,,artist ,,and ,,public  ,,and ,,other  
,,essays ,,on ,,art ,,subjects   ,,by   
,,kenyon ,,cox    ,illustration3 ,from a
 photograph by ,braun1 ,clement  ,co4   
,plate #a4--,millet4 ,the ,goose ,girl4 
,in the collection of ,mme4 ,saulnier1  
,bordeaux4     ,,artist ,,and ,,public  
,,and ,,other ,,essays ,,on ,,art       
,,subjects   ,,by ,,kenyon ,,cox        
,,with ,,thirty-,,two ,,illustrations   
,,charles ,,scribner',s ,,sons ,,new    
,,york   ,,mcmxiv     ,copyright1 #aiad1
 by ,charles ,scribner's ,sons          
,published ,september1 #aiad     ,,to   
,j4,d4,c4  ,,in ,,grateful ,,recognition
 ,,of ,,unfailing ,,kindness ,,this     
,,book ,,is ,,inscribed     ,,preface   
,in ,the ,classic ,point of ,view1      
published three years ago1 ,i endeavored
 to give a clear and definitive         
statement of the principles on which all
 my criticism of art is based4 ,the     
papers here gathered together1 whether  
earlier or later than that volume1 may  
be considered as the more detailed      

application of those principles to      
particular artists1 to whole schools and
 epochs1 even1 in one case1 to the      
entire history of the arts4 ,the essay  
on ,raphael1 for instance1 is little    
else than an illustration of the chapter
 on ,design2 that on ,millet illustrates
 the three chapters on ,the ,subject in 
,art1 on ,design1 and on ,drawing2 while
 ,two ,ways of ,painting contrasts1 in  
specific instances1 the classic with the
 modern point of view4  ,but there is   
another thread connecting these essays1 
for all of them will be found to have   
some bearing1 more or less direct1 upon 
the subject of the title essay4 ,the    
,illusion of ,progress elaborates a     
point more slightly touched upon in     
,artist and ,public2 the careers of     
,raphael and ,millet are capital        
instances of the happy productiveness of
 an artist in sympathy with his public  
or of the difficulties1 nobly conquered 
in this case1 of an artist without      
public appreciation2 the greatest merit 

attributed to ,the ,american ,school is 
an abstention from the extravagances of 
those who would make incomprehensibility
 a test of greatness4 ,finally1 the work
 of ,saint-,gaudens is a noble example  
of art fulfilling its social function in
 expressing and in elevating the ideals 
of its time and country4  ,this last    
essay stands1 in some respects1 upon a  
different footing from the others4 ,it  
deals with the work and the character of
 a man ,i knew and loved1 it was        
originally written almost immediately   
after his death1 and it is therefore    
colored1 to some extent1 by personal    
emotion4 ,i have revised it1 rearranged 
it1 and added to it1 and ,i trust that  
this coloring may be found to warm1     
without falsifying1 the picture4  ,the  
essay on ,the ,illusion of ,progress was
 first printed in ,the ,century1 that on
 ,saint-,gaudens in ,the ,atlantic      
,monthly4 ,the others originally        
appeared in ,scribner's ,magazine4      
,,kenyon ,,cox4  ,calder ,house1        

,croton-on-,hudson1 ,june #f1 #aiad4    
,,contents   ,,essay                    
,,page    ,i4  ,,artist ,,and ,,public  
#a  ,,ii4  ,,jean ,,francois ,,millet   
#dd ,,iii4  ,,the ,,illusion ,,of       
,,progress      #gg  ,,iv4  ,,raphael   
#ii   ,v4  ,,two ,,ways ,,of ,,painting 
#acd  ,,vi4  ,,the ,,american ,,school  
#adi ,,vii4  ,,augustus                 
,,saint-,,gaudens       #afi            
,,illustrations   ,,millet3  #a4 ,the   
,goose ,girl1 ,saulnier ,collection1    
,bordeaux     ,frontispiece             
,,facing ,,page  #b4 ,the ,sower1       
,vanderbilt ,collection1 ,metropolitan  
,museum1 ,new ,york  #df  #c4 ,the      
,gleaners1 ,the ,louvre                 
#ej  #d4 ,the ,spaders                  
#ed  #e4 ,the ,potato ,planter1 ,shaw   
,collection                             
#eh  #f4 ,the ,grafter1 ,william        
,rockefeller ,collection                
#fb  #g4 ,the ,new-,born ,calf1 ,art    
,institute1 ,chicago                    
#ff  #h4 ,the ,first ,steps1            

#gj  #i4 ,the ,shepherdess1 ,chauchard  
,collection1 ,louvre                 #gb
 #aj4 ,spring1 ,the ,louvre             
#gd  ,,raphael3 #aa4 ,poetry1 ,the      
,vatican                                
#aab #ab4 ,the ,judgment of ,solomon1   
,the ,vatican                           
#aad #ac4 ,the ,disputa1 ,the ,vatican  
#aaf #ad4 ,the ,school of ,athens1 ,the 
,vatican                            #aah
 #ae4 ,parnassus1 ,the ,vatican         
#abj #af4 ,jurisprudence1 ,the ,vatican 
#abb #ag4 ,the ,mass of ,bolsena1 ,the  
,vatican                                
#abd #ah4 ,the ,deliverance of ,peter1  
,the ,vatican                           
#abf #ai4 ,the ,sibyls1 ,santa ,maria   
della ,pace1 ,rome                      
#abh #bj4 ,portrait of ,tommaso         
,inghirami1 ,gardner ,collection        
#acj  ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent3 #ba4 ,the   
,hermit1 ,metropolitan ,museum1 ,new    
,york                    #acf  ,,titian3
 #bb4 ,saint ,jerome in the ,desert1    
,brera ,gallery1 ,milan             #adb

  ,,saint-,,gaudens3 #bc4 ,plaquette    
,commemorating ,cornish ,masque         
#ahb #bd4 ,amor ,caritas                
#aif #be4 ,the ,butler ,children        
#bjf #bf4 ,sarah ,redwood ,lee          
#bjh #bg4 ,farragut1 ,madison ,square1  
,new ,york                              
#bab #bh4 ,lincoln1 ,chicago1 ,ill4     
#bad #bi4 ,deacon ,chapin1 ,springfield1
 ,mass4                            #baf 
#cj4 ,adams ,memorial1 ,washington1     
,d4,c4                             #bah 
#ca4 ,shaw ,memorial1 ,boston1 ,mass4   
#bbj #cb4 ,sherman1 ,the ,plaza1        
,central ,park1 ,new ,york              
#bbd     ,,artist ,,and ,,public     ,i 
,,artist ,,and ,,public   ,in the       
history of art1 as in the history of    
politics and in the history of          
economics1 our modern epoch is marked   
off from all preceding epochs by one    
great event1 the ,french ,revolution4   
,fragonard1 who survived that           
,revolution to lose himself in a new and
 strange world1 is the last at the old  

masters2 ,david1 some sixteen years his 
junior1 is the first of the moderns4    
,now if we look for the most fundamental
 distinction between our modern art and 
the art of past times1 ,i believe we    
shall find it to be this3 the art of the
 past was produced for a public that    
wanted it and understood it1 by artists 
who understood and sympathized with     
their public2 the art of our time has   
been1 for the most part1 produced for a 
public that did not want it and         
misunderstood it1 by artists who        
disliked and despised the public for    
which they worked4 ,when artist and     
public were united1 art was homogeneous 
and continuous4 ,since the divorce of   
artist and public art has been chaotic  
and convulsive4  ,that this divorce     
between the artist and his public--this 
dislocation of the right and natural    
relations between them--has taken place 
is certain4 ,the causes of it are many  
and deep-lying in our modern            
civilization1 and ,i can point out only 

a few of the more obvious ones4  ,the   
first of these is the emergence of a new
 public4 ,the art of past ages had been 
distinctively an aristocratic art1      
created for kings and princes1 for the  
free citizens of slave-holding          
republics1 for the spiritual and        
intellectual aristocracy of the church1 
or for a luxurious and frivolous        
nobility4 ,as the aim of the ,revolution
 was the destruction of aristocratic    
privilege1 it is not surprising that a  
revolutionary like ,david should have   
felt it necessary to destroy the        
traditions of an art created for the    
aristocracy4 ,in his own art of painting
 he succeeded so thoroughly that the    
painters of the next generation found   
themselves with no traditions at all4   
,they had not only to work for a public 
of enriched bourgeois or proletarians   
who had never cared for art1 but they   
had to create over again the art with   
which they endeavored to interest this  
public4 ,how could they succeed8 ,the   

rift between artist and public had      
begun1 and it has been widening ever    
since4  ,if the people had had little to
 do with the major arts of painting and 
sculpture1 there had yet been1 all      
through the ,middle ,ages and the       
,renaissance1 a truly popular art--an   
art of furniture making1 of             
wood-carving1 of forging1 of pottery4   
,every craftsman was an artist in his   
degree1 and every artist was but a      
craftsman of a superior sort4 ,our      
machine-making1 industrial civilization1
 intent upon material progress and the  
satisfaction of material wants1 has     
destroyed this popular art2 and at the  
same time that the artist lost his      
patronage from above he lost his support
 from below4 ,he has become a superior  
person1 a sort of demi-gentleman1 but he
 has no longer a splendid nobility to   
employ him or a world of artist artisans
 to surround him and understand him4    
,and to the modern artist1 so isolated1 
with no tradition behind him1 no        

direction from above and no support from
 below1 the art of all times and all    
countries has become familiar through   
modern means of communication and modern
 processes of reproduction4 ,having no  
compelling reason for doing one thing   
rather than another1 or for choosing one
 or another way of doing things1 he is  
shown a thousand things that he may do  
and a thousand ways of doing them4 ,not 
clearly knowing his own mind he hears   
the clash and reverberation of a        
thousand other minds1 and having no     
certainties he must listen to countless 
theories4  ,mr4 ,vedder has spoken of a 
certain home-made character which he    
considers the greatest defect of his    
art1 the character of an art belonging  
to no distinctive school and having no  
definite relation to the time and       
country in which it is produced4 ,but it
 is not ,mr4 ,vedder's art alone that is
 home-made4 ,it is precisely the        
characteristic note of our modern art   
that all of it that is good for anything

 is home-made or self-made4 ,each artist
 has had to create his art as best he   
could out of his own temperament and his
 own experience--has sat in his corner  
like a spider1 spinning his web from his
 own bowels4 ,if the art so created was 
essentially fine and noble the public   
has at last found it out1 but only after
 years of neglect have embittered the   
existence and partially crippled the    
powers of its creator4 ,and so1 to our  
modern imagination1 the neglected and   
misunderstood genius has become the very
 type of the great artist1 and we have  
allowed our belief in him to color and  
distort our vision of the history of    
art4 ,we have come to look upon the     
great artists of all times as an unhappy
 race struggling against the            
inappreciation of a stupid public1      
starving in garrets and waiting long for
 tardy recognition4  ,the very reverse  
of this is true4 ,with the exception of 
,rembrandt1 who himself lived in a time 
of political revolution and of the      

emergence to power of a burgher class1  
you will scarce find an unappreciated   
genius in the whole history of art until
 the beginning of the nineteenth        
century4 ,the great masters of the      
,renaissance1 from ,giotto to ,veronese1
 were men of their time1 sharing and    
interpreting the ideals of those around 
them1 and were recognized and patronized
 as such4 ,rembrandt's greatest         
contemporary1 ,rubens1 was painter in   
ordinary to half the courts of ,europe1 
and ,velazquez was the friend and       
companion of his king4 ,watteau and     
,boucher and ,fragonard painted for the 
frivolous nobility of the eighteenth    
century just what that nobility wanted1 
and even the precursors of the          
,revolution1 sober and honest ,chardin1 
,greuze the sentimental1 had no         
difficulty in making themselves         
understood1 until the revolutionist     
,david became dictator to the art of    
,europe and swept them into the rubbish 
heap with the rest4  ,it is not until   

the beginning of what is known as the   
,romantic movement1 under the           
,restoration1 that the misunderstood    
painter of genius definitely appears4   
,millet1 ,corot1 ,rousseau were trying1 
with magnificent powers and perfect     
single-mindedness1 to restore the art of
 painting which the ,revolution had     
destroyed4 ,they were men of the utmost 
nobility and simplicity of character1 as
 far as possible from the gloomy1       
fantastic1 vain1 and egotistical person 
that we have come to accept as the type 
of unappreciated genius2 they were      
classically minded and conservative1    
worshippers of the great art of the     
past2 but they were without a public and
 they suffered bitter discouragement and
 long neglect4 ,upon their experience is
 founded that legend of the unpopularity
 of all great artists which has grown to
 astonishing proportions4 ,accepting    
this legend1 and believing that all     
great artists are misunderstood1 the    
artist has come to cherish a scorn of   

the public for which he works and to    
pretend a greater scorn than he feels4  
,he cannot believe himself great unless 
he is misunderstood1 and he hugs his    
unpopularity to himself as a sign of    
genius and arrives at that sublime      
affectation which answers praise of his 
work with an exclamation of dismay3 ,is 
it as bad as that8 ,he invents new      
excesses and eccentricities to insure   
misunderstanding1 and proclaims the     
doctrine that1 as anything great must be
 incomprehensible1 so anything          
incomprehensible must be great4 ,and the
 public has taken him1 at least partly1 
at his word4 ,he may or may not be      
great1 but he is certainly              
incomprehensible and probably a little  
mad4 ,until he succeeds the public looks
 upon the artist as a more or less      
harmless lunatic4 ,when he succeeds it  
is willing to exalt him into a kind of  
god and to worship his eccentricities as
 a part of his divinity4 ,so we arrive  
at a belief in the insanity of genius4  

,what would ,raphael have thought of    
such a notion1 or that consummate man of
 the world1 ,titian8 ,what would the    
serene and mighty ,veronese have thought
 of it1 or the cool1 clear-seeing       
,velazquez8 ,how his ,excellency the    
,ambassador of his ,most ,catholic      
,majesty1 glorious ,peter ,paul ,rubens1
 would have laughed6  ,it is this lack  
of sympathy and understanding between   
the artist and his public--this fatal   
isolation of the artist--that is the    
cause of nearly all the shortcomings of 
modern art2 of the weakness of what is  
known as official or academic art no    
less than of the extravagance of the art
 of opposition4 ,the artist1 being no   
longer a craftsman1 working to order1   
but a kind of poet1 expressing in       
loneliness his personal emotions1 has   
lost his natural means of support4      
,governments1 feeling a responsibility  
for the cultivation of art which was    
quite unnecessary in the days when art  
was spontaneously produced in answer to 

a natural demand1 have tried to put an  
artificial support in its place4 ,that  
the artist may show his wares and make  
himself known1 they have created        
exhibitions2 that he may be encouraged  
they have instituted medals and prizes2 
that he may not starve they have made   
government purchases4 ,and these        
well-meant efforts have resulted in the 
creation of pictures which have no other
 purpose than to hang in exhibitions1 to
 win medals1 and to be purchased by the 
government and hung in those more       
permanent exhibitions which we call     
museums4 ,for this purpose it is not    
necessary that a picture should have    
great beauty or great sincerity4 ,it is 
necessary that it should be large in    
order to attract attention and          
sufficiently well drawn and executed to 
seem to deserve recognition4 ,and so was
 evolved the salon picture1 a thing     
created for no man's pleasure1 not even 
the artist's2 a thing which is neither  
the decoration of a public building nor 

the possible ornament of a private      
house2 a thing which1 after it has      
served its temporary purpose1 is rolled 
up and stored in a loft or placed in a  
gallery where its essential emptiness   
becomes more and more evident as time   
goes on4 ,such government-encouraged art
 had at least the merit of a            
well-sustained and fairly high level of 
accomplishment in the more obvious      
elements of painting4 ,but as           
exhibitions became larger and larger and
 the competition engendered by them grew
 fiercer1 it became increasingly        
difficult to attract attention by mere  
academic merit4 ,so the painters began  
to search for sensationalism of subject1
 and the typical salon picture1 no      
longer decorously pompous1 began to deal
 in blood and horror and sensuality4 ,it
 was ,regnault who began this sensation 
hunt1 but it has been carried much      
further since his day than he can have  
dreamed of1 and the modern salon picture
 is not only tiresome but detestable4   

,the salon picture1 in its merits and   
its faults1 is peculiarly ,french1 but  
the modern exhibition has sins to answer
 for in other countries than ,france4   
,in ,england it has been responsible for
 a great deal of sentimentality and     
anecdotage which has served to attract  
the attention of a public that could not
 be roused to interest in mere painting4
 ,everywhere1 even in this country1     
where exhibitions are relatively small  
and ill-attended1 it has caused a       
certain stridency and blatancy1 a keying
 up to exhibition pitch1 a neglect of   
finer qualities for the sake of         
immediate effectiveness4  ,under our    
modern conditions the exhibition has    
become a necessity1 and it would be     
impossible for our artists to live or to
 attain a reputation without it4 ,the   
giving of medals and prizes and the     
purchase of works of art by the state   
may be of more doubtful utility1 though 
such efforts at the encouragement of art
 probably do more good than harm4 ,but  

there is one form of government         
patronage that is almost wholly         
beneficial1 and that the only form of it
 which we have in this country--the     
awarding of commissions for the         
decoration of public buildings4 ,the    
painter of mural decorations is in the  
old historical position1 in sound and   
natural relations to the public4 ,he is 
doing something which is wanted and1 if 
he continues to receive commissions1 he 
may fairly assume that he is doing it in
 a way that is satisfactory4 ,with the  
decorative or monumental sculptor he is 
almost alone among modern artists in    
being relieved of the necessity of      
producing something in the isolation of 
his studio and waiting to see if any one
 will care for it2 of trying1 against   
the grain1 to produce something that he 
thinks may appeal to the public because 
it does not appeal to himself2 or of    
attempting to bamboozle the public into 
buying what neither he nor the public   
really cares for4 ,if he does his best  

he may feel that he is as fairly earning
 his livelihood as his fellow workmen1  
the blacksmith and the stonecutter1 and 
is as little dependent as they upon     
either charity or humbug4 ,the best that
 government has done for art in ,france 
is the commissioning of the great       
decorative paintings of ,baudry and     
,puvis4 ,in this country1 also1         
governments1 national1 ,state1 or       
municipal1 are patronizing art in the   
best possible way1 and in making        
buildings splendid for the people are   
affording opportunity for the creation  
of a truly popular art4  ,without any   
artificial aid from the government the  
illustrator has a wide popular support  
and works for the public in a normal    
way2 and1 therefore1 illustration has   
been one of the healthiest and most     
vigorous forms of modern art4 ,the      
portrait-painter1 too1 is producing     
something he knows to be wanted1 and1   
though his art has had to fight against 
the competition of the photograph and   

has been partially vulgarized by the    
struggle of the exhibitions1 it has yet 
remained1 upon the whole1 comprehensible
 and human2 so that much of the soundest
 art of the past century has gone into  
portraiture4 ,it is the painters of     
pictures1 landscape or genre1 who have  
most suffered from the misunderstanding 
between artist and public4 ,without     
guidance some of them have hewed a path 
to deserved success4 ,others have       
wandered into strange byways and        
no-thoroughfares4  ,the nineteenth      
century is strewn with the wrecks of    
such misunderstood and misunderstanding 
artists1 but it was about the sixties   
when their searching for a way began to 
lead them in certain clearly marked     
directions4 ,there are three paths1 in  
especial1 which have been followed since
 then by adventurous spirits3 the paths 
of aestheticism1 of scientific          
naturalism1 and of pure self-expression2
 the paths of ,whistler1 of ,monet1 and 
of ,cezanne4  ,whistler was an artist of

 refined and delicate talent with great 
weaknesses both in temperament and      
training2 being also a very clever man  
and a brilliant controversialist1 he    
proceeded to erect a theory which should
 prove his weaknesses to be so many     
virtues1 and he nearly succeeded in     
convincing the world of its validity4   
,finding the representation of nature   
very difficult1 he decided that art     
should not concern itself with          
representation but only with the        
creation of arrangements and symphonies4
 ,having no interest in the subject of  
pictures1 he proclaimed that pictures   
should have no subjects and that any    
interest in the subject is vulgar4 ,as  
he was a cosmopolitan with no local     
ties1 he maintained that art had never  
been national2 and as he was out of     
sympathy with his time1 he taught that  
art happens and that there never was an 
artistic period4 ,according to the      
,whistlerian gospel1 the artist not only
 has now no point of contact with the   

public1 but he should not have and never
 has had any4 ,he has never been a man  
among other men1 but has been a dreamer 
who sat at home with the women and made 
pretty patterns of line and color       
because they pleased him4 ,and the only 
business of the public is to accept in  
silence what he chooses to give them4   
,this kind of rootless art he practised4
 ,some of the patterns he produced are  
delightful1 but they are without        
imagination1 without passion1 without   
joy in the material and visible         
world--the dainty diversions of a       
dilettante4 ,one is glad that so        
gracefully slender an art should exist1 
but if it has seemed great art to us it 
is because our age is so poor in        
anything better4 ,to rank its creator   
with the abounding masters of the past  
is an absurdity4  ,in their efforts to  
escape from the dead-alive art of the   
salon picture1 ,monet and the           
,impressionists took an entirely        
different course4 ,the gallery painter's

 perfunctory treatment of subject bored 
them1 and they abandoned subject almost 
as entirely as ,whistler had done4 ,the 
sound if tame drawing and the mediocre  
painting of what they called official   
art revolted them as it revolted        
,whistler2 but while he nearly          
suppressed representation they could see
 in art nothing but representation4     
,they wanted to make that representation
 truer1 and they tried to work a        
revolution in art by the scientific     
analysis of light and the invention of a
 new method of laying on paint4 ,instead
 of joining in ,whistler's search for   
pure pattern they fixed their attention 
on facts alone1 or rather on one aspect 
of the facts1 and in their occupation   
with light and the manner of            
representing it they abandoned form     
almost as completely as they had        
abandoned significance and beauty4  ,so 
it happened that ,monet could devote    
some twenty canvases to the study of the
 effects of light1 at different hours of

 the day1 upon two straw stacks in his  
farmyard4 ,it was admirable practice1 no
 doubt1 and neither scientific analysis 
nor the study of technical methods is to
 be despised2 but the interest of the   
public1 after all1 is in what an artist 
does1 not in how he learns to do it4    
,the twenty canvases together formed a  
sort of demonstration of the            
possibilities of different kinds of     
lighting4 ,any one of them1 taken       
singly1 is but a portrait of two straw  
stacks1 and the world will not          
permanently or deeply care about those  
straw stacks4 ,the study of light is1 in
 itself1 no more an exercise of the     
artistic faculties than the study of    
anatomy or the study of perspective2 and
 while ,impressionism has put a keener  
edge upon some of the tools of the      
artist1 it has inevitably failed to     
produce a school of art4  ,after        
,impressionism1 what8 ,we have no name  
for it but ,post-,impressionism4 ,such  
men as ,cezanne1 ,gauguin1 ,van ,gogh   

recognized the sterility of             
,impressionism and of a narrow          
aestheticism1 while they shared the     
hatred of the aesthetes and the         
,impressionists for the current art of  
the salons4 ,no more than the aesthetes 
or the ,impressionists were they        
conscious of any social or universal    
ideals that demanded expression4 ,the   
aesthetes had a doctrine2 the           
,impressionists had a method and a      
technic4 ,the ,post-,impressionists had 
nothing1 and were driven to the attempt 
at pure self-expression--to the         
exaltation of the great god ,whim4 ,they
 had no training1 they recognized no    
traditions1 they spoke to no public4    
,each was to express1 as he thought     
best1 whatever he happened to feel or to
 think1 and to invent1 as he went along1
 the language in which he should express
 it4 ,i think some of these men had the 
elements of genius in them and might    
have done good work2 but their task was 
a heart-breaking and a hopeless one4 ,an

 art cannot be improvised1 and an artist
 must have some other guide than        
unregulated emotion4 ,the path they     
entered upon had been immemorially      
marked no passing2 for many of them the 
end of it was suicide or the madhouse4  
,but whatever the aberrations of these1 
the true ,post-,impressionists--whatever
 the ugliness1 the eccentricity1 or the 
moral dinginess into which they were    
betrayed--,i believe them to have been1 
in the main1 honest if unbalanced and   
ill-regulated minds4 ,whatever their    
errors1 they paid the price of them in  
poverty1 in neglect1 in death4 ,with    
those who pretend to be their           
descendants to-day the case is          
different2 they are not paying for their
 eccentricity or their madness1 they are
 making it pay4  ,the enormous engine of
 modern publicity has been discovered by
 these men4 ,they have learned to       
advertise1 and they have found that     
morbidity1 eccentricity1 indecency1     
extremes of every kind and of any degree

