,,adventures ,,in ,,the ,,arts ,,informal ,,chapters ,,on ,,painters ,,vaudeville ,,and ,,poets ,,by ,,marsden ,,hartley ,,boni ,,and ,,liveright ,publishers ,new ,york ,,copyright1 #aiba1 ,,by ,,boni ,,liveright1 ,,inc4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,prefatory ,,note ,the papers in this book are not intended in any way to be professional treatises4 ,they must be viewed in the light of entertaining conversations4 ,their possible value lies in their directness of impulse1 and not in weight of argument4 ,i could not wish to go into the qualities of art more deeply4 ,a reaction1 to be pleasant1 must be simple4 ,this is the apology ,i have to offer3 ,reactions1 then1 through direct impulse1 and not essays by means of stiffened analysis4 ,,marsden ,,hartley4 99 99 99 99 99 ,some of the papers included in this book have appeared in ,art and ,archeology1 ,the ,seven ,arts1 ,the ,dial1 ,the ,nation1 ,the ,new ,republic1 and ,the ,touchstone4 ,thanks are due to the editors of these periodicals for permission to reprint4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,to ,,alfred ,,stieglitz 99 99 99 99 99 ,,introduction ,,to ,,adventures ,,in ,,the ,,arts ,perhaps the most important part of ,criticism is the fact that it presents to the creator a problem which is never solved4 ,criticism is to him a perpetual ,presence3 or perhaps a ghost which he will not succeed in laying4 ,if he could satisfy his mind that ,criticism was a certain thing3 a good thing or a bad1 a proper presence or an irrelevant1 he could psychologically dispose of it4 ,but he can not4 ,for ,criticism is a configuration of responses and reactions so intricate1 so kaleidoscopic1 that it would be as simple to category ,life itself4 ,the artist remains the artist precisely in so far as he rejects the simplifying and reducing process of the average man who at an early age puts ,life away into some snug conception of his mind and race4 ,this one turns the key4 ,he has released his will and love from the vast ,ceremonial of wonder1 from the deep ,poem of ,being1 into some particular detail of life wherein he hopes to achieve comfort or at least shun pain4 ,not so1 the artist4 ,in the moment when he elects to avoid by whatever makeshift the raw agony of life1 he ceases to be fit to create4 ,he must face experience forever freshly3 reduce life each day anew to chaos and remould it into order4 ,he must be always a willing virgin1 given up to life and so enlacing it4 ,thus only may he retain and record that pure surprise whose earliest voicing is the first cry of the infant4 ,the unresolved expectancy of the creator toward ,life should be his way toward ,criticism also4 ,he should hold it as part of his ,adventure4 ,he should understand in it1 particularly when it is impertinent1 stupid and cruel1 the ponderable weight of ,life itself1 reacting upon his search for a fresh conquest over it4 ,though it persist unchanged in its rle of purveying misinformation and absurdity to the ,public1 he should know it for himself a blessed dispensation4 ,with his maturity1 the creator's work goes out into the world4 ,and in this act1 he puts the world away4 ,for the artist's work defines3 and definition means apartness3 and the average man is undefined in the social body4 ,here is a danger for the artist within the very essence of his artistic virtue4 ,during the years of his apprenticeship1 he has struggled to create for himself an essential world out of experience4 ,now he begins to succeed3 and he lives too fully in his own selection3 he lives too simply in the effects of his effort4 ,the gross and fumbling impact of experience is eased4 ,the grind of ordinary intercourse is dimmed4 ,the rawness of ,family and ,business is refined or removed4 ,but now once more the world comes in to him1 in the form of the ,critic4 ,here again1 in a sharp concentrated sense1 the world moves on him3 its complacency1 its hysteria1 its down-tending appetites and fond illusions1 its pathetic worship of yesterdays and hatred of tomorrows1 its fear-dogmas and its blood-avowals4 ,the artist shall leave the world only to find it1 hate it only because he loves1 attack it only if he serves4 ,at that epoch of his life when the world's gross sources may grow dim1 ,criticism brings them back4 ,wherefore1 the function of the ,critic is a blessing and a need4 ,the creator's reception of this newly direct1 intense1 mundane intrusion is not always passive4 ,if the artist is an intelligent man1 he may respond to the intervening world on its own plane4 ,he may turn critic himself4 ,when the creator turns critic1 we are in the presence of a consummation3 we have a complete experience3 we have a sort of sacrament4 ,for to the intrusion of the world he interposes his own body4 ,in his art1 the creator's body would be itself intrusion4 ,the artist is too humble and too sane to break the ecstatic flow of vision with his personal form4 ,the true artist despises the personal as an end4 ,he makes fluid1 and distils his personal form4 ,he channels it beyond himself to a ,unity which of course contains it4 ,but ,criticism is nothing which is not the sheer projection of a body4 ,the artist turns ,self into a universal ,form3 but the critic reduces ,form to ,self4 ,criticism is to the artist the intrusion1 in a form irreducible to art1 of the body of the world4 ,what can he do but interpose his own8 ,this is the value of the creator's criticism4 ,he gives to the world himself4 ,and his self is a rich life4 ,it includes for instance a direct experience of art1 the which no professional critic may possess4 ,and it includes as well a direct knowledge of life1 sharpened in the retrospect of that devotion to the living which is peculiarly the artist's4 ,for what is the critic after all1 but an artistic individual somehow impeded from satisfying his esthetic emotion and his need of esthetic form in the gross and stubborn stuff of life itself3 who therefore1 since he is too intelligent for substitutes1 resorts to the already digested matter of the hardier creators1 takes their assimilated food and does with it what the athletic artist does with the meat and lymph and bone of ,god himself8 ,the artist mines from the earth and smelts with his own fire4 ,he is higher brother to the toilers of the soil4 ,the critic takes the products of the creator1 reforges1 twists them1 always in the cold4 ,for if he had the fire to melt1 he would not stay with metals already worked3 when the earth's womb bursts with richer4 ,when the creator turns critic1 we are certain of a feast4 ,we have a fare that needs no metaphysical sauce 7such as must transform the product of the ,critic74 ,here is good food4 ,go to it and eat4 ,the asides of a ,baudelaire1 a ,goethe1 a ,da ,vinci outweight a thousand tomes of the professional critics4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i know of no ,american book like this one by ,marsden ,hartley4 ,i do not believe ,american painting heretofore capable of so vital a response and of so athletic an appraisal4 ,albert ,ryder barricaded himself from the world's intrusion4 ,the ,american world was not intelligent enough in his days to touch him to an activer response4 ,and ,ryder1 partaking of its feebleness1 from his devotion to the pure subjective note became too exhausted for aught else4 ,as a world we have advanced4 ,we have a fully functioning ,criticism 444 swarms and schools of makers of the sonorous complacencies of ,judgment4 ,we have an integral body of creative-minded men and women interposing itself with valiance upon the antithesis of the social resistance to social growth4 ,hartley is in some ways a continuance of ,ryder4 ,one stage is ,ryder1 the solitary who remained one4 ,a second stage is ,hartley1 the solitary who stands against the more aggressive1 more interested ,marketplace4 ,you will find in this book the artist of a cultural epoch4 ,this man has mastered the plastic messages of modern ,europe3 he has gone deep in the classic forms of the ancient ,indian ,dance4 ,but he is1 still1 not very far from ,ryder4 ,he is always the child--whatever wise old worlds he contemplates--the child1 wistful1 poignant1 trammeled1 of ,new ,england4 ,hartley has adventured not alone deep but wide4 ,he steps from ,new ,mexico to ,berlin1 from the salons of the ,paris of ,marie ,laurencin to the dust and tang of the ,american ,circus4 ,he is eclectic4 ,but wherever he goes he chronicles not so much these actual worlds as his own pleasure of them4 ,they are but mirrors1 many-shaped and lighted1 for his own delicate1 incisive humor4 ,for ,hartley is an innocent and a naf4 ,at times he is profound4 ,always he is profoundly simple4 ,tragedy and ,comedy are adult4 ,the child's world is ,tragicomic4 ,so ,marsden ,hartley's4 ,he is not deep enough--like most of our ,moderns--in the pregnant chaos to be submerged in blackness by the hot struggle of the creative will4 ,he may weep1 but he can smile next moment at a pretty song4 ,he may be hurt1 but he gets up to dance4 ,in this book--the autobiography of a creator--,marsden ,hartley peers variously into the modern world3 but it is in search of ,fairies4 ,,waldo ,,frank4 ,lisbon1 ,june1 #aiba4 ,,contents ,,introduction ,,by ,,waldo ,,frank ,foreword ,,concerning ,,fairy ,,tales ,,and ,,me ,part ,one #a4 ,,the ,,red ,,man #b4 ,,whitman ,,and ,c,,zanne #c4 ,,ryder #d4 ,,winslow ,,homer #e4 ,,american ,,values ,,in ,,painting #f4 ,,modern ,,art ,,in ,,america #g4 ,,our ,,imaginatives #h4 ,,our ,,impressionists #i4 ,,arthur ,b4 ,,davies #aj4 ,,rex ,,slinkard #aa4 ,,some ,,american ,,water-,,colorists #ab4 ,,the ,,appeal ,,of ,,photography #ac4 ,,some ,,women ,,artists #ad4 ,,revaluations ,,in ,,impressionism #ae4 ,,odilon ,,redon #af4 ,,the ,,virtues ,,of ,,amateur ,,painting #ag4 ,,henri ,,rousseau ,part ,two #ah4 ,,the ,,twilight ,,of ,,the ,,acrobat #ai4 ,,vaudeville #bj4 ,a ,,charming ,,equestrienne #ba4 ,,john ,,barrymore ,,in ,,peter ,,ibbetson ,part ,three #bb4 ,,la ,,closerie ,,de ,,lilas #bc4 ,,emily ,,dickinson #bd4 ,,adelaide ,,crapsey #be4 ,,francis ,,thompson #bf4 ,,ernest ,,dowson #bg4 ,,henry ,,james ,,on ,,rupert ,,brooke #bh4 ,,the ,,dearth ,,of ,,critics ,afterword ,,the ,,importance ,,of ,,being ,,dada 99 99 99 99 99 ,,foreword ,,concerning ,,fairy ,,tales ,,and ,,me ,sometimes ,i think myself one of the unique children among children4 ,i never read a fairy story in my childhood4 ,i always had the feeling as a child1 that fairy stories were for grown-ups and were best understood by them1 and for that reason ,i think it must have been that ,i postponed them4 ,i found them1 even at sixteen1 too involved and mystifying to take them in with quite the simple gullibility that is necessary4 ,but that was because ,i was left alone with the incredibly magical reality from morning until nightfall1 and the nights meant nothing more remarkable to me than the days did1 no more than they do now4 ,i find moonlight merely another species of illumination by which one registers continuity of sensation4 ,my nursery was always on the edge of the strangers' knee1 wondering who they were1 what they might even mean to those who were as is called nearest them4 ,i had a childhood vast with terror and surprise4 ,if it is true that one forgets what one wishes to forget1 then ,i have reason for not remembering the major part of those days and hours that are supposed to introduce one graciously into the world and offer one a clue to the experience that is sure to follow4 ,not that my childhood was so bitter1 unless for childhood loneliness is bitterness1 and without doubt it is the worst thing that can happen to one's childhood4 ,mine was merely a different childhood1 and in this sense an original one4 ,i was left with myself to discover myself amid the multitudinous other and far greater mysteries4 ,i was never the victim of fear of goblins and ghosts because ,i was never taught them4 ,i was merely taught by nature to follow1 as if led by a rare and tender hand1 the then almost unendurable beauty that lay on every side of me4 ,it was pain then1 to follow beauty1 because ,i didn't understand beauty2 it must always1 ,i think1 be distressing to follow anything one does not understand4 ,i used to go1 in my earliest school days1 into a little strip of woodland not far from the great ominous red brick building in a small manufacturing town1 on the edge of a wonderful great river in ,maine1 from which cool and quiet spot ,i could always hear the dominant clang of the bell1 and there ,i could listen with all my very boyish simplicity to the running of the water over the stones1 and watch--for it was spring1 of course--the new leaves pushing up out of the mould1 and see the light-hued blossoms swinging on the new breeze4 ,i cared more for these in themselves than ,i did for any legendary presences sitting under them1 shaking imperceptible fingers and waving invisible wands with regality in a world made only for them and for children who were taught mechanically to see them there4 ,i was constantly confronted with the magic of reality itself1 wondering why one thing was built of exquisite curves and another of harmonic angles4 ,it was not a scientific passion in me1 it was merely my sensing of the world of visible beauty around me1 pressing in on me with the vehemence of splendor1 on every side4 ,i feel about the world now precisely as ,i did then1 despite all the reasons that exist to encourage the change of attitude4 ,i care for the magic of experience still1 the magic that exists even in facts1 though little or nothing for the objective material value4 ,life as an idea engrosses me with the same ardor as in the earlier boyish days1 with the difference that there is much to admire and so much less to reverence and be afraid of4 ,i harp always on the idea of life as ,i dwell perpetually on the existence of the moment4 ,i might say1 then1 that my childhood was comparable1 in its simplicity and extravagance of wonder1 to the youth of ,odilon ,redon1 that remarkable painter of the fantasy of existence1 of which he speaks so delicately in letters to friends4 ,his youth was apparently much like mine1 not a youth of athleticism so much as a preoccupancy with wonder and the imminence of beauty surrounding all things4 ,i was preoccupied with the being of things4 ,things in themselves engrossed me more than the problem of experience4 ,i was satisfied with the effect of things upon my senses1 and cared nothing for their deeper values4 ,the inherent magic in the appearance of the world about me1 engrossed and amazed me4 ,no cloud or blossom or bird or human ever escaped me1 ,i think4 ,i was not indifferent to anything that took shape before me1 though when it came to people ,i was less credulous of their perfection because they pressed forward their not always certain credentials upon me4 ,i reverenced them then too much for an imagined austerity as ,i admire them now perhaps not enough for their charm1 for it is the charm of things and people only that engages and satisfies me4 ,i have completed my philosophical equations1 and have become enamored of people as having the same propensities as all other objects of nature4 ,one need never question appearances4 ,one accepts them for their face value1 as the camera accepts them1 without recommendation or specialized qualification4 ,they are what they become to one4 ,the capacity for legend comes out of the capacity for experience1 and it is in this fashion that ,i hold such high respect for geniuses like ,grimm and ,andersen1 but as ,i know their qualities ,i find myself leaning with more readiness toward ,lewis ,carroll's superb ,alice in ,wonderland4 ,i was1 ,i suppose1 born backward1 physically speaking4 ,i was confronted with the vastitude of the universe at once1 without the ingratiating introduction of the fairy tale4 ,i had early made the not so inane decision that ,i would not read a book until ,i really wanted to4 ,one of the rarest women in the world1 having listened to my remark1 said she had a book she knew ,i would like because it was so different1 and forthwith presented me with ,emerson's ,essays1 the first book that ,i have any knowledge of reading1 and it was in my eighteenth year4 ,until then ,i had been wholly absorbed with the terrors and the majestical inferences of the moment1 the hour1 and the day4 ,i was alone with them1 and they were wonderful and excessively baffling in their splendors2 then1 after filling my mind and soul with the legendary splendors of ,friendship1 and ,the ,oversoul-,circles1 and ,compensation1 each of these words of exciting largeness in themselves1 ,i turned to the dramatic unrealities of ,zarathustra1 which1 of course1 was in no way to be believed because it did not exist4 ,and then came expansion and release into the outer world again through interpretation of ,plato1 and of ,leaves of ,grass itself4 ,i have saved myself from the disaster of beliefs through these magical books1 and am free once more as in my early childhood to indulge myself in the iridescent idea of life1 as ,idea4 ,but the fairy story is nothing after all but a means whereby we1 as children1 may arrive at some clue as to the significance of things around us1 and it is through them the child finds his way out from incoherency toward comprehension4 ,the universe is a vast place1 as we all know who think we comprehend it in admiring it4 ,the things we cannot know are in reality of no consequence1 in comparison with the few we can know4 ,i can know1 for instance1 that my morning is the new era of my existence1 and that ,i shall never live through another like it1 as ,i have never lived through the one ,i recall in my memory1 which was ,yesterday4 ,yesterday was my event in experience then1 as it is my event in memory now4 ,i am related to the world by the way ,i feel attached to the life of it as exemplified in the vividness of the moment4 ,i am1 by reason of my peculiar personal experience1 enabled to extract the magic from the moment1 discarding the material husk of it precisely as the squirrel does the shell of the nut4 ,i am preoccupied with the business of transmutation--which is to say1 the proper evaluation of life as idea1 of experience as delectable diversion4 ,it is necessary for everyone to poetize his sensations in order to comprehend them4 ,weakness in the direction of philosophy creates the quality of dogmatic interrogation4 ,a preoccupancy with religious characteristics assists those who are interested in the problem of sublimation4 ,the romanticist is a kind of scientific person engaged in the correct assembling of chemical constituents that will produce a formula by which he can live out every one of his moments with a perfect comprehension of their charm and of their everlasting value to him4 ,if the romanticist have the advantage of comprehension of the sense of beauty as related to art1 then he may be said to be wholly equipped for the exquisite legend of life in which he takes his place1 as factor in the perfected memory of existence1 which becomes the real history of life1 as an idea4 ,the person of most power in life is he who becomes high magician with the engaging and elusive trick4 ,it is a fairy-tale in itself if you will1 and everyone is entitled to his or her own private splendor1 which1 of course1 must be invented from intelligence for oneself4 ,there will be no magic found away from life4 ,it is what you do with the street-corner in your brain that shall determine your gift4 ,it will not be found in the wilderness1 and in one's toying with the magic of existence is the one gift for the management of experience4 ,i hope one day1 when life as an idea permits1 and that ,i have figured will be somewhere around my ninetieth year1 to take up books that absorb the brains of the intelligent4 ,when ,i read a book1 it is because it will somehow expose to me the magic of existence4 ,my fairy tales of late have been ,wuthering ,heights1 and the work of the ,brothers ,james1 ,will and ,henry4 ,i am not so sure but that ,i like ,william best1 and ,i assure you that is saying a great deal1 but it is only because ,i think ,william is more like life as idea4 ,i shall hope when it comes time to sit in a garden and fold one's hands gently1 listening to the birds all over again1 watching the blossoms swinging with a still acuter eye1 to take up the books of ,grimm and ,andersen1 for ,i have a feeling they will be the books that will best corroborate my comprehension of life as an idea4 ,i think it will be the best time to read them then1 to go out with a memory softened by the warm hues and touches of legend that rise out of the air surrounding life itself4 ,there will be a richer comprehension of once upon a time there was a princess--who wore a great many jewelled rings on her fingers and whose eyes were like deep pools in the farthest fields of the sky--for that will be the lady who let me love in the ways ,i was made to forget2 the lady whose hands ,i have touched as gently as possible and from whom ,i have exacted no wish save that ,i might always love someone or something that was so like herself as to make me think it was no other than herself4 ,it is because ,i love the idea of life better than anything else that ,i believe most of all in the magic of existence1 and in spite of much terrifying and disillusioning experience of late1 ,i believe4 ,,part ,,one ,,the ,,red ,,man ,it is significant that all races1 and primitive peoples especially1 exhibit the wish somehow to inscribe their racial autograph before they depart4 ,it is our redman who permits us to witness the signing of his autograph with the beautiful gesture of his body in the form of the symbolic dance which he and his forefathers have practiced through the centuries1 making the name ,america something to be remembered among the great names of the world and of time4 ,it is the redman who has written down our earliest known history1 and it is of his symbolic and esthetic endeavors that we should be most reasonably proud4 ,he is the one man who has shown us the significance of the poetic aspects of our original land4 ,without him we should still be unrepresented in the cultural development of the world4 ,the wide discrepancies between our earliest history and our present make it an imperative issue for everyone loving the name ,america to cherish him while he remains among us as the only esthetic representative of our great country up to the present hour4 ,he has indicated for all time the symbolic splendor of our plains1 canyons1 mountains1 lakes1 mesas and ravines1 our forests and our native skies1 with their animal inhabitants1 the buffalo1 the deer1 the eagle and the various other living presences in their midst4 ,he has learned throughout the centuries the nature of our soil and has symbolized for his own religious and esthetic satisfaction all the various forms that have become benefactors to him4 ,americans of this time and of time to come shall know little or nothing of their spacious land until they have sought some degree of intimacy with our first artistic relative4 ,the redman is the one truly indigenous religionist and esthete of ,america4 ,he knows every form of animal and vegetable life adhering to our earth1 and has made for himself a series of striking pageantries in the form of stirring dances to celebrate them1 and his relation to them4 ,throughout the various dances of the ,pueblos of the ,rio ,grande those of ,san ,felipe1 ,santo ,domingo1 ,san ,ildefonso1 ,taos1 ,tesuque1 and all the other tribes of the west and the southwest1 the same unified sense of beauty prevails1 and in some of the dances to a most remarkable degree4 ,for instance1 in a large pueblo like ,santo ,domingo1 you have the dance composed of nearly three hundred people1 two hundred of whom form the dance contingent1 the other third a chorus1 probably the largest singing chorus in the entire redman population of ,america4 ,in a small pueblo like ,tesuque1 the theme is beautifully represented by from three to a dozen individuals1 all of them excellent performers in various ways4 ,the same quality and the same character1 the same sense of beauty1 prevails in all of them4 ,it is the little pueblo of ,tesuque which has just finished its series of ,christmas dances--a four-day festival celebrating with all but impeccable mastery the various identities which have meant so much to them both physically and spiritually--that ,i would here cite as an example4 ,it is well known that once gesture is organized1 it requires but a handful of people to represent multitude2 and this lonely handful of redmen in the pueblo of ,tesuque1 numbering at most but seventy-five or eighty individuals1 lessened1 as is the case with all the pueblos of the country to a tragical degree by the recent invasions of the influenza epidemic1 showed the interested observer1 in groups of five or a dozen dancers and soloists including drummers1 through the incomparable pageantry of the buffalo1 the eagle1 the snowbird1 and other varying types of small dances1 the mastery of the redman in the art of gesture1 the art of symbolized pantomimic expression4 ,it is the buffalo1 the eagle1 and the deer dances that show you their essential greatness as artists4 ,you find a species of rhythm so perfected in its relation to racial interpretation as hardly to admit of witnessing ever again the copied varieties of dancing such as we whites of the present hour are familiar with4 ,it is nothing short of captivating artistry of first excellence1 and we are familiar with nothing that equals it outside the ,negro syncopation which we now know so well1 and from which we have borrowed all we have of native expression4 ,if we had the redman sense of time in our system1 we would be better able to express ourselves4 ,we are notoriously unorganized in esthetic conception1 and what we appreciate most is merely the athletic phase of bodily expression1 which is of course attractive enough1 but is not in itself a formal mode of expression4 ,the redman would teach us to be ourselves in a still greater degree1 as his forefathers have taught him to be himself down the centuries1 despite every obstacle4 ,it is now as the last obstacle in the way of his racial expression that we as his host and guardian are pleasing ourselves to figure4 ,it is as inhospitable host we are quietly urging denunciation of his pagan ceremonials4 ,it is an inhospitable host that we are1 and it is amazing enough1 our wanting to suppress him4 ,you will travel over many continents to find a more beautifully synthesized artistry than our redman offers4 ,in times of peace we go about the world seeking out every species of life foreign to ourselves for our own esthetic or intellectual diversion1 and yet we neglect on our very doorstep the perhaps most remarkable realization of beauty that can be found anywhere4 ,it is of a perfect piece with the great artistry of all time4 ,we have to go for what we know of these types of expression to books and to fragments of stone1 to monuments and to the preserved bits of pottery we now may see under glass mostly1 while there is the living remnant of a culture so fine in its appreciation of the beauty of things1 under our own home eye1 so near that we can not even see it4 ,a glimpse of the buffalo dance alone will furnish proof sufficient to you of the sense of symbolic significances in the redman that is unsurpassed4 ,the redman is a genius in his gift of masquerade alone4 ,he is a genius in detail1 and in ensemble1 and the producer of today might learn far more from him than he can be aware of except by visiting his unique performances4 ,the redman's notion of the theatric does not depend upon artificial appliances4 ,he relies entirely upon the sun with its so clear light of the west and southwest to do his profiling and silhouetting for him1 and he knows the sun will cooperate with every one of his intentions4 ,he allows for the sense of mass and of detail with proper proportion1 allows also for the interval of escape in mood1 crediting the value of the pause with the ability to do its prescribed work for the eye and ear perfectly1 and when he is finished he retires from the scene carefully to the beating of the drums1 leaving the emotion to round itself out gradually until he disappears1 and silence completes the picture for the eye and the brain4 ,his staging is of the simplest1 and therefore1 the most natural4 ,since he is sure of his rhythms1 in every other dancer as well as himself1 he is certain of his ensemble1 and is likewise sure there will be no dead spots either in the scenario or in the presentation4 ,his production is not a show for the amusement of the onlooker2 it is a pageant for the edification of his own soul4 ,each man is therefore concerned with the staging of the idea1 because it is his own spiritual drama in a state of enaction1 and each is in his own way manager of the scene1 and of the duos1 trios1 and ensembles1 or whatever form the dances may require4 ,it is therefore of a piece with his conception of nature and the struggle for realism is not necessary1 since he is at all times the natural actor1 the natural expresser of the indications and suggestions derived from the great theme of nature which occupies his mind1 and body1 and soul4 ,his acting is invented by himself for purposes of his own1 and it is nature that gives him the sign and symbol for the expression of life as a synthesis4 ,he is a genius in plastic expression1 and every movement of his is sure to register in the unity of the theme1 because he himself is a powerful unit of the group in which he may be performing4 ,he is esthetically a responsible factor1 since it concerns him as part of the great idea4 ,he is leading soloist and auxiliary in one4 ,he is the significant instrument in the orchestration of the theme at hand1 and knows his body will respond to every requirement of phrasing4 ,you will find the infants1 of two and three years of age even1 responding in terms of play to the exacting rhythms of the dance1 just as with orientals it was the children often who wove the loveliest patterns in their rugs4 ,in the instance of the buffalo dance of the ,tesuque ,indians1 contrary to what might be expected or would popularly be conceived1 there is not riotry of color1 but the costumes are toned rather in the sombre hues of the animal in question1 and after the tone of the dark flanks of the mountains crested and avalanched with snows1 looking more like buffaloes buried knee deep in white drifts than anything else one may think of4 ,they bring you the sense of the power of the buffalo personality1 the formidable beast that once stampeded the prairies around them1 solemnized with austere gesturing1 enveloping him with stateliness1 and the silence of the winter that surrounds themselves4 ,three men1 two of them impersonating the buffalo1 the third with bow and arrow in hand1 doubtless the hunter1 and two women representing the mother buffalo1 furnish the ensemble4 ,aside from an occasional note of red in girdles and minor trappings1 with a softening touch of green in the pine branches in their hands1 the adjustment of hue is essentially one of the black and white1 one of the most difficult harmonies in esthetic scales the painter encounters in the making of a picture1 the most difficult of all probably1 by reason of its limited range and the economic severity of color4 ,it calls for nothing short of the finest perception of nuance1 and it is the redman of ,america who knows with an almost flawless eye the natural harmonies of the life that surrounds him4 ,he has for so long decorated his body with the hues of the earth that he has grown to be a part of them4 ,he is a living embodiment in color of various tonal characteristics of the landscape around him4 ,he knows the harmonic value of a bark or a hide1 or a bit of broken earth1 and of the natural unpolluted coloring to be drawn out of various types of vegetable matter at his disposal4 ,even if he resorts to our present-day store ribbons and cheap trinkets for accessories1 he does it with a view to creating the appearance of racial ensemble4 ,he is one of the essential decorators of the world4 ,a look at the totem poles and the prayer robes of the ,indians of ,alaska will convince you of that4 ,in the buffalo dance1 then1 you perceive the redman's fine knowledge of color relations1 of the harmonizing of buffalo skins1 of white buckskins painted with most expressively simple designs symbolizing the various earth identities1 and the accompanying ornamentation of strings of shells and other odd bits having a black or a grey and white lustre4 ,you get an adjusted relation of white which traverses the complete scale of color possibility in monochrome4 ,the two men representing the buffalo1 with buffalo heads covering their heads and faces from view1 down to their breasts1 their bodies to the waist painted black1 no sign of pencillings visible to relieve the austerity of intention1 legs painted black and white1 with cuffs of skunk's fur round the ankles to represent the death mask symbol1 relieving the edges of the buckskin moccasins--in all this you have the notes that are necessary for the color balance of the idea of solemnity presented to the eye4 ,you find even the white starlike splashes here and there on backs1 breasts and arms coinciding splendidly with the flecks of eagles-down that quiver in the wind down their black bodies1 and the long black hair of the accompanying hunter1 as flecks of