overwhelmed by the mass, and beauties of every kind, -belonging to tendencies and epochs altogether diverse, shake the ground -under your budding vocation, and like fifty various climates influencing -a single plant, arrest a growth which is possible only in one, and that -a favourable one. _The imitation of the Italians in especial can as a -rule have only the effect of estranging us from our own individuality_, -a fact which was once again fully borne in upon me when I saw Overbeck's -new altar-piece in the Cathedral of Cologne. It may sound severe and -uncalled-for from me, but _every man who has forgotten his mother-tongue -is tottering on his feet. The imitation of foreigners is the dangerous -blind alley into which our art has betaken itself_. When I exhibited -'Ritter Kurt' people said, 'It is Old German,' and forthwith it stood -condemned, as if that were a disgrace, and as if one should not rather -have saluted the fact with joy, as the right thing for us Germans. The -art of painting which I follow is the German, and glass-painting must be -taken as its foundation." - -[Illustration: SCHWIND. FROM THE WARTBURG FRESCOES.] - -In Schwind one might imagine an old German master of the race of -Albrecht Altdorfer come to life again. In the small, simple pictures of -landscape and fairy-tale, which Count Schack has collected in his -private gallery for the quiet and devout enjoyment of thousands, he has -given us his best work as a painter. - -Yet even _his_ pictures have the failings of his time. Compared with -Dürer, he seems like a gifted amateur; there are manifold empty, dead -spaces to be observed among his figures; their action is at times -misconceived and puppet-like; and his sense of colour was always -limited. One may be permitted to look forward to some master, at the -head of a coming epoch in art, who shall combine with Schwind's German -fairy imagination the sensuous, dashing colour-elf that possessed -Boecklin. There might a school of art arise, to follow for the future -the path which Franz Stuck has struck out. As to technique, Schwind was -a child of the cartoon era; as regards tenderness of feeling, he is a -modern. It is difficult to persuade a non-German of Schwind's greatness, -in presence of the _pictures_; but when they are reduced to -black-and-white they appeal to every one. The heliogravure enables one -to imagine what the original does not show; it incites the soul to -further poetic creation, it announces what Schwind would be were he -alive to-day. An elfland kingdom of enchantment, full of genuine poetry -and beauty, opens out before us; a fairy garden, where the "blue flower" -pours forth the whole of its sense-benumbing perfume. Count von -Gleichen; the boy's miraculous horn; the mountain spirit Rübezahl, -wandering along through the wild mountain forest; the hermits; the -elves' dance; the erlking; the knight and the water nymph,--they are -flooded with all the enchantment of Romanticism, they possess deep -feeling without mawkishness, the old-German note of fairy legend and -Hans Memlinc's childlike simplicity, yet at the same time the life of -the present day, full of feeling and rich in delicate shades. How strong -and brave are the men; how tender, noble, and charming the women! What a -modest, maidenly art it is! just as its master was an innocent, -harmless, and joyous being. - -[Illustration: SCHWIND. FROM THE WARTBURG FRESCOES.] - -His works, in comparison with those of his contemporaries, who were -devising systems by means of which art should be brought back to the -classical, bear the stamp of naïve creations in which no hypocrisy, no -decorative nothingness finds expression. As against the erudite -treatises of the Cornelius school, they preached for the first time the -doctrine, that in works of art what is important is not the quantity of -learning displayed therein, but the quality of the feeling exhibited. -With all their inequalities, all their incorrectness, all their weak -points, they are inspired, sung, dreamed, and not put together in cold -blood according to recipes: in them is the pulsation of a human heart, a -tender human heart full of delicate feeling. This it is which -constitutes his magical attraction to-day, which makes him the firm bond -of connection between the moderns. He was no imitator, no soulless -calligraphist performing laborious school exercises after the manner of -the old masters; he spoke the language of his time. - -He was one of the first who at that time laid aside the prejudice -against modern costume, and in his "Symphony" turned to artistic -account, in one fantastic whole, even Franz Lachner's frockcoat and -Fräulein Hetzenecker's modern society toilette. "If you may paint a man -hidden in an iron stove--what is called a knight in armour--you may -still more permissibly paint a man in a frockcoat. In general, one can -paint what one will, provided always that one wills what one can." And -it was only by means of this present-day temper that Romanticism could -find so full-toned an expression in his works. Only because he was truly -a citizen of the present day and felt its blood beating in his veins, -could he feel the congenial elements of the past. To him the old-time -legends were no antiquarian, erudite, pedantic lumber; they were a part -of himself, and he interpreted them in more childlike simplicity of -manner and with more delicate feeling than any artist of former times, -because he observed them with the eye of the present age, with an eye -made keen with longing. Just as in his "Wedding Journey" he raised all -reality into the poetry of purest romance, so is his Romanticism -saturated with a sense of reality charged with memories of home. Out of -his fairy-tale pictures is breathed a charming fragrance of the -long-vanished days of earth's first springtide, and yet for that very -reason a breath of the most modern Décadence. He is distinguished from -Marées and Burne-Jones, from Puvis de Chavannes and Gustave Moreau, by a -very unmodern attribute--he is bursting with health. He is still naïvely -childlike, free from that elegiac melancholy, that temper of weary -resignation, which the end of the nineteenth century first brought into -the world. - -[Illustration: SCHWIND. WIELAND THE SMITH.] - -[Illustration: _Neft, Helio._ - - SCHWIND. FROM THE STORY OF THE SEVEN RAVENS.] - -Yet Schwind was one of the first to feel and give expression to that -modern sense of longing desire which turns back from a nervous, -colourless age, from the prosiness of everyday life, towards a vanished -Saturnian era, when man still lived at peace and undisturbed in happy -union with nature. For even this proclaims him our contemporary, that -the temper of his pictures develops itself from the landscape. A -landscape painter through and through--almost in Boecklin's sense, -who transformed the temper of Nature into the contemplation of living -beings--he spoke of the rest and peace of German forests, of that hour -of summer's night when no wind blows, no leaflet moves, when to the -solitary wanderer in the woods the mists rising from the meadows are -transformed into white veils of the elves, and the gold-rimmed waves of -the sea into the yellow hair of mermaids frolicking in the moonlight to -the magic notes of their golden harps. He felt and loved his landscapes -rather than studied them, yet they are saturated with an entirely modern -sentiment for Nature. No German, at that time, had caught and understood -the interweaving of the forest boughs with such intimate familiarity. -The fresh sunshine of the morning breaks through the light green of the -young beeches, and leaps from bough to bough, transforming the -glittering dewdrops into diamonds, and the beetle, creeping comfortably -over the soft moss, into gold and precious stones. "_Da gehet leise nach -seiner Weise der liebe Herrgott durch den Wald_" ("The dear God holy, He -passeth slowly, as His wont is, through the wood"). With a few boldly -drawn lines and light colours we are transported into the midst of the -forest world, and all around us opening buds and verdurous green, sweet -scents, and the murmur of leaves. "When one has set one's love and joy -on a beautiful tree so fully," he said to Ludwig Richter, "one depicts -all one's love and joy with it, and then the tree looks quite different -from an ass's fine daub of what he thinks it should be." - -[Illustration: _Albert, Helio._ - - SCHWIND. A HERMIT LEADING HORSES TO A POOL.] - -Only so intimate a connection with Nature could enable Schwind to -imagine landscapes, which in their virginal old-world mood form at once -the echo of the figures and of their actions. These green meadows and -flower-besprent hills, these gloomy wooded slopes, these smooth valleys -through which glittering waters glide murmuring along, are fit and -suitable dwelling-places for the delicate fabulous beings of the -flower-entwined old fairy legends. Schwind _lived_ with Nature. He gave -the name of Tanneck (Fir-tree Corner) to the little country house which -he built for himself on the Starnberger See, and the fresh scent of -pinewood, the rustling sound of German forests, pour forth from his -pictures. Like young Siegfried, he understood the language of birds, and -went eavesdropping to hear what the pine trees whispered to one another. - -[Illustration: SCHWIND. THE WEDDING JOURNEY.] - -Still freer, more spontaneous, and lighter than in his oil paintings was -his touch in his water-colours, in which the colour is only breathed -over the forms like a delicate vapour; and quite especially in his -illustrations--so far as the word may be employed with respect to him, -for he never illustrated, he gave shape to his own thoughts, and that -only which moved his innermost being he brought fully formed before -one's eye. The _Bilderbogen_ and the _Fliegende Blätter_ of Munich -obtained from him witty and humorous inventions, such as "The Almond -Tree," "Puss in Boots," "The Peasant and the Donkey," "Herr Winter," and -"The Acrobat Games." His fairest legacy consists of three cyclic works: -"Cinderella," "The Seven Ravens," and "The Beautiful Melusina"; wherein -he glorified with praise the beauty and fidelity of women, and their -capacity for self-sacrifice. "Cinderella," which appeared in 1855, at -the Munich Exhibition, is a fairy-tale, than which poet has seldom, -indeed, narrated a chaster, tenderer, or more fragrant. In 1858 followed -the touching story of the good sister who releases her brothers by dint -of unspeakable suffering and endurance, to-day the priceless pearl among -the gems of the Weimar collection. For twenty years, as he said, the -work had been in his thoughts. So far back as in 1844 he wrote to -Genelli: "I believe that it will give something which may please people -who have a sense for love and faithfulness, and for a touch of the power -of enchantment." When an acquaintance of his gazed upon it with dismay, -and ingenuously asked for whom the thing was intended, and whither it -was to go, Schwind turned his penetrating, flashing little eyes upon -him, and then said: "Do you know, I painted that for myself; it is the -dream of my life; no one shall buy it; some day I shall give it to a -friend." It is an imperishable work, full of grace, modesty, and charm. - -Schwind takes the story up at the fateful moment when the lonely maiden, -who is determined to release her enchanted brothers by assiduous -spinning and constant silence, is discovered by a hunting party. There, -amid the enchantment of the forest solitude, she sits in the hollow of a -tree and spins away at the seven shirts, to free her seven brothers. -Thus the king's son catches sight of her. The fire of love kindles in -his eyes. In one long kiss the maiden gives herself to him. The wedding -takes place, and like another St. Elizabeth she is seen standing, soon -afterwards, distributing alms to starving beggars. Yet, meanwhile, she -has fallen under suspicion owing to her continuous silence; even her -husband becomes distrustful, because in the quiet of night he has -observed that she is not resting by his side, but is quietly up and -spinning. And the catastrophe comes when the silent queen gives birth to -twins, who, to the horror of all around, fly off in the form of ravens. -Tranquil and affectionate, the young mother awaits her fate. Then follow -the sentence of the Vehm-tribunal, the pathetic parting from her -husband, the preparation for death. There is only one hour more to pass -by before the seven years are over and the spellbound brothers set free. -The good fairy appears in the air, hour-glass in hand, and brings solace -to the hard-pressed heroine. The beggars, too, whose benefactress she -had been, bring help, and hold the gate of the dungeon in force. So the -time runs out, the spell is broken, and the brothers hasten, on -milk-white horses, to save their sister from the stake. In Schwind's -marvellous drawings the story passes quickly on, stroke by stroke, -deeply moving and soul-stirring in its dramatic force. - -The "Beautiful Melusina" was the kiss of the water-nymph, with which -Romanticism led her faithful knight to his death, only to disappear -together with him out of German art. "The winter has dealt me a sore -blow; I shall never be able to do anything more." Carl Maria von Weber -and Uhland had already gone before; Schwind was lying on his sick-bed -when the German victories created a German fatherland. He learned, -however, all the long series of glorious tidings that came from the -field of war, saw the tumultuous joy and the dazzling sea of fire which -surged through Munich in January 1871, and heard the joyful news that -Germany was at last united. Then he had a glass of champagne poured out -for him, and drank it to the new empire and the future of the nation. - -In the middle of a wood of lofty beeches in Bernrieder Park, on the -Starnberger See, there stands a small rotunda, within is a prattling -fountain, right round the walls runs a frieze, depicting the legend of -the "Beautiful Melusina." It is Schwind's monument. With him German -Romanticism perished; reality itself had now become so marvellous. When, -in 1850, Hübner had to paint a figure of Germania for a page in King -Ludwig's album, he depicted a queenly woman, prone on the ground, with -her face in the dust, amidst a desolate landscape and under a cloudy -sky. The crown has fallen from her head and a skull lies by her side, -while on the frame are inscribed these words from the Book of -Lamentations: "Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the -destruction of the daughter of my people; the crown of our head is -fallen." When Schwind died, Germany had re-arisen. In the very year of -his death, Lenbach painted his first Bismarck pictures: in Bismarck was -embodied that power by means of which the dream of a nation was -fulfilled. - -[Illustration: SCHWIND. NYMPHS AND STAG.] - -Thus Schwind's works are not only the sign of a completed period in -German history, but also at the same time both the climax and the -conclusion of an art-epoch. Schwind had lived through the entire -revolution which German painting had at that time undergone. At his -death the sound of the hunting horns of Romanticism had died away. He -had lived long enough to have the opportunity of criticising neatly, as -follows, the dry, unpoetical school of historical painting then making -its appearance, as if introduced by gaudily costumed models, a school -which made its first hit with Lessing's "Ezzelino": "I will explain the -picture to you. Ezzelino is seated in his dungeon, and two monks are -attempting to convert him. One of them recognises that all pains are -thrown away upon the old sinner, and takes himself off, regretfully -desisting from all further endeavour; the other still has hopes, and -continues his exhortations. But Ezzelino only keeps his angry gaze fixed -before him, muttering, 'Leave me alone! Don't you see that I am--posing -as a model!'" He had had occasion to write to his friend Bauernfeld: "I -have seen so many schools of so-called painting in my time that it is an -absolute horror to me"; he had asked Piloty: "What calamity are you -preparing for us now?" and had thought it his duty to address to one of -the younger painters the question: "Are we then an academy of the Fine -or of the Ugly Arts?" "A man like me, with his ideas, walks like a ghost -amid the battle of the virtuosi, in which the whole life of art has gone -astray," he used sadly to say. His last wonderful works stand alone in -a time which was dazzled by the flash of arms characterising the -Franco-Belgian school of art. It was not till much later that Hans Thoma -took up the threads which connect the work of Schwind with the present -epoch. When he died he was a solitary, isolated man taking leave of a -generation in which he had no part. The period of historical painting -which followed him produced no single work distinguished by Schwind's -sense of fragrant legendary poetry. The charming forest fairy who had -appeared to him showed herself to no other; like the betrayed Melusina, -she had returned to rest again, solitary, in her fountain home. Fantasy, -tender soul that she is, had taken wings, whither none can tell. "That -is why nobody has a single idea," as Schwind said in his drastic way. -The Muse of Schwind, the last Romanticist, was a chaste, pensive, -soulful maiden; while that of Piloty, the first colourist, was a noisy, -bloodthirsty Megæra. Yet one can have no doubt as to the necessity of -this evolutionary change. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Helio._ - - SCHWIND. RUBEZAHL.] - -Schwind himself is among the masters "who have been, and are, and shall -be." He was different from all that was arising around him; he embodied -the spirit of the future, and exercises over the art of the present day -so great an influence that where two or three painters are gathered -together in the name of the beautiful, he has his place in the midst of -them, and is present, invisible, at every exhibition. But he exercises -this influence only spiritually. Young artists study him as if he were a -primitive master. Enraptured, they find in him all those qualities for -which there is to-day so ardent a longing--innocent purity and touching -simplicity, a mystic, romantic submersion in waves of old-time feeling -and a charming youthful fervour. They do not study him in order to -_paint_ like him. - -"Our heads are full of poetry, but we cannot give it expression," are -the words with which Cornelius himself characterised this period. -Germany had original geniuses indeed, but no fully matured school to -compare with the French; as yet the Germans did not know how to paint. -Up to this time the course of painting in Germany had been a bold but -imprudent flight through the air; in its Kaulbach-like cloud-heights it -had melted away to a shadow, only to fall again, somewhat roughly, to -the ground. It died of an incurable disease--idealism. The painters of -that time, one and all, had never become real artists; strictly -speaking, they had always remained amateurs. He alone is a great artist -in whom the will and the performance, the substance and the form, are in -complete accordance. Painters who never knew exactly what is meant by -painting, artists whose most noticeable characteristic was that they had -no art-capacity, were only possible in the first half of the nineteenth -century in Germany, where for that very reason they were admired and -praised. - -What now began was a necessary making good what had been so long -neglected. For craftsmanship is the necessary presupposition of all art, -which can no longer suffer any one to be called a master who has not -learnt his business. In the atmosphere of incense which surrounded -Cornelius in Munich, the dogma that salvation was to be found in German -art alone, and that the German nation was the chosen people of art, had -reached a height of self-adoration which came near to megalomania. In -the proud enthusiasm of those times, great in their aims as in their -errors, the Germans had as false an opinion as possible of the art of -foreign countries. - -In the very years when the first railways were ousting the old -mail-coaches the mutual interchange of endeavour and ability between the -various nations was slower and scantier than ever before. How German -artists had wandered abroad in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in -that great age when Dürer crossed the Alps on Pirkheymer's pony, and -when Holbein obtained from Erasmus letters of introduction for England! -With what joy Dürer, in his letters and in his journal, gives an account -of the recognition accorded him in artistic circles in Italy and the -Dutch cities! Nearly all the German painters had, in the course of their -long wanderings, made acquaintance with either the Netherlands or Italy. -They knew exactly what was going on in the world around them. Dürer and -Raphael used to send drawings to each other, "so as to know each other's -handwriting." It was only in the first half of the nineteenth century -that the Germans, once proud in the consciousness of possessing the -finest comprehension of, and the greatest receptivity for, foreign -intellectual wares, lived apart in timid isolation. Into the suburban -still-life of the German schools of art not a sound made its way of what -was taking place elsewhere. Only thus was it possible for the Germans to -imagine that among all modern nations they alone had a vocation for Art. -No one had the least idea that in England, the land of machines and -beefsteaks, there were men who painted; and people went so far as to -proclaim piety, morality, thoroughness, accurate draughtsmanship, and -diligent execution the monopoly of German art; and superficiality, -frivolity, and "empty straining after effect" the ineradicable national -failing of that of France. - -[Illustration: SCHWIND. THE FAIRIES' SONG.] - -With some such ideas in their heads the majority of the German painters, -in the autumn of 1843, found themselves confronted by Gallait's -"Abdication of Charles V" and Bièfve's "Agreement of the Dutch -Nobility"; two Belgian pictures which at that time were going the round -of the exhibitions in all the larger towns of Germany. And it was not -long before the belief in the old gods, which had for thirty years held -sway in the city of King Ludwig, was completely undermined by the -younger generation. "Even for the great gods, day comes to an end. Night -of annihilation, descend with the dusk!" Diogenes expelled from his -philosophic tub could not have felt more uncomfortable than the German -painters in presence of the Belgian pictures. As till then the -incapacity to paint had been belauded as one of the strongest possible -proofs of the higher artistic nature and of genuine greatness, so now it -was perceived that nevertheless, on the banks of the Scheldt and of the -Seine, a much greater school of painting was in full bloom, and -producing splendid fruit. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE FORERUNNERS OF ROMANTICISM IN FRANCE - - -In France the first decade of the century gave no premonition of the -powerful development which was shortly to take place in French art. A -legion of characterless pupils issuing from David's studio wearied the -world with their aimless works, and hurled their thunderbolts against -all rising talent. The austere catalogue of the Salon was a pell-mell of -Belisarii, Télémaques, Phædras, Electras, Brutuses, Psyches, and -Endymions. Girodet and Guérin wearied themselves in putting on canvas -the chief scenes in the classical tragedies at that time so frequently -performed--Pygmalion and Galatea, the Death of Agamemnon, and the -like--and painted portraits between times; Girodet's dry and poor, -Guérin's solemnly vacant. The universal note was that of tedium. - -_François Gérard_ alone, the "King of Painters and Painter of Kings," -survives, at least in his portraits. Like David he is redeemed only by -his portrait painting, and his successes in that direction eclipse even -Mme. Vigée-Lebrun, the amiable, gifted, and graceful painter of Marie -Antoinette's days. At the outbreak of the Revolution she had left -France. Everywhere extolled and welcomed with open arms, she painted -Mme. de Staël in Switzerland, and at Naples Lady Hamilton, the famous -beauty of the time of the Directory. But when, in 1810, she returned to -Paris, she had been forgotten. The day on which Marie Antoinette picked -up her brush for her, as Charles V had done for Titian, was to remain -the happiest in her life. She belonged to the Ancien Régime, and -although her death did not take place till 1842, at the age of -eighty-seven, her work was already over in 1792. In her old age she -busied herself in writing memoirs of the splendour of her youthful days, -from the famous mythological dinner in the Rue de Cléry, where her -husband appeared in the character of Pindar and recited his translation -of Anacreon's odes, to the triumphs which accompanied her journey round -Europe. - -Gérard took the place which she had left vacant at her departure, and -filled it well, especially in his youth. When, in the Exhibition of -Portrait Painting held at Paris in 1885, there appeared the likeness of -Mlle. Brongniart, from the collection of Baron Pichon, painted by Gérard -in 1795, at the age of twenty-five, there was general astonishment at -the familiar and intimate grasp of character it displayed. The portrait -of this young girl standing in her white dress, so tranquil and without -pose, has in the firmness of its draughtsmanship the austere charm and -dignity of a Bronzino. And later none could give to the aristocracy of -Europe a nobler or more natural bearing than did Gérard, who became -their tried and trusted depicter: yet in his last days he descended into -theatrical exaggeration. Endowed as he was with all the captivating -qualities of a cultured man of the world, he had from the beginning -avoided as the plague the revolutionary politics in which David was for -some time engaged, and when at the instance of the elder master he was -appointed a member of the Revolutionary Tribunal, he alleged illness in -order to be absent from its sessions. He was a man of the salons, the -born painter of the great world, his house the centre of a distinguished -circle of society. Not a celebrity, not an emperor or king, but wished -to be painted by Gérard. And just as he had been the chosen portrait -painter of the Bonaparte family, so after the Restoration he was still -the official favourite of the Court. Josephine took the fashionable -painter under her high protection, Napoleon's marshals defiled before -him, and the aristocracy which returned with Louis XVIII vied with one -another for his favour. - -[Illustration: FRANÇOIS GÉRARD. _L'Art._] - -Gérard's three hundred portraits are a continuous catalogue of all those -who in the first quarter of the century played any part in France upon -the political, military, or literary stage. A man of supple talent and -fine tastes, he completely satisfied the desires of a society which, -after the storm of the Revolution, opened its salons again and -re-established its former hierarchy of rank. The portrait with rich -background of upholstery, and the depicting of public ceremonies, were -reintroduced by him into the field of art. The people whom he painted -are no longer "citizens," as with David, but princes, generals, -princesses; and their surroundings allow of no doubt as to whether they -are to be addressed as Sir, as Your Serene Highness, or as Your -Excellency. No one knew how to flatter in so tactful a manner, -particularly in portraits of ladies. It was to him, therefore, that Mme. -Récamier had recourse when she was dissatisfied with David's likeness of -her. Gérard's, which she destined for Prince Augustus of Prussia, one of -her admirers, gave the "fair Juliette" the fullest satisfaction. In the -former she was represented reposing on a couch, austere and without -charm, like a tragic muse. Here she sits in a pleasant, lazy attitude -upon a chair, in a transparent robe which fully displays her form; about -her lips plays a half-melancholy, half-coquettish smile, and she, the -great actress who had turned so many men's heads, gazes with gentle -child-eyes as innocently upon the world as though she believed the story -about babies and the stork. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - GÉRARD. MLLE. BRONGNIART.] - -The background, too, that colonnade "leading nowhither," is -characteristic of the change in the manner of regarding things. The -older schools of painting had, in the case of portraits, managed the -treatment of the background in two different ways. The old Dutch and -Germans--Jan van Eyck and Holbein--aimed at showing a man, not only -portrayed with the subtlest fidelity to truth, but also in the -surroundings in which he was usually or by preference to be found. The -Italians renounced all representation of such scenes, and gave only a -quiet, neutral tone to the background. Gorgeous decorative scenery was -introduced by the court painter Van Dyck, and since the second half of -the seventeenth century had continually risen in popular favour. -Mignard, Lebrun, and Rigaud had brought into fashion, for portraits of -princely personages, that stately pillared architecture, with broad -velvet curtains swelling and descending in ample folds, which at that -time was so remarkably in keeping with the whole cut of the costumes, -with the enormous full-bodied wigs and the theatrical attitudinising of -that epoch. For the likenesses of generals and warlike princes the -favourite background was one which represented, by means of a number of -small figures, entire battles, marches, sieges, and so forth. Both these -methods, and, together with them, that of an ideal, lightly indicated -park landscape, were put an end to by the Revolution, under the -influence of which all extravagant pomp, not only in life, but even in -portrait painting, was replaced by an ascetic sobriety. Gérard, the -Court painter of the Bourbons, who on their return had "learnt nothing -and forgotten nothing," reintroduced the gorgeous pillar decoration, -which still remained the authoritative style under Stieler and -Winterhalter, and has only in the _bourgeois_ era of to-day given way to -the simple, neutral-toned background of the Italians. - -David, by the way, never forgave Mme. Récamier for having preferred his -pupil to himself. When, in 1805, after the completion of Gérard's -likeness of her, she approached David on the subject of finishing his, -he answered drily: "Madame, artists have their caprices as well as -women; now it is _I_ who will not." - -As an historical painter Gérard was an imitator of the mannerist -Girodet. Paintings such as "Daphnis and Chloe," or the famous "Psyche" -receiving Cupid's first kiss (1798), made indeed a great sensation among -the ladies, who for some time afterwards painted their faces white, to -resemble the gentle Psyche; but from the artistic point of view they do -not rise above the ordinary level of the Classical school. As an -historical painter he took much the same course as David; he began as a -Revolutionist in 1795 with the usual "Belisarius," and ended as a -Royalist with a "Coronation of Charles X." - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - GÉRARD. MADAME VISCONTI.] - -The more stiff and sober the antique style of David became, the sooner a -counter-current was likely to arise, and the change of taste showed -itself first in the circumstance that, from 1810 on, a master came more -and more to the front who, already old, had hitherto lived in obscurity, -almost despised by his contemporaries. This was the amiable, -sympathetic, charming, sweet, and great _Prudhon_, the lineal descendant -of Correggio, a solitary painter, the gracefulness of whose art was at -first unappreciated, but who, as the orthodox academicians began to be -more and more tedious, exercised a correspondingly greater influence -over the younger generation. He is the one refreshing oasis in the -desert wilderness of the Classical school. - -What a difference between him and David! When the elegant grace of -Watteau fled from the French school, and the new Spartans dreamed of -founding a Greek art, David was the hero of this buskined theatrical -school of painting. He painted "The Horatii" and "Brutus," and thought -to bring ancient Rome back to life by copying the shapes of old Roman -chairs and old Roman swords. That was the antique style of his first -period. Later, having made the discovery that, compared with the Greeks, -the Romans were semi-barbarians, he abandoned the Roman style, and -thought to make a great stride forwards by copying Greek statues and -carefully transferring them to his pictures. This "pure Grecian -character" is represented in his "Rape of the Sabines." Later again, he -turned to the more ancient Greeks, and the result was the most academic -of his pictures, his "Leonidas." A mixture of dryness and declamatory -pathos; diligence without imagination; able draughtsmanship and an -absolute incapacity of drawing anything whatever without a model; -careful arrangement without the slightest trace of that gift of the -inner vision whereby the whole is brought complete and finished before -the eye,--these exhaust the list of David's qualities. By means of -casting and copying he thought to come near to that art of the antique -whose soul he dreamed of embracing, when he held but its skeleton in his -hands. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - GÉRARD. CUPID AND PSYCHE.] - -And meanwhile, away from the broad high-road, and almost unnoticed, was -living that painter whom David contemptuously called "the Boucher of his -time." He it was who truly cherished the gods of Greece in his heart, -under whose brush the dead statues began to breathe and to feel the -blood flowing in their veins, as in the old days when the Renaissance -dug them out of the ground. His appearance on the stage indicates the -first protest against the rigid system pursued by the painter of the -Horatii and of Brutus. Prudhon also believed in the antique, but he saw -therein a grace which no Classicist had ever seen; he also contrasted -the simplicity of the Grecian profile with the capricious, wrinkled -forms of the _rococo_ style; he too had spent his youth in Italy, but -had not thought it criminal to study Leonardo and Correggio; he did not -bind himself either to cold sculpture or to the delicate _morbidezza_ of -the Lombards as the only means of grace. He remained a Frenchman heart -and soul, in that he inherited from Watteau's age its womanly softness -and elegance. In a cold, ascetic age he still believed in tenderness, -gaiety, and laughter--he who as a man had but little reason to take -delight in life. - -Prudhon was ten years younger than David, and was born at Cluny, the -tenth child of a poor stone cutter. He grew up in miserable -circumstances, cherished only by a mother who devoted the whole of her -love to this her youngest born, and to whom the child, a delicate pliant -creature, clung with girl-like tenderness. His parents used often to -send him out with the other poor children of the little town to gather -faggots for the winter in the wood belonging to the neighbouring -Benedictine monastery. There the handsome, sprightly boy with the large -melancholy eyes attracted the notice of the priest, Père Besson, who -made him a chorister and gave him some instruction. Here, in the old -abbey of Cluny, surrounded by venerable statues carved in wood, by old -pictures of saints and artistic miniatures, he recognised his vocation. -An inner voice told him that he was to be a painter. And now his Latin -exercise books began to fill with drawings, and he carved little images -with his penknife out of wood, soap, or whatever came to his hand. He -squeezed out the juice of flowers, made brushes of horsehair, and began -to paint. He was inconsolable on finding that he could not hit off the -colouring of the old church pictures. It was a revelation to him when -one of the monks said to him one day: "My boy, you will never manage it -so: these pictures are painted in oils"; and he straightway invented oil -painting for himself. With the help of the instruction which he now -received at Dijon from an able painter, Devosge, he made rapid progress. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GÉRARD. MADAME RÉCAMIER [DETAIL].] - -Nevertheless a generation was yet to pass before he was really to become -a painter. His marriage, on 17th February 1778, with the daughter of the -notary of Cluny, became the torment of his life. A linen-weaver and -three of his father-in-law's clerks were present at the wedding. His -wife was quarrelsome, their income small, and their family rapidly -increasing. He betook himself to Paris to seek his fortune, with a -letter of introduction to the engraver Wille. "Take pity on this -youngster, who has been married for the last three years, and who, were -he to come under some low fellow's influence, might easily fall into the -most terrible abyss"; so ran the letter, which a certain Baron -Joursanvault had given him. He hired himself a room in the house of M. -Fauconnier, the head of a firm engaged in the lace trade, who lived in -the Rue du Bac with his wife and a pretty sister. The latter, Marie, was -eighteen years of age, and, like Werther's Lotte, was always surrounded -by her brother's children, whom she looked after like a little -housewife. Prudhon, himself young, sensitive, and handsome, loved and -was loved, and made her presents of small flattering portraits and -pretty allegorical drawings, in which Cupid was represented scratching -the initials M. F. (Marie Fauconnier) on the wall with his arrow. That -he was married and several times a father she never knew, till one day -Madame Prudhon arrived with the children. "And you never told me!" was -her only word of reproach. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - PIERRE PAUL PRUDHON. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -Prudhon himself now went to Italy--a journey accompanied by serious -difficulties. At Dijon he had competed for the Prix de Rome, and had -been so simple as to make a sketch for one of his rivals. He owed it to -the latter's honesty that the scholarship nevertheless fell to himself. -He started on his journey; but when he reached Marseilles, and was ready -to embark, the vessel was unable to weigh anchor for several weeks, -owing to stormy weather. And even on the voyage it became necessary to -disembark again, so that months had elapsed before he arrived in Rome, -penniless, and having embraced, according to classical custom, the land -he had come to conquer; for he had fallen out of the carriage on the -way. Fortunately his dearly bought sojourn in Italy did him no harm. He -had indeed intended to draw only from the antique and after Raphael; but -after the lapse of a very few weeks he found his ideal in Leonardo. Him -he calls "his Master and Hero, the inimitable father and prince of all -painters, in artistic power far surpassing Raphael!" - -In a small sketch-book, half torn up, dating from this time, and still -in existence, we have already the whole Prudhon. It contains copies of -ancient statues, made laboriously and without pleasure in the work; then -comes Correggio's disarmed "Cupid," a delicious little sketch, and with -the same pencil that drew it he has written down the names of the -pictures he purposes painting later on: "Love," "Frivolity," "Cupid and -Psyche." It is as it were the secret confession of his fantasy, a -preliminary announcement of his future works. Here and there are found -sketches hastily dashed off of beautiful female forms in the graceful -attitude which had excited his admiration in the women of the -"Aldobrandini Wedding." But, above all, the young artist observed all -that was around him. He lived in unceasing intercourse with the -beautiful, and his soul was nurtured by the spirit of the works which -surrounded him. He accumulated pictures, not in his sketch-book, but in -himself; so much so that, when he was afterwards interrogated as to his -Italian studies, his only answer was: "I did nothing but study life and -admire the works of the masters." He avoided association even with -scholars who had taken the Prix de Rome. The elegant and graceful -sculptor Canova was the only one with whom he permitted himself any -intercourse. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - PRUDHON. JOSEPH AND POTIPHAR'S WIFE.] - -When his scholarship had run its course, at the end of November 1789, he -found himself again in Paris, and the struggle against poverty began -once more. Even while in Italy he had sent all his savings to his wife, -who had straightway squandered them in drink with her brother, a -sergeant in a cavalry regiment. At Paris he had to act as parlour-maid -and nursery-maid. The faces of two more women rise up in his life like -fleeting stars, and both of them died before his eyes. The first was the -mysterious stranger who appeared one day in his studio and commissioned -him to paint her portrait. She was young, scarcely twenty years of age, -with great blue eyes, but her face was weary and wan as though from long -sleepless nights. "Your portrait?" asked Prudhon, "with features so -troubled and sad?" He set to work, silent and indifferent; but with -every stroke of his brush he felt himself more mystically attracted to -this young girl, evidently as unhappy and as persecuted by fate as -himself. She promised to return on the morrow; but neither on that day -nor on the next did she appear. One afternoon he was wandering dreamily -along the street, thinking of the unknown fair one, when his eye almost -mechanically caught sight of the guillotine, and he recognised in the -unhappy victim at that very moment ending her days the mysterious -visitor of his studio. - -To keep the wolf from the door, Prudhon was obliged for some years to -draw vignettes on letter-sheets for the Government offices, business -cards for tradesmen, and even little pictures for _bonbonnières_. For -this the representatives of high art held him in contempt. Greuze alone -treated him amicably, and even he held out no hopes for his future. "You -have a family and you have talent, young man; that is enough in these -days to bring about one's death by starvation. Look at my cuffs." Then -the old man would show him his torn shirt-sleeves--for even he could no -longer find means of getting on in the new order of things. To his -anxieties about the necessities of life were added dissensions with his -wife. He became the prey of a continual melancholy; he was never seen to -smile. Even when a separation had been effected his tormentor persecuted -him still, until she was relegated to a madhouse. But now a change comes -over the scene with the entrance of Constance Mayer. - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. STUDY DIRECTS THE FLIGHT OF GENIUS.] - -This amiable young painter, his pupil, was the star that lighted up his -old age. She was ugly. With her brown complexion, her broad flat nose, -and her large mouth, she had at first sight the appearance of a mulatto. -Yet to this large mouth belonged voluptuous lips ever ready to be -kissed; above this broad nose there were two eyes shining like black -diamonds, which by their changeful expression made this irregular, -_gamin's_ face appear positively beautiful. She was seventeen years his -junior, and he has painted her as often as Rembrandt painted his Saskia. -He has immortalised the dainty upturned nose of his little gipsy, as he -called her, in pictures, sketches, pastels, all of which have the same -piquant charm, the same elegant grace, the same joyous and merry -expression. In her he had found his type, as his namesake Rubens did in -Hélène Fourment. Constance Mayer became the muse of his delicate, -graceful work. And she too died before his eyes, having cut her throat -with a razor. - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. LE COUP DE PATTE DU CHAT.] - -The master and the pupil loved each other. As sentimental as she was -passionate, as gay as she was piquant, nervous and witty, she possessed -every quality that was likely to captivate him, as she chattered to him -in her lively and original way, and flattered his pride as an artist. -This love seemed to promise him rest and a bright ending for his days. -He entered into it with the passion of a young man in love for the first -time. Mlle. Mayer, after her father's death, was dependent on no one. -Her studio in the Sorbonne was separated from her master's only by a -blind wall. She was with him the entire day, worked at his side, was his -housekeeper, and saw to the education of his daughter, to whom she was -at once a mother and an elder sister; and Prudhon transferred to her all -the tender love which as a child he had cherished for his mother. In his -gratitude he wished to share his genius with his friend, and to make her -famous like himself. It is pathetic to note in Mlle. Mayer's studies -with what patience and devotion he instructed her, how he strove to -animate her with his own spirit, and to give her something of his own -immortality. Even his own work was influenced by the new happiness. To -the period of his connection with Constance belong his masterpieces, -"Justice and Vengeance," "The Rape of Psyche," "Venus and Adonis," and -"The Swinging Zephyr." - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. CUPID AND PSYCHE.] - -These brought him at last even outward success. In 1808 the Emperor gave -him the Cross of the Legion of Honour for his picture of "Justice and -Vengeance," and he became, if not the official, at least the familiar -painter of the Court. The fine portrait of the Empress Josephine -belongs to this period. When the new Empress Marie Louise wished to -learn the art of painting, Prudhon, in 1811, became her drawing master; -and when on the birth of the King of Rome the city of Paris presented to -the Emperor the furniture for a room, he was commissioned to provide the -artistic decoration. Criticism began to bow its head when his name was -mentioned; and the younger generation of painters soon discovered in -him, once so contemptuously reviled, the founder of a new religion, the -want of which had long been felt. He began to make money. Constance -Mayer seemed to bring him luck: her death affected him all the more -deeply. - -[Illustration: CONSTANCE MAYER.] - -By nature nervous and highly strung, jealous and keenly conscious of her -equivocal position, she could not make up her mind, when the painters -were ordered to move their studios from the Sorbonne, either to leave -Prudhon or openly to live with him. On the morning of 26th March 1821 -she left her model, the little Sophie, alone, after giving her a ring. -Soon afterwards a heavy fall was heard, and she was found lying on the -ground in a pool of blood. Prudhon lingered on for two years more, two -long years spent as it were in exile. Solitary, tortured by remorse of -conscience, and with continual thoughts of suicide, he lived on only for -his recollections of her, in tender converse with the memorials she had -left, insensible to the renown which began gradually to gather round his -name. The completion of the "Unfortunate Family," which Constance had -left unfinished on her easel, was his last _tête-à-tête_ with her, his -last farewell. He left his studio only to visit her grave in -Père-Lachaise, or to wander alone along the outer boulevards. An -"Ascension of the Virgin" and a "Christ on the Cross" were the last -works of the once joyous painter of ancient mythology: the Mater -Dolorosa and the Crucified--symbols of his own torments. Death at length -took compassion upon him. On the 16th of February 1823 France lost -Prudhon. - -His art was the pure expression of his spiritual life. His life was -swayed by women, and something feminine breathes through all his -pictures. In them there speaks a man full of soul, originally of a -joyous nature, who has gone through experiences which prevented him ever -being joyous again. He has inherited from the _rococo_ style its graces -and its little Cupids, but has also already tasted of all the melancholy -of the new age. With his smiles there is mingled a secret sadness. He -has learnt that life is not an unending banquet and a perpetual -pleasure; he has seen how tragic a morrow follows upon the voyage to -the Isle of Cythera. The bloom has faded from his pale cheeks, his brow -is furrowed--he has seen the guillotine. He, the last _rococo_ painter -and the first Romanticist, would have been truly the man to effect the -transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century by a path more -natural than that followed by David. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - CONSTANCE MAYER. THE DREAM OF HAPPINESS.] - -Even his fugitive sketches, thrown off in the days of his poverty, have -a quite peculiar charm and a thoroughly individual sentiment. There are -vignettes of his for letter-sheets, done for the Government offices, -which in a few pencil touches contain more manly elegance and poetry -than do David's most pretentious compositions with all their borrowed -Classicism. Prudhon was the only painter who at that time produced -anything of conspicuous merit in the art of ornament. Even drawings such -as "Minerva uniting Law and Liberty," which from their titles would lead -one to expect nothing more than frozen allegories, are imbued, not with -David's coldness, but with Correggio's charm. French grace and elegance -are united, without constraint, to the beauty of line found in ancient -cameos. He it was who first felt again the living poetry of that old -mythology, which had become a mere collection of dry names. He is -commissioned to draw a card of invitation for a ball, and he sends a -tender hymn on music and dancing. In extravagant profusion he scatters -forth, no matter where, poetic invention and grace such as David in his -most strenuous efforts sought for in vain. It was during this time that -Prudhon became the admirable draughtsman to whom the French school have -awarded a place among their greatest masters. These drawings and -illustrations were the necessary preparation for the great works which -brought him to the front at the beginning of the century. - -Even his first picture, painted in 1799--to-day half-destroyed--"Wisdom -bringing Truth upon the earth, at whose approach Darkness vanishes," -must, to judge from early descriptions, have been marked by a seductive -and delicate grace. And the celebrated work of 1808, "Justice and -Vengeance pursuing Crime," belongs certainly, so far as colouring is -concerned, rather to the Romantic than to the Classical era. For during -the latter, one faculty especially had been lost, and that was the art -of painting flesh. Prudhon, by deep study of Leonardo and Correggio, -masters at that time completely out of fashion, won back this capacity -for the French school. In wild and desolate scenery, above which the -moon, emerging from behind heavy clouds, shines with a ghostly light -upon the bare rocks, the murderer is leaving the body of his victim. He -strides forth with hasty steps, purse and dagger in hand, glancing back -with a shudder at the naked corpse of a young man which has fallen upon -a ledge of rock, lying there stiff and with outstretched arms. Above, -like shapes in the clouds, the avenging goddesses are already sweeping -downwards upon him. Justice pursues the fugitive with threatening, -wrathful glance; while Vengeance, lighting the way with her torch, -stretches out her hand to grasp the guilty one. In that epoch this -picture stands alone for the imposing characterisation of the persons, -for its powerful pictorial execution, and the stern and grandiose -landscape which serves as setting to the awful scene. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - THE TOMB OF PRUDHON AND CONSTANCE MAYER AT PÈRE-LACHAISE.] - -In general, Prudhon was not a tragic painter; his preference was for the -more joyous, light and dreamy, delicately veiled myths of the ancients. -His misfortunes taught him to flee from reality, and on the wings of Art -he saved himself, in the realm of legendary love and visionary -happiness. So we see Psyche borne aloft by Zephyr through the twilight -to the nuptial abode of Eros. A soft light falls upon her snowy body; -her head has fallen upon her shoulder, and one arm, bent backwards, -enframes her face. Silent like a cloud, the group moves onward--a -sweet-scented apparition from fairyland. Now, enraptured genii visit the -slumbering Fair One in forest-shadows, under the shimmering moon; now -she is stealing secretly down to bathe in a tranquil lake, and gazes -with astonishment upon her own likeness in the gloomy mirror. Here -Venus, drawing deep breaths of secret bliss, is seated, full of longing -love, by the side of Adonis. Who else, at that time, could draw nude -figures of such faultless beauty, so slender and pure, with lines so -supple and yet so firm, and enveloped in so full and soft a light? Or -again, he paints Zephyr swinging roguishly by the side of a stream. A -gentle breeze plays through his locks, and the cool darkness of the wood -breathes through all things round. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - PRUDHON. THE UNFORTUNATE FAMILY.] - -Prudhon's work is never a laborious patchwork of fragments of antique -forms picked up here and there, never the insipid product of the reason -working in accordance with recipes long handed down; it is thoroughly -intuitive. Never keeping too closely to his model, he gave to his -creations the movement and the divine breath of life. In his hands with -dreamlike fidelity the Antique rose up again renewed, new in the sense -of his own completely modern sentiment, and in that of those great -masters of the Renaissance who had wakened it to life three hundred -years before. For Prudhon, as is shown by his landscape backgrounds, is -altogether Jean Jacques Rousseau's contemporary, the child of that epoch -in which Nature revealed itself anew; and, as is proved by his figures, -he is a congenial spirit to Antonio da Allegri and Vinci. In fresh -recollection of Correggio, he loves a soft exuberance of flesh and a -delicate semi-obscurity; in enthusiastic reverence for Leonardo, those -heads of women, with deep, sensuously veiled eyes, and that mysterious -delicate smile playing dreamily round the wanton mouth. Only, the -enchanting sweetness of the Florentine and the delicious ecstasy of the -Lombard are toned down by a gentle melancholy which is entirely modern. -The Psyche borne up to heaven by Zephyr changes in the end, when -purified and refined, into the soul itself, which, in the form of the -Madonna, ascends into heaven, transfigured with longing desire; and -Venus, the goddess of love, is transformed into Love immortal, "Who, -stretched upon the Cross, yet reacheth out His hand to thee." - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. THE RAPE OF PSYCHE.] - -This man, with his soft tenderness and fine feeling for the eternal -feminine, was as though fashioned by Nature to be the painter of women -of his time. If David was the chief depicter of male faces bearing a -strong impress of character, delicate, refined, womanly natures found -their best interpreter in Prudhon. His heads of women charm one by the -mysterious language of their eyes, by their familiar smile, and by their -dreamy melancholy. No one knew better how to catch the fleeting -expression in its most delicate shades, how to grasp the very mood of -the moment. How piquant is his smiling Antoinette Leroux with her dress -_à la_ Charlotte Corday, her coquettish extravagant hat, and all the -amusing "chic" of her toilette! Madame Copia, the wife of the engraver, -with her delicately veiled eyes, has become in Prudhon's hands the very -essence of a beautiful soul. A languishing weariness, a remarkable -mingling of Creole grace and gentle melancholy, breathes over the -portrait of the Empress Josephine. She is represented seated on a grassy -bank in a dignified yet negligent attitude, her head slightly bent, her -gaze wandering afar with a look of uncertain inquiry, as though she had -some faint presentiment of her coming misfortune; and the dreamy -twilight-shadows of a mysterious landscape are gathering around her. - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. LE MIDI.] - -Coming after a period of colour asceticism, Prudhon was the first to -show a fine feeling for colour. Even during the revolutionary era he -protested in the name of the graceful against David's formal stiffness. -He sought to demonstrate that human beings do not in truth differ very -widely to-day from those in whom Leonardo and Correggio delighted, that -they are fashioned out of delicate flesh and blood, not out of marble -and stone. Standing beside David, he appealed to the art of colour. But -as with André Chénier, a spirit congenial to his, it was long before he -attained success. His modesty and his rustic character could effect -nothing against the dictatorial power of David, on whom had been -showered every dignity that Art could offer. People continued to -ridicule poor Prudhon, who worked only after his own fantasy, who had -fashioned for himself in _chiaroscuro_ a poetic language of his own, -till the question was raised again from another side, and this time by a -young man who came directly out of David's studio. - -_Antoine Jean Gros_ was one of David's pupils, and stood out among his -fellows as the one most submissively devoted to his master; yet it was -he who, without wishing it or knowing of it, was preparing the way for -the overthrow of David's school. He was born 17th March 1771, at Paris, -where his father was a miniature painter. His vocation was determined -in the studio of Mme. Vigée-Lebrun, who was a friend of his parents. In -the Salon of 1785, which contained David's "Andromache beside the Body -of Hector," he chose his instructor. He was then the handsome youth of -fifteen represented in his portrait of himself at Versailles, with -delicate features, full of feeling, on which lies an amiable, gentle -cast of sentimentality. Two large, dark-brown eyes look out upon the -world astonished and inquiring, dark hair surrounds the quiet, fresh -face, and over it is cocked a broad-brimmed felt hat. In this picture we -see a fine-strung, sensitive nature, a soul which would be plunged by -bitter experiences into depths of despair, in proportion as success -would raise it to heights of ecstasy. In 1792 he competed unsuccessfully -for the Prix de Rome, and this failure was the making of him. - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. LA NUIT.] - -He went to Italy on his own account, and was an eye-witness of the war -which Napoleon was there waging. There he beheld scenes in which -archæology had no part. For when Augereau's foot-soldiers carried the -bridge of Arcola by assault, they had little thought of imitating an -antique bas-relief. Gros observed armies on the march, and saw their -triumphant entry into festally decorated cities. He learnt his lesson on -the field of battle, and on his return placed on record what he had -himself gone through. In Italy he caught the poetry of modern life, and -at the same time was enabled as a painter to supplement David's lectures -with the teaching of another surpassing master. It was in Genoa that he -became acquainted with Rubens. As Prudhon's originality consisted in the -fact that he was the first of that period again to stand dreaming before -Leonardo and Correggio, so did Gros' lie in this, that he studied -Rubens at a time when the Antwerp master was also completely out of -fashion. His instinct as a painter had at the very commencement guided -him to Rubens' "St. Ignatius," which in his letters he described as a -"sublime and magnificent work." When he was subsequently appointed a -member of the Commission charged with the transference of works of art -to Paris, he had abundant opportunities of admiring critically the works -of the sixteenth and seventeenth century masters. The two impressions -thus received had a decisive effect upon his life. Gros became the great -colourist of the Classical school, the singer of the Napoleonic epos. -Compared with David's marmoreal Græco-Romans, Gros' figures seem to -belong to another world; his pictures speak, both in purport and in -technique, a language which must more than once have astonished his -master. - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. L'ENJOUIR.] - -He was fortunate enough to be presented to Josephine Beauharnais, and -through her to Bonaparte, in the Casa Serbelloni at Milan; and Gros, -whose earnest desire it was to paint the great commander, was appointed -a lieutenant on his staff. He had occasion, in the three days' battle of -Arcola, to admire the Dictator's impetuous heroism; and he made a sketch -of the General storming the bridge of Arcola at the head of his troops, -ensign in hand. It pleased Napoleon, who saw in it something of the -dæmonic power of the future conqueror of the world; and when the picture -was exhibited in Paris in 1801 it met there also with the most striking -success. The greater warmth of colour, the broader sweep of the brush, -and the life-like movement of the figures seemed, in comparison with -David's monotonous manner, to be far-reaching innovations. - -With his "Napoleon on the Bridge of Arcola" Gros had found his peculiar -talent. What his teacher had accomplished as painter to the Convention, -Gros carried to a conclusion in that span of time during which Napoleon -lived in the minds of his people as a hero. He too made an occasional -excursion into the domain of Greek mythology, but he did not feel at -home there. His field was that living history which the generals and -soldiers of France were making. He won for contemporary military life -its citizenship in art. David, wishing to remain true to "history" and -to "style," had depicted contemporary events with reluctance. What -Gérard and Girodet had produced was interesting as a protest on the part -of reality against classical convention, but on the whole it was -unsatisfying and wearisome. Gros, the famous painter of the "Plague of -Jaffa" and of the "Battle of Eylau," was the first to attain to high -renown in this field. - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. MARGUERITE.] - -These are two powerful and genuine pictures, two pre-eminent works which -will endure. Gros stands far above David and all his rivals in his power -of perception. The elder painter is now out of date, while Gros remains -ever fresh, because he painted under the impulse given by real events, -and not under the ban of empty theories. A realist through and through, -he did not shrink from representing the horrible, which antique art -preferred to avoid. In an epoch when Rome and Greece were the only -sources of inspiration he had the courage to paint a hospital, with its -sick, its dying, and its dead. When in the Egypto-Syrian campaign the -plague broke out after the storming of Jaffa, Napoleon, accompanied by a -few of his officers, undertook, on 7th March 1799, to visit the victims -of the pestilence. This act deserved to be celebrated in a commemorative -picture. Gros took it in hand, and represented Napoleon, in the -character of consoler, amid the agonising torments of the dying; -deviating from historical accuracy only so far as to transfer the scene -from the wretched wards of the lazaretto to the courtyard of a pillared -mosque. In the shadows of the airy halls sick and wounded men twist and -writhe, stare before them in despair, rear themselves up half-naked in -mortal pain, or turn to gaze upon the Commander-in-Chief, a splendid -apparition full of youthful power, who is tranquilly feeling the plague -boils of one of their comrades. Here and there Orientals move in -picturesque costumes, distributing the food which negro lads are -bringing in. And beyond, over the battlements of the Moorish arcades, -one sees the town with its fortifications, its flat roofs and slender -minarets, over which flutter the victorious banners of the French. On -one side lies the distant, glittering blue sea, and over all stretches -the clear, glowing southern sky. - -Like a new gospel, like the first gust of wind preceding the storm of -Romanticism, this picture standing in the Louvre, surrounded by its -stiff Classical contemporaries, excites a sensation of pleasure. - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. LES PETITS DÉVIDEURS.] - -Gros' heroes know, as David's do, that they are important, and show it -perhaps too much, but at least they act. The painter felt what he was -painting, and an impulse of human love, an heroic and yet human life, -permeates the picture. Moreover, Gros did not content himself with the -scanty palette and the miserable cartoon-draughtsmanship of his -contemporaries. This treatment of the nude, these despairing heads of -dying men, show none of the stony lifelessness of the Classical school; -this Moorish courtyard has no resemblance to the tragedy peristyle so -habitually employed up to that time; this Bonaparte laying his hand upon -the dying man's sores is no Greek or Roman hero. The sick men whose -feverish eyes gaze upon him as on the star of hope, the negroes going up -and down with viands, are no mere supernumeraries; the sea lying in -sunshine beyond, full of bustling sails, and the harbour gaily decked -with many-coloured flags, point in their joyous splendour of colouring -to the dawn of a new era. The young artists were not mistaken when, in -the Salon of 1804, they fastened a sprig of laurel to the frame of the -picture. The State bought it for sixteen thousand francs. A banquet at -which Vien and David presided was given in honour of the painter. -Girodet read a poem, of which the conclusion ran as follows-- - - "Et toi, sage Vien, toi, David, maître illustre, - Jouissez de vos succès; dans son sixième lustre, - Votre élève, déjà de toutes parts cité, - Auprès de vous vivra dans la postérité." - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. THE VINTAGE.] - -In his "Battle of Eylau," exhibited in 1808, Gros has given us a -companion picture to the "Plague of Jaffa": in one a visit to a -hospital, in the other the inspection of a field of battle after the -fight is over. The dismal grey hue of winter rests upon the white sheet -of snow stretching desolately away to the horizon, only interrupted here -and there by hillocks beneath which annihilated regiments sleep their -last sleep. In the foreground lie dead bodies heaped together, and -moaning wounded men; and in the midst of this horror of mangled limbs -and corrupting flesh he, the Conqueror, the Master, the Emperor, comes -to a halt, pale, his eyes turned towards the cities burning on the -horizon, in his grey overcoat and small cocked hat, at the head of his -staff, indifferent, inexorable, merciless as Fate. "_Ah! si les rois -pouvaient contempler ce spectacle, ils scraient moins avides de -conquêtes._" The classical posturing which still lingered, a disturbing -element, in the Plague picture, has been put aside completely. The -conventional horse from the frieze of the Parthenon, which David alone -knew, has given way to the accurately observed animal, and the colouring -too, in its sad harmony, has fully recovered its ancient right of giving -character to the picture. It was, beyond all controversy, the chief work -in the Salon of 1808, rich in remarkable pictures; neither Gérard's -"Battle of Austerlitz," nor Girodet's "Atala," nor David's Coronation -piece endangered Gros' right to the first place. - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. THE VIRGIN.] - -"Napoleon before the Pyramids," at the moment when he cries, "Soldiers, -from the summit of those monuments forty centuries contemplate your -actions," constitutes, in 1810, the coping-stone of the cycle. Gros -alone at that time understood the epic grandeur of war. He became, also, -the portrait painter of the great men from whom its events proceeded. -His picture of General Masséna, with its meditative, slily tenacious -expression, is the genuine portrait of a warrior; and how well is -heroic, simple daring depicted in the likeness of General Lasalle, -without the commonplace device of a mantle puffed out by the wind! His -portrait of General Fournier Sarlovèse, at Versailles, has a freshness -of colouring, the secret of which no one else possessed in those days -except the two Englishmen, Lawrence and Raeburn. Gros was far in advance -of his age. A painter of movement rather than of psychological analysis, -he brought out character by means of general effect, and gave the -essentials in a masterly way. His portraits, just as much as his -historical pictures, have a stormy exposition. In David all is -calculation; in Gros, fire. Almost alone among his contemporaries, he -had studied Rubens, and like him gave colour the place due to it. At -times there is in his pictures a natural flesh-colour and an animation -which make this warm-hearted man, who has not been sufficiently -appreciated, a genuine forerunner of the moderns. Surrounded as he was -by orthodox Classicists, he cried in a loud voice what Prudhon had -already ventured to say more timidly: "Man is not a statue--not made of -marble, but of flesh and bone." - -[Illustration: PRUDHON. CHRIST CRUCIFIED.] - -But as with Prudhon, so with Gros. This man, of exaggerated nervousness, -was lacking in that capacity for persistence which belongs to a strong -will conscious of its aim; he lacked confidence in himself and in the -initiative he had taken. So long as the great figure of Napoleon kept -his head above water he was an artist; but when his hero was taken from -him he sank. The Empire had made Gros great, its fall killed him. The -incubus of David's antique manner began once more to press upon him, and -when David after his banishment (in 1816) committed to him the -management of his studio in Paris, Gros undertook the office with pious -eagerness, on nothing more anxiously intent than as a teacher once more -to impose the fetters of the antique upon that Art which he had set free -by his own works. "It is not I who am speaking to you," he would say to -the pupils, "but David, David, always David." The latter had blamed him -for having taken the trouble to paint the battles of the Empire, -"worthless occasional pieces," instead of venturing upon those of -Alexander the Great, and thus producing genuine "historical works." -"Posterity requires of you good pictures out of ancient history. Who, -she will cry, was better fitted to paint Themistocles? Quick, my friend! -turn to your Plutarch." To depict contemporary life, which lies open -before our eyes, was, he held, merely the business of minor artists, -unworthy the brush of an "historical painter." And Gros, who reverenced -his master, was so weak as to listen to his advice: he believed in him -rather than in his own genius, in the strength of others rather than his -own. He searched his Plutarch, and painted nothing more without a -previous side-glance towards Brussels; introduced allegory into his -"Battle of the Pyramids"; composed in homage to David a "Death of -Sappho"; and painted the cupola of the Pantheon with stiff frescoes; -while between times, when he looked Nature in the face, he was now and -then producing veritable masterpieces. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - PRUDHON. MADAME COPIA.] - -His "Flight of Louis XVIII" in the Museum at Versailles, shows him once -more at his former height. It is "one of the finest of modern works," as -Delacroix called it in 1848, in an essay contributed to the _Revue des -Deux Mondes_; at once familiar and serious. Napoleon had left Elba, -marched on Paris, and had reached Fontainebleau, when, in the night of -the 19th-20th March 1815, Louis XVIII determined to evacuate the -Tuileries with all speed. Accompanied by a few faithful followers and by -the officers of his personal service, he abandons his palace and takes -leave of the National Guards. There is something pathetic in this -sexagenarian with his erudite Bourbon profile, immortalised in the large -five-franc pieces of his reign, with his protruding stomach and small -thick legs, looking like a dropsical patient going to hospital. His -bearing is most unkingly. Gros has boldly depicted the scene, even to -the pathological appearance of the king, just as he saw it, forgetting -all that he knew of antique art. He had himself seen the staircase, the -murmuring crowd, the lackeys hurrying by, lantern in hand, at their -wits' end, and the fat, gouty king, who in his terror has forgotten all -kingly dignity. - -That was an historical picture, and yet as he painted it he reproached -himself anew for having forsaken the "real art of historical painting." -At the funeral of Girodet in 1824 the members of the Institute talked of -their "irreparable loss," and of the necessity of finding a new leader -for the school who should avert with a strong hand that destruction -which hot-headed young men threatened to bring upon it. "You, Gros," -observed one of them, "should be the man for the place." And Gros -answered, in absolute despair; "Why, I have not only no authority as -leader of a school, but, over and above that, I have to accuse myself of -giving the first bad example of defection from real art." The more he -thought of David, the more he turned his back upon the world of real -life. With his large and wearisome picture of "Hercules causing Diomedes -to be devoured by his own Horses" (1835) he sealed his own fate. -Conventionality had conquered nature. - -[Illustration: GROS. SAUL.] - -The painters overwhelmed him with ridicule, and a shrill shout of -derision rose from all the critics. Already, for some time past, a few -writers had risen to protest against the Classical school. They spoke -with fiery eloquence of the rights of humanity, the benefits of liberty, -the independence of thought, the true principles of the Revolution, and -found numerous readers. They fought against rigid laws in the -intellectual as well as the social sphere; they pointed out that there -were other worlds besides that of antiquity, and that even the latter -was not peopled exclusively by cold statues; they delighted in -describing the great and beautiful scenes of Nature, and opened out once -more a new and broad horizon to art and poetry. The Spring was -awakening; Gros felt that he had outlived himself. Arming himself -against the voices of the new era with the fatal heroism of the deaf, he -became the martyr of Classicism in French art. He was a Classic by -education, a Romantic by temperament; a man who took his greatest pride -in giving the lie as a teacher to the work he had accomplished as an -artist, and this discordance was his ruin. - -On the 25th of June 1835, being sixty-four years of age, he took up his -hat and stick, left his house without a word to any one, and laid -himself face-downwards in a tributary of the Seine near Meudon. It was a -shallow place, scarce three feet deep, which a child could easily have -waded through. It was not till next day, when he had been dead for -twenty-four hours, that he was discovered by two sailors walking home -along the bank. One of them struck his foot against a black silk hat. In -it there was a white cravat marked with the initial G., carefully -folded, and upon it a short note to his wife. On a torn visiting-card -could still be read the name, Baron Gros. A little farther on they saw -the corpse, and as they were afraid to touch a drowned man, they drew -lots with straws to decide which of them should pull him out. "I feel it -within me, it is a misfortune for me to be alone. One begins to be -disgusted with one's self, and then all is over," he had once in his -youth written to his mother with gloomy foreboding. Such was the end of -a master every fibre of whose being was in revolt against Classicism, -and who had so great a love for colour, truth, and life. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - ANTOINE JEAN, BARON GROS.] - -More important events were yet to take place before the signal of -deliverance could be expected. It was the young men who had grown up -amid the desolate associations of the Restoration who were to lead to -victory the new movement of which Prudhon and Gros had been the -forerunners. The dictatorship over art of that Classical school which -had been taken over from the seventeenth century was limited to a single -generation--from the birththroes of the Revolution to the fall of the -Napoleonic Empire. For although many of David's pupils survived until -the middle of the century, yet they were merely academic big-wigs, who, -compared with the young men of genius who were storming their positions, -represent that mediocrity which had indeed attained to external honours, -but had remained stationary, fast bound to antiquated rules. The future -belonged to the young, to a youth which from the standpoint of our own -days seems even younger than youth commonly is, richer, fresher, more -glowing and fiery--the Generation of 1830, the "_vaillants de dix-huit -cent trente_," as Théophile Gautier called them in one of his poems. - -[Illustration: _Photo, Levi._ - - GROS. THE BATTLE OF EYLAU.] - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE GENERATION OF 1830 - - -During the years which elapsed between 1820 and 1848 France produced a -great and admirable school of art. After the convulsions of the -Revolution and the wars of the Empire, that generation had arisen, -daring and eager for action, which de Musset describes in his -_Confessions d'un Enfan du Siècle_. And these young men, born between -the thunders of one battle and another, who had grown up in the midst of -greatness and glory, had to experience, as they ripened into manhood, -the ignominy of Charles X's reign, the period of clerical reaction. They -saw monasteries re-erected, laws of mediæval severity made against -blasphemy and the desecration of churches and saints' days, and the -doctrine of the divine origin of the monarchy proclaimed anew. "And when -young men spoke of glory," says de Musset, "the answer was, 'Become -priests!' And when they spoke of honour, the answer was, 'Become -priests!' And when they spoke of hope, of love, of strength and life, -ever the same answer, 'Become priests!'" The only result of this -pressure was to intensify all the more the impulse towards freedom. The -political and intellectual reaction could only have the effect of -impelling the poetic and artistic emotions of young and unquiet spirits -into opposition, on principle, to all that was established, into a fiery -contempt for public opinion, into the apotheosis of unrestrained passion -and unfettered genius. The French Romanticists were anti-Philistines who -regarded the word "bourgeois" as an insult. For them Art was the one -supreme consideration; it was to them a light and a flame, and its -beauty and daring the only things worth living for. For those who put -forward such demands as these, the "eunuchism of the Classical"--an -expression of George Sand's--could never suffice. They dreamed of an art -of painting which should find its expression in blood, purple, light, -movement, and boldness; they held in sovereign contempt the correct, -pedantic, colourless tendency of their elders. An inner flame should -glow through and liberate the forms, absorb the lines and contours, and -mould the picture into a symphony of colour. What was desired and sought -for, in poetry and in music, in plastic art and in painting, was colour -and passion: colour so energetic, that drawing was, as it were, consumed -by it; passion so vehement, that lyrical poetry and the drama were in -danger of becoming feverish and convulsive. A movement which reminds one -of the Renaissance took possession of all minds. It was as though there -were something intoxicating in the very air that one breathed. On a -political background of grey upon grey, consisting of the cowls of the -Jesuits of the Restoration, there arose a flaming, refulgent, blustering -literature and art, scintillating with sparks and bright hues, full of -the adoration of passion and of fervid colour. Romanticism is -Protestantism in literature and art--such is Vitet's definition of the -movement. - -Literature, which, adapting itself to the politics of the government, -had begun in Chateaubriand with an enthusiastic fervour for Catholicism, -Monarchy, and Mediævalism, had in the twenties become revolutionary; and -the description of its battles is one of the most glowing chapters in -George Brandes' classic work. There was a revolt against the -pseudo-antique, against the stiff handling of the Alexandrine metre, -against the yoke of tradition. Then arose that mighty race of Romantic -poets who proclaimed with Byronic fire the gospel of nature and passion. -De Musset, the famous child of the century, the idol of the young -generation, the poet with the burning heart, who rushed through life -with such eagerness and haste that at the age of forty he broke down -altogether, worn out like a man of seventy, deliberately wrote bad -rhymes in his first poems, for the purpose of thoroughly infuriating the -Classicists. So, too, he wrote his dramas, in which love is glorified as -a serious and terrible power with which one may not trifle, as the fire -with which one must not play, as the electric spark that kills. So -George Sand, the female Titan of Romanticism, published her novels, with -their subversive tendencies and their sparkling animation of narrative. -Between these two rises the keen bronze-like profile of Prosper Mérimée, -who prefers to describe the life of gypsies and robbers, and to depict -the most violent and desperate characters in history. Finally, Victor -Hugo, the great chieftain of the Romantic school, the Paganini of -literature, unrivalled in imposing grandeur, in masterly treatment of -language, and in petty vanity, found submissive multitudes to listen to -him when he rose in fierce and fiery insurrection against the rigid laws -of the bloodless Classical style, and substituted for the actionless and -ill-contrived declamatory tragedies of his time his own romantic dramas, -breathing passion and full of diversified movement. - -The conflict was deadly. The young generation hailed with applause the -new Messiah of letters, and grew intoxicated with the harmony of Hugo's -phrases, which sounded so much fuller and fierier than the measured -speech of Corneille and Racine. The Théâtre Français, recently benumbed -as with the quiet of the grave, became all at once a tumultuous -battlefield. There they sat, when Hugo's _Cromwell_ and _Hernani_ were -produced on the stage, correct, well dressed, gloved, close shaven, with -their neat ties and shirt collars, the representatives of the old -generation, whose blameless conduct had raised them to office and place. -And in contrast to them, in the pit were crowded together the young men, -the "Jeune France," as Théophile Gautier described them, one with his -waving hair like a lion's mane, another with his Rubens hat and Spanish -mantle, another in his vest of bright red satin. Their common uniform -was the red waistcoat introduced by Théophile Gautier--not the red -chosen for their symbol by the men of the Revolution, but the -scarlet-red which represented the hatred felt by these enthusiastic -young men for all that was grey and dull, and their preference for all -that is luminous and magnificently coloured in life. They held that the -contemplation of a beautiful piece of red cloth was an artistic -pleasure. A similar change took place at the same time in ladies' -toilettes. As the Revolution had in ladies' costumes rejected all colour -in favour of the Grecian white, so now dresses once more assumed vivid, -and especially deep red hues; deep red ribbons adorned the hat and -encircled the waist. - -[Illustration: THÉODORE GÉRICAULT.] - -Deep red--that was the colour of the Romantic school; the flourishing of -trumpets and the blare of brass its note. Flashes of passion and -ferocity, rivers of sulphur, showers of fire, glowing deserts, decaying -corpses in horrible phosphorescence, seas at night-time in which ships -are sinking, landscapes over which roaring War shakes his brand, and -where maddened nations fall furiously upon one another--such are the -subjects, resonant with shout of battle and song of victory, which held -sway over French Romanticism. At the very time when at Düsseldorf the -young artists of Germany were painting with the milk of pious feeling -their lachrymose, susceptible, sentimental pictures, utterly tame and -respectable; when the Nazarene school were holding their post-mortem on -the livid corpse of old Italian art, and seeking to galvanise it, and -with it the Christian piety of the Middle Ages, into life again; at that -very time there arose in France a young generation boiling over with -fervour, who had for their rallying cry Nature and Truth, but demanded -at the same time, and before all else, contrast, pictorial antithesis, -and passion at once lofty and of tiger-like ferocity. In those very -years, when in Germany, the cartoon style of Carstens having died away, -progress was limited to a timid and unsuccessful pursuit of that revelry -of colour which marked the Quattrocentisti, the French took at once, as -with the seven-leagued boots of the fairy-tale, the great stride onward -towards the Flemings. - -Through Napoleon, France had grown richer, not only in glory, but in art -treasures, gathered together from all countries into Paris, as trophies -of the victorious general. The abundant collections thus accumulated -brought to bear upon that generation the quickening influence of the -best that had been done in the art of painting. Nowhere could one study -either the Venetian colourists or Rubens to greater advantage than in -the Louvre, and it was by virtue of this unrestrained intercourse with -the masters who represent the most perfect blossom of colouring that the -Byronic spirits of 1830 succeeded in giving full expression to the -glowing full-coloured life of things which hovered before their heated -imagination. It is unnecessary to say that this was accompanied by a -great widening of the range of subjects treated. The Romantic school -showed that there were other heroes in history and poetry besides the -Greeks and Romans. They painted everything, if only it possessed colour -and character, flame, passion, and exotic perfume. Romanticism was the -protest of painting against the plastic in art, the protest of liberty -against the academic teaching of the Classical school, the revolution of -movement against stiffness. - -[Illustration: GÉRICAULT. THE WOUNDED CUIRASSIER.] - -It was in the studio of Guérin, the tame and timid Classicist, that the -young assailants grew up, "the daubers of 1830," who called the Apollo -Belvidere a shabby yellow turnip, and who spoke of Racine and Raphael as -of street arabs. They were tired of copying profiles of Antinous. The -contemplation of a picture by Girodet was wearisome to them. It was -_Théodore Géricault_, a hot, hasty passionate nature, of Beethoven-like -unruliness and of heaven-storming boldness, who spoke the word of -deliverance. - -He was a Norman, sturdily built and serious in manner. Even while he was -studying in Guérin's studio he had already grasped some of the ideas -which Gros had in his mind, and, although not his pupil, Géricault may -be said to have continued his work, or at least would have been able to -do so had he lived longer. Like him, he had from his youth up -contemplated, full of wonder, the rolling sea and the thunder-laden -skies; like him, he had a predilection for fine horses; and, being of a -somewhat melancholy disposition, he preferred to treat of the darker -aspects of life. His aspiration was to paint the surging sea, proud -steeds rushing past at a gallop, suffering and striving humanity, great -deeds, pathos and frenzy in every form. His first works were splendid -horsemen, whose every muscle twitches with nervous movement. During his -short stay in Charles Vernet's studio he had already taken an interest -in cavalry, and begun the studies of such subjects, which he continued -to the day of his death. Afterwards, while he was working under Guérin -and before his visit to Italy in 1817, he often went to the Louvre, -copied pictures and studied Rubens, to the great annoyance of his -teacher, who with horror beheld him entering upon so perilous a path. - -[Illustration: GÉRICAULT. CHASSEUR.] - -Here again he followed in the steps of Gros, whose portrait of General -Fournier Sarlovése was hung in the Salon of 1812 close by Géricault's -"Mounted Officer." This picture, a portrait of M. Dieudonné, an officer -in the Chasseurs d'Afrique, crossing the battlefield sword in hand on a -rearing horse, was the first work exhibited by Géricault, then -twenty-one years of age. It was an event. Gros found himself supported, -if not surpassed, by a beginner who had his own enthusiasm for colour -and movement, for profiles broadly and boldly delineated. In 1814 -followed the "Wounded Cuirassier," staggering across the field of battle -and dragging his horse behind him. These were no longer warriors seated -on classical steeds foaming with rage, but real soldiers in whom there -was nothing of the Greek statue. Then Géricault went to Italy, but in -this case also it was not to pursue archæological studies in the -museums, but to see the race of the _barberi_ during carnival. To this -time belong those studies of horses, for the possession of which -collectors vie with one another to-day, sketches made in the open air, -out in the street or in the stables. "The Horses at the Manger" and -"Horses fighting" were among the pearls of the collection of French -drawings in the Paris Exhibition of 1889. - -In 1819 he completed his greatest picture, that which most people alone -call to mind--not quite fairly--when his name is mentioned--"The Raft of -the Medusa." What a tragedy is there represented! For twelve days the -unfortunate wretches have been on the deep, starving, in utter despair -and ready to lift their hands against each other. They were a hundred -and fifty, now they are but fifteen. One old man holds upon his knees -the corpse of his son; another tears his hair out, left alone in life -after seeing all his dear ones perish. In the foreground lie dead bodies -which the waves have not yet swept away. But far away in the distance a -sail appears. One points it out to another: yes, it is a sail! A mariner -and a negro mount upon an empty barrel and wave their handkerchiefs in -the air. Will they be seen? The anxiety is terrible. And ever higher and -higher the grey waves roll on. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - GÉRICAULT. THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA.] - -[Illustration: GÉRICAULT. THE START.] - -How must such a scene have impressed a generation which for long years -had seen nothing in the Salon but dry mythology and painted statues! -Géricault was the first to free himself from the tyranny of the -plaster-of-Paris bust, and once again to put passion and truth to nature -in the place of cold marble. Just as he commissioned the ship's -carpenter who had constructed the raft and was one of the saved to make -him a model of it, so also he moved into a studio close to the hospital, -for the purpose of studying the sick and dying, of sketching dead bodies -and single limbs. It must be admitted that one would wish for a yet -firmer grasp of the subject. In form, Géricault still belongs to the -school of David. A good deal of Classicism shows itself in the fact that -he thought it necessary to depict the majority of the figures naked, in -order to avoid "unpictorial" costumes. There is still something academic -in the figures, which do not seem to be sufficiently weakened by -privation, disease, and the struggle with death; but what man can free -himself at one stroke from the influence of his time and environment? -Even in the colouring there lingers some touch of the Classical school. -It offends no one, a fact to be insisted on in comparing him with the -Nazarenes; but as yet it plays no part in expressing the meaning of the -picture. From the distance, indeed, whence the rescuing ship is drawing -near, a bright light shines forth upon a scene otherwise depicted in -dull brown. Save for this, the intention of the picture is not expressed -by means of colour, and it even shows some retrogression as compared -with Géricault's earlier works. He had begun with Rubens, yet these -studies in colouring did not last. In the "Wounded Cuirassier" of 1814 -dark tones took the place of the former cheerfulness, and so in the -"Raft of the Medusa" he imagined the tragedy could be represented only -in sombre hues. He spread over the whole scene a monotonous unpleasant -brown shade, and in his endeavour to lay all weight upon human emotion -he went so far as almost to suppress the sea, which nevertheless played -the chief part in the drama, and whose deep blue would have afforded a -splendid contrast. Discoveries are not to be made all at once, but only -when their hour is come. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - EUGÈNE DELACROIX.] - -The next step in French art was to be that of reinstating the -significance of colour in the full rights conquered for it by Titian, so -that it should no longer be merely a tasteful tinting of the figures, -but should become truly that which gives its temper to the picture. It -was not reserved for Géricault to effect this. A trip to London, which -he made in 1820, in company with his friend Charlet, was the last event -of his life. There the sportsman awoke in him once more, and he painted -the "Race for the Derby at Epsom." Soon after his return he was thrown -from his horse while riding, but lingered on for two years longer, -suffering from a spinal complaint. With a few more years in which to -develop he should have been one of the great masters of France, but he -died when scarcely in his thirty-second year. - -Yet he lived long enough to observe, in the Salon of 1822, the début of -one of his comrades from Guérin's studio. A greater than himself, to -whom with dying voice he had given a few words of advice, arose as the -intellectual heir of the young painter so prematurely carried off, and -carried to its issue the struggle which he had begun. It was on 26th -April 1799, at midday, that the first genuine painter's eye of the -century saw the light, at Charenton Saint-Maurice. Géricault had made a -beginning, but it was the impetuous, powerful genius of _Eugène -Delacroix_ which entered in and completed his work. What Gros had dimly -perceived, but had not dared to express, what Géricault had barely had -time with a courageous hand to point out, a hand too soon stiffened in -death--the modern poetry of colour, of fever, and of quivering -emotion--it was reserved for Delacroix to write. - -"That child will grow up to be a famous man; his life will be extremely -laborious, but also extremely agitated, and always exposed to -opposition." Thus had a madman prophesied of the boy one day when he and -his nurse were taking a walk near the lunatic asylum at Charenton. And -he was right. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - DELACROIX. DANTE'S BARK.] - -Delacroix was another of the pupils who had grown up in Guérin's studio, -but he became the latter's antipode. Even in his student years he took -counsel, not of the antique, but of Rubens and Veronese; and when -Géricault was painting his "Raft of the Medusa," Delacroix belonged to -the little band of enthusiastic admirers which gathered round the young -master. He served as model for the half-submerged man to the left in the -foreground of that picture. After busying himself at first almost -entirely with caricatures, and studies of horses, and with Madonnas in -the Classical style, he exhibited in 1822 his "Dante's Bark," in a -pictorial sense the first characteristic picture of the century. One is -inclined even to-day to repeat David's exclamation when he caught sight -of the work, the first great epoch-making life-utterance of the -revolutionary Romanticists: "_D'où vient-il? Je ne connais pas cette -touche-la._" There were thoughts in it which had not been conceived and -expressed in the same manner since the time of Tintoretto. Dante and -Virgil, ferried by Phlegyas over Acheron, are passing among the souls of -the damned, who grasp hold of the boat with the energy of despair. A -theme taken from a mediæval author; an antique figure, that of Virgil, -but seen through the prism of modern poetry. While the Florentine, stiff -with horror, gazes upon the swimming figures which cling to the boat -with teeth and nails, Virgil, tranquil and serious, turns on them a face -which the emotions of life can no longer affect. - -The work obtained a decisive success. A carpenter in Delacroix's house -had made for the young painter an inartistic frame of four boards. When -he went to the exhibition and looked for his picture in the side-rooms -he could not find it. The frame had fallen to pieces during removal, but -the picture had been hung in an honourable place in the Louvre, in a -rich frame ordered for it by Baron Gros. "You must learn drawing, my -young friend, and then you will become a second Rubens," was the salute -which this remarkable man, whose theory ever gave the lie to his -practice, gave the young master. Naturally Delacroix would not now have -been admitted into the school of David, or would have been placed there -in the lowest rank--with Rubens and a few other immortals, who drew no -better than he did. He was absolutely opposed to all the exact, regular, -well-balanced, colourless traditions which held sway in David's school -with their pedantic erudition and _bourgeois_ discretion. The principle -of the Classicists was the Greek type of beauty, and the translation of -sculpture into painting. In Delacroix's picture there was no longer -anything of that sort. Géricault had already broken away from the -academic stencilling of form, and had substituted natural expression, -life, and emotion for conventional types; Delacroix now set aside the -sullen colouring of the Classical school, and its painted statues made -way for the colour-symphonies of the Venetians. - -These reforming qualities found in his second work, a few years later, a -much fuller expression than in the "Dante's Bark." At that time the -Greeks, that heroic nation, struggling and dying for its religion and -independence, had excited everywhere the deepest sympathy and -enthusiasm. Delacroix was the very man to be inspired by such a theme. -From the agitation caused by the martyrdom of Greece, and from his -taste for Byron's poetry, resulted in 1824 the celebrated "Massacre of -Chios," on which he was already employed in 1821, before the completion -of his "Dante's Bark," and in which his power of expression as well as -of colour was carried much further than in the earlier picture. In the -"Dante's Bark" there were still, both in form and colour, reminiscences -of the great Florentine masters; as, for instance, in the female figure -in the foreground, which is almost an exact reproduction of Michael -Angelo's "Night." The event depicted was comparatively quiet and -tranquil, and the well-balanced composition would have done honour to -the most rigorous follower of David. The only novelty lay in the -treatment of colour, and in the substitution of the individual and -characteristic for the typical and ideal. But undoubtedly it was now -possible not only to produce in colour more powerful chords, but also in -expression to strike notes more dramatic, for the academic -plaster-of-Paris heads of the David school had depicted human emotion -only in icy immobility. Delacroix had put all these possibilities into -the new picture. The pyramidal configuration has resolved itself into an -unconstrained grouping of figures. Here we have for the first time the -artistic spirit intoxicated with colour, the "Orlando Furioso of -colourists," the pupil of Rubens, Delacroix. An entire world of deep -feeling and of painfully passionate poetry, an entire world of tones, -which the master under whose eyes he painted his "Dante" could not have -conceived, lies enclosed within the frame of this picture. The figures, -sitting, kneeling, partly reclining, with their half-starved bodies and -their gloomy, brooding, hopeless faces; the desperate struggle between -the conquerors and their victims in the far distance; the contrast -between this scene of horror and the luminous splendour of the -atmosphere, and the wealth of colour in the whole, made and still make -this fine painting one of the most impressive pictures in the Louvre. It -is a work which flames in glow of colour more than any that had appeared -in France since the days of Rubens. The English had been his teachers. -"It is here only that colour and effect are understood and felt," -Géricault had previously written from London. Delacroix's work had -already been sent off to the Salon when Constable's first pictures were -just arriving there, and the impression which they made upon him was so -powerful that, at the very last moment, and in the Louvre itself, he -gave his picture a brighter and more luminous colouring. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - DELACROIX. HAMLET AND THE GRAVE-DIGGERS.] - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - DELACROIX. TASSO IN THE MAD-HOUSE.] - -And indeed it was not till now that the Classicists perceived how great -an opponent had arisen against them. Not only did the aged Gros call the -"Massacre of Chios" "_le massacre de la peinture_," but all the critics -talked about barbarism, and prophesied that on this path French painting -would hasten to its destruction. The prize of the Salon was awarded, not -to the "Massacre," but to Sigalon's "Locusta," an unimportant work of -compromise, though very clever and well studied in draughtsmanship. It -was said that Delacroix's picture was lacking in symmetrical -arrangement, that he showed too great a contempt for the beautiful, that -indeed he appeared systematically to prefer the ugly--that is to say, he -was blamed for the very qualities wherein lay his importance as a -reformer. Accustomed as they had been for many years to an art in which -intellect, correctness, and moderation held sway, not one of the critics -was in a position to perceive all at once the value of this fiery -spirit. Delécluze, the indefatigable defender of the sacred dogmas of -the Classical school, characterised "dramatic expression and composition -marked by action" as the reef whereon the grand style of painting must -inevitably be wrecked. The modern schools of art, he taught as late as -1824, exist, flourish, and have their being only by the utilisation of -what we can learn from the Greeks. Even acknowledging the progress in -colour which the work showed, it nevertheless belonged, he said, to an -inferior genus, and all its excellences in colouring could not outweigh -the ugliness of its form. - -Therewith began the battles of the Romantic school, and all the daring -of Théophile Gautier, Thiers, Victor Hugo, Sainte-Beuve, Baudelaire, -Bürger-Thoré, Gustave Planche, Paul Mantz, and others had to be called -upon in order to storm the heights held by the batteries of the -Classical critics. Count Forbin gave proof of no less courage when he -bought the picture, torn to shreds as it was by hostile criticism, for -the State, at the price of six thousand francs. This enabled Delacroix -to visit England. He spent the time from spring to autumn of 1825 in -London, where he consorted amicably with all the artists of the day. And -he took an interest not only in English art, but also in literature and -the drama. His preference for Shakespeare, Byron, and Walter Scott, who -were already his favourite poets, found new sustenance. An English opera -made him acquainted with Goethe's _Faust_; and henceforth these poets -entered into the foreground of his works. A picture of "Tasso" (the poet -in a cell of the madhouse, through the window of which two grinning -lunatics look in upon him) in 1826, the "Execution of the Doge Marino -Faliero" and the "Death of Sardanapalus," both after Byron, in 1827, and -"Faust in his Study" in 1828, followed the "Massacre"--all of them -obviously the works of a painter who loved bright, glowing colour, had -studied Rubens and had recently returned from England. In 1828 was -published, in seventeen plates, his cycle of illustrations to _Faust_, -to accompany a translation of the poem into French; and this was -followed by a number of lithographs on Shakespearian subjects. - -And here we may notice a singular exchange of parts. When the word -"Romantic" was first heard in Germany it had originally much the same -sense as "Roman." The German Romanticists were moved to enthusiasm by -Roman Catholicism and Roman church painting. But when Romanticism -reached France, the word came to mean exactly the opposite: a preference -for the German and English spirit as compared with the Greek and Latin, -and an enthusiasm for the great Anglo-Saxon and German poets, -Shakespeare and Goethe, in whom, contrasting with Racine's correctness, -were to be found unrestrained genius and glowing passion. This influence -of poetry over art may easily become dangerous, if painters sponge, so -to speak, upon the poet, as the Düsseldorf school did, and make use of -his work only for the purpose of enabling works, in themselves -valueless, to keep their heads, artistically speaking, above water, by -means of their extrinsic poetical interest. But Delacroix had no need of -any such support. He was not the poets' pupil, but their brother. He did -not study them in order to illustrate their works, but was imbued with -their spirit and possessed by their souls. He lived with them; he did -not borrow his subjects from them, but rather made use of them to -express in his own powerful language the strongest emotions of the human -heart. Nor did he ever forget that painting must, before all, be -painting. Endowed as he was with a poet's soul, he conceived things as a -painter, not laboriously translating passages from the poets, but simply -thinking in colour. What the musician hears, what the poet imagines, he -saw. The scenes of which he read appeared at once before his eyes as -sketches, in great masses of colour. For him, composition, action, and -colour ever united together into one inseparable whole. - -[Illustration: DELACROIX. ENTRY OF THE CRUSADERS INTO CONSTANTINOPLE.] - -The journey to Morocco, which he made in the spring of 1832, in company -with an embassy sent by Louis Philippe to the Emperor Muley Abderrahman, -is noteworthy for a further progress in his ability as a colourist and a -new broadening of his range of subjects. When he returned to the port -of Toulon, on 5th July 1832, he had seen Algiers and Spain, and had -assimilated an abundance of sunshine and colour. It is in his Oriental -pictures that his painting first reaches its zenith, just as Victor -Hugo's mastery over language was at its highest point in his -_Orientales_. Goethe, in his _West-östliches Divan_, celebrated what is -quiet and contemplative in the Oriental view of life. Obermann sang of -the land of legend, of buried treasures, of Aladdin and the wonderful -lamp; but for Byron (who was practically the first to introduce into -Europe the perfume and colour of the East), for Hugo, and for Delacroix, -it was the distant, bright-hued, barbaric land of the rising sun, the -land of sanguinary warfare and overthrow, the home of light and colour. -Here it was that the French Romanticists found the world that realised -their dreams of colour. The East became for them what Rome had been for -the Classical school. From the feeble and misty sun of Paris, and from -the grey skies of the Boulevard des Italiens, they turned to Africa. - -His enthusiasm for this newly discovered world resounds, full and clear, -in Delacroix's letters. "Were I to leave the land in which I have found -them," he wrote, during his stay in Morocco, of the men whom he saw -about him there, "they would seem to me like trees torn up by the roots. -I should forget the impressions I have received, and should be able only -in an incomplete and frigid manner to reproduce the sublime and -fascinating life which fills the streets here, and attracts one by the -beauty of its appearance. Think, my friend, what it means to a painter -to see lying in the sunshine, wandering about the streets and offering -shoes for sale, men who have the appearance of ancient consuls, of the -reincarnated spirits of Cato and Brutus, who lack not even that proud, -discontented look which those lords of the world must have had. They -possess nothing save a blanket in which they walk, sleep, and are -buried, and yet they look as dignified as Cicero in his curule chair. -What truth, what nobility in these figures! There is nothing more -beautiful in the antique. And all in white, as with Roman senators or at -the Greek Panathenæa." - -His palette was thus further enriched in lucid tints, the contrasts he -formerly delighted in became less sharp and glaring, the gloomy -background hitherto preferred was superseded by a bright serenity and a -golden lustre. The colour-effect of his "Algerian Women" has been not -unaptly compared to the impression produced by a glance into an open -jewel casket. In his "Convulsionaries of Tangier" he has depicted with -wild, demoniac energy the religious frenzy of a Turkish sect. Green, -blue, red, and violet hues unite to produce an effect as of a sounding -flourish of trumpets, recalling the music of the janizaries. The "Entry -of the Crusaders into Constantinople" resembles an old delicately tinted -carpet, full of powerful, tranquil harmony. Even in his old age he -wrote: "The aspect of that country will be for ever before my eyes; the -types of that vigorous race will move in my memory as long as I live; in -them I truly found the antique beauty again." - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - DELACROIX. JESUS ON LAKE GENNESARET.] - -The contemplation of such scenes induced Delacroix to undertake the -representation of antique subjects, which he had hitherto avoided, not -because he disliked the antique, but because of the aversion he felt for -David's treatment of it. During his sojourn in Africa he had come to the -conclusion that the painting of scenes from ancient history should not -be based upon the imitation of statues and bas-reliefs, as with David -and his pupils; but that it should be imbued with the movement and -passion of modern life, since the ancient Greeks were men of flesh and -blood like ourselves. Therefore it is that he snatches the marble mask -from the faces of David's puppets. Flemish blood begins to move in the -Greek statues, Flemish passion to break through their inflexible rhythm. -Paintings such as the "Justice of Trajan" of 1840 represent the antique -in a thoroughly personal and modern paraphrase, just as Shakespeare or -Byron had seen it. The mad "Medea" is, from the point of view of colour, -certainly the chief work of this group. - -It was of course impossible that a man so highly endowed with emotional -pathos should pass untouched the tragedy of the life of Christ and the -sufferings of the Christian martyrs. By the Revolution religious themes -had been absolutely excluded from representation, and up to this time -the young innovators of the Restoration period had also felt an -aversion for them. Their ideas were as little attuned to Catholic as to -academic tradition. Delacroix was the first to treat once more of -biblical subjects, so far as they are imbued with dramatic and -passionate movement. Like Rubens, he regarded the lives of the saints, -the story of the Gospels, and the tragedy on Golgotha as a poetical -narrative like any other. His Mary, like that of the Flemish painters, -is a sorrowing woman, the embodiment of unending grief. - -Alongside of these easel pictures he produced, during a period of more -than twenty-five years, a long list of monumental and decorative works; -and they too were the most inventive, the boldest, and the most original -which monumental painting produced during this epoch, not in France -only, but in Europe. In this sphere also, where, under the pressure of -old traditions and conventional types, it is so difficult to avoid -plagiarism, Delacroix maintained his individuality. In 1835, at the -suggestion of his friend Thiers, he was commissioned to paint the -interior of the Chamber of Deputies in the Palais Bourbon--the most -important commission which had fallen to the lot of any French artist -since Gros painted the cupola of the Pantheon. Not long afterwards he -decorated with verve and enthusiasm the ceiling of the Louvre, choosing -for his subject the "Triumph of Apollo." In the Library of the -Luxembourg he had recourse to the _Divina Commedia_, and treated in a -masterly manner the theme so familiar and sympathetic to him. In his -works there is something of the joyous and sportive energy of Rubens' -allegorical pictures, but not the least trace of imitation. He -understood decorative painting in the sense of the great old masters, -Giulio Romano and Veronese, not as wall didactics and lectures on -archæology; he knew that descriptive prose has nothing whatever to do -with the walls of a building, but that the sole aim of such paintings is -to fill the house with their solemn grandeur, to make the whole building -resound as it were with sacred organ music. Between 1853 and 1861 came -also the wall paintings in the Church of Saint Sulpice, and one would -almost think that Delacroix finished them in feverish excitement, to -show for the last time how enormous a store of passion and power still -lay in the soul of a sexagenarian. Shortly after their completion, on -13th August 1863, he died, who was, in the words of Silvestre, "the -painter of the genuine race, who had the sun in his head and a -thunderstorm in his heart, who in the course of forty years sounded the -entire gamut of human emotion, and whose grandiose and awe-inspiring -brush passed from saints to warriors, from warriors to lovers, from -lovers to tigers, from tigers to flowers." - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - DELACROIX. HORSES FIGHTING IN A STABLE.] - -In these words Delacroix is very aptly characterised. His range of -subjects included everything: decorative, historical, and religious -painting, landscape, flowers, animals, sea pieces, classical antiquity -and the Middle Ages, the scorching heat of the south and the mists of -the north. He left no branch of the art of painting untouched; nothing -escaped his lion's claws. But there is one bond uniting all: to all the -figures for which he won the citizenship of art he gave passion and -movement. His predominant quality is a passion for the terrible, a kind -of insatiability for wild and violent action. His over-excited -imagination heaps pain, horror, and pathos one upon another. The critics -called him "the tattooed savage who paints with a drunken broom." There -is nothing pretty or lovable about his art; it is a wild art. He -depicted passion wherever he found it, in the shape of wild animals, -stormy seas, or battling warriors; and he sought it in every sphere, in -nature no less than in poetry and the Bible. Hardly any painter--not -even Rubens--has depicted with equal power the passions and movements of -animals: lions in which he is own brother to Barye; fighting horses, in -which he stands side by side with Géricault. No other artist painted -waves more grand, wind-beaten, foaming, dashing, towering on high. -Looking at them, one divines all the horrors concealed beneath the roar -of the blue surface, horrors which were as yet so insufficiently -suggested in Géricault's "Raft of the Medusa." In his historical -pictures there reigns now terror and despair, as in the "Massacre of -Chios"; now gloomy horror, as in the "Medea"; now feverish movement, as -in the "Death of the Bishop of Liège." He passes from Dante to -Shakespeare, from Goethe to Byron, but only to borrow from them their -most moving dramatic situations--Hamlet at Yorick's grave, his fight -with Laertes, Macbeth and the Witches, Lady Macbeth, Gretchen, -Angelica, the Prisoner of Chillon, the Giaour, and the Pasha. All time -is his domain, all countries are open to him; he hurries through the -broad fields of imagination, a lordly reaper of all harvests. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - DELACROIX. MEDEA.] - -And at the same time, in all his great human tragedies, he compels the -elements to obey him as if they were his slaves. The passions of men set -heaven and earth in motion. The agonising cries of victims find in his -paintings an echo in the sullen shadows and the leaden, heavy clouds of -the sky. The gloomy shores which Dante's boat is approaching are as -desolate as the spirits who wander through the night. But where -splendour and glory reign, as in the "Entry of the Crusaders into -Constantinople," the air, too, glistens and shines as though saturated -with dust of gold. In his pictures a human soul which was great and full -of meaning, and which possessed such combustibility that it took fire of -itself, expressed itself recklessly, with the volcanic strength of an -elemental power. - -This proud self-reliance explains also how it was that this painter of -unruly genius was, as a man, very far from being a revolutionist. For -Delacroix the outer world had no existence; that world alone existed -which was within him. After his picture of "The Barricades" in 1831 he -avoided all political allusions, painted, read, and led a tranquil, -measured, uniform life. In society polite and reserved, of aristocratic -coldness, gentlemanly in appearance, and well-bred; in his speech curt, -mordant, emphatic, and occasionally witty, he could nevertheless show -himself, when he chose, an amiable, original talker, full of piquant -ideas. Moreover, he was a great writer and critic, whose essays in the -_Revue des Deux Mondes_ have the perfect classic stamp. Nevertheless, he -was always displeased when any one put him forward as the chief of -official Romanticism, and saluted him as the Victor Hugo of painting. -Surrounded as he was by young assailants of tradition who would allow no -merit to anything old, he found pleasure in acknowledging his admiration -for Racine, whom he knew by heart, and whom, when need was, he defended -against the younger generation. He was too diplomatic to stir up against -himself unnecessarily the hatred of those whom the long-haired Samsons -of Romanticism called Philistines. - -So far as in him lay, his quiet and methodical life should suffer no -interruption. Worshipper though he was of light and colour, he was -almost always shut up in his gloomy studio, and it was only when he -found himself brush in hand that the reserved man became the passionate, -vibrating painter. Then the memories with which his study of the poets -had stored his mind grew in his fantasy into grand pictures glowing with -life. By these visions he was excited, set on fire, and filled with -enthusiasm. His studio was open but to few, for the intrusion of -visitors chilled his inspiration, and he found it difficult to recover -the proper frame of mind. Not till evening did he take his first meal, -for he thought he could work with greater intensity when hungry. During -a period of forty years he lived in his various studios, quiet and -solitary, inventing, drawing, and painting without intermission, his -door always bolted, so that when it suited him he could give out that he -was ill of a fever. Every morning before work he drew an arm, a hand, or -a piece of drapery after Rubens. He had formed the habit of taking -Rubens to himself when other people were drinking their coffee. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - DELACROIX. THE EXPULSION OF HELIODORUS.] - -Indeed, when one speaks of Delacroix, the name of Rubens rises almost -involuntarily to one's lips; and yet there is a profound difference -between him and the great Flemish master. Rubens has the same passion, -the same ever-active fancy; yet all his pictures rest in triumphant -repose, while every one of Delacroix's seems to resound as with a cry of -battle. Looking at Rubens' works you feel that he was a happy, healthy -man; but by the time you have seen half a score of Delacroix's it is -borne in upon you that the life of the artist was one of strife and -suffering. Rubens was the very essence of strength, Delacroix was a sick -man; the former full of fleshly joyous sensuality, the latter consumed -by a feverish internal fire. - -His portrait of himself in the Louvre, with its pale forehead, its large -dark-rimmed eyes, its lean, hollow face, its parchment-like skin -stretched tightly over the bones, explains his pictures better than any -critical appreciation. Delacroix was one of the _âmes maladives_, the -spirits sick unto death, to whom Baudelaire addresses himself in his -_Fleurs du Mal_. Delicate from his youth up, thoroughly nervous by -nature, he prolonged his sickly existence throughout his life by sheer -energy of will. Even in his childhood he passed through serious -illnesses, and later on he suffered in turn from his stomach, throat, -chest, and kidneys. Like Goethe in his old age, he felt well only when -the temperature was high. He was short in stature. A leonine head, with -a lion's mane, surmounted a body that seemed almost stunted. With his -eyes flashing like carbuncles, and his disordered prickly moustache, his -was the fascinating ugliness of genius. - -It was only by the strictest dieting in his quiet retreat at Champrosay -that he prolonged his life for the last few years. In his youth he -hovered like a butterfly from flower to flower; when grown old and -hypochondriacal he withdrew into solitary retirement, work was the only -medicine for diseased conditions of all kinds, to which he found himself -daily more and more a victim. Only thus could this sickly man, doomed -from his very birth, come to produce no less than two thousand -pictures--a number all the more astonishing as Delacroix, even when his -health permitted him to work at his easel, by no means possessed Rubens' -sovereign facility of production. The fever of work alternated, in his -case, with the extremest exhaustion. There was something morbid, -nervous, over-excited in all he did. "Even work," he writes, "is merely -a temporary narcotic, a distraction; and every distraction, as Pascal -has said in other words, is only a method which man has invented to -conceal from himself the abyss of his suffering and misery. In sleepless -nights, in illness, and in certain moments of solitude, when the end of -all things discloses itself in its utter nakedness, a man endowed with -imagination must possess a certain amount of courage, not to meet the -phantom half-way, not to rush to embrace the skeleton." - -The feverish disposition which he brought with him into the world was -heightened by the acrimonious feuds in which, as a painter, he was -forced to engage, and which left great bitterness behind them in his -mind. His life and his art were in accord, in as much as both were -battles. It is not easy to live when one is always ill; not easy to meet -with recognition when one proclaims the exact opposite of that which for -a generation past all the world has held to be true. And Delacroix took -not a single step to meet his opponents half-way. He did not trouble -himself for a single moment to please the public; and therefore the -public did not come to him. Controversies such as that which took place -over the "Massacre of Chios" continued decade after decade, and the -exhibition of each of his pictures was the signal for a battle. "No work -of his," writes Thoré, "but called forth deafening howls, curses, and -furious controversy. Insults were heaped upon the artist, coarser and -more opprobrious than one would be justified in applying to a sharper." -At Charenton, where he was born, is the Bedlam of France. Hence the -epithet continually hurled at him by the critics, who called him the -runaway from Charenton. - -Until the year 1847 his pictures could without difficulty be excluded -from the Salon. He irritated people by his violence, by the abruptness -of his compositions, by his arrangement of figures with a view to pathos -at the expense of plastic elegance; he displeased by the incompleteness -of his works, which were regarded as sketches, not finished paintings. -When Louis Philippe ordered a picture from his brush, it was on the -express condition that it should be as little a Delacroix as possible. -There was general ill-humour among the academicians when, at Thiers' -suggestion, he was commissioned to decorate the Palais Bourbon. And -Delacroix, ambitious and sensitive as he was, was deeply hurt by every -mortification of this kind, and affected by every gust of criticism as -by a change of wind. Continually denounced in the newspapers, attacked, -wounded, delivered over to the wild beasts, as he called it, he never -had a moment of rest--he who, with his irritable temperament and fragile -health, needed rest more than any man. It was not until almost all his -works were brought together in the Universal Exhibition of 1885 that it -became evident how great an artist this Delacroix was, whom his country -for forty years had not understood, and to whom the Institute had closed -its doors to the last. Yet he was no sooner dead than all with one voice -proclaimed him a genius; his smallest drawing is to-day worth its weight -in gold, while during his lifetime he seldom got more than two thousand -francs for his largest paintings. His sketches, great works in small -frames, have for the most part found their way to America. The sale of -the pictures he left behind him produced three hundred and sixty -thousand francs. - -Delacroix, therefore, was victorious, but not as Rubens was; and his -ceiling of the Louvre, with the "Triumph of Apollo," one of his most -remarkable works, strikes one almost as an allegory of his own life. -What especially attracted and inspired the artist in this painting were -the spasms and convulsions of the misshapen monsters which the god -expels from the earth--the serpent twisting itself in movements of pain -and fury, raising its head on high, hissing rage, and vomiting venom and -blood. The god himself, who in the midst of a sea of light ascends into -heaven in a golden chariot drawn by radiant steeds, shows in his sturdy -limbs and attitude ready for defence, and in his wrathful face, no trace -of the proud majesty and joyous splendour which Greece connected with -the name of Apollo. He is a mortal who has fought and conquered, not a -god who triumphs in tranquil power. He is Delacroix, not Rubens; a -Titan, not an Olympian god. - -The artistic power in Delacroix could in no wise submit to the -confinement imposed by the French spirit of his time. It was not -possible for a single man, though endowed with the most splendid -courage, to overthrow in a moment all the traditions of French art. Any -one who knows the French must feel that David's Latin style could not so -suddenly disappear out of their art, that it was not possible at a blow -to banish all that had hitherto held sway and to replace it by its -opposite. Ever since Poussin they had sought in Roman antiquity the -formulæ of their art. The predilection which the Parisians have even -to-day for the representation of Racine's and Corneille's tragedies, the -admiration which even the most extreme Naturalists bestow upon Poussin -and Lesueur, prove abundantly how deep Classicism is rooted in the flesh -and blood of the French people. Brandes has remarked, very acutely, -that, strictly speaking, even Romanticism was on French soil in many -respects a Classical phenomenon, a product of French Classical rhetoric. -"They never saw the dances of the elves, never heard the delicate -harmony of their roundelays." In Victor Hugo, the great opponent of -Corneille, Corneille himself was re-embodied. He too is a draughtsman, -constructs his poems like architectural works, chisels the form, -polishes the verse, and confines his colouring within powerfully -conceived Michelangelesque outlines. - -[Illustration: J. A. D. INGRES. _L'Art._] - -Once the first eager impulse of the Romantic school had subsided, these -old Classical tendencies showed themselves anew and with all the greater -vehemence. Even Hugo's dramas, with their predilection for all that is -exuberant and monstrous, with their overflowing lyricism and sonorous -pathos, became in the long run wearisome. He, who had hitherto been the -idol of the young generation, was now called the Pater Bombasticus of -the literature of the world. - -Classicism found its poet and its muse. An unknown but very worthy young -man, not endowed with wealth of imagination, but imbued with the most -honourable intentions, came to Paris from the provincial town where he -had grown to manhood, with a manuscript in his pocket. And François -Ronsard's _Lucrèce_, a tragedy from the antique, in its style sober and -severe, reminding one of Racine, was represented amid thunders of -applause, shortly after Hugo had been hissed off the stage. Enthusiastic -admirers saw in it a glorious return to the great tragic drama of -France, an emanation from the spirit of Corneille, and praised its -clear, measured, and at once "classic and familiar" language. Together -with its poet, the Classical reaction found its actress. In 1838 a young -untrained child made her début at the Théâtre Français--a Jewish girl -who had sung in the streets to the accompaniment of her harp. Rachel -appeared upon the boards, and restored its former power of attraction to -the old Classical repertoire, to the very tragedies which the Romantic -school had banished from the theatre amid mockery and derision. _The -Cid_, _Mérope_, _Chimène_, and _Phèdre_ recovered their place upon the -stage. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - INGRES. THE MAID OF ORLEANS AT RHEIMS.] - -Painting took the same course. In opposition to the young painters who -had burst into the arena with their gay-coloured uniforms, their gilded -helmets and waving banners, _Ingres_ came forth in the great tournament -of Romanticism in the character of the Black Knight. An old gentleman, a -man who in all his being belonged to the generation that was passing -away, who was fifty years of age at the time of the Revolution of July, -stations himself suddenly as the angel of the flaming sword, or, in the -phrase of his opponents, as the gendarme of Classicism, at the gates of -the Academy, barring them against every suspicious-looking person. And -the young men, eccentric, eager for action as they were, who had -recently fought with so much fury, had to retreat before him. Golden -sunshine and glow of colour were once more tabooed, and their -representative heroes, Veronese, Rubens, and Delacroix, regarded as -flickering Will o' the Wisps, whom every aspiring beginner should avoid -as serpents and firebrands. One day when Ingres was taking his pupils -through the Louvre he said, on entering the Rubens gallery: "_Saluez, -messieurs, mais ne regardez pas._" The acrimony of the strife was so -great that it extended even to the personal relations of the rival -chiefs, and Ingres was attacked by convulsive spasms whenever he heard -the name of the painter of the "Massacre of Chios." When in 1855 he had -had a separate room prepared for his own pictures in the Universal -Exhibition of that year, and observed Delacroix in the distance, just -before the opening ceremony, he asked the attendant: "Has not somebody -been here?--there is a smell of brimstone." "Now the wolf is in the -sheepfold" was his observation when Delacroix was elected to the -Institute. He regarded him as the "hangman," as the Robespierre of -painting. "I used to love that young man, but he has sold himself to the -evil one" (Rubens), said he, in righteous indignation, to his pupils. - -[Illustration: INGRES. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF AS A YOUTH.] - -"This famous thing, the Beautiful," Delacroix had once written, "must -be--every one says so--the final aim of art. But if it be the only aim, -what then are we to make of men like Rubens, Rembrandt, and, in general, -all the artistic natures of the North, who preferred other qualities -belonging to their art? Is the sense of the beautiful that impression -which is made upon us by a picture by Velasquez, an etching by -Rembrandt, or a scene out of Shakespeare? Or again, is the beautiful -revealed to us by the contemplation of the straight noses and correctly -disposed draperies of Girodet, Gérard, and others of David's pupils? A -satyr is beautiful, a faun is beautiful. The antique bust of Socrates is -full of character, notwithstanding its flattened nose, swollen lips, and -small eyes. In Paul Veronese's 'Marriage at Cana' I see men of various -features and of every temperament, and I find them to be living beings, -full of passion. Are they beautiful? Perhaps. But in any case there is -no recipe by means of which one can attain to what is called the ideally -beautiful. Style depends absolutely and solely upon the free and -original expression of each master's peculiar qualities. Wherever a -painter sets himself to follow a conventional mode of expression he will -become affected and will lose his own peculiar impress; but where, on -the contrary, he frankly abandons himself to the impulse of his own -originality, he will ever, whether his name be Raphael, Michael Angelo, -Rubens, or Rembrandt, be sure master of his soul and of his art." - -As compared with the principles thus laid down, Ingres represents the -revulsion towards that formalism which had borne sway over the greater -part of the history of French art. "Painting is nothing more than -drawing," said Poussin. "Had God intended to place colour at the same -height as form," wrote Charles Blanc, "He would not have failed to -furnish His masterpiece, Man, with all the hues of the humming-bird." -Once more, instead of the glowing colour of the Romantic school, -absorbing the form into itself, the firm stroke of the outline was set -forth; instead of its pathos, breathing forth passionate emotion, men -returned to study the chill tranquillity of stone. Once more dramatic -composition and mastery over movement were held in abhorrence, as -incompatible with that pursuit of plastic beauty which was the highest -goal of art. The only point in question was, how to avoid the -one-sidedness of Classicism. David, as a child of the Revolution, had -naturally been limited to Ancient Rome; but now that the legitimate -monarchy had been re-established there was no reason why one should not -revere, not only pagan, but also Christian Rome, and in Raphael and -Michael Angelo the maturest blossom of the latter. Thus the Classical -school was enriched by Ingres with features of greater vivacity. He -entered into a direct relationship with the great Italian masters, while -David had none save with the rigid Roman antique. By him the Classical -severity of David was relaxed, the refractory sharpness of the outlines -relieved by a treatment of form which had the effect of making every -figure appear to be worked in metal. - -[Illustration: INGRES. BERTIN THE ELDER. - - (_By permission of M. Jules Bapst, the owner of the picture._)] - -Ingres was born in 1781, under the _Ancien Régime_. As a young man he -lived through the triumphs of the Empire and the Classical school, and -it was only natural that he should become David's pupil. In 1796 he -entered his studio, and studied there with such assiduity that he never -noticed what was taking place in that of Gros. When he went to Italy he -studied there the masters whom his own teacher had arrogantly despised. -He learned from the Cinquecento how to draw and model more accurately, -more firmly, and at the same time with a more intimate grasp of the -subject than was usual in the school of David. This innovation made him -a progressive Classicist, and gave him, during the early years of the -Restoration, almost the appearance of an assailant and revolutionary. -Himself the incarnation of the academic spirit, he had to resign himself -to see his first works rejected by the Salon, a fact which did not deter -him from continuing to work obstinately at his easel. "_Je compte sur ma -vieillesse; elle me vengea._" And this revenge was granted him in the -fullest measure. - -When one has seen the outward appearance of a man, one knows his -character, his spirit, and his genius. Ingres' portrait of himself -contains the analysis of his art. He was quite a small man, of a swarthy -complexion, with features sharp and as if cast in bronze. His thick -black hair stood up stubbornly on end, so that he had to grease it -carefully every day. Under hair of this kind there is almost always an -obstinate brain. The jaws projected, as is the case with men endowed -with a strong will. The eyes were large and piercing, with that bold -eagle-glance which fills parents with fond hopes, but does not touch the -hearts of young women. When he appeared to be excited, it was only the -excitement of work expressing itself in him. This little man, in his -large cloak, seemed to say when he stood at his easel, pencil in hand: -"I shall be a great painter, for I am determined to be one." He kept his -word. Strength of will, hard work, study, obstinacy, patience--these are -the elements of which Ingres' talent is compounded. "_Vouloir, c'est -pouvoir_," was his motto. One would think Buffon had had him in mind in -that passage in which he defines genius as patience. The -trinity-in-unity of his qualities consisted of correctness, balance, -exactness; qualities which go to make rather a great architect or -mathematician than an interesting painter. - -Ingres' range of subjects was unusually wide. Pictures on themes taken -from antiquity ("Oedipus and the Sphinx" and "Virgil reading the -Æneid"); costume pictures ("Henry IV and his Children" and the "Entry of -Charles V into Paris"); religious paintings (Madonnas, "Christ giving -the Keys to St. Peter," and "St. Symphorian"); nude female figures (the -"Odalisque," the "Liberation of Angelica," and "The Source"); allegories -("The Apotheosis of Homer" and "The Apotheosis of Napoleon"); pictures -of public functions ("Bonaparte as First Consul" and "Napoleon on the -Throne"); and even a painting taken from the life ("Pius VII in the -Sistine Chapel"), are included in the list. Yet, notwithstanding his -astonishing diversity of themes, there is hardly an artist more -one-sided in his principles. Ingres thought exclusively of purely -plastic art: beauty of form and harmony of line alone attracted him; he -was insensible to the charm of colour. His standpoint was the Institute -of Rome; the Italian Cinquecento the exclusive object of his worship. He -carried this study as far as plagiarism, and as director of the Roman -Academy made free with the intellectual property of the Cinquecento -masters, as if they had lived only on his account. - -When Delacroix was painting the "Expulsion of Heliodorus" in Saint -Sulpice, he put forth the whole strength of his creative genius to -avoid all reminiscence of Raphael's fresco. Ingres' power of invention -consisted in discovering, with a weird certainty, whether the subject of -which he wished to treat had already been painted by an Italian or other -Classical master. The picture "Jupiter and Thetis," of 1811, is put -together after a design on a Greek vase, and represents in its studied -archaism the Æginetan period of his art. The "Vow of Louis XIII," of -1824, was his confession of faith as regards the Cinquecento. The motive -was taken from the Madonna di Foligno, the curtains from the Madonna di -San Sisto, the floating angels from the Madonna del Baldacchino, and the -candlesticks as well as the little angels with the inscribed tablet are -from the same source. It is all beautiful, of course, for it is all -Raphael; only, it would have been more rational if Ingres had lived in -the time of Raphael instead of in the nineteenth century. One would take -the picture to have been painted under Raphael's eyes, and it bears to -his works the same relation as Raphael's earlier pictures do to -Perugino's. The "Christ giving the Keys to St. Peter" is also put -together out of elements derived from the school of Urbino. In his "St. -Symphorian," which was belauded as the _ne plus ultra_ of style, he -turned by way of variety to the imitation of Michael Angelo: the action -is violent, the muscles swollen. The "Apotheosis of Homer" is an -admirable lecture in archæology, a sitting of the great academy of -genius, in which the poses are so fine and the heads so full of marble -idealism that in comparison with it Raphael's "School of Athens" has the -effect of the wildest naturalism. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - INGRES. STUDY FOR THE ODALISQUE IN THE LOUVRE.] - -Thus Father Ingres stands forth as a cold, stiff, academic painter, as a -doctrinaire who has not progressed much further than the much-reviled -David. He represents, as Th. Rousseau said, only to a moderate degree -the good old art which we have lost. In the words of Diaz: "Let him be -shut up with me in a tower, without engravings, and I wager that his -canvas will remain untouched, whilst I shall succeed in producing a -picture." He possessed an arid ability which leaves one cold in presence -of even his most important works. How lifeless is the effect produced by -his paintings of nude single figures, his "Odalisque" and his "Freeing -of Andromeda," which brought him especial fame! Ingres could not paint -flesh, and in this respect he is indicative of an enormous retrogression -as compared with Prudhon. The striving after sculpturesque beauty, and, -in connection therewith, the repression of all individuality, became in -him almost a religion. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - INGRES. THE SOURCE.] - -One finds it difficult to-day to account for the fame which once -belonged to his picture of "The Source," the nude figure of a standing -girl pouring water out of an urn that rests on her left shoulder and is -steadied by her right arm raised over her head. The picture undoubtedly -exhibits qualities of draughtsmanship which in recent days Ingres alone -possessed in so high a degree. But when, in pursuit of his Classical -conception, he had eliminated every touch of nature, he proceeded to -destroy the rest of the impression by the cold violet tones which are -not only condemned by colourists, but which even Raphael would have -considered false and ugly. Here, as in all his female figures, he -attains to a certain grace, but it is an animal, expressionless grace. -Skilful as he was in delineating the muscles of the human body, he was -yet absolutely incapable of painting heads expressive of feeling or -emotion. He depicted the form in itself, the abstract, typical, absolute -form. He was dominated only by a love for the _beauté suprême_, so that -when he was in presence of nature he could not refrain from purifying -and generalising. Everywhere we see beautiful lines, bodies modelled -with admirable skill, but we never enter into any closer relationship -with his figures. They do not live our life or breathe our atmosphere; -they have not our thoughts: they are foreign to all that is human. Jean -Auguste Dominique Ingres, Member of the Institute, Senator, etc., the -stylist held in honour as a superior being, the high-priest of pure form -and outline, will in all times command the esteem, and in some respects -the admiration, of the student of the history of art; the enthusiasm, -never. - -[Illustration: _Baschet_. - - INGRES. OEDIPUS AND THE SPHINX.] - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - INGRES. PAGANINI.] - -And yet, notwithstanding all this, I am an enthusiastic admirer of -Ingres. Indeed, it has happened to me, in the collection of engravings -at the Louvre, to catch myself saying: "Ingres! great, beloved Master! I -have much to ask your pardon; for you were one of the greatest and most -refined spirits to whom the century has given birth." For I doubt -whether any one down to the present time has rightly understood the -mysterious figure of Ingres, the man who in his youth was enraptured by -"_l'esprit, la grâce, l'originalité de Vataux et la délicieuse couleur -de ses tableaux_," and who, at a later time, not because of failing -powers but deliberately and of set purpose, adopted a calmer system of -colour tones; of this Classicist _par excellence_, who is counted among -the greatest artists, in the familiar and graceful style, in the history -of art. - -Ingres is one of the rare masters whom even their opponents are forced -to admire. In the stern, sculpturesque modelling of his naked figures he -displays remarkable power. His painting, also, has a curiously intimate -appeal, due to its cool, metallic harmonies of colour--light blue, rose, -and pale yellow in particular. - -But above all Ingres commands attention by his portraits. From his first -residence at Rome, that is, from the beginning of the century, he -painted portraits which imprint themselves on the memory like medals -struck in metallic sharpness in the style of Mantegna. Here too he is -unequal, at times cold and commonplace, but usually quite admirable. In -these paintings, cast as it were in bronze, there is something that -comes from the fresh original source of all art; they have that vein of -realism by which the vigorous idealism of Raphael is distinguished from -the conventional idealism of a professor of historical painting. Here -one finds real treasures, creations of remarkable vital power, and in -admirable taste. They show that Ingres, apparently so systematic, had a -profound love for living nature, and they ensure the immortality of his -name. His historical pictures are works which compel our esteem, but his -portraits are splendid creations which can truly stand comparison with -the great old masters. - -So far back as 1806 there appeared in the Salon his likeness of Napoleon -I, with his bloodless, corpse-like face, enchased with such art that -Delécluze called it a Gothic medal. The Emperor is seated like a wax -figure upon the throne, surrounded by the attributes of majesty--stiff, -motionless as a Byzantine idol. It was followed in 1807 by the portrait -of Mme. Devauçay, which even to-day impresses the beholder most -pleasingly, notwithstanding the pedantic style in which it is painted. -One feels in it fire and youthfulness, the enthusiasm and ardour of a -new convert, who has for the first time discovered in nature beauties -other than those he had learnt to see in the Academy. Moreover, he -possessed a very distinguished and personal taste in drawing. The face -is of exquisite grace, the eyes tenderly seductive and delicately -veiled. Ingres is already announced as he was afterwards to be. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - INGRES. MLLE. DE MONTGOLFIER.] - -In Holbein's portraits the whole German community of his time has been -handed down to us; in Van Dyck's, the aristocracy of England under -Charles I. So also Ingres has depicted for us, with all its failings and -all its virtues, the middle-class hierarchy of Louis Philippe's reign, -which felt itself to be the first estate, the summit of the nation, felt -sure of the morrow, was proud of itself, of its intelligence and energy, -which pursued with correctness its moral course of life, revered order -and hated all excess--including that of the colourist. The same spirit -animated this splendid _bourgeois_ of art. His "Bertin the Elder" is -justly his most celebrated, enduring work; not the mere painted -petrifaction of a newspaper potentate, but one of those portraits which -bring a whole epoch home to the mind. It tells of the triumph of the -_bourgeoisie_ under the Monarchy of July more fully and clearly than -does Louis Blanc's _Histoire de Dix Ans_. In the best of humours, with -the four-square solidity of a knowledge of his own worth, which is full -of character, this modern newspaper demi-god sits on his chair as on a -throne, the throne of the _Journal des Débats_, like a _bourgeois_ -Jupiter Tonans, with his hands on his knees. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - INGRES. THE FORESTIER FAMILY.] - -But however highly one must estimate the importance of such a work, -Ingres is nevertheless at his highest, not in his painted likenesses, -but in his portrait drawings. In the former the hard colouring is still, -at times, offensive. Almost always the flesh looks like wood, the dress -like metal, blue robes like steel. His drawings, from which this defect -is absent, are to be admired without criticism. Ingres lived in his -youth, at Rome, as a drawer of portraits. For eight _scudi_ he did the -bust, for twelve the whole figure, raging inwardly the while at being -kept from "great art" by such journey-work. There is a story told of -him, that when one day an Englishman knocked at his door and asked, -"Does the draughtsman who makes the small portraits live here?" he shut -the door in his face, with the words: "No; he who lives here is a -painter." To-day these small masterpieces of which he was ashamed sell -for their weight in gold. In the Paris Exhibition of 1889 there was Mme. -Chauvin with her Chinese eyes; Mme. Besnard on the terrace of the Pincio -with her broad hat and her elegant sunshade; Mrs. Henting with her -innocent smile of an "_honnête femme_"; Mrs. Cavendish, an affected -young blonde, with her overladen travelling dress and her crazy -coiffure. Strange, that a man like Ingres should rave so about new -fashions and pretty toilettes! - -In these pieces an artistic eye which was now inexorable, now tender and -full of fancy, has looked on nature, and, in flowing pencil-strokes, has -caught with spirit and with the certain touch of direct feeling the real -fulness of life in what he saw. These drawings, especially the portrait -of Paganini and "The Forestier Family," show that Father Ingres -possessed not only a highly cultivated intelligence and an iron strength -of will, not only the genius of industry, but also a heart, a genuine, -warm, and fine-feeling heart; that he was in his innermost being by no -means the cold academician, the stiff doctrinaire he appears in his -large pictures, and which he became by his opposition to the Romantic -school. Here we have an enchanter such as the Primitives were and the -Impressionists are, like Massys and Manet, like Dürer and Degas, like -all who have looked Nature in the face. And while these drawings, at -once occasional and austere, place him as a draughtsman on a level with -the greatest masters in the history of art, they also show him, the -reactionary, to be at the same time a man of progress, the connecting -link between the great art of the first half and the familiar art which -rules over the second half of the nineteenth century. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -JUSTE-MILIEU - - -As is usually the case, the heroes were succeeded by a generation less -heroic and more practical. In this, art was in keeping with the -deliberate and tranquil course of the state itself, which had fallen -back again into the old groove, and with the homely, Philistine -character assumed in the course of years by the citizen monarchy of the -tricolour. The _bourgeoisie_ which had effected the Revolution of 1830 -was soon appalled at its own temerity. Even in literature it inclined -towards a temperate and lukewarm mediocrity. It was astonished to find -itself admiring Casimir Delavigne. It found in Auber and Scribe its -ideal of music and comedy, as in Guizot, Duchâtel, Thiers, and Odilon -Barrot its ideal of politics. The intellectual exaltation which had gone -before and followed after the Revolution of July had calmed down, and -that which was to rise out of the Revolution of February was as yet -latent. The same elder generation which had looked upon Napoleon -Bonaparte's stony Cæsarian eye, when, like a god of war, unapproachable -in his power he rode by at the head of his staff, now saw the Roi -Citoyen, the long-exiled ex-school-master, homely and fond of law and -order, as every day at the same hour he passed alone on foot and in -plain clothes through the streets of Paris, the famous umbrella in his -hand, rewarding each "Vive le Roi!" with a friendly smile and a grateful -hand-shake. The umbrella became the symbol of this deedless monarchy, -and the word "Juste-milieu," which Louis Philippe had once employed to -indicate the course to be followed, became the nickname of all that was -weak and without energy, lustreless and undignified, in the age. The -golden mean was triumphant in politics, literature, and painting. - -The artists who gave this period its peculiar stamp constitute, as -compared with the heaven-assaulting generation of 1830, only, as it -were, a collateral female branch of that elder male line of good -painting. To reconcile opposite tendencies, to avoid harshness, in -short, to bring about an artistic compromise between Ingres and -Delacroix, was the end towards which their efforts were chiefly -directed. - -_Jean Gigoux_, a remarkable artist, has the merit of having given the -most effective support which Delacroix received in his battle against -the _beauté suprême_ of the Classical school. When, in the Universal -Exhibition of 1889 at Paris, his picture of "The Last Moments of -Leonardo da Vinci," painted in 1835, emerged from the seclusion of a -provincial museum, its healthy fidelity to nature was the cause of -general astonishment. The personages indeed wear costly costumes, and -are surrounded by wealth and magnificence, but they themselves are -common, ugly human beings. Here there is no trace of idealism, not even -in the sense of Géricault, who, notwithstanding his love of truth, -remained faithful to the heroic type. The faces are, with religious -devotion, painted exactly after nature by a man who evidently loved the -youthful works of Guercino and had zealously studied Dürer. At the same -time was exhibited the portrait of the Polish "General Dwernicki," -painted in 1833, whom also Gigoux depicts as a man, not as a hero. War -has made him not lean but fat, and in Gigoux's picture his red nose and -prominent stomach are reproduced with cruel fidelity to nature. It is a -declaration of war against every kind of idealism. Even in his religious -paintings in Saint Germain l'Auxerrois he held fast to this principle, -and this circumstance gives him a place to himself, apart from all the -productions of his contemporaries. In a period which, with the solitary -exception of Delacroix, was still absolutely devoted to the doctrine -_Exagérer la beauté_, his works are of a healthy, soul-refreshing -ugliness. - -A portion of Delacroix's charm in colour descended to _Eugène Isabey_. -He is certainly not a great artist, but a delightful, sympathetic -individuality, a painter who affords one pleasure even at this day. Amid -the group of Classicists of his time he has the effect of a beautiful -patch of colour, of a palette on which shades of tender blue, mauve, -lilac, brilliant green, silver-grey, red faded by sunshine, and -opalescent mother-of-pearl combine in subtle harmony. His pretty, -picturesquely costumed ladies are grouped together in luminous gardens, -sheltered by delicate half-shadows, or ascend and descend the castle -stairs, letting their long trains sweep behind them, and toying -gracefully with fan or sunshade; while gallant cavaliers do them homage, -and with bent head whisper sweet nothings in their ears. The slender -greyhound plays a special part in these aristocratic comedies; its -straight lines give a counterpoise to the soft flowing costumes of his -figures. Isabey is altogether in his element when he has to portray a -ceremony requiring rich attire. Then he binds together, as it were, a -bouquet sparkling with colour, shot with the hues of ample damask folds -and heavy gold-embroidered silk. Now his colouring is _chic_, -capricious, and coquettish, now it is that of the most delicate faded -Gobelin tapestry. If he has to paint a sea-view, he rumples the waves -about like a ball-dress and pranks the ships up in bridal attire. His -very storms have a festal appearance, like the anger of a beautiful -woman. One must not look for life in his pictures; they are to the truth -much what Gounod's _Faust_ is to Goethe's. Watteau is his spiritual -ancestor; but he is not so full of life and wit as the painter of the -gallant world of the eighteenth century. He does not depict his -contemporaries, but the life of a vanished age; yet he has the same -predilection for scenes of high life, and a studied, mannered -gracefulness which is often charming and always pleasant to the eye. He -shares with Delacroix the latter's broad style, freedom from constraint, -and delight in colour. But where Delacroix is rough and violent, Isabey -is caressing and insinuating: they are not brothers, but distant -cousins. And, like Delacroix, he had no imitators; he went on his bright -and delightful path in solitude, and remained without companions in the -little gilded house, lit up with fantastic lanterns, which he assigned -to be the coquettish home of charming beings of both sexes. - -[Illustration: ARY SCHEFFER. _L'Art._] - -A curious position, half-way between the Romantic and the Classical -schools, was occupied by _Ary Scheffer_, who was, a generation ago, the -favourite of the greater part of the aristocracy of Europe, but is now -known, to the German public at least, only because he is said to have -painted "with snuff and green soap"--a phrase of Heine's, which, -however, gives a very false impression of him. A German-Dutchman by -birth, a Classicist by training, Scheffer in his youth came also in -contact with the leading spirits of the Romantic school; and these -various influences, of race, education, and intercourse, are clearly -reflected in the faces of his figures. His forms are thoroughly classic -and generalised; only the expression of the face is ideal, while the eye -is romantic, and, Scheffer's German blood making itself -felt--sentimental. It was precisely this mid-way position which his -contemporaries found so much to their liking. They called his painting a -great art full of style, uniting the sentiment of ideal beauty with a -captivating power of expression. But history cares but little for these -men of compromise, and regards this indecision as the chief defect of -his genius. Scheffer's draughtsmanship is dry and hard, his colouring -without tenderness or charm. These failings are ill-assorted with the -attitudes and physiognomy of his figures, which have always an -affectation of weakness, exhaustion, and moral suffering. He is a -sentimental Classicist, and his subjects the antithesis of the -Græco-Roman ideal to which he does homage in his technique. His "Suliote -Women" was already, in sentiment, form, and colour, only a subdued and -weakened reminiscence of the "Massacre of Chios." At a later time he -entirely forsook historical subjects (such as "Gaston de Foix" and -others), and attached himself with enthusiasm to the Gospels and to the -works of the poets, especially of one poet. When he had recourse to the -Bible as a source of inspiration, he selected tender episodes, the -sadness of which he transmuted into tearfulness. So also, when he -represented scenes from _Faust_ or _Wilhelm Meister_, he gave to -Goethe's animated and impassioned characters something melancholy, -suffering, and contemplative. Heine said of his "Gretchen": "You are no -doubt Wolfgang Goethe's Gretchen, but you have read all Friedrich -Schiller." Even before her fall, before she is in love, Marguerite is -pensive and sad like a fallen angel. Mignon, Francesca da Rimini, and -St. Monica were also favourite figures for his delicate and -contemplative spirit. He alone in French art inclines a little, in his -tearful sentimentality, to the Romantic school of Düsseldorf. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - ARY SCHEFFER. MARGUERITE AT THE WELL.] - -_Hippolyte Flandrin_ was the French counterpart of the German Nazarenes. -He is an example of how Ingres' teaching resulted in stiff -conventionality. Ingres was a dangerous master to follow. His pupils -formed round him a small, faithful, and submissive band, swore like -those of Cornelius by the master's doctrines, and for that very reason -never attained to any distinctive character of their own. None of them -possessed Ingres' many-sided talent. His empire, like that of Alexander -the Great, was divided among his successors, each of whom governed his -own little realm with greater or less ability. Hippolyte Flandrin -devoted himself to religious painting, which in his hands for the first -time regained a greater importance in French art; but he followed much -more slavishly than Ingres in the paths of the Italian masters of the -fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This painter, worthy of respect, -full of conviction, learned and of sterling worth, but colourless and -cold, who decorated the churches of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Germain -des Prés, has enriched the history of art by no new gift. An -indefatigable worker, but endowed with little intellectual power, he -went no further than to follow out strictly the rules which Ingres -taught his pupils and had himself acquired from the old masters. After -Flandrin, as winner of the Prix de Rome in 1831, had become intimately -acquainted with the art treasures of Italy, he seldom met with any -difficulty. His cartoons are flowingly and correctly executed with a -firm hand, like the fair copy of a school essay. Of draughtsmanship he -knew all that is to be learned; he remembered much, arranged his -reminiscences, and thought little for himself. He was a miniature copy -of his master, at once more poorly endowed and more fanatical, a purely -mathematical genius; his art is a cold geometrical knowledge, the -adaptation of anatomical studies to conventional forms, an arrangement -of groups and draperies in strict accordance with celebrated exemplars. -Had not the primitive Italian masters, the painters of the ancient -Christian catacombs, the saintly Fra Angelico, and the mosaic artists of -Ravenna done their work long before him, Flandrin's paintings would -never have seen the light, any more than those of the Nazarene school. -In both cases one can assign almost every face and figure to its -original in the pictures of the Italian masters. Only a certain blond, -tender, slightly melancholy, modern face of a Christian maiden is -Flandrin's peculiar property. He transferred these same ascetic and pure -principles to portrait painting, and thereby acquired for himself a -large practice as the painter of the _femme honnête_. These women -conversed with him and blushed in his presence; in his pictures we find -grace and delicacy, eyes sparkling or meek, tenderness and mocking -laughter, all translated into a nun-like, unapproachable appearance, -which under the Second Empire gained the greater approbation among -ladies, since it was seldom found in real life. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - CHASSERIAU. APOLLO AND DAPHNE.] - -Alongside of this Overbeck, endowed with greater artistic powers than -his German congener, there stands as the French Cornelius _Paul -Chenavard_, a man who revolved in his fertile brain philosophical -conceptions deeper almost than those of the German master. He dreamed of -broad, symbolical, decorative pieces, embracing all time and all space, -wherein all the cosmogonies of the universe should be united. Like -Cornelius, he wished to be a Michael Angelo, but he succeeded no better -than the German. He spent fifteen years in the churches and museums of -Italy, pencil in hand, accumulating a vast collection of studies, from -which his great painted history of the world was to be built up. But -when he went back to Paris his materials from the old masters had grown -upon him to such an extent that he never recovered his individuality. -For four years he worked with feverish diligence, and completed eighteen -cartoons, each six metres in height and four in breadth, intended for -the walls of the Pantheon. So far as colour is concerned, they have -attained no greater success than the Campo Santo frescoes of Cornelius. -Chenavard could draw much better than the German, but was not much -better as a painter; the works of both have a literary rather than an -artistic value. - -Brief and brilliant was the career of _Théodore Chassériau_, who shot -across the heavens of art like a gleaming meteor, first as a devotee of -form, in Ingres' sense of the word, and afterwards, like Delacroix, as -an enthusiastic lover of sunshine and the clear light of Africa. Born in -1819 at St. Domingo, he followed his teacher Ingres in 1834 to the Villa -Medici; but even in his first picture, the "Susanna" of 1839, now in the -Louvre, he proved himself by no means an orthodox pupil. "He has not the -least understanding for the ideas or the changes which have entered into -art in our time, and knows absolutely nothing of the poets of recent -days. He will live on as a reminiscence and a reproduction of certain -ages in the art of the past, without having created anything to hand -down to the future. My wishes and my ideas do not in the least -correspond with his." In these words Chassériau has himself pointed out -what it was that distinguished him from Ingres. Unfortunately he -produced but little. Personally a very elegant, _blasé_ gentleman, he -plunged on his return from Italy into the whirlpool of Parisian life. He -was remarkably ugly; but his black, piercing eyes made him the idol of -the ladies, and he hurried through life with such haste that he broke -down altogether at the age of thirty-six. Beyond various decorative -paintings for the church of Saint Méry and for the Salle des Comptes in -the Palais d'Orsay, only a few Eastern pictures, and, best and most -characteristic, a couple of lithographs, remain to represent his work. -In these delicate mythological compositions a chord is struck which -found no echo until, a generation later, it was heard again in the work -of the French New Idealists and the English Pre-Raphaelites: there -speaks in them a Romantic Hellenism, a something dreamily mystic, which -makes him a remarkable link between Delacroix and the most refined -spirit in the modern school, Gustave Moreau. It was purely an act of -gratitude in Moreau when he affixed the dedication "To Théodore -Chassériau" to his fine picture of "The Young Man and Death." - -_Léon Benouville_ will be remembered only for his picture of the "Death -of St. Francis," in the Louvre, a good piece of work in the manner of -the Quattrocento. _Léon Cogniet_ deserves to be mentioned because in the -fifties he brought together in his studio so many foreign pupils, -especially Germans. He enjoyed above all others the reputation of being -able to initiate beginners both quickly and with certainty into the -peculiar mysteries of craftsmanship. All that a master can teach, and -that can be learned from his example, was to be obtained from this kind -and fatherly instructor. Even after he had long given up painting, his -grateful pupils used to meet together yearly at a banquet given in the -patriarch's honour. As an artist he belongs to the list of the great men -who have paid for overpraise in their lifetime by oblivion after their -death. His "Massacre of the Innocents" of 1824--a woman who, mad with -terror, thinks to hide herself and her child from the assassins of -Bethlehem under an open stairway--could give pleasure only in a time -which hailed with enthusiasm Ary Scheffer's heads resembling plaster -busts full of expression. Occasionally, too, he painted landscapes--the -chimerical, vague creations of a man who had lived but little in the -open air. His finest picture, "Tintoretto Painting his Dead Daughter by -Lamplight," of 1843, the engravings of which once enraptured France and -Germany, has to-day a somewhat insipid effect, and shows whither his -genius was leading him--in technique a coarser Schalcken, in sentiment a -weaker Delaroche. - -[Illustration: - - COGNIET. TINTORETTO PAINTING HIS DEAD DAUGHTER.] - -Delaroche was the Titian of Louis Philippe's age, the spoiled child of -the Juste-milieu, one of the most insignificant and at the same time one -of the most famous painters of the century; and in this double capacity -is an interesting proof that in art the "Vox populi" is seldom the "Vox -Dei." What a difference between him and the great spirits of the -Romantic school! They were enthusiastic poets; their predilection for -Mediævalism was concerned only with its æsthetic charm, with the -twilight shadows of its picturesque churches, the sounding presage of -its bells, the motley processions of that world gleaming bright with -uninterrupted colour. And what further allured their imaginative powers -was the unruly character of certain epochs, the destructive war of wild -factions, and the blazing, consuming power of passion. The historical -motive, as such, was with them only a pretext for launching forth into -flashing orgies of colour, according to the example, which they followed -merely in externals, of the Venetian and Flemish masters. They knew, as -genuine painters, that only in the pigment on their palette slumbers -that power of exciting emotion by means of which the art of painting -touches the chords of men's souls. Enthusiasts of colour and of passion, -they raved about the poets merely because the latter more readily -enabled them, by means of the fierce vehemence of the awakened powers of -nature, to invest with form the feverish, agitated, and terrible dreams -of their fantasy. So it was that Delacroix told of conflagration, of -battle and warfare, of murder and pillage, of the bitterness and pains -of love. At the same time, no doubt, he studied the vari-coloured -costumes of past ages--his drawings show as much--but he made use of -them simply as a storehouse of bright hues, as a lexicon by means of -which he might embody his visions of colour. To manufacture historical -vignettes and play the part of a teacher of history would have been in -his eyes a thing to be held in contempt as the work of subservient -illustrators. Yet perhaps it was by taking this very course that far -greater successes were to be attained, so far as the verdict of the -multitude is considered. - -The decade following upon 1820 was a season of brilliant blossom for the -art of writing history in France. By his _History of the English -Revolution_, in 1826, Guizot won for himself a place in the foremost -rank of French authors. He began in 1829 his famous lectures at the -Sorbonne, and commenced in 1832 the publication of his _Sources of -French History_. Even before him, Augustin Thierry had written in 1825 -his _History of the Conquest of England by the Normans_, followed by -_Stories from the Merovingian Times_, and was now engaged in the -preparation of his great work, the _History of the Origin and Progress -of the Third Estate_. Not unworthy to be compared with these writers, -and soon to stand beside them, were two young men working in -collaboration--Mignet and Thiers--who came to the front in 1823-24 with -their _History of the Revolution_. At the impulse thus given, historical -societies and unions had arisen in every province of France, and were -developing an ever-increasing activity. - -What learning had begun, poetry carried further. A number of writers, -young and old, began to consider what poetic use might be made of the -materials which these investigations had brought to light, and few years -had passed before the number of historical romances and dramas was -hardly to be computed. Vitet, the elder Dumas, and de Vigny put -historical tragedy in the place of classical, and the modern novel of -George Sand, Balzac, and Beyle was ousted by the historical romance. -During the same years was completed the process by which grand opera -forsook fantastic for historical subjects, such as Auber's _Muette de -Portici_ and Rossini's _Guillaume Tell_. - -[Illustration: COGNIET. THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS.] - -Art also sought to turn to account the new materials furnished by -historical science, and æsthetic minds hastened to enumerate the -advantages which were to be expected of it. On the one hand--and this -was nothing new--the artist, whose curse it was to be born in an -inactive and colourless age, would find here all that he sought, for -history offered him the contemplation of a magnificent life, full of -movement. On the other hand--and this was the chief point--painting -might also fulfil an important mission on behalf of culture, if by -virtue of its more easily understood method it could supplement the -science of history, and by recalling the great memories of the past keep -alive that patriotism which in unfavourable conjunctures is so -frequently found wanting. Guizot recommended French history, "the -history of chivalry," to painters, as the first and most important -source of inspiration. "We want historians in the art of painting," -wrote Vitet; and his cry was not unheard. - -While the Romanticists had seen in the old costumes nothing more than -elements out of which a dashing colour-symphony could be obtained, -troubling themselves little about the meaning or the narrative import of -their pictures, their successors went over, bag and baggage, into the -camp of the historians. In the place of pure painting, there arose an -art laden with scientific documents, which busied itself in -reconstructing former times with antiquarian exactness. While the former -had produced nought but genuinely artistic colour-improvisations, so now -a didactic aim, together with historical accuracy, became the main -consideration. The painter was commissioned as a chronicler, an official -of the state, to console citizens for the lamentable present by an -appeal to the glorious past. He became a professor of history, a -theatrical costumier who rummaged records, chose masks, cut out dresses, -arranged scenic backgrounds, for no other purpose than to depict -correctly and legibly on the canvas an historical event. And Mme. Tout -le Monde found in these pictures exactly what she required. On the one -hand, the didactic aim of historical painting, with its long -explanations in the catalogues, answered precisely to the needs of the -educated middle classes. Under the picture there was always a pretty -card on which was printed this or that quotation from some historical -writer. One read the description, and then satisfied one's self that -the corresponding picture was really there and that it was in keeping -with the description. One recalled to mind the lessons in history one -had learned at school, and was pleased to be reminded in so pleasant a -fashion that before the nineteenth century people did not wear trousers -and frock-coats, but knitted hose and mantles. On the other hand, there -still survived enough of the Romantic unruliness to allow one to be -shocked in a decorous and moderate manner, and with the help of the -catalogue a picture might be permitted to make one's flesh creep in an -agreeable way. - -For the average painter of mediocre ability historical exercises of this -sort must also have been very alluring, inasmuch as they made no demand -upon specially artistic qualities--upon any peculiar aptitude of the -fancy, eye, or palette. The historian must indeed possess the power of -combination, but much more that of sober investigation; too much -imagination or too great a sense of humour would be dangerous to him. So -also the historical painter required neither fancy, sentiment, nor power -of perception; a certain capacity for compiling facts was all that was -necessary. It was enough to ferret out of some popular book on history -the story of a murder, and to possess a work upon costumes. By such -means, men of a certain ability could easily manage, with the help of -the studio technique founded by the Romantic school, to put together the -most imposing show-pieces. And even the critics allowed themselves -frequently to be so far misled as to give to those models who were -decked out in the finest costumes, and labelled with the names of the -most celebrated personages, precedence over their more modest -companions. Consequently it happened that in the time of the citizen -monarchy a great number of painters entirely devoid of talent, whose -only merit was that they attached to this or that chapter of universal -history pictures showing some laboured animation, became in the -twinkling of an eye leaders of the schools. - -[Illustration: PAUL DELAROCHE. _L'Art._ - - "Paul Delaroche à la funèbre mine - S'entour avec plaisir de cadavres et d'os - Jane Grey, Mazarin, héros et héroine - Chez lui tout meurt ... excepté ces tableaux."] - -_Eugène Devéria_ was the first and most important painter deliberately -to enter upon this course. When his picture of the "Birth of Henry IV" -was exhibited in the Salon of 1827 his appearance was welcomed as that -of a new Veronese, and his work joyfully saluted as the first historical -picture in which the local colour of the epoch represented was -accurately observed. Henceforth Devéria dressed always in the style of -Rubens, and his house became the headquarters of the Romantic school. He -was perhaps the only member of this group in whom some breath of -Delacroix's spirit survived, but unfortunately he never found again -either the Venetian tone or the male accent of his youth, and though he -painted many more pictures he never contributed a second notable work to -art. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - DELAROCHE. THE ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE.] - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - DELAROCHE. THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER.] - -Shortly afterwards _Camille Roqueplan_ began to alter his manner. Up to -that time he had been exclusively a painter who, like Watteau and -Terborg, listened with a voluptuous shudder to the piquant rustle of -silk, velvet, and satin dresses; now he devoted himself to depicting -with perspicuity various scenes from history, renounced his airy and -radiant fantasies, and became, in his "Scene from the Massacre of St. -Bartholomew," nothing but a tedious schoolmaster. - -_Nicolaus Robert Fleury_, the painter of "Charles V in the Monastery of -St. Just," of the "Massacre of St. Bartholomew," of the "Religious -Conference at Poissy," and of other historical anecdotes, carefully -conceived and laboriously executed, devoted himself, like Lessing, to -the propagation of noble ideas. His pictures were manifestoes against -religious fanaticism, and philanthropic discussions concerning the -trials and persecutions of the freethinkers. In order to give them the -stamp of historical verisimilitude, he buried himself with the zeal of -an archivist in the study of the period to be represented; often -directly transferred into his pictures figures from Diepenbeeck or -Theodor van Thulden; and having the faculty of seizing in old paintings -those tones of colour which belong rather to the epoch than the master, -he succeeded in giving his works a certain documentary and archaic -character for which, on his first appearance, he obtained ample credit. - -_Louis Boulanger_, after his "Mazeppa" of 1827, was a famous painter. -But the highest success was that attained by Paul Delaroche, inasmuch as -he understood better than any other, not only how to cater for the -cultured public by the didactic nature and historical accuracy of his -pictures, but also how to touch the heart by means of a lachrymose -sentimentality. - -_Paul Delaroche_ belongs, by the date of his birth, to the eighteenth -century. Being one of Gros' pupils, he had never borne the yoke of the -Classical school in its fullest weight, and therefore had never had -occasion to revolt against it. When the Romanticists came to the front, -he had gone or rather been dragged along with them, for to his -circumspect nature Romanticism was an abomination, and his cool and -deliberative spirit felt itself much more at home in the society of the -Classicists. The works of the historians opened to him a welcome outlet -by which to avoid a rupture with either party, and Delaroche found his -vocation. He assumed the rôle of a peacemaker between the quarrelling -brothers, placed himself as mediator between Montagues and Capulets, and -thus became--like Casimir Delavigne in literature--the head of that -"School of Common Sense" on whose banner glittered in golden letters -Louis Philippe's motto of the Juste-milieu. Ingres was cold, reserved, -and colourless; Delaroche aspired to an agreeable, sparkling, highly -seasoned, bituminous art of painting. Delacroix was genial and sketchy; -Delaroche inscribed carefulness and exactness on his banner. The former -had given offence by his boldness; Delaroche won the conservatives over -to himself by his well-bred bearing and moderate attitude. People -thought Delacroix too wild and poetical; Delaroche took care to give -them only a touch of the eagerness of Romanticism, and set himself to -reduce the passionate vehemence of Delacroix to rational, Philistine -limits, and to soften down his native unruliness into sentimental -pathos. This position which he assumed as a mediator made him the man of -his age. The life of Delacroix was a long struggle. But for the -commissions entrusted to him by the state he might have died of -starvation, for his sales to dealers and lovers of art brought him -scarcely five hundred francs a year. His studio held many pictures, -leaning mournfully against each other in corners. Delaroche, on the -other hand, was overwhelmed with praise and commissions. The -representatives of eclecticism in philosophy and of the Juste-milieu in -politics found themselves compelled to praise an artist who was neither -revolutionary nor reactionist, neither Romantic nor Classical, who had -bound himself over neither to draughtsmanship nor to colouring, but -united both elements in vulgar moderation. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - DELAROCHE. STRAFFORD ON HIS WAY TO EXECUTION.] - -[Illustration: THOMAS COUTURE. _L'Art._] - -Already in his first notable works, in 1831, "The Princes in the Tower" -and "Oliver Cromwell," he has fully assumed his lukewarm manner. He -might have represented the murder of the princes, but fearing that the -public would not stand it, he preferred merely to suggest the -approaching death of the weeping and terrified children by placing in -front of the bed a small dog, which is looking uneasily towards the -door, where the red light of torches indicates the approach of the -assassins,--a Düsseldorf picture with improved technique. It is just the -same with his melodramatic and lachrymose "Cromwell." It would be hardly -possible to represent one of the greatest figures in universal history -in a more paltry manner, and to this day it is not quite certain whether -the picture was intended to be serious or humorous. The great statesman -in whom was embodied the political and ecclesiastical revolution of -England must have been extremely busy on the day of Charles I's funeral, -and have had better things to do than stealthily to open the coffin and -contemplate, with a mixture of childish curiosity and sentimental pity, -the corpse of the king whom he had fought and conquered. Eugène -Delacroix had treated this subject in a sketch, in which Cromwell, at -the funeral of Charles, gazes in quiet contempt upon the weak monarch -who had not known how to keep either his crown or his head. As a work of -art this little water-colour is worth ten times as much as Delaroche's -great, long-meditated, carefully executed painting. From the very -beginning he had no sense for the passionate or dramatic. From the first -day, had the tailor who prepared costumes struck work, his artistic -greatness would have fallen away to nothing; from the commencement he -produced nothing but large, clumsily conceived illustrations for -historical novels. Planché pointed out long ago that all the costumes -are glaringly new, that all the victims look as if they had got -themselves up for a masked ball, that this sort of painting is much too -clean and pretty to give the argument the appearance of probability. -Théophile Gautier, who had proclaimed the powerful originality of -Delacroix, fumed with rage against these "saliva-polished -representations, this art for the half-educated, disguised in false, -Philistine realism, this art of historical illustration for the familiar -use of the _bourgeois_." To rank timorous, half-hearted talent higher -than reckless and awe-inspiring genius--this was in Gautier's eyes the -sin against the Holy Ghost, and he sprang like a tiger upon the -popularity of talents such as these. He could, as he himself said, have -swallowed Delaroche, skin, hair, and all, without remorse; meanwhile, -the public raised him upon the shield as its declared favourite. - -He won the intellectual middle class over to himself with a rush, as he -industriously went on rummaging in manuals of French and English history -for royal murders and battle-deaths of kings. With his "Richelieu," -"Mazarin," and "Strafford," but especially with his "Execution of Lady -Jane Grey" and "Murder of the Duke of Guise in the Castle of Blois," he -made hits such as no other French artist of his time could put to his -account. Just then, in his youthful work, _The States-General at Blois_, -Ludovic Vitet had put the murder of the Duke of Guise upon the stage. -Nothing could be better-timed than to transform this operatic scene into -colour. The historians of civilisation admired the historical accuracy -of the courtiers' dress, all the upholstery of the room, the lofty -mantelpiece, the carved wardrobes, the praying-stool with the -altar-piece over it, the canopy-bed with its curtains of red silk -embroidered with lilies and the king's initials in gold. Playgoers -compared the scene with that which they had witnessed on the stage in -Vitet's piece, and the comparison was not unfavourable to the painter. -For Delaroche, in order to be as far as possible in keeping with the -stage representation, was accustomed to commission Jollivet, the chief -mechanician of the Opera House, to prepare for him small models of -rooms, in which he then arranged his lay-figures. - -That is the further great difference between Delaroche and Delacroix, -between the vagrant painter of history and the artist. The latter had -the gift of the inner vision, and only painted things which had -intellectually laid hold upon him and had assumed firm shape in his -imagination. It was while the organ was playing the _Dies iræ_ that he -saw his "Pietà" in a vision--that mighty work which in power of -expression almost approaches Rembrandt. "Is not Tasso's life most -interesting?" he writes. "You weep for him, swaying restlessly from side -to side on your chair, when you read the story of his life; your eyes -assume a threatening aspect, and you grind your teeth with rage." Such -passionate emotion was wholly unknown to Delaroche; he painted deeds of -murder with the wildness of Mieris. Delacroix everywhere grasps what is -essential, and gives to every scene its poetical or religious character. -A couple of lines are for him sufficient means wherewith to produce a -deep impression. In presence of his pictures one does not think of -costumes; one sees everywhere passion overflowing with love and anger, -and is intoxicated with the harmony of sentiment and colour. Delaroche, -like Thierry, had merely a predilection for the historical anecdote -which, dramatically pointed, keeps the beholder in suspense, or else, -simply narrated, amuses him. The colour and spirit of events had no -power over his imagination; he merely apprehended them with a cool -understanding, and put them laboriously together in keeping with it. -Delacroix sought counsel from nature; but in the moment of creation, in -front of the canvas, he could not bear direct contact with it. "The -influence of the model," he wrote, "lowers the painter's tone; a stupid -fellow makes you stupid." Delaroche draped his models as was required, -made them posture and pull faces, and while he was painting, laboriously -screwed them up to the pathos demanded by the situation. Such a method -of procedure must necessarily become theatrical. - -Just as in his historical pictures he endeavoured to transform -Delacroix's passion into operatic scenes, so he perfected his position -as a man of compromise by imitating the academic style in his -"Hemicycle." Here it was Ingres' laurels which robbed him of his sleep. -The fame which this picture has acquired is mainly due to Henriquel -Dupont's fine engraving. It does not attain to any kind of solemn or -serious effect. One might imagine one's self in some entirely prosaic -waiting-room, where all the great men of every age have agreed to meet -together for no matter what ceremonial purpose; one sees there a -carefully chosen collection of costumes of all epochs, with well-studied -but expressionless portraits of the leaders of civilisation. Here also -Delaroche has not risen above respectable mediocrity, and his -characteristics remain, as ever, thoroughly middle-class. - -[Illustration: COUTURE. THE LOVE OF GOLD.] - -His likeness of Napoleon is perhaps that which shows most clearly how -paltry a soul this painter possessed. It is not Devastation in human -shape, not the man in whom his officers saw the "God of War" and of whom -Mme. de Staël said, "There is nothing human left in him." The intellect -of that Corsican, with his great thoughts striding as in seven-leagued -boots, thoughts each of which would give any single German writer -material for the rest of his life, was hidden to the inquisitive glance -of a painter who had never seen in the whole of human history anything -more than a series of petty episodes. And one who is not able to paint a -good portrait is not justified in intruding into other regions of art. - -For similar reasons the religious paintings with which he busied himself -in his last days have likewise enriched art with no new element. They -are a Philistine remodelling of the Biblical drama, in the same style as -his historical pictures. In the end he appears himself to have become -conscious how little laborious compilations of this kind have in common -with art, and since with the best will in the world he could produce -nothing better than he had painted in the thirties, he lost all pleasure -in his vocation and abandoned himself to gloom and pessimism, from which -death set him free in 1856. - -_Thomas Couture_, who after Delaroche was most in vogue as a teacher in -the fifties, was of greater importance as an artist, and in his "Romans -of the Decadence" produced a work which, from the point of view of the -Juste-milieu, is worthy of consideration even to-day. He was a -remarkable man. His parents, shoemakers at Senlis, seem to have regarded -the thick-headed, slowly developing boy as a kind of idiot, and are said -to have treated him with no excessive gentleness. He was sent away from -school because he could not understand the simplest things, and studied -without success in the studios of Gros and Delaroche. And yet, after he -had made his début in the Salon of 1843 with the "Troubadour," a fine -picture in the style of Devéria, his "Orgie Romaine" of 1847 made him at -one stroke the most celebrated painter in France. Pupils thronged to him -from every quarter of the globe, and he left a deep and enduring -impression upon every one of them. A very short, corpulent, -broad-shouldered, thick-set, proletarian figure, with thick disorderly -hair, a blouse, a short pipe, and a gruff manner, he used to stride -through the lines of his pupils, who regarded him with wonder on account -of his ability as a teacher and his remarkable powers. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - COUTURE. THE ROMANS OF THE DECADENCE.] - -Yet, when a few years had elapsed, no one heard of him again. After his -"Love of Gold" and a couple of portraits, he felt that he was -unfruitful, and gave up the battle. "The Falconer," an excellent -picture, with charming qualities of colour, was the last work to give -any proof of Couture's technical mastery. He fell out with Napoleon, who -wished to employ him; made many enemies by his writings, especially -among the followers of Delacroix, whom he criticised beyond measure; and -finally, embittered, and abandoning all artistic work, he buried himself -in his country place at Villers de Bel, near Paris. Thither Americans -and Englishmen used to come to order pictures of him, and were much -astonished to hear that the old gardener's assistant, as they took him -to be, sitting on the grass and mending shoes or old kettles, was -Couture. The news of his death in 1879 caused general astonishment; it -was as if one long buried had come to life again. It had meanwhile -become evident that even his "Romans of the Decadence" was only a work -of compromise, the whole novelty of which consisted in forcing the -results attained by the Romantic school in colouring into that bed of -Procrustes, the formulæ of idealism. The work is undoubtedly very -noble in colouring, but what would not Delacroix have made of such a -theme! or Rubens, indeed, whose Flemish "Kermesse" hangs not far from it -in the Louvre. Couture's figures have only "absolute beauty," nothing -individual; far less do they exhibit the unnerved sensuality of Romans -of the decline engaged in their orgies. They are merely posing, and find -their classical postures wearisome. They are not revelling, they do not -love; they are only busied in filling up the space so as to produce an -agreeable effect, and in disposing themselves in picturesque groups. -Even the faces have been vulgarised by idealism: everything is as noble -as it is without character. There is something of the hermaphrodite in -Couture's work. His art was male in its subjects, female in its results. -His "Decadence" was the work of a decadent, a decadent of Classicism. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - COUTURE. THE TROUBADOUR. - - (_By permission of M. Charles Sedelmeyer, the owner of the picture._)] - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THE POST-ROMANTIC GENERATION - - -Four years after Couture painted his "Roman Orgy," Napoleon III ascended -the throne, and the Parisian orgy began. It was a remarkable spectacle -that the capital offered in those days--a spectacle of fairy-like, -flashing and sparkling splendour. Even to-day, when Republican Paris -endeavours as much as possible to obliterate every memory of the Empire, -Napoleon's spirit lives in the external appearance of the city and -hovers over every conspicuous point. Augustus might say that he had -found his capital a city of plaster and lime, and left it one of stone -and bronze; Napoleon has the right to maintain that he raised palaces -where there had been barracks. - -Notwithstanding all the imprecations uttered against his rule, the most -thorough-going Republicans reluctantly concede to him the possession of -one good quality: he knew how to bring prosperity to the shop; "_il -faisait marcher le commerce_." One hears it said that the beautiful city -on the Seine is but the shadow of what it then was. "_Le niveau a -baissé!_" says the Parisian, when he calls to mind the gorgeous days of -the Empire. The extravagant elegance, the magnificent luxury, which used -to roll in superb carriages along the Boulevards and the Champs Elysées -towards the Bois de Boulogne, and exhibited itself in the evening in the -boxes of the theatres; the lustre which emanated from the Court, and the -concourse of all the nabobs of the world,--all this must in those days -have given to Parisian life a sparkling splendour, a something -stupefying and intoxicating, an alacrity of enjoyment which had no -parallel elsewhere. To the respectable, pedantic _bourgeoisie_ which -ruled under Louis Philippe had succeeded a new generation of men of the -world, which drank to the lees all the refined pleasures that a modern -great city has to offer. The gentlefolk of the Empire understood the art -of living better, cultivated and exhausted it after a more inventive -fashion, than any generation that had gone before. In the Tuileries sat -the man of the Second of December, the connoisseur and promoter of all -refined tastes. In his person the age was embodied, that age depicted by -Zola in _La Curée_, in the passage where he describes the halls, -illumined as if by enchantment, of the imperial palace. There, all the -splendour of over-civilisation glitters and gleams, with its bright eyes -and sparkling jewels, with its breath of intoxicating perfumes floating -from naked shoulders and arms and half-veiled voluptuous bosoms; while -the green, sphinx-like eye of Napoleon III rests indifferently on the -alabaster sea of white shoulders bowing before him, as he reviews all -that he has possessed and all that he can yet enjoy. Dumas' _Dame aux -Camélias_, _Diane de Lys_ and _Le Demi-monde_, Barrière's _Filles de -Marbre_, Augier's _Mariage d'Olympe_, give the impress of the period -upon literature, and the single phrase "The Lady of the Camelias" -conjures up a world of forms and of scenery. _La Nouvelle Babylone_ is -the title of the fine book in which Joseph Pelletan depicted the -mysterious Paris of those years, the great city which cherished in its -bosom the lowest and highest extremes of a refined world of pleasure, -and was at the same time an inexhaustible fountain of arduous work. - -One would have imagined that these new conditions of Imperial France -would have left their impress, in some way or other, upon the art of -painting also; just as in the works of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, -Terborg, Ostade, Pieter de Hooch, and Van der Meer of Delft the entire -seventeenth century is reflected, clearly and with animation, treated -with charming familiarity or else with grandiose effect, in its spirit, -its manner of feeling, its habits and costumes. What a domain painting -would have had; from the official festivals and the bustle of public -life down to the complete delineation of the family home! Literature had -entered into this course a quarter of a century before, and had shown -the path--a path leading to new worlds. But in French art French society -is not reflected. Not a single painter has left us a picture of this -splendid Paris, dancing on a volcano and yet so amiably delightful. -Classicism and historical painting still held the field, as if turned to -stone, and show, in essentials, hardly any modification. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - ALEXANDRE CABANEL.] - -So far back as in 1833, Charles Lenormant wrote of the school of David: -"Even the great painter Ingres was not able to rejuvenate a school which -was breaking up from old age, or to restore their full resonance to the -slackened and worn-out chords; his only office was to give the old -synagogue honourable burial. Take away this last scion of the Classical -school, and the curtain may fall--the farce is ended." He might have -said the same thing forty years later, for with Cabanel and Bouguereau -Classicism has limped on, almost unchanged, to our own days. Its art was -a correct, conventional picture-stencilling, which might just as well -have flourished a generation earlier. Classicism--which in David was -hard and Spartan, in Ingres cold and correct--has become pretty in -Cabanel and Bouguereau, and is completely dissolved in the scent of -roses and violets. Only a certain perfume of the _demi-monde_ brings the -persons who appear as Venus, as naiads, as Aurora or Diana, into -complete accord with the epoch which produced them. For Ingres the -female body itself was the exclusive canon of beautiful form; now the -swelling limbs begin to stretch themselves voluptuously forth. Ingres -still treats the human eye as it was treated in ancient sculpture, as -something animal, soulless, and dead; now it begins to twinkle -provocatively. A modern refined taste plays round the classical scheme. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - CABANEL. THE SHULAMITE.] - -[Illustration: BOUGUEREAU. BROTHERLY LOVE.] - -_Alexandre Cabanel_, the incarnation of the academician, was, under -Napoleon III, the head of the École des Beaux Arts. He was a fortunate -man. Born at Montpellier, the city of professors, nourished from his -earliest youth on academic milk, winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in -1845, awarded the first medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1855, he -went on his way, laden with orders and offices, amid the tumultuous -applause of the public. Among the artists of the nineteenth century none -attained in so high a degree all those honours which lie open to a -painter in our days. Yet, as an artist, he remained all his life on the -plane of the school of Ingres. Even his "Death of Moses," the first -picture which he sent from Rome to the Salon, was entirely pieced -together out of Raphael and Michael Angelo. After that he laid himself -out to provide England and America with those women, more or less fully -attired, who bore sometimes biblical, sometimes literary names: Delilah, -the Shulamite woman, Jephthah's daughter, Ruth, Tamar, Flora, Echo, -Psyche, Hero, Lucretia, Cleopatra, Penelope, Phædra, Desdemona, -Fiammetta, Francesca da Rimini, Pia dei Tolomei--an endless procession. -But the only variety in this poetical seraglio lay in the inscriptions -on the labels; the way in which the figures were represented was always -the same. His works are pictures blamelessly drawn, moderately well -painted, which leave one cold and untouched at heart. They possess that -unusual polish and that dexterity of exposition which, like good manners -in society, create a favourable impression, but are insufficient in -themselves to make a man a pleasant companion. Nowhere is there anything -that takes hold upon the soul, nowhere any touch to prove that the -artist has felt anything in his painting, or force the beholder to feel -for himself. The unvarying faces of his figures, with their eternal -dark-rimmed eyes, resemble not living human beings but painted plaster -casts. One would take his "Cleopatra," apathetically observing the -operation of the poison, to be stuffed, like the panther at her feet. -One seeks in vain for a figure that is sincere or interesting, for a -face alluring in its truth to nature. His "Venus" of 1862 made him the -favourite painter of the Tuileries, and the insipid, rosy tints of that -picture became more and more feeble in the course of years, until his -works resembled wearisome cartoons, coloured by no matter what process. -He was Picot's pupil, it is true, but in reality Ingres was his -grandfather, a grandfather far, far greater than himself, whose -portraits alone show the entire littleness of Cabanel. All his life long -Ingres was in his portraits a fresh, animated, and admirable realist. -Cabanel indeed also painted in his earliest days likenesses of ladies -which were full of serious grace, uniting a powerful fidelity to nature -with considerable elegance. But his success was fatal to him. Moreover, -as a portrait-painter, he became the depicter of society, and society -ruined him. In order to please his distinguished customers, he devoted -himself far more than is good for portrait-painting to smooth rosy -flesh, large glassy eyes, and dainty fine hands, and over-idealised his -sitters till they lost every appearance of life. - -[Illustration: LEFÉBURE. TRUTH. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Goupil, the owners of the copyright._)] - -_William Bouguereau_, who industriously learnt all that can be -assimilated by a man destitute of artistic feeling but possessing a -cultured taste, reveals even more clearly, in his feeble mawkishness, -the fatal decline of the old schools of convention. He has been compared -to Octave Feuillet, who also never extricated himself from the scented -atmosphere of distinguished society; but the comparison is unjust to -Feuillet. Bouguereau is in his Madonna-painting a perfumed Ary Scheffer, -in his Venus-pictures a greater Hamon; and in his perfectly finished and -faultless stencilling style of beauty he became from year to year more -and more insupportable. His art is a kind of painting on porcelain on a -large scale, and he gives to his Madonnas and his nymphs the same smooth -rosy tints, the same unreal universalised forms, until at last they -become a _juste-milieu_ between Raphael's "Galatea" and the wax models -one sees in hairdressers' shops. Only in one sense can his religious -painting be called modern; it is an elegant lie, like the whole of the -Second Empire. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - HENNER. SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS.] - -Close by Bouguereau's "Venus" in the Luxembourg hangs the well-known -colossal figure of a beautiful nude woman with unnaturally -over-developed thighs, which by the shining mirror in its uplifted right -hand proclaims itself to be "Truth." _Jules Lefébure_, the painter of -this picture, is also completely a slave to tradition; he came from -Cogniet's studio, and won the Prix de Rome in 1861. But he at least -possesses more taste, elegance, and character; his painting of the nude -is more distinguished, truer, and more powerful. He is in the broader -sense of the word a worshipper of nature, and was so in his youth -especially. His "Sleeping Girl" of 1865 and his "Femme couchée" of 1868 -are smooth and honest studies from the nude, of delicate, sure -draughtsmanship, and have therefore not become antiquated even to-day. -Unfortunately he did not find this masculine accent again, when at a -later time he grouped ideal figures together to make pictures of them. -His "Diana surprised" of 1879 was a very clever composition of -well-ordered lines, possessing even fine details, especially one or two -charming heads, but as a whole it is lifeless and uninteresting. Like -Bouguereau, he lacks power, and, notwithstanding his distinction and his -capacity for arrangement, he is not painter enough to be truthfully -entitled a "painter of the nude." - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - HENNER. THE SLEEPER.] - -In general, French art, however willingly it took to this sphere during -the period we are considering, is rich indeed in well-drawn documents, -but poor in works which, considered as painting, can bear the most -distant comparison with Fragonard and Boucher. The Revolution had put an -end to the joyous flesh-painting of French art. At the close of the -eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century the painter of -tender and life-like flesh-colour was not the reformer David, but the -despised Prudhon. The former found his ideal in statues, and turned -flesh to stone. The latter, a direct descendant of Correggio, gave -expression to life with a tender mellowness. Ingres was again, like -David, a very mediocre flesh-painter, and the Romanticists entered this -sphere but seldom. Delacroix indeed has in his "Massacre" a couple of -excellent touches, but they are isolated phenomena in his work. After -1850 the approved system was to give nude female figures the appearance -of being made of terra-cotta, biscuit, or ivory. The forgotten art of -painting velvety, soft flesh, and of making it vibrate in light, had to -be learned over again, and to this meritorious task _Henner_ devoted -himself--the modern Correggio from Alsace, who stands to Cabanel in the -same relation as Prudhon to David. Even Henner in his later days has -become very much a mannerist, and has done some very bad work. To-day he -prefers a heavy, pasty, buttery style of painting, with faces which look -as if they had been pickled in oil, and have an unreal expression; his -contrasts of light and shade, once so delicate, have become raw and -forced. Yet beside Cabanel he still appears the true poet of female -flesh-painting, the dreamy graceful depicter of refined sensuality. -Prudhon's delicate ideal and his language of vibrating tenderness are -revived in Henner. His "Nymph resting" in the Luxembourg has the same -soft _morbidezza_, the same delightful mystery, in which Prudhon before -him had enveloped the sweetness of smiling faces and the beauty of -female forms. He too chose the Lombards as his guides. After winning the -Prix de Rome in 1858, he sent to the Salon of 1865 a "Susanna," which -already shows his ability as a flesh-painter and his relationship to -Correggio. And a Lombard he has remained all his life. One could with -difficulty find a more delicate and smooth study of the nude than his -"Biblis" of 1867. - -[Illustration: PAUL BAUDRY.] - -Since that time another tendency highly characteristic of Henner has -shown itself in his work. In his endeavour to render the tint and tender -softness of flesh as delicately as possible, he sought at the same time -for light which should intensify the clear tone of the nude body. These -he found in that time of evening, which one might call Henner's hour, -when the landscape, overshadowed by the twilight, gradually loses -colour, and only a small blue space in the sky or a silent forest-lake -still for a moment preserves the reflection of vanishing daylight. In -this tranquil harmony of nature after sunset, the white pallor of the -human body seems to have absorbed all the daylight and to be giving it -forth again, while the surrounding landscape is already merging into -colourless shadow. This is Henner's "second manner," and he raised it -into a system. Every year since then there has appeared in the Salon one -of those pale nymphs, standing out so mistily against the dark green of -an evening landscape, or one of those Virgilian eclogues, in which the -gloaming rests caressingly upon nude white bodies. And by this method of -painting flesh and of throwing light upon it, Henner has won for himself -an important place in modern art. - -_Paul Baudry_, the powerful decorator of the Grand Opera House at Paris, -marks the close of this tendency. In his work the endeavours of all -those talented artists who sought to found a new school of "ideal -painting" upon the basis of the study of the Italian Classicists came to -a crowning height; and at the same time Baudry took a further step -onward, in that he vivified the classical scheme with a yet more marked -cast of "modernity." - -His first picture, on the murder of Marat, was feeble. What David had -executed smoothly and forcibly in his dead "Marat," Baudry spoiled in -his "Charlotte Corday." The bath, the night-table with the inkstand on -it, the map on the wall, and all the fittings of the room, are painted -with the greatest finish, but the young heroine in her petrified -idealism has no more life in her than there is in the furniture. - -His "Pearl and Wave," which is hung in the Luxembourg close to Cabanel's -and Bouguereau's "Birth of Venus," gave proof of progress. A deep-blue -wave, towering on high and crowned with foam, has washed a charming -woman ashore like a costly pearl. She seems to have just awakened out of -slumber, and her roguish, moistly gleaming eyes are smiling. Saucily she -leans forward her fair-haired head under her bended arms, and stretches -out in easy motion her youthfully slender yet fully proportioned body. -Bouguereau's and even Cabanel's female beauties are waxen and spoiled by -retouching, but Baudry's Cypris is a living being, and preserves some of -the individual charm of the model. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BAUDRY. CHARLOTTE CORDAY.] - -It is this breath of realism which gives their attractiveness to -Baudry's pictures in the Paris Opera House. He cannot indeed be ranked -as a truly great master of decorative painting, as the Fragonard of the -nineteenth century; he was too eclectic. The five years, from 1851 to -1856, which as winner of the Prix de Rome he spent in the Villa Medici, -were the happiest of his life. He saw in the Italian galleries neither -Holbein nor Velasquez, neither Rembrandt nor Botticelli nor Caravaggio. -He saw nothing and revered nothing save the pure tradition of the -Cinquecento, which was to him the Alpha and Omega of art. He dreamed of -great decorative works which should place him on an equality with those -old masters. It was therefore joyful news to him when, at the suggestion -of his old comrade Charles Garnier, he was commissioned to adorn the -Opera House. Baudry was then thirty-five years old, in possession of -his full powers, and yet he thought it necessary to go back to Italy to -interrogate the masters of the Renaissance anew. For a full year he -worked ten hours daily in the Sistine Chapel. As soon as he knew Michael -Angelo by heart, he betook himself to England to copy Raphael's -cartoons, and then in 1870 for the third time to Italy, before he felt -himself capable of covering the five hundred square metres of canvas. -The task took him four years, and when it was exhibited at the Palais -des Beaux-Arts in 1874, prior to being placed in its final -resting-place, there was general astonishment at a single man's power to -produce so much and such great work. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - BAUDRY. TRUTH.] - -To-day his praise cannot be sounded so high. The place to which he -aspired, by the side of the great masters of the Renaissance, will not -fall to Baudry's lot; he is hardly to be reckoned even among the great -French masters of the nineteenth century. To rise even so far he lacked -the first and most essential gift--originality. He was a model pupil in -his youth, and a pupil he remained all his life. He always saw nature -through the medium of art, and never had the courage to take a fresh -breath and plunge into its fountain of youth. Between him and reality -there was ever the prism of the old pictures that he loved; brush in -hand, he devoted himself, turn by turn, and with equal enthusiasm, to -Michael Angelo, Titian, Correggio, Bronzino, and even Ingres. As soon as -he returned from Italy for the first time, as holder of the Prix de -Rome, he exhibited several pictures which were altogether Titian in -colouring, altogether Raphael in style. Each of them, even the most -important, calls some other painting to one's mind. His "Fortune and the -Child" is a variation upon Titian's "Divine and Earthly Love"; his -"Death of a Vestal Virgin" a reminiscence of the "Death of Peter -Martyr"; his "Warrior" in the Opera House is the painted double of -Rude's "Marseillaise." How many gestures, attitudes, and figures could, -by a close analysis, be shown to be borrowed in turn from Veronese, -Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, or Raphael! His works are a synthesis of -the favourite forms of the Cinquecento; they are the testament of the -Cinquecento masters. He was a Parisian Primaticcio, a posthumous member -of the old school of Fontainebleau. In him was embodied the last smile -of the Renaissance, the results of which he assimilated and reduced to -formulæ. He lacked creative imagination, and his pictures are wanting in -individual character. The nervous movement and sinewy stretchings of his -young men's bodies would never have been painted but for Donatello's -"David." Of his women, the powerful and muscular are descended from -Michael Angelo's "Eve," the more slender and elegant come down from -Rosso. His palette, with its blue and white tints, is bright and -flowery, but it is no less artificial than his composition. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BAUDRY. THE PEARL AND THE WAVE. - - (_By permission of Mr. W. H. Stewart, the owner of the picture._)] - -Nevertheless, it would be unjust to speak of Baudry's work as merely -faded Classicism, or as Michael Angelo and water. He was not merely a -pupil of the Italians; he contributed something Parisian of his own, -something pretty, mannered, refined, graceful, seductive, and smiling, -and felt himself independent enough to give to his conventional figures -this sprightly addition of genuinely modern nervosity. The -birth-certificates of his young men were drawn up in Florence, those of -his young women in Rome, three hundred and fifty years ago; yet there is -in the latter something of the _Parisienne_, in the former something of -the modern dandies who know the fevered life of the Boulevards. In his -delightful art there is French wit, there is a touch of the piquant, of -the feminine, of the ambiguous, which almost amounts to indecency. One -can still recognise the charming model in the figures of his dancers and -Muses; you can see that Music's or Poetry's waist was laced up in a -close-fitting corset before she sat for the picture. One may meet these -women at any moment, trailing their dresses along the sidewalks of the -Boulevards, or riding negligently in their carriages back from the Bois -de Boulogne. And still more modern than the wasp-like form of the body -is the character of the face and the smile on the lips. Thus Baudry has -given a new shade to the manner in which one can obtain inspiration from -the old masters. To all that he borrowed he added a personal and -charming note. He possesses an elegance and grace which are neither -Correggio's, nor Raphael's, nor Veronese's, but French and Parisian. His -Muses and Cupids, his "Comedy" and his "Judgment of Paris," are -documents of the French spirit in the nineteenth century, and--together -with a few small and fine portraits on a green or blue background _à la_ -Clouet, among which that of his friend About takes the first rank--they -will always assure him an important place in the history of French art. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - BAUDRY. CYBELE. - - (_By permission of the Marquise Arconati-Visconti, the owner of the - picture._) ] - -[Illustration: BAUDRY. LEDA.] - -Another artist who worked with Baudry at the decoration of the Grand -Opera House was _Élie Delaunay_, who painted in a hall leading out of -the foyer three large pictures on the myths of Apollo, Orpheus, and -Amphion, and was at that time less appreciated than he deserved. -Delaunay was born in the same year as Baudry, and, like him, was a -Breton. In their genius also they are very similar. He shared in -Baudry's admiration of the masters of the Renaissance, but his worship -was less for the Cinquecento than the fourteenth century. It was in -Flandrin's studio that he prepared himself for his entry into the École -des Beaux Arts. His first picture, in 1849, "Christ healing a Leper," -was, with respect to its Roman manner of conceiving form and its -bronze-like firm draughtsmanship, still entirely in the style of Ingres. -It was not till he went to Italy in 1856, as winner of the Prix de Rome, -that he turned from the works of the Roman school to those of the early -Renaissance masters, to whom he was attracted by their rigorous study -of form and their manly severity. His sketch books were filled with -drawings after Paolo Uccello, Filippo Lippi, Pollajualo, Ghirlandajo, -Botticelli, Gozzoli, and Signorelli. It was just at this time that -French sculpture was making its significant revolt against the antique -and in favour of Donatello, Verrocchio, and Della Robbia; that the Prix -de Florence was founded, and that Paul Dubois' "Florentine Singer" -appeared. Delaunay became as a pupil of the Quattrocento masters one of -the greatest draughtsmen of the century, a healthy Naturalist in the -sense in which the Primitives were so, with a concise and firm power of -design which only Ingres amongst modern French painters shares with him. -The bodies of his nude male figures are strained in nerve and muscle -like those of Donatello; they have the essential elegance and powerful -rhythm of Dubois' statues. Even the two pictures which he sent from -Italy to the Salon, "The Nymph Hesperia fleeing from the Pursuit of -Æsacus," and the "Lesson on the Flute" in the Museum at Nantes, were -works of great taste and sincerity, studied with respectful and patient -devotion to nature, without striving after sentimental effect and -without conventional reminiscences. When in 1861 he returned from Rome, -he completed the frescoes in the church of St. Nicholas in Nantes, -which, in their strict severity, remind one of Signorelli's Cycle at -Orvieto. In 1865 appeared in the Salon his "Plague at Rome," which -afterwards passed into the Luxembourg, and which is not devoid of tragic -accent. In that collection hangs also his "Diana" of 1872, a proud nude -figure drawn with firm and manly lines, and full of grave dignity, after -the manner of Feuerbach. At the same time as his "Diana" he exhibited -his portrait of a Mlle. Lechat, seated like one of Botticelli's Madonnas -in front of a trellis of roses--in the style of the old masters, and yet -modern, naturalistic, and in excellent taste. Thenceforth he took his -place among the first portrait painters of his time. There is an -inexorable love of truth, a something bronze-like and stony in his -pictures, finished as they are with the firm impress of medals. -Instances of this may be found in his fine portrait of Mme. Toulmouche, -whom he has represented in a white summer costume, with black gloves, -seated in the midst of cheerful landscape; and also in several male -heads drawn with that firmness of modelling which Bronzino in his best -days alone possessed. After the completion of the Opera paintings he -finished, in 1876, twelve decorative pictures for the great hall of the -Council of State in the Palais Royal. His last works, which remained -unfinished, were designs for the Pantheon--scenes from the life of St. -Geneviève--in which he followed in the footsteps of the great fresco -colourists of Upper Italy, Gaudenzio Ferrari and Pordenone. Élie -Delaunay was no original genius, and as a pupil of the painters of the -Quattrocento has not enriched the history of art in any way, but he -stands forth, in a time which cared for nothing but external effect, as -a very loyal, serious, and honest artist, whose works all bear the stamp -of a healthy, manly spirit. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - BAUDRY. EDMOND ABOUT.] - -Though in the works of these masters the Classicism of Ingres passes -away, in part enfeebled and in part imbued with modern elements and -vivified by a more direct study of nature, yet on the whole Paul -Delaroche dominates this period also. Historical painting takes the -highest places in the Salon, and shows itself altered only in this -respect, that, instead of Delaroche's tameness of style, we have -sensational subjects, arguments which revel in scenes of horror and -display of corpses. Literature had already entered upon this path. Even -Mérimée in his last novel, _Lokis_, was clearly the forerunner of that -tendency in taste which Taine characterised by the words, "_Depuis dix -ans une nuance de brutalité complète l'élégance_." Flaubert himself, in -his _Salambo_, was to some extent carried away by the stream. Consider, -for instance, the descriptions of Gisko crawling, a maimed, shapeless -stump, out of the ditch into Matho's tent, and of how his head is sawn -off; of the tortures inflicted by the Carthaginian people upon the -captured Matho; or of how the mercenaries are starved to death in the -rocky valley where they were imprisoned. Vying with this tendency of -literature, painting attained in its chosen themes an over-excitation -which reached the limits of the possible. While Delaroche had only in a -very timid manner led the way to the tragedies of history, the younger -artists hunted up all the most horrible deeds of blood to be found in -the great Book of Martyrs of the story of man, and elaborated them on -gigantic canvases. It would be quite impossible to draw up a catalogue -of all the murders at that time perpetrated by French art. They might be -arranged under various headings, as biblical, historical, political -murders; murders in connection with robbery, and murders arising out of -revenge; with subdivisions corresponding to the means employed, as -poison, the dagger, the halter, broadsword and rapier, the bowstring, -strangling, burning, etc. This was the time when, on account of this -dominance of the "_Genre féroce_," the public used to call the Salon the -Morgue. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - DELAUNAY. DIANA.] - -_Toudouze_ painted the "Fall of Sodom" with a dozen copper-coloured -Abyssinians, larger than life, rolling on the ground in convulsions, -while Lot's wife, dying and half-consumed by fire, gnashes her teeth as -she raises the corpse of her child over her head. In a picture of -_George Becker's_ were represented the corpses of King Saul's sons, -delivered over by David to the Gibeonites, hanging alongside of each -other in a dark forest scene on a cross-shaped framework, like butcher's -meat from the shambles. Their mother stands beneath the scaffold, -swinging a knotted club to protect the corpses from an antediluvian -vulture. In a painting by _Bréhan_, Cyaxares, King of the Medes, gives a -banquet, and by way of dessert has his guests the Scythian leaders -massacred by his mercenaries. In one by _Matthieu_, Heliogabalus has hit -upon a yet happier idea, for at the conclusion of the meal he sets -half-starved lions and tigers upon his guests. _Aimé Morot_ depicted in -a large picture "The Wives of the Ambrones" in the battle of Aquæ -Sextiæ. They are hurling themselves like a horde of furies upon the -Roman horsemen who are attacking the camp. Half-naked, or entirely so, -with their hair flowing behind them, they throw themselves upon the -Romans, catch hold of the swords by the blade, tear their eyes out, and -are trampled beneath the horses' hoofs. Especially popular were the -voluptuous and cruel wild beasts from the menagerie of the Cæsars. Nero -in particular suited the atmosphere of the period; his ghost haunted the -novel, the stage, sculpture, and painting, and there seemed to be a -general agreement to immortalise him and the morally monstrous -personality of Locusta. In a picture by _Sylvestre_ he is represented -with florid cheeks, glowing with fat, and gloating over the mortal agony -of a slave lying on the ground, upon whom Locusta has tested the poison -intended for Britannicus. _Aublet_ varied the same theme by making a -negro lad the victim, while several corpses of negroes lying in the -background suggest that the Emperor was not quite satisfied with -Locusta's first experiments. Round Nero, the more entirely to fill his -magnificent Golden House, the charming shades of his congenial comrades -in crime weave their flitting dances. _Pelez_ depicted the strangling of -the Emperor Commodus by the gladiator to whom the Empress had entrusted -the task, and painted with tender interest the marks caused by suffusion -of blood which the athlete's hand had left upon the unhappy prince's -neck. A very familiar figure is that of Seneca, with distorted features, -uttering his last words of wisdom while the blood pours from his opened -veins. After the madness of the Cæsars comes the atrocious history of -the Merovingian kings. _Luminais_, the painter of Gauls and barbarians, -represented in his large picture "Les Énervés de Jumièges" the sons of -King Clovis II, who, after the muscles of their knees have been -destroyed by fire, are set helplessly adrift in a boat on the Seine. -Then followed torture scenes from the time of the Inquisition, and -saints burning at the stake. The conception which this post-Romantic -generation had of the East was of cruelty and voluptuousness mixed, a -thing pieced together out of white bodies, purple streams of blood, and -brown backgrounds. Here, the favourite Sultana contemplates the severed -head of her rival, which stares at her out of its glassy eyes; there, -eunuchs are making ready to strangle a woman condemned to death. In -works such as these the genius, powerful in composition, of Benjamin -Constant, celebrates its triumphs. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - DELAUNAY. BOYS SINGING.] - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - DELAUNAY. MADAME TOULMOUCHE.] - -Yet, notwithstanding all the means of allurement furnished by such -themes, these paintings almost invariably fail to produce the -anticipated effect. Not that it is the brutality of the subjects that -makes them unpleasant. Art in all times has busied itself with the -horrible. How voluptuously does Dante depict the horrors of Hell! What -imagination was ever peopled with figures more dreadful than those -conceived by Shakespeare? Cruelty and death have a poetry of their own: -why should Art prudishly abstain from depicting them? Only, if the -result is to be a good picture, the subject must be in strict congruity -with the talent employed upon it, and in the majority of these works -this conformity is lacking. The subjects alone had become more savage -and brutal. In the manner of treatment there is none of the wild effect -which the Neapolitans of the seventeenth century gave to their scenes of -martyrdom. Spirits truly wild, like Delacroix and Caravaggio, are not to -be met with every day. The painters who launched out upon these -bloodthirsty themes took absolutely no inward "enjoyment in tragical -subjects," but simply painted them as if after precepts learned at -school. And as they were also deficient in that knowledge of nature -which is acquired only by direct study of life, not one of them was in a -position to give to his historical scenes that naturalistic weight which -alone gives to such themes a character of convincing probability. True, -these pictures compel respect on account of their unusual ability. These -naked bodies, twisting themselves in the most varying postures of pain, -give proof by their correct draughtsmanship of the most painstaking -anatomical studies, yet after all they are nothing more than inverted -Laocoöns. The Classical spirit haunts them still, and a discordant -effect is produced when subjects so full of wild passion are tranquilly -depicted according to cold conventional rules. Over all these figures -and scenes, even the most horrible, lies the veil of a Classical -embellishment, which deprives them altogether of that directness which -lays hold on the imagination. The pictures are good studies of costume, -and make an admirable impression by their resplendent glow of colour; -they are show-pieces, brilliant stage effects, as happily conceived as -any of Sardou's. But the recipe for their production is still that of -the school of Delaroche: avoidance of all extremes, generalised forms, -careful composition, crude lukewarmness, or the affectation of daring. -Scarce one of these painters has given to his wild subject an equal -wildness of treatment; not one has raised himself from the paltry level -of Delaroche to the artistic height of Delacroix. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - SYLVESTRE. LOCUSTA TESTING IN NERO'S PRESENCE POISON PREPARED FOR - BRITANNICUS.] - -_Laurens_ alone, surnamed by his comrades "the Benedictine," because his -predilection was for forgotten themes from ecclesiastical history, -constitutes in a certain sense an exception to the rule. He too belongs -to the group of historical painters whose theory is that a picture -should represent an historical fact with absolute accuracy. But he is -more masculine than Delaroche. His personages are truer to nature, or, -if one will, less banal; the general effect is warmer and fuller of -life; he has a greater power of attracting attention. There is nothing -great in his work, but there is no cold pedantry: the art of combination -is more adroit, so that one is less aware of calculation, and may -sometimes observe a grim earnestness. He really loves the terrible, -while the others merely made use of it for the manufacture of what are -nothing more than tableaux. To the Inquisition especially he was -indebted for notable successes, and at times he was able to depict its -dark scenes of horror in a very subtle manner. When he heaps up, in -front of a church, corpses to which the priests have refused burial; -when he disinters popes in order to place them in the dock before their -accusers; when he opens coffins to reveal the decomposed features of -some erstwhile beauty, he sets even blunted nerves on the stretch; and -as he has therein attained the goal he had proposed to himself, his art -is not without its justification. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - LUMINAIS. LES ÉNERVÉS DE JUMIÈGES.] - -Among the younger generation, _Rochegrosse_, an artist of daring genius, -appeared for a while to have taken to such themes by free choice, and -not solely through the traditions of the studio. One seemed to observe -in his works a truly emotional temperament flaming behind the trammels -of conventionality, and was almost inclined to rank him among the -spirits of storm and stress who trace their descent from Delacroix. -After his first picture, in which "Vitellius" is represented dragged -through the streets of Rome and ill treated by the populace, he achieved -success with a scene taken from the destruction of Troy. Here -"Andromache," raging with impotent anguish, is struggling against a -number of Greeks who have snatched her child from her arms to throw it -down from the ramparts. This brutal strife is depicted with the highest -naturalistic power. Neither the heroine nor the warriors belong to the -ideal figures of the style of compromise. Andromache is of a fulness of -form almost approaching corpulence, and the Greeks remind one of Indians -on the warpath. Mangled corpses complete the picture, and on the bare -wall to the left, over the stairs, hang dead bodies abandoned to -corruption and the birds of prey. In his third picture he took for his -theme the horrors of the barbarous and ferocious Peasants' War in the -fourteenth century, as Mérimée had described them in his book entitled -_La Jacquerie_; and his work is all the more effective as there lurks in -the subject a certain grim modern touch which reminds one of the Social -Democracy, of the insurrection of the Commune, of something which might -happen even to-day. The insurgents break into the hall, where the ladies -of the castle have taken refuge with their children. One alone stands -erect, the grandmother in her nun-like widow's dress, and stretches her -arms behind her with a gesture of energy, as if to shield the younger -ones at her back. The foremost intruder ironically takes off his cap. -Another lifts up on his pike the fair-haired, bleeding head of the lord -of the castle; a third has similarly transfixed his reeking heart. -Others are pressing in from without, breaking the window panes with -their weapons, which are yet dripping with blood. Beneath frightful -figures are seen, the most horrible that of a woman standing on the -window-sill, her hands propped upon her knees, gazing with insane -laughter upon the mortal terror of the aristocratic ladies. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - LAURENS. THE INTERDICT.] - -In his subsequent pictures Rochegrosse did not go so far afield. His -"Murder of Julius Cæsar" was a work of art in white upon white, full of -crude imagination, with white walls, white reflections of light, white -togas, and dark red blotches of blood. His grass-eating "Nebuchadnezzar" -proved that from the sublime to the ridiculous there is often only a -step. Between times he painted archæological trifles for ladies of -literary culture, such as the "Battle of the Sparrows" of 1890; but in -his great "Fall of Babylon" he has proved once more what he can do. No -doubt it is not a fine work: it is a mere decorative piece, but an -astonishingly spirited performance. The scene is the palace of the -Babylonian kings, the decorative construction of which the recovered -monuments and the recent scientific investigations had rendered it -possible to reproduce. Rochegrosse consulted with the zeal of an -archæologist all the treasures of the Louvre and the British -Museum,--Assyrian friezes, ornaments, and costumes,--and then set forth -in these surroundings the famous banquet at which the Prophet Daniel -explained the words "Mene, Tekel, Peres." The day begins to break; in -the distance the army of the Medes advancing to attack the palace has -burst open the gate; Belshazzar leaves the table in terror, and takes to -his weapons; the naked women, still intoxicated, stretch their limbs, or -remain lazily indifferent lying on the ground; around is a dazzling -confusion of mosaics, of polychrome architecture, of fantastic images of -animals, of glittering tapestries shot with many hues and pleasing to -the eye; of flowers, vases, fruits, pastry, and nude bodies of women. -The grey light of morning strives to overcome that of the -half-extinguished lamps, and rests with leaden weight upon the gigantic -still-life below. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - REGNAULT. SALOME. - - (_By permission of M. Georges Petit, the owner of the copyright._)] - -If some portion of Delacroix's wild genius appears to have descended -upon Rochegrosse, yet was _Henri Regnault_, as a colourist, the greatest -of Delacroix's heirs--even allowing for the exaggerated renown which -came to him in France, from the fact that he was the last to fall in the -war of 1870. His portrait of "General Prim" of 1869, which, rejected by -the sitter, came eventually to the Louvre, is somewhat reminiscent of -Velasquez and Delacroix, but is nevertheless, with those of Géricault, -amongst the finest equestrian portraits of the century. In his "Salome" -he has depicted a black-haired girl with twitching feet, resting upon a -stool after her dance, and contemplating with the cruelty of a tigress -the platter which she holds ready for the head of John the Baptist, -while her glowing red mouth with its dazzling teeth smiles like that of -an innocent child. In her he has embodied with infernal subtlety the -demon of voluptuous wantonness, and has composed a symphony in yellow -of seductive and dazzling charm. She is attired in transparent -gold-inwoven robes, which have a caressing congruity with the -resplendent texture of the background. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - REGNAULT. THE MOORISH HEADSMAN.] - -His "Moorish Headsman" is a symphony in red. In his pale rose-red garb -the tall Moor stands in majestic dignity, wipes a few drops of blood -from the blade of his sword, and glances with careless indifference--a -type of the dreamy cruelty of Oriental fatalism--without anger and -without pity, without hatred and without satisfaction, upon the severed -head with its distorted eyes, which, rolling down a couple of steps, has -stained the white marble with purple patches of blood. "I will cause the -genuine Moors to rise again, at once rich and great, terrible and -voluptuous,"--so the voice of Delacroix speaks out of this picture by -Regnault. His paintings, like those of his master, have the effect of -splendid Oriental costumes; they are shot with every hue, they lighten -and glisten, they are inwoven with magnificent arabesques of gold and -silver, with sparkling embroideries and precious stones. The "Orlando -Furioso" of art lives once more in these fascinating harmonies, in the -power, splendour, and lustre of the colouring. Just as Baudry at the -close of the Classical period produced in his paintings for the Opera -House the noblest work after the idealist formulæ, so Regnault in his -"Salome" and his "Prim" has completed the last defiant works of the -formulæ of Romanticism. - -We have thought it advisable to follow this development of the art of -painting down to its close, just as in treating of the older periods we -have proceeded, not upon chronological principles, but upon those of -historical style. Now that the old art has been followed to the grave, -it will be all the easier, later on, to perceive clearly how the new -arose slowly out of its invisible depths. And as France since 1830 has -become the high school of art for other nations, those paths have at the -same time been indicated along which the art of painting was proceeding -during these years in other countries. - -[Illustration: HENRI REGNAULT GENERAL PRÍM] - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -THE HISTORICAL SCHOOL OF PAINTING IN BELGIUM - - -Belgian art had gone through the same history as French art since David. -When the French patriarch came to Brussels to pass the remainder of his -days there in honour, he found the ground already well prepared. The -Classicists had long since made their way into art, and the old Flemish -tradition was dying out. Lens and Herreyns are the last colourists in -the sense of the good old time, but they are associated with the good -old time only through the qualities of their colouring. As a degenerate -descendant of Van Dyck, _Lens_ painted with a feeble brush sweet, -insipid, sugary work for boudoirs and _prie-dieu_ chairs; and had lost -his feeling for nature to such a degree that he gave the aged the same -flesh tint as children, and men the full breasts of hermaphrodites. -_Herreyns_, appointed director of the Antwerp Academy in 1800, was more -masculine; and although likewise conventional and wanting in -individuality, he was none the less a painter of breadth and boldness. -He was most enraptured with a model with a copper-coloured skin and -knotted muscles, or with pretty and ruddy children, and fat nurses with -swelling breasts. This bold worker embodied in his own person the art of -a great epoch, but did nothing to renew it. These painters, indeed, only -mixed for a new hash the crumbs fallen from the table at which giants -had once sat. They looked backwards instead of around them, and lighted -their modest little lamp at the sun of Rubens. France was the only -country where art followed the great changes of culture in the age. -Hence Flemish painting had been crossed with French elements long before -David's arrival. And Paris was for the artists of 1800 what Italy had -been for those of 1600. They made their pilgrimage in troops to the -studio of Suvée, who had originally come from Bruges, but had lived -since 1771 on the Seine. There, and there only, recipes for the -composition of great figure pictures were to be obtained. And thus art -completed what the Empire had in a political sense begun. The artistic -barriers fell as the geographical ones had done before, and the Belgian -painters went back to Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges as men -annexed by France. - -David on his arrival needed only to shake the tree and the fruit fell -ripe into his lap. He entered Flanders like a conqueror, and left the -signs of ravage behind him on his triumphal progress. In Brussels a -court gathered round him as round a banished king, and a gold medal was -struck in memory of his arrival. He took Flemish art in his powerful -hands and crushed it. For, needless to say, he saw nothing but barbarism -in the genius of Rubens, and inoculated Flemish artists with a genuine -horror of their great prince of painters. He continued to teach in -Brussels what he had preached in Paris, and became the father-in-law of -a deadly tiresome Franco-Belgian school, to which belonged a succession -of correct painters; men such as Duvivier, Ducq, Paelinck, Odevaere, and -others. For the aboriginal, sturdy, energetic, and carnal Flemish art -was prescribed the mathematical regularity of the antique canon. The old -Flemish joyousness of colour passed into a consumptive cacophony. And -then was repeated in Belgium the tragedy which Classicism had played in -France. Everything became a pretext for draperies, stiff poses, -sculptural groupings, and plaster heads. Phædra and Theseus, Hector and -Andromache, Paris and Helen, were, as in Paris, the most popular -subjects. And so great a confusion reigned, that a sculptor from whom a -wolf was ordered included the history of Romulus and Remus gratuitously. - -The only one whose works are still partially enjoyable is _Navez_. He -was, like Ingres in France, the last prop of this art, chiselled, as it -were, out of stone; and even after the fall of Classicism he remained in -esteem, because, like Ingres, he knew how to steer a prudent course -between David, the Italians, and a certain independent study of nature. -A touch of realism was mingled with his mania for the Greeks; only to a -limited extent did he correct "ugly" nature; he would have ventured to -represent Socrates with his negro nose and Thersites with his hump, and, -again, like Ingres he has left behind him enduring performances as a -portrait painter. His correct, cold, and discreet talent grew warm at -the touch of human personality, and his drawings, in particular, prove -that he had warmth of feeling as an artist. As his biographer tells us, -he seldom laid down the sketch-book in which he fixed his impressions as -he talked. Every page was filled with sketches of a group, a figure, or -a gesture seen in the street and rapidly dashed off, "as realistically -as even Courbet could desire." And these he transferred, when he painted -in the "noble style." - -As Navez had importance as an artist, so had _Matthias van -Bree_--Herreyns' successor in the directorate of the Antwerp -Academy--importance as a teacher. He worked in Belgium, like Gros in -Paris, only in another way. While Gros as an artist was the forerunner -of Romanticism, and as a teacher an orthodox Classicist, Van Bree is -tedious as an artist, but as a teacher he fanned in the young generation -a glowing love for old Flemish art. No one spoke of Rubens, Van Dyck, -and the great art of the seventeenth century with so much warmth and -understanding; and whilst with the charcoal in his hand he composed -buckram cartoons, he dreamt of a youth who should arise to renew the old -Flemish tradition. - -Before long this young man had grown up. He had seen the artistic -treasures of Antwerp and Paris. Here Rubens had delighted his eyes, and -there Paul Veronese. As he admired both in the Louvre, he heard behind -him the voice of the young Romanticists who, like him, had an enthusiasm -for colour and movement, and blasphemed the stiff, colourless old David. -_Gustav Wappers_, also, had paid toll to Classicism, and painted in 1823 -a "Regulus" after the well-known recipe. All the greater was the -astonishment when, in 1830, he came forward with his "Burgomaster van -der Werff": "Burgomaster van der Werff of Leyden, at the siege of the -town in 1576, offers his own body as food to the famished citizens." The -very subject could not fail to create enthusiasm in the great body of -the people, excited as they were by ideas of liberty: the brilliant -method of presentation did this no less. What the old Van Bree looked -for, the return to the splendour of colour and sensuous fulness of life -of the old masters, was achieved in this picture. In the same year, when -Belgium had won her nationality and independence once more, a painter -also ventured to break away from the French formulæ of Classicism, and -to treat a national theme in the manner of those painters who in former -centuries had been the glory of Flanders. Wappers was greeted as a -national hero; his part it was to bring to an issue with the brush that -good fight which others had fought with the musket and sabre. His -picture was a sign of the delivery of Flemish art from the French house -of bondage. Whilst older men were horrified, as the followers of the -school of Delaroche were afterwards horrified at the "Stone-breakers" of -Courbet, the younger generation looked up to Wappers as a Messiah. -Everything in the Brussels Salon faded before the freshness of the new -work; a springtide in painting seemed to be at hand, and the wintry -rigidity of Classicism was warmed by a burst of sunshine, the old gods -trembled and felt their Olympus quake. Gustav Wappers was held to be the -leader of a new Renaissance. In him the great era of the seventeenth -century was to be continued. The iridescence of silken stuffs, the whole -colour and festal joyousness of the old masters, were found once more. -As in France there rose the shout, "An Ingres, a Delacroix!" so there -resounded in Belgium the battle-cry, "A Navez, a Wappers!" The picture -was bought by King William II of Holland, and in 1832 Wappers was made -Professor of the Antwerp Academy. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - GUSTAV WAPPERS.] - -The Exhibition of 1834 confirmed him in his new position as head of a -school. This was a genuine triumph, which he gained by his "Episode in -the Belgian Revolution of 1830." A scene out of the blood-stained days -of the street fights in Brussels--that glorious final chapter of the -struggle of the Belgian people for freedom from the French yoke--was -nothing less than an event in which every one had recently taken part. -At a period when so few realised how closely the great masters of the -past were bound to their own time and imbibed from it their strength and -nourishment, this new painter, in defiance of all theories, had drawn -boldly from life. This picture was regarded as "a hymn of jubilation for -what was attained and a threnody for the sacrifice it had cost." And the -neighbourhood of the church, where he had laid the action, stamped it -almost as the votive picture of the Belgian people for its dead. On the -right an artisan standing aloft upon a newly thrown up earthwork is -reading to his attentive comrades the rejected proclamation of the -Prince of Orange. On the left a reinforcement is coming up. In the -foreground boys are tearing up the pavement or beating the drum; and -here and there are enacted various tragical family scenes. Here a young -wife with a child on her arm clings with all the strength of despair to -her husband, who resists her and finally tears himself from her grasp -and hurries to the barricade--the cry of love is drowned amid the clash -of arms. There, supported on the knee of his grey-headed father, rests a -handsome young fellow with closing eyes and the death-wound in his -heart. It seems as though the Horatian _dulce et decorum est_ might be -said to wander over his features and to glorify them. For patriotism as -well as for mere sentiment, here are noble scenes enough and to spare. -Not only all Brussels, but all Belgium, made a pilgrimage to Wappers' -creation. Every mother beheld her lost son in the youth in the -foreground whose life has been sacrificed; every artisan's wife sought -her husband, her brother, or her father amongst the figures of the -fighting-men on the barricades. All the newspapers were full of praise, -and a subscription was set on foot to strike a medal in commemoration of -the picture. If, up to this time, Wappers had been merely praised as the -renewer of Belgian art, he was now placed alongside of the greatest -masters. Thiers induced him to exhibit in Paris the much discussed work, -the fame of which had passed beyond the boundaries of Belgium. The -"Episode" made a triumphal tour of all the great towns of Europe before -it found its home in the Musée Moderne; and Wappers' fame abroad -increased yet more his celebrity in Flanders. Thanks to him, the -neighbouring nations began to interest themselves in the Belgian school. -All were united in admiration of "the mighty conception and the -harmonious scheme of colour." The German _Morgenblatt_ published a study -of him in 1836. Wappers counted as the leading painter of his country. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - WAPPERS. THE SACRIFICE OF BURGOMASTER VAN DER WERFF AT THE SIEGE OF - LEYDEN.] - -Yet the same year brought him his first rivals. His entry on the stage -had given strength to a group of young painters belonging to the same -courageous movement, and the Brussels Salon of 1836 concentrated their -efforts. _Nicaise de Keyzer_ made his appearance in heavy armour. As -early as 1834 he had come forward with a great picture, a Crucifixion, -in which he desired to compete with Rubens, as it seemed, in the -latter's most special province. Yet the work merely testified to its -author's excellent memory: the majority of the heads, gestures, and -draperies had been made use of in old pictures in precisely the same -fashion. Consciously or not, he had copied fragments direct, and welded -them together in a new composition. If, in spite of this, the name of de -Keyzer already flew from mouth to mouth, he owed it to the nimbus of -romance which irradiated his person. The story went that an Antwerp lady -on one of her walks had seen a young man drawing in the sand, while his -flock was at pasture not far off. She stepped up and offered him a -pencil, and he, a new Cimabue, began forthwith to sketch a picture of -the Madonna. The drawing was so beautiful (so the tale ran) that the -lady would have held it a sin to allow the genius to end his days as a -shepherd. He came to town, received instruction, and learned to paint. A -little idyll illuminated by the amiability of a lady was quite enough to -prepare a friendly reception for De Keyzer. And since he, like a -tractable, modest young man, hearkened attentively to criticism, he -satisfied all desires when, in 1836, he came forward with his "Battle of -the Spurs at Courtrai, 1302." In its quiet elegance the work answered to -the peaceful mood which prevailed once more after the days of revolt and -political insurrection. He was given special credit for clearness of -composition and antiquarian exactness. De Keyzer had chosen the moment -when the Count of Artois was expiring on the knees of a Flemish soldier; -another Fleming had his arm raised to protect his general from the -approaching French. For the rest, there is a lull in the fight, though -the battlefield in the background is indicated with the minuteness of an -historian: none of those carnages of blood and smoke of which the world -was grown once more weary, but a correct, well-disciplined battle, a -skilful composition of fine gestures, helmets, cuirasses, and halberts. -Even the Count's spur, says Alvin, is drawn after the original, the only -remaining spur out of seven hundred which lay scattered on the field -after the day of Courtrai. - -In the same year _Henri Decaisne_ completed his "Belges Illustres." The -famous past was supposed to give its blessing to the great present. The -artist, who in Paris had painted portraits with success, had been -esteemed there by Lamartine, and celebrated by Alfred de Musset in a -brilliant article in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, now gratified a long -cherished desire of the Belgian national pride when he united the heroes -of the land in an ideal gathering. - -Soon afterwards _Gallait_ and _Bièfve_ trod the stage of Belgian -painting. In point of size their pictures surpassed all that that age, -accustomed as it was to vast canvases, had yet witnessed. "The -Abdication of Charles V" measured twenty feet; it was hung in the Salon -Carré of the Louvre above Paul Veronese's "Marriage at Cana." An entire -court of great ladies and gentlemen, clad in velvet and brocade, move in -the gorgeous hall of state of a king's castle. The solemn moment is -represented when Charles V, erect and dominating the entire assembly, -cedes the government of his possessions to Philip: and here is a mine of -profound criticism of the philosophy of history. This old man, with one -foot in the grave, whose forceful head still bears, like a Caryatid, the -heavy burden of empire, embodies the splendour, fame, and might of -bygone days. Faltering, he steps down from the throne, as though -hesitating at the last moment whether he should appoint as his successor -this son whom he both loves and fears; and, lifting to heaven his tired, -sunken eyes, he commends unto God the future of the realm. Philip, the -only one in the assembly entirely clothed in black, who receives the -gift of dominion with an icy coldness, is transformed by the able -exegesis of the critics into the satanic demon conjuring up the powers -of hell. The picture even gives a glimpse into the future. For as he -speaks Charles leans his left hand upon the shoulder of another young -man, William of Orange. This indicates that soon the nation will wrest -their independence from the double-tongued Jesuitical policy of Philip. -To the left of this central group, robed in velvet and silk, stand the -ladies around Margaret, the sister of the Emperor; she, in the garb of a -nun, sits in her chair as in a _prie-dieu_. To the right, near the -throne, are pages and priests, and amidst them Egmont and Horn, standing -aloof and silent, look upon the scene. "The Abdication" had a grand -success. It confirmed the hopes which had been set on Gallait ever since -the completion of his "Tasso," and it was proudly ranked amongst those -works which did special honour to the young nation. Wappers saw himself -eclipsed, and Louis Gallait took the lead. - -[Illustration: WAPPERS. THE DEATH OF COLUMBUS.] - -_Edouard de Bièfve's_ "Treaty of the Nobles" formed the historical -supplement to this work; after the triumph of the kingdom came the -triumph of the people. The picture represents the signing of the -defensive league, against the Inquisition and other breaches of -privilege, which the nobility of the Netherlands entered into in 1566, -in the Castle of Cuylenburg, near Brussels; it was hailed by the -_Berliner Staatszeitung_ as "a landmark in the chronicle of historical -painting." - -This heroic era of Belgian painting was brought to a close in 1848 by -_Ernest Slingeneyer_, who, as early as 1842, obtained a brilliant -success with his "Sinking of the French Battleship _Le Vengeur_." His -"Battle of Lepanto" was the last great historical picture, and the -entire vocabulary of admiration known to art criticism was showered upon -it by the Brussels press. - -Even a new period of religious painting seemed about to dawn. German -art, up to that time little regarded in Belgium, had since the fifties -been discussed with considerable detail in the journals, and such names -as Overbeck, W. Schadow, Veit, Cornelius, and Kaulbach had speedily -acquired a favourable reputation. An exhibition of German cartoons -instituted in Brussels in 1862 served--strangely enough--to sustain this -high appreciation. The young nation believed that it could not afford to -lag behind France and Germany, and commissioned two Antwerp painters, -Guffens and Swerts, who had early made themselves familiar with the -technique of fresco, to found a Belgian school of monumental painting. -To this end they entered into a correspondence with the German artists, -and, after long studies in Italy and Germany, adorned with frescoes the -Church of Notre Dame in St. Nicolas in East Flanders, St. George's -Church in Antwerp, the town halls of Courtrai and Ypres, a few churches -in England, and the Cathedral of Prague; and on these frescoes Herman -Riegel, in 1883, published a book in two volumes. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - DE KEYZER.] - -At the present day this religious fresco painting, which handed on the -doctrine of the German Nazarenes--the doctrine that nothing remained to -the nineteenth-century artist except to imitate the old Italians as well -as he could--can no longer command such exhaustive disquisition. And not -it alone: the whole "Belgian artistic revival of 1830" appears in a -somewhat dubious light. After the disconsolate wilderness of Classicism -this period marked an advance. Every Salon brought some new name to -light. The State had contributed a big budget for art, and extended its -protecting hand over the "great painting" which was the glory of the -young nation. What could not be got into the Musée Moderne, founded in -1845, was divided amongst the churches and provincial museums. The -number of painters and exhibitions increased very noticeably. Beside the -great triennial exhibitions in Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, there were -others in the smaller towns, such as Mons and Mechlin. The Belgian -painters of 1830 appear, no doubt, as great men, when one considers to -what a depth art had sunk before their advent. Wappers especially -widened the horizon, by breaking the formula of Classicism and renewing -the tradition of the brilliant colourists of the seventeenth century. De -Bièfve, De Keyzer, Slingeneyer, severally contributed to the Belgian -Renaissance. The old Flemish race knew itself once more in this fond -quest of beautiful and radiant colouring. The historical painting had -even a certain actual interest. Standing so near to the glorious -September days when the country won its independence, the painters -wished to draw a parallel between the glorious present and the great -past, and to waken patriotic memories by the apotheosis of popular -heroes. And yet the Musée Moderne of Brussels is not one of those -collections in which one willingly lingers. The works in the old museum, -hard by, have remained fresh and living and in touch with us; those in -the new gallery seem to be divided from us by centuries. For the -mischief with pictures which do not remain for ever young is precisely -this--they grow old so very soon. Posterity speaks the language of cold -criticism; and those powers must be great which are even favoured with a -verdict. The luxuriant wreaths of laurel which fall upon the living are -no guarantee of enduring fame, while in the crowns awarded after death -every leaf is numbered. In how few of these once lauded works there -dwells the power to speak in an intelligible language to a generation -which tests them, not for their patriotism, but for their intrinsic art. -The Belgian school of 1830 has left behind it the trace of respectable -industry, but a supreme work is what it has not brought forth. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - DE KEYZER. THE BATTLE OF WOERINGEN.] - -How hard it is to see anything epoch-making in Wappers' "Van der Werff." -How theatrically the figures are posturing, how improbable is the -composition, and what an unwholesome dose of sentimentality is to be -found in that burgomaster, who is offering himself as a prey to the -multitude! The heads are those of troubadours. And these jerkins brought -fresh out of the wardrobe, these neatly ironed white ruffles, all this -rich velvet and glittering pomp, how little it resembles the torn rags -of a half-starved people after a nine months' siege! His revolutionary -picture of 1834 is an unfortunate transposition into a sentimental key -of the "Freedom on the Barricades" by Delacroix. Here also are -play-actors rather than men and women of the people. This old man who is -kissing the banner, the wife who winds her arms about her husband as -Venus does about Tannhäuser, the pale girl who has fallen in a faint, -the warrior who, with his eyes turned up to Heaven, is breaking his -sword--these are figures out of a melodrama, not revolutionaries -storming the barricades, nor famishing artisans fighting for their very -existence. And the thin, spick-and-span colouring is in just as striking -a contrast with the forceful action of the scene. An idyll could not be -carried out with more prettiness of manner than is this picture which -represents the rising of a people. The artisans are as white as -alabaster. A light rouge rests upon the cheeks of the women, as when -Boucher paints the faltering of virtue. And afterwards Wappers' course -went further and further down hill. Only in these two early works, in -which he responded to a political movement by an artistic endeavour, -does he seem, in a certain sense, individual and powerful. All the -others are stereotyped productions which, having nothing to do with the -Belgian national movement, have all the more to do with the Parisian -_École du bon sens_. Even his "Christ in the Grave," painted in 1833, -and now in St. Michael's Church at Louvain, with its artificial grace -and pietistical sentimentality, might have been painted by Ary Scheffer. -The pathetic scenes from English and French history of the sixteenth and -seventeenth centuries which followed this merely reflect that painting -of historical anecdote which was invented by Delaroche. Agnes Sorel and -Charles VII, Abelard and Eloise, Charles I taking leave of his children, -Anne Bullen's parting from Elizabeth, Peter the Great presenting to his -ministers the model of a Dutch ship, Columbus in prison, Boccaccio -reading the _Decameron_ to Joanna of Naples, the brothers De Witt before -their execution, André Chénier in the prison of Saint-Lazare, Louis XVII -at Simon the shoe-maker's, the poet Camoens as a beggar, Charles I going -to the scaffold--all are subjects treated by others before him in -France, and neither in their conception nor their technique have they -anything original. In the last-mentioned picture, exhibited in Antwerp -in 1870, he attained the limit of sugary affectation: a young girl has -sunk on her knees, and, with dreamily uplifted eyes, offers to the -Stuart King who is going to his death--a rose! Wappers is merely a -reflex of French Romanticism, although he cannot be brought into direct -comparison with any Parisian master. The passion of Delacroix stirred -him but little: nothing points to a relationship between him and that -great spirit. One is rather reminded of Alfred Johannot, whom he -resembles in his entire gamut of emotion as in his treatment and -selection of subjects. In both may be found elegance of line, Byronic -emphasis, histrionic gestures, and the same stage properties borrowed -from the theatre; never the genuine movement of feeling, only empty and -distorted grimaces. - -Of the others who appeared with him the same may be said. All Belgian -matadors of the forties and fifties came to grief, and are interesting -in the history of art only as symptomatic phenomena, as members of that -school of Delaroche which encompassed the world. They abandoned the -antique marble, the chlamys, and the leaden forms of the Classicists, to -set in their place a motley picture of the Middle Ages, made up of -cuirasses, mail-shirts, fleshings, and velvet and silken doublets. One -convention followed the other, and pedantic dryness was replaced by -melancholy sentimentalism. As skilled practitioners they understood the -sleights of their art, but never rose to individual creation. Amongst -many painters there was not a single artist. - -As regards _De Keyzer_, it seems as if throughout his whole life he had -wished to remain true to the memory of his benefactress: a simpering -feminine trait runs with enervating sweetness through all his works, -even through that "Battle of the Spurs" which founded his reputation. -According to old writers, the athletic bodies of the Flemings were the -terror of the French chivalry at Courtrai. De Keyzer has made of them -mere plaster figures, and the pale, meagre colouring is in keeping with -the languid conception. In the battles of Woeringen, of Senef, and -Nieuwpoort, which followed on this picture, and were executed for the -Belgian and Dutch Government, he succeeded still less in overcoming his -affectation; and he first found the fitting province for his mild and -correct talent when in later years he began to render little anecdotes -of the Emperor Maximilian or Justus Lipsius out of the studio of Rubens -or Memlinc. For these there was need of little but a certain superficial -play of colour and an elegant painting of textures. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - SLINGENEYER. THE AVENGER.] - -_Ernest Slingeneyer_ is stronger and more masculine. Yet what an -unrefreshing chaos of blue, red, saffron, and citron-yellow is that -"Sea-fight at Lepanto"! Slingeneyer felt that the _chiaroscuro_ with -which Wappers saturated his "Episode" was not in keeping with this -action under open sky. But rightly as he felt this, he had not the -strength to solve the problem of open-air painting. What a barbaric -effect these red, brown, and yellow bodies make in their motley -theatrical pomp! How the composition of the picture savours of -apotheosis! As for his later work, his thirteen gigantic pictures, -"_gloires de la Belgique_," in the great hall of the Brussels Academy, -like De Keyzer's mural paintings above the staircase of the Antwerp -Museum, they would never have been painted had they not had Delaroche's -hemicycle as their forerunner. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - LOUIS GALLAIT.] - -And _Gallait's_ "Abdication of Charles V"--one fails to understand how -it was possible that so much able disquisition was suggested by this -picture. How slight a smattering of the erudition of a stage manager is -necessary for the representation of such a scene: the throne on one -side; before it the lords and gentlemen in a semicircle, to the left -front the ladies to make a fine effect for the eye, and in the -background balconies with curious spectators, to widen out the -spectacle. It is all pure theatre; an icy ceremony with prettily got up -supernumeraries. All the heads have the discreditable appearance of -family portraits painted after death, and then washed over with a faint -conventional tinge of red. The whole thing is like a huge piece of -still-life, which an adroit painter has put together out of a mixture of -heads, gold, jewels, mantles, and perukes. Delaroche seems to have -contributed the composition, Devéria the sumptuous costumery; and as for -the colouring, Isabey, with his sunbeams shimmering in gold and silver, -may not improbably have had something to do with that. What was -spontaneous in Wappers is replaced in Gallait by cold calculation. Once -and once only did this correct and frigid painter give evidence of a -certain dramatic vein; it was when in 1851 he painted "The Brussels -Guild of Marksmen paying the Last Honours to Egmont and Horn." With a -brutal audacity the decapitated heads are set to their bodies. Bloodless -and livid, with clotted and tangled beards, they both really look as if -they had been studied direct from nature. But the rest of the picture, -the surrounding of theatrical attractions, parade costumes, and false -pathos, is all the less in keeping with this study of death. How -Zurbaran or Caravaggio would have treated the theme! They would have -veiled the unessential figures in darkness, and irradiated the heads -only with a trenchant light. What Gallait has made of it is the final -tableau of an opera of costume. The two sergeants of Alva who are on -guard, and the men who are showing their reverence, tread the stage like -bad actors, scrupulously arrayed and making pathetic gestures. Their -action has been studied from drawing-school copies; no genuine cry of -passion ever breaks through. Heads, hands, and outlines have all a -sickly idealism; a studious and sedulously polished manner of painting -has ruined the intrinsic spirit of the work as a whole. Théophile -Gautier was right when he wrote of Gallait: "_Tout le talent_ _qu'on -peut acquérir avec du travail, du goût, du jugememt, et de la volonté, -M. Gallait le possède._" Gallait's "Last Obsequies," hung in that same -Salon of 1850 which contained Courbet's "Stone-breakers," and the words -of recognition accorded to it, were the last obsequies given to the -parting genius of historical painting. A few years went by, and -Gallait's fame died away. After 1851 he painted fourteen other great -historical pictures ("Egmont's Last Moments," "Johanna the Mad by the -Corpse of her Husband," "Alva at the Window during the Execution of the -two Counts," etc.), and, occasionally, sentimental _genre_ pictures, -such as "The Oblivion of Sorrow" in the Berlin National Gallery; in this -a small boy is playing the fiddle for the consolation of his sister, who -had sunk upon the high-road exhausted by hunger. He also painted many -portraits. But nothing gave him a niche in the memory of his -contemporaries. "The Pest at Tournai," painted in 1882, was a work -extremely creditable to his old age; it was nevertheless a picture which -appeared to another generation merely as a phantom; and when, on 20th -November 1887, the announcement of his death passed through the land, it -came unexpectedly, like that of a person already believed to have been -long dead. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - GALLAIT. EGMONT'S LAST MOMENTS.] - -Finally, _Edouard de Bièfve_, who in 1842 shared Gallait's triumph in -Germany, and was afterwards named in the same breath with him, is the -man who marks the complete corruption of this tendency. If the sturdy -Wappers, the emasculate De Keyzer, and the eclectic Gallait tricked out -their pathetic heroes with noble heads like that of the Antinous, and -offered their contemporaries an adroit theatrical art, a parade, and a -hollow pathos, the incapable Bièfve never got beyond the painting of -_tableaux vivants_ laboriously presented. Terrible and of Shakespearian -impressiveness is the scene in which the half-famished Ugolino hurls -himself upon his son in an appalling ecstasy of frenzy, a curse against -God and man upon his lips. Upon the canvas, six metres wide, which -Bièfve in 1836 devoted to this theme, there is represented an old -gentleman, who, though certainly a little pale, contrives to maintain in -perfection the punctilious bearing of a cavalier, and in the midst of -his fasting cure has picturesquely draped round his shoulders an ermine -mantle, as if he had been asked out to dinner. Before him stands a young -man, possessing that graceful outline beloved of Paul Delaroche. -Devéria, Ary Scheffer, and Johannot were better painters of such -monumental illustrations of the classics. As yet the shivering art of -Belgium had learnt only to warm itself at the Parisian fireside. Even -Bièfve's "League of the Nobles of the Netherlands," despite its national -subject-matter, was no more than a lucky hit, which he owed to his long -residence in Paris. And how tiresomely is the scene played out! One -would wish to catch the mutterings of insurrection from these men who -personify the Belgian people; but Bièfve's picture is restful and -dignified. Egmont and Horn, the lions of the occasion, are conducting -themselves like honest citizens who are bored at a party. Seated in his -chair, the handsome Egmont thinks merely of showing his fine profile to -the ladies in the gallery, and Horn, who steps towards the table to make -his signature, does it with the elegance of a lover inscribing verses in -a young lady's album. Three brothers with clasped hands swear the -well-known oath to die together. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - EDOUARD BIÈFVE.] - -It is a little irony in the history of art that in 1842 these two same -pictures set all Germany in tumult, and diverted the whole stream of -painting into a new course. But how was it possible that the German -painters stood before them as if struck by lightning? It must be -remembered that for a whole generation Germany had seen nothing but -coloured cartoons, and that the enthusiasm for Franco-Belgian art had -been so prepared that the least touch was enough to set it in flames. - -[Illustration: _Bruyllant, Brussels._ - - BIÈFVE. THE LEAGUE OF THE NOBLES OF THE NETHERLANDS.] - -Since the wars of liberation Germany had been very reserved in her -attitude towards the French. Until the year 1842 original works of the -French and Belgian school had never been hung in any German exhibition. -But in spite of this, a high, even enthusiastic, appreciation of French -and Belgian painting was being spread, especially amongst the younger -generation. Even in engravings and lithographs after French pictures it -was believed that qualities of colour were discoverable which were -wanting in German painting. Heine and other authors, who had wandered to -Paris, "the lofty tower of Freedom," to escape from the depressing -condition of German affairs, had done what in them lay for the -dissemination of this cult. The rising generation of the forties had -been driven by Heine's notices of the Salon into an almost hostile -attitude towards the dominant art schools of Germany, the schools of -Düsseldorf and Munich. The stylists on the Isar and the sentimental -elegiac painters on the Rhine met with the same antipathy from the -younger generation. The appearance of the two Belgian historical -pictures, which were really nothing more than offshoots of the great -French school, gave nourishment of doubled strength to this tendency to -seek salvation in Paris. The German painters were startled out of -contentment with their beloved cartoons, and to many a man it seemed as -if the scales had fallen from his eyes. They perceived what an admirable -thing it is that a painter should be able to paint. What they could have -learnt long before from any good old picture, and in their turbulent -enthusiasm for ideas had not learnt, was made suddenly clear to them by -these new paintings. They came to the conclusion that it was impossible -for God Almighty to have poured light and colour over the objective -world with the intention that painters should transform it into a world -of shadowless contours. They recognised that the style of cartoon work -had led away from all painting, and that it was therefore necessary to -do honour once more to the despised handiwork and technique of art, as -the fundamental condition of its well-being. However much the æsthetic -party might warn them not to renounce "the Reformation of painting, -which had been begun and perfected forty years before," and not "with -modern technique to sink back into the pre-Cornelian, ornamental model -painting," the demand for colour, which had been so long neglected, -asserted its rights more and more loudly. King Ludwig's saying was -repeated as though it were a new revelation: "The painter must be able -to paint." Colour was the battle-cry of the day, the battle-cry of -youth, to whom the world belongs. In place of the ideal of contour came -the ideal of hue and pigment. Cartoons, in the sense of the old cartoon -school, no one would draw any longer. To paint pictures, finished -pictures, was the tendency of the day. And since painting is to be -learnt from the living only, and such as could paint lived in Germany no -longer, they packed their trunks, and set out to learn from the -"go-ahead neighbour." As Rome had been hitherto, so was Paris now, the -high school of German art. "To Paris!" and "Painting!" were the cries -throughout all Germany. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE REVOLUTION OF THE GERMAN COLOURISTS - - -From 1842 dates the pilgrimage of the German artists to Paris, Antwerp, -and Brussels. In Delaroche, Cogniet, and Couture, in Wappers and -Gallait, they believed they could discover the secrets of art which were -hidden from German teachers. The history of art can scarcely offer -another example of such a sudden overthrow of dogmas hitherto dominant -by dogmas directly opposed to them. During the first half of the century -the painters of Germany were pious men, humorous, witty, and intelligent -men; they had a sharply cut profile, and so enchained the multitude by -their human qualities that nobody remarked how little they understood of -their craft, or that they were too superior to learn to draw correctly, -held colour unchaste, and made virtues of all their failings. The next -generation was condemned to learn painting during the whole of its -natural life. The former were "problematic natures": beings who united -with a Titanic force of will an actual achievement which is hardly worth -mentioning; who regarded the mere handicraft of art as beneath their -dignity; who, in their revelations to mankind, were resolved to burden -their spirit as little as possible with any sensuous expression of their -genius, and, above all, meant not to degrade themselves by the manual -labour of learning to paint, and thereby wasting their valuable time. -The latter were not ashamed of painting. By devoting themselves with -vehemence to the colouring and technique of oil-painting, they -accomplished the necessary revolution against the abstract idealism of -the school of Cornelius. In their opulence of ideas the draughtsmen of -cartoons had made a notch in the history of art by casting the technical -tradition overboard. To have reinstated this as far as they could, with -the aid of the French, is the peculiar merit of the generation of 1850. -"_Règle générale: si vous rencontrez un bon peintre allemamd, vous -pouvez le complimenter en français._" So runs the motto--not -complimentary to Germany, but quite unassailable--which Edmond About -prefixed to his notices on the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855. - -_Anselm Feuerbach_ was the first distinguished German artist who made -the journey to Paris with a proper knowledge of the necessity of this -step. In Germany he was the greatest representative of that Classicism -of which the principal master in France was Ingres, and the continuator -Thomas Couture. And he succeeded in accomplishing that which the German -Classicists of the beginning of the century strove after in vain. Whilst -they contented themselves with suggestions and an indeterminate -symbolisation of poetical ideas after the Greek writers, German -Classicism achieved in Feuerbach's "Symposium of Plato" a great, noble, -and faultless work, which will live. He moved upon classic ground more -naturally and freely and with more of the Hellenic spirit than even the -French. For the classic genius was begotten in him, and not inoculated -from without. In the _Vermächtniss_ the son calls his father's book the -prophetic seal of his own original being. He inherited the classic -spirit from the enthusiastic scholar, the subtile author of the Vatican -Apollo, to whom the genius of Greece had so fully and completely -revealed itself. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstängl._ - - ANSELM FEUERBACH. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -A remarkable nature: philologer and dreamer, German and Greek, one who -rejoiced in beauty and in the life of the senses, and whose proud muse -strayed through life solitary and with leaden weights upon her -feet,--such was Anselm Feuerbach, and by that division of his being he -was ruined. Equipped with a superior education, an appearance of -singular nobility, and with proud family traditions, he emerged like a -shining meteor in Düsseldorf, when he began his career at the age of -sixteen, brilliant, precocious, and already a favourite amongst women. -This was in 1845. He ran through all the schools in Germany, Belgium, -and France. In regard to the living, he believed himself to be indebted -to the French alone, and eagerly claimed the merit of having been the -first to seek them out. But it was in Italy that he had passed through -his novitiate as an artist. A glorious hour it must have been when -Feuerbach, full-blooded and dedicated to the worship of beauty, entered -Venice in 1855, in company with that cheerful and convivial poet Victor -Scheffel. In the town of the lagoons, whither he had come on a -commission from the Court of Karlsruhe to copy the Assumption of Titian, -Feuerbach made the second determining step of his life. The third he -made when his stipendium was withdrawn, and, full of youthful -confidence in his luck and his good star, he undertook his journey to -Rome. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - FEUERBACH. HAFIZ AT THE WELL.] - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - FEUERBACH. PIETA.] - -He was handsome, small, and refined, and rather pale and spare--of that -delicacy which in highly bred families is found in the last heirs with -whom the race dies out--and he had dark locks which clustered wildly -round his head. The moulding of his features was feminine, and his -complexion southern; his eyes, shadowed by long lashes, were brown, -sometimes fiery, sometimes sad and earnest, and his glance was swift. He -loved to sing Italian songs to the guitar in his fine, deep voice, and -Boecklin and Reinhold Begas would join in. - -The impressions he received in Italy were formative of his life. For he -learnt to understand the divine simplicity and noble dignity of antique -art better than Couture was capable of understanding them; and he -achieved a simple amplitude to which the French Classicism had never -risen. - -From his first works, to which the Düsseldorf egg-shell is still -sticking, down to the "Symposium of Plato"--what a route it is, and -through what phases he passes. "Hafiz at the Well," surrounded by -voluptuous, half-naked girls, painted at Paris in 1852, was his first -eminent achievement. In subject it is a late fruit from Daumer's study -of Hafiz: as a work of art it is one of the most genuine products of the -school of Couture. No other German artist has surrendered himself so -entirely to the French. With a large brush, never losing sight of the -complete effect, Feuerbach has painted his canvas, almost for the sake -of showing that he has assimilated everything that was to be learnt in -Paris. The same influence preponderates in the "Death of Pietro -Aretino," done in 1854. But, side by side with the Parisian master, the -later Venetians have an unmistakable share in this work. The capacity -to grasp things in a monumental largeness is already announced. -Evidently Feuerbach has studied Paul Veronese, and realised how high he -stands above the French painters. At the same time he has examined the -other Venetians for their technique, and discovered something which has -appealed to him in Bordone's colouring. But "Dante walking with -high-born Ladies of Ravenna," finished at Rome in 1857, was the ripest -fruit of his Venetian impressions. In sunny warmth of colour, fine -golden tone, and quiet simplicity of pictorial treatment, no modern has -come so near to Palma and Bordone. And in "Dante's Death," of 1858, -there predominates a still greater depth and golden glow, a grave and -devout beauty. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - FEUERBACH. IPHIGENIA.] - -In the following works, however, Feuerbach, with a conscious purpose, -denies himself the quality to which the Dante pictures owe a principal -part of their powerful effect: the mild glow, the sunny beaming of -colour. He confines himself to a cool scheme of tone, reduced to grey, -almost to the point of colourlessness; to a glimmer of leaden blue, a -moonlight pallor. At the same time he has concentrated the whole life of -his figures in their inward being, whilst every movement has been taken -from their limbs. Even the expression of spiritual emotion in the eyes -and features has been subdued in the extreme. The "Pietà," both the -"Iphigenias," and the "Symposium of Plato" are the world-renowned -proofs of the height of classic inspiration which he touched in Italy. -Measure, nobility, unsought and perfected loftiness characterise the -"Pietà," that mother of the Saviour who bows herself in silent agony -over the body of her Divine Son, and those three kneeling women, whose -silent grief is of such thrilling power, precisely because of its -emotionlessness. For "Iphigenia" Feuerbach has given of his best. She is -in both examples--the first of 1862, the second of 1871--a figure -sublime beyond human measure, grand like the figure of the Greek -tragedy. But the "Symposium of Plato" will always assert its high value -as one of the finest pictorial creations of an imagination nourished on -the great art of the ancients, and filled brimful with the splendour of -the antique world. There is nothing in it superfluous, nothing -accidental. The noblest simplicity of speech, a Greek rhythm in all -gradations, the beautiful lines of bas-relief, decisive colour and -stringent form--that is the groundwork of Feuerbach's art. And through -it there speaks a spirit preoccupied with greatness and heroism. Thus he -created his "Medea" in the Munich Pinakothek, that picture of -magnificent, sombre melancholy that affects one like a monologue from a -Sophoclean tragedy. Thus he painted his "Battle of the Amazons," one of -the few "nude" pictures of the century which possesses the perfectly -unconcerned and unsexual nudity of the antique. Italy had set him free -from all the insincere and calculated methods which had deformed French -art since Delaroche; it had set him free from all theatrical sentiment, -by which he had accustomed himself to understand everything that was -forced in costume, pigment, pose and movement, light and scenery. In the -place of the ordinary treatment from the model, with its set gestures -and grimaces, he gave an expression of form which was great, simple, and -plastic. His study seems to have been an incessant exercise of the eye, -to see and to hold fast to the essential, to the great lines of nature -as of the human body. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - FEUERBACH. PORTRAIT OF A ROMAN LADY.] - -In the full possession of these powers, which he acquired amid the -elementary simplicity and heroic majesty of Roman landscape by constant -intercourse with the great painters of the past, he determined in the -summer of 1873 to accept an invitation from the Vienna Academy. His -friends rejoiced. At last this worker, who had been abandoned in a -foreign land, seemed to have found in his native country a place which -offered him a new life. He was but little more than forty: yet all was -so soon to be over. From Rome he came to the restless capital which had -just lived through the birththroes of a new epoch; from the side of -Michael Angelo to the side of Makart! The sketches for a series on the -wars of the Titans, which he began after his arrival, promised the -greatest things. They display a sureness and majesty which find no -parallel in the German art of those years. But they were destined never -to be completed. - -Feeling himself, like Antæus, strong only on Roman soil, he lost his -power in Vienna. Reserved, innately delicate, a mystical, ideal nature -like that of Faust, and one which only with reluctance permitted to a -stranger a glimpse of its inner being; in his life, as in his art, -high-bred and simple, hating both as painter and as man everything -overstrained or sentimental; in his judgment harsh, severe, and -uncompromising, lonely and proud, he was but little adapted to make -friends for himself. The indifference with which his study for the "Fall -of the Titans" was received in the Vienna Exhibition wounded him -mortally. Vienna, which is so much disposed to laughter, laughed. -Criticism was rough and unfavourable. He left Vienna and went to Venice. -The tragical fate of a party of voyagers, drowned as they were playing -and singing together on a night journey to the Lido, gave him the motive -for his last picture, "The Concert," which was found unfinished after -his death, and came into the possession of the Berlin National Gallery. -On 4th January 1882 he died, alone in a Venetian hotel. - - "Hier ruht Anselm Feuerbach, - Der im Leben manches malte, - Fern vom Vaterlande, ach, - Das ihn immer schlecht bezahlte." - -So runs the epitaph which he made for himself. And posterity might alter -it into-- - - "Hier ruht ein deutscher Maler, - Bekannt im deutschen Land; - Nennt man die besten Namen, - Wird auch der seine genannt." - -However, one must not go too far. In familiar conversation Feuerbach -once said of himself that when the history of art in the nineteenth -century came to be written, mention would be made of him as of a meteor. -So isolated, and so much out of connection with the artistic striving of -his contemporaries, did he believe himself to be, that he held himself -justified in saying: "Believe me, after fifty years my pictures will -possess tongues, and tell the world what I was and what I meant." In -truth, he owes his resurrection less to his pictures than to the -_Vermächtniss_. A book has opened the eyes of Germany to Feuerbach's -greatness, and since that time the worship of Feuerbach has gone almost -into extremes. Throughout his lifetime--like almost every great artist -who has died before old age--he was handled by the Press without much -comprehension. The critics blamed his grey tones, the connoisseurs -complained of his unpatriotic subjects or missed the presence of -anecdote. His admirers were the refined, quiet people who do not praise -at the top of their voices. He never met with recognition, and that -poisoned his life. It is generous of posterity to make up for the want -of contemporary appreciation. But when he is set up as a pioneer, whose -work pointed out the art of the future, the judgment becomes one which a -_later_ posterity will subscribe to only with hesitation. - -[Illustration: FEUERBACH. MOTHER'S JOY.] - -Feuerbach presents a problem for psychological rather than artistic -analysis. Whoever has read the _Vermächtniss_ feels the personal element -in these works, sees in them the confessions of a proud, unsatisfied, -and suffering soul, and in their author no son of the Renaissance born -out of due season, but a modern who has been agitated through and -through by the _décadent_ fever. In his book Feuerbach appears as one of -the first who felt to his inmost fibre all the intellectual and -spiritual contradictions which are bred by the nineteenth century, and -who cherished them even with a sort of tenderness, as contributing to a -high and more subtilised condition of soul. He was one of the first who, -in the same way as Bourget and Verlaine, studied moral pathology under -the microscope, and who, with a tired soul and worn-out feelings, sought -for the last refinement of simplicity. And this weary resignations seems -also to speak from his pictures. Not one of the old painters has this -modern melancholy, this air of dejection which hovers over his works. -Even the ladies round Dante are filled with that sadness which comes -over youth on the evenings of sultry summer days, when it is struck by a -presentiment of the transitoriness of earthly things. It is as if these -figures would all some day or other vanish into the cloister, or, like -Iphigenia, sit lonely upon the shore of a sea, whither no ship should -ever come to release them. And it is certainly not by chance that -Iphigenia had such a hold upon the artist; he repeatedly set himself to -render her figure afresh, and, later, Medea steps beside her as the -impersonation of the still more intense sense of desertion which filled -the artist's spirit. The woman of Colchis, who sits shivering on the -shore of the sea, chilled through and through by the consciousness of -her abandonment; the daughter of Agamemnon, who in spirit is seeking the -land of the Greeks, with the boundless sea spreading wide and grey -before her, like her own yearning,--both are images of the lonely -Feuerbach, who, like Hölderlin, the Werther of Greece, flies to a dreamy -Hellas as to a happy shore, to find peace for his sick spirit. His -"Symposium of Plato" has not that exuberant sensuousness, that mixture -of _esprit_ and voluptuousness, of temperance and intemperance, which -marks the Athenian life under Pericles; nor has it the Olympian -blitheness with which Raphael would have executed the subject. A breath -of monkish asceticism is over every joy, subduing it. These Greeks have -tasted of the pains which Christianity brought into the world. Or take -his "Judgment of Paris" in Hamburg. Nude women life-size, Loves, -southern landscape, gay raiment, golden vessels, brilliant ornament, -beauty--those are the elements of the picture; and how little have such -words the power to render the impression! But Feuerbach's three -goddesses have an uneasiness, as if each one of them knew beforehand -that she would not receive the apple; Paris is sitting just as -cheerlessly there. And by borrowing his loves from Boucher, Feuerbach -has shown the more sharply the opposition between the Hellenic legend -which he interprets and the funereal mien with which he does it. The -blitheness of the antique spirit is tempered by the sadness of the -modern mind. He tells these old myths as never a Greek and never a -master of the Renaissance would have told them. Olympus is filled with -mist, with the colouring of the North, with the melancholy of a later -and more neurotic age, the moods of which are for that very reason more -rich in _nuances_--an age which is at once graver and more disturbed by -problems than was the old Hellas. Feuerbach's pictures are octaves in -the language of Tasso, but of a repining lyrical mood which Tasso would -not have given them. The brightest sunshine laughed over the Greece of -the Renaissance; over that of Feuerbach there rests a rainy, overcast -November mood. Even works of his like the "Children on the Sea-shore" -and the "Idyll" reveal a pained and suffering conception of nature, that -tender and subdued spirit that Burne-Jones has; it is as if these -blossoms of humanity were there to waste away in buds that never come to -fruition, as if it were no longer possible to breathe into creation the -true joyousness of youth. Even the five girls, making music out of -doors, in the picture "In Spring," look like young widows, putting the -whole tenderness of their souls into elegiac complaints for their lost -husbands. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstängl._ - - FEUERBACH. MEDEA.] - -To this resigned and mournful expression must be added the uncomfortable -motionlessness of his figures. They do not speak, and do not laugh, and -do not cry; they know no passions and sorrows which express themselves -by the straining of the limbs. Everything bears the impress of sublime -peace, of that same peace by which the works of Gustave Moreau, Puvis de -Chavannes, and Burne-Jones are to be distinguished from the ecstatic and -sentimental tirades of the Romanticists. In Feuerbach's works this is -the stamp of his own nature. The antique beauty becomes shrouded in a -mysterious veil; and life is illuminated as by a mournful light, which -rests over bygone worlds. What heart-rending keenness is often in the -effect of the melancholy tinge of these subdued bluish tones! That -colour is the genuine expression of the temperament reveals itself -clearly enough in Feuerbach. When he began his career, his head full of -ideals and his heart full of hopes, his pictures exulted in a Venetian -splendour, in full and luxuriant golden harmonies; as "joy after joy -was shipwrecked in the stream of time" they became leaden, sullen, and -corpse-like. As Frans Hals in his last days, when his fellow-creatures -allowed him only the bare necessities of life, accorded to the figures -in his pictures only so much colour as would give them the appearance of -living human beings; as Rembrandt's magical golden tone changed in the -sad days of his bankruptcy into a sullen, monotonous brown, so a deep -sadness broods over the pictures of Feuerbach,--something that savours -of memory and remorse, the mournful atmosphere and dark mood of evening -which the bat loves. Even as a colourist he has the melancholy lassitude -of the end of the century. - -That is what distinguishes him from his contemporaries. The other -idealists of those years painted their pictures without hesitation and -with the facility of a professor of calligraphy; they remembered, -arranged their reminiscences, and rubbed their hands with -self-complacency when they came near their model. They did not yet feel -the throb of the nineteenth century, and impersonality was their note. -Feuerbach, the neurotic brooder, was a personality. After a long -mortification, the human spirit, the living, suffering, human spirit, -celebrated its renaissance in his works. Under its influence the jejune -painting of prettiness practised by others was changed to modern -pessimism and sorrowful resignation. The more he gave way to these moods -the more modern he became, the more he was Feuerbach and the further he -departed from the works of art which were regarded by his contemporaries -and himself as eternal exemplars. He has been reproached with oddities -and strange eccentricities. The critics reminded him how far he departed -from the lines of his models; indignantly they asked him why he, the -pale, delicate, sick, neurotic, and overstrained man, the uncertain, -faltering, and tortured spirit, did not paint like the blithe, -improvising Raphael, like the jubilant and convivial Veronese, like the -sensuous, exuberant Rubens. And Feuerbach himself becomes perplexed. -Like Gros in France, he is conscious both of his strength and his -weakness. He does not stand sovereign above the old painters, like -Boecklin and those other idealists of the present. He runs through life -in ever fresh astonishment at the novelty which is revealed to him in -the works of earlier centuries. The nerves of this latter day vibrate, -the blood of the nineteenth century throbs in him--yet he has the wish -to imitate. The history of every one of his works is a fight, a -desperate struggle, between the individuality of the artist, his own -inward feeling, and the "absolute Beauty" which hovered beyond him cold -and unpliable. - -In his first drawings he begins boldly; one knows his hand and says: -"Only Feuerbach can have done that." And then one is able to trace, step -by step, and from sketch to sketch, what pains he takes that the -finished picture may be as little of a Feuerbach as possible. The -personal and individual element in the drawings is lost, what is -Feuerbachian in the composition, the personal contribution of the -artist, is effaced, and finally there is produced in the picture the -marvellous look of having been painted by a genuine old Venetian as a -ghost. And Feuerbach felt the dissonance. He feels that he fully -expresses himself no more, and also that he does not reach the level of -the old masters. He adds borrowed, conventional figure, like the Boucher -Cupids in the "Judgment of Paris"--figures against which every fibre of -his being revolts--just to arrive at an outward resemblance to the old -pictures, an impression of exultation and joyousness and the spirit of -the Renaissance. And when he stands opposite his work he seems to -himself like a gravedigger in a harlequin's jacket. He scrutinises -himself in despair, and one day comes to feel that his power of -production is exhausted. Splendid and unapproachable, from the walls of -the galleries, the art of the classic masters stares him in the face; -and he enters into a dramatic life-and-death struggle with it. He will -not be Feuerbach, and cannot become a Classic. The curtain falls and the -tragedy is over. Such destinies have been before in the world, no doubt; -but in our time they have multiplied, and seem so much the sadder -because they never come to the average man, but only to great and -peculiarly gifted natures. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - FEUERBACH. DANTE WALKING WITH HIGH-BORN LADIES OF RAVENNA.] - -These matters--a silent historical sermon--one reads, with the help of -the _Vermächtniss_, out of Feuerbach's works. There "his pictures -possess tongues"; there comes out of them a sound like the cry of a -human heart; the whole tragedy of his career becomes present--what he -succeeded in doing and what remained unapproachable. Yet later -generations, which will judge him no longer psychologically, but only as -an artist, generations with which he no longer stands in touch through -his ethical greatness, will they also feel this in the presence of his -finished pictures? To them will he be pioneer or imitator, forerunner or -continuator? Will he take his place by Boecklin and Watts, or by Couture -and Ingres? It is perhaps a happy chance that in the history of art one -sometimes stumbles upon personalities that mock at all chemical -analysis. Feuerbach, at any rate, is a great figure in the German art of -these years. His is a high-bred, aristocratic art, free from any -illustrative undertone, and from loud and motley colour. It is true that -his figures also pose, but never clumsily or without expression, never -theatrically. At a time when declamation was universal he did not -declaim, at least he never did so with a forced pathos; and it is -principally this which gives him a very high and special place amongst -the German painters of the transitional period. He is always simple, -grave, majestic. Everything that he does has style, and that makes him -so peculiar in an art which is so often petty. - -[Illustration: HENNEBERG. THE RACE FOR FORTUNE. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -But a different judgment is formed when one compares him with the French -and the old masters. A meteor Feuerbach was not; for he stood on the -ground of the Couture school, and raised himself later to yet greater -simplicity, going back to purer sources, to the Venetians and the -Romans. He is more austere and manly than Couture, but he is, as he -stands in his finished pictures, a Roman of the Cinquecento, who has -been in Venice; not an original genius of the nineteenth century, like -Boecklin. Boecklin paints the antique figures in their eternal fulness -and youth; but he is quite modern in sentiment and in his highly -developed technique. Feuerbach in regard to technique stands now on -French soil, now on Venetian or Roman; and in his sentiment he is an -imitator of the Cinquecentists, or, if you will, a phenomenon of -atavism. His writings and drawings show him concerned with the present, -his paintings with the past. The modern temperament, artistically -restrained, breaks out no more, the nerves have no rôle, no human sound -is forced from his figures. He learnt through the spectacles of the -great old masters to look away from everything petty in life, but he -never laid those spectacles down. This modern man, who was so neurotic -as a writer, sought as a painter, for the sake of the ideal, to have no -nerves at all. Before many of his pictures one wishes for a fire; they -make an effect so cold that one shivers. The quality in them which calls -for boundless admiration is his splendid artistic earnestness. There -speaks out of them a sacred peace. Yet, when he is set up as a pioneer, -it must never be forgotten that he is not self-sufficient as, shall we -say, Millet, but has attained his majesty of conception only in the -leading-strings of masterpieces of a great period, and precisely in the -leading-strings of those masterpieces from the numbing influence of -which modern art was forced to set itself free, before it could come to -the consciousness of itself. - -[Illustration: GUSTAV RICHTER. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -Together with Feuerbach--and having, like him, previously received -enlightenment as to colouring at the Antwerp Academy--_Victor Müller_, -of Frankfort, had gone to Couture in 1849. He resided until 1858 on the -banks of the Seine, and was especially influenced by Delacroix, and -perhaps also a little affected by Courbet. At least his "Wood Nymph"--a -voluptuous woman lying in a wood--which first made him known in Germany -in 1863, seems but little removed from the healthy realism and exuberant -vigour of the master of Ornans. Otherwise, like Delacroix, he has -occupied himself almost exclusively with Shakespeare. "Hamlet at the -Grave of Yorick," "Ophelia," "Romeo and Juliet," "Hero and Leander," -were pictures of a deep, sonorous glow of colour; the characters in them -were seized with great intellectual concentration, and the surrounding -landscape filled with that sombre poetry of nature which in the hands of -Delacroix so mystically heightens the impression of human tragedies. -Victor Müller was of a bold, uncompromising talent, full of southern -glow and wild Romanticism; a powerful, forcible realist, who never -sought the empty, sentimental, ideal beauty known to his age. In a -period dominated almost from end to end by a jejune and rounded beauty, -he gives pleasure by a healthy, refreshing "ugliness." All the heads in -his pictures were painted after nature with a religious devoutness; -painted by a man who openly loved the youthful works of Riberas and -Caravaggio. And just as surprising is the power of expression, the deep -and earnest sentiment, which he attained in gestures and physiognomy. -While Makart, in his balcony scene from _Romeo and Juliet_, never got -away from a hollow, theatrical affectation, Müller's picture glows -throughout with a sensuous passion that saps the blood. A new Delacroix -seemed to have been born; an extraordinary talent seemed to be rising -above the horizon of our art, but Germany had to follow to the grave her -greatest offshoot of Romanticism before he had spoken a decisive word, -just as she lost Rethel, the greatest son of the cartoon era, in the -flower of his age. - -Of the others who made the pilgrimage to Paris with Feuerbach and -Müller, not one has a similar importance as an artist. Their merit was -that they made themselves comparatively able masters of technique, and -taught the new gospel when they returned to Germany. To their -superiority in technique and colour, given them by a sound French -schooling, they owed their brilliant success in the fifties. They were, -at the time, the best German painters, and great at a time when ability -was novel and infrequent. As soon as it became customary and -commonplace, there remained little to raise them above the average. - -[Illustration: RICHTER. A GIPSY.] - -That is true of the entire Berlin school of the fifties and sixties. The -most independent of the many artists who journeyed from the Spree to the -Seine is, probably, _Rudolf Henneberg_, who died young. His technique he -owed to Couture, in whose studio he worked from 1851, and his -subject-matter to the German classical authors. Born a Brunswicker, he -felt himself specially attracted by his countryman Bürger, and became a -Northern ballad painter with French technique. Movement, animation, -wildness, and a certain romantic eeriness, proper to the Northern -ballad--these are Henneberg's prominent features, as they are Bürger's. -His pictures have a bold caprice and a peculiarly powerful and sombre -poetry. The hunting party storm past irresistibly, like a whirlwind, in -his "Wild Hunt," the illustration to Bürger's ballad, which in 1856 won -him the gold medal in Paris. - - "Und hinterher bei Knall and Klang - Der Tross mit Hund und Ross und Mann." - -A Düsseldorfian Romanticism, from the Wolf's Glen, is united to -Couture's nobleness of colouring in his "Criminal from Lost Honour," of -1860. And a part--even if only a small one--of the spirit which created -Dürer's "The Knight, Death, and the Devil" lives in his masterpiece "The -Race for Fortune," a picture breathed on by the spirit of sombre, -mediæval Romanticism, which made his name the most honoured in the -Exhibition of 1868. - -[Illustration: SCHRADER. CROMWELL AT WHITEHALL.] - -The negation of power, an almost feminine painter of no distinctive -character, a new edition of Winterhalter, was _Gustav Richter_. His -popularity is connected with the fisher-boys and odalisques, the -reproduction of which every sempstress at one time used to wear on her -brooch, while in printed colours they added splendour to all the bonbon -and handkerchief boxes. The accomplished workmanship and sparkling -treatment of material which he acquired in Paris made him in 1860, after -Eduard Magnus had made his exit, the most famous painter of feminine -beauty. A pleasure-loving man of the world, elegant in appearance, fame, -honour, and distinction were showered upon him, and he became the -shining spoilt darling of society, the central point of an extensive and -animated convivial intercourse. His works were carried out in a style -which, at that time, had not been learnt in Berlin, and had an air of -Court life which was held to be exceedingly fashionable. It was later -that the banal emptiness and insipid taste of his toilette portraits -first became obvious, and that their everlastingly sweet and doll-like -smirk, and their kind and winning eyes, always the same, began to grow -tiresome. In all his life-size chromolithographs there is a distinction -of build and appearance, which in the originals was perhaps to have been -desired, although the originals unquestionably looked like something -that was more human and individual. In riper years, after the happiness -of family life had been given him, he executed works which assure his -name a certain endurance; this he did in some of his family -portraits,--for instance, in those of his boys and his wife. To this -last period belongs the ideal portrait of the Baroness Ziegler as Queen -Louisa, which became such a popular picture in Prussia. But Richter's -"great" compositions, which once charmed the visitors at exhibitions, -are now forgotten. In "Jairus's Daughter"--admired in 1856 as a fine -performance in colouring--what strikes one now that its colouring has -long been surpassed is the inadequacy and theatricality of its -characterisation, the outward show, and the banality of this handsome -young man who performs his miracle with a declamatory pose. The -"Building of the Pyramids," painted for the Maximilianeum in Munich, -with its swarming crowd of dark-coloured people, and the royal pair come -to inspect with an endless train, is a gigantic ethnographical -picture-sheet, which did not repay the expenditure of twelve long years -of work. - -In Paris _Otto Knille_ learnt to approach huge canvas and wall spaces -with fearlessness, and by executing the many monumental commissions -which fell to his share in Prussia, he put this French talent to usury -in a manner which was as blameless as it was uninteresting. Some good -paintings by _Julius Schrader_, such as the historical pictures with -which his fame is associated, have remained fresh for a longer period. -The "Death of Leonardo da Vinci," as well as the "Surrender of Calais to -Edward III," "Wallenstein and Seni at their Astrological Studies," "The -Dying Milton," and "Charles I parting from his Children," are only a -collection of what the Parisian studios had transmitted to him. -Delaroche and the illustrative and theatrical painting of history, -having gone the rounds in Belgium, in the next decade demanded their -sacrifice in Germany. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - LESSING. THE HUSSITE SERMON.] - -Here also similar political and literary conditions were prescribed. A -backward people, uncontent with itself, pined for deeds and glory. -Through the presentment of the great dramas of the past the spirit of -the present was to be quickened, as a relaxed body by massage. Here also -the knowledge of history levelled the ground for painting, as it did in -France. While, in the imagination of the Romanticists, different ages -melted dreamily into each other, and the Hohenstauffen period, because -of its tender melancholy character, gave the keynote for all German -history, the scientific writing of history had, since the thirties, -entered as a power into literature. Schlosser began his -_Universal-historische Uebersicht der Geschichte der alten Welt_, which -swelled to nine volumes, and represented with a completeness hitherto -unapproached the civilisation of antiquity. His history of the -eighteenth century was a still greater departure, for, after the example -of Voltaire, he included manners, science, and literature in his account -of political events. On the uncompromising subjectivity of Schlosser -followed the scientific objectivity of Ranke, who, a master of the -criticism of sources, delineated with delicate, silver-point portraits -the Papacy after the Reformation, the French Court, the policy of the -princes of the age of the Reformation, Cromwell, and the heroes of the -rising power of Prussia. Luden, Giesebrecht, Leo, Hurter, Dahlmann, -Gervinus, and many others began their great labours. German painting, -like French, sought to take advantage of the results of these scientific -investigations; and Schnaase was the first who, in the _Kunstblatt_ in -1834, described historical painting as the pressing demand of the age, -and the cultivation of the historical sense in such a disconsolate epoch -as a "truly religious necessity." Soon afterwards Vischer began to -preach historical painting as a new gospel. History, he says, is the -revelation of God. His Being is revealed in it as much as in the sacred -writings of religion. Historical painting is therefore the completion -and full exemplification of those principles which, five centuries back, -in Giotto, led to the movement of the new Christian painting. It is -called forth by the development of all forms of life and knowledge, and -is the last and highest step which sacred painting is able to reach: it -is the final completion of sacred painting itself. "Who represents the -Holy Ghost with more dignity? He who paints Him as a dove upon a sheaf -of sunbeams, or he who places before me a great and lofty man, a Luther -or a Huss in the flame of divine enthusiasm?" - -Something of the sort had been in the mind of Strauss when he advocated -the worship of genius as a substitute for religion. The infidel -idealistic painting and satire had been followed by a religious art -which evaporated in Nazareanism; pure history in boots and spurs was -next preached as a religion. "We stand," says Hotho in his history of -German and Netherlandish painting, "with our knowledge, culture, and -insight, on a summit from which we overlook the whole past. The Orient, -Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, the Reformation, and modern times, -with their religion, literature, and art, their deeds and their life, -spread like a universal panorama before us; and it is one that we must -grasp with a universal feeling for the distinctiveness of every people, -of every epoch, and of every character. In this fashion to bury one's -self in the past, to get at the most essential meaning of its life by -knowledge, to awaken what is dead, and by art to renew what is vanished, -and thus to elevate the present to the level of the still living, -kindred Mnemosyne of the past, such is the vivifying work of our time; -and to that work its best powers must be devoted." - -[Illustration: CARL PILOTY.] - -The first who worked with these principles in Germany was _Lessing_. He -was a great landscape painter, and a clever and amiable man, whose house -in Karlsruhe was for many years a meeting-place for the polite world, -and every beginner, every young man of talent, visited it to seek -protection. During the winter of 1832-33 Menzel's _Geschichte der -Deutschen_ fell into his hands. In it he read the story of Huss and the -Hussites, and with "The Hussite Sermon" he soon afterwards began the -sequence of pictures which had as their theme the battle between Church -and State, the struggle of the Popes with the Emperors, the conflict -between binding tradition and free personal conviction--a sequence to be -viewed in connection with the opposition between authority and freedom -which had actually arisen through Strauss' _Life of Jesus_. "Huss before -the Council," "Huss on his Way to the Stake," "The Burning of the Papal -Ban," were found on their appearance exceedingly seasonable by the -orthodox, Protestant side. For people were determined to see in them, at -one time, the protests of a Protestant against the Catholic art -tendencies of the Nazarenes, at another, biting epigrams on the Catholic -and pietistic bias, ruling in Prussia under Friedrich Wilhelm IV. They -are of historical interest in so far as Lessing, before the period of -French influence, anticipated in them the path on which the German -historical painting--whose centre through Piloty came to be -Munich--moved in the following years. - -[Illustration: PILOTY. GIRONDISTS ON THE ROAD TO THE GUILLOTINE. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., owners of the - copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - PILOTY. UNDER THE ARENA.] - -_Piloty's_ glory is to have planted the banner of colour on the citadel -of the idealistic cartoon drawers. True, it was only the discarded -fleshings of Delaroche; but since he possessed, side by side with a -solid ability, pedagogic capacities of the first rank, and thus brought -to German art, in his own person, all the qualities which it had wanted -during half a century, his appearance was none the less most important -in its consequences. Even to-day, beside Kaulbach's "Jerusalem" and -Schnorr's "Deluge" in the new Pinakothek, his "Seni" is indicative of -the beginning of a new period. Before him the most celebrated men of -the Munich school made a boast of not being able to paint, and looked -down upon the "colourers" with a contemptuous shrug; so here everything -was attained which the young generation had admired in Gallait and -Bièfve. This astounding revelation of colour was in 1855 praised in -Germany as something unheard of and absolutely perfect. There was no -more of the petty, motley, bodyless painting which had hitherto been -dominant. The manner in which the grey of morning falls upon the -murdered man in the eerie chamber, the way the clothes and the silken -curtains glimmer, were things which enchanted artists, whilst the lay -public philosophised with the thoughtful Seni over the greatness of -heroes and the destiny of the world. At one bound Piloty took rank as -the first German "painter"; he was the future, and he became the leader -to whom young Munich looked up with wonder. Before him no one had known -how to paint a head, a hand, or a boot in such a way. No one could do so -much, and by virtue of this technical strength he founded such a school -as Munich had never yet seen. The consequence of his advent was that the -town could soon boast of many painters who thoroughly understood their -business. What an academical professor can give his pupils (thorough -groundwork in drawing and colour), that the young generation received -from Piloty, who at his death might have said with more right than -Cornelius: "We have left a better art than we found." He who discovered -and guided so many men of talent, left behind him when he died a -well-drilled generation of painters; and far beyond the boundaries of -Munich they assure him the honourable title of a preceptor of Germany. -The Munich movement does not offer the example of passionate and -embittered battles, like those which the Parisian Romanticists -maintained against the Classicists of the school of David. The guard did -not die, but surrendered, and retired into an _otium cum dignitate_. -Without a contest the ground was left to the new generation, which was -united by no bond of tradition with that which had just been driven from -the field; it was left to an unphilosophic, unpoetic generation, whose -only endeavour was to bind together the threads of technical art which -had been torn by unalterable circumstances. - -This revolution was accomplished with almost unnatural swiftness. In the -lifetime of Cornelius himself the Franco-Belgian dogma of colour reached -its end and summit in Makart, with whom colour is an elementary power, -overflowing and levelling everything with the might of absolutism. In -the same year that Cornelius died "The Pest in Florence" made its tour -through the world. Already Schwind and Steinle, those two children of -Vienna, had separated themselves from the thoughtful stringency of form -and plastic clearness of their German comrades, by a certain coloured -and lyrically musical element in their work. And now also it was an -Austrian who again habituated the colour-blind eyes of the Germans to -the splendour of pigment. Michael Angelo's expression of form, as it had -been imitated by Cornelius, was opposed by the colour-symphonies of the -Venetians: drapery and jewels, brocade and velvet, and the voluptuous -forms of women. - -[Illustration: HANS MAKART.] - -_Hans Makart_ was a genius most picturesque in his mode of life. Whether -this life was enacted in his studio, fitted up like a ballroom, in the -Ring-Strasse, converted into a stage, or upon his canvas, everything was -transformed for him into decoration gleaming with colour. And through -this delight in colour the most important impulses were given in the -most diverse provinces of life. Against the dowdy lack of taste and the -harsh gaiety of ladies' fashions in that era he set his distinguished -costume pictures, carried out in iridescent satin tones; and the -enterprising modistes translated them into fact. The Makart hat, the -Makart roses, the Makart bouquet--very old-fashioned, no doubt, at the -present time--were disseminated over the world. Under the influence of -Makart the whole province of the more artistic trades was regarded from -a pictorial point of view. Oriental carpets, heavy silken stuffs, -Japanese vases, weapons and inlaid furniture, became henceforth the -principal elements of decoration. The fashionable world surrounded -itself with brilliant colours; papers were supplemented by _portières_ -and Gobelins, ceilings were painted, and gay umbrellas stood in the -fireplace. The bald, honest city-alderman style gave way, and a bright -triumph of colour took its place. In the studio of the master were the -finest blossoms of all epochs of art; richly ornamented German chests of -the Renaissance stood near Chinese idols and Greek terra-cotta, Smyrna -carpets and Gobelins, and old Italian and Netherlandish pictures were -mingled with antique and mediæval weapons. And amid this rich still-life -of splendid vessels, weapons, sculpture, and costly stuffs and costumes, -which crowded all the walls and corners, there rose to the surface as -further pieces of decoration a velvet coat, a pair of riding breeches, -and a smart pair of Wallenstein boots. Their wearer was a little man -with a black beard, two piercing dark eyes, and one of those splendid -broad-browed heads which are universally accepted as the sign of genius. - -Makart's pictures are similar studies of still-life out of which human -figures rise to the surface. One hears the rustle of silk and satin, and -the crackle of costly robes of brocade; one sees velvet door-hangings -droop in heavy folds, but the figures which have their being in the -midst are merely bodies and not souls, flesh and no bones, colour and no -drawing. Sometimes he draws better and sometimes worse, but never well. -And therefore he seems unspeakably small by the side of the old -Venetians, who in such representation combined a highly developed -knowledge of form with luxuriant brilliancy of colour. But even his -colour, that flaunting, piquant, bituminous painting derived from -Delaroche, which once threw all Germany into ecstasies, no longer awakes -any cordial enthusiasm; and the fault is only partially due to the rapid -decay, the sadly dilapidated appearance of his pictures. There is not -much more remaining of them than of that shining festal procession which -for a forenoon set the streets of Vienna in uproar. Tone and colouring -have not become finer and more mellow with the years, as in old -Gobelins, but ever more spotty and dead. And even if they had remained -fresh, would they yet appeal to the present generation, so much more -discriminating in their appreciation of colour? - -Makart, so much lauded as a painter of flesh, was never really able to -paint flesh at all. His feminine flesh tints are often bloodlessly -white, and often tinged by an unpleasant, sugary rose hue. The fresh -fragrance of life is not to be found in his figures, for they have been -begotten, not by contact with nature, but by commerce with old pictures. -He was often reproached with immorality by the prudish critics of -earlier years; Heaven knows how stagnant and stereotyped this nudity -seems in the present day, and how tame this sensuousness, even when -one's thoughts do not happen to have been raised to the great, carnal, -and divine sensuousness of Rubens. Like Robert Hamerling, allied to him -by his intoxication in colour, Makart had a great momentary success; -but, like the former, the brilliancy of his work has swiftly paled, and -it is now seen how poor and sickly was the theme hidden behind the -lavish instrumentation. Because a correct and solid anatomy was wanting -to his creations from their birth upwards, they can live no longer now -that their blooming flesh is withered. In fact, Makart's painting was a -weakly and superficial art. He had a sense for nothing but what was -external. It is said that in Chile there are huge and splendid façades -on which are written _Museo Nacional_, _Theatro Nacional_, and there is -nothing behind. And so for Makart the world was a house with a splendid -façade glowing with colour, but without dwelling-rooms in which the -sorrow and joy of humanity make their abode. His men do not think and do -not live; they are only lay figures for splendid garments, or materially -circumscribed spaces of rosy flesh colour; they make a stuffed, -brainless, animal effect. All his women heave up their eyes in the same -meaningless fashion, and have a vapid, doll-like trait about their white -teeth, laid bare as if for the dentist. It makes no difference whether -they are meant to be portraits or merely embody a feminine plastic -lyricism. It was not wise of Makart to paint a portrait. He might drape -his original after Palma Vecchio, after Rubens or Rembrandt, as -Semiramis or a Japanese; his intellectual incapacity remained always the -same; the poetry of the psychical nature evaporated from his art. - -[Illustration: MAKART. THE ESPOUSALS OF CATTERINA CORNARO.] - -But all that cannot alter the fact that Makart takes a very high place -amongst his contemporaries, in that epoch dominated by the historical -painting, and not yet arrived at an original conception of nature. -Poussin said of Raphael: if you compare him with the moderns he is an -eagle, but if you place him by the Greeks he is a sparrow. So when one -thinks of Veronese or Rubens, one finds on Makart the feathers of a -sparrow, but amongst his contemporaries in Germany he seems like an -eagle. While all those from whom he derived, those Pilotys, Gallaits, -and Delaroches, were no more than skilled historians in painting, -Makart, though much tamer and smaller, has a relationship with Delacroix -in his sovereign artistry. That joy in the purely pictorial which -expressed itself in the festal procession in the Ring-Strasse and in the -furnishing of his studio was, moreover, the ground-principle of his art. -With the naïveté of the old masters he has boldly set himself above all -historical truth; with absolute want of respect for books of history he -has committed anachronisms at which any critic would be irritated. -Revelling in splendid revelations of colour, all that he concerned -himself about was that his costumed figures should render a fine harmony -of hues. So exclusively was his eye organised for colour that every -picture was first conceived by him on the palette as a luxuriant mass of -colour, and he invented afterwards the theme which was proper for it. If -Delaroche transformed painting into the flat, sober, and scientifically -pedantic illustration of history, Makart gave it again a bright and -splendid play of colour. The Nazarenes were philosophers and -theosophers, the Romanticists revelled in lyrical sentiment. Kaulbach -was a philosophic historical student of the Hegelian school, Piloty a -prosaic and declamatory professor of history, Makart was the first -German _painter_ of the century. His personages weary themselves out in -the enjoyment of their own dazzling outward personality. Free as the -ancients with their gods and legends, he pours forth his Cupids, -beautiful women, genii, Bacchantes, and historical figures, and at the -same time draws into his kingdom of art all nature with its variety of -plants, flowers, and fruits, all civilisation with its fulness of -splendid vessels and jewels, of shining stuffs, emblems, weapons, and -masks. All that he created breathes the naïve, sensuous satisfaction of -the genuine painter. - -"The Pest in Florence" undoubtedly had its origin in Boccaccio's -description of the great epidemic which visited the town on the Arno; -but the picture is a free fantasy of sensuous enjoyment and naked flesh, -a colour symposium in which there really lives an atom of the flaming -vital energy of Rubens. - -Take "The Espousals of Catterina Cornaro," that gay procession of -representatives from Cyprus and Venice, of dignified men, of procurators -of St. Mark, of women in foreign garb, of bright colour, who crowd round -their young mistress, the queen of the feast, rejoicing amid the -splendid architecture of the piazza. To the anger of the historian, he -removes the scene from the fifteenth century to the blossoming period of -the sixteenth, when the creations of Sansovino, Titian, and Veronese -adorned the Queen of the Adriatic. "The Entry of Charles V into Antwerp" -derived only its external impulse from Dürer's Diary. The picture with -the naked girls strewing flowers might almost as well represent the -triumphal entry of Alexander into Babylon. In the magic land by the Nile -it is not the history of civilisation and ethnography that attracts him, -nor the monumental world of the pyramids and the temples of the gods, -but the sensuous glow of southern nature and the still-life and artistic -accessories out of which the beautiful serpent Cleopatra is seen to -rise. Female bodies, animals, and fruits, set in the midst of rich, -luxuriant landscapes, painted with oil and bitumen, such are the -elements of which his pictures of the old world of legend--the hunt of -the Amazons and of Diana--are composed. - -With these capacities Makart was scenical painter _par excellence_. His -Abundantia pictures in the Munich Pinakothek and the ceiling-pieces of -the Palais Tumba in Vienna are among his best creations. There lives in -them something of the Olympian blitheness of the ancients, of that easy -joyousness which since Tiepolo seemed to have been buried in melancholy -reflection and constrained brooding. They fulfil their purpose, as an -invitation to the enjoyment of life, precisely because they carry no -intrinsic thought to burden the sensuous display. Moreover, the unctuous -and gorgeous colouring, with the animated contrasts of warm brown and -light blue, mediated by the deep, glowing Makart red, corresponds to the -mood they have been designed to awaken--one which called forth the joy -of life, luxuriant, full-blooded, and foaming over. The great, fiery red -flower, which sprouts out of the ground at the feet of the nymph in -"Spring," was the last thing touched by Makart's brush, the last flare -of the marvellous colour-demon by which he was possessed. - -[Illustration: MAKART. THE FEAST OF BACCHUS.] - -Was _possessed_! For Makart's whole artistic endeavour had something -unconscious. One might say in a variant reading from Lessing: "If Makart -had been born without a brain he would nevertheless have been a great -painter." It is as if one who lies buried in Antwerp had once more felt -the instinct of production, and let himself down into the great head of -the little Salzburger; and the head, being a somewhat imperfect medium, -only stammered out the intentions of the sublime master. There is -something remarkable in the career of this son of the poor servant, on -whom fortune showered with full hands all it had to offer a child of the -nineteenth century, and who in the midst of his splendour in Vienna -remained always the same harmless child of nature that he had been in -Munich, when, after receiving his first hundred florins, he drove in a -cab the two steps from Oberpollinger to the Academy. - -One must take him as he is--a product of nature. Makart was a scene -painter, and that not in his scenical pictures only; but he was an -inspired scene painter, of an enviable facility, who poured forth in -play what others fabricate with pains. His merit it is to have announced -to the Germans afresh, in an overwhelming style, that revelation of -colour which had been forgotten since the Venetians and Rubens. He has -not advanced the history of art, as such. What he gave had been given -better before. But the history of German art in the nineteenth century -has to honour in him the most perfect representative of the period in -which colour-blindness was succeeded by exuberance of colour, and the -cartoon style by the delight in painting. - -[Illustration: GABRIEL MAX. _Graphische Kunst._] - -Beside Makart, the child of nature, _Gabriel Max's_ seems a calculating, -tormented, unhealthy talent. In the manner in which Makart did his work -there lay a certain elementary, logical necessity; in Max there is a -great deal of speculation and over-refinement. Makart's home was the -town on the lagoons. Max is by education and temperament a disciple of -Piloty--that is to say, a painter of disasters; by birth he was a -Bohemian. And that resulted in his case in a very interesting mixture. -When he exhibited his first pictures it was as if one heard a refined -music after the tom-tom of Piloty. In his "Martyr on the Cross," which -appeared in the spring of 1867 in the Munich Kunstverein, he first -struck that bitter-sweet, half-torturing, half-ensnaring tone in which -he afterwards continued to sound. It is dawn; a soft grey light rests, -beaming mildly, over the lonely Campagna. Here stands a cross on which a -girl-martyr has ended her struggles. A young Roman coming home from a -feast is so thrilled by the heavenly peace in the expression of the -unhappy girl's face that he lays a crown of roses at the foot of the -cross, and becomes a convert to the faith for which she has suffered. -The mysterious mortuary sentiment in the subject is strengthened by the -almost ghostly pallor of the colouring. Everything was harmonised in -white, except that one dark lock, falling across the pale forehead with -great boldness, sounded like a shrill dissonance in the soft harmony, -like a wild scream; it had come there apparently quite by chance, but -was nevertheless calculated to a hair's breadth. The terribly touching -vision of the martyr aroused in every visitor to the Kunstverein a -shudder of delight. It was even a fine variation, and one which invited -pity, that the victim should not have been a hero, as in conventional -catastrophes, but a soft and sweet girl, made for love and never for the -cross. And it was the more absorbing, too, because it was impossible to -say whether the young Roman was looking up to the beautiful woman with -the desecrating sensuality of a _décadent_ or with the fervid ecstasy of -a convert. The same horrified fascination was wakened again and again in -the presence of the later pictures of the painter. Almost every one -contained a scene of martyrdom, in which the tormented and sinking -heroine was a helpless child or a weak and defenceless woman. The -passion for tragic subjects brought into full swing by the historical -painters was directed in Max against the purest and tenderest, the most -chaste and the most lovely. The type was always the same, with its -Bohemian nose and one eye larger than the other, by which was attained a -curiously visionary or hysterically enthusiastic expression. And the -pictorial treatment corresponded to it: there was always a flesh-tint of -poignant mortal pallor, a white clinging drapery, a black veil, a light -grey background, all harmonised in one very delicate chord. - -Goethe's Gretchen made the beginning. In the Zwinger she lifted up her -eyes in frightened anguish to the countenance of the Madonna. She sat in -her cell, her face altered by madness and lit up with a wild laughter, -and in a reverie passed her hand through Faust's locks. Or as a phantom -she wandered in the Walpurgis night, in her long, flowing shroud, with a -blood-red stripe round her throat. This picture, exhibited with electric -light, was especially effective. Max had brought into the earnest -corpse-like eyes an expression that was terribly demoniacal, and had -been attained to the same degree by no earlier illustrator of _Faust_. A -raven, pecking at the lost ring, was her ghostly escort. - -Max showed great invention in hitting upon such things. Bürger's -_Pfarrertochter von Taubenhain_ gave him the material for his -"Child-murderess"--a young girl who, by the bank of a lonely pool, -overgrown with reeds, stabs her child to the heart with a needle, and in -a sudden rush of maternal love presses a kiss on the stiff little body -before committing it to the water. Here the sombre, disconsolate -character of the landscape accorded finely with the action, and the pale -body of the child made an exceedingly bright, pungent spot of colour on -the dark-green rushes. "The Lion's Bride" illustrated Chamisso's ballad -of the jealous lion who killed his mistress before her wedding, because -he would not give her over to another. Majestically he lies behind her, -with one paw on the arm of the slain, and the other struck into her -thigh. The stones of the floor are reddened with her blood. But far more -frequently than blood Max employed the tints of corruption, the true -_nature morte_. In its colour-values and subtle shades the dead human -body, just at the point where corruption begins, was better suited to -the painter's pallid scale of colour than the light and brutally -effective red of freshly poured-out blood. Among these paintings of -mortification must be reckoned "Ahasuerus by the Body of a Child" and -"The Anatomist"; the latter meditatively regards at the dissecting-table -the corpse, covered with white linen, of a young girl who has committed -suicide. In his "Raising of Jairus's Daughter" the effect of -mortification was most cleverly heightened by a small detail, which made -an extraordinary impression: this was a fly on the naked arm of the -girl, put there to remind the spectator of the unconsciousness of the -body. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - MAX. A NUN IN THE CLOISTER GARDEN.] - -The secrets of death are always certain of their effect on the nerves; -but by means of the broken hearts of women, with annihilated hopes and -agonised hysterical sufferings, he succeeded again in calling forth a -bitter-sweet sympathy. "Mary Magdalene" and "The Maid of Orleans" were -the masterpieces of this group. The underlying idea of the picture -"Light" is that a blind young Christian girl, at the portal of the Roman -catacombs, offers lamps to the entering Christians for the illumination -of their dark way. The blind woman as the giver of light! Even in his -youth, with cruel irony, he had had sung by a blind quartet the song, -"_Du hast die schönsten Augen_." A touch of Delaroche is in the other -young martyr, who, between the bloodthirsty beasts of the Roman circus, -looks up amazed to the rows of spectators, from the midst of which a -young Roman has flung her a rose as a last greeting. In the next moment -she will be lying on the earth torn to shreds by the beasts. - -As he succeeded here in giving a presentiment of the horrible, so in -another group of pictures Max attained a yet more demoniacal charm by -the ghostly. He had early made himself familiar with Schopenhauer and -Buddha and the Indian fakirs; the mystical and spiritualistic movement -had just at that time been set going by the writings of Carl Du Prels. -Justinus Kerner and the prophetess of Prevorst were the order of the -day. Max became the painter of hypnotism and spiritualism. "The Spirit's -Greeting" made a special sensation: the young girl at the piano, in this -picture, is interrupted in her playing by the touch of a materialised -ghostly hand, which stretches towards her from a soft cloudy mist. The -mixture of horror, joy, devotion, and ecstasy in the face of the young -player was very effective. In order to render effects of the kind he -made extensive studies from the hypnotised model, and in this way he -sometimes reached an extraordinary intensity of expression. He took a -decided position with regard to another question which at the time was -very acute--vivisection. This he did in the picture of the man of -science from whom an allegorical female figure, "The Genius of Pity," -takes away a little dog doomed to be dissected, showing by a pair of -scales that the human heart has more weight than the human -understanding. - -All this goes to show that Max is the opposite of artless. He knows how -to calculate an effect on the nerves with extreme subtlety, and most -skilfully at times to give his pictures the attraction of the freshly -printed newspaper. He appeals to compassion rather than imagination. He -would set the heart beating violently. He triumphs generally by his -subjects, and his effects are much purer in those few works in which he -renounces the piquant adjunct of the demoniacal, the tragical, and the -mystical, and becomes merely a painter. Amongst those works is to be -reckoned that beautiful "Madonna" on the altar, painted in 1886, and so -tenderly illustrating the verses of Heine-- - - "Und wer eine Wachshand opfert, - Dem heilt an der Hand die Wund, - Und wer ein Wachsherz opfert, - Dem wird das Herz gesund." - -And so too does that charming "Spring Tale" of 1873, which breathes only -of gaiety, happiness, and peace; a young girl sits under the blossoming -bushes, and listens enraptured to the warbling of a nightingale. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstängl._ - - MAX. THE LION'S BRIDE.] - -Those pictures, the "mood" of which grows out of the landscape -around--"The Nun in the Cloister Garden," "Adagio," "The Spring Tale," -and "Autumn Dance"--give Max a very high and peculiar place in the work -of his period. He appears in them as a tender poet who expresses his -emotions through a pictorial medium; as an adorer of nature of a soft -melancholy and subtle delicacy, which are to be found in like manner -only in the works of the Englishmen Frederick Walker, George Mason, and -George H. Boughton. Nature sings a hymn to the soul of the painter, and -through his figures it is breathed forth in low, vibrating cadences. A -tender landscape of earliest spring gave the ground-tone to his charming -picture "Adagio." Young trees with trembling stems raise their slender -crowns into the pale blue sky flecked with clouds. As yet the branches -are almost naked; only here and there appears the embroidery of fresh -yellowish green. And in this soft, tender nature which shyly reveals -itself as with a slight shudder after its long winter sleep, there are -seated two beings: a boy and his young mother--she looks almost a -child--dreamily meditating. Their eyes look strangely into vacancy, as -though their thoughts are wandering. Nature works on them, and a -melancholy _Warte nur balde_ runs through their souls. A spring -landscape of blissful gaiety, where nightingales warble, butterflies sip -at the flowers, and sunbeams play coquettishly round the budding -rosebushes, is the Setting of the "Spring Tale." Everything laughs and -rejoices, shines and scents the air in the early sunlight. Pearls of dew -sparkle on the meadows, gnats hum and leaves murmur. She thinks of him. -All the joy of a first love-dream sets her heart quivering with a -delicious tremor. In her heart as in nature it is spring. Yet even as a -landscape painter Max generally has that tender, suffering trait which -runs through his creative work elsewhere. Twilight, autumn, pale sky and -dead leaves have made the deepest impression on his spirit. Thin, -half-stunted trees, in the leaves of which the evening wind is playing, -grow upon an undulating, poverty-stricken soil. The landscape spreads -around with a kind of lyrical melancholy: a region which gives no -exuberant assurance of being beautiful, but which, in its poverty, -attunes the mind to melancholy; a region, however, which knows not of -storms and loneliness, but is the peaceful dwelling of quiet and -resigned men. These beings belong to no age; their costume is not -modern, but neither is it taken from any earlier period. They do not act -and they tell no story; they dream their time away meditatively and -gravely. Max has divested them of everything fleshly and vulgar, so that -only a shadow of them remains, a soul that vibrates in exquisite, dying, -elusive chords. "The Autumn Dance" is such an unearthly picture, and one -of indefinable magic. Children and women are dancing, yet one feels them -to be religious dreamers whom a melancholy world-weariness and a -yearning after the mystical have drawn together to this secret and -sequestered corner of the earth. The pale, transparent air, the tender -tints of the dresses, delicate as fading flowers, the flesh tint giving -the figures something ghostly and ethereal--it all strikes a note at -once blythe and sentimental, happy and sad. "The Nun in the Cloister -Garden" is in point of landscape one of his finest productions. In the -cloister garden, despite the budding spring, there reigns a disconsolate -dreariness. On the thin grass sits a young nun, who follows dreamily the -gay fluttering of two butterflies, which flit around at her feet. A -black dress, harshly and abruptly crossed by a white cape, envelops the -youthfully delicate form. The dying sapling on which she is leaning -bends helplessly against the stubborn paling to which it is fastened -with iron clamps. The weather-stained wall stretches along in a dreary -monotonous grey. An old sundial relentlessly indicates the slow dragging -hours. But the deep blue heaven, in which a pair of larks poise -exulting, looks in across the wall, from which a scrubby growth climbs -shivering in the breeze. - -[Illustration: _Graphische Kunst._ - - MAX. LIGHT.] - -In such pictures, too, Max has a morbid inclination to a mystical -delicacy of sentiment. He gives what is real an exquisite subtlety which -transplants it into the world of dreams, and his tender sense of pain -perhaps appeals only to spirits of an æsthetic temper. He is the -antithesis of robust health; and yet there lies in the excess of nervous -sensibility--in the pathological trait in his art--precisely the quality -which inspires the characteristic delicacy of his earlier works. Here is -no pupil of Piloty, but our contemporary. In their anæmic colour his -pictures have the effect of a song of high, fine-drawn, and tremulous -violin tones, at once dulcet and painful. With their refinement and -polish, their subtle taste and intimate emotion, so wonderfully mingled, -they reach the music of painting. They paint the invisible, they revel -in dreams. In a period which played only _fortissimo_, and was at pains -to drum on all the senses at once with a distorting passion, Max was, -next to Feuerbach, the first who prescribed for his compositions -_dolce_, _adagio_, and _mezza voce_; who sought for the refined, subdued -emotions in place of the _emotions fortes_. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstängl._ - - MAX. THE SPIRIT'S GREETING.] - -[Illustration: _Gräphische Kunst._ - - MAX. ADAGIO.] - -These pictures, the more subdued the better, make him the forerunner of -the most modern artists, and assure his name immortality much more -certainly than the great figure resting on an historical or literary -basis. Their delicate black, green, and white simplicity has a nobleness -of colouring which stands quite alone in the German painting of the -century, and this, together with their refined musical sentiment, is -probably to be set rather to the account of his Bohemian blood than of -his Munich training. And whilst in the heads of his figures elsewhere a -certain monotonous vacuity disturbs one's pleasure, he appears here as a -psychic painter of the highest mark; one who analysed with the most -subtle delicacy all the fleeting _nuances_--so hard to catch--of -melancholy, silent resignation, yearning, and hopelessness. Only the -figures of the English new pre-Raphaelites have the same sad-looking, -dove-like eyes, the same spiritual lips, tremulous as though from -weeping. There must have been a divine moment in his existence when he -first filled the loveliest form with the expression of the holiest -suffering, the sweetest reverie, the deepest devotion, and the most rapt -ecstasy. And if later, when people could not weary of this expression, -he took to producing it without real feeling and by purely stereotyped -means, that is, at any rate, a weakness of temperament which he shares -with others. - -Gabriel Max is an individuality, not of the first rank indeed, but he is -one; and there are not many painters of the nineteenth century of whom -that can be said. He has often underlined too heavily, printed too much -in italics, and done more homage to crude than to fine taste. But he -has, in advance of his contemporaries, in whose works the good was so -seldom new, the priceless virtue that he always gave something new, if -not something good. His art was without ancestry, an entirely personal -art; something which no one had before Max, and which after him few will -produce again. A province which had not yet been trodden, the province -of the enigmatic and ghostly, was opened up by him; he set foot in it -because he is a philosophic brooder, fascinated by the magic of the -uncanny. His studio is like a chapel in which a mysterious service for -the dead is being held, or the chamber of an anatomist, rather than the -workroom of a painter. The investigation of dead birds occupied him -after his Prague days just as much as the sounding of the life of the -human spirit. He lived at the time with his parents in an old, ghostly -house, and roamed about a great deal in the picture gallery of the -Strahow foundation; and here in lonely nights and mysterious -picture-rooms there arose that grave and sombre spirit which runs -through his work. As a child at the death of his father he had his first -"vision." His earliest picture, which he finished while at the Prague -Academy, and sold afterwards to the Art Union there for ninety florins, -showed that he had begun to move on his later course: "Richard the -Lion-heart steps to the Corpse of his Father and it bleeds." He was thus -inwardly ripe when, in 1863, he came to Piloty in Munich, and, equipped -with the technique of the latter, refined in so delicate a manner on the -traditional painting of disasters. And if a conscious design on the -nerves of the multitude frequently entered into his work, it was, as a -rule, veiled by captivating beauty and excellence of painting. His older -good pictures fascinate the most jaded eye by their remarkably tender -sentiment, and the mystical spirituality of his soft and lovely girlish -heads has been reached by few in his century. He is at the same time a -colourist of complete individuality, who made pigments the subtilised -and ductile means of expression for his visionary moods of soul. He has -brought into the world a numerous stock of works prepared for the -market; and he has not disdained to paint glorified wonders of the fair, -like the Christ's head upon the handkerchief of Veronica, whose eyes -seem to be closed by their lids and are looking out at the same time -wide open. But much as he sinned, he always remained an artist. A -curious, interesting, characteristic mind, one of the few who ventured -even forty years ago to give themselves out as children of their time, -in the firmament of German, and indeed of European art, he appears as a -star shining by its own and not by borrowed light, as one whose -incommensurable magnitude it is that his talent cannot be compared with -any other. That is what gives him his artistic importance. - -[Illustration: - - MAX. A WINTER'S TALE.] - -All the less room can be claimed by the many who, likewise following in -their subject-matter the lines of Piloty, get no further than the -traditional catastrophe. Not Munich only, but all Germany, lay for more -than a decade after the middle of the century under the shadow of -historical painting, which here, as in other countries, came as the -logical product of an unhappy time, dissatisfied with its own existence -when Germany was merely a geographical expression, and in the pitiable -misery of that age of state-confederations, dreamt of a better future at -singing contests, athletic tournaments, and rifle meetings. The more -poverty-stricken the time was in real action, the more vehement was the -desire to read of action in books or to see it on canvas; and in this -respect historical painting rendered at that time important political -services, which are to be acknowledged with gratitude; just as the -historical drama, the historical ballad and the historical novel were, -all and several, means for the expression of the deep-seated longing of -a backward people for political labours, for deeds and for fame. - -But the artistic yield was not greater than elsewhere. - -When the learned in the thirties laid it down in doctrinaire fashion -that, with the destruction of religious fervour begun by science, the -old traditionary sacred painting would fall away of itself and the -painting of profane history take its place, they overlooked from the -very beginning the fact that, so long as the much discussed worship of -genius had not actually become a reality the painting of history had to -fight against insuperable obstacles. What constitutes the prime -condition of all art--that its contents must be some fact vivid in -consciousness--should, at any rate, determine its limitations, and ought -to have confined the historical picture to the nearest universally known -subjects. And what happened was just the contrary. - -When Delaroche had skimmed the cream, his successors were forced to -search in the great martyr book of history for events which were more -and more unknown and indifferent. Piloty took from ancient history "The -Death of Alexander the Great," "The Death of Cæsar," "Nero at the -Burning of Rome," and "The Triumphal Progress of Germanicus"; and from -mediæval history, "Galileo in his Prison observing the Periodic Return -of a Solar Ray," and "Columbus sighting Land"; from the history of the -Thirty Years' War, "The Foundation of the Catholic League by Duke -Maximilian of Bavaria," "Seni before the Body of Wallenstein" (the -morning before the battle at the White Mountain, Seni has come to carry -away Wallenstein's body), "Wallenstein on the way to Eger," and "The -News of the Battle at the White Mountain"; from English history, "The -Death Sentence of Mary Stuart"; and from French history, "The Girondists -on their Way to the Scaffold." - -After these pictures were painted and had had their success the turn -came, in the years immediately following, for subjects growing steadily -more and more dreary. And as Goethe held the historical to be "the most -ungrateful and dangerous field," so it now appeared as though laurels -were to be gathered there only. From the political dismemberment of the -present, German artists were glad to seek refuge as far back as possible -in the past, and they flung themselves on the new province with such -fiery zeal that, after a few decades, there was a really appalling -number of historical pictures, illustrating every page of Schlosser's -great history of the world. _Max Adamo_ painted "The Netherlandish -Nobles before the Tribunal of Alva," "The Fall of Robespierre in the -National Convention," "The Prince of Orange's Last Conversation with -Egmont," "Charles I meeting Cromwell at Childerley," "The Dissolution of -the Long Parliament," and "Charles I receiving the Visit of his Children -at Maidenhead"; _Julius Benczur_: "The Departure of Ladislaus Hunyadi," -and "The Baptism of Vajk," afterwards King Stephen the Holy of Hungary; -_Josef Fluggen_: "The Flight of the Landgravine Elizabeth," "Milton -dictating Paradise Lost," and "The Landgravine Margarethe taking leave -of her Children"; by _Carl Gustav Hellquist_ there were "The Death of -the wounded Sten Sture after the Battle of Bogesund in the Mälarsee," -"The Embarkment of the Body of Gustavus Adolphus," and the forced -contribution of "Wisby and Huss going to the Stake." _Ernst Hildebrand_ -had the Electress of Brandenburg secretly taking the sacrament in both -kinds, and Tullia driving over the corpse of her father; _Frank -Kirchbach_ displayed "Duke Christopher the Warrior"; _Ludwig von -Langenmantel_: "The Arrest of the French Chemist Lavoisier under the -Reign of Terror," and "Savonarola's Sermon against the Luxury of the -Florentines"; _Emanuel Leutze_: a "Columbus before the Council of -Salamanca," "Raleigh's Departure," "Cromwell's Visit to Milton," "The -Battle of Monmouth," and "The Last Festival of Charles I"; _Alexander -Liezenmayer_: "The Coronation of Charles Durazzo in Stuhlweissenburg," -and "The Canonisation of the Landgravine Elizabeth of Thüringen"; -_Wilhelm Lindenschmit_: "Duke Alva at the Countess of Rudolstadt's," -"Francis I at Pavia," "The Death of Franz Von Sickingen," "Knox and the -Scottish Image-breakers," "The Assassination of William of Orange," -"Walter Raleigh visited in his Cell by his Family," "Luther before -Cardinal Cajetan," "Anne Boleyn giving her Child Elizabeth to the care -of Matthew Parker," and "The Entrance of Alaric into Rome"; _Alexander -Wagner_: "The Departure of Isabella Zapolya from Siebenbürgen," "The -Entry into Aschaffenburg of Gustavus Adolphus," "The Wedding of Otto of -Bavaria," "The Death of Titus Dugowich," "Matthias Corvinus with his -Hunting Train," and many more of the same description. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstängl._ - - MAX. MADONNA.] - -Was it at all possible to make works of art out of such material? -Perhaps it was. The real artist can do anything. What he touches becomes -gold, for he has the hand of Midas. But just as certain it is that the -"historical painting," carried on by a joint-stock company, almost never -got any further than stage pathos, tailoring, and glittering splendour -of material. Like many another thing which the nineteenth century -brought to birth, it was an artistic error, which countless persons paid -for by the waste of their lives. The older art knew nothing of such a -reconstruction of the past. If historical subjects were painted, the -artists were almost throughout contemporaries of the subject that was to -be treated; seldom did the materials belong to an epoch already past. -But in both cases the work was done by immediate intuition, since even -in the treatment of matters long gone by the painters never dreamed of -painting them in the spirit of past times. They might depict Jews, or -Greeks, or Romans, but they always represented their own countrymen in -the surroundings and costume of their own time. The scientific -nineteenth century made the first demand for historical accuracy. In -dress and furniture this could be attained with the assistance of a -cabinet of engravings and a work on costume. Whoever went to work in a -very scientific spirit could even borrow from a museum the genuine -costumes of Egmont and Wallenstein. But it was all the harder -artistically to quicken into life the men themselves who had felt, -lived, and suffered in the past. The painter could not proceed otherwise -than by draping a modern, professional model, having consulted -portraits, drawings, or busts, and having sought the aid of a peruke and -false beard. An entirely realistic reproduction of this masquerade, -however, made only too evident the contrast between the splendid old -garment and the member of the proletariat who was dressed up in it. For, -granted that men of the present have much in common with those of the -past, every period has none the less its own type, even its own -gestures, which no costume can make one forget. And speaking merely of -general humanity, there is no question that a statesman at all times -looked different from a professional model. In a very bad suit of -clothes, but in one which, at any rate, fitted him, and in which he was -able to behave himself naturally, the poor fellow came to the studio, to -feel, for a few hours, in satin hose and a velvet doublet, like a -carnival figure. Who was to give him the easy knightly bearing to play -his part suitably to the occasion? It was not possible in this way ever -to attain the naturalness and fulness of life of the old painters. In -Terborg's "Peace of Westphalia" everything is genuine and true and -simple; here wig and woollen beard have got the upper hand. And if the -painter proceeded not as a theatrical tailor, but as an historian of -civilisation, the result was an archaic dryness. For then he was merely -thrown back on the great masters of those periods in which the action -took place, and, while he enlarged and coloured old busts or engraved -portraits, his art was only second-hand. - -And so the only way out of the difficulty was to use the model, but to -idealise him by generalising and sinking the individual in the -universally human, noble, and heroic. In this way the remarkable family -likeness of all these heads becomes comprehensible, and it is still -further heightened by that preference for a monotonous type of beauty -which, from the period of Classicism, entered, as it were, into the -blood of these painters. The human physiognomy, in reality so various, -had then only one mask for the many characters which life creates. There -was a fear of "ugliness," as if it were a spot of dirt, and the -personages portrayed received, one and all, an icy trait of "the -Beautiful." The various Egmonts, Wallensteins, and Charles the Firsts of -Gallait and Bièfve, Delaroche, and Piloty have not the blood of human -beings, they have not the scars which are made by fate, but are all -alike in their Byronic turn of the head. One knows the so-called -character-heads--Luther gazing upwards with the look of one strong in -faith, Columbus discovering America, and Milton in whose head are -seething all the thoughts which dying men are wont to have in their last -moments,--one knows them as thoroughly by heart as one knows all the -opened folios and overturned settles, the picturesquely draped tapestry -reserved for tragic funereal service, and that little box, covered with -brass and catching the flashing lights, which constitutes in Belgium, -France, and Germany the iron casket of all historical pieces. In the -place of the inward Shakespearian truth of the figures, peculiar to the -old masters, is the outward truth of costume; and the historical -"property man," whose highest aim is to "dress" the great moments of -universal history in the prescribed manner, has stepped into the place -of the artist. In the works of the old masters the historical figures -stand out with sincerity as characters of flesh and blood, despite the -want of "local colour," whilst in the moderns the costumes certainly are -correct, but the figures are so much the less credible and vital. -"Beautiful may be the folds of the garment, but more beautiful must be -that which they contain." - -Clothes do not make people, and costumes heighten no passions. Thus -difficulties were heaped on difficulties, when impassioned situations -and moments of dramatic intensity were to be painted. Whoever has -reached that height of artistic power where the artist may with impunity -put his model out of his head--like Delacroix, grand, volcanic, stormy, -and excited to a fever heat by his inspiration,--that man will be -capable of giving the effect of truth to such scenes, and of running -through the whole gamut of emotion with a crushing power of conviction. -But the joint-stock historical painter had to get his models to pull -faces, and then no less laboriously to render with his oils those -grimaces so laboriously produced. Hence the monotonous and petrified -histrionic ecstasy of these pictures, the noble indignation put on for -show, and that distressing gesticulation. As the actor gives emphasis to -his words far more by gestures than is the case in ordinary life, so -here also the artificially impassioned air of the heads was -conventionally interpreted by corresponding motions of the arms. And -thus the closing tableau was made ready: the dancers lay their hands on -their hearts with tender and deep feeling; the tenor heroes sing that -they are prepared to die; the tyrants let their deep basses vibrate, and -the orchestra rages, to close with a shattering chord at the moment when -the hero sets his foot upon the chest of the traitor; then come the -Bengal lights, and then the curtain falls. What a spectacle!