 are capital advertisement4 ,if one     
cannot create a sound and living art1   
one can at least make something odd     
enough to be talked about2 if one cannot
 achieve enduring fame1 one may make    
sure of a flaming notoriety4 ,and1 as a 
money-maker1 present notoriety is worth 
more than future fame1 for the          
speculative dealer is at hand4 ,his     
interest is in quick returns and he has 
no wish to wait until you are famous--or
 dead--before he can sell anything you  
do4 ,his process is to buy anything he  
thinks he can boom1 to boom it as       
furiously as possible1 and to sell it   
before the boom collapses4 ,then he will
 exploit something else1 and there's the
 rub4 ,once you have entered this mad   
race for notoriety1 there is no drawing 
out of it4 ,the same sensation will not 
attract attention a second time2 you    
must be novel at any cost4 ,you must    
exaggerate your exaggerations and       
out-,herod ,herod1 for others have      
learned how easy the game is to play1   

and are at your heels4 ,it is no longer 
a matter of misunderstanding and being  
misunderstood by the public2 it is a    
matter of deliberately flouting and     
outraging the public--of assuming       
incomprehensibility and antagonism to   
popular feeling as signs of greatness4  
,and so is founded what ,frederic       
,harrison has called the                
shock-your-grandmother school4  ,it is  
with profound regret that one must name 
as one of the founders of this school an
 artist of real power1 who has produced 
much admirable work--,auguste ,rodin4   
,at the age of thirty-seven he attained 
a sudden and resounding notoriety1 and  
from that time he has been the most     
talked-of artist in ,europe4 ,he was a  
consummate modeller1 a magnificent      
workman1 but he had always grave faults 
and striking mannerisms4 ,these faults  
and mannerisms he has latterly pushed to
 greater and greater extremes while     
neglecting his great gift1 each work    
being more chaotic and fragmentary in   

composition1 more hideous in type1 more 
affected and emptier in execution1 until
 he has produced marvels of mushiness   
and incoherence hitherto undreamed of   
and has set up as public monuments      
fantastically mutilated figures with    
broken legs or heads knocked off4 ,now1 
in his old age1 he is producing shoals  
of drawings the most extraordinary of   
which few are permitted to see4 ,some   
selected specimens of them hang in a    
long row in the ,metropolitan ,museum1  
and ,i assure you1 upon my word as a    
lifelong student of drawing1 they are   
quite as ugly and as silly as they look4
 ,there is not a touch in them that has 
any truth to nature1 not a line that has
 real beauty or expressiveness4 ,they   
represent the human figure with the     
structure of a jellyfish and the        
movement of a ,dutch doll2 the human    
face with an expression ,i prefer not to
 characterize4 ,if they be not the      
symptoms of mental decay1 they can be   
nothing but the means of a gigantic     

mystification4  ,with ,henri ,matisse we
 have not to deplore the deliquescence  
of a great talent1 for we have no reason
 to suppose he ever had any4 ,it is true
 that his admirers will assure you he   
could once draw and paint as everybody  
does2 what he could not do was to paint 
enough better than everybody does to    
make his mark in the world2 and he was a
 quite undistinguished person until he  
found a way to produce some effect upon 
his grandmother the public by shocking  
her into attention4 ,his method is to   
choose the ugliest models to be found2  
to put them into the most grotesque and 
indecent postures imaginable2 to draw   
them in the manner of a savage1 or a    
depraved child1 or a worse manner if    
that be possible2 to surround his       
figures with blue outlines half an inch 
wide2 and to paint them in crude and    
staring colors1 brutally laid on in flat
 masses4 ,then1 when his grandmother    
begins to sit up1 she is told with a    
grave face that this is a reaction from 

naturalism1 a revival of abstract line  
and color1 a subjective art which is not
 the representation of nature but the   
expression of the artist's soul4 ,no    
wonder she gasps and stares6  ,it       
seemed1 two or three years ago1 that the
 limit of mystification had been        
reached--that this comedy of errors     
could not be carried further2 but human 
ingenuity is inexhaustible1 and we now  
have whole schools1 ,cubists1           
,futurists1 and the like1 who joyously  
vie with each other in the creation of  
incredible pictures and of              
irreconcilable and incomprehensible     
theories4 ,the public is inclined to    
lump them all together and1 so far as   
their work is concerned1 the public is  
not far wrong2 yet in theory ,cubism and
 ,futurism are diametrically opposed to 
each other4 ,it is not easy to get any  
clear conception of the doctrines of    
these schools1 but1 so far as ,i am able
 to understand them--and ,i have taken  
some pains to do so--they are something 

like this3  ,cubism is static2 ,futurism
 is kinetic4 ,cubism deals with bulk2   
,futurism deals with motion4 ,the       
,cubist1 by a kind of extension of ,mr4 
,berenson's doctrine of tactile values1 
assumes that the only character of      
objects which is of importance to the   
artist is their bulk and solidity--what 
he calls their volumes4 ,now the form in
 which volume is most easily apprehended
 is the cube2 do we not measure by it   
and speak of the cubic contents of      
anything8 ,the inference is easy3 reduce
 all objects to forms which can be      
bounded by planes and defined by        
straight lines and angles2 make their   
cubic contents measurable to the eye2   
transform drawing into a burlesque of   
solid geometry2 and you have1 at once1  
attained to the highest art4 ,the       
,futurist1 on the other hand1 maintains 
that we know nothing but that things are
 in flux4 ,form1 solidity1 weight are   
illusions4 ,nothing exists but motion4  
,everything is changing every moment1   

and if anything were still we ourselves 
are changing4 ,it is1 therefore1 absurd 
to give fixed boundaries to anything or 
to admit of any fixed relations in      
space4 ,if you are trying to record your
 impression of a face it is certain that
 by the time you have done one eye the  
other eye will no longer be where it    
was--it may be at the other side of the 
room4 ,you must cut nature into small   
bits and shuffle them about wildly if   
you are to reproduce what we really see4
  ,whatever its extravagance1 ,cubism   
remains a form of graphic art4 ,however 
pedantic and ridiculous its             
transformation of drawing1 it yet       
recognizes the existence of drawing4    
,therefore1 to the ,futurist1 ,cubism is
 reactionary4 ,what difference does it  
make1 he asks1 whether you draw a head  
round or square8 ,why draw a head at    
all8 ,the ,futurist denies the          
fundamental postulates of the art of    
painting4 ,painting has always1 and by  
definition1 represented upon a surface  

objects supposed to lie beyond it and to
 be seen through it4 ,futurism pretends 
to place the spectator inside the       
picture and to represent things around  
him or behind him as well as those in   
front of him4 ,painting has always      
assumed the single moment of vision1    
and1 though it has sometimes placed more
 than one picture on the same canvas1 it
 has treated each picture as seen at a  
specific instant of time4 ,futurism     
attempts systematically to combine the  
past and the future with the present1 as
 if all the pictures in a cinematograph 
film were to be printed one over the    
other2 to paint no instant but to       
represent the movement of time4 ,it aims
 at nothing less than the abrogation of 
all recognized laws1 the total          
destruction of all that has hitherto    
passed for art4  ,do you recall the     
story of the man who tried to count a   
litter of pigs1 but gave it up because  
one little pig ran about so fast that he
 could not be counted8 ,one finds       

oneself in somewhat the same predicament
 when one tries to describe these new   
movements in art4 ,the movement is so   
rapid and the men shift their ground so 
quickly that there is no telling where  
to find them4 ,you have no sooner       
arrived at some notion of the difference
 between ,cubism and ,futurism than you 
find your ,cubist doing things that are 
both ,cubist and ,futurist1 or neither  
,cubist nor ,futurist1 according as you 
look at them4 ,you find things made up  
of geometrical figures to give volume1  
yet with all the parts many times       
repeated to give motion4 ,you find      
things that have neither bulk nor motion
 but look like nothing so much as a box 
of ,chinese tangrams scattered on a     
table4 ,finally1 you have assemblages of
 lines that do not draw anything1 even  
cubes or triangles2 and we are assured  
that there is now a newest school of    
all1 called ,orphism1 which1 finding    
still some vestiges of intelligibility  
in any assemblage of lines1 reduces     

everything to shapeless blotches4       
,probably the first of ,orphic pictures 
was that produced by the quite authentic
 donkey who was induced to smear a      
canvas by lashing a tail duly dipped in 
paint4 ,it was given a title as ,orphic 
as the painting1 was accepted by a jury 
anxious to find new forms of talent1 and
 was hung in the ,salon d',automne4  ,in
 all this welter of preposterous        
theories there is but one thing         
constant--one thing on which all these  
theorists are agreed4 ,it is that all   
this strange stuff is symbolic and      
shadows forth the impressions and       
emotions of the artist3 represents not  
nature but his feeling about nature2 is 
the expression of his mind or1 as they  
prefer to call it1 his soul4 ,it may be 
so4 ,all art is symbolic2 images are    
symbols2 words are symbols2 all         
communication is by symbols4 ,but if a  
symbol is to serve any purpose of       
communication between one mind and      
another it must be a symbol accepted and

 understood by both minds4 ,if an artist
 is to choose his symbols to suit       
himself1 and to make them mean anything 
he chooses1 who is to say what he means 
or whether he means anything8 ,if a man 
were to rise and recite1 with a solemn  
voice1 words like ,ajakan maradak tecor 
sosthendi1 would you know what he meant8
 ,if he wished you to believe that these
 symbols express the feeling of awe     
caused by the contemplation of the      
starry heavens1 he would have to tell   
you so in your own language2 and even   
then you would have only his word for   
it4 ,he may have meant them to express  
that1 but do they8 ,the apologists of   
the new schools are continually telling 
us that we must give the necessary time 
and thought to learn the language of    
these men before we condemn them4 ,why  
should we8 ,why should not they learn   
the universal language of art8 ,it is   
they who are trying to say something4   
,when they have learned to speak that   
language and have convinced us that they

 have something to say in it which is   
worth listening to1 then1 and not till  
then1 we may consent to such slight     
modification of it as may fit it more   
closely to their thought4  ,if these    
gentlemen really believe that their     
capriciously chosen symbols are fit     
vehicles for communication with others1 
why do they fall back on that old1 old  
symbol1 the written word8 ,why do they  
introduce1 in the very midst of a design
 in which everything else is dislocated1
 a name or a word in clear ,roman       
letters8 ,or why do they give their     
pictures titles and1 lest you should    
neglect to look in the catalogue1 print 
the title quite carefully and legibly in
 the corner of the picture itself8 ,they
 know that they must set you to hunting 
for their announced subject or you would
 not look twice at their puzzles4  ,now1
 there is only one word for this denial 
of all law1 this insurrection against   
all custom and tradition1 this assertion
 of individual license without          

discipline and without restraint2 and   
that word is anarchy4 ,and1 as we know1 
theoretic anarchy1 though it may not    
always lead to actual violence1 is a    
doctrine of destruction4 ,it is so in   
art1 and these artistic anarchists are  
found proclaiming that the public will  
never understand or accept their art    
while anything remains of the art of the
 past1 and demanding that therefore the 
art of the past shall be destroyed4 ,it 
is actual1 physical destruction of      
pictures and statues that they call for1
 and in ,italy1 that great treasury of  
the world's art1 has been raised the    
sinister cry3 ,burn the museums6 ,they  
have not yet taken to the torch1 but if 
they were sincere they would do it2 for 
their doctrine calls for nothing less   
than the reduction of mankind to a state
 of primitive savagery that it may begin
 again at the beginning4  ,fortunately1 
they are not sincere4 ,there may be     
among them those who honestly believe in
 that exaltation of the individual and  

that revolt against all law which is the
 danger of our age4 ,but1 for the most  
part1 if they have broken from the fold 
and like sheep have gone astray1 they   
have shown a very sheep-like disposition
 to follow the bell-wether4 ,they are   
fond of quoting a saying of ,gauguin's  
that one must be either a revolutionist 
or a plagiary2 but can any one tell     
these revolutionists apart8 ,can any one
 distinguish among them such definite   
and logically developed personalities as
 mark even schoolmen and plagiarists    
like ,meissonier and ,gerome8 ,if any   
one of these men stood alone1 one might 
believe his eccentricities to be the    
mark of an extreme individuality2 one   
cannot believe it when one finds the    
same eccentricities in twenty of them4  
,no1 it is not for the sake of          
unhampered personal development that    
young artists are joining these new     
schools2 it is because they are offered 
a short cut to a kind of success4 ,as   
there are no more laws and no more      

standards1 there is nothing to learn4   
,the merest student is at once set upon 
a level with the most experienced of his
 instructors1 and boys and girls in     
their teens are hailed as masters4 ,art 
is at last made easy1 and there are no  
longer any pupils1 for all have become  
teachers4 ,to borrow ,doctor ,johnson's 
phrase1 many men1 many women1 and many  
children could produce art after this   
fashion2 and they do4  ,so right are the
 practitioners of this puerile art in   
their proclaimed belief that the public 
will never accept it while anything else
 exists1 that one might be willing to   
treat it with the silent contempt it    
deserves were it not for the efforts of 
certain critics and writers for the     
press to convince us that it ought to be
 accepted4 ,some of these men seem to be
 intimidated by the blunders of the     
past4 ,knowing that contemporary        
criticism has damned almost every true  
artist of the nineteenth century1 they  
are determined not to be caught napping2

 and they join in shouts of applause as 
each new harlequin steps upon the stage4
 ,they forget that it is as dangerous to
 praise ignorantly as to blame unjustly1
 and that the railer at genius1 though  
he may seem more malevolent1 will scarce
 appear so ridiculous to posterity as   
the dupe of the mountebank4 ,others of  
them are1 no doubt1 honest victims of   
that illusion of progress to which we   
are all more or less subject--to that   
ingrained belief that all evolution is  
upward and that the latest thing must   
necessarily be the best4 ,they forget   
that the same process which has relieved
 man of his tail has deprived the snake 
of his legs and the kiwi of his wings4  
,they forget that art has never been and
 cannot be continuously progressive2    
that it is only the sciences connected  
with art that are capable of progress2  
and that the ,henriade is not a greater 
poem than the ,divine ,comedy because   
,voltaire has learned the falsity of the
 ,ptolemaic astronomy4 ,finally1 these  

writers1 like other people1 desire to   
seem knowing and clever2 and if you     
appear to admire vastly what no one else
 understands you pass for a clever man4 
,i have looked through a good deal of   
the writings of these up-to-date critics
 in the effort to find something like an
 intelligible argument or a definite    
statement of belief4 ,i have found      
nothing but the continually repeated    
assumption that these new movements1 in 
all their varieties1 are living and     
vital4 ,i can find no grounds stated for
 this assumption and can suppose only   
that what is changing with great        
rapidity is conceived to be alive2 yet  
,i know nothing more productive of rapid
 changes than putrefaction4  ,do not be 
deceived4 ,this is not vital art1 it is 
decadent and corrupt4 ,true art has     
always been the expression by the artist
 of the ideals of his time and of the   
world in which he lived--ideals which   
were his own because he was a part of   
that world4 ,a living and healthy art   

never has existed and never can exist   
except through the mutual understanding 
and co-operation of the artist and his  
public4 ,art is made for man and has a  
social function to perform4 ,we have a  
right to demand that it shall be both   
human and humane2 that it shall show    
some sympathy in the artist with our    
thoughts and our feelings2 that it shall
 interpret our ideals to us in that     
universal language which has grown up in
 the course of ages4 ,we have a right to
 reject with pity or with scorn the     
stammerings of incompetence1 the babble 
of lunacy1 or the vaporing of imposture4
 ,but mutual understanding implies a    
duty on the part of the public as well  
as on the part of the artist1 and we    
must give as well as take4 ,we must be  
at the pains to learn something of the  
language of art in which we bid the     
artist speak4 ,if we would have beauty  
from him we must sympathize with his    
aspiration for beauty4 ,above all1 if we
 would have him interpret for us our    

ideals we must have ideals worthy of    
such interpretation4 ,without this      
co-operation on our part we may have a  
better art than we deserve1 for noble   
artists will be born1 and they will give
 us an art noble in its essence however 
mutilated and shorn of its effectiveness
 by our neglect4 ,it is only by being   
worthy of it that we can hope to have an
 art we may be proud of--an art lofty in
 its inspiration1 consummate in its     
achievement1 disciplined in its         
strength4     ,,ii  ,,jean ,,francois   
,,millet   ,jean ,francois ,millet1 who 
lived hard and died poor1 is now perhaps
 the most famous artist of the          
nineteenth century4 ,his slightest work 
is fought for by dealers and collectors1
 and his more important pictures1 if    
they chance to change hands1 bring      
colossal and almost incredible prices4  
,and of all modern reputations his1 so  
far as we can see1 seems most likely to 
be enduring4 ,if any painter of the     
immediate past is definitively numbered 

with the great masters1 it is he4 ,yet  
the popular admiration for his art is   
based on a ,i misapprehension almost as 
profound as that of those contemporaries
 who decried and opposed him4 ,they     
thought him violent1 rude1 ill-educated1
 a man of the woods1 a revolutionist1   
almost a communist4 ,we are apt to think
 of him as a gentle sentimentalist1 a   
soul full of compassion for the hard lot
 of the poor1 a man whose art achieves  
greatness by sheer feeling rather than  
by knowledge and intellect4 ,in spite of
 his own letters1 in spite of the       
testimony of many who knew him well1 in 
spite of more than one piece of         
illuminating criticism1 these two       
misconceptions endure2 and1 for the     
many1 ,millet is still either the       
painter of ,the ,man with the ,hoe1 a   
powerful but somewhat exceptional work1 
or the painter of ,l',angelus1 precisely
 the least characteristic picture he    
ever produced4 ,there is a legendary    
,millet1 in many ways a very different  

man from the real one1 and1 while the   
facts of his life are well known and    
undisputed1 the interpretation of them  
is colored by preconceptions and        
strained to make them fit the legend4   
,altogether too much1 for instance1 has 
been made of the fact that ,millet was  
born a peasant4 ,he was so1 but so were 
half the artists and poets who come up  
to ,paris and fill the schools and the  
cafes of the student quarters4 ,to any  
one who has known these young rapins1   
and wondered at the grave and           
distinguished members of the ,institute 
into which many of them have afterward  
developed1 it is evident that this      
studious youth--who read ,virgil in the 
original and ,homer and ,shakespeare and
 ,goethe in translations--probably had a
 much more cultivated mind and a much   
sounder education than most of his      
fellow students under ,delaroche4 ,seven
 years after this ,norman farmer's son  
came to ,paris1 with a pension of #fjj  
francs voted by the town council of     

,cherbourg1 the son of a ,breton        
sabot-maker followed him there with a   
precisely similar pension voted by the  
town council of ,roche-sur-,yon2 and the
 pupil of ,langlois had had at least    
equal opportunities with the pupil of   
,sartoris4 ,both cases were entirely    
typical of ,french methods of           
encouraging the fine arts1 and the      
peasant origin of ,millet is precisely  
as significant as the peasant origin of 
,baudry4  ,illustration3 ,plate         
#b4--,millet4 ,the ,sower4 ,in the      
,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4          
,vanderbilt collection4  ,baudry        
persevered in the course marked out for 
him and1 after failing three times1     
received the ,prix de ,rome and became  
the pensioner of the state4 ,millet took
 umbrage at ,delaroche's explanation    
that his support was already pledged to 
another candidate for the prize1 and    
left the atelier of that master after   
little more than a year's work4 ,but    
that he had already acquired most of    

what was to be learned there is shown1  
if by nothing else1 by the master's     
promise to push him for the prize the   
year following4 ,this was in #ahch1 and 
for a year or two longer ,millet worked 
in the life classes of ,suisse and      
,boudin without a master4 ,his pension  
was first cut down and then withdrawn   
altogether1 and he was thrown upon his  
own resources4 ,his struggles and his   
poverty during the next few years were  
those of many a young artist1           
aggravated1 in his case1 by two         
imprudent marriages4 ,but during all the
 time that he was painting portraits in 
,cherbourg or little nudes in ,paris he 
was steadily gaining reputation and     
making friends4 ,if we had not the      
pictures themselves to show us how able 
and how well-trained a workman he was1  
the story told us by ,wyatt ,eaton1 in  
,modern ,french ,masters1 would convince
 us4 ,it was in the last year of        
,millet's life that he told the young   
,american how1 in his early days1 a     

dealer would come to him for a picture  
and1 having nothing painted1 he would   
offer the dealer a book and ask him to  
wait for a little while that he might   
add a few touches to the picture4 ,he   
would then go into his studio and take a
 fresh canvas1 or a panel1 and in two   
hours bring out a little nude figure1   
which he had painted during that time1  
and for which he would receive twenty or
 twenty-five francs4 ,it was the work of
 this time that ,diaz admired for its   
color and its immortal flesh painting2  
that caused ,guichard1 a pupil of       
,ingres1 to tell his master that ,millet
 was the finest draughtsman of the new  
school2 that earned for its author the  
title of master of the nude4  ,he did   
all kinds of work in these days1 even   
painting signs and illustrating sheet   
music1 and it was all capital practice  
for a young man1 but it was not what he 
wanted to do4 ,a great deal has been    
made of the story of his overhearing    
some one speak of him as a fellow who   

never paints anything but naked women1  
and he is represented as undergoing     
something like a sudden conversion and  
as resolving to do no more of the       
devil's work4 ,as a matter of fact1 he  
had1 from the first1 wanted to paint men
 at work in the fields1 with their fine 
attitudes1 and he only tried his hand at
 other things because he had his living 
to earn4 ,sensier saw what seems to have
 been the first sketch for ,the ,sower  
as early as #ahdg1 and it existed long  
before that1 while ,the ,winnower was   
exhibited in #ahdh2 and the overheard   
conversation is said to have taken place
 in #ahdi4 ,there was nothing indecent  
or immoral in ,millet's early work1 and 
the best proof that he felt no moral    
reprobation for the painting of the     
nude--as what true painter1 especially  
in ,france1 ever did8--is that he       
returned to it in the height of his     
power and1 in the picture of the little 
,goose ,girl 7,pl4 #a7 by the brook     
side1 her slim1 young body bared for the

 bath1 produced the loveliest of his    
works4 ,no1 what happened to ,millet in 
#ahdi was simply that he resolved to do 
no more pot-boiling1 to consult no one's
 taste but his own1 to paint what he    
pleased and as he pleased1 if he starved
 for it4 ,he went to ,barbizon for a    
summer's holiday and to escape the      
cholera4 ,he stayed there because living
 was cheap and the place was healthful1 
and because he could find there the     
models and the subjects on which he     
built his highly abstract and ideal art4
  ,illustration3 ,plate #c4--,millet4   
,the ,gleaners4 ,in the ,louvre4  ,at   
,barbizon he neither resumed the costume
 nor led the life of a peasant4 ,he wore
 sabots1 as hundreds of other artists   
have done1 before and since1 when living
 in the country in ,france4 ,sabots are 
very cheap and very dry and not         
uncomfortable when you have acquired the
 knack of wearing them4 ,in other       
respects he dressed and lived like a    
small bourgeois1 and was monsieur to the

 people about him4 ,barbizon was already
 a summer resort for artists before he  
came there1 and the inn was full of     
painters2 while others1 of whom         
,rousseau was one1 were settled there   
more or less permanently4 ,it is but a  
short distance from ,paris1 and the     
exhibitions and museums were readily    
accessible4 ,the life that ,millet lived
 there was that of many poor1           
self-respecting1 hard-working artists1  
and if he had been a landscape painter  
that life would never have seemed in any
 way exceptional4 ,it is only because he
 was a painter of the figure that it    
seems odd he should have lived in the   
country2 only because he painted        
peasants that he has been thought of as 
a peasant himself4 ,if he accepted the  
name1 with a kind of pride1 it was in   
protest against the frivolity and       
artificiality of the fashionable art of 
the day4 ,but if too much has been made 
of ,millet's peasant origin1 perhaps    
hardly enough has been made of his race4

 ,it is at least interesting that the   
two ,frenchmen whose art has most in    
common with his1 ,nicolas ,poussin and  
,pierre ,corneille1 should have been    
,normans like himself4 ,in the severely 
restrained1 grandly simple1 profoundly  
classical work of these three men1 that 
hard-headed1 strong-handed1 austere1 and
 manly race has found its artistic      
expression4  ,for ,millet is neither a  
revolutionary nor a sentimentalist1 nor 
even a romanticist2 he is essentially a 
classicist of the classicists1 a        
conservative of the conservatives1 the  
one modern exemplar of the grand style4 
,it is because his art is so old that it
 was too new for even ,corot to         
understand it2 because he harked back   
beyond the pseudoclassicism of his time 
to the great art of the past1 and was   
classic as ,phidias and ,giotto and     
,michelangelo were classic1 that he     
seemed strange to his contemporaries4   
,in everything he was conservative4 ,he 
hated change2 he wanted things to remain

 as they had always been4 ,he did not   
especially pity the hard lot of the     
peasant2 he considered it the natural   
and inevitable lot of man who eats bread
 in the sweat of his brow4 ,he wanted   
the people he painted to look as if they
 belonged to their place--as if it would
 be impossible for them ever to think of
 being anything else but what they are4 
,in the herdsman and the shepherd1 the  
sower and the reaper1 he saw the        
immemorial types of humanity whose      
labors have endured since the world     
began and were essentially what they now
 are when ,virgil wrote his ,georgics   
and when ,jacob kept the flocks of      
,laban4 ,this is the note of all his    
work4 ,it is the permanent1 the         
essential1 the eternally significant    
that he paints4 ,the apparent           
localization of his subjects in time and
 place is an illusion4 ,he is not       
concerned with the nineteenth century or
 with ,barbizon but with mankind4 ,at   
the very moment when the ,english       