foam would rise from waterfalls of dark mountain streams2 and the feathers that float from the tips of the buffalo horns seem like young eaglets ready to leave the eyry1 to swim for the first time the far fields of air above and below them1 to traverse with skill the sunlit spaces their eyes have opened to with a fierce amazement4 ,even the clouds of frozen breath darting from the lips of the dancers served as an essential phase of the symbolic decoration1 and the girdles of tiny conchlike shells rattling round their agile thighs made a music you were glad to hear4 ,the sunshine fell from them1 too1 in scales of light1 danced around the spaces enveloping them along with the flecks of eagle-down that floated away from their bodies with the vigors of the dance1 floating away from their dark warm bodies1 and their jet-blue hair4 ,it is the incomparable understanding of their own inventive rhythms that inspire and impress you as spectator4 ,it is the swift comprehension of change in rhythm given them by the drummers1 the speedy response of their so living pulsating bodies1 the irresistible rapport with the varying themes1 that thrills and invites you to remain close to the picture4 ,they know1 as perfect artists would know1 the essential value of the materials at their disposal1 and the eye for harmonic relationships is as keen as the impeccable gift for rhythm which is theirs4 ,the note of skill was again accentuated when1 at the close of the season's ensemble with a repetition of the beautiful eagle dance1 there appeared two grotesqueries in the form of charming devil spirits in the hues of animals also1 again in startling arrangements of black and white1 with the single hint of color in the red lips of the masks that covered their heads completely from view1 and from which long tails of white horsehair fell down their grey white backs--completing the feeling once again of stout animal spirits roaming through dark forests in search of sad faces1 or1 it may even be1 of evil doers4 ,all these dances form the single spectacle surviving from a great race that no ,american can afford actually to miss1 and certainly not to ignore4 ,it is easy to conceive with what furore of amazement these spectacles would be received if they were brought for a single performance to our metropolitan stage4 ,but they will never be seen away from the soil on which they have been conceived and perpetuated4 ,it is with a simple cordiality the redman permits you to witness the esthetic survivals of his great race4 ,it is the artist and the poet for whom they seem to be almost especially created1 since these are probably nearest to understanding them from the point of view of finely organized expression2 for it is by the artist and the poet of the first order that they have been invented and perfected4 ,we as ,americans of today would profit by assisting as much as possible in the continuance of these beautiful spectacles1 rather than to assist in the calm dismissal and destruction of them4 ,it is the gesture of a slowly but surely passing race which they themselves can not live without2 just as we1 if we but knew the ineffable beauty of them1 would want at least to avail ourselves of a feast for the eye which no other country in existence can offer us1 and which any other nation in the world would be only too proud to cherish and foster4 ,we are not1 ,i think1 more than vaguely conscious of what we possess in these redman festivities1 by way of esthetic prize4 ,it is with pain that one hears rumors of official disapproval of these rare and invaluable ceremonials4 ,those familiar with human psychology understand perfectly that the one necessary element for individual growth is freedom to act according to personal needs4 ,once an opposition of any sort is interposed1 you get a blocked aspect of evolution1 you get a withered branch1 and it may even be a dead root4 ,all sorts of complexes and complexities occur4 ,you get deformity1 if not complete helplessness and annihilation4 ,i can not imagine what would happen to the redman if his one racial gesture were denied him1 if he were forbidden to perform his symbolic dances from season to season4 ,it is a survival that is as spiritually imperative to him as it is physically and emotionally necessary4 ,i can see a whole flood of exquisite inhibitions heaped up for burial and dry rot within the caverns and the interstices of his soul4 ,he is a rapidly disappearing splendor1 despite the possible encouragement of statistics4 ,he needs the dance to make his body live out its natural existence1 precisely as he needs the air for his lungs and blood for his veins4 ,he needs to dance as we need to laugh to save ourselves from fixed stages of morbidity and disintegration4 ,it is the laughter of his body that he insists upon1 as well as depends upon4 ,a redman deprived of his racial gesture is unthinkable4 ,you would have him soon the bleached carcass in the desert out of which death moans1 and from which the lizard crawls4 ,it would be in the nature of direct race suicide4 ,he needs protection therefore rather than disapproval4 ,it is as if you clipped the wing of the eagle1 and then asked him to soar to the sun1 to cut a curve on the sky with the instrument dislodged2 or as if you asked the deer to roam the wood with its cloven hoofs removed4 ,you can not cut the main artery of the body and expect it to continue functioning4 ,depriving the redman of his one enviable gesture would be cutting the artery of racial instinct1 emptying the beautiful chamber of his soul of its enduring consciousness4 ,the window would be opened and the bird flown to a dead sky4 ,it is simply unthinkable4 ,the redman is essentially a thankful and a religious being4 ,he needs to celebrate the gifts his heaven pours upon him4 ,without them he would in short perish1 and perish rapidly1 having no breath to breathe1 and no further need for survival4 ,he is already in process of disappearance from our midst1 with the attempts toward assimilation4 ,inasmuch as we have the evidence of a fine aristocracy among us still1 it would seem as if it behooved us as a respectable host to let the redman guest entertain himself as he will1 as he sublimely does1 since as guardians of such exceptional charges we can not seem to entertain them4 ,there is no logical reason why they should accept an inferior hospitality1 other than with the idea of not inflicting themselves upon a strange host more than is necessary4 ,the redman in the aggregate is an example of the peaceable and unobtrusive citizen2 we would not presume to interfere with the play of children in the sunlight4 ,they are among the beautiful children of the world in their harmlessness4 ,they are among the aristocracy of the world in the matters of ethics1 morals1 and etiquette4 ,we forget they are vastly older1 and in symbolic ways infinitely more experienced than ourselves4 ,they do not share in tailor-made customs4 ,they do not need imposed culture1 which is essentially inferior to their own4 ,soon we shall see them written on tablets of stone1 along with the ,egyptians and the others among the races that have perished4 ,the esthetics of the redman have been too particular to permit of universal understanding1 and of universal adaptation4 ,it is the same with all primitives1 who invent regimes and modes of expression for themselves according to their own specific psychological needs4 ,we encourage every other sign and indication of beauty toward the progress of perfection4 ,why should not we encourage a race that is beautiful by the proof of centuries to remain the unoffensive guest of the sun and the moon and the stars while they may8 ,as the infant prodigy among races1 there is much that we could inherit from these people if we could prove ourselves more worthy and less egotistic4 ,the artist and the poet of perception come forward with heartiest approval and it is the supplication of the poet and the artist which the redman needs most of all4 ,science looks upon him as a phenomenon2 esthetics looks upon him as a giant of masterful expression in our midst4 ,the redman is poet and artist of the very first order among the geniuses of time4 ,we have nothing more native at our disposal than the beautiful creations of this people4 ,it is singular enough that the as yet remote black man contributes the only native representation of rhythm and melody we possess4 ,as an intelligent race1 we are not even sure we want to welcome him as completely as we might1 if his color were just a shade warmer1 a shade nearer our own4 ,we have no qualms about yellow and white and the oriental intermediate hues4 ,we may therefore accept the redman without any of the prejudices peculiar to other types of skin1 and we may accept his contribution to our culture as a most significant and important one4 ,we haven't even begun to make use of the beautiful hints in music alone which he has given to us4 ,we need1 and abjectly so ,i may say1 an esthetic concept of our own4 ,other nations of the world have long since accepted ,congo originality4 ,the world has yet to learn of the originality of the redman1 and we who have him as our guest1 knowing little or nothing of his powers and the beauty he confers on us by his remarkable esthetic propensities1 should be the first to welcome and to foster him4 ,it is not enough to admit of archaeological curiosity4 ,we need to admit1 and speedily1 the rare and excellent esthetics in our midst1 a part of our own intimate scene4 ,the redman is a spiritual expresser of very vital issues4 ,if his pottery and his blankets offer the majority but little1 his ceremonials do contribute to the comparative few who can perceive a spectacle we shall not see the equal of in history again4 ,it would help at least a little toward proving to the world around us that we are not so young a country as we might seem1 nor yet as diffident as our national attitude would seem to indicate4 ,the smile alone of the redman is the light of our rivers1 plains1 canyons1 and mountains4 ,he has the calm of all our native earth4 ,it is from the earth all things arise4 ,it is our geography that makes us ,americans of the present1 children4 ,we are the product of a day4 ,the redman is the product of withered ages4 ,he has written and is still writing a very impressive autograph on the waste places of history4 ,it would seem to me to be a sign of modernism in us to preserve the living esthetic splendors in our midst4 ,every other nation has preserved its inheritances4 ,we need likewise to do the same4 ,it is not enough to put the redman as a specimen under glass along with the auk and the dinosaur4 ,he is still alive and longing to live4 ,we have lost the buffalo and the beaver and we are losing the redman1 also1 and all these are fine symbols of our own native richness and austerity4 ,the redman will perpetuate himself only by the survival of his own customs for he will never be able to accept customs that are as foreign to him as ours are and must always be2 he will never be able to accept a culture which is inferior to his own4 ,in the esthetic sense alone1 then1 we have the redman as a gift4 ,as ,americans we should accept the one ,american genius we possess1 with genuine alacrity4 ,we have upon our own soil something to show the world as our own1 while it lives4 ,to restrict the redman now would send him to an unrighteous oblivion4 ,he has at least two contributions to confer1 a very aristocratic notion of religion1 and a superb gift for stylistic expression4 ,he is the living artist in our midst1 and we need not think of him as merely the anthropological variation or as an archaeological diversion merely4 ,he proves the importance of synthetic registration in peoples4 ,he has created his system for himself1 from substance on1 through outline down to every convincing detail4 ,we are in a position always of selecting details in the hope of constructing something usable for ourselves4 ,it is the superficial approach4 ,we are imitators because we have by nature or force of circumstance to follow1 and improve upon1 if we can4 ,we merely impose something4 ,we can not improve upon what the redman offers us in his own way4 ,to impose something--that is the modern culture4 ,the interval of imposition is our imaginary interval of creation4 ,the primitives created a complete cosmos for themselves1 an entire principle4 ,i want merely1 then1 esthetic recognition in full of the contribution of the redman as artist1 as one of the finest artists of time2 the poetic redman ceremonialist1 celebrant of the universe as he sees it1 and master among masters of the art of symbolic gesture4 ,it is pitiable to dismiss him from our midst4 ,he needs rather royal invitation to remain and to persist1 and he can persist only by expressing himself in his own natural and distinguished way1 as is the case with all peoples1 and all individuals1 indeed4 ,,whitman ,,and ,c,,zanne ,it is interesting to observe that in two fields of expression1 those of painting and poetry1 the two most notable innovators1 ,whitman and ,czanne bear a definite relationship in point of similarity of ideals and in their attitudes toward esthetic principles4 ,both of these men were so true to their respective ideals that they are worth considering at the same time in connection with each other3 ,czanne with his desire to join the best that existed in the impressionistic principle with the classical arts of other times1 or as he called it1 to create an art like the ,louvre out of impressionism4 ,we shall find him striving always toward actualities1 toward the realization of beauty as it is seen to exist in the real1 in the object itself1 whether it be mountain or apple or human1 the entire series of living things in relation to one another4 ,it is consistent that ,czanne1 like all pioneers1 was without prescribed means1 that he had to spend his life inventing for himself those terms and methods which would best express his feelings about nature4 ,it is natural that he admired the precision of ,bouguereau1 it is also quite natural that he should have worshipped in turn1 ,delacroix1 ,courbet1 and without doubt1 the mastery of ,ingres1 and it is indicative too that he felt the frank force of ,manet4 ,it was his special distinction to strive toward a simple presentation of simple things1 to want to paint that which existed between himself and the object1 and to strive to solidify the impressionistic conception with a greater realization of form in space1 the which they had so much ignored4 ,that he achieved this in a satisfying manner may be observed in the best of his landscapes and still-lifes1 and in some of the figure studies also4 ,the endeavor to eliminate all aspects of extraneous conception by dismissing the quality of literature1 of poetry and romance from painting1 was the exact characteristic which made him what he is for us today1 the pioneer in the field of modern art4 ,it was significant enough when he once said to ,renoir1 that it took him twenty years to find out that painting was not sculpture4 ,those earlier and heavy impasto studies of his are the evidence of this worthy deduction4 ,it was significant1 too1 when he said that ,gaugin was but a flea on his back1 and that he does nothing but paint ,chinese images4 ,the phrase that brings these two strikingly original personages in art together is the one of ,czanne3 ,i remain the primitive of the way ,i have discovered2 and that of ,whitman1 which comes if ,i am not mistaken from ,democratic ,vistas1 though it may be from elsewhere in ,whitman's prose1 running chiefly3 ,i only wish to indicate the way for the innumerable poets that are to come after me1 etc41 and ,i warn you this is not a book1 this is a man4 ,these two geniuses are both of one piece as to their esthetic intention1 despite the great gulf that lies between their concepts of1 and their attitudes toward life4 ,for the one1 life was a something to stay close to always1 for the other1 it was something to be afraid of to an almost abnormal degree2 ,whitman and his door never closed1 ,czanne and his door seldom or never opened1 indeed1 were heavily padlocked against the intrusion of the imaginary outsider4 ,these are the geniuses who have done most for these two arts of the present time1 it is ,whitman and ,czanne who have clarified the sleeping eye and withheld it from being totally blinded1 from the onslaughts of jaded tradition4 ,there were in ,czanne the requisite gifts for selection1 and for discarding all useless encumbrances1 there was in him the great desire for purification1 or of seeing the superb fact in terms of itself1 majestically2 and if not always serenely1 serenity was nevertheless his passionate longing4 ,he saw what there was for him in those old and accepted masters who meant most to him1 and he saw also what there was for him in that newest of old masters1 which was also in its way the assumed discovery of our time1 he saw the relativity of ,greco's beautiful art to the art of his own making4 ,he saw that here was a possible and applicable architectonic suited to the objects of his newly conceived principles1 he felt in ,greco the magnetic tendency of one thing toward another in nature1 that trees and hills and valleys and people were not something sitting still for his special delectation1 but that they were constantly aspiring to fruition1 either physical1 mental1 or let us say1 spiritual1 even when the word is applied to the so-termed inanimate objects4 ,he felt the palpitancy1 the breathing of all things1 the urge outward of all life toward the light which helps it create and recreate itself4 ,he felt this movement in and about things1 and this it is that gives his pictures that sensitive life quality which lifts them beyond the aspect of picture-making or even mere representation4 ,they are not cold studies of inanimate things1 they are pulsing realizations of living substances striving toward each other1 lending each other their individual activities until his canvases become1 as one might name them1 ensembles of animation1 orchestrated life4 ,we shall1 ,i think1 find this is what ,greco did for ,czanne1 and it is ,czanne who was among the first of moderns1 if not the first1 to appreciate that particular aspirational quality in the splendid pictures of ,greco4 ,they move toward their design1 they were lifted by the quality of their organization into spaces in which they were free to carry on the fine illusion of life4 ,whitman has certainly aspired equally1 but being more things in one than ,czanne1 his task has been in some ways greater1 more difficult1 and may we say for humanistic reasons1 loftier4 ,whitman's inclusiveness was at one and the same time his virtue and his defect4 ,for mystical reasons1 it was imperative for him to include all things in himself1 and so he set about enumerating all those elements which were in him1 and of which he was so devoted and affectionate a part4 ,that he could leave nothing out was1 it may be said1 his strongest esthetical defect1 for it is by esthetical judgment that we choose and bring together those elements as we conceive it4 ,it is the mark of good taste to reject that which is unessential1 and the tact of omission1 well exemplified in ,czanne1 has been found excellently axiomatic4 ,so that it is the tendency in ,whitman to catalogue in detail the entire obvious universe that makes many of his pages a strain on the mind as well as on the senses1 and the eye especially4 ,the absolute enforcement of this gift of omission in painting makes it easier for the artist1 in that his mind is perforce engrossed with the idea of simplification1 directness1 and an easy relationship of the elements selected for presentation to each other4 ,it is the quality of living-ness in ,czanne that sends his art to the heights of universality1 which is another way of naming the classical vision1 or the masterly conception1 and brings him together with ,whitman as much of the same piece4 ,you get all this in all the great masters of painting and literature1 ,goethe1 ,shakespeare1 ,rubens1 and the ,greeks4 ,it is the reaching out and the very mastering of life which makes all art great1 and all artists into geniuses4 ,it is the specializing on ideas which shuts the stream of its flow4 ,i have felt the same gift for life in a still-life or a landscape of ,czanne's that ,i have felt in any of ,whitman's best pieces4 ,the element in common with these two exceptional creators is liberation4 ,they have done more1 these modern pioneers1 for the liberation of the artist1 and for the freeing of painting and poetry than any other men of modern time4 ,through them1 painting and poetry have become literally free1 and through them it is that the young painters and poets have sought new fields for self deliverance4 ,discipleship does not hold out long with the truly understanding4 ,those who really know what originality is are not long the slave of the power of imitation3 it is the gifted assimilator that suffers most under the spell of mastery4 ,legitimate influence is a quality which all earnest creators learn to handle at once4 ,both poetry and painting are1 or so it seems to me1 revealing well the gift of understanding1 and as a result we have a better variety of painting and of poetry than at the first outbreak of this so called modern esthetic epidemic4 ,the real younger creators are learning the difference between surface and depth1 between exterior semblances1 and the underlying substances4 ,both ,whitman and ,czanne stand together in the name of one common purpose1 freedom from characteristics not one's own4 ,they have taught the creators of this time to know what classicism really is1 that it is the outline of all things that endure4 ,they have both shown that it is not idiosyncrasy alone which creates originality1 that idiosyncrasy is but the husk of personal penetration1 that it is in no way the constituent essential for genius4 ,for genius is nothing but the name for higher perception1 the greater degree of understanding4 ,czanne's fine landscapes and still-lifes1 and ,whitman's majestic line with its gripping imagery are one and the same thing1 for it reaches the same height in the mind4 ,they walk together out of a vivid past1 these two geniuses1 opening the corridors to a possibly vivid future for the artists of now1 and to come4 ,they are the gateway for our modern esthetic development1 the prophets of the new time4 ,they are most of all1 the primitives of the way they have begun1 they have voiced most of all the imperative need of essential personalism1 of direct expression out of direct experience1 with an eye to nothing but quality and proportion as conceived by them4 ,their dogmas were both simple in the extreme1 and of immense worth to us in their respective spheres4 ,we may think of them as the giants of the beginning of the twentieth century1 with the same burning desire to enlarge the general scope of vision1 and the finer capacity for individual experience4 ,,albert ,p4 ,,ryder ,albert ,p4 ,ryder possessed in a high degree that strict passivity of mental vision which calls into being the elusive yet fixed element the mystic ,blake so ardently refers to and makes a principle of1 that element outside the mind's jurisdiction4 ,his work is of the essence of poetry2 it is alien to the realm of esthetics pure1 for it has very special spiritual histories to relate4 ,his landscapes are somewhat akin to those of ,michel and of ,courbet4 ,they suggest ,michel's wide wastes of prodigal sky and duneland with their winding roads that have no end1 his ever-shadowy stretches of cloud upon ever-shadowy stretches of land that go their austere way to the edges of some vacant sea4 ,they suggest1 too1 those less remote but perhaps even more aloof spaces of solitude which were ever ,courbet's theme in his deeper hours1 that haunting sense of subtle habitation1 that acute invasion of either wind or soft fleck of light or bright presence in a breadth of shadow1 as if a breath of living essences always somehow pervaded those mystic woodland or still lowland scenes4 ,but highly populate as these pictures of ,courbet's are with the spirit of ever-passing feet that hover and hold converse in the remote wood1 the remoter plain1 they never quite surrender to that ghostliness which possesses the pictures of our ,ryder4 ,at all times in his work one has the feeling of there having lately passed1 if ever so fleetly1 some bodily shape seeking a solitude of its own4 ,i recall no other landscapes impressed with a more terrific austerity save ,greco's incredible ,toledo1 to my thinking a finality in landscape creation4 ,there is quietude1 solace1 if you will1 in ,michel1 in ,courbet1 but there is never a rest for the eye or the mind or the spirit in those most awesome of pictures which ,ryder has presented to us1 few as they are2 for the ,ryder legend is akin to the legend of ,giorgione4 ,there is always splendor in them but it is the splendor of the dream given over to a genius more powerful than the vision which has conjured them forth4 ,it is distinctly a land of ,luthany in which they have their being2 he has inscribed for us that utter homelessness of the spirit in the far tracts that exist in the realm of the imagination2 there is suffering in his pictures1 that fainting of the spirit1 that breathlessness which overtakes the soul in search of the consummation of beauty4 ,ryder is akin to ,coleridge1 too1 for there is a direct visional analogy between ,the ,flying ,dutchman and the excessively pictorial stanzas of ,the ,ancient ,mariner4 ,ryder has typified himself in this excellent portrayal of sea disaster1 this profound spectacle of the soul's despair in conflict with wind and wave4 ,could any picture contain more of that remoteness of the world of our real heart as well as our real eye1 the artist's eye which visits that world in no official sense but only as a guest or a courtly spectator8 ,no artist1 ,i ought to say1 was ever more master of his ideas and less master of the medium of painting than ,ryder2 there is in some of his finest canvases a most pitiable display of ignorance which will undoubtedly shorten their life by many years4 ,i still retain the vivid impression that afflicted me when ,i saw my first ,ryder1 a marine of rarest grandeur and sublimity1 incredibly small in size1 incredibly large in its emotion--just a sky and a single vessel in sail across a conquering sea4 ,ryder is1 ,i think1 the special messenger of the sea's beauty1 the confidant of its majesties1 its hauteurs1 its supremacies2 for he was born within range of the sea and all its legends have hovered with him continually4 ,since that time ,i have seen a number of other pictures either in the artist's possession or elsewhere3 ,death on the ,racetrack1 ,pegasus1 canvases from ,the ,tempest and ,macbeth in that strange little world of chaos that was his home1 his hermitage1 so distraught with dbris of the world for which he could seem to find no other place2 ,i have spent some of the rare and lovelier moments of my experience with this gentlest and sweetest of other-world citizens2 ,i have felt with ever-living delight the excessive loveliness of his glance and of his smile and heard that music of some far-away world which was his laughter2 ,i have known that wisdom which is once and for all wisdom for the artist1 that confidence and trust that for the real artist there is but one agency for the expression of self in terms of beauty1 the eye of the imagination1 that mystical third somewhere in the mind which transposes all that is legitimate to expression4 ,to ,ryder the imagination was the man2 he was a poet painter1 living ever outside the realm of theory4 ,he was fond of ,corot1 and at moments ,i have thought of him as the heir and successor to some of ,corot's haunting graces2 but there was all the difference between them that there is between lyric pure and tragic pure4 ,ryder has for once transcribed all outer semblances by means of a personality unrelated to anything other than itself1 an imagination belonging strictly to our soil and specifically to our ,eastern geography4 ,in his autographic quality he is certainly our finest genius1 the most creative1 the most racial4 ,for our genius1 at its best1 is the genius of the evasive2 we are born lovers of the secret element1 the mystery in things4 ,how many of our ,american painters have given real attention to ,ryder8 ,i find him so much the legend among professional artists1 this master of arabesque1 this first and foremost of our designers1 this real creator of pattern1 this first of all creators of tragic landscape1 whose pictures are sacred to those that revere distinction and power in art4 ,he had in him that finer kind of reverence for the element of beauty which finds all things somehow lovely4 ,he understood best of all the meaning of the grandiose1 of everything that is powerful2 none of his associates in point of time rose to just that sublimated experience2 not ,fuller1 not ,martin1 not ,blakelock1 though each of these was touched to a special expression4 ,they are more derivative than ,ryder1 more the children of ,barbizon4 ,ryder gave us first and last an incomparable sense of pattern and austerity of mood4 ,he saw with an all too pitiless and pitiful eye the element of helplessness in things1 the complete succumbing of things in nature to those elements greater than they that wield a fatal power4 ,ryder was the last of the romantics1 the last of that great school of impressive artistry1 as he was the first of our real painters and the greatest in vision4 ,he was a still companion of ,blake in that realm of the beyond1 the first citizen of the land of ,luthany4 ,he knew the fine distinction between drama and tragedy1 the tragedy which nature prevails upon the sensitive to accept4 ,he was the painter poet of the immanent in things4 ,,winslow ,,homer ,in ,winslow ,homer we have yankeeism of the first order1 turned to a creditable artistic account4 ,with a fierce feeling for truth1 a mania1 almost1 for actualities1 there must have been somewhere in his make-up a gentleness1 a tenderness and refinement which explain his fine appreciation of the genius of the place he had in mind to represent4 ,there is not an atom of legend in ,homer1 it is always and always narrative of the obvious world4 ,there is at once the essential dramatic import ruling the scene4 ,with him it is nothing but dramatic relationship1 the actionary tendency of the facts themselves1 in nature4 ,you are held by him constantly to the bold and naked theme1 and you are left to wander in the imagination only among the essentials of simple and common realism4 ,narrative then1 first and last with ,homer1 and the only creative aspect of his pictures is concealed in the technique4 ,the only touch of invention in them is the desire to improve the language they speak4 ,dramatic always1 ,i do not call them theatric excepting in the case of one picture that ,i know1 called ,morro ,castle ,i think1 now in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 reminding me much of the commonplace1 ,chateau de ,chillon of ,courbet's1 neither of these pictures being of any value in the careers of their authors4 ,but once you sat on the rocks of ,maine1 and watched the climbing of the surf up the morning sky after a heavy storm at sea1 you realize the force of ,homer's gift for the realities4 ,his pictures are yankee in their indications1 as a work of art could be1 flinty and unyielding1 resolute as is the yankee nature itself1 or rather to say1 the original yankee1 which was pioneer then in a so rough yet resourceful country4 ,it is the quality of ,thoreau1 but without the genius of ,thoreau for the poetry of things4 ,homer's pictures give you nothing but the bare fact told in the better class terms of illustration1 for he was illustrator1 first of all4 ,while the others were trying to make a little ,american ,barbizon of their own1 there were ,homer1 ,ryder1 ,fuller1 ,martin1 working alone for such vastly opposite ideas1 and yet1 of these men1 four of them were expressing such highly imaginative ideas1 and ,homer was the unflinching realist among them4 ,i do not know where ,homer started1 but ,i believe it was the sea at ,prout's ,neck that taught him most4 ,i think that ,william ,morris ,hunt and ,washington ,allston must have seemed like infant ,michelangelos then1 for there is still about them a sturdiness which we see little of in the ,american art of that time1 or even now for that matter4 ,they had a certain massive substance1 proving the force of mind and personality which was theirs1 and while these men were proving the abundance and warmth of themselves1 ,homer was the frozen one among them4 ,nature was nature to him1 and that alone he realized1 and yet it was not precisely slavish imitation that impelled him4 ,there was in him a very creditable sense of selection1--as will be seen especially in the water colours1 so original with him1 so gifted in their power of treatment--one of the few great masters of the medium the world has known4 ,he knew the meaning of wash as few since have known it1 he knew that it has scale and limitation of its own1 and for all that1 infinite suggestibility4 ,not ,turner or ,whistler have excelled him1 and ,i do not know of anyone who has equalled him in understanding of this medium outside of ,dodge ,macknight and ,john ,marin4 ,it is in these so expressive paintings on paper that you feel the real esthetic longing