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The   World's    Painters 


Van  Dyck  —  Charles  I. 


The 

World's  Painters 
Since  Leonardo 

BEING  A  HISTORY  OF  PAINTING 

FROM    THE   RENAISSANCE 

TO  THE  PRESENT  DAY 

By 

James  William  Pattison 


NEW  YORK 

Duffield    &'   Company 
1906 


COPYRIGHT,      1904,      BY 
HERBERT     S.    STONE    &    CO. 

This   Edition   Published  September,  jgo6 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction I 

CHAPTER 

I.  The  Dawn  of  Modern  Art       .....  i 

Leonardo — The  Van  Eycks — Durer — Michael  Angelo. 
— Bellini — Messina — Giorgione — Titian — Sodoma — 
Vecchio — Lotto. 

n.  The  Authority  of  Italy -23 

Raphael — Correggio — Holbein  —  Cousin  — Tintoretto^ 
Veronese. 

III.  The  School  of  Raphael  and  its  Competitors        .         .     42 

Guido — Masaccio — The  Caracci  Academy — Caravaggio 
— Reni — Domenichino — Rubens — Hals — Ribera. 

IV.  Beyond  the  Alps  .  .....     57 

Claude — Poussin — Velasquez — Van  Dyck — Rembrandt 
— Teniers — Hobbema — Douw. 

V.  The  Lesser  Great  Men 75 

Rosa — Dolci — Murillo — Lebrun — Potter — Steen— Wat- 
teau — Nattier. 

VI.  The  Conflict  Between  Classicism  and  Realism    .         .     87 
Hogarth — Vernet — Reynolds  —  Gainsborough  —  Copley 
— Kauffman — David — Goya — Stuart— Lawrence. 

VII.  The  Revolt  in  England    ....  .         .   109 

Turner — Constable — Allston — Ingres — Sully. 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VIII.  The  Ascendency  of  the  Barbizon  School.        .     .        .123 
The  Hudson  River  School — Durand — Gericault— Hard- 
ing—Corot — Delacroix— Cole — Landseer — Diaz — 
Troyon— Millet — Cazin. 

IX.  The  Quiet  Middle  of  the  iqth  Century      .         .        .   143 
Meissonier — Menzel  —  Leutze — Courbet  —  Daubigny — 
Kensett — Watts — The  Harts — Bonheur. 

X.  New  Developments  in  France  and  America     .        .        .  180 
Gifford — Cabanel — Gerome — Boulanger — Puvis  de  Cha- 
vannes — Hunt — Israels — Bouguereau — Inness. 

X'l.  The  Preraphaelites  and  THE  Beginnings  of  Impressionism  176 
Church  —  Piloty —  Boecklin  —  Bierstadt  —  McEntee  — 
Rossetti  —  Millais —  Leighton — Dore —  Burne-Jones 
— The  Impressionists  — Manet. 

XII.  The  Growth  of  the  Personal  in  Art       ....   199 
Degas — Whistler — Morris  —  Orchardson  —  DeNeuville 
Alma-Tadema —  Homer  —  Carolus-Duran  — Holman 
Hunt — Fortuny— Hermans — Max. 

XIII.  Impressionism,— its  Followers  and  its  Opponents  .        .  219 

Monet— Raffaelli—Vibert— Walker— Madrazo—Verest- 
chagin  —  Boldini  —  Benjamin-Constant  —  Vierge  — 
Detaille — Bastien-Lepage — Besnard — Thayer. 

XIV.  The  Americans  and  Some  Others 240 

Chase — Dagnan-Bouveret — Abbey — Sargent  —  Zorn 
— Stuck. 

XV.  The  Present  Situation 258 

Menard  —  Aman-Jean  —  Carriere  —  Shaw  —  Beaux  — 
Melchers — Pyle — MacEwen. 

XVI.   Final  Review 268 

XVII.  Schools  of  Art 271 


List  of  Illustrations 


Alexander,  John  W., 

Portrait  of  a  Woman  ...  .  256 

Alma-Tadema,  Laurens, 

Pleading  -  -  -  210 

Aman-Jean,  Edmond, 

Portrait  of  a  Young  Woman  260 

Bastien-Lepage,  Jules, 

The  Haymakers  ...  .  230 

Beaux,  Cecilia, 

Mother  and  Son  •  ...  .  262 

Beckwith,  Carroll, 

"1776"  ....  264 

Paul  du  Chaillu  ...  .  266 

Besnard,  Paul  Albert, 

Decoration  ....  ....  234 

Bonheur,  Rosa, 

The  Horse  Fair  ........  j^g 

Bonnat,  Leon  Joseph  Florentine, 

Martyrdom  of  St.  Denis  -        -  •  .        .  ig2 

Botticelli,  Sandro, 

Madonna  ........  g 

Bouguereau,  William  Adolphe, 

Songs  of  Spring  ........  172 

Breton,  Jules, 

The  Communicants  ....  -       176 

Brush,  George  De  Forest, 

Mother  and  Child  .        .  ......  250 

Burne-Jones,  Sir  Edward, 

The  Mirror  of  Venus  -  ....  ...       ig^ 

The  Golden  Stair  196 


Carriere,  Eugene, 

Maternity  ■        -  -       258 

Cazin,  Jean  Charles, 

The  Windmill  ■        ■  "  '4° 

Chase,  William  M., 

Alice  -  -  240 

Corot,  Jean  Baptiste  Camilla, 

Dance  of  the  Nymphs  ....  1 28 

Landscape  with  Figures  .        -  126 

Dagnan-Bouveret,  Pascal  Adolphe  Jean, 

Bretons  at  the  Pardon  -        -        -                                          244 

Consecrated  Bread  -                                       246 

Madonna  -  ...                                                   242 

Daubigny,  Charles  Francois, 

Pond  at  Corbigny  '  -        ■  15° 

David,  Jacques  Louis, 

Portrait  of  Mme.  Recamier  9^ 

del  Sarto,  Andrea, 

Madonna  and  Child  -  -                                                     26 

John  the  Baptist  28 

The  Madonna  24 

de  Neuville,  Alphonse  Marie, 

The  Departure  -  -  208 

Diaz,  Narcisse  Virgilio  de  la  Pena, 

Landscape  ■  ■  134 

Dupre,  Jules, 

Cows  Going  Home  -  ■  ■  '42 

Morning    -  ...  144 

Gainsborough,  Thomas, 

Mrs.  Kinlock     -  ...  96 

Harrison,  Alexander, 

Twilight  -  -        -  ■        -  248 

Holbein,  Hans, 

LadyVaux  ...  .  .        30 

Homer,  Winslow, 

The  Breakers  -  -  212 


PAGE 

Israels,  Josef, 

The  Little  Seamstress  -  -  170 

Knaus,  Ludwig, 

The  Holy  Family  188 

Landseer,  Sir  Edwin, 

Bringing  Home  the  Deer  -        -  132 

LeBrun,  Marie  Louise  Elizabeth  Vigee, 

Mme.  LeBrun  and  Daughter  -        -  104 

MacEwen,  Walter, 

The  Judgment  of  Paris  -  -  -  270 

Mauve,  Anton, 

Sheep        -  -        -  214 

Melchers,  Gari, 

The  Sermon      -  268 

Menzel,  Adolph, 

The  Broken  Pitcher  152 

Mesdag,  Hendrik  Willem, 

The  Beach  at  Scheveningen  igS 

Meissonier,  Jean  Louis  Ernest, 

The  Brawl  146 

Michael  Angelo, 

The  Fates  10 

The  Delphic  Sibyl  12 

The  Creation  of  Eve  14 

Mignard,  Pierre, 

Child  of  Mignard  72 

Millais,  John  Everett, 

Efifie  Deans      -  -  igo 

Millet,  Jean  Francois, 

The  Gleaners    -  -                          -        -       130 

The  Sower  -                                          124 

The  Angelus  ■                        -        -                                -        -      122 

Murillo,  Bartolome  Estaban, 

The  Beggar  Boy  -                                           -                                           74 

Madonna  -                          76 

The  Immaculate  Conception  -                          -               "-                          yg 


Palma,  Jacopo, 

Santa  Barbara                             -  '                 ^° 

Potter,  Paul, 

The  Bull                      -         ■                 80 

Raphael, 

Madonna  della  Sedia  -                -                        -                -                22 

The  Transfiguration  3^ 

Madonna  del  Granduca  ■                                                                      34- 

Madonna  della  Tenda  3^ 

Portrait  o£  Himself  -                                                                  3^ 

Rembrandt, 

The  Night  Watch  5^ 

The  Burgomasters  68 

Portrait  of  Himself  7° 

Reni,  Guido, 

Beatrice  Cenci  -                                                                      48 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua, 

The  Strawberry  Girl  90 

Miss  Bowles  Q2 

Penelope  Boothby  88 

Richter,  Gustav, 

Portrait  of  Queen  Louise  -                          •        -                        148 

Rossetti,  Dante  Gabriel, 

The  Blessed  Damosel  182 

Beata  Beatrix  -        -               184 

Dante's  Dream  -                          -                                          186 

Rousseau,  Theodore, 

Landscape  -  138 

Romney,  George, 

Mrs.  M.  Robinson  ■                 ....                          g^ 

Rubens,  Peter  Paul, 

Holy  Family  -  50 

Madonna  and  Child  ....                          -        52 

Infant  Christ,  St.  John,  and  the  Angels    -        -  .        .                                   54 

Portrait  of  His  Wife  ......                                 56 

Sargent,  John  Singer, 

Head  of  Hosea  -  -  254 

Portrait  of  Homer  St.  Gaudens  252 


Thayer,  Abbott  H., 

Brother  and  Sister -  236 

Titian, 

Sacred  and  Profane  Love         ...  16 

Troyon,  Constant, 

The  Shepherd's  Dog  1 36 

Tryon,  Dwight  William, 

Early  Spring  in  New  England  238 

Van  Dyck,  Antony, 

Charles  I.  -  Frontispiece 

Children  of  Charles  I.  64 

Portrait  of  Himself  66 

Velasquez,  Diego  Rodriguez  de  Silva  y, 

Philip  IV.  62 

The  Infanta  Margarita              -  216 

Don  Balthazar  Carlos  60 

Vinci,  Leonardo  da. 

The  Last  Supper       -        -  2 

Watts,  George  Frederick, 

Sir  Galahad  -  156 

Whistler,  James  Abbott  McNeill, 

Portrait  of  the  Artist's  Mother  202 

Traumerei  -  -  -  204 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  RENAISSANCE 

Europe  did  not  awaken  from  twelve  hundred  years  of  Dark  Ages 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  The  dawn  stole  upon  it  without  any 
demonstration.  Those  who  have  watched  the  dawning,  when  weary 
with  watching,  know  the  strange  surprise  of  it — things  reveal  them- 
selves a  little,  though  still  mysterious.  When  it  is  half  light,  the  birds 
suddenly  burst  into  song,  and  still  there  is  no  sunshine.  The  sunrise 
is  a  spectacular  performance,  wonderfully  affecting  men  and  things. 

Historians  have  been  in  the  habit  of  commencing  the  story  of  the 
Renaissance  with  the  Italian  painter,  Cimabue,  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. Possibly  he  is  the  dawn.  He  did  observe  nature  closely, 
escaping  from  Byzantine  formalities  somewhat.  If  this  be  a  correct 
division,  then  it  was  the  Italian  Masaccio  (1402)  who  made  the  birds 
wake  up.  Leonardo  da  Vinci  was  the  first  streak  of  real  sunshine 
flung  athwart  the  earth.  The  full  glory  of  the  fresh  morning  came 
with  the  advent  of  Michael  Angelo,  Raphael,  Titian  and  their  con- 
temporaries. 

Twelve  years  older  than  Masaccio  was  Jan  van  Eyck,  in  Flanders. 
He  traveled  somewhat,  going  as  far  as  Spain  but  never  to  Italy.  He 
and  his  brother  did  wonderful  things,  but  still  in  the  Gothic  manner. 
Formalism  cannot  altogether  kill  great  talent. 

The  source  of  the  Italian  Renaissance  is  easy  to  find.  Apollo 
posed  for  the  angels  and  Venus  put  on  her  clothes  to  aid  the  artist  in 
painting  a  madonna.  The  breast-plate  of  Augustus  rearranged  itself 
to  make  the  armor  of  the  French  king,  Henry  II.  (sixteenth  century). 
The  Graeco-Roman  group,  the  "Laocoon,"  inspired  Michael  Angelo 
to  execute  the  picture  of  "Bathing  Soldiers." 

All  through  the  Dark  Ages  churches  were  decorated  in  a  stiff, 
formal  fashion,  priest-ridden  styles  showing  almost  no  study  of  nature, 


X  INTRODUCTION 

and  owl-eyed  monks  coilld  see  in  the  dark  to  execute  many  quaint 
and  some  beautiful  missals,  holy  ivories  and  shrines.  This  was  the 
art  of  the  Van  Eycks,  of  Quentin  Matsys,  of  Masaccio,  of  his  pupil, 
Filippo  Lippi,  and  his  pupil  in  turn,  Botticelli.  Botticelli  was  the 
last  of  the  Goths — almost  at  the  sunrise. 

There  were  two  places  which  we  may  call  "art  schools."  No  mas- 
ters managed  them,  except  as  each  talented  man  was  the  master  of  his 
less-informed  fellow  student.  One  of  these  was  the  monastery  in 
Florence  where  the  dead  Masaccio's  living  paintings  gave  forth  their 
influence.  Every  one  of  the  celebrated  men  of  the  Florentine  group 
studied  there.  The  other  was  the  palace  and  gardens  of  the  great 
Medici  family,  where  numberless  art  objects,  dug  up  all  over  Italy 
and  in  the  Greek  colonies,  had  been  collected.  The  habit  of  collect- 
ing artistic  objects  had  long  prevailed,  though  for  many  generations 
no  one  thought  much  of  studying  them. 

Masaccio  gave  a  lesson  in  sincerity;  these  relics  gave  a  lesson  in 
well-regulated  grace  and  elegance  of  form.  It  is  to  the  study  of  these 
"antiques"  that  the  Italians  owe  their  sunrise;  a  light  which  shone  all 
over  Europe. 

The  Renaissance  marks  the  change  from  Gothic  formalisms  to  those 
of  Greek  and  Graeco- Roman  origin:  the  one  stiff  but,  latterly,  sincere, 
the  other  studiedly  elegant — often  less  sincere — and  we  call  it  "classi- 
cal." This  classicism  often  followed  the  ancient  forms  so  closely 
that  many  an  expert  has  come  to  grief  in  attempting  to  differentiate 
the  two  styles. 

There  is  another  use  of  the  word  "classical,"  meaning  simply  any 
architecture,  sculpture  or  picture  arranged  in  a  formal  manner  some- 
what based  on  the  principles  of  formalism  learned  from  this  study  of 
the  antique. 

The  landscapes  of  Claude  Lorraine  and  Corot  are  classical  in  this 
sense,  also  innumerable  pictures  of  domestic  scenes,  that  is,  most  of 
the  genre  art.  Certain  artists  in  all  modern  periods  have  insisted 
upon  following  nature  exactly  and  admitted  no  artificial  arrange- 
ments—these are  not  classicists.  ^- 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

The  history  of  the  word  "genre"  is  very  obscure.  This  we  know: 
After  the  establishment  of  academies  of  art  (following  the  Renaissance) 
those  who  failed  to  follow  the  laws  of  classical  composition  in  figure 
pictures  (preferring  to  paint  nature  as  they  saw  it)  were  little  encour- 
aged, and  the  term  "genre"  was  applied,  in  contempt,  to  their  pic- 
tures. Naturalistic  figures  were  not  considered  worthy  the  name  of 
"art."  Art  had  to  be  artificial.  Naturalism  was  vulgar.  Domestic 
subjects  were  vulgar  and  only  suited  to  the  taste  of  the  common 
people.  This  was  true  in  Japan,  just  as  it  was  in  Europe.  The  battle 
goes  on  all  the  time,  and  will  never  cease,  between  classicism  and  the 
presentation  of  nature  as  nature  is;  the  presentation  of  a  subject  in  an 
entertaining  and  easily  understood  manner,  or  in  stilted  and  elegant 
formality.  It  is  the  war  between  the  taste  of  the  majority  fairly  culti- 
vated and  that  of  the  aristocrats  who  worship  their  Greek — of  romance 
in  the  clothes  of  everyday  life  or  romance  in  draperies  (or  no  clothes 
at  all)  as  the  ancients  knew  how  to  make  them  beautiful.  So  the  war 
between  classicism  and  genre  is  the  contest  between  extreme  renais- 
sance (Greek  or  Graeco-Roman)  elegance  and  the  art  of  the  people, 
whether  it  be  formal  or  naturalistic. 


The  World's  Painters 


CHAPTER    I 


THE   DAWN   OF   MODERN   ART 

If  "all  roads  lead  to  Rome,''  it  follows  that  all  roads  radiate  from 
the  Italian  center.  It  is  not  strictly  true  that  "Italy  is  the  mother  of 
art,"  but  the  fact  remains  that  she  was  its  nurse;  that  cisalpine  civili- 
zation favored  its  development  and  cisalpine  love  of  the  beautiful  was 
a  potent  factor  in  shaping  its  character  for  many  centuries.  The 
contest,  during  centuries,  between  the  rugged  directness  of  the  trans- 
alpines  and  the  tendency  to  over-sweetness  and  finished  technique  of 
the  cisalpines  will  never  be  lost  sight  of  in  this  writing.  Civilization 
emanated  from  Italy,  in  the  earlier  periods  considered  here,  following 
the  roads  which  led  from  Rome  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  Christendom. 
The  manner  in  which  the  various  transalpine  nations  made  use  of  the 
influence  furnishes  material  for  much  art  history. 

The  Alps  walled  the  races  apart,  but  art  traveled — somewhat. 
Though  race  characteristics  shape  so  much  the  art  of  every  nation, 
each  people  influenced  the  other  whenever  the  art  went  a-journeying. 
As,  in  the  earlier  periods,  artists  grow  up  together,  though  many 
miles  separated,  it  interests  us  to  note  the  character  of  each  one  as  he 
thus  produced  his  own  sort  while  another  was  producing  his  at  the 
same  moment  in  other  conditions  and  amid  other  influences.  They 
influenced  each  other  although  so  far  apart. 


2  THE  WORLD'S    PAINTERS 

Leonardo  da  Vinci 

{14J2-1S19) 

Leonardo  is  the  first  cisalpine  painter  whom  we  consider,  because 
his  place,  at  the  beginning  of  modern  art,  is  disputed  by  no  one. 

Sailors  and  policemen  are  not  startled  by  the  pyrotechnics  of  a 
sunrise,  because  they  are  accustomed  to  the  phenomenon.  But  to 
most  people  it  is  an  exciting  event.  If  we  saw  it  but  once  in  a  life- 
time, the  glory  of  it  would  be  worth  living  for.  Leonardo  da  Vinci 
did  to  the  world  what  the  sunrise  does.  We  do  not  understand  the 
phenomenon  of  his  advent  as  well  as  we  do  a  physical  phenomenon, 
therefore  it  startles  us  more. 

Leonardo  was  the  child  of  love:  his  father  being  a  gentleman  of 
refinement  and  wealth,  his  mother  a  lady  of  no  mean  rank.  But  the 
encumbrances  of  social  life  could  not  interfere  with  his  industry,  or 
the  luxury  of  wealth  dull  the  edge  cf  his  ambition.  Had  he  been  less 
wealthy,  it  is  possible  that  we  should  have  seen  more  pictures  from 
his  able  hands.  He  had  the  privilege  of  cioing  anything  which  fancy 
dictated.  He  loved  study;  experiments  in  science  absorbed  many  of 
his  hours;  music  was  his  servant;  as  a  silversmith  he  has  left  wonder- 
ful things;  of  course  he  wrote  poetry.  Almost  everyone  of  the  great 
men  of  this  great  period  also  did  these  things,  but  Leonardo  stands 
alone  at  the  top,  as  the  one  who  has  left  writings  on  engineering,  road 
building,  fortification,  clever  inventions  and  contrivances.  Astronomy, 
chehiistry  and  philosophy  were  advanced  by  him.  It  is  even  claimed 
that  he  invented  the  humble  wheelbarrow.  If  this  last  is  true,  man- 
kind should  acclaim  him.  The  simple  canal-lock,  as  now  used  all 
over  the  world,  is  the  invention  of  this  great  scientist.  He  even 
painted,  and  such  painting  it  was! 

The  man  who  could  paint  the  "Mona  Lisa"  (Louvre)  in  the  condi- 
tions in  which  he  lived  proved  himself  a  genius,  had  he  done  nothing 
else.  This  portrait  of  a  lady  of  noble  bearing,  only  the  head  and  bust 
placed  against  a  simple  background  of  gray,  suggesting  mountains,  is 
so  lovable,  so  dignified,  so  tenderly  executed,  so  atmospheric,  so 
strong,   so  beautifully  constructed,  and,  above   all,   so   modern,    that 


03 


H 


THE   DAWN   OF   MODERN   ART  3 

almost  nothing  better  has  been  done  by  any  painter  since.  It  stands 
to-day  the  model  for  all  portrait  painters,  and  we  wonder  the  more 
when  we  think  that  nothing  but  the  rigidity  of  the  Gothic  influence 
came  before  him.  In  these  days  painters  have  masters,  men  of  expe- 
rience in  their  own  line;  Leonardo  had  only  the  somewhat  improved 
Gothic  to  study,  and  from  it  he  developed  the  art  which  to-day  is  our  art. 

I  am  not  saying  that  Masaccio,  his  pupil  Filippo  Lippi,  and  Bot- 
ticelli could  not  paint  a  superbly  constructed  head,  because  they  were 
wonderful  draughtsmen.  But  the  sentiment  of  Leonardo's  heads  is 
utterly  different  and  entirely  original,  like  nothing  before,  and  entirely 
in  accord  with  the  artistic  sentiment  from  that  day  until  this.  Bot- 
ticelli was  still  artificial  in  line,  still  following  the  types  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  He  was  the  last  of  that  line,  and  a  good  while  before  his 
death  the  better-developed  art  of  Leonardo  and  the  other  painters  of 
the  Renaissance  turned  the  tide  against  that  really  great  artist  so  that 
he  was  left  in  neglect  and  obscurity. 

No  doubt  the  "Last  Supper"  of  Leonardo  (at  Milan)  was  a  noble 
picture,  and  also  an  epoch  maker.  But  we  have  little  knowledge  of 
what  it  was  actually  like,  since  decay  and  repeated  restoration  have 
ruined  the  work.  Judging  by  the  engravings  by  contemporary  artists, 
it  must  have  been  entirely  in  accord  with  the  Renaissance  movement. 

Leonardo  abandoned  the  hard  outlines  of  the  Gothic  painters, 
studied  light  and  shade  in  a  way  they  never  thought  of  and  painted 
the  tender  texture  of  blood-nourished  flesh  instead  of  the  parchment 
textures  of  his  predecessor. 

Leonardo  was  born  near  Florence  in  1452,  spending  his  youth  and 
early  manhood  in  that  city.  He  went  to  Milan,  where  the  design  for 
a  colossal  equestrian  statue  occupied  the  time  not  given  to  the  con- 
struction of  a  long  aqueduct  for  bringing  fresh  water  to  the  city.  To 
this  magnificent  genius  art  was  a  pastime,  his  real  business  being 
experiments  in  hydrostatics.  But  for  his  amusement  he  outdid  most 
men's  serious  undertakings. 

Returning  to  Florence,  the  great  prince  Caesar  Borgia  sent  him  over 
the  land  to  superintend  his  engineering  schemes  and  the  fortifications. 


4  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

In  the  Palazzo  Vecchio  he  and  Michael  Angelo  met  in  friendly 
competition  while  decorating  the  council  chamber.  Raphael  owes 
much  more  to  his  example  than  to  the  instructions  of  his  reputed 
master,  Perugino. 

In  his  old  age,  the  French  king,  Fran9ois  I.,  used  him  as  a  court 
ornament  which,  as  the  pay  was  good,  seems  very  appropriate. 
There  in  F"rance  his  bones  were  committed  to  mother  earth  in  1519. 

Important  Works:  Adoration  of  Magi,  unfinished  (Uffizi,  Florence);  Cartoon 
for  a  Madonna  with  St.  Ann  (Diploma  Gallery,  Burlington  House,  London) ;  Last 
Supper,  fresco  (S.  Maria  della  Grazie,  Milan);  Annunciation  (E.  Paris);  Madonna, 
Child  and  St.  Anna,  in  part  (Paris);  "La  Vierge  aux  Rochers"  (Louvre,  Paris);  "La 
Gioconda"  (Paris);  St.  Jerome,  unfinished  (Vatican,  Rome);  Profile  of  Girl  (Donna 
Laura  Minghetti,  Rome);  Portrait  of  Mona  Lisa  (in  Louvre),  1504;  "La  Belle 
Ferronniere"  (Nat.  Gal.,  London);  "St.  John  the  Baptist"  (Louvre,  Paris);  "St. 
Anne"  (Louvre,  Paris);  Portrait  of  Himself  (in  R.  Lib.,  Turin). 

As  it  is  the  purpose,  in  this  history,  to  present  painters  in  strictly 
chronological  order,  without  regard  to  nationality,  schools  or  charac- 
ter of  work,  we  cross  the  Alps  and  consider  Diirer  in  his  transalpine 
home.  The  reader  will  have  constantly  before  him  the  painters  who 
lived  side  by  side,  as  it  were,  and  he  will  be  able  to  take  note  of  the 
art  movements  which  crept  from  land  to  land,  and  the  progress  that 
they  made  at  any  given  moment.  In  order  to  understand  Diirer,  we 
are  obliged  to  say  a  word  about  the  brothers  Van  Eyck,  though, 
chronologically,  they  do  not  come  within  the  scope  of  the  book. 

Hubert  van  Eyck  Jan  van  Eyck 

{Died  1426)  {Died  1440) 

With  no  other  art  influence  than  that  of  the  missal  decorations, 
which  were  in  a  measure  art,  and  the  church  decorations,  hardly 
admissible  as  art,  these  men  painted  pictures  which— dare  it  be  said? — 
have  never  innheir  own  line  been  surpassed.  No  artist  looks  upon 
these  works  with  I'ess  than  intense  admiration.  More  modern  men 
had  greater  knowledge,  command  of  better  materials,  but  perhaps  the 
Goddess  of  Art  holds  knowledge  and  utensils  in  contempt. 


THE   DAWN    OF   MODERN   ART  5 

There  is  a  legend  that  they  invented  oil  painting.  It  is  worth 
what  it  may  please  you  to  attach  to  it.  Many  pictures  of  these  early 
periods  were  so  peculiarly  painted  that  experts  quarrel  as  to  which 
are  in  distemper  and  which  in  oils.  Dry  pigment  had  been  made 
into  a  paste  or  unctuous  mass  fit  to  lay  as  a  paint  by  the  use  of  white 
of  egg,  gums,  or  something  similar.  Occasionally  some  painter  added 
oil.  The  difficulty  was  to  find  an  oil  that  would  not  rot  before  it 
dried,  if  it  dried  at  all.  Pigments  were  worked  up  with  varnish  also, 
which  served  the  purpose  better.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Van 
Eycks  found  out  a  better  way  than  anyone  had  before,  and  also  that 
the  amount  of  oil  in  the  mixture  was  less  than  the  varnish.  Also,  no 
one  can  tell  certainly  which  of  their  pictures  was  done  in  distemper 
and  which  in  "oils,"  so-called.  However,  it  is  also  true  that  the  use  of 
oil  in  preparing  pigments  was  carried  from  Flanders  to  Italy,  where- 
upon the  Italians  materially  improved  upon  the  hint  given  them. 

Principal  Works  of  Hubert  van  Eyck:  Part  of  "Adoration  of  the  Lamb" 
(Ghent  Cathedral),  and  perhaps  "St.  Jerome  and  the  Lion"  (Naples). 

Principal  Works  of  Jan  van  Eyck:  With  Hubert  van  Eyck,  "Adoration  of  the 
Lamb"  (Ghent  Cathedral);  "Fount  of  Salvation"  or  "Triumph  of  Christianity" 
(Madrid);  "Turbaned  Portrait"  and  "Jean  Arnoljini  and  Wife,  with  Joined  Hands" 
(National  Gallery,  London);  "Coronation  of  the  Virgin"  or  "The  Virgin  and 
Donor"  (Louvre,  Paris);  "Madonna  and  Child"  (Dresden);  "Annunciation"  (The 
Hermitage,  St.  Petersburg);  "Head  of  Christ"  (Berlin);  Six  Doubtful  Triptychs 
(Munich). 

What  is  commonly  called  "the  Gothic"  stiffness  of  line  clings  to 
these  pictures  as  far  as  draperies  are  concerned,  but  the  color  is 
excellent,  the  flesh  tones  superexcellent,  the  correctness  of  face  and 
hand-drawing  wonderful,  the  perspective  leaves  little  to  desire,  and 
there  is  a  nobleness  of  sentiment  and  expression  which  makes  lesser 
men  despair. 

It  is  probable  that  Albrecht  Diirer  had  an  opportunity  to  study 
some  of  these  pictures  when  a  young  man  and  making  his  "appren- 
tice's circuit."  However,  though  he  commenced  b)^  somewhat  imi- 
tating their  manner,  his  final  style  was  entirely  original. 


6  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Albrecht  Diirer 

{1471-1328) 

Diirer  was  a  comet.  Where  it  was  dark  he  gleamed  out,  and  then 
it  was  dark  again.  Michael  Angelo,  Titian  and  Raphael  circled  in 
their  orbits  like  normal  planets.  Even  planets  have  their  lifetime  and 
die,  but  the  systems  to  which  they  belong  go  on  circling.  There  was 
no  Diirer  system  to  go  on.  Holbein  owed  something  to  Diirer,  but 
does  not  group  with  him.  The  art  previous  to  Diirer  was  Gothic;  all 
around  him  rude  Gothic  (except  with  a  few  Flemings)  or,  it  is  more 
correct  to  say,  Byzantine.  It  was  an  art  almost  entirely  controlled  by 
the  ecclesiastics,  forced  into  specific  shapes  (as  were  the  doctrines), 
given  no  liberty,  admitted  to  no  uses  except  to  teach  dogmas  fettered 
like  itself.  The  Romanesque  was  only  a  northern  form  of  Byzantine, 
and  Gothic,  as  far  as  painted  or  sculptured  figures  were  concerned, 
was  the  continuation  of  the  same.  There  was  no  study  of  nature.  In 
the  midst  of  this  darkness,  the  "dark  ages,"  the  dawn  somewhat 
revealed  the  truths  of  nature  to  certain  men, — to  Jan  van  Eyck  (1390), 
who  did  very  wonderful  things,  up  in  the  chilly  north  (Flanders),  and 
to  Memling  (1425),  and  to  Quentin  Matsys  (1460),  both  in  the  same 
Flemish  neighborhood. 

The  Reformation  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  awakening  of  art,  as 
Luther  had  not  yet  come.  There  was  movement  amid  the  dry  bones 
of  religion,  as  the  world  had  set  itself  a-thinking,  and  art  felt  the  new 
life  in  a  few  places.  Why  should  Diirer  have  been  so  altogether 
exceptional?  Quite  possibly  the  Hungarian  blood  in  his  veins  had  to 
do  with  it.  When  the  Reformation  finally  changed  the  conditions, 
they  were  bad  for  art,  because  the  church-decorating  business  was 
ruined,  and  Diirer  suffered  accordingly  in  his  finances. 

No  Popes  nor  Medicis  made  summer  for  artists  in  frosty  Germany. 
No  swarms  of  cardinals  and  priests  clamored  for  magnificent  ecclesias- 
tical art.  The  German  rulers  sometimes  attached  artists  to  their  court,  " 
just  for  respectability's  sake,  but  parsimony  lived  with  the  duke  as 
well  as  with  the  shopkeeper.  Diirer  was  pretty  poor  all  his  life. 
But  he  loved  his  art  and  his  country:  the  latter  so  much  that  he  would 


Botticelli  —  Madonna. 


THE   DAWN    OF   MODERN   ART  7 

not  stay  in  Italy,  where  his  art  might  have  found  sunshine,  though 
often  urged  to  do  so  and  flattered  by  offers  of  financial  rewards  quite 
sufficient  to  have  made  him  rich. 

Charles  V.  made  him  promises,  but  Charles  loved  Titian  better, 
and  paid  him  better.  Probably  the  great  emperor  was  right,  because 
Titian  really  was  a  greater  painter.  It  is  all  very  well  for  us  to 
admire  the  quaintness  and  sincerity,  the  intense  Germanism,  the 
individuality,  of  Diirer.  But  it  is  a  question  whether  we  should  not 
also  have  bought  the  magnificent  Titians  in  preference,  when  it  came 
to  living  with  the  art  every  day.  Just  now  we  have  a  revival  of  the 
love  of  quaintness,  we  admire  Diirer  and  Botticelli  (and  it  is  well  so), 
but  this  is  not  the  case  all  the  time.  People  like  superb  color  as  a 
rule.  It  was  not  in  the  German's  studio,  but  in  the  Italian's  that 
Charles  said,  as  he  picked  up  the  dropped  brush,  "Titian  is  fit  to  be 
served  by  Caesar,"  a  sly  compliment  to  himself  by  the  way.  A 
learned  professor  once  brought  to  me  a  volume  of  the  engravings  by 
Diirer  of  "The  Little  Passion,"  saying,  "Will  these  awful  things  be  of 
any  use  to  you?  I  am  tired  of  seeing  them  about."  Only  the  art- 
educated  admire  Diirer,  because  there  is  nothing  suave  or  pretty  about 
his  work.  All  Germans  love  the  grotesque,  the  severe,  sometimes  the 
shocking.  Many  of  Diirer' s  works  are  all  these.  I  do  not  say  this  of 
the  major  part,  because  he  could  be  severe  with  great  dignity  and  even 
grandeur.  The  beauty  of  Diirer  is  the  impressiveness  of  powerful 
pose  and  mighty  sweep  of  line.  Holbein  was  astonishingly  clever; 
Diirer  was  majestic,  designing  complicated  compositions,  the  result 
of  profound  thought.  He  was  deeper  than  his  neighbor  in  Basle,  but 
never  approached  him  in  skill  in  painting. 

As  Diirer's  father  was  a  goldsmith,  he  taught  his  boy  all  he  knew 
about  drawing  and  designing,  to  make  a  metal-worker  of  him,  if  pos- 
sible. Fortunately  it  was  not  possible.  Every  artist  learned  some- 
thing about  the  manipulation  of  precious  metals  and  practiced 
designing,  but  Diirer  had  better  stuff  in  him.  The  several  little  men 
who  taught  him  all  they  knew,  including  the  best  at  hand,  Wolgemuth 
(a  Goth  who  made  lean  fingers  and  awful  expressions  which  he  mis- 


8  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

took  for  sublimity),  may  be  called  his  teachers.  Masters  he  never 
had,  except  the  mastery  of  his  own  abilities  and  original  genius.  In 
common  with  all  workmen,  he  took  his  "wander  year"  and  visited 
Flanders,  where  there  was  something  really  worth  studying. 

His  early  work  resembles  that  of  the  Flemings  which  he  saw  in  his 
travels,  but  soon,  being  alone,  the  resemblance  grew  less  and  the 
power  increased.  Strange  to  say,  his  first  exhibited  work,  at  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  was  classical  in  subject,  and  little  account  have  we 
of  religious  pictures  until  his  visit  to  Italy,  where  he  met  Giovanni 
Bellini,  the  master  of  Titian,  and  came  in  direct  contact  with  all  the 
then  living  masters  of  the  Venetian  school. 

Now  a  strange  thing  happened.  This  son  of  the  unsympathetic 
north  found  out  how  good  an  artist  he  was.  The  Italians,  accustomed 
to  magnificent  colorists,  who  neglected  detail  for  color's  sake,  were 
excited  to  enthusiasm  by  this  opposite  genius  who  could  unite  gran- 
deur and  infinite  minuteness,  correct  drawing  and  appreciation  of 
character.  He  had  a  good  time  in  Italy,  but  always  looking  forward 
sadly  to  his  return  to  the  forbidding  indifference  of  his  "own  country. 
Holbein,  on  the  contrary,  took  advantage  of  his  opportunities,  and 
accepted  the  offers  of  English  gold.  Diirer  turned  his  back  upon 
Italian  skies  and  Italian  flattery,  substantiated  by  offers  of  gold. 
He  returned  to  his  unappreciative  fellow  countrymen  and,  unfortu- 
nately, to  his  scolding  wife,  never  to  leave  the  one  or  shake  off  the 
other.      Holbein  left  his  wife  when  he  went  to  England. 

It  is  strange,  as  we  look  at  it  from  this  period  of  excellent  art 
instruction,  to  think  that  Diirer  had  never  rightfully  considered  the 
relative  proportions  of  the  male  and  the  female  figures,  and  to  read 
about  his  delight  when  Bellini,  at  the  time  of  the  German's  visit 
to  Italy,  first  opened  his  eyes  to  these  simple  truths.  With  all 
his  faithfulness  in  observing  nature,  he  had  never  discovered  so 
simple  a  thing.  How  this  reveals  the  darkness  of  the  Gothic  sur- 
roundings in  which  he  grew  up!  However,  he  made  of  himself, 
though  all  alone,  a  painter  who  excelled  Raphael  in  the  rendering 
of  tender  color  and   "fatness"   of  tone.     There   is    something    about 


THE   DAWN    OF   MODERN   ART  g 

the  painting  of  this  half-Goth  which  commands  the  most  unqualified 
admiration. 

As  it  was  easy  to  sell  engravings,  while  paintings  went  begging, 
our  artist  took  advantage  of  the  skill  with  the  burin  which  he  had 
acquired  in  his  wander-year,  so  that  it  is  as  an  engraver  that  the  world 
best  knows  him.  In  cleanness  of  line  few  have  equalled  him  at  any 
period.  The  stiffness  of  the  early  work  gave  place  to  a  certain  sense 
of  greatness  of  line.  It  is  hard  to  find  anyone  who  understood  better 
just  how  many  strokes  should  be  used  to  render  a  given  form,  and  this 
is  one  of  the  great  elements  of  success  in  engraving.  Copper-plate  or 
wood-block  were  equally  under  his  command.  He  invented  many 
new  methods  and  on  his  visit  to  Italy  taught  the  engravers  there,  in  the 
home  of  art,  many  new  things,  inciting  them  to  do  better  work.  Having 
once  learned  that  there  was  something  interesting  about  human 
anatomy,  he  became  the  author  of  works  on  the  subject,  also  on  per- 
spective and  many  other  matters  which  every  student  now  learns  while 
a  youth  but  then  were  either  subjects  of  speculation  or  utterly 
unknown. 

Fame  did  not  entirely  neglect  this  truly  great  man,  as  the  emperor 
finally  granted  him  a  pension  and  some  honors.  His  was  a  prophet's 
honor,  however,  greater  away  from  home. 

Diirer  worked  in  oil  painting,  tempera,  and  drawings  on  various 
papers,  with  ink  and  pen,  brush  in  lines  or  wash,  sometimes  set  off 
with  touches  of  white,  and  perhaps  tinted  with  water  colors. 

In  1490  he  journeyed  to  several  cities  of  Germany  and  Flanders; 
1505,  for  a  considerable  period  in  Venice;  1512,  he  did  some  work  for 
Emperor  Maximillian;  1520,  he  attended  the  coronation  of  Charles 
v.,  at  Aix  la  Chapelle,  and  received  some  recognition;  he  then 
returned  to  Nuremberg. 

Important  Works:  Made  200  wood-cuts:  Apocalypse  (16  subjects),  Greater 
Passion  (12  subjects),  Lesser  Passion  (57  subjects).  Copper  plates,  number  100: 
"Melancholia,"  "Death  and  the  Devil,"  etc.  Painted  "Adoration  of  the  Trinity" 
(at  Vienna);  "Adam  and  Eve"  (at  Florence);  "Four  Apostles"  (at  Nuremberg), 
etc. 


10  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Michael  Angelo  Buonarotti 

(Born,  Caprisa,  Tuscany,  March  6,  1474.     Died  in  Rome,  1564.) 

Our  chronology  demands  that  we  recross  the  mountains  to  con- 
sider another  cisalpine  painter. 

Michael  Angelo  was  of  noble  birth,  his  father  being  governor  of 
two  Tuscan  cities,  his  mother  also  coming  from  an  aristocratic  family. 
Like  most  of  the  others,  he  was  painter,  sculptor,  architect  and 
engineer.  As  one  whose  conceptions  were  magnificently  majestic  he 
has  no  equal  in  the  history  of  art.  Grandeur,  thy  name  is  Michael 
Angelo! 

As  has  been  said,  there  were  no  art  schools,  except  that  best  of  all 
schools,  the  association  of  artists  together  for  study  of  good  models, 
as  all  these  men  did  in  the  Medici  gardens  and  in  the  Florentine  church 
decorated  by  Masaccio.  Angelo' s  extraordinary  precocity  attracted 
the  attention  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  who  made  him  an  intimate 
friend  in  his  palace. 

The  contrast  between  this  artist,  bred  to  the  classics  (Graeco- 
Roman),  and  Albrecht  Diirer,  living  at  the  same  moment  in  Gothic 
Germany,  is  well  set  forth  by  the  authenticated  incident  of  the  statue, 
which  Angelo  made,  so  like  the  ancient  work  that  it  was  sold  to  a  con- 
noisseur as  a  genuine  antique. 

All  of  Angelo's  paintings  and  statues  resemble  the  antique  so  closely 
that  only  the  stamp  of  his  vigorous  personality  and  freshness  of  con- 
ception differentiates  them.  Of  course  his  architecture  is  also  renais- 
sance; that  is,  a  revival  of  the  architecture  of  the  best  Roman  period. 
The  Pantheon  of  the  Romans,  now  standing  where  built,  is  a  hemi- 
spherical dome,  its  drum  resting  on  the  earth.  Michael  Angelo 
declared  that  he  would  "hang  the  Pantheon  in  air,"  which  he  did; 
that  is,  he  mounted  it  on  the  edifice  of  the  church  of  St.  Peter's.  He 
did  more,  making  his  monster  dome  the  largest  that  the  world  has 
•known — an  example  of  the  stupendousness  of  his  conceptions.  His 
giant  thoughts  created  a  Jehovah  in  the  act  of  reaching  out  his  finger 
to  discharge  the  spark  of  life  into  the  body  of  the  parent  of  mankind: 


Michael  Angelo  —  The  Fates. 


THE    DAWN    OF   MODERN   ART  ii 

grander  in  idea  and  in  composition  than  any  other  picture  the  world 
had  then  seen,  or  has  ever  been  able  to  imitate.  The  ceiling  of  the 
Sistine  Chapel,  at  Rome,  where  this  work  (ordered  by  Pope  Julius  II.) 
forms  one  of  many  mural  panels  filled  with  dignified  sibyls  and 
prophets,  has  been  for  centuries  the  wonder  of  all  nations,  because  of 
originality  in  thought  and  vigor  in  drawing.  The  paintings  are  in 
fresco,  that  is,  colors  struck  upon  the  plaster  swiftly  when  it  is  first 
laid  and  still  wet,  requiring  boldness  and  knowledge,  occupying  the 
artist  only  the  remarkably  short  period  of  twenty  months.  Raphael 
worked  in  this  chapel  at  the  same  time,  a  generous  rival.  The 
immense  painting,  "The  Last  Judgment"  (fifty-four  by  eighty-three 
feet),  filling  the  entire  end  of  the  same  chapel,  occupied  him  eight 
years,  being  completed  in  1541.  Its  individual  figures  are  fine  exam- 
ples of  drawing,  but  as  a  composition  and  as  subject-matter  it  is  tire- 
some and  unimpressive.  The  Almighty  appears  as  if  trying  very  hard 
to  look  godlike  and  barely  escaping  ordinary  bad  temper.  Made,  not 
from  his  heart,  but  for  his  patron's  sake,  this  proves  that  genius  is  not 
docile  but  imperious,  admitting  of  no  trifling.  It  was  Pope  Paul  III. 
who  ordered  it,  and  the  colossal  Moses  was  executed  about  the  same 
time.  In  1546  Angelo  was  made  architect  of  St.  Peter's,  by  the  same 
Pope;  the  great  church  having  been  commenced  some  years  earlier 
by  Julius  II.     Angelo  at  once  changed  the  plan  of  the  center. 

Angelo's  principal  patrons  were  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  Piero 
Medici  the  Bad,  Popes  Julius  II.,  Leo  X.,  who  accomplished  little, 
Clement  VII.,  for  whom  the  artist  erected  fortifications,  and  Paul 
III.  Angelo  erected  many  celebrated  buildings,  besides  St.  Peter's, 
for  Paul  III. 

In  1488  he  became  the  pupil  of  Domenico  Ghirlandajo,  who  was  an 
advanced  painter  of  the  earlier  period,  and  could  teach  many  things 
to  a  youth.  "The  Battle  of  Hercules  with  the  Centaurs,"  abas-relief, 
was  an  early  work.  The  "Pieta"  was  made  in  1497,  a  marble  group 
of  the  Virgin  holding  the  dead  Christ  on  her  knees.  It  is  in  St. 
Peter's,  at  Rome.  In  1504  came  the  colossal  statue  of  David,  now  at 
the    Palazzo   Vecchio,    Florence,   for  which    he  received    400   ducats 


12  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

(eighteen  months'  work).  In  1504  his  only  oil  painting,  "The  Holy 
Family,"  was  made.  Work  on  the  paintings  of  the  interior  of  the  Sistine 
Chapel  was  commenced  in  1506.  The  flat  center  of  the  ceiling  he 
divided  into  nine  panels,  representing  the  Creation  of  the  Sun,  the 
Moon,  the  Creation  of  Adam,  the  Fall,  and  the  Deluge;  also,  smaller, 
the  Gathering  of  the  Waters,  the  Almighty  Separating  Light  from 
Darkness,  the  Creation  of  Eve,  the  Sacrifice  of  Noah,  and  the  Drunk- 
enness of  Noah.  As  the  ceiling  was  nearly  plain,  he  divided  it  into 
parts  with  a  painted  representation  of  vigorous  architectural  forms 
and  mouldings.  Parts  were  curved,  and  here  appeared  the  genealogy 
of  Christ  and  figures  of  sibyls  and  prophets,  as  well  as  the  Deliver- 
ance of  Israel. 

His  paintings  formed  by  no  means  the  largest  part  of  his  life-work. 
Oil  painting  he  despised,  considering  it  lacking  in  power.  In  the 
rapid  striking  of  large  masses  of  color  into  wet  plaster  (fresco)  his 
grandeur  of  expression  found  a  better  medium.  Indeed,  it  is  a  nobler 
method,  though  not  so  capable  of  variety  of  statement  as  oils. 

Loaded  with  honors,  but  often  tormented  by  the  whims  of  power- 
ful patrons,  this  austere,  virtuous,  wifeless  and  often  unhappy  man 
was  buried  in  Rome,  in  1564,  the  pomp  of  his  obsequies  coming  too 
late  to  heal  many  heart  sores.  His  masterpiece  in  painting  was  the 
ceiling  of  the  Sistine  Chapel  at  Rome;  in  sculpture,  the  "David,"  at 
Florence.  The  figures  in  his  paintings  are  sculpturesque  rather  than 
pictorial. 

Important  Works:  Holy  Family  (Uffizi,  Florence);  Deposition,  unfinished 
(London);  Frescoes  (Sistine  Chapel,  Vatican,  Rome);  Frescoes  (Capella  Paolina, 
Rome). 

In  order  to  know  what  painters  were  living  in  Angelo's  time,  and 
to  maintain  our  chronological  order,  a  word  about  Giovanni  Bellini 
(died  1 5 16)  is  necessary  to  our  understanding  of  the  great  Venetian 
painters.  He  belongs  not  in  our  history  but  with  the  Gothic  period, 
but  in  his  color  is  to  be  found  the  true  source  from  which  flowed  the 
stream  bearing  the  great  colorists  of  Venice. 


Michael  Angelo  —  The  Delphic  Sibyl. 


THE   DAWN    OF    MODERN   ART  13 

Important  Works:  Madonna  (Lochis,  Bergamo) ;  Madonna  (Morelli,  Ber- 
gamo); Pieta,  Dead  Christ  (Berlin);  Allegory  of  Tree  of  Life  (UfBzi,  Florence); 
Portrait  of  Loredano,  Madonna,  Agony  in  Garden,  Blood  of  Redeemer  (London) ; 
Dead  Christ  (Mr.  Ludwig  Mond,  London);  Pieta,  Two  Madonnas  (Brera, 
Milan);  M'adonna  (Dr.  Gust,  Frizzoni,  Milan);  Madonna  with  SS.  Mark  and  Augustin 
and  Doge  Barbarigo  (S.  Pietro,  Murano);  Transfiguration  (Sala  Granda,  Naples); 
Madonna  (Mr.  T.  H.  Davis,  Newport,  U.  S.  A.) ;  Crucifixion,  God  the  Father, 
Altar-piece  in  many  parts  (S.  Francesco,  Pesaro) ;  Dead  Christ  (Rimini) ;  Madonna 
(Turin) ;  Madonna,  Madonna,  Five  Small  Allegories,  Madonna  with  St.  Catharine  and 
Magdalen,  Madonna  with  SS.  Paul  and  George,  Madonna,  Madonna  with  Six  Saints 
(Academy,  Venice);  Transfiguration,  Dead  Christ,  Crucifixion  (Museo  Correr, 
Venice) ;  Dead  Christ  Supported  by  Three  Angels  (Venice) ;  Pieta  (Sala  di  Tre, 
Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice);  Triptych,  Madonna  and  Saints  (Frari,  Venice);  Madonna 
and  Four  Saints  (S.  Francesco  Delia  Vigna,  Venice);  SS.  Jerome,  Augustin,  and 
Christopher  (S.  Giovanni  Crisostomo,  Venice);  Madonna  (S.  Maria  Dell'  Orto, 
Venice);  Madonna  and  Four  Saints  (S.  Zaccaria,  Venice);  Madonna  (Verona); 
Baptism  (S.  Corona,  Vicenza). 

The  Van  Eycks  invented  a  sort  of  oil  painting  which  had  been 
introduced  in  Italy  by  traveling  Flemings  and  improved  upon  by 
Antonello  da  Messina  (died  1493)  and  by  him  taught  to  Bellini. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  was  a  process  of  mixing  varnish  with 
oil  (possibly  more  of  the  former)  and  that  it  resembles  our  oil  paint- 
ing only  as  an  experiment  resembles  a  complete  development.  How- 
ever, no  painter  of  this  day  uses  his  pigments  exactly  like  another,  art 
being  one  grand  experiment  with  materials.  The  fresco  then  in  use 
was  somewhat  dry  in  tone  and  capable  of  only  a  limited  variety  of 
effects.  Oil  painting  permits  of  greater  richness,  glow  and  yarietyr 
though  too  much  technique  and  too  great  attention  to  "fine  paintin' 
has  betrayed  many  an  art-trust. 

Important  Works  of  Antonello  da  Messina:  Crucifixion  (Antwerp) ;  St 
Sebastian  (Lochis,  Bergamo);  Portrait  of  Young  Man,  Portrait  of  Young  Man, 
Portrait  of  Young  Man  in  Red  Coat  (Berlin) ;  St,  Sebastian  (Dresden) ;  The  Saviour, 
Portrait  of  Man,  Crucifixion,  St.  Jerome  in  His  Study  (London);  Madonna  with  SS. 
Gregory  and  Benedict  (Messina) ;  Portrait  of  Man  Wearing  Wreath  (Museo  Civico, 
Milan);  Portrait  of  Man  (Prince  Trivulzio,  Milan);  Portrait  of  Man  (Sala  Grande, 
Naples) ;  Condottier  (Paris) ;  Portrait  of  Man  (Villa  Borghese,  Rome) ;  Ecce  Homo 
(Academy,  Venice);  Portrait  of  Man  (Giovanelli,  Venice);  Christ  at  Column  (Sala 
IV.,  Vicenza). 


14  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Giorgione  and  Titian 

Giorgio  Barbarelli  (1477-1511),  called  Giorgione,  a  companion 
of  the  great  Titian,  lived  just  long  enough  to  radiate  an  influence  upon 
the  longer-lived  fellow  pupil  whom  we  know  so  well.  Had  his  thirty- 
four  years  been  ninety,  the  story  of  art  might  have  been  changed. 

He  it  was  who  caught  the  color  of  Bellini  and  added  to  its  beauty 
an  original  conception  of  the  capabilities  of  picture-making  which 
Titian  did  not  perceive  until  these  two  worked  together  on  the  same 
decorations,  and  never  did  the  more  celebrated  man  reveal  certain 
great  qualities  which  mark  Giorgione's  pictures. 

Passing  his  decorations,  which  may  or  may  not  express  his  pecu- 
liar worth,  it  is  in  landscape  and  portraiture  that  we  see  his  wonderful 
capacity  for  observing  the  truths  of  nature  and  using  them  for  art's 
sake.  Claude  Lorraine  has  the  credit  for  the  invention  of  modern 
landscape,  but  no  man  invents  an  art  wholly.  Giorgione's  landscapes, 
formal  as  they  were,  have  many  qualities  of  tenderness  and  atmos- 
phere far  in  advance  of  his  time 

If  portraiture  may  be  considered  the  greatest  expression  of  art, 
then  this  man's  renderings  of  the  people  about  him  just  as  they  were, 
but  artistically  treated,  are  very  high  art.  There  is  evidence  that 
da  Vinci's  portraits  gave  him  the  impulse;  if  so,  he  is  a  strong  second. 

Important  Works  of  Giorgione:  Portrait  of  Man  (Berlin) ;  Portrait  of  Antonio 
Brocardo  (Budapest);  Madonna  with  SS.  Francis  and  Liberate  (Duomo,  Castel- 
franco);  Sleeping  Venus  (Dresden);  Trial  of  Moses,  Knight  of  Malta,  Judgment  of 
Solomon  (Uffizi,  Florence);  Shepherd  with  Pipe  (Hampton  Court);  Madonna  with 
SS.  Roch  and  Antony  of  Padua  (Madrid);  Fete  Champgtre  (Paris);  Portrait  of  a 
Lady  (Villa  Borghese,  Rome) ;  Storm  Calmed  by  St.  Mark,  linished  in  small  part  by 
Paris  Bordone  (Academy,  Venice);  Apollo  and  Daphne  (Seminario,  Venice);  Gipsy 
and  Soldier  (Giovanelli,  Venice);  Christ  Bearing  Cross  (Casa  Loschi,  Vicenza); 
Evander  Showing  Aeneas  the  Site  of  Rome  (Vienna). 

TizianoVecelli  (1477-1 576),  is  famous  as  Titian.  There  is  no  reason 
why  readers  of  art  history  should  be  continually  told  that  the  Vene- 
tian painters  were  great  colorists  and  no  effort  made  to  state 
the  nature  of  the    color   or  what  is   to   be   understood    by  the   term 


(Michael  Angelo  —  The  Creation  of  Eve.) 


THE   DAWN    OF   MODERN   ART  15 

"good  color."  Titian  indulged  little  in  gay  coloring.  He  did  not 
neglect  the  use  of  blue,  red  and  yellow,  but  probably  it  would  aston- 
ish us  could  we  compare  his  tones  with  pure  pigments.  He  declared 
once  that  any  painter  could  make  an  excellent  picture  with  no  other 
pigments  than  white,  black  and  red.  He  made  great  use  of  these. 
The  little  green  used  is  relatively  green  only.  In  those  days  the  only 
blues  were  Prussian,  always  hard  to  manage  and  liable  to  force  itself 
into  prominence  with  the  lapse  of  time,  and  ultramarine.  If  a  very 
cold  black  be  mixed  with  white  and  spread  on  canvas  so  as  to  sur- 
round a  spot  of  light  red,  the  presence  of  the  warm  red  will  cause  the 
cold  black-and-white  to  appear  blue,  as  a  pale  sky  is  blue.  We  used 
to  amuse  ourselves  when  students  with  this  experiment. 

Purple  is  absolutely  a  non-essential  on  the  palette.  Cold  greens  are 
only  blues  modified  and  are  non-essential. 

Mixing  any  rich  red  with  black,  any  yellowish  red  with  black, 
white  with  black,  and  white  with  red,  every  tone  in  a  very  rich  picture 
could  be  secured.  Vermilion  adds  brilliancy,  but  it  must  be  modified 
if  the  work  is  to  be  harmonious  and  rich. 

The  secret  of  Titian's  magnificent  color  is  to  be  found  in  his  won- 
derful color  sense  and  not  in  the  abundance  of  his  pigments  or  their 
use  as  pure  pigments.  It  is  an  understanding  of  the  influence  of  one 
color  upon  another  which  makes  a  fine  colorist.  Velasquez  was 
counted  a  fine  colorist,  but  he  used  the  most  subdued*  tints.  His 
pictures  are  gray,  but  a  marvelous  tone  of  gray.  Raphael  was  not 
wonderful  in  this  matter  of  color.  Clear  flesh  tones  he  has,  but  not 
rich  grays.      Holbein  was  a  finer  colorist  than  Raphael. 

"Bad  drawing"  is  the  reiterated  accusation  laid  up  against  Titian, 
as  it  is  against  almost  every  rich  colorist  in  the  history  of  art.  The 
cause  is  easy  to  discover.  Color  once  laid  must  be  left  untouched  or 
it  will  become  tarnished  with  too  much  manipulation.  Couture,  the 
Frenchman,  used  to  say  to  his  pupils,  "One  touch  with  the  brush 
insures  fresh  color,  two  touches  upon  the  same  spot  are  dangerous  and 
three  touches  mean  death."  All  colorists  know  that  color  once  laid 
on  the  canvas  must  be  left  alone.     To  attempt  to  correct  a  fault  acci- 


i6  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

dentally  made  in  the  fever  of  earnest  effort  would  mean  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  clearness  of  the  pigment.  Very  few  colorists  are  willing 
to  risk  a  correction.  Even  if  Titian  had  drawn  his  forms  perfectly, 
in  outline,  it  would  be  very  easy  for  him  to  lose  some  of  this  in  swiftly 
laying  his  rich  tones.  If  this  should  happen,  he  could  scarcely  afford 
to  make  a  correction. 

But  there  was  another,  and  a  curious  circumstance.  Many  of  the 
painters  of  this  period  prided  themselves  upon  their  accuracy  in  fol- 
lowing the  drawing  of  the  antique  statues.  "Good  drawing"  meant 
classical  drawing.  It  has  already  been  said  that  Angelo's  figures  were 
based  on  the  severe  Graeco-Roman  statues ;  Raphael' s  were  based  on  the 
elegant  Greek.  Angelo  said  of  Titian,  that  he  would  have  been  a 
fine  painter  had  he  studied  more  carefully  his  antiques.  Remember 
that  Titian  did  not  study  the  great  collection  of  antique  remains  in  the 
Medici  gardens.  Thus  early  do  we  find  the  battle  between  the  paint- 
ers of  hard  classicism  and  healthy  spontaneity  in  full  activity. 

By  descent  noble,  and  called  "II  Divino,"  Titian  was  born  at  the 
Castle  of  Cadore,  a  word  which  was  often  attached  to  his  name. 
Rossi,  of  his  native  place,  and  Zucatti,  of  Trevigi,  gave  him  lessons, 
out  it  was  when  he  went  to  Venice  and  studied  with  Giovanni  Bellini 
that  his  art  career  really  commenced.  His  fellow  pupil,  Giorgione 
(died  1511),  with  whom  he  undertook  exterior  decorations,  is  gener- 
ally supposed  to  have  been  the  first  to  break  away  from  the  Gothic 
character  of  their  master's  style  and  communicate  these  fresh  impres- 
sions to  Titian.  It  is  certain  that  Giorgione  influenced  him  more  than 
anyone  else.  If  any  absolute  facts  can  be  extracted  from  the  con- 
fusions of  his  early  history,  it  may  be  stated  that  Titian's  first  inde- 
pendent works  were"  Raphael  Conducting  Tobias"  and  a  "Presentation 
in  the  Temple,"  in  Giorgione' s  manner.  Diirer  came  to  visit  Venice 
and  in  competition  with  his  seriously  finished  work,  Titian  painted 
the  "Tribute  Money,"  he  being  at  the  time  these  three  pictures  were 
made  not  far  from  thirty  years  old.  These  little  incidents  indicate 
that  the  great  artist  was  imitative  in  his  youth  and  not  remarkably 
original  until  quite  mature.     The  "Bacchus  and  Ariadne,"  painted  for 


> 
O 

H 

O 
« 


Q 

a 

o 
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THE   DAWN   OF   MODERN   ART  17 

the  Duke  of  Ferrara,  is  still  a  following  of  Giorgione.  The  decora- 
tion of  the  council  chamber  and  the  "Peter  Martyr"  (church  of  Saints 
Giovanni  and  Paolo),  about  1523,  show  us  the  true  Titian.  The 
Emperor  of  Germany,  Charles  V.,  came  to  Bologna,  and  Titian  went 
there  to  paint  his  portrait.  The  Duke  of  Mantua  called  for  a  portrait 
and  the  series  of  decorations  in  the  palace  known  as  the  "Twelve 
Caesars,"  and  about  this  time  he  painted  the  portrait  of  Pope  Paul  III. 
and  was  invited  to  Rome,  but  could  not  go  on  account  of  many 
engagements.  He  did,  however,  go  to  Rome  some  years  later  and 
again  painted  the  Pope's  portrait  and  the  well-known  "Danae,"  the 
latter  work  being  the  one  which  offended  Michael  Angelo's  sense  of 
good  drawing,  as  already  mentioned. 

The  empire  of  Charles  V.  extending  to  Spain,  the  sub-imperial 
capital  being  Madrid,  Titian  was  invited  (1550)  to  that  country  and 
was  received  with  extraordinary  honors  and  compensations  (among 
the  latter  valuable  rents  in  Italian  cities)  and  such  social  attentions  as 
a  pleased  emperor  can  bestow  upon  a  favorite.  This  reminds  us  of 
the  complaint  which  Diirer  made  to  this  same  sovereign  anent  the 
neglect  which  fell  to  his  share, — which  suggests  that  serious  and 
dignified  art  sometimes  pays  no  profits.  Here  it  was  that  Charles 
made  the  famous  pretty  speech,  when  the  Venetian  dropped  his  brush 
and  His  Majesty  picked  it  up,  saying,  "Titian  is  fit  to  be  served  by 
Caesar."  At  the  end  of  a  three-years'  stay,  he  returned  to  Italy,  was 
called  to  Inspruck  to  paint  the  family  portrait  for  King  Ferdinand, 
and,  returning,  resided  in  Venice  until  his  death,  in  1576.  It  is  said 
that  Titian  painted  from  nine  years  of  age  until  ninety-nine.  It  stag- 
gers us  to  think  how  much  longer  he  might  have  revealed  his  irrepress- 
ible enthusiasm,  had  not  the  cholera  taken  him  off  in  his  ninety-ninth 
year. 

It  is  amusing  to  read  the  supercilious  criticism  of  the  German 
painter  Raphael  Mengs  (who  had  learned  to  draw  an  antique  statue 
with  sublime  exactness  but  had  no  genius)  when  he  declares  that 
Titian  was  not  wonderful  because  he  could  not  draw  an  antique  cor- 
rectly. 


i8  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Had  Michael  Angelo  been  endowed  with  the  color  sense  of  Titian, 
he  would  have  failed  to  rival  the  Venetian  colorist  so  long  as  he 
insisted  upon  absolute  perfection  in  drawing,  feeling  the  necessity  of 
struggling  with  his  pigment  until  the  drawing  should  be  perfect. 
During  centuries,  that  fetish  of  classical  drawing  stood  in  the  way  of 
all  healthy  abandon  in  painting,  so  much  so  that  it  was  a  species  of 
religion  to  draw  like  the  antique  sculptors.  Broken  commandments 
could  be  forgiven,  but  for  breach  of  formal  drawing  there  was  no 
absolution. 

Important  Works:  Crucifixion  (Ancona);  Madonna  with  SS.  Francis,  Blaise 
and  Donor  (S.  Domenico,  Ancona);  Alexander  VI.  Presenting  Baffo  to  St.  Peter 
(Antwerp) ;  St.  Francis  Receiving  the  Stigmata  (Ascoli) ;  Infant  Daughter  of  Roberto 
Strozzi  (Berlin);  Portrait  of  Himself,  His  Own  Daughter  Lavinia  (Berlin);  Rape  of 
Europa  (Mrs.  J.  L.  Gardner,  Boston);  Altar-piece  (S.  Nazaro  e  Celso,  Brescia); 
Portrait  of  Ariosto  (Lord  Darnley,  Cobham  Hall);  Madonna  with  Four  Saints, 
Tribute  Money,  Lavinia  as  Bride,  Lavinia  as  Matron,  Portrait  of  Man,  A  Lady  with 
a  Vase,  Madonna  with  a  Family  as  Donors  (in  part  only).  Lady  in  Red  Dress 
(Dresden);  "La  Belle"  Eleanor  Gonzaga,  Duchess  of  Urbino  (Pitti,  Florence); 
Pietro  Aretino,  Magdalen,  Portrait  of  Young  Man,  The  Concert,  Philip  II.,  Ippolito 
de'  Medici,  Full-length  Portrait  of  Man,  Head  of  Christ,  "Tommaso  Mosti" 
(Florence) ;  Eleanor  Gonzaga,  Duchess  of  Urbino  (Uffizi,  Florence) ;  Fr.  Maria  della 
Rovere,  Duke  of  Urbino  (Florence);  Flora,  Madonna  with  St.  Anthony  Abbot, 
Venus,  the  head  of  a  portrait  of  Lavinia,  Portrait  of  Beccadelli,  Venus,  the  head  a 
portrait  of  Eleanor  Gonzaga  (Florence) ;  Madonna  with  SS.  Catherine,  Domenic  and 
a  Donor  (Genoa) ;  Portrait  of  Man,  Portrait  of  Man  (Hampton  Court) ;  Holy  Family 
and  Shepherd,  Bacchus  and  Ariadne,  "Noli  me  Tangere,"  Madonna  with  SS.  John 
and  Catherine  (London);  Holy  Family,  "The  Three  Ages,"  Venus  Rising  from  the 
Sea,  Diana  and  Actseon,  Calisto  (Bridgewater  House,  London);  Madonna  (Mr. 
Mond,  London);  Madonna  with  SS.  Ulfus  and  Bridget,  Bacchanal,  Venus  Worship, 
Alfonso  of  Ferrara,  Charles  V.  and  his  Dog,  Phihp  II.  in  Armor,  The  Forbid- 
den Fruit,  Charles  V.  on  Horseback,  Danae,  Venus  and  Youth  Playing  Organ, 
Salome  (Portrait  of  Lavinia),  Trinity,  Knight  of  Malta,  Entombment,  Sisyphus, 
Prometheus,  St.  Margaret,  Philip  II.  Offering  Infant  Don  Fernando  to  Victory, 
Allocution  of  Alfonso  d'Avalos,  Religion  Succored  by  Spain,  Portrait  of  Him- 
self, Portrait  of  Man,  The  Empress  Isabel  (Madrid);  Portraits  of  Irene  and  of 
Emilia  di  Spilimbergo  (Casa  Maniago,  Maniago) ;  Christ  Appearing  to  His  Mother 
(Duomo,  Medole,  near  Brescia);  St.  Jerome,  Antonio  Porcia  (Brera,  Milan); 
"Vanitas,"  Portrait  of  Man,  Portrait  of  Charles  V.,  Madonna,  Christ  Crowned  with 


THE   DAWN   OF   MODERN   ART  I9 

Thorns  (Munich);  Philip  II.,  Paul  III.,  Ottaviano,  and  Cardinal  Farnese  (Scuola 
Veneta,  Naples) ;  Frescoes  (Scuola  del  Santo,  Padua) ;  Madonna  with  SS.  Stephen, 
Ambrose,  and  Maurice,  "La  Vierge  au  Papin,"  Madonna  with  St.  Agnes,  Christ  at 
Emaus,  Crowning  with  Thorns,  Entombment,  St.  Jerome,  "Venus  del  Prado," 
Portrait  of  Francis  I.,  Allegory,  "Alfonso  of  Ferrara  and  Laura  Dianti,"  Portrait  of 
Man  with  Hand  in  Belt,  "The  Man  with  the  Glove,"  Portrait  of  Man  with  Black 
Beard  (Paris);  Sacred  and  Profane  Love  (Borghese,  Rome);  St.  Dominic,  Educa- 
tion of  Cupid  (Rome);  Baptism,  with  Zuane  Ram  as  Donor  (Capitol,  Rome); 
Daughter  of  Herodias  (Doria,  Rome);  Madonna  in  Glory  with  Six  Saints  (Vatican, 
Rome);  Portrait  of  Aretino  (Prince  Chigi,  Rome);  Madonna  in  Glory,  with  SS. 
Peter  and  Andrew  (Duomo,  Serravalle);  Annunciation  (Duomo,  Treviso);  The 
Resurrection,  Last  Supper  (Urbino) ;  Presentation  of  Virgin  in  Temple,  St.  John  in 
the  Desert,  Assunta,  Pieta  (Academy,  Venice) ;  Staircase  to  Doge's  Private  Apart- 
ments (fresco),  St.  Christopher  (Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice) ;  Doge  Grimani  before 
Faith  (Sala  di  Quattro  Porte,  Venice);  Wisdom,  on  ceiling  of  ante-room  to  Libreria 
(Palazzo  Reale,  Venice);  Portrait  of  Man  (Giovanelli,  Venice);  Pesaro  Madonna 
(Frari,  Venice) ;  Martyrdom  of  St.  Lawrence  (Gesuiti,  Venice) ;  St.  John  the  Alms- 
giver  (S.  Giovanni  Elemosinario,  Venice);  St.  James  of  Compostella  (S.  Lio, 
Venice) ;  The  Child  Christ  between  SS.  Catherine  and  Andrew  (S.  Marcuolo,  Venice) ; 
Tobias  and  the  Angel  (S.  Marziale,  Venice);  Annunciation,  Dead  Christ  (Scuola  di 
S.  Rocco) ;  Descent  of  Holy  Spirit,  ceiling  of  choir.  Eight  Medallions,  one  a  portrait 
of  Titian  himself,  the  rest  heads  of  Saints  (Salute,  Venice);  St.  Mark  between  SS. 
Roch,  Sebastian,  Cosmos  and  Damian,  Ceiling,  David  and  Goliath,  Sacrifice  of 
Isaac,  Cain  Slaying  Abel  (Sacristy,  Venice) ;  Annunciation,  Transfiguration  (S. 
Salvatore,  Venice);  St.  Nicholas  of  Bari,  in  part  (S.  Sebastiano,  Venice) ;  Portrait  of 
Ferdinand,  King  of  the  Romans  (Verona) ;  Assumption  of  Virgin  (Duomo,  Verona); 
"Gipsy  Madonna,"  Madonna  with  the  Cherries,  The  Large  Ecce  Homo,  The  Little 
Tambourine  Player,  Isabella  d'Este,  Das  Madchen  im  pelz  (Eleanor  Gonzaga), 
Benedetto  Varchi,  The  Physician  Parma,  John  Frederick  of  Saxony,  Jacopo  di 
Strada,  Shepherd  and  Nymph  (Vienna);  Portrait  of  Doge  Gritti  (Czernin,  Vienna). 


The  Following  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci 

We  may  step  aside,  for  a  moment,  from  our  strict  chronological 
sequence,  to  mention  several  lesser  men  of  small  importance  in  the 
development  of  art. 

Bernardino  Luini,  a  Milanese  whose  birth  and  death  dates  are  very 
uncertain,  painted  so  much  like  his  master,  da  Vinci,  that  experts 
attribute  his  works  wrongly  to  that  master.     He  was  second   to  the 


20  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

greater  man  as  all  imitators  are  diminutives,  but  has  left  excellent  fres- 
coes and  easel  pictures. 

Principal  Works:  Crucifixion  (Franciscan  Church,  Lugano) ;  Fresco  at  Brera 
Gallery,  Milan,  and  in  the  church  at  Saronno;  Crowning  with  Thorns  (Ambrosian 
Library,  Milan);  "Vanity,"  "Modesty,"  and  "Herodias  with  the  Head  of  St.  John 
the  Baptist"  (Uffizi,  Florence). 

A  little  group  which  followed  da  Vinci,  formed  in  Sienna  also,  a 
half-dozen  names  being  memorable.  The  leader  was  Giovanni  Antonio 
Razzi,  called  il  Sodoma,  like  the  other  little  men,  of  uncertain  datei 
(1479  perhaps).  Julius  II.  called  him  to  Rome  as  aid  in  the  Vatican 
decorations,  which  work  appears  to  have  been  wiped  out,  with  the 
exception  of  certain  good  parts,  of  a  grotesque  character,  to  make 
room  for  Raphael.  It  was,  no  doubt,  a  great  honor  to  have  been  in 
Raphael's  way  and  be  extinguished  by  so  great  a  painter.  At  his 
proper  place.  Sienna,  his  work  ranks  high  and  has  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  writers  on  art.  Doubtless  his  good  fortune  in  being  a  pupil  of 
da  Vinci  is  his  misfortune,  in  that  it  stamps  him  an  imitator. 

Principal  Works:    Christ  Bound  to  a  Pillar  (Vienna) ;   Frescoes  on  the  Life  of 
the  Virgin  (St.  Bernard,  Vienna) ;   Frescoes  on  the  Life  of  St.  Catherine  of  Vienna] 
(St.  Catherine's  Chapel,  San  Domenico) ;    Frescoes  and  Altar-pieces  (Academy); 
"Nuptials  of  Alexander  and  Roxana"  and  Alexander  in  the  Tent  of  Darius  (Villa 
Fornesina,    Rome);    Madonna    (Borghese    Palace,   Rome);    St.   Sebastian  (Ufi5zi,.j 
Florence).  '' 

Jacopo  Palma  (1480- 1528),  called  il  Vecchio  belonged  to  the  Vene- 
tian School.     There  is  great  dispute   regarding  the  date   of  birth  of 
Palma  il  Vecchio,  and  many  pictures  ascribed  to  him  in  England  and  in 
the  continental  galleries  doubtless  were  painted  by  others  or  are  imita- . 
tions.     The  "Adoration  of  the  Shepherds"    (Louvre)   shows  well  his 
excellencies:    dignity,   reverence,  Venetian    color  and    the   qualities' 
which  might  be  expected  in  a  follower  of  the  greater  Venetians.     The>i 
Dresden  gallery  has  his  "Reclining  Venus,"  a  notable  picture.     In  the| 
church  of  Santa  Maria  Formosa  (Venice)  his  "St.  Barbara"  indicatesj 
the  stateliness  of  style  which  marks  all  his  attitudes,  especially  of 
female  figures. 


PAiiMA  Vbcchio  —  Santa  Bahbara. 


THE   DAWN   OF   MODERN   ART  21 

Important  Works:  Portrait  of  a  Lady  (Duke  of  Northumberland,  Alnwick), 
Landscape  by  Cariani,  Madonna  and  Two  Saints  (Lochis,  Bergamo) ;  Head  of 
Young  Woman,  Bust  of  Woman,  Portrait  of  Man  (Berlin) ;  Adam  and  Eve  (Bruns- 
wi(j)c);  Madonna  with  St.  Francis,  finished  by  Cariani  (Buda-Pesth) ;  Venus  (Fitz 
William  Museum,  Cambridge);  Madonna  with  John  the  Baptist  and  St.  Catherine, 
Three  Sisters,  Venus,  Holy  Family  with  St.  Catherine,  Meeting  of  Jacob  and 
Rebecca  (Dresden);  Judith  (UfBzi,  Florence);  Madonna  with  Magdalen  and  John 
(Brignole-Sale,  Genoa);  Holy  Family,  finished  by  Cariani  (Glasgow);  Annunciation 
(Consul  Weber,  Hamburg);  Santa  Conversazione,  Head  of  Woman  (Hampton 
Court);  Portrait  of  Man  (London);  Santa  Conversazione  and  Donor,  finished  by 
Cariani  (Mr.  Benson,  London) ;  Santa  Conversazione,  finished  by  Cariani  (Mr.  Wick- 
ham  Flower,  London);  Bust  of  Woman  (Mr.  Mond,  London);  SS.  Helen,  Constan- 
tine,  Roch  and  Sebastian,  Adoration  of  Magi,  finished  by  Cariani  (Brera,  Milan); 
Madonna  and  Saints  (Marchese  Lotario  Rangoni,  Modena);  SS.  Roch  and  Mary 
Magdalen  (Munich);  Santa  Conversazione,  with  Male  and  Female  Donors  (Sala 
Grande,  Naples);  Adoration  of  Shepherds  and  Female  Donors  (Paris);  Polyptych 
(Church,  Peghera);  Lucrece,  Madonna,  Francis,  Jerome  and  Donor  (Borghese, 
Rome);  Christ  and  Adulteress  (Capitol,  Rome);  Madonna,  St.  Peter  and  Donor 
(Colonna,  Rome);  Polyptych  (Church,  Serina) ;  Christ  and  Adulteress,  St.  Peter 
Enthroned  and  Six  Other  Saints,  Assumption  of  Virgin  (Academy,  Venice);  Unfin- 
ished Portrait  of  Young  Woman  (Sala  IV.,  Quiriui-Stampalia,  Venice);  Portrait  of 
Man  (Sala  XVIL,  Venice);  Sposalizio  (Giovanelli,  Venice);  St.  Barbara,  Altar-piece 
(S.  Maria  Formosa,  Venice) ;  Knight  and  Lady,  a  fragment  (Lady  Layard,  Venice) ; 
Madonna  and  Saints  (S.  Stefano,  Vicenza);  John  the  Baptist,  The  Visitation,  fin- 
ished by  Cariani,  Santa  Conversazione,  Portrait  of  Lady,  Violante,  Busts  of  Women, 
Portrait  of  Old  Man,  Lucretia  (Vienna) ;  Santa  Conversazione,  Holy  Family  and 
Two  Female  Saints  (Lichtenstein,  Vienna). 

Lorenzo  Lotto  (1480- 15 56  probable),  was  a  friend  of  Palma  Vecchio 
and  a  follower  of  the  same  masters,  seeming  to  have  that  imitative 
ability  which  enables  some  men  to  produce  remarkable  pictures  while 
still  making  no  mark  in  art  history.  Again,  da  Vinci's  influence 
produced  a  portrait  painter  who  could  render  character  as  few  portrait 
painters  can.    He  was  a  man  of  refinement  and  perceptive  faculty. 

Important  Works:  Assassination  of  St.  Peter  Martyr  (Duomo,  Alzano  Maggiore, 
near  Bergamo) ;  Assumption  of  Virgin,  Madonna  with  Four  Saints  (Ancona) ; 
Madonna  in  Glory  with  Two  Saints  ( Asolo) ;  Three  Predelle  belonging  to  S.  Bar- 
tolommeo  Altar-piece,  Marriage  of  S.  Catherine,  with  portrait  of  N.  Bonghi,  Portrait 
of  a  Lady  (Carrara,  Bergamo)-;  Sketches  for  Predelle,  containing  the  story  of  St. 
Stephen,  Holy  ti'amily  and  St.  Catherine  (Lochis,  Bergamo) ;  Pieta  (S.  Alessandro  in 


22  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Colonna,  Bergamo);  Trinity  (S.  Alessandro  in  Croce,  Bergamo);  Altar-piece  (S. 
Bartolommeo,  Bergamo);  Intarsias  (S.  Maria  Maggiore,  Bergamo);  Frescoes  in 
Chapel  L.  of  Choir  (S.  Michele,  Bergamo);  Altar-piece  (S.  Spirito,  Bergamo); 
Madonna  with  SS.  Sebastian  and  Roch  (Signor  Piccinelli,  Bergamo);  Portrait  of  an 
Architect,  Portraits  of  Young  Men,  Sebastian  and  Christopher,  Christ  Taking  Leave 
of  His  Mother  (Berlin);  Nativity  (Tosio,  Sala  XIII.,  Brescia);  Angel  with  Globe  and 
Scepter,  originally  top  of  S.  Bartolommeo  Altar-piece  at  Bergamo,  (Buda-Pesth) ; 
Assumption  of  Virgin  (Church,  Celana,  near  Bergamo) ;  Madonna  with  Six  Saints, 
and  (ifteen  small  scenes  from  the  Lives  of  Christ  and  the  Virgin  (S.  Domenico, 
Cingoli) ;  Marriage  of  St.  Catherine  (Costa  di  Mezzate) ;  Madonna  (Dresden) ;  Holy 
Family  with  St.  Jerome  (Uffizi,  Florence);  St.  Jerome  (Consul  Weber,  Hamburg); 
Portrait  of  Young  Man,  Portrait  of  Andrea  Odoni  (Hampton  Court);  St.  Jerome 
(Hermannstadt) ;  Three  Predelle  containing  Story  of  St.  Lucy  (Municipio,  Jesi); 
Pieta  (Library,  Jesi);  Annunciation,  St.  Lucy  before  the  Judge,  Madonna  and 
Saints,  Francis  Receiving  Stigmata,  Visitation,  Annunciation,  Portraits  of  Agostino.'J 
and  Niccolo  della  Torre,  Family  Group,  Portrait  of  ProthOnotary  Giuliano  (Lon-  ' 
don);  Madonna  and  Saints  (Bridgewafer  House,  London);  Portrait  of  a  Lady 
(Dorchester  House,  London);  Madonna  with  SS.  Jerome  and  Antony  of  Padua  (Mrs. 
Martin  Colnaghi,  London) ;  Danae  (Sir  W.  M.  Conway,  London) ;  SS.  Christopher, 
Sebastian  and  Roch,  Christ  and  Adulteress,  Nativity,  Lucy  and  Thecla,  Two 
Prophets,  Michael  Driving  Lucifer  from  Heaven,  Presentation  in  Temple,  Baptism, 
Adoration  of  Magi;  Sacrifice  of  Melchisedec  (Palazzo  Apostolico,  Loreto);  Bridal 
Couple,  St.  Jerome  (Madrid) ;  Pieta,  Portrait  of  Lady,  Portrait  of  Old  Man,  Portrait 
of  Man  (Brera,  Milan) ;  Assumption  of  Virgin,  Portrait  of  Man  (Gal.  Oggioni, 
Milan);  Holy  Family  (Poldi-Pezzoli,  Pinacotaca,  Milan);  Portrait  of  Young  Man 
(Museo  Civico,  Milan);  Christ  on  Cross  with  Symbols  of  the  Passion  (Borromeo, 
Milan) ;  St.  Catherine  (Dr.  Frizzoni,  Milan);  Cruciiixion  (Church,  Monte  S.  Giusto); 
Marriage  of  St.  Catherine  (Munich);  Head  of  a  Man  (Nancy);  Madonna  with  St. 
Peter  Martyr,  Bust  of  Man  in  White  Cap  and  Coat  (?)  (Sala  Veneta,  Naples); 
Madonna  and  Angels  (Municipio,  Osimo);  Christ  and  Adulteress,  St.  Jerome, 
Nativity  (Paris) ;  Altar-piece  in  six  panels  (Ponternaica,  near  Bergamo) ;  Altar-piece 
in  six  parts,  Transfiguraticsn  (Municipio,  Recanati) ;  Fresco  (S.  Domenico,  Recanati) ; 
Annunciation  (S.  Maria  Sopra  Mercanti,  Recanati) ;  Madonna  with  S.  Onifrio  and  a 
Bishop,  Portrait  of  Man  (Borghese,  Rome) ;  Portrait  of  Man  (Capitol,  Rome) ;  St. 
Jerome  (Diria,  Rome) ;  Allegory  (Rospigliosi,  Rome) ;  Portrait  of  Man  (Prince  Doria, 
Rome) ;  Madonna  in  Glory  and  Four  Saints  (Church,  Sedrina,  near  Bergamo) ;  St, 
Catherine  (Leuchtenberg  Collection,  St.  Petersburg);  Frescoes  (Suardi  Chapel, 
Trescorre);  Portrait  of  Monk  (Sala  Sernagiotto,  Treviso);  Altar-piece,  Dead  Christ 
(S.  Cristina,  Treviso);  S.  Nicholas  in  Glory  (Carmine,  Venice);  Madonna  and  Saints 
(S.  Giacomo  dall'  Orio,  Venice);  S.  Antonino  Bestowing  Alms  (S.  Giovanni  e  Paolo, 
Venice);  Santa  Conversazione,  Portrait  of  Man,  Three  Views  of  a  Man  (Vienna). 


Raphael  —  Madonna  della  Sedia. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  AUTHORITY   QF   ITALY 

With  the  beginning  of  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  the 
Italian  influence  began  to  assert  itself  throughout  all  Europe.  In 
Italy  itself  two  styles  of  artistic  expression  opened  the  contest  between 
formality  and  freedom  of  expression.  All  painters  of  this  period  were 
mural  decorators.  Their  easel  pictures  were  not  numerous  and  their 
works  were  scarcely  pictures  at  all,  but  rather  decorations  of  flat  sur- 
faces— perhaps  the  doors  of  a  shrine,  perhaps  panels  in  some  great 
scheme  of  architecture.  The  Gothic  painters,  as  may  be  supposed, 
maintained  their  rigid  formality  and  clung  tenaciously  to  what  may  be 
called  flat  designs.  The  Italians,  seeking  for  greater  pictorial  quality, 
innocently  ignored  this  flatness  and  introduced  throughout  the  Euro- 
pean world  the  fashion  for  panels  with  fully-rounded  figures  and 
atmospheric  depths. 

Man  for  man,  Angelo  was  a  stronger  character  than  Raphael  and 
the  works  of  the  two  men  reflect  their  individuality.  Angelo 
despised  tenderness  in  art;  for  the  sensuousness  of  oil  painting  he 
had  great  contempt,  preferring  distemper  and  fresco.  Never  allowing 
himself  any  sweetness  in  his  life,  he  scorned  it  in  pictures.  Unlike 
Raphael,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  trace  any  influence  of  another  artist 
in  his  work.  His  way  was  his  own  way  and  he  insisted  upon  following 
it.  His  friends  were  few  and  he  was  not  above  the  national  fault — 
jealousy — though  too  great  a  man  to  be  carried  away  in  a  display  of  it. 
Raphael,  on  the  other  hand,  the  embodiment  of  all  amiable  and 
lovable  qualities,  was  liked  by  his  friends  as  the  world  has  always  liked 
his  pictures.  His  own  person  was  the  counterpart  of  his  temperament 
and  his  art.  His  wonderful  character  saved  him,  for,  unlike  Angelo, 
he  was  influenced  by  other  great  men,  whose  painting  passed  before 

23 


24  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

his  eyes.  At  first  he  painted  like  his  early  master,  Perugino,  then  like 
Leonardo,  and  finally  Angelo  himself  caused  a  change  in  style. 
Raphael's  compositions  are  more  pictorial  than  Angelo's,  but  at  last 
the  younger  man's  productions  became  in  turn  sculpturesque  under 
Angelo's  influence  and  thereby  gained  in  power,  though  they  lost  in 
popularity. 

Can  one  man,  standing  at  the  apex  of  glory  with  another,  be  said 
to  be  greater  than  his  fellow?  There  have  been  but  one  Raphael  and 
only  one  Angelo.     One  is  great  in  lovableness,  the  other  great  in  force. 

Raphael  Sanzio 

l^r  4.83-1320) 

Raphael  was  born  in  Urbino,  March  28,  1483.  His  father,  Giovanni 
Santi  (called  Sanzio),  was  an  artist,  a  man  of  rare  refinement  and  gen- 
tleness of  character,  and  as  a  painter  quite  good  enough  to  command 
the  respect  of  his  period.  As  a  boy,  taught  by  his  father,  he  was 
already  something  more  than  a  beginner  when  Perugino's  studio 
was  opened  to  him,  1495.  When  Perugino  was  not  restrained  by  over- 
attention  to  money  getting,  he  had  flights  of  something  akin  to  inspira- 
tion, and  in  all  cases  he  was  a  reasonably  good  technician. 

The  earliest  works  of  Raphael  resemble  those  of  this  master,  like  the 
"Marriage  of  the  Virgin"   at  Milan,  which  shows  much  of  the  Gothic;i 
formalism,  not  showing  the  wonderful  grace  and  expressiveness  of  the 
Madonnas  of  his  next  period. 

Going  to  Florence  in  1504,  he  met  Era  Bartolommeo,  who  was  a  fine 
painter  when  not  over-controlled  by  his  too-tender  conscience,  which 
seems  to  have  restrained  a  certain  genuine  exuberance  he  was  capable 
of  displaying.  Under  this  influence  the  stiffness  disappears,  and  we 
begin  to  see  the  Raphael  of  the  Madonna  period.  Bartolommeo  taught 
him  how  to  draw  flowing  draperies.  Many  of  his  fine  Madonnas 
(Uffizi  Gal.)  are  of  this  period. 

At  Rome  (1508),  whither  he  went  at  the  invitation  of  Julius  II., 
that  he  might  aid  in  the  decoration  of  the  Vatican,  he  met  Michael 
Angelo  and  fell  under  his  influence,  becoming  far  more  majestic  in  his 


Andrea  del  Saeto  —  Madonna. 


THE   AUTHORITY   OF   ITALY  25 

conceptions  and  producing  his  extended  compositions,  such  as  the 
"Disputa  del  Sacramento, "  "School  of  Athens,"  "Parnassus,"  "Attila 
Repelled  from  Rome,"  all  painted  in  fresco.  The  "Madonna  del 
Foligno' '  (in  oils)  is  also  of  this  period,  and  his  portrait  of  Pope  Julius 
n.  In  1515  he  was  appointed  architect  of  St.  Peter's,  but  his  designs 
were  not  carried  out,  the  honor  falling  finally  to  Michael  Angelo. 
Also,  in  the  same  year,  he  commenced  the  cartoons  for  the  celebrated 
tapestries  for  the  Pope's  chapel  (seven  of  these  cartoons  now  at  Sout^ 
Kensington  Museum,  London). 

The  tapestries  from  these  cartoons  were  made  in  Brussels,  during 
the  good  period  of  that  art  in  Flanders.  Raphael  received  one-twen- 
tieth the  price  of  the  costly  gold-threaded  fabrics  as  compensation. 
This  is  about  what  an  architect  receives  in  these  days  for  designing  a 
building.  Later  oil  paintings:  "St.  Cecelia"  (at  Bologna),  "Madonna 
del  Pesce"  (at  Escurial),  "San  Sisto"  (Dresden),  "Transfigu'ration" 
(Vatican),  possibly  his  masterpiece,  though  rivalled  by  the  San  Sisto. 

The  Pandolfini  palace,  at  Florence,  is  an  example  of  pure  renais- 
sance architecture  from  his  designs. 

As  Raphael's  style  developed  we  see  more  and  more  the  influence 
of  the  antique  statues  upon  him,  though  never  slavish  imitation,  as  it 
appeared  in  the  works  of  the  "school,"  so  called,  which  grew  up  with 
his  name  attached,  and  the  name  was  its  principal  glory. 

Raphael  died  in  Rome,  April  6,  1520. 

Principal  Works:  Bust  of  St.  Sebastian  (Lochis,  Bergamo);  Madonna, 
Madonna  and  Saints,  "Terranuova  Madonna,"  "Colonna  Madonna"  (Berlin);  St. 
Cecelia  and  Other  Saints  (Bologna);  Salvator  Mundi  (Gal.  Tosio,  Sala  XIII., 
Brescia);  "Esterhazy  Madonna,"  Portrait  of  Young  Man  ( Buda-Pesth) ;  Three 
Graces,  Madonna  d'  Orleans  (MuseeConde,  Chantilly);  Sistine  Madonna  (Dresden); 
Leo  X.  with  Cardinals  Giulio  dei  Medici  and  L.  dei  Rossi,  Maddalena  Doni,  Angelo 
Doni,  Portrait  of  Pope  Julius  II.,  "Madonna  della  Sedia, "  "Madonna  del  Baldac- 
chino,"  Vision  of  Ezechiel,  execution  by  Giulio  Romano,  "Granduca  Madonna," 
"La  Donna  Gravida,"  "La  Donna  Velata"  (Pitti,  Florence);  Portrait  of  Himself, 
Madonna  del  Cardellino  (Uffizi,  Florence);  St.  Catherine,  The  Knight's  Vision, 
"Madonna  Ansidei"  (London);  Cartoons  for  Tapestries,  execution  not  Raphael's,  but 
chiefly  by  G.  F.  Penni  (South  Kensington,  London) ;  Cruciiixion  (Mr.  L.  Mond, 
London);   Madonna  dell'  Agnello,  Madonna  del  Pesce,  execution  chiefly  by  Giulio 


26  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Romano,  Portrait  of  Young  Cardinal  (Madrid);  Sposalizio  (Brera,  Milan);  Madonna 
Cangiani,  Madonni  Tempi  (Munich);  Madonna,  Madonna  (Lord  Cowper,  Pans- 
hanger);  La  Belle  Jardiniere,  St.  Michael,  St.  George,  Portrait  of  Baldassare 
Castiglione,  Sainte  Pamille  de  Franjois  I.,  execution  by  Giulio  Romano,  St.  Michael 
Crushing  Satan,  execution  by  Giulio  Romano  (Paris).  Fresco:  Christ  and  Saints  (S. 
Severo,  Perugia);  Entombment,  Portrait  of  Perugino  (Borghese,  Rome);  Portraits  . 
of  Navagero  and  Beazzano  (Doria,  Rome).  Fresco;  Pluto  with  Garland  (Academy 
of  St.  Luca,  Rome) ;  Coronation  and  Predelle,  Adoration  of  Magi,  Presentation,  The 
Nine  Virtues,  Madonna  di  Foligno,  with  Sigismondo  Conti  as  Donor,  Transfiguration 
(Vatican  Gallery,  Rome).  Frescoes:  Ceiling — Allegorical  figures  of  Theology, 
Philosophy,  Poetry  and  Jurisprudence — Pall  of  Man,  Judgment  of  Solomon,  Apollo 
and  Marsyas,  An  Angel  Surveying  the  Earth.  Walls:  The  "Disputa" — Discussion 
concerning  the  Sacrament — The  School  of  Athens,  Parnassus,  Justice,  Julius  II.  and 
His  Cardinals,  Justinian  Publishing  the  Pandects  (Stanza  della  Segnatura,  Rome). 
Frescoes:  Heliodorus  Driven  out  of  Temple,  Pope  Julius  and  his  Hearers,  executed 
by  Raphael  himself,  the  rest  largely  by  assistants ;  Miracle  of  Bolsena,  Atilla  Turned 
Away  from  Rome,  the  heads  of  Leo  X.  and  his  cardinals,  in  part  from  Raphael's  own 
hand,  the  rest  by  pupils;  Liberation  of  St.  Peter,  the  entire  execution  by  pupils, 
chiefly  Giulio  Romano  (Stanza  dell'  Eliodoro,  Rome).  Frescoes:  Fire  in  the 
Environs  of  St.  Peters,  executed  almost  wholly  by  Giulio  Romano;  Battle  of  Ostia, 
execution  not  Raphael's,  chiefly  Giulio  Romano's  (Stanza  dell'  Incendio  di  Borgo, 
Rome).  Fresco  and  stucco  decorations:  Illustrations  to  the  Old  Testament,  whose 
present  condition  is  such  that  little  can  be  said  of  the  execution,  save  that  it  could 
not  have  been  Raphael's;  some  of  the  best  seem  to  have  been  painted  by  P.  del 
Vaga  (Loggie,  Rome).  Frescoes:  Galatea,  Story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche,  execution 
not  by  Raphael;  figures  by  Giulio  Romano  (Farnesina,  Rome).  Fresco:  The 
Prophet  Isaiah  (S.  Agostino,  Rome).  Frescoes:  Sibyls  and  Angels  (S.  M.  Della 
Pace,  Rome);  "Madonna  im  Grunen"  (Vienna);  Portrait  of  Tommaso  Inghirami 
(Palazzo  Inghirami,  Volterra). 

One  of  the  lesser  luminaries  of  this  period  was  Andrea  del  Sarto 
(1486-1530),  and  it  is  as  a  remarkable  manipulator  of  paint  and  lines, 
an  astonishingly  talented  painter,  rather  than  as  an  artistic  genius,  that 
we  must  regard  him.  Had  he  not  lived  between  Michael  Angelo  and 
Raphael,  who  could  do  a  great  deal  more  than  simply  paint  well,  he 
would  have  occupied  a  higher  place  in  the  world  of  art. 

The  son  of  a  Florentine  tailor,  Del  Sarto  was  apprenticed  at  the 
age  of  seven  years  to  a  goldsmith,  where  he  showed  such  talent  for 
drawing  that  he  attracted  attention. 


Andrea  del  Sabto — Madonna. 


THE  AUTHORITY   OF   ITALY  27 

Subsequently  Fran9ois  I.  of  France  became  one  of  his  most 
enthusiastic  patrons.  His  education  was  like  that  of  the  others,  influ- 
enced by  Masaccio,  by  the  coloring  of  Titian,  and  by  the  mighty 
works  of  the  two  great  Florentines.  He  learned  it  all,  but  could  not 
make  as  lofty  use  of  his  knowledge.  Nearly  all  his  faces  follow  a 
fixed  type,  and  his  figures  become  tiresomely  mechanical. 

Principal  Works:  Bus*- of  His  Wife,  Madonna  and  Saints  (Berlin);  Marriage 
of  St.  Catherine,  Sacrifice  of  Isaac  (Dresden);  Two  Angels,  Dead  Christ,  Four 
Saints,  Predelle  to  Above  (Academy,  Florence) ;  Deposition,  Portrait  of  Himself, 
Holy  Family,  Life  of  Joseph,  Annuciation,  Dispute  over  the  Trinity,  Portrait  of 
Himself,  Assumption,  Assumption,  The  Baptist  (Pitti,  Florence);  "Noli  Me 
Tangere,"  Portrait  of  His  Wife,  Portrait  of  Himself,  Madonna  dell'  Arpie,  Portrait 
of  Himself,  Portrait  of  Lady,  St.  James  (Uffizi,  Florence);  Frescoes  from  the  Life  of 
the  Baptist  and  four  Allegorical  Figures  (Chiostro  dell  a  Scalzo,  Florence);  Fres- 
coes with  the  story  of  S.  Filippo  Benizzi,  Adoration  of  the  Magi,  Birth  of  Virgin 
(SS.  Annunziata,  Entrance  Court,  Florence);  Head  of  Christ  (SS.  Annunziata, 
Chapel  to  Left  of  Entrance,  Florence) ;  Madonna  del  Sacco  (SS.  Annunziata,  Inner 
Cloister,  Florence) ;  Last  Supper  (S.  Salvi,  Florence) ;  Portrait  of  a  Sculptor  (Lon- 
don); Sacrifice  of  Isaac  (Madrid);  Holy  Family  (Munich);  Charity,  Holy  Family 
(Paris);  St.  Catherine,  St.  Margaret,  St.  Agnes  (Duomo,  Pisa);  Caesar  Receiving 
Tribute  (Poggio  a  Caiano) ;  Pieta  (Vienna). 