,pre-raphaelites were trying to found a 
great art on the exhaustive imitation of
 natural detail1 he eliminated detail as
 much as possible4 ,at the very         
beginning of our modern preoccupation   
with the direct representation of facts1
 he abandoned study from the model      
almost entirely and could say that he   
had never painted from nature4 ,his     
subjects would have struck the amiable  
,sir ,joshua as trivial1 yet no one has 
ever more completely followed that      
writer's precepts4 ,his confession of   
faith is in the words1 ,one must be able
 to make use of the trivial for the     
expression of the sublime2 and this     
painter of rustic genre is the world's  
greatest master of the sublime after    
,michelangelo4  ,illustration3 ,plate   
#d4--,millet4 ,the ,spaders4  ,the      
comparison with ,michelangelo is        
inevitable and has been made again and  
again by those who have felt the        
elemental grandeur of ,millet's work4   
,as a recent writer has remarked3 ,an   

art highly intellectualized1 so as to   
convey a great idea with the lucidity of
 language1 must needs be controlled by  
genius akin to that which inspired the  
ceiling paintings of the ,sistine       
,chapel4,a ,this was written of the     
,trajanic sculptors1 whose works both   
,michelangelo and ,millet studied and   
admired1 and indeed it is to this old   
,roman art1 or to the still older art of
 ,greece1 that one must go for the      
truest parallel of ,millet's temper and 
his manner of working4 ,he was less     
impatient1 less romantic and emotional  
than ,michelangelo2 he was graver1      
quieter1 more serene2 and if he had     
little of the ,greek sensuousness and   
the ,greek love of physical beauty1 he  
had much of the antique clarity and     
simplicity4 ,to express his idea        
clearly1 logically1 and forcibly2 to    
make a work of art that should be all of
 a piece and in which things should be  
where they are for a purpose2 to admit  
nothing for display1 for ornament1 even 

for beauty1 that did not necessarily and
 inevitably grow out of his central     
theme1 and to suppress with an iron     
rigidity everything useless or          
superfluous--this was his constant and  
conscious effort4 ,it is an ideal       
eminently austere and intellectual--an  
ideal1 above all1 especially and        
eternally classic4  ,a ,eugenie ,strong1
 ,roman ,sculpture1 p4 #bbd4  ,take1 for
 an instance1 the earliest of his       
masterpieces1 the first great picture by
 which he marked his emancipation and   
his determination henceforth to produce 
art as he understood it without regard  
to the preferences of others4 ,many of  
his preliminary drawings and studies    
exist and we can trace1 more or less    
clearly1 the process by which the final 
result was arrived at4 ,at first we have
 merely a peasant sowing grain2 an      
everyday incident1 truly enough observed
 but nothing more4 ,gradually the       
background is cut down1 the space       
restricted1 the figure enlarged until it

 fills its frame as a metope of the     
,parthenon is filled4 ,the gesture is   
ever enlarged and given more sweep and  
majesty1 the silhouette is simplified   
and divested of all accidental or       
insignificant detail4 ,a thousand       
previous observations are compared and  
resumed in one general and comprehensive
 formula1 and the typical has been      
evolved from the actual4 ,what          
generations of ,greek sculptors did in  
their slow perfectioning of certain     
fixed types he has done almost at once4 
,we have no longer a man sowing1 but    
,the ,sower 7,pl4 #b71 justifying the   
title he instinctively gave it by its   
air of permanence1 of inevitability1 of 
universality4 ,all the significance     
which there is or ever has been for     
mankind in that primaeval action of     
sowing the seed is crystallized into its
 necessary expression4 ,the thing is    
done once for all1 and need never--can  
never be done again4 ,has any one else  
had this power since ,michelangelo      

created his ,adam8  ,illustration3      
,plate #e4--,millet4 ,the ,potato       
,planters4 ,in the ,quincy ,a4 ,shaw    
,collection4  ,if even ,millet never    
again attained quite the august         
impressiveness of this picture it is    
because no other action of rustic man   
has so wide or so deep a meaning for us 
as this of sowing4 ,all the meaning     
there is in an action he could make us  
feel with entire certainty1 and always  
he proceeds by this method of           
elimination1 concentration1             
simplification1 insistence on the       
essential and the essential only4 ,one  
of the most perfect of all his          
pictures--more perfect than ,the ,sower 
on account of qualities of mere         
painting1 of color1 and of the rendering
 of landscape1 of which ,i shall speak  
later--is ,the ,gleaners 7,pl4 #c74     
,here one figure is not enough to       
express the continuousness of the       
movement2 the utmost simplification will
 not make you feel1 as powerfully as he 

wishes you to feel it1 the crawling     
progress1 the bending together of back  
and thighs1 the groping of worn fingers 
in the stubble4 ,the line must be       
reinforced and reduplicated1 and a      
second figure1 almost a facsimile of the
 first1 is added4 ,even this is not     
enough4 ,he adds a third figure1 not    
gathering the ear1 but about to do so1  
standing1 but stooped forward and       
bounded by one great1 almost            
uninterrupted curve from the peak of the
 cap over her eyes to the heel which    
half slips out of the sabot1 and the    
thing is done4 ,the whole day's work is 
resumed in that one moment4 ,the task   
has endured for hours and will endure   
till sunset1 with only an occasional    
break while the back is                 
half-straightened--there is not time to 
straighten it wholly4 ,it is the triumph
 of significant composition1 as ,the    
,sower is the triumph of significant    
draughtsmanship4  ,or1 when an action is
 more complicated and difficult of      

suggestion1 as is that1 for instance1 of
 digging1 he takes it at the beginning  
and at the end1 as in ,the ,spaders     
7,pl4 #d71 and makes you understand     
everything between4 ,one man is doubled 
over his spade1 his whole weight brought
 to bear on the pressing foot which     
drives the blade into the ground4 ,the  
other1 with arms outstretched1 gives the
 twisting motion which lets the loosened
 earth fall where it is to lie4 ,each of
 these positions is so thoroughly       
understood and so definitely expressed  
that all the other positions of the     
action are implied in them4 ,you feel   
the recurrent rhythm of the movement and
 could almost count the falling of the  
clods4  ,so far did ,millet push the    
elimination of non-essentials that his  
heads have often scarcely any features1 
his hands1 one might say1 are without   
fingers1 and his draperies are so       
simplified as to suggest the witty      
remark that his peasants are too poor to
 afford any folds in their garments4    

,the setting of the great1 bony planes  
of jaw and cheek and temple1 the bulk   
and solidity of the skull1 and the      
direction of the face--these were1 often
 enough1 all he wanted of a head4 ,look 
at the hand of the woman in ,the ,potato
 ,planters 7,pl4 #e71 or at those of the
 man in the same picture1 and see how   
little detail there is in them1 yet how 
surely the master's sovereign           
draughtsmanship has made you feel their 
actual structure and function6 ,and how 
inevitably the garments1 with their few 
and simple folds1 mould and accent the  
figures beneath them1 becoming1 as it   
were1 a part of the body and expressing1
 even more than the nude1 the larger and
 simpler forms of nature6 ,how          
explicitly the action of the bodies is  
registered1 how perfectly the amount of 
effort apparent is proportioned to the  
end to be attained6 ,one can feel1 to an
 ounce1 it seems1 the strain upon the   
muscles implied by that hoe-full of     
earth4 ,or look at the easier attitude  

of ,the ,grafter 7,pl4 #f71 engaged upon
 his gentler task1 and at the monumental
 silhouette of the wife1 standing there1
 babe in arms1 a type of eternal        
motherhood and of the fruitfulness to   
come4  ,illustration3 ,plate            
#f4--,millet4 ,the ,grafter4 ,in the    
collection of ,william ,rockefeller4    
,oftener than anything1 perhaps1 it was 
the sense of weight that interested     
,millet4 ,it is the adjustment of her   
body to the weight of the child she     
carries that gives her statuesque pose  
to the wife of the grafter4 ,it is the  
drag of the buckets upon the arms that  
gives her whole character to the        
magnificent ,woman ,carrying ,water1 in 
the ,vanderbilt collection4 ,it is the  
erect carriage1 the cautious1 rhythmic  
walk1 keeping step together1 forced upon
 them by the sense of weight1 which     
gives that gravity and solemnity to the 
bearers of ,the ,new-,born ,calf 7,pl4  
#g71 which was ridiculed by ,millet's   
critics as more befitting the bearers of

 the bull ,apis or the ,holy ,sacrament4
 ,the artist himself was explicit in    
this instance as in that of the ,woman  
,carrying ,water4 ,the expression of two
 men carrying a load on a litter1 he    
says1 naturally depends on the weight   
which rests upon their arms4 ,thus1 if  
the weight is equal1 their expression   
will be the same1 whether they bear the 
,ark of the ,covenant or a calf1 an     
ingot of gold or a stone4 ,find that    
expression1 whether in face or figure1  
render it clearly1 with largeness and   
simplicity1 and you have a great1 a     
grave1 a classic work of art4 ,we are   
never so truly ,greek1 he said1 as when 
we are simply painting our own          
impressions4 ,certainly his own way of  
painting his impressions was more ,greek
 than anything else in the whole range  
of modern art4  ,in the epic grandeur of
 such pictures as these there is        
something akin to sadness1 though       
assuredly ,millet did not mean them to  
be sad4 ,did he not say of the ,woman   

,carrying ,water3 ,i have avoided1 as ,i
 always do1 with a sort of horror1      
everything that might verge on the      
sentimental8 ,he wished her to seem to  
do her work simply and cheerfully 444 as
 a part of her daily task and the habit 
of her life4 ,and he was not always in  
the austere and epical mood4 ,he could  
be idyllic as well1 and if he could not 
see the joyous side of life or nature he
 could feel and make us feel the charm  
of tranquillity4 ,indeed1 this remark of
 his about the joyous side of things was
 made in the dark1 early days when life 
was hardest for him4 ,he broadened in   
his view as he grew older and conditions
 became more tolerable1 and he has      
painted a whole series of little        
pictures of family life and of childhood
 that1 in their smiling seriousness1 are
 endlessly delightful4 ,the same        
science1 the same thoughtfulness1 the   
same concentration and intellectual     
grasp that defined for us the superb    
gesture of ,the ,sower have gone to the 

depiction of the adorable uncertainty1  
between walking and falling1 of those   
,first ,steps 7,pl4 #h7 from the        
mother's lap to the outstretched arms of
 the father2 and the result1 in this    
case as in the other1 is a thing        
perfectly and permanently expressed4    
,whatever ,millet has done is done4 ,he 
has characterized the type1 as it was   
his dream to do1 and written hands off  
across his subject for all future       
adventurers4  ,finally1 he rises to an  
almost lyric fervor in that picture of  
the little ,goose ,girl bathing1 which  
is one of the most purely and           
exquisitely beautiful things in art4 ,in
 this smooth1 young body quivering with 
anticipation of the coolness of the     
water2 in these rounded1 slender limbs  
with their long1 firm1 supple lines2 in 
the unconscious1 half-awkward grace of  
attitude and in the glory of sunlight   
splashing through the shadow of the     
willows1 there is a whole song of joy   
and youth and the goodness of the world4

 ,the picture exists in a drawing or    
pastel1 which has been photographed by  
,braun1 as well as in the oil-painting1 
and ,millet's habit of returning again  
and again to a favorite subject renders 
it difficult to be certain which is the 
earlier of the two2 but ,i imagine this 
drawing to be a study for the picture4  
,at first sight the figure in it is more
 obviously beautiful than in the other  
version1 and it is only after a time    
that one begins to understand the       
changes that the artist was impelled to 
make4 ,it is almost too graceful1 too   
much like an antique nymph4 ,no one     
could find any fault with it1 but by an 
almost imperceptible stiffening of the  
line here and there1 a little greater   
turn of the foot upon the ankle and of  
the hand upon the wrist1 the figure in  
the painting has been given an accent of
 rusticity that makes it more human1    
more natural1 and more appealing4 ,she  
is no longer a possible ,galatea or     
,arethusa1 she is only a goose girl1 and

 we feel but the more strongly on that  
account the eternal poem of the healthy 
human form4  ,illustration3 ,plate      
#g4--,millet4 ,the ,new-,born ,calf4 ,in
 the ,art ,institute1 ,chicago4  ,the   
especial study of the nineteenth century
 was landscape1 and ,millet was so far a
 man of his time that he was a great    
landscape painter2 but his treatment of 
landscape was unlike any other1 and1    
like his own treatment of the figure1 in
 its insistence on essentials1 its      
elimination of the accidental1 its      
austere and grand simplicity4 ,i have   
heard1 somewhere1 a story of his saying1
 in answer to praise of his work or     
inquiry as to his meaning3 ,i was trying
 to express the difference between the  
things that lie flat and the things that
 stand upright4 ,that is the real motive
 of one of his masterpieces--one that in
 some moods seems the greatest of them  
all--,the ,shepherdess 7,pl4 #i71 that  
is1 or used to be1 in the ,chauchard    
collection4 ,in this nobly tranquil     

work1 in which there is no hint of      
sadness or revolt1 are to be found all  
his usual inevitableness of composition 
and perfection of draughtsmanship--note 
the effect of repetition in the sheep1  
forty feeding like one--but the glory of
 the picture is in the infinite         
recession of the plain that lies flat1  
the exact notation of the successive    
positions upon it of the things that    
stand upright1 from the trees and the   
hay wain in the extreme distance1 almost
 lost in sky1 through the sheep and the 
sheep-dog and the shepherdess herself1  
knitting so quietly1 to the dandelions  
in the foreground1 each with its aureole
 of light4 ,of these simple1 geometrical
 relations1 and of the enveloping light 
and air by which they are expressed1 he 
has made a hymn of praise4  ,the        
background of ,the ,gleaners1 with its  
baking stubble-field under the midday   
sun1 its grain stacks and laborers and  
distant farmstead1 all tremulous in the 
reflected waves of heat1 indistinct and 

almost indecipherable yet unmistakable1 
is nearly as wonderful2 and no one has  
ever so rendered the solemnity and the  
mystery of night as has he in the       
marvellous ,sheepfold of the ,walters   
collection4 ,but the greatest of all his
 landscapes--one of the greatest        
landscapes ever painted--is his ,spring 
7,pl4 #aj71 of the ,louvre1 a pure      
landscape this time1 containing no      
figure4 ,in the intense green of the    
sunlit woods against the black          
rain-clouds that are passing away1 in   
the jewel-like brilliancy of the        
blossoming apple-trees1 and the wet     
grass in that clear air after the       
shower2 in the glorious rainbow drawn in
 dancing light across the sky1 we may   
see1 if anywhere in art1 some reflection
 of the infinite splendors which ,millet
 tells us he saw in nature4             
,illustration3 ,plate #h4--,millet4 ,the
 ,first ,steps4  ,in the face of such   
results as these it seems absurd to     
discuss the question whether or not     

,millet was technically a master of his 
trade1 as if the methods that produced  
them could possibly be anything but good
 methods for the purpose2 but it is     
still too much the fashion to say and   
think that the great artist was a poor  
painter--to speak slightingly of his    
accomplishment in oil-painting and to   
seem to prefer his drawings and pastels 
to his pictures4 ,we have seen that he  
was a supremely able technician in his  
pot-boiling days and that the color and 
handling of his early pictures were     
greatly admired by so brilliant a       
virtuoso as ,diaz4 ,but this flowery    
manner would not lend itself to the     
expression of his new aims and he had to
 invent another4 ,he did so stumblingly 
at first1 and the earliest pictures of  
his grand style have a certain harshness
 and ruggedness of surface and heaviness
 of color which his critics could not   
forgive any more than the               
,impressionists1 who have outdone that  
ruggedness1 can forgive him his frequent

 use of a warm general tone inclining to
 brownness4 ,his ideal of form and of   
composition he possessed complete from  
the beginning2 his mastery of light and 
color and the handling of materials was 
slower of acquirement2 but he did       
acquire it1 and in the end he is as     
absolute a master of painting as of     
drawing4 ,he did not see nature in blue 
and violet1 as ,monet has taught us to  
see it1 and little felicities and       
facilities of rendering1 and anything   
approaching cleverness or the parade of 
virtuosity he hated2 but he knew just   
what could be done with thick or thin   
painting1 with opaque or transparent    
pigment1 and he could make his few and  
simple colors say anything he chose4 ,in
 his mature work there is a profound    
knowledge of the means to be employed   
and a great economy in their use1 and   
there is no approach to indiscriminate  
or meaningless loading4 ,things are     
where they are for a purpose1 and if the
 surface of a picture is rough in any   

place it is because just that degree of 
roughness was necessary to attain the   
desired effect4 ,he could make mere     
paint express light as few artists have 
been able to do--,the ,shepherdess is   
flooded with it--and he could do this   
without any sacrifice of the sense of   
substance in the things on which the    
light falls4 ,if some of his canvases   
are brown it is because brown seemed to 
him the appropriate note to express what
 he had to say2 ,the ,gleaners glows    
with almost the richness of a           
,giorgione1 and other pictures are      
honey-toned or cool and silvery or      
splendidly brilliant4 ,and in whatever  
key he painted1 the harmony of his tones
 and colors is as large1 as simple1 and 
as perfect as the harmony of his lines  
and masses4  ,illustration3 ,plate      
#i4--,millet4 ,the ,shepherdess4 ,in the
 ,chauchard collection1 ,louvre4  ,but  
if we cannot admit that ,millet's       
drawings are better than his paintings1 
we may be very glad he did them4 ,his   

great epic of the soil must have lacked 
many episodes1 perhaps whole books and  
cantos1 if it had been written only in  
the slower and more elaborate method4   
,the comparative slightness and rapidity
 of execution of his drawings and       
pastels enabled him to register many    
inventions and observations that we must
 otherwise have missed1 and many of     
these are of the highest value4 ,his    
long training in seizing the essential  
in anything he saw enabled him1 often1  
to put more meaning into a single rapid 
line than another could put into a day's
 painful labor1 and some of his         
slightest sketches are astonishingly and
 commandingly expressive4 ,other of his 
drawings were worked out and pondered   
over almost as lovingly as his          
completest pictures4 ,but so            
instinctively and inevitably was he a   
composer that everything he touched is a
 complete whole--his merest sketch or   
his most elaborated design is a unit4   
,he has left no fragments4 ,his         

paintings1 his countless drawings1 his  
few etchings and woodcuts are all of a  
piece4 ,about everything there is that  
air of finality which marks the work    
destined to become permanently a        
classic4  ,illustration3 ,plate         
#aj4--,millet4 ,spring4 ,in the ,louvre4
  ,here and there1 by one or another    
writer1 most or all of what ,i have been
 trying to say has been said already4   
,it is the more likely to be true4 ,and 
if these true things have been said1    
many other things have been said also   
which seem to me not so true1 or little 
to the purpose1 so that the image ,i    
have been trying to create must differ1 
for better or for worse1 from that which
 another might have made4 ,at least ,i  
may have looked at the truth from a     
slightly different angle and so have    
shown it in a new perspective4 ,and1 at 
any rate1 it is well that true things   
should be said again from time to time4 
,it can do no harm that one more person 
should endeavor to give a reason for his

 admiration of a great and true artist  
and should express his conviction that  
among the world's great masters the     
final place of ,jean ,francois ,millet  
is not destined to be the lowest4       
,,iii  ,,the ,,illusion ,,of            
,,progress,b  ,b ,read before the joint 
meeting of ,the ,american ,academy of   
,arts and ,letters and ,the ,national   
,institute of ,arts and ,letters1       
,december #ac1 #aiab4   ,in these days  
all of us1 even ,academicians1 are to   
some extent believers in progress4 ,our 
golden age is no longer in the past1 but
 in the future4 ,we know that our early 
ancestors were a race of wretched       
cave-dwellers1 and we believe that our  
still earlier ancestors were possessed  
of tails and pointed ears4 ,having come 
so far1 we are sometimes inclined to    
forget that not every step has been an  
advance and to entertain an illogical   
confidence that each future step must   
carry us still further forward2 having  
indubitably progressed in many things1  

we think of ourselves as progressing in 
all4 ,and as the pace of progress in    
science and in material things has      
become more and more rapid1 we have come
 to expect a similar pace in art and    
letters1 to imagine that the art of the 
future must be far finer than the art of
 the present or than that of the past1  
and that the art of one decade1 or even 
of one year1 must supersede that of the 
preceding decade or the preceding year1 
as the #aiac model in automobiles       
supersedes the model of #aiab4 ,more    
than ever before ,to have done is to    
hang quite out of fashion1 and the only 
title to consideration is to do         
something quite obviously new or to     
proclaim one's intention of doing       
something newer4 ,the race grows madder 
and madder4 ,it was scarce two years    
since we first heard of ,cubism when the
 ,futurists were calling the ,cubists   
reactionary4 ,even the gasping critics1 
pounding manfully in the rear1 have     
thrown away all impedimenta of          

traditional standards in the desperate  
effort to keep up with what seems less a
 march than a stampede4  ,but while we  
talk so loudly of progress in the arts  
we have an uneasy feeling that we are   
not really progressing4 ,if our belief  
in our own art were as full-blooded as  
was that of the great creative epochs1  
we should scarce be so reverent of the  
art of the past4 ,it is1 perhaps1 a sign
 of anaemia that we have become founders
 of museums and conservers of old       
buildings4 ,if we are so careful of our 
heritage1 it is surely from some doubt  
of our ability to replace it4 ,when art 
has been vigorously alive it has been   
ruthless in its treatment of what has   
gone before4 ,no cathedral builder      
thought of reconciling his own work to  
that of the builder who preceded him2 he
 built in his own way1 confident of its 
superiority4 ,and when the ,renaissance 
builder came1 in his turn1 he           
contemptuously dismissed all mediaeval  
art as ,gothic and barbarous1 and was as

 ready to tear down an old facade as to 
build a new one4 ,even the most         
cock-sure of our moderns might hesitate 
to emulate ,michelangelo in his calm    
destruction of three frescoes by        
,perugino to make room for his own ,last
 ,judgment4 ,he1 at least1 had the full 
courage of his convictions1 and his     
opinion of ,perugino is of record4  ,not
 all of us would consider even          
,michelangelo's arrogance entirely      
justified1 but it is not only the       
,michelangelos who have had this belief 
in themselves4 ,apparently the          
confidence of progress has been as great
 in times that now seem to us decadent  
as in times that we think of as truly   
progressive4 ,the past1 or at least the 
immediate past1 has always seemed out of
 date1 and each generation1 as it made  
its entrance on the stage1 has plumed   
itself upon its superiority to that     
which was leaving it4 ,the architect of 
the most debased baroque grafted his    
improvements upon the buildings of the  

high ,renaissance with an assurance not 
less than that with which ,david and his
 contemporaries banished the whole      
charming art of the eighteenth century4 
,van ,orley and ,frans ,floris were as  
sure of their advance upon the ancient  
,flemish painting of the ,van ,eycks and
 of ,memling as ,rubens himself must    
have been of his advance upon them4  ,we
 can see plainly enough that in at least
 some of these cases the sense of       
progress was an illusion4 ,there was    
movement1 but it was not always forward 
movement4 ,and if progress was illusory 
in some instances1 may it not1 possibly1
 have been so in all8 ,it is at least   
worth inquiry how far the fine arts have
 ever been in a state of true progress1 
going forward regularly from good to    
better1 each generation building on the 
work of its predecessors and surpassing 
that work1 in the way in which science  
has normally progressed when material   
conditions were favorable4  ,if1 with a 
view to answering this question1 we     

examine1 however cursorily1 the history 
of the five great arts1 we shall find a 
somewhat different state of affairs in  
the case of each4 ,in the end it may be 
possible to formulate something like a  
general rule that shall accord with all 
the facts4 ,let us begin with the       
greatest and simplest of the arts1 the  
art of poetry4  ,in the history of      
poetry we shall find less evidence of   
progress than anywhere else1 for it will
 be seen that its acknowledged          
masterpieces are almost invariably near 
the beginning of a series rather than   
near the end4 ,almost as soon as a clear
 and flexible language has been formed  
by any people1 a great poem has been    
composed in that language1 which has    
remained not only unsurpassed1 but      
unequalled1 by any subsequent work4     
,homer is for us1 as he was for the     
,greeks1 the greatest of their poets2   
and if the opinion could be taken of all
 cultivated readers in those nations    
that have inherited the ,greek          

tradition1 it is doubtful whether he    
would not be acclaimed the greatest poet
 of the ages4 ,dante has remained the   
first of ,italian poets1 as he was one  
of the earliest4 ,chaucer1 who wrote    
when our language was transforming      
itself from ,anglo-,saxon into ,english1
 has still lovers who are willing for   
his sake to master what is to them      
almost a foreign tongue1 and yet other  
lovers who ask for new translations of  
his works into our modern idiom2 while  
,shakespeare1 who wrote almost as soon  
as that transformation had been         
accomplished1 is universally reckoned   
one of the greatest of world poets4     
,there have1 indeed1 been true poets at 
almost all stages of the world's        
history1 but the pre-eminence of such   
masters as these can hardly be          
questioned1 and if we looked to poetry  
alone for a type of the arts1 we should 
almost be forced to conclude that art is
 the reverse of progressive4 ,we should 
think of it as gushing forth in full    

splendor when the world is ready for it1
 and as unable ever again to rise to the
 level of its fount4  ,the art of       
architecture is later in its beginning  
than that of poetry1 for it can exist   
only when men have learned to build     
solidly and permanently4 ,a nomad may be
 a poet1 but he cannot be an architect2 
a herdsman might have written the ,book 
of ,job1 but the great builders are     
dwellers in cities4 ,but since men first
 learned to build they have never quite 
forgotten how to do so4 ,at all times   
there have been somewhere peoples who   
knew enough of building to mould its    
utility into forms of beauty1 and the   
history of architecture may be read more
 continuously than that of any other    
art4 ,it is a history of constant change
 and of continuous development1 each    
people and each age forming out of the  
old elements a new style which should   
express its mind1 and each style        
reaching its point of greatest          
distinctiveness only to begin a further 

transformation into something else2 but 
is it a history of progress8 ,building1 
indeed1 has progressed at one time or   
another4 ,the ,romans1 with their domes 
and arches1 were more scientific        
builders than the ,greeks1 with their   
simple post and lintel1 but were they   
better architects8 ,we of to-day1 with  
our steel construction1 can scrape the  
sky with erections that would have      
amazed the boldest of mediaeval         
craftsmen2 can we equal his art8 ,if we 
ask where in the history of architecture
 do its masterpieces appear1 the answer 
must be3 ,almost anywhere4 ,wherever men
 have had the wealth and the energy to  
build greatly1 they have builded        
beautifully1 and the distinctions are   
less between style and style or epoch   
and epoch than between building and     
building3 ,the masterpieces of one time 
are as the masterpieces of another1 and 
no man may say that the nave of ,amiens 
is finer than the ,parthenon or that the
 ,parthenon is nobler than the nave of  