as well as a certain contribution in ,homer1 the desire to realize himself and to release himself from too slavish imitation of nature and the too rigid consideration of truth4 ,he was finer in technique than perhaps any that ,i have mentioned1 though the two modern men have seconded him very closely1 and in point of vision have1 ,i am certain1 surpassed him4 ,homer arrived because of his power to express what he wished to say1 though his reach was far less lofty than theirs4 ,he was essentially on the ground1 and wanted to paint the very grip of his own feet on the rocks4 ,he wanted the inevitability put down in recognizable form4 ,he had not feeling for the hint or the suggestion until he came to the water-color1 which is of course most essentially that sort of medium4 ,he knew its scope and its limitations and never stepped out of its boundaries1 and he achieved a fine mastery in it4 ,his imitators will never arrive at his severity because they are not flint yankee4 ,they have not the hard head and snappy tongue4 ,it was yankee crabbedness that gave ,homer his grip on the idea he had in mind4 ,florida lent a softer tone to what ,maine rocks could not give him4 ,he is ,american from skin to skeleton1 and a leader among yankee as well as ,american geniuses4 ,he probably hated as much as ,thoreau1 and in his steely way admired as much4 ,it was fire from the flintlock in them both1 though nature had a far softer and loftier persuasion with the ,concord philosopher and naturalist4 ,homer remains a figure in our ,american culture through his feeling for reality4 ,he has learned through slavery to detail to put down the essential fact1 however abundantly or however sparsely4 ,he has a little of ,courbet's sense of the real1 and none whatever of his sense of the imaginative4 ,it was enough for him to classicize the realistic incident4 ,he impels me to praise through his yankee insistence upon integrity4 ,story is story with ,homer and he leaves legend to itself4 ,it is the narrative of the ,whittier type1 homely1 genuine1 and typical4 ,he never stepped outside of his yankee determination4 ,homer has sent the art of water colour painting to a very high place in world consideration4 ,he cannot be ignored as a master in this field4 ,his paintings must be taken as they are1 solid renderings of fact1 dramatically considered4 ,he offers nothing else4 ,once you have seen these realistic sea pictures1 you may want to remember and you may want to forget1 but they call for consideration4 ,they are true in their living appreciation of reality4 ,he knew the sea like the old salts that were his neighbors1 and from accounts he was as full of the tang of the sea as they4 ,he was a foe to compromise and a despiser of imposition4 ,the best and most impersonal of him is in his work1 for he never ventured to express philosophies1 ethics1 or morals in terms of picture-painting4 ,that is to his credit at least4 ,he was concerned with illustration first and last1 as he was illustrator and nothing else4 ,he taught the proceeding school of illustrators much in the significance of verity1 and in the ways and means of expressing verity in terms of pigment4 ,what the stiff pen and ink drawings and the cold engravings of his time taught him1 he conferred upon the later men in terms of freedom of technique4 ,and at the same time he rose a place1 as painter and artist of no mean order1 by a certain distinction inherent in him4 ,he had little feeling for synthesis outside of the water-colours1 and here it was necessary by virtue of the limitations of the medium4 ,winslow ,homer will not stimulate for all time only because his mind was too local4 ,there is nothing of universal appeal in him4 ,his realism will never reach the height even of the sea-pieces of ,courbet1 and ,i shall include ,ryder as well4 ,courbet was a fine artist1 and so was ,ryder1 and both had the advantage of exceptional imagination4 ,homer and ,ryder are natives of the same coast and typify excellently the two poles in the ,new ,england temper1 both in art and in life4 ,homer as realist1 had the one idea in mind only1 to illustrate realism as best he could in the most distinguished terms at the disposal of his personality4 ,he succeeded admirably4 ,homer typifies a certain sturdiness in the ,american temper at least1 and sends the lighter men away with his roughness1 as doubtless he sent the curious away from his cliffs with the acidity of truth he poured upon them4 ,he had lived so much in the close association of the roughest elements in existence1 rocks and the madly swinging sea that glides over and above them defiantly1 that he had without doubt taken on the character of them4 ,the portrait of ,homer gives him as one would expect him to look1 and he looks like his pictures4 ,his visage bore a ferocity that had to be met with a rocky certainty4 ,it is evident there was no fooling him4 ,he was filled with yankee tenacity and yankee courage4 ,homer is what you would expect to find if you were told to hunt up the natives of ,prout's ,neck or ,perkins ,cove1 or any of the inlets of the ,maine coast4 ,these sea people live so much with the roughness of the sea1 that if they are at all inclined to acidity1 and the old fashioned yankee was sure to be1 they take on the hard edges of a man's temper in accordance with the jaggedness of the shores on which they live4 ,the man around the rocks looks so very like the profiles one sees in the rocks themselves4 ,they have absorbed the energy of the dramatic elements they cope with1 and you may be sure that life around the sea in ,new ,england is no easy existence2 and they give out the same salty equivalent in human association4 ,if you have lived by the sea1 you have learned the significance of the bravery of sea people1 and you learn to understand and excuse the sharpness of them which is given them from battle with the elemental facts they are confronted with at all times4 ,that is the character of ,homer1 that is the quality of his painting4 ,that is what makes him original in the ,american sense1 and so recognizable in the ,new ,england sense4 ,he is one of ,new ,england's strongest spokesmen1 and takes his place by the side of ,ryder1 ,thoreau1 ,hawthorne1 ,fuller1 ,whittier1 and such representative temperaments1 and it is this quality that distinguishes him from men like ,inness1 ,wyant1 and the less typical painters4 ,it is obvious1 too1 that he never painted any other coast1 excepting of course ,florida1 in the water colours4 ,it was ,florida that produced the chef d'oeuvre in him4 ,it was ,maine that taught him the force of the southern aspect4 ,romancer among the realistic facts of nature1 he might be called1 for he did not merely copy nature4 ,he did invest things with their own suggestive reality1 and he surmounted his earlier gifts for exact illustration by this other finer gift for romantic appreciation4 ,homer was an excellent narrator1 as will be seen in the ,gulf ,stream picture in the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,it has the powers of ,jack ,london and of ,conrad in it4 ,homer was intense1 vigorous1 and masculine4 ,if he was harsh in his characteristics1 he was one who knew the worth of economy in emotion4 ,he was one with his idea and his metier1 and that is sufficient4 ,,american ,,values ,,in ,,painting ,there are certain painters who join themselves together in a kind of grouping1 which1 whether they wish to think of themselves in this light or not1 have become in the matter of ,american values in painting1 a fixed associative aspect of painting in ,america4 ,when we speak of ,american painting1 the choice is small1 but definite as to the number of artists1 and the type of art they wished themselves to be considered for4 ,from the ,hudson ,river grouping1 which up to ,inness is not more marked than as a set of men copying nature with scrupulous fidelity to detail1 rather than conveying any special feeling or notion of what a picture of1 or the landscape itself1 may convey2 and leaving aside the ,american pupils of the ,academy in ,paris and ,rome1 most of whom returned with a rich sense of rhetorical conventionalities in art--men like ,william ,morris ,hunt and ,washington ,allston--we may turn to that other group of men as being far more typical of our soil and temper4 ,i mean artists such as ,homer ,martin1 ,albert ,p4 ,ryder1 ,george ,fuller1 and the later ,winslow ,homer who certainly did receive more recognition than any of them prior to his death4 ,martin1 ,ryder1 and ,fuller could not have enjoyed much in the way of appreciation outside of a few artists of their time1 and even now they may be said to be the artists for artists4 ,it is reasonable to hope that they were not successful1 since that which was la mode in the expression of their time was essentially of the dry ,academy4 ,one would hardly think of ,homer ,martin's ,border of the ,seine landscape in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 hardly more then than now1 and it leaves many a painter flat in appreciation of its great dignity1 austerity1 reserve1 and for the distinguished quality of its stylism4 ,what ,martin may have gotten1 during his stay in ,europe1 which is called impressionism is1 it must be said1 a more aristocratic type of impressionism than issued from the ,monet followers4 ,martin must then have been knowing something of the more dignified intellectualism of ,pissarro and of ,sisley1 those men who have been the last to reach the degrees of appreciation due them in the proper exactitude4 ,we cannot think of ,martin as ever having carried off academic medals during his period4 ,we cannot think of ,martin as ,president of the ,academy1 which position was occupied by a far inferior artist who was likewise carried away by impressionism1 namely ,alden ,weir4 ,the actual attachment in characteristic of introspective temper in ,alden ,weir is not so removed from ,martin1 ,fuller and ,ryder as might be imagined2 he is more like ,martin perhaps though far less profound in his sense of mystery2 ,fuller being more the romanticist and ,ryder in my estimation the greatest romanticist1 and artist as well1 of all of these men4 ,but ,alden ,weir failed to carry off any honor as to distinctive qualities and invention4 ,a genial aristocrat if you will1 but having for me no marked power outside of a ,barbizonian interest in nature with a kind of mystical detachedness4 ,but in the consideration of painters like ,martin1 ,fuller and ,ryder we are thinking chiefly of their relation to their time as well as their relation to what is to come in ,america4 ,america has had as much painting considering its youth as could be expected of it and the best of it has been essentially native and indigenous4 ,but in and out of the various influences and traditional tendencies1 these several artists with fine imaginations1 typical ,american imaginations1 were proceeding with their own peculiarly original and significantly personal expressions4 ,they represent up to their arrival1 and long after as well1 all there is of real originality in ,american painting1 and they remain for all time as fine examples of artists with purely native imaginations1 working out at great cost their own private salvations for public discovery at a later time4 ,all these men were poor men with highly distinguished aristocratic natures and powerful physiques1 as to appearances1 with mentalities much beyond the average4 ,when an exhibition of modern ,american painting is given1 as it surely will and must be1 these men and not the ,barbizonian echoes as represented by ,inness1 ,wyant ,co41 will represent for us the really great beginning of art in ,america4 ,there will follow naturally artists like ,twachtman and ,robinson1 as likewise ,kenneth ,hayes ,miller and ,arthur ,b4 ,davies for reasons that ,i think are rather obvious3 both ,hayes ,miller and ,arthur ,b4 ,davies having skipped over the direct influence of impressionism by reason of their attachment to ,renaissance ideas2 having joined themselves by conviction in perhaps slight degrees to aspects of modern painting4 ,miller is1 one might say1 too intellectually deliberate to allow for spontaneities which mere enthusiasms encourage4 ,miller is emotionally thrilled by ,renoir but he is never quite swept4 ,his essential conservatism hinders such violence4 ,it would be happier for him possibly if the leaning were still more pronounced4 ,the jump to modernism in ,arthur ,b4 ,davies results in the same sort of way as admixture of influence though it is more directly appreciable in him4 ,davies is more willing1 by reason of his elastic temper and intellectual vivacity1 to stray into the field of new ideas with a simple though firm belief1 that they are good while they last1 no matter how long they last4 ,davies is almost a propagandist in his feeling for and admiration of the ultra-modern movement4 ,miller is a questioner and ponders long upon every point of consequence or inconsequence4 ,he is a metaphysical analyst which is perhaps the extraneous element in his painting4 ,in his etching1 that is1 the newest of it1 one feels the sense of the classical and the modern joined together and by the classical ,i mean the quality of ,ingres1 ,conjoined with modern as in ,renoir1 relieved of the influence of ,italian ,renaissance4 ,but ,i do not wish to lose sight of these several forerunners in ,american art1 ,martin1 ,ryder and ,fuller who1 in their painting1 may be linked not without relativity to our artists in literary imagination1 ,hawthorne and ,poe4 ,fuller is conspicuously like ,hawthorne1 not by his appreciation of witchcraft merely1 but by his feeling for those eery presences which determine the fates of men and women in their time4 ,martin is the purer artist for me since he seldom or never resorted to the literary emotion in the sense of drama or narrative1 whereas in the instances of ,ryder or ,fuller they built up expression entirely from literary experience4 ,albert ,ryder achieves most by reason of his vaster poetic sensibility--his ,homeric instincts for the drama and by a very original power for arabesque4 ,he is alone among the ,americans in his unique gift for pattern4 ,we can claim ,albert ,ryder as our most original painter as ,poe takes his place as our most original poet who had of course one of the greatest and most perfect imaginations of his time and possibly of all time4 ,but it is these several painters ,i speak of1 ,martin1 ,ryder1 and ,fuller1 who figure for us as the originators of ,american indigenous painting4 ,they will not be copied for they further nothing beyond themselves4 ,no influence of these painters has been notable1 excepting for a time in the early experience of one of the younger modernists who1 by reason of definite associations of birthright and relativity of environment1 essayed to claim ,albert ,ryder as a very definite influence2 just as ,courbet and ,corot must in their ways have been powerful influences upon ,ryder himself4 ,albert ,ryder is too much of a figure to dismiss here with group-relationship1 he must be treated of separately4 ,so far then1 there is no marked evidence that the influence of ,fuller or ,martin was powerful enough to carry beyond themselves4 ,they had no tenets or theories other than those of personal clarification4 ,all three remained the hermit radicals of life1 as they remain isolated examples in ,american art2 and all of them essentially of ,new ,england1 in that they were conspicuously introspective1 and shut in upon their own exclusive experience4 ,but for all these variances1 we shall find ,homer ,martin1 ,george ,fuller1 and ,albert ,ryder forming the first nucleus for a definite value in strictly ,american painting4 ,they were conscious of nothing really outside of native associations and native deductions4 ,the temper of them is as essentially ,american as the quality of them is essentially ,eastern in flavor4 ,they seldom ventured beyond more than a home-spun richness of color1 though in ,ryder's case ,monticelli had assisted very definitely in his notion of the volume of tone4 ,we find here then despite the impress of artists like ,william ,morris ,hunt1 ,washington ,allston1 and the later ,inness with the still later ,winslow ,homer1 that gripping and relentless realist who took hold of the newer school of painter-illustrators1 that the artists treated of here may be considered as the most important phase of ,american painting in the larger sense of the term4 ,if ,i were to assist in the arrangement of an all ,american exhibition to show the trend toward individualism ,i should begin with ,martin1 ,fuller and ,ryder4 ,i should then proceed to ,winslow ,homer1 ,john ,h4 ,twachtman1 ,theodore ,robinson1 ,hayes ,miller1 ,arthur ,b4 ,davies1 ,rockwell ,kent1 then to those who come under the eighteen-ninety tendency in painting1 namely the ,whistler-,goya-,velasquez influence4 ,from this it will be found that an entirely new development had taken place among a fairly large group of younger men who came1 and very earnestly1 under the ,czannesque influence4 ,it may be said that the choice of these men is a wise one for it is conspicuous among artists of today that since ,czanne art will never1 cannot ever be the same1 just as with ,delacroix and ,courbet a ,french art could never have remained the same4 ,impressionism will be found to have had a far greater value as a suggestive influence than as a creative one4 ,it brought light in as a scientific aspect into modern painting and that is its valuable contribution4 ,so it is that with ,czanne the world is conscious of a new power that will never be effectually shaken off1 since the principles that are involved in the intention of ,czanne are of too vital importance to be treated with lightness of judgment4 ,such valuable ideas as ,czanne contributes must be accepted almost as dogma1 albeit valuable dogma4 ,influence is a conscious and necessary factor in the development of all serious minded artists1 as we have seen in the instances of all important ones4 ,so it is ,i feel that the real art of ,america1 and it can1 ,i think1 justly be said that there is such1 will be headed by the imaginative artists ,i have named in point of their value as indigenous creators1 having worked out their artistic destinies on home soil with all the virility of creators in the finer sense of the term4 ,they have assisted in the establishment of a native tradition which without question has by this time a definite foundation4 ,the public must be made aware of their contribution to a native production4 ,it will no doubt be a matter for surprise to many people in the world today that art in general is more national or local than it has ever been1 due mostly to the recent upheaval1 which has been of great service to the re-establishment of art interest and art appreciation everywhere in the modern world4 ,art1 like life1 has had to begin all over again1 for the very end of the world had been made visible at last4 ,the artist may look safely over an utterly new horizon1 which is the only encouragement the artist of today can hope for4 ,,modern ,,art ,,in ,,america ,the question may be asked1 what is the hope of modern art in ,america8 ,the first reply would be that modern art will one day be realized in ,america if only from experience we learn that all things happen in ,america by means of the epidemical principle4 ,it is of little visible use that single individuals1 by sitting in the solitary confinement of their as yet little understood enthusiasms1 shall hope to achieve what is necessary for the ,american idea1 precisely as necessary for us here as for the peoples of ,europe who have long since recognized that any movement toward expression is a movement of unquestionable importance4 ,until the moment when public sincerity and the public passion for excitement is stimulated1 the vague art interests of ,america will go on in their dry and conventional manner4 ,the very acute discernment of ,maurice ,vlaminck that intelligence is international1 stupidity is national1 art is local is a valuable deduction to make1 and applies in the two latter instances as admirably to ,america as to any other country4 ,our national stupidity in matters of esthetic modernity is a matter for obvious acceptance1 and not at all for amazement4 ,that art is local is likewise just as true of ,america as of any other country1 and despite the judgment of stodgy minds1 there is a definite product which is peculiar to our specific temper and localized sensibility as it is of any other country which is nameable4 ,despite the fact that impressionism is still exaggeration1 and that large sums are still being paid for a sheep-piece of ,charles ,jacque1 as likewise for a ,ridgeway ,knight1 there is a well defined grouping of younger painters working for a definitely localized idea of modernism1 just as in modern poetry there is a grouping of poets in ,america who are adding new values to the ,english language1 as well as assisting in the realization of a freshly evolved localized personality in modern poetics4 ,art in ,america is like a patent medicine1 or a vacuum cleaner4 ,it can hope for no success until ninety million people know what it is4 ,the spread of art as culture in ,america is from all appearances having little or no success because stupidity in such matters is so national4 ,there is a very vague consideration of modern art among the directors of museums and among art dealers1 but the comprehension is as vague as the interest4 ,outside of a ,van ,gogh exhibition1 a few ,matisses1 now and then a ,czanne exhibited with great feeling of condescension1 there is little to show the ,american public that art is as much a necessity as a substantial array of food is to an empty stomach4 ,the public hunger cannot groan for what it does not recognize as real nourishment4 ,there is no reason in the world why ,america does not have as many chances to see modern art as ,europe has1 save for minor matters of distance4 ,the peoples of the world are alike1 sensibilities are of the same nature everywhere among the so-called civilized1 and it must be remembered always that the so-called primitive races invented for their own racial salvation what was not to be found ready made for them4 ,modern art is just as much of a necessity to us as art was to the ,egyptians1 the ,assyrians1 the ,greeks4 ,those peoples have the advantage of us only because they were in a higher state of culture as a racial unit4 ,they have no more of a monopoly upon the idea of rhythm and organization than we have1 because that which was typical of the human consciousness then1 is typical of it now4 ,as a result of the war1 there has been1 it must be said1 a heightening of national consciousness in all countries1 because creative minds that were allowed to survive were sent home to struggle with the problem of their own soil4 ,there is no reason whatever for believing that ,america cannot have as many good artists as any other country4 ,it simply does not have them because the integrity of the artist is trifled with by the intriguing agencies of materialism4 ,painters find the struggle too keen and it is easy to become the advertising designer1 or the merchant in painting1 which is what many of our respectable artists have become4 ,the lust for prosperity takes the place of artistic integrity and courage4 ,but ,america need not be surprised to find that it has a creditable grouping of artists sufficiently interested in the value of modern art as an expression of our time1 men and possibly some women1 who feel that art is a matter of private aristocratic satisfaction at least1 until the public is awakened to the idea that art is an essentially local affair and the more local it becomes by means of comprehension of the international character1 the truer it will be to the place in which it is produced4 ,a catalogue of names will suffice to indicate the character and variation of the localized degree of expression we are free to call ,american in type3 ,morgan ,russell1 ,s4 ,macdonald ,wright1 ,arthur ,g4 ,dove1 ,william ,yarrow1 ,dickinson1 ,thomas ,h4 ,benton1 ,abraham ,walkowitz1 ,max ,weber1 ,ben ,benn1 ,john ,marin1 ,charles ,demuth1 ,charles ,sheeler1 ,marsden ,hartley1 ,andrew ,dasburg1 ,william ,mc,fee1 ,man ,ray1 ,walt ,kuhn1 ,john ,covert1 ,morton ,schamberg1 ,georgia ,o',keeffe1 ,stuart ,davis1 ,rex ,slinkard4 ,added to these1 the three modern photographers ,alfred ,stieglitz1 ,charles ,sheeler1 and ,paul ,strand must be included4 ,besides these indigenous names1 shall we place the foreign artists whose work falls into line in the movement toward modern art in ,america1 ,joseph ,stella1 ,marcel ,duchamp1 ,gaston ,lachaise1 ,eli ,nadelman4 ,there may be no least questioning as to how much success all of these artists would have in their respective ways in the various groupings that prevail in ,europe at this time4 ,they would be recognized at once for the authenticity of their experience and for their integrity as artists gifted with international intelligence4 ,there is no reason to feel that prevailing organizations like the ,society of ,independent ,artists1 ,inc41 and the ,socit ,anonyme1 ,inc41 will not bear a great increase of influence and power upon the public1 as there is every reason to believe that at one time or another the public will realize what is being done for them by these societies1 as well as what was done by the so famous #bia gallery4 ,the effect however is not vast enough because the public finds no shock in the idea of art4 ,it is not melodramatic enough and ,america must be appealed to through its essentially typical melodramatic instincts4 ,there is always enough music1 and there are some who certainly can say altogether too much of the kind there is in this country4 ,the same thing can be said of painting4 ,there is altogether too much of comfortable art1 the art of the uplifted illustration4 ,it is the reflex of the ,anglo-,saxon passion for story-telling in pictures which should be relegated to the field of the magazines4 ,great art often tells a story but great art is always something plus the idea4 ,ordinary art does not rise above it4 ,i often wonder why it is that ,america1 which is essentially a country of sports and gamblers1 has not the ,european courage as well as rapacity for fresh development in cultural matters4 ,can it be because ,america is not really intelligent8 ,i should be embarrassed in thinking so4 ,there is nevertheless an obvious lethargy in the appreciation of creative taste and a still lingering yet old-fashioned faith in the continual necessity for importation4 ,america has a great body of assimilators1 and out of this gift for uncreative assimilation has come the type of art we are supposed to accept as our own4 ,it is not at all difficult to prove that ,america has now an encouraging and competent group of young and vigorous synthesists who are showing with intelligence what they have learned from the newest and most engaging development of art1 which is to say--modern art4 ,the names which have been inserted above are the definite indication1 and one may go so far as to say proof1 of this argument that modern art in ,america is rapidly becoming an intelligently localized realization4 ,,our ,,imaginatives ,is it vision that creates temperament or temperament that creates vision8 ,physical vision is responsible for nearly everything in art1 not the power to see but the way to see4 ,it is the eye perfect or the eye defective that determines the kind of thing seen and how one sees it4 ,it was certainly a factor in the life of ,lafcadio ,hearn1 for he was once named the poet of myopia4 ,it was the acutely sensitive eye of ,czanne that taught him to register so ably the minor and major variations of his theme4 ,manet saw certainly far less colour than ,renoir1 for in the ,renoir sense he was not a colourist at all4 ,he himself said he painted only what he saw4 ,sight was almost science with ,czanne as it was passion4 ,in artists like ,homer ,martin there is a something less than visual accuracy and something more than a gift of translation4 ,there is a distinguished interpretation of mood coupled with an almost miniature-like sense of delicate gradation1 and at the same time a something lacking as to a sense of physical form4 ,in the few specimens of ,martin to be seen there is1 nevertheless1 eminent distinction paramount4 ,he was an artist of oblique integrity3 ,he saw unquestionably at an angle1 but the angle was a beautiful one1 and while many of his associates were doing ,american ,barbizon1 he was giving forth a shy1 yet rare kind of expression1 always a little symbolic in tendency1 with the mood far more predominant4 ,in ,the sand dunes of ,ontario there will be found at once a highly individualistic feeling for the waste places of the world4 ,there is never so much as a hint of banality in his selection4 ,he never resorts to stock rhetoric4 ,martin will be remembered for his singularly personal touch along with men like ,fuller and ,ryder4 ,he is not as dramatic as either of these artists1 but he has greater finesse in delicate sensibility4 ,he was1 ,i think1 actually afraid of repetition1 a characteristic very much in vogue in his time1 either conscious or unconscious1 in artists like ,inness1 ,wyant1 and ,blakelock1 with their so single note4 ,there is exceptional mysticity hovering over his hills and stretches of dune and sky4 ,it is not fog1 or rain1 or dew enveloping them4 ,it is a certain veiled presence in nature that he sees and brings forward4 ,his picture of peaks of the ,white ,mountains1 ,jefferson and ,madison1 gives you no suggestion of the ,hudson ,river emptiness4 ,he was searching for profounder realities4 ,he wanted the personality of his places1 and he was successful1 for all of his pictures ,i have seen display the magnetic touch4 ,he touched it off vividly in all of them4 ,they reveal their ideas poetically and esthetically and the method is personal and ample for presentation4 ,with ,george ,fuller it was vastly different4 ,he seemed always to be halting in the shadow4 ,you are conscious of a deep and ever so earnest nature in his pictures4 ,he impressed himself on his canvases in spite of his so faulty expression4 ,he had an understanding of depth but surface was strange to him4 ,he garbled his sentences so to speak with excessive and useless wording4 ,the ,octoroon shows a fine feeling for romance as do all of the other pictures of ,fuller that have been publicly visible1 but it is romance obsessed with monotone4 ,there is the evidence of extreme reticence and moodiness in ,fuller always4 ,i know little of him save that ,i believe he experienced a severity of domestic problems4 ,farmer ,i think he was1 and painted at off hours all his life4 ,it is the poetry of a quiet1 almost sombre order1 walking in the shadow on the edge1 of a wood being almost too much of an appearance for him in the light of a busy world4 ,why is it ,i think of ,hawthorne when ,i think of ,fuller8 ,is there a relationship here1 or is it only a similarity of eeriness in temper8 ,i would suspect ,fuller of having painted a ,hester ,prynne excepting that he could never have come to so much red in one place in his pictures4 ,there was vigour in these strong1 simple men1 masculine in sensibility all of them1 and a fine feeling for the poetic shades of existence4 ,they were intensely serious men1 and ,i think from their isolation in various ways1 not popular in their time4 ,neither are they popular now4 ,they will only be admired by artists of perception1 and by laymen of keen sensibility4 ,whether their enforced isolations taught them to brood1 or whether they were brooders by nature1 it is difficult to say4 ,i think they were all easterners1 and this would explain away certain characteristic shynesses of temper and of expression in them4 ,ryder1 as we know1 was the typical recluse1 ,fuller in all likelihood also4 ,martin ,i know little of privately1 but his portrait shows him to be a strong elemental nature1 with little feeling for1 or interest in1 the superficialities either of life or of art4 ,of ,blakelock ,i can say but little1 for ,i do not know him beyond a few stylish canvases which seem to have more of ,diaz and ,rousseau in them than contributes to real originality1 and he was one of the painters of repetition also4 ,a single good ,blakelock is beautiful1 and ,i think he must be included among the ,american imaginatives1 but ,i do not personally feel the force of him in several canvases together4 ,all of these artists are singularly individual1 dreamers like ,mathew ,maris and ,mares of ,europe4 ,they all have something of ,coleridge about them1 something of ,poe1 something of the ,ancient ,mariner and the ,haunted ,palace1 sailors in the same ship1 sleepers in the same house4 ,all of these men were struggling at the same time1 the painters ,i mean1 the same hour it might be said1 in the midst of conventions of a severer type of rigidity than now1 to preserve themselves from commonplace utterance4 ,they were not affected by fashions4 ,they had the one idea in mind1 to express themselves in terms of themselves1 and they were singularly successful in this despite the various difficulties of circumstance and of temper that attended them4 ,they understood what this was better than anyone1 and the results in varying degrees of genius attest to the quality of the ,american imagination at its best4 ,i should like1 for purposes of reference1 