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diff --git a/old/69533-0.txt b/old/69533-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 39c2ffc..0000000 --- a/old/69533-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7562 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Impressionist painting: its genesis -and development, by Wynford Dewhurst - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Impressionist painting: its genesis and development - -Author: Wynford Dewhurst - -Release Date: December 13, 2022 [eBook #69533] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Tim Lindell, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING: ITS -GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT *** - - - - - - - - IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING: - ITS GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - A STUDY · MAX LIEBERMANN -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING - - ITS GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT - - BY WYNFORD DEWHURST - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - - - LONDON PUBLISHED BY - GEORGE NEWNES LIMITED - SOUTHAMPTON ST. STRAND - MDCCCCIV - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - - - Á - - MONSIEUR CLAUDE MONET - - EN TÉMOIGNAGE D’ESTIME - ET D’ADMIRATION - - WYNFORD DEWHURST - - - - CHELMSCOTE - LEIGHTON BUZZARD - _Mar. 1904_ - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PREFACE - - -IT may perhaps be interesting to the readers of this book to give a -short account of its origin. From the earliest days of my pupilage to -art I had been instinctively drawn towards the paintings of Turner, -Corot, Constable, Bonington, and Watts, with an intense admiration for -their manner in viewing, and methods of recreating, nature upon their -canvases; and in later years I had been fascinated by the works of more -modern artists, such as La Thangue, George Clausen, Edward Stott, and -Robert Meyerheim. In 1891, a student in Paris, I found myself face to -face with a beautiful development of landscape painting, which was quite -new to me. “Impressionism,” together with its numerous progeny of -eccentric offshoots, was at the time causing a great furore in the -schools. Curiously enough I had been charged with copying Monet’s style -long before I had seen his actual work, so that my conversion into an -enthusiastic Impressionist was short, in fact, an instantaneous process. - -Since then I have endeavoured, by precept and by example, to preach the -doctrine of Impressionism, particularly in England, where it is so -little known and appreciated. It has always seemed to me astonishing -that an art which has shown such magnificent proofs of virility, which -has long been accepted at its true value on the Continent and in -America, should be comparatively neglected in my own country. A -stimulating propaganda being needed, I invaded for a short time the -domain of the writer on art, a sphere of activity for which I feel -myself none too well equipped. For years, as a hobby, I had collected -all manner of documents bearing upon the subject of Impressionism, and -the mass of material which thus accumulated formed the basis for several -articles which have appeared under my name in the English magazines. To -the Editors of the _Pall Mall Magazine_, the _Artist_, and the _Studio_, -I must tender my best thanks for the leave, so courteously given, to -incorporate the substance of the respective articles in this volume. - -Many of the pictures which illustrate these pages are unique, having -been reproduced for the first time, the photographs not being for public -sale. I have to acknowledge my sincere obligations to Miss Mary Cassatt, -Messieurs Durand-Ruel (who have given me much personal assistance), -George Petit, Bernheim jeune, Maxime Maufra, Alexander Harrison, Paul -Chevallier, Lucien Sauphar, Emile Claus, Max Liebermann, and, indeed, to -all the artists illustrated, for permission to use the photographs of -their works. To Miss Mary Cassatt, and Messieurs Claude Monet, Emile -Claus, and Max Liebermann I am also indebted for the loan of valuable -pictures, and also for permission to reproduce them in colours. Without -such aid it would have been impossible to produce satisfactorily any -account of Impressionism. I trust that this volume may be of real -service in the cause of art education, and that it may introduce to an -extended circle of art-lovers the masterpieces of the great artists who -founded and are continuing Impressionist Painting. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - DEDICATION v - - PREFACE vii - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi - - LIST OF PORTRAITS xv - - CHAP. - - I. THE EVOLUTION OF THE IMPRESSIONISTIC IDEA 1 - - II. JONGKIND, BOUDIN, AND CÉZANNE 9 - - III. EDOUARD MANET (1832-1883) 17 - - IV. THE IMPRESSIONIST GROUP, 1870-1886 31 - - V. CLAUDE MONET 37 - - VI. PISSARRO, RENOIR, SISLEY 49 - - VII. SOME YOUNGER IMPRESSIONISTS: CARRIÈRE, POINTELIN, 57 - MAUFRA - - VIII. “REALISTS”: RAFFAËLLI, DEGAS, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC 65 - - IX. THE “WOMEN-PAINTERS”: BERTHE MORISOT, MARY 75 - CASSATT, MARIE BRACQUEMOND, EVA GONZALÈS - - X. “LA PEINTURE CLAIRE”: CLAUS, LE SIDANER, BESNARD, 79 - DIDIER-POUGET - - XI. AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISTS: WHISTLER, HARRISON, 89 - HASSAM - - XII. A GERMAN IMPRESSIONIST, MAX LIEBERMANN 95 - - XIII. INFLUENCES AND TENDENCIES 101 - - APPENDIX 107 - - BIBLIOGRAPHY 113 - - INDEX 121 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS - - - MAX LIEBERMANN - A STUDY (_Frontispiece_) - - J. M. W. TURNER - MODERN ITALY - PETWORTH PARK - - JOHN CONSTABLE - THE CORN FIELD - A STUDY - - THOMAS GIRTIN - VIEW ON THE THAMES - - R. P. BONINGTON - HENRI IV. AND THE SPANISH AMBASSADOR - A COAST SCENE - - G. F. WATTS - TIME, DEATH, AND JUDGMENT - RIDER ON THE WHITE HORSE - - J. B. JONGKIND - VIEW OF HONFLEUR - MOONRISE - - EUGÈNE BOUDIN - RETURN OF THE FISHING SMACKS - THE REPAIRING DOCKS AT DUNKIRK - - PAUL CÉZANNE - LA ROUTE - - EDOUARD MANET - THE BULLFIGHT - THE GARDEN - PORTRAIT OF BERTHE MORISOT - PORTRAIT OF M. P——, THE LION-HUNTER - A GARDEN IN RUEIL - FISHING - - GEORGES D’ESPAGNAT - THE WHITE RABBITS - A SUMMER AFTERNOON - FAIR ANGLERS - - LEPINE - FISHING NEAR PARIS - - CLAUDE MONET - THE PICNIC - A STUDY (_in Colour_) - LA GRENOUILLÈRE - THE BEACH AT ÉTRETAT - POPLARS ON THE BANK OF THE EPTE: AUTUMN - MORNING ON THE SEINE - ARGENTEUIL - A RIVER SCENE - A LADY IN HER GARDEN - INTERIOR—AFTER DINNER - - CAMILLE PISSARRO - CHURCH OF ST. JACQUES, DIEPPE - PLACE DU THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS - THE BOULEVARD MONTMARTRE: A WINTER IMPRESSION - - AUGUSTE RENOIR - PASTEL PORTRAIT OF CÉZANNE - AT THE PIANO - - ALFRED SISLEY - A SUNNY MORNING IN AUTUMN - OUTSKIRTS OF THE FOREST OF FONTAINEBLEAU - ON THE BANKS OF THE LOING - OUTSKIRTS OF A WOOD - - EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE - CHILD AND DOG - THE FAMILY - MOTHERHOOD - - AUGUSTE POINTELIN - A GLADE IN THE WOOD - MOUNTAIN AND TREES - - MAXIME MAUFRA - A ROCKY COAST - AN ETCHING - ARRIVAL OF THE FISHING BOATS AT CAMARET - SHIPWRECK - - J. F. RAFFAËLLI - A GLASS OF GOOD RED WINE - NOTRE DAME - - EDGAR DEGAS - DANCING GIRL FASTENING HER SHOE - DANCING GIRL - CAFÉ SCENE ON THE BOULEVARD MONTMARTRE - - MARY CASSATT - BABY’S TOILET (_in Colour_) - - BERTHE MORISOT - LE LEVER - - EMILE CLAUS - THE LAST RAYS (_in Colour_) - THE VILLAGE STREET - RETURNING FROM MARKET - GOLDEN AUTUMN - APPLE GATHERING - A SUNLIT HOUSE - THE QUAY AT VEERE - THE BARRIER - - HENRI LE SIDANER - AN ALLEY - THE TABLE - - ALBERT BESNARD - A STUDY - THE DEATH BED - - DIDIER POUGET - MORNING MISTS IN THE VALLEY OF THE CREUSE - MORNING IN THE VALLEY OF THE CORRÈZE - THE VALLEY OF THE CREUSE - - J. A. McN WHISTLER - PORTRAIT OF HIS MOTHER - PORTRAIT OF THOMAS CARLYLE - PRINCESS OF THE PORCELAIN COUNTRY - - ALEXANDER HARRISON - IN ARCADY - THE WAVE - SEASCAPE - - CHILDE HASSAM - SUNLIGHT ON THE LAKE - CHILDREN - POMONA - - MAX LIEBERMANN - A COUNTRY BEER-HOUSE, BAVARIA - THE COBBLERS - ASYLUM FOR OLD MEN, AMSTERDAM - WOMAN WITH GOATS - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - LIST OF PORTRAITS - - - EDOUARD MANET - GEORGES D’ESPAGNAT - CLAUDE MONET - CAMILLE PISSARRO - AUGUSTE RENOIR - ALFRED SISLEY - J. F. RAFFAËLLI - AUGUSTE POINTELIN - MAXIME MAUFRA - EMILE CLAUS - ALEXANDER HARRISON - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - MODERN ITALY · J. M. W. TURNER -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER I · THE EVOLUTION OF THE IMPRESSIONISTIC IDEA - - “L’IMPRESSIONISME, ELLE EST DIGNE DE NOTRE - ADMIRATIVE ATTENTION, ET NOUS POUVONS - RATIONNELLEMENT CROIRE QUE, AUX YEUX DES GÉNÉRATIONS - FUTURES, ELLE JUSTIFIERA CETTE FIN DE SIÈCLE DANS - L’HISTOIRE GÉNÉRALE DE L’ART” - - _GEORGES - LECOMTE_ - - -ALTHOUGH the great revolution of 1793 changed the whole face of France -both politically and socially, it failed to emancipate the twin arts of -painting and literature. In each case one tradition was succeeded by -another, and nearly forty years elapsed before the new spirit completely -broke through the barriers set up by a past generation. - -In literature the victory was complete. The reason is easy to discover. -The smart dramatist and the young novelist are always more likely to -catch the fickle taste of the uneducated public than the budding -painter, who depends to a great extent for his appreciation upon the -trained and generally prejudiced eye of a connoisseur. There is another -reason for the success of the Romantic School in literature. The -majority of its leaders lived to extreme old age, and were themselves -able to correct their youthful extravagances. Hugo, Dumas, Gautier (to -mention but three) went down to their graves in honour. They had -outlived the antagonisms of their early days, and no man dared to raise -his voice in protest against poets who had added fresh laurels to the -glory of France. - -The world of art was less fortunate. Many of the younger men barely -lived through the first flush of youth. Destroying Death is the worst -enemy to the arts. It is idle to imagine the changes which must have -ensued had Géricault and Bonington reached the Psalmist’s allotted span. -The unnatural union of Classical traditions with the yeast of -Romanticism might not have taken place. Such artists as Delaroche and -Couture would have dropped into the background, and there would have -been less reason for the revolt of Edouard Manet. It is possible that -Claude Monet might have been forestalled. Surely, Impressionism would -have come to us in another shape from different easels. In any event it -was bound to arrive, for a French artist had already struck the note -nearly a century and a half before. - -The schools of painting which flourished under the last three Capet -kings lacked many of the essentials of truly great art. But they -possessed qualities, which the Classicalists despised, and the -Romanticists never reached in exactly the same way. They possessed a -strong sense of colour. Watteau, in particular, was the first to catch -the sunlight. The painters of “les fêtes galantes” are artificial, -unreal, dominated by mannerisms. But the cold inanities of David, -Girodet, Gérard, and Gros are no more to be compared with them than the -bituminous melodramatics of the lesser Romantic artists. - -Watteau’s successors never entirely lost their master’s sense of light -and colour. In a mild way Chardin attempted realism. Boucher, and, -later, Fragonard were influenced by that Japanese art which was to take -such a prominent place in the movement of a hundred years later. But the -world altered. The stern, hard ideals of Rome and Greece were too severe -for these poor triflers with the Orient. David reigned supreme. The -_Journal de l’Empire_ considered Boucher ridiculous. Unhappy, forgotten -Fragonard, surely one of the most pathetic of figures, died in poverty -whilst the drums of Austerlitz were still reverberating through the air. - -Ingres, a pupil of David, taught his students that draughtsmanship was -of more importance than colour. “A thing well drawn,” he said, “is -always well enough painted.” Such teaching was bound to provoke dissent, -and the germs of the coming revolution were to cross from England. Byron -and Scott were the sources of the literary revolution which swept across -Europe. British artists showed the way in the fight against tradition -and form, which resulted in the School of Barbizon, and its great -successor, the School of Impressionism. - -Excluding the miniaturists, and such foreign masters as Holbein, -Vandyck, Kneller, and Lely, English art could hardly boast one hundred -consecutive years of history when its landscape artists first exhibited -in the Paris Salon. The French School could not forget Italy and its own -past. Even to this day the entrance to the École des Beaux-Arts is -guarded by two colossal busts of Poujet and Poussin, and the supreme -prize in its gift is the Prix de Rome. But English art has never been -trammelled excessively by its own past, simply because it did not -possess one, and, with insular pride, refused to accept that of the -Continent. - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by W. A. Mansell & Co._ - PETWORTH PARK · J. M. W. TURNER -] - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by W. A. Mansell & Co._ - THE CORN FIELD · J. CONSTABLE -] - -Hogarth is a case in point. His education was slight and desultory; he -did not indulge in the Grand Tour; he professed a truly British scorn -for foreigners, uttering “blasphemous expressions against the divinity -even of Raphael, Correggio, and Michelangelo.” He took his subjects from -the life which daily surged under his windows in Leicester Square, and -when he attempted a classical composition he utterly failed, and was -promptly told so by his numerous enemies. His canvases form historical -records of the men and women of the early Georgian era, in much the same -manner as Edouard Manet represents the “noceurs” and “cocottes” who -wrecked the Second Empire and reappeared during the first decade of the -Third Republic. - -Hogarth was a colourist, and the early English School was always one of -colour and animation, attempting to follow Nature as closely as -possible. Some of the slighter portrait studies of Sir Joshua Reynolds -have a strong affinity to the work of the French Impressionists. Richard -Wilson was not altogether blind to the beautiful world around him, -although he considered an English landscape always improved by a Grecian -temple. Gainsborough was decidedly no formalist, and whilst the lifeless -group, comprising Barry, West, Fuseli, and Northcote, was endeavouring -to inculcate the classical idea, the English Water-colour School began -to appear, the Norwich School was in the distance, Turner’s wonderful -career had commenced, and Constable, the handsome boy from Suffolk, was -studying atmospheric effects and the play of sunlight from the windows -of his father’s mill at Bergholt. In 1819 Géricault, one of the leaders -of the reaction in France against Classicalism, paid a visit to England. -He does not seem to have been greatly influenced by English work, owing -no doubt to his lamentably early death. But his visit resulted in -Constable and Bonington becoming known in France. - -For years English painters exhibited regularly at the Salon. In 1822, -the year when Delacroix hung _Dante’s Bark_, Bonington exhibited the -_View of Lillebonne_ and a _View of Havre_, whilst other Englishmen -exhibiting were Copley Fielding, John Varley, and Robson. In 1824 the -Englishmen were still more prominent. John Constable received the Gold -Medal from Charles X. for the _Hay Wain_ (now in the London National -Gallery), and exhibited in company with Bonington, Copley Fielding, -Harding, Samuel Prout, and Varley. In 1827 Constable exhibited for the -last time, and, curious omen for the future, between the frames of -Constable and Bonington was hung a canvas by a young painter who had -never been accepted by the Salon before. His name was Corot, and he was -quite unknown. - -The influence of these Englishmen upon French painting during the -nineteenth century is one of the most striking episodes in the history -of art. They were animated by a new spirit, the spirit of sincerity and -truth. The French landscape group of 1830, which embraced such giants as -Corot, Rousseau, and Daubigny, was the direct result of Constable’s -power. The path was made ready for Manet, who, though not a -“paysagiste,” became the head of the group which included Monet, Sisley, -and Pissarro. Forty years later the younger men sought fresh inspiration -in the works of an Englishman. Indirectly, Impressionism owes its birth -to Constable; and its ultimate glory, the works of Claude Monet, is -profoundly inspired by the genius of Turner. - -When the principles which animated these epoch-making English artists -are contrasted with those which ruled the Impressionists, their -resemblance is found to be strong. “There is room enough for a natural -painter,” wrote Constable to a friend after visiting an exhibition which -had bored him. “Come and see sincere works,” wrote Manet in his -catalogue. “Tone is the most seductive and inviting quality a picture -can possess,” said Constable. It cannot be too clearly understood that -the Impressionistic idea is of English birth. Originated by Constable, -Turner, Bonington, and some members of the Norwich School, like most -innovators they found their practice to be in advance of the age. -British artists did not fully grasp the significance of their work, and -failed to profit by their valuable discoveries. - -It was not the first brilliant idea which, evolved in England, has had -to cross the Channel for due appreciation, for appreciated it certainly -was not in the country of its origin. As the genius of the dying Turner -flickered out, English art reached its deepest degradation. The official -art of the Great Exhibition of 1851 has become a byword and a reproach. -In English minds it stands for everything that is insincere, unreal, -tawdry, and trivial. - -The group of pre-Raphaelites, brilliantly gifted as they undoubtedly -were, worked upon a foundation of retrograde mediævalism. And, as the -years followed each other, English art failed as a whole to recover its -lost vitality. Domestic anecdote, according to the formulæ of Augustus -Egg, Poole, or, slightly higher in the scale, Mulready and Maclise, -formed the product of nearly every studio. The false Greco-Roman -convention of Lord Leighton luckily had no following. Rejuvenescence -came from France in the shape of Impressionism, and English art received -back an idea she had, as it proved, but lent. - -[Illustration: - - A STUDY · J. CONSTABLE -] - -[Illustration: - - VIEW OF THE THAMES · THOMAS GIRTIN -] - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by W. A. Mansell & Co._ - HENRI IV. AND THE SPANISH AMBASSADOR · R. P. BONINGTON -] - -Those Englishmen who are taunted with following the methods of the -French Impressionists, sneered at for imitating a foreign style, are in -reality but practising their own, for the French artists simply -developed a style which was British in its conception. Many things had -assisted this development, some accidental, some natural. All the -Englishmen had worked to a large extent in the open. Now the atmosphere -of France lends itself admirably to Impressionistic painting “en plein -air.” All landscapists notice that the light is purer, stronger, and -less variable in France than in England. - -By thus working in the open both Constable and Turner, together with -their French followers, were able to realise upon canvas a closer -verisimilitude to the varying moods of nature than had been attempted -before. By avoiding artificially darkened studios they were able to -study the problems of light with an actuality impossible under a glass -roof. They were in fact children of the sun, and through its worship -they evolved an entirely new school of picture-making. The Modern -Impressionist, too, is a worshipper of light, and is never happier than -when attempting to fix upon his canvas some beautiful effect of -sunshine, some exquisite gradation of atmosphere. Who better than Turner -can teach the use and practice of value and tone? In triumph he fixed -those fleeting mists upon his immortal canvases, immortal unhappily only -so long as bitumen, mummy, and other pigment abominations will allow. - -The technical methods of the French Impressionists and of the early -English group vary but little. The modern method of placing side by side -upon the canvas spots, streaks, or dabs of more or less pure colour, -following certain defined scientific principles, was made habitual use -of by Turner. Both Constable and Turner worked pure white in impasto -throughout their canvases, high light and shadow equally, long before -the advent of the Frenchmen. - -An example of this was to be seen in a large painting by Constable hung -in the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition of 1903. _The Opening of Waterloo -Bridge_, exhibited in 1832, was declared by the artist’s enemies to have -been painted with his palette-knife. Almost the whole of the canvas, -especially the foreground, is dragged over by a full charged brush of -pure white, which, catching the uneven surface of the underlying dry -impasto work, produces a simple but successful illusion of brilliant -vibrating light. - -This work was not well received by the contemporary press and public. It -was regarded as a bad joke, became celebrated as a snowstorm, compared -with Berlin wool-work (a favourite simile which Mr. Henley has recently -applied to Burne-Jones), and was derided as the product of a disordered -brain. Seventy years have barely sufficed for its full appreciation. - -By a curious coincidence Bonington’s _Boulogne Fishmarket_ was hung -almost exactly opposite in the same Winter Exhibition. This canvas must -have had an enormous influence with Manet, its blond harmony and rich -flat values within a distinct general tone being a distinguishing -feature of the great Frenchman’s style. - -The Impressionists, therefore, continued the methods of the English -masters. But they added a strange and exotic ingredient. To the art of -Corot and Constable they added the art of Japan, an art which had -profoundly influenced French design one hundred years before. The -opening of the Treaty ports flooded Europe with craft work from the -islands. From Japanese colour-prints, and the gossamer sketches on silk -and rice-paper, the Impressionists learnt the manner of painting scenes -as observed from an altitude, with the curious perspective which -results. They awoke to the multiplied gradation of values and to the use -of pure colour in flat masses. This art was the source of the evolution -to a system of simpler lines. - -In colour they ultimately departed from the practice of the English and -Barbizon Schools. The Impressionists purified the palette, discarding -blacks, browns, ochres, and muddy colours generally, together with all -bitumens and siccatives. These they replaced by new and brilliant -combinations, the result of modern chemical research. Cadmium Pale, -Violet de Cobalt, Garance rose doré, enabled them to attain a higher -degree of luminosity than was before possible. Special care was given to -the study and rendering of colour, and also to the reflections to be -found in shadows. - -So far as the term implies the position of teacher and pupils, the -Impressionists did not form themselves into a school. On the contrary, -they were independent co-workers, banded together by friendship, moved -by the same sentiments, each one striving to solve the same æsthetic -problem. At the same time it is possible to separate them into distinct -personalities and groups. - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by W. A. Mansell & Co._ - A COAST SCENE · R. P. BONINGTON -] - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by Fredk. Hollyer_ - TIME, DEATH, AND JUDGMENT · G. F. WATTS -] - -Edouard Manet occupies a position alone. His work can be separated into -two periods, divided by the year 1870. His earlier work deeply -influenced Claude Monet, who was a prominent member of the group which -gathered round Manet at the Café Guerbois. After 1870 the position was -slightly changed, for, although he retained the nominal leadership of -the group which was now known under the title of Impressionists, Manet -was influenced by the technique of Claude Monet. The question has yet to -be decided whether Manet or Monet was the founder of the new school. -Monsieur Camille Mauclair declares for the latter, stating that Manet’s -pre-eminence was due to the attention he attracted by his excessive -realism, and that Claude Monet was the true initiator. It may be -admitted that Impressionism, as the phrase is now understood, did not -really gather force until 1867. Claude Monet was greatly attracted by -Manet’s work as early as 1863, and upon these new methods he seems to -have based his own, widened though after his visit to London with -Pissarro in 1870. - -During his lifetime Manet was the recognised head, and around him was -formed the famous circle of the Café Guerbois, which became known as the -School of Batignolles. This included Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Cézanne, -Renoir, and Degas. If there is one man greater than the others it is -Claude Monet. Only during comparatively recent years have his -originality and strength been generally recognised. He now occupies the -position held by Manet, although he cannot be said to be Manet’s -successor. Manet painted the figure, seldom attempting landscape, a -_genre_ which is primarily Monet’s. Claude Monet is doubly indebted to -English art. Profoundly moved by Turner, whose works he studied at first -hand in England, he also traces an artistic descent through Jongkind and -Boudin from Corot, who caught the methods of Constable and Bonington. - -Jongkind and Boudin are two little masters not to be forgotten. Not -altogether Impressionists themselves, they were in close affinity to the -school upon which they had much influence. Men of uncommon character and -earnestness of purpose, their art was sincere. In themselves they were -interesting, for, richly endowed with natural talents, they were for the -most part poor beyond belief in material wealth. Inspired by a genuine -love for Nature in all her aspects they never reached the high technique -of their English predecessors, and were far surpassed by Claude Monet -and his group. Forerunners in the evolution of the school of “plein air” -painting, a reference is necessary to them in order to follow the -development of the school as a whole. - -For the first time in the history of art women have taken an active part -in founding a new school. Madame Berthe Morisot, Miss Mary Cassatt, and -Madame Eva Gonzalès must be included amongst the early Impressionists. - -Various movements based upon the Impressionistic idea have taken place -in France and on the Continent generally. There are the _Pointillistes_ -for instance, and the Neo-Impressionists. Amongst foreign artists -Whistler must be mentioned; a student at Gleyre’s he attended at the -Café Guerbois, and embraced many of Manet’s ideas. - -The history of the early battles over Impressionism centres for the most -part round one personality. In following the story of the failures and -successes of Edouard Manet we follow the gradual rise of the entire -school, for no man fought more bravely in defence of its principles. - -[Illustration] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by Fredk. Hollyer_ - RIDER ON THE WHITE HORSE · G. F. WATTS -] - -[Illustration: - - VIEW OF HONFLEUR · J. B. JONGKIND -] - - - - - CHAPTER II · “THE FORERUNNERS.” JONGKIND, BOUDIN, AND CEZANNE - - “ILS PRENNENT LA NATURE ET ILS LA RENDENT, ILS - LA RENDENT VUE À TRAVERS LEURS TEMPÉRAMENTS - PARTICULIERS. CHAQUE ARTISTE VA NOUS DONNER AINSI UN - MONDE DIFFÉRENT, ET J’ACCEPTERAI VOLONTIERS TOUS CES - DIVERS MONDES” - - _ZOLA_ - - -JONGKIND and Boudin are the links which connect the Barbizon men of 1830 -to the Impressionist group of 1870. Although little public fame came to -them during their lifetime, they had considerable influence upon the -younger landscape-painters of their generation. Both were artists of -great ability as well as of enormous industry; both suffered from -continued misfortune and neglect. Yet no collection illustrating the -history of Impressionism can exclude examples of the Dutch Jongkind, or -of Boudin, a follower of Corot and master of Monet. Jongkind’s pictures -are doubling, nay trebling, in value, and the records of the public -sale-rooms are astounding evidences of the increasing appreciation of -Boudin by modern collectors. - -The biographies of Jongkind and Boudin form excellent texts over which -one may moralise upon the uncertainties of art as a career. It is not -often that the Fates compel two men to struggle for so long against such -hopeless and wretched surroundings. The life of Jongkind was a life of -continued misery. Towards its end he utterly gave way, and died a -dipsomaniac. Boudin possessed a little more grit, although his -surroundings were not more propitious. He lived almost unnoticed until a -beneficent Minister awarded him the greatest prize a Frenchman can -receive on this earth, the Cross of the Legion of Honour. - -Johann Barthold Jongkind was born at Lathrop, near Rotterdam, in 1819. -Dutch by birth, many years’ residence in France, together with a strong -sympathy with Gallic ways, made him almost a citizen of his adopted -country, and certainly a member of the French School of Painting. At -first he was a pupil of Scheffont, and afterwards he worked under -Isabey. At the Salon of 1852 he obtained a medal of the first class, and -then for years in succession was rejected by the juries. Almost at the -end of his life he was offered the long-coveted decoration, but he was -never a popular artist, nor even well known amongst the art public. A -few amateurs bought his works, his water-colours were lost in old -portfolios, and the exhibition of his pictures previous to the sale -after his death was a revelation alike to painters and critics. His life -was a sad history of neglect, terrible privation, and want. All that we -know of him is that he gave way to alcoholism, dying in Isère in 1891, -alone, friendless, and forgotten. - -Jongkind was one of the very first men in France to occupy himself with -the enormous difficulties surrounding the study of atmospheric effects, -the decomposition of luminous rays, the play of reflections, and the -unceasing change crossing over the same natural form during the -different hours of the day. His influence over several of the more -prominent men of the Impressionist group was great. Edouard Manet was -strongly impressed by his methods, and Claude Monet refers to him as a -man of profound genius and originality of character, “le grand peintre.” - -In the sale-rooms Jongkind’s water-colours and etchings are now reaching -very high prices, although one cannot agree that they are his most -remarkable creations. Works the artist was content to sell for £4 to £8 -now change hands under the hammer at sums ranging from £160 to £800. The -best canvases were painted towards the end of his life, especially those -depicting the luminous atmosphere of the beautiful Dauphiné countryside. -His large landscapes are extremely unequal, somewhat hard and dry in -technique, and more or less stereotyped in the choice of subject. His -pictures do not always convey the true feeling for atmospheric effect, -and many are simply experiments which lack the great quality of charm. -Without a doubt he possessed extraordinary ability, but he lacked the -illuminating spark of genius. He pointed out a way he was not himself -strong enough to follow. - -[Illustration: - - MOONRISE · J. B. JONGKIND -] - -Louis-Eugène Boudin, an old comrade and life-long friend of Jongkind, is -the head of the group of “little masters” who reigned during the -transitional period in French landscape art between 1830 and 1870. He -was born in the Rue Bourdet, Honfleur, on July 12, 1824, and died within -a few miles of his birthplace in 1898. He leaves a magnificent record of -work accomplished, and the memory of a noble life devoted to a beautiful -ideal. Pissarro, in a letter addressed to the writer, says that Boudin -had much influence upon the advancement of the Impressionist idea, -particularly through his studies direct from Nature. His father was a -pilot on board the steamboat _François_ of Havre, a bluff and hearty -sailor, typical of the coast nearly a century ago. A good specimen is to -be found in the burly guardian of the Musée Normand at Honfleur, who, by -a coincidence not altogether strange in this world of coincidences, -travelled round the world with old Boudin, and knew intimately “le petit -Eugène.” - -The boy’s mother was stewardess on board the boat her husband piloted, -and the artist commenced life in the humble and not altogether enviable -capacity of cabin-boy. In that position he remained until his fourteenth -year, travelling from French and English ports as far as the Antilles. -At that age an irresistible desire came over his soul. He wished to quit -seafaring life and devote himself to the brush. He had already made many -sketches in bitumen, some having attracted attention from passengers. -Those which have been preserved display wonderful proficiency, -considering the many difficulties the boy had to labour under. Chance -helped the youth; for his father, tiring of his endless struggle with -the elements, retired from his post and opened a little stationery shop -on the Grand Quai at Havre. The cabin-boy became shop-boy. - -This new mode of life gave him far greater time to follow his -inclinations. All untaught he applied himself assiduously to -draughtsmanship, painting on the quays, in the streets, devoting Sundays -and fête-days to long excursions amongst the hills round about Havre. -One day Troyon brought a canvas for framing to the elder Boudin’s shop. -In the corner he noticed some curious little pastels of the shipping and -harbour. Eugène made his first artistic friendship. Troyon, who was -living in great poverty, only too pleased to sell a picture for -twenty-five francs, was of great assistance to the lad. Another customer -helped young Boudin. Norman by birth, son of a seaman, Jean-François -Millet met the boy in Havre and was attracted by his evident skill. -Millet was in the same quandary as Troyon; stranded in semi-starvation, -he was executing portraits at thirty francs per head, diligently -canvassing the retired ebony merchants, the harbour officials, the -sailors and their sweethearts. Alphonse Karr and Courbet, whilst -wandering through Normandy, became acquainted with Boudin’s sketches, -and sought out the young artist. - -Eugène Boudin’s career was now determined. The advice of friends was -vain. They pointed out that if Corot with his immense talent was unable -to earn an independence at the age of fifty, an untrained shop-boy had -still less chance. No man could tell a more bitter story of the artist’s -life than Millet, and he attempted to persuade the boy to keep to the -shop. All efforts were fruitless. Couture and a few other associates -obtained a small student’s allowance from the Havre Town Council, and -Boudin set out for Paris. The bursary of one pound weekly soon came to -an end, and left the artist without resources or friends. He paid for -his washing with a picture valued at the sum of forty francs. The -laundress immediately sold the work to cover her bill, and the canvas -has recently changed hands for four thousand francs. His “marchand de -vin” exchanged wine for pictures which have lately passed through the -sale-rooms at forty times their original agreed values. By these means, -together with a few portrait commissions, Boudin managed to eke out a -most precarious existence. - -From 1856 dates the foundation of the “Ecole Saint Simeon,” (so called -from the rustic inn and farmhouse on the road from Honfleur to -Villerville, halfway up the hill overlooking Havre and the mouth of the -Seine), in which Boudin took a prominent part. In 1857 the artist -exhibited ten pictures at the local Havre exhibition, which he followed -with a sale by auction, his idea being to raise enough money to pay his -expenses back to Paris. Claude Monet had been sending several pressing -letters of invitation, holding out fair prospects of business with -several art dealers. The sale was a complete failure, producing a net -sum of £20. Boudin gave up his hopes of Paris and returned to the -farmhouse of Saint Simeon saddened and discouraged. Roused by “la mère -Toutain,” he opened an academy of painting, and the old inn of Saint -Simeon may be called the cradle of French Impressionism. - -For twenty-five years it formed the resting-place, from time to time, of -all the most celebrated men of the group. The list is a long one—Millet, -Troyon, Courbet, Lepine, Diaz, Harpignies, Jongkind, Cals, Isabye, -Daubigny, Monet, and many others. Boudin always regretted that there was -no history written of the place, no record of the scenes which took -place there. One has the same regret over many other famous sketching -grounds and artistic inns in France. What stories can be told of the -joyous life, of the good fellowship, the games and escapades, the -brilliant jokes of many a world-renowned genius in playful mood, happy -little bands of men with the spirit and souls of children! - -[Illustration: - - RETURN OF THE FISHING SMACKS · EUGENE BOUDIN -] - -The hostesses are of a type apart, and no other country but France -produces them in such numbers. “Mères des artistes,” they are full of -pride with their anecdotes of celebrated lodgers. Peasants of the best -class, admired and respected by all who come into contact with them, -they are remembered with affection. The peaceful holidays spent in these -lovely