The  followers  of  Raphael  have  continued  the  mannerisms  of  their 
great  master,  even  until  this  day.  Among  the  most  important  of  his 
assistants  was  Giulio  Romano  (1492-1546),  though  it  is  difficult  to 
understand  why  his  name  occupies  so  large  a  place  in  history.  He 
was  a  sufficiently  able  assistant  as  long  as  Raphael  supplied  the  essen- 
tial genius,  but  after  the  death  of  the  inventor  of  this  noble  art  this 
follower  caricatured  it,  and  there  is  no  good  color,  no  able  composi- 
tion, no  grandeur  of  conception  to  be  found  in  Romano's  productions 
when  he  was  left  to  himself.  His  training  as  a  painter  enabled  him 
to  execute  very  good  architecture,  because  he  took  pains  to  follow 
the  established  formulas.  We  shall  presently  consider  the  "school  of 
Raphael"  as  it  developed  under  the  Caracci  family's  influence,  but  it 
is  a  painful  fact  that  nothing  came  from  the  immediate  following  of 
the  great  Florentine  but  abject  imitation,  often  distinguished  badness. 


28  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Principal  Works:  Copy  of  Raphael's  "Madonna  with  the  Pink"  (Duke  of 
Northumberland,  Alnwick) ;  Diana  and  Endymion  (Buda-Pesth) ;  "Madonna  della 
Catina,"  Pan  and  Olympus  (Dresden);  Stoning  of  Stephen  (S.  Stefano.  Genoa); 
"Garvagh  Madonna"  (London);  "Lo  Spasimo,"  in  some  part  by  Penni,  "La  Perla" 
(Madrid);  Decorative  Frescoes,  executed  chiefly  by  assistants  (Palazzo  Gonzaga, 
Mantua).  Frescoes;  Story  of  Cupid  and  Psyche,  Fall  of  Giants  and  other  frescoes 
(Palasso  del  Te,  Mantua) ;  Bust  of  an  Ecclesiastic  (Munich);  Madonna  della  Gatta, 
Madonna  col  Divin'  Anore  (Sala  Granda,  Naples) ;  Madonna  in  Glory  and  Saints 
(Parma) ;  Nativity,  Triumph  of  Venus  and  Vespasian,  Venus  and  Vulcan,  Portrait 
of  Man,  Circumcision,  "Vierge  au  Voile,"  "Sainte  Famille  de  Frangois  I.,"  St. 
Michael  Crushing  Satan,  Portrait  of  Giovanna  d'  Aragona,  Portraits  of  Two  Men 
(Paris);  "La  Fornarina"  (Barberini,  Rome);  Madonna  and  Infant  John  (Borghese, 
Rome);  Judith  (Capitol,  Rome);  Lower  part  of  Raphael's  Transfiguration,  Upper 
part  of  a  Coronation,  lower  by  Penni  (Gallery,  Vatican).  Frescoes:  Battle  of  Ponte 
Monte,  Constantine  Addressing  his  Troops  (Sala  del  Constantino,  Rome) ;  Madonna 
(Miss  H.  Hertz,  Rome);  Altar-piece,  Madonna  and  Saints  (S.  M.  Dell'  Anima, 
Rome) ;  Flagellation  (Sacristy,  S.  Prassede,  Rome) ;  St.  Margaret  (Vienna). 

Antonio  Allegri  da  Correggio 

{H94--IS34) 

One  of  Correggio's  pictures  in  the  Louvre,  a  Satyr  stealthily 
regarding  Antiope  and  Cupid  asleep,  is  so  clear  in  its  natural  flesh  tones 
(shades  somewhat  darkened  only)  that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how 
the  work  could  have  been  executed  four  hundred  years  ago.  All  his 
art  is  different  from  anything  else  made  at  the  period;  the  drawing 
indicating  extraordinary  command  of  form  and  foreshortening.  What 
instruction  aided  his  genius  to  accomplish  these  wonders  cannot  be 
determined.  During  a  long  and  industrious  career,  he  does  not  appear 
to  have  traveled  far  from  his  native  city  of  Correggio;  neither  Venice 
nor  Rome  aided  him,  except  as  their  pictures  wandered  within  his 
reach.  Francesco  Bianchi,  of  Modena,  seems  to  have  been  his  master, 
and  his  uncle,  Lorenzo  Allegri,  probably  gave  instruction. 

Most  celebrated  is  the  decoration  of  the  dome  of  the  Cathedral  of 
Parma  (1530)  with  "The  Assumption  of  the  Virgin."  In  the  curve  of 
the  dome's  interior  the  angels  and  cherubs  are  flung  about  in  the 
most  violent  action,  rejoicing  and  gesticulating  about  the  Virgin,  the 


Andrea  del  Sahto  —  John  the  Baptist. 


THE   AUTHORITY   OF   ITALY  29 

foreshortened  legs  wonderfully  drawn  but  so  confused  as  to  give  rise 
to  the  expression  that  the  group  was  no  more  than  a  "fricassee  of 
frogs."  Below  are  the  dignified  ones,  looking  up  to  admire  the 
rejoicing  company.  In  the  Benedictine  Church  is  a  similar  work,  a 
representation  of  the  Ascension.  Three  of  his  important  pictures 
were  taken  to  Paris  by  the  French  during  the  wars,  but  restored  to 
their  place  by  the  allies  at  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon.  They  were 
"The  St.  Jerome,"  "The  Descent  from  the  Cross"  and  "The  Martyr- 
dom of  St.  Placide."  At  the  gallery  in  Dresden  maj'  be  seen  "The 
Night  of  the  Nativity, "  in  which  the  light,  instead  of  being  thrown 
upon  the  figures  from  without,  emanates  from  the  body  of  the  infant 
Christ  and  glows  brilliantly  upward  upon  all  the  figures.  It  is  the 
pretty  mother  and  attendants,  with  expressions  of  gaiety,  attitudes 
somewhat  over  active  and  extravagant,  angels  a  little  too  sprawl- 
ing, which  indicate  the  temperament  of  Correggio.  The  composi- 
tion is  a  disturbed  suggestion  that  the  hovering  angels  might  be 
scratching  matches  on  the  sk}'.  However,  originality  is  a  rare  and 
noble  thing.  That  beautiful  small  panel,  "The  Reading  Magdalen," 
is  at  the  same  place,  and  nothing  so  reveals  the  advance  made  in 
beauty,  grace  and  fine  painting  since  the  Renaissance  opened.  It  is 
less  noble  in  expression  than  Raphael's  works,  but  tenderer  in  touch 
and  better  in  color.  The  "Nativity,"  the  "Marriage  of  St.  Cather- 
ine," at  the  Louvre,  and- one  resembling  it  at  the  Museum  of  Naples, 
illustrate  drawing  by  means  of  masses  of  light  and  shade,  rather  than 
by  distinct  outline.  The  "Nativity"  most  of  all  illustrates  the  arti- 
ficial use  of  light  and  shade  as  a  decorative  element,  without  any 
regard  for  the  facts  of  nature.  This  was  Correggio's  individuality.  It 
is  what  has  come  to  be  known  as  "chiaroscuro"  (clair-obscure). 
Raphael  never  uses  it  in  this  way;  seems  to  have  known  little  about 
it.  In  the  work  of  Holbein  (and  almost  universally  in  Germany  at 
this  time)  there  is  no  suggestion  of  it. 

Correggio  spent  a  period  in  Mantua. 

The  popular  story  about  his  death  from  fever  contracted  because 
of  faiigue  caused  by  packing  a  bagful  of  copper  coins,    received  in 


30  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

payment  for  his  last  picture,  is  probably  apocryphal,  as  he  came  of  a 
family  of  respectable  tradespeople  and  had  much  success  in  life, 
including  a  little  fortune  from  his  uncle  and  a  wife  of  some  position. 

Principal  Works:  Marriage  of  St.  Catherine  (Louvre,  Paris) ;  Marriage  of  St. 
Catherine  (Naples);  Madonna  of  St.  Francis  (Dresden);  Holy  Family  (Pavia); 
Two  Pictures  (Uffizi,  Florence),  one  of  these  "Madonna  Adoring  the  Child";  Fres- 
coes (Convent  of  San  Paola,  Parma);  Ascension  of  Christ  (San  Giovanni,  Parma); 
Assumption  of  the  Virgin  (Duomo,  Parma) ;  Education  of  Cupid  (London) ;  Jupiter 
and  Antiope  (Louvre,  Paris) ;  lo  (Vienna) ;  Leda  with  the  Swan  (Berlin) ;  Danae 
(Borghese  Palace,  Rome);  Madonna  della  Scala,  Madonna  della  Scodella,  St.  Jerome 
Presenting  His  Translation  of  the  Scriptures  to  the  Virgin,  called  "II  Giorno"  of  the 
"Day"  (Parma);  "Santa  Notte"  or  "The  Holy  Night,"  Madonna  of  St.  Sebastian, 
Madonna  of  St.  George  (Dresden);  Virgin  of  the  Basket,  Ecce  Homo,  Christ  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  Studies  of  Angels'  Heads  (London);  Marriage  of  St.  Catherine, 
Hagar  in  the  Desert,  Repose  in  Egypt  (Naples);  Noli  Me  Tangere  (Madrid). 

The  chief  figure  in  transalpine  art  was  Hans  Holbein  (1497-1543). 
The  French  sometimes  call  him  "Jean,"  because  his  real  name  was 
Johannes.  With  his  father,  his  uncle  and  his  brother,  young  Hans 
did  much  hard  work  in  the  paternal  studio.  Everything  indicates  that 
he  was  well  instructed  in  all  the  art  which  these  somewhat  Gothic 
worthies  knew.  As  many  pictures  by  the  father  and  the  other 
relatives  have  been  attributed  to  the  greater  Hans,  we  may  conclude 
that  in  the  early  days  they  all  painted  pretty  much  alike  as  far  as 
mannerisms  go.  It  is  always  convenient  to  attach  the  greatest  name 
that  you,  with  or  without  conscience,  can  to  any  doubtful  picture. 

Augsburg,  a  Suabian  city  in  the  mountainous  country,  has  been, 
after  much  dispute,  decided  upon  as  the  place  and  1497  as  the  date 
of  his  birth,  though  these  things  have  to  be  guessed  at. 

All  thinking  men,  who  objected  to  going  to  jail  or  the  stake, 
gathered  at  the  free  Swiss  city  of  Basle,  because  there  also  the  print- 
ers, whom  the  too  particular  ecclesiastics  were  disposed  to  dislike 
pretty  seriously,  found  opportunity  to  send  out  matter  to  all  the 
world.  Basle  was  an  important  city,  attracting  all  sorts  of  workers, 
among  others  the  artists  who  expected  to  find  employment  at  the 
hands  of  the  publishers   in   illustrating  books.     In   those  days,  as  in 


.■     '*u  '         t 


Hams  Holbbin — Ladt  Vaux. 


THE  AUTHORITY   OF   ITALY  31 

these,  illustrative  designing  demanded  the  best  efforts  of  the  trained 
men.  Young  Holbein  went  with  the  crowd,  and  was  soon  employed 
to  illustrate  "The  Praise  of  Folly,"  that  celebrated  satire  by  Erasmus, 
who  was  himself  in  Basle. 

In  all  the  works  of  Diirer,  his  contemporary,  we  see  nothing  to 
speak  of  as  "clever."  Diirer  was  inventive,  imaginative,  dignified 
and  sometimes  powerful,  but  never  clever.  Holbein  manifested 
cleverness,  ingenuity  and  often  mirthfulness.  His  ideas  abounded,  he 
knew  his  classics  and  could  supplement  the  text  with  originalities 
which  doubled  its  force.  Of  course  he  was  never  without  work  or  good 
pay,  considering  the  economical  conditions  governing  all  living. 

"The  Dance  of  Death,"  a  series  of  popular  illustrations  which  the 
young  artist  made,-  is  peculiarly  Teutonic  in  sentiment.  All  through 
the  Gothic  period  this  doleful  array  of  horrible  suggestions,  associated 
with  our  taking  off,  decorated  the  German  churches.  We  see  the 
same  taste  for  the  substantialities  of  the  serious  side  of  religion  at  this 
day  in  the  character  of  the  crucifixes  erected  by  the  wayside.  The 
crucified  Christ  must  be  made  horrible  or  the  figure  leaves  no  taste  in 
the  mouth.  One  of  the  reasons  why  Protestantism  so  quickly  found 
favor  with  the  Teutons  is  discoverable  in  this  desire  to  dwell  upon  the 
severe  realities  of  religion.  Catholicism  was  not  severe  enough,  not 
genuine  (at  that  time),  and  genuineness  meant  a  strong  dose  of  the 
horrible.  Holbein's  "Dance  of  Death"  was  presented  in  a  series  of 
illustrations  for  which  he  made  the  designs,  little  pictures,  two  by  two 
and  one-half  inches.  Skillfully  engraved  by  another  hand,  as  Holbein 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  an  engraver,  these  give  us  his  inventive- 
ness, his  witty  appreciation  of  the  subject-matter  and  the  way  he  could 
express  himself  with  few  lines.  Some  are  grotesque,  others  entirely 
charming — all  tell  the  story  bluntly.  Death  misses  nobody,  but  the 
artist  delights  most  in  letting  him  have  his  own  remorseless  way  with 
the  corrupt  priest,  the  potentate,  the  hypocritical  preacher,  the 
soldier,  the  rich  merchant,  and  is  lenient  only  when  the  self-sacrificing 
priest  is  called  upon  while  soothing  the  troubles  of  the  afflicted.  The 
mother,  whose  babe  Death  is  snatching  from  the  cradle,  has  an  expres- 


32  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

sion  of  horror  either  touching  or  ridiculous  according  to  your  taste  in 
such  matters.  Laboring  faithfully  in  his  field,  the  ploughman  discovers 
Death  lashing  the  horses  (a  tender  pastoral),  while  the  lady  of  fashion 
receives  no  consideration  for  her  imposing  decorativeness.  Even  the 
lover  is  brutally  driven  from  his  enamorata;  Death  taking  his  place, 
going  at  his  love-making  in  a  way  to  shock  the  most  unimpression- 
able. Little  initial  letters,  one  inch  square,  each  a  gem  of  a  picture, 
continue  the  dreadful  scenes.  Diirer  would  have  made  things  like 
these  equally  impressive,  equally  literal;  but  he  designed  majestically, 
not  popularly. 

It  was  the  fashion,  here  and  in  Italy  (where  it  originated),  to 
embellish  the  flat  house  fronts  with  architectural  elaborations,  paneled 
with  either  religious  or  secular  pictures,  or  scenes  from  domestic  life. 
Paul  Veronese  displayed  wonderful  genius  in  this  way,  and  so  did 
Holbein.     The  fashion  continues  until  this  day. 

Religious  art  was  by  no  means  relegated  to  oblivion,  as  the  diet  at 
Worms  did  not  occur  until  1521.  The  leaven  required  time  to  raise 
the  heavy  dough.  In  Holbein's  religious  art,  Italian  influence  shapes 
the  composition  and  treatment;  much  more  so  than  with  Diirer's  work. 
It  is  like  the  school  of  Raphael,  but  a  dignified  use  of  the  influence. 
The  young  man  never  was  in  Italy,  but  on  the  road  where  Italian  prod- 
ucts passed  along.     Diirer  went  to  Italy,  but  escaped  contamination. 

Holbein  had  an  eye  for  the  main  chance,  not  refusing  offers  of 
money  for  country's  sake,  as  Diirer  did.  Taking  letters  from  Erasmus 
to  Sir  Thomas  More,  then  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  he  made  the 
journey  to  that  far  country.  On  the  way,  in  Flanders,  Quentin  Mat- 
sys  (then  well  along  in  years)  received  his  attentions. 

Sir  Thomas  More's  house  and  hand,  influence  and  general  support 
soon  placed  Holbein  in  a  position  to  wear  velvet  coats. 

Our  story  grows  dull  with  accounts  of  portrait  painting,  designs 
for  dagger-hilts  and  jewelled  cups,  visits  to  the  continent,  to  Basle, 
and  more  portraits  when  back  in  England,  until  the  moment  when 
King  Henry  VIII.,  having  fallen  in  love  with  Anne  Boleyn  anj[  then 
grown  sufficiently  tired  of  her  to  want  another  wife,  cut  off  her  head 


Raphael  —  The  Transfiguration. 


THE  AUTHORITY   OF  ITALY  33 

in  favor  of  her  successor.  Then  it  seems  that  the  king  desired  some 
one  to  originate  decorations  for  the  marriage  festival,  and  to  paint 
Jane  Seymour's  portrait  as  she  in  turn  became  queen. 

Holbein's  true  genius  shows  in  these  portraits,  which  are  not  sur- 
passed by  any  in  the  world  from  the  point  of  view  of  exquisite  finish, 
clean  drawing  and  decorative  effect.  Titian  made  richer  color  and 
greater  dignity;  Velasquez  stamped  his  portraits  with  the  seal  of  aris- 
tocratic elegance  and  a  "something  else"  which  I  cannot  describe;  but 
Holbein  excites  our  wonder  when  we  think  of  his  limited  early  oppor- 
tunities and  what  he  made  of  himself.  These  heads  are  wonderfully 
well  "constructed"  and  wonderfully  touched.  With  all  the  stately 
grandeur  in  many  of  Diirer's  pictures,  they  never  show  such  ease 
and  simple  naturalness  as  these.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  he 
could  paint  every  detail  with  marvelous  truth  and  minuteness,  because 
other  men  have  done  this  and  all  the  German  painters  of  the  time 
excelled  in  it.  There  is  something  in  Holbein's  painting  beyond 
ordinary  ability.  The  portrait  of  Anne  of  Cleves,  Henry's  fourth  wife, 
which  he  loved  more  than  the  original,  is  quite  unique  in  that  it 
shows  us  the  face  and  all  else  full  front  equal  on  either  side,  two  sides 
alike  in  everything.  It  has  become  a  classic  for  all  who  seek  dignity 
and  repose.  Coquetry  wearies  us  after  a  time;  grace  and  sweet  cham- 
pagne sharpen  the  appetite  for  homeliness  and  old  cheese.  That  out- 
landish headdress,  winged  out  equally  on  either  side,  the  rigid  corsage 
equally  bejewelled  on  either  side,  the  hands  crossed  placidly,  sustained 
by  the  equal  ponderous  sleeves,  all  these  are  as  dignified  as  the  domed 
capitol  building  at  Washington  with  its  peristyled  wings.  The  artist 
saves  the  situation  by  half-concealed  variations,  as  the  two  hands 
vary,  though  counterparts.  This  and  the  Jane  Seymour  portrait  stand 
supreme  in  the  artist's  product.  In  common  with  all  the  painters  of 
this  period,  Holbein  worked  more  in  oils  than  in  distemper.  Fresco 
painting  did  not  appeal  to  these  men,  as  there  were  few  extensive 
wall  spaces  in  the  churches  upon  which  to  spread  wet  plaster  to  strike 
the  fresh  color  into.  Drawings  on  toned  paper,  done  in  chalk  or  ink 
and  often  tinted  with  water-color  or  colored  chalks,  sometimes  show 


34  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

us  the  man  better  than  his  paintings.  Diirer's  drawings  were  strong 
but  never  so  exquisite,  perhaps  not  so  correct. 

After  the  fall  from  power  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  Holbein  found  his 
best  supporters  and  protectors  among  the  powerful  German  merchants 
(in  London)  of  the  celebrated  Hanseatic  League. 

Even  great  men  are  forgotten.  It  is  not  plainly  written,  but  things 
indicate  that  Holbein  went  with  the  forgotten  dead  during  the  con- 
fusion attending  the  panic-spreading  plague  at  London  in  1543. 
Some  claim  that  it  was  another  date,  1554 — London  so  frequently 
luxuriated  in  plagues. 

Principal  Works:    The  Passion,  Dead  Christ,  Portraits  of  His  Wife  and  Chil- 
dren (Basle) ;  Portrait  of  Anne  of  Cleves,  Erasmus  ( Louvre,  Paris) ;  Meyer  Madonna 
(Dresden);    Portrait  of  Charles  V.  (Berlin);   Portrait  of  Henry  VIII.  (Augsburg);. 
Ambassadors  (London). 

French  art  assumes  no  national  characteristics  until  the  time  of 
Louis  XIV.,  and  even  then  much  of  it  was  so  influenced  by  the  Italian 
as  to  be  but  little  original.  But  there  are  several  men  who  made 
excellent  paintings  in  France  about  the  time  of  Francis  I.  (sixteenth 
century).  Francis,  desiring  to  be  in  the  fashion,  and  being  also  a  real 
lover  of  art,  imported  Leonardo  da  Vinci  from  Italy,  making  him 
court  painter.  But  the  artist  was  at  that  time  an  old  man  and  did  but 
little  work. 

In  the  Louvre  are  portraits  of  the  king,  and  of  men  and  women 
of  his  court,  which  recall  remarkably  the  style  of  the  Van  Eycks, 
having  the  same  careful  finish  and  much  of  the  clearness  of  color 
and  firm  drawing  of  the  Flemings.  Many  of  these  probably  are  by 
Jean  and  Franfois  Clouet. 

Other  sixteenth  century  painters  in  France  are  not  sufficiently 
original  to  merit  attention.  It  was  a  period  of  superior  sculpture, 
however,  and  architecture  flourished. 

Jean  Cousin  (1501-1590)  received  his  art  impulse  from  Italy.  He 
is  better  known  as  a  painter  on  glass.  His  "Last  Judgment,"  in  the 
Louvre,  is  sufficiently  celebrated  because  the  work  of  an  early  French- 
man of  pure  nationality.     It  is  said  that  he  painted  in  oils. 


Raphael — Madonna  del'  Granbuca. 


THE  AUTHORITY  OF   ITALY  35 

Chief  among  the  successors  of  Titian  in  Venice  was  Jacopo 
Robusti,  called  Tintoretto  (1518-1594).  These  Venetian  painters 
insisted  upon  growing  as  nature  intended  they  should  develop,  and  the 
soil  was  fertile.  These  were  no  artificially,  fostered  hothouse  plants. 
Be  it  briar  rose  of  cold  Scotland  or  tropical  orchid,  we  can  but  love 
the  unaffected  honesty  of  the  flowers.  The  cognomen  "il  Furioso" 
tells  us  a  great  deal  about  Tintoretto,  most  of  all  that  he  worked  when 
his  talent  glowed  at  white  heat.  It  is  then  that  an  artist  has  liberty, 
and  who  dares  say  that  it  would  have  been  better  had  Tintoretto 
never  painted  less  well  than  his  best,  or  that  he  should  have  been  an 
"even"  worker.  All  the  criticism  heaped  upon  him  falls  fiat  when 
we  think  that  his  failures  are  but  proofs  of  his  unconfined  genius. 
Did  he  not  do  a  sufficient  number  of  masterpieces  to  prove  his  might? 
Titian  (forty-one  years  his  senior),  who  was  his  master  for  a  short 
period,  sent  him  away,  saying  that  he  "would  never  be  any  better 
than  a  dauber."  II  Furioso  at  once  determined  to  found  a  school  of 
art  all  by  himself.  But  for  the  presence  of  his  somewhat  greater 
master,  and  of  Veronese,  he  would  have  carried  out  his  purpose.  As 
it  was,  he  became  one  of  the  coterie  which  the  world  has  counted 
splendid  colorists,  patterns  for  generations  of  artists  to  follow.  As 
there  were  no  great  collections  of  dug-up  antique  statues  in  Venice, 
this  young  artist  had  to  content  himself  with  the  reproductions  of 
great  statues  originating  with  Michael  Angelo  (forty-three  years 
older)  and  turn  to  nature  more  sincerely.  The  anecdotes  related  of 
his  methods  of  study  sound  very  much  like  similar  experiences  in  the 
studios  of  Paris  to-day.  Drawing  from  these  reproductions,  creating 
little  models  in  wax  or  clay,  arranging  his  manikins  in  miniature 
apartments  which  simulated  the  compositions  which  he  had  in  mind, 
hanging  these  up  in  various  positions,  creating  artificial  light  and 
shade  around  them,  performing  multitudinous  tricks  long  since  grown 
familiar:  these  were  his  ways,  and  this  history  is  the  first  authentic 
account  which  we  have  of  these  things,  though  doubtless  used 
previously,  in  a  degree. 

The  cognomen  "Tintoretto"  came  to  him  because  of  his  father's 


36  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

trade  of  dyer.  Poverty  was  less  hard  to  endure  in  Venice  than  it  is  in 
New  York,  but  nevertheless  it  required  pluck  in  the  young  artist  to 
borrow  his  father's  dyestuffs  in  order  to  paint  decorations  on  the 
exterior  of  houses  (as  the  fashion  was,  and  is,  in  Italy),  and  it  showed 
the  ruling  passion,  to  make  pictures  in  color  rather  than  drawings. 
While  still  young,  he  undertook  many  commissions  to  paint  exteriors, 
doing  the  work  without  profit,  content  if  the  materials  alone  were 
paid  for  by  the  patron.  Fame  found  him,  finally,  so  that  he  spread 
his  beloved  color  over  some  arches  of  house  fronts,  to  much  better 
financial  advantage. 

A  legend,  "the  drawing  of  Michael  Angelo  and  the  color  of 
Titian,"  which  his  boyish  enthusiasm  set  up  over  his  studio  door,  was 
written  furiously  over  the  palace  fronts  of  Venice  in  very  large  char- 
acters of  sacred  and  profane  pictorial  history,  and  this  he  did  in  addi- 
tion to  numerous  large  interior  decorations  and  easel  pictures. 

Principal  Works:  Christ  in  the  House  of  Martha  (Aiigsburg) ;  A  Lady  Dressed 
as  a  Queen  (Carrara,  Bergamo) ;  Portrait  of  Procurator,  The  same,  Madonna  with 
SS.  Mark  and  Luke,  Luna  and  the  Hours,  Procurator  before  St.  Mark  (Berlin); 
Bust  of  Old  Man  (Herr  Kaufmann,  Berlin);  Visitation,  Portrait  of  Man  (Bologna); 
Portrait  of  Senator  (Mrs.  J.  L.  Gardner,  Boston,  U.  S.  A.);  An  Old  Man  (Tosio, 
SalaXni.,  Brescia);  Transfiguration  (S.  Afra,  Brescia);  Head  of  Old  Man  (Buda- 
Pesth);  Deposition  (Caen) ;  Head  of  Old  Man,  Portrait  of  Senator  of  Eighty-three 
(Prof.  C.  E.  Norton,  Cambridge,  U.  S.  A.);  Portrait  of  Senator  (Mr.  Arch.  Stirling, 
Carder  House,  near  Glasgow);  Ovid  and  Corinna  (Cologne);  Lady  Dressed  in 
Mourning,  The  Rescue,  Two  Gentlemen  (Dresden) ;  Christ  Washing  the  Feet  of  the 
Disciples  (Escurial);  Two  Portraits  of  Men,  Portrait  of  Luigi  Cornaro,  Portrait  of 
Vincenzo  Zeno  (Florence) ;  Portrait  of  Himself,  Bust  of  Young  Man,  Admiral  Venier, 
Portrait  of  Old  Man,  Portrait  of  Jacopo  Sansovino,  Portrait  of  Man  (Uffizi,  Florence); 
Warrior  (Consul  Weber,  Hamburg) ;  Esther  before  Ahasuerus,  Nine  Muses,  Portrait 
of  Dominican,  Knight  of  Malta,  Portrait  of  a  Senator  (Hampton  Court);  Resurrec- 
tion (Leipzig) ;  Portrait  of  a  Senator  (Lille) ;  St.  George  and  Dragon,  Christ  Wash- 
ing Feet  of  Disciples,  Origin  of  the  Milky  Way  (London);  Portrait  of  Man 
(Bridgewater  House,  London);  Busts  of  Two  Old  Men  (Lord  Brownlow,  London); 
Adam  and  Eve  (Mr.  R.  Crawshay,  London);  Moses  Striking  Rock,  Portrait  of  Sen- 
ator (Mr.  Butler,  London);  Portrait  of  Man,  Portrait  of  Man  by  Window  (Dorchester 
House,  London) ;  The  Resurrection  (Sir  Wm.  Farrer,  London) ;  Portrait  of  Andrae 
Barbadigo,  Portrait  of  Man  (Sir  Arthur  James,  London);  Galleys  at  Sea,  Portrait  of 


Raphael  —  Madonna  dblla  Tenda. 


THE  AUTHORITY   OF   ITALY  3; 

Giovanni  Gritti  (Mr.  Mond,  London) ;  Portrait  of  Admiral  Venier  (Lord  Rosebery, 
London);  Portrait  of  Ottavio  di  Stra  (Mr.  Salting,  London);  Raising  of  Lazarus 
(Lubeck);  Portrait  of  Man  (Sala  L,  Lucca);  Danae,  in  part  (Lyons);  Battle  on  Land 
and  Sea,  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  Wife,  Solomon  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  Susanna 
and  the  Elders,  Finding  of  Moses,  Esther  before  Ahasuerus,  Judith  and  Holofernes 
(Madrid) ;  Pieta,  St.  Helen,  Three  Other  Saints  and  two  Donors,  Finding  the  Body  of 
St.  Mark  (Brera,  Milan) ;  Bust  of  Procurator  (Museo  Civico,  Milan)  Bust  of  man  (Mr. 
T.  H.  Davis,  Newport,  U.  S.  A.);  Portrait  of  Man  (Lord  Cowper,  Panshanger); 
Susanna  and  the  Elders,  Paradise,  Portrait  of  Old  Man  (Paris) ;  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
Portrait  of  Senator  (Sir  F.  Cook,  Richmond);  The  Baptism,  Ecce  Homo,  The 
Flagellation  (Capitol,  Rome);  Three  Women  and  a  Man  Adoring  the  Holy  Spirit, 
Old  Man  Playing  Spinnet,  Two  Portraits  of  Men  (Colonna,  Rome);  Portrait  of  Man 
(Doria,  Rome) ;  The  Trinity  (Turin) ;  S.  Giustina  and  Three  Donors,  Madonna,  Three 
Saints  and  Three  Donors,  Portrait  of  Carlo  Morosini,  Portrait  of  a  Senator,  Deposi- 
tion, Senator  in  Prayer,  Portrait  of  Jacopo  Soranzo,  Andrae  Capello  (Academy 
Venice).  Ceiling:  Prodigal  Son,  Four  Virtues,  Death  of  Abel,  Two  Senators, 
Miracle  of  St.  Mark,  Adam  and  Eve,  Two  Senators,  Resurrected  Christ  Blessing 
Three  Senators,  Madonna,  and  Three  Portraits,  Crucifixion,  Resurrection  (Sala  IV., 
Venice);  Doge  Mocenigo  Recommended  to  Christ  by  St.  Mark,  Figures  in  grisaille 
around  the  Clock,  Dige  Daponte  before  the  Virgin,  Marriage  of  St.  Catherine  and 
Doge  Dona,  Doge  Gritti  before  the  Virgin  (Collegio,  Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice);  Mer- 
cury and  Three  Graces,  Vulcans  Forge,  Bacchus  and  Ariadne,  Minerva  Expelling 
Mars  (Anti  Collegio,  Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice);  SS.  Margaret,  George  and  Louis, 
SS.  Andrew  and  Jerome  (Ante-Room  of  Chapel,  Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice);  St. 
Mark  Presenting  Doge  Loredan  to  the  Virgin  in  Presence  of  Two  Other  Saints 
(Senato,  Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice);  Ceiling  in  part  (Sala  Quattro  Porte,  Palazzo 
Ducale,  Venice);  Alessandro  Bono,  Vincenzo,  Morosini,  Nicole  Priuli,  Ceiling, 
Lorenzo  Amelio  (Ingresso,  Venice);  Andrae  Delphino  (Passage  to  Council 
of  Ten,  Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice);  Federigo  Cintarini,  Nobles  Illumined  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  (Passage  to  Council  of  Ten,  Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice);  Paradise  (Sala 
del  Gran  Consiglio,  Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice) ;  Battle  of  Zara  (Sala  dello  Scrutino, 
Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice) ;  Transportation  of  Body  of  St.  Mark,  St.  Mark  Rescues  a 
Shipwrecked  Saracen,  Diogenes,  Archimedes  and  Two  Other  Philosophers  on  separate 
canvases.  Another  Room,  St.  Roch  (Palazzo  Reale  Libreria,  Venice) ;  Battle  Piece, 
Portrait  of  Senator,  Portrait  of  General,  Portrait  of  Warrior  (Prince  Giovanelli, 
Venice) ;  Crucifixion,  Christ  in  Limbo,  Resurrection  (S.  Cassiano,  Venice) ;  Assump- 
tion of  Virgin,  Circumcision  (Gesuiti,  Venice);  Last  Supper,  Gathering  of  Mannal 
Entombment  (S.  Giorgio  Maggiore,  Venice);  Michael  Overcoming  Lucifer  (S. 
Giuseppe  di  Castello,  Venice);  Finding  of  True  Cross  (S.  Maria  Mater  Domini, 
Venice);  Last  Judgment,  Martyrdom  of  Paul,  The  Tablets  of  the  Law  and  the 
Golden  Calf,  Martyrdom  of  St.   Agnes,  Presentation  of  Virgin  (Maria  dell'   Orto, 


38  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Venice) ;  Glory  of  S.  Marziale  (S.  Marziale,  Venice) ;  Last  Supper,  Assumption  of 
Virgin  (S.  Paolo,  Venice) ;  Annunciation,  Pool  of  Bethesda,  St.  Roch  and  the  Beasts 
of  the  Field,  St.  Roch  Healing  the  Sick,  St.^och  in  Campo  d'Armata,  St.  Roch 
Consoled  by  an  Angel,  St.  Roch  before  the  Pope  (S.  Rocco,  Venice) ;  Nearly  All  the 
Paintings  on  Walls  (Ground  Floor,  Scuola  di  S.  Rocco,  Venice) ;  Visitation  (Staircase, 
S.  Rocco,  Venice) ;  All  the  Paintings  on  Walls  and  Ceiling,  Portrait  of  Himself  (Upper 
Floor,  Hall,  S.  Rocco,  Venice) ;  Crucifixion,  Christ  before  Pilate,  Ecce  Homo,  Way 
to  Golgotha,  Ceiling,  altogether  sixty-two  paintings  (Inner  Room,  S.  Rocco, 
Venice);  Marriage  of  Cana  (Salute,  Venice);  Baptism  (S.  Silvestro,  Venice);  Last 
Supper,  Washing  of  Feet,  Agony  in  Garden  (S.  Stefano,  Venice) ;  Temptation  of  St. 
Anthony  (S.  Trovaso,  Venice) ;  Birth  of  Virgin  (S.  Zaccaria,  Venice) ;  St.  Augustine 
Healing  the  Plague-Stricken  (Entrance  Hall,  Vicenza);  St.  Jerome,  Susanna  and 
the  Elders,  Sebastian  Venier,  An  Officer  in  Armour,  Old  Man  and  Boy,  Two  Por- 
traits of  Men,  Portrait  of  Man,  Portrait  of  Old  Man,  Three  Portraits  of  Men,  Portrait 
of  Lady  (Vienna) ;  Portrait  of  Ales,  Contarini,  Portrait  of  Doge  Priuli  (Academy, 
Venice) ;  Portrait  of  Man  (Woburn  Abbey). 

Paolo  Cagliari  or  Paul  Veronese  (1528- 1588)  was  also  from  the 
north  of  Italy.  His  uncle,  Antonio  Badile  carried  on  an  art  school  of 
which  Paolo  became  a  pupil.  It  has  been  said  that  his  art  was  the 
commencement  of  the  decadence. 

Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  determine  the  relative  greatness 
of  artists.  Genius  is  great  in  and  of  itself  without  regard  to  the  char- 
acter of  its  product.  Raphael  could  never  have  been  a  Titian  or  a 
Veronese.  He  could  draw  (because  so  educated)  with  great  perfec- 
tion in  the  manner  of  the  refined  Greeks,  but  he  could  never  feel  that 
gushing  joyousness  in  swift  painting  merely  for  the  sake  of  expressing 
his  exuberance  of  spirits.  He  never  knew,  nor  could  know,  the 
delight  of  reveling  in  gorgeous  coloring  purely  for  the  sake  of  doing 
it.  Was  Veronese's  genius  of  a  higher  order?  Who  can  say  that  it 
was?  Who  can  declare  that  it  was  not?  What  can  be  greater  than  the 
genius  of  a  genius,  whatever  maybe  its  tendency?  If  there  is  nothing 
in  the  character  of  the  beautiful  Florentine  to  compare  for  a  moment 
with  that  of  these  Venetians,  it  is  equally  true  that  they  had  no 
power  to  invest  a  pagan  image,  i.e.,  an  antique,  with  that  marvelous 
celestial  expression  which  we  find  in  Raphael's  Madonnas.  No  Vene- 
tian ever  conceived  the  expression  of  a  Christ-child  as  Raphael  did,  , 


Raphael — Portrait  of  Himself. 


THE  AUTHORITY   OF   ITALY  39 

nor  could  imagine  it  in  order  to  make  the  attempt.  Shall  we  conclude 
that  Raphael's  genius  was  the  greater?  Each  one  will  answer  this 
after  his  own  taste  and  affection.  Some  love  the  moral  in  a  picture; 
some  love  the  painter  qualities.  Argument  is  useless  in  attempting  to 
influence  either.     If  we  love  it,  we  love  it,  so  reasoning  is  useless. 

Try  as  they  would,  not  one  of  the  followers  of  Raphael  could  make 
an  expression  like  that  in  the  Sistine  Madonna.  In  all  the  genera- 
tions, even  until  to-day,  they  seek  that  attainment — uselessly.  It 
must  be  that  Raphael  had  a  magnificent  genius.  However,  it  is 
equally  true  that  all  generations  have  emulated  Titian  and  Veronese, 
with  the  same  lack  of  success.  Titian  was  a  most  original  man, 
inventing  human  expression  second  only  to  Raphael,  but  surpassing 
the  Florentine  in  painter  qualities  as  the  sun  surpasses  a  candle  in 
brilliancy.  The  wild  gush  of  Tintoretto,  which  carries  us  all  off  our 
feet,  was  impossible  for  either  Titian  or  Raphael.  Again  we  come  to 
a  man  who  had  a  genius  all  his  own;  something  impossible  for  any  of 
his  predecessors.  I  suspect  that  the  criticism  which  is  hurled  at 
Veronese,  that  he  was  the  turning-point  between  greatness  and  deca- 
dence, has  its  foundation  in  prejudice.  It  is  largely  a  puff  of  smoke 
from  that  old  war  between  classicism  and  spontaneity.  Veronese 
painted  from  the  fullness  of  his  heart,  drawing  indifferently  because 
not  well  trained  in  his  classics,  but  painting  like  one  of  the  gods, 
because  his  was  painter  genius. 

It  does  not  signify  that  his  successors,  attempting  his  magnificence, 
revealed  themselves  only  decadents,  because  the  same  is  true  of 
Raphael's  followers,  of  Michael  Angelo's,  of  Benvenuto  Cellini's,  and 
of  every  rare  genius.  The  divine  fire  had  burned  itself  out,  so  that 
there  was  no  more  genius  in  the  land.  Diirer,  Holbein,  Rembrandt, 
Van  Dyck,  Velasquez,  all  were  followed  by  men  of  lesser  light,  some 
of  them  of  no  light  at  all.     When  the  oil  is  consumed,  what  will  you? 

Portrait  painting  is  a  great  test  of  genius — the  power  to  perceive 
the  best  there  is  in  a  face  and  set  it  forth  effectively.  Raphael's  por- 
traits are  not  as  wonderful  as  Titian's  or  as  Holbein's,  or  as  those  of 
the    magnificent  delineator    of  character,  Velasquez.      The   faces  of 


40  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Veronese's  pictures  are  portraits,  wonderful  in  character.  No  face  in 
a  picture  by  Raphael  is  a  portrait,  nor  did  he  intend  that  it  should  be. 
Thus,  men  of  great  genius  differ,  as  they  should,  but  who  is  to  deter- 
mine the  degree  of  genius  in  each?  There  is  reason  to  doubt  the  often 
accepted  theory  that  so-called  importance  of  subject  has  anything  to  do 
with  the  measurement  of  grade  of  genius. 

No  man  in  the  world  has  approached  Veronese  in  the  production 
of  immense  decorative  panels,  crowded  with  figures,  nearly  all  life- 
sized  and  full  of  movement,  set  amid  grandiose  architectural  sur- 
roundings only  equalled  in  the  tales  of-  the  Arabian  Nights,  their 
persons  clothed  in  rich  garments,  loaded  with  jewels  and  every  sort  of 
luxurious  thing.  No  vessels  of  gold  and  crystal  were  too  sumptuous  for 
his  noble  company,  nor  could  there  be  too  many  of  them.  The  "Mar- 
riage at  Cana"  (Louvre)  is  more  than  twenty-five  feet  long,  containing 
an  immense  number  of  figures,  all  the  principal  figures  being  portraits, 
including  Veronese  himself.  The  composition  pays  no  attention  to 
preconceived  ideals  of  this  scene,  as  Veronese  sought  only  to  produce 
a  vast  decoration  filled  with  elegant  people  and  objects.  It  is  in 
reality  a  superb  feast  in  which  Venetian  people  enjoy  themselves.  All 
these  things  were  rendered  with  the  colors  of  the  golden  sunset,  but 
modified  by  that  wonderful  harmonious  gray  which  we  talked  about. 
His  was  far  and  away  the  most  wonderful  genius  in  this  respect  which 
the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  The  genius  which  has  no  competitors 
is  indeed  great,  no  matter  in  what  manner  it  manifests  itself. 

Many  claim  that  the  orientals  have  more  native  feeling  for  deco- 
rative effect  than  the  occidentals.  If  this  be  true,  it  is  the  direct 
outcome  of  genius,  and  Veronese  had  this  power  more  than  any  other 
occidental.  He  lived  sixty  years,  and  then  the  light  went  out,  as  it 
has  done  many  times  since,  and  with  equal  suddenness.  One  genius 
does  not  create  another  genius.  It  may  help  to  develop  one;  but  only 
the  Almighty  knows  where  genius  comes  from  or  why  it  comes. 

Principal  Works:  Madonna  with  Cuccina  Family,  Adoration  of  Magi,  Mar- 
riage of  Cana,  Finding  of  Moses,  Portrait  of  Daniel  Barbaro  (Dresden) ;  Portrait  of 
Daniel  Barbaro  (Pitti,  Florence) ;   Martyrdom  of  St.  Giustina,  Holy  Family  and  St. 


THE   AUTHORITY   OF   ITALY  41 

Catherine  (UfBzi,  Florence);  Madonna  and  Saints  (?)  (Hampton  Court) ;  Consecra- 
tion of  St.  Nicholas,  Alexander  and  the  Family  of  Darius  (London) ;  Holy  Family 
(Dr.  Richter,  London);  Christ  and  the  Centurion,  Finding  of  Moses  (Madrid); 
Frescoes  (Villa  Barbaro,  Maser);  SS.  Antony,  Cornelius,  and  Cyprian,  and  Page 
(Brera,  Milan);  Martyrdom  of  St.  Giustina  (Padua);  Christ  at  Emaus  (Paris);  Young 
Mother  and  Child,  Marriage  of  Cana  (Paris) ;  Portrait  of  Man  in  Green  (Colonna, 
Rome);  St.  Antony  Preaching  to  the  Fishes  (Villa  Borghese,  Rome);  Battle  of 
Lepanto,  Feast  in  House  of  Levi,  Madonna  with  SS.  Joseph,  John,  Francis,  Jerome 
and  Giustina  (Academy,  Venice);  Thanksgiving  for  Lepanto  ( CoUegio,  Palazzo 
Ducale,  Venice);  Rape  of  Europa  (Ante-Collegio,  Palazzo  Ducale,  Venice) ;  Holy 
Family  (S.  Barnaba,  Venice) ;  Marriage  of  St.  Catherine  (S.  Caterina,  Venice) ;  Holy 
Family  with  SS.  Catherine  and  Antony  Abbot  (S.  Francesco  della  Vigna,  Venice)  ; 
Madonna  and  Two  Saints,  Crucifixion,  Madonna  in  Glory  with  St.  Sebastian  and 
Other  Saints,  SS.  Mark  and  Marcilian  led  to  Martyrdom,  St.  Sebastian  Being  Bound 
(?)  (S.  Sebastiano,  Venice) ;  Onofrio  and  Paul  the  Hermit,  SS.  Matthew  and  Mark, 
SS.  Roch,  Andrew,  Peter  and  Figure  of  Faith,  Tiburtine  and  Cumaean  Sibyls 
(Frescoes,  SS.  Sebastiano,  Venice) ;  Portrait  of  Pasio  Guadienti,  Deposition  (Verona) ; 
Martyrdom  of  St.  George  (S.  Giorgio,  Verona);  Madonna  and  Saints  (S.  Paola, 
Verona);  Madonna  (Sala  II.,  Vicenza);  Feast  of  St.  Gregory  (Monte  Berico, 
Vicenza);  Christ  at  the  House  of  Jairus  (Vienna). 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  SCHOOL  OF   RAPHAEL  AND    ITS   COMPETITORS 

The  contest  between  an  inclination  to  delineate  objects  as  they 
exist  and  the  desire  to  present  lofty  idealizations  has  occupied  the 
attention  of  artists  of  all  times.  The  division  into  distinct  classes  did 
not  begin  however,  until  the  fifteenth  century. 

Among  the  first  of  the  realists  was  Tomaso  Guido,  called 
Masaccio  (1401-1429),  and  his  ability  to  paint  what  passed  before  his 
eyes  had  a  marked  influence.  His  works  were  almost  entirely  of  a 
realistic  character,  and  he  broke  loose  in  a  measure  from  the  restraints 
which  the  ecclesiastics  had  fastened  upon  art.  Departing  from  the 
fixed  formulae  imposed  by  the  church,  he  copied  freely  from  real  life 
with  such  success  that  his  frescoes  were  studied  by  the  greatest  artists 
of  his  time. 

Principal  Works:  Adoration  of  Magi,  Martyrdom  of  St.  Peter  and  the  Baptist, 
A  Birth  Plate  (Berlin);  Madonna,  Child  and  St.  Anne  (Academy,  Florence).  Fres- 
coes: Expulsion  from  Paradise,  Tribute  Money,  SS.  Peter  and  John  Healing  the 
Sick  with  Their  Shadows,  St.  Peter  Baptising,  SS.  Peter  and  John  Distributing  Alms ; 
In  the  Raising  of  the  King's  Son,  Middle  Group  and  part  of  St.  Peter,  and  scene  to 
R.,  St.  Peter  Enthroned  (Carmine,  Brancacci  Chapel,  Florence);  Trinity,  Madonna, 
and  St.  John,  and  two  Donors  (S.  Maria  Novella,  Wall  R.  of  Entrance,  Florence). 

The  great  masters  of  the  Renaissance,  da  Vinci,  Angelo,  Raphael, 
Titian  and  his  following,  still  painted  their  highly-idealized  concep- 
tions of  religious  characters,  though  more  naturally;  and  they  all 
executed  portraits,  somewhat  ideal,  though  nearly  naturalistic. 
Angelo  and  Raphael  idealized  drawing  according  to  the  forms  of  the 
antique  statues.  The  Venetians,  influenced  less  by  the  antique, 
became  wonderful  colorists,  and  finally  almost  realists,  as  with 
Veronese. 

42 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   RAPHAEL  43 

The  following  of  this  great  Renaissance  rapidly  degenerated,  pos- 
sibly because  the  Italian  people  degenerated.  Correggio  was  more 
naturalistic,  and  many  of  his  erotic  pictures  will  not  altogether  bear 
description.  In  churches,  the  ecclesiastics  still  controlled  the  art, 
though  even  there  it  lost  dignity  and  religiosity.  In  many  convents 
were  painted  decorations  and  easel  pictures  beyond  belief  frivolous. 
Excellent  portraiture  flourished,  though  the  artists  who  may  be  admit- 
ted to  the  enchanted  ground  occupied  by  Titian,  Velasquez,  Van 
Dyck,  Rembrandt,  and — in  a  judgment  of  charity — Reynolds,  are 
almost  limited  by  the  names  mentioned.  Portrait  painting  is  one 
of  the  noblest  of  arts;  but  for  this  reason  good  portraits  are  scarce. 

After  Raphael's  career  was  ended,  a  school  was  formed  for  the 
express  purpose  of  perpetuating  his  style  and  that  of  the  other  great 
masters  just  gone.  It  was  called  the  Academy  of  the  Caracci.  Its 
masters  had  no  real  conviction,  and  the  material  with  which  they 
worked  was  degenerate  Italian,  but  its  influence  was  important,  and  it 
resulted  in  raising  up  Guido  Reni,  Domenichino  and  indirectly  Carlo 
Dolci.  The  manner  in  which  history  continually  repeats  the  same 
story  is  illustrated  by  this  movement.  Like  undulations  in  the  land- 
scape, when  the  top  of  the  hill  is  reached,  there  is  but  one  possible 
development — that  the  land  shall  descend.  The  top  of  most  hills  is 
very  soon  traversed.  The  ascent  having  been  long  and  tedious,  the 
descent  is  long  but  easy,  and  the  next  level  valley  quite  often  tedious 
to  traverse. 

That  which  happened  in  Greece,  when  the  epoch  of  Phidias  became 
that  of  the  over  refined  Praxiteles,  who  was  followed  with  indifference 
and  frivolity,  happened  in  Italy  at  this  time,  and  it  happened  in  France 
during  the  reigns  of  Louis  XV.  and  Louis  XVI.  The  Italian  artists 
grew  to  be  like  naughty  boys  who  needed  to  be  gathered  in  a  reform 
school.  To  this  end  Ludovico  Caracci  (1555-1619)  created  a  school 
for  teaching  artists  good  manners.  Exactly  the  same  thing  occurred 
when  David  attempted  the  reformation  of  French  art  (following  the 
Bourbons  mentioned)  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  and  the  Empire. 
The  French  had  still  sufificient  virtue  and  the  movement  was  a  success 


44  THE   WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

eventually.  The  reform  school  of  the  Caracci  family  produced  Guido 
Reni  as  its  best  example.  The  school  of  David  produced  Ingres,  who 
was  a  better  proposition.  From  this  latter  movement  the  best  art  of 
the  nineteenth  century  sprang.  Also,  as  Caravaggio  rose  up  as  the 
revolutionary  force  to  set  in  movement  a  realistic  and  "romantic" 
movement,  so  Delacroix  rose  up  to  counteract  the  too  well  regulated 
art  of  David.  It  is  necessary  to  keep  these  tendencies  well  in  mind, 
if  we  would  clearly  appreciate  the  history  of  art. 

The  elder  Caracci  was  slow  and  laborious  in  his  execution,  gaining 
the  cognomen  "the  Ox,"  but  technique,  careful  and  well-regulated 
drawing,  imitation  of  Michael  Angelo  for  certain''styles  of  picture,  of 
Raphael  for  others,  of  Titian  in  the  proper  moment  and  Correggio 
when  it  was  suitable,  made  him  a  reformer  who  might  have  done 
much  for  art,  had  the  material  he  worked  upon  been  better.  His  has 
been  called  "the  Eclectic  School,"  which  at  once  bars  the  idea  of 
originality. 

His  first  instructor  was  Fontana,  of  his  native  city,  but  Tintoretto 
did  more  to  influence  his  color,  and  imitation  of  Raphael  his  style. 
His  picture,  "The  Preaching  of  John  the  Baptist"  (in  the  Louvre),  is 
charmingly  executed  and  pleases  those  who  are  satisfied  with  good 
technique  for  its  own  sake.  His  most  important  works  are  in  the 
Palazzo  Magnani  and  the  Zampieri  at  Bologna,  and  in  the  churches  of 
the  same  city. 

Principal  IVorks:  Madonna  with  SS.  Dominic,  Francis,  Clara  and  Mary  Mag- 
dalene (Academy,  Bologna);  Pieta  (Corsini  Collection,  Rome);  Entombment 
(Munich) ;  Feeding  of  the  Five  Thousand,  Punishment  of  Amor  (Berlin). 

Assisting  Ludovico  were  his  cousins,  Agostino  Caracci  (1558-1602) 
and  Anabale  Caracci  (1560-1609).  The  former  was  the  learned  man 
of  this  company;  the  latter  the  energetic  and  by  far  the  most  talented 
one.  The  elder  wrote  books  on  perspective  and  architecture;  the 
other  did  the  good  painting.  In  addition  to  these  leaders  there  were 
the  son  of  Agostino,  Antonio  Caracci  (1583-1618),  and  the  youngest 
brother  of  the  important  pair,  Francesco  Caracci  (i 595-1622),  who 
kept  the  Academy  in  operation. 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   RAPHAEL  45 

Important  Works  of  Anabale  Caracci:  Frescoes  (Farnese  Palace,  Rome); 
Madonna  of  the  Cherries,  Madonna  of  Silence,  Resurrection,  Appearance  of  the 
Virgin  to  St.  Luke  and  St.  Catharine  (Louvre,  Paris) ;  Three  Marys  (Castle  Howard, 
England) ;  Bacchante  (Naples) ;  Holy  Family  (Gallery  of  the  Capitol,  Rome) ;  The 
Lute  Player  (Dresden);  Susanna,  Eros  and  Anteros  Fighting  before  Venus  (Munich); 
Christ,  Mary,  St.  John  Baptist,  Twelve  Apostles  (Berlin). 

While  Ludovico  and  his  relatives  were  in  full  course  of  manufac- 
turing indifferent  artists  out  of  indifferent  material,  a  child  was  born 
(of  rude  parents)  who  knew  nothing  of  all  this  posturing  and  who 
painted  just  as  nature  moved  him  to  paint,  and  because  he  could  not 
help  painting  that  way.  His  name  was  Michael  Angelo  Amerighii 
called  Caravaggio  (1569-1609). 

Michael  Angelo  Amerighi  (or  Morigi),  called  Caravaggio  (1569- 
1609),  was  born,  as  his  cognomen  indicates,  in  a  village  of  that  name, 
near  Milan.  The  son  of  a  mason,  he  carried  mortar  to  spread  on  the 
walls  that  the  fresco  painters  might  rapidly  strike  their  colors  into  it 
before  the  surface  was  dry  and  so  caught  the  infection  and  imitated 
the  artists.  No  schooling  of  academical  Caraccis  held  him  to  the 
proprieties,  no  rotten  civilization  had  tainted  his  native  force.  He 
painted  what  was  before  his  eyes,  even  the  common  objects,  fruits  and 
vegetables,  still  life  and  country  people.  Drawing  with  native  spirit 
unhampered  with  the  traditions  of  the  antique  or  of  Raphael,  he 
spread  the  surfaces  with  colors  somewhat  more  loud  than  charming, 
but  always  with  sincerity  and  native  force.  Naturally  the  people 
liked  it  so  much  that  a  great  many  trained  painters  felt  obliged  to 
yield  a  point  in  the  same  direction. 

Some  of  the  historians,  who  are  wedded  to  the  proprieties  of 
academical  painting,  have  spasms  over  this  departure  from  pure  style. 
But  if  ever  an  innovator,  however  rude,  was  needed,  this  was  the 
moment  for  his  appearance. 

Called  to  Rome,  he  painted  in  the  churches,  always  in  his  own 
manner,  very  little  modified  by  the  influences  about  him.  The  Caraccis 
affected  skillful  modeling  of  the  figure  in  full  light,  thinking  strong 
shades    vulgar.     Caravaggio    showed    his    remarkable    originality   by 


46  THE   WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

abandoning  this  affectation  and  dashing  in  all  the  sparkle,  light  and 
shade  and  color  contrasts  which  nature  suggested  to  him.  On  the 
whole,  the  priests  did  not  long  permit  this  "desecration"  of  sacred 
things,  but  the  impetuous  artist  found  abundant  commissions  in  por- 
traiture. 

In  our  history  the  not  unimportant  influence  which  this  son  of  the 
soil  had  upon  Italian  art  is  less  interesting  than  its  influence  upon 
another  nation,  one  which  was  then  advancing,  coming  up  out  of  the 
darkness  of  priestly  rule — upon  Spain. 

Caravaggio  went  to  Naples  and  met  there  a  young  Spaniard, 
named  Ribera,  who  was  fresh  in  sentiment  and  the  first  of  his  nation 
to  make  an  impression  upon  his  country  in  a  healthy  art  direction. 
Many  of  Caravaggio's  pictures  were  sent  to  Spain  and  there  influenced 
one  of  the  greatest  painters  of  all  the  world,  Velasquez. 

How  strikingly  this  resembles  the  history  of  the  "school  of  David" 
(French,  early  nineteenth  century),  in  as  much  as  that  master  was  a 
marvelous  draughtsman  who  ignored  color,  just  as  the  Caraccis  did, 
and  his  revolutionary  pupil,  Delacroix,  drew  less  well  but  gave  color 
its  full  development,  as  was  the  habit  of  Caravaggio.  And  in  the 
matter  of  action  of  figures,  it  was  exactly  a  parallel  case — one  reserved 
and  "proper,"  the  other  abandoned  and  impetuous,  utterly  indifferent 
to  the  proprieties. 

Holbein  had  been  dead  twenty-six  years  when  Caravaggio  was 
born.     Except  in  Italy  no  art  movement  is  in  evidence  at  this  time. 

Rubens  visited  Italy  about  1600,  just  before  Caravaggio  died,  but 
there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  he  was  affected  by  the  art  of  the  rude 
Italian.  Salvator  Rosa  was  born  six  years  after  Caravaggio's  death 
and  was  doubtless  greatly  shaped  by  him,  being  a  similar  character. 

Principal  Works:  Beheading  of  St.  John  Baptist  (Malta);  Holy  Family 
(Borghese  Palace,  Rome);  Entombment  (Vatican);  Gamblers  (Sciarra  Palace, 
Rome);  Fortune  Teller  (Capitol,  Rome);  Medusa  Head  (Uffizzi,  Florence);  Lute 
Player  (Vienna);  Guardsmen,  Card  Players,  St.  Sebastian  (Dresden);  Christ 
Crowned  with  Thorns  (Munich);  Entombment,  St.  Matthew,  Love  Triumphant  over 
Arts  and  Sciences,  Young  Roman  Girl  (Berlin) 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   RAPHAEL  47 

To  return  to  the  school  of  Caracci,  the  first  important  pupil  is 
Guido  Reni  (i 575-1642).  Born  in  Bologna,  he  early  joined  the  Acad- 
emy of  the  Caracci  and  was  precocious.  Some  brilliant  works  by 
Caravaggio  carried  him  away  by  their  power  and  sparkle,  so  that 
he  adopted  that  manner.  The  proverbial  red  rag  in  front  of  a  bull 
suggests  the  effect  of  a  Caravaggio  before  one  of  the  Caracci.  It 
made  him  rave  about  vulgarity  and  the  betrayal  of  the  sacred  trust  of 
the  artists — always  the  same  story  of  the  war  between  realism  and  the 
classics.  What  most  worried  him  was  the  disposition  of  this  son  of  a 
bricklayer  to  paint  naturalistic  subjects.  Nature  must  not  come  into 
their  presence  without  proper  court  manners.  This  little  by-play  of 
war  between  classical  painting  and  genre  painting  is  pretty  impor- 
tant because  we  shall  meet  it  many  times.  Both  kinds  are  right  just 
half  way.  Finally  the  victory  was  won  by  Caracci,  though  later,  when 
Cardinal  Borghese  invited  Guido  to  do  some  painting,  it  was  stipu- 
lated that  it  should  be  in  the  manner  of  Caravaggio.  Guido  partially 
kept  to  that  style,  though  his  heart  was  no  longer  in  it. 

It  seems  that  the  student  is  forced  into  the  senseless  method  of 
contemplating  the  history  of  art  as  if  it  were  divided  by  the  centuries 
into  distinct  strata.  Guido  Reni  actually  did  most  of  his  work  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  but  he  belongs  to  the  movement  of  the  Renais- 
sance, as  do  Domenichino  and  Dolci.  The  true  history  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  is  written  in  Spain  and  the  Netherlands  -excepting 
that  made  by  Claude  and  Poussin,  two  Frenchmen  who  resided  in 
Italy.  It  is  not  my  desire  to  attempt  this  arbitrary  division  in  this 
writing,  but  rather  to  picture  the  art  world  as  it  actually  moved. 

It  is  a  sorry  task  to  speak  slightingly  of  something  which  many 
people  love,  but  no  art  critic  has  the  right  to  pretend  that  the  superior 
mechanics  of  Guido  is  in  any  way  great  art.  It  may  be  pronounced 
remarkably  excellent  painting,  however.  He  learned  how  to  paint 
better  than  any  other  of  the  numberless  students  in  the  Caracci 
academy,  but  he  did  no  more  than  that.  Fine  painting  is  worth 
having,  when  we  cannot  command  great  painting. 

His  best   known  work,   the    "Aurora,"   gives   us  one  of  the  best 


48  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

mura.  decorations  in  Italy,  judged  simply  as  a  decoration.  The 
figures  are  direct  copies  of  antiques,  but  well  arranged  and  delicately 
painted.  Were  they  not  in  competition  with  the  work  of  Raphael  ail 
would  be  well.  Doubtless  most  people  like  it  better  than  anything  by 
the  great  master.  It  is  so  easy  to  like  Guido!  He  boasted  that  the 
Venus  of  Medici  and  the  Niobe  were  his  models,  and  his  work  sub- 
stantiates his  claim  to  the  uttermost.  As  it  happens  that  both  these 
antiques  are  of  the  debased  Greek  period,  the  claim  does  not  elevate 
the  situation.  But  judged  by  the  jealousy  and  intrigue  aroused  by 
his  success,  there  must  have  been  something  in  his  art  far  above  the 
ordinary. 

Principal  Works:  Altar  piece  (Churcn  of  San  Lorenzo,  Lucina,  Rome) ;  Cruci- 
fixion of  St.  Peter  (Vatican);  Madonna  della  Pieta,  Crucifixion  (Bolognese  Museum). 
Frescoes;  Aurora  (Casino  of  the  Rospigliosi  Palace);  Beatrice  Cenci  (?)  (Barberini 
Palace,  Rome) ;  Ecce  Homo  (Corsini  Palace) ;  St.  Michael  and  the  Dragon  (Church 
of  the  Capuchins,  Rome) ;  Massacre  of  the  Innocents,  II  Pallione,  Nativity  (Naples); 
Ecce  Homo,  Labors  of  Hercules  (Louvre,  Paris);  The  Hermits  St.  Paul  and  St. 
Anthony  (Berlin) ;  Ninus  and  Semiramis  (Dresden) ;  Ecce  Homo,  Assumption ' 
of  the  Virgin  (Munich);  St.  Jerome  Reading  Sibyl  (Uflfizi,  Florence);  Cleopatra, 
Rebecca  al  the  Well  (Pitti  Gallery,  Florence);  Portrait  of  Himself  (Capitol,  Rome); 
Magdalene  (Coronna  Palace,  Rome);  Daughter  of  Herodias  (Corsini  Palace,  Rome); 
Contemplation. 

A  Dutchman  who  was  conspicuous  at  this  time  was  Franz  Snyders 
(i  579-1657) — so  well  known  on  account  of  his  engravings  that  a  word 
about  him  is  necessary.  His  treatment  of  hunting  scenes  and  con- 
ventional landscapes  was  vigorous,  and  for  realistic  portraiture  of 
animal  life  he  is  worthy  of  note. 

Principal  Works:  Twenty-three  pictures  of  wild  hunts,  dead  game,  lions, 
goats,  fruit,  etc.  (Madrid);  Hunts  and  dead  game  (Dresden);  Kitchen  Interior 
(Munich). 

Domenico  Zampieri,  called  Domenichino  (1581-1641),  is  not  so 
dangerous  as  Guido  because  less  popular.     The  dignity  in  his  figures'^ 
comes  pretty  near  to  stiffness;  and  his  still  life,  introduced  persist- 
ently as  enrichment  for  holy  figures,  proves  how  poverty-stricken  the 


GuiDO  Rbni  —  Beatrice  Cenci. 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   RAPHAEL 


49 


art  had  become.  It  is  excellent  jewelry  and  lace  that  ne  pamts,  and 
a  cup  or  holy  vessel  is  beautifully  rendered,  much  better  than  Raphael 
could  do.  At  least,  I  suppose  that  this  is  true,  though  the  great 
master  may  have  had  so  much  better  things  in  mind  than  Domenichino 
ever  dreamt  of,  that  he  paid  no  attention  to  still  life.  This  man  is 
another  painter  of  classical  statues — very  correct  reproductions  they 
are,  but  little  more  than  that.  The  work  marks  an  epoch  as  concerns  this 
matter  of  the  lace  and  jewelry.  Some  of  his  saints  appear  in  dresses 
which  come  pretty  near  modern  costume,  and  this  element  of  realism 
is  a  factor  in  his  art.  He  could  make  a  landscape  which  approaches 
atmospheric  rendering,  getting  the  world  ready  for  Claude's  coming. 
The  wolf  could  not  get  in  at  his  door  because  of  Sibyls;  any  one  of 
which  became  a  St.  John  when  the  turban  was  taken  off — an  econom- 
ical use  of  one  antique  head  for  two  characters;  that  is,  if  any  of  them 
had  a  character.  He  kept  antique  forms  in  stock  like  theater 
"properties." 

He  was  born  in  Bologna,  was  a  student  in  the  Caracci  Academy 
with  Guido,  and  like  him  responded  to  calls  from  cardinals  and  popes 
to  paint  the  walls  of  palaces  and  churches,  work  which  he  did  superbly 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  artists  of  that  time.  Probably  the  near- 
est counterpart  of  these  leaders  of  the  Italian  artists  of  the  end  of  the 
Renaissance  is  David's  pupil  Ingres.  But  Ingres'  race  was  a  stronger 
one,  a  coming  lineage,  not  a  departing.  Intrigue  waxed  hot  in  those 
days.  Any  man  of  superior  excellence  was  persecuted  by  rivals. 
Like  Guido,  he  retired  to  Bologna  to  rest  until  his  end  came,  though 
always  painting.  Claude,  Poussin,  Velasquez,  Murillo,  Rubens,  Van 
Dyck,  Rembrandt,  all  came  into  prominence  during  the  lives  of  Guido 
and  Domenichino. 

Important  Works:  Frescoes:  Evangelists  CSan  Andrea  della  Valla,  Rome); 
Last  Communion  of  St.  Jerome  (Vatican) ;  Murder  of  St.  Peter  of  Verona,  Martyr- 
dom of  St.  Agnes  (Bologna) ;  Martyrdom  of  St.  Sebastian  (Church  of  Santa  Maria 
degli  Angeli) ;  Scourging  of  St.  Andrew  (Chapel  of  the  Saint  on  Monte  Celio,  Rome) ; 
Madonna  of  the  Rosary  (Bolognese  Academy);  Cumaean  Sibyl,  Diana  and  Her 
Nymphs  (Borghese  Palace,  Rome);  St.  Cecilia  (Louvre,  Paris):  Guardian  Angel 
(Naples);  Susanna  at  the  Bath,  St.  Jerome  Writing  (Munich);  Deluge  (Berlin). 


50  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

While  it  is  true  that  Italy  was  the  cradle  of  art  up  to  the  seven-, 
teenth  century,  we  find  a  number  of  famous  painters  in  other  con- 
tinental countries.  The  naissance  of  art  in  Holland  was  especially^  • 
notable.  The  Netherlands  had  divided  and  after  the  conflict  which 
resulted  partially  in  throwing  off  the  Spanish  yoke  their  individuality 
became  apparent.  Revolutions  have  always  inspired  artists  and 
writers  and  Flanders  was  no  exception. 

The  name  of  Peter  Paul  Rubens  (1577-1640)  was  of  course  the 
most  prominent.  Owing  to  political  disturbances,  the  father  of  the 
artist,  who  was  a  man  of  importance  in  Antwerp,  retired  to  Germany 
where  Rubens  was  born  in  a  small  town  not  far  from  Cologne,  but  was 
taken  back  to  Antwerp  very  early.  The  fact  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
church  still  maintained  its  power  in  Flanders  and  that  there  was  a 
minor  court  there  provided  the  opportunity  for  this  man  and  his  pupil, 
Van  Dyck,  to  paint  immense  canvases  while  the  Dutch  could  do  so  • 
only  to  a  limited  extent.  The  one  people  called  for  domestic 
pictures,  the  other  for  the  grand  art.  Rubens  was  brought  up  a  gentle- 
man in  the  home  of  a  nobleman,  learning  there  the  manners  which  • 
later  were  used  by  this  artist-diplomat  to  so  great  advantage.  ; 

Early  taught  the  technique  of  his  art  by  two  men.  Van  Veen  and  • 
Van  Noort,  he  went  to  Italy  to  the  household  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua,  i 
who  soon  discovered  his  worth  and  sent  the  young  man  on  a  delicate 
mission  to  the  court  of  Philip  III.,  at  Madrid,  where  he  painted: the 
king's  portrait.     All  over  Italy  he  had  already  gained  great  fame  by 
the   creation   of    magnificent   church    decorations.      He    learned   Ian- w, 
guages,    studied    science,    gained  distinction  in  art  and  returned  to 
Antwerp,  after  eight  years  of  splendid  success,  to  take  a  wife  from  an 
important  family,   build  a  superb  house,  and,  finally,   to  be  sent  on 
another  mission   to  Spain,  where  the  great  Velasquez,  then  just  win- 
ning fame,  became  his  friend.     There  he  painted  more  great  pictures. 
What  an  array  of  superlatives  are  required  to  describe  the  movements  1 
of  this  many-sided  man,  prolific  painter  and  polished  gentleman!  ' 

One  mission  caused  another  to  claim   his  attention;  this  time  to 
England,  when  Charles  II.  was  king.     His  portrait  was  painted  and  a 


Rubens  —  Holt  Familt. 


THE   SCHOOL   OF   RAPHAEL  51 

ceiling  in  the  Whitehall  Palace  banqueting  room,  which  gained  him 
the  honors  of  knighthood.  He  had  received  the  same  honor  previously 
from  Philip  IV.  of  Spain  on  his  second  visit  to  Madrid.  His  home  in 
Antwerp  saw  the  later  years  of  his  eventful  life,  where  death  found 
him  rich,  honored  and  one  of  the  most  widely-known  artists  of  history. 

As  if  it  were  not  enough  that  his  painting  should  be  scattered  all 
over  the  rest  of  Europe,  the  French  employed  him  (1622)  to  paint  the 
enormous  series  in  honor  of  Marie  de  Medici,  which  is  now  newly 
arranged  in  a  special  gallery  at  the  Louvre.  Much  has  been  said 
about  this  collection,  that  it  belies  Rubens'  genius  because  his  other 
occupations  forced  the  excution  of  it  upon  his  pupils  and  helpers.  A 
recent  examination  of  the  collection  convinced  me  that  the  great  man 
did  most  of  the  work.  It  is  easy  to  determine  where  he  left  off  and 
the  lesser  men  took  up  the  work.  All  important  heads  and  figures 
are  by  the  master,  and  they  are  very  fine. 

Rubens  was  not  as  great  a  man  in  many  respects  as  Velasquez,  not 
possessing  the  power  and  stately  dignity  of  the  Spaniard,  but  he  was 
superb  as  a  colorist  and  brushman,  abandoned  in  line  and  dashingbeyond 
all  other  painters.  Magnificence  as  man,  courtier  and  painter  are  the 
words  which  describe  him,  and  in  these  respects  he  stands  alone  in 
art  history.  His  color  is  laid  with  extraordinary  freshness,  the  shadow 
parts  often  struck  in  with  pure  vermilion.  The  lights  kept  company 
with  such  a  furious  scale,  and  still  there  was  a  certain  cool  gray  qual- 
ity which  it  is  hard  to  imitate.  As  is  usual  in  such  cases  of  simple 
directness,  the  pictures  remain  to-day  almost  as  fresh  as  when  first 
laid  in,  examples  to  artists  and  admiringly  studied  in  all  ages  since. 

His  drawing  was  careless,  as  judged  by  the  standards  of  Raphael, 
and  in  no  case  do  we  find  such  divine  expression  as  with  the  great 
master  of  religious  works.  Being  a  Fleming,  he  loved  to  delineate 
robust  women  in  twisted  attitudes  that  are  more  picturesque  than 
dignified.  Anglo-Saxons  do  not  admire  this  element  in  his  works, 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  man  is  greatest  when  he  is  himself 
and  giving  full  play  to  his  personality.  With  it  all,  there  is  but  one 
painter  in  the  world  like  this  and  originality  has  no  price.    As  colorist, 


52  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

nothing  could  surpass  him,  another  matter  which  stops  the  mouths  of 
his  detractors.  A  landscape  in  the  Louvre  shows  his  appreciation  of 
the  atmosphere  of  a  foggy  morning,  the  sun  struggling  through  the 
penetrable  mists.  The  composition  suggests  that  it  was  made  in 
Italy,  where,  no  doubt,  he  fell  under  the  influence  of  the  men  already 
mentioned  who  looked  at  nature  as  a  display  of  poetical  effects  rather 
than  of  bald  facts.  This  is  the  wonderful  advance  which  the  seven- 
teenth century  painters  made  as  compared  with  the  landscape  paint- 
ing of  earlier  artists. 

Principal  Works:  Descent  from  the  Cross,  Elevation  of  the  Cross,  Assumption 
■of  the  Vu  gin  (Cathedral  of  Antwerp) ;  Holy  Family  (Church  of  St.  Jacques,  Antwerp) ; 
"Venus  and  Minerva  Contending  for  a  Youth,  Portraits  of  His  First  and  Second  Wives, 
Bacchanalian  Scene  (Uffizi,  Florence) ;  Holy  Family,  Mars  Going  Forth  to  War,  with 
Flames  and  Destruction  before  Him,  Four  Philosophers  (Pitti  Palace,  Florence); 
A  Portrait  (Corcini  Palace,  Rome);  Brazen  Serpent,  St.  George  and  the  Dragon, 
Perseus  Delivering  Andromeda,  The  Three  Graces,  Nymphs  and  Satyrs,  Diana  and 
Calisto,  The  Garden  of  Love,  Judgment  of  Paris,  Adoration  of  the  Kings  (Madrid) ; 
Mai  ie  de  Medici  Series  (Louvre,  Paris) ;  Peace  and  War,  Triumph  of  Julius  Caesar, 
Judgirent  of  Paris,  Brazen  Serpent,  The  Residence  of  Rubens,  Lady  in  Straw  Hat 
(Londob);  St.  Jerome  in  Prayer,  Bathsheba,  Daughter  of  Herodias,  Neptune  Stilling 
the  \^  aves.  Drunken  Hercules,  Satyr  Pressing  Out  the  Juice  of  the  Grape,  Diana 
Returning  from  the  Chase,  Argus  Surprised  by  Mercury  (Dresden)  ;  Drunken  Silenus, 
Massacre  of  the  Innocents,  Fall  of  the  Condemned,  Rebel  Angels,  Castor  and  Pollux 
Carrying  off  the  Daughters  of  Leucippas,  Last  Judgment,  Crucifixion,  Children  with 
Fruit,  Virgin  and  Child,  Martyrdom  of  St.  Lawrence,  Susanna  Surprised  at  the  Bath, 
Capture  of  Samson,  Portraits  of  Himself  and  His  Wives,  Hay-Harvest,  Battle  of  the 
Amazons  (Munich);  Neptune,  Andromeda,  Procession  of  Children,  Stag  Hunt, 
Resurrection  of  Lazarus,  St.  Cecilia  (Berlin). 

Though  of  somewhat  later  date,  Frans  Hals  (1584-1666)  should  be 
mentioned  here.  Though  born  on  Flemish  soil,  his  life  was  spent  at 
Haarlem  in  Holland,  except  for  some  little  excursions  to  paint 
portraits  in  cities  which  seem  so  near  his  own  that  we  of  the  great 
distances  would  consider  them  suburban.  In  him  we  find  the  native 
characteristics  of  strong  nerves  and  a  steady  hand.  Not  every 
painting  is  equal  to  his  best,  but  all  are  superb. 

His  entire  output  seems  to  have  been  portraiture;  that  art  which 


Rubens  —  Madonna  and  Child. 


THE  SCHOOL  OF   RAPHAEL  53 

admits  of  so  much  good  painting  united  to  keen  perceptive  faculty, 
though  it  calls  for  less  invention  than  the  creation  of  lofty  idealiza- 
tions. Still,  great  portraits  require  a  high  order  of  imaginative 
genius.  Just  here  is  our  opportunity  to  contrast  Hals  with  Velasquez 
and  Van  Dyck.  The  former's  portraits  look  like  real  people;  the 
latter's  like  real  people  plus  an  expression  of  nobility  and  strange 
refinement.  All  the  Flemish  painters,  after  the  Van  Eycks,  painted 
admirably  the  real  facts,  so  that  their  near  neighbor,  Hals,  lacked 
nothing  in  the  way  of  example.  Many  little  heads  were  capitally 
swept  in  by  the  earlier  men;  Hals'  were  life-sized  heads,  better  still, 
and  it  may  be  declafed  that  no  painter  has  ever  been  more  able 
to  strike  a  brush,  well  loaded  with  color,  on  the  canvas  just  where 
he  wanted  it,  accurately,  forcibly,  knowingly  and  purposefully. 
All  the  Flemish  painters  of  the  early  school  secured  good  color; 
Hals  did  the  same  and  in  a  still  larger  manner.  This  is  his  claim  to 
distinction. 

To  our  younger  generation,  he  is  a  magnificent  example  of  frank 
technique.  Portrait  groups  of  the  directory-boards  of  hospitals,  often 
women,  long  canvases  ranged  around  the  walls  of  guardsmen's 
armories  (as  we  see  those  by  Hals  in  the  city  hall  of  Haarlem)  were 
the  only  opportunities  offered  the  Dutch  painters  to  execute  impor- 
tant canvases.  Holland  was  not  royal  and  had  no  palaces;  was  not 
Catholic  and  had  no  ecclesiastics  to  gratify  with  religious  decorations, 
as  was  the  case  in  Flanders. 

A  family  group  in  the  Louvre,  "La  Famille  de  Berestyne,"  is  so  odd 
in  its  quaint  arrangement  (lacking  grace  or  grouping)  that  one  smiles 
at  the  "innocence"  of  the  artist.  It  is  guileless.  Four  adults  (two 
being  nurses)  and  six  children  are  ranged  as  if  for  taking  an  inventory 
of  the  assortment.  All  these  moon-faced  cherubs  are  placed  in  full 
light  to  give  the  drawing  complete  and  allow  of  modeling  to  perfec- 
tion. Frankness  of  color  and  touch  make  one  respect  the  work 
profoundly. 

Principal  Works:  Portraits  (Louvre,  Paris);  Portraits  (London);  Archer's 
Guild  (Amsterdam  Museum). 


54  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

Spain  in  the  sixteenth  century  reveals  so  little  worthy  art  that  it 
is  not  in  our  present  consideration.  Every  one  of  the  little  painters 
was  an  imitator  of  some  Italian.  The  Inquisition  ruled  everybody  and 
everything,  dictating  the  forms  and  patterns  of  the  saints  and  holy 
men  depicted,  even  disputing  as  to  whether  the  figure  of  Christ  dare 
be  represented  at  all,  or,  if  made,  whether  the  feet  should  be  crossed 
and  pierced  with  one  nail  or  separated  and  fastened  with  two.  In  the 
time  of  Charles  V.,  that  monarch  called  Titian  to  Madrid  and  from  his 
hand  many  fine  works  were  left  to  ornament  the  churches  and  palaces, 
which  served  Velasquez  well  when  it  came  his  turn  to  look  for 
examples  as  guides.  Many  other  fine  Italian  pictures  were  imported, 
so  that  the  painters  of  the  seventeenth  century  did  not  lack  for  art  to 
look  at. 

Jose  Ribera,  called  Spagnoletto  (1588-1656),  was  a  Spaniard, 
although  his  entire  life  was  spent  in  Italy,  and  as  a  pupil  of  Cara- 
vaggio  of  Naples,  his  sympathies  were  altogether  Italian. 

All  the  Spanish  painters  of  this  early  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century  were  like  the  wild  Italian  in  feeling,  though  many  of  them 
less  violent.  This  is  to  say  that  they  were  literalists,  strong  and  posi- 
tive painters,  uninfluenced  by  the  attenuated  doctrines  of  the  school 
of  the  Caraccis. 

In  the  Louvre  is  Ribera's  picture  of  the  shepherds  visiting  the 
infant  Christ.  They  are  real  men  in  the  costumes  of  their  life, 
nothing  ameliorated  or  changed.  The  Madonna  is  .a  portrait  (slightly 
if  at  all  idealized)  of  some  maiden  who  posed  for  the  artist.  The  babe 
is  one  of  the  prettiest  pink  infants  I  remember  to  have  seen,  and 
superbly  painted  with  frankness  of  touch  and  fresh  color.  When  we 
think  of  the  insistence  of  the  Caraccis  on  artificiality  of  form  and  on 
paleness  of  color,  it  astonishes  us  to  see  such  honest  frankness  com- 
bined with  as  much  idealization  as  is  considered  necessary  in  our  own 
time.  There  is  a  lamb,  with  legs  tied  just  as  farmers  do  it  in  these 
days,  laid  down  beside  the  shepherds,  whose  wool  is  so  forceful  and 
real  that  nothing  could  exceed  its  seriousness  as  a  direct  study  of 
nature.     No  sheep  painter  of  the  strongest  modern  school  has  been 


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THE  SCHOOL  OF  RAPHAEL  55 

able  to  excel  this  realism.  Above  all,  the  expression  of  that  pros- 
trate victim  of  sacrifice  is  naturalness  itself.  All  the  Spanish  painters 
of  this  century  have  been  marvelous  for  the  rendering  of  facial  expres- 
sion, and  this  lamb's  face  is  not  outdone  by  that  of  the  human  beings 
in  the  work.  The  school  of  the  Caracci  would  have  made  the  lamb  in 
some  one  of  the  classical  attitudes  and  his  wool  should  be  silken  like 
that  of  Verboeckhoven  of  our  own  time.  This  artist  spent  his  life  in 
Naples. 

Ribera  was  prodigal  of  paint, — a  brushman  of  vigor  and  certainty, 
and  a  man  of  distinction.  Many  of  his  pictures  went  to  Spain  to  influ- 
ence Velasquez. 

Principal  Works:  Neptune,  St.  Jerome  (Borghese  Gallery,  Rome);  St.  Jerome 
(Corsini  Palace,  Rome) ;  Prometheus  Bound,  Martyrdom  of  St.  Bartholomew,  Ixion 
at  the  Wheel,  St.  James,  St.  Roch,  The  Heads  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  Jacob's 
Ladder,  Magdalene  Ventura  (Madrid);  St.  Mary  of  Egypt,  Martyrdom  of  St. 
Lawrence,  St.  Andrew,  Head  of  Diogenes  (Dresden) ;  Martyrdom  of  St.  Bartolomeo 
(Berlin). 

Indigenous  French  art  had  not  yet  begun  to  assert  itself.  The 
work  of  those  artists  who  were  not  fully  imbued  with  the  Italian 
feeling  was  primitive,  and  with  the  possible  exception  of  les  Lenain 
(1583  and  1585-1648)  and  Simon  Vouet  (1590-1640)  none  deserves 
mention. 

The  brothers  Lenain  were  of  the  same  age  as  Hals  and  their  art 
resembles  his  in  a  striking  way,  though  done  in  miniature.  There  is 
the  same  direct  touch  and  knowledge  of  the  "planes"  in  the  head. 
Nothing  is  smoothed  over,  the  touches  being  allowed  to  remain  as 
applied.  Probably  they  learned  in  the  same  school  as  he,  though 
there  is  no  account  of  visits  to  Holland  or  Flanders.  Attitudes  and 
arrangements  are  primitive,  but  the  workmanship  is  almost  as  good  as 
that  of  Hals.  These  little  known  works  may  at  some  time  claim  their 
due  fame. 

As  the  fashion  was,  Vouet  went  to  Italy  and  returned  with  much 
good  painting,  but  having  been  made  court  painter  to  Louis  XIII.,  he 
deteriorated  because  he  was  over-worked  with  painting  large  decora- 


56  THE   WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

tions,  and  far  from  his  original  source  of  inspiration.  He  interests  us 
because  the  greater  artist,  Poussin,  was  made  so  uncomfortable  by  his 
intrigue  that  he  returned  to  Italy  without  accomplishing  the  work 
laid  out  for  him.  Vouet  established  the  first  art  academy  in  France 
and  brought  out  Le  Brun  and  Mignard. 

Principal  Works:   Presentation  in  the  Temple,  Roman  Charity  (Louvre,  Paris). 


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Rubens  —  Pohtbapt  op  his  Wife. 


CHAPTER   IV 

BEYOND   THE  ALPS 

The  seventeenth  century  brought  with  it  nothing  that  was  really 
new.  Artists  have  always  painted  on  the  first  of  January  as  they  did 
in  December,  and  the  beginning  of  a  century  brings  no  more  momen- 
tous change.  Yet  every  day  means  a  certain  variation  that  counts  for 
development.  In  1600  Rubens,  the  Fleming,  was  making  pictures, 
though  still  young.  In  Holland,  Frans  Hals  leads  the  chronology. 
He  was  sixteen.  In  Italy  it  is  not  an  Italian  but  a  Spaniard,  Ribera, 
who  traveled  in  that  country  and  was  eleven  when  the  century  came. 
Velasquez  and  Van  Dyck  were  both  one  year  old;  Poussin  was  six  years 
old;  Claude  came  to  greet  the  new  century;  Rembrandt  came  six  years 
later;  Salvator  Rosa,  fifteen  years,  and  Dolci,  sixteen.  How  shall  we 
classify  artists  amid  all  this  confusion  of  nationalities  and  influences? 
They  group  by  influences  largely,  but  nationality  and  political  condi- 
tions have  an  enormous  weight.  Yet  first  of  all,  personality  makes 
the  artist. 

It  begins  here  to  be  difficult  to  separate  landscape  from  figure 
painters — always  a  foolish  classification.  In  fact,  classification  is 
absurdly  enslaving,  however  made.  Is  Millet  of  Barbizon  a  figure  or 
a  landscape  painter?  He  painted  his  figures  as  if  in  the  atmosphere 
of  his  landscape,  and  is  therefore  a  landscape  painter.  Poussin  is 
counted  a  remarkable  landscapist;  but  he  made  his  figures  so  inde- 
pendent of  the  atmosphere  that  he  is  actually  a  figure  painter. 

It  is  time  that  we  examined  landscape  painting,  because  it  begins 
to  claim  a  place  for  its  own  worth.  In  due  course  of  time,  there  rose 
up  artists  who  never  could  see  nature  out-of-doors  without  her  accom- 
paniment of  human  life,  and  that  is  the  true  landscape  painting.  Yet 
there  have  been  many  artists  who  could  not  draw  well  enough  to  ren- 

57 


58  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

der  the  human  figure,  but  were  full  of  sentiment  for  atmosphere  and 
light;  and  there  have  been  others  who  gave  all  their  hearts  to  the  study 
of  the  human  figure,  neglecting  landscape  altogether.  Rubens  made 
some  little  landscapes  which  revealed  so  much  feeling  for  atmospheric 
phenomena  that  we  wonder  how  he  conceived  the  idea.  He  was  in 
Italy  while  Claude  was  at  work  there,  but  his  effects  do  not  resemble 
the  latter' s  in  the  least.  Rubens'  landscapes  are  composed  upon  the 
formal  lines  of  the  old  painters,  but  with  a  different  sentiment,  an  orig- 
inal observation  of  nature's  phenomena.  To  make  a  clear  statement 
of  the  matter,  it  may  be  said  that  the  old  painters  used  some  landscape 
forms  as  backgrounds  to  their  figures  but  did  not  think  about  the 
gradations  of  distance  to  any  great  extent  nor  about  the  atmospheric 
conditions  at  all.  To  secure  a  truthful  presentation  of  light  effects 
was  no'  part  of  their  purpose.  Real  landscape  began  when  the  light, 
the  fog,  the  lambent  air  counted  as  more  important  than  a  simple 
shaping  of  certain  trees  or  hills,  rocks  or  mountains.  It  was  Claude 
who  gained  the  reputation  of  doing  these  things  and  teaching  the 
rest  of  the  world  this  lesson.  Possibly  had  Rubens  given  more 
extended  attention  to  this  matter,  he  might  have  carried  off  Claude's 
honors. 

The  history  of  Claude  Gelee,  called  Lorraine  or  de  Lorraine 
(1600-1682),  is  as  obscure  as  his  family  is  supposed  to  have  been.  He 
may  have  been  of  reasonably  good  extraction,  but  little  is  known  on 
the  subject.  If  he  was  the  apprentice  of  a  pastry-cook,  it  matters 
nothing,  as  genius  recognizes  no  social  position.  What  we  are  sure  of 
is  that  he  went  to  Italy  and  learned  to  paint,  possibly  accidentally 
thrown  in  contact  with  painters  because  he  became  the  lackey  of  an 
artist.  Many  other  great  men  have  had  as  humble  a  beginning.  As 
Jie  went  to  no  art  school  for  extended  periods,  he  never  learned  his 
classics  as  the  students  of  the  Caracci  academy  were  taught  them,  and 
never  learned  to  draw  more  difficult  matters  than  trees  and  rocks,  nor 
these  very  wonderfully.  But  the  sense  of  nature's  poetry  was  his 
birthright.  A  moderate  amount  of  teaching  and  a  great  deal  of 
cleverness  enabled  him  to  paint  what  he  saw  before  him  in  the  fields 


o 

m 
a 
H 


Pi 


BEYOND  THE   ALPS  59 

where  he  spent  the  long  summer  days,  an  untrammelled  student  of 
nature.  There  are  accounts  of  his  spending  long  periods  in  an  art 
school.  These  are  questionable  stories.  Whatever  else,  we  know 
that  he  never  could  draw  the  human  figure  and  was  obliged  to  call  in 
another  to  do  this  for  him.  In  the  definition  of  "classicism"  two 
kinds  are  described:  imitation  of  the  antique  statues,  and  formal 
arrangement  as  contrasted  with  the  copying  of  nature  exactly.  Claude, 
living  in  classical  Italy,  could  not  escape  from  formalism;  that  is,  he 
was  the  second  kind  of  classicist.  All  the  objects  in  his  pictures  are 
arranged  with  care  to  secure  a  pleasing  flow  of  line  and  an  appropriate 
massing  of  forms.  The  introduction  of  classical  nymphs  added  to  the 
well-regulated  effect.  Claude  was  a  painter  of  light  and  atmosphere; 
that  was  his  advance  over  those  before  him.  He  even  set  the  sun  in 
the  heavens  in  the  midst  of  his  picture  and  attempted  to  imitate  his 
radiance.  Others  had  done  something  like  this  before,  but  not  as 
well.  ,  The  golden  glow  in  his  pictures  is  also  new;  though  it  is  pos- 
sible that  some  of  it  is  due  to  the  ripening  of  the  varnish.  But  why 
did  no  one  else  have  the  good  fortune  to  secure  the  same  accommo- 
dating varnish?  Probably  the  gods  were  good  to  his  pictures  because 
he  painted  them  right. 

John  Ruskin  hurled  much  magnificently  written  literature  at  Claude 
{Modern  Painters)  and  compared  his  painting  unfavorably  with  Turner's, 
seeking  to  check  the  too  great  popularity  of  the  Franco-Italian 
among  English  picture  buyers.  He  could  not  understand  Claude — nor 
Turner  either,  for  that  matter.  Both  men  were  poetic  painters. 
Ruskin  was  a  narrow  literalist.  As  Turner  lived  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  after  Claude,  he  learned  much  of  which  the  older  man  was 
ignorant.  Claude  was  not  very  careful  about  the  literal  form  of  things; 
neither  was  Turner.  He  was  a  painter  of  sentiment — it  is  this  which 
marks  his  immense  advance.  Turner  was  not  wise  when  he  attempted 
to  rival  Claude,  as  each  had  his  own  glory.  The  Englishman's  pic- 
ture in  the  National  gallery  suffers  beside  the  Claude  it  was  intended 
to  eclipse. 

Claude's  "Liber  Veritatis"  (Book  of  Truth)  consists  of  a  series  of 


6o  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

mezzotints  mav^e  for  the  purpose  of  verification  of  his  pictures.  In 
these  days,  artists  use  photography  for  this  purpose. 

As  fashion  must  be  considered  in  art,  Claude  was  obliged  to 
give  a  classical  title  to  his  works  and  sustain  it  with  figures  of  nymphs 
or  gods.  These  figures,  the  work  of  an  assistant  are  entirely  second- 
ary and  work  only  as  spots. 

Principal  Works:  Book  of  Truth,  a  volume  of  two  hundred  drawings  (Duke 
of  Devonshire) ;  Embarkation  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  Marriage  of  Isaac  and  Rebecca, 
Narcissus  (London);  Worship  of  the  Golden  Calf,  Sernron  on  the  Mount 
(Marquis  of  Westminster);  Morning,  Noon,  Evening,  Night  (Hermitage,  St.  Peters- 
burg); Marine  View  (Uffizi,  Florence);  Landscape  (Capitol,  Rome);  Landscapes 
(Doria,  Rome);  Sunset  Scene,  Sunrise  over  the  Sea,  Other  Landscapes  (Madrid); 
Landscapes,  Marine  Views  (Louvre,  Paris) ;  Flight  of  the  Holy  Family,  Coast  of 
Sicily  (Dresden);  Landscapes  and  Marine  Views  (Munich);  Landscapes  (Berlin). 

Nicolas   Poussin 

{1393-166^) 

The  art  of  painting  did  not  flourish,  at  the  time  of  Poussin's  birth, 
in  his  native  country,  France.  After  receiving  instruction  from  sev- 
eral painters  who  made  no  mark  in  art  history,  he  went,  at  the  age  of 
thirty,  to  Italy  and  remained  there  for  the  rest  of  his  life  with  the 
exception  of  some  two  years  spent  in  France,  where  he  was  called 
(1640)  by  the  king,  Louis  XIII.,  and  made  court  painter.  A  man  of 
small  parts,  Vouet,  was  then  in  favor  and  began  at  once  to  create 
annoyances  for  him.  Before  concluding  any  important  commissions, 
except  an  excellent  "Last  Supper,"  he  returned  to  Italy,  rejoicing 
once  more  in  congenial  art  surroundings. 

Claude  was  about  twenty-four  years  old  when  Poussin  first  arrived  in 
Italy,  and  possibly  had  already  some  reputation  as  an  artist.  Poussin 
was,  however,  much  better  trained  in  drawing  than  his  fellow  country- 
man ever  became.  He  was  brought  into  contact  with  certain  sculp- 
tors, who  led  him  to  study  the  antique  and  Raphael.  It  is  related  that 
he  did  a  considerable  number  of  sculptures,  which  in  itself  assured  an 
education  in  drawing  and  this  is  sustained  by  the  sculpturesque  qual- 
ity of  his  figures.     Some  have  called  hirii  "the  Raphael  of  France," 


Velasquez  —  Don  Balthazae  Carlos. 


BEYOND  THE  ALPS  6i 

but  he  had  no  claim  to  this  title  other  than  that  he  was  one  of  the  hun- 
dreds of  imitators  of  the  great  master.  Yet  he  was  a  fine  draughts- 
man. It  is  useless  to  classify  him  either  as  landscapist  or  as  figure 
painter.  His  figures  were  his  first  care  and  the  landscape  served  as  a 
setting  for  them,  as  the  fashion  had  been  before  his  time.  He  did  not 
paint  landscape  with  love,  as  a  sentimental  effort.  All  critics  who 
love  facts  distinctly  stated  love  Poussin;  those  who  love  sentiment  in 
landscape  do  not  seriously  love  his  works  except  as  the  tone  was 
serious  and  profound  and  the  figure  painting  excellent.  In  the 
Louvre,  his  pictures  have  turned  very  dark,  looking  like  somberness 
itself,  though  there  is  every  reason  to  think  that  he  may  have  been  a 
wonderful  colorist  in  his  day.  This  belief  is  sustained  by  certain  pic- 
tures now  in  Italy  which  are  well  preserved.  Classical  subjects  pre- 
vail, the  figures  beautifully  carried  out. 

In  Italy,  he  married  the  sister  of  Caspar  Dughet,  who  then  called 
himself  "Poussin,"  thus  causing  an  unnecessary  confusion  of  names. 
The  reason  of  Ruskin's  preference  for  Poussin  rather  than  Claude  is 
easily  discoverable  in  the  fondness  of  the  English  critic  for  material- 
ism and  his  utter  lack  of  appreciation  of  sentiment,  except  sentiment 
in  subject  matter.  Poussin,  however,  if  he  be  judged  rightfully,  holds 
a  high  place. 

Principal  Works:  Arcadian  Shepherds,  Rebecca  at  the  Well,  Finding  of 
Moses,  Judgment  of  Solomon,  Triumph  of  Flora,  Four  Seasons,  Diogenes  Throwing 
Away  His  Cup,  Eleazar  and  Rebecca,  Israelites  Receiving  Manna  (Louvre,  Paris); 
Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,  Entombment,  King  Midas  Begging  the  Revocation  of 
•  His  Gift  of  Turning  Everything  to  Gold  (Munich);  Bacchanalian  Dance,  Phocian, 
Landscapes  (National  Gallery,  London);  Series  of  Seven  Sacraments  (Duke  of 
Rutland);  Moses  Striking  the  Rock  (Bridgewater  Gallery) ;  Martyrdoms  (Vatican, 
Rome);  Landscapes  (Corsini  Palace,  Rome);  "The  Deluge,"  "Plague  of  the  Philis- 
tines," "Rape  of  the  Sabines,"  "Moses,"  "Triumph  of  Truth,"  (chiefly  in  Louvre). 

Diego  Rodriguez  de  Silva  y  Velasquez 

{iS99-i(>b6) 
I  am  disposed  to  place  Velasquez  at  the  head  of  the  portrait  paint- 
ers of  the  world.     As  knowing  as  Hals  in  brush  work,  while  much 


62  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

more  refined;  as  capable  of  securing  noble  expression  as  Van  Dyck 
and  still  more  subtle  in  characterization;  not  as  rich  a  colorist  as 
Titian,  yet  his  tones  of  gray  are  the  embodiment  of  colorfulness — 
possibly  a  more  difficult  accomplishment.  Above  all,  there  is  an  ele- 
ment of  character-greatness  displayed  by  Velasquez  which,  it  maybe, 
no  man  in  all  the  world  has  equalled. 