to see a worthy exhibition of all of these men in one place4 ,it would ,i am sure prove my statement that the eastern genius is naturally a tragic one1 for all of these men have hardly once ventured into the clear sunlight of the world of every day4 ,it would offset highly also1 the superficial attitude that there is no imagination in ,american painting4 ,we should not find so much of form or of colour in them in the stricter meaning of these ideas1 as of mood4 ,they might have set themselves to be disciples of ,william ,blake's significant preachment1 put off intellect and put on imagination1 the imagination is the man2 the intellect being the cultivated man1 and the imagination being the natural man4 ,there is imagination which by reason of its power and brilliance exceeds all intellectual effort1 and effort at intellectualism is worse than a fine ignorance by far4 ,men who are highly imaginative1 create by feeling what they do not or cannot know4 ,it is the sixth sense of the creator4 ,these artists were men alone1 touched with the pristine significance of nature4 ,it was pioneering of a difficult nature1 precarious as all individual investigation of a spiritual or esthetic character is sure to be4 ,its first requisite is isolation1 its last requisite is appreciation4 ,all of these painters are gone over into that place they were so eager to investigate1 illusion or reality4 ,their pictures are witness here to their seriousness4 ,they testify to the bright everlastingness of beauty4 ,if they have not swayed the world1 they have left a dignified record in the art of a given time4 ,their contemporary value is at least inestimable4 ,they are among the very first in the development of esthetics in ,america in point of merit4 ,they made no compromise1 and their record is clear4 ,if one looks over the record of ,american art up to the period of ultra-modernism1 it will be found that these men are the true originals among ,american painters4 ,we shall find outside of them and a very few others1 so much of sameness1 a certain academic convention which1 however pronounced or meagre the personalities are1 leave those personalities in the category of safe painters4 ,they do not disturb by an excessively intimate point of view toward art or toward nature4 ,they come up to gallery requirements by their pleasantness or the inoffensiveness of their style4 ,they offer little in the way of interpretive power or synthetic understanding4 ,it is the tendency to keep on the comfortable side in ,american art4 ,doubtless it is more practical as any innovator or investigator has learned for himself4 ,artists like ,ryder and ,martin and ,fuller had nothing in common with market appreciations4 ,they had ideas to express1 and were sincere to the last in expressing them4 ,you will find little trace of commercialism in these men1 even when1 as in the case of ,martin and ,ryder and ,i do not know whom else1 they did panels for somebody-or-other's leather screen1 of which ,smuggler's ,cove and the other long panel of ,ryder's in the ,metropolitan ,museum are doubtless two4 ,they were not successful in their time because they could not repeat their performances4 ,we know the efforts that were once made to make ,ryder comfortable in a conventional studio1 which he is supposed to have looked into once2 and then he disappeared1 as it was altogether foreign to him4 ,each picture was a new event in the lives of these men1 and had to be pondered over devoutly1 and for long periods often1 as in the case of ,ryder4 ,work was for him nine-tenths reflection and meditation and poetic brooding1 and he put down his sensations on canvas with great difficulty in the manner of a labourer4 ,it seems obvious that his first drafts were always vivid with the life intended for them1 but no one could possibly have suffered with the idea of how to complete a picture more than he4 ,his lack of facility held him from spontaneity1 as it is likewise somewhat evident in ,martin1 and still more in ,fuller4 ,they were artists in timidity1 and had not the courage of physical force in painting4 ,with them it was wholly a mental process4 ,but we shall count them great for their purity of vision as well as for the sincerity and conviction that possessed them4 ,artistry of this sort will be welcomed anywhere1 if only that we may take men seriously who profess seriousness4 ,there is nothing really antiquated about sincerity1 though ,i think conventional painters are not sure of that4 ,it is not easy to think that men consent to repeat themselves from choice1 and yet the passing exhibitions are proof of that4 ,martin and ,ryder and ,fuller refresh us with a poetic and artistic validity which places them out of association among men of their time or of today1 in the field of objective and illustrative painters4 ,we turn to them with pleasure after a journey through the museums1 for their reticence let us say1 and for the refinement of their vision1 their beautiful gift of restraint4 ,they emphasize the commonness of much that surrounds them1 much that blatantly would obscure them if they were not pronouncedly superior4 ,they would not be discounted to any considerable degree if they were placed among the known masters of landscape painters of all modern time4 ,they would hold their own by the verity of feeling that is in them1 and what they might lose in technical excellence1 would be compensated for in uniqueness of personality4 ,i should like well to see them placed beside artists like ,maris and ,mares1 and even ,courbet4 ,it would surprise the casual appreciator much1 ,i believe4 ,,our ,,impressionists ,i have for purely personal reasons chosen the two painters who formulate for me the conviction that there have been and are but two consistently convincing ,american impressionists4 ,these gentlemen are ,john ,h4 ,twachtman and ,theodore ,robinson4 ,i cannot say precisely in what year ,twachtman died but for purposes intended here this data is of no paramount consequence1 save that it is always a matter of query as to just how long an artist must live1 or have been dead1 to be discovered in what is really his own time4 ,john ,h4 ,twachtman as artist is difficult to know even by artists2 for his work is made difficult to see either by its scarcity as determined for himself or by the exclusiveness of the owners of his pictures4 ,it requires1 however1 but two or three of them to convince one that ,twachtman has a something plus to contribute to his excursions into impressionism4 ,one feels that after a ,duesseldorf blackness which permeates his earlier work his conversion to impressionism was as fortunate as it was sincere4 ,twachtman knew1 as is evidenced everywhere in his work1 what he wished to essay and he proceeded with poetic reticence to give it forth4 ,with a lyricism that is as convincing as it is authentic1 you feel that there is a certain underlying spirit of resignation4 ,he surely knew that a love of sunlight would save any man from pondering on the inflated importance of world issues4 ,having seen ,twachtman but once my memory of his face recalls this admixture of emotion4 ,he cared too much for the essential beauties to involve them with analyses extraneous to the meaning of beauty4 ,that the ,japanese did more for him than any other ,orientals of whom he might have been thinking1 is evident4 ,for all that1 his own personal lyricism surmounts his interest in outer interpretations of light and movement1 and he leaves you with his own notion of a private and distinguished appreciation of nature4 ,in this sense he leads one to ,renoir's way of considering nature which was the pleasure in nature for itself4 ,it was all too fine an adventure to quibble about4 ,twachtman's natural reticence and1 ,i could also believe1 natural skepticism kept him from swinging wildly over to the then new theories1 a gesture typical of less intelligent natures4 ,he had the good sense to feel out for himself just where the new theories related to himself and set about producing flat simplicity of planes of color to produce a very distinguished notion of light4 ,he dispensed with the photographic attitude toward objectivity and yet at the same time held to the pleasing rhythmical shapes in nature4 ,he did not resort to divisionalism or to ultra-violence of relationship4 ,the pictures that ,i have seen such as ,february1 for instance1 in the ,boston ,museum1 present for me the sensation of a man of great private spiritual and intellectual means1 having the wish to express tactfully and convincingly his personal conclusions and reactions1 leaning always toward the side of iridescent illusiveness rather than emotional blatancy and irrelevant extravagance4 ,his nuances are perhaps too finely adjusted to give forth the sense of overwhelming magic either in intention or of execution4 ,it is lyrical idea with ,twachtman with seldom or never a dramatic gesture4 ,he is as illusive as a phrase of ,mallarm and it will be remembered that he is of the period more or less of the rose and the lily and the lost idea in poetry4 ,he does recall in essence at least the quality of pastels in prose1 though the art intention is a sturdier one4 ,it is enough that ,twachtman did find his relationship to impressionism1 and that he did not evolve a system of repetition which marks the failure of all influence4 ,twachtman remains an artist of super-fine sensibility and distinction1 and whatever he may have poured into the ears of students as an instructor left no visible haggard traces on his own production other than perhaps limiting that production4 ,but we know that while the quality is valuable in respect of power it has no other precise value4 ,we remember that ,giorgione perished likewise with an uncertain product to his credit1 as to numbers1 but he did leave his immemorial impression4 ,so it is with ,john ,h4 ,twachtman4 ,he leaves his indelible influence among ,americans as a fine artist1 and he may be said to be among the few artists who1 having taken up the impressionistic principle1 found a way to express his personal ideas with a true degree of personal force4 ,he is a beautifully sincere product and that is going far4 ,those pictures ,i have seen contain no taint of the market or clamoring for praise even4 ,they were done because their author had an unobtrusive yet very aristocratic word to say1 and the word was spoken with authority4 ,john ,h4 ,twachtman must be counted as one of the genuine ,american artists1 as well as among the most genuine artists of the world4 ,if his pictures do not torment one with problematic intellectualism1 they do hold one with their inherent refinement of taste and a degree of aristocratic approach which his true intelligence implies4 ,with the work of ,theodore ,robinson1 there comes a wide divergence of feeling that is perhaps a greater comprehension of the principles of impressionism as applied to the realities involved in the academic principle4 ,one is reminded of ,bastien ,le ,page and ,lon ,l',hermitte1 in the paintings of ,robinson1 as to their type of subject and the conception of them also4 ,that he lived not far from ,giverney is likewise evident4 ,being of ,new ,england yankee extraction1 a ,vermonter ,i believe1 he must have essayed always a sense of economy in emotion4 ,no one could have gone so far as the then incredible ,monet1 whose pictures wear us to indifference with vapid and unprofitable thinking4 ,what ,monet did was to encourage a new type of audacity and a brand-new type in truth1 when no one had up to then attempted to see nature as prismatical under the direct influence of the solar rays4 ,all this has since been worked out with greater exactitude by the later theorists in modernism4 ,while ,van ,gogh was slowly perishing of a mad ecstasy for light1 covering up a natural ,dutch realism with fierce attempts at prismatic relationship1 always with the rhythms in a state of ecstatic ascendency2 and ,seurat had come upon the more satisfying pointillism as developed by himself2 somewhere in amid all these extravagances men like ,robinson were trying to combine orthodoxy of heritage and radicalist conversion with the new and very noble idea of impressionism4 ,that ,robinson succeeded in a not startling but nevertheless honorable and respectable fashion1 must be conceded him4 ,i sometimes think that ,vignon1 a seemingly obscure associate of the impressionists1 with a similar impassioned feeling of realism1 outdid him and approached closer to the principles as understood by ,pissarro3 probably better by a great deal than ,monet himself1 who is accredited with the honor of setting the theme moving in a modern line of that day4 ,and ,pissarro must have been a man to have so impressed all the men young and old of his time4 ,after seeing a great number of ,monet's one turns to any simple ,pissarro for relief4 ,and then there was also ,sisley4 ,but the talk is of ,theodore ,robinson4 ,he holds his place as a realist with hardly more than a realist's conception1 subjoined to a really pleasing appreciation of the principles of impressionism as imbibed by him from the source direct4 ,here are1 then1 the two true ,american impressionists1 who1 as far as ,i am aware1 never slipped into the banalities of reiteration and marketable self-copy4 ,they seem to have far more interest in private intellectual success than in a practical public one4 ,it is this which helped them both1 as it helps all serious artists1 to keep their ideas clean of outward taint4 ,this is one of the most important factors1 which gives a man a place in the art he essays to achieve4 ,when the day of his work is at an end it will be seen by everyone precisely what the influences were that prompted his effort toward deliverance through creation4 ,it is for the sake of this alone that sincere artists keep to certain principles1 and with genuine sacrifice often1 as was certainly the case with ,twachtman4 ,and after all1 how can a real artist be concerned as to just how salable his product is to be8 ,certainly not while he is working1 if he be decent toward himself4 ,this is of course heresy1 with ,wall ,street so near4 ,,arthur ,b4 ,,davies ,if ,arthur ,b4 ,davies had found it necessary1 as in the modern time it has been found necessary to separate literature from painting1 we should doubtless have had a very delicate and sensitive lyric poetry in book form4 ,titles for pictures like ,mirrored ,dreaming1 ,sicily-,flowering ,isle1 ,shell of ,gold1 ,a ,portal of the ,night1 ,mystic ,dalliance1 are all of them creations of an essentially poetic and literary mind4 ,they are all splendid titles for a real book of legendary experience4 ,the poet will be first to feel the accuracy of lyrical emotion in these titles4 ,the paintings lead one away entirely into the land of legend1 into the iridescent splendor of reflection4 ,they take one out of a world of didactic monotone1 as to their artistic significance4 ,they are essentially pictures created for the purpose of transportation4 ,from the earlier days in that underground gallery on ,fifth ,avenue near ,twenty-seventh ,street to the present time1 there has been a constantly flowing production of lyrical simplicity and purification4 ,one can never think of ,davies as one thinks of ,courbet and of ,czanne1 where the intention is first and last a technically esthetic one2 especially in ,czanne1 whose object was the removal of all significance from painting other than that of painting for itself4 ,with ,czanne it was problem4 ,one might even say it was the removal of personality4 ,with ,davies you are aware that it is an entirely intimate personal life he is presenting2 a life entirely away from discussion1 from all sense of problem2 they are not problematic at all1 his pictures2 they have lyrical serenity as a basis1 chiefly4 ,often you have the sensation of looking through a ,renaissance window upon a ,greek world--a world of ,platonic verities in calm relation with each other4 ,it is essentially an art created from the principle of the harmonic law in nature1 things in juxtaposition1 cooperating with the sole idea of a poetic existence4 ,the titles cover the subjects1 as ,i have suggested4 ,arthur ,b4 ,davies is a lyric poet with a decidedly ,celtic tendency4 ,it is the smile of a radiant twilight in his brain4 ,it is a country of green moon whispers and of shadowed movement4 ,imagination illuminating the moment of fancy with rhythmic persuasiveness4 ,it is the ,pandaean mystery unfolded with symphonic accompaniment4 ,you have in these pictures the romances of the human mind made irresistible with melodic certainty4 ,they are chansons sans paroles1 sung to the syrinx in ,sicilian glades4 ,i feel that it is our own romantic land transposed into terms of classical metre4 ,the color is mostly ,greek1 and the line is ,greek4 ,you could just as well hear ,glck as ,keats2 you could just as well see the world by the light of the virgin lamp1 and watch the smoke of old altars coiling among the cypress boughs4 ,the redwoods of the ,west become columns of ,doric eloquence and simplicity4 ,the mountains and lakes of the ,west have become settings for the reading of the ,centaur of ,maurice de ,guerin4 ,you see the reason for the titles chosen because you feel that the poetry of line and the harmonic accompaniment of color is the primal essential4 ,they are not so dynamic as suggestive in their quality of finality4 ,the way is left open1 in other words1 for you yourself to wander1 if you will1 and possess the requisite instincts for poetry4 ,the presence of ,arthur ,b4 ,davies1 and conversation with him convince one that poetry and art are in no sense a diversion or a delusion even4 ,they are an occupation1 a real business for intelligent men and women4 ,he is occupied with the essential qualities of poetry and painting4 ,he is eclectic by instinct4 ,spiritually he arrives at his conviction through these unquestionable states of lyrical existence4 ,he is there when they happen4 ,that is authenticity sufficient4 ,they are not wandering moods4 ,they are organized conditions and attitudes1 intellectually appreciated and understood4 ,he is a mystic only in the sense that perhaps all lyrical poetry is mystic1 since it strives for union with the universal soul in things4 ,it is perfectly autobiographical1 the work of ,arthur ,b4 ,davies1 and that is so with all genuine expression4 ,you find this gift for conviction in powerful painter types1 like ,courbet and ,delacroix1 who are almost propagandic in their fiercely defined insistence upon the chosen esthetic principle4 ,whatever emanation1 illusion1 or aura1 dreadful word that it is1 springing from the work of ,davies1 is only typical of what comes from all magical intentions1 the magic of the world of not-being1 made real through the operation of true fancy4 ,davies' pictures are works of fancy1 then1 in contradistinction to the essays of the imagination such as those of ,william ,blake4 ,poets like ,davies are lookers-in4 ,poets like ,blake are the austere residents of the country they wander in4 ,the lookers-in are no less genuine4 ,they merely make their world4 ,it might be said they make the prosaic world over again1 transform it by a system of prescribed magic4 ,this work1 then1 becomes states of fancy dramatized in lyric metre4 ,davies feels the visionary life of facts as a scientist would feel them actually4 ,he has the wish for absolute order and consistency4 ,there is nothing vague or disconcerting in his work1 no lapses of rhetoric4 ,it is1 in its way1 complete1 one may say1 since it is the intelligently contrived purpose of this poet to arrive at a scheme of absolute spiritual harmony4 ,he is first of all the poet-painter in the sense that ,albert ,ryder is a painter for those with a fine comprehension of the imagination4 ,precisely as ,redon is an artist for artists1 though not always their artist in convincing esthetics1 he too1 satisfies the instinct for legend1 for transformation4 ,painters like ,davies1 ,redon1 ,rops1 ,moreau1 and the other mystical natures1 give us rather the spiritual trend of their own lives4 ,in ,redon and in ,davies the vision is untouched by the foul breath of the world around them4 ,in ,rops and ,moreau you feel the imagination hurrying to the arms and breasts of vice for their sense of home4 ,the pathos of deliverance is urgent in them4 ,in the work of ,davies1 and of ,redon1 there is the splendid silence of a world created by themselves1 a world for the reflection of self4 ,there is even a kind of narcissian arrogance1 the enchantment of the illumined fact4 ,beauty recognizing herself with satisfaction--that seems to be the purpose of the work of ,arthur ,b4 ,davies4 ,it is so much outside the realm of scientific esthetics as hardly to have been more than overheard4 ,these pictures are efficiently exemplary of the axiom that all art aspires to the condition of music4 ,i could almost hear ,davies saying that1 as if ,pater had never so much as thought of it4 ,they literally soothe with a rare poetry painted for the eye4 ,they are illuminations for the manuscripts of the ascetic soul4 ,they are windows for houses in which men and women may withdraw1 and be reconciled to the doom of isolation4 ,with the arrival of ,cubism into the modern esthetic scene1 there appeared a change in the manner of creation1 though the same methods of invention remained chiefly without change4 ,the result seems more in the nature of kaleidoscopic variance1 a perhaps more acutely realized sense of opposites1 than in the former mode4 ,they register less completely1 it seems to me1 because the departure is too sudden in the rhythmus of the artist4 ,the art of ,davies is the art of a melodious curved line4 ,therefore the sudden angularity is abrupt to an appreciative eye4 ,it is the poetry of ,arthur ,b4 ,davies that comes to the fore in one's appreciation4 ,he has the almost impeccable gift for lyrical truth1 and the music of motion is crystallized in his imagination to a masterful degree4 ,he is the highly sensitized illustrator appointed by the states of his soul to picture forth the pauses of the journey through the realm of fancy4 ,it has in it the passion of violet and silver dreaming1 the hue of an endless dawn before the day descends upon the world4 ,you expect the lute to regain its jaded tune there4 ,you expect the harp to reverberate once again with the old fervors4 ,you expect the syrinx to unfold the story of the reed in light song4 ,it contains the history of all the hushed horizons that can be found over the edges of a world of materiality4 ,it holds in it always the warm soul of every digit of the moon4 ,human passion is for once removed1 unless it be that the mere humanism of motion excites the sense of passion4 ,you are made to feel the non-essentiality of the stress of the flesh in the true places of spiritual existence4 ,the life of moments is carried over and made permanent in fancy1 and they endure by the purity of their presence alone4 ,there is no violence in the work of ,davies4 ,it is the appreciable relation of harmony and counterpoint in the human heart and mind4 ,it is the logic of rhythmical equation felt there1 almost exclusively4 ,it is the condition of music that art in the lyrical state has seemed to suggest4 ,the artistic versatility of ,davies is too familiar to comment upon4 ,he has no distress with mediums4 ,his exceptional sensitivity to substance and texture gives him the requisite rapport with all species of mediums to which the artist has access4 ,one might be inclined to think of him as a virtuoso in pastel possibly1 and his paintings in the medium of oil suggest this sort of richness4 ,he is nevertheless at home in all ways4 ,all these are issues waved away to my mind1 in view of his acute leaning to the poet that leads the artist away from problems other than that of ,greek rhythmical perfection4 ,it is essentially a ,platonic expression1 the desire of the perfect union of one thing with another4 ,that is its final consummation1 so it seems to me4 ,,rex ,,slinkard ,i doubt not that the passionately wept deaths of young men are provided for4--,,walt ,,whitman4 ,we have had our time for regretting the loss of men of genius during the war4 ,we know the significance of the names of ,rupert ,brooke1 ,edward ,thomas1 ,elroy ,flecker on the other side of the sea1 to the hope of ,england4 ,and on this side of the sea the names of ,joyce ,kilmer1 ,alan ,seeger and ,victor ,chapman have been called out to us for the poetic spell they cast upon ,america4 ,all of them in their manful1 poetic way4 ,they were all of them poets in words2 all but ,victor ,chapman were professional poets1 and he1 even if he himself was not aware1 gave us some rare bits of loveliness in his letters4 ,there are others almost nameless among soldier-hero people who gave us likewise real bits of unsuspected beauty in their unpretentious letters4 ,rex ,slinkard was a soldier1 poet-painter by inclination1 and ranchman as to specific occupation4 ,rex has gone from us1 too4 ,how many are there who know1 or could have known1 the magic of this unassuming visionary person4 ,only a few of us who understand the meaning of magic and the meaning of everlasting silences4 ,it is the fortune of ,america that there remain with us numbers of highly indicative drawings and a group of rare canvases1 the quality of which painters will at once acclaim1 and poets will at once verify the lyric perfection of1 paintings and drawings among the loveliest we have in point of purity of conception and feeling for the subtle shades of existence1 those rare states of life which1 when they arrive1 are called perfect moments in the poetic experience of men and women4 ,there will be no argument to offer or to maintain regarding the work of ,rex ,slinkard4 ,it is what it is1 the perfect evidence that one of the finest lyric talents to be found among the young creators of ,america has been deprived of its chance to bloom as it would like to have done1 as it so eagerly and surely was already doing4 ,rex ,slinkard was a genius of first quality4 ,the word genius may be used these days without fear of the little banalities1 since anyone who has evolved for himself a clear vision of life may be said to possess the quality of genius4 ,the day's work done and the supper past4 ,i walk through the horse-lot and to my shack4 ,inside ,i light the lantern1 and then the fire1 and sitting1 ,i think of the inhabitants of the earth1 and of the world1 my home4 ,these sentences1 out of a letter to a near friend1 and the marginalia written upon the edges of many of his drawings1 show the varying degrees of delicacy ,rex was eager to register and make permanent for his own realization4 ,his thought was once and for all upon the realities1 that is1 those substances that are or can be realities only to the artist1 the poet1 and the true dreamer1 and ,rex ,slinkard was all of these4 ,his observation of himself1 and his understanding of himself1 were uncommonly genuine in this young and so poetic painter4 ,he had learned early for so young a man what were his special idealistic fervors4 ,he had the true romanticist's gift for refinements1 and was working continually toward the rarer states of being out from the emotional into the intellectual1 through spiritual application into the proper and requisite calm4 ,he lived in a thoroughly ordered world of specified experience which is typified in his predilection for the superiority of ,chinese notions of beauty over the more sentimental rhythms of the ,greeks4 ,he had found the proper shade of intellectuality he cared for in this type of ,oriental expression4 ,it was the ,buddhistic feeling of reality that gave him more than the platonic4 ,he was searching for a majesty beyond sensuousness1 by which sensuous experience is transformed into greater and more enduring shades of beauty4 ,he wanted the very life of beauty to take the place of sensuous suggestion4 ,realities in place of semblances1 then1 he was eager for1 but the true visionary realities as far finer than the materialistic reality4 ,he had learned early that he was not1 and never would be1 the fantasist that some of his earlier canvases indicate4 ,even his essays in portraiture1 verging on the realistic1 leaned nevertheless more toward the imaginative reality always4 ,he knew1 also1 with clarity1 the fine line of decision between imagination and vision1 between the dramatic and the lyric1 and had realized completely the supremacy of the lyric in himself4 ,he was a young boy of light walking on a man's strong feet upon real earth over which there was no shadow for him4 ,he walked straightforwardly toward the elysium of his own very personal organized fancies4 ,his irrigation ditches were young rivers for him1 rivers of being1 across which white youths upon white horses1 and white fawns were gliding to the measure of their own delights4 ,he had1 this young boy of light1 the perfect measure of poetic accuracy coupled with a man's fine simplicity in him4 ,he had the priceless calm for the understanding of his own poetic ecstasies4 ,they acted upon him gently with their own bright pressure4 ,he let them thrive according to their own relationships to himself4 ,nothing was forced in the mind and soul of ,rex ,slinkard4 ,he was in quest of the modern rapture for permanent things such as is to be found in ,l'aprs midi d'un ,faun of ,mallarm and ,debussy for instance1 in quest of those rare1 whiter proportions of experience4 ,it was radiance and simplicity immingled in his sense of things4 ,he would have served his country well as one of its clearest and best citizens1 far more impressively by the growth and expansion of his soul in his own manly vision1 than by the questionable value of his labors in the military service4 ,he did what he could1 gladly and heroically1 but he had become too weakened by the siege of physical reverses that pursued his otherwise strong body to endure the strain of labor he performed1 or wanted to accomplish4 ,he knew long before he entered service the significance of discipline from very profound experience with life from childhood onward4 ,life had come to him voluminously because he was one who attracted life to him1 electrically4 ,he did not whine or postpone1 for he was in all of his hours at least mentally and spiritually equal to the world in all of its aspects4 ,he was physically not there for the thing he volunteered to do1 despite the appearance of manly strength in him1 or thought he would be able to do4 ,he hoped strongly to serve4 ,none knew his secret so well as himself1 and he kept his own secret royally and amicably4 ,exceptional maturity of understanding of life1 of nature1 and all the little mysteries that are the shape of human moments1 was conspicuously evidenced for as long as his intimates remember4 ,the extraordinary measure of calm contained in his last pictures and in so many of the drawings done in moments of rest in camp is evidence of all this4 ,he had a boy's brightness and certainty of the fairness of things1 joined with a man's mastery of the simple problem4 ,he was a true executive in material affairs and his vision was another part of the business of existence4 ,as ,i have said1 ,rex ,slinkard had the priceless poise of the true lyric poet1 and it was the ordered system in his vision that proved him4 ,he knew the value of his attitudes and he was certain that perfection is imperishable1 and strove with a poet's calm intensity toward that4 ,he had found his ,egypt1 his ,assyria1 his ,greece1 and his own specific ,nirvana at his feet everywhere4 ,as he stood attending to the duties of irrigation and the ripening of the alfalfa crops1 he spent the moments otherwise lost in carving pebbles he found about him with rare gestures and profiles1 either of his own face or body which he knew well1 or the grace of other bodies and faces he had seen4 ,he was always the young eye on things1 an avid eye sure of the wonder about to escape from every living thing where light or shadow fell upon them gently4 ,he was a sure1 unquestionable1 and in this sense a perfect poet1 and possessed the undeniable painter's gift for presentation4 ,he was of the company of ,odilon ,redon1 of whom he had never heard1 in his feeling for the almost occult presence emanating from everything he encountered everywhere1 and his simple letters to his friends hold touches of the same beauty his drawings and paintings and carvings on pebbles contain4 ,a born mystic and visionary as to the state of his soul1 a boy of light in quest of the real wisdom that is necessary for the lyrical embodiment1 this was ,rex ,slinkard1 the western ranchman and poet-painter4 ,i think of the inhabitants of the earth and of the world1 my home4 ,this might have been a marginal note from the ,book of ,thel1 or it might have been a line from some new songs of innocence and experience4 ,it might have been spoken from out of one of the oaks of ,william ,blake4 ,it must have been heard from among the live oaks of ,saugus4 ,it was the simple speech of a ranchman of ,california1 a real boy-man who loved everything with a poet's love because everything that lived1 lived for him4 ,such were the qualities of ,rex ,slinkard1 who would like to have remained in the presence of his friends1 the inhabitants of the earth1 to have lived long in the world1 his home4 ,it is all a fine clear testimony to the certainty of youth1 perhaps the only certainty there can be4 ,he was the calm declaimer of the life of