villages represent much of the brighter side of the art-student’s -career, and memories mix with regrets as one recalls a youth spent in -that beloved country of art—la belle France. - -Boudin’s academy of painting at the inn was no great success, and he -changed his habitat to Trouville, twenty miles down the coast, at the -invitation of Isabey and the Duc de Morny. They suggested that he should -paint “scènes de plage” of that gay and fashionable watering-place, the -bathers, the frequenters of the Casino and the racecourse, the regattas, -the “landscapes of the sea” as Courbet called them. “It is prodigious, -my dear fellow; truly you are one of the seraphim, for you alone -understand the heavens,” cried Courbet one day in excitement as he -watched Boudin at work. Boudin was at last becoming famous. Alexandre -Dumas addressed him as, “You who are master of the skies, ‘par -excellence,’” and above all came the testimony of Corot, who described -him as “le roi des ciels.” - -Unfortunately, the public did not buy Boudin’s pictures, and he remained -in poverty. In 1864 he married, his wife receiving a “dot” of 2000 -francs, and a home was made up four flights of rickety stairs in a mean -street in Honfleur, the rental of the garret being thirty-five shillings -per annum. Amongst their visitors the saddest was Jongkind, the man of -failure, a reproach to the blindness of his generation, and a warning to -those who seek fortune by the brush. It was only by the combination of -courage, energy, and robust health that Boudin was able to fight his way -through actual periods of starvation in order to live to see his work -justified by public appreciation. - -Four years later the little household was moved to Havre. Boudin was -reduced to such absolute poverty that he was not able to provide himself -with sufficient decent clothing to visit a rich tradesman of the town, -who had commissioned some decorative panels. The commission was lost, -and the fight for bread was keener than before. During the winter -furniture was converted into firewood, and the artist worked as an -ordinary labourer. Boudin hated Paris, but at the urgent solicitation of -artists, who promised him work, he left Havre for the metropolis. Ill -luck still dogged his steps. No sooner had he settled with his wife in -the new quarters than the war broke out with all the unendurable -misfortunes of “l’année terrible” in its train. - -Hopes of commissions were at an end, the art colony being scattered far -and wide. Boudin fled first to Deauville, then to Brussels. Crowded with -French refugees, the struggle for life entered its bitterest stage. For -the second time Boudin became a day-labourer. At last, by a most -trifling chance, his wretched position was altered for the better. By -hazard Madame Boudin met a picture-dealer whilst marketing, and his -appreciation and encouragement enabled the artist to return to his -easel. The artist’s progress was, however, extremely slow. Nine years -later he held an auction sale of his pictures, at which four paintings -realised £21. A friend who had joined in the sale was more unfortunate, -for he sold nothing. “You see,” he wrote to Boudin, “that nothing -succeeds with me. I don’t know how it will all finish. What upsets me -most in the midst of all this worry is the fear that I should lose all -love for painting.” This phrase must have represented Boudin’s thoughts -during the long years of disheartening struggle. - -In 1881, after twenty-three years of almost annual exhibition in the -Paris Salons, Boudin obtained a medal in the third class. Nowadays this -award is usually made to the young man who exhibits for the first time. -Three years later Boudin received a medal of the second class, which -exempted his work from judgment by the jury, and places its recipient -“hors concours.” He commenced, at the age of fifty, to sell his pictures -more regularly, but at prices extremely low and out of proportion to -their present value. At the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, in 1888, one hundred -canvases by Boudin fetched the grand total of £280. It is difficult to -estimate what sum such a lot would reach at the present day. - -The tide had changed, for the Government bought a large painting, _Une -Corvette Russe dans le Bassin de l’Eure au Havre_ for the Luxembourg. In -1889, public honour was marred by the most mournful blow. To his -inconsolable grief his wife died, after twenty-five years of the -happiest companionship. Amongst the letters of sympathy were many -acknowledgments of the artist’s genius, notably from Claude Monet, “in -recognition of the advice which has made me what I am”—a striking and -flattering phrase from the head of the Impressionist group. In this same -year Boudin was awarded the gold medal at the Salon. In 1896 the -Government purchased his _Rade de Villefranche_ for the Luxembourg, and -the old artist received from the hands of Puvis de Chavannes, at the -recommendation of the Minister Léon Bourgeois, the ribbon and cross of -the Legion of Honour. - -[Illustration: - - THE REPAIRING DOCKS AT DUNKIRK · EUGENE BOUDIN -] - -Boudin’s health, weakened by the long privations, had at last broken up. -After several futile journeys he returned to his native Normandy, and, -whilst working at his easel in his châlet near Deauville in 1898, died -almost without warning. By his will he left a rich legacy of pictures to -the gallery of his native town, Honfleur. Over one hundred of Boudin’s -sketches can now be seen in the public gallery of Havre. Boudin’s -connection with modern Impressionism is chiefly the influence generated -by a strong enthusiasm for working “en plein air” and a deep love of -Nature. His dominant colour, almost to the end of his life, was grey—a -grey beautiful in its range and truthful in its effect. Personally -Boudin had the head of an old pilot, with healthy ruddy complexion, -white beard, and keen blue eyes. He spoke slowly in low monotonous -tones, was doggedly tenacious of an idea, had strong artistic -convictions. He was modest to a degree, and when he sought honours they -were for brother artists, never for himself. His highest ambition was -reached when the Town Council of Honfleur named a street “Rue -Eugène-Boudin.” This street, long, narrow, hilly, with many rough places -and occasional pitfalls, typifies the artist’s own life. After his death -the town went further. Aided by M. Gustave Cahen, president of the -“Société des Amis des Arts,” Honfleur erected a fine statue of its -talented son by the jetty, where he had so often painted his favourite -scenes of sea and shipping. - -Boudin has left a name which will be honoured in the annals of French -art. He lived a long life, produced many works of which not one falls -below his own high standard. His position, midway between two great -schools, is perhaps one reason why he has not loomed more strongly in -the public appreciation. Upon their merits his pictures cannot easily be -forgotten. When it is remembered that he links Corot to Monet, was in -fact the true master of the latter, it will be seen what an important -niche he occupies in any history devoted to Modern French Impressionism. - -From Boudin is an easy step to Cézanne, one of the pioneers of the -movement before 1870. Paul Cézanne and Zola were schoolboys together in -Aix. They left Provence to conquer Paris, and whilst Zola was a clerk in -Hachette’s publishing office Cézanne was working out in his studio the -early theories of Manet, of whom he was an enthusiastic admirer. Both -men frequented the Café Guerbois, and there is little doubt that in the -remarkable series of articles contributed to De Villemessant’s paper -“L’Événement,” Zola was assisted by Cézanne, who had introduced the -journalist to the artists he had championed. When the criticisms were -republished in 1866, in a volume entitled “Mes Haines,” Zola dedicated -the book in affectionate terms, “A mon ami Paul Cézanne,” recalling ten -years of friendship. The writer went still further, for the character of -Claude Lantier, hero of “L’Œuvre,” a novel dealing largely with artistic -life and Impressionism, is generally supposed to have been suggested by -the personality of Paul Cézanne. - -For years Cézanne seldom exhibited, and his pictures are not known -amongst the public. As to their merits, opinion is curiously divided. He -has painted landscapes, figure compositions, and studies of still-life. -His landscapes are crude and hazy, weak in colour, and many admirers of -Impressionism find them entirely uninteresting. His figure compositions -have been called “clumsy and brutal.” Probably his best work is to be -found in his studies of still-life, yet even in this direction one -cannot help noting that his draughtsmanship is defective. It is probable -that the incorrect drawing of Cézanne is responsible for a reproach -often directed against Impressionists as a body—a general charge of -carelessness in one of the first essentials of artistic technique. Apart -from this defect, Cézanne’s paintings of still-life have a brilliancy of -colour not to be found in his landscapes. - -In his student-days this artist had a great admiration for Veronese, -Rubens, and Delacroix, three masters who had some influence upon Manet. -Some of his latter methods showed a strong sympathy with the Primitives. -The modern symbolists are his descendants, and Van Gogh, Emile Bernard, -and Gauguin owe much to his example. Personally he unites a curiously -shy nature with a temperament half-savage, half-cynical. Cézanne’s work -is remarkable for its evident sincerity, and the painter’s aim has been -to attain an absolute truth to nature. These ambitions are the keynotes -of Impressionist art. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: - - LA ROUTE · PAUL CÉZANNE -] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - THE BULLFIGHT · EDOUARD MANET -] - - - - - CHAPTER III · EDOUARD MANET (1832-1883) - - “CE QUI ME FRAPPE D’ABORD DANS CES TABLEAUX, C’EST - UNE JUSTESSE TRÈS DÉLICATE DANS LES RAPPORTS DES - TOUS ENTRE EUX. - - “TOUTE LA PERSONNALITÉ DE L’ARTISTE CONSISTE DANS LA - MANIÈRE DONT SON ŒIL EST ORGANISÉ: IL VOIT BLOND, ET - IL VOIT PAR MASSES” - - _ZOLA_ - - -FOR over twenty years the technique and methods of Edouard Manet were a -subject for the most virulent debate. His art, in fact, became the scene -of a battle in which every painter in Europe had a hand. Officialdom -found no place for him in its heart, no matter whether the State was -Imperial or Republican. The Empress Eugénie once asked that his pictures -might be removed from public exhibition; President Grévy demurred when -the artist’s name was placed on the list for the Legion of Honour. -Clearly this man was no supporter of the established order of things. -Refused recognition as an artist by the school of tradition, disowned by -his own teacher, a source of hilarity to the public, Edouard Manet -caught but a glimpse of the long-wished-for land of success which he was -fated never to enjoy fully. - -The battle is not quite finished, and the rout of the old school -continues to the present day. One result remains. Manet has had a -greater influence upon the art of the last forty years than any other -master during that period, and the standard which he raised has become a -rallying-point for the greatest painters of the present age. - -Edouard Manet was born in Paris on January 23, 1832, at No. 5, Rue des -Petits Augustins. Thirty-six years previously Corot was born round the -corner, in the Rue du Bac. To-day the Rue des Petits Augustins is a long -street running through the Latin Quarter, southwards from the Seine and -the Louvre, known as the Rue Bonaparte. It has become the chief mart for -commerce in artists’ materials, photographs, pictures, and all the odds -and ends which fill up a studio. With a quaint appropriateness, the -birthplace of Manet faces the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. - -The boy was the eldest of three brothers. His father was a judge -attached to the tribunal of the Seine, and the family had been connected -with the magistrature for generations. First a pupil at Vaugirard, under -the Abbé Poiloup, Manet then entered the Collège Rollin, took his -baccalaureate in letters, and grew into an elegant man of the world. But -his inclinations clashed with his duties, and his uncle, amateur artist -and colonel in the artillery, taught him how to sketch in pen and ink. -M. Antonin Proust describes the result in a recent magazine article. - -“From earliest years,” he writes, “Manet drew by instinct, with a -firmness of touch and vigour unexcelled even in his latest works. His -family was intensely proud of the boy’s uncommon gift, and his -artistically-inclined uncle, Colonel Fournier, supported him against his -father, who—despite his admiration—had other views as to his son’s -career.” - -“One should never thwart a child in the choice of his career,” said -Colonel Fournier. - -“If,” replied the father, “the boy is not inclined towards the ‘Palais,’ -let him follow your example and become a soldier; but go in for -painting—never!” - -A studio-stool tempted the boy far more than a probable seat on the -Bench. If he had to waste time, it should not be in the Salle des Pas -Perdus. - -His parents sent him, towards the close of his school-days, upon a -voyage to Rio de Janeiro, hoping that travel might distract his mind -from thoughts of an artistic life. It is said that they contemplated a -naval career. Charles Méryon, it may be remembered, made the voyage -round the world in a French corvette before he took up the etcher’s -needle. Like Méryon, Manet improved his draughtsmanship, although a -sailor. He sketched incessantly. One day the captain asked him to get -out his paints and touch up a cargo of Dutch cheeses, which had become -discoloured by the sea. “Conscientiously, with a brush,” says Manet, “I -freshened up these _têtes de mort_, which reappeared in their beautiful -tints of violet and red. It was my first piece of painting.” - -His voyage in the _Guadeloupe_ ended, he returned home with unaltered -determination. After some protest his father relented, and in 1850 Manet -entered the studio of Thomas Couture. - -[Illustration: - - THE GARDEN · EDOUARD MANET -] - -Couture occupied a leading position in that group sometimes called the -“juste milieu.” Between the Romanticists and the Classicalists his -preferences perhaps were for the latter. Of extreme irritability in -temper, with a deep contempt for those in authority, he combined a keen -desire for success both popular and financial. His picture, _The Romans -of the Decadence_, in the Salon of 1847, brought both, and for a few -years he remained one of the most celebrated artists in France. Then he -criticised Delaroche, with the usual result when one painter puts -another right: he offended King Louis-Philippe, he insulted the Emperor -Napoleon III. Kings must be taken at their own valuation, if one wishes -to enjoy their good graces. It was not surprising that Couture -ultimately became a disappointed and forgotten man. - -He has been called an Apostle of Classicalism. Taught first by Baron -Gros, who vacillated from one school to the other, and afterwards by -Delaroche, who endeavoured to reconcile the opposing parties, Couture -could hardly have taken any other position in the art world of the -’forties. “He was apart among the painters of the day, as far removed -from the cold academic school as from the new art just then making its -way, with Delacroix at its head. The famous quarrel between the -Classical and Romantic camps left him indifferent. He was of too -independent a nature to follow any chief, however great.” This is the -testimony of an American artist, Mr. P. A. Healy, who studied under -Couture about the time Manet was in the atelier, and shows that the -future Impressionist worked under a man by no means curbed by tradition. -According to his pupil, Couture’s great precept was, “Look at Nature; -copy Nature.” Manet’s doctrine was couched in almost the same words, “Do -nothing without consulting Nature.” - -We know that during the time Manet remained in Couture’s studio, master -and pupil quarrelled incessantly. The reason usually given is that Manet -would not respect tradition. But neither would Couture. “That in the -captain’s but a choleric word, which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.” -One was there to teach, the other to be taught. The temperaments of the -two men were fundamentally different. The thick-set, scowling Couture, -of shoemaker descent, would naturally rub against the grain of the -rather dandified young scion of the magistrature. Couture hated the -middle classes, and Manet belonged to the “haute bourgeoisie.” Manet’s -family was legal to the bone, and Couture detested lawyers even more -than he disliked doctors. With all these drawbacks Couture was -admittedly the best teacher in Paris. Manet evidently recognised the -advantage, for he remained in the studio for six years, until he was -twenty-five years of age, although quite able to sever the connection -had he wished. - -Then came the “wanderjahre,” which commenced in 1856. Manet visited -Germany, Holland, and Italy. In the Low Countries, Franz Hals exerted a -great and permanent influence over the student; Rembrandt was copied in -Germany; in Italy, Titian and Tintoretto received his homage. Dresden, -Prague, Vienna, Munich, Venice and Florence were visited. Upon his -return to Paris he copied assiduously in the Louvre, and it was in this -wonderful gallery that he so thoroughly mastered all that a young -painter could learn from the Spanish School. He did not visit Madrid -until 1865. His Spanish subjects before that date were the result of a -careful study of Velazquez and Goya in the National Collection and the -visit of an Iberian troupe of players to Paris. In the Louvre he copied -paintings by Velazquez, Titian, and Tintoretto. - -Of living artists Courbet considerably influenced the first period of -Manet’s activity. Ever on the fringe of Impressionism, although never in -the group, Courbet was a romantically inclined realist who taught the -younger men to turn to everyday life for their subjects. His canvases -were full of colour; although they have sadly toned down in the course -of time, owing to the curious and unsuccessful experiments he made in -trying to combine his practice with his theories. - -In 1859 Manet sent his work for the first time to the Salon. The -_Absinthe Drinker_, strong, but reminiscent of Courbet, was rejected. -The Salon was held every two years, and in 1861 both his contributions -were accepted, one being a double portrait of his father and mother, the -other a Spanish study called the _Guitarero_. For this Manet was awarded -Honourable Mention, his first and almost his final official distinction, -for he received no other until the year before his death, twenty-one -years later. Working with tremendous energy in his studio in the Rue -Lavoisier, Manet became the centre of a circle of friends which included -Legros, Bracquemond, Jongkind, Monet, Degas, Fantin-Latour, Harpignies, -and Whistler. The Guitar-player was an undoubted success. “_Caramba_,” -writes genial Theo. Gautier, “Velazquez would greet this fellow with a -friendly little wink, and Goya would hand him a pipe for his papelito.” -Upon the jury it is said that Ingres himself was flattering, and the -_mention honorable_ was ascribed to the lead of Delacroix. Couture’s -sneer that Manet would become merely the Daumier of 1860 did not seem -likely to be justified. - -Manet was now engaged upon several pictures which must not be ignored. -_Music at the Tuileries_ (1861), refused at the Salon, was, as its name -implies, an open-air study of the fashionable crowds gathered round the -bandstand in the lovely gardens by the palace. The _Street Singer_ is -the earliest of the almost realistic renderings of everyday life which -the Impressionists delighted in. A sad-faced girl (a well-known -character of the day) standing with a guitar at a street corner; the -type is the same to this hour both in London and Paris, one of the -thousand wretched beings superfluous to a great city, at once its -pleasure and its sport. - -_The Boy with a Sword_, now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, also -belongs to this period. The picture is masterly. Inspired from Spain, it -is, like most great paintings, full of simplicity, full of strength. -_The Old Musician_ is also extremely Spanish, with a haunting -reminiscence of _Los Borrachos_ by Velazquez (although Manet had not yet -directly seen this canvas). A small group watches an old man about to -play his fiddle. Some boys, a little girl with a doll (a figure very -dear to Manet), a man drinking, a native of the Orient in a turban and a -long robe, these form a straggling composition. The picture is a fantasy -of a nation the painter loved but had never yet seen. - -Two personal matters affected the life of Manet about this time. His -father died, leaving him a considerable private fortune, thus making the -artist financially independent of dealers and the ups and downs of -public exhibition. In 1863 he married Mlle. Suzanne Leenhoff, a Dutch -lady of great musical talent. From one point of view 1863 was -disastrous, from another triumphant. Hitherto a man of promise, Manet -now developed into a man of notoriety. - -The little “one-man show” at the gallery of M. Martinet, Boulevard des -Italiens, presaged the coming storm. Manet exhibited the _Spanish -Ballet_, _Music at the Tuileries_, _Lola de Valence_, and nearly the -whole of his other work up to that date. Baudelaire was enthusiastic. -Verses on _Lola de Valence_ are enshrined in “Fleurs de Mal.” Other -critics were not so kind. M. Paul Mantz did not restrain his pen and -referred to “a struggle between noisy, plastery tones, and black,” with -a result “hard, sinister, and deadly,” the whole summed up as “a -caricature of colour.” - -The Salon of 1863, which followed, has become famous not through what it -accepted, but by reason of what it refused. In a contemporary chronicle -the most notable pictures of the exhibition are _La Prière au Désert_ by -Gustave Guillaumet, a _Sainte Famille_ by Bouguereau, _La Déroute_ by -Gustave Boulanger, _La Bataille de Solférino_ by Meissonier, and the -_Chasse au Renard_ by Courbet. With the exception of Courbet it is an -academical list, although it is extraordinary how Courbet crept in. - -The list of rejected artists is amazing. Like Herod’s soldiers, the jury -seems to have been chiefly occupied in stamping out youth. Bracquemond, -Cals, Cazin, Fantin-Latour, Harpignies, Jongkind, J. P. Laurens, Legros, -Manet, Pissarro, Vallon, Whistler, these and many others were thrown -out. The work was too vigorously performed, and Napoleon III. authorised -the opening of another gallery in the same building as the old Salon, -known as the Salon des Refusés. The most striking canvas in this room -was Manet’s first great work, the _Déjeuner sur l’Herbe_ (_Breakfast on -the Grass_), sometimes called _Le Bain_. - -The painting challenged opposition on two separate grounds. The first -was its subject; the second its technique. Between two young men -stretched on the grass, wearing the black frock-coats of a latter-day -civilisation, sits a nude woman drying her legs with a towel. In the -background another woman “en chemise” is paddling in the stream. In -defence of such a subject it is usual to refer to the painters of the -Renaissance, who, without exciting angry comment, mixed draped and -undraped figures in their compositions. There is a celebrated Giorgione -at the Louvre to which none objected. Other times, other manners. -Infanticide is not encouraged in England although it is the practice in -China. Many social practices of the Renaissance, innocent enough in the -eyes of that golden age, are distinctly discouraged by the criminal code -of to-day. Forty years have elapsed since the _Déjeuner sur l’Herbe_ was -first exhibited, and Mrs. Grundy is not the power she was. But if any -English painter hung a representation of two dressmaker’s assistants -bathing in the Serpentine under exactly the same conditions as Manet -depicted the little party at Saint-Ouen, there would be some sharp -criticism. - -It is far more pleasing to discuss Manet’s manner of painting. In a -period when work was sombre in tone and Nature rapidly losing her place -in art, Manet with his _Déjeuner sur l’Herbe_, _Olympia_, and _Le Fifre -de la Garde_, changed the current with startling directness. - -[Illustration: - - PORTRAIT OF BERTHE MORISOT · EDOUARD MANET -] - -In these and other canvases there was not a shadow, the surface being -from end to end clear and highly coloured. Where a Classicalist would -have rendered a shadow in the usual burnt umber, Manet made his tones a -little less clear, but always coloured and always in value. His method -of working was to discard all blacks and preparations of blacks. This -was directly antagonistic to the teaching of Couture, who painted on a -black canvas. Manet drew straight away on a white canvas with the end of -his brush. Then, after having endeavoured to render with a single tone -all the pale parts, he carried the lights right into the shadows, of -which he studied the slightest nuance. The result was novel to the -vision, and strange to the public. The _Déjeuner sur l’Herbe_ was a -masterly rendering of white flesh against black clothes, which was not -appreciated because it was so foreign to the eye. - - “Be not the first by whom the new is tried, - Nor yet the last to lay the old aside,” - -is an excellent motto for painters who wish to achieve popular renown, -but it was never the motto of Manet and the Impressionists. - -To a certain extent the Salon des Refusés was successful. The jury of -the old Salon had received a fright, and in 1865 they opened their doors -very widely. Making a virtue of necessity, they reversed their policy -and welcomed the whole artistic world, in order to obviate the necessity -of a second Salon des Refusés. - -_Olympia_ was far in advance of anything the artist had yet attempted. -In composition it recalls Velazquez, Goya, and Titian. A girl, anæmic -and decidedly unprepossessing, quite nude, is stretched upon a couch -covered with an Indian shawl of yellowish tint. Behind is a negress, -with a bouquet of flowers. At the foot of the bed a black cat strikes a -sharp note of colour against the white linen. - -Gautier and Barbey D’Aurevilly—both men of exotic genius—received the -painting with great favour. They found themselves alone in their -opinions. Again the subject displeased the crowd, whilst the -extraordinary technique exasperated the art world. Even Courbet, -reformer as he was, repudiated it. “It is flat and lacks modelling. It -looks like the queen of spades coming out of a bath.” Manet retorted: -“He bores us with his modelling. Courbet’s idea of rotundity is a -billiard-ball.” The general verdict, however, was one in which ridicule -and mockery were equally mixed. A religious picture, _Christ reviled by -the Soldiers_, received no greater encouragement, and in the next Salon -Manet was rejected without mercy. _Le Fifre de la Garde_ and _The Tragic -Actor_ were both refused. He had provoked such fierce animosity that he -was even excluded from the representative exhibition of French art -included in the Universal Exhibition of 1867. - -Luckily, no longer dependent for money on his art, Manet was able to -exhibit under more favourable circumstances. Like Rodin a few years ago, -Manet opened a large gallery in the Avenue de l’Alma, which he shared -with Courbet. Here he collected fifty works, including the _Boy with the -Sword_, several Spanish subjects, seascapes, portraits, studies of still -life, aquafortes, even copies. A catalogue was issued containing a short -introduction. “The artist does not say to you to-day, Come and see -flawless works, but, Come and see sincere works.” Another sentence -shares with a title of Claude Monet’s the origin of the generic phrase, -“Impressionism.” “It is the effect of sincerity to give to a painter’s -works a character that makes them resemble a protest, whereas the -painter has only thought of rendering his impression.” Manet never -considered himself as a man in revolt. - -The artist had now a considerable following, and was supported by -several vigorous pens in the press, notably that wielded by Emile Zola, -who had been introduced to Manet by an old school friend become artist, -Cézanne. Zola’s campaign in 1866, following upon the rejection by the -Salon of the _Fifre de la Garde_, saw some hard fights. Zola saluted -Manet as the greatest artist of the age, and incidentally overturned a -few pedestals in the Academy. Animosity directed against the artist was -transferred to the journalist, and Zola was soon ejected from his -position under M. de Villemessant as art critic to the _Figaro_ (then -famous as _l’Événement_). Artists of the old school used to buy copies -of this journal containing the offending articles, seek out Zola or -Manet on the boulevards, and then destroy the paper under their eyes -with every manifestation of scorn. - -About this time the gatherings in the Café Guerbois, in the Rue Guyot, -behind the Parc Monceau, were held twice a week regularly, and the -School of Batignolles became an established fact. The group was mixed, -and held together more through comradeship than through identical aims. -It included Whistler, Legros, Fantin-Latour, Monet, Degas (a young man -fresh from the Ecole des Beaux Arts), Duranty, Zola, Vignaux, sometimes -Proust, Henner, and Alfred Stevens. To these names should be added -Pissarro, Sisley, Renoir, Bazille, and Cézanne. Monet had been attracted -by Manet since the little exhibition at Monsieur Martinet’s in 1863, -although they did not meet until 1866, the year that Camille Pissarro -joined the camp. Fantin-Latour was an old chum, the friendship -commencing in 1857, and he commemorated these gatherings in a picture of -the members of the group, which attracted much attention in the Salon of -1870. - -[Illustration: - - PORTRAIT OF M. P——, THE LION-HUNTER · EDOUARD MANET -] - -The home life of Edouard Manet was strangely different from what one -would expect of such an artist, so notorious in the Paris of the Empire -that when he entered a café its frequenters turned to stare at the -incomer. Manet lived with his wife and his mother in the Rue St. -Pétersbourg. The old lady, faithful to her remembrance of the age of -Charles X. and the Citizen King, lived amidst souvenirs of the past. -Modernity was entirely absent from the little household, and those who -anticipated evidences of the spirit of revolution which characterised -Manet in the world of the boulevards here discovered the atmosphere, -even the decoration and furniture, of the Louis-Philippe period. Romance -had also entered into the hitherto prosaic Manet family. Mlle. Berthe -Morisot, a clever young artist from Bourges, had married Manet’s brother -Eugène, and became an ardent follower of her brother-in-law’s artistic -doctrines, whom she aided frequently. - -A famous work of this period is _The Execution of the Emperor -Maximilian_, the subject representing a file of dark-hued Mexicans -shooting the unfortunate monarch. It is a vast canvas, slightly -inconsistent with many of the artist’s theories. Not lacking in -actuality (it was commenced within a few months of the event), it was of -historical _genre_ and painted in a studio from models, the face of the -Emperor being copied from a photograph. Rarely, if ever before, seen in -London, this magnificent painting was received enthusiastically when -exhibited at the first collection made by the International Society in -1898. - -In France the authorities forbade the public exhibition of the -_Execution_, the tragedy having had too intimate a relation with French -politics; but at the Salon of 1869 Manet was represented by _The -Balcony_, which provoked considerable derision from critics and public. - -The famous duel with Duranty took place early in the following year. -Duranty, an old friend and journalistic supporter of the movement, of -great literary reputation in the ’sixties and ’seventies, but quite -forgotten now, suddenly published a newspaper article in which the -artist was violently attacked. There was no palpable reason for such a -strange outbreak, and at the next gathering at the Café Guerbois, Manet -requested explanations. In his anger the artist struck the writer across -the face. Manet had for seconds Zola and Vigniaux, and his adversary was -slightly wounded in the breast. Within a few years Manet stretched out -his hand in friendship, and the quarrel was made up and forgotten by -both parties. - -The tremendous upheaval of the year 1870 had its effect upon Manet’s -art, as it had upon the whole national and intellectual life of France. -It marks the end of his first period, for after the war Manet paid more -attention to the question of lighting, and gathered closer to the little -group of “Luminarists” of which Claude Monet was the most significant -figure. Early in 1870 the artist, when painting near Paris, in the park -of his friend De Nittis, for the first time woke up to the prime -importance of working “en plein air.” The war intervened, and Manet -served with the colours. After the campaign he returned to his easel, -but no longer an exclusive follower of the Spanish School and the -Romanticists of the type of Courbet. - -At the call of their country, artists and authors alike followed the -flag. One can still remember how short-sighted Alphonse Daudet kept -sentry-go during the first awful winter, and how, almost at the end of -the siege of Paris, the brilliant Henri Regnault was shot down in a -sortie. Bastien-Lepage was in the field, and one of the group of the -Café Guerbois, Bazille, was killed in action. Manet enlisted in the -Garde Nationale, and, for some reason which is not obvious, was at once -promoted to the Staff. Unfortunately, Meissonier was nominated Colonel -of the same regiment, which shows that the État-Major was quite ignorant -of the state of contemporary art. Meissonier, a man of strong opinions, -the recognised head of his profession, member of the Institute, was -covered with official honour. Manet, with equally forcible convictions, -the hero of the Salon des Refusés, was pariah to the Academy. It was not -likely that two such men could get on well together. - -Some years afterwards Manet displayed his feelings. He was gazing in a -public gallery at a _Charge of Cuirassiers_, recently painted by -Meissonier. A crowd gathered round. His criticism was short. “It’s good, -really good. Everything is in steel except the cuirasses.” The _mot_ -travelled round the town, and duly reached the ears of the venerable -artist at Passy. Manet saw active service. He was under fire at the -Battle of Champigny, and also took part in the suppression of the -Commune. A vivid little sketch by Manet shows a Parisian street, after -some sharp fighting with the insurgents. It may be found reproduced in -Duret’s monograph. Broken down in health, Manet joined his mother and -sister at their retreat in the Pyrenees, and at Oléron painted the -_Battle of the “Kearsage” and “Alabama,”_ a wonderful piece of -sea-painting, although executed far from the actual scene of the -engagement. - -[Illustration: - - EDOUARD MANET -] - -Manet had exhausted the paternal inheritance and was living on the -fruits of his labour. The Impressionist School, as we now know it, was -at the height of its activity, but by no means at the summit of its -success. It assumed as its title the designation which had been applied -to it as a nickname. The origin of this title is obscure. As already -mentioned, Manet used the term in his introduction to the catalogue of -1867. Claude Monet named one of his pictures, a sunset, exhibited in the -Salon des Refusés, “Impressions.” Ruskin though had used the same term -years before in describing a canvas by Turner. Many of the members of -the group were in the most abject poverty until the celebrated dealer, -M. Durand-Ruel, came to their assistance. Manet had better sales than -the rest of his brethren, for several collectors began to buy from his -easel, viz. Gérard, Faure (of the Opera), Hecht, Ephrussi, Bernstein, -May, and De Bellis. It is characteristic of the man that in his own -studio he exhibited the works of his friends in order that the wealthy -buyers he was beginning to attract should also invest in the productions -of the less fortunate Impressionists. - -In 1873 Manet contributed to the Salon a portrait of the engraver Belot -seated in the Café Guerbois. Known as _Le Bon Bock_, it was his most -popular success both with public and critics. Over eighty sittings were -given before the canvas was completed. Manet had departed far from the -technique of the Dutch portrait-painters, but _Le Bon Bock_ strongly -suggests the manner of Hals, although ranking on its own merits as an -independent triumph. To the year of _Le Bon Bock_ succeeded a long -period of public indifference and artistic warfare. The Impressionists -held their first collective exhibition, which was bitterly disappointing -in its results. The public had changed but little. _The Opera Ball_ and -_The Lady with Fans_ (about 1873), the _Railway_, painted wholly in the -open air, and _Polichinelle_ (exhibited at the Salon of 1874), _The -Artist_ and _L’Argenteuil_ of 1875, all were received with disfavour. - -It is extremely curious to note how canvases which appear to-day -perfectly normal in their methods and aims positively outraged the -feelings of critics thirty years ago. _L’Artiste_, a magnificent -portrait of the engraver Desboutins, was refused by the Salon together -with _Le Linge_. _L’Argenteuil_, a simple representation of two -life-sized figures by the borders of the Seine, would be received with -acclamation instead of disdain. Manet and his group were undoubtedly -educating the public, but progress was very slow. There was an outburst -of opinion in favour of the artist when the Salon refused _L’Artiste_ -and _Le Linge_. One sentence of criticism summed up the general feeling -of those who were not entirely prejudiced against the new spirit. “The -jury is at liberty to say that it does not like Manet. But it is not at -liberty to cry ‘Down with Manet! To the doors with Manet!’” - -Reaction on the part of the jury followed, exactly as it had followed in -previous years. After the success of the Salon des Refusés Manet was -accepted. Then, being rejected, he opened the gallery of the Avenue -d’Alma, and was hung by the jury at the ensuing Salon. Rejected in 1876, -the outcry in the press surprised the jury, who accepted his works in -1877. These extraordinary ups and downs culminated in 1878, when the -jury of the Exposition Universelle, held in that year, definitely -refused to hang any of his canvases. In the opinion of this jury the -painter of _Le Bon Bock_ was not a representative French artist. Ten -years had changed the official art world but little, for the same thing -had happened in 1867. This was almost the last insult Manet had to -endure. In 1881 he received a second medal at the Salon. The discussion -in the Committee had been acrimonious, but seventeen members of the jury -were found to support the award. Amongst the names of the majority are -those of Carolus-Duran, Cazin, Henner, Lalanne, de Neuville, and Roll. - -One cannot deny that Manet’s work greatly varied. The portrait of M. -Faure, in the character of Hamlet, was to a certain extent conventional -studio-painting, and could offend nobody. The subject would not provoke -the most susceptible. M. Faure was celebrated on the stage of the Grand -Opera, possessed considerable wealth, and was one of Manet’s most -devoted friends. _Nana_, sent to the Salon together with the portrait of -M. Faure, was rejected. The technique was brilliant, but the subject, -although harmless enough, suggested Zola’s heroine. Zola’s book was not -published until 1879, but the name designated a class apart. - -In 1880 Manet exhibited a wonderful portrait of M. Antonin Proust, and -in the December of the following year his old friend, now Directeur des -Beaux-Arts, was able to give to his life-long companion the Cross of the -Legion of Honour. Had Manet no friends at Court, he would certainly not -have received this coveted decoration. President Grévy objected when he -saw the painter’s name, and would have struck out Manet from the list -had not Gambetta exerted some little pressure. - -But the struggle was nearly ended. Manet was dying. “This war to the -knife has done me much harm,” he is reported to have told Antonin -Proust. “I have suffered from it greatly, but it has whipped me up.... I -would not wish that any artist should be praised and covered with -adulation at the outset, for that means the annihilation of his -personality.” - -On New Year’s Day, 1882, he received the Cross, and at the Salon -exhibited _Un Bar aux Folies-Bergères_, a barmaid enshrined amidst her -glasses at a Paris music-hall, and a portrait, _Jeanne_. Since 1879 -paralysis had been slowly sapping his powers. Edouard Manet died near -Paris on April 30, 1883, at the early age of fifty-one. Disappointment, -injured pride, lack of appreciation, continued and strong hostility, -each had had its effect upon a physique always sensitive and never too -strong. The artist had died for his art. - -[Illustration: - - A GARDEN IN RUEIL · EDOUARD MANET -] - -[Illustration: - - FISHING · EDOUARD MANET -] - -The secret of Manet’s power is sincerity and individuality; his main -effort was a rendering of fact; his deepest interest the truthful -juxtaposition of values, the broad and simple treatment of planes, -combined with a constant search for the character of the person or -object portrayed. - -The influences which guided Manet during the earlier portion of his -career have been noticed at length. He travelled extensively, and his -works bear many souvenirs of foreign masters. But sufficient stress is -not always laid upon the influences at work around Manet in Paris, -namely, the influences of Delacroix, Corot, and the men of 1830, who -carried but one stage farther the methods and tradition of the English -masters, Constable, Bonington, Girtin and Turner. - -Apart from sources of inspiration Manet was personally gifted. He -possessed (as M. Duret so well points out) the faculty of sight, a gift -from Nature which cannot be acquired by will or work. Technique he had -obtained after six years’ hard study in the most severe atelier in -Paris. But technique is a subsidiary equipment, for a complete command -over one’s materials does not always imply the possession of genius. - -“The fools!” said Manet with bitterness to Proust. “They were for ever -telling me my work was unequal. That was the highest praise they could -bestow. Yet it was always my ambition to rise—not to remain on a certain -level, not to remake one day what I had made the day before, but to be -inspired again and again by a new aspect of things, to strike frequently -a fresh note.” - -“Ah! I’m before my time. A hundred years hence people will be happier, -for their sight will be clearer than ours to-day.” - -Ambition to rise, never to remain on the same level! That is the whole -doctrine of art, and the supreme epitaph for Edouard Manet, pioneer and -master. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - GEORGES D’ESPAGNAT -] - - - - - CHAPTER IV · THE IMPRESSIONIST GROUP, 1870-1886 - - “L’ADMIRATION DE LA FOULE EST TOUJOURS EN RAISON - INDIRECTE DU GÉNIE INDIVIDUEL. VOUS ÊTES D’AUTANT - PLUS ADMIRÉ ET COMPRIS, QUE VOUS ÊTES PLUS - ORDINAIRE” - - _ZOLA_ - - -THE outbreak of the Franco-German War in 1870 scattered far and wide the -little group that congregated at the Café Guerbois, and had a curious -effect upon the evolution of their methods of painting. Several of the -leading members of the circle crossed to England, and the studies they -pursued in London formed the basis for the unconventional departures -which have produced the masterpieces of Modern Impressionism. -Practically all the later developments of their art date from the -above-named year, and if a place of genesis be sought for it will be -found in the London National Gallery. - -As related in a previous chapter, Edouard Manet, the acknowledged head -at the Café Guerbois gatherings, became a captain in the Garde -Nationale, with Meissonier as his colonel. Boudin and Jongkind fled to -Belgium, and became labourers. Monet, Pissarro, Bonvin, Daubigny, and -some friends, braved the horrors of “La Manche” and settled in London. -They arrived almost penniless, thoroughly disheartened by the terrible -events which were threatening their motherland with disaster. The -journey, momentous to the unhappy passengers, was the opening of a new -epoch in art. - -The following letter from Pissarro, to the author, written in November -1902, gives an interesting account of their doings in London. He says: -“In 1870 I found myself in London with Monet, and we met Daubigny and -Bonvin. Monet and I were very enthusiastic over the London landscapes. -Monet worked in the parks, whilst I, living at Lower Norwood, at that -time a charming suburb, studied the effects of fog, snow, and -springtime. We worked from Nature, and later on Monet painted in London -some superb studies of mist. We also visited the museums. The -water-colours and paintings of Turner and of Constable, the canvases of -Old Crome, have certainly had influence upon us. We admired -Gainsborough, Lawrence, Reynolds, &c., but we were struck chiefly by the -landscape-painters, who shared more in our aim with regard to “plein -air,” light, and fugitive effects. Watts, Rossetti, strongly interested -us amongst the modern men. About this time we had the idea of sending -our studies to the exhibition of the Royal Academy. Naturally we were -rejected.” - -“Naturally we were rejected!” These poor exiles were offering to the -conservative Academy canvases painted in a method that Constable could -not get accepted forty years before. - -Their admiration of Turner and Constable was a repetition of the -experiences of another great Frenchman nearly fifty years earlier. In -his published journal, Delacroix has written: “Constable and Turner are -true reformers.” At the Salon of 1824 the pictures of Constable so -profoundly impressed him that he completely repainted his large canvas, -the _Massacre of Scio_, then hanging in the same exhibition. The next -year he visited London in order that he might more closely study -Constable’s work. He returned to Paris marvelling at the hitherto -unsuspected splendour of Turner, Wilkie, Lawrence, and Constable. -Immediately he began to profit by their examples. Delacroix chronicles -that he noticed that Constable, instead of painting in the usual flat -tones, composed his picture of innumerable touches of different colours -juxtaposed, and, at a certain distance, recomposing in a more powerful -and more atmospheric natural effect. He adds that he considers this new -method far superior to the old-fashioned one. - -The group of 1870 made this discovery afresh. It is pleasant to imagine -that these artistic explorations somewhat dulled the misery of their -exile. They worked and copied in the public and private galleries, they -painted by the riverside, and in the streets and parks. With enthusiasm -they absorbed the technique of Turner and Constable, perhaps of Watts, -and the result is to be seen in Claude Monet’s _Haystacks_, in -Pissarro’s street scenes, in Sisley’s landscapes, in the luminous work -of Guillaumin and d’Espagnat, in the canvases of Vuillard, Maufra, and -many followers. Their style was revolutionised, their ideals changed. -The dull greys and the russet browns which reigned supreme before 1870 -were banished for ever. - -[Illustration: - - THE WHITE RABBITS · GEORGES D’ESPAGNAT -] - -They returned to France the preachers of a new crusade. The “Café de la -Nouvelle Athénée” became the centre of the group. Reunited under Manet, -whose style commenced to show signs of much influence from Claude Monet, -the reformers gathered many recruits, and gained more enemies. They were -not without friends on the press: Emile Zola, who had written so -eloquently in “Mes Haines,” Théodore Duret, friend and literary executor -of Manet, Gustave Geffroy of “La Vie Artistique,” in Monet’s opinion the -most slashing of the lot, Arsène Alexandre of “Le Figaro,” Gustave -Cahen, Roger Marx, and many others. - -[Illustration: - - A SUMMER AFTERNOON · GEORGES D’ESPAGNAT -] - -But the financial position of the whole group was exceedingly -precarious. They could not sell their pictures. It was admitted that the -canvases of such men as Monet and Pissarro were the works of men of -genius, but the buying public (and they are numerous in France) did not -understand the new movement, and so failed to support it adequately. As -a whole, it may be said that the art public were in open hostility to -Impressionism. With a few exceptions, the critics of the established art -journals condemned the movement. Even comic singers ridiculed the -painters in the music-halls of Paris. The Salon was closed against them, -and the dealers refused to look at their canvases. - -Meanwhile the artists starved. These were the evil days of evictions, of -visits from the sheriff, of the forced sale of household furniture to -pay insignificant debts. It is a sordid story of a struggle to obtain -the barest necessities of existence. These wretched years proved a -bitter chastening of the spirit to proud and refined natures. Tragedy -and comedy were intermixed. Glimpses of hope and comfort appeared from -time to time as some fresh buyer appeared on the scene. But these -welcome callers were not frequent, and the rifts of sunshine through the -grey clouds were, as a rule, transitory. - -The artists did not over-value their works. They were able to live in -tranquillity if their pictures fetched prices ranging from £2 to £4. To -sell a canvas at £8 was an event, and £20 was a figure absolutely -unheard of. A letter from Manet, a comparatively rich man with an -independent income, to Théodore Duret, the critic, gives a vivid insight -into the situation in 1875. Manet had recently visited Claude Monet at -Argenteuil. “Dear Duret,” he writes, “I went to see Monet yesterday. I -found him altogether ‘hard up.’ He asked me if I knew of a purchaser for -ten or twenty of his pictures at £4 each. Shall we take it on? I thought -of a dealer, or of an amateur, but there I foresee the possibility of -refusals. It is unfortunate that it is only connoisseurs, like -ourselves, who can at the same time—in spite of all the repugnance we -may feel over it—make an excellent bargain and help a man of such -talent. Answer as quickly as possible or make an appointment with me. -Amitiés, Edouard Manet.” - -This is good proof, if proof were needed, of the straits to which one of -the leaders of the group was reduced. It is also odd to note that Manet -was afraid of a refusal, from both dealers and collectors, to the offer -of such a bargain as a score of works by Claude Monet at £4 apiece. The -letter also proves that those professional dealers who had hitherto -supported the Impressionists were at the end of their resources, notably -M. Durand-Ruel. - -This celebrated dealer and collector had brought himself to the verge of -bankruptcy through a too generous investment in Impressionist work. He -was gradually ostracised by brother dealers, buyers, and art critics. He -was regarded in much the same light as the artists themselves, -considered to have lost his mental balance and also his acumen as a man -of business. Certainly he speculated upon a large scale. In January -1872, having previously bought two studies, M. Durand-Ruel called upon -Manet at his studio and bought on the spot twenty-eight canvases for the -sum of 38,600 francs (£1544). The whole Impressionist camp went wild -with joy under the mistaken idea that their millennium had arrived. They -had many years to wait. Both the pictures and the capital were locked up -for a considerable time. The public had yet to be educated, and the few -amateurs who bought Impressionist work could select examples in -abundance from the artists’ easels. - -It is to the credit of the group that they followed their ideals and -refused many temptations. Several of them, Monet in particular, were -admirable portraitists, and could easily have gained a very respectable -living from that branch of art. A writer in one of the French art -reviews asserts that Claude Monet’s _Femme à la Robe Verte_ was the -finest painting in the Salon of 1866. Only men who have passed through -such experiences can appreciate at its true value the heroic courage, -faith, and self-confidence required during such a trial. - -[Illustration: - - FAIR ANGLERS · GEORGES D’ESPAGNAT -] - -The ordeal was long and severe. It included public disdain and private -poverty. The movement did not, however, remain stationary. In 1874 a -small exhibition was organised, and held, from April 15 to May 15, at -the galleries of M. Nadar, 35 Boulevard des Capucines. This little -salon, entitled “L’Exposition des Impressionistes,” has become historic. -The list of exhibitors included the following: Astruc, Attendu, Béliard, -Boudin, Bracquemond, Brandon, Bureau, Cals, Cézanne, Gustave Colin, -Debras, Degas, Guillaumin, Latouche, Lepic, Lépine, Levert, Meyer, de -Molins, Monet, Berthe Morisot, Mulot-Durivage, de Nittis, Auguste Ottin, -Léon Ottin, Pissarro, Renoir, Rouart, Robert, Sisley. From every point -of view, except that of art, the exhibition was a failure. The press -attacked it with exceptional virulence, the public kept away. The -artists were lampooned in idiotic cartoons, and branded as traitors who -were disloyal to the artistic traditions of their country. The public -sales at the Hôtel Drouot were disastrous. In March 1875, excellent -examples of Claude Monet were sold at prices varying between £6 and £13. -Pictures by Mlle. Berthe Morisot fetched from £3 to £19, and by Sisley -from £2 to £12. Renoir was the most unfortunate. Out of twenty -paintings, ten did not reach £4 each. Not one sold for more than £12. - -[Illustration: - - FISHING NEAR PARIS · LEPINE -] - -The particulars of the following exhibitions and sales are fully -detailed by M. Gustave Geffroy in his “Vie Artistique.” The second -exhibition was held at the house of M. Durand-Ruel in April 1876. The -participators were Béliard, Legros, Pissarro, Bureau, Lepic, Renoir, -Caillebotte, Levert, Rouart, Cals, J.-B. Millet, Sisley, Degas, Claude -Monet, Tillot, Desboutin, Berthe Morisot, Jacques François, and the -younger Ottin. - -In 1877 a sale was held, but prices showed little improvement. An -exhibition had been held a month previously, the exhibitors being -Caillebotte, Cals, Cézanne, Cordey, Degas, Guillaumin, François, Lamy, -Levert, Maureau, Monet, Berthe Morisot, Piette, Pissarro, Renoir, -Rouart, Sisley, and Tillot. - -These lists are exceedingly interesting, as they show year by year the -composition of the group. In succeeding years fresh names appeared. In -1879, at the Spring Exhibition in the Avenue de l’Opéra, the catalogue -included Bracquemond, Marie Bracquemond, Caillebotte, Cals, Mary -Cassatt, Degas, Forain, Lebourg, Monet, Pissarro, Rouart, Somm, Tillot, -and Zandomeneghi. In 1880, at the gallery in the Rue des Pyramides, the -same names appeared, together with J. F. Raffaëlli, J. M. Raffaëlli, -Vidal, and Vignon. Claude Monet does not appear to have sent any works, -probably because of his “one-man show” at “La Vie Moderne” gallery. In -April 1881, the annual collection began to decline in numbers, canvases -being sent by Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Degas, Forain, Gauguin, -Guillaumin, Pissarro, Raffaëlli, Rouart, Tillot, Vidal, Vignon, and -Zandomeneghi. In the following year (at the Rue Saint-Honoré) the number -was still less, Caillebotte, Gauguin, Guillaumin, Monet, Berthe Morisot, -Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, and Vignon. Practically the last collective -exhibition was held in 1886, the catalogue consisting of works by Degas, -Berthe Morisot, Gauguin, Guillaumin, Zandomeneghi, Forain, Mary Cassatt, -Odilon Redon, Camille Pissarro, Seurat, Signac, and Lucien Pissarro. - -M. Geffroy refers to these exhibitions as battle-fields. Campaigns -cannot last for ever, and victory had at last crowned the -Impressionists. To-day these artists are honoured and decorated, their -works hang in public galleries over the whole world. It may be said that -we are all Impressionists now. Certainly of the students it is true, for -ninety per cent. of those who take up landscape painting follow with -admiration the paths of the Impressionists. A glance through the annual -salons, either in Europe or America, fully proves the assertion. Before -many years have elapsed, even in England, one will find this the case. -The difficulty of Hanging Committees will be, not to hide away -Impressionist work to the least damage of its surroundings, but to hang -the anecdotal, moral, and all canvases of like _genre_, in such obscure -corners as will give the least offence to their moribund and -conservative creators. - -[Illustration] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - THE PICNIC · CLAUDE MONET -] - - - - - CHAPTER V · CLAUDE MONET - - “SÛREMENT CET HOMME A VÉCU, ET LE DÉMON DE L’ART - HABITE EN LUI” - - _GUSTAVE - GEFFROY_ - - -CLAUDE MONET is one of the few fortunate painters whose fame is not -posthumous, and whose material recompense runs parallel with the merit -of their production. He, above all others, has lifted the School of -Impressionism in France from the derision and disrepute which greeted -its inception some thirty years ago, and to him is due the honour of -making it one of the most prominent of latter-day art movements. - -The present generation witnesses the triumph of a remarkable revolution, -and the success of a group of painters, of which Monet was head, after -years of acrimonious struggle against a world of prejudice and disdain. -Claiming a right to exercise their art as they thought fit, aided by a -mere handful of far-sighted critics and patrons, for thirty years they -patiently endured public obloquy. Now the Luxembourg Gallery enlarges -its space to receive their works, and before long they will be -represented side by side with the masters of the Louvre. Appreciation is -the order of the day, and millionaires compete for their canvases. - -The life-history of Claude Monet is inseparably connected with the story -of Impressionism in France. As a leader of the little group any record -of the subject must largely consider his part in the result. It is -remarkable that a man of such talent should remain comparatively unknown -in England, considering that another portion of the Anglo-Saxon world -has always generously encouraged him. For the past twenty years a large -proportion of his works has gone to the United States. The English -nation will have to pay dearly in the future for its present neglect of -modern French art. At the present moment there is not a single specimen -of the work of Monet on exhibition in any English public art gallery. - -Claude Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840. Son of a wealthy -merchant of Havre, his inclinations towards art were soon shown, and -these tendencies, as usual, discouraged at home. No member of the family -had any artistic gifts, and, as in the case of Edouard Manet, the youth -was sent on a foreign tour. His school work was spasmodic and irregular, -and he devoted much of his time at Havre to caricature and the company -of Boudin the painter. When remonstrated with his reply was the -historic, “I would like to paint as a bird sings.” - -After two years of military service with the Chasseurs d’Afrique in -Algeria, Monet caught fever, and returned home. He then entered the -Atélier Gleyre, and remained in Paris. Of personal history there is -little to relate. He is a man of high purpose, greatly talented, -excessively active and self-reliant, who has not faltered once from the -path of his ideals. His adventures have been those usual to the -profession of a landscape-painter. He has suffered from fever and -rheumatism, the results of working near mosquito-haunted marshes, in -drenching rain, or in damp grass. The occupation is peaceful enough, the -diseases named are of everyday occurrence, yet they exert a powerful -influence upon the life of a man for ever engaged with brain and eye, -with nerves strung to the most intense pitch. - -His early struggles were the ordinary struggles of nine-tenths of those -votaries who worship at the shrines of Art. Claude Monet has drunk -deeply of the bitterness of life. He has endured privations and -disappointments which have brought him almost to the depths of despair. -He has survived only through his indomitable pluck. - -“One must have the strength for such a fight,” says Monet, with the -assurance born of experience, when recounting the history of those -troublous days. He is fortunately most generously endowed with the -attributes peculiar to the true artistic temperament—those exquisite -dreams and reveries which are at once a solace, a pleasure, and a -sustaining impetus. Truly was Baudelaire justified in writing: “Nations -have great men in spite of themselves, and so have families. They do -their best not to have any, so that the great man, in order to exist, -must needs possess a power of attack greater than the force of -resistance developed by millions of individuals.” - -It has long been granted, even by the bitterest of his opponents, that -Monet possesses a few at least of the attributes of genius—the capacity -for turning out large quantities of work, an almost unparalleled -fertility of invention, imagination, and originality, and above all that -priceless gift to the artist—the supreme power of creation. Moreover, he -is ever keen and restless in search of the new and unexplored, for ever -mistrusting the value of his own productions. - -[Illustration: - - CLAUDE MONET -] - -[Illustration: - - A STUDY · CLAUDE MONET -] - -Never has he been influenced strongly enough to waver in the pursuit of -his ideals, either through the gibes of the critics or the lack of -appreciation on the part of the public. - -His work is large and simple in character; his colour vigorous to the -utmost capacity of the prismatic tints, bearing the impress of a -passionate, violent, and highly sensitive artistic individuality. - -Monet is a lyrical poet, singing the joy of life and nature. The -decadence of modern France in literary circles finds no reflection on -his canvas. Strongly opposed by personal temperament to the ugly and -morbid, he allows his brush to touch no subject at all allied to such -themes. In every picture he paints we seem to hear Pippa singing: - - “The year’s at the Spring, - And day’s at the morn; - Morning’s at seven; - The hill-side’s dew-pearled; - The lark’s on the wing; - The snail’s on the thorn: - God’s in His heaven - All’s right with the world!” - -A happy serenity is his great charm, and it has been arrived at by -temperament, not by training. - -At the beginning of the Impressionist movement the nightly meetings at -the Café Guerbois became the centre of a small band of innovators and -iconoclasts, attracted by the sympathy of a common aim, the necessity of -mutual encouragement, and the prescience of the evolution of a new idea. - -The first public exhibition of the works of these painters was held in -the spring of 1874 at Nadar’s, in the Boulevard des Capucines. It -created an uproar in the art world, which culminated in several scenes -of personal violence between over-excited critics. Other exhibitions, -chiefly devoted to the works of Claude Monet, may be roughly summarised -as follows: one in 1876; at the galleries of M. Durand-Ruel in 1877; in -1880 at the offices of “La Vie Moderne,” Boulevard des Italiens; in 1889 -in conjunction with Rodin at the gallery of M. Georges Petit. - -Monet exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1865. The two marine -pieces drew from Edouard Manet the remark, “Who is this Monet, who looks -as if he had taken my name, and happens thus to profit by the noise I -make?” He exhibited for the last time in 1880. In 1882 he forwarded -_Glaçons sur la Seine_, a remarkably beautiful conception of an illusory -effect, the rejection of which finally ended all relations between the -artist and a too conservative body. - -With the exception of a semi-private show at Dowdeswell’s of Bond Street -in 1883, Monet made his début in England at the Winter Exhibition of -1888 of the Royal Society of British Artists, then under the presidency -of Mr. Whistler. That careful critic, Mr. H. M. Spielman, of the -“Magazine of Art,” wrote the following lines in his journal: “He who -contemplates these distinctive pieces of arch-impressionism, without -prejudice, without ‘arrière pensée,’ must own that for strength and -brilliancy of general tone and for decorative effect, they have few, if -any, equals.” - -Monet has never been seen at his best in England; indeed, the same may -be said of all the members of the Impressionist group. Owing to the -ready market for their work in France and America, it is rarely that the -dealers are able to attract across the Channel any but second-rate -canvases. Isolated works have been shown at the Boussod Vallodon -galleries, the New English Art Club, the International Society’s -Exhibition at Knightsbridge, and a miscellaneous collection on view at -the Hanover Gallery, Bond Street, in 1901. The standard of the latter -was not high, and the result disappointing to all parties. A -representative exhibition remains to be held. - -No other country but France can boast of landscape so varied, so -picturesque, and so atmospherically suited to the Impressionist. The -principal scenes of Monet’s labours have been Havre, Belle-Isle-en-Mer, -the Riviera, La Creuse, La Manche, with Giverny and the Seine valley in -particular. Short visits have been devoted to England, Norway, and -Holland; but the first-named localities have seen the production of the -famous series known under the titles of _Les Meules_, _Peupliers au bord -de l’Epté_, _Glaçons sur la Seine_, _Matins sur la Seine_, _A -Argenteuil_, _Belle Isle_, _Bordighera_, _Antibes_, _Champs des -Tulipes_, and _Les Cathédrales._ There is also a series of paintings of -the artist’s Japanese water-garden at Giverny, and yet another series -dealing with London under different atmospheric aspects. - -Claude Monet is enthusiastically in love with London from the painter’s -point of view. From the balconies of the Savoy Hotel the French master -has watched the tidal ebb and flow of the great grey river, with its -squalid southern banks shrouded day by day in white mist and brown -smoke, the warehouses and chimneys coated in a veil of soot, the legacy -of ages. The autumnal fogs, which harmonise discordant tones, round off -harsh outlines, cloak the ugly and create the beautiful, are to the -foreigner London’s greatest charm, although to the inhabitant they are a -deadly infliction. - -[Illustration: - - LA GRENOUILLÈRE · CLAUDE MONET -] - -No writer ever expressed this fascination more eloquently than the -“Wizard of the Butterfly Mark,” who wrote: “And when the evening mist -clothes the riverside world with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor -buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become -campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole -city hangs in the heavens and fairyland is before us—then the wayfarer -hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the -one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see; and -Nature, who, for once has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the -artist alone, her son and her master—her son in that he loves her, her -master in that he knows her.” - -With these thoughts Claude Monet is in perfect agreement. He is amazed -at the apathy and indifference of British artists, blinded no doubt by -familiarity, in allowing so fertile a field of labour to remain -comparatively unexplored, not only with regard to the river scenes, but -to the Metropolis as a whole. Whistler was fascinated, so was -Bastien-Lepage, so is Claude Monet; but the Englishman remains unmoved. - -A chapter could be written upon the artist possibilities of the city, -and the fringe of the subject would have been then but touched. Where, -asks Monet, can more soul-inspiring subjects for the brush be found than -in the Strand from morning to night, in the movement of Piccadilly, in -the evening colour of Leicester Square, the classic sweep and brilliancy -of Regent Street, the bustle of the great railway termini, the dignity -of Pall Mall and the sylvan glades of Kensington? They offer themes in -such variety that the devotion of a lifetime would not give adequate -realisation. - -It was during his visit to London with Pissarro and other painters in -1870 that Monet carried an introduction from Daubigny which led to his -acquaintance with M. Durand-Ruel, expert connoisseur and most celebrated -of all the Parisian art dealers. It proved to be the commencement of a -life-long friendship, and established business relations which meant the -actual necessities of existence, bread and butter itself, to the -struggling Impressionists. During this visit, which had such auspicious -results, Monet studied with profound admiration the canvases of Turner -in the National Gallery, and he was also able to increase very largely -his knowledge of the art of Japan. - -In surveying as a whole the work of the last thirty years we can arrive -at but a single conclusion—Claude Monet will rank as one of the world’s -greatest landscapists, the one who, above all others, has revealed the -transcendent beauty of atmospheric effect in its rarest moods, in its -most varied manifestations, in rocks, skies, trees, seas, architecture, -fogs, snows, even in crowded streets and moving trains. And Monet is not -pre-eminent as a painter of easel-pictures alone. In the unique -decorations of M. Durand-Ruel’s private apartment, rooms which -constitute the most admirable museum of contemporary painting to be -found in France, are realistic paintings of different forms of -still-life, which fully vindicate his supreme mastership. - -Little space can be devoted in these pages to an extended notice of -individual canvases, for the output (to use a somewhat commercial term) -of Claude Monet has been exceptionally large. Where the whole is of such -excellence it is difficult to select the masterpiece upon which can be -staked not only the artist’s reputation but the verdict of the future -upon the entire movement. - -Personally one may say that the Giverny work is the most triumphant -exposition of the methods of Impressionism. If the series known as _Les -Cathédrales_ be added, one may safely challenge the most critical. It is -natural that Giverny should inspire the finest harvest, for, after years -of experimental residence, it is here that Monet finally settled in -1883. The dominant note in the Giverny paintings is one of joy in the -beauty of life and nature. They are the works of an inspired genius, who -never forgets that Beauty is the mission of Art. - -_Les Meules_ or _The Haystacks_, exhibited for the first time at the -Durand-Ruel galleries in May 1891, are impressions of a simple and -homely subject—two haystacks in a neighbour’s field, standing out in -relief against the distant hillside. These twenty canvases, the fruits -of a year’s labour, are as novel in conception as unapproachable in -style. The artist watched and painted the haystacks in the making, -followed and noted the atmospheric effects upon them at every different -hour of the day, at every changing season. He portrays them covered with -the pearls of dew, baked by the sun, lost in the fog, rimed with early -frosts, and covered in snow. Each picture is a masterpiece of beauty, -truth and form. - -The influence of such creations is world-wide. The annual Salon in Paris -demonstrates what a power Monet has become in the land. Almost to a man -the younger painters are Impressionistic, whilst not a few of the old -generation have revised their methods. - -[Illustration: - - THE BEACH AT ÉTRETAT · CLAUDE MONET -] - -Soon after _Les Meules_ came _Les Peupliers_, exhibited in March 1892. -The Haystacks were a recital of history during the four seasons; the -Poplars show us their differing aspects under the changing atmosphere of -a single day. Again the subject is of the simplest. Seven great Normandy -poplars are reflected in the sluggish waters of a rivulet slowly running -through marshy ground. The continuation of the long column of these -graceful trees, ever diminishing, is lost in the distance, marking the -sinuous course of the stream. The gracefulness of the subject gives it a -nobility of effect. The landscapes are poems. - -In some of the canvases the master has depicted the dim light of early -morn, through which can be seen nebulous tree-trunks, leaves and grass, -dank and obscure. Upon the water floats a chill blue mist, broken here -and there with the gold rays of the rising sun. - -In another canvas the mists have cleared away, morning appears in its -superb glory, each dewdrop is a sparkling diamond, each leaf a -shimmering gem. The stream throws out a sheen of gold and silver, and -the whole picture is flooded with a roseate hue. - -Then comes mid-noon. The blue dome of the unclouded sky is reflected in -a deeper tint across the still water. The trees are dusty, lifeless, -almost colourless. The atmosphere vibrates in an intense silent heat. -Nature is taking her siesta, - - “For now the mid-day quiet holds the hill: - The grasshopper is silent in the grass; - The lizard, with his shadow on the stone, - Rests like a shadow, and the winds are dead; - The purple flower droops: the golden bee - Is lily-cradled....” - -In the last canvas night is shown falling gently upon the land, -obscuring, with a veil of rich and sombre colour, trees, foliage, -stream. The landscape is lost in sleep. - -From the photographs, reproduced by the courtesy of M. Claude Monet, M. -Durand-Ruel, M. Paul Chevallier, and M. Georges Petit, little idea can -be gathered of the extreme beauty of the originals. The colour and -technique of Impressionist pictures seem unfortunately to be insuperable -barriers to their reproduction in monochrome. Upon this account it has -been thought inadvisable to publish reproductions of any of the Haystack -or Cathedral series. - -Monet’s marine pictures are marvellous. In them he depicts throbbing, -swelling, sighing sea, the trickling rills of water that follow a -retreating wave, the glass-like hues of the deep ocean, and the violet -transparencies of the shallow inlets over sand. Monet is the greatest -living painter of water. Witness the _Matins sur la Seine_, views -painted from the river bank, from the artist’s houseboat, anchored in -mid-stream, and on the various islands of the backwaters between -Vétheuil and Vernon. The handling is free, loose, and masterly. Never -has art expressed, through the hands of a craftsman, anything finer or -more virile; never were ideas more frankly expressed, more freshly and -more brilliantly executed. - -Of the last exhibited group of “effects,” the series known as _Les -Cathédrales_ of Rouen, exhibited at the Durand-Ruel gallery in the -spring of 1895, Monet writes in a personal note to the author: “I -painted them, in great discomfort, looking out of a shop window opposite -the Cathedral. So there is nothing interesting to tell you except the -immense difficulty of the task, which took me three years to -accomplish.” Despite the immense difficulties involved in their -production, Monet considers them to be his finest works. On the other -hand, they are the works least understood by the public. - -The series consists of twenty-five huge canvases, a feat requiring -considerable physical endurance and indomitable perseverance. Each -canvas demonstrates the fact that the