,amiens4 ,one may say only that each is 
perfect in its kind1 a supreme          
expression of the human spirit4  ,of the
 art of music ,i must speak with the    
diffidence becoming to the ignorant2 but
 it seems to me to consist of two       
elements and to contain an inspirational
 art as direct and as simple as that of 
poetry1 and a science so difficult that 
its fullest mastery is of very recent   
achievement4 ,in melodic invention it is
 so far from progressive that its most  
brilliant masters are often content to  
elaborate and to decorate a theme old   
enough to have no history--a theme the  
inventor of which has been so entirely  
forgotten that we think of it as sprung 
not from the mind of one man1 but from  
that of a whole people1 and call it a   
folk-song4 ,the song is almost as old as
 the race1 but the symphony has had to  
wait for the invention of many          
instruments and for a mastery of the    
laws of harmony1 and so symphonic music 
is a modern art4 ,we are still adding   

new instruments to the orchestra and    
admitting to our compositions new       
combinations of sounds1 but have we in a
 hundred years made any essential       
progress even in this part of the art8  
,have we produced anything1 ,i will not 
say greater1 but anything as great as   
the noblest works of ,bach and          
,beethoven8  ,already1 and before       
considering the arts of painting and    
sculpture1 we are coming within sight of
 our general law4 ,this law seems to be 
that1 so far as an art is dependent upon
 any form of exact knowledge1 so far it 
partakes of the nature of science and is
 capable of progress4 ,so far as it is  
expressive of a mind and soul1 its      
greatness is dependent upon the         
greatness of that mind and soul1 and it 
is incapable of progress4 ,it may even  
be the reverse of progressive1 because  
as an art becomes more complicated and  
makes ever greater demands upon         
technical mastery1 it becomes more      
difficult as a medium of expression1    

while the mind to be expressed becomes  
more sophisticated and less easy of     
expression in any medium4 ,it would take
 a greater mind than ,homer's to express
 modern ideas in modern verse with      
,homer's serene perfection2 it would    
take1 perhaps1 a greater mind than      
,bach's to employ all the resources of  
modern music with his glorious ease and 
directness4 ,and greater minds than     
those of ,bach and ,homer the world has 
not often the felicity to possess4  ,the
 arts of painting and sculpture are     
imitative arts above all others1 and    
therefore more dependent than any others
 upon exact knowledge1 more tinged with 
the quality of science4 ,let us see how 
they illustrate our supposed law4       
,sculpture depends1 as does             
architecture1 upon certain laws of      
proportion in space which are analogous 
to the laws of proportion in time and in
 pitch upon which music is founded4 ,but
 as sculpture represents the human      
figure1 whereas architecture and music  

represent nothing1 sculpture requires   
for its perfection the mastery of an    
additional science1 which is the        
knowledge of the structure and movement 
of the human body4 ,this knowledge may  
be acquired with some rapidity1         
especially in times and countries where 
man is often seen unclothed4 ,so1 in the
 history of civilizations1 sculpture    
developed early1 after poetry1 but with 
architecture1 and before painting and   
polyphonic music4 ,it reached the       
greatest perfection of which it is      
capable in the age of ,pericles1 and    
from that time progress was impossible  
to it1 and for a thousand years its     
movement was one of decline4 ,after the 
dark ages sculpture was one of the first
 arts to revive2 and again it develops  
rapidly--though not so rapidly as       
before1 conditions of custom and climate
 being less favorable to it--until it   
reaches1 in the first half of the       
sixteenth century1 something near its   
former perfection4 ,again it can go no  

further2 and since then it has changed  
but has not progressed4 ,in ,phidias1 by
 which name ,i would signify the        
sculptor of the pediments of the        
,parthenon1 we have the coincidence of a
 superlatively great artist with the    
moment of technical and scientific      
perfection in the art1 and a similar    
coincidence crowns the work of          
,michelangelo with a peculiar glory4    
,but1 apart from the work of these two  
men1 a the essential value of a work of 
sculpture is by no means always equal to
 its technical and scientific           
completeness4 ,there are archaic statues
 that are almost as nobly beautiful as  
any work by ,phidias and more beautiful 
than almost any work that has been done 
since his time4 ,there are bits of      
,gothic sculpture that are more valuable
 expressions of human feeling than      
anything produced by the contemporaries 
of ,buonarroti4 ,even in times of       
decadence a great artist has created    
finer things than could be accomplished 

by a mediocre talent of the great       
epochs1 and the world could ill spare   
the ,victory of ,samothrace or the      
portrait busts of ,houdon4  ,as         
sculpture is one of the simplest of the 
arts1 painting is one of the most       
complicated4 ,the harmonies it          
constructs are composed of almost       
innumerable elements of lines and forms 
and colors and degrees of light and     
dark1 and the science it professes is no
 less than that of the visible aspect of
 the whole of nature--a science so vast 
that it never has been and perhaps never
 can be mastered in its totality4       
,anything approaching a complete art of 
painting can exist only in an advanced  
stage of civilization4 ,an entirely     
complete art of painting never has      
existed and probably never will exist4  
,the history of painting1 after its     
early stages1 is a history of loss here 
balancing gain there1 of a new means of 
expression acquired at the cost of an   
old one4  ,we know comparatively little 

of the painting of antiquity1 but we    
have no reason to suppose that that art1
 however admirable1 ever attained to    
ripeness1 and we know that the painting 
of the ,orient has stopped short at a   
comparatively early stage of            
development4 ,for our purpose the art to
 be studied is the painting of modern   
times in ,europe from its origin in the 
,middle ,ages4 ,even in the beginning1  
or before the beginning1 while painting 
is a decadent reminiscence of the past  
rather than a prophecy of the new birth1
 there are decorative splendors in the  
,byzantine mosaics hardly to be         
recaptured4 ,then comes primitive       
painting1 an art of the line and of pure
 color with little modulation and no    
attempt at the rendering of solid form4 
,it gradually attains to some sense of  
relief by the use of degrees of light   
and less light2 but the instant it      
admits the true shadow the old          
brightness and purity of color have     
become impossible4 ,the line remains    

dominant for a time and is carried to   
the pitch of refinement and beauty1 but 
the love for solid form gradually       
overcomes it1 and in the art of the high
 ,renaissance it takes a second place4  
,then light-and-shade begins to be      
studied for its own sake2 color1 no     
longer pure and bright1 but deep and    
resonant1 comes in again2 the line      
vanishes altogether1 and even form      
becomes secondary4 ,the last step is    
taken by ,rembrandt1 and even color is  
subordinated to light-and-shade1 which  
exists alone in a world of brownness4   
,at every step there has been progress1 
but there has also been regress4        
,perhaps the greatest balance of gain   
against loss and the nearest approach to
 a complete art of painting were with   
the great ,venetians4 ,the              
transformation is still going on1 and in
 our own day we have conquered some     
corners of the science of visible       
aspects which were unexplored by our    
ancestors4 ,but the balance has turned  

against us2 our loss has been greater   
than our gain2 and our art1 even in its 
scientific aspect1 is inferior to that  
of the sixteenth and seventeenth        
centuries4  ,and just because there     
never has been a complete art of        
painting1 entirely rounded and          
perfected1 it is the clearer to us that 
the final value of a work in that art   
never has depended on its approach to   
such completion4 ,there is no one       
supreme master of painting but a long   
succession of masters of different yet  
equal glory4 ,if the masterpieces of    
architecture are everywhere because     
there has often been a complete art of  
architecture1 the masterpieces of       
painting are everywhere for the opposite
 reason4 ,and if we do not always value 
a master the more as his art is more    
nearly complete1 neither do we always   
value him especially who has placed new 
scientific conquests at the disposal of 
art4 ,palma ,vecchio painted by the side
 of ,titian1 but he is only a minor     

master2 ,botticelli remained of the     
generation before ,leonardo1 but he is  
one of the immortal great4 ,paolo       
,ucello1 by his study of perspective1   
made a distinct advance in pictorial    
science1 but his interest for us is     
purely historic2 ,fra ,angelico made no 
advance whatever1 but he practised      
consummately the current art as he found
 it1 and his work is eternally          
delightful4 ,at every stage of its      
development the art of painting has been
 a sufficient medium for the expression 
of a great man's mind2 and wherever and 
whenever a great man has practised it1  
the result has been a great and         
permanently valuable work of art4  ,for 
this seems1 finally1 to be the law of   
all the arts--the one essential         
prerequisite to the production of a     
great work of art is a great man4 ,you  
cannot have the art without the man1 and
 when you have the man you have the art4
 ,his time and his surroundings will    
color him2 his art will not be at one   

time or place precisely what it might be
 at another2 but at bottom the art is   
the man and at all times and in all     
countries is just as great as the man4  
,let us clear our minds1 then1 of the   
illusion that there is in any important 
sense such a thing as progress in the   
fine arts4 ,we may with a clear         
conscience judge every new work for what
 it appears in itself to be1 asking of  
it that it be noble and beautiful and   
reasonable1 not that it be novel or     
progressive4 ,if it be great art it will
 always be novel enough1 for there will 
be a great mind behind it1 and no two   
great minds are alike4 ,and if it be    
novel without being great1 how shall we 
be the better off8 ,there are enough    
forms of mediocre or evil art in the    
world already4 ,being no longer         
intimidated by the fetich of progress1  
when a thing calling itself a work of   
art seems to us hideous and degraded1   
indecent and insane1 we shall have the  
courage to say so and shall not care to 

investigate it further4 ,detestable     
things have been produced in the past1  
and they are none the less detestable   
because we are able to see how they came
 to be produced4 ,detestable things are 
produced now1 and they will be no more  
admirable if we learn to understand the 
minds that create them4 ,even should    
such things prove to be not the mere    
freaks of a diseased intellect that they
 seem but a necessary outgrowth of the  
conditions of the age and a true        
prophecy of the art of the future1 they 
are not necessarily the better for that4
 ,it is only that the future will be    
very unlucky in its art4      ,,iv      
,,raphael   ,there used to be on the    
cover of the ,portfolio ,monographs     
little medallions of ,raphael and       
,rembrandt1 placed there1 as the editor1
 ,mr4 ,hamerton1 has somewhere          
explained1 as portraits of the two most 
widely influential artists that ever    
lived4 ,in the eighteenth century1 one  
imagines1 ,rembrandt's presence by the  

side of ,raphael would have been thought
 little less than a scandal4 ,to-day it 
is ,raphael's place that would be       
contested1 and he would be superseded1  
likely enough1 by ,velazquez4  ,there is
 no more striking instance of the       
vicissitudes of critical opinion than   
the sudden fall of ,raphael from his    
conceded rank as the prince of painters4
 ,up to the middle of the nineteenth    
century his right to that title was so  
uncontested that it alone was a         
sufficient identification of him--only  
one man could possibly be meant4 ,that  
he should ever need defending or        
re-explaining to a generation grown cold
 to him would have seemed incredible4   
,then came the rediscovery of an earlier
 art that seemed more frank and simple  
than his2 still later the discovery of  
,rembrandt and ,velazquez--the          
romanticist and the naturalist--and     
,raphael1 as a living influence1 almost 
ceased to exist4 ,it was but a few years
 ago that the author of a volume of     

essays on art was gravely praised by a  
reviewer for the purely accidental      
circumstance that that volume contained 
no essay on ,raphael2 and a little later
 the writer of a book on the pictures in
 ,rome had to confess unutterable       
boredom in the presence of the ,stanze  
of the ,vatican4  ,it is not probable   
that any critic who greatly valued his  
reputation1 or who had any serious      
reputation to value1 would take quite   
this tone2 but1 leaving out of          
consideration the impressionistic and   
ultra-modern criticism which ignores    
,raphael altogether1 it is instructive  
to note the way in which a critic so    
steeped in ,italian art as ,mr4         
,berenson approaches the fallen prince4 
,the artist who used to be considered   
the greatest of draughtsmen he will     
hardly admit to be a draughtsman at all1
 ranking him far below ,pollaiuolo and  
positively speaking of him as a poor    
creature1 most docile and patient4 ,as a
 colorist and a manipulator of paint1 he

 places him with ,sebastiano del        
,piombo--that is1 among the             
mediocrities4 ,almost the only serious  
merit1 from his point of view1 which he 
will allow him is a mastery in the      
rendering of space1 shared in nearly    
equal measure by ,perugino1 as1 to some 
extent1 by nearly all the painters of   
the ,umbrian school4 ,for1 while he     
admits that ,raphael was the greatest   
master of composition that ,europe has  
produced1 he evidently thinks of        
composition1 as do so many other        
moderns1 as a matter of relatively      
little importance4  ,it is not          
,raphael's popularity that is in        
question2 that is1 perhaps1 as great as 
ever it was4 ,his works1 in one form or 
another of reproduction1 from the finest
 carbon print to the cheapest           
lithograph1 are still to be found1 in   
the humblest homes as in the most       
splendid1 in nearly every quarter of the
 globe4 ,that popularity was always     
based on what ,berenson calls the       

illustrative qualities of ,raphael's    
work1 on the beauty of his women1 the   
majesty of his men2 on his ability to   
tell a story as we like it told and to  
picture a world that we wish might be   
real4 ,one may not be prepared to       
consider these illustrative qualities so
 negligible as do many modern critics1  
or to echo ,mr4 ,berenson's phrase about
 that which in art 444 is so unimportant
 as what 444 we call beauty4 ,one might 
point out that the greatest artists1    
from ,phidias to ,rembrandt1 have       
occupied themselves with illustration1  
and that to formulate the ideals of a   
race and an epoch is no mean task4 ,but1
 for the moment1 we may neglect all     
that1 our present inquiry being why an  
artist1 once counted the greatest of    
all1 is no longer considered very       
significant by those who measure by     
purely artistic standards rather than by
 that of illustrative success and       
consequent popularity4  ,we may also    
leave out of our present consideration  

,raphael's achievement in the suggestion
 of space4 ,it is a very real quality   
and a high one4 ,it has doubtless always
 been an important element in the       
enjoyability of ,raphael's art1 as it is
 almost the only enjoyable element1 for 
many of us1 in the art of ,perugino4    
,but it is an element that has only very
 recently been clearly perceived to     
exist4 ,if it was enjoyed by the artists
 and critics1 from ,raphael's day almost
 to our own1 they were unconscious of   
the fact1 and the probability is that we
 enjoy it more than they did4 ,it will  
not account for the estimation in which 
they held ,raphael1 and still less will 
it account for the relative lack of     
interest in him to-day4  ,in truth the  
reason why many modern critics and      
painters almost dislike ,raphael is the 
very reason for which he was so greatly 
revered4 ,coming in the nick of time1 at
 the close of an epoch of investigation1
 himself a man of wide culture and quick
 intellect but of no special originality

 or emotional power1 he learned from all
 his predecessors what they had to teach
 and1 choosing from the elements of     
their art those which were suited to his
 purpose1 formed a perfectly balanced   
and noble style which was immediately   
accepted as the only style suitable to  
the expression of lofty ideas in        
monumental form4 ,he became the         
lawgiver1 the founder of classicism1 the
 formulator of the academic ideal4 ,not 
to admire him was to confess oneself a  
barbarian1 and even those who did not   
really care for his art hardly dared to 
say so4 ,as long as the academic ideal  
retained any validity his supremacy     
endured1 and it was only with the       
definitive turning of modern art into   
the paths of romanticism and naturalism 
that revolt became possible4  ,but when 
the world became tired of ,raphaelism it
 inevitably became unjust to ,raphael4  
,it forgot that it was not he who had   
made his art the test of that of        
others--who had erected what1 with him1 

was a spontaneous and original creation 
into a rigid system of laws4 ,it        
confounded him with his followers and   
imitators1 and1 being bored by them1    
began to find the master himself a bore4
  ,for1 eclectic as he was by nature1   
and founder as he was of the academic   
regime1 the grand style of ,raphael was 
yet a new and personal contribution to  
art4 ,he drew from many sources1 but the
 principle of combination was his own4  
,his originality was in that mastery of 
composition which no one has ever denied
 him1 but which is very differently     
rated as a quality of art by different  
temperaments4 ,almost everything        
specifically ,raphaelesque in his work  
is the offspring of that power of design
 in which he is still the unapproached  
master4 ,modern criticism is right in   
denying that he was a draughtsman1 if by
 draughtsman is meant one deeply        
preoccupied with form and structure for 
its own sake4 ,his distinction was to   
invest the human figure with such forms 

as should best fit it to play its part  
in a scheme of monumental composition4  
,the style of his draperies1 so much and
 so justly admired1 is composition of   
draperies4 ,he was not a colorist as    
,titian was a colorist1 or a painter as 
,velazquez was a painter--he was just so
 much of a colorist and a painter as is 
compatible with being the greatest of   
decorative designers4 ,everything in his
 finest works is entirely subordinated  
to the beauty and expressiveness of     
composition1 and nothing is allowed to  
have too great an individual interest   
for its predestined part in the final   
result4 ,probably he could not have     
drawn like ,michelangelo or painted like
 ,hals--certainly1 when he once         
understood himself1 he would not have   
desired to do so4  ,even in his early   
work he showed his gifts as a composer1 
and some of the small pictures of his   
,florentine period are quite perfect in 
design4 ,nothing could be better        
composed within their restricted field  

than the ,madonna del ,cardellino or the
 ,belle ,jardiniere4 ,nearly at the end 
of the period he made his greatest      
failure1 the ,entombment of the         
,borghese ,gallery4 ,it was his most    
ambitious effort up to this time and he 
wanted to put everything that he had    
learned into it1 to draw like           
,michelangelo and to express emotion    
like ,mantegna4 ,he made a host of      
studies for it1 tried it this way and   
that1 lost all spontaneity and all grasp
 of the ensemble4 ,what he finally      
produced is a thing of fragments1       
falling far below his models in the     
qualities he was attempting to rival and
 redeemed by little or nothing of the   
quality proper to himself4 ,but1        
apparently1 it answered its purpose4 ,it
 freed him from preoccupation with the  
work of others4 ,when his great         
opportunity came to him1 in the         
commission to decorate the ,camera della
 ,segnatura1 his painfully acquired     
knowledge was sufficiently at his       

command to give him no further trouble4 
,he could concentrate himself on the    
essential part of his problem1 the      
creation of an entirely appropriate1    
dignified1 and beautiful decorative     
design4 ,it was the work for which he   
was born1 and he succeeded so           
immediately and so admirably in it that 
neither he nor any one else has ever    
been able to fill such spaces so        
perfectly again4  ,there are fourteen   
important compositions in the room4 ,the
 decoration of the ceiling had already  
been begun by ,sodoma1 and ,sodoma's    
decorative framework ,raphael allowed to
 remain2 partly1 perhaps1 from courtesy1
 more probably because its general      
disposition was admirable and not to be 
improved on4 ,if ,sodoma had begun any  
of the larger paintings which were to   
fill his frames they were removed to    
make way for the new work4 ,there has   
always been a great deal of discussion  
as to whether ,raphael himself invented 
the admirable scheme of subjects by     

which the room was made to illustrate   
the ,renaissance ideal of culture with  
its division into the four great fields 
of learning3 divinity1 philosophy       
7including science71 poetry1 and law4   
,in reality1 the question is of little  
importance4 ,there seems to be at least 
one bit of internal evidence1 to be     
mentioned presently1 that even here the 
artist did not have a perfectly free    
hand1 as we know he did not later4      
,whoever thought of the subjects1 it was
 ,raphael who discovered how to treat   
them in such a way as to make of this   
room the most perfectly planned piece of
 decoration in the world4 ,sodoma had   
left1 on the vaulting1 four circular    
medallions and four rectangular spaces  
which were to be filled with figure     
compositions4 ,in the circles1 each     
directly above one of the great wall    
spaces1 ,raphael placed figures         
personifying ,theology1 ,philosophy1    
,poetry and ,justice2 in the rectangles 
he illustrated these subjects with the  

stories of ,the ,fall of ,man1 ,apollo  
and ,marsyas1 and ,the ,judgment of     
,solomon1 and with that figure1 leaning 
over a celestial globe1 which must be   
meant for ,science4 ,all of these panels
 are on curved surfaces1 and ,raphael's 
decorative instinct led him1 on this    
account and to preserve the supremacy of
 the great wall spaces below1 to        
suppress all distance1 placing his      
figures against a background of         
simulated gold mosaic and arranging     
them1 virtually1 upon one plane4 ,there 
is1 therefore1 no possible question of  
space composition here4 ,these panels   
depend for their effect entirely upon   
composition in two dimensions--upon the 
perfect balancing of filled and empty   
spaces1 the invention of interesting    
shapes1 and the arrangement of beautiful
 lines4 ,it is the pattern that counts1 
and the pattern is perfect4  ,the       
,poetry 7,pl4 #aa7 is the most beautiful
 of the medallions1 but they are all    
much alike3 a draped female figure in   

the middle1 seated to give it scale1    
large enough to fill the height of the  
circle amply but without crowding1 and  
winged putti1 bearing inscribed tablets1
 on either side4 ,there are other ways  
of filling a circle acceptably1 as      
,botticelli had shown and as ,raphael   
was to show again in more than one      
tondo1 but for their situation1 marking 
the principal axes of the room1 there is
 no way so adequate as this4 ,as ,mr4   
,blashfield has said1 speaking from     
experience3 ,when a modern painter has a
 medallion to fill and has tried one    
arrangement after another1 he inevitably
 realizes that it is ,raphael who has   
found the best ordering that could be   
found2 and the modern painter builds    
upon his lines1 laid down so distinctly 
that the greater the practice of the    
artist the more complete becomes his    
realization of ,raphael's comprehension 
of essentials in composition4 ,not only 
so1 but the modern painter finds as     
inevitably that1 accepting this ordering

 as the best1 even then he cannot add   
another figure to these four4 ,he may1  
perhaps1 draw it better in detail or    
give more character to the head1 but he 
cannot capture that felicity of spacing1
 that absoluteness of balance1 that     
variety and vivacity combined with      
monumental repose4 ,the more his nature 
and training have made him a designer   
the more certainly he feels1 before that
 single medallion of ,poetry1 that he is
 in the presence of the inimitable      
master of design4  ,illustration3 ,plate
 #aa4--,raphael4 ,poetry4 ,in the       
,vatican4  ,if the composition of the   
rectangles is less inevitable it is only
 because the variety of ways in which   
such simple rectangles may be filled is 
almost infinite4 ,composition more      
masterly than that of the ,judgment of  
,solomon 7,pl4 #ab71 for instance1 you  
will find nowhere2 so much is told in a 
restricted space1 yet with no confusion1
 the space is so admirably filled and   
its shape so marked by the very lines   