everlasting beauty4 ,he saw with a glad eye the something that is everywhere at all times1 and in all places1 for the poet's and the visionary's eye at least4 ,he was sure of what he saw2 his paintings and drawings are a firm conviction of that4 ,like all who express themselves clearly1 he wanted to say all he had to say4 ,at thirty he had achieved expression remarkably4 ,he had found the way out1 and the way out was toward and into the light4 ,he was clear1 and entirely unshadowed4 ,this is ,rex ,slinkard1 ranchman1 poet-painter1 and man of the living world4 ,since he could not remain1 he has left us a carte visite of rarest clarity and beauty4 ,we who care1 among the few1 for things in relation to essences1 are glad ,rex ,slinkard lived and laughed and wondered1 and remained the little while4 ,the new silence is but a phase of the same living one he covered all things with4 ,he was glad he was here4 ,he was another angle of light on the poetic world around us1 another unsuspected facet of the bright surface of the world4 ,surfaces were for him1 too1 something to be deepened with a fresh vividness4 ,he had the irresistible impulse to decorate and to decorate consistently4 ,his sense of decoration was fluid and had no hint of the rhetorical in it4 ,he felt everything joined together1 shape to shape1 by the harmonic insistence in life and in nature4 ,a flower held a face1 and a face held a flowery substance for him4 ,bodies were young trees in bloom1 and trees were lines of human loveliness4 ,the body of the man1 the body of the woman1 beautiful male and female bodies1 the ideal forms of everyone and everything he encountered1 he understood and made his own4 ,they were all living radiances against the dropped curtain of the world4 ,he loved the light on flesh1 and the shadows on strong arms1 legs1 and breasts4 ,he avoided theory1 either philosophic or esthetic4 ,he had traveled through the ages of culture in his imagination1 and was convinced that nothing was new and nothing was old4 ,it was all living and eternal when it was genuine4 ,he stepped out of the world of visible realities but seldom1 and so it was1 books and methods of interpretation held little for him4 ,he didn't need them1 for he held the whole world in his arms through the power of dream and vision4 ,he touched life everywhere1 touched it with himself4 ,rex ,slinkard went away into a celestial calm ,october #ah1 #aiah1 in ,st4 ,vincent's ,hospital1 ,new ,york ,city4 ,it is the few among those of us who knew him as poet and visionary and man1 who wish earnestly that ,rex might have remained4 ,he gave much that many wanted1 or would have wanted if they had had the opportunity of knowing him4 ,the pictures and drawings that remain are the testimony of his splendid poetic talents4 ,he was a lyrical painter of the first order4 ,he is something that we miss mightily1 and shall miss for long4 ,,some ,,american ,,water-,,colorists ,with the arrival of ,czanne into the field of water-color painting1 this medium suffers a new and drastic instance for comparison4 ,it is not technical audacity alone1 of course1 that confronts us in these brilliantly achieved performances1 so rich in form as well as radiant with light4 ,it is not the kind of virility for its own sake that is typical of our own ,american artists so gifted in this special medium1 like ,whistler1 ,sargent1 ,winslow ,homer1 ,dodge ,macknight1 ,john ,marin1 and ,charles ,demuth4 ,with ,czanne it was merely a new instrument to employ for the realization of finer plastic relations4 ,the medium of water-color has been ably employed by the ,english and the ,dutch painters1 but it seems as if the artists of both these countries succeeded in removing all the brilliance and charm as well as the freshness which is peculiar to it2 few outside of ,czanne have1 ,i think1 done more with water-color than the above named ,american artists1 none who have kept more closely and consistently within the confines and peculiarities of this medium4 ,in the consideration of the ,american water-color artists it will be found that ,sargent and ,homer tend always toward the graphic aspect of a pictorial idea1 yet it is ,homer who relieves his pictures of this obsession by a brilliant appreciation of the medium for its own sake4 ,homer steps out of the dry conventionalism of the ,english style of painting1 which ,sargent does not do4 ,much of that metallic harshness which is found in the oil pictures of ,homer is relieved in the water-colors and there is added to this their extreme virtuosity1 and a great distinction to be discovered in their sense of light and life1 the sense of the object illumined with a wealth of vibrancy that is peculiar to its environment1 particularly noticeable in the ,florida series4 ,dodge ,macknight has seen with a keen eye the importance of this virility of technique to be found in ,homer1 and has added to this a passion for impressionistic veracity which heightens his own work to a point distinctly above that of ,sargent1 and one might almost say above ,winslow ,homer4 ,macknight really did authenticate for himself the efficacy of impression with almost incredible feats of visual bravery4 ,there is no array of pigment sufficient to satisfy him as for what heat and cold do to his sensibility1 as experienced by the opposite poles of a ,new ,england winter and a tropical ,mexican landscape4 ,he is always in search of the highest height in contrasts1 all this joined by what his sense of fierceness of light could bring to the fantastic dune stretches of ,cape ,cod in fiery autumn4 ,his work in water-color has the convincing charm of almost fanaticism for itself2 and we find this medium progressing still further with the fearlessness of ,john ,marin in the absolute at-home-ness which he displays on all occasions in his audacious water-color pictures4 ,marin brings you to the feeling that digression is for him imperative only as affording him relief from the tradition of his medium4 ,john ,marin employs all the restrictions of water-color with the wisdom that is necessary in the case4 ,he says that paper plus water1 plus emotion will give a result in themselves and proceeds with the idea at hand in what may without the least temerity be called a masterly fashion2 he has run the gamut of experience with his materials from the earliest ,turner tonalities1 through ,whisterian vagaries on to ,american definiteness1 and has incidentally noted that the ,chinese have been probably the only supreme masters of the wash in the history of water-color painting4 ,i can say for myself that ,marin produces the liveliest1 handsomest wash that is producible or that has ever been accomplished in the field of water-color painting4 ,perhaps many of the pictures of ,john ,marin were not always satisfying in the tactile sense because many of them are taken up with an inevitable passion for technical virtuosity1 which is no mean distinction in itself but we are not satisfied as once we were with this passion for audacity and virtuosity4 ,we have learned that spatial existence and spatial relationships are the important essentials in any work of art4 ,the precise ratio of thought accompanied by exactitude of emotion for the given idea is a matter of serious consideration with the modern artists of today4 ,that is the special value of modern painting to the development of art4 ,the ,chinese really knew just what a wash was capable of1 and confined themselves to the majesty of the limitations at hand4 ,john ,marin has been wise in this also though he is not precisely fanatical1 which may be his chief defect1 and it is probably true that the greatest experimenters have shown fanatical tendency1 which is only the accentuated spirit of obsession for an idea4 ,how else does one hold a vision8 ,it is the only way for an artist to produce plastic exactitude between two planes of sensation or thought4 ,the parts must be as perfect as the whole and in the best art this is so4 ,there must be the sense of existence everywhere and it might even be said that the cool hue of the intellect is the first premise in a true work of art4 ,virtuosity is a state of expression but it is not the final state4 ,one must search for as well as find the sequential quality which is necessitated for the safe arrival of a work of art into the sphere of esthetic existence4 ,the water-colors of ,john ,marin are restless with energy1 which is in its way a real virtue4 ,they do1 ,i think1 require1 at times at least1 more of the calm of research and less of the excitement of it4 ,all true artistry is self-contained and never relies upon outer physical stimulus or inward extravagance of phantasy1 or of idiosyncrasy4 ,a work of art is never peculiar1 it is always a natural thing4 ,in this sense ,john ,marin approaches real art because he is probably the most natural water-colorist in existence4 ,with ,charles ,demuth water-color painting steps up into the true condition of ideas followed by experience4 ,he has joined with modernism most consistently1 having arrived at this state of progression by the process of investigation4 ,the tradition of water-color painting takes a jump into the new field of modernism1 and ,demuth has given us his knowledge of the difference between illustration1 depiction1 and the plastic realization of fact4 ,probably no young artist has accomplished a finer degree of artistic finesse in illustration than has ,charles ,demuth in his series of illustrations for ,the ,two ,magics of ,henry ,james1 or more explicitly to say ,the ,turn of the ,screw4 ,these pictures are to the true observer all that could be hoped for in imaginative sincerity as well as in technical elusiveness4 ,demuth has since that time stepped out of the confinement of water-color pure1 over into the field of tempera1 which brings it nearer to the sturdier mediums employed in the making of pictures evolving a greater severity of form and a commendable rigidity of line4 ,he has learned like so many moderns that the ruled line offers greater advantages in pictorial structure4 ,you shall find his approach to the spirit of ,christopher ,wren is as clear and direct as his feeling for the vastiness of ,new ,england speechlessness4 ,he has come up beyond the dramatisation of emotion to the point of expression for its own sake4 ,but he is nevertheless to be included among the arrived water-colorists1 because his gifts for expression have been evolved almost entirely through this medium4 ,there is then a fine ,american achievement in the art of water-color painting which may safely be called at this time a localized tradition4 ,it has become an ,american realization4 ,,the ,,appeal ,,of ,,photography ,photography is an undeniable esthetic problem upon our modern artistic horizon4 ,the idea of photography as an art has been discussed no doubt ever since the invention of the pinhole4 ,in the main1 ,i have always said for myself that the kodak offers me the best substitute for the picture of life1 that ,i have found4 ,i find the snapshot1 almost without exception1 holding my interest for what it contains of simple registration of and adherence to facts for themselves4 ,i have had a very definite and plausible aversion to the artistic photograph1 and we have had more than a surfeit of this sort of production for the past ten or fifteen years4 ,i have referred frequently in my mind to the convincing portraits by ,david ,octavius ,hill as being among the first examples of photographic portraiture to hold my own private interest as clear and unmanipulated expressions of reality2 and it is a definite as well as irresistible quality that pervades these mechanical productions1 the charm of the object for its own sake4 ,it was the irrelevant artistic period in photography that did so much to destroy the vital significance of photography as a type of expression which may be classed as among the real arts of today4 ,and it was a movement that failed because it added nothing to the idea save a distressing superficiality4 ,it introduced a fog on the brain1 that was as senseless as it was embarrassing to the eye caring intensely for precision of form and accuracy of presentation4 ,photography was in this sense unfortunate in that it fell into the hands of adepts at the brush who sought to introduce technical variations which had nothing in reality to do with it and with which it never could have anything in common4 ,all this sort of thing was produced in the age of the famous men and women1 the period of eighteen ninety-five to nineteen hundred and ten say1 for it was the age when the smart young photographer was frantic to produce famous sitters like ,shaw and ,rodin4 ,we do not care anything about such things in our time because we now know that anybody well photographed according to the scope as well as the restrictions of the medium at hand could be1 as has been proven1 an interesting subject4 ,it has been seen1 as ,alfred ,stieglitz has so clearly shown1 that an eyebrow1 a leg1 a tree trunk1 a body1 a breast1 a hand1 any part being equal to the whole in its power to tell the story1 could be made as interesting1 more so indeed than all the famous people in existence4 ,it doesn't matter to us in the least that ,morgan and ,richard ,strauss helped fill a folio alongside of ,maeterlinck and such like persons4 ,all this was1 of course1 in keeping with the theatricism of the period in which it was produced1 which is one of the best things to be said of it4 ,but we do know that ,whistler helped ruin photography along with ,wilde who helped ruin esthetics4 ,everyone has his office nevertheless4 ,as a consequence1 ,alfred ,stieglitz was told by the prevailing geniuses of that time that he was a back number because of his strict adherence to the scientific nature of the medium1 because he didn't manipulate his plate beyond the strictly technical advantages it offered1 and it was not therefore a fashionable addition to the kind of thing that was being done by the assuming ones at that time4 ,the exhibition of the life-work of ,alfred ,stieglitz in ,march1 #aiba1 at the ,anderson ,galleries1 ,new ,york1 was a huge revelation even to those of us who along with our own ultra modern interests had found a place for good unadulterated photography in the scheme of our appreciation of the art production of this time4 ,i can say without a qualm that photography has always been a real stimulus to me in all the years ,i have been personally associated with it through the various exhibitions held along with those of modern painting at the gallery of the ,photo-,secession1 or more intimately understood as #bia4 ,photography was an interesting foil to the kind of veracity that painting is supposed to express1 or rather to say1 was then supposed to express2 for painting like all other ideas has changed vastly in the last ten years1 and even very much since the interval created by the war4 ,i might have learned this anywhere else1 but ,i did get it from the ,stieglitz camera realizations with more than perhaps the expected frequency1 and ,i am willing to assert now that there are no portraits in existence1 not in all the history of portrait realization either by the camera or in painting1 which so definitely present1 and in many instances with an almost haunting clairvoyance1 the actualities existing in the sitter's mind and body and soul4 ,these portraits are for me without parallel therefore in this particular4 ,and ,i make bold with another assertion1 that from our modern point of view the ,stieglitz photographs are undeniable works of art1 as are also the fine photographs of the younger men like ,charles ,sheeler and ,paul ,strand4 ,sheeler1 being also one of our best modern painters1 has probably added to his photographic work a different type of sensibility by reason of his experience in the so-called creative medium of painting4 ,it is1 as we know1 brain matter that counts in a work of art1 and we have dispensed once and for all with the silly notion that a work of art is made by hand4 ,art is first and last of all1 a product of the intelligence4 ,i think the photographers must at least have been a trifle upset with this ,stieglitz ,exhibition4 ,i know that many of the painters of the day were noticeably impressed4 ,there was much to concern everyone there1 in any degree that can be put upon us as interested spectators4 ,for myself1 ,i care nothing for the gift of interpretation1 and far less for that dreadful type of effete facility which produces a kind of hocus-pocus technical brilliancy which fuddles the eye with a trickery1 and produces upon the untrained and uncritical mind a kind of unintelligent hypnotism4 ,art these days is a matter of scientific comprehension of reality1 not a trick of the hand or the old-fashioned manipulation of a brush or a tool4 ,i am interested in presentation pure and simple4 ,all things that are living are expression and therefore part of the inherent symbology of life4 ,art1 therefore1 that is encumbered with excessive symbolism is extraneous1 and from my point of view1 useless art4 ,anyone who understands life needs no handbook of poetry or philosophy to tell him what it is4 ,when a picture looks like the life of the world1 it is apt to be a fair picture or a good one1 but a bad picture is nothing but a bad picture and it is bound to become worse as we think of it4 ,and so for my own pleasure ,i have consulted the kodak as furnishing me with a better picture of life than many pictures ,i have seen by many of the so-called very good artists1 and ,i have always delighted in the rotograph series of the ,sunday papers because they are as close to life as any superficial representation can hope to be4 ,it was obvious then that many of those who saw the ,stieglitz photographs1 and there were large crowds of them1 were non-plussed by the unmistakable authenticity of experience contained in them4 ,if you stopped there you were of course mystified1 but there is no mystery whatever in these productions1 for they are as clear and ,i shall even go so far as to say as objective as the daylight which produced them1 and aside from certain intimate issues they are impersonal as it is possible for an artist to be4 ,it is this quality in them which makes them live for me as realities in the art world of modern time4 ,all art calls for one variety of audacity or another and so these photographs unfold one type of audacity which is not common among works of art1 excepting of course in highly accentuated instances of autographic revelation4 ,it is the intellectual sympathy with all the subjects on exhibition which is revealed in these photographs3 ,a kind of spiritual diagnosis which is seldom or never to be found among the photographers and almost never among the painters of the conventional portrait4 ,this ability1 talent1 virtue1 or genius1 whatever you may wish to name it1 is without theatricism and therefore without spectacular demonstration either of the sitter or the method employed in rendering them4 ,it is never a matter of arranging cheap and practically unrelated externals with ,alfred ,stieglitz4 ,i am confident it can be said that he has never in his life made a spectacular photograph4 ,his intensity runs in quite another channel altogether4 ,it is far closer to the clairvoyant exposure of the psychic aspects of the moment1 as contained in either the persons or the objects treated of4 ,with these essays in character of ,alfred ,stieglitz1 you have a series of types who had but one object in mind1 to lend themselves for the use of the machine in order that a certain problem might be accurately rendered with the scientific end of the process in view1 and the given actuality brought to the surface when possible4 ,i see nothing in these portraits beyond this4 ,i understand them technically very little only that ,i am aware that ,i have not for long1 and perhaps never1 seen plates that hold such depths of tonal value and structural relationship of light and shade as are contained in the hundred and fifty prints on exhibition in the ,anderson ,galleries4 ,art is a vastly new problem and this is the first thing which must be learned4 ,precisely as we learn that a certain type of painting ended in the history of the world with ,czanne4 ,there is an impulse now in painting toward photographic veracity of experience as is so much in evidence in the work of an artist of such fine perceptions as ,ingres1 with a brushing aside of all old-fashioned notions of what constitutes artistic experience4 ,there is a deliberate revolt1 and photography as we know it in the work of ,alfred ,stieglitz and the few younger men like ,strand and ,sheeler is part of the new esthetic anarchism which we as younger painters must expect to make ourselves responsible for4 ,it must be remembered you know1 that there has been a war1 and art is in a condition of encouraging and stimulating renascence1 and we may even go so far as to say that it is a greater world issue than it was previous to the great catastrophe4 ,and also1 it must be heralded that as far as art is concerned the end of the world has been seen4 ,the true artist1 if he is intelligent1 is witness of this most stimulating truth that confronts us4 ,we cannot hope to function esthetically as we did before all this happened1 because we are not the same beings intellectually4 ,this does not mean in relation to photography that all straight photography is good4 ,it merely means that the kind of photography ,i must name ,fifth ,avenue art1 is a conspicuous species of artistic bunkum1 and must be recognized as such4 ,photographers must know that fogging and blurring the image is curtailing the experience of it4 ,it is a foolish notion that mystification is of any value4 ,flattery is one of the false elements that enter into the making of a work of art among the artists of doubtful integrity1 but this is often if not always the commercial element that enters into it4 ,there is a vast difference between this sort of representation and that which is to be found in ,greek sculpture which is nothing short of conscious plastic organization4 ,these figures were set up in terms of the prevailing systems of proportion4 ,portraits were likewise arranged through the artistry of the painter in matters of decoration for the great halls of the periods in which they were hung4 ,they were studies on a large scale of ornamentation4 ,their beauty lies chiefly in the gift of execution4 ,in these modern photographs of ,stieglitz and his followers there is an engaging directness which cannot be and must not be ignored4 ,they do for once give in the case of the portraits1 and ,i mean chiefly of course the ,stieglitz portraits1 the actuality of the sitter without pose or theatricism of any sort1 a rather rare thing to be said of the modern photograph4 ,stieglitz1 therefore1 despite his thirty or more years of experimentation comes up among the moderns by virtue of his own personal attitude toward photography1 and toward his1 as well as its1 relation to the subject4 ,his creative power lies in his ability to diagnose the character and quality of the sitter as being peculiar to itself1 as a being in relation to itself seen by his own clarifying insight into general and well as special character and characteristic4 ,it need hardly be said that he knows his business technically for he has been acclaimed sufficiently all over the world by a series of almost irrelevant medals and honours without end4 ,the ,stieglitz exhibition is one that should have been seen by everyone regardless of any peculiar and special predilection for art4 ,these photos will have opened the eye and the mind of many a sleeping one as to what can be done by way of mechanical device to approach the direct charm of life in nature4 ,the moderns have long since congratulated ,alfred ,stieglitz for his originality in the special field of his own creative endeavor4 ,it will matter little whether the ancients do or not4 ,his product is a fine testimonial to his time and therefore this is his contribution to his time4 ,he finds himself1 and perhaps to his own embarrassment even1 among the best modern artists2 for ,stieglitz as ,i understand him cares little for anything beyond the rendering of the problem involved which makes him of course scientific first and whatever else afterward1 which is the hope of the modern artists of all movements1 regardless4 ,incidentally it may be confided he is an artistic idol of the ,dadaists which is at least a happy indication of his modernism4 ,if he were to shift his activities to ,paris1 he would be taken up at once for his actual value as modern artist expressing present day notions of actual things4 ,perhaps he will not care to be called ,dada1 but it is nevertheless true4 ,he has ridden his own vivacious hobby-horse with as much liberty1 and one may even say license1 as is possible for one intelligent human being4 ,there is no space to tell casually of his various aspects such as champion billiard player1 racehorse enthusiast1 etcetera4 ,this information would please his dadaistic confrres1 if no one else shows signs of interest4 ,,some ,,women ,,artists ,,in ,,modern ,,painting ,it is for the purpose of specialization that the term woman is herewith applied to the idea of art in painting4 ,art is for anyone naturally who can show degree of mastery in it4 ,there have been a great many women poets and musicians as well as actors1 though singularly enough the women painters of history have been few1 and for that matter in question of proportion remain so4 ,whatever the wish may be in point of dismissing the idea of sex in painting1 there has so often been felt among many women engaging to express themselves in it1 the need to shake off marked signs of masculinity1 and even brutishness of attack1 as denoting1 and it must be said here1 a factitious notion of power4 ,power in painting does not come from muscularity of arm2 it comes naturally from the intellect4 ,there are a great many male painters showing too many signs of femininity in their appreciation and the conception of art in painting4 ,art is neither male nor female4 ,nevertheless1 it is pleasing to find women artists such as ,i wish to take up here1 keeping to the charm of their own feminine perceptions and feminine powers of expression4 ,it is their very femininity which makes them distinctive in these instances4 ,this does not imply lady-like approach or womanly attitude of moral4 ,it merely means that their quality is a feminine quality4 ,in the work of ,madame ,delaunay ,terck1 who is the wife of ,delaunay1 the ,french ,orphiste1 which ,i have not seen since the war came on1 one can say that she was then running her husband a very close second for distinction in painting and intelligence of expression4 ,when two people work so closely in harmony with each other1 it is and will always remain a matter of difficulty in knowing just who is the real expressor of an idea4 ,whatever there is of originality in the idea of ,orphisme shall be credited to ,delaunay as the inventor1 but whether his own examples are more replete than those of ,mme4 ,delaunay ,terck is not easy of statement4 ,there was at that time a marked increase of virility in production over those of ,delaunay himself1 but these are matters of private personal attack4 ,her ,russian temper was probably responsible for this1 at least no doubt1 assisted considerably4 ,there was nevertheless at that time marked evidence that she was in mastery of the idea of ,orphisme both as to conception and execution4 ,she showed greater signs of virility in her approach than did ,delaunay himself4 ,there was in his work a deal of what ,gertrude ,stein then called white wind1 a kind of thin escaping in the method4 ,the designs did not lock so keenly4 ,his work had always typical charm if it had not always satisfying vigor4 ,his ,tour ,eiffel and a canvas called ,rugby ,i think1 ,i remember as having more grace than depth1 but one may say nevertheless1 real distinction4 ,in the exchanging of ideas so intimately as has happened splendidly between ,picasso and ,braque1 which is in the nature of professional dignity among artists1 there is bound to be more or less confusion even to the highly perceptive artist and this must therefore confuse the casual observer and layman4 ,so it is1 or was at that time with the painting of ,robert ,delaunay and ,mme4 ,delaunay ,terck2 what you learned in this instance was that the more vigorous of the pictures were hers4 ,she showed the same strength and style in her work as in her interesting personality which was convincing without being too strained or forced2 she was most probably an average ,russian woman which as one knows means a great deal as to intelligence and personal power4 ,,marie ,,laurencin ,with ,marie ,laurencin there was a greater sense of personal and individual creation4 ,one can never quite think of anyone in connection with her pictures other than the happy reminiscence of ,watteau4 ,with her work comes charm in the highest1 finest sense2 there is nothing trivial about her pictures1 yet they abound in all the graces of the #ahth ,century4 ,her drawings and paintings with spread fans and now and then a greyhound or a gazelle opposed against them in design1 hold grace and elegance of feeling that ,watteau would certainly have sanctioned4 ,she brings up the same sense of exquisite gesture and simplicity of movement with a feeling for the romantic aspect of virginal life which exists nowhere else in modern painting4 ,she eliminates all severities of intellect1 and super-imposes wistful charm of idea upon a pattern of the most delicate beauty4 ,she is essentially an original which means that she invents her own experience in art4 ,marie ,laurencin concerns herself chiefly with the idea of girlish youth1 young girls gazing toward each other with fans spread or folded1 and fine braids of hair tied gently with pale cerise or pale blue ribbon1 and a pearl-like hush of quietude hovers over them4 ,she arrests the attention by her fine reticence and holds one's interest by the veracity of esthetic experience she evinces in her least or greatest painting or drawing4 ,she paints with miniature sensibility and knows best of all what to leave out4 ,she is eminently devoid of excessiveness either in pose or in treatment1 with the result that your eye is refreshingly cooled with the delicate process4 ,that ,marie ,laurencin keeps in the grace of ,french children is in no way surprising if you know the incomparable loveliness of them4 ,apart from her modernistic excellence as artist1 she conveys a poetry so essentially ,french in quality that you wish always for more and more of it4 ,it is the light breath of the ,luxembourg gardens and the gardens of the ,tuilleries coming over you once more and the same grace in child-life as existed in the costly games at ,versailles among the grown-ups depicted so superbly by ,watteau and his most worthy followers1 ,lancret and ,pater1 in whom touch is more breath than movement4 ,it is a sensitive and gracefully aristocratic creation ,marie ,laurencin produces for us1 one that makes the eye avid of more experience and the mind of more of its subtlety4 ,it is an essentially beautiful and satisfying contribution to modern painting1 this nacreous cubism of ,marie ,laurencin4 ,,georgia ,o',,keeffe#a ,with ,georgia ,o',keeffe one takes a far jump into volcanic crateral ethers1 and sees the world of a woman turned inside out and gaping with deep open eyes and fixed mouth at the rather trivial world of living people4 ,i wish people were all trees and ,i think ,i could enjoy them then1 says ,georgia ,o',keeffe4 ,georgia ,o',keeffe has had her feet scorched in the laval effusiveness of terrible experience2 she has walked on fire and listened to the hissing of vapors round her person4 ,the pictures of ,o',keeffe1 the name by which she is mostly known1 are probably as living and shameless private documents as exist1 in painting certainly1 and probably in any other art4 ,by shamelessness ,i mean unqualified nakedness of statement4 ,her pictures are essential abstractions as all her sensations have been tempered to abstraction by the too vicarious experience with actual life4 ,she had seen hell1 one might say1 and is the ,sphynxian sniffer at the value of a secret4 ,she looks as if she had ridden the millions of miles of her every known imaginary horizon1 and has left all her horses lying dead in their tracks4 ,all in quest of greater knowledge and the greater sense of truth4 ,what these quests for truth are worth no one can precisely say1 but the tendency would be to say at least by one who has gone far to find them out that they are not worthy of the earth or sky they are written on4 ,truth has soiled many an avenue1 it has left many a drawing room window open4 ,it has left the confession box filled with bones4 ,however1 ,georgia ,o',keeffe pictures are essays in experience that neither ,rops nor ,moreau nor ,baudelaire could have smiled away4 ,footnote #a3 ,american4--,ed4 ,she is far nearer to ,st4 ,theresa's version of life as experience than she could ever be to that of ,catherine the ,great or ,lucrezia ,borgia4 ,georgia ,o',keeffe wears no poisoned emeralds4 ,she wears too much white2 she is impaled with a white consciousness4 ,it is not without significance that she wishes to paint red in white and still have it look like red4 ,she thinks it can be done and yet there is more red in her pictures than any other color at present2 though they do1 it