painter possesses eyes -marvellously sensitive to the most subtle modulations of light, and -capable of the acutest analysis of luminous phenomena. The façade of the -ancient Norman fane is depicted rather by the varying atmospheric -effects dissolved in their relative values, than by any actual -draughtsmanship of correct architectural lines. It is very regrettable -that the series was not purchased “en bloc” for the French nation. The -opportunity has been lost. The canvases realised enormous prices, and -are now scattered over two continents. - -In years to come visitors to Rouen will be shown with pride the little -curiosity shop “Au Caprice” on the south-west side of the “Place,” from -the windows of which Claude Monet evolved these world-famous paintings -of Rouen Cathedral. - -The attitude of the press and the public in face of this glorious -manifestation of a newly-created art has been, as usual, distinctly and -actively antagonistic. Animosity has been pushed so far as to include -threats of personal violence to the innovator, and of injury to the -offending canvases. It is difficult to believe such stories amidst the -recent pæans of praise and adulation. But the contemporary press of the -period will prove to be a curious study in the hands of some careful -historian of a future age. Readers of the “Figaro,” it may be mentioned, -discontinued their subscriptions and advertisements because the band of -“lunatic visionaries” were so much as mentioned in its orthodox columns. -Dealers required courage in exposing for sale the “aberrations of -disordered imaginations.” History monotonously repeats itself. A genius -generally goes down broken-hearted to his grave before the world awakes -to the value of his creations. - -[Illustration: - - MORNING ON THE SEINE · CLAUDE MONET -] - -[Illustration: - - ARGENTEUIL · CLAUDE MONET -] - -Paris, “la ville luminaire,” the birthplace of so many revolutions, both -artistic and political, has almost invariably been hostile to any new -spirit in Art. From memory one can cite many instances. In 1833, -Parisians assembled that they might jeer and throw mud at Baryes’s _Le -Lion_, a masterpiece now in the Jardin d’Acclimatation. Rude’s great -bas-relief, _Départ des Volontaires de la République_, decorating one of -the pillars of the Arc de Triomphe, met with a similar reception. In -1844, the exquisite paintings of Eugene Delacroix, now in the Louvre, -were greeted with a storm of ridicule. Carpeaux’s group of sculpture _La -Danse_, ornamenting the façade of the Opera, was bombarded nightly with -ink-pots, and the sculptor was broken-hearted when compelled to polish -the figures of his magnificent _Fontaine des Heures_ facing the -Observatory. Millet and the Barbizon group had small thanks to return -for their reception. The frescoes of Puvis de Chavannes in the Panthéon, -the Sorbonne, and the Luxembourg had to be guarded against the risk of -damage from an ignorant and exasperated public. The vituperation which -assailed Rodin upon the completion of his statue of Balzac is quite -recent, and cannot be forgotten. - -Claude Monet has passed through like storms. Edouard Manet fell a victim -to the fury of the attack. His physique was not strong enough to resist -the continual warfare. But Monet is of stouter calibre, and has lived to -see the triumph of his principles, although he has learnt to value much -of the praise, nowadays lavished upon him, at its true worth. - -Monet is seen in his most genial moods when, with cigar for company, he -strolls through his “propriété” at Giverny, discussing the grafting of -plants and other agricultural mysteries with his numerous blue-bloused -and sabotted gardeners. He settled with his family at Giverny in 1883; -and Stephen Mallarmé, his old friend the poet, has given us the address -for his letters: - - “Monsieur Monet, que l’hiver ni - L’été sa vision ne leurre, - Habite en peignant, Giverny, - Sis auprès de Vernon, dans l’Eure.” - -He is now sixty-two years of age, in the prime of his powers, active and -dauntless as ever. Each line of his sturdy figure, each flash from his -keen blue eyes, betokens the giant within. He is one of those men who, -through dogged perseverance and strength, would succeed in any branch of -activity. Dressed in a soft khaki felt hat and jacket, lavender-coloured -silk shirt open at the neck, drab trousers tapering to the ankles and -there secured by big horn buttons, a short pair of cowhide boots, his -appearance is at once practical and quaint, with a decided sense of -smartness pervading the whole. - -Monet has the reputation of being surly and reserved with strangers. If -true, this manner must have been assumed to repel those unwelcome -visitors who, out of thoughtless curiosity, invade his privacy to the -waste of valuable time and the gradual irritation of a most sensitive -nature. - -Determination is the keynote of Monet’s character, as the following -anecdote (told me on the spot by the poet Rollinat) shows. In the spring -of 1892 the artist was busily occupied painting in the neighbourhood of -Fresselines, a wild and picturesque region of precipitous cliffs and -huge boulders in the valleys of the Creuse and Petit Creuse. A huge -oak-tree, standing out in bold relief against the ruddy cliffs, was -occupying Monet’s whole attention. Studies of it were taken at every -possible angle, in every varying atmosphere of the day. Bad weather -intervened, wet and foggy, and operations were suspended for three -weeks. When Monet set up his easel again the tree was in full bud, and -completely metamorphosed. An average painter would have quitted the spot -in disgust. Not so Monet. Without hesitation he called out the whole -village, made the carpenter foreman, and gave imperative orders that not -a single leaf was to be visible by the same hour on the following -morning. The work was accomplished, and next day Monet was able to -continue work upon his canvases. One admires the painter, and feels -sorry for the unhappy tree. - -After painting, Monet’s chief recreation is gardening. In his domain at -Giverny, and in his Japanese water-garden across the road and railway -(which to his lasting sorrow cuts his little world in twain), each -season of the year brings its appointed and distinguishing colour -scheme. Nowhere else can be found such a prodigal display of rare and -marvellously beautiful colour effects, arranged from flowering plants -gathered together without regard to expense from every quarter of the -globe. - -Like the majority of Impressionists, Monet is most pleased with schemes -of yellow and blue, the gold and sapphire of an artist’s dreams. - -[Illustration: - - A RIVER SCENE · CLAUDE MONET -] - -In the neighbouring fields are hundreds of poplars standing in long -regimental lines. These trees, which inspired _Les Peupliers_, were -bought by Monet to avoid the wholesale destruction which threatened -every tree in the Seine valley a few years ago. The building authorities -of the Paris Exhibition required materials for palisading, and thousands -of trees were ruthlessly felled to make a cosmopolitan holiday. - -[Illustration: - - A LADY IN HER GARDEN · CLAUDE MONET -] - -In the distance are the mills, subjects of the master’s admiration and -reproduction, yearly copied by the scores of students and amateurs who, -year by year, during the summer, journey through this delightful -country. - -In the peace of Giverny we leave the great painter. He is one of the few -original members of the Impressionist group who has lived to see the -almost complete reversal of the hostile judgment passed upon his -canvases by an ill-educated public. Now he is able to enjoy not only the -satisfaction of having his principles acknowledged, but also the receipt -of the material fruits of a world-wide renown. Not often do pioneers -succeed so thoroughly. - -Success in the sale-room is not always the same thing as artistic -success, but some information as to the prices Monet now commands may -prove of value. The _New York Herald_, referring to the well-known -Chocquet auction, says: “It will be observed that the works by Monet are -sought after and purchased at high prices, which are moreover justified -by collectors as well as by dealers.” At the present moment a small -example (about 26 in. by 32 in.) can be had for any price from four -hundred guineas upwards. - -After the Chocquet sale, dealers of all nationalities flocked down to -Giverny. Two series of impressions, entitled _Water Lilies_ and _Green -Bridges_, were carried off, and the art public were deprived of seeing -them exhibited as a whole, their creator’s original intention. - -The dealers were ready to buy every canvas Monet had in his studio, even -down to the numerous studies he had condemned. Needless to say that with -regard to the latter they were disappointed, and the destroying fires -will still claim their own. In discussing with the writer this sudden -and extraordinary popularity, Monet remarked: “Yes, my friend, to-day I -cannot paint enough, and make probably fifteen thousand pounds a year; -twenty years ago I was starving.” Only artists can fully appreciate the -philosophy of this short sentence. - -The principal private collectors of Monet’s work are, in Paris, M. -Durand-Ruel, Count Camondo, M. Faure, M. Dearp, M. Pellerin, M. -Gallimard, and M. Bérard. In Rouen, M. Depeaux. In the United States, -Messrs. C. Lambert Paterson and Potter Palmer of Chicago, Frank Thompson -of Philadelphia, A. A. Pape of Cleveland, and H. O. Havemeyer of New -York. All these rich collections of modern art are most generously -thrown open to the inspection and enjoyment of students and lovers of -art. - -Claude Monet is in the possession of undiminished vigour, and the list -of his works will yet receive the names of many fresh triumphs. A life -of strenuous labour, unflagging perseverance in the pursuit of a high -ideal from which he has never flinched, the production of a long series -of magnificent canvases—these great qualities of true and inspired -genius merit and receive our deepest admiration, our most sincere and -genuine homage. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: - - INTERIOR—AFTER DINNER · CLAUDE MONET -] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - CHURCH OF ST. JACQUES, DIEPPE · CAMILLE PISSARRO -] - - - - - CHAPTER VI · PISSARRO, RENOIR, SISLEY - - “JE CROIS QU’IL N’Y AURA RIEN DE PLUS TRISTE À - RACONTER DANS L’HISTOIRE DE L’ART, QUE LA LONGUE - PERSÉCUTION INFLIGÉE AUX ARTISTES VRAIMENT ORIGINAUX - ET CRÉATEURS DE CE SIÈCLE” - - _THÉODORE - DURET_ - - -THE artists who accepted originally the title of Impressionists numbered -about fifty in all, and a complete list of their names can be found in -the catalogues of the eight exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886. -There were never more than a dozen active members. Twenty-six (including -Boudin and Signac) exhibited but once, and ten were represented in two -collections only. Pissarro was the single painter who contributed to the -whole series, Degas and Berthe Morisot forwarding examples during seven -years. Of the remainder, Rouart and Guillaumin were catalogued in six -exhibitions; Caillebotte, Monet, and Tillot, in five; Cals, Mary -Cassatt, Forain, Gauguin, Renoir, Sisley, and Zandomeneghi, in four. -These artists were the original members of the group until it dispersed -about 1886. - -It will be noted that Camille Pissarro exhibited eight times, and the -fact is characteristic of an artist who was famous for his large output. -On the eve of the publication of this volume comes the sad intelligence -of the death of one of the most gifted members of the early -Impressionist group in France. The loss of Camille Pissarro is a severe -blow to the art he loved so well, and it has formed the subject of -general regret. Born in 1830 at St. Thomas, in the Antilles, son of a -well-to-do trader of Jewish descent, Pissarro at an early age showed -signs of artistic promise. In 1837 his parents moved to Europe, and his -precocious talent was noticed by the Danish painter Melbye, who took the -boy into his atelier as a pupil. In 1859 Pissarro exhibited for the -first time at the Salon, and, by all accounts, his picture was -successfully received. After passing through several varying phases of -artistic evolution the young painter became an avowed Impressionist. -Camille Pissarro’s career can be divided into no less than four -different periods, his temperament being curiously influenced at times -by novel technical ideas. - -At first he was a victim to Corot’s magic art, and Pissarro worked by -the side of that master in the woods of Ville d’Avray. The young -painter’s methods were those fashionable amongst such men as Courbet, -Manet, and Sisley. He worked upon immense canvases, and some of the -productions of this period are almost classic in style and quality of -technique. Then he came under the influence of another great master, -Jean-François Millet, whose methods he copied most faithfully. Following -the example of Millet, Pissarro went to live in the solitude of plains -and woods, painting the peasant life and landscape around him, and -gradually gaining a considerable reputation. He sought to reproduce -nature in art in much the same spirit as Virgil reproduced nature in -poetry. His point of view was more that of an idealist than a realist, -and his sympathies were clearly with the Fontainebleau school. Had there -been no Monet we may feel sure that Pissarro would have ranked in -history as one of the leaders of the Barbizon men. - -Then blossomed the Impressionist Idea, and Pissarro’s volatile -imagination was fired. The great war of 1870 intervening, Pissarro fled -from the terrors of the invasion, visited London in company with Monet, -and studied on the spot the masterpieces of Turner, Constable, the -Norwich painters, Watts, and the great English portraitists. He lodged -in Lower Norwood, and painted, also with his friend Monet, in the parks -and suburbs of the metropolis, along the riverside, and in the crowded -picturesque streets of the City. Twelve years later, after much -brilliant practice of Impressionism, Pissarro came under a new -influence, the effects of which were but momentary. The hotly discussed -idea known as Pointillism, originated by Seurat and Signac, attracted -Pissarro, and, for a short time, he joined the group of such restless -innovators as Angrand, Maurice Denis, and Van Rysselberghe. - -[Illustration: - - CAMILLE PISSARRO -] - -During a sketching tour in Normandy in the summer of 1903, the writer -unexpectedly discovered some of the latest work produced by Pissarro. -These pictures had been painted in Havre a few weeks previously, and had -been immediately acquired by the Havre City Council, and placed on -exhibition in the same gallery which contained the important collection -of sketches by Eugene Boudin, as well as a score of works by other -artists of the Impressionist group. Pissarro had represented the port of -Havre as seen from various “coigns de vantage” offered by neighbouring -balconies. The canvases are charged with life, and are painted with a -most unsuspected brilliance of colour and freshness of tone pitched in -the highest possible key, an effect to be found only in the pure -sea-washed sunlit atmosphere of the morning. In this work of his -seventy-third year, the veteran artist had never arrived at stronger, -happier, and more distinguished results. - -[Illustration: - - PLACE DU THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS · CAMILLE PISSARRO -] - -[Illustration: - - THE BOULEVARD MONTMARTRE: A WINTER IMPRESSION · CAMILLE PISSARRO -] - -These canvases were extremely different in technique and effect from the -drab landscapes Pissarro painted with such a niggling touch during that -period of his career prior to 1886. The Havre works prove that he -possessed an acute colour sense, and, in conjunction with his inimitable -Parisian street scenes, place him second only to Manet and Monet in the -history of modern French art. It is the opinion of many connoisseurs -that Pissarro’s best work is comprised in the series of views (painted -from elevated points of view) of the streets, squares, and railway -stations, of Paris and Rouen. These vivid transcripts of modern town -life form a remarkable monument of a long career of high resolve and -incessant industry. - -Like that of Monet and other Impressionist artists, Pissarro’s work now -commands high prices, which are steadily advancing. Shortly after his -death a landscape entitled _La Coté Sainte Catherine à Rouen_ was sold -by public auction for 11,000 francs, an average present value for his -canvases, although not a record figure. - -With the etching needle Pissarro has done some particularly interesting -work little known in England. Students of this fascinating medium should -look through the Rouen etchings, a masterly little set. - -Camille Pissarro was a man of commanding personality, and his handsome -features and long white beard gave him a patriarchal appearance. Of -charming disposition, with a mind of simple nobility, an excellent -raconteur of droll stories chiefly drawn from his own interesting -experiences, he will long be remembered as one of the most attractive of -the great French artists of the nineteenth century. He lived and worked, -as befitted a “paysagist,” in the midst of a beautiful stretch of -country at Eragny, outside Gisors, not far from Monet’s residence at -Giverny. Pissarro left a considerable amount of work behind, paintings -in oil and water-colour, drawings in every medium, etchings, and -lithographs. His art may be summed up as powerful. It possessed a -healthy vitality and sentiment, and these will assure a lasting respect -and admiration for his name. - -Many of the foregoing remarks apply equally to Pissarro’s close comrade -and friend, Renoir. Auguste Renoir was born in 1841, and has always -taken an important place in the Impressionist movement. His work forms -an epitome of the whole school, and perhaps it is for that very reason -that the artist has not attained a higher popular appreciation. During -his forty years of continual labour he has produced landscapes, -seascapes, large subject compositions, studies of still-life, portraits, -and exquisite nudes. Critics, charged with enthusiasm, have found in his -canvases the finest traits of Boucher, Fragonard, Greuze, Reynolds, and -Hoppner. - -Renoir is above all the painter of women and children, and his creations -in this _genre_ glow with the sure fire of genius. He renders in a -marvellous fashion the subtle play of light upon flesh. His portraits -are charming and typically French, graceful in line and rich in colour, -drawn with extraordinary skill, and with great truth to nature. In the -portraits of Bonnat and Duran, writes a German critic, 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 -blythe and gay, and now angry once more, now faltering between both -moods in a charming passion. And there are women of the world, of -consummate elegance, slender and lightly 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 -sensitive and flexuous race; some as yet unconscious, dreamy and free -from thought; others already animated, correct in pose, graceful, and -wise. Good examples of this artist as portraitist are to be found in the -pictures _Le loge_, and _On the Terrace_, the latter a most delightful -composition. - -Another famous canvas by Renoir is the _Bal au Moulin de la Galette_, a -most trying theme in which the master has triumphed over every -difficulty. Degas would have conceived the composition in a very -different spirit, throwing stress upon the sordidness of this scene from -low life, adding a bitterness which is quite foreign to the temperament -of Renoir, whose dominant note is one of sunlight and noisy -dust-enveloped pleasure. - -Criticising the work of Renoir from a purely technical point of view one -finds throughout almost the whole of his work an unpleasant tone of -Prussian blue, which strikes one at times as spotty and crude. The -handling of the large-sized portrait groups seems often unnecessarily -coarse and repellent. Many find it hard to appreciate his landscapes, -considering them to be thin, of a greasy woolly texture, unatmospheric -and lacking many of the qualities one looks for in such representations -of nature. - -[Illustration: - - PASTEL PORTRAIT OF CÉZANNE · AUGUSTE RENOIR -] - -[Illustration: - - AT THE PIANO · AUGUSTE RENOIR -] - -The work of Auguste Renoir will always remain a battlefield for the -critics. The champions of the group acclaim him as one of its most -brilliant members. Renoir is voluptuous, bright, happy, and learned -without heaviness, says M. Camille Mauclair, adding that the artist is -intoxicated with the beauties of flowers, flesh, and sunlight. - -Rare are the artists who distinguish themselves in every branch of art, -lucky the man who excels in one. An example of the latter is Alfred -Sisley, “paysagist” pure and simple, who has left a legacy of some of -the most fascinating landscapes ever painted. - -Sisley was born in Paris of English parents in 1839, and remained a -citizen of the country of his birth, although he paid several visits to -England. At first he painted conventional landscapes in russet and grey, -after the type of Courbet. After passing under the influence of Corot he -commenced to evolve a style peculiarly his own, abundantly rich in -colour and agreeable in line, loving especially to paint the violet -tints of a sunlit countryside, generally upon canvases of small and -medium size. In his earlier days canvases of enormous extent alone -seemed to satisfy him. He specialised his efforts almost solely to -transcripts from the riverside. When in England he remained in the -neighbourhood of Hampton Court and the Thames valley generally; in -France he painted on the edge of the Seine, or the Loing, finally -settling at Moret, where he died in 1899. He was less successful in -draughtsmanship than in colour, particularly when he attempted to -achieve with Moret church what Monet had done with Rouen cathedral. - -In spite of the production of many little masterpieces, Sisley lived to -the day of his death on the verge of poverty. Never a popular artist, -although he and his wife led a life of the most frugal description, he -was for ever uncertain of finding the barest means of subsistence. This -embittered his existence, and undoubtedly tended to cut short a life of -much activity and talent. “Sisley, be it said, worked always, struggled -long, and suffered much. But he was brave and strong, a man of will, -consecrated to his art, and determined to go forward on the road he had -taken, wherever it might lead. He faced bad fortune with a front of -undaunted energy. His years of _début_ were cruel times. His pictures -sold seldom and poorly. He kept on, however, with the same brave heart, -with that joyous fervour which shines from all his works.” These words -were spoken by an old friend at the graveside of Sisley. M. Tavernier -went on to remark that the success which arrived for several of the -other Impressionists was slower in coming to Sisley. “This never for a -moment disturbed him; no approach to a feeling of jealousy swept the -heart of this honest man, nor darkened this uplifted spirit. He only -rejoiced in the favour which had fallen upon some of his group, saying -with a smile, ‘They are beginning to give us our due: my turn will come -after that of my friends.’... Sisley is gone too soon, and just at the -moment when, in reparation for long injustice, full homage is about to -be rendered those strong and charming qualities which make him a painter -exquisite and original among them all, a magician of light, a poet of -the heavens, of the waters, of the trees—in a word, one of the most -remarkable landscapists of this day.” - -A contemporary of Sisley, equally gifted and more fortunate financially, -is Armand Guillaumin, whose art is practically unknown in England. His -style and his subjects are of the simplest, whilst his colour is -vigorous, pure, and rich in tone. Possessing few tastes outside his art -his life has been one of continued and active devotion to its -perfection. Son of a linendraper, like Corot, his youth was passed -behind the counter, and later as a clerk in an office. In the meanwhile -he attended, when possible, the “Académie Suisse,” by the Quai des -Orfèvres, a curious school without professors. Here he worked in company -with Pissarro and Cézanne. This, combined with study in the public -galleries and sketching along the riverside and in the streets and parks -of Paris, constituted his sole education. - -In a letter to the writer, Guillaumin says that Courbet, Daubigny, and -Monet are the masters who have influenced his style most, with perhaps -special stress upon the methods of Monet. - -Some years ago a lucky speculation in a lottery attached to the Crédit -Foncier brought the artist a “gros lot” of about £4000, which -immediately freed him from further anxieties about money, and gave him -complete liberty to exercise the art he lives for. He contributed to the -original exhibition held by the Impressionists in 1874, where his -pictures, views of Charenton, at once marked him as a painter of special -talent and originality. In 1894, at the Durand-Ruel galleries, were -exhibited about one hundred of his canvases executed in various mediums, -and the effect of this collection upon students has been remarkable. -These pictures were painted for the most part at Agay, Damiette, and -Crozant. In the solitude of these deep valleys, overhung by cliffs down -which rush the limpid Creuse and Sédelle from the mountains of the -Cevenne to the sea, works the artist in hermit-like solitude, two -hundred miles from Paris and far from railways and latter-day -civilisation. - -[Illustration: - - OUTSKIRTS OF THE FOREST OF FONTAINEBLEAU · ALFRED SISLEY -] - -[Illustration: - - ON THE BANKS OF THE LOING · ALFRED SISLEY -] - -Guillaumin is an incredibly prolific worker, and this, although often a -sign of great talent, is much deplored by his admirers, who cannot help -believing that he is wasting in the production of countless sketches and -repetitions a talent which is strong enough to create masterpieces. -Zola’s reproach addressed to Gustave Doré comes to the mind when -speaking of Guillaumin. Such an artist is likely to combine with -business men in manufacturing works purely commercial. There is yet time -for Guillaumin to produce some great masterpiece with which to crown the -glory of his long career. - -[Illustration: - - AUGUSTE RENOIR -] - -[Illustration: - - ALFRED SISLEY -] - -Other manifestations from the parent stem of Impressionism took the form -of Idealism with André Mellino at its head; the Salon of the Rose + -Croix, with Sar Peladan in command; and the “Intimists,” a body -consisting of Charles Cottet, Simon Bussy, and Henri Le Sidaner, who is -referred to elsewhere. The Salon of the Rose + Croix, held in the early -nineties, was one of the most eccentric art societies of the past -century, a mixture of art, religion, politics, and rules of morality. -Its members were forbidden to exhibit historical, prosaic, patriotic, -and military subjects, portraits, representations of modern life, all -rustic scenes and landscapes (except those in the style of Poussin), -seamen and seascapes, comic subjects, oriental subjects, pictures of -domestic animals, and studies of still-life. The doings of Sar Peladan -and his followers have long since been forgotten, but at the time they -afforded a curious study in artistic eccentricity. - -There are several other men who have rendered good service to -Impressionism, although one is not able to mention more than their names -in this chapter. Paul Gauguin, an artist of decided ability, whose death -has only just been chronicled, contributed to several of the exhibitions -in the Durand-Ruel and other galleries. At first a simple painter of -Breton landscapes he inclined towards “Pointillism.” Upon his return -from a long visit to Tahiti his manner became crude and bizarre to an -extreme, not altogether admirable, although leaving an impression of -uncommon strength. Gauguin was a friend of Van Gogh whom, together with -Renoir and Cézanne, he may be said to have influenced. Another of his -pupils is Emile Bernard, the symbolist. - -Vincent Van Gogh requires mention as a painter who practised the methods -of Impressionism to their extreme limit. A Dutchman who lived in France, -Van Gogh, a man of great talent, committed suicide after a most unhappy -life. Like his own personality, these canvases are exotic, though at -times displaying a more tender note. Had fortune been less unkind he -would have developed into a great artist, for nature had endowed him -with a rich genius. - -In the eighth exhibition organised by the Société des artistes -Indépendants were some ambitious works, interesting but totally -unconvincing, painted in the new and then hotly discussed “Pointillist” -style. Seurat, Signac, Ibels, Maurice Denis, Henri-Edmond Cross, Théo -Van Rysselberghe, and Angrand, were members of this movement initiated -by Seurat and Signac. George Seurat died at an early age in 1890, and -this was doubtless the chief reason for the collapse of the group. The -aim of the “Pointillists” was to resolve the colours of nature back into -six bands of the spectrum, and to represent these on the canvas by spots -of unmixed pigment. At a sufficient distance these spots combine their -hues upon the retina, giving the effect of a mixture of coloured lights -rather than pigments, resulting in an increase instead of a loss of -luminosity. One of the first converts was the veteran Camille Pissarro, -who happily abandoned these extraordinary methods which Théo Van -Rysselberghe and a few others continue to employ. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: - - OUTSKIRTS OF A WOOD · ALFRED SISLEY -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - CHILD AND DOG · EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII · SOME YOUNGER IMPRESSIONISTS: CARRIÈRE, POINTELIN, MAUFRA - - “WHENEVER MEN ARE NOBLE THEY LOVE BRIGHT COLOUR, AND - WHEREVER THEY CAN LIVE HEALTHILY, BRIGHT COLOUR - IS GIVEN THEM IN SKY, SEA, FLOWERS, AND LIVING - CREATURES” - - _RUSKIN_ - - -EUGÈNE Carrière is one of those great artists so prolific in France who -alone would make the fame of any ordinary country. For his work the -writer has always had deep sympathy, and this feeling has strengthened -since the days when he copied the works of the master now in the -Luxembourg. There can be no better method of studying any artist, and -specially is it needed in the case of such a painter as Carrière. It is -only during the long patient hours spent in trying to reproduce in -facsimile these strange elusive pictures that one can grasp their -technical qualities, their poetic intention, their thoughtful nature, -and can fully recognise the fine achievement of the artist. As the -copyist stands and works for hours, thinking, reasoning, reproducing, -the whole history of the man and his art slowly reveals itself. - -It has been said of Carrière that he has “le génie de l’œil,” and it is -exactly this “genius of the eye” which constitutes the bond of sympathy -between all Impressionists. There exists between Carrière, Pointelin, -and Whistler, the greatest similitude. Their outlook upon nature is -identical, and their method of expression most characteristic. They have -found their chief inspiration in rendering misty veiled effects, -sometimes the result of natural means, haze, moonlight, river mist, -early sunrise; sometimes purposely arranged by means of darkened -interiors, and the skilful control and exclusion of strong lights. In -each case the result sought after is the same. - -Carrière possesses, in almost the highest possible degree, the power of -visualisation (one is nearly writing the power of second sight) which -Claude Monet also has, though in a different degree. The first has -caught in an entrancing style the infinitely varied degrees of luminous -light in the evening twilight. He has painted the shadows of shades. The -second, in an equally fascinating manner, has rendered the shadows of -sunlight. In the works of both artists all exact contours are lost; in -Carrière by reason of the semi-obscurity of night, in Monet because of -the blinding equalising glare of noon-day sun. The one is as apparently -colourless as the other is apparently exaggerated. Yet both are right, -true to nature and to their own individual temperaments, in fact true -Impressionists. - -As a portraitist Eugène Carrière has no rival at the present moment. His -marvellous powers of vision have placed him in a position unassailable. -The ordinary portraitist, the painter “à la mode” (probably “à la mode” -for this very reason), depicts the superficial aspect of his sitter, -together with a photographic delineation of the features. Whilst the -onlooker wonders at the dexterous skill, the clever schooling and -frequent harmonies of colour, he generally passes on unmoved. With -Carrière the effect is different; one cannot easily leave such triumphs. -On the contrary, we stay to admire, not the technical gymnastics of the -artist, but the subtle superhuman manner in which the soul of the sitter -has been transferred to the canvas by the brush of a man of rare genius. - -His lithographs too are marvellous. Should any reader carp at the use of -such word let him carefully examine the portrait-studies of Anatole -France, Rodin, Verlaine, Daudet, Geffroy, Madame Carrière, and the -artist himself, also the _Christ at the Tomb_, the _Théâtre de -Belleville_, _Maternité_, and many others. The more these great works -are studied the more real they become. Daudet lives again in a drawing -recreating the great novelist in a peaceful atmosphere of dreams which -seems to remain the peculiar secret of the artist. Eugène Carrière -becomes a clairvoyant when he commences a portrait. - -His paintings of the intimate life of the family, the circle round the -fireside or the little gatherings in the common room during a winter -evening, have a quiet charm which his contemporaries rarely attain. Such -groups, it may be said, find little favour from those who issue -commissions for family heirlooms, and Carrière has no chance of becoming -a fashionable painter of human mediocrity. One remembers though that Mr. -Sargent has proved recently that even with mediocrity a genius can do a -great deal. Carrière, however, is never likely to wish to rival Bonnat -or Carolus-Duran. His scenes are not so much represented as suggested. -His drawing is a reproduction of the play of light upon the different -planes of the subject, the whole picture becoming a symphonic -development of light. His brush manipulates colour much as a sculptor -manipulates clay, and the results are real Impressions. - -[Illustration: - - AUGUSTE POINTELIN -] - -[Illustration: - - THE FAMILY · EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE -] - -Eugène Carrière has been inspired by no particular school, and has no -special theories to regulate his methods. Yet, in spite of himself, a -group, animated by his ideals, has gathered and formulated rules. This -group and its system will have but a short duration, for an art so -personal and distinguished as is that of Carrière cannot in any possible -way be transmitted to pupils or followers. Carrière occupies in painting -much the same position as his friend Rodin occupies in sculpture. Such -art is not to be copied, much as it may be admired. If there could be -any analogy in literature one would cite Edgar Allan Poe. The poet of -the shadows has had an enormous influence upon French art and -literature, and Carrière has undoubtedly come under his strange spell. - -[Illustration: - - MOTHERHOOD · EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE -] - -Much has been written concerning the exhibited works of this artist, and -a bibliography would contain the names of the most celebrated art -critics in Paris. The universal opinion is that in Carrière France -possesses an artist of exceptional endowments. His gift is a peculiar -one, which has not appeared before in exactly the same manner, and, -within his own limitations, the painter’s equal will probably never be -seen again. A well-known writer upon art subjects has penned an -appreciation which conveys a clear insight into the methods of the -master. Carrière, he says, is not an inductive painter, he does not -construct his whole from parts. He does not work on, wisely, cautiously, -from the forehead to the eyes, continuing by way of the cheekbones. In -the manner of a sculptor, he builds up his picture as a complete whole, -he balances his masses, he constructs. Insensibly the face lights up on -the background, the successive veils which enveloped it are torn away -and hide his thoughts no longer. This simultaneous process never leaves -him quite satisfied, and he constantly reviews his original plans. He -lives for the creation to which he gives life. His work is an effort, an -attempt, the result of a mysterious genius whose secret is never all -told. What he knows before is the impression he expects to obtain, what -it will tell, what it will reveal of the character and will express of -the invisible reality. And it is thus he approaches those faces which -speak to us of an intense inner life. His plans settled, he paints -astonishing faces, mobile and quivering as they smile and speak. - -A few personal particulars may be added. Eugène Carrière passed his life -up to the age of eighteen in Strasbourg, and displayed no special -inclination toward the artistic career. But a visit to some galleries -awoke the latent fire, and his ambitions were roused. He then entered -the atelier of Cabanel. During the war he was captured by the Germans, -and sent as prisoner to Dresden, where he studied with diligence in the -museums. Upon his return to France in 1872 he worked for five years at -the École des Beaux-Arts (he had been there for a short time before the -war) and then, none too well