that enrich and relieve it4 ,it is as if
 the design had determined the space    
rather than the space the design4 ,if   
you had a tracing of the figures in the 
midst of an immensity of white paper you
 could not bound them by any other line 
than that of the actual frame4 ,one of  
the most remarkable things about it is  
the way in which the angles1 which      
artists usually avoid and disguise1 are 
here sharply accented4 ,a great part of 
the dignity and importance given to the 
king is due to the fact that his head   
fills one of these angles1 and the      
opposite one contains the hand of the   
executioner and the foot by which the   
living child is held aloft1 and to this 
point the longest lines of the picture  
lead4 ,the dead child and the           
indifferent mother fill the lower       
corners4 ,in the middle1 herself only   
half seen and occupying little space1 is
 the true mother1 and it seems that her 
explosive energy1 as she rushes to the  
rescue of her child1 has forced all     

these other figures back to the confines
 of the picture4 ,compare this restless 
yet subtly balanced composition1 full of
 oblique lines and violent movement1    
with the gracious1 placid formality of  
the ,adam and ,eve1 and you will have   
some notion of the meaning of this gift 
of design4  ,illustration3 ,plate       
#ab4--,raphael4 ,the ,judgment of       
,solomon4 ,in the ,vatican4  ,but it is 
the frescoes on the four walls of this  
room which are ,raphael's greatest      
triumphs--the most perfect pieces of    
monumental decoration in the world4 ,on 
the two longer walls1 nearly unbroken   
lunettes of something over a semicircle1
 he painted the two great compositions  
of ,theology and ,philosophy known as   
the ,disputa and the ,school of ,athens4
 ,the ,disputa 7,pl4 #ac71 the earlier  
of the two1 has the more connection with
 the art of the past4 ,the use of gilded
 relief in the upper part recalls the   
methods of ,pintoricchio1 and the hint  
of the whole arrangement was doubtless  

taken from those semidomes which existed
 in many churches4 ,but what an original
 idea it was to transform the flat wall 
of a room into the apse of a cathedral1 
and what a solemnity it imparts to the  
discussion that is going on6 ,the upper 
part is formal in the extreme1 as it    
need be for the treatment of such a     
theme1 but even here there is variety as
 well as stateliness in the attitudes   
and the spacing4 ,in the lower part the 
variety becomes almost infinite1 yet    
there is never a jar--not a line or a   
fold of drapery that mars the supreme   
order of the whole4 ,besides the        
uncounted cherubs which float among the 
rays of glory or support the cloudy     
thrones of the saints and prophets1     
there are between seventy and eighty    
figures in the picture2 yet the hosts of
 heaven and the church on earth seem    
gathered about the altar with its sacred
 wafer--the tiny circle which is the    
focus of the great composition and the  
inevitable goal of all regards1 as it is

 the central mystery of ,catholic dogma4
  ,illustration3 ,plate #ac4--,raphael4 
,the ,disputa4 ,in the ,vatican4        
,opposite1 in the ,school of ,athens    
7,pl4 #ad71 the treatment is different  
but equally successful4 ,the hieratic   
majesty of the ,disputa was here        
unnecessary1 but a tranquil and spacious
 dignity was to be attained1 and it is  
attained through the use of vertical and
 horizontal lines--the lines of         
stability and repose1 while the bounding
 curve is echoed again and again in the 
diminishing arches of the imagined      
vaulting4 ,the figures1 fewer in number 
than in the ,disputa and confined to the
 lower half of the composition1 are     
ranged in two long lines across the     
picture2 but the nearer line is broken  
in the centre and the two figures on the
 steps1 serving as connecting-links     
between the two ranks1 give to the whole
 something of that semicircular grouping
 so noticeable in the companion picture4
 ,the bas-reliefs upon the architecture 

and the great statues of ,apollo and    
,minerva above them draw the eye upward 
at the sides1 and this movement is      
intensified by the arrangement of the   
lateral groups of figures4 ,by these    
means the counter curve to the arch     
above1 the one fixed necessity1         
apparently1 of the lunette1 is          
established4 ,it is more evident in the 
perspective curve of the painted dome4  
,cover this line with a bit of paper1 or
 substitute for it a straight lintel    
like that seen beyond1 and you will be  
surprised to find how much of the beauty
 of the picture has disappeared4 ,the   
grouping of the figures themselves1 the 
way they are played about into clumps or
 separated to give greater importance1  
by isolation1 to a particular head1 is  
even more beyond praise than in the     
,disputa4 ,the whole design has but one 
fault1 and that is an afterthought4 ,in 
the cartoon the disproportioned bulk of 
,heraclitus1 thrust into the foreground 
and writing in an impossible attitude on

 a desk in impossible perspective1 is   
not to be found4 ,it is such a blot upon
 the picture that one cannot believe    
that ,raphael added it of his own       
motion2 rather it must have been placed 
there at the dictation of some meddling 
cardinal or learned humanist who1       
knowing nothing of art1 could not see   
why any vacant space should not be      
filled with any figure whose presence   
seemed to him historically desirable4   
,one is tempted to suspect even1 so     
clumsy is the figure and so out of scale
 with its neighbors1 that the master    
refused to disfigure his work himself   
and left the task to one of his         
apprentices4 ,if it had been done by one
 of them1 say ,giulio ,romano1 after the
 picture was entirely completed and at  
the time of the ,incendio del' ,borgo1  
it could not be more out of keeping4    
,illustration3 ,plate #ad4--,raphael4   
,the ,school of ,athens4 ,in the        
,vatican4  ,each of these walls has a   
doorway at one end1 and the way in which

 these openings are dissimulated and    
utilized is most ingenious1 particularly
 in the ,disputa1 where the bits of     
parapet which play an important part at 
either side of the composition1 one     
pierced1 the other solid1 were suggested
 solely by the presence of this door4   
,in the end walls the openings1 large   
windows much higher than the doors1     
become of such importance that the whole
 nature of the problem is changed4 ,it  
is the pierced lunette that is to be    
dealt with1 and ,raphael has dealt with 
it in two entirely different ways4 ,one 
wall is symmetrical1 the window in the  
middle1 and on that wall he painted the 
,parnassus 7,pl4 #ae71 ,apollo and the  
,muses in the centre with groups of     
poets a little lower on either side and 
other groups filling the spaces to right
 and left of the window head4 ,at first 
sight the design seems less symmetrical 
and formal than the others1 with a      
lyrical freedom befitting the subject1  
but in reality it is no less perfect in 

its ponderation4 ,the group of trees    
above ,apollo and the reclining figures 
either side of him accent the centrality
 of his position4 ,from this point the  
line of heads rises in either direction 
to the figures of ,homer and of the     
,muse whose back is turned to the       
spectator1 and the perpendicularity of  
these two figures carries upward into   
the arch the vertical lines of the      
window4 ,from this point the lateral    
masses of foliage take up the drooping  
curve and unite it to the arch1 and this
 curve is strongly reinforced by the    
building up toward either side of the   
foreground groups and by the disposition
 of the arms of ,sappho and of the poets
 immediately behind her1 while1 to      
disguise its formality1 it is           
contradicted by the long line of        
,sappho's body1 which echoes that of the
 bearded poet immediately to the right  
of the window and gives a sweep to the  
left to the whole lower part of the     
composition4 ,it is the immediate and   

absolute solution of the problem1 and so
 small a thing as the scarf of the      
back-turned ,muse plays its necessary   
part in it1 balancing1 as it does1 the  
arm of the ,muse who stands highest on  
the left and establishing one of a      
number of subsidiary garlands that play 
through and bind together the wonderful 
design4  ,illustration3 ,plate          
#ae4--,raphael4 ,parnassus4 ,in the     
,vatican4  ,the window in the opposite  
wall is to one side of the middle1 and  
here ,raphael meets the new problem with
 a new solution4 ,he places a separate  
picture in each of the unequal          
rectangles1 carries a simulated cornice 
across at the level of the window head1 
and paints1 in the segmental lunette    
thus left1 the so-called ,jurisprudence 
7,pl4 #af71 which seems to many         
decorators the most perfect piece of    
decorative design that even ,raphael    
ever created--the most perfect piece of 
design1 therefore1 in the world4 ,its   
subtlety of spacing1 its exquisiteness  

of line1 its monumental simplicity1     
rippled through with a melody of falling
 curves from end to end1 are beyond     
description--the reader must study them 
for himself in the illustration4 ,one   
thing he might miss were not his        
attention called to it--the ingenious   
way in which the whole composition is   
adjusted to a diagonal axis that the    
asymmetry of the wall may be minimized4 
,draw an imaginary straight line from   
the boss in the soffit of the arch      
through the middle of the ,janus-head of
 ,prudence4 ,it will accurately bisect  
the central group1 composed of this     
figure and her two attendant genii1 will
 pass through her elevated left knee1   
the centre of a system of curves1 and   
the other end of it will strike the top 
of the post or mullion that divides the 
window opening into two parts4          
,illustration3 ,plate #af4--,raphael4   
,jurisprudence4 ,in the ,vatican4  ,this
 single room1 the ,camera della         
,segnatura1 marks the brief blossoming  

time of ,raphael's art1 an art          
consummate in science yet full of a     
freshness and spontaneity--the dew still
 upon it--as wonderful as its learning4 
,the master himself could not duplicate 
it4 ,he tried for ,venetian warmth of   
color in the ,mass of ,bolsena 7,pl4    
#ag7 and experimented with tricks of    
illumination in the ,deliverance of     
,peter 7,pl4 #ah71 and in these two     
compositions1 struck out new and        
admirable ways of filling pierced       
lunettes4 ,the balancing1 in the one1 of
 the solitary figure of the pope against
 the compact group of seven figures--a  
group that has to be carried up above   
the curved screen in order to counteract
 the importance given to ,julius by his 
isolation and by the greater mass of his
 supporting group below--is a triumph of
 arrangement2 and here1 again1 it is    
notable that the bleeding wafer1 the    
necessary centre of interest1 is        
situated on a straight line drawn       
diagonally from the keystone of the arch

 to the centre of the window head1 and  
almost exactly half-way between these   
two points1 while the great curve of the
 screen leads to it from either side4   
,in the symmetrically pierced lunette   
opposite1 the distribution of the space 
into three distinct but united pictures1
 the central one seen through the       
grating of the prison1 is a highly      
ingenious and1 on the whole1 an         
acceptable variant on previous          
inventions4 ,but these two are the last 
of the ,vatican frescoes that show      
,raphael's infallible instinct as a     
composer4 ,he grows tired1 exaggerates  
his mannerisms1 gives a greater and     
greater share of the work to his pupils4
 ,the later ,stanze are either pompous  
or confused1 or both1 until we reach the
 higgledy-piggledy of the ,burning of   
the ,borgo or that inextricable tangle1 
suggestive of nothing so much as of a   
dish of macaroni1 the ,battle of        
,constantine1 a picture painted after   
the master's death1 but for which he    

probably left something in the way of   
sketches4  ,illustration3 ,plate        
#ag4--,raphael4 ,the ,mass of ,bolsena4 
,in the ,vatican4  ,yet even in what    
seems this decadence of his talent      
,raphael only needed a new problem to   
revive his admirable powers in their    
full splendor4 ,in #aead he painted the 
,sibyls 7,pl4 #ai7 of ,santa ,maria     
della ,pace1 in a frieze-shaped panel   
cut by a semicircular arch1 and the new 
shape given him to fill inspired a      
composition as perfect in itself and as 
indisputably the only right one for the 
place as anything he ever did4 ,among   
his latest works were the pendentives of
 the ,farnesina1 with the story of      
,cupid and ,psyche--works painted and   
even drawn by his pupils1 coarse in     
types and heavy in color but altogether 
astonishing in freedom and variety of   
design4 ,the earlier painters covered   
their vaulting with ornamental patterns 
in which spaces were reserved for       
independent pictures1 like the          

rectangles of the ,stanza della         
,segnatura4 ,it was a bold innovation   
when ,michelangelo discarded this system
 and placed in the pendentives of the   
,sistine his colossal figures of the    
,prophets and the ,sibyls1 each on its  
architectural throne4 ,it was reserved  
for ,raphael to take a step that no     
earlier painter could have dreamed of   
and to fill these triangular spaces with
 free groups relieved against a clear   
sky which is the continuous background  
of the whole series4 ,one may easily    
think the earlier system more           
architecturally fitting1 but the skill  
with which these groups are composed1   
their perfect naturalness1 their        
exhaustless variety1 the perfection with
 which they fill these awkward shapes1  
as it were inevitably and without       
effort1 is nothing short of amazing4 ,it
 is decoration of a festal and informal 
order--the decoration of a kind of      
summer house1 fitted for pleasure1      
rather than of a stately chamber--but it

 is decoration the most consummate1 the 
fitting last word of the greatest master
 of decorative design that the world has
 seen4  ,illustration3 ,plate           
#ah4--,raphael4 ,the ,deliverance of    
,peter4 ,in the ,vatican4  ,it is this  
master designer that is the real        
,raphael1 and1 but for the element of   
design always present in the least of   
his works1 the charming illustrator1 the
 mere painter of ,madonnas1 might be    
allowed to sink comfortably into        
artistic oblivion without cause for     
protest4 ,but there is another ,raphael 
we could spare less easily1 ,raphael the
 portrait-painter4 ,the great decorators
 have nearly always been great          
portrait-painters as well1              
although--perhaps because--there is     
little resemblance between the manner of
 feeling and working necessary for      
success in the two arts4 ,the decorator1
 constantly occupied with relations of  
line and space which have little to do  
with imitation1 finds in the submissive 

attention to external fact necessary to 
success in portraiture a source of      
refreshment and of that renewed contact 
with nature which is constantly         
necessary to art if it is not to become 
too arid an abstraction4 ,certainly it  
was so with ,raphael1 and the master of 
design has left us a series of portraits
 comparable only to those of that other 
great designer whose fate was to leave  
little but portraits behind him1 ,hans  
,holbein4 ,allowing for the necessary   
variation of type and costume in their  
models and for the difference between an
 ,italian and a northern education1     
their methods are singularly alike4     
,raphael has greater elegance and       
feeling for style1 ,holbein a richer    
color sense and1 above all1 a finer     
craftsmanship1 an unapproachable        
material perfection4 ,they have the same
 quiet1 intense observation1 the same   
impeccable accuracy1 the same           
preoccupation with the person before    
them and with nothing else--an          

individuality to be presented with all  
it contains1 neither more nor less--to  
be rendered entirely1 and without       
flattery as without caricature4 ,there  
have been portrait-painters who were    
greater painters1 in the more limited   
sense of the word1 than these two1 and  
there has been at least one painter     
whose imaginative sympathy gave an inner
 life to his portraits absent from      
theirs1 but in the essential qualities  
of portraiture1 as distinguished from   
all other forms of art1 perhaps no one  
else has quite equalled them4 ,one can  
give no greater praise to the           
,castiglione or the ,donna ,velata than 
to say that they are fit to hang beside 
the ,georg ,gyze or the ,christina of   
,milan2 and at least one portrait by    
,raphael1 the ,tommaso ,inghirami1 in   
the collection of ,mrs4 ,gardner 7,pl4  
#bj7--the original of which the picture 
in the ,pitti ,palace is a replica--has 
a beauty of surface and of workmanship  
almost worthy of ,holbein himself4      

,illustration3 ,plate #ai4--,raphael4   
,the ,sibyls4 ,santa ,maria della ,pace1
 ,rome4  ,illustration3 ,plate          
#bj4--,raphael4 ,portrait of ,tommaso   
,inghirami4 ,in the collection of ,mrs4 
,gardner4  ,raphael's portraits alone1  
had he done nothing else1 would justify 
a great reputation1 but they form so    
relatively small a part of his work that
 they may almost be neglected in        
examining his claims to the rank that   
used to be assigned him among the       
world's greatest artists4 ,it is1 after 
all1 his unique mastery of composition  
that is his chief title to fame1 and his
 glory must always be in proportion to  
the estimation in which that quality is 
held4 ,it was because composition was to
 him a comparatively unimportant part of
 painting that ,velazquez thought little
 of ,raphael4 ,it is because1 for them1 
composition1 as a distinct element of   
art1 has almost ceased to exist that so 
many modern painters and critics decry  
,raphael altogether4 ,the decorators    

have always known that design is the    
essence of their art1 and therefore they
 have always appreciated the greatest of
 designers4 ,that is why ,paul ,baudry1 
in the third quarter of the nineteenth  
century1 idolized ,raphael and based his
 own art upon that of the great         
,umbrian4 ,to-day1 in our own country1  
mural decoration is again becoming a    
living art1 and the desire for the      
appropriate decoration of important     
buildings with monumental works of      
painting is more wide-spread1 perhaps1  
than it has been anywhere at any time   
since the ,italian ,renaissance4 ,so    
surely as the interest in decorative    
painting and the knowledge of its true  
principles become more widely spread1 so
 surely will the name of ,raphael begin 
to shine again with something of its    
ancient splendor4  ,but design is       
something more than the essential       
quality of mural decoration--it is the  
common basis of all the arts1 the       
essential thing in art itself4 ,each of 

the arts has its qualities proper to it 
alone1 and it may be right to estimate  
the painter1 the sculptor1 the          
architect1 or the musician according to 
his eminence in those qualities which   
are distinctive of his particular art   
and which separate it most sharply from 
the other arts4 ,in that sense we are   
right to call ,frans ,hals a greater    
painter than ,raphael4 ,but if we       
estimate a man's artistry by the same   
standard1 whatever the form of art in   
which it expresses itself1 rating him by
 his power of co-ordinating and         
composing notes or forms or colors into 
a harmonious and beautiful unity1 then  
must we place ,raphael pretty near where
 he used to be placed1 admitting but a  
choice few of the very greatest to any  
equality with him4 ,if we no longer call
 him the prince of painters we must call
 him one of the greatest artists among  
those who have practised the art of     
painting4      ,v  ,,two ,,ways ,,of    
,,painting   ,among the modern paintings

 in the ,metropolitan ,museum is a      
brilliant and altogether remarkable     
little picture by ,john ,sargent1       
entitled ,the ,hermit 7,pl4 #ba74 ,mr4  
,sargent is a portrait-painter by       
vocation1 and the public knows him best 
as a penetrating and sometimes cruel    
reader of human character4 ,he is a     
mural painter by avocation and capable1 
on occasion1 of a monumental formality4 
,in this picture1 as in the wonderful   
collection of watercolors in the        
,brooklyn ,institute of ,arts and       
,sciences1 one fancies one sees the     
essential ,john ,sargent1 working for   
himself alone without regard to external
 demands1 and doing what he really cares
 most to do4 ,in such work he is a      
modern of the moderns and1 in the       
broadest sense of the word1 a thorough  
,impressionist4 ,not that he shows      
himself a disciple of ,monet or occupies
 himself with the broken touch or the   
division of tones--his method is as     
direct as that of ,sorolla and his      

impressionism is of the same kind--a    
bending of all his energies to the vivid
 realization of the effect of the scene 
rendered as one might perceive it in the
 first flash of vision if one came upon 
it unexpectedly4 ,this picture is better
 than ,sorolla--it is better than almost
 any one4 ,it is perhaps the most       
astonishing realization of the modern   
ideal1 the most accomplished transcript 
of the actual appearance of nature1 that
 has yet been produced4 ,it is because  
of its great merit1 because of its      
extraordinary success in what it        
attempts1 that it leads one to the      
serious consideration of the nature of  
the attempt and of the gain and loss    
involved in the choice that modern art  
has made4  ,the picture is exactly      
square--the choice of this form is1 of  
itself1 typically modern in its         
unexpectedness--and represents a bit of 
rough wood interior under intense       
sunlight4 ,the light is studied for its 
brilliancy rather than for its warmth1  

and if the picture has a fault1 granted 
the point of view of the painter1 it is 
in a certain coldness of color2 but such
 conditions of glaring and almost       
colorless light do exist in nature4 ,one
 sees a few straight trunks of some kind
 of pine or larch1 a network of branches
 and needles1 a tumble of moss-spotted  
and lichened rocks1 a confusion of      
floating lights and shadows1 and that is
 all4 ,the conviction of truth is       
instantaneous--it is an actual bit of   
nature1 just as the painter found it4   
,one is there on that ragged hillside1  
half dazzled by the moving spots of     
light1 as if set down there suddenly1   
with no time to adjust one's vision4    
,gradually one's eyes clear and one is  
aware1 first of a haggard human head    
with tangled beard and unkempt hair1    
then of an emaciated body4 ,there is a  
man in the wood6 ,and then--did they    
betray themselves by some slight        
movement8--there are a couple of slender
 antelopes who were but now invisible   

and who melt into their surroundings    
again at the slightest inattention4 ,it 
is like a pictorial demonstration of    
protective coloring in men and animals4 
,illustration3 ,plate #ba4--,sargent4   
,the ,hermit4 ,in the ,metropolitan     
,museum of ,art4  ,now1 almost any one  
can see how superbly all this is        
rendered4 ,any one can marvel at and    
admire the free and instantaneous       
handling1 the web of slashing and       
apparently meaningless brush strokes    
which1 at a given distance1 take their  
places by a kind of magic and are the   
things they represent4 ,but it takes a  
painter to know how justly it is        
observed4 ,in these days no painter1    
whatever may be his deepest convictions1
 can escape the occasional desire to be 
modern2 and most of us have attempted1  
at one time or another1 the actual study
 of the human figure in the open air4   
,we have taken our model into a walled  
garden or a deep wood or the rocky      
ravine of a brook and have set ourselves

 seriously to find out what a naked man 
or woman really looks like in the       
setting of outdoor nature4 ,and we have 
found just what ,sargent has painted4   
,the human figure1 as a figure1 has     
ceased to exist4 ,line and structure and
 all that we have most cared for have   
disappeared4 ,even the color of flesh   
has ceased to count1 and the most       
radiant blond skin of the fairest woman 
has become an insignificant pinkish spot
 no more important than a stone and not 
half so important as a flower4 ,humanity
 is absorbed into the landscape4        
,obviously1 there are two courses open  
to the painter4 ,if he is a modern by   
feeling and by training1 full of        
curiosity and of the scientific temper1 
caring more for the investigation of the
 aspects of nature and the rendering of 
natural light and atmosphere than for   
the telling of a story or the           
construction of a decoration1 he will1  
if he is able enough1 treat his matter  
much as ,sargent has treated it4 ,the   

figure will become1 for him1 only an    
incident in the landscape4 ,it will be  
important only as a thing of another    
texture and another color1 valuable for 
the different way in which it receives  
the light and reflects the sky1 just as 
rocks and foliage and water and bare    
earth are valuable4 ,for to the true    
,impressionist light and atmosphere are 
the only realities1 and objects exist   
only to provide surfaces for the play of
 light and atmosphere4 ,he will abandon 
all attempt at rendering the material   
and physical significance of the human  
form and will still less concern himself
 with its spiritual significance4 ,he   
will gain a great vividness of illusion1
 and he may console himself for what he 
loses with the reflection that he has   
expressed the true relation of man to   
the universe--that he has expressed     
either man's insignificance or man's    
oneness with nature1 according as his   
temper is pessimistic or optimistic4    
,if1 on the other hand1 the painter is  

one to whom the figure as a figure means
 much2 one to whom line and bulk and    
modelling are the principal means of    
expression1 and who cares for the       
structure and stress of bone and muscle2
 if the glow and softness of flesh      
appeal strongly to him2 above all1 if he
 has the human point of view and thinks 
of his figures as people engaged in     
certain actions1 having certain         
characters1 experiencing certain states 
of mind and body2 then he will give up  
the struggle with the truths of aspect  
that seem so vital to the painter of the
 other type and1 by a frank use of      
conventions1 will seek to increase the  
importance of his figure at the expense 
of its surroundings4 ,he will give it   
firmer lines and clearer edges1 will    
strengthen its light and shade1 will    
dwell upon its structure or its movement
 and expression4 ,he will so compose his
 landscape as to subordinate it to his  
figure and will make its lines echo and 
accentuate that figure's action or      

repose4 ,when he has accomplished his   
task he will have painted not man       
insignificant before nature but man     
dominating nature4  ,for an example of  
this way of representing man's relation 
to the world about him1 let us take     
,titian's ,saint ,jerome 7,pl4 #bb7--;a 
picture somewhat similar to ,sargent's  
in subject and in the relative size of  
the figure and its surroundings4 ,titian
 has here given more importance to the  
landscape than was common in his day4   
,he also has meant1 as ,sargent has1 to 
make a great deal of the wilderness to  
which his saint has retired1 and to make
 his saint a lonely human being in a    
savage place4 ,but the saint and his    
emotion is1 after all1 what interests   
,titian most1 and the wildness of nature
 is valuable to him mainly for its      
sympathy with this emotion4 ,he wants to
 give a single powerful feeling and to  
give it with the utmost dramatic        
force--to give it theatrically even1 one
 might admit of this particular picture2