His  school-teaching  father  came  of  a  noble  family  (originauy 
Portuguese),  his  mother's  family  was  more  directly  aristocratic.  This 
circumstance  accounts  for  the  use  of  his  mother's  name  rather  than 
that  of  his  father,  de  Silva.  Well  educated  and  of  cultivated  man- 
ners, the  royal  court  was  as  natural  to  him  as  his  home. 

There  were  no  antique  statues  in  Spain,  the  Inquisition  viewing 
them  as  pagan  idols.  The  ecclesiastics  forbade  the  nude  in  art  (which 
does  not  seem  to  have  aided  the  development  of  morals)  so  the  artists 
began  their  study  with  still  life,  painting  vegetables  and  kitchen  fur- 
niture, cooks  and  beggar-boys,  the  latter  as  nearly  nude  as  might  be. 
This  led  to  realism,  and  the  pictures  of  Caravaggio,  Ribera  and  other 
vigorous  painters  of  strong  light  and  shade,  with  realistic  shadows  and 
intensely  natural  colors,  furnished  examples  to  imitate.  The  atten- 
uated refinements  of  the  school  of  the  Caracci  found  no  favor  with 
these  sincere  men.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Titian  spent  five  years 
at  the  court  of  Charles  V.,  in  Madrid.  There  were  also  certain  exam- 
ples of  Raphael  to  be  seen.  Very  early  (but  not  until  he  had  learned 
to  paint)  Velasquez  spent  many  months  working  in  the  royal  palace^ 
copying  these  pictures.  His  opportunities  were  by  no  means  limited, 
the  strongest  influences  being  those  of  Ribera  and  Titian.  The  Span- 
ish painters  had  an  extraordinary  ability  in  catching  fleeting  expres- 
sions, nothing  like  it  being  found  in  any  other  nation.  Velasquez  had 
this  talent,  but  used  it  as  no  other  did,  inasmuch  as  he  was  made  of 
finer  stuff. 

Philip  IV.,  king  of  Spain,  soon  discovered  the  abilities  of  the  young 
man,  taking  him  into  his  confidence  in  a  manner  hardly  equalled  in 
the  history  of  the  relations  between  royalty  and  art.  At  the  time  of 
Rubens'  second  visit  tc  Madrid  (on  an  errand  of  diplomacy)  he  was 


Velasquez  —  Philip  IV. 


BEYOND  THE  ALPS  63 

greeted  by  the  young  Spanish  painter,  delegated  by  the  king  to  this 
office.  It  seems  to  have  been  Rubens  who  persuaded  the  royal  art 
patron  to  send  Velasquez  to  Italy,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he 
was  commissioned  to  send  home  a  large  collection  of  the  hated 
antiques,  as  well  as  many  pictures  of  the  great  Italian  masters.  His 
reception  in  Italy  was  as  royal  as  that  of  any  king's  favorite  could  be. 
He  stole  away  to  Naples  incognito  to  talk  with  the  man  whose  works 
had  so  much  influenced  him,  Ribera.  The  copying  of  Italian  master- 
pieces does  not  seem  to  have  changed  his  style,  as  he  was  not  impres- 
sionable like  Raphael. 

Important  palace  pictures  (rather  than  religious  art),  usually  portrait 
groups  or  battle  pieces,  furnished  him  opportunity  for  painting  large 
canvases.  Some  of  these  show  us  the  inner  side  of  his  genius,  made 
to  please  the  art-loving  king,  and  too  undignified  for  public  display, 
in  those  days  of  formality  and  courtliness. 

We  read  in  books  about  the  remarkable  color  of  Velasquez.  Mis- 
leading words;  words  cannot  make  us  feel  color.  His  color  is  grave 
and  gray;  the  most  positive  tints  far  from  pure  pigment,  always 
broken  grays  and  pretty  low  in  tone.  In  the  "Las  Meninas"  (Maids  of 
Honor)  the  large  canvas  is  quiet,  all  blues  and  greens  low  down  in  the 
scale  and  scarcely  defined  as  such.  There  is  scarcely  any  red  at  all, 
as  we  commonly  understand  the  color,  but  a  succession  of  varied  red- 
dish spots  in  sequence,  reaching  around  the  composition  and  placed 
where  they  will  do  the  most  good.  The  floor  is  one  broken  warm  tone 
and  this  spreads  itself  to  interlock  with  the  series  of  cool  tones  occu- 
pying the  upper  part  of  the  canvas.  There  are  many  figures  and  in 
the  midst  stands  the  little  Infanta,  her  balloon  skirt  of  steel  gray 
spreading  out  so  that  the  little  hands  rest  upon  it  as  on  the  top  of  a 
hogshead.  The  wonder  is  that  an  artist  could  make  so  good  a  pic- 
ture out  of  these  almost  impossible  materials.  Good  color  is  artis- 
tically managed  color,  and  it  is  always  difficult  to  copy — as  this  is. 
Most  of  all  is  it  difficult  to  paint  gray  flesh  so  that  it  will  gleam  out 
from  the  walls  of  a  gallery,  ruling  all  else,  as  the  cool  flesh  of  Velas- 
quez does. 


64  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

The  "Reunion  of  Drinkers"  shows  us  no  rowdies  like  those  in  the 
Dutch  pictures,  but  only  pleasantly  merry  fellows  with  that  subtle 
expression  revealing  the  special  talent  of  the  Spaniards  In  many 
respects,  this  is  the  best  exponent  of  the  artist's  peculiarity,  though 
many  prefer  the  "Lace  Makers,"  an  interior  full  of  atmosphere  such 
as  almost  no  artist  had  been  able  to  secure  previously.  In  front, 
there  are  women  in  dishabille,  working  in  the  suffocating  heat;  beyond 
is  space,  and  other  figures  in  the  lighting  and  aerial  perspective  which 
demanded  close  observation  of  delicate  truths  of  effect.  This  indi- 
cates the  naturalist,  the  man  who  had  no  sympathy  with  classical 
formulas.    Still ,  it  is  reserved  and  duly  arranged — an  artistic  naturalism. 

Velasquez  died  of  fatigue  from  his  efforts  to  prepare  a  festival  on 
the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of  the  Infanta  Maria  Theresa  to  Louis 
XIV.,  of  France. 

Important  Works:  Gardens  of  Aranjuez,  Prospect  of  Pardo,  Coronation  of 
Mary,  Dead  Christ,  Portraits  of  the  Imperial  Family,  Las  Meninas,  The  Surrender  of 
Breda,  Topers,  The  Spinners,  ^sop  (Madrid) ;  Portrait  (Capitol,  Rome) ;  Philip  IV.  of 
Spain  (Louvre,  Paris) ;  Admiral  Paraja,  The  Scourging  of  Christ,  Philip  IV.  of  Spain, 
-Hunting  the  Wild  Boar  (London) ;  Spanish  General  Borro,  Trampling  on  the  Bar- 
berini  Banner,  Maria  of  Spain  (Berlin). 

Several  lesser  Spanish  painters  had  the  peculiar  talent  highly 
developed  in  Velasquez— the  ability  to  see  and  reproduce  facial  expres- 
sion, as  Francisco  Zurbaran  (1598-1663),  just  one  year  younger  than 
the  great  man.  Impetuous,  like  Ribera,  and  still  more  fiery  in  tem- 
perament, he  painted  textures  and  vigorous  light  and  shade,  neglect- 
ing no  truth  of  color.  Lack  of  sensitive  feeling  for  the  refinements  of 
realism  placed  him  in  the  second  rank,  however.  The  "Funeral  of  a 
Bishop"  (Louvre)  shows  his  substantial  stuff-painting;  but  better  than 
all  else  is  the  movement  of  suppressed  excitement  among  the  attend- 
ant monks  as  they  quietly  talk  about  the  virtues  of  the  deceased. 
This  is  true  Spanish  talent. 

Principal  Works:  St.  Thomas  of  Aquinas  (Museum  of  Seville);  Kneeling 
Monk,  Sleeping  Christ,  Infant  Christ  (Madrid) ;  Franciscan  Monk  (London);  St. 
Celestin  Refusing  the  Papal  Tiara  (Dresden) ;  Miracle  of  the  Crucifix  (Berlin). 


o 
o 

n 
o 


Q 


BEYOND  THE  ALPS  6$ 

Francisco  Collantes  (1599-1656),  exactly  the  same  age  as  Velas- 
quez, painted  realistic  landscapes,  very  correctly  but  with  the  classical 
arrangement  of  masses  and  light  and  shade.  His  figures  are  not,  like 
Claude's,  classical  but  natural,  as  in  the  "Burning  Bush"  (Louvre),  in 
which  the  Moses  was  painted  from  a  real  peasant  and  his  attendant 
donkey  from  the  real  animal,  trappings  and  all. 


Anton  Van  Dyck 

{isgg-1641) 

Van  Dyck's  portraits  "have  an  air"  about  them,  a  something  apart 
from  simple  likeness.  Largely  painted  from  aristocratic  sitters,  they 
carry  the  conviction  of  stateliness.  Frans  Hals'  portraits  have  none 
of  this  air,  possibly  because  the  sitters  had  none,  possibly  because  the 
artist  had  no  feeling  for  stateliness.  Two  portraits  of  gentlemen 
(Louvre),  each  with  a  child  accompaniment,  show  Van  Dyck's  powers 
of  character  delineation  much  as  we  see  it  in  the  famous  "Children  of 
Charles  L"  (Windsor  castle  and  Dresden),  showing  that  in  all  things 
he  maintained  his  excellence.  Scarcely  any  one  has  excelled  him  in 
child  painting. 

Perhaps  no  one  has  painted  so  many  people  in  black  clothes  while 
maintaining  his  reputation  as  a  colorist.  Black  made  colorful  is  a 
triumph  in  good  coloring.  Where  Rubens  spread  sumptuous  masses 
of  well-managed  reds  and  yellows, Van  Dyck  displayed  his  command 
of  tender,  neutral  grays.  Where  Rubens'  flesh  paraded  his  command 
of  shining  skin  in  brilliant  tints.  Van  Dyck  kept  to  the  moderate 
scale.  Still  his  flesh  gleams  more  than  almost  any  other  in  the  galler- 
ies, almost  as  much  as  Velasquez's. 

The  followers  of  Raphael  painted  as  much  like  their  idolized  leader 
as  possible.  Van  Dyck,  much  as  he  admired  the  exalted  Rubens  (his 
master),  never  imitated  him  after  his  student  days  were  over.  This 
is  saying  that  he  was  more  original  than  most  men  can  be. 

Van  Dyck's  life  divides  itself  into  three  periods:  portraits  and 
religious  decorations  in   Flanders  (while  still  young);    a  long  stay  in 


66  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Italy,  painting  the  same  kind  of  pictures;  and  ten  years  in  England, 
a  petted  favorite,  with  every  distinction  heaped  upon  him.  Ladies 
sought  his  dinner  table  and  posed  before  his  easel;  the  king  knighted 
him  and  filled  his  purse.  Under  royal  patronage  he  married  the 
daughter  of  a  noble  house.  On  the  honeymoon  journey  with  this 
wife  of  convenience,  he  sought  to  emulate  Rubens'  Marie  de  Medici 
series  by  securing  a  similar  commission  from  the  French  government; 
but  Poussin  had  at  that  moment  been  called  from  Italy  to  execute  this 
extensive  decoration,  a  work  which  he  never  accomplished. 

Van  Dyck's  career  in  England  lasted  ten  years,  from  the  age  of 
thirty-two  until  his  funeral  with  impressive  honors  at  the  hand  of  Eng- 
land's nobles.  The  king  was  not  present,  being, a  fugitive,  already  on 
the  road  to  the  headsman's  professional  attentions. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  declare  that,  next  to  Titian  and  Velasquez, 
he  takes  the  lead  among  portrait  painters.  With  Rubens  and  Van 
Dyck,  the  current  changes:  Students  went  to  the  Netherlands  instead 
of  Italy.     Velasquez  was  born  in  the  same  year  as  Van  Dyck. 

Principal  Works:  Cardinal  Bentoviglio,  Repose  During  the  Flight  to  Egypt 
(Pitti  Palace,  Rome);  Entombment,  Crucifixion  (Borghese  Gallery,  Rome);  Cruci- 
fixion (Mechlin);  Entombment,  Crucifixion,  Deposition  from  the  Cross  (Antwerp); 
Pieta,  Burgomaster  of  Antwerp  and  His  Wife,  Organist  Liberti,  Duke  Wilhelm,  Por- 
trait of  Himself  and  of  His  Wife,  Queen  Henrietta  Maria  of  England,  Colyn  de  Nole, 
Jan  de  Wael  and  Wife,  Madonna,  Dead  Christ  (Munich);  Vision  of  the  Blessed 
Hermann  Joseph,  Enthroned  Madonna  with  Saints  (Vienna) ;  Children  of  Charles  I., 
Infanta  Isabella,  Prince  of  Carignan,  Pieta,  Ecce  Homo,  Three  Penitents  (Berlin) ; 
Charles  I. ,  Queen  Henrietta  Maria  and  Their  Children,  Martin  Ryckaert,  The  Brother 
of  Rubens,  A  Man  in  Armor,  Thomas  Parr,  St.  Jerome,  Apostles  (Dresden); 
Countess  of  Oxford,  An  Armed  Knight,  A  Black -robed  Cavalier,  Organist  of  Ant- 
werp, Portrait  of  Himself,  Earl  of  Bristol,  Saviour  Crowned  with  Thorns,  Betrayal  of 
Christ  (Madrid);  Virgin  and  Donor,  Portrait  of  Himself,  Children  of  King  Charles 
I.,  Dnke  of  Bavaria  and  Prince  Rupert,  Duke  of  Richmond,  Marquis  d'  Aytona, 
Madonna  and  Child  (Louvre,  Paris) ;  Charles  I.  on  Horseback,  Miraculous  Draught 
of  Fishes,  Crucifixion,  Portrait  of  C,  van  der  Geest,  Portrait  of  Himself  (National 
Gallery,  London);  Portrait  of  Charles  I.,  Children  of  Charles  I.,  Charles  I.  and 
Family,  Henrietta  Maria,  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  Lady  Venetia  Digby  (Windsor  Castle); 
Portrait  of  James  Stuart,  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Lennox  (Metropolitan  Museum, 
New  York). 


Van  Dtck  —  Portrait  of  Himself. 


BEYOND   THE   ALPS  67 

Paul  Rembrandt  van  Rijn 

(^i6o(}-i66g) 

The  Flemings  and  the  Dutch  are  not  the  same  people,  though  related. 
Several  exclusive  old  provinces  furnished  material  to  people  Flanders; 
not  so  many  Holland.  The  Dutch  had  won  their  independence  by 
hard  fighting.  The  Flemings  had  not.  An  upper  class  in  Flanders 
cultivated  courtly  manners.  None  of  the  Dutch  seem  to  have  been 
courtly.  Herein  is  to  be  found  much  cause  for  the  contrast  between 
the  art  of  the  two  peoples — homes  in  Holland,  chateaux  in  Flanders; 
modest  guild-houses  in  Holland,  palaces  in  Flanders;  the  art  suited 
to  these  conditions  in  each  land.  We  know  of  but  few  large  pictures 
from  Rembrandt,  the  "Night  Watch"  (thirteen  by  fourteen  feet) 
leading  in  dimensions.  Rubens  and  Van  Dyck  painted  great  numbers 
of  large  religious  decorations. 

As  painter  and  etcher,  Rembrandt  loved  to  dash  in  colors  and  swift 
lines,  masterful  strokes,  at  times  brutally  but  always  knowingly  and 
correctly.  The  habit  grew  upon  him.  However,  the  "Gilder" 
(Metropolitan  Museum)  is  finished  to  the  uttermost,  though  still  free, 
and  the  "Lesson  in  Anatomy"  contains  a  group  of  serious  faces 
superbly  complete  in  execution.  He  was  twenty-six  when  it  was 
painted,  and  it  does  not  suggest  the  little  window  and  single  shaft  of 
light,  of  which  we  hear  so  much  as  being  his  favorite  manner.  The 
color  is  cool;  not  in  the  rich  tones  usually  attributed  to  him.  Toward 
the  end  of  his  life,  he  painted  the  "Syndicate  of  Drapers,"  also  with- 
out the  centering  of  light,  though  it  is  warm  in  tone. 

His  single  portraits  nearly  all  show  this  favorite  arrangement  of 
one  spot  lighted  in  the  midst  of  vibrating  darks.  A  large  white  ruff 
and  one  side  of  the  face  usualh^  show  a  forced  light  against  a  black, 
wide-spreading  beaver,  this  light  spot  surrounded  with  dark  back- 
ground. Exactly  this  composition  rules  in  the  "Night  Watch,"  the 
captain  in  black  clothing  against  the  lieutenant  in  gray-yellow  and  a 
gleaming  spot  of  light  on  the  ground  which  suggests  the  broad  ruff; 
this  group  of  lights  surrounded  by  darks  all  over  the  picture,  except 
the  echo  of  light  in  the  second  plane.     The  "Menage  du  Menuisier" 


68  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

(Louvre)  is  one  of  a  very  large  series  of  little  pictures,  about  a  foot  or 
even  less  in  size,  nearly  all  with  the  concentrated  spot  of  light.  It  is 
a  domestic  interior,  the  carpenter  at  his  work  beside  the  window 
receiving  the  light  on  his  shoulder.  This  light  falls  next  on  the 
mother  and  naked  babe,  leaving  the  head  of  the  mother  in  shadow, 
also  that  of  the  attendant  woman,  though  her  garment  and  a  spot  on 
the  floor  receive  its  full  force.  All  about  this  centering  of  light,  the 
room  is  in  luminous  gloom.  There  is  no  positive  color  in  the  picture, 
but  an  abundance  of  rich  tone.  It  is  very  smoothly  and  tenderly 
executed. 

When  the  "Night  Watch"  was  cleaned  one  day,  behold,  it  was  not 
night  but  late  afternoon.  Time  and  varnish  had  deceived  every  one. 
It  is  one  of  the  richest  in  color  of  all  Rembrandt's  pictures,  though 
little  pure  pigment  can  be  found.  It  occupies  suitably  the  most  con- 
spicuous place  of  honor  in  the  museum  at  Antwerp,  making  neighbor- 
ing work  appear  thin  and  meager  by  comparison. 

Rembrandt  gained  the  attention  of  his  countrymen  at  an  early  age, 
having  a  great  many  pupils.  The  story  of  his  marriage  pleases  the 
Anglo-Saxon  peoples,  who  dearly  love  a  true  lover.  His  wife  did  not 
live  to  see  his  misfortunes.  In  middle  life  it  came  about  that  Holland 
experienced  "hard  times"  and  the  artist  was  bankrupt,  and  his  pic- 
tures, studies,  collection  of  art  articles,  costumes,  plate  and  fixtures 
were  mercilessly  sold  out.  He  never  recovered  from  this  blow,  but 
spent  the  rest  of  his  life  making  etchings,  for  the  most  part,  to  pay 
his  living,  not  too  generously.  People  do  not  altogether  love  rough 
pictures,  however  artistic.  His  painting  certainly  grew  ruder,  though 
never  less  magnificent.  His  pupils,  especially  his  first  one,  Gerard 
Douw,  gained  a  place  for  themselves  with  an  art  that  was  prettier  and 
easier  to  understand  than  his. 

The  free  line  of  the  etching  needle  suited  exactly  the  spirit  of  his 
impulsive  nature.  He  stands  through  all  time  the  prince  of  etchers. 
Of  all  men  who  produced  art  solely  for  the  sake  of  artistic  expression, 
Rembrandt  is  head.  Any  group  of  peasants,  in  any  old  clothes  which 
happened  to  be  at  hand,  answered  for  religious  or  secular  subjects 


BEYOND   THE  ALPS  69 

alike,  if  sufficiently  picturesque.  In  portraits  he  made  people  very 
real,  never  lacking  character,  though  not  with  the  nobility  of  Van 
Dyck  or  Velasquez.  Men  imitated  his  manner  but  not  his  character- 
fulness. 

Principal  Works:  Susanna,  Lesson  in  Anatomy  (Hague  Museum) ;  Gilder, 
Burgomaster  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York);  Supper  at  Emmaus,  Philosopher 
in  Meditation,  Menage  du  Menuisier,  Four  Portraits  of  Rembrandt,  Old  Man,  Young 
Man,  Woman  of  the  Bath  (Louvre);  The  Night  Watch,  The  Syndics  (Amsterdam); 
Two  Portraits  of  Himself,  Jewish  Rabbi,  Old  Lady  in  Cap  and  Ruff,  Landscape 
with  Tobit  and  the  Angel,  Woman  Wading  through  a  Stream,  The  Adoration  of  the 
Shepherds,  Woman  Taken  in  Adultery  (National  Gallery,  London) ;  Gray-bearded  Old 
Man,  Old  Woman  Weighing  Gold,  His  Wife  Saskia  Holding  a  Pink  in  Her  Hand, 
The  Artist  Drinking  Champagne  with  His  Wife  on  His  Knee  (Dresden) ;  Portrait  of 
Himself,  Holy  Family  (Munich) ;  Portrait  of  Himself,  Portrait  of  His  Wife  Saskia, 
Potiphar's  Wife  Accosting  Joseph,  Daniel,  Pastor  Ansto,  Samson  Threatening  His 
Father-in-law  (Berlin). 

Albert    Cuyp 

{1606-167 J.     Dutch.) 

This  artist  is  not  to  be  confused  with  his  father,  Jacob,  nor  his 
nephew,  Benjamin.  Albert  was  a  painter  of  simple  landscapes  with 
cattle  and  horsemen.  He  is  merel\'  an  unusually  good  painter  of  rich 
tones.  Many  of  his  pictures  seem  as  if  lighted  through  amber  glass. 
The  cows  are  well  drawn,  and  in  near!}'  every  one  of  his  pictures  of 
horsemen  there  is  a  red  coat.  Let  us  call  him  the  painter  of  golden 
tones  centered  with  a  spot  of  red,  cow  or  coat  as  the  case  may  be. 
Time  has  treated  him  so  well  that  collectors  search  for  his  remarkably 
fresh  works. 

Born  the  same  year  as  Rembrandt,  pupil  of  his  father,  Jacob  Cuyp. 

Principal  Works:  The  Cavalier  (Dresden);  The  Departure,  The  Return, 
Landscape,  Marine  View,  Group  of  Children  (Louvre,  Paris). 

Gerard  Terburg 

{1608- 168 1.     Dutch.) 
Terburg  is  one  of  the  lesser  painters  who  did  his  part  toward  pull- 
ing down  Rembrandt.     His  pretty  art  consisted  of  a  white  satin  gown, 
wonderfully  hard  and  unpoetical,  and  a  crimson  velvet  jacket  worn  by 


70  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

a  young  woman  who  takes  a  music  lesson  or  converses  with  an  officer. 
The  neighboring  table  is  always  beautifully  painted  and  the  silver,  the 
glass  and  the  guitar  are  beyond  reproach.  No  genius,  but  superb 
finish  and  absolute  facts, — these  measure  him.  He  journeyed  in  France 
and  Spain,  learning  the  taste  of  the  grandees  who  liked  pretty  pic- 
tures. He  studied  in  Rome  and  painted  as  his  Dutch  literalism 
dictated. 

Principal  Works:  The  Satin  Gown  (Amsterdam) ;  The  Guitar  Lesson,  Peace 
of  Munster  (London) ;  Lady  Washing  Her  Hands  (Dresden) ;  The  Music  Lesson,  The 
Gallant  OfRcer  ( Louvre,  Paris);  Interior  of  a  Cottage  (Munich) ;  Paternal  Instruc- 
tion (Berlin). 

Van  de  Velde 

This  name  is  common  in  Dutch  art  history.  In  the  later  fifteen 
hundreds  lived  Esais  and  his  brother  James,  fairly  good  figure  painters. 
Later,  "  William  the  Elder  "  (1610-1693)  and  "William  the  Younger" 
(1633-1702)  came  into  notice.  They  were  marine  painters;  the  elder 
being  an  early  example  of  the  true  war-artist,  going  out  with  the  fleet 
of  DeRuyter  to  sketch  actual  battles.  Later  he  was  employed  by 
King  Charles  II.,  of  England,  as  marine  artist.  "The  Younger" 
painted  a  great  many  of  these  sketches  of  "The  Elder' '  in  oils,  also  for 
the  English  court  and  nobility.  Some  capital  work  came  from  these 
men's  easels. 

Principal  Works  of  William  Van  de  Velde:  Nine  pictures  (National  Gallery, 
London);  Calm  (Louvre,  Paris) ;  View  of  Amsterdam  (Amsterdam);  Storm,  Calm 
(Munich). 

Adrian  van  Ostade 

{1610-168^.     Dutch.) 

Though  a  pupil  of  Frans  Hals,  van  Ostade  made  small  pictures  in 
the  manner  of  Rembrandt's  delicate  work.  On  the  other  hand,  a  pic- 
ture of  a  fish  merchant,  painted  about  life  size,  shows  a  table  loaded 
with  large  fish,  painted  so  frankly  that  it  might  be  from  the  severely 
rude,  realistic  school  of  this  day. 

Principal  Works:  Fish  Market,  Schoolmaster  (Louvre,  Paris);  Alchemist 
(London) ;  A  Smoker  (Metropohtan  Museum,  New  York). 


Rbmbbandt — Portrait  of  Himself. 


BEYOND   THE   ALPS  71 

David  Teniers,  the  younger 

{i6io-i6go.     Flemish.) 

The  elder  Teniers  was  a  pupil  of  Rubens  and  painted  tavern  scenes, 
like  those  of  his  more  talented  son.  The  younger  Teniers  was  more 
like  the  Dutch  painters  than  any  of  his  great  neighbors  already  men- 
tioned. But  the  royal  province  and  its  little  court  had  its  influence. 
The  governor-general  made  him  curator  of  the  art  collection  and  gave 
the  young  man  opportunity  to  copy  many  works  by  famous  painters. 
This  was  his  schooling,  and  he  used  his  remarkable  talent  to  produce 
superb  color  tones,  rarely  using  pure  pigment  as  fine  tonal  painting 
distinguishes  his  works.  His  subjects  were  village  festivals,  royster- 
ing  peasants,  landscapes  and  farmyard  scenes  and  stories  of  domestic 
life,  usually  humorous.  There  is  no  greatness  in  Teniers,  but  remark- 
able ability. 

Principal  Works:  Rinaldo  and  Armida,  La  Graciosa  Fregatriz,  Village 
Festivals  (Madrid) ;  Peter's  Denial,  St.  Anthony,  Tavern  Scene  (Louvre) ;  Chateau 
at  Pearck,  Four  Landscapes  of  the  Seasons,  the  Music  Party,  Backgammon  Players, 
The  Miser."?,  Dives,  or  the  Rich  Man  in  Hell  (London);  Rural  Fetes,  Peasants, 
Interiors,  Incantation  Scenes,  Temptation  of  St.  Anthony  (Dresden);  Italian  Fair, 
Feast  of  Monkeys,  Dutch  Ale-House,  Violin  Player  (Munich);  Kermess,  St. 
Anthony's  Temptation,  Family  of  a  Painter  (Berlia), 

Somewhat  later  came  Pedro  de  Moya  (1610-1666),  a  Spaniard,  who 
is  interesting  because,  determined  to  see  the  world  at  all  hazards,  he 
enlisted  in  a  troop  destined  for  service  in  the  Netherlands.  Arriving 
there,  his  officers  gave  permission  to  paint  in  the  galleries  where  Van 
Dyck's  works  were  hung.  The  great  artist  was  in  England,  so  thither 
Moya  followed,  only  to  find  the  life  of  his  exemplar  going  out.  It 
must  have  been  about  1641.  Van  Dyck  dying,  he  returned  to  Spain 
and  met  Murillo,  to  whom  he  communicated  all  the  new  methods 
learned  in  the  north.  Moya  seems  to  have  been  an  excellent  imitator, 
but  not  original. 

Meindert  Hobbema 

(/6//-.?    Probably  Dutch.) 
Though  possibly  born  in  Antwerp,  this  excellent  landscape  painter 
lived   his   life   in   Holland  and  was  an   intimate  friend  of  Ruj'sdael, 


72  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Berghem  and  other  men  who  made  such  astonishingly  good  outdoor 
pictures.  This  is  the  moment  when  Claude  was  making  his  revela- 
tions of  what  a  landscape  should  be,  and  these  men  took  their  impulse 
from  Italy.  There  is  no  such  poetry  in  these  works  as  in  those  of  the 
Franco-Italian,  but  the  statement  of  the  facts  of  nature's  phenomena 
was  loving  and  imbued  with  the  atmosphere  of  the  heavens.  Col- 
lectors in  this  day  prize  all  this  art  very  highly.  Mill  sites,  pastoral 
scenes,  wood  interiors,  gray  tones,  little  positive  green,  silvery  skies 
and  entire  unity  of  effect  reveal  a  high  order  of  artistic  talent.  The 
figures  in  Hobbema's  landscapes  were  touched  in  by  his  better- 
instructed  companions.  None  of  these  Dutchmen  indulged  in  the 
absurdity  of  introducing  classical  anecdote,  as  Claude  felt  obliged  to 
do.      Animals  and  men   are  good  honest  Dutch  stock. 

Principal  Works:  The  Mill  (Louvre) ;  Others  in  England,  Berlin,  Venice,  and 
Chicago. 

In  France  Pierre  Mignard  (1612-1695)  followed  LeBrun,  though  a 
little  older,  as  court  painter  and  was  in  nearly  all  respects  like  him, 
producing  Gobelin-tapestry  designs  and  stilted  Italian  art.  Both  men 
studied  long  in  Italy  in  the  time  of  Carlo  Dolci. 

Principal  Works:  Vierge  a  la  Grappe,  St.  Cecilia,  Portrait  of  Madame  de 
Maintenon,  St.  Luke  Painting  the  Virgin  (Louvre);  Maria  Mancini  (Berlin). 

Gerard  Douw 

{1613-1680.  Dutch.) 
After  spending  three  years  in  Rembrandt's  studio,  Douw  had 
learned  how  to  manage  a  picture  and  made  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
painters  of  any  period.  Lacking  an  element  of  greatness  of  character 
which  made  his  master  notable,  he  painted  so  well  that  no  imitator 
has  approached  him  in  sentiment.  Aside  from  the  wonder  of  it,  his 
minute  execution  was  so  sincere  in  following  nature,  so  tender  in 
artistic  sentiment,  so  loose  in  handling  and  refined  in  color  that  no 
one  can  assign  to  him  a  second  place.  While  Rembrandt  lost  his  hold 
upon  the  public,  being  too  highly  artistic,  Douw  gained  in  riches  untii 


MiGNABD  —  Child  of  Mignahd. 


BEYOND   THE  ALPS  73 

the  last.  This  in  itself  is  somewhat  to  his  discredit,  not  that  wrong 
can  be  charged  against  him,  but  simply  because  it  indicates  a  lower 
grade  of  art. 

Minute  finish  presupposes  small  canvases.  Many  of  them  are 
from  six  to  twelve  inches  long,  heads  as  small  as  a  pea,  finger  nails 
like  pin  heads  and  the  minutest  possible  finish  in  every  part — an 
almost  impossible  finish  and  no  imaginable  detail  omitted.  One 
favorite  arrangement  was  to  place  a  figure  or  two  in  the  embrasure  of 
a  window,  as  seen  from  the  street,  with  perhaps  the  introduction  of  a 
curtain  as  if  it  had  been  drawn  aside  to  reveal  the  picture.  About  the 
figures  are  gathered  the  articles  appropriate  to  the  personages.  The 
housewife  has  a  rabbit  and  a  chicken,  just  bought  in  the  market,  every 
tiny  feather  and  hair  painted  beautifully,  yet  not  ruined  by  hardness 
of  finish.  Imitators  of  Douw  could  create  as  much  detail  as  he,  but 
could  never  touch  so  deftly  or  render  nature's  atmosphere  so  feel- 
ingly. Tenderness  with  sentiment,  these  are  his  attainments;  nor  did 
he  fail  of  these  however  minute  the  detail.  No  artist  in  the  world 
has  done  this  thing  like  Douw.  He  is  rightly  called  "great"  who 
leads  all  others. 

Principal  Works:  Schoolmaster  (Uffizi,  Florence);  La  Femme  Hydropique, 
Reading  the  Bible,  Dentist,  Woman  (Louvre) ;  Poulterer's  Shop  (London) ;  Hermit 
Kneeling  before  an  Open  Bible,  Young  Girl  at  a  Window,  Schoolmaster,  Old 
Woman,  Two  Portraits  of  Himself  (Dresden) ;  Old  Woman,  Lady  at  Her  Toilet, 
Quacksalver,  Hermit  (Munich);  Cook,  Penitent  Magdalene  (Berlin). 

Gabriel  Metzu,  or  Matzu 

{ibis-ibs8.     Dutch.) 

Metzu  was  a  genre  painter  whose  work  resembles  that  of  Terburg, 
silken  petticoats  and  all,  though  he  showed  more  variety  in  his  sub- 
jects. Some  of  his  pictures  are  like  Douw's.  As  with  all  excellent 
technicians,  he  commands  the  admiration  of  collectors. 

Principal  Works:  Vegetable  Garden  at  Amsterdam,  Music  Lesson  (Louvre) ; 
Lovers  at  Breakfast,  Lace  Maker  (Dresden);  Dutch  Family  (Berlin);  The  Duet 
(London). 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   LESSER   GREAT   MEN 
Salvator  Rosa 

(i6is-i6yj.     Italian.) 

Easel  pictures  traveled  about  a  good  deal  even  in  those  days  of 
difficult  transportation;  but  history  is  meager,  therefore  it  is  hard  to 
determine  how  much,  if  any,  Claude  may  have  influenced  this  man  fif- 
teen years  his  junior.  Coincidences  in  art  movements  are  to  be  found 
in  a  strange  way  all  over  the  world,  like  the  discovery  that  Rubens 
was  also  a  landscape  painter  who  advanced  far  beyond  his  fellows, 
though  he  worked  in  Italy  at  the  time  of  Rosa.  The  Dutch  painters 
also  produced  excellent  landscapes;  nearly  always  learning  their  pro- 
fessions in  Italy,  leaning  now  to  Claude,  now  to  Rosa. 

Rosa's  home  was  near  and  in  Naples,  far  to  the  south,  whereas 
Claude  lived  in  the  center  of  the  country  and  in  the  beaten  track.  It 
is  pretty  certain  that  Rosa  came  under  the  influence  of  Caravaggio 
very  early  in  his  career  and  the  effect  of  this  circumstance  may  easily 
be  traced  in  his  work.  He  has  the  same  dash  and  the  same  indiffer- 
ence to  the  over-delicate  finish  of  the  Caracci  Academy,  just  ending  its 
existence  but  maintained  as  to  influence  by  its  following. 

Born  of  a  succession  of  painters,  in  Rosa's  blood  flowed  the  desire 
to  paint,  and  it  was  so  strong  that  parental  designs  as  to  a  change  of 
profession  in  the  family,  could  not  turn  him  away  from  paint  brushes. 
Being  willful,  he  not  alone  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  made  into  a 
lawyer,  but  he  would  not  go  to  the  art  school,  preferring  to  go  sketch- 
ing. Naturally,  this  did  not  improve  his  drawing,  but  it  did  make  an 
original  landscape  painter  of  him. 

There  is  a  picture  by  Rosa  in  the  Louvre,  of  a  fight  between 
horsemen,  full  of  violent  action  (the  sort  which  the  Caracci  followers 

74 


MuKiLLO  —  The  Beggah  Boy. 


THE   LESSER   GREAT   MEN  75 

disliked)  and  the  faces  are  all  turned  so  as  to  conceal  the  features. 
But  he  did  many  portraits  fairly  well,  as  a  man  of  talent  may  even 
if  he  is  not  a  wonderful  manipulator  of  line. 

While  on  a  sketching  trip,  the  brigands  picked  him  up,  which  was 
not  a  serious  matter  as  he  had  nothing  that  they  could  steal,  and  poor 
people  had  no  fear  of  brigands.  What  a  find  he  must  have  been  to 
these  wild  sons  of  Italy,  who  were  born  with  the  love  of  pictures,  and 
how  polite  they  must  have  been  to  this  genius,  those  cultivated  out- 
laws! It  was  a  chance  too  that  would  have  delighted  any  artist,  to 
sketch  picturesque  clothes  and  magnificent  mountain  passes  and  all 
that  life  of  camp  and  bivouac.  There  is  one  of  his  earlier  pictures  in 
the  Louvre,  made  a  good  deal  like  some  of  Claude's,  or  like  the 
classical  style  of  landscape,  but  the  later  ones  with  the  life  of  the  wild 
men  are  as  wild  and  violent  as  the  brigands  themselves.  Massive 
mountain  forms,  lakes  in  deep  shades  of  furious  Prussian  blue,  cliffs 
and  rocks,  forest  trees,  profound  shadows,  all  that  the  Caraccis  con- 
demned, superbly  vulgar  art  possibly,  but  heart  art.  I  recall  one  in 
which  the  brigands  and  soldiers  shoot  at  each  other,  rather  rudely 
touched  in,  but  lifelike.  All  this  was  like  Caravaggio  and  the  oppo- 
site of  the  tender,  full-lighted,  shadowless  art  of  the  other  school  of 
painting.  Wild  marines  attracted  him;  any  disturbed  composition. 
Though  critics  of  the  classical  tendency  rail  at  this  genius,  calling  him 
the  last  tortured  remnant  of  the  fine  art  of  Italy,  he  has  had  an  extended 
influence  on  the  art  of  the  world,  even  upon  our  own  painters  of  the 
"Hudson  River  School,"  and  the  Dutch  artists  of  his  own  period. 
Ribera,  the  Spaniard,  who  lived  his  life  in  this  locality  and  who  was 
also  a  follower  of  Caravaggio  (though  rarely  painting  pure  landscape), 
led  Rosa  by  twenty-seven  years.  The  active  Dutch  school  had  many 
landscape  painters  at  this  time,  and  so  had  the  Spanish.  Italian  art 
was  a-dying. 

Principal  Works:  St.  Jerome  in  the  Desert,  Landscapes  (Madrid);  Battle 
Landscape,  Conspiracy  of  Cataline  (Pitti  Gallery,  Florence);  Two  Battle  Scenes 
(Corsini  Palace,  Rome) ;  Mercury  and  the  Woodman  (London) ;  Landscapes  (Munich) ; 
Samuel's  Apparition  to  Saul  (Louvre) ;  Warrior  Doing  Penance  (Vienna). 


76  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Carlo  Dolci 

(1616-1686.     Italian.) 

The  master  of  Dolci  was  Jacopo  Vignalli,  who,  rn  turn,  came  from 
a  direct  lineage  of  painter  and  pupil  from  Raphael.  But  the  influence 
of  the  Caracci  Academy  was  in  the  land  and  fell  upon  him  also.  If  an 
artist  can  paint  with  extraordinary  smoothness,  draw  correctly  and 
gracefully,  and  secure  sentimental  expression,  he  is  sure  of  popular- 
ity. Dolci  is  the  Cabanel  of  this  time,  though  the  pretty  painting  of 
the  Frenchman  led  others  into  better  ways,  whereas  Dolci  had  no  fol- 
lowing except  servile  imitators.  Over  all  this  line  of  artists  hangs  the 
shadow  of  a  declining  period. 

"The  School  of  Raphael"  ends  with  Dolci,  as  far  as  Italy  is  con- 
cerned. Numberless  men  in  other  countries  have  followed  in  the 
same  line  and  will  do  so  possibly  until  the  end  of  time. 

Dolci  invented  an  Ecce  Homo  and  a  Mater  Dolorosa,  keeping  at 
variations  of  these  patterns  through  many  years.  All  the  world  likes 
them,  though  even  the  enthusiastic  laudations  are  dampened  by 
apologies  for  the  lack  of  character  and  the  enforced  slickness. 

The  daughter  of  Herodias  bearing  that  bloody  head  of  St.  John— 
wasn't  that  a  dainty  dish  to  set  before  a  king?  The  imagination 
lingers  about  the  thought  of  this  pretty  savage  with  her  grewsome 
offering.  What  an  opportunity  for  an  artist  to  study  subtle  expres- 
sion! Dolci's  intellect  carried  him  no  farther  than  pretty  figure 
painting,  well  done  according  to  rule. 

His  sweet  Mother  of  Sorrows,  it  is  simply  a  novice  from  some 
convent,  the  draped  head  carefully  adjusted  to  show  the  impassive 
face  and  a  bit  of  thumb.  That  coquetish  thumb— always  the  same 
thumb,  sometimes  peeping  out  a  little  more  and  then  retreating  coyly. 
How  refinedly  repentant  are  his  Magdalenes!  Is  it  possible  that  these 
are  intended  to  portray  one  of  the  most  mom.entous  heart  sorrows  in 
human  life? 

More  still  life  he  has  painted — lilies  and  roses  astonishingly  well 
done,  but  marble  blossoms.  It  is  said  that  another  did  these  for  him, 
his  own  laborious  finish  not  reaching  the  standard  of  lifeless  polish  so 


MuRiLLO  —  Madonna. 


THE   LESSER   GREAT   MEN  ^^ 

dear  to  his  heart.  It  were  not  worth  while  to  dwell  upon  these 
declining,  sugar-coated  weaknesses  of  the  dying  school  of  Raphael, 
were  they  not  so  popular,  so  cherished  in  museums. 

Most  of  Dolci's  works  are  small,  though  he  also  made  some  life- 
sized  figures. 

Gerard  Douw  painted  as  smoothly  as  Dolci,  but  there  is  a  certain 
sincerity  and  genuine  observation  of  nature  in  those  Dutch  pictures 
which  command  infinite  respect  as  against  the  absolute  surrender  to 
weak  classicism  we  find  here. 

The  art  of  these  three  men,  Guido,  Domenichino  and  Dolci,  was 
so  popular  that  even  the  highly-endowed  Murillo  forgot  much  of  his 
native  force  in  attempting  to  imitate  it.  Murillo  and  Dolci  lived  their 
lives  at  the  same  time,  and  the  Spaniard's  change  to  over-sweetness 
is  contemporaneous  with  the  arrival  in  Spain  of  Dolci's  product. 

Principal  Works:  St.  Cecelia,  Daughter  of  Herodias  (Dresden);  Madonna, 
Ecce  Homo  (Corsini  Palace,  Rome);  Madonna  and  Child  (Borghese  Palace,  Rome); 
Penitent  Magdalene,  Madonna  of  the  Thumb,  Angel  of  the  Annunciation  (Uffizi, 
Rome) ;  Martyrdom  of  St  Andrew,  Fra  Angelica,  God  the  Father  (Academy  of  Fine 
Arts,  Florence);  Dream  of  St.  John,  Mater  Dolorosa,  Magdalene,  Angel  of  the 
Annunciation  (Uffizi,  Florence);  Magdalene  (Dresden). 

Van  der  Faes,  known  as  Sir  Peter  Lely  (the  lily)  (1617-1680, 
German),  lived  in  England.  Lely  was  of  Dutch  extraction  but 
German  born.  Educated  in  the  Netherlands,  he  became  a  fairly  good 
technician,  an  indifferent  draughtsman,  but  quite  clever  enough  to 
obtain  a  footing  in  England  (where  art  was  an  e.xotic)  to  secure  royal 
patronage  and  make  numberless  affected  portraits,  not  forgetting  the 
nudes  and  other  conceits  which  took  the  popular  fancy.  He  was,  at 
the  court  of  the  gay  King  Charles  H.,  what  Fragonard  was  at  the 
court  of  Louis  XV. 

Principal  Works:  Oliver  Cromwell  (Pitti  Gallery,  Florence),  and  many  por- 
traits of  the  beauties  of  the  Court  of  Charles  II. 

Bartolome'  Este'ban  Murillo 

{1618-1682.     Spa7iish.) 
Nineteen  years  younger  than  Velasquez,  this  artist  ends  the  line 
for  a  long  time.     Spain  had   lost  all  claims  to  greatness.     Murillo  at 


78  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

first  and  the  same  man  at  the  last  are  nearly  two  different  artists, 
though  the  Spanish  genius  for  nature  observation  never  quite  left  him. 
The  beggar  boys,  his  most  genuine  works,  were  made  when  in  his 
youth;  he  studied  them  because  there  were  no  nude  life  classes  in 
Spain.  Youth  is  genuine  in  sentiment,  as  these  early  pictures  are.  It 
is  the  art  of  Ribera,  of  Velasquez,  some  of  the  technique  learned  from 
the  traveled  imitator  of  Van  Dyck  and  Moya.  It  is  strong  in  light 
and  shade,  genuine  in  color,  fine  in  action  and  altogether  Spanish. 
Later,  he  submitted  to  the  love  of  popularity  or  perhaps  fell  a  willing 
victim  to  the  wiles  of  that  "School  of  Raphael"  so  often  spoken  of  in 
this  writing.  His  decorations  in  the  churches  of  Seville,  made  after 
middle  life,  are  so  like  the  compositions  of  Raphael  that  the  two  seem 
the  same  only  slightly  varied.  Saving  grace  is  found  in  the  remnant 
of  the  early  and  genuine  Spanish  fondness  for  actual  facial  expression. 
The  beggar  boys  appear  again  in  his  latest  works  in  the  religious 
decorations,  less  genuine  but  with  character  enough  to  give  flavor. 

After  learning  how  to  paint  well  (having  felt  Moya's  influence), 
his  good  fortune  in  selling  out  his  collection  of  pictures  brought 
money  and  the  desire  to  visit  Italy.  Reaching  Madrid,  Velasquez 
introduced  him  to  the  collections  of  the  palace,  examples  of  Ribera, 
Titian,  some  of  Raphael,  Carlo  Dolci,  and  other  Italian  pictures, 
and  much  from  Flanders  (a  Spanish  province),  and  these  occupied 
him  with  good  study.  The  art  of  Carlo  Dolci  (who  was  his  exact 
contemporary)  had  become  popular  and  seduced  the  young  artist. 
After  this,  his  painting  is  that  of  the  degenerate  Italian  school, 
though  far  more  characterful.     He  was  greater  than  Guido  or  Dolci. 

A  marriage  with  one  of  the  leading  women  of  his  native  city 
(Seville)  brought  him  commissions  to  paint  in  the  churches  there, 
because  his  wife  had  influence  with  the  clergy. 

A  "Holy  Family"  (Louvre)  shows  color  that  is  luminous  and  ten- 
der, though  weak  as  compared  to  Velasquez  and  other  Spaniards. 
The  tendency  is  toward  pink  flesh  (which  never  occurs  with  the  others, 
nor  in  his  beggar  boys)  over-delicate  blues,  reds  and  yellows.  The 
Madonna  is  a  portrait,  slightly  idealized;    the  Almighty,  a  weak  old 


MtraiLLo — The  ImmactjiiAte  Conception. 


THE   LESSER  GREAT   MEN  79 

man;  the  Christ  and  St.  John,  excellent  portraits  of  children  with 
much  of  his  Spanish  virtue  of  characterful  expression.  The  cherubs 
are  excellent  babies  and  true  to  life.  In  the  "Cuisine  des  Anges" 
(Louvre)  all  the  figures  are  artificial,  but  there  is  a  collection  of 
kitchen  utensils  which  could  not  be  better  done. 

He  was  nineteen  years  younger  than  Velasquez;  thirty-one  younger 
than  Rubens;  twelve  younger  than  Rembrandt;  one  older  than  LeBrun, 
court  painter  to  Louis  XIV.  of  France;  three  younger  than  Salvator 
Rosa;  two  younger  than  Carlo  Dolci. 

Principal  Works:  Madonna  (Pitti  Palace,  Florence);  Adoration  of  the  Shep- 
herds, Marriage  of  St.  Catherine,  Return  of  the  Prodigal  (Vatican,  Rome);  Madonna 
and  Child  (Corsini  Palace,  Rome) ;  The  Immaculate  Conception,  The  Death  of  St. 
Andrew,  Annunciation,  Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,  Conversion  of  St.  Paul,  Vision 
of  St.  Augustine  (Madrid);  Immaculate  Conception,  Holy  Family,  Peasant  Boy; 
(Louvre)  Peasant  Boy,  Divine  Shepherd  (National  Gallery,  London);  Virgin  and 
Child,  Burial  of  Santa  Clara,  St.  Rodrigue  (Dresden);  Beggar  Boys,  Girls  with  Fruit 
(Munich);  St.  Anthony  of  Padua  (Berlin);  Moses  Striking  the  Rock,  The  Miracle  of 
the  Loaves  and  Fishes,  The  Charity  of  St.  Juan  de  Dios,  The  Infant  Saviour  (Hos- 
pital of  Charity  of  Seville);  St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary  (Academy  of  San  Fernando, 
Madrid);  St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  Guardian  Angel  (Cathedral,  Seville);  Conception, 
Nativity,  St.  Francis  Embracing  the  Crucified  Saviour,  Saints  Rufina  and  Justa, 
Charity  of  St.  Thomas  of  Villanueva,  Virgen  de  la  Serviletta  (Museum  of  Seville) ; 
Flower  Girl  (Dilwich  Collection,  England);  Conceptions,  Madonnas  (St.  Petersburg.) 

Charles  Le  Brun 

(i6iq-i6go.     French. ) 

Court  painter  to  Louis  XIV.,  Le  Brun  was  of  much  use  to  France, 
though  by  no  means  a  remarkable  painter.  The  array  of  enormous 
canvases,  which  still  occupy  good  space  in  the  French  art  galleries,  is 
heavy,  in  the  debased  Italian  manner  and  largely  intended  for  transla- 
tion into  tapestry.  He  it  was  who  organized  the  Art  Academy  under 
royal  patronage  and  began  that  war  for  the  support  of  stilted  classi- 
cism which  still  disturbs  French  art  circles.  The  Grand  Monarque 
had  lofty  ideas  regarding  the  establishment  of  art  workshops.  "The 
Gobelins"  still  exist,  much  as  Le  Brun  projected  the  schools  and 
shops    for    the    production    of  tapestries,    marquetry  and    decorative 


8o  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

design  of  all  sorts.     The  tapestries  there  executed  in  Le   Brun's  time 
are  better  than  the  designs  he  made  for  them. 

Principal  Works:  Scenes  from  the  Life  of  Alexander  the  Great,  Battle  of 
Arbela,  Crucifixion,  Magdalene,  Benedicite,  Portrait  of  Himself  (Louvre,  Paris); 
Jabach  Family  of  Cologne  (Berlin). 

Philip  Wouvermans 

(ibig-i6b8.     Dutch.') 

Wouvermans,  a  townsman  of  Hals,  was  an  excellent  painter  who 
discovered  nothing  new  but  could  paint  a  well-ordered  picture  in 
charming  tones,  rarely  with  positive  colors,  though  lacking  no  refine- 
ments of  color.  Battle  scenes,  skirmishes  with  horsemen  in  violent 
action,  abundant  smoke  and  confusion,  these  made  him  popular.  It 
is  with  fine  painter  qualities  that  he  wins  admiration. 

Principal  Works:  Stag  Hunt,  Six  Equestrian  or  Battle  Scenes  (Munich); 
Hawking  Party  (Amsterdam) ;  Milk  Can  (Dresden) ;  Burning  Mill,  Stag  Hunt  (St. 
Petersburg) ;  Hay  Cart  (The  Hague). 

Nicholas  Berghem 

{1624-1683.     Dutch:) 

Berghem  (or  Berchem)  was  the  son  of  a  painter,  the  two  making 
landscapes  so  much  alike  as  to  confuse  collectors.  His  taste  was  for 
landscapes  with  cows  and  figures,  or  domestic  animals,  all  admirably 
drawn  and  in  good  movement.  As  paintings  they  are  remarkably 
loose  and  free,  everything  clear  in  tone  and  few  black  shadows,  sky 
and  distance  in  excellent  atmosphere,  and  the  best  tree  drawing  of  any 
Dutchman.  The  faces  are  not  so  good  as  others  made  them.  Many  of 
his  landscapes  are  classical  arrangements — far-off  mountains  and  near 
rivers;  absence  of  herbage  suggests  Italian  landscape,  but  an  artificial 
arrangement  and  color  for  tone's  sake  rather  than  exact  nature. 
Nearly  all  these  Dutch  landscape  painters  composed  an  artificial 
arrangement.     Berghem  is  one  of  the  best  of  these  minor  geniuses. 

Principal  Works:  View  of  Nice,  Port  of  Genoa,  Crossing  the  Ford,  Milking  a 
Goat,  Landscape  with  Cattle  (Louvre,  Paris);  Boaz  and  Ruth  (Amsterdam);  A  Turk 
Talking  to  a  Woman  (The  Hague). 


THE   LESSER   GREAT   MEN  8i 

Paul  Potter 

{1625-1613.     Dutch ) 

At  the  Museum  in  The  Hague  hangs  the  much-talked-of  "Bull," 
not  a  great  picture  but  fine  in  its  fresh  color  and  the  natural  lifelike 
attitude  of  the  animals.  Like  many  of  these  Dutch  animal  painters, 
his  human  figure  is  no  more  than  fairly  good.  It  is  the  simplicity  of 
the  whole  effect  which  makes  the  picture  impressive,  and  the  remark- 
able manner  in  which  the  green  grass  has  maintained  its  original 
color.  Some  pictures  have  grown  very  mellow  with  time  and  varnish, 
seeming,  like  Cuyp's,  to  be  lighted  through  amber  glass.  All  his 
compositions  are  simple,  not  arranged  from  complicated  Italian 
mountain  subjects,  as  others  too  often  were. 

Principal  Works:  Two  Portraits  (Dresden);  Young  Bull  (The  Hague);  Bear 
Hunt  (Amsterdam) ;  The  Condemnation  of  Man  by  a  Tribunal  of  Animals  (Hermit- 
age, St.  Petersburg). 

Nicholas  Maes 

{i632-i6gj.     Dutch.) 

There  were  several  artists  named  Maes  or  Maas,  the  most  impor- 
tant being  Nicholas.  He  imitated  Rembrandt  for  the  most  part.  He 
painted  portraits  with  much  financial  and  considerable  artistic  success. 

Antoon  Franz  van  der  Meulen 

(i6j4-i6go.     Flemish.) 

Van  der  Meulen  was  born  in  Brussels,  but  belongs  with  the  French 
painters  because  a  large  part  of  his  life  was  spent  in  the  service  of 
Louis  XIV.  as  battle  painter  to  the  glory  of  the  Grand  Monarque. 

The  contrast  of  conditions  between  Flanders  and  Holland  appears 
very  distinctly  here.  Semi-royal  Flanders  kept  in  touch  with  royal- 
ties. The  only  evidence  of  nationality  in  Van  der  Meulen's  work  is  a 
sort  of  slavish  attention  to  minute  details.  In  French  galleries 
(Louvre  and  Versailles)  may  be  seen  large  pictures,  the  center  occu- 
pied with  the  scarlet  and  gold  coach  of  the  king  of  elegant  manners, 
surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  courtiers  who  attend  the  king.     This  impor- 


82  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

tant  group  is  so  arranged  that  the  landscape  stretches  away  beyond  it 
and  shows  a  city  on  fire,  or  one  which  they  would  like  to  set  fire  to, 
could  they  approach  it.  This  management  prevails  continually — 
always  the  red  coach.  He  was  a  fairly  good  painter,  but  France  had 
few  be,tter  at  the  time.     The  noted  Le  Brun  was  his  father-in-law. 

Principal  Works:  Conquests  of  Louis  XIV,,  in  twenty-three  pictures  (Louvre, 
Paris) ;  Four  others,  similar  in  character  (Munich). 

Jan  Steen 

{i6j6-i68g.     Dutch.) 

A  painter  of  domestic  interiors  and  tavern  scenes,  being  himself  a 
tavern-keeper,  Steen  is  the  true  forerunner  of  the  school  of  domestic 
genre  painters  which  has  manifested  itself  all  over  Europe  during 
many  generations.  It  was  the  rise  of  these  popular  painters  which 
destroyed  the  taste  for  Rembrandt's  greater  art,  toward  the  latter  part 
of  that  leader's  career.  None  of  the  Dutchmen  equal  him  in  the 
creation  of  a  "story  picture"  in  which  individual  temperaments  are 
studiously  set  forth.  What  he  accomplished  has  been  as  well  done 
since,  but  he  deserves  limitless  credit  for  his  invention  of  a  style  or, 
at  least,  its  full  development,  in  the  execution  of  which  he  has  scarcely 
been  surpassed  by  his  numberless  followers.  The  effort  which  he 
made  to  render  all  stuffs  and  textures  stood  in  the  way  of  the  produc- 
tion of  simple  refinements  of  tone  and  unity  of  effect.  Liveliness  of 
colors  rarely  means  refined  color.  Some  of  his  compositions  are 
arranged  with  wonderful  skill  from  the  point  of  view  of  balancing 
lines  and  masses.  Not  able  to  secure  subtlety  of  expression,  he  was 
still  a  leader  in  that  line  of  genre  painting  which  delineates  ordinary 
facial  action.  The  Diisseldorf  genre  school,  long  popular,  was  based 
on  painters  like  Steen. 

Principal  Works:  Mother  Feeding  Baby  with  a  Spoon  (Dresden);  Inn  Garden 
IBerlin);  Fete,  Flemish  Festival  (Louvre);  Physician  Visiting  a  Lady  (Munich); 
Music  Master  (London);  Alchemist  (Private  Gallery  at  Venice);  Feast  of  St. 
Nicholas,  Lady  and  Parrot  (Amsterdam) ;  Family  Feast  (Florence). 


THE   LESSER   GREAT   MEN  83 

Jacob  van  Ruysdael 

{/636-1681.     Dutch. ) 

Ruysdael  made  landscapes  like  the  others,  classical  compositions, 
artificial  arrangements  of  color  rather  than  an  exact  imitation  of 
nature,  but  with  refined  sentiment  and  pleasing  composition.  All 
these  were  excellent  painters  whose  works  enrich  European  galleries, 
but  they  did  nothing  more  than  push  along  the  development  of  art, 
push  it  in  a  good  way  and  far  along.  Hundreds  of  good  painters  have 
imitated  them  or  found  here  the  source  of  their  inspiration. 

Principal  Works:  Monastery,  Chase,  Jewish  Cemetery  (Dresden) ;  Waterfall, 
View  of  Bentheim  Castle  (Amsterdam);  Storm  at  Sea  (Louvre);  The  Forest 
Vienna). 

Kaspar  (Caspar)  Netscher 

(i6jg-i6S4.     German;  lived  in  Holland.') 

Technique  without  originality  now  commences  to  indicate  the 
decline  of  Dutch  art.  It  is  another  attempt  to  outdo  Terburg  and 
Gerard  Douw,  with  all  the  technique  but  little  of  the  spirit.  Netscher's 
two  sons  were,  like  him,  technicians. 

Principal  Works:  Material  Instruction,  Alchemist  (London) ;  Portrait  of 
Madame  de  Montespan,  Music  Lesson,  Young  Man  Writing  a  Letter  (Dresden) ;  Lady 
Who  Is  Singing  (Munich). 

Too  much  technique  killed  Dutch  art.  It  grew  mannered  and 
imitative,  as  has  often  happened  in  other  countries.  Fresh  and  orig- 
inal talent  does  not  seem  to  continue  for  long  periods  anywhere, 
though  from  time  to  time  a  new  genius  comes  up  and  sets  the  pace  for 
many  followers. 

Sir  Godfrey  Kneller 

(1648-1723  (?)    German;  lived  in  England.) 

Kneller  studied  with  Rembrandt  and  then  went  to  Italy.  His  life 
work  consists  of  some  good  and  numberless  shockingly  bad  portraits 
of  English  royal  and  noble  grandees,  during  the  reigns  of  Charles  II. 
and  following  kings  to  the  accession  of  George  I.     During  his  career 


84  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Hogarth,  the  actual  father  of  English  art,  arrived.     Reynolds  was  born 
the  year  that  Kneller  died. 

Hyacinthe  Rigaud 

{i6^g-i'j4j.     French. ) 

It  is  worth  taking  note  of  that  Rigaud  did  not  study  in  Italy  but  was 
shaped  by  the  influence  of  Van  Dyck  (dead  eighteen  years  at  Rigaud's 
birth),  which  certainly  causes  a  difference  in  his  art  from  those  just 
mentioned.  He  was  a  literalist,  attempting  the  stately  manner  of  the 
great  Fleming  without  his  refinement  of  conception.  His  full-length 
portrait  of  Louis  XIV.  in  regal  robes  is  a  mass  of  velvet  and  gold 
draperies,  very  sumptuous  but  ridiculously  over-loaded.  It  was  this 
picture  which  incited  Thackeray  to  make  his  famous  caricature  of,  first 
the  robes  alone,  then  Louis  lean  and  ugly,  then  Louis  the  king,  which 
is  the  overdone  work  in  question,  suggesting  that  the  clothes  were  the 
making  of  His  Majesty.     The  picture  bears  out  the  thought. 

Principal  Works:    Portrait  of  Bossuet,  Portrait  of  Louis  XIV.  (Louvre.) 

Antoine  Watteau 

(1684-1721.     French.) 

It  is  almost  safe  to  say  that  national  art  in  France  begins  with 
Watteau,  though  Rigaud  used  the  Flemish  influence,  which  gave  him 
his  training,  in  a  decidedly  French  manner.  But  Watteau  was  so 
original  and  his  art  was  so  different  from  any  other  which  the  world 
had  known,  that  we  may  declare  his  the  product  of  true  French  influ- 
ence. He  did  not  go  to  Italy,  but  studied  the  pictures  of  the  Flemish 
masters  found  in  Paris.  Coming  to  Paris  a  poor  boy,  he  managed  to 
secure  considerable  training  in  the  Academy  and  became  a  pretty  good 
draughtsman,  though  never  a  severe  classicist,  as  David  (who  came 
twenty-seven  years  after  his  death)  would  judge  classicism. 

There  is  a  strong  flavor  of  the  art  of  Carlo  Dolci  (died  two  years 
after  Watteau' s  birth)  in  his  work — the  sweet  saints  here  becoming 
pretty  sinners — and  the  attention  to  still  life  painting  is  the  same.  But 
this  was  a  coming,  not  a  dying  movement.     The  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 


THE   LESSER  GREAT   MEN  85 

ended  in  1712,  so  that  we  find  an  art  suited  to  the  period  of  crooked- 
legged  furniture,  elegant  gilding,  sumptuous  garments,  increasing 
frivolity  of  manners,  which  culminated  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  the 
most  frivolous  in  the  history  of  any  nation.  Pastoral  posturings, 
sheep  and  shepherdesses  alike  "genteel,"  cavalrymen  who  were  made 
to  wear  pretty  costumes  rather  than  to  fight,  graceful  groupings  in 
park-like  landscapes  studded  with  statues  of  the  elegant  period  as 
artificial  in  pose  as  the  nymphs  who  went  picnicing  about  them,  love- 
makings -of  the  sweetly  sentimental  sort — this  is  the  art  of  Watteau. 
All  his  swains  and  lassies  are  dressed  in  silks  and  satins,  they  pose  in 
silken  landscapes,  amid  trees  which  arrange  themselves  gracefully, 
and  with  color  which  corresponds  with  the  subjects  represented,  suave, 
elegant  and  in  tender  artificial  tones.  It  is  by  no  means  a  second- 
rate  art,  though  never  roble  either  in  pose  or  sentiment. 

The  "Embarkation  for  the  Island  of  Cythera,"  island  of  love  where 
Venus  was  born  (Louvre  and  Berlin),  is  one  of  his  best  works,  the 
example  in  Berlin  somewhat  over-finished  and  containing  several 
additional  figures.  Frederick  the  Great  was  a  patron  of  this  artist, 
many  of  his  best  works  being  at  the  San  Souci  palace. 

Though  it  is  out  of  the  sequence  chronologically,  I  will  mention 
here  Lancret  (1690-1743),  Pater  (1695-1743),  Hilaire — and  De  Bar — who 
are  all  close  imitators  of  Watteau,  growing  thinner  and  harder  in  the 
descent,  though  much  patronized  by  Frederick. 

Hogarth  was  thirteen  years  younger  than  Watteau;  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  was  born  two  years  after  Watteau's  death;  Murillo  died 
1682,  two  years  before  Watteau's  birth;  Teniers  died  when  Watteau 
was  ten  years  old;  Ostade  when  Watteau  was  only  a  year  old;  Gerard 
Douw  died  four  years  before  Watteau's  coming. 

Iviportant  Works:  Embarking  for  Cythera,  Portrait  of  Himself,  Grace  before 
Meat  (Louvre.) 

Francois  Le  Moyne 

{i6SS-i'ys7-     F)-en.ch.) 
An  artist  four  years  younger  than  Watteau,  of  Italian  education, 
who   painted    decorations    with    tender   flesh    and    drapery,    painting 


86  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

unusually  "fat"  color  and  excellence  in  all  ways.  What  interests  us 
most  is  that  he  had  for  a  pupil  a  man  less  talented  than  himself  but 
who  is  known  all  over  the  civilized  world.     The  pupil  was  Boucher. 

Jean  Marc  Nattier 

{/68j  -1766.     French. ) 

A  painter  of  fashionable  portraits,  Nattier  has  produced  an  art 
which  maintains  a  certain  popularity  because  an  exponent  of  the  times 
of  the  frivolous  period  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  and  the 
opening  of  that  of  Louis  XV.  His  noble  ladies  in  embroidered 
bodices  are  pink  and  pretty. 

Goya,  the  Spanish  painter  of  brilliant  talent,  was  born  in  1748 — 
twenty-eight  years  before  the  death  of  Nattier,  and  five  years  after  the 
death  of  Rigaud.  In  1686,  one  year  after  Nattier's  birth,  Carlo  Dolci 
died. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CONFLICT  BETWEEN  CLASSICISM  AND  REALISM 

England  comes  to  her  own  in  this  chapter.  France  brings  forth, 
besides  some  interesting  little  men,  one  of  the  most  noted  artists  of 
any  period.  Spain  sends  up  a  rocket  and  harbors  an  artist  polished  by 
much  hard  work.  America  begins  to  take  her  place  in  the  contest  for 
fame. 

William  Hogarth 

(i6gy-iy64.    English.) 

All  prosperous  peoples  are  self-satisfied  and  think  that  the  world 
could  not  revolve  but  for  them.  The  English  are  pugnaciously  self- 
complacent.  Not  spontaneously  artistic,  they  have  always  acted  as  if 
the  arts  would  fare  badly  without  their  aid.  No  man  knew  less  about 
the  art  of  the  rest  of  the  world  than  Hogarth;  but  he  was  sure  that  he 
had  all  the  secrets  of  it  in  his  pocket.  In  his  ignorance  he  railed  at 
the  idea  of  art  schools  and  art  knowledge,  and  looked  upon  a  foreign 
art  education  as  the  embodiment  of  foolishness.  Admitting  that 
many  a  little  genius  has  been  injured  by  foreign  study — if  anything 
can  injure  a  little  man — one  so  talented  as  Hogarth  might  have  made 
a  wonderful  mark  in  the  world,  had  he  been  properly  trained.  Devoid 
of  proper  art  education,  Hogarth  made  of  himself  a  superior  caricatu- 
rist and  a  portrait  painter  who  had  few  commissions,  because  his  bad 
manners  repulsed  too  many  sitters.  Somewhat  embittered,  he  reveled 
in  sarcastic  delineations  of  the  follies  of  his  times,  caricaturing  people 
of  importance  whose  enmity  he  thus  cultivated.  As  there  were  no 
newspapers  in  those  days  for  the  circulation  of  caricatures,  Hogarth 
sought  to  convince  the  public  that  he  was  a  great  painter  (which  he 
never  attained  skill  enough  to  be)  by  making  his  satires  on  large  can- 
vases with  oil  paints. 

87 


88  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Hogarth's  pictures  never  sold  readily,  in  fact  they  could  scarcely 
be  sold  at  all,  even  by  means  of  ingeniously  conceived  raffles  and  other 
schemes  to  force  the  market.  He  lived  by  means  of  engravings  made 
by  himself  which  could  be  sold  at  moderate  prices  to  people  of  the 
middle  classes,  who  were  delighted  to  see  their  aristocratic  betters  held 
up  to  ridicule.  Narrow-mindedness  was  his  birthright.  I  am  not 
questioning  the  man's  genius,  as  that  is  beyond  dispute,  but  I  am  pic- 
turing the  condition  of  art  in  England  when  the  flame  began  to  burn. 
In  youth  a  silversmith's  apprentice,  he  early  found  opportunity  to 
study  the  works  of  Van  Dyck,  and  with  this  training,  in  the  absence 
of  all  art  schools  and  life  classes,  he  attained  to  considerable  skill  as 
a  technician.  Note  that  he  is  not  a  painter-genius,  but  one  of  literary 
bent,  like  almost  all  Englishmen. 

His  "Marriage  a  la  Mode"  and  "The  Rake's  Progress,"  "The 
Harlot's  Progress,"  and  similar  serial  story  pictures,  grow  coarser  as 
the  years  passed,  .until  even  his  own  public  refused  to  consider  them 
seriously,  while  the  aristocrats  waxed  frosty  toward  him.  In  no  case 
do  we  find  subtlety  in  his  conceptions.  Everything  is  brutally  direct. 
In  these  days,  we  relegate  these  things  to  the  newspapers. 

Principal  Works:  Marriage  a  la  Mode,  The  Rake's  Progress,  The  Harlot's 
Progress  (London). 

Jean  Baptist  Chardin 

(_i6gg-iyjg.     French.) 

If  Watteau's  art  may  be  called  classical-genre,  that  of  Chardin  is 
the  first  real  domestic-genre  we  have  met  with  in  all  this  history,  even 
more  so  than  the  Dutch.  In  the  French  picture  galleries,  amid  the 
endless  array  of  learned  classics,  we  find  our  hearts  touched  by  Char- 
din's  subjects  revealing  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  actual  home  life,  as 
well  as  by  the  tender  painting  and  real  artistic  merit.  Most  school- 
men thought  that  it  was  beneath  their  dignity  to  paint  an  humble 
interior  with  a  mother  and  her  girls  at  household  duties.  But  Chardin 
did  his  work  so  well  that  the  world  has  stood  by  him.  Many  still-life 
pictures  occupied  him.     This  is  in  itself  a  matter  to  invite  condemna- 


Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  —  Penelope  Boothby. 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN   CLASSICISM   AND  REALISM     89 

tion,  because  mere  texture  painting  is  counted  too  easy  for  serious 
consideration.  But  his  still  life  is  wonderfully  "large"  and  artistic  in 
treatment,  every  picture  a  work  of  art  because  so  dignified.  It  stands 
almost  at  the  head  of  this  sort  of  thing  in  any  country  or  time. 

Francois  Boucher 

(lyoj-ryyo.     French.) 

Madame  de  Pompadour  was  the  patron  and  supporter  of  Boucher. 
This  was  in  the  midst  of  that  period  of  pretty  art,  less  dignified  than 
that  of  the  old  king,  Louis  XIV.  The  art  was  trifling,  when  not  actu- 
ally immoral.  Boucher's  panels,  made  largely  as  designs  for  tape- 
stries, are  never  in  the  least  improper,  though  composed  of  groups  of 
nude  nymphs  and  cherubs  sporting  amid  flowers  and  piles  of  musical 
instruments.  Are  they  not  to  be  seen  in  countless  numbers  repro- 
duced in  the  magazines  called  "Lady's  Book"  and  in  the  art  journals 
made  for  young  women's  use,  to  provide  copies  for  painted  china? 
The  designs  are  simply  pretty.  As  paintings,  they  are  dry,  heartless, 
indifferently  drawn  and  altogether  the  true  exponent  of  the  levity  and 
shallowness  of  the  rococo  period.  His  portraits  are  jaunty  and  have 
carefully  painted  clothes. 

Charles  Andre  Van  Loo,  called  "  Carle " 

{tyo^-ijdj.     French.) 

A  Student  in  Italy,  Van  Loo  decorated  churches  in  the  manner  of 
the  later  Italians,  but  better.  No  romance  was  at  one  time  complete 
without  the  description  of  an  interior  hung  with  a  portrait  by  this 
artist,  because  his  style  kept  sympathetic  accord  with  scenes  of  tender 
experiences.  He  was  not  unlike  Watteau  in  treatment  of  subject  and 
costumes. 

Claude  Joseph  Vernet,  called  "Joseph" 

{11 1 2- IT  8g.     French.) 

We  must  not  overlook  a  man  who  appeared  at  this  time  painting 
numberless  marines,  dry,  correct  and  carefully  studied.     His  greatest 


go  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

work  was  the  production  of  his  son,  who  in  turn  gave  us  his  grandson 
Horace  Vernet,  the  painter  of  Napoleon's  battles.  None  of  them  was 
a  great  artist,  however. 

Principal  Works:  Harbors  of  France  (Louvre);  Landscapes  and  Marine 
Views  (Munich). 

Allan  Ramsay 

(i7ij-i'/84.     English.) 

Allan  Ramsay,  Sr.,  the  poet  father  of  this  artist,  gave  his  son  an 
excellent  classical  education  and  sent  him  to  Italy  where,  strange  as 
it  may  seem  to  relate  of  one  of  these  Englishmen,  he  learned  to  draw. 
The  king,  George  III.,  made  him  court  painter,  which  post  he  held 
until  the  time  of  the  founding  of  the  Royal  Academy,  when  Reynolds 
in  a  measure  supplanted  him.  His  portraits  are  well  made,  though  he 
had  no  special  genius,  being  a  rather  dry  literalist. 

Richard  Wilson 

{17/3-1782.    English.) 

The  first  English  landscape  painter  worthy  of  mention  was  Wilson, 
who  also,  at  times,  painted  portraits.  Had  he  remained  in  Italy 
where  an  art  education  and  reputation  were  secured,  the  story  had 
been  pleasanter  to  relate.  England  had  little  use  for  a  classical  land- 
scape painter,  leaving  him  to  poverty.  In  the  newly  organized  Royal 
Academy  the  little  office  of  librarian,  with  a  salary,  was  created  for 
him,  which  sufficed  for  his  needs.  Reynolds  had  an  unaccountable 
antipathy  to  this  excellent  man,  doing  him  injury. 

Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 

{I72j-I7g2.     English. ) 

It  may  be  called  the  "School  of  Reynolds,"  the  long  line  of  artists 
which  largely  owes  to  him  its  style  and  its  existence.  Reynolds  was  a 
clergyman's  son  and  a  suave  and  polished  gentleman.  At  eighteen 
years  of  age,  an  artist  of  indifferent  ability,  Hudson,  taught  him  some 
things,  but  he  learned  most  of  his  art  in  Italy.     The  primitiveness  of 


SiK  Joshua  Reynolds  —  The  Strawberry  Girl. 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN   CLASSICISM  AND  REALISM    91 

his  ideas  is  well  revealed  by  the  fact  that  on  going  to  Italy,  at  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age,  he  thought  little  of  the  art  schools  and  paid  no 
attention  to  training  himself  in  drawing  and  technique.  Instead  he 
became  enamored  of  the  rich  coloring  of  Titian  and  other  Venetians, 
going  about  the  picture  galleries  with  a  note  book,  rather  than  a 
palette,  attempting  to  discover  by  this  means  the  secrets  of  these  great 
masters.  A  limited  amount  of  copying  enabled  him  to  catch  some  of 
the  technique.  In  after  life,  when  his  pictures  arrayed  themselves 
against  him  as  reproachful  evidences  of  lost  opportunities,  he  regretted 
this  mistake  and  had  the  honesty  to  say  so.  With  genius  of  a  very 
high  order,  he  labored  to  secure  magnificent  color,  but  with  a  touch 
so  purposeless  and  amateurish  that  it  detracts  very  largely  from  his 
rank  among  the  world's  artists. 

Heretofore,  except  for  Ramsay,  all  the  portraits  of  English 
notables  had  been  painted  by  foreigners;  he  changed  the  current  of 
events,  claiming  a  place  for  himself  and  his  following  in  the  line  of 
royal  patronage. 

Like  a  physician,  he  manipulated  his  sitters'  dispositions  while 
attending  to  their  cases,  thus  gaining  immense  sums  for  his  services. 
All  histories  of  the  man  bristle  with  statements  of  the  prices  paid  for 
portraits  at  various  dates  in  his  career,  as  they  would  in  these  days 
give  the  quotations  of  prices  in  stocks.  He  had  the  wit  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  popular  fad  for  classical  learning,  and  to  dress  his  sitters  in 
the  garb  of  the  heroes  and  heroines  of  mythology.  Had  he  painted 
people  as  they  actually  were,  the  portraits  would  have  been  more 
interesting,  though  probably  less  beautiful.  Like  nearly  every  one  of 
the  men  of  his  school,  he  thought  a  certain  amount  of  grand  historical 
painting  essential  to  one  of  his  rank.  Of  course  he  executed  this 
grand  art  very  badly,  having  neither  the  essential  talent  nor  the  art 
education  to  accomplish  it.  With  Dr.  Johnson,  he  founded  a  literary 
circle  which  included  Pope,  Goldsmith,  Garrick  and  many  others  of 
fame.  Though  very  deaf,  he  delighted  in  the  society  of  cultivated 
people  and  his  table  was  well  supplied  with  costly  plate  and  with 
aristocratic  guests. 


92  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

The  Royal  Academy  was  founded  in  1768,  Reynolds  being  elected 
its  first  president  and  knighted  by  the  king,  George  III.  It  was  to  the 
students  that  he  delivered  his  noted  "Discourses,"  writings  which 
have  been  translated  into  several  languages,  but  which  while  full  of 
good  common  sense  reveal  all  too  plainly  the  semi-amateurishness  of 
their  author. 

"The  Snake  in  the  Grass"  shows  Reynolds  as  he  was,  a  painter  of 
refined  flesh  tones,  of  pretty  fancies,  of  superb  color,  but  bad  in  drawing. 
Yet,  the  work  is  so  fascinating  that  criticism  becomes  misplaced. 
No  nation  has  raised  up  a  portrait  painter  who  did  better  justice  to  its 
peculiar  tastes  or,  on  the  whole,  was  kindlier  to  its  beauties  and 
nobles.  Early  American  art  was  influenced  largely  by  the  School  of 
Reynolds.  West,  Copley,  Stuart,  Trumbull,  Peale  and  Allston  fol- 
lowed in  its  wake. 

Principal  Works:  The  Banished  Lord,  Holy  Family,  The  Three  Graces, 
Infant  Samuel,  Snake  in  the  Grass,  Heads  of  Angels,  Age  of  Innocence  (London). 

Jean  Baptiste  Greuze 

{iy2j-i8o6.     French.) 

While  the  English  were  learning  the  worth  of  their  own  talents, 
France  continued  to  produce  artists  of  merit.  Greuze  was  not  won- 
derful, except  as  a  painter  of  delightful  flesh  tones.  A  better  draughts- 
man, of  course,  than  most  of  the  English,  he  could  render  a  young 
woman's  figure  in  light  drapery  with  more  charm  than  almost  any 
artist  of  that  country.  His  innocent  girl  faces  command  universal- 
admiration  and  justly,  as  in  the  well-known  "Cruche  Casse"  (Louvre), 
one  of  the  most  popular  pictures  in  the  gallery.  His  attempts  at 
tragic-genre  are  absurd,  though  the  flesh-painting  is  good. 

Principal  Works:  Broken  Pitcher,  Paternal  Curse,  Repentant  Son,  Marriage 
Contract  (Louvre). 

Thomas  Gainsborough 

{iT2'j-i'j88.     English. ) 
Gainsborough  was  as  frank  and  simple  in  his  manner  of  brushing 
paint   as   Reynolds   was    uncertain   and   tentative.      The   older  man 


Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  —  Miss  Bowles. 


CONFLICT   BETWEEN   CLASSICISM  AND  REALISM    93 

searched  for  forced  color,  the  younger  contented  himself  with  tender 
grays  lightly  touched  in.  Reynolds  accused  him  of  making  only 
sketches,  but  the  painters  nowadays  approve  of  that  simplicity  of 
treatment.  Gainsborough  was  more  "clever"  in  portraiture  than  the 
president  of  the  Academy,  though  possibly  lacking  in  a  measure  his 
peculiar  charm.  His  landscapes  with  figures  are  entirely  poetical. 
The  widely-know  "Blue-boy"  picture  has  created  more  talk  than  it 
called  for.  Gainsborough  took  up  a  challe'nge  of  Reynolds  to  the 
effect  that  no  picture  could  be  painted  in  which  blue  prevailed.  This 
would  be  true  from  Reynolds'  point  of  view,  as  he  loved  warm,  rich 
tones.  So  Gainsborough  painted  the  boy  all  in  blue  against  a  blue 
background,  though  there  was  not  much  pure  blue  pigment  in  it,  tones 
of  blue-gray  rather.  It  was  not  a  new  trick,  though  possibly  new  to 
these  provincials. 

Gainsborough's  schooling  was  secured  from  nature.  He  was 
clever  in  all  things,  barely  escaping  the  life  of  a  musician  because  he 
turned,  as  a  boy,  to  landscape,  figure  and  portrait  painting.  Among 
other  clever  things  in  his  life  was  the  winning  of  a  dowered  wife. 

Principal  Works:  Market  Cart,  Rustic  Children,  Watering  Place,  Musidora, 
Portrait  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  Portrait  of  Ralph  Schomberg  (London). 

Raphael  Mengs 

{i^38-iyyg.     German,  or  more  correctly  Bohemian.) 

Mengs'  father  was  a  miniature  painter  who  considered  genius  only 
another  name  for  hard  work.  The  effort  of  many  critics  to  prove 
Mengs  a  genius  shows  only  that  genius  is  nothing  less  than  genius  and 
that  he  had  none.  Long  years  of  toil  in  Italy  made  him  a  learned 
draughtsman,  a  wonderfully  correct  technician  and  a  faultless  imitator 
of  the  masters  he  studied.  For  many  years  he  was  court  painter  in 
Spain,  and  as  such  had  charge  of  the  desperate  efforts  which  the  king 
put  forth  to  revive  the  decayed  art  of  that  country,  establishing  tapes- 
try works  and  art  industries.  In  this  connection  it  was  his  good  for- 
tune to  give  a  young  artist  his  opportunity.  This  young  man  took  the 
opportunity  and   ran  away  with   it,  much  to  the  distress  of  the  dry 


94  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

schoolman.  The  young  man's  name  was  Goya,  and  there  was  none  to 
follow  his  brilliant  example.  Mengs  worked  much  in  Dresden,  which 
accounts  for  the  association  of  his  name,  with  Germany,  that  country 
which  had  no  artists  of  its  own  to  brag  of  for  two  centuries,  including 
this  period.  Mengs  painted  sweetly-sentimental,  classically-draped 
portraits,  or  women  decked  with  pretty  costumes  and  strings  of  pearls. 
This  was  in  the  time  of  Louis  XV.,  the  frivolous  French  king.  His 
costumes  show  the  fashions  of  the  times,  as  Paris,  even  then,  set  the 
fashions. 

Principal  Works:  Two  Oil  Paintings,  Portrait  of  Himself,  Portrait  of  His 
Father,  Cupid  Sharpening  the  Arrow  (Dresden) ;  Frescoes  (Ceilings  of  the  Pope's 
Apartments) ;  Descent  from  the  Cross,  Nativity,  Adoration  of  the  Shepherds,  Noli 
Me  Tangere. 

Jean  Honore  Fragonard 

{iyj2-t8o6.      French.) 

Fragonard  was  the  pupil  of  Boucher  but  had  many  times  more 
talent  than  his  master.  Watteau's  painting  seems  more  his  inspira- 
tion, many  pictures  resembling  the  latter's.  A  superb  brushman  and 
colorist,  his  pictures  have  inspired  many  recent  men.  Especially  his 
study  heads  are  capital  examples  of  dashing  technique  and  fine  color. 
Unfortunately  he  was  painting  for  a  corrupt  public,  that  of  the  deca- 
dence which  caused  the  French  revolution,  and  existed  during  the 
abandoned  Directory.  Many  of  his  pictures  are  kept  in  the  store- 
rooms of  public  galleries  because  too  erotic  for  the  present  genera- 
tion. 

David  was  sixteen  years  younger  than  Fragonard,  and  became  the 
power  which  did  away  with  this  pandering  to  the  popular  fancy,  con- 
fining art  to  strict  orderliness,  though  thereby  enslaving  it. 

George  Romney 

(y  1^4.-1802.     English. ) 

Lightly-draped  or  semi-nude  nymphs  made  Romney's  art  a  con- 
trast to  that  of  his  fellows.     The  notable  picture  of  Lady  Hamilton 


Geobge  Romney  —  Mhs.  M.  Robinson. 


CONFLICT   BETWEEN    CLASSICISM   AND   REALISM     95 

belongs  to  ttiis  class.  Of  course  he  painted  portraits.  Indeed,  the 
nymphs  were  generally  only  commencements.  He  rarely  brought  one 
of  them  to  completion.  A  better  painter  of  heads  than  Reynolds,  he 
was  an  acknowledged  rival  and  the  president  seriously  disliked  him. 
Probably  this  accounts  for  the  fact  that  he  never  became  a  Royal 
Academician. 

Principal  Works:  Portrait  of  Lady  Hamilton  (London) ;  Milton  Dictating  to 
His  Daughter,  Infant  Shakespeare  Surrounded  by  the  Passions,  and  many  portraits. 

John  Singleton  Copley 

(/7j>7-7i5'/jr.     American  born;  lived  hi  England.) 

We  have  no  claim  to  this  man,  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was  born  in 
Boston  (while  the  country  was  still  a  colony  of  Great  Britain)  and 
inherited  a  large  amount  of  Yankee  cleverness.  When  a  very  young 
man  he  went  to  England  and  exhibited  in  the  Royal  Academy  the  pic- 
ture "Boy  and  Tame  Squirrel."  Incited  to  picture-making  when  very 
young,  he  found  no  better  instruction  than  to  make  copies  of  such 
"copies"  of  old  masters  as  came  in  his  way. 

Probably  he  could  draw  as  well  as  the  majority  of  the  English  pamt- 
ers  and  his  color  is  pleasing.  Like  the  others,  he  felt  obliged  to  do  his 
historicals,  as  the  well-known  "Death  of  Lord  Chatham,"  as  passable 
a  work  as  the  times  called  for.  His  family  portraits  reveal  the  ideas 
picked  up  during  a  brief  stay  in  Italy  and  the  study  of  Reynolds. 
They  are  very  much  like  Reynolds'  and  some  Dutch  pictures  in  com- 
position, though  he  painted  people  in  their  own  clothes. 

Principal  Works:  Death  of  Lord  Chatham,  Death  of  Major  Pierson,  Siege  of 
Gibraltar,  Charles  I.  Signing  Strafford's  Death  Warrant,  The  Commons  Arrested 
by  Charles  I.,  Offer  of  the  Crown  to  Lady  Jane  Grey  (London) ;  Portraits  (Museum 
of  Fine  Arts,  Boston). 

Benjamin  West 

(1738-1820.     American  born;  lived  in  England.) 

West  was  clever,  else  as  a  boy  he  could  not  have  painted  his  baby 
sister's  portrait  with  the  clippings  from  the  cat's  tail.     His  success 


96  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

with  George  III.  proved  his  ability  to  do  business.  Not  satisfied 
with  portrait  painting,  he  lost  himself  in  the  desire  to  imitate  Michael 
Angelo  and  his  grand  art.  Several  hundred  enormous  canvases,  with 
names  like  "Death  on  the  Pale  Horse,"  now  at  Philadelphia,  occupied 
much  of  his  professional  life.  Without  refinement  of  imagination, 
ignorant  of  drawing,  technique  and  good  color,  he  did  these  pretty- 
badly. 

His  boyhood  was  passed  in  Philadelphia  at  a  period  when  unspoiled 
Indians  were  often  to  be  seen  in  the  neighborhood.  This  circumstance 
is  responsible  for  the  one  celebrated  picture  which  came  from  his 
hand,  "The  Death  of  General  Wolf."  Instead  of  draping  his  soldiers, 
hunters  and  Indians  in  classical  costume  (as  the  custom  was)  in  order 
to  give  them  proper  dignity,  he  painted  that  which  was  really  dear  to 
him — the  picturesque  costumes  which  these  characters  would  actually 
wear.  Enormous  success  naturally  followed,  despite  the  opposition  of 
Reynolds,  who  had  predicted  a  failure.  After  a  brief  visit  to  Italy  (while 
still  quite  young)  his  fate  took  him  to  England  en  route  homeward. 
Business  ability  did  the  rest.  He  never  went  home.  When  Reynolds, 
first  president  of  the  Royal  Academy,  died,  West  became  his  suc- 
cessor. 

Principal  Works:  Death  of  General  Wolfe  (Marquis  of  Westminster) ;  Raising 
of  Lazarus  (City  of  Hartford) ;  Christ  Healing  the  Sick,  Death  on  the  Pale  Horse 
(Philadelphia) ;  Christ  Rejected. 

Charles  Wilson  Peale 

{i74i-iS2g.     American.) 

A  Marylander,  very  clever,  studied  in  England  with  West,  returned 
to  paint  portraits  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  established  the  Peale 
museum  of  natural  history  and  helped  found  the  Philadelphia  Art 
Academy.  His  son,  Rembrandt  Peale  (1778-1860),  also  studied  with 
West  and  returned  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  his  father,  adding  to 
his  portrait  painting  some  historical  works. 

Principal  Works  of  Charles  Peale:  Fourteen  Portraits  of  Washington. 
Principal  Works  of  Rembrandt  Peale:  Portraits  of  celebrated  men. 


Thomas  Gainsborough — Mrs.  Isabella  Kinloch. 
(Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  A.  M.  Byus  Estate.) 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN   CLASSICISM   AND  REALISM    97 
James  Barry 

{1^4.1-1806.      English,  born  in  Cork.) 

Enthusiasm  for  art  outbalanced  his  judgment.  Education  in  Italy 
made  him  an  unusually  good  draughtsman  but  also  created  the  impres- 
sion that  he  was  destined  to  be  a  wonderful  painter  of  the  "grand 
art."  His  historical  pictures  show  limitless  ingenuity,  but  are  not 
great  in  conception.  Elected  professor  of  painting  in  the  Academy, 
he  lost  his  position  and  died  neglected  because  of  a  bad  temper. 

Principal  Works:  Elysium,  Six  Paintings  Illustrating  the  Civilization  of  Man 
(Presented  to  the  Society  of  Arts  at  the  Adelphi) ;  Adam  and  Eve,  Venus  Rising 
from  the  Sea. 

Marie  Angelica  Kauffman 

(i'/4i-i8o^.     Swiss,  possibly  of  German  extraction.) 

This  woman,  of  considerable  talent  and  polished  manners,  won  her 
position  by  virtue  of  feminine  charm.  Her  portrait-painting  father 
gave  her  the  advantages  of  serious  study  in  Italy.  After  extended 
travel,  she  found  herself  in  England  and  a  warm  friend  of  Reynolds, 
whose  style  of  painting  she  followed,  though  with  better  drawing  and 
less  charm.  Wonderful  to  relate,  she  was  made  a  Royal  Academician. 
Portraits  in  classical  costumes  brought  her  much  business.  At  forty 
years  of  age,  she  married  Zucchi,  a  Venetian  painter. 

Germany  had  no  painters  during  all  this  period. 

Principal  Works:  Vestal  Virgin,  Sibyl  (Dresden) ;  Religion  Attended  by  the 
Virtues  (London);  Portrait  of  Herself  (Uffizi,  Florence) ;  Leonardo  da  Vinci  Dying 
in  the  Arms  of  Francis  I. 

Willen  Jacob  Herreyns  (1743-1827)  was  director  of  the  Belgian 
Academy  and  came  under  the  influence  of  David,  when  the  latter  was 
exiled  to  Brussels.  But  he  did  not  suffer  as  much  from  the  man  who, 
accustomed  to  rule,  became  a  self-appointed  dictator  of  the  art  of  his 
retreat,  as  men  like  J.  B.  Duvivier  (1762-1837),  J.  F.  Ducq  (1762-1829), 
J.  Paelinck  (1781-1839),  J.  D.  Odevaere  (1778-1830),  and  a  long  line  of 
others  who  travestied  the  colorless  statue-painting  of  the  Frenchman. 


98  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

David's  color  was  at  least  agreeable  if  lifeless  and  his  drawing  was 
sufificiently  magnificent  to  excuse  artificiality.  But  these  unfortunates 
became  flavorless  artificers. 

Jacques  Louis  David 

{1748-184^.     French.) 

Art  is  like  religion.  Some  feel  that  religion  is  unworthily  consid- 
ered unless  worship  surrounds  itself  with  the  monumental  solemnities 
of  the  cathedral  and  its  formalities.  Others  would  give  the  yearning 
heart  full  liberty  to  meet  its  God  in  any  surroundings,  provided  the 
feelings  be  allowed  spontaneous  action.  Art  worship  is  like  that; 
some  demand  formal  proprieties,  some  abhor  them,  denying  that  art  is 
art  unless  spontaneous.  This  I  can  assert — that  all  art  which  has  been 
enslaved  by  formalities  has  touched  the  sentiments  less  than  that  left 
to  free  expression.  But  fine  technique  does  no  injury  to  art  unless 
the  painter  be  its  slave. 

David  sold  his  soul  to  an  ideal  which  once  had  vitality,  but  in  his 
day  had  become  a  corpse.  Strange  event,  that  one  who  really  had  an 
artistic  soul  and  revealed  it  always  when  taken  off  his  guard,  should 
wage  war  to  defend  his  theories  which  were  already  dead! 

Already  well  trained  in  his  classics,  at  twenty-seven  years  old  he 
secured  the  prix  de  Rome.,  according  to  him  several  years  of  study  in 
that  art  center.  His  measureless  enthusiasm  over  the  antiques  of 
Greece  and  Rome  led  to  a  declaration  of  faith — that  this  was  the  only 
worthy  art.  This  art  tenet  he  maintained  in  his  days  of  power  in  the 
art  world.  The  art  world  was  France.  The  two  earliest  presidents  of 
the  English  Academy,  Reynolds  and  West,  were  in  full  power  when 
David  was  opening  his  art  government,  but  the  English  school  was  not 
the  controlling  influence. 

Returning  from  Rome,  David  became  court  painter  to  Louis  XVL 
and  the  leading  influence  in  French  art.  Nevertheless  he  was  elected 
later  on  to  the  "Convention"  and  cast  his  vote  with  the  others  for  the 
execution  of  that  king,  but  was  in  turn  cast  into  prison  for  a  time  at 
the  fall  of  Robespierre.     Under  the  "Directorate,"  and  later  under 


m 

O 


m 

o 
Ph 


CONFLICT   BETWEEN   CLASSICISM   AND   REALISM     99 

Napoleon,  David  arranged  the  public  festivals,  designed  classical 
furnishings  and  became  art  dictator,  ruling  the  academy  despotically 
in  favor  of  classical  purity.  This  meant  that  all  figures  must  be  mere 
revampings  of  antique  statues,  and  pictures  must  be  painted  without 
any  vulgar  display  of  color.  His  figures,  often  nude,  were  no  more 
than  tinted  statues — natural  action  had  no  place  in  his  compositions, 
love  of  nature  gave  way  to  love  of  dry  art  laws.  His  "Rape  of  the 
Sabines"  leaves  the  artist  and  the  art  lover  alike  cold.  Nothing  in  it 
truly  resembles  the  action  of  men  and  women  enacting  a  tragedy. 
The  immense  "Coronation  of  Napoleon"  shows  us  actual  costumes  but 
stilted  postures  and  pale  color.  Portraits  warmed  his  heart  more, 
being  nearly  natural,  exquisitely  drawn  and  lovable  as  art  work. 
Looseness  of  treatment  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  easy  morals  had  crept 
into  art  and  it  was  well  that  some  one  should  play  the  dictator  to 
restore  dignity;  but  David  went  too  far.  Young  men,  who  felt  for 
art  rather  than  for  artificialities,  revolted.  The  war  was  acrimonious, 
but  the  romanticists  gained  their  point — Gericault  and  Delacroix 
demanded  recognition  for  another  sort  of  art  and  gained  it.  Thus 
again  was  waged  the  war  that  we  learned  about  in  the  days  of  the 
Caracci  and  Caravaggio. 

At  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy,  David  was  exiled  for  the  part 
he  took  during  the  revolution,  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days  in 
Brussels.  Reynolds  was  born  1723;  Turner,  1775;  Goya,  1748;  Horace 
Vernet,  1789;  Ingres,  1781;  Delacroix,  1899;  Gilbert  Stuart,  1756; 
Mengs,  1728;  the  Louvre  was  opened  1803. 

Principal  Works:  Coronation  of  Napoleon  and  Josephine,  Napoleon  crossing 
the  Alps  (Versailles) ;  The  Oath  of  the  Horatii,  Belisarius  Asking  Alms,  The  Sabine 
Women,  Leonidas  at  Thermopylae  (Louvre) ;  Assassination  of  Marat. 

Francisco  Jose  de  Goya  y  Lucientes 

(.1748 1828.     Spanish.) 

The  brilliant  geniuses  are  so  few!  We  gladly  salute  them,  accept- 
ing their  elements  of  character,  their  shortcomings,  their  vagaries  and 
contradictions.     It  is  incorrect  to  talk  of  the  "vagaries"  of  genius  as 


100  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

if  that  alone  differentiated  these  men  from  others.  Endowed  with 
the  ability  to  imagine  new  things,  and  conscious  of  their  isolation, 
geniuses  naturally  become  a  law  unto  themselves,  respecting  but  little 
the  codes  made  by  commonplace  mortals.  Yet,  the  majority  of 
geniuses  have  made  "good  citizens,"  conservative  in  their  lives  and 
conduct,  and  well  regulated  in  their  works.  But  Goya  was  all  that 
anyone  could  suggest  by  the  term  "eccentric  genius. "  In  no  sense 
was  he  law-abiding  either  in  his  art  work  or  his  conduct. 

In  the  north,  we  are  liable  to  associate  drunkenness  with  wildness; 
but  this  is  not  a  Spanish  vice.  Wild  escapades,  reckless  love-making, 
balcony  climbing,  duels  and  broils,  nocturnal  raidings  of  all  sorts 
amuse  Spanish  youth  whose  animal  spirits  mount  too  high. 

Goya  was  notorious  as  a  nocturnal  roisterer  whom  nothing  could 
suppress  except  his  antagonist's  dagger.  This  reached  him  one 
night,  and  to  escape  the  consequences  of  an  investigation  he  fled  to 
Italy,  remaining  there  until  time  healed  his  cuts — and  his  character 
somewhat,  though  it  is  said  that  he  fled  back  to  Spain  in  consequence 
of  a  nunnery  escapade. 

