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diff --git a/44082-8.txt b/44082-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index bca8fb3..0000000 --- a/44082-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,13657 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Modern Painting, Volume 3 -(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 3 (of 4) - Revised edition continued by the author to the end of the XIX century - -Author: Richard Muther - -Release Date: October 31, 2013 [EBook #44082] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF MODERN PAINTING, VOL 3 *** - - - - -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: ADOLF VON MENZEL. RESTAURANT AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION 1867.] - - THE HISTORY OF - MODERN PAINTING - - - BY RICHARD MUTHER - PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY - AT THE UNIVERSITY - OF BRESLAU - - - IN FOUR - VOLUMES - - [Illustration] - - VOLUME - THREE - - - - - 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 - - - - -CONTENTS - - PAGE -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix - -BOOK IV (_continued_) - - THE REALISTIC PAINTERS AND MODERN IDEALISTS (_continued_) - -CHAPTER XXVIII - - REALISM IN ENGLAND - - The mannerism of English historical painting: F. C. Horsley, J. - R. Herbert, J. Tenniel, E. M. Ward, Eastlake, Edward Armitage, - and others.--The importance of Ruskin.--Beginning of the efforts - at reform with William Dyce and Joseph Noël Paton.--The - pre-Raphaelites.--The battle against "beautiful form" and - "beautiful tone."--Holman Hunt.--Ford Madox Brown.--John Everett - Millais and Velasquez.--Their pictures from modern life opposed - to the anecdotic pictures of the elder _genre_ painters.--The - Scotch painter John Phillip 1 - -CHAPTER XXIX - - REALISM IN GERMANY - - Why historical painting and the anecdotic picture could no longer - take the central place in the life of German art after the - changes of 1870.--Berlin: Adolf Menzel, A. v. Werner, Carl - Güssow, Max Michael.--Vienna: August v. Pettenkofen.--Munich - becomes once more a formative influence.--Importance of the - impetus given in the seventies to the artistic crafts, and how it - afforded an incentive to an exhaustive study of the old - colourists.--Lorenz Gedon, W. Diez, E. Harburger, W. Loefftz, - Claus Meyer, A. Holmberg, Fritz August Kaulbach.--Good painting - takes the place of the well-told anecdote.--Transition from the - costume picture to the pure treatment of modern life.--Franz - Lenbach.--The Ramberg school.--Victor Müller brings into Germany - the knowledge of Courbet.--Wilhelm Leibl 39 - -CHAPTER XXX - - THE INFLUENCE OF THE JAPANESE - - The Paris International Exhibition of 1867 communicated to Europe - a knowledge of the Japanese.--A sketch of the history of Japanese - painting.--The "Society of the Jinglar," and the influence of the - Japanese on the founders of Impressionism 81 - -CHAPTER XXXI - - THE IMPRESSIONISTS - - Impressionism is Realism widened by the study of the - _milieu_.--Edouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred - Sisley, Claude Monet.--The Impressionist movement the final phase - in the great battle of liberation for modern art 105 - -CHAPTER XXXII - - THE NEW IDEALISM IN ENGLAND - - Rossetti and the New pre-Raphaelites: Edward Burne-Jones, R. - Spencer Stanhope, William Morris, J. M. Strudwick, Henry - Holliday, Marie Spartali-Stillman.--W. B. Richmond, Walter Crane, - G. F. Watts 151 - -CHAPTER XXXIII - - THE NEW IDEALISM IN FRANCE AND GERMANY - - Gustave Moreau, Puvis de Chavannes, Arnold Boecklin, Hans von - Marées.--The resuscitation of biblical painting.--Review of - previous efforts from the Nazarenes to Munkacsy, E. von Gebhardt, - Menzel, and Leibermann.--Fritz von Uhde.--Other attempts: W. - Dürr, W. Volz.--L. von Hofmann, Julius Exter, Franz Stuck, Max - Klinger 210 - - -BOOK V - - A SURVEY OF EUROPEAN ART AT THE PRESENT TIME - - INTRODUCTION 251 - -CHAPTER XXXIV - - FRANCE - - Bastien-Lepage, L'hermitte, Roll, Raffaelli, De Nittis, Ferdinand - Heilbuth, Albert Aublet, Jean Béraud, Ulysse Butin, Édouard - Dantan, Henri Gervex, Duez, Friant, Goeneutte, - Dagnan-Bouveret.--The landscape painters: Seurat, Signac, - Anquetin, Angrand, Lucien Pissarro, Pointelin, Jan Monchablon, - Montenard, Dauphin, Rosset-Granget, Émile Barau, Damoye, Boudin, - Dumoulin, Lebourg, Victor Binet, Réné Billotte.--The portrait - painters: Fantin-Latour, Jacques Émile Blanche, Boldini.--The - Draughtsmen: Chéret, Willette, Forain, Paul Renouard, Daniel - Vierge, Cazin, Eugène Carrière, P. A. Besnard, Agache, Aman-Jean, - M. Denis, Gandara, Henri Martin, Louis Picard, Ary Renan, Odilon - Redon, Carlos Schwabe 255 - -CHAPTER XXXV - - SPAIN - - From Goya to Fortuny.--Mariano Fortuny.--Official efforts for the - cultivation of historical painting.--Influence of Manet - inconsiderable.--Even in their pictures from modern life the - Spaniards remain followers of Fortuny: Francisco Pradilla Casado, - Vera, Manuel Ramirez, Moreno Carbonero, Ricardo Villodas, Antonio - Casanova y Estorach, Benliure y Gil, Checa, Francisco Amerigo, - Viniegra y Lasso, Mas y Fondevilla, Alcazar Tejeder, José - Villegas, Luis Jimenez, Martin Rico, Zamacois, Raimundo de - Madrazo, Francisco Domingo, Emilio Sala y Francés, Antonio Fabrés 307 - -CHAPTER XXXVI - - ITALY - - Fortuny's influence on the Italians, especially on the school of - Naples.--Domenico Morelli and his followers: F. P. Michetti, - Edoardo Dalbono, Alceste Campriani, Giacomo di Chirico, Rubens - Santoro, Edoardo Toffano, Giuseppe de Nigris.--Prominence of the - costume picture.--Venice: Favretto, Lonza.--Florence: Andreotti, - Conti, Gelli, Vinea.--The peculiar position of - Segantini.--Otherwise anecdotic painting still - preponderates.--Chierici, Rotta, Vannuttelli, Monteverde, - Tito.--Reasons why the further development of modern art was - generally completed not so much on Latin as on Germanic soil 326 - -CHAPTER XXXVII - - ENGLAND - - General characteristic of English painting.--The offshoots of - Classicism: Lord Leighton, Val Prinsep, Poynter, Alma - Tadema.--Japanese tendencies: Albert Moore.--The animal picture - with antique surroundings: Briton-Rivière.--The old _genre_ - painting remodelled in a naturalistic sense by George Mason and - Frederick Walker.--George H. Boughton, Philip H. Calderon, Marcus - Stone, G. D. Leslie, P. G. Morris, J. R. Reid, Frank Holl.--The - portrait painters: Ouless, J. J. Shannon, James Sant, Charles W. - Furse, Hubert Herkomer.--Landscape painters.--Zigzag development - of English landscape painting.--The school of Fontainebleau and - French Impressionism rose on the shoulders of Constable and - Turner, whereas England, under the guidance of the - pre-Raphaelites, deviated in the opposite direction until - prompted by France to return to the old path.--Cecil Lawson, - James Clarke Hook, Vicat Cole, Colin Hunter, John Brett, - Inchbold, Leader, Corbett, Ernest Parton, Mark Fisher, John - White, Alfred East, J. Aumonier.--The sea painters: Henry Moore, - W. L. Wyllie.--The importance of Venice to English painting: - Clara Montalba, Luke Fildes, W. Logsdail, Henry Woods.--French - influences: Dudley Hardy, Stott of Oldham, Stanhope Forbes, J. W. - Waterhouse, Byam Shaw, G. E. Moira, R. Anning Bell, Maurice - Greiffenhagen, F. Cayley Robinson, Eleanor Brickdale 341 - -BIBLIOGRAPHY 405 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - -PLATES IN COLOUR - - - ADOLF VON MENZEL: Restaurant at the Paris Exhibition, - 1867 _Frontispiece_ - MILLAIS: The Vale of Rest _Facing_ p. 28 - DEGAS: The Ballet Scene from _Robert the Devil_ " 118 - MONET: A Study " 138 - ROSSETTI: The Day-Dream " 160 - BURNE-JONES: The Mill " 176 - L'HERMITTE: The Pardon of Plourin " 266 - RAFFAELLI: The Highroad to Argenteuil " 274 - CARRIÈRE: School-Work " 304 - SEGANTINI: Maternity " 338 - ALMA-TADEMA: The Visit " 354 - COLIN HUNTER: Their only Harvest " 394 - - -IN BLACK AND WHITE - - PAGE - ALMA TADEMA, LAURENS. - Sappho 354 - - AMAN-JEAN, EDMOND. - Sous la Guerlanda 303 - - AN UNKNOWN MASTER. - Harvesters resting 97 - - ANSDELL, RICHARD. - A Setter and Grouse 37 - - AUMONIER, M. J. - The Silver Lining to the Cloud 394 - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE, JULES. - Portrait of Jules Bastien-Lepage 256 - Portrait of his Grandfather 257 - The Flower Girl 258 - Sarah Bernhardt 259 - Mme. Drouet 260 - The Hay Harvest 261 - Le Père Jacques 262 - Joan of Arc 263 - The Beggar 264 - The Pond at Damvillers 265 - The Haymaker 266 - - BELL, R. ANNING. - Oberon and Titania with their Train 398, 399 - - BENLIURE Y GIL. - A Vision in the Colosseum 321 - - BESNARD, PAUL ALBERT. - Evening 299 - Portrait of Mlles. D. 301 - - BOECKLIN, ARNOLD. - Portrait of Himself 227 - A Villa by the Sea 229 - A Rocky Chasm 231 - The Penitent 232 - Pan startling a Goat-Herd 234 - The Herd 235 - Venus despatching Cupid 237 - Flora 241 - In the Trough of the Waves 242 - The Shepherd's Plaint 243 - An Idyll of the Sea 244 - Vita Somnium Breve 245 - The Isle of the Dead 246 - - BOLDINI, GIOVANNI. - Giuseppe Verdi 290 - - BOUDIN, EUGÈNE LOUIS. - The Port of Trouville 289 - - BOUGHTON, GEORGE. - Green Leaves among the Sere 367 - Snow in Spring 368 - A Breath of Wind 369 - The Bearers of the Burden 370 - - BRANGWYN. - Illustration to the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 401 - - BROWN, FORD MADOX. - Portrait of Himself 10 - Lear and Cordelia 11 - Romeo and Juliet 13 - Christ washing Peter's Feet 15 - The Last of England 29 - Work 31 - - BURNE-JONES, SIR EDWARD. - Chant d'Amour 169 - The Days of Creation 170, 171 - Circe 172 - Pygmalion (the Soul attains) 173 - Perseus and Andromeda 175 - The Annunciation 176 - The Enchantment of Merlin 177 - The Sea Nymph 178 - The Golden Stairs 179 - The Wood Nymph 181 - - BUTIN, ULYSSE. - Portrait of Ulysse Butin 278 - The Departure 279 - - CALDECOTT, RANDOLPH. - The Girl I left behind Me 363 - - CARRIÈRE, EUGÈNE. - Motherhood 297 - - CASADO DEL ALISAL. - The Bells of Huesca 323 - - CAZIN, JEAN CHARLES. - Judith 295 - Hagar and Ishmael 296 - - CRANE, WALTER. - The Chariots of the Fleeting Hours 193 - From _The Tempest_ 194 - From _The Tempest_ 195 - - DAGNAN-BOUVERET, PASCAL ADOLPHE JEAN. - Consecrated Bread 284 - Bretonnes au Pardon 285 - The Nuptial Benediction 286 - - DANTAN, EDOUARD. - A Plaster Cast from Nature 280 - - DEGAS, HILAIRE GERMAIN EDGARD. - The Ballet in _Don Juan_ 119 - A Ballet-Dancer 121 - Horses in a Meadow 122 - Dancing Girl fastening her Shoe 123 - - DIEZ, WILHELM. - Returning from Market 61 - - DUEZ, ERNEST. - On the Cliff 282 - The End of October 283 - - DYCE, WILLIAM. - Jacob and Rachel 5 - - EASTLAKE, SIR CHARLES LOCK. - Christ blessing little Children 3 - - FAVRETTO, GIACOMO. - On the Piazzetta 331 - Susanna and the Elders 333 - - FILDES, LUKE. - Venetian Women 396 - - FORAIN, J. L. - At the Folies-Bergères 293 - - FORBES, STANHOPE. - The Lighthouse 397 - - FORTUNY, MARIANO. - Portrait of Mariano Fortuny 309 - The Spanish Marriage (La Vicaria) 310 - The Trial of the Model 311 - The Snake Charmers 312 - Moors playing with a Vulture 313 - The China Vase 314 - At the Gate of the Seraglio 315 - - FURSE, CHARLES W. - Frontispiece to "Stories and Interludes" 381 - - GERVEX. - Dr. Péan at La Salpétrière 281 - - GÜSSOW, KARL. - The Architect 53 - - HARUNOBU. - A Pair of Lovers 101 - - HEILBUTH, FERDINAND. - Fine Weather 277 - - HERKOMER, HUBERT. - John Ruskin 382 - Charterhouse Chapel 383 - Portrait of his Father 384 - Hard Times 385 - The Last Muster 387 - Found 389 - - HIROSHIGE. - The Bridge at Yeddo 93 - A High Road 94 - A Landscape 95 - Snowy Weather 96 - - HIRTH, RUDOLF DU FRÉNES. - The Hop Harvest 70 - - HOKUSAI. - Hokusai in the Costume of a Japanese Warrior 82 - Women Bathing 83 - Fusiyama seen through a Sail 84 - Fusiyama seen through Reeds 85 - An Apparition 86 - Hokusai sketching the Peerless Mountain 87 - - HOLL, FRANK. - "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; Blessed be - the Name of the Lord" 373 - Leaving Home 374 - Ordered to the Front 375 - - HUNT, WILLIAM HOLMAN. - The Scapegoat 8 - The Light of the World 9 - - HUNTER, COLIN. - The Herring Market at Sea 393 - - KAULBACH, FRITZ AUGUST. - The Lute Player 64 - - KIYONAGA. - Ladies Boating 99 - - KORIN. - Landscape 89 - Rabbits 91 - - LAWSON, CECIL. - The Minister's Garden 391 - - LEIBL, WILHELM. - Portrait of Wilhelm Leibl 71 - In the Studio 72 - The Village Politicians 73 - The New Paper 74 - In Church 75 - A Peasant drinking 76 - In the Peasant's Cottage 77 - A Tailor's Workshop 79 - - LEIGHTON, LORD. - Portrait of Lord Leighton, P.R.A. 343 - Captive Andromache 345 - Sir Richard Burton 347 - The Last Watch of Hero 348 - The Bath of Psyche 349 - - LENBACH, FRANZ. - Portrait of Franz Lenbach 65 - Portrait of Wilhelm I. 66 - Portrait of Prince Bismarck 67 - The Shepherd Boy 68 - - L'HERMITTE, LÉON. - Pay time in Harvest 267 - Portrait of Léon L'Hermitte 268 - - MANET, ÉDOUARD. - Portrait of Édouard Manet 107 - The Fifer 108 - The Guitarero 109 - Le Bon Bock 110 - A Garden in Rueil 111 - The Fight between the "Kearsarge" and "Alabama" 114 - Boating 115 - A Bar at the Folies Bergères 116 - Spring: Jeanne 117 - - MASON, GEORGE HEMMING. - The End of the Day 365 - - MENZEL, ADOLF. - Portrait of Adolf Menze 40 - From Kugler's _History of Friedrich the Great_ 41 - The Coronation of King Wilhelm I. 43 - From Kugler's _History of Friedrich the Great_ 45 - The Damenstiftskirche at Munich 46 - King Wilhelm setting out to join the Army 47 - The Iron Mill 49 - Sunday in the Tuileries Gardens 51 - A Levee 52 - - MEYER, CLAUS. - The Smoking Party 63 - - MICHETTI, FRANCESCO PAOLO. - Going to Church 329 - The Corpus Domini Procession at Chieti 330 - - MILLAIS, SIR JOHN EVERETT. - Portrait of Sir John Everett Millais 16 - Lorenzo and Isabella 17 - The North-West Passage 19 - The Huguenot 20 - Autumn Leaves 21 - The Yeoman of the Guard 22 - The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone 23 - Yes or No 25 - Mrs. Bischoffsheim 26 - Thomas Carlyle 27 - - MONET, CLAUDE. - Portrait of Claude Monet 139 - Monet's Home at Giverny 140 - Morning on the Seine 141 - A Walk in Grey Weather 143 - The Church at Varangéville 144 - River Scene 145 - The Rocks at Bell-Isle 147 - Hay-Ricks 148 - A View of Rouen 149 - - MOORE, ALBERT. - Portrait of Albert Moore 355 - Midsummer 356 - Companions 357 - Yellow Marguerites 359 - Waiting to Cross 360 - Reading Aloud 361 - - MOORE, HENRY. - Mount's Bay 395 - - MOREAU, GUSTAVE. - The Young Man and Death 213 - Orpheus 214 - Design for Enamel 215 - The Plaint of the Poet 216 - The Apparition 217 - - MORELLI, DOMENICO. - The Temptation of St. Anthony 327 - - NITTIS, GIUSEPPE DE. - Paris Races 276 - - OKIO. - A Carp 92 - - OULESS, WALTER WILLIAM. - Lord Kelvin 377 - - OUTAMARO. - Mother's Love 98 - - PATON, SIR JOSEPH NOËL. - The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania 7 - - PETTENKOFEN, AUGUST VON. - Portrait of August von Pettenkofen 56 - A Woman Spinning 57 - In the Convent Yard 59 - - PHILLIP, JOHN. - The Letter-Writer, Seville 33 - Spanish Sisters 35 - - PISSARRO, CAMILLE. - Sitting up 133 - Rouen 135 - Sydenham Church 136 - - PISSARRO, LUCIEN. - Solitude 287 - Ruth 288 - - POYNTER, EDWARD. - Idle Fear 350 - The Ides of March 351 - A Visit to Æsculapius 353 - - PRADILLA, FRANCISCO. - The Surrender of Granada 317 - On the Beach 319 - - PUVIS DE CHAVANNES, PIERRE. - Portrait of Pierre de Chavannes 218 - A Vision of Antiquity 219 - The Beheading of John the Baptist 220 - The Threadspinner 221 - The Poor Fisherman 223 - Summer 224 - Autumn 225 - - RAFFAËLLI, FRANCISQUE JEAN. - Place St. Sulpice 271 - The Midday Soup 272 - The Carrier's Cart 273 - Paris, 4K. 1 274 - Le Chiffonier 275 - - RAMBERG, ARTHUR VON. - The Meeting on the Lake 69 - - REID, JOHN ROBERTSON. - Toil and Pleasure 371 - - RENOIR, FIRMIN AUGUSTE. - Supper at Bougival 125 - The Woman with the Fan 126 - Fisher Children by the Sea 127 - The Woman with the Cat 129 - A Private Box 130 - The Terrace 131 - - ROBINSON, F. CAYLEY. - A Winter Evening 403 - - ROLL, ALFRED. - The Woman with a Bull 269 - Manda Lamétrie, Fermière 270 - - ROSSETTI, DANTE GABRIEL. - Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti 153 - Beata Beatrix 154 - Monna Rosa 155 - Ecce Ancilla Domini 157 - Sancta Lilias 158 - Astarte Syriaca 159 - Study for Astarte Syriaca 161 - Dante's Dream 163 - Rosa Triplex 165 - Sir Galahad 166 - Mary Magdalene at the House of Simon the Pharisee 167 - - SANT, JAMES. - The Music Lesson 379 - - SISLEY, ALFRED. - Outskirts of a Wood 137 - - STANHOPE, R. SPENCER. - The Waters of Lethe 183 - - STRUDWICK, J. M. - Elaine 185 - Thy Tuneful Strings wake Memories 186 - Gentle Music of a bygone Day 187 - The Ramparts of God's House 189 - The Ten Virgins 191 - - TANYU. - The God Hoteï on a Journey 88 - - TITO, ETTORE. - The Slipper Seller 335 - - TOYOKUMI. - Nocturnal Reverie 103 - - VILLEGAS, JOSÉ. - Death of the Matador 320 - - WALKER, FREDERICK. - The Bathers 366 - - WATTS, GEORGE FREDERICK. - G. F. Watts in his Garden 196 - Lady Lindsay 197 - Hope 198 - Paolo and Francesca 199 - Love and Death 201 - Ariadne 203 - Orpheus and Eurydice 205 - Artemis and Endymion 207 - - WILLETTE, ADOLFE. - The Golden Age 291 - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII - -REALISM IN ENGLAND - - -The year 1849 was made famous by a momentous interruption in the quiet -course of English art brought about by the pre-Raphaelites. A movement, -recalling the Renaissance, laid hold of the spirit of painters. In all -studios artists spoke a language which had never been heard there -before; all great reputations were overthrown; the most celebrated -Cinquecentisti, whose names had hitherto been mentioned with respectful -awe, were referred to with a shrug as bunglers. A miracle seemed to have -taken place in the world, for the muse of painting was removed from the -pedestal on which she had stood for three centuries and set up in -triumph upon another. - -To understand fully the aims of pre-Raphaelitism it is necessary to -recall the character of the age which gave it birth. - -After English art had had its beginning with the great national masters -and enjoyed a prime of real splendour, it became, about the middle of -the nineteenth century, the prey to a tedious disease. A series of crude -historical painters endeavoured to fathom the noble style of the Italian -Cinquecento, without rising above the level of intelligent plagiarism. -As brilliant decorative artists possessed of pomp and majesty, and -sensuously affected by plastic beauty, as worshippers of the nude human -form, and as modern Greeks, the Italian classic painters were the worst -conceivable guides for a people who in every artistic achievement have -pursued spiritual expression in preference to plastic beauty. But in -spite of the experiences gained since the time of Hogarth, they all went -on the pilgrimage to Rome, as to a sacred spring, drank their fill in -long draughts, and came back poisoned. Even Wilkie, that charming -"little master," who did the work of a pioneer so long as he followed -the congenial Flemish painters and the Dutch, even Wilkie lost every -trace of individuality after seeing Spain and Italy. As this imitation -of the high Renaissance period led to forced and affected sentiment, it -also developed an empty academical technique. In accordance with the -precepts of the Cinquecento, artists proceeded with an affected ease to -make brief work of everything, contenting themselves with a superficial -_façade_ effect. A painting based on dexterity of hand took the place of -the religious study of nature, and a banal arrangement after celebrated -models took the place of inward absorption. - -It was to no purpose that certain painters, such as _F. C. Horsley_, _J. -R. Herbert_, _J. Tenniel_, _Edwin Long_, _E. M. Ward_, and _Eastlake_, -the English Piloty, by imitation of the Flemish and Venetian masters, -made more of a return from idealism of form to colour, and that _Edwin -Armitage_, who had studied in Paris and Munich, introduced Continental -influences. They are the Delaroche, Gallait, and Bièfve of England. -Their art was an imposing scene painting, their programme always that of -the school of Bologna--the mother of all academies, great and -small--borrowing drawing from Michael Angelo and colour from Titian; -taking the best from every one, putting it all into a pot, and shaking -it together. Thus English art lost the peculiar national stamp which it -had had under Reynolds and Gainsborough, Constable and Turner. It became -an insignificant tributary of the false art which then held sway over -the Continent, insincere towards nature, full of empty rhetorical -passion, and bound to the most vacant routine. And as the grand painting -became hollow and mannered, _genre_ painting grew Philistine and -decrepit. Its innocent childishness and conventional optimism had led to -a tedious anecdotic painting. It repeated, like a talkative old man, the -most insipid tales, and did so with a complacency that never wavered and -with an unpleasant motley of colour. The English school still existed in -landscape, but for everything else it was dead. - -A need for reform became urgent all the sooner because literature too -had diverged into new lines. In poetry there was the influence of the -Lake poets Wordsworth and Coleridge, who had simplicity, direct feeling -for nature, and a Rousseau-like pantheism inscribed as a device upon -their banner, and it came as a reaction against the dazzling imaginative -fervour of those great and forceful men of genius Byron and Shelley. -Keats had again uttered the phrase which had before been Shaftesbury's -gospel: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." In the year 1843 John Ruskin -published the first volume of his _Modern Painters_, the æsthetic creed -of which culminated in the tenet that nature alone could be the source -of all true art. - -This transitional spirit, which strove for liberty from the academical -yoke, though diffidently at first, is represented in painting by the -Scotch artist _William Dyce_. In England he pursued, though undoubtedly -with greater ability, a course parallel to that of the German Nazarenes, -whose faith he championed. Born in 1806, he had in Italy, in the year -1826, made the acquaintance of Overbeck, who won him over to Perugino -and Raphael. Protesting against the histrionic emptiness of English -historical painting, he took refuge with the Quattrocentisti and the -young Raphael. His masterpiece, the Westminster frescoes, with the -Arthurian legends as their subject, goes to some extent on parallel -lines with Schnorr's frescoes on the Nibelungen myths. The -representation of vigorous manhood and tempestuous heroism has been here -attempted without sentimentality or theatrical heroics. In his oil -pictures--Madonnas, "Bacchus nursed by the Nymphs," "The Woman of -Samaria," "Christ in Gethsemane," "St. John leading Home the Virgin," -etc.--he makes a surprising effect by the graceful, sensuous charm of -his women, by his exquisite landscapes and his tender idyllic -characters. The charming work "Jacob and Rachel," which represents -him in the Hamburg Kunsthalle, might be ascribed to Führich, except that -the developed feeling for colour bears witness to its English origin. -With yearning the youth hastens to the maiden, who stands, leaning -against the edge of the well, with her eyes cast down, half repulsing -him in her austere chastity. - -[Illustration: EASTLAKE. CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - DYCE. JACOB AND RACHEL.] - -Where the Nazarenes obtain a pallid, corpse-like effect, a deep and -luminous quality of colour delights one in his pictures. He is -essentially graceful, and with this grace he combines the pure and quiet -simplicity of the Umbrian masters. There is something touching in -certain of his Madonnas, who, in long, clinging raiment, appeal to the -Godhead with arms half lifted, devout lips parted in prayer, and mild -glances lost in infinity. A dreamy loveliness brings the heavenly -figures nearer to us. Dyce expresses the magic of downcast lids with -long, dark lashes. Like the Umbrians, he delights in the elasticity of -slender limbs and the chaste grace of blossoming maiden beauty. Many -German fresco painters have become celebrated who never achieved -anything equal in artistic merit to the Westminster pictures of Dyce. -Yet he is to be reckoned with the Flandrin-Overbeck family, since he -gives a repetition of the young Raphael, though he certainly does it -well; but he only imitates and has not improved upon him. - -The pictures of another Scotchman, _Sir Joseph Noël Paton_, born in -1821, appear at a rather later date. Most of them--"The Quarrel of -Oberon and Titania," "The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania" in the -Edinburgh Gallery, and his masterpiece, "The Fairy Queen"--have, from -the æsthetic standpoint, little enjoyment to offer. The drawing is hard, -the composition overladen, the colour scattered and motley. As in Ary -Scheffer, all the figures have vapid, widely opened eyes. Elves, gnomes, -women, knights, and fantastic rocks are crowded so tightly together that -the frame scarcely holds them. But the loving study of nature in the -separate parts is extraordinary. It is possible to give a botanical -definition of each plant and each flower in the foreground, with so much -character and such care has Paton executed every leaf and every blossom, -even the tiny creeping things amid the meadow grass. Here and there a -fresh ray of morning sun breaks through the light green and leaps from -blade to blade. The landscapes of Albrecht Altdorfer are recalled to -mind. Emancipation from empty, heroically impassioned emphasis, -pantheistic adoration of nature, even a certain effort--unsuccessful -indeed--after an independent sentiment for colour, are what his pictures -seem to preach in their naïve angularity, their loving execution of -detail, and their bright green motley. - -This was the mood of the young artists who united to form the -pre-Raphaelite group of 1848. They were students at the Royal Academy of -from twenty to four-and-twenty years of age. The first of the group, -Dante Gabriel Rossetti, had already written some of his poems. The -second, Holman Hunt, had still a difficulty in overcoming the opposition -of his father, who was not pleased to see him giving up a commercial -career. John Everett Millais, the youngest, had made most progress as a -painter, and was one of the best pupils at the Academy. But they were -contented neither by the artistic achievement of their teachers nor by -the method of instruction. Etty, the most valued of them all, according -to the account of Holman Hunt, painted mythological pictures, full of -empty affectation; Mulready drew in a diluted fashion, and sacrificed -everything to elegance; Maclise had fallen into patriotic banalities; -Dyce had stopped short in his course and begun again when it was too -late. Thus they had of necessity to provide their own training for -themselves. All three worked in the same studio; and it so happened that -one day--in 1847 or 1848--chance threw into their hands some engravings -of Benozzo Gozzoli's Campo-Santo frescoes in Pisa. Nature and -truth--everything which they had dimly surmised, and had missed in the -productions of English art--here they were. Overcome with admiration for -the sparkling life, the intensity of feeling, and the vigorous form of -these works, which did not even shrink from the consequences of -ugliness, they were agreed in recognising that art had always stood on -the basis of nature until the end of the fifteenth century, or, more -exactly, until the year 1508, when Raphael left Florence to paint in the -Vatican in Rome. Since then everything had gone wrong; art had stripped -off the simple garment of natural truthfulness and fallen into -conventional phrases, which in the course of centuries had become more -and more empty and repellent by vapid repetition. Was it necessary that -the persons in pictures should, to the end of the world, stand and move -just as they had done a thousand times in the works of the -Cinquecentisti? Was it necessary that human emotions--love, boldness, -remorse, and renunciation--should always be expressed by the same turn -of the head, the same lift of the eyebrows, the same gesture of the -arms, and the same folded hands, which came into vogue through the -Cinquecentisti? Where in nature are the rounded forms which Raphael, the -first Classicist, borrowed from the antique? And in the critical moments -of life do people really form themselves into such carefully balanced -groups, with the one who chances to have on the finest clothes in the -centre? - -[Illustration: _Annan, photo._ - - PATON. THE RECONCILIATION OF OBERON AND TITANIA.] - -From this reaction against the Cinquecentisti and against the shallow -imitation of them, the title pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and the secret, -masonic sign P.R.B., which they added to their signatures upon their -pictures, are rendered comprehensible. But whilst Dyce, to avoid the -Cinquecentisti, imitated the Quattrocentisti, the title here is only -meant to signify that these artists, like the Quattrocentisti, had -determined to go back to the original source of real life. The Academy -pupils Rossetti, Millais, and Holman Hunt, together with the young -sculptor Thomas Woolner, who had just left school, were at first the -only members of the Brotherhood. Later the _genre_ painter James -Collinson, the painter and critic F. G. Stephens, and Rossetti's -brother, William Michael Rossetti, were admitted to the alliance. - -[Illustration: HOLMAN HUNT. THE SCAPEGOAT. - - (_By Permission of Messrs. Henry Graves & Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -Boldly they declared war against all conventional rules, described -themselves as beginners and their pictures as attempts, and announced -themselves to be, at any rate, sincere. The programme of their school -was truth; not imitation of the old masters, but strict and keen study -of nature such as the old masters had practised themselves. They were in -reaction against the superficial dexterity of technique and the beauty -of form and intellectual emptiness to which the English historical -picture had fallen victim; they were in reaction against the trivial -banality which disfigured English _genre_ painting. In the -representation of passion the true gestures of nature were to be -rendered, without regard to grace and elegance, and without the stock -properties of pantomime. The end for which they strove was to be true -and not to create what was essentially untrue by a borrowed idealism -which had an appearance of being sublime. In opposition to the negligent -painting of the artists of their age, they demanded slavishly faithful -imitation of the model by detail, carried out with microscopic -exactness. Nothing was to be done without reverence for nature; every -part of a picture down to the smallest blade or leaf was to be directly -painted from the original. Even at the expense of total effect every -picture was to be carried out in minutest detail. It was better to -stammer than to make empty phrases. A young and vigorous art, such as -had been in the fifteenth century, could win its way, as they believed, -from this conception alone. - -In all these points, in the revolt against the emptiness of the _beauté -suprême_ and the flowing lines of the accepted routine of composition, -they were at one with Courbet and Millet. It was only in further -developments that the French and English parted company; English realism -received a specifically English tinge. Since every form of -Classicism--for to this point they were led by the train of their -ideas--declares the ideal completion of form, of physical presentment, -to be its highest aim, the standard-bearers of realism were obliged to -seek the highest aim of their art, founded exclusively on the study of -nature, in the representation of moral and intellectual life, in a -thoughtful form of spiritual creation. The blending of realism with -profundity of ideas, of uncompromising truth to nature in form with -philosophic and poetic substance, is of the very essence of the -pre-Raphaelites. They are transcendental naturalists, equally widely -removed from Classicism, which deals only with beautiful bodies, as from -realism proper, which only proposes to represent a fragment of nature. -From opposition to abstract beauty of form they insist upon what is -characteristic, energetic, angular; but their figures painted faithfully -from nature are the vehicles of a metaphysical idea. From the first they -saturated themselves with poetry. Holman Hunt has an enthusiasm for -Keats and the Bible, Rossetti for Dante, Millais for the mediæval poems -of chivalry. - -[Illustration: HOLMAN HUNT. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. - - (_By permission of Mr. L. H. Lefèvre, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ - - FORD MADOX BROWN. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF. - - (_By permission of Theodore Watts Dunton, Esq., the owner of the - picture._)] - -All three appeared before the public for the first time in the year -1849. John Millais and Holman Hunt exhibited in the Royal Academy, the -one being represented by his "Lorenzo and Isabella," a subject drawn -from Keats, the other by his "Rienzi." Rossetti had his picture, "The -Girlhood of Mary Virgin," exhibited at the Free Exhibition, afterwards -known as the Portland Gallery. All three works excited attention and -also derision, and much shaking of heads. The three next works of -1850--"A Converted British Family sheltering a Christian Missionary," by -Holman Hunt; "The Child Jesus in the Workshop of Joseph the Carpenter," -by Millais; and "The Annunciation" by Rossetti--were received with the -same amused contempt. When they exhibited for the third time--Holman -Hunt, a scene from _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_; Millais, "The Return -of the Dove to the Ark" and "The Woodman's Daughter"--such a storm of -excitement broke forth that the pictures had to be removed from the -exhibition. A furious article appeared in _The Art Journal_; the -exhibitors, it was said, were certainly young, but they were too old to -commit such sins of youth. Even Dickens turned against them in -_Household Words_. The painters who had been assailed made their answer. -William Michael Rossetti laid down the principles of the Brotherhood by -an article in a periodical called _The Critic_, and smuggled a second -article into _The Spectator_. In 1850 they founded a monthly magazine -for the defence of their theories, _The Germ_, which on the third number -took the title _Art and Poetry_, and was most charmingly embellished -with drawings by Holman Hunt, Madox Brown, and others. Stephens -published an essay in it, on the ways and aims of the early Italians, -which gave him occasion to discuss the works recently produced in the -spirit of simplicity known to these old masters. Madox Brown wrote a -paper on historical painting, in which he asserted that the true basis -of historical painting must be strict fidelity to the model, to the -exclusion of all generalisation and beautifying, and exact antiquarian -study of costumes and furniture in contradistinction to the fancy -history of the elder painters. But all these articles were written to no -purpose. After the fourth number the magazine was stopped, and in these -days it has become a curiosity for bibliomaniacs. But support came from -another side. Holman Hunt's picture dealing with a scene from -Shakespeare's _Two Gentlemen of Verona_ received the most trenchant -condemnation in _The Times_. John Ruskin came forward as his champion -and replied on 13th May 1851. _The Times_ contained yet a second letter -from him on 30th May. And soon afterwards both were issued as a -pamphlet, with the title _Pre-Raphaelitism_, _its Principles, and -Turner_. These works, he said, did not imitate old pictures, but nature; -what alienated the public in them was their truth and rightness, which -had broken abruptly and successfully with the conventional sweep of -lines. - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ - - FORD MADOX BROWN. LEAR AND CORDELIA. - - (_By permission of Albert Wood, Esq., the owner of the picture._)] - -_Holman Hunt_ is the painter who has been most consistent in clinging -throughout his life to these original principles of the Brotherhood. He -is distinguished by a depth of thought which at last tends to become -entirely elusive, and often a depth of spirit more profound than diver -ever plumbed; but at the same time by an angular, gnarled realism which -has scarcely its equal in all the European art of the century. - -"The Flight of Madeleine and Porphyro," from Keats' _Eve of St. Agnes_, -was the first picture, the subject being borrowed in 1848 from his -favourite poet. In the work through which he first acknowledged himself -a member of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood he has given a plain and -simple rendering of the scene in the introductory chapter of Bulwer -Lytton's _Rienzi_. He has chosen the moment when Rienzi, kneeling beside -the corpse of his brother, takes a vow of vengeance against the murderer -who is riding away. The composition avoids any kind of conventional -pyramidal structure. In the foreground every flower is painted and every -colour is frankly set beside its neighbour without the traditional -gradation. His third picture, "A Converted British Family sheltering a -Christian Missionary," is not to be reckoned amongst his best -performances. It is forced naïveté, suggesting the old masters, to unite -two entirely different scenes upon the same canvas: in the background -there are fugitives and pursuers, and a Druid, merely visible by his -outstretched arms, inciting the populace to the murder of a missionary; -in the foreground a hut open on all sides, which could really offer no -protection at all. Yet in this hut a priest is hiding, tended by -converted Britons. However, the drawing of the nude bodies is an -admirable piece of realism; admirable, also, is the way in which he has -expressed the fear of the inmates, and the fanatical bloodthirsty rage -of the pursuers, and this without any false heroics, without any -rhetoric based upon the traditional language of gesture. The picture -from Shakespeare's _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, with the motto, "Death is -a fearful thing, and shamed life a hateful," is perhaps theatrical in -its arrangement, though it is likewise earnest and convincing in -psychological expression. - -Microscopic fidelity to nature, which formed the first principle in the -programme of the Brotherhood, has been carried in Holman Hunt to the -highest possible point. Every flower and every ear of corn, every -feather and every blade of grass, every fragment of bark on the trees -and every muscle, is painted with scrupulous accuracy. The joke made -about the pre-Raphaelites has reference to Holman Hunt: it was said that -when they had to paint a landscape they used to bring to their studio a -blade of grass, a leaf, and a piece of bark, and they multiplied them -microscopically so many thousand times until the landscape was finished. -His works are a triumph of industry, and for that very reason they are -not a pleasure to the eye. A petty, pedantic fidelity to nature injures -the total effect, and the hard colours--pungent green, vivid yellow, -glaring blue, and glowing red--which Holman Hunt places immediately -beside each other, give his pictures something brusque, barbaric, and -jarring. But as a reaction against a system of painting by routine, -which had become mannered, such truth without all compromise, such -painstaking effort at the utmost possible fidelity to nature, was, in -its very harshness, of epoch-making significance. - -With regard, also, to the transcendental purport of his pictures Holman -Hunt is perhaps the most genuine of the group. In the whole history of -art there are no religious pictures in which uncompromising naturalism -has made so remarkable an alliance with a pietistic depth of ideas. The -first, which he sent to the exhibition of 1854, "The Light of the -World," represents Christ wandering through the night in a -gold-embroidered mantle, with a lantern in His hand, like a Divine -Diogenes seeking men. Taine, who studied the picture impartially without -the catalogue, describes it, without further addition, as "Christ by -night with a lantern." But for Holman Hunt the meaning is Christianity -illuminating the universe with the mystic light of Faith and seeking -admission at the long-closed door of unbelief. It was because of this -implicit suggestion that the work made an indescribable sensation in -England; it had to go on pilgrimage from town to town, and hundreds of -thousands of copies of the engraving were sold. The pietistic feeling -of this ascetic preacher was so strong that he was able to venture on -pictures like "The Scapegoat" of 1856 without becoming comical. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - FORD MADOX BROWN. ROMEO AND JULIET.] - -[Illustration: FORD MADOX BROWN. CHRIST WASHING PETER'S FEET.] - -A striving to attain the greatest possible local truth had led Holman -Hunt to the East when he began these biblical pictures. He spent several -years in Palestine studying the topographical character of the land, its -buildings and its people, and endeavoured with the help of these actual -men and women and these landscape scenes to reconstruct the events of -biblical history with antiquarian fidelity. To paint "The Shadow of -Death" he searched in the East until he discovered a Jew who -corresponded to his idea of Christ, and painted him, a strong, powerful -man, the genuine son of a carpenter, with that astounding truth to -nature with which Hubert van Eyck painted his Adam. Even the hairs of -the breast and legs are as faithfully rendered as if one saw the model -in a glass. Near this naked carpenter--for He is clothed only with a -leather apron--there kneels a modern Eastern woman, bowed over a chest, -in which various Oriental vessels are lying. The ground is covered with -shavings of wood. Up to this point, therefore, it is a naturalistic -picture from the modern East. But here Holman Hunt's pietistic sentiment -is seen: it is the eve of a festival; the sun casts its last dying rays -into the room; the journeyman carpenter wearily stretches out His arms, -and the shadow of His body describes upon the wall the prophetic form of -the Cross. - -Another picture represented the discovery of our Lord in the Temple, a -third the flock which has been astray following the Good Shepherd into -His Father's fold. On his picture of the flight into Egypt, or, as he -has himself called it, "The Triumph of the Innocents," he published a -pamphlet of twelve pages, in which he goes into all the historical -events connected with the picture with the loyalty of an historian; he -discusses everything--in what month the flight took place, and by what -route, how old Christ was, to what race the ass belonged, and what -clothes were worn by Saint Joseph and Mary. One might be forgiven for -thinking such a production the absurd effusion of a whimsical pedant -were it not that Hunt is so grimly in earnest in everything he does. In -spite of all his peculiarities it must be admitted that he gave a deep -and earnest religious character to English art, which before his time -had been so paltry; and this explains the powerful impression which he -made upon his contemporaries. - -The artist most closely allied to him in technique is _Ford Madox -Brown_, who did not reckon himself officially with the pre-Raphaelites, -though he followed the same principles in what concerned the treatment -of detail. Only a little senior to the founders of the Brotherhood--he -was nine-and-twenty at the time--he is to be regarded as their more -mature ally and forerunner. Rossetti was under no illusion when, in the -beginning of his studies, he turned to him directly. In those years -Madox Brown was the only English painter who was not addicted to the -trivialities of paltry _genre_ painting or the theatrical heroics of -traditional history. He is a bold artist, with a gift of dramatic force -and a very rare capacity of concentration, and these qualities hindered -him from following the doctrine of the pre-Raphaelites in all its -consequences. If he had, in accordance with their programme, exclusively -confined himself to work from the living model, several of his most -striking and powerful pictures would never have been painted. - -[Illustration: SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS.] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - MILLAIS. LORENZO AND ISABELLA.] - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - MILLAIS. THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.] - -Madox Brown passed his youth on the Continent--in Antwerp with Wappers, -in Paris, and in Rome. The pictures which he painted there in the -beginning of the forties were produced, as regards technique, under the -influence of Wappers. The subjects were taken from Byron: "The Sleep of -Parisina" and "Manfred on the Jungfrau." It is only in the latter that -an independent initiative is perceptible. In contradistinction from the -generalities of the school of Wappers he aimed at greater depth of -psychology and accuracy of costume, while at the same time he -endeavoured, though without success, to replace the conventional studio -light by the carefully observed effect of free light. These three -things--truth of colour, of spiritual expression, and of historical -character--were from this time forth his principal care. And when his -cartoon of "Harold," painted in Paris in the year 1844, was exhibited in -Westminster Hall, it was chiefly this scrupulous effort at truth which -made such a vivid impression upon the younger generation. In the first -masterpiece which he painted after his return to London in 1848 he -stands out already in all his rugged individuality. "Lear and Cordelia," -founded on a most tragic passage in the most tragic of the great dramas -of Shakespeare, is here treated with impressive cogency. It stood in -such abrupt opposition to the traditional historical painting that -perhaps nothing was ever so sharply opposed to anything so universally -accepted. The figures stand out stiff and parti-coloured like card -kings, without fluency of line or rounded and generalised beauty. And -the colouring is just as incoherent. The brown sauce, which every one -had hitherto respected like a binding social law, had given way to a -bright joy of colour, the half-barbaric motley which one finds in old -miniatures. It is only when one studies the brilliant details, used -merely in the service of a great psychological effect, that this -outwardly repellent picture takes shape as a powerful work of art, a -work of profound human truth. Nothing is sacrificed to pose, graceful -show, or histrionic affectation. Like the German masters of the -fifteenth century, Madox Brown makes no attempt to dilute what is ugly, -nor did Holbein either when he painted the leprous beggars in his "Altar -to St. Sebastian." Every figure, whether fair or foul, is, in bearing, -expression, and gesture, a character of robust and rigorous hardihood, -and has that intense fulness of life which is compressed in those carved -wooden figures of mediæval altars: the aged Lear with his weather-beaten -face and his waving beard; the envious Regan; the cold, cruel, ambitious -Goneril; Albany, with his fair, inexpressive head; the gross, brutal -Cornwall; Burgundy, biting his nails in indecision; and Cordelia, in her -touching, bashful grace. And to this angular frankness of the primitive -masters he unites the profound learning of the modern historian. All the -archæological details, the old British costumes, jewels, modes of -wearing the hair, weapons, furniture, and hangings, have been studied -with the accuracy of Menzel. He knows nothing of the academic rules of -composition, and his robes fall naturally without the petty appendage of -fair folds and graceful motives. - -[Illustration: MILLAIS. THE HUGUENOT.] - -The picture in which he treated the balcony scene in Shakespeare's -_Romeo and Juliet_ is outwardly repellent, like "Lear and Cordelia," but -what a hollow effect is made by Makart's theatrical heroics beside this -aboriginal sensuousness, this intensity of expression! Juliet's dress -has fallen from her shoulders, and, devoid of will and thought, with -closed lids, half-naked, and thrilling in every fibre with the lingering -joy of the hours that have passed, she abandons herself to the last -fiery embraces of Romeo, who in stormy haste is feeling with one foot -for the ladder of ropes. - -He has solved a yet more difficult problem in the picture "Elijah and -the Widow." - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - MILLAIS. AUTUMN LEAVES.] - -"See, thy son liveth," are the words in the Bible with which the hoary -Elijah brings the boy, raised from death and still enveloped in his -shroud, to the agonised mother kneeling at the foot of the sepulchre. -The woman makes answer: "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God." -In the embodiment of this scene likewise Madox Brown has aimed in -costume and accessories at a complete harmony between the figures and -the character of the epoch, and has set out with an entirely accurate -study of Assyrian and Egyptian monuments. Even the inscription on the -wall and the Egyptian antiquities correspond to ancient originals. At -the same time the figures have been given the breath of new life. Elijah -looks more like a wild aboriginal man than a saint of the Cinquecento. -The ecstasy of the mother, the astonishment of the child whose great -eyes, still unaccustomed to the light, gaze into the world again with a -dreamy effort, after having beheld the mysteries of death--these are -things depicted with an astonishing power. The downright but convincing -method in which Hogarth paints the soul has dislodged the hollow, -heroical ideal of beauty of the older historical painting. Madox Brown's -confession of faith, which he formulated as an author, culminates in the -tenet that truth is the means of art, its end being the quickening of -the soul. This he expresses in two words: "emotional truth." - -While Holman Hunt and Madox Brown held fast throughout their lives to -the pre-Raphaelite principles, pre-Raphaelitism was for _John Everett -Millais_, the youngest of the three, merely a transitory phase, a stage -in his artistic development. - -Sir John Millais was born 8th June 1829, in Southampton, where his -family had come from Jersey. Thus he is half a Frenchman by descent. -His childhood was passed in Dinant in Brittany, but when he was nine -years old he went to a London school of drawing. He was then the little -fair-haired boy in a holland blouse, a broad sash, and a large sailor's -collar, whom John Phillip painted in those days. When eleven he entered -the Royal Academy, probably being the youngest pupil there; at thirteen -he won a prize medal for the best drawing from the antique; at fifteen -he was already painting; and at seventeen he exhibited an historical -picture, "Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru," which was praised by the -critics as the best in the exhibition of 1846. With "Elgiva," a work -exhibited in 1847, this first period, in which he followed the lines of -the now forgotten painter Hilton, was brought to an end. His next work, -"Lorenzo and Isabella," now in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, bore -the letters P.R.B., as a sign of his new confession of faith. -Microscopically exact work in detail has taken the place of the large -bravura and the empty imitation of the Cinquecentisti. The theme was -borrowed from one of Boccaccio's tales, _The Pot of Basil_--the tale on -which Keats founded _Isabella_. A company of Florentines in the costume -of the thirteenth century are assembled at dinner. Lorenzo, pale and in -suppressed excitement, sits beside the lovely Isabella, looking at her -with a glance of deep, consuming passion. Isabella's brother, angered at -it, gives a kick to her dog. All the persons at the table are -likenesses. The critic F. G. Stephens sat for the beloved of Isabella, -and Dante Gabriel Rossetti for the toper holding his glass to his lips -at the far right of the table. Even the ornaments upon the damask cloth, -the screen, and the tapestry in the background are painted, stroke after -stroke, with the conscientious devotion of a primitive painter. Jan van -Eyck's brilliancy of colour is united to Perugino's suavity of feeling, -and the chivalrous spirit of the _Decameron_ seized with the sureness of -a subtle literary scholar. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - MILLAIS. THE YEOMAN OF THE GUARD.] - -The work of 1850, "The Child Jesus in the Workshop of Joseph the -Carpenter," illustrated a verse in the Bible (Zechariah xiii. 6): "And -one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He -shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My -friends." The Child Jesus, who is standing before the joiner's bench, -has hurt Himself in the hand. St. Joseph is leaning over to look at the -wound, and Mary is kneeling beside the Child, trying to console Him -with her caresses, whilst the little St. John is bringing water in a -wooden vessel. Upon the other side of the bench stands the aged Anna, in -the act of drawing out of the wood the nail which has caused the injury. -A workman is labouring busily at the joiner's bench. The floor of the -workshop is littered with shavings, and tools hang round upon the walls. -The Quattrocentisti were likewise the determining influence in the -treatment of this subject. Ascetic austerity has taken the place of -ideal draperies, and angularity that of the noble flow of line. The -figure of Mary, who, with her yellow kerchief, resembled the wife of a -London citizen, was the cause of special offence. - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ - - MILLAIS. THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Thomas Agnew & Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - MILLAIS. YES OR NO?] - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - MILLAIS. MRS. BISCHOFFSHEIM. - - (_By permission of Mrs. Bischoffsheim, the owner of the picture._)] - -Up to the seventies Millais continued to paint such pictures out of the -Bible, or from English and mediæval poets, with varying success. One of -them, which in its brilliant colouring looked like an old picture upon -glass, represented the return of the dove to Noah's ark. The central -point was formed by two slender young women in mediæval costume, who -received the exhausted bird in their delicate hands. The picture, "The -Woodman's Daughter," was an illustration to a poem by Coventry Patmore, -on the love of a young noble for a poor child of the wood. In a -semicircular picture of 1852 he painted Ophelia as she floats singing in -the green pool where the white water-lilies cover her like mortuary -wreaths--floats with her parted lips flickering with a gentle smile of -distraction. The other picture of this year, "The Huguenot," represented -two lovers taking leave of each other in an old park upon the eve of St. -Bartholomew. She is winding a white scarf round his arm to save him from -death by this badge of the Catholics, whilst he is gently resisting. The -mood of the man standing before the dark gate of death, the moral -strength which vanquishes his fear, and all the solemnity of his -farewell to life are expressed in his glance. A world of love rests in -the eyes of the woman. Millais has often treated this problem of the -loving woman with earnest and almost sombre realism, that knows no touch -of swooning sentimentality. "The Order of Release" of 1853 shows a -jailor in the scarlet uniform of the eighteenth century opening a heavy -prison door to set at liberty a Highlander, whose release has been -obtained by his wife. A scene from the seventeenth century is treated in -"The Proscribed Royalist": a noble cavalier, hidden in a hollow tree, is -kissing the hand of a graceful, trembling woman, who has been daily -bringing him food at the risk of her life. "The Black Brunswicker" of -1856 closed this series of silent and motionless dramas. In the picture -of 1857, "Sir Isumbras at the Ford," an old knight is riding home -through the twilight of a sultry day in June. The dust of the journey -lies upon his golden armour. At a ford he has fallen in with two -children, and has lifted them up to carry them over the water. And "The -Vale of Rest," a picture deep and intense in its scheme of colour, -earnest and melancholy as a requiem, revealed--with a sentiment a little -like that of Lessing--a cloister garden where two nuns are silently -preparing a grave in the evening light; while "The Eve of Saint Agnes" -in 1863 illustrated the same poem of Keats to which ten years previously -Holman Hunt had devoted his work of early years. Madeleine has heard the -old legend, telling how girls receive the tender homage of their future -husbands if they go through their evening prayer supperless at midnight. -With her heart filled with the thoughts of love she quits the hall where -the guests are seated at a merry feast, and mounts to her room so -hastily that her thin taper is extinguished on the way. She enters her -little chamber, kneels down, repeats the prayer, and rises to her feet, -taking off her finery and loosening her hair. The clear moonlight -streams through the window, throwing a ghostly illumination over the -little images of saints in the room, falling like a caress upon the -tender young breast of the girl, playing upon her folded hands, and -touching her long, fair hair with a radiance like a vaporous glory. In -the shadow of the bed she sees him whom she loves. Motionless, as in a -dream, she stands, nor ventures to turn lest the fair vision should -vanish. "The Deliverance of a Heretic condemned to the Stake," "Joan of -Arc," "Cinderella," "The Last Rose," that dreamy picture of romantic -grace, "The Childhood of Sir Walter Raleigh," and the picture of the -hoary Moses, supported by Hur and Aaron, watching from the mountain-top -the victory of Joshua, were the principal works achieved in the later -years of the master. But when these pictures were executed England had -become accustomed to honour Millais, not as a pre-Raphaelite, but as her -greatest portrait painter. - -[Illustration: MILLAIS. THOMAS CARLYLE.] - -His portrait of himself explains this transformation. With his white -linen jacket and his fresh sunburnt face Sir John Millais does not look -in the least like a "Romanticist," scarcely like a painter; he has -rather the air of being a wealthy landowner. He was a man of a sound and -straightforward nature, a great and energetic master, conscious of his -aim, but a poet in Ruskin's sense of the word is what he has never been. -His pre-Raphaelitism was only a flirtation. His methods of thought were -too concrete, his hand too powerful, for him to have lingered always in -the world of the English poets, or endured the precise style of the -pre-Raphaelites. "Millais will 'go far' if he will only change his -boots," About had written on the occasion of the World Exhibition of -1855; when that of 1867 was opened Millais appeared in absolutely new -shoes. The great exhibition of 1857 in Manchester, which made known for -the first time how many of the works of Velasquez were hidden in English -private collections, had helped Millais to the knowledge of himself. -From the naturalism of the Quattrocentisti he made a transition to the -naturalism of Velasquez. - -Millais was a born portrait painter. His cool and yet finely sensitive -nature, his simple, manly temperament, directed him to this department, -which rather gravitates to the observant and imitative than to the -creative pole of art. In his pictures he has the secret of enchanting -and of repelling; he has arrived at really definite issues in portrait -painting. His likenesses are all of them as convincing as they are -actual. Together with the Venetians and with Velasquez, Millais belongs -to the master spirits of the grand style, which relies upon the large -movement of lines, in figure and in face, upon the broad foundation of -surfaces, and the strict subordination of individual details. His -figures are characteristic and recognisable even in outline. He makes no -effort to render them interesting by picturesque attitudes, or to vivify -them by placing them in any situation. There they stand calm, and -sometimes stiff and cold; they make no attempt at conversation with the -spectator, nor come out of themselves, as it were, but fix their eyes -upon him with an air of well-bred composure and indifference. Even the -hands are not made use of for characterisation. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - MILLAIS. THE VALE OF REST.] - -The extraordinary intensity of life which sparkles in his great figures, -so simply displayed, is almost exclusively concentrated in the heads. -Millais is perhaps the first master of characterisation amongst the -moderns. To bold and powerful exposition there is united a noble and -psychical gaze. The eyes which he paints are like windows through which -the soul is visible. - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ - - FORD MADOX BROWN. THE LAST OF ENGLAND.] - -Amongst his portraits of men, those of Gladstone and Hook stand in the -first rank: as paintings perhaps they are not specially eminent; both -have an opaque, sooty tone, from which Millais' works not unfrequently -suffer, but as a definition of complex personalities they are comparable -only with the best pictures of Lenbach. How firmly does the statesman -hold himself, despite his age, the old tree-feller, the stern idealist, -a genuine English figure chiselled out of hard wood. The play of light -centres all the interest on the fine, earnest, and puckered features, -the lofty forehead, the energetic chin, and the liquid, thoughtful eyes. -All the biography of Gladstone lies in this picture, which is simpler -and greater in intuition than that which Lenbach painted of him. Hook, -with his broad face, furrowed with wrinkles, looks like an apostle or a -fisher. Millais has looked into the heart of this man, who has in him -something rugged and faithful, massive and tender; the painter of -vigorous fishermen and vaporous sunbeams. Hook's landscapes have a -forceful, earnest, and well-nigh religious effect, and something -patriarchal and biblical lies in his gentle, reflective, and -contemplative glance. - -In his portrait of the Duke of Westminster, painted in 1878, Millais -depicts him in hunting dress, red coat, white corduroys, and high, -flexible boots, as he stands and buttons on his glove. The same year -"The Yeoman of the Guard" was exhibited in Paris--the old type of -discipline and loyalty, who sits there in his deep red uniform, with -features cast in bronze, like a Velasquez of 1878. Disraeli, Cardinal -Newman, John Bright, Lord Salisbury, Charles Waring, Sir Henry Irving, -the Marquis of Lorne, and Simon Fraser are all worthy descendants of the -eminent men whom Reynolds painted a century before. The plastic effect -of the figures is increased by the vacant, neutral ground of the -picture. Like Velasquez, Millais has made use of every possible -background, from the simplest, from the nullity of an almost black or -bright surface, to richly furnished rooms and views of landscape. -Sometimes it is only indicated by a plain chair or table that the figure -is standing in a room, or a heavy crimson curtain falls to serve as a -_repoussoir_ for the head. With a noble abstention he avoids prettiness -of line and insipid motives, and remains true to this virile taste even -in his portraits of women. His women have curiously little of the -æsthetical trait which runs elsewhere through English portraits of -ladies. Millais renders them--as in the picture "Dummy Whist"--neither -sweet nor tender, gives them nothing arch, sprightly, nor triumphant. -Severe and sculptural in their mien, and full of character rather than -beauty, proud in bearing and upright in pose, their serious, energetic -features betray decision of character; and the glance of their brown -eyes--eyes like Juno's--is indifferent and almost hard. A straight and -liberal forehead, a beautifully formed and very determined mouth, and a -full, round chin complete this impression of earnest dignity, august -majesty, and chilling pride. To this regular avoidance of every trace of -available charm there is joined a strict taste in toilette. He prefers -to work with dark or subdued contrasts of colour, and he is also fond of -large-flowered silks--black with citron-yellow and black with dark red. - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ - - FORD MADOX BROWN. WORK. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -And this same stringent painter of character commands, as few others, -the soft light brush of a painter of children. No one since Reynolds and -Gainsborough has painted with so much character as Millais the dazzling -freshness of English youth; the energetic pose of a boy's head or the -beauty of an English girl--a thing which stands in the world alone: the -soft, glancing, silken locks, rippling to a _blonde cendrée_, pale, -delicate little faces, pouting little mouths, and great, shining blue, -dreamy, childish eyes. Sometimes they stand in rose-coloured dresses -embroidered with silver in front of a deep green curtain, or sit reading -upon a dark red carpet flowered with black. At other times they are -arrayed like the little Infantas of Velasquez, and play with a spaniel -like the Doge's children of Titian, or hold out with both hands an apron -full of flowers, which Millais paints with a high degree of finish. A -spray of pale red roses, chrysanthemums, or lilies stands near. One must -be a great master of characterisation to paint conscious, dignified, and -earnest feminine beauty like that of Mrs. Bischoffsheim, and at the same -time that fragrant perfume of the fresh and dewy spring of youth which -breathes from Millais' pictures of children. - -[Illustration: PHILLIP. THE LETTER-WRITER, SEVILLE.] - -Millais is one of those men in the history of nineteenth-century -painting who are as forcible and healthy as they are many-sided. I do -not know one who could have developed so swiftly from a style of the -most minute exactness to one of the most powerful breadth; not one who -could have united such poetry of conception with such an enormous -knowledge of human beings; not one who could have been so like Proteus -in variety--at one moment charming, at another dreamy, at another -entirely positive. In their firm structure and largeness of manner his -landscapes sometimes recall Théodore Rousseau. And now the -pre-Raphaelite is just a little evident in an excess of detail. He -paints every blade of grass and every small plant, though there is at -the same time a largeness in the midst of this scrupulous exactitude. He -does not merely see the isolated fact through a magnifying lens, but has -eyes that are sensitive to the poetry of the whole, and in spite of all -study of detail he sometimes reaches a total effect which is altogether -impressionist. His picture "Chill October" has an airy life, a grey, -vibrating atmosphere, such as only John Constable painted elsewhere. - -Such a concrete study of nature as was made by the pre-Raphaelites of -necessity led at last to entirely realistic pictures from modern life. -In their biblical and poetic pictures they had started from the -conviction that new life-blood could only be poured into the old -conventional types, which had gradually become meaningless by tactfully -drawing the models for them from popular life. They believed, as the -masters of Florence and Bruges had done before them, that there could be -no good painting without strict dependence on the model; that it was of -the utmost importance to give a poetic or legendary figure the stamp of -nature, the strong savour of individuality. All their creations are -based upon the elements of portrait painting, even when they illustrate -remote scenes from the New Testament or from mediæval poetry. And these -elements at last led them altogether to give up transposing such figures -into an alien _milieu_, and simply to paint what was offered by their -own surroundings. In this way they reached the goal which was arrived at -in French painting through Courbet and Ribot. It is due in the first -place to the pre-Raphaelites that the well-meant and moderately painted -_genre_ picture of the old style, which, with its wealth of pathetic -stories, was once a prime source of supposed artistic pleasure, was -finally vanquished in England, and made way for earnest and vigorous -painting,--painting which sought to make its effect by purely artistic -means, and proudly declined attempt to conceal intrinsic weakness in -"interesting" subject drawn from external sources. As early as 1855 -Millais exhibited a picture in the Royal Academy which Ruskin called a -truly great work containing the elements of immortality--"The Rescue." -It represented a fireman who has carried three children from a burning -house and laid them in the arms of their parents. Narrative purport was -entirely renounced. The fireman was treated without sentimentality, and -in a way that suggested the cool fulfilment of a duty, and the agitation -of the parents was also rendered without any dash of melodrama. Then -there followed that masterpiece of exquisite and soft colouring, tender -and moving expression, and infinite grace, "The Gambler's Wife," sadly -taking up the cards which have brought her misery upon her. In 1874 was -painted "The North-West Passage," a sort of modern symbol of the -forceful, enterprising English people who have populated and subdued -half the world from their little island kingdom. "There is a passage to -the Pole, and England will find it--must find it." These are more or -less the words spoken by Trelawney, the old friend and comrade of Byron -in Greece. With a chart before him he is brooding over the plan of the -North-West Passage, and upon his own outstretched hand, which would fain -hold the future in its grasp, the hand of a youthful woman is soothingly -laid, as she sits at his feet reading to him the narrative of the last -voyage of discovery. The figure of the seaman with his white beard has -a strong, sinewy life, and the broad daylight streams through the room, -filled with charts and atlases. The sea and clear, bright sky gleam -through the open window. It is a powerful and moving picture, one of -those modern creations in which the ideas of the nineteenth century are -concentrated with simplicity and a renunciation of all hollow emphasis. - -[Illustration: PHILLIP. SPANISH SISTERS.] - -A few pictures of modern life which have nothing in common with the -older _genre_ painting may even be found among the works of the -devotionalist Holman Hunt. "Awakened Conscience," according to the -explanation of the painter, tells the story of a young woman seduced by -a cruel and light-minded man, and kept in a luxurious little -country-house. They are together. Seated at the piano he is playing the -old melody "Oft in the Stilly Night," and the strains of the song recall -to the frail maiden her youth, and the years of purity and innocence. -Thus even Hunt has not overcome the moralising tendencies of Hogarth, -though his taste is more discreet and delicate. He has struck deeper -chords of thought than the English public had heard before. And in -particular the painting is not a mere substratum for the story; it has -become the principal thing, and the story subsidiary. In another -picture, "May Morning on Magdalen Tower," he renounced all deeper -purpose altogether, and merely painted a number of Oxford dons and -students, who, in accordance with the old custom, usher in the May with -a hymn from the college tower. - -But the most remarkable work of this description has been executed by -Madox Brown, the English Menzel, who has not merely reconstructed the -environment of past ages with the accuracy of an eye-witness, but has -looked upon the drama of modern life as an attentive observer. His first -picture, "The Last of England," was executed in the June of 1852, at a -time when emigration to America began to take serious proportions. A -married couple, humble, middle-class people, are sitting on the deck of -a ship. The man, in his thick cloth overcoat, with a soft felt hat on -his head, a pale face, and sunken eyes with dark rings underneath, casts -one more look upon his native-land, which vanishes in the hazy distance, -as he thinks bitterly of lost hopes and vain struggles. But the young -wife, in a light-coloured cloak and a pretty round bonnet with wide -strings, gazes before her with gentle resignation, from underneath a -great umbrella protecting her from the boisterous sea-wind. - -In "Work," begun at the same period, and finished, after various -interruptions, in 1865, he has produced the first modern picture of -artisans after Courbet's "Stone-breakers." The painter, who was then -living in Hampstead, where extensive cuttings were being made for the -laying down of gas-pipes, daily saw the English artisan at labour in all -his thick-set strength. This gave him the theme for his picture. In -bright daylight on a glaring summer afternoon artisans are digging a -trench for gas-pipes in a busy street. Women and poor children are -standing near. Even the older _genre_ artists had painted men in their -working blouses, but only joking and making merry, never at work. Like -stage-managers who are sure of their public, they always set the same -troop of puppets dancing. Madox Brown's artisans are robust and -raw-boned figures; where the older artists affected to be witty with -their _genre_ painting, Madox Brown painted straightforwardly, without -humour and without making his figures beautiful. The composition of his -pictures is just as plain. No one poses, no one makes impassioned -gestures, no one thinks of grouping himself with his neighbour in fine -flowing lines. It is pleasant to think that this powerful symbol of work -has passed by presentation into the possession of one of the greatest -manufacturing towns in England, into the gallery of Manchester. - -[Illustration: R. ANSDELL. A SETTER AND GROUSE.] - -A Scotchman, born in Aberdeen, _John Phillip_ was the vigorous abettor -of the pre-Raphaelites in these realistic endeavours. He, too, was a -painter in the full meaning of the word, and he has therefore left works -with which the future will have to reckon. Velasquez had opened his eyes -as he had opened those of Millais. When Phillip went to Spain in 1851, -he was not the first who had trod the Museo del Prado. Wilkie had -painted in Spain before him, and Ansdell had been busy there at the same -time. But no one had been able to grasp in any degree the impressive -majesty of the old Spanish painters. John Phillip alone gained something -of the _verve_ of Velasquez, a broad, virile technique which -distinguishes him from all his English contemporaries. The impression -received from his pictures is one of opulence, depth, and weight; they -unite something of the strength of Velasquez to a more Venetian -splendour of colour. The streets of Seville, the Spanish port on the -Guadalquivir, the town where Velasquez and Murillo were born, were his -chief field of study. Here he saw those market-women, black as mulattoes -and sturdy as grenadiers, who sit in front of their fruit-baskets under -a great umbrella, and those water-carriers with sunburnt visages, -strongly built chests, and athletic arms. - -After he had returned to Scotland he occasionally painted pictures of -ceremonies, "The House of Commons," "The Wedding of the Princess -Royal," and so forth, but he soon returned to subjects from Spanish -life. Gipsy-looking, cigarette-smoking women, with sparkling eyes and -jet-black hair, young folks dancing to the castanets, bull-fighters with -glittering silver-grey costume and flashing glances, dark-brown peasants -in citron-yellow petticoats, hollow-eyed manufactory girls, potters, and -glass-blowers.--such are the materials of Phillip's pictures. They give -no scope to anecdote; but they always reveal a fragment of reality which -emits a world of impressions and an opulence of artistic ability. As -painter _par excellence_, John Phillip stands in opposition to older -English _genre_ painters. Whilst they were, in the first place, at pains -to tell a story intelligibly, Phillip was a colourist, a _maître -peintre_, whose figures were developed from the colours, and whose -creations are so full of character that they will always assert their -place with the best that has ever been painted. Even in England, the -country of literary and narrative painting, art was no longer an -instrument for expressing ideas; it had become an end in itself, and had -discovered colour as its prime and most essential medium of expression. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX - -REALISM IN GERMANY - - -In Germany the realistic movement was carried out in much the same way -as in France, though it came into action two decades after its French -original. Here also it was recognised that the well-meant but badly -painted anecdote must give way to the well-painted picture: and if we -inquire who it was that gave to Germany the first serious paintings -inspired by the modern spirit the reply, without hesitation, must be -Adolf Menzel. The pioneering work of this great little man, who for -fifty years had embodied in their typical perfection all phases of -German art, is something fabulous: the greatest and, one might almost -say, the only historical painter of bygone epochs, the only one who knew -a previous period so intimately that he could venture on painting it, -was also the leader of the great movement which, in the seventies, aimed -at the representation of our own life. His first appearance was in the -time when the proud Titan Cornelius sought to take heaven by storm. -Little Menzel was no Titan in those days; he seems in that generation -like one bound to the earth, yet he belonged to the Cyclopean race. He -was a mighty architect with the powers of a giant; and this uncouth -Cyclops rough-hewed and chiselled the blocks, and, fitting each in its -place, raised an edifice to as lofty a height as the Romanticists had -reached on the perilous wings of Icarus. Having been first the -draughtsman and then the painter of Frederick the Great, he gave up -history after finishing the picture of the Battle of Hochkirch: his -talent was too modern, too much set upon what was concrete, to admit of -its being given full scope to the end by constructive work from a -_milieu_ that was not his own. Until his fortieth year he had celebrated -the glorious past of his country. When, with the death of Friedrich -Wilhelm IV, a great and decisive turn was given to the politics of the -Prussian state--one which put an end to the stagnation of civil life in -Prussia and Germany, and ushered in a new and brilliant period for the -realm and the heirs of Friedrich--the painter of Friedrich the Great -became the painter of the new realm. After he had already, in the first -half of the century, placed reality on the throne of art in the place of -rhetoric and a vague ideal, he went one step further in the direction of -keen and direct observation, and now painted what he saw around him--the -stream of palpitating life. - -"The Coronation of King Wilhelm at Königsberg" is the great and -triumphant title-page to this section of his art. The effects of light, -the red tones of the uniforms, the shimmering white silk dresses, the -surging of the mass of people, the perfect ease with which all the -personages are individualised, the princes, the ministers, the -ambassadors, the men of learning, the instantaneousness in the movement -of the figures, the absolutely unforced and yet subtle and pictorial -composition, render this painting no picture of ceremonies, in the -traditional sense of the phrase, but a work of art at once intimate and -august in the impression which it makes. In the picture "King Wilhelm -setting out to join the Army"--the representation of the thrilling -moment, on the afternoon of 31st July 1870, when the King drove along -the linden avenue to the railway station--this phase, which he began -with the Coronation picture, was brought to a close. Everything surges -and moves, speaks and breathes, and glows with the palpitating life -which vibrates through all in this moment of patriotic excitement. But -the painter's course led him further. - -[Illustration: ADOLF MENZEL.] - -He first became entirely Menzel when he made the discovery of toiling -humanity. In 1867, in the year of the World Exhibition, he came to Paris -and became acquainted with Meissonier and Stevens. With Meissonier in -particular--whose portrait he painted--he entered into a close -friendship, and it was curious afterwards to see the two together at -exhibitions--the little figure of Menzel with his gigantic bald forehead -and the little figure of Meissonier with his gigantic beard, a Cyclops -and a Gnome, two kings in the realm of Liliput, of whom one was unable -to speak a word of German and the other unable to speak a word of -French, although they had need merely of a look, a shrug, or a movement -of the hand to understand each other entirely. He also came into the -society of Courbet, who had just made the famous separate exhibition of -his works, at the Café Lamartine, in the company of Heilbuth, Meyerheim, -Knaus, and others. Here in Paris he produced his first pictures of -popular contemporary life, and if as an historical painter he had -already been a leader in the struggle against theatrical art, he became -a pioneer in these works also. Everywhere he let in air and made free -movement possible for those who pressed forward in his steps. In the -course of years he painted and drew everything which excited in him -artistic impulse upon any ground whatever, and not one of these -endeavours was work thrown away. A universal genius amongst the painters -of real life, he combined all the qualities of which other men of -excellent talent merely possessed fragments separately apportioned -amongst them: the sharpest eye for every detail of form, the most -penetrative discrimination for the life of the spirit, and at times a -glistening play of colour possessed by none of his German predecessors. - -[Illustration: MENZEL. FROM KUGLER'S "HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH THE GREAT."] - -Catholic churches seem always to have had a great attraction for him, as -well as the people moving in them, and in this an echo of his _rococo_ -enthusiasm is still perceptible. The quaint, _rococo_ churches in the -ornate style favoured by the Jesuits, which are still preserved intact -in Munich and the Tyrol, were those for which he had a peculiar -preference. He lost himself voluptuously in the thousand details of -sculpture, framework, organs, balustrades, and carved pulpits, dimly -outlined in the subdued light from stained-glass windows. In the gloom -it was all transformed into a forest of ornaments, expanding their -traceries like trees in a wood. Sick and infirm people, women in prayer -burying their faces in their hands, and lame men with crutches, kneel or -move amid the luxuriant efflorescence of stone and wood and gold, of -angels' heads and shrines, garlands of flowers, consoles, and fonts of -holy water. Twisted marble pillars, church banners, lamps and lustres -mount in a confusion of capricious outlines at once tasteful and piquant -to the vaulted dome, where the painted skies, blackened by the -ascending mist of incense, seem waywardly fantastic. - -After the churches the salons appealed to him. There came his pictures -of modern society: ladies and cavaliers of the Court upon ballroom -balconies, the conversation of Privy Councillors in the salon, the -marvellous ball supper, where a mass of beautiful shoulders, splendid -uniforms, and rustling silken trains move amid mirrors, lustres, -colonnades, and gilded frames. "The Ball Supper" of 1870 is a vivid -picture, bathed in glistening light. The music has stopped. And from a -door of the brilliantly lighted ballroom the company is streaming into -the neighbouring apartment, where the supper-table has been laid, and -groups of ladies and men in animated conversation are beginning to -occupy the chairs and sofas. In 1879 there followed the famous "Levee": -the Emperor Wilhelm in the red Court uniform of the _Gardes du Corps_ is -talking with a lady, surrounded by a sea of heads, uniforms, and naked -bowing shoulders. Though it was always necessary in earlier -representations of the kind to have a _genre_ episode to compensate the -insufficient artistic interest of the work, in Menzel's pictures the -pictorial situation is grasped as a whole. They have the value of a -book; they neither falsify nor beautify anything, and they will hand -down to the future an encyclopædia of types of the nineteenth century. - -From the salon he went to the street, from exclusive aristocratic -circles into the midst of the eddying crowd. For many years in -succession Menzel was a constant visitor at the small watering-places in -the Austrian and Bavarian Alps. The multitude of people at the concerts, -in the garden of the restaurant, on the promenade, at the open-air -services, were precisely the things to occupy his brush. The light -rippled through the leaves of the trees; women, children, and well-bred -men of the world listened to the music or the words of the preacher. One -person leaves a seat and another takes it; everything lives and moves. -Huge and lofty trees stretch out their arms, protecting the company from -the sun. Unusually striking was "The Procession in Gastein": in the -centre was the priest bearing the Host, then the choristers in their red -robes, in front the visitors and tourists who had hastened to see the -spectacle, and in the background the mountain heights. The bustle of -people gives Menzel the opportunity for a triumph. In Kissingen he -painted the promenade at the waters; in Paris the Sunday gaiety in the -garden of the Tuileries, the street life upon the boulevard, the famous -scene in the _Jardin des Plantes_, with the great elephants and the -vivid group of Zouaves and ladies; in Verona the Piazza d'Erbe, with the -swarm of people crowding in between the open booths and shouting at the -top of their voices. Many after him have represented such scenes, -although few have had the secret of giving their figures such seething -life, or painting them, like Menzel, as parts of one great, surging, and -many-headed multitude. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - MENZEL. THE CORONATION OF KING WILHELM I.] - -People travelling have always been for him a source of much amusement: -men sitting in the corner of a railway carriage with their legs crossed -and their hats over their eyes, yawning or asleep; women looking out of -the windows or counting their ready money. Alternating with such themes -are those monotonous yet simple and therefore genial landscapes from the -suburbs of the great city, poor, neglected regions with machines and men -at their labour. Children bathing in a dirty stream bordered by little, -stunted willows; small craft gliding over a river, sailors leaping from -one vessel to another, men landing sacks or barrels, and great, heavy -cart-horses dragging huge waggons loaded with beer-barrels along the -dusty country road. Or the scaffolding of a house is being raised. Six -masons are at work upon it, and they are working in earnest. A green -bush waves (German fashion) above the scaffolding, and further off long -rows of houses stretch away, and the aqueducts and gas-works which -supply the huge crater of Berlin, and day-labourers are seen wheeling up -barrow-loads of stones. For the first time a German painter sings the -canticle of labour. - -[Illustration: MENZEL. FROM KUGLER'S "HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH THE GREAT."] - -From the streets he enters the work-places, and interprets the wild -poetry of roaring machines in smoky manufactories. The masterpiece of -this group is that bold and powerful picture, his "Iron Mill" of 1876. -The workshop of the great rail-forge of Königshütte in Upper Silesia is -full of heat and steam. The muscular, brawny figures of men with glowing -faces stand at the furnace holding the tongs in their swollen hands. -Their vigorous gestures recall Daumier. Upon the upper part of their -bodies, which is naked, the light casts white, blue, and dark red -reflections, and over the lower part it flickers in reddish, greenish, -and violet tinges, on the creases in their clothing. The smoke rising in -spirals is of a whitish-red, and the beams supporting the roof are lit -up with a sombre glow. Heat, sweat, movement, and the glare of fire are -everywhere. Dust and dirt, strong, raw-boned iron-workers washing -themselves, or exhausted with hard toil, snatching a hasty meal, a -confusion of belting and machinery, no pretty anecdote but sober -earnest, no story but pure painting--these were the great and decisive -achievements of this picture. Courbet's "Stone-breakers" of 1851, Madox -Brown's "Work" of 1852, and Menzel's "Iron Mill" are the standard works -in the art of the nineteenth century. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - MENZEL. THE DAMENSTIFTSKIRCHE AT MUNICH.] - -Within German art Menzel has won an _enclave_ for himself, a rock amid -the sea. In France during the sixties he represented German art in -general. France offered him celebrity, and after this recognition he had -the fortune to be honoured in his native-land before he was overtaken by -old age. His realism was permitted to him at a time when realistic aims -were elsewhere reckoned altogether as æsthetic errors. This explains the -remarkable fact that Menzel's toil of fifty years had scarcely any -influence on the development of German painting; it would scarcely be -different from what it is now if he had never existed. When he might -have been an exemplar there was no one who dared to follow him. And -later, when German art as a whole had entered upon naturalistic lines, -the differences between him and the younger generation were more -numerous than their points of sympathy, so that it was impossible for -him to have a formative influence. He stood out in the new period merely -as a power commanding respect, like a hero of ancient times. Even the -isolated realistic onsets made in Berlin in the seventies are in no way -to be connected with him. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - MENZEL. KING WILHELM SETTING OUT TO JOIN THE ARMY.] - -If realism consisted in the dry and sober illustration of selected -fragments of reality, if upright feeling, loyalty, and honest patriotism -were serviceable qualities in art, a lengthier consideration should -certainly be accorded to _Anton von Werner_. In his _genre_ pictures of -campaign life everything is spick and span, everything is in its right -place and in soldierly order: it is all typically Prussian art. His -portraits are casino pictures, and as such it is impossible to imagine -how they could better serve their purpose. From the spurs to the -cuirassier helmet everything is correct and in accordance with military -regulation; even the likeness has something officially prescribed which -would make any recruit form front if suddenly brought face to face with -such a person. In his pictures of ceremonies his ability was just -sufficient to chronicle the function in question with the -conscientiousness of a clerk in a law court. The intellectual capacity -for seeing more of a great man than his immaculately polished boots and -the immaculately burnished buttons of his uniform was denied him, as was -the artistic capacity of exalting a picture-sheet to the level of a -picture. - -Equipped with a healthy though trivial feeling for reality, _Carl -Güssow_ ventured to approach nature in a sturdy and robust fashion in -some of his works, and exhibited in Berlin a few life-sized figures, -"Pussy," "A Lover of Flowers," "Lost Happiness," "Welcome," "The Oyster -Girl," and so forth. Through these he opened for a brief period in -Berlin the era of yellow kerchiefs and black finger-nails, and on the -strength of them was exalted by the critics as a pioneer of realism or -else anathematised, according to their æsthetic creed. He had a robust -method of painting muscles and flesh and clothes of many colours, and of -setting green beside red and red beside yellow, yet even in these first -works--his only works of artistic merit--he never got beyond the banal -and barbaric transcript of a reality which was entirely without -interest. - -_Max Michael_ seems to be somewhat influenced by Bonvin. Like the -latter, he was attracted by the silent motions of nuns, juicy -vegetables, dark-brown wainscoting, and the subdued light of interiors. -He was, like Ribot in France, although with less artistic power, a good -representative of that "school of cellar skylights" which imitated in a -sound manner the tone of the old Spanish masters. One of his finest -pictures, which hangs in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, represents a girls' -school in Italy. A nun is presiding over the sewing-lesson; the -background is brown; the light comes through the yellow glass of a high -and small window (like that of an attic), and throws a brown dusky tone -over the room, in which the gay costumes of the little Italian girls, -with their white kerchiefs, make exceedingly pretty and harmonious spots -of colour. No adventure is hinted at, no episode related, but the -picturesque appearance of the little girls, and their tones in the -space, are all the more delicately rendered. A refined scheme of colour -recalling the old masters compensates for the want of incident. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - MENZEL. THE IRON MILL. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - MENZEL. SUNDAY IN THE TUILERIES GARDENS.] - -In Vienna _August von Pettenkofen_ made a transition from the ossified, -antediluvian _genre_ painting to painting which was artistically -delicate. While the successors of Gauermann and Danhauser indulged in -heart-breaking scenes or humorous episodes, Pettenkofen was the first to -observe the world from a purely pictorial point of view. Alfred Stevens -had opened his eyes in Paris in 1851. Troyon's pictures and Millet's -confirmed him in his efforts. He was brought up on a property belonging -to his father in Galicia, and had been a cavalry officer before he -turned to painting: horses, peasants, and oxen are the simple figures of -his pictures. In the place of episodic, ill-painted stories he set the -meagre plains of lonely Pusta, sooty forges, gloomy cobblers' work -shops, dirty courtyards with middens and rubbish-heaps, gipsy -encampments, and desolate garrets. There is no pandering to -sentimentality or the curiosity excited by _genre_ painting. There are -delicate chords of colour, and that is enough. The artist was in the -habit of spending the summer months in the little town of Spolnok on the -Theiss, to the east of Pesth. Here he wandered about amongst the little -whitewashed houses, the booths of general dealers, and the -fruit-sellers' stalls. A lazily moving yoke of oxen with a lad asleep, -dark-eyed girls fetching water, poor children playing on the ground, old -men dreaming in the sun in a courtyard, are generally the only breathing -beings in his pictures. Here is a sandy village-square with low, -white-washed houses; there is a wain with oxen standing in the street, -or a postilion trotting away on his tired nag. Like Menzel, Pettenkofen -paints busy humanity absorbed in their toil, simple beings who do not -dream of leaving off work for the sake of those who frequent picture -galleries. What differentiates him from the Berlin painter is a more -lyrical impulse, something tender, thoughtful, and contemplative. Menzel -gives dramatic point to everything he touches; he sets masses in -movement, depicts a busy, noisy crowd, pressing together and elbowing -one another, forcing their way at the doors of theatres or the windows -of cafés in a multifarious throng. Pettenkofen lingers with the petty -artisan and the solitary sempstress. In Menzel's "Iron Mill" the sparks -are flying and the machines whirring, but everything is peaceful and -quiet in the cobblers' workshops and the sunny attics visited by -Pettenkofen. Menzel delights in momentary impressions and quivering -life; Pettenkofen in rest and solitude. In the former every one is -thinking and talking and on the alert; in the latter every one is -yawning or asleep. If Menzel paints a waggon, the driver cracks his whip -and one hears the team rattling over the uneven pavement; in Pettenkofen -the waggon stands quietly in a narrow lane, the driver enjoys a midday -rest, and an enervating, sultry heat broods overhead. Menzel has a love -for men and women with excitement written on their faces; Pettenkofen -avoids painting character, contenting himself with the reproduction of -simple actions at picturesque moments. The Berlin artist is -epigrammatically sharp; the Viennese is elegiac and melancholy. Menzel's -pictures have the changing glitter of rockets; those of Pettenkofen are -harmonised in the tone of a refined amateur. They have only one thing in -common: neither has found disciples; they are not culminating peaks in -Berlin or Vienna art so much as boulders wedged into another system. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - MENZEL. A LEVEE.] - -Whilst the realistic movement in both towns was confined to particular -masters, Munich had once again the mission of becoming a guiding -influence. Here all the tendencies of modern art have left the most -distinct traces, all movements were consummated with most consistency. -The heroes of Piloty followed the divinities of Cornelius, and these -were in turn succeeded by the Tyrolese peasants of Defregger, and amid -all this difference of theme one bond connected these works: for -interesting subject was the matter of chief importance in them, and the -purely pictorial element was something subordinate. The efforts of the -seventies had for their object the victory of this pictorial element. It -was recognised that the talent for making humorous points and telling -stories, which came in question as the determining quality in the -pictures of monks and peasants of the school of Defregger and Grützner, -was the expression of no real faculty for formative art--that it was -merely technical incompleteness complacently supported by the lack of -artistic sensibility in the public which had produced this narrative -painting. It was felt that the task of formative art did not consist in -narrative, but in representation, and in representation through the most -sensuous and convincing means which stood at its disposal. A renewed -study of the old masters made this recognition possible. - -[Illustration: GÜSSOW. THE ARCHITECT. - - (_By permission of M. H. Salomonson, Esq., the owner of the - picture._)] - -Up to this time the most miserable desolation had also reigned over the -province of the artistic crafts. But, borne up by the rekindled -sentiment of nationality, and favoured by the high tide of the milliards -paid by France, since 1870, that eventful movement bearing the words -"Old German" and "Fine Style" on its programme had become an -accomplished fact. The German Renaissance, which research had been -hitherto neglected, was discovered afresh. Lübke explored it thoroughly -and systematically; Woltmann wrote on Hans Holbein, Thausing on Dürer; -Eitelberger founded the Austrian Industrial Museum; Georg Hirth brought -out his _Deutsches Zimmer_, and began the publication of the -_Formenschatz_. The national form of art of the German Renaissance was -taken up everywhere with a proud consciousness of patriotism: here, it -was thought, was a panacea. Those who followed the artistic crafts -declared open war against everything pedestrian and tedious. _Lorenz -Gedon_ in particular--in union with Franz and Rudolf Seitz--was the soul -of the movement. With his black, curly hair, his little, fiery, dark -eyes, his short beard, his negligent dress, and his two great hands -expert in the exercise of every description of art, he had himself -something of the character of an old German stone-cutter. His manner of -expressing himself corresponded to this appearance. In every thing it -was original, saturated with his own personal conception of the world. -As the son of a dealer in old pictures and curiosities, he was familiar -with the old masters from his childhood, and followed them in the method -of his study. He was far from confining himself to one branch. The -façades of houses, the architecture of interiors, tavern rooms and -festal decorations, furniture and state carriages, statues and -embellishments in stone, bronze, wood, and iron, portrait busts in wax, -clay, and marble, models for ornaments, for iron lattices, for the -adornment of ships and the fittings of cabins, all objects that were -wayward, fantastic, quaint, and curious lay in his province; and for the -execution of each in turn this remarkable man felt that he had in him an -equal capacity. And, at the same time, the temperament of a collector -was united in him with that of an artist in an entirely special way. In -the bushy wilderness of a garden before his house in the Nymphenburger -Strasse countless stone fragments of mediæval sculpture were strewn -about, up to the very hedge dividing it from the street. Rusty old -trellises of wrought iron slanted in front of the windows, and in the -house itself the most precious objects, which artists ten years before -had passed without heed, stood in masses together. As Gedon was taken -from his work when he was forty his artistic endeavour never got beyond -efforts of improvisation, but the impulse which he gave was very -powerful. Through his initiative the whole province of the artistic -crafts was brought under observation from a pictorial point of view. The -bald Philistine style of decoration gave way and a blithe revel of -colour was begun. The great carnival feasts arranged by him on the model -of the Renaissance period are an important episode in the history of -culture in Munich, and have contributed in no unessential manner to the -refinement of taste in the toilette of women. The Munich Exhibition of -the Arts and Crafts in 1876 (before the entrance of which he had erected -that great portal made of old fragments of architecture, wood-carving, -and splendid stuffs, and bearing the inscription "The Works of our -Fathers") indicated the zenith of that movement in the handicrafts which -was flooding all Germany in those days. - -The course which was run by this movement in the following years is well -known, and it is well known how the imitation of the German Renaissance -soon became as wearisome as in the beginning it had been attractive. -After it had been a little overdone another step was taken, and from the -Renaissance people went to the _baroque_ period, and soon afterwards the -_rococo_ period followed. In these days sobriety has taken the place of -this fever for ornamentation, and the mania for style has resulted in a -surfeit, a weariness and a desire for simplicity and quietude. -Nevertheless the beneficial influence of the movement on the general -elevation of taste is undeniable, and indirectly it was of service to -painting. - -[Illustration: _Seeman, Leipzig._ AUGUST VON PETTENKOFEN.] - -In rooms where the owner was the only article of the inventory repugnant -to the conception of style, only those pictures were admitted which had -been executed in the exact manner of the old masters. Works of art were -regarded as tasteful furniture, and were obliged to harmonise correctly -with the other appointments of the room; they had, moreover, to be -themselves legitimate "imitations of the Works of our Fathers." And, in -this way, the movement in the handicrafts gave an impulse to a renewed -study of the old masters, carried out with far more refinement than had -hitherto been the case. Amongst the costume painters spread over all -Germany, the experts in costume, working in Munich during the seventies, -form a really artistic race of able painters who were peculiarly -sensitive to colour. They were the historians of art, the connoisseurs -of colour in the ranks of the painters. Piloty did not satisfy them; -they buried themselves in the study of old masters with a delicately -sensitive appreciation of them; they began to mix soft, luxuriant, and -melting colours upon their palettes, and to feel the peculiar joy of -painting. Whilst they imitated the exquisite "little masters" of former -ages, in dimly lighted studios hung with Gobelins, imitating at the same -time the beautifying rust of centuries, they gradually abandoned all -their own tricks of art; and whilst they devoted themselves to detail -they brought about the Renaissance of oil-painting. Compared with -earlier works, their pictures are like rare dainties. They no longer -recognised the end of their calling, as the _genre_ painters had done, -in a one-sided talent for characterisation, but tried once more to lay -chief weight upon the pictorial and artistic appearance of their -pictures. They were conscious of a presentiment that there were higher -spheres of art than the commonplace humour of _genre_ painting, and this -recognition had a very wide bearing. Pictorial point took the place of -narrative humour. If artists had previously painted thoughts they now -began to paint things, and even if the things were bundles of straw, -mediæval hose, and the old robes of cardinals, they were no longer -"invented," but something which had been seen as a whole. It was a -transition towards ultimately painting what had actually taken place -before the artist's eyes. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - PETTENKOFEN. A WOMAN SPINNING.] - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - PETTENKOFEN. IN THE CONVENT YARD.] - -That sumptuous, healthy artist of such pictorial ability, _Diez_, the -Victor Scheffel of painting, stands at the head of the group. From his -youth upwards his chief place of resort had been the cabinet of -engravings where he studied Schongauer, Dürer, and Rembrandt, and all -the boon-companions and vagabonds etched or cut in copper or wood, and -on the model of these he painted his own marauders, robber-barons, -peasants in revolt, old German weddings and fairs. His picture "To the -Church Consecration" recalls Beham, his "Merry Riding" Schongauer, and -his "Ambuscade" Dürer, whilst Teniers served as model for his fairs. -Diez knows the period from Dürer and Holbein to Rubens, Rembrandt, -Wouwerman, and Brouwer as thoroughly as an historian of art, and -sometimes--for instance in his "Picnic in the Forest"--he has even drawn -the eighteenth century into the circle of his studies. His pictures had -an unrivalled delicacy of tone, and could certainly hang beside their -Dutch models in the Pinakothek without losing anything by such -proximity. - -Something of Brouwer or Ostade revived once more in _Harburger_, the -talented draughtsman of _Fliegende Blätter_, the undisputed monarch -of the kingdom of slouching hats, old mugs, and Delft pipes. Pictures -like "The Peasants' Doctor," "The Card-players," "The Grandmother," "By -the Quiet Fireside," "In the Armchair," and "Easy-going Folk" were -masterpieces of delicate Dutch painting: the tone of his pictures shows -distinction and temperament; they have deep and fine _chiaroscuro_, and -are soft and fluent in execution. _Loefftz_ with his picture "Love and -Avarice" appeared as Quentin Matsys _redivivus_, and then attached -himself in turn to Holbein and Van Dyck; and exercised, like Diez, a -great influence on the younger generation by his activity as a teacher. - -_Claus Meyer_, who became one of the best known amongst the young Munich -painters by his "Sewing School in the Nunnery" of 1883, is worthy of -remark inasmuch as he acquired a method of painting which was full of -_nuances_, through modelling himself upon Pieter de Hoogh and Van der -Meer of Delft. Through the windows hung with thin curtains the warm, -quiet daylight falls into the room, glancing on the clean boards of the -floor, on the polished tops of the tables, the white pages of the books, -and the blond and brown hair of the children, playing round it like a -golden nimbus. Another sunbeam streams through the door, which is not -entirely closed, and quivers over the floor in a bright and narrow strip -of light. The intimate representation of peaceful scenes of modest life, -the entirely pictorial representation of peaceful and congenial events, -has taken the place of the adventures dear to _genre_ painting. Old -gentlemen with a glass of beer and a clay pipe, servant-girls peeling -potatoes in the kitchen, pupils at the cloister sitting over their books -in the library, drinkers, smokers, and dicers--such were the quiet, -passive, and silent figures of his later pictures. The mild sunshine -breaks in and plays over them. Light clouds of tobacco smoke float in -the air. Everything is homely and pleasant, touched with a breath of -pictorial charm, comfortable warmth, and poetic fragrance. A hundred -years hence his works will be sold as flawlessly delicate and genuine -old Dutch pictures. _Holmberg_ became the historian of cardinals. A -window, consisting of rounded, clumpy panes, with little glass pictures -let in, forms the background of the room, and in the subdued oil-light -which beams over splendid vessels and ornaments, chests and Gobelins, -the white satin dresses of ladies in the mode of 1640, or the lilac and -purple robes of cardinals from the artist's rich wardrobe, are -displayed, together with the appropriate models. - -In _Fritz August Kaulbach_, the most versatile of the group in his -adoption of various manners, the essence of this whole tendency is to be -found. He did not belong to the specialists who restricted themselves, -in a one-sided fashion, to the imitation of the Flemish or the Dutch -masters, but appeared like old Diterici, Proteus-like, now in one and -now in another mask; and, whether he assumed the features of Holbein, -Carlo Dolci, Van Dyck, or Watteau, he had the secret of being invariably -graceful and _chic_. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - DIEZ. RETURNING FROM MARKET.] - -[Illustration: CLAUS MEYER. THE SMOKING PARTY.] - -When the German Renaissance was at its zenith he painted in the -Renaissance style: harmless _genre_ pictures _à la_ Beyschlag--the joys -of love and of the family circle--but not being so banal as the latter -he painted them with more delicate colouring and finer poetic charm. -Certain single figures were found specially acceptable--for instance, -the daughters of Nuremberg patricians, and noble ladies in the old -German caps, dark velvet gowns, and long plaits like Gretchen's, with -their eyes sometimes uplifted and sometimes lowered, and their hands at -one moment folded and at another carrying a shining covered goblet. -Occasionally these single figures were portraits, but none the less were -they transformed into "ladies in old German costume"; and Kaulbach -understood how to paint, to the utmost satisfaction of his patrons, the -black caps, no less well than the little veil and the net of pearls, and -the greenish-yellow silk of the puffed sleeves, no less well than the -plush border of the dark gown and the antique red Gretchen pocket. Many -of them held a lute and stood amid a spring landscape, before a -streamlet, or a silver-birch, such as Stevens delighted in painting ten -years previously. At that time Fritz August Kaulbach, with greater -softness in his treatment, occupied in Germany the place which Florent -Willems had occupied in Belgium. Since then he has brought nearer to the -public the most various old and modern masters, and he has done so with -fine artistic feeling: in his "May Day" he has revived the pastoral -scenes of Watteau with a felicitous cleverness; in his "St. Cecilia" he -created a total effect of great grace by going arm in arm with Carlo -Dolci and Gabriel Max; his "Pietà" he composed with "the best figures of -Michael Angelo, Fra Bartolommeo, and Titian," just as Gerard de Lairesse -had once recommended to painters. Intermediately he painted frail -flower-like girls _à la_ Gabriel Max, charming little angels _à la_ -Thoma, children in Pierrot costume _à la_ Vollon, and little landscapes -_à la_ Gainsborough. He did not find in himself the plan for a new -edifice in erecting his palace of art, but built according to any plans -that came in his way; he simply chose from all existing forms the most -graceful, the most elegant, the most precious, culled from their -beauties only the flowers, and bound them into a tasteful bouquet. In -his modern portraits of women, which in recent years have been his chief -successes, he placed himself between Van Dyck and the English. Of -course, a really _chic_ painter of women, like Sargent, is not to be -thought of in this connection; but for Germany these portraits were in -exceedingly fine taste, had an interesting Kaulbachian trace of -indifferent health, and breathed an _odeur de femme_ which found very -wide approval. In his "Lieschen, the Waitress of the Shooting Festival" -he risked a fresh attempt at treating popular life, and made of it such -a graceful picture that it might almost have been painted by Piglhein; -while in a series of spirited caricatures he even succeeded in -being--Kaulbach. The history of art is wide, and since Fritz August -Kaulbach knows it extremely well, he will certainly find much to paint -that is pleasing and attractive, "_s'il continue à laisser errer son -imagination à travers les formes diverses créées par l'art de tous les -temps_," as the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ said of him on the occasion of -the Vienna World Exhibition of 1878. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - KAULBACH. THE LUTE PLAYER.] - -After all, these pictures will have little that is novel for an -historian of the next century. "_Être maître_," says W. Bürger, "_c'est -ne ressembler à personne._" But these were the works of painters who -merely announced the dogma of the infallibility of universal -eclecticism, as the Caracci had done in their familiar sonnets: they -were spirited imitators, whose connection with the nineteenth century -will be known in after years only by the dates of their pictures. As -old masters called back to life, they have enriched the history of art, -as such, by nothing novel. Yet, in replacing superficial imitations by -imitations which were excellent and congenial, they have nevertheless -advanced the history of art in the nineteenth century in another way. - -[Illustration: FRANZ LENBACH.] - -By the labour of his life each one of them helped to make a place in -Germany for the art of oil-painting, which had been forgotten under the -influence of Winckelmann and Carstens, and in this sense their works -were very important stations, as one might say, on the great -thoroughfare of art. Through systematic imitation of the finest old -masters, the Munich school had in a comparatively short time regained -the appreciation of colour and treatment which had so long been lost. At -a hazy distance lay those times when the distinctive peculiarity of -German painting lay in its wealth of ideas, its want of any sense for -colour, and its clumsy technique, whilst the æsthetic spokesmen praised -these qualities as though they were national virtues. These views had -been altogether renounced, and a decade of strenuous work had been -devoted to the extirpation of all such defects. Such an achievement was -sufficiently great, and sufficiently important and gratifying. This last -resuscitation of the old masters was capable of being turned into a -bridge leading to new regions. - -A feeling arose that the limit had been reached, and it arose in those -very men who had advanced furthest in pictorial accomplishment, adapting -and making their own all the ability of the old masters. Painters -believed that they had learnt enough of technique to be able to treat -subjects from modern life in the spirit of these old masters, not -handling them any longer as laboriously composed _genre_ pictures, but -as real works of art. And a group of realists came forward as they had -done in France, and began to seek truth with scientific rigour and an -avoidance of any kind of anecdotic by-play. - -The greatest pupil of the old masters, _Franz Lenbach_, stands in a -close and most important relationship with these endeavours of modern -art, through some of his youthful works. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - LENBACH. PORTRAIT OF WILHELM I.] - -The public has accustomed itself to think of him only as a portrait -painter, and he is justly honoured as the greatest German portraitist of -the century. But posterity may one day regard it as a special favour of -the gods that Lenbach should have been born at the right time, and that -his progress to maturity fell in the greatest epoch of the century. His -gallery of portraits has been called an epic in paint upon the heroes of -our age. The greatest historical figures of the century have sat to him, -the greatest conquerors and masters in the kingdom of science and art. -Nevertheless this gallery would be worthless to posterity if Lenbach had -not had at his disposal one quality possessed by none of his immediate -predecessors, a sacred respect for nature. At a time when rosy tints, -suave smiles, and idealised drawing were the requirements necessary in -every likeness, at a time when Winterhalter painted great men, not as -they were, but as, in his opinion, they ought to have been--without -reflecting that God Almighty knows best what heads are appropriate for -great men--Lenbach appeared with his brusque veracity of portraiture. -That alone was an achievement in which only a man of original -temperament could have succeeded. If a portrait painter is to prevail -with society a peculiar combination of faculties is necessary, apart -from his individual capacity for art. Lenbach had not only an eye and a -hand, but likewise elbows and a tongue which placed him _hors concours_. -He could be as rude as he was amiable, and as deferential as he was -proud; half boor and half courtier, at once a great artist and an -accomplished _faiseur_, he succeeded in doing a thing which has brought -thousands to ruin--he succeeded in forcing upon society his own taste, -and setting genuine human beings of strong character in the place of the -smiling automatons of fashionable painters. In comparison with the works -of earlier portrait painters it might be said that a touch of pantheism -and nature-worship goes through Lenbach's pictures. - -[Illustration: _Seeman, Leipzig._ - - LENBACH. PRINCE BISMARK.] - -And what makes this so invaluable is that his greatness depends really -less upon artistic qualities than upon his being a highly gifted man who -understands the spirit of others. It is not merely artistic technique -that is essential in a portrait, but before everything a psychical grasp -of the subject. No artist, says Lessing, is able to interpret a power -more highly spiritual than that which he possesses himself. And this is -precisely the weak side in so many portrait painters, since a man's art -is by no means always in any direct relationship with the development of -his spiritual powers. In this respect a portrait of Bismarck by Lenbach -stands to one by Anton von Werner, as an interpretation of Goethe by -Hehn stands to one by Düntzer. To speak of the congenial conception in -Lenbach's pictures of Bismarck is a safe phrase. There will always -remain something wanting, but since Lenbach's works are in existence one -knows, at any rate, that this something can be reduced to a far lower -measure than it has been by the other Bismarck portraits. "_Bien -comprendre son homme_," says Bürger-Thoré, "_est la première qualité du -portraitiste_," and this faculty of the gifted psychologist has made -Lenbach the historian elect of a great period, the active recorder of a -mighty era. It even makes him seem greater than most foreign portrait -painters. How solid, but at the same time how matter-of-fact, does -Bonnat seem by Lenbach's side! One should not look at a dozen Bonnats -together; a single one arrests attention by the plastic treatment of the -person, but if you see several at the same time all the figures have -this same plastic character, all of them have the same pose, and they -all seem to have employed the same tailor. Lenbach has no need of all -that characterisation by means of accessories in which Bonnat delights. -He only paints the eyes with thoroughness, and possibly the head; but -these he renders with a psychological absorption which is only to be -found amongst modern artists, perhaps in Watts. In a head by Lenbach -there glows a pair of eyes which burn themselves into you. The -countenance, which is the first zone around them, is more or -less--generally less--amplified; the second zone, the dress and hands, -is either still less amplified, or scarcely amplified at all. The -portrait is then harmonised in a neutral tone which renders the lack of -finish less obvious. In this sketchy treatment and in his striking -subjectivity Lenbach is the very opposite of the old masters. Holbein, -and even Rubens--who otherwise sets upon everything the stamp of his own -personality--characterised their figures by a reverent imitation of -every trait given in nature. They produced, as it were, real documents, -and left it to the spectator to interpret them in his own way. - -[Illustration: LENBACH. THE SHEPHERD BOY.] - -Lenbach, less objective, and surrendering himself less absolutely to his -subject, emphasises one point, disregards another, and in this way -conjures up the spirit by his faces, just as he sees it. It may be open -to dispute which kind of portraiture is the more desirable; but Lenbach, -at any rate, has now forced the world to behold its great men through -his eyes. He has given them the form in which they will survive. No one -has the same secret of seizing a fleeting moment; no one turned more -decisively away from every attempt at idealising glorification or at -watering down an individual to a type. He takes counsel of photography, -but only as Molière took counsel of his housekeeper: he uses it merely -as a medium for arriving at the startling directness, the instantaneous -impression of life, in his pictures. Works like the portraits of King -Ludwig I, Gladstone, Minghetti, Bishop Strossmayer, Prince Lichtenstein, -Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, Paul Heyse, Wilhelm Busch, Schwind, -Semper, Liphart, Morelli, and many others have no parallel as analyses -of the character of complex personalities. Some of his Bismarck -portraits, as well as his last pictures of the old Emperor Wilhelm, will -always stand amongst the greatest achievements of the century in -portraiture. In the one portrait is indestructible power, as it were the -shrine built for itself by the mightiest spirit of the century; in the -other the majesty of the old man, already half alienated from the earth, -and glorified by a trace of still melancholy, as by the last radiance of -the evening sun. In these works Lenbach appears as a wizard calling up -spirits, an _évocateur d'âmes_, as a French critic has named him. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - RAMBERG. THE MEETING ON THE LAKE.] - -But what the history of art has forgotten in estimating the fame of the -portrait painter Lenbach is, that in the beginning of his career this -very man paved the way for the "Realistic" movement in German painting -which later he confronted so haughtily and with so much reserve. The -first of these works of his, which have for Germany much the same -significance as the early works of Courbet have for France, is the -well-known "Shepherd Boy" in the Schack Gallery. Stretched on his back, -he lies in the high grass where flowers grow thickly, and looks up while -butterflies and dragon-flies flutter through the dusty air of a Roman -summer day. Such a frank, an audacious, naked realism, breaking away -from everything traditional in its representation of fact, was something -entirely novel and surprising in Germany in the year 1856. Up to this -time no one had seen a fragment of nature depicted with such unqualified -veracity. The tanned shepherd lad, with his naked sunburnt feet, covered -by a dark crust of mire from the damp earth, seemed to be lying there in -the flesh, plastically thrown into relief by the glowing midday sun. The -next of these pictures, "Peasants taking Refuge from the Weather," which -appeared in the exhibition of 1858, called down a storm of indignation -on account of its "trivial realism." Every figure was painted after -nature with blunt and rigorous sincerity, and no anecdotic incident was -devised in it. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - HIRTH. THE HOP HARVEST.] - -After the sixties the influence of Courbet began to be directly felt. In -the days when he worked in Couture's studio _Victor Müller_ had taken up -some of the ideas of the master of Ornans, and when he settled in 1863 -in Munich, Müller communicated to the painters there the first knowledge -of the works of the great Frenchman. He did not follow Courbet, however, -in his subjects. "The Man in the Heart of the Night lulled to Sleep by -the Music of a Violin," "Venus and Adonis," "Hero and Leander," "Hamlet -in the Churchyard," "Venus and Tannhäuser," "Faust on the Promenade," -"Romeo and Juliet," "Ophelia by the Stream"--such are the titles of his -principal works. But how far they are removed from the anæmic, empty -painting of beauty which reigned in the school of Couture! Though a -Romanticist of the purest water in his subjects, Müller appears, in the -manner in which he handles them, as a Realist on whom there is no speck -of the academical dust of the schools. The dominant features of Victor -Müller's pictures are the thirst for life and colour, full-blooded -strength, haughty contempt for every species of hollow exaggeration and -all outward pose, genuine human countenances and living human forms -inspired with tameless passion, an audacious rejection of all the -traditional rules of composition, and, even in colour, a veracity which -in that age, given up to an ostentatious painting of material, must have -had an effect that was absolutely novel. In 1863 the blooming flesh of -his "Wood Nymph" excited the Munich public to indignation, just as the -nude female figures of Courbet had roused indignation about the same -time in Paris. Pictures painted with singular sureness of hand were -executed by him during the few years that he yet had to live--portraits -of dogs, landscapes of a flaming glow of colour, single figures of -red-haired Bacchantes and laughing flower-girls, old men dying, and -charming fairy pictures. The nearer he came to his death the more his -powers of work seemed to increase. The most remarkable ideas came into -his head. He drew, and painted without intermission designs which had -occupied him for years. "I feel," he said, "like an architect who has -been commissioned to carry out a great building, and I cannot do it: I -must die." - -But the impulse which he had given in more than one direction had -further issues. As Hans Thoma in later years continued the work of the -great Frankfort master in the province of fairy-tale, _Wilhelm Leibl_ -realised Müller's realistic programme. - -[Illustration: WILHELM LEIBL. _Kunst für Alle._] - -Wilhelm Leibl, son of the conductor of music in the cathedral, was born -at Cologne on 23rd October 1844. At Munich he entered the studio of -_Arthur van Ramberg_, that unjustly forgotten master who, both by his -own work and by his activity as a teacher, exercised upon the younger -Munich school a far healthier influence than Piloty. Ramberg was a -modern man, was always eager to come into immediate contact with life -and break the fetters of tradition which hung everywhere upon that -generation. He was an aristocrat and a dandy, and, having occupied -himself in the beginning with romantic fairy subjects, he painted, soon -after his migration to Munich, a series of pictures from modern -life--"Dachau Girls on Sunday," "The Return from the Masked Ball," "A -Walk with the Tutor," "The Meeting on the Lake," "The Invitation to -Boat," and others, which rose above the mass of contemporary productions -by their great distinction, fragrance, and grace. At a time when others -held nothing but the smock-frock fit for representation, Ramberg painted -the fashionable modern costume of women. And when others devoted -themselves to clumsy _genre_ episodes, he created songs without words -that were full of fine reserve, nobility, and delicate feeling. - -_Rudolf Hirth_, who made a stir with his "Hop Harvest"; _Albert Keller_, -the tasteful painter of fashionable life; _Karl Haider_, the sincere and -conscientious miniature painter whose energy of manner had a suggestion -of the old masters, together with Wilhelm Leibl, all issued from -Ramberg's school, not from Piloty's. - -The young student from Cologne was thus saved, in the beginning, from -occupying himself with history, and he had no need to addict himself to -narrative _genre_ painting, since his entire organisation preordained -him to painting pure and simple. Wilhelm Leibl was in those days a -handsome fellow, with powerful limbs and shining brown eyes. He was -realism incarnate--rather short, but strongly made, and with a frame -almost suggesting a beast of burden, broad in the chest, -high-shouldered, and bull-necked. His arms were thick and his feet -large. His gait was slow, heavy, and energetic, and he made with his -arms liberal gestures which took up a good deal of room. He had not the -fiery spirit of Courbet, being more prosaic, sober, and deliberate, but -he resembled him both in appearance and in the artistic faculty of eye -and hand. "He had," as a French critic wrote of him, "one of those -organisations which are predestined for painting, as Courbet had amongst -us Frenchmen. Such men extract the most remarkable things from -painting." - -[Illustration: _Kunst für Alle._ - - LEIBL. IN THE STUDIO.] - -[Illustration: _American Art Review._ - - LEIBL. THE VILLAGE POLITICIANS.] - -Even his first picture, exhibited in 1869, and representing his two -fellow-pupils Rudolf Hirth and Haider looking at an engraving, had a -soft, full golden harmony, which left all the products of conventional -_genre_ painting far behind it, and came into direct competition with -the refined works of the Dutch painter Michael Swert. His second -picture, a portrait of Frau Gedon, made an impression even in Paris by -its Rembrandtesque beauty of tone, and was awarded there in 1870 the -gold medal which the judges had not ventured to give him the year before -at Munich, because he was still an Academy pupil. Yet 1869 was the -decisive year in Leibl's life. The Munich Exhibition gave at that time -an opportunity for learning the importance of French art upon a scale -previously unknown. Over four hundred and fifty pictures were -accessible, and the works of the smooth, conventional historical -painters were the minority. Troyon was to be seen there, and Millet and -Corot. But Courbet, to whose works the committee had devoted an entire -room, was chiefly the hero, and one over whom there was much conflict. -Opinions were violently at odds about him in the painters' club. The -official circle greeted the master of Ornans with the same hoot of -indignation which had been accorded him in France. But for Leibl he -became an adored and marvellous ideal. His eyes sparkled when he sat -opposite him at the _Deutsches Haus_, and in default of any other means -of making himself understood he assured Courbet of his veneration by -sturdily drinking to him: "Prosit Courbet--Prosit Leibl." He stretched -his powerful limbs, and threw himself into vigorous attitudes to evince -in sanguinary quarrels, when necessary, his enthusiasm for the great -Frenchman. How false and paltry seemed the whole school of Piloty, with -its rose-coloured insipidity and its conventional bloom of the palette, -when set against the downright veracity and the masterly painting of -these works! - -[Illustration: _Kunst für Alle._ - - LEIBL. THE NEW PAPER.] - -In the same year he went to Paris, special occasion for the journey -being given by a commission for a portrait which he received from the -Duc Tascher de la Pagerie. There he painted "La Cocotte," the portrait -of a fat Frenchwoman seated upon a sofa and watching the clouds of smoke -from her clay pipe. In its massive realism, and in the exuberant power -of its broad, liquid painting, it might have been signed "Courbet," and -Leibl told afterwards with pride how Courbet slapped him on the shoulder -when he was at his work, saying: "_Il faut que vous restez à Paris._" -The breaking out of the war brought his residence in Paris to an end -more quickly than he had foreseen, but though he was there only nine -months that was long enough to give for ever a firm direction to the -efforts of the painter. Leibl became the apostle of Courbet in Germany, -and in his outward life the German Millet. Back once more in Bavaria, he -migrated in 1872 to Grasolfingen, then to Schondorf on the Ammersee, -then to Berbling near Aibling, and in 1884 to Aibling itself; he became -a peasant, and, like Millet, he painted pictures of peasants. - -The poetic and biblical, the august and epical bias which characterises -the works of Millet, is not to be expected in Leibl. A spirit bent upon -what is great and heroic speaks out of Millet's pictures. A -Rembrandtesque feeling for space, the great line, the simplification, -the intellectual restraint from anecdotic triviality of form, are the -things which constitute his style. Leibl is at his best when he buries -himself with delight in the hundred little touches of nature. He -triumphs when he has to paint the faces of old peasant women, full of -wrinkles, and furrowed with care; the ruddy cheeks of girls, sparkling -in all their natural rustic freshness; figured dresses, the material and -texture of which are clearly recognisable; flowered silk kerchiefs worn -round the neck, coarse woollen bodices, and heavy hobnail shoes. He is -to Millet what Holbein is to Michael Angelo. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - LEIBL. IN CHURCH.] - -Nor can he be called an artist of intimate feeling in the sense in which -the Scandinavians are amongst the moderns. In Viggo Johansen the painter -disappears; what he paints has not the effect of a picture, but of a -moment of existence, a memory of something clear and familiar--something -which has been lived and seen, but not fashioned with deliberate -intention. His figures are like the sudden appearance of actual persons, -spied upon, as if one were looking through the window into a strange -room under cover of night. One feels that there is no occasion to pay -the artist a compliment; but one would like to sit in such a warm, cosy -room, impregnated with tobacco smoke, to inhale the fine cloud of steam -issuing from the tea-kettle, to hear the water bubbling and humming upon -the glimmering fire. But the painter is always seen in Leibl's pictures. -A communicative spirit, something which touches the heart and sets one -dreaming, is precisely what is not expressed in them. The spectator -invariably thinks, in the first place, of the astonishing ability, the -incredible patience, which went to the making of them. And with all -their photographic fidelity he is, moreover, conscious that the painter -himself was less concerned in seizing the poetry of a scene, the -instantaneous charm of an impression of nature, than in forcing into the -foreground particular evidences of his technical powers which he has -reserved for display. For instance, newspapers in which, if it is -possible, a fragment of the leading article may be deciphered, earthen -vessels, bottles, and brandy glasses, play in his pictures a _rôle_ -similar to that assumed by the little caskets with brass covers that -catch the flashing lights, the overturned settles, the tapestry, and -the globe in works of the school of Piloty. - -Wilhelm Leibl is a good workman, like Courbet, a man of fresh, vigorous, -and energetic nature and robust health, very material, and at times -matter-of-fact and prosaic. Painting is as natural to him as breathing -and walking are to the rest of us. He goes his way like an ox in the -plough, steadily and without tiring, without vibration of the nerves, -and without the touch of poetry. He goes where his instinct leads him -and paints with a muscular flexibility of hand whatever appeals to his -eye or suits his brush. Opposed to the neurotic and hurrying moderns, he -has something of a mediæval monk who sits quietly in his cell, without -counting the hours, the days, and the years, and embellishes the pages -of his service-book with artistic miniatures, to depart in peace when he -has set "Amen, Finis" at the bottom of the last page. But he has, too, -all the capacity and all the boundless veneration for nature of these -old artists. He is the greatest _maître peintre_ that Germany has had in -the course of the century, and in this sense his advent was of -epoch-making importance. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - LEIBL. A PEASANT DRINKING.] - -[Illustration: LEIBL. IN THE PEASANT'S COTTAGE.] - -Even Defregger had observed peasant life altogether from a narrative and -anecdotic point of view. In Leibl this narrative _genre_ has been -overcome. He had ability enough to give artistic attractions even to an -"empty subject." To avoid exaggerated characterisation, to avoid the -expression of anything divided into _rôles_, he consistently painted -people employed in the least exciting occupations--peasants reading a -newspaper, sitting in church, or examining a gun. Pains are taken to -avoid the slightest movement of the figures. Whilst all his predecessors -were romance writers, Leibl is a painter. His themes--simple scenes of -daily life--are a matter of indifference; the beauty of his pictures -lies in their technique. They are works of which it may be said that -every attempt to give an impression of them in words is useless, for -they have not proceeded from delight in anecdotic theme, but, as in the -good periods of art, from the discipline of the sense for colour and -from an eminent capacity for drawing: they are pictures in which mere -interest in subject is lost in the consideration of their artistic -value, while the matter of what is represented is entirely thrown into -the background by the manner in which it is carried out. The chief aim -of the historical as of the _genre_ painters had been to draw a fluent -cartoon based upon single studies, to mix the colours nicely upon the -palette, lay them upon the canvas according to the rules, blend them and -let them dry, so as then to attain the proper harmony of colour by -painting over again and finally glazing. Leibl's mastery, which of -itself resulted in an astonishing truth to nature, lay in seizing an -impression as quickly as possible, taking hold of the reality rightly at -the first glance, and transferring the colours to his canvas with -decision and sureness, in clear accord with the hues of the original. -Lessing's maxim, "From the eyes straight to the arm and the brush," has -been realised here for the first time in Germany. - -As yet no German had, in the same measure, what the painter calls -qualities, and even in France two apparently heterogeneous faculties -have seldom been united in one master in the same measure as they were -in Leibl: a broad and large technique, a bold _alla prima_ painting, -and, on the other hand, a joy in work of detail with a fine brush, such -as was known by Quentin Matsys, the smith of Antwerp. "The Village -Politicians" of 1879 was the chief work that he painted in Schondorf. -What would Knaus, the king of illustration and the ruler over the -province of vignettes, have made out of this theme! By a literary -evasion he would have subordinated the interest of the picture to his -ideas. One would have learnt what it is that peasants read, and received -instruction as to their political allegiance to party and their offices -and honours in the village: that would be the magistrate, that the -smith, and that the tailor. In Leibl there are true and simple peasants, -who, by way of relaxation from the toil of the week, listen stupidly and -indifferently to the reading of a Sunday paper, in which one of them is -endeavouring to discover the village news and the price of crops. They -are harsh-featured and common, but they have been spared theatrical -embellishment and impertinent satire; they are not artistically grouped, -though they sit there in all the rusticity of their physiognomies, and -all the angularity of their attitudes, without polish or Sunday state. -Leibl renders the reality without altering it, but he renders it fully -and entirely. The fidelity to nature held fast on the canvas surpassed -everything that had hitherto been seen, and it was gained, moreover, by -the soundest and the simplest means. Whereas Lenbach, in his effort to -reproduce the colour-effects of the old masters, destroyed the -durability of his pictures even while he worked upon them, Leibl seemed -to have chosen as his motto the phrase which Dürer once used in writing -to Jacob Heller: "I know that, if you preserve the picture well, it will -be fresh and clean at the end of five hundred years, for it has not been -painted as pictures usually are in these days." - -He took a further step in the direction of truth when he made a -transition from the Dutch towards the old German masters. After he had, -in his earlier productions, worked very delicately at the tone of his -pictures, and, for a time, had particularly sought to attain specific -effects of _chiaroscuro_, attaching himself to Rembrandt, he took up an -independent position in his conception of colour, painting everything -not as one of the old masters might have seen it, but as he had seen it -himself. All the tricks of painting and sleights of virtuosity were -despised, special emphasis being scarcely laid upon pictorial unity of -effect. Everything was simple and true to nature, and had a sincerity -which is not to be surpassed. - -The picture of the three peasant women, "In Church," is the masterpiece -in this "second manner" of his, and when it appeared in the Munich -International Exhibition of 1883 it was an event. From that date Leibl -was established--at any rate in the artistic circles of Munich--as the -greatest German _painter_ of his time. That Leibl painted the picture -without sketching for himself an outline, that he began with the eye of -the peasant girl and painted bit by bit, like fragments of a mosaic, was -a feat of technique in which there were few to imitate him. The young -generation in Munich studied the pages of the service-book and the -squares of the gingham dress, the girl's jug and the carvings of the -pew, with astonishment, as though they were the work of magic. They were -beside themselves with delight over such unheard-of strength, power, and -delicacy of modelling, the fusion of colour suggesting Holbein, and the -intimate study of nature. They perpetually discovered new points that -came upon them as a surprise, and many felt as Wilkie did when he sat in -Madrid before the drinkers of Velasquez, and at last rose wearily with a -sigh. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - LEIBL. A TAILOR'S WORKSHOP.] - -Leibl did for Germany what the pre-Raphaelites did for England. Men and -women were represented with astonishing pains just as they sat and -suffered themselves to be painted. He was determined to give the whole, -pure truth, and he gave it; that, and nothing more and nothing less. He -reproduced nature in her minutest traits and in her finest movements, -bringing the imitative side of art to the highest perfection -conceivable. In virtue of these qualities he was a born portrait -painter; and although he never had "conception," as Lenbach had, his -portraits belong, with those of Lenbach, to the best German -performances of the century. Only Holbein when he painted his "Gysze" -had this remorseless manner of analysing the human countenance in every -wrinkle. Leibl once more taught the German painters to go into detail, -and led them constantly to hold nature as the only source of art; and -that has been the beginning of every renaissance. - -His works were pictorially the most complete expression of the aims of -the Munich school in colour. As a representative of the efforts of the -decade from 1870 he is as typical as Cornelius for the art of the -thirties, Piloty for that of the fifties, and as Liebermann became later -as a representative of the efforts of the eighties. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX - -THE INFLUENCE OF THE JAPANESE - - -Courbet and Ribot for France, Holman Hunt and Madox Brown for England, -Stevens for Belgium, Menzel, Lenbach, and Leibl for Germany, are the -great names of modern Realism, the names of the men who subjected modern -life to art, and subjected art to the nineteenth century. - -One point, however, the question of colour, still remained unsolved: as -the preceding generation took their form, so these painters took their -colour, not from nature, but from the treasury of old art. - -Courbet announced it as his programme to express the manners, ideas, and -aspect of his age--in a word, to create living art. He described himself -as the sincere lover of _la vérité vraie_: "_la véritable peinture doit -appeler son spectateur par la force et par la grande vérité de son -imitation_." But one may question how far his figures, and the -environment of them, are true in colour? Where there is a delightful -subtlety of fleeting _nuances_ in nature, an oppressive opaque heaviness -is found in this modern Caravaggio of Franche-Comté. He certainly -painted modern stone-breakers, but it was in the tone of saints of the -Spanish school of the seventeenth century. His pictures of artisans have -the odour of the museum. The home of his men and women is not the open -field of Ornans, but that room in the Louvre where hang the pictures of -Caravaggio. - -_Alfred Stevens_ made a great stride by painting modern _Parisiennes_. -Whereas the costume picture had up to his time sought the truth of the -old masters only in the matter of the skirts which the fashion of their -age prescribed, Stevens was the first to dress his women in the garb of -1860, just as Terborg painted his in the costume of 1660 and not of -1460. But the very atmosphere in which the _Parisienne_ of the -nineteenth century lived is no longer that in which the women of de -Hoogh moved. The whole of life is brighter. The studios in which -pictures are painted are brighter, and the rooms in which they are -destined to hang. Van der Meer of Delft, the greatest painter of light -amongst the Dutch, still worked behind little casements; and in dusky -patrician dwellings, "where the very light of heaven breaks sad through -painted window," his pictures were ultimately hung. The old masters paid -special attention to these conditions of illumination. The golden -harmony of the Italian Renaissance came into being from the character of -the old cathedrals furnished with glass windows of divers colours; the -half-light of the Dutch corresponded to the dusky studios in which -painters laboured, and the gloomy, brown-wainscoted rooms for which -their pictures were destined. The nineteenth century committed the -mistake even here of regarding what was done to meet a special case as -something absolute. Rooms had long become bright when studios were -artificially darkened, and artists still sought, by means of coloured -windows and heavy curtains, to subdue the light, so as to be able to -paint in tones dictated by the old masters. Stevens shed over a modern -woman, a _Parisienne_, sitting in a drawing-room in the Avenue de Jena, -the light of Gerard Dow, without reflecting that this illumination, -filtered through little lattice-windows, was quite correct in Holland -during the seventeenth century, but no longer proper in the Paris of -1860, in a salon where the windows had great cross-bars and clear white -panes which were not leaded. It is chiefly this that makes his pictures -untrue, lending them an old Flemish heaviness, something earthy, -savouring of the clay, and not in keeping with the fresh fragrance of -the modern _Parisienne_. Her modernity is seen through the yellowish -glass which the old Flemish masters seemed to hold between Stevens and -his model. - -[Illustration: _Quantin, Paris._ - - HOKUSAI IN THE COSTUME OF A JAPANESE WARRIOR.] - -Considered as a separate personality _Ribot_, too, is a great artist; -his works are masterpieces. Yet when young men spoke of him as the last -representative of the school of cellar-windows there was an atom of -truth in what they said. Like Courbet, he continued the art of -galleries. The master of a style and yet the servant of a manner, he -marks the summit of a tendency in which the great traditions of Frans -Hals and Ribera were once more embodied. When he paints subjects -resembling the themes of these old masters he is as great as they are, -as genuine and as much a master of style; but as soon as he turns to -other subjects the imitative mannerist is revealed. Even things as -tender and unsubstantial as the flowers of the field seem as if they -were made of wax. His disdain for what is light, fluent, and fickle, -like air and water, is evident in his sea-pieces. His steamers plough -their way through a greyish-black sea beneath a thick black stormy sky, -as though through grey deserts. Nature quivering in the air and bathed -in light is not so heavy and compact, nor has it such plasticity of -appearance. His women reading are the _ne plus ultra_ of painting; only -it is astonishing that any human being can read in such a dark room. - -[Illustration: _Quantin, Paris._ - - HOKUSAI. WOMEN BATHING.] - -Ribot's parallel in Germany is _Lenbach_, who had less pictorial and -greater intellectual power. As a painter of copies, particularly copies -of the artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, he formed and -perfected a school for the understanding of the old masters, as none of -his contemporaries had done. The copies which he made as a young man for -Count Schack in Italy and Spain are probably the best translations by -the brush that have ever been executed. He has reproduced Titian and -Rubens, Velasquez and Giorgione, with equal magic; no other painter has -entered into all the subtleties of their technique with such -intelligence and keenness; and by the aid of these sleights of art, -which he learnt as a copyist from classic masterpieces, he communicated -to his own works that impress which qualifies them for the gallery and -suggests the old masters with such refinement. His pictures mark the -summit of ability reached in Germany in the pictorial style of the old -artists. - -But, at the same time, his weakness lies in this very eminence. The man -who had passed through the high-school of the old masters with the -greatest success was entered as a student for life, and never took the -professorial chair himself. Helferich has called him the impersonated -spirit of the galleries, the spirit which is centuries old. - -This indicates the direction which must be taken by the further -development of painting. A really new and independent art must finally -emancipate itself from the Renaissance colouring, the tone of Church -painting, and the _chiaroscuro_ of pictures painted behind the -variegated panes of lattice-windows. It must be evident that the methods -of the old Spanish and old Dutch schools, excellent in themselves, were -fully in keeping with strange scenes of martyrdom or quiet interiors -with peasants and fat matrons, but that they could not possibly be -employed in pictures of artisans beneath the free sky, nor in those of -elegant interiors of our own days, nor of pale and delicate -_Parisiennes_ attired in silks, beings of a new epoch. A different -period necessitates different methods. It is not merely that the -subjects of art change, but the way in which they are handled must bear -the marks of the period. Nature should no longer be studied through the -prism of old pictures, and the phrase _beau par la vérité_ must be -exalted to a principle applying to colour also. - -The pre-Raphaelites and Menzel were the first to become alive to the -problem. They were never taken captive by the tones of the early -masters, but placed themselves always in conscious opposition to the -artists of older ages. The battle against "brown sauce" even formed an -essential point in the programme of the Brotherhood. They protested -against conventional colouring as violently as against the sweeping line -taught by traditional rules of beauty. - -[Illustration: _Quantin, Paris._ - - HOKUSAI. FUSIYAMA SEEN THROUGH A SAIL.] - -But, as so often happens in the nineteenth century, though the English -found the jewel, they did not understand how to cut it. The -pre-Raphaelites had a quickening influence, in exciting a feeling for -hue and tint, and rendering it keener by their own insistence on the -elementary effects of colour. They sought to free themselves from brown -sauce and to be just to local tones, through straightforward, -independent observation. They painted the trees green, the earth grey, -the sky blue, the sunbeams yellow, in sharply accentuated colours, as -little blended as possible. But in most cases the result was not -particularly pleasant; there was almost always a hard, motley colouring -which produced a most unpleasant, glaring effect. Their audacity was -somewhat barbaric. There was a want of warmth and softness, the -atmosphere did not combine the whole by its mitigating and harmonising -power. Even Madox Brown's "Work" is an offensive chaos of crying -colours. The bright clothes, the blue blouses, the red uniforms have a -gaudy and unquiet effect. The problem was attacked, but the solution was -harsh and crude. - -[Illustration: HOKUSAI. FUSIYAMA SEEN THROUGH REEDS.] - -Of _Menzel's_ pictures the same is true, though not perhaps in the same -degree. In pictorial conception he also has not quite reached the -summit. His method of painting is sometimes sparkling and full of -spirit, holding the mean, more or less, between the quiet and plain -painting of Meissonier and the crisp, glittering style of Fortuny; he -lets off a flickering, dazzling, rocket-like firework, but at bottom he -has been cut from the block from which draughtsmen are made. Sometimes -it is astonishing how his brush sweeps over costumes, ornaments, and -buildings, but he does not think in colour; it is supplementary to the -drawing, and not of earlier origin, nor even of equal birth. Much as he -tried to paint smoke and steam in his "Iron Mill," he had no -understanding for atmospheric life; for this reason harsh and glaring -tones almost invariably make a disturbing effect in his works. His -"Piazza d'Erbe" as well as his "King Wilhelm setting out to join the -Army" have a motley and restless effect in the picture, and only in -photography or black and white do they acquire something of the -simplicity which is to be desired in the originals. The best of his -drawings may stand beside the sketches of Dürer without detriment; to -place his pictures on the same level is impossible, because quietude and -pure harmony are wanting in them. - -So extremes meet. Courbet, Ribot, and Lenbach are greater connoisseurs -of colour than Europe had seen previous to their appearance, but this -they are at the expense of truth; they have identified themselves with -the old masters, and not arrived at any personal conception of colour. -Menzel and the pre-Raphaelites despised the old masters, but their -conception of colour had something primitive, jarring, and -undisciplined. - -The note of truth was still missing in the mighty orchestra. By what -possible means could it be supplied? How bring to perfection that great -harmony which is ever the end and aim of all true artistic effort. It -was not until the art of the Far East was unfolded before the eyes of -Western painters that this disquieting problem reached its solution. - -[Illustration: _Quantin, Paris._ - - HOKUSAI. AN APPARITION.] - -In the year in which Millet exhibited his "Winnower" and Courbet painted -his "Stone-breakers" a man died in the Far East whose name was Hokusai. -He was the last great representative of an art of painting more than a -thousand years old--one which had no Raphael, Correggio, or Titian, -though it was, nevertheless, art in the loftiest meaning of the word. -Marco Polo, the great traveller of the Middle Ages, had told of a -remarkable land "towards the sunrise," the soil of which it was not -permitted to him to tread. And the artistic views of the eighteenth -century were revolutionised when the first Japanese porcelain and -lacquer-work arrived at the Courts of Dresden and Paris. The aged Louis -XIV himself began to find pleasure in idols, pagodas, and "stuffs -printed with flowers." In a short time these works formed an important -part of superior collections, and led to the movement against the -inflexible despotism of the pompous Lebrun style. For the Japanese gave -Europe the unfettered principles of a freer intuition of beauty; they -excited a preference for things which were unsymmetrical, capricious, -full of movement, for everything by which the charming Louis XV style is -to be distinguished from the tiresome academic art of Louis XIV. In the -sixties of the nineteenth century Japan exerted, for the second time, a -revolutionary influence on the development of European painting. If -Japanese productions were in earlier days regarded as curiosities, for -which place was to be found in cabinets of rarities, as trifles the -artistic value of which was less prized than the dexterity of their -construction, it was reserved for the present age to do justice to -Japanese art as such. - -[Illustration: HOKUSAI. HOKUSAI SKETCHING THE PEERLESS MOUNTAIN.] - -As is well known, oil-painting exists neither in China nor Japan. Just -as the Japanese choose the slightest material for building, so -everything in their painting bears a trace of extreme lightness. -Japanese pictures, _kakemonos_, are painted in water colour or Chinese -ink upon framed silk or paper; but this paper has an advantage over the -European article in its unsurpassed toughness, its remarkable softness -and pliability, its surface which has either a dull, silky lustre, or -may only be compared with the finest parchment. And the pictures -themselves are kept rolled up, and only hung, as occasion offers, in -the Tokonama, the little closet near the reception-room, and according -to very refined rules. Only a few are hung at a time, and only such as -harmonise. When a visit is expected the taste of the guest determines -the selection. Fresh and variously coloured flowers and branches, placed -near them in vases, are obliged to harmonise in colour with the -pictures. - -[Illustration: TANYU. THE GOD HOTEÏ ON A JOURNEY.] - -As an instrument for painting use is only made of the pliant brush of -hair, which executes everything with a free and fluent effect. Pen, -crayon, or chalk, and all hard mediums which offer resistance, are -consistently excluded. The subject-matter of these pictures is -surprisingly rich, and assumes for their proper understanding some -acquaintance with Japanese literature. An opulent folk-lore, in which -cannibals and heroes like Tom Thumb live and move and have their being, -just as in European fairy stories, stands at the disposal of the artist. -Historical representations from the life of fabulous national heroes, -ghosts, and apparitions half man and half bird, alternate with simple -landscapes and scenes from daily life. And in all pictures, whether they -are fanciful or plain renderings of fact, attention is riveted by the -same keenness of observation, the same refinement of taste, in the -highest sense of the word by pictorial charm. After the Japanese have -been long recognised as the first decorative artists in the world, after -the highest praise has been accorded to them in the industrial crafts -taken jointly--in lacquer-work and bronze work, weaving, embroidery, -and pottery--they are now likewise celebrated as the most spirited -draughtsmen in existence. - -[Illustration: _Studio._ - - KORIN. LANDSCAPE.] - -[Illustration: _Studio._ - - KORIN. RABBITS.] - -The Japanese artist lives with nature and in her as no artist of any -other country has ever done. Life in the open air creates a relation to -nature suggestive of the doctrines of Rousseau; it makes earth, sky, and -water as familiar to man as are the beings that move in them. Every -house, even in the centre of towns, has a garden laid out with fine -taste, and combining beautiful flowers, trees, and cascades, everything -incidental to the soil. The form of trees, the shape and colour of -flowers, the ripple of leaves, and the gleaming mail of insects are so -imprinted in the memory of the painter that his fancy can summon them at -pleasure without the need of fresh study. The most fleeting moment of -the life of nature is held as firmly in his mind as the everlasting form -of rocks and gigantic trees shadowing the temple groves of Nippon. Every -one of these artists works with the unfettered falcon glance of the -child of nature. His keen eye sees in the flight of birds turns and -movements first revealed to us by instantaneous photography. This -quickness of eye and this astonishing exercise of memory enable him to -obtain the most striking effects with the slightest means. If a Japanese -executes figures, race, station, age, business, personality are all -seized with the keenest vision, and pregnantly rendered in their -essential features. Robes and unclad forms, heads and limbs, animated -and still nature, are all reproduced with the same reality. Yet little -as the doctrine ever gained ground that to create works of art nature -should be mastered upon a system, trivial realism was just as little at -any time the vogue. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - OKIO. A CARP.] - -The love of nature is born in the Japanese, but the photographic -imitation, the servile reproduction of reality, is never his ultimate -aim. Geoffroy has noted with much subtlety the resemblance which exists -between Japanese poets and painters in this respect. Their poets never -describe, but only endeavour to express a spiritual feeling, to hold a -memory fast--the blitheness of smiling pleasure, the mournfulness of -vanished joy. They sing of the mist passing over the mountain summits, -the fishing boats, the reeds by the seashore, the plash of waves, the -flying streaks of cloud, the sunset streaming purple over the weary -world. The same economy of means, the same sureness in the choice of -characteristic features, and a similar rapidity in striking the keynote -are peculiar to the painters. They, too, express themselves by the -scantiest means, shrink from saying too much, and aim only at a rapid -and right expression of total effect, leaving to the imagination the -task of supplementing and amplifying what is given. The heaviness of -matter is overcome, the absurd pretence of reality not attempted. Like -the French of the eighteenth century, the Japanese possess the sportive -grace, the _esprit_ of the brush hovering over objects, extracting -merely their bloom and essence, and using them as the basis for free and -independent caprices of beauty. They have the remarkable faculty of -being synthetic and discarding every ponderous and disturbing element, -without losing the local accent in a landscape or a figure. They fasten -upon the most vivid impression of things, but in great, comprehensive -lines, subordinating every peculiarity to the light which shines upon -them and the shadow in which they are muffled. Their handwriting is at -once broad and precise, graceful and bizarre. What a nonchalant, -fragile, piquant, or coquettish effect have their feminine figures! And -but a few firm strokes sufficed to create the impression. A dexterous -sweep of the brush was all that was necessary for the modelling, all -that was wanted to summon the idea of the velvet softness of the flesh -and the firmness of the bosom. Or surging waves have been painted, or -foaming cataracts. But with what consummate mastery, with what peculiar -knowledge, the swirl and eddying of the waters have been represented. -And how slight are the means which have been employed! Everything has -the freshness of life, and the sheer, intangible movement of objects has -been caught by a simple and decisive line. A few dashes of Chinese ink -are made, and the forcible strokes unite without effort in forming a -mountain path or a hillside stream foaming over rocks and trees. Or the -prow of a vessel is represented. Nothing is to be seen of the water, and -yet it is as if the waves were rocking the ship. The billow swells, -rises, and sinks, suggesting the wide sea, the rhythm in the universe. -The lines in which the motives are executed render only what is -essential. But combined with this striving after simplified form there -is a sense of space which of itself, as it were, controls everything, -producing the poetic illusion of distance. - -[Illustration: HIROSHIGE. THE BRIDGE AT YEDDO.] - -The Japanese are masters of the art of enlarging a narrow picture frame -to a great expanse, and indicating by a few strokes the distance between -foreground and horizon. There is often nothing, or next to nothing, in -the wide space, but proximity and distance are so correctly related that -all the geological structure is clear, whilst light air is pervasive, -giving the eye a vision of boundless perspective. The spur of a -headland, the bank of a river, or a cleft between two mountains enables -the eye to measure far landscapes. In the presence of their works one -dreams, one has the presentiment of infinite distances. They divest -objects of their earthiness by bold simplifications, and transform -reality into dreamland. It is the spirit of things, their smile, and -their intangible perfume which live in these veiled masterpieces which -are yet so precise. - -The bold irregularity of Japanese works, which know nothing of the -stiffness of symmetrical composition, contributes much to this -impression. Their pictures are never "composed" in our sense of the -word, but rather resemble the instantaneous pictures of photographers. -A bird is seen to dart past, only half visible, a cluster of trees is a -chance slice from the forest, as it is seen out of the window of a -railway train whizzing past. Or it is merely the bough of a tree with a -bird upon it that stretches into the picture, which is otherwise filled -with a fragment of blue sky. Without appearing to concern themselves -about it, they compose little poems of grace and freshness, with a frog, -a butterfly, and a blossoming apple-branch sprouting out of a vase. They -play with beetles, grasshoppers, tortoises, crabs, and fish as did the -artists of the Renaissance with Cupids and angels. - -[Illustration: HIROSHIGE. A HIGH ROAD.] - -And in everything, as regards colour too, the Japanese have a strain of -refinement peculiar to themselves. It is as though they were controlled -by the finest tact, as by a _force majeure_, even in their intuition of -colour. That great harmony of which Théodore Rousseau spoke, and to -which it was the aim of his life to attain, is reached by the Japanese -artist almost instinctively. The most vivid effects of red and green -trees, yellow roads, and blue sky are represented; the most refined -effects of light are rendered--illuminated bridges, dark firmaments, the -white sickle of the moon, glittering stars, the bright and rosy blossoms -of spring, the dazzling snow as it falls upon trim gardens; and there -are discords nowhere. How heavy and motley our colouring is compared -with these delicious chords, set beside each other so boldly, and -invariably so harmonious. Is it that our eyes are by nature less -delicate? or is everything in the Japanese only the result of a more -rational training? We have not the same intense force of perception, -this instinctive and sensuous gift of colour. Their colouring is a -delight to the eyes, a magic potion. Offence is nowhere given by a -glaring or an entirely crude tone; everything is finely calculated, -delicately indicated, and has that melting softness so enchanting in -Japanese enamel. The simplest chords of colour are often the most -effective; nothing can be more charming than the delicate duet of grey -and gold. And the cheapest wood-cut has often all these refinements in -common with the most costly _kakemono_. Even here, where they turn to -lowly things, their art is never vulgar, but maintains itself at such an -aristocratic height that we barbarians of the West, blessed with -oleographs and Academies of Art, can only look up with envy to this -nation of connoisseurs. - -[Illustration: HIROSHIGE. A LANDSCAPE.] - -The oldest of these Japanese artists working in wood-cut engraving was -Matahei, who lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and -executed scenes from the theatres and Japanese family and street life. -Icho and Moronobu followed at the close of the seventeenth century, the -one being a spirited caricaturist, the other a genuine _baroque_ artist -of noble and classic reserve. Through the masters of the eighteenth -century, as through Eisen, Fragonard, and Boucher, this reproductive art -took fresh development. The soft girls of Soukénobu with their delicate -round faces, the graceful beauties of Harunobu arrayed in costly -toilettes, the tall feminine forms of the marvellous Outamaro in all -their provocative charm, the vivid scenes from popular life of the great -colourist Shunsho, are works pervaded with a delicate perfume of which -Edmond de Goncourt alone could render any impression in words. - -Outamaro, the poet of women, was, in a special sense, the Watteau of -aristocratic life in Japan. He knew the life of the Japanese woman as no -other has ever done--her domestic occupations, her walks and her -charming graces, her vanities and her love affairs. He knew also the -scenes of nature which she contemplated, the streets through which she -passed, and the banks along which she sauntered with an undulating step. -His women are slender beings, isolated like idols, and standing -motionless in poses hieratically august; æsthetic souls, who swoon and -grow pale under the sway of disquieting visions; fading flowers, forms -roaming wearily by the verge of a lonely sea or a sluggish stream, or -flitting timidly, like bats, through the soft brilliancy of lights amid -a festival by night. And in killing what is fleshly and physical he -renders the faces visionary and dreamy, renders the hands and the -gestures finer, and at the same time subdues and mitigates the colours -and the splendour of the clothes, taking pleasure in dying chords, in -deep black and tender white, in fine, pallid _nuances_ of rose-colour -and lilac. Every one of his pupils became a fresh chronicler of -aristocratic life. Toyohami painted night festivals; Toyoshiru, animated -crowds; Toyokumi, scenes of the theatre; Kunisada, women upon their -walks; Kunioshi, melodramatic representations full of pomp, with -marvellous fantastic landscapes. - -[Illustration: _Quantin, Paris._ - - HIROSHIGE. SNOWY WEATHER.] - -The nineteenth century brought the widest popularisation of art, -corresponding more or less to the "resort to popular national life," as -the beginning of modern _genre_ painting and of the modern art of -illustration was called in Germany. The refined son of Nippon shrugs his -shoulders over these last creations of Japanese reproduction in colours; -he prefers those earlier charming masters of grace, and misses the -aristocratic _cachet_ in the new men, with as much justification as the -refined European collector has when he does not care to place the plates -of Granville or Doré in a portfolio with those of Eisen or Fragonard. -Nevertheless amongst the draughtsmen who followed the popular tendency -there was at any rate one great genius, one of the most important -artists of his country, who became more familiar to Europe than any of -his other compatriots: this was _Hokusai_. - -[Illustration: AN UNKNOWN MASTER. HARVESTERS RESTING.] - -All the qualities of Japanese art are united in him as in a focus. His -work is the encyclopædia of a whole nation, and in his technical -qualities he stands by the side of the greatest men in Europe. He is the -most attentive observer, a painter of manners as no other has ever been; -he takes strict measure of everything, analysing the slightest -movements. He draws the solid things of earth, the immovable rocks, the -everlasting primæval mountains, and yet follows the changing phenomena -of light and shade upon its surface. He has, in the highest degree, that -peculiarly Japanese quality of giving tangible expression to the -movements of things and living creatures. His men and women gesticulate, -his animals run, his birds fly, his reptiles crawl, his fish swim; the -leaves on the trees, the water of the rivers, and the sea and the clouds -of the sky move gently. He is a magnificent landscape painter, -celebrating all the seasons, from blossoming spring to ice-bound winter. -In his designs he maps out orchards, fields, and woods, follows the -winding course of rivers, summons a fine mist from the sea, sends the -waves surging forward, and the billows racing up against the rocks and -losing themselves as murmuring rivulets in the sand. But he is also a -philosopher and a poet of wide flight, who makes the boldest journeys -into the land of dreams. His imagination rises above the work-a-day -world, rides upon the chimera, bodies forth a new life, creates -monsters, and tells visions of terrible poetry. The deep feeling of the -primitive masters revives in him, and he appears as a strange mystic, -when he paints his blithe ethereal goddesses, or that old Buddhist who, -when banished, came every day across the sea, as the legend tells, to -behold once more Fuji, the sacred mountain. - -[Illustration: _Studio._ - - OUTAMARO. MOTHER'S LOVE.] - -Hokusai was born in 1760, amid flowery gardens in a quiet corner of -Yeddo, fourteen years after Goya and twelve years after David. His -father was purveyor of metallic mirrors to the Court. Hokusai took -lessons from an illustrator, but does not seem to have been much known -until his fortieth or fiftieth year. In 1810 he first founded an -industrial school of art, which attracted numbers of young people. To -provide them with a compendium of instruction in drawing he published in -1810 the first volume of his _Mangwa_. From that time he was recognised -as the head of a school. When his fame began to spread he changed his -residence almost every month to protect himself from troublesome -visitors. And just as often did he alter his name. Even that under which -he became famous in Europe is only a pseudonym, like "Gavarni": amongst -various _noms de guerre_ it was that which he bore the longest and by -which he was definitely recognised. - -As a painter he was only active in his youth. The achievement of his -life is not his pictures, but a magnificent series of illustrated books, -a life's work richer than that of any of his compatriots. Like Titian -and Corot, fate had predestined him to reach a very great age without -ever growing old. - -"From my sixth year," he writes in the preface to one of his books, "I -had a perfect mania for drawing every object that I saw. When I had -reached my fiftieth year I published a vast quantity of drawings; but I -am unsatisfied with all that I have produced before my seventieth year. -At seventy-three I had some understanding of the form and real nature of -birds, fish, and plants. At eighty I hope to have made further progress, -and at ninety to have discovered the ultimate foundation of things. In -my hundredth year I shall rise to yet higher spheres unknown, and in my -hundred and tenth, every stroke, every point, and in short everything -that comes from my hand will be alive." Hokusai certainly did not reach -so great an age as that. He died at eighty-nine, on 13th April 1849, and -is buried in the temple at Yeddo. During the period between 1815 and -1845 he published about eighty great works, altogether over five hundred -volumes. - -"I rose from my seat at the window, where I had idled the whole day long -... softly, softly.... Then I was up and away.... I saw the countless -green leaves tremble in the densely embowered tops of the trees; I -watched the flaky clouds in the blue sky, collecting fantastically into -shapes torn and multiform.... I sauntered here and there carelessly, -without aim or volition.... Now I crossed the Bridge of Apes and -listened as the echo repeated the cry of the wild cranes.... Now I was -in the cherry-grove of Owari.... Through the mists shifting along the -coast of Miho I descried the famous pines of Suminoye.... Now I stood -trembling upon the Bridge of Kameji and looked down in astonishment at -the gigantic Fuki plants.... Then the roar of the dizzy waterfall of Ono -resounded in my ear. A shudder ran through me.... It was only a dream -which I dreamed, lying in bed near my window with this book of pictures -by the master as a cushion beneath my head." - -[Illustration: KIYONAGA. LADIES BOATING.] - -In these words a learned Japanese has indicated the great range of -subject, the unspeakably rich material of the works of the master. By -preference he leads us to the work-places of artisans, to woodcarvers, -smiths, workers in metal, dyers, weavers, and embroiderers. Then come -the pleasures of the nobility, who are displayed in their refinement, -reserve, and dignity; the country-folk at their daily avocations, or -making merry upon holidays; the fantastic shapes of fabulous animals and -demons, who figure in the life of Japanese national heroes, mighty with -the sword; apparitions, drunken men, wrestlers, street figures of every -conceivable description, mythical reptiles, snow-clad mountain tops, -waving rice-fields lashed by the wind, woodland glens, strange gateways -of rock, far views over waters with cliffs clothed with pine. - -The most celebrated of those works which contain landscapes exclusively -are the views, published in three volumes in 1834-36, of the mountain of -Fuji, the great volcano rising close by Yeddo, and from old time playing -a part in the works of Japanese landscape painters. In Hokusai's book -the cone of the mountain is sometimes seen rising clear in a cloudless -sky, whilst it is sometimes shrouded by clouds of various shapes. Its -beautiful outline glimmers through the meshes of a net, through the -spindrift of snow falling in great flakes, or through a curtain of rain -splashing vertically down. It rises from misty valleys coloured by the -rays of the evening sun, or is reflected--itself out of sight--in the -smooth surface of a lake, upon the reedy shores of which the wild geese -cackle, or it stands in ghostly outlines against the night sky flooded -with silver moonlight. Summer breezes and winter storms drive over it, -rattling showers of hail, lashed by the wind, or light falls of snow -descend round it. In spring the blossoms of peach and plum-trees flutter -to the earth, like swarms of white and rosy butterflies. Only famished -wolves or dragons, which popular superstition has located in the -mountain of Fuji, occasionally animate the grandiose solitude of the -landscape. - -"Never," says Gonse, "has a more dexterous hand rested upon paper. It is -impossible to study his plates without an excited feeling of pleasure, -for they are absolute perfection, the highest that Japanese art has -produced in freshness, brilliancy, life, and originality. Hokusai's -capacity of giving the impression of relief and colour with a stroke of -the brush has nothing like it except in Rembrandt, Callot, and Goya. -Men, animals, landscapes, and everything in his drawings are reduced to -their simplest expression. Groups are seen in motion, priests in -procession, soldiers on the march, and often a single stroke is -sufficient to render an individual or create the impression of life and -movement. Every plate is a masterpiece of coloured woodcut engraving, of -singular flavour in colour, delightful in its gravely harmonised chord -of golden yellow, faded green, and fiery red, to which are sometimes -added golden, silvern, and other metallic tones." - -After the beginning of the sixties Paris came under the captivating -influence of Japan. And there is no doubt that as the English influenced -the landscape painters of Fontainebleau, the Venetians Delacroix, and -the Neapolitan masters Courbet and Ribot, the newest phase of French -art, which took its departure from Manet, was inaugurated by the -enthusiasm for things Japanese. From the moment when the peculiar -isolation of Japan was ended by the breaking up of the Japanese feudal -state, Paris was flooded by splendid works of Japanese art. A painter -discovered amongst the mass of articles newly arrived albums, colour -prints, and pictures. Their drawing, colouring, and composition deviated -from everything hitherto accounted as art, and yet the æsthetic -character of these works was too artistic to permit of any one smiling -over them as curiosities. Whether the discoverer was Alfred Stevens or -Diaz, Fortuny, James Tissot, or Alphonse Legros, the enthusiasm for the -Japanese swept over the studios like a storm. The artistic world never -wearied of admiring the capricious ability of these compositions, the -astonishing power of drawing, the fineness in tone, the originality of -pictorial effect, nor of wondering at the refined simplicity of the -means by which these results were achieved. Japanese art made itself -felt by its fresh and tender charm, its creative opulence, its lightness -and delicacy of observation; it arrested attention because directness, -unfailing tact, and inherent distinction were of the essence of its -conception; and it was recognised as the production of a nation of -artists combining the subtilised taste of an originally refined -civilisation with the freshness of feeling peculiar to primitive people. -Colour prints, now to be had for a few francs at every bazaar, were -bought at the highest figures. Every new consignment was awaited with -feverish impatience. Old ivory, enamel, porcelain and embellished -pottery, bronzes and wood and lacquer-work, ornamented stuffs, -embroidered silks, albums, books of wood-cuts, and knick-knacks were -scarcely unpacked in the shop before they found their way into the -studios of artists and the libraries of scholars. In a short time great -collections of the artistic productions of Japan passed into the hands -of the painters Manet, James Tissot, Whistler, Fantin-Latour, Degas, -Carolus Duran, and Monet; of the engravers Bracquemond and Jules -Jacquemart; of the authors Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Champfleury, -Philippe Burty, and Zola; and of the manufacturers Barbedienne and -Christofle. - -[Illustration: HARUNOBU. A PAIR OF LOVERS.] - -The International Exhibition of 1867 brought Japan still more into -fashion, and from this year must be dated the peculiar influence of the -West upon the East and the East upon the West. The Japanese came over to -study at the European polytechnic institutes, universities, and