equipped for the battle, set up in his own -studio. He attempted to gain the Prix de Rome, but failed. Shortly after -followed his marriage, together with a semi-retreat to the Vaugirard, -where he toiled for five years, turning his family to artistic account -as models. These days of unremitting labour proved to be the foundations -of his fame, for, when he returned to Paris, he reaped almost -immediately the fruits of success and appreciation. As we write, the -news comes that the authorities of the Luxembourg have purchased -Carrière’s _Dead Christ_ for £1000. - -Auguste Pointelin is a passionate Impressionist in the best sense of the -word. He paints in low tones (almost monotones) the twilight, moonrise, -the sombre and melancholy notes in Nature. He is the poet-painter of -those evening hours when— - - The sun is set; the swallows are asleep; - The bats are flitting fast in the grey air; - The slow soft toads out of damp corners creep; - And evening’s breath, wandering here and there - Over the quivering surface of the stream, - Wakes not one ripple from its summer dream. - -The artist’s character can be read at a glance from these canvases. We -see at once that he is a strong man, of nervous and romantic -temperament, somewhat a pessimist, perhaps a writer of verse, probably a -fine musician, fond of solitude and reverie, yet of good heart and noble -mind. - -Monet is of the lowlands. He worships the plains and paints the sun hot -and keen, and all that it reveals. He revels in depicting great trees, -the lustrous brilliancy of corn and poppies, the bubble and iridescence -of quick-flowing trout-streams, the flash of white cliffs, the luminous -shadows of haycocks, every varying phase of the play of brilliant light -upon the face of responsive nature. Pointelin is a man of the hills, -delighting to work amidst deep wooded glens or lonely tracks of mountain -scenery, trying to reproduce the glints of moonlight upon black -bottomless pools. He loves to depict the tranquillity of the long silent -valleys, through which roll heavy mists, whilst the rising sun tints -with a rosy glow the tips of the neighbouring peaks. Our admiration of -Monet does not blind us to the beauty of Pointelin. In a sense the two -artists are complementary to each other. The art of Pointelin may be -compared to a “Reverie” by Schumann, that of Monet to a “Rhapsody” by -Brahms. - -[Illustration: - - A GLADE IN THE WOOD · AUGUSTE POINTELIN -] - -[Illustration: - - MOUNTAIN AND TREES · AUGUSTE POINTELIN -] - -[Illustration: - - A ROCKY COAST · MAXIME MAUFRA -] - -Auguste Emmanuel Pointelin was born at Arbois, June 23, 1839, and the -first art teaching he received was from the hands of M. Victor Maire. -Success was long in coming, and for a livelihood he had to turn to -several other professions, the chief being that of a mathematical -professor. - -Pointelin has received the usual honours France awards to her most -distinguished citizens. He has been decorated with the Legion of Honour, -is “Hors Concours” at the Salon, and received (amongst many other like -trophies) the Gold Medals at the Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900. His work -is to be found in many of the public galleries of the country, including -the Luxembourg. The note of his art is a certain refinement and -aloofness which is rarely found in contemporary Salons. Of him it may be -said: “Through his brain, as through the last alembic, is distilled the -refined essence of that thought which began with the gods, and which -they left him to carry out.” - -Some time ago the writer was painting by the edge of the Seine in -company with Maxime Maufra, and the artist recounted the origins of his -Impressionist tendencies. “I am directly influenced by Turner and -Constable,” he said. “I admired and studied their works whenever it was -possible during the time I spent as a commercial man in Liverpool twenty -years ago. There is no doubt that Monet, Pissarro, and the others of -that group, owe the greater part of their art to the genius of the great -Englishmen, just as Delacroix and Manet were indebted in a previous -generation.” - -This testimony is interesting, as it comes from one of the leaders of -the modern school of “La peinture claire,” the school of light, of life, -and of movement. It is valuable in view of the fact that some of the -artists who have profited most by the valuable example of our men of -genius seem least inclined to acknowledge their debt. For instance, -Pissarro writes: “I have read with great interest your article. I do not -think, as you say, that the Impressionists are connected with the -English school, for many reasons too long to develop here. It is true -that Turner and Constable have been useful to us, as all painters of -great talent have; but the base of our art is evidently of French -tradition, our masters are Clouet, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, the -eighteenth century with Chardin, and 1830 with Corot.” This statement is -somewhat at variance with facts as we know them, and does not agree with -several letters from Pissarro in the writer’s possession previously -quoted. - -To attempt to record bright open-air effects, to struggle with all the -thousand nuances of the atmosphere, the division of tones, the -juxtaposition of colour, the general principles and technical practice -adopted by the Impressionists, is to come under a ban. There is an old -and well-beloved professor at the Beaux-Arts who taught the writer, a -member of the Institute and Officer of the Legion of Honour, a man of -much official influence, who, in a single phrase, has summed up the -feeling of a large body in France with reference to the Impressionists. -“They are a disgrace to French art,” he said bitterly. Such an -irreconcilable attitude has compelled a section of the younger artists -in France to adopt a style altogether opposite to that discussed in -these pages, a reactionary manner in many cases opposed to their natural -temperaments. They seek in Nature for the slightest cause which will -give them reason for the use of black paint, forgetting that in a world -charged with sun and iridescence the only absolute black that can be -found is in the heart of a bean blossom, which is black only by the -exclusion of the atmosphere. The slightest shadow they paint black, any -dark piece of clothing is rendered in black. They have evolved a -lugubrious funereal style and choice of subject which is sad, dull, -inartistic, dyspeptic. This section of the art community has been named -the “Nubians.” - -Maxime Maufra is an adversary fighting this group of reactionaries, and -perhaps his successful example may bring some of these erring ones back -to the fold. He has the courage to paint in a light key, because he sees -all nature in such a value, and by following the dictates of his -artistic temperament he has become the exponent of a beautiful and -personal art. He does not aspire to the position of a little Monet, but -attempts to carry the master’s methods forward. Maufra maintains that -Monet has by no means said the last word in Impressionism. Maufra and -his friends are not content with the first illuminated corner presented -by Nature, which, save for the sense of illumination, is probably -uninteresting and ill-composed. They are equally attracted by beautiful -rhythmic line, balance of form, by composition as well as by colour. The -ethereal tints in nature which the pioneers were happy to reproduce, -does not satisfy the younger men now that the fundamental laws of the -Impressionists have been agreed upon. - -[Illustration: - - AN ETCHING · MAXIME MAUFRA -] - -[Illustration: - - ARRIVAL OF THE FISHING BOATS AT CAMARET · MAXIME MAUFRA -] - -[Illustration: - - MAXIME MAUFRA -] - -Born at Nantes in 1861, the only regular art education Maxime Maufra -received was from M. Le Roux, a local professor. His father, a man of -business, decided that the son should follow the same vocation, much to -the son’s disgust. After a few years of preliminary training Maufra was -sent to Liverpool in order that he might acquire the language and -further the commercial interests of his father’s house. Maufra studied -English, more or less, and practised art, copying in the museums and -private collections, and sketching in the neighbourhoods of New -Brighton, Seacombe, and amongst the docks and shipping of the great -port. Business was not neglected, but having effected a lucky “deal” -which placed him in the possession of a little capital, he cut the cable -which joined his life to commerce and sailed into the open sea of art. -His family protested, his friends implored him not to take such a rash -step. Maxime Maufra became a professional artist. For five years he -toiled with his brush, working hard at every different method of -technical expression, trying oils, water-colours, and the etching -needle. Dealers did not come forward, buyers were never seen. At last, -at the very end of his financial resources, he organised a tiny -“one-man” show in Paris. - -In the “Echo de Paris” M. Octave Mirbeau published a short criticism, -which voiced the general opinion of Maufra’s talent. “Yesterday,” writes -Mirbeau, “I entered the galleries of de Boutheville, where are exhibited -about sixty works by Maufra. I was immediately conquered, for I found -myself in the presence of an artist in full control of himself, who, -after the necessary indecisions, the usual educational troubles, has -realised that style is the most important thing—in fact, the joy of -art.” - -A few of the paintings were sold, enough to cover the expenses of the -exhibition. A better luck awaited Maufra. M. Durand-Ruel casually -glanced into the rooms before the close of the modest collection. He -asked to see the artist. Maufra was in Brittany, and a telegram called -him back to Paris. An interview followed in the Rue Lafitte between -artist and dealer, and never since that day has Maufra known the -anxieties of living on hope, for M. Durand-Ruel, with characteristic -acumen, had arranged for his future. - -In the spring of 1901, at the galleries of M. Durand-Ruel, Maxime Maufra -organised his last and most successful exhibition, about fifty canvases -executed in various mediums being shown. From the admirable preface -written by M. Arsène Alexandre, one of the most perspicacious of French -critics, the following lines may be quoted: “Maufra continues in the -school of the Impressionists in this manner, that the _point de départ_ -in each of his pictures is in reality a quick and profound impression. -He detaches himself from the school inasmuch as the realisation is a -calculated and skilful art; and this is complete Impressionism.” A final -quotation from the pen of M. Gabriel Mourey in “Le Grand Journal” aptly -sums up the talent of this artist: “One could accuse Maufra at the time -of his first exhibition at the de Boutheville galleries of submitting -himself to the influence of Claude Monet. Already, however, he reveals -his strong personality. Here he is to-day a free man and master of -himself, capable of realising whatever his thoughts impel him to. He has -his own conception of Nature, and he realises it with a liberty and -independence which is veritably masterful. The diversity of his talent -is proved in the most striking fashion. Scotland, Brittany, Normandy are -evoked with an extraordinary facility, the different characteristics of -these three countrysides, their special conditions, their peculiar -atmosphere. They are like portraits in which a soul breathes, in which -the blood runs beneath the skin, where the mystery of being is declared. -The words of Flaubert’s St. Anthony come involuntarily to the lips -before these pictures of Nature, sometimes savage, sometimes in a more -tender mood: ‘There are some spots on earth so beautiful that one wishes -to press Nature against one’s heart.’” - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: - - SHIPWRECK · MAXIME MAUFRA -] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by Braun, Clement & Co._ - A GLASS OF GOOD RED WINE · J. F. RAFFAËLLI -] - - - - - CHAPTER VIII · “REALISTS”: RAFFAËLLI, DEGAS, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC - - “IL Y A SELON MOI, DEUX ÉLÉMENTS DANS UNE ŒUVRE: - L’ÉLÉMENT RÉEL, QUI EST LA NATURE, ET L’ÉLÉMENT - INDIVIDUEL, QUI EST L’HOMME” - - _ZOLA_ - - -JEAN FRANÇOIS RAFFAËLLI joined the Impressionist movement late, and did -not commence to exhibit with the other members of the group until 1880, -when he sent a canvas to the gallery in the Rue des Pyramides. He had -clearly grasped the trend and scope of the idea, but cannot be classed -altogether with the other members of the group as a “Luminarist.” This -may be due to many causes apparent in his work. He is not a painter for -the love of painting itself, and does not revel in colour for colour’s -sake. He is no analyst of the shimmering effects of a summer’s sun. That -side of Impressionism has never appealed to him. Yet his right to be -numbered amongst them is assured, for, in spirit, he is one of the first -of the school. - -Raffaëlli is the historian of the “banlieue” of Paris. His street scenes -are typical, life-like, and modern, and they will be treasured in future -years as veritable documents of the daily existence of the great city. -He wanders through the dreary “no man’s land” outside the -fortifications, and transfers to his block the most vivid portraits of -the nondescript characters who swarm through that gaunt wilderness. He -is a man of much mental refinement, who has had to struggle for every -inch of the artistic success which now surrounds him. Richly endowed by -nature, he had no resources to fall back upon save his determination to -conquer. In a few words M. Geffroy sums up the opening of this curious -career. - -Raffaëlli has had many employments, has been engaged in many trades, has -searched the town for work. He has been in an office, has sung bass at -the Théâtre Lyrique, has chanted psalms in a church choir, and at the -same time painted under the tuition of Gérôme at the École des -Beaux-Arts. He travelled through Europe, penetrating even so far as -Algeria, working in each town as he stopped. Returning to Paris he -exhibited landscapes founded upon the studies he had accumulated in his -portfolio, some pictures of the Louis XIII. style, some portraits, a -view of the Opera. Suddenly he opened his eyes to a sight nobody had -seen before, disdained by the whole world, subjects which had never -reached the dignity of an entrance in art circles. He became the -recorder of the suburbs of Paris and their wandering inhabitants. - -For years he experimented endeavouring to produce a medium best suited -to his temperament. In the solid paint crayons we have an addition to -the working tools of the artist which is of notable importance. This is -not his only gift to France, for it is he who practically resuscitated -the beautiful but dying art of etching in colours. In this work he was -ably seconded by Miss Mary Cassatt. He is not only an artist but an -actor, a musician, an orator, a sculptor, an etcher, a pastellist, an -illustrator, and a man of letters. He is a fine example of the pioneer -temperament. No sooner is success achieved in one branch of energy than -he is in chase of another idea. One day he is trying to invent a perfect -oil-crayon; the next, and colour etching is his sole ambition. He draws -the elegant “mondaine” of the Boulevards, and then sallies out to study -the frowsy denizens of the “banlieue.” In this quarter he found -congenial subjects for a series of little masterpieces. - -Amidst these wretched surroundings, warehouses, factories, wooden sheds -ruinous and dilapidated, refuse heaps, brick-kilns, homes of the -outcasts and cut-throats of the metropolis, Raffaëlli discovered a rich -mine of material hitherto entirely unworked. The district is peculiar to -Paris, and owes its existence to the clear half-mile of view required -around the useless fortifications. This territory has, in mining phrase, -been “jumped” by the penniless. Upon it squat the failures, the -drunkards, the thieves, all the vicious under-life of the city. The -artist revealed this world to the unsuspecting citizens. He lived in it, -studied it day by day, and is a greater authority than the “sergots” -upon the manners and customs of a neighbourhood which even the police -shun. Such a blot upon the fair page of so magnificent a capital is -rapidly being wiped away, but Raffaëlli has immortalised in his etchings -and drawings some of the poetic atmosphere which enveloped these legions -of the damned. - -[Illustration: - - _Photo by Braun, Clement & Co._ - NOTRE DAME · J. F. RAFFAËLLI -] - -[Illustration: - - J. F. RAFFAËLLI -] - -During the course of a long and strenuous career, Raffaëlli has received -many decorations. He is of the Legion of Honour, besides having received -numerous medals and awards from foreign exhibitions. He is represented -adequately in the Luxembourg, and many continental galleries. He enjoys -the admiration and friendship of a host of connoisseurs throughout the -world. His studio is most pleasant. Facing the broad green sweeps of the -boulevard by the fortifications, in the Rue de Courcelles, it occupies a -large area on the ground floor, having been built over a spacious -courtyard surrounded by banks of foliage and flowers. The predominant -note is that of cheerfulness. The decoration is bright and restful, the -ruling colours being delicate shades of yellow and blue. The usual -theatrical adornments of a French studio are absent; there are no -oriental carpets and rugs, no armour, no antique furniture, so dear to -the heart of the Gallic painter. In this atelier the master holds -periodical conferences, exhibitions, and friendly gatherings. Upon these -occasions one will meet the cleverest men in Paris, for Raffaëlli is a -celebrated conversationalist as well as a famous artist. - -Degas has a temperament strangely different from that of Raffaëlli, and, -although always classed with the Impressionists, he stands apart from -the recognised group. He has never endeavoured to transmit the -impression of atmosphere, and work “en plein air” does not attract him. -He has, however, profited much by the teaching of the Impressionists, -particularly in relation to the use of radiant colour, for at one time -he painted in greys which were closely allied to black. He exhibited -continually with the other men in the early days of the movement, and -proved a genius both in suggestion and organisation. - -Hilaire Germain Edgard Degas was born in Paris, July 19, 1834. He -entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1855, studying under Lamothe and -also having Ingres for a master. He made his first appearance at the -Salon of 1865 with a pastel entitled _War in the Middle Ages_. In 1866 -he contributed the _Steeplechase_, the first of his series devoted to -scenes of modern life. In 1867 he exhibited _Family Portraits_, in 1868 -the portrait of a ballet-dancer, and during 1869 and 1870 some further -portraits which closed his connection with official art, for he never -sent contributions to the Salon again. In his early work he did not -confine his brush to subjects of daily actuality, such compositions as -_Semiramis Building the Walls of Babylon_ and _Spartan Youths Wrestling_ -being far removed both in style and _genre_ from later work. During the -sixties his canvases were classical in spirit as well as in subject. He -had a strong feeling for the Primitives together with Fra Angelico, and -much of his work conveyed a reminiscence of Holbein. A Realist from the -beginning, the _Interior of an American Cotton-Broker’s Office_, painted -in 1860, shows that his temperament has never radically changed. This -canvas, now in the museum at Pau, is minutely exact in all its details. -It is Realism but emotionless, without atmosphere and lacking all -feeling. It shows too that forty-three years ago the artist was -acquiring that facility of hand which has placed him at the head of -modern draughtsmen. - -Degas exhibited in company with Manet, Monet, and the Impressionists -generally, at five exhibitions, namely 1874, 1876, 1878, 1879 and 1880. -In the last-named year he exhibited a series of portraits of criminals, -and commenced to model figures of dancers in wax. In December 1884 he -showed some racecourse scenes, and at the last exhibition of the -Impressionists in 1886 exhibited studies of the nude, jockeys, -washerwomen, and other characters of modern life. He has worked with the -etcher’s needle, and also in lithography, his subjects being generally -confined to theatrical life and incidents noticeable on the Parisian -boulevards. - -The characteristic of Degas personally is mystery. He now refuses to -exhibit his works, he shuts his door to all visitors. Like most artists -he detests writers, and there is a legend that he successfully grappled -with one enterprising but unwelcome interviewer and dropped the -unfortunate critic down a flight of stairs. This proves how thoroughly -his principles are carried out in practice. “I think that literature has -only done harm to art,” he said once to George Moore. “You puff out the -artist with vanity, you inculcate the taste for notoriety, and that is -all; you do not advance public taste by one jot. Notwithstanding all -your scribbling it never was in a worse state than it is at present. You -do not even help us to sell our pictures. A man buys a picture, not -because he read an article in a newspaper, but because a friend, who he -thinks knows something about pictures, told him it would be worth twice -as much ten years hence as it is worth to-day.” - -With these strong views one can understand the attitude of Degas to the -art world in general. It was a very different attitude from that of -Manet who gloried in the fight. “Do you remember,” Degas said once to -George Moore (who quotes the conversation in his “Impressions and -Opinions”), “how Manet used to turn on me when I wouldn’t send my -pictures to the Salon? He would say, ‘You, Degas, you are above the -level of the sea, but for my part, if I get into an omnibus and some one -doesn’t say, “M. Manet, how are you, where are you going?” I am -disappointed, for I know then that I am not famous.’” This conversation -reveals in a curious manner the differing characters of the two men; -Manet with that attractive vanity so often to be found in the artistic -temperament, Degas, a satiric misanthrope analysing the degraded types -which make up the gay life of Paris. - -[Illustration: - - DANCING GIRL FASTENING HER SHOE · EDGAR DEGAS -] - -The work of Degas may be sorted into four main groups—the racing series, -the theatrical studies, the drawings of the nude, and a few landscapes. -From many points of view the scenes of the _coulisses_ come first. -Superb in draughtsmanship, they represent the life of the theatre in a -way it has never been represented before. In one we see shivering girls -rehearsing upon a cold cheerless stage lit by a few gas jets; in another -the _première danseuse_ quivering upon tiptoe amidst the frenzied -plaudits of an excited audience. Degas reproduces the atmosphere with a -marvellous precision, which only those engaged in the busy turmoil -behind the curtain can fully judge. Upon these _scènes de théâtre_ will -rest his fame, for humankind is never likely to tire of such vivid -renderings of a life always fascinating to the outside world. - -Degas is not a countryman, and cannot be classed amongst sportsmen, or -lovers of horseflesh. His jockeys and racehorses are highly extolled, -but with animals he has not always succeeded. It is not sufficient to be -a great artist in order to convey convincing impressions of sporting -scenes. An artist must have the whole spirit of sport thoroughly -engrained in his nature before he can properly represent it. Apart from -the city, Degas is out of his element, and this is very apparent in the -landscapes he has painted during the last eight years. The glamour of -the fields and hedges does not touch his soul. Rural life he finds dull, -and naturally his essays in landscape painting are somewhat painful. He -has not the temperament which can faithfully interpret the poetry of the -countryside, and is more at home in the purlieus of the opera or upon -the asphalte of the boulevards. - -Degas is a realist, and his subjects are for the most part exceedingly -trivial in selection. After racehorses and ballet-dancers, he loves to -depict buxom ladies of the lower classes engaged in personal ablution. -It is extraordinary that the pupil of Ingres, the painter of _La -source_, should create such appalling creatures. The most plausible -apology comes from Mr. George Moore. The nude, he writes, has become -well-nigh incapable of artistic treatment. Even the more naïve are -beginning to see that the well-known nymph exhibiting her beauty by the -borders of a stream can be endured no longer. Let the artist strive as -he will, he will not escape the conventional; he is running an -impossible race. Broad harmonies of colour are hardly to be thought of; -the gracious mystery of human emotion is out of all question—he must -rely on whatever measure of elegant drawing he can include in his -delineation of arms, neck, and thigh; and who in sheer beauty has a new -word to say? Since Gainsborough and Ingres, all have failed to infuse -new life into the worn-out theme. But cynicism was the great means of -eloquence of the Middle Ages; and with cynicism Degas has again rendered -the nude an artistic possibility. The critic then describes these works -in most sympathetic phrases. Three coarse women, middle-aged and -deformed by toil, are perhaps the most wonderful. One sponges herself in -a tin bath; another passes a rough nightdress over her lumpy shoulders, -and the touching ugliness of this poor human creature goes straight to -the heart. Then follows a long series conceived in the same spirit. -“Hitherto,” says Degas, “the nude has always been represented in poses -which presuppose an audience, but these women of mine are honest, simple -folk, unconcerned by any other interests than those involved in their -physical condition.” In another phrase he gives you his point of view, -“it is as if you looked through a keyhole.” - -Descendant of Poussin and Ingres (when Ingres fell down in the fit from -which he never recovered, it was his pupil who carried him out of his -studio), Degas worships drawing, and line is with him a cult. Japanese -art has helped to mould his style, as it influenced many of the -Impressionists. His oil-paintings, though for the most part correct in -draughtsmanship, are frequently wiry and academic in technique. Colour -was never his strong point, and it is in his pastels that we find the -achievement of his life. In a masterly essay on this artist, Thèodore -Duret writes: “Degas has proved once more that, with genius, subject is -a secondary matter, merely its opportunity, one may say. It is out of -itself, out of its inner consciousness, that the poetry and the beauty -discovered in its production are drawn. His work will thus remain one of -the most powerful, the most complete, and the most instinct with -vitality amongst that of the masters of the nineteenth century.” - -Of Degas personally little is known. He comes of an old bourgeoise -family, and at one time it is said that he possessed considerable -financial means, which he sacrificed in order to save a brother from -financial disaster. Although seventy years of age he still works with -excessive labour at the art over which he has gained such a mastery. -Scorning wealth, publicity, and popularity, he lives a life of complete -isolation, dispensing with friends, able to more than hold his own -against enemies. - -[Illustration: - - DANCING GIRL · E. DEGAS -] - -He has had two pupils whose names stand out prominently in the art of -to-day, the American artist Miss Mary Cassatt (referred to elsewhere in -this volume) and the caricaturist Forain. Degas has always had a bitter -wit, the dread of his contemporaries, and many of his sayings have -passed into history. During the height of the battle which raged around -the Impressionists during the seventies, he remarked concerning the -academic painters and critics: “On nous fusille, mais on fouille nos -poches,” or, in other words, “They cover us with injuries, yet they make -use of our ideas.” In him Whistler met his match. “My dear friend,” he -said once to that great artist, “you conduct yourself in life just as if -you had no talent at all.” Upon another occasion, speaking of Whistler -when the latter was having a number of photographic portraits taken, he -observed sarcastically, “You cannot talk to him; he throws his cloak -around him—and goes off to the photographer.” It was not likely that two -such spirits would appreciate each other. - -Degas is a pessimist. He has always been a realist, and the realist in -this troubled world cannot look through rosy spectacles; acute pessimism -becomes the natural result, especially when a great city is the venue. -He is the analyst and ironist of the Impressionist group, with whom he -has a sympathy of temperament rather than a sympathy of technique. At -the present moment there are few artists better known in Paris, yet few -who have received so small an amount of official acknowledgment. He has -never received an official commission, has refused all decorations, his -chief works are to be found in foreign countries. Yet an enthusiastic -French critic has summed up the opinion of the art world of France in -the striking phrase, “Degas is one of the greatest draughtsmen who have -ever lived.” - -Ten years ago, when the writer was a student in Paris, the name of -Toulouse-Lautrec was known only in connection with various daring and -flamboyant posters advertising the exotic attractions of the “Moulin -Rouge” and the “Divan Japonais,” and also through extraordinary sketches -which appeared from time to time in Aristide Bruant’s feuilleton “Le -Mirliton.” Now and again one found a sketch, with his signature, pinned -up in an artistic cabaret of the Batignolles quarter. Few had seen him, -nobody seemed to have any wish to discover his whereabouts. In the -studios he was almost invariably spoken of with contempt as half a fool. -He was celebrated in a way, and yet unknown. - -He was by no means a fool, for few men have possessed a brighter -intellect. His semi-retirance and evident reluctance to appear amidst -the crowd were partly owing to a temperament of ultra-refinement, and -still more directly the result of a terrible personal misfortune. The -story of his life is romantic. - -Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was born in 1864 at Albi, a scion of an -ancient and illustrious family. His father, the Count de -Toulouse-Lautrec, was a wealthy country gentleman, of sporting tastes, a -splendid horseman, a crack shot, a sculptor, and a person of most -violent and impulsive temper. The son inherited many of his father’s -qualities. Generations of ancestors accustomed to the beauties and -refinements of such a life in the country had developed at last an -artist of peculiar sensibilities. These natural gifts were carefully -cultivated, and the boy became a professional artist, who, although he -possessed gifts of the most extreme refinement, became through the irony -of fate primarily famous amongst his countrymen as a designer of street -posters and comic sketches. Those who knew him superficially could not -comprehend how his delicate and extraordinary exterior could cover such -excellent qualities of heart, such delicacy of spirit. He met with scant -respect and few patrons. Happily he was not dependent upon his brush for -the means of existence, and his works, when they sold, fetched but -little. After his sad and untimely death, the most insignificant -sketches were eagerly disputed for and changed hands at large prices. - -Physically Toulouse-Lautrec was a weak man, of a highly-developed -nervous temperament, with a brain too active for its frail tenement. To -such a nature all excess proves fatal, although it is generally such -natures that seek excess. In his infancy the artist had the unlucky -mischance to break both his legs, and these, badly set, left him -malformed for life, a dwarf. Thoroughly embittered, his proud and -sensitive soul could not endure the inquisitive stares of the curious -with which he was invariably greeted, and for the most part he lived a -very solitary life. “Je suis une demi-bouteille,” he would often say to -his friends in sarcastic reference to his own unhappy condition. - -[Illustration: - - CAFÉ SCENE ON THE BOULEVARD MONTMARTRE · E. DEGAS -] - -He drowned his griefs, as many have done before, keeping in his studio -huge stocks of the most fiery spirits and liqueurs, from which he -compounded wonderful “cocktails” for the benefit of himself and his -friends. It is not surprising that first came the madhouse and then -premature death completed this tragedy. Of an excitable temperament he -found much pleasure in resorts such as the “Moulin Rouge.” Taverns, -theatres, and the circus, found in him a constant patron. These were his -schools; and hundreds, one may say thousands of sketches are the result -of such teaching. He loved horses as his ancestors had done before him, -and he studied their attitudes at the circus, sketching them in barbaric -trappings and in eccentric poses. The smell of the sawdust always -inspired him. The sketches here reproduced illustrate this phase of his -career. - -M. Princeteau, the designer of sporting scenes, influenced Lautrec’s -style, and became his intimate friend. Forain also counts for something -in his development, whilst Pissarro and Renoir were frequent visitors to -and critics of the young Impressionist. Perhaps of all men Degas -inspired him most, and at times he undoubtedly copied the methods of -that master. With serious study he had little to do. He worked in the -atelier-Bonnat in 1883, and later on in the atelier-Cormont, where he -continued the study of the nude; yet it was only after he had complete -liberty and was entirely free from scholastic influence that his style -began to form. Then his strong individuality displayed itself, and he -became Toulouse-Lautrec as we know him. - -[Illustration] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - BABY’S TOILET · MARY CASSATT -] - - - - - CHAPTER IX · THE “WOMEN-PAINTERS”: BERTHE MORISOT, MARY CASSATT, MARIE - RACQUEMOND, EVA GONZALÈS - - “TOUTE TOILE QUI NE CONTIENT PAS UN TEMPÉRAMENT, EST - UNE TOILE MORTE” - - _ZOLA_ - - -AMONGST the artists who contributed paintings to the eight exhibitions -of the Impressionist group are four women, who were influenced by the -new methods: Mdlle. Berthe Morisot, Madame Marie Bracquemond, Miss Mary -Cassatt, and Mdlle. Eva Gonzalès. - -The story of Berthe Morisot is romantic. She was the great -grand-daughter of Fragonard, a famous beauty, a pupil of Manet, then the -wife of his brother Eugène. Her position in the art world of France was -unique, and her death at the early age of fifty in 1895 cut short a -career devoted to a most charming and delicate style. She excelled above -all in two branches of her art—an exquisite draughtsmanship and a most -luminous and poetic sense of colour. Technical difficulties never -discouraged her. She was one of those rare and fortunate individuals who -can intuitively surmount any problem and consequently hardly require a -teacher. Madame Eugène Manet was an artist to her finger-tips. Her work -is charged with a feminine charm sympathetic to the temperament of any -painter. Her canvases are iridescent poems in paint, and she possessed -many qualities in common with her illustrious ancestor. “Only one woman -created a style,” wrote the novelist George Moore (who, it may be -remembered, had a close acquaintanceship with many of the -Impressionists), “and that woman is Madame Morisot. Her pictures are the -only pictures painted by a woman that could not be destroyed without -creating a blank, a hiatus in the history of art.” She was a woman of -great personality and charm, and took an active part in the furtherance -of the movement which was initiated by her brother-in-law. “My -sister-in-law would not have existed without me,” said Manet one day in -the Rue d’Amsterdam to George Moore, and the latter adds, “True, indeed, -that she would not have existed without him; and yet she has something -that he has not—the charm of an exquisite feminine fancy, the charm of -her sex. Madame Morisot is the eighteenth century quick with the -nineteenth; she is in the nineteenth turning her eyes regretfully -looking back on the eighteenth.” - -Miss Mary Cassatt is an American subject. She was born at Pittsburg, -studied at the Philadelphia Academy, and then, after some work with -Degas, became an accomplished painter of children and the varied scenes -of maternity. A pastellist of note, with Raffaëlli she succeeded in -resuscitating the moribund art of etching in colour. Miss Cassatt’s work -shows evidence upon every side of unwearying years of effort. Its -dominant character is strength, and, with the single exception of Berthe -Morisot, the artist is probably one of the most virile woman painters -the world has seen. Strength is decidedly not the keynote of any of the -works of Angelica Kauffmann, Madame Lebrun, or even of the many women -who exhibit to-day, although they display other qualities worthy of -praise. Miss Cassatt has experimented in numerous directions, has often -tried to express herself in a fresh way. She has succeeded. Her -draughtsmanship is exceptionally firm, and her colour bright, pure, and -harmonious. She has worked in oil, charcoal, water-colour, pastel, and -etching, and has remained faithful to the inspiration of her master -Degas, and through him to the art of Japan. - -The pastel drawing here reproduced is one of an extensive series devoted -to scenes from maternal life. Although from the nature of things all -such reproductions fall far short of the original, still a good idea is -conveyed of technique