Like  most  brilliant  men,  the  days  of  irregular  study  in  Spain  had 
introduced  him  to  his  profession  and  this  removal  to  Italy  added  to 
his  training,  worth  more  with  all  its  lack  of  seriousness  than  careful 
drill  to  most  men. 

Goya  was  thirty  years  old  when  he  returned  to  Spain,  fairly  well 
equipped  for  his  professional  work.  For  a  long  time  the  conditions 
in  his  native  country  had  been  deplorably  bad  in  art,  as  in  many  other 
respects.  The  king,  Charles  III.,  had  called  Raphael  Mengs,  the 
Bohemian-German  artist,  to  labor  with  the  nearly  defunct  art  spirit, 
organizing  some  government  institutions,  manufacturing  art  enthusi- 
asm, tapestries  and  such  trifles.  As  Mengs  was  a  mild  sort  of  classi- 
cal hen,  this  ugly  duckling,  insisting  upon  puddle  sailing,  gave  him 
trouble.  But  geniuses  were  too  scarce  to  be  needlessly  thrown  out. 
Goya  at  once  undertook  a  commission  for  church  decoration.  It  was 
the  first  real  work  that  ever  tied  him  down  to  regular  labor,  but  he 
went  at  it  as  at  all  else,  recklessly  breaking  the  accepted  laws. 


CONFLICT   BETWEEN   CLASSICISM   AND  REALISM  loi 

Think  of  the  sensation  he  must  have  created  by  spreading  a  series 
of  pictures  of  popular  life  upon  the  walls  of  a  church.  A  certain 
flavor  of  religious  significance  saved  the  situation,  but  the  treatment 
was  entirely  naturalistic  and  very  Spanish.  If  Mengs  was  shocked, 
the  people  were  delighted  and  the  young  man  found  himself  imme- 
diately within  the  threshold  of  the  temple  of  fame,  never  to  be  thrust 
out  of  the  edifice.  Throughout  a  pretty  long  life  he  was  kept  busy, 
never  asking  what  sort  of  pictures  his  patrons  desired,  but  making 
them  desire  his  startling  individualities.  As  a  portrait  painter,  his 
success  was  never  disturbed  by  the  fact  that  he  always  did  the  unex- 
pected. 

Having  been  made  court  painter  by  Charles  IV.,  he,  as  Spaniards 
do,  rushed  into  intrigue  and  all  sorts  of  pleasures,  painting  meanwhile 
all  the  pretty  women  and  picturesque  men.  He  favored  the  French 
revolutionists  with  the  same  violent  ardor  which  he  put  into  his  paint- 
ings, but  still  the  court  endured  his  presence. 

This  man  of  extraordinary  courage  and  reckless  impudence  had 
one  rare  virtue — the  physical  strength  and  skill  to  make  all  men  fear 
and  respect  his  prowess.  On  a  journey,  in  company  with  noble  ladies, 
his  inventiveness  and  courage  saved  their  lives,  but  the  severe  weather 
brought  total  deafness  to  the  artist. 

Matters  were  not  going  well  at  court;  Joseph  Bonaparte  had  been 
placed  in  charge  and  departed  in  due  course  of  time,  following  the 
fate  of  his  imperial  brother.  The  new  Spanish  king,  Ferdinand  VII., 
disliked  the  artist,  so  the  latter  obtained  permission  to  visit  Paris, 
whence  he  retired  to  Bordeaux,  where  a  colony  of  Spaniards  made  a 
home  for  him  until  his  death  at  eighty-two  years  of  age  (1828).  With 
such  a  fiery  temperament,  deafness  did  not  improve  his  temper. 
Many  great  men  sat  to  him  for  portraits  and  endured  placidly  his 
sharp  scoldings  and  even  his  attacks.  There  is  a  story  about  his 
drawing  a  sword  on  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  his  Grace's  nimbleness 
alone  saving  him.     Everything  was  forgiven  Goya. 

It  has  been  said  that  his  painting  suggests  Velasquez,  Rembrandt, 
Reynolds,    Gainsborough,   Watteau,   Fragonard,    and    others,    but   be 


102  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

assured  that  most  of  all  it  suggested  the  impetuous,  ill-balanced 
Francisco  Jose  de  Goya  y  Lucientes. 

The  English  writer,  Hamerton,  who,  like  most  of  his  countrymen, 
obstinately  misunderstands  the  Latin  race,  has  written  an  article 
(Portfolio,  Vol.  X.,  1879)  to  tell  us  that  Goya  was  overestimated.  He 
strains  a  point  to  prove  him  a  disreputable  character  with  the  lowest 
instincts,  forgetting  or  blindly  overlooking  the  fact  that  in  an  art 
journal  the  matter  in  hand  is  art,  not  morals.  Yet,  I  cannot  discover 
evidence  of  greater  wickedness  in  his  character  than  in  that  of  every 
violent  man.  He  certainly  depicted  some  horrible  scenes,  but 
these  are  but  the  proof  that  he  was  first  of  all  an  artist  who  understood 
how  to  carry  his  art  to  its  utmost  conclusions.  There  is  no  evidence 
whatsoever  that  he  was  a  man  of  degraded  tastes.  In  the  midst  of  the 
wildest  and  most  repulsive  presentations,  the  essential  foil  of  sweet- 
ness and  beauty  is  always  introduced.  The  article  says  that  he  had  a 
"demoniacal  element  in  his  character."  This  is  exactly  what  he  did 
not  have,  though  he  could  paint  demons  as  never  man  did  before,  and 
the  list  of  demon  painters  is  a  pretty  long  one. 

The  impulsive  Delacroix  admired  him  extremely;  the  well-regu- 
lated classicist  Ingres  thought  him  an  abomination.  Our  own  artist, 
Whistler,  found  in  his  extraordinary  originality  something  to  worship 
and  from  him  learned  one  of  his  best  lessons.  I  much  prefer  Whis- 
tler's estimate.  Goya  was  above  all  else  an  artist.  His  work  will  not 
endure  the  criticism  of  the  extreme  classical  schoolmen,  but  the 
fascination  of  it  is  irresistible.  No  classicist  could  give  us  those 
dainty  Spanish  women,  could  catch  the  peculiar  coquetry  of  their 
pose  and  bearing,  as  this  man  did.  The  things  that  made  Velasquez 
great  were  found  again  in  Goya,  though  far  less  well  regulated.  Yet 
he  could  not  go  as  far  as  his  great  forerunner.  In  my  memorandum 
book  written  up  in  the  Louvre,  I  find  the  following  entries:  "Full- 
length  seated  portrait  of  F.  Guillemardet,  French  ambassador  to 
Spain.  Frankly  brushed  head;  luminous  shades;  no  dark  in  face; 
hair  is  fussy  and  does  not  sit  into  picture;  coat  is  nearly  as  bad  and  tri- 
color sash  the  same;  hard  gray  background;  color  and  touch  in  hands 


CONFLICT   BETWEEN    CLASSICISM   AND  REALISM  103 

and  head  superb."  "Two-thirds  length  of  woman  seated,  gray  silk 
dress,  lace  mits  to  elbow;  an  inharmonious  picture;  flesh  color  fine; 
black  hair  is  not  well  into  the  picture;  edge  of  face  cut  out  like  card- 
board, but  head  finely  constructed;  details  of  things  only  hinted  at, 
but  the  work  of  a  man  of  so  much  genius  that  the  impression  is  power- 
ful." "A  little  one,  full  length,  black  gown  and  mantilla,  white  slip- 
pers showing;  face  as  big  as  a  quarter,  fine  color;  figure  does  not  stand 
well;  cold  landscape;  seems  to  be  a  pot-boiler,  but  remarkable  all  the 
same."  No  criticism  could  be  more  severe  than  this,  but  still  the 
work  drew  me  again  and  again  to  look  at  it. 

Goya  was  the  product  of  the  influence  of  Velasquez  and  had  that 
same  peculiarity  of  talent  already  noted  in  the  Spanish  painters  of  an 
earlier  period.  Probably  it  would  be  just  to  say  that  he  was  an  out- 
come of  Ribera.  His  following  is  to  be  found  in  France,  and  in  our 
own  country  to-day  in  Whistler  and  many  others.  For  instructors  he 
had  at  first  an  obscure  artist  in  Saragossa,  and  later,  in  Rome,  he 
became  the  pupil  of  the  Spanish  painter,  Bayeu,  whose  daughter  he 
married  when  both  artists  had  returned  to  their  native  country.  His 
parents  were  small  landowners,  only  a  degree  above  peasants,  and 
his  education  was  not  extensive,  though  he  was  too  bright  to  betray 
any  lack  of  it.     Goya  was  an  excellent  etcher. 

Important  Works:  Equestrian  Portraits  of  Charles  IV.  and  of  Queen  Maria 
Luisa,  Portrait  of  Charles  IV.,  Portrait  of  Queen  Maria  Luisa,  Charles  IV.  and  his 
Family,  Episode  in  French  Invasion  of  1808,  Scenes  of  May  3,  1808  (Madrid);  Eques- 
trian Portrait  of  Ferdinand  VII.,  Portrait  of  Prince  of  the  Peace  (Godoy),  Mad- 
house, BuU-fight,  Gallant  Dressed,  Gallant  Nude  (Academia  San  Fernando); 
Crucifixion  (Museo  de  Fomento) ;  St.  Francis  Preaching  (Madrid) ;  Treason  of  Judas 
(Toledo);  Sts.  Justina  and  Rufina  (Seville);  St.  Francis  de  Borja's  Farewell  to  His 
Family,  Portraits  (2)  (Valencia) ;  Portraits  (2)  (Louvre  ) 

It  was  the  writing  of  Winckelman  which  caused  A.  J.  Carstens 

(1754-1798,  German)  to  pursue  almost  the  same  policy  as  David.  He  was 
a  north  German  and  studied  in  the  Academy  of  Copenhagen,  where  his 
classical  style  was  so  formed  that  he  went  to  Italy  to  live,  and  from 
there  shaped  largely  the  indifferent  art  of  Germany  in  a  manner  more 
colorless  than  David's. 


104  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Gilbert  Stuart 

This  son  of  Rhode  Island  was  much  the  most  talented  painter  of 
the  early  period.  His  master,  West,  was  far  beneath  him  in  talent 
and  Stuart  wisely  stuck  to  the  art  which  he  understood— portrait 
painting. 

His  brilliant  color  is  as  fresh,  in  most  instances,  to-day  as  when 
laid  on  the  canvas.  Suave  in  touch,  able  to  catch  admirably  the  char- 
acter of  his  subject  and  content  to  arrest  his  effort  when  enough  had 
been  rendered  (one  of  the  sure  marks  of  genius),  he  has  few  equals  in 
any  country  and  none  in  Anglo-American  portrait  painting.  Romney 
and  Gainsborough  were  his  contemporaries  and  not  as  good  painters. 
Several  portraits  of  Washington  are  celebrated.  In  the  Boston  Athe. 
naeum  people  studied  his  heads  (without  backgrounds)  of  Washington 
and  Martha,  his  wife,  for  a  great  many  years,  with  a  sincere  admira- 
tion, and  artists  do  not  tire  of  these  beautiful  works.  He  painted  five 
full-length  portraits  of  Washington,  and  portraits  of  John  Adams, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Story,  Ames,  Astor,  and 
many  others.  Celebrated,  are  portraits  of  Judge  Steven  Jones  and 
F.  S.  Richards  of  Boston. 

Important  IVorks:  Portrait  of  Washington,  Martha  Washington,  Washington 
at  Dorchester  Heights,  Gen.  Henry  Knox,  Josiah  Quincy  (Museum  of  Fine  Arts, 
Boston);  Portraits  at  Harvard  University,  Historical  Society  of  New  York;  Penn- 
sylvania Academy,  Philadelphia ;  Corcoran  Gallery,  Washington ;  and  National  Gal- 
lery, London. 

Madame  Le  Brun 

(^i'j$yi843.     French.) 

Marie  Louise  Elizabeth  Vigee  married  (at  twenty-one  years  of  age) 
M.  Le  Brun,  a  picture  dealer  and  painter,  with  whom  she  was  not 
happy.  Louis  XVI.  was  king  and  the  talented  young  artist  painted 
Marie  Antoinette's  portrait.  With  more  ability  as  a  painter  than 
Angelica  Kauffman,  her  charm  was  as  great.  Her  portrait  of  herself 
and  young  daughter  attracts  attention  in    the  Louvre  equal  to  that 


Mme.  Le  Bhun  —  Mme.  Le  Brun  and  Daughter. 


CONFLICT   BETWEEN   CLASSICISM   AND  REALISM  105 

bestowed  upon  the  works  of   Greuze,   whose  pictures,   and   those  of 
Rubens,  formed  her  style. 

Principal  Works:  Portrait  of  Hersstf  (Uffizi,  Rome) ;  Portrait  of  Herself  and 
Daughter  (Louvre). 

Jotiathan  Trumbull 

{ijj6-i843.     American.^ 

Trumbull  was  an  historical  painter  of  a  sensible  sort.  Like  West, 
he  painted  what  really  came  within  his  powers.  That  is.  West  did  it 
once  and  Trumbull  all  the  time.  He  was  West's  pupil,  after  he  had 
been  an  officer  (colonel)  in  the  army  of  Washington  and  had  made 
sketches  of  all  the  distinguished  characters  connected  with  that 
important  body  of  men.  As  a  painter  of  scenes  which  he  knew 
about,  and  which  demanded  no  lofty  imagination  about  saints  and 
angels  which  he  had  never  seen,  he  was  a  sincere  worker. 

He  was  a  Connecticut  man.  Yale  University  has  many  pictures 
which  he  gave  away  because  no  one  would  buy  them. 

Principal  Works:  Decorations  in  the  Capitol,  Washington;  Portrait  of  Ham- 
ilton (Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston);  Portraits  (Yale  College  Art  Gallery.) 

William  Blake 

('757- 'S2S.     English.) 

Blake  was  a  half-crazy  poet  who  wrote  some  extraordinary  verses. 
He  lived  by  means  of  illustrating  books  with  engravings  of  his  own 
execution  and  from  his  original  designs.  These  appealed  to  the  English 
love  of  the  supernatural  and  mysterious,  as  did  his  poetry.  Lacking 
all  training  in  art,  he  painted  shockingly  bad  pictures,  but  with  a  rich 
imagination  he  treated  subjects  which  suggest  what  might  have  been, 
had  the  schooling  sufficed. 

Peter  Paul  Prudhon  (1758-1823,  French)  was,  like  David,  but 
with  a  character  of  his  own,  an  excellent  picture  maker.  Having  no 
such  personality  as  the  dictator,  he  still  made  his  mark,  painting 
delightfully  cool  flesh,  not  natural,  but  more  vivid  than  David's. 
Critics  who  draw  fine  distinctions  love  him  more. 

Principal  Works:  Justice  and  Vengeance  Pursuing  Crime  (Louvre);  Cruci- 
fixion, Assumption  of  the  Virgin. 


io6  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Alexander  Nasmyth  (1758- 1840,  English,  born  in  Scotland)  painted 
pleasing  landscapes,  conventional  to  a  degree,  gray  and  fresh  in  tone, 
very  much  sought  after  at  the  present  time.  His  son,  Patrick 
Nasmyth  (1786-183 1,  born  in  Edinburgh),  and  five  sisters  followed  in 
his  style,  and  the  family  has  left  much  landscape  art. 

Georges  Michel  (1763-1843,  French)  stood  alone  as  a  student  of 
nature  when  the  landscape  painting  of  France  was  hedged  about  with 
classical  arrangement  and  color  made  to  order.  He  won  no  glory  with 
this  sincerity  until  the  new  sentiment  for  honest  study  was  awakened 
by  the  political  and  artistic  revolution  of  1830.  It  was  at  the  salon  of 
1831  that  the  artists  who  afterward  formed  the  "Barbizon  School" 
gained  recognition.  After  his  death,  Michel's  art  commanded  great 
prices,  for  the  reason  just  mentioned.  It  was  the  exhibition  of  several 
Englishmen's  pictures  which  changed  the  current,  especially  Con- 
stable's. 

Ingres  was  the  art  dictator  of  France  while  these  things  were 
developing  themselves,  though  he  was  never  so  absolutely  in  control 
as  David. 

George  Morland 

(^176,^-1804.    English.) 

Morland  is  always  associated  with  pigs,  or  else  it  is  "drunken 
Morland"  that  we  think  of.  He  loved  jolly  company,  provided  no 
one  present  was  a  gentleman.  There  were  many  tavern  signs  in  Eng- 
land, each  representing  the  value  of  the  drinks  he  took  within.  Most 
of  these  are  pig  pictures,  the  animals  painted  with  delicate  skins  and 
truly  aristocratic  attributes.  He  was  a  talented  fellow,  who  loved  art 
almost  as  much  as  he  did  ale.  Simple,  honest,  somewhat  arranged 
landscapes  have  refined  tones  in  grass,  trees  and  sky,  a  figure  or  two  of 
accessory  character  (one  wearing  a  red  coat  probably),  occupied  him 
when  sober  enough  to  paint  something  besides  pigs.  But  he  was  the 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  of  pigs'  complexions. 

Principal  Works:  Interior  of  Stable,  Quarry  with  Peasants  (National  Gal- 
lery); The  Reckoning  (South  Kensington  Museum);  Dogs  Fighting,  Old  English 
Sportsman  (Historical  Society,  New  York.) 


CONFLICT   BETWEEN   CLASSICISM   AND  REALISM  107 

Joseph  Koch  (1768-1830,  German)  holds  up  the  light  in  that  land 
which  had  been  sitting  in  darkness  since  Holbein  went  to  England. 
It  was  the  "grand  art"  rather  than  real  landscapes  doing  background 
duty  to  classical  and  Biblical  figures.  At  this  time  Reynolds  was 
closing  his  career;  David  commencing  his. 

Karl  Rottmann  (1798-1850,  German)  may  as  well  be  mentioned 
here,  because  he  is  like  Koch,  and  he  it  was  who  painted  the  indiffer- 
ent, classical  landscapes  on  the  interior  walls  of  the  Pinakothek  at 
Munich. 

Joseph  Fiirich  (1800-1876,  German)  was  not  original  enough  to 
demand  a  separate  place.     He  belongs  with  these. 

Sir  Thomas  Lawrence 

{r';6g-iSso.     English.') 

Lawrence  was  a  wonder-child,  an  infantile  reciter  of  classical 
poetry,  a  pet  of  Garrick,  who  sought  to  make  an  actor  of  him.  People 
ordered  crayon  portraits  of  him;  when  at  ten  years  of  age  he  secured 
excellent  likenesses.  Always  clever,  his  entire  lack  of  schooling  in 
books  and  art  does  not  seem  to  have  betrayed  him.  Idealizations  of 
women's  faces,  and  swan-like  increase  in  the  length  of  their  necks, 
made  him  the  most  popular  of  the  painters  at  the  end  of  the  Reynolds 
school.  When  he  tried  (as  nearly  all  of  these  men  did)  to  produce  the 
"grand  art,"  his  lack  of  training  made  the  work  painfully  ineffective, 
A  great  money  getter  and  a  great  spendthrift,  he  lived  a  bachelor  and 
died  poor. 

Principal  Works:  Portrait  of  the  Emperor  Francis,  Series  of  portraits  known 
as  "The  Waterloo  Gallery,"  headed  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington  (Windsor  Castle). 

Raeburn  (1756-1823),  Hoppner  (1759  1810),  Opie  (1761-1807), 
Harlow  (1787-1819)  were  average  portrait  and  figure  painters,  whom  it 
is  as  well  to  keep  in  this  connection. 

Francois  Gerard  (1770-1837,  French)  coming  out  of  the  studio  of 
David,  clung  to  his  traditions,  but  leaned  a  trifle  to  an  art  more 
human  and  romantic.  For  Napoleon,  he  painted  immense  battle 
pictures. 


io8  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Principal  Works  of  Francois  Gkrard:  Cupid  and  Psyche,  Entry  of  Henry 
IV.  into  Paris  (Louvre). 

Principal  Works  of  Opie:  Portrait  of  William  Siddons  (London) ;  The  Assas- 
sination of  Rizzio. 

Principal  Works  of  Raeburn:  Portrait  of  a  Lady  (London) ;  Portrait  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  Portrait  of  Dugald  Stewart,  Portrait  of  Francis  Jeffrey. 

Antoine  Jean  Gros,  "  Baron  Gros  "  (1771-1835,  French),  was  the 
most  amiable  of  men,  and,  though  counted  with  Ingres,  the  best  of 
David's  pupils  and  followers,  his  largeness  of  soul  made  him  the 
friend  of  rising  men  of  the  opposition,  thus  creating  a  healthier  senti- 
ment in  the  Academy.  Given  by  Napoleon  a  sort  of  commission  in  the 
army  (Inspector  of  Reviews)  the  Emperor  used  him  in  many  ways; 
sent  him  to  Italy  to  select  the  artistic  spoils  of  war.  Swarms  of 
young  artists  were  his  pupils  during  his  nineteen  years  of  service  as 
professor  at  the  Academy,  and  every  one  of  them  wept  when  the  good 
man  committed  suicide,  stung  to  death  by  criticism. 

Principal  Works:  Battle  of  Eylau,  Napoleon  Visiting  the  Plague  Hospital  at 
Joppa,  General  Fournier  (Louvre). 

Martinus  Verstappen  (1773-1840,  Belgian)  pinned  his  faith  to 
Italian  art  united  to  that  of  the  Netherlands.  He  made  rather 
grandiose  landscape,  in  color  and  forms  invented  more  than  studied 
from  nature.  We  may  unite  with  him  Francois  de  Marneffe  (1793- 
1877,  Belgian)  without  specially  breaking  our  sequence. 

Alexander  Orlovsky  (1777-1832),  Alexei  Venezianov  (1779-1845), 
Orest  Kiprensky  (1783-1836),  Karl  Brulov  (1799-1852),  Russian,  are 
only  interesting  as  suggestive  of  the  appearance  of  painters  in  the 
country  that  is  half  Asiatic,  half  European.  The  first  painted  battle 
pieces;  the  second  sincerely  followed  nature  in  reproducing  the  road- 
way with  its  common  figures  and  people  in  the  fields;  the  third  is  a 
portrait  painter;  the  fourth,  historical  and  rather  sensational;  none  of 
them  better  than  pretty  good  painters. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  REVOLT  IN  ENGLAND 

Two  of  the  world's  great  landscape  painters  arrive  in  England  in 
this  chapter,  and  a  celebrated  genre  painter.  The  French  show  their 
lead,  and  America  is  beginning  to  do  her  part.  Some  other  nations 
are  still  weaklings. 

Joseph  William  Mallord  Turner 

{'773-1^5 '■  English.) 
Reynolds  was  three  years  dead  when  Turner  arrived  at  manhood. 
West  had  recently  been  made  president  of  the  Academy  and  continued 
for  more  than  a  score  of  years  to  hold  that  office.  Gainsborough  had 
painted  excellent  landscapes,  but  they  were  always  neatly  conven- 
tional arrangements.  He  could  not  be  said  to  represent  any  move- 
ment toward  the  creation  of  a  new  style.  The  element  of  agreeableness 
so  conspicuous  in  Gainsborough  does  not  seem  to  have  entered  into 
the  calculations  of  Turner.  It  is  difficult  to  trace  the  influences  which 
made  him.  Study  from  nature  is  so  different  in  its  results  as  used  by 
different  men,  who  look  at  the  forms  of  nature  as  simple  material  with 
which  one  man  makes  one  thing  and  another  something  else,  all 
depending  upon  temperament  and  force.  It  is  easy  to  find  Dutch  pic- 
tures which  might  have  formed  Turner's  early  style,  though  no  Dutch- 
man was  his  master  nor  do  his  landscapes  look  like  the  Hollanders' 
pictures.  He  studied  nature  very  closely  and  then  rendered  his 
observations  in  his  own  manner. 

The  picture  "Frosty  Morning"  is  nature  exactly,  but  different 
from  nature  painted  by  others  equally  sincere.  Turner  and  Constable 
(one  year  his  junior)  both  went  to  nature  and  produced  something 
new.  The  two  men  were  very  alike  at  first,  and  the  "Frosty  Morn- 
ing" is  the  result  of  the  same  keen  observation  of  atmospheric  effects 

109 


no  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

that  marks  Constable's  work.  The  latter  kept  at  the  direct  study  of 
nature  longer  than  did  Turner  and  went  much  farther  with  his  render- 
ing of  subtle  effects  of  light  on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  Turner 
turned  aside  from  the  exact  rendering  of  nature  to  invent  methods, 
combinations  of  color  and,  above  all,  superb  poetic  effects  made  for 
the  sake  of  fine  lines  and  majestic  renderings.  Ruskin  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  I  will  assert  that  Turner  was  never  (after  his  first 
earnest  literalism)  so  truthful  a  painter  as  Constable.  Had  the  latter 
had  his  literary  promoter,  we  might  have  quite  different  ideas  about 
him.  Turner  did,  however,  develop  into  the  most  poetic  landscape 
painter  which  the  world  has  ever  seen.  For  this  wonderful  achieve- 
ment Ruskin  gave  him  scant  credit.  Ruskin  never  understood  Turner — 
could  not,  as  he  was  a  literalist  who  could  write  magnificent  phrases 
but  had  almost  no  conception  of  the  great  truths  of  art.  Ruskin  was 
an  observer  of  the  phenomena  of  nature  such  as  rarely  has  put  his  ideas 
in  books,  but  this  is  not  saying  that  he  could  comprehend  a  picture. 
This  barber's  son  (Turner)  had  almost  no  instruction  in  painting  and 
was  a  shocking  example  of  the  lack  of  technical  training.  His 
poetic  temperament  saved  him.  I  recall  one  picture,  painted  in  his 
mature  years,  which  looks  as  if  a  bad  boy  had  stolen  palette  and 
brushes  to  make  mischief  and  by  some  accident  secured  a  marvelous 
poetic  effect.  Many  a  painter  essaying  to  do  this  has  sadly  come  to 
disgrace.     Genius  is  to  be  found  but  once  or  twice  in  a  century. 

Turner's  search  for  effects  of  light  and  color  finally  took  him  into 
seeming  chaotic  confusions.  However,  there  is  no  reason  in  the  idea 
that  he  was  crazy.  Abstractions  these  were,  and  such  abstractions  are 
the  glory  of  art,  when  the  maker  of  them  really  arrives  at  a  result. 
Abandoning  his  literalism,  this  artist  placed  a  spot  of  red  somewhere 
and  a  spot  or  mass  of  playing  yellows  to  sustain  it,  thus  leading  up  to 
scales  of  browns;  all  these  being  warm  tones.  Against  this  he  set  a 
certain  array  of  cool  tones,  culminating  in  blue  and  accented  with  a 
white  spot.  His  lines  were  similarly  artificial  and  always  wonderfully 
manipulated.  His  further  development  of  this  principle  was  not  at 
all  understood  by  the  people  or  artists  of  Turner's  time.     The  wild 


THE   REVOLT   IN   ENGLAND  in 

pictures  were  simply  carried  a  little  too  far.  "Mt.  St.  Michael,  Corn- 
wall" is  an  example  of  his  arranged  compositions  not  carried  very  far; 
the  "Blue  Lights  and  Rockets"  is  later  and  more  purely  poetic.  The 
"Fighting  Temeraire"  represents  a  more  literal  imaginative  effect. 

Turner's  representations  of  actual  scenes  were  never  true  render- 
ings of  the  places  whose  names  they  bore.  He  did  much  artistic 
prevarication,  which  disgusted  his  matter-of-fact  patrons.  The 
"Heidelberg"  is  magnificently  poetic,  the  scene  traceable  but  by  no 
means  reliable  as  a  truthful  portrait  of  the  place. 

Turner  had  no  "three  periods."  That  is  "a  literary  man's"  classi- 
fication. The  large-minded  artist  sees  only  the  normal  gliding  from 
youthful  literalism  to  over-ripe  idealization. 

His  "Rain,  Steam  and  Speed"  is  one  of  the  wonderful  pic- 
tures of  the  world.  A  railway  train  rushes  straight  at  the  foreground 
over  a  stone  bridge.  The  spectator  looks  down  directly  over  the 
parapet  on  the  water  of  a  navigable  river,  where  a  slow-going  barge 
makes  contrast  with  the  speed  of  the  moving  train,  and  on  the  other 
side  a  plowman  helps  on  the  contrast.  Over  this  wide-spreading 
landscape  rises  a  lofty  sky  filled  with  one  of  the  best  representations 
of  swirling  rain  that  I  have  ever  seen.  This  is  a  correct  expression  of 
carefully-studied  nature,  and  the  strange  element  in  the  painting  is 
that  the  handling  is  utterly  unlike  anything  previously  attempted.  It 
is  in  the  manner  which  one  of  the  reckless  young  artists  of  the  present 
time  would  use  to  show  how  impertinent  he  dared  to  be.  The  loco- 
motive is  not  very  correctly  drawn,  and  the  effort  at  representing  the 
effect  of  glowing  fire  in  the  machine  is  another  impertinence,  because 
hardly  to  be  accounted  for.  Yet,  it  conveys  wonderfully  the  im- 
pression of  an  on-rushing  fiery  monster.  Just  in  front  of  the  loco- 
motive there  is  a  streak  of  something  which  we  guess  may  be  a  scared 
rabbit,  trying  to  escape  across  the  bridge  before  the  monster  catches 
him.  In  the  painting  it  is  a  mere  streak,  quite  undefined.  The 
engravers  sought  to  aid  the  work  by  translating  it  into  a  veritable  rab- 
bit—to please  the  purchasers,  no  doubt.  All  the  lower  part  of  the 
picture  is  in  brownish  tones  and  the  other  half  in  silver,  an  artificial 


112  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

color   scheme   borrowed  from   the    Dutch   pictures   then   in   fashion. 
Turner  used  this  a  great  deal  in  middle  life. 

The  "Fighting  T^meraire"  shows  us  a  large  expanse  of  sky  and 
reaching  sea  (not  far  from  shore)  behind  which  the  sun  is  setting  in 
horizontal  lines  of  cloud  breaking  higher  up  into  the  fleckings  of 
cirrus  clouds.  Thus  we  have  a  series  of  long,  quiet  and  dignified 
horizontal  lines,  with  much  clear  sunset  color — quiet  departing  day — 
and  in  the  midst  of  this  display  of  fading  glory,  the  grand  old  warship 
goes  down  to  her  death.  Her  glory  is  departing  amid  fireworks,  but 
she  has  lost  her  power  of  independent  movement  and  depends  upon  a 
little  black,  smoking  imp  of  a  steam  tug  to  drag  her  to  the  grave. 
Oh,  the  pathos  of  it  all!  Grand  old  hulk,  the  embodiment  of  dignity 
and  force,  led  by  the  nose,  dragged  off  to  oblivion  by  the  little  black 
devil  of  modern  invention,  which  suggests  anything  but  knightly 
stateliness.  This  picture  was  painted  in  the  latter  half  of  his  life  at 
about  the  time  when  many  of  his  extravagant  experiments  were  com- 
menced. "The  Snow  Storm  at  Sea"  is  purely  poetic;  really  not  quite 
to  be  accounted  for.  But  it  does  give  marvelously  the  impression  of 
a  ship  engulfed  in  almost  opaque  swirlings  of  snow,  and  this  snow 
mingling  with  the  raging  waters.  In  this  the  little  helpless  steamer 
struggles  to  maintain  itself  like  a  tired  fox  in  the  loneliness  of  the 
blinding,  all-enveloping  snowstorms  of  the  wild  country. 

Principal  Works:  Calais  Pier,  Death  of  Nelson,  Dido  and  .iEneas,  Decline 
of  Carthage,  Venice  Bridge  of  Sighs,  Snow  Storm ;  Rain,  Steam  and  Speed,  The 
Fighting  Tem6raire,  Sunrise  Through  the  Mist,  and  many  others  (National  Gallery, 
London).  Slave  Ship  (Boston) ;  Moonlight  View  on  the  Thames,  ^aLneas  with  the 
Sibyl,  Jason  in  Search  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  Tenth  Plague  of  Egfypt,  Search  of 
Apuleia,  Lake  Avernus,  Garden  of  Boccaccio,  Landing  of  Agrippina. 

John  Constable 

{iT/6-iSjj.     English.) 

Ruskin  becomes  very  tiresome  when  he  writes  about  men  like 
Constable.  Did  he  know  the  magnificent  influence  that  this  painter 
exerted   and   that   it   was   he   who   caused  the   wonderful   coterie  of 


THE  REVOLT   IN   ENGLAND  113 

painters  called  the  Barbizon  School  to  develop  itself?  I  suspect  that  he 
was  (Englishman-like)  quite  unappreciative  of  it.  There  are  so  many 
strange  evidences  of  ignorance  in  Ruskin's  writings,  that  he  stands 
to-day  entirely  discredited  as  an  art  critic,  though  loved  as  a  writer 
about  nature. 

Constable  had  the  ability  to  see  the  real  light  of  day  coquetting 
with  the  local  colors  of  trees  and  grass,  and  the  courage  to  paint  this 
boldly,  although  many  tried  to  convince  him  that  pictures  should  be 
formulated  affairs,  made  according  to  certain  rules.  His  technique 
must  have  appeared  brutal  to  those  artists  accustomed  to  smoothed 
vaporings.  So  many  artists  in  this  day  are  much  more  summary  than 
he  in  touch  that  we  wonder  at  the  complaints.  That  sort  of  handling 
is  admired  now.  He  went  to  France  and  there  learned  more  about 
using  paint  than  Turner  ever  knew,  and  he  carried  his  close  observa- 
tion of  nature's  true  aspects  farther  than  Turner  ever  dreamed  of. 

In  1824,  when  French  landscapes  were  dry  and  classical,  a  number 
of  Englishmen,  among  them  Constable,  Bonnington,  Fielding  and 
Prout,  held  an  exhibition  of  pictures  in  Paris,  astonishing  the  suscep- 
tible Frenchmen.  Only  Constable  and  Bonnington,  however,  left  a 
lasting  impression.  The  effect  of  it  is  frankly  recognized  by  French 
artists,  who  are  astonished  that  England  failed  to  understand  so  great 
a  genius.  But  England  does  understand  now.  At  last  Constable  has 
his  own  glory. 

He  was  the  son  of  a  miller  on  the  Staur.  and,  excepting  during  his 
pretty  long  stay  in  France,  he  lived  the  life  of  one  entirely  devoted 
to  art,  in  his  country  retreat.  For  many  years  his  pictures  went 
regularly  to  the  Salon  of  Paris,  and  some  of  them  are  now  in  the 
Louvre. 

Turner  was  a  poet;  Constable  a  literalist  with  a  strong  artistic  tem- 
perament. If  Turner  could  not  handle  paint  prettily,  his  extraor- 
dinary ability  to  arrange  lines  and  secure  atmosphere  imbue  his 
work  with  sentiment;  these  excuse  such  trifling  accidents  as  bad  tech- 
nique. 

Constable  was  a  technician   such  as  the  previous  landscapists  had 


114  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

never  known,  as  he  added  to  his  native  ability  the  training  of  study  in 
France.  He  took  his  originality  over  there  with  him  and  added 
training  to  it.  His  ability  to  see  correctly,  to  make  gray  the  grass 
which  most  people  thought  should  always  be  green,  to  show  the  glim- 
mer of  frost  or  dew  on  the  surface  of  things,  such  matters  as  these 
executed  with  consummate  simplicity  of  touch,  called  down  upon  him 
the  thunderings  of  the  critics  and  the  condemnation  of  the  steady  and 
ox-like  conventional  painters.  The  supercilious  criticism  cast  at  him 
in  those  days  furnishes  amusing  reading,  providing  one  can  keep  his 
temper.  Hundreds  of  painters  to-day  use  the  technique  which  Con- 
stable invented. 

Important  Works:  Cornfield,  Valley  Farm,  Barnes  Common  (National  Gal- 
lery) ;  Weymouth  Bay,  Cottage,  Rainbow,  Landscape  (Louvre) ;  Salisbury  Cathedral, 
Dedham  Mill,  Hampstead  Heath,  Boat  Building,  Water  Meadows  (S.  Kensingfton 
Museum.) 

Washington   AUston 

(i72g-iS4S-     American.) 

The  strangest  feature  in  human  nature  is  a  tendency  of  talented 
men  to  follow  a  line  of  painting  not  in  accord  with  their  evident  birth- 
right. Men  born  with  the  right  to  paint  beautiful  textures  (still  life) 
insist  upon  undertaking  lofty  themes  which  only  a  peculiar  genius  can 
accomplish.  Raphael's  birthright  was  the  ability  to  produce  the 
"grand  art";  to  invent  it  even.  The  same  was  true  of  Angelo. 
Titian  and  his  followers  had  .for  birthright  the  ability  to  make  magni- 
ficent color  schemes;  to  invent  them.  His  contemporary,  Benjamin 
West,  was  a  genre  painter  whose  ambition  ran  away  with  his  judg- 
ment. So  Allston,  in  turn,  was  bitten  by  the  ambition  to  rival  the 
great  masters,  while  he  possessed  a  talent  for  portrait  painting  and 
decided  ability  as  a  still-life  painter.  As  we  compare  him  with  West, 
it  is  only  just  to  say  that  his  talent  was  possibly  greater  than  that  of 
the  American-born  president  of  the  Royal  Academy.  Certain  pas- 
sages in  his  works  suggest  dimly  that  he  was  not  entirely  self-deceived. 
There  were  several  lofty  flights. 


THE   REVOLT  IN   ENGLAND  115 

When  he  invited  his  neighbors  to  inspect  one  of  his  historical 
efforts,  every  one  admired  some  brass  jars  in  the  corner,  oblivious  of 
the  mighty  portent  of  the  heroic  subject.  So  Allston  paintedout  the 
offending  jars,  destroying  the  only  thing  in  the  huge  work  which  had 
been  painted  with  real  sincerity  and  from  native  talent.  "I  charge 
thee,  fling  away  ambition,"  said  the  man  whom  King  Henry  had 
turned  out  of  office.  Artists  as  well  as  politicians  sometimes  need 
this  advice.  "Belshazzar's  Feast,"  for  many  years  in  the  Athenaeum 
at  Boston  and  unfinished,  reveals  ability  to  compose  and  draw  fairly 
well,  but  the  characterization  is  of  the  sort  on  sale  in  the  book  and 
print-seller's  shop. 

Allston  was  a  South  Carolinian  and  revealed  in  his  character  the 
best  elements  of  southern  enthusiasm  and  tenacious  courage.  He  was 
serious  in  purpose  and  expected  to  do  the  impossible  by  virtue  of 
determination.  A  stay  in  Italy  and  later  in  England  was  an  injury, 
because  it  turned  his  head  while  not  giving  him  sufficient  education. 
West  was  doing  in  England  what  almost  all  the  English-born  artists 
of  the  seventeenth  century  did,  painting  an  art  much  over  his  head. 
So  Allston  did  it  too.  He  makes  an  admirable  martyr  figure  there  in 
Boston,  the  friend  of  the  writers  of  the  early  part  of  the  last  century — 
solemn,  dignified  and  of  polished  manners.  But  these  qualities  did 
not  make  great  art  for  him.  In  the  insane  asylum  at  Worcester 
hangs  his  "Angel  Liberating  St.  Peter,"  the  principal  figure  decid- 
edly good  because  it  is  almost  a  direct  copy  of  a  figure  by  Raphael. 
Probably  this  is  his  best  work.  As  a  portrait  painter  he  did  well, 
though  he  was  less  successful  than  Copley  and  Stuart. 

Ddvid,  in  France,  died  just  as  he  arrived  at  mature  years  and  was 
followed  by  the  influence  of  Ingres  and  Delaroche,  but  these  men  had 
no  effect  on  any  early  American  painter.  The  Barbizon  School  com- 
menced as  his  career  was  closing,  but  he  did  not  know  anything 
about  it. 

Principal  Works:  Urial  in  the  Sun,  Jacob's  Dream,  Prophet  Jeremiah, 
Belshazzar's  Feast,  St.  Peter  Liberated  by  the  Angel ;  Spalatro  or  the  Bloody  Hand, 
Beatrice,  Rosalie. 


ii6  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Jean  Dominique  Augustin  Ingres 

{i^8o-i86y.     French.) 

As  David  ruled  the  art  of  France,  so  did  his  successor,  Ingres.  Of 
David's  three  hundred  pupils,  he  was,  of  those  who  cherished  the 
master's  precepts,  by  far  the  finest  man.  It  is  not  remarkable  that 
large  numbers  of  these  followers  were  decorated,  and  many  of  them 
became  members  of  the  Institute,  because  nothing  more  was  necessary 
than  to  learn  to  draw  elegantly  and  be  classical.  Any  man  doing 
these  things  had  to  be  decorated  to  keep  up  the  fashion  of  classicism; 
the  style  could  not  survive  without  honors  and  decorations.  Ingres' 
was  a  tenderer  soul  than  David's,  and  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  he  was 
the  greatest  artist  among  the  classicists  whom  France  has  raised. 

David  contended  that  art  was  most  perfect  in  the  Greek  statues. 
Ingres  based  his  art  on  that  of  Raphael,  which  was  one  shade  more 
human.  He  is  the  link  which  binds  all  the  recent  classicists  (Cabanel, 
Bouguereau  and  others  of  that  type)  to  the  School  of  Raphael,  as 
represented  by  Guido  Reni,  Carlo  Dolci  and  a  long  line  of  Italian 
painters  of  lesser  talent.  The  sole  aim  of  Ingres  and  his  school 
(which  was  not  altogether  true  of  Raphael),  was  beauty  of  line  and 
that  sort  of  loftiness  in  the  ideality  of  pose  which  lifted  the  art  so  high 
that  Millet  of  Barbizon  could  never  walk  on  such  stilts.  In  justice  to 
Ingres  it  must  be  allowed  that  his  practice  was  more  human  than  his 
principles,  as  he  could  not  help  making  the  people  he  painted  some- 
what human,  though  many  of  his  followers  avoided  this  idiosyncrasy 
effectively.  So  much  humanity  crept  into  the  figures  of  this  great 
man  that  even  the  extreme  naturalists  love  his  work  sincerely.  It  is 
very  easy  to  feel  that  the  picture  painted  at  seventy-six  years  of  age 
and  called  "La  Source,"  a  nude  girlish  woman  who  stands  holding  a 
classical  jar  from  which  water  flows,  might  represent  the  source  from 
which  should  flow  a  magnificent  race  of  perfect  human  beings.  The 
young  girl  is  so  real,  so  beautiful,  so  tender  in  flesh  and  so  entirely 
earthly  in  her  heavenliness  that  she  could  well  win  the  love  of  man- 
kind and  become  the  ideal  mother  of  nations.  The  young  "Oedipus 
Inquiring  of  the  Sphinx"  is  not  alone  classical;  he  is  a  real  man,  one 


THE   REVOLT   IN   ENGLAND  117 

who  might  have  anxious  moments  and  hope  to  receive  wisdom  from 
the  lips  of  the  experienced  but  ever  silent  symbol  of  the  enigmatic. 

Ingres'  religious  picture,  "The  Virgin  with  the  Host,"  reveals 
plainly  the  study  and  imitation  of  Raphael  which  was  the  artist's  pride. 
It  is  still  prettier  than  Raphael's  Madonnas,  less  plainly  a  copy  from 
an  antique  than  the  same  character  of  picture  by  Carlo  Dolci,  but  it  has 
no  sincere  originality.  We  may  well  glorify  Raphael  the  inventor  of  all 
this,  but  what  are  we  to  say  of  these  men  whose  greatest  ambition  was 
to  weakly  resemble  the  master.  The  human  element  appears  in  his 
"Apotheosis  of  Homer."  Compare  the  portrait  heads  in  the  fore- 
ground with  similar  figures  in  the  great  cartoons  by  Kaulbach,  idealities 
which  almost  could  not  exist.  The  contempt  which  these  classicists 
felt  for  genre  painting  shows  plainly  in  the  Sistine  Chapel  picture, 
where  stately  ecclesiastics  gather  about  the  papal  throne.  They  are 
real  up  to  a  certain  point  only.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Ingres,  who  thus 
exalted  his  personages,  should  look  upon  the  picture  by  Gericault, 
"The  Raft  of  the  Medusa,"  as  altogether  revolutionary  because  the 
latter  created  real  men  and  women  wet  and  bedraggled  in  the  agony 
of  shipwreck.  "The  Raft"  was  "only  genre, "  and  unworthy  the  name 
of  "art." 

David  was  so  set  in  his  Greek-god  worship  that  he  also  looked  upon 
Ingres  as  a  revolutionist  because  he  dared  to  be  just  a  trifle  romantic. 
What  a  picture  of  the  tyranny  of  schoolmen! 

Ingres'  real  nature  asserted  itself  when  he  painted  portraits  and 
could  give  play  to  his  sincere,  though  suppressed,  love  of  true  nature. 
It  is  not  much  to  boast  of,  as  we  see  in  the  "Portrait  of  Madame 
Riviere"  that  the  whole  figure,  drapery  and  all,  is  like  marble  and  the 
hair  reminds  one  more  than  all  else  of  the  bronze  imitations  of  hair 
which  the  ancients  placed  on  their  statues.  It  never  by  any  chance 
grew  on  the  scalp. 

The  war  between  Ingres  and  Delacroix  (both  pupils  of  David)  is 
the  opening  of  the  campaign  which  has  lasted  until  to-day,  and  will 
ever  be  waged.  Delacroix  gave  his  love  of  violent  action  and  sump- 
tuous color  full  play.     Such   things  were  sinful   in   the  eyes   of   the 


ii8  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

classicists  who  never  allowed  themselves  to  break  loose.  Ingres  looked 
upon  refulgent  color  as  a  vulgarity  and  much  action  was  a  sign  of 
decadence.  Only  idealities  of  a  specific  sort  could  keep  art  alive  and 
elevated.  How  strange  this  appears  to  us,  who  believe  that  true  art  is 
the  expression  of  a  bursting  heart  and  is  born  of  love — its  father 
enthusiasm! 

Ingres  strove  hard,  against  odds,  to  obtain  the  Prix  de  Rome. 
Not  a  brilliant  man,  his  winning  of  it  was  the  payment  for  incessant 
toil.  In  the  course  of  time  he  became  the  successor  of  the  popular 
battle  painter,  Horace  Vernet,  as  Rector  of  the  French  Academy  at 
Rome.  Probably  the  most  coveted  honor  accorded  him  was  member- 
ship in  the  Institute,  but  he  was  loaded  with  honors  in  every  land. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre  was  a  new 
institution  in  his  younger  days. 

Principal  Works:  Apotheosis  of  Homer,  Christ  Delivering  the  Keys  to  Peter, 
Stratonice,  The  Spring,  Portraits  of  M.  Riviere  and  Mme.  Riviere  (Louvre);  La 
Source,  Oedipus  and  the  Sphinx,  The  Virgin  with  the  Host,  Napoleon  on  His 
Throne. 

Thomas  Sully 

(lySj-f    American.) 

Sully  is  so  identified  with  American  art  that  he  belongs  to  us  more 
than  Copley  and  almost  more  than  West.  Born  in  England,  his  par- 
ents brought  him  to  this  country  at  nine  years  of  age,  making  their 
home  in  South  Carolina,  where  he  was  educated  and  began  to  paint 
portraits.  Having  had  no  opportunities  for  art  education,  he  proved 
himself  a  talented  man  and  commanded  tender  col-or  and  excellent 
likeness.  Very  many  faces  of  the  celebrities  of  the  southern  and 
middle  states  have  come  down  to  us  because  of  his  art,  and  they  look 
well  as  he  painted  them.  His  influence  was  very  considerable  on  the 
art  of  the  day.  In  historical  painting  he  undertook  only  that  which 
he  could  manage  readily,  as  the  "Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware." 

Peter  von  Cornelius  (1783-1867,  German)  is  a  name  very  familiar 
to  students  of  the  Dusseldorf  and  Munich  schools.     A  classicist  with 


THE   REVOLT   IN    ENGLAND  119 

ideas  about  form  and  the  belief  that  color  injured  the  purity  of  form, 
he  executed  endless  mural  decorations  in  Munich  and  Berlin,  which 
we  are  forced  to  respect  because  of  their  evident  sincerity  but  cannot 
admire  because  of  our  memor}'  of  the  Italian  classicists  whom  he  imi- 
tated. 

Principal  Works:  Mural  Painting  in  "Hall'of  the  Gods"  and  "Hall  of  the 
Heroes,''  (Munich  Museum  of  Statuary) ;  History  of  Painting  (Pinakothek,  Munich) ; 
Frescoes' (Ludwig-Kirche,  Munich);  Frescoes  (Royal  Mausoleum  and  Campo  Santo, 
Berlin). 

Eckersberg  (1783-1853,  Danish)  studied  with  David  in  Paris,  then 
went  to  Rome.  His  style  was  classical,  but  from  this  his  native  taste 
saved  him  later  and  the  nature  before  his  eyes  touched  his  heart. 
All  the  early  Danish  painters  felt,  like  the  writers,  the  mysticism  of 
the  north  and  painted  in  subject  and  treatment  vaporings  of  landscapes 
and  interiors  that  were  low-toned  and  mysterious  in  treatment  and 
subject.     There  was  national  sentiment  in  the  work. 

Sir  David  Wilkie 

(iy8s-i84r.     English,  borti  in  Scotland.) 

The  old-fashioned  methods  of  common-school  teaching  could  not 
quicken  Wilkie's  mentality,  but  love  of  drawing  did.  In  his  teens  he 
was  already  an  artist.  At  the  art  school,  and  later  at  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy, he  did  well  enough  (even  gaining  a  prize  for  some  classical 
drawing),  but  his  chief  delight  was  sketching  figures  in  the  county 
fairs.  Everyone  knows  his  pictures,  "The  Blind  Fiddler,"  "Blind 
Man's  Buff"  and  "The  Rabbit  on  the  Wall,"  so  frequently  reproduced. 
When  he  began,  this  kind  of  art  was  new  to  the  British  public  and  the 
old  academical  painters,  steeped  in  superstition  about  "the  grand 
art,"  predicted  disaster  for  the  young  innovator.  Yet  nothing  could 
have  been  more  to  the  taste  of  the  English  picture  buyers,  then  as 
now,  lovers  of  anecdotic  art. 

When  he  visited  the  Louvre,  Dutch  art  impressed  him  greatly,  but 
the  magnificent  works  of  Veronese  did  not.  As  long  as  he  continued 
to  follow  the  manner  of  the  Dutch  genre  painters  the  public  paid  him 


120  THE   WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

enormous  sums  for  his  work,  but  a  lengthy  journey  in  Italy  and  Spain 
led  to  the  adoption  of  the  "grand  style"  and  he  made  no  impression 
with  this  manner  foreign  to  his  nature  and  temperament.  Few  of  the 
English  painters  escaped  from  this  microbe  of  High  Art.  He  died 
on  shipboard,  near  Malta. 

At  the  death  of  Lawrence,  he  was  made  court  painter.  Ingres  was 
four  years  his  senior,  Delacroix  fourteen  years  his  junior.  He  lived 
eleven  years  after  Benjamin  West's  death. 

Principal  Works:  Jonn  Knox,  Blind  Fiddler,  Village  Festival  (London); 
Reading  o£  the  Will  (Munich) ;  Pittessie  Fair,  Village  Politician,  Rent  Day,  Blind- 
man's  Buff,  Distraining  for  Rent,  Parish  Beadle,  Chelsea  Pensioners,  Preaching  of 
John  Knox,  Wellington  the  Night  Before  Waterloo,  Benvenuto  'Cellini  and  the 
Pope. 

Benjamin  Robert  Haydon  (1786-1846,  English)  studied  at  the 
Royal  Academy.  England  loves  literature  more  than  art  and  Haydon 
declared  that  art  was  unworthy  unless  dedicated  to  religious  subjects, 
a  doctrine  which  he  put  in  practice  pretty  strictly.  A  painting  of 
Napoleon  musing  at  St.  Helena  was  an  exception.  Getting  into  an 
acrimonious  controversy  with  the  academicians,  they  refused  him 
membership,  so  he  started  an  academy  of  his  own,  which  had  the 
Landseers  for  pupils.  Many  people  admire  his  lectures  on  painting 
more  than  his  art  work,  probably  justly.  Financial  troubles  drove 
him  to  suicide. 

Principal  Works:  Murder  of  Dentatus,  Entry  of  Christ  into  Jerusalem,  Rais- 
ing of  Lazarus,  Alfred  the  Great  and  the  First  English  Jury. 

William  Etty  (1787-1849,  English)  made  many  historical  paint- 
ings, but  is  best  known  as  a  painter  of  nude  women.  These  were 
fairly  well  drawn  and  so  pleasingly  painted  that  his  reputation  was 
sufficient  to  insure  an  excellent  income. 

Principal  Works:  Youth  on  the  Prow  and  Pleasure  at  the  Helm,  Female 
Bathers  (London);  Joan  of  Arc,  Ulysses  and  the  Sirens,  The  Combat,  Benaiah, 
Judith  and  Holofernes  (Most  of  these  in  the  Royal  Scottish  Academy). 

Johan  C.  C.  Dahl  (1788-1857,  Norwegian)  was  original  and  realistic 
as  a  landscape  painter.     His  career  was  largely  in  Germany.     This  is 


THE   REVOLT   IN    ENGLAND  121 

not  Hans  Dahl  now  living,  whose  humorous  pastoral  genre  pictures 
are  frequently  reproduced. 

Wilhelm  Schadow  (1789-1862,  German)  built  up  the  Diisseldorf 
Academy.  With  great  talent,  but  no  originality,  he  painted  religious 
pictures  inspired  by  real  piety. 

Frederick  Overbeck  (1789-1869)  and  Philip  Veit  (1793-1877),  Ger- 
man, were  two  friends  with  ideals.  They  looked  upon  French  art  of 
their  period  (the  Rococo)  as  very  wicked  and  that  of  Raphael  as 
elegant  rather  than  religious.  It  was  that  of  Fra  Angelico  which 
showed  forth  the  true  religious  temperament,  they  thought,  so  they 
imitated  him.  But  even  those  early  men  indulged  in  a  coloring  too 
pagan  and  lacked  purity  of  purpose.  Misguided  fanatics!  The  cold- 
ness of  all  that  effort  to  be  holy  was  painful. 

Principal  Works  of  Overbeck:  Holy  Gospels,  Boy  Christ  among  the  Doctors ; 
Christ  Entering  Jerusalem  (I^iibeck),  Triumph  of  Religion  (Frankfort). 

Emile  Jean  Horace  Vernet  (1789-1863,  French)  is  the  third  artist 
of  this  name  and  the  grandson  of  Joseph,  the  marine  painter  Vernet 
was  brought  up  amid  camps  and  never  in  all  his  life  heard  the  tap  of  a 
drum  without  emotion  and  enthusiasm.  Large  canvases  representing 
the  battles  of  Napoleon  in  a  literal  manner,  the  most  painstaking 
attention  given  to  every  detail  of  equipment  and  uniform,  made  him 
popular  with  the  military  and  the  people.  It  cannot  be  said  that  he 
was  a  great  painter.  His  execution  was  hasty  and  by  no  means  with 
fine  technique  or  noble  color.  For  a  considerable  period  (1827-39)  he 
was  the  director  of  the  French  Academy  at  Rome,  a  position  given 
him  by  favor  rather  than  because  of  any  special  fitness. 

From  1836  to  1842  he  painted  battle  pictures  for  the  gallery  of 
Versailles.  It  was  after  1836  that  most  of  his  Arab  subjects  were 
handled. 

Principal  Works:  The  Defense  of  Clichy,  Massacre  of  the  Mamelukes,  The 
Meeting  of  Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael  (Louvre);  Dog  of  the  Regiment,  Horse 
with  the  Trumpet. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL 

While  the  Hudson  River  School  andportraitpainting  were  develop- 
ing in  America,  the  most  important  landscape  movement  of  recent 
times  came  into  existence,  and  neither  knew  of  the  other.  England 
continued  in  her  own  independent  way  with  one  famous  painter,  and 
was  also  ignorant  of  the  art  movements  in  other  countries.  The 
isolation  of  the  artist  is  more  complete  at  this  period  than  before  or 
since. 

The  Hudson  River  School 

There  seems  to  be  no  connection  between  the  group  of  portrait 
painters  which  came  out  of  the  colonial  period  and  another  distinct 
group  of  landscapists,  commonly  known  as  the  Hudson  River 
School.  The  list  of  them  begins  with  Thomas  Cole,  who  lived  on 
the  banks  of  the  Hudson  at  Catskill,  and  studied  many  of  his  pictures 
in  the  neighboring  mountains.  It  happened  that  all  the  land- 
scape painters  penetrated  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  picturesque 
country  on  either  bank  of  the  Hudson,  going  as  far  as  Lake  George 
and  Lake  Champlain  (the  Adirondacks  being  little  known  at  the 
time),  finally  turning  aside  to  the  White  Mountains.  It  was  specifi- 
cally a  landscape  school,  strangely  avoiding  marines  at  the  beginning. 
Later,  the  coast  of  Maine  attracted  these  painters  and  marines 
appeared  from  time  to  time.  Some  of  them  finally  visited  the  moun- 
tains of  Pennsylvania  and  North  Carolina,  and  hungering  for  scenery, 
explored  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

One  of  these  old  landscape  painters,  a  man  of  taient  but  unedu- 
cated in  art,  who  looked  with  undisguised  disgust  at  the  work  of  cer- 
tain young  men  just  returned  from  long  continued  and  severe  training 
in  European  art  schools,  and  with  apprehension  at  the  prospect  of  a 


THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     123 

revolution,  said  to  me,  "This  new  style  is  not  American  art,  we  are 
the  true  American  artists."  He  was  mistaken;  his  art  was  not  Amer- 
ican, but  something  based  on  the  study  of  engravings  of  Italian  pic- 
tures, or  of  English  pictures  which  were  imitations  of  Italian  art,  and 
upon  brief  training  in  Diisseldorf.  I  make  this  statement  because  of  a 
considerable  acquaintance  with  these  men  acquired  in  their  studios, 
where  they  talked  freely  of  the  principles  which  influenced  them  and 
passed  them  down  for  m}'  benefit. 

Most  of  them  managed,  sooner  or  later,  to  do  "the  European  tour," 
and  boast  of  it  on  returning.  Some  of  them  boasted  that  they  were 
untainted  with  European  ideas,  never  having  crossed  the  sea.  Others 
spent  many  months  in  Italy,  where  they  gazed  and  wondered  but  did 
no  serious  study.  Claude  and  Salvator  Rosa  were  flung  at  my  young 
and  susceptible  intelligence,  but  rarely  a  word  about  French  art.  The 
French  were  looked  upon  as  an  artificial  and  frivolous  people, 
unworthy  of  consideration.  Only  dead  men  counted  in  the  scale  of 
their  puritanical  estimation. 

As  they  had  but  undeveloped  appreciation  of  art  for  the  sake  of 
tone,  line  and  atmospheric  effect,  and  as  the  public  knew  absolutely 
nothing  about  these  elements,  they  sought  scenery  and  painted  por- 
traits of  places  in  the  wonderfully  picturesque  Hudson  River  environs, 
selling  these  easily  because  they  were  portraits  of  famous  views.  Thus 
they  fondly  imagined  that  theirs  was  really  an  American  art.  They 
revolted  against  the  pictures  brought  from  Munich  and  Parisian 
studios  because  the  subjects  were  not  American.  Also,  they  feared 
the  influence  of  this  well-trained  art  upon  their  own,  so  evidently  less 
learned.  They  were  sincere  and  honest  in  their  work  and  lovable  in 
their  lives,  but  the  art  they  produced  is  evanescent. 

Yet  they  were  fortunately  men  of  talent,  and  they  made  admirable 
pictures,  weak  often,  never  of  massive  dignity,  rarely  well  drawn, 
revealing  utter  ignorance  of  the  use  of  color  for  the  sake  of  color  com- 
binations and  avoiding  figures  totally,  except  as  slight  indications  of 
the  presence  of  humanity  in  their  landscapes.  It  was  word  painting, 
not  art  for  the  sake  of  being  artistic.     Those  who  had  much  talent 


124  THE   WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

painted  charming  pictures,  but  they  painted,  naturally  enough,  exactly 
what  the  public  was  willing  to  purchase,  and  that  was  scenery. 
Americans  knew  little  about  art  in  those  days. 

Asher  Brown  Durand 

{1779-1  ^77-     American.) 

Durand  was  for  many  years  president  of  the  National  Academy,  a 
man  beloved  and  respected  (as  he  deserved  to  be)  by  artists  and  public. 

His  birthplace  was  in  New  Jersey,  and  most  of  his  life  was  spent 
in  the  vicinity  of  New  York  City.  A  peculiar  Yankee  cleverness 
served  well  in  making  him  an  engraver  that  no  country  could  be 
ashamed  of,  and  the  picture  reproductions  found  ready  sale.  By  the 
year  1835  portrait  and  landscape  painting  occupied  all  his  attention. 

A  large  number  of  his  studies  from  nature  have  passed  under  my 
eye — excellent  transcripts  of  the  scenes,  literal,  vigorously  touched  and 
revealing  his  true  sentiment.  When  these  were  manufactured  into 
pictures,  it  seemed  to  him  necessary  to  create  an  artificiality,  some- 
thing less  sincere,  more  an  imitation  of  the  compositions  of  the  Euro- 
pean painters  as  he  saw  them  in  engravings.  Engravings  from  old 
masters  were  the  early  American  artist's  picture  gallery. 

Durand  is  known  as  a  pupil  of  Cole,  said  to  be  the  father  of  the 
school,  who  doubtless  taught  him  much,  but  his  handling  and  color 
differ  from  the  former's.  He  was  more  of  a  literalist,  never  painting 
allegory  or  attempting  pictorial  literature,  as  all  his  aim  was  to  pre- 
sent the  poetry  of  nature.     He  never  crossed  the  Atlantic. 

Principal  Works .-  In  the  Woods,  Thanatopsis,  Lake  George,  Franconia  Notch 
(New  York.) 

Louis  Andre  Theodore  Gericault  (1791-1824,  French)  died  at 
thirty-three  years  of  age,  but  this  short  life  was  sufficient  to  make  him 
the  hero  of  a  revolution.  A  fellow  pupil  of  Delacroix  in  the  studio 
of  a  follower  of  David,  his  originality  forced  upon  him  other  senti- 
ment than  the  coldly  calculated  formalisms  of  the  classicists.  His 
only  large  picture  is  "The  Raft  of  the  Medusa,"   a  company  of  ship- 


THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     125 

wrecked  people  on  a  raft  in  mid-ocean.  To  work  it  up  he  took  a 
studio  near  a  hospital,  and  studied  the  dead  and  dying.  The  carpen- 
ter of  the  ship  (who  was  saved)  built  for  him  an  accurate  reproduction 
of  the  raft.  In  all  ways,  he  attempted  to  reproduce  the  vitality  of  the 
scene.  Many  times  since  has  this  been  done,  but  at  that  moment  it 
was  looked  upon  as  sacrilege  to  so  degrade  art,  so  vulgarize  it.  He 
did  not  live  to  fight  the  battle  of  vitality  against  mannerism,  but  left 
his  vigorous  impression  upon  a  host  of  fellow  students,  among  them 
Delacroix. 

Principal  Works:  The  Raft  of  the  Medusa,  Officer  of  the  Imperial  Guard 
Charging,  Wounded  Cuirassier  Retreating,  The  Derby  at  Epsom,  A  Carbineer,  The 
Plaster  Kiln,  Turkish  Horse  in  a  Stable,  Spanish  Horse  in  a  Stable,  Five  Horses  in 
a  Stable  (Louvre) ;  Wreck  of  the  Medusa  (Historical  Society,  New  York) ;  Cavalry 
Charge  (Providence);  Village  Smithy. 

Chester  Hardiiig 

{iyg3-iS66.     American. ) 

During  the  winter  following  the  close  of  the  war  of  secession  I  was 
working  in  the  studio  of  A.  J.  Conant,  then  the  leading  portrait  painter 
of  St.  Louis.  One  day  a  man  of  advanced  years  entered  who  was 
quickly  discovered  to  be  an  artist  of  ability.  With  a  massive  form 
and  considerable  height,  he  took  possession  of  our  hearts  and  almost  of 
our  bodies.  Healthy,  cheerful,  full  of  fun  and  wisdom,  few  such  men 
had  then  crossed  my  path.  He  was  painting  a  portrait  of  General 
Sherman,  then  the  war  hero  of  the  period.  It  was  an  admirable  work, 
the  flesh  clear  and  pulpy,  the  coat,  epaulettes  and  accessories  tender  in 
tone  and  treatment.  One  matter  troubled  him — some  mountains 
which  appeared  in  the  distance  to  suggest  the  battle  of  Lookout 
Mountain,  would  not  shape  themselves  into  better  form  than  a  couple 
of  gigantic  ash  heaps.  Like  many  another,  he  had  picked  up  his  art 
from  an  itinerant  portrait  painter,  and  could  not  manage  landscape. 
Conant  put  the  mountains  fairly  right  and  the  picture  was  finished. 

A  replica  of  his  portrait  of  Daniel  Webster  and  the  likeness  of  his 
granddaughter  followed,  and  this  was  the  last  season  of  his  successful 


126  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

career.  He  had  made  some  fine  portraits  of  Daniel  Boone,  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  and  a  long  line  of  aristocrats,  south  and  north. 

Brought  up  on  a  farm,  this  Yankee  was  trader,  tavern-keeper, 
chair-maker  and  peddler,  anything  that  wits  could  command;  his  giant 
form  and  never-failing  good  humor  being  his  passport  then  as  during 
all  his  life.  So  alert  was  his  intellect,  that  he  at  once  became  an 
itinerant  "portraitist"  and  executed  twenty-five-dollar  likenesses  with- 
out any  lapses  until  he  returned  to  his  home  with  more  hard  cash  than 
the  farmers  had  ever  seen.  Yet  his  honest  uncle  urged  him  "to  drop 
this  swindling  business,  buy  a  farm  and  become  respectable." 

This  was  early  art  in  America.  But  all  aspiring  geniuses  are  not 
as  brilliant,  masterful   and  amiable  giants  as  that  delightful  old  man. 

He  classes  with  that  long  line  of  English  portrait  painters  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  who  had  little  instruction  in  art  but  fine  feeling 
and  much  talent.  None  of  them  knew  his  profession  technically,  but 
most  of  them  painted  pleasing  portraits. 

Thomas  Doughty  (1793-1856,  American)  is  said  to  be  the  first 
landscape  painter  of  America.  Brought  up  to  trade  in  leather,  he 
abandoned  business  for  art  and  made  a  success,  not  alone  in  his  own 
country  but  also  in  England  where  landscape  painting  was  at  the  time 
in  high  favor. 

Sir  Charles  Lock  Eastlake  (1793- 1865,  English)  was  another 
literary  man  who  studied  art  in  the  Academy  and  became  its  president. 
Writing  well  and  painting  pleasingly  his  influence  was  extensive  and 
for  the  good.  Eastlake  did  much  to  change  the  taste  of  the  average 
British  and  American  observer. 

Principal  Works:  Christ  Lamenting  over  Jerusalem,  Escape  of  an  Italian 
Family,  Haidee,  Christ  Blessing  Little  Children  (London);  Christ  Raising  the 
Daughter  of  Jairus,  Brutus  Exhorting  the  Romans  to  Avenge  the  Death  of  Lucretia, 

Charles  Robert  Leslie 

{iyg4-iS^g.     English.') 
Leslie  spent  ten  years,  when  a  boy,  in  Philadelphia,  which  certainly 
did  not  make  an  American  of  him.     Being  a  very  good  painter  and 


THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     127 

producing  illustrations  of  Shakespearean  and  other  dramas — usually 
transcripts  of  actual  stage  arrangements — the  English  people  (always 
lovers  of  realism)  held  him  in  high  esteem. 

Principal  Works:  Uncle  Toby  and  the  Widow  (London);  Illustrations  for 
Washington  Irving's  "Sketch  Book,"  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Going  to  Church,  May 
Day  in  the  Reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  Dinner  at  Page's 
House,  Sancho  Panza,  Coronation  of  the  Queen. 

Julius  S.  von  Carolsfeld  (1794-1872,  German)  belongs  to  the  group 
of  Biblical  painters.     He  was  director  at  Munich  and  at  Dresden. 

Ary  Scheffer  (1795-1858,  Dutch,  of  German  extraction)  painted 
in  a  romantic  classical  style  which  excites  the  admiration  of  many 
people.  His  works  have  been  much  engraved  and  the  prints  are  found 
in  numberless  homes.  With  long  lines  and  simple,  dignified  poses, 
the  subjects  are  impressive.  There  is  very  little  rich  color  to  recom- 
mend them,  but  a  certain  dryness  causes  the  black-and-white  reproduc- 
tions to  please  more  than  the  paintings.  At  Dortrecht,  his  birthplace, 
there  is  a  statue  erected  to  his  memory  and  in  the  museum  an  entire 
wall  is  devoted  to  his  pictures. 

Scheffer  was  educated  in  France,  the  influence  of  Ingres  predomi- 
nating, and  he  received  the  rank  of  Officer  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  in 
1825.  Tender  episodes  of  Biblical  history,  scenes  from  Faust  and 
Wilhelm  Meister  were  his  favorite  subjects,  and  to  these  he  gave  a 
melancholy  cast. 

Principal  Works:  Eberhard,  the  Weeper  (Louvre) ;  Faust  in  the  Study, 
Margaret  at  the  Spinning  Wheel  (Baroness  Rothschild) ;  Margaret  at  Church,  St. 
Augustine  and  St.  Monica  (National  Gallery,  London) ;  Ruth  and  Naomi,  Tempta- 
tion of  Christ,  Dante  and  Beatrice,  Christus  Consolator,  Christus  Remunerator,  The 
GroaningfS,  Shades  of  Francesco  da  Rimini  and  Her  Lover  Appearing  to  Dante  and 
VirgiL 

Jean  Baptiste  Camille  Corot 

(i^g6-i8fs-     French.) 
One  of  the  most  original  and  poetic  of  painters,  Corot  induced  his 
prosperous  shop-keeping  father  to  allow  him  four  hundred  dollars  per 


128  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

year  that  he  might  make  an  artist  of  himself.  The  allowance  was 
increased  to  six  hundred  dollars  after  many  years  had  elapsed.  But  this 
always  amiable  genius  made  all  the  artists  love  him  (even  the  classi- 
cists who  doubted  the  tendencies  of  his  art),  so  that  "Pere  Corot"  is 
enshrined  in  many  hearts.  His  father's  shop  faced  on  the  quay  over  the 
Seine,  opposite  the  Louvre,  and  the  youth  left  the  counter  to  paint  the 
scene  in  front  of  the  domicile.  Thus  he  found  his  motives  in  ordinary 
places,  painting  not  things  but  artistic  effects.  Departing  from  the 
absolute  statement  of  facts,  his  purpose  was  to  reveal  the  essence  of 
landscape,  its  luminosity,  its  poetic  suggestion  and  its  silvery  color. 
The  oldest  of  the  Barbizon  group,  he  taught  the  world  (always  slow  to 
learn)  that  nature  was  an  essence.  Looking  into  some  of  his  pictures 
one  is  astonished  to  observe  how  much  color  his  gray  tones  conceal. 
He  loved  to  paint  the  dawn,  when  nature  was  cool  and  scarcely 
defined.  After  many  years  the  world  discovered  his  worth,  and  gave 
him  a  reward  in  money  and  glory.  Lovable  Corot,  the  greatest  land- 
scapist  of  France,  perhaps  of  the  world!  Having  been  to  Italy  when 
young,  the  ideas  of  classical  composition  formulated  by  Claude,  and 
the  little  classical  figures  introduced,  caught  his  fancy.  Like  Claude's 
are  his  compositions,  but  not  his  colors.  At  the  age  of  forty  he  sold 
his  first  picture.  Never  living  in  Barbizon  (the  village  near  Fontaine- 
bleau  where  Rousseau  and  Mil'fet  resided),  he  is  called  a  Barbizonite 
for  convenience  of  listing  him  with  certain  revolutionary  painters. 
Ingres,  Delacroix,  Decamps  and  Meisonnier  were  his  contemporaries; 
Rousseau  and  Millet  his  warm  friends;  Gerome,  Cabanel  and  Bou- 
guereau,  younger  contemporaries.  He  lived  a  long  and  happy  life, 
though  denied  the  highest  official  honors  and  without  a  wife  to  console 
him. 

Important  Works.-  Danse  des  Nymphs,  Roman  Forum,  Coliseum  (Luxem- 
bourg); JVIartyrdom  of  St.  Sebastian,  Evening  Star  (Baltimore);  Morning,  Evening, 
Sunset,  Darite  and  Virgil  (Boston  Museum);  Orpheus  (Chicago);  Nymphs  Dancing 
(New  York);  Gust  of  Wind,  Morning  at  Ville  d'Arvay. 

Paul  Delaroche  (1797-1856,  French)  maybe  called  a  classicist  or 
a  genre  painter,  being  both  these.     His  painting  was  somewhat  dry, 


THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     129 

but  he  rendered  scenes  from  history  as  if  the  life  were  real,  which 
classed  him  as  a  genre  painter.  With  the  others,  he  did  a  very 
important  part  in  breaking  down  the  barriers  which  confined  free 
expression.  His  "Princes  in  the  Tower,"  the  story  of  the  two  who 
were  smothered  by  Richard  HI.,  is  a  literal  rendering,  not  classically 
treated,  but  with  the  grouping  carefully  arranged. 

From  the  studio  of  Delaroche  went  out  a  small  army  of  young 
painters,  among  them  Jean  Francois  Millet,  Gerome  and  Israels. 

Principal  Works:  Moses  in  the  Bulrushes  (Baron  Rothschild);  Hemicycle 
(School  of  Fine  Arts,  Paris) ;  Joas  Rescued  by  Josabeth,  Young  Princes  in  the  Tower, 
Cromwell  Looking  upon  Charles  I.  in  His  Coffin,  Execution  of  Lady  Jane  Grey, 
Death  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  Virgin  Led  Home  by  St.  John  after  the  Crucifixion, 
Christ  in  Gethsemane,  Series  on  the  Events  of  Good  Friday. 

Eugene  Verboeckhoven  (1798-1881,  Belgian)  is  something  of  a  toy 
artist.  His  immense  popularity  arose  from  the  love  of  small-minded 
people  for  pretty  things.  His  artificial,  silken  sheep  had  none  of  the 
dignity  which  the  most  foolish  lamb  can  claim  and  his  landscapes 
were  too  bad  in  their  mechanics  to  deserve  all  this  space,  except  for 
the  benefit  of  his  misguided  admirers. 

De  Caisne  (1799-1887),  De  Beifve  (1809-1882),  Gallait  (1810-1887) 
and  Slingeneyer  (1823-  ) — all  Belgian — may  as  well  be  disposed 
of  here  as  their  huge  pictures  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  and  battles  were 
artistic  inversely  to  their  size.     But  they  had  admirers  nevertheless. 

Eugbne  Delacroix 

{i'jjg-1863.     French.) 

The  story  of  the  contest  between  Caravaggio  and  the  Caracci 
repeats  itself  with  Gericault  and  Delaroche  against  the  schoolman 
Ingres.  Both  these  men  were  pupils  of  GueVin  (1783-1855)  of  the 
school  of  David,  learning  to  draw  in  the  classical  manner,  but  refusing 
to  stick  to  the  mannerisms.  His  picture,  "Dante  and  Vergil  Ferried 
over  the  Acheron,"  was  imbued  with  human  despair.  In  the  "IVIas- 
sacre  of  Chios"  there  is  the  horror  of  realism.     This  was  the  art  of 


130  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Rubens  in  a  measure,  but  with  the  strong  individuality  of  this  young 
painter.  The  lifeless  color  of  David  and  the  ivory  tints  of  Ingres  gave 
way  to  color  which  Rubens  might  have  envied.  Deeper  toned  and  far 
more  serious  than  Rubens,  though  not  so  brilliant  in  technique,  such 
work  carried  the  younger  painters  off  their  feet.  The  classicists  were 
shocked  and  alarmed,  predicting  the  ruin  of  art.  But  out  of  this 
movement,  which  required  so  much  courage  and  the  fighting  of  a  life- 
time, grew  some  of  the  best  art  of  France  and  of  the  whole  world. 
Perhaps  the  "Entry  of  the  Crusaders  into  Jerusalem"  is  his  best  exam- 
ple of  fine  color  and  dignified  design.  With  the  ending  of  Napoleon's 
rule,  the  art  dictatorship  was  less  absolute;  the  supporters  of  this  new 
sentiment  demanded  its  recognition,  and  Delacroix  finally  was 
admitted  to  the  Institute  and  given  public  work  to  execute.  Like  a 
true  artist,  he  painted  every  sort  of  subject  which  stirred  his  enthusi- 
asm—animals, bits  of  the  sea,  fighting  and  horrors  and  tender  senti- 
ment, but  always  with  force  and  the  display  of  genius.  To  the  end  of 
his  life  he  was  blamed  and  embarrassed  by  harsh  criticism. 

Principal  Works:  Dante  and  Vergil,  Massacre  of  Scio,  Twenty-eighth  of  July_ 
1830,  Algerian  Women,  Portrait  of  Himself,  Jewish  Wedding  in  Morocco,  Shipwreck 
of  Don  Juan  (Louvre) ;  Entry  of  Crusaders  into  Constantinople  (Versailles) ;  Death 
of  Sardanapalus,  Death  of  Marino  Faliero,  Faust  and  Mephistopheles  (London); 
Two  Foscari  (Chantilly) ;  The  Lion  Hunt  (Philadelphia) ;  The  Combat  (Baltimore.) 

Thomas  Cole 

{1801-1848.     American.) 

Thomas  Cole  was  ten  years  younger  than  his  contemporary, 
Durand,  but  the  elder  was  the  follower  because  not  a  landscape  painter 
until  later  in  life. 

It  happened  that  Cole's  American  parents  were  in  England  when 
he  was  born,  but  his  boyhood  was  spent  in  Ohio  and  there  he  met  the 
proverbial  itinerant  portrait  painter,  who  did  for  him  what  that  name- 
less individual  has  accomplished  for  so  many  of  our  self-taught  early 
artists — awakened  his  enthusiasm  and  showed  him  how  to  use  colors. 
In  early  manhood  he  actually  sustained  the  family  (left  without  sup- 


THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     131 

port)  by  means  of  picture  making.  When  he  was  twenty-seven  years 
old  and  the  National  Academy  was  founded  (1828)  he  was  the  leader 
in  landscape  painting;  no  great  thing,  at  that  period,  but  historically 
interesting. 

His  knowledge  of  art  was  too  limited  for  a  proper  appreciation  of 
Turner  and  Constable  (then  conspicuous),  so  that  his  visit  to  England 
was  fruitless,  but  in  Italy  he  felt  strongly  the  influence  of  Claude,  Sal- 
vator  and  Poussin,  whose  works  became  his  art  models. 

In  the  "Dream  of  Arcadia,"  one  of  the  best  works  from  his  hand, 
the  literary-poetry  is  conspicuous,  though  painter-poetry  scarcely 
exists.  By  this  statement  I  mean  that  there  is  little  appreciation  of 
the  beauty  of  Line  combinations  or  color  combinations  for  their  own 
sake,  while  of  scenic  story  there  is  abundance.  From  a  garden-like 
valley  the  eye  roams  over  mountain  heights  to  distant  peaks  in  a  way 
that  nature  never  invented.  The  trees  have  ranged  themselves  by 
literary  methods,  as  one  might  say,  and  across  the  plain  under  atmos- 
phere and  sky  of  Claude's  invention  the  ideal  beings  come  and  go  as 
if  Pope's  Essay  on  Man  had  come  to  earth.  On  the  right,  the  moun- 
tain opens  in  a  kindly  way  to  allow  one  of  the  old  Dutch  masters  to 
introduce  a  well-composed  waterfall,  such  as  we  can  see  in  any  of  the 
engravings.  It  reminds  me  of  one  of  my  monitors  (of  this  school) 
who  said,  "put  plenty  of  things  in  your  picture;  people  like  them 
well  furnished."  Cole's  Arcadian  nymphs  wore  clothes  and  bedecked 
themselves  with  garlands,  minute  figures,  the  wreathes  of  flowers  as 
small  as  possible  but  carefully  detailed.  Strange  to  say,  all  this  nig- 
gling did  not  utterly  spoil  the  work,  as  he  had  genuine  talent.  But 
it  revealed  the  naive  uneducatedness,  unavoidable  in  a  self-made 
artist.  The  lesson  of  simplicity  and  largeness  of  effect.  Cole  never 
learned.  Indeed,  it  is  a  hard  lesson  acquired  by  much  scolding  from 
an  exacting  master.  Each  one  uses  the  instruction  in  his  own  way, 
but  it  differentiates  the  educated  painter,  whatever  may  be  his  nation- 
ality, school  or  epoch. 

In  many  of  Cole's  ideal  landscapes  it  is  easy  to  discover  some 
scene  in  the  Catskill  country  which  served  him  as  model,  and  some  of 


132  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

the  studies  from  nature  show  as  much  of  painter  talent  as  the  finished 
work  indicates  of  the  literary  leanings  of  the  public  which  purchased 
them. 

He  understood  well  his  patrons  when  he  composed  the  widely- 
known  allegorical  series  called  "The  Voyage  of  Life,"  or  the  larger 
compositions  known  as  the  "Course  of  Empire."  Forty  years  ago 
engravings  of  these  stilted  lessons  hung  in  every  respectable  home  in 
New  England.     Cole  was  himself  an  engraver  and  a  very  good  one. 

Principal  Works:  Dream  of  Arcadia,  Departure,  Return,  Garden  of  Eden, 
Expulsion  from  Paradise  (Lenox  Library,  New  York);  Moonlight,  Conway  Peak, 
Catskill  Creek,  Summer  Sunset  (Historical  Society,  New  York). 

Burkel  (1802-1869)  was  a  German  painter  who  promised  nothing  as 
an  academy  student,  but,  working  in  the.  style  of  the  old  Dutchmen, 
painted  all  the  life  of  the  people  much  to  the  popular  joy. 

Koekkoek  (1802-1862,  Dutch)  painted  nature  as  he  saw  it,  pretty 
and  much  like  popular  china  work.  Collectors  buy  his  pictures,  as 
they  do  anything  old  and  pretty. 

Ludwig  Richter  (1803- 1884,  German)  was  landscape  professor  at 
Dresden,  but  is  widely  loved  for  his  joyous  presentations  of  domestic 
life  in  numberless  published  drawings. 

Sir  Edwin  Landseer  (1803-1873,  English)  is  so  widely  known  that 
the  numberless  engravings  and  reproductions  of  his  paintings  talk 
more  about  him  than  my  words  can.  As  a  lover  of  animals  all  the 
world  has  learned  to  love  him.  His  painting  was  exactly  suited  to 
the  taste  of  Englishmen,  both  because  he  loved  dogs,  because  of  the 
human  expression  given  to  them,  and  because  of  the  too  smooth  finish 
from  his  brush.  The  English  love  a  story-picture,  and  his  satisfied 
their  longing.  As  painter,  he  was  not  a  wonderful  technician  from 
the  artist's  point  of  view.  A  clever  draughtsman  at  five  years  of  age, 
he  remained  just  that  to  the  end.  His  father  was  a  noted  engraver 
and  reproduced  much  of  his  son's  work. 

Principal  Works:  The  Hunted  Stag,  Dignity  and  Impudence,  Alexander  and 
Diogenes,  Low  Life  and  High  Life  (National  Gallery,  London) ;  The  Old  Shepherd's 


wrp.jtju.'iffi.?/-'  WJ,,, 


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THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     133 

Chief  Mourner,  Seeking  Sanctuary,  The  Monarch  of  the  Glen,  Children  of  the  Mist, 
Night,  Morning,  Bolton  Abbey  in  the  Olden  Time,  Return  from  Hunting. 

Joseph  W.  Allen  (1803-1852,  English)  began  as  a  scene  painter 
and  secured  a  reputation  for  landscape  (pastoral  subjects)  which  he 
somewhat  injured  by  indulging  in  extravagant  experiments  with 
fanciful  effects  of  color  and  light,  not  altogether  praiseworthy. 

Gustav  Wappers  (1803-1874,  Belgian)  was  a  good  deal  of  a  man 
and  an  artist  who  could  use  color  superbly.  He  knew  how  to  paint  a 
picture  that  would  rouse  all  Belgium  to  enthusiasm  because  of  its 
intense  action  and  the  story  of  liberty  which  it  portrayed.  This  was 
the  semi-allegorical  story  of  the  revolution  of  1830  which  set  Belgium 
free. 

Bonaventura  Genelli  (1803-1868,  German)  may  be  mentioned  as 
the  last  classicist  of  the  old  order  in  Germany  who  is  worthy  of  men- 
tion. His  mural  paintings  are  in  Leipzig,  but  many  etchings  are  scat- 
tered about. 

Robert  Scott  Lauder  (1803-1869,  English,  born  in  Scotland),  having 
been  influenced  by  the  art  of  Delacroix,  introduced  a  new  feeling  at 
the  Edinburgh  Art  Academy,  where  he  was  professor,  correcting  the 
continuous  inclination  toward  classicism.  He  made  figure  subjects,  a 
sort  of  elevated  genre  painting. 

Preller  (1804-1878,  German)  went  to  Italy  and  bethought  him  to  do 
the  Odyssey  in  paint.  So  he  retired  to  Norway,  made  studies  and 
spent  his  life  in  the  work.  It  was  an  advance  toward  good  landscape 
painting.     The  series  is  now  at  Weimar. 

Ferdinand  Theodore  Hildebrandt  (1804-1874,  German)  painted 
the  poetic  aspect  of  the  Crusaders  and  Hussites,  and  Moritz  von 
Schwind  (1804-1871)  delighted  the  people  of  Germany  with  fairy  tales 
in  paint.     He  seems  to  be  the  last  of  the  Munich  men  in  this  line. 

Wilhelm  von  Kaulbach  (1805-1874,  German)  keeps  up  the  tradi- 
tional grandeur  of  subject  with  his  cartoons  of  allegorical  character. 


134  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

which  we  all  know  so  well.  It  was  the  art  of  Raphael  applied  in  a  new 
way.  The  paintings  on  the  stairway  of  the  museum  at  Berlin  are  sorry 
affairs,  and  the  big  drawings  awe  people  with  faces  which  never  lived. 
"Stilted"  is  a  mild  term  to  describe  this  art. 

Principal  Works:  Frescoes  (Odeon,  Munich);  Frescoes  (Throne  Room  and 
Palace  Rooms,  Munich);  Frescoes  (Berhn  Museum). 

Morgenstern  (1805-1867,  German)  traveled  in  Norway  and  did  his 
part  to  reproduce  its  scenery.  He  loved  the  quieter  aspect  of  land- 
scape. 

Carl  Sohn  (1805-1867,  German)  was  a  Diisseldorfer  who  followed 
the  teachings  of  Schadow,  and  painted  romance  with  academical  cor- 
rectness and  formalism.  The  writings  of  Goethe  furnished  him  with 
motives,  which  were  carried  out  in  a  style  little  tending  to  promote 
any  serious  observation  of  nature  or  any  real  advancement  in  art.  The 
dawn  had  not  yet  come  to  Germany. 

Jean  Baptiste  Kindermans  (1805-1876,  Belgian)  departed  from 
the  line  of  imitative  landscape  painters  (such  as  Verstappen,  b.  1773, 
and  Marneffe,  b.  1793),  having  in  the  course  of  time  felt  the  influence 
of  the  Barbizon  School. 

Anton  Wiertz  (1806-1865,  Belgian)  would  scarcely  be  worth  talk- 
ing about  were  it  not  that  every  traveler  is  expected  to  visit  the 
Wierfz  Museum,  at  Brussels,  where  the  peep  holes  in  the  wall  dis- 
close abnormal  horrors.  His  head  became  inflated  because  his  eccen- 
tricity caused  people  (who  did  not  know)  to  call  him  a  genius.  He 
was  sent  to  Rome  and  attempted  to  outdo  Michael  Angelo.  An 
occasional  work  indicated  that  he  came  pretty  near  being  a  good 
painter. 

Jean  Francois  Gigout  (1806-1894,  French)  made  an  impression 
upon  many  young  men,  his  pupils,  because  of  his  realism  of  a  healthy 
sort,   coming  as  it  did  when   Ingres  was   ruling   the   Academy  with 

classicism. 


THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     135 

Horatio  MacCulloch  (1806-1867,  English,  born  in  Glasgow)  painted 
in  a  rather  extravagant  light  and  shade,  but  his  influence  upon  the 
Scotch  painters  was  better  than  his  own  product. 

Narcisse  Virgilio  Diaz  de  la  Pena,  called  Diaz  (1807-1876,  French, 
of  Spanish  extraction).  This  member  of  the  Barbizon  coterie  was 
crippled  and  poor,  working  in  a  porcelain  factory,  where  his  abilities 
commanded  promotion  but  his  plainness  of  speech  produced  his  dis- 
charge. To  make  a  painter  of  himself  was  a  desperate  struggle,  but 
his  talent  was  manifest.  Admiration  for  Delacroix  and  inspiration 
from  Rousseau  (five  years  younger,  but  more  advanced)  supplied  the 
essential  impulse.  His  landscapes  of  ripe  color,  figures  in  gor- 
geously-tinted draperies,  or  the  richly-toned  flesh  of  nudes,  contrasted 
strangely  with  all  that  array  of  pale  correctness  which  Ingres  insisted 
upon.  The  artists  of  the  Academy  had  reason  to  find  fault  with  it,  as 
the  drawing  was  scarcely  passable.  But  a  painter  of  great  sentiment, 
as  he  proved  himself,  can  defy  all  laws  and  take  many  liberties.  This 
was  live  art  and  the  pale  classics  were  too  frosty  to  compete  with  it. 
He  loved  to  abandon  himself  to  the  sensation  of  painting,  and  that  is 
a  kind  of  exuberance  that  always  wins.  It  is  in  strange  contrast  to 
the  reserved  propriety  of  many  contemporary  Germans.  Living  at 
Barbizon,  with  Millet  and  Rousseau,  he  revelled  in  the  autumnal  for- 
est and  peopled  it  with  nymphs.  Some  honors,  grudgingly  bestowed, 
and  considerable  wealth  came  to  him,  but  the  simple  Diaz  remained 
unspoiled. 

Principal  Works :  The  Storm,  Edge  of  the  Forest,  Forest  of  Fontainebleau 
(Baltimore) ;  Close  of  Fine  Day,  Last  Tears,  The  Rival,  Pond  with  Vipers,  Galatea, 
The  Smyrniotes,  The  Pyrenees,  Bohemians,  The  Fairy  with  the  Pearls  (Luxem- 
bourg) ;  and  manj'  works  in  France  and  the  United  States. 

Carl  Spitzweg  (1808-1885,  German)  turned  from  business  in  early 
middle  life  to  be  a  painter.  Visiting  France,  England  and  Belgium, 
copying  pictures  as  he  tarried,  but  attending  no  art  school,  he  formed 
a  style  of  his  own.  In  the  art  schools  at  this  moment  nothing 
but  classicism  was  tolerated.     So  it  was  well  that  he  escaped  them. 


136  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Without  telling  any  studied  anecdote,  he  pictured  peopie  who  were  of 
the  world  about  him,  and  landscape  settings  innocent  of  artifice.  This 
was  indeed  an  approach  to  that  sincerity  which  at  present  is  consid- 
ered essential  to  good  art. 

Carl  Friederich  Lessing  (1808-1880,  German)  studied  in  Diissel- 
dorf,  painting  landscapes  with  figures.  One  of  them  is  a  wide,  open 
country  with  wheat  fields  and  indications  of  peaceful  prosperity, 
through  which  an  attacking  party  forced  its  way  to  capture  the  redoubt 
visible  in  the  foreground  where  some  patriots  lay  on  the  defensive. 
Such  subjects  occupied  him  until  nature  in  her  simplicity  appealed  to 
his  artistic  sense  and  developed  an  original  landscapist  of  considerable 
force.     German  art  was  getting  away  from  artificial  trammels. 

Hermann  Kaufmann  (1808-1889,  German)  was  a  weak  painter 
but  made  drawings  of  the  life  about  him  without  artificiality.  Meyer- 
heim  (1808-1879),  of  the  same  nationality,  represented  the  pleasing 
side  of  peasant  life. 

Wilhelm  Marstrand  (1810-1873,  Danish)  was  an  exception,  having 
a  sense  of  humor,  a  fondness  for  light  story-picture  making.  He  trav- 
eled much  and,  possibly,  caught  his  style  from  foreigners.  On  return- 
ing to  Denmark  the  national  soberness  fell  upon  him. 

Hansenclever  (1810-1853,  German)  was  satirical.  Jordan  (1810- 
1887)  was  a  Diisseldorf  story-painter. 

Constant  Troyon  (1810-1865,  French),  the  most  poetic  domestic 
animal  painter  of  the  world,  began  in  a  porcelain  factory,  but  found 
that  this  pretty  painting  was  dwarfing  his  talent.  Imitating  the  Dutch 
at  first,  he  soon  "found  himself"  and  produced  powerful  and  rich 
effects  unlike  anything  that  had  yet  been  done.  An  originator  is  a 
rarity  in  any  line  of  conduct.  The  massive  simplicity  of  the  two  pic- 
tures— one  of  cattle  looming  up  against  the  lighted  sky  in  dignified 
movement,  the  other  of  sheep  in  landscape  (Louvre) — is  monumental 
and  impressive,  tender  in  powerful  coloring,  and  it  will  forever  mark 
this  as  a  turning  point  of  the  art  of  the  world.     Though  seemingly 


THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     137 

real,  his  cattle  are  strangely  idealized  like  structures  erected  for  im- 
pressiveness. 

It  is  incorrect  to  call  Troyon  an  animal  painter,  though  groups  of 
cattle  and  sheep  are  the  centering  objects  in  his  pictures.  He  is, 
properly  speaking,  a  landscape  painter,  because  his  animals  are  intro- 
duced as  a  part  of  the  atmospheric  effect  which  is  his  chief  study. 
Many  painters  of  animals  expend  their  energies  upon  portraits  of  the 
beasts,  using  landscapes  as  mere  backgrounds.  The  true  landscape 
painter  is  one  who  studies  light  and  reduces  everything  in  sight  as  an 
object  bathed  in  light  or  atmosphere.  So  Troyon  was  a  true  land- 
scape painter,  treating  animals  as  he  did  trees,  rocks  and  earth — objects 
to  catch  and  reflect  light. 

Principal  Works:  Oxen  Going  to  Work  (Louvre) ;  Going'to  Market  (Amiens) ; 
The  Return  from  Market  (Art  Institute,  Chicago),  and  many  landscapes  with  cattle 
in  Prance  and  America. 

William  Page  (1811-1885,  American)  figured  extensively  as  a  por- 
trait painter,  and  even  attempted  nude  Venus  effects.  His  color  was 
an  effort  at  tonal  painting,  decidedly  interesting  at  the  time,  as  this 
was  when  the  Hudson  River  School  still  flourished  and  there  was  a 
tendency  toward  realistic  and  timid  imitations  of  the  tints  of  nature  as 
the  artists  thought  that  they  saw  it.  "Moses  and  Aaron  on  Mount 
Horeb"  and  "The  Flight  into  Egypt"  indicate  the  extent  of  his  ambi- 
tion to  be  a  great  historical  painter. 

Gurlitt  (1812-  ),  a  Diisseldorf  landscapist  creating  fine  tone,  had 
good  influence  on  the  new  generation.  Flugen  (1811-1860)  was 
pathetic  and  amusing  with  genre  pictures.  De  Keyser  (1813-1887, 
Belgian),  was  an  exact  painter  of  history.  Tidemand  (1814-1876, 
Norwegian),  whose  studio  was  in  Diisseldorf,  reproduced  the  life  of  his 
native  peasantry.  Hiibner  (1814-1879),  a  German  genre  painter  of 
Diisseldorf,  made  his  little  mark  with  great  success;  and  these  things 
were  happening  while  the  men  of  the  Barbizon  School  were  coming 
into  notice. 


138  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

Jules  Dupre  (1812-1889,  French),  another  of  the  Barbizon 
School,  went  to  England  when  a  young  man  and  placed  himself 
beside  Constable  for  inspiration,  at  the  source  of  the  new  movement 
in  landscape,  bringing  back  to  France  pictures  which  indicated  the 
sort  of  painter  he  was  to  become.  Gradually  a  semi-artificial  treat- 
ment of  nature  crept  into  his  work — strong  contrasts  of  light  and  shade 
and  dramatic  effects,  but  always  it  was  in  the  character  of  the  Bar- 
bizon effort,  colorful,  graphic,  and  at  the  same  time  nearer  to  nature 
than  anything  from  the  old  formalists.  He  loved  an  unostentatious 
life  in  the  country  and  deserved  the  abundant  financial  reward  which 
finally  came  to  him. 

''Principal  Works :  Many  landscapes  and  marines  in  the  Luxembourg  and  in 
American  collections. 

Theodore  Rousseau  (1812-1867,  French),  like  all  innovators  and 
men  of  independence  of  character  had  a  long  battle  with  narrow- 
minded  art  critics,  as  well  as  the  autocrats  of  the  salon.  A  success  at 
twenty-two  years,  and  at  once  commanding  admiration  from  a  circle 
which  recognized  his  genius,  the  salon  refused  his  work,  so  that  for  a 
decade  and  a  half  nothing  appeared  in  the  annual  exhibitions  from 
his  hand.  There  is  evidence  of  the  influence  of  Hobbema  and  Con- 
stable in  his  manner  of  treating  nature,  but  never  was  there  a  more 
sincere  experimenter,  searcher  after  manners  of  expression,  fresh  and 
enthusiastic  inventor  of  new  combinations,  than  Rousseau.  While  all 
his  works  are  recognizable  as  from  his  hand,  he  had  fewer  mannerisms 
than  any  one  else.  A  profound  colorist,  a  dignified  classicist  at  one 
time  and  almost  an  impressionist  at  others,  he  stands  alone  in  his 
period  as  an  inspiration  to  all  who  would  paint  for  the  love  of  art  and 
nature  as  seen  through  the  eyes  of  an  enthusiast.  His  temperament 
was  sensitive,  which  led  to  unfortunate  enmities;  but  during  all  the 
years  that  he  lived  in  Barbizon  (studying  in  the  forest)  he  and  Millet 
were  warm  friends.  A  change  in  the  administration  of  the  salon 
brought  him  a  prize  and  medal  of  the  first  class  and  soon  his  honors 
multiplied,  and  his  poverty  became  a  memory. 


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THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     139 

Rousseau  and  Dupre  were  twelve  or  fourteen  years  old  when  Con- 
stable made  his  influence  felt  in  France.  Meisonnier  was  one  year 
older  than  the  two  French  landscape  painters. 