must be said1 run to rose from ashy white with oppositions of blue to keep them companionable and calm4 ,the work of ,georgia ,o',keeffe startles by its actual experience in life4 ,this does not imply street life or sky life or drawing room life1 but life in all its huge abstraction of pain and misery and its huge propensity for silencing the spirit of adventure4 ,these pictures might also be called expositions of psychism in color and movement4 ,without some one to steady her1 ,i think ,o',keeffe would not wish the company of more tangible things than trees4 ,she knows why she despises existence1 and it comes from facing the acute dilemma with more acuteness than it could comprehend4 ,she is vastly over-size as to experience in the spiritual geometric of the world4 ,all this gives her painting as clean an appearance as it is possible to imagine in painting4 ,she soils nothing with cheap indulgence of wishing commonplace things4 ,she has wished too large and finds the world altogether too small in comparison4 ,what the future holds for ,georgia ,o',keeffe as artist depends upon herself4 ,she is modern by instinct and therefore cannot avoid modernity of expression4 ,it is not willed1 it is inevitable4 ,when she looks at a person or a thing she senses the effluvia that radiate from them and it is by this that she gauges her loves and hates or her tolerance of them4 ,it is enough that her pictures arrive with a strange incongruous beauty which1 though metaphysically an import1 does not disconcert by this insistence4 ,she knows the psychism of patterns and evolves them with strict regard for the pictural aspects in them which save them from banality as ideas4 ,she has no preachment to offer and utters no rubbish on the subject of life and the problem4 ,she is one of the exceptional girls of the world both in art and in life4 ,as artist she is as pure and free from affectation as in life she is relieved from the necessity of it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if there are other significant women in modern art ,i am not as yet familiarized with them4 ,these foregoing women take their place definitely as artists within the circle of women painters like ,le ,brun1 ,mary ,cassatt1 ,berthe ,morisot1 and are in advance of them by being closer to the true appreciation of esthetics in inventing them for themselves4 ,,revaluations ,,in ,,impressionism ,in the consideration of the real factors in the impressionistic movement1 we learn that it is not ,monet and the younger crew such as ,moret1 ,maufra1 ,george d',espagnat and ,guillaumin who give us the real weight of this esthetic argument4 ,we find ,monet going in for hyper-sentimentalized iridiscences which culminate or seem to culminate in the ,lily series until we are forced to say he has let us out1 once and for all1 as far as any further interest in the theory with which he was concerned4 ,we are no longer held by these artificial and overstrained hues1 and we find the younger followers offering little or nothing to us save an obvious integrity of purpose4 ,these younger men had apparently miscomprehended idiosyncrasies for ideas and that1 save for a certain cleanness of intention1 they were offering scarcely anything of what is to be found by way of realization in the pictures of a really great colorist like ,renoir4 ,the two artists who give the true thrill of this phase of the modern movement are without question ,pissarro and ,sisley4 ,it is the belief of these two artists in the appearance of things for themselves1 under the influence of the light problem1 which gives them a strength not always visible at first by reason of a greater simplicity of effect which dominates all of their pictures4 ,we see in both these men a real and impressive desire for a more exacting scientific relation as discovered by intellectual consideration1 than is to be found in the emotional outcry predominating in most of the pictures of ,monet4 ,these do not hold for us in this day as solidly as they were expected to4 ,there is a kind of superficiality and consequent dissatisfaction in the conspicuous aspiration toward the first flush1 one may call it1 of enthusiasm for impressionistic experience4 ,there comes to one who is really concerned1 the ever increasing desire to turn toward ,pissarro and ,sisley and to quietly dispense with many or most of ,monet's pictures1 not to speak of a legitimate haste to pass over the phlegmatic enthusiasms of the younger followers4 ,one feels that ,pissarro must have been a great man among men not so great4 ,one feels likewise that the stately reticence of a man like ,sisley is worth far more to us now1 if only because we find in his works as they hang one beside another in numbers1 a soberer and more cautious approach to the theme engrossing him and the other artists of the movement of that time4 ,in the pictures of ,sisley there is the charm of the fact for itself1 the delight of the problem of placing the object in relation to the luminous atmosphere which covers it4 ,men like ,pissarro and ,sisley were not forgetting ,courbet and his admirable knowledge of reality4 ,they were not concerned with the spectacular aspect of the impressionistic principle1 not nearly so much as with the satisfying realization of the object under the influence of the new scientific problem in esthetics with which they were concerned4 ,for myself ,i am out of touch with ,monet as a creator and ,i find myself extracting far more satisfaction and belief from ,pissarro and ,sisley1 who deal with the problem of nature plus idea1 with a much greater degree of let me even say sincerity1 by reason of one fact and perhaps the most important one3 they were not dramatizing the idea in hand4 ,they were not creating a furor with pink and lavender haystacks4 ,they were satisfied that there was still something to be found in the old arrangement of negative and positive tones as they were understood before the application of the spectrum turned the brains and sensibilities of men4 ,in other words ,courbet survived while the ,barbizonians perished4 ,there was an undeniable realization of fact still there1 clamoring for consideration4 ,there was the reality then even as now1 as always4 ,with ,pissarro and ,sisley there appeared the true separation of tone1 making itself felt most intelligently in the work of these men from whom the real separatists ,seurat1 ,signac1 and ,cross were to realize their principle of pointilism1 of which principle ,seurat was to prove himself the most satisfactory creative exponent4 ,the world of art lost a very great deal in the untimely death of ,seurat2 he was a young man of great artistic and intellectual gifts4 ,there was an artist by the name of ,vignon who came in for his share during the impressionistic period1 probably not with any more dramatic glamour than he achieves now by his very simple and unpretentious pictures4 ,i am sorry for my own pleasure that ,i have not been able to see more of this artist's pictures from whom ,i think our own ,theodore ,robinson must have gained a deal of strength for his own bridge building between ,bastien ,le ,page and the ,monet eccentricity1 so to call it4 ,there is always a reason for reticence1 and it is usually apt to come from thinking4 ,sisley and ,pissarro1 ,vignon1 ,seurat1 and ,robinson were thinking out a way to legitimize the new fantastic craze for prismatic violence1 and they found it in the direct consideration for the fact4 ,they knew that without objects light would have nowhere to fall1 that the earth confronted them with indispensable phenomena each one of which had its reason for being4 ,they were finding instead of losing their heads1 which is always a matter of praise4 ,i could stay with almost any ,pissarro or ,sisley ,i have ever seen1 as ,i could always want any ,seurat near me1 just as ,i could wish almost any ,monet out of sight because ,i find it submerged with emotional extravagance1 too much enthusiasm for his new pet idea4 ,scientific appreciation had not come with scientific intentions4 ,like most movements1 it was left to other than the accredited innovators for its completion and perfection4 ,that is why we find ,czanne working incessantly to create an art which would achieve a union of impressionism and an art like the ,louvre1 as he is said to have characterized it for himself4 ,we know now how much ,czanne cared for ,chardin as well as for ,courbet1 and ,greco4 ,there is a reason why he must have respected ,pissarro1 far more than he did at any time such men as ,gaugin1 the flea on his back as he so vividly and perhaps justly named him4 ,there was far more hope for a possible great art to come out of ,van ,gogh1 who1 in his brief seven years had experimented with every aspect of impressionism that had then been divulged4 ,he too was in search of a passionate realization of the object4 ,his method of heavy stitching in bright hues was not a perfected style4 ,it was an extravagant hope toward a personal rhythm4 ,he was an upwardly aspiring artist by reason of his hyper-accentuated religious fervours4 ,all these extraneous and one might even say irrelevant attempts toward speedy arrivism are set aside in the presence of the almost solemn severity of minds like ,pissarro and ,sisley1 and of ,czanne1 who extracted for himself all that was valuable in the passing idea of impressionism4 ,the picture which lasts is never the entirely idiosyncratic one4 ,it is that picture which strives toward realization of ideas through a given principle with which it is involved4 ,so it seems then1 that if ,monet invented the principle of impressionism as applied to painting1 ,pissarro and ,sisley assisted greatly in the creative idea for our lasting use and pleasure by the consideration of the intellect which they applied to it2 just as ,seurat has given us a far greater realization than either ,signac or ,cross have offered us in the principle of pointillism4 ,the test of endurance in the impressionistic movement is borne out2 the strength of realization is to be found in ,pissarro and ,sisley and not in the vapid niceties of ,monet1 whose work became thinner and thinner by habitual repetitive painting1 and by a possible false sense of security in his argument4 ,monet had become the habitual impressionist1 and the habitual in art is its most conspicuous fatality4 ,the art of ,monet grew weaker throughout the various stages of ,waterloo1 ,venice1 ,rouen1 ,giverney1 and the ,water ,lilies which formed periods of expression1 at least to the mind of the observer4 ,monet's production had become a kind of mercerized production1 and a kind of spurious radiance invested them1 in the end4 ,it remained for ,pissarro1 ,sisley1 ,czanne1 and ,seurat to stabilize the new discovery1 and to give it the stamina it was meant to contain1 as a scientific idea1 scientifically applied4 ,,odilon ,,redon ,with the passing of this rare artist during the late summer months1#b we are conscious of the silencing of one of the foremost lyricists in painting1 one of the most delicate spirits among those who have painted pictures so thoroughly replete with charm1 pictures of such real distinction and merit4 ,for of true charm1 of true grace1 of true melodic1 ,redon was certainly the master4 ,i think no one has coveted the vision so much as1 certainly no more than1 has this artist1 possessed of the love of all that is dream-like and fleeting in the more transitory aspect of earthly things4 ,no one has ever felt more that fleeting treasure abiding in the moment1 no one has been more jealous of the bounty contained in the single glancing of the eye upward to infinity or downward among the minuter fragments at his feet4 ,footnote #b3 ,of #aiag4--;,ed4 ,it would seem as if ,redon had surely walked amid gardens1 so much of the morning is in each of his fragile works4 ,there seems always to be hovering in them the breath of those recently spent dawns of which he was the eager spectator1 never quite the full sunlight of the later day4 ,essentially he was the worshipper of the lip of flower1 of dust upon the moth wing1 of the throat of young girl1 or brow of young boy1 of the sudden flight of bird1 the soft going of light clouds in a windless sky4 ,these were the gentle stimulants to his most virile expression4 ,nor did his pictures ever contain more2 they never struggled beyond the quality of legend1 at least as ,i know them4 ,he knew the loveliness in a profile1 he saw always the evanescences of light upon light and purposeless things4 ,the action or incident in his pictures was never more than the touch of some fair hand gently and exquisitely brushing some swinging flower4 ,he desired implicitly to believe in the immortality of beauty1 that things or entities once they were beautiful could never die1 at least for him4 ,i followed faithfully for a time these fine fragments in those corners of ,paris where they could be found1 and there was always sure to be in them1 always and ever that perfect sense of all that is melodic in the universe4 ,i do not know much of his early career as an artist4 ,i have read passages from letters which he wrote not so long ago1 in which he recounts with tenderness the dream life of his childhood1 how he used to stand in the field for hours or lie quietly upon some cool hill shaded with young leaves1 watching the clouds transforming themselves into wing shapes and flower shapes1 staining his fancy with the magic of their delicate color and form--indeed1 it would seem as if all things had for him been born somewhere in the clouds and had condescended to an earthward existence for a brief space1 the better to show their rarity of grace for the interval4 ,although obviously rendered from the object1 they were still-lifes which seemed to take on a kind of cloud life during the very process of his creation4 ,they paid tribute to that simple and unaffected statement of his--,i have fashioned an art after myself4 ,neither do ,i know just how long he was the engraver and just how long he was the painter--it is evident everywhere that his line is the line of the fastidious artist on steel and stone4 ,beyond these excessively frail renderings of his1 whether in oil or in pastel1 ,i do not know him1 but ,i am thinking always in the presence of them that he listened very attentively and with more than a common ear to the great masters in music1 absorbing at every chance all that was in them for him4 ,he had in his spirit the classical outline of music1 with nothing directly revolutionary1 no sign of what we call revolt other than the strict adherence to personal relationship1 no other prejudice than the artist's reaction against all that is not really refined to art1 with but one consuming ardor1 and that to render with extreme tranquillity everything delicate and lovely in passing things4 ,there is never anything in his pictures outside the conventional logic of beauty1 and if they are at all times ineffably sweet1 it is only because ,redon himself was like them1 joyfully living out the days because they were for him ineffably sweet1 too4 ,most of all it is ,redon who has rendered with exceptional elegance and extreme artistry1 the fragment4 ,it is in his pictures1 replete with exquisiteness1 that one finds the true analogy to lyric poetry4 ,this lyricism makes them seem mostly ,greek--often ,i have thought them ,persian1 sometimes again1 ,indian2 certainly he learned something from the ,chinese in their porcelains and in their embroidery4 ,i am sure he has been fond of these outer influences1 these ,oriental suggestions which were for him the spiritual equivalent from the past for his spontaneous ideas1 for he1 too1 had much of all this magic1 as he had much of the hypnotic quality of jewelry and precious stones in all his so delicate pictures1 firelike in their subtle brilliancy4 ,they have always seemed to contain this suggestion for me3 flowers that seemed to be much more the embodiment of jades1 rubies1 emeralds1 and ambers1 than just flowers from the common garden4 ,his flamelike touches have always held this preciousness3 notations rather for the courtly robe or diadem than just drawings4 ,all this gift of goldsmithery comes as one would expect1 quite naturally1 from his powers as an engraver1 in which art he held a first place in his time and was the master of the younger school1 especially in ,belgium and ,germany4 ,of all the painters of this time it is certain he was first among them essaying to picture the jewelled loveliness of nature2 it is most evident in ,la ,touche who was in no way averse to ,renoir either1 but ,redon has created this touch for himself and it is the touch of the virtuoso4 ,perhaps it would have been well if ,moreau1 who had a sicker love of this type of expression1 had followed ,redon more closely1 as he might then have added a little more lustre to these very dead literary failures of his4 ,i cannot now say who else beside ,ferdinand ,khnopff has been influenced greatly by him1 but ,i do know that he was beloved by the more modern men1 that he was revered by all regardless of theories or tenets1 for there is in existence somewhere in ,paris a volume of letters and testimonials celebrating some anniversary of ,redon in proof of it4 ,and ,i think that--regardless of ideas--the artist must always find him sympathetic1 if for no other reason than that he was the essence of refinement1 of delicacy1 and of taste4 ,when ,i think of ,redon ,i think of ,shelley a little1 he is dusty with tumbling about among the stars1 and ,i think somewhat1 too1 of some phrases in ,debussy and his unearthly school of musicians1 for if we are among those who admire sturdier things in art we can still love the fine gift of purity4 ,and of all gifts ,redon has that1 certainly4 ,his art holds1 too1 something of that breathlessness among the trees one finds in ,watteau and in ,lancret1 maybe more akin to ,lancret1 for he1 also1 was more a depicter of the ephemeral4 ,we think of ,redon as among those who transvaluate all earthly sensations in terms of a purer element4 ,we think of him as living with his head among the mists1 alert for all those sudden bursts of light which fleck here and there forgotten or unseen places1 making them live with a new resplendency1 full of new revealment1 perfect with wonder4 ,happily we find in him a hatred of description and of illustration1 we find these pictures to be illuminations from rich pages not observed by the common eye1 decorations out of a world the like of which has been but too seldom seen by those who aspire to vision4 ,chansons sans paroles are they1 ringing clearly and flawlessly to the eye as do those songs of ,verlaine 7with whom he has also some relationship7 to the well-attuned ear4 ,he was the master of the nuance1 and the nuance was his lyricism1 his special gift1 his genius4 ,he knew perfectly the true vibration of note to note1 and how few are they whose esthetic emotions are built upon the strictly poetic basis1 who escape the world-old pull towards description and illustration4 ,how few1 indeed1 among those of the materialistic vision escape this4 ,but for ,redon there was but one world1 and that a world of imperceptible light on all things visible1 with always a kind of song of adoration upon his lips1 as it were1 obsessed with reverence and child wonder toward every least and greatest thing1 and it was in these portrayals of least things that he exposed their naked loveliness as among the greatest4 ,never did ,redon seek for the miniature2 he knew merely that the part is the representation of the whole1 that the perfect fragment is a true representative of beauty1 and that the vision of some fair hand or some fair eye is sure to be the epitome of all that is lovely in the individual4 ,we have as a result of this almost religious devotion of ,redon's1 the fairest type of the expression of that element which is the eye's equivalent for melodious sound4 ,in his pictures he perpetuated his belief in the unfailing harmony in things4 ,either all things were lovely in his eye1 or they are made beautiful by thinking beautifully of them4 ,that was the only logic in ,redon's painting4 ,he questioned nothing2 he saw the spiritual import of every object on which his eye rested4 ,no one shall go to ,redon for any kind of intellectual departure or for any highly specialized theory--it is only too evident from his work that he had none in mind4 ,he had1 ,i think1 a definite belief in the theosophic principle of aura1 in that element of emanation which would seem sometimes to surround delicate objects touched with the suffusion of soft light4 ,for him all things seemed possessed by some colorful presence which they themselves could in no way be conscious of1 somewhat the same sort of radiance which floods the features of some beauteous person and creates a presence there which the person is not even conscious of1 the imaginative reality1 in other words1 existing either within or without everything the eye beholds4 ,for him the very air which hovered about all things seemed to have1 as well1 the presence of color not usually seen of men1 and it was this emanation or presence which formed the living quality of his backgrounds in which those wondrous flowery heads and hands and wings had their being1 through which those dusty wings of most unearthly butterflies or moths hurry so feverishly4 ,he has given us a happy suggestion of the reality of spiritual spaces and the way that these fluttering bodies which are little more than spirit themselves have enjoyed a beauteous life4 ,he was ,keats-like in his appreciation of perfect loveliness1 like ,shelley in his passionate desire to transform all local beauty into universal terms4 ,no one will quarrel with ,redon on account of what is not in him4 ,what we do find in him is the poetry of a quiet1 sweet nature in quest always of perfect beauty1 longing to make permanent by means of a rare and graceful art some of those fragments which have given him his private and personal clue to the wonders of the moment1 creating a personal art by being himself a rare and lovely person4 ,he remains for us one of the finest of artists1 who has reverted those whisperings from the great world of visual melody in which he lived4 ,it was with these exquisite fragments that he adorned the states of his own soul in order that he might present them as artist in tangible art form4 ,we are grateful for his lyricism and for his exquisite goldsmithery4 ,after viewing his delicately beautiful pictures1 objects take on a new poetic wonder4 ,,the ,,virtues ,,of ,,amateur ,,painting ,,with ,,special ,,praises ,,for ,,jennie ,,vanvleet ,,cowdery ,some of the finest instances of pure painting will be found1 not as might be imagined by the layman1 among the professional artists1 but among those amateurs whose chief occupation is amusing themselves first of all4 ,if you who read will make close reference to those rich examples of the mid-,victorian period1 when it was more or less distinguished to take up painting along with the other accomplishments1 you will find that the much tabooed antimacassar period produced a species of painting that was as indicative of personal style and research as it was fresh in its elemental approach4 ,the perfect instance in modern art of this sort of original painting raised to the highest excellence is that of ,henri ,rousseau1 the true primitive of our so eclectic modern period4 ,no one can have seen a picture of this most talented douanier without being convinced that technique for purely private personal needs has been beautified to an extraordinary degree4 ,rousseau stands among the very best tonalists as well as among the best designers of modern time1 and his pictures hold a quality so related to the experience contained in their subjects1 as to seem like the essence of the thing itself4 ,you feel that unquestionably ,rousseau's ,paris is ,paris1 and you are made to feel likewise that his jungle scenes are at very least his own experiences of his earlier life in ,mexico4 ,rousseau convinces by his unquestionable sensitivity and integrity of approach4 ,he was not fabricating an art1 he was endeavoring to create a real picture for his own private satisfaction1 and his numerous successes are both convincing and admirable4 ,as ,i have said1 if you have access to a variety of amateur pictures created during the mid-,victorian era1 of whatever style or subject1 you will find in them the most admirably sincere qualities of painting as well as singularly enchanting gifts for simplication and the always engaging respect for the fact itself out of which these painted romanzas are created4 ,there was the type of memorial picture for instance1 with its proverbial tombstone1 its weeping willow tree1 and its mourner leaning with one elbow1 usually on the cornice above1 where the name of the beloved deceased is engraved2 below it the appropriate motto and its added wealth of ornamentation in the way of landscape1 with houses1 hills1 winding roads1 with maybe an animal or two grazing in the field1 and beyond all this vista1 an ocean with pretty vessels passing on their unmindful way1 and more often than not1 many species of bright flowers in the foreground to heighten the richness of memory and the sentimental aspects of bereavement4 ,i wish ,i could take you to two perfect examples of this sort of amateur painting which ,i have in mind1 now in the possession of the ,maine ,historical ,society1 of ,portland1 ,maine1 as well as one other superb and still more perfect example of this sort of luxuriously painted memory of life1 in the collection of a noted collector of mid-,victorian splendours1 near ,boston4 ,it is sensation at first hand with these charmingly impressive amateur artists4 ,they have been hampered in no way with the banality of school technique learned in the manner of the ever-present and unoriginal copyist4 ,they literally invent expression out of a personally accumulated passion for beauty and they have become aware of it through their own intensely personalised contact with life4 ,the marine painters of this period1 and earlier1 of which there have been almost numberless instances1 and of whose fine performances there are large numbers on view in the ,marine ,museum in ,salem1 ,mass41 offer further authentication of private experience with phases of life that men of the sea are sure to know1 the technical beauty alone of which furnishes the spectator with many surprises and fascinations in the line of simplicity and directness of expression4 ,many of these amateur painters were no longer young in point of actual years4 ,henri ,rousseau was as we know past forty when he was finally driven to painting in order to establish his own psychic entity4 ,and so it is with all of them1 for there comes a certain need somewhere in the consciousness of everyone1 to offset the tedium of common experience with some degree of poetic sublimation4 ,with the result that many of them find their way out by taking to paints and brushes and canvas1 astonishing many a real painter1 if not the untutored layman1 who probably expects to be mystified in one way or another by something which he thinks he does not understand4 ,it is of the charming pictures of ,jennie ,vanvleet ,cowdery that ,i wish to speak here4 ,mrs4 ,cowdery is a southern lady1 and of this fact you become aware instantly you find yourself in conversation with her4 ,she evidences all the traits and characteristics of a lady of her period1 which is to say the late mid-,victorian1 for she must have been a graceful young woman herself at the close of this fascinating period4 ,and you find1 therefore1 in her quaint and convincingly original pictures1 the passion for the charms and graces that were consistent with the period in which she spent her girlhood1 and which has left upon her consciousness so dominant a trace4 ,the pictures of ,mrs4 ,cowdery1 despite their remoteness of surrounding--for she always places her graceful figures1 which are no less than the embodiments of her own graceful states of being1 in a dense woodland scene--bring up to the senses all the fragrances of that past time1 the redolence of the oleander by the wall1 of the camelia in the shadow1 and of the pansy by the hedge4 ,you expect these ladies to shake gently upon the air1 like flowers in the morning1 their own fascinating perfumes1 as you expect them to recite in the quietude of the wood in which they are walking those sentiments which are appropriate to the season and of other soft remembrances4 ,mrs4 ,cowdery might have taken to needlework1 and sat like many another young woman of that time by the window with the sunlight streaming in upon the coloured stitches of her work1 or she might perhaps more strictly have taken to miniature painting1 the quality of which style is so much in evidence in these pleasant pictures of hers4 ,the pictures of ,mrs4 ,cowdery will not stimulate the spectator to reflect with gravity upon the size of the universe1 but they dwell entirely upon the intimate charm of it1 the charm that rises out of breeding and cultivation1 and a feeling for the finer graces of the body and sweet purities of mind4 ,mrs4 ,cowdery is essentially a breather and a bringer of peace4 ,there is no purpose in these gracious and entertaining pictures1 for they are invented solely to recall and make permanent1 for this lady's own delight1 those moments of joy of which there must have been many if the gentleness and the clear quality of revery in them is to be taken2 and these pictures are to be taken first and last as genuine works of art in their own way1 which is the only way that true works of art can be taken seriously4 ,the most conspicuous virtue of these quaintly engaging pictures of ,mrs4 ,cowdery is the certainty you find in them of the lack of struggle4 ,their author is1 without doubt1 at peace with the world1 for the world is without significance in the deeper sense to all really serious artists1 those who have vital information to convey4 ,mrs4 ,cowdery's career as a painter is of short and impressive duration1 barely four years she confides1 and she has been an engaging feature of the ,society of ,independent ,artists for at least three of these years1 ,i believe4 ,it is her picture which she names #ahfi which has called most attention to her charming talents1 and which created so convincing an impression among the artists for its originality and its insistence upon the rendering of beautified personal experience4 ,mrs4 ,cowdery must have loved her earliest girlish hours with excessive delight1 and perhaps it is the garish contrast of the youth of the young women of this time1 energetic and1 from the mid-,victorian standpoint certainly1 so unwomanly1 that prompts this gentle and refined woman to people her gracious solitudes of spirit with those still more gracious lady-like beings which she employs4 ,for her pictures1 that is her most typical ones1 contain always these groupings of figures in crinoline-like gowns with perhaps more of the touch of eighteen-eighty than of seventy in them1 so given to flounces and cascades of lace with picture hats to shade the eyes1 and streamers of velvet ribbon to give attenuated sensations of grace to their quietly sweeping figures that seem to be always in a state of harmless gossip among themselves4 ,one never knows whether it is to be quite morning or afternoon for there is seldom or never present the quality of direct sunlight2 but as ladies and gentlemen usually walk in the afternoon even now1 if there are still such virtuous entities as ladies and gentlemen1 we may presume that these are afternoon seances1 poetically inscribed1 which ,mrs4 ,cowdery wishes to convey to us4 ,that ,mrs4 ,cowdery has a well adjusted feeling for the harmony of hues is evident in her production as well as in the outline of her simple and engaging conversation4 ,thus the lady lives1 in a world gently fervorous with lyric delicacies1 and her own almost girlish laughter is like a kind of gracious music for the scenes she wishes to portray4 ,i am reminded in this instance to compare her gentle voice with the almost inaudible one of ,albert ,ryder1 that greatest of visionaries which ,america has so far produced4 ,it is probable that all mystical types have voices softened to whispers by the vastness of the experience which they have endured4 ,these gentle souls survive the period they were born in1 and it is their clean and unspoiled vision that brings them over to us in this hectic and metallic era of ours4 ,they come1 it must be remembered1 from the era of ,jenny ,lind and ,castle ,garden1 though of course in ,mrs4 ,cowdery's case she is too young actually to have survived that period literally4 ,it is the grace of that period1 however1 to which she has become heir and all her efforts have been exercised in rendering of the graces of this playful and pretty hour of human life4 ,we are reminded1 for the moment only1 of ,monticelli1 chiefly through similarity of subject1 for he also was fond of the silent park inhabited with gracious beings in various states of spiritual ecstasy and satisfaction4 ,in the pictures of ,mrs4 ,cowdery there is doubtless greater intimacy of feeling1 because it is a private and very personal issue with her own happy soul4 ,she has come out on the other edge of the horizon of the world of humans1 and finds the looking backward so imperatively exquisite as to make it necessary for her to paint them with innocent fidelity2 and so she has set about1 without any