 for it is by no means so favorable an  
example of ,titian's method1 or of the  
older methods of art in general1 as is  
,sargent's ,hermit of the modern way of 
seeing and painting4 ,to attain this end
 he simplifies and arranges everything4 
,he lowers the pitch of his coloring to 
a sombre glow and concentrates the      
little light upon his kneeling figure4  
,he spends all his knowledge on so      
drawing and modelling that figure as to 
make you feel to the utmost its bulk and
 reality and the strain upon its muscles
 and tendons1 and he so places          
everything else on his canvas as to     
intensify its action and expression4    
,the gaze of the saint is fixed upon a  
crucifix high on the right of the       
picture1 and the book behind him1 the   
lines of the rocks1 the masses of the   
foliage1 even the general formation of  
the ground1 are so disposed as to echo  
and reinforce the great diagonal4 ,there
 is a splendid energy of invention in   
the drawing of the tree stems1 but the  

effect is clear and simple with nothing 
of ,sargent's dazzle and confusion4 ,as 
for the lion1 he is a mere necessary    
mark of identification1 and ,titian has 
taken no interest in him4               
,illustration3 ,plate #bb4--,titian4    
,st4 ,jerome in the ,desert4 ,in the    
,brera ,gallery1 ,milan4  ,now1 it is   
evident that there is not nearly so much
 literal truth to the appearance of     
nature in this picture as in ,sargent's4
 ,it is not only that it would never    
have occurred to ,titian to try to paint
 the glittering spottiness of sunlight  
splashing through leafage1 or to attempt
 to raise his key of light to something 
like that of nature1 at the cost of     
fulness of color4 ,it is not merely that
 he translates and simplifies and       
neglects certain truths that the world  
had not yet learned to see4 ,he         
deliberately and intentionally          
falsifies4 ,he knew as well as we do    
that a natural landscape would not      
arrange itself in such lines and masses 

for the purpose of throwing out the     
figure and of enhancing its emotion4    
,but to him natural facts were but so   
much material1 to be treated as he      
pleased for the carrying out of his     
purpose4 ,he was a colorist and a       
chiaroscurist2 and he had a great deal  
more interest in light and in landscape 
than most of the painters of his time4  
,if he had been pre-eminently a         
draughtsman1 like ,michelangelo1 he     
would have reduced his light and shade  
to the amount strictly necessary to give
 that powerful modelling of the figure  
which is the draughtsman's means of     
expression1 would have greatly increased
 the relative size and importance of the
 figure1 and would have reduced the     
landscape to a barely intelligible      
symbol4 ,had he been a linealist1 like  
,botticelli1 he would have eliminated   
modelling almost altogether1 would have 
concentrated his attention upon the     
edges of things1 and would have reduced 
his picture to a flat pattern in which  

the beauty and expressiveness of the    
lines should be almost the only         
attraction4  ,for all art is an exchange
 of gain against loss--you cannot have  
,sargent's truth of impression and      
,titian's truth of emotion in the same  
picture1 nor ,michelangelo's beauty of  
structure with ,botticelli's beauty of  
line4 ,to be a successful artist is to  
know what you want and to get it at any 
necessary sacrifice1 though the greatest
 artists maintain a noble balance and   
sacrifice no more than is necessary4    
,and if a painter of to-day is          
like-minded with these older masters he 
will have to express himself much in    
their manner4 ,he will have to make1    
with his eyes open1 the sacrifices which
 they made1 more or less unconsciously1 
and to deny a whole range of truths with
 which his fellows are occupied that he 
may express clearly and forcibly the few
 truths which he has chosen4  ,all      
truths are good1 and all ways of        
painting are legitimate that are        

necessary to the expression of any      
truth4 ,i am not here concerned to show 
that one way is better than another or  
one set of truths more important than   
another set of truths4 ,for the present 
,i am desirous only of showing why there
 is more than one way--of explaining the
 necessity of different methods for the 
expression of different individualities 
and different ways of envisaging nature 
and art4 ,but a little while ago it was 
the modern or impressionistic manner    
that needed explanation4 ,it was new1 it
 was revolutionary1 and it was          
misunderstood and disliked4 ,a          
generation of critics has been busy in  
explaining it1 a generation of artists  
has been busy in practising it1 and now 
the balance has turned the other way4   
,the pressure of conformity is upon the 
other side1 and it is the older methods 
that need justification and explanation4
 ,the prejudices of the workers and the 
writers have gradually and naturally    
become the prejudices of at least a part

 of the public1 and it has become       
necessary to show that the small        
minority of artists who still follow the
 old roads do so not from ignorance or  
stupidity or a stolid conservatism1     
still less from mere wilful caprice1 but
 from necessity1 because those roads are
 the only ones that can lead them where 
they wish to go4 ,no more magnificent   
demonstration of the qualities possible 
to the purely modern methods of painting
 has been made than this brilliant      
little picture of ,sargent's4 ,all the  
more is it a demonstration of the       
qualities impossible to these methods4  
,if such qualities have any permanent   
value and interest for the modern world 
it is a gain for art that some painters 
should try to keep alive the methods    
that render possible their attainment4  
,,vi  ,,the ,,american ,,school   ,in   
the catalogues of our museums you may   
find entries like this3 ,john ,smith1   
,american school2 ,the ,empty ,jug or   
what-not4 ,in such entries little more  

than a bare statement of nationality is 
intended4 ,john ,smith is an ,american1 
by birth or adoption2 that is all that  
the statement is meant to convey4 ,but  
the question occurs3 ,have we an        
,american school in a more specific     
sense than this8 ,have we a body of     
painters with certain traits in common  
and certain differences from the        
painters of other countries8 ,has our   
production in painting sufficient       
homogeneity and sufficient national and 
local accent to entitle it to the name  
of ,american school in the sense in     
which there is1 undoubtedly1 a ,french  
school and an ,english school8  ,under  
the conditions of to-day there are no   
longer anywhere such distinctive local  
schools as existed in the ,renaissance4 
,in ,italy1 in those days1 there were   
not only such great schools as the      
,venetian1 the ,florentine1 and the     
,umbrian1 differing widely in their     
point of view1 their manner of seeing1  
and their technical traditions--each    

little town had a school with something 
characteristic that separated its       
painters from those of other schools in 
the surrounding towns4 ,to-day every one
 knows and is influenced by the work of 
every one else1 and it is only broad    
national characteristics that still     
subsist4 ,modern pictures are singularly
 alike1 but1 on the whole1 it is still  
possible to tell an ,english picture    
from a ,french one1 and a ,german or    
,italian picture from either4 ,we may   
still speak of a ,dutch school or a     
,spanish school with some               
reasonableness4 ,is it similarly and    
equally reasonable to speak of an       
,american school8 ,does a room full of  
,american pictures have a different look
 from a room full of pictures by artists
 of any other nationality8 ,does one    
feel that the pictures in such a room   
have a something in common that makes   
them kin and a something different that 
distinguishes them from the pictures of 
all other countries8 ,i think the answer

 must be in the affirmative4  ,we have  
already passed the stage of mere        
apprenticeship1 and it can no longer be 
said that our ,american painters are    
mere reflections of their ,european     
masters4 ,twenty or even ten years ago  
there may have been some truth in the   
accusation4 ,to-day many of our younger 
painters have had no foreign training at
 all1 or have had such as has left no   
specific mark of a particular master2   
and from the work of most of our older  
painters it would be difficult to guess 
who their masters were without reference
 to a catalogue4 ,they have1 through    
long work in ,america and under         
,american conditions1 developed styles  
of their own bearing no discoverable    
resemblance to the styles of their first
 instructors4 ,to take specific         
examples1 who would imagine from the    
mural paintings of ,blashfield or the   
decorations by ,mowbray in the          
,university ,club of ,new ,york that    
either had been a pupil of ,bonnat8 ,or 

who1 looking at the exquisite landscapes
 or delicate figure pieces of ,weir1    
would find anything to recall the name  
of ,gerome8 ,some of the pupils of      
,carolus ,duran are almost the only     
painters we have who acquired in their  
school-days a distinctive method of work
 which still marks their production1 and
 even they are hardly distinguishable   
to-day from others2 for the method of   
,duran1 as modified and exemplified by  
,john ,sargent1 has become the method of
 all the world1 and a pupil of ,carolus 
simply paints in the modern manner1 like
 the rest4 ,those ,american painters who
 have adopted the impressionist point of
 view1 again1 have modified its technic 
to suit their own purposes and are at   
least as different from the             
,impressionists of ,france as are the   
,impressionists of ,scandinavia4 ,we    
have painters who are undeniably        
influenced by ,whistler1 but so have    
other countries--the school of ,whistler
 is international--and1 after all1      

,whistler was an ,american4 ,in short1  
the resemblances between ,american      
painting and the painting of other      
countries are to-day no greater than the
 resemblances between the painting of   
any two of those countries4 ,and ,i     
think the differences between ,american 
painting and that of other countries are
 quite as great as1 if not greater than1
 the differences between the paintings  
of any two of those countries4  ,another
 accusation that used to be heard       
against our painters has been out-lived4
 ,we used to be told1 with some truth1  
that we had learned to paint but had    
nothing to say with our painting1 that  
we produced admirable studies but no    
pictures4 ,the accusation never was true
 of our landscape-painting4 ,whatever   
may be the final estimation of the works
 of ,inness and ,wyant1 there can be no 
doubt that they produced                
pictures--things conceived and worked   
out to give one definite and complete   
impression2 things in which what was    

presented and what was eliminated were  
equally determined by a definite        
purpose2 things in which accident and   
the immediate dominance of nature had   
little or no part4 ,as for ,winslow     
,homer1 whether in landscape or figure  
painting1 his work was unfailingly      
pictorial1 whatever else it might be4   
,he was a great and original designer1  
and every canvas of his was completely  
and definitely composed--a quality which
 at once removes from the category of   
mere sketches and studies even his      
slighter and more rapid productions4    
,and our landscape-painters of to-day   
are equally painters of pictures4 ,some 
of them might be thought1 by a modern   
taste1 too conventionally painters of   
pictures--too much occupied with        
composition and tone and other pictorial
 qualities at the expense of freshness  
of observation--while our briskest and  
most original observers have1 many of   
them1 a power of design and a manner of 
casting even their freshest observations

 into pictorial form that is as         
admirable as it is remarkable4  ,no one 
could enter one of our exhibitions      
without feeling the definitely pictorial
 quality of ,american                   
landscape-painting1 but these           
exhibitions do less justice to the      
achievement of our figure-painters4 ,the
 principal reason for this is that many 
of our most serious figure-painters have
 been so much occupied with mural       
decoration that their work seldom       
appears in the exhibitions at all1 while
 the work that they have done is so     
scattered over our vast country that we 
rather forget its existence and1        
assuredly1 have little realization of   
its amount4 ,it is one of the defects of
 our exhibition system that work of this
 kind1 while it is1 of course1 on       
permanent exhibition in the place for   
which it is painted1 is hardly ever     
exhibited1 in the ordinary sense1 in the
 centres where it is produced4 ,the     
regular visitor to the ,paris salons    

might know almost all that has been done
 in ,france in the way of mural         
painting4 ,the public of our ,american  
exhibitions knows only vaguely and by   
hearsay what our mural painters have    
done and are doing4 ,it is true that    
such work is infinitely better seen in  
place1 but it is a pity it cannot be    
seen1 even imperfectly1 by the people   
who attend our exhibitions--people who  
can rarely have the necessary knowledge 
to read such collections of sketches1   
studies1 and photographs as are shown at
 the exhibitions of the ,architectural  
,league1 where1 alone1 our mural        
painters can show anything4 ,if it were 
seen it would surely alter the          
estimation in which ,american           
figure-painting is held4 ,such work as  
was done by the late ,john ,la ,farge1  
such work as is being done by           
,blashfield and ,mowbray and ,simmons   
and a dozen others1 if not1 in the most 
limited sense of the word1 pictorial1 is
 even further removed from the mere     

sketch or study--the mere bit of good   
painting--than is the finest easel      
picture4  ,but it is not only in mural  
decoration that serious figure-painting 
is being done in this country4 ,i do not
 see how any one can deny the name of   
pictures to the genre paintings of ,mr4 
,tarbell and ,mr4 ,paxton unless he is  
prepared to deny pictorial quality to   
the whole ,dutch school of the          
seventeenth century2 and the example of 
these men is influencing a number of    
others toward the production of         
thoroughly thought-out and executed     
genre pictures4 ,we have long had such  
serious figure-painters as ,thayer and  
,brush1 ,dewing and ,weir4 ,the late    
,louis ,loeb was attempting figure      
subjects of a very elaborate sort4      
,to-day every exhibition shows an       
increasing number of worthy efforts at  
figure-painting in either the           
naturalistic or the ideal vein4 ,we have
 pictures with subjects intelligently   
chosen and intelligibly treated1        

pictures with a pattern and a clear     
arrangement of line and mass1 pictures  
soundly drawn and harmoniously colored  
as well as admirably painted4  ,the     
painters of ,america are no longer      
followers of foreign masters or students
 learning technic and indifferent to    
anything else4 ,they are a school       
producing work differing in character   
from that of other schools and at least 
equal in quality to that of any school  
existing to-day4  ,if so much may be    
taken as proved1 the question remains   
for consideration3 ,what are the        
characteristics of the ,american school 
of painting8 ,its most striking         
characteristic is one that may be       
considered a fault or a virtue according
 to the point of view and the           
prepossessions of the observer4 ,it is a
 characteristic that has certainly been 
a cause of the relatively small success 
of ,american work at recent             
international exhibitions4 ,the         
,american school is1 among the schools  

of to-day1 singularly old-fashioned4    
,this characteristic has1 undoubtedly1  
puzzled and repelled the foreigner4 ,it 
is a time when the madness for novelty  
seems to be carrying everything before  
it1 when anything may be accepted so    
long as it is or seems new1 when the    
effort of all artists is to get rid of  
conventions and to shake off the        
shackles of tradition4 ,here is a new   
people in the blessed state of having no
 traditions to shake off and from whom1 
therefore1 some peppery wildness might  
be expected for the tickling of jaded   
palates4 ,behold1 they are sturdily     
setting themselves to recover for art   
the things the others have thrown away6 
,they are trying to revive the old      
fashion of thoughtful composition1 the  
old fashion of good drawing1 the old    
fashion of lovely color1 and the old    
fashion of sound and beautiful          
workmanship4  ,this conservatism of     
,american painting1 however1 is not of  
the kind that still marks so much of the

 painting of ,england4 ,excepting       
exceptions1 ,english painting is        
somewhat stolidly staying where it was4 
,america's conservatism is ardent1      
determined1 living4 ,it is not standing 
still2 it is going somewhere as rapidly 
as possible--it might1 perhaps1 be more 
truly called not conservatism but       
reaction4 ,we have1 of course1 our      
ultramodernists1 but their audacities   
are mild compared to those of the       
,french or ,german models they imitate4 
,we have1 even more of course1 the      
followers of the easiest way--the       
practitioners of current and accepted   
methods who are alike everywhere4 ,but  
our most original and most distinguished
 painters1 those who give the tone to   
our exhibitions and the national accent 
to our school1 are almost all engaged in
 trying to get back one or another of   
the qualities that marked the great art 
of the past4 ,they have gone back of the
 art of the day and are retying the     
knots that should bind together the art 

of all ages4  ,this tendency shows      
itself strongly even in those whose work
 seems1 at first sight1 most purely     
naturalistic or impressionistic4 ,among 
those of our painters who have adopted  
and retained the impressionist technic1 
with its hatching of broken colors1 the 
two most notable are ,mr4 ,hassam and   
,mr4 ,weir4 ,but ,mr4 ,hassam1 at his   
best1 is a designer with a sense of     
balance and of classic grace almost     
equal to that of ,corot1 and he often   
uses the impressionist method to express
 otherwise the delicate shimmer of thin 
foliage that ,corot loved4 ,nay1 so     
little is he a pure naturalist1 he      
cannot resist letting the white sides of
 naked nymphs gleam among his tree      
trunks--he cannot refrain from the      
artist's immemorial dream of ,arcady4   
,as for ,mr4 ,weir1 surely nothing could
 be more unlike the instantaneousness of
 true impressionism than his            
long-brooded-over1 subtle-toned1        
infinitely sensitive art4  ,there is    

little dreaminess in the work of ,mr4   
,tarbell and the growing number of his  
followers4 ,theirs is almost a pure     
naturalism1 a making it like4 ,yet1     
notably in the work of ,mr4 ,tarbell    
himself1 and to some extent in that of  
the others1 there is an elegance of     
arrangement1 a thoroughness in the      
notation of gradations of light1 a      
beauty and a charm that were learned of 
no modern4 ,their art is an effort to   
bring back the artistic quality of the  
most artistic naturalism ever practised1
 that of ,vermeer of ,delft4  ,others of
 our artists are going still further    
back in the history of art for a part of
 their inspiration4 ,mr4 ,brush has     
always been a linealist and a student of
 form1 but his earlier canvases1        
admirable as they were1 were those of a 
docile pupil of ,gerome applying the    
thoroughness of ,gerome's method to a   
new range of subjects and painting the  
,american ,indian as ,gerome had painted
 the modern ,egyptian4 ,in recent years 

each new picture of his has shown more  
clearly the influence of the early      
,italians--each has been more nearly a  
symphony of pure line4  ,even in purely 
technical matters our painters have been
 experimenting backward1 trying to      
recover lost technical beauties4 ,the   
last pictures of ,louis ,loeb were      
underpainted throughout in monochrome1  
the final colors being applied in glazes
 and rubbings1 and to-day a number of   
others1 landscape and figure painters1  
are attempting to restore and master    
this1 the pure ,venetian method1 while  
still others1 among them ,emil ,carlsen1
 are reviving the use of tempera4  ,but 
it is in our mural painting even more   
than elsewhere that the conservative or 
reactionary tendency of ,american       
painting is most clearly marked4 ,john  
,la ,farge was always himself1 but when 
the general movement in mural painting  
began in this country with the ,chicago 
,world's ,fair and the subsequent       
decoration of the ,library of ,congress1

 the rest of us were much under the     
influence of ,puvis de ,chavannes4 ,even
 then the design was not his1 but was   
founded on earlier examples of          
decorative composition1 but his pale    
tones were everywhere4 ,little by little
 the study of the past has taught us    
better4 ,american mural painting has    
grown steadily more monumental in       
design1 and at the same time it has     
grown richer and fuller in color4       
,to-day1 while it is not less but more  
personal and original than it was1 it   
has more kinship with the noble         
achievements of ,raphael and ,veronese  
than has any other modern work extant4  
,and this brings us to the second       
characteristic of the ,american school  
of painting3 it is rapidly becoming a   
school of color4 ,we have still plenty  
of painters who work in the blackish or 
chalky or muddy and opaque tones of     
modern art1 but ,i think we have more   
men who produce rich and powerful color 
and more men who produce subtle and     

delicate color than any other modern    
school4 ,the experiments in reviving old
 technical methods have been undertaken 
for the sake of purity and luminosity of
 color and have largely succeeded4 ,the 
pictures of ,mr4 ,tarbell are far more  
colored than those of the ,european     
painter whose work is1 in some ways1    
most analogous to his1 ,m4 ,joseph      
,bail4 ,mr4 ,hassam's color is always   
sparkling and brilliant1 ,mr4 ,dewing's 
delicate and charming1 ,mr4 ,weir's     
subtle and harmonious and sometimes very
 full4 ,even ,mr4 ,brush's linear       
arrangements are clothed in sombre but  
often richly harmonious tones1 and the  
decorative use of powerful color is the 
main reliance of such painters as ,hugo 
,ballin4 ,but the note of color runs    
through the school and one hardly needs 
to name individual men4 ,whether our    
landscapists glaze and scumble with the 
tonalists1 or use some modification of  
the impressionist hatching1 it is for   
the sake of color2 and even our most    

forthright and dashing wielders of the  
big brush often achieve a surprising    
power of resonant coloring4  ,power1    
fulness1 and beauty of coloring are     
hardly modern qualities4 ,much as       
impressionism has been praised for      
restoring color to a colorless art1 its 
result has been1 too often1 to          
substitute whitishness for blackishness4
 ,color has characterized no modern     
painting since that of ,delacroix and   
,millet as it characterizes much of the 
best ,american painting4 ,the love for  
and the success in color of our school  
is1 after all1 a part of its            
conservatism4  ,it may seem an odd way  
of praising a modern school to call it  
the least modern of any4 ,it would be an
 odd way of praising that school if its 
lack of modernness were a mere matter of
 lagging behind or of standing still and
 marking time4 ,but if the march of     
progress has been down-hill--if the path
 that is trod leads into a swamp or over
 a precipice--then there may be most    

hopefulness for those who can 'bout face
 and march the other way4 ,i have1      
elsewhere in this volume1 given at some 
length some of my reasons for thinking  
that modern art has been following a    
false route and is in danger of         
perishing in the bog or falling over the
 cliff4 ,if it is so we may congratulate
 ourselves that those of our painters   
who are still following the rest of the 
world have not so nearly reached the end
 of the road1 and that those who are    
more independent have discovered in time
 what that end is and have turned back4 
,it is because it is least that of      
to-day that ,i believe our art may be   
that of to-morrow--it is because it is1 
of all art now going1 that which has    
most connection with the past that ,i   
hope the art of ,america may prove to be
 the art of the future4      ,,vii      
,,augustus ,,saint-,,gaudens,c  ,c      
,address delivered before the ,brooklyn 
,institute of ,arts and ,sciences on    
,february #bb1 #aijh4 ,now revised and  

enlarged4   ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens   
was born in ,dublin1 ,ireland1 on the   
first day of ,march1 #ahdh1 but was     
brought to ,america at the age of six   
months4 ,his childhood and youth were   
passed in the city of ,new ,york1 as was
 a great part of his working life2 and  
though his origin was foreign1 lifelong 
associations had stamped him indelibly  
an ,american4 ,the greater part of his  
work was done in ,america2 almost all of
 it was done for ,america2 and ,i do not
 think it is fancy that sees in his art 
the expression of a distinctively       
,american spirit4 ,yet from his mixed   
,french and ,irish blood he may well    
have derived that mingling of the ,latin
 sense of form with a ,celtic depth of  
sentiment which was so markedly         
characteristic of his genius4  ,his     
father1 ,bernard ,paul ,ernest          
,saint-,gaudens1 was a shoemaker from   
the little town of ,aspet in            
,haute-,garonne1 only a few miles from  
the town of ,saint-,gaudens1 from which 

the family must have drawn its origin   
and its name4 ,his mother was ,mary     
,mc,guinness1 a native of ,dublin4      
,augustus ,saint-,gaudens was one of    
several children born to this couple and
 not the only artist among them1 for his
 younger brother ,louis also attained   
some reputation as a sculptor1 though   
his entire lack of ambition prevented   
his achieving all that was expected of  
him by those who knew his delicate      
talent4 ,the boy ,augustus attended the 
public schools of ,new ,york and        
received there all the formal education 
he ever had2 but at thirteen it was     
necessary for him to face the problem of
 earning his living4 ,his artistic      
proclivities were probably already well 
marked1 and to give them some scope1    
while assuring him a regular trade at   
which money could be earned1 he was     
apprenticed in the good old way to a    
cameo cutter named ,louis ,avet1 said to
 be the first man to cut stone cameos in
 the ,united ,states4 ,thus it came     

about that the greatest of ,american    
sculptors had much such a practical     
apprenticeship as a ,florentine of the  
fifteenth century might have had4 ,he   
himself always spoke of it as one of the
 most fortunate things that ever        
happened to him and attributed much of  
his success to the habit of faithful    
labor acquired at this time4 ,probably1 
also1 the habit of thinking in terms of 
relief1 fostered by years of work at    
this ancient art1 was not without       
influence in the moulding of his talent4
  ,his relations with ,avet lasted from 
#ahfa to #ahfd1 when his master         
quarrelled with him and abruptly        
dismissed him from his shop4 ,the boy   
was already a determined person2 he     
believed that he had suffered an        
injustice1 and1 though ,avet went to his
 parents and tried to induce them to    
send him back1 he refused to return4 ,a 
new master was found for him in the     
person of a shell-cameo cutter named    
,jules ,le,brethon1 and with him        