Principal  Works:  Forest  of  Fontainebleau,  Marsh  in  the  Landes  (Louvre),  and 
many  others  in  the  Louvre  and  in  American  collections. 

Charles  Emile  Jacque  (1813-1894,  French)  is  sometimes  listed 
with  the  Barbizon  group.  His  art  is  in  the  same  sentiment  as  that  of 
those  remarkable  men,  though  it  is  simply  as  a  painter  of  fine  tone 
and  a  delineator  of  sheep  that  he  commands  a  high  place  in  art. 

Antoine  Chintreuil  (1814-1873)  and  Francois  Louis  Fran9ais 

(1814-  ),  French,  both  pupils  of  Corot,  may  be  counted  of  the  Bar- 
bizon group,  though  little  known  outside  of  France.  The  former 
painted  like  his  master,  the  latter  invented  a  style  of  his  own  and  is 
counted  one  of  the  tenderest  painters  of  the  period 

Jean  Francois  Millet 

(18 1 4-1 87s.    French.) 

Millet  may  be  considered  the  most  characterful  man  of  this  group. 
A  Normandy  peasant  boy,  who  learns  Latin  from  the  village  priest 
while  drudging  on  the  farm,  has  claims  to  attention,  as  most  of  his 
kind  do  nothing  of  this  sort.  Millet  was  a  profound  thinker  and  an 
artist  who  painted  not  alone  from  sincere  artistic  conviction,  but  from 
the  depths  of  his  heart  as  an  observer  of  the  life  about  him.  Given  the 
problem  of  representing  the  peasant  in  his  heaviness  and  his  thankless 
toil,  he  entered  into  the  treatment  of  it  as  if  life  and  work  were  one 
and  the  same  heart  throb.  Millet  did  not  paint  to  preach,  as  Holman 
Hunt  declares  his  aim  to  be.  Out  of  the  fullness  of  his  artistic  nature 
he  painted  that  which  appealed  to  his  artistic  sense.  Every  artist  of 
genuine  fiber  looks  about  him  for  material,  something  which  will  move 
him  to  make  pictures.  The  peasants  furnished  him  pathos,  pictur- 
esqueness,  incident  and  poetical  suggestion.  So  he  painted  for  him- 
self and  let  the  world  look  on  as  it  would  or  could.  The  sociological 
sermons  are  read  into  his  works  without  his  volition. 


140  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

After  studying  in  the  provinces,  he  came  to  Paris  and  entered  the 
studio  of  Paul  Delaroche,  but  was  not  a  very  good  pupil,  chafing  under 
restraint.  Following  the  fashion,  he  painted  nudes  in  order  to  find 
purchasers.  Some  of  these  are  delightfully  original,  literal  renderings 
of  the  truths  of  effects  of  light  on  skin.  We  wish  that  his  sensitive- 
ness had  not  been  offended  by  a  careless  remark,  and  had  allowed  him 
to  continue.  Retreating  to  the  little  village  of  Barbizon  to  escape  the 
confusion  and  expense  of  the  metropolis,  he  painted  peasants  because 
there  was  nothing  else  to  paint  and  because  they  interested  him. 

In  telling  the  story  of  this  heart-rending  drudgery,  mingled  with 
the  pathos  of  human  sentiment,  he  never  lost  sight  of  the  ultimate 
purpose,  which  was  to  make  us  feel  what  he  felt.  He  did  not  delight 
us  with  clever  rendering  of  stuff  textures  or  any  elaborations  of  the 
details  of  landscape,  that  we  might  be  interested  in  his  dexterity.  All 
that  he  had  to  convey  was  the  simple,  somewhat  rudely-expressed 
idea  and  that  had  to  sufifice.  Brought  up  a  classicist,  he  never  quite 
abandoned  the  formulas  of  classicism,  but  concealed  them  in  rudeness, 
directness  of  statement  and  abrupt  technique. 

Long  years  of  poverty  and  official  neglect  did  not  sour  his  temper, 
and  finally  the  tide  turned,  honors  came  with  the  attendant  financial 
rewards. 

Principal  Works:  The  Gleaners,  Death  and  the  Woodcutters,  Sheep  Shearers, 
Man  with  the  Hoe,  Goose  Girl,  Potato  Planters  (Luxembourg) ;  Wool-carder,  The 
Sower  (New  York);  Potato  Harvest  (Baltimore);  Bringing  Home  the  New-born 
Calf  (Art  Institute,  Chicago);  The  Angelus. 

Jean  Charles  Cazin  (1814-1901,  French)  will  be  popular  for  a  long 
time.  What  history  will  say  of  his  work,  it  is  too  soon  to  determine. 
Pleasing  pictures  he  painted  in  enormous  numbers,  sometimes  too 
hastily.  All  the  actual  colors  of  nature  (local  colors)  he  reduced  to  a 
tonality,  a  sort  of  mouse-color,  delightful  to  see.  Not  a  strong  char- 
acter, he  was  thoroughly  artistic  in  his  temperament,  and  he  understood 
composition  perfectly,  though  breaking  all  the  conventional  rules.  He 
never  failed  in  his  effectiveness  or  luminosity.  I  think  that  his  repu- 
tation is  permanent.     Though  an  outcome  of  the  Barbizon  School,  he 


Cazin  —  The  Windmill. 


THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  THE  BARBIZON  SCHOOL     141 

is  not  commonly  classed  with  it.  The  "Hagar  and  Ishmael"  (Louvre) 
was  painted  amid  the  seaside  sand  dunes  near  Boulogne-sur-mer, 
where  his  home  was  and  where  he  owned  a  line  of  these  desert  tracts, 
the  scene  of  most  of  his  pictures. 

Principal  Works.-  Dock  Yards,  Pl^ht  into  Egypt,  Art,  Ishmael,  Tobias, 
Souvenir  de  F&te,  Judith. 

Thomas  Couture  (1815-1879,  French)  is  the  man  of  one  picture, 
the  "Decadence  of  the  Romans."  It  made  an  enormous  sensation 
and  the  artist  secured  numberless  pupils  upon  whom  his  influence  was 
on  the  whole  good  and  enduring.  The  rest  of  his  life  was  spent  in 
planning  what  he  wanted  to  do  next.  This  picture  represents  an 
orgie,  half  nude  figures  reveling.  A  cross  between  the  art  of  Dela- 
roche  and  that  of  Rubens,  it  has  excellent  color  and  fine  semi-classical 
movement,  but  "great"  is  not  the  adjective  to  use  in  connection 
with  it. 

Principal  Works:  Day  Dreams  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York) ;  Romans 
of  the  Decadence. 

Hendrik  Leys,  "Baron  Leys"  (1815-1869,  Belgian),  has  not  much 
claim  to  our  attention  except  as  the  master  who  shaped  Alma  Tadema. 
The  influence  is  plainly  visible  even  to-day.  Attempting  to  enter  into 
the  spirit  of  the  Gothic  painters,  like  Quentin  Matsys,  he  only  echoed 
that  which  with  them  was  vital.  His  pictures  are  well  done  and  still 
evidently  imitative.  History  at  first  and  then  genre,  of  a  higher  order 
of  subject,  occupied  him. 

Principal  Works:  Frescoes  (Hotel-de-Ville,  Antwerp) ;  Luther  Singing  in  the 
Streets  of  Eisenach,  Bertal  de  Haye,  The  Golden  Fleece,  Margaret  of  Austria 
Receiving  the  Homage  of  the  Archers  of  Antwerp. 

Andreas  Achenbach  (b.  1815,  German)  lives  in  Diisseldorf,  where 
his  life  has  been  spent  in  painting  landscapes  which  have  had  an 
extended  influence  upon  the  young  students,  an  influence  now  departed, 
as  has  the  movement  which  he  represents.  His  industry  in  studying 
nature  gave  him  facility  in  rendering  all  the  details  of  the  old  mills  and 


142  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

waterfalls  of  the  highlands  of  Germany.  Rather  elaborate  composi- 
tions, much  made-out  and  very  full  of  parts,  they  had  excellent  color, 
but  he  will  be  counted  an  imitator  of  Hobbema. 

Fedotof  (1815-1852,  Russian)  painted  genre  pictures;  Russian  art 
being  somewhat  in  its  infancy,  though  there  had  been  portrait  paint- 
ers, as  Kiprenski  (b.  1783)  and  Orlovsky(b.  1777),  who  also  undertook 
battle  pieces. 

John  Phillip  (1815-1867,  English,  Scotch  born)  spent  most  of  his 
time  in  London,  but  visited  Spain  in  middle  life,  learning  from  the 
pictures  of  Velasquez  the  secrets  of  a  stronger  technique.  He  was  a 
genre  painter  of  the  story-telling  type,  but  painted  for  the  sake  of 
color  as  much  as  for  the  sake  of  story.  His  influence,  with  that  of 
Lauder  (1803)  had  much  to  do  with  a  certain  brilliancy  of  color  in  the 
painting  of  the  next  generation. 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  QUIET  MIDDLE  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

France  in  this  chapter  produces  the  great  Meissonier  and  the  last 
of  the  Barbizon  School,  also  the  remarkable  woman  who  paints 
domestic  animals.  To  Germany  comes  a  real  genius,  after  the  long 
line  of  lesser  men.  In  America  the  talented  men  still  paint  scenery, 
quite  oblivious  of  the  better  art  of  France,  though  the  French  pictures 
were  beginning  to  invade  America.  England  shows  the  opening  of 
some  worthy  careers  and  the  noble  Watts  arrives. 

Jean  Louis  Ernest  Meissonier 

{iSiS-iSgi-     French.') 

After  attempting  to  find  a  place  for  each  artist  and  discover  his 
relation  to  the  rest  of  the  art  world,  where  can  we  place  this  master? 
Nowhere;  he  stands  alone,  has  no  competitors,  no  predecessors. 
Many  men  have  painted  genre,  history,  military  pictures  and  scenes 
in  the  desert,  but  none  has  done  it  like  Meissonier.  Those  who 
essayed  to  become  his  competitors  have  done  no  more  than  reveal  his 
greatness.  He  seems  to  have  been  inimitable.  This  is  much  to  say 
of  any  artist.  All  along  the  pathway  of  his  life,  critics  have  cried  out 
that  his  was  not  great  art.  Quite  possibly  it  was  not,  but  it  was 
inimitable.  His  conception  of  the  representation  of  nature  was  not 
of  a  high  order.  Possibly  his  only  claim  is  the  extraordinary 
technique  which  no  man  has  excelled,  and  to  that  we  may  add 
remarkable  drawing. 

Meissonier  was  a  miniaturist.  The  one  picture  which  may  be 
denominated  "large"  is  his  "1807,"  which  was  painted  for  our  mil- 
lionaire countryman,  A.  T.  Stewart,  and  now  hangs  in  the  Metropoli- 
tan Museum,  New  York.  Stewart  paid  him  the  sum  of  S6o,ooo,  the 
work  having  been  done  to  his  order.  If  we  add  to  this  the  import 
duty,  the  purchaser  was  subject  to  an  expenditure  of  Sgo,ooo,  the  great- 

143 


144  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

est  sum  ever  paid  for  a  painting  up  to  that  time,  not  alone  in  America 
but  perhaps  in  the  world.  Large  is  a  relative  word.  I  think  that  this 
picture  is  not  as  long  as  four  feet.  He  painted  numberless  miniature 
pictures,  not  above  three  inches  in  size.  In  every  one  of  these  the 
subject  is  endlessly  elaborated.  Minute  detail  is  common  enough, 
but  it  is  not  Meissonier's  specialty  to  be  minute  alone.  It  was  a  mas- 
terly minuteness.  Some  of  these  little  pictures  contained  figures  no 
larger  than  one  inch  high,  but  still  admirable  in  pose,  astonishingly 
complete  in  feature  and  costume,  and  perfectly  modeled.  Figures  two 
inches  high  are  very  common,  and  no  example  of  one  over  five  inches 
comes  to  mind.  This  in  itself  is  not  matter  for  astonishment,  because 
his  imitators  are  legion.  But  on  careful  inspection,  it  is  discovered 
that  Meissonier  never  revealed  the  labor  bestowed — his  work  seems 
spontaneous,  easy,  most  of  all,  firmly  touched.  In  the  efforts  of  his 
followers  the  labor  is  revealed.  The  leader  could  plant  his  brush  with 
one  learned,  square  touch  and,  presto,  it  was  a  perfect  drawing  of  the 
flat  spot  on  the  face  which  he  had  to  represent.  If  Frans  Hals' 
heads,  with  all  their  wonderful  "flats,"  laid  with  marvelous  accuracy, 
could  be  reduced  to  the  dimensions  of  a  small  pea,  that  would  be  a  Meis- 
sonier. Every  coat  and  buckled  shoe  was  kept  to  this  standard  of 
excellence.  Infinite  painstaking  did  not  bring  this  about,  but  the 
artist  took  infinite  pains.  His  habit  was  to  draw  figures  from  the  nude 
model  and  life-sized,  reducing  them  to  these  minute  dimensions. 
But  others  tried  this  scheme,  only  to  fall  below  the  standard. 

Meissonier  was  the  pet  of  army  officers,  who  loaned  him  cannon 
and  horses,  had  them  marched  through  the  snow  or  mud  to  simulate 
tracks  which  some  historical  battery  left  in  Russia  in  Napoleon's  cam- 
paign. These  he  painted  as  only  the  one  artist  could.  If  any  picture 
is  his  best,  it  may  be  "La  Rixe,"  a  tavern  misunderstanding  in  which 
velvet-coated  swashbucklers  draw  swords  with  vigorous  action.  Move- 
ments were  never  better  studied  nor  coats  better  rendered.  Every 
object  keeps  its  place  perfectly  and  all  is  tender.  When  the  minute- 
ness of  the  objects  is  considered,  it  is  superb  work.  In  the  large 
painting    called   "1807,"   showing  the    great    emperor  on    horseback 


Jdlbs  Dupre  —  Morning, 


MIDDLE  OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  145 

silently  watching  his  impetuous  cavalry  charging  past,  all  the  horses 
are  in  violent  movement  and  the  gesticulating  troopers  are  screaming 
in  exultation.  Each  horse  and  his  rider  are  wonderfully  drawn,  as  no 
other  artist  could  do  it.  There  is  a  certain  impressiveness  in  the 
ensemble,  but  it  reveals  Meissonier's  great  weakness  as  an  artist  as 
much  as  his  triumph  as  a  technician.  No  great  impression  of  terror 
and  excitement  can  be  expected  when  we  are  forced  to  admire  those 
knuckles  and  buckles  and  helmets,  not  to  speak  of  the  over-detailed 
herbage.  He  failed  in  landscape  because  he  painted  it  so  carefully. 
Landscapes  represent  outdoors.  All  Meissonier's  landscapes  are  cata- 
logues of  articles  which  nature  provided  for  the  light  of  heaven  to 
shine  on.  There  is  no  heaven  light  in  any  landscape  by  this  tech- 
nician. 

Just  here  is  the  limitation  in  his  art.  It  had  no  soul,  no  large 
sense  of  the  all-pervading  oneness  of  nature.  The  triumph  of  Edouard 
Manet  was  the  measure  of  Meissonier's  failure.  The  world  in  years  to 
come  will  be  filled  with  wondering  admiration  for  this  work,  but  no 
one  will  laugh  or  weep  over  it. 

Meissonier  rarely  painted  women  and  accepted  but  few  portrait 
commissions.  His  portrait  of  the  late  William  H.  Vanderbilt  was 
painfully  accurate, — the  wrinkles  as  hard  as  if  cut  in  stone,  the  some- 
what offensive  lips  of  the  man  made  so  brutally  correct  that  nature 
was  outdone  in  her  work. 

Meissonier  received  extraordinary  prices  for  his  work.  His  home 
was  a  palace,  his  friends  were  princes  and  money  kings.  It  was  the 
payment  for  enormous  energy,  limitless  power  to  work  for  long  hours 
and  an  inexplicable  talent.  The  struggling  young  Meissonier  making 
black-and-white  illustrations  for  publications  was  the  forerunner  of  the 
most  princely  of  painters.  Though  short  in  stature,  he  was  an  impres- 
sive figure  from  youth  to  old  age. 

Principal  Works:  Napoleon  I.  in  the  Campaign  o£  France  (London); 
Napoleon  I.  in  1814,  Lecture  chez  Diderot  (Paris);  La  Rixe  (Buckingham  Palace); 
Napoleon  IIL  at  Solferino  (Luxembourg) ;  Ordonnance,  Marshal  Saxe  and  Staff  (New 
York) ;  Friedland  or  1807  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York) ;  Stirrup  Cup. 


146  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Adolph  Menzel 

{iSis — .     German.) 

Menzel,  of  Berlin,  is  almost  as  unique  a  figure  as  the  Frenchman 
Degas.  Both  men  have  had  great  influence  upon  the  art  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  though  neither  can  be  said  to  have  a 
following — no  man  has  a  following  whose  art  is  dependent  upon  real 
genius  unaccompanied  by  some  specific  technique.  These  men  were 
not  distinctly  technicians,  so  their  admirers  had  nothing  material  to 
imitate,  as  their  talent  of  itself  is  inimitable. 

A  little  anecdote  from  real  life  illustrates  well  why  the  art  of  Ger- 
many has  for  so  many  years  failed  to  take  its  proper  place  in  the 
world  and  why  Menzel  has  broken  through  the  crust.  The  art  has 
been  crusted  over  with  that  element  in  German  character  which 
makes  for  superb  bureaucracy,  army  equipment,  and  well-regulated 
government,  but  which  is  the  death  of  spontaneity.  There  can  be  no 
fresh  art  which  is  bureaucratic.  All  German  art  has  been  cursed  by 
overregulation. 

It  happened  one  day,  in  Dusseldorf,  that  several  of  us  were  in  the 
studio  of  an  artist  of  talent  who  made  excellent  landscapes  of  a  certain 
formal  character,  good  enough  to  be  in  demand  at  the  dealer's.  Here 
we  saw  four  studies  from  nature  made  by  this  artist  in  his  garden.  In 
the  springtime  of  tender  leafage,  he  had  been  seduced  by  the  poetry 
of  the  season  and  painted  from  nature,  inspired  by  love.  We  were  as 
charmed  with  the  results  of  this  escape  from  formalism  as  he  had  been. 
"Oh,  fine!  Of  course  you  will  exhibit  these."  "No,  no,  I  can't  do 
that.  They  are  not  pictures,  not  properly  regulated,"  or  words  to 
that  effect.  '  Just  here  he  uttered  the  condemnatory  sentence  on  a  vast 
amount  of  German  art.  It  must  not  be  the  outpouring  of  a  soul  full 
of  passion — it  must  be  proper,  calculated,  within  the  measure  of  the 
rule.  The  people  who  cherish  this  folly  are  at  fault.  Had  he  sent 
these  co-called  "studies"  to  France  or  to  America,  his  success  would 
have  been  immediate.  But  he  was  a  German,  in  love  with  German 
precepts.  So  he  sold  his  soul  to  his  principles,  as  many  another  has 
done.     I  have  forgotten  his  name,  as,  I  fear,  every  one  else  has.     He 


►5 

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MIDDLE   OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  147 

plodded  away,  sometimes  letting  his  soul  have  its  revel,  but  never 
thinking  it  possible  to  delight  the  world  with  this  sincerity,  like  a 
woman  who  thinks  it  unseemly  to  let  the  world  see  her  tenderest  and 
best  moments. 

Menzel  escaped  all  this  formalism.  His  father  was  a  lithographer, 
and  the  boy  learned  his  art  in  the  shop,  learned  it  thoroughly,  as  ail 
Germans  do.  In  making  small  and  unimportant  lithographs,  it  was 
possible  to  be  less  formal.  No  one  thought  it  worth  while  to  criticize 
so  insignificant  a  matter.  Little  by  little  the  world  discovered  that  he 
had  talent,  that  he  was  erratic  and  out  of  bounds,  but  these  so-called 
faults  were  not  serious  matters.  Many  years  went  by  before  he  under- 
took oil  paintings,  and  when  he  did  so,  his  style  was  formed  and  his 
reputation  sufficient  to  oblige  attention.  It  was  as  an  illustrator  that 
Menzel  secured  a  place  in  art;  the  series  relating  to  the  history  of 
Frederick  the  Great  being  his  first  notable  work.  Untrammelled  by 
masters  as  he  was,  it  was  easier  for  him  to  break  loose  than  for  many 
others.  Brilliant  perceptive  faculties  enabled  him  to  catch  the  fleet- 
ing expression  and  movement  of  people  and  to  imagine  his  hero  as  he 
might  have  been,  as  he  imagined  Frederick  the  Great,  alert,  severe, 
foxy,  hurnan,  while  so  unlike  other  men.  There  is  a  certain  slight 
lithograph  representing  the  sly  old  man  walking  in  his  garden, 
peering  around  as  if  a  quizzical  idea  had  struck  his  mind.  It  is  a 
masterpiece,  and  not  ruined  by  any  formal  arrangement  which  might 
have  tamed  the  freshness  of  a  first  impression. 

Another  represents  a  servant  scurrying  through  a  passage  between 
the  dining-room  and  the  scullery  with  a  pile  of  soiled  dishes,  heedless, 
laughing  to  herself  over  the  memory  of  some  old  pleasantry,  dropping 
scraps  of  food,  knives  and  spoons.  The  absent  mindedness!  The 
heedlessness  expressed  in  every  muscle  and  line!  The  human  animal 
that  doesn't  care!  It  was  only  an  illustration — what  could  it  matter  if 
no  academical  formula  guided  the  artist's  hand?  Another  is  a  coffee- 
garden,  where  a  man  in  a  hammock  takes  his  ease  as  men  do  when 
not  on  parade;  somewhat  unseemly  in  attitude,  but  life,  real  life. 
"The  Tabacks  Collegium"   shows  us  the  king  at  the  head  of  an  infor- 


148  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

mal  party  of  generals  at  a  smoker,  all  sitting  around  a  table  while 
some  savant  entertains  the  august  assemblage  with  a  learned  paper 
(very  dry,  no  doubt)  until  young  Prince  Frederick,  moved  by  love  of 
mischief,  seizes  a  pet  bear  cub  and  claps  its  scratching  claws  on  the 
wig  of  the  absorbed  dispenser  of  learning.  Some  laugh,  while  the 
king  makes  an  effort  to  look  severe,  and  the  well-behaved  waiter,  who 
would  not  laugh  for  his  life's  sake,  is  nearly  undone.  The  pipes,  the 
rings  of  smoke,  the  wet  circles  made  by  overflowing  glasses,  all  the 
incidents  are  faithfully  given  with  few  lines;  best  of  all,  with  genius 
which  nothing  has  tarnished.  Watercolors  were  thought  quite 
unworthy  of  serious  consideration  in  Germany  until  very  recently. 
But  Menzel  was  allowed  to  use  them  for  designing  for  chromo-litho- 
graphic  reproduction.  See  what  he  did  with  them !  What  opportunities 
he  found  to  express  his  untamed  imaginings  in  designs  for  bookcovers, 
for  music,  for  titlepages,  for  all  kinds  of  brief  statements  of  fancies 
and  bursts  of  talent!  And  he  was  not  at  all  particular  as  to  the  man- 
ner of  applying  the  paint.  Paint  was  mere  material,  if  it  served  his 
purpose,  the  manner  of  using  it  was  a  mere  incident.  This  use  of 
pigments  in  odd  ways  has  widely  influenced  recent  watercolor  paint- 
ing in  many  localities. 

The  exposition  of  1867  took  him  to  Paris,  where  he  painted  the 
portraits  of  several  artists,  including  Meissonier  and  Alfred  Stevens, 
who  admired  his  talent  and  became  his  warm  friends.  Yet  nothing 
seems  to  have  turned  him  from  his  own  way. 

In  1878  he  was  again  represented  at  a  Paris  exposition,  this  time 
with  his  strongest  picture  in  oils,  "The  Rolling  Mill,"  an  interior 
crowded  with  figures  in  action  and  glowing  with  the  firelight  of 
forges.  This  is  the  most  graphic  picture  of  the  sort  in  the  entire  line 
of  art  effort.  It  has  been  criticized  for  not  being  "a  picture,"  but  it 
is  a  masterly  study  of  life. 

Though  the  German  Emperor  is  attempting  to  force  classicism 
on  the  country  (exactly  as  Napoleon  did),  this  man  has  far  too 
much  talent  to  be  ignored.  Accordingly,  Menzel  is  not  lacking  in 
honors. 


RiCHTEE  —  Portrait  of  Queen  Louise. 


MIDDLE   OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  149 

Kaulbach  was  slightly  his  senior;  Piloty  eleven  years  younger; 
Lenbach  twenty-one  years  younger;  Gerome  only  nine  years;  Meis- 
sonier  four  years  older;  Millet  one  year  older;  Rossetti  thirteen  years 
older. 

Principal  Works:  Cyclops,  Ride  of  Frederic  the  Great,  Ball  Supper  at  Sans 
Souci,  Round  Table  of  Frederick  the  Great  at  Sans  Souci,  Flute  Concert  at  Sans  Souci, 
Coronation  of  King  William  at  Konigsberg  (National  Gallery,  Berlin);  Thirty-three 
pictures  of  soldiers  of  Frederick  the  Great,  Uniform  studies  of  Frederick's  Army, 
Frederick  the  Great  Traveling  (Ravene  Gallery,  Berlin). 

Nils  Johan  Bloramer  (1816-1858,  Swedish)  still  clung  to  the  art  of 
a  former  style,  the  new  movements  not  having  penetrated  his  country. 
But  his  fine  poetic  temperament  enabled  his  renderings  of  the  folk- 
lore of  his  people  to  appeal  to  their  hearts. 


Emanuel  Leutze 

{1816-1868,     American,  born  in  Germany.') 

It  is  just  as  well  that  we  can  escape  in  American  art  from  the  line  of 
so-called  "historical  painters,"  whose  infatuation  for  classical  mythol- 
ogy or  Greek  legends  led  them  such  a  foolish  chase  after  the  glories  of 
Michael  Angelo,  and  find  sensible  effort  to  accomplish  the  possible. 
American  history  was  not  so  far  off  that  the  moths  had  consumed  all 
the  heroic  old  garments.  A  model  could  at  least  be  made  to  pose  in  a 
suit  like  Washington's,  whether  the  artist  had  genius  or  not.  It  may 
be  said  that  history  is  depicted  in  attitudes  of  body  and  expressions 
of  face  rather  than  in  costumes,  and  that  the  followers  of  the  English- 
Italian  school  were  right  in  attitudinizing  their  characters  to  make 
them  expressive  of  lofty  ideals.  True,  provided  the  artists  had  suffi- 
cient genius — but  they  had  not.  However,  Leutze  was  a  man  who 
could  place  costumes  on  a  model  and  label  him  George  Washington, 
making  with  such  means  a  pretty  good  picture,  because  he  understood 
technique.  That  is  pretty  nearly  all  the  story;  except  that  he  was  a 
German  and  secured  an  excellent  education  in  Diisseldorf,  to  which 
American   students  flocked    in   small   numbers.     Those  who   staid   at 


150  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

home  imitated  the  more  fortunate  travelers.  The  Diisseldorf  Gal- 
lery (a  movement  to  improve  the  art,  originated  by  some  well-mean- 
ing people)  had  been  established  in  New  York  (1853)  and  it  turned  the 
attention  from  the  English  manner.  It  was  as  artificial  in  its  way  as 
the  old  one,  but  it  did  attempt  to  reproduce  the  features  of  the  life  of 
the  hour. 

When  Leutze  was  established  in  Diisseldorf,  his  studio  was  within 
a  few  rods  of.  the  River  Rhine,  the  garden  extending  close  to  the 
stream's  bank.  Here  he  watched  the  floating  ice  filling  the  stream 
as  the  winter  season  broke  up,  and  made  faithful  studies;  supposing 
that  all  ice  was  ice.  But  he  did  not  reckon  on  the  greater  cold  in 
America,  which  made  a  difference  in  ice.  Out  of  this  observation 
grew  his  "Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware."  The  ice  never  looked 
just  right  to  one  who  knew  the  historic  river  involved  in  the  story,  but 
that  did  not  prevent  quite  a  popular  success.  General  Washington 
stood  up  in  the  bow  of  the  overloaded  boat  (as  no  man  ever  does  when 
the  ice  is  dangerous)  looking  heroic,  and  the  flag  was  picturesque;  so 
the  essentials  were  introduced  according  to  the  fashion  for  such 
things.  The  only  matter  lacking  was  greatness  of  expression — the 
element  of  genius. 

"Westward  Ho,"  the  large  panel  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington  (at 
the  head  of  the  grand  stair)  suggests  the  prophetic  enthusiasrri  of  an 
emigrant  party  which  has  reached  the  top  of  the  divide  separating  the 
Atlantic  from  the  Pacific.  He  made  the  studies  of  mountains,  quite 
faithfully,  in  Colorado.  As  mountains,  the  scene  is  correct  enough 
and  like  the  place,  but  it  was  a  pretty  long  look  of  faith  which  could 
discover  the  Pacific  from  that  divide.  The  advance  wagon  is  just  on 
the  verge  and  others  are  ingeniously  arranged  struggling  up  the 
rugged  and  tortuous  trail.  Too  much  action  marks  the  move- 
ment of  the  excited  wanderers;  it  lacks  dignity  and  impressive- 
ness.  The  artist  had  no  inconsiderable  success  in  his  long  career,  but 
he  added  nothing  to  American  art,  as  the  coming  men  were  still  better 
equipped  in  technique  and  some  of  them  had  more  talent.  He  died 
three  years  after  the  close  of  the  war  of  secession.     The  new  move- 


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MIDDLE  OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  151 

ment  toward  European   study  was  just  beginning.     The  new  men  went 
to  Munich  and  Paris. 

Principal  Works:  Storming  of  the  Teocalli,  Washington  Crossing  the  Dela- 
ware (Bremen  Gallery);  Star  of  Empire  (Capitol,  Washington). 

Johannes  Bosboom  (1817-1891,  Dutch)  leads  chronologically  in 
the  movement  which  restored  to  Holland  a  worthy  art  all  her  own.  It 
is  founded  on  the  impulse  given  by  the  Barbizon  School,  though  not 
an  imitation  at  all. 

Charles  Francois  Daubigny  (1817-1878,  French)  properly  com- 
pletes the  coterie  of  the  Barbizon  painters,  being  the  youngest  of  the 
group.  His  abiding  place  was  not  in  the  village  of  Barbizon  but  his 
purpose  kept  step  with  the  movement.  Paying  no  attention  to 
details,  his  renderings  were  of  the  essence,  the  large  appearance,  of 
the  scene.  At  his  home  (Auvers)  the  ruins  of  a  sort  of  houseboat, 
on  which  he  floated  about  on  the  River  Oise  and  sought  for  motives, 
is  still  shown.  Though  almost  always  working  directly  from  nature, 
he  had  unusual  ability  to  reduce  it  to  the  essential  parts,  with  remark- 
able rich  greens  and  luminous  gray  skies.  Counted  a  colorist,  he 
rarely  produced  brilliant  color.  It  was  the  remarkable  gray  tone 
which  won  favor.  Long,  simple  lines  and  quiet  effects  pleased  his 
taste,  a  few  well-placed  spots  satisfied  his  requirements.  This  art  will 
live  through  the  ages.  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  his  school.  He 
made  his  debut  at  Salon  of  1838  with  a  view  of  Notre  Dame,  Paris. 

Daubigny  may  be  called  the  naturalist  of  the  Barbizon  group. 
None  of  them  gave  too  much  attention  to  details  or  minute  and  unim- 
portant incidentals,  but  others  were  inclined  to  render  nature  in  some, 
what  artificial  arrangements.  All  seasons  were  alike  attractive  to 
him.  The  unaffected  manner  in  which  he  jotted  down  the  quiet  lines 
of  the  banks  of  the  river  Oise,  or  any  corner  of  his  garden,  in  the 
simplest  tones  of  nature's  greens  or  grays,  marks  him  a  genius;  the 
more  so  as  so  few  can  do  this  simple  thing  in  an  easy  manner  and 
make  an  impression  on  all  the  artists  of  the  world. 


152  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Principal  Works:  Sluice  in  the  Valley  of  Optevoz,  The  Vintage  (Luxembourg); 
Banks  of  the  Seine  (Nantes);  Morning  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York);  Fruit 
Garden  in  Normandy,  Moonrise,  View  of  Dieppe,  and  many  landscapes  in  France 
and  America. 

Bocklund  (1817-1880,  Swedish)  brought  the  teaching  of  Piloty  from 
Munich  and  impressed  it  on  the  young  artists  at  the  Swedish  Academy. 

George  Mason  (1818-1872,  English)  makes  us  wonder  that  any 
man  so  long  ago  could  have  painted  in  the  sentiment  of  the  present 
day.  It  may  be  called  genre  painting,  but  not  story-telling,  though 
there  was  always  much  incident  from  English  farm  life  woven  into  it. 
His  pictures  would  make  superb  mural  decorations,  and  are  in  the 
arrangement  and  treatment  most  approved  by  the  recent  mural  dec- 
orators— something  strange  to  find  at  that  period.  He  lived  a  hermit's 
life  in  an  English  village,  producing  a  noble,  serious,  low-toned  art, 
which  we  know  well  from  many  examples  of  the  reproductions  hung 
in  our  homes,  as  the  "Harvest  Moon"  and  the  "Return  from  Plough- 
ing."    His  influence  was  excellent  and  has  continued  to  this  day. 

John  Frederick  Kensett 

{i8i8-i8j2.     Atnerican.) 

No  one  of  the  painters  of  the  Hudson  River  School  had  more  tal- 
ent or  better  opportunities  than  Kensett.  Though  his  technique 
always  revealed  the  lack  of  solid  schooling,  there  was  more  suave 
treatment  and  indication  of  pictorial  conception  than  usually  obtained 
at  the  time.  Cole  and  Durand  were  "painty"  by  comparison.  Admit- 
ting that  surfaces  were  somewhat  glassy  and  lacked  substance,  the 
tender  grays  were  unusual,  colors  did  not  clash;  there  was  tonality  for 
its  own  sake  rather  than  blind  imitation  of  nature  with  its  colors  liter- 
ally given.  Very  few  great  artists  paint  nature  just  as  she  is,  but 
rather  use  her  for  the  production  of  artistic  effect.  This  it  is  which 
marks  Kensett  as  a  superior  artist. 

Kensett  remained  some  years  in  England,  and  seems  to  have  under- 
stood very  well  what  there  came  under  his  observation.     At  the  Royal 


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MIDDLE   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  153 

Academy  of  1845,  having  painted  a  view  of  Windsor  Castle,  he  exhib- 
ited the  picture  with  success  and  obtained  favor  with  English  patrons. 
Rome  attracted  him  sufificiently  to  retain  his  presence  and  occupy  his 
talents. 

All  his  renderings  of  nature  were  poetic,  not  the  artificial  poetry 
produced  by  labored  arrangements,  but  that  of  tender  treatment  while 
holding  fairly  closely  to  the  truth  as  he  actually  saw  it. 

Certain  prejudices  of  the  public  influenced  all  these  artists  in  an 
amusing  way;  they  found  the  scenery-eaters  very  hungry  and  it  must 
be  scenery  or  no  business.  Also,  it  must  be  startling  scenery,  and 
each  year  something  unexpected.  A  few  people  went  to  Europe, 
returning  with  glowing  accounts  of  the  Alps.  Our  poor  little  moun- 
tains seemed  tame  affairs  compared  with  that  old  country  where  real 
peaks  had  found  time  enough  to  grow.  The  painters  caught  the 
infection,  shooting  up  the  dull  heads  of  our  noble  and  dignified  hills, 
producing  bastard  Alps  to  order.  In  Kensett's  "Conway  Valley,"  a 
long-drawn-out  intervale  between  rounded  heights  leading  up,  moun- 
tain upon  mountain,  to  the  huge  majestic  head  of  Mount  Washington, 
he  felt  obliged  to  grow  an  Alpine  spike  as  a  fitting  climax  to  that 
accumulation  of  heights.  Without  this  the  young  country  would  have 
been  shamed  by  the  old.  All  this  added  nothing  to  the  effect  except 
frivolity.  But  it  added  much  to  the  price  of  the  picture.  Yet  with 
all  the  foolishness,  it  was  pretty  good  work  and  a  credit  to  the  artist 
and  the  country. 

Another  trick  was  the  habit  of  placing  a  "pusher"  directly  in  the 
foreground,  something  to  drive  back  the  distance;  as  if  the  distance 
would  not  take  care  of  itself  should  values  be  accurate.  These  men 
knew  nothing  about  "values"  however,  hence  the  trick.  The 
"pusher"  was  usually  a  striking  protuberance  of  rock,  partly  light  and 
partly  dark,  or  perhaps  two  of  them,  one  light  and  one  dark.  These 
occupied  a  position  directly  in  the  center  of  the  foreground.  Scarcely 
a  landscape  of  this  school  escapes  this  petty  trick,  as  anyone  may  see 
who  takes  the  trouble  to  examine  the  engravings  of  them. 

Foregrounds  had  to  be  excessively  elaborated,  filled  with  scratchy 


154  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

plants  and  weeds,  much  attention  given  to  species  and  leafage.  None 
of  the  artists  understood  the  virtues  of  simplicity  or  knew  that,  should 
the  subject-matter  be  in  the  distance,  the  picture  gained  character  by 
keeping  the  foreground  as  quiet  as  possible.  The  laws  of  due  sacrifice 
of  one  part  of  the  picture  to  the  other  had  never  been  taught  them. 

Turner  was  exhibiting  in  every  Academy  annual  when  Kensett  was 
in  England,  but  this  was  too  difficult  and  extreme  an  art  to  follow, 
especially  by  a  painter  of  the  new  world.  Constable's  fullness  of 
brush  and  ability  to  see  nature's  peculiarities  does  not  find  any  echo 
in  American  work.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  had  been  dead  sixty  years 
when  Kensett  exhibited  in  England,  and  Lawrence  fifteen  years.  He 
does  not  seem  to  have  paid  any  attention  to  French  art,  though  the 
Barbizon  School  was  in  full  action,  fighting  for  its  due  recognition. 

Principal  Works:  High  Bank  in  Genesee  River,  October  Afternoon  (Corcoran 
Gallery,  Washington) ;  Lake  George. 

Jean  Paul  Clays  (1819-,  Belgian)  has  caught  the  spirit  of  the  alive 
French  painters  we  have  been  considering.  Marines,  full  of  brilliant 
sparkle  and  vital  color  have  come  from  his  easel,  rarely  refined  work. 

Gustave  Courbet  (1819-1877,  French)  is  called  a  brute  by  people 
who  cannot  understand.  No  man  of  his  originality  and  refinement  of 
perception  is  a  brute.  He  was  rough  in  manner,  indifferent  to  the 
polite  usages  of  a  society  which  he  despised,  revolutionary  in  his  tem- 
perament, and  disposed  to  do  just  as  he  pleased  whatever  the  conse- 
quences. In  politics  he  was  a  violent  protestor,  because  he  hated 
social  conditions  as  he  found  them.  A  leader  in  the  Commune,  by  his 
orders  the  Vendome  Column  was  cast  to  earth,  an  amusement  which 
cost  him  his  property  while  he  was  in  exile  to  pay  the  price  of  setting 
it  up  again. 

Calling  himself  frankly  a  realist,  he  rendered  nature  without  details 
but  with  marvelous  correctness  of  observation  and  boldness  of  touch. 
There  were  no  "impressionists"  in  those  days,  but  Courbet  was  the 
most  exact  painter  of  impressions  whom  the  world  had  seen.     Natu- 


MIDDLE   OF  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  155 

rally  such  a  man  loved  to  shock  the  sensibilities  of  artificially  conven- 
tional people  and  he  did  so,  but  did  it  superbly  as  far  as  the  art  was 
concerned. 

Courbet's  painting  is  unlike  that  of  any  other  artist  in  handling, 
color,  manner  of  viewing  nature  and  vigorous  treatment.  In  a  pic- 
ture of  some  insignificant  Alpine  valley,  he  has  given  more  severe 
ruggedness  to  the  cliffs  and  a  greater  sense  of  the  awful  severity  of 
nature's  bald  upheavals  than  anything  I  can  recall.  This  is  done  with 
the  fewest  possible  brush  strokes  and  a  liberal  use  of  blackish  grays. 
It  is  difficult  to  give  in  words  a  description  of  something  which 
depends  for  its  influence  upon  the  subtle  touch  of  a  genius.  There  is 
a  picture  of  cattle,  under  the  trees  which  for  keen  observation  of  the 
effects  of  light  on  the  animals'  hides  stands  almost  unsurpassed.  His 
unlovable,  but  startingly  truthful  renderings  of  the  surf  dashing  on  a 
strand  are  wonderfully  powerful.  The  "Burial  Party"  shows  us  many 
large  figures,  people  whom  we  would  not  select  as  daily  companions, 
but  true  individuals,  as  anyone  may  see  them  if  awake  to  the  realities 
of  humble  life.  In  his  "Interior  of  the  Studio"  there  are  many  men 
and  women  gathered  while  the  nude  model  stands  among  them,  not 
ashamed. 

Principal  Works:  A  Burial  at  Ornans,  Stone  Breakers  (Louvre) ;  The  Quarry, 
Doe  Run  Down  in  the  Snow  (Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts) ;  The  Siesta,  Deer  Call- 
ing, The  Stormy  Sea  (Luxembourg);  Village  Ladies,  Return  from  Conference, 
Stag-Fight. 

Henri  Harpignies  (1819-,  French),  a  powerful  landscape  painter, 
trained  in  his  art  to  an  intense  appreciation  of  the  solids  of  the  earth's 
surface  and  rendering  everything  as  if  materiality  rather  than  senti- 
ment, and  solidity  rather  than  detail  were  the  essentials.  Not  lovable 
but  majestic  and  imbued  with  style,  he  is  counted  great. 

Principal  Works:    Evening  on  the  Campagna,  Twilight. 

Jongkind  (1819-1891,  Dutch)  is  another  who  introduced  the 
Barbizon  sentiment  into  Holland  by  means  of  the  work  sent  home, 
though  none  of  them  failed  to  reveal  his  personality.  He  lived  mostly 
in  France. 


156  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Eugene  Fromentin  (1820-1876,  French)  kept  well  within  the 
bounds  set  by  the  classicists  and  escaped  trouble.  His  was  a  regulated 
genre — scenes  from  the  Orient,  horsemen,  hawking  parties  and  as 
much  movement  as  the  story  required.  In  color  he  was  reserved  but 
not  at  all  lifeless. 

John  Faed  (1820-,  English,  born  in  Scotland)  painted  domestic 
scenes  with  much  story  of  real  life.  His  brother  Thomas  did  like- 
wise. 

George  Frederick  Watts  (1820-,  English)  is  as  individual  a  per- 
sonage as  it  is  possible  to  find  in  all  the  course  of  art  history.  While 
others  have  sought  to  interpret  the  poets,  he  has  been  one  unto  him- 
self. Without  attending  any  art  school,  he  studied  the  noble  exam- 
ples of  the  art  of  Phidias  which  are  collected  in  the  British  Museum, 
and  then  went  to  Italy  to  be  influenced  by  the  color  and  technique  of 
the  great  Venetians.  Naturally,  his  technique  is  not  of  the  best,  but 
his  success  in  imbuing  his  noble  conceptions  with  a  certain  power  has 
secured  for  him  a  lofty  place  in  the  ranks  of  artists.  Unlike  many 
fine  technicians,  he  never  distracts  the  attention  from  his  serious 
motive  by  amusing  the  eye  with  pretty  painting  of  parts.  He  was 
made  a  Royal  Academician  in  1868.  More  than  any  other  English 
artist  (almost  every  one  of  them  having  the  ambition  to  execute  the 
"grand  art")  Watts  has  a  real  "call"  to  paint  history  or  allegory. 

Principal  Works:  Fresco,  St.  George  and  the  Dragon  (Parliament  House); 
Fresco,  The  School  of  Legislature  (Dining  Hall  of  Lincoln's  Inn) ;  Fata- Morgana, 
Love  and  Death,  Love  and  Life,  Paola  and  Francesca,  The  Riders  of  the  Apoca- 
lyptic Vision,  Hope,  Many  Portraits,  Echo,  Alfred  the  Great,  Cartoon  "Caractacus." 

The  Harts 

William  Hart  (1820-1894)  and  James  M.  Hart  (1828-),  American, 
born  in  Scotland,  were  brought  to  Albany  when  quite  young,  and  car- 
ried their  racial  characteristics  with  them,  the  elder  even  his  rich 
brogue.    Anyone  would  trust  him  after  the  first  few  words  were  spoken. 


Geokge  F   Watts  —  Sir  Galahad 


MIDDLE   OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  157 

Positive,  stubborn,  somewhat  irascible  but  always  intensely  sincere, 
these  two  played  an  important  part  in  the  history  of  forty  years  ago. 
William  had  obtained  a  foothold  in  the  metropolis  while  James 
still  remained  in  Albany  picking  up  the  trade  of  artist.  Nearly  all 
these  men  commenced  by  decorating  sleighs,  omnibuses  and  shop 
signs,  and  it  is  no  small  credit  to  them  that  talent  produced  such  good 
art  under  these  conditions.  William  never  could  forget  that  James 
was  the  younger  brother  and  had  no  right  to  elbow  his  elder  in 
the  race  for  fame;  there  was  some  amusing  side  play  in  this  con- 
nection which  made  everyone  smile  but  in  no  case  did  the  good 
brothers  allow  the  rivalry  to  embitter  them.  I  was  myself  a  witness 
of  these  little  brushes,  being  a  frequenter  of  their  studios.  William 
would  open  the  door  a  crack  and  seeing  his  brother  would  cry  out, 
"Ah,  it's  you!  You  can  naa  coom  in,  you  can  naa  coom  in.  I'm 
puttin'  in  a  skee. "  It  was  a  big  sky  that  was  in  hand.  But  at  the 
next  visit  his  smiling  face  and  genial  manner  made  up  for  the  previous 
rude  reception.  When  some  one  suggested  that  his  brother  had  done 
something  pretty  good,  he  hastened  to  make  it  understood  that  there 
was  really  but  one  Hart.  I  have  never  seen  either  of  these  men  paint 
a  tree  and  a  sky  at  the  same  moment  and  with  the  same  palette,  as  if 
these  were  two  tones  in  one  atmosphere.  The  sky  had  to  be  finished 
and  allowed  to  dry  and  the  tree  placed  on  it  as  trees  are  supposed  to 
grow  this  side  of  the  sky.  But  they  were  too  witty  to  find  no  way 
out  of  the  consequent  hardness,  and  there  are  all  sorts  of  ways  to 
paint  pictures.  William  loved  glowing  autumnal  and  sunset  effects, 
finding  his  colors  too  weak  and  inefficient  for  his  ardor,  and  conse- 
quently his  pictures  tended  toward  hotness.  James  leaned  to  the 
opposite  extreme  (probably  in  order  to  be  different),  painting  cool 
gray  and  green  midsummer,  wood  interiors  and  far-reaching  meadows 
with  a  stream  and  fine  tree  groups.  When  he  attempted  full  autumn, 
it  was  kept  cool  and  reserved.  Perhaps  his  was  the  finer  artistic 
nature.  Later  in  life,  both  became  cattle  painters,  but  the  drawing 
always  revealed  the  lack  of  schooling,  and  the  painting  became 
unpleasantly  mannered  as  compared  with  their  middle-life  work. 


158  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

James  went  to  Diisseldorf  for  a  considerable  period  of  study,  but 
declared  that  he  got  no  good  from  the  experience.  He  did  not  remain 
long  enough.  William  was  ever  sneering  at  his  brother  because  of 
this  surrender  to  foreign  influence.  So  intense  was  the  chauvanism  in 
those  early  days.  Both  were  men  of  decided  talent  and  their  pictures, 
when  seen  at  this  time,  prove  that  art  is  a  very  large  and  wide  thing, 
not  to  be  measured  by  rules.  William  was  made  a  National  Academi- 
cian in  1858,  and  James  in  1859. 

Many  men,  now  gray-haired,  remember  with  tender  feelings  the 
kind  aid  extended  by  these  plain-spoken  Scotchmen,  when  their  locks 
were  curly  and  dark. 

Principal  Works  of  William  Hart:  Close  of  Day,  Mt.  Desert,  Lake  in  the 
Hills,  White  Mountain,  Morning  in  the  Mountains,  Keene  Valley. 

Principal  Works  of  James  M.  Hart:  Drove  at  the  Ford  (Corcoran  Gallery, 
Washington);  Adirondacks  (Baltimore);  At  the  Watering  Trough. 

Ford  Madox  Brown  (1821-1893,  English)  was  seven  years  older 
than  Rossetti  and  had  already  established  some  reputation  when  the 
Preraphaelite  movement  manifested  itself.  His  sincere  realism  and 
the  trouble  which  he  gave  himself  in  order  to  paint  nature  as  correctly 
as  possible  (a  rare  circumstance  in  those  days  when  English  art  was 
not  at  its  best)  made  him  quite  ready  to  join  in  the  movement  which 
had  for  its  leading  principle  the  exact  copying  of  nature's  truths. 
However  mistaken  this  principle  may  have  been  (as  art  is  not  the 
exact  and  literal  truth),  Brown  entered  into  the  agitation  enthusias- 
tically. 

Principal  Works:  Wickliff  Reading  His  Bible,  Work,  The  Last  of  England, 
King  Lear,  Chaucer  Reciting  His  Poetry  at  the  Court  of  King  Edward  III.,  Christ 
Washing  Peter's  Feet. 

Felix  Ziem  (1821-,  French)  paints  much  "commercial"  art,  though 
when  younger  his  pictures  were  sufficiently  sincere.  Scenes  on  the 
waters  of  Venice  and  Constantinople,  with  the  picturesque  sails  and 
intensely  blue  sky,  furnish  subject-matter  for  the  display  of  pretty  but 
often  crude  color. 

Principal  Works:    View  of  Antwerp,  View  of  Constantinople. 


O 


a 
a; 
o 
pq 


MIDDLE   OF  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  159 

Marie  Rosa  Bonheur  (1822-1899,  French).  So  widely  known  an 
artist  needs  no  explanatory  introduction.  Her  strongest  claim  to 
greatness  lies  in  the  original  note  struck  (while  she  was  still  young)  in 
painting  animals  as  a  realist,  with  an  artistic  treatment  unlike  any 
previous  examples.  Her  view  of  nature  was  original,  as  in  the 
"Ploughing  in  Nivernais, "  wnere  white  oxen  are  set  against  each 
other  and  against  a  light  sky,  the  whole  in  full  sunlight.  White  upon 
white  has  been  much  practiced  since,  but  she  was  one  of  the  originators 
of  the  effect.  The  stories  of  her  masculine  dress  (worn  for  con- 
venience and  not  as  a  defense  against  harmless  and  good-natured 
drovers)  indicates  the  independence  of  character  which  has  served  her 
well.  Largeness  of  heart  and  nobility  of  character  set  her  apart  from 
the  multitude  of  humankind.  During  the  latter  part  of  a  long  life  of 
art  work,  the  early  strength  was  not  maintained.  No  woman  has, 
however,  been  so  highly  honored  officially.  She  was  given  the  cross 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor. 

Principal  Works:  Horse  Fair  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York) ;  Plowing  in 
the  Nivernais  (Luxembourg);  The  Old  Monarch  (New  York);  Lion  at  Home, 
Monarch  of  the  Glen. 

Johannes  Hendrick  Weissenbruch  (1822-1903,  Dutch)  painted 
landscapes  of  wonderful  tone  and  simplicity,  abstractions  in  which  no 
details  annoy  the  lover  of  suggestiveness.  He  is  one  of  the  forerun- 
ners of  the  remarkable  modern  Dutch  school. 

Gustave  Richter  (1823-,  German)  painted  beautiful  women,  which 
were  good,  but  his  efforts  to  become  great  by  executing  history 
revealed  his  weakness. 

Principal  Work:    Queen  Louisa  of  Prussia. 

Vermehren  (1823-,  Danish)  followed  the  lead  of  the  simple  nat- 
uralists who  sincerely  painted  what  they  saw  in  nature  without  bowing 
down  to  prejudices  regarding  preconceived  arrangements.  Dalsgaard 
(1824-)  and  Exner  (1825-,  Danish)  did  the  same.  Larson  (1825-, 
Swedish)  was  a  brilliant  painter  but  rather  raw  in  color. 


CHAPTER  X 

NEW    DEVELOPMENTS     IN     FRANCE     AND     AMERICA 

In  America  is  born  one  of  the  most  charming  painters  of  the  Hud- 
son River  School,  and  a  man  of  entirely  opposite  tendencies,  whose 
inspiration  came  from  Barbizon.  Thus  the  reaction  begins  in  America. 
Holland  raises  up  the  tenderest  and  most  national  of  her  contempo- 
raneous artists.  France  gives  us  three  artists  of  remarkable  talent  in 
their  way,  whose  pictures  become  distributed  all  over  the  world, 
especially  in  America,  thus  breaking  in  upon  the  previous  conditions. 
Also,  France  produces  her  most  remarkable  mural  painter. 

Sanford  R.  Gifford 

(/8zj-j88o.     American.) 

It  was  on  the  mountain-top  of  a  bold  spur  of  the  Catskills,  little 
frequented  at  that  time  by  the  summer  boarder,  that  in  company  with 
a  fellow  art  student,  I  wandered  about  in  the  autumn  admiring  the 
far-reaching  view  toward  the  Berkshire  Hills  away  beyond  the  thread 
of  the  Hudson  River  gleaming  in  the  intervale.  Suddenly  we  discov- 
ered an  artist  who  had  set  up  his  field  easel,  planted  one  spot  of  yel- 
low on  the  naked  canvas  and  was  walking  about  to  work  up  his  ideas 
for  the  reproduction  of  all  that  glory  of  color.  His  niglig^  costume 
revealed  a  long  lean  neck,  and  under  a  little  felt  hat  a  thin  face  with 
gleaming  eyes  looked  all  the  handsomer  for  the  rude  setting.  It  was 
Sanford  Gifford.  The  following  winter  I  was  allowed  to  visit  the 
celebrated  man's  studio  frequently.  He  was  one  of  the  men  at  the 
top  in  art  circles.  Always  a  literalist,  his  idealizations  were  no  more 
than  a  glamour  of  refinement  thrown  over  the  scene,  which  always  was 
an  actual  view  of  some  place;  though  possibly  the  hills  or  mountains 
were  somewhat  exaggerated  in  size  for  effect's  sake.  Quite  commonly 
he  worked  on  a  very  smooth  canvas,  so  that  it  could  be  covered  with  a 

i6o 


DEVELOPMENTS   IN    FRANCE  AND  AMERICA        i6i 

thin  coat  of  tone  and  the  multitudinous  forms  of  tree-clad  mountains 
lifted  out  with  a  stiff  brush,  letting  the  white  canvas  show  through,  as 
the  paper  does  in  watercolors,  the  whole  result  being  very  thin  and 
glassy,  though  delightfully  tender  and  pleasing.  Long  reaches  of  the 
Hudson  River,  with  many  idle  sails  basking  in  the  evening  glow 
and  enveloped  in  the  haze  which  hid  the  far-away  shore,  particularly 
pleased  his  fancy  for  tender  effects.  One  of  the  boasts  of  these 
painters  was  to  render  the  suspended  haze  in  which  a  mountain  floated, 
and  I  have  never  seen  it  better  done  by  any  school.  Could  they  have 
escaped  the  weakness  always  going  with  little  schooling,  these  had 
been  great  artists. 

Once  when  Gifford  was  wandering  on  the  hills  of  Staten  Island,  he 
sought  shelter  from  a  shower  in  a  little  hut  and  watched  the  storm 
pass  away  toward  the  eastward,  letting  in  the  setting  sun's  rays  upon 
a  large  group  of  becalmed  sail  down  in  the  bay.  These  glowed 
through  the  wetness,  and  the  sense  of  an  intervening  veil  of  rain  was 
superbly  given.  From  a  point  close  at  hand,  a  line  of  telegraph  poles 
staggered  down  and  still  down  the  shore  until  lost  in  this  veiling  of 
rain.  At  the  top  of  each  pole  the  glass  insulator  glimmered  like  a 
newborn  star.  These  sparks  of  light  led  away  into  the  mistiness, 
glimmering,  glimmering,  long  after  the  poles  had  ceased  to  be  visible, 
still  leading  the  eye  into  the  falling  rain,  seemingly  without  supports. 
Though  the  financial  conditions  at  the  time  were  at  a  very  low  ebb,  so 
that  nothing  was  selling,  he  found  a  purchaser  for  the  picture  which 
resulted,  before  the  paint  was  dry.  It  was  painted  at  one  sitting  and 
on  a  pretty  large  canvas.  All  the  world  wondered.  He  was  elected 
National  Academician  in  1854,  and  served  with  the  celebrated 
"Seventh  Regiment"  in  the  Civil  War. 

Principal  Works :  Golden  Horn ;  Ruins  of  the  Parthenon  (Corcoran  Gallery^ 
Washington. 

Alexander  Cabanel 

{iS23-i88g.     French.) 
One  of  the  advantages  of  the  position  of  "professor"  among  the 
artists  of  Paris,  is  the  intense  loyalty  of  a  succession  of  students.     As  a 


i62  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

winner  of  hearts  the  instructor  is  frequently  a  phenomenal  success. 
The  rivalry  between  ateliers  is  often  very  keen.  In  my  own  student 
days,  the  number  of  followers  of  Cabanel  was  still  very  large,  but  with 
waning  enthusiasm.  Setting  aside  all  his  indifferent  works,  it  remains 
true  that  Cabanel  was  a  man  of  unusual  talent  with  occasional  gleam- 
ings  of  genius.  Most  of  all,  it  can  be  claimed  for  him  that  he  never 
sought  to  make  "little  Cabanels"  of  his  students.  All  of  them  who 
had  any  originality  easily  broke  loose  from  his  leading  strings,  as  did 
Gervex,  Benjamin-Constant  and  Bastien-Lepage.  Nothing  approach- 
ing this  liberality  was  true  of  David,  whose  iron  will  demanded  Greek 
statues  or  nothing.     Ingres  was  scarcely  less  imperious. 

Cabanel  was  the  direct  sequence  of  Ingres'  rule,  and  another 
avowed  imitator  of  Raphael.  "He  who  follows  is  always  behind," 
and  so  is  he  who  imitates;  sometimes  a  long  way.  But  there  were 
expressions  of  face  in  Cabanel's  pictures,  glimmerings  of  originality  not 
to  be  overlooked.  In  the  "Birth  of  Venus"  (Luxembourg)  the  drowsy 
eyes,  just  opening  to  the  light  of  life,  the  coy  face  peering  out  from 
under  the  shadowing  hand  and  that  sense  of  relaxation  in  the  entire 
figure,  are  pretty  nearly  evidences  of  genius.  The  figure  lies  lightly 
on  the  wave  and,  of  course,  is  graceful.  It  is  more  than  graceful,  it  is 
"sweet."  To  be  graceful  in  all  things  is  a  Frenchman's  birthright, 
especially  if  he  be  of  the  school  of  Raphael.  The  mark  of  genius  is 
found  when  a  painter  can  be  graceful  and  still  noble.  This  Cabanel 
never  was.  He  was  a  painter  by  preference,  a  master  by  industry. 
His  birth  was  in  the  academical  atmosphere  of  Montpellier,  where 
education  and  polish  gave  tone  to  the  oxygen.  As  physician  or  bishop 
his  success  would  have  been  equally  remarkable.  This  picture 
of  the  just-discovered  Venus  and  the  excited  sea-roving  cupids,  is 
spoiled  by  the  effort  to  imitate  Raphael  in  the  cherub  faces.  The 
uppermost  one  is  particularly  bad-Raphaelisrh;  none  is  at  all  worthy. 
This  would  be  evident  at  once  if  we  should  secure  a  good  example  of 
Raphael  and  compare  the  two  painters. 

Ingres  painted  severely  defined  statues,  according-to-Raphael; 
Cabanel  produced  languid  imitations  of  these  imitations.     Many  of 


DEVELOPMENTS    IN    FRANCE   AND   AMERICA        163 

his  large  compositions  are  of  no  value  except  as  examples  of  highly- 
polished  technique;  his  figures  are  no  more  than  elegantly  painted 
idealizations  of  models.  The  students  used  to  stand  before  his 
"Thamar,"  then  in  the  Luxembourg  gallery,  and,  with  bated  breath, 
tell  how  a  certain  skilled  model  held  out  his  draped  arm  for  a  full  hour 
without  flinching  and  then  fainted  from  exhaustion.  Oh,  noble  art! 
No  one  faints  because  of  the  simulation  of  a  tragedy  enacted  by  these 
postures. 

Cabanel  was  a  model  portrait  painter,  able  to  reproduce  a  sufficient 
number  of  his  sitter's  characteristics  to  make  the  likeness  pass  muster, 
while  at  the  same  time  softening  all  defects.  His  superb  command  of 
paint  and  brushes  could  not  fail  to  render  something  agreeable,  to  be 
looked  at  while  seated  in  a  silken  armchair,  yourself  elegantly 
dressed.  It  is  related  of  him  that  his  habit  was  to  place  his  sitter  and 
his  easel  exactly  side  by  side  and  walk  off  thirty  feet,  his  palette  in 
hand,  study  carefully  a  minute  and  then  walk  up  to  apply  one  or  two 
accurate  touches.  This  promenade  continued  during  the  entire  sit- 
ting. The  touches  were  rarely  altered,  so  well  did  he  know  his  trade. 
But  sometimes  the  sitter  had  to  endure  ninety  of  these  inquisitorial 
inflictions. 

In  the  Metropolitan  Museum  (New  York)  hangs  a  portrait  of  the 
late  Catharine  Lorillard  Wolfe  (full-length  figure)  which  is  very  popular. 
She  was  a  woman  of  plain  features  but  great  character.  Her  por- 
trait has  some  character  with  idealized  features,  and  the  workmanship 
is  irreproachable.     Can  we  wonder  at  the  popularity? 

From  earliest  youth  until  old  age  he  had  honors  thrust  upon  him, 
until  absolutely  nothing  remained  to  conquer.  The  firm  establishm^ent 
of  the  French  republic  resulted  in  a  retrenchment  of  the  power  of  any 
one  man  in  the  Salon,  but  Cabanel,  in  connection  with  others  live- 
minded,  had  great  power  until  near  the  end  of  his  life. 

Naturally  an  art  academy  (as  in  the  old  universities)  teaches 
classics,  that  fixed  and  perfected  thing  which  can  be  doled  out  by 
measure  and  has  long  since  been  reduced  to  rule.  Cabanel  was  for 
years  a  leading  professor  in  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts.     It  is  an  old 


i64  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

saying,  "Did  you  ever  know  of  a  Prix  de  Rome  man  who  amounted  to 
anything?"  This  sentiment  is  justly  based  on  the  fact  that  the  prize 
is  given  to  those  who  draw  well;  never  for  original  genius.  Good 
drawing  never  proved  a  man  a  genius.  Cabanel  was  a  noted  "Prix  de 
Rome,"  1845. 

Principal  Works:  Death  of  Francesca  and  Paolo,  Birth  of  Venus,  Thamar 
(Luxembourg);  Shulamite,  Portrait  of  Miss  Wolfe  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York); 
Ruth  and  Boaz  (New  York) ;  Christ  before  Pilate. 

Jean  Leon  Ger&me 

(1824-igo^.  French) 
The  glory  of  French  art  has  always  been  magnificent  technique. 
To  handle  the  crayon  and  paint-brush  seems  as  natural  to  this  people 
as  swimming  to  a  Sandwich  Islander.  If  we  add  to  this  native  ability 
the  habit  of  almost  endless  practice  under  exacting  masters  in  the 
schools,  it  ceases  to  be  a  wonder  that  they  have  controlled  the  art 
market  for  so  many  years.  They  are  all  heirs  to  the  art  of  Michael 
Angelo  and  Raphael,  who  counted  correct  line  as  something  precious 
above  all  else.  Art  talent  is  common  among  the  French;  genius  not 
uncommon.  The  former  has  produced  an  output  of  "articles  de 
Paris"  and  pretty  pictures  which  brought  wealth  out  of  every  less 
favored  country  to  them.  Where  are  we  to  draw  the  line  between 
genius  and  talent?  Was  Gerome  only  a  man  of  superior  talent  who 
made  "articles  de  Paris"?  Artists  whose  orthodoxy  differs  from  his 
think  this,  but  they  forget  the  noble  "Death  of  Caesar,"  made  in  the 
years  of  his  greatest  strength.  A  large  study  for  the  principal  figure 
in  this  work  is  at  the  Corcoran  Gallery  in  Washington.  Though 
highly  finished,  it  is  so  "large"  in  treatment  that  only  the  bloody  foot 
prints  and  the  prostrate  Caesar  attract  attention,  and  the  shouting 
group  of  conspirators  isolates  itself  impressively.  That  fallen  hero 
lying  at  the  feet  of  his  great  competitor,  who  stands  there  in  bronze 
serenely  unconscious  of  his  prostrate  rival,  is  a  powerful  conception 
worthy  of  any  artist.  This  work  alone  proves  Gerome  a  genius,  but 
he  also  painted   "Forty  Centuries  Look  Down  upon   Him,"   a  diminu- 


DEVELOPMENTS   IN   FRANCE  AND  AMERICA       165 

tive  Napoleon  on  horseback  standing  alone  in  the  vast  desert  contem- 
plating the  colossal  Sphinx,  which  does  indeed  look  down  upon  this 
upstart  invader  of  the  civilization  of  four  thousand  years.  The  con- 
ception is  intensely  poetic  and  had  the  artist  been  content  to  treat  this 
as  he  did  the  Caesar,  in  a  broad  and  simple  manner,  another  work  had 
established  his  claim  to  greatness.  But  all  that  vast  desolation  is  dis- 
turbed by  trifling  details  of  gravel  stones  and  useless  minutiae  in  the 
landscape  which  suggests  space  but  is  too  trifling.  He  was  witty 
enough  to  leave  out  the  group  of  officers  composing  the  attendant 
staff,  suggesting  their  presence  by  means  of  shadows  thrown  athwart 
the  figure  which  alone  takes  the  responsibility  of  facing  all  that 
ancient  solemnity.  Herein  we  see  GerSme's  weakness;  enamored  of 
his  ability  to  paint  things,  he  throws  away  his  soul  for  technique's 
sake. 

This  betrayed  him  again  in  the  picture  of  Moliere  breakfasting  with 
Louis  XIV.  The  king  and  the  actor  sit  together  at  table,  both  hatted, 
while  the  scowling  nobles  stand  uncovered  in  the  royal  presence  of  the 
king  and  this  prince  of  actors.  It  was  a  superb  opportunity  to  create 
an  impression,  but  thrown  away  again  for  the  love  of  painting  silken 
coats  and  lace  jabots,  stiff  ribbons  on  elegant  shoes  and  all  the  para- 
phernalia of  the  palace  furnishings.  Dramatic  force  drowned  in  a  sea 
of  frippery;  that  is  the  impression.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the 
articles  of  still  life  were  well  painted  and  the  heads  masterpieces  of 
superb  drawing  and  construction. 

"Son  Eminence  Grise"  is  still  more  painful  because  a  still  greater 
sacrifice;  as  the  subject  is  finer.  The  subtle  confidential  adviser  and 
secret  executive  of  Richelieu,  "Pere  Joseph,"  stands,  clothed  in  hum- 
ble monkish  garb,  at  the  turn  in  the  palace  stairway,  while  many  ele- 
gantly-dressed nobles  and  church  dignitaries  ascend.  He  pays  no 
attention  to  them,  appearing  to  be  absorbed  in  noting  pious  thoughts 
in  his  prayer-book,  while  in  reality  it  is  the  names  of  those  who  bow 
less  humbly  which  fill  the  sacred  margins.  Coats  again,  more  silks 
and  high-heeled  shoes;  but  for  the  relentless  "fine  painting"  this  had 
been    an    extraordinary  work.      Made    in    the   freshness    of   his    first 


i66  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

strength,  the  "Bal  Masque"  very  nearly  saves  him  for  great  art,  the 
treatment  is  so  simple  and  effective.  In  the  luminous  night  we  see 
two  figures  from  the  carnival,  two  fools,  so  the  clothes  suggest,  gone 
to  the  park  to  attempt  each  other's  lives  for  some  trivial  insult's  sake 
or  for  some  still  more  trivial  love.  There  is  abundant  fine  painting 
but  not  much  detail. 

A  long  line  of  subjects  studied  in  the  Orient,  picturesque  buildings, 
gaily-dressed  horsemen,  with  animals  beautifully  drawn;  interiors, of 
gorgeous  bath-rooms  where  the  nude  women  of  that  hot  climate  dis- 
port themselves — all  subjects  giving  opportunity  to  show  his  skill  in 
drawing,  occupied  the  artist  for  many  years  and  have  brought  him  an 
enormous  amount  of  money. 

Personally,  Gerome  is  a  noble  specimen  of  humanity.  On  one 
occasion  when  a  superb  Russian  grand  duke  was  being  conducted 
through  the  ateliers  where  his  numerous  pupils  (among  them  many 
Americans)  were  at  work,  the  fellows  nudged  one  another,  remarking 
that  the  "patron"  was  the  finer  man  of  the  two. 

Not  long  since,  Gerome,  having  filled  the  world  with  pictures, 
turned  his  hand  to  sculpture.  A  highly-educated  artist  has  command 
over  all  mediums  of  expression.  A  number  of  his  important  painted 
figures  were  rendered  in  bronze,  as  the  gladiator  in  his  arena  scene.  It 
would  be  unjust  to  deny  that  he  did  this  work  very  beautifully;  still, 
•his  faults  show  forth  more  conspicuously  in  sculpture,  in  that  reserved 
art  which  admits  of  so  much  dignity  and  suggestiveness.  When  he 
attempts  to  display  his  technique  simply  to  make  it  conspicuous,  the 
effect  is  far  from  agreeable  or  noble.  At  the  Exposition  of  1900,  at 
Paris,  he  exhibited  gilded  bronze  equestrian  figures  of  Washington  and 
Napoleon  which  made  no  impression  except  that  of  beautiful  repre- 
sentations of  saddles,  buckles,  straps  and  fringes,  all  as  hard  as  bronze 
of  course.     The  horses  were  admirable. 

Gerome  obtained  his  first  training  in  the  studio  of  Paul  Delaroche 
(where  Millet  of  Barbizon  studied),  but  his  greatest  impression  was 
received  from  Gleyre,  who  came  of  the  stock  of  Ingres,  that  favorite 
pupil  of   the  great  classicist   David.      These  men  ruled   the   Salons 


DEVELOPMENTS   IN    FRANCE   AND   AMERICA        167 

during  two, generations  so  that  no  man  could  expect  any  considerable 
attention  or  honors  unless  he  adhered  strictly  to  the  elegant  classic 
forms  in  drawing  and  treatment.  Because  of  this  training,  Ger6me 
became  a  classicist,  a  lover  of  elegant  line  and  hard  finish,  allowing 
himself  no  enthusiasm,  no  fresh  outpouring  of  spirit.  He  has  been 
one  of  the  leading  instructors  in  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  for  many 
years,  he  has  had  honors  and  medals  of  the  highest  possible  order 
bestowed  upon  him,  and  he  has  become  rich. 

Extreme  classicists  rarely  have  a  free  command  of  color,  simply 
because  color  will  not  abide  with  labored  manipulation  and  polished 
surfaces.  In  order  to  make  his  gray  tones,  Ger6me  mixed  his  paints 
on  the  palette  instead  of  laying  them  on  the  canvas  quite  fresh,  leav- 
ing them  somewhat  rough  and  mixing  as  little  as  possible.  The  latter 
method  does  not  admit  of  the  same  smoothness,  but  the  color  remains 
fresher.  In  the  already  mentioned  picture,  "Son  Eminence  Grise," 
the  grays  are  so  colorless  as  to  almost  appear  cold  and  lifeless.  To 
save  himself,  Ger6me  indulged  freely  in  all  manner  of  red,  yellow  and 
blue  coats,  gay-stained  glass  windows  and  any  positive  objects  which 
promised  relief.  All  these  could  not  counteract  the  effect  of  the 
dull  grays.  All  his  work  reveals  this  same  effort  with  color,  even 
the  oriental  scenes  rely  upon  gay  tiles  and  costumes  for  the  color 
scheme.  Titian,  on  the  contrary,  while  not  altogether  neglecting 
the  bright  clothes,  subdued  them  to  a  series  of  superb  vibrating 
grays.  Very  few  of  Gerome's  pupils  follow  his  methods  of  painting, 
though  his  severe  criticism  in  drawing  has  produced  its  effect  all  over 
the  world. 

Ger6me's  first  success  was  the  "Cock  Fight"  (which  brought  to  him 
a  medal  at  twenty-three  years  of  age),  1847. 

Principal  Works:  Death  of  Caesar,  The  Cock  Fight,  The  Age  of  Augustus, 
King  Candaules,  Leaving  the  Masked  Ball,  Son  Eminence  Grise,  Gladiator  before 
Caesar,  Napoleon  before  the  Sphinx,  The  Hour  of  Prayer  in  a  Mosque  in  Cairo, 
View  of  Paestum,  Phyrne  before  the  Tribunal,  Cleopatra  and  Caesar,  Women  at  the 
Bath,  Turkish  Bath,  Moliere  Breakfasting  with  Louis  XIV.,  Guard  of  Louis  XIV., 
Louis  XIV.  and  the  Grand  Conde,  Gladiator. 


i68  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Gustave  Rodolphe  Clarence  Boulanger  (1824-1888,  French)  is 
known  everywhere  as  the  "alter  ego"  of  Gerome,  as  he  was  born  the 
same  year,  exhibited  for  the  first  time  at  the  salon  in  the  same  year, 
went  to  the  Orient  with  Gerome  and  painted  the  same  sort  of  pictures, 
with  the  same  affection  for  smoothness  and  minute  detail — nudes 
in  the  harem,  the  revivification  of  the  life  of  Pompeii  and  Rome,  and 
eastern  cafes.  Because  his  work  resembles  that  of  the  more  important 
man,  it  has  been  said  that  it  came  nearly  up  to  it  in  excellence. 
This  is  not  true.  It  fell  short  in  nearly  all  respects  and  there  is  no 
such  evidence  of  greatness  as  was  manifested  in  Ger6me's  "Death  of 
Caesar"  and  many  other  works. 

Principal  Work:    The  Appian  Way  in  the  Time  of  Augustus 


Pierre  Puvis  de  Chavannes 

{1824-/ 8g8.     French. ) 

In  one  of  the  Salo'ns  of  the  later  '70's  was  "The  Poor  Fisherman" 
by  Puvis  de  Chavannes.  I  recall  well  the  remarks  of  a  fellow  stu- 
dent, who  declared  that  it  was  too  ugly  to  exist.  Certainly  there  is 
nothing  "pretty"  in  this  artist's  work.  It  must  claim  something  else. 
This  fisherman  stood  in  his  boat,  moored  near  shore,  watching  his  net 
with  an  attitude  of  patient  dejection.  He  is  evidently  excessively  poor. 
The  expression  suggests  that  he  believes  that  he  will  certainly  starve 
unless  the  Lord  sends  a  fish,  and  that  he  trusts,  while  doubting.  On 
the  shore,  his  youthful  daughter  gathers  flowers  for  the  baby,  which  is 
nearly  naked.  Nothing  is  in  view  but  a  forlorn  reach  of  water  and 
this  barren  bit  of  flat  land,  bearing  some  flowers  in  spite  of  its  barren- 
ness. It  is  a  magnificent  lesson  in  life;  the  embodiment  of  the 
philosopher's  conclusions,  of  the  religionist's  commingling  of  despair 
and  hope,  of  some  rays  of  light  amid  the  darkest  doubt.  The  color 
was  sober  but  tender,  laid  in  flat  masses  and  not  at  all  prettily  brushed. 
No  one  could  describe  the  color — pearly  and  nearly  all  in  one  rather 
pale  quality,  no  strong  darks  or  lights.  The  "flatness"  of  the  tones  is 
most  important  to  remember.     M.  de  Chavannes  was  a  mural  painter 


DEVELOPMENTS   IN    FRANCE   AND   AMERICA        169 

who  covered  the  wall  with  flat  tones  so  that  the  wall  might  retain  its 
flatness. 

This  flatness  of  wall  treatment  and  this  manner  of  telling  his  truths 
in  suggestions  rather  than  in  dry  and  positive  statements,  made  him 
the  greatest  poet  in  paint  and  the  best  mural  decorator  that  France 
had  seen  in  long  years.  He  did  not  tell  facts  but  awakened  chords 
of  feeling.  He  did  not  attempt  tricks  of  chiaroscura  on  the  walls  but 
reduced  everything  to  the  wall's  use  as  a  wall.  Both  treatment  and 
color  were  good  for  the  wall;  went  well  with  the  architecture.  "He 
does  not  paint  Mars,  Vulcan  and  Minerva,  but  war,  work  and  peace," 
says  Miither. 

M.  de  Chavannes  had  an  influence  upon  all  the  younger  generation  of 
workers  that  is  hard  to  measure.  He  revolutionized  all  mural  decora- 
tion and  all  sorts  of  decoration  of  flat  surfaces.  The  older  men  could 
not,  or  would  not  change,  as  we  see  at  the  Pantheon,  in  Paris,  where 
nearly  all  the  great  painters  of  the  classical  and  classical-genre 
schools  have  covered  the  walls  with  confusions  (for  the  most  part) 
which  torment  us,  while  Puvis,  as  he  is  usually  called  in  the  studios, 
made  simple  tender  panels.  The  subject  is  "The  Girlhood  of  St. 
Genevieve,"  that  is,  of  the  patron  saint  of  old  Paris.  The  work  is  in 
three  panels,  divided  by  stout  pillars.  A  simple  landscape  in  quiet, 
slightly  broken  tones,  many  long,  horizontal  lines  and  flat  tree  forms, 
contains  figures  likewise  managed  for  the  effect  mentioned.  St.  Gen- 
evieve is  marked  with  the  divine  seal,  and  the  various  characters  act 
their  parts  quietly,  with  dignity  and  force. 

This  decoration  is  one  of  the  art  sights  of  Paris,  justly  celebrated. 
Puvis  also  decorated  the  Museum  of  Amiens,  letting  weeping  women 
and  a  few  horsemen  tell  the  story  usually  represented  by  classical 
figures  of  the  Genius  of  War  and  his  cohorts. 

For  the  Lyons  Museum  he  made  "The  Grove  Sacred  to  the  Arts 
and  Muses,"  "Vision  of  Antiquity"  and  "Christian  Inspiration";  for 
Rouen,  "Inter  Artes  et  Naturum";  for  the  Sorbonne,  Paris,  subjects 
relating  to  education. 

His    family  was    of    old    Burgundian    stock;    his    father    was    an 


170  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

engineer,  and  to  his  profession  the  future  artist  was  brought  up.  His 
early  training  was  in  the  atelier  Couture,  where  drawing  was  taught  of 
course,  but  the  method  of  painting  received  more  attention.  This 
method  he  speedily  abandoned,  as  did  nearly  all  his  fellow  students. 
As  a  draughtsman  he  never  came  up  to  the  standards  of  those  classi- 
cists who  considered  correct  classical  line  as  next  to  godliness;  that  is, 
next  before  it.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  find  an  original  genius,  or, 
more  properly,  all  geniuses  are  original  and  they  are  few  and  won- 
derful. 

Principal  Work:  Historic  Decorations  in  the  Pantheon,  Sorbonne,  and  H6tel 
de  Ville,  Paris,  and  in  the  museums  at  Amiens  and  Lyons;  Nine  Panels  in  Public 
Library  (Boston). 

Auguste  Bonheur  (1824-1884,  French,  the  brother  of  Rosa)  painted 
domestic  animals,  but  never  with  originality  or  force. 

William  M.  Hunt  (1824-1874,  American,  born  in  New  England) 
was  one  who  saw  early  the  greatness  of  Millet  and  did  much  to  pro- 
mote his  welfare.  Returning  to  Boston,  he  made  figure  and  landscape 
pictures  in  the  manner  of  the  great  Frenchman  and  had  an  immense 
influence  upon  the  youth  of  America.      His  was  a  suicide's  end. 

Principal  Works:  Mural  Allegorical  Decoration  in  the  Capitol  of  the  State  of 
New  York ;  The  Diver,  The  Farmer's  Return,  The  Fortune  Teller,  The  Drummer 
Boy,  The  Bugle  Call,  and  many  portraits. 

Josef  Israels  (1824-,  Dutch)  is  the  most  remarkable  character  in 
the  line  of  the  new  Dutch  artists.  Having  obtained  some  knowledge 
of  his  technique,  he  went  to  Paris  to  the  studio  of  Delaroche  (where 
Millet  studied)  and  then  returned  to  Holland  to  paint  historical  pic- 
tures in  the  style  of  his  master.  Going  to  a  Dutch  fishing  village  (very 
much  as  Millet  went  to  Barbizon)  he  sympathized  with  the  life  about  him 
and  struck, an  original  line  of  motives  which  has  made  its  impression 
on  the  art  of  Holland.  Beginning  in  the  academical  manner,  he  soon 
created  a  style  of  his  own — rich  tone  but  few  positive  colors,  mystery, 
tenderness  of  sentiment  and  treatment,  pathetic  feeling  for  the  sad 
life  about  him,  masterful  ability  to.  tell  his  story  without  disturbing 


Josef  Israels  —  :The  Little  Seamstress. 


DEVELOPMENTS   IN    FRANCE   AND  AMERICA        171 

the  spectator  with  useless  attention  to  pretty  texture-painting-.  He  is 
the  father  o£  the  present  art  of  Holland.  It  can  not  be  said  that  any 
one  man  creates  a  revolution,  though  there  are  those  who  stand  as 
known  leaders.  Israels  and  Puvis,  each  in  his  own  country,  more  than 
others  opened  the  eyes  of  picture  lovers  to  the  fact  that  elaborate 
finish  and  over  attention  to  details  militate  seriously  against  the 
expression  of  sentiment.  What  I  have  said  regarding  Gerome  and 
the  loss  of  greater  expression,  through  the  insistence  upon  the  elabora- 
tion of  cravats  and  shoe  heels,  should  be  kept  in  mind  when  studying 
the  pictures  of  Israels  and  Puvis.  Neither  of  these  men  in  bestowing 
less  attention  to  drawing  has  offended  the  majority  of  mankind 
because  of  slovenly  delineation  of  the  human  figure.  Quite  possibly 
they  have  offended  the  classicists,  as  Titian  offended  Michael  Angelo. 
In  place  of  wonderfully  drawn  lines  and  abundant  details  they  have 
given  us  their  higher  sentiments  so  unhampered  that  the  observer  could 
think  of  nothing  else.  In  Gerome's  pictures  we  think  of  the  pretty 
painting  first  and  then  seek  for  the  human  or  the  poetic  elements  after 
having  satisfied  our  thirst  for  fine  workmanship. 

In  Israels'  picture  "Alone  in  the  World,"  the  handling  is  rude 
and  there  are  no  details  at  all — nothing  but  that  one  thought  of  the 
old  man  who  sits  in  the  mysterious  gloom  of  his  forlorn  cottage  and 
slowly  realizes  the  truth  that  he  has  lost  his  one  faithful  friend,  his 
wife,  and  that  all  the  sweetness  has  gone  out  of  life.  Why  need  the 
handling  be  rude?  That  sort  of  brushing  produces  the  effect  of 
mystery  and  forbids  attention  to  the  prettiness  of  the  painted  surface. 
The  handling  should  not  be  so  rough  as  to  call  attention  to  its  affecta- 
tion of  rudeness,  as  that  would  defeat  the  object  in  view.  Probably 
Israels  managed  his  paint  just  about  right.  In  France  the  Barbizon 
School  did  its  part  in  landscape  painting,  and  Puvis  worked  in  the 
same  direction  in  mural  painting.  Israels  and  Puvis  were  born  the 
same  year. 

Principal  Works:  William  of  Orange  Defying  the  Decrees  of  the  King  of 
Spain,  Village  Scene,  Preparation  for  the  Future,  Walk  Along  Cemetery,  Children 
of  the  Sea,  Age  and  Infancy,  Anxious  Family,  Alone  in  the  World. 


172  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Charles  Chaplin  (1825-,  French)  reveals  feminine  charm  in  a  most 
delightfully  elegant  way,  with  exquisite  color  and  arrangement. 

Charles  de  Groux  (1825-1870,  Belgian)  did  more  than  any  other  to 
bring  the  people  of  his  country  to  an  appreciation  of  the  worth  of 
literalism  artistically  manipulated,  and  break  down  the  enslavement  of 
conventionality.  Humble  people  in  their  wretchedness,  the  poetry  of 
sad  lives,  told  with  truth,  this  made  his  art 

William  Adolphe  Bouguereau 

{iSej-    French.) 

Pupil  of  Picot;  Prix  de  Rome,  1850;  member  of  Institute,  1876. 
Both  Bouguereau  and  Cabanel  have  often  been  elected  president  of 
the  Salon  and  had  extended  influence.  It  will  be  thus  for  generations 
doubtless,  a  classicist  in  power.  Bouguereau  is  another  little  Raphael, 
possibly  one  grade  higher  in  the  scale  of  imitators  than  Cabanel.  I 
recall  with  amusement  the  remark  of  one  of  his  students,  who  had 
been  enthusiastically  congratulated  upon  his  opportunity  to  be  near 
such  an  important  man:  "Yes,  it  is  good  to  be  well  launched,  but  I 
am  distressingly  tired  of  all  that  wax."  Just  here  is  to  be  found 
Bouguereau' s  weak  point.  His  pictures  are  collections  of  pink  wax 
figures.  Had  he  real  greatness,  this  would  matter  little,  but  with  few 
exceptions,  greatness  fails  him. 

The  "Vierge  Consolatrice"  is  impressive,  decorative  in  a  refined 
way,  and  comes  very  near  to  greatness.  It  was  painted  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  death  of  his  infant  child  and  represents  the  sorrowing  Vir- 
gin consoling  a  kneeling  mother,  while  the  naked  infant,  in  an 
attitude  plainly  suggesting  lifelessness,  lies  prone  on  the  pavement  at 
the  foot  of  the  group.  In  color,  the  entire  work  is  refined  to  paleness, 
almost  robbing  the  corpse  of  its  appropriate  whiteness.  All  the  flesh- 
painting  suggests  wax. 

Bouguereau  is  never  by  any  chance  the  victim  of  accidental  enthu- 
siasm. Every  touch  is  studied  and  laid  with  sureness.  The  joke  used 
to  go  around,  that  if  he  stopped  to  blow  his  nose,  it  cost  him  twenty 
francs,  so  precious  was  each  fore-ordained  instant.     Beginning  in  the 


BOUQUEEEAU  —  SONGS    OF   SPEING. 


DEVELOPMENTS   IN    FRANCE  AND   AMERICA        173 

morning  at  the  appointed  moment,  he  lays  in  a  part  (well  learned  as 
to  amount  that  may  be  undertaken  with  safety)  working  swiftly  and 
frankly.  This  accomplished,  his  lunch  occupies  an  exact  measure  of 
time,  after  which  the  brushes  are  again  applied  to  the  "licking 
together"  of  the  now  sticky  paint.  On  the  morrow  he  knows  exactly 
how  to  join  this  part  to  another  then  taken  in  hand.  Nothing  may  be 
altered,  for  fear  of  disastrous  effects  upon  the  pink  wax.  Of  course 
this  is  a  studio  yarn,  but  probably  not  much  exaggerated.  It  was  in 
1879  that  the  "Birth  of  Venus''  (Luxembourg)  appeared  in  the  Salon — 
Venus  standing  on  the  sea,  an  attendant  group  of  nymphs  and  tritons 
with  cherubs  posed  about  the  principal  figure.  It  was  no  light  matter 
to  unite  in  one  atmosphere  so  many  life-sized  nudes.  The  shocking 
rumor  circulated  in  the  studios  and  cafes  that  Bouguereau  had  caught 
himself  in  a  false  harmony  and  actually  had  glazed  one  of  his  figures 
to  the  proper  tone.  Horrible  thought!  On  varnishing  day,  we  all 
ran  to  see  the  iniquity,  and  found  no  difficulty  in  identifying  the  sin- 
ning figure.  More  than  anything  else,  this  illustrates  the  man  who 
never  can  feel  the  joy  of  exaltation.  Tasteless  good  taste  is  his  sin, 
wonderful  accuracy  in  drawing  his  glory.  Study  in  the  atelier  of 
Picot  connected  him  directly  with  David's  influence  and  more  work  in 
the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  did  not  decrease  the  tendency  toward  clas- 
sicism, which  became  absolute  during  his  stay  in  Italy  when  he 
became  a  "Prix  de  Rome"  (to  use  the  studio  phrase). 

Besides  his  purely  academical  compositions,  he  has  sent  all  over 
the  world  (especially  to  America  where  nudes  have  until  recently  been 
in  disfavor)  a  great  number  of  peasant-girl  subjects.  More  wax,  the 
clothes  colored  somewhat  like  the  rude  garments  of  the  children  of  the 
cottager.  They  were  made  to  sell;  made  for  polite  folk  who  did  not 
relish  the  presence  of  his  nude  nymphs.  These  are  about  as  sincere 
as  the  society  smile  with  which  they  were  intended  to  associate.  In 
them  he  confines  the  nude  flesh  to  the  innocuous  babes  too  young  to 
wear  clothes,  which  the  artificial  girls  carried  about  for  ladies  to 
look  at. 

One  of  his  best  pictures  is   "The  Satyr  and  Nymphs,"   which  for 


174  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

many  years  hung  in  the  Hoffman  House  in  New  York.  It  represents 
a  well-rendered  woodland  dell  where  several  nymphs  struggle  to  drag 
a  satyr  into  a  pool.  They  grasp  at  arms,  ears  and  hair,  shouting  in 
glee  and  assuming  superb  attitudes.  In  tones  of  flesh  it  excells  his 
other  works.  Cabanel  never  equalled  this  picture  in  all  his  painting. 
Principal  Works:  Body  of  St.  Cecilia  Brought  into  the  Catacombs.'La  Vierge 
Consolatrice  (Luxembourg) ;  The  Angel  of  Death,  The  Saytr  and  Nymphs. 

Adolphe  MonticelH  (1824-1886,  French)  was  a  native  of  the  south- 
east of  France  and,  like  all  sons  of  Provence,  intensely  poetic.  His 
was  the  sense  of  rhythm,  pure  and  simple,  not  that  of  insight  which 
leads  to  analysis  of  humanity.  The  ability  to  create  harmony  in 
sounds  is  a  portion  of  the  poet's  gift,  but  by  no  means  all  that  we  have 
a  right  to  demand.  Harmony  of  lines  and  exquisite  blendings  of 
sparkling  colors  are  a  part  of  the  painter's  mission,  and  these  are 
indications  of  a  genius  sufficiently  rare  in  the  world,  but  they  are  not 
all.  As  far  as  he  attempted  to  go,  MonticelH  was  an  artist.  In  early 
life,  his  line  work  rhymed  with  Raphael.  Later,  the  influence  of  Dela- 
croix caused  him  to  abandon  the  search  for  rhythmic  lines  and  to  load 
on  colors  until  they  alone  claimed  attention.  He  felt  much,  but  never 
thought  profoundly. 

George  Fuller  (1822- 1884,  American)  was  an  artist  not  altogether 
unlike  MonticelH,  in  that  feeling  rather  than  science  predominated. 
Having  but  a  limited  capacity  for  drawing,  he  gave  himself  up  to 
expression  by  means  of  color.  Fuller  was  poetic,  but  went  little 
beyond  the  grade  of  refined  versification.  Many  rustic  figures  and 
portraits  of  personages  came  from  his  easel,  but  painted  for  the  sake 
of  rhythm  in  color  or  line — being  very  badly  drawn,  as  art  students 
judge  drawing.  In  a  landscape  or  a  face  he  saw  only  the  suggestion 
of  form,  enough  to  cary  his  poetic  scheme  of  color. 

George  Inness  (1825- 1874,  American)  stands  high  in  esteem  as  one 
who  paid  no  attention  to  external  materiality,  but  sought  to  cause  us 
to  dream  of  the  rich  beauties  of  landscape.  A  peculiar  temperament 
separated  him  from  other  Americans  and  from  his  numerous  imitators. 


DEVELOPMENTS   IN   FRANCE  AND  AMERICA       175 

In  the  mid-sixties,  Inness  was  a  spare  man  with  thin  face  and  very 
sharp  eyes,  his  remarkable  brows  overhung  by  quantities  of  dark  hair. 
The  Hudson  River  School  was  then  in  full  favor  in  New  York,  giving 
the  people  faithful  representations  of  scenery  but  little  affected  with 
the  impression  of  light  on  the  surface  of  things  or  the  painting  of 
masses  of  forms  for  their  own  sake  or  the  greater  poetic  aspects  of 
nature's  suggestiveness.  Inness  had  already  been  abroad  and  fallen 
under  the  influence  of  the  Barbizon  group.  He  is  the  first  one  of  our 
landscape  painters  to  feel  this  influence.  The  others  knew  absolutely 
nothing  about  it.  I  often  heard  them  say  that  Inness  was  a  really 
talented  man  who  had  gone  wrong  in  allowing  himself  to  be  led  astray 
,by  those  Frenchmen.  The  Hudson  River  men  had  a  great  contempt 
for  anything  French,  largely  because  they  knew  nothing  about  it. 
Inness  was  greatly  impressed  by  the  beauty  of  the  immensity  of  out- 
doors, its  vastness  of  extent  rather  than  the  details  which  composed  it. 
It  was  almost  a  forlorn  hope,  but  there  were  art  lovers  who  believed  in 
him  and  in  the  doctrines  which  he  maintained.  The  effect  of  the 
French  school  was  already  making  the  older  American  painters  trem- 
ble for  their  position,  and  very  soon  the  young  men  commenced  to 
return  from  serious  study  abroad,  and  the  merry  war  between  the  old 
and  the  new  began. 

Poets  were  scarce  among  American  landscapists,  and  Inness  was  a 
poet,  seeking  to  render  the  essence  of  landscape  rather  than  its  exte- 
rior aspects.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  he  won,  that  his  position  at  the 
time  of  his  death  left  his  early  detractors  far  below,  and  that  his  was 
the  coming  and  the  better  art. 

Principal  Works:  Joy  After  the  Storm,  Twilight,  The  Afterglow,  Spring, 
Day  in  June,  Sunset ;  Gray  Lowery  Day,  Pompton,  N.  J. ;  Winter  Morning,  Envi- 
rons of  Montclair ;  Sunburst,  Greene  County ;  Sunset,  Montclair,  N.  J.  ;  Twilight, 
Medfield,  Mass. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE   PRERAPHAELITES   AND  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF 
IMPRESSIONISM 

In  France,  Van  Marcke,  Baudry,  Dore  do  their  popular  work  and 
are  followed  by  the  impressionists  with  Manet.  Rossetti,  Burne- 
Jones  and  Millais  form  the  Preraphaelite  Brotherhood  in  England. 
Germany  presents  three  widely-known  men,  Kaulbach,  Boecklin  and 
Knaus.  America  still  produces  the  Hudson  River  School  men, 
Church,  Bierstadt  and  McEntee.  Italy  comes  out  of  the  darkness,  as 
Morelli  is  born. 

Frederick  Edwin  Church 

(iSsd-igoo.     American.) 

That  "old  saw"  about  the  prophet  and  his  own  country  is  by  no 
means  true  in  all  cases.  This  Connecticut  Yankee  never  visited 
Europe  and  boasted  lustily  of  the  fact,  and  that  his  art  was  purely 
American.  Never  was  artist  more  popular.  Considering  the  period 
in  which  he  lived,  his  financial  success  rivals  that  of  Alma  Tadema 
and  the  late  Sir  John  Everett  Millais.  A  pupil  of  Cole,  he  abandoned 
his  master's  allegory,  caught  the  popular  spirit,  understood  the  love 
of  wonderful  pictures,  of  scenes  from  strange  and  marvelous  countries, 
the  effect  of  bright  colors  and  superabundant  minutiae  of  forms  on 
minds  hungry  for  art  but  uneducated  in  art  matters.  His  facts  were 
stated  with  a  positivism  which  admitted  of  no  discussion  as  to  his 
meaning. 

Immediate  success  brought  him  the  means  to  visit  what  lands  he 
liked  in  search  of  scenery,  so  that  in  1853  he  traveled  to  South  Amer- 
ica, going  to  a  point  where  he  could  see  the  Andes  Mountains  in  all 
their  grandeur.  His  most  famous  picture,  "The  Heart  of  the  Andes" 
(owned  by  Mr.  David  Dows,  of  New  York),  was  the  result  of  this 
visit,  and  its  success  was  a  matter  for  wonder.     It  was  a  composition 

176 


■< 
O 

s 

s 

o 
O 

s 
a 

H 


o 

H 

in 


THE   PRERAPHAELITES  AND   IMPRESSIONISM       177 

of  several  views.  Through  the  packed  masses  of  tropical  verdure  he 
opened  a  way  for  the  eye  to  enter  by  introducing  a  little  stream  bor- 
dered by  carefully  studied  tree  trunks  and  all  manner  of  vegetable 
growth  that  his  ingenuity  could  find  a  place  for.  Over  this  forest  the 
eye  wandered  to  peak  on  peak  of  far-off  mountains  losing  themselves 
in  the  sky  far  up  in  the  heavens.  It  was  an  insufferably  hard  paint- 
ing as  to  textures,  and  still  talent  maintained  her  place  in  it. 

In  Mexico  he  secured  the  studies  for  his  "Cotopaxi,"  and  all  the 
people  ran  to  see  what  a  volcano  really  was  like.  In  the  Corcoran 
Art  Gallery,  Washington,  every  visitor  may  study  his  "Niagara,"  the 
most  popular  rendering  of  that  much-painted  phenomenon.  The  fore 
part  of  this  is  a  wide  sweep  of  disturbed  water,  every  wavelet  drawn 
with  absolute  hardness  and  correctness  and  very  metallic  in  texture. 
This  ends  in  the  edge  of  the  nearer  fall  and  the  eye  gains  the  face  of 
the  cascade  beyond.  From  the  edge  of  the  fall  rises  a  great  toss  of 
spray.  Not  satisfied  with  drawing  this  mighty  wisp  of  water  in  correct 
shape,  he  packed  its  surface  with  numberless  tiny  dots  of  the  particles 
of  water.  And  so  the  people  wondered!  And  so  we  all  wonder  that 
a  picture  so  painted  can  still  be  effective  and  even  impressive.  Once 
upon  a  time,  his  artistic  sense  got  the  better  of  his  theories.  He 
astonished  people  by  painting  a  swiftly-moving  horse  and  buggy,  the 
wheels  glistening  in  the  dust  of  the  road.  It  was  worthy  of  a  French 
realist,  and  upset  the  ideas  of  people  who  imagined  "picture"  and 
"scenery"  to  be  synonymous  words.  All  these  painters  tried  to  out- 
Claude  their  great  exemplar  in  placing  the  sun  in  the  heavens.  It  was 
said  of  Church  that  his  suns  blinded  the  eyes.  I  used  to  hear  heated 
discussions  as  to  whether  the  sun  should  be  represented  by  a  pure 
white  button  of  paint  or  a  yellowish  button.  Of  course  the  white  was 
lighter  but  the  yellowish  gave  greater  glow.  Weighty  question! 
They  all  astonished  the  country  visitors  with  their  suns,  and  some 
city  ones  too.  If  those  men  had  been  better  educated  this  would 
have  been  a  great  art  period.  Church  ceased  to  paint  before  his  style 
had  become  obsolete,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  Bierstadt. 