--but, alas, -a spectacle and nothing more. All the emotions are artificial; they are -opera emotions: the painters are only clever fellows, manufacturers of -librettos and gay canvas; they show a great deal of knowledge and -dexterity, but they have only a head and no heart. Stage requisites and -professional models can never take the place of the free, creative force -of imagination. - -And if German pictures of this sort have an effect almost more insincere -and theatrical than the French, the reason probably is that -gesture--that external aid to the expression of feeling--is always more -natural to the Latin than the Teutonic races, and has therefore, of -itself, an effect of affectation in every German picture. We know that -Bismarck, the Teuton incarnate, even in the most excited of -parliamentary speeches, never made any other movement than to rap -nervously with his pencil. "The German only becomes impassioned when he -lies." The most genuine masters of German blood have felt that right -well, and they have been honest enough to say it out. A pervading trait -of old German art is simplicity, the avoidance of everything impassioned -even in the grandest conception, such as Dürer has. If in Leonardo's -"Last Supper" terror, indignation, curiosity, and sorrow are reflected -by twelve heads and twenty-four hands in movements of agitation which -are always new, in Dürer's woodcut all the limbs and senses of the -disciples are paralysed at the sorrowful revelation of the Saviour; it -seemed to them desecration to break the solemn, oppressive stillness by -noisy utterances of opinion and hasty gestures. And the same thing is to -be remarked in every similar picture of Rembrandt's; here too are only -quiet and subdued movements, delicate suggestions and silence. The -effect is great and sublime, the features of the Saviour earnest and -expressive, but His mien is without any ecstatic emphasis such as a -painter of Romance blood would have given Him. Only in the nineteenth -century--partly through imitation of the Italians in Cornelius and -Kaulbach, and then through imitation of the French in Piloty and his -disciples--has this impassionedness, so opposed to German nature, -entered into German art; and it has borrowed from the opera the -distortions by which it has expressed the agitations of the spirit. No -one works with impunity against the grain of his temperament. -Exaggerated and violent movements, "ostentatious gestures of false -dignity," have replaced the natural expressions of life. - -Less pose, parade, and theatricality, more ease, truth, and quietude; -less insipid, generalised "beauty," more forcible, characteristic -"ugliness": if art was not to be drowned in a surge of phrases, this was -the path to be taken; and the transition was accomplished in "the -historical picture of manners." - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THE VICTORY OVER PSEUDO-IDEALISM - - -Immediately upon the epoch-making labours of the historians followed the -first romances that were archæological and dealt with the history of -civilisation; and hand in hand with these literary productions there was -developed--by the side of historical painting proper, in France, -Belgium, and Germany--a tendency to represent the life of the past, not -in its grand dramatic action, but in its familiar concerns. In the one -case there was history in its state uniform, in the other history in -undress. And while the former class of painters saw the past only in a -condition of unrest and violent movement, the latter began to enter into -the details of daily life, and to represent it as it flowed by in times -of peace. Those who had the romantic bias turned to the old artistic -crafts. As yet that bias consisted only in an enthusiasm for the -tasteful civilisation of a bygone age, with its polished charm of -luxurious household appointments and pleasing costume. Rooms were filled -with Gobelins and rich stuffs, handsome furniture and old pictures. By -the rapid sale of their productions painters were placed in a position -to acquire for themselves at the second-hand dealers all the beautiful -things they painted. They placed their dressed-up models in front of -their tapestries, and between their cabinets and tables. Stress was laid -on historical accuracy in the representation of the usages and costumes -of the past, not on dramatic action, and in this respect the historical -picture of manners, as opposed to historical painting, marked an advance -towards intimacy of feeling. The latter still worked from the abstract. -The painter read a book and looked out for telling passages. He -idealised models, to lend his picture the character of "great art." It -was always the illustration of underlying ideas. - -In this new kind of picture, on the contrary, the conception of a work -of art was given, by the perfected representation of any part of the -visible world, were it only the corner of a studio elaborately and -artificially arranged. The historical picture of manners no longer -depicted "the meeting of hostile forces," but either the heroes of -history or the nameless men of the past in their daily act and deed, and -so accustomed the public gradually to interest themselves in people who -did not act with histrionic passion, but conducted themselves quietly -and soberly like men of the present time. The place of the dramatic was -taken by those phases of life which are pleasant and smooth. At the same -time there was no need to be thrown back on conventional idealisation, -and it was possible to bring people dressed up for the occasion directly -into the picture, just as they sat there, since the contrast between the -professional model and the old-fashioned dress made itself less felt on -this smaller scale of art. Thus was achieved the transition from the -heroic historical art of the first half of the nineteenth century to -that familiar and more human art of the second half, which no longer -fled for help to the past, but sought a simpler ideal in reality. - -First of all in France, from the side of the solemnly earnest group of -Academicians, there stepped forward certain artists who moved in the old -world quite at their ease, and began to paint simple little pictures -from the daily life of antiquity, instead of the great ostentatious -canvases of David and Ingres. In literature their parallels are Ponsard -and Augier, who in their comedies brought antique life upon the stage, -the one in _Horace et Lydie_, the other in _La Ciguë_ and _Le Joueur de -Flûte_. - -_Charles Gleyre_ approached nearest to the strict academical style of -Ingres. Not even by a tour in the East did he allow himself to be led -away from the Classical manner, and as head of a great and leading -studio he recognised it as the task of his life to hand on to the -present generation the traditions of the school of Ingres. Gleyre was a -man of sound culture, who during a sojourn in Italy which lasted for -years, had examined Etruscan vases and Greek statues with unintermittent -zeal, studied the Italian classics, and copied all Raphael. Having come -back to Paris, he never drew a line without having first assured himself -how Raphael would have proceeded in the given case. And this striving -after purity of form has robbed his works ("Nymph Echo," "Hercules at -the Feet of Omphale," and the like) almost entirely of ease, freshness, -and naturalness. Gleyre became, like Ary Scheffer, a victim to style. He -had in him--his "Evening" of 1843 is sufficient to show it--a tender, -dreamy, and contemplative spirit. The feelings to which he wished to -give expression were his own, and the more fragrant, romantic, and -vaporously indistinct they were, the more did they suffer from the stiff -academical line in which he so mercilessly bound them. Only in his -"Orpheus torn by the Bacchantes" has he raised himself to a certain -neo-Greek elegance. - -_Louis Hamon_ stands at the end of this path, which led gradually from -the strictness of form characteristic of the idealism of Ingres to -incidents thought out in perfectly modern fashion and laid in a -primitive era only because of the advantages of costume offered by the -antique. The grace of his pictures is modern; their Classicism is a -disguise. To robust natures his art can make but little appeal. He has -deprived nature of her strength and marrow, and painting of its peculiar -qualities, transforming them into a coloured dream, a tinted mist. In -Hamon's modelling there is an uncertainty, in his colour a sickly -weakness and meagre effeminacy, which give to his figures and landscapes -the appearance of being dissolved in vapour. Everything firm is taken -from them; the stones look like wadding, the plants like soap, the -figures like china dolls which would fly into the air at the least gust -of wind. Nevertheless there are times when his confectionery has a -sympathetic grace. What distinguishes him is something simple, pure, -youthful, fresh, and childlike. His colour is lighter and more delicate -than Gleyre's. None but blended colours such as light blue and light -yellow mingle in the harmony of white tones. The severe antique style -has been given a pretty _rococo_ turn: his Greek girls, women, and -children are like figures of Sèvres porcelain; the scenes in which he -groups them are pleasing,--sports of fancy brought forward in a Grecian -garb, of an affected sensuousness and a coquettish grace. His prettiest -picture was probably "My Sister's not at Home"--Greece seen through a -gauze transparency in the theatre. - -[Illustration: _Gaz des Beaux-Arts._ - - HAMON. MY SISTER'S NOT AT HOME. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Boussod, Valadon & Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -_Léon Gérôme_ has also a taste for borrowing his subjects from the -antique; being a pupil of Delaroche, however, he has treated not -mythological but historical episodes of antiquity. His "Cock-fight," -"Phryne before the Areopagus," "The Augurs," "The Gladiators," -"Alcibiades at the House of Aspasia," and "The Death of Cæsar," together -with pictures from Egypt, are his most characteristic works: Ingres and -Delaroche upon a smaller scale. He shares with the one his learnedly -pedantic composition, and with the other his taste for anecdote. It may -be remarked that in these same years Emile Augier was active in -literature, but that Augier, living in the same epoch of modern life, is -far more powerful and animated in his Classical pieces. Gérôme's art is -an intelligent, frigid, calculating art. In execution he does not rise -above a petty study of form and an academic discipline. His drawing is -accurate, and he has even succeeded in giving his figures a certain -natural truth which is in advance of the generalisation of the classic -ideal; yet from first to last he is wanting in every quality as a -painter. His pictures of the East are hard landscapes, in which men or -animals, harder still--unfortunate, eternally petrified beings--stand -out abruptly. He draws and stipples, he works like an engraver in line, -and goes over what he has painted again and again with a fine and feeble -brush. He has an eye for form, but the effect of light upon the body -escapes him. His pictures therefore give the impression of china, and -his colour is hard and dead. What distinguishes him is a watchful -observation, a chilling correctness, enclosing everything in -characterless outlines. And this marble coldness remained with him later -when, moving with the development of historical painting, he gradually -took to working on more tragical subjects. Even the most violent -subjects are depicted with a dainty grace, and with a smile he serves up -decapitated heads, prepared with a painting _à la maitre d'hôtel_, upon -a gold-rimmed porcelain plate as smooth as glass. - -Another painter of archæological _genre_ is _Gustave Boulanger_, who -after extensive studies in Pompeii gave a vogue to those antique -interiors and scenes of Pompeian street life now associated with the -name of Alma-Tadema. - -Direct descendants of Delaroche and Robert Fleury were those who threw -themselves enthusiastically into treating the physiognomy of the -sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and devoted the most ardent study -to the weapons, costumes, and furniture of those epochs. They never -wearied in representing François I and Henri IV in the most varied -situations of life, nor in searching the biographies of great artists -and scholars for episodes worth painting. Especially popular subjects -were those of celebrated painters at their meeting with contemporaries -of high station: Raphael and Michael Angelo coming across each other in -the Vatican, Murillo as a boy, the young Ribera found drawing in the -street by a Cardinal, Bellini in his studio amid all manner of precious -objects, Charles V and Titian, Michael Angelo tending his servant, and -others of the same kind. The number of painters who were active in this -province is as great as the number of anecdotes which are told of -distinguished men. They spread themselves over various countries, like -the swarms of insects hatched on a summer's day amid luxuriant -vegetation, and thereby they render the task of selection more difficult -to the historian. In France there worked _Alexander Hesse_, _Camille -Roqueplan_, and _Charles Comte_; in Belgium, _Alexander Markelbach_ and -_Florent Willems_. Markelbach, a pupil of Wappers, in addition to -episodes from English history, specially devoted himself to painting the -shooting festivals of the old Netherlandish city guards, in which -enterprise the Doelen pieces of Frans Hals did him excellent service in -the matter of costume. Florent Willems, who, as a restorer, saturated -himself with the manner of the old masters, was particularly popular on -account of the smooth finish he gave to his modish ladies, cavaliers, -soldiers, painters, soubrettes, and patrician matrons of the sixteenth -and seventeenth centuries. All the richly coloured satin, brocade, and -velvet costumes of these personages, together with the tapestry, the -curtains, and the furniture of their dwellings, he had the secret of -reproducing in such a fashion that he was long esteemed a modern -Terborg. Amongst the Germans, _L. von Hagn_ was the most delicate of -these artists, and the graceful comedies of real life which he painted, -transplanting them into the Italian Renaissance or the French _rococo_ -period, have often great distinction of colouring. _Gustav Spangenberg_, -after the lucky but isolated success he had made with "The Track of -Death," devoted himself to the Reformation period; and _Carl Becker_ to -the Venetian Renaissance, from which he occasionally made an excursion -into the German. These and many others could be discussed with more -particularity if their pictures, smooth as coloured prints, and neatly -finished in their own paltry way, were not so much below the standard of -galleries. For them also the incident to be represented, with the -personages concerned in it, was the principal matter, and not pure -painting. These fetters upon true art were first shaken off by the hands -of the following painters. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - GÉRÔME. THE COCK-FIGHT.] - -Of the generation of the eminent Flemish artists of 1830 _Hendrik Leys_ -is the one whose fame has been most enduring. Born in Antwerp on 18th -February 1815, at first destined for the priesthood, and then in 1829 -admitted to the studio of Ferdinand de Braekeleers, he had made his -début in the beginning of the thirties with a pair of historical -pictures. These indeed revealed little of the power which he evinced -later, but they furnished some indication of what he was aiming at. Here -were none of the skirmishes--so popular at the time--in which blood -flows as from the pipes of a fountain; the combatants fought with -decorum and moderation, and less from conviction than to justify the -helmets and cuirasses which had been fetched from the wardrobe. In both -of them, on the other hand, the background--a mediæval town with -tortuous alleys, lanterns, and picturesque taverns--was most lovingly -treated. Here was revealed a thoroughly German delight in minute detail. -Instead of subordinating the accessories as others did, with the object -of throwing the principal personages into relief, Leys represented an -entire corner of the world at once, giving full distinctness to the -smallest things, down to the implements of daily life, the grasses and -flowers of the landscape, and the variegated corner-stones of the old -house-fronts, whose picturesque porches and lattices bulge into the -crooked lanes. His next picture, "The Massacre of the Löwen -Magistrates," was a still further departure from precedent, since--quite -in Callot's manner--it mingled with the principal drama a mass of -grotesque episodes. The born _genre_ painter was announced by these -traits; and not less striking was the form of the art, which was a -thorough departure from the manner of the "painters of the grand style." - -The resuscitation of a national art, which had been the life-long aim of -Gustav Wappers, who was twelve years his senior, was what Leys also set -up as the goal of his artistic endeavours. But their ways divided. -Wappers was principally inspired by Rubens, while Leys attached himself -at first to the Dutch painters. A visit made to Amsterdam in 1839 had -helped him to an understanding of Rembrandt and Pieter de Hoogh. He -followed them when, in 1845, he painted his "Wedding in the Seventeenth -Century"--a rich display of gleaming hangings, golden plate, and -red-plush furniture, amid which move handsomely dressed people, wedding -guests, and violin players. The effort to approach Pieter de Hoogh or -Jan van der Meer is apparent in the management of light; the treatment -of drapery reminds one of Mieris and Metsu. Another pair of anecdotic -pictures from the seventeenth century allow one to follow the progress -by which Leys, under the influence of Dutch models, gradually developed -that power and mastery of colouring, that completeness of pictorial -effect, and that soft treatment of subdued light which were justly -admired in his first works. In particular, certain works founded on the -legends of painters and monarchs--Rubens, Rembrandt, or Frans Floris -visited in their studio by some personage of high station--made him the -lion of the Paris Salon. In 1852 he stood at the summit of his fame; he -was recognised as one of the first of painters, both in Belgium and in -other countries, and was everywhere loaded with honours. Then he cast -his slough and entered on his "second manner." - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - HENDRIK LEYS.] - -After he had followed Rembrandt for more than a decade he turned from -him to cast himself suddenly into the arms of the German masters of the -sixteenth century, and, according to his own saying, "from that time -forward to become an artist." During a tour through Germany, in 1852, he -had become familiar with Dürer and Cranach; in Dresden, Wittenberg, and -Eisenach there hovered round him the great figures of the Reformation -period. Half-effaced memories of his countrymen, the brothers Van Eyck -and Quentin Matsys, became once more fresh, and drove him decisively -forward on his new course. "The Festival at Otto Venius's" and "Erasmus -in his Study" were the first steps in this direction, and when soon -afterwards he came forward with his costume pictures, "Luther as a -Chorister in Eisenach" and "Luther in his Household at Wittenberg," -every one was enraptured with the exquisite truthfulness of his -portrayal of archaic life. At the World's Exhibition of 1855 he had -another magnificent success with three pictures executed in old German -style. These were "The Mass in Honour of the Antwerp Burgomaster Barthel -de Haze," "The Walk before the Gate," and "New Year's Day in Flanders." -His return from Paris, where he was the only foreigner except Cornelius -who had received the great gold medal, took the form of a triumphal -progress in Antwerp, where he was greeted with illuminations, torchlight -processions, and laurel wreaths made in gold. He was held to be the most -eminent master since Quentin Matsys, the Jan van Eyck of the nineteenth -century. In the Brussels Salon he appeared as a prince of art, before -whom criticism made obeisance, and for whose pictures special shrines -were erected. He was striking, not merely as an artist, but as a man: -his stately figure was known to every one in Antwerp, and was pointed -out to strangers as one of the sights of the place. In 1867, when he -again received the medal in Paris, the Antwerp Cercle Artistique had a -medal struck to commemorate an event of such importance in Belgian art. -His decease, on 25th August 1869, threw the whole town into mourning; -the windows in the town hall, where he had painted his last pictures, -were hung with black, and the announcement of his death pasted up on -great placards at the street corners. "_Leys is ons_" ran the phrase in -the speech made by the burgomaster over his open grave. To-day his -statue stands on the Boulevard Leys, and his house is noted down in -Baedecker, like those of Matsys and Floris, Rubens and Jordaens. - -Leys was thus a favourite child of fortune. Enthusiastic applause -showered him with fame and laurels. But it is natural that posterity -should find a good deal to cancel in these titles of honour. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - LEYS. A FAMILY FESTIVAL.] - -Through Leys the history of art was not enriched with anything new. His -delicate art--severe in outline--which goes back directly to the -peculiar manner of the fifteenth century, is in itself not without -merit. But how much of it belongs to the nineteenth century? To what -extent has the painter stood independent and on his own peculiar ground? -He could draw a Van Eyck which might be taken for an original. He seems -like an old master gone astray by chance amongst the moderns. His -knowledge of the sixteenth century is marvellous. In fact, he was a -visionary who saw the past as clearly as though he had lived in the -midst of it. The men he paints are his contemporaries. He has drawn them -from life in the year of grace 1493, and they make no gesture nor -grimace which might not be four hundred years old. Yet that means that -he was not an original genius, but merely one who gave an adroit -reproduction of a formula already in existence. And much as he affected -to be the contemporary of Lucas Cranach and Quentin Matsys, he had not -their simplicity: where they painted life he painted the shadow of their -realism. Surrounded by old pictures, breviaries, and missals, he -contented himself with copying the still forms of Gothic miniatures -instead of living nature. He went so deeply into the pictures of the -Antwerp town hall that he followed the old masters in their very errors -of perspective; and though even the most childish confusion between -foreground and background does not disturb one's pleasure in them, -because they knew no better, it is an affectation in him, with his -modern knowledge, intentionally to make the same mistakes. Instead of -being an imitator of nature, he is an imitator of their imitation--a -_gourmet_ in pictorial archaism. - -[Illustration: LEYS. THE ARMOURER.] - -Yet it was exactly this uncompromising archaism which was of importance -for his time, and amongst his contemporaries it gives him significance -as a reformer. He is the only one amongst them who really represents the -Flemish race. Wappers was merely a Fleming from Paris, who shook off the -yoke of the Greeks to bear that of the French. Delaroche lived again in -Louis Gallait, the pupil of David. Their works had the sentiment of -French tragedies, and an artificial neatness which completely departed -from the truth of nature; the figures were combed and washed and brushed -and polished, the gestures were histrionic, the colours toned in a -stereotyped fashion to effect a pleasing _ensemble_. Leys endeavoured to -be true. In his pictures he had no wish to express ideas, but merely to -bring back a fragment of "the good old time" in all its brightness of -life and colour. And whilst as a colourist he was bent upon avoiding -uniformity of tone and giving everything its natural character, as a -draughtsman, too, he set up, in opposition to the more patrician fluency -of others, the citizen-like angularity of an art uninfluenced by the -Cinquecento. As in Cranach, Dürer, and Holbein, one finds in his -pictures profiles that are vividly true; harsh and often unwieldy heads, -wrinkled faces, and heavy, massive shoulders resting on stunted bodies. -The human form, with fat stomach and great horny hands, seems almost -deformed. Everything which the struggle for existence has made of the -image of God is expressed in the works of Leys for the first time since -David. Even his "Massacre of the Löwen Magistrates" showed sharp, -naturalistic physiognomies in the midst of its confused composition, and -his "Barthel de Haze," fifteen years after, fully exemplified this -striving after characteristic and truthful expression. None of his -contemporaries has shown himself more cool and indifferent to -conventional and graceful profile and "beauty" in the drawing of heads. -Hatred of the academic model made Leys bring art back to its sources. -The hideousness, so often childish, in primitive pictures was dearer to -him than all Raphael. By this emphasising of the characteristic in -attitude and the expression of the face he shows himself, although he -painted historical subjects, the very antipode of the painter of the -historical school, and, at the same time, one of those who effected the -transition which led to the modern style. In setting up quaintness and -far-fetched archaism against the mannerism of the idealists, Leys -accustomed the eye again to recognise that there was something truer -than nobility of line and aristocratic pose; and, as he appealed to the -old masters as accomplices, it was impossible for æsthetic criticism to -be offended. - -[Illustration: LEYS. MOTHER AND CHILD.] - -In France the transition from the absolutely beautiful to the -characteristic, from types to individuals, was brought about from -various sides. On the one side Romanticism had opposed to the antique -style that of the Flemish painters. On the other side, within Classicism -itself, there had been a change from the antique and the Cinquecento to -the early Italian renaissance. A new world was opened to sculpture by -the "Florentine Singer" of Paul Dubois. The more artists buried -themselves in the study of those early pioneers of realism, Donatello, -Verrochio, della Robbia, and the other masters of the Quatrocento, the -more they found themselves fascinated by the sparkling animation of -these creations, and sought to transfer it freely into their own work. -The fifteenth century, with the energetic force of its figures, its -close grasp of nature, and its pithy characterisation, which did not -even shrink from ugliness, induced painters to go back more than they -had formerly done to the sources of real life and to bring something of -its directness into their creations. Élie Delaunay began to look on -nature with an eye less bent on making abstractions and regarding all -things from the standpoint of style; he began to apprehend more clearly -her individual peculiarities and to reproduce them more truly than had -been done by the frigid school which cast everything into the mould of -Classicism. But _Ernest_ _Meissonier_ went a step further when by his -_rococo_ pictures he set the Dutch tradition on a level with the Flemish -and Early Italian as a formative influence. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - MEISSONIER. THE MAN AT THE WINDOW.] - -A picture must either be very big or very small if it is to attract -attention amid the bustle of exhibitions. This was probably the -consideration which led Meissonier to his peculiar class of subjects, -and induced him to come forward with minute Netherlandish cabinet-pieces -at the time when the Romanticists were issuing their huge manifestoes. -He came of a family of petty tradespeople, and in his youth he is said -to have taken over his father's business, a trade in colonial produce. -Every morning at eight o'clock punctual he was at the shop desk, and -kept the books and copied business letters, and in this way accustomed -himself to that painstaking and uniform carefulness which was -characteristic of him to the end of his life. His teacher, Cogniet, was -without influence on him. Even in his youth, when there went forth the -battle-cry of "A Guelf, a Ghibelline! A Delacroix, an Ingres!" -Meissonier sat quietly in the Louvre and copied Jan van Eyck's Madonna -from Autun. And a Netherlandish "little master" did he remain all his -days. He first earned his bread as an illustrator, but after 1834 he -began to exhibit all manner of pieces from the time of Louis XIV and -Louis XV--the "Bourgeois hollandais rendant Visite au Bourgmestre" of -1834, the "Chess Players of Holbein's Time," 1835, the "Monk at the -Sickbed," 1838, the "English Doctor" and the "Man Reading," 1840. The -Salon of 1841 was for him what that of 1824 had been for Delacroix and -Ingres, and that of 1831 for Delaroche: the cradle of his fame. "The -Chess Party" (17 cm. high and 11 cm. broad) was the most celebrated -picture of the exhibition. The great Netherlandish "little masters" of -the seventeenth century, till then scarcely known and little -appreciated, were brought out for comparison. "Has Terborg or Mieris or -Meissonier done the greater work?" was the question. People marvelled at -the sharpness of this short-sighted eye which had a perception for the -smallest details. "Good heavens! look at the way that's been done," said -the Philistine, taking a magnifying glass; and felt himself a -connoisseur if the curator at his elbow called out, "Not too near!" Even -his first pictures had an accuracy and finish which defies description. -It seemed as if a most admirable Netherlandish painter in miniature -scale had arisen. The execution of his design in colours was as slow, -careful, and laborious as were his preparatory studies for costume: -every touch was altered and altered again; many a picture which was -almost ready was thrown aside, scraped out, and completely recast. Not -hot-headed enthusiasts, but "connoisseurs," has Meissonier conquered in -this fashion. Those readers, philosophers, card-players, drinkers, -smokers, flute-players and violin-players, engravers, painters and -amateurs, horsemen and farm-servants, brawlers and bravoes, from the -seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which he painted year after year, -were soon the most coveted pictures in every superior private -collection. In 1884 he was able to celebrate his jubilee as an artist -with an exhibition of one hundred and fifty pictures of the kind. And as -they would have gone dirt cheap if they had been bought for their weight -in gold, the public accustomed itself to buy them for their weight in -thousand-franc notes. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MEISSONIER. A MAN READING.] - -The present age no longer looks up to these exercises of patience with -the same vast admiration, but it should not therefore be forgotten what -Meissonier was for his time. - -To begin with, though painted at a time when painting was regarded as an -auxiliary, and an invaluable one, to history, his pictures tell no -story. These personages of Meissonier's take part in no comedy; they -occupy themselves, some in smoking, some in drinking, others in playing -cards, and others again in doing nothing whatever. Whether they made -their entry as musketeer or philosophers, as lackeys or gallants, as -scholars or _bonvivants_, they did not pose and had no ambition to seem -men of wit and spirit, they plunged into no adventurous deeds and -related no anecdotes: they were content to be well painted. And so -amongst all the French painters of the historical picture of manners -Meissonier was the one who had the secret of giving his works an -entirely peculiar _cachet_ of striking and realistic truth to nature. -His figures, marvellously painted, and at the same time animated and -natural in expression, wear the costume of our ancestors with the utmost -self-possession, and fit into their modish _rococo_ surroundings as if -they had been poured into a mould. Meissonier reached the truth of -nature in the total effect of his pictures by first in reality arranging -his interiors, and the still-life they contained, as a congruous whole. -The rooms, window niches, and firesides which he reproduced in his -pictures were in his own house and his studios, with every detail ready -to hand. He bought bronzes, trinkets, and ornaments, genuine productions -of the _rococo_ period, by the hundred thousand, and kept them by him. -His models were obliged, for weeks and often for months, actually to -wear the velvet and silken costumes in which he made use of them; then -he painted them with the greatest fidelity to nature, and without -troubling himself about anecdotic incident. What he rendered was not a -story invented and put together piecemeal, but a wholesome piece of -reality, pictorially conceived. And if this was primarily composed of -costumes and furniture belonging to the eighteenth century, the -transition to the natural treatment of modern life was at the same time -made possible, and was accomplished by Meissonier himself, at a later -period, in his battle pieces. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MEISSONIER. READING THE MANUSCRIPT.] - -But he had only painted men: the physiognomy of the feminine Sphinx -remained for him an eternal riddle. A wide field was here offered to his -followers. Fauvelet, Chavet, and Brillouin stepped into Meissonier's -shoes, and gave his _rococo_ fine gentlemen their better halves. The -first two made simple imitations. Brillouin devoted himself to the comic -_genre_: he arranged his pictures prettily, was a good observer, and -painted tolerably well. The last of these Meissonierists is Vibert, -chiefly known in the present day by his cardinals and other scarlet -dignitaries, whom he represents in water-colours and oils with a certain -touch of malice. He paints them gouty, gluttonising, or tipsy, in one or -more cases in every picture--which does not contribute to make his works -interesting. But originally he had a sympathetic superior talent, and -will always claim a modest place in the group of the modern "little -masters." His "Gulliver Bound," and also the Spanish and Turkish scenes -which occupied him after a tour in the East, are extremely pleasing and -delicately painted costume pieces, gleaming in sunlight; and in their -sparkling, capricious workmanship they sometimes almost verge on -Fortuny. - -On the German side of the Rhine _Adolf Menzel_ was the great pioneer of -truth. The history of German art must do him honour as one who first had -the genius and courage to break away from conventional forms of -phrasing, and bring the truth of nature into art: at first, as in the -case of Meissonier, it was nature in masquerade; but it was nature seen -and rendered with all the sincerity of a man to whom the art of pose was -wanting from the very first. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - MEISSONIER. POLCINELLO.] - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - MEISSONIER. A READING AT DIDEROT'S. - - (_By permission of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, owner of the picture, - and of M. Georges Petit, owner of the copyright._)] - -Even in the thirties, at a time when "The Sorrowing Royal Pair" and the -"Leonora" by Lessing, "The Soldier and his Child," "The Sick Councillor," -and "The Sons of Edward" by Hildebrandt, and "The Lament of the Jews" by -Bendemann, together with the works of Cornelius, met with the enthusiastic -applause of the million, Menzel looked into the world with a sharp glance, -undisturbed by idealism; and what enabled him to do this was his -unwavering and thoroughly Prussian healthiness, which knew no touch of -sentimentalism--a certain coldness and hardness, that sensible, reflective -North German trait, which often expresses itself in these days (when -German art has become subtle and superior) by a crude naturalism in the -Berlin painting. In the beginning of the century, however, it set the -Berlin painting, as art of the healthy human understanding, in salutary -contrast to the sickliness of Munich and Düsseldorf. Even eighty years ago -the people of Berlin were too acute and practical to be Romanticists. The -artists whom Menzel found active and honoured at his arrival were Schadow -and Rauch, and beside them, as representatives of the _grande peinture_, -Begas and Wach. But even these, who were most under the influence of the -sentimental tendency, were justly recognised by the thorough-going -Romanticists on the Rhine as never having given an unqualified homage to -their flag. A clear, realistic method was dominant in the art of Berlin. -And in this respect it was as much a corrective--and one by no means to be -undervalued--against the inflated sentiment of Munich as against the weak -and sickly sentimentalism of Düsseldorf, with its knights and monks and -noble maidens. Even Cornelius, who had been called to Berlin by Frederick -William IV--that King of the Romanticists on the throne of the eminently -unromantic Hohenzollerns--found himself helpless against the ruling taste. -And here only, in the stronghold of sharply accentuated common sense, -where the old Prussian sobriety set bounds to the twilight kingdom of -Romanticism, could Adolf Menzel attain to greatness. His Berlinism kept -him from lingering in empty space. To the taste of to-day, formed from -Fontainebleau, he will seem too much a creature of the understanding and -too little a creature of feeling. Boecklin hit him off admirably when, on -being asked what he thought of Menzel, he answered: "He is a great -scholar." A comparison between him and Mommsen especially suggests -itself--a great scholar, a mordant satirist, and a brilliant journalist. -But this sober scepticism, this cool spirit of investigation, this -"heartlessness" observing all things with the eye of a judge in a court of -judicial inquiry, were what cleared the ground for modern art. No one has -done more than Menzel for those rulers in the kingdom of dreams who from -pure dreaming have never been able to learn anything. He has helped to set -them steadily on their feet, and to accustom their sight, vitiated by -idealism, once more to truth and nature. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - MEISSONIER. A HALT.] - -[Illustration: _Mansell._ - - MEISSONIER. A CAVALIER.] - -Menzel was almost the only one in Germany who could draw and paint in -the time before the French influence had made itself felt. The struggle -for existence had forced him to learn. In the year of Bismarck's birth -there was born in Breslau the man destined to glorify, first the -greatness of the old kingdom of the Fredericks, and then that of new -imperial Prussia. Cast out at an early age on the inhospitable -wilderness of life, he came to Berlin, poor and lonely, and not so much -for the sake of art as for gain. There he sat in his cheerless attic, -without a servant; and wrapped up in his plaid, with a coffee-pot on one -side and a pencil on the other, he looked out over the roofs of the vast -town, the most brilliant epoch of which he was predestined to depict and -to conquer by his art. Since it brought in profit sooner than anything -else, he had made himself familiar with the technique of reproduction; -and having devoted himself in particular to the newly discovered art of -lithography, he turned out _ménus_, New Year cards, vignettes for -occasional poems, etc., and in things of this sort displayed a genuine -affinity of spirit with Chodowiecki and Gottfried Schadow. From his -twelfth year onwards he had not only assured his own existence, but even -supported his family by such work; and in the hours he spent over it he -laid the groundwork for becoming the master of masters amongst the -moderns. Menzel is not merely a man who owed to himself everything which -he afterwards became, who learnt to draw by his own unassisted -endeavours, who mastered oil-painting without a teacher, and went -further in it than any one of his generation--a man who found out -entirely by himself new methods and combinations in water-colours and -gouache; but if it is asked who was the greatest German illustrator, the -man who did most in Germany to advance the art of woodcut engraving, the -one German historical painter of the century who was entirely original, -who really knew a bygone period so exactly that he could venture on -painting it, the name of Menzel is invariably uttered. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - ADOLF MENZEL, 1837.] - -Even in the twelve simple lithographs which appeared in 1837, "Memorable -Events from Prussian History in the Brandenburg Era," the "scholar" -Menzel stands ready as the actual historian of the Prussian kingdom. In -an age which took its pleasure in a vaporous, sentimental enthusiasm for -the mediæval splendour of the empire, he was the one who as a youth of -twenty pointed to the corner-stones of Prussian history in the -Brandenburg times; he was the only man of his age who refused to blow -the horn of the mawkish Romanticists, and still less that of the -impassioned historical painters who came after them. For his were no -theatrically tricked out scenes of tragedy, no touching situations; they -had nothing poetical; and just as little were they tedious pictures of -ceremonies or spectacular pieces. Striking characterisation and -sparkling vividness were united here to the most painstaking study of -nature and history, carried down to the peculiarities of costume and -weapons. History was not arranged in accordance with academic formulæ, -but delineated as if from life with absorbing truthfulness. Everything -was expressed simply and sincerely, without exciting passages, and -without conventional sentiment pumped out of models. Every epoch had its -historical physiognomy, and costume was reduced to its proper -subordinate place. - -Franz Kugler was the first who understood this sincere and pithy art. - -The Life of Napoleon had appeared, at that time, in Paris, with -illustrations by Horace Vernet, and it had a considerable sale in -Germany also. This gave a Berlin publisher the idea of a similar German -work, and Kugler commissioned Menzel to illustrate his biography of -Frederick the Great. It is almost impossible to pay sufficient honour to -the influence which this book on Frederick has had on German art. It -made an epoch in the history of wood engraving. The technique of this -craft had been completely forgotten in Germany ever since the beginning -of the century, or used only for the production of rough trade-marks for -tobacco; Menzel had to invent it afresh and teach an engraving school of -his own before the four hundred masterly plates of the book were made -possible. - -But it became more revolutionary still for the æsthetic ideas of the -time. Menzel had not set himself to produce a sequence of pictures, -displaying events and heroes in the most ideal situations possible, but -made it his business to sift the entire life of Frederick the Great to -its minutest particulars. And here began that philological study of -records which Menzel has carried on with the strenuous labour of an -archivist down to the present day. Old Fritz had been caught by -Chodowiecki in the way in which he has since lived in the popular -imagination: as the old man on horseback, with his bent shoulders and -his crutch-stick, holding a review, and as the philosopher, the -statesman, the warrior and hero in the most manifold situations. Menzel, -in whom the spirit of Chodowiecki lived again, only needed to begin -where the latter left off. Stepping on the antiquarian material of -Chodowiecki, he worked his way into the great period on which Frederick -and Voltaire have set the stamp of their spirit, as Mommsen worked his -way into Roman history. He read through whole libraries; he copied all -attainable portraits. With scientific pedantry he did not forget to -study the buttons and the cut of the trousers in the uniforms, and did -not rest until he knew the old grenadiers as a corporal knows his men. -Using these labours as preparation, he proceeded to call up old Fritz -and his time with the objectivity of an historian, just as they were, -and not as they had better have been. Sureness of treatment even in the -finest details, accurate mastery of the surroundings, and everything -which had made Meissonier's appearance so important for France, was -attained at one stroke for Germany. But the very simplicity of what was -offered--both in style and technique--prevented Menzel from being at the -beginning accepted in his own country as an "historical painter." He was -blamed for disregarding "beauty," and it was said that a "higher" -artistic perception was sealed from him. On the other hand, the book -laid the foundation of Menzel's position in France, and was, moreover, -the work on which, for a long time, the appreciation of modern German -art in foreign countries was based. - -[Illustration: MENZEL. FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS TUTOR.] - -[Illustration: MENZEL. THE ROUND TABLE AT SANS-SOUCI.] - -Thenceforth Menzel had a kind of monopoly in this subject, and when in -1840 Frederick William IV had the works of the great king published in -an _édition de luxe_, Menzel, amongst others, was entrusted with the -illustration. Every one of the thirty volumes contains portraits of -Frederick's contemporaries which were engraved by Mandel and others -after original pictures of the period. Menzel had an apparently -subordinate task. He was commissioned to make two hundred drawings for -wood engraving; these, however, do not appear on separate pages, but -were destined to be incorporated in the text as tail-pieces, vignettes, -and the like. This was the great work which occupied him during the -forties; and in these headings and tail-pieces to the works of Frederick -the Great he showed, for the first time, that he was not merely a -learned investigator of sources, but was full of brilliant _aperçus_. -One has to read Frederick the Great before one can do full justice to -the acuteness and ready resource, the subtlety and pungency of the -artist's pencil. All æsthetic categories of realistic and idealistic art -are scattered like dust before these creations, in which the most -fantastic ideas are embodied with the whole force of the realistic power -of our days. - -When he had done honour to the military comrades of the great ruler in -his work of wood engraving, "Heroes of War and Peace in the Time of King -Frederick," and thus made the epoch his own through a decade of busy -labour, Menzel, draughtsman though he was, turned round and became the -painter of Frederick the Great. In the history of art there have never -been two names more intimately connected with each other. Menzel was a -strenuous worker, who never knew the passion for woman, either because -he had no time for it, or because he despised women after being despised -by them as a poor, hard-featured student of art; a man whose great bald -head appeared at Berlin subscription-balls amid groups of brilliant -cavaliers and queens of beauty, fashion, and grace, surrounded by the -rustle of their silks and in the whirlpool of a dancing throng, gleaming -with colour and sparkling with gold and jewels; and appeared there -simply because this world interested him as something to be painted. He -was a recluse who went into society solely to make observations for his -art, and when there was chary of speech and much feared. He was always a -busy experimentalist, so that his two hands gradually became equally -dexterous; at the age of eighty he could still sketch with firm and -accurate strokes while travelling in a railway carriage. - -Though he had hitherto devoted himself to drawing, he had also by his -own independent study made himself familiar with the technique of oils; -and he now became such a master of colour as few were at that time. In -the middle of the century were painted those two masterpieces which now -hang in the Berlin National Gallery, "The Round Table at Sans-Souci" and -"The Concert of Frederick the Great." These are historical pictures, the -authority and importance of which cannot be shaken by even the most -modern of critics. If what is called the spirit of an age has ever been -embodied in pictures, it is embodied here, where the master-minds of the -eighteenth century are assembled at their genial round table. The scene -is the oval dining-room of the castle. The meal is over, and there -reigns a genial after-dinner mood, champagne sparkles in the glasses and -a smart rivalry of wit is in progress. Afternoon has crept on, and a -cold, subdued daylight floods the room, in which every fragment of the -architecture, from the inlaid floor to the gilded capitals of the -pillars and the stucco of the arched ceiling, every piece of furniture -and every chandelier, bears the wayward grace of the high-_rococo_ -period; all is comprehended with the most intimate knowledge. In the -second picture a fine candlelight is glimmering over the scene. -Frederick is just beginning to play the flute, and the musicians of the -string quartet pause, to strike in again after the solo. The Court is -grouped to the left: the ladies in gilded easy-chairs, and their -cavaliers behind them. The tapers of the chandelier and the sconces -branching from the wall shed over everything their prismatic, broken -light reflected by the mirrors, and fill the fantastic, capricious, -graceful, comfortable apartment, here with streaming brightness, there -with a finely modulated twilight. Only Menzel could have conjured up in -so convincing a manner the brilliancy of this Court festival of the -past. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstängl._ - - MENZEL. FREDERICK THE GREAT ON A JOURNEY.] - -Here is that exactness which an historical picture must have if it makes -any claim to intrinsic worth. Whilst the ordinary historical painters -were content to transmute dressed-up models into types of the -universally human, and to put historical labels on their frames, Menzel -succeeded in really penetrating a bygone age in an artistic spirit, and -in making it live again for the present generation. He did not burrow to -discover another dim historical personage every year, but confined -himself to one hero--to the figure of the Prussian hero-king, familiar -to every child, and still living in the popular imagination; and he -learnt to master the time of this favourite hero as if he had been old -Fritz himself. Menzel had never heard him blowing on his flute, and -never sat at table with him in Sans-Souci, but the painting of these -scenes comes out true and life-like in the artist's work, because the -past history of his country had become as vivid to him as his own age. -His "Battle of Hochkirch" rises to tragical grandeur, precisely because -everything that is outwardly impassioned is far from him. His "Frederick -the Great on a Journey," where the king is inspecting territories alter -the war and ordering the rebuilding of demolished houses, his -"Frederick's Meeting with Joseph II in Niesse," and all the other -pictures of the sequence, by their marvellous naturalness and intense -vividness, and by their freedom from pompous phrasing, stand alone in an -age dominated by empty sentiment. Menzel, who never laid his sketch-book -down from the time he was twelve years old, found a subject of pictorial -interest in everything that he saw around him, until finally he acquired -the power of moving with natural self-possession in a period that was -not his own. By the roundabout way through the _rococo_ period he has -taught us to understand ourselves. In his pictures an apparently -paradoxical problem has been solved. An intense feeling for modern -reality waked to new life the past, that same past which no one had -approached with success by the way of idealism. - -[Illustration: MENZEL. ILLUSTRATION TO KUGLER'S HISTORY OF FREDERICK - THE GREAT.] - -And if we look over the whole development of modern art it strikes us as -a remarkable fact that the most concrete spirits, the most thorough -masters of technique, like Meissonier and Menzel, were precisely those -who ventured to advance into the present. When they had crossed the -province of the _rococo_ period, avoided by all scholastic art, they had -arrived again at the epoch when Mengs and David had interrupted the -natural course of the history of art, one hundred years before. About -1750 the fateful movement towards the antique had been accomplished; in -1820 the Middle Ages had the upper hand; in 1830 the Cinquecento was in -the ascendant with Cornelius and Ingres; in 1840 the seventeenth century -was awakened through Delacroix and Wappers; and in 1850, after "the -courses of the centuries were sphered"--to use the phrase of -Cornelius--Meissonier and Menzel painted things which had not appeared -worth representing to the painters of 1750, blinded, as they were, by -the glory of the antique. Not less striking is it that the nearer the -historical subject came to the present the truer to nature did the -picture become, and the more did it outwardly change in its features. It -has shrivelled from the huge scale of David and Cornelius to the -miniature scale of Meissonier and Menzel, and to some extent it thus -leaves its further development to be guessed. At no distant time the -historical picture will be overthrown, and the picture from modern life, -hitherto but shyly handled and on the smallest scale, will swell to life -size. History itself, serious history, clings merely to the rock-bed of -old costume. One generation had used it with an abstract purpose as a -substratum for philosophical ideas; others had made scenical pieces with -its aid; a third generation turned it over for piquant traits and -anecdotes. The last and greatest generation had finally come to handle -it quite familiarly and humanly and without affected dignity. Their -works protested against all idealism; and this expressed itself, in -drawing, by their making use of the true instead of the "beautiful" -line; in colour, by a fresher tint corresponding with nature rather than -with the conventional ideal of beauty. - -[Illustration: MENZEL. PORTRAIT OF FREDERICK THE GREAT.] - -[Illustration: MENZEL. REIFSPIEL.] - -Nobility of line was paramount in Gallait and Piloty, movement with -grand, kingly gestures, lofty dignity, aristocratic bearing, -knightliness, and a conventional piling up of rich stuffs, alluring to -the eye. Leys, Menzel, and Meissonier were the first who sacrificed -beauty to truth, or, more properly, who perceived that a beauty without -truth is not really beautiful. They came gradually and by an indirect -way to this knowledge as they studied German and Netherlandish masters -instead of the Italians, and set up the angular, natural outlines of the -Germans against the grace of the Latin masters, which had become banal -through a lengthy course of imitation. And thus a return was made to the -manner of our true ancestors, which had been forgotten during half a -century. The place of the Antinous heads of Gallait was taken by -physiognomies of vigorous characterisation; gesticulating heroes made -way for peaceful, quiet persons, who did not consider themselves under -an obligation to acquire artistic citizenship by a parade of attitude, -but appeared in their picture as they were in reality. Impassioned -movement yielded quietly to arms hanging downwards and natural postures. -Even the traditional rules of concave and convex composition were broken -so that the free play of life might more easily come to its rights. Not -less did all three show themselves true painters by preferring -rightness of observation and truth and delicacy of reproduction to -anecdote and richness of invention, and by feeling the need of painting -figures in their real surroundings. Instead of the conventional velvet -and brocade stuffs, and the folios everywhere and nowhere in place, the -settles and the brass caskets, there was a naturally painted fragment of -reality, authentically reflecting the whole atmosphere of the period. -The treatment of nature, hitherto idealistic and arbitrary, became -synthetic and naturalistic. There was no more abstraction, but direct -observation of the man and his _milieu_. And if, for the time being, -this _milieu_ was a _rococo milieu_, artificially reconstructed so that -it could be realistically transferred to the picture, Menzel and -Meissonier, even on account of this realism, would have to be reckoned -as outposts of the modern tendency, and as having very decided points of -contact with it; and this, even if they had not themselves actually -become the pioneers of modernity, forcing their way through against the -literary and historical movement. It is owing to their works in the past -that the preference of the public turned less and less to compositions -of fine sentiment, even though grounded on more attentive observation, -and that artists began to regard reality as the most important element, -the point of departure for every picture. Thus life itself came to be -painted, and preparation was made for the coming demand of a new -generation, who wished no more to see old heroes, but themselves, in the -mirror of art. - -[Illustration: WHEN WILL GENIUS AWAKE? MENZEL.] - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - -CHAPTER I - - -General: - - Rouquet: L'état des Arts en Angleterre Paris, 1755. - - H. Walpole: Anecdotes of Painting in England. With Illustrations. 5 - vols. London, Strawberry Hill, 1762-71. New Edition, London, Ward, - Lock & Co., 1879. - - James Dalloway: Les Beaux-Arts en Angleterre. Paris, 1807. - - Edward Edwards: Anecdotes of Painters who have resided or been born in - England. London, 1808. - - J. D. Fiorillo, Geschichte der Malerei in Grossbritannien, vol. v. - Göttingen, 1808. - - W. Carey: Progress of the Fine Arts in England and Ireland during the - Reigns of George II, III, IV. London, 1826. - - William Fletcher: History of Painting in England. London, 1838. - - G. Hamilton: Gallery of English Artists. London and Paris, 1839. - - Edward Edwards: The Fine Arts in England. London, 1840. - - W. B. Taylor: The Origin, Progress, and Present Condition of the Fine - Arts in Great Britain and Ireland. 2 vols. London, 1841. - - G. Lombardi: Saggio dell' Istoria Pittorica d'Inghilterra. Firenze, - 1843. - - J. Dalloway: Anecdotes of Painting in England, with some Account of - the Principal Artists. 3 vols. London, 1849. - - John Ruskin: Modern Painters. 5 vols. London, 1851-60. - - G. F. Waagen: Treasures of Art in Great Britain. London, 1854. - - Prosper Mérimée: Les Beaux-Arts en Angleterre, "Revue des Deux - Mondes," 1857. - - T. Silvestre: L'Art, Les Artistes, etc., en Angleterre. London, 1857. - - C. de Pesquidoux: L'École Anglaise, 1672-1851. Études biographiques et - critiques. Paris, 1858. - - Our Living Painters: their Lives and Works. London, 1859. - - T. Silvestre: Les Artistes Anglais, "L'Artiste," vol. vi, p. 81. - Paris, 1859. - - W. Thornbury: British Artists from Hogarth to Turner. 2 vols. London, - 1860-61. - - J. Milsand: L'esthétique anglaise. Étude sur M. John Ruskin. Trad. - franç. Paris, 1864. - - R. and S. Redgrave: A Century of Painters of the English School. 2 - vols. London, 1866. New Edition, 1890. - - W. F. Rae: The History of Painting in England, "The Fine Arts - Quarterly Review," vol. i, p. 241; vol. ii, p. 64. 1866-67. - - W. C. Monkhouse: Masterpieces of English Art, with Sketches of some - Deceased Painters of the English School. London, 1869. - - F. T. Palgrave: Gems of English Art. Plates. London, 1869. - - Sarah Tytler: Modern Painters and their Paintings. London, 1873. - - Frederick William Fairholt: Homes, Works, and Shrines of English - Artists. London, Virtue & Co., 1873. - - Frederick Wedmore: The Rise of Naturalism in English Art, "Macmillan's - Magazine," March and June 1876. - - John Ruskin: Lectures on Art, delivered before the University of - Oxford, 1870. London, Macmillan, 1876. - - English Painters of the Georgian Era: Hogarth to Turner. Biographical - Notices of the Artists. With 48 permanent photographs of their most - celebrated pictures. London, Low, 1876. - - Frederick Wedmore: Studies on English Art. London, Richard Bentley & - Son, 1876. - - English Painters of the Victorian Era: Mulready to Landseer. - Illustrated with 48 photographs of their most popular works. With - biographical notices. London, Low, 1877. - - James Dafforne: Modern Art. A series of line engravings from the works - of distinguished painters of the English and Foreign Schools, selected - from galleries and private collections in Great Britain. 60 plates, - with descriptive text by J. D. London, 1877. - - Samuel Redgrave: A Dictionary of Artists of the English School. New - Edition. London, 1878. - - The Reflection of English Character in English Art, "The Quarterly - Review," January 1879. - - Allan Cunningham: The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters. - Revised edition, annotated and continued to the Present Time by Mrs. - Charles Heaton. 3 vols. London, Bell, 1879. - - Frederick Wedmore: Studies on English Art. Second Series. (Romney, - David Cox, G. Cruikshank, W. Hunt, Prout, B. Jones, A. Moore.) London, - Bentley, 1880. - - George H. Shepherd: A Short History of the British School of Painting. - London, Sampson Low, 1881. - - Living Painters of France and England. Plates. London, 1882. - - E. Chesneau: La peinture anglaise. Paris, 1882. - - J. Faber: La peinture anglaise. "Fédération artistique," 1883. 11-15. - - N. D'Anvers: An Elementary History of Modern Painting. New Edition. - London, Sampson Low, 1883. - - Wilfrid Meynell: Some Modern Artists and their Work. (Leighton, - Boughton, Tadema, Watts, etc.) With portraits and illustrations. - London, Cassell & Co., 1883. - - Modern Artists. Illustrated Biographies of Modern Artists, published - under the direction of F. G. Dumas. (Leighton, Millais, Herkomer, - Hook, etc.) 2 vols. London and Paris, 1882-84. - - Feuillet de Conches: Histoire de l'école anglaise de peinture jusqu'à - Sir Thomas Lawrence et ses émules. Paris, Leroux, 1883. - - H. J. Wilmot-Buxton and S. R. Köhler: English and American Painters. - Plates. London, 1883. - - John Ruskin: The Art of England. Lectures given in Oxford. Orpington, - Kent, 1883-84. - - Artists at Home. Photographed by J. R. Mayall. With Biographical - Notices by F. G. Stephens. London, 1884. - - Lord Ronald Gower; Great Historic Galleries of England. London, - Sampson Low. - - J. Comyns Carr: Papers on Art. London, Macmillan & Co., 1885. - (Contains studies of Reynolds, Gainsborough, Rossetti, etc.) - - Allan Cunningham: Great English Painters. Selected Biographies from - Allan Cunningham's Lives of Eminent British Painters. Edited by - William Sharp. London, 1886. - - J. E. Hodgson: Fifty Years of British Art. (Manchester Exhibition, - 1887.) Manchester and London, John Heywood, 1887. - - Charles Heaton: A Concise History of Painting. London, Bell & Daldy, - 1873. Second Edition, 1888. - - The Pictorial Record of the Royal Jubilee Exhibition at Manchester, - 1887. By Walter Tomlinson. With special articles by Thomas W. Harris, - Charles Estcourt, and Joseph Nodal. Edited by John H. Nodal. With - Illustrations. Manchester, 1888. - - Walter Armstrong: The Nineteenth Century School in Art, "Nineteenth - Century," April, 1887. - - Walter Armstrong: Fine Art at the Royal Jubilee Exhibition at - Manchester, 1887. 1888. - - William Hoe: English Artists of the Day. A Technical Directory. - London, 1888. - - William Tirebuck: Great Minds in Art. (Studies of Wilson, Wilkie, - Landseer, and others.) London, 1888. - - Harry Quilter: French and English Art, "Universal Review," 1888 and - 1890. - - W. E. Henley: A Century of Artists. A Memorial of the Glasgow - International Exhibition, 1888. With Illustrations. Glasgow, 1889. - - Hermann Helferich: Ueber die Kunst in England, "Kunst für Alle," iv, - 1888, pp. 161, 177. - - Paul Meyerheim: Die englische Malerie in den letzten 50 Jahren, "Nord - und Süd," 1889, p. 17. - - J. A. Crowe, Continental and English Painting, "Nineteenth Century," - April 1890. - - T. de Wyzewa: Les grands peintres de l'Espagne et de l'Angleterre. - Histoire sommaire de la peinture japonaise. Illustrations. Paris, - 1891. - - T. H. Shepherd: Short History of the British School of Painting. - London, 1891. - - Robert de la Sizeranne: La peinture anglaise contemporaine. Paris, - 1895. - - G. Temple: The Art of Painting in the Queen's Reign. London, 1898. - - Richard Muther: Die englische Malerei im 19 Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1902. - - _See also_ H. Thomas Buckle: History of Civilisation in England. - - H. Taine: Notes sur l'Angleterre. Paris, 1872. - - H. Taine: Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise. - - Periodicals: "Art Journal," "Portfolio," and "Magazine of Art," - _passim._ - -Hogarth: - - W. Hogarth: Analyse de la beauté. 2 vols. Paris, 1805. - - John Nichols: Biographical Anecdotes of W. Hogarth. London, 1781. - Second Edition, 1785. - - G. C. Lichtenberg: Erklärung der Hogarth'schen Kupferstiche, mit - verkleinerten Copien derselben v. Riepenhausen. Göttingen, 1794-1831. - - W. Hogarth: Complete Works, Including the Analysis of Beauty. London, - 1837. - - Francis Wey: W. Hogarth. Londres il y a cent ans. Paris, 1859. - - J. Hannay: Complete Works of Hogarth. Plates. London, 1860. - - G. A. Sala: W. Hogarth, Painter, Engraver, and Philosopher. - Illustrations. London, 1866. - - C. Justi: W. Hogarth, "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," vii, 1872. - - A. Dobson: Hogarth. London, Low, New and Enlarged Edition, 1903. - (Illustrated Biographies of Great Artists.) - - Th. Gautier: Guide de l'amateur, 1882. - - Hogarth's Shrimp Girl, "Portfolio," 1886, p. 105. - - F. Rabbe in the compilation, "Les artistes célèbres." - - _Reproductions:_ - - The Original and Genuine Works of W. Hogarth. Atlas fol. London, 1790. - - Graphic Illustrations of Hogarth: from Pictures, Drawings, etc. 2 - vols. Royal 8vo. London, 1794-99. - - The Works of W. Hogarth: from the original plates, restored by James - Heath, R.A. Atlas fol. London, 1822. - - The Works of W. Hogarth: reproduced from the original engravings in - permanent photographs. With an Essay on Hogarth by Charles Lamb. 2 - vols. Royal 8vo. London, 1872. - - J. Ireland and J. Nichols: Hogarth's Works, with Life and Anecdotal - Descriptions of his Pictures. 