,saint-,gaudens remained three years4   
,during his six years' apprenticeship   
under his two masters the youth showed  
already that energy and power of will   
that made him what he was4 ,he meant to 
be something more than an artisan1 and  
he spent his evenings in the classes1   
first of the ,cooper ,union1 afterward  
of the ,national ,academy of ,design1 in
 the hard study of drawing1 the true    
foundation of all the fine arts4 ,it was
 one of the elements of his superiority 
in his profession that he could draw as 
few sculptors can1 and he always felt   
that he owed an especial debt to the    
,cooper ,union1 which he was glad to    
repay when he modelled the statue of its
 venerable founder4 ,of the other       
institution by whose freely given       
instruction he had profited1 the        
,national ,academy of ,design1 he became
 one of the most honored members4 ,by   
#ahfg1 when he was nineteen years old1  
he had saved a little money and was     
master of a trade that could be relied  

on to bring in more1 and he determined  
to go to ,paris and begin the serious   
study of sculpture4 ,he worked1 for a   
time1 at the ,petite ,ecole1 and entered
 the studio of ,jouffroy in the ,ecole  
des ,beaux-,arts in #ahfh1 remaining    
until #ahgj4 ,during this time1 and     
afterward1 he was self-supporting1      
working half his time at cameo cutting  
until his efforts at sculpture on a     
larger scale began to bring in an       
income4  ,when the ,franco-,prussian    
,war broke out ,paris ceased to be a    
place for the carrying on of the serious
 study of art1 and ,saint-,gaudens went 
to ,rome1 where his associates were the 
,french prizemen of the day1 of whom    
,mercie was one4 ,he remained there     
until #ahgd1 except for a visit to ,new 
,york in the winter of #ahgb-c for the  
purpose of modelling a bust of ,senator 
,evarts1 and one or two other busts1    
which were put into marble upon his     
return to ,rome4 ,in those ,roman days  
he executed his first statue1 a         

,hiawatha1 one of his few studies of the
 nude1 and a ,silence1 a not very       
characteristic draped figure which yet  
fills with some impressiveness her niche
 at the head of the grand stairway of   
the ,masonic ,temple on ,twenty-fourth  
,street4  ,from #ahge to #ahgg he had a 
studio in ,new ,york1 where he seems to 
have executed some of his earliest      
portrait reliefs4 ,during these years he
 came into contact with ,la ,farge1 for 
whom he turned painter and aided in the 
execution of the decorations of ,trinity
 ,church in ,boston4 ,it was at this    
time1 also1 that he received his first  
commissions for important public work1  
those for the ,farragut statue in       
,madison ,square1 the ,randall at       
,sailors' ,snug ,harbor1 and the angels 
for ,saint ,thomas's ,church4 ,he had   
married ,augusta ,f4 ,homer in #ahgg1   
and in that year1 taking his bride and  
his commissions with him1 he returned to
 ,paris1 feeling1 as many another young 
,paris-bred artist has felt1 that there 

only could such important works be      
properly carried out4 ,the ,farragut was
 completed and exhibited in the plaster 
at the ,salon of #ahhj1 and from that   
time his success was assured4 ,for the  
rest of his life he was constantly busy1
 receiving almost more commissions for  
work of importance than it was possible 
for him to carry out4 ,he returned to   
,new ,york in #ahhj1 and in #ahha he    
opened the studio in ,thirty-sixth      
,street1 where he remained for sixteen  
years and where so many of his greatest 
works were executed4 ,from that studio  
came many of his exquisite portraits in 
relief1 his caryatids and angelic       
figures1 such as those for the ,morgan  
tomb1 so unfortunately destroyed by fire
 in #ahhb 7a fate since shared by the   
earlier angels of ,saint ,thomas's71 the
 great statues of ,lincoln and ,chapin1 
the ,shaw ,memorial1 and the ,adams     
,memorial2 and in it was done all the   
preliminary work of the great equestrian
 monument to ,general ,sherman4  ,it is 

in these years of his prime that he will
 ever be most fondly remembered by      
those--and they are many--who had the   
privilege of his friendship4 ,admittedly
 our foremost sculptor1 and one of the  
founders of the ,society of ,american   
,artists1 he became at once a person of 
importance in the world of art2 and as  
his brilliant career developed he       
established intimate relationships with 
an ever-widening circle of men in every 
walk of life1 while no one who ever knew
 him well can have felt anything but an 
abiding affection for him4 ,that long1  
white studio became a familiar          
meeting-place for all who were          
interested in any form of art2 and the  
,sunday afternoon concerts that were    
held there for many years will be looked
 back to with regret as long as any of  
their auditors remain alive4  ,this     
studio was given up when ,saint-,gaudens
 went abroad for the third time1 in     
#ahig1 to execute the ,sherman group1   
and he never resumed his residence in   

,new ,york4 ,in #ahhe he had purchased a
 property at ,cornish1 ,n4,h41 just     
across the ,connecticut ,river from     
,windsor1 ,vt41 and when he returned to 
this country in #aijj1 covered with     
fresh honors but an ill man1 he made    
what had been a summer home his         
permanent abode4 ,he named it ,aspet1   
after his father's birthplace1 and there
 he erected two studios and finished his
 ,sherman statue4 ,in these studios were
 executed the second ,lincoln1 the      
,parnell statue for ,dublin1 and much   
other work4 ,the larger studio was      
burned in #aijd1 but was rebuilt and the
 lost work re-begun and carried to a    
conclusion4 ,what can never be quite    
replaced were two portraits of himself4 
,a study1 of the head only1 in the      
collection of the ,national ,academy of 
,design and a sketch by ,will ,h4 ,low1 
painted in ,paris in #ahgg1 are now the 
only existing portraits of him done from
 life in his best years4 ,the           
,metropolitan ,museum possesses a       

portrait of him in his last years1 by   
,miss ,ellen ,emmet1 and a replica1     
painted since his death1 of my own      
earlier portrait4  ,from the illness he 
brought back from ,paris in #aijj       
,saint-,gaudens never recovered4 ,at    
times he showed something of his old    
vigor and was able not only to do fine  
work but to indulge more in out-of-door 
sports than he had ever done in his     
youth1 while a growing love for nature  
and for literature made his life fuller1
 in some respects1 than in the days when
 his own art more entirely absorbed him4
 ,but year by year his strength grew    
less and his intervals of freedom from  
pain grew shorter1 and he was more and  
more forced to rely upon the corps of   
able and devoted assistants which he    
gathered about him4 ,he developed to an 
extraordinary extent the faculty of     
communicating his ideas and desires to  
others and of producing through their   
hands work essentially his own and of a 
quality entirely beyond their ability2  

but it was at the cost of a strain upon 
brain and nerve almost infinitely       
greater than would have been involved in
 work done with his own hand4 ,in the   
summer of #aijf he broke down utterly1  
the work of his studio was interrupted1 
and he ceased to see even his most      
intimate friends4 ,he rallied somewhat  
from this attack1 and began again his   
heroic struggle against fate1 directing 
the work of assistants while himself so 
weak that he had to be carried from the 
house to the studio4 ,the end came on   
the evening of ,august #c1 #aijg4 ,he   
died as he had lived1 a member of no    
church1 but a man of pure and lofty     
character4 ,as he had wished1 his body  
was cremated1 and his ashes were        
temporarily deposited in the cemetery at
 ,windsor1 ,vt41 across the river from  
his home4 ,an informal funeral service  
was held in his private studio on       
,august #g1 attended by friends and     
neighbors and by a few old friends from 
a distance2 but the gathering could     

include but a few of the many who felt  
his death as a personal loss4  ,the     
merits of ,saint-,gaudens's work were   
fully recognized in his lifetime4 ,he   
was an officer of the ,legion of ,honor1
 a ,corresponding ,member of the        
,institute of ,france1 a member of half 
a dozen academies1 and the bearer of    
honorary degrees from the universities  
of ,harvard1 ,yale1 and ,princeton4 ,but
 of all the honors he received there    
were two1 one of a public1 the other of 
a private nature1 which he himself      
valued most highly3 the one as showing  
the estimation in which his art was held
 by his fellow artists1 the other as an 
evidence of the personal affection felt 
for him by his friends4 ,at the         
,pan-,american ,exposition in #aija1    
upon the unanimous recommendation of the
 ,jury of ,fine ,arts1 composed of      
painters1 sculptors1 and architects1 he 
was awarded a special diploma and medal 
of honor1 apart from and above all other
 awards1 an entirely exceptional honor1 

which marked him as the first of        
,american artists1 as previously        
received honors had marked him one of   
the greatest sculptors of his time4 ,on 
,june #bc1 #aije1 the artistic and      
literary colony which had gradually     
grown up about his home in ,cornish     
celebrated the twentieth anniversary of 
his coming there by a fete and open-air 
masque held in the groves of ,aspet4    
,the beauty of this spectacle has become
 almost legendary4 ,the altar with its  
columned canopy1 which served for a     
background to the play1 still stands1 or
 recently stood1 though much dilapidated
 by weather1 as it was immortalized by  
the sculptor himself in a commemorative 
plaquette 7,pl4 #bc7 which is among the 
most charming of his minor works4 ,he   
planned if he had lived to perpetuate it
 in enduring marble1 and this task has  
now been taken up by his wife1 who means
 to dedicate the monument as a fitting  
memorial to a great artist and a noble  
man in the place he loved as his chosen 

home4  ,some part of the vivid and      
lovable personality of ,augustus        
,saint-,gaudens must have been visible1 
almost at a glance1 to any one who ever 
came in contact with him--to any one1   
even1 who ever saw his portrait4 ,in his
 spare but strong-knit figure1 his firm 
but supple hands1 his manner of carrying
 himself1 his every gesture1 one felt   
the abounding vitality1 the almost      
furious energy of the man4 ,that        
extraordinary head1 with its heavy brow 
beetling above the small but piercing   
eyes1 its red beard and crisp1 wiry     
hair1 its projecting jaw and great1     
strongly modelled nose1 was alive with  
power--with power of intellect no less  
than of will4 ,his lack of early        
education gave him a certain diffidence 
and a distrust of his own gifts of      
expression4 ,he was apt to overrate the 
mere verbal facility of others and to   
underestimate himself in the            
comparison--indeed1 a certain humility  
was strongly marked in him1 even as     

regards his art1 though he was          
self-confident also4 ,when he was       
unconstrained his great powers of       
observation1 his shrewdness of judgment1
 his bubbling humor1 and a picturesque  
vivacity of phrase not uncommon among   
artists made him one of the most        
entrancing of talkers4  ,illustration3  
,copyright1 ,de ,w4,c4 ,ward4 ,plate    
#bc4--,saint-,gaudens4 ,plaquette       
,commemorating ,cornish ,masque4        
,underneath his humor and his gayety1   
however1 there lay a deep-seated ,celtic
 melancholy1 and beside his energy was  
an infinite patience at the service of  
an exacting artistic conscience4 ,the   
endless painstaking of his work and the 
time he took over it were almost        
proverbial4 ,he was twelve years engaged
 upon the ,shaw ,memorial and eleven    
upon the ,sherman1 and1 though he did   
much other work while these were in     
progress1 yet it was his constant       
revision1 his ever-renewed striving for 
perfection that kept them so long       

achieving4 ,the ,diana of the ,madison  
,square ,garden was taken down from her 
tower because he and the architect1     
,stanford ,white1 thought her too large1
 and was entirely remodelled on a       
smaller scale4 ,and with this patience  
went a gentleness1 a sweetness1 a       
delicate sensitiveness1 and an abounding
 humanity and sympathy4 ,he could be    
almost ruthless in the assertion of his 
will when the interests of his art or of
 justice seemed to demand it1 yet there 
was a tender-heartedness in him which   
made it distressing to him to inflict   
pain on any one4 ,the conflict of these 
elements in his nature sometimes made   
his actions seem inconsistent and       
indecipherable even to those who knew   
him4 ,he would be long-suffering1       
compromising1 disinclined to strike2 but
 when he was at last roused the blow    
would be as staggering as it was        
unexpected4 ,it was as if he struck the 
harder to have done with it and to spare
 himself the pain of striking again4    

,it was his whole-hearted devotion to   
his art which caused his rare acts of   
self-assertion1 and it was this same    
devotion1 no less than his natural      
kindliness1 that made him ever helpful  
to younger artists who showed any       
promise of future worth4 ,even in his   
last days of unspeakable suffering he   
would summon what was left of his old   
strength to give a word of criticism and
 advice1 above all1 a word of           
commendation1 to any one who needed the 
one or had earned the other4 ,the       
essential goodness of the man was most  
felt by those who stood nearest him1 and
 most of all1 perhaps1 by his actual    
coworkers4 ,he could command1 as few    
have been able to do1 the love and      
devotion of his assistants4 ,to all who 
knew him the man himself seemed finer1  
rarer1 sweeter than his work1 and the   
gap he has left in their lives will be  
even more impossible to fill than his   
place in ,american art4  ,but the       
personality of an artist1 though he be a

 great one1 is for the memory of his    
private friends4 ,it is only as it      
colors his art that it is of public     
interest4 ,it is his art itself1 his    
gift to the world1 that the world cares 
for2 it is of the kind and quality of   
that art1 the nature and the degree of  
its greatness1 that the world wishes to 
hear4 ,because the man was my friend ,i 
have wished to give some glimpse of the 
manner of man he was2 because the artist
 was the greatest our country has       
produced ,i am to try to give some idea 
of his art1 of the elements of its      
strength1 and of the limitations which  
are as necessary as its qualities4  ,the
 time of ,saint-,gaudens's study in     
,paris was a time of great importance in
 the development of modern sculpture1   
and1 although ,jouffroy was not himself 
a sculptor of the highest rank1 his     
studio was a centre for what was then   
the new movement in the sculpture of    
,france4 ,the essential thing in this   
movement was the abandoning of the      

formal imitation of second-rate antiques
 and the substitution of the sculpture  
of the ,italian ,renaissance as a source
 of inspiration and of the direct study 
of nature as a means of self-expression4
 ,there had always been individual      
sculptors of power and originality in   
,france1 but the movement of the ,french
 school of sculpture1 as a whole1 away  
from the pseudo classicism which had    
long dominated it was really inaugurated
 by ,paul ,dubois only a few years      
before ,saint-,gaudens's arrival in     
,paris4 ,many of the men destined to a  
brilliant part in the history of modern 
sculpture were trained in the atelier of
 ,jouffroy4 ,falguiere and              
,saint-,marceau had but just left that  
studio when the young ,american entered 
it1 and ,mercie was his fellow student  
there4 ,dalou and ,rodin have since made
 these men seem old-fashioned and       
academic1 but they were then1 and for   
many years afterward1 the heads of the  
new school2 and of this new school1 so  

different from anything he had known in 
,america1 ,saint-,gaudens inevitably    
became a part4 ,his own pronounced      
individuality1 and perhaps his          
comparative isolation during the years  
of his greatest productivity1 gave his  
art a character of its own1 unlike any  
other1 but to the ,french school of     
sculpture of the third quarter of the   
nineteenth century he essentially       
belonged4  ,of course1 his style was not
 formed in a moment4 ,his ,hiawatha     
seems1 to-day1 much such a piece of     
neo-classicism as was being produced by 
other men in the ,rome of that time1 and
 the ,silence1 though somewhat more     
modern in accent1 is an academic work   
such as might have been expected from a 
docile pupil of his master4 ,the relief 
of angels for the reredos of ,saint     
,thomas's ,church is the earliest       
important work which shows his personal 
manner4 ,it was undertaken in           
collaboration with ,john ,la ,farge1 and
 perhaps the influence of ,la ,farge1   

and of that eminently picturesque genius
 ,stanford ,white1 mingled with that of 
the younger ,french school in forming   
its decorative and almost pictorial     
character4 ,it was a kind of            
improvisation1 done at prodigious speed 
and without study from nature--a sketch 
rather than a completed work of art1 but
 a sketch to be slowly developed into   
the reliefs of the ,farragut pedestal1  
the angels of the ,morgan tomb1 the     
caryatids of the ,vanderbilt            
mantelpiece1 and1 at length1 into such a
 masterpiece as the ,amor-,caritas4 ,in 
each of these developments the work     
becomes less picturesque and more       
formal1 the taste is purified1 the      
exuberance of decorative feeling is more
 restrained4 ,the final term is reached 
in the caryatids for the ,albright      
,gallery at ,buffalo--works of his last 
days1 when his hands were no longer able
 to shape the clay1 yet essentially his 
though he never touched them2 works of  
an almost austere nobility of style1 the

 most grandly monumental figures he ever
 produced4  ,the commonest criticism on 
,saint-,gaudens's art has been that it  
is not1 primarily1 sculptural in its    
inspiration2 and1 in a sense1 the       
criticism is justified4 ,one need not1  
perhaps1 greatly care whether it is true
 or not4 ,it is1 after all1 only a      
matter of definition1 and if we were    
forbidden to call his work sculpture at 
all and required to find another name   
for it1 the important fact that it is   
art--art of the finest1 the most        
exquisite1 at times the most            
powerful--would in no wise be altered4  
,ghiberti went beyond the traditions of 
sculpture in relief1 introduced         
perspective into his compositions1      
modelled trees and rocks and clouds and 
cast them in bronze1 made pictures1 if  
you like1 instead of reliefs4 ,does any 
one care8 ,is it not enough that they   
are beautiful pictures8 ,the gates of   
the ,baptistry of ,florence are still   
worthy1 as the greatest sculptor since  

the ,greeks thought them1 to be the     
gates of paradise4 ,a work of art       
remains a work of art1 call it what you 
please1 and a thing of beauty will be a 
joy forever1 whether or not you can     
pigeonhole it in some ready-made        
category4 ,after all1 the critical      
pigeonholes are made for the things1 not
 the things for the pigeonholes4 ,the   
work is there1 and if it does not fit   
your preconceived definition the fault  
is as likely to be in the definition as 
in the work itself4  ,and the first and 
most essential thing to note about the  
art of ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens is that
 it is always art of the purest--free in
 an extraordinary degree from the       
besetting sins of naturalism and the    
scientific temper on the one hand and of
 the display of cleverness and technical
 brilliancy on the other4 ,never more   
than in our own day have these been the 
great temptations of an able artist3    
that he should in the absorption of     
study forget the end in the means and   

produce demonstrations of anatomy or of 
the laws of light rather than statues or
 pictures2 or that he should1 in the joy
 of exercising great talents1 seem to   
say1 ,see how well ,i can do it6 and    
invent difficulties for the sake of     
triumphantly resolving them1 becoming a 
virtuoso rather than a creator4 ,of the 
meaner temptation of mere               
sensationalism--the desire to attract   
attention by ugliness and eccentricity  
lest one should be unable to secure it  
by truth and beauty--one need not speak4
 ,it is the temptation of vulgar souls4 
,but great and true artists have        
yielded1 occasionally or habitually1 to 
these other two2 ,saint-,gaudens never  
does4 ,i know no work of his to which   
raw nature has been admitted1 in which a
 piece of study has been allowed to     
remain as such without the moulding     
touch of art to subdue it to its place2 
and ,i know only one which has any spice
 of bravura--the ,logan statue--and the 
bravura is there because the subject    

seemed to demand it1 not because the    
artist wished it4 ,the dash and glitter 
are those of ,black ,jack ,logan1 not of
 ,saint-,gaudens4 ,the sculptor strove  
to render them as he strove to render   
higher qualities at other times1 but    
they remain antipathetic to his nature1 
and the statue is one of the least      
satisfactory of his works4 ,he is       
essentially the artist--the artificer of
 beauty--ever bent on the making of a   
lovely and significant thing2 and the   
study of nature and the resources of his
 craft are but tools and are never      
allowed to become anything more4  ,if1  
then1 the accusation that               
,saint-,gaudens's art is not sculptural 
means that he was a designer rather than
 a modeller1 that he cared for          
composition more than for               
representation1 that the ensemble       
interested him more than the details1 ,i
 would cheerfully admit that the        
accusation is well founded4 ,such       
marvels of rendering as ,rodin could    

give us1 before he lost himself in the  
effort to deserve that reputation as a  
profound thinker which has been thrust  
upon him1 were not for ,saint-,gaudens4 
,the modelling of the morceau was not   
particularly his affair4 ,the           
discrimination of hard and soft1 of bone
 and muscle and integument1 the         
expression of tension where a fleshy    
tissue is tightly drawn over the        
framework beneath1 or of weight where it
 falls away from it--these were not the 
things that most compelled his interest 
or in which he was most successful4 ,for
 the human figure as a figure1 for the  
inherent beauty of its marvellous       
mechanism1 he did not greatly care4 ,the
 problems of bulk and mass and weight   
and movement which have occupied        
sculptors from the beginning were not   
especially his problems4 ,it may have   
been due to the nature of the           
commissions he received that1 after the 
,hiawatha of his student days1 he       
modelled no nude except the ,diana of   

the tower--a purely decorative figure1  
designed for distant effect1 in which   
structural modelling would have been out
 of place because invisible4 ,but it was
 not accident that in such draped       
figures as the ,amor-,caritas 7,pl4 #bd7
 or the caryatids of the ,vanderbilt    
mantelpiece there is little effort to   
make the figure visible beneath the     
draperies4 ,in the hands of a master of 
the figure--of one of those artists to  
whom the expressiveness and the beauty  
of the human structure is all in        
all--drapery is a means of rendering the
 masses and the movement of the figure  
more apparent than they would be in the 
nude4 ,in such works as these it is a   
thing beautiful in itself1 for its own  
ripple and flow and ordered intricacy4  
,the figure is there beneath the        
drapery1 but the drapery is expressive  
of the mood of the artist and of the    
sentiment of the work rather than       
especially explanatory of the figure4   
,illustration3 ,copyright1 ,de ,w4,c4   

,ward4 ,plate #bd4--,saint-,gaudens4    
,amor ,caritas4  ,first of all1 by      
nature and by training1 ,saint-,gaudens 
was a designer1 and exquisiteness of    
design was the quality he most          
consciously strove for--the quality on  
which he expended his unresting1        
unending1 persevering toil4 ,from the   
start one feels that design is his      
principal preoccupation1 that he is     
thinking mainly of the pattern of the   
whole1 its decorative effect and play of
 line1 its beauty of masses and spaces1 
its fitness for its place and its       
surroundings2 in a word1 its            
composition4 ,in the beginning1 as a    
workman in the shop of the cameo cutter1
 he was concerned with a kind of art in 
which perfection of composition is      
almost the sole claim to serious        
consideration4 ,then he produces a      
multiplicity of small reliefs1 dainty1  
exquisite1 infallibly charming in their 
arrangement--things which are so        
dependent on design for their very      

existence that they seem scarcely       
modelled at all4 ,he goes on to         
decorative figures in the round1 to     
heroic statues1 to monumental groups1   
but always it is design that he thinks  
of first and last--design1 now1 in three
 dimensions rather than in two--design  
properly sculptural rather than         
pictorial1 in so much as it deals with  
bosses and concaves1 with solid matter  
in space--but still design4 ,this power 
of design rises to higher uses as time  
goes on1 is bent to the interpretation  
of lofty themes and the expression of   
deep emotions1 but it is in its nature  
the same power that produced the        
delicate1 ethereal beauty of the        
reliefs4 ,the infinite fastidiousness of
 a master designer1 constantly reworking
 and readjusting his design1 that every 
part shall be perfect and that no fold  
or spray of leafage shall be out of its 
proper place1 never satisfied that his  
composition is beyond improvement while 
an experiment remains untried--this is  

what cost him years of labor4 ,his first
 important statue1 the ,farragut1 is a  
masterpiece of restrained and elegant   
yet original and forceful design--a     
design1 too1 that includes the pedestal 
and the bench below1 and of which the   
figures in bas-relief are almost as     
important a part as the statue itself4  
,in later and maturer work1 with a more 
clarified taste and a deeper feeling1 he
 can reach such unsurpassable           
expressiveness of composition as is     
shown in the ,shaw ,memorial or the     
great equestrian statue of ,sherman4    
,saint-,gaudens's mastery of low relief 
was primarily a matter of this power of 
design1 but it was conditioned also upon
 two other qualities3 knowledge of      
drawing and extreme sensitiveness to    
delicate modulation of surface4 ,and by 
drawing ,i mean not merely knowledge of 
form and proportion and the exact       
rendering of these1 in which sense a    
statue may be said to be well drawn if  
its measurements are correct--,i mean   

that much more subtle and difficult art1
 the rendering in two dimensions only of
 the appearance of objects of three     
dimensions4 ,sculpture in the round is  
the simplest and1 in a sense1 the       
easiest of the arts4 ,it deals with     
actual form--a piece of sculpture does  
not merely look like the form of an     
object1 it is the form of an object4    
,leaving out of the count1 for the      
moment1 the refinements and the         
illusions which may be added to         
it--which must be added to it to make it
 art--it is the reproduction in another 
material of the actual forms of things4 
,something which shall answer for it1 to
 the uninitiate1 may be produced by     
merely casting natural objects2 and     
there is a great deal that is called    
sculpture which scarcely aims at        
anything more than the production1 by a 
more difficult method1 of something like
 a plaster cast from nature4 ,it is the 
very simplicity of the art that makes   
its difficulty1 for to avoid the look of

 casting and achieve the feeling of art 
requires the most delicate handling and 
the most powerful inspiration1 and there
 is need in the art of sculpture for the
 rarest qualities of the greatest minds4
 ,the art of drawing is entirely        
different4 ,it is all illusion1 it deals
 only in appearances4 ,its aim is to    
depict on a flat surface the aspect of  
objects supposed to stand behind it and 
to be seen through it1 and its means are
 two branches of the science of optics4 
,it is based on the study of perspective
 and on the study of the way light falls
 upon objects and reveals their shapes  
and the direction of their surfaces by  
the varying degrees of their            
illumination4 ,of this art a sculptor in
 the round need not necessarily know    
anything1 and1 in fact1 many of them1   
unfortunately1 know altogether too      
little of it4 ,the maker of a statue    
need not think about foreshortenings3 if
 he gives the correct form the          
foreshortening will take care of itself4