Principal  W(frks:    Niagara  (Washington) ;  Cotopaxi,  Heart  of  the  Andes. 


178  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Domenico  Morelli  (1826-,  Italian)  shows  us  again  life  in  Italian 
art.  Best  known  is  his  strikingly  original  "Temptation  of  St. 
Anthony,"  in  which  the  poor  man  is  having  a  hard  time,  sitting  in  a 
hovel  of  despair  because  he  cannot  escape  temptation.  From  under 
the  matting  which  forms  his  bed,  bulging  from  the  wall  and  concealed 
in  every  corner,  he  sees  seductive  faces  smiling  at  him.  Superb  touch 
and  exquisite  coloring  do  not  make  this  the  equal  of  the  old  masters, 
but  it  is  wonderfully  clever. 

Carl  von  Piloty  (1826-1886,  German)  followed  Kaulbach  at  Munich 
and  made  an  extensive  impression  upon  pupils  from  many  lands.  His 
drawing  was  fine  and  arrangement  rather  artificial  according  to  the 
rules,  but  there  was  a  certain  nobility  in  the  pictures,  especially  in  his 
"Seni  before  the  Corpse  of  Wallenstein."  The  picture  commonly 
known  as  "The  Triumph  of  Germanicus"  shows  us  the  victor  seated 
upon  a  throne  while  the  captives  march  past;  the  principal  figure, 
Thusnelda,  a  superb  German  woman  with  noble  bearing,  occupying 
the  center  of  interest.  In  the  corner  lie  bound  captives  and  with  them 
a  picturesque  pile  of  trophies.  All  the  main  portion  of  the  canvas  is 
kept  in  cool  light,  but  beyond  in  the  background  a  blast  of  golden 
light  envelopes  everything,  forming  the  pictorial  contrast  of  colors. 
The  entire  arrangement  is  an  imitation,  almost  a  copy,  of  the  operatic 
stage,  lighting  and  all.  There  is  an  artificial  theatrical  arrangement 
of  the  grouping  and  the  posturing  is  the  same.  This  is  Piloty's  weak- 
est point,  indicating  a  lack  of  originality  and  real  artistic  sincerity. 
His  finish  resembles  that  of  Ger&me. 

Principal  Works:  Triumph  of  Germanicus,  Nero  Walking  among  the  Ruins 
of  Rome,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  Receiving  Her  Sentence,  The  Death  of  Wallenstein, 
Galileo  in  Prison. 

Hoeckert  (1826-1866,  Swedish)  opened  to  Swedish  art  the  render- 
ing of  native  life  without  anecdote  more  than  natural  events.  He 
wisely  avoided  the  temptation  to  paint  history. 

Arnold  Boecklin  (1827-1866,  German),  a  painter  of  many  dainty 
conceits,  the  subjects  sometimes  drawn  from   mythology  and  some- 


THE   PRERAPHAELITES   AND   IMPRESSIONISM       179 

times  entirely  original,  made  a  great  impression  upon  the  German 
public.  He  was  a  powerful  colorist,  going  to  the  depths  of  his 
palette,  loving  profound  darks  but  always  set  off  with  a  due  allowance 
of  light.  It  would  be  almost  safe  to  call  him  a  landscape  painter,  so 
important  was  this  feature.  But  the  scenes  were  rather  fanciful  than 
literal,  though  always  based  on  a  true  interpretation  of  nature.  Mass- 
ive cliffs,  castle-crowned,  beside  waters  of  the  ocean;  fanciful  castles 
hidden  away  amid  groves  of  trees  and  near  by  the  mythical  person- 
ages supposed  to  inhabit  the  retreat;  beautiful  spring  meadows  with 
flowers  in  bloom  and  over  the  green  herbage  a  swarm  of  doves  flutter- 
ing. His  skies  were  painted  in  full  note,  perhaps  an  expanse  of  fleecy 
clouds  with  peepings  of  the  pure  blue  between.  A  pair  of  mermaids, 
in  peculiar  colors,  sport  with  the  gorgeously-arrayed  sea  serpent  on 
the  rocks  by  the  bluest  and  most  attractive  of  seas.  There  was  the 
note  of  originality  in  all  this  which  marks  a  strange  and  rare  charac- 
ter. With  all  his  fancies,  he  never  departed  from  the  probability  as 
to  literal  truth.  In  no  way  was  he  a  classicist.  In  fact,  the  entire 
doctrine  of  artificial  reserve  as  taught  by  the  classicists,  was  opposed 
to  Boecklin's  character.  He  was  a  literalist  of  high  order,  who 
wrought  poetical  ideas  into  his  realism. 

Emile  Van  Marcke  (1827-1890,  French),  an  imitator  of  Troyon, 
but  a  fine  tonal  painter.  His  cows  are  exactly  like  those  invented  by 
his  master  and  he  has  but  three  or  four  of  them.  Frans  Verhas 
(1827-)  and  Jan  Verhas  (1834-),  Belgian,  show  the  progress  of  art  in 
their  country  and  the  abandonment  of  the  old  conventionalisms, 
painting  children  with  simple  incident  in  excellent  gray  colors. 

Jules  Breton  (1827-,  French),  is  a  painter  of  peasants  in  processions 
of  a  religious  nature  and  other  matters,  naturalistic  though  with  fine 
style.  Style  is  the  most  notable  element  in  the  painting  of  Breton,  as 
it  is  in  the  painting  of  Piloty.  Style  is  an  artificiality,  supposedly  a 
valuable  element  in  any  art.  Of  course  the  value  of  this  artificiality, 
with  each  critic,  depends  upon  the  taste  and  point  of  view.  The 
over-operatic  dramatics  of  Piloty  are  an  offense  to  some.     Breton  is 


i8o  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

certainly  quieter  and  more  dignified.  He  is  much  nearer  the  exact 
attitudes  of  nature  and  his  efforts  to  secure  style  are  subtle  and  refined, 
which  Piloty's  were  not. 

The  large  picture  in  the  Luxembourg,  "Blessing  the  Harvest,"  is 
seemingly  a  reproduction  of  the  exact  appearance  of  the  peasants  in 
procession  through  the  ripening  wheat-fields,  the  village  priest  and 
his  attendants,  the  kneeling  spectators  and  the  surrounding  landscape 
just  as  they  are  in  nature.  Still  there  is  that  something  we  call 
"style"  permeating  all  of  it.  He  has  painted  many  effects  of  the 
early  evening  with  harvesters  returning  from  the  fields;  each  picture 
bathed  in  the  subdued  and  rich  color  of  the  twilight. 

Single  figures  of  peasants,  natural  while  each  is  a  goddess — these 
are  manifestations  of  his  sense  of  style.  His  "Song  of  the  Lark" 
(Art  Institute  of  Chicago)  shows  a  single  figure.  She  is  rude  but 
dignified,  and  marches  like  a  Greek  statue  as  with  head  erect  she  listens 
to  the  skylark,  herself  a  ponderous  but  elastic  bird.  This  is  a  high 
order  of  art. 

Principal  Works:  Song  of  the  Skylark  (Art  Institute,  Chicago) ;  Blessing  the 
Harvest,  Last  Sunbeam,  Les  Glaneuses,  The  Pardon. 

Adolf  Schreyer  (1828-,  German)  was  a  pupil  of  the  art  school  in 
his  native  town,  Frankfort.  Though  his  constant  success  has  tended 
to  make  him  careless  in  picture-making,  some  of  the  representations 
of  Arab  horsemen  and  wild  horses  in  exciting  conditions  have  been 
remarkable.  In  subject  he  is  inclined  toward  too  much  melodramatic 
action,  but  he  has  an  unusual  command  of  grave,  rich  tone. 

Principal  Works:  Artillery  Attacked  by  Prussian  Hussars,  Battle  Near  Wag- 
hausel,  Cossack  Horses,  Charge  of  Artillery,  Cuirassiers'  Attack,  Lunisian  Cavalry, 
Arabs  Resting,  Arabs  Retreating,  Watering  Place,  Wallachian  Teamsters,  Danger, 
Arabs  on  the  March,  Arab  Scout.  The  last  seven  and  a  number  of  others  are  in  the 
United  States. 

Albert  Bierstadt 

(iS28-igo2.     American.) 
Diisseldorf  was  full  of  reminiscences  of  Bierstadt  thirty  years  ago. 
Up  on  the  hill,  perhaps  two  miles  away,  may  be  seen  the  little  village 


THE    PRERAPHAELITES  AND   IMPRESSIONISM       i8i 

of  Solingen,  where  knives  are  made  and  marked  as  genuine  "Shef- 
field" for  the  American  market,  and  there  the  painter  saw  the  light. 
Diisseldorf  was  nearly  all  art  academy  in  those  days  and  its  inhabit- 
ants rented  lodgings  to  art  students.  The  boy  Albert  was  taken  to 
America,  but  in  the  course  of  time  he  returned  to  become  an  art  stu- 
dent in  the  city  near  his  birthplace.  Judging  by  the  anecdotes,  he  was 
too  far  along  in  his  painting  to  enter  the  academy  as  a  beginner,  and 
thus  failed  of  the  severe  drill  which  would  have  been  good  for  him. 

If  his  touch  had  been  firmer  and  his  knowledge  of  form  more  sure, 
Bierstadt  might  have  maintained  himself  until  now.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  prosperity  turned  to  his  downfall  because  the  enormous 
prices  given  him  startled  the  public  into  alertness,  which  revealed  to 
it  that  there  was  greater  art  to  be  had  for  less  money.  It  was  the  sale 
of  the  "Domes  of  the  Yosemite, "  for  ^35,000,  at  that  time  an  unheard- 
of  figure,  which  marked  the  beginning  of  the  end. 

The  young  men  of  America  were  forming  the  habit  of  serious  study 
in  Europe  and  after  some  years  they  began  to  return  with  a  better-sus- 
tained manner  of  working,  because  they  actually  studied  instead  of 
looking  about  aimlessly.  Church  had  already  ceased  to  exhibit,  and 
it  had  been  better  for  Bierstadt  had  he  followed  his  example.  The 
public  relegated  him  to  obscurity.  Perhaps  another  development 
hastened  his  decline — the  importation  of  much  European  art  by  the 
picture  dealers.  This  was  not  all  excellent,  but  some  of  it  was  of  the  best. 

Not  satisfied  with  scenery  in  the  mountains  of  the  Atlantic  coast, 
and  knowing  well  his  patrons'  tastes,  Bierstadt  accompanied  General 
Lander  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  an  exploring  expedition.  With 
the  studies  then  gathered  he  painted,  in  1863,  the  large  "Lander's 
Peak"  (six  by  ten  feet)  and  exhibited  it  in  many  of  the  cities  in  the 
eastern  states  with  success.  Later  came  "The  Storm  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains,"  an  equally  large  work.  The  motive  for  this  was  found 
not  far  from  the  location  of  the  present  city  of  Georgetown,  Col.  I 
have  been  on  the  spot  and  know  well  how  much  he  idealized  the 
locality.  His  picture  was  geologically  an  impossibility.  People  dis- 
covered this,  and   resented  the  liberties  he  had  taken  with  nature,  so 


i82  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

much  so  that  scandal  said  that  "his  faith  was  of  the  kind  which  moved 
mountains."  His  last  huge  canvas  was  the  "Domes  of  the  Yosemite," 
a  weak  work  considering  its  size,  the  foreground  overloaded  with  min- 
ute details  to  the  injury  of  the  feeling  of  immensity  in  the  lofty  cliffs. 
Still,  the  critics  spoke  in  warm  praise  of  his  "sincerity"  in  the  fore- 
ground manipulation. 

While  Bierstadt  was  in  Europe  (1853-7)  Millet  and  Rousseau  were 
building  up  the  fame  of  the  Barbizon  School;  but  the  German-Ameri- 
can did  not  know  anything  about  that.  However,  the  Boston  artist, 
Wm.  M.  Hunt,  left  Diisseldorf  and  went  to  Barbizon  to  study  with 
Millet  just  at  this  time,  and  such  men  as  he  pulled  Bierstadt  from  his 
high  pedestial.  Turner  died  the  year  before  Bierstadt  went  to  study 
in  Diisseldorf,  and  this  was  the  period  of  the  growth  of  Preraphaeli- 
tism.  In  Diisseldorf  the  strongest  influence  in  landscape  was  Andreas 
Achenbach,  and  Lessing  was  also  something  of  a  power.  Bierstadt 
came  in  direct  contact  with  these  men. 

Principal  Works :  Rocky  Mountains,  Lander's  Peak ;  Valley  of  the  Yosemite ; 
Emerald  Pool ;  Mt.  Whitney ;  Mt.  Corcoran,  Sierra  Nevada  (Corcoran  Gallery, 
AVashington) ;  Discovery  of  Hudson  River  (Capitol  at  Washington). 

Jervis  McEntee  (1828-1891,  American)  was  far  more  advanced  in 
technical  ability  and  knowledge  of  color  management  than  the  others 
of  his   school.     He   felt  the   beauty  and  poetry  of  late   autumn  bet- 
ter than  the  others.     He  was  the  first  to  dwell  on  the  tender  effects  of 
that  moment  when  trees  are  nearly  naked  but  some  rich  colors  still 
cling  to  the  picturesque  branches.     In  "1866,  when  the  American  pic- 
tures which  had  been  exhibited  in  the  exposition  at  Paris  came  home, 
they  were  placed  on  view  at  the  Academy  in  New  York,  and  one  by 
McEntee  attracted  special  attention.     Beneath  it  were  the  words: 
"The  melancholy  days  have  come. 
The  saddest  of  the  year. 
Of  wailing  winds,  and  naked  woods, 
And  meadows  brown  and  sere." 
It  was  then  the  fashion  to   label   paintings  with  verses — an  appeal  to 
the  world  which   still  saw  only  literature  in  pictures.     We  owe  the 


RossETTi  —  The  Blessed  Damosel. 


THE    PRERAPHAELITES  AND   IMPRESSIONISM       183 

escape  from  this  habit  to  the  French,  who  considered  the  art  of  pic- 
ture-making as  superior  to  the  art  of  poetry. 

Another  of  McEntee's  pictures  showed  a  mountain  (Catskills)  not 
very  far  off,  the  head  capped  by  a  heavy  white  cloud,  superbly  ren- 
dered, while  all  the  land,  with  its  tangle  of  naked  brush  and  young 
trees,  suggested  the  coming  of  an  early  snow  flurry.  This  effect, 
which  has  been  so  much  studied  of  late  was  then  quite  new,  and  these 
pictures  manifested  originality  and  artistic  feeling,  as  well  as  force  of 
execution.  While  painting  with  a  forceful  brush,  McEntee  under- 
stood the  art  of  subordination  of  details  to  general  effect. 

Principal  Works:  Old  Mill  in  Winter,  Autumn  Day,  Woodpath,  Winter  in  the 
Mountains,  Edge  of  the  Wood,  Valley  of  the  Humboldt,  Shadows  of  Autumn,  Winter 
Morning. 

THE  PRERAPHAELITE  MOVEMENT 
Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti  (1828-1882,  English)  was  a  strange  man. 
It  is  more  correct  to  denominate  him  "strange"  than  original.  It 
is  difficult  to  find  in  him  strength  of  character  and  certainly  physical 
strength  did  not  exist.  The  Italian  blood  inherited  from  his  father 
must  be  taken  into  account.  The  Italians  of  the  nineteenth  century 
were  spirited,  intellectual,  poetical,  tender,  but  not  especially  inventive 
or  strong  in  character.  Rossetti  invented  nothing  but  a  woman  with 
a  long  neck,  which  may  or  may  not  be  beautiful.  All  artists  dream  of 
making  themselves  original.  Those  who  have  the  divine  flame  upon 
their  foreheads  make  a  success  of  their  attempts  at  originality,  and 
their  number  is  few.  Rossetti  dreamed  in  his  turn  of  being  original. 
English  art  was  in  a  pretty  deep  sleep,  and  he  fancied  that  h^  could 
awaken  it.  The  way  to  do  that  was  to  make  a  success  in  an  entirely 
new  style  of  painting.  Rossetti  was  not  the  man  to  invent  a  new 
style,  but  he  could  imitate  a  long-lost  one,  giving  it  some  new  flavors. 
Perhaps  this  was  enough  originality.  But  Turner  and  Constable  were 
really  original,  Menzel  is  very  original,  so  were  Monet  and  Leonardo 
da  Vinci.  These  men  were  original  without  searching  for  it  as  Ros- 
setti searched.  They  were  so  from  unconscious  originality  of  charac- 
ter; Rossetti  from  intention  and  with  conscious  forethought.     It  may 


i84  THE  WORLD'S    PAINTERS 

sound  very  Irish,  but  I  think  the  only  originality  about  Rossetti  was 
his  strangeness.  That  was  original  because  he  could  not  help  being 
strange.  His  character  was  an  unhealthy  contrast  to  the  Englishmen 
of  full  blood  about  him.  The  English  have  always  been  susceptible 
to  the  influence  of  these  strange  individuals,  just  as  we  are.  We  all 
love  to  be  mystified  and  this  man  was  mysterious. 

He  came  just  as  the  English  people  were  ripe  for  something,  no 
matter  what,  so  long  as  it  was  different.  The  country  was  tired  of  its 
lifeless  art.  Any  new  thing  was  welcomed  as  soon  as  they  found  out 
that  it  promised  to  be  respectable,  and  also  was  sufficiently  extreme  to 
prove  attractive.  Millet  of  Barbizon  was  purely  sincere,  but  Rossetti 
was  only  half  way  sincere.  He  was  sincere  in  his  dislike  of  the  story- 
telling art  of  England  and  sincere  in  his  disgust  with  the  classical 
prettiness  of  much  French  art.  He  loved  the  quaintness  and  purity 
of  the  pictures  by  Botticelli  and  Lippi;  so  he  determined  to  imitate 
them.  It  was  imitation  pure  and  simple,  scarcely  a  spark  of  orig- 
inality in  it.  He  was  actuated  by  no  unconscious  mentality,  by  some- 
thing which  he  could  no  more  help  than  a  fish  can  help  swimming. 
The  style  of  Lippi  and  Botticelli  was  adopted  because  it  was  the  best 
thing  he  could  think  of  and  because  he  liked  its  quaint  directness. 
His  Italian  feeling  for  sensuous  beauty  saved  him  from  failure  with 
the  public.  One  of  the  strangenesses  of  Rossetti  was  his  habit  of 
saying  and  doing  things  that  nobody  understood  clearly.  Nothing 
catches  the  bluff,  practical  Englishman  so  much  as  a  suggestion  of 
deep  thought  only  half  expressed,  and  we  are  made  in  the  same  way. 
We  turn  eagerly  from  the  dry  hardness  of  life  to  anything  which  has  a 
flavor  of  the  spirit  land,  even  when  it  means  nothing  well  defined  to 
us.     It  is  because  we  cannot  explain  it  that  we  love  its  sensationalism. 

The  good  which  came  from  Preraphaelitism  is  found  in  the 
renewed  attention  to  those  beautiful  old  pictures  which  the  world  had 
overlooked  so  many  years,  and  the  taste  for  the  quaint  which  has 
entered  into  our  decorations,  our  artistic  utensils  and  furniture.  All 
our  furnishings  were  in  confusion;  senseless  copies  of  styles  little 
understood  by  the  makers.     The  public  was  indifferent  to  the  sort  of 


RossETTi  —  Beata  Beatrix. 


THE   PRERAPHAELITES  AND   IMPRESSIONISM       185 

decoration  the  professionals  gave  it  and  the  whole  thing  was  as  stupid 
as  the  life  of  a  lord.  Following  the  new  movement,  after  it  had 
ceased  to  be  a  practiced  manner  of  picture-making,  came  a  long  line 
of  art-workers  in  every  kind  of  decorative  article,  all  in  the  sentiment 
of  the  long-ago.  Finally  this  became  original  design,  so  that  at  this 
day  we  see  some  superb  designs,  not  copies,  but  affected  by  the  study 
of  old  fashions.  Even  if  some  of  this  is  bad,  much  of  it  is  excellent. 
William  Morris  would  have  had  no  opportunity  but  for  the  movement 
of  the  Preraphaelite  Brotherhood. 

One  of  the  amusing  circumstances  connected  with  this  develop- 
ment of  art  was  the  appeal  to  the  brutal  feeling  for  honest  truth  which 
the  English  people  cherish  as  their  most  sacred  birthright.  It  is  an 
element  of  character  to  be  admired,  cherished,  and  counted  upon  in 
those  emergencies  in  life  which  try  men's  souls.  But  holy  as  is  this 
quality,  it  leads  to  amusing  results  when  an  art  question  is  under  dis- 
cussion. Only  a  limited  number  of  the  British  "know  themselves  in 
art" — they  wish  to  be  told  what  to  admire.  The  art  which  really 
appeals  to  them  tells  a  pretty  story,  or  a  mystical  one.  But  as  Rus- 
kin  had  to  convince  the  British  public  that  Turner  really  was  truthful 
before  they  would  have  anything  to  do  with  him,  so  when  Rossetti 
had  convinced  them  that  the  art  of  the  Preraphaelites  was  something 
more  truthful  than  any  other,  everything  was  smooth  sailing.  The 
public  was  captivated  with  the  idea  that  at  last  there  was  "truth"  in 
art,  something  until  then  doubted.  This  uprising  of  a  sincere  people 
to  acclaim  these  heroes  of  sincerity  was  amusing.  As  if  the  dry  truth 
could  ever  be  great  art!  All  art  is  simply  art,  something  made  to 
create  an  impression,  awaken  feeling,  existing  for  the  sake  of 
expressing  emotion,  and  not  as  a  literal  statement  of  facts.  Those 
men  went  into  the  fields  determined  to  capture  every  detail  of  nature 
and  record  its  qualities  as  if  they  were  topographical  engineers  or 
botanists.  The  elements  of  broad  statement,  largeness  of  sensation, 
suggestiveness  and  fine  line  were  ignored.  The  strained  effort  which 
they  made  never  entered  into  the  calculations  of  the  painters  previous 
to  Raphael.     Those  primitives  painted  as  they  did  because  that  was 


i86  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

all  that  they  knew  how  to  produce,  not  from  any  notions  about  the 
morality  of  truth-telling.  They  were  sincere  men  who  saw  no  more 
than  a  few  plain  facts,  which  they  used  as  adjuncts  to  their  sensational 
madonnas.  The  later  Preraphaelites  went  to  nature  year  after  year,  at 
the  same  season,  in  the  same  weather,  in  order  to  set  down  the  facts 
just  as  they  existed,  nothing  omitted  or  slighted.  Of  course  they 
secured  only  hardness,  dryness  and  stupid  materiality.  This  could 
have  no  other  result  than  the  one  which  eventuated — a  tired  public 
and  deserters  from  this  sacred  "Brotherhood." 

Rossetti  imitated  Diirer  without  his  nobility  and  Botticelli  with 
the  charm  of  that  really  honest  painter  omitted.  I  am  not  accusing 
these  men  of  the  "Brotherhood"  of  dishonesty.  Their  intentions 
were  serious  and  they  really  thought  themselves  apostles  of  better 
things.     All  honor  to  them — mistaken  partiots  in  art. 

Anyone  can  paint  pictures,  if  he  have  an  all-round  talent.  Cer- 
tain men  are  born  for  no  other  purpose,  are  preeminently  artists  first 
and  always.  What  is  an  art  education?  Special  training,  which 
occasionally  injures  a  genius,  but  more  often  develops  his  abilities. 
In  educating  an  artist,  the  first  essential  is  to  allow  him  to  draw  forms, 
preferably  the  human  figure,  under  the  disciplining  influence  of  some 
one  who  will  insist  upon  absolute  accuracy,  force  of  expression, 
grace,  the  peculiar  effect  of  one  line  on  another  and  the  "construc- 
tion" of  things,  especially  of  the  human  head  and  figure.  "Construc- 
tion" means  more  than  simply  a  knowledge  of  anatomy.  It  means 
something  about  solids  and  their  relations  to  each  other;  a  matter 
hard  to  explain  to  one  not  an  artist.  It  is  difficult  of  attainment,  very 
difficult.  Education  also  means  a  knowledge  of  the  relations  of  colors 
and  how  to  use  them  with  proper  force,  and  this  is  also  a  long  study. 
Pigments  are  curious  materials.  One  artist  can  do  strange  things  with 
them  which  another  utterly  fails  to  comprehend,  and  of  course  can- 
not imitate  at  all. 

Of  all  these  matters  Rossetti  showed  himself  strangely  ignorant. 
Yet  no  one  knows  about  it  who  lacks  training.  Though  rather  weak 
and  uneducadet  in   art,  Rossetti  attacked  the  most  difficult  problems 


m 

m 
m 
O 


THE   PRERAPHAELITES  AND   IMPRESSIONISM       187 

while  utterly  unprepared  to  cope  with  them.  All  that  he  brought  to 
the  task  was  good  intentions  and  poetic  feeling.  Of  these  there  was 
an  abundance,  and  these  saved  the  art  from  utter  negativeness.  The 
man  behind  the  brush  was  a  poet,  and  that  made  a  difference. 

His  best  picture  is  the  "Beata  Beatrix,"  in  the  National  Gallery, 
London.  Beatrix  is  a-dying;  she  sits  on  a  balcony  (overlooking  the 
valley  of  the  Arno,  bathed  in  golden  light)  and  the  body  suggests 
well  the  languid  relaxation  of  the  coming  end.  Into  the  relaxing 
hands  a  rose-colored  dove,  halo-crowned,  drops  the  emblematic  poppy. 
In  the  background,  Dante  and  a  female  figure  are  seen,  one  passing 
away,  one  following — the  echoed  suggestion  of  the  feelings  of  a  lover 
about  to  lose  his  loved  one  and  moved  to  attempt  to  follow  into  the 
other  world. 

Bad  as  is  this  picture  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  artist  of  any 
serious  training,  it  carries  a  certain  power  from  suggestiveness  alone. 
Fortunately,  the  drawing  is  no  worse  than  weak  and  the  color  is 
inoffensive,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  much  of  his  work. 

Principal  Works:  Annunciation,  Beata  Beatrix  (London);  Dante's  Vision 
(Liverpool);  Girlhood  of  the  Virgin,  Proserpina,  The  Blessed  Damosel,  Sibylle 
Palmifer,  Vision  o£  Fiammetta,  Found,  Ecce  Ancilla  Domini,  Lady  Lilith,  La  Pia. 

Paul  Baudry  (1828-1886,  French)  painted  the  decorations  in  the 
famous  Paris  opera  house  in  a  style  which  has  commanded  admiration 
for  its  pure  classicism. 

Principal  Work:    The  Wave  and  the  Pearl  (New  York). 

Alfred  Stevens  (1828-),  said  to  be  a  Belgian  but  always  living  in 
Paris  and  more  French  than  the  natives,  touches  his  interiors  with  the 
personality  of  handsome  modern  women  with  marvelous  cleverness. 
Stevens  was  one  of  the  first  to  reveal  the  influence  of  Japanese  art 
upon  European  painting.  His  figures  of  beautiful  women  were  nat- 
ural though  drawn  with  a  fine  style.  What  style  is  in  literature  is 
hard  to  describe  and  what  it  is  in  art  still  more  difificult  of  definition. 
But  this  art  had  style,  a  certain  noble  something  which  differentiated 
it.     All  his  forms  were  broadly  rendered,  never  cut  up  for  the  sake  of 


i88  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

useless  details.  This  he  acquired  from  the  study  of  the  fine  old 
Japanese  pictures  and  prints.  Also,  his  color  was  reserved  and 
reduced  to  that  refined  play  of  quiet  tones  found  in  the  finest  of  the 
old  Japanese  masters.  We  do  not  see  it  usually  in  the  cheaper  prints 
which,  unfortunately  too  often  confront  us.  The  art  of  Japan  which 
has  influenced  such  men  as  Stevens  and  Whistler  is  found  only  in 
museums  and  private  collections. 

Principal  Works:  Masquerade  on  Ash  Wednesday  (Marseilles) ;  Consolation 
(Berlin);  Lady  in  Pink  (Brussels) ;  Conversation,  By  the  Shore  (New  York);  At  the 
Railway  Station  (Art  Institute,  Chicago);  The  Visit;  Innocence;  Miss  Fauvette. 

Paul  E.  Gabriel  ( 1 828-,  Danish)  does  luminous,  spaceful  landscapes 
and  good  ones.  Richard  Bergh  (1828-,  Swedish)  is  a  fine  figure 
painter.  Christoffel  Bisschop  (1828,  Dutch)  paints  interiors  of 
Friesland  with  simple  truth  and  distinct  forms,  rendering  old  furniture 
so  that  we  can  examine  its  decoration  easily. 

Ludwig  Knaus  (1829-,  German),  for  a  long  time  a  professor  in 
Diisseldorf  in  its  palmy  days,  but  called  to  Berlin  by  the  emperor, 
was  a  sincere  painter  of  domestic  genre,  sweet  perhaps  but  well  exe- 
cuted. His  "As  the  Old  Sung  so  Twitter  the  Young,"  several  tables 
set  in  the  open  air,  the  front  one  seated  about  with  children  beauti- 
fully rendered,  will  keep  his  name  green  for  many  years. 

Knaus  paints  in  a  style  quite  unlike  the  modern  French — though  a 
considerable  time  was  spent  in  Paris,  where  he  was  deservedly  well 
thought  of — in  that  his  German  temperament  found  its  way  to  influ- 
ence his  manner  of  painting.  There  is  a  glassiness  and  lack  of 
solidity  in  the  touch,  though  no  detail  is  omitted.  In  the  picture 
mentioned,  he  gives  us  the  texture  and  makeup  of  the  childrens' 
clothes  with  a  faithfulness  quite  German.  Indeed,  his  faithfulness 
would  not  admit  of  any  neglect  of  minute  and  unimportant  matters. 
It  would  have  been  easy  for  him  to  conceal  the  childrens'  feet  under 
the  table,  but  not  one  of  them  is  neglected.  Every  shoe  is  painted 
with  the  same  care  bestowed  upon  the  faces      This  may  or  may  not 


Knaus — The  Holt  Family. 


THE   PRERAPHAELITES  AND   IMPRESSIONISM       189 

be  considered  an  artistic  virtue;    but  it  pleases  his  patrons,  the  Ger- 
man public,  who  worship  his  name  and  fame. 

Principal  Works:  Children's  Festival  (Berlin);  Holy  Family,  None  but  the 
Cats  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York). 

Thomas  Hill  (1829-,  American)  is  still  living  in  San  Francisco. 
With  many  paintings  of  the  Forest  of  Fontainebleau,  but  especially 
California  scenes,  Hill  is  nearly  the  last  of  the  "scenery  painters"  of 
note.  Unlike  Bierstadt  and  Church,  whose  reputations  suffered 
because  of  a  certain  scandalous  suggestion  that  they  were  not  truth 
tellers  about  those  marvels  in  out  of  the  way  places,  Hill  reproduced 
every  spot  just  as  it  actually  appeared.  His  views  of  the  Yosemite 
Valley  were  literal  transcripts,  and  certainly  he  found  the  material 
quite  marvelous  enough.  He  was  a  bolder  brushman  than  either  of 
the  others,  but  less  fascinating.  However,  there  was  no  lack  of  dol- 
lars to  his  credit.  In  his  hay-day,  the  fashion  for  imported  art  had 
scarcely  taken  hold  of  the  public.  In  these  days,  no  American 
painter  commands  the  prices  frequently  paid  for  European  pictures. 
In  some  cases  this  has  been  an  injustice,  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  some  extraordinary  pictures  from  over  the  water  are  housed  in 
America  and  their  influence  has  been  the  making  of  our  art. 

Anselm  Feurbach  (1829-1880,  German)  was  a  Diisseldorf  man  who 
tired  of  the  sweetness  of  that  school  and  went  to  the  studio  of 
Couture  in  Paris,  afterward  producing  a  quite  noble  art,  semi-religious, 
semi-classical. 

Principal  Works:  Dante  with  the  Women  of  Ravenna,  Iphigenia  in  Aulic,  The 
Banquet  of  Plato. 

Victor  Muller  (1829-1871,  German),  also  a  student  with  Couture^ 
found  in  Victor  Hugo  and  Faust  his  inspiration,  and  made  cartoons 
from  Shakespeare's  works.  William  Lindenschmidt  (1829-1895, 
German)  was  a  Munich  professor  who  had  an  excellent  influence  by 
painting  history  and  classical  subjects  in  a  semi-realistic  manner. 
Benjamin  Vautier  (1829-1898,  Swiss)  rivaled  Knaus  at  Diisseldorf,  but 


igo  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

was  not  as  beautiful  a  painter  of  genre,  though  much  sought  after. 
Jean  Jacques  Henner  (1829-,  French)  is  a  Prix  de  Rome  man  who 
has  given  to  the  world  numberless  nude  nymphs  with  red  hair  set  in  a 
deep-toned  landscape  of  enamel  colors.  Cool  flesh  and  entire  inno- 
cence of  sensualism  make  his  art  delightful  though  not  great.  Paul 
Dubois,  the  father  of  the  noble  line  of  French  sculptors,  was  born  in 
this  year. 

Principal  Works:  Fabiola,  Idyl,  Naiad,  Good  Samaritan,  Cha.ste  Susanna 
(Luxembourg);  Biblis,  Madeleine,  Andromeda. 

Sir  John  Everett  Millais  (1829-1896,  English)  began  in  the  Pre- 
raphaelite  movement,  but  was  not  one  of  the  sincere  advocates  of  its 
principles.  He  soon  painted  in  a  larger  manner,  though  still  pretty 
careful  of  the  details.  Later  in  life  his  brushwork  was  large  and  bold. 
As  a  portrait  painter,  he  had  magnificent  success  and  commanded 
enormous  prices.  Many  anecdotic  pictures  came  from  his  easel. 
The  English  loved  him,  as  he  was  a  fine  specimen  of  the  nationality. 
At  the  time  of  his  death  he  w;as  president  of  the  Royal  Academy. 

Millais'  "Chill  October"  is  a  careful  rendering  of  one  of  those 
commonplace  subjects  which  many  artists  overlook,  only  some  grassy 
foreground  with  the  land  broken  by  pools  of  water  and  this  reaching 
out  into  the  quiet  distance.  He  worked  at  it  in  the  chill  weather  at 
the  spot  where  it  existed  as  an  actuality,  and  rendered  the  spears  of  grass 
and  every  detail  of  foliage  with  the  conscience  of  a  true  Preraphaelite. 
There  is,  however,  a  sincere  rendering  of  nature,  as  he  had  already 
commenced  to  draw  away  from  the  needless  artificialities  of  that 
school.  Possibly  a  colored  photograph  would  have  answered  the  pur- 
pose equally  well,  however.  One  of  his  most  popular  pictures, 
"A  Flood",  shows  us  the  country  in  time  of  inundation,  the  wildness 
of  the  overflowing  waters  well  rendered  and  in  the  principal  plan  a 
cradle  bearing  safely  its  crowing  occupant — an  unguided  bark,  except 
as  Providence  guides  the  helpless. 

Principal  Works:  Christ  in  the  Home  of  His  Parents,  The  Huguenot  Lovers, 
Boy  Princes  in  the  Tower,  Chill  October,  Over  the  Hills  and  Far  Away,  Yes  or  No, 


J.  E.  MiLLAis  —  Effie  Deane. 


THE    PRERAPHAELITES   AND   IMPRESSIONISM       191 

Portrait  of  Gladstone,  The  Ornithologist,  Mercy,  Pizarro  Seizing  the  Inca  of  Peru, 
Grandfather  and  Child,  Mariana  in  the  Moated  Grange,  Ophelia,  A  Flood,  Hearts 
are  Trumps,  Northwest  Passage,  Stitch — Stitch — Stitch. 

H.  S.  Marks  (1829-,  English)  is  a  satirist  in  a  way. 

Sir  Frederick  Leighton  (1830-1896,  English)  was  the  most  notable 
president  of  the  Royal  Academy  in  recent  times.  Though  a  man  of 
remarkable  education  and  polished  manners,  he  was  not  a  strong 
character.  The  president  should  be  such  an  one.  Geniuses  of  great 
individuality  have  no  place  in  the  office.  His  drawing  was  elegant  and 
correct,  but  not  at  all  strong.  Carefully  treated  color  did  not  make 
him  a  great  colorist.  As  the  English  are  impressed  with  classical  art, 
he  invented  a  somewhat  original  style  of  classics.  Smooth  painting  is 
popular  and  elegance  commands  large  prices,  as  Leighton's  pictures 
did.  His  home  was  a  palace  with  its  furnishings  and  fittings  of  his 
own  designing,  and  the  best  work  of  art  from  his  talent.  He  will 
not  be  ranked  among  the  great  artists  of  the  world.  Such  frozen 
elegance  never  is. 

Principal  Works  Cimabue's  Madonna  Carried  in  Triumph  through  Florence 
(Bought  by  the  Queen  in  1855);  The  Odalisque,  Michael  Angelo  with  His  Dying 
Servant,  Perseus  and  Andromeda,  Rizpah,  Garden  of  the  Hesperides,  Persephone, 
Bath  of  Psyche. 

Louis  Dubois  (1830-1880,  Belgian)  painted  nude  women  about  as 
refined  as  those  of  Courbet,  whose  influence  moved  him.  Hendrik 
Willem  Mesdag  (1831-,  Dutch)  stands  at  the  head  of  powerful  marine 
painters.  Like  all  his  countrymen,  he  is  moved  by  the  serious  moods 
of  nature,  loving  the  stern  aspects  of  the  sea,  which  his  vigorous  touch 
renders  naturally  and  with  extraordinary  sense  of  the  weight  of  the 
waters.  Until  forty  years  of  age,  he  followed  the  business  of  banking 
and  accumulated  wealth.  Henry  Moore  (183 1-,  English)  follows  sea 
painting,  but  otherwise  than  the  Hollander  just  mentioned.  His  pic- 
tures are  pretty  true  but  mannered  and  not  very  strong. 

Principal  Works  of  Mesdaj';:  Strand  near  Scheveningen  (Amsterdam) ;  Sunrise 
on  Dutch  Coast  (Rotterdam);  Fish  Market  in  Groningen;  Collision;  Looking  for 
Anchors  After  Storm,  North  Sea ;  Arrived. 


192  THE  WORLD'S    PAINTERS 

Emile  Adelard  Breton  (1831-,  French),  a  younger  brother  and 
pupil  of  Jules  Breton,  paints  deep-toned  and  dignified  landscapes, 
usually  winter  scenes,  rich  twilights  and  gray  days,  motives  selected 
in  the  villages  of  his  native  north  country  on  the  coast  of  France. 
His  range  is  somewhat  limited,  but  his  color  is  so  profound  and  tonal 
that  he  produces  a  most  poetic  effect  and  has  no  relationship  with  the 
pretty  technicians  about  him  in  the  exhibitions. 

Casada  del  Alisal  (1832-1886,  Spanish)  shows  how  Spain  returned 
to  life  in  art  matters,  intensely  clever  in  handling  but  repulsive  and 
sensational  in  motive,  quantities  of  headless  corpses,  the  severed 
heads  in  view  and  pools  of  blood  flowing.  The  Spanish  liked  the  sub- 
ject and  the  artists  liked  the  workmanship.  Johannes  Leonardus 
Hubertus  Da  Haas  (1832-1900,  Belgian)  modeled  cattle  in  paint,  as 
it  were;  one  of  the  strongest  brushmen  producing  these  subjects.  His 
color  though  not  rich  is  sufficiently  natural,  Leon  Joseph  Florentine 
Bonnat  (1833-,  French)  almost  paints  sculpture,  so  vigorously 
modeled  are  his  figures  and  so  strong  in  light  and  shade.  Also,  he 
likes  to  have  them  on  a  midnight  background.  He  draws  superbly, 
renders  every  wrinkle  relentlessly  but  correctly,  and  gives  his  figures  a 
noble  style.  Portrait  painting  has  made  him  famous,  but  he  has  pro- 
duced as  well  numerous  religious  pictures  and  decorations.  On  the 
younger  (the  present)  generation  the  influence  has  been  extended  and 
good.  As  a  colorist  he  is  not  entirely  agreeable.  Amandus  Nilson 
(1833-,  Norwegian)  was  brought  up  in  the  Diisseldorf  School,  but 
abandoned  its  mannerisms  when  again  in  his  own  couritry,  painting 
simple  barren  lands,  which  became  real  and  pathetic  under  his  brush. 
He  did  not  reproduce  the  lofty  heights  and  the  deeps  of  the  fiords. 
Vassili  Perov  (1833-1882,  Russian)  attempted  to  preach  politics  (in 
paint)  as  the  times  seemed  to  call  for  it. 

Principal'  Works  of  Bonnat:    Samson  Slaying  the  Lion. 

Gustave  Paul  Dore  (1833-1883,  French)  created  an  immense  stir 
in  England  and  America,  but  the  French  never  took  him  seriously. 
Many  have  pointed  to  his  honors  as  proof  that  he  stood  high  in  the 


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L.  BoNNAT  —  Martyrdom  of  St.  Denis. 


THE    PRERAPHAELITES  AND   IMPRESSIONISM       193 

estimation  of  his  countrymen,  but  he  did  not  command  many,  and 
never  the  coveted  highest  distinctions;  a  matter  which  ruined  his 
happiness  and  embittered  his  dying  moments. 

No  man  with  the  genius  of  this  artist  could  escape  glory  and  the 
enthusiastic  approval  of  the  people,  but  Dore  was  not  content  to 
"stick  to  his  muttons,"  to  produce  that  which  he  could  do  better  than 
anyone  else  had  done.  His  ambition  called  for  glory  and,  to  attain 
it,  he  attempted  great  historical  and  religious  pictures,  which  his  lack 
of  training  and  his  temp^erament  both  forbade.  As  a  boy,  he  was  well 
educated,  but  not  in  art.  When  still  in  his  'teens  he  happened  to  go 
to  Paris  and  showed  some  hastily  made  drawings  to  a  publisher,  who 
at  once  engaged  him  at  a  good  salary  to  do  illustrative  work.  Thus, 
without  any  serious  training,  his  career  was  begun  and  continued  with 
great  industry  until  his  death.  The  French  always  called  him  "Dor6 
the  caricaturist,"  which  hurt  his  feelings.  But  it  was  not  a  slight, 
for  he  was  a  caricaturist.  Probably  the  best  work  of  his  life  was  the 
illustrations  of  Don  Quixote.  His  illustrations  of  Dante  made  an 
impression,  but  not  upon  artists.  Artists  sorrowed  to  see  such  good 
ideas  so  badly  executed.  He  had  ideas  in  abundance,  in  shoals,  in 
floods,  his  thoughts  evolved  designs,  striking  ones,  and  so  rapidly  that 
even  his  remarkable  industry  could  not  keep  up  with  them. 

Many  salons  were  adorned,  or  disgraced,  with  enormous  oil  paint- 
ings, chiefly  with  religious  subjects.  Artists  wondered  why  he  painted 
them.  It  was  to  gain  the  medals  and  honors  which  never  came;  nor 
had  he  a  right  to  expect  them.  With  color  at  the  best  indifferent, 
with  drawing  that  made  even  the  boys  in  the  schools  laugh,  and  with  a 
certain  strange  lack  of  dignity  in  his  treatment,  he  could  not  expect  to 
win  medals. 

The  series  of  illustrations  of  life  in  London  is  a  curious  commen- 
tary upon  the  lack  of  training.  With  much  effect  of  bigness  in  the 
presentation  of  the  city,  he  does  not  show  a  single  characterful  face, 
not  one.  He  could  not  use  a  model  and  made  everything  from 
memory.  As  a  consequence,  his  personages  were  characterless.  But 
his  ability  to  give  human  expression  to  animals  was  boundless,  and 


194  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

the  dramatic  element  in  his  illustrations  impressed  people  who  were 
not  very  particular,  as  better  studied  work  would  not  have  done. 
This  was  his  claim  to  glory.     It  brought  him  great  wealth  instead. 

"Christ  Leaving  the  Prstorium,"  seventeen  by  twenty-three  feet, 
is  his  best  religious  picture.  Had  it  better  technique  and  better  color, 
it  would  be  almost  great.  The  "Neophyte"  stands  as  his  best  work. 
It  is  eight  by  ten  feet  in  size  and  represents  two  rows  of  monks  in  the 
choir  of  a  church  during  service.  Most  of  them  are  brutes,  but  the 
youngest,  an  intellectual  youth,  has  just  waked  up  to  the  appreciation 
of  the  stupidity  of  his  surroundings.  Simple  and  direct  as  is  this 
story,  it  borders  on  caricature,  because  he  has  overdone  the  stupidity 
of  the  monks  to  make  contrast  with  the  intelligence  of  the  youth. 

A  great  many  of  these  religious  pictures  are  gathered  in  London, 
in  what  is  known  as  the  Dor6  Gallery. 

Principal  Works:  Designs  for  Don  Quixote,  The  Wandering  Jew,  Dante's 
Inferno,  and  Tennyson's  Poems;  Dante  and  Virgil  in  the  Frozen  Hell,  Christ 
Leaving  the  Prsetorium,  The  Dream  of  Pilate's  Wife. 

Sir  Edward  Burne- Jones  (1833-1898,  English),  the  follower  of 
Rossetti,  was  educated  at  Oxford  for  the  church.  He  did  not  finish 
his  collegiate  course  because  the  pictures  of  Rossetti  came  under  his 
notice,  and  Holman  Hunt's  "Light  of  the  World."  A  meeting  with 
Rossetti  determined  his  life  work.  The  latter  advised  him  not  to 
study  in  any  art  school,  fearing  the  influence  of  severe  classical  train- 
ing upon  his  poetic  nature.  In  the  condition  of  English  art  schools  at 
the  time,  perhaps  this  did  no  harm.  For  many  years,  though  con- 
tinually producing  pictures  and  decorations,  he  did  such  needlessly 
bad  things  that  they  had  no  excuse  for  existence.  During  a  long  expe- 
rience and  with  much  industry  his  drawing  became  refined  and  some- 
times subtle,  though  never  by  any  means  strong  or  masterful.  All  that 
has  been  said  of  Rossetti' s  influence  on  the  British  and  American  pub- 
lic may  be  said  of  this  artist.  His  frank  imitation  of  the  masters 
previous  to  Raphael,  such  as  Botticelli  or  Angelico,  gave  him  means 
to  indulge  in    mysticism  and  develop  his  sentiment  for  decoration. 


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THE    PRERAPHAELITES   AND   IMPRESSIONISM       195 

His  studious  and  painful  elaboration  of  draperies  reminds  one  of  Sir 
Frederick  Leighton's  work;  both  of  doubtful  vitality.  It  is  a  forced 
artificiality  inclined  to  weakness,  and  will  not  compare  for  dignity  and 
grace  with  the  same  work  by  the  best  Renaissance  artists  or  by  the  real 
Preraphaelites. 

The  array  of  figures  standing  on  the  opposite  side  of  a  pool  and 
admiring  their  fair  proportions,  called  "Venus'  Mirror,"  has  been 
greatly  admired  and  it  certainly  has  elements  of  beauty.  Regarded 
purely  as  a  decoration  it  would  be  unjust  to  demand  greater  truthful- 
ness; indeed  all  decoration  has  a  right  to  be  artificial,  as  it  is  an 
arrangement  purely  for  formal  space-filling  with  graceful  lines. 

Principal  Works:  The  Venus  Mirror,  The  Golden  Stairs,  Flamma  Vestalis, 
King  Cophetua,  Briar  Rose. 

THE  IMPRESSIONISTS 

In  the  year  1880,  in  Paris,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  examining  one  of  the 
first  exhibitions  of  the  new  society  calling  itsplf  "The  Impressionists." 
The  French,  quick  to  see  the  ridiculous  side  of  everything,  laughed  at 
it  more  heartily  than  at  any  new  thing  for  a  long  time.  As  none  of 
us  knew  what  it  meant,  or  how  serious  it  was  to  become,  as  we  had  no 
idea  what  we  were  expected  to  see,  the  affair  seemed  a  farciful  eccen- 
tricity. We  saw  only  long  lines  of  pale  colors,  seemingly  crude,  lack- 
ing in  "tone"  and  that  "fatness"  to  which  we  had  become  accustomed 
and  which  we  thought  essential  to  good  painting.  We  did  not  ask  for 
finish,  but  this  daubing  was  a  little  too  much  for  our  comfort.  Of 
course,  the  first  noticeable  thing  was  the  purple  or  violet  shadow  cast 
by  every  object  in  sunlight.  The  following  day,  I  made  a  second 
visit,  got  my  eyes  accustomed  to  the  glaring  effects  and  went  away 
much  impressed  with  the  sincerity,  and  especially  the  truthfulness  of 
many  elements  previously  considered  as  only  eccentricities.  Most  of 
all,  I  found  out  that  the  sun  shone  in  these  landscapes  as  I  had  never 
seen  it  shine  on  canvas  before,  and  the  air  seemed  to  vibrate  wonder- 
fully. With  apologetic  timidity,  I  approached  my  master,  asking 
him  to  express  himself.     Much  to  my  relief  and  astonishment,  he  had 


196  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

noted  the  same  elements  and  then  and  there  predicted  the  coming 
influence  of  this  movement. 

We  had  been  accustomed  to  see  pictures  carefully  arranged  as  to 
the  placing  of  objects,  so  as  to  produce  an  agreeable  effect  upon  the 
senses,  i  e.,  semi-classical  composition.  Here,  arrangement  seemed 
to  have  been  abandoned  utterly.  It  was  as  if  one  should  put  up  his 
two  hands  before  his  face  and  paint  anything  which  happened  to 
appear  between  them.  It  was  as  if  one  had  looked  sharply  at  a  bit  of 
nature  without  any  forethought  and  then  turned  his  back  at  once  and 
painted  all  that  he  could  remember  of  it,  stopping  when  his  memory 
was  exhausted.  There  were  heads  half  in  the  canvas,  half  out  of  it, 
right  in  front  with  all  the  world  beyond  hinted  at  in  a  wonderful 
manner.  Lingering  distinctly  in  my  memory  are  interiors  of  railway 
stations,  all  in  luminous  shadow,  with  many  trains,  the  smoke  reach- 
ing up  in  curiously  but  truthfully  managed  volume — all  this  in  shadow 
and  the  sun  shining  brilliantly  on  the  buildings  far  away  at  the 
extremity  of  the  train-house  opening.  Nothing  was  very  plainly 
defined,  but  the  "impression"  of  sunshine  and  shadow  was  magnifi- 
cently rendered.  The  selection  of  motives  was  unheard  of — views 
along  the  bridges  across  the  river  Seine,  with  people  walking  through 
the  smoke  and  steam  thrown  across  the  roadway  by  a  passing  steam- 
boat, and  that  same  brilliant  sunshine  over  it  all.  How  they  did 
glimmer  and  how  purple  the  shadows  were!  At  once  we  began  to 
search  nature  for  these  truths,  and  of  course  we  at  once  found  them; 
or,  at  least,  we  found  hints  of  their  existence.  But  this  manner  of 
managing  light  influenced  everyone  who  worked  from  nature  directly, 
and  it  eventually  permeated  the  entire  output  of  the  art  world.  Not 
that  everyone  became  an  impressionist,  but  that  things  were  inevi- 
tably changed  by  this  new  influence. 

Edouard  Manet 

{1833-1883.     French.)  . 

Manet  was  a  man  of  serious  convictions.  He  despised  the  conven- 
tionalities of  life,  considering  them  no  better  than  trammels  on  the 


BtraNE-JoNBS  —  The  Golden  Stajb. 


THE    PRERAPHAELITES  AND   IMPRESSIONISM       197 

free  expression  of  all  that  made  a  man  manly.  His  feeling  was  that 
no  person  had  the  right  to  encumber  himself  with  fashions  and  man- 
ners which  had  become  simply  useless  and  harmful  embarrassments 
upon  his  naturalness  and  the  spontaneous  giving  out  of  his  valuable 
ideas.  I  have  never  heard  that  he  made  a  bad  use  of  this  liberty;  he 
was  a  man  of  excellent  habits,  an  earnest  worker,  a  thoroughly  artistic 
temperament,  and  one  who  never  cried  aloud  in  the  streets.  In  no  way 
did  he  insist  upon  forcing  his  personality  upon  the  world  except  as  an 
artist,  and  upon  that  he  did  insist.  To  him,  the  rules  of  painting  were 
as  smoke  in  the  nostrils.  There  could  be  no  rules  for  the  living 
expression  of  the  impression  which  nature  made  upon  him.  Anyone 
who  reads  Emerson's  lectures  will  see  how  strongly  that  great  writer 
felt  in  the  same  way.  Emerson  wrote  as  Manet  talked.  It  is  possible 
that  Rossetti  felt  in  the  same  way;  but  he  could  not  use  his  feeling  to 
advantage.  Manet  was  a  born  painter;  Rossetti  a  born  poet,  a  literary 
not  a  painter  man.  Manet  learned  his  technique  at  once;  Rossetti 
never  learned  his  at  all.  Manet's  technique  was  not  that  taught  in  the 
schools,  but  it  was  a  firm,  bold  manner  of  laying  his  paint,  not  a  weak 
and  bedraggled  manner  like  that  of  the  English-Italian.  Most  of  all, 
Manet  saw  the  "values"  in  nature  with  astonishing  accuracy.  Ros- 
setti never  imagined  that  there  were  any  values  as  he  struggled  to 
represent  every  unimportant  minute  detail  in  the  bushes,  and  painted 
the  cannon  on  a  far-off  fortress  so  that  the  big  gun  sat  on  the  ear  of 
the  unfortunate  saint  in  the  immediate  foreground.  All  Manet's  can- 
non went  back  where  they  belonged  and  tormented  no  saints,  however 
closely  they  happened  to  be  juxtaposed  on  the  canvas. 

Manet  believed  sincerely  in  the  joy  of  living,  and  to  him  to  live 
was  to  paint  nature  as  she  revealed  herself  to  him,  and  never  was 
nature  kinder  to  man.  She  sat  down  beside  him  as  he  worked  and 
took  him  into  her  confidence  as  she  does  only  those  who  are  worthy. 
Geniuses  are  the  children  of  nature,  her  own,  and  they  are  possibly 
better  untaught  except  by  their  own  indulgent  mother.  I  am  not  say- 
ing that  a  certain  amount  of  instruction  tarnishes  genius,  because  it 
needs  to  know  what  the  world  has  already  accomplished   before   it 


igS  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

came.  But  sometimes  it  is  not  well  that  an  artist  remain  too  .ong 
under  the  taming  influence  of  regulations.  Yet  genius  will  have  its 
own,  however  it  is  at  first  tied  down;  so  perhaps  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence in  the  result.  Manet  did  not  lack  school  training,  but  he  sub- 
mitted to  less  of  it  than  was  customary  in  France. 

As  Edouard  Manet  had  found  out  a  new  truth  m  nature's  aspect, 
his  congenial  fellow  worker,  Claude  Monet,  pushed  the  investigation 
still  farther,  discovering  the  principles  of  light  effects.  Heretofore, 
artists  had  attempted  to  create  an  effect  of  light  by  means  of  very 
dark  contrasts  of  shade.  Monet  observed  that  all  shadows  were  very 
luminous,  so  he  sought  to  keep  all  objects  in  shadow  quite  light  and 
produce  the  effect  of  brilliant  light  by  other  means.  Monet  invented 
the  purple  shadows.     Manet  never  used  them. 

Pigments  have  no  light  of  their  own;  only  the  sun  has  light,  and 
all  outdoors  has  light  because  directly  under  the  sun.  A  spot  of 
paint  becomes  comparatively  light  if  surrounded  with  dark  paint,  but 
dark  paint  is  dull  and  heavy,  while  nature  is  luminous.  If  one  attempt 
to  paint  shades  with  light  colors,  the  lighted  parts  necessary  for  the 
contrast  approach  white,  which  has  no  color.  Herein  every  artist  has 
found  his  hard-to-solve  problem  of  light  effects. 

Manet  did  not  receive  any  recognition  from  the  salon  until  his 
forty-first  year,  and  then  because  his  supporters  insisted.  It  was  in 
1881.     Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  in  1882. 

Principal  Works:  Man  Drinking  Absinthe,  The  Breakfast  on  the  Grass ;  Olym- 
pia  (Luxembourg,  Paris);  Nana,  Boy  with  a  Sword  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New 
York);  Christ  Insulted  by  Soldiers,  Good  Bock  Beer,  Railway,  The  Lion  Hunter, 
The  Fifer,  A  Bar  at  the  Folies  Bergeres,  Spanish  Dancers. 


H.  W.  Mesdag  —  The  Beach  at  Scheveningen. 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE   GROWTH   OF   THE  PERSONAL  IN   ART 

In  France  we  find  Degas,  Lefebvre,  Carolus-Duran,  Laurens. 
England's  list  grows  longer — William  Morris,  Poynter,  Hunt,  Forbes, 
Orchardson,  Alma-Tadema.  America  has  now  almost  completely 
turned  a  new  leaf,  with  Whistler,  La  Farge,  Martin  and  Homer. 
Three  remarkable  men  distinguish  Germany — Gebhardt,  Defregger, 
Lenbach.  Belgium  becomes  more  noticeable  with  Hermans.  In 
Holland,  Maris  and  Mauve  are  fine  painters.  Fortuny  breaks  the 
spell  in  Spain. 

Hilaire  Germain  Edgar  Degas 

{iSs4 —     French. ) 

In  temperament.  Degas  is  in  many  respects  the  most  artistic  indi- 
vidual that  history  deals  with.  He  is  not  at  all  widely  known  and  he 
has  no  desire  to  be.  Satisfied  with  a  modest  patrimony,  only  art 
interests  him.  His  horror  of  a  newspaper  writer  shuts  his  door  and 
his  mouth  at  the  suspicion  of  approach.  This  seems  to  be  very 
genuine  and  not  an  affectation.  It  has  always  been  difficult  to  secure 
information  regarding  his  art  and  his  personality.  He  hates  exhibi- 
tions, never  allowing  anything  to  go  before  the  public  unless  sent  in 
by  a  dealer  who  had  purchased  the  work.  The  dealers  also  appre- 
ciate that  this  art  is  for  the  few  and  above  the  comprehension  of  gal- 
lery visitors. 

Most  people  consider  it  shockingly  ugly;  artistically-inclined 
people  look  upon  it  as  marvelous.  Both  are  right.  If  it  is  difficult  to 
point  out  the  artistic  qualities  of  his  pictures  when  standing  in  front 
of  them,  what  can  I  say  in  cold  words?  Subtlety  of  artistic  expres- 
sion, keenness  of  observation,  rudeness  of  execution  with  astonishing 
command  of  sensitive  line,  and  all  this  bestowed  on  a  subject  which 

199 


200  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

offends  my  lady's  sensibilities.  Never  at  any  time  approaching  inde- 
cency, he  is  still  anything  but  elegant.  He  loves  strange  effects — 
whatever  he  can  find  that  has  never  been  attempted  before.  The 
ugliest  old  woman,  bending  at  her  toilet  saTis  habiliments,  is  rendered 
in  a  subtle  way  unequalled  by  the  greatest  painters  of  the  world. 
This  statement  is  exactly  correct  and  not  exaggerated.  There  is  a 
rude  poetry  in  it  not  unlike  that  of  Walt  Whitman.  As  Whitman  is 
not  agreeable  to  many  sensitive  women  and  some  men,  so  Degas  is 
likewise  no  companion  for  varnished  veneering.  He  stands  alone  in 
his  art,  without  forebears  or  followers,  and  heroically  indifferent  to 
praise  or  blame  so  long  as  the  world  allows  to  his  genius  untram- 
melled expression.  No  one  has  defined  "indecency."  The  word  is 
used  too  loosely.  This  I  can  say:  in  no  case  has  Degas  painted  any- 
thing to  produce  a  blush,  though  he  often  paints  scenes  which  many 
would  draw  the  curtain  over  because  they  are  unseemly.  But  who 
dares  insist  that  the  finest  lessons  in  art  or  literature  may  not  be  con- 
veyed in  matters  which  respectability  would  veil?  Respectability  has 
more  sins  to  answer  for  than  Degas. 

His  more  commonly  seen  pictures  are  of  ballet  girls,  sometimes 
behind  the  footlights,  at  other  times  in  the  practice  hall.  Other  men, 
who  have  presented  the  life  behind  the  scenes,  have  pictured  the 
coquetry  popularly  supposed  to  prevail  there.  Degas  shows  us  these 
hard-working  girls  as  they  actually  are— tired,  bored,  often  plain,  pot- 
tering over  their  troublesome  stockings  or  adjusting  a  needed  pin  to 
prevent  a  toilet  catastrophy.  No  one  is  plagued  with  foolish  stuffs- 
painting  or  elaborated  textures.  He  gives  only  the  impression,  the 
glance  of  the  eye,  quickly  observed  and  indicated  by  mere  spots  of 
color;  astonishingly  correct  spots,  impressions  caught  at  a  glance  on 
moving  figures. 

What  elevating  influence  has  this  on  the  soul?  Who  proves  to  us 
that  art  was  invented  to  elevate  anything?  Art  is  expression,  the 
outcome  of  a  desire  to  reproduce  the  impression  made  by  some  scene. 
If  the  skilled  man  feels  strongly  moved,  the  effort  at  expression  is  art. 
When  any  one  undertakes  to  make  art  by  rule,  thinking  only  about 


THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   PERSONAL   IN   ART        201 

the  proprieties,  the  result  is  mechanics,  unworthy  the  name  of  art. 
Judged  by  this  standard,  Degas  \%  great. 

In  one  picture  he  represents  a  large  hall,  the  grim  dance-master 
training  the  girls  who  are  arranged  in  a  long  row  along  the  wall,  each 
with  her  foot  on  a  rail.  It  is  like  a  company  of  soldiers  at  squad 
drill.  Elements  of  awkwardness  are  keenly  observed,  the  personality 
noted.  Another  shows  all  the  girls  balancing  together  in  a  straight 
line  down  the  space.  Each  stands  with  one  leg  outstretched,  in  the 
perspective  of  approach  until  the  last  figure  is  outside  the  frame  and 
only  an  extended  foot  appears  to  indicate  its  presence.  This  trick  of 
cutting  things  off  in  a  peculiar  manner  gives  piquancy  remarkably 
well  managed,  as  when  the  heads  of  all  the  ballet  corps  are  cut  off, 
while  the  heads  of  the  musicians  appear  below;  thus  the  floor  of  the 
stage  is  the  center  of  the  picture,  suggesting  that  a  ballet  is  an  affair 
of  legs  and  orchestra;  or  these  girls  in  gauzy  costumes  are  balanc- 
ing just  over  the  footlights,  so  that  the  light  shines  upward  penetrating 
the  thin  stuff,  catching  under  chins,  noses,  brows  and  ears — a  most 
interesting  and  startling  effect  which  every  one  has  seen  time  and 
again,  but  no  one  has  had  the  wit  to  reproduce,  except  Degas.  Noth- 
ing excites  his  contempt  as  much  as  the  endless  repetition  of  hack- 
neyed subjects  indulged  in  by  artists  of  mediocre  ability.  Anything 
but  the  vulgarity  of  the  commonplace  is  his  motto. 

Early  influenced  by  the  polished  art  of  Ingres,  whose  pupil  he  was, 
he  imitated  his  style  in  a  series  of  pictures  of  pretty  shop  girls.  The 
race-track  also  furnished  material  for  character-painting,  both  men, 
women  and  horses.  But  the  advent  of  the  refined  Japanese  art 
revealed  to  him  a  new  point  of  view;  so  his  is  a  Frenchman's  render- 
ing of  Japanese  sentiment,  though  oriental  technique  finds  no  place 
in  it.  Japanese  art  and  Edouard  Manet  were  the  influences  which 
developed  his  genius. 

"To  pass  through  the  world  unobserved  by  those  who  cannot 
understand  him — that  is,  by  the  crowd — and  to  create  all  the  while  an 
art  so  astonishingly  new  and  so  personal  that  it  will  defy  imitator, 
competitor,  or  rival,  seems  to  be  his  ambition,  if  so  gross  a  term  can 


202  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

be  used  without  falsifying  the  conception  of  his  character.  For  Degas 
seems  without  desire  of  present  or  future  notoriety,"  says  George 
Moore. 

He  painted  in  oils,  until  watercolors  and  pastels  offered  a  more 
facile  material  for  the  rapid  expression  of  his  feelings.  Feel  he 
must;  without  this  sense  of  urgency  no  art  is  art  to  him.  He  some- 
times begins  in  watercolors,  continues  in  gouache  and  finishes  in  oils, 
even  adding  to  this  with  touches  with  pen  and  ink.  At  one  time, 
lithography  interested  him  and  his  prints  were  often  finished  with  pas- 
tels, and  rare  art  he  made  in  this  way.  When  we  remember  how  diffi- 
cult, almost  superhuman,  originality  in  art  is.  Degas'  genius  seems 
astonishing.  Any  fool  can  imitate  Degas,  but  it  will  not  hurt  this 
master  in  the  least.  There  can  be  but  one  Degas.  In  his  paintings 
of  the  nude  there  is  no  suggestion  that  the  woman  is  posing  to  be 
looked  at,  as  is  usual  with  nudes.  George  Moore  speaks  truth  when 
he  says  that  "Degas  now  occupies  the  most  enviable  position  an 
artist  can  attain — if  the  highest  honor  is  to  obtain  the  admiration  of 
your  fellow-workers.     That  honor  has  been  bestowed  on  Degas." 

It  is  difficult  to  obtain  any  information  about  the  parentage  of  this 
man,  because  of  his  reticence.  It  is  probable  that  his  family  was 
fairly  wealthy,  as  he  parted  with  a  considerable  fortune  to  relieve  the 
necessities  of  a  brother  in  financial  difficulties.  He  is  a  Parisian 
born. 

Principal  Works:  A  Ballet,  The  Ballet  in  Robert  le  Diable,  The  Ballet  in 
Don  Juan,  A  Ballet  Dancer,  Before  the  Race,  Foyer  de  la  Danse  a  I'Opera,  Rehearsal 
of  a  Ballet  on  the  Stage,  Dancers. 

James  Abbott  McNeill  Whistler 

(,/8j4-igoj.     American.)  .; 

Whistler  is  another  unaccountable  individual.  In  a  measureless^ 
degree  a  charletan  and  poseur,  his  stupendous  ability  disarms  criticism 
which  would  crush  a  smaller  man.  Some  events  can  be  accounted  for, 
some,  almost  accounted  for — Whistler  is  a  mystery.  Every  coat  the 
man  wore  was  planned  to  create  an  impression,  every  move  he  made 
was  for  effect — studied  posturing.     But  Napoleon  also  posed  and  so  did 


THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   PERSONAL   IN   ART         203 

Richelieu;  why  not  this  wonderful  artist?  Should  we  respect  him 
more  did  he  carry  himself  with  dignified  reserve?  Probably  not;  as 
in  that  case  he  would  be  some  one  else  and  not  Whistler.  Better  not 
interfere  with  a  genius  as  he  is  and  as  the  Lord  made  him!  That 
coat  with  the  buttons  half  way  up  his  back  and  the  skirts  at  his  heels 
is  a  part  of  the  man.  So  is  his  laugh,  which  calls  attention  to  his  pres- 
ence, and  the  long  cane  and  that  carefully  guarded  lock  of  white  hair 
over  his  forehead. 

This  can  be  asserted  of  him:  that  he  never  has  swerved  from  his 
purpose  to  paint  in  the  way  that  seemed  to  him  right,  no  matter  how 
much  the  art  world  frowned  or  the  little-comprehending  public 
scoffed.  He  went  straight  forward  in  the  face  of  all  kinds  of  defama- 
tion, crushing  his  enemies  with  a  tongue  and  pen  of  extraordinary 
sharpness  and  wit — and  he  has  won.  In  the  matter  of  influence 
upon  the  art  of  all  countries  in  the  latter  half  of  the  past  century, 
scarcely  the  like  is  found  in  any  period.  Velasquez  himself  has  had 
no  greater  influence,  nor  Van  Dyck,  nor  the  Barbizon  School. 

Except  for  a  period  at  Gleyre's  studio  (whence  Gerome  also 
issued)  Whistler  does  not  seem  to  have  attended  any  school  of  art, 
but  a  harder  student  has  never  existed.  All  painters  have  been  his 
masters,  and  that  is  enough  for  a  genius  with  energy  and  industry. 
He  secured  his  education  in  that  great  schoolhouse — Europe.  Goya 
and  Velasquez  taught  him  (as  they  also  taught  Sargent)  and  the  use 
he  made  of  the  influence  was  peculiar.  Sargent  largely  followed  the 
Spaniards'  technique,  but  Whistler  made  his  own.  The  actual  source 
of  his  inspiration  is  found  in  those  painters  and  color-print  makers  of 
Japan,  who  flourished  an  hundred  or  more  years  ago.  The  widely- 
admired  Japanese  artist,  Hokusai  (died  middle  of  nineteenth  century), 
appeared  as  a  godlike  personage  to  Whistler.  The  latter  once  said, 
with  a  lofty  air:  "Yes,  there  is  Velasquez,  Hokusai  and — myself." 
And  he  has  said  things  much  farther  from  the  truth  than  that. 

His  reduction  of  all  forms  to  simple  masses  was  suggested  by  the 
Japanese;  also  his  reduction  of  all  colors  to  quiet,  harmonious  tones 
rather  than  realistic  renderings.     The  old  Japanese  prints  are  not  gay 


204  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

in  color.  It  is  Interesting  to  trace  these  impressions  through  his  life; 
and  never  once  a  suggestion  of  the  copyist  in  it  all.  It  is  one  thing 
to  accept  an  influence  and  quite  something  else  to  merely  copy. 

Whistler  has  not  always  painted  dark  pictures.  In  the  Pan-Ameri- 
can Exposition  was  one  of  his  light-toned  and  reserved  but  absolute 
color  pictures:  a  room  with  white  walls,  white  chintz  curtains  and 
portieres,  plainly  marked  with  patterns  in  color;  unnoticeable  green 
borders  and  wainscot;  a  large  mirror  reflecting  a  woman  in  gray  dress, 
with  dark  hair;  nearly  all  the  lower  half  was  a  dark  maroon  carpet. 
United  with  this  a  woman  in  black  riding  habit,  one  white-gloved 
hand  making  an  isolated  spot  on  all  this  spread  of  darks.  Directly 
behind,  but  very  visible,  there  was  another  figure,  a  girl,  reading,  all 
in  white  except  black  shoes  on  the  maroon  carpet,  her  reddish  hair 
against  the  pale-green  wainscot,  and  her  book  in  white.  The  chintz 
has  patterns  of  red  and  green;  rose  figure.  This  describes  a  remark- 
ably original  picture,  but  does  not  tell  of  the  peculiar  quality  of  his 
still  stranger  colors,  or  the  fact  that  all  this  had  very  little  light  and 
shade  (Japanese  effect),  so  that  the  different  articles  showed  each  as  a 
separate  spot. 

Whistler  painted,  some  time  ago,  "nocturnes,"  "arrangements  in 
black  and  white,"  such  as  the  one  just  described,  "arrangements  in 
blue  and  gold"  and  in  any  other  colors  or  tones,  also  "symphonies" 
in  various  colors.  All  this  was  so  opposed  to  the  usual  painting  for 
the  sake  of  textures  or  story  telling  accompanied  with  garish  reds  and 
other  crying  primaries,  that  the  art  of  it  found  tardy  recognition 
except  with  people  of  keen  artistic  feeling.  The  academicians  were 
shocked  beyond  measure.  To  meet  the  hostility  of  the  Academy  came 
the  establishment  of  "the  greenery  yallery  Grosvenor  gallery,"  sung 
of  in  the  Gilbert  and  Sullivan  operetta,  which  gave  to  all  the  "queer 
painters"  their  public  opportunity. 

These  unexpected  "queers"  were  discovered  by  all  agressive  young 
men  and  served  to  turn  the  scale  in  Europe  against  the  dry  artificiality 
of  the  classicists.  It  was  itself  an  artificiality,  but  not  a  dry  one,  and 
it  was  much  nearer  the  throbbing  heart  of  nature. 


iS- 


i^.^:dC.ii^J^^Jaafeai^Ea^t-"''-^  -^siiMl-l'm 


Whistler  —  Traumerei. 


THE   GROWTH    OF  THE   PERSONAL   IN   ART         205 

The  nocturnes  led  to  the  style  of  low-toned  effects  which  carried 
away  so  many  distinguished  Frenchmen  and  proved  that  Constable 
was  not  the  only  example  of  a  foreign  artist  who  could  upset  the 
established  canons  of  art  in  the  sacred  city  of  art  itself.  The  Expo- 
sition of  1900  was  studded  with  works  by  eminent  Frenchmen  who  had 
learned  their  lesson  from  Whistler.  Going  through  the  galleries  of 
the  whole  world  and  seeing  on  all  sides  these  evidences,  and  then 
returning  to  the  American  galleries,  I  said  many  times,  "Who  does 
this  thing  better  than  Whistler?  Who  can  lay  those  bold,  long  strokes 
of  shimmering  gray  so  beautifully  in  the  tender  atmosphere?  Who  is 
so  firm  with  this  vague  poetry  of  nocturnal  mystery?"  And  the 
answer  was  always  the  same  at  each  visit:  "No  one." 

One  of  his  "nocturnes"  was  a  portrait  of  himself,  called  by  that 
technical  name  because  the  colors  were  all  reduced  to  a  very  low  and 
almost  black-and-white  colorless  tonality,  even  the  flesh  kept  in  tone, 
no  pink  about  it.  The  other  one  was  a  full-length  portrait  of  a  lady — 
a  splendidly  swept-in  effect  of  black  lace  over  black  dress  and  the  flesh 
again  in  tone.  Sargent's  black  upon  black  was  a  real  black  altogether 
different,  and  his  flesh  was  flesh  color,  not  reduced  to  a  vibrating 
tonality. 

The  photograph  of  the  portrait  of  Whistler's  mother  (Luxem- 
bourg), so  well  known,  is  pretty  nearly  the  actual  picture  as  it  is  in 
color.  Pretty  nearly.  That  almost  marks  the  difference  between 
this  artist  and  all  others.  The  photograph  would  be  exactly  the 
painting  over  again,  were  it  not  for  that  suggestion  of  color  almost 
not  there  and  still  dominating  the  tone.  It  is  this  little  "almost" 
which  differentiates  Whistler  and  marks  him  as  the  most  subtle  painter 
of  many  centuries. 

It  was  interesting  to  observe  how  much  the  work  of  Miss  Mary 
Cassatt  (American,  residing  in  Paris)  followed  Whistler's  style,  even 
to  the  mannerisms,  and  how  much  the  Japanese  had  influenced  her 
also.  This  impression  is  more  manifest  among  the  French  painters  of 
importance  than  with  the  Americans,  though  sufficiently  in  evidence 
with  our  men. 


206  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Whistler's  birthplace  is  a  matter  of  dispute.  Baltimore  and  Lowell, 
Mass.,  both  claim  him.  His  father  was  a  civil  engineer  who  moved  from 
place  to  place,  and  in  this  way  the  boy  went  to  Russia  for  a  considerable 
period.  But  his  education  was  American  and  in  the  course  of  time  he 
entered  the  United  States  Military  Academy,  at  West  Point,  where  he 
was  "plucked"  at  one  of  the  examinations  because  of  careless  indiffer- 
ence to  the  matter  in  hand.  Then  the  young  man  was  a  draughtsman 
in  one  of  the  scientific  bureaus  at  Washington,  but  did  more  drawing 
for  his  own  amusement  than  for  his  country's  good.  He  engraved 
maps  as  well  as  doing  draughting,  thus  acquiring  the  technical  skill 
which  has  made  him  one  of  the  world's  finest  etchers.  During  those 
periods  when  the  "symphonies"  did  not  meet  with  ready  sale,  he  had 
only  to  issue  an  edition  of  etchings  to  command  all  the  money  needed, 
as  these  met  with  no  dispute,  unusual  as  they  also  were.  The  col- 
lectors of  etchings  have  always  been  in  the  advance  with  all  innovations 
and  new  sentiments  in  art. 

Important  Works:  The  White  Girl,  Coast  of  Brittany  (Baltimore) ;  Portrait  of 
My  Mother  (Luxembourg) ;  Portrait  of  Carlyle  (Glasgow) ,  Portrait  of  Sarasate 
(Pittsburg) ;  Princesse  des  pays  de  la  Porcelaine,  At  the  Piano,  Gold  Girl,  Nocturne 
in  Blue  and  Gold,  Nocturne  in  Blue  and  Green,  Nocturne  in  Blue  and  Silver,  Blue 
Girl,  Entrance  to  Southampton  Water,  Great  Fire  Wheel,  Harmony  in  Brown  and 
Black,  Rosa  Corda,  The  Lady  with  the  Yellow  Buskin. 

William  Morris  (1834-1898,  English)  influenced  the  decorative  art 
of  England  powerfully,  as  his  Gothic  love  of  massive  simplicity 
changed  the  taste  of  his  countrymen  from  the  frivolous  to  the  mas- 
sive and  quaint.  .  Such  a  strong  character  could  not  fail  to  overturn 
that  which  it  disliked.  His  intense  honesty  revealed  itself  in  all  his 
writings  and  in  his  product  as  a  designer,  whether  it  was  a  wall  deco- 
ration, a  carpet  or  an  armchair. 

Morris  was  an  original  character,  having  "ideas."  These  were  in 
regard  to  art  and  to  the  relations  of  the  art  worker  to  the  public,  to 
the  employer  and  to  his  fellows.  Such  men  as  Morris  and  Walter 
Crane  have  done  a  vast  work  in  awakening  the  art-craft  workers  to  a 
proper  appreciation  of  their  own  dignity.     These  men  insisted  that 


THE    GROWTH    OF  THE   PERSONAL   IN   ART         207 

the  craftsman  should  be  allowed  to  sign  his  own  name  to  his  product 
irrespective  of  the  claims  of  the  firm  issuing  the  work.  For  this 
reason,  many  artists  now  do  superb  craft  work  who  would  not  consent 
thus  to  occupy  themselves  unless  givpn  credit  for  their  output. 

Morris  improved  the  artistic  printing  and  bookbinding  (which 
needed  it)  of  his  country  more  than  most  of  us  appreciate.  He  also 
set  a  new  and  artistic  stamp  on  wall  hangings  and  created  a  factory 
for  the  making  of  carpets  and  rugs.  In  fact,  he  revolutionized  art 
industries. 

Alfred  Walberg  (1834-,  Swedish)  has  resided  much  in  Paris  and 
received  his  influence  from  the  Barbizon  men,  but  has  his  own  manner 
of  expression;  low  tone,  broken  touch,  simple  composition;  good 
landscape  painting,  but  mannered.  No  one  else  paints  with  his  pecul- 
iar texture.  Carl  Bloch  (1834-1896,  Danish)  was  born  when  the  art 
of  his  country  had  not  attained  a  position.  By  travel  and  by  study  in 
France  he  attained  to  greater  technical  excellence  but  ceased  to  be  a 
Danish  artist  in  feeling.  Genre  and  history  occupied  him.  Franz 
von  Defregger  (1835-,  German),  a  genre  painter  who  pictures  the 
peasantry  of  the  Tyrol  at  their  sports  and  simple  life,  with  no  attempt 
at  other  anecdote  than  the  actualities  of  the  life.  As  many  as  fifteen 
figures  sometimes  are  grouped  in  an  interior  of  that  picturesque 
country.  Probably  one  or  two  of  these  will  be  in  violent  action,  as 
dancing.  He  understands  his  art  and  is  a  healthy  delineator  of  real- 
ism, much  beloved  of  the  people.     Piloty  was  his  master. 

William  Quiller  Orchardson  (1835-,  English),  while  not  the 
strongest,  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  painters  in  his  country.  Inci- 
dents, often  with  a  moral  tacked  on  (as  the  fashion  is  with  our  sermon- 
loving  cousins),  from  actual  life  are  painted  with  a  peculiar  loose 
touch,  the  paint  being  laid  very  sparingly.  It  is  like  a  watercolor 
done  in  oils.  One  of  his  interiors  represents  a  quartet  at  cards,  hav- 
ing spent  all  night  at  the  table,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  floor,  completely 
carpeted  with  the  cards  scattered  about  as  each  round  was  terminated 
and  a  fresh  pack  taken  in  hand.     The  young  nobleman  of  this  party. 


2o8  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

having  been  worsted,  is  taking  his  leave.  The  expressions  of  the  faces 
are  over-dramatic.  He  is  nearly  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  portrait 
painters  of  England. 

Principal  Works:  The  Challenge,  Casus  Belli,  The  Bill  of  Sale,  On  Board  H. 
M.  S.  Bellerophon,  July  23,  1845,  The  Salon  of  Madame  Recamier. 

Hugh  Cameron  (1835-,  English)  departs  from  the  conventional, 
paints  loosely  and  secures  fine  color.  John  La  Farge  (183 5-, 
American)  is  a  peculiar  man,  of  Parisian  art  education,  most  sensitive 
to  refined  color,  a  free  handler  of  paint  and  quite  unlike  any  one  else. 
His  mural  decorations  in  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  and  the  Church  of 
the  Ascension,  New  York,  and  his  superb  work  in  stained  glass  set 
him  apart  in  other  ways.  His  methods  in  glass  window  manufacture 
are  entirely  original  and  truly  wonderful.  His  position  in  the  profes- 
sion is  close  to  the  top.  Franz  von  Lenbach  (1836-,  German)  is  a 
great  man  in  his  portraits,  both  in  expression  and  in  handling  and  sug- 
gestive treatment.  A  realist  who  never  is  too  real,  an  idealist  who  repro- 
duces the  exact  character  of  his  sitter — and  character  is  in  all  of  it— 
this  man  stands  at  the  head  of  German  portrait  painters.  His  color  is 
sufficient  and  still  reserved. 

Jules  Lefebvre  (1836  or  1834-,  French)  is  the  outcome  of  the  classi- 
cists who  descended  from  David's  influence  through  Ingres.  His 
scientifically  correct  nude  figures  are  pure  idealizations  and  sometimes 
only  tender  vaporings.  But  usually  his  figures  are  firm  and  superbly 
constructed  and  finished  to  a  high  polish. 

His  "Truth"  shows  us  a  life-sized  nude  woman  standing  at  the 
bottom  of  a  well  (which  is  supposed  to  be  the  abiding  place  of  Truth) 
and  there  is  only  a  suggestion  of  water  about  the  stones  upon  which 
the  figure  is  planted.  It  is  a  figure  of  wonderful  grace  and  correct 
line,  painted  as  only  those  highly-educated  Frenchmen  can  do  these 
things.  One  hand  holds  the  bucket  rope  (for  no  purpose  except  to 
give  pose  and  excuse  for  the  position  of  the  neatly  bent  elbow),  while 
the  other  is  held  aloft  bearing  a  torch,  which  suggests  an  electric 


A.  DE  Neuvillb  —  The  Depaettibe. 


THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   PERSONAL   IN   ART        209 

light.     At  the  time  of  the  production  of  this  picture  the  arc  lamp  was 
still  an  experimental  affair;  so  this  incident  is  prophetic. 
Principal  Works:    Nymph  and  Bacchus,  Truth. 

Alphonse  Marie  De  Neuville  (1836-1885,  French),  a  well-educated 
man,  began  art  work  as  an  illustrator  of  books,  chiefly  historical  and 
military  events.  During  the  Franco-Prussian  war  his  position  on 
the  staff  enabled  him  to  see  and  sketch  all  the  incidents  of  the  cam- 
paign. Thus  equipped  he  began  to  paint  the  series  of  battle  pieces 
and  incidents  which  have  made  him  famous.  The  character  in  the 
faces  of  his  German  officers  pleased  even  the  enemy.  Usually  De 
Neuville  pictured  activities  and  Detaille,  the  other  great  military 
painter,  quiet  events. 

Principal  Works:  Defense  of  Le  Bourget,  The  Adieu  (New  York) ;  In  the 
Trenches,  Attack  at  Dawn  (Baltimore) ;  Last  Cartridges. 

Sir  Edward  Poynter  (1836-,  English)  is  now  president  of  the 
Royal  Academy.  As  is  suitable,  he  is  a  classicist,  a  correct  draughts- 
man and  a  rather  hard  technician.  We  might  be  happier  could  we 
feel  that  he  had  genius  as  well  as  correctness. 

Principal  Works:  Israel  in  Eg-ypt,  The  Catapult,  The  Ibis  Girl,  Atalan- 
ta's  Race,  Zenobia,  Diadumene,  On  the  Terrace. 

Laurens  Alma-Tadema  (1836-,  English,  of  Dutch  birth)  is  the 
best  one  of  this  array  of  classical  painters,  having  many  indications  of 
genius,  though  it  may  be  no  more  than  remarkable  talent.  He  paints 
far  better  than  any  of  the  others  and  has  infinitely  more  invention. 
In  coloring  he  has  often  fine  tonal  qualities  and  positive  colors  used 
with  marked  feeling.  Usually  confining  his  themes  to  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  ancient  Roman  life,  he  has  also  made  some  smaller  pictures  of 
local  interest,  less  learned  but  with  greater  sentiment.  In  the  painting 
of  marbles,  bronzes  and  flowery  accompaniments  no  one  equals  him, 
and  he  has  produced  beautiful  flesh  textures. 

Principal  Works:  The  Vintage,  Catullus,  The  Siesta,  Entrance  to  a  Roman 
Theater,  Tarquinus  Superbus,  Phidias,  An  Audience  at  Agrippa's,  Egyptians  Three 


2IO  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

Thousand  Years  Ago,  The  Mummy,  Phyrric  Dance,  Death  of  the  Firstborn,  A 
Roman  Emperor,  The  Picture  Gallery,  The  Sculptor  Gallery,  A  Reading  from 
Homer,  Sappho,  Cleopatra,  A  Question,  The  Improvisatore. 

Peter  Graham  (1836-,  English-Scotch)  learned  his  art  in  Scotland 
and  handles  paint  like  no  one  on  the  continent.  Beginning  as  a 
painter  of  figures,  he  used  that  training  to  reproduce  the  rugged  cattle 
of  his  rocky  hills,  giving  them  much  detail  though  of  a  healthy  sort  of 
reality.  He  is  a  people's  painter.  Paul  Chalmers  (1836-1878,  Eng- 
lish-Scotch), a  talented  man  who  did  much  for  the  art  of  his  province 
but  little  for  himself,  because  he  rarely  could  satisfy  his  ideals. 

Homer  D.  Martin  (1836-1879,  American)  paints  landscapes;  notpor. 
traits  of  the  scenery  but  idealities  which  express  his  sentiment.  This 
is  the  true  mission  of  the  poetic  artist.  He  is  not  a  strong  brush- 
man  because  of  his  labor  to  secure  sentiment  but  the  world  is  better 
for  such  men. 

Principal  Works:  Thames"'at  Richmond,  White  Mountains  from  Randolph 
Hill,  Adirondacks  (Century  Club,  New  York);  Evening  on  the  Saranac,  Spring 
Morning,  Sand  Dunes  on  Lake  Ontario  (New  York) ;  Autumn  Woods,  Landscape 
(Brooklyn) ;  View  on  the  Seine  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York). 

Winslow  Homer  (1836-,  American)  stands  so  high  in  rank  as  a 
man  of  remarkable  power  and  originality  that  he  has  lifted  American 
art  many  stages  upward.  He  lives  the  life  of  a  recluse  on  the  coast  of 
Maine  and  studies  the  sea  at  all  seasons,  rendering  it  in  a  manly  way. 
Strange  aspects  and  unusual  points  of  view  attract  him,  things  never 
before  attempted.  There  is  little  detail  in  his  painting;  nothing  but 
the  bold  statement  of  the  peculiar  aspect  of  the  sea,  done  directly 
and  left  alone.  He  is  also  a  good  figure  painter,  though  never  manu- 
facturing a  story  for  its  own  sake. 

His  picture  of  "The  Breeches  Buoy"  represents  an  incident  suffi- 
ciently common  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  where  he  lives — the  rescue  of 
a  woman  from  a  stranded  ship  by  means  of  the  apparatus  used  by  the 
life-saving  force,  always  ready  to  respond  to  the  call  of  nautical  suffer- 
ers.    The  stranded  ship  is  not  visible  but  only  the  taut  rope,  which  we 


THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   PERSONAL   IN   ART         211 

know  has  been  thrown  out  to  the  wreck  by  means  of  the  cannon  kept 
for  this  purpose.  On  this  stretched  rope,  the  machine  with  loose 
breeches,  into  which  the  life-saver  thrusts  his  legs  for  greater  security, 
glides  on  a  trolley  wheel.  Thus  the  life-saver  bears  a  fainting  woman 
through  the  raging  waters  to  the  land.  Nothing  is  visible  but  the  two 
figures  thus  suspended  between  wild  waters  and  the  wild  sky.  This  is 
the  most  original  subject  ever  undertaken  from  American  life.  It  was 
purchased  by  the  late  Catharine  Lorillard  Wolfe;  the  first  American 
work  in  her  collection.     The  color  is  gray,  as  suits  the  subject. 

In  his  renderings  of  surf-beaten  rocks.  Homer  departs  from  the 
common  practice,  placing  himself  close  down  in  intimate  association 
with  the  in-coming-wave  (in  dangerous  proximity  to  it),  and  with  a  few 
well-placed  brush  strokes  suggests  the  overwhelming  power  of  the 
in-rushing  waters. 

Principal  Works:  Prisoners  from  the  Front,  The  Sunny  Side,  Launching  the 
Life  Boat,  Coming  Away  of  the  Gale,  The  Life  Line,  The  Breeches  Buoy. 

Elihu  Vedder  ( 1 836-,  American)  lives  in  Rome.  The  illustrations 
for  the  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam  reveal  his  true  talent,  and  these 
are  excellent.  In  mural  decorations  at  the  Congressional  library 
there  is  indication  of  peculiar  ability,  though  these  are  greatly  bet- 
tered when  translated  into  mosaic.  His  color  is  dry  and  displeasing 
and  much  of  his  composition  not  worthy  of  attention.  By  means  of 
mysticism  he  catches  the  attention  of  people  who  do  not  object  to 
his  paucity  of  painter  qualities. 

Principal  Works:  The  Lair  of  the  Sea  Serpent,  Questioner  of  the  Sphinx, 
Cuinsean  Sibyl,  Young  Medusa,  Designs  for  the  Rubaiyat. 

Charles  Augustus  Emile  Duran,  called  "  Carolus-Duran  "  (1837-, 
French),  portrait  painter,  figure  painter  also;  this  artist  stands  high 
in  the  scale.  Occasionally  he  paints  a  full-length  nude.  His  women 
as  painted  are  all  noble  and  elegantly  posed;  he  gives  them  beautiful 
flesh  tones,  and  superb  draperies.  His  brush  work  is  dashing,  sure  in 
touch  and  suggests  the  texture  of  the  goods  without  any  appearance 
of  effort.     In  the  late  Paris  Exposition,  there  is  an  evidence  of  effort  to 


212  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

be  peculiar  and  artificially  sentimental  which  displeased  many  artists. 
A  large  number  of  pupils  have  come  from  his  atelier,  among  them 
John  S.  Sargent. 

Principal  Works:  Dame  au  Gant  (Luxembourg) ;  Portrait  of  Mile.  Croizette, 
Gloria  Mariae  Medicis  (ceiling  in  the  Luxembourg) ;  and  many  portraits. 

Adolph  Artz  (1837-1890,  Dutch)  is  one  of  the  good  landscape 
painters  who  sprang  up  when  Holland  came  to  her  own  again.  He  is 
tenderly  gray  in  color.  Jacob  Maris  (1837- 1889,  Dutch)  and  his 
brother,  Willem  Maris  (1815-),  were  superb  painters  of  landscape,  the 
former  following  in  the  lead  of  the  Barbizon  men,  and  the  latter  influ- 
enced by  the  impressionists,  though  mildly  so.  An  older  brother, 
Mathew  Maris,  was  born  in  1835,  but  spent  his  life  in  England  paint- 
ing pictures  of  sentiment  in  the  medieval  manner.  Ivan  Kratnskoi 
(1837-1887,  Russian)  led  in  a  revolution  in  art  matters  at  the  Russian 
art  academy  and  had  influence  on  the  rising  generation,  causing  the 
new  men  to  paint  what  they  pleased  rather  than  the  conventionalisms. 

Holman  Hunt 

{1837 —    English.) 

Hunt  declares  that  his  mission  is  to  preach  religious  sermons.  If 
he  cannot  preach,  he  will  not  paint.  Pictures  are  to  him  simply  a 
convenient  medium  for  making  a  religious  impression.  As  might  be 
expected,  he  has  little  real  genius  for  painting,  though  his  learning  in 
art-technique  enables  him  to  draw  a  good  figure  and  paint  objects 
neatly  and  correctly.  Despite  his  artificial  color,  which  puts  artists' 
teeth  on  edge,  his  conceptions  and  compositions  are  so  excellent  that 
he  carries  conviction  to  many  people. 

A  figure  of  Christ  standing  at  a  door,  with  a  lantern  in  hand,  and 
knocking  for  admission,  is  delicately  composed  and  executed,  every 
detail  carried  to  the  utmost.  Hunt  was  one  of  the  Preraphaelite 
Brotherhood  and  followed  their  tenets  to  the  extreme,  counting  excess- 
ive detail  as  one  of  the  essentials  of  "truth."  This  picture  is  better 
in  engraving  than  in  color. 

His  "Shadow  of  the  Cross"  represents  Jesus  in  the  carpenter  shop, 


^'^m^. 


WiNSLOw  Homer — The  Breakers. 


THE  GROWTH    OF  THE   PERSONAL   IN   ART         213 

as  a  young  man.  He  stretches  himself  as  if  fatigued,  thus  throwing 
his  shadow  on  the  wall,  making  the  figure  of  the  cross.  The  concep- 
tion is  ingenious  and  original,  but  the  painting  of  shavings  and  other 
minute  details  becomes  tedious,  and  many  people  find  the  entire  work 
lacking  in  the  first  principles  of  effectiveness  and  dignity.  "The 
Triumph  of  the  Innocents"  is  a  large  picture  with  the  usual  elements 
of  Joseph,  the  Madonna  on  the  ass  and  the  infant  Christ  in  arms. 
Hovering  over  these  figures  are  swarms  of  wounded  babes  (the  ones 
which  Herod  slew),  and  these  physically  dead  but  spiritually  alive 
cherubs  accompany  their  Infant  Master  in  whose  cause  they  have  been 
slain.  All  about  are  iridescent  bubbles,  reflecting  many  colors. 
Again  this  is  remarkable  invention,  and  the  details  are  pushed  to  the 
extreme  of  finish,  but  it  is  hard  and  unsympathetic  and  shockingly 
inharmonious  in  color.  In  truth.  Hunt  has  no  genuine  color  sense. 
His  sincerity  led  him  to  spend  much  time  in  the  Holy  Land  for  pur- 
poses of  study  of  actualities. 

Principal  Works:  The  Strayed  Sheep,  The  Hireling  Shepherd,  The  Light  of 
the  World,  The  Scapegoat,  Christ  in  the  Temple,  The  Triumph  of  the  Innocents^ 
The  Miracle  of  the  Sacred  Fire. 

■A.  Stanhope  Forbes  (1837-,  English)  studies,  by  the  sea  in  Corn- 
wall, figures  in  boats,  the  port  and  its  picturesque  details  serving  as 
background.  He  is  a  realist  in  the  large  sense,  and  a  strong  painter- 
Thomas  Moran  (1837-,  American)  clings  to  much  of  the  style  of  the 
Hudson  River  School,  painting  landscape  "views"  in  the  Yellowstone 
Park,  with  bright  colors.  Many  imitations  of  Turner  have  come  from 
his  easel.  Jean  Paul  Laurens  (1838-,  French)  renders  Biblical  his- 
tory and  other  historical  subjects  with  a  vigor  in  technique  and  depth 
of  color  which  have  rarely  been  equaled.  Though  not  a  popular 
painter,  he  influences  many  young  students  to  do  vigorous  work  and  is 
greatly  admired  by  them.  His  picture  of  the  body  of  General 
Marceau  lying  in  state  is  a  triumph  of  directness  in  the  rendering  of  facts. 

Principal  Works  of  Forbes:    By  Order  of  the  Court. 

Principal  Works  of  Lavrens:  Death  of  Morceau,  Pope  Formosa,  Death  of  St. 
Genevieve, 


214  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

HippolyteBoulanger(i838-i874,  Belgian)  was  a  poor  boy  who  began 
life  painting  for  house  decorators,  but  went  into  the  country  to  study 
nature,  developing  a  lovable  art  much  like  that  of  the  Barbizon  men, 
first  low  toned  and  then  in  tender  grays  resembling  Corot's.  He 
changed  the  art  of  his  country.  Alfred  Varwee  (1838-,  Belgian) 
changed  the  character  of  domestic  animal  painting  in  Belgium, 
abandoning  the  silken  finish  of  Verboeckhoven.  Anton  Mauve 
(1838-1888,  Dutch)  lived  at  Laren,  a  little  village  south  of  the  Zuider 
Zee,  painting  sheep  and  other  domestic  animals  with  beautiful  senti- 
ment and  tender  color,  handling  them  frankly.  His  pictures  are  so 
simple  in  their  quiet  statement  of  facts  that  any  spot  would  seem  to 
answer,,  but  they  are  all  actual  scenes  on  the  sand  dunes  about  Laren. 
Mauve  is  to  the  sheep  and  animal  painters  of  the  recent  Dutch  school 
what  Israels  is  to  the  figure  painters.  His  following  is  considerable, 
many  imitating  his  color  and  handling  closely.  But  none  of  these 
can  handle  so  loosely  or  so  freely  as  he  did.  Cool  gray  color  and 
simple  lines,  flocks  of  sheep  in  quiet  movement,  the  sentiment  of 
restfulness  which  goes  with  long  lines  in  composition — these  are  his 
characteristics. 