previous experience in the handling of homely materials1 to make them tell in quaint and gracious accents the pretty story of the life of her revivified imagination4 ,in these ways she becomes a kind of revivification of the spirit of ,watteau1 who has made perfect1 for us all1 what is perfect in the classicized ideality of experience4 ,i think of ,mrs4 ,cowdery's pictures as mid-,victorian fans1 for they seem more like these frail shapes to be wafted by frail and slender hands2 ,i seem to feel the quiet glitter of prisms hanging from huge chandeliers in a ball-room1 as ,i look at them2 for they become1 if you do not scrutinize them too closely as works of art1 rather as prismatic memories bathed in the light of that other time1 when men and women now grandfathers and grandmothers were young and handsome boys and girls1 seeking each other out in the fashion of polite beaus and belles1 a period that will never come again1 it is certain4 ,mrs4 ,cowdery need not be alarmed that modern painters wish to offer plain homage to her fresh and engaging talents4 ,it is an object lesson1 if such is necessary1 to all men and women past fifty3 that there is still something for each of them to do in a creative way2 and ,i can think of no more engaging way for them than to recite the romantic history of their youthful longings and realizations to a world that has little time for making history so romantically inoffensive4 ,mrs4 ,cowdery may be complimented therefore that she has followed her professional daughter's advice to take up painting as a pastime1 and she has already shown in these brief four years1 with all the intermissions that are natural to any ordinary life1 that she is a fine type of amateur artist with all the world of rediscovery at her disposal4 ,she will be hampered in no way with the banalities of instruction offered her by the assuming ones4 ,she is beyond the need of anything but self-invention1 and this will be her own unique and satisfying pleasure4 ,it is in no way amiss1 then1 to congratulate ,mrs4 ,cowdery upon her new and vital artistic career4 ,that she will have further success is proven by the few pictures already created by her4 ,they show the unmistakable signs of taste and artistic comprehension as applied to her own spiritual vision4 ,no intervention will be of any avail1 save perhaps the permissible intervention of praise and congratulations4 ,incidentally1 ,i would recommend to those artists who are long since jaded with repetition and success1 and there are many of them1 to refresh their eyes and their senses with the work of these outwardly unassuming but thoroughly convincing amateurs1 like ,henri ,rousseau1 ,mrs4 ,cowdery and the many others whose names do not appear on their handsome works of art4 ,there is such freshness of vision and true art experience contained in them4 ,they rely upon the imagination entirely for their revelations1 and there is always present in these unprofessional works of art acute observation of fact and fine gifts for true fancy4 ,these amateurs are never troubled with the how of mediocre painting2 neither are they troubled with the wiles of the outer world4 ,they remain always charming painters of personal visionary experience1 and as such are entitled to praise for their genuine gifts in rendering1 as well as for a natural genius for interpretation4 ,,henri ,,rousseau ,not long since1 we heard much of navet--it was the fashion among the schools and the lesser individuals to use this term in describing the work of anyone who sought to distinguish himself by eccentricity of means4 ,it was often the term applied to bizarrerie--it was fashionable to draw navely1 as it was called4 ,we were expected to believe in a highly developed and overstrained simplicity1 it was the resort of a certain number who wanted to realize speedy results among the unintelligent4 ,it was a pose which lasted not long because it was obviously a pose1 and a pose not well carried1 it had not the prescribed ease about it and showed signs of labor4 ,it had1 for a time1 its effect upon really intelligent artists with often respectable results1 as it drew the tendency away from too highly involved sophistication4 ,it added a fresh temper in many ways1 and helped men to a franker type of self-expression2 and was1 as we may expect1 something apart from the keen need of obliviousness in the great modern individualists1 those who were seeking direct contact with subject4 ,we have learned in a short space of time that whatever was exceptional in the ideas and attitudes of the greater ones1 as we know them1 was not at all the outcome of the struggle toward an affected navet such as we have heard so much about1 but was1 on another hand1 a real phase of their originality1 the other swing of the pendulum1 so to call it4 ,it was the accent of their minds and tempers1 it was a true part of their personal gesture1 and was something they could not1 and need not1 do anything about1 as if it were the normal tendency in them in their several ways4 ,we all of us know that modern art is not haphazard1 it is not hit or miss in its intention at least1 certainly not the outcome of oddity1 of whim1 or of eccentricity1 for these traits belong to the superficial and cultivated4 ,we have found that with the best moderns there has been and is inherent in them the same sincerity of feeling1 the same spirit directing their research4 ,the single peculiarity of modern art therefore1 if such there be1 is its special relationship to the time in which it is being produced1 explicitly of this age4 ,what we know of the men1 much or little1 proves that they are1 and have all been1 simple earnest men1 intelligent1 following nowise blindly in pursuit of fresh sensation1 excitement1 a mere phantasy1 or freak of the mind4 ,it was1 and is1 the product of a logic essentially of themselves1 and of the period they represent2 and because this period is not the period of sentimentality in art1 but a period striving toward a more vigorous type of values--something as beautiful as the machinery of our time--it is not as yet to any great degree cared for1 understood nor1 up to very recently1 even trusted4 ,it has destroyed old fashioned romance1 and the common eye has ceased to focus1 or rather1 does not wish to concentrate on things which do not visualize the literary sensation4 ,in the midst of all this struggle was ,henri ,rousseau1 the real and only naif of this time1 and certainly among the truest of all times4 ,as much as a man can remain child1 ,rousseau remained the child1 and as much as a man could be nave and childlike1 certainly it was this simple artist who remained so4 ,if report has the truth correctly1 ,rousseau began his career as painter at the age of forty1 though it is quite possible and probable that he was painting whenever he could1 in his untutored fashion1 in all of his spare intervals1 and with but one object in view apparent3 to give forth in terms of painting those phases of his own personal life which remained indelibly impressed upon his memory1 pictorially always vivid to him1 as in his pictures they are seen to be the scenes or incidents of loveliness to his fine imagination4 ,we find them covering a rather wide range of experience1 apparently in two places1 somewhere in the tropics of ,mexico1 and ,paris2 the former1 experiences of youth in some sort of governmental service ,i believe1 and the latter1 the more intimate phases of life about him in ,paris1 of ,paris herself and of those people who created for him the intimacy of his home life1 and the life which centered about the charming rue de ,perelle where he lived4 ,in ,rousseau then1 we have one of the finest individual expressions of the amateur spirit in painting1 taking actually a place among the examples of paintings1 such as those of the ,kwakiutl ,indians1 or the sculpture of the ,congo people1 partaking of the very same quality of directness and simplicity1 and of contact with the prevailing image chosen for representation4 ,he was too evidently the product of himself1 he was not hybrid1 nor was he in any sense something strange springing up out of the soil in the dark of night1 he was not mushroom4 ,he did not know the meaning of affectation1 and ,i doubt if he even knew what was meant by simplicity1 so much was he that element himself4 ,it is with fascination that we think of him as living his life out after his discharge for incompetency from the customs service outside the fortifications of ,paris1 and doubtless with the strain of poverty upon him also1 within a ten minutes' walk from the world famous quartiers1 and almost certainly knowing nothing of them4 ,that there was a ,julian's or a ,colarossi's anywhere about1 it is not likely that he knew1 or if he knew1 not more than vaguely4 ,he drew his quaint inspirations directly from the sources of nature and some pencil drawings ,i have seen prove the high respect and admiration1 amounting to love and worship1 which he had for nature and the phenomena of her1 to be disclosed at every hedge4 ,if he was no success as a douanier1 he was learning a great deal1 meanwhiles1 about those delicate and radiant skies which cover ,paris at all times1 charming always for their lightness and delicacy1 pearl-like in their quiet splendour2 and it was during this service of his at the city's gates that he learned his lovely sense of blacks and greys and silvers1 of which ,paris offers so much always1 and which predominate in his canvases4 ,even his tropical scenes strive in no way toward artificiality of effect1 but give rather the sense of their profundity than of oddity1 of their depth and mystery than of peculiarity4 ,he gives us the sense of having been at home in them in his imagination1 being so well at home in those scenes of ,paris which were daily life to him4 ,we find in ,rousseau true navet1 without struggle1 real child-likeness of attitude and of emotion1 following diligently with mind and with spirit the forms of those stored images that have registered themselves with directness upon the area of his imagination1 never to be forgotten1 rendered with perfect simplicity for us in these quaint pictures of his1 superb in the richness of quality which makes of them1 what they are to the eye that is sympathetic to them1 pictures out of a life undisturbed by all the machinations and intrigues of the outer world1 a life intimate with itself1 remote from all agencies having no direct association with it1 living with a sweet gift of enchantment with the day's disclosures1 occupied apparently with nothing beyond the loveliness contained in them4 ,there is not once1 anywhere1 a striving of the mind in the work of this simple man4 ,it was a wealth of innocence that tinged all his methods1 and his pictures are as simple in their appeal as are the declarations of ,jacob ,boehme--they are the songs of innocence and experience of a nature for whom all the world was beautiful1 and have about them the element of song itself1 a poetry that has not yet reached the shaping of words4 ,who looks at the pictures of this true and charming naif1 will find nothing to wonder at beyond this extreme simplicity1 he had no prescribed attitude1 no fixity of image that characterizes every touch of school4 ,he was taught only by nature and consulted only her relationships and tendencies4 ,there is never a mistaking of that4 ,nature was his influence1 and he saw with an untrammelled eye the elemental shape of all things1 and affixed no falsity of feeling1 or anything1 to his forms which might have detracted from their extreme simplicity4 ,he had first sight1 first contact with the image1 and sought nothing else beyond this1 and a very direct correspondence with memories dictated all his efforts4 ,that ,rousseau was musical1 is shown in the natural grace of his compositions1 and his ideas were simple as the early songs of ,france are simple1 speaking of everyday things with simple heart and voice1 and he painted frankly what he saw in precisely the way he saw it4 ,we1 who love richness and sobriety of tone1 will never tire of ,rousseau's beautiful blacks and greys1 and probably no one has excelled them for delicacy of appreciation1 and perfection of gradation4 ,it will be long before the landscapes will be forgotten1 it will be long before the exquisite portrait of the ,child with the ,harlequin will fade from remembrance1 we shall remember them all for their loveliness in design1 a gift which never failed him1 no matter what the subject4 ,simple arabesque1 it was the jungle that taught him this1 and therein lay his special power1 a genuine feeling for the richness of laces and brocades in full and subdued tones1 such as one would find in the elaborate intricacies of tropical foliage1 strange leaves intermingled with parrots1 monkeys1 strange white lilies on high stalks1 tigers peering through highly ornate foliage and branches intertwined1 all excellently suggestive of that foreign land in which the mind wanders and finds itself so much at home4 ,le ,charmeur1 ,jadwigha1 in these are concentrated all that is lovely in the land of legend2 and1 like all places of legend1 replete with imaginative beauty1 the places where loveliness and beauty of form congregate1 after they have passed through the sensuous spaces of the eye travelling somewhere to an abode where all those things are that are perfect1 they live forever4 ,rousseau was a charming and lovable child1 whether he was painting or whether he was conducting his own little orchestra1 composed of those people who kept shop around his home1 and it is as the child of his time that he must be considered1 child in verity among the sophisticated moderns who believed and believe more in intellect than in anything else1 many of whom paid tribute to him1 and reverenced him1 either in terms of sincere friendship1 or by occasional visit4 ,the various anecdotes1 touching enough1 are but further proof of the innocence of this so simple and untutored person4 ,the real amateur spirit has1 we like to think1 much in its favor1 if only for its freshness1 its spontaneity1 and a very gratifying naturalness4 ,rousseau was all of this1 and lived in a world untouched1 he wove about himself1 like other visionaries1 a soft veil hiding all that was grossly unreal to him from all that was real1 and for ,rousseau1 those things and places he expressed existed vividly for him1 and out of them his pictures became true creations4 ,he was the real naif1 because he was the real child1 unaffected and unspoiled1 and painting was for him but the key of heaven that he might open another door for the world's weary eye4 ,,part ,,two ,,the ,,twilight ,,of ,,the ,,acrobat ,where is our once charming acrobat--our minstrel of muscular music8 ,what has become of these groups of fascinating people gotten up in silk and spangle8 ,who may the evil genius be who has taken them and their fascinating art from our stage1 who the ogre of taste that has dispensed with them and their charm8 ,how seldom it is in these times that one encounters them1 as formerly when they were so much the charming part of our lighter entertainment4 ,what are they doing since popular and fickle notions have removed them from our midst8 ,it is two years since ,i have seen the ,american stage4 ,i used to say to myself in other countries1 at least ,america is the home of real variety and the real lover of the acrobat4 ,but ,i hear no one saying much for him these days1 and for his charming type of art4 ,what has become of them all1 the graceful little lady of the slack wire1 those charming and lovely figures that undulate upon the air by means of the simple trapeze1 those fascinating ensembles and all the various types of melodic muscular virtuosity8 ,we have been given much1 of late1 of that virtuosity of foot and leg which is usually called dancing2 and that is excellent among us here1 quite the contribution of the ,american1 so singularly the product of this special physique4 ,sometimes ,i think there are no other dancers but ,americans4 ,it used to be so delightful a diversion watching our acrobat and his group with their strong and graceful bodies writhing with rhythmical certitude over a bar or upon a trapeze against a happily colored space4 ,now we get little more in the field of acrobatics beyond a varied buck and wing2 everything seems tuxedoed for drawing room purposes4 ,we get no more than a decent handspring or two1 an over-elaborated form of split4 ,it all seems to be over with our once so fashionable acrobat4 ,there is no end of good stepping1 as witness the ,cohan ,revue1 a dancing team in ,robinson ,crusoe1 ,jr41 and ,archie and ,bertie 7,i think they call themselves74 ,this in itself might be called the modern ,american school3 the elongated and elastic gentleman who finds his co-operator among the thin ones of his race1 artistically speaking4 ,i did not get to the circus this year1 much to my regret2 perhaps ,i would have found my lost genius there1 among the animals disporting themselves in less charitable places4 ,but we cannot follow the circus naturally1 and these minstrel folk are disappearing rapidly4 ,variety seems quite to have given them up and replaced them with often very tiresome and mediocre acts of singing4 ,how can one forget1 for instance1 the ,famille ,bouvier who used to appear regularly at the ftes in the streets of ,paris in the summer season1 living all of them in a roving gipsy wagon as is the custom of these fte people4 ,what a charming moment it was always to see the simple but well built ,mlle4 ,jeanne of twenty-two pick up her stalwart and beautifully proportioned brother of nineteen1 a strong1 broad-shouldered1 manly chap1 and balance him on one hand upright in the air4 ,it was a classic moment in the art of the acrobat1 interesting to watch the father of them all training the fragile bodies of the younger boys and girls to the systematic movement of the business while the mother sat in the doorway of the caravan nursing the youngest at the breast1 no doubt the perfect future acrobat4 ,and how charming it was to look in at the doors of these little houses on wheels and note the excellent domestic order of them1 most always with a canary or a linnet at the curtained window and at least one cat or dog or maybe both4 ,this type is the progenitor of our stage acrobat1 it is the primitive stage of these old-time troubadours1 and it is still prevalent in times of peace in ,france4 ,the strong man gotten in tawdry pink tights and much worn black velvet with his very elaborate and drawn out speeches1 in delicate ,french1 concerning the marvels of his art and the long wait for the stipulated number of dix centimes pieces before his marvellous demonstration could begin4 ,this is1 so to say1 the vagabond element of our type of entertainment1 the wandering minstrel who keeps generation after generation to the art of his forefathers1 this fine old art of the pavement and the open country road4 ,but we look for our artist in vain these days1 those groups whose one art is the exquisite rhythmical display of the human body1 concerted muscular melody4 ,we cannot find him on the street in the shade of a stately chestnut tree as once in ,paris we found him at least twice a year1 and we seek him in vain in our modern music hall4 ,is our acrobatic artist really gone to his esthetic death2 has he given his place permanently to the ever present singing lady who is always telling you who her modiste is1 sings a sentimental song or two and then disappears2 to the sleek little gentleman who dances off a moment or two to the tune of his doll-like partner whose voice is usually littler than his own8 ,perhaps our acrobat is still the delight of those more characteristic audiences of the road whose taste is less fickle1 less blas4 ,this is so much the case with the arts in ,america--the fashions change with the season's end and there is never enough of novelty2 dancing is already dying out1 skating will not prevail for long among the idle2 what shall we predict for our variety which is in its last stages of boredom for us8 ,i suspect the so-called politeness of vaudeville of the elimination of our once revered acrobats4 ,the circus notion has been replaced by the parlor entertainment notion4 ,who shall revive them for us1 who admire their simple and unpretentious art2 why is there not someone among the designers with sufficient interest in this type of beauty to make attractive settings for them1 so that we may be able to enjoy them at their best1 which in the theater we have never quite been able to do--designs that will in some way add luster to an already bright and pleasing show of talents4 ,i can see1 for instance1 a young and attractive girl bareback rider on a cantering white horse inscribing wondrous circles upon a stage exquisitely in harmony with herself and her white or black horse as the case might be2 a rich cloth of gold backdrop carefully suffused with rose4 ,there could be nothing handsomer1 for example1 than young and graceful trapezists swinging melodically in turquoise blue doublets against a fine peacock background or it might be a rich pale coral--all the artificial and spectacular ornament dispensed with4 ,we are expected to get an exceptional thrill when some dull person appears before a worn velvet curtain to expatiate with inappropriate gesture upon a theme of ,chopin or of ,beethoven1 ideas and attitudes that have nothing whatsoever to do with the musical intention2 yet our acrobat whose expression is certainly as attractive1 if not much more so generally1 has always to perform amid fatigued settings of the worst sort against red velvet of the most depraved shade possible4 ,we are tired of the elaborately costumed person whose charms are trivial and insignificant1 we are well tired also of the ordinary gentleman dancer and of the songwriter1 we are bored to extinction by the perfectly dull type of playlet which features some well known legitimate star for illegitimate reasons4 ,our plea is for the re-creation of variety into something more conducive to light pleasure for the eye1 something more conducive to pleasing and stimulating enjoyment4 ,perhaps the reinstatement of the acrobat1 this revival of a really worthy kind of expression1 would effect the change1 relieve the monotony4 ,the argument is not too trivial to present1 since the spectator is that one for whom the diversion is provided4 ,i hear cries all about from people who once were fond of theater and music hall that there is an inconceivable dullness pervading the stage2 the habitual patron can no longer endure the offerings of the present time with a degree of pleasure1 much less with ease4 ,it has ceased to be what it once was1 what its name implies4 ,if the old school inclined toward the rough too much1 then certainly the new inclines distressingly toward the refined--the stage that once was so full of knockabout is now so full of stand-still2 variety that was once a joy is now a bore4 ,just some uninteresting songs at the piano before a giddy drop is not enough these days2 and there are too many of such4 ,there is need of a greater activity for the eye4 ,the return of the acrobat in a more modern dress would be the appropriate acquisition1 for we still have appreciation for all those charming geometrics of the trapeze1 the bar1 and the wire4 ,it is to be hoped that these men will return to us1 stimulating anew their delightful kind of poetry of the body and saving our variety performances from the prevailing plague of monotone4 ,,vaudeville ,i have but recently returned from the vaudeville of the centuries4 ,watching the kick and the glide of very ancient performers4 ,i have spent a year and a half down in the wonderful desert country of the ,southwest4 ,i have wearied1 however1 of the ancient caprice1 and turn with great delight to my old passion1 vaudeville4 ,i return with glee to the ladies and gentlemen and pet animals of the stage1 including the acrobats4 ,is there one who cares for these artists and for their rhythmical gesture more than myself8 ,i cannot think so4 ,i have wished with a real desire to create new sets for them1 to establish an altogether new tradition as regards the background of these charming artists4 ,if that were the chosen field for my esthetic activities1 ,i should be famous by now for the creation of sets and drops by which these exceptional artists might make a far more significant impression upon the type of public they essay to interest and amuse4 ,i would begin first of all by severing them from the frayed traditions of worn plush and sequin1 rid them of the so inadequate back drop such as is given them1 the scene of ,vesuvius in eruption1 or the walk in the park at ,versailles4 ,they need first of all large plain spaces upon which to perform1 and enjoy their own remarkably devised patterns of body4 ,i speak of the acrobats1 the animals1 the single and double dancers who perform down in one more especially4 ,the so called headliners have their plush parlours with the inevitable purple or rose lamp1 and the very much worn property piano just barely in tune4 ,only the dressmaker and the interior decorator can do things for them1 as we see in the case of ,kitty ,gordon4 ,it is to be hoped that a ,beardsley of the stage will one day appear and really do something for the dainty type of person or the superbly theatric artist such as ,miss ,gordon1 ,valeska ,suratt1 and the few other remarkable women of the vaudeville stage4 ,i am more concerned with the less appreciated artists4 ,i would see that they glitter by their own brilliance4 ,why1 for instance1 should a fine act like the ,four ,danubes and others of their quality be tagged on to the end of a bill1 at which time the unmannerly public decides to go home or hurry to some roof or other1 or dining place8 ,i should like seeing the ,brothers ,rath likewise1 perhaps as refined acrobatic artists as have been seen on our stage for some time1 in a set that would show them to better advantage1 and give the public a greater intimacy with the beauty of their act than can be had beyond the first six rows of the ,winter ,garden4 ,they are interposed there as a break between burlesques1 which is not the place for them4 ,i would give them the stage while they are on it4 ,theirs is a muscular beauty which has not been excelled4 ,i have no doubt that if ,i attempted to establish these ideas with the artists whom ,i spend so much time in championing1 they would no doubt turn aside with the word highbrow on their lips4 ,they would have to be shown that they need these things1 that they need the old-fashioned ideas removed1 and fresher ones put in their place4 ,i have expressed this intention once before in print1 perhaps not so vehemently4 ,i should like to elaborate4 ,i want a ,metropolitan ,opera for my project4 ,an orchestra of that size for the larger concerted groups1 numbers of stringed instruments for the wirewalkers and jugglers1 a series of balanced woodwinds for others1 and so on down the line1 according to the quality of the performer4 ,there should be a large stage for many elephants1 ponies1 dogs1 tigers1 seals4 ,the stage should then be made more intimate for the solos1 duets1 trios1 and quartets among the acrobats4 ,i think a larger public should be made aware of the beauty and skill of these people1 who spend their lives in perfecting grace and power of body1 creating the always fascinating pattern and form1 orchestration if you will1 the orchestration of the muscles into a complete whole4 ,you will of course say1 go to the circus1 and get it all at once4 ,the circus is one of the most charming places in existence1 because it is one of the last words in orchestrated physical splendour4 ,but the circus is too diffused1 too enormous in this country to permit of concentrated interest1 attention1 or pleasure4 ,one goes away with many little bits4 ,it is because the background is made up of restless nervous dots1 all anxious to get the combined quota which they have paid for1 when in reality they do not even get any one thing4 ,it is the alert eye which can go over three rings and two stages at once and enjoy the pattern of each of them4 ,it is a physical impossibility really4 ,i think we should be made aware in finer ways of the artists who open and close our bills4 ,why must the headliner always be a talking or a singing person who tells you how much money he needs1 or how much she is getting8 ,there is more than one type of artistic personality for those who care for vaudeville4 ,why doesn't a team like the ,rath ,brothers1 for example1 find itself the feature attraction8 ,must there always be the string of unnecessary little men and women who have such a time trying to fill up their twenty-two minutes or their fourteen8 ,why listen forever to puppy-like song writers when one can hear and watch a great artist like ,ella ,shields8 ,my third visit to ,ella ,shields convinces me that she is one of the finest artists ,i have ever heard1 certainly as fine in her way as ,guilbert and ,chevalier were4 ,it is a rare privilege to be able to enjoy artists like ,grock--,mark ,sheridan--who is now dead1 ,i am told4 ,mark1 with his ,they all walk the wibbly-wobbly walk1 they all wear the wibbly-wobbly ties1 and so on4 ,mark is certainly being missed by a great many who care for the pleasure of the moment4 ,when ,i look at and listen to the aristocratic artist ,ella ,shields1 ,i feel a quality in her of the impeccable ,mrs4 ,fiske4 ,and then ,i am thinking of another great woman1 ,fay ,templeton4 ,what a pity we must lose them either by death or by decisions in life4 ,ella ,shields with her charming typification of ,burlington ,bertie from ,bow4 ,the other evening as ,i listened to ,irene ,franklin1 ,i heard for certain what ,i had always thought were notes from the magic voice of dear old ,fay4 ,unforgettable ,fay4 ,how can one ever say enough about her8 ,i think of ,fay along with my single glimpses of ,duse1 ,ada ,rehan1 ,coquelin4 ,you see how ,i love her1 then4 ,irene ,franklin has the quality of imitation of the great ,fay without1 ,i think1 the real magic4 ,nevertheless ,i enjoy her1 and ,i am certain she has never been finer than now4 ,she has enriched herself greatly by her experiences the last two years1 and seems at the height of her power4 ,it was good to get1 once again1 little glimpses of her ,childs waitress and the chambermaid4 ,it seemed to me that there was a richer quality of atmosphere in the little ,jewish girl with the ring curls and the red mittens1 as also in her ,french girl with1 by the way1 a beautiful gown of rich yellow silk ,frenchily trimmed in vermilion or orange1 ,i couldn't make out which4 ,the amusing ,french girl1 who having picked up many fag-ends of ,english from her experience with the soldats ,amricains--got her animals mixed--you have my goat1 ,i have your goat1 et--tie ze bull outside1 and so on4 ,i am crossing ,irene and ,fay here because ,i think them similar1 only ,i must say ,i think the magic was greater in ,fay1 because possibly ,fay was the greater student of emotion4 ,fay had the undercurrent1 and ,irene has perfected the surface4 ,if ,irene did study ,fay at any time1 and ,i say this respectfully1 she perhaps knows that ,fay went many times to ,paris to study ,rejane4 ,the light entertainer is1 as we know1 very often a person of real intellect4 ,if you want distinction1 then1 you will get it in the presence of ,ella ,shields4 ,her ,burlington ,bertie is nothing less than a chef d'oeuvre2 ,tom ,lipton1 he's got lots of 'oof--he sleeps on the roof1 and ,i sleep in the room over him4 ,bertie1 who1 having been slapped on the back by the ,prince of ,wales 7and some others7 and asked why he didn't go and dine with ,mother1 replied--,i can't1 for ,i've just had a banana with ,lady ,diana4444 ,i'm ,burlington ,bertie from ,bow4 ,miss ,shields shows also that she can sing a sentimental song without slushing it all over with saccharine4 ,she has mastered the droll ,english quality of wit with real perfection4 ,i regret ,i never saw ,vesta ,tilley1 with whom the old tops compare her so favourably4 ,superb girls all these1 ,fay1 ,ella1 ,cissie1 ,vesta1 as well as ,marie ,lloyd1 and the other inimitable ,vesta--,victoria4 ,among the coming soon1 we have ,miss ,juliet1 whom ,i recall with so much pleasure from the last immemorable ,cohan ,revue4 ,i wait for her4 ,i consider myself fortunate to be let in on ,james ,watts4 ,we thought our ,eddy ,foy a comic one4 ,he was1 for ,i remember the ,gibson girl with the black velvet gown and the red flannel undershirt4 ,i swing my swagger stick in the presence of ,mr4 ,watts by way of applause4 ,his art is very delicately understood and brought out4 ,it has a fine quality of broad caricature with a real knowledge of economy such as ,grock is master of4 ,the three episodes are certainly funny enough4 ,i find myself caring more for the first1 called ,june ,day1 since he reminds me so strongly in make-up of the ,french caricaturists in drawing1 ,rouveyre and ,toulouse-,lautrec4 ,mr4 ,watts's feeling for satirical make-up is a fine shade of artistry in itself4 ,he has excellent feeling for the broad contrast and for fierce insinuation at the same time4 ,if you want real unalloyed fun1 ,mr4 ,watts will supply you4 ,nor will ,grock disappoint you4 ,quite on the contrary1 no matter what you are expecting4 ,i do not know why ,i think of vaudeville as ,i think of a collection of good drawings4 ,unless it is because the sense of form is the same