military -academies. On the other hand, we became the pupils of the Japanese in -art. Even during the course of the Exhibition a group of artists and -critics founded a Japanese society of the "Jinglar," which met every -week in Sèvres at the house of Solon, the director of the manufactory. -They used a Japanese dinner-service, designed by Bracquemond, and -everything except the napkins, cigars, and ash-trays was Japanese. One -of the members, Dr. Zacharias Astruc, published in _L'Étendard_ a series -of articles upon "The Empire of the Rising Sun," which made a great -sensation. Soon afterwards the Parisian theatres brought out Japanese -ballets and fairy plays. Ernest d'Hervilly wrote his Japanese piece _La -Belle Saïnara_, which Lemère printed for him in Japanese fashion and -paged from right to left, giving it a yellow cover designed by -Bracquemond. A Japanese ballet was performed at the opera, and a -Japanese turn was given to the toilettes of women. - -For painters Japanese art was a revelation. Here was uttered the word -that hovered on so many lips, and that no one had dared to pronounce. -With what a fleeting touch, and yet with what precision, with what -incomparable sureness, lightness, and grace, was everything carried out. -How intuitive and spontaneous, how imaginative and how full of -suggestion, how effortless and how rich in surprises, was this strange -art. How happily was industry united with caprice, and nonchalance with -endeavour at the highest finish. How suggestive was this disregard for -symmetry, this piquant method of introducing a flower, an insect, a -frog, or a bird here and there, merely as a pictorial spot in the -picture. How the Japanese understood the art of expressing much with few -means, where the Europeans toiled with a great expenditure of means to -express little. - -It would certainly have been an exceedingly false move if a direct -imitation of the Japanese had been thought of. Japanese art is the -product of a sensuous people, and European art that of intellectual -nations. The latter is greater and more serious; it is nobler, and it -reaches heights of expression not attained by the grotesque and terrible -distortions and the morbidly droll or melancholy outbursts of sentiment -known to the Japanese. Our imagination is alien to that of these -children of the sensuous world, who quake and tremble for joy, horrify -themselves with their masks, and pass from convulsive laughter to sheer -terror, and from the shudder of hallucination to ecstatic bliss. Had -Japanese art been coarsely transposed by imitators it would have led to -caricature. - -But if its poetics were little suitable for Europe in the specialised -case, they nevertheless contained general laws better fitted for modern -art than those which had been hitherto borrowed from Greece. All arts, -music as well as poetry, were then striving for the dissolution of -simple, tyrannical rhythms. The recurrence of unyielding measures beaten -out with unwavering repetition no longer corresponded with the -complicated, neurotic emotions of the new age. In painting, likewise, -exertions were being made to burst the old shell, and a style was sought -after for the treatment of modern life which had been violently handled -in the effort to force it to fit the Procrustean bed of traditional -rules. Then came the Japanese with their astonishing, rapid, and -pictorial sketches, and revealed a new method for the interpretation of -nature. At a time when the symmetrical balance of lines, borrowed from -the works of the Renaissance masters, became wearisome in its monotony, -they taught a much freer architecture of form, and one which was broken -by charming caprices. Where there had been rhythm, tension, clarity, -largeness, and quietude in the old European painting, there was in them -a nervous freedom, an artful carelessness, and life and charm. Art was -concealed beneath the fancy shown in their facile construction, which -seemed to have been improvised by nature herself. An artistic method of -deviating from geometrical arrangement, freedom of distribution, -unforced and unsymmetrical structure, in the place of balance and -construction according to rules, were learnt from the Japanese in the -matter of composition. - -[Illustration: TOYOKUMI. NOCTURNAL REVERIE.] - -At the same time, they threw light upon what had been flat and trivial -in Courbet's realism. These spirited narrators never told a story for -the sake of telling it; they never painted to give a prosaic copy of -some particle of reality. They liberated European painting from the -heaviness of matter, and rendered it tender and delicate. They taught -that art of not saying everything, which says so much, the method of -compendious drawing, the secret of expanding distance by a special -treatment of lines, the touch thrown rapidly in, the unforeseen, the -surprise, the fleeting hint, the way of increasing effect by the -incompletion of motive, the suggestion of the whole by a part. Artists -learnt from them another manner of drawing and modelling, a manner of -giving the impression of the object without the need for the whole of it -being executed, so that one knows that it is there only through one's -knowledge. They brought in the taste for pithy sketches dealing only -with essentials, the consciousness of the endless catalogue of what may -be contained--in life, reality, and fancy--by one fluent outline. They -introduced the preference for perspective bird's-eye views, the -disposition to throw groups, dense masses, and crowds more into the -distance, and render them more animated and vivid by a relief of the -foreground, which (though confirmed by photography) is apparently -improbable. - -The influence of Japan on colouring is just as visible as upon -composition and drawing. It had been clearly shown in Courbet's pictures -of artisans that the rules of the Bolognese school, with their brown -sauce and their red shadows, could not possibly be applied to objects in -the open air. It was therefore necessary to discover a new principle of -colour for modern subjects, a principle by which oil-painting would be -divested of its oil, and light and air would come to their rights. It -was seen from the works of the painters of Nippon that it was not -absolutely necessary to paint brown to be a painter. They taught a new -method of seeing things, opened the eyes to the changing play of the -phenomena of light, the fugitive nature and constant mutability of which -had up to this time seemed to mock at every rendering. The softness of -their bright harmonies was studied and artistically transposed. - -These are the points in which Japanese art has had a revolutionary -effect upon the development of European. Each one of those who at that -time belonged to the Society of the Jinglar has had more or less -experience of its influence. Alfred Stevens owes to it certain -delicacies of colouring; Whistler, his exquisite refinement of tone and -his capriciously artistic method in the treatment of landscape; Degas, -his fantastic and free grouping, his unrivalled audacities of -composition. Manet especially became now the artist to whom history does -honour, and Louis Gonse tells a story with a very characteristic touch -of the first exhibition of the _Maîtres impressionistes_. He went there, -coming from the official Salon in the company of a Japanese, and, while -the French public declared the fresh brightness of the pictures to be -untrue and barbaric, the son of sacred Nippon, accustomed from youth to -see nature in light, airy tones without a yellow coating of varnish, -said: "Over there I was in an exhibition of oil-pictures, here I feel as -if I were entering a flowery garden. What strikes me is the animation of -these figures, and the feeling is one I have never had elsewhere in your -picture exhibitions." - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI - -THE IMPRESSIONISTS - - -The name Impressionists dates from an exhibition in Paris which was got -up at Nadar's in 1871. The catalogue contained a great deal about -impressions--for instance, "_Impression de mon pot au feu_," -"_Impression d'un chat qui se promène_." In his criticism Claretie -summed up the impressions and spoke of the _Salon des Impressionistes_. - -The beginning of the movement, however, came about the middle of the -sixties, and Zola was the first to champion the new artists with his -trenchant pen. Assuming the name of his later hero Claude, he -contributed in 1866 to _L'Événement_, under the title _Mon Salon_, that -article which swamped the office with such a flood of indignant letters -and occasioned such a secession of subscribers that the proprietor of -the paper, the sage and admirable M. de Villemessant, felt himself -obliged to give the naturalist critic an anti-naturalistic colleague in -the person of M. Théodore Pelloquet. In these reviews of the Salon, -collected in 1879 in the volume _Mes Haines_, and in the essay upon -_Courbet, the Painter of Realism_--Courbet, the already recognised -"master of Ornans "--those theories are laid down which Lantier and his -friends announced at a later date in _L'Oeuvre_. Then the architect -Dubiche, one of the members of the young _Bohème_, dreamed in a spirit -of presage of a new architecture. "With passionate gestures he demanded -and insisted upon the formula for the architecture of this democracy, -that work in stone which should give expression to it, a building in -which it should feel itself at home, something strong and forcible, -simple and great, something already proclaimed in our railway stations -and our markets in the grace and power of their iron girders, but -purified and made beautiful, declaring the largeness of our conquests." -A few years went by, and then the Paris Centenary Exhibition provided -that something, though it was not in monumental stone. The great -edifices were fashioned of glass and iron, and the mighty railway -buildings were their forerunners. The enormous engine-rooms which gave -space for thousands and the Eiffel Tower announced this new -architecture. And as Dubiche prophesied a new architecture, so did -Claude prophesy a new painting. "Sun and open air and bright and -youthful painting are what we need. Let the sun come in and render -objects as they appear under the illumination of broad daylight." In -Zola Claude Lantier is the martyr of this new style. He is scorned, -derided, avoided, and cast out. His best picture is smuggled, through -grace and mercy, into the Exhibition by a friend upon the hanging -committee as a _charité_. But, ten years after, these new doctrines had -penetrated all the studios of Paris and of Europe like germs borne in -the air. - -The artistic ideas of Claude Lantier were given to Zola by his friend -_Édouard Manet_, the father of Impressionism, and in that way the -creator of the newest form of art. Manet appeared for the first time in -1862. In 1865, when the Committee of the Salon gave up a few secondary -rooms to the rejected, the first of his pictures which made any -sensation were to be seen--a "Scourging of Christ" and a picture of a -girl with a cat resting--both invariably surrounded by a dense circle of -the scornful. Forty years before, the first works of the Romanticists, -whose doctrine was likewise scoffed at in the formula _Le laid c'est le -beau_, had called forth a similar outcry against the want of taste -common to them all. A generation later people laughed at "The Funeral in -Ornans," and now the same derision was directed against Manet, who -completed Courbet's work. His pictures were held to be a practical joke -which the painter was playing upon the public, the most unheard of farce -that had ever been painted. If any one had declared that these works -would give the impulse to a revolution in art, people would have turned -their backs upon him or thought that he was jesting. "Criticism treated -Manet," wrote Zola, "as a kind of buffoon who put out his tongue for the -amusement of street boys." The rage against "The Scourging of Christ" -went so far that the picture had to be protected by special precautions -from the assaults of sticks and umbrellas. - -But the matter took a somewhat different aspect when, five years -afterwards, from twenty to thirty more recent pictures were exhibited -together in Manet's studio. Whether it was because the aims of the -painter had become clearer in the meanwhile, or because his works -suffered less from the proximity of others, they made an impression, and -that although they represented nothing in the least adventurous and -sensational. Life-size figures, light and almost without shadow, rowed -over blue water, hung out white linen, watered green flower-pots, and -leant against grey walls. The light colours placed immediately beside -each other had a bizarre effect on the eye accustomed to chiaroscuro. -The eye, which, like the human spirit, has its habitudes, and believes -that it always sees nature as she is painted, was irritated by these -delicately chosen tone-values which seemed to it arbitrary, by these -novel harmonies which it took for discords. Nevertheless the clarity of -the pictures made a striking effect, and something of "Manet's sun" -lingered in the memory. People still laughed, only not so loud, and they -gave Manet credit for having the courage of his convictions. "A -remarkable circumstance has to be recorded. A young painter has followed -his personal impressions quite ingenuously, and has painted a few things -which are not altogether in accord with the principles taught in the -schools. In this way he has executed pictures which have been a source -of offence to eyes accustomed to other paintings. But now, instead of -abusing the young artist through thick and thin, we must be first clear -as to why our eyes have been offended, and whether they ought to have -been." With these words criticism began to take Manet seriously. Charles -Ephrussi and Duranty, besides Zola, came forward as his first literary -champions in the press. "Manet is bold" was now the phrase used about -him in public. The Impressionists took the salon by storm. And Manet's -bright and radiant sun was seen to be a better thing than the brown -sauce of the Bolognese. It was as if a strong power had suddenly -deranged the focus of opinion in all the studios, and Manet's victory -brought the same salvation to French art as that of Delacroix had done -forty years before and that of Courbet ten years before. _Manet et -manebit._ Delacroix, Courbet, and Manet are the three great names of -modern French painting, the names of the men who gave it the most -decisive impulses. - -[Illustration: ÉDOUARD MANET.] - -Édouard Manet, _le maître impressioniste_, was born in 1832, in the Rue -Bonaparte, exactly opposite the École des Beaux-Arts, and his life was -quietly and simply spent, without passion and excitement, unusual -events, or sanguinary battles. At sixteen, having passed through the -_Collège Rollin_, he entered the navy with the permission of his -parents, and made a voyage to Rio de Janeiro, which was accomplished -without any incident of interest, without shipwreck or any one being -drowned. With his cheerful, even temperament he looked on the boundless -sea and satiated his eyes with the marvellous spectacle of waves and -horizon, never to forget it. The luminous sky was spread before him, the -great ocean rocked and sported around, revealing colours other than he -had seen in the Salon. On his return he gave himself up entirely to -painting. He is said to have been a slight, pale, delicate, and refined -young man when he became a pupil of Couture in 1851, almost at the same -time as Feuerbach. Nearly six years he remained with the master of "The -Decadent Romans," without a suspicion of how he was to find his way, and -even after he had left the studio he was still pursued by the shade of -Couture; he worked without knowing very well what he really wanted. Then -he travelled, visiting Germany, Cassel, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and -Munich, where he copied the portrait of Rembrandt in the Pinakothek; and -then he saw Florence, Rome, and Venice. Under the influence of the -Neapolitan and Flemish artists, to whom Ribot, Courbet, and Stevens -pointed at the time, he gradually became a painter. His first picture, -"The Child with Cherries," painted in 1859, reveals the influence of -Brouwer. In 1861 he exhibited, for the first time, the "double portrait" -of his parents, for which he received honourable mention, although--or -because--the picture was entirely painted in the old Bolognese style. -These works are only of interest because they make it possible to see -the rapidity with which Manet learnt to understand his craft with the -aid of the old masters, and the sureness and energy with which he -followed, from the very beginning, the realistic tendency initiated by -Courbet. "The Nymph Surprised," in 1862, was a medley of reminiscences -from Jordaens, Tintoretto, and Delacroix. His "Old Musician," executed -with diligence but trivial in its realism, had the appearance of being a -tolerable Courbet. Then he made--not at first in Madrid, which he only -knew later, but in the Louvre--the eventful discovery of another old -master, not yet known in all his individuality to the master of Ornans. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MANET. THE FIFER. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MANET. THE GUITARERO. - - (_By permission of M. Faure, the owner of the picture._)] - -At the great Manchester Exhibition of 1857 Velasquez had been revealed -to the English; in the beginning of the sixties he was discovered by the -French. William Stirling's biography of Velasquez was translated into -French by G. Brunet, and provided with a _Catalogue raisonné_ by W. -Bürger. The works of Charles Blanc, Théophile Gautier, and Paul Lefort -appeared, and in a short time Velasquez, of whom the world outside -Madrid had hitherto known little, was in artistic circles in Paris a -familiar and frequently cited personality, who began not only to occupy -the attention of the historians of art, but of artists also. Couture was -in the habit of saying to his pupils that Velasquez had not understood -the orchestration of tones, that he had an inclination to monochrome, -and that he had never comprehended the nature of colour. From the -beginning of the sixties France came under the sway of that serious -feeling for colour known to the great Spaniard, and Manet was his first -enthusiastic pupil. Certain of his single figures against a pearl-grey -background--"The Fifer," "The Guitarero," "The Bull-fighter wounded to -Death"--were the decisive works in which, with astonishing talent, he -declared himself as the pupil of Velasquez. W. Bürger praised Velasquez -as _le peintre le plus peintre qui fût jamais_. As regards the -nineteenth century, the same may be said of Manet. Only Frans Hals and -Velasquez had these eminent pictorial qualities. In the way in which the -black velvet dress, the white silk band, and the red flag were painted -in the toreador picture, there was a feeling for beauty which bore -witness to the finest understanding of the great Spaniard. In his -"Angels at the Tomb of Christ" he has sought, as little as did Velasquez -in his picture of the Epiphany, to introduce any trace of heavenly -expression into the faces, but as a piece of painting it takes its place -amongst the best religious pictures of the century. His "Bon Bock"--a -portrait of the engraver Belot, a stout jovial man smoking a pipe as he -sits over a glass of beer--is one of those likenesses which stamp -themselves upon the memory like the "Hille Bobbe" of Frans Hals. "Faure -as Hamlet" stands out from the vacant light grey background like the -"Truhan Pablillos" of Velasquez. The doublet and mantle are of black -velvet, the mantle lined with rose-coloured silk; and the toilette is -completed by a broad black hat with a large black feather. He seems as -though he had just stepped to the footlights, and stands there with his -legs apart, the mantle thrown over the left arm, and his right hand -closing upon his sword. The cool harmony of black, white, grey, and -rose-colour makes an uncommonly refined effect. Manet has the rich -artistic methods of Velasquez in a measure elsewhere only attained by -Raeburn, and as the last of these studies he has created in his "Enfant -à l'Épée" a work which--speaking without profanity--might have been -signed by the great Spaniard himself. In the beginning of the sixties, -when he gave a separate exhibition of his works, Courbet is said to have -exclaimed upon entering, "Nothing but Spaniards!" - -But even this following of the Spaniards indicated an advance upon -Courbet; it meant the triumph over brown sauce and a closer -approximation to truth. For, amongst all the old masters, Velasquez and -Frans Hals--who greatly resemble each other in this respect--are the -simplest and most natural in their colouring; they are not idealists in -colour like Titian, Paul Veronese, and Rubens, nor do they labour upon -the tone of their pictures like the Dutch "little masters" and Chardin. -They paint their pictures in the broad and common light of day. Their -flesh-tint is truer than the juicy tint of the Venetians, and the fiery -red of Rubens, with his shining reflections. Beside Velasquez, as Justi -says, the colouring of Titian seems conventional, that of Rembrandt -fantastic, and that of Rubens is tinged with something which is not -natural. Or, as a contemporary of Velasquez expressed himself: -"Everything else, old and new, is painting; Velasquez alone is truth." - -[Illustration: MANET. LE BON BOCK. - - (_By permission of M. Faure, the owner of the picture._)] - -Thus the difference between the youthful works of Manet and those of his -predecessor Courbet is the difference between Velasquez and Caravaggio. -Of course, in Manet's earliest pictures there were found the broad, dull -red-brown surfaces which characterise the works of the Bolognese and the -Neapolitans. A cool silver tone, a shadowless treatment gleaming in -silver, has now taken the place of this warm brown sauce. He has the -white of Velasquez, his cool subdued rose-colour, his delicate grey -which has been so much admired and against which every touch of colour -stands out clear and determined, and that celebrated black of the -Spaniard which is never heavy and dull, but makes such a light and -transparent effect. What is bright is contrasted with what is bright, -and light colours are placed upon a silvery grey background. The most -perfect modelling and plastic effect is attained without the aid of -strong contrasts of shadow. Thus he closed his apprenticeship to the old -masters by being able to see with the eyes of that old master whose -vision was the truest. - -[Illustration: MANET. A GARDEN IN RUEIL.] - -This was the point of departure for Manet's further development. The -study of Velasquez did not merely set him free from sauce; it also -started the problem of painting light. He went through a course of -development similar to that of the old Spaniard himself. When Velasquez -painted his first picture with a popular turn, the "Bacchus," he still -stood upon the ground of the tenebrous painters; he represented an -open-air scene with the illumination of a closed room. Although the -ceremony is taking place in broad daylight, the people seem to be -sitting in a dingy tavern, receiving light from a studio window to the -left. Ten years afterwards, when he painted "The Smithy of Vulcan," he -had emancipated himself from this Bolognese tradition, which he spoke of -henceforward as "a gloomy and horrible style." The deep and sharply -contrasted shadows have vanished, and daylight has conquered the light -of the cellar. The great equestrian portraits which followed gave Mengs -occasion to remark, even a hundred years ago, that Velasquez was the -first who understood how to paint what is "ambiant," the air filling the -vacuum between objects. And at the end of his life he solved the final -problem in "The Women Spinning." In the "Bacchus" might be found the -treatment of an open-air scene in the key of sauce, but here was the -glistening of light in an interior. The sun quivers over silken stuffs, -falls upon the dazzling necks of women, plays through coal-black -Castilian locks, renders one thing plastically distinct and another -pictorially vague, dissolves corporeality, and lends surface the -rounding of life. Contours touched with the brightness of light surround -the heads of the girls at work. The shadows are not warm brown but cool -grey, and the tints of reflected light play from one object to another. - -Two remarkable pictures of 1863 and 1865 show that Manet had grasped the -problem and was endeavouring in a tentative way to give expression to -his ideas. - -In one of these, "The Picnic," painted in 1863, there was a stretch of -sward, a few trees, and in the background a river in which a woman was -merrily splashing in her chemise; in the foreground were seated two -young men in frock-coats opposite another woman, who has just come out -of the water and been drying herself. Needless to say, this picture was -rejected as something unprecedented, by the committee, which included -Ingres, Léon Cogniet, Robert Fleury, and Hippolyte Flandrin. Eugène -Delacroix was the only one in its favour. So Manet was relegated to the -_Salon des Refusés_, where Bracquemond, Legros, Whistler, and Harpignies -were hung beside him. This Exhibition was held in the Industrial Hall, -and the public went through a narrow little door from one gallery to the -other. Half Paris was bewildered and discomposed by these works of the -rejected; even Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie ostentatiously -turned their backs upon Manet's picture when they visited the Salon. -This naked woman made a scandal. How shocking! A woman without the -slightest stitch of clothes between two gentlemen in their frock-coats! -In the Louvre, indeed, there were about fifty Venetian paintings with -much the same purport. Every manual of art refers to "The Family," as it -is called, and the "Ages of Life" of Giorgione, in which nude and -clothed figures are moving in a landscape and placed ingenuously beside -each other. But that a painter should claim for a modern artist the -right of painting for the joy of what is purely pictorial was a -phenomenon that had never been encountered before. The public searched -for something obscene, and they found it; but for Manet the whole -picture was only a technical experiment: the nude woman in front was -only there because the painter wanted to observe the play of the sun and -the reflections of the foliage upon naked flesh; the woman in her -chemise merely owed her existence to the circumstance of her charming -outline making such a delightful patch of white amid the green meadows. -Manet for the first time touched the problem which Madox Brown had -thrown out in his "Work" ten years before in England, though for the -present he did so with no greater success: the sunbeams glanced no -doubt, but they were heavy and opaque; the sky was bright, but without -atmosphere. As yet there is nothing of the Manet who belongs to history. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MANET. THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE "KEARSARGE" AND "ALABAMA."] - -The celebrated "Olympia" of 1865, now to be found in the Luxembourg, was -painted during this stage in his development: it represents a neurotic, -anæmic creature, who stretches out, pale and sickly, her meagre nudity -upon white linen, with a purring cat at her feet; whilst a negress in a -red dress draws back the curtain, offering her a bouquet. With this -picture--no one can tell why--the definite battles over Impressionism -began. The critics who talked about obscenity were not consistent, -because Titian's pictures of Venus with her female attendant, the little -dog, and the youth sitting upon the edge of the bed, are not usually -held to be obscene. But it is nevertheless difficult to find in this -flatly modelled body, with its hard black outlines, those artistic -qualities which Zola discovered in it. The picture has nothing whatever -of Titian in it, but it may almost be said to have something of Cranach. -"The Picnic" and "Olympia" have both only an historical interest as the -first works in which the artist trusted his own eyes, refusing to look -through any one's spectacles. Feeling that he would come to nothing if -he continued to study nature through the medium of an old master, he had -to render some real thing just as it appeared to him when he was not -looking into the mirror of old pictures. He tried to forget what he had -studied in galleries, the tricks of art which he had learnt with -Couture, and the famous pictures he had seen. In his earlier works there -had been a far-fetched refinement and a delicacy taken from the old -masters, but "The Picnic" and "Olympia" are simpler and more -independent. In both he was already an "Impressionist," true to his -personal vision, though he could not entirely express the new language -that hovered upon his lips. He had tried both to rid himself of -Courbet's brown sauce and of the ivory tone of Bouguereau, and to be -just to local tones through simple and independent observation; in his -"Picnic" he had painted the trees green, the earth yellow, and the sky -grey, and in "Olympia" the bed white and the body of the woman -flesh-colour. But he was as little successful as the pre-Raphaelites in -bringing the local tones into full harmony. This is the step which Manet -made in advance of the pre-Raphaelites: after he had emancipated himself -from the conventional brown and ivory scheme of tone, and had been for a -time, like the pre-Raphaelites, true although hard, he attained that -harmony which hitherto had been either not reached by artistic means or -not reached at all, by strict observation of the medium by which nature -produces her harmonies--light. As the air, the pervasive atmosphere, -renders nature everywhere harmonious and refined in colour, so it -forthwith became for the artist the means of reaching that great harmony -which is the object of all pictorial endeavour, and which had never -previously been reached except through some mannerism. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - MANET. BOATING.] - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MANET. A BAR AT THE FOLIES-BERGÈRES.] - -This movement, so historically memorable, when Manet discovered the sun -and the fine fluid of the atmosphere, was shortly before 1870. Not long -before the declaration of war he was in the country, in the -neighbourhood of Paris, staying with his friend de Nittis; but he -continued to work as though he were at home, only his studio was here -the pleasure-ground. Here one day he sat in full sunlight, placed his -model amid the flowers of the turf, and began to paint. The result was -"The Garden," now in the possession of Madame de Nittis. The young wife -of the Italian painter is reclining in an easy-chair, between her -husband, who is lying on the grass, and her child asleep in its cradle. -Every flower is fresh and bright upon the fragrant sward. The green of -the stretch of grass is luminous, and everything is bathed in soft, -bright atmosphere; the leaves cast their blue shadows upon the yellow -gravel path. "Plein-air" made its entry into painting. - -In 1870 his activity had to be interrupted. He entered a company of -Volunteers consisting chiefly of artists and men of letters, and in -December he became a lieutenant in the Garde Nationale, where he had -Meissonier as his colonel. The pictures, therefore, in which he was -entirely Manet belong exclusively to the period following 1870. - -From this time his great problem was the sun, the glow of daylight, the -tremor of the air upon the earth basking in light. He became a natural -philosopher who could never satisfy himself, studying the effect of -light and determining with the observation of a man of science how the -atmosphere alters the phenomena of colour. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - MANET. SPRING: JEANNE.] - -In tender, virginal, light grey tones, never seen before, he depicted, -in fourteen pictures exhibited at a dealer's, the luxury and grace of -Paris, the bright days of summer and _soirées_ flooded with gaslight, -the faded features of the fallen maiden and the refined _chic_ of the -woman of the world. There was to be seen "Nana," that marvel of -audacious grace. Laced in a blue silk corset, and otherwise clad merely -in a muslin smock with her feet in pearl-grey stockings, the blond woman -stands at the mirror painting her lips, and carelessly replying to the -words of a man who is watching her upon the sofa behind. Near it hung -balcony scenes, fleeting sketches from the skating rink, the _café -concert_, the _Bal de l'Opéra_, the _déjeuner_ scene at Père -Lathuille's, and the "Bar at the Folies-Bergères." In one case he has -made daylight the subject of searching study, in another the artificial -illumination of the footlights. "Music in the Tuileries" reveals a crowd -of people swarming in an open, sunny place. Every figure was introduced -as a patch of colour, but these patches were alive and this multitude -spoke. One of the best pictures was "Boating"--a craft boldly cut away -in its frame, after the manner of the Japanese, and seated in it a -young lady in light blue and a young man in white, their figures -contrasting finely with the delicate grey of the water and the -atmosphere impregnated with moisture. And scattered amongst these -pictures there were to be found powerful sea-pieces and charming, -piquant portraits. - -Manet had a passion for the world. He was a man with a slight and -graceful figure, a beard of the colour known as _blond cendré_, deep -blue eyes filled with the fire of youth, a refined, clever face, -aristocratic hands, and a manner of great urbanity. With his wife, the -highly cultured daughter of a Dutch musician, he went into the best -circles of Parisian society, and was popular everywhere for his -trenchant judgment and his sparkling intellect. His conversation was -vivid and sarcastic. He was famous for his wit _à la_ Gavarni. He -delighted in the delicate perfume of drawing-rooms, the shining -candle-light at receptions; he worshipped modernity and the piquant -_frou-frou_ of toilettes; he was the first who stood with both feet in -the world which seemed so inartistic to others. Thus the progress made -in the acquisition of subject and material may be seen even in the -outward appearance of the three pioneers of modern art. Millet in his -portrait stands in wooden shoes, Courbet in his shirt-sleeves; Manet -wears a tall hat and a frock-coat. Millet, the peasant, painted -peasants. Courbet, the democrat from the provinces, gave the rights of -citizenship to the artisan, but without himself deserting the provinces -and the _bourgeoisie_. He was repelled by everything either -distinguished or refined. In such matters he could not find the force -and vehemence which were all he sought. Manet, the Parisian and the man -of refinement, gave art the elegance of modern life. - -In the year 1879 he made the Parisian magistracy the offer of painting -in the session-room of the Town Hall the entire _Ventre de Paris_, the -markets, railway stations, lading-places, and public gardens, and -beneath the ceiling a gallery of the celebrated men of the present time. -His letter was unanswered, and yet it gave the impulse to all those -great pictures of contemporary life painted afterwards in Paris and the -provinces for the walls of public buildings. In 1880 he received, -through the exertions of his friend Antonin Proust, a medal of the -second class, the only one ever awarded to him. And the dealer Duret -began to buy pictures from him; Durand-Ruel followed suit, and so did M. -Faure, the singer of the Grand Opera, who himself is the owner of -five-and-thirty Manets. The poor artist did not long enjoy this -recognition. On 30th April 1883, the varnishing day at the Salon, he -died from blood-poisoning and the consequences of the amputation of a -leg. - -But the seed which he had scattered had already thrown out roots. It had -taken him years to force open the doors of the Salon, but to-day his -name shines in letters of gold upon the façade of the École des -Beaux-Arts as that of the man who has spoken the most decisive final -utterance on behalf of the liberation of modern art. His achievement, -which seems to have been an unimportant alteration in the method of -painting, was in reality a renovation in the method of looking at the -world and a renovation in the method of thinking. - -[Illustration: _Mansell Photo._ - - DEGAS. THE BALLET SCENE IN ROBERT THE DEVIL.] - -[Illustration: DEGAS. THE BALLET IN _DON JUAN_. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: DEGAS. A BALLET DANCER. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -Up to this time it was only the landscape painters who had emancipated -themselves from imitation of the gallery tone, and what was done by -Corot in landscape had, logically enough, to be carried out in -figure-painting likewise; for men and women are encompassed by the air -as much as trees. After the landscape painters of Barbizon had made -evident the vast difference between the light of day and that of a -closed room in their pictures painted in the open air, the -figure-painters, if they made any claim to truth of effect, could no -longer venture to content themselves with the illumination falling upon -their models in the studio, when they were painting incidents taking -place out of doors. Yet even the boldest of the new artists did not set -themselves free from tradition. Even after they had become independent -in subject and composition they had remained the slaves of the old -masters in their intuition of colour. Some imitated the Spaniards, -without reflecting that Ribera painted his pictures in a small, dark -studio, and that the cellar-light with which they were illuminated was -therefore correct, whereas applied, in the present age, to the bright -interiors of the nineteenth century it was utterly false. Others treated -open-air scenes as if they were taking place in a ground-floor parlour, -and endeavoured by curtains and shutters to create a light similar to -that which may be found in old masters and pictures dimmed with age. Or -the artist painted according to a general recipe and in complete -defiance of what he saw with his eyes. For instance, an exceedingly -characteristic episode is told of the student days of Puvis de -Chavannes. Upon a grey, misty day the young artist had painted a nude -figure. The model appeared enveloped in tender light as by a bright, -silvery halo. "That's the way you see your model?" grumbled Couture -indignantly when he came to correct the picture. Then he mixed together -white, cobalt blue, Naples yellow, and vermilion, and turned Puvis de -Chavannes' nude grey figure by a universal recipe into one that was -highly coloured and warmly luminous--such a figure as an old master -might perhaps have painted under different conditions of light. With his -"Fiat Lux" Manet uttered a word of redemption that had hovered upon -many lips. The jurisdiction of galleries was broken now also in regard -to colour; the last remnant of servile dependence upon the mighty dead -was cast aside; the aims attained by the landscape painters thirty years -before were reached in figure-painting likewise. - -[Illustration: DEGAS. HORSES IN A MEADOW. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: DEGAS. DANCING GIRL FASTENING HER SHOE.] - -Perhaps a later age may even come to recognise that Manet made an -advance upon the old masters in his delicacy and scrupulous analysis of -light; in that case it will esteem the discovery of tone-values as the -chief acquisition of the nineteenth century, as a conquest such as has -never been made in painting since the Eycks and Masaccio, since the -establishment of the theory of perspective. In a treatise commanding all -respect Hugo Magnus has written of how the sense of colour increased in -the various periods of the world's history; since the appearance of the -Impressionists, verification may be made of yet another advance in this -direction. The study of tone-values has never been carried on with such -conscientious exactitude, and in regard to truth of atmosphere one is -disposed to believe that our eyes to-day see and feel things which our -ancestors had not yet noticed. The old masters have also touched the -problem of "truth in painting." It is not merely that the character of -their colours often led the Italian tempera and fresco painters to the -most natural method of treating light. They even occupied themselves in -a theoretical way with the question. An old Italian precept declares -that the painter ought to work in a closed yard beneath an awning, but -should place his model beneath the open sky. In the frescoes which he -painted in Arezzo in 1480, Piero della Francesca, in particular, pursued -the problem of _plein-air_ painting with a fine instinct. But love of -the beautiful and luminous tints, such as the technique of oil-painting -enabled artists to attain at a later date, quickly seduced them from -carrying out the natural treatment of light in the gradation of colour. -Under the influence of oil-painting the Italians of the great period, -from Leonardo onwards, turned more and more to strong contrasts. And in -spite of Albert Cuyp, even the Dutch landscape painters of the -seventeenth century have seen objects rather in line and form, -plastically, than pictorially in their environment of light and air. The -nineteenth century was the first seriously to attack a problem -which--except by Velasquez--had been merely touched upon by the old -schools, but never solved. - -[Illustration: RENOIR. SUPPER AT BOUGIVAL. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: RENOIR. THE WOMAN WITH THE FAN. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -What the masters of Barbizon had done through instinctive genius was -made the object of scientific study by the Impressionists. The new -school set up the principle that atmosphere changes the colour of -objects; for instance, that the colour and outline of a tree painted in -a room are completely different from those of the same tree painted upon -the spot in the open air. As an unqualified rule they claimed that every -incident was to be harmonised with time, place, and light; thus a scene -taking place out of doors had of necessity to be painted, not within -four walls, but under the actual illumination of morning, or noon, or -evening, or night. In making this problem the object of detailed and -careful inquiry the artist came to analyse life, throbbing beneath its -veil of air and light, with more refinement and thoroughness than the -old masters had done. The latter painted light deadened in its fall, not -shining. Oils were treated as an opaque material, colour appeared to be -a substance, and the radiance of tinted light was lost through this -material heaviness. Courbet still represented merely the object apart -from its environment; he saw things in a plastic way, and not as they -were, bathed in the atmosphere; his men and women lived in oil, in brown -sauce, and not where it was only possible for them to live--in the air. -Everything he painted he isolated without a thought of atmospheric -surroundings. Now a complete change of parts was effected: bodies and -colours were no longer painted, but the shifting power of light under -which everything changes form and colour at every moment of the day. The -elder painters in essentials confined light to the surface of objects; -the new painters believed in its universality, beholding in it the -father of all life and of the manifold nature of the visible world, and -therefore of colour also. They no longer painted colours and forms with -lights and cast-shadows, but pellucid light, pouring over forms and -colours and absorbed and refracted by them. They no longer looked merely -to the particular, but to the whole, no longer saw nothing except -deadened light and cast-shadows, but the harmony and pictorial charm of -a moment of nature considered as such. With a zeal which at times seemed -almost paradoxical, they proceeded to establish the importance of the -phenomena of light. They discovered that, so far from being gilded, -objects are silvered by sunlight, and they made every effort to analyse -the multiplicity of these fine gradations down to their most delicate -_nuances_. They learnt to paint the quiver of tremulous sunbeams -radiating far and wide; they were the lyrical poets of light, which they -often glorified at the expense of what it envelops and causes to live. -At the service of art they placed a renovated treasury of refined, -purified, and pictorial phases of expression, in which the history of -art records an increase in the human eye of the sense of colour and the -power of perception. - -[Illustration: RENOIR. FISHER CHILDREN BY THE SEA. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: RENOIR. THE WOMAN WITH THE CAT. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -That light is movement is here made obvious, and that all life is -movement is just what their art reveals. Courbet was an admirable -painter of plain surfaces. If he had to paint a wall he took it upon his -strong shoulders and transferred it to his canvas in such a way that a -stonemason might have been deceived. If it was a question of rocks, the -body of a woman, or the waves of the sea, he began to mix his pigments -thick, laid a firm mass of colour on the canvas, and spread it with a -knife. This spade-work gave him unrivalled truth to nature in -reproducing the surface of hard substances. Rocks, banks, and walls look -as they do in nature, but in the case of moving, indeterminate things -his power deserts him. His landscapes are painted in a rich, broad, and -juicy style, but his earth has no pulsation. Courbet has forgotten the -birds in his landscape. His seas have been seen with extraordinary -largeness of feeling, and they are masterpieces of drawing; the only -drawback is that they seem uninhabitable for fish. Under the steady hand -of the master the sea came to a standstill and was changed into rock. If -he has to paint human beings they stand as motionless as blocks of wood. -The expression of their faces seems galvanised into life, like their -bodies. Placing absolute directness in the rendering of impressions in -their programme, as the chief aim of their artistic endeavours, the -Impressionists were the first to discover the secret of seizing with the -utmost freshness the _nuances_ of expression and movement, which -remained petrified in the hands of their predecessors. Only the flash of -the spokes is painted in the wheel of a carriage in motion, and never -the appearance of the wheel when it is at rest; in the same way they -allow the outlines of human figures to relax and become indistinct, to -call up the impression of movement, the real vividness of the -appearance. Colour has been established as the sole, unqualified medium -of expression for the painter, and has so absorbed the drawing that the -line receives, as it were, a pulsating life, and cannot be felt except -in a pictorial way. In the painting of nude human figures the waxen -look--which in the traditional painting from the nude had a pretence of -being natural--has vanished from the skin, and thousands of delicately -distinguished gradations give animation to the flesh. Moreover, a finer -and deeper observation of temperament was made possible by lighter and -more sensitive technique. In the works of the earlier _genre_ painters -people never are what they are supposed to represent. The hired model, -picked from the lower strata of life, and used by the painter in -bringing his picture slowly to completion, was obvious even in the most -elegant toilette; but now real human beings are represented, men and -women whose carriage, gestures, and countenances tell at once what they -are. Even in portrait painting people whom the painter has surprised -before they have had time to put themselves in order, at the moment when -they are still entirely natural, have taken the place of lay-figures -fixed in position. The effort to seize the most unconstrained air and -the most natural position, and to arrest the most transitory shade of -expression, produces, in this field of art also, a directness and -vivacity divided by a great gulf from the pose and the grand airs of the -earlier drawing-room picture. - -[Illustration: RENOIR. A PRIVATE BOX. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -From his very first appearance there gathered round Manet a number of -young men who met twice a week at a café in Batignolles, formerly a -suburb at the entrance of the Avenue de Clichy. After this -trysting-place the society called itself _L'École des Batignolles_. -Burty, Antonin Proust, Henner, and Stevens put in an occasional -appearance, but Legros, Whistler, Fantin-Latour, Duranty, and Zola were -constant visitors. Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Monet, Gauguin, and -Zandomeneghi were the leading spirits of the impressionistic staff, and, -being excluded from the official Salon, they generally set up their tent -at Nadar's, Reichshofen's, or some other dealer's. These are the names -of the men who, following Manet, were the earliest to make the new -problem the object of their studies. - -_Degas_, the subtle colourist and miraculous draughtsman, who celebrates -dancers, gauze skirts, and the _foyers_ of the Opera, is the boldest and -the most original of those who banded together from the very outset of -the movement--the worst enemy of everything pretty and banal, the -greatest dandy of modern France, the man whose works are caviare to the -general and so refreshing to the _gourmet_, the painter who can find a -joy in the sublime beauty of ugliness. - -[Illustration: RENOIR. THE TERRACE. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -Degas was older than Manet. He had run through all phases of French art -since Ingres. His first pictures, "Spartan Youths" and "Semiramis -building the Walls of Babylon," might indeed have been painted by -Ingres, to whom he looks up even now as to the first star in the -firmament of French art. Then for a time he was influenced by the -suggestive and tender intimacy in feeling and the soft, quiet harmony of -Chardin. He had also an enthusiasm for Delacroix: less for his -exaggerated colouring than for the lofty mark of style in the gestures -and movements painted by this great Romanticist, which Degas endeavoured -to transfer to the pantomime of the ballet. From Manet he learnt -softness and fluency of modelling. And finally the Japanese communicated -to him the principle of their dispersed composition, the choice of -standpoint, allowing the artist to look up from beneath or down from -above, the taste for fantastic decoration, the suggestive method of -emphasising this and suppressing that, the surprise of detail introduced -here and there in a perfectly arbitrary fashion. From the original and -bizarre union of all these elements he formed his exquisite, -marvellously expressive, and entirely personal style, which is hard to -describe with the pen, and would be defectively indicated by reference -to Besnard, who is allied to him in the treatment of light. It is only -in literature that Degas has a parallel. If a comparison between them be -at all possible, it might be said that his style in many ways recalls -that of the brothers de Goncourt. As these have enriched their language -with a new vocabulary for the expression of new emotions, Degas has made -for himself a new technique. Utterly despising everything pretty and -anecdotic, he has the secret of gaining the effect intended by -refinements of drawing and tone-values, just as the de Goncourts by the -association of words; he has borrowed phrases from all the lexicons of -painting; he has mixed oils, pastel, and water-colour together, and, -such as he is to-day, he must, like the de Goncourts, be reckoned -amongst the most delicate and refined artists of the century. - -His range of subjects finds its limit in one point: he has the greatest -contempt for banality, for the repetition of others and of himself. -Every subject has to give opportunity for the introduction of special -models, not hitherto employed, of pictorial experiments and novel -problems of light. He made his starting-point, the grace and charming -movements of women. Trim Parisian laundresses in their spotless aprons, -little shop-girls in their _boutiques_, the spare grace of racehorses -with their elastic jockeys, marvellous portraits, like that of Duranty, -women getting out of the bath, the movements of the workwoman, and the -toilette and _négligé_ of the woman of the world, boudoir scenes, scenes -in court, and scenes in boxes at the theatre--he has painted them all. -And with what truth and life! How admirably his figures stand! how -completely they are what they give themselves out to be! The Circus and -the Opera soon became his favourite field of study. In his ballet-girls -he found fresher artistic material than in the goddesses and nymphs of -the antique. - -At the same time the highest conceivable demands were here made on the -capacities of the painter and the draughtsman, and on his powers of -characterisation. Of all modern artists Degas is the man who creates the -greatest illusion as an interpreter of artificial light, of the glare of -the footlights before which these _décolleté_ singers move in their -gauze skirts. And these dancers are real dancers, vivid every one of -them, every one of them individual. The nervous force of the born -ballerina is sharply differentiated from the apathy of the others who -merely earn their bread by their legs. How fine are his novices with -tired, faded, pretty faces, when they have to sweep a curtsey, and pose -so awkwardly in their delightful shyness. How marvellously he has -grasped the fleeting charm of this moment. With what spirited -nonchalance he groups his girls enveloped in white muslin and coloured -sashes. Like the Japanese, he claims the right of rendering only what -interests him and appears to make a striking effect--"the vivid points," -in Hokusai's phrase--and does not hold himself bound to add a lifeless -piece of canvas for the sake of "rounded composition." In pictures, -where it is his purpose to show the varied forms of the legs and feet of -his dancers, he only paints the upper part of the orchestra and the -lower part of the stage--that is to say, heads, hands, and instruments -below, and dancing legs above. He is equally uncompromising in his -street and racing scenes, so that often it is merely the hindquarters of -the horses and the back of the jockey that are visible. His pictures, -however, owe not a little of their life and piquancy to this brilliant -method of cutting through the middle, and to these triumphant evasions -of all the vulgar rules of composition. But, for the matter of that, -surely Dürer knew what he was about when, in his pictures of apocalyptic -riders, instead of completing the composition, he left it fragmentary, -to create an impression of the wild gallop. - -[Illustration: C. PISSARRO. SITTING UP. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: C. PISSARRO. ROUEN. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -A special group amongst the artist's ballet pictures is that in which he -represents the training of novices, the severe course through which the -grub must pass before taking wing as a butterfly. Here is displayed a -strange fantastic anatomy, only comparable to the acrobatic distortions -to which the Japanese are so much addicted in their art. But it is -precisely these pictures which were of determining importance for the -development of Degas. In the quest of unstable lines and expressions, -instead of feeling reality in all its charming grace, he came to behold -it only in its degeneration. He was impelled to render the large outline -of the modern woman--the female figure which has grown to be a product -of art beneath the array of toilette--even in the most ungraceful -moments. He painted the woman who does not suspect that she is being -observed; he painted her seen, as it were, through the key-hole or the -slit of a curtain, and making, to some extent, the most atrociously ugly -movements. He was the merciless observer of creatures whom society turns -into machines for its pleasure--dancing, racing, and erotic machines. He -has depicted cruelly the sort of woman Zola has drawn in Nana--the woman -who has no expression, no play in her eyes, the woman who is merely -animal, motionless as a Hindu idol. His pictures of this class are a -natural history of prostitution of terrible veracity, a great poem on -the flesh, like the works of Titian and Rubens, except that in the -latter blooming beauty is the substance of the brilliant strophes, -while in Degas it is wrinkled skin, decaying youth, and the artificial -brightness of enamelled faces. "_A vous autres il faut la vie naturelle, -à moi la vie factice._" - -[Illustration: _L'Art française._ - - C. PISSARRO. SYDENHAM CHURCH.] - -This sense of having lived too much expressed itself also in the haughty -contempt with which he withdrew himself from exhibitions, the public, -and criticism. Any one who is not a constant visitor at Durand-Ruel's -has little opportunity of seeing the pictures of Degas. The conception -of fame is something which he does not seem to possess. Being a man of -cool self-reliance, he paints to please himself, without caring how his -pictures may suit the notions of the world or the usages of the schools. -For years he has kept aloof from the Salon, and some people say that he -has never exhibited at all. And he keeps at as great a distance from -Parisian society. In earlier days, when Manet, Pissarro, and Duranty met -at the Café Nouvelle Athènes, he sometimes appeared after ten o'clock--a -little man with round shoulders and a shuffling walk, who only took part -in the conversation by now and then breaking in with brief, sarcastic -observations. After Manet's death he made the Café de la Rochefoucauld -his place of resort. And young painters went on his account also to the -Café de la Rochefoucauld and pointed him out to each other, saying, -"That is Degas." When artists assemble together the conversation usually -turns upon him, and he is accorded the highest honours by the younger -generation. He is revered as the haughty _Independant_ who stands -unapproachably above the _profanum vulgus_, the great unknown who never -passed through the ordeal of a hanging committee, but whose spirit -hovers invisibly over every exhibition. - -[Illustration: SISLEY. OUTSKIRTS OF A WOOD.] - -A refined _charmeur_, _Auguste Renoir_, has made important discoveries, -in portrait painting especially. He is peculiarly the painter of women, -whose elegance, delicate skin, and velvet flesh he interprets with -extraordinary deftness. Léon Bonnat's portraits were great pieces of -still-life. The persons sit as if they were nailed to their seats. Their -flesh looks like zinc and their clothes like steel. In Carolus Duran's -hands portrait painting degenerated into a painting of draperies. Most -of his portraits merely betray the amount which the toilettes have cost; -they are inspired by their rich array of silk and heavy curtains; often -they are crude symphonies in velvet and satin. The rustle of robes, the -dazzling--or loud--fulness of colour in glistening materials, gave him -greater pleasure than the lustre of flesh-tints and any glance of -inquiry into the moral temperament of his models. Renoir endeavours to -arrest the scarcely perceptible and transitory movements of the features -and the figure. Placing his persons boldly in the real light of day -which streams around, he paints atmospheric influences in all their -results, like a landscapist. Light is the sole and absolute thing. The -fallen trunk of a tree upon which the broken sunlight plays in yellow -and light green reflections, and the body or head of a girl, are subject -to the same laws. Stippled with yellowish-green spots of light, the -latter loses its contours and becomes a part of nature. With this study -of the effects of light and reflection there is united an astonishing -sureness in the analysis of sudden phases of expression. The way in -which laughter begins and ends, the moment between laughter and weeping, -the passing flash of an eye, a fleeting motion of the lips, all that -comes like lightning and vanishes as swiftly, shades of expression which -had hitherto seemed indefinable, are seized by Renoir in all their -suddenness. In the portraits of Bonnat and Duran there are people who -have "sat," but here are people from whom the painter has had the power -of stealing and holding fast the secret of their being at a moment when -they were not "sitting." Here are dreamy blond girls gazing out of their -great blue eyes, ethereal fragrant flowers, like lilies leaning against -a rose-bush through which the rays of the setting sun are shining. Here -are coquettish young girls, now laughing, now pouting, now blithe and -gay, now angry once more, and now betwixt both moods in a charming -passion. And there are women of the world of consummate elegance, -slender and slight-built figures, with small hands and feet, an even -pallor, almond-shaped eyes catching every light, moist shining lips of a -tender grace, bearing witness to a love of pleasure refined by artifice. -And children especially there are, children of the sensitive and -flexuous type: some as yet unconscious, dreamy, and free from thought; -others already animated, correct in pose, graceful, and wise. The three -girls, in his "Portrait of Mesdemoiselles M----," grouped around the -piano, the eldest playing, the second accompanying upon the violin, and -the youngest quietly attentive, with both hands resting upon the piano, -are exquisite, painted with an entirely naïve and novel truth. All the -poses are natural, all the colours bright and subtle--the furniture, the -yellow bunches of flowers, the fresh spring dresses, the silk stockings. -But such tender poems of childhood and blossoming girlhood form merely a -part of Renoir's work. In his "Dinner at Chaton" a company of ladies and -gentlemen are seated at table, laughing, talking, and listening; the -champagne sparkles in the glasses, and the cheerful, easy mood which -comes with dessert is in the ascendant. In his "Moulin de la Galette" he -painted the excitement of the dance--whirling pairs, animated faces, -languid poses, and everything enveloped in sunlight and dust. Renoir's -peculiar field is the study of the various delicate emotions which -colour the human countenance. - -[Illustration: _By permission of M. Durand-Ruel._ - - MONET. A STUDY.] - -The merit of _Camille Pissarro_ is to have once more set the painting of -peasants, weakened by Breton, upon the virile lines of Millet, and to -have supplemented them in those places where Millet was technically -inadequate. When the Impressionist movement began Camille Pissarro had -already a past: he was the recognised landscape painter of the Norman -plains; the straightforward observer of peasants, the plain and simple -painter of the vegetable gardens stretching round peasant dwellings. -Since Millet, no artist had placed himself in closer relationship to the -life of the earth and of cultivated nature. Though a delicate analyst, -Pissarro had not the epic feeling nor the religious mysticism of Millet; -but like Millet he was a rustic in spirit, like him a Norman, from the -land of vineyards, of large farmyards, green meadows, soft avenues of -poplars, and wide horizons reddened by the sun. He was healthy, tender, -and intimate in feeling, rejoiced in the richness of the land and the -voluptuous undulation of fields, and he could give a striking impression -of a region in its work-a-day character. Celebrated in the press as the -legitimate descendant of Millet, he might have contented himself with -his regular successes. He had, indeed, arrived at an age when men -usually leave off making experiments, and reap what they have sown in -their youth, at an age when many conquerors occupy themselves with the -mechanical reproduction of their own works. Nevertheless the -Impressionistic movement became for Pissarro the starting-point of a new -way. - -[Illustration: CLAUDE MONET. _The Century._] - -[Illustration: MONET'S HOME AT GIVERNY. _The Century._] - -He aimed at fresher, intenser, and more transparent light, at a more -cogent observation of phenomena, at a more exact analysis of the -encompassing atmosphere. He celebrated the eternal, immutable light in -which the world is bathed. He loved it specially during clear -afternoons, when it plays over bright green meadows fringed by soft -trees, or at the foot of low hills. He has sought it on the slopes -across which it ripples deliciously, on the plains from which it rises -like a light veil of gauze. He studied the play of light upon the -bronzed skin of labourers, on the coats of animals, on the foliage and -fruit of trees. He characterised the seasons, the hour of day, the -moment, with the conscientiousness of a peasant intent upon noting the -direction of the wind and the position of the sun. The cold, chilly -humour of autumn afternoons, the vivid clarity of sparkling wintry -skies, the bloom and lightness of spring mornings, the oppressive -brooding of summer, the luxuriance or the aridity of the earth, the -young vigour of foliage or the fading of nature robbed of her -adornment,--all these Pissarro has painted with largeness, plainness, -and simplicity. He strays over the fields, watching the shepherd driving -out his flock, the wains rumbling along the uneven roads, the quiet, -rhythmical movement of the gleaners, the graceful gait of the women who -have been reaping and now return home in the evening with a rake across -their shoulders; he stations himself at the entrance of villages where -the apple-pickers are at work, and the women minding geese stand by -their drove; he notes the whole life of peasants, and gives truer and -more direct intelligence of it than Millet did in his broad, synthetic -manner. Where there is a classic quietude and an oily heaviness in -Millet, there is in Pissarro palpitating life, transparence, and -freshness. He sees the country in bright, laughing tones; and the pure -white of the kerchiefs, the pale rose-colour or tender blue bodices of -his peasant women, lend his pictures a blithe delicacy of colour. His -girls are like fresh flowers of the field which the sun of June brings -forth upon the meadows. There is something intense and yet soft, strong -and delicate, true and rhythmical in Pissarro's tender poems of country -life. - -[Illustration: MONET. MORNING ON THE SEINE.] - -[Illustration: MONET. A WALK IN GREY WEATHER. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -So long as any advance beyond Rousseau and Corot seemed impossible, -pictures of talent but only moderate importance had increased in number -in the province of landscape. The landscape painters who immediately -followed the great pioneers loved nature on account of her comparative -coolness in summer; upon sites where the classic artists of -Fontainebleau dreamed and painted they built comfortable villas and -settled down with the sentiments of a householder. The country was -parcelled out, and each one undertook his part, and painted it -conscientiously without arousing any novel sensations. Impressionism -gave landscape painting, which showed signs of being split into -specialties, once more a firm basis, a charming field of study. To -communicate impressions without any of the studio combinations, just as -they strike us suddenly, to preserve the vividness and cogency of the -first imprint of nature upon the mind, was the great problem which -Impressionism placed before the landscape painters. The artists of -Fontainebleau painted neither the rawness and rigidity of winter nor the -sultry atmosphere and scorching heat of summer; they painted artistic -and dignified and exquisite works. The Impressionists did not approach -their themes as poets, but as naturalists. In their hands landscape, -which in Corot, Millet, Diaz, Rousseau, Daubigny, and Jongkind is an -occasional poem, becomes a likeness of a region under special influences -of light. With more delicate nerves, and a sensibility almost greater, -they allowed nature to work upon them, and perceived in the symphonies -of every hour strains never heard before, transparent shadows, the -vibration of atoms of light. decomposing the lines of contour, that -tremor of the atmosphere which is the breath of landscape. Here also -England was not without influence. As Corot and Rousseau received an -impulse from Constable and Bonington in 1830, Monet and Sisley returned -from London with their eyes dazzled by the light of the great Turner. -Laid hold upon, like Turner, by the miracles of the universe, by the -golden haze which trembles in a sunbeam, they succeeded in painting -light in spite of the defectiveness of our chemical mediums. - -[Illustration: MONET. THE CHURCH AT VARANGÉVILLE. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -_Alfred Sisley_ might be compared with Daubigny. He settled in the -neighbourhood of Moret, upon the banks of the Loing, and is the most -soft and tender amongst the Impressionists. Like Daubigny, he loves the -germinating energy, the blossoming, and the growth of young and luminous -spring; the moist banks of quiet streamlets, budding beeches, and the -rye-fields growing green, the variegated flowering of the meadows, clear -skies, ladies walking in bright spring dresses, and the play of light -upon the vernal foliage. He has painted tender mornings breathed upon -with rosy bloom, reeds with a bluish gleam, and moist duck-weed, grey -clouds mirrored in lonely pools, alleys of poplar, peasants' houses, and -hills and banks, melting softly in the warm atmosphere. His pictures, -like those of the master of Oise, leave the impression of youth and -freshness, of quiet happiness, or of smiling melancholy. - -[Illustration: MONET. RIVER SCENE.] - -[Illustration: MONET. THE ROCKS AT BELLE-ISLE. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: MONET. HAY-RICKS. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -On many of his pictures, saturated as they are with light, _Claude -Monet_ could inscribe the name of Turner without inciting unbelief. In -exceedingly unequal works, which are nevertheless full of audacity and -genius, he has grasped what would seem to be intangible. Except Turner -there is no one who has carried so far the study of the effects of -light, of the gradations and reflections of sunbeams, of momentary -phases of illumination, no one who has embodied more subtle and forcible -impressions. For Monet man has no existence, but only the earth and the -light. He delights in the rugged rocks of Belle-Isle, and the wild banks -of the Creuse, when the oppressive sun of summer is brooding over them. -He paints phenomena as transitory as the shades of expression in Renoir. -The world appears in a glory of light, such as it only has in fleeting -moments, and such as would be blinding were it always to be seen. -Nature, in his version, is an inhospitable dwelling where it is -impossible to dream and live. One hopes sometimes to hear a word of -intimate association from Monet--but in vain; Claude Monet is only an -eye. Carouses of sunshine and orgies in the open air are the exclusive -materials of his pictures. Thus he has little to say for those who seek -the soul of a human being in every landscape. Like Degas, he is _par -excellence_ the master in technique whose highest endeavour is to -enrich the art of painting with novel sensations and unedited effects, -even if it has to be done by violence. There are sea-pieces filled with -the spirit of evening, when the sea, red as a mirror of copper, merges -into the glory of the sky, in a great radiant ocean of infinity; moods -of evening storm, when gloomy clouds over the restless tree-tops race -across the smoky red sky, losing tiny shreds in their flight, little -thin strips of loosened cloud, saturated through and through with a -wine-red glow by the splendour of the sun. Or there are spring meadows -fragrant with bloom, and hills parched by the sun; rushing trains with -their white smoke gleaming in the light; yellow sails scudding over -glittering waters; waves shining blue, red, and golden; and burning -ships, with shooting tongues of flame leaping upon the masts; and, -behind, a jagged rim of the evening glow. Claude Monet has followed -light everywhere--in Holland, Normandy, the South of France, -Belle-Isle-en-Mer, the villages of the Seine, London, Algiers, Brittany. -He became an enthusiast for nature as she is in Norway and Sweden, for -French cathedrals rising into the sky, tall and fair, like the peaks of -great promontories. He interpreted the surge of towns, the movement of -the sea, the majestic solitude of the sky. But he knows too that the -artist could pass his life in the same corner of the earth and work for -years upon the same objects without the drama of nature played before -him ever becoming exhausted. For the light which streams between things -is for ever different. So he stood one evening two paces in front of his -little house, in the garden, amid a flaming sea of flowers scarlet like -poppies. White summer clouds shifted in the sky, and the beams of the -setting sun fell upon two stacks, standing solitary in a solitary field. -Claude Monet began to paint, and came again the next day, and the day -after that, and every day throughout the autumn, and winter, and spring. -In a series of fifteen pictures, "The Hay-ricks," he painted--as Hokusai -did in his hundred views of the Fuji mountain--the endless variations -produced by season, day, and hour upon the eternal countenance of -nature. The lonely field is like a glass, catching the effects of -atmosphere, the breeze, and the most fleeting light. The stacks gleam -softly in the brightness of the beautiful afternoons, stand out sharp -and clear against the cold sky of the forenoon, loom like phantoms in -the mist of a November evening, or sparkle like glittering jewels -beneath the caress of the rising sun. They shine like glowing ovens, -absorbed by the light of the autumnal sunset; they are surrounded as by -a rosy halo, when the early sun pierces like a wedge through the dense -morning mist. They rise distinctly, covered with sparkling, rose-tinged -snow, into the cloudless heaven, and cast their pure, blue shadows upon -the silent, white, wintry landscape, or stand out in ghostly outlines -against the night firmament, mantled with silver by the moonlight. -Without moving his easel, Monet has interpreted the silence of winter, -and autumn with her sad and splendid feasts of colour--dusk and rain, -snow and frost and sun. He heard the voices of evening and the -jubilation of morning; he painted the eternal undulation of light upon -the same objects, the altered impression which the same particle of -nature yields according to the changing light of the hour. He chanted -the poetry of the universe in a single fragment of nature, and would be -a pantheistic artist of world-wide compass had he merely painted these -stacks of hay for the rest of his natural existence. - -[Illustration: _Gaz des Beaux-Arts._ - - MONET. A VIEW OF ROUEN. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -And here ends the battle for the liberation of modern art. _Libertas -artibus restituta._ The painters of the nineteenth century are no longer -imitators, but have become makers of a new thing, "enlargers of the -empire." The prophetic words written in the beginning of the nineteenth -century by the Hamburger, Philipp Otto Runge, "light, colour, and moving -life," were to form the great problem, the great conquest of modern art; -they were fulfilled after two generations. Through the Impressionists -art was enriched by an opulence of new beauties. A new and independent -style had been discovered for the representation of new things, and a -new province--a province peculiar to herself--was won for painting. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII - -THE NEW IDEALISM IN ENGLAND - - -The flood of Impressionism was at the same time crossed by another -current. Impressionism was a phase of progressive art of world-wide -influence. It proclaimed that nature and life were the inexhaustible -mine of beauty. Then after Naturalism had taught artists to work upon -the impressions of external reality in an independent manner, a -transition was made by some who embodied the impressions of their inward -spirit in a free creative fashion, unborrowed from the old masters. - -We feel the need of living not merely in the world around us, but in an -inner world that we build up ourselves, a world far more strange and -fair, far more luminous than that in which our feet stumble so -helplessly. We must needs mount upon the pinions of fancy into the wide -land of vision, build castles in the clouds, watch their rise and their -fall, and follow into misty distance the freaks of their changing -architecture. The more grey and colourless the present may be, the more -alluringly does the fairy splendour of vanished worlds of beauty flit -before us. It is the very banality of everyday life that renders us more -sensitive to the delicate charm of old myths, and we receive them in a -more childlike, impressionable way than any earlier age, for we look -upon them with fresh eyes that have been rendered keen by yearning. - -From all this it is evident that Impressionism could not remain the mode -of expression for the whole world of the present day. The longing for -old-world romance would brook no refusal. It was demanded from art not -that she should mirror nature, nature could be seen without her aid, but -that she should carry us away on dream-wings to a distant world more -beautiful than our own; not that she should be merely modern, but that -she should afford us even to-day some reflection of that beauty which -sheds forth its lustre from the works of the old masters. - -This yearning after far-off worlds of beauty was combined with a demand -for new delights of colour. The Impressionists had centred every effort -in compassing the most difficult elements of the world of -phenomena--light, air, and colour--ending in extreme imitation of -reality. Then came a desire for colours, more radiant, more vivid than -ever was seen on this poor world of ours; and since hardly any of the -younger generation fulfilled the desire of the modern longing, the -standard of a bygone age was raised aloft, and there set in the -anti-naturalistic, anti-modern current that still survived from the age -of romance in the work-a-day world of the present. - -How was it possible that England should have taken the lead upon this -occasion also? Can an Englishman, a matter-of-fact being who finds his -happiness in comfort and a practical sphere of action, be at the same -time a Romanticist? Is not London the most modern town in Europe? Yet, -without a question, this is the very reason why the New Romanticism -found its earliest expression there, although it was the place where -Naturalism had reigned longest and with the greatest strictness. There -was a reaction against the prose of everyday life, just as, in the -earlier part of the century, English landscape painting had been a -reaction against town life. To escape the whistle of locomotives and the -restless bustle of the struggle for existence, men take refuge in a -far-off world, a world where everything is fair and graceful, and all -emotions tender and noble, a world where no rudeness, no discord, and -nothing fierce or brutal disturbs the harmony of ideal perfection. These -artists become revellers in a land of fantasy, and flee from reality to -an inner life which they have created for themselves, wander from -London's railways and fogs to the sunny Italy of Botticelli, take their -rest in the land of poetry, and come back with packing-cases full of -lovely pictures and hearts full of happy emotions. - -Moreover, they find in the primitive artists that simplicity which is -most refreshing of all to overstrained spirits. Having produced Byron, -Shelley, and Turner, the English were artistic _gourmets_, sated with -all enjoyments in the realms of the intellect, and they now meditated -works through which yet a new thrill of beauty might pass through the -imagination. In the primitive masters they discovered all the qualities -which had vanished from art since the sixteenth century--inofficious -purity, innocent and touching Naturalism, antiquated austerity, and an -enchanting depth of feeling. Jaded with other experiences, they admired -in those naïve spirits the capacity for ecstatic rapture and vision--in -other words, for the highest gratification. If one could but have in -this nineteenth century such feelings as were known to Dante, the gloomy -Florentine; Botticelli, the great Jeremiah of the Renaissance; or the -tender mystic Fra Angelico! Surfeited with modernity, and endowed with -nerves of acute refinement, artists went back in their fancy to this -luxuriously blissful condition, and finally came to the point at which -modernity was transformed once more into childish babble and the -unbelieving materialism of the present age into a mystical and romantic -union with the old currents of emotion. - -Under the influence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti English pre-Raphaelitism -now entered upon a new and entirely different phase. - -[Illustration: DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. _Mag. of Art._] - -Although Rossetti was the soul of the earlier movement, he was a man -whose temperament was even then essentially different from that of his -comrades Millais and Hunt, who founded the Brotherhood with him in 1848. -Even the two works which he exhibited with them in 1849 and 1850 make -one feel the great gulf which lay between him and them. In the former -year, when Hunt was represented by his "Rienzi," and Millais by his -"Lorenzo and Isabella," Rossetti produced his "Girlhood of Mary Virgin." -In the following, when Hunt painted "The Converted British Family -sheltering a Christian Missionary" and Millais "The Child Jesus in the -Workshop of Joseph the Carpenter," Rossetti came forward with his "Ecce -Ancilla Domini." "The Girlhood of Mary Virgin" was a little picture of -austere simplicity and ascetic character; it was intentionally angular -in drawing, and possessed a certain archaic bloom. The Virgin, clad in -grey garments, sits at a curiously shaped frame embroidering a lily with -gold threads upon a red ground. The flower she is copying stands before -her in a vase, and a little angel, with roseate wings, is watering it -with an air of abashed reverence. St. Anne is busy by the side of the -Virgin--both being, respectively, portraits of the artist's mother and -sister--and in the background St. Joachim is binding a vine to a -trellis. And several Latin books are lying upon the floor. The second -work, "Ecce Ancilla Domini," is the familiar picture which is now in the -National Gallery--a harmony of white upon white of indescribable -graciousness and delicacy. Mary, a bashful, meditative, and childlike -maiden, in a white garment, is shown in a half-kneeling attitude upon a -white bed. The walls of the chamber are white, and in front of her there -stands a frame at which she has been working; and a piece of embroidery, -with a lily which she has begun, hangs over it. Before her stands the -angel with flame rising from his feet, in solemn, peaceful gravity, as -he extends towards her the stalk of the lily which he holds. A dove -flies gently in through the window. Now, in spite of their romantic -subjects the work of Hunt and Millais is lucid and temperate, while -Rossetti is dreamily mystical. The two former were straightforward, -true, and natural, whereas the simplicity of the latter was subtilised -and consciously affected. It was due to the vibrating delicacy of his -distempered, seething imagination that he was able to give himself a -deceptive appearance of being a primitive artist. The creative power of -the two former is an earnest power of the understanding, whereas in the -latter there is a vague dreaminess, a tendency to luxuriate in his own -moods, an efflorescence of tones and colours. In the one case there is -an angular but single-minded study of nature; in the other there is the -demureness and embarrassment of the Quattrocento, a demureness breaking -into blossom, and an embarrassment full of charm--a romanticism which -cherished the yearning for repose in the childlike and innocent Middle -Ages, and clothed it with all the attractions of mysticism. Holman Hunt, -Madox Brown, and Millais were realists in their drawing, men who wanted -to represent objects with all possible accuracy, to be faithful in -rendering the finest fibre of a petal and every thread in a fabric. -Rossetti's picture was a symphonic ode in pigments, and he himself was -one of the earliest of the modern lyricists of colour. This distinction -became wider and wider with the course of time, and as early as 1858 he -found himself deserted by his earlier comrades. Madox Brown, Holman -Hunt, and especially Millais, in their further development, tended more -and more to become Naturalists, and were finally led to completely -realistic subjects from the immediate present by the inviolable fidelity -with which they studied nature. On the other hand, Rossetti became the -centre of a new circle of artists, who directed the current of what was -originally Naturalism more and more into mysticism and refined archaism. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - ROSSETTI. BEATA BEATRIX. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -In 1856 _The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine_ was founded as a monthly -periodical. There were several contributions by Rossetti, and in this -way he became so well known in Oxford that the Union accepted an offer -from him to execute a series of wall-paintings. Accordingly he painted -several pictures from the Arthurian legends, making the sketches for -them himself, and employing for their elaboration a number of young men, -some of them amateur artists and students at the University. In this way -he came into connection with Arthur Hughes, William Morris, and Edward -Burne-Jones. These artists, afterwards joined by Spencer Stanhope and -Walter Crane, both of them younger men, became--with George Frederick -Watts at their flank--the leading members of the new brotherhood, the -representatives of that New pre-Raphaelitism in which interest is still -centred in England. - -[Illustration: _Pageant._ - - ROSSETTI. MONNA ROSA. - - (_By permission of Mr. W. M. Rossetti._)] - -Their art is a kind of Italian Renaissance upon English soil. The -romantic chord which vibrates in old English poetry is united to the -grace and purity of Italian taste, the classical lucidity of the Pagan -mythology with Catholic mysticism, and the most modern riot of emotion -with the demure vesture of the primitive Florentines. Through this -mixture of heterogeneous elements English New Idealism is probably the -most remarkable form of art upon which the sun has ever shone: borrowed -and yet in the highest degree personal, it is an art combining an almost -childlike simplicity of feeling with a morbid _hautgoût_, the most -attentive and intelligent study of the old masters with free, creative, -modern imagination, the most graceful sureness of drawing and the most -sparkling individuality of colour with a helpless, stammering accent -introduced of set purpose. The old Quattrocentisti wander amongst the -real Italian flowers; but with the New pre-Raphaelites one enters a -hot-house: one is met by a soft damp heat, bright exotic flowers exhale -an overpowering fragrance, juicy fruits catch the eye, and slender -palms, through the branches of which no rough wind may bluster, gently -sway their long, broad fans. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - ROSSETTI. ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI. - - (_By permission of Messrs. T. Agnew & Sons, the owners of the - copyright._)] - -Professor Lombroso would certainly find the material for ingenious -disquisition in Rossetti, who introduced this Italian phase, and himself -came of an Italian stock. And it might almost seem as if a soul from -those old times had found its reincarnation in the lonely painter who -lived at Chelsea, though it was a soul who no longer bore heaven in his -heart like Fra Angelico. In his whole being he seems like a phenomenon -of atavism, like a citizen of that long-buried Italy who, after many -transmigrations, had strayed into the misty North, to the bank of the -Thames, and from thence looked in his home-sickness ever towards the -South, enveloped in poetry and glowing in the sun. - -Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a Catholic and an Italian. Amid his English -surroundings he kept the feelings of one of Latin race. His father, the -patriot and commentator upon Dante, had originally lived in Naples, and -inflamed the popular party there by his passionate writings. In -consequence of the active part which he took in political agitation he -lost his post at the Bourbon Museum, escaped from Italy upon a warship, -disguised as an English officer, settled in London in 1824, and married -Francesca Polidori, the daughter of a secretary of Count Alfieri. Here -he became Professor of the Italian language at King's College, and -published several works on Dante, the most important of which, _Dante's -Beatrice_, written in 1852, once more supported the theory that Beatrice -was not a real person. Dante Gabriel, the son of this Dante student -Gabriele Rossetti, was born in London on 12th May 1828. The whole family -actively contributed to scholarship and poetry. His elder sister, Maria -Francesca, was the authoress of _A Shadow of Dante_, a work which gives -a most valuable explanation of the scheme of _The Divine Comedy_; his -younger sister, Christina, was one of the most eminent poetesses of -England; and his brother, William Michael Rossetti, is well known as an -art-critic and a student of Shelley. Even from early youth Dante Gabriel -Rossetti was familiar with the world of Dante, and brought up in the -worship of Dante's wonderful age and an enthusiasm for his mystic and -transcendental poetry. He knew Dante by heart, and Guido Cavalcanti. The -mystical poet became his guide through life, and led him to Fra -Angelico, the mystic of painting. Indeed, the world of Dante and of the -painters antecedent to Raphael is his spiritual home. - -[Illustration: _Portfolio._ - - ROSSETTI. SANCTA LILIAS.] - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - ROSSETTI. ASTARTE SYRIACA. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -[Illustration: _Mansell & Co._ - - ROSSETTI. THE DAY DREAM.] - -He was barely eighteen when he became a pupil at the Royal Academy, -studying a couple of years later under Madox Brown, who was not many -years older than himself. Even then Rossetti had an almost mesmeric -influence upon his friends. He was a pale, tall, thin young man, who -always walked with a slight stoop; reserved, dry in his manner, and -careless in dress, there was nothing captivating about him at a -transitory meeting. But his pale face was lit up by his unusually -reflective, deeply clouded, contemplative eyes; and about his defiant -mouth there played that contempt of the profane crowd which is natural -to a superior mind, while the laurel of fame was already twined about -his youthful forehead. In 1849, when he was exhibiting his earliest -picture, he had published in _The Germ_, to say nothing of his numerous -poems, a mystical, visionary, sketch in prose named _Hand and Soul_, -which was much praised by men of the highest intellect in London. Soon -afterwards he published a volume entitled _Dante and his Circle_, in -which he translated a number of old Italian poems, and rendered Dante's -_Vita Nuova_ into strictly archaic English prose. Reserved as he was -towards strangers, he was irresistibly attractive to his friends, and -his brilliant, genial conversation won him the goodwill of every one. A -man of gifted and delicate nature, sensitive to an extreme degree, a -sedentary student who had yet an enthusiasm for knightly deeds, a jaded -spirit capable of morbidly heightened, exotic sensibility and soft, -melting reverie, one whose overstrained nerves only vibrated if he slept -in the daytime and worked at night, it seemed as though Rossetti was -born to be the father of the _décadence_, of that state of spirit which -every one now perceives to be flooding Europe. - -[Illustration: ROSSETTI. STUDY FOR ASTARTE SYRIACA.] - -His later career was as quiet as its opening had been brilliant. After -that graciously sentimental little picture, "Ecce Ancilla Domini," -Rossetti exhibited in public only once again; this was in 1856. From -that date the public saw no more of his painting. He worked only for his -friends and the friends of his friends. He was famous only in private, -and looked up to like a god within a narrow circle of admirers. One of -his acquaintances, the painter Deverell, had introduced him in 1850 to -the woman who became for him what Saskia Uylenburgh had been for -Rembrandt and Helene Fourment for Rubens--his type of feminine beauty. -She was a young dressmaker's assistant, Miss Eleanor Siddal. Her thick, -heavy hair was fair, with that faint reddish tint in it which Titian -painted; it grew in two tapering bands deep down into the neck, being -there somewhat fairer than it was above, and it curled thickly. Her eyes -had something indefinite in their expression; nothing, however, that was -dreamy, mobile, and changeable, for they seemed rather to be -insuperable, fathomless, and unnaturally vivid. All the play of her -countenance lay in the lower part of her face, in the nostrils, mouth, -and chin. The mouth, indeed, with its deep corners, sharply chiselled -outlines, and lips triumphantly curved, was particularly expressive. And -her tall, slender figure had a refined distinction of line. In 1860 they -married. Some of his most beautiful works were painted during this -epoch--the "Beata Beatrix," the "Sibylla Palmifera," "Monna Vanna," -"Venus Verticordia," "Lady Lilith," and "The Beloved"--pictures which he -painted without a thought of exhibition or success. After a union of -barely two years this passionately loved woman died, shortly after the -birth of a still-born child. He laid a whole volume of manuscript -poems--many of them inspired by her--in the coffin, and they were buried -with her. From that time he lived solitary and secluded from the world, -surrounded by mediæval antiques, in his old-fashioned house at Chelsea, -entirely given up to his dreams, a stranger in a world without light. He -suffered much from ill-health, and was sensitive and hypochondriacal, -and, indeed, undermined his health by an immoderate use of chloral. His -friends entreated him to bring out his poems, and all England was -expectant when Rossetti at length yielded to pressure, opened the grave -of his wife, and took out the manuscript. The poems appeared in the -April of 1870. The first edition was bought up in ten days, and there -followed six others. Wherever he appeared he was honoured like a god. -But the attacks directed against the first pictures of the -pre-Raphaelites were repeated, although now transferred to another -region. A pseudonymous article by Robert Buchanan in the _Contemporary -Review_, and published afterwards as a pamphlet, entitled _The Fleshly -School of Poetry_, accused Rossetti of immorality and imitation of -Baudelaire and the Marquis de Sade. Rossetti stepped once more into the -arena, and replied by a letter in the _Athenæum_ headed _The Stealthy -School of Criticism_. From that time he shut himself up completely, -never went out, and led "the hole-and-cornerest existence." - -In 1881 he published a second volume of poems, chiefly composed of -ballads and sonnets. A year afterwards, on 10th April 1882, he died, -honoured, even in the academical circles in which he never mingled, as -one of the greatest men in England. The exhibition of his works which -was opened a couple of months after his death created an immense -sensation. Those of his pictures which had not been already sold -straight from the easel were paid for with their weight in gold, and are -now scattered in great English country mansions and certain private -galleries in Florence. The only very rich collection in London is that -of an intimate friend of the artist, the late Mr. Leyland, who had -gathered together, in his splendid house in the West End, probably the -most beautiful work of which the East can boast in carpets and vases, or -the early Renaissance in intaglios, small bronzes, and ornaments. Here, -surrounded by the quaint and delicate pictures of Carlo Crivelli and -Botticelli, Rossetti was in the society of his contemporaries. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - ROSSETTI. DANTE'S DREAM. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Liverpool, the owners of the - picture._)] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - ROSSETTI. ROSA TRIPLEX. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -His range of subject was not wide. In his earliest period he had a fancy -for painting small biblical pictures, of which "Ecce Ancilla Domini" is -the best known, and the delightfully archaic "Girlhood of Mary Virgin" -one of the most beautiful. But this austerely biblical tendency was not -of long continuance. It soon gave way to a brilliant, imaginative -Romanticism, to which he was prompted by Dante. "Giotto painting the -Portrait of Dante," "The Salutation of Beatrice on Earth and in Eden" -(from the _Vita Nuova_), "La Pia" (from the _Purgatorio_), the "Beata -Beatrix," and "Dante's Dream," in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, -are the leading works which arose under the influence of the great -Italian. The head of his wife, with her heavily veiled eyes, and -Giotto's well-known picture of Dante, sufficed him for the creation of -the most tender, mystical poems, which, at the same time, show him in -all the splendour of his wealth of colour. He revels in the most -brilliant hues; his pictures have the appearance of being bathed in a -glow; and there is something deeply sensuous in his vivid and lustrous -green, red, and violet tones. In the picture "Dante on the Anniversary -of Beatrice's Death" the poet kneels at the open window which looks out -upon Florence; he has been drawing, and a tablet is in his hand. The -room is quite simple, a frieze with angels' heads being its only -ornament. Visitors of rank have come to see him--an elderly magnate and -his daughter--and have stood long behind him without his noticing their -presence; for he has been thinking of Beatrice, and it is only when his -attention is attracted to them by a friend that he turns round at last. -The "Beata Beatrix," in the National Gallery in London--a picture begun -in 1863 and ended in the August of 1866--treats of the death of Beatrice -"under the semblance of a trance, in which Beatrice, seated in a balcony -overlooking the city, is suddenly rapt from earth to heaven." In -accordance with the description in the _Vita Nuova_, Beatrice sits in -the balcony of her father's palace in strange ecstasy. Across the -parapet of the balcony there is a view of the Arno and of that other -palace where Dante passed his youth close to his adored mistress, until -the unforgotten 9th of June 1290, when death robbed him of her. A -peaceful evening light is shed upon the bank of the Arno, and plays upon -the parapet with warm silvery beams. Beatrice is dressed in a garment -belonging to no definite epoch, of green and rosy red, the colours of -Love and Hope. Her head rises against a little patch of yellow sky -between the two palaces, and seems to be surrounded by it as by a halo. -She is in a trance, has the foreknowledge of her approaching death, and -already lives through the spirit in another world, whilst her body is -still upon the earth. Her hands are touched by a heavenly light. A dove -of deep rose-coloured plumage alights upon her knees, bringing her a -white poppy; whilst opposite, before the palace of Dante, the figure of -Love stands, holding a flaming heart, and announcing to the poet that -Beatrice has passed to a life beyond the earth. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - ROSSETTI. SIR GALAHAD.] - -[Illustration: _Pageant._ - - ROSSETTI. MARY MAGDALENE AT THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE. - - (_By permission of Mr. W. M. Rossetti._)] - -"La Donna Finestra," painted in 1879, and to be counted amongst his -ripest creations, has connection with that passage in the _Vita Nuova_ -where Dante sinks to the ground overcome with sorrow for Beatrice's -death, and is regarded with sympathy by a lady looking down from a -window, the Lady of Pity, the human embodiment of compassion. "Dante's -Dream" is probably the work which shows the painter at his zenith. The -expression of the heads is profound and lofty, the composition severely -mediæval and admirably complete; and although the painting is laboured, -the total impression is nevertheless so cogent that it is impossible to -forget it. "The scene," in Rossetti's own description, "is a chamber of -dreams, strewn with poppies, where Beatrice is seen lying on a couch, as -if just fallen back in death; the winged figure of Love carries his -arrow pointed at the dreamer's heart, and with it a branch of -apple-blossom; as he reaches the bier, Love bends for a moment over -Beatrice with the kiss which her lover has never given her; while the -two green-clad dream-ladies hold the pall full of May-blossom suspended -for an instant before it covers her face for ever." The expression of -ecstasy in Dante's face, and the still, angelical sweetness of Beatrice, -are rendered with astonishing intensity. She lies upon the bier, pale as -a flower, wrapped in a white shroud, with her lips parted as though she -were gently breathing, and seems not dead but fallen asleep. Her fair -hair floats round her in golden waves. In its vague folds the covering -of the couch displays the marble outlines of the body: and a look of -bliss rests upon the pure and clear-cut features of her lovely face. - -[Illustration: BURNE-JONES. CHANT D'AMOUR. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: BURNE-JONES. THE DAYS OF CREATION. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -This "painting of the soul" occupied Rossetti almost exclusively in the -third and most fruitful period of his life, when he painted hardly any -pictures upon the larger scale, but separate feminine figures furnished -with various poetic attributes, the deeper meaning of which is -interpreted in his poems. "The Sphinx," in which he busied himself with -the great riddle of life, is the only one containing several figures. -Three persons--a youth, a man of ripe years, and a grey-beard--visit the -secret dwelling of the Sphinx to inquire their destiny of this -omniscient being. It is only the man who really puts the question; the -grey-beard stumbles painfully towards her cavern, while the young man, -wearied with his journey, falls dying to the earth before the very -object of his quest. The Sphinx remains in impenetrable silence, with -her green, inscrutable, mysterious eyes coldly and pitilessly fixed upon -infinity. "The Blessed Damozel," "Proserpina," "Fiammetta," "The -Daydream," "La Bella Mano," "La Ghirlandata," "Veronica Veronese," "Dis -Manibus," "Astarte Syriaca" are all separate figures dedicated to the -memory of his wife. As Dante immortalised his Beatrice, Rossetti -honoured his wife, who died so early, in his poems and his pictures. He -painted her as "The Blessed Damozel," with her gentle, saint-like face, -her quiet mouth, her flowing golden hair and peaceful lids. He -represents her as an angel of God standing at the gate of Heaven, -looking down upon the earth. She is thinking of her lover, and of the -time when she will see him again in heaven, and of the sacred songs that -will be sung to him. Lilies rest upon her arm, and lovers once more -united hover around. - -There is no action or rhetoric of gesture in Rossetti. His tall Gothic -figures are motionless and silent, having almost the floating appearance -of visionary figures which stand long before the gaze of the dreamer -without taking bodily form. They glide along like phantoms and shadows, -like the undulations of a blossom-laden tree or a field of corn waving -in the wind. They neither talk nor weep nor laugh, and are only eloquent -through their quiet hands, the most sensuous and the most spiritual -hands ever painted, or with their eyes, the most dreamy and fascinating -eyes which have been rendered in art since Leonardo da Vinci. In the -pictures which Rossetti devoted to her, Eleanor Siddal is a marvellously -lofty woman, glorified in the mysticism of a rare beauty. Rossetti -drapes his idol in Venetian fashion, with rich garments which recall -Giorgione in the character of their colour, and, like Botticelli, he -strews flowers of deep fragrance around her, especially roses, which he -painted with wonderful perfection and hyacinths, for which he had a -great love, and the intoxicating perfume of which affected him greatly. - -[Illustration: BURNE-JONES. CIRCE. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -This taste for beautiful and deeply lustrous colours and rich -accessories is, indeed, the one purely pictorial quality which this -painter-poet has, if one understands by pictorial qualities the capacity -for intoxicating one's self with the beauty of the visible world. His -drawing is often faulty; and his bodies, enveloped in rich and heavy -garments, are, perhaps, not invariably in accordance with anatomy. What -explains Rossetti's fabulous success is purely the condition of spirit -which went to the making of his works--that nervous vibration, that -ecstasy of opium, that combination of suffering and sensuousness, and -that romanticism drunk with beauty, which pervade his paintings. When -they appeared they seemed like a revelation of a beautiful land, only -one could not say where it existed--a revelation, indeed, for it -revealed for the first time a world of story which was in no sense -fabulous: there came a romanticism which was something real; a style -arose which seemed as though it were woven of tones and colours, a style -rioting in an everlasting exhilaration of spirit, breaking out sometimes -in a glow of flame and sometimes in delicate, tremulous longing. Even -where he paints a Madonna she is merely a woman in his eyes, and he -endows her with the glowing fire of passionate fervour, with a trace of -the joy of the earth, which no painter has ever given her before; and -through this union of refined modern sensuousness and Catholic mysticism -he has created a new thrill of beauty. His painting was a drop of a -most precious essence, in its hues enchanting and intoxicating, the -strongest spiritual potion ever brewed in English art. The intensity of -his overstrained sensibility, and the wonderful Southern mosaic of form -into which he poured this sensibility with elaborate refinement, make -him seem own brother to Baudelaire. - -[Illustration: BURNE-JONES. PYGMALION (THE SOUL ATTAINS). - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _Pageant._ - - BURNE-JONES. PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA.] - -This tendency of spirit was so novel, this plunge in the tide of -mysticism so enchanting, this delicate, archaic fragrance so -overwhelming, that a new stage in the culture of modern England dates -from the appearance of Rossetti. He borrowed nothing from his -contemporaries, and all borrowed from him. There came a time when -budding girls in London attired themselves like early Italians from -Dante's _Inferno_, when Jellaby Postlethwaite, in Du Maurier's mocking -skit, entered a restaurant at luncheon-time, and ordered a glass of -water and placed in it a lily which he had brought with him. "What else -can I bring?" asked the waiter. "Nothing," he sighed; "that is all I -need." There began that æstheticism, that yearning for the lily and that -cult of the sunflower, which Gilbert and Sullivan parodied in -_Patience_. Swinburne, who has tasted of emotions of the most various -realms of spirit, and in his poems set them before the world as though -in marvellously chiselled goblets, represents this æsthetic phase of -English art in literature. As a painter, Edward Burne-Jones--the -greatest of that Oxford circle which gathered round Rossetti in -1856--began to work at the point where Rossetti left off. - -[Illustration: BURNE-JONES. THE ANNUNCIATION. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _Mansell Photo._ - - BURNE-JONES. THE MILL.] - -_Sir Edward Burne-Jones_, who must now be spoken of, was born in -Birmingham in August 1833, and was reading theology in Oxford when -Rossetti was there painting the mural pictures for the Union. Rossetti -attracted him as a flame attracts the moth. As yet he had not had any -artistic training, but some of his drawings which were shown to Rossetti -by a mutual friend revealed so much poetic force, in spite of their -embarrassed method of expression, that the painter-poet entered into -communication with him, and allowed him to paint in the Debating Room of -the Union a subject from the Arthurian legends, "The Death of Merlin." -The picture met with approval, and Burne-Jones abandoned theology, -became an intimate friend of Rossetti and the companion of his studies, -and went with him to London. There he designed a number of church -windows for Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and in 1864 exhibited his -first picture, "The Merciful Knight." Later there followed the triptych -"Pyramus and Thisbe" and a picture called "The Evening Star," a -glimmering landscape through which a gentle spirit in a bronze-green -garment is seen to float. But none of these works excited much -attention. The small picture exhibited in 1870, "Phyllis and Demophoön," -was even thought offensive on account of the "sensuous expression" of -the nymph. So Burne-Jones withdrew it, and for many years from that time -held aloof from all the exhibitions of the Royal Academy. For seven -years his name was never seen in a catalogue. It was only on 1st May -1877, at the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery--founded by Sir Coutts -Lindsay, likewise a painter, to afford himself and his comrades a place -of exhibition independent of the Academy--that Burne-Jones once more -made his appearance before the eyes of the world. But his pictures, like -those of Rossetti, had found their way in secrecy and by their own -merit, and of a sudden he saw himself regarded as one of the most -eminent painters in the country. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - BURNE-JONES. THE ENCHANTMENT OF MERLIN. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -His art is the flower of most potent fragrance in English æstheticism, -and the admiration accorded to him in England is almost greater than -that which had been previously paid to Rossetti. The Grosvenor Gallery, -where he exhibited his pictures at this period, was for a long time a -kind of temple for the æsthetes. On the opening day men and women of the -greatest refinement crowded before his works. There was a cult of -Burne-Jones at the Grosvenor Gallery, as there is a cult of Wagner at -Bayreuth. One had to work one's way very gradually through the crowd to -see his pictures, which always occupied the place of honour in the -principal room of the gallery, and I remember how helplessly I stood in -1884 before the first of his pictures which I saw there. - -In a kind of vestibule of early Gothic architecture there was seated in -the foreground an armed man, who, in his dark, gleaming harness and his -hard and bold profile, was like a Lombard warrior, say Mantegna's Duke -of Mantua, and as he mused he held in his hand an iron crown studded -with jewels; farther in the background, upon a high marble throne, a -maiden was seated, a young girl with reddish hair and a pale worn face, -looking with steadfast eyes far out into another world, as though in a -hypnotic trance. Two youths, apparently pages, sang, leaning upon a -balustrade; while all manner of costly accessories, brilliant stuffs, -lustrous marble, grey granite, and mosaic pavement, shining in green and -red tones, lent the whole picture an air of exquisite richness. The -title in the catalogue was "King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid," and any -one acquainted with Provençal poetry knew that King Cophetua, the hero -of an old ballad, fell in love with a beggar-girl, offered her his -crown, and married her. But this was not to be gathered from the picture -itself, where all palpable illustration of the story was avoided. -Nevertheless a vague sense of emotional disquietude was revealed in it. -The two leading persons of the strange idyll, the earnest knight and the -pallid maiden, are not yet able themselves to understand how all has -come to pass--how she, the beggar-maid, should be upon the marble -throne, and he, the king, kneeling on the steps before her whom he has -exalted to be a queen. They remain motionless and profoundly silent, but -their hearts are alive and throbbing. They have feeling which they -cannot comprehend themselves, and the past and present surge through one -another: life is a dream, and the dream is life. - -[Illustration: _Pageant._ - - BURNE-JONES. THE SEA NYMPH. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -Everything that Burne-Jones has created is at once fragrant, mystical, -and austere, like this picture. His range of subject is most extensive. -In his _Princess_ Alfred Tennyson had quickened into new life the -legends of chivalry, and in his _Idylls of the King_ the tales of the -Knights of the Holy Grail. Swinburne published his _Atalanta in -Calydon_, in which he exercised once more the mysterious spell of the -ancient drama, while he created in _Chastelard_, _Bothwell_, and _Mary -Stuart_ a trilogy of the finest historical tragedies ever written, and -showed in _Tristram of Lyonesse_ that even Tennyson had not exhausted -all the beauty in old legends of the time of King Arthur; while, as -early as 1866, he had given to the world his _Poems and Ballads_, -dedicated to Burne-Jones. In these works lie the ideas to which the -painter has given form and colour. - -[Illustration: _Portfolio._ - - BURNE-JONES. THE GOLDEN STAIRS. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, owner of the copyright._)] - -He paints Circe in a saffron robe, preparing the potion to enchant the -companions of Ulysses, with a strange light in her orbs, while two -panthers fawn at her feet. He represents the goddess of Discord at the -marriage-feast of Thetis, a ghastly, pallid figure, entering amongst the -gods who are celebrating the occasion, and holding the fateful apple in -her hand. He depicts Pygmalion, the artist King of Cyprus, supplicating -Aphrodite to breathe life into the sculptured image of a maiden, the -work of his own hands. - -Apart from classical antiquity, he owes some of his inspiration to the -Bible and Christian legends, the sublimity of their grave tragedies, and -the troubled sadness of their yearning and exaltation. One of his -leading works devotes six pictures to the days of creation. An -angel--accompanied in every case by the angels of the previous -days--carries a sphere, in which may be seen the stars, the waters, the -trees, the animals, and the first man and woman, in their proper -sequence. The scene of the "Adoration of the Kings" is a landscape where -fragrant roses bloom in the shadow of the slender stems of trees, which -rise straight as a bolt. The Virgin sits in their midst calm and -unapproachable, and in her lap the Child, who is more slender than in -the pictures of Cimabue. The three Wise Men--tall, gigantic figures, -clad in rich mediæval garments--approach softly, whilst an angel floats -perpendicularly in the air as a silent witness. - -In his picture "The Annunciation" Mary is standing motionless beside the -great basin of a well-spring, at the portico of her house. To the left -the messenger of God appears in the air. He has floated solemnly down, -and it seems as if the folds of his robes, which fall straight from the -body, had hardly been ruffled in his flight, as if his wings had -scarcely moved; with the extremities of his feet he touches the branches -of a laurel. Mary does not shrink, and makes no gesture. There they -stand, gravely, and as still as statues. The robe of the angel is white, -and white that of the Virgin, and white the marble floor and the -wainscoting of the house; and it is only the pinions of the heavenly -messenger that gleam in a golden brightness. A picture called "Sponsa -die Libano" bore as a motto the words from _The Song of Solomon_: -"Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that -the spices thereof may flow out." The bride, in an ample blue robe, -walks musing beside a stream, upon the bank of which white lilies grow, -whilst the vehement figures of the North and South Winds rush through -the air in grey, fluttering garments. - -In addition to his love for Homer and the Bible, Burne-Jones has a -passion for the old Trouvères of the _Chansons de Geste_, the great and -fanciful adventures of vanished chivalry, Provençal courts of love, and -the legends of Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table. His -"Chant d'Amour" is like a page torn out of an old English or Provençal -tale. On the meadow before a mediæval town a lady is kneeling, a sort of -St. Cecilia, in a white upper-garment and a gleaming skirt, playing upon -an organ, the full chords of which echo softly through the evening -landscape. To the left a young knight is sitting upon the ground, and -silently listens, lost in the music, while a strange figure, clad in -red, is pressing upon the bellows of the instrument. "The Enchantment of -Merlin," with which he made his first appearance in 1877, illustrated -the passage in the old legend of Merlin and Vivien, relating how it came -to pass one day that she and Merlin entered a forest, which was called -the forest of Broceliande, and found a glorious wood of whitethorn, very -high and all in blossom, and seated themselves in the shadow: and Merlin -fell asleep, and when she saw that he slept she raised herself softly, -and began the spell, exactly according to the teaching of Merlin, -drawing the magic circle nine times and uttering the spell nine times. -And Merlin looked around him, and it seemed to him as though he were -imprisoned in a tower, the highest in the world, and he felt his -strength leave him as if the blood were streaming from his veins. - -In other pictures he abandons all attempt to introduce ideas, confining -himself to the simple grouping of tender girlish figures, by means of -which he makes a beautiful composition of the most subtle lines, forms, -colours, and gestures. The "Golden Stairs" of 1878 was a picture of -this description: a train of girls, beautiful as angels, descended the -steps without aim or object, most of them with musical instruments, and -all with the same delicate feet and the same robes falling in beautiful -folds. In this year he also produced "Venus' Looking-glass": a number of -nymphs assembled by the side of a clear pool at sunset, in the midst of -a sad and solemn landscape, are kneeling by the water's edge together, -reflected in its surface. - -[Illustration: BURNE-JONES. THE WOOD NYMPH. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -Besides these numerous canvases, mention must be made of the decorative -works of the master. For the English church in Rome, Burne-Jones has -designed decorations in a rich and grave Byzantine style, and in -England, where mural decoration has little space accorded to it in -churches, there is all the more comprehensive scope for painting upon -glass. Until the sixties church windows of this kind were almost -exclusively ordered from Germany. The court depôt of glass-painting in -Munich provided for the adornment of Glasgow Cathedral from drawings by -Schwind, Heinrich Hess, and Schraudolph, and for the windows of St. -Paul's from designs by Schnorr, while Kaulbach was employed for a public -building in Edinburgh. In these days Burne-Jones reigns over this whole -province. Where the German masters handled glass-painting by modernising -it like a Nazarene fresco, Burne-Jones, who has penetrated deeply into -the mediæval treatment of form, created a new style in glass-painting, -and one exquisitely in keeping with the Neo-Gothic architecture of -England. His most important works of this description are probably the -glass windows which he designed for St. Martin's Church and St. Philip's -Church in Birmingham, his native town. These labours of his in the -province of Gothic window-painting explain how he came to his style of -painting at the easel: he habituated himself to compose his pictures -with the architectonical sentiment of a Gothic artist. Forced to satisfy -the requisitions of the slender, soaring Gothic style, he came to paint -his tall, straight-lined figures, the composition of which is not -triangular in the old fashion, but formed in long lines as in vertical -church windows. - -It is not difficult to find prototypes for every one of these works of -his. His sibyls recall Pompeii. His church decoration would never have -arisen but for the mosaics of Ravenna. And those angels in golden -drapery with grave, hieratical gestures in the pictures of the -Trecentisti influenced him in his "Days of Creation." Other works of his -suggest the Etruscan vases or the suavity of Duccio. "Laus Veneris" has -the severe classicality of Mantegna saturated with Bellini's warmth of -hue. The "Chant d'Amour," in its deep splendour of colour, is like an -idyll by Giorgione. And often he heaps together costly work in gold and -ivory like the Florentine goldsmith painters Pollajuolo and Verrochio. -Many of his young girls are of lineal descent from those slender, -flexible, feminine saints of Perugino, painted in sweeping lines and -planted upon small flat feet. Often, too, when he exaggerates his Gothic -principles and gives them eight-and-a-half or nine times the proportion -of their heads, they seem, with their lengthy necks and slim hands fit -for princesses, like younger sisters of Parmigianino's lithe-limbed -women; while sometimes their movements have a more ample grace, a more -majestic nobility, and their lips are moved by the mystical inward smile -of Luini, so unfathomably subtle in its silent reserve. But it is -Botticelli who is most often brought to mind. Burne-Jones has borrowed -from him the fine transparent gauze draperies, clinging to the limbs and -betraying clearly the girlish forms in his pictures; the splendid -mantles, flowered and adorned with dainty patterns of gold; the taste -for Southern vegetation, for flowers and fruits, and artificial bowers -of thick palm leaves or delicate boughs of cypress, which he delights in -using as a refined and significant embellishment; from Botticelli he has -borrowed all the attributes with which he has endowed his -angels--rose-garlands and vases, tapers and tall lilies; even his type -of womanhood has an outward resemblance to that of the Florentine, with -its long, delicate, oval face framed in wavy hair, its dreamy eyes and -finely arched brows, its dainty and rather tip-tilted nose, and its -ripe, delicately curving mouth slightly opened. Indeed, Burne-Jones's -painting is like one of those gilded flower-tables where plants of all -latitudes mingle their tendrils and their foliage, their bells and their -clusters, their perfume and their marvellous glory of colour, in a -harmony artificially arranged. In its strained archaism his art is an -affected, artificial art, and would perish as swiftly as a luxuriant -exotic plant, had not this pupil of the Italians been born a -thoroughbred Englishman, and this Botticelli risen from the grave become -a true Briton on the banks of the Thames. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - STANHOPE. THE WATERS OF LETHE. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -[Illustration: STRUDWICK. ELAINE. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -Burne-Jones stands to Botticelli as Botticelli himself stood to the -antique, or as Swinburne to his literary models. As a graceful scholar, -Swinburne has reproduced all styles: the language of the Old Testament, -the forms of Greek literature, and the naïve lisp of the poets of -chivalry. He decorates his verses with all manner of strange metaphors -drawn from the literatures of all periods. His _Atalanta in Calydon_ is, -down to the choruses, an imitation of the Sophoclean tragedies. In his -_Ballad of Life_ he follows the model of the singers who made canzonets, -the writers who followed Dante and the earliest lyric poets of Italy. In -_Laus Veneris_ he tells the story of Tannhäuser and Dame Venus in the -manner of the French romantic poets of the sixteenth century; _Saint -Dorothy_ is a faithful echo of Chaucer's narrative style; and the -_Christmas Carol_ is modelled upon the Provençal Ballades. Even the -earliest lyrical mysteries are reproduced in some poems so precisely -that, so far as form goes, they might be mistaken for originals. But the -thought of Swinburne's verse is what no earlier poet would have ever -expressed. It is inconceivable that a Greek chorus would have chanted -any song of the weariness of man, and of the gifts of grief and tears -brought to him at his creation; nor would a Greek have written that -Hymn to Aphrodite, the deadly flower born of the foam of blood and the -froth of the sea. And in _Hesperia_, where he describes a man who has -loved beyond measure and suffered over-much amid the mad pleasures of -Rome, and now sets out, pale and exhausted, to sail the golden sea of -the West until he reach the "Fortunate Islands" and find peace before -his death, the mood does not reflect the thoughts of the old world, but -those of the close of the nineteenth century; and so it is, too, in his -"Hendecasyllabics," where he complains in classically chiselled diction -of the swift decay of beauty and the hidden ills which of a sudden -consume the inward force of life. And Burne-Jones treats old myths with -the same freedom and independence. He takes them up and recasts them, -discovers modern passions lying in the very heart of them, enriches them -with a wealth of delicate shades, borrowed without the smallest ceremony -from a new conception of the world and from the life of his own time. -The human soul grown old looks back, as it were, upon the path which it -has travelled, and sees the spirit of its own ripe age latent in its -infancy, recognising that "the child is father of the man." All the -figures in his pictures are surrounded by a dusk which has nothing in -common with the broad daylight in which the Renaissance artists placed -the antique world. There remains what may be called a residue of modern -feeling which has not been assimilated to the old myth, a breath of -magic floating round these figures on their career, something -mysterious, an elusive air of fable. This, indeed, is the pervasive -temperament and sentiment of our own age. It is our own inward spirit -that gazes upon us as though from an enchanted mirror with the mien of a -phantom. - -[Illustration: _Dixon, photo._ - - STRUDWICK. THY TUNEFUL STRINGS WAKE MEMORIES. - - (_By permission of W. Imrie, Esq., the owner of the picture._)] - -And just as he remodels the entire spirit of old myths, he converts the -figures which he has borrowed into an artistic form of his own, and, -without hesitation, subordinates them in type and physical build and -bearing to the new part they have to play. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - STRUDWICK. GENTLE MUSIC OF A BYGONE DAY. - - (_By permission of John Dixon, Esq., the owner of the picture._)] - -[Illustration: _Dixon, photo._ - - STRUDWICK. THE RAMPARTS OF GOD'S HOUSE. - - (_By permission of Wm. Imrie, Esq., the owner of the picture._)] - -His pictures differ in their whole character from those of the masters -of the Quattrocento. In Botticelli, also, the young foliage grows green -and flaunts in its exuberant abundance; but in Burne-Jones the -vegetation suggests one of those immense forests in Sumatra or Java. All -the plants are luxuriant and resplendent in colour, and seem to swoon in -their own opulent, plethoric life. Every tree creates an impression of -having shot up in swift and wanton growth under a tropical sun. Rank -parasitic plants trail from stem to stem, and garlands of climbers grow -in a luxuriant tangle round the branches. - -And in proportion as the vegetation is luxuriant and sensuous the human -figures are wasted and languishing. The severe charm, rigidity, and -demureness of the Quattrocento is weakened into lackadaisical -melancholy. The dreamy bliss of Botticelli is transposed into sanctified -solemnity, delicate fragility, a voluptuous lassitude, a gentle -weariness of the world. When he paints ancient sibyls, they are touched -at once by the unearthly asceticism of the Middle Ages seeking refuge -from the world, and the melancholy, anæmic lassitude of the close of the -nineteenth century. If he paints a Venus she does not stand out -victorious in her nudity, but wears a heavy brocaded robe, and around -her lie the symbols of Christian martyrdom, palms, and perhaps a lyre. -It is not the fairness of her body that makes her goddess of love, but -only the dim mystery of her radiant eyes. She is not the Olympian who -entered into frolicsome adventure with the war-god Mars amid the -laughter of the heavenly gods, for in her conventional humiliation she -is rather like the beautiful dæmon of the Middle Ages who, upon her -journey into exile, passed by the cross where the Son of Man was -hanging, and tasted all the bitterness of the years. In their delicate -features his Madonnas have a gentle sadness rarely found in the Italian -masters. Even the angels, who were roguish and wayward in the -Quattrocento, do their spiriting with ceremonious gravity, and a subdued -melancholy underlies their devotional reverence. In Botticelli they are -fresh, youthful figures, lightly girdled, and with fluttering locks and -swelling robes and limber bodies, whether they float around the Madonna -in blissful revelry or look up to the Child Christ in their rapt -ecstasy. But in Burne-Jones they are devout, sombre, deeply earnest -beings, gazing as thoughtfully and dreamily as though they had already -known all the affliction of the world. Their limbs seem paralysed, and -their gesture weary. It is not possible to look at one of his pictures -without being reminded of the Florentines of the fifteenth century, and -yet the spectator at once recognises that they are the work of -Burne-Jones. He is even opposed to Rossetti, his lord and master, -through this element of melancholy: the intoxication of opium is -followed by the sober awakening. - -Rossetti's women are dazzling and glorious figures of a modern and -deliberately cruel beauty--sisters of Messalina, Phædra, and Faustina. -He delineates them as luxuriant beings with supple and splendid bodies, -long white necks, and snowily gleaming breasts; with full and fragrant -hair, ardent, yearning eyes, and demoniacally passionate lips. Their -mother is the Venus Verticordia whom Rossetti so often painted. Cruel in -their love as one of the blind forces of nature, they are like that -water-sprite with her song and her red coral mouth dragged from the sea -in a fishing-net, as an old French _fabliau_ tells, and so fair that -every man who beheld her was seized by the love of her, but died when he -clasped her in his arms. What they love in man is his physical strength, -his face and sinews of bronze. Only the strong man who loves them with -overpowering madness, like a stormy wind, can bend them to his will. -Swinburne has sung of "the lips intertwisted and bitten, where the foam -is as blood," of - - "The heavy white limbs and the cruel - Red mouth like a venomous flower." - -[Illustration: _Dixon, photo._ - - STRUDWICK. THE TEN VIRGINS. - - (_By permission of William Imrie, Esq., the owner of the picture._)] - -But the women of Burne-Jones know that this fervour is no longer to be -found upon the earth. The blood has been sapped, and the fire burns low, -and the glorious, ancient might of love has disappeared. For these women -life has lost its sunshine, and love its passion, and the world its -hopes. The hue of their cheeks is pallid, their eyes are dim, their -bodies sickly and without flesh and blood, and their hips are spare. -With pale, quivering lips, and a melancholy smile or a strangely -resigned, intensely grieved look flickering at the corners of their -mouths, they live consumed by sterile longing, and pine in silent -dejection, gazing into vacant space like imprisoned goldfish, or -luxuriate in the vague Fata Morgana of an over-delicate, over-refined, -and bashfully tremulous eroticism-- - - "And the chaplets of old are above us, - And the oyster-bed teems out of reach; - Old poets outsing and outlove us, - And Catullus makes mouths at our speech. - Who shall kiss in the father's own city, - With such lips as he sang with again? - Intercede with us all of thy pity, - Our Lady of Pain." - -[Illustration: _Portfolio._ - - CRANE. THE CHARIOTS OF THE FLEETING HOURS. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -Swinburne's first ardent and sensuous volume of lyrics contains a poem, -_The Garden of Proserpine_: it tells how a man weary of all things human -and divine, and no longer able to support the intoxicating fragrance of -the roses of Aphrodite, draws near with wavering steps to the throne -where calm Proserpine sits silent, crowned with cold white flowers. And -in the same way Rossetti's flaming and quivering passion and his -volcanic desire end in Burne-Jones with sad resignation. - -Whilst Christianity and Hellenism mingle in the figures of Burne-Jones, -a division of labour is noticeable amongst the following artists: some -addressed themselves exclusively to the treatment of ancient subjects, -others to ecclesiastical romantic painting in the style of the -Quattrocento, and others again recognised their chief vocation in -initiating a reformation in kindred provinces of industrial art. - -_R. Spencer Stanhope_, who was at Oxford, like Burne-Jones, and, indeed, -received his first artistic impulses while employed on the elaboration -of Rossetti's mural pictures for the Union, worked even in later days -chiefly in the field of decorative painting, and is, with Burne-Jones, -the principal designer for the interior decoration of churches in -England. His oil-paintings are few, and in their gracious Quattrocento -build they are in outward appearance scarcely different from those of -Burne-Jones. In a picture belonging to the Manchester Gallery there is a -maiden seated amid a flowery meadow, while a small Cupid with red -pinions draws near to her; the landscape has an air of peace and -happiness. Another picture--probably inspired by Catullus' _Lament for -Lesbia's Sparrow_--displays a girl sitting upon an old town wall with a -little dead bird. "The Temptation of Eve" is like a brilliantly coloured -mediæval miniature, painted with the greatest _finesse_. As in the -woodcut in the Cologne Bible, Paradise is enclosed with a circular red -wall. Eve is like a slim, twisted Gothic statue. Like Burne-Jones, -Stanhope is always delicate and poetic, but he is less successful in -setting upon old forms of art the stamp of his individuality, and thus -giving them new life and a character of their own. In their severe, -archæological character his pictures have little beyond the affectation -of a style which has been arrived at through imitation. - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. FROM _THE TEMPEST_.] - -The third member of this Oxford Circle, the poet _William Morris_, has -exercised great influence over English taste by the institution of an -industrial establishment for embroidery, painting upon glass, and -household decoration. Keeping in mind that close union which existed in -the fifteenth century between art and the manual crafts, he and certain -of his disciples did not hesitate to provide designs for decorative -stuffs, wall-papers, furniture, and household embellishments of every -description. They were largely indebted to the Japanese, to say nothing -of the old Italians, though they succeeded in creating a thoroughly -modern and independent style, in spite of all they borrowed. The whole -range of industrial art in England received a new lease of life, and -household decoration became blither and more cheerful in its -appearance. Only light, delicate, and finely graduated colours were -allowed to predominate, and they were combined with slender, graceful, -and vivacious form. The heavy panelling which was popular in the sixties -gave way to bright papers ornamented with flowers; narrow panes made way -for large plate-glass windows with light curtains, in which long-stemmed -flowers were entwined in the pattern. Slim pillars supported cabinets -painted in exquisite hues or gleaming with lacquer-work and enamel. -Seats were ornamented with soft cushions shining in all the delicate -splendour of Indian silks. And the pre-Raphaelite style of ornamentation -was even extended to the embellishment of books, so that England created -the modern book, at a time when other nations adhered altogether to the -imitation of old models. - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. FROM _THE TEMPEST_.] - -In his early years _Arthur Hughes_ attracted much attention by an -Ophelia, a delicate, thoroughly English figure of soft pre-Raphaelite -grace; but in later years he rarely got beyond sentimental Renaissance -maidens suggestive of Julius Wolff, and humorous work in the style of -_genre_. - -_J. N. Strudwick_, who worked first under Spencer Stanhope and then -under Burne-Jones, was more consistent in his fidelity to the -pre-Raphaelite principles. His pictures have the same delicate, -enervated mysticism, and the same thoughtful, dreamy poetry, as those of -his elders in the school. By preference he paints slender, pensive -girlish figures, with the sentiment of Burne-Jones, taking his motive -from some passage in a poet. In a picture called "Elaine" the heroine is -mournfully seated in a lofty room of a mediæval palace. Another of his -works reveals three girls occupied with music. Or a knight strewn with -roses lies asleep in a maiden's lap. Or again, there is St. Cecilia -standing with her Seraphina before a Roman building. Strudwick does not -possess the spontaneity of his master. The childlike, angular effect at -which he aims often seems slightly weak and mawkish; and occasionally -his painting is somewhat diffident, especially when he paints in the -architectural detail and rich artistic accessories, and stipples with a -very fine brush. But his works are so exquisite and delicate, so -precious and æsthetic, that they must be reckoned amongst the most -characteristic performances of the New pre-Raphaelitism. One of his -larger compositions he has named "Bygone Days." There is a man musing -over the memories of his life, as he sits upon a white marble throne in -front of a long white marble wall, amid an evening landscape. He -stretches out his arms after the vanished years of his youth, the years -when love smiled upon him; but Time, a winged figure like Orcagna's -_Morte_, divides him from the goddess of love, swinging his scythe with -a threatening gesture. "The Past," a slender matron in a black robe, -covers her face lamenting. In Strudwick's most celebrated picture, "The -Ramparts of God's House," there is a man standing at the threshold of -heaven, naked as a Greek athlete. His earthly fetters lie shattered at -his feet. Angels receive him, marvellously spiritual beings filled with -a lovely simplicity and revealing ineffable profundity of soul, beings -who partake of Fra Angelico almost as much as of Ellen Terry. Their -expression is quiet and peaceful. Instead of marvelling at the -new-comer, they gaze with their eyes green as a water-sprite's -meditatively into illimitable space. The architecture in the background -is entirely symbolical, as in the pictures of Giotto. A little house -with a golden roof and gilded mediæval reliefs is inhabited by a dense -throng of little angels, as if it were a Noah's-ark. The colour is rich -and sonorous, as in the youthful works of Carlo Crivelli. - -[Illustration: G. F. WATTS IN HIS GARDEN. - - (_By permission, from a photograph by A. Frazer-Tytler, Esq._)] - -_Henry Holliday_, who has of late devoted himself largely to decorative -tasks, seems in these works to be the _juste-milieu_ between Burne-Jones -and Leighton. And the youngest representative of this group tinged with -religious and romantic feelings is _Marie Spartali-Stillman_, who lives -in Rome and paints as a rule pictures from Dante, Boccaccio, and -Petrarch, after the fashion of Rossetti. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - WATTS. LADY LINDSAY. - - (_By permission of Lady Lindsay, the owner of the picture._)] - -Others, who turned to the treatment of antique subjects, were led by -these themes more towards the Idealism of the Cinquecento as regards the -form of their work; and in this way they lost the severe stamp of the -pre-Raphaelites. - -In these days _William Blake Richmond_, in particular, no longer shows -any trace of having once belonged to the mystic circle of Oxonians. The -Ariadne which he painted in the old days was a lean and tall woman with -fluttering black mantle, casting up her arms in lamentation and gazing -out of those deep, gazelle-like eyes which Burne-Jones gave his Vivien. -Even the scheme of colour was harmonised in the bronze, olive tone which -marked the earliest works of Burne-Jones. But soon afterwards his views -underwent a complete revolution in Italy. Influenced by Alma Tadema in -form, and by the French in colour, he drew nearer to the academic -manner, until he became, at length, a Classicist without any salient -peculiarity. The allegory "Amor Vincit Omnia" is characteristic of this -phase of his art. Aphrodite, risen from her bath, is standing naked in a -Grecian portico, through which a purple sea is visible. Her maidens are -busied in dressing her; and they are, one and all, chaste and noble -figures of that classic grace and elegant fluency of line which Leighton -usually lends to his ideal forms. In a picture which became known in -Germany through the International Exhibition of 1891, Venus, a clear and -white figure, floats down with stately motion towards Anchises. It is -only in the delicate pictures of children which have been his chief -successes of late years that he is still fresh and direct. Girls with -thick hair of a _blonde cendrée_, finely moulded lips, and large -gazelle-like eyes full of sensibility, are seen in these works dreamily -seated in white or blue dresses against a red or a blue curtain. And the -æsthetic method of painting, which almost suggests pastel work in its -delicacy, is in keeping with the ethereal figures and the bloom of -colour. - -_Walter Crane_ has been far more successful in uniting the -pre-Raphaelite conception with a sentiment for beauty formed upon the -antique, Burne-Jones's "paucity of flesh and plenitude of feeling" with -a measured nobility of form. Born in Liverpool in 1845, he received his -first impressions of art at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1857, where -he saw Millais' "Sir Isumbras at the Ford." The chivalrous poetry of -this master became the ideal of his youth, and it rings clearly -throughout his first pictures, exhibited in 1862. One of these has as -its subject "The Lady of Shalott" approaching the shore of her -mysterious island in a boat, and the other St. George slaying the -dragon. Meanwhile, however, he had come to know Walker, through W. J. -Linton, the wood-engraver, for whom he worked from 1859 to 1862, and the -former led him to admire the beauty of the sculptures of the Parthenon. -After this he passed from romantic to antique subjects, and there is -something notably youthful, a fresh bloom as of old legends, in these -compositions, which recall the sculpture of Phidias. "The Bridge of -Life," belonging to the year 1875, was like an antique gem or a Grecian -bas-relief. At the Paris World Exhibition of 1878 he had a "Birth of -Venus," noble and antique in composition, and of a severity of form -which suggested Mantegna. The suave and poetic single figures which he -delights in painting are at once Greek and English: girls, with branches -of blossom, in white drapery falling into folds, and enveloping their -whole form while indicating every line of the body. His "Pegasus" might -have come straight from the frieze of the Parthenon. "The Fleeting -Hours" at once recalls Guido Reni's "Aurora" and Dürer's apocalyptic -riders. - -[Illustration: _Cameron, photo._ - - WATTS. HOPE. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -[Illustration: _Pageant._ - - WATTS. PAOLO AND FRANCESCA. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -[Illustration: _Cameron, photo._ - - WATTS. LOVE AND DEATH. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -Later he turned to decorative painting, like all the representatives of -the pre-Raphaelite group. He is one of the most original designers for -industrial work in tapestry, next to Morris the most influential leader -of the English arts and crafts, and he has collaborated in founding that -modern naturalistic tendency of style which will be the art of the -future. His designs are always based upon naturalistic motives--the -English type of womanhood and the English splendour of flowers. There -always predominates a sensitive relationship between the æsthetic -character of the forms and their symbolical significance. He always -adapts an object of nature so that it may correspond in style with the -material in which he works. The way in which he makes use of the noblest -models of antiquity and of the Renaissance, and yet immediately -transposes them into an English key of sentiment and into available -modern forms, is entirely peculiar. And last, but not least, he is a -marvellous illustrator. Every one went wild with delight at the close of -the sixties over the appearance of his first children's books, _The -Faerie Queene_, _The Little Pig who went to Market_, and _King -Luckiboy_, the pictures of which were soon displayed upon all patterns -for embroidery. And they were followed by others: after 1875 he -published _Tell me a Story_, _The First of May--a Fairy Masque_, _The -Sirens Three_, _Echoes of Hellas_, and so forth. The two albums _The -Baby's Bouquet_ and _The Baby's Opera_ of 1879 are probably the finest -of them all. - -In spite of their childish subjects, the drawings of Walter Crane have -such a monumental air that they have the effect of "grand painting." -Without imitation he reproduces spontaneously the grace and character of -the primitive Florentines. Some of his plates recall "The Dream of -Polifilo," and might bear the monogram of Giovanni Bellini. They owe -their origin to a profound Germanic sentiment mingled with pagan -reminiscences; they are an almost Grecian and yet English art, where -fancy like a foolish, dreamy child plays with a brilliant skein of forms -and colours. - -That great artist _George Frederick Watts_ stands quite apart as a -personality in himself. In point of substance he is divided from others -by not leaning upon poets, but by inventing independent allegories for -himself; and in point of form by courting neither the Quattrocento nor -the Roman Cinquecento, but rather following the Venice of the later -Renaissance. Instead of the marble precision of Squarcione or Mantegna, -what predominates in his work is something soft and melting, which might -recall Correggio, Tintoretto, or Giorgione, were it not that there is a -cooler grey, a subdued light fresco tone in Watts, in place of the -Venetian glory of colour. - -As a man, Watts was one of those artists who are only to be found in -England--an artist who, from his youth upwards, has been able to live -for his art without regard to profit. Born in London in the year 1820, -he left the Academy after being a pupil there for a brief period, and -began to visit the Elgin Room in the British Museum. The impression made -upon him by the sculptures of the Parthenon was decisive for his whole -life. Not merely are numerous plastic works due to his study of them, -but several of his finest paintings. When he was seventeen he exhibited -his first pictures, which were painted very delicately and with -scrupulous pains; and in 1843 he took part in the competition for the -frescoes of the Houses of Parliament, amongst which the representation -of St. George and the Dragon was from his hand. With the proceeds of the -prize which he received at the competition he went to Italy, and there -he came to regard the great Venetians Titian and Giorgione as his kin -and his contemporaries. The pupil of Phidias became the worshipper of -Tintoretto. In Italy he produced "Fata Morgana," a picture of a warrior -vainly catching at the airy white veil of a nude female figure which -floats past. This work already displays him as an accomplished artist, -though it is wanting in the large, Classical tranquillity of his later -paintings. He returned home with plans demanding more than human energy. -Like the Frenchman Chenavard, he cherished the purpose of representing -the history of the world in a series of frescoes, which were to adorn -the walls of a building specially adapted for the purpose. "Chaos," "The -Creation," "The Temptation of Man," "The Penitence," "The Death of -Abel," and "The Death of Cain" were the earliest pictures which he -designed for the series. It was through fresco painting alone, as he -believed, that it was possible to school English art to monumental -grandeur, nobleness, and simplicity. But it was not possible for him to -remain long upon this path in England, where painting has but little -space accorded to it upon the walls of churches, while in other public -buildings decoration is not in demand. Moreover, it is doubtful whether -Watts would have achieved anything great in this province of art. At any -rate, a work which he executed for the dining-hall at Lincoln's Inn--an -assembly of the lawgivers of all times from Moses down to Edward I--is -scarcely more than a mixture of Raphael's "School of Athens" and the -"Hemicycle" of Delaroche. In magnificent allegories in the form of -oil-paintings he first found the expression of his individuality. Like -Turner, Watts did not paint pictures for sale. Yet he has lent one or -other of his pictures to almost every public exhibition. A whole room is -devoted to him in the Tate Gallery. But to know his work thoroughly one -had to go to his house. His studio in Little Holland House contained -almost all his important creations, and was visited by the public upon -Saturday and Sunday afternoons as freely as if it were a museum. - -[Illustration: _Pageant._ - - WATTS. ARIADNE. - - (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - WATTS. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -As a landscape painter Watts is a visionary like Turner, though in -addition to the purely artistic effect of his pictures he always -endeavoured to awaken remoter feelings and ideas of some kind or -another. His landscape "Corsica" reveals a grey expanse, with very -slight vibrations of tone which suggest that out to sea a distant island -is emerging from the mist. His "Mount Ararat," a picture entirely filled -with the play of light blue tones, represents a number of barren rocky -cones bathed in the intense blue of a pure transparent starry night. -Above the highest peak there is one star sparkling more brilliantly than -the others. In his "Deluge: the Forty-first Day," he attempted to -depict, after an interpretation of his own, the power "with which light -and heat, dissipating the darkness and dissolving the multitude of the -waters into mist and vapour, give new life to perished nature." What is -actually placed before the eye is a delicate symphony of colours which -would have delighted Turner: wild, agitated sea, clouds gleaming like -liquid gold, and mist behind which the sun rises in a magical glow, like -a red ball of fire. - -In his portraits he is earnest and sincere. Just as fifty years ago -David d'Angers devoted half a lifetime to getting together a portrait -gallery of famous contemporaries, so to Watts belongs the glory of -having really been the historian of his time. The collection of -portraits, many of which are to be seen in the National Portrait -Gallery, comprises about forty likenesses, all of them half-length -pictures, all of them upon the same scale of size, all of them -representing very famous men. Amongst the poets comprised in this -gallery of genius are Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, -Swinburne, William Morris, and Sir Henry Taylor; amongst prose-writers, -Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, Lecky, Motley, and Leslie Stephen; amongst -statesmen, Gladstone, Sir Charles Dilke, the Duke of Argyll, Lord -Salisbury, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Lyndhurst, and Lord Sherbrooke; -amongst the leaders of the clergy, Dean Stanley, Dean Milman, Cardinal -Manning, and Dr. Martineau; amongst painters, Rossetti, Millais, -Leighton, Burne-Jones, and Calderon; and amongst notable foreigners, -Guizot, Thiers, Joachim the violinist, and many others. In the matter of -technique Watts is excelled by many of the French. His portraits have -something heavy, nor are they eminent either for softness of modelling, -or for that momentary and animated effect peculiar to Lenbach. But few -portraits belonging to the nineteenth century have the same force of -expression, the same straightforward sureness of aim, the same grandeur -and simplicity. Before each of the persons represented one is able to -say, That is a painter, that a poet, and that a scholar. All the -self-conscious dignity of a President of the Royal Academy is expressed -in the picture of Leighton, and his look is as cold as marble; while the -eyes of Burne-Jones seem mystically veiled, as though they were gazing -into the past. Indeed, the way in which Watts grasps his characters is -masterly beyond conception. Amongst the old painters Tintoretto and -Moroni might be compared with him most readily, while Van Dyck is the -least like him of all. - -In opposition to the poetic fantasy of Burne-Jones dallying with -legendary lore, an element of brooding thought is characteristic of the -large compositions of Watts, a meditative absorption in ideas which -provoke the intellect to further activity by their mysterious -allegorical suggestions. Just as he makes an approach to the old -Venetians in external form, he is divided from them in the inward burden -of his work by a severity and hardiness characteristic of the Northern -spirit, a predominance of idea seldom met with amongst Southern masters, -and a profoundly sad way of thought in which one sees the stamp of the -nineteenth century. Apart from the purely artistic effect of his work, -he tried to make his pictures serve as a stimulus to deeper thought and -meditation: "The end of art," he writes, "must be the exposition of some -weighty principle of spiritual significance, the illustration of a great -truth." - -"The Spirit of Christianity," the only one of his works which has a -religious tone, displays a youth throned upon the clouds, with children -nestling at his feet. His powerful head is bent upwards, and his right -hand opened wide. In "Orpheus and Eurydice" he has chosen the moment -when Orpheus turns round to behold Eurydice turning pale and sinking to -the earth, to be once more swallowed by Hades. The lyre drops from his -hands, and with a gesture of despair he draws the form of his wife to -his heart in a last, eternal embrace. "Artemis and Endymion" is a scene -in which a tall female figure in silvery shining vesture bends over the -sleeping shepherd, throwing herself into the curve of a sickle. - -But, as a rule, he neither makes use of Christian nor of ancient ideas, -but embodies his own thoughts. In "The Illusions of Life," a picture -belonging to the year 1847, beautiful, dreamy figures hover over a gulf, -spreading at the verge of existence. At their feet lie the shattered -emblems of greatness and power, and upon a small strip of the earth -hanging over an abyss those illusions are visible which have not yet -been destroyed: Glory, in the shape of a knight in harness, chases the -bubble of resounding fame; Love is symbolised by a pair who are tenderly -embracing; Learning, by an old man poring over manuscripts in the dusk; -Innocence, by a child grasping at a butterfly. "The Angel of Death" is a -picture of a winged and mighty woman throned at the entrance of a way -which leads to eternity. Upon her knees there rests, covered with a -white cloth, the corpse of a new-born child. Men and women of every -station lay reverently down at the feet of the angel the symbols of -their dignity and the implements of their earthly toil. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - WATTS. ARTEMIS AND ENDYMION. - - (_By permission of Mr. Robert Dunthorne, the owner of the copyright._)] - -"Love and Death" represents the two great sovereigns of the world -wrestling together for a human life. With steps which have a mysterious -majesty, pallid Death draws near, demanding entrance at the door of a -house, whilst Love, a slight, boyish figure with bright wings, places -himself in the way; but with one great, irresistible gesture the mighty -genius of Death sweeps the shrinking child to one side. In another -picture, "Love and Life," the genius of Love, in the form of a slim, -powerful youth, helps poor, weak, clinging Life, a half-grown, timid, -faltering girl, to clamber up the stony path of a mountain, over which -the sun rises golden. "Hope" is a picture in which a tender spirit, -bathed in the blue mist, sits upon the globe, blindfold, listening in -bliss to the low sound vibrating from the last string of her harp. -"Mammon" is embodied by Watts in a coarse and bloated satyr brutally -setting his heel upon a youth and a young girl, as upon a footstool. - -In 1893, when the committee of the Munich Exhibition were moved by the -writings of Cornelius Gurlitt to have some of these works sent over to -Germany, a certain disappointment was felt in artistic circles. And any -one who is accustomed to gauge pictures by their technique is justified -in missing the genuine pictorial temperament in Watts. The sobriety of -his scheme of colour, his preference for subdued tones, his distaste for -all "dexterity" and freedom from all calculated refinement, are not in -accord with the desires of our time. Even his sentiment is altogether -opposed to that which predominates in the other New Idealists. -Burne-Jones and Rossetti found sympathy because their repining lyricism, -their psychopathic subtlety, their wonderful mixture of archaic -simplicity and _décadent hautgoût_, stand in direct touch with the -present. Watts' pictures seem cold and wanting in temperament because he -made no appeal to the vibrating life of the nerves. - -But the same sort of criticism was written by the younger generation in -Germany, seventy years ago, on the works of Goethe, which have, none the -less, remained fresher than those of Schlegel and Tieck. What is modern -is not always the same as what is eternally young. And if one -endeavours, disregarding the current of the age, to approach Watts as -though he were an old master, one feels an increasing sense of the -probability that amongst all the New Idealists of the present he has, -next to Boecklin, the best prospect of becoming one. In spite of all its -independence of spirit, the art of Burne-Jones has an affected mannerism -in its outward garb. The sentiment of it is free, but the form is -confined in the old limits. And it is not impossible that later -generations, to whom his specifically modern sentiment will appeal more -and more faintly, may one day rank him, on account of his archaism in -drawing, as much amongst the eclectics as Overbeck and Führich are held -to be at the present time. But that can never happen to Watts. His works -are the expression of an artist who is as little dependent upon the past -as upon the momentary tendencies of the present. His articulation of -form has nothing in common with the lines of beauty of the antique, or -the Quattrocento, or the Cinquecento. It is a thing created by himself -and to himself peculiar. He needs no erudition, and no attributes and -symbols borrowed from the Renaissance, to body forth his allegories. -With him there begins a new power of creating types; and his figure of -Death--that tall woman, clad in white, with hollow cheeks, livid face, -and lifeless sunken eyes--is no less cogent than the genius with the -torch reversed or the burlesque skeleton of the Middle Ages. Moreover, -there is in his works a trace of profundity and simple grandeur which -stands alone in our own period. It is precisely our more sensitive -nervous system which divides us from the old painters, and has generally -given the artistic productions of our day a disturbed, capricious, -restless, and overstrained character, making them inferior to those of -the old masters. - -Watts is, perhaps, the only painter who can bear comparison with them in -every respect. Here is a man who has been able to live in himself far -away from the bustle of exhibitions, a man who worked when he was old as -soundly and freshly as when he was young, a man, also, who is always -simple in his art, lucid, earnest, grandiose, impressive, and of -monumental sublimity. Though he shows no trace of imitation he might -have come straight from the Renaissance, so deep is his sense of beauty, -so direct and so condensed his power of giving form to his ideas. And -amongst living painters I should find it impossible to name a single one -who could embody such a scene as that of "Love and Death" so calmly, so -entirely without rhetorical gestures and all the tricks of theatrical -management. There is the mark of style about everything in Watts, and it -is no external and borrowed style, but one which is his own, a style -which a notable man, a thinker and a poet, has fashioned for the -expression of his own ideas. That is what makes him a master of -contemporary painting and of the painting of all times. And that is what -will, perhaps, render him, in the eyes of later generations, one of the -greatest men of our time. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII - -THE NEW IDEALISM IN FRANCE AND GERMANY - - -A similar change of taste occurred in France. Just as the Impressionists -had held modernity alone in high honour, so now awoke the longing after -the faded lustre of a bygone age of beauty. The younger generation in -literature began to do homage to their spiritual ancestors not in Zola -but in Charles Baudelaire, that abstracter of the quintessence; and -similarly in the province of art there came to the fore two of the older -masters who until then had been relegated to the background. - -In pictorial art _Gustave Moreau_ is equivalent to Charles Baudelaire. -Certain of the strange and fascinating poems in the _Fleurs du Mal_ -strike alone the same note of sentiment as the tortured, subtilised, -morbid, but mysterious and captivating creations of Moreau; and his -figures, like those of Baudelaire, live in a mysterious world, and -stimulate the spirit like eternal riddles. Every one of his works stands -in need of a commentary; every one of them bears witness to a profound -and peculiar activity of mind, and every one of them is full of intimate -reveries. Every agitation of his inward spirit takes shape in myths of -hieratical strangeness, in mysterious hallucinations, which he sets in -his pictures like jewels. He gives ear to dying strains, rising faintly, -inaudible to the majority of men. Marvellous beings pass before him, -fantastic and yet earnest; forms of legendary story hover through space -upon strange animals; a fabulous hippogriff bears him far away to Greece -and the East, to vanished worlds of beauty. Upon the journey he beholds -Utopias, beholds the Fortunate Islands, and visits all lands, borne upon -the pinions of a dream. An age which went wild over Cabanel and -Bouguereau could not possibly be in sympathy with him. The Naturalists, -also, looked upon him as a singular being; it was much as if an Indian -magician whose robe shone in all the hues of the rainbow had suddenly -made his appearance at a ball, amongst men in black evening dress. It is -only since the mysterious smile of Leonardo's feminine figures has once -more drawn the world beneath its spell that the spirit of Moreau's -pictures has become a familiar thing. Even his schooling was different -from that of his contemporaries. He was the only pupil of that strange -artist Théodore Chassériau, and Chassériau had directed him to the study -of Bellini, Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, and all those enchanting -primitive artists whose enchanting female figures are seen to move -through mysterious black and blue landscapes. He was then seized with an -enthusiasm for the hieratical art of India. And he was also affected by -old German copper-engraving, old Venetian pottery, painting upon vases -and enamel, mosaics and niello work, tapestries and old Oriental -miniatures. His exquisite and expressive style, which, at a time when -the flowing Cinquecento manner was in vogue, made an unpleasant effect -by its archaic angularity, was the result of the fusion of these -elements. - -When he appeared, the special characteristic of French art was its -seeking after violent agitations of the spirit, _émotions fortes_. The -spirit was to be roused by stormy vehemence, as a relaxed system is -braced by massage. But the generation at the close of the nineteenth -century wanted to be soothed rather than stirred by painting. It could -not endure shrill cries, loud, emphatic speech, or vehement gestures. It -desired subdued and refined emotions, and Moreau's distinction is that -he was the first to give expression to this weary _décadent_ humour. In -his work a complete absence of motion has taken the place of the -striding legs, the attitudes of the fencing-master, the arms -everlastingly raised to heaven, and the passionately distorted faces -which had reigned in French painting since David. He makes spiritual -expression his starting-point, and not scenic effect; he keeps, as it -were, within the laws which rule over classical sculpture, where -vehemence was only permitted to intrude from the period of decline, from -the Pergamene reliefs, the Laocoön, and the Farnese Bull. Everything -bears the seal of sublime peace; everything is inspired by inward life -and suppressed passion. Even when the gods fight there are no mighty -gestures; with a mere frown they can shake the earth like Zeus. - -His spiritual conception of the old myths is just as peculiar as his -grave articulation of form; it is a conception such as earlier -generations could not have, one which alone befits the spiritual -condition of the close of the nineteenth century. During the most recent -decades archæological excavations and scientific researches have widened -and deepened our conceptions of the old mythology in a most unexpected -manner. Beside the laughter of the Grecian Pan we hear the sighs and -behold the convulsions of Asia, in her anguish bearing gods, who perish -young like spring flowers, in the loving arms of Oriental goddesses. We -have heard of chryselephantine statues covered with precious stones from -top to bottom; and we know the graceful terra-cotta figures of Tanagra. -Before there was a knowledge of the Tanagra statuettes no archæologist -could have believed that the Eros of Hesiod was such a charming, wayward -little rascal. Before the discovery of the Cyprus statues no artist -would have ventured to adorn a Grecian goddess with flowers, pins for -the head, and a heavy tiara. Prompted by these discoveries, Moreau has -been swayed by strangely rich inspirations. He is said to have worked in -his studio as in a tower opulent with ivory and jewels. He has a delight -in arraying the figures of his legends in the most costly materials, as -the discoveries at Cyprus give him warrant for doing, in painting their -robes in the deepest and most lustrous hues, and in being almost too -lavish in his manner of adorning their arms and breasts. Every figure -of his is a glittering idol, enveloped in a dress of gold brocade -embroidered with precious stones. His love of ornamentation is even -extended to his landscapes. They are improbable, far too fair, far too -rich, far too strange to exist in the actual world, but they are in -close harmony with the character of these sumptuously clad figures which -wander in them like the mystic and melancholy shapes of a dream. The -capricious generation that lived in the Renaissance occasionally handled -classical subjects in this manner, but there is the same difference -between Filippino Lippi and Gustave Moreau as there is between -Botticelli and Burne-Jones: the former, like Shakespeare in the -_Midsummer Night's Dream_, transformed the antique into a blithe and -fantastic fairy world, whereas that fire of yearning romance which once -flamed from poor Hölderlin's poet heart burns in the pictures of Moreau. - -His "Orpheus" is one of his most characteristic and beautiful works. He -has not borrowed the composition from antique tragedy. The drama is -over. Orpheus has been torn asunder by the Mænads, and the limbs of the -poet lie scattered over the icy fields of the hyperborean lands. His -head, borne upon his lyre now for ever mute, has been cast upon the -shore of Erebus. Nature seems to sleep in mysterious peace. Around there -is nothing to be seen but still waters and pallid light, nothing to be -heard but the tone of a small shrill flute, played by a barbarian -shepherd sitting on the cliff. A Thracian girl, whose hair is adorned -with a garland, and whose look is earnest, has taken up the head of the -singer and regards it long and quietly. Is it merely pity that is in her -eyes? A romantic Hellenism, a profound melancholy underlies the picture, -and the old story closes with a cry of love. In his "Oedipus and the -Sphinx" of 1864, and his "Heracles" of 1878, he treated battle scenes, -the heroic struggle between man and beast, and in these pictures, also, -there is no violence, no vehemence, no movement. In a terrible silence -the two antagonists exchange looks in his "Oedipus and the Sphinx," -while their breath mingles. Like a living riddle, the winged creature -gazes upon the stranger, but the youth with his long locks stands so -composedly before her that the spectator feels that he must know the -decisive word. - -In "Helen upon the Walls of Troy" the figure of the enchantress, as she -stands there motionless, clad in a robe glittering with brilliant stones -and diamonds like a shrine, is seen to rise against the blood-red -horizon as though it were a statue of gold and ivory. Like a queen of -spades, she holds in her hand a large flower. Heaps of bodies pierced -with arrows lie at her feet. But she has no glance of pity for the dying -whose death-rattle greets her. Her wide, apathetic eyes are fixed upon -vacancy. She sees in the gold of the sunset the smoke ascending from the -Grecian camp. She will embark in the fair ship of Menelaus, and return -in triumph to Hellas, where new love shall be her portion. And the looks -of the old men fasten upon her in admiration. "It is fitting that the -Trojans and the Achæans fight for such a woman." Helen in her blond -voluptuous beauty is transformed beneath the hands of Moreau into -Destiny stalking over ground saturated with blood, into the Divinity of -Mischief--a divinity that, without knowing it, poisons everything that -comes near her, or that she sees or touches. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - MOREAU. THE YOUNG MAN AND DEATH.] - -In his "Galatea" Moreau's love of jewels and enamel finds its highest -triumph. Galatea's grotto is one large, glittering casket. Flowers made -from the sun, and leaves from the stars, and branches of coral stretch -forth their boughs and open their cups. And as the most brilliant jewel -of all, there rests in the holy of holies the radiant form of the -sleeping Galatea, a kind of Greek Susanna, watched by the staring, -adamantine eye of Polyphemus. - -And just as he bathes these Grecian forms in the dusk of a profound -romantic melancholy, so in Moreau's pictures the figures of the Bible -are tinged with a shade of Indian Buddhism, a pantheistic mysticism -which places them in a strange modern light. In his "David" he -represents in a quiet and peaceful way the entry of a human soul into -Nirvana. The aged king sits dreaming upon his gorgeous throne, and an -angel watches in shining beauty beside this phantom, the flame of whose -life is slowly sinking. A curious light falls upon him from the sky. The -light of the evening horizon shines faint between the pillars, and the -spectator feels that it is the end of a long day. His pictures of 1878 -dealing with Salome, in their strange sentiment--suggestive of an opium -vision--are like a paraphrase of Heine's poem in _Atta Troll_. In a -sombre hall supported by mighty pillars, through which coloured lamps -and stupefying pastil-burners shed a blue and red light, sits Herod the -king, half asleep with hasheesh, wrapped in silk, and motionless as a -Hindu idol. His face is pale and gloomy, and his throne is like a -crystal confessional chair, fashioned with all the riches of the world. -Two women lean at the foot of a pillar. One of them touches the strings -of a lute, and a small panther yawns near a vessel of incense. Upon the -floor of variegated mosaics flowers lie strewn. Salome advances. -Tripping upon her toes as lightly as a figure in a dream, she begins to -dance, holding a tremulous lotus-flower in her hand. A shining tiara is -upon her head; her body is adorned with all the jewels which the dragons -guard in the veins of the earth. Faster and faster and with a more -voluptuous grace she twists and stretches her splendid limbs; but of a -sudden she starts and presses her hand to her heart: she has seen the -executioner as he smote the head of John from the body.--In the midst of -an Oriental paradise, the body of the Baptist lies in the grass; the -head has been set upon a charger, and Salome, like a bloodthirsty -tigress, watches it with looks of ardent, famished love. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MOREAU. ORPHEUS.] - -Different as they seem in technique, there are many points of contact -between the visionary Gustave Moreau and _Puvis de Chavannes_, the -original and fascinating creator of the decorative painting of the -nineteenth century. Where one indulges in detail, the other resorts to -simplification; where the former is opulent the latter is ascetic; and -yet they are associated through inward sympathy. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MOREAU. DESIGN FOR ENAMEL.] - -Puvis de Chavannes is the Domenico Ghirlandajo of the nineteenth -century. The most eminent mural works which have been achieved in France -owe their existence to him. Wall-paintings from his hand may be found -above the staircase of the museums of Amiens, Marseilles, and Lyons, in -the Paris Panthéon and the new Sorbonne, in the town-halls of Poitiers -and many other French towns--pictures which it is difficult to describe -in detail, through the medium of pedestrian prose. The two works with -which he opened the decorative series in the museum of Amiens in 1861 -are entitled "Bellum" and "Concordia." In the former warriors are riding -over a monotonous plain. Two smoking pillars, the gloomy witnesses to -sorrow and devastation, cast their dark shadows over the still fields, -whilst here and there burning mills rise into the sombre sky like -torches. In "Concordia," the counterpart to this work, there are women -plucking flowers, and naked youths urging on their horses amid a -luxuriant grove of laurel. In the Paris Panthéon he painted, between -1876 and 1878, "The Girlhood of St. Geneviève." A laughing spring -landscape, filled with the blitheness of May, spreads beneath the bright -sky of the Isle de France. Calm figures move in it, men and women, -children and greybeards. A bishop lays his hand upon the head of a young -shepherdess; sailors are coming ashore from their barks. "The Grove -sacred to the Arts and Muses" comes first in the decoration of the Lyons -Museum. Upon one side is a thick forest, dark and profound, and upon the -other the horizon is fringed by violet-blue hills and a large lake -reflecting the bluish atmosphere; in the foreground are green meadows, -where the flowers gleam like stars, and trees standing apart, oaks and -firs, their strong, straight stems rising stiffly into the sky. At the -foot of a pillared porch strange figures lie by the shore or stand erect -amid the pale grass, one with her arm pointing upwards, another musing -with her hand resting upon her chin, a third unrolling a parchment. -Athletic youths are bringing flowers and winding garlands. The "Vision -of Antiquity" and "Christian Inspiration" complete the series. The -former of these pictures brings the spectator into Attica. Locked by a -simple landscape of hills the blue sea is rippling, and bright islands -rise from its bosom, while a clear sky sheds its full light from above. -Trees and shrubs are growing here and there. A shepherd is playing upon -the pan-pipes, goats are grazing, and five female figures, some of them -nude, the others clothed, caress tame peacocks in the tall grass or lean -against a parapet, breathing in the fresh, cool air. Farther back, at -the foot of a height, is a young woman, holding herself erect like a -statue, as she talks with a youth, whilst in the distance at the verge -of the sea a spectral cavalcade, like that in Phidias' frieze of the -Parthenon, gallops swiftly by. In the counterpart, "Christian -Inspiration," a number of friars who are devoted to art are gathered -together in the portico of an abbey church. The walls are embellished -with naïve frescoes in the style of the Siennese school. One of the -monks who is working on the pictures has alighted from the ladder and -regards the result of his toil with a critical air. Lilies are blooming -in a vase upon the ground. Outside, beyond the cloister wall, the flush -of evening sheds its parting light over a lonely landscape, whence dark -cypresses rise into the air, straight as a lance. In the decoration of -the Sorbonne the object was to suggest all the lofty purposes to which -the place has been dedicated upon the wall of the great amphitheatre -used for the solemn sessions of the faculty, and facing the statues of -the founders. Puvis de Chavannes did this by displaying a throne in a -sacred grove, a throne upon which a grave matron arrayed in sombre -garments is sitting in meditation. This is the old Sorbonne. Two genii -at her side bring palm-branches and crowns as offerings in honour of the -famous minds of the past. Around are standing manifold figures arrayed -in the costumes which were assigned to the arts and sciences in Florence -at the time of Botticelli and Filippino Lippi. From the rock upon which -they are set there bursts the living spring from which youth derives -knowledge and new power. A thick wood divides this quiet haunt, -consecrated to the Muses, from the rush and the petty trifles of life. -In a painting entitled "Inter Artes et Naturam," over the staircase of -the museum of Rouen, artists musing over the ruins of mediæval buildings -are seen lying in the midst of a Norman landscape, beneath apple-trees -whose branches are weighed down by their burden of fruit; upon the other -side of the picture there is a woman holding a child upon her knees, -whilst another woman is trying to reach a bough laden with fruit, and a -group of painters look on enchanted with the grace of her simple, -harmonious movement. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - MOREAU. THE PLAINT OF THE POET.] - -Puvis de Chavannes is not a virtuoso in technique; for a Frenchman, -indeed, he is almost clumsy, and is sure in very little of the work of -his hand,--in fact, it is quite possible that a later age will not -reckon him among the great painters. But what it can never forget is -that after a period of lengthy aberrations he restored decorative art -in general to its proper vocation. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - MOREAU. THE APPARITION.] - -Before his time what was good in the so-called monumental painting of -the nineteenth century was usually not new, but borrowed from more -fortunate ages, and what was new in it, the narrative element, was not -good, or at least not in good taste. When Paolo Veronese produced his -pictures in the Doge's Palace or Giulio Romano his frescoes in the Sala -dei Giganti in Mantua, neither of them thought of the great mission of -instructing the people or of patriotic sentiments; they wanted to -achieve an effect which should be pictorial, festal, and harmonious in -feeling. The task of painters who were entrusted with the embellishment -of the walls of a building was to waken dreams and strike chords of -feeling, to summon a mood of solemnity, to delight the eye, to uplift -the spirit. What they created was decorative music, filling the mansion -with its august sound as the solemn notes of an organ roll through a -church. Their pictures stood in need of no commentary, no exertion of -the mind, no historical learning. But the painting which in the -nineteenth century did duty upon official occasions and was encouraged -by governments for the sake of its pedagogical efficiency was not -permitted to content itself with this general range of sentiment; it had -to lay on the colours more thickly, and to appeal to the understanding -rather than to sentiment. Descriptive prose took the place of lyricism. - -Puvis de Chavannes went back to the true principle of the old painters -by renouncing any kind of didactic intention in his art. In the Panthéon -of Paris, when the eye turns to the works of Puvis de Chavannes after -beholding all the admirable panels with which the recognised masters of -the flowing line have illustrated the temple of St. Geneviève, when it -turns from St. Louis, Clovis, Jeanne d'Arc, and Dionysius Sanctus to -"The Girlhood of St. Geneviève," it is as if one laid aside a prosy -history of the world to read the _Eclogues_ of Virgil. - -[Illustration: _Graphische Künste._ PIERRE PUVIS DE CHAVANNES.] - -In the one case there are archæological lectures, stage scenery, and -histrionic art; in the other, simple poetry and lyrical magic, a -marvellous evocation from the distant past of that atmosphere of legend -which banishes the commonplace. His art would express nothing, would -represent nothing; it would only charm and attune the spirit, like music -heard faintly from the distance. His figures perform no significant -actions; nor are any learned attributes employed in their -characterisation, such as were introduced in Greece and at the -Renaissance. He does not paint Mars, Vulcan, and Minerva, but war, work, -and peace. In translating the word _bellum_ into the language of -painting in the Museum of Amiens he did not need academical Bellonas, -nor sword-cuts, nor knightly suits of armour, nor fluttering standards. -A group of mourning and stricken women, warlike horsemen, and a simple -landscape sufficed him to conjure up the drama of war in all its -terrible majesty. And he is as far from gross material heaviness as from -academical sterility. The reapers toiling in his painting entitled -"Summer" are modern in their movements and in their whole appearance, -and yet they belong to no special time and seem to have been wafted into -a world beyond; they are beings who might have lived yesterday, or, for -the matter of that, a thousand years ago. The whole of existence seems -in Puvis de Chavannes like a day without beginning or end, a day of -Paradise, unchangeable and eternal. And very simple means sufficed him -to attain this transcendental effect: like Millet, he generalises what -is individual, and tempers what is presented in nature; antique nudity -is associated in an unforced manner with modern costume; a designed -simplicity, which has nothing of the academical painting of the nude, -is expressed in the handling of form. Even his landscape he constructs -upon its elementary forms, and by means of its essential, expressive -features. But by a certain concordance of lines, by a distinct rhythm of -form, he compasses a sentiment which is grave and solemn or idyllic. - -[Illustration: PUVIS DE CHAVANNES. A VISION OF ANTIQUITY. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -The Quattrocentisti, especially Ghirlandajo, were his models in this -epical simplicity, and beside Baudry, the deft and spirited decorator of -the most modernised High Renaissance style, he has the effect of a -primitive artist risen from the grave. His pictures have an archaic -bloom--something sacerdotal, if you will, something seraphic and holy. -Often one fancies that one recognises the influence of old tapestries, -to say nothing of Fra Angelico, but one is at a loss to give the model -copied. And what places him like Moreau in sharp opposition to the old -masters is that, instead of their sunny, smiling blitheness, he too is -under the sway of that heavy melancholy spirit which the close of the -nineteenth century first brought into the world. - -When he, a countryman of Flandrin and Chenavard, began his career under -Couture over half a century ago, the world did not understand his -pictures. People blamed the poverty of his palette, asserted that he was -too simple and restricted in his methods of colouring, and he was called -a Lenten painter, _un peintre de carême_, whose dull eye noted nothing -in nature except ungainly lines and uniformly grey tones. Women were -especially unfavourable to him, taking his lean figures as a personal -insult to themselves. Moreover, the calm and immobility of his figures -were censured, and when he exhibited his earliest pictures in 1854, at -the same time as those of Courbet, he was called _un fou tranquille_, -just as the latter was christened _un fou furieux_. In later years it -was precisely through these two qualities, his grandiose quietude and -his "anæmic" painting, that he brought the world beneath his spell, and -diverted French art into a new course. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - PUVIS DE CHAVANNES. THE BEHEADING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -As his landscapes know nothing of agitated clouds, nor abruptness nor -the strife of the elements, so his figures avoid all oratorical -vehemence. They are eternally young, free from brutal passions, lost in -oblivion. Let him conjure up old Hellas or the quiet life of the -cloister, over figures and landscapes there always rests a tender -sentiment of consecration and dreamy peace; no violent gesture and no -loud tone disturb that harmony of feeling by any vehement action. - -[Illustration: PUVIS DE CHAVANNES. THE THREADSPINNER. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the picture._)] - -[Illustration: _Neurdein frères, photo._ - - PUVIS DE CHAVANNES. THE POOR FISHERMAN.] - -Nor does the colour admit any discord in the large harmony. It is -exceedingly soft and light, although subdued; it has that faint, -deadened indecisiveness to be seen in faded tapestries or vanishing -frescoes. Tender and delicate in its chalky grey unity, which banishes -reality and creates a world of dreams, it is spread around the shadowy -figures. It is impossible to imagine his pictures without this light so -pure and yet veiled, this silvery, transparent air, impregnated with the -breath of the Divine, as Plato would say; it is impossible to imagine -them without the delicate tones of these pale green, pale rose-coloured, -and pale violet dresses, which are as delicate as fading flowers, and -without this flesh-tint, which lends a phantomlike and unearthly -appearance to his figures. It is all like a melody pitched in the high, -finely touched, and tremulous tones of a violin; it invites a mood which -is at once blithe and sentimental, happy and sad, banishes all earthly -things into oblivion, and carries one into a distant, peaceful, and holy -world. - - "Mon coeur est en repos, mon âme est en silence, - Le bruit lointain du monde expire en arrivant, - Comme un son éloigné qu'affaiblit la distance, - À l'oreille incertaine apporté par le vent. - - J'ai trop vu, trop senti, trop aimé dans ma vie; - Je viens chercher vivant le calme du Léthé: - Beaux lieux, soyez pour moi ces bords où l'on oublie; - L'oubli seul désormais est ma félicité. - - D'ici je vois la vie, à travers un nuage, - S'évanouir pour moi dans l'ombre du passé... - - L'amitié me trahit, la pitié m'abandonne, - Et, seul, je descends le sentier de tombeaux. - - Mais la nature est là qui t'invite et qui t'aime; - Plonge-toi dans son sein qu'elle t'ouvre toujours; - Quand tout change pour toi, la nature est la même, - Est le même soleil se lève sur tes jours." - -[Illustration: _Levy et ses Fils, photo._ - - PUVIS DE CHAVANNES. SUMMER.] - -It was not long before the doctrine of the two souls in _Faust_ was -exemplified in Germany also: from the fertile manure of Naturalism there -sprang the blue flower of a new Romanticism. In Germany there had once -lived Albrecht Dürer, the greatest and most profound painter-poet of all -time; and there, too, even in an unpropitious age that genial visionary -Moritz Schwind succeeded in flourishing. When the period of eclectic -imitation had been overcome by Naturalism, was it not fitting that -artists should once more attempt to embody the world of dreams beside -that of actual existence, and beside tangible reality to give shape to -the unearthly foreboding which fills the human heart with the visions -and the cravings of fancy? In that age of hope arose the cult of -_Boecklin_, and Germany began to honour in him who had been so long -blasphemed the founder of a new and ardently desired art. - -Burne-Jones, Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Moreau, and Arnold Boecklin -make up the four-leaved clover of modern Idealism. To future generations -they will bear witness to the sentiment of Europe at the close of the -nineteenth century. All four are more or less of the same age; they all -four began their work in the beginning of the fifties; and they were all -different from their contemporaries and from those who had gone before -them. They embodied the spirit of the future. Boecklin had gone through -a process of change as little as the others. His spirit was so rich that -it comprised a century in itself, and leads us now towards the century -to come. He was the contemporary of Schwind, he is our own contemporary, -and he will be the contemporary of those who come after us. And it were -as impossible to derive his art from that of any previous movement as to -explain how he, our greatest visionary, came to be born in Basle, the -most prosaic town in Europe. - -[Illustration: _Levy et ses Fils, photo._ - - PUVIS DE CHAVANNES. AUTUMN.] - -His father was a merchant there, and he was born in the year 1827. In -1846 he went to Schirmer in Düsseldorf, and upon Schirmer's advice -repaired to Brussels, where he copied the old Dutch masters in the -gallery. By the sale of some of his works he acquired the means of -travelling to Paris. He passed through the days of the Revolution of -June in 1848, studied the pictures in the Louvre, and returned home -after a brief stay to perform his military duties. In the March of 1850, -when he was three-and-twenty, he went to Rome, where he entered the -circle of Anselm Feuerbach; and in 1853 he married a Roman lady. In the -following year he produced the decorative pictures in which he -represented the relations of man to fire; these had been ordered for the -house of a certain Consul Wedekind in Hanover, but were sent back as -being "bizarre." In 1856 he betook himself--rather hard up for money--to -Munich, where he exhibited in the Art Union "The Great Pan," which was -bought by the Pinakothek. Paul Heyse was the medium of his making the -acquaintance of Schack. And in 1858 he was appointed a teacher at the -Academy of Weimar, by the influence of Lenbach and Begas. During this -time he produced "Pan startling a Goat-herd" in the Schack Gallery, and -"Diana Hunting." After three years he was again in Rome, and painted -there "The Old Roman Tavern," "The Shepherd's Plaint of Love," and "The -Villa by the Sea." In 1866 he went to Basle to complete the frescoes -over the staircase of the museum, and in 1871 he was in Munich, where -"The Idyll of the Sea" was exhibited amongst other things. In 1876 he -settled in Florence, in 1886 at Zürich. From 1895 until the day of his -death, January 16, 1901, he lived like a patriarch of art in his country -house on the ridge of Fiesole. - -Any one who would interpret a theory based upon the idea that an artist -is the result of influences might, while he is about it, speak of -Boecklin's apprentice period in Düsseldorf and Schirmer's biblical -landscapes. That "harmonious blending of figures with landscape," which -is the leading note in Boecklin's work, was of course from the days of -Claude Lorraine and Poussin the essence of the so-called historical -landscape which found its principal representatives at a later period in -Koch, Preller, Rottmann, Lessing, and Schirmer. Yet Boecklin is not the -disciple of these masters, but stands at the very opposite pole of art. -The art of all these men was merely a species of historical painting. -Old Koch read the Bible, Æschylus, Ossian, Dante, and Shakespeare; found -in them such scenes as Noah's thank-offering, Macbeth and the witches, -or Fingal's battle with the spirit of Loda; and sought amid the Sabine -hills, in Olevano and Subiaco, for sites where these incidents might -have taken place. Preller made the _Odyssey_ the basis of his artistic -creation, chose out of it moments where the scene might be laid in some -landscape, and found in Rügen, Norway, Sorrento, and the coast of Capri -the elements of nature necessary to his epic. Rottmann worked upon -hexameters composed by King Ludwig, and adhered in the views he painted -to the historical memories attached to the towns of Italy. Lessing -sought inspiration in Sir Walter Scott, for whose monks and nuns he -devised an appropriately sombre and mysterious background. Schirmer -illustrated the Books of Moses by placing the figures in Schnorr's -Picture Bible in Preller's Odyssean landscape. Whether they were -Classicists appealing to the eye by the architecture of form, or -Romanticists addressing the spirit by the "mood" in their landscapes, it -was common to all these painters that they set out from a literary or -historical subject. They gave an exact interpretation of the actions -prescribed by their authors, surrounding the figures with fictitious -landscapes, corresponding in general conception to one's notion of the -surroundings of heroes, patriarchs, or hermits. Their pictures are -historical incidents with a stage-setting of landscape. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - ARNOLD BOECKLIN. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.] - -In Boecklin all this is reversed. Landscape painter he is in his very -essence, and he is, moreover, the greatest landscape painter of the -nineteenth century, at whose side even the Fontainebleau group seem -one-sided specialists. Every one of the latter had a peculiar type of -landscape, and a special hour in the day which appealed to his feelings -more distinctly than any other. One loved spring and dewy morning, -another the clear, cold day, another the threatening majesty of the -storm, the flashing effects of sportive sunbeams, or the evening after -sunset, when colours fade from view. But Boecklin is as inexhaustible as -infinite nature herself. In one place he celebrates the festival of -spring with its burden of beauty: it is ushered in by snowdrops, and -greeted with joy by the veined cups of the crocus; yellow primroses and -blue violets merrily nod their heads, and a hundred tiny mountain -streams leap precipitately into the valley to announce the coming of -spring. In another, nature shines and blooms and chimes, and breathes -her balm in all the colours of summer. Tulips freaked with purple rise -at the side of paths; flowers in rows of blue, white, and -yellow--hyacinths, daisies, gentians, anemones, and snapdragon--fill the -sward in hordes; and down in the valley blow the narcissus in dazzling -myriads, loading the air with an overpowering perfume. But, beside such -lovely idylls, he has painted with puissant sublimity as many -complaining elegies and tempestuous tragedies. Here, the sombre autumnal -landscapes, with their tall black cypresses, are lashed by the rain and -the howling storm. There, lonely islands or grave, half-ruined towers, -tangled with creepers, rise dreamily from a lake, mournfully hearkening -to the repining murmur of the waves; and there, in the midst of a narrow -rocky glen, a rotten bridge hangs over a fearful abyss. Or a raging -storm, beneath the might of which the forests bow, blusters round a wild -mountain land which rises from a blue-black lake. Boecklin has painted -everything: the graceful and heroic, the solitude and the waste, the -solemnly sublime and the darkly tragic, passionate agitation and -demoniacal fancy, the strife of foaming waves and the eternal rest of -rigid masses of rock, the wild uproar of the sky and the still peace of -flowery fields. The compass of his moods is as much greater than that of -the French Classicists as Italy is greater than Fontainebleau. - -For Italy is Boecklin's home as a landscape painter, and the moods of -nature there are more in number than Poussin ever painted. Grave and sad -and grandiose is the Roman Campagna, with the ruins of the street of -sepulchres, and the grey and black herds of cattle looking mournfully -over the brown pastures. Hidden like the Sleeping Beauty lie the Roman -villas in his pictures, in their sad combination of splendour and decay, -of life and death, of youth and age. Behind weather-beaten grotto-wells -and dark green nooks of yew, white busts and statues gleam like -phantoms. From lofty terraces the water in decaying aqueducts trickles -down with a monotonous murmur into still pools, where bracken and -withered shrubs overgrown with ivy are reflected. Huge cypresses of the -growth of centuries stand gravely in the air, tossing their heads -mournfully when the wind blows. Then at a bound we are at Tivoli, and -the whole scenery is changed. Great fantastic rocks rise straight into -the air, luxuriantly mantled by ivy and parasitic growths; trees and -shrubs take root in the clefts; the floods of the Anio plunge -headforemost into the depths with a roar of sound, like a legion of -demons thunder-stricken by some higher power. Then comes Naples, with -its glory of flowers and its moods of evening glowing in deep ruby. Blue -creepers twine round the balustrades of castles; hedges of monthly roses -veil the roads, and oranges grow large amid the dark foliage. Farther -away he paints the Homeric world of Sicily, with its crags caressed or -storm-beaten by the wave, its blue grottoes, and its deep glowing -splendours of changing colour. Or he represents the inland landscape of -Florence with its soft graceful lines of hill, its fields and flowers, -buds and blossoms, and its numbers of white dreaming villas hidden amid -rosy oleanders and standing against the blue sky with a brightness -almost dazzling. - -[Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ - - BOECKLIN. A VILLA BY THE SEA.] - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - BOECKLIN. A ROCKY CHASM.] - -Boecklin has no more rendered an exact portrait of the scenery of Italy -than the Classic masters of France sought to represent in a photographic -way districts in the forest of Fontainebleau. His whole life, like -theirs, was a renewed and perpetual wooing of nature. As a boy he looked -down from his attic in Basle upon the heaving waters of the Rhine. When -he was in Rome, in 1850, he wandered daily in the Campagna to feast his -eyes upon its grave lines and colours. After a few years in Weimar he -gave up his post to gather fresh impressions in Italy. And the moods -with which he was inspired by nature and the phenomena he observed were -stored in his mind as though in a great emporium. Then his imagination -went through another stage. That "organic union of figures and -landscape" which the representatives of "heroic landscape" had surmised -and endeavoured to attain by a reasoned method through the illustration -of passages in poetry took place in Boecklin by the force of intuitive -conception. The mood excited in him by a landscape is translated into an -intuition of life. - -In many pictures, particularly those of his earlier period, the -ground-tone given by the landscape finds merely a faint echo in small -accessory figures. In such pictures he stands more or less on a level -with _Dreber_, that master who died in Rome in 1875, and was forgotten -in the history of German art more swiftly than ought to have been the -case. Franz Dreber was not one of those Classicists dispersed over the -face of Europe, men who were content with setting heroic actions in the -midst of noble landscapes in the fashion of Preller; on the contrary, he -was the lyricist of this movement, the first man who did not touch the -epical material of old myths in a manner that was merely scholarly and -illustrative, but developed his picture from the original note of -landscape. In his pictures nature laughs with those who are glad, mourns -with those who weep, sheds her light upon the joyful, and envelops -tortured spirits in storm and the terror of thunder. If the golden age -is to be represented, the scene is a soft summer landscape, where -everything breathes peace and innocence and bliss. And the life of those -who inhabit this happy region runs by in blissful peace also. Fair women -and children rest upon the meadow, and gather fruits and pluck roses. If -he paints Ulysses upon the shore of the sea, looking with yearning -towards his distant home, a dull, sultry haze of noon broods over the -district, wide and grey like the hero's yearning. A spring landscape of -sunny blitheness, with butterflies sipping at the blossoms of the trees -and sunbeams sportively dallying on the sea, are the surroundings of the -picture where Psyche is crowned by Eros. And if Prometheus is -represented chained to the rock and striving to burst his fetters, all -nature fights the fight of the Titan. Lurid clouds move swiftly through -the sky, ghostly flashes of lightning quiver, and a wild tempest rakes -the mountains. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - BOECKLIN. THE PENITENT.] - -In Boecklin's earlier pictures the accessory figures are placed in close -relation with the landscape in a manner entirely similar. The mysterious -keynote of sentiment in nature gives the theme of the scene represented. -In the picture called "The Penitent," in the Schack Gallery, a hermit is -kneeling half-naked before the cross of the Saviour upon the slope of a -steep mountain. Troops of ravens fly screaming above his head, and a -strip of blue sky shines with an unearthly aspect between the trees, -which are bent into wild shapes. The character of the scene is terribly -severe, and severe and heavy is the misery in the heart of the man -chastising himself with the scourge in his hand as he kneels there in -prayer. A deep melancholy rests over the picture named "The Villa by the -Sea." The failing waves break gently on the shore with a mournful -whisper, the wind utters its complaint blowing through the cypresses, -and a few sunbeams wander coyly over the deep grey of the sky. At the -socle of a niche a young woman dressed in black stands, and, with her -head resting upon her hand, looks out of deeply veiled eyes over the -moving tide. In "The Spring of Love" the landscape vibrates in lyrically -soft and flattering chords. The budding splendour of blossoms covers the -trees luxuriantly, and a rivulet ripples over the laughing grassy balk. -A young man touches the strings of a lyre and sings; and, joining in his -song, a maiden stands beside him leaning against a bush laden with -blossom. In "The Walk to Emmaus" the ground-tone is given by a grave -evening landscape. The storm ruffles the tops of the great trees, and -chases across the sky the heavy clouds, over which strange evening -lights are flitting. All nature trembles in shivering apprehension. -"Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." - -But Boecklin's great creations reach a higher level. Having begun by -extending the lyrical mood of a landscape to his figures, he finally -succeeded in peopling nature with beings which seem the final -condensation of the life of nature itself, the tangible embodiment of -that spirit of nature whose cosmic action in the water, the earth, and -the air, he had glorified in one of his youthful works, the frescoes of -the Basle Museum. In such pictures he has no forerunners whatever in the -more recent history of art. His principle of creation rests, it might be -said, upon the same overwhelming feeling for nature which brought forth -the figures of Greek myth. When the ancient Greek stood before a -waterfall he gave human form to what he saw. His eye beheld the outlines -of beautiful nude women, nymphs of the spot, in the descending volume of -the cascade; its foam was their fluttering hair, and in the rippling of -the water and spattering froth he heard their bold splashing and their -laughter. The elemental sway of nature, the secret interweaving of her -forces took shape in plastic forms-- - - "Alles wies den eingeweihten Blicken, - Alles eines Gottes Spur ... - Diese Höhen füllten Oreaden, - Eine Dryas lebt in jedem Baum, - Aus dem Urnen lieblicher Najaden - Sprang der Ströme Silberschaum. - Jener Lorbeer wand sich einst um Hilfe, - Tantals Tochter schweigt in diesem Stein, - Syrinx Klage tönt aus jenem Schilfe, - Philomelas Schmerz aus diesem Hain." - -The beings which live in Boecklin's pictures owe their origin to a -similar action of the spirit. He hears trees, rivers, mountains, and -universal nature whisper as with human speech. Every flower, every bush, -every flame, the rocks, the waves, and the meadows, dead and without -feeling as they are to the ordinary eye, have to his mind a vivid -existence of their own; and in the same way the old poet conceived the -lightning as a fiery bird and the clouds as the flocks of heaven. The -stones have a voice, white walls lengthen like huge phantoms, the bright -lights of the houses upon a mountain declivity at night change into the -great eyes with which the spirit of the fell glares fixedly down; -legions of strange beings circle and whir round in the fantastic region. -In his imagination every impression of nature condenses itself into -figures that may be seen. As a dragon issues from his lair to terrify -travellers in the gloom of a mountain ravine, and as the avenging Furies -rise in the waste before a murderer, so in the still brooding noon, when -a shrill tone is heard suddenly and without a cause, the Grecian Pan -lives once again for Boecklin--Pan, who startles the goat-herd from his -dream by an eerie shout, and then whinnies in mockery at the terrified -fugitive. The cool, wayward splashing element of water takes shape as a -graceful nymph, shrouded in a transparent water-blue veil, leaning upon -her welling urn as she listens dreamily to the song of a bird. The fine -mists which rise from the fountain-head become embodied as a row of -merry children, whose vaporous figures float hazily through the shining -clouds of spring. The secret voices that live amid the silence of the -wood press round him, and the phantom born of the excited senses becomes -a ghostly unicorn advancing with noiseless step, and bearing upon his -back a maiden of legendary story dressed in a white garment. In the -thundercloud lying over the broad summit of a mountain and abundant in -blessing rain he sees the huge body of the giant Prometheus, who brought -fire from heaven and lies fettered to the mountain top, spreading over -the landscape like a cloud. The form of Death stumbling past cloven -trees in rain and tempest, as he rides his pale horse, appears to him in -a waste and chill autumnal region, where stands a ruined castle in lurid -illumination. A sacred grove, lying in insular seclusion and fringed -with venerable old trees that rise straight into the air, rustling as -they bend their heads towards each other, is peopled, as at a word of -enchantment, with grave priestly figures robed in white, which approach -in solemn procession and fling themselves down in prayer before the -sacrificial fire. The lonely waste of the sea is not brought home to him -with sufficient force by a wide floor of waves, with gulls indolently -flying beneath a low and leaden sky; so he paints a flat crag emerging -from the waves, and upon its crest, over which the billows sweep, the -shy dwellers of the sea bathe in the light. Naiads and Tritons assembled -for a gamesome ride over the sea typify the sportive hide-and-seek of -the waves. Yet there is nothing forced, nothing merely ingenious, -nothing literary in these inventions. The figures are not placed in -nature with deliberate calculation: they are an embodied mood of nature; -they are children of the landscape, and no mere accessories. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - BOECKLIN. PAN STARTLING A GOAT-HERD.] - -Boecklin's power of creating types in embodying these beings of his -imagination is a thing unheard of in the whole history of art. He has -represented his Centaurs and Satyrs, and Fauns and Sirens and Cupids, so -vividly and impressively that they have become ideas as currently -acceptable as if they were simple incomposite beings. He has seen the -awfulness of the sea at moments when the secret beings of the deep -emerge, and he allows a glimpse into the fabulous reality of their -heretofore unexplored existence. For all beings which hover swarming in -the atmosphere around have their dwelling in the trees or their haunts -in rocky deserts, he has found new and convincing figures. Everything -which was created in this field before his time--the works of Dürer, -Mantegna, and Salvator Rosa not excepted--was an adroit sport with forms -already established by the Greeks, and a transposition of Greek statues -into a pictorial medium. With Boecklin, who instead of illustrating -mythology himself creates it, a new power of inventing myths was -introduced. His creations are not the distant issue of nature, but -corporeal beings, full of ebullient energy, individualised through and -through, and stout, lusty, and natural; and in creating them he has been -even more consistent than the Greeks. In their work there is something -inorganic in the combination of a horse's body with the head of Zeus or -Laocoön grafted upon it. But in the presence of Boecklin's Centaurs -heaving great boulders around them and biting and worrying each other's -manes, the spectator has really the feeling which prompts him to -exclaim, "Every inch a steed!" In him the nature of the sea is expressed -through his cold, slimy women with the dripping hair clinging to their -heads far more powerfully than it was by the sea-gods of Greece. How -merciless is the look in their cold, black, soulless eyes! They are as -terrible as the destroying sea that yesterday in its bellowing fury -engulfed a hundred human creatures despairing in the anguish of death, -and to-day stretches still and joyous in its blue infinity and its -callous oblivion of all the evils it has wrought. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - BOECKLIN. THE HERD.] - -And only a slight alteration in the truths of nature has sufficed him -for the creation of such chimerical beings. As a landscape painter he -stands with all his fibres rooted in the earth, although he seems quite -alienated from this world of ours, and his fabulous creatures make the -same convincing impression because they have been created with all the -inner logical congruity of nature, and delineated under close -relationship to actual fact with the same numerous details as the real -animals of the earth. For his Tritons, Sirens, and Mermaids, with their -awkward bodies covered with bristly hair and their prominent eyes, he -may have made studies from seals and walruses. As they stretch -themselves upon a rocky coast, fondling and playing with their young, -they have the look of sea-cows in human form, though, like men, they -have around them all manner of beasts of prey and domestic pets which -they caress,--in one place a sea-serpent, in another a seal. His obese -and short-winded Tritons, with shining red faces and flaxen hair -dripping with moisture, are good-humoured old gentlemen with a quantity -of warm blood in their veins, who love and laugh and drink new wine. His -Fauns may be met with amongst the shepherds of the Campagna, swarthy -strapping fellows dressed in goat-skins after the fashion of Pan--lads -with glowing eyes and two rows of white teeth gleaming like ivory. It is -chiefly the colour lavished upon them which turns them into children of -an unearthly world, where other suns are shining and other stars. - -In the matter of colour also the endeavours of Romanticists of the -nineteenth century reach a climax in Boecklin. When Schwind and his -comrades set themselves to represent the romantic world of fairyland an -interdict was still laid upon colour, and it was lightly washed over the -drawing, which counted as the thing of prime importance. But Boecklin -was the first Romanticist in Germany to reveal the marvellous power in -colour for rendering moods of feeling and its inner depth of musical -sentiment. Even in those years when the brown tone of the galleries -prevailed everywhere, colour was allowed in his pictures to have its own -independent existence, apart from its office of being a merely -subordinate characteristic of form. For him green was thoroughly green, -blue was divinely blue, and red was jubilantly red. At the very time -when Richard Wagner lured the colours of sound from music, with a glow -and light such as no master had kindled before, Boecklin's symphonies of -colour streamed forth like a crashing orchestra. The whole scale, from -the most sombre depth to the most chromatic light, was at his command. -In his pictures of spring the colour laughs, rejoices, and exults. In -"The Isle of the Dead" it seems as though a veil of crape were spread -over the sea, the sky, and the trees. And since that time Boecklin has -grown even greater. His splendid sea-green, his transparent blue sky, -his sunset flush tinged with violet haze, his yellow-brown rocks, his -gleaming red sea-mosses, and the white bodies of his girls are always -arranged in new glowing, sensuous harmonies. Many of his pictures have -such an ensnaring brilliancy that the eye is never weary of feasting -upon their floating splendour. - -A master who died in Rome some nineteen years ago might have been in the -province of mural painting for German art what Puvis de Chavannes has -become for French. In the earlier histories of art his name is not -mentioned. Seldom alluded to in life, dead as a German painter ten years -before his death, he was summoned from the grave by the enthusiasm of a -friend who was a refined connoisseur four years after the earth had -closed over him. Such was _Hans von Marées'_ destiny as an artist. - -[Illustration: BOECKLIN. VENUS DESPATCHING CUPID.] - -Marées was born in Elberfeld in 1837. In beginning his studies he had -first betaken himself to Berlin, and then went for eight years to -Munich, where he paid his tribute to the historical tendency by a "Death -of Schill." But in 1864 he migrated to Rome, where he secluded himself -with a few pupils, and passed his time in working and teaching. Only -once did he receive an order. He was entrusted in 1873 with the -execution of some mural paintings in the library of the Zoological -Museum in Naples, and lamented afterwards that he had not received the -commission in riper years. When he had sufficient confidence in himself -to execute such tasks he had no similar opportunity, and thus he lost -the capacity for the rapid completion of a work. He began to doubt his -own powers, sent no more pictures to any exhibition, and when he died in -the summer of 1887, at the age of fifty, his funeral was that of a man -almost unknown. It was only when his best works were brought together at -the annual exhibition of 1891 at Munich that he became known in wider -circles, and these pictures, now preserved in the Castle of -Schleissheim, will show to future years who Hans von Marées was, and -what he aimed at. - -"An artist rarely confines himself to what he has the power of doing," -said Goethe once to Eckermann; "most artists want to do more than they -can, and are only too ready to go beyond the limits which nature has set -to their talent." Setting out from this tenet, there would be little -cause for rescuing Marées from oblivion. Some portraits and a few -drawings are his only performances which satisfy the demands of the -studio--the portraits being large in conception and fine in taste, the -drawings sketched with a swifter and surer hand. His large works have -neither in drawing nor colour any one of those advantages which are -expected in a good picture; they are sometimes incomplete, sometimes -tortured, and sometimes positively childish. "He is ambitious, but he -achieves nothing," was the verdict passed upon him in Rome. Upon -principle Marées was an opponent of all painting from the model. He -scoffed at those who would only reproduce existing fact, and thus, in a -certain sense, reduplicate nature, according to Goethe's saying: "If I -paint my mistress's pug true to nature, I have two pugs, but never a -work of art." For this reason he never used models for the purpose of -detailed pictorial studies; and just as little was he at pains to fix -situations in his mind by pencil sketches to serve as notes; for, -according to his view, the direct use of motives, as they are called, is -only a hindrance to free artistic creation. And, of course, creation of -this kind is only possible to a man who can always command a rich store -of vivid memories of what he has seen and studied and profoundly grasped -in earlier days. This treasury of artistic forms was not large enough in -Marées. If one buries oneself in Marées' works--and there are some of -them in which the trace of great genius has altogether vanished beneath -the unsteady hand of a restless brooder--it seems as if there thrilled -within them the cry of a human heart. Sometimes through his method of -painting them over and over again he produced spectral beings with -grimacing faces. Their bodies have been so painted and repainted that -whole layers of colour lie upon separate parts, and ruin the impression -in a ghastly fashion. Only too often his high purpose was wrecked by the -inadequacy of his technical ability; and his poetic dream of beauty -almost always evaporated because his hand was too weak to give it shape. - -If his pictures, in spite of all this, made a great effect in the Munich -exhibition, it was because they formulated a principle. It was felt that -notes had been touched of which the echo would be long in dying. When -Marées appeared there was no "grand painting" for painting's sake in -Germany, but mural decoration after the fashion of the historical -picture--works in which the aim of decorative art was completely -misunderstood, since they merely gave a rendering of arid and -instructive stories, where they should have simply aimed at expressing -"a mood." Like his contemporary Puvis de Chavannes in France, Marées -restored to this "grand painting" the principle of its life, its joyous -impulse, and did so not by painting anecdote, but because he aimed at -nothing but pictorial decorative effect. A sumptuous festal impression -might be gained from his pictures; it was as though beautiful and -subdued music filled the air; they made the appeal of quiet hymns to the -beauty of nature, and were, at the same time, grave and monumental in -effect. - -In one, St. Martin rides through a desolate wintry landscape upon a -slow-trotting nag, and holds his outspread mantle towards the half-naked -beggar, shivering with the cold. In another, St. Hubert has alighted -from his horse, and kneels in adoration before the cross which he sees -between the antlers of the stag. In another, St. George, upon a powerful -rearing horse, thrusts his lance through the body of the dragon with -solemn and earnest mien. But as a rule even the relationship with -antique, mythological, and mediæval legendary ideas is wanting in his -art. Landscapes which seem to have been studied in another world he -peoples with beings who pass their lives lost in contemplation of the -divine. Women and children, men and grey-beards live, and love, and -labour as though in an age that knows nothing of the stroke of the -clock, and which might be yesterday or a hundred thousand years ago. -They repose upon the luxuriant sward shadowed by apple-trees laden with -fruit, abandoning themselves to a thousand reveries and meditations. -They do not pose, and they aim at being nothing except children of -nature, nature in her innocence and simplicity. Nude women stand -motionless under the trees, or youths are seen reflected in the pools. -The motive of gathering oranges is several times repeated: a youth -snatches at the fruit, an old man bends to pick up those which have -dropped, and a child searches for those which have rolled away in the -grass. Sometimes the steed, the Homeric comrade of man, is introduced: -the nude youth rides his steed in the training-school, or the commander -of an army gallops upon his splendid warhorse. Everything that Marées -painted belongs to the golden age. And when it was borne in mind that -these pictures had been produced twenty years back or more, they came to -have the significance of works that opened out a new path; there was -poetry in the place of didactic formula; in the place of historical -anecdote the joy of plastic beauty; in the place of theatrical vehemence -an absence of gesticulation and a perfect simplicity of line. At a time -when others rendered dramas and historical episodes by colours and -gestures, Marées composed idylls. He came as a man of great and austere -talent, Virgilian in his sense of infinite repose on the breast of -nature, monastic in his abnegation of petty superficial allurements, -despite special attempts which he made at chromatic effect. Something -dreamy and architectonic, lofty and yet familiar, intimate in feeling -and yet monumental holds sway in his works. Intimacy of effect he -achieved by the stress he laid upon landscape; monumental dignity by his -grandiose and earnest art, and his calm and sense of style in line. All -abrupt turns and movements were avoided in his work. And he displayed a -refinement entirely peculiar to himself through the manner in which he -brought into accord the leading lines of landscape and the leading lines -in his figures. A feeling for style, in the sense in which it was -understood by the old painters, is everywhere dominant in his work, and -a handling of line and composition in the grand manner which placed him -upon a level with the masters of art. A new and simple beauty was -revealed. And if it is true that it is only in the field of plastic art -that he has had, up to the present, any pupil of importance--and he had -one in Adolf Hildebrandt--it is, nevertheless, beyond question that the -monumental painting of the future is alone capable of being developed -upon the ground prepared by Marées. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - BOECKLIN. FLORA.] - -In this more than anything, it seems to me, lies the significance of all -these masters. We must not lay too much stress upon the fact that they -dealt with ideal and universal themes; a healthy art cannot be nourished -on bloodless ideals, but only on the living essence of its own epoch. -We must bear in mind, however, that a sound artistic principle has been -formulated. A glance at the productions of classic art shows us that the -old masters carefully considered the relation of a picture to its -environment. Take, for instance, the Ravenna mosaics or Giotto's -frescoes. They must needs resound in solemn harmony the whole church -through; looked at from any point of view they must make their presence -felt right away in the farthest distance: so both Giotto and the mosaic -artists worked only in broad expressive lines, their forcible -colour-schemes were fitted together in accordance with strict decorative -laws. All naturalistic effects are avoided, all petty detail is left out -in the flow of the drapery as well as in the structure of the landscape. -Then the clear outlines tell out. The pictures must, when viewed from a -distance, simultaneously, in all their lines, carry on the lines of the -building. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - BOECKLIN. IN THE TROUGH OF THE WAVES.] - -Later on, in the Netherlands, there arose another style of painting. In -abrupt contrast to the monumental works of the Italian school we have -Jan van Eyck's tiny little pictures painted with a fine point, stroke by -stroke, with the most minute exactitude. Every hair in the head, every -vein in the hands, every ornament in the costume is drawn true to life. -Jan van Eyck knew what he was about with this fine-point style of art, -for his pictures did not lay claim to any effect from a distance; they -were meant to be looked at, like miniatures in the prayer-books, from -the closest point of view possible. They were little domestic -altar-pieces: when anyone wanted to look at them, he drew the curtain -aside and knelt or stood just in front of them. The style of painting of -the later Dutch cabinet pictures is accounted for in the same way. These -paintings were generally placed on an easel, as if to give the spectator -a gentle hint, "If you wish to fully appreciate the beauties of this -little picture, please stand right in front." Even when the pictures -were meant to adorn the walls, the minute and dainty style of a Don or a -Mieris was appropriate, for the narrowness of the old Dutch rooms -precluded all possibility of the spectator's being able to stand far -away from the picture. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - BOECKLIN. THE SHEPHERD'S PLAINT.] - -If by chance one of these Dutch artists, Weenix for instance, had to do -work for a Flemish palace, he changed his style forthwith. He recognised -the fact that a picture, to be effective in a large state-room, must -differ not only in size, but in composition and style of painting from -one that is meant for a small parlour. It is undoubtedly this lack of -appreciation of the fact that a picture must be suitable to its -surroundings that has robbed the nineteenth century of any claim to -style. What abominable daubs mural painters have foisted upon us in our -public buildings! The literary trend of the time drew away people's -attention from the beauty of form and colour, and centred it upon the -didactic value of the works. Instead of starting from the idea that a -picture should "adorn," they covered the walls with historical genre -painting, never troubling themselves about decorative effect, and -offered the beholder instructive stories in picture cards. As to art in -the home, well, we can all of us remember the time when small -photographs and etchings, instead of being kept in an album or a -portfolio, were put on the wall, where they looked like mere spots of -dead black and white. It was the same sort of thing in galleries and -exhibitions, confusion worse confounded. On one and the same wall you -got the most heterogeneous collection, cabinet pictures by Brouwer or -Ostade next to an enormous altar-piece by Rubens, a gigantic Delacroix -flanked by neat little Meissoniers. In this way the power of -appreciating the significance of a work of art as part of the -decoration of a room was totally lost. Surely it is not to be wondered -at that a picture seen close to in an exhibition, bought, taken home, -hung on the wall and looked at from a distance, turns out a meaningless -chaos of dirty-brown. - -[Illustration: _Albert, Munich._ - - BOECKLIN. AN IDYLL OF THE SEA.] - -In the province of mural painting the tendency towards an improvement -set in earliest. In England, France, and Germany, almost simultaneously -efforts began to be made with the object of restoring to mural painting -once more its decorative element. In England Burne-Jones was the first -to pay attention to harmony of style between picture and building. -Before his time English churches were provided with stained-glass -windows in a spurious sort of Cinquecento style that was absolutely -unsuited to the building, but Burne-Jones satisfied the most exacting -demands of the English Neo-Gothic architecture. All his subjects are -brought into style with the slender pillars, the curves of the landscape -as well as of the figures harmonise with the pointed arches of the -building. Everything, colour as well as line, is so simplified that the -pictures retain the clearness of their composition when seen from the -farthest possible standpoint. In France, Puvis de Chavannes travelled by -another road to the same goal. The decoration of the Pantheon was placed -in his hands. Before him many artists had done work there, but the -policy of all of them had been to adopt the old style of oil-painting to -mural decoration, and so they adorned the Pantheon as well, though it -was called a Grecian temple, with oil-paintings founded on Raphael or -Caravaggio, mural pictures that would have been far better suited to a -church of the Cinquecento or the _baroque_ period. Puvis was the first -to realise that in the decoration of a building the artist must be -strictly controlled by the style of the architecture; so in his frescoes -he avoided all projections, all roundness, all wavy lines, bends, and -curves, and dealt exclusively with groups of vertical and horizontal -lines, that followed the characteristic lines of pillar and architrave. -Similarly in the colours as well as the lines he excluded all detail -that would distract the attention, all confusion of colours that would -disturb the eye, and thereby gave his works the stately and dominant -effect that they produce. Had Fate been kind, poor Hans von Marées might -have won the same significance for Germany as Puvis did for France. -Though individually his works are faulty, they are all informed with a -marvellous feeling for style; one observes how beautifully the lines of -the landscape are made to harmonise with the lines of the figures, and -with what a finely decorative quality the colours are combined. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - BOECKLIN. VITA SOMNIUM BREVE.] - -In a similar manner we must bring our minds to bear upon the problem of -the framed picture in connection with the decoration of a room. Our -rooms are not only lighter but more spacious than the old-fashioned -Dutch parlours, with their leaded panes; so it was merely a hereditary -taint in our painters that made them cling so long to the ancestral -style of painting, in spite of the altered conditions of the lighting -and size of modern rooms. Impressionism did at any rate bring colour -more into harmony with the improved lighting of our rooms; yet in every -art the sins of the fathers are visited upon their children. The -Impressionists discovered atmosphere, and so they denied the existence -of lines, and the outlines vanished into thin air; they discovered -light, and therefore they likewise denied the existence of colours. Then -by means of light the colours were analysed, and patches of colour were -decomposed into a heterogeneous conglomeration of luminous points. The -Impressionists simply revelled in the most delicate nuances of vague -tones of indefinite colour, and as they eliminated from their work all -significant lines and all strong and frank colours, they spoilt to a -great extent the decorative effect of their pictures when viewed at a -distance: their paintings from that standpoint are often nothing more -than a daub of violet and yellow, without form and void. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - BOECKLIN. THE ISLE OF THE DEAD.] - -Thus towards the close of the nineteenth century there came under -discussion a new problem again in the matter of picture painting. The -question arose as to how decorative qualities might be arrived at in -painting pure and simple. The way seems to be pointed out in the works -of Moreau and Boecklin; the way in which they placed side by side -beautiful strong colours in broad masses, and invariably so as to avoid -all discord, and combined the most conflicting tones into a harmonious -whole in a manner which words fail one to describe. It was delightful, -after having looked so long at nothing but the subtle, delicate nuances -of the Impressionists, to turn again to these full-toned colours ringing -out their deep and mighty harmonies. - -It is scarcely to be wondered at that the younger generation of the -present day refused to be bound by the principles of art laid down by -their predecessors, notwithstanding the fact that Moreau, as well as -Boecklin, was indebted to the Quattrocento for the mosaic-like -brilliancy of his colours. Impressionism has discovered a whole range of -new colour values by careful and intelligent study of the influence of -light upon colour, and where formerly we saw ten we now find a hundred. -Red, green, blue have lost their meaning in the category of complex and -infinitely differentiated tones. So, as we advance from a realistic -transcript of impressions taken direct from nature to free, symphonic -compositions of the colours to which Impressionism has opened our eyes, -we shall evolve harmonies richer than were ever imagined before, more -melting than we ever dreamed of. This is the goal to which the efforts -of the younger generation are primarily tending. Building upon the -foundations laid by the Impressionists, they seek to ensure for their -pictures both clearness and harmony, by simplification of form, by -beauty of technique, and by subordination of colour to the decorative -scheme. Their confession of faith is comprised in the words of Paterson: -"A picture must be something more than garbled Nature: it must please -the educated eye; and only so far as nature gives the painter his -material can he or dare he follow her." - - - - -BOOK V - -A SURVEY OF EUROPEAN ART AT THE PRESENT TIME - -INTRODUCTION - - -By what means was the further development of painting in Europe brought -about under the influence of the principles of the two schools, the -Impressionists and the Decorative-Stylists? The following may supply the -answer. - -"Realism" having led painting from the past to the present, and -"Impressionism" having broken the jurisdiction of the galleries by -establishing an independent conception of colour for a new class of -subjects, the flood of modern life, which had been artificially dammed, -began to pour into art in all its volume. A whole series of new problems -emerged, and a vigorous band of modern spirits were ready to lay hold -upon them and give them artistic shape, each according to his nature, -his ability, and his individual knowledge and power. After -nineteenth-century painting had found its proper field of activity they -were no longer under the necessity of seeking remote subjects. The fresh -conquest of a personal impression of nature took the place of that -retrospective taste which employed the ready-made language of form and -colour belonging to the old masters, as a vocabulary for the preparation -of fresh works of art. Nature herself had become a gallery of splendid -pictures. Artists were dazzled as if by a new light, overcome as though -by a revelation of tones and strains from which the painter was to -compose his symphonies. They learnt how to find what was pictorial and -poetic in the narrowest family circle and amongst the beds of the -simplest vegetable garden; and for the first time they felt more wonder -in the presence of reality, the joy of gradual discovery and of a -leisurely conquest of the world. - -Of course, _plein-air_ painting was at first the chief object of their -endeavours. Having painted so long only in brown tones, the radiant -magic world of free and flowing light was something so ravishingly novel -that for several years all their efforts were exclusively directed to -possessing themselves once more of the sun, and substituting the clear -daylight for the clare-obscure which had reigned alone, void of -atmosphere. In this sunny brightness, flooded with light and air, they -found a crowd of problems, and turned to the perpetual discovery of new -chords of colour. Sunbeams sparkling as they rippled through the leaves, -and greyish-green meadows flecked with dust and basking under light, -were the first and most simple themes. - -The complete programme, however, did not consist of painting in bright -hues, but, generally speaking, in seizing truth of colour and altogether -renouncing artificial harmony in a generally accepted tone. Thus, after -the painting of daylight and sunlight was learnt, a further claim had -still to be asserted: the ideal of truth in painting had to be made the -keynote in every other task. For in the sun, light is no doubt white, -but in the recesses of the forest, in the moonshine, or in a dim place, -it shines and is at the same time charged with colour. Night, or mist, -with its hovering and pervasive secrets, is quite as rich in beauties as -the radiant world of glistening sunshine. After seeing the summer sun on -wood and water, it was a relief for the eye to behold the subdued, soft, -and quiet light of a room. Upon the older and rougher painting of free -light there followed a preference for dusk, which has a softness more -picturesque, a more tender harmony of colours, and more geniality than -the broad light of day. Artists studied clare-obscure, and sought for an -enhancement of colour in it; they looked into the veil of night, and -addressed themselves to a painting of darkness such as could only have -proceeded from the _plein-air_ school. For this darkness of theirs is -likewise full of atmosphere, a darkness in which there is life and -breath and palpitation. In earlier days, when a night was painted, -everything was thick and opaque, covered with black verging into yellow; -to this latter error artists were seduced by the crusts of varnish upon -old pictures. Now they learnt to interpret the mysterious life of the -night, and to render the bluish-grey atmosphere of twilight. Or if -figures were to be painted in a room, artists rendered the circulation -of the air amid groups of people, which Correggio called "the ambient" -and Velasquez "respiration." And there came also the study of artificial -illumination--of the delicate coloured charm of many-coloured lanterns, -of the flaring gas or lamp-light which streams through the glass windows -of shops, flaring and radiating through the night and reflected in a -blazing glow upon the faces of men and women. Under these purely -pictorial points of view the gradual widening of the range of subject -was completed. - -So long as the acquisition of sunlight was the point in question, -representations from the life of artisans in town and country stood at -the centre itself of artistic efforts, because the conception and -technical methods of the new art could be tested upon them with peculiar -success. And through these pictures painting came into closer sympathy -with the heart-beat of the age. At an epoch when the labouring man as -such, and the political and social movement in civilisation, had become -matters of absorbing interest, the picture of artisans necessarily -claimed an important place in art; and one of the best sides of the -moral value of modern painting lies in its no longer holding itself in -indifference aloof from these themes. When the century began, Hector and -Agamemnon alone were qualified for artistic treatment, but in the -natural course of development the disinherited, the weary and -heavy-laden likewise acquired rights of citizenship. In the passage -where Vasari speaks of the Madonnas of Cimabue, comparing them with the -older Byzantine Virgins, he says finely that the Florentine master -brought more "goodness of heart" into painting. And perhaps the -historians of the future will say the same about the art of the present. - -The predilection for the disinherited was in the beginning to such an -extent identified with the plain, straightforward painting of the -proletariat that Naturalism could not be conceived at all except in so -far as it dealt with poverty: in making its first great successes it had -sought after the miserable and the outcast, and serious critics -recognised its chief importance in the discovery of the fourth estate. -Of course, the painting of paupers, as a sole field of activity for the -new art, would have been an exceedingly one-sided acquisition. It is not -merely the working-man who should be painted, because the age must -strive to compass in a large and full spirit the purport of its own -complicated conditions of life. So there began, in general, the -representation, so long needed, of the man of to-day and of society -agitated, as it is, by the stream of existence. As Zola wrote in the -very beginning of the movement: "Naturalism does not depend upon the -choice of subject. The whole of society is its domain, from the -drawing-room to the drinking-booth. It is only idiots who would make -Naturalism the rhetoric of the gutter. We claim for ourselves the whole -world." Everything is to be painted,--forges, railway-stations, -machine-rooms, the workrooms of manual labourers, the glowing ovens of -smelting-works, official fêtes, drawing-rooms, scenes of domestic life, -_cafés_, storehouses and markets, the races and the Exchange, the clubs -and the watering-places, the expensive restaurants and the dismal -eating-houses for the people, the _cabinets particuliers_ and _chic des -premières_, the return from the Bois and the promenades on the seashore, -the banks and the gambling-halls, casinos, boudoirs, studios, and -sleeping-cars, overcoats, eyeglasses and red dress-coats, balls, -_soirées_, sport, Monte Carlo and Trouville, the lecture-rooms of -universities and the fascination of the crowded streets in the evening, -the whole of humanity in all classes of society and following every -occupation, at home and in the hospitals, at the theatre, upon the -squares, in poverty-stricken slums and upon the broad boulevards lit -with electric light. Thus the new art flung aside the blouse, and soon -displayed itself in the most various costumes, down to the frock-coat -and the smoking-jacket. The rude and remorseless traits which it had at -first, and which found expression in numbers of peasant, artisan, and -hospital pictures, were subdued and softened until they even became -idyllic. Moreover, the scale of painting over life-size, favoured in the -early years of the movement, could be abandoned, since it arose -essentially from competition with the works of the historical school. So -long as those huge pictures covered the walls at exhibitions, artists -who obeyed a new tendency were forced from the beginning--if they wished -to prevail--to produce pictures of the same size. But since historical -painting was finally dead and buried, there was no need to set up such a -standard any longer, and a transition could be made to a smaller scale, -better fitted for works of an intimate character. The dazzling tones in -which the Impressionists revelled were replaced by those which were dim -and soft, energy and force by subdued and tender treatment, largeness of -size by a scale which was small and intimate. - -That was more or less the course of evolution run through in all -European countries in a similar way between the years 1875 and 1885. -Just in the same way from this time onwards the Decorative-Stylists' -tendency set in universally. Hitherto everything was focused on the -"picture as such." Tasteless novelty or methodless imitation held sway -over the applied arts. The endeavours of the next decade aimed at -freeing the picture from its isolation and making the room itself a -harmonious work of art. A long line of eminent artists took in hand the -hitherto neglected subject of art in decoration; and as thereby new -blood was infused into the applied arts, so on the other hand pictorial -art in one way renounced its freedom to fit itself into its new frame. -Colour, which formerly was determined principally by the lighting, now -became subordinate to a decorative scheme. Truth is no longer the end -and aim of art, but fitness, harmony of form and colour values. It is, -however, obviously impossible to give verse and chapter to the history -of this development, just as it would be impossible to fix a boundary -line between the two roads, the Impressionistic on the one hand and the -Decorative on the other. We will wander free from one country to -another, and try to assign to each its proper place in the general chart -of modern painting. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIV - -FRANCE - - -Paris, which for a hundred years had given the signal for all novel -tactics in European art, still remained at the head of the movement; the -artistic temperament of the French people themselves, and the -superlatively excellent training which the painter enjoys in Paris, -enable him at once to follow every change of taste with confidence and -ease. In 1883 Manet died, on the varnishing day of the Salon, and in the -preface which Zola wrote to the catalogue of the exhibition held after -the death of the master he was well able to say: "His influence is an -accomplished fact, undeniable, and making itself more deeply felt with -every fresh Salon. Look back for twenty years, recall those black -Salons, in which even studies from the nude seemed as dark as if they -had been covered with mouldering dust. In huge frames history and -mythology were smothered in layers of bitumen; never was there an -excursion into the province of the real world, into life and into -perfect light; scarcely here or there a tiny landscape, where a patch of -blue sky ventured bashfully to shine down. But little by little the -Salons were seen to brighten, and the Romans and Greeks of mahogany to -vanish in company with the nymphs of porcelain, whilst the stream of -modern representations taken from ordinary life increased year by year, -and flooded the walls, bathing them with vivid tones in the fullest -sunlight. It was not merely a new period; it was a new painting bent -upon reaching the perfect light, respecting the law of colour values, -setting every figure in full light and in its proper place, instead of -adapting it in an ideal fashion according to established tradition." - -When the way had been paved for this change, when the new principles had -been transferred from the chamber of experiments to full publicity, from -the _Salon des Refusés_ to the Salon which was official, it was chiefly -_Bastien-Lepage_ who gained the first adherents to them amongst the -public. But because he does not belong to the pioneers of art, and -merely adapted for the great public elements that had been won by Manet, -the immoderate praise which was accorded him in earlier days has been -recently brought within more legitimate limits. It has been urged, by -way of restriction, that he stands in relation to Manet as Breton to -Millet, and that, admitting all differences, he has nevertheless a -certain resemblance to his teacher, Cabanel. As the latter rendered -Classicism elegant, Bastien-Lepage, it has been said, softened the -ruggedness of Naturalism, cut and polished the nails of his peasants, -and made their rusticity a pretty thing, qualifying it for the -drawing-room. Degas was in the habit of calling him the Bouguereau of -Naturalism. As a matter of fact, Naturalism was bound to make certain -concessions if it were ever to prevail, and such critics forget that it -was just these amiable concessions which helped the principles of Manet -to prevail more swiftly than would have been otherwise possible. All the -forms and ideas of the Impressionists, with which no one, outside the -circle of artists, had been able to reconcile himself, were to be found -in Bastien-Lepage, purified, mitigated, and set in a golden style. He -followed the _eclaireurs_, as the leader of the main body of the army -which has gained the decisive battle, and in this way he has fulfilled -an important mission in the history of art. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE.] - -Bastien-Lepage was born in ancient Damvillers--once a small stronghold -of Lorraine--in a pleasant, roomy house that told a tale of even -prosperity rather than of wealth. As a boy he played amongst the -venerable moats which had been converted into orchards. Thus in his -youth he received the freshest impressions, being brought up in the -heart of nature. His father drew a good deal himself, and kept his son -at work with the pencil, without any æsthetic theories, without any -vague ideal, and without ever uttering the word "academy" or "museum." -Having left school in Verdun, Bastien-Lepage went to Paris to become an -official in the post-office. Of an afternoon, however, he drew and -painted with Cabanel. But he was Cabanel's pupil much as Voltaire was a -pupil of the Jesuits. "My handicraft," as he said afterwards, "I learnt -at the Academy, but not my art. You want to paint what exists, and you -are invited to represent the unknown ideal, and to dish up the pictures -of the old masters. In old days I scrawled drawings of gods and -goddesses, Greeks and Romans, beings I didn't know, and didn't -understand, and regarded with supreme indifference. To keep up my -courage, I repeated to myself that this was possibly 'grand art,' and I -ask myself sometimes whether anything academical still remains in my -composition. I do not say that one should only paint everyday life; but -I do assert that when one paints the past it should, at any rate, be -made to look like something human, and correspond with what one sees -around one. It would be so easy to teach the mere craft of painting at -the academies, without incessantly talking about Michael Angelo, and -Raphael, and Murillo, and Domenichino. Then one would go home afterwards -to Brittany, Gascony, Lorraine, or Normandy, and paint what lies around; -and any morning, after reading, if one had a fancy to represent the -Prodigal Son, or Priam at the feet of Achilles, or anything of the kind, -one would paint such scenes in one's own fashion, without reminiscences -of the galleries--paint them in the surroundings of the country, with -the models that one has at hand, just as if the old drama had taken -place yesterday evening. It is only in that way that art can be living -and beautiful." - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. PORTRAIT OF HIS GRANDFATHER. - - (_By permission of M. E. Bastien-Lepage, the owner of the picture._)] - -The outbreak of the war fortunately prevented him from remaining long at -the Academy. He entered a company of Franc-Tireurs, took part in the -defence of Paris, and returned ill to Damvillers. Here he came to know -himself and his peculiar talent. At once a poet and a realist, he looked -at nature with that simple frankness which those alone possess who have -learnt from youth upwards to see with their own eyes instead of trusting -to other people's. His friends called him "primitive," and there was -some truth in what they said, for Bastien-Lepage came to art free from -all trace of mannerism; he knew nothing of academical rules, and merely -relied upon his eyes, which were always open and trustworthy. - -Looking back as far as he could, he was able to remember nothing except -gleaners bowed over the stubble-fields, vintagers scattered amid the -furrows of the vineyards, mowers whose robust figures rose brightly from -the green meadows, shepherdesses seeking shelter beneath tall trees -from the blazing rays of the midday sun, shepherds shivering in their -ragged cloaks in winter, pedlars hurrying with great strides across the -plain raked by a storm, laundresses laughing as they stood at their tubs -beneath the blossoming apple-trees. He was impressionable to everything: -the dangerous-looking tramp who hung about one day near his father's -house; the wood-cutter groaning beneath the weight of his burden; the -passer-by trampling the fresh grass of the meadows and leaving his trace -behind him; the little sickly girl minding her lean cow upon a wretched -field; the fire which broke out in the night and set the whole village -in commotion. That was what he wanted to paint, and that is what he has -painted. The life of the peasants of Lorraine is the theme of all his -pictures, the landscape of Lorraine is their setting. He painted what he -loved, and he loved what he painted. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. THE FLOWER GIRL.] - -It was in Damvillers that he felt at home as an artist. He had his -studio in the second storey of his father's house, though he usually -painted in the open air, either in the field or the orchard, whilst his -grandfather, an old man of eighty, was near him clipping the trees, -watering the flowers, and weeding the grass. His mother, a genuine -peasant, was always busy with the thousand cares of housekeeping. Of an -evening the whole family sat together round the lamp, his mother sewing, -his father reading the paper, his grandfather with the great cat on his -lap, and Jules working. It was at this time that he produced those -familiar domestic scenes, thrown off with a few strokes, which were to -be seen at the exhibition of the works which he left behind him. He knew -no greater pleasure than that of drawing again and again the portraits -of his father and mother, the old lamp, or the velvet cap of his -grandfather. At ten o'clock sharp his father gave the signal for going -to bed. - -In Paris, indeed, other demands were made. In 1872 he painted, with the -object of being represented in the Salon, that remarkable picture "In -the Spring," the only one of his works which is slightly hampered by -conventionality in conception. The pupil of Cabanel is making an effort -at truth, and has not yet the courage to be true altogether. Here, as in -the "Spring Song" which followed, there is a mixture of borrowed -sentiment, work in the old style and fresh Naturalism. The landscape is -painted from nature, and the peasant woman is real, but the Cupids are -taken from the old masters. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. SARAH BERNHARDT.] - -The next years were devoted to competitive labours. To please his father -and mother Bastien-Lepage twice contested the _Prix de Rome_. In 1873 he -painted as a prize exercise a "Priam before Achilles," and in 1875 an -"Annunciation of the Angel to the Shepherds," that now famous picture -which received the medal at the World Exhibition of 1878. And he who -afterwards revelled in the clearest _plein-air_ painting here celebrates -the secret wonders of the night, though the influences of Impressionism -are here already visible. In his picture the night is as dark as in -Rembrandt's visions; yet the colours are not harmonised in gold-brown, -but in a cool grey silver tone. And how simple the effect of the -heavenly appearance upon the shepherds lying round the fire of coals! -The place of the curly ideal heads of the old sacred painting has been -taken by those of bristly, unwashed men who, nurtured amid the wind and -the weather, know nothing of those arts of toilette so much in favour -with the imitators of Raphael, and who receive the miracle with the -simplicity of elemental natures. Fear and abashed astonishment at the -angelic appearance are reflected in their faces, and the plain and -homely gestures of their hands are in correspondence with their inward -excitement. Even the angel turning towards the shepherds was conceived -in an entirely human and simple way. In spite of this, or just because -of it, Bastien failed with his "Annunciation to the Shepherds," as he -had done previously with his "Priam." Once the prize was taken by Léon -Comerre, a pupil of Cabanel, and on the other occasion by Josef Wencker, -the pupil of Gérôme. It was written in the stars that Bastien-Lepage was -not to go to Rome, and it did him as little harm as it had done to -Watteau a hundred and sixty years before. In Italy Bastien-Lepage would -only have been spoilt for art. The model for him was not one of the old -Classic painters, but nature as she is in Damvillers,--Nature, the great -mother. When the works sent in for the competition were exhibited a -sensation was made when one day a branch of laurel was laid on the frame -of Bastien-Lepage's "Annunciation to the Shepherds" by Sarah Bernhardt. -And Sarah Bernhardt's portrait became the most celebrated of the small -likenesses which soon laid the foundation of the painter's fame. - -The portrait of his grandfather, that marvellous work of a young man of -five-and-twenty, is the first picture in which he was completely -himself. The old man sits in a corner of the garden, just as usual, in a -brown cap, his spectacles upon his nose, his arms crossed upon his lap, -with a horn snuff-box and a check handkerchief lying upon his knees. How -perfectly easy and natural is the pose, how thoughtful the physiognomy, -what a personal note there is in the dress! Nor are there in that -garden, bathed in light, any of those black shadows which only fall in -the studio. Everything bore witness to a simplicity and sincerity which -justified the greatest hopes. After that first work the world knew that -Bastien-Lepage was a preeminent portrait painter, and he did not betray -the promise of his youth. His succeeding pictures showed that he had not -merely rusticity and nature to rely upon, but that he was a _charmeur_ -in the best sense of the word. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. MME. DROUET.] - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. THE HAY HARVEST.] - -This ingenuous artist, who knew nothing of the history of painting, and -felt more at home in the open air than in museums, was not ignorant, at -any rate, of the portraits of the sixteenth century, and had chosen for -his likenesses a scale as small as that which Clouet and his school -preferred. The representation here reaches a depth of characterisation -which recalls Jan van Eyck's little pearls of portrait painting. In -these works also he mostly confined himself to bright lights. Portraits -of this type are those of his brother, of Madame Drouet, the aged -friend of Victor Hugo, with her weary, gentle, benevolent face--a -masterpiece of intimate feeling and refinement; of his friend and -biographer André Theuriet, of Andrieux the prefect of the police, and, -above all, the famous and signal work of inexorable truth and marvellous -delicacy, Sarah Bernhardt in profile, with her tangled chestnut hair, -sitting upon a white fur, arrayed in a white China-silk dress with -yellowish lights in it, and carefully examining a Japanese bronze. The -bizarre grace of the tragic actress, her slender figure, fashioned, as -it were, for Donatello, the nervous intensity with which she sits there, -her weird Chinese method of wearing the hair, and the profile of which -she is so proud, have been rendered in none of her many likenesses with -such an irresistible force of attraction as in this little masterpiece. -In some of his other portraits Bastien-Lepage has not disdained the -charm of obscure light; he has not done so, for example, in the little -portrait of Albert Wolff, the art-critic, as he sits at his writing-desk -amongst his artistic treasures, with a cigarette in his hand. Only -Clouet and Holbein painted miniature portraits of such refinement. -Amongst moderns, probably Ingres alone has reached such a depth of -characterisation upon the smallest scale, and in general he is the most -closely allied to Bastien-Lepage as a portrait painter in profound study -of physiognomy, and in the broad and, one might say, chased technique of -his little drawings. Comparison with Gaillard would be greatly to the -disadvantage of this great engraver, for Bastien-Lepage is at once more -seductive and many-sided. It is curious how seldom his portraits have -that family likeness which is elsewhere to be found amongst almost all -portrait painters. In his effort at penetrative characterisation he -alters, on every occasion, his entire method of painting according to -the personality, so that it leaves at one time an effect that is -bizarre, coquettish, and full of intellectual power and spirit, at -another one which is plain and large, at another one which is bashful, -sparing, and _bourgeois_. - -As a painter of peasant life he made his first appearance in 1878. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. LE PÈRE JACQUES.] - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. JOAN OF ARC.] - -In the Salon of this year a sensation was made by a work of such truth -and poetry as had not been seen since Millet; this was the "Hay -Harvest." It is noon. The June sun throws its sultry beams over the mown -meadows. The ground rises slowly to a boundless horizon, where a tree -emerges here and there, standing motionless against the brilliant sky. -The grey and the green of these great plains--it is as if the weariness -of many toilsome miles rose out of them--weighed heavily upon one, and -created a sense of forsaken loneliness. Only two beings, a pair of -day-labourers, break the wide level scorched by a quivering, continuous -blaze of light. They have had their midday meal, and their basket is -lying near them upon the ground. The man has now lain down to sleep upon -a heap of hay, with his hat tilted over his eyes. But the woman sits -dreaming, tired with the long hours of work, dazzled with the glare of -the sun, and overpowered by the odour of the hay and the sultriness of -noon. She does not know the drift of her thoughts; nature is working -upon her, and she has feelings which she scarcely understands herself. -She is sunburnt and ugly, and her head is square and heavy, and yet -there lies a world of sublime and mystical poetry in her dull, dreamy -eyes gazing into a mysterious horizon. By this picture and "The Potato -Harvest," which succeeded it in 1879, Bastien-Lepage, the splendid, -placed himself in the first line of modern French painters. This time he -renders the sentiment of October. The sandy fields, impregnated with -dust, rest in a white, subdued light of noon; pale brown are the potato -stalks, pale brown the blades of grass, and the roads are bright with -dust; and through this landscape, with its wide horizon, where the -tree-tops, half despoiled already, shiver in the wind, there blows _le -grand air_, a breeze strong as only Millet in his water-colours had the -secret of painting. With Millet he shares likewise the breath of tender -melancholy which broods so sadly over his pictures. "The Girl with the -Cow," the little Fauvette, that child of social misery--misery that lies -sorrowful and despairing in the gaze of her eyes--is perhaps the most -touching example of his brooding devotion to truth. Her brown dress is -torn and dirty, while a grey kerchief borders her famished, sickly face. -A waste, disconsolate landscape, with a frozen tree and withered -thistles, stretches round like a boundless Nirvana. Above there is a -whitish, clear, tremulous sky, making everything paler, more arid and -wearily bright; there is no gleam of rich luxuriant tints, but only dry, -stinted colours; and not a sound is there in the air, not a scythe -driving through the grass, not a cart clattering over the road. There is -something overwhelming in this union between man and nature. One thinks -of the famous words of Taine: "Man is as little to be divided from the -earth as an animal or a plant. Body and soul are influenced in the same -way by the environment of nature, and from this influence the destinies -of men arise." As an insect draws its entire nature, even its form and -colour, from the plant on which it lives, so is the child the natural -product of the earth upon which it stands, and all the impulses of its -spirit are reflected in the landscape. - -In 1879 Bastien-Lepage went a step further. In that year appeared "Joan -of Arc," his masterpiece in point of spiritual expression. Here he has -realised the method of treating historical pictures which floated before -him as an idea at the Academy, and has, at the same time, solved a -problem which beset him from his youth--the penetration of mysticism and -the world of dreams into the reality of life. "The Annunciation to the -Shepherds," "In Spring," and "The Spring Song" were merely stages on a -course of which he reached the destination in "Joan of Arc." His ideal -was "to paint historical themes without reminiscences of the -galleries--paint them in the surroundings of the country, with the -models that one has at hand, just as if the old drama had taken place -yesterday evening." - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. THE BEGGAR.] - -The scene of the picture is a garden of Damvillers painted exactly from -nature, with its grey soil, its apple and pear-trees clothed with small -leaves, its vegetable beds, and its flowers growing wild. Joan herself -is a pious, careworn, dreamy country girl. Every Sunday she has been to -church, lost herself in long mystic reveries before the old sacred -pictures, heard the misery of France spoken of; and the painted statues -of the parish church and its tutelary saints pursue her thoughts. And -just to-day, as she sat winding yarn in the shadow of the apple-trees, -murmuring a prayer, she heard of a sudden the heavenly voices speaking. -The spirits of St. Michael, St. Margaret, and St. Catharine, before -whose statues she has prayed so often, have freed themselves from the -wooden images and float as light phantoms, as pallid shapes of mist, -which will as suddenly vanish into air before the eyes of the dreaming -girl. Joan rises trembling, throwing her stool over, and steps forward. -She stands in motionless ecstasy stretching out her left arm, and gazing -into vacancy with her pupils morbidly dilated. Of all human phases of -expression which painting can approach, such mystical delirium is -perhaps the hardest to render; and probably it was only by the aid of -hypnotism, to which the attention of the painter was directed just then -by the experiments of Charcot, that Bastien-Lepage was enabled to -produce in his model that look of religious rapture, oblivious to the -whole world, which is expressed in the vague glance of her eyes, blue as -the sea. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. THE POND AT DAMVILLERS.] - -"Joan of Arc" was succeeded by "The Beggar," that life-size figure of -the haggard old tramp who, with a thick stick under his arm--of which he -would make use upon any suitable occasion--picks up what he can in the -villages, saying a paternoster before the doors while he begs. This time -he has been ringing at the porch of an ordinary middle-class dwelling, -and he is sulkily thrusting into the wallet slung round his shoulders a -great hunch of bread which a little girl has just given to him. There is -a mixture of spite and contempt in his eyes as he shuffles off in his -heavy wooden shoes. And behind the doorpost the little girl, who, in her -pretty blue frock, has such a trim air of wearing her Sunday best, looks -rather alarmed and glances timidly at the mysterious old man. - -"Un brave Homme," or "Le Père Jacques," as the master afterwards called -the picture, was to some extent a pendant to "The Beggar." He comes out -of the wood wheezing, with a pointed cap upon his head and a heavy -bundle of wood upon his shoulders, whilst at his side his little -grandchild is plucking the last flowers. It is November; the leaves have -turned yellow and cover the ground. Père Jacques is providing against -the Winter. And the Winter is drawing near--death. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - BASTIEN-LEPAGE. THE HAYMAKER.] - -[Illustration: _Mansell Photo._ - - L'HERMITTE. THE PARDON OF PLOURIN.] - -Bastien-Lepage's health had never been good, nor was Parisian life -calculated to make it better. Slender and delicate, blond with blue eyes -and a sharply chiselled profile--_tout petit, tout blond, les cheveux à -la bretonne, le nez retroussé et une barbe d'adolescent_, as Marie -Baskirtscheff describes him--he was just the type which _Parisiennes_ -adore. His studio was besieged; there was no entertainment to which he -was not invited, no committee, no meeting to hold judgment over pictures -at which he was not present. Amateurs fought for his works and asked for -his advice when they made purchases. Pupils flocked to him in numbers. -He was intoxicated with the Parisian world, enchanted with its modern -elegance; he loved the vibration of life, and rejoiced in masked balls -like a child. Consumptive people are invariably sensuous, drinking in -the pleasures of life with more swift and hasty draughts. He then left -Paris and plunged into the whirlpool of other great cities. From -Switzerland, Venice, and London he came back with pictures and -landscapes. In London, indeed, he painted that beautiful picture "The -Flower-Girl," the pale, delicate child upon whose faded countenance the -tragedy of life has so early left its traces. Through the whole summer -of 1882 he worked incessantly in Damvillers. Once more he painted his -native place in a landscape of the utmost refinement. Here, as in his -portraits, everything has been rendered with a positive trenchancy, with -a severe, scientific effort after truth, in which there lies what is -almost a touch of aridness. And yet an indescribable magic is thrown -over the fragrant green of the meadows, the young, quivering trees, and -the still pond which lies rippling in the cloudless summer day. - -[Illustration: _Portfolio._ - - L'HERMITTE. PAY TIME IN HARVEST.] - -In 1883 there appeared in the Salon that wonderful picture "Love in the -Village." The girl has hung up her washing on the paling, and the -neighbour's son has run down with a flower in his hand; she has taken -the flower, and in confusion they have suddenly turned their backs upon -each other, and stand there without saying a word. They love each other, -and wish to marry, but how hard is the first confession. Note how the -lad is turning his fingers about in his embarrassment; note the -confusion of the girl, which may be seen, although she is looking -towards the background of the picture; note the spring landscape, which -is as fair as the figures it surrounds. - -It is a tender dreamer who gives himself expression here--and love came -to him also. - -Enthusiastically adored by the women in his school of painting, he had -found a dear friend in _Marie Baskirtscheff_, the distinguished young -Russian girl who had become his pupil just as his fame began to rise. It -is charming to see the enthusiasm with which Marie speaks of him in her -diary. "_Je peins sur la propre palette du vrai Bastien, avec des -couleurs à lui, son pinceau, son atelier, et son frère pour modèle._" -And how the others envy her because of it! "_La petite Suédoise voulait -toucher à sa palette._" With Marie he sketched his plans for the future, -and in the midst of this restless activity he was summoned hence -together with her, for she also died young, at the age of twenty-four, -just as her pictures began to create a sensation. A touching idyll in -her diary tells how the girl learnt, when she was dying of consumption, -that young Bastien had also fallen ill, and been given up as hopeless. -So long as Marie could go out of doors she went with her mother and her -aunt to visit her sick friend; and when she was no longer allowed to -leave the house he had himself carried up the steps to her drawing-room -by his brother, and there they both sat beside each other in armchairs, -and saw the end draw near, merciless and inevitable, the end of their -young lives, their talents, their ambition, and their hopes. "At last! -Here it is then, the end of all my sufferings! So many efforts, so many -wishes, so many plans, so many ---- ----, and then to die at -four-and-twenty upon the threshold of them all!" - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ LÉON L'HERMITTE.] - -Her last picture was one of six schoolboys, sons of the people, who are -standing at a street corner chattering; and it makes a curiously virile -impression, when one considers that it was painted by a blond young -girl, who slept under dull blue silken bed-curtains, dressed almost -entirely in white, was rubbed with perfumes after a walk in hard -weather, and wore on her shoulders furs which cost two thousand francs. -It hangs in the Luxembourg, and for a long time a lady dressed in -mourning used to come there every week and cry before the picture -painted by the daughter whom she had lost so early. Marie died on 31st -October 1884, and Bastien barely a month afterwards. "The Funeral of a -Young Girl," in which he wished to immortalise the funeral of Marie, was -his last sketch, his farewell to the world, to the living, alluring, -ever splendid nature which he loved so much, grasped and comprehended so -intimately, and to the hopes which built up their deceptive castles in -the air before his dying gaze. He died before he reached Raphael's age, -for he was barely thirty-six. The final collapse came on 10th December -1884, upon a sad, rainy evening, after he had lain several months upon a -bed of sickness. His frame was emaciated, and as light as that of a -child; his face was shrivelled--the eyes alone had their old brilliancy. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - ROLL. THE WOMAN WITH A BULL. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -On 14th December his body was brought up to the Eastern railway station. -The coffin was covered with roses, white elder blossoms, and -immortelles. And now he lies buried in Lorraine, in the little -churchyard of Damvillers, where his father and grandfather rest beneath -an old apple-tree. Red apple-blossoms he too loved so dearly. His -importance Marie Baskirtscheff has summarised simply and gracefully in -the words: "_C'est un artiste puissant, originel, c'est un poète, c'est -un philosophe; les autres ne sont que des fabricants de n'importe quoi à -côté de lui.... On ne peut plus rien regarder quand on voit sa -peinture, parce que c'est beau comme la nature, comme la vie...._" - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - ROLL. MANDA LAMÉTRIE, FERMIÈRE.] - -This tender poetic trait which runs through his works is what -principally distinguishes him from _L'hermitte_, the most sterling -representative of the picture of peasant life at the present time. -L'hermitte, also, like most of these painters of peasants, was himself -the son of a peasant. He came from Mont-Saint-Père, near -Château-Thierry, a quiet old town, where from the great "Hill of -Calvary" one sees a dilapidated Gothic church and the moss-grown roofs -of thatched houses. His grandfather was a vine-grower and his father a -schoolmaster. He worked in the field himself, and, like Millet, he -painted afterwards the things which he had done himself in youth. His -principal works were pictures of reapers in the field, peasant women in -church, young wives nursing their children, rustics at work, here and -there masterly water-colours, pastels and charcoal drawings, in 1888 the -pretty illustrations to André Theuriet's _Vie Rustique_, the decoration -of a hall at the Sorbonne with representations of rustic life, in his -later period occasionally pictures from other circles of life, such as -"The Fish-market of St. Malo," "The Lecture in the Sorbonne," "The -Musical Soirée," and finally, as a concession to the religious tendency -of recent years, a "Christ visiting the House of a Peasant." He has his -studio in the Rue Vaquelin in Paris, though he spends most of his time -in the village where he was born, and where he now lives quietly and -simply with the peasants. Most of his works, which are to be ranked -throughout amongst the most robust productions of modern Naturalism, are -painted in the great glass studio which he built in the garden of his -father's house. Whilst Bastien-Lepage, through a certain softness of -temperament, was moved to paint the weak rather than the strong, and -less often men in the prime of life than patriarchs, women, and -children, L'hermitte displays the peasant in all his rusticity. He knows -the country and the labours of the field which make the hands horny and -the face brown, and he has rendered them in a strictly objective manner, -in a great sculptural style. Bastien-Lepage is inclined to refinement -and poetic tenderness; in L'hermitte everything is clear, precise, and -sober as pale, bright daylight. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - RAFFAELLI. PLACE ST. SULPICE. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -_Alfred Roll_ was born in Paris, and the artisan of the Parisian streets -is the chief hero of his pictures. Like Zola in his Rougon-Macquart -series, he set before himself the aim of depicting the social life of -the present age in a great sequence of pictures--the workmen's strike, -war, and toil. His pictures give one the impression that one is looking -down from the window upon an agitated scene in the street. And his -broad, plebeian workmanship is in keeping with his rough and democratic -subjects. He made a beginning in 1875 with the colossal picture of the -"Flood at Toulouse." The roofs of little peasants' houses rise out of -the expanse of water. Upon one of them a group of country people have -taken refuge, and are awaiting a boat which is coming from the -distance. A young mother summons her last remnant of strength to save -her trembling child. Beside her an old woman is sitting, sunk in the -stupor of indifference, while in front a bull is swimming, bellowing -wildly in the water. The influence of Géricault's "Raft of the Medusa" -is indeed obvious; but how much more plainly and actually has the -struggle for existence been represented here, than by the great -Romanticist still hampered by Classicism. The devastating effect of the -masses of water in all their elemental force could not have been more -impressively rendered than has been done through this bull struggling -for life with all its enormous strength. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - RAFFAELLI. THE MIDDAY SOUP. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -In technique this picture belongs to the painter's earlier phase. Even -in the colouring of the naked figures it has still the dirty heaviness -of the Bolognese. This bond which united him to the school of Courbet -was broken when--probably under the influence of Zola's _Germinal_--he -painted "The Strike," in 1880. The stern reality which goes through -Zola's accounts of the life of pit-men is likewise to be found in these -ragged and starving figures, clotted with coal dust, assembling in -savage desperation before the manufactory walls, prepared for a rising. -The dull grey of a rainy November morning spreads above. In 1887 he -painted war, war in the new age, in which one man is not pitted against -another, but great masses of men, who kill without seeing one another, -are made to manoeuvre with scientific accuracy--war in which the -balloon, distant signalling, and all the discoveries of science are -turned to account. "Work" was the last picture of the series. There are -men toiling in the hot, dusty air of Paris with sandstones of all sizes. -Life-size, upon life-size figures, the drops of sweat were seen upon the -apathetic faces, and the patches upon the blouses and breeches. Any one -who only reckons as art what is fine and delicate will necessarily find -these pictures brutal; but whoever delights in seeing art in close -connection with the age, as it really is, cannot deny to Alfred Roll's -great epics of labour the value of artistic documents of the first rank. - -[Illustration: _Studio._ - - RAFFAELLI. THE CARRIER'S CART. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -He devoted himself to the more delicate problems of light, especially in -certain idyllic summer scenes, in which he delighted in painting -life-size bulls and cows upon the meadow, and beside them a girl, -sometimes intended as a milkmaid and sometimes as a nymph. Of this type -was the picture of 1888, A Woman returning from Milking, "Manda -Lamétrie, Fermière." With a full pail she is going home across the sunny -meadow. Around there is a gentle play of light, a soft atmosphere -transmitting faint reflections, lightly resting upon all forms, and -mildly shed around them. A yet more subtle study of light in 1889 was -named "The Woman with a Bull." Pale sunbeams are rippling through the -fluttering leaves, causing a delicious play of fine tones upon the nude -body of the young woman and the shining hide of the bull. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - RAFFAELLI. PARIS 4K. 1. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -On a strip of ground in the suburbs of Paris, where the town has come to -an end and the country has not yet begun, _Raffaelli_, perhaps the most -spirited of the Naturalists, has taken up his abode. He has painted the -workman, the vagabond, the restlessness of the man who does not know -where he is going to eat and sleep; the small householder, who has all -he wants; the ruined man, overtaken by misfortune, whose only remaining -passion is the brandy-bottle,--he has painted them all amid the -melancholy landscape around Paris, with its meagre region still in -embryo, and its great straight roads losing themselves disconsolately in -the horizon. Théophile Gautier has written somewhere that the -geometricians are the ruination of landscapes. If he lived in these days -he would find, on the contrary, that those monotonous roads running -straight as a die give landscape a strange and melancholy grandeur. One -thinks of the passage in Zola's _Germinal_, where the two socialists, -Étienne and Suwarin, walk in the evening silently along the edge of a -canal, which, with the perpendicular stems of trees at its side, -stretches for miles, as if measured with a pair of compasses, through a -monotonous flat landscape. Only a few low houses standing apart break -the straight line of the horizon; only here and there, in the distance, -does there emerge a human being, whose diminished figure is scarcely -perceptible above the ground. Raffaelli was the first to understand the -virginal beauty of these localities, the dumb complaining language of -poverty-stricken regions spreading languidly beneath a dreary sky. He is -the painter of poor people and of wide horizons, the poet and historian -of humanity living in the neighbourhood of great cities. There sits a -house-owner, or the proprietor of a shop, in front of his own door; -there a pedlar, or a man delivering parcels, hurries across the field; -there a rag-picker's dog strays hungry about a lonely farmyard. -Sometimes the wide landscapes are relieved by the manufactories, water -and gas-works which feed the huge crater of Paris. At other times the -snow lies on the ground, the skeletons of trees stand along the -high-road, and a driver shouts to his team; the heavy cart-horses -covered with worsted cloths, shiver, and an impression of intense cold -strikes through you to your very bones. Indeed, Raffaelli's austerity -was first subdued a little when he came to make a lengthy residence in -England. Then he acquired a preference for the light-coloured atmosphere -and the gracious verdure of nature in England. He began to take pleasure -in tender spring landscapes, in place of rigid scenes of snow. The poor -soil no longer seems so hard and inhospitable, but becomes attractive -beneath the soft, peaceful, bluish atmosphere. Even the uncivilised -beings, with famine in their eyes, who wandered about in his earliest -pictures, become milder and more resigned. The grandfather, in his -blouse and wooden shoes, leads his grandchild by the hand amid the first -shyly budding verdure. Old men sit quietly in the grounds of the -alms-house, with the sun shining upon them. People no longer stand in -the mist of November evenings with their teeth chattering from the -frost, but breathe with delight the soft air of bright spring mornings. - -[Illustration: RAFFAELLI. THE HIGHROAD TO ARGENTEUIL.] - -[Illustration: _Studio._ - - RAFFAELLI. LE CHIFFONIER. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -Raffaelli, for fifteen years the master of this narrowly circumscribed -region, has recorded his impressions of it in an entirely personal -manner, in a style which in one of his _brochures_ he has himself -designated "caractérisme." And by comparing the costumed models in the -pictures of the previous generation with the figures of Raffaelli, the -happiness of this phrase is at once understood. In fact, Raffaelli is a -great master of characterisation, and perhaps nowhere more trenchant -than in the illustrations which he drew for the _Revue Illustrée_. -Spirited caricatures of theatrical representations alternate with the -grotesque figures of the Salvation Army. Yet he feels most in his -element when he dives into the horrors of Paris by night. The types -which he has created live; they meet you at every step, wander about -the boulevards in the cafés and outside the barriers, and they haunt you -with their looks of misery, vice, and menace. - -_Giuseppe de Nittis_, an Italian turned a Parisian, a bold, searching, -nervously excitable spirit, was the first _gentilhomme_ of -Impressionism, the first who made a transition from the rugged painting -of the proletariat to coquettish pictures from the fashionable quarters -of the city, and reconciled even the wider public to the principles of -Impressionism by the delicate flavouring of his works. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - DE NITTIS. PARIS RACES.] - -"It was a cold November morning. Cold it was certainly, but in -compensation the morning vapour was as fine as snow turned into mist. -Yonder in the crowded, populous, sooty quarters of the city, in Paris -busy with trade and industry, this early vapour which settles in the -broad streets is not to be found; the hurry of awakening life, and the -confused movement of country carts, omnibuses, and heavy, rattling -freight-waggons, have scattered, divided, and dispersed it too quickly. -Every passer-by bears it away on his shabby overcoat, on his threadbare -comforter, or disperses it with his baggy gloves. It dribbles down the -shivering blouses and the waterproofs of toiling poverty, it dissolves -before the hot breath of the many who have passed a sleepless or -dissipated night, it is absorbed by the hungry, it penetrates into shops -which have just been opened, into gloomy backyards, and it floats up the -staircases, dripping on the walls and banisters, right up to the frozen -attics. And that is the reason why so little of it remains outside. But -in the spacious and stately quarter of Paris, upon the broad boulevards -planted with trees and the empty quays the mist lay undisturbed, section -over section, like an undulating mass of transparent wool in which one -felt isolated, hidden, almost imbedded in splendour, for the sun rising -lazily on the distant horizon already shed a mild purple glow, and in -this light the mist level with the tops of the houses shone like a piece -of muslin spread over scarlet." - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - HEILBUTH. FINE WEATHER.] - -This opening passage in Daudet's _Le Nabab_ most readily gives the mood -awakened by Giuseppe do Nittis' Parisian landscapes. De Nittis was born -in 1846 at Barletta, near Naples, in poor circumstances. In 1868, when -he was two-and-twenty years of age, he came to Paris, where Gérôme and -Meissonier interested themselves in him. Intercourse with Manet led him -to his range of subject. He became the painter of Parisian street-life -as it is to be seen in the neighbourhood of the quays, the painter of -mist, smoke, and air. The Salons of 1875 and 1876 contained his first -pictures, the "Place des Pyramides" and the view of the Pont Royal, fine -studies of mist with a tremulous grey atmosphere, out of which graceful -little figures raise their faint, vanishing outlines. From that time he -has stood at the centre of artistic life in Paris. He observed -everything, saw everything, painted everything--a strip of the -boulevards, the Place du Carrousel, the Bois de Boulogne, the races, the -Champs Elysées, in the daytime with the budding chestnuts, the -flower-beds blooming in all colours, the playing fountains, the women of -grace and beauty, and the light carriages which crowd between the Arc de -Triomphe, the Obelisk, and the Gardens of the Tuileries, and in the -evening when chains of white and coloured lights flash among the dark -trees. De Nittis has interpreted all atmospheric phases. He seized the -intangible, the vibration of vapour, the dust of summer, and the rains -of December days. He breathed the atmosphere, as it were, with his eyes, -and felt with accuracy its greater or its diminished density. The great -public he gained by his exquisite sense of feminine elegance. Of -marvellous charm are the figures which give animation to the Place des -Pyramides, the Place du Carrousel, the Quai du Pont Neuf--women in the -most coquettish toilettes, men chatting together as they lean against a -newspaper kiosk, flower-girls offering bouquets, loiterers carelessly -turning over the books exposed for sale upon a stall, _bonnes_ with -short petticoats and broad ribbons, smart-looking boys with hoops, and -little girls with the air of great ladies. Since Gabriel de Saint -Aubin, Paris has had no more faithful observer. "De Nittis," said -Claretie in 1876, "paints modern French life for us as that brilliant -Italian, the Abbé Galliani, spoke the French language--that is to say, -better than we do it ourselves." - -The summit of his ability was reached in his last pictures from England. -One knows the London fogs of November, which hover over the town as -black as night, so that the gas has to be lit at noon, fogs which are -suffocating and shroud the nearest houses in a veil of crape. Scenes -like this were made for de Nittis' brush. He roamed about in the smoke -of the city, observed the fashion of the season, the confusion of cabs -and drays upon London Bridge, the surge and hurry of the human stream in -Cannon Street, the vast panorama of the port of London veiled with smoke -and fog, the fashionable West End with its magnificent clubs, the green, -quiet squares and great, plainly built mansions; he studied the dense -smoky atmosphere of fog compressed into floating phantom shapes, the -remarkable effects of light seen when a fresh breeze suddenly drives the -black clouds away. And again his eye adapted itself at once to the novel -environment. It was not merely the blithe splendour of Paris that found -an incomparable painter in Giuseppe de Nittis, but London also with its -thick atmosphere and that mixture of damp, tawny fog and grey smoke. -Piccadilly, the National Gallery, the railway bridge at Charing Cross, -the Green Park, the Bank, and Trafalgar Square are varied samples of -these English studies, which showed British painters themselves that not -one of them had understood the foggy atmosphere of London as this -tourist who was merely travelling through the town. "Westminster" and -"Cannon Street," a pair of dreary, sombre symphonies in ash-grey, -perhaps display the highest of what De Nittis has achieved in the -painting of air. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ ULYSSE BUTIN.] - -Born in Hamburg, though a naturalised Frenchman, _Ferdinand Heilbuth_ -took up again the _cult_ of the _Parisienne_ in the wake of Stevens, and -as he turned the acquisitions of Impressionism to account in an -exceedingly pleasing manner he seems, in comparison with Stevens, -lighter and more vaporous and gracious. He painted water-scenes, scenes -on the greensward or in the entrance squares of châteaux, placing in -these landscapes girls in fashionable summer toilette. He was -particularly fond of representing them in a white hat, a white or -pearl-grey dress with a black belt and long black gloves, in front of a -bright grey stream, seated upon a fallen trunk, with a parasol resting -against it. The bloom of the atmosphere is harmonised in the very finest -chords with the virginal white of their dresses and the fresh verdure of -the landscapes. His pictures are little Watteaus of the nineteenth -century, as discreet in effect as they are piquant. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - BUTIN. THE DEPARTURE.] - -After Heilbuth's death _Albert Aublet_, who in earlier days depicted -sanguinary historical pieces, became the popular painter of girls, whose -beauties are gracefully interpreted in his pictures. When he paints the -composer Massenet, sitting at the piano surrounded by flowers and -beautiful women,--when he represents the doings of the fashionable world -on the shore at a popular watering-place, or young ladies plucking -roses, or wandering meditatively in bright dresses amid green shrubs and -yellow flowers, or going into the sea in white bathing-gowns, there may -be nothing profound or particularly artistic in it all, but it is none -the less charming, attractive, bright, joyous, and fresh. - -_Jean Béraud_, another interpreter of Parisian elegance, has found -material for numerous pictures in the blaze of the theatres, the naked -shoulders of ballet-girls, the dress-coats of old gentlemen, the -evening humour of the boulevards, the mysteries of the Café Anglais, the -bustle of Monte Carlo, and the footlights of the Café-Concert. But -absolute painter he is not. One would prefer to have a less oily -heaviness in his works, a bolder and freer execution more in keeping -with the lightness of the subject, and for this one would willingly -surrender the touches of _genre_ which Béraud cannot let alone even in -these days. But his illustrations are exceedingly spirited. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - DANTAN. A PLASTER CAST FROM NATURE.] - -It would be impossible to classify painters according to further -specialties. In fact, it is as little possible to bring individuals into -categories as it was at the time of the Renaissance, when the painter -busied himself at the same time with sculpture, architecture, and the -artistic crafts. Great artists do not wall themselves up in a narrow -space to be studied. Liberated from the studio and restored to nature, -they endeavour, as in the best periods of art, to encompass life as -widely as possible. A mere enumeration, such as chance offers, and such -as will preserve a sense for the individuality of every man's talent -without attempting comparisons, seems therefore a better method to -pursue than a systematic grouping which could only be attained -artificially and by ambiguities. - -The late _Ulysse Butin_ settled down on the shore of the Channel and -painted the life of the fishermen of Villerville, a little spot upon the -coast near Honfleur. Sturdy, large-boned fellows drag their nets across -the strand, carry heavy anchors ashore, or lie smoking upon the dunes. -The rays of the evening sun play upon their clothes; the night falls, -and a profound silence rests upon the landscape. - -By preference _Édouard Dantan_ has painted the interiors of sculptors' -studios--men turning pots, casting plaster, or working on marble, with -grey blouses, contrasting delicately with the light grey walls of -workrooms which are themselves flooded with bright and tender light. -Very charming was "A Plaster Cast from Nature," painted in 1887: in the -centre was a nude female figure most naturally posed, whilst a fine, -even atmosphere, which lay softly upon the girl's form, streaming gently -over it, was shed around. - -Having cultivated in the beginning the province of feminine nudity with -little success, in such pictures as "The Bacchante" of the Luxembourg, -"The Woman with the Mask," and "Rolla," _Henri Gervex_, the spoilt child -of contemporary French painting, turned to the lecture-rooms of the -universities, and by his picture of Dr. Péan at La Salpétrière gave the -impulse to the many hospital pictures, surgical operations, and so forth -which have since inundated the Salon. With the upper part of her body -laid bare and her lips half opened, the patient lies under the influence -of narcotics, whilst Péan's assistant is counting her pulse. His -audience have gathered round. The light falls clear and peacefully into -the room. Everything is rendered simply, without diffidence, and with -confidence and quietude. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - GERVEX. DR. PÉAN AT LA SALPÉTRIÈRE. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -_Duez_, when he had had his first success in 1879 with a large religious -picture--the triptych of Saint Cuthbert in the Luxembourg--appeared with -animal pictures, landscapes, portraits, or fashionable representations -of life in the streets and cafés. In the hands of such mild and -complacent spirits as _Friant_ and _Goeneutte_, Naturalism fell into a -mincing, lachrymose condition; but in a series of quiet, unpretentious -pictures _Dagnan-Bouveret_ was more successful in meeting the growing -inclination of recent years for contemplative repose, just as in the -province of literature Ohnet, Malot, and Claretie, with their spirit of -compromise, came after those stern naturalists Flaubert and Zola. -According to the drawing of Paul Renouard, Dagnan-Bouveret is a little, -black-haired man with a dark complexion and deep-set eyes, a short blunt -nose, and a black pointed beard. There is nothing in him which betrays -spirit, caprice, and audacity, but everything which is an indication of -patience and endurance; and, as a matter of fact, such are the qualities -by which he has gained his high position. He is a man of poetic talent, -though rather tame, and stands to Bastien-Lepage and Roll as Breton to -Millet. One often fancies that it is possible to observe in him that -German _Gemüth_, that genial temper, for the satisfaction of which Frau -Marlitt provided in fiction. A pupil of Gérôme, he made his first great -success in the Salon of 1879 with the picture "A Wedding at the -Photographer's." This was succeeded in 1882 by "The Nuptial -Benediction"; in 1883 by "The Vaccination"; in 1884 by "The Horse-pond" -of the Musée Luxembourg; in 1885 by a "Blessed Virgin," a homely, -thoughtful, and delicately coloured picture which gained him many -admirers in Germany; and in 1886 by "The Consecrated Bread," in which he -was one of the first to take up the study of light in interiors. In a -Catholic church there are sitting devout women--most of them old, but -also one who is young--and children, while an acolyte is handing them -consecrated bread. This simple scene in the damp village church, filled -with a tender gloom, is rendered with a winning homely plainness, and -with that touch of compassionate sentimentality which is the peculiar -note of Dagnan-Bouveret. The "Bretonnes au Pardon" of 1889 thoroughly -displayed this definitive Dagnan: a soft, peaceful picture, full of -simple and cordial poetry. In the grass behind the church, the plain -spire of which rises at the end of a wall, women are sitting, both young -and old, in black dresses and white caps. One of them is reading a -prayer from a devotional book. The rest are listening. Two men stand at -the side. Everything is at peace; the scheme of colour is soft and -quiet, while in the execution there is something recalling Holbein, and -the effect is idyllically moving like the chime of a village bell when -the sun is going down. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - DUEZ. ON THE CLIFF.] - -[Illustration: _L'Art_ - - DUEZ. THE END OF OCTOBER. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -The zeal with which painters took up the study of contemporary life, so -long neglected, did not, however, prevent the quality of French -landscape painting from being exceedingly high. New parts of the world -were no longer to be conquered. For fifteen years none of the nobler, -nor of the less noble, landscapes of France had been neglected, nor any -strip of field; there were no flowers that were not plucked, whether -they were cultivated in forcing-houses or had sprung pallid in a dark -garden of old Paris. It was only the joy in brightness and the newly -discovered beauty of sunshine that brought with them any change of -material. Following the Impressionists, the landscape painters deserted -their forests. Those "woodland depths," such as Diaz and Rousseau -painted, seldom appear in the works of the most modern artists. In the -severest opposition to such once popular scenes there lies the plain, -the wide expanse stretching forth like a carpet in bright, shining tones -under the play of tremulous sunbeams, and scarcely do a few trees break -the quiet line of the distant horizon. At first the poorest and most -humble corners were preferred. The painting of the poor brought even the -most forlorn regions into fashion. Later, in landscape also, a bent -towards the most tender lyricism corresponded with that inclination to -idyllic sentiment which was on the increase in figure painting. These -painters have a peculiar joy in the fresh mood of morning, when a light -vapour hovers over the meadows and the waters, before it is dissolved -into shining dew. They love the bloom of fruit-trees and the first smile -of spring, or revel in the gradations of the dusk, rich as they are in -shades of tint, mistily wan and grey, pale lilac, delicate green, and -milky blue. The perspective is broad and fine; objects are entirely -absorbed by the harmony of colour, and the older and coarser treatment -of free light heightened to the most refined play by the most delicate -shades of hue. And these colourists deriving from Corot, with their soft -grey enveloping all, are opposed by others who strike novel and higher -chords upon the keyboard of Manet--landscape painters whom such simple -and intimate things do not satisfy, but who search after unexpected, -fleeting, and extraordinary impressions, analysing fantastically -combined effects of light. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - DAGNAN-BOUVERET. CONSECRATED BREAD.] - -A group of New-Impressionists, who might be called prismatic painters, -stand in this respect at the extreme left. Starting from the conviction -that the traditional mixing of colours upon the palette results after -all only in palette tones, and can never fully express the intensity and -pulsating vividness of tone-values, they founded the theory of the -resolution of tones,--in other words, they break up all compound colours -into their primary hues, set these directly upon the canvas, and leave -it to the eye of the spectator to undertake the mixture for itself. In -particular _George Seurat_ was an energetic disseminator of this -painting in points which excited new discussions amongst artists and new -polemics in the newspapers. His pictures were entirely composed of -flaming, glowing, and shining patches. Close to these pictures nothing -was to be seen but a confusion of blotches, but at the proper distance -they took shape as wild sea-studies in the brilliant hues of noon, with -rocks and stones standing out in relief, orgies of blue, red, and -violet. Such was Seurat's manner of seeing nature. That such a course -brings with it a good deal of monotony, that it will hardly ever be -possible to quicken art to this extent with science, is incontestable. -But it is just as certain that Seurat was a painter of distinction who -shows in many of his pictures a fine sense for delicate, pale -atmosphere. Many of his landscapes, which at close quarters look like -mosaics of small, smooth, variously coloured stones, acquire a vibrating -light, such as Monet himself did not attain, when looked at from a -proper distance. _Signac_, _Anquetin_, _Angrand_, _Lucien Pissarro_, -_Coss_, _Luèc_, _Rysselberghe_, and _Valtat_ are the names of the other -representatives of this scientific painting, and their method has not -seldom enabled them to give expression in an overpowering manner to the -quiet of water and sky, the green of the meadows, and the softness of -tender light shifting over the sea. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - DAGNAN-BOUVERET. BRETONNES AU PARDON. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -When these "spotted" pictures hang in a room where they are fewer in -number than ordinary paintings they are difficult to understand. Only -the disadvantages of such a method of painting are noticed; the -disagreeable spottiness of the little points of colour ranged -unpleasantly side by side, and putting one in mind of a piece of -embroidery work, does not exactly appeal to the artist who looks for -beautiful lines and _belle pâte_ in a picture. Nevertheless, the method -would scarcely have found so many exponents did it not afford an -opportunity to get certain effects which are scarcely obtainable in any -other way. As a matter of fact, one finds in these pictures a sense of -life, such shimmering, glimmering effects, such tremulous, vibrating -light, as could not be arrived at without this disintegration of colour -into separate points. Moreover, they have at a distance a decorative -effect that leaves other pictures far behind. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - DAGNAN-BOUVERET. THE NUPTIAL BENEDICTION. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Boussod, Valadon & Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -The importance of Neo-Impressionism, therefore, depends on two -particulars. First, in the analysis of light it has carried the -principles of Impressionism to their furthest limit; secondly, in the -matter of decorative effect it has laid aside one great fault of -Impressionism, and has given us pictures which, seen from a distance, -take on a definite form instead of a blur of indistinct tones. - -Amongst the younger painters exhibiting in the Salon, -_Pointelin_--without any trace of imitation--perhaps comes nearest to -the tender poetry of Corot, and has with most subtlety interpreted the -delicate charm of cold moods of morning, the deep feeling of still -solitude in a wide expanse. _Jan Monchablon_ views the meadow and the -grass, the blades and variegated flowers of the field, with the eyes of -a primitive artist. Wide stretches of rolling ground upon radiant spring -days are usually to be seen in his pictures. The sun shines, the grass -sparkles, and the horizon spreads boundless around. In the background -cows are grazing, or there move small figures bathed in air, whilst a -dreamy rivulet murmurs in the foreground. The bright, soft light of -Provence is the delight of _Montenard_, and he depicts with delicacy -this landscape with its bright, rosy hills, its azure sky, and its pale -underwood. Light, as he sees it, has neither motes nor shadows; its -vibration is so intense and fine that it fills the air with liquid gold, -and absorbs the tints of objects, wrapping them in a soft and mystic -golden veil. - -_Dauphin_, who is nearly allied with him, always remains a colourist. -His painting is more animated, provocative, and blooming, especially in -those sea-pieces with their bright harbours, glittering waves, and -rocking ships with their sails shimmering and coquetting in the -sunshine. The name of _Rosset-Granget_ recalls festal evenings, houses -all aglow with lights and fireworks, or red lanterns shedding forth -their gleam into the dark blue firmament, and reflected with a thousand -fine tints in the sea. - -[Illustration: _Dial._ - - LUCIEN PISSARRO. SOLITUDE (WOODCUT).] - -The melancholy art of _Émile Barau_, a thoroughly rustic painter, who -renders picturesque corners of little villages with an extremely -personal accent, stands in contrast with the blithe painting of the -devotees of light; it is not the splendour of colour that attracts him, -but the dun hues of dying nature. He has come to a halt immediately in -front of Paris, in the square before the church of Creile. He knows the -loneliness of village streets when the people are at work in the fields, -and the houses give a feeling that their inhabitants are not far off and -may return at any moment. His pictures are harmonies in grey. The -leading elements in his works are the pale light lying upon colourless -autumn sward, the mournful outlines of leafless trees stretching their -naked boughs into the air as though complaining, small still ponds where -ducks are paddling, the scanty green of meagre gardens, the muddy waters -of old canals, reddish-grey roofs and narrow little streets amid -moss-covered hills, tall poplars and willows by the side of swampy -ditches, and in the background the old village steeple, which is -scarcely ever absent. _Damoye_, likewise, is fond of twilight, and -autumn and winter evenings. He is the poet of the great plains and dunes -and the sombre heaven, where isolated sunbeams break shyly from behind -white clouds. A fine sea-painter, _Boudin_, studies in Etretat, -Trouville, Saint Valery, Crotoy, and Berck the dunes and the misty sky, -spreading in cold northern grey across the silent sea. _Dumoulin_ paints -night landscapes with deep blue shadows and bright blue lights, while -_Albert Lebourg_ has a passion for the grey of rain and the glittering -snow which gleams in the light, blue in one place, violet and rosy in -another. _Victor Binet_ and _Réné Billotte_ have devoted themselves to -the study of that poor region, still in embryo, which lies around Paris, -a region where a delicate observer finds so much that is pictorial and -so much hidden poetry. Binet is so delicate that everything grows nobler -beneath his brush. He specially loves to paint the poetry of twilight, -which softens forms and tinges the trees with a greyish-green, the -quiet, monotonous plains where tiny footpaths lose themselves in -mysterious horizons, the expiring light of the autumn sun playing with -the fallen yellow leaves upon dusty highways. Réné Billotte's life is -exceedingly many-sided. In the forenoon he is an important ministerial -official, in the evening the polished man of society in dress-clothes -and white tie whom Carolus Duran painted. Of an afternoon, in the hours -of dusk and moonrise, he roams as a landscape painter in the suburbs of -Paris; he is an exceedingly accomplished man of the world, who only -speaks in a low tone, and what he specially loves in nature, too, is the -hour when moonlight lies gently and delicately over all forms. The -scenes he usually chooses are a quarry with light mist settling over it, -a light-coloured cornfield in a bluish dusk, a meadow bathed in pale -light, or a strip of the seashore where the delicate air is impregnated -with moisture. - -[Illustration: LUCIEN PISSARRO. RUTH (WOODCUT). - - (_By permission of Messrs. Hacon & Ricketts, the owners of the - copyright._)] - -To be at once refined and true is the goal which portrait painting in -recent years has also specially set itself to reach. In the years of -_chic_ it started with the endeavour to win from every personality its -beauties, to paint men and women "to advantage"; but later, when the -Naturalism of Bastien-Lepage stood at its zenith, it strove at all costs -to seize the actual human being, to catch, as it were, the work-a-day -character of the personality as it is in involuntary moments when people -believe themselves to be unobserved and give up posing. The place of -those pompous arrangements of the painters of material was taken by a -soul, and temperament interpreted by an intelligence. And corresponding -with the universal principle of conceiving man and nature as an -indivisible whole, it became imperative in portrait painting no longer -to place persons before an arbitrary background, but in their real -surroundings--to paint the man of science in his laboratory, the -painter in his studio, the author at his work-table--and to observe with -accuracy the atmospheric influences of this environment. - -[Illustration: BOUDIN. THE PORT OF TROUVILLE. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -The ready master-worker of this plain and sincere naturalism in portrait -painting was peculiarly _Fantin-Latour_, who ought not merely to be -judged by his latest paintings, which have something petrified, rigid, -gloomy, and professorial. In his younger days he was a solid and -powerful artist, one of the soundest and simplest of whom France could -boast. His pictures were dark in tone and harmonious, and had a -puritanic charm. The portrait of Manet, and that of the engraver Edwin -Edwards and his wife, in particular, will always preserve their -historical value. - -Later, when the whole bias of art tended away from the poorer classes, -and once more approached this fashionable world, portrait painting also -showed a tendency to become exquisite and over-refined, and to exhibit a -preference for symphonic arrangements of colour and subtilised effects -of light. White, light yellow, and light blue silks were harmonised upon -very delicate scales with pearly-grey backgrounds. Ladies in mantles of -light grey fur and rosy dresses stand amid dark-green shrubs, in which -rose-coloured lanterns are burning, or they sit in a ball-dress near a -lamp which produces manifold and tender transformations of light upon -the white of the silk. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - BOLDINI. GIUSEPPE VERDI.] - -The work of _Jacques Émile Blanche_, the son of the celebrated -mad-doctor, is peculiarly characteristic of these tendencies of French -portrait painting. It is well known that English fashion was at this -time regarded in Paris as the height of elegance, while Anglicisms were -entering more and more into the French language; and this tendency of -taste gave Blanche the occasion for most æsthetic pictures. The English -Miss, in her attractive mixture of affectation and naïveté, in all her -slim and long-footed grace, has found a delicate interpreter in him. -Tall ladies clad in white, bitten with the Anglomania, drink tea most -æsthetically, and sit there bored, or are grouped round the piano; -_gommeux_, neat, straight, _chic_, from their tall hats to their -patent-leather boots, look wearily about the world, with an eyeglass -fixed, a yellow rose in their buttonhole, and a thick stick in the -gloved hand. Amongst his portraits of well-known personalities, much -notice was attracted by that of his father in 1890--a modern Bertin the -Elder, and in 1891 by that of Maurice Barrès, a portrait in which he has -analysed the author of _Le Jardin de Bérénice_ in a very simple and -convincing fashion. - -[Illustration: _Quantin, Paris._ - - WILLETTE. THE GOLDEN AGE.] - -The brilliant Italian _Boldini_ brought to this English _chic_ the -manual volubility of a Southerner: sometimes he was microscopic _à la_ -Meissonier, sometimes a juggler of the brush _à la_ Fortuny, and -sometimes he gave the most seductive mannerism and the most diverting -elegance to his portraits of ladies. Born in 1845, the son of a painter -of saints, Boldini had begun as a Romanticist with pictures for Scott's -_Ivanhoe_. From Ferrara he went to Florence, where he remained six -years. At the end of the sixties he emerged in London, and, after he had -painted Lady Holland and the Duchess of Westminster there, he soon -became a popular portrait painter. But since 1872 his home has been -Paris, where the fine Anglo-Saxon aroma, the "æsthetic" originality of -his pictures, soon became an object of universal admiration. In his -portraits of women Boldini always renders what is most novel. It is as -if he knew in advance the new fashion which the coming season would -bring. His trenchantly cut figures of ladies in white dresses and with -black gloves have a defiant and insolent effect, and yet one which is -captivating through their ultra-modern _chic_. The portraits of Carolus -Duran have nothing of that charm which makes such an appeal to the -nerves, nothing of that discomposing indefinable quality which lies in -the expression and gestures of a fashionable woman, whose eccentricity -reveals every day fresh _nuances_ of beauty. He had not the faculty of -seizing movement, the most difficult element in the world. But Boldini's -pictures seem like bold and sudden sketches which clinch the conception -with spirit and swiftness in liberal, pointed crayon strokes controlled -by keen observation. There is no ornament, no bracelet, no pillars and -drapery. One hears the silken bodice rustle over the tightly laced -corset, sees the mobile foot, and the long train swept to the side with -a bold movement. Sometimes his creations are full and luxuriant, nude -even in their clothes, excited and full of movement; sometimes they are -bodiless, as if compact of the air, pallid and half-dead with the strain -of nights of festivity, "living with hardly any blood in their veins, in -which the pulse beats almost entirely out of complaisance." - -[Illustration: FORAIN. AT THE FOLIES-BERGÈRES. - - (_By permission of M. Durand-Ruel, the owner of the copyright._)] - -His pictures of children are just as subtle: there is an elasticity in -these little girls with their widely opened velvet eyes, their rosy -young lips, and their poses calculated with so much coquetry. Boldini -has an indescribable method of seizing a motion of the head, a mien, or -a passing flash of the eyes, of arranging the hair, of indicating -coquettish lace underclothing beneath bright silk dresses, or of showing -the grace and fineness of the slender leg of a girl, encased in a black -silk stocking, and dangling in delicate lines from a light grey sofa. -There is French _esprit_, something piquant and with a double meaning in -his art, which borders on the indecorous and is yet charming. These -portraits of ladies, however, form but a small portion of his work. He -paints in oils, in water-colour, and pastel, and is equally marvellous -in handling the portraits of men, the street picture and the landscape. -His portrait of the painter John Lewis Brown, crossing the street with -his wife and daughter, looked as though it had been painted in one jet. -In his little pictures of horses there is an astonishing animation and -nervous energy. M. Faure, the singer, possesses some small _rococo_ -pictures from his brush, scenes in the Garden of the Tuileries, which -might have come from Fortuny. His pictures from the street life of -Paris--the Place Pigalle, the Place Clichy--recall De Nittis, and some -illustrations--scenes from the great Paris races--might have been drawn -by Caran D'Ache. - -There is no need to treat illustration in greater detail, because, -naturally, it could no longer play the initiative part which fell to it -in earlier days, now that the whole of life had been drawn within the -compass of pictorial representation. Besides, in an epoch like our own, -which is determined to know and see and feel everything, illustration -has been so extended that it would be quite impossible even to select -the most important work. Entirely apart from the many painters who -occasionally illustrated novels or other books, such as Bastien-Lepage, -Gervex, Dantan, Détaille, Dagnan-Bouveret, Ribot, Benjamin Constant, -Jean Paul Laurens, and others, there are a number of professional -draughtsmen in Paris, most of whom are really distinguished artists. - -In particular, _Chéret_, one of the most original artists of our -time--Chéret, the great king of posters, the monarch of a fabulously -charming world, in which everything gleams in blue and red and orange, -cannot be passed over in a history of painting. The flowers which he -carelessly strews on all sides with his spendthrift hand are not -destined for preservation in an historical herbarium; his works are -transient flashes of spirit, brilliantly shining, ephemera, but a bold -and subtle Parisian art is concealed amid this improvisation. Settled -for many years in London, Jules Chéret had there already drawn admirable -placards, which are now much sought after by collectors. - -In 1866 he introduced this novel branch of industry into France, and -gave it--thanks to the invention of machines which admit of the -employment of the largest lithographic stones--an artistic development -which could not have been anticipated. He has created many thousands of -posters. The book-trade, the great shops, and almost all branches of -industry owe their success to him. His theatrical posters alone are -amongst the most graceful products of modern art: La Fête des Mitrons, -La Salle de Frascati, Les Mongolis, Le Chat Botté, L'Athénée Comique, -Fantaisies Music-Hall, La Fée Cocotte, Les Tsiganes, Les Folies-Bergères -en Voyage, Spectacle Concert de l'Horloge, Skating Rink, Les Pillules du -Diable, La Chatte Blanche, Le Petit Faust, La Vie Parisienne, Le Droit -du Seigneur, Cendrillon, Orphée aux Enfers, Éden Théâtre, etc. These are -mere posters, destined to hang for a few days at the street corners, and -yet in graceful ease, sparkling life, and coquettish bloom of colour -they surpass many oil paintings which flaunt upon the walls of the Musée -Luxembourg. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - CAZIN. JUDITH.] - -Amongst the illustrators _Willette_ is perhaps the most charming, the -most brilliant in grace, fancy, and spirit. A drawing by him is -something living, light, and fresh. Only amongst the Japanese, or the -great draughtsmen of the _rococo_ period, does one find plates of a -charm similar to Willette's tender poems of the "Chevalier Printemps" or -the "Baiser de la Rose." At the same time there is something curiously -innocent, something primitive, naïve, something like the song of a bird, -in his charming art. No one can laugh with such youthful freshness. No -one has such a childlike fancy. Willette possesses the curious gift of -looking at the world like a boy of sixteen with eyes that are not jaded -for all the beauty of things, with the eyes of a schoolboy in love for -the first time. He has drawn angels for Gothic windows, battles, and -everything imaginable; nevertheless, woman is supreme over his whole -work, ruined and pure as an angel, cursed and adored, and yet always -enchanting. She is Manon Lescaut, with her soft eyes and angelically -pure sins. She has something of the lovely piquancy of the woman of -Brantôme, when she disdainfully laughs out of countenance poor Pierrot, -who sings his serenades to her plaintively in the moonlight. One might -say that Willette is himself his Pierrot, dazzled with the young bosoms -and rosy lips: at one time graceful and laughing, wild as a young fellow -who has just escaped from school; at another earnest and angry, like an -archangel driving away the sinful; to-day fiery, and to-morrow -melancholy; now in love, teasing, blithe, and tender, now gloomy and in -mortal trouble. He laughs amid tears and weeps amid laughter, singing -the _Dies Iræ_ after a couplet of Offenbach; himself wears a -black-and-white garment, and is, at the same time, mystic and sensuous. -His plates are as exhilarating as sparkling champagne, and breathe the -soft, plaintive spirit of old ballads. - -[Illustration: _Baschet._ - - CAZIN. HAGAR AND ISHMAEL.] - -Beside this amiable Pierrot _Forain_ is like the modern Satyr, the true -outcome of the Goncourts and Gavarni, the product of the most modern -decadence. All the vice and grace of Paris, all the luxury of the world, -and all the _chic_ of the _demi-monde_ he has drawn with spirit, with -bold stenographical execution, and the elegance of a sure-handed expert. -Every stroke is made with trenchant energy and ultimate grace. Adultery, -gambling, _chambres séparées_, carriages, horses, villas in the Bois de -Boulogne; and then the reverse side--degradation, theft, hunger, the -filth of the streets, pistols, suicide,--such are the principal stages -of the modern epic which Forain composed; and over all the _Parisienne_, -the dancing-girl, floats with smiling grace like a breath of beauty. His -chief field of study is the promenade of the Folies-Bergères--the -delicate profiles of anæmic girls singing, the heavy masses of flesh of -gluttonising _gourmets_, the impudent laughter and lifeless eyes of -prostitutes, the thin waists, lean arms, and demon hips of fading bodies -laced in silk. Little dancing-girls and fat _roués_, snobs with short, -wide overcoats, huge collars, and long, pointed shoes--they all move, -live, and exhale the odour of their own peculiar atmosphere. There is -spirit in the line of an overcoat which Forain draws, in the furniture -of a room, in the hang of a fur or a silk dress. He is the master of the -light, fleeting seizure of the definitive line. Every one of his plates -is like a spirited _causerie_, which is to be understood through nods -and winks. - -[Illustration: CARRIÈRE. MOTHERHOOD.] - -The name of _Paul Renouard_ is inseparable from the opera. Degas had -already painted the opera and the ballet-dancers with wonderful reality, -fine irony, or in the weird humour of a dance of death. But Renouard did -not imitate Degas. As a pupil of Pils he was one of the many who, in -1871, were occupied with the decoration of the staircase of the new -opera house, and through this opportunity he obtained his first glance -into this capricious and mysterious world made up of contrasts,--a world -which henceforward became his domain. All his ballet-dancers are -accurately drawn at their rehearsals, but the charm of their smile, of -their figures, their silk tights, their gracious movements, has -something which almost goes beyond nature. Renouard is a realist with -very great taste. Girls practising at standing on the tips of their -toes, dancing, curtseying, and throwing kisses to the audience are -broadly and surely drawn with a few strokes. The opera is for him a -universe in a nutshell--a _résumé_ of Paris, where all the oddities, all -the wildness, and all the sadness of modern life are to be found. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - BESNARD. EVENING.] - -Mention must also be made of _Daniel Vierge_, torn prematurely from his -art by a cruel disease, but not before he had been able to complete his -masterpiece, the edition of Don Pablo de Segovia. _Henri de -Toulouse-Lautrec_ too must be named, the grim historian of absinthe -dens, music halls and dancing saloons; and we must give a passing glance -to _Léandre_ and _Steinlen_, in whose drawings also the whole of -Parisian life breathes and pulsates, with all the glitter of -over-civilisation, with all its ultra-refinement of pleasure. But a -detailed appreciation of these draughtsmen is obviously out of place in -a history of painting. - -If we turn back to those who have done good work in the province of -painting pure and simple, we must tarry for a while with that refined -painter of elegiac landscape, _Charles Cazin_. He awaits us as the -evening gathers, and tells with a vibrating voice of things which induce -a mood of gentle melancholy. He has his own hour, his own world, his own -men and women. His hour is that secret and mystic time when the sun has -gone down and the moon is rising, when soft shadows repose upon the -earth and bring forgetfulness. The land he enters is a damp, misty land -with dunes and pale foliage, one that lies beneath a heavy sky and is -seldom irradiated by a beam of hope, a land of Lethe and oblivion of -self, a land created to yield to the tender colour of infinite -weariness. The motives of his landscapes are always exceedingly simple, -though they have a simplicity which is perhaps forced, instead of being -entirely naïve. He represents, it may be, the entrance into a village -with a few cottages, a few thin poplars, and reddish tiled roofs, bathed -in the pale shadows of evening. Upon the broad street lined with -irregular houses, in a provincial town, the rain comes splashing down. -Or it is night, and in the sky there are black clouds, with the moon -softly peering between them. Lamps are gleaming in the windows of the -houses, and an old post-chaise rolling heavily over the slippery -pavement. Or dun-green shadows repose upon a solitary green field with a -windmill and a sluggish stream. The earth is wrapt in mysterious -silence, and there is movement only in the sky, where a flash of -lightning quivers--not one that blazes into intensely vivid light, but -rather a silvery white electric spark lambent in the dark firmament. -Corot alone has painted such things, but where he is joyous Cazin is -elegiac. The little solitary houses are of a ghostly grey. The trees -sway towards each other as if in tremulous fear. And the mist hangs damp -in the brown boughs. Faint evening shadows flit around. A Northern -malaria seems to prevail. At times a sea-bird utters a wailing -complaint. One thinks of Russian novels, Nihilism, and Raskolnikoff, -though I know not through what association of ideas. One is disposed to -sit by the wayside and dream, as Verlaine sings:-- - - "La lune blanche - Luit dans les bois; - De chaque branche - Part une voix. - L'étang reflète, - Profond miroir, - La silhouette - Du saule noir - Où le vent pleure: - Rêvons c'est l'heure. - Un vaste et tendre - Apaisement - Semble descendre - Du firmament - Que l'astre irise: - C'est l'heure exquise." - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - BESNARD. PORTRAIT OF MLLES. D.] - -Sometimes the humour of the landscape is associated with the memory of -kindred feelings which passages in the Bible or in old legends have -awakened in him. In such cases he creates the biblical or mythological -pictures which have principally occupied him in recent years. Grey-green -dusk rests upon the earth; the shadows of evening drive away the last -rays of the sun. A mother with her child is sitting upon a bundle of -straw in front of a thatched cottage with a ladder leaning against its -roof, and a poverty-stricken yard bordered by an old paling, while a man -in a brown mantle stands beside her, leaning upon a stick: this picture -is "The Birth of Christ." Two solitary people, a man and a woman, are -walking through a soft, undulating country. The sun is sinking. No house -will give the weary wanderers shelter in the night, but the shade of -evening, which is gradually descending, envelops them with its -melancholy peace: this is "The Flight into Egypt." An arid waste of -sand, with a meagre bush rising here and there, and the parching summer -sun brooding sultry overhead, forms the landscape of the picture "Hagar -and Ishmael." Or the fortifications of a mediæval town are represented. -Night is drawing on, watch-fires are burning, brawny figures stand at -the anvil fashioning weapons, and the sentinels pace gravely along the -moat. The besieged town is Bethulia, and the woman who issues with a -wild glance from the town gateway is Judith, going forth followed by her -handmaid to slay Holofernes. Through such works Cazin has become the -creator of the landscape of religious sentiment, which has since -occupied so much space in French and German painting. The costume -belongs to no time in particular, though it is almost more appropriate -to the present than to bygone ages; but something so biblical, so -patriarchal, such a remote and mystical poetry is expressed in the great -lines of the landscape that the figures seem like visions from a far-off -past. - -The continuation of this movement is marked by that charming artist who -delighted in mystery, _Eugène Carrière_, "the modern painter of -Madonnas," as he has been called by Edmond de Goncourt. Probably no one -before him has painted the unconscious spiritual life of children with -the same tender, absorbed feeling: little hands grasping at something, -stammering lips of little ones who would kiss their mother, dreamy eyes -gazing into infinity. But although young children at the beginning of -life, whose eyes open wide as they turn towards the future, look out of -his pictures, a profound sadness rests over them. His figures move -gravely and silently in a soft, mysterious dusk, as though divided from -the world of realities by a veil of gauze. All forms seem to melt, and -fading flowers shed a sleepy fragrance around; it is as though there -were bats flitting invisible through the air. Even as a portrait painter -he is still a poet dreaming in eternal haze and a twilight of mystery. -In his portraits, Alphonse Daudet, Geffroy, Dolent, and Edmond de -Goncourt looked as though they had been resolved into vapour, although -the delineation of character was of astonishing power, and marked firmly -with a penetrative insight into spiritual life such as was shared by -Ribot alone. - -At the very opposite pole of art stands _Paul Albert Besnard_: amongst -the worshippers of light he is, perhaps, the most subtle and forcible -poet, a luminist who cannot find tones high enough when he would play -upon the fibres of the spirit. Having issued from the École des -Beaux-Arts, and gained the _Prix de Rome_ with a work which attracted -much notice, he had long moved upon strictly official lines; and he only -broke from his academical strait-waistcoat about a dozen years ago, to -become the refined artist to whom the younger generation do honour in -these days, a seeker whose works vary widely in point of merit, though -they always strike one afresh from the bold confidence with which he -attacks and solves the most difficult problems of light. In Puvis de -Chavannes, Cazin, and Carrière a reaction towards sombre effect and -pale, vaporous beauty of tone followed the brightness of Manet; but -Besnard, pushing forward upon Manet's course, revels in the most subtle -effects of illumination--effects not ventured upon even by the boldest -Impressionists--endeavours to arrest the most unexpected and unforeseen -phases of light, and the most hazardous combinations of colour. The -ruddy glow of the fire glances upon faded flowers. Chandeliers and -tapers outshine the soft radiance of the lamp; artificial light -struggles with the sudden burst of daylight; and lanterns, standing out -against the night sky like golden lights with a purple border, send -their glistening rays into the blue gloom. It is only in the field of -literature that a parallel may be found in Jens Pieter Jacobsen, who in -his novels occasionally describes with a similar finesse of perception -the reflection of fire upon gold and silver, upon silk and satin, upon -red and yellow and blue, or enumerates the hundred tints in which the -September sun pours into a room. - -The portrait group of his children is a harmony in red. A boy and two -girls are standing, with the most delightful absence of all constraint, -in a country room, which looks out upon a mountainous landscape. The -wall of the background is red, and red the costume of the little ones, -yet all these conflicting _nuances_ of red tones are brought into -harmonious unity with inherent taste. Rubens would have rejoiced over a -second landscape exhibited in the same year. A nude woman is seated upon -a divan drinking tea, with her feet tucked under her and her back to the -spectator. Upon her back are cast the warm and the more subdued -reflections of a fire which lies out of sight and of the daylight -quivering in yellowish stripes, like a glowing aureole upon her soft -skin. - -[Illustration: _Studio._ - - AMAN-JEAN. SOUS LA GUERLANDA.] - -In a third picture, called "Vision de Femme," a young woman with the -upper part of her form unclothed appears upon a terrace, surrounded by -red blooming flowers and the glowing yellow light of the moon. Under -this symbol Besnard imagined Lutetia, the eternally young, hovering over -the rhododendrons of the Champs Elysées and looking down upon the blaze -of lights in the Café des Ambassadeurs. In 1889 he produced "The Siren," -a symphony in red. A _petite femme_ of Montmartre stands wearily in a -half-antique morning toilette before a billowing lake, which glows -beneath the rays of the setting sun in fiery red and dull mallow colour. -In his "Autumn" of 1890 he made the same experiment in green. The moon -casts its silvery light upon the changeful greenish mirror of a lake, -and at the same time plays in a thousand reflections upon the green silk -dress of a lady sitting upon the shore; while, in a picture of 1891, a -young lady in an elegant _négligé_ is seated at the piano, with her -husband beside her turning over the music. The light of the candles is -shed over hands, faces, and clothes. Another picture, called "Clouds of -Evening," represented a woman with delicate profile amid a violet -landscape over which the clouds were lightly hovering, touched with -orange-red by the setting sun. The double portrait, executed in 1892, of -the "Mlles. D----," one of whom is leisurely placing a scarf over her -shoulders with a movement almost recalling Leighton, while the other -stoops to pick a blossom from a rhododendron bush, is exceedingly soft -in its green, red, and blue harmony. - -The French Government recognised the eminent decorative talent displayed -in these pictures, and gave Besnard the opportunity of achieving further -triumphs as a mural painter. Here, too, he is modern to his fingertips, -knowing nothing of stately gestures, nothing of old-world naïveté; but -merely through his appetising and sparkling play of colour he has the -art of converting great blank spaces into a marvellous storied realm. - -In 1890 he had to represent "Astronomy" as a ceiling-piece for the Salon -des Sciences in the Hôtel de Ville. Ten years before there would have -been no artist who would not have executed this task by the introduction -of nude figures provided with instructive attributes. One would have -held a globe, the second a pair of compasses, and the third a telescope -in one hand, and in the other branches of laurel wherewith to crown -Galileo, Columbus, or Kepler. Besnard made a clean sweep of all this. He -did not forget that a ceiling is a kind of sky, and accordingly he -painted the planets themselves, the stars which run their course through -the firmament of blue. The figures of the constellations are arranged in -a gracious interplay of light bodies floating softly past. Amongst the -pictures of the École de Pharmacie a like effect is produced by -Besnard's great composition "Evening," a work treated with august -simplicity. The atmosphere is of a grey-bluish white: stars are -glittering here and there, and two very ancient beings, a man and a -woman, sit upon the threshold of their house, grave, weather-beaten -forms of quiet grandeur, executed with expressive lines. The old man -casts a searching glance at the stars, as if yearning after immortality, -while the woman leans weary and yet contented upon his shoulder. In the -room behind a kettle hangs bubbling over the fire, and a young woman -with a child upon her arm steps through the door: man and the starry -world, the finite and the infinite, presented under plain symbols. - -[Illustration: CARRIÈRE. SCHOOLWORK.] - -Such are, more or less, the representative minds of contemporary France, -the centres from which other minds issue like rays. _Alfred Agache_ -devotes himself with great dexterity to an allegorical style after the -fashion of Barroccio. Inspired by the pre-Raphaelites, _Aman-Jean_ has -found the model for his allegorical compositions in Botticelli, and is a -neurasthenic in colour, which is exceptionally striking, in his delicate -portraits of women. _Maurice Denis_, who drew the illustrations to -Verlaine's _Sagesse_ in a style full of archaic bloom, as a painter -takes delight in the intoxicating fragrance of incense, the gliding -steps and slow, quiet movements of nuns, in men and women kneeling -before the altar in prayer, and priests crossing themselves before the -golden statue of the Virgin. The Spaniard _Gandara_, who lives in Paris, -displays in his grey and melting portraits much feeling for the -decorative swing of lines. That spirited "pointillist" _Henri Martin_ -seems for the present to have reached a climax in his "Cain and Abel," -one of the most powerful creations of the younger generation in France. -_Louis Picard's_ work has a tincture of literature, and he delights in -Edgar Allan Poe, mysticism and psychology. _Ary Renan_, the son of -Ernest Renan and the grandson of Ary Scheffer, has given the soft -subdued tones of Puvis de Chavannes a tender Anglo-Saxon fragrance in -the manner of Walter Crane. And that spirited artist in lithograph, -_Odilon Redon_, has visions of distorted faces, flowers that no mortal -eye has seen, and huge white sea-birds screaming as they fly across a -black world. Forebodings like those we read of in the verse of Poe take -shape in his works, ghosts roam in the broad daylight, and the sea-green -eyes of Medusa-heads dripping with blood shine in the darkness of night -with a mesmeric effect. _Carlos Schwabe_ drew the illustrations for the -_Évangile de l'Enfance_ of Catulle Mendès with the charming naïveté of -Hans Memlinc, and afterwards attracted attention by his delicate, -archaic pictures. - -_Bonnard_, _Vuillard_, _Valloton_ and _Roussel_ are others whose names -have in the last few years become well known. Their art is built up on -the foundation laid by the Impressionists only so far as they use the -new colour-values discovered by the "bright painters," in a free, -harmonious manner, and place them at the service of a new decorative -purpose. In exhibitions one is often at a loss how to view these -decorative paintings, such, for instance, as those of Bonnard and -Vuillard; the eye is astounded for a moment when, after looking at the -usual array of good pictures, it suddenly comes upon works that look -more like pieces of Gobelin tapestry than paintings. Then one's mind -reverts to rooms such as Olbrich, Van de Velde, or Josef Hoffmann -designed with some particular purpose in view, and one understands the -object of these pictures. "We can hang in our rooms any picture which is -beautiful in itself and by itself." That is the old familiar story, but -that feeling never enters our minds when we stand in a mediæval room in -which there are no pictures that can be taken away from their -surroundings. It is a difficult task to arrange things that are -individually beautiful into a harmonious whole. The realisation of the -old-time principle is for obvious reasons well-nigh impracticable--the -modern man is a restless, fickle creature; he must always be at liberty -to pitch his tent anywhere--but we can surely make some approach to it. -One may imagine in every dwelling a room in which furniture and pictures -are made to fit into some conception of harmony, and the works of -Bonnard and Vuillard may be conceived as parts of such a scheme for the -decoration of a room, and indeed--though we must not forget similar -attempts which have been made in other directions--as parts of a scheme -which, though thoroughly modern and by no means a mere external copy, -reverts to the style of bygone centuries. - -From the historian's standpoint these young artists scarcely come into -question; they are still too much in the embryonic stage for any -conclusion to be arrived at with respect to either of them. But the art -lover who looks to the future rather than the past feels bound to follow -with care their creations, in which the wealth of beauty that is already -indicated in their first prints, the certainty of purpose with which -they direct their efforts towards the point at which Impressionism has -left the widest gap, seems to give a guarantee that in the future France -will maintain in the province of art the position she has held during -the nineteenth century as the leading artistic nation. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXV - -SPAIN - - -Just as France to-day shows such a wealth of talent, Spain, -correspondingly, can scarcely be said to come into the question of -modern endeavour in art; in fact, it is quite impossible to treat of a -history of Spanish art, one can only consider individual artists, for -they each go their own way, working in different directions and without -any concerted plan. - -It was in the spring of 1870 that a little picture called "La Vicaria" -was exhibited in Paris at the dealer Goupil's. A marriage is taking -place in the sacristy of a _rococo_ church in Madrid. The walls are -covered with faded Cordova leather hangings figured in gold and dull -colours, and a magnificent _rococo_ screen separates the sacristy from -the middle aisle. Venetian lustres are suspended from the ceiling; -pictures of martyrs, Venetian glasses in carved oval frames hang on the -wall, richly ornamented wooden benches, and a library of missals and -gospels in sparkling silver clasps, and shining marble tables and -glistening braziers form part of the scene in which the marriage -contract is being signed. The costumes are those of the time of Goya. As -a matter of fact, an old beau is marrying a young and beautiful girl. -With affected grace and a skipping minuet step, holding a modish -three-cornered hat under his arm, he approaches the table to put his -signature in the place which the _escribano_ points out with an -obsequious bow. He is arrayed in delicate lilac, while the bride is -wearing a white silk dress trimmed with flowered lace, and has a wreath -of orange blossoms in her luxuriant black hair. As a girl-friend is -talking to her she examines with abstracted attention the pretty little -pictures upon her fan, the finest she has ever possessed. A very piquant -little head she has, with her long lashes and her black eyes. Then, in -the background, follow the witnesses, and first of all a young lady in a -swelling silk dress of the brightest rose-colour. Beside her is one of -the bridegroom's friends in a cabbage-green coat with long flaps, and a -shining belt from which a gleaming sabre hangs. The whole picture is a -marvellous assemblage of colours, in which tones of Venetian glow and -strength, the tender pearly grey beloved of the Japanese, and a melting -neutral brown, each sets off the other and give a shimmering effect to -the whole. - -The painter, who was barely thirty, bore the name of _Mariano Fortuny_, -and was born in Reus, a little town in the province of Tarragona, on -11th June 1838. Five years after he had completed this work he died, at -the age of thirty-six, on 21st November 1874. Short as his career was, -it was, nevertheless, so brilliant, his success so immense, his -influence so great, that his place in the history of modern painting -remains assured to him. - -Like French art, Spanish art, after Goya's death, had borne the yoke of -Classicism, Romanticism, and academical influence by turns. In the grave -of Goya there was buried for ever, as it seemed, the world of torreros, -majas, manolas, monks, smugglers, knaves, and witches, and all the local -colour of the Spanish Peninsula. As late as the Paris World Exhibition -of 1867, Spain was merely represented by a few carefully composed, and -just as carefully painted, but tame and tedious, historical pictures of -the David or the Delaroche stamp--works such as had been painted for -whole decades by José Madrazo, J. Ribera y Fernandez, Federigo Madrazo, -Carlo Luis Ribera, Eduardo Rosales, and many others whose names there is -no reason for rescuing from oblivion. They laboured, meditating an art -which was not their own, and could not waken any echo in themselves. -Their painting was body without soul, empty histrionic skill. As -complete darkness had rested for a century over Spanish art, from the -death of Claudio Coellos in 1693 to the appearance of Goya, rising like -a meteor, so the first half of the nineteenth century produced no single -original artist until Fortuny came forward in the sixties. - -He grew up amid poor surroundings, and when he was twelve years of age -he lost his father and mother. His grandfather, an enterprising and -adventurous joiner, had made for himself a cabinet of wax figures, which -he exhibited from town to town in the province of Tarragona. With his -grandson he went on foot through all the towns of Catalonia, the old man -showing the wax figures which the boy had painted. Whenever he had a -moment free the latter was drawing, carving in wood, or modelling in -wax. It chanced, however, that a sculptor saw his attempts, spoke of -them in Fortuny's birthplace, and succeeded in inducing the town to make -an allowance of forty-two francs a month to a lad whose talent had so -much promise. By these means Fortuny was enabled to attend the Academy -of Barcelona for four years. In 1857, when he was nineteen years of age, -he received the _Prix de Rome_, and set out for Rome itself in the same -year. But whilst he was copying the pictures of the old masters there a -circumstance occurred which set him upon another course. The war between -Spain and the Emperor of Morocco determined his future career. Fortuny -was then a young man of three-and-twenty, very strong, rather thick-set, -quick to resent an injury, taciturn, resolute, and accustomed to hard -work. His residence in the East, which lasted from five to six months, -was a discovery for him--a feast of delight. He found the opportunity of -studying in the immediate neighbourhood a people whose life was opulent -in colour and wild in movement; and he beheld with wonder the gleaming -pictorial episodes so variously enacted before him, and the rich -costumes upon which the radiance of the South glanced in a hundred -reflections. And, in particular, when the Emperor of Morocco came with -his brilliant suite to sign the treaty of peace, Fortuny developed a -feverish activity. The great battle-piece which he should have executed -on the commission of the Academy of Barcelona remained unfinished. On -the other hand, he painted a series of Oriental pictures, in which his -astonishing dexterity and his marvellously sensitive eye were already to -be clearly discerned: the stalls of Moorish carpet-sellers, with little -figures swarming about them, and the rich display of woven stuffs of the -East; the weary attitude of old Arabs sitting in the sun; the sombre, -brooding faces of strange snake-charmers and magicians. This is no -Parisian East, like Fromentin's; every one here speaks Arabic. -Guillaumet alone, who afterwards interpreted the fakir world of the -East, dreamy and contemplative in the sunshine, has been equally -convincing. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ MARIANO FORTUNY.] - -Yet Fortuny first discovered his peculiar province when he began, after -his return, to paint those brilliant kaleidoscopic _rococo_ pictures -with their charming play of colour, the pictures which founded his -reputation in Paris. Even in the earliest, representing gentlemen of the -_rococo_ period examining engravings in a richly appointed interior, the -Japanese weapons, Renaissance chests, gilded frames of carved wood, and -all the delightful _petit-riens_ from the treasury of the past which he -had heaped together in it, were so wonderfully painted that Goupil began -a connection with him and ordered further works. This commission -occasioned his journey, in the autumn of 1866, to Paris, where he -entered into Meissonier's circle, and worked sometimes at Gérôme's. Yet -neither of them exerted any influence upon him at all worth mentioning. -The French painter in miniature is probably the father of the department -of art to which Fortuny belongs; but the latter united to the delicate -execution of the Frenchman the flashing, gleaming spirit of the Latin -races of the South. He is a Meissonier with _esprit_ recalling Goya. In -his picture "The Spanish Marriage" (La Vicaria) all the vivid, -throbbing, _rococo_ world, buried with Goya, revived once more. While in -his Oriental pieces--"The Praying Arab," "The Arabian Fantasia," and -"The Snake Charmers"--he still aimed at concentration and unity of -effect, this picture had something gleaming, iridescent and pearly, -which soon became the delight of all collectors. Fortuny's successes, -his celebrity, and his fortune dated from that time. His fame flashed -forth like a meteor. After fighting long years in vain, not for -recognition, but for his very bread, he suddenly became the most honored -painter of the day, and began to exert upon a whole generation of young -artists that powerful influence which survives even at this very day. - -[Illustration: FORTUNY. THE SPANISH MARRIAGE (LA VICARIA). - - (_By permission of Messrs. Goupil & Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -The studio which he built for himself after his marriage with the -daughter of Federigo Madrazo in Rome was a little museum of the most -exquisite products of the artistic crafts of the West and the East: the -walls were decorated with brilliant oriental stuffs, and great glass -cabinets with Moorish and Arabian weapons, and old tankards and glasses -from Murano stood around. He sought and collected everything that shines -and gleams in varying colour. That was his world, and the basis of his -art. - -Pillars of marble and porphyry, groups of ivory and bronze, lustres of -Venetian glass, gilded consoles with small busts, great tables supported -by gilded satyrs and inlaid with variegated mosaics, form the -surroundings of that astonishing work "The Trial of the Model." Upon a -marble table a young girl is standing naked, posing before a row of -academicians in the costume of the Louis XV period, while each one of -them gives his judgment by a movement or an expression of the face. One -of them has approached quite close, and is examining the little woman -through his lorgnette. All the costumes gleam in a thousand hues, which -the marble reflects. By his picture "The Poet" or "The Rehearsal" he -reached his highest point in the capricious analysis of light. In an old -_rococo_ garden, with the brilliant façade of the Alhambra as its -background, there is a gathering of gentlemen assembled to witness the -rehearsal of a tragedy. The heroine, a tall, charming, luxuriant beauty, -has just fallen into a faint. On the other hand, the hero, holding the -lady on his right arm, is reading the verses of his part from a large -manuscript. The gentlemen are listening, and exchanging remarks with the -air of connoisseurs; one of them closes his eyes to listen with thorough -attention. Here the entire painting flashes like a rocket, and is as -iridescent and brilliant as a peacock's tail. Fortuny splits the rays of -the sun into endless _nuances_ which are scarcely perceptible to the -eye, and gives expression to their flashing glitter with astonishing -delicacy. Henri Regnault, who visited him at that time in Rome, wrote to -a Parisian friend: "The time I spent with Fortuny yesterday is haunting -me still. What a magnificent fellow he is! He paints the most marvellous -things, and is the master of us all. I wish I could show you the two or -three pictures that he has in hand, or his etchings and water-colours. -They inspired me with a real disgust of my own. Ah! Fortuny, you spoil -my sleep." - -[Illustration: FORTUNY. THE TRIAL OF THE MODEL. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Boussod, Valadon & Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -Even as an etcher he caught all the technical finesses and appetising -piquancies of his great forerunner Goya. It is only with very light and -spirited strokes that the outlines of his figures are drawn; then, as in -Goya, comes the aquatint, the colour which covers the background and -gives locality, depth, and light. A few scratches with a needle, a black -spot, a light made by a judiciously inserted patch of white, and he -gives his figures life and character, causing them to emerge from the -black depth of the background like mysterious visions. "The Dead Arab," -covered with his black cloak, and lying on the ground with his musket on -his arm, "The Shepherd" on the stump of a pillar, "The Serenade," "The -Reader," "The Tambourine Player," "The Pensioner," the picture of the -gentleman with a pig-tail bending over his flowers, "The Anchorite," and -"The Arab mourning over the Body of his Friend," are the most important -of his plates, which are sometimes pungent and spirited, and sometimes -sombre and fantastic. - -In the picture "The Strand of Portici" he attempted to strike out a new -path. He was tired of the gay rags of the eighteenth century, as he said -himself, and meant to paint for the future only subjects from -surrounding life in an entirely modern manner like that of Manet. But he -was not destined to carry out this change any further. He passed away in -Rome on 21st November 1874. When the unsold works which he left were put -up to auction the smallest sketches fetched high figures, and even his -etchings were bought at marvellous prices. - -[Illustration: _Gaz. des Beaux-Arts._ - - FORTUNY. THE SNAKE CHARMERS.] - -In these days the enthusiasm for Fortuny is no longer so glowing. The -capacity to paint became so ordinary in the course of years that it was -presupposed as a matter of course; it was a necessary acquirement for an -artist to have before approaching his pictures in a psychological -fashion. And in this later respect there is a deficiency in Fortuny. He -is a _charmeur_ who dazzles the eyes, but rather creates a sense of -astonishment than holds the spectator in his grip. Beneath his hands -painting has become a matter of pure virtuosity, a marvellous, flaring -firework that amazes and--leaves us cold after all. With enchanting -delicacy he runs through the brilliant gamut of radiant colours upon the -small keyboard of his little pictures painted with a pocket-lens, and -everything glitters golden, like the dress of a fairy. He united to the -patience of Meissonier a delicacy of colour, a wealth of pictorial -point, and a crowd of delightful trifles, which combine to make him a -most exquisite and fascinating juggler of the palette--an amazing -colourist, a wonderful clown, an original and subtle painter with -vibrating nerves, but not a truly great and moving artist. His pictures -are dainties in gold frames, jewels delicately set, astonishing efforts -of patience lit up by a flashing, rocket-like _esprit_; but beneath the -glittering surface one is conscious of there being neither heart nor -soul. His art might have been French or Italian, just as appropriately -as Spanish. It is the art of virtuosi of the brush, and Fortuny himself -is the initiator of a religion which found its enthusiastic followers, -not in Madrid alone, but in Naples, Paris, and Rome. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - FORTUNY. MOORS PLAYING WITH A VULTURE.] - -Yet Spanish painting, so far as it is individual, works even now upon -the lines of Fortuny. After his death it divided into two streams. The -official endeavour of the academies was to keep the grand historical -painting in flower, in accord with the proud programme announced by -Francisco Tubino in his brochure, _The Renaissance of Spanish Art_. "Our -contemporary artists," he writes, "fill all civilised Europe with their -fame, and are the object of admiration on the far side of the Atlantic. -We have a peculiar school of our own with a hundred teachers, and it -shuns comparison with no school in any other country. At home the -Academy of the Fine Arts watches over the progress of painting; it has -perfected the laws by which our Academy in Rome is guided, the Academy -in the proud possession of Spain, and situated so splendidly upon the -Janiculum. In Madrid there is a succession of biennial exhibitions, and -there is no deficiency in prizes nor in purchases. Spanish painting does -not merely adorn the citizen's house or the boudoir of the fair sex -with easel-pieces; by its productions it recalls the great episodes of -popular history, which are able to excite men to glorious deeds. -Austere, like our national character, it forbids fine taste to descend -to the painting of anything indecorous. Before everything we want grand -paintings for our galleries; the commercial spirit is no master of ours. -In such a way the glory of Zurburan, Murillo, and Velasquez lives once -more in a new sense." - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - FORTUNY. THE CHINA VASE.] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - FORTUNY. AT THE GATE OF THE SERAGLIO.] - -The results of such efforts were those historical pictures which at the -Paris World Exhibition of 1878, the Munich International Exhibition of -1883, and at every large exhibition since have been so exceedingly -refreshing to all admirers of the illustration of history upon ground -that was genuinely Spanish. At the Paris World Exhibition of 1878 -_Pradilla's_ "Joan the Mad" received the large gold medal, and was, -indeed, a good picture in the manner of Laurens. Philip the Fair is -dead. The funeral train, paying him the last honours, has come to a halt -upon a high-road, and the unhappy princess rushes up with floating hair -and staring eyes fixed upon the bier which hides the remains of her -husband. The priests and women kneeling around regard the unfortunate -mad woman with mournful pity. To the right the members of the Court are -grouped near a little chapel where a priest is celebrating a mass for -the dead; to the left the peasantry are crowding round to witness the -ceremony. Great wax candles are burning, and the chapel is lit up with -the sombre glow of torches. This was all exceedingly well painted, -carefully balanced in composition, and graceful in drawing. At the -Munich Exhibition of 1883 he received a gold medal for his "Surrender of -Granada, 1492," a picture which made a great impression at the time upon -the German historical painters, as Pradilla had made a transition from -the brown bituminous painting of Laurens to a "modern" painting in grey, -which did more justice to the illumination of objects beneath the open -sky. In the same year _Casado's_ large painting, "The Bells of Huesca," -with the ground streaming with blood, fifteen decapitated bodies, and -as many bodiless heads, was a creation which was widely admired. _Vera_ -had exhibited his picture, filled with wild fire and pathos, "The -Defence of Numantia," and _Manuel Ramirez_ his "Execution of Don Alvaro -de Luna," with the pallid head which has rolled from the steps and -stares at the spectator in such a ghastly manner. In his "Conversion of -the Duke of Gandia," _Moreno Carbonero_ displayed an open coffin _à la_ -Laurens: as Grand Equerry to the Empress Isabella at the Court of -Charles V, the Duke of Gandia, after the death of his mistress, has to -superintend the burial of her corpse in the vault at Granada, and as the -coffin is opened there, to confirm the identity of the person, the -distorted features of the dead make such a powerful impression upon the -careless noble that he takes a vow to devote himself to God. _Ricardo -Villodas_ in his picture "Victoribus Gloria" represents the beginning of -one of those sea-battles which Augustus made gladiators fight for the -amusement of the Roman people. By _Antonio Casanova y Estorach_ there -was a picture of King Ferdinand the Holy, who upon Maundy Thursday is -washing the feet of eleven poor old men and giving them food. And a -special sensation was made by the great ghost picture of _Benliure y -Gil_, which he named "A Vision in the Colosseum." Saint Almaquio, who -was slain, according to tradition, by gladiators in the Colosseum, is -seen floating in the air, as he swings in fanatical ecstasy a crucifix -from which light is streaming. Upon one side men who have borne witness -to Christianity with their blood chant their hymns of praise; upon the -other, troops of female martyrs clothed in white and holding tapers in -their hands move by; but below, the earth has opened, and the dead rise -for the celebration of this midnight service, praying from their graves, -while the full moon shines through the apertures of the ruins and pours -its pale light upon the phantom congregation. There was exhibited by -_Checa_ "A Barbarian Onset," a Gallic horde of riders thundering past a -Roman temple, from which the priestesses are flying in desperation. -_Francisco Amerigo_ treated upon a huge canvas a scene from the sacking -of Rome in 1527, when the despoiling troops of Charles V plundered the -Eternal City. "Soldiers intoxicated with wine and lust, tricked out with -bishops' mitres and wrapped in the robes of priests, are desecrating the -temples of God. Nunneries are violated, and fathers kill their daughters -to save them from shame." So ran the historical explanation set upon the -broad gold frame. - -But, after all, these historical pictures, in spite of their great -spaces of canvas, are of no consequence when one comes to characterise -the efforts of modern art. Explanations could be given showing that in -the land of bull-fights this painting of horrors maintained itself -longer than elsewhere, but the hopes of those who prophesied from it a -new golden period for historical painting were entirely disappointed. -For Spanish art, as in earlier days for French art, the historical -picture has merely the importance implied by the _Prix de Rome_. A -method of colouring which is often dazzling in result, and a vigorous -study of nature, preserved from the danger of "beautiful" tinting, make -the Spanish works different from the older ones. Their very passion -often has an effect which is genuine, brutal, and of telling power. In -the best of these pictures one believes that a wild temperament really -does burst into flame through the accepted convention that the painters -have delight in the horrible, which the older French artists resorted to -merely for the purpose of preparing veritable _tableaux_. But in the -rank and file, in place of the Southern vividness of expression which -has been sincerely felt, histrionic pose is the predominant element, the -petty situation of the stage set upon a gigantic canvas, and in addition -to this a straining after effect which grazes the boundary line where -the horrible degenerates into the ridiculous. Through their -extraordinary ability they all compel respect, but they have not -enriched the treasury of modern emotion, nor have they transformed the -older historical painting in the essence of its being. And the man who -handles again and again motives derived from what happens to be the mode -in colours renders no service to art. Delaroche is dead; but though he -may be disinterred he cannot be brought to life, and the Spaniards -merely dug out of the earth mummies in which the breath of life was -wanting. Their works are not directing-posts to the future, but the last -_revenants_ of that histrionic spirit which wandered like a ghost -through the art of all nations. Even the composition, the shining -colours, the settles and carpets picturesquely spread upon the ground, -are the same as in Gallait. How often have these precious stage -properties done duty in tragic funereal service since Delaroche's -"Murder of the Duke of Guise" and Piloty's "Seni"! - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - PRADILLA. THE SURRENDER OF GRANADA.] - -[Illustration: _Kunst unserer Zeit._ - - PRADILLA. ON THE BEACH.] - -And these conceptions, nourished upon historical painting, had an -injurious influence upon the handling of the modern picture of the -period. Even here there is an endeavour to make a compromise with the -traditional historic picture, since artists painted scenes from modern -popular life upon great spaces of canvas, transforming them into -pageants or pictures of tragical ceremonies, and sought too much after -subjects with which the splendid and motley colours of historical -painting would accord. _Viniegra y Lasso_ and _Mas y Fondevilla_ execute -great processions filing past, with bishops, monks, priests, and -choristers. All the figures stand beaming in brightness against the sky, -but the light glances from the oily mantles of the figures without real -effect. _Alcazar Tejedor_ paints a young priest reading his "First Mass" -in the presence of his parents, and merely renders a theatrical scene in -modern costume, merely transfers to an event of the present that -familiar "moment of highest excitement" so popular since the time of -Delaroche. By his "Death of the Matador," and "The Christening," bought -by Vanderbilt for a hundred and fifty thousand francs, _José Villegas_, -in ability the most striking of them all, acquired a European name; -whilst a hospital scene by _Luis Jimenez_ of Seville is the single -picture in which something of the seriousness of French Naturalism is -perceptible, but it is an isolated example from a province of interest -which is otherwise not to be found in Spain. - -[Illustration: VILLEGAS. DEATH OF THE MATADOR.] - -Indeed, the Spaniards are by no means most attractive in gravely -ceremonial and stiffly dignified pictures, but rather when they indulge -in unpretentious "little painting" in the manner of Fortuny. Yet even -these wayward "little painters," with their varied glancing colour, are -not to be properly reckoned amongst the moderns. Their painting is an -art dependent on deftness of hand, and knows no higher aim than to bring -together in a picture as many brilliant things as possible, to make a -charming bouquet with glistening effects of costume, and the play, the -reflections, and the caprices of sunbeams. The earnest modern art which -sprang from Manet and the Fontainebleau painters avoids this -kaleidoscopic sport with varied spots of colour. All these little folds -and mouldings, these prismatic arts of blending, and these curious -reflections are what the moderns have no desire to see: they half close -their eyes to gain a clearer conception of the chief values; they -simplify; they refuse to be led from the main point by a thousand -trifles. Their pictures are works of art, while those of the disciples -of Fortuny are sleights of artifice. In all this _bric-à-brac_ art there -is no question of any earnest analysis of light. The motley spots of -colour yield, no doubt, a certain concord of their own; but there is a -want of tone and air, a want of all finer sentiment: everything seems to -have been dyed, instead of giving the effect of colour. Nevertheless -those who were independent enough not to let themselves be entirely -bewitched by the deceptive adroitness of a conjurer have painted little -pictures of talent and refinement; taking Fortuny's _rococo_ works as -their starting-point, they have represented the fashionable world and -the highly coloured and warm-blooded life of the people of modern Spain -with a bold and spirited facility. But they have not gone beyond the -observation of the external sides of life. They can show guitarreros -clattering with castanets and pandarets, majas dancing, and ribboned -heroes conquering bulls instead of Jews and Moors. Yet their pictures -are at any rate blithe, full of colour, flashing with sensuous -brilliancy, and at times they are executed with stupendous skill. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - BENLIURE Y GIL. A VISION IN THE COLOSSEUM.] - -_Martin Rico_ was for the longest period in Italy with Fortuny, and his -pictures also have the glitter of a casket of jewels, the pungency of -sparkling champagne. Some of his sea-pieces in particular--for instance, -those of the canal in Venice and the Bay of Fontarabia--might have been -painted by Fortuny. In others he seems quieter and more harmonious than -the latter. His execution is more powerful, less marked by spirited -stippling, and his light gains in intensity and atmospheric refinement -what it loses in mocking caprices, while his little figures have a more -animated effect, notwithstanding the less piquant manner in which they -are painted. Their outlines are scarcely perceptible, and yet they are -seen walking, jostling, and pressing against each other; whereas those -of Fortuny, precisely through the more subtle and microscopic method in -which they have been executed, often seem as though they were benumbed -in movement. Certain market scenes, with a dense crowd of buyers and -sellers, are peculiarly spirited, rapid sketches, with a gleaming charm -of colour. - -_Zamacois_, _Casanova_, and _Raimundo de Madrazo_, Fortuny's -brother-in-law, show no less virtuosity of the palette. Sea-pieces and -little landscapes alternate with scenes from Spanish popular life, where -they revel, like Fortuny, in a scintillating medley of colour. Later, in -Paris, Madrazo was likewise much sought after as a painter of ladies' -portraits, as he lavished on his pictures sometimes a fine _hautgoût_ of -fragrant _rococo_ grace _a la_ Chaplin, and sometimes devoted himself -with taste and deftness to symphonic _tours de force à la_ Carolus -Duran. Particularly memorable is the portrait of a graceful young girl -in red, exhibited in the Munich Exhibition of 1883. She is seated upon a -sofa of crimson silk, and her feet rest upon a dark red carpet. Equally -memorable in the Paris World Exhibition of 1889 was a pierrette, whose -costume ran through the whole gamut from white to rose-colour. Her skirt -was of a darker, her bodice of a brighter red, and a light rose-coloured -stocking peeped from beneath a grey silk petticoat; over her shoulders -lay a white swansdown cape, and white gloves and white silk shoes with -rose-coloured bows completed her toilette. His greatest picture -represented "The End of a Masked Ball." Before the Paris Opera cabs are -waiting with coachmen sleeping or smoking, whilst a troop of pierrots -and pierrettes, harlequins, Japanese girls, _rococo_ gentlemen, and -Turkish women are streaming out, sparkling with the most glittering -colours in the grey light of a winter morning, in which the gas lamps -cast a warm yellow glimmer. - -[Illustration: CASADO. THE BELLS OF HUESCA.] - -Even those who made their chief success as historical painters became -new beings when they came forward with such piquant "little paintings." -_Francisco Domingo_ in Valencia is the Spanish Meissonier, who has -painted little horsemen before an inn, mercenary soldiers, newspaper -readers, and philosophers of the time of Louis XV, with all the -daintiness in colour associated with the French patriarch--although a -huge canvas, "The Last Day of Sagunt," has the reputation of being his -chief performance. In the year in which he exhibited his "Vision in the -Colosseum," _Benliure y Gil_ made a success with two little pictures -stippled in varied colours, the "Month of Mary" and the "Distribution -of Prizes in Valencia," in which children, smartened and dressed in -white frocks, are moving in the ante-chambers of a church, decorated for -the occasion. _Casado_, painter of the sanguinary tragedy of Huesca, -showed himself an admirable little master full of elegance and grace in -"The Bull-Fighter's Reward," a small eighteenth-century picture. The -master of the great hospital picture, _Jimenez_, took the world by -surprise at the very same time by a "Capuchin Friar's Sermon before the -Cathedral of Seville," which flashed with colour. _Emilio Sala y -Francés_, whose historical masterpiece was the "Expulsion of the Jews -from Spain in 1493," delights elsewhere in spring, Southern gardens with -luxuriant vegetation, and delicate _rococo_ ladies, holding up their -skirts filled with blooming roses, or gathering wild flowers among the -grass. _Antonio Fabrés_ was led to the East by the influence of -Regnault, and excited attention by his aquarelles and studies in pen and -ink, in which he represented Oriental and Roman street figures with -astonishing adroitness. But the _ne plus ultra_ is attained by the bold -and winning art of _Pradilla_, which is like a thing shot out of a -pistol. He is the greatest product of contemporary Spain, a man with a -talent for improvisation as ingenious as it was free, who treated with -equal facility the most varied subjects. In the bold and spirited -decorations with which he embellished Spanish palaces he sported with -nymphs and Loves and floating genii _à la_ Tiepolo. All the grace of the -_rococo_ period is cast over his works in the Palais Murga in Madrid. -The figures join each other with ease--coquettish nymphs swaying upon -boughs, and audacious "Putti" tumbling over backwards in quaint games. -Nowhere is there academic sobriety, and everywhere life, pictorial -inspiration, the intoxicating joyousness of a fancy creating without -effort and revelling in the festal delight of the senses. In the -accompanying wall pictures he revived the age of the troubadours, of -languishing love-song and knightly romance free from the burden of -thought, in tenderly graceful and fluent figures. And this same painter, -who filled these huge spaces of wall, lightly dallying with subjects -from the world of fable, seems another man when he grasps fragments from -the life of our own age in pithy inspirations sure in achievement. His -historical pictures are works which compel respect; but those paintings -on the most diminutive scale, in which he represented scenes from the -Roman carnival and the life in Spanish camps, the shore of the sea and -the joy of a popular merry-making with countless figures of the most -intense vividness, carried out with an unrivalled execution of detail -which is yet free from anything laboured, and full of splendour and -glowing colour,--these, indeed, are performances of painting beside -which as a musical counterpart at best Paganini's variations on the G -string are comparable--sleights of art of which only Pradilla was -capable, and such as only Fortuny painted forty years ago. - -Two masters who do not live at home, but in France, have followed still -further the modern development of art with great power. The first is -_Zuloaga_. The pictures of this artist have something truly Spanish, -something that one as an admirer of Goya looks for eagerly in Spanish -pictures. At the first glance the eye receives rather a shock. One seeks -in vain for delicate painting of light in Zuloaga, or exquisite -harmonies of colour. He places the crudest reds and yellows next to each -other, strong, almost brutal, like a poster. With an uncompromising love -of truth he paints the rouge-smeared cheeks and blackened eyebrows of -his women-about-town, does not even try to make their movements graceful -or give their costumes a touch of modish smartness. But what a breadth -of conception! With what daring he sweeps his bold strokes over the -picture! It is just because he avoids all flattery, because he brings -nothing foreign, nothing cosmopolitan into his exclusive world, that the -characteristics of Spanish life are mirrored with such truth in his -works. Especially in his portrait of the popular poet, Don Miguel de -Segovia, the whole picture is suffused with a rare Don Quixote feeling. -Velasquez' Pablillas stands before you reincarnated. It is interesting, -too, that Zuloaga, though in France, remains still a Spaniard. Even when -he paints Parisiennes he translates toilette and gesture into grandiose -Spanish style. - -The influence of the French school is much more marked in the second of -these Spanish masters, _Hermen Anglada_. He has come to the front in -the exhibitions of the last few years. Besnard has given him much of -his refined epicurism, and this French _hautgoût_ lends his pictures a -charm which is altogether their own. If you are seeking for unusual and -quaint effects you will find them in this Spaniard, who paints pale, -colourless women in the most astonishing costumes, places them in the -midst of sensuous, misty landscapes, and gives you a glistening -potpourri of colours. But Anglada's work is in itself the best testimony -to the fact that the Spain of to-day is getting worn-out and bloodless. -There is something senile and sapless in this over-refined art that -takes pleasure in nothing but the most extraordinary nuances, and that -needs something very unusual to tickle its nerves. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVI - -ITALY - - -Italy has played a very different part from that of Spain in the -development of modern art. Even at the World Exhibition of 1855 Edmond -About called Italy "the grave of painting" in his _Voyage à travers -l'Exposition des Beaux-Arts_. He mentions a few Piedmontese professors, -but about Florence, Naples, and Rome he found nothing to say. The Great -Exhibition of 1862 in England was productive of no more favourable -criticism, for W. Bürger's account is as little consolatory as About's. -"Renowned Italy and proud Spain," writes Burger, "have no longer any -painters who can rival those of other schools. There is nothing to be -said about the rooms where the Italians, Spanish, and Swiss are -exhibited." To-day there are in Italy a great number of vigorous -painters. In Angelo de Gubernati's lexicon of artists there are over two -thousand names, some of which are favourably known in other countries -also. But the mass dwindles to a tiny heap if those only are included -who have risen from the level of dexterous picture-makers to that of -painters of real importance in the world of art. - -Whether it be from direct influence or similarity of origin, Fortuny has -found his ablest successors amongst the Neapolitan artists. As early as -the seventeenth century the school of painting there was very different -from those in the rest of Italy; the Greek blood of the population and -the wild, romantic scenery of the Abruzzi gave it a peculiar stamp. -Southern _brio_, the joy of life, colour, and warmth, in contrast with -the noble Roman ideal of form, were the qualities of Salvator Rosa, Luca -Giordano, and Ribera, bold and fiery spirits. And a breath of such power -seems to live in their descendants still. Even now Neapolitan painting -sings, dances, and laughs in a bacchanal of colour, pleasure, delight in -life, and glowing sunshine. - -[Illustration: _Kunst für Alle._ - - MORELLI. THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY.] - -A wild and restless spirit, _Domenico Morelli_, whose biography is like -a chapter from _Rinaldo Rinaldini_, is the head of this Neapolitan -school. He was born on 4th August, 1826, and in his youth he is said to -have been, first a pupil in a seminary of priests, then an apprentice -with a mechanician, and for some time even _facchino_. He never saw such -a thing as an academy. Indeed, it was a Bohemian life that he led, -making his meals of bread and cheese, wandering for weeks together with -Byron's poems in his pocket upon the seashore between Posilippo and -Baiæ. In 1848 he fought against King Ferdinand, and was left severely -wounded on the battle-field. After these episodes of youth he first -became a painter, beginning his career in 1855 with the large picture -"The Iconoclasts," followed in 1857 by a "Tasso," and in 1858 by a "Saul -and David." Biblical pictures remained his province even later, and he -was the only artist in Italy who handled these subjects from an entirely -novel point of view, pouring into them a peculiarly exalted and -imaginative spirit. A Madonna rocking her sleeping Child, whilst her -song is accompanied by a legion of cherubs playing upon instruments, -"The Reviling of Christ," "The Ascension," "The Descent from the Cross," -"Christ walking on the Sea," "The Raising of the Daughter of Jairus," -"The Expulsion of the Money-Changers from the Temple," "The Marys at the -Grave," "Salve Regina," and "Mary Magdalene meeting Christ risen from -the Grave," are the principal stages of his great Christian epic, and in -their imaginative naturalism a new revolutionary language finds -utterance through all these pictures. There is in them at times -something of the mystical quietude of the East, and at times something -of the passionate breath of Eugène Delacroix. In these pictures he -revealed himself as a true child of the land of the sun, a lover of -painting which scintillates and flickers. As yet hard, ponderous, dark, -and plastic in "The Iconoclasts," he was a worshipper of light and -resplendent in colour in the "Mary Magdalene." "The Temptation of St. -Anthony" probably marks the summit of his creative power in the matter -of colour. Morelli has conceived the whole temptation as a -hallucination. The saint squats upon the ground, claws with his fingers, -and with fixed gaze tries to stifle thoughts, full of craving -sensuality, which are flaming in him. Yet they throng ever more -thickly, take shape ever more distinctly, are transformed into -red-haired women who detach themselves from corners upon all sides. They -rise from beneath the matting, wind nearer from the depth of the cavern; -even the breeze that caresses the fevered brow of the tormented man -changes into the head of a girl pressing her kisses upon him. Only -Naples could produce an artist at once so bizarre, so many-sided and -incoherent, so opulent and strange. Younger men of talent trooped around -him. A fiery spirit, haughty and independent, he became the teacher of -all the younger generation. He led them to behold the sun and the sea, -to marvel at nature in her radiant brightness. Through him the joy in -light and colour came into Neapolitan painting, that rejoicing in colour -which touches such laughing concords in the works of his pupil _Paolo -Michetti_. - -A man of bold and magnificent talent, the genuine product of the wild -Abruzzi, Michetti was the son of a day-labourer, like Morelli. However, -a man of position became the protector of the boy, who was early left an -orphan. But neither at the Academy at Naples nor in Paris and London did -this continue long. As early as 1876 he was back in Naples, and settled -amid the Abruzzi, close to the Adriatic, in Francavilla à Mare, near -Ostona, a little nest which the traveller passes just before he goes on -board the Oriental steamer at Brindisi. Here he lives out of touch with -old pictures, in the thick of the vigorous life of the Italian people. -In 1877 he painted the work which laid the foundation of his celebrity, -"The Corpus Domini Procession at Chieti," a picture which rose like a -firework in its boisterous, exhilarating medley of bright colours. The -procession is seen just coming out of church: men, women, naked -children, monks, priests, a canopy, choristers with censers, old men and -youths, people who kneel and people who laugh, the mist of incense, the -beams of the sun, flowers scattered on the ground, a band of musicians, -and a church façade with rich and many-coloured ornaments. There is the -play of variously hued silk, and colours sparkle in all the tints of the -prism. Everything laughs, the faces and the costumes, the flowers and -the sunbeams. Following upon this came a picture which he called "Spring -and the Loves." It represented a desolate promontory in the blue sea, -and upon it a troop of Cupids, playing round a hawthorn bush in full -flower, are scuffling, buffeting each other, and leaping as riotously as -Neapolitan street-boys. Some were arrayed like little Japanese, some -like Grecian terra-cotta figures, whilst a marble bridge in the -neighbourhood shone in indigo blue. The whole picture gleamed with red, -blue, green, and yellow patches of colour: a serpentine dance painted -twelve years before the appearance of Loie Fuller. Then again he painted -the sea. It is noon, and the sultry heat broods over the azure tide. -Naked fishermen are standing in it, and on the shore gaily dressed women -are searching for mussels; whilst, in the background, vessels with the -sun playing on their sails are mirrored brightly in the water. Or the -moon rises casting greenish reflections upon the body of Christ, which -shines like phosphorus as it is being taken from the cross: or there is -a flowery landscape upon a summer evening; birds are settling down for -the night, and little angels are kissing each other and laughing. In all -these pictures Michetti showed himself an improviser of astonishing -dexterity, solving every difficulty as though it were child's play, and -shedding a brilliant colour over everything--a man to whom "painting" -was as much a matter of course as orthography is to ourselves. Even the -Paris World Exhibition of 1878 made him celebrated as an artist, and -from that time his name was to the Italian ear a symbol for something -new, unexpected, wild, and extravagant. The word "Michetti" means -splendid materials, dazzling flesh-tones, conflicting hues set with -intention beside each other, the luxuriant bodies of women basking in -heat and sun, fantastic landscapes created in the mad brain of the -artist, strange and curious frames, and village idylls in the glowing -blaze of the sun. There are no lifeless spots in his works; every whim -of his takes shape, as if by sorcery, in splendid figures. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - MICHETTI. GOING TO CHURCH.] - -Another pupil of Morelli, _Edoardo Dalbono_, completed his duty to -history by a scene of horror _à la_ Laurens, "The Excommunication of -King Manfred," and then became the painter of the Bay of Naples. "The -Isle of Sirens" was the first production of his able, appetising, and -nervously vibrating brush. There is a steep cliff dropping sheer into -the blue sea. Two antique craft are drawing near, the crews taking no -heed of the reefs and sandbanks. With phantomlike gesture the naked -women stretch out their arms beckoning, embodiments as they are of the -deadly beautiful and voluptuously cruel ocean. By degrees the sea -betrayed to him all its secrets--its strangest combinations of colour -and atmospheric effects, its transparency, and its eternally shifting -phases of ebb and flow. He has painted the Bay of Naples under bright, -hot noon and the gloom of night, in the purple light of the sinking sun -and in the strange and many-coloured mood of twilight. At one moment it -shines and plays variegated and joyous in blue, grass-green, and violet -tones; at another it seems to glitter with millions of phosphorescent -sparks: the rosy clouds of the sky are glassed in it, and the lights of -the houses irregularly dotted over abrupt mountain-chains or the -dark-red glow of lava luridly shining from Vesuvius. Now and then he -painted scenes from Neapolitan street-life--old, weather-beaten seamen, -young sailors with features as sharply cut as if cast in bronze, -beautiful, fiery, brown women, shooting the hot Southern flame from -their eyes, houses painted white or orange-yellow, with the sun -glittering on the windows. The "Voto alla Madonna del Carmine" was the -most comprehensive of these Southern pictures. Everything shines in -joyous blue, yellowish-green, and red colours. Warmth, life, light, -brilliancy, and laughter are the elements on which his art is based. - -[Illustration: _Kunst für Alle._ - - MICHETTI. THE CORPUS DOMINI PROCESSION AT CHIETI.] - -_Alceste Campriani_, _Giacomo di Chirico_, _Rubens Santoro_, _Federigo -Cortese_, _Francesco Netti_, _Edoardo Toffano_, _Giuseppe de Nigris_ -have, all of them, this kaleidoscopic sparkle, this method of painting -which gives pictures the appearance of being mosaics of precious stones. -As in the days of the Renaissance, the Church is usually the scene of -action, though not any longer as the house of God, but as the background -of a many-coloured throng. As a rule these pictures contain a crowd of -canopies, priests, and choristers, and country-folk, bowing or kneeling -when the host is carried by, or weddings, horse-races, and country -festivals; and everything is vivid and joyous in colour, saturated with -the glowing sun of Naples. Alceste Campriani's chief work was entitled -"The Return from Montevergine." Carriages and open rack-waggons are -dashing along, the horses snorting and the drivers smacking their whips, -while the peasants, who have had their fill of sweet wine, are shouting -and singing, and the orange-sellers in the street are crying their -goods. A coquettish glancing light plays over the gay costumes, and the -white dust sparkles like fluid silver, as it rises beneath the hoofs of -the horses wildly plunging forward. The leading work of _Giacomo di -Chirico_, who became mad in 1883, was "A Wedding in the Basilicata." It -represents a motley crowd. The entire village has set out to see the -ceremony. The wedding guests are descending the church steps to the -square, which is decked out with coloured carpets and strewn with -flowers. Triumphal arches have been set up, and the pictures of the -Madonna are hung with garlands. Meanwhile the _sindaco_ gives his arm to -the bride, beneath whose gay costume a charmingly graceful little foot -is peeping out. Then the bridegroom follows with the _sindaco's_ wife. -All the village girls are looking on with curiosity, and the musicians -are playing. Winter has covered the square with a white cloak of snow; -yet the sunbeams sport over it, making it shine vividly with a thousand -reflections. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - FAVRETTO. ON THE PIAZZETTA.] - -Of course, the derivation of all these pictures is easily recognisable. -Almost all the Neapolitan painters studied at Fortuny's in the seventies -in Rome, and when they came home again they perceived that the life of -the people offered themes which had a coquettish fitness in Fortuny's -scale of tones. From the variously coloured magnificence of old -churches, the red robes of ecclesiastics, the gaudy splendour of the -country-people's clothes, and the gay glory of rags amongst the -Neapolitan children, they composed a modern _rococo_, rejoicing in -colour, whilst the Spaniard had fled to the past to attain his gleaming -effects. - -A great number of the Italians do the same even now. In numerous costume -pictures, from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, flashing with -silk and velvet, the Southerner's bright pleasure in colour still loves -to celebrate its orgies. Gay trains rustle, rosy Loves laugh down from -the walls, Venetian chandeliers shed their radiance; no other epoch in -history enables the painter with so much ease to produce such an -efflorescence of full-toned chords of colour. With his shining glow of -hue the delectable and spirited _Favretto_ (who, like Fortuny, entered -the world of art as a victor, and, like him again, was snatched from it -when barely thirty-seven, after a brief and brilliant career) stands at -the head of this group. The child of poor parents, indeed the son of a -joiner, he was born in Venice in 1849, and, like the Spaniard, passed a -youth which was full of privations. But all the cares of existence, even -the loss of an eye, did not hinder him from seeing objects under a -laughing brightness of colour. Through his studies and the bent of his -fancy he had come to be no less at home in the Venice of the eighteenth -century than in that of his own time. This Venice of Francesco Guardi, -this city of enchantment surrounded with the gleam of olden splendour, -the scene of rich and brilliantly coloured banquets and a graceful and -modish society, rose once more under Favretto's hands in fabulous -beauty. What _brio_ of technique, what harmony of colours, were to be -found in the picture "Un Incontro," the charming scene upon the Rialto -Bridge, with the bowing cavalier and the lady coquettishly making her -acknowledgments! This was the first picture which gave him a name in the -world. What fanfares of colour were in the two next pictures, "Banco -Lotto" and "Erbajuolo Veneziano"! At the Exhibition in Turin in 1883 he -was represented by "The Bath" and "Susanna and the Elders"; at that in -Venice in 1887 he celebrated his last and greatest triumph. The three -pictures "The Friday Market upon the Rialto Bridge," "The Canal Ferry -near Santa Margherita," and "On the Piazzetta" were the subject of -enthusiastic admiration. All the Venetian society of the age of Goldoni, -Gozzi, and Casanova had become vivid in this last picture, and moved -over the smooth brick pavement of the Piazzetta at the hour of the -promenade, from the Doge's palace to the library, and from the Square of -St. Mark to the pillar of the lions and Theodore, to and fro in surging -life. Men put up their glasses and chivalrously greeted the queens of -beauty. The enchanting magic building of Sansovino, the _loggetta_ with -their bright marble pillars, bronze statues of blackish-grey, and -magnificent lattice doors, formed the background of the standing and -sauntering groups, whose variegated costumes united with the tones of -marble and bronze to make a most beautiful combination of colours. -Favretto had a manner of his own, and, although a member of the school -of Fortuny, he was stronger and healthier than the latter. He drew like -a genuine painter, without having too much of the Fortuny fireworks. His -soft, rich painting was that of a colourist of distinction, always -tasteful, exquisite in tone, and light and pleasing in technique. - -By the other Italian costume painters the scale run through by Fortuny -was not enriched by new notes. Most of their pictures are nugatory, -coquettishly sportive toys, masterly in technique no doubt, but so empty -of substance that they vanish from memory like novels read upon a -railway journey. Many have no greater import than dresses, cloaks, and -hats worn by ladies during a few weeks of the season. Sometimes their -significance is not even so great, since there are modistes and -dressmakers who have more skill in making ruches and giving the right -_nuance_ to colours. Some small part of Favretto's refined taste seems -to have been communicated to the Venetian _Antonio Lonza_, who delights -in mingling the gleaming splendour of Oriental carpets, fans, and -screens amid the motley, picturesque costumes of the _rococo_ -period--Japanese who perform as jugglers and knife-throwers in quaint -_rococo_ gardens before the old Venetian nobility. But the centre of -this costume painting is Florence, and the great mart for it the -_Società artistica_, where there are yearly exhibitions. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - FAVRETTO. SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS.] - -Francesco Vinea, Tito Conti, Federigo Andreotti, and Edoardo Gelli are -in Italy the special manufacturers who have devoted themselves, with the -assistance of Meissonier, Gérôme, and Fortuny, to scenes from the -sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to plumed hats, Wallenstein boots, -and horsemen's capes, to Renaissance lords and laughing Renaissance -ladies, and they have thereby won great recognition in Germany. Pretty, -languishing women in richly coloured costumes, tippling soldiers and -gallant cavaliers, laughing peasant women and trim serving-girls drawing -wine in the cellar vaults and setting it before a trooper, who in -gratitude affectionately puts his arm round their waist, beautiful and -still more languishing noble ladies, who laugh with a parrot or a dog, -instead of a trooper, in apartments richly furnished with Gobelins--such -for the most part are the subjects treated by _Francesco Vinea_ with -great virtuosity bordering on the routine of a typewriter. His technique -is neither refined nor fascinating; the colours are so crude that they -affect the eye as a false note the ear. But the mechanical power of his -painting is great. He has much ability, far more, indeed, than Sichel, -and possesses the secret of painting, in an astonishing manner, the -famous lace kerchiefs wound round the heads of his fair ones. -_Andreotti_ and _Tito Conti_ work in the same fashion, except that the -ballad-singers and rustic idylls of Andreotti are the smoother and more -mawkish, whereas the pictures of Conti make a somewhat more refined and -artistic effect. His colour is superior and more transparent, and his -tapestry backgrounds are warmer. - -And, so far as one can judge from their pictures, life runs as merrily -for the Italians of the present as it did for those _rococo_ cavaliers. -Hanging here and there beside the serious art of other nations, these -little picture-people enjoy their careless tinsel pomp; art is a gay -thing for them, as gay as a Sunday afternoon with a procession and -fireworks, walks and sips of sherbet, to an Italian woman. By the side -of the blue-plush and red-velvet costume-picture comic _genre_ still -holds its sway: barbaric in colour and with materials which are merrier -than is appropriate in tasteful pictures, _Gaetano Chierici_ represents -children, both good and naughty, making their appearance upon a tiny -theatre. _Antonio Rotta_ renders comic episodes from the life of -Venetian cobblers and the menders of nets. _Scipione Vannuttelli_ paints -young girls in white dresses arrayed as nuns or being confirmed in -church. _Francesco Monteverde_ rejoices in comical _intermezzi_ in the -style of Grützner--for instance, an ecclesiastical gentleman observing, -to his horror, that his pretty young servant-girl is being kissed by a -smart lad in the yard. This is more or less his style of subject. -_Ettore Tito_ paints the pretty Venetian laundresses whom Passini, Cecil -van Haanen, Charles Ulrich, Eugène Blaas, and others introduced into -art. Only a very few struck deeper notes. _Luigi Nono_, in Venice, -painted his beautiful picture "Refugium Peccatorum"; _Ferragutti_, the -Milanese, his "Workers in the Turnip Field," a vivid study of sunlight -of serious veracity; and after these _Giovanni Segantini_ came forward -with his forcible creations, in which he has demonstrated that it is -possible for a man to be an Italian and yet a serious artist. - -[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ - - TITO. THE SLIPPER SELLER.] - -Segantini's biography is like a novel. Born the child of poor parents, -in Arco, in 1858, he was left, after the death of his parents, to the -care of a relative in Milan with whom he passed a most unhappy time. He -then wanted to make his fortune in France, and set out upon foot; but he -did not get very far, in fact he managed to hire himself out as a -swine-herd. After this he lived for a whole year alone in the wild -mountains, worked in the field, the stable, the barn. Then came the -well-known discovery, which one could not believe were it not to be read -in Gubernati. One day he drew the finest of his pigs with a piece of -charcoal upon a mass of rock. The peasants ran in a crowd and took the -block of stone, together with the young Giotto, in triumph to the -village. He was given assistance, visited the School of Art in Milan, -and now paints the things he did in his youth. In a secluded village of -the Alps, Val d'Albola in Switzerland, a thousand metres above the sea, -amid the grand and lofty mountains, he settled down, surrounded only by -the peasants who make a precarious living from the soil. Out of touch -with the world of artists the whole year round, observing great nature -at every season and every hour of the day, fresh and straightforward in -character, he is one of those natures of the type of Millet, in whom -heart and hand, man and artist, are one and the same thing. His shepherd -and peasant scenes from the valleys of the high Alps are free from all -flavour of _genre_. The life of these poor and humble beings passes -without contrasts and passions, being spent altogether in work, which -fills the long course of the day in monotonous regularity. The sky -sparkles with a sharp brilliancy. The spiky yellow and tender green of -the fields forces its way modestly from the rocky ground. In front is -something like a hedge where a cow is grazing, or there is a shepherdess -pasturing her sheep. Something majestic there is in this cold nature, -where the sunshine is so sharp, the air so thin. And the primitive, it -might almost be said antique, execution of these pictures is in accord -with the primitive simplicity of the subjects. In fact, Segantini's -pictures, with their cold silvery colours, and their contours so sharp -in outline, standing out hard against the rarefied air, make an -impression like encaustic paintings or mosaics. They have nothing -alluring or pleasing, and there is, perhaps, even a touch of mannerism -in this mosaic painting; but they are nevertheless exceedingly true, -rugged, austere, and yet sunny. Segantini opened up to painting an -entirely new world of beauty, the poetry of the highlands. His -appearance dates from the Impressionistic period when preference was -given to damp, misty atmospheres which toned down all colour and melted -away all lines, and artists made a specialty of flat, monotonous plains. -At that time the mountains were in bad repute, thanks to the -old-fashioned painters of views, the masters of the "picture-postcard -style." Segantini led the way again up to the heights; but he did not -paint the mountain-tops that, like the Titans of old, strive to reach -the sky; he painted the plateaus, not the plains of the lowlands, but of -the highlands, lonely, weird, sublime, where man draws near to the heart -of Nature, far from the noise and struggle of everyday life. The air of -the heights is there, the colours and lines speak with no uncertain -voice. Thus Segantini learnt from the locale of his pictures to become -the first master of line among the Impressionists. How he mirrors in his -pictures the stillness, the might and grandeur of these lofty heights! -With what astounding truth his cold, clear colours make us feel the -coldness and clearness of these regions. Like a dome of steel, the sky -stretches over the steel-blue lakes, clear as crystal, over the -pale-green meadows in the grip of the frost; the tender foliage rustles -and freezes in the quivering ice-cold air: there glaciers gleam, there -glitters the snow, there the sun pours down his beams upon the earth -like plumes of fire. A thunder cloud draws near, calm and majestic as -destiny in its relentless course. There is something Northern and -virginal, something earnest and grandiose, which stands in strange -contrast with the joyful, conventional smile which is otherwise spread -over the countenance of Italian painting. Though he died so young, -Giovanni Segantini will live for all time in the history of art. - -With the exception of Segantini, not one of these painters will own that -there are poverty-stricken and miserable people in his native land. An -everlasting blue sky still laughs over Italy, sunshine and the joy of -life still hold undisputed sway over Italian pictures. There is no work -in sunny Italy, and in spite of that there is no hunger. Even where work -is being done there are assembled only the fairest girls of Lombardy, -who kneel laughing and jesting on the strand, while the wind dallies -with their clothes. They have a special delight for showing themselves -while engaged at their toilette, in a bodice, their little feet in neat -little slippers, their naked arms raised to arrange their red-gold hair. -As a rule, however, they do nothing whatever but smile at you with their -most seductive smile, which shows their pearl-white teeth, and ensnares -every poor devil who does not suspect that they have smiled for years in -the same way, and most of all with him who pays highest: "_j'aime les -hommes parse que j'aime les truffes_." These pictures are almost -invariably works which are well able to give pleasure to their -possessor, only they seldom suggest discussion on the course of art. -_Trop de marchandise_ is the phrase generally used in the Paris Salon -when the Italians come under consideration. Few there are amongst them -who are real pioneers, spirits pressing seriously forward and having a -quickening influence on others. The vital questions of the painting of -free light, Impressionism, and Naturalism do not interest them in the -least. A naïve, pleasant, lively, and self-complacent technique is in -most cases the solitary charm of their works. One feels scarcely any -inclination to search the catalogue for the painter's name, and whether -the beauty--for she is not the first of her kind--who was called Ninetta -last year has now become Lisa. Most of these modern Italians execute -their pictures in the way in which gold pieces are minted, or in the way -in which plastic works, which run through so many editions, are produced -in Italy. Nowhere are more beautiful laces chiselled, and in the same -manner painters render the shining splendour of satin and velvet, the -glittering brilliancy of ornaments, and the starry radiance of the -beautiful eyes of women. Only, as soon as one has once seen them one -knows the pictures by heart, as one knows the works in marble, and this -is so because the painters had them by heart first. Everywhere there are -the evidences of talent, industry, ability, and spirit, but there is no -soul in the spirit and no life in the colours. So many brilliant tones -stand beside each other, and yet there is neither a refined tone nor the -impression of truth to nature. - -[Illustration: SEGANTINI. MATERNITY.] - -In all this art of theirs there is scarcely a question of any serious -landscape. Apart from the works of some of the younger men--for -instance, _Belloni_, _Serra_, _Gola_, _Filippini_, and others, who -display an intimacy of observation which is worthy of honour--a really -close connection with the efforts made across the Alps is not achieved -in these days. As a rule the landscapes are mere products of -handicraft, which are striking for the moment by their technical -routine, but seldom waken any finer feelings, whether the Milanese paint -the dazzling Alpine effects or the Venetian lagunes steeped in light, -with gondolas and gondola-poles glowing in the sunshine, or the -Neapolitans set glittering upon the canvas their beautiful bay like a -brilliant firework. Most of them continue to pursue with complete -self-satisfaction the flagged gondola of Ziem; the conquests of the -Fontainebleau painters and of the Impressionists are unnoticed by them. - -And this industrial characteristic of Italian painting is sufficiently -explained by the entire character of the country. The Italian painter is -not properly in a position to seek effects of his own and to make -experiments. Hardly anything is bought for the galleries, and there are -few collectors of superior taste. He labours chiefly for the traveller, -and this gives his performances the stamp of attractive mercantile -wares. The Italian is too much a man of business to undertake great -trials of strength _pour le roi de Prusse_. He paints no great pictures, -which would be still-born children in his home, nor does he paint severe -studies of _plein-air_, preferring a specious, exuberant, flickering, -and glaring revel in colour. In general he produces nothing which will -not easily sell, and has a fine instinct for the taste of the rich -travelling public, who wish to see nothing which does not excite -cheerful and superficial emotions. - -But it is possible that this decline of the Latin races is connected -with the nature of modern art itself. Of late the words "Germanic" and -"Latin" have been much abused. It has been proclaimed that the new art -meant the victory of the German depth of feeling over the Latin sense of -form, the onset of German cordiality against the empty exaggeration in -which the imitation of the Cinquecento resulted. Such assertions are -always hard to maintain, because every century shows similar reactions -of truth to nature against mannerism. Nevertheless is it true that -modern art, with its heartfelt devotion to everyday life and the -mysteries of light, has an essentially Germanic character, finding its -ancestors not in Raphael, Michael Angelo, and Titian, but in the English -of the eighteenth, the Dutch of the seventeenth, and the Germans of the -sixteenth century. The Italians and Spaniards, whose entire intellectual -culture rests upon a Latin foundation, may therefore find it difficult -to follow this change of taste. They either adhere to the old bombastic -and theatrical painting of history, or they recast the new painting in -an external drawing-room art draped with gaudy tinsel. Even in France -the rise of the new art meant, as it were, the victory of the Frankish -element over the Gallic. Millet the Norman, Courbet the Frank, -Bastien-Lepage of Lorraine, drove back the Latins--Ingres and Couture, -Cabanel and Bouguereau--just as in the eighteenth century the -Netherlander Watteau broke the yoke of the rigid Latin Classicism. - -It is perhaps no mere chance that the threads of the Germanic aim in art -were drawn out with such zeal by the Germanic nations. With the Latins -a striking effect is made by brilliant technique, mastery of the manual -art of painting, and careless sway over all the enchantments of the -craft; with the Teutons one stands in the presence of an art which is so -natural and simple that one scarcely thinks of the means by which it was -called into being. In one case there is virtuosity, ductility, and -grace; in the other, health, intrinsic feeling, and temperament. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVII - -ENGLAND - - -To English painting the acquisitions of the French could now give little -that was radically novel, for the epoch-making labours of the -pre-Raphaelites were already in existence. Apart from certain cases of -direct borrowing, it has either completely preserved its autonomy, or -recast everything assimilated from France in a specifically English -fashion. It is in art, indeed, as it is with men themselves. The English -travel more than any other people, for travel is a part of their -education. They are to be met in every quarter of the globe--in Africa, -Asia, America, or the European Continent; and they scarcely need to open -their mouths, even from a distance, to betray that they are English. In -the same way there is no need of a catalogue at exhibitions to recognise -all English pictures at the first glance. English painting is too -English not to be fond of travel. The painter delights in reconnoitring -all other schools and studying all styles; he is as much at home in the -past as in the present. But as the English tourist, let him go to the -world's end, retains everywhere his own customs, tastes, and habits, so -English painting, even on its most adventurous journeys, remains -unwaveringly true to its national spirit, and returns from all its -wanderings more English than before; it adapts what is alien with the -same delicious abnegation of all scruple with which the English tongue -brings foreign words into harmony with its own sense of convenience. A -certain softness of feeling and tenderness of spirit induce the English -even in these days to avoid hard contact with reality. Their art rejects -everything in nature which is harsh, rude, and brutal; it is an art -which polishes and renders the reality poetic at the risk of -debilitating its power. It considers matters from the standpoint of what -is pretty, touching, or intelligible, and by no means holds that -everything true is necessarily beautiful. And just as little does the -English eye--so much occupied with detail--see light in its most -exquisite subtleties. Indeed, it rather sees the isolated fact than the -total harmony, and is clearer than it is fine. - -For this reason _plein-air_ painting has very few adepts, and the -atmospheric influences which blunt the lines of objects, efface colours, -and bring them nearer to each other, meet with little consideration. -Things are given all the sharpness of their outlines, and the harmony, -which in the French follows naturally from the observation of light and -air saturating form and colour, is the more artificially attained by -everything being brought into concord in a bright and delicate tone, -which is almost too fine. The audacities of Impressionism are excluded, -because painting which starts from a masterly seizure of total effect -would seem too sketchy to English taste, which has been formed by -Ruskin. Painting must be highly finished and highly elaborated; that is -a _conditio sine qua non_ which English taste refuses to renounce in -oil-painting as little as in water-colour, and in England they are more -closely related than elsewhere, and have mutually influenced each other -in the matter of technique. In fact, English water-colours seek to rival -oil-painting in force and precision, and have therefore forfeited the -charm of improvisation, the _verve_ of the first sketch, and the -freshness and ease which they should have by their very character. -Through a curious change of parts oil-painting has a fancy for borrowing -from water-colours their effects and their processes. English pictures -have no longer anything heavy or oily, but they likewise show nothing of -the manipulation of the brush, rather resembling large water-colours, -perhaps even pastels or wax-painting. The colours are chosen with -reserve, and everything is subdued and softened like the quiet step of -the footman in the mansion of a nobleman. The special quality in all -English pictures--putting aside a preference for bright yellow and vivid -red in the older period--consists in a bluish or greenish luminous -general tone, to which every English painter seems to conform as though -it were a binding social convention, and it even recurs in English -landscapes. In fact, English painting differs from French as England -from France. - -France is a great city, and the name of this city is Paris. Here, and -not in the provinces, lives that fashionable, thinking world which has -become the guide of the nation and the censor of beauty, by the -refinement of its taste and its preeminent intellect. The ideas which -fly throughout the land upon invisible wires are born in Paris. -Painting, likewise, receives them at first hand. It stands amid the -seething whirlpool of the age, the heart's-blood of the present streams -through all its veins, and there is nothing human that is alien to it, -neither the filth nor the splendour of life, its laughter nor its -misery. All the nerves of the great city are vibrating in it. Paris has -made her people refined and, at the same time, insatiate in enjoyment. -Every day they have need of new impressions and new theories to ward off -tedium. And thus is explained the universally comprehensive sphere of -subject in French painting, and its feverish versatility in technique. - -But London has, in no sense, the importance for England which Paris has -for France. It is a centre of attraction for business; but the more -refined classes of society live in the country. As soon as one is off in -the Dover express country houses fly past on either side of the train. -They are all over England--upon the shores of the lakes, upon the strand -of the sea, upon the tops of the hills. And how pleasant they are, how -well appointed, how delightful to look at, with their gabled roofs and -their gleaming brickwork overgrown with ivy! Around them stretches a -fresh lawn which is rolled every morning, as soft as velvet. Fat oxen, -and sheep as white as if they had been just washed, lie upon the grass. -Thus all rustic England is like a great summer resort, where there is -heard no sound of the ringing and throbbing strokes of life. Nor is -painting allowed to disturb this idyllic harmony. No one wishes that -anything should remind him of the prose of life when his work is done -and the town has vanished. Schiller's assertion, "Life is earnest, -blithe is art," is here the first law of æesthetics. - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ LORD LEIGHTON, P.R.A.] - -English painting is exclusively an art based on luxury, optimism, and -aristocracy; in its neatness, cleanliness, and good-breeding it is -exclusively designed to ingratiate itself with English ideas of comfort. -Yet the pictures have to satisfy very different tastes--the taste of a -wealthy middle class which wishes to have substantial nourishment, and -the æesthetic taste of an _élite_ class, which will only tolerate the -quintessence of art, the most subtle art that can be given. But all -these works are not created for galleries, but for the drawing-room of a -private house, and in subject and treatment they have all to reckon with -the ascendant view that a picture ought, in the first place, to be an -attractive article of furniture for the sitting-room. The traveller, the -lover of antiquity, is pleased by imitation of the ancient style; the -sportsman, the lover of country life, has a delight in little rustic -scenes; and the women are enchanted with feminine types. And everything -must be kept within the bounds of what is charming, temperate, and -prosperous, without in any degree suggesting the struggle for existence. -The pictures have themselves the grace of that mundane refinement from -the midst of which they are beheld. - -England is the country of the sculptures of the Parthenon, the country -where Bulwer Lytton wrote his _Last Days of Pompeii_, and where the most -Grecian female figures in the world may be seen to move. Thus painters -of antique subjects still play an important part in the pursuit of -English art--probably the pursuit of art rather than its development. -For they have never enriched the treasury of modern sentiment. Trained, -all of them, in Paris or Belgium, they are equipped with finer taste, -and have acquired abroad a more solid ability than James Barry, Haydon, -and Hinton, the half-barbaric English Classicists of the beginning of -the century. But at bottom--like Cabanel and Bouguereau--they represent -rigid conservatism in opposition to progress, and the way in which they -set about the reconstruction of an august or domestic antiquity is only -distinguished by an English _nuance_ of race from that of Couture and -Gérôme. - -_Lord Leighton_, the late highly cultured President of the Royal -Academy, was the most dignified representative of this tendency. He was -a Classicist through and through--in the balance of composition, the -rhythmical flow of lines, and the confession of faith that the highest -aim of art is the representation of men and women of immaculate build. -In the picture galleries of Paris, Rome, Dresden, and Berlin he received -his youthful impressions; his artistic discipline he received under -Zanetti in Florence, under Wiertz and Gallait in Brussels, under Steinle -in Frankfort, and under Ingres and Ary Scheffer in Paris. Back in -England once more, he translated Couture into English as Anselm -Feuerbach translated him into German with greater independence. -Undoubtedly there has never been anything upon his canvas which could be -supposed ungentlemanlike. And as a nation is usually apt to prize most -the very thing which has been denied it, and for which it has no talent, -Leighton was soon an object of admiration to the refined world. As early -as 1864 he became an associate, and in November 1879 President of the -Royal Academy. For sixteen years he sat like a Jupiter upon his throne -in London. An accomplished man of the world and a good speaker, a -scholar who spoke many languages and had seen many countries, he -possessed every quality which the president of an academy needs to have; -he had an exceedingly imposing presence in his red gown, and did the -honours of his house with admirable tact. - -But one stands before his works with a certain feeling of indifference. -There are few artists with so little temperament as Lord Leighton, few -in the same degree wanting in the magic of individuality. The purest -academical art, as the phrase is understood of Ingres, together with -academical severity of form, is united with a softness of feeling -recalling Hofmann of Dresden; and the result is a placid classicality -adapted _ad usum Delphini_, a classicality foregoing the applause of -artists, but all the more in accordance with the taste of a refined -circle of ladies. His chief works, "The Star of Bethlehem," "Orpheus and -Eurydice," "Jonathan's Token to David," "Electra at the Tomb of -Agamemnon," "The Daphnephoria," "Venus disrobing for the Bath," and the -like, are amongst the most refined although the most frigid creations of -contemporary English art. - -[Illustration: LEIGHTON. CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _Portfolio._ - - LEIGHTON. SIR RICHARD BURTON.] - -Perhaps the "Captive Andromache" of 1888 is the quintessence of what he -aimed at. The background is the court of an ancient palace, where female -slaves are gathered together fetching water. In the centre of the stage, -as the leading actress, stands Andromache, who has placed her pitcher on -the ground before her, and waits with dignity until the slaves have -finished their work. This business of water-drawing has given Leighton -an opportunity for combining an assemblage of beautiful poses. The widow -of Hector expresses a queenly sorrow with decorum, while the -amphora-bearers are standing or walking hither and thither, in the -manner demanded by the pictures upon Grecian vases, but without that -sureness of line which comes of the real observation of life. In its -dignity of style, in the noble composition and purity of the lines which -circumscribe the forms with so much distinction and in so impersonal a -manner, the picture is an arid and measured work, cold as marble and -smooth as porcelain. "Hercules wrestling with Death for the Body of -Alcestis" might be a Grecian relief upon a sarcophagus, so carefully -balanced are the masses and the lines. The pose of Alcestis is that of -the nymphs of the Parthenon; only, it would not have been so fine were -these not in existence. His "Music Lesson" of 1877 is charming, and his -"Elijah in the Wilderness" is a work of style. And in his frescoes in -the South Kensington Museum there is a perfect compendium of beautiful -motives of gesture. The eye delights to linger over these feminine -forms, half nude, half enveloped with drapery, yet it notes, too, that -these creations are composed out of the painter's knowledge and artistic -reminiscences; there is a want of life in them, because the master has -surrendered himself to feeling with the organs of a dead Greek. -Leighton's colour is always carefully considered, scrupulously polished, -and endowed with the utmost finish, but it never has the magical charm -by which one recognises the work of a true colourist. It is rather the -result of painstaking study and cultivated taste than of personal -feeling. The grace of form is always carefully prepared--a thing which -has the consciousness of its own existence. Beautiful and spontaneous as -the movements undoubtedly are, one has always a sense that the artist -is present, anxiously watching lest any of his actors offend against a -law of art. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - LEIGHTON. THE LAST WATCH OF HERO. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -Lord Leighton's pupils, Poynter and Prinsep, followed him with a good -deal of determination. _Val Prinsep_ shares with Leighton the smooth -forms of a polished painting, whereas _Edward Poynter_ by his more -earnest severity and metallic precision verges more on that union of -aridness and style characteristic of Ingres. His masterpiece, "A Visit -to Æsculapius," is in point of technique one of the best products of -English Classicism. To the left Æsculapius is sitting beneath a pillared -porch overgrown with foliage, while, like Raphael's Jupiter in the -Farnesina, he supports his bearded chin thoughtfully with his left hand. -A nymph who has hurt her foot appears, accompanied by three companions, -before the throne of the god, begging him for a remedy. To say nothing -of many other nude or nobly draped female figures, numerous decorative -paintings in the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul's, and St. Stephen's -Church in Dulwich owe their existence to this most industrious artist. - -_Alma Tadema_, the famous Dutchman who has called to life amid the -London fog the sacrifices of Pompeii and Herculaneum, stands to this -grave academical group as Gérôme to Couture. As Bulwer Lytton, in the -field of literature, created a picture of ancient civilisation so -successful that it has not been surpassed by his followers, Alma Tadema -has solved the problem of the picture of antique manners in the most -authentic fashion in the province of painting. He has peopled the past, -rebuilt its towns and refurnished its houses, rekindled the flame upon -the sacrificial altars and awakened the echo of the dithyrambs to new -life. Poynter tells old fables, while Alma Tadema takes us in his -company, and, like the best-informed cicerone, leads us through the -streets of old Athens, reconstructing the temples, altars, and -dwellings, the shops of the butchers, bakers, and fishmongers, just as -they once were. - -[Illustration: LEIGHTON. THE BATH OF PSYCHE. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -This power of making himself believed Alma Tadema owes in the first -place to his great archæological learning. By Leys in Brussels this side -of his talent was first awakened, and in 1863, when he went to Italy for -the first time, he discovered his archæological mission. How the old -Romans dressed, how their army was equipped and attired, became as well -known to him as the appearance of the citizens' houses, the artizans' -workshops, the market and the bath. He explored the ruins of temples, -and he grew familiar with the privileges of the priests, the method of -worship, of the sacrifices, and of the festal processions. There was no -monument of brass or marble, no wall-painting, no pictured vase nor -mosaic, no sample of ancient arts, of pottery, stone-cutting, or work in -gold, that he did not study. His brain soon became a complete -encyclopædia of antiquity. He knew the forms of architecture as well as -he knew the old myths, and all the domestic appointments and robes as -exactly as the usages of ritual. In Brussels, as early as the sixties, -this complete power of living in the period he chose to represent gave -Alma Tadema's pictures from antiquity their remarkable _cachet_ of -striking truthfulness to life. And London, whither he migrated in 1870, -offered even a more favourable soil for his art. Whereas the French -painters of the antique picture of manners often fell into a diluted -idealism and a lifeless traffic with old curiosities, with Alma Tadema -one stands in the presence of a veritable fragment of life; he simply -paints the people amongst whom he lives and their world. The Pompeian -house which he has built in London, with its dreamy vividarium, its -great golden hall, its Egyptian decorations, its Ionic pillars, its -mosaic floor, and its Oriental carpets, contains everything one needs to -conjure up the times of Nero and the Byzantine emperors. It is -surrounded by a garden in the old Roman style, and a large conservatory -adjoining is planted with plane-trees and cypresses. All the celebrated -marble benches and basins, the figures of stone and bronze, the -tiger-skins and antique vessels and garments of his pictures, may be -found in this notable house in the midst of London. Whether he paints -the baths, the amphitheatre, or the atrium, the scenes of his pictures -are no other than parts of his own house which he has faithfully -painted. - -[Illustration: _Dixon, photo._ - - POYNTER. IDLE FEARS. - - (_By permission of Lord Hillingdon, the owner of the picture._)] - -And the figures moving in them are Englishwomen. Among all the beautiful -things in the world there are few so beautiful as English girls. Those -tall, slender, vigorous figures that one sees upon the beach at Brighton -are really like Greek women, and even the garb which they wear in -playing tennis is as free and graceful as that of the Grecian people. -Alma Tadema was able to introduce into his works these women of lofty -and noble figure with golden hair, these forms made for sculpture--to -use the phrase of Winckelmann--without any kind of beautifying idealism. -In their still-life his pictures are the fruit of enormous archæological -learning which has become intuitive vision, but his figures are the -result of a healthy rendering of life. In this way the unrivalled -classical local colour of his interiors is to be explained, as well as -the lifelike character of his figures. By his works a remarkable problem -is solved: an intense feeling for modern reality has called the ancient -world into being in a credible fashion, whilst it has remained -barricaded against all others who have approached it by the road of -idealism. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - POYNTER. THE IDES OF MARCH. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -It is only in this method of execution that he still stands upon the -same ground as Gérôme, with whom he shares a taste for anecdote, and a -pedantic, neat, and correct style of painting. His ancient comedies -played by English actors are an excellent archæological lecture; they -rise above the older picture of antique manners by a more striking -fidelity to nature, very different from the generalisation of the -Classicists' ideal; yet as a painter he is wanting in every quality. His -marble shines, his bronze gleams, and everything is harmonised with the -green of the cypresses and delicate rose-colour of the oleander blossoms -in a cool marble tone; but there is also something marble in the figures -themselves. He draws and stipples, works like a copper engraver, and -goes over his work again and again with a fine and feeble brush. His -pictures have the effect of porcelain, his colours are hard and -lifeless. One remembers the anecdotes, but one cannot speak of any idea -of colour. - -[Illustration: _Dixon, photo._ - - POYNTER. A VISIT TO ÆSCULAPIUS. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - ALMA TADEMA. SAPPHO. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -_Albert Moore_ is to be noted as the solitary "painter" of the group: a -very delicate artist, with a style peculiar to himself; one who is not -so well known upon the Continent as he deserves to be. His province, -also, is ancient Greece, yet he never attempted to reconstruct classical -antiquity as a learned archæologist. Merely as a painter did he love to -dream amid the imperishable world of beauty known to ancient times. His -figures are ethereal visions, and move in dreamland. He was influenced, -indeed, by the sculptures of the Parthenon, but the Japanese have also -penetrated his spirit. From the Greeks he learnt the combination of -noble lines, the charm of dignity and quietude, while the Japanese gave -him the feeling for harmonies of colour, for soft, delicate, blended -tones. By a capricious union of both these elements he formed his -refined and exquisite style. The world which he has called into being is -made up of white marble pillars; in its gardens are cool fountains and -marble pavements; but it is also full of white birds, soft colours, and -rosy blossoms from Kioto, and peopled with graceful and mysterious -maidens, clothed in ideal draperies, who love rest, enjoy an eternal -youth, and are altogether contented with themselves and with one -another. It might be said that the old figures of Tanagra had received -new life, were it not felt, at the same time, that these beings must -have drunk a good deal of tea. Not that they are entirely modern, for -their figures are more plastic and symmetrical than those of the actual -daughters of Albion; but in all their movements they have a certain -_chic_, and in all their shades of expression a weary modernity, through -which they deviate from the conventional woman of Classicism. Otherwise -the pictures of Albert Moore are indescribable. Frail, ethereal beings, -blond as corn, lounge in æesthetically graduated grey and blue, -salmon-coloured, or pale purple draperies upon bright-hued couches -decorated by Japanese artists with most æsthetic materials; or are -standing in violet robes with white mantles embroidered with gold, by a -grey-blue sea which has a play of greenish tones where it breaks upon -the shore. They stand out with their rosy garments from the light grey -background and the delicate arabesques of a gleaming silvery gobelin, or -in a graceful pose occupy themselves with their rich draperies. They do -as little as they possibly can, but they are living and seductive, and -the stuffs which they wear and have around them are delicately and -charmingly painted. It is harmonies of tone and colour that exclusively -form the subject of every work. The figures, accessories, and detail -first take shape when the scheme of colour has been found; and then -Albert Moore takes a delight in naming his pictures "Apricots," -"Oranges," "Shells," etc., according as the robes are apricot or orange -colour or adorned with light ornaments of shell. Everything which comes -from his hands is delightful in the charm of delicate simplicity, and -for any one who loves painting as painting it has something soothing in -the midst of the surrounding art, which still confuses painting with -poetry more than is fitting. - -[Illustration: _Mansell Photo._ - - ALMA TADEMA. A VISIT.] - -[Illustration: _Scribner._ ALBERT MOORE.] - -Such a painter-poet of the specifically English type is -_Briton-Rivière_. He is a painter of animals, and as such one of the -greatest of the century. Lions and geese, royal tigers and golden -eagles, stags, dogs, foxes, Highland cattle, he has painted them all, -and with a mastery which has nothing like it except in Landseer. Amongst -the painters of animals he stands alone through his power of conception -and his fine poetic vein, while in all his pictures he unites the -greatest simplicity with enormous dramatic force. Accessory work is -everywhere kept within the narrowest limits, and everywhere the -character of the animals is magnificently grasped. He does not alone -paint great tragic scenes as Barye chiselled them, for he knows that -beasts of prey are usually quiet and peaceable, and only now and then -obey their savage nature. Moreover, he never attempts to represent -animals performing a masquerade of humanity in their gestures and -expression, as Landseer did, nor does he transform them into comic -actors. He paints them as what they are, a symbol of what humanity was -once itself, with its elemental passions and its natural virtues and -failings. Amongst all animal painters he is almost alone in resisting -the temptation to give the lion a consciousness of his own dignity, the -tiger a consciousness of his own savageness, the dog a consciousness of -his own understanding. They neither pose nor think about themselves. In -addition to this he has a powerful and impressive method, and a deep and -earnest scheme of colour. In the beginning of his career he learnt most -from James Ward. Later he felt the influence of the refined, chivalrous, -and piquant Scotchmen Orchardson and Pettie. But the point in which -Briton-Rivière is altogether peculiar is that in which he joins issue -with the painters influenced by Greece: he introduces his animals into a -scene where there are men of the ancient world. - -Briton-Rivière is descended from a French family which found its way -into England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and he is one -of those painters--so frequent in English art--whose nature has -developed early: when he was fourteen he left school, exhibited in the -Academy when he was eighteen, painted as a pre-Raphaelite between the -ages of eighteen and twenty-two, and graduated at Oxford at -seven-and-twenty. In his youth he divided his time between art and -scholarship--painting pictures and studying Greek and Latin literature. -Thus he became a painter of animals, having also an enthusiasm for the -Greek poets, and he has stood for a generation as an uncontested lord -and master on his own peculiar ground. In his first important picture, -of 1871, the comrades of Ulysses, changed into swine, troop grunting -round the enchantress Circe. In the masterpiece of 1872 the Prophet -Daniel stands unmoved and submissive to the will of God amid the lions -roaring and showing their teeth, ready to spring upon him in their -hunger, yet regarding him with a mysterious fear, spellbound by the -power of his eye; while his great picture "Persepolis" makes the appeal -of a page from the philosophy of history, with its lions roaming -majestically amid the ruins of human grandeur and human civilisation, -which are flooded with moonlight. The picture "In Manus Tuas, Domine," -showed St. George riding solitary through the lonely and silent recesses -of a primitive forest upon a pale white horse. He is armed in mail and -has a mighty sword; a deep seriousness is imprinted on his features, for -he has gone forth to slay the dragon. In yet another picture, "An -Old-World Wanderer," a man of the early ages has come ashore upon an -untrodden island, and is encompassed by flocks of great white birds, -fluttering round him with curiosity and confidence, as yet ignorant of -the fear of human beings. The picture of 1891, "A Mighty Hunter before -the Lord," is one of his most poetic night-pieces: Nimrod is returning -home, and beneath the silvery silence of the moon the dead and dying -creatures which he has laid low upon the wide Assyrian plain are tended -and bemoaned by their mates. - -[Illustration: _Scribner._ - - ALBERT MOORE. MIDSUMMER. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Cadbury, Jones & Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -[Illustration: ALBERT MOORE. COMPANIONS. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Dowdeswell & Dowdeswells, the owners of the - copyright._)] - -Between whiles he painted subjects which were not borrowed from ancient -history, illustrating the friendship between man and dog, as Landseer -had done before him. For instance, in "His Only Friend" there is a poor -lad who has broken down at the last milestone before the town and is -guarded by his dog. In "Old Playfellows," again, one of the playmates is -a child, who is sick and leans back quietly in an armchair covered with -cushions. His friend the great dog has one paw resting on the child's -lap, and looks up with a pensive expression, such as Landseer alone had -previously painted. But in this style he reached his highest point in -"Sympathy." No work of Briton-Rivière's has become more popular than -this picture of the little maiden who has forgotten her key and is -sitting helpless before the house-door, consoled by the dog who has laid -his head upon her shoulder. - -[Illustration: _Scribner._ - - ALBERT MOORE. YELLOW MARGUERITES. - - (_By permission of W. Connal, Esq., the owner of the picture._)] - -Since the days of Reynolds English art has shown a most vivid -originality in such representations of children. English picture-books -for children are in these days the most beautiful in the world, and the -marvellous fairy-tales and fireside stories of _Randolph Caldecott_ and -_Kate Greenaway_ have made their way throughout the whole Continent. How -well these English draughtsmen know the secret of combining truth with -the most exquisite grace! How touching are these pretty babies, how -angelically innocent these little maidens! Frank eyes, blue as the -flowers of the periwinkle, gaze at you with no thought of their being -looked at in return. The naïve astonishment of the little ones, their -frightened mien, their earnest look absently fixed upon the sky, the -first tottering steps of a tiny child and the mobile grace of a -schoolgirl, all are rendered in these prints with the most tender -intimacy of feeling. And united with this there is a delicate and -entirely modern sentiment for scenery, for the fascination of bare -autumn landscapes robbed of their foliage, for sunbeams and the budding -fragrance of spring. Everything is idyllic, poetic, and touched by a -congenial breath of tender melancholy. - -[Illustration: _Scribner._ - - ALBERT MOORE. WAITING TO CROSS. - - (_By permission of Lord Davey, the owner of the picture._)] - -And this aerial quality, this delicacy and innocent grace and -tenderness, is not confined alone to such representations of children, -but is peculiar to English painting. Even when perfectly ordinary -subjects from modern life are in question the basis of this art is, as -in the first half of the century, by no means the sense for what is -purely pictorial, by no means that naturalistic pantheism which inspires -the modern French, but rather a sense for what is moral or ethical. The -painter seldom paints merely for the joy of painting, and the numberless -technical questions which play such an important part in French art are -here only of secondary importance. It accords with the character and -taste of the people that their artists have rather a poetic design than -one which is properly pictorial. The conception is sometimes allegorical -and subtle to the most exquisite fineness of point, sometimes it is -vitiated by sentimentality, but it is never purely naturalistic; and -this qualified realism, this realism with a poetic strain to keep it -ladylike, set English art, especially in the years when Bastien-Lepage -and Roll were at their zenith, in sharp opposition to the art of France. -In those days the life-size artisan picture, the prose of life, and the -struggle for existence reigned almost exclusively in the Parisian Salon, -whereas in the Royal Academy everything was quiet and cordial; an -intimate, inoffensive, and heartfelt cheerfulness was to be found in the -pictures upon its walls, as if none of these painters knew of the -existence of such a place as Whitechapel. A connection between pictures -and poems is still popular, and some touching trait, some tender -episode, some expression of softness, is given to subjects drawn from -the ordinary life of the people. Painters seek in every direction after -pretty rustic scenes, moving incidents, or pure emotions. Instead of -being harsh and rugged in their sense of truth and passion, they glide -lightly away from anything ugly, bringing together the loveliest and -most beautiful things in nature, and creating elegies, pastorals, and -idylls from the passing events of life. Their method of expression is -fastidious and finished to a nicety; their vision of life is smiling and -kindly, though it must not be supposed that their optimism has now -anything in common with the _genre_ picture of 1850. The _genre_ -painters from Wilkie to Collins epitomised the actual manners of the -present in prosaic compositions. But here the most splendid poetry -breaks out, as indeed it actually does in the midst of ordinary life. If -in that earlier period English painting was awkward in narration, -vulgar, and didactic, it is now tasteful, refined, beautiful, and of -distinction. The philistinism of the pictures of those days has been -finally stripped away, and the humorously anecdotic _genre_ entirely -overcome. The generation of tiresome narrative artists has been followed -by painter-poets of delicacy and exquisite tenderness of feeling. - -[Illustration: _Scribner._ - - ALBERT MOORE. READING ALOUD. - - (_By permission of W. Connal, Esq., the owner of the picture._)] - -Two masters who died young and have a peculiarly captivating -individuality, George Mason and Fred Walker, stand at the head of this, -the most novel phase of English painting. Alike in the misfortune of -premature death, they are also united by a bond of sympathy in their -taste and sentiment. If there be truth in what Théophile Gautier once -said in a beautiful poem, "_Tout passe, l'art robuste seul a -l'éternité_," neither of them will enter the kingdom of immortality. -That might be applied to them which Heine said of Leopold Robert: they -have purified the peasant in the purgatory of their art, so that nothing -but a glorified body remains. As the pre-Raphaelites wished to give -exquisite precision to the world of dream, Walker and Mason have taken -this precision from the world of reality, endowing it with a refined -subtlety which in truth it does not possess. Their pictures breathe only -of the bloom and essence of things, and in them nature is deprived of -her strength and marrow, and painting of her peculiar qualities, which -are changed into coloured breath and tinted dream. They may be -reproached with an excess of nervous sensibility, an effort after style -by which modern truth is recast, a morbid tendency towards suave -mysticism. Nevertheless their works are the most original products of -English painting during the last thirty years, and by a strange union of -realism and poetic feeling they have exercised a deeply penetrative -influence upon Continental art. - -"_Æquam semper in rebus arduis servare mentem_" might be chosen as a -motto for _George Mason's_ biography. Brought up in prosperous -circumstances, he first became a doctor, but when he was -seven-and-twenty he went to Italy to devote himself to painting; here he -received the news that he was ruined. His father had lost everything, -and he found himself entirely deprived of means, so that his life became -a long struggle against hunger. He bound himself to dealers, and -provided animal pieces by the dozen for the smallest sums. In a freezing -room he sat with his pockets empty, worked until it was dark, and crept -into bed when Rome went to feast. After two years, however, he had at -last saved the money necessary for taking him back to England, and he -settled with his young wife in Wetley Abbey. This little village, where -he lived his simple life in the deepest seclusion, became for him what -Barbizon had been for Millet. He wandered by himself amongst the fields, -and painted the valleys of Wetley with the tenderness of feeling with -which Corot painted the outskirts of Fontainebleau. He saw the ghostly -mists lying upon the moors, saw the peasants returning from the plough -and the reapers from the field, noted the children, in their life so -closely connected with the change of nature. And yet his peasant -pictures more resemble the works of Perugino than those of -Bastien-Lepage. The character of their landscape is to some extent -responsible for this. For the region he paints, in its lyrical charm, -has kinship with the hills in the pictures of Perugino. Here there grow -the same slender trees upon a delicate, undulating soil. But the silent, -peaceful, and resigned human beings who move across it have also the -tender melancholy of Umbrian Madonnas. Mason's realism is merely -specious; it consists in the external point of costume. There are really -no peasants of such slender growth, no English village maidens with such -rosy faces and such coquettish Holland caps. Mason divests them of all -the heaviness of earth, takes, as it were, only the flower-dust from -reality. The poetic grace of Jules Breton might be recalled, were it not -that Mason works with more refinement and subtlety, for his idealism was -unconscious, and never resulted in an empty, professional painting of -beauty. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - CALDECOTT. THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -When he painted his finest pictures he suffered from very bad health, -and his works have themselves the witchery of disease, the fascinating -beauty of consumption. He painted with such delicacy and refinement, -because sickness had made him weak and delicate; he divested his peasant -men and women of everything fleshly, so that nothing but a shadow of -them remained, a spirit vibrating in fine, elusive, dying chords. In his -"Evening Hymn" girls are singing in the meadow; to judge from their -dresses, they should be the daughters of the peasantry, but one fancies -them religious enthusiasts, brought together upon this mysterious and -sequestered corner of the earth by a melancholy world-weariness, by a -yearning after the mystical. Fragile as glass, sensitive to the ends of -their fingers, and, one might say, morbidly spiritual, they breathe out -their souls in song, encompassed by the soft shadows of the evening -twilight, and uttering all the exquisite tenderness of their subtle -temperament in the hymn they chant. Another of his pastoral symphonies -is "The Harvest Moon." Farm labourers are plodding homewards after their -day's work. The moon is rising, and casts its soft, subdued light upon -the dark hills and the slender trees, in the silvery leaves of which the -evening wind is playing. "The Gander," "The Young Anglers," and "The -Cast Shoe" are captivating through the same delicacy and the same mood -of peaceful resignation. George Mason is an astonishing artist, almost -always guilty of exaggeration, but always seductive. Life passes in his -pictures like a beautiful summer's day, and with the accompaniment of -soft music. A peaceful, delicate feeling, something mystical, -bitter-sweet, and suffering, lives beneath the light and tender veil of -his pictures. They affect the nerves like a harmonica, and lull one with -low and softly veiled harmonies. Many of the melancholy works of Israels -have a similar effect, only Israels is less refined, has less of -distinction and--more of truth. - -[Illustration: MASON. THE END OF THE DAY. - - (_By gracious permission of H.M. Queen Victoria, the owner of the - picture._)] - -This suavity of feeling is characteristic in an almost higher degree of -_Fred Walker_, a sensitive artist never satisfied with himself. Every -one of his pictures gives the impression of deep and quiet reverie; -everywhere a kind of mood, like that in a fairy tale, colours the -ordinary events of life in his works, an effect produced by his refined -composition of forms and colours. In his classically simple art Mason -was influenced by the Italians, and especially the Umbrians. Walker drew -a similar inspiration from the works of Millet. Both the Englishman and -the Frenchman died in the same year, the former on 20th January 1875, in -Barbizon, the latter on 5th June, in Scotland; and yet in a certain -sense they stand at the very opposite poles of art. Walker is graceful, -delicate, and tender; Millet forceful, healthy, and powerful. "To draw -sublimity from what is trivial" was the aim of both, and they both -reached it by the same path. All their predecessors had held truth as -the foe of beauty, and had qualified shepherds and shepherdesses, -ploughmen and labourers, for artistic treatment by forcing upon them the -smiling grace and the strained humour of _genre_ painting. Millet and -Fred Walker broke with the frivolity of this elder school of painting, -which had seen matter for jesting, and only that, in the life of the -rustic; they asserted that in the life of the toiler nothing was more -deserving of artistic representation than his toil. They always began by -reproducing life as they saw it, and by disdaining, in their effort -after truth, all artificial embellishment; they came to recognise, both -of them at the same time, a dignity in the human frame, and grandiose -forms and classic lines in human movement, which no one had discovered -before. With the most pious reverence for the exact facts of life, there -was united that greatness of conception which is known as style. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - WALKER. THE BATHERS. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Thomas Agnew & Sons, the owners of the - copyright._)] - -Fred Walker, the Tennyson of painting, was born in London in 1840, and -had scarcely left school before the galleries of ancient art in the -British Museum became his favourite place of resort. Drawings for -wood-engraving were his first works, and with Millet in France he has -the chief merit of having put fresh life into the traditional style of -English wood engraving, so that he is honoured by the young school of -wood-engravers as their lord and master. His first, and as yet -unimportant, drawings appeared in 1860 in a periodical called _Once a -Week_, for which Leech, Millais, and others also made drawings. Shortly -after this _début_ he was introduced to Thackeray, then the editor of -_Cornhill_, and he undertook the illustrations with Millais. In these -plates he is already seen in his charm, grace, and simplicity. His -favourite season is the tender spring, when the earth is clothed with -young verdure, and the sunlight glances over the naked branches, and -the children pluck the first flowers which have shot up beneath their -covering of snow. - -His pictures give pleasure by virtue of the same qualities--delicacy of -drawing, bloom of colouring, and a grace which is not affected in spite -of its Grecian rhythm. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - BOUGHTON. GREEN LEAVES AMONG THE SERE. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -Walker was the first to introduce that delicate rosy red which has since -been popular in English painting. His method of vision is as widely -removed from that of Manet as from Couture's brown sauce. The surface of -every one of his pictures resembles a rare jewel in its delicate finish: -it is soft, and gives the sense of colour and of refined and soothing -harmony. His first important work, "Bathers," was exhibited in 1867 at -the Royal Academy, where works of his appeared regularly during the next -five years. About a score of young people are standing on the verge of a -deep and quiet English river, and are just about to refresh themselves -in the tide after a hot August day. Some, indeed, are already in the -water, while others are sitting upon the grass and others undressing. -The frieze of the Parthenon is recalled, so plastic is the grace of -these young frames, and the style and repose of the treatment of lines, -which are such as may only be found in Puvis de Chavannes. In his next -picture, "The Vagrants," he represented a group of gipsies camping round -a fire in the midst of an English landscape. A mother is nursing her -child, while to the left a woman is standing plunged in thought, and to -the right a lad is throwing wood upon the faintly blazing fire. Here, -too, the figures are all drawn severely after nature and yet have the -air of Greek statues. There is no modern artist who has united in so -unforced a manner actuality and fidelity to nature with "the noble -simplicity and quiet grandeur" of the antique. In a succeeding picture -of 1870, "The Plough," a labourer is striding over the ground behind the -plough. The long day is approaching its end, and the moon stands silvery -in the sky. Far into the distance the field stretches away, and the -heavy tread of the horses mingles in the stillness of evening with the -murmur of the stream which flows round the grassy ridge, making its soft -complaint. "Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the -evening" is its thoroughly English motto. The same still mournfulness of -sunset he painted in that work of marvellous tenderness, "The Old Gate." -The peace of dusk is resting upon a soft and gentle landscape. A lady -who is the owner of a country mansion and is dressed like a widow has -just stepped out from the garden gate, accompanied by her maid, who is -in the act of shutting it; children are playing on the steps, and a -couple of labourers are going past in front and look towards the lady of -the house. It is nothing except the meeting of certain persons, a scene -such as takes place every day, and yet even here there is a subtlety and -tenderness which raise the event from the prose of ordinary life into a -mysterious world of poetry. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - BOUGHTON. SNOW IN SPRING. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -In his later period he deviated more and more towards a fragrant -lyricism. In his great picture of 1872, "The Harbour of Refuge," the -background is formed by one of those peaceful buildings where the aged -poor pass the remainder of their days in meditative rest. The sun is -sinking, and there is a rising moon. The red-tiled roof stands out clear -against the quiet evening sky, while upon the terrace in front, over -which the tremulous yellow rays of the setting sun are shed, an old -woman with a bowed figure is walking, guided by a graceful girl who -steps lightly forward. It is the old contrast between day and night, -youth and age, strength and decay. Yet in Walker there is no opposition -after all. For as light mingles with the shadows in the twilight, this -young and vigorous woman who paces in the evening, holding the arm of -the aged in mysterious silence, has at the moment no sense of her youth, -but is rather filled with that melancholy thought underlying Goethe's -"_Warte nur balde_," "Wait awhile and thou shalt rest too." Her eyes -have a strange gaze, as though she were looking into vacancy in mere -absence of mind. And upon the other side of the picture this theme of -the transient life of humanity is still further developed. Upon a bench -in the midst of a verdant lawn covered with daisies a group of old men -are sitting meditatively near a hedge of hawthorn luxuriant in blossom. -Above the bench there stands an old statue casting a clearly defined -shadow upon the gravel path, as if to point to the contrast between -imperishable stone and the unstable race of men, fading away like the -autumn leaves. Well in the foreground a labourer is mowing down the -tender spring grass with a scythe--a strange, wild, and rugged figure, a -reaper whose name is Death. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - BOUGHTON. A BREATH OF WIND. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -It was not long before evening drew on for the painter, and Death, the -mighty reaper, laid him low. - -Of a nervous and sensitive temperament, Walker had one of those natures -which find their way with difficulty through this rude world of fact. -Those little things which he had the art of painting so beautifully, and -which occupy such an important place in his work, had, in another sense, -more influence upon his life than ought to have been the case. While -Mason faced all unpleasantnesses with stoical indifference, Walker -allowed himself to be disturbed and hindered in his work by every -failure and every sharp wind of criticism. In addition to that he was, -like Mason, a victim of consumption. A residence in Algiers merely -banished the insidious disease for a short time. Amongst the last works, -which he exhibited in 1875, a considerable stir was made by a drawing -called "The Unknown Land": a vessel with naked men is drawing near the -shores of a wide and peaceful island bathed in a magical light. Soon -afterwards Walker had himself departed to that unknown land: he died in -Scotland when he was five-and-thirty. His body was brought to the little -churchyard at Cookham on the banks of the Thames. In this village Fred -Walker is buried amid the fair river landscape which he so loved and so -often painted. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - BOUGHTON. THE BEARERS OF THE BURDEN. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -After the pre-Raphaelite revolution, the foundation of the school of -Walker indicated the last stage of English art. His influence was far -greater than might be supposed from the small number of his works, and -fifty per cent. of the English pictures in every exhibition would -perhaps never have been painted if he had not been born. A national -element long renounced, that old English sentiment which once inspired -the landscapes of Gainsborough and the scenes of Morland, and was lost -in the hands of Wilkie and the _genre_ painters, lives once more in Fred -Walker. He adapted it to the age by adding something of Tennyson's -passion for nature. There is a touch of symbolism in that old gate which -he painted in the beautiful picture of 1870. He and Mason opened it so -that English art might pass into this new domain, where musical -sentiment is everything, where one is buried in sweet reveries at the -sight of a flock of geese driven by a young girl, or a labourer stepping -behind his plough, or a child playing, free from care, with pebbles at -the water's edge. Their disciples are perhaps healthier, or, should one -say, "less refined,"--in other words, not quite so sensitive and -hyper-æsthetic as those who opened the old gate. They seem physically -more robust, and can better face the sharp air of reality. They no -longer dissolve painting altogether into music and poetry; they live -more in the world at every hour, not merely when the sun is setting, but -also when the prosaic daylight exposes objects in their material -heaviness. But the tender ground-tone, the effort to seize nature in -soft phases, is the same in all. Like bees, they suck from reality only -its sweets. The earnest, tender, and deeply heartfelt art of Walker has -influenced them all. - -Evening when work is over, the end of summer, twilight, autumn, the pale -and golden sky, and the dead leaves are the things which have probably -made the most profound impression on the English spirit. The hour when -toil is laid aside, and rest begins and people seek their homes, and the -season when fires are first lighted are the hour and the season most -beloved by this people, which, with all its rude energy, is yet so -tender and full of feeling. Repose to the point of enervation and the -stage where it passes into gentle melancholy is the theme of their -pictures--this, and not toil. - -How many have been painted in the last forty years in which people are -returning from their work of an evening across the country! The people -in the big towns look upon the country with the eyes of a lover, -especially those parts of it which lie near the town; not the scenes -painted by Raffaelli, but the parks and public gardens. Soft, undulating -valleys and gently swelling hills are spread around, the flowers are in -bloom, and the leaves glance in the sunshine. And over this country, -with its trim gravel paths and its green, luxuriant lawns, there comes a -well-to-do people. Even the labourers seem in good case as they go home -across the flowery meadows. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - J. R. REID. TOIL AND PLEASURE.] - -_George H. Boughton_ was one of the most graceful and refined amongst -Walker's followers. By birth and descent a countryman of Crome and -Cotman, he passed his youth in America, worked several years in Paris -from 1853, and in 1863 settled in London, where he was exceedingly -active as a draughtsman, a writer, and a painter. His charming -illustrations for _Harper's Magazine_, where he also published his -delicate story _The Return of the Mayflower_, are well known. As a -painter, too, his brush was only occupied by pleasant things, whether -belonging to the past or the present. There is something in him both of -the delicacy of Gainsborough and of the poetry of Memlinc. He delights -in the murmur of brooks and the rustle of leaves, in fresh children and -pretty young women in æesthetically fantastic costume; he loves -everything delicate, quiet, and fragrant. And for this reason he also -takes delight in old legends entwined with blossoms, and attains a most -harmonious effect when he places shepherds and kings' daughters of -story, and steel-clad knights and squires in his charming and entirely -modern landscapes. Almost always it is autumn, winter, or at most the -early spring in his pictures. The boughs of the trees are generally -bare, though sometimes a tender pointed yellowish verdure is budding -upon them. At times the mist of November hovers over the country like a -delicate veil; at times the snowflakes fall softly, or the October sun -gleams through the leafless branches. - -[Illustration: FRANK HOLL.] - -Moreover, a feeling for the articulation of lines, for a balance of -composition, unforced, and yet giving a character of distinction, is -peculiar to him in a high degree. In 1877 he had in the Royal Academy -the charming picture "A Breath of Wind." Amid a soft landscape with -slender trees move the thoroughly Grecian figures of the shapely English -peasants, whilst the tender evening light is shed over the gently rising -hills. His picture of 1878 he named "Green Leaves among the Sere": a -group of children, in the midst of whom the young mother herself looks -like a child, are seated amid an autumn landscape, where the leaves -fall, and the sky is shrouded in wintry grey. In the picture "Snow in -Spring" may be seen a party of charming girls--little modern Tanagra -figures--whom the sun has tempted into the air to search for the -earliest woodland snowdrops under the guidance of a damsel still in her -'teens. Having just reached a secret corner of the wood, they are -standing with their flowers in their hands surrounded by tremulous -boughs, when a sudden snowstorm overtakes them. Thick white flakes -alight upon the slender boughs, and combine with the light green leaves -and pale reddish dresses of the children in making a delicate harmony of -colour. Among his legendary pictures the poetic "Love Conquers all -Things," in particular is known in Germany: a wild shepherd's daughter -sits near her flock, and the son of a king gazes into her eyes lost in -dream. - -[Illustration: HOLL. "THE LORD GAVE, THE LORD HATH TAKEN AWAY; BLESSED - BE THE NAME OF THE LORD." - - (_By permission of E. C. Pawle, Esq., the owner of the picture._)] - -Boughton is not the only painter of budding girlhood. All English -literature has a tender feminine trait. Tennyson is the poet most widely -read, and he has won all hearts chiefly through his portraits of women: -Adeline, Eleänore, Lilian, and the May Queen--that delightful gallery of -pure and noble figures. In English painting, too, it is seldom men who -are represented, but more frequently women and children, especially -little maidens in their fresh pure witchery. - -Belonging still to the older period there is _Philip H. Calderon_, an -exceedingly fertile although lukewarm and academical artist, in whose -blood is a good deal of effeminate Classicism. When his name appears in -a catalogue it means that the spectator will be led into an artificial -region peopled with pretty girls--beings who are neither sad nor gay, -and who belong neither to the present nor to ancient times, to no age in -particular and to no clime. Whenever such ethereal girlish figures wear -the costume of the Directoire period, _Marcus Stone_ is their father. He -is likewise one of the older men whose first appearance was made before -the time of Walker. His young ladies part broken-hearted from a beloved -suitor, turned away by their father, and save the honour of their -family by giving their hand to a wealthy but unloved aspirant, or else -they are solitary and lost in tender reveries. In his earliest period -Marcus Stone had a preference for interiors; rich Directoire furniture -and objects of art indicate with exactness the year in which the -narrative takes place. Later, he took a delight in placing his _rococo_ -ladies and gentlemen in the open air, upon the terraces of old gardens -or in sheltered alleys. All his pictures are pretty, the faces, the -figures, and the accessories; in relation to them one may use the -adjective "pretty" in its positive, comparative, or superlative degree. -In England Marcus Stone is the favourite painter of "sweethearts," and -it cannot be easy to go so near the boundaries of candied _genre_ -painting and yet always to preserve a certain _noblesse_. - -[Illustration: _L'Art._ - - HOLL. LEAVING HOME.] - -Amongst later artists _G. D. Leslie_, the son of Charles Leslie, has -specially the secret of interpreting innocent feminine beauty, that -somewhat predetermined but charming grace derived from Gainsborough and -the eighteenth century. A young lady who has lately been married is -paying a visit to her earlier school friends, and is gazed upon as -though she were an angel by these charming girls. Or his pretty maidens -have ensconced themselves beneath the trees, or stand on the shore -watching a boat at sunset, or amuse themselves from a bridge in a park -by throwing flowers into the water and looking dreamily after them as -they float away. Leslie's pictures, too, are very pretty and poetic, and -have much silk in them and much sun, while the soft pale method of -painting, so highly æsthetic in its delicate attenuation of colour, -corresponds with the delicacy of their purport. - -[Illustration: HOLL. ORDERED TO THE FRONT.] - -_P. G. Morris_, not less delicate in feeling and execution, became -specially known by a "Communion in Dieppe." Directly facing the -spectator a train of pretty communicants move upon the seashore, -assuming an air of dignified superiority, like young ladies from -Brighton or Folkestone. A bluish light plays over the white dresses of -the girls and over the blue jackets of the sailors lounging about the -quay; it fills the pale blue sky with a misty vibration and glances -sportively upon the green waves of the sea. "The Reaper and the Flowers" -was a thoroughly English picture, a graceful allegory after the fashion -of Fred Walker. On their way from school a party of children meet at the -verge of a meadow an old peasant going home from his day's work with a -scythe upon his shoulder. In the dancing step of the little ones may be -seen the influence of Greek statues; they float along as if borne by the -zephyr, with a rhythmical motion which is seldom found in real -school-children. But the old peasant coming towards them is intended to -recall the contrast between youth and age as in Fred Walker's "Harbour -of Refuge"; while the scythe glittering in the last rays of the setting -sun signifies the scythe of Fate, the scythe of death which does not -even spare the child. - -[Illustration: OULESS. LORD KELVIN. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -And thus the limits of English painting are defined. It always reveals a -certain conflict between fact and poetry, reverie and life. For whenever -the scene does not admit of a directly ethical interpretation, refuge is -invariably taken in lyricism. The wide field which lies between, where -powerful works are nourished, works which have their roots in reality, -and derive their life from it alone, has not been definitely conquered -by English art. England is the greatest producer and consumer in the -world, and her people press the marrow out of things as no other have -ever done: and yet this land of industry knows nothing of pictures in -which work is being accomplished; this country, which is a network of -railway lines, has never seen a railway painted. Even horses are less -and less frequently represented in English art, and sport finds no -expression there whatever. Much as the Englishman loves it from a sense -of its wholesomeness, he does not consider it sufficiently æsthetic to -be painted, a matter upon which Wilkie Collins enlarges in an amusing -way in his book _Man and Wife_. - -And in English pictures there are no poor, or, at any rate, none who are -wretched in the extreme. For although the Chelsea Pensioners were a -favoured theme in painting, there were none of them miserable and -heavy-laden; they were rather types of the happy poor who were carefully -tended. If English painters are otherwise induced to represent the poor, -they depict a room kept in exemplary order, and endeavour to display -some touching or admirable trait in honest and admirable people. In -fact, people seem to be good and honourable wherever they are found. -Everywhere there is content and humility, even in misfortune. Even where -actual need is represented, it is only done in the effort to give -expression to what is moving in certain dispensations of fate, and to -create a lofty and conciliating effect by the contrast between -misfortune and man's noble trust in God. - -_John R. Reid_, a Scotchman by birth, but residing in London, has -treated scenes from life upon the seacoast in this manner. How different -his works are from the tragedies of Joseph Israels, or the grim -naturalism of Michael Ancher! He occupies himself only with the bright -side of life with its colour and sunshine, not with the dark side with -its toils. He paints the inhabitants of the country in their Sunday -best, as they sit telling stories, or as they go a-hunting, or regale -themselves in the garden of an inn. The old rustics who sit happy with -their pipes and beer in his "Cricket Match" are typical of everything -that he has painted. - -And even when, once in a way, a more gloomy trait appears in his -pictures, it is there only that the light may shine the more brightly. -The poor old flute-player who sits homeless upon a bench near the house -is placed there merely to show how well off are the children who are -hurrying merrily home after school. His picture of 1890, indeed, treated -a scene of shipwreck, but a passage from a poet stood beneath; there was -not a lost sailor to be seen, and all the tenderness of the artist is -devoted to the pretty children and the young women gazing with anxiety -and compassion across the sea. - -_Frank Holl_ was in the habit of giving his pictures a more lachrymose -touch, together with a more sombre and ascetic harmony of colour. He -borrowed his subjects from the life of the humble classes, always -searching, moreover, for melancholy features; he took delight in -representing human virtue in misfortune, and for the sake of greater -effect he frequently chose a verse from the Bible as the title. Thus the -work with which he first won the English public was a picture exhibited -in 1869: "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name -of the Lord." A family of five brothers and sisters, who have just lost -their mother, are assembled round the breakfast-table in a poorly -furnished room. One sister is crying, another is sadly looking straight -before her, whilst a third is praying with folded hands. The younger -brother, a sailor, has just reached home from a voyage, to close his -dying mother's eyes, and the eldest of all, a young and earnest curate, -is endeavouring to console his brothers and sisters with the words of -Job. - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - SANT. THE MUSIC LESSON. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -The next picture, exhibited in 1871, he called "No Tidings from the -Sea," and represented in it a fisherman's family--grandmother, mother, -and child--who in a cheerless room are anxiously expecting the return of -a sailor. "Leaving Home" showed four people sitting on a bench outside a -waiting-room at a railway station. To awaken the spectator's pity "Third -Class" is written in large letters upon the window just above their -heads. The principal figure is a lady dressed in black, who is counting, -in a somewhat obtrusive manner, the little money which she still has -left. - -In the picture "Necessity knows no Law" a poor woman with a child in her -arms has entered a pawnshop to borrow money on her wedding-ring; in -another, women of the poorer class are to be seen walking along with -their soldier sons and husbands, who have been called out on active -service. One of them clasps tightly to her breast her little child, the -only one still remaining to her in life, whilst an aged widow presses -the hand of her son with the sad presentiment that, even if he comes -back to her, she will probably not have long to live after his return. -Not only did Frank Holl paint stories for his countrymen, but he also -painted them big in majuscule characters which were legible without -spectacles, and he partially owed his splendid successes to this cheap -sentimentality. - -Almost everywhere the interest of subject still plays the first part, -and this slightly lachrymose trait bordering on _genre_, this lyrically -tender or allegorically subtle element, which runs through English -figure pictures, would easily degenerate into vaporous enervation in -another country. In England portrait painting, which now, as in the days -of Reynolds, is the greatest title to honour possessed by English art, -invariably maintains its union with direct reality. By acknowledgment -portrait painting in the present day is exceedingly earnest: it admits -of no decorative luxuriousness, no sport with hangings and draperies, no -pose; and English likenesses have this severe actuality in the highest -degree. Stiff-necked obstinacy, sanguine resolution, and muscular force -of will are often spoken of as an Englishman's national characteristics, -and a trace of these qualities is also betrayed in English portrait -painting. The self-reliance of the English is far too great to suffer or -demand any servile habit of flattery: everything is free from pose, -plain and simple. Let the subject be the weather-beaten figure of an old -sailor or the dazzling freshness of English youth, there is a remarkable -energy and force of life in all their works, even in the pictures of -children with their broad open brow, finely chiselled nose, and assured -and penetrative glance. And as portrait painting in England, to its own -advantage and the benefit of all art, has never been considered as an -isolated province, such pictures may be specified among the works of the -most frigid academician as well as amongst those of the most vigorous -naturalist. Frank Holl, who had such a Düsseldorfian tinge in his more -elaborate pictures, showed at the close of his life, in his likenesses -of the engraver Samuel Cousins, Lord Dufferin, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, -Lord Wolseley, Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Cleveland, Sir George -Trevelyan, and Lord Spencer, a simple virility altogether wanting in his -earlier works. They had a trenchant characterisation and an unforced -pose which were striking even in England. It is scarcely possible to -exhibit people more naturally, or more completely to banish from their -expression that concentrated air of attentiveness which suggests -photography and so easily intrudes into a portrait. Even Leighton, so -devoid of temperament, so entirely devoted to the measured art of the -ancients, became at once nervous and almost brutal in his power when he -painted a portrait in place of ideal Grecian figures. His vivid and -forcible portrait of Sir Richard Burton, the celebrated African -traveller, would do honour to the greatest portrait painter of the -Continent. - -[Illustration: FURSE. FRONTISPIECE TO "STORIES AND INTERLUDES."] - -Amongst portrait painters by profession _Walter Ouless_ will probably -merit the place of honour immediately after Watts as an impressive -exponent of character. He has assimilated much from his master -Millais--not merely the heaviness of colour, which often has a -disturbing effect in the latter, but also Millais' powerful flight of -style, always so free from false rhetoric. The chemical expert Pochin, -as Ouless painted him in 1865, does not pose in the picture nor allow -himself to be disturbed in his researches. It is a thoroughly -contemporary portrait, one of those brilliant successes which later -occurred in France also. The Recorder of London, Mr. Russell Gurney, he -likewise painted in his professional character and in his robes of -office. In its inflexible graveness and earnest dignity the likeness is -almost more than the portrait of an individual; it seems the embodiment -of the proud English Bench resting upon the most ancient traditions. His -portrait of Cardinal Manning had the same convincing power of -observation, the same large and sure technique. The soft light plays -upon the ermine and the red stole, and falls full upon the fine, -austere, and noble face. - -Besides Ouless mention may be made from among the great number of -portrait painters of _J. J. Shannon_, with his powerful and firmly -painted likenesses; of _James Sant_, with his sincere and energetic -portraits of women; of _Mouat Loudan_, with his pretty pictures of -children, and of the many-sided _Charles W. Furse_. Hubert Herkomer was -the most celebrated in Germany, and is probably the most skilful of the -young men whom _The Graphic_ brought into eminence in the seventies. - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ - - HERKOMER. JOHN RUSKIN. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - HERKOMER. CHARTERHOUSE CHAPEL.] - -The career of _Hubert Herkomer_ is amongst those adventurous ones which -become less and less frequent in the nineteenth century; there are not -many who have risen so rapidly to fame and fortune from such modest -circumstances. His father was a carver of sacred images in the little -Bavarian village of Waal, where Hubert was born in 1849. In 1851 the -enterprising Bavarian tried his fortune in the New World. But there he -did not succeed in making progress, and in 1857 the family appeared in -England, at Southampton. Here he fought his way honestly at the bench -where he carved, and as a journeyman worker, whilst his wife gave -lessons in music. A commission to carve Peter Vischer's four evangelists -in wood brought him with his son to Munich, where they occupied room in -the back buildings of a master-carpenter's house, in which they slept, -cooked, and worked. In the preparatory class of the Munich Academy the -younger Herkomer received his first teaching, and began to draw from the -nude, the antique serving as model. At a frame-maker's in Southampton he -gave his first exhibition, and drew illustrations for a comic paper. -With the few pence which he saved from these earnings he went to London, -where he lived from hand to mouth with a companion as poor as himself. -He cooked, and his friend scoured the pans; meanwhile he worked as a -mason on the frieze of the South Kensington Museum, and hired himself -out for the evenings as a zither-player. Then _The Graphic_ became his -salvation, and after his drawings had made him known he soon had success -with his paintings. "After the Toil of the Day," a picture which he -exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1873--a thoughtful scene from the -village life of Bavaria, carried out after the manner of Fred -Walker--found a purchaser immediately. He was then able to make a home -for his parents in the village of Bushey, which he afterwards glorified -in the picture "Our Village," and he began his masterpiece "The Last -Muster," which obtained in 1878 the great medal at the World Exhibition -in Paris. Since then he found the eyes of the English public fixed upon -him. There followed at first a series of pictures in which he proceeded -upon the lines of Fred Walker's poetic realism: "Eventide," a scene in -the Westminster Union; "The Gloom of Idwal," a romantic mountain -picture from North Wales; "God's Shrine," a lonely Bavarian hillside -path, with peasants praying at a shrine; "Der Bittgang," a group of -country people praying for harvest; "Contrasts," a picture of English -ladies surrounded by school-children in the Bavarian mountains. At the -same time he became celebrated as a portrait painter, his first -successes in this field being the likenesses of Wagner and Tennyson, -Archibald Forbes, his own father, John Ruskin, Stanley, and the -conductor Hans Richter. And he reached the summit of his international -fame when his portrait of Miss Grant, "The Lady in White," appeared in -1886; all Europe spoke of it at the time, and it called forth entire -bundles of poems, anecdotes, biographies, and romances. From that time -he advanced in his career with rapid strides. - -[Illustration: _Art Annual._ - - HERKOMER. PORTRAIT OF HIS FATHER. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -The University of Oxford appointed him Professor of the Fine Arts. He -opened a School of Art, and had etchings, copper engravings, and -engravings in mezzotint produced by his pupils under his guidance. He -wrote articles in the London papers upon social questions, and political -economy, and all manner of subjects, an article signed with Herkomer's -name being always capable of creating interest. He has his own theatre, -and produces in it operas of which he writes the text and the music, and -manages the rehearsals and the scenery, besides playing the leading -parts. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - HERKOMER. HARD TIMES. - - (_By permission of the Manchester Art Gallery, the owners of the - picture._)] - -Yet it is just his portraits of women, the foundations of his fame, -which do not seem in general to justify entirely the painter's great -reputation. Miss Grant was certainly a captivating woman, and she broke -men's hearts wherever she made her appearance. People gazed again and -again into the brilliant brown eyes with which she looked so composedly -before her; they were overwhelmed by her austere and lofty virginal -beauty. "The Lady in Black (An American Lady)" made yet a more piquant -and spiritualised effect. There was the unopened bud, and here the -woman who has had experience of the delights and disappointments of -life. There was unapproachable pride, and here a trait of distinction -and of suffering, an almost weary carriage of the body. There would -certainly be an interesting gallery of beauty if Herkomer unite these -"types of women" in a series. But even in the first picture how much of -all the admiration excited was due to the painter and how much to the -model? The portrait of Miss Grant was such a success primarily because -Miss Grant herself was so beautiful. The arrangement of white against -white was nothing new: Whistler, a far greater artist, had already -painted a "White Girl" in 1863, and it was a much greater work of art, -though, on account of the attractiveness of the model being less -powerful, it triumphed only in the narrower circle of artists. -Bastien-Lepage, who set himself the same problem in his "Sara -Bernhardt," had also run through the scale of white with greater -sureness. And Herkomer's later pictures of women--"The Lady in Yellow," -Lady Helen Fergusson, and others--are even less alluring, considered as -works of art. The reserve and evenness of the execution give his -portraits a somewhat clotted and stiff appearance. Good modelling and -exceedingly vigorous drawing may perhaps ensure great correctness in -the counterfeit of the originals, but the life of the picture vanishes -beneath the greasy technique, the soapy painting through which materials -of drapery and flesh-tints assume quite the same values. There is -nothing in it of the transparency, the rosy delicacy, freshness, and -flower-like bloom of Gainsborough's women and girls. Herkomer appears in -these pictures as a salon painter in whom a tame but tastefully -cultivated temperament is expressed with charm. Even his landscapes with -their trim peasants' cottages and their soft moods of sunset have not -enriched with new notes the scale executed by Walker. - -All the more astonishing is the earnest certainty of touch and the -robust energy which are visible in his other works. His portraits of -men, especially the one of his father, that kingly old man with the -long, white beard and the furrowed brow, take their place beside the -best productions of English portraiture, which are chiselled, as it -were, in stone. In "The Last Muster" he showed that it is possible to be -simple and yet strike a profound note and even attain greatness. For -there is something great in these old warriors, who at the end of their -days are praying, having never troubled themselves over prayer during -all their lives, who have travelled so far and staked their lives dozens -of times, and are now drawing their last breath softly upon the seats of -a church. Even his more recent groups--"The Assemblage of the Curators -of the Charterhouse" and "The Session of the Magistrates of -Landsberg"--are magnificent examples of realistic art, full of imposing -strength and soundness. In the representation of these citizens the -genius of the master who in his "Chelsea Pensioners" created one of the -"Doelen pieces" of the nineteenth century, revealed itself afresh in all -its greatness. - -Beside portrait painting the painting of landscape stands now as ever in -full bloom amongst the English; not that the artists of to-day are more -consistently faithful to truth than their predecessors, or that they -seem more modern in the study of light. In the province of landscape as -in that of figure painting, far more weight is laid upon subject than on -the moods of atmosphere. If one compares the modern English painters -with Crome and Constable, one finds them wanting in boldness and -creative force; and placed beside Monet, they seem to be diffident -altogether. But a touching reverence for nature gives almost all their -pictures a singularly chaste and fragrant charm. - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ - - HERKOMER. THE LAST MUSTER. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Boussod, Valadon & Co., the owners of the - picture._)] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - HERKOMER. FOUND.] - -Of course, all the influences which have affected English art in other -respects are likewise reflected in landscape painting. The epoch-making -activity of the pre-Raphaelites, the passionate earnestness of Ruskin's -love for nature, as well as the influence of foreign art, have all left -their traces. In his own manner Constable had spoken the last word. The -principal thing in him, as in Cox, was the study of atmospheric effects -and of the dramatic life of air. They neither of them troubled -themselves about local colour, but sought to render the tones which are -formed under atmospheric and meteorological influences; they altogether -sacrificed the completion of the details of subject to seizing the -momentary impression. In Turner, generally speaking, it was only the air -that lived. Trees and buildings, rocks and water, are merely -_repoussoirs_ for the atmosphere; they are exclusively ordained to lead -the eye through the mysterious depths of light and shadow. The -intangible absorbed what could be touched and handled. As a natural -reaction there came this pre-Raphaelite landscape, and by a curious -irony of chance the writer who had done most for Turner's fame was also -he who first welcomed this pre-Raphaelite landscape school. Everything -which the old school had neglected now became the essential object of -painting. The landscape painters fell in love with the earth, with the -woods and the fields; and the more autumn resolved the wide green -harmony of nature into a sport of colours multiplied a thousand times, -the more did they love it. Thousands of things were there to be seen. -First, how the foliage turned yellow and red and brown, and then how it -fell away: how it was scattered upon a windy day, whirling in a yellow -drift of leaves; how in still weather leaf after leaf lightly rustled to -the ground from between the wavering brown boughs. And then when the -foliage fell from the trees and bushes the most inviolate secrets of -summer came to light; there lay around quantities of bright seeds and -berries rich in colour, brown nuts, smooth acorns, black and glossy -sloes, and scarlet haws. In the leafless beeches there clustered pointed -beechmast, the mugwort bent beneath its heavy red bunches, late -blackberries lay black and brown amid the damp foliage upon the road, -bilberries grew amid the heather, and wild raspberries bore their dull -red fruit once again. The dying ferns took a hundred colours; the moss -shot up like the ears of a miniature cornfield. Eager as children the -landscape painters roamed here and there across the woodland, to -discover its treasures and its curiosities. They understood how to paint -a bundle of hay with such exactness that a botanist could decide upon -the species of every blade. One of them lived for three months under -canvas, so as thoroughly to know a landscape of heath. Confused through -detail, they lost their view of the whole, and only made a return to -modernity when they came to study the Parisian landscape painters. Thus -English art in this matter made a curious circuit, giving and taking. -First, the English fertilised French art; but at the time when French -artists stood under the influence of the English, the latter swerved in -the opposite direction, until they ultimately received from France the -impulse which led them back into the old way. - -In accordance with these different influences, several currents which -cross and mingle with each other are to be found flowing side by side in -English landscape painting: upon one side a spirit of prosaic -reasonableness, a striving after clearness and precision, which does not -know how to sacrifice detail, and is therefore wanting in pictorial -totality of effect; on the other side an artistic pantheism which rises -at times to high lyrical poetry in spite of many dissonances. - -The pictures of _Cecil Lawson_ lead to the point where the -pre-Raphaelites begin. The elder painters, with their powerful treatment -and the freedom and boldness of their execution, still keep altogether -on the lines of Constable, whereas in later painters, with their minute -elaboration of all particularities, the influence of the pre-Raphaelites -becomes more and more apparent. - -Where Cecil Lawson ended, _James Clarke Hook_ began, the great -master-spirit who opened the eyes of the world fifty years ago to the -depth of colouring and the enchanting life of nature, even in its -individual details. His pictures, especially those sunsets which he -paints with such delight, have something devout and religious in them; -they have the effect of a prayer or a hymn, and often possess a -solemnity which is entirely biblical, in spite of their brusque, pungent -colours. In his later period he principally devoted himself to -sea-pieces, and in doing so receded from the pre-Raphaelite painting of -detail, which is characteristic of his youthful period. His pictures -give one the breath of the sea, and his sailors are old sea-wolves. All -that remains from his pre-Raphaelite period is that, as a rule, they -carry a certain burden of ideas. - -_Vicat Cole_, likewise one of the older school, is unequal and less -important. From many of his pictures one receives the impression that he -has directly copied Constable, and others are bathed in dull yellow -tones; nevertheless he has sometimes painted autumn pictures, felicitous -and noble landscapes, in which there is really a reflection of the sun -of Claude Lorrain. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - LAWSON. THE MINISTER'S GARDEN. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -With much greater freedom does _Colin Hunter_ approach nature, and he -has the secret of seizing her boldly in her most impressive moments. The -twilight, with its mysterious, interpenetrating tremor of colours of a -thousand shades, its shine and glimmer of water, with the sky brooding -heavily above, is what fascinates him most of all. Sometimes he -represents the dawn, as in "The Herring Market at Sea"; sometimes the -pale tawny sunset, as in "The Gatherers of Seaweed," in the South -Kensington Museum. His men are always in a state of restless activity, -whether they are making the most of the last moments of light or facing -the daybreak with renewed energies. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - COLIN HUNTER. THE HERRING MARKET AT SEA. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -Although resident in London, he and Hook are the true standard-bearers -of the forcible Scotch school of landscape. _MacCallum_, _MacWhirter_, -and _James Macbeth_, with whom _John Brett_, the landscape painter of -Cornwall, may be associated, are all gnarled, Northern personalities. -Their strong, dark tones stand often beside each other with a little -hardness, but they sum up the great glimpses of nature admirably. Their -brush has no tenderness, their spirit does not lightly yield to -dreaminess, but they stand with both feet firmly planted on the earth, -and they clasp reality in a sound and manly fashion with both arms. -Their deep-toned pictures, with red wooden houses, darkly painted -vessels, veiled skies, and rude fishermen with all their heart in their -work, waken strong and intimate emotions. The difference between these -Scots and the tentative spirits of the younger generation of the -following of Walker and Mason is like that between Rousseau and Dupré as -opposed to Chintreuil and Daubigny. The Scotch painters are sombre and -virile; they have an accent of depth and truth, and a dark, ascetic -harmony of colour. Even as landscape painters the English love what is -delicate in nature, what is refined and tender, familiar and modest: -blossoming apple-trees and budding birches, the odour of the cowshed and -the scent of hay, the chime of sheep-bells and the hum of gnats. They -seek no great emotions, but are merely amiable and kindly, and their -pictures give one the feeling of standing at the window upon a country -excursion, and looking out at the laughing and budding spring. In her -novel _North and South_ Mrs. Gaskell has given charming expression to -the glow of this feeling of having fled from the smoke and dirt of -industrial towns to breathe the fresh air and see the sun go down in the -prosperous country, where the meadows are fresh and well-kept, and where -the flowers are fragrant and the leaves glisten in the sunshine. In the -pictures of the Scotch artists toiling men are moving busily; for the -English, nature merely exists that man may have his pleasure in her. Not -only is everything which renders her the prosaic handmaiden of mankind -scrupulously avoided, but all abruptnesses of landscape, all the chance -incidents of mountain scenery; and, indeed, they are not of frequent -occurrence in nature as she is in England. A familiar corner of the -country is preferred to wide prospects, and some quiet phase to nature -in agitation. Soft, undulating valleys, gently spreading hills -conforming to the Hogarthian line of beauty, are especially favoured. -And should the rainbow, the biblical symbol of atonement, stand in the -sky, the landscape is for English eyes in the zenith of its beauty. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - AUMONIER. THE SILVER LINING TO THE CLOUD. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -[Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ - - COLIN HUNTER. THEIR ONLY HARVEST.] - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - HENRY MOORE. MOUNT'S BAY. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -There is _Birket Forster_, one of the first and most energetic followers -of Walker--Birket Forster, whose charming woodcuts became known in -Germany likewise; _Inchbold_, who with a light hand combines the tender -green of the grasses upon the dunes and the bright blue of the sea into -a whole pervaded with light, and of great refinement; _Leader_, whose -bright evening landscapes, and _Corbet_, whose delicate moods of -morning, are so beautiful. _Mark Fisher_, who in the matter of tones -closely follows the French landscape school, though he remains entirely -English in sentiment, has painted with great artistic power the dreamy -peace of solitary regions as well as the noisy and busy life of the -purlieus of the town. _John White_, in 1882, signalised himself with a -landscape, "Gold and Silver," which was bathed in light and air. The -gold was a waving cornfield threaded by a sandy little yellow path; the -silver was the sea glittering and sparkling in the background. Moved by -Birket Forster, _Ernest Parton_ seeks to combine refinement of tone with -incisiveness in the painting of detail. His motives are usually quite -simple--a stream and a birch wood in the dusk, a range of poplars -stretching dreamily along the side of a ditch. _Marshall_ painted gloomy -London streets enveloped in mist; _Docharty_ blossoming hawthorn bushes -and autumn evening with russet-leaved oaks; while _Alfred East_ became -the painter of spring in all its fragrance, when the meadows are -resplendent in their earliest verdure, and the leaves of the trees which -have just unfolded stand out against the firmament in light green -patches of colour, when the limes are blossoming and the crops begin to -sprout. _M. J. Aumonier_ appears in the harmony of colouring, and in the -softness of his fine, light-hued tones, as the true heir of Walker and -Mason. A discreet and intimate sense of poetry pervades his valleys with -their veiled and golden light, a fertile odour of the earth streams from -his rich meadows, and from all the luxuriant, cultivated, and peacefully -idyllic tracts which he has painted so lovingly and so well. _Gregory_, -_Knight_, _Alfred Parsons_, _David Fulton_, _A. R. Brown_, and _St. -Clair Simmons_ have all something personal in their work, a bashful -tenderness beneath what is seemingly arid. The study of water-colour -would alone claim a chapter for itself. Since water-colour allows of -more breadth and unity than oil-painting, it is precisely here that -there may be found exceedingly charming and discreet concords, softly -chiming tones of delicate blue, greenish, and rosy light, giving the -most refined sensations produced by English colouring. - -[Illustration: _Mag. of Art._ - - LUKE FILDES. VENETIAN WOMEN. - - (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -Of course, England has a great part to play in the painting of the sea. -It is not for nothing that a nation occupies an insular and maritime -position, above all with such a sea and upon such coasts, and the -English painter knows well how to give an heroic and poetic cast to the -weather-beaten features of the sailor. For thirty years _Henry Moore_, -the elder brother of Albert Moore, was the undisputed monarch of this -province of art. Moore began as a landscape painter. From 1853 to 1857 -he painted the glistening cliffs and secluded nooks of Cumberland, and -then the green valleys of Switzerland flooded with the summer air and -the clear morning light--quiet scenes of rustic life, the toil of the -wood-cutter and the haymaker, somewhat as Julien Dupré handles such -matters at the present time in Paris. From 1858 he began his conquest of -the sea, and in the succeeding interval he painted it in all the phases -of its changing life,--at times in grey and sombre morning, at other -times when the sun stands high; at times in quietude, at other times -when the wind sweeps heavily across the waves, when the storm rises or -subsides, when the sky is clouded or when it brightens. It is a joy to -follow him in all quarters of the world, to see how he constantly -studies the waves of every zone on fair or stormy days, amid the -clearness and brilliancy of the mirror of the sea, as amid the strife of -the elements; as a painter he is, at the same time, always a student of -nature, and treats the sea as though he had to paint its portrait. In -the presence of his sea-pieces one has the impression of a window -opening suddenly upon the ocean. Henry Moore measures the boundless -expanse quite calmly, like a captain calculating the chances of being -able to make a crossing. Nowhere else does there live any painter who -regards the sea so much with the eyes of a sailor, and who combines such -eminent qualities with this objective and cool, attentive observation, -which seems to behold in the sea merely its navigable capacity. - -[Illustration: _Brothers, photo._ - - STANHOPE FORBES. THE LIGHTHOUSE. - - (_By permission of the Corporation of Manchester, the owners of the - picture._)] - -The painter of the river-port of London and the arm of the Thames is -_William L. Wyllie_, whose pictures unite so much bizarre grandeur with -so much precision. One knows the port life of the Thames, with its -accumulation of work, which has not its like upon the whole planet. -Everything is colossal. From Greenwich up to London both sides of the -river are a continuous quay: everywhere there are goods being piled, -sacks being raised on pulleys, ships being laid at anchor; everywhere -are fresh storehouses for copper, beer, sails, tar, and chemicals. The -river is of great width, and is like a street populated with ships, a -workshop winding again and again. The steamers and sailing vessels move -up and down stream, or lie in masses, close beside one another, at -anchor. Upon the bank the docks lie athwart like so many streets of -water, sending out ships or taking them in. The ranks of masts and the -slender rigging form a spider's web spreading across the whole horizon; -and a vaporous haze, penetrated by the sun, envelops it with a reddish -veil. Every dock is like a town, filled with huge vats and populated -with a swarm of human beings, that move hither and thither amid -fluttering shadows. This vast panorama, veiled with smoke and mist, only -now and then broken by a ray of sunlight, is the theme of Wyllie's -pictures. Even as a child he ran about in the port of London, clambered -on to the ships, noted the play of the waves, and wandered about the -docks; and so he painted his pictures afterwards with all the technical -knowledge of a sailor. There is no one who knows so well how ships stand -in the water; no one has such an understanding of their details: the -heavy sailing vessels and the great steamers, which lie in the brown -water of the port like mighty monsters, the sailors and the movements of -the dock labourers, the dizzy tide of men, the confusion of cabs and -drays upon the bridges spanning the arm of the Thames; only Vollon in -Paris is to be compared with him as painter of a river-port. - -[Illustration: R. ANNING BELL. OBERON AND TITANIA WITH THEIR TRAIN.] - -Apart from him, _Clara Montalba_ specially has painted the London port -in delicate water-colours. Yet she is almost more at home in Venice, the -Venice of Francesco Guardi, with its magic gleam, its canals, regattas, -and palaces, the Oriental and dazzling splendour of San Marco, the -austere grace of San Giorgio Maggiore, the spirited and fantastic -_décadence_ of Santa Maria della Salute. Elsewhere English water-colour -often enters into a fruitless rivalry with oil-painting, but Clara -Montalba cleaves to the old form which in other days under Bonington, -David Cox, and Turner was the chief glory of the English school. She -throws lightly upon paper notes and effects which have struck her, and -the memory of which she wishes to retain. - -For the English painters of the day, so far as they do not remain in the -country, Venice has become what the East was for the earlier -generations. They no longer study the romantic Venice which Turner -painted and Byron sang in _Childe Harold_, they do not paint the noble -beauty of Venetian architecture or its canals glowing in the sun, but -the Venice of the day, with its narrow alleys and pretty girls, Venice -with its marvellous effects of light and the picturesque figures of its -streets. Nor are they at pains to discover "ideal" traits in the -character of the Italian people. They paint true, everyday scenes from -popular life, but these are glorified by the magic of light. After -Zezzos, Ludwig Passini, Cecil van Haanen, Tito, and Eugène Blaas, the -Englishmen Luke Fildes, W. Logsdail, and Henry Woods are the most -skilful painters of Venetian street scenes. In the pictures of _Luke -Fildes_ and _W. Logsdail_ there are usually to be seen in the foreground -beautiful women, painted life-size, washing linen in the canal or seated -knitting at the house door; the heads are bright and animated, the -colours almost glaringly vivid. _Henry Woods_, the brother-in-law of -Luke Fildes, rather followed the paths prescribed by Favretto in such -pictures as "Venetian Trade in the Streets," "The Sale of an Old -Master," "Preparation or the First Communion," "Back from the Rialto," -and the like; of all the English he has carried out the study of bright -daylight most consistently. The little glass house which he built in -1879 at the back of the Palazzo Vendramin became the model of all the -glass studios now disseminated over the city of the lagunes. - -And these labours in Venice contributed in no unessential manner to lead -English painting, in general, away from its one-sided æsthetics and -rather more into the mud of the streets, caused it to break with its -finely accorded tones, and brought it to a more earnest study of light. -Beside his idealised Venetian women, Luke Fildes also painted large -pictures from the life of the English people, such as "The Return of the -Lost One," "The Widower," and the like, which struck tones more earnest -than English painting does elsewhere; and in his picture of 1878, "The -Poor of London," he even recalled certain sketches which Gavarni drew -during his rambles through the poverty-stricken quarter of London. The -poor starving figures in this work were rendered quite realistically and -without embellishment; the general tone was a greenish-grey, making a -forcible change from the customary light blue of English pictures. -_Dudley Hardy's_ huge picture "Homeless," where a crowd of human beings -are sleeping at night in the open air at the foot of a monument in -London, and _Jacomb Hood's_ plain scenes from London street life, are -other works which in recent years were striking, from having a character -rather French than English. _Stott of Oldham_, by his pretty pictures of -the dunes with children playing, powerful portraits, and delicate, -vaporous moonlight landscapes, has won many admirers on the Continent -also. _Stanhope Forbes_ painted "A Philharmonic Society in the Country," -a representation of an auction, and scenes from the career of the -Salvation Army, in which he restrained himself from all subordinate -ideas of a poetic turn. - -In the same way those artists are important who work according to the -demands of decorative painting. A picture in a room should be like a -jewel in its setting, in harmony. It should fit agreeably into the -scheme of decoration, its colour in unison, its lines melodious, its -general effect toning well with the general design. - -[Illustration: BRANGWYN. ILLUSTRATION TO THE RUBÁIYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM. - - (_By permission of Messrs. Gibbings & Co., the owners of the - copyright._)] - -These principles, taught by Morris, have had a formative influence on -the work of a large number of artists. There arose a tendency which, by -borrowing characteristic effects from woodwork, carpets, and -stained-glass, and by the application of style to line as well as to -colour, went one step further than Burne-Jones. - -The pictures of _John W. Waterhouse_, for instance, are not only -conceived in literary vein, but seen with the eye of a painter. By -smooth, thick lines, by the discordant harmony of blues, greens, and -violet, he gets a carpet-like effect which is highly decorative. - -_Byam Shaw_, still a young man, is just such another master of -decorative lines. At the age of twenty-five he painted the picture -"Love's Baubles," which now hangs in the art gallery in Liverpool. The -subject he took from a poem in Rossetti's "House of Life." Beautiful -women snatch after the fruit which a boy carries along on a salver. The -whole is a harmony of melodious lines and rich, quiet colours. - -In his next picture, "Truth," he ranges himself with Boutet de Monoel or -Ludwig von Zumbusch: he strives after the monumental effect that the -figures of old Brueghel have. - -Next to Byam Shaw, _G. E. Moira_ is the chief representative of this -decorative school. His picture of Pelleas and Melisande is a work quite -out of the ordinary, original in arrangement, incisive, almost bitter in -colour, dull-green, black, lilac, and yellow; fine in the atmosphere of -Maeterlinck that pervades the whole. But he does his best work as a -decorator, not as a painter of pictures that can be taken away from -their setting. In the frieze with which he decorated the Trocadéro -Restaurant in London he, for the first time, made use of polychrome -relief, that since has played such an important part in the art of -decoration, and sought to enhance the colour effect still more by the -use of metal. In the Paris Exhibition he attracted considerable -attention by the pictures with which he decorated the pavilion of the -Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company--simple lines and fantasies of -colour which with their delicate, flowing harmony had an effect like -music. His designs for stained-glass windows have the same qualities, -and in his position as professor in the National College of Art at South -Kensington he is bound to exert a great influence over the younger -generation. - -_Anning Bell_, well known by his design for the cover of the _Studio_, -has also done excellent work in coloured relief, especially in his -frieze "Music and Dancing." - -_Maurice Greiffenhagen_ surprises one by the ardour of his imagination, -his strong emphatic line, and the tapestry-like beauty of his colour. He -reminds one of Aman-Jean, such a wonderful "old-master-like" beauty is -suffused through the picture "The Sons of God looked upon the Daughters -of Men." No less effective is the "gourmandise" with which he gives his -interpretation the appearance of an old picture. The colours, though -full of sound and movement, are at the same time so etiolated and faint -that one would think the picture had hung for centuries in a dusty -corner of an old church, or that spiders had spun their webs across it; -the frame too is in keeping, and enhances the general effect of -solemnity. - -The same style is found in the later work of _Frank Brangwyn_, who began -by painting out-of-door pictures in the spirit of the French -Impressionists, and afterwards, thanks to a visit to the East, was -brought into touch with Nature saturated in colour and massive in -feature. - -[Illustration: F. CAYLEY ROBINSON. A WINTER EVENING. - - (_By permission of the Artist._)] - -All his works are imposing through the decisive way in which he builds -up his masses, and the wonderful, rhythmical articulation of forms and -colours combined. The picture "Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh" which has -been given a place in the Luxembourg, and the large mural painting -"Commerce and Navigation" in the Royal Exchange in London, are up to now -his strongest work. - -_F. Cayley Robinson_, who arrests one's attention with his austere, -almost heraldic arrangement of line, and his gloomy acerbity of colour; -_Miss Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale_, who awoke high hopes with her -picture "The Deceitfulness of Riches"; and that spirited draughtsman, W. -Nicholson, whose drawings lead the eye to and fro, backwards and -forwards, along heavy decided lines, noting every expressive turn and -movement. Almost all these masters have come to us from the applied -arts. It was the idea of attaining to unity of effect in decorative -ornament that impelled these artists to work in the spirit of to-day, -not that each should bring forward his own work of art and let it stand -by itself, but that the scheme of decorative architecture, modelling, -and painting should work together hand in hand in a homogeneous scheme -of decoration. - -With all these artists one cannot help noticing that they owe much in -the way of light and leading to one who in England, the land of -poems-in-paint, proclaimed more outspokenly than anyone else the -principle of "Art for art's sake,"--to the great American, James M'Neill -Whistler. - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - -CHAPTER XXVIII - - -In General: - - John Ruskin: Letters to "The Times" on the Principal Pre-Raphaelite - Pictures in the Exhibition of 1854. Reprinted for Private Circulation. - London, 1876. - - Pre-Raphaelitism: Its Art, Literature, and Professors, "London and - County Review," March 1868. - - The Poetic Phase in Modern English Art, "New Quarterly Magazine," June - 1879. - - William Holman Hunt: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, "Contemporary - Review," April-June 1886. - - Edouard Rod: Les Préraphaélites Anglais, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," - 1887, ii 177, 399. - - W. v. Seidlitz: Die englische Malerei auf der Jubiläumsausstellung zu - Manchester im Sommer, 1887, "Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft," 1888, - xi 274, 405. - - P. T. Forsyth: Religion in Recent Art. Manchester and London, 1889. - - Wilhelm Weigand: Die aesthetische Bewegung in England, "Gegenwart," - 1889 (35), p. 165. - - Wilhelm Weigand: Die Praeraphaeliten, in his "Essays." Munich, 1892. - - Cornelius Gurlitt: Die Praeraphaeliten, eine britische Malerschule, - "Westermanns Monatshefte," April-June, 1892. - - W. Holman Hunt: Pre-Rafaelitism and Pre-Rafaelite Brotherhood. London, - 1905. - -Noël Paton: - - J. M. Gray: Sir Noël Paton, "Art Journal," 1881, p. 78. - -Holman Hunt: - - F. G. Stephens: W. Holman Hunt, "Portfolio," 1871, p. 33. - - F. G. Stephens: Holman Hunt's "The Triumph of the Innocents," - "Portfolio," 1885, p. 80. - - J. Beavington-Atkinson: Mr. Holman Hunt, his Work and Career, - "Blackwood's Magazine," April 1886. - -Madox Brown: - - W. M. Rossetti: Mr. Madox Brown's Exhibition and its Place in our - School of Painting, "Fraser's Magazine," May 1865. - - Sidney Colvin: Ford Madox Brown, "Portfolio," 1870, p. 81. - - Madox Brown's Mural Painting at Manchester, "Academy," 1879, p. 379. - - W. M. Rossetti: Mr. Madox Brown's Frescoes in Manchester, "Art - Journal," 1881, New Series, p. 9. - - E. Chesneau: Peintres anglais contemporains: Ford Madox Brown, - "L'Art," 1883, p. 409. - - F. G. Stephens: Ford Madox Brown, his early Studies and Motives, - "Portfolio," 1893, pp. 62 and 69. - -Millais: - - Sidney Colvin: Millais, "Portfolio," 1871, p. 1. - - Modern Artists. Illustrated Biographies. 2 vols. 1882-84. - - Emilie Isabel Barrington: Why is Mr. Millais our Popular Painter? - "Fortnightly Review," July 1882. - - Walter Armstrong: Sir J. E. Millais, his Life and Work. Illustrated - with Engravings and Facsimiles, "The Art Annual." London, 1885. - - John Ruskin: Notes on some of the Principal Pictures of Sir John - Millais. London, 1886. - - Helen Zimmern: Sir John Millais, "Die Kunst unserer Zeit," Munich, - 1891. - - M. H. Spielmann: Millais and his Works. London, 1898. - - A. L. Baldry: Millais, his Art and his Influence. London, 1899. - - Millais: Life and Letters of Millais. 2 vols. London, 1899. - - -CHAPTER XXIX - -Menzel: - - (Beside books, etc. cited for Chapter XV.): - - Duranty: Adolf Menzel, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1880, i and ii. - - A. Lichtwark: Menzels Piazza d'Erbe, "Gegenwart," 1884, 25. - - C. Gurlitt: Menzels Brunnenpromenade in Kissingen, "Gegenwart," 37, p. - 61. - - Georg Galland: Das Arbeiterbild in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, - "Frankfurter Zeitung," 1890, p. 139. - - Jul. Meier-Gräfe: Der junge Menzel. Stuttgart, 1906. - -Bleibtreu: - - K. Pietschker: Georg Bleibtreu, der Maler des neuen deutschen - Kaiserreiches, Kunststudie und biographische Skizze. Koethen, 1877. - -A. v. Werner: - - Ludwig Pietsch: "Nord und Süd," 18, 1881, p. 185. - - Ad. Rosenberg, in "Künstlermonographien," ix. Bielefeld, 1900. - -Max Michael: - - Hermann Helferich: Erinnerung an Max Michael, "Kunst für Alle," 1891, - vi 225. - -Güssow: - - Max Kretzer: "Westermanns Monatshefte," vol. 54, 1883, p. 519. - -Pettenkofen: - - Alfred de Lostalot: "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1877, i 410. - - Carl v. Lützow: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1889. - -Lorenz Gedon: - - G. Hirth: "Zeitschrift des Münchener Kunstgewerbevereins," 1884, 1, 2. - - Fr. Schneider, the same, 1884, 5 and 6. - - "Allgemeine Zeitung," 1884, No. 67. - - K.: "Allgemeine Kunstchronik," 1884, viii p. 5. - - Ludwig Pietsch: "Nord und Süd," 30, 1884, p. 42. - -Diez: - - Friedrich Pecht: Zu Wilhelm Diez 50 Geburtstage, "Kunst für Alle," - 1889, iv 113. - - H. E. v. Berlepsch: W. Diez, "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xxii. - -Claus Meyer: - - Claus Meyer-Album. Twelve Photogravures, with Biographical Text by W. - Lübke. München, 1890. - -Harburger: - - Harburger-Album. Munich, Braun & Schneider, 1882. - -Fritz August Kaulbach: - - Hermann Helferich: Neue Kunst. Berlin, 1887. - - P. G.: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1888, xxiii 125. - - R. Graul: "Graphische Künste," 1890, xiii 27, 61. - - See also Kaulbach-Album. Verlag für Kunst und Wissenschaft. München, - 1891. - - Ad. Rosenberg, in the "Künstlermonographien." Ed. by Knackfuss. - Bielefeld, 1901. - -Lenbach: - - Friedrich Pecht: Franz Lenbach, "Nord und Süd," 1877, i 113. - - B. Förster: Franz Lenbachs neueste Porträts, "Zeitschrift für bildende - Kunst," 1880, No. 26. - - Ludwig Pietsch: Franz Lenbach, "Nord und Süd," 44, 1888, p. 363. - - C. Gurlitt: Lenbachs Bismarck-Bildniss, "Gegenwart," 37, p. 318. - - H. Helferich: Lenbachs Zeitgenössische Bildnisse, "Nation," 5, - 1887-88, pp. 205 and 227. - - H. E. v. Berlepsch: Franz Lenbach, in "Velhagen und Klasings - Monatshefte," 1891, i. - - Ad. Rosenberg, in the "Künstlermonographien." Ed. by Knackfuss. - Bielefeld, 1898. - - See also Lenbachs Zeitgenössische Bildnisse. Heliogravures by Albert. - München, 1888. - -Leibl: - - S. R. Köhler: "American Art Review," 1880, 11. - - Hermann Helferich: "Kunst für Alle," January 1892. - - Georg Gronau, in the "Künstlermonographien." Ed. by Knackfuss. - Leipzig, 1901. - - -CHAPTER XXX - -Leading Works: - - Louis Gonse: L'Art japonais. Paris, Quantin, 1883. - - Anderson: The Pictorial Arts of Japan, London, 1883. - - J. Brinkmann: Kunst und Handwerk in Japan. Berlin, 1889. - - See also Ernest Chesneau: Le Japon à Paris, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," - 1878, ii 385, 841. - - H. v. Tschudi: Die Kunst in Japan, "Mittheilungen des k. k. - österreichischen Museums," 1879, xiv 170. - - Le Blanc du Vernet: L'Art japonais, "L'Art," 1880, p. 280; Japonisme, - "L'Art," 1880, p. 273. - - Th. Duret: L'Art japonais. Les livres illustrés. Les albums imprimés. - Hokusai, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1882, ii 113, 300. - - Hans Gierke: Japanesische Malerei, in "Westermanns Monatshefte," May - 1883. - - D. Brauns: Die Leistungen der Japaner auf dem Gebiete der Künste, - "Unsere Zeit," 1883, ii 765. - - O. v. Schorn: Malerei und Illustration in Japan, "Vom Fels zum Meer," - April 1884. - - F. E. Fenollosa: Review of the Chapter on Painting in "L'Art - japonais," by L. Gonse. Yokohama, 1885. - - W. Koopmann: Kunst und Handwerk in Japan, "Zeitschrift für bildende - Kunst," xiv 189. - - T. de Wyzewa: La peinture japonaise, "Revue des Deux Mondes," 1 July - 1890. Also separately, Les grands peintres de l'Espagne, etc. Paris, - 1891. - - S. Bing: Le Japon artistique. Paris, 1888. - - Edward F. Strange: Japanese Illustration. London, 1897. - - W. v. Seidlitz: Geschichte des japanischen Farbenholzschnittes. - Dresden, 1897. - -Outamaro: - - E. de Goncourt: Outamaro le peintre des maisons vertes. Paris, 1891. - -Hokusai: - - G. Geffroy, in "La vie artistique." Paris, 1892. - - -CHAPTER XXXI - -In General: - - Duranty: La nouvelle peinture, à propos du groupe d'artistes qui - expose dans les galeries Durand-Ruel. Paris, Dentu, 1876. - - Théodore Duret: Les peintres impressionists: C. Monet, Sisley, C. - Pissarro, Renoir, B. Morisot. Avec un dessin de Renoir. Paris, 1879. - - Louis Enault: Une revolution artistique. Paris, 1880. - - Frederick Wedmore: The Impressionists, "The Fortnightly Review," - January 1883. - - Felix Fénélon: Les Impressionistes en 1886. (Angrand, Caillebotte, - Miss Cassatt, Degas, Dubois-Pillet, David Estoppey, Forain, Gauguin, - Guillaumin, Claude Monet, Mme. Morisot, de Nittis, Camille et Lucien - Pissarro, Raffaelli, Renoir, Seurat, Signac, Zandomeneghi, etc.) - Paris, 1886. - - Catalogue illustré de l'exposition des peintures du groupe - Impressioniste et Synthétiste, faite dans le local de M. Volpini au - Champ de Mars, 1889. - - G. Lecomte: L'Art Impressioniste. Paris, 1892. - - H. Huysmans: Certains. Paris, 1892. - - H. Huysmans: L'Art moderne. Paris, 1892. - - G. Geffroy: La vie artistique. Paris, 1892. - - Jul. Meier-Gräfe: Der Impressionismus in Muther's series, "Die Kunst." - Berlin, 1902. - -Manet: - - Zola: Mes Haines. Edouard Manet. Paris, 1878, p. 327. - - Catalogue de l'exposition des Oeuvres de Manet, avec préface d'Emile - Zola. Paris, 1884. - - Edmond Bazire: Manet. Paris, 1884. - - Jacques de Biez: Edouard Manet. Conférence faite à la salle des - capucines le Mardi, 22 Janvier 1884. Paris, 1884. - - L. Gonse: Manet, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1884, i 133. - - Fritz Bley: Edouard Manet, "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1884, 8. - - Paul D'Abrest: "Allgemeine Kunstchronik," 1884, viii 5. - - Andreas Aubert, in the Copenhagen "Tilskueren," 1888. - - Hugo von Tschudi: Edouard Manet. Berlin, 1902. - -Monet: - - Théodore Duret: Le peintre Claude Monet: Notice sur son oeuvre. Paris, - 1880. - - A. de Lostalot: Exposition des oeuvres de M. Claude Monet, "Gazette - des Beaux-Arts," 1883, i 342. - - C. Dargenty: Exposition des oeuvres de M. Monet, "Courier de l'Art," - 1883, 11. - - Hermann Helferich: Claude Monet, "Freie Bühne," 1890, 8. - -Degas: - - George Moore: Degas, the Painter of Modern Life, "Magazine of Art," - 1889. - - Max Liebermann: Degas, Berlin, Cassirer, 1901. - -Pissarro: - - G. Lecomte: Camille Pissarro. No. 11 of "Hommes d'aujourd'hui." Paris, - 1890. - - -CHAPTER XXXII - -Rossetti: - - William Sharp: Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Pictorialism in Verse, - "Portfolio," 1882, p. 176. - - William Sharp: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a Record and a Study. London, - 1882. - - William Tirebuck: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his Works and Influence. - London, 1882. - - T. Hall Caine: Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London, 1882. - - F. G. Stephens: The Earlier Works of Rossetti, "Portfolio," May 1882. - - Sidney Colvin: Rossetti as a Painter, "Magazine of Art," March 1883. - - W. Tirebuck: Obituary in the "Art Journal," January 1883. - - R. Waldmüller: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Dichter und Maler, "Allgemeine - Zeitung," 1883, Blatt 344. - - Notes on Rossetti and his Works, "Art Journal," May 1884. - - William Michael Rossetti, Introduction to the two-volume edition of - the works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London, 1883. - - Franz Hüffer: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Leipzig, 1883. - - J. Beavington-Atkinson: Contemporary Art, Poetic and Positive - (Rossetti and Alma Tadema, Linnell and Lawson), "Blackwood's - Magazine," March 1883. - - Theodore Watts: The Truth about Rossetti, "Nineteenth Century," March - 1883. - - F. G. Stephens: The Earlier Works of Rossetti, "Portfolio," 1883, pp. - 87 and 114. - - Théodore Duret: Les expositions de Londres: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, - "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1883, ii 49. - - David Hannay: The Paintings of Rossetti, "National Review," March - 1883. - - Helen Zimmern: Aus London, D. G. Rossetti, "Westermanns Monatshefte," - August 1883. - - Harry Quilter: The Art of Rossetti, "Contemporary Review," February - 1883. - - William Michael Rossetti: Notes on Rossetti and his Works, "Art - Journal," 1884, pp. 148, 164, 204, 255. - - F. G. Stephens: Ecce Ancilla Domini, "Portfolio," 1888, p. 125. - - William Michael Rossetti: D. G. Rossetti as Designer and Writer. - London, 1889. - - Wilhelm Weigand: "Gegenwart," 1889, p. 38, and his Essays. - - F. G. Stephens: Beata Beatrix, "Portfolio," 1891, p. 45. - - F. G. Stephens: Rosa Triplex, by D. G. Rossetti, "Portfolio," 1892, p. - 197. - - H. C. Marillier: D. G. Rossetti, an Illustrated Memorial of his Art - and Life. 2nd Edition. London, 1901. - -Burne-Jones: - - Sidney Colvin: "Portfolio," 1870, p. 17. - - F. G. Stephens: "Portfolio," 1885, pp. 220 and 227. - - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Catalogue (with Notes) of the - Collections of Paintings by George Frederick Watts and Edward - Burne-Jones. Birmingham, 1886. - - F. G. Stephens: "Portfolio," 1889, p. 214. - - F. G. Stephens: Mr. Burne-Jones' Mosaics at Rome, "Portfolio," May - 1890. - - Malcolm Bell: Edward Burne-Jones. London, 1892. - - André Michel: "Journal des Débats," 15 March 1893. - - Cornelius Gurlitt: Die Praerafaeliten, eine britische Malerschule, - "Westermanns Monatshefte," July 1892. - - P. Leprieur: Burne-Jones, decorateur et ornemaniste, "Gazette des - Beaux-Arts," 1892, ii 381. - - Ninety-one Photogravures directly reproduced from the Original - Paintings, "Berl. Photogr. Gesell.," 1901. - - Malcolm Bell: Burne-Jones. Muther's "Die Kunst." Bd. 3. - - Otto v. Schleinitz: "Künstlermonographien." Ed. by Knackfuss. Bd. 55. - Bielefeld, 1901. - -Arthur Hughes: - - William Michael Rossetti: "Portfolio," 1870, p. 113. - -J. M. Strudwick: - - G. Bernard Shaw: "Art Journal," 1891, p. 97. - -Richmond: - - H. Lascelles: William B. Richmond, "Art Journal," Christmas Annual. - 1902. - -Morris: - - Aymer Vallance: William Morris, his Art, his Writings, and his Public - Life. London, 1897. - - J. W. Mackail: Life of William Morris. 2 vols. London, 1901. - -Walter Crane: - - F. G. Stephens: The Designs of Walter Crane, "Portfolio," 1891, 12, - 45. - - Cornelius Gurlitt: "Gegenwart," 1893. - - Peter Jessen: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1893. - - V. Berlepsch: Walter Crane. Wien, 1897. - - Otto v. Schleinitz: Walter Crane, in the "Künstlermonographien." Ed. - by Knackfuss, Bielefeld, 1901. - - P. G. Konody: The Art of Walter Crane. London, 1902. - -Watts: - - J. Beavington-Atkinson: "Portfolio," 1870, p. 65. - - F. W. Myers: On Mr. Watts' Pictures, "Fortnightly Review," February - 1882. - - F. W. Myers: Stanzas on Mr. Watts' Collected Works. London, 1882. - - H. Quilter: The Art of Watts, "Contemporary Review," February 1882. - - Walter Armstrong: George Frederick Watts, "L'Art," 1882, p. 379. - - E. I. Barrington: The Painted Poetry of Watts and Rossetti, - "Nineteenth Century," June 1883. - - E. Pfeiffer: On Two Pictures by G. F. Watts, "Academy," 1884, p. 627. - - M. H. Spielmann: The Works of Mr. G. F. Watts, with a Catalogue of his - Pictures, "Pall Mall Gazette Extra," No. 22. London, 1886. - - F. G. Stephens: G. F. Watts, "Portfolio," 1887, p. 13. - - Helen Zimmern in "Die Kunst unserer Zeit," 1892. - - Hermann Helferich: "Kunst für Alle," December 1893. - - Jarno Jessen: George Frederick F. Watts. Berlin, 1901. - - Rosa E. D. Sketchley: George Frederick Watts. London, 1904. - - -CHAPTER XXXIII - -Gustave Moreau: - - Paul Leroi: Les parias du Salon, "L'Art," 1876, iii 246. - - Charles Tardieu: La peinture à l'exposition universelle de 1878, - "L'Art," 1878, ii 319. - - Ary Renan: G. Moreau, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1886, i 377, ii 36. - - Claude Phillips: Fables of La Fontaine by Gustave Moreau, "Magazine of - Art," 1887, p. 37. - - Karl Huysmans: A. Rebours. Paris, 1891, passim. - - P. Flat: Le musée Gustave Moreau. Étude sur Gustave Moreau, ses - oeuvres, son influence. Paris, 1898. - - Ary Renan: Gustave Moreau. Paris, 1900. - - G. Larronnet: Gustave Moreau. Paris, 1901. - -Puvis de Chavannes: - - A. Baignières: La peinture décorative au XIX siècle. M. Puvis de - Chavannes, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1881, i 416. - - Edouard Aynard: Les peintures décoratives de Puvis de Chavannes au - Palais des Arts. Lyon, 1884. - - Thiebault-Sisson: Puvis de Chavannes et son oeuvre, "La Nouvelle - Revue," December 1887. - - André Michel: Exposition de M. Puvis de Chavannes, "Gazette des - Beaux-Arts," 1886, i 36. - - Hermann Bahr: Zur Kritik der Moderne. Zürich, 1890. - - André Michel: "Graphische Künste," xiv, 1892, 37. - - A. Nossig: "Allgemeine Kunstchronik," 1893, No. 12. - - M. Vachon: Puvis de Chavannes. Paris, 1896. - - L. Bénédite: Les dessins de Puvis de Chavannes au musée du Luxembourg. - Paris, 1901. - - Golberg: Puvis de Chavannes. Paris, 1901. - -Boecklin: - - F. Pecht: "Nord und Süd," 1878, iv 288. Reprinted in "Deutsche - Künstler des 19 Jahrhunderts," Nördlingen, 1879, pp. 180-202. - - A. Rosenberg: "Grenzboten," 1879, i pp. 387-397. - - Graf Schack: Meine Gemäldesammlung. Stuttgart, 1881, pp. 139-155. - - O. Berggruen: Die Galerie Schack. Wien, 1883. - - Zwei neue Gemälde von A. Boecklin, "Deutsche Rundschau," June 1883. - - E. Koppel: Arnold Boecklin, "Vom Fels zum Meer," July 1884. - - Otto Baisch: Arnold Boecklin, "Westermanns Monatshefte," August 1884, - 37. - - Guido Hauck: Arnold Boecklins Gefilde Seligen und Goethes Faust. - Berlin, 1884. - - F. Pecht: Zu Arnold Boecklins 60 Geburtstag, "Kunst für Alle," 1887, - iii 2. - - Fritz Lemmermayer: "Unsere Zeit," 1888, ii 492. - - Helen Zimmern: "Art Journal," 1888, p. 305. - - Berthold Haendke: Arnold Boecklin in seiner historischen und - künstlerischen Entwicklung. Hamburg, 1890. - - Hugo Kaatz: Der Realismus Arnold Boecklins, "Gegenwart," 1890, 38, p. - 168. - - Carus Sterne: Arnold Boecklins Fabelwesen im Lichte der organischen - Formenlehre, "Gegenwart," 1890, 37, p. 21. - - A. Fendler: Arnold Boecklin, "Illustrirte Zeitung," 1890, No. 2310. - - Max Lehrs: Arnold Boecklin, Ein Leitfaden zum Verständniss der Kunst. - München, 1890. - - J. Mähly: Aus Arnold Boecklins Atelier, "Gegenwart," 1892, 14. - - Emil Hannover, in "Tilskueren," Kopenhagen, 1892, p. 118. - - Franz Hermann, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," Nos. 430 and 433, 1 April and - 1 July 1893. - - Franz Hermann, in "Die Kunst Unserer Zeit," December 1893. - - Carl Neumann, "Preussische Jahrbücher," vol. 71, 1893, Part 2. - - Cornelius Gurlitt: "Kunst für Alle," 1894, Part 2. - - Ola Hansson: "Seher und Deuter." Berlin, 1894, p. 152. - - F. von Ostini, in "Velhagen und Klasings Monatshefte," 1894. - - See also the work on Boecklin produced by the "Verlag für Kunst und - Wissenschaft," with forty of the artist's chief pictures reproduced in - photogravure. München, 1892. - - W. Ritter: Arnold Boecklin. Paris, 1895. - - H. F. Meissner: Arnold Boecklin. Berlin, 1898. - - E. Schick: Boecklins Tagebuch. Hrsg. v. Tschudi. Berlin, 1899. - - H. Mendelssohn: Arnold Boecklin. Berlin, 1900. - - H. Brockhaus: Arnold Boecklin. Leipzig, 1901. - - G. Floerke: Gespräche mit Boecklin. München, 1902. - - J. Meier-Gräfe: Der Fall Boecklin. Stuttgart, 1905. - -H. von Marées: - - Conrad Fiedler: H. von Marées. Munich, 1889. (1 vol. text, 1 vol. - pictures.) - - Conrad Fiedler: H. von Marées auf der Münchener Jahresausstellung, - "Allgemeine Zeitung," 1891, Supplement No. 150. - - H. Janitschek: "Die Nation," 1890, No. 51. - - Carl von Pidoll: Aus der Werkstatt eines Künstlers. Luxemburg, 1890. - - Cornelius Gurlitt: "Gegenwart," 1891, 1. - - Heinr. Wölfflin: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1892, Part 4. - - Emil Hannover, in "Tilskueren," Kopenhagen, 1891, p. 1. - -Franz Dreber: - - Exhibition in Royal National Gallery of Berlin, 1876. - - Hubert Janitschek: Zur Charakteristik Franz Drebers, "Zeitschrift für - bildende Kunst," xi, 1876, p. 681. - - -CHAPTER XXXIV - -Bastien-Lepage: - - A. Theuriet: J. Bastien-Lepage, l'homme et l'artiste. Paris, 1885. - - A. Hustin: Bastien-Lepage, "L'Art," 1885, i 13. - - G. Dargenty: "L'Art," 1885, i 146, 163. - - A. de Fourcaud: Jules Bastien-Lepage, sa vie et ses oeuvres. Paris, - 1888. - - Marie von Baskirtscheff: "Journal intime." Paris, 1890. - -Marie Baskirtscheff: - - Cornelius Gurlitt: Marie Baskirtscheff und ihr Tagebuch, in "Die Kunst - unserer Zeit," 1892, i 61. - -Léon L'Hermitte: - - Robert Walker: L'Hermitte, "Art Journal," 1886, p. 266. - -Raffaelli: - - Alfred de Lostalot: Expositions diverses à Paris: Oeuvres de M. J. F. - Raffaelli, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1884, i 334. - - Emil Hannover: Raffaelli, "Af Dagens Krönike." Kopenhagen, 1889. - -J. de Nittis: - - Philippe Burty: "L'Art," 1880, p. 276. - - Henry Jouin: Maîtres contemporains, p. 229. Paris, 1887. - -Ferdinand Heilbuth: - - A. Hustin: "L'Art," 1889, ii 268. - - A. Helferich: "Kunst für Alle," v, 1890, p. 61. - -Gervex: - - F. Jahyer: Galerie contemporaine litéraire et artistique, 1879, p. - 178. - -Friant: - - Roger Marx: Silhouettes d'artistes contemporains, "L'Art," 1883, p. - 461. - -Ulysse Butin: - - Paul Leroi: "L'Art," 1878, ii 25. - - Abel Patoux: "L'Art," 1890, ii 7, 117. - -Dagnan-Bouveret: - - B. Karageorgevitsch: "Magazine of Art," February 1893, No. 148. - -On the more Modern Landscape Painters in General: - - P. Taren: Die moderne Landschaft, "Gegenwart," 1889, 20. - -On Neo-Impressionism: - - Paul Signac: D'Eugène Delacroix au Neo-impressionisme. Paris, 1903. - -George Seurat: - - Obituary in the "Chronique des Arts," 1890, 14. - -Cheret: - - Ernest Maindron: Les affiches illustrées, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," - 1884, ii 418 and 435. - - Karl Huysmans: Certains. Paris, 1891. - - L'affiche illustrée. Le roi de l'affiche. L'oeuvre de Chéret, etc., - "La Plume," No. 110, 15 November 1893. - - R. H. Sherard: "Magazine of Art," September 1893, No. 155. - - L. Morin: Quelques artistes de ce temps. [Cherét, Vierge.] Paris, - 1898. - - G. Kahn: Jules Chéret, "Art et Decoration," xii, 1902, p. 177. - -Steinlen: - - Crouzat: A. de Steinlen, peintre, graveur, lithographe. Paris, Maison - du livre, 1902. - -Paul Renouard: - - Eugène Véron: "L'Art," 1875, iii 58; 1876, iv 252. - - Jules Claretie: M. Paul Renouard et l'Opéra, "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," - 1881, i 435. - -Daniel Vierge: - - J. and E. R. Pennell: Daniel Vierge, "Portfolio," 1888, p. 201. - - By the Editor: "Magazine of Art," 1892, No. 146 (December). - -Cazin: - - Leon Bénédite: Cazin. Paris, 1902. - -Lautrec: - - E. Klassowki: Die Maler von Montmartre [Billotte, Steinlen, - Toulouse-Lautrec, Léandre]. "Die Kunst," Bd. 15. Edited by R. Muther. - - André Rivoire: "Revue de l'art ancien et moderne," xi, 1902. - -Carrière: - - G. Geffroy: La vie artistique. Préface d'Edmond de Goncourt. Pointe - sèche d'Eugène Carrière. Paris, Dentu, 1893. - - Léailles: E. Carrière, l'homme et l'artiste. Paris, 1901. - - G. Geffroy: L'oeuvre d'Eugène Carrière. Paris, 1902. - -Aman-Jean: - - A. Beaunier, Aman-Jean, "Art et Decoration," vi, 1899. - -Odilon Redon: - - J. Destrée: L'oeuvre lithographique de Odilon Redon. Catalogue - descriptif. Bruxelles, 1891. - - -CHAPTER XXXV - -In General: - - Francisco Tubino: The Revival of Spanish Art. 1882. - - Spanische Künstlermappe. Edited by Prince Ludwig Ferdinand, with an - Introduction by F. Reber. Munich, 1885. - - Gustav Diercks: Moderne spanische Maler, "Vom Fels zum Meer," 1890, 5. - -Fortuny: - - "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," ix, 1874, p. 341. - - J. C. Davillier: Fortuny, sa vie, son oeuvre, sa correspondance. Avec - cinq dessins inédits en facsimile et deux eaux-fortes originales. - Paris, Aubry, 1876. - - Fortuny und die moderne Malerei der Spanier, "Allgemeine Zeitung," - 1881, Supplement, 245. - - Walther Fol: "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1875, i 267, 351. - - Charles Yriarte: "L'Art," 1875, i 361. - - Charles Yriarte, in "Les artistes célèbres." Paris, 1885. - - See also the Fortuny Album published by Goupil. 40 page photographs. - Paris, 1889. - -Pradilla: - - Delia Hart: "Art Journal," 1891, p. 257. - - -CHAPTER XXXVI - - James Jackson Jarves: Modern Italian Painters and Painting, "Art - Journal," 1880, p. 261. - - P. P.: Die Kunstausstellung im Senatspalast zu Mailand, "Zeitschrift - für bildende Kunst," xvi, 1881, 361, 381. - - Camillo Boito: Pittura e scultura. Milano, 1883. - - Die modernen Venetianer Maler, "Allgemeine Kunstchronik," 1884, viii - 2. - - - Milliot: De l'art actuel en Italie, "Revue du monde latin," Juin, - 1887. - - Angelo de Gubernatis: Dizionario degli Artisti Italiani viventi. - Firenze, 1889. - - M. Wittich: Italienische Malerei. Mappe, 1890, 8. - - Helen Zimmern: Die moderne Kunst in Italien, "Kunst unserer Zeit," - 1890, p. 74. - - A. Stella: Pittura e Scultura in Piemonte. Turin, Paravia & Comp., - 1893. - -On the Neapolitans: - - Principessa della Rocca: Artisti Italiani Viventi (Napolitani). - Napoli, 1878. - - Helen Zimmern: Die neapolitanische Malerschule, "Kunst für Alle," - 1889, p. 81. - -Morelli: - - Helen Zimmern: "Art Journal," 1885, pp. 345 and 357. - - E. Dalbano: Domenico Morelli. Napoli Nobilissima, xi, 1902. - -Michetti: - - Helen Zimmern: "Art Journal," 1887, pp. 16 and 41. - -Dalbono: - - Helen Zimmern: "Art Journal," 1888, p. 45. - -Favretto: - - Obituaries in 1887: Garocci, "Arte e storia," vi 16; "Chronique des - Arts," 24; "Allgemeine Kunstchronik," 26; "Mittheilungen des Mähr. - Gewerbemuseums," 8; "Courrier de l'Art," vi 25; "Kunstchronik," xxii - 37; "The Saturday Review," 1 October 1887. - - See also Giacomo Favretto e le sue opere. Edizione unica di tutti i - principali Capolavori del celebre Artista Veneziano. Publicata per - cura di G. Cesare Sicco. Torino, 1887. - - L. Brasch: Giacomo Favretta, "Die Kunst unserer Zeit," xii, 1902. - -Segantini: - - W. Fred: Giovanni Segantini. Wien, 1901. - - Franz Servaes: Giovanni Segantini. Sein Leben und sein Werk. Hrsg. v. - k. k. Ministerium für Kultus und Unterricht. Wien, M. Serlach & Co. - 1901. - - -CHAPTER XXXVII - -In General: - - Frederick Wedmore: Some tendencies in Recent Painting, "Temple Bar," - July 1878. - - E. Chesneau: Artistes anglais contemporains. Paris, 1887. - - Claude Phillips: The Progress of English Art as shown at the - Manchester Exhibition, "Magazine of Art," December 1887. - - Ford Madox Brown on the same subject in the "Magazine of Art," - February 1888. - - Rutari: Kunst und Künstler in England, "Kölnische Zeitung," 1890, 205. - -Leighton: - - J. Beavington Atkinson: "Portfolio," 1870, p. 161. - - Mrs. A. Lang: Sir F. Leighton, his Life and Work. 42 Plates. "The Art - Annual," 1884. London, Virtue. - - Wyke Bayliss: Five Great Painters of the Victorian Era. London, - Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 1902. - - G. C. Williamson: Frederic Lord Leighton. London, G. Bell & Sons, - 1902. - -Poynter: - - Sidney Colvin: "Portfolio," 1871, 1. - - P. G. Hamerton: "Portfolio," 1877, 11. - - James Dafforne: "Art Journal," 1877, p. 18; 1881, p. 26. - -Alma Tadema: - - G. A. Simcox: "Portfolio," 1874, p. 109. - - H. Billung: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," 1879, xiv 229, 269. - - The Works of Laurence Alma Tadema, "Art Journal," February 1883. - - Alice Meynell: L. Alma Tadema, "Art Journal," November 1884. - - Georg Ebers: Lorenz Alma Tadema, "Westermanns Monatshefte," November - and December 1885. - - Helen Zimmern: L. Alma Tadema, his Life and Work, "The Art Annual," - 1886. London, Virtue. - - K. Brügge: Alma Tadema, "Vom Fels zum Meer," 1887, 2. - - Helen Zimmern in "Die Kunst unserer Zeit," 1890, ii 130. - - Rudolf de Cardova: Sir Laurence Alma Tadema, "Cassell's Magazine," - 1902. - - H. Zimmern: Sir Laurence Alma Tadema. London, G. Bell & Sons, 1902. - -Albert Moore: - - Sidney Colvin: "Portfolio," 1870, 1. - - Harold Frederic: "Scribner's Magazine," December 1891, p. 712. - - Karl Blind: "Vom Fels zum Meer," 1892. - -Briton Rivière: - - James Dafforne: The Works of Briton Rivière, "Art Journal," 1878, p. - 5. - - Walter Armstrong: Briton Rivière, his Life and Work, "Art Annual," - 1891. London, Virtue. - - A. Braun: Ein englischer Thiermaler, "Allgemeine Kunstchronik," 1888, - 37-39. - -R. Caldecott: - - Claude Phillips: "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," 1886, i 327. - - See also R. Caldecott: Sketches, with an Introduction by H. Blackburn. - London, 1890. - -George Mason: - - Sidney Colvin: George Mason, "Portfolio," 1871, p. 113. - - G. A. Simcox: Mr. Mason's Collected Works, "Portfolio," 1873, p. 40. - - Alice Meynell: "Art Journal," 1883, pp. 43, 108, and 185. - -Walker: - - Sidney Colvin: Frederick Walker, "Portfolio," 1870, p. 33. - - Obituary in the "Art Journal," 1875, pp. 232, 254, 351. - - James Dafforne: The Works of Frederick Walker, "Art Journal," 1876, p. - 297. - - J. Comyns Carr: "Portfolio," 1875, p. 117. - - J. Comyns Carr: "L'Art," 1876, i 175, ii 130. - - J. Comyns Carr: Frederick Walker, an Essay. London, 1885. - - Clementina Black: Frederick Walker. London, Duckworth, 1902. - -G. H. Boughton: - - Sidney Colvin: "Portfolio," 1871, p. 65. - - James Dafforne: "Art Journal," 1873, p. 41. - -G. D. Leslie: - - Tom Taylor: "Portfolio," 1870, p. 177. - -P. H. Calderon: - - Tom Taylor: "Portfolio," 1870, p. 97. - - James Dafforne: "Art Journal," 1870, p. 9. - -Marcus Stone: - - Lionel G. Robinson: "Art Journal," 1885, p. 68. - -Frank Holl: - - Harry Quilter: In Memoriam: Frank Holl, "Universal Review," August - 1888. - - Erwin Volckmann: "Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst," xxiv, 1889, p. 130. - - Gertrude E. Campbell: "Art Journal," 1889, p. 53. - -Herkomer: - - J. Dafforne: The Works of Hubert Herkomer, "Art Journal," 1880, p. - 109. - - Helen Zimmern: H. Herkomer, "Kunst für Alle," vi, 1891, i. - - W. L. Courtney: Professor Hubert Herkomer, Royal Academician, his Life - and Work, "Art Annual" for 1892. London, Virtue. - - Ludwig Pietsch: Hubert Herkomer, "Velhagen und Klasings Monatshefte," - 1892. - - See also H. Herkomer: Etching and Mezzotint Engraving. Lectures - delivered at Oxford. London, 1892. - - L. Pietsch: Herkomer, "Künstlermonographien." Ed. Knackfuss, No. 54. - Bielefeld, 1901. - -On Modern English Landscape: - - P. G. Hamerton: The Landscape-Painters, "Portfolio," 1870, p. 145. - - Alfred Dawson: English Landscape Art, its Position and Prospects. - London, 1876. - - Alfred W. Hunt: Modern English Landscape-Painting, "Nineteenth - Century," May 1880. - -Cecil Lawson: - - "Art Journal," 1882, p 223. - - Heseltine Ovon: "Magazine of Art," No. 158, December 1893. - -Hook: - - F. G. Stephens: James Clarke Hook, "Portfolio," 1871, p. 181. - - A. H. Palmer: James Clarke Hook, "Portfolio," 1888, pp. 1, 35, 74, - 105, 165. - - Frederick George Stephens: James Clarke Hook, his Life and Work, "Art - Annual," 1888. London, Virtue. - -Vicat Cole: - - James Dafforne: "Art Journal," 1870, p. 177. - -Colin Hunter: - - Walter Armstrong: "Art Journal," 1885, p. 117. - -Birket Foster: - - James Dafforne: "Art Journal," 1871, p. 157. - - Marcus B. Huish: "Art Annual," 1890. London, Virtue. - -David Murray: - - Marion Hepworth Dixon: "Art Journal," 1891, p. 144. - - W. Armstrong: "Magazine of Art," 1891, p. 397. - -Ernest Parton: - - "Art Journal," 1892, p. 353. - -W. B. Leader: - - James Dafforne: "Art Journal," 1871, p. 45. - -W. L. Wyllie: - - J. Penderel-Brodhurst: "Art Journal," 1889, p. 220. - -Henry Moore: - - "Art Journal," 1881, pp. 161 and 223. - - P. G. Hamerton: A Modern Marine Painter, "Portfolio," 1890, pp. 88 and - 110. - -On the Group of English Painters working in Venice: - - Julia Cartwright: The Artist in Venice, "Portfolio," 1884, p 17. - -Henry Woods: - - "Art Journal," 1886, p. 97. - -Clara Montalba: - - Paul Leroi: "L'Art," 1882, iii 207. - -Stanhope A. Forbes: - - Wilfrid Meynell: "Art Journal," 1892, p. 65. - -Shaw: - - P. G. Konody: Byam Shaw, "Kunst und Kunsthandwerk," v, 1902. - - - - - _Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_ - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Modern Painting, Volume -3 (of 4), by Richard Muther - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF MODERN PAINTING, VOL 3 *** - -***** This file should be named 44082-8.txt or 44082-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/0/8/44082/ - -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) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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