Vilem  Rosenstand  (1838-,  Danish),  having  studied  in  Germany, 
followed  the  style  of  the  school  and  had  no  national  character. 
Edouard  von  Gebhardt  (1838-,  German)  lives  in  Diisseldorf  and 
paints  religious  subjects,  not  in  the  style  of  Schadow,  because  he  is  a 
protestant.  Choosing  medieval  German  costumes_  because  of  their 
picturesque  dignity,  and  the  faces  of  the  people  about  him  as  models, 
painted  just  as  they  are,  he  secures  realism  with  impressiveness. 
Rich,  low  tone  and  no  attention  to  useless  details,  make  these  noble 
works.  Jan  Matejko  (1838-1892,  Polish)  was  director  at  Crakow,  but 
painted  as  he  had  been  taught  in  Germany. 

Francis  Hopkinson  Smith  (1838-,  American)  is  a  clever  man 
whose  profession  is  that  of  a  contractor  for  laying  sea  walls  and  build- 
ing lighthouses.  For  amusement  he  paints,  and  this  to  so  good  pur- 
pose that  people  buy  his  pictures  at  high  prices.  He  is  witty  enough 
not  to  undertake  things  that  he  cannot  do.     A  few  lines  on  toned 


» 


> 

P 
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la 
o 

Eh 
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THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   PERSONAL   IN  ART        215 

paper  and  tinted  with  watercolors,  done  in  a  large  way,  are.  his 
claims  to  art  standing.  But  he  is  clever.  His  writing  is  also  clever 
and  very  popular,  covering  a  considerable  field  of  romance. 

Mariano  Fortuny  y  Carbo 

{1838-18^4.     Spanish. ) 

"The  Choice  of  a  Model,"  the  largest  of  Fortuny's  famous  pic- 
tures, which  has  recently  come  into  notice  through  the  accident  of  its 
purchase  for  a  large  sum  by  Senator  Clark  of  Montana,  was  exhibited 
at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1878,  together  with  enough  others  to  fill  an 
entire  wall.  This  was  the  largest  group  of  this  painter's  works  ever 
seen  at  that  time.  All  of  them  were  owned  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Stewart,  an 
American  residing' in  Paris  (familiarly  known  as  "Sugar  Stewart,"  to 
distinguish  him  from  the  millionaire  dry-goods  merchant),  who  was 
one  of  the  first  to  discover  Fortuny's  ability.  It  is  right  that  he 
should  have  the  credit  for  this. 

"The  Choice  of  a  Model"  is  only  as  large  as  tlie  panel  in  a  writing 
desk,  but  there  is  a  great  deal  in  it — people,  architecture  and  decora- 
tions. The  scene  represents  a  palace  interior  and  an  art  jury  of  the 
period  of  Louis  XV.  These  men  are  in  the  silken  clothes,  richly  colored, 
of  that  period  of  fine  coats,  and  the  gorgeous  interior  is  in  keeping 
with  the  clothes.  Having  cast  off  her  garments,  the  model  springs 
upon  a  table,  striking  an  attitude  quite  in  accord  with  the  posturing 
fashions  of  the  period. 

Richly  variegated  marbles,  decorations  ana  costumes  gave  Fortuny 
his  opportunity  to  lay  a  mosaic  of  pure  colors,  gay  but  harmonious. 
Possibly  this  use  of  pure  tones  was  the  first  of  the  sort  ever  seen  in  the 
world.  "Of  the  sort"  is  a  proper  limitation,  because  this  young 
artist  had  manifested  an  original  color  talent,  something  entirely  his 
own.  There  is  none  of  that  peculiar  ability  to  delineate  character, 
spoken  of  in  connection  with  Velasquez  and  Goya.  Wonderful  color 
sense,  brilliant  technique,  the  bravura  of  Goya  and  the  minuteness  of 
Meissonier  (but  without  his  wonderful  firmness),  these  characterized 
Fortuny. 


2i6  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Another  of  these  pictures,  quite  small  (as  they  all  were),  showed  a 
garden  beyond  a  wall  and  buildings,  the  orange  trees  bearing  per- 
fectly-formed fruit,  though  each  yellow  orb  was  no  larger  than  a  pin- 
head.  Many  figures,  no  larger  than  a  goose  quill  and  finished  to  the 
minutest  detail,  showed  the  effort  to  rival  the  great  painter  of  the 
minute.  He  fell  a  trifle  short  in  this,  though  the  color  left  nothing  to 
criticize.  Little  heads,  the  size  of  a  quarter  dollar,  were  rendered  in 
iridescent  colors  which  made  older  men  despair.  This  was  the  art 
of  a  man  still  very  young.  He  died  young,  carried  off  by  Roman 
fever  while  sketching  on  the  Campania  near  Rome. 

In  boyhood  he  revealed  his  talent  by  carving  and  decorating  some 
puppets  for  his  relative  who  made  the  itinerary  of  the  Spanish  prov- 
inces as  a  showman.  This  early  expression  of  form-and-color-sense 
attracted  attention,  bringing  the  penniless  boy  patrons  who  paid  his 
way  for  several  years  in  the  Academy  of  Barcelona.  Gaining  the 
prize  there  which  sent  him  as  a  beneficiary  to  Rome,  his  career  began 
auspiciously.  This  was  in  1857.  During  the  war  with  Morocco,  the 
Academy  of  Barcelona  commissioned  pictures  which  took  the  young 
man  to  Africa  and  gave  opportunity  for  limitless  use  of  his  color- 
talent,  resulting  in  the  reputation  already  spoken  off. 

Fortuny  was  the  first  manifestation  of  artistic  life  in  Spain  since 
the  death  of  Goya,  1828.  He  was  Spain's  second  comet  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  but  many  more  came  immediately,  most  of  them  fol- 
lowers of  his  style.  A  great  many  men,  not  Spaniards,  also  followed 
it.  His  wife  was  the  daughter  of  Frederigo  Madrazo.  As  an  etcher, 
his  brilliant  technique  created  a  revolution  in  style.  All  these  pic- 
tures at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1878  were  in  oils,  but  he  used  water- 
color  much  (then  unusual  on  the  continent),  and  every  medium  was 
at  his  command.  His  tireless  industry  and  intensity  of  purpose 
amazed  his  fellow  artists  and  eventually  caused  his  death. 

Principal  Works:  The  Spanish  Wedding,  The  Snake  Charmer,  Arab  Fantasia 
(Paris);  Portrait  of  Mme.  Garcia  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York);  An  Ecclesias- 
tic, Don  Quixote,  The  Mendicant  (Baltimore) ;  Tribunal  of  a  Cadi,  Carnival  of  Last 
Century,  Beach  at  Portici,  The  Choice  of  a  Model. 


-  ■  '          '-■.■■ 

■   ;  ,A  ■pf!^/!:'!!  ■ 

■  ■        ' 

Velasquez  —  The  Infanta  Margtterita. 


THE   GROWTH    OF  THE   PERSONAL   IN   ART         217 

John  Pettie  (1839-1893,  English,  born  in  Edinburgh)  was  an  his- 
torical, genre  and  portrait  painter;  exhibited  in  the  Royal  Academy 
in  1861;  "What-d'ye  Lack,"  painted  in  1862;  "A  Drum-head  Court 
Martial,"  1864;  "Arrested  for  Witchcraft,"  1866,  because  of  which 
picture  he  was  made  an  A.  R.  A.,  and  in  1874  he  obtained  the  full 
title  of  Royal  Academcian. 

Charles  Hermans  (1839,  Belgian)  is  a  sincere  naturalist,  working 
in  a  large  and  simple  way.  In  his  picture  "The  Dawn,"  he  shows  the 
entrance  to  an  all-night  ballroom  from  which  issue  a  young  and  well- 
dressed  man  and  two  prett)'  girls.  The  faces  seen  in  the  shadowy 
doorway  against  the  not  yet  extinguished  gas,  are  simple  black  sil- 
houettes, an  evident  truth  but  one  which  shocked  the  mannered  Diis- 
seldorf  painters  when  the  work  was  exhibited  there.  His  insistence 
upon  actual  truth  did  much  for  Belgian  art.  Wilhelm  Diez  (1839-, 
German)  studied  with  Piloty  but  laid  out  his  own  course,  tending  to 
simplicity,  dignity  and  a  certain  resemblance  to  the  manner  of  some 
old  Dutch  and  early  German  painters.  He  has  an  original  way  with 
him  and  many  pupils  seek  to  follow  it.  Constantin  Makovsky 
(1839-,  Russian)  and  his  brother,  Vladimir  (1846-),  are  extremely 
popular  painters,  representing  Russian  life  as  it  really  is,  some  senti- 
mental story  interpolated  with  the  reality.  Large  pictures,  over- 
loaded with  detail  and  true  to  textures  rather  than  correct  observation 
of  the  light  of  heaven.  The  widely-known  "Russian  Wedding  Feast," 
with  every  inch  of  space  loaded  with  embroidery  and  jeweled  gar- 
ments, is  not  at  all  great  art.  Most  Russian  painters  contented  them- 
selves with  following  the  methods  of  the  schools  they  studied  in,  as 
Wagner  (1838-)  and  Liezen-Mayer  (1839-1898),  who  became  instruct- 
ors in  the  academy  at  Munich,  following  Piloty' s  methods.  Edoardo 
Zamacois  (1840-1871,  Spanish)  had  much  of  the  cleverness  of  Fortuny 
but  was  not  so  lightsome  a  painter.  All  his  genre  pictures  are  fin- 
ished to  the  extreme  of  the  possible,  well  colored  and  pretty  strong. 
A  baby  prone  on  the  floor  rolling  a  ball  at  tin  soldiers  which  an 
attendant  field  marshall  in  gorgeous  uniform  has  set  up  for  him,  repre- 


2i8  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

sents  "The  Education  of  a  Prince,"  and  it  is  one  of  his  famous  pic- 
tures. Gabriel  Max  (1840-,  German)  was  the  outcome  of  the  Piloty 
studio,  but  did  not  imitate  his  master.  Instead  of  striking  contrasts  of 
cool  and  violent  warm  color,  Max  was  a  painter  of  cool  tones  and 
simple  effects,  a  very  dignified  art  and  original.  Throughout  the 
works  runs  a  strain  of  affectation  of  materialism  in  spirit-manifesta- 
tions, as  the  "Spirit's  Greeting,"  a  girl  of  serious  aspect  touched  on 
the  shoulder  by  an  armless  hand  from  spirit  land.  The  manner  of 
treatment  prejudiced  some  people  against  the  man's  art,  and  indeed 
it  was  too  "common"  in  conception.  Hans  Markart  (1840-1884, 
German)  undertook  to  rival  the  gorgeous  color  of  the  great  Venetians. 
His  enormous  panels  are  good  decorations  but  without  any  indication 
of  original  conception.     Scenes  from  Venice  furnished  him  themes. 

Principal  Works  of  Makovsky:    Choice  of  the  Bride,  Russian  Wedding  Feast. 

Principal  Works  of  Zamacois:  A  Good  Pastor,  The  Entrance  to  the  Convent, 
Education  of  a  Prince,  Favorite  of  a  King. 

Principal  Works  of  Max:  The  Anatomist,  Head  of  Christ,  Crucifixion,  Mar 
garet  on  Walpurgis  Night,  Maiden  Martyr  in  the  Arena,  The  Lion's  Bride. 

Principal  Works  of  Makart:  The  Pest  in  Florence,  The  Plague  in  Florence, 
Catharine  Cornaro  Receiving  the  Homage  of  the  Venetian  Nobles,  the  Entry  of 
Charles  V.  into  Antwerp. 

Briton  Riviere  (1840-,  English)  is  one  of  the  good  painters  whom 
modern  England  has  produced.  He  treats  animals  in  a  natural  way, 
as  where  the  lions  roam  at  will  by  moonlight  amid  the  ruins  of  ancient 
edifices.  The  sense  of  solitude  and  abandonment  and  the  mystery  of 
atmosphere  are  admirably  given. 

Principal  Works:  The  Poacher's  Nurse,  Circe,  PersepoHs,  Daniel  in  the 
Den  of  Lions,  Sympathy,  Rizpah,  The  Exile. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

IMPRESSIONISM— ITS   FOLLOWERS   AND  ITS 
OPPONENTS 

As  usual,,  the  list  of  France  is  the  most  important,  including 
Monet,  Vibert,  Regnault,  Lhermitte,  Benjamin-Constant,  Merson, 
Detaille,  Bastien-Lepage,  Besnard.  Frederick  Walker  and  Walter 
Crane  appear  in  England;  Thaulow  and  others  in  Norway;  Denmark 
makes  some  showing;  Madrazo  and  Pradilla  are  brilliant  in  Spain; 
Italy  has  Chialiva;  Repin  and  Munkacsy  draw  attention  to  Russia;  and 
in  America  Tiffany.  Blashfield  and  Thayer  do  excellent  work. 

Claude  Jean  Monet 

{184.0 — .     French.^ 

Monet  insisted  on  making  his  shadows  luminous,  as  nature  is.  He 
discovered  that  he  could  manage  with  very  little  of  the  colorless  white 
if  he  laid  little  spots  of  pure  pale  yellow,  pale  red  and  pale  blue  (pri- 
mary colors  of  the  spectrum)  closely  side  by  side,  like  stitches  in 
embroidery.  Mixed  together,  these  made  dull  gray.  Kept  pure  and 
separate,  they  made  light.  It  was  the  application  to  paint  of  a  simple 
principle  in  optics.  Of  course,  as  he  used  almost  no  pure  white,  he 
avoided  the  cold  colorlessness  of  white.  He  could  make  it  a  yellow 
light  by  using  more  of  yellow  than  of  the  other  two  colors;  blue  by 
using  more  of  the  blue,  and  so  with  red.  It  was  as  simple  as  that 
famous  (tgg  of  Columbus,  when  once  demonstrated.  One  difficulty 
was  the  excessive  roughness  and  rudeness  of  the  painted  surface. 
People  like  their  pictures  smooth.  He  braved  public  opinion  and  did 
as  seemed  to  him  correct.  People  learned  that  his  pictures  were  more 
alive  than  others,  and  they  accepted  the  roughness,  finally  liking  it 
as  they  learn  to  like  old  cheese.     The  roughness  became  a  virtue, 

219 


220  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

because  the  paint  glimmered  as  ligiit  does  instead  of  looking  dull  and 
lifeless. 

Every  one  knows  that  music  can  be  reduced  to  science  of  har- 
mony; to  a  mathematical  formula.  Monet  reduced  his  scheme  for 
the  management  of  colors  to  a  mathematical  formula.  Any  skillful 
person  can  learn  to  play  the  piano  by  this  musical  formula,  and  any 
one  can  paint  a  picture  by  Monet's  mathematics  of  color.  Only  a 
musical  genius  can  make  so  sensitive  a  use  of  the  mathematics  of 
music  as  to  give  us  pleasure,  and  only  a  painter  genius  can  use  Monet's 
formula  delightfully.  Fortunately,  he  was  such  a  genius.  "Which 
the  Egyptians  assaying  to  do  were  drowned,"  says  the  Scripture. 
Many  painters  essaying  to  do  this,  proved  themselves  Egyptians,  and 
this  is  the  reason  that  so  few  practice  it  now.  Almost  every  painter 
uses  the  principle  somewhat,  however.  Among  American  artists, 
Childe  Hassam  has  sufficient  genius  to  use  it  admirably.  So  does  the 
Frenchman,  Henri  Martin.  They  are  in  no  sense  imitators  of  Monet, 
but  rather  competitors  for  the  honors  of  the  situation. 

It  is  not  as  possible  to  reduce  the  art  of  Edouard  Manet,  the  elder 
impressionist,  to  a  science  or  tell  with  exactness  wherein  lie  his  claims 
to  inventiveness.  All  artists  were  searching  for  the  truths  of  "values," 
and  Manet  found  them.  As  pure  white  is  one  extreme  of  the  palette 
and  pure  black  the  other  extreme,  it  required  a  very  sharp  eye  to  dis- 
cover the  relative  "value"  of  every  light  object  in  its  relation  to  white 
and  every  dark  object  in  its  relation  to  black.  This  was  the  problem 
which  Manet  attacked  and  conquered.  He  at  once  rejected  every- 
thing in  nature  which  was  non-essential  and  confined  his  attention  to 
the  exact  value  which  an  object  held,  thus  creating  an  "impression" 
of  truth,  going  further  than  had  ever  been  done.  It  was  a  great  les- 
son that  he  taught  the  world.  But  for  this  lesson,  it  is  improbable 
that  Monet  would  ever  have  made  his  discovery.  Also  Manet  proved 
how  much  the  artists  had  been  the  slaves  of  non-essentials.  His  work 
was  not  pretty,  because  that  element  of  prettiness  had  long  been  the 
bane  of  true  rendering  of  nature.  His  works  taught  the  world  that 
a  fitly  spoken  word  of  truth  is  worth  more  than  tedious  words  uselessly 


IMPRESSIONISM  221 

repeated,  and  that  finish  is  not  necessarily  good  art.  These  men's 
names  will  be  written  high  on  the  walls  of  the  pantheon  of  art  his- 
tory. It  seems  strange  that  the  world  should  for  a  moment  have 
imagined  that  Rossetti  was  finding  truth  because  he  imitated  the  prim- 
itives in  their  limitations,  by  painfully  laboring  over  hundreds  of 
minute  leaf  forms  while  still  ignoring  the  first  essentials  (which  every 
artist  knew  to  be  essentials),  the  relationship  between  these  leaves  and 
the  sky  and  distance.  However,  the  mistaken  and  poetical  Rossetti 
was  not  a  painter  genius;  the  pen  was  his  true  instrument. 

Edouard  Manet's  painting  was  broad  and  free  in  touch,  made  with 
a  full  brush.  He  never  used  the  embroidery-stitch  which  Claude 
Monet  invented.  The  purple  shadow  is  no  essential  part  of  the  art  of 
the  former — possibly  is  never  found  in  his  painting.  This  purple 
shadow  is  a  part  of  the  principle  of  the  light  effects  of  Monet;  helping 
to  create  the  effect  of  luminosity  in  shadow  by  contrast  with  the 
warmed  white  (yellow)  used  in  all  the  lights.  It  may  or  may  not  be 
truthful  exactly— who  knows  what  is  the  true  color  of  light  or  the 
exact  color  of  shadow?  In  principle  it  is  certainly  true,  though  it  may 
be  a  sacrifice  of  certain  truths  for  the  sake  of  others. 

Principal  Works:  Mouth  of  Seine  at  Honfleur,  Caniille,  Fontainebleau  Forest, 
Vessels  Leaving  Le  Havre,  Lavacourt,  Breaking  Up  of  the  Ice  on  the  Seine,  Low- 
Tide  at  Pourville,  Snow  at  Port  Villers,  La  Manne  Porte  at  Etretat,  Study  of  Willow 
Trees,  Canal  in  Holland,  A  Wheat  Field,  The  Seine  at  Givemy,  Fourteen  Studies 
of  the  West  Front  of  the  Cathedral  at  Rouen,  and  many  Landscapes. 

Auguste  Renoir,  Alfred  Sisley  and  Camilla  Pissarro  should  be 
spoken  of  with  enthusiasm  as  followers  of  this  school  of  painting,  and 
Georges  Seurat  who,  with  the  strange  commingling  of  paint-spot- 
tings,  secured  an  effect  meaning  nothing  near  at  hand,  but  gleaming 
wonderfully  at  a  proper  distance. 

Jean  Francois  Raffaelli  is  a  Parisian  born  and  his  bearing  and  his 
work  show  it.  Though  schooled  in  art  under  Gerfime,  his  paint- 
ings reveals  no  trace  of  his  master's  influence,  except  the  results  of 
perfect  training  in  drawing.     It  is  customary  to  class  him  with  the 


222  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

impressionists,  but  his  painting  resembles  the  work  of  no  leader  of 
that  movement,  except  that  his  statements  of  nature's  truths,  which 
are  observed  very  keenly,  are  expressed  in  the  briefest  possible 
terms.  He  startled  the  art  world  by  presenting  views  of  Paris,  its 
streets  crowded  with  hints  of  many  moving  figures,  and  its  characteristic 
inhabitants  in  pathetic  situations,  the  painting  executed  in  an  unknown 
handling.  It  seems  as  if  he  had  drawn  all  the  buildings  and  figures 
with  charcoal,  in  loose,  scratchy  lines,  not  unlike  an  enormous  and 
careless  etching.  At  first  glance,  these  lines  seemed  quite  purpose- 
less, but  a  few  moments  of  study  revealed  their  full  meaning.  All  the 
canvas  beneath  these  scratchy  lines  seemed  entirely  bare  excepting 
at  certain  parts  where  remarkably  refined  colors  had  been  smuggled 
in.  It  was  discovered  that  the  rude  line  work  had  been  made  with 
crayons  of  solid  oil  paint,  something  of  his  own  invention.  So  refined 
and  poetical  was  the  sentiment  of  the  work  that  all  artists  accepted  it 
at  once.  Finally  Mr.  Raffaelli  invented  a  series  of  paint-crayons, 
imitating  all  the  tints  of  the  palette,  which  have  been  received  with  a 
great  deal  of  favor  by  noted  artists.  The  use  of  these  is  advantageous 
because  no  brushes  are  required  in  producing  the  painting,  thus  saving 
much  inconvenience.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  these  solid-oil 
sticks  will  create  a  revolution  in  painting,  but  the  invention  is  interest- 
ing and  ingenious. 

Jean  Georges  Vibert  (1840-,  French)  is  one  of  the  most  clever  of 
the  very  fine  French  technicians.  He  has  studied  the  chemistry  of 
colors  and  made  many  valuable  additions  to  the  painter's  palette. 
Whether  this  is  a  good  thing  for  art  or  not  depends  upon  one's  taste. 
The  finest  pictures  are  made  with  a  simple  palette — perhaps.  Vibert 
believes  in  using  pure  pigments  in  abundance,  even  to  a  point  which 
by  some  is  regarded  as  violent  crudity.  No  blossom  is  too  brilliant  in 
color  for  his  palette.  He  makes  them  and  his  stuffs  more  crudely  true 
than  the  facts  demand.  Subjects  without  limit  which  call  for  the  rep- 
resentation of  cardinals  in  scarlet  robes  occupy  his  attention.  These  are 
frequently  humorous,  like  the  scene  where  cardinals  are  at  outs  over 
an  ecclesiastical   argument,  or  where  two  are  engaged  in  burning  bad 


IMPRESSIONISM  223 

books  but  find  themselves  seduced  into  the  absorbed  perusal  of  the 
forbidden  literature — anything  to  give  the  opportunity  to  paint  a  red 
robe  and  tell  a  funny  story.  It  is  pretty  and  talented,  but  not  noble 
art.  He  founded  the  French  Watercolor  Society  not  long  ago.  It 
was  some  time  before  the  French  artists  were  willing  to  take  water 
colors  seriously,  as  they  looked  upon  it  as  a  trifling  and  unimportant 
medium.  Now  they  have  learned  from  the  Dutch  artists  and  from 
such  men  as  Menzel  its  capabilities. 

Principal  Works:  Grasshopper  and  Ant,  Monseigneur's  Antechamber,  Com- 
mittee on  Moral  Books  (New  York);  Gulliver  and  the  Liliputians  (Baltimore). 

Fred  Walker  (1840-1875,  English)  died  so  young  that  his  works 
are  not  numerous,  but  the  influence  left  in  the  world,  in  and  outside 
of  England,  might  be  the  envy  of  more  conspicuous  men.  With  little 
sound  health  and  a  retired  life  he  made  no  noise — his  art  did  the 
talking.  Small  pictures,  many  of  them  in  watercolors,  were  made  very 
tender  and  revealed  so  much  of  that  sentiment  which  we  call  "artistic" 
for  want  of  a  more  specific  term  to  describe  the  matter  we  feel  but 
cannot  analyze;  these  have  laid  hold  of  artists'  hearts.  Recognizing 
the  British  love  for  story,  he  still  managed  his  subject  matter  not 
anecdotically  but  as  a  pastoral  poem.  Besides  this,  the  technique  was 
wonderfully  good.  In  one  of  his  important  works,  a  lithe  young  man 
mows  the  lawn  of  an  old  peoples'  home,  at  sundown.  Many  old  tod- 
dlers sit  about  an  ancient  fountain  in  the  center  background,  while 
just  in  front  an  erect  young  woman,  looking  calmly  ahead  into  the 
future,  sustains  an  old  woman  who  looks  nowhere  but  muses  silently, 
and  near  them  the  mower  irresistibly  swings  his  scythe.  A  simple 
subject,  but  nobly  painted.  The  reproduction  of  this  hangs  in  many 
of  our  homes. 

Walker  and  Mason  (twenty-two  years  older)  are  the  men  of  this 
period  in  the  production  of  figures  in  landscape  painting.  Turner 
died  when  Walker  was  eleven  years  old.  Cabanel,  Bouguereau  and 
Gerome  were  flourishing  during  his  lifetime.  Menzel  was  thirty-five 
years  his  senior. 

Principal  Works:    The  Plow,  The  Old  Gate. 


224  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Marcus  Stone  (1840-,  English)  is  a  pure  story-telling  artist  who 
paints  well. 

Thomas  Hovenden  (1840-1895,  American)  came  from  Ireland,  the 
land  of  his  birth,  when  a  young  man.  His  education  was  Parisian  and 
pretty  thorough,  and  he  produced  genre  pictures,  scenes  laid  in 
American  life.  His  "Breaking  Home  Ties,"  at  the  Columbian  Expo- 
sition, created  an  enormous  impression  upon  thousands  of  people  who 
read  in  it  the  story  of  many  American  boys.  He  painted  well  enough, 
but  was  neither  great  nor  original  except  in  subject. 

Polish  painters  went  to  Munich,  as  Brandt,  Rosen  and  Kowalski, 
and  created  no  original  art,  though  reproducing  their  local  life. 
Albert  Moore  (1841-1892,  English)  created  a  good  deal  of  a  sensation 
with  decorative  panels  filled  with  studiedly  draped  women  quietly 
posing  in  a  long  row.  His  painting  resembles  that  of  Alma  Tadema 
considerably,  or  he  may  be  placed  between  Tadema  and  Leighton. 
A  certain  original  decorative  sense  makes  these  interesting,  though 
they  look  better  in  reproduction  than  in  the  original,  being  softened 
in  the  half-tone  process.  Charles  N.  Henry  (1841-,  English)  is  a 
marine  painter  who  lives  on  his  yacht  and  studies  faithfully  the  life  of 
the  ocean  and  navigators,  painting  human  figures  in  action  well.  Sir 
George  Reid  (1841-,  Scotch),  president  of  the  Scotch  Academy, 
paints  a  good  deal  like  Mauve,  making  refined  landscapes. 

Raimundo  de  Madrazo  (1841-,  Spanish)  is  a  descendant  of  an 
influential  line  of  painters.  His  home  has  been  much  in  Paris,  though 
his  native  country  has  not  been  neglected.  Fortuny  was  his  master 
and  his  painting  resembles  the  brilliant  leader's  work  in  dash,  color 
and  treatment,  being  nearly  an  imitation.  His  picture  of  revelers 
issuing  from  a  mansion  at  dawn  after  a  masked  ball,  is  a  well-told 
story,  the  pretty  women  in  gay  costumes  adding  to  the  picturesque- 
ness.  Beside  the  door  stands  a  group  of  coachmen  and  servants,  one 
reading  the  "Petit  Journal"  while  the  others  listen,  suggesting  that 
influence  and  power  and  political  control  may  pass  from  the  favored 
mortals    into   the    hands   of    the    despised   and   humble.      A   hint   of 


IMPRESSIONISM  225 

laborers  going  to  their  work,  some  of  them  not  employed  in  very 
clean  occupations,  gives  additional  force  to  the  contrast.  Fortuny 
was  the  brother-in-law  of  this  Madrazo. 

Principal  Works:  End  of  a  Masked  Ball  (New  York) ;  El  Jaleo  (Philadelphia) ; 
My  Model,  La  Soubrette. 

Marie  Collaert  (1842-,  Belgian)  is  a  woman  painter  who  rivals,  if 
not  exceeds,  Rosa  Bonheur  in  the  painting  of  cattle  with  strength. 
Francisco  Domingo  (1842-,  Spanish),  a  dainty  brushman  and  colorist, 
follows  the  lead  of  Meissonier,  making  domestic  scenes.  Otto 
Sinding  (1842-,  Norwegian)  paints  well,  but  in  various  manners,  seem- 
ing to  be  an  imitator.  Vassili  Verestchagin  (1842-,  Russian)  has 
managed  his  business  so  as  to  attract  wide  attention  to  himself.  Sent 
out  by  the  Russian  government  to  delineate  the  events  of  the  Russo- 
Turkish  war,  he  was  seriously  wounded  as  a  reward  for  his  reckless 
bravery.  The  horrors  in  his  too  faithful  renderings  of  war  caused  the 
government  to  reject  his  works,  which  he  then  took  to  Paris  and  (posing 
as  the  advocate  of  peace)  created  a  sensation,  which  continued  around 
the  world.  He  is  not  a  great  painter.  Luigi  Chialiva  (1842-,  Italian) 
lives  near  Paris  but  paints  in  his  own  way,  with  the  delicacy  and  sen- 
timent of  his  race,  rendering  figures  with  sheep,  geese,  turkeys  or  other 
domestic  creatures,  in  landscape,  with  graceful  groupings  and  tender 
color.  His  pictures  are  not  marked  by  that  dashing  technique  and 
extravagant  color  which  is  the  pride  and  perhaps  the  taint  of  the  mod- 
ern Italians.     His  work  is  more  normal  and  healthy. 

Leon  Lhermitte  (1844-,  French)  has  ability  beyond  most  artists  to 
render  his  transcript  from  nature  (peasants  at  toil  or  at  rest  in  the 
woods  or  the  hay  field)  with  rugged  vigor,  sentiment  and  directness  of 
touch.  Sometimes  his  peasants  tell  a  Scripture  story.  Giovanni 
Boldini  (1844-,  Italian)  is  the  most  striking  example  of  that  dashing 
technique,  the  doubtful  glory  of  recent  Italian  art.  His  full-length 
portraits  astonish  the  visitors  to  each  international  exposition,  because 
of  the  strange  and  almost  grotesque  picturesqueness  of  the  pose  and 
the  wonderfully  clever  brush  work.     The  women   in  his  portraits  are 


226  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

all  coquettes.  Wilhelm  Leibl  (1844-,  German),  a  man  of  consummate 
ability,  is  capable  of  imitating  Holbein  without  losing  the  respect  of 
the  most  exacting  art  critic.  His  motives  are  found  in  real  life  and 
painted  with  intense  sincerity  in  the  manner  of  the  old  German  mas- 
ter. Albert  Neuhuijs  (1844-,  Dutch)  follows  the  lead  of  Israels  in 
painting  Dutch  fisher  and  peasant  life  with  its  quiet  peacefulness,  in 
colors  harmonious  and  grave.  Wilhelm  von  Gagerfeldt  (1844-, 
Swedish)  paints  like  no  one  else,  a  richly-toned,  mysterious  landscape 
in  sparkling  grays  made  with  the  lower  notes  of  his  palette.  Hlias 
Repin  (1844-,  Russian).  Realism,  as  applied  to  scenes  of  Russian 
life,  could  not  be  carried  farther  than  this  man  goes.  His  technique 
has  been  learned  in  Paris,  but  his  treatment  is  original,  impressive 
and  thoroughly  national.  In  the  'Tnsulting  Reply"  picture  (Cossacks 
writing  to  the  Tzar)  he  is  brutally  faithful  to  character.  His  theater 
gallery  full  of  people  laughing  at  some  witticism  in  the  play  keeps 
this  other  picture  company;  but  the  "Return  of  an  Exile  to  His  Fam- 
ily" is  quiet,  pathetic  and  intensely  true.  Unlike  Verestchagin,  he  is 
a  superb  painter  and  not  a  poseur.  Mihali  Munkacsy  (1844-,  Hun- 
garian) has  made  for  himself  a  wide  reputation  with  his  large  picture, 
"Christ  Before  Pilate"  (owned  in  America).  The  scene  is  literally 
and  forcibly  portrayed,  but  the  arrangement  is  conventional  on  very 
much  used  lines.  It  is  as  a  painter  of  rich,  deep  color  that  he  can 
claim  distinction;  largely  genre  pictures.  One  of  his  best  known 
pupils  is  Dannat,  the  American.  Julius  Benczur  (1844-,  Russian)  is 
director  at  Buda-Pesth  and  follows  Piloty's  manner.  John  Appleton 
Brown  (1844-,  American)  studied  in  Paris  and  paints  a  pleasing  gray 
landscape  on  simple  lines.  C.  S.  Reinhart  (1844-,  American)  has 
been  much  on  the  plains  in  our  western  country  and  gives  faithful 
and  sprightly  renderings  of  wild  Indian  and  soldier  life.  Henri 
Regnault  (1843-1871,  French),  a  brilliant  young  man,  worshiped  by 
the  students  in  Paris.  He  was  killed  in  battle  during  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war.  In  the  Orient  he  found  the  colors  and  costumes  for 
magnificent  effects.  The  "Execution  in  the  Alhambra"  shocked  the 
world.     On  a  grand   staircase  an  executioner  has  caught  his  victim 


IMPRESSIONISM 


227 


and  with  one  blow  of  his  sword  whipped  off  his  head,  which  rolls 
down  the  stairs  followed  by  streams  of  too  literally  painted  blood. 
The  executioner  quietly  wipes  his  sword.  It  is  a  magnificent  work  of 
art,  though  so  shocking. 

Principal  Works:     Execution  at  Grenada,  Portrait  of  General  Prim. 

Ernest  Duez  (1843-1896,  French),  a  strong  painter  of  figures  in 
landscape,  quiet  and  dignified  in  treatment,  sometimes  with  a  religious 
tendency.  Edoardo  Dalbono  (1843-,  Italian)  follows  the  lead  of 
Morelli.  Over-dashing  in  technique,  forced  in  color,  clever  to  a  fault, 
he  has  painted  some  horrors;  but  usually  represents  the  Bay  of  Naples 
with  its  gay  festival  life  or  with  allegorical  conceptions.  Though 
somewhat  shallow  and  lacking  serious  conviction,  his  work  is  pleas- 
ing. Carl  Gussow  (1843-,  German)  abandoned  the  theatrical  treat- 
ment of  Piloty  for  a  healthy  realism,  indicating  a  remarkably  keen 
observation  of  the  aspect  of  objects  and  figures.  Anton  von  Werner 
(1843-,  German)  is  another  in  this  line  of  serious  literalists.  George 
von  Rosen  (1843-,  Swedish)  has  some  of  the  stilted  over-action  learned 
in  various  schools,  but  his  portraits  are  dignified.  He  is  director  at 
Stockholm.  Ludwig  Munthe  (1843-,  Norwegian)  studied  in  Dussel- 
dorf,  but  even  before  leaving  there  displayed  originality  and  force  in 
winter  landscapes.  Christian  Zahrtmann  (1843-,  Danish),  though  a 
student  in  several  schools,  keeps  to  a  good  national  individuality. 
Christian  Zacho  (1843-,  Danish)  paints  landscape  much  in  the  style 
of  the  colorful  impressionists,  which  has  been  good  for  the  too  grave 
Danish  artists. 

Jean  Joseph  Benjamin-Constant  (1845-1902,  French),  a  powerful 
painter,  rich  colorist,  who  laughed  at  artists  who  could  not  give  the 
fullness  of  the  palette,  was  a  leading  painter  who  greatly  influenced 
the  rising  generation  of  students.  Oriental  subjects  pleased  him,  and 
he  treated  them  differently  from  all  others.  The  artist's  very  first 
picture — "Hamlet  and  the  King" — created  a  sensation  at  the  salon  in 
1869.  But  it  was  his  Morocco  subjects  that  made  him  famous,  as  they 
were  at  once  dramatic  and  daring  in  subject. 


228  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Benjamin-Constant  laid  paint  in  the  most  positive  manner,  being 
the  embodiment  of  that  result  of  thorough  schooling  which  is  the 
pride  of  the  French;  using  color  pure  from  the  tube  without  the 
admixture  of  white  except  when  absolutely  essential  to  the  rendering 
of  light,  and  thus  commanding  a  richness  which  those  who  mix  too 
much  never  attain.  His  recent  portrait  of  Queen  Victoria,  a  very 
large  picture,  is  so  glowing  in  tones  of  the  full  palette  that  it  pales 
everything  else  in  a  gallery. 

Principal  Works:  A  Woman  of  the  Riff  Coast,' Prisoners  of  Morocco,  Women 
of  the  Harem,  Entrance  of  Mahomet  II.  into  Constantinople  in  1443,  Portrait  of 
Emmanuel  Arago,  The  Last  of  the  Rebels,  Cherifas,  Justice  in  the  Harem,  Justi- 
nian, The  Moonlight  Sonata;  Portrait  of  the  Painter's  Son  Andre  (Luxembourg); 
Portraits  of  M.  Chaplain,  Lord  Dufferin,  the  Due  d'Auniale,  M.  Maurel,  Mr.  Jay 
Gould,  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote,  Mme.  Benjamin-Constant,  the  Grand  Duchess  Paul 
of  Mecklenburg,  Mme.  Calve,  the  Princess  Radziwill,  and  Queen  Victoria  on  her 
Throne  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

Luis  Jiminez  (1845-,  Spanish),  one  of  those  astonishingly  dextrous 
painters  that  Spain  and  Italy  have  so  often  produced  in  this  genera- 
tion. His  figures  are  beautifully  made.  Ludwig  Loefftz  (1845,  Ger- 
man) was  until  i-ecently  director  at  Munich.  All  the  masters  from 
Quentin  Matsys  through  Holbein  and  Van  Dyck  have  so  influenced  his 
manner  that  he  has  almost  copied  them.  He  has  great  skill  if  no 
originality.  Albert  Keller  (1845-,  German)  is  a  colorist  who  first  of 
all  studies  color  arrangement.  Beautiful  gray  tone  and  combinations 
of  color  are  applied  to  portraits  and  fashionable  interiors  of  the 
period.  Blommers  (1845-,  Dutch)  is  another  follower  of  Israels, 
painting  ripe  tones  with  little  positive  pigment,  rendering  the  pathetic 
life  of  the  Dutch  peasantry.  Hugo  Salmson  (1845-,  Swedish)  is  a 
strong  painter  of  scenes  from  his  native  country,  figures  of  importance 
in  landscape,  in  refined  color  and  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  Bastien- 
Lepage.  Gottfred  Christensen  (1845-,  Danish)  is  another  who  helped 
out  the  heavy  Danes  in  the  matter  of  color  and  departed  from  the 
severe  naturalism  which  prevailed.  Frank  Holl  (1845-1888,  English) 
painted  portraits  with  singular  appreciation  of  pose  and  characterful 


IMPRESSIONISM 


22g 


arrangement,  holding  worthily  a  high  place.  Robert  Gibb  (1845-, 
Scotch),  though  never  a  soldier,  paints  military  scenes,  the  Crimean 
war  furnishing  the  pathetic  subjects.  He  began  with  landscape  and 
anecdotic  pictures. 

Luc  Olivier  Merson  (1846-,  French)  made  an  impression  with  his 
"Repose  in  Egypt,"  in  the  salon  of  1879,  because  it  was  so  very 
unusual  in  conception.  He  painted  a  representation  of  the  plains  of  a 
desert  country  entirely  in  a  peculiar  bluish-gray  tone,  with  very  little 
contrast  between  the  land  and  the  sky.  In  this  solitude  the  sphinx 
stands  quite  alone  under  a  starry  sky.  Reposing  in  the  arms  of  the 
sphinx,  Mary  and  the  Babe  sleep.  From  the  figures  gleams  a  soft 
light,  the  sacred  halo.  Near  by,  Joseph  sleeps  and  the  ass  stands  in 
an  attitude  of  repose.  Beside  them  the  remains  of  a  fire  are  smoldering 
and  sending  up  a  thread  of  smoke,  like  a  motionless  indicator  of  the 
absolute  windlessness  of  the  air.  Nothing  could  more  thoroughly 
suggest  solitude,  silence  and  repose.  This  picture  is  now  in  St.  Louis. 
Beginning  as  a  pupil  of  the  classicist  Pils,  Merson  has  invented  his 
own  uses  for  his  talent. 

Principal  Works:  The  Vision  of  the  Cross,  Sacrifice  to  Patriotism,  St.  Francis 
Preaching  to  the  Fishes,  Two  Decorations  in  the  Palace  of  Justice  (Paris); 
Arrival  at  Bethlehem. 

Jerndorff  (1846-,  Danish)  is  a  very  good  portrait  painter.  Walter 
Gay  (1846-,  American)  paints  French  subjects  and  lives  in  France. 
Alfred  Roll  (1846-,  French)  produces  large  pictures  of  work  people, 
often  delineating  their  pathetic  life  and  with  great  power,  in  gray 
tones.  He  has  made  beautiful  pastorals,  very  simple  and  imposing, 
with  exquisite  tone.  Francesco  Pradilla  (1847-,  Spanish)  is  another 
of  the  astonishingly  fine  brushmen  of  the  south.  The  Frenchman 
Laurens  influenced  him  to  a  severe  manner,  but  he  can  do  anything 
with  paint  and  handle  any  subject,  terrible  or  commonplace,  history, 
camps,  seaside  resorts  or  domestic  scenes;  he  is  an  acrobat  with  paint, 
true  in  observation  but  not  full  of  conviction.  Pradilla's  painting  of 
the   "Surrender  of  Grenada"  secured  him  a  gold  medal  at  the  exposi- 


230  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

tion  at  Munich  in  1882,  and  he  had  previously  been  honored  in  the 
same  manner  at  Paris  in  1878  for  the  "Joan  the  Maid,"  which  was  in  the 
solid  manner  of  Laurens.  In  the  Grenada  picture  there  are  grouped 
on  the  right  the  king  and  queen  on  horseback  and  a  multitude  of 
attendants,  while  be5'ond  is  a  glimpse  of  the  captured  city.  Balancing 
these  is  the  figure  of  the  captive  chief  of  the  Moors,  Boabdil,  who  is 
received  with  the  honor  which  his  extraordinary  abilities  deserved. 
All  the  massive  composition  and  solid  handling  of  the  artist's  early 
days  have  been  abandoned  here  for  a  butterfly  touch,  extraordinarily 
pleasing,  but  not  very  serious. 

Fritz  Thaulow  (1847-,  Norwegian)  is  called  the  Apollo  of  the 
north,  and  paints  magnificently  the  landscapes  of  his  own  country  and 
the  north  coast  of  France.  His  moonlights  are  among  the  finest  of 
recent  times.  Thaulow  has  made  a  special  study  of  running  water,  as 
when  it  issues  from  the  tail  of  a  mill  race.  Of  course  the  picturesque- 
ness  of  the  mill  also  gives  him  opportunity  to  paint  old  brick  and  the 
attractive  surroundings.  Formerly  his  habit  was  to  make  all  his  pic- 
tures directly  from  nature,  but  the  moonlights  had  to  be  produced 
from  observation,  so  that  his  power  for  memorizing  increased  greatly 
and  the  result  has  been  fluency  of  expression  and  attention  to  artistic 
treatment  independent  of  the  literal  rendering  of  textures.  Now  he 
has  become  one  of  the  most  forceful  manipulators  of  poetic  effects, 
rich  in  color  and  full  of  mystery  in  treatment. 

Jan  Ekenaes  (1847-,  Norwegian)  finds  in  the  fisher  people  of  his 
land  subjects  to  paint  with  force  and  character.  Like  most  of  the 
recent  Scandinavians,  educated  in  good  foreign  art  schools,  he  has 
used  excellent  technique  to  develop  his  national  character.  F.  A. 
Bridgman  (1847-,  American)  was  a  pupil  of  Gerome  and  painted  at 
first  exactly  like  his  master,  having  success  with  his  "Burial  of  the 
Mummy,"  mourners  in  boats  crossing  the  Nile.  Oriental  subjects 
occupy  him,  but  nothing  better  has  come  from  his  easel.  John 
Macallan  Swan  (1847-,  Scotch)  has  remarkable  talent  in  representing 


Bastien-Le  Page  —  The  Hat-makers. 


IMPRESSIONISM  231 

wild  animals  and  wild  naked   men  among  them.     His  attitudes  are 
superb  and  original. 

Daniel  Urrabita,  called  Vierge  (1847-1882,  Spanish)  did  not  put 
forth  an  extensive  array  of  paintings,  but  he  is  the  father  of  the 
modern  manner  of  working  with  pen  and  ink,  ink  washes  and  other 
light  manners  of  treating  illustrative  matter  for  reproduction.  This  is 
not  saying  that  all  illustrators  follow  his  style,  but  that  the  influence 
has  been  great.  Vierge  is  of  Spanish  blood,  but  has  spent  his  life  in 
Paris.  In  the  manner  of  composing  his  works  so  that  they  will  have 
just  enough  of  clear  statement  without  encumbering  the  page  with  use- 
less incident  and  confusion,  he  is  a  past  master.  The  question  of 
causing  the  printed  illustration  to  appear  in  the  same  tone  and  general 
texture  as  the  printed  matter  has  been  solved  by  him  wonderfully 
well.  His  figures  are  admirably  drawn  and  posed,  full  of  vitality  and 
naturalness.  While  still  young,  but  after  his  reputation  was  estab- 
lished, an  incurable  disease  (a  sort  of  paralysis)  laid  hold  upon  him, 
but  with  dauntless  courage  he  continued  his  work  until  death  relieved 
his  sufferings. 

Edouard  Detaille  (1848-,  French)  is  a  pupil  of  Meissonier  and 
paints  in  a  measure  like  his  master,  though  never  with  the  same  atten- 
tion to  minute  details.  He  saw  service  of  a  serious  sort  in  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  and  has  made  fame  for  himself  in  delineating  military  life, 
usually  selecting  scenes  with  little  action  but  having  tense  nervous 
interest.  A  scene  in  a  garden  beside  the  high  wall  which  the  soldiers 
are  preparing  to  defend,  an  anxious  general  officer, a  worrying  gardener 
incensed  at  the  rude  treatment  of  his  pet  vegetables,  troops  waiting 
for  the  attack,  others  in  active  defense  in  the  distance,  quiet  and 
awful  expectation,  these  go  to  make  up  the  subject  matter  of  the 
"Defense  of  Champigny." 

Important  Works:  En  Retraite  Charge  du  g  erne  Cuirassiers,  Le  Regiment 
qui  Passe  (Corcoran  Art  Gallery,  Washington);  Salut  au  Blesses,  Le  Reve,  1888; 
Charge  duer  Hussards,  (Luxembourg). 


232  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Jose  Villegas  (1848-,  Spanish)  is  a  pupil  of  Fortuny  and  one  of  the 
ultra  brilliant  technicians  and  colorists,  painting  either  an  armourer's 
shop  or  the  marriage  of  a  Doge  with  an  astonishing  variety  of  cos- 
tumes and  color  rarely  equaled.  Fritz  von  Uhde  (1848-,  German)  is 
a  grave  man  producing  severe  and  serious  subjects  in  low,  gray  tones, 
many  selected  from  Scripture  and  treated  in  naturalistic  manner  in  the 
costumes  of  to-day.     His  Christ  and  the  disciples  are  as  we  are. 

Jules  Bastien-Lepage 

(1848-188S.     French.) 

The  man's  name  is  Bastien.  The  "Lepage"  is  added  to  do  honor 
to  his  mother's  family.  He  came  of  sturdy  peasant  stock,  reasonably 
prosperous  through  years  of  industry  and  saving,  his  birthplace  Dan- 
villiers  (Meuse).  The  circumstance  that  he,  while  a  student  in  Paris, 
became  a  letter  carrier  in  order  to  earn  money  that  he  might  pursue 
his  studies,  is  no  more  than  one  of  those  incidents  illustrating  the 
frugality  of  French  peasants.  His  parents  were  not  without  a  savings- 
bank  account.  The  hard  drill  in  Cabanel's  studio  served  him  well, 
and  the  failure  to  obtain  the  Prix  de  Rome  (though  all  the  students 
manifested  their  serious  displeasure  that  their  favorite  should  be  sup- 
planted by  another  who  was  less  good  but  more  classical)  is  another 
leaf  in  that  long  history  of  the  war  between  well-regulated  classicism 
and  independent  research.  A  good  many  years  later,  he  had  the  same 
experience  with  his  famous  "Joan  of  Arc"  picture.  The  independent 
thinkers  acclaimed  it  for  the  Grand  Medal  of  Honor,  but  it  was  not 
thought  as  worthy  by  the  jury  as  the  "Good  Samaritan"  of  Moreau,  a 
carefully-painted  classical  composition.  Both  these  failures  were 
blessings  for  Bastien,  as  they  more  surely  fixed  his  purpose  to  paint  as 
he  liked.  It  was  the  originality  of  Edouard  Manet  and  his  discoveries 
regarding  "values,"  with  the  attendant  keenness  of  observation  of 
nature,  which  set  Bastien  in  the  right  way. 

When  one  is  surfeited  with  the  artificialities  of  classicism,  his 
senses  are  wonderfully  quickened  by  the  contemplation  of  a  picture 
presenting  a  few  simple  truths   in  a  broad,  direct  manner.     Absence 


IMPRESSIONISM 


233 


of  artificialities  is  like  the  inrush  of  fresh  air  to  the  stifling  atmosphere 
of  a  ballroom.  Somewhere  in  the  mid-seventies,  I  happened  upon  the 
salon  containing  Bastiens  twin  portraits  of  his  father  and  mother;  the 
simple,  unaffected  people  seated  under  the  trees  in  a  garden.  Those 
faces,  frankly  laid  in  and  fully  illuminated  by  the  diffused  light  of 
day,  seemed  the  perfection  of  correct  statement.  This  is  a  remark- 
able instance  of  the  value  of  academical  training.  Bastien  received 
the  severe  and  long  continued  criticism  of  Cabanel,  nearly  carrying 
off  the  Prix  de  Rome.  If  Manet  could  have  had  the  benefits  of  this 
severe  classical  training,  we  might  have  had  less  rudeness  in  his  work. 
Yet,  possibly,  the  rudeness  was  an  excellent  influence  and  had  the 
greater  power  in  the  reformation.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  interfere 
with  the  workings  of  Providence;  it  is  enough  that  Manet's  influence 
was  what  it  was.  But  certainly  Bastien  was  the  better  painter  because 
of  his  training,  although  he  owes  his  manner  of  seeing  to  Manet. 
Also,  he  proves  that  genius  is  its  own  safeguard,  not  to  be  injured  by 
contact  with  anything.  Manet's  painting  is  shockingly  brutal; 
Bastien's  refined.  Both  followed  the  same  tendency  in  rendering 
nature. 

Bastien's  picture  of  the  hay  field  (mowers  resting),  the  air  heavy, 
sun  overcast  as  it  so  often  is  in  northern  Europe,  reproduces  an  effect, 
which  we  rarely  see  in  America,  called  the  "beau  temps  gris";  not 
threatening  rain,  simply  a  condition  of  silvery  mistiness.  The  light  is 
like  that  cast  by  ground  glass — diffused,  tender.  This  was  the  artist's 
opportunity  to  make  his  figures  like  the  tones  of  the  half-dried  hay — 
a  marvelous  tonality.  The  students  holding  advanced  views,  clamored 
for  the  artist's  recognition.  This  was  denied  in  the  measure  they 
desired,  but  that  did  no  harm  to  the  rising  school  or  the  interests  of 
art. 

The  story  of  the  contest  over  this  Grand  Medal  of  Honor,  as  told 
in  the  journal  of  Marie  Bashkirtseff,  is  entirely  correct.  I  was  myself 
in  Paris  at  the  time  and  a  witness  of  the  events.  After  all  is  said,  it 
is  possible  that  an  art  academy  does  right  to  give  prizes  for  academical 
excellence  rather  than  for  originality.     Originality  has  to  take  time  to 


234  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

prove  its  value.  The  public  is  its  own  guide  though  so  often  encum- 
bered with  the  ponderous  habiliments  of  established  respectability. 

The  "Joan  of  Arc"  we  can  see  at  any  time  in  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  in  New  York.  Instead  of  arranging  an  artificial  landscape 
for  the  heroine's  use,  one  in  which  visiting  voices  would  feel  them- 
selves at  ease,  Bastien  betook  himself  to  his  own  back  yard  and  found 
one  of  his  peasant  neighbors  suitable  to  enact  the  part  of  the  inspired 
maid.  She  is  represented  exactly  as  nature  made  her,  almost  repul- 
sively plain,  and  the  rude  clothing  adds  no  charm.  Intense  abstrac- 
tion is  suggested  by  the  attitude,  one  hand  reaching  out  to  toy  with  a 
twig  of  the  tree  under  which  she  stands.  Much  weeping  or  long  con- 
tinued anxiety  might  produce  that  dark  circle  about  the  eyes,  but  the 
artist  exaggerated  it  for  effect's  sake.  Like  all  supernaturalisms,  it 
created  wonderment.  Literalism  was  carried  too  far  when  the  spirits 
were  materialized.  They  had  been  better  left  to  the  imagination,  as 
the  expressive  face  was  enough  for  the  effect  desired.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  hay  field  is  the  better  picture. 

Bastien-Lepage  died,  in  the  midst  of  his  success,  of  a  lingering 
illness. 

Albert  Wolff,  the  brilliant  art  writer  for  Figaro,  made  it  his  busi- 
ness to  create  public  interest  in  Bastien's  art.  In  the  course  of  time 
the  artist  painted  the  critic's  portrait,  one  of  several  masterful  per- 
formances on  quite  small  canvases.  The  art  writer  was  represented 
seated  at  his  writing  desk  in  study-gown  and  scarlet-leather  Turkish 
boots.  These  boots  were  conspicuous  and  wonderfully  polished. 
Complaint  had  been  made  that  the  artist  truckled  too  much  to  the 
writer.  So,  when  the  question  was  asked  of  a  salon  visitor,  "Isn't  it 
wonderful?"  the  reply  came  promptly,  "Yes;  but  do  you  not  think 
that  the  artist  has  'licked  his  boots'  too  much."  Things  in  a  painting 
too  much  finished  are  said  to  be  "licked,"  in  studio  parlance,  but 
"lecher  les  bottes"  means  something  else. 

The  celebrated  portrait  of  Sarah  Bernhardt,  the  actress,  was  again 
on  view  at  the  recent  Paris  Exposition  (1900),  and  it  is  the  most  won- 
derful of  these  little  portraits.     It  was  framed  in  a  steel-colored  mould- 


Besnard  —  Decohation  in  the  Vestibule  of  the  Ecole  de  Pharmacie. 


IMPRESSIONISM  235 

ing,  and  a  gray-toned  white  garment  reached  from  high  ruff  to  heels, 
the  red  hair  brought  in  relief  against  a  steel-gray  background.  The 
actress  sits  gazing,  with  parted  lips,  at  a  carved  old-ivory  figurine 
held  in  the  hand.  At  once  the  public  knew  it  as  "the  fair  idolatress, " 
because  she  was  worshiping  a  graven  image. 

This  harmony  of  steel-gray  frame  and  a  series  of  cool  and  warm 
whites  (or  grays)  in  the  various  parts  of  the  garment  and  surroundings, 
contrasted  with  the  old-ivory  white  of  the  image  and  the  cool  flesh 
and  red  hair,  was  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  these  studies  in  white  on 
white  and  gray  on  gray.  It  is  the  same  problem  which  Rosa  Bonheur 
attacked  in  the  oxen-ploughing  picture,  her  first  success. 

Principal  Works:  Joan  of  Arc  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York);  First  Com- 
munion, Village  Love,  The  Haymakers,  Grandfather's  Portrait,  Portrait  of  Sarah 
Bernhardt,  The  Potato  Harvest. 

Bruno  Piglhein  (1848-1894,  German)  was  an  ingenious  man  who 
painted  a  panorama  of  the  crucifixion  with  great  success.  Pastels  of 
remarkable  force  and  cleverness  kept  him  busy  and  commanded 
admiration.  A.  Normann  (1848,  Norwegian)  was  a  Diisseldorf  stu- 
dent, but  paints  the  precipitous  fiords  of  his  own  country  in  an  original 
and  forceful  way.  Walter  Crane  (1848-,  English)  deserves  our 
hearty  thanks  for  rescuing  the  child's  picture  book  from  the  vulgarities 
of  cheapness.  Publishers  were  frightened  at  the  idea  of  putting  much 
money  into  a  child's  amusement,  but  Crane  had  his  way  and  made  the 
success  which  always  attends  the  ability  to  please  adult  and  child 
alike  with  truly  meritorious  work.  His  designs  are  superbly  pictorial, 
decorative  and  suitable,  well  drawn  and  entirely  original  in  concep- 
tion. His  imitators  are  legion,  but  none  can  surpass  him.  Walter 
Ouless  (1848-.  English)  delineates  character  and  paints  well.  Louis 
C.  Tiffany  (1848-,  American)  is  of  the  same  family  as  the  famous  New 
York  silversmiths.  Educated  in  Parisian  art  schools,  he  returned  lo 
invent  a  new  method  in  making  colored  glass  windows  and  glass 
mosaics,  applying  his  skill  to  the  production  of  monumental  works 
which  have  made  him  famous  the  world  over  and  placed  the  art-glass 


236  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

product  of  America  on  a  high  plane.     Edwin  Rowland  Blashfield 

(1848-,  American)  has  given  his  attention  to  mural  and  other  decora- 
tions of  important  size,  among  others  some  of  the  important  panels  in 
the  Congressional  Library.  He  does  this  work  with  rare  excellence. 
Paul  Albert  Besnard(i849-,  French)  gained  the  Prix  de  Rome,  but 
abandoned  the  classical  manner,  making  of  himself  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  and  original  painters  of  France.  His  color  is  magnificent, 
though  kept  well  in  hand  and  never  garish.  In  the  new  Hotel  de 
Ville  at  Paris  (a  sumptuously  decorated  building  containing  the  best 
art  of  France)  his  decorations  are  possibly  the  best.  He  is  sometimes 
classed  among  the  impressionists,  though  the  name  applies  but  little. 
An  independent  and  original  worker  he  certainly  is,  and  the  utter 
abandonment  of  polished  finish  contrasts  his  product  with  that  of  the 
classical  school.  At  the  Luxembourg  is  a  painting  from  his  easel 
called  "La  Femme  qui  se  Chauffe."  A  nude  woman,  just  from  the 
bath,  is  seated  on  the  floor  of  her  chamber  in  front  of  the  grate  fire, 
a  cup  of  something  hot  in  her  hand,  the  back  toward  the  spectator. 
No  fire  is  visible,  only  its  glow  on  the  nude  flesh  reveals  its  existence. 
This  effect  has  been  often  attempted,  but  always  with  the  firelight 
shining  in  a  darkened  room.  This  is  broad  daylight,  the  irhpression 
of  firelight  secured  by  the  contrast  of  cool  flesh  with  warm  glow.  The 
woman's  hair  is  a  peculiar  ashen  color,  which  almost  melts  into  a  back- 
ground of  a  similar  tint.  Handled  with  swift,  free  strokes,  the  paint- 
ing is  so  brilliant  as  to  dominate  the  gallery,  though  few  positive 
pigments  are  used.  He  paints  his  picture  to  completion  in  cold  black 
and  white  at  first.  When  this  perfect,  though  colorless,  statement  is 
quite  dry,  the  brilliant  tints  are  swiftly  added,  with  such  certainty  of 
touch  as  to  mark  the  artist  as  an  extraordinary  technician. 

Besnard  is  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  organization  known  as  "The 
New  Salon,"  which  is  saving  the  reputation  of  France  as  the  leading 
art  center  of  the  world. 

Emile  Wauters  (1849-,  Belgian)  is  an  historical  and  portrait  painter 
of  distinction.  Giacomo  Favretto  (1849-,  Italian)  is  a  most  brilliant 
colorist  and   technician,  who  revivified  the  life  of  medieval  Venice. 


,AuBOTT  H.  Thayer  —  Brother  and  Sister. 


IMPRESSIONISM  237 

Ferdinand  Brutt  (1849-,  German)  took  his  subjects  from  the  social  and 
the  commercial  life  about  him,  striking  an  original  note,  and  painting 
well.  Max  Lieberniann  (1849-,  German)  fell  in  with  the  movement 
inaugurated  by  Gebhardt,  Uhde  and  others  that  religious  subjects  should 
be  treated  in  a  realistic  manner  with  types  found  in  the  daily  life  of  one's 
immediate  environment.  He  carried  it  to  the  extreme  of  choosing 
woefully  ugly  models.  Finally  abandoning  this  extreme,  he  paints 
daily  life  as  he  sees  it  without  artificially  arranged  story.  Franz 
Skarbina  (1849-,  German)  follows  the  same  ideals  in  literalism. 
Hans  Dahl  (1849-,  Norwegian)  was  educated  in  Diisseldorf,  but  paints 
his  native  scenery  with  important  figures,  usually  with  humorous  inci- 
dents. Reproductions  of  his  work  (in  black  and  white)  are  very  com- 
mon. Michael  Ancher  (1849-,  Danish),  with  his  wife,  who  is  ten  years 
younger  and  an  excellent  painter,  discovered  the  attractions  of  a 
north  Danish  fishing  village.  Ancher  produces  fine  heads  and  charac- 
terful action  from  his  fishermen  models.  J.  M.  Strudwick  (1849-, 
English)  follows  the  mysticism  of  Burne  Jones.  Hubert  Herkomer 
(1849-,  English,  Bavarian  born)  has  made  a  name  for  himself,  though 
handicapped  by  an  unpopular  style  of  technique.  His  pictures  of 
peasant  life  are  full  of  character  and  without  forced  story.  His  first 
success,  "Chelsea  Pensioners,"  shows  a  powerful  characterization  of 
ranks  of  superbly  painted  veterans  in  chapel.  This  picture  was 
awarded  the  first  grand  medal  of  honor  at  the  Paris  Exposition,  1878. 
He  visited  America  and  dared  paint  very  badly  many  thousand  dol- 
lars' worth  of  portraits,  and  with  this  money  he  started  a  very  per- 
sonal art  school  near  London.  Alfred  East  (1849-,  English)  is  a 
popular  painter  of  spring  and  autumn  landscapes  with  lively  effects. 
John  W.  Waterhouse  (1849-,  English)  is  mystical  enough  with  his 
classical  genre  to  please  the  English,  and  rather  realistic  withal. 

Principal  Works  of  Liebermann:     Flax  Spinners,  Munich  Beer  Garden. 

Principal  Works  of  Strudwick:    St.  Cecilia,  Ramparts  of  God's  House. 

Principal  Works  of  Herkomer:  Last  Muster,  Eventide,  The  Chapel  of  the 
Charterhouse. 

Principal  Works  of  Waterhouse:    Herod  and  Mariatnne. 


238  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Abbott  Henderson  Thayer  (1849-,  American)  studied  in  Paris  with 
Gerome,  but  abandoned  his  master's  style  to  make  decorative  designs 
of  a  semi-religious  or  allegorical  character,  remarkably  original  and 
dignified  in  style.  He  is  worthy  to  be  called  "great."  Thayer  began 
as  an  animal  painter,  making  such  pictures  as  "Young  Lions  at  Cen- 
tral Park,"  "Cows  Coming  from  Pasture,"  "Boy  and  Dog,"  "Autumn 
Cornfield,"  but  his  reputation  is  built  upon  the  facts  that  he  is  a  think- 
ing painter.  His  drawing  is  by  no  means  faultless,  his  color  being 
gray  makes  little  impression  in  a  gallery  and  lacks  clearness;  but  he 
has  ideas  and,  what  is  worth  a  great  deal,  style.  There  is  something 
which  recalls  the  early  Florentine  School  in  the  "Corps  Aile,"  a  girl 
with  wings  against  a  blue  ground — something  mysterious  and  impres- 
sive. "The  Virgin"  shows  a  tender-faced  young  woman  (an  Ameri- 
can type)  marching  breezily  across  a  meadow,  leading  a  boy  and  a 
girl  in  either  hand.  Nothing  could  be  farther  removed  from  imita- 
tion than  this  trio  of  faces.  They  are  evidently  studied  from  actual 
individuals  who  live  with  us,  being  of  us.  In  the  sky  are  painted 
clouds  which  suggest  enormous  heavenly  wings  for  this  angelic 
creature.  "The  Virgin  Enthroned"  is  owned  in  Boston,  by  J.  M. 
Sears.  The  "Caritas"  is  in  the  Art  Museum  at  Boston.  Thayer's 
birthplace  was  Boston,  and  he  now  lives  at  Cornwall  on  the  Hudson. 

Principal  Works:  Caritas  (MHseum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston);  The  Virgin 
Enthroned  (Boston);  Brother  and  Sister,  The  Virgin,  Winged  Figure,  Portrait  of 
Two  Ladies,  The  Child  with  the  Kitten. 

Edwin  Lord  Weeks  (1849-1903,  American)  studied  in  Paris  and 
resides  abroad.  His  motives  are  found  in  India  and  the  output  is  natur- 
alistic and  strongly  painted  but  not  of  the  great  order.  Dwight  W. 
Tryon  (1849-,  American)  has  struck  a  note  in  landscape  painting  which 
commands  the  admiration  of  artists  because  of  fine  gray  tone  and  great 
naturalness.  He  follows  the  Japanese  method  of  simple,  long  lines, 
always  seeking  dignity  of  effect.  Selecting  a  spot  in  a  New  England 
level  meadow,  where  the  tall  trees  range  themselves  along  the  dividing 
fence  in  continuous  line,   he  manages  his  composition   in   long  hori- 


DwiGHT  William  Tryon  —  Early  Spring  in  New  England. 


IMPRESSIONISM  239 

zontal  bands.  Thus:  the  green  meadow  makes  one  horizontal  band, 
the  Hne  of  thin  trees  another,  the  low  hill  behind  this  long-drawn 
hedge  of  trees  another,  the  sky  another  still.  This  series  of  varied 
bands,  extending  from  edge  to  edge  of  the  frame,  creates  a  decora- 
tion suitable  for  architectural  accompaniment;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  rest- 
ful and  intensely  dignified.  He  selects  the  early  spring,  when  trees 
are  thin  and  bare,  with  tender  colors;  or  the  late  autumn,  when  the 
same  conditions  prevail  with  similar  but  not  the  same  tints,  and  this 
manner  of  procedure  has  given  to  us  some  of  the  most  original  com- 
positions in  our  exhibitions. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  AMERICANS  AND  SOME  OTHERS 

Only  one  Frenchman  of  importance,  Dagnan-Bouveret,  appears  in 
this  chapter,  but  the  array  of  Americans  is  very  striking,  as  Chase, 
Alexander,  Abbey,  Harrison,  Brush,  Stewart,  Sargent,  and  Hassam. 
In  Italy,  Michetti  sparkles  and  Seganlini  is  vigorous.  Zorn  comes 
out  of  Sweden  with  remarkable  things. 

William  Merritt  Chase 

(/c?^9 — .     American.) 

It  was  in  1869  that  a  gentleman  in  St.  Louis  said,  "Come  with  me, 
I  have  found  a  young  man  who  paints  so  well  that  I  dare  not  tell  him 
how  good  his  work  is."  It  was  Chase  and  he  had  been  in  New  York 
studying  with  Wyatt  Eaton,  showing  the  effects  of  moderate  training. 
He  revealed  a  remarkable  aptitude  at  painting  anything  set  before 
him,  which  at  that  time  was  mostly  still  life  and  an  occasional  portrait. 

His  birthplace  was  in  Indiana,  his  father  a  merchant,  his  mother  a 
woman  of  remarkable  sweetness  and  refinement  and  given  to  the  pur- 
suit of  the  fine  arts  according  to  the  limited  opportunities  to  be  found 
in  a  small  place.  Chase  says  that  it  is  to  this  gentle  mother  that  he 
owes  his  art  tendencies.  He  was  astonishingly  clever  and  self- 
centered  even  at  that  early  period.  With  people  and  paint  alike  his 
command  of  the  raw  material  was  remarkable. 

St.  Louis  was  raw  in  those  days  and  artists  lived  on  expectations, 
all  except  Chase.  So  great  was  the  impression  made  that,  after  two 
years'  stay,  several  persons  united  in  making  up  a  purse  for  defraying 
his  expenses  during  a  long  stay  in  Munich  for  study  at  the  art  acad- 
emy. After  rapid  advancement  in  the  antique  and  life  classes,  and 
the  reception  of  several  important  prizes,  he  became  a  member  of 

240 


William  M.  Chase  —  Alice. 


THE  AMERICANS  AND   SOME   OTHERS  241 

Piloty's   "Master  Class,"   the  highest  rank  in   the  school,  and  in  that 
class  he  gained  another  and  still  more  important  prize. 

A  long  residence  in  Venice  and  Paris  caused  an  early  abandonment 
of  the  mannerisms  acquired  in  Munich,  and  gave  to  his  painting  a 
decided  French  flavor-  He  has  always  been  impressionable,  revealing 
the  influence  of  the  impressionists,  of  Alfred  Stevens,  of  Whistler,  of 
Vollon,  of  Carriere-Belleuse,  but  never  appearing  to  imitate  any  one, 
his  own  character  shining  out  conspicuously  through  all  the  changes. 
Every  artist  goes  through  these  preliminary  periods  of  experimenting 
with  his  powers  before  they  are  perfectly  under  his  command. 

While  in  Munich  he  planned  several  pictures  containing  many  fig- 
ures, street  scenes,  original  in  conception — like  a  large  group  of 
prisoners  huddled  about  the  gate  of  a  forlorn  edifice  waiting  for  some 
officer  to  conduct  them  whither  they  were  to  be  transferred.  Much 
invention  was  displayed,  and  a  feeling  for  the  misery  of  prison  life. 
Lack  of  funds  compelled  their  abandonment,  which  was  well,  as  Chase 
has  greater  talent  for  giving  swift  expression  to  his  thoughts  than  for 
wearisome  delving  through  many  months  of  elaboration.  He  is 
impulsive  and  needs  to  act  promptly;  then,  the  genuine  talent  works 
its  forceful  influence.  Paintings  done  at  one  sitting,  or  redone 
swiftly,  show  him  at  his  best.  All  sensitive  men  are  like  that,  from 
Velasquez  to  John  Sargent. 

Another  reason  why  the  abandonment  of  the  elaborate  figure  pic- 
tures was  fortunate  lies  in  the  fact  that  there  is  no  taint  of  literary  art 
in  the  man's  work  or  his  nature.  He  is  a  painter-artist  emphatically. 
A  keen  joy  in  painting  for  the  sake  of  reproducing  nature,  of  com- 
posing color  schemes,  of  rendering  the  atmosphere  and  the  surfaces  of 
nature,  the  joy  of  command  over  paint,  oils,  watercolors  or  pastels,  no 
matter  what  medium,  these  are  not  to  be  indulged  in  by  the  laborious 
worker  but  by  the  impulsive  one.  His  command  of  values,  of  sur- 
faces, distances  over  flat  plains  or  flat  seas,  the  rendering  of  textures 
by  the  slightest  means,  these  are  his  glory  and  his  pleasure.  Unlike 
the  men  of  the  "Hudson  River  School,"  he  cares  nothing  about 
scenery.     When  his  home  was  in  Brooklyn,  he  used  to  slip  out  to  the 


242  THE   WUKLJJ'^    rAlJNliiKb 

parks  or  to  the  wayside  and  bring  home  most  beautiful  tonal  studies — 
completed  pictures  they  were.  The  washerwoman  hanging  out 
clothes,  white  against  white,  awakened  his  enthusiasm  and  set  his 
brushes  going.  His  wife  and  children  are  a  constant  irritant  to  his 
artistic  sensibilities.  He  keeps  them  always  in  artistic  garments,  as  if 
his  life  depended  upon  such  surroundings.  They  are  willing  models 
and  appear  frequently  on  canvas  in  the  exhibitions,  just  as  they  daily 
present  themselves  to  the  world,  natural,  simple  and  without  affecta- 
tion. 

In  portraiture  his  work  is  painter  work,  done  for  the  sake  of 
beauty  in  pose  and  tonal  combinations.  Probably  did  he  flatter  his 
subjects,  as  Cabanel  could,  he  might  paint  more  of  them.  In  the 
Paris  Exposition  of  1900,  were  hung  in  places  of  honor,  r"Ladj^ with 
White  Shawl,"  "A  Landscape,"  and  "The  Big  Copper  Kettle." 
Nothing  in  the  entire  gathering  of  the  world's  art  was  more  dignified 
nor  finer  in  tone  than  that  simple,  modestly  posed  woman  and  nothing 
was  more  artistic  than  all  his  work.  The  American  exhibit  ranked 
high.  The  "Copper  Kettle"  was  in  the  manner  of  VoUon.  Itookpains 
to  visit  the  Vollon  group  for  purposes  of  comparison.  Though  simi- 
lar, the  works  Were  not  alike.  Was  one  better  than  the  other?  I 
could  not  tell. 

The  command  over  people  displayed  in  his  youth,  in  St.  Louis, 
has  never  grown  less.  As  an  instructor,  he  is  a  power;  his  pupils  are 
enthusiastic  slaves.  At  Shinnecock,  Long  Island,  he  has  created  a 
summer  school  the  like  of  which  exists  nowhere  else..  It  is  to  Chase 
that  the  famous  Art  Students  League  in  New  York  owes  most  of  its 
existence.  In  saying  this,  I  do  not  forget  the  balance  wheel,  Shirlaw, 
a  man  older  than  Chase,  who  returned  from  European  study  at  the 
same  time,  and  these  two  set  in  motion  one  of ; the  greatest  factors  in 
the  development  of  American  art  as  we  now  see  it;  and  the  work  still 
goes  on,  though  at  this  time  Chase  has  a  large  school  of  his  own  in 
the  city. 

The  return  of  these  two  educated  and  enthusiastic  men  (and  others 
like   them)  sounded   the  knell   of    the   Hudson   River  School.      The 


Dagnan-Bouveret  —  Madonna. 


THE   AMERICANS  AND   SOME   OTHERS  243 

National  Academy,  controlled  by  the  old  coterie,  tried  to  freeze  them 
out,  but  they  organized  the  Society  of  American  Artists  (1878)  which 
disputes  with  the  Academy  the  respectabilities  in  art  matters  and 
excels  it  in  true  artistic  value.  However,  the  Academy  found  itself 
obliged  to  put  out  an  anchor  to  windward  and  presently  was  only  too 
glad  to  elect  Chase  a  full  National  Academician. 

The  landscape  about  Shinnecock,  the  location  of  the  summer 
school,  is  a  forlorn  stretch  of  weed  and-brush-grown  undulation.  On 
my  first  visit  there,  I  made  the  remark  to  one  of  the  students,  "What 
did  anyone  start  an  art  school  in  this  wilderness  for? — there  is  nothing 
to  paint."  The  student  at  once  waxed  enthusiastic  over  the  beauties 
of  the  wilderness  and  looked  upon  me  with  contempt.  There  was 
color,  distance,  undulation  and  the  sky  over  it  all  with  its  ever-chang- 
ing glories — was  not  that  enough  for  any  serious  young  painter? 
Surely,  this  tells  the  story  of  the  change  from  the  scenery-seeking  old 
school  to  the  art-loving  and  educated  new;  and  it  reveals  Chase's 
influence  over  his  pupils,  that  they  should  wax  enthusiastic  over 
paintings  of  this  barren  waste,  unfit  for  other  than  purely  artistic  uses. 
This  man  has  been  and  still  is  a  mighty  factor  in  the  development  of 
American  art. 

Principal  Works :  Alice  (Art  Institute,  Chicago) ;  Portrait  of  President  Eliot 
of  Harvard;  Lady  with  the  White  Shawl,  A  Landscape,  The  Big  Copper  Kettle, 
and  many  portraits. 

August  von  Kaulbach  (1850-,  German)  is  a  descendant  of  the 
great  Wilhelm  and  paints,  for  color's  sake,  many  charming  female 
heads  and  some  imitations  of  Titian  in  religious  art.  Heinrich 
Zugel  (1850-,  German)  paints  sheep  in  a  remarkably  realistic  way. 
Frederik  Hendrik  Apol  (1850-,  Dutch)  is  a  success  with  winter  land- 
scapes. Julius  Kronberg  (1850-,  Swedish)  goes  in  for  color  like  the 
Venetians  of  old.  Ernest  A.  Waterlow  (1850-,  English)  has  been 
influenced  in  his  landscape  painting  by  different  celebrated  men  from 
Mason  to  Corot. 

Gotthard  Kuehl  (1851-,  German)  is  a  colorist,  painting  church 
interiors    in   an    excellent  manner.      Gustave  Hellquist   (1851-1890, 


244  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Swedish)  studied  in  Munich,  but  soon  became  one  of  the  leaders  in 
the  painting  of  pictures  in  the  open  air,  securing  a  fine  tone,  better 
than  then  known  by  his  masters.  Historical  painting  was  occupying  him 
when  lunacy  ended  his  valuable  life.  Peter  S.  Kroyer  (1851-,  Danish) 
has  had  a  wide  influence  on  the  art  of  his  country.  He  studied  with 
Bonnat  in  Paris  and  paints  admirable  heads,  as  well  as  figures  in  land- 
scape and  by  the  sea.  Foreign  academies  have  bestowed  honors  upon 
him,  each  most  worthily  given,  because  he  is  a  fine  painter.  Viggo 
Johansen  (1851-,  Danish)  makes  beautiful  and  poetical  landscapes. 
Viggo  Pedersen  (185 1-,  Danish)  learned  of  the  French  impressionists 
to  paint  his  landscapes  in  the  open  air. 

Pascal  Adolphe  Jean  Dagnan-Bouveret  (1852-,  French)  is  one 
of  the  cleverest  painters  of  the  present  time,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  pos- 
terity will  give  him  a  high  place  in  the  line  of  talented  men.  As  a 
genre  painter,  his  pictures  are  composed  on  dignified  lines  and  the 
technique  is  the  embodiment  of  solidity,  with  drawing  not  to  be  sur- 
passed. Later  he  painted  Norman  peasants  at  the  "pardon"  in  a 
vigorous  fashion,  with  simple  directness  and  few  colors.  Quite 
recently  several  religious  pictures,  large  in  size,  very  rich  in  color  and 
original  in  treatment,  have  appeared.  "The  Supper  at  Emmaus" 
shows  the  Saviour  seated,  with  outspread  hands  so  as  to  form  a  pyram- 
idal figure,  against  a  sky  of  remarkable  yellow  brilliancy.  He 
breaks  the  bread,  a  round  loaf,  into  exactly  equal  halves.  The 
apostles  and  the  attendants  are  startled  into  expressions  carried  to  the 
point  of  grotesqueness.  At  one  side  is  a  group  of  the  artist  and  his 
wife  and  little  son  in  the  attitude  of  adoration,  and  these  are  remark- 
ably well-considered  and  noble  figures,  quite  redeeming  the  otherwise 
over-dramatic  conception. 

Principal  Works:  The  Horse  Pond  (Luxembourg) ;  A  Wedding  at  the  Photog- 
rapher's, The  Nuptial  Benediction,  The  Consecrated  Bread,  Bretonnes  au  Pardon. 

Jan  van  Beers  (1852-,  Belgian),  though  a  Belgian,  spends  his  life 
in  Paris,  painting  extravagant  figures,  very  Parisienne  women  done 
with  a  cleverness  which  startles  the  beholder.     Paolo  Michetti  (1852-, 


Dagnan-Bouveret  —  Bretons  at  the  Paedon. 


THE  AMERICANS   AND   SOME   OTHERS  245 

Italian)  is  another  of  the  wonderfully  clever  technicians  and  colorists 
that  recent  times  have  produced  in  Italy.  When  very  young  he 
was  already  a  good  painter.  His  "Springtime  and  Love"  (Art  Insti- 
tute, Chicago)  is  full  of  sunshine  and  studded  with  little  nude  figures 
of  girls  and  boys  enjoying  the  fine  air  on  a  hill  by  the  sea;  the 
embodiment  of  cleverness.  Johannes  Christian  Karel  Klinkenberg 
(1852-,  Dutch)  produces  sunlight  effects  with  the  houses  and  canals  of 
Holland  for  material.  He  is  an  original,  decorative  genius.  August 
Hagborg'  (1852-,  Swedish)  loves  the  wide  reaches  of  strand  when  the 
tide  is  far  out,  finding  there  broad  masses  of  gray  ground  and  silver 
sky  against  which  to  pose  fisher  people. 

Edwin  A.  Abbey 

(18^2 — .     American,  b.  Philadelphia.) 

I  have  no  patience  with  the  plaintive  wailing  about  American 
artists  who  see  fit  to  reside  for  lengthy  periods,  or  all  their  lives  in 
Europe.  Why  should  they  not?  It  is  a  much  better  place  to  carry 
on  art  work.  I  know  some  of  these  men.  Are  they  lacking  in 
patriotism?  Not  in  the  least.  The  statements  about  their  ways, 
which  we  read  in  some  books,  are  not  true,  except  in  the  case  of  the 
small  men  who  never  will  nor  could  make  a  mark  anywhere.  The  men 
whose  names  occur  in  this  history  are  as  patriotic  and  as  interested  in 
the  doings  of  the  House' of  Representatives  as  we  who  stay  at  home, 
and  sometimes  they  judge  much  better  of  the  movement  than  those 
who  are  in  the  dust  of  the  battle  on  this  side.  Also,  it  is  true  that 
their  art  is  in  no  sense  lost  to  America,  neither  is  their  influence. 
Their  works  are  largely  sold  to  Americans.  If  I  mistake  not,  the 
patriotism  of  Sargent  and  Abbey  when  they  refused  much  well-paid 
work  in  order  to  execute  the  decorations  in  Boston  for  the  sake  of 
their  love  of  art  and  pride  in  the  land  of  their  birth,  is  not  equaled  by 
any  considerable  number  of  us  who  stay  at  home.  Art  is  cosmo- 
politan. There  is  no  national  art,  though  there  may  be  racial 
sentiment.  Nationality  in  art  (so  called)  is  not  for  this  age  of  steam- 
ships and  other  distance  killers.     Is  the  art  of  Holland  "national"? 


246  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

A  mixture  of  the  Barbizon  School  and  the  personality  of  Josef 
Israels  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  Dutch  art,  except  certain 
effects  of  the  French  impressionists  and  such  other  matters.  The 
art  of  Holland  in  the  seventeenth  century  was  an  outcome  of  Italian 
art  as  used  by  literalists.  No  two  Dutchmen  painted  alike.  Hals, 
Rembrandt,  Douw,  Steen — which  of  them  was  specifically  the 
Dutchman?  Are  they  at  all  alike  except  in  the  matter  of  black 
hats  and  white  ruffs?  It  is  the  personality  of  the  man  which  makes 
art.  What  man  could  be  more  an  American  than  John  S.  Sar- 
gent, even  if  he  has  lived  his  life  in  Europe,  and  which  home- 
staying  American  has  had  more  influence  upon  the  art  of  stay-at- 
homes  than  Whistler?  What  I  wish  most  to  insist  upon  is  that  their  art 
is  largely  made  up  of  American  influences,  displayed  in  American  gal- 
leries and  hung  in  American  homes.  Therefore  Abbey  is"  a  good. 
American. 

Abbey  lives  in  the  suburbs  of  London  (village  of  Broadway).  His 
works  have  been  abundantly  published  in  American  magazines.  Many 
of  his  pictures  are  owned  in  America.  He  is  not  only  a  Royal  but  a 
National  Academician.  At  this  moment,  Edward  VII.  has  commis- 
sioned him  to  paint  the  scene  of  the  coronation. 

Abbey  has  been  criticized  because  he  did  not  decorate  the  delivery 
room  of  the  Boston  public  library  with  subjects  from  the  history  of 
Massachusetts.  Such  subjects  would  have  been  appropriate,  certainly. 
But  the  story  of  the  Holy  Grail  is  that  of  yourself  and  of  myself,  and 
of  every  soul  tormented  with  the  universal  struggle  between  good  and 
evil,  between  generosity  and  selfishness. 

It  astonished  the  world  to  see  this  man,  who  had  spent  so  many 
years  in  making  pen  and  ink  drawings,  suddenly  produce  these 
immense  oil  paintings  and  do  them  so  well.  They  are  not  absolutely 
first  efforts  in  oil  painting,  his  previous  experience  with  the  medium 
being  very  limited.  In  color,  they  are  full  and  rich,  grading  from  the 
clear  red  of  the  garments  of  Sir  Galahad  to  the  soft  whites  of  various 
figures.  Some  maintain  that  too  much  color  was  bestowed  upon  them 
for  mural  decorations,  but  this    is  a  feeling  which  I  do  not  share. 


DaGNAN-BoUVEKET CONSECEATED    BrEAD. 


THE   AMERICANS   AND   SOME   OTHERS  247 

They  seem  to  me  suitable  and  very  impressive.  The  series  of  panels 
is  eight  feet  high,  extending  around  the  large  room,  above  a  high 
dado. 

The  labor  of  making  these  library  decorations  has  been  immense, 
and  the  sum  paid  for  them  is  ridiculous  as  compared  with  that  paid 
him  for  the  Shakespeare  series  of  black-and-white  drawings.  Very 
few  can  appreciate  the  amount  of  research,  the  seeking  for  correct 
costumes  and  their  manufacture,  the  journeys  to  study  bits  of  correct 
architecture  and  scenes,  which  this  extensive  frieze  required.  He 
was  somewhat  prepared  for  it  by  the  study  of  the  Shakespeare 
illustrations,  though  that  was  another  subject.  Upon  matters  con- 
nected with  the  Elizabethan  age,  few  are  so  learned  or  possess  so 
much  material.  His  great  studio  is  becoming  a  museum  of  valuable 
antiquities. 

Abbey  had  a  limited  art  school  experience  in  America,  but  never 
submitted  himself  to  that  long-continued  drill  in  drawing  which  is  an 
essential  to  the  painters  of  the  Gerome  and  Bouguereau  type.  As  a 
consequence,  his  drawing  is  not  always  severely  correct.  However, 
it  is  so  varied,  so  lifelike  and  so  expressive  of  the  subject,  that  the 
most  exacting  critics  wonder  at  his  productions.  Magnificently  mas- 
terful in  pen-and-ink  work,  in  no  way  mechanical,  it  is  a  question 
whether  he  has  a  rival.  The  celebrated  Vierge  (Spanish-French)  is 
the  exemplar  of  nearly  all  the  black-and-white  workers,  but  does  not 
seem  to  have  largely  influenced  Abbey.  Compared  to  him,  the 
American  is  less  well  regulated  but  more  expressive.  It  will  be  hard 
to  discover  an  artist  so  fertile  in  fancy,  so  endlessly  varied  in  design 
for  every  subject  and  period.  Everything  is  so  fresh,  so  graceful,  so 
different  from  anything  that  came  before,  that  each  new  issue  of  a 
magazine  with  his  drawings  becomes  a  treasure  to  be  sought  out  and 
cherished.  Constantly  in  demand,  he  would  naturally  be  tempted  to 
do  careless  things,  but  nothing  less  than  his  best  has  ever  come  from 
his  hands. 

Principal  Works:  Illustrations  of  Herrick,  Shakespeare,  She  Stoops  to  Con- 
quer.    Decorations:     "The  Quest  of  the  Holy  Grail,"  in  the  Boston  Public  Library. 


248  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Christian  Krohg  (1852-,  Norwegian)  finds  his  material  among  the 
fisher  folk  of  his  country,  and  paints  it  well.  Eilif  Peterssen  (1852-, 
Norwegian)  after  studying  in  Germany  and  imitating  several  masters, 
settled  down  to  an  excellent  naturalism  with  the  landscape  of  his  own 
land.  Vacslav  Brozic  (1852-1901,  Bohemian)  secured  an  education  in 
Paris  and  was  induced  by  the  picture  dealers  (as  was  Munkacsy)  to 
paint  historical  pictures,  as  the  "Columbus  at  Salamanca."  He  paid  no 
attention  the  art  of  his  own  country.  Edward  Simmons  (1852-, 
American)  has  done  some  admirable  decorative  work  in  our  public 
buildings,  and  this  is  the  present  best  hope  of  American  art. 

Frank  Dicksee  (1853-,  English)  illustrated  Shakespeare  with  many 
paintings  and  has  made  sentimental  story  pictures.  J.  Francis 
Murphy  (1853-,  American)  commands  fine  tone  in  his  landscapes  but 
has  struck  no  original  note.  William  Dannat  (1853-,  American) 
studied  with  Munkacsy  and  developed  remarkable  talent  and  strength. 
He  found  in  Spain  some  life  which  has  been  rendered  with  an  origin- 
ality worthy  of  all  praise,  whether  popularly  appreciated  or  not. 
Alexander  Harrison  (1853-,  American)  has  given  many  evidences  of 
real  genius,  changing  his  style  many  times  and  always  producing 
something  which  commanded  the  admiration  of  artists.  He  can  color 
richly  or  gravely,  but  never  fails  to  color  well,  doing  both  figures  and 
landscapes. 

Principal  Works:  Au  Bord  de  la  Mer,  Shipwrecked,  Coast  of  Brittany, 
Chateaux  en  Espagne,  The  Amateurs,  Little-  Slave,  Harbor  of  Concarneau,  Pebbly 
Beach,  Breton  Garden,  Twilight,  The  Shipwrecked  of  Glenans,  Seashore,  The 
Wave,  In  Arcady. 

Will  H.  Low  (1853-,  American),  after  serious  study  in  Paris, 
returned  to  America  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  neo-classicists 
(Gerome,  Cabanel,  etc.),  making  pictures  of  nymphs  and  similar 
mythology.  His  illustrations  of  Keats  are  noted,  possibly  more  so 
than  they  deserve.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  designing  of  the  new  paper 
money  was  placed  in  good  hands  when  he  received  the  commission. 
Paul  Hoecker  (1854-,  German)  works  for  color's  sake  in  making  pic- 


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THE   AMERICANS   AND   SOME   OTHERS  249 

turesque  Dutch  interiors.  Christian  Skredsvic  (1854-,  Norwegian) 
has  very  tender  poetical  sentiment  and  soft  color  in  his  landscapes, 
doing  also  religious  pictures  with  figures  from  the  life  of  to-day. 
Walter  Dendy  Sadler  (1854-,  English)  secured  his  art  education  in 
Diisseldorf  aud  returned  to  England  to  revivify  the  life  of  old  stage- 
coaching  days  in  a  manner  unusually  good,  though  conventional. 
Leonard  Ochtman  (1854-,  American)  lives  near  New  York  and  paints 
the  landscape  of  Connecticut  with  marked  originality  and  tenderness 
and  in  good  color. 

Karl  Nordstrom  (1855-,  Swedish)  paints  the  night  and  waning  day 
with  force  and  tenderness.  M.  Larsson  (1855-,  Swedish)  is  a  brilliant 
landscapist  who  searches  for  somewhat  extravagant  color.  Erick 
Werenskiold  (1855-,  Norwegian)  illustrates  national  fairy  tales  most 
acceptably  and  paints  figures  with  realism.  Karl  Edvard  Dircks 
(1855-,  Norwegian)  finds  his  motives  along  the  shores  of  his  native 
land.  Nils  Hansteen  (1855-,  Norwegian)  also  makes  marines. 
Yeend  King  (1855-,  English)  is  a  genre  painter  such  as  the  English 
admire  and  is  better  than  the  common.  George  Be  Forest  Brush 
(1855-,  American)  is  a  rather  remarkable  character,  seeking  to  use  his 
excellent  Parisian  training  in  the  production  of  serious  art,  whether 
popular  or  not.  His  wife  and  children  have  posed  in  a  manner  sug- 
gestive of  the  holy  family  and  the  resultant  art  is  admirable,  com- 
manding a  leading  position  in  national  and  international  expositions. 

Principal  Works :  Silence  Broken,  Mourning  Her  Brave,  The  Sculptor  and  the 
King;  Mother  and  Child  (Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts);  Mother  and  Child  (Academy 
of  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia) ;  The  Artist's  Family. 

Jules  L.  Stewart  (1855-,  American)  lives  in  Paris  and  is  the  son 
of  the  American  known  as  "Sugar  Stewart,"  who  was  the  first  impor- 
tant patron  of  Fortuny.  The  young  man  was  brought  up  in  the  studio 
of  Madrazo,  Fortuny's  pupil,  and  given  every  advantage,  which  his 
career  honors  because,  though  not  a  great  genius,  he  is  a  serious  stu- 
dent of  nature  and  has  produced  some  strange  and  admirable  original 
effects  in  color  and  realistic  treatment. 


250  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Stewart's  "Hunt  Ball"  is  a  large  picture  filled  with  men  and  women 
in  motion,  as  the  title  indicates.  The  men  are  in  red  and  the  women 
in  pale  tints.  It  is  a  brilliant  example  of  stuff-painting,  resembling  in 
texture  the  work  of  Madrazo.  More  recently,  he  has  studied  the 
effects  of  sunlight  as  manifest  when  a  nude  figure  holds  up  variously- 
colored  stuffs  through  which  the  brilliant  light  penetrates,  throwing 
very  strange  tints  on  the  flesh  which  contrast  with  the  reflections  from 
the  brilliantly-lighted  green  grass.  The  strangeness  and  originality  of 
these  studies  and  their  sincere  truth  command  the  attention  of  artists 
who  understand  the  difficulties  overcome  and  the  keenness  of  observa- 
tion required.    If  it  .may  not  be  called  "great,"  it  is  at  least  admirable. 

Principal  Works:  Court  in  Cairo,  Five  O'clock  Tea,  The  Hunt  Ball,  Full 
Speed. 

Claus  Meyer  (1856-,  German)  places  his  figures  under  the  light  of 
some  large  window  where  the  whites  in  his  draperies  will  have  to  be 
seen  against  it,  thus  conquering  difficult  light  effects  and  studying 
subtle  truths  of  nature.  Max  Klinger  (1856-,  German)  is  a  painter  of 
poetic  fancies  in  a  dignified  way,  sometimes  a  trifle  morbid  in  his  con- 
ceptions. 

John  Singer  Sargent 

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If  a  portrait  express  character  as  well  as  likeness,  it  may  be  the 
greatest  of  all  works  of  art.  Portraits  of  unknown  personages,  like 
Rembrandt's  "Gilder,"  are  more  fascinating  than  most  great  compo- 
sitions. They  quicken  the  imagination  and  show  forth  all  the  won- 
derful skill  of  their  makers.  In  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1900  I  saw  a 
painting  of  a  woman's  figure  in  the  robe  of  a  university  doctor,  black 
against  a  black  background,  relieved  only  by  the  purple  scarf  and  the 
flesh  color  of  face  and  hand,  a  most  monotonous  composition;  yet  it 
fixed  my  attention  more  than  almost  anything  else.  That  Sargent  had 
painted  it  was  plain,  but  more  than  that  I  knew  not,  nor  cared.  The 
pose  was  simple  and  quietly  dignified;    the  expression  of  face  car- 


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George  de  F.  Brush  —  Mother  and  Child. 


THE  AMERICANS   AND   SOME   OTHERS  251 

ried  that  peculiar  something  which  proclaims  masterfulness,  the  hand 
was  not  especially  highly  finished,  but  it  had  power.  The  subtlety  of 
the  entire  work  overpowered  my  senses.  The  Jewish  woman  (Mrs. 
Meyer)  with  the  two  children,  on  the  opposite  wall,  was  wonderful, 
but  this  outdid  it  as  an  example  of  subtle  delineation.  Not  alone  was 
the  brush-work  more  direct  and  frank  than  anything  else  in  sight, 
and  the  color  superb;  it  was  the  power  of  expression  which  will  make 
this  live  as  a  wonderful  work.  The  subect,  as  I  afterward  learned, 
was  President  Thomas  of  Bryn  Mawr. 

On  another  dark  canvas,  looming  out  of  the  blackness,  only  a 
head,  hands  and  a  quite  lively  red  tongue  down  in  the  corner  were 
visible.  Closer  inspection  revealed  an  owner  for  the  tongue — a  black 
French  poodle  lost  in  the  black  atmosphere;  but  the  spark  in  the 
beast's  eye  glimmered  brightly.  The  head  belonged  to  a  man  and 
one  hand  held  a  cigar,  not  too  easily  seen.  Nothing  but  the  face 
showed  plainly.  Such  a  face!  A  mixture  of  stupidity  and  shrewd- 
ness— a  marvelously  suggestive  expression.  How  does  it  happen  that 
people  allow  a  man  to  paint  such  pictures  of  themselves?  Contrast 
this  with  the  amiably  adjusted  portraits  by  Cabanel.  That  face  was 
painted  with  fewer  master  strokes  than  any  that  my  memory  recalls. 

The  larger  canvas,  with  group  of  three  (Mrs.  Meyer  and  children) 
occupied  the  place  of  honor.  The  lady  sat  on  a  silk-tapestried  and 
gold-framed  sofa,  her  children  leaning  over  the  back,  one  of  them  in 
steel-gray.  This  made  contrast  with  the  extensively  spread-out  rose 
silk  dress  of  the  mother.  As  passages  of  swift,  determined  brush- 
work,  even  Velasquez  could  not  surpass  it.  But  this  is  a  detail  of 
minor  importance.  Character  is  what  tells  in  Sargent's  work.  Who 
can  describe  character? 

Much  is  said  about  the  influence  of  Velasquez  upon  Sargent,  but 
usually  nothing  more  than  technique  is  taken  into  consideration. 
Goya  is  one  of  his  favorites  also.  Sargent  had,  more  than  any  other 
that  I  know,  the  Spaniard's  peculiarities  of  genius.  Referring  to  the 
passages  in  this  writing  on  Velasquez,  it  will  be  seen  that  his  pecu- 
liarity was  a  Spanish  one — the  ability  to  see  in  a  face  what  no  other 


252  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

man  ever  could  discover  and  note  down.     Sargent  is  next  in  that  line 
of  talent. 

In  a  century  or  two,  the  art  lovers  will  gather  about  the  works  of 
"the  great  American"  and  purchasers  will  pay  enormous  prices  for 
them.  This  is  not  an  exalted  fancy,  but  beyond  doubt  to  be  a  reality. 
Good  technique  would  not  accomplish  this,  but  great  characterization 
will. 

Sargent's  parents  were  young  Americans  of  means  who  lived  in 
Florence  for  a  year  before  this  boy  was  born.  Who  knows  what 
subtle  influence  of  that  enthusiastic  mother's  delight  over  the  art  she 
studied  enabled  nature  to  make  this  great  painter?  Add  to  this  the 
fact  that  he  was  educated  in  that  city  of  art  glories  and  the  results  are 
explained.     But  education  alone  never  made  a  genius. 