and composition. Miss Mary Cassatt, it may be -added, has travelled a great deal in search of subject inspiration, and -is the friend of the older members of the original group of French -Impressionists, to which she is allied by sympathy and the work of a -lifetime. - -Madame Marie Bracquemond was also an “Impressioniste,” and joined -ardently in the movement. At first following the example of Ingres, her -first teacher, she received the most valuable help from her husband, an -engraver of the rarest talent. The field of her art ranges from a -colossal decorative panel (those exhibited in the Paris Exhibition of -1878 were about twenty-one feet by nine feet in size) to a most delicate -little etching. It may be understood that mere physical labour did not -appal her, for the Exhibition panels required assiduous and heavy toil. - -[Illustration: - - LE LEVER · BERTHE MORISOT -] - -Of Eva Gonzalès there is, unfortunately, little to be said. At first -taught by Chaplin, she became the favourite pupil of Edouard Manet, and -commenced to display much talent as a pastellist. She married Henri -Guérard, the engraver, but death ended at an untimely age a career of -great promise. In the Luxembourg gallery she is represented by a pastel -drawing. - -It has been often said that in art women cannot create: they can only -assimilate and reproduce. In one sense this is true both of Berthe -Morisot and Mary Cassatt, the two principal figures in this tiny -feminine group. The first was profoundly influenced by her -brother-in-law Manet, the second by her teacher Degas. Marie Bracquemond -and Eva Gonzalès married husbands in the practice of their art. - -But these women introduced into the stern methods of the early -Impressionists a feminine gaiety and charm which were reflected upon the -canvases of their “confrères,” and produced a certain change of -attitude. There was little light-heartedness in the work of Manet before -these women-painters joined the group, and it is not altogether -improbable that some of the change is due to their example. In any body -of men feminine influence always makes for the good, and these women, of -strong but charming personality, must (it is idle to write any less -emphatic word) have had a strong influence upon the whole group. Their -industry was great, for they exhibited almost without intermission from -1874 to 1886. At times their talent touches genius, and for future -historians they will prove an interesting study. Modernity is the note -of Impressionism, and that movement was the very first artistic revolt -in which women took a prominent part. - -[Illustration] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - THE LAST RAYS · EMILE CLAUS -] - - - - - CHAPTER X · “LA PEINTURE CLAIRE”: CLAUS, LE SIDANER, BESNARD, - DIDIER-POUGET - - “TOUT HOMME QUI NE RESSEMBLE PAS AUX AUTRES, DEVIENT - PAR LA MÊME UN OBJET DE DÉFIANCE. DÈS QUE LA FOULE - NE COMPREND PLUS, ELLE RIT. IL FAUT TOUTE UNE - ÉDUCATION POUR FAIRE ACCEPTER LE GÉNIE” - - _ZOLA_ - - -THE work of Emile Claus is a manifestation in quite another direction of -the Impressionist idea. Born in Western Flanders in 1849, he was the -sixteenth child of parents in very humble circumstances. Their business -in life was to supply with provisions the boatmen who passed along on -the river Lys. By various means the boy, who had very early displayed a -yearning for the painter’s career, managed to evade all attempts to -harness him in the drudgery of the home life. A pastrycook, a railway -watchman, a linendraper’s assistant, these were a few of the vocations -he was condemned to try, yet from which he escaped. At last he set out -for Antwerp, with £7 in his pocket, and the warning that he need not -expect a penny more. In the city of Rubens he became a free pupil of -Professor de Keyser. All day long he studied in the Academy. When night -came he earned a livelihood by giving drawing-lessons, acting as a -sculptor’s “devil,” and colouring pictures of the Stations of the Cross. -At last, after many struggles, he became a popular portrait-painter in -the city, particularly of children in fancy costume. In 1879 he -travelled through Spain and Morocco, painting the conventional -compositions of an Iberian tour, and much influenced by the style of -Charles Verlat. Despite his great success in Antwerp, in 1883 Emile -Claus changed his manner entirely. He shook off the dust of the city for -ever, renounced portrait-painting, and became “paysagiste.” Impelled by -an intense love of nature he returned to his native village on the banks -of the Lys, and recommenced his life as a landscape painter “en plein -air.” He has never returned to the distracting turmoil of town, and, in -his quaint white and green shuttered house at Astene between Ghent and -Courtrai, has buried himself in the heart of the country. Although some -distance from the larger cities of Belgium, Emile Claus does not -vegetate in his obscurity. On wheel or a-foot he is equally active, -visiting his friends and working on his canvases, of which he has always -some six or eight in progress. It may be noted that he works entirely in -the open air, and finishes in front of nature. One might judge of this -from the strength and completeness of his pictures. - -It is years since the writer first saw a landscape by Claus, and he -remembers vividly the pleasure it gave. The painting was in the -well-known collection of Mr. John Maddocks, of Bradford. Upon a huge -canvas the artist had depicted a cornfield ripe for the sickle, and in -the midst of the wheat red poppies grew. Across the foreground, emerging -from the wheat, wandered a few white ducks. Over the whole was the -fierce glare of a noon-day sun. The work was convincing, naturalistic, -yet poetic, inasmuch as it seemed to chant the universal hymn of nature. -It was a revelation to those artists who found themselves in Bradford at -that period. Unknown and a stranger, Claus received in spirit silent -congratulations for his splendid achievement, which aroused in several -breasts a keen feeling of emulation. The artist writes: “Mr. Maddocks -has always strongly encouraged me, and had the courage to buy my work at -a time when everybody in Belgium found me by far too audacious, because, -as you may know, the leaders, the standard-bearers as it were, of the -young Belgian school of painting are not at all in sympathy with the -beautiful art of Monet and his school.” Since that day Emile Claus has -greatly increased his following throughout the world, being least -appreciated in his own country. - -Emile Claus is a painter whose brush is charged with the sweetness of -life, courageous, healthful, and buoyant. His pictures breathe of -sunlight and fresh air, and it is easy to see with what sheer delight he -throws himself into his work. When one seeks for the reason which so -suddenly changed this prosaic painter of the Antwerp bourgeois into an -Impressionist of the most modern school, one discovers the usual cause, -the Englishmen of the commencement of the last century. In a recent -letter to the writer, Emile Claus says that in England, above all other -countries, were born light and life in painting. “I have all too quickly -glanced at the Turners and Constables of London, nevertheless it was a -revelation to me, and those great artists Monet, Sisley, and Pissarro -continue simply what that giant Turner discovered; just as the grand -epoch of Rousseau, Millet, Dupré, and Corot, passed over Belgium to find -their inspiration in the marvellous works of the Dutch school.” - -[Illustration: - - EMILE CLAUS -] - -[Illustration: - - THE VILLAGE STREET · EMILE CLAUS -] - -In the country of the Lys the artist continues to work, producing a -series of pictures as beautiful as they are uncommon. One may mention -his magnificent _Flemish Farm_ of 1883, the _Old Gardener_ of 1887 now -in the Liége gallery, the canvas in the Antwerp gallery, and the fine -work by which he is represented in the Luxembourg. Charming in colour, -they will be found broad in manner, and perfectly original in sentiment. - -[Illustration: - - RETURNING FROM MARKET · EMILE CLAUS -] - -[Illustration: - - GOLDEN AUTUMN · EMILE CLAUS -] - -In 1891, Claus exhibited for the first time in the Champ de Mars, and -has contributed each year from that date. His technical skill grows -steadily. M. Gabriel Mourey, staunch supporter of “La peinture claire,” -contributed a most sympathetic article to the “Studio,” in which he -wrote, “In the old days, Claus was accused of being an ‘Impressionist,’ -and such he is to a certain degree just as any one may be without -disrespect to the glorious traditions of the painter’s art. He is an -Impressionist to this extent—that he possesses the gift of _feeling_ -with the utmost keenness the true meaning of Nature in all her -manifestations; while he is bound by no rule, subject to no formula, in -his endeavour to interpret that meaning on his canvas. But, unlike most -Impressionists, he has the rare capacity to know how to choose his -impressions, to test them to the uttermost, and never to rest until he -has translated them to his full satisfaction, disdaining the haphazard -attempts which are sufficient for the majority of modern landscapists. -Impressionist! One need feel no surprise that the superficial observer -dubs him thus; for nowadays every painter whose work is luminous and -bright, and devoid of bitumen, earns and deserves the title! The truth -is that Claus, without adapting his style to any special method, is -mainly concerned that his works shall be as full of atmosphere as -possible, that his touch shall be as free and his colour as pure as he -can make them. Thus he achieves that remarkable freshness of tint, that -brightness of colouring, which constitute one of the chief charms of his -art.” - -The little house near Astene is called in Flemish -“Zonnenschyn”—“Sunshine,” and it is indeed sunshine which is predominant -in the work of Emile Claus. - -Le Sidaner is an artist, who, after having passed through several -antagonistic stages, has developed a style entirely his own. He may be -described as a mystic who views the world with an air of detachment, -standing aloof from the distractions of its inhabitants. He prefers an -environment breathing some vague and undefined sorrow. The joy of life -does not course through his veins. The subjects which appeal most to -him suggest renunciation and world-weariness, the solemn peace of a -Flemish _béguinage_, a cobbled street in Bruges recalling dead -glories, a deserted canal with a solitary swan. When he designs a -figure-composition the subject belongs to the same _genre_, a priest -administering extreme unction to a dying girl, orphans under the care -of a nun, old women waiting with the patience of extreme old age for -Death to release them from their suffering senility. He instils into -his canvases the very essence of Keats’ line, “Sorrow more beautiful -than beauty’s self.” - -The only biographical account of Le Sidaner is to be found in one of M. -Gabriel Mourey’s penetrating articles in the “Studio.” Le Sidaner was -the son of fisherfolk from St. Malo and the Ile Bréhat. He was born in -1862, and spent the first ten years of his life in his native place, the -Ile Maurice. “While quite young,” says the writer of the preface to the -catalogue of an exhibition held in 1897, “he came to live in Dunkirk, -beside the murmuring North Sea, with its melancholy mists. The shock he -felt at the change made him absolutely pensive. It was as though, half -alarmed, he was taking refuge within himself the better to express the -flame of Creole tenderness which burned within him.” His father, who -practised painting and sculpture as an amateur, gave the boy every -encouragement. At fifteen he was taken away from school, and sent to the -local École des Beaux-Arts. Here he studied under a master who was slave -to the doctrines of the Antwerp school. - -The artist, when telling his early experiences, deplored these evil -influences. He admits that they were not worse than those forced upon -him in Paris, where, at the École des Beaux-Arts, he studied under -Cabanel. Five years he spent under that master, making sketches of the -animals at the Jardin des Plantes, and copying Delacroix and Jordaens at -the Louvre. Then he passed under the influence of Impressionism. He -says: “It was in this year (1881) that Manet displayed his portraits of -_Pertuiset, le tueur de lions_, and of _Rochefort_. The first of these -pleased me infinitely, but the second gradually filled me with alarm; it -was so different from that which I had hitherto seen. Nevertheless, I -remember well that the famous _Bar des Folies-Bergère_ by this same -Manet made the profoundest impression on me. Yet the rules of the school -forbade me to consider all this as beautiful as I could have wished to -consider it. When I look back on those days it really seems as though I -was poisoned. Etaples, that is to say Nature, revived me, and drove the -drug from my system.” - -[Illustration: - - APPLE GATHERING · EMILE CLAUS -] - -Le Sidaner goes on to tell how by chance he spent a holiday at Etaples -in 1881. He settled there, and remained in the little coast town from -1884 to 1893, where he made friendships with Eugène Vail, Thaulow, Henri -Duhem, Alexander Harrison, and others. He refers to a visit to Holland, -where Rembrandt, Peter de Hoogh, and Vermeer enchanted him. Having -gained a third medal at the Salon des Champs-Élysées he was able to -travel to Italy. “Italy simply turned my head, particularly Florence. -Oh! the delicious hours I spent in the Convent of San Marco copying the -face of the Virgin in Fra Angelico’s _Annunciation_. How much I -preferred the simple grace of Fra Angelico and Giotto to the cleverness -and skill of Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto.” It was hardly necessary -to have avowed these influences, they are so evident in the work of Le -Sidaner. - -[Illustration: - - A SUNLIT HOUSE · EMILE CLAUS -] - -He is a man who avoids crowds and the distracting clamour of humanity, -loving to work in such dead cities as Bruges, or the peaceful -countryside in the neighbourhood of Beauvais. No modern artist has -better expressed on canvas the words of the great Millet. “When you -paint a picture, whether the subject be a house, a plain, the ocean, or -the sky, remember always the presence of man. Think how his joys and -sorrows have been intermixed in these landscapes. An inner voice speaks -of his inquietude and turmoils. Humanity’s whole existence is conjured -up. In painting a landscape think of man.” - -Le Sidaner has many affinities to Pointelin, Carrière, and Whistler. -They each have sought harmonies of line and colour, and though distinct -in personality and unlike in methods, they have produced wonderfully -similar effects. One of the most impressive of Le Sidaner’s works is _La -Table_ in the Luxembourg. Here is the unmistakable Impressionist -technique. In the courtyard of a country house is spread a table, white -with napery, upon which stands a glowing opalescent lamp. A calm summer -moon diffuses a gentle light over the whole scene. No human figures -disturb the peaceful atmosphere, yet the sentiment of their presence -pervades the place. The painting is a little masterpiece of its kind. -The first canvas exhibited at the Champs-Élysées in 1887 was entitled -_After Church_. Since that time he has exhibited year after year, the -subjects of his pictures being well explained by their French titles: -_La Promenade des Orphelines_, _Communion in Extremis_, _Benediction de -la Mer_ (1891), _Jeune fille Hollandaise_ (1892), _L’autel des -Orphelines_ (1893), _Départ de Tobie_ (1894), _Les Promis_, and _Les -Vieilles_ (1895). In 1900 he exhibited a notable collection of pictures -of Bruges. - -Le Sidaner paints a world of dreams. No better description of his work -can be found than in the words of Moore: - - One of those passing rainbow dreams, - Half light, half shade, which fancy’s beams - Paint on the fleeting mists that roll, - In trance or slumber, round the soul. - -English readers and artists have hardly yet made the acquaintance of -Besnard. To continental art-lovers he has long been known as the -strongest and most audacious of the young men in the movement, and is -thoroughly Impressionist in his ideas and methods. Few living artists -have had the good fortune to be so much discussed as M. Besnard. Each -Salon brings its chorus of admiration, its storm of disapprobation. The -height of the argument was reached a few years ago, when, at the New -Salon, the artist exhibited his _Ponies worried by Flies_. A startling -piece of colour, it created a strong impression upon those who saw it. -At that moment the existence of the violet tints in nature, which had -been so beautifully demonstrated by Monet in his series of _Les -Cathédrales_ and by Sisley in his charming river studies, was much under -discussion in the studios. In some of the works of Monet and Sisley the -whole picture is saturated in a glow of violet, which is frequently to -be found in nature, particularly in northern France. Those who had not -seen this natural effect disbelieved in its existence and charged the -artists with painting “de chic.” Those who had seen it and essayed the -difficult task of reproducing it upon canvas, loudly proclaimed its -truths. Then came the _Ponies worried by Flies_. Besnard had heard of -the heated discussion raging round the violet tints, and, having -observed the truth of the effect, determined to demonstrate it in paint. -Never had been seen in any Salon such a blaze of colour as this. The -composition seemed to be but a peg upon which to hang a sermon in -technique. Violet, violent in colour, pure hot impasto as shadow, -juxtaposed directly to its natural complement of light in the shape of -orange and citron colours, brilliantly loud and unadulterated. A -sensation was created, and disbelief in the existence of violet tints in -nature for ever silenced. M. Besnard has followed this success with many -other surprising themes, for it is his pleasure to amaze. He seeks -incessantly the new and incongruous. - -[Illustration: - - THE QUAY AT VEERE · EMILE CLAUS -] - -[Illustration: - - THE BARRIER · EMILE CLAUS -] - -Besnard’s talent has been, and continues to be, publicly recognised. The -municipality of Paris yearly expends large sums of money in securing the -best available skill for decorating the public buildings in its charge. -In this laudable custom it is followed by every town of any importance -throughout the country. Lavishly patronised by the Government, the -municipalities, wealthy private collectors, and the sentiment of the -people generally, artists thrive in France and multiply. In whatever -respect—if any—in which France may be found lagging behind the nations, -in Art she must by the very reason of things remain supreme, for Art is -a part of her daily life. Besnard has been lucky with his commissions. -He was called upon to assist in the decoration of the magnificent Hôtel -de Ville of Paris, in the Town Hall of the First Arrondissement, in the -lecture hall of the Sorbonne, and with the frescoes in the School of -Pharmacy. In all these decorations one finds colour and composition as -original as bizarre, harmonious yet forcible. All students of modern -painting should not fail to see these works, the most striking in -execution of the last few years. The artist’s atelier is also always -open to connoisseurs, and it will be found to be crowded with sketches -and pictures in progress, each one unmistakably the handiwork of a -master craftsman. - -[Illustration: - - AN ALLEY · HENRI LE SIDANER -] - -[Illustration: - - THE TABLE · HENRI LE SIDANER -] - -Five of Besnard’s canvases have been bought by the Government, and all -are now to be found in the Luxembourg, an honour few artists can boast -of. A list is given for reference. The first of the series is a portrait -of the artist, the others being entitled _Femme qui se chauffe_, _La -Morte_, _Port d’Alger au Crépuscule_, and _Entre deux Rayons_. The -second and third are excellent examples of a branch of art in which -Besnard is supreme. His nudes and portraits are wonderfully fine in -drawing, and bewitching in colour. They will form his greatest claim to -future immortality. - -Besnard is a particularly sympathetic lover of horses, and no one can -more naturally reproduce them in paint than he. His chief recreation is -driving, and he is often to be seen “tooling” along the roads of the -Bois de Boulogne and other suburbs of Paris. There is little to add -personally about Albert Paul Besnard. He was born in Paris, married -Mdlle. Dubray, a sculptor of much talent, and resides in the Rue -Guillaume Tell. His career has been a continued series of success upon -success, and at the present moment he is one of the shining stars of -contemporary art in France. - -Allied to the later phase of the Impressionist movement, although not -actually identified with the group of artists known as the typical -Impressionists, is Didier-Pouget. His habitual manner of regarding -Nature, his pure and cheerful colours, and his natural temperament, -include him in this survey of workers in “la peinture claire.” He has a -special gift of composition, “mise en plan,” as the French say, a strong -feeling for balance and form. He is at his best when depicting morning -and sunset effects. His scenes of heather bathed in sunshine or -glistening with the dew of an autumnal sunrise are rendered with an -exceptional verisimilitude, strength, and truth. - -Didier-Pouget was born at Toulouse in 1864, the son of the editor of one -of the local journals. His father, a great lover of Nature, gave the boy -every encouragement in his ambition to become an artist. It was the -custom of father and son to take long country walks, and the elder would -point out natural beauties and discuss the methods of their pictorial -representation, relating at the same time biographical details of the -great artists, and in every way endeavouring to train the child and -sustain his ideals. After Didier-Pouget had passed through a plain -schooling, professors were engaged, notably MM. Auguin and Baudit. For -the latter (a local artist of genius, who, had he forsaken the quieter -life of the provinces for the glare of Parisian publicity, should have -attained to the highest honours an artist can reach) his old pupil has -still much admiration. Then Didier-Pouget passed into the studio of -Lalanne, the celebrated etcher and illustrator. Under these influences -many profitable years were spent, the seed-time of a most fruitful -career. - -Locally the youth was regarded as a prodigy of talent, and great things -were expected of him. Pictures were exhibited in the provinces which -attracted much appreciation, and found many purchasers. Thus encouraged, -the artist sought a wider audience, and went to Paris. It was a wise -step, and Fortune smiled on him from the first. From 1886 he has -exhibited year by year at the Salon, each fresh season showing a marked -advance in his art, bringing to the world of Paris new and delightful -colour-schemes and vivid compositions. - -Didier-Pouget achieved his “Mention Honorable” in 1890, won the -“Concours Troyon” the following year, and was awarded the gold medal at -the Salon in 1896 upon the recommendation of Gérôme, hitherto a strong -opponent to the new style. He is now a Chevalier of the Legion of -Honour, his medals, diplomas, and awards from foreign exhibitions and -Governments being almost innumerable. Such a measure of success is -rarely achieved nowadays by a man under forty in the arduous profession -of art. The State and the municipality of Paris are amongst his most -regular patrons. Besides the pictures reserved for Paris, he is -represented in the museums of Lyons, Macon, Toulouse, Tunis, the Embassy -at St. Petersburg, the galleries of Boston, U.S.A., and Leipsic, and the -private collections of the Kings of Italy and Greece. - -[Illustration: - - A STUDY · ALBERT BESNARD -] - -[Illustration: - - THE DEATH-BED · ALBERT BESNARD -] - -Personally Didier-Pouget is more Spanish than French. Of medium height, -tanned complexion, black hair, dark eyes which tell unmistakably of the -artist, very reserved in manner, and modest to a degree—these are his -characteristics. He leads a solitary life in the Boulevard de Clichy. In -his large studio will probably be found the canvas he is working upon, -about ten feet by six, his favourite size. Innumerable studies are -scattered around, rapid sketches of form and colour, line-drawings, -careful black-and-white work full of detail, in fact every trifle which -will aid him in completing the whole. - -[Illustration: - - MORNING MISTS IN THE VALLEY OF THE CREUSE · DIDIER POUGET -] - - -[Illustration: - - MORNING IN THE VALLEY OF THE CORRÈZE · DIDIER POUGET -] - -If the greatest art is to represent an impression of Nature at her best, -then the work of Didier-Pouget is great. “It is truly worth while being -a painter to have produced any one of these,” writes the critic of “Le -Temps.” The artist loves best to represent Nature in her peaceful moods, -and generally seeks the solitudes of the exquisite hills, valleys, and -rivers of the Tarbes countryside, or the rich watershed of La Creuse. -Here, in the fresh early-morn, charged with dew and mist, he finds his -subjects, overlooking magnificent panoramas of river, hillsides covered -with heather, across valleys and plains from which loom out -sculpturesque masses of foliage, dark and strong against the blue mist -and distant mountain ridge. The painter prefers Nature serene and -undisturbed, and introduces but little incident. - -It need hardly be said that his palette is free from all blacks, browns, -ochres, or earth-colours generally, and that his strongest “effects” are -gained by the juxtaposition of pure tints in harmonious contrast. His -favourite colour-scheme seems to be the composition of subtle -arrangements in yellow and blue, or pink and green. He contributes -regularly to the Salon, yearly producing from two to four canvases of -the size mentioned, and in these days of a limited market and unlimited -talent, he invariably finds purchasers. So fortunate has he been that -his numerous friends have but one fear for his future, that his enormous -success may hasten a tendency to stereotype his compositions. -Didier-Pouget is doubtless aware of this danger, and will probably -follow his present aims in a manner which will not disfigure or flaw a -most brilliant career. - - -[Illustration] - - -[Illustration: - - THE VALLEY OF THE CREUSE · DIDIER POUGET -] - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: - - PORTRAIT OF HIS MOTHER · J. A. McN. WHISTLER -] - - - - - CHAPTER XI · AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISTS: WHISTLER, HARRISON, HASSAM - - “THROUGH HIS BRAIN, AS THROUGH THE LAST ALEMBIC, IS - DISTILLED THE REFINED ESSENCE OF THAT THOUGHT WHICH - BEGAN WITH THE GODS, AND WHICH THEY LEFT HIM TO - CARRY OUT” - - _WHISTLER’S - TEN O’CLOCK_ - - -MR. WHISTLER’S personality was one of the most striking in the art world -of the last forty years, and his death was an irreparable loss. That he -will rank as one of the greatest masters of the nineteenth century there -can be no doubt. As an Impressionist with a strong individuality his -work requires attention in this volume. - -The Whistler family came originally from England, chiefly from the -neighbourhoods of Whitchurch and Goring-on-Thames. A notable ancestor -was Daniel Whistler, President of the Royal College of Physicians of -England in the reign of Charles II. Several references to this “quaint -gentleman of rare humour” are to be found in the pages of ‘Pepys’ -Diary,’ and the family trait reappeared (with emphasis) in the character -of the famous artist. James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born at Lowell, -Massachusetts, in 1834, his father being Major George Washington -Whistler, for some time consulting engineer to the St. Petersburg and -Moscow Railway. The son was destined for a military career, and received -a considerable amount of tuition at the Government College at West -Point. Work as a cadet, and also on the coast survey, does not seem to -have interested him. In the fifties he migrated to Paris and became a -student in the atelier of Gleyre, two of his fellow pupils being Sir -Edward Poynter and George du Maurier. Whistler cannot have had much -sympathy with the art in vogue at that time, a degenerated style based -upon a sentimental classicalism. He found his best friends amongst young -Frenchmen with extremely different ideas, men such as Fantin-Latour, -Bracquemond, Degas, Manet, Duret, Claude Monet, and many others. -Whistler first acquired fame as an etcher, and his first set of plates, -known as the “little French set,” amply justifies the welcome with which -it was received. From that early date until his death he has been -acknowledged pre-eminent in the etcher’s delicate and graceful art. - -At the Salon de Refusés (to which frequent reference has already been -made) Whistler exhibited his first important painting, the _Little White -Girl, Symphony in White No. 2_. It created his reputation as a painter, -and remains one of the most charming of his canvases. An early -contribution to the Royal Academy was entitled _At the Piano_, and -clearly showed that the artist was then dominated by the subtle -influence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. This influence was quickly -discarded, for Rossetti’s talent was inferior to that of the gifted -American. - -It has often been said that Whistler was never welcomed at the Royal -Academy. This point remains debatable; the fact remains that the artist -was constantly in evidence during the early part of his career. In 1859 -he exhibited _two etchings from nature_ (the title given in the -catalogue to one frame); in 1860 the celebrated _At the Piano_ (which -was bought by an Academician) and five other works, namely, _Monsieur -Astruc, Rédacteur du Journal l’Artiste_ (Drypoint); _Thames—Black Lion -Wharf_; _Portrait_ (Drypoint); _W. Jones, Lime Burner, Thames Street_ -(Etching); and _The Thames, from the Tunnel Pier_. In 1861 he was -represented by one canvas, _La Mère Gérard_, together with _Thames from -New Crane Wharf_ (Etching); _Monsieur Oxenfeld, Littérateur, Paris_ -(Drypoint); _The Thames, near Limehouse_ (Etching). In 1862 he sent two -paintings, _The Twenty-Fifth of December, 1860, on the Thames, Alone -with the Tide_; and _Rotherhithe_ (Etching). The next year, 1863, was -prolific. The catalogue contains the following titles: _The Last of Old -Westminster_; _Weary_ (Drypoint); _Old Westminster Bridge_; _Hungerford -Bridge_ (Etching); _The Forge_ (Drypoint); _Monsieur Becgis_ (Etching); -_The Pool_ (Drypoint). Two works were on view in 1864: _Wapping_ and -_Die Lange Lizen—of the Six Marks_. In 1865 he exhibited _The Golden -Screen_; _Old Battersea Bridge_; _The Little White Girl_ (with a -quotation in the catalogue of fourteen lines from Swinburne); and _The -Scarf_. Whistler was not represented in 1866, but in 1867 exhibited the -_Symphony in White No. 3_; _Battersea_; and _Sea and Rain_. After a -break of two years came _The Balcony_ in the Academy of 1870. The next -year’s catalogue does not contain his name, but in 1872 the Academy -accepted that exquisite example of his art, now in the Luxembourg, -_Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother_. For -six years Whistler was an absentee, being represented for the last time -on the walls of Burlington House, in 1879, by _Old Putney Bridge_ -(Etching). - -[Illustration: - - PORTRAIT OF THOMAS CARLYLE · J. A. McN. WHISTLER -] - -[Illustration: - - PRINCESS OF THE PORCELAIN COUNTRY · J. A. McN. WHISTLER -] - -The majority of Whistler’s masterpieces were exhibited at the Grosvenor -Gallery in the days when Sir Coutts Lindsay was at the head of the -direction. The walls of the rooms in Bond Street were repeatedly adorned -by those charming creations known as _Nocturnes_ and _Symphonies_, by -the remarkable _Valparaiso_, by many of the portraits, notably _Lady -Archibald Campbell_, _Carlyle_, and the delightful _Miss Alexander_. -Twenty years ago Whistler’s life in London and Paris was exceptionally -active. In him Society discovered a wit of Gallic alertness, and he -speedily became one of the most prominent characters of the day. Readers -will remember the oft-told tale of how Whistler sacrificed (with a true -Whistlerian light-heartedness) much costly Cordovan leather, in order -that he might create a masterpiece of decoration in the celebrated -Leyland mansion. Another historic story is the _cause célèbre_ of -Whistler _v._ Ruskin, based upon the criticism of a Grosvenor Gallery -nocturne as “a pot of paint flung in the public face,” with the -resultant farthing damages. The canvas which called forth this elegant -banter was that entitled _Nocturne in Black and Gold; the Fire Wheel_, -the theme being a display of fireworks in the gardens at Cremorne. From -a literary point of view, as a writer of biting sarcasm the artist -scarcely had a peer. One admires that lively _jeu d’esprit_ “Ten -o’clock,” and the strange mixture of correspondence entitled “The Gentle -Art of Making Enemies” will not be out of date until all the shining -lights of the present generation have been forgotten. - -After two years of probationship as an ordinary member, in 1886 Whistler -became President of the Royal Society of British Artists, an -old-established and hitherto staid and conservative institution. His -term of office was brilliant and exciting; he himself exhibited such -wonderful pictures as the _Sarasate_, and his reputation attracted the -most talented of the younger artists of the day. The correspondence -which ensued when Whistler vacated the presidential chair must be sought -for in “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies.” - -In Whistler’s work there is a curious yet indefinable influence of -Japanese painting. In company with most of the Impressionists, he was -influenced by those Impressionists of another race. This influence is to -be observed in all modern painting since 1870, when artists first -commenced to collect examples of the Japanese methods. - -In his later years Whistler preferred the atmosphere of Paris to that of -London, although he continued to visit occasionally the country he -described as “humourless and dull.” The artist was thoroughly -cosmopolitan, and was equally at home in New York, Paris, or London. His -influence upon the art of to-day has been unmistakable, and one has -little doubt as to its permanency. Whistler helped to purge art of the -vice of subject, and the belief that the mission of the artist is to -copy nature. - -[Illustration: - - ALEXANDER HARRISON -] - -Mr. Alexander Harrison is one of those numerous American artists who -have settled in France, a natural result of French training and French -sympathies. Inspired by Manet, influenced by Besnard, he has painted -some of the most successful Impressionist work of the last fifteen -years. One cannot agree always with Dr. Muther in his learned and not -altogether satisfactory tomes, but his appreciation of Mr. Harrison is -so delicate and just that it is worth reproducing. “_In Arcady_,” he -writes, “was one of the finest studies of light which have been painted -since Manet. The manner in which the sunlight fell upon the high grass -and slender trees, its rays gliding over branch and shrub, touching the -green blades like shining gold, and glancing over the nude bodies of -fair women—here over a hand, here over a shoulder, and here again over -the bosom—was painted with such virtuosity, felt with such poetry, and -so free from all the heaviness of earth, that one hardly had the sense -of looking at a picture at all.” The luminous painting of Besnard had -here reached its final expression, and the summit of classic finish was -surmounted. His third picture was called _The Wave_. To seize such -phenomena of Nature in their completeness—things so fickle and so hard -to arrest in their mutability—had been the chief study of French -painters since Manet. When Harrison exhibited his _Wave_, sea-pieces by -Duez, Roll, and Victor Binet were also in existence; but Harrison’s -_Wave_ was the best of them all. - -[Illustration: - - IN ARCADY · ALEXANDER HARRISON -] - -[Illustration: - - THE WAVE · ALEXANDER HARRISON -] - -Harrison’s vast studio in Paris breathes of the sea. The painter is an -ardent yachtsman, and traces of his recreation are numerous. Here are to -be found dozens of canvases, rolled up, piled in bundles, hung haphazard -against the walls, each one telling some different story of the waters. -These studies, probably worked upon in the neighbourhoods of Pould’hu or -Begmiel, are often actually salted and sanded by contact with the -elements which dash against the wild but lovely Breton shores. No modern -man paints seascapes like Harrison. He produces effects which are -evidently the results of patient vigil and watching, as well as a -vigorous power of brushwork. They are transcripts of the ocean, which -can only be seen as the sun rises out of the east over the waters, pale -lilac tints, softly fading into citron, or gaining added strength in -vermilion or deep orange reflected from the passing clouds, whilst -sweeping ripples (one can almost hear their rhythmic cadence) are gently -lost across the expanse of ethereal, glistening sand. - -[Illustration: - - SUNLIGHT ON THE LAKE · CHILDE HASSAM -] - -In other pictures we see the tide at full flood; nature is in a fairer -mood, and the universe glows with an exquisite green. The waves, of a -glassy transparency, are for the moment held in check by a supreme -power. Such passing phases of Nature Mr. Harrison seizes with unerring -touch. Another branch of his work, already referred to in speaking of -the picture _In Arcady_, are the paintings of the nude amidst the actual -surrounding of the fields. Part of their success may be ascribed to the -fact that they have been painted in each case in the open air. From the -photographs, which Mr. Harrison has allowed us to reproduce, both sides -of his beautiful talent may be judged. Like most Impressionists, his art -breathes of a love and joy with Nature as seen by a temperament refined, -distinguished, one may add—aristocratic. - -In the days when Florida was a primæval wilderness Mr. Harrison as a -very young man entered the United States Coast Survey. Whistler, it may -be remembered, commenced his career under the auspices of the same -department. Florida was just the place for an adventurous youth, and -Harrison was interested in his work. His enthusiasm, coupled with his -ability, resulted in being intrusted with most of the difficult and -sometimes dangerous “reconnaissance” engineering scout work that called -for lonely jaunts and camping out amongst the swamps and lagoons. - -After four years on the Florida coast the party moved on to Puget Sound. -The young men connected with the survey had been dabbling for some time -in the use of water-colours, and Harrison found that the artist in him -was winning ascendency over the surveyor. An argument with the head of -the survey settled the matter. Mr. Harrison went to San Francisco, and -then travelled to Paris, and studied under Gérôme. He was in his -twenty-sixth year, and conscious that his career was midway between -success and failure. He exhibited at the Salon a picture _Châteaux en -Espagne_, a boy stretched on his back in the sand of a warm, dry beach, -wrapt in the spell of a day-dream. “It was rather symbolic,” said the -artist once as he gazed at the photograph, “of my own state of mind at -that time.” - -During the next ten years he was engaged in painting nudes in the open -air. His chief source of inspiration was his friend Bastien-Lepage, with -whom he travelled to Brittany. Harrison’s first success was _In Arcady_, -now in the Luxembourg. A recent journalistic interview elicited many -interesting facts about Mr. Harrison’s method of work. The writer -concludes: “Mr. Harrison’s usual haunt in Brittany is Begmiel. Here -there is a sandy peninsula jutting into the sea, whence you can watch -the sun go down on the one horizon, and the moon come up from the other. -He does not carry his paint-box about with him taking notes. Memory and -imagination, knowledge and power of visualisation, take psychic -photographs. It is not to be gathered from this that Mr. Harrison is -unerring. He has scraped out as many yards of painted canvas as any man. -But where his strength undeniably exists is in this subjective, rather -than objective, genius for instantaneous notation. When he comes to put -the picture on the canvas—now mark the importance of early influences—he -becomes the young surveyor again engaged in reconnaissance. He takes his -embryonic map (a small canvas) and puts down his known points. He knows -just what spot of colour was here, what broken line there. The more he -puts down the more he sees, and presently the little map is finished. -The first map finished a larger size is made, and, if all goes well, -perhaps one larger still, and we have a great picture like any one of -those exhibited by the artist at the Salon of the Société Nationale.” - -It is hardly necessary to add that this artist is an officer of the -Legion of Honour, and has received numerous medals and other awards. Of -the Franco-American school of painting he is one of the recognised -heads, and this has been acknowledged by his election to the chief art -societies of Paris, New York, Berlin, and Munich, whilst he is -represented in the permanent collections of the Luxembourg, the Royal -Gallery, Dresden, the Museum at Quimper, and the American galleries of -Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco. - -[Illustration: - - CHILDREN · CHILDE HASSAM -] - -[Illustration: - - POMONA · CHILDE HASSAM -] - -[Illustration: - - A COUNTRY BEER-HOUSE, BAVARIA · MAX LIEBERMANN -] - -Childe Hassam is a young American artist who has been strongly -influenced by Impressionism. Originally from Boston, he worked for -several years in Paris, and when he returned to the States had already -some reputation. In New York he has “rendered the street life in fresh -and fleeting sketches; snow, smoke, and flaring gaslight pouring through -the shop-windows, quivering out into the night, and reflected in an -intense blaze upon the faces of men and women.” A typical example of his -work in this _genre_ is _Seventh Avenue, New York_. Childe Hassam is an -associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, a member of the -Secession of Munich, the American Water Colour Society, and numerous -clubs and societies throughout the States. He has received medals at -many of the recent International Exhibitions, including that of Paris in -1889, whilst he is represented in several of the continental and -transatlantic galleries. Being still young and enthusiastic, much may be -expected of Mr. Hassam in the future. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII · A GERMAN IMPRESSIONIST, MAX LIEBERMANN - - “CE QUE JE CHERCHE AVANT TOUT DANS UN TABLEAU, C’EST - UN HOMME ET NON PAS UN TABLEAU” - - _ZOLA_ - - -GERMANY has been strongly affected by the French movement, as in fact -has been the whole of the Continent. Any person who can remember the -state of art in the Fatherland twenty years ago will notice the great -change now taking place. He need only revisit the country and wander -through the great annual exhibitions held in the larger cities, such as -Berlin, Munich, and Dresden. In 1878 the “Gazette des Beaux-Arts,” -referring to the German school of painting, said: “There are one or two -artists of the first rank, and many men of talent, but in other respects -German painting is still upon the level of the schools which had their -day amongst us thirty years ago; this is the solitary school of painting -which does not seem to perceive that the age of railways and World -Exhibitions needs an art different from that of the age of philosophy -and provincial isolation.” Since that date, in the manner of viewing -nature, in the choice of subject, in the style, composition, technique, -and colour of pictures, the main trend of German art has been completely -altered. Until quite recently Teutonic artists delighted in the -allegorical. The output of fabulous monsters, fauns, unicorns, satyrs, -was enormous. Every young painter turned his hand to the production of -these fantastic mythological subjects. Happily a saner view of the -mission of art has come over the land, and the fauns and satyrs are -being gradually relegated to oblivion. From an absurd pseudo-classical -style (the effect of teaching from men like Couture and Munkacsy), -together with unlimited use of bitumen and black, a national school of -painting has been evolved which follows “la peinture claire,” giving -promise that in time it will travel, as regards purity of colour and -brilliance of effect, far beyond the bounds Monet has restricted himself -to. Work “en plein air” is the vogue, and no longer the exception, -whilst the sun is recognised at his true worth in the universal scheme -of nature. Hitherto King Sol has been disregarded, and his presence but -rarely indicated in some low-toned sunrise, or a sunset effect—the -conventional chrome-yellow band across a deep Prussian-blue hill -distance. Following the lead of the artists, both critics and public are -being gradually weaned from the love of black shadows, although it -cannot be said that they are wholly converted. Still their education is -in rapid progress, and the German people will soon be abreast of the -times in matters artistic. - -One man, Max Liebermann, has brought about this healthy state of things -almost single-handed. A consideration of his lifework is of the highest -importance and interest to all concerned either with the progress of -German art or the movement of French impressionism, for Liebermann is a -master, head and shoulders above all his colleagues. His artistic -history is easy to trace. The greatest painters are always primarily -attracted by the work of other great men. They copy the models of their -choice, and, missing some of the peculiar qualities enshrined therein, -gradually replace them in their own works with something equally fine. -These fresh qualities will in their turn find admirers, and, fanning the -zeal of newcomers, keep alight throughout the ages the sacred flame of -art. If Delacroix borrowed from Constable, Manet borrowed from -Delacroix, and Liebermann from Manet. In his turn, Liebermann has -influenced a large and increasing number of young German and Dutch -artists. - -With his pre-eminent position as a representative German painter, Max -Liebermann combines a commanding and active personality. More than any -other man of his time, his work has provoked discussion and attracted -attention from the commencement. During the last thirty years he has -fought strenuously the battle of light in painting. Strongly influenced -by Manet, Monet, together with Millet and the Barbizon school, he has -succeeded in inculcating amongst his brother artists a love of actuality -in subject, a desire to work direct from nature (contrary to that old -method of painting in the semi-gloom of the studio from incongruous -models in more or less correct costume), together with the -simplification and purification of the palette. Liebermann has taught -German artists to look at nature as it is, and not to represent it as -seen through the veil of a deadening academic tradition; he has taught -them that art does not consist in a minute finish, that there is no -finality in nature, and that the last impression which a true work of -art should convey is that of excessive industry. - -[Illustration: - - THE COBBLERS · MAX LIEBERMANN -] - -Max Liebermann was born in Berlin, July 29, 1849, the son of a wealthy -merchant. At an early age he decided to become an artist, but the -fulfilment of his wish was opposed by his father, who suggested a course -of philosophy at the University of Berlin as an antidote. Young -Liebermann joined the faculty of philosophy, but at the same time worked -in Steffeck’s studio where he made quick progress. He assisted his -master, we are told, in the battle picture _Sadowa_, painting guns, -sabres, uniforms, and hands, with much approbation from Steffeck. He -frequented the galleries and museums in preference to the class-rooms, -and preferred to sketch in the streets and parks of Berlin rather than -sit at the feet of a professor at the University. In 1869, with parental -authority, he deserted philosophy altogether, and joined the Academy at -Weimar, then in high repute as a school of art producing the regulation -painters of orthodox pattern. Here he worked for three years under -Thumann and Pauwels, beginning pictures in their style which were left -unfinished. The petrified classicalism which reigned in Weimar was -little acceptable to a youth who had keenly studied the life around him, -and who had developed a strong love for natural effects as well as -modernity in technique. These heretical tendencies were sternly -repressed by his respectable and erudite teachers. At last Liebermann -threw aside artificiality, and, quitting the circles of the conservative -Academy, occupied himself in painting in the open air. - -In 1873 he finished his first great picture, _Women plucking Geese_, now -in the National Gallery, Berlin. It was more or less academic as to -technique, and black tones predominated throughout in accordance with -the fashion of the period. The subject brought the canvas into immediate -notoriety, the picture was condemned as a gross vulgarity, and -Liebermann was described as “the apostle of ugliness.” This hostile -reception was entirely unexpected by the sensitive artist, who was much -affected by it, and determined to leave Berlin for Paris. - -Thirty years ago the bituminous method of Munkacsy was the most popular -art in Germany, and influenced many of the younger painters, Liebermann -included. Upon his arrival in Paris the artist sought out the great -Hungarian, and asked for advice. The result of the interview was that -Liebermann quitted Paris for Holland. Munkacsy was at that time, as Dr. -Muther remarks, under the influence of Ribot, and confirmed Liebermann -in his preference for heavy Bolognese shadows. It was not until he came -to know the works of Troyon, Daubigny, and Corot, that he liberated -himself from the influence of the school of Courbet. As subsequent -events proved, the advice given by Munkacsy was good and to the point, -and Liebermann acknowledges his great obligation to the painter of -_Christ before Pilate_. - -The first motive of importance which Liebermann found in the Low -Countries resulted in the picture _Women preserving Vegetables_, -completed at Weimar in 1873, and exhibited at the Salon of the same -year. The subject represents a group of women in a dimly lit barn busily -engaged in preserving cabbages and other vegetables. The canvas, -although a great advance upon its predecessors, was ungraciously -received in Germany. So little appreciation did Liebermann receive that -he definitely removed to Paris, where he knew a welcome awaited him. In -“la ville lumière” he worked in the schools and museums, studied Troyon, -Daubigny, and Millet, whilst the influence of Manet, Monet, and the -other Impressionists, was an important factor in the development of his -art. - -[Illustration: - - ASYLUM FOR OLD MEN, AMSTERDAM · MAX LIEBERMANN -] - -[Illustration: - - WOMAN WITH GOATS · MAX LIEBERMANN -] - -So strong was his admiration for Millet that he went down to Barbizon, -where he arrived shortly before the death of that great artist. Under -the influence of Millet he painted _Labourers in the Turnip Field_, and -_Brother and Sister_, which appeared in the Paris Salon of 1876. He now -reached the turning-point of his career, for he had made up his mind -that at all costs he must perfect his own individual style. A great -unrest, useless to battle against, disorganised his movements. He -travelled through Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Italy, studying and -searching for the inspiration which should place him in the right path. -During these travels he met at Venice Lenbach, the portrait-painter, who -told him to study in Munich. Tired of wandering he acted upon the -suggestion, and passed six years in the Bavarian capital. For a period -his art assumed a religious character, and he painted many biblical -compositions. These works were coldly received, and in Munich they were -strongly and adversely criticised. The clergy objected to them as -profane, and a debate on the subject followed in the Bavarian Assembly. -The life of the artist becoming exceedingly uncomfortable, Liebermann -settled in Amsterdam, where he found a freer artistic atmosphere more -congenial to his temperament. Disdaining the critical capacity of his -native city, Liebermann forwarded all his finest works to Paris, and in -the Salon of 1881 exhibited _An Asylum for Old Men_, which gained a -medal in the third class, the first honour awarded to German art since -the war. Having received the official imprimatur of Paris, his -countrymen began to realise that an artist had grown up amongst them -they could no longer afford to neglect. Liebermann’s works found -purchasers throughout the Continent, and his future was assured. He was -elected a member of the “Cercle des Quinze,” of which Alfred Stevens and -Bastien-Lepage were prominent supporters, and he exhibited annually at -the Salon Petit and other French collections. Since 1884 he has divided -his time between Berlin and the little village of Zandvoort, near -Hilversum, in Holland. Perhaps his early experiences account for the -fact that when in the German capital he mixes little with its artistic -society. - -Liebermann has practised with success and ability every variety of -artistic expression. His portraits alone would class him amongst the -masters, taking as examples the _Burgomeister Petersen_, the _Professor -Virchow_, and the _Gerhart Hauptmann_. He is equally facile with the -burin, the needle, the pastel, or with water-colours. His activity is -ceaseless, and his production, in consequence, enormous; he possesses -robust health, uncommon strength, enormous fertility, traits common to -the great artists of all ages. - -In his fine canvas of the _Courtyard of the Orphanage, Amsterdam_, -painted in 1881, Liebermann shows for the first time complete -emancipation from the thrall of Munkacsy’s influence. The picture was -exhibited in the Salon of 1882, and in it appears that peculiar note of -red, now one of the distinguishing features of the artist’s work. Of -this canvas Hochédé, the Parisian art critic, said that Liebermann must -surely have been stealing sunbeams to paint with. Then commenced a long -series of pictures such as the _Ropeyard_, the _Netmenders_, now one of -the most valued pictures in the modern section of the Gallery at -Hamburg, in which the Impressionist spirit is clearly manifested. The -unimportant has been omitted, and the pith of the subject only is given. -The point of view is focused, the inconsequent suppressed, and the “mise -en scène” proves the artist to be an irreproachable draughtsman, as well -as a colourist of the first rank. Liebermann’s pictures of “sous bois” -are particularly pleasing, strikingly painted and original; they were -the first of their kind in Germany, and disconcerted the whole artistic -community. - -In following the progress of Liebermann’s art, one notes that he is -attracted unceasingly by problems of light. If Manet is the great -apostle of “plein air” painting, surely no one has yet surpassed the -marvellous style in which Liebermann succeeds in rendering the -attenuated scheme of interior lighting in conjunction with extraordinary -powers of sunlight painting. His gradual emancipation from tradition may -be easily traced from the days of _Women plucking Geese_, when he was -with justice called a “son of darkness”; through the “sous bois” -pictures, to the present period of vivid sunlight and violet shadows -across open country, sea, and the human figure. - -Liebermann headed the party which revolted from the National Salon, and -of the Secessionists he is the president. Similar cleavages of the young -and progressive from the old and reactionary have taken place in most -countries with equally important results. In Max Liebermann Germany has -an artist of most exceptional gifts. “I do not seek for what is called -the pictorial,” he writes, “but I would grasp nature in her simplicity -and grandeur—the simplest thing and the hardest.” - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIII · INFLUENCES AND TENDENCIES - - “C’EST L’AFFIRMATION GRANDIOSE DE L’EFFORT VERS LE - BEAU QUE CERTAINS ARTISTES INDÉPENDANTS TRAITÈRENT À - UN MOMENT DONNÉ EN DEHORS DE LA TRADITION ET DES - FORMULES ACQUISES” - - _GEORGES - LECOMTE_ - - -IT is the fashion nowadays amongst a certain class of art-critics to -adopt the pessimistic note. They laud the past, deplore the present, and -display sympathetic alarm for the future of art and artists. Should a -modern manifestation of art be under discussion, some phase undeniably -good and universally accepted by those best qualified to form an -opinion, these critics recognise it with a guarded qualification and a -prophecy of its speedy decadence in the immediate future; and these -depreciatory remarks are extended to all those artists who have been -attracted by the new movement and have ranged themselves under its -banner. It has always been so. In the art literature of the past we read -of Delacroix and the decadence, of Corot and the downfall, of Monet and -the abyss. There are still living in France aged and honoured -professors, members of the Institute and of the Salon juries, who -believe that the teaching of Claude Monet has been a national calamity. -They hold that art no longer exists, having been destroyed by these -dreadful innovations. Is it not strange that the birth of new methods, -rather than the death of old ones, should be heralded with melancholy -head-shakings, with frequent and wrathful imprecations upon the impious -intruders! Time rights all things. The new to-day is old to-morrow, the -exotic becomes classic, and one more page is added to the history of the -evolution of art. - -Nothing is more amazing than to read in the daily and weekly press of -the “pernicious influence” and decadence of modern French art, -criticisms the more astonishing as the present age is one of universal -travel and liberal ideas. French art is in no such parlous state, and -never, at any period of its history, displayed stronger signs of -vitality. Never was its activity greater, nor its influence, poetry, and -gaiety better for the general good of the nation. Such wild accusations -are unjustifiable, hypocritical, and themselves pernicious. French -influence dominates the work of the most successful painters and -sculptors throughout the world. The art of such men as La Thangue, -Edward Stott, Alfred East, Peppercorn, Bertram Priestman, Arnesby Brown, -Fred Footet, John Lavery, Macaulay Stevenson, Edwin Abbey, John S. -Sargent, George Clausen, and the men of the Glasgow school, is -unquestionably derived from Paris, a city we are asked to believe is -decadent in art matters. Of these artists it may be said that the -majority were educated in Paris. It is well to acknowledge candidly -that, although in the days of Gainsborough, Turner, Constable, and the -other members of that brilliant band, English art led the world, to-day -we must look to “la ville lumière” for instruction and inspiration. The -fact is proved by the enormous preponderance of students of all -nationalities who flock to Paris for the completion of their art -education. In other words, French art is the leading art of the day, and -will remain so for many years to come. - -Let any unbiased observer compare the two magnificent Salons of Painting -and Sculpture held annually in Paris with the English Royal Academy, New -Gallery, and British Artists’ Exhibitions. Note that France houses her -artists in some of the most beautiful palaces in the world, then think -of London. Observe the high average quality of the exhibits, their -astounding technical excellence, the courage of the artists, and their -bold experiments in untrodden paths, their extraordinary originality and -diversity of temperament. They are not content with an ephemeral -success, or the stereotyped reproduction of popular playthings. The -contributors are cosmopolitan in nationality, for, provided the -necessary passport of talent, Paris welcomes the stranger. Where in -Great Britain can the foreigner, even if he possess acknowledged genius, -be sure of meeting with a sympathetic reception and fair play from a -Hanging Committee? He is fortunate if he escapes public ridicule. The -Continental artist has learnt this lesson and troubles us no more, to -the blight of our national education and the detriment of our taste. -This blot upon our reputation for common sense has been to some extent -redeemed of recent years by the International Society of Painters, -Sculptors, and Gravers. Perhaps its intermittent exhibitions will -rehabilitate our name abroad, and incidentally aid in revivifying our -national taste. - -Recall haphazard the names of a few artists who are at the present -moment exhibiting in France. Aman-Jean, Barillot, Binet, Besnard, -Billotte, Bracquemond, Cottet, Chèret, Carrière, Cassatt, Cazin, -Dagnan-Bouveret, Daillon, Dameron, Didier-Pouget, Degas, d’Espagnat, -Forain, Fantin-Latour, Geffroy, Gosselin, Gaston la Touche, Gagliardini, -Guillaumin, Harpignies, Henner, Lhermitte, Le Sidaner, Meunier, Marais, -Monet, Menard, Maufra, Montenard, Pointelin, Ribot, Rigolot, Raffaëlli, -Rodin, Renoir, Roybet, Ziem. This list can be extended indefinitely by -the addition of the names of artists of the rarest temperaments. The art -of the whole of the rest of the world cannot surpass the productions of -these men. - -The state of the plastic arts in England is deplorable. If it be not -soon remedied, we shall be compelled to go abroad for any statues -needed. The little sculpture we have is frequently excellent, but its -output is so insignificant that it cannot possibly be compared with the -sculpture of France. The art cannot flourish in England whilst there are -so few public commissions, or wealthy patrons. Financially the painter’s -career is bad enough, but, as a remunerative profession, sculpture does -not exist. Look around the galleries in London during the height of the -season, and note the quite insignificant amount of sculpture exhibited. -Many of the London galleries exclude it altogether, and in the -provincial collections it is practically non-existent. If there is any -it is systematically overlooked by visitors, and as for sales—! one -never hears of such a thing. Then remember Paris with its immense annual -production of excellent sculpture, and the admirable manner in which the -State fosters this great art. - -If we take monuments and statues in public places as the fittest -expression of national gratitude, we are sadly lacking. Where in England -can we find monuments in perpetuation of the memory of such mighty -painters as Turner, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Constable, Romney, and a -score besides. If we possess such monuments, they are certainly hidden -away from the sight of both native and stranger, and the latter -frequently remarks upon their absence. In France the birthplaces of -these artists would have raised some remembrance, whilst the capital -city in which they laboured would surely have had its statues and -collegiate endowments to perpetuate their spirit. An example can be -quoted from the little country town in which these lines are being -written. Here in Les Andelys, in the most prominent position, are two -statues. One of them is as fine a memorial as can be seen in any capital -city of Europe. The men so honoured in imperishable bronze are not -kings, generals, statesmen, or even local benefactors. They are merely -artists, and one of them (the son of an Englishwoman) is but distantly -allied to the countryside. Chaplin and Poussin, two artists of -thoughtful, gentle lives, of obscure birth, without fortune or -influence, yet possessors, in some degree, of the ennobling fire of -genius. Of these men the simple townspeople are exceedingly proud, and -in such pride we see the whole spirit of the nation. France delights to -honour genius, and the intelligent foreigner, noting these things, will -pay little heed to stories that decadence and pernicious influences are -the outcome of such a feeling. - -Following the lead of Paris, American painters may be said to have -adopted “la peinture claire” almost to a man. Germany also has revolted, -and the Secessionist movement, with Liebermann at its head, has gathered -together the most vigorous talent in modern German art. Clean painting -in a pure and healthy atmosphere now reigns supreme. Spain and Italy -have also been deeply affected, and in both of these countries there is -a marked recrudescence of that fine talent which in times past -distinguished the two peninsulas. Together with this increasing activity -is happily to be noted a commensurate degree of financial encouragement. -Enormous sums yearly change hands in Germany alone for the products of -the new school, irrespective of nationality. The sales recorded at the -annual exhibitions in Berlin, Munich, Dresden, and Dusseldorf average -about twenty times the amounts received at the Royal Academy, and it is -clear that Germany intends to take as leading a position in the arts as -she is doing in commerce. - -The tendency in England appears to be retrograde. Modern Dutch art -reigns as the present fashion, its propagation admirably engineered, its -influence widespread. The pictures _à-la-mode_ are those with foggy, -sombre grey skies in heavy unatmospheric paint. They give us damp -discoloured tenements, shipping the colour of coal-tar, clumsy barges, -malodorous canals, ugly toil-broken humanity, the whole as unromantic, -depressing, and dyspeptic as can be imagined. The seal of official -approbation has been secured for this kind of thing, and the Mansion -House requisitioned for its display. This poetry of the prosaic has been -generally accepted, and never have times been better for the sturdy, -plodding producer of Dutch pictures. As it is the dark and sordid side -of Nature that appeals most forcibly to these men, we shall, within a -given time, develop a whole race of “Nubians” of our own. Finally we -shall deny the very existence of the sun and all he represents in our -limited share of life. - -The cult of sun-worship, of joy in sparkling colour, of pure -health-bringing open-air art must, sooner or later, predominate in -England as it already predominates throughout the world. The mission of -Impressionism is to depict beauty that elevates, light that cheers. In -their struggle for this mastery of light, Impressionist painters have -often in the past sacrificed many of the qualities which go towards the -making of a picture, and have thus incurred public displeasure. Their -subjects have been chosen at random, and they have gained their effects -often regardless of composition. The artists were far too much occupied -by technical difficulties to care about picture-making, and the results, -mere studies, were not intended as pictures. They were the necessary -experiments incidental to the invention of “Impressionism.” Yet how -preferable are these “studies” to the ordinary canvases of commerce, and -how treasured they are at the present day. Now that the material -difficulties have been overcome, and settled methods achieved, this -reproach will disappear, and we may confidently look to the -Impressionist picture for all those qualities which go to the making of -a perfect work of art. - -In the canvases of Vincent Van Gogh, Gauguin, Claus, Maufra, d’Espagnat, -Liebermann, Harrison, Besnard, Le Sidaner, and many others of the later -school, will be found not only colour, rich light, and subtly strong -harmonies, but a feeling for beauty of line, composition, rhythm of -movement. Our admiration for the great men of 1870 must not blind us to -the fact that there are others; the road is not barred, and many of the -followers are of great strength. The pioneers having opened up the new -territory, the gift is free and all are welcome. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - APPENDIX - - - (_a_) THE SCIENTIFIC ASPECT OF IMPRESSIONISM - -The clearest explanation of the scientific theory of colouring is to be -found in the treatise written by Chevreul. First published in France in -1838, it met with great success, and was translated into English in 1854 -by Charles Martel. Chevreul remains the standard authority, although he -has been followed by Helmholtz, Church, Rood, and others. - -Given the necessary competence for accuracy in draughtsmanship, and -considerable practice in the manipulation of colour, the art-student may -take the field, and not before; for Impressionist painting demands the -highest artistic capability. Firstly, he will discover that -Impressionists worship light, using the trees, rocks, rivers, &c. of -landscape, as so many vehicles for the conveyance of luminous -impressions to the eye. This quality of atmosphere distinguishes -Impressionist pictures from all others; here will be found what -Brownell, Chevreul, MacColl, and Mauclair, have to say upon the subject. -Secondly, the art-student will perceive the vital necessity of correct -values within a general tone, a subject also enlarged upon by the above -writers. Thirdly, some reference is given to the modern study of shadows -and reflections, with regard to their influence and treatment. - -The following lines, extracted from “The French Impressionists,” by -Camille Mauclair, sum up definitely the Impressionist Idea. - - “In nature no colour exists by itself. The colouring of the - objects is a pure illusion: the only creative source of colour - is the sunlight which envelops all things, and reveals them, - according to the hours, with infinite modifications.... Only - artificially can we distinguish between outline and colour; in - nature the distinction does not exist.... A value is the degree - of dark or light intensity, which permits our eyes to comprehend - that one object is further or nearer than another.... The values - are the only means that remain for expressing depth on a flat - surface. Colour is therefore the procreatrix of design. Colour - being simply the irradiation of light, it follows that all - colour is composed of the same elements as sunlight, namely the - seven tones of the spectrum.... The colours vary with the - intensity of light. There is no colour peculiar to any object, - but only more or less rapid vibration of light upon its surface. - The speed depends, as is demonstrated by optics, on the degree - of the inclination of the rays which, according to their - vertical or oblique direction, give different light and - colour.... What has to be studied therefore in these objects, if - one wishes to recall their colour to the beholder of a picture, - is the composition of the atmosphere which separates them from - the eye. This atmosphere is the real subject of the picture, and - whatever is represented upon it only exists through its medium. - A second consequence of this analysis of light is, that shadow - is not absence of light, but light of _a different quality_ and - of different value. Shadow is not a part of the landscape where - light ceases, but where it is subordinate to a light which - appears to us more intense. In the shadow the rays of the - spectrum vibrate with different speed. The third conclusion - resulting from this: the colours in the shadow are modified by - _refraction_.... The colours mixed on the palette compose a - dirty grey.... Here we touch on the very foundations of - Impressionism. The painter will have to paint with only the - seven colours of the spectrum, and discard all the others; that - is what Claude Monet has done boldly, adding to them only black - and white. He will, furthermore, instead of composing mixtures - on his palette, place on his canvas touches of none but the - seven colours _juxtaposed_, and leave the individual rays of - each of these colours to blend at a certain distance, so as to - act like sunlight itself upon the eye of the beholder.” - - CAMILLE MAUCLAIR. - (“The French - Impressionists.”) - - - “Take a landscape with a cloudy sky, which means diffused light - in the old sense of the term, and observe the effect upon it of - a sudden burst of sunlight. What is the effect when considerable - portions of the scene are suddenly thrown into marked shadow, as - well as others illuminated with intense light? Is the absolute - value of the parts in shadow lowered or raised? Raised, of - course, by reflected light. Formerly, to get the contrast - between sunlight and shadow in proper scales, the painter would - have painted the shadows darker than they were before the sun - appeared. Relatively they are darker, since their value, though - heightened, is raised infinitely less than the value of the - parts in sunlight. Absolutely their value is raised - considerably. If therefore they are painted lighter than they - were before the sun appeared, they in themselves seem true. The - part of Monet’s picture that is in shadow is measurably true, - far truer than it would have been if painted under the old - theory of correspondence, and had been unnaturally darkened to - express the relations of contrast between shadow and sunlight. - Scale has been lost. What has been gained? Simply truth of - impressionistic effect. Why? Because we know and judge and - appreciate and feel the measure of truth with which objects in - shadow are represented; we are insensibly more familiar with - them in nature than with objects directly sun-illuminated, the - value as well as the definition of which are far vaguer to us on - account of their blending and infinite heightening by a - luminosity absolutely overpowering. In a word, in sunlit - landscapes objects in shadow are what customarily and - unconsciously we see and note and know, and the illusion is - greater if the relation between them and the objects in - sunlight, whose value habitually we do not note, be neglected or - falsified. Add to this source of illusion the success of Monet - in giving a juster value to the sunlit half of his picture than - has ever been systematically attempted before his time, and his - astonishing ‘trompe d’œil’ is, I think, explained. Each part is - truer than ever before, and unless one have a specially - developed sense of ‘ensemble’ in this very special matter of - values in and affected by sunlight, one gets from Monet an - impression of actuality so much greater than he has ever got - before, that one may be pardoned for feeling, and even for - enthusiastically proclaiming, that in Monet realism finds its - apogee. Monet paints absolute values in a very wide range, plus - sunlight, as nearly as pigments can be got to represent it.” - - W. C. BROWNELL. - (“Realistic Painting.”) - - - “Impressionism is the art that surveys the field and determines - which of the shapes and tones are of chief importance to the - interested eye, enforces these, and sacrifices the rest. - - “If three objects, A, B, and C, stand at different depths before - the eye, we can at will fix A, whereupon B and C must fall out - of focus, or B, whereupon A and C must be blurred, or C, - sacrificing the clearness of A and B. All this apparatus makes - it impossible to see everything at once with equal clearness, - enables us, and forces us for the uses of real life, to frame - and limit our picture, according to the immediate interest of - the eye, whatever it may be. - - “The painter instinctively uses these means to arrive at the - emphasis and neglect that his choice requires. If he is engaged - on a face he will screw his attention to a part and now relax - it, distributing the attention over the whole so as to restore - the bigger relations of aspect. - - “Sir J. Reynolds describes this process as seeing the whole - ‘with the dilated eye;’ the commoner precept of the studios is, - ‘to look with the eyes half closed.’ In any case the result is - the minor planes are swamped in bigger, that smaller patches of - colour are swept up into broader, that markings are blurred. - - “The Impressionist painter does not allot so much detail to a - face in a full-length portrait as to a head alone, nor to twenty - figures on a canvas as to one.” - - D. S. MACCOLL. - (“Encyclopædia - Britannica.”) - - - “The discovery of these Impressionists consists in having - thoroughly understood the fact that strong light discolours - tones, and that sunlight reflected by the various objects in - nature, tends from its very strength of light to bring them all - up to one uniform degree of luminosity, which dissolves the - seven prismatic rays in one single colourless lustre, which is - the light.... Impressionism, in those works which represent it - at its best, is a kind of painting which tends towards - phenomenism, towards the visibility and the signification of - things in space, and which wishes to grasp the synthesis of - things as seen in a momentary glimpse.... One has now the right - to say, without provoking an outcry, that it has been given to - the people of the present time to witness a magnificent and - phenomenal artistic evolution by this succession of canvases - painted by Claude Monet during the past twenty years.” - - GEFFROY. - - - “Two coloured surfaces in juxtaposition will exhibit the - modification to the eye viewing them simultaneously, the one - relative to the height of tone of their respective colours, the - other relative to the physical composition of these same - colours.... We must not overlook the fact, that whenever we mix - pigments to represent primitive colours, we are not mixing the - colours of the solar spectrum, but mixing substances which - painters and dyers employ as Red, Yellow, and Blue colours.... - All the primary colours gain in brilliancy and purity by the - proximity of Grey.... Grey in association with sombre colours, - such as Blue and Violet, and with broken tints of luminous - colours, produces harmonies of analogy which have not the vigour - of those with Black; if the colours do not combine well - together, it has the advantage of separating them from each - other.... Distant bodies are rendered sensible to the eye, only - in proportion as they radiate, or reflect, or transmit the light - which acts upon the retina.” - - CHEVREUL. - - - “The object of landscape painting is the imitation of light in - the regions of the air and on the surface of the earth and of - water.... One must seek above all else in a picture for some - manifestation of the artist’s spiritual state, for a portion of - his reverie.... In the career of an artist, one must have - conscience, self-confidence and perseverance. Thus armed the two - things in my eyes of the first importance are the severe study - of drawing and of values.” - - COROT. - - - (_b_) SALES AND PRICES - -For future comparison it will be interesting to note some results -reached at recent sales of Impressionist paintings. Pictures which, in -the early seventies, were unsaleable for five pounds, now average from -£500 to £800 apiece, with a tendency to go much higher. A sale at New -York, in December 1902, of seventeen pictures by members of the -Impressionist and Barbizon schools, produced nearly £40,000, an average -of £2300 for each canvas. The last great public sale by auction was “La -Vente Chocquet” at the Petit Galerie, Paris, July 1, 1899. A few days -previous to the sale the writer had a long conversation with Claude -Monet at Giverny. Discussing the coming event, which was already -exciting much press comment, Monet told how the late Père Chocquet, as -he was affectionately called, a “chef du bureau” in the Department of -Finance, had been a tower of strength to the early Impressionists. He -encouraged them, foretold ultimate triumph, invested every franc of his -savings in the purchase of their works, at prices ranging from £2 to -£10. Late in life M. Chocquet inherited, quite unexpectedly, a large -fortune. The Impressionists anticipated much, and the studios were -jubilant. Long cherished plans were rediscussed; the Chocquet legacy was -to be the source of a golden stream. But a great disappointment was to -come. With the increase of M. Chocquet’s riches came the decrease and -final extinction of M. Chocquet’s taste. He never bought another -picture! - -Throughout the three days’ sale, the gorgeous rooms of M. Georges Petit -were crowded, although many well-known and wealthy buyers were absent -owing to the lateness of the season. Amongst the distinguished -collectors and dealers, from all parts of Europe and America, were the -Counts de Camondo, Gallimard, de Castellane, the Marquis de Charnacé, -the Barons Oberkampff and de Saint-Joachim, and Messieurs Degas, -Cheramy, de St. Léon, de la Brunière, de Léclanché, Clerq, Muhlbacher, -Ligneau, André Sinet, Antonin Proust, Escudier, Natanson, de Laivargott, -Bigot, Ferrier, Marcel, Cognet, Durey, Zacharian, Moreau-Latour, -Mittmann, Durand-Ruel, Bernheim, Allard, Montagnac, Vollard, Boussod, -Rosemberg, and Camemtron, Monet’s _La Prairie_ realised 6400 francs, -_Les Meules_ 9000 francs, _Falaise à Varengeville_ 9500 francs, and _La -Seine à Argenteuil_ was knocked down to M. d’Hauterive for 11,500 -francs. Renoir’s works fetched between ten and twenty thousand francs. -Manet’s _Portrait of Claude Monet in his Studio_, which was sold after -Manet’s death for 150 francs, changed hands at 10,000 francs. - -At the Vever sale in 1897, Monet’s _Le Pont d’Argenteuil_ realised -21,500 francs. - - - (_c_) SOME COLLECTORS OF IMPRESSIONIST PICTURES - -The following list contains the names of the chief private collectors of -Impressionist pictures. Though incomplete it will be noted that almost -every country is represented: - - ALEXANDRE, M. ARSÈNE - ASTOR, JOHN JACOB - BATHMONT, MADAME - BÉARN, COMTESSE DE - BERNHEIM, FILS, M. - BLANQUET, BARON - CAHEN, M. GUSTAVE - CAMONDO, COMTE ISAAC DE - CHAUVEAU, FRÉDÉRIC - COCHIN, M. DENIS - COQUELIN FRÈRES - CUREL, M. DE - DECUP, M. - DUPEAUX, M. - DUPUX, DR. - DURAND-RUEL ET FILS - DURET, M. THEODORE - EPHRUSSI, M. CHAS. - FEYDEAU, M. M. - FORWARD, M. - GACHET, DR. - GONJON, M. S. - HAVINIMANN, MADAME - HAVEMEYER, M. - HERSCH, M. - HETE, M. DE - HOHENTSCHEL - JOUBERT, M. - KAKOREFF - LEHRMANN - MADDOCKS, J. - MARCHANT, W. S. - MARKER - MARSDEN, S. - MESDAG - MONNIER, M. - MOROSOFF, IVAN - MURER, M. - PAQUIN, M. - PAWSON, T. - PELERIN, M. AUGUSTE - PETIT, M. GEORGES - PRIESTLEY, W. E. B. - PRIPPER - RONNELL, MAX - ROTHSCHILD, BARONNE GUSTAVE DE - ROTHSCHILD, BARON HENRI DE - RUEL, M. - ROUS, M. - SAMUEL, M. - SCHLESINGER, M. - SCHMITZ, M. - SCHULTE, HERR - SCHUMANN, M. - SMITH, J. W. - SOTA, SIGNOR DE LA - STRAUSS, GUIDO - STRAUSS, JACQUES - STRAUSS, JULES - TESIGMANN, M. - TSCHUDI, HERR VON - VANDERBILT - VAN DER VELDE, M. - VANIER, M. - VIAU, M. GEORGES - VLIEYERE, M. DE - WALDECK-ROUSSEAU, M. - WILLS, SIR W. H. - ZYGOMALCO, M. - - - - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BIBLIOGRAPHY - - -ARSÈNE ALEXANDRE: - - Préface du catalogue de - l’exposition des œuvres de Camille Pissarro. Paris, April - 1891. - - Claude Monet, _L’Éclair_. Paris, - 26 May 1895. - - · An article with portrait. - - Préface du catalogue de - l’exposition des œuvres de Renoir. Paris, May 1893. - - Préface du catalogue des Tableaux - Modernes, collection de M. Jules Strauss, MM. Paul Chevallier - et Bernheim jeune. Paris. - - · A magnificently - illustrated record of a collection belonging to wealthy - connoisseurs; much sought after by collectors. - - Histoire populaire de la peinture, - École Française. H. Laurens, Paris. - - · A concise history of - French art, with 250 illustrations, by the art critic of the - _Figaro_. - - Le “Balzac” de Rodin. H. Floury, - Paris. - - · A witty defence of - Rodin’s statue, together with a scathing attack upon public - taste generally. - - Préface du catalogue de - l’exposition des œuvres d’Armand Guillaumin. Durand-Ruel, - Paris. - - · A sympathetic essay upon - the artist’s career. - - Préface du catalogue de - l’exposition des œuvres de Zandomeneghi. Paris, 1893. - - -A. M.: - - Les artistes à l’atelier—Camille - Pissarro et A. Renoir. “L’Art dans les Deux Mondes.” Paris, - 6th and 31st Jan. 1891. - - -“ART JOURNAL”: - - Some remarks upon Impressionism; - with. - - -G. ALBERT AURIER: - - Le Néo-Impressionisme (Camille - Pissarro). _Mercure de France_, Paris, 1895. - - Le Syncholisme en peinture (Paul - Gauguin). _Mercure de France_, Paris, March 1891. - - L’Impressionisme (Monet et Renoir). - _Mercure de France_, Paris, 1893. - - -FRANCIS BATE: - - The Naturalistic School of Painting. - _The Artist_, London, 1887. - - -EDMOND BAZIRE: - - Manet. Paris, 1884. - - -EMILE BERNARD: - - Les hommes d’aujourd’hui—Paul Cézanne, - avec dessin de Pissarro. Vannier, Paris. - - -F. A. BRIDGMANN: - - L’anarchie dans l’art, - Impressionisme—Symbolisme. L. H. May, Paris. - - -W. C. BROWNELL: - - French art, Realistic painting. - _Scribner’s Magazine_, Nov. 1892. - - · A lengthy illustrated article - written with knowledge, although some of the conclusions - arrived at by the author cannot be admitted. - - French art. London, 1892. · The collected - articles first published in _Scribner’s_, but without the - illustrations. - - -GUSTAVE CAHEN: - - Eugène Boudin, sa vie et son œuvre - (Preface by Arsène Alexandre). H. Floury, Paris, 1900. - - · Fully illustrated, with dry point - by Paul Helleu. It contains special references to the early - days of Impressionism. - - Préface du catalogue des Tableaux - Modernes. Collection de Monsieur L. B. Chevallier et Bernheim - jeune, Paris. · Numerous photogravures of Impressionist works, - particularly of those by Boudin. - - -M. CHEVREUL: - - The principles of harmony and contrast of - colours, and their application to the arts. Tr. C. Martel. - Longmans, London, 1854. - - · This book, the standard work - upon the subject, should be in the hands of every person who - desires to study Impressionism thoroughly. This is the best - English translation. - - -A. H. CHURCH: - - The Laws of Contrast of Colour. Tr. J. - Spanton. London, 1858. - - Colour, an Elementary Manual for Students. - Cassells, London, 1901. - - Chemistry of Paints and Painting. London, - 1890. - - · These excellent books deal with all the - problems of light and colour. - - -G. CLÉMENCEAU: - - Exposition des Cathédrales de Rouen. _La - Justice_, May 20, 1895. - - · An important article by a writer of - ability. - - -E. DELACROIX: - - Mon Journal, 1823-63 (notes par Flat et - Riot). Paris, 1893. Three volumes. - - -DENOINVILLE: - - Sensations d’art. Girard, Paris. - - · A collection of short essays dealing - with such subjects as Corot, Eugène Carrière, the Simplists, - l’Art nouveau, &c. - - -WYNFORD DEWHURST: - - Claude Monet, Impressionist; _Pall Mall - Magazine_, London, June 1900. - - A great French Landscapist. _Artist_, - London, October 1900. - - · These articles are notable for their - reproductions of Monet’s works. - - Impressionist Painting; its Genesis and - Development. _Studio_, London, June and September, 1903. - - -DURANTY: - - La nouvelle peinture. Paris, 1876. - - · A rare and interesting _brochure_. - - -THÉODORE DURET: - - Histoire d’Édouard Manet. H. Floury, Paris, - 1902. - - · The official biography of Manet, by his - life-long friend and executor, with many illustrations, and a - complete catalogue of works. - - Les Peintures Impressionistes. Paris, - 1878. - - · A short treatise on Impressionism, - explanatory and defensive, with biographical notes of Monet, - Sisley, Pissarro, Renoir, Morisot. - - L’art Japonais. Quantin, Paris. - - Critique d’avant garde. Charpentier, - Paris, 1885. - - Degas. _The Art Journal_, London, 1894. - - · A critical illustrated article. - - -FÉLICIEN FAGUS: - - Petite gazette d’art Cézanne. _Revue - Blanche_, Paris, December 1899. - - Petite gazette d’art, Camille Pissarro. - _Revue Blanche._ Paris, April 1899. - - -FELIX FÉNÉLON: - - Les Impressionistes en 1886. Paris, 1886. - - -ANDRÉ FONTAINAS: - - Art Moderne, Zandomeneghi. _Mercure de - France_, April 1898. - - Art Moderne, Camille Pissarro. _Mercure de - France_, July 1898, May 1899. - - Art Moderne, Exposition Cézanne. _Mercure - de France_, June 1898. - - Art Moderne, Renoir. _Mercure de France_, - July 1898, May 1899. - - -ANDRÉ FONTAINAS: - - Art Moderne, Claude Monet. _Mercure de - France_, July 1898, May 1899. - - -PASCAL FORTHUNY: - - Catalogue des Tableaux Modernes. Preface by - Roger Marx. Durand-Ruel, Paris. - - · Richly illustrated. - - -PASCAL FORTHUNY: - - Catalogue de Tableaux. Préface by H. - Fourquier. Bernheim et Chevallier, Paris. - - · A handsome volume illustrated by - many engravings and photographs. - - -W. H. FULLER: - - Claude Monet and his Paintings. - _Evening Sun_, New York, January 26, 1899. - - -GUSTAVE GEFFROY: - - Sisley, Préface pour la Vente. May 1, 1899. - - Notice de l’Exposition d’Œuvres de Camille - Pissarro. Paris, February 1890. - - La Vie artistique. E. Dentu, Paris, - 1892-1900. - - · These volumes of art criticism cover - the whole field of Impressionism, and include a lengthy - history of the movement. To the student and historian of - modern French art they are invaluable. - - and Arsène Alexandre. Corot and Millet, - Winter Number of the _Studio_, London, 1902. - - (Préface). Catalogue de Tableaux, - collection de M. E. Blot. Paris, Bernheim jeune. - - · Contains essays upon Carrière, - Cézanne, Fantin-Latour, Guillaumin, Jongkind, Monet, Morisot, - Pissarro, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas. - - -MAURICE GUILLEMOT: - - Claude Monet. _Revue Illustrée_, Paris, - March 1898. - - -J. K. HUYSMANS: - - Certains. Paris, 1896. L’Art Moderne. - Paris, 1883. - - -FRANZ JOURDAIN: - - Renoir et Renouard. _Les Décorés_, 1895. - - Claude Monet. _Les Décorés_, 1895. - - Hommes du Jour, Renoir. _L’Éclair_, Paris, - May 1899. - - Hommes du Jour, Pissarro. _L’Éclair_, - Paris, June 1898. - - -MISS R. G. KINGSLEY: - - A History of French Art. Longmans, London, - 1899. - - -GEORGES LECOMTE: - - L’Art Impressionniste. Paris, 1892. - - · Contains 36 etchings of - Impressionist pictures in the collection of M. Durand Ruel. - - -GEORGES LECOMTE: - - Camille Pissarro, Préface pour - l’Exposition. Paris, February 1892. - - Pissarro, Les Hommes d’Aujourd’hui, No. - 366. Paris. - - Pissarro. “Revue populaire des - Beaux-Arts.” Paris, June 1898. - - Alfred Sisley. “Revue populaire des - Beaux-Arts.” February 1899. - - Alfred Sisley. “L’Art dans les Deux - Mondes.” Paris, February 1891. - - -D. S. MACCOLL: - - Nineteenth Century Art. Maclehose, Glasgow, - 1903. - - _The Albemarle Review_, London, Sept. - 1892. - - _Fortnightly Review_, London, June 1894. - - _The Artist_, London, March and July 1896. - - Impressionism. “Encyclopædia Britannica” - Supplement, 1903. - - Mr. Whistler’s Paintings in Oil. _Art - Journal_, London, March 1893. - - -CAMILLE MAUCLAIR: - - The French Impressionists. Duckworth, - London, 1903. - - The Néo-Impressionists. _Artist_, London, - May 1902. - - The Great French Painters. Duckworth, - London, 1903. - - -CHARLES MAURICE: - - Rodin. Floury, Paris, 1900. - - -ANDRÉ MELLERIO: - - L’Art Moderne, Exposition de Paul Cézanne. - La _Revue Artistique_, February 1896. - - Mary Cassatt, Préface de l’Exposition de - 1897. - - L’Exposition de 1900, L’Impressionisme. H. - - Floury, Paris, 1900. - - · Contains short essays upon pictures - exhibited at the Exhibition, with particular reference to - Impressionist works, together with a useful bibliography. - - Le Mouvement Idéaliste en Peinture. H. - Floury, Paris. - - · A biographical sketch of the artists - who associated themselves with this movement, 1885-95; Puvis - de Chavannes, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Paul Cézanne, - Vincent van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, &c. - - -F. H. MEISSNER: - - A German Revolutionary—Max Liebermann. _Art - Journal_, London, August 1893. - - -ANDRÉ MICHEL: - - Notes sur l’Art Moderne. Colin, Paris, - 1896. - - · Essays on Corot, Millet, Delacroix, - Monet, Puvis de Chavannes. - - -O. MIRBEAU: - - Claude Monet. “L’Art dans les Deux Mondes.” - Paris, March 1891. - - Camille Pissarro. “L’Art dans les Deux - Mondes.” Paris, January 1891. _Le Figaro_, Paris, February 1, - 1892. - - -O. MIRBEAU: - - Together with Bouyer, Tailhade, Maus - Mellerio, Dan, Mauclair, Geffroy, Marx, Mourey. J. F. - Raffaëlli. Paris. - - · A collection of illustrated - appreciations of the artists. - - -MATTHIAS MORHARDT: - - Eugène Carrière. _Magazine of Art_, London, - August 1898. - - -GEORGE MOORE: - - Modern Painting. Scott, London, 1898. - - · Impressions and Opinions. Nutt, London, - 1890. These two books contain interesting essays upon - Whistler, Manet, Corot, &c. - - -RICHARD MUTHER: - - The History of Modern Painting (3 volumes). - Henry, London, 1896. - - -THADÉE NATANSON: - - Claude Monet et Paul Cézanne. _La Revue - Blanche_, Paris 1900. - - De M. Renoir et de la Beauté. _La Revue - Blanche_, Paris, 1900. - - -MAX OSBORN: - - Claude Monet. _Das Magazin für Literatur_, Dec. - 1896. - - -MILES L. ROGER: - - Les Artistes Célèbres. Corot, Paris. - - Catalogue de Tableaux, Collection du - Docteur D. Chevallier et Petit, Paris. - - · Many illustrations, chiefly from - works by Boudin. - - Catalogue de Tableaux, Succession of Mme. - Veuve Chocquet. Petit et Mannheim, Paris. - - Sisley, Préface pour l’Exposition 1897. - Catalogue de Tableaux, Collection of Louis Schœngrun. - Chevallier et Petit, Paris. - - · Many fine illustrations from the - works of Lépine, Lebourg, Thaulow, Bonvin, Lhermitte, &c. - - -OGDEN ROOD: - - Colour; International Scientific Series, - 1879-81. - - -JOHN RUSKIN: - - Modern Painters, Vol. II. Allen. - - -GABRIEL SÉAILLES: - - L’Impressionisme (Almanach du Bibliophile - pour l’Année 1898). Pelletan, Paris. - - -PAUL SIGNAC: - - D’Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionisme. - Edition de _La Revue Blanche_, Paris, 1899. - - · Explains how the Impressionist idea - and technical method is almost entirely derived from Turner - and Constable. - - THIEBALT SISSON: - - Sur l’Impressionisme. _Le Temps_, Paris, - April 1899. - - -R. A. M. STEVENSON: - - The Art of Velazquez. Bell, London, 1895. - - -HUGO VON TSCHUDI: - - Manet. Cassirer, Berlin 1902. - - · A short illustrated essay upon Manet’s - art by the Director of the National Gallery of Berlin. - - -C. WAERN: - - Notes on French Impressionism. _Atlantic - Monthly_, April 1892. - - -FREDERICK WEDMORE: - - The Impressionists. _Fortnightly Review_, - London, January 1883. - - -T. DE WYZEVA: - - Renoir. “L’Art dans les Deux Mondes.” - Paris, December 1890. - - -Y. R. B.: - - Miss Cassatt. “L’Art dans les Deux Mondes.” - November 1890. - - -ÉMILE ZOLA: - - Mes Haines. Paris. - - · Essays on Manet, Cézanne, the Salons - and the Impressionists. - -[Illustration] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - INDEX - - - _A Argenteuil_ (Monet), 40, 111 - - Abbey, E. A., 102 - - _Absinthe drinker_, the (Manet), 20 - - “Académie Suisse,” 54 - - _After church_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - Alexandre, Arsène, 33, 63 - - _Alone with the tide_ (Whistler), 90 - - Aman-Jean, 102 - - Angrand, 50, 56 - - Anguin, 86 - - _Antibes_ (Monet), 40 - - Antwerp, 79, 80 - - _Argenteuil_, _l’_ (Manet), 27 - - _Arrangement in grey and black_ (Whistler), 90 - - _Artiste_, _l’_ (Manet), 27 - - Astruc, 34 - - _Asylum for old men, an_ (Liebermann), 98 - - Attendu, 34 - - _At the piano_ (Whistler), 90 - - _Autel des orphelines, l’_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - - _Bain, le_ (Manet), 22 - - _Bal au Moulin de la Galette_ (Renoir), 52 - - _Balcony, the_ (Manet), 25 - - _Balcony, the_ (Whistler), 90 - - Balzac, 45 - - Barbey d’Aurevilly, 23 - - Barbizon, School of, 2, 6, 9, 45, 50, 98, 110 - - Barillot, 102 - - Barry, 3 - - Barye, 45 - - Bastien-Lepage, 26, 41, 93, 98 - - Batignolles, School of, 7, 24 - - _Bataille de Solférino_ (Meissonier), 21 - - _Battle of the “Kearsage” and “Alabama”_ (Manet), 26 - - Baudelaire, 21 - - Baudit, 86 - - Bazille, 24, 26 - - Beauvais, 83 - - Béliard, 34, 35 - - Belle Isle (Monet), 40 - - Belot, 27 - - _Bénédiction de la mer_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - Bérard, 47 - - Bernard, Emile, 16, 55 - - Bernstein, 27 - - Besnard, Albert Paul, 84-85, 91, 102, 105 - _Entre deux Rayons_, 85 - _Femme qui se chauffe_, 85 - _La Morte_, 85 - _Ponies worried by flies_, 84 - _Porte d’Alger au Crépuscule_, 85 - _Portrait of the artist_, 85 - - Billotte, 102 - - Binet, Victor, 92, 102 - - _Bon Bock, le_ (Manet), 27, 28 - - Bonington, 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 29 - _Boulogne Fishmarket_, 5 - _View of Havre_, 3 - _View of Lillebonne_, 3 - - Bonnat, 52, 58, 73 - - Bonvin, 31 - - _Bordighera_ (Monet), 40 - - Boucher, 2, 52 - - Boudin, Eugène, 7, 9-15, 31, 34, 38, 49, 50 - _Corvette Russe au Havre_, 14 - _Rade de Villefranche_, 14 - - Bouguereau, 21 - - Boulanger, 21 - - _Boulogne Fishmarket_ (Bonington), 5 - - Bourgeois, Léon, 14 - - Boussod Vallodon, 40 - - _Boy with a sword_ (Manet), 21, 23 - - Bracquemond, Marie, 35, 76 - - Bracquemond, 20, 21, 34, 89, 102 - - Brandon, 34 - - _Breakfast on the grass_ (Manet), 22 - - _Brother and sister_ (Liebermann), 98 - - Brown, Arnesby, 102 - - Brownell, W. C., 107 - - Bruant, Aristide, 71 - - Bruges, 83 - - Bureau, 34, 35 - - _Burgomeister Petersen_ (Liebermann), 99 - - Burne-Jones, 5 - - Bussy, Simon, 55 - - Byron, 2 - - - Cabanel, 59, 82 - - Café Guerbois, 6, 7, 15, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31, 39 - - Café de la Nouvelle Athénée, 32 - - Cahen, Gustave, 15, 33 - - Caillebotte, 35, 49 - - Cals, 12, 21, 34, 35, 49 - - _Carlyle_ (Whistler), 91 - - Carolus-Duran, 28, 52, 58 - - Carpeaux, 45 - - Carrière, Eugène, 57-60, 83, 102 - _Christ at the Tomb_, 58, 60 - _Maternité_, 58 - _Portraits_, 58 - _Théâtre de Belleville_, 58 - - Cassatt, Mary, 7, 35, 49, 66, 70, 76, 102 - - _Cathédrales, les_ (Monet), 40, 42, 44, 84 - - Cazin, 21, 28, 102 - - “Cercle des Quinze,” 98 - - Cézanne, 7, 15, 16, 24, 34, 35, 54, 55 - - _Champs des Tulipes_ (Monet), 40 - - Chaplin, 76, 103 - - Chardin, 2, 61 - - _Charge of Cuirassiers_ (Meissonier), 26 - - Charles X., 3, 24 - - _Chasse au renard_ (Courbet), 21 - - _Châteaux en Espagne_ (Harrison), 93 - - Chéret, 102 - - Chevallier, Paul, 43 - - Chevreul, 107, 110 - - Chocquet, 47, 110 - - _Christ at the Tomb_ (Carrière), 58, 60 - - _Christ before Pilate_ (Liebermann), 97 - - _Christ reviled by the Soldiers_ (Manet), 23 - - Church, 107 - - Claude, 61 - - Claus, Emile, 79-81, 105 - _Flemish Farm_, 81 - _Old Gardener_, 81 - - Clausen, George, 102 - - Clouet, 61 - - Colin, Gustave, 34 - - Collectors of Impressionist Paintings, 111, 112 - - _Communion in extremis_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - Comondo, Count, 47 - - Constable, John, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 29, 31, 32, 61, 80, 102, 103 - _Hay Wain_, 3 - _Opening of Waterloo Bridge_, 5 - - Cordey, 35 - - Cormont, 73 - - Corot, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 29, 49, 53, 54, 59, 61, 80, 97, - 101, 110 - - Correggio, 2 - - _Corvette Russe_ (Boudin), 14 - - _Côte St. Catherine à Rouen_ (Pissarro), 51 - - Cottet, 55, 102 - - _Cotton-Broker’s Office_ (Degas), 67 - - Courbet, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 23, 26, 49, 50, 53, 54, 97 - - _Courtyard of the orphanage_ (Liebermann), 99 - - Couture, 1, 11, 18, 19, 20, 22 - _Romans of the Decadence_, 18 - - Cross, H. E., 56 - - - Dagnan-Bouveret, 102 - - Daillon, 102 - - Dameron, 102 - - _Dante’s Bark_ (Delacroix), 3 - - Daubigny, 4, 12, 31, 41, 54, 97, 98 - - Daudet, 26, 58 - - Daumier, 20 - - David, 2 - - Dearp, 47 - - De Bellis, 27 - - Debras, 34 - - Degas, 7, 20, 24, 34, 35, 49, 52, 67-71, 73, 76, 89, 102 - _Family Portraits_, 67 - _Interior of a Cotton-Broker’s Office_, 67 - _Semiramis_, 67 - _Spartan Youths Wrestling_, 67 - _Steeplechase_, 67 - _War in the Middle Ages_, 67 - - _Déjeuner sur l’herbe_ (Manet), 22 - - Delacroix, 3, 16, 19, 20, 29, 32, 45, 61, 82, 101 - _Massacre of Scio_, 32 - _Dante’s Bark_, 3 - - Delaroche, 1, 19 - - Denis, Maurice, 50, 56 - - _Départ de Tobie_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - Depeam, 47 - - _Déroute, la_ (Boulanger), 21 - - Desboutins, 27, 35 - - D’Espagnat, 32, 102, 105 - - Diaz, 12 - - Didier-Pouget, 85-87, 102 - - _Die Lange Lizen_ (Whistler), 90 - - Doré, Gustave, 55 - - Dowdeswell Gallery, 40 - - Duhem, H., 82 - - Dumas père, 1, 13 - - Dupré, 80 - - Durand-Ruel, 27, 34, 35, 39, 41, 42, 43, 47, 54, 63 - - Duranty, 24, 25 - - Duret, T., 26, 29, 32, 33, 70, 89 - - Dutch School, 80 - - - East, Alfred, 102 - - “Echo de Paris,” 63 - - Egg, R.A., Augustus, 4 - - English School of Painting, 2, 6 - - English School of Water-Colours, 3 - - _Entre deux Rayons_ (Besnard), 85 - - Ephrussi, 27 - - _Etchings_ (Whistler), 89, 90 - - “L’Événement,” 15, 24 - - Eugénie, Empress, 17 - - _Execution of Emperor Maximilian_ (Manet), 25. - - Exhibitions (_see also_ Salons) - - Exhibitions Martinet, 21, 24 - - Exhibitions Great, 1851, 4 - - Exhibitions Great Paris, 1867, 23 - - Exhibitions Universal Paris 1878, 27, 28, 76 - - Exhibitions Universal Paris 1889 and 1900, 61 - - Exhibitions Impressionist, 34, 35, 39, 49, 54, 68 - - - _Falaise_ (Monet), 111 - - Fantin-Latour, 20, 21, 24, 89, 102 - - Faure, 27, 28, 47 - - _Femme à la Robe Verte_ (Monet), 34 - - _Femme qui se chauffe_ (Besnard), 85 - - Fielding, Copley, 3 - - _Fifre de la Garde_ (Manet), 22, 23, 24 - - “Figaro, Le,” 24, 33, 44 - - Flaubert, 64 - - _Flemish Farm_ (Claus), 81 - - “Fleurs de Mal,” 21 - - Footet, F., 102 - - Forain, 35, 49, 70, 73, 102 - - Fra Angelico, 67, 83 - - Fragonard, 2, 52, 75 - - France, Anatole, 58 - - French painting, 2, 4, 9 - - Fuseli, 3 - - - Gagliardini, 103 - - Gainsborough, 3, 31, 70, 102, 103 - - Gallimard, 47 - - Gambetta, 28 - - Gauguin, 16, 35, 49, 55, 105 - - Gautier, 1, 20, 23 - - Geffroy, Gustave, 33, 35, 58, 65, 109 - - Geffroy, 102 - - Gérard (artist), 2 - - Gérard (collector), 27 - - Géricault, 1, 3 - - Gérôme, 65, 93 - - Ghent, 79 - - Giorgione, 22 - - Giotto, 82 - - Girodet, 2 - - Girtin, 29 - - Giverny, 46, 51 - - _Glaçons sur la Seine_ (Monet), 40 - - Glasgow School of Painting, 90, 102 - - Gleyre, 7, 38, 89 - - _Golden Screen_ (Whistler), 90 - - Gonzalès, 7, 76-77 - - Goya, 20, 23 - - “Grand Journal, Le,” 63 - - _Green Bridges_ (Monet), 47 - - Greuze, 52 - - Grévy, President, 17, 28 - - Gros, 2, 19 - - Grosvenor Gallery, 69 - - Guérard, 76 - - Guillaumet, 21 - - Guillaumin, 32, 34, 35, 49, 54-55, 103 - - _Guitarero_ (Manet), 20 - - - Harding, 3 - - Hals, 19, 27 - - Hanover Gallery, 40 - - Harpignies, 12, 20, 21, 103 - - Harrison, Alexander, 82, 91-94, 105 - _In Arcady_, 92 - _The Wave_, 92 - _Châteaux en Espagne_, 93 - - Hassam, Childe, 94 - _Seventh Avenue_, 94 - - _Hauptmann_ (Liebermann), 99 - - Havemeyer, H. O., 47 - - _Havre_ (Bonington), 3 - - _Haystacks_ (Monet), 32, 42 - - _Hay Wain_ (Constable), 3 - - Hecht, 27 - - Helmholtz, 107 - - Henley, W. E., 5 - - Henner, 24, 28, 103 - - Hochédé, 99 - - Hogarth, 2, 3 - - Holbein, 2, 67 - - Hoogh, 82 - - Hoppner, 52 - - Hugo, 1 - - - Ibels, 56 - - “Idealists,” 55 - - _In Arcady_ (Harrison), 92 - - Ingres, 2, 69, 70 - - International Society of Painters, &c. 25, 40, 102 - - “Intimists,” 55 - - Isabey, 9, 12, 13 - - - Japanese Art, 2, 6, 41, 70, 76, 91 - - _Jeanne_ (Manet), 28 - - _Jeune fille Hollandaise_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - Jongkind, 7, 9-13, 20, 21, 31 - - Jordaens, 82 - - - Karr, Alphonse, 11 - - Kauffmann, 76 - - Keyser, 79 - - Kneller, 2 - - - _Labourers in the turnip field_ (Liebermann), 98 - - _Lady Archibald Campbell_ (Whistler), 91 - - _Lady with fan_ (Manet), 27 - - Lalanne, 28 - - _La mère Gérard_ (Whistler), 90 - - Lamy, 35 - - “Lantier, Claude,” 15 - - _Last of Old Westminster_ (Whistler), 90 - - _La table_ (Le Sidaner) 83 - - La Thangue, 102 - - Latouche, 34 - - Laurens, J. P., 22 - - Lavery, 102 - - Lawrence, 31, 32 - - Lebrun, 76 - - Lebourg, 35 - - Leenhoff, Mdlle., 21 - - Legros, 20, 22, 24, 35 - - Lely, 2 - - Leighton, 4 - - Lenbach, 98 - - Lepic, 34, 35 - - Lépine, 12, 34 - - Le Roux, 62 - - Le Sidaner, 55, 81-83, 103, 105 - _After church_, 83 - _Benediction de la mer_, 83 - _Communion in extremis_, 83 - _Départ de Tobie_, 83 - _Jeune fille Hollandaise_, 83 - _L’autel des orphelines_, 83 - _La promenade des orphelines_, 83 - _La table_, 83 - _Les promis_, 83 - _Les vieilles_, 83 - - Levert, 34, 35 - - Lhermitte, 103 - - Liebermann, 95-100, 105 - _An asylum for old men_, 98 - _Brother and sister_, 98 - _Burgomeister Petersen_, 99 - _Christ before Pilate_, 97 - _Courtyard of the orphanage, Amsterdam_, 99 - _Gerhart Hauptmann_, 99 - _Labourers in the turnip field_, 98 - _Netmenders_, 99 - _Professor Virchow_, 99 - _Ropeyard_, 99 - _Women plucking geese_, 97, 99 - _Women preserving vegetables_, 97 - - _Lillebonne_ (Bonington), 3 - - Lindsay, Sir Coutts, 90 - - _Linge_, _le_ (Manet), 27 - - _Little white girl_ (Whistler), 90 - - _Loge_, _la_ (Renoir), 52 - - _Lola de Valence_ (Manet), 21 - - _Los Borrachos_ (Velasquez), 21 - - Louis-Philippe, 19, 24 - - “Luminarists,” 25, 65 - - - MacColl, 107, 109 - - Maclise, 4 - - Maddocks, John, 80 - - Maire, Victor, 61 - - Mallarmé, 45 - - Manet, Edouard, 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 16, 17-29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 38, - 39, 45, 50, 61, 68, 75, 76, 82, 89, 98 - _Absinthe drinker_, 20 - _Argenteuil_, 27 - _L’Artiste_, 27 - _Le Bain_, 22 - _Le Balcon_, 25 - _Battle of “Kearsage” and “Alabama,”_ 26 - _Le Bon Bock_, 27, 28 - _Boy with a sword_, 21, 23 - _Christ reviled by the soldiers_, 23 - _Déjeuner sur l’herbe_, 22 - _Execution of the Emperor Maximilian_, 25 - _Le fifre de la Garde_, 22, 23, 24 - _Guitarero_, 20 - _Jeanne_, 28 - _Lady with fan_, 27 - _Le Linge_, 27 - _Lola de Valence_, 21 - _Music at the Tuileries_, 20, 21 - _Nana_, 28 - _Old Musician_, 21 - _Olympia_, 22, 23 - _Opera Ball_, 27 - _Pertuiset_, 82 - _Polichinelle_, 27 - _Portraits_, 111 - _The Railway_, 27 - _Rochefort_, 82 - _Spanish Ballet_, 21 - _Street Singer_, 20 - _Tragic Actor_, 23, 28 - _Un Bar des Folies-Bergères_, 28, 82 - - Manet, Eugène, 25, 75 - - Mantz, Paul, 21 - - Marais, 103 - - Martel, Charles, 107 - - Martinet, 21, 24 - - Marx, Roger, 33 - - _Massacre of Scio_ (Delacroix), 32 - - _Maternité_ (Carrière), 58 - - _Matins sur la Seine_ (Monet), 40, 43 - - Mauclair, C., 6, 53, 107 - - Maufra, Maxime, 32, 61-64, 103, 105 - - Maureau, 35 - - Maurier, G. du, 89 - - May, 27 - - Meissonier, 21, 26, 31 - - Melbye, 49 - - Mellino, André, 55 - - Ménard, 103 - - Méryon, 18 - - “Mes Haines,” 32 - - Metropolitan Museum, New York, 21 - - _Meules, les_ (Monet), 40, 42, 111 - - Meunier, 103 - - Meyer, 34 - - Michelangelo, 2 - - Millet, J. B., 35 - - Millet, J. F., 11, 12, 45, 50, 80, 83, 98 - - Mirbeau, Octave, 63 - - “Mirliton, Le,” 71 - - _Miss Alexander_ (Whistler), 91 - - Molins, de, 34 - - Monet, Claude, 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 20, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, - 33, 34, 35, 37, 49, 50, 54, 57, 60, 61, 64, 68, 80, 84, 98, 101, - 108, 109, 110, 111 - _A Argenteuil_, 40, 111 - _Antibes_, 40 - _Belle Isle_, 40 - _Bordighera_, 40 - _Les Cathédrales_, 40, 44, 84 - _Champs des Tulipes_, 40 - _Falaise à Varenqeville_, 111 - _Femme à la Robe Verte_, 34 - _Glaçons sur la Seine_, 39, 40 - _Green Bridges_, 47 - _The Haystacks_, 32 - _Matins sur la Seine_, 40, 43 - _Les Meules_, 40, 42, 111 - _Peupliers au bord de l’Epté_, 40, 42, 46 - _Pont d’Argenteuil_, 111 - _La Prairie_, 111 - _Water Lilies_, 47 - - Montenard, 103 - - Moore, George, 68, 69, 83 - - Moret, 53 - - Morisot, Berthe, 7, 25, 34, 35, 49, 75, 76 - - Morny, de, 13 - - _Morte, La_ (Besnard), 85 - - Mourey, G., 63, 81, 82 - - Mulot-Durivage, 34 - - Mulready, 4 - - Munich, 98 - - Munkacsy, 97, 99 - - _Music at the Tuileries_ (Manet), 20, 21 - - Muther, 97 - - - Nadar, 34, 39 - - _Nana_ (Manet), 28 - - Napoleon III., 19, 22 - - National Gallery, London, 3, 41 - - National Salon, Paris, 99 - - _Netmenders_ (Liebermann), 99 - - New English Art Club, 40 - - New Gallery, 102 - - Neuville, de, 28 - - Nittis, de, 25, 34 - - _Nocturne_ (Whistler), 91 - - Northcote, 3 - - Norwich School of Painting, 3, 4, 50 - - “Nubians,” 62, 104 - - - “L’Œuvre,” 15 - - _Old Battersea Bridge_ (Whistler), 90 - - Old Crome, 31 - - _Old Gardener_ (Claus), 81 - - _Old Musician_ (Manet), 21 - - Oleron, 26 - - _Olympia_ (Manet), 22, 23 - - _On the Terrace_ (Renoir), 52 - - _Opening of Waterloo Bridge_ (Constable), 5 - - _Opera Ball_ (Manet), 27 - - Ottin, Auguste, 34 - - Ottin, Léon, 34, 35 - - - Palmer, Potter, 47 - - Pape, A. A., 47 - - Paterson, C. Lambert, 47 - - Pauvels, 97 - - Pellerin, 47 - - Peppercorn, 102 - - _Pertuiset_ (Manet), 82 - - Petit, Georges, 39, 43, 98, 111 - - _Peupliers au bord de l’Epté_ (Monet), 40, 42, 46 - - Philadelphia Academy, 76 - - Piette, 35 - - Pissarro, Camille, 4, 7, 10, 22, 24, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 41, 49-51, 54, - 61, 73, 80, 103 - _La Côte St. Catherine à Rouen_, 51 - - Pissarro, Lucien, 35 - - Poe, E. A., 59 - - Poiloup, Abbé, 18 - - Pointelin, 57, 60-61, 83, 103 - - “Pointillism,” 7, 50, 55, 56 - - _Polichinelle_ (Manet), 27 - - _Ponies worried by flies_ (Besnard), 85 - - Poole, 4 - - _Porte d’Alger au Crépuscule_ (Besnard), 85 - - _Portrait of the artist_ (Besnard), 85 - - Pouget, 2 - - Poussin, 2, 55, 61, 70, 103 - - Poynter, 89 - - _Prairie, la_ (Monet), 111 - - “Pre-Raphaelites,” 4 - - Priestman, B., 102 - - “Primitives,” 16 - - Princeteau, M., 73 - - _Promenade des Orphelines_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - _Promis, les_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - Proust, Antonin, 18, 24, 28, 29 - - Prout, Samuel, 3 - - Puvis de Chavannes, 14, 45 - - - _Rade de Villefranche_ (Boudin), 14 - - Raffaëlli, J. F., 35, 65-67, 76, 103 - - Raffaëlli, J. M., 35 - - _Railway, the_ (Manet), 27 - - Raphael, 2 - - “Realists,” 65, 73 - - Redon, Odilon, 35 - - Regnault, 26 - - Rembrandt, 19, 72 - - Renoir, 7, 24, 34, 35, 49, 51-53, 55, 73, 103, 111 - _Bal au Moulin de la Galette_, 52 - _La loge_, 52 - _On the Terrace_, 52 - - Reynolds, 3, 31, 52, 103, 109 - - Ribot, 97, 103 - - Rigolet, 103 - - Robert, 34 - - Robson, 3 - - Rodin, 23, 45, 58, 103 - - _Rochefort_ (Manet), 82 - - Roll, 28, 92 - - Rollinat, 46 - - _Romans of the Decadence_ (Couture), 18 - - Romney, 103 - - Rood, 107 - - _Ropeyard_ (Liebermann) 99 - - “Rose + Croix?” 55 - - Rossetti, 32, 90 - - Rouart, 34, 35, 49 - - Rousseau, 4, 80 - - Royal Academy, 5, 32, 90, 102 - - Royal Society of British Artists, 40, 91 - - Roybet, 103 - - Rubens, 16 - - Rude, 45 - - Ruskin, 26, 90 - - - Sale Prices, 33, 35, 47, 51, 110, 111 - - Salon, 3, 9, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 49, 86, 98 - - Salon des Refusés, 22, 26, 27, 90 - - _Sarasate_ (Whistler), 91 - - Sargent, J. S., 58, 102 - - Sar Peladan, 55 - - _Scarf_, _the_ (Whistler), 90 - - Scheffont, 9 - - Schumann, 60 - - Scott, 2 - - “Secession,” 99, 104 - - _Semiramis_ (Degas), 67 - - Seurat, 35, 50, 56 - - Signac, 35, 49, 50, 56 - - Sisley, 4, 7, 24, 32, 34, 35, 49, 50, 53-54, 80, 84 - - Société des Artistes Indépendants, 56 - - Somm, 35 - - _Spanish Ballet_ (Manet), 21 - - _Spartan youths wrestling_ (Degas), 67 - - Spielman, M. H., 40 - - _Steeplechase_ (Degas), 67 - - Steffeck, 97 - - Stevens, Alfred, 24, 98 - - Stevenson, Macaulay, 102 - - Stott, Edward, 102 - - _Street Singer_ (Manet), 20 - - “Studio,” 81, 82 - - “Symbolists,” 16 - - - Tarbes, 87 - - Tavernier, 53 - - “Temps, Le,” 87 - - Thaulow, 82 - - _Théâtre de Belleville_ (Carrière), 58 - - Thumann, 97 - - Tillot, 35, 49 - - Tintoretto, 19, 20, 83, - - Titian, 19, 20, 23, 83 - - Toulouse-Lautrec, 71-72 - - _Tragic Actor_ (Manet), 23, 28 - - Troyon, 11, 12, 97, 98 - - Turner, 3, 4, 5, 7, 26, 29, 31, 32, 41, 50, 57, 61, 80, 102, 103 - - - _Un Bar aux Folies-Bergères_ (Manet), 28 - - - Vail, Eugène, 82 - - Vallon, 22 - - _Valparaiso_ (Whistler), 91 - - Vandyck, 2 - - Van Gogh, 16, 55 - - Van Rysselberghe, 50, 56 - - Varley, John, 3 - - Velazquez, 20, 21, 23 - - Verlaine, 58 - - Verlat, Charles, 79 - - Vermeer, 83 - - Veronese, 16, 83 - - Vidal, 35 - - “Vie Artistique,” 33, 35 - - _Vieilles, les_ (Le Sidaner), 83 - - “Vie Moderne,” 35, 39 - - Vignaux, 24, 25 - - Vignon, 35 - - Villemessant, 15, 24 - - _Virchow_ (Liebermann), 99 - - Virgil, 50 - - Vuillard, 32 - - - _Wapping_ (Whistler), 90 - - _War in the Middle Ages_ (Degas), 67 - - _Water Lilies_ (Monet), 47 - - _Waterloo Bridge_ (Constable), 5 - - Watteau, 2 - - Watts, G. F., 32, 50 - - _Wave, the_ (Harrison), 92 - - Weimar, 97 - - West, Benjamin, 3 - - Whistler, J. A. McNeill, 7, 20, 22, 24, 40, 41, 57, 71, 83, 89, 92 - _Alone with the tide_, 90 - _Arrangement in grey and black_, 90 - _At the piano_, 90 - _Balcony, the_, 90 - _Carlyle_, 91 - _Die Lange Lizen_, 90 - _Etchings_, 89, 90 - _Golden Screen_, 90 - _Lady Archibald Campbell_, 91 - _La mère Gérard_, 90 - _Last of Old Westminster_, 90 - _Little white girl_, 90 - _Miss Alexander_, 91 - _Nocturne_, 91 - _Old Battersea Bridge_, 90 - _Sarasate_, 91 - _Scarf, the_, 90 - _Valparaiso_, 91 - _Wapping_, 90 - - Wilkie, 32 - - Wilson, Richard, 3 - - _Women plucking geese_ (Liebermann), 97, 99 - - _Women preserving vegetables_ (Liebermann), 97 - - - Zandomeneghi, 35, 49 - - Ziem, 103 - - Zola, 15, 24, 25, 28, 32, 55 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. - London & Edinburgh - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ● Transcriber’s Notes: - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only - when a predominant form was found in this book. - ○ Text that: - was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING: ITS -GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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