 ,sometimes it does so in a disastrous  
manner6 ,theoretically he need not worry
 over light and shade1 although of      
course he does1 in practice1 think about
 it and rely upon it1 more or less4 ,if 
he gives the true forms they will       
necessarily have the true light and     
shade4 ,but low relief1 standing between
 sculpture and drawing1 is really more  
closely related to drawing than to      
sculpture--is really a kind of          
drawing--and this is why so few         
sculptors succeed in it4  ,it is a kind 
of drawing but an exceedingly difficult 
kind--the most delicate and difficult of
 any of the arts that deal with form    
alone4 ,as to the contour1 it stands on 
the same ground with drawing in any     
other material4 ,the linear part of it  
requires exactly the same degree and the
 same kind of talent as linear design   
with a pen or with a burin4 ,but for all
 that stands within the contour1 for the
 suggestion of interior forms and the   
illusion of solidity1 it depends on     

means of the utmost subtlety4 ,it       
exists1 as all drawing does1 by light   
and shade1 but the shadows are not      
produced by the mere darkening of the   
surface--they are produced by           
projections and recessions1 by the      
inclination of the planes away from or  
toward the light4 ,the lower the relief 
the more subtle and tender must be the  
variation of the surface which produces 
them1 and therefore success in relief is
 one of the best attainable measures of 
a sculptor's fineness of touch and      
perfection of craftsmanship4 ,but as the
 light and shade is produced by actual  
forms which are yet quite unlike the    
true forms of nature1 it follows that   
the artist in relief can never imitate  
either the shape or the depth of the    
shadow he sees in nature4 ,his art      
becomes one of suggestions and          
equivalents--an art which can give      
neither the literal truth of form nor   
the literal truth of aspect--an art at  
the farthest remove from direct         

representation4 ,and success in it      
becomes1 therefore1 one of the best     
tests of a sculptor's artistry--of his  
ability to produce essential beauty by  
the treatment of his material1 rather   
than to imitate successfully external   
fact4  ,as the degree of relief varies1 
also1 from the lowest possible to that  
highest relief which1 nearly approaches 
sculpture in the round1 the problems    
involved constantly vary4 ,at each stage
 there is a new compromise to be made1 a
 new adjustment to find1 between fact   
and illusion1 between the real form and 
the desired appearance4 ,and there may  
be a number of different degrees of     
relief in the same work1 even in        
different parts of the same figure1 so  
that the art of relief becomes one of   
the most complicated and difficult of   
arts4 ,it has not1 indeed1 the added    
complication of color1 but neither has  
it the resources of color1 success in   
which will more or less compensate for  
failure elsewhere4 ,there is no         

permissible failure in bas-relief1 any  
more than in sculpture in the round1 and
 its difficulties are far greater4      
,nothing but truest feeling1 completest 
knowledge1 consummate skill will serve4 
,this explanation may give some measure 
of what ,i mean when ,i say that ,i     
believe ,augustus ,saint-,gaudens the   
most complete master of relief since the
 fifteenth century4  ,he has produced a 
series of works which run through the   
whole range of the art1 from lowest     
relief to highest2 from things of which 
the relief is so infinitesimal that they
 seem as if dreamed into existence      
rather than wrought in bronze or marble 
to things which are virtually engaged   
statues2 from things which you fear a   
chance touch might brush away1 like a   
pastel of ,whistler's1 to things as     
solid and enduring in appearance as in  
actual material4 ,and in all these      
things there is the same inevitable     
mastery of design and of drawing1 the   
same infinite resource and the same     

technical perfection4 ,the ,butler      
,children 7,pl4 #be71 the ,schiff       
,children1 the ,sarah ,redwood ,lee     
7,pl4 #bf71 to name but a few of his    
masterpieces of this kind1 are in their 
perfection of spacing1 their grace of   
line1 their exquisite and ethereal      
illusiveness of surface1 comparable only
 to the loveliest works of the          
,florentine ,renaissance2 while the     
assured mastery of the most complicated 
problems of relief evinced in the ,shaw 
,memorial--a mastery which shows1 in the
 result1 no trace of the strenuous and  
long-continued effort that it cost--is  
unsurpassed--,i had almost said         
unequalled--in any work of any epoch4   
,illustration3 ,copyright1 ,de ,w4,c4   
,ward4 ,plate #be4--,saint-,gaudens4    
,the ,butler ,children4  ,illustration  
can give but a faint idea of the special
 beauties of this or that particular    
work in this long series4 ,it can show  
no more than the composition and the    
draughtsmanship4 ,the refinement of     

workmanship1 the sensitiveness and      
subtlety of modelling1 can be           
appreciated only before the works       
themselves4 ,and this sensitiveness and 
delicacy of workmanship1 this mastery of
 the problems of relief1 with its       
reliance on illusion and its necessary  
abstention from realization1 is applied 
to sculpture in the round1 and becomes  
with ,saint-,gaudens1 as it did with the
 sculptors of the ,florentine           
,renaissance1 the means of escape from  
the matter of fact4 ,the concrete art of
 sculpture becomes an art of mystery and
 of suggestion--an art having affinities
 with that of painting4 ,hollows are    
filled up1 shadows are obliterated1     
lines are softened or accentuated1 as   
the effect may require1 details are     
eliminated or made prominent as they are
 less or more essential and significant1
 as they hinder or aid the              
expressiveness of the whole4 ,it is by  
such methods that beauty is achieved1   
that the most unpromising material is   

subdued to the purposes of art1 that    
even our hideous modern costume may be  
made to yield a decorative effect4 ,pure
 sculpture1 as the ancients understood  
it1 the art of form per se1 demands the 
nude figure1 or a costume which reveals 
it rather than hides it4 ,the costume of
 to-day reveals as little of the figure 
as possible1 and1 unlike mediaeval      
armor1 it has no beauty of its own4 ,a  
painter may make it interesting by      
dwelling on color or tone or texture1 or
 may so lose it in shadow that it ceases
 to count at all except as a space of   
darkness4 ,a sculptor can do none of    
these things1 and if he is to make it   
serve the ends of beauty he has need of 
all the resourcefulness and all the     
skill of the master of low relief4 ,it  
was fortunate that the artist whose     
greatest task was to commemorate the    
heroes of the ,civil ,war should have   
had the temperament and the training of 
such a master1 and ,i know of no other  
sculptor than ,saint-,gaudens who has so

 magnificently succeeded in the         
rendering of modern clothing--no other  
who could have made the uniform of      
,farragut or the frock coat of ,lincoln 
as interesting as the armor of ,colleone
 or the toga of ,augustus4              
,illustration3 ,copyright1 ,de ,w4,c4   
,ward4 ,plate #bf4--,saint-,gaudens4    
,sarah ,redwood ,lee4  ,but if the      
genius of ,saint-,gaudens was primarily 
a decorative genius--if it was1 even1 in
 his earlier work1 a trifle picturesque1
 so that1 as he said himself1 he had to 
fight against picturesqueness1 his work 
was never pictorial4 ,he never indulged 
in perspective or composed his reliefs  
on more than one plane2 never took such 
liberties with the traditions of        
sculpture as did ,ghiberti1 or painted  
pictures in bronze or marble as more    
than one modern has done4 ,his very     
feeling for decoration kept him from    
pictorial realism1 and his fight against
 picturesqueness was nobly won4 ,his    
design becomes ever cleaner and more    

classic2 by years of work and of        
experience he becomes stronger and      
stronger in the more purely sculptural  
qualities--attains a grasp of form and  
structure only second to his mastery of 
composition4 ,he is always a consummate 
artist--in his finest works he is a     
great sculptor in the strictest sense of
 the word4  ,i have dwelt somewhat at   
length upon technical matters because   
technical power is the first necessity  
for an artist2 because technical mastery
 is that for which he consciously       
endeavors2 because the technical        
language of his art is the necessary    
vehicle of expression for his thoughts  
and emotions1 and determines1 even1 the 
nature of the thoughts and emotions he  
shall express4 ,but while the technical 
accomplishment of an artist is the most 
necessary part of his art1 without which
 his imagination would be mute1 it is   
not the highest or the most significant 
part of it4 ,i have tried to show that  
,saint-,gaudens was a highly            

accomplished artist1 the equal of any of
 his contemporaries1 the superior of    
most4 ,what made him something much more
 than this--something infinitely more   
important for us--was the vigor and     
loftiness of his imagination4 ,without  
his imaginative power he would have been
 an artist of great distinction1 of whom
 any country might be proud2 with it he 
became a great creator1 able to embody  
in enduring bronze the highest ideals   
and the deepest feelings of a nation and
 of a time4  ,it is a penetrating and   
sympathetic imagination that gave him   
his unerring grasp of character1 that   
enabled him to seize upon the           
significant elements of a personality1  
to divine the attitude and the gesture  
that should reveal it1 to eliminate the 
unessential1 to present to us the man4  
,this is the imagination of the         
portrait-painter1 and ,saint-,gaudens   
has shown it again and again1 in many of
 his reliefs and memorial tablets1 above
 all in his portrait statues4 ,he showed

 it conclusively in so early a work as  
the ,farragut 7,pl4 #bg71 a work that   
remains one of the modern masterpieces  
of portrait statuary4 ,the man stands   
there forever1 feet apart1 upon his     
swaying deck1 his glass in one strong   
hand1 cool1 courageous1 ready1 full of  
determination but absolutely without    
bluster or braggadocio1 a sailor1 a     
gentleman1 and a hero4 ,he showed it    
again1 and with ampler maturity1 in that
 august figure of ,lincoln 7,pl4 #bh71  
grandly dignified1 austerely simple1    
sorrowfully human1 risen from the chair 
of state that marks his office1 but     
about to speak as a man to men1 his bent
 head and worn face filled with a sense 
of power1 but even more with the sadness
 of responsibility--filled1 above all1  
with a yearning1 tender passion of      
sympathy and love4 ,in imaginative      
presentation of character1 in nobility  
of feeling and breadth of treatment1 no 
less than in perfection of workmanship1 
these are among the world's few worthy  

monuments to its great men4             
,illustration3 ,copyright1 ,de ,w4,c4   
,ward4 ,plate #bg4--,saint-,gaudens4    
,farragut4  ,and they are monuments to  
,americans by an ,american4             
,saint-,gaudens had lived through the   
time of the ,civil ,war1 had felt1 as a 
boy1 the stir of its great happenings in
 his blood1 and its epic emotions had   
become a part of his consciousness1     
deep-seated at the roots of his nature4 
,the feelings of the ,american people   
were his feelings1 and his              
representations of these and of other   
heroes of that great struggle are among 
the most national as they are among the 
most vital things that our country has  
produced in art4  ,but if               
,saint-,gaudens's imagination was thus  
capable of raising the portrait to the  
dignity of the type1 it was no less     
capable of endowing the imagined type   
with all the individuality of the       
portrait4 ,in the ,deacon ,chapin 7,pl4 
#bi71 of ,springfield1 we have a purely 

ideal production1 the finest embodiment 
of ,new ,england ,puritanism in our art1
 for no portrait of the real ,chapin    
existed4 ,this swift-striding1          
stern-looking old man1 who clasps his   
,bible as ,moses clasped the tables of  
the law and grips his peaceful          
walking-stick as though it were a sword1
 is a ,puritan of the ,puritans2 but he 
is an individual also--a rough-hewn     
piece of humanity with plenty of the old
 ,adam about him--an individual so      
clearly seen and so vigorously          
characterized that one can hardly       
believe the statue an invention or      
realize that no such old ,puritan deacon
 ever existed in the flesh4 ,something  
of this imaginative quality there is in 
almost everything ,saint-,gaudens       
touched1 even in his purely decorative  
figures4 ,his angels and caryatides are 
not classical goddesses but modern      
women1 lovely1 but with a personal and  
particular loveliness1 not insisted upon
 but delicately suggested4 ,and it is   

not the personality of the model who    
chanced to pose for them but an invented
 personality1 the expression of the     
nobility1 the sweetness1 and the        
pure-mindedness of their creator4 ,and  
in such a figure as that of the ,adams  
,memorial 7,pl4 #cj71 in ,rock ,creek   
,cemetery in ,washington1 his           
imaginative power reaches to a degree of
 impressiveness almost unequalled in    
modern art4 ,one knows of nothing since 
the tombs of the ,medici that fills one 
with the same hushed awe as this        
shrouded1 hooded1 deeply brooding       
figure1 rigid with contemplation1 still 
with an eternal stillness1 her soul rapt
 from her body on some distant quest4   
,is she ,nirvana8 ,is she ,the ,peace of
 ,god8 ,she has been given many         
names--her maker would give her none4   
,her meaning is mystery2 she is the     
everlasting enigma4  ,illustration3     
,copyright1 ,de ,w4,c4 ,ward4 ,plate    
#bh4--,saint-,gaudens4 ,lincoln4  ,not  
the greatest artist could twice sound so

 deep a note as this4 ,the figure       
remains unique in the work of the       
sculptor as it is unique in the art of  
the century4 ,yet1 perhaps1             
,saint-,gaudens's greatest works are two
 in which all the varied elements of his
 genius find simultaneous expression2   
into which his mastery of composition1  
his breadth and solidity of structure1  
his technical skill1 his insight into   
character1 and his power of imagination 
enter in nearly equal measure3 the ,shaw
 ,memorial and the great equestrian     
group of the ,sherman ,monument4  ,the  
,shaw ,memorial 7,pl4 #ca7 is a relief1 
but a relief of many planes4 ,the       
marching troops are in three files1 one 
behind the other1 the varying distances 
from the spectator marked by differences
 of the degree of projection4 ,nearer   
than all of them is the equestrian      
figure of ,shaw himself1 the horse and  
rider modelled nearly but not quite in  
the round4 ,the whole scale of relief   
was altered in the course of the work1  

after it had once been nearly completed1
 and the mastery of the infinitely      
complicated problem of relief in many   
degrees is supreme4 ,but all the more   
because the scheme was so full and so   
varied1 the artist has carefully avoided
 the pictorial in his treatment4 ,there 
is no perspective1 the figures being all
 on the same scale1 and there is no     
background1 no setting of houses or     
landscape4 ,everywhere1 between and     
above the figures1 is the flat surface  
which is the immemorial tradition of    
sculpture in relief2 and the fact that  
it is a surface1 representing nothing1  
is made more clear by the inscription   
written upon it--an inscription placed  
there1 consciously or unconsciously1    
that it might have that very effect4    
,the composition is magnificent1 whether
 for its intrinsic beauty of            
arrangement--its balancing of lines and 
spaces--or for its perfect              
expressiveness4 ,the rhythmic step of   
marching men is perfectly rendered1 and 

the guns fill the middle of the panel in
 an admirable pattern1 without confusion
 or monotony4 ,the heads are superb in  
characterization1 strikingly varied and 
individual1 yet each a strongly marked  
racial type1 unmistakably ,african in   
all its forms4  ,illustration3 ,plate   
#bi4--,saint-,gaudens4 ,deacon ,chapin4 
,these are merits1 and merits of a very 
high order1 enough of themselves to     
place the work in the front rank of     
modern sculpture1 but they are1 after   
all1 its minor merits4 ,what makes it   
the great thing it is is the imaginative
 power displayed in it--the depth of    
emotion expressed1 and expressed with   
perfect simplicity and directness and an
 entire absence of parade4 ,the negro   
troops are marching steadily1 soberly1  
with high seriousness of purpose1 and   
their white leader rides beside them1   
drawn sword in hand1 but with no        
military swagger1 courageous1 yet with a
 hint of melancholy1 ready not only to  
lay down his life but to face1 if need  

be1 an ignominious death for the cause  
he believes to be just4 ,and above them1
 laden with poppy and with laurels1     
floats the ,death ,angel pointing out   
the way4  ,illustration3 ,copyright1    
,curtis  ,cameron4 ,plate               
#cj4--,saint-,gaudens4 ,adams ,memorial4
  ,it is a work which artists may study 
again and again with growing admiration 
and increasing profit1 yet it is one    
that has found its way straight to the  
popular heart4 ,it is not always--it is 
not often--that the artists and the     
public are thus at one4 ,when they are  
it is safe to assume that the work they 
equally admire is truly great--that it  
belongs to the highest order of noble   
works of art4  ,the ,sherman group 7,pl4
 #cb71 though it has been more          
criticised than the ,shaw ,memorial1    
seems to me1 if possible1 an even finer 
work4 ,the main objection to it has been
 that it is not sufficiently monumental1
 and1 indeed1 it has not the massiveness
 nor the repose of such a work as       

,donatello's ,gattamelata1 the greatest 
of all equestrian statues4 ,it could not
 well have these qualities in the same  
degree1 its motive being what it is1 but
 they are1 perhaps1 not ill exchanged   
for the character and the nationalism so
 marked in horse and rider and for the  
irresistible onward rush of movement    
never more adequately expressed4 ,in all
 other respects the group seems to me   
almost beyond criticism4 ,the           
composition--composition1 now1 in the   
round and to be considered from many    
points of view--builds up superbly2 the 
flow of line in wing and limb and       
drapery is perfect2 the purely          
sculptural problems of anatomical       
rendering1 equine and human1 are        
thoroughly resolved2 the modelling1 as  
such1 is almost as fine as the design4  
,illustration3 ,copyright1 ,de4 ,w4,c4  
,ward4 ,plate #ca4--,saint-,gaudens4    
,shaw ,memorial4  ,to the boyish        
,saint-,gaudens ,sherman had seemed the 
typical ,american hero4 ,to the matured 

artist he had sat for an admirable bust4
 ,the sculptor had thus an unusual      
knowledge of his subject1 a perfect     
sympathy with his theme2 and he has     
produced a work of epic sweep and       
significance4 ,tall and erect1 the      
general sits his horse1 his military    
cloak bellying out behind him1 his      
trousers strapped down over his shoes1  
his hat in his right hand1 dropping at  
arm's length behind his knee1 his bare  
head like that of an old eagle1 looking 
straight forward4 ,the horse is as long 
and thin as his rider1 with a tremendous
 stride2 and his big head1 closely      
reined in1 twitches viciously at the    
bridle4 ,before the horse and rider1    
upon the ground1 yet as if new-lighted  
there from an aerial existence1 half    
walks1 half flies1 a splendid winged    
figure1 one arm outstretched1 the other 
brandishing the palm--,victory leading  
them on4 ,she has a certain fierce      
wildness of aspect1 but her rapt gaze   
and half-open mouth indicate the seer of

 visions--peace is ahead1 and an end of 
war4 ,on the bosom of her gown is       
broidered the eagle of the ,united      
,states1 for she is an ,american        
,victory1 as this is an ,american man on
 an ,american horse2 and the broken pine
 bough beneath the horse's feet         
localizes the victorious march--it is   
the march through ,georgia to the sea4  
,long ago ,i expressed my conviction    
that the ,sherman ,monument is third in 
rank of the great equestrian statues of 
the world4 ,to-day ,i am not sure that  
that conviction remains unaltered4      
,donatello's ,gattamelata is            
unapproached and unapproachable in its  
quiet dignity2 ,verrocchio's ,colleone  
is unsurpassed in picturesque           
attractiveness4 ,both are consecrated by
 the admiration of centuries4 ,to-day ,i
 am not sure that this work of an       
,american sculptor is not1 in its own   
way1 equal to either of them4  ,there   
are those who are troubled by the       
introduction of the symbolical figures  

in such works as the ,shaw ,memorial and
 the ,sherman statue2 and1 indeed1 it   
was a bold enterprise to place them     
where they are1 mingling thus in the    
same work the real and the ideal1 the   
actual and the allegorical4 ,but the    
boldness seems to me abundantly         
justified by success4 ,in either case   
the entire work is pitched to the key of
 these figures2 the treatment of the    
whole is so elevated by style and so    
infused with imagination that there is  
no shock of unlikeness or difficulty of 
transition4 ,and these figures are not  
merely necessary to the composition1 an 
essential part of its beauty--they are  
even more essential to the expression of
 the artist's thought4 ,without that    
hovering ,angel of ,death1 the negro    
troops upon the ,shaw ,memorial might be
 going anywhere1 to battle or to review4
 ,we should have a passing regiment1    
nothing more4 ,without the striding     
,victory before him1 the impetuous      
movement of ,sherman's horse would have 

no especial significance4 ,and these    
figures are no mere conventional        
allegories2 they are true creations4 ,to
 their creator the unseen was as real as
 the seen--nay1 it was more so4 ,that   
,shaw was riding to his death at the    
command of duty was1 the only thing that
 made ,shaw memorable4 ,that ,sherman   
was marching to a victory the fruits of 
which should be peace was the essential 
thing about ,sherman4 ,death and        
,duty--,victory and ,peace--in each case
 the compound ideal found its expression
 in a figure entirely original and      
astonishingly living3 a person as truly 
as ,shaw or ,sherman themselves4 ,he    
could not have left them out4 ,it were  
better to give up the work entirely than
 to do it otherwise than as he saw it4  
,illustration3 ,copyright1 ,de ,w4,c4   
,ward4 ,plate #cb4--,saint-,gaudens4    
,sherman4  ,i have described and        
discussed but a few of the many works of
 this great artist1 choosing those which
 seem to me the most significant and the

 most important1 and in doing so ,i have
 keenly felt the inadequacy of words to 
express the qualities of an art which   
exists by forms4 ,fortunately1 the works
 themselves are1 for the most part1     
readily accessible4 ,in the originals1  
in casts1 or in photographs1 they may be
 studied by every one4 ,nothing is more 
difficult than to estimate justly the   
greatness of an object that is too near 
to us--it is only as it recedes into the
 distance that the mountain visibly     
overtops its neighboring hills4 ,it is  
difficult to understand that this man so
 lately familiar to us1 moving among us 
as one of ourselves1 is of the company  
of the immortals4 ,yet ,i believe1 as we
 make this study of his works1 as we    
yield ourselves to the graciousness of  
his charm or are exalted by the sweep of
 his imagination1 we shall come to feel 
an assured conviction that ,augustus    
,saint-,gaudens was not merely the most 
accomplished artist of ,america1 not    
merely one of the foremost sculptors of 

his time--we shall feel that he is one  
of those great1 creative minds1         
transcending time and place1 not of     
,america or of to-day1 but of the world 
and forever4  ,where1 among such minds1 
he will take his rank we need not ask4  
,it is enough that he is among them4    
,such an artist is assuredly a          
benefactor of his country1 and it is    
eminently fitting that his gift to us   
should be acknowledged by such tribute  
as we can pay him4 ,by his works in     
other lands and by his world-wide fame  
he sheds a glory upon the name of       
,america1 helping to convince the world 
that here also are those who occupy     
themselves with the things of the       
spirit1 that here also are other        
capabilities than those of industrial   
energy and material success4 ,in his    
many minor works he has endowed us with 
an inexhaustible heritage of            
beauty--beauty which is about the best  
thing ,god invents4 ,he is the educator 
of our taste and of more than our       

taste--of our sentiment and our         
emotions4 ,in his great monuments he has
 not only given us fitting presentments 
of our national heroes2 he has          
expressed1 and in expressing elevated1  
our loftiest ideals2 he has expressed1  
and in expressing deepened1 our         
profoundest feelings4 ,he has become the
 voice of all that is best in the       
,american people1 and his works are     
incentives to patriotism and lessons in 
devotion to duty4  ,but the great and   
true artist is more than a benefactor of
 his country1 he is a benefactor of the 
human race4 ,the body of ,saint-,gaudens
 is ashes1 but his mind1 his spirit1 his
 character have taken on enduring forms 
and are become a part of the inheritance
 of mankind4 ,and if1 in the lapse of   
ages1 his very name should be           
forgotten--as are the names of many     
great artists who have gone before      
him--yet his work will remain2 and while
 any fragment of it is decipherable the 
world will be the richer in that he     

lived4     ,transcriber's ,note3 ,in the
 ,table of ,illustrations and in the    
caption for plate #ag1 ,bolensa was     
corrected to ,bolsena4