3 vols. London. No date. - -Reynolds: - - J. Northcote: The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds. London. 1818. - - Joseph Farrington: Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with some - Observations on his Talent and Character. London, 1839. - - Edm. Wheatley: A Descriptive Catalogue of all the Prints, etc., from - Original Portraits and Pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1825. - New Edition, 1850. - - Th. Reynolds: Life of Joshua Reynolds, by his Son. London, 1839. - - Joshua Reynolds: Discourses on the Fine Arts. Edinburgh, 1840. - - Joshua Reynolds: Discourses, illustrated by Explanatory Notes and - Plates by J. Burnet. London, 1842. - - Edm. Malone: The Literary Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Seven - Editions. London, 1794-1824. New Editions by H. W. Beechey. London, - 1846 and 1851. - - W. Cotton: Sir Joshua Reynolds and his Works, edited by John Burnet. - London, 1856. New Edition, 1859. - - J. Timbs: Anecdotal Biography. (Hogarth, Reynolds, etc.) 1860. - - Ch. Rob. Leslie and Tom Taylor: Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. - London, 1865. - - Reynolds and the Portrait Painters of the Last Century: "Blackwood's - Magazine," November 1867. - - Sidney Colvin: Joshua Reynolds, "Portfolio," 1873, pp. 66-82. - - J. C. Collins: Sir Joshua Reynolds as a Portrait Painter. An Essay, - with 20 Portraits. London, 1874. - - Edw. Hamilton: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Engraved Works of Joshua - Reynolds, 1755-1820. London, 1874. - - Frederick Wedmore: Sir Joshua Reynolds, "Temple Bar," July 1876. - - F. S. Pulling; Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, Sampson Low, 1880. - - Th. Gautier; Guide de l'amateur, 1882. - - F. G. Stephens: English Children as painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. - London, 1884. - - Th. Duret: Sir Joshua Reynolds et Gainsborough aux expositions de la - Royal Academy et de la Grosvenor Gallerie, "Gazette des Beaux Arts," - 1884, i 327. (The same reprinted and enlarged. Paris, 1885.) - - Various articles in the "Athenæum," 1883 and 1884. - - Helen Zimmern: Sir Joshua Reynolds, in "Westermanns Monatsheften," May - 1884. - - William Martin Conway: The Artistic Development of Reynolds and - Gainsborough. London, Seeley & Co., 1886. - - Ernest Chesneau: Joshua Reynolds. With 18 Illustrations. Paris, 1887 - (in the compilation "Les artistes célèbres"). - - Lady Blennerhasset: Joshua Reynolds' Discourses, "Allgemeine Zeitung," - 1889. - - Ed. Leisching: Zur Aesthetik u. Technik der bildenden Künste. - Akademische Reden von Sir J. R., Uebersetzt u. mit Einleitung, - Anmerkungen, Register u. Textvergleichung versehen von Dr. E. L. - Leipzig, 1893. - - C. Phillips: Sir Joshua Reynolds. With 9 Illustrations from Pictures - by the Master. London, 1894. - - W. Armstrong: Sir Joshua Reynolds. With 78 Photogravures and 6 - Lithographic Facsimiles in colour, 1900; Popular edition, with 52 - Plates. London, 1905. - - Lord Ronald Gower: Sir Joshua Reynolds. His Life and Art (with - Illustrations). British Artists' Series, 1902. - - J. Sime: Reynolds. London, 1904. - - F. Benoit: Reynolds. Paris, 1904. - -Gainsborough: - - Rob. Pratt: Sketch of the Life and Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough. - London, 1788. - - George William Fulcher: Life of Thomas Gainsborough. London, 1856. - - Sidney Colvin: Thomas Gainsborough, "Portfolio," 1872, pp. 169, 178. - - J. Comyns Carr: Thomas Gainsborough, "The English Illustrated - Magazine," December 1884. - - George M. Brock-Arnold: Gainsborough. London, Sampson Low, 1889. - - Walter Armstrong in the compilation, "Les artistes célèbres." - - Mrs. Bell: Thomas Gainsborough: a Record of his Life and Works, with - Illustrations, etc. London, 1897. - - W. Armstrong: Gainsborough and his Place in English Art. With 62 - Photogravures and 10 Lithographic Facsimiles in colour. London, 1898. - Popular edition (with 48 Plates), 1904. - - Lord Ronald Gower: Thomas Gainsborough (with Illustrations). British - Artists' Series, 1903. - - _Reproductions:_ - - Studies of Landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough. Engraved from the - Originals by L. Francia. London, 1810. - - Studies of Figures by Gainsborough, in exact imitation of the - originals, by Richard Lane. London, 1825. - - Selected Works of Thomas Gainsborough. One hundred engravings in - mezzotint. Fol. London, 1876. - -Wilson: - - The Works of Richard Wilson, R.A., Landscape Painter. A volume of - engravings. Fol. No date. - - T. Wright: Some Account of the Life of Richard Wilson. London, 1824. - - -CHAPTER II - -General: - - Georg Brandes: Hauptströmungen der Literatur des 19 Jahrhunderts, Bd. - i, 2 Aufl. Leipzig, 1887. - - Wilhelm Weigand: Essays. (Voltaire, Rousseau, zur Psychologie des 19 - Jahrhunderts, etc.) München, 1892. - -Goya: - - Théophile Gautier: Cabinet de l'amateur, 1842. - - Laurent Matheron: Biographie de Fr. Goya. Paris, 1858. - - Carderera: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1860 and 1863. - - P. Lefort: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1867. - - Charles Yriarte: Goya, sa biographie, etc. Paris, 1867. - - D. F. Zapater y Gomez: Goya, noticias biograficas. Zaragoza, 1868. - - Paul Lefort: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1875, ii 506; 1876, i 336; ii - 500. Reprinted and enlarged under the title of Francisco Goya, Étude - biographique et critique, suivie de l'essai d'un catalogue raisonné de - son oeuvre gravé et lithographié. Paris, 1877. - - Charles Yriarte: Goya, Aquafortiste, "L'Art," 1877, ii 3, 33, 56, 78. - - P. G. Hamerton: Fr. Goya, "Portfolio." 1879, 67-99. - - Muñoz y Manzano: Francesco de Goya y Lucientes, "Revista - contemporanea," September 1883. - - Lucien Solvay: L'Art Espagnol. Paris, 1887. (Bibliothèque - internationale de l'Art.) - - Con. de la Viñaza: Goya, su tiempo, su vida, sus obras. Madrid, 1887. - - P. Lafond: Goya. Paris, 1902. - - W. Rothenstein: Goya (with Illustrations). London, 1900. - - Valerian von Loga: Francisco de Goya. Berlin, 1903. - - Richard Muther in der Sammlung der Kunst, 1904, Berlin. - - _More Recent Reproductions:_ - - Los Desastres de la Guerra. Colleccion de 80 laminos. Madrid, 1863. - - Los Proverbios. Colleccion de 18 laminos. Madrid, 1864. - - Los Caprichos. Gravures fac-similé de M. Segui y Riera. Notice - biographique et étude critique par Ant. de Nait. Barcelone, 1887. - -French Art in the Eighteenth Century: - - Edmond et Jules de Goncourt: L'Art du XVIII siècle. Paris, 1850. 3rd - Edition, Paris, 1880. - - Edmond et Jules de Goncourt: La femme au XVIII siècle. Paris, 1889. - - Charles Blanc: Les Peintres des Fêtes galantes. (Watteau, Lancret, - Pater, Boucher.) Paris, 1854. - - Arsène Houssaye: Histoire de l'Art Français du XVIII siècle. - Portraits. Paris, 1860. - - E. B. de la Chavignerie: Les Artistes Français du XVIII siècle oubliés - ou dédaignés. Paris, 1865. - - A. v. Wurzbach: Die französischen Maler des 18 Jahrh. Stuttgart, 1879. - - Auguste Nicaise: L'école française au XVIII siècle. Chalons-sur-Marne, - 1883. - - Paul Seidel: Friedrich d. Gr. u. die französische Kunst seiner Zeit. - Berlin, 1892. - -Watteau: - - Figures de différents caractères de paysage et d'études dessinées - d'après nature par A. Watteau. 2 vols., 350 pl. Paris. No date. - - D'Argenville: Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres. Paris, 1762. - - Mariette: Abecedario. Published in the archives of French Art by - Chennevières. 1852, etc. - - Caylus: La vie d'Antoine Watteau. Read on 3rd February 1748 before the - Paris Academy. Cited by Goncourt, L'Art du XVIII siècle, 1850. - - Julienne in the preface to his book of plates, 1755. - - Cellier: Antoine Watteau, son enfance, ses contemporains. - Valenciennes, 1867. - - Edmond de Goncourt: A. Watteau. Paris, 1860. By the same author, - Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d'A. Watteau. - Paris, 1875. - - Theodor Volbehr: Antoine Watteau, ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des - 18 Jahrh. München, 1885. - - Emil Hannover: A. Watteau. Kopenhagen, 1887. Deutsch von Alice - Hannover. Berlin, 1889. - - G. Dargenty in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1889. - - Paul Mantz: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1889, i 5, 177, 455; ii 5, 129, - 222. Reprinted 1892. - -Boucher: - - P. Mantz: François Boucher, Lemoyne et Natoire (with engravings from - their works). Paris, 1880. - - André Michel in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1889. - -Lancret: - - G. Dargenty in "Les artistes célèbres." - -Pater: - - G. Dargenty in "Les artistes célèbres." - -Fragonard: - - Baron Roger Portalis: Honoré Fragonard, sa vie et ses oeuvres. Paris, - 1887. - - Felix Naquet in "Les artistes célèbres." 1893. - - C. Mauclair: Fragonard, Biographie critique illustrée de vingt-quatre - reproductions hors texte (Les Grands Artistes, etc.), 1904. - -Baudouin: - - Ch. Normand in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1892. - -Greuze: - - Edmond et Jules de Goncourt: L'Art du XVIII siècle. - - Charles Blanc: Histoire de peintres des toutes les écoles, ii. - - Jules Renouvier: Histoire de l'Art pendant la Révolution, p. 517. - - Charles Normand in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1892. - -Quentin La Tour: - - Clement de Ris: L'oeuvre de Maurice Quentin de Latour, "Gazette des - Beaux Arts," 1882, ii 251. - - Champfleury in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1886. - - H. Lapauze. With 87 Plates. Paris, 1885. La Tour et son oeuvre au - Musée de Saint-Quentin, 1905. - -Liotard: - - F. Guye: Jean Étienne Liotard, 1702-91. Zofingen, 1890. - -Chardin: - - Edmond et Jules de Goncourt: L'Art du XVIII siècle. - - G. Dargenty: "L'Art," 1883, ii 3. - - H. de Chennevières: Chardin au Musée du Louvre, "Gazette des Beaux - Arts," 1889, i 121. - - Charles Normand in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1892. - - G. Schéfer: Chardin ... Biographie critique illustrée de vingt-quatre - reproductions hors texte (Les Grands Artistes, etc.), 1904. - -Cornelis Troost: - - A Ver Huell: Cornelis Troost en zÿn Werken. Arnhem, 1873. - -Changes of Taste in Germany: - - Hermann Hettner: Literaturgeschichte des 18 Jahrhunderts, Bd. iii. - Braunschweig, 1879. - -Chodowiecki: - - W. Engelmann: Daniel Chodowieckis sämmtliche Kupferstiche. Leipzig, - 1857. - - Alfred Woltmann: Hogarth und Chodowiecki. From Vier Jahrhunderte - niederländisch-deutscher Kunstgeschichte. Berlin, 1878. - - Ferdinand Meyer: Daniel Chodowiecki der Peintre-graveur. Berlin, 1888. - - W. von Oettingen. Berlin, 1895. - - L Kämmerer: Bd. 21 der Künstlermonographien von Knackfuss. Bielefeld, - 1897. - - See Selection from the artist's finest engravings, in photography, by - A. Frisch. Berlin, 1885. - - D. Chodowiecki: Von Berlin nach Danzig, eine Künstlerfahrt im Jahre - 1783. 108 Facsimiledrucke nach Ch.'s Zeichnungen. Berlin, 1883. - -Tischbein: - - Aus meinem Leben. An Autobiography, published by G. G. W. Schiller. - Leipzig, 1861. - - Fr. v. Alten: Ans Tischbeins Leben und Briefwechsel. Leipzig, 1872. - - Edmond Michel: Étude biographique sur les Tischbein. Lyon, 1881. - -Pesne: - - Paul Seidel: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1891. - - Paul Seidel: Die Berliner Kunst unter Friedrich Wilhelm I. - "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1888, p. 185. - -Anton Graft: - - R. Muther: Anton Graff, ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des 18 - Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1881. - - Julius Vogel: A. G., mit 60 Tafeln. Leipzig, 1898. - -Joseph Vernet: - - Amedée Durande: Joseph, Carl, et Horace Vernet, Correspondence et - biographie. Paris, 1863. - - L. Lagrange: J. Vernet et la peinture au XVIII siècle. Paris, 1864. - - A. Genevay: "L'Art," 1876, iii 254, 307; iv 61. - - Albert Maire: Les Vernet in "Les artistes célèbres." - -Hubert Robert: - - C. Gabillot in "Les artistes célèbres." - -Canaletto: - - Rudolph Meyer: Die beiden Canaletti. Dresden, 1878. - -Francesco Guardi: - - Paul Leroi: "L'Art," 1878, i 103. - -Gessner: - - Heinrich Wölfflin: Salomon Gessner. Frauenfeld. 1889. - -Oudry und Desportes: - - Charles Normand in "Les artistes célèbres." - -Riedinger: - - Georg Aug. Wilh. Thienemann: Leben und Wirken J. El. Riedingers. - Leipzig, 1856. - - -CHAPTER III - -German Art in General: - - Raczynski: Geschichte der neueren deutschen Kunst, übersetzt von K. - Hagen. 3 Bde. Text, 1 Bd. Tafeln. Berlin, 1836. - - Anton Hallmann: Kunstbestrebungen der Gegenwart. Berlin, 1842. - - Théophile Gautier: Les Beaux Arts en Europe, 1855. Paris, 1855. - - A. Hagen: Die deutsche Kunst in unserm Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1857. - - E. Förster: Geschichte der neueren deutschen Kunst. Leipzig, 1863. - - Anton Springer: Die bildende Kunst des 19 Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1858. - - J. Gérard: Considérations sur l'art allemand, ses principes et - tendances à propos de l'exposition de Munich. Bruxelles, 1859. - - Hermann Riegel: Geschichte des Wiederauflebens der deutschen Kunst - seit Carstens. Hannover, 1876. - - Friedr. Pecht: Deutsche Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts, Studien und - Erinnerungen. Nördlingen, Beck, 1877-81. - - J. Beavington-Atkinson: The Schools of Modern Art in Germany. With - numerous Illustrations. London, Seeley, 1880. - - A. F. Graf v. Schack: Meine Gemäldesammlung. Stuttgart, Cotta, 1881. - Neue Ausgabe als Einleitung zu den Albertschen Heliogravuren der - Galerie Schack. München, 1889. - - Kunst und Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts, unter Mitwirkung von - Fachgenossen, herausgegeben von R. Dohme. Leipzig, Seemann, 1881 ff. - - D. Duncker, Moderne Meister. Charakteristiken aus Kunst und Leben. - Berlin, 1883. - - Franz Reber: Geschichte der neueren deutschen Kunst, mit Excursen über - die parallele Kunstentwicklung der übrigen Länder. 3 Bde. 3 Aufl. - Leipzig, 1884. - - Anton Springer: Die Wege und Ziele der gegenwärtigen Kunst, in seinen - Bildern aus der neueren Kunstgeschichte. 2 Aufl. Bonn, 1886. - - Adolf Rosenberg: Die Münchener Malerschule seit 1871. Leipzig, 1887. - - Adolf Rosenberg: Geschichte der modernen Malerei. Bd. 2 und 3, - Deutschland. Leipzig, 1888 ff. - - Hermann Becker: Deutsche Maler von Carstens bis auf die neuere Zeit. - Leipzig, 1888. - - L. Pfau in "Kunst und Kritik," Bd. 1. Stuttgart, 1888, pp. 445-535. - - Friedrich Pecht: Geschichte der Münchener Kunst. München, 1889. - - Hubert Janitscheks, final chapter in his Geschichte der Deutschen - Malerei. Berlin, Grote, 1890. - - M. de la Mazelière: La peinture allemande au XIX siècle. Paris, 1900. - - Cornelius Gurlitt: Die deutsche Kunst des 19 Jahrhunderts. Berlin, - 1899. - - Max Schmid: Kunstgeschichte des 19 Jahrhunderts. Leipzig, 1904. - - Friedrich Haack: Die Kunst des 19 Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1905. - - Periodicals chiefly: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," Leipzig, 1866. - "Die Kunst für Alle," München, 1886. "Die Kunst unserer Zeit" - (specially the work of H. E. v. Berlepsch and Corn. Gurlitt), München, - 1890. "Der Kunstwart," Dresden, 1887. "Die Gegenwart" (articles by - Floerke, Lichtwark, Gurlitt, etc.), Berlin, 1872 ff. "Die Nation" - (articles by Helferich, Elias, etc.), Berlin, 1883 ff. "Die Freie - Bühne" (articles by Helferich, B. Becker, etc.), Berlin, 1888 ff. "Die - preussischen Jahrbücher" (articles by Carl Neumann, etc.). All cited - in particular in the appropriate place. - -The Classical Reaction: - - Hermann Helferich: Classicität, "Freie Bühne," 1890. - - Carl Neumann: Christian Rauch, Betrachtungen über Ursprung und Anfänge - der modernen deutschen Plastik, "Preuss. Jahrbücher," Bd. 64, 1889. - - Heinr. v. Stein: Die Entstehung der neueren Aesthetik. Stuttgart, - 1886. - -The Theories of Gérard de Lairesse: - - Carl Lemcke in his Study of Adriean van der Werff in "Kunst and - Künstler Deutschlands und der Niederlande," vol. ii. Leipzig, 1878. - -Winckelmann: - - Carl Justi: Winckelmann, sein Leben, seine Werke, seine Zeitgenossen. - Bd. 1, Leipzig, 1866; Bd. 2, Leipzig, 1872. - -The Influence of Archæological Studies upon Art: - - K. Bernh. Stark: Handbuch der Archaeologie, Bd. 1. Leipzig, 1879. - -Lessing: - - Danzel-Guhrauer: Lessings Leben und Werke. Leipzig. No date. - - Heinr. Fischer: Lessings Laokoon und die Gesetze der bildenden Kunst. - Berlin, 1887. - -Goethe's Relations to the Plastic Arts: - - H. Hettner: Goethes Stellung zur bildenden Kunst seiner Zeit, - "Westermanns Monatshefte," 20, 83. - - H. Hettner in his "Deutsche Literaturgeschichte," ii 457. - - R. v. Eithelberger: Goethe als Kunstschriftsteller, in seinen - gesammelten kunsthistorischen Schriften. Wien, 1884. Bd. 3, pp. - 221-261. - - Gustav Ebe: Goethes Beziehungen zur bildenden Kunst, "Gegenwart," - xxvii. Heft 16 und 18. - - C. Urlichs: Ueber Goethes Verhältniss zur alten Kunst. - "Goethe-Jahrbuch," iii. - - Hermann Uhde: Goethe, J. G. Quandt und der sächsische Kunstverein. - Stuttgart, Cotta, 1877. - - A. Heusler: Goethe und die italienische Kunst. Basel, Reich, 1891. - - E. Dobbert: Goethe und die Berliner Kunst, "Nationalzeitung," 1891, 1 - und 3 Febr. - - Bode: Goethes Asthetik. Berlin, 1901. - - Julius Vogel: Aus Goethes römischen Tagen. Leipzig, 1906. - -Mengs: - - Bianconi: Elogio storico del Cavaliere Anton R. Mengs. Pavia, 1759. - - Mengs: Gedanken über die Schönheit und über den Geschmack in der - Malerei. Zürich, 1765. Seine sämmtlichen hinterlassenen Schriften. - Bonn, 1843-44. - - Franz Reber in "Kunst und Künstler Deutschl. u. der Niederlande," - 1878. - - Friedrich Pecht: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xiv, 1879, pp. 33 - u. 72. - - Woermann: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1894. - -Angelica Kauffmann: - - Giov. Gher. de Rossi: Vita di Angelica Kauffmann. Firenze, 1810. - German by A. Weinhart, Bregenz, 1814. - - J. E. Wessely in "Kunst und Künstler Deutschlands und der - Niederlande," 1878. - - A. W. Grube: Angelika Kauffmann. Bregenz, 1889. - - Wilh. Schram: Die Malerin Angelika Kauffmann. Brünn, 1890. - - Fr. A. Gérard: Angelica Kauffmann. London, 1892. - - _See also_ F. Guhl: Die Frauen in der Kunstgeschichte. Berlin, 1858. - -Oeser: - - Alphons Dürr: A. F. Oeser, Ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des 18 - Jahrh. Leipzig, Dürr, 1879. - -Carstens: - - Karl Ludwig Fernow: Leben des Künstlers J. A. Carstens. Leipzig, 1806. - Neuherausgegeben von Hermann Riegel. Hannover, 1867. - - Hermann Grimm: Ausgewählte Essays zur Einführung in das Studium der - neueren Kunst. 2 Aufl. Berlin, 1883, p. 216. - - F. v. Alten: A. F. Carstens. Schleswig, 1865. - - H. Grimm: Ueber Künstler und Kunstwerke, i. Berlin, 1865, pp. 73-95. - - Schöne: Beiträge zur Lebensgeschichte des Malers Carstens. Leipzig, - 1866. - - Fr. Eggers: Vier Vorträge aus der neueren Kunstgeschichte. Berlin, - 1867, p. 1. - - Carstens' Werke, in Kupferstichen von W. Müller, herausgegeben von - Hermann Riegel. Leipzig, Bd. 1, 1869; Bd. 2, 1874; Bd. 3, 1884. - - Jul. Lange: Nutids Kunst. Kopenhagen, 1873, pp. 1-15. - - Fr. Pauli: A. Carstens. Berlin, 1876. - - Hermann Riegel: Kunstgeschichtliche Vorträge und Aufsätze, p. 200, - "Carstensiana." Braunschweig, 1877. - - Alfr. Woltmann, from Vier Jahrhunderte niederländisch-deutscher - Kunstgeschichte. Berlin, 1878, p. 169. - - Fr. Pecht: Deutsche Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts. III Reihe. - Nördlingen, 1881, p. 31 ff. - - August Sach: Asmus Jacob Carstens' Jugend und Lehrjahre nach - urkundliche Quellen. Halle, 1881. - - D. Schnittgen: A. J. Carstens, "Christliches Kunstblatt," 1882, 12. - - Hermann Lücke in "Kunst und Künstler des 19 Jahrh." Leipzig, 1886. - -The Painter Müller: - - C. Seuffert: Maler Müller. Berlin, 1877. - - Sauer in "Deutscher Nationallitteratur," Bd. 81. - - Müller's article against Carstens is in Schiller's Horen, 1797, iii - 21, iv 4. - -Luise Seidler: - - Hermann Uhde: Erinnerungen aus dem Leben der Malerin Luise Seidler, - aus handschriftliche Nachlass zusammengestellt und bearbeitet, 2 - Auflage. Berlin, Hertz, 1876. - -Wächter: - - Dav. Friedr. Strauss: Kleine Schriften. Leipzig, 1862, pp. 333-360. - - A. Haakh: Beiträge aus Württemberg zur neueren deutschen - Kunstgeschichte. Stuttgart, 1863, pp. vii ff., 10 ff., 133 ff. - -Schick: - - Dav. Friedr. Strauss: Kleine Schriften, pp. 361-396. - - Fr. Eggers: "Deutsches Kunstblatt," 1858, pp. 129-137. - - A. Haakh: Beiträge aus Württernberg zur neueren deutschen - Kunstgeschichte, pp. xiv ff., 23-31, 59-312. - - H. Kindt: Zu Gottlieb Schicks 100 jährigem Geburtstag. Gegenwart, - 1879, 31. - - Winterlin: Württenbergische Künstler. Stuttgart, 1895. - -Genelli: - - H. Riegel: Deutsche Kunststudien. Hannover, 1868, pp. 291 ff. - - M. Jordan: Bonaventura Genelli, "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," v - pp. 1-19. - - H. Riegel: Kunstgeschichtliche Vorträge und Aufsätze. Braunschweig, - 1877, pp. 148-170. - - L. v. Donop: Briefe von Bonaventura Genelli und Karl Rahl, - "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xii pp. 25 ii.; xiii pp. 115 ff. - Letters from Schwind to Genelli, do. xi p. 11. - - Fr. Pecht: Deutsche Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts, II Reihe. - Nördlingen, 1879, pp. 271-304. - - A. F. Graf v. Schack: Meine Gemäldesammlung. Stuttgart, 1881, pp. - 9-40. - - O. Berggruen: Die Gallerie Schack in München. Wien, 1883. Also in "Die - graph. Künste," iv, 1881, 1. - - O. Baisch: Einzelheiten aus Genellis Leben und Briefwechsel, - "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xviii pp. 257-262. - - -CHAPTER IV - -French Art in General: - - Charles Blanc: Histoire des peintres français au XIX siècle. Paris, - 1845. - - Gustave Planché; Portraits d'artistes. Paris, 1853. - - Gustave Planché: Études sur l'école française, 1831-52. Paris, 1855. - - A. de la Forge: La Peinture contemporaine en France. Paris, 1856. - - T Silvestre: Histoire des Artistes vivants français et étrangers. - Paris, 1857. - - Théodore Pelloquet: Dictionnaire de poche des Artistes contemporains. - Paris, 1858. - - L. Laurent-Pichat: L'Art et les Artistes en France. Paris, 1859. - - Moritz Hartmann; Bilder und Büsten. Frankfurt-am-Main, 1860. - - Ch. Lenormant: Beaux Arts et Voyages. Paris, 1861. - - Olivier Merson: La Peinture en France. Paris, 1861. - - E. Chesneau: La Peinture Française au XIX siècle. Les Chefs d'École, - L. David Gros, Géricault, Decamps, Meissonier, Ingres, H. Flandrin, E. - Delacroix. Paris, 1862. New Edition, Paris, 1883. - - Charles Blanc: Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles. Paris, - 1861-76. - - L. Pfau: Französische Maler und Bilder, in "Freie Studien." Stuttgart, - 1866. Enlarged in "Kunst und Kritik," Bd. 1, pp. 115-444. Stuttgart, - 1888. - - Charles Clement: Études sur les Beaux Arts en France. Paris, 1865. - Second Edition, 1867. - - Julius Meyer: Geschichte der modernen französischen Malerei seit 1789. - Leipzig, 1867. - - Julius Meyer: Die französische Malerei seit 1848, "Zeitschrift für - bildende Kunst," ii pp. 13, 32, 56, 119. Leipzig, 1867. - - A. Bonnin: Études sur l'art contemporain. Les Écoles françaises et - étrangères en 1867. Paris, 1868. - - P. G. Hamerton: Contemporary French Painters. London, 1868. - - H. O'Neil: Modern Art in England and France. London, 1869. - - P. G. Hamerton: Painting in France. London, 1869. - - W. B. Scott: Gems of French Art, with an Essay on the French School. - Plates. London, 1871. - - M. Chaumelin: L'Art contemporain. La Peinture à l'Exposition - universelle de 1867. Salon de 1868, 1869, 1870. Paris, 1873. - - Th. Gautier: Portraits contemporains. Paris, 1874. - - Pierre Petroz: L'Art et la critique en France depuis 1822. Paris, - 1875. - - L. Dussieux: Les Artistes français à l'étranger. Paris, Lecoffre fils - et Cie, 1876. - - R. Ménard: French Artists of the Present Day. Notices of some - Contemporary Painters. 12 engravings. London, 1876. - - Charles Blanc: Les Artistes de mon temps. Paris, 1876. - - Jules Claretie: L'Art et les Artistes Français contemporains, avec un - avant-propos sur le Salon de 1876. Paris, 1876. Deuxième série, Paris, - 1881. - - Philippe Burty: Maîtres et petits maîtres. Paris, 1877. - - Marquet de Vasselot: Recherches sur l'art français. Architecture, - Peinture, Sculpture. Paris, 1878. - - Lucien Double: Promenade à travers deux siècles et quatorze salons. - Paris, 1878. - - G. Berger: L'école Française de Peinture. Paris, 1879. - - Victor Champier: Les Beaux Arts en France et à l'Étranger. Paris, - 1879. - - E. Bellier de la Chavignerie et L. Auvray; Dictionnaire générale des - Artistes de l'École Française. Paris, 1880. - - Ernest Chesneau: Peintres et Statuaires Romantiques. Paris, 1880. - - Maurice du Seigneur: L'Art et les artistes au Salon de 1880. Paris, - 1880. - - Marquet de Vasselot: Histoire du Portrait en France. Paris, 1880. - - George Lafenestre: L'Art vivant, la Peinture et la Sculpture aux - Salons de 1868 à 1877. Paris, 1881. - - E. Leclerq: Caractères de l'École française moderne de Peinture. - Paris, 1881. - - F. Gosselin: Histoire anecdotique des Salons de peinture depuis 1673. - Paris, Dentu, 1881. - - L. de Pesquidoux: L'Art au XIX siècle. L'Art dans les deux mondes, - Peinture et Sculpture. 2 vols. Paris, 1881. - - Eugène Montrasier. Les artistes modernes: 1. Les peintres de genre; 2. - Les peintres militaires et les peintres de nu. 40 Biogr., 40 Tables. 2 - vols. Paris, 1881. - - Adolf Rosenberg: Geschichte der modernen Kunst. 1 Abtheilung. Die - franz. Kunst Leipzig, 1882. - - H. Houssaye: L'Art français depuis dix ans. Paris, 1882. - - Henri de Clenzion: L'Art national en France. Paris, 1882-83. - - F. Henriet: Peintres contemporains. Paris, A. Levy, 1883. - - Raf. Sinset et Jules d'Auriac: Histoire du Portrait en France. Paris, - 1884. - - V. Fournal: Les artistes contemporains français, peintres, sculpteurs. - With 176 Illustrations. Tours, Mame et fils, 1884. - - Jean Gigoux: Causeries sur les artistes de mon temps. Paris, 1885. - - Albert Wolff: La capitale de l'Art. Second Edition. Paris, 1886. - - Victor d'Halle: Histoire de la peinture en France. Paris, 1886. - - Paul Marmottan: L'école française de peinture (1789-1830). Paris, - 1886. - - J. Comyns Carr: Art in Provincial France. 1883. - - Henri Jouin: Maîtres contemporains. Paris, 1887. - - Charles Bigot: Peintres français contemporains. Paris, 1888. - - C. H. Stranahan: A History of French Painting. New York, 1888. - - La peinture française à l'exposition centennaire de 1889. Ouvrage - publié sous la direction de Antonin Proust. Paris, 1890. - - Les Chefs d'oeuvres de l'Art au XIX siècle. 5 vols. Paris, 1890 ff. - - 1. L'école française de David à Delacroix, par André Michel. - 2. L'école française de Delacroix à H. Regnault, par Alfred de - Lostalot. - 3. La peinture française actuelle, par Paul Lefort. - 4. Les écoles étrangères aux XIX siècle, par Th. de Wyzewa. - 5. La Sculpture et la Gravure en France au XIX siècle, par Louis - Gonse. - - Richard Muther, Ein Jahrhundert französischer Malerei. Berlin, 1901. - - A. Julius Meier-Gräfe: Der Entwichlungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst. - (With Illustrations and a volume of Plates.) Stuttgart, 1904. - - Periodicals specially to be noted: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," Paris, - 1865. "L'Art," Paris, 1875. - -The Art of the Revolution Period: - - Jules Renouvier: Histoire de l'art pendant la revolution. Paris, 1863. - - Edmond et Jules de Goncourt: Histoire de la société française pendant - la révolution. Paris, 1854. New Edition, 1889. - - Edmond et Jules de Goncourt: Histoire de la société française pendant - le Directoire. Paris, 1855. - - Anton Springer: Die Kunst während der französischen Revolution, Bilder - aus der neueren Kuntsgeschichte. Bonn, 1886. - - Paul Marmottan: L'école française de peinture 1789-1850. Paris, 1886. - - Carl v. Lützow: Die französische Kunst vor 100 Jahren, "Zeitschrift - für bildende Kunst," xxiv, 1889, p. 181. - -Madame Vigée-Lebrun: - - Her Autobiography: Souvenirs de ma vie. Paris, 1835-37. - - Sophia Beale: Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun, "Portfolio," 1891, 89. - - Charles Pillet in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1892. - -Vien: - - H. Cozik: Vien, sa vie et ses oeuvres. Paris. No date. - - Elie Roy: Vien et son temps. Paris. No date. - -David: - - P. A. Coupin: Essai sur J. L. David. Paris, 1827. - - E. J. Delécluze: Louis David. Paris, 1855. - - Jules David: Le peintre Louis David (1748-1825), souvenirs et - documents inédits. Paris, Havard, 1879. - - C. A. Regnet in "Kunst und Künstler Spaniens, Frankreichs, und - Englands." Leipzig, 1880. - - G. Nieter: Le peintre David, "Revue générale," March 1881. - - "L'Art," 1889, ii p. 46. - - C. Brun: Louis David und die französische Revolution. Zürich, 1886. - - Charles Normand in "Les artistes célèbres." - - L. Rosenthal: David. Paris, 1904. - - -CHAPTER V - -The Parallel Movement in Literature: - - Georg Brandes, Haupströmungen der Literatur des 19 Jahrhunderts. Vol. - ii, Die deutsche romantische Schule. Leipzig, 1887. - - Georg Haim: Die romantische Schule. Berlin, 1871. - - Hermann Hettner: Die romantische Schule in ihrem Zusammenhang mit - Goethe und Schiller. Braunschweig, 1850. - -On the Nazarenes in General: - - Veit Valentin in "Kunst und Künstler des 19 Jahrh." Leipzig, 1886. - - Alfred Woltmann: Cornelius und seine Genossen in Rom. Aus Vier - Jahrhunderte, etc. Berlin, 1878, pp. 208 ff. - - Fr. Haack: Die deutschen Romantiker in der bildenden Kunst des 19 - Jahrhunderts. Erlangen, 1901. - -Overbeck: - - A. v. Zahn: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," vi, 1871, pp. 217-235. - - J. R. Beavington-Atkinson, Overbeck (Great Artists). London, Low, - 1882. - - Margaret Howitt: Friedrich Overbeck. Sein Leben u. Schaffen, etc. - 1886. - - Amongst minor works: J. N. Sepp: Friedrich Overbeck, Gedächtnissrede. - Augsburg, 1869.--Franz Binder: Zur Erinnerung an Friedrich Overbeck. - München, 1870.--H. Holland: Zu Friedrich Overbeck's Heimgang, - 1870.--G. Fr. v. Hertling: Zur Erinnerung an Friedrich Overbeck. Köln, - 1875. - -Führich: - - Autobiography in the "Libussa." Prag, 1844. New Edition, Vienna, - Sartori, 1876. - - R. Zimmermann: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," vii, 1868, pp. 189, - 209. - - F. Pecht: Deutsche Künstler des 19 Jahrh., iii. Nördlingen, 1881, pp. - 64-108. - - Lucas v. Führich: "Graphische Künste," viii pp. 1-16, 25-64. Also - separate. - - C. v. Lützow, from Führichs Nachlass, "Zeitschrift für bildende - Kunst," xvii, 1882, p. 33. - - Die Führich-Ausstellung in Frankfurt: "Zeitschrift für bildende - Kunst," 1885, xx, Beiblatt, 32. - - L. R. von Kurz: T. von Führich. Graz, 1902. - -Veit: - - Veit Valentin: Kunst, Künstler, und Kunstwerke; also in "Zeitschrift - für bildende Kunst," xv 2. - - Martin Spahn: Philipp Veit. (With 92 Illustrations.) Bielefeld, 1901. - - The Frescoes in the Casa Bartholdy: - - L. v. Donop: Die Wandgemälde der Casa Bartholdy in der - Nationalgalerie. Berlin, 1888. - -Steinle: - - O. Berggruen: Die Galerie Schack, "Graph. Künste," iv. 3 and 4. - - Constantin v. Wurzbach: Ed. Steinle, ein Madonnenmaler unserer Zeit. - Biographische Studie. Wien, 1879. - - Veit Valentin: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1888, xxiii 1 and 33. - - L. Christiani: Plaudereien über Kunstinteressen der Gegenwart. Berlin, - 1871. - - A. Reichensperger: Erinnerungen an Steinle. Frankfurt, 1887. - - A. M. von Steinle: E. von Steinle und August Reichensperger. Köln, - 1890. - - _Reproductions:_ - - Ausgewählte Werke E. v. Steinles. Frankfurt, 1888. - - Ed. Steinles Bilder zu Parcival. Frankfurt, 1884. - -Schnorr: - - M. Jordan: Aus Julius Schnorrs Lehr-und Wanderjahren, "Zeitschrift für - bildende Kunst," 1867, pp. 1 ff. - - H. Riegel, "Kunstgeschichtliche Vorträge und Aufsätze." Braunschweig, - 1877, pp. 210-248. - - M. Jordan: Ausstellung von Werken Julius Schnorrs in der Berliner - Nationalgalerie, 1878. - - Veit Valentin in "Kunst und Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts." - - Friedrich Haack in "Das 19 Jahrhundert in Bildnissen." Berlin. - Photographische Gesellschaft, 1901. - - Briefe aus Italien von Julius Schnorr v. Carolsfeld, geschrieben in - den Jahren 1817-1827. - - Ein Beitrag zur Gesch. seines Lebens und der Kunstbestrebungen seiner - Zeit, herausgegeben von Franz Schnorr v. Carolsfeld. Gotha, 1886. - - _Compare_ "Bibel in Bildern." Leipzig, 1852-62. - - Zeichnungen von Jul. Schnorr v. Carolsfeld, mit Einleitung von Jordan. - Leipzig, Dürr, 1878. - - -CHAPTER VI - -The Art of Munich under King Ludwig I.: - - Alfred Woltmann, from "Vier Jahrhunderte niederländisch-deutscher - Kunstgeschichte." Berlin, 1878, pp. 260 ff. - - Hans Reidelbach: König Ludwig I und seine Kunstschöpfungen. München, - 1888. - -Cornelius: - - Herm. Riegel: Cornelius, der Meister der deutschen Malerei. Hannover, - 1866. - - M. Carrière: Denkrede auf Cornelius. Leipzig, 1867. - - A. Teichlein: Betrachtungen über Riegels Buch, "Cornelius, der Meister - der deutschen Malerei," "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," ii. 1867, - pp. 128 ff., 189 ff. - - Alfred Frhr. v. Wolzogen: Peter v. Cornelius. Berlin, 1867. - - Max Lohde: Gespräche mit Cornelius, "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," - III 1, 30, 84. 1868. - - W. Lübke: Kunsthistorische Studien. Stuttgart, 1869. - - Ernst Förster: Peter Cornelius, ein Gedenkbuch aus seinem Leben und - Wirken. 2 vols. Berlin, 1874. - - Herm. Grimm: Berlin und P. v. Cornelius (Die Cartons von P. v. - Cornelius, Cornelius und die ersten 50 Jahre nach 1800), in "15 - Essays." Berlin, 1875. - - V. Kaiser: Cornelius und Kaulbach in ihren Lieblingswerken. Basel, - 1876. - - Fr. Pecht: Deutsche Künstler des 19 Jahrh., Bd. 1. Nördlingen, 1877. - - A. Woltmann, from "Vier Jahrhunderte niederländisch-deutscher Kunst." - Berlin, 1878, pp. 208-259. - - Fr. Pecht: P. v. Cornelius. "Gartenlaube," 1879, 29. - - M. Carrière in "Deutscher Plutarch," Bd. vii. Leipzig, 1880, pp. 1-56. - - A. Rosenberg: Cornelius im Lichte der Gegenwart. Grenzboten, 1881, I. - - A. Berggruen: Die Galerie Schack, P. v. Cornelius, "Die graph. - Künste," 1881, 4, 2. - - Rossmann: Briefe von Peter Cornelius. Grenzboten, 1882, 16. - - G. Portig: Die sixtinische Madonna und die Camposanto Cartons von - Cornelius. Leipzig, 1882. - - V. Valentin in "Kunst und Künstler des 19 Jahrh." Leipzig, 1883-85. - - Herm. Riegel: Peter Cornelius, Festschrift zu des grossen Künstlers - 100 Geburtstage. Berlin, 1883. - - Carl v. Lützow: Zur Erinnerung an P. v. Cornelius, "Zeitschrift für - bildende Kunst," 19, 1. - - Der 100 Geburtstag von Cornelius, "Allegemeine Zeitung," 1883, B. 130. - - Cornelius, ein Maler von Gottes Gnaden. Hamburg, 1884. - - H. Grimm: Cornelius betreffend, "Deutsche Rundschau," March 1884. - - L. v. Urlichs: Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte. Leipzig, 1885, p. 119. - Cornelius in München und Rom. - - A. Frantz in "Kunst und Literatur." Berlin, 1888, pp. 1-60. - -Kaulbach: - - Guido Görres: Das Narrenhaus von W. Kaulbach. München. No date. - - Max Schasler: Die Wandgemälde Wilhelm von Kaulbachs im Treppenhause - des Neuen Museums zu Berlin. Berlin, 1854. - - W. v. Kaulbachs Shakespeare-Galerie, by M. Carrière. Berlin, 1856. - - V. Kaiser: Kaulbachs Bilderkreis der Weltgeschichte. Berlin, 1879. - - Ed. Dobbert: Die monumentale Darstellung der Reformation durch - Rietschel und Kaulbach. "Sammlung gemeinverständlicher - wissenschaftlicher Vorträge," No. 74. Berlin, 1869. - - A. Teichlein: Zur Charakteristik W. v. Kaulbachs, "Zeitschrift für - bildende Kunst," xi, 1876, pp. 257-264. - - V. Kaiser: Macbeth und Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Dichtungen und in - Kunstwerken von Cornelius und Kaulbach. Basel, Schweighauser, 1876. - - A. Woltmann, from "Vier Jahrhunderte niederländisch-deutscher - Kunstgeschichte." Berlin, 1878, pp. 288-316. - - Fr. Pecht: "Deutsche Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts," ii. Nördlin gen, - 1879, pp. 54-109. - - Kaulbachs Wandgemälde im Treppenhause des Neuen Museums zu Berlin, in - Kupfer gestochen von G. Eilers, H. Merz, J. L. Raab, A. Schultheiss. - Mit erläuterndem Text herausgegeben unter den Auspicien des Meisters. - Neue Ausgabe. Berlin, A. Duncker, 1879. - - Hans Müller: W. Kaulbach. Berlin, 1893. - - -CHAPTER VII - -The Düsseldorfers: - - W. Schadow: Gedanken über folgerichtige Ausbildung des Malers, - "Berliner Kunstblatt," 1828, pp. 264-273. - - A. Fahne: Die Düsseldorfer Malerschule, 1835-36. Düsseldorf, 1837. - - H. Püttmann: Die Düsseldorfer Malerschule und ihre Leistungen seit der - Errichtung des Kunstvereins in Jahre 1829. Leipzig, 1839. - - Fr. v. Uechtritz: Blicke in das Düsseldorfer Künst- und Künstlerleben. - Düsseldorf, 1839. - - Wolfg. Müller v. Königswinter: Düsseldorfer Künstler ans den letzten - 25 Jahren. Leipzig, 1854. - - W. v. Schadow: Der moderne Vasari, Erinnerungen aus dem Künstlerleben. - Berlin, 1854. - - R. Wiegmann: Die königliche Kunstakademie zu Düsseldorf, ihre - Geschichte, Einrichtung und Wirksamkeit und die Düsseldorfer Künstler. - Düsseldorf, 1854. - - J. Hübner: Schadow und seine Schule, Festrede bei Enthüllung des - Schadowdenkmals zu Düsseldorf, 1869. Bonn, 1869. - - M. Blanckarts: Düsseldorfer Künstler, Nekrologe aus den letzten zehn - Jahren. Stuttgart, 1877. - - K. Woermann: Zur Geschichte der Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie. - Düsseldorf, 1880. - - A. Rosenberg: Die Düsseldorfer Schule. Grenzboten, 1881, 1 1 ff. - - Mor. Blanckarts: Der Künstlerverein Malkasten in Düsseldorf, - "Allgemeine Kunstchronik," 1883, 47. - - A. Rosenberg: Die Düsseldorfer Schule. Leipzig, Seemann, 1886. - - Schaarschmidt: Geschichte der Düsseldorfer Kunst, 1902. - -Bendemann: - - Die Ausstellung der Werke von E. Bendemann in der königliche - Nationalgalerie v. 3 Nov. bis 15 Dez. 1890. Berlin, 1890. - - L. Bund: Ed. Bendemann, "Illustrirte Zeitung," 1881, 2014. - -Hübner: - - M. Blanckarts: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1883, 13. - - Reumont, "Archiv. storico italiano," xi 2. - - A. Ehrhardt, "Z. f. Museologie," 1883, 23, "Allg. Kunstchronik," 1883, - 46. - -Mintrop: - - Ferd. Laufer: Th. Mintrop, der Ackersknecht und Maler, "Allg. - Kunstchronik," 1883, 32. - - -CHAPTER VIII - -Rethel: - - Wolfgang Müller v. Königswinter: Alfred Rethel. Blätter der - Erinnerung. Leipzig, 1861. - - Friedr. Theodor Vischer: Altes und Neues. Drittes Heft. Stuttgart, - 1882, pp. 1-24. - - Kaulen: Der Historienmaler A. Rethel, "Deutsches Kunstblatt," 1883, ii - 21. - - Veit Valentin: A. Rethel, eine Charakteristik, "Aesthet. Schriften I." - Berlin, 1892. - - Max Schmid: Bd. 32 der Künstlermonographien von Knackfuss. Bielefeld, - 1898. - -Schwind: - - L. v. Führich: Moriz v. Schwind, Eine Lebensskizze. Leipzig, 1871. - - Ed. Ille: Dem Andenken M. Schwinds. München, 1871. - - A. W. Müller: M. v. Schwind. Eisenach, 1871. - - Hermann Dalton: "Sechs Vorträge." St. Petersburg, 1872. - - Ludwig Hevesi: M. Schwind. "Gegenwart," 1872. - - H. Holland: M. v. Schwind. Stuttgart, 1873. - - A. v. Zahn: Zur Charakteristik M. v. Schwinds, "Zeitschrift für - bildende Kunst," vii 1873, p. 287. - - F. Pecht: Deutsche Künstler des 19 Jahrh. Nördlingen, 1877, i 195-231. - - Bauernfeld: Moriz Schwind zum Gedächtniss, "Nord und Süd," iii, 1877, - p. 353. - - Bernh. Schädel: Briefe von Moriz Schwind, "Nord und Süd," xiv, 1880, - p. 23; xv, 1881, p. 357. - - Graf v. Schack: Meine Gemäldesammlung. Stuttgart, 1881, pp. 41-73. - - O. Berggruen: Die Galerie Schack. Wien, 1883. Mit Radirungen. - - Alph. Dürr: Ein halbvergessenes Werk von Schwind (Wandmalereien in - Hohenschwangau) in der Festschrift zu Ehren Anton Springers. Leipzig, - 1885, pp. 231-239. - - Veit Valentin: Kunst, Künstler, und Kunstwerke. Leipzig, 1888. - - Briefwechsel zwischen Schwind u. Ed. Mörike, mitgeth. v. J. Baechtold. - Leipzig, 1890. - - H. W. Riehl: Studien und Charakteristiken. Stuttgart, 1891. - - Friedrich Haack: Bd. 31 der Künstlermonographien von Knackfuss. - Bielefeld, 1898. - - Otto Grantoff, in "Muthers Sammlung Die Kunst." Berlin, 1903. - - Julius Naue: Worte u. Wirken v. M. von Schwind. (With a Portrait and 3 - Illustrations.) München, 1904. - - _Reproductions:_ - - Aschenbrödel, Bildercyclus von M. v. Schwind. Holzschnittausgabe nach - den Theaterschen Stichen, mit Text von H. Lücke. 1873. - - Die sieben Raben u. die schöne Melusine, zuletzt unter dem Titel - "Deutsche Märchen" bei Neff in Stuttgart erschienen. - - Operncyclus im Foyer des k. k. Opernhauses in Wien. 14 Compositionen - von Moritz Schwind. Mit Text von Ed. Hanslick. München, 1880. - - Almanach von Radirungen mit Erklärungen. Text von Feuchtersleben. - Zürich, 1844. - - Schwinds Wandgemälde in Hohenschwangau. 46 Compositionen nach den - Aquarellentwürfen gestochen von J. Naue und K. Walde. Leipzig. - - Schwind-Album. München, 1880. - - -CHAPTER IX - -Gérard: - - Charles Lenormant: François Gérard, peintre d'histoire. Essai de - biographie et de critique. Paris, 1847. - - Adam: L'oeuvre du Baron Gérard. Paris, 1852-57. - - Correspondance de François Gérard, peintre d'histoire. Publiée par - Henri Gérard, son neveu, et précédée d'une Notice sur la vie de Gérard - par Adolphe Viollet le Duc. Paris, 1867. - - Charles Ephrussi: François Gérard d'après les lettres publiées par M. - le baron Gérard, "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1890, ii 449. 1891, i 57, - 201. - -Prudhon (besides Jul. Meyer, Renouvier, and Rosenberg): - - Voiart: Notice historique sur la vie et les oeuvres de P. P. Prudhon, - peintre. Paris, 1824. Quatremère de Quincy: Notice lue à l'Institut, 2 - Octobre 1824. - - Eug. Delacroix: "Revue des Deux Mondes," 1857. - - Charles Clement (chief work): Prudhon, sa vie, ses oeuvres, et sa - correspondance, first in 1867-68, then in "Gazette des Beaux Arts," - 1872, with 30 Illustrations. Paris, Didier & Co., 3rd Edition, 1880. - - Edm. et J. de Goncourt: L'Art au XVIII siècle. Paris, 1875. New - Edition, 1882, vol. ii, p. 385. - - Edm. de Goncourt: Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et - gravé de Prudhon. Paris, 1876. - - Ph. Burty: L'oeuvre de P. P. Prudhon, "L'Art," 1877, i p. 33. - - Alfred Sensier: Le Roman de Prudhon, "Revue internationale de l'Art et - de la Curiosité," 15 Dec. 1869. - - Arséne Houssaye: Artiste, Janvier-Juin 1877. Article in "L'Art," 1877, - i p. 33. - - Charles Gueullette: Mlle. Constance Mayer et Prudhon, "Gazette des - Beaux Arts," 1878, p. 476. 1879, p. 268. - - Charles Blanc: Histoire des peintres, vol. iii. - - Aug. Schmarsow in "Kunst und Künstler der ersten Hälfte des 19 - Jahrhunderts," published by Robert Dohme, vol. ii. Leipzig, Seemann, - 1886. - - Pierre Gauthiez: Prudhon in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1891. - - Almost all the works of Prudhon are photographed by Braun of Dornach. - -Gros (besides Charles Blanc, Jul. Meyer, and Rosenberg): - - Jean Baptiste Delestre (pupil of Gros): Gros, sa vie et ses ouvrages. - With Illustrations. 2nd Edition. Paris, 1867. - - J. Tripier le Franc: Histoire de la vie et de la mort du baron Gros, - le grand peintre. Paris, 1880. - - Eugène Delacroix: "Revue des Deux Mondes," 1848. Also in a separate - reprint. - - Ernest Chesneau: Les chefs d'école. 3rd Edition, 1883, pp. 58-126. - - On Gros' paintings in the Pantheon: Ph. de Chennevières in the - "Gazette des Beaux Arts," xxiii pp. 168-174. - - G. Dargenty: Les Chefs-d'oeuvre de Gros, "L'Art," 1886, ii p. 121, and - 1889, ii p. 100. - - Richard Graul in "Kunst und Künstler der ersten Hälfte des 19 - Jahrhunderts," vol. 2. Leipzig, Seemann, 1886. - - G. Dargenty: Le baron Gros. Paris, 1887, in "Les artistes célèbres." - - The chief pictures of Gros are photographed by Braun of Dornach. - - -CHAPTER X - -On the Parallel Movement in Literature: - - Georg Brandes: Die Literatur des 19 Jahrhunderts in ihren - Hauptströmungen, 2 Auflage Bd. 5. Leipzig, 1883. - -On the Romantic Movement in General: - - E. Chesneau: Peintres et statuaires romantiques (Huet, Boulanger, - Préault, Delacroix, Th. Rousseau, Millet, etc.). Paris, Charavay - frères, 1879. - -Géricault: - - Charles Blanc: Th. Géricault, 1845. - - Charles Clement: Th. Géricault, Étude biographique et critique, avec - le catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1868. New Edition, 1879. - -Delacroix: - - E. Galichon: Les Peintures de M. E. Delacroix à Saint-Sulpice, - "Gazette des Beaux Arts," xi, 1861, p. 511. - - Amédée Cantaloube: Eugène Delacroix, l'homme et l'artiste. Paris, - 1864. - - Henri de Cleurion: L'oeuvre de Delacroix. Paris, 1865. - - Piron: E. Delacroix, sa vie et ses oeuvres. Paris, 1865. - - Adolphe Moreau: E. Delacroix et son oeuvre. Paris, 1873. - - Lettres de E. Delacroix (1815-1863), recueillies et publiées par Phil. - Burty. Paris, Quantin, 1879. - - Alfred Robaut: Peintures décoratives de E. Delacroix. Le Salon du roi - au Palais legislatif. Paris, A. Levy, 1879. - - Alfred Robaut: Peintures décoratives de E. Delacroix, "L'Art," 1880, - 279. - - M. Vachon: E. Delacroix à l'école des Beaux Arts. Paris, 1885. - - Ph. Burty: Eugène Delacroix à Alger, "L'Art," 1880, 422. - - Ernest Chesneau: Eugène Delacroix, "L'Art," 1882, 382. - - Ernest Chesneau: L'oeuvre complet de E. Delacroix, commenté par E. - Chesneau. Paris, 1885. - - G. Dargenty: Eug. Delacroix par lui-même. Paris, 1885. - - Henri Guet: L'oeuvre de E. Delacroix, "Le Salon" de 1885, etc. Paris, - 1885. - - Maurice Tourneux: Eug. Delacroix, devant ses contemporains, ses - écrits, ses biographes, ses critiques. Paris, 1886. (Bibliothèque - internationale de l'Art, Sér. II, vol. vi.) - - Véron: Eugène Delacroix. Paris, 1887. - - _See_ Eugène Delacroix: Journal de E. D. (With Introductory Study, - etc., by M. Paul Flat and René Piot, etc.) 3 vols., 1893-1895. Berlin, - 1903. - -Ingres: - - A. Magimel: Oeuvres de J. A. I., gravées par A. Réveil. [102 - Copperplates.] Paris, 1851. - - Charles Lenormant: Beaux Arts et Voyages. Paris, 1861. - - Ernest Chesneau: Les chefs d'école. Paris, 1868, p. 253. - - Henri Delaborde: Ingres, sa vie et ses travaux. Paris, 1870. - - Charles Blanc: Ingres, sa vie et ses ouvrages. Paris, 1870. - - Amaury Duval: L'atelier d'Ingres. Souvenirs. Paris, 1878. - - Th. Silvestre: Les artistes français. Paris, 1878, p. 139. - - R. Balze: Ingres, son école, son enseignement du dessin: avec des - notes recueillies par P. et A. Flandrin, Lehman, Delaborde, etc. - Paris, Pillet et Dumoulin, 1880. - - Ernest Chesneau: Peintres et statuaires romantiques. Paris, 1880, p. - 259. - - Eugène Montrosier; Peintres modernes: Ingres, H. Flandrin, Robert - Fleury. Paris, Baschet, 1883. - - August Schmarsow in "Kunst und Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts." Leipzig, - 1886. - - Jules Mommeja in "Les artistes célèbres." - - -CHAPTER XI - -Ary Scheffer: - - Blanche de Saffray: Ary Scheffer. Paris, 1859. - - Antoine Etex: Ary Scheffer, étude sur sa vie et ses ouvrages. Paris, - 1859. - - Miss Grote: Memoir of the Life of A. Scheffer. 2nd Edition. London, - 1860. - - L. Vitet: L'oeuvre de Ary Scheffer reproduit en Photographie par - Bingham. Paris, 1860. - - Charles Lenormant: Beaux Arts et Voyages, vol. i. Paris, 1861. - - Hofstede de Groot: Ary Scheffer, ein Charakterbild. Berlin, 1870. - - M. E. Im-Thurn; Scheffer et Decamps. Nîmes, 1876. - -Johannot: - - Charles Lenormant: Les Johannot, Beaux Arts et Voyages, vol. i. Paris, - 1861. - -Flandrin: - - F. A. Gruyer: Les Conditions de la Peinture en France et les Peintures - Murales de H. Flandrin. Paris, 1862. - - J. B. Poucet: Hippolyte Flandrin. Paris, 1864. - - A. Galimard: Examen des Peintures de l'Eglise de St. Germain des Prés. - Paris, 1864. - - Charles Clement: Études sur les Beaux Arts en France. Paris, 1865, p. - 191. - - Anon.: Hippolyte Flandrin, A Christian Painter of the Nineteenth - Century. London, 1875. - - M. de Montrond: H. Flandrin, Étude biographique et historique. 3rd - Edition, with plates. Paris, Lefort, 1876. - - Ernest Chesneau: Les chefs d'école, p. 297. - - Charles Blanc: Les artistes de mon temps, p. 263. - - Henri Delaborde: Lettres et pensées d'Hippolyte Flandrin. Paris, - 1877. - - Eng. Montrosier: Peintres modernes; Ingres, Flandrin, Robert-Fleury. - Paris, 1882. - - Hermann Helferich: Etwas über französische Neuidealisten, "Kunst für - Alle," 1892. - - Louis Flandrin: Hippolyte Flandrin, sa vie et son oeuvre, etc. Paris, - 1902. - -Chenavard: - - Abel Peyrouton: Paul Chenavard et son oeuvre. Paris, 1887. - - L. Riesener: Les cartons de M. Chenavard, "L'Art," 1878, i 179. - - Charles Blanc: Les artistes de mon temps, p. 191. - - Th. Silvestre: Les artistes français, p. 299. - - Th. Chassériau: - - Arthur Baignières: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1886, i 209. - -Cogniet: - - "Chronique des Arts," 1880, 37. - - Paul Mantz: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1881, i 33. - - Léon Bonnat: "Chronique des Arts," 1883, 8. Also separate. - - Ernest Vinet: Léon Cogniet. Paris. Without date. - - H. Delaborde: Notice sur la vie de L. Cogniet. Paris, 1881. - -Devéria: - - J. Guiffrey: Achille et Eugène Devéria, "L'Art," 1883, p. 422. - -Delaroche: - - Oeuvre de Paul Delaroche: reproduit en photographie par Bingham, - accompagné d'une Notice par H. Delaborde et Jules Goddé. Paris, 1858. - - Henri Delaborde: Études sur les Beaux Arts, vol. ii. Paris, 1857. - - Charles Blanc: P. Delaroche in "Histoire des peintres." - - Charles Lenormant in "Beaux Arts et Voyages." Paris, 1861. - - J. Runtz-Rees: P. Delaroche. London, 1880. - - Adolf Rosenberg in "Kunst und Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts." - -Couture: - - Méthodes et Entretiens d'atelier, par Thomas Couture. Paris, 1868. - - Jules Claretie: Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains. Paris, 1873, p. - 163. - - H. Billung: "Kunst-Chronik," 1879, 30. - - "L'Art," xvii p. 24. 1879. - - Paul Leroy: "L'Art," 1880, 298. Also separate. - - Clara Biller: Zur Erinnerung an Thomas Couture, "Zeitschrift für - bildende Kunst," xvi, 1881, p. 101. - - H. C. Angel: Th. Couture, "American Art Review," 1881, 24. - - -CHAPTER XII - -Cabanel: - - Georges Lafenestre: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1889, i 265. - -Bouguereau: - - Artistes modernes. "Dictionnaire illustré des Beaux Arts." Paris, - 1885. Parts I-V. - -Baudry: - - Emile Bergerat: Peintures décoratives de Paul Baudry au grand foyer de - l'Opéra. Avec preface de Th. Gautier. Paris, 1875. - - Edmond About: Paul Baudry, "L'Art," 1876, iv 169. - - Jules Claretie: L'art et les artistes contemporains. Paris, 1876, p. - 49. - - Edmond About: Peintures décoratives de Paul Baudry. Photogr. Goupil. - Paris, 1876. - - G. Berger: Les peintures de Paul Baudry dans le Foyer de l'Opéra, - "Chronique des Arts," 1879. - - Charles Ephrussi: L'exposition des oeuvres de M. P. Baudry, "Gazette - des Beaux Arts," 1882, ii 132. - - G. Dargenty: Paul Baudry à propos de l'exposition de ses oeuvres à - l'orangerie des Tuileries, "Courrier de l'Art," 28, 1883. - - Dubufe: Paul Baudry, "La nouvelle Revue," 15 Juli 1883. - - Henri Delaborde: Notice sur la vie et les ouvrages de M. P. Baudry. - Paris, 1886. - - Ernest Toudouze: P. Baudry, Notes intimes. Bordeaux, 1886. - - Charles Ephrussi: Paul Baudry, sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris, 1887. - - Richard Graul: Paul Baudry, "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xxii, - 1887, pp. 1 and 65. - - A. Bonnin: Paul Baudry. Vannes, 1889. - -Benjamin Constant: - - Victor Champier: Benjamin Constant, "Art Journal," August 1883. - - F. Naquet: "L'Art," XLVIII, 237. 1890. - -Laurens: - - Ferdinand Fabre: Le roman d'un peintre. Paris, 1878. - -Regnault: - - H. Cazalis: Henri Regnault, sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris, 1871. - - H. Baillière: H. Regnault. Paris, 1871. - - Arthur Duparc: Correspondence de Henri Regnault. Paris, 1873. - - Charles Blanc: Les artistes de mon temps. Paris, 1876, p. 347. - - Roger-Ballu: Le monument de Henri Regnault à l'école des Beaux Arts. - "L'Art," 1876, iii 176. - - Philip G. Hamerton: Modern Frenchmen, 5 biographies. London, 1878, p. - 334. - - A. Angelier: Étude sur Henri Regnault. Paris, Boulanger, 1879. - - Hermann Billung: Henri Regnault, "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," - 1880, xv 93. "L'Art," 1886, ii 48. - - Roger Marx: Henri Regnault, in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1886. - - Gustave Larroumet: Henri Regnault, 1848-1871. Paris, 1889. - - -CHAPTER XIII - -The Historical School in Belgium: - - Principal work: Camille Lemonnier: Histoire des beaux-arts en - Belgique. Cinquante ans de liberté. Bruxelles, 1881, vol. iii. Neue - Ausgabe. 1906. - - Likewise: Von Hasselt: La Belgique, in "L'Art moderne en Allemagne," - iii. Paris, 1841. - - Felix Bogaerts: Esquisse d'une histoire des Arts en Belgique depuis - 1640 jusqu'à 1830. Anvers, 1841. - - L. Pfau: Die zeitgenössische Kunst in Belgien, "Freie Studien." - Stuttgart, 1866. - - F. Reber: Die belgische Malerei, "Deutsche Revue," vii, 1882, p. 219. - "Patria Belgica," tome iii, Les Expositions de tableaux depuis 1830. - Bruxelles, 1875. - - Annuaire de l'Académie royale des Sciences, Lettres, et Beaux Arts, - passim. - - J. A. Wauters: La peinture flamande, 3 éd. Paris, Quantin, 1891. - - Compare also the final chapter in Max Rooses' "Geschichte der - Malerschule Antwerpens," deutsch von Reber. 2 Ausgabe. München, 1889. - -M. J. van Bree: - - L. Gerrits: Levensbeschrijving van M. J. van Bree. Antwerp, 1852. - -Wappers: - - Hermann Billung: Gustav Wappers, historisches Taschenbuch, 5 Folge, x. - 1880, p. 111. - -De Keyzer: - - Henri Hymans: Nicaise de Keyzer. Bruxelles, 1891. - - Guffens and Swerts: - - Hermann Riegel: Geschichte der Wandmalerei in Belgien seit 1856. Nebst - Briefen von Cornelius, Kaulbach, Overbeck, Schnorr, Schwind, u. A. an - Gottfried Guffens und Jan Swerts. Berlin, Wasmuth, 1883. - -Gallait: - - A. Teichlein: L. Gallait und die Malerei in Deutschland. München, - 1853. - - Henne, Louis Gallait: Annales de l'Académie d'arch. de Belgique, 1890, - 4. - - Nekrolog in "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1890. - -Bièfve: - - Obituary in "L'Art moderne," 7, 1881. - - "Journal des Beaux Arts," 1881, 4. - - -CHAPTER XIV - -The Germans in Paris: - - Edmond About: Voyage à travers l'exposition des Beaux Arts, 1855, p. - 56. - -Feuerbach: - - Ein Vermächtniss von Anselm Feuerbach. 2 Auflage. Wien, 1885. 4 Aufl, - 1897. - - Fr. Pecht: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," viii, 1873, p. 161. - - Fr. Pecht: Deutsche Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts. Nördlingen, 1877, - pp. 238-268. - - Katalog der Ausstellung des Künstlerischen Nachlasses in der Berliner - Nationalgalerie, mit Biographie von Max Jordan. Berlin, 1880. - - Graf v. Schack: Meine Gemäldesammlung. Stuttgart, 1881, pp. 93-116. - - O. Berggruen: Die Galerie Schack in München. Wien, 1883. Mit - Radirungen. (Also in "Graphische Künste," 1880, iii 1.) - - A. Wolf: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xv Beiblatt, 15. - - W. v. Seidlitz: A. Feuerbach, im 4 Heft der "Stichausgabe moderner - Meister der Dresdener Galerie." - - Marc Schüssler: Zum Gedächtniss an A. Feuerbach. Nürnberg, 1880. - - H. Grimm in "15 Essays," 3 Folge. Berlin, 1882, p. 337. - - Feuerbachs Handzeichnungen. München, Hanfstängl, 1888. - - Carl Neumann: A. Feuerbach, "Preussische Jahrbücher," Bd. 62, 1888. - - C. Allgeyer: A. Feuerbach, "Nord und Süd," 1888. - - Emil Hannover: A. Feuerbach, "Tilskueren." Copenhagen, 1890. - - Hauptwerk: Karl Allgeyer, Anselm Feuerbach, sein Leben und seine - Kunst. 2 Aufl. besorgt von Karl Neumann. Berlin, 1902. - -The Berlin School since 1850: - - A. Rosenberg: Die Berliner Malerschule 1819-1879, "Studien und - Kritiken." Berlin, 1879. - -R. Henneberg: - - H. Riegel: Kunstgeschichtliche Vorträge und Aufsätze. Braunschweig, - 1877, p. 367. - -Gustav Richter: - - Ludwig Pietsch: G. Richter, "Westermanns Monatshefte," 1883, Oct. and - Nov. - -Steffeck: - - Nekrolog in "Kunstchronik," 1890, 31. - - L. v. Donop: Ausstellung der Werke Karl Steffecks in der Berliner - Nationalgalerie. Berlin, Mittler, 1890. - - Historical painting in General: - - Ernst Guhl: Die neuere geschichtliche Malerei und die Akademien. - Stuttgart, 1848. - - R. v. Eitelberger: Geschichte und Geschichtsmalerei, Mittheilungen des - österreichischen Museums, 1883, 208. - -Lessing: - - R. Redtenbacher: Erinnerungen an Carl Fr. Lessing, "Zeitschrift für - bildende Kunst," xvi, 1881, p. 33. - -Piloty: - - F. Pecht: "Westermanns Monatshefte," 1882, April. - - Karl Stieler: Die Pilotyschule. Berlin, 1881. - - F. Pecht: "Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts." III Reihe. Nördlingen, 1881. - - C. A. Regnet: Münchener Künstlerbiographien, Bd. 2. - - A. Rosenberg: Die Hauptströmungen in der bildenden Kunst der - Gegenwart. Grenzboten, 1880. - - H. Helferich, Neue Kunst. Berlin, 1887. - - Peter Jessen: Piloty und die deutsche Kunst, "Gegenwart," xxxi 1. - -Makart: - - C. Landsteiner: H. Makart und Robert Hamerling. Wien, 1873. - - C. v. Lützow; Makarts Entwürfe für den Wiener Festzug, "Zeitschrift - für bildende Kunst," 1879, 7. - - S. Feldmann: Hans Makarts neuestes Bild, "Die Gegenwart," 1881, 24. - - B. Worth: Hans Makart and his Studio, "Art Journal," 1881, 7. - - Makart-Album, in 10 Lieferungen, Holzschnitte, und Lichtdrucke, mit - Text. Wien, Bondy, 1883. - - H. Makart als Architekt. "Wochenblatt für Architekten," 1884, 89, 90. - - Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer: Hans Makart, "Portfolio," 1886, pp. - 36-49. - - Carl v. Lützow: "Zeitschrift fir bildende Kunst," xxi, 1886, pp. 181, - 214. - - Robert Stiassny: H. Makart und seine bleibende Bedeutung, "Sammlung - kunstgewerblicher und kunsthistorischer Vorträge," Nr. 12. Leipzig, - 1886. - -Max: - - Friedrich Pecht: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1879, xiv 225, 375. - - Agathon Klemt: "Graphische Künste," ix 1-12, 25-36. - - J. Beavington-Atkinson: Gabriel Max, "Art Journal," 1881, 6. - - Adolf Kohut: Gabriel Max, "Westermanns Monatshefte," 1883, Mai. - - Nic. Mann: Gabriel Max, Eine Kunsthistorische Skizze. 2 Aufl. Leipzig, - 1891. - - -CHAPTER XV - -Gleyre: - - Charles Clement: Gleyre; Étude biographique. Paris, 1878. - - Paul Mantz: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1875, i 233. - - Fr. Berthoud: Ch. Gleyre. Genève, 1874 ("Bibliothèque universelle," - vol. 50). - - E. Montégut: Ch. Gleyre, "Revue des Deux Mondes," 1878. - - Hofmeister: Das Leben des Kunstmalers Karl Gleyre. Zürich, 1879. - - Ch. Berthoud: Ch. Gleyre. Lausanne, 1880. - -Hamon: - - Walther Fol: Jean Louis Hamon, "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1875, i 119. - - Georges Lafenestre, "L'Art," 1875, i 394. - -Gérôme: - - Charles Timbal: "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1876, ii 228, 334. - -Leys: - - Hermann Billung: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xv 333, 370. 1880. - - Ludwig Pfau: "Freie Studien," p. 262. - -Meissonier: - - Ernest Chesneau: Les chefs d'école, p. 241. - - Otto Mündler: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1866. - - Charles Clement: Études sur les Beaux Arts en France. Paris, 1869, p. - 237. - - Jules Claretie: Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains. Paris, 1873, pp. - 23, 120. - - Roger-Ballu: "1807," le Meissonier de M. Alexander T. Stewart. - "L'Art," 1875, i 14. - - Charles Blanc: Les artistes de mon temps. Paris, 1876, p. 420. - - J. Claretie: E. Meissonier. Paris, 1881. - - John W. Mollet: Meissonier, in "The Great Artists." London, 1882. - - H. Heinecke: E. Meissonier, "Westermanns Monatshefte," January 1885. - - Lionel Robinson: J. L. E. Meissonier, his Life and Work. "Art Annual" - for 1887. - - Ch. Bigot: Peintres français contemporains. Paris, 1888. - - L. Gonse: Meissonier, "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1891, i 177. - - G. Larroumet: Meissonier. (Study followed by a Biography by Philippe - Burty.) Paris, 1893. - - Gréard: Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Ses souvenirs--Ses entretiens. - (With a study of his life and work by M. O. Gréard; with Plates and a - Catalogue of the artist's work.) Paris, 1897. - - E. Hubbard: Meissonier. New York, 1899. - - Formentin: C. Meissonier: sa vie, son oeuvre. Paris, 1901. - -Menzel: - - Bruno Meyer: Adolf Menzel, "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xi, 1, - 41. 1876. - - Alfred Woltmann: Das Preussenthum in der neueren Kunst, "Nord und - Süd," 1877, p. 109. - - Ludwig Pietsch: A. Menzel, "Nord und Süd," 1879, p. 439. - - Duranty: Adolphe Menzel, "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1880, ii 105. - - J. Beavington-Atkinson: Adolph Menzel, "Art Journal," May 1882, ff. - - J. Beavington-Atkinson: Menzel's Illustrations to the Works of - Frederick the Great, "Art Journal," November 1883. - - L. Gonse: Illustrations d'Adolphe Menzel pour les oeuvres de Frédéric - le Grand, "Gazette des Beaux Arts," 1882, i 596. - - Das Werk A. Menzels. Text by Jordan and Dohme. München, 1885, ff. - - Cornelius Gurlitt: A. Menzel, "Die Kunst unserer Zeit," 1892. - - Sondermann: Adolph Menzel, Monographie. Magdeburg, 1896. - - Knackfuss: Menzel. (With 141 Illustrations), Künstler Monographien, - vii. Bielefeld, 1895. - - H. von Tschudi: Das Werk Adolf Menzels. Berlin, 1905. - - Julius Meyer-Gräfe: Der junge Menzel. 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