Some  have  complained  that  he  is  not  an  American  because  his 
home  has  always  been  in  Europe.  But  in  the  late  Paris  Exposition 
his  work  was  the  center  of  attraction  in  the  American  section  of  fine 
arts,  and  it  stood  out  as  the  most  American  thing  in  it. 

"American  art"  is  not  necessarily  American  in  subject.  All 
subjects  are  alike  to  a  good  artist;  it  is  altogether  a  question  of  the 
character  displayed  in  the  painting  This  man's  aggressiveness, 
independence,  quickness  of  perception  and  general  expertness  are 
entirely  American.  Wherever  he  lives  or  whatever  he  paints,  he  will 
be  American.  It  is  a  matter  of  no  importance  whether  his  sitter  be  a 
Jewess  in  London  or  Madame  Fifth-Avenue. 

At  the  Pan-American  Exposition  (Buffalo,  1901)  two  tall  figures, 
in  outing  costume  of  linen  stuffs,  the  man  holding  a  tennis  racquet, 
made  the  subject  matter  of  Sargent's  most  important  picture  (owned 
by  I.  N.  Phelps  Stokes,  Esq.).  The  swift  strokes  forming  the 
white  trousers  and  skirt  of  the  figures  were  uncompromisingly  long 
lines  of  positive  drawing — the  entire  rendering  of  textures  was 
naturalistic,  and  yet  done  with  the  most  direct  means.  Everything 
else  in  that  well-hung  gallery  seemed  labored  and  tediously  manipu- 
lated by  comparison.  All  the  flesh  was  normal  and  cool.  The  woman 
smiles,  not  sweetly,  but  with  an  expression  of  personality  bordering 


J.  S.  Sargent  —  Portkait  of  Homer  St.  Gaudens. 


THE   AMERICANS  AND   SOME   OTHERS  253 

on  caricature.  Still,  people  seek  for  these  peculiar  pictures  of  them- 
selves. There  is  no  character  painting,  perhaps,  which  does  not 
strike  us  as  caricature,  so  accustomed  are  we  to  the  sweetened  and 
fancifully  managed  portrait. 

His  first  Salon  success  was  in  1879,  with  a  portrait  of  his  master, 
Carolus  Duran,  done  so  much  in  the  manner  of  his  master  that 
envious  people  declared  that  Carolus  himself  had  painted  most  of  it. 
But  the  work  was  marked  by  peculiarities  so  unlike  those  of  the  mas- 
ter that  this  accusation  fell  on  stony  ground  It  was  the  Salon  sensa- 
tion. His  work  known  as  "The  Hall  of  the  Four  Children"  came 
soon  afterward:  a  spacious  arrangement,  the  hall  having  openings  and 
portieres  rendered  in  grave,  rich  tones.  Three  of  the  children  were  in 
the  background,  the  little  one  playing  near  the  center  on  the  floor. 
With  these  was  the  portrait  of  an  enormous  Chinese  vase,  against 
which  one  of  the  children  was  leaning.  Nothing  like  it  occurs  in  any 
of  the  museums,  and  the  impression  made  was  as  great  as  the  origin- 
ality of  the  composition,  the  superiority  of  the  color  and  brush-work 
and  the  personality  of  the  expressions. 

Wonderful  as  are  Sargent's  decorations  of  the  Boston  Public 
Library,  it  is  doubtful  if  they  surpass  his  portraits  as  manifestations  of 
genius.  In  them  we  see  how  a  man  may  undertake  a  task  which  has 
occupied  the  best  of  the  world's  artists  in  all  ages,  and  still  find  a  new 
way  of  expressing  himself.  Where  are  we  to  find  a  prototype  for  that 
vault  overhead?  Some  declare  that  it  is  Byzantine,  but  it  is  not  that 
except  as  it  is  archaic  in  sentiment,  rather  than  according  to  the 
classicism  of  the  school  of  Raphael.  Its  management  is  startlingly 
original,  with  heads  modelled  in  relief  and  great  seeming  confusion  in 
arrangement.  As  decoration  for  an  unbroken  surface,  few  efforts  can 
compare  with  it.  The  frieze  of  prophets  is  noble  in  its  series  of 
monumental  figures,  which  are  more  like  other  men's  work  than  the 
vault.  Much  as  they  are  admired,  I  feel  them  to  be  less  characterful 
than  the  portraits. 

Sargent  is  an  English  Royal  Academician  and  an  American 
National  Academician.     He  illustrates  the  benefits  of  hard  work  in 


254  THE   WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

the  best  Parisian  schools,  a  thorough  understanding  of  all  technique 
and  principles  of  picture-making  as  they  may  be  used  by  an  original 
genius,  and  he  proves  that  training  does  not  stunt  anyone's  growth  or 
dry  up  his  freshness,  as  it  is  claimed  by  some  that  long  training  is 
sure  to  do. 

Principal  Works:  Carmencita  (Luxembourg) ;  EI  Jaleo,  Mrs.  Meyer  and  Chil- 
dren, Beatrix,  The  Hall  of  the  Four  Children,  Carnation  Lily — Lily  Rose;  Portraits 
of  Carolus  Duran,  Homer  St.  Gaudens,  William  M.  Chase,  Henry  D.  Marquand, 
Ellen  Terry  as  Lady  Macbeth,  Col.  Higginson,  Mrs.  Fiske-Warren,  and  many  others ; 
Decorations  in  the  Boston  Public  Library,  called  "The  Triumph  of  Religion." 

Charles  H.  Davis  (1856-,  American),  the  hermit  of  Mystic,  Conn., 
lives  with  nature,  painting  beautifully  what  he  sees,  or  reproducing 
his  impressions  in  the  quiet  of  his  country  studio.  John  W.  Alex- 
ander (1856-,  American)  has  abandoned  Paris  for  New  York.  There 
is  no  more  original  portrait  painter  of  our  nationality,  and  his  rank  in 
Europe  is  not  a  low  one.  Magnificent  conceptions  of  the  sweep  of 
lines  and  original  poses  have  commanded  wide  admiration.  Alexander 
is  another  who  uses  few  pigments  and  with  them  secures  extraordinary 
variety  of  color.  With  him  it  is  a  question  of  lines  and  masses  rather 
than  of  characterization.  He  seeks  beautiful  effects  through  these 
qualities  and  through  a  certain  diffused  color  which  has  a  peculiar 
magnetism.   His  individuality  is  very  marked.   His  work  has  distinction. 

Principal  Works:  Portrait  of  Walt  Whitman  (Metropolitan  Museum,  New 
York) ;  Isabella  and  the  Pot  of  Basil  (Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston) ;  Portrait  of  a 
Woman,  The  Blue  Bowl,  The  Ray  of  Sunhght,  A  Mother. 

Robert  Haug  (1857-,  German)  does  military  pictures,  not  quite 
literal  because  seeking  for  sentimentality.  Frank  Bramley  (1857-, 
English)  is  a  genre  painter  of  the  better  sort.  Wyllie  (1857-,  English) 
knows  the  details  of  the  picturesque  craft  which  ply  the  Thames  in  a 
manner  to  excite  admiration  and  his  paintings  give  much  of  the  senti- 
ment of  the  great  port  of  London.  Bruce  Crane  (1857-,  American)  is 
a  landscape  painter  who  has  made  many  very  attractive  pictures.  Nils 
Kreuger  (1858-,   Swedish)    is  another  who  painted   the   mystery  of 


THE   AMERICANS   AND   SOME   OTHERS  255 

night  with  fine  effect.  Horatio  Walker  (1858-,  American)  is  counted 
as  remarkable  for  sincere  study  and  rendering  of  landscape  with 
domestic  animals  and  figures.  He  secures  the  rare  virtue  called 
style.  Even  when  he  paints  pigs,  there  is  fine  style  in  the  picture. 
Giovanni  Segantini  (1858-1899,  Italian).  Decorated  with  crape,  a 
considerable  collection  of  this  artist's  works  hung  in  the  Paris  Expo- 
sition of  1900.  Three  of  the  largest  represented  the  top  of  the  Alps, 
treated  in  a  very  strange  manner  in  composition  and  handling.  The 
paint  was  laid  as  if  embroidered  with  heavy  cords.  The  effect  was 
startling,  truthful  in  a  sense,  rarely  equaled  and  revealing  an  observa- 
tion of  nature  scarcely  surpassed  by  anything  in  the  entire  exposition. 
Some  called  it  an  affectation,  but  it  carried  the  conviction  of  sincerity 
and  truth. 

Nils  Gustav  Wenzel  (1859-,  Norwegian)  is  one  of  those  who 
studied  with  Piloty  and  then  in  Paris,  returning  to  his  own  land  to 
create  a  landscape  art  entirely  national  and  excellent.  Childe 
Hassam  (1859-,  American)  is  a  follower  of  Claude  Monet  in  his  use  of 
color  and  has  secured  some  effects  of  light  and  atmosphere  which 
almost  no  one  has  excelled,  with  tender  and  rich  color  most  admirable 
to  see.  His  figures  are  bathed  in  atmosphere  and  light.  Hassam 
painted  a  young  woman  playing  the  piano  in  front  of  an  open  window, 
the  daylight  falling  on  masses  of  greenery  and  reflecting  this  light 
over  the  polished  surface  of  the  piano,  until  the  two  seemed  bathed  in 
one  liquid  atmosphere.  Nothing  useless,  nothing  obtrusive,  nothing 
but  the  solitary  statement  of  white-clad  woman,  shining  light  and 
vibration  of  atmosphere  intruded  on  the  senses.  Upon  the  piano  top 
stood  several  transparent  glass  vases  holding  variously-colored  pop- 
pies. The  manner  in  which  he  hinted  at  the  vases  (which  an  ordinary 
artist  would  have  delighted  to  elaborate)  and  the  tender  way  that  he 
made  the  brilliant  flowers  serve  the  arrangement  of  the  composition, 
just  enough  and  no  more,  was  amazingl)'  good. 

Jan  Toorop  (i860-,  Dutch)  is  a  mystic  who  creates  decorative 
panels  with   original  lines  and  combinations  of  colors.     He  certainly 


256  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

has  remarkable  talent  and  fills  a  place  in  art  now  becoming  more 
and  more  appreciated.  Bruno  Liljefors  (i860-,  Swedish)  mani- 
fested so  little  talent  that  his  masters  despaired.  So  he  retired  to  the 
country  and  communed  with  nature,  painting  animals  and  figures  in  a 
new  and  excellent  way.  Anders  Zorn  (i860-,  Swedish)  is  a  man  of 
extraordinary  character  and  a  painter  who  goes  about  many  countries 
executing  portraits  as  a  prince  who  can  command  the  world.  In 
observation  of  nature  and  rendering  its  truths  in  his  own  bold  and  orig- 
inal way,  no  one  is  his  superior.  His  omnibus  interior  (at  Columbian 
Exposition),  a  night  scene  in  which  the  passengers  are  exposed  to  the 
blasts  of  electric  and  gas  light  commingled,  is  a  marvel  of  true 
observation.  Certain  pictures  of  the  stout  nymphs  of  his  own  country, 
bathing  from  the  rocks,  were  considered  somewhat  too  realistic,  but 
that  is  merely  a  matter  of  opinion.  There  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
have  the  dictation  of  the  style  of  nymph  he  is  to  study,  so  long  as  he 
paints  them  so  superbly.  Zorn's  color  is  gray.  He  uses  a  great  deal 
of  black  and  red,  duly  qualified  with  yellows.  This  simple  palette  in 
his  hands  produces  a  series  of  tones  of  wonderful  tenderness  and 
variety,  the  more  so  when  his  bold  brush-stroke  and  ability  to  manage 
light  and  shade  are  considered.  Of  course  in  landscape  there  are  the 
essential  greens  and  blues  to  make  nature's  colors,  but  with  it  all  the 
color  is  tonal.  Extraordinary  ability  to  see  the  refinements  of 
expression  in  a  face  and  to  catch  the  evanescent  effects  of  unusual 
appearances,  as  in  the  already  mentioned  "Omnibus,"  constitute  his 
principal  claim  to  genius.     In  etching  he  is  easily  close  to  the  head. 

Principal  Works:  The  Omnibus  (Boston) ;  The  Ripple  of  the  Waves,  Portraits 
of  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer,  Mrs.  Deering,  Mr.  Caton,  and  many  others. 

Julius  Paulsen  (i860-,  Danish)  produces  figure  pictures  with  great 
breadth  and  an  original  sentiment.  Solomon  J.  Solomon  (i860-, 
English)  was  educated  on  the  continent  and  returned  to  take  up  the 
painting  of  nymphs  after  the  manner  somewhat  of  Sir  F.  Leighton. 

Principal  Works:    Cassandra,  Samson,  Niobe,  Laus  Deo. 


John  W.  Alexander  —  Portrait  of  a  Woman. 


THE   AMERICANS   AND   SOME   OTHERS  257 

Frank  W; Benson  (1862-,  American)  is  one  of  the  serious  students 
of  unusual  effects,  such  as  firelight  on  flesh  and  other  difficult  phenom- 
ena. His  decorations,  "The  Seasons,"  at  the  Congressional  Library 
are  among  the  best.  Otto  Reiniger  (1863-,  German)  is  a  Stuttgart 
artist  who  has  great  feeling  for  tonal  landscape.  Frans  Stuck  (1863-, 
German)  is  an  original  genius,  making  ideal  renderings  of  mythologi- 
cal and  religious  subjects  with  strong  light  and  shade  and  mysterious 
effects.  Complained  of  as  not  a  good  colorist,  he  has  recently  given 
proof  of  extraordinary  power  in  using  newly-found,  rich  tones. 

Prince  Eugene  of  Sweden  (1864-)  has  done  much  for  the  art  of  his 
country  and  paints  a  landscape  which  gives  another  evidence  of  the 
vitality  of  the  royal  family  of  Sweden.  He  loves  those  new  effects 
which  the  young  men  invent,  and  this  is  in  contrast  with  the  practice 
and  sentiment  of  too  many  conservative    reigning  houses. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  PRESENT  SITUATION 

This  chapter  gives  the  names  of  some  artists  who  are  now  forming 
the  frontier  guard  in  art  matters.  It  is  followed  by  a  final  review  of 
the  situation,  and  a  few  pages  on  "Schools  of  Art,"  as  they  have  been 
conventionally  classified. 

Several  Rising  Frenchmen 

There  are  important  contemporary  French  painters  who  keep  up 
the  traditions  of  the  country  for  excellence  in  technique,  marked 
talent  and  originality  in  conception  of  their  art. 

Rene  Me'nard  took  his  inspiration  from  Bastien-Lepage,  but  as 
early  as  his  second  Salon  exhibition  (1884)  had  already  formed  a  style 
of  his  own,  which  revealed  something  of  the  influence  of  the  Barbizon 
School.  His  observation  of  nature  is  strikingly  faithful,  yet  he  has 
"style' '  in  his  rendering.  Nude  women  standing  or  wading  in  shallow 
water  of  the  wide  spreading  sea  or  the  woodland  lake,  give  him  oppor- 
tunity to  show  his  training  in  drawing  and  his  ability  to  imagine  large 
effects.  This  is  not  at  all  the  style  of  nude  given  us  by  Cabanel  or 
Lefebvre,  but  a  bolder  and  more  dignified  rendering  of  truth.  "Le 
Troupeau,"  at  the  Luxembourg,  represents  cattle  drawing  near  water 
to  drink,  but  it  is  the  superb  largeness  and  extent  of  the  landscape 
which  catches  and  holds  the  attention.  It  is  not  a  "cattle  picture"; 
the  group  of  animals  is  used,  like  the  masses  of  trees,  as  a  part  of  the 
vast  landscape. 

Charles  Cottet  is  a  power  at  each  salon  with  his  peculiar  and 
truthful  renderings  of  figures,  largely  subjects  drawn  from  people 
living  on  the  French  sea  coast  (Brittany).  "L'Enfant  Mort"  repre- 
sents a  Breton  family  kneeling  about  the  corpse  of  an  infant  which  has 

258 


Carriehe  —  Maternity. 


THE    PRESENT  SITUATION  259 

been  laid  out  on  a  white-spread  table  with  a  few  pathetically  meagre 
candles  and  such  greenery  and  flowers  as  the  locality  furnished.  The 
little  body  is  mounted  for  view,  dressed  in  its  quaint  costume,  while 
the  window  above  it  centers  the  light  over  the  white  spot.  All  Cot- 
tet's  figure  pieces  are  realistic  in  a  new  way  and  have  an  individuality 
peculiar  to  the  artist.  His  color  for  these  sad  subjects  is  dark  and 
approaching  blackness,  but  in  other  works  the  color  is  rich  and  bril- 
liant. He  often  paints  the  sea  with  boats  entering  or  leaving  the 
fisher  havens  at  dawn  or  twilight.  Though  something  resembling  story 
often  appears  in  Cottet's  pictures,  he  religiously  avoids  the  story-tell- 
ing habit  of  the  usual  genre  painter.  He  cares  nothing  about  the 
details  or  the  literalness  of  the  furnishings  on  tables  or  in  rooms,  never 
allowing  them  to  absorb  the  attention,  using  such  details  sparingly  and 
secondarily.  His  "story"  is  only  sufficient  to  act  as  a  vehicle  to  carry 
the  mighty  sentiment  of  the  life  of  this  serious  Breton  people.  His 
is  a  nobly  conceived  art,  the  dignity  sustained  by  deep  tones  of  color 
and  massive  forms. 

Principal  Works:  Rayons  du  Soir  (Luxembourg) ;  Series  of  pictures  called  Au 
Pays  de  la  Mer ;  Triptych  entitled  Le  Repas  d' Adieu,  Ceux  qui  s'en  Vont,  Celles 
qui  restent. 

Henri  Jean  Guillaume  Martin  reveals  many  elements  of  genius, 
using  color  with  the  spotty  handling  of  pure  touches  of  pigment,  as 
invented  by  Monet,  but  carrying  the  effects  farther  than  Monet  did. 
"Chacun  sa  Chimere"  (property  of  the  government)  represents  people 
with  hobbies  in  a  very  poetical  manner.  "Serenite"  (belonging  to  the 
government)  is  a  large  picture  with  tall  pine-tree  stems  reaching  like 
harp  strings  up  and  down  across  the  entire  canvas,  and  floating  amid 
them  are  figures,  in  rose-tinted  costumes,  bearing  musical  instruments 
in  their  hands.  Soft  rays  of  the  declining  sun  filter  through  the  trees, 
the  seated  figures  in  pale  draperies  seem  serenely  contented  as  they 
watch  those  musicians  gliding  through  the  air.  It  is  a  peaceful  land- 
scape inhabited  by  peace.  The  entire  abandonment  of  details  allows 
of  no  distraction  from  the  lofty  expression  of  the  one  sentiment — 
serenity.     The  canvas  is  beautiful  in  color,   poetic  in   treatment  and 


26o  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

managed  in  the  Japanese  manner.  Martin  received  a  grand  prixat  the 
exposition,  Paris,  1900.  His  mural  decorations  at  the  Paris  H6tel  de 
Ville  are  counted  among  the  good  ones  in  that  wonderfully  beautiful 
edifice. 

The  number  of  these  talented  men  is  considerable,  and  there  is  no 
occasion  for  imagining  that  French  art  is  declining. 

Edmond  Aman-Jean  has  not  alone  talent  of  the  highest  order  but 
produces  dignified  art,  serious  in  its  purpose.  Each  generation  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  not  understanding  the  French  character,  has  its 
outcry  over  French  frivolity.  In  each  generation  there  has  been 
frivolity,  but  it  is  not  on  the  increase.  The  men  mentioned  here  are 
not  frivolous  and  the  majority  of  French  artists  are  as  serious  to-day 
as  they  ever  were. 

Aman-Jean  reveals  the  influence  of  the  Japanese  artists,  who  taught 
Europeans  to  see  nature  simply  and  in  nearly  flat  masses.  It  is  also 
correct  to  declare  that  this  artist  and  others  have  been  influenced  by 
the  American,  Whistler,  who  was  one  of  the  first  to  partake  of  the 
Japanese  delicacies.  Whistler  invented  a  flesh  tone,  not  pinkish 
but  gray,  and  this  tone  is  found  in  Aman-Jean's  faces.  Whistler 
reduced  the  modeling  of  his  faces  to  its  simplest  parts,  only  subtly 
revealing  the  rotundity;  Aman-Jean  does  the  same.  In  the  Lux- 
embourg he  has  a  figure  of  a  woman  (probably  a  portrait)  seated 
and  nearly  profile.  The  dress  is  reduced  to  its  simplest  parts,  and  in 
color  recalls  that  strange,  indescribable  purplish  hue  which  the  Japan- 
ese painters  of  the  good  period  in  the  last  century  used  so  variedly 
and  so  charmingly.  So  the  bit  of  yellowish  scarf  is  in  a  Japanese 
tone,  and  all  the  hair,  the  background,  the  slight  suggestion  of  plant 
forms  are  entirely  Japanese  in  treatment.  All  painting  in  the  world, 
however  noble,  resembles  that  of  some  previous  generation;  why  not 
this  of  Aman-Jean?  It  is  nobly  done,  indicating  the  results  of  serious 
academical  training  but  abandoning  the  traditions  of  the  classicists  of 
Italy  as  they  are  taught  in  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts,  All  the  choice 
pictures  of  Aman-Jean  in  the  Exposition  of  1900  were  of  this  sort — 


Edmond  Aman-Jean  —  Pohtkait  of  a  Young  Woman. 


THE   PRESENT  SITUATION  261 

Japanese  in  sentiment  and  treatment.     Several  of  them  were  mural 

decorations,  to  which   this  style   lends  itself  so  kindly.     The  students 

of  to-day  admire  Aman-Jean  and  his  influence  upon  them  is  vigorous. 

Principal  Works:    La  Jeuiie  Fille  au  Paon;  Portrait  (Luxembourg);    Venetia. 

Eugene  Carriere  is  another  Frenchman  who  reveals  Whistler's 
influence,  though  he  is  less  directly  like  the  Japanese  than  the  last 
man  mentioned.  It  is  Whistler's  more  recent  style  of  using  nearly 
black  tones — always  refined  and  colorful  black — and  his  non-pink 
flesh  tones  which  Carriere  has  adopted.  However,  where  Whistler  is 
firm  and  masterful  in  touch,  Carriere  is  inclined  to  be  vague  in  hand- 
ling though  clear  in  thought.  All  his  pictures  suggest  that  he  made 
them  out  of  dark  smoke.  One  day  he  became  jocose  at  his  own  expense 
when  visiting  the  Luxembourg  and  confronting  his  own  work: 
"Voila — some  one  has  been  smoking  in  the  nursery."  The  picture 
was  a  domestic  scene.  One  of  his  most  important  works  at  the  Expo- 
sition of  igoo  was  the  interior  of  a  popular  theater,  the  spectator  sup- 
posed to  be  in  one  of  the  higher  galleries  looking  across  to  the  other 
tiers  of  galleries  over  the  vast  emptiness  of  the  space,  below  which  is 
the  stage,  though  the  latter  is  invisible.  The  lights  are  turned  down 
and  all  is  somber,  vaguely  lighted  from  the  glow  of  the  performance. 
This  light  reveals  the  faces  of  the  nearer  occupants  of  the  circling  gal- 
lery seats  and  in  the  obscurity  of  the  distant  galleries  we  see  the  mul- 
titudinous audience,  all  enveloped  in  the  vapory  smoke.  It  is  not 
generally  supposed  that  he  intended  to  state  that  every  one  in  the 
house  was  smoking  cigars,  though  the  effect  suggests  this.  Which- 
ever way  he  intended  this  smokiness  to  be  understood,  it  is  true  that 
all  his  work  is  bathed  in  it,  as  suggested  by  his  own  witticism.  He  is 
as  clever  in  his  treatment  of  this  effect  as  any  one  has  a  right  to  be. 
Certainly  his  school  training  must  have  been  of  the  best,  because  every 
line  of  the  drawing  is  learned.  Studying  his  dignified  domestic  scenes 
(Luxembourg),  and  forgetting  what  some  other  artist  has  painted  in 
the  same  manner,  they  become  vigorously  impressive. 

Principal  Works:  Portrait  Group,  Motherhood  (l^uxembourg);  Alphonse 
Daudet  and  his  Daughter  Esmee,  Theatre  Populaire,  L'Enfant  Malade. 


262  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Some  Artists  in  England 

There  was  a  group  of  painters  in  Scotland  known  as  "the  Glasgow 
School."  They  battled  for  recognition  by  legitimate  display  of 
talent,  without  the  aid  of  any  literary  "promoter."  Created  by  the 
influence  of  the  Barbizon  School,  the  recent  Dutch  painters  and  Whis- 
tler, and  most  of  them  of  Parisian  art-school  training,  they  evolved' 
a  style  of  their  own,  which  commanded  the  admiration  of  the  European 
and  American  collectors.  In  manner  they  differ  widely,  only  having  in 
common  the  sentiment  of  poetic  treatment  and  largeness  of  style. 
Their  habit  was  to  meet  in  one  of  the  studios  and  criticise  their  col- 
lected works,  even  retouching  the  paintings  for  each  other;  then  voting 
which  should  be  exhibited  at  their  public  appearance,  for  they  never 
exhibited  except  collectively.     The  group  is  now  scattered. 

Probably  the  strongest  is  Sir  James  Guthrie,  recently  made  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Scottish  Academy,  who  is  a  fine  coloristand  a  daring 
painter  of  figures  and  portraits.  His  arrangments  are  unique  and 
picturesque  while  always  in  good  taste.  E.  A.  Hornell  is  decorative 
in  the  management  of  his  figure  subjects,  leaning  to  the  Japanese  man- 
ner, making  highly-colored  spottings  much  resembling  the  effects  of 
stained  glass.  M.  R.  Stevenson  paints  landscapes  of  wonderful  poetic 
sentiment,  often  reproducing  the  twilight  tenderly  and  without  any  of 
the  garishness  which  so  often  vulgarizes  such  effects.  W.  Y.  Mac- 
Gregor  (not  Robert)  and  James  Paterson  are  landscape  painters  to 
be  proud  of,  with  tender  tones  and  many  resemblances  to  Corot,  though 
more  solid  in  treatment.  John  Lavery  is  a  painter  of  portraits,  hand- 
ling his  matter  very  loosely,  merely  suggesting  the  surfaces  but  always 
with  knowledge  and  power.  His  color  is  grave  but  luminous  in  its 
depths.  The  originality  and  quaintness  of  his  arrangements,  the  inno- 
cent air  of  his  children  and  the  abandonment  of  all  academical  con- 
ventionalities proclaim  him  an  artist  far  higher  in  rank  than  the  "fine 
painters."     These  were  the  leaders,  though  the  list  could  be' extended. 

Principal  Works  of  Guthrie:  In  the  Orchard,  Portrait  of  Rev.  Dr.  Gardner, 
Portrait  of  a  Lady. 


Cecilia  Beaux  —  Mother  and  Son. 


THE   PRESENT  SITUATION  263 

A  man  of  Welch  extraction,  Frank  Brangwyn,has  made  a  name 
for  himself  by  the  use  of  remarkable  color,  very  low  in  tone  and  the 
pigments  laid  as  pure  and  rich  as  possible.  Many  of  his  subjects  are 
poetic  in  a  dignified  way.  His  work  suggests  painted  windows,  and 
he  has  invented  many  fine  designs  for  actual  windows. 

William  Stott,  recently  deceased,  was  a  warm  friend  of  the 
American  artist,  Alexander  Harrison,  and  the  two  influenced  one 
another  in  the  matter  of  reproducing  the  female  nude  in  peculiar  con- 
ditions of  the  light  of  out-of-doors.  Stott  was  fond  of  painting  nudes 
in  the  surf  of  the  sea,  and  gave  to  them  a  peculiar  wildness  as  if  they 
were  children  of  the  open  who  had  never  known  the  restraints  of 
clothing.  Byam  Shaw  follows,  to  a  certaint  extent,  the  influence  of 
the  Preraphaelites,  though  never  slavishly.  He  is  a  colorist  in  that  he 
reproduces  the  brilliant  tints  of  draperies  correctly.  But  he  fails  to 
impress  the  spectator  with  his  serious  subjects  because  of  the  interest 
excited  by  this  same  brilliant  coloring  and  a  too  faithful  rendering  of 
textures,  thus  distracting  the  attention  from  more  important  matters. 
He  is  sermonizing  very  often  in  his  pictures,  as  in  the  little  work: 

"Maggie  has  written  a  letter  to  give  me  my  choice  between 
A  wee  little  whimpering  Love  and  the  great  God  Nic-o-tine;' 

representing  a  young  man  seated  in  his  smoking  den,  surrounded  by 
luxuries  of  wine  and  tobacco.  The  little  God  of  Love,  who  has  just 
delivered  his  message,  stands  tearful  and  embarrassed  in  the  edge  of 
the  frame  because  this  son  of  degeneracy  has  cast  Maggie's  letter 
on  the  floor,  the  anti-tobacco  sentiments  and  conditions  of  surrender 
contained  therein  not  pleasing  him.  All  details  are  beautifully  car- 
ried out,  including  the  sense  of  green  light  which  pervades  the  room, 
reflections  from  green  curtains  and  walls. 

The  large  and  crowded  picture  called  "Truth"  shows  us  an  Eng- 
lish king  of  the  early  fifteenth  century  who  has  captured  Truth  and 
blindfolded  the  helpless,  naked  creature,  while  his  supporters,  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Law,  the  Church  and  the  Army,  appeal  to  books  or 
heaven  or  look  on  indifferently.     The  queen  and  her  two  daughters 


264  THE  WORLD'S  PAINTERS 

hold  up  a  drapery  to  shield  the  king's  acts  from  the  vulgar  gaze  of  the 
populace  in  the  background.  A  brazen  woman  (the  king's  mistress) 
has  stolen  the  white  robe  of  Truth  and  causes  it  to  be  dipped  in  a  pot 
of  blood.  Near  at  hand,  the  court  jester  has  captured  the  lamp  of 
Truth  and  attempts  to  satisfy  himself  as  to  whether  it  can  be  extin- 
guished or  not.  Innocence,  in  the  person  of  a  child,  enters  into  the 
sport  of  blowing  out  the  lamp,  with  great  glee,  knowing  no  better, 
A  young  woman  watches  this  operation  earnestly,  to  satisfy  herself  as 
to  the  perpetuity  of  the  light  of  Truth.  This  serious  and  portentous 
situation  is  presented  with  an  array  of  gorgeous  and  positive  coloring 
and  of  elaborate  stuffs  painting  which  distracts  the  attention  from  the 
intensely  vital  sermon  which  the  picture  is  intended  to  suggest.  It  is 
fine  work,  but  a  mistaken  effort. 

Some  American  Contemporaries 

Cecelia  Beaux  (b.  Philadelphia)  is  one  of  the  women  painters  who 
nas  won  for  herself  a  position  that  many  men  envy.  Portrait  painting 
occupies  her  principally,  and  the  touch  is  strong,  the  color  vigorous 
and  rich.  It  is  not  right  to  place  any  artist  too  high.  This  one's 
painting  resembles  John  Sargent's  so  closely  as  to  be  almost  an  imita- 
tion. But  she  can  secure  the  character  of  the  subject  remarkably  well, 
which  is  much.  J.  Carroll  Beckwith  does  excellent  portraits,  direct 
and  natural,  examples  of  which  went  to  the  Exposition,  Paris,  1900. 
Robert  Blum  (deceased  1903)  was  so  capable  and  inventive  in  all  things, 
illustrations,  decorations  and  pictures,  that  success  attended  him.  His 
large  decoration  in  the  Mendelssohn  music  hall  in  New  York  shows  us 
a  festival  of  Music.  It  is  painted  in  watercolors.  John  G.  Brown  (b. 
in  England,  1831)  has  widely  commanded  the  public  attention  these 
many  years  with  sentimental  pictures  of  bootblacks  and  street  gamins. 
He  holds  with  us  the  same  position  as  the  German  and  English  anec- 
dotic painters  hold  in  their  countries,  not  a  great,  but  a  pleasing  artist. 
F.  S.  Church  makes  attractive,  pale-toned  and  harmonious  panels 
with  lightly-draped  women  coquetting  with  wild  animals  and  birds,  sus- 
tained by  a  slight  allegorical  pretext.     R.  Swain  GifTord  has  given  us 


Carkoll  Beckwith  —  "  1776 


THE    PRESENT   SITUATION  265 

numberless  landscapes  with  excellent  low-tone  and  arranged  composi- 
tions. Charles  Dana  Gibson  does  not  paint.  His  illustrations  are 
widely  known;  made  with  pen  and  ink.  He  can  produce  works  with 
touching  sentiment,  enlivened  by  wit.  Over-patronage  is  injuring 
him,  but  his  talent  is  of  a  high  order.  Francis  D.  Millet  was  born 
near  Boston,  secured  his  art  education  in  Antwerp,  was  sent  to  the 
Russo-Turkish  war  as  correspondent  for  the  London  Graphic  and  did 
wonderful  things  by  his  courage  and  intelligence  in  that  horrible  win- 
ter campaign.  He  now  paints  genre  pictures,  the  subject  matter  found 
in  the  Elizabethan  period  of- picturesque  characters  and  clothes,  in  the 
manner  of  the  late  Lord  Leighton. 

Gari  Melchers  (b.  Detroit)  secured  his  education  in  European  art 
schools;  lives  now  in  Holland  and  Paris  and  paints  strikingly  decora- 
tive compositions  from  material  found  in  Holland,  also  powerful  por- 
traits. It  is  interesting  to  remark  the  effect  of  temperament  in  two 
artists  both  painting  Dutch  child  life.  Melchers  and  MacEwen  have 
selected  this  line  of  work  in  Holland,  but  neither  is  in  the  least  like 
any  one  else. 

Melchers  loves  strong  colors;  has  not  a  perfect  color  sense,  but 
manages  so  well  as  almost  to  disarm  criticism.  His  masculinity  com- 
mands such  respect  that  every  one  bows  to  its  force.  In  one  of  his 
pictures  two  young  people  of  Holland  go  a-skating,  clothed  in  the 
costumes  of  the  peasantry.  The  woman  wears  a  short  cloak  of  varia- 
gated  brocade,  brilliant  with  several  violent  contrasts.  The  man  has 
on  a  highly-colored  Jersey  jacket.  Giving  to  these  all  the  vigor  of  his 
palette,  Melchers  creates  a  decorative  scheme  which  throws  down  the 
coloring  of  all  other  pictures  in  a  gallery.  The  force  of  the  effect  is 
tremendous  and  it  wins  by  manifestation  of  vigor  and  self-confidence 
in  the  painter.  Whatever  criticism  the  spectator  is  inclined  to  indulge 
in  is  dampened  by  his  admiration  of  the  daring  of  the  artist. 

His  portrait  of  President  Harper,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  is 
full  length,  untrammelled  by  useless  accessories  or  belongings.  This 
vigorous  man  stands  alone  on  the  canvas,  exactly  like  himself, 
determined,  alert,  rugged  and  independent.     In  all  the  line  of  portrait 


266  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

painting,  few  efforts  are  more  successful  than  this  in  the  delineation 
of  character.  A  lack  of  personality  in  the  sitter  disturbs  Melchers. 
He  is  a  true  artist,  dependent  upon  his  inspiration.  Given  person- 
ality, he  will  feel  its  value  and  render  its  essence. 

Principal  Works:  Mother  and  Child  (Luxembourg);  The  Sermon,  The 
Skaters,  Portrait  of  Donald  G.  Mitchell,  Little  Constance,  Sainte  Gudule,  Little  Red 
Ridinghood,  Vespers,  The  Bride,  Married,  Portrait  of  Mr.  David  Jones,  Portrait  of 
Dr.  Harper,  The  Young  Mother. 

Howard  Pyle  (b.  Delaware)  commands  the  respect  of  all  artists, 
although,  like  Abbey,  he  uses  his  art  in  making  illustrations.  Many 
of  these  are  painted  in  oils,  sufficiently  reserved  in  the  coloring  not  to 
interfere  with  the  reproduction  on  the  pages  of  a  book,  by  means  of 
photo-process.  His  illustrative  work  reveals  force,  originality,  excel- 
lence in  arrangement,  good  drawing,  and  an  ambition  to  do  his  best. 
He  has  illustrated  all  sorts  of  matters,  but  the  stories  of  the  old  buc- 
caneer life  are  sufficient  to  stamp  him  as  a  remarkable  man.  H.  O. 
Tanner  (b.  Pittsburg)  is  interesting  partly  because  of  his  negro  blood. 
His  character  is  not  less  than  that  of  the  best  of  our  painters;  refined, 
with  exalted  ideals,  and  to  this  he  adds  remarkable  talent  and 
extended  Parisian  art-school  training.  His  subjects  are  usually  derived 
from  the  Bible  and  the  matter  seems  to  be  handled  with  real  convic- 
tion. His  treatment  is  original.  Robert  W.  Vonnoh  (b.  Hartford) 
is  a  portrait  painter  who  has  been  much  in  demand  and  deserves  his 
success,  because  of  truthful  delineation- of  character  and  good  color 
and  technique.  A.  H.  Wyant  (recently  deceased,  b.  Ohio)  was  one  of 
the  serious  painters,  strong  and  fine  in  color,  also  very  poetic  in  treat- 
ment of  his  landscapes.  He  is  an  outcome  of  the  Hudson  River 
School,  but  kept  up  with  the  recent  movement,  never  falling  behind 
the  best  of  the  trained  men. 

Walter  MacEwen  (b.  Chicago)  may  not  be  passed  over  lightly- 
His  Parisian  art  education  has  served  to  place  his  technique  on  a  plane 
which  is  in  no  sense  lower  than  the  best  in  any  land.  While  painting 
in  Holland  he  once  saw  a  number  of  round-faced  and  pale-haived  boys 


Carroll  Beckwith  —  Paul  du  Chaillu. 


THE   PRESENT   SITUATION  267 

staring  at  him  and  making  childish  hootings  in  derision  of  the 
stranger.  The  sun  shone  through  the  thin  hair,  making  glowing  halos 
around  the  urchins'  heads.  It  was  a  unique  effect,  one  never  serving 
an  artist  as  motive  until  then.  He  saw  the  opportunity  instantly  and 
produced  a  picture  which  commanded  attention  at  once.  Facial 
movements,  character,  freedom  from  extravagance  while  rendering 
peculiar  expressions,  all  this  was  so  well  done  that  it  proved  the  exist- 
ence of  one  much-sought-for  element  in  the  artist— originality.  Thus 
it  happened  that  MacEwen  found  his  subject  matter.  Not  continuing 
with  the  saucy  boys  too  long,  he  has  made  a  series  of  character  studies 
of  Dutch  peasant  life  which  few  have  equaled. 

Thomas  Wilmar  Dewing  (b.  in  Boston)  after  securing  his 
Parisian  training,  developed  a  peculiarly  poetic  rendering  of  figure 
pictures.  An  early  work  represented  several  female  figures  grouped 
on  a  slight  elevation  in  formal  manner.  These  were  conventionally 
draped  and,  standing  back  to  back  so  as  to  face  outwards,  they  blow 
upon  golden  trumpets.  The  color  was  quiet  and  tenderly  varied. 
At  that  time  decorative  panels  were  rarely  to  be  seen  in  our  exhi- 
bitions (as  the  taste  for  them  is  entirely  recent)  and  the  public 
found  this  quite  uninteresting,  the  more  so  as  the  artist  had  spent  no 
time  in  elaborating  the  draperies  or  in  careful  stuffs-painting.  Such 
short-hand  work  is  more  admired  at  present,  though  the  execution  of 
it  must  be  masterful. 

Dewing  has  also  painted  floating  figures,  as  if  the  evening  mists 
were  embodied  in  women's  forms  and  swayed  in  lengthened  nearly 
horizontal  wraiths  over  the  velvety  grass.  He  has  this  field  largely  to 
himself,  though  the  poetically  treated  decorative  panel  is  now  in 
demand  and  the  supply  comes  accordingly.  His  portraits  are  very 
personal, — they  have  an  exquisitely  delicate  distinction. 

Trincipal  Works:  At  the  Piano,  Morning,  A  Concert,  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Dew- 
ing, Prelude,  A  Garden,  Slave. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FINAL   REVIEW 

It  is  plainly  to  be  seen  from  a  careful  review  of  the  matter  here 
presented  that  it  has  been  in  France,  during  the  last  one  hundred 
years,  that  the  art  of  painting  has  had  a  renewal  of  healthy  growth.  The 
classicists  (some  of  them  men  of  a  high  order  of  genius)  have  kept 
alive  the  traditions  of  masterful  drawing  as  in  no  other  nation  since 
the  decline  in  Italy.  Proud  of  their  skill,  these  artists  have  claimed 
that  no  art  could  be  worthy  unless  hedged  about  with  the  refinements 
and  the  restraints  of  the  rigid  classics.  They  have  stood  in  the  way 
of  all  innovations  and  made  the  road  of  the  independent  thinkers  very 
hard  to  travel.  However,  the  effect  has  been  on  the  whole  salutary. 
It  has  enabled  the  innovators  to  do  their  work  better  and  kept  them 
from  falling  into  weakness  and  confusion.  A  great  many  of  the 
revolutionists  went  through  the  hard  courses  of  drawing  in  the  classi- 
cal schools,  and  though  they  usually  did  not  make  remarkable 
draughtsmen  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  standing  on  the  classical 
heights,  they  could  not  fall  to  as  low  a  standard  in  drawing  as  those 
do  who  have  had  no  such  influences  about  them.  The  true  vitality  of 
French  art  has  many  times  been  made  manifest  by  the  radical  innova- 
tions of  thinking  men  and  the  intensity  of  their  endeavor  to  discover 
the  hidden  secrets  of  nature. 

In  Germany,  with  the  exception  of  an  occasional  genius  like 
Menzel  (and  he  stands  almost  alone),  there  was  no  original  initiative 
for  nearly  two  centuries.  The  schools  of  Diisseldorf  and  Munich  do 
not  furnish  a  single  example  of  true  artistic  vocation.  The  former 
was  mechanical  and  bound  about  with  traditions  borrowed  from  the 
earlier  centuries  and  in  manner  there  was  no  painter  inspiration. 
Piloty,  in  the  latter,  was  a  talented  man  who  reduced  his  art  to  an 

268 


o 

S 

W 
H 


o 


FINAL   REVIEW  269 

artificial  system  and  taught  this  to  his  many  pupils.  None  of  them 
made  original  artists  until  in  some  cases  they  found  themselves  in 
other  situations  and  moved  by  new  impulses.  Most  of  the  really 
talented  artists  of  Scandinavia  and  the  lands  of  the  north,  received 
their  inspiration  in  Paris. 

Quite  recently  there  has  arisen  a  movement  (started  probably  in 
Munich)  called  the  "Secession,"  gathering  together  the  independent 
fellows  who  tired  of  the  monotonous  mannerism  of  the  schools.  The 
name  of  this  movement  explains  itself.  It  included  not  alone  paint- 
ing, but  decoration,  architecture,  and  the  manufacture  of  articles  of 
daily  use.  The  outcome  is  called  "neue  kunst"  (in  France,  "art 
nouveau").  These  artists  sought  to  emulate  the  practice  of  the  "new 
Salon"  in  Paris,  by  encouraging  unexpected  manifestations,  admitting 
grotesques  if  talent  went  with  them.  Firm  believer  that  I  am  in  this 
liberty,  it  is  not  strange  that  I  admire  much  of  the  result.  It  is  not 
that  it  is  all  beautiful,  but  it  is  fresh,  hopeful,  full  of  opportunity. 
As  long  as  art  schools  live,  there  will  be  classicism  and  conservatism. 
In  this  lies  the  safety.  In  the  meantime,  the  "secession"  is  doing  a 
world  of  good. 

The  naturalist,  Lieberman,  had  much  influence  in  this  movement. 
Other  names  are  those  of  Franz  Skarbina,  Reinhold  Lepsius,  Frederick 
Stahl,  Hans  Herrman,  Hugo  Vogel,  Walter  Leistakow,  and  Frans 
Stuck.  Gustav  Klint,  of  Vienna,  has  been  a  leader  within  his  sphere 
of  influence. 

Russia  has  little  to  show  in  the  line  of  original  art — little  that  we 
call  national.  Repin  is  Russian  in  treatment  of  subject  and  thoroughly 
national  in  his  literalism,  but  his  technique  is  not  Russian.  Verest- 
chagin  is  Russian  in  his  love  of  gaudy  trappings  and  the  overloading 
of  his  figures  with  glitter,  as  the  interior  of  a  Russian  church  is  all 
a-glitter. 

The  Dutch,  after  a  few  years  of  keen  life  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, degenerated  into  mannerism  and  mechanical  excellence  without 
real  vitality.  With  Israels  and  Mauve,  whose  technique  is  based  on 
that  of  some  Frenchmen,  arose  a  new  order  of  art,  serious  and  reserved 


270  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

like  the  Dutch  people  and  thoroughly  racial   in  this  respect  as  well 
as  national  in  subject  matter. 

The  English  have  played  the  little  round  of  anecdotic  art  until  their 
very  selves  tired  of  it.  Some  of  their  men  had  remarkable  talent  and 
originality  in  lines  not  difficult  to  trace  but  original  still.  In  recent 
years  their  young  men  have  been  going  to  the  French  ateliers  to  study 
and  from  this  has  arisen  another  art  which  promises  fine  things.  The 
movement  introduced  by  William  Morris  is  original  and  peculiarly 
English,  and  from  it  is  growing  up  a  superb  line  of  decorators. 

America  has  followed  in  the  line  of  least  resistance  and  that  has  led 
largely  through  the  French  ateliers  and  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts,  as  well 
as  the  Academy  of  Munich.  The  severe  classical  drawing  there  taught 
has  resulted,  as  it  always  does,  in  producing  among  us  a  company  of 
excellently  equipped  artists.  Naturally  at  first  these  students  imi- 
tated their  masters.  But  this  has  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  scandal, 
because  our  young  men  are  the  children  of  a  land  where  youth  pre- 
vails— youth  in  blood, — and  an  atmosphere  of  vigorous  originality  in 
all  lines  of  thought  and  work. 

The  most  promising  development  is  the  newly  aroused  love  for 
mural  decorations  in  public  buildings,  hotels  and  private  residences. 
The  Columbian  Exposition  is  responsible  for  the  initiative  in  the  mat- 
ter of  decorating  public  buildings,  and  the  ornamentation  of  the  Con- 
gressional Library,  while  not  free  from  crudeness,  fixed  in  the  minds 
of  Americans  the  value  of  the  application  of  art  to  these  ends.  Most 
successful  is  the  Boston  Public  Library.  All  over  the  country  are 
courthouses  and  capitols  either  already  ornamented  with  good  sculp- 
ture and  mural  painting  or  in  course  of  development  in  this  direction. 
The  example  of  the  Frenchman,  Puvis  de  Chavannes,  has  the  greatest 
influence  upon  this  art,  though  it  has  not  become  slavish  imitation 
"The  Triumph  of  Religion,"  the  subject  of  John  S.  Sargent's  decora- 
tions in  the  Boston  library,  is  treated  with  such  originality  and  success 
that  we  find  ourselves  startled  to  find  such  a  genius  of  American  blood. 
The  series  by  Edwin  A.  Abbey,  "The  Quest  of  the  Holy  Grail,"  is  the 
history  of  all  mankind  and  executed  with  dignity  and  power. 


Walter  MacEwen  —  The  Judgment  op  Paris. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

SCHOOLS  OF  ART 

There  is  a  tendency  in  almost  all  art  histories  to  group  artists  by 
"Schools."  The  arrangement  is  purely  arbitrary,  and  often  confusing. 
Artists  move  around,  work  in  many  different  places,  change  their 
styles  because  of  such  restlessness,  and  in  no  way  is  this  forcing  of 
them  into  set  formalities  conducive  of  a  better  understanding  of  their 
artistic  attainments.  Yet  it  may  be  useful  to  summarize  these  divi- 
sions according  to  the  best  authorities. 

Beginning  farther  back  than  our  history  extends,  are  many  divi- 
sions by  provinces  or  cities,  because  the  means  of  communication  were 
limited  and  the  artists  remained  at  home,  thus  maintaining  a  certain 
manner  peculiar  to  the  locality. 

The  Early  Florentine  School  may  go  back  as  far  as  one  chooses, 
but  Paolo  Uccello  (b.  1396*)  worked  somewhat  scientifically,  and 
Antonio  del  Pollajuolo  (1426)  studied  anatomy  carefully  if  far  from 
completely.  A  really  serious  advance  came  with  Masaccio,  so  that 
the  school  may  be  dated  from  1402  to  1452  (the  coming  of  Leonardo). 
It  includes  Filippo  Lippi,  Botticelli,  Giorgione,  Credi  and  Verrocchio, 
the  sculptor.  There  was  much  beautiful  painting  in  this  period,  but 
the  early  Gothic  influence  prevailed,  the  figures  followed  many  con- 
ventional patterns  and  the  color  was  by  no  means  as  fresh  as  it  became 
with  Leonardo's  advent. 

The  schools  of  Umbria  and  Perugia  (1420-1530).  These  painters 
may  go  back  as  far  as  Piero  dei  Franceschi,  who  was  somewhat  like 
Masaccio  in  talent  and  product,  also  Signorelli,  Da  Forli,  Santi  and 
especially  Perugino.  The  latter' s  composition  was  symmetrical,  only 
varied  by  certain  turnings  of  head  and  body,  but  he  made  much 
impressive  work. 

*  These  dates  are  those  of  the  birth  of  the  leading  man  and  the  death  of  the 
last  representative. 

271 


272  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

The  schools  of  Ferrara,  Bologna  and  Lombardy  (1425-1523). 
CosimoTura,  Lorenzo  Costa,  Francia  and  Borgognone.  The  character 
of  these  painters  did  not  materially  differ  from  others  of  the  period, 
and  the  artists  moved  about  sufficiently  to  make  a  more  exact 
differentiation  as  to  local  influences  impossible. 

Padua,  Verona  and  Vicenza  had  painters  who  may  be  said  to  have 
formed  schools  (1380-1450).  Andrea  Mantegna  was  the  chief  light 
of  Padua,  a  man  who  studied  his  antiques  with  assiduity,  painting 
many  fine  altar  pieces.  In  Verona,  Vittore  Pizano  and  Bonsignori 
are  most  conspicuous;  in  Vicenza,  Bartolommeo  Montagna.  The 
study  of  good  classical  models  had  much  influence  on  these  men. 

Early  Venetian  School  (1400-1516).  The  Bellini  (Jacopo,  Gentile 
and  especially  Giovanni)  were  the  leading  influences,  discovering 
ability  to  color  better  than  any  painters  before  them,  which  led  to  the 
wonderful  results  achieved  by  Titian  and  others.  Antonello  da  Mes- 
sina learned  the  methods  of  painting  with  varnishes  or  oils  from  cer- 
tain Flemish  painters  who  came  that  way,  and  improved  on  their 
results.  With  these  methods  (whatever  they  may  have  been)  the 
colors  became  much  clearer  than  with  fresco  or  distemper. 

Florentine-Roman  School  (1452- 1564).  Leonardo  da  Vinci, 
Michael  Angelo,  Fra  Bartolommeo,  Andrea  del  Sarto,  Raphael 
Giulio  Romano.  This  is  the  moment  of  Italy's  greatness,  when  the 
study  of  the  best  antiques  (remains  of  the  Graeco-Roman  ancestors) 
brought  the  art  to  its  perfection,  except  that  the  Venetians  added  the 
refined  element  of  color. 

Ferrara  and  Bologna  (1479- 1 542).  Dossi  Garofolo  and  Bagnaca- 
vallo  are  names  associated  with  these  places,  but  the  men  are  not 
worth  discussion  in  a  work  like  this  which  attempts  to  deal  only  with 
artists  who  really  made  a  mark.  Some  historians  are  so  bitten  with 
the  mania  of  classification  that  they  place  Correggio  with  this  cate- 
gory. But  I  refuse  absolutely  to  classify  Correggio  with  any  others. 
He  stands  alone.  "The  Reading  Magdalen"  has  here  been  ascribed 
to  Correggio,  according  to  the  more  familiar  classification,  but  Morelli 
and  the  most  recent  authorities  have  taken  it  from  him. 


SCHOOLS   OF   ART  273 

I  have  great  respect  for  the  acumen  of  experienced  experts,  but 
also  harbor  serious  doubts  as  to  their  invariable  reliability.  So  incor- 
rect have  been  the  conclusions  of  some  of  the  best  experts  of  Europe, 
even  within  the  past  few  years,  that  we  may  well  pause  before  chang- 
ing our  opinions  because  of  their  statements.  All  painters  have  been 
strangely  influenced  by  peculiar  conditions  or  unusual  contacts, 
making  pictures  in  quite  divergent  styles.  To  doubt  the  authenticity 
of  a  long  accepted  attribution  is  to  imagine  that  the  artist  must  of 
necessity  have  painted  invariably  in  a  specific,  well-known  manner, — 
an  unwarranted  conclusion. 

The  Venetian  School  (1477-1588).  Giorgione,  Titian,  Tintoretto, 
Paul  Veronese,  Palma  Vecchio,  perhaps  Luini.  This  is  the  comple- 
ment of  tne  Florentine-Roman  School,  adding  the  element  of  extraor- 
dinary color  to  the  wonderful  product  of  northern  Italy. 

Early  Flemish  (1366- 1 5 30).  The  two  brothers  Van  Eyck,  Roger 
Van  Der  Weyden,  Memling,  Quentin  Matsys.  These  were  wonder- 
ful painters  and  with  them  were  many  others  of  lesser  note.  They 
advanced  the  period  in  which'they  lived.  The  Van  Eycks  are  reputed  to 
have  discovered  oil  painting  It  is  certain  that  they  did  discover  some 
new  methods  other  than  the  commonly  employed  fresco  and  distemper, 
though  these  useful  and  dignified  methods  long  held  their  places. 

In  Holland,  Lucas  Van  Leyden  (1494-1533)  is  the  most  important 
man,  though  there  were  other  not  indifferent  painters.  In  France  we 
find  the  father  and  son,  Clouet,  and  Jean  Cousin  (1483-1589).  These 
artists  produced  works  which  excite  admiration  even  to-day.  It 
was  Gothic  art  very  like  that  of  Van  Eyck,  but  it  revealed  talent  of  a 
high  order. 

Franconian  School  (so  called,  1434- 1569).  Wolgemut,  Durer. 
The  painters  were  Gothic,  even  Diirer,  and  little  influenced  by  the  study 
of  antique  remains.   Following  Diirer  there  is  little  to  note  as  wonderful. 

Swabian  School  (1446-1543).  Schongauer,  Holbein  the  elder, 
Holbein  the  younger.  Commencing  quite  Gothic,  these  painters  were 
finally  strongly  influenced  by  the  renaissance  of  Italy. 

The   following  of  Raphael:    School  of  the   Caracci   (1558-1686). 


274  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

Agostino  Caracci  (and  his  relatives),  Guido  Reni,  Domenichino, 
Carlo  Dolci,  Poussin.  The  Caracci  family  founded  a  famous  school, 
which  taught  the  drawing  of  Michael  Angelo,  the  grace  of  Raphael 
and  the  color  of  Titian;  those  who  followed  this  teaching  became 
painters  of  superior  decorations  and  refined  religious  pictures,  but 
without  great  originality.  Poussin,  who  studied  Raphael,  had  no  con- 
nection with  the  Caracci  School,  excepting  indirectly. 

Revolutionary  Painters  (1569-1673).  Caravaggio,  Ribera,  Sal- 
vator  Rosa.  This  can  hardly  be  called  more  than  an  influence,  as 
there  was  no  gathering  in  one  locality.  It  did  not  end  with  the  date 
given,  because  the  influence  echoed  all  the  way  down  through  the 
lives  of  the  Spanish  painters  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Ribera  was 
a  direct  outcome  of  untamed  fondness  for  natural  effects  and  striking 
coloring  (rather  than  the  forced  refinements  of  the  school  of  the 
Caracci  family)  which  Caravaggio  inaugurated.  Rosa,  the  landscape 
painter,  felt  this  influence  vigorously. 

Claude  Lorraine  (1600-1682).  Claude  is  said  to  be  the  father  of 
landscape  painting.  He  discovered  the  effects  of  light  and  atmos- 
phere as  they  exist  out  of  doors.  His  arrangements  were  formal,  that 
is,  classical  as  the  word  ma)'  be  applied  to  arranged  landscape.  His 
following  extends  through  all  the  centuries  even  until  to-day. 

The  Spanish  School  (1588- 1682).  Ribera,  Collantes,  Zurbaran, 
Velasquez,  Murillo.  All  these  were  vigorous  naturalists.  When  the 
influence  of  Ribera  began  in  Spain,  the  artists  were  ready  to  feel  its 
effect.  Thus  it  maybe  said  that  this  is  a  continuation  of  the  influence 
of  Caravaggio. 

The  School  of  Rubens  (i  577-1641).  Rubens  and  Van  Dyck.  Who 
can  place  the  date  of  the  close  of  the  influence  of  Rubens?  To  the 
native  Flemish  feeling  for  form  and  good  use  of  color,  these  painters 
added  long  training  in  Italy,  influenced  by  the  classical  school.  With 
Rubens  the  tide  of  migratory  artists  turned  extensively,  not  so  fre- 
quently visiting  Italy,  but  Flanders  more. 

Dutch  School  (i  584-1694).  Hals,  Rembrandt,  Van  Ostade, 
Ruysdael,  Hobbema,   Steen,  Douw  and   Teniers    (the    younger). 


SCHOOLS   OF   ART  275 

With  portraits,  domestic  genre  and  landscape,  this  was  a  famous 
period, — naturalistic,  but  decidedly  influenced  in  many  instances  by 
study  in  Italy.  Hals,  Rembrandt  and  their  immediate  following  did 
not  reveal  an  Italian  influence.  Though  Teniers  was  a  Fleming,  he 
belongs  with  this  group. 

The  School  of  Watteau  (1684-1806).  Watteau,  Lancret,  Pater, 
Boucher,  Fragonard,  possibly  Greuze.  The  study  of  Rubens  (but 
the  already  widespread  Italian  influence  in  composition)  shaped  these 
painters  of  pretty,  artificial  genre,  elegantly  dressed  women  posturing 
as  shepherdesses,  pleasing  the  taste  of  the  Bourbon  period. 

The  School  of  David  (1748  to  the  present  day).  David,  Prud- 
hon,  Ingres,  Gerard,  Cabanel,  Bouguereau  and  an  endless  array  of 
others.  David  was  a  dictator  in  art  matters  and  insisted  upon  the 
closest  attention  to  pure  classical  forms.  With  Ingres  came  a  milder 
form  of  classicism  founded  on  the  art  of  Raphael. 

The  Revolutionary  School  (1791-1863,  but  extending  indefinitely). 
Gericault,  Delacroix,  Delaroche.  Quite  possibly  the  last  name  does 
not  belong  here,  but  Delaroche  would  never  have  painted  as  he  did 
but  for  this  movement.  It  was  an  exact  contradiction  of  the  tenets 
of  David,  admitting  of  every  liberty  in  violent  action,  refulgent  color 
and  original  composition. 

The  Barbizon  School  (1763-1878).  Michel,  Corot,  Rousseau, 
Millet,  ending  with  Daubigny,  The  movement  really  commences 
during  the  life  of  Michel  and  was  caused  largely  by  the  influence  of 
the  Englishman,  Constable.  This  was  a  breaking  away  from  the  fet- 
ters of  classicism  which  bound  the  landscape  painters,  a  free  expres- 
sion of  the  sentiments  created  by  the  study  of  nature,  and  still  it  was 
semi-classical  style. 

The  Impressionists  (1832  until  now).  Manet,  Monet,  Renoir, 
Pissarro,  Sisley,  Childe  Hassam.  With  closer  study  of  the  truths  of 
nature  and  the  invention  of  the  principle  of  the  analysis  of  color 
as  light  is  analyzed,  this  group  of  painters  has  arrived  very  close 
to  truth  in  landscape  and  interior  painting.  It  abandons  high  finish 
in  order  to  secure  greater  accuracy  of  impression. 


2/6  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

The  Orientalists  (1803  until  today).  Decamps,  Fromentin, 
Ge'rome,  Ziem,  Cabanel,  Bouguereau,  Boulanger,  Baudry,  Henner, 
Lefebvre,  Benjamin-Constant.  This  is  a  purely  arbitrary  classifica- 
tion made  on  the  basis  of  subject  matter.  The  painters  supposed  to 
fall  in  this  category  do  not  paint  in  any  specific  manner  nor  follow 
any  individual  influence.  Such  a  grouping  is  an  abomination  to  an 
artist,  though  it  may  be  convenient  to  writers.  I  do  not  think  that  it 
has  any  reason  for  existence. 

Realists,  influenced  by  that  sincere  man  Courbet.  From  1819- 
1877  are  the  years  of  his  life.  His  influence  will  last  a  long  time.  It 
is  too  extensive  to  trace. 

The  Military  Painters.  1836  is  the  date  of  birth  of  De  Neuville; 
Detaille  is  the  other  one  whose  name  belongs  here,  and  several  lesser 
men  who  imitate  them.  Some  historians  include  Regnault  and  Meis- 
sonier,  who  painted  some  pictures  of  soldiers,  but  also  studied  more 
extensively  other  subjects.     They  belong  in  no  such  category. 

The  German  Romanticists  (1789-1874.)  Overbeck,  Cornelius, 
Veit,  Schadow,  Fiihrich,  Carolsfeld,  Schwind,  Kaulbach.  There  is 
not  a  decided  character  to  this  grouping.  Not  nature  study,  but  a  cer- 
tain artificial  style  based  largely  on  the  study  of  the  old  masters  of 
various  periods,  formed  an  art  hard  to  classify  exactly.  It  was  not  a 
group  of  painters  of  special  originality,  though  they  were  strong  char- 
acters in  certain  ways.  Some  of  them  were  very  religious  and  worked 
their  exalted  ideas  into  pictures,  though  not  very  much  to  the  edifica- 
tion of  mankind. 

The  Diisseldorf  School  and  the  Munich  School.  It  is  impossible 
to  separate  these  two  localities,  as  far  as  their  art  interests  go,  as  the 
painters  moved  back  and  forth  and  there  is  but  an  almost  imper- 
ceptible contrast  between  them.  Cornelius  and  Schadow  are  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  history  of  Diisseldorf,  Carolsfeld  and 
Kaulbach  with  Munich. 

The  German  Landscape  Painters  (1768).  Koch,  Rottman,  Les- 
sing,  Preller,  the  brothers  Achenbach,  Morgernstern,  etc.  The  old 
landscape  school  of  Diisseldorf  and   Munich  was  heroic  in  its  use  of 


SCHOOLS   OF  ART  277 

formalisms.  Every  scene  had  to  be  reduced  to  "firstly,  secondly  and 
thirdly,"  like  an  old-time  sermon.  Many  of  the  arrangements  were 
extremely  ingenious  and  occasionally  impressive.  But  there  was  little 
in  it  of  genuine  feeling  or  true  artistic  treatment.  With  Lessing,  mat- 
ters were  much  better.  He  was  a  serious  student  of  nature,  as  were 
the  Achenbachs.  The  school  of  Diisseldorf  has  lost  its  prestige  and 
become  merely  a  good  provincial  academy.  At  Munich  and  Vienna 
there  is  abundant  life,  as  manifested  by  the  movement  called  "the 
Secession,"  which  is  a  school  of  protest  against  the  tendency  toward 
formalism,  so  long  the  bane  of  German  landscape  and  figure  painting. 

German  Genre  School  (1811  until  now,  though  the  movement  is  at 
present  not  conspicuous).  Fluggen,  Hubner,  Knaus,  Vautier, 
Defregger.  The  pictures  were  at  first,  like  the  landscapes  mentioned, 
afflicted  with  too  much  formality  and  arranged  like  a  stage  setting  with 
principal,  secondary,  subservient,  and  a  hero,  a  villain  and  the 
woman  who  has  sympathy  with  the  victim.  This  has  disappeared  in 
favor  of  simple  statements  of  life  as  the  painter  found  it.  Piloty, 
while  called  an  historical  painter,  because  of  his  subjects,  came  very 
near  to  being  a  genre  painter  of  this  nature.  However,  he  painted 
clothes  largely. 

The  Recent  Dutch  School.  Israels  (1824-),  and  Neuhuys,  Blom- 
mers,  Kever.  The  revival  of  Dutch  art,  in  the  sentimental  treatment 
given  by  Israels,  is  so  before  the  public  at  this  moment  that  extended 
comment  is  not  called  for.  The  Barbizon  School  is  responsible  for  its 
character,  but  so  much  national  feeling  is  manifest  that  it  may  safely 
be  called  a  remarkably  individual  movement.  Mauve,  the  brothers 
Maris,  and  many  others  have  painted  landscapes  which  keep  excellent 
company  with  these  figure  pictures. 

In  Scandinavia  the  artists  have  obtained  their  educations  largely 
at  Paris  or  Munich,  and  with  this  preparation  have  manifested  much 
national  spirit. 

In  the  same  manner  the  English,  Danish,  Russian  and  American 
artists  have  secured  their  educations  in  Paris  and  Munich  and  returned 
to  their  native  countries  to  make  an  art  more  or  less  national. 


278  THE  WORLD'S   PAINTERS 

The  Preraphaelite  Brotherhood  of  England  originated  about  1848, 
Rossetti,  Millais  and  Hunt  being  the  enthusiastic  prime  movers,  F. 
Madox  Brown  an  important  convert  and  Burne- Jones  a  follower. 
The  influence  of  the  style  then  established  still  exists,  though  its 
theories  have  long  since  been  abandoned.  They  sought  to  prove  that 
theirs  was  the  only  "true"  delineation  of  nature,  whereas  no  school  of 
any  period  has  been  wore  artificial.  By  the  studious  rendering  of 
minute  detail,  much  mysticism  and  imitation  of  the  archaic  manner  of 
the  painters  who  worked  before  Raphael  came,  they  made  it  appear 
that  they  were  more  sincere  than  any  others. 


INDEX 


Abbey,  Edwin  A.,  240,  245-247,  266,  270. 
Achenbach,  Andreas,   141-142,  182,  276, 

277. 
Alexander,  John  W.,  240,  254 
.\Iisal,  Casada  del,  192 
AUegri,  Lorenzo,  28. 
Allen,  Joseph  W.,  133. 
Allston,  Washington,  92,  114-115. 
Alma-Tadema,   Laurens,   141,   176,   199, 

209-210,  224. 
Aman-Jean,  Edmond,  260-261. 
Amerighi,  Michael  Angelo  (Caravaggio) , 

44,  45-46,  47,  54,  62,  74,  75,  99,  129, 

274. 
Ancher,  Michael,  237. 
Angelico,  Fra,  121,  194. 
Apol,  Frederik  Hendrik,  243. 
Artz,  Adolph,  212. 

Badile,  Antonio,  38. 

Bagnacavallo,  272. 

Barbarelli,   Giorgio   (Giorgione),    14,  16, 

17,  271,  273. 
Barrv,  James,  97. 
Bartolommeo,  Fra,  24,  272. 
Bashkirtseff,  Marie,  233. 
Bastien-Lepage,    Jules,    162,    219,    228, 

232-235,  258. 
Baudry,  Paul,  176,  187,  276. 
Bayeu,  103. 
Beaux,  Cecilia,  264. 
Beckwith,  J.  Carroll,  264. 
Bellini,  Gentile,  272. 
Bellini,  Giovanni,  8,  12-13,  14,  16,  272. 
Bellini,  Jacopo,  272. 


Benczur,  Julius,  226. 
Benjamin-Constant,   Jean   Joseph,    162, 

219,  227-228,  276. 
Benson,  Frank  W.,  257. 
Bergh,  Richard,  188. 
Berghem,  Nicholas,  72,  80. 
Besnard,  Paul  Albert,  219,  236. 
Bianchi,  Francesco,  28. 
Bierstadt,  Albert,  176,  177,  180-182,  189. 
Bisschop,  Christoffel,  188. 
Blake,  William,  105. 
Blashfield,  Edwin  Rowland,  219,  236. 
Bloch,  Carl,  207. 
Blommer,  Nils  Johan,  149. 
Blommers,  228,  276. 
Blum,  Robert,  264. 
Bocklund,  152. 

Boecklin,  Arnold,  176,  178-179 
Boldini,  Giovanni,  225. 
Bonheur,  Auguste,  170. 
Bonheur,  Marie  Rosa,  159,  170,  225,  235. 
Bonnat,    I^eon   Joseph    Florentine,    192, 

244. 
Bennington,  Richard,  113. 
Bonsignori,  272. 
Borgonone,  272. 
Bosboom,  Johannes,  151. 
BotticeUi,  Sandro,  II.  3,  7,  184,  186,  194, 

271. 
Boucher,  Frangois,  86,  89,  94,  275. 
Bouguereau,  Wilham  Adolphe,  116,  128, 

172-174,  223,  247,  275,  276. 
Boulanger,  Gustave  Rodolphe  Clarence, 

168,  276. 
Boulanger,  Hippolyte,  214. 


*  Figures  in  black  type  indicate  pages  on  which  the  painters'  biographies  are  given. 

279 


280 


INDEX 


Bramley,  Frank,  254. 

Brandt,  Jozef,  224. 

Brangwyn,  Frank,  263. 

Breton,  Emile  Adelard,  192. 

Breton,  Jules,  179-180,  192. 

Bridgman,  F.  A.,  230. 

Brown,  Ford  Madox,  1 58,  278. 

Brown,  John  Appleton,  226. 

Brown,  John  G.,  264. 

Brozic,  Vacslav,  248. 

Brulov,  Karl,  108, 

Brush,  George  De  Forest,  240,  249. 

Brutt,  Ferdinand,  237. 

Buonarotti,  Michael  Angelo,  I,  4,  6,  10- 

12,  16,  17,  18,  23,  24,  25,  26,  35,  36, 

39,  42,  44,  96, 114, 134, 149, 164, 171, 

253,  272,  274. 
Burkel,  132. 
Burne-Jones,  Sir  Edward,  176,   194-195, 

237,  278. 

Cabanel,  Alexander,  76,  116,  128,  161- 
164,  172,  174,  223,  232,  233,  242,  248, 
251,  258,  275,  276. 

Cagliari,  Paolo  (see  Veronese). 

Cameron,  Hugh,  208. 

Caraooi,  Agostino,  44-45,  273. 

Caracci,  Anabale,  44. 

Caracci,  Antonio,  44-45. 

Caracci,  Francisco,  44. 

Caracci,  Ludovico,  43-45. 

Caracci,  The,  27,  43-45,  46,  47,  49,  54,  55, 
58,  62,  74,  75,  76,  99,  129,  273,  274. 

Caravaggio  (see  Amerighi). 

Carle  (see  Van  Loo). 

Carolsfeld,  Julius  S.  von,  127,  276. 

Carolus  (see  Duran). 

Carrier-Belleuse,  241. 

Carriere,  Eugene,  261. 

Carstens,  A,  J,,  103. 

Cassatt,  Mary,  205. 


Cazin,  Jean  Charles,  140-141. 

Cellini,  Benvenuto,  39. 

Chalmers,  Paul,  210. 

Chaplin,  Charles,  172. 

Chardin,  Jean  Baptiste,  88-89. 

Chase,  William  Merritt,  240-243. 

Chavannes,  Pierre  Puvis  de,  168-170, 171, 

270. 
Chialiva,  Luigi,  219,  225. 
Chintreuil,  Antoine,  139. 
Christensen,  Gottfred,  228. 
Church,  Frederick  Edwin,   176-177,  181, 

189. 
Church,  F.  S.,  264. 
Cimabue,  I. 
Claude  (see  Lorraine). 
Clays,  Jean  Paul,  154. 
Clouet,  Frangois,  34,  273. 
Clouet,  Jean,  34,  273. 
Cole,  Thomas,   122,   124,    130-132,   152, 

176. 
Collaert,  Marie,  225, 
CoUantes,  Francisco,  65,  274. 
Conant,  A.  J.,  125. 
Constable,  John,  109,  110,  112-114,  131, 

138,  139,  154,  183,  275. 

Copley,  John  Singleton,  92,  95,  115,  118. 
Cornelius,  Peter  von,  118-119,  276. 
Corot,  Jean  Baptiste  Camille,  II,  127-128, 

139,  214,  243,  262,  275. 
Correggio,  Antonio  Allegri  da,  28-30,  43, 

44,  272. 
Costa,  Lorenzo,  272. 
Cottet,  Charles,  258-259. 
Courbet,  Gustave,  154-155,  191,  276. 
Cousin,  Jean,  34,  273. 
Couture,  Thomas,  15,  141,  170,  189. 
Crane,  Bruce,  254. 
Crane,  Walter,  206,  219,  235. 
Credi,  271. 
Cuyp,  Albert,  69,  81. 


INDEX 


281 


Cuyp,  Beiijamic,  69. 
Cuyp,  Jacob,  69. 

Da  Forli,  271. 

Dagnan-Bouveret,  Pascal  Adolphe  Jean, 

240,  244. 
Dahl,  Hans,  121,  237 
Dahl,  Johan  C.  C,  120-121. 
Dalbono,  Edoardo,  227. 
Dalsgaard,  Christen,  159. 
da  Messina,  Antonello,  13,  272. 
Dannat,  William,  226,  248. 
Daubigny ,  Charles  Francois,  1 5 1  - 1 52,  275, 
David.  Jacques  Louis,  43,  44,  46,  49,  84, 

94,  97,  98-99,  103,  105,  106,  107,  108, 

115, 116,  117, 119, 124, 129, 130, 162, 

166,  173,  208,  275. 
Da  Vinci,  Leonardo,  T,  2-4,  19,  20,  21,  24, 

34,  42,  183,  271,  272. 
Davis,  Charles  H.,  254. 
De  Bar,  85. 
De  Beifve,  129, 
De  Caisne,  129. 

Decamps,  Alexandre  Gabriel,  128,  276. 
Defregger,  Franz  von,  199,  207,  277. 
Degas,  Hilaire  Germain  Edgar,  146,  199- 

202. 
De  Haas,  Johannes  Leonardus  Hubertus, 

192. 
De  Keyser,  !37. 
Delacroix,  Eugdne,  44,  46,  99,  102,  117, 

120,  124,  128,  129-130,  133,  1.35,  275. 
Delaroche,  Paul,  115,  128-129,  140,  141, 

166,  170.  275. 
del  Sarto  (Andrea),  26-27,  272. 
De  Neuville,  Alphonse  Marie,  209,  276. 
Detaille,  Edouard,  209,  219,  231,  276. 
Dewing,  Thomas  Wilmar,  267. 
Diaz  (see  Pena). 
Dicksee,  Frank,  248. 
Diez,  Wilhelm,  217. 


Dircks,  Karl  Edvard,  249. 

Dolci,  Carlo,  43,  57,  72,  76-77,  78,  79,  84, 

86,  116,  117,  273. 
Domenichino  (see  Zampieri). 
Domingo,  Francisco,  225. 
Dor^,  Gustave  Paul,  176,  192-194. 
Doughty,  Thomas,  126, 
Douw,  Gerard,  68,  72-73,  77,  85,  246,  274. 
Dubois,  Louis,  191. 
Dubois,  Paul,  190. 
Ducq,  J.  F.,  97. 
Duez,  Ernest,  227 
Dupr6,  Jules,  138,  139. 
Duran,  Charles  Augustus  Emile   (Caro- 

lus-Duran),  199,  211-212,  2.53. 
Durand,  Asher  Brown,  124,  130,  152, 
Diirer,  Albrecht,  4,  5,  6-9,  10,  16,  17,  31, 

32,  33,  34,  39,  186,  273. 
Duvivier,  J.  B.,  97. 

East,  Alfred,  237. 

Eastlake,  Sir  Charles  Lock,  126. 

Eaton,  Wyatt,  240. 

Eckersberg,  1 19. 

Ekenaes,  Jan,  230. 

Etty,  William,   120. 

Eugene,  Prince,  257. 

Exner,  159. 

Faed,  John,  156. 

Faed,  Thomas,   156. 

Faes,  Van  der  (Sir  Peter  Lely),  77. 

Favretto,  Giacomo,  236. 

Fedotof,  142. 

Feurbach,  Anselm,  189, 

Fielding,  113. 

Flugen,  137,  277. 

Fontana,  44. 

Forbes,  A.  Stanhope,  199,  213. 

Fortuny  y  Corbo,  Mariano,  199,  215-216, 

217,  224,  225,  232,  249. 
Fragonard,  Jean  Honor^,  77,  94,  101,  275. 


282 


INDEX 


Frangais,  Frangois  Louis,  139. 
Francia,  II,  272. 
Franceschi,  Piero  dei,  271. 
Fromentin,  Eugene,  156,  276. 
Fuller,  George,  174. 
Furich,  Joseph,  107,  276. 

Gabriel,  Paul  E.,  188. 
Gagerfeldt,  Wilhelm  von,  226. 
Gainsborough,  Thomas,  92-93,  101,  104, 

109. 
Gallait,  Louis,  129. 
Garofole,  Dossi,  174,  272. 
Gay,  Walter,  229. 

Gebhardt,  Edouard  von,  199,  214,  237. 
Genelli,  Bonaventura,  133. 
Gerard,  Francois,  107,  275. 
G^ricault,    Louis   Andr6   Theodore,    99, 

117,  124-125,  129,  275. 
G6r6me,  Jean  L^on,  128,  129,  149,  164- 

167, 168, 171, 178,  203,  221,  223,  230, 

247,  248,  276. 
Gervex,  Henri,  162. 
Ghirlandajo,  Domenico,  11. 
Gibb,  Robert,  229. 
Gibson,  Charles  Dana,  265. 
Gifford,  R.  Swain,  264-265. 
Gifford,  Sanford  R.,  160-161. 
Gigout,  Jean  Francois,  134. 
Giorgione  (see  Barbarelli). 
Gleyre,  Marc  Charles  Gabriel,  166,  203. 
Goya,  Francisco  Jose  Lucientes  y,  86,  94, 

99-103,  203,  215,  216,  251. 
Graham,  Peter,  210. 
Greuze,  Jean  Baptiste,  92,  105,  275. 
Gros,  Antoine  Jean  (Baron  Gros),  108. 
Groux,  Charles  de,  172. 
Guerin,  129. 
Guido  (see  Reni). 
Guido,  Tomaso  (Masaccio),  I,  II,  3,  10, 

27,  42,  47,  271. 


Gurlitt,  137. 
Gussow,  Carl,  227. 
Guthrie,  Sir  James,  262. 

Hagborg,  August,  245. 

Hals,  Frans,  52-53,  55,  57,  61,  65,  70,  80, 

144,  246,  274,  275. 
Hansenclever,  136. 
Hansteen,  Nils,  249. 
Harding,  Chester,  125-126. 
Harlow,  107. 
Harpignies,  Henri,  155. 
Harrison,  Alexander,  240,  248,  263. 
Hart,  James  M.,  156-158. 
Hart,  WiUiam,  156-158. 
Hassam,  Childe,  220,  240,  255,  275. 
Haug,  Robert,  254. 
Haydon,  Benjamin  Robert,  120. 
Hellquist,  Gustave,  243-244. 
Henner,  Jean  Jacques,  190,  276. 
Henry,  Charles  N.,  224. 
Herkomer,  Hubert,  237. 
Hermans,  Charles,  199,  217. 
Herreyns,  Willen  Jacob,  97. 
Herrman,  Hans,  269. 
Hilaire,  85. 

Hildebrandt,  Ferdinand  Theodore,  133. 
Hill,  Thomas,  189. 

Hobbema,  Meindert,  71-72, 138, 142,  274. 
Hoecker,  Paul,  248-249. 
Hoeckert,  178. 

Hogarth,  William,  84,  85,  87-88. 
Hokusai,  203. 
Holbein,  Hans,  6,  7,  8,  15,  29,  30-34,  39, 

46,  107,  226,  228,  273. 
Holl,  Frank,  228-229. 
Homer,  Winslow,  199,  210-211. 
Hoppner,   107. 
Hornell,  E.  A.,  262. 
Hovenden,  Thomas,  224. 
Hiibner,  Rudolf  Julius,  137,  277. 


INDEX 


283 


Hudson,  90. 

Hunt,  Holman,  139,  194,  199,  212-213, 

278. 
Hunt,  William  M.,  170,  182. 

Ingres,  Jean  Dominique  Augustin,  44,  49, 
99,  102,  106,  108,  115,  116-118,  120, 
127,  128,  129,  130,  134,  162,  166,  201, 
208,  275. 

Inness,  George,  174-175. 

Israels,  Josef,  129,  170,  171,  214,  226, 
228,  246,  269,  276. 

Jacque,  Charles  Emile,  139. 
Jerndorff,  229. 
Jiminez,  Luis,  228. 
Johansen,  Viggo,  244. 
Jongkind,  155. 
Jordan,  136. 
Joseph  (see  Vernet). 

Kauffman,  Marie  Angelica,  97,  104. 
Kaufmann,  Hermann,  136. 
Kaulbach,  August  von,  243. 
Kaulbach,   AVilhelm  von,   117,    133-134, 

149,  176,  178,  243,  276. 
Keller,  Albert,  228. 
Kensett,  John  Frederick,  152-154. 
Kever,  277. 

Kindermans,  Jean  Baptlste,  134. 
King,  Yeend,  249. 
Kiprensky,  Orest,  108,  142. 
Klinger,  Max,  250. 
Klinkenberg,  Johannes  Christian  Karel, 

245. 
Klint,  Gustav,  269. 
Knaus,  Ludwig,  176,  188-189,  277. 
Kneller,  Sir  Godfrey,  83-84. 
Koch,  Joseph,  107,  276. 
Koekkoek,  Barent,  132. 
Kowalski,  Alfred,  224. 


Kramskoi,  Ivan,  212. 
Krenger,  Nils,  254-255. 
Krohg,  Christian,  248. 
Kronberg,  Julius,  243. 
Kroyer,  Peter,  244. 
Kuehl,  Gotthard,  243. 

LaFarge,  John,  199,  208. 

Lanoret,  85,  275. 

Landseer,  Sir  Edwin,  120,  132-133. 

Larson,  159. 

Larsson,  M.,  249. 

Lauder,  133,  142. 

Laurens,  Jean  Paul,  199,  213,  229,  230. 

Lavery,  John,  262. 

Lawrence,  Sir  Thomas,  107,  120,  154. 

Le  Brun,  Charles,  56,  72,  79-80,  82. 

Le  Brun,  Marie  Louise  Elizabeth  Vigee, 

104-105. 
Lefebvre,  Jules,  199,  208-209,  258,  276. 
Leibl,  Wilhelm,  226. 
Leighton,  Sir  Frederick,    191,   195,  224, 

256,  265. 
Leistakow,  Walter,  269. 
Lely,  Sir  Peter  (see  Faes). 
Le  Moyne,  Frangois,  85-86. 
Lenan,  Les,  55. 

Lenbach,  Franz  von,  149,  199,  208. 
Lepsius,  Reinhold,  269. 
Leslie,  Charles  Robert,  126-127. 
Lessing,  Carl  Friedrich,     136,    182,  276, 

277. 
Leutze,  Emanuel,  149-151. 
Leys,  Hendrik  (Baron  Leys),  141. 
Lhermitte,  L^on,  219,  225. 
Liebermann,  Max,  237,  269. 
Leizen-Mayer,  217. 
Liljefors,  Bruno,  256. 
Lindenschmidt,  William,  189. 
Lippi,  Filippo,  II,  3,  184,  271. 
Loefftz,  Ludwig,  228. 


284 


INDEX 


Lorraine,  Claude,  II,  14,  47,  49,  57,  58-60, 
61,  65,  72,  74,  75,  123,  128,  131,  177, 
274. 

Lotto,  Lorenzo,  21-22. 

Low,  Will  H.,  248-249. 

Luini,  Bernardino,  19-20,  273. 

McEntee,  Jervis,  176,  182-183. 

MacCulloch,  Horatio,  135. 

MacEwen,  Walter,  265,  266-267. 

MacGregor,  Robert,  262. 

MacGregor,  W.  Y.,  262. 

Maas  (see  Maes). 

Madrazo,  Frederigo,  216,  249,  250. 

Madrazo,  Raimundo  da,  219,  224-225. 

Maes,  Nicholas  (Maas),  91. 

Makart,  Hans,  218. 

Makovsky,  Constantin,  217. 

Makovsky,  Vladimir,  217. 

Manet,  Edouard,  145,  176,  198-198,  201, 

220,  221,  232,  233,  275. 
Mantegna,  Andrea,  272. 
Maris,  Jacob,  212,  276. 
Maris,  Mathew,  212,  276. 
Maris,  Willem,  199,  212,  276. 
Marks,  H.  S.,  191. 
Marneffe,  Frangois  de,  108,  134. 
Marstrand,  Wilhelm,  136. 
Martin,  Henri  Jean  Guillaume,  220,259- 

260. 
Martin,  Homer  D.,  199,  210. 
Masaccio  (see  Guido). 
Mason,  George,  152,  223,  243. 
Matejko,  Jan,  214. 

Matsys.  Quentin,  II,  6,  32,  141,  228,  273. 
Matsu  (see  Metzu). 

Mauve,  Anton,  199,  214,  224,  269,  276. 
Max,  Gabriel,  218. 
Meisonnier,  Jean  Louis  Ernest,  128,  139, 

143-145,  148,  149,  215,  225,  231,  276. 
Melchers,  Gari,  265-266. 


Memling,  6,  273. 

Mendrd,  R6n6,  258. 

Mengs,  Raphael,  17,  93-94,  99,  100,  101. 

Menzel,  Adolph,  146-149,  183,  223,  268. 

Merson  Luc  Olivier,  219,  229. 

Mesdag,  Hendrik  Willem,  191. 

Metzu,  Gabriel,  (Matzu),  73. 

Meyer,  Claus,  250. 

Meyerheim,  136. 

Michael  Angelo  (see  Buonarotti). 

Michel,  Georges,  106,  275. 

Michetti,  Paolo,  240,  244-245. 

Mignard,  Pierre,  56,  72. 

Millais,  Sir  John  Everett,  176,   190-191, 

278. 
Millet,  Francis  D.,  265. 
Millet,  Jean  Frangois,  57,  116,  128,  129. 

135,  139-140,  149,  166,  170,  182,  184, 

275. 
Monet,  Claude  Jean,  183,  198,  219-221, 

255,  259,  275. 
Montagna,  Bartolommeo,  272. 
Monticelli,  Adolphe,  1 74. 
Moore,  Albert,  224. 
Moore,  Henry,  191. 
Moran,  Thomas,  213. 
Moreau,  232. 

Morelli,  Domenico.  176,  178,  227,  272. 
Morgenstern,  134,  276. 
Morland,  George,  106. 
Morris,  William,  185,  199,  206-207,  270. 
Moya,  Pedro  de,  71,  78. 
Muelen,  Antoon  Franz  van  der,  81-82. 
Muller,  Victor,  189. 
Munkacsy,  Mihali,  219,  226,  24S. 
Munthe,  Ludwig,  227. 
Murillo,  Bartolom^  Estaban,  49,  71,  77- 

79,  85,  274. 
Murphy,  J.  Francis,  248. 

Nasmyth,  Alexander,  106. 


INDEX 


285 


Nasrayth,  Patrick,  106. 
Nattier,  Jean  Marc,  86. 
Netscher,  Kaspar  (Gaspar),  83. 
Neuhuijs,  Albert,  226,  276. 
Nilson,  Amandus,  192. 
Nordstrom,  Karl,  249. 
Normann,  A.,  235. 

Oohtman,  Leonard,  249. 

Odevaere,  J.  D.,  97. 

Opie,  John,  107. 

Orchardson,  William  Quiller,   199,  207- 

208. 
Orlovsky,  Alexander,  108,  142. 
Ouless,  Walter,  235. 
Overbeck,  Frederick,  121,  276. 

Paelinck,  J.,  97. 

Page,  William,   137. 

Palma,  Jacopo  (II  Vecchio),  20-21,  273. 

Pater,  85,  275. 

Paterson,  James,  262. 

Paulsen,  Julius,  256. 

Peale,  Charles  Wilson,  92,  96. 

Peale,  Rembrandt,  96. 

Pedersen,  Viggo,  244. 

Pena,  Narcisse  Virgilio  Diaz  de  la  (Diaz), 

135. 
Perov,  Vassili,  192. 
Perugino,  4,  24,  271. 
Peterssen,  Eilif,  248. 
Pettie,  John,  217. 
Phidias,  43,  156. 
Phillip,  John,  142. 
Picot,  172,  173. 
Piglhein,  Bruno,  235. 
Piloty,  Carl  von,  149,  152,  178,  179,  180, 

207,   217,  218,   226,   227,   241,   255, 

268,  277. 
Pils,  Isidore,  229. 
Pissarro,  CamUle,  22,  275. 
Pizano,  Vittore,  272. 


PoUajuolo,  Antonio  del,  271. 

Potter,  Paul,  81. 

Poussin,  Nicholas,  47,  49,  56,  57,  60-61, 

66,  131,  273,  274. 
Poynter,  Sir  Edward,  199,  209. 
Pradilla,  Francisco,  219,  229-230. 
Praxiteles,  43. 
Preller,  133,  276. 
Prout,  113. 

Prudhon,  Peter  Paul,  105,  275. 
Puvis  (see  Chavannes). 
Pyle,  Howard,  266. 

Raeburn,  Henry,   107. 

Raffaelli,  Jean  Fran?ois,  221-222. 

Ramsey,  Allan,  90,  91. 

Raphael  (see  Sanzio). 

Razzi,  Giovanni  Antonio  (II  Sodoma),  20. 

Regnault,  Henri,  219,  226-227,  276. 

Reid,  Sir  George,  224. 

Reiniger,  Otto,  257. 

Reinhart,  C.  S.,  226. 

Rembrandt,  (see  Rijn). 

Reni,  Guido,  43,  44,  47-48,  49,  77,  78, 116, 

273. 
Renoir,  Auguste,  221,  275. 
Repin,  Elias,  219,  226,  269. 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  43,  84,  85,  90-92, 

93,  95,  96,  97,  98,  99,  101,  106,  107, 

109,  154. 
Ribera,   Jose     (Spagnoletto),   46,   54-55, 

57,  62,  63,  64,  75,  78,  103,  274. 
Richter,  Gustave,  159. 
Richter,  Ludwig,   132. 
Rigaud,  Hyacinthe,  84,  86. 
Rijn,  Paul  Rembrandt  van  (Rembrandt), 

39,  43,  49,  57,  67,  69,  70,  72,  79,  81, 

82,  83,  101,  246,  250,  274,  275. 
Riviere,  Briton,  218. 
Robusti,  Jacopo  (Tintoretto),  35-38,  39, 

44,  273 


286 


INDEX 


Roll,  Alfred,  229. 

Romano,  Giulio,  27-28,  272. 

Romney,  George,  94-95,  104. 

Rosa,  Salvator,  46,  57,  74-75,  79,  123, 

131,  274. 
Rosen,  George  von,  224,  227. 
Rosenstand,  Vilen,  214. 
Rossetti,  Dante' Gabriel,  149,   158,   176, 

183-187,  194,  197.  221,  278. 
Rossi,  Rosso  di,  16. 
Rothmann,  Karl,  107,  276. 
Rousseau,  Theodore,   128,  135,  138-139, 

182,  275. 
Rubens,  Peter  Paul,  46,  49,  50-52,  57,  58, 

62,  63,  65,  66,  67,  71,  74,  79,  105, 

130,  141,  274,  275. 
Ruysdael,  Jacob  von,  71,  83,  274. 

Sadler,  Walter  Dandy,  249. 

Salmson,  Hugo,  228. 

Santi,  Giovanni  (Sanzio),  24,  271. 

Sanzio,  Raphael,  I,  6,  8,  15,  16,  20,  23, 
24-26,  27,  29,  32,  38,  39,  40,  42,  43^ 
44,  45,  48,  49,  51,  60,  62,  63,  65,  76, 
78,  114,  115,  116,  117,  121.  134,  162, 
164, 172, 186, 194, 195,  272,  273,  274, 
275,  278, 

Sargent,  John  Singer,  203,  205,  212,  240, 
241,  245,  246,  250-254,  264,  270. 

Sehadow,  Wilhelm,  121,  214,  276. 

Scheffer,  Ary,  127. 

Sohongauer,  273. 

Schreyer,  Adolf,  180. 

Schwind,  Moritz  von,  133,  276. 

Segantini,  Giovanni,  240,  255. 

Saurat,  Georges,  221. 

Shaw,  Byam,  283. 

Shirlaw,  Walter,  242. 

Signorelli,  Luca,  271. 

Simmons,  Edward,  248 

Binding,  Otto,  225. 


Sisley,  Alfred,  221,  275. 

Skarbina,  Franz,  237,  269. 

Skredsvic,  Christian,  249. 

Slingeneyer,  129. 

Smith,  Francis  Hopkinson,  214-215. 

Snyders,  Franz,  48. 

Sodoma,  II  (see  Rossi). 

Sohn,  Carl,  134. 

Solomon,  Solomon  J  ,  256. 

Spagnoletto  (see  Ribera). 

Spitzweg,  Carl,  135-136. 

Stahl,  Frederick,  269. 

Steen,  Jan,  82,  246,  274. 

Stevens,  Alfred,  148,  187-188,  241. 

Stevenson,  R.  A.  M.,  262. 

Stewart,  Jules  L.,  240,  249-250. 

Stone,  Marcus,  224. 

Stott,  William,  263. 

Strudwick,  J.  M.,  237. 

Stuart,  Gilbert,  92,  99,  104,  115. 

Stiick,  Frans,  257,  269. 

Sully,  Thomas,  118. 

Swan,  John  Macallan,  230-231. 

Tadema  (see  Alma-Tadema) . 

Tanner,  H.  O.,  266. 

Teniers,  David  the  Elder,  71. 

Teniers,  David  the  Younger,  71,  85,  274, 

275 
Terburg,  Gerard,  69-70,  73,  83. 
Thaulow,  Fritz,  219,  230. 
Thayer,  Abbott  Henderson,  219,  238. 
Tidemand,  Adolf,  1 37. 
Tiffany,  Louis,  219,  235-236. 
Tintoretto  (see  Robusti). 
Titian  (see  Vecello). 
Toorop,  Jan,  255-256. 
Troyon,  Constant,  136-137   179. 
Trumbull,  Benjamin,  92,  105. 
Tryon,  D wight  W.,  238-239. 
Tura,  Cosimo,  272. 


INDEX 


287 


Turner,  William  Joseph  Mallord,  59,  99, 
109-1 12, 113,  131,  154,  182,  183,  185, 
213,  223. 

Uccello,  Paolo,  271. 

Uhde,  Fritz  von,  232,  237. 

Urrabita,  Daniel  (Vierge),  231,  247. 

Van  Beers,  Jan,  244. 

Van  Dyck,  Antony,  39,  43,  49,  50,  53,  57, 
62,  65-66,  67,  69,  71,  78,  84,  88,  203, 
228,  274. 

Van  der  Weyden,  Roger,  273. 

Van  Eyck,  Hubert,  4-5,  13,  34,  53,  273. 

Van  Eyck,  Jan,  I,  II,  4-5,  6,  13,  34,  53, 

■       273. 

Van  Leyden,  Lucas,  273. 

Van  Loo,  Charles  Andre  (Carle),  89. 

Van  Marcke,  Emile,  176,  179. 

Van  Noort,  50. 

Van  Ostade,  Adrian,  70,  85,  274. 

Van  Veen,  50. 

Varwee,  Alfred,  214. 

Vautier,  Benjamin,  189-190,  277. 

Vecello,  Tiziano  (Titian),  1,  6,7,8,  14-I9_ 
27,  33,  35,  36,  38,  39,  42,  43,  44,  54,' 
62,  66,  78,  91,  114,  167,  171,  243,  272, 
273,  274. 

Vecchio  (see  Palma). 

Vedder,  Elihu,  211. 

Veit,  Philip,  121,  276. 

Velasquez,  Diego  Rodriguez  de  Silva  y, 
15,  35,  39,  43,  46,  49,  50,  51,  53,  54, 
55,  57,  61-64,  65,  66,  69,  78,  79,  101, 
102,  103,  142,  203,  215,  241,  251, 
274. 

Velde,  William  Van  de,  70. 

Venezianov,  Alexei,  108. 

Verboeckhoven,  Eugene,  55,  129,  214. 

Verestchagin,  Vassili,  225.  226,  269. 

Verhas,  Frans,  179. 

Verhas,  Jan,   179. 


Vermehren,  159. 

Vernet,  Claude  Joseph,  89-90,  121. 

Vernet,  Emil  Jean  Horace,  90,  99,  118, 

121. 
Veronese,  Paolo  (Paolo  Cagliari),  32,  35, 

38-41,  42,  119,  273. 
Verrocchio,  271. 
Verstappen,  Martinus,  108,  134. 
Vibert,  Jean  Georges,  219,  222-223 
Vierge  (see  Urrabita). 
VignalU,  Jacopo,  76. 
Villegas,  Jose,  232. 
Vogel,  Hugo,  269. 
Vollon,  Antoine,  241,  242. 
Vonnoh,  Robert  W.,  266. 
Vouet,  Simon,  55-56,  60. 

Wagner,  217. 

Walberg,  Alfred,  207. 

Walker,  Frederick,  219,  223. 

Walker,  Horatio,  255. 

Wappers,  Gustav,  133. 

Warenskiold,  Erick,  249. 

Waterhouse,  John  W.,  237. 

Waterlow,  Ernest  A.,  243. 

Watteau,  Antoine,  84-85,  88,  89,  94,  101, 

275. 
Watts,  George  Frederick,  143,  156. 
Wauters,  Emile,  236. 
Weeks,  Edwin  Lord,  238. 
Weissenbruoh,  Johannes  Hendrick,   159. 
Wenzel,  Nils  Gustav,  255. 
Werner,  Anton  von,  227. 
West,  Benjamin,  92,  95-96,  98,  104,  105, 

114,  115,  118,  120. 
Whistler,   James   Abbott   McNeill,    102, 

103,  188,  199,  202-206,  241,  246,  260, 

261,  262. 
Wiertz,  Anton,  134. 
Wilkie,  Sir  David,  119-120. 
Wilson,  Richard,  90. 


288 


INDEX 


Wolgemuth,  7,  273. 
Wouvermans,  Philip,  80. 
Wyant,  A.  H.,  266. 
Wyllie,  W.  L.,  254. 

Zacho,  Christian,  227. 
Zahrtmann,  Christian,  227. 
Zamacois,  Edoardo,  217-218. 


Zampieri,  Domenico  (Domenichino),  43, 

47,  48-49,  77,  273. 
Ziem,  Felix,  158,  276. 
Zorn,  Anders,  240,  256. 
Zucatti,  16. 
Zuechi,  97. 
Zugel,  Heinrich,  243. 
Zurbaran,  Francisco,  64,  274.