in all of the arts4 ,the acrobat certainly has line and mass to think of1 even if that isn't his primal concern4 ,he knows how he decorates the space on which he operates4 ,to make another comparison1 then1 ,grock is the ,forain of vaudeville4 ,he achieves great plastic beauty with distinguished economy of means4 ,he dispenses with all superfluous gesture1 as does the great ,french illustrator4 ,grock is entirely right about clownery4 ,you are either funny or you are not4 ,no amount of study will produce the gift for humour4 ,it is there1 or it isn't4 ,grock's gift for musicianship is a singular combination to find with the rest of his artistry4 ,it goes with the remarkably refined look in his face1 however1 as he sits upon the back of the seatless chair1 and plays the little concertina with superb execution4 ,there are no jumps in ,grock's performance4 ,his moods flow from one into another with a masterly smoothness1 and you are aware when he is finished that you have never seen that sort of foolery before4 ,not just that sort4 ,it is the good mind that satisfies1 as in the case of ,james ,watts1 and ,miss ,shields4 ,from elephants carrying in their trunks chatelaines of ,shetland ponies1 curtseying at the close of the charming act like a pretty miss at her first coming out1 to such work as the ,four ,danubes give you as the closing number1 with ,irene as a lead1 you are1 to say the least1 carried over the dreadful spots1 such as the young man who sways out like a burlesque queen and tells you whom he was with before ,keith got him4 ,his name should be ,pusher1 ,advance ,man1 or something of that sort1 and not artist4 ,what he gives you1 you could find just as well if not better done on ,fourteenth ,street4 ,he has a ribbon-counter1 adenoid voice production that no really fine artist could afford4 ,he will get by1 because anything does1 apparently4 ,one turns to the big artist for relief1 even though minor artists like ,the ,brown ,sisters charm so surely with their ivory and silver diamond-studded accordions1 giving very pleasing transitions from grave to gay in arias and tunes we know4 ,accordions and concertinas are very beautiful to me1 when played by artists like these girls1 and by such as ,joe ,cawthorne1 and ,grock4 ,there are more dancing men of quality this season1 it seems to me1 who are obscured by dancing ladies of fame1 and not such warrantable artistry4 ,perhaps it is because male anatomy allows of greater eccentricity and playfulness4 ,there are no girls who have just such laughing legs as the inimitable ,frances ,white4 ,it is the long-legged ,american boy who beats the world in this sort of thing4 ,the lovely bit of hockey which ,james ,barton gives is for me far more distinguished than all the rest of his work in the ,winter ,garden ,revue4 ,he is a real artist1 but it is work that one sees rather a deal of this season1 whereas the hockey dance is like nothing else to be found4 ,a lovely moment of rhythmic leg work4 ,we are now thoroughly familiar with the stage drunk1 as we have long been familiarized by ,weber and ,fields with the stage ,jew1 which is fortunately passing out for lack of artist to present it4 ,lon ,errol is good for once1 even twice4 ,he is quite alone in his very witty falls and runs4 ,they are full of the struggle of the drunk to regain his character and manhood4 ,the act lives on a very flat plane otherwise4 ,it has no roundness4 ,i have come on my list to ,mijares and ,co41 in ,monkey ,business4 ,we have the exquisite criterion always for the wire1 in the perfect ,bird ,millman4 ,monkey ,business is a very good act1 and both men do excellent work on the taut and slack wire4 ,monkey1 in this case being a man1 does as beautiful a piece of work as ,i know of4 ,i have never seen a back somersault upon a high wire4 ,i have never heard of it before4 ,there may be whole generations of artists gifted in this particular stunt4 ,you have here1 nevertheless1 a moment of very great beauty in the cleanness of this man's surprising agility and sureness4 ,the monkey costume hinders the beauty of the thing4 ,it should be done with pale blue silk tights against a cherry velvet drop1 or else in deep ultramarine on an old gold background4 ,the acrobatic novelty called ,the ,legrohs relies chiefly on its most exceptional member1 who would be complete without the other two4 ,he is most decidedly a virtuoso in vaudeville4 ,very gifted1 certainly1 if at moments a little disconcerting in the flexibility and the seemingly uncertain turns of his body4 ,it is the old-fashioned contortionism saved by charming acrobatic variations4 ,this ,legroh knows how to make a superb pattern with his body1 and the things he does with it are done with such ease and skill as to make you forget the actual physical effort and you are lost for the time being in the beauty of this muscular kaleidoscopic brilliancy4 ,you feel it is like puzzle--find the man for a time1 but then you follow his exquisite changes from one design into another with genuine delight1 and appreciate his excessive grace and easy rapidity4 ,he gives you chiefly the impression of a dragon-fly blown in the wind of a brisk morning over cool stretches of water4 ,you would expect him to land on a lily-pad any moment and smooth his wings with his needle-like legs4 ,so it is the men and women of vaudeville transform themselves into lovely flower and animal forms1 and the animals take on semblances of human sensibility in vaudeville4 ,it is the superb arabesque of the beautiful human body that ,i care for most1 and get the most from in these cameo-like bits of beauty and art4 ,so brief they are1 and like the wonders of sea gardens as you look through the glass bottoms of the little boats4 ,so like the wonders of the microscopic1 full of surprising novelties of colour and form4 ,so like the kaleidoscope in the ever changing1 ever shifting bits of colour reflecting each other1 falling into new patterns with each twist of the toy4 ,if you care for the iridescence of the moment you will trust vaudeville as you are not able to trust any other sort of a performance4 ,you have no chance for the fatigue of problem4 ,you are at rest as far as thinking is concerned4 ,it is something for the eye first and last4 ,it is something for the ear now and then1 only very seldomly1 however4 ,for me1 they are the saviours of the dullest art in existence1 the art of the stage4 ,duse was quite right about it4 ,the stage should be swept of actors4 ,it is not a place for imitation and photography4 ,it is a place for the laughter of the senses1 for the laughter of the body4 ,it is a place for the tumbling blocks of the brain to fall in heaps4 ,i give first place to the acrobat and his associates because it is the art where the human mind is for once relieved of its stupidity4 ,the acrobat is master of his body and he lets his brain go a-roving upon other matters1 if he has one4 ,he is expected to be silent4 ,he would agree with ,william ,james1 transposing music prevents thinking into talking prevents silence4 ,in so many instances1 it prevents conversation4 ,that is why ,i like tea chitchat4 ,words are never meant to mean anything then4 ,they are simply given legs and wings1 and they jump and fly4 ,they land where they can1 and fall flat if they must4 ,the audience that patronizes vaudeville would do well to be present at most first numbers1 and remain for most or many of the closing ones4 ,a number1 ,i repeat1 like the ,four ,danubes1 should not be snubbed by any one4 ,i have seen recently1 then1 by way of summary1 four fine bits of artistry in vaudeville--,ella ,shields1 ,james ,watts1 the ,brothers ,rath1 and the ,four ,danubes4 ,i shall speak again of these people4 ,they are well worth it4 ,they turn pastime into perfect memory4 ,they are1 therefore1 among the great artists4 ,a ,,charming ,,equestrienne ,i am impelled to portray1 at this time1 my devotion to the little equestrienne1 by the presence of a traveling circus in these lofty altitudes in which ,i am now living1 seven thousand feet above the sea1 in our great southwest4 ,the mere sight of this master of the miniature ring1 with all the atmosphere of the tent about him1 after almost insurmountable difficulties crossing the mountains1 over through the canyons of this expansive country1 delivering an address in excellently chosen ,english1 while poised at a considerable height on the wire1 to the multitude on the ground below him1 during which time he is to give what is known as the free exhibit as a high wire artist--all this turns me once more to the ever charming theme of acrobatics in general and equestrianism in particular1 and it is of a special genius in this field that ,i wish to speak4 ,i have always been a lover of these artists of bodily vigour1 of muscular melody1 as ,i like to call it4 ,as ,i watched this ringmaster of the little traveling circus1 this master mountebank of the sturdy figure1 ably poised upon his head on the high wire1 outlined against the body of the high mountain in the near distance1 about which the thunder clouds were huddling1 and in and out of which the lightning was sharply playing1 it all formed for me another of those perfect sensations from that phase of art expression known as the circus4 ,my happiest memories in this field are from the streets of ,paris before the war1 the incomparably lovely ftes4 ,only the sun knows where these dear artists may be now4 ,but ,i am wanting to tell of the little equestrienne1 whose work has for the past five years been a source of genuine delight to me1 charming little ,may ,wirth1 of ,australian origin1 with her lovely dark eyes1 and captivating ,english accent4 ,if you have a genuine sympathy for this sort of expression1 it is but natural that you want to get inside the ring1 and smell the turf with them1 and so it was the representative of this gifted little woman who brought us together4 ,it is1 in the first place1 a pity that there is so little written of the history of these people1 so little material from which to gather the development of the idea of acrobatics in general1 or of any one phase in particular4 ,it would be impossible to learn who was the first aerial trapezist1 for instance1 or where high wire performing was brought from1 just when the trick of adjusting the body to these difficult and strenuous rhythms was originated4 ,they cannot tell you themselves4 ,only if there happens to be more than two generations in existence can you trace the development of this form of athletic entertainment4 ,it may have begun with the ,egyptians1 it may have begun with the first gypsies4 ,these people do not write their history1 they simply make it among themselves1 and it is handed down through the generations4 ,when ,i asked ,may ,wirth for information1 she said she knew of none on the subject1 save that she herself sprang from five generations of acrobats and equestrians1 and that it is terrifically hard labour from beginning to end1 equestrianism in particular1 since it requires a knowledge of several if not all the other physical arts combined1 such as high wire walking1 handspring and somersault1 trapeze work1 bars1 ballet dancing1 etc42 that she herself had begun as a child1 and had run the entire gamut of these requirements1 coming out the finished product1 so to speak1 in all but ballet dancing1 which she disliked1 and wept always when the time came for her lesson in this department4 ,when one sees the incomparable brilliancy of this little woman of the horse1 watching her marvellous ground work1 which is in itself an example of virtuosity1 one realizes what accomplishment alone can do1 for she is not yet twenty-five1 and the art is already in the condition of genius with her4 ,five handsome side-wheels round the ring1 and a flying jump on the horse1 then several complete somersaults on the horse's back while he is in movement round the ring1 is not to be slighted for consideration1 and if1 as ,i have said1 you have a love or even a fancy for this sort of entertainment1 you all but worship the little lady for the thrill she gives you through this consummate mastery of hers4 ,i always wanted to do what the boys could do1 and ,i was never satisfied until ,i had accomplished it4 ,this was the strongest assertion the little lady of the horse was moved to make while in conversation1 and that the ring is more beautiful to work in than on a mat upon a stage1 for it is in the ring that the horse is most at home1 it is easier for him1 and gives him greater muscular freedom1 with the result naturally1 that it is easier on the muscles of the human body while in action4 ,i have never tired of this species of entertainment4 ,it has always impressed me as being the most natural form of transposed physical culture1 esthetically speaking4 ,it does for the eye1 if you are sensitive1 what music does for the ear4 ,it gives the body a chance to show its exquisite rhythmic beauty1 as no other form of athletics can1 for it is the beautiful plastic of the body1 harmonically arranged for personal delight4 ,it is something for so young a woman to have walked away with first honours in her chosen field1 yet like the true artist that she is1 she is thinking always of how she can beautify her accomplishment to a still greater degree4 ,she is mistress of a very difficult art1 and yet the brilliancy of her performance makes it seem as if it were but the experiment of an afternoon1 in the out-of-doors4 ,like all fine artists1 she has brushed away from sight all aspects of labour1 and presents you1 with astounding ease1 the apparent easiness of the thing4 ,she is powerfully built1 and her muscles are master of coordination1 such as would be the envy of multitudes of men1 and with all this power1 she is as simple in her manner and appearance as is the young debutante at her coming out function4 ,you are impressed with her sweetness and refinement1 first of all1 and the utter lack of show about her1 as also with her brother who is a dapper young man of the very ,english type1 who works with her1 and acts as the dress-suited gentleman in this acrobatic ringplay of theirs4 ,three other members of her family take part also with her1 the ring-mistress1 a woman of possibly forty1 acting as host1 looking exceptionally well1 handsome indeed1 in grey and silver evening dress1 with fine dark eyes and an older sister who opens the performance with some good work4 ,this seems to me to be the modern touch1 for there was a time when it was always the very well groomed ringmaster1 with top hat and monocle1 who acted as host of the ring4 ,it will likewise be remembered by those who saw the ,hannafords at the circus1 that they were also possessed of a very handsome ring-mistress1 elegantly gowned1 both of these older ladies lending great distinction1 by their presence1 to already brilliant performances4 ,i would be very pleased to make myself historian for these fine artists1 these esthetes of muscular melody4 ,i should like very much to be spokesman for them1 and point out to an enforcedly ignorant public1 the beauties of this line of artistic expression1 and to give historical account of the development of these various picturesque athletic arts4 ,alas1 that is not possible1 for it must remain forever in the limbo of tradition4 ,we shall have to be grateful beyond expression for the beautiful art of ,may ,wirth1 and devote less enthusiasm to asking of when and how it came about4 ,to have established one's art at the perfect point in one's girlhood1 is it not achievement1 is it not genius itself8 ,charming little ,may ,wirth1 first equestrienne of the world1 ,i congratulate you for your beautiful presentation1 for the excellence of its technique1 and for the grace and fascination contained therein4 ,triumph in youth1 victory in the heroic period of life1 that surely is sufficient4 ,let the bays fall upon her young head gleefully1 for she earned them with patience1 devotion1 intelligence1 and very hard labours4 ,salutations1 little lady of the white horse6 ,how charming1 how simple she was1 the little equestrienne as she rode away from the door of the huge theatre1 in her pale blue touring car4 ,i love the audiences here in this great theatre1 but ,o1 ,i love the circus so much more6 ,these were the sentiments of the little performer as she rode away4 ,she is now touring1 performing under the huge canvases in the open areas of the middle ,west1 and the little traveling circus is on its way over the mountains4 ,fascinating people1 and a fascinating life for whom there is not1 and probably never will be1 a written history2 the story of whose origin lies almost as buried as that of the primitive peoples4 ,charming rovers1 content with life near to the bright sky1 charming people1 for whom life is but one long day in which to make beautiful their bodies1 and make joyful the eyes of those who love to look at them6 ,,john ,,barrymore ,,in ,,peter ,,ibbetson ,the vicissitudes of the young boy along the vague1 precarious way1 the longing to find the reality of the dream--the heart that knew him best--a study in sentimentality1 the pathetic wanderings of a little boy lost in the dream of childhood1 and the little boy found in the arms of his loved mother1 with all those touches that are painful and all that are exquisite and poignant in their beauty--such is the picture presented by ,john ,barrymore1 as nearly perfect as any artist can be1 in ,peter ,ibbetson4 ,certainly it is as finished a creation in its sense of form1 and of color1 replete with a finesse of rare loveliness1 as gratifying a performance1 to my notion1 as has been seen on our stage for many years4 ,perhaps if the author1 recalling vain pasts1 could realize the scum of saccharinity in which the play is utterly submerged1 and that it struggles with great difficulty to survive the nesselrodelike sweetness with which it is surfeited1 he would recognize the real distinction that ,barrymore lends to a rle so clogged by the honeyed sentimentality covering most of the scenes4 ,barrymore gives us that quickened sense of the life of the young man1 a portrayal which takes the eye by its fine edge of light1 a portrayal clear and cool1 elevated to a fine loftiness in his rendering4 ,the actor has accomplished this by means of a nice knowledge of what symbolic expression means to the art of the stage4 ,he is certainly a painter of pictures and moods1 the idea and his image perfectly commingled1 endowing this mediocre play with true charm by the distinction he lends it1 by sheer discretion1 and by a power of selection4 ,all this he brings to a play which1 if it had been written nowadays1 would certainly have convicted its author1 and justly too1 of having written to stimulate the lachrymal effusions of the shop-girl1 a play about which she might telephone her girl friend1 at which she might eat bon bons1 and powder her nose again for the street4 ,no artist1 no accepted artist1 has given a more suggestive rendering than has ,barrymore here4 ,it would be difficult to say where he is at his best1 except that the first half of the play counts for most in point of strength and opportunity4 ,a tall frail young man1 we find him1 blanched with wonder and with awe at the perplexity of life1 seeking a solution of things by means of the dream1 as only the dreamer and the visionary can1 lost from first to last1 seemingly unloved in the ways boys think they want to be loved2 that is1 the shy longing boy1 afraid of all things1 and mostly of himself1 in the period just this side of sex revelation4 ,he is the neophyte--the homeless1 pathetic ,peter1 perplexed with the strangeness of things real and temporal--vision and memory counting for all there is of reality to him1 with life itself a thing as yet untasted4 ,who shall forget 7who has a love for real expression7 the entrance of ,peter into the drawing-room of ,mrs4 ,deane1 the pale flowery wisp of a boy walking as it were into a garden of pungent spices and herbs1 and of actions so alien to his own8 ,we are given at this moment the keynote of mastery in delicate suggestion1 which never fails throughout the play1 tedious as it is1 overdrawn on the side of symbolism and mystical insinuation4 ,one sits with difficulty through many of the moments1 the literary quality of them is so wretched4 ,they cloy the ear1 and the mind that has been made sensitive1 desiring something of a finer type of stimulation4 ,barrymore has evoked1 so we may call it1 a cold method--against a background of what could have been overheated acting or at least a superabundance of physical attack--the warmth of the play's tender sentimentalities2 yet he covers them with a still spiritual ardor which is their very essence1 extracting all the delicate nuances and arranging them with a fine sense of proportion4 ,it is as difficult an accomplishment for a man as one can imagine4 ,for it is not given to many to act with this degree of whiteness1 devoid of off colorings or alien tones4 ,this performance of ,barrymore in its spiritual richness1 its elegance1 finesse1 and intelligence1 has not been equaled for me since ,i saw the great geniuses ,paul ,orleneff and ,eleonora ,duse4 ,it is to be at once observed that here is a keen pictorial mind1 a mind which visualizes perfectly for itself the chiaroscuro aspects of the emotion1 as well as the spiritual1 for ,barrymore gives them with an almost unerring felicity1 and rounds out the portrayal which in any other hands would suffer1 but ,barrymore has the special power to feel the value of reticence in all good art1 the need for complete subjection of personal enthusiasm to the force of ideas4 ,his art is akin to the art of silver-point1 which1 as is known1 is an art of directness of touch1 and final in the instant of execution1 leaving no room whatever for accident or untoward excitement of nerve4 ,we shall wait long for the silver suggestiveness such as ,barrymore gives us when ,peter gets his first glimpse of ,mary1 ,duchess of ,towers4 ,who else could convey his realization of her beauty1 and the quality of reminiscence that lingers about her1 of the rapt amaze as he stands by the mantel-piece looking through the door into the space where he sees her in the midst of dancers under a crystal chandelier somewhere not very distant8 ,or the moment when he finds her bouquet neglected on the table in the drawing-room1 with her lace shawl not far from his hands8 ,or when he finds himself alone1 pressing his lips into the depth of the flowers as the curtain gives the finale to the scene with the whispered l'amour6 ,these are moments of a real lyrist1 and would match any line of ,banville1 of ,ronsard1 or of ,austin ,dobson for delicacy of touch and feeling1 for freshness1 and for the precise spiritual gesture1 the intonation of action requisite to relieve the moments from what might otherwise revert to commonplace sentimentality4 ,whatever the prejudice may be against all these emotions glac with sugary frosting1 we feel that his art has brought them into being with an unmistakable gift of refinement coupled with superb style4 ,how an artist like ,beardsley would have revelled in these moments is easy to conjecture4 ,for here is the quintessence of intellectualized aquarelle1 and these touches would surely have brought into being another ,pierrot of the ,minute--a new line drawing out of a period he knew and loved well4 ,these touches would have been graced by the hand of that artist1 or by another of equal delicacy of appreciation1 ,charles ,conder--unforgettable spaces replete with the essence of fancy1 of dream1 of those farther recesses of the imagination4 ,although technically and historically ,barrymore has the advantage of excellent traditions1 he nevertheless rests entirely upon his own achievements1 separate and individual in his understanding of what constitutes plastic power in art4 ,he has a peculiar and most sensitive temper1 which can arrange points of relation in juxtaposition with a keen sense of form as well as of substance4 ,he is1 one might say1 a masterly draftsman with a rich cool sense of color1 whose work has something of the still force of a drawing of ,ingres with1 as well1 the sensitive detail one finds in a ,redon1 like a beautiful drawing on stone4 ,an excellent knowledge of dramatic contrasts is displayed by the brothers ,barrymore1 ,john and ,lionel1 in the murder scene1 one of the finest we have seen for many years1 technically even1 splendid1 and direct1 concise in movement4 ,every superfluous gesture has been eliminated4 ,from the moment of ,peter's locking the door upon his uncle the scene is wrapped in the very coils of catastrophe1 almost ,euripedean in its inevitability4 ,all of this episode is kept strictly within the realm of the imagination4 ,it is an episode of hatred1 of which there is sure to be at least one in the life of every young sensitive1 when every boy wants1 at any rate somewhere in his mind1 to destroy some influence or other which is alien or hateful to him4 ,the scene emphasizes once again the beauty of technical power for its own sake1 the thrill of discarding all that is not immediately essential to simple and direct realization4 ,little can be said of the play beyond this point1 for it dwindles off into sentimental mystification which cannot be enjoyed by anyone under fifty1 or appreciated by anyone under eighteen4 ,it gives opportunity merely for settings and some rare moments of costuming1 the lady with the battledore reminding one a deal of a good ,manet4 ,this and1 of course1 the splendid appearance of the ,duchess of ,towers in the first act--all these touches furnish more than a satisfying background for the very shy and frail ,peter4 ,this performance of ,barrymore holds for me the first and last requisite of organized conception in art--poise1 clarity1 and perfect suggestibility4 ,its intellectual soundness rules the emotional extravagance1 giving form to what--for lack of form--so often perishes under an excess of energy1 which the ignorant actor substitutes for the plastic element in all art4 ,it has the attitude1 this performance1 almost of diffidence to one's subject-matter1 except as the intellect judges clearly and coolly4 ,thus1 in the sense of esthetic reality1 are all aspects clarified and made real4 ,from the outward inward1 or from the inward outward1 surface to depth or depth to surface--it is difficult to say which is the precise method of approach4 ,john ,barrymore has mastered the evasive subtlety therein1 which makes him one of our greatest artists4 ,the future will surely wait for his riper contributions1 and we may think of him as one of our foremost artists1 among the few1 one of a small band1 as the great novelist once said of the great poet4 ,,part ,,three ,,la ,,closerie ,,de ,,lilas ,divine ,tuesday6 ,i had wondered if those remarkable evenings of conversation in the rue de ,rome with ,mallarm as host1 and ,henri de ,regnier as guest1 among many others1 had been the inspiration of the evenings at the ,closerie de ,lilas1 where ,i so often sat of an evening1 watching the numbers of esthetes gather1 filling the entire caf1 rain or shine1 waiting unquestionably1 for it pervaded the air always1 the feeling of suspense1 of a dinner without host1 of a wedding without bridegroom1 in any event waiting for the real genius of the evening1 le grand maitre prince de potes1 ,paul ,fort4 ,the interesting book of ,amy ,lowell's1 ,six ,french ,poets1 recalls these ,tuesday evenings vividly to my mind1 and a number of episodes in connection with the idea of poetry in ,paris4 ,poetry an event8 ,a rather remarkable notion it would seem1 and yet this was always so1 it was a constituent of the day's passing1 there was never a part of the day in this arrondissement1 when you would not find here1 there1 everywhere1 from the ,boul-,mich up1 down ,montparnasse to ,lavenue's1 and back to the ,closerie1 groups of a few or of many1 obviously the artist or poet type1 sometimes very nattily dressed1 often the reverse1 but you found them talking upon one theme1 art1 meaning either poetry or painting1 cubistes1 futuristes1 orphistes and doubtless every iste in poetry from the symboliste period up to the unanimistes of the present time1 or the then present time nearly two years before the war4 ,it was a bit novel1 even for a sensitive ,american1 sitting there1 realizing that it was all in the name of art1 and for the heralding of genius--a kind of sublimated recruiting meeting for the enlistment in the army of expression of personality1 or for the saving of the soul of poetry4 ,it was a spectacle1 edifying in its purport1 or even a little distressing if one had no belief in a sense of humour1 for there were moments of absurdity about it as there is sure to be in a room filled with any type of concerted egotism4 ,but you did not forget the raison d'etre of it all1 you did not forget that when the prince arrived there was the spirit of true celebration about it1 the celebration not only of an arrived artist1 but of an idea close to the hearts and minds of those present1 and you had a sense1 too1 of what it must have been like in that circle of1 no doubt1 a higher average of adherents1 in the drawing room of the genius ,mallarm1 who1 from all accounts1 was as perfected in the art of conversation1 as he was in expression in art4 ,when ,i read ,miss ,lowell's chapter on ,henri de ,regnier1 ,i find myself before the door of the ,mallarm house in the rue de ,rome1 probably the only ,american guest1 on that ,sunday morning in ,june1 just one given a privilege that could not mean as much as if ,i had been more conversant with the delicacies of the language4 ,it was the occasion of the placing of a tablet of homage to the great poet1 at which ceremony ,henri de ,regnier himself was the chief speaker3 a tall1 very aristocratic1 very elegant looking ,frenchman1 not any more to be called young1 nor yet to be called old1 but conspicuously simple1 dignified1 dressed in a manner of a gentleman of the first order1 standing upon a chair1 speaking1 as one would imagine1 with a flow of words which were the epitome of music itself to the ear4 ,i had been invited by a poet well known in ,paris1 with several volumes to his credit and by a young literary woman1 both of whom spoke ,english very creditably4 ,after the ceremonies1 which were very brief1 and at which ,madame ,mallarm herself was present1 standing near the speaker1 de ,regnier1 the entire company repaired to a restaurant near the ,place ,clichy1 if ,i remember rightly4 ,my hostess named for me the various guests as they appeared1 ,madame ,rachilde1 ,reynaldo ,hahn1 ,andr ,gide1 and a dozen other names less conspicuous1 perhaps1 excepting one1 ,lon ,dierx1 who was an old man1 and whose death was announced about the city some days later4 ,it was1 needless to say1 a conspicuous company and the dinner went off very quietly1 allowing of course for the always feverish sound of the conversation of many people talking in a not very large room4 ,but all these suggestions recall for me once more what such things mean to a people like the ,french1 or1 let one say1 ,europeans as well4 ,i wonder what poetry or even painting will do1 if they shall rise to such a state in this country that we shall find our masters of literature holding audience with this degree of interest like ,fort1 or as did all the great masters of literature in ,paris1 hold forth in the name of art1 a divine ,tuesday set apart for the admirable worship of poetry1 or of things esthetic4 ,i can imagine ,amy ,lowell doing something of this sort after the custom of those masters she so admires1 with her seemingly quenchless enthusiasms for all that is modern in poetry4 ,i think we shall wait long for that1 for the time when we shall have our best esthetics over the coffee1 at the curbside under the trees with the sun shining upon it1 or the shadow of the evening lending its sanction1 under the magnetic influence of such a one as ,paul ,fort or ,francis ,jammes1 or ,emile ,verhaeren--as it was once to be had among such as ,verlaine1 ,baudelaire and that high company of distinguished painters who are now famous among us4 ,the studio of ,gertude ,stein1 that quiet yet always lively place in the rue de ,fleurus1 is the only room ,i have ever been in where this spirit was organized to a similar degree1 for here you had the sense of the real importance of painting1 as it used to be thought of in the days of ,pissarro1 ,manet1 ,degas1 and the others1 and you had much1 in all human ways1 out of an evening there1 and1 most of all1 you had a fund of good humour thrust at you1 and the conversation took on1 not the quality of poetic prose spoken1 as you had the quality of yourself and others1 a kind of ,william ,james intimacy1 which1 as everyone knows1 is style bringing the universe of ideas to your door in terms of your own sensations4 ,there may have been a touch of all this at the once famed ,brook ,farm1 but ,i fancy it was rather chill in its severity4 ,there is something of charm in the ,french idea of taking their discussions to the sunlight or the shadow under the stars1 either within or outside the caf1 where you feel the passing of the world1 and the poetry is of one piece with life itself1 not the result of stuffy studios1 and excessively ornate library corners1 where books crowd out the quality of people and things4 ,you felt that the caf was the place for it1 and if the acrobat came and sang1 it was all of one fabric and it was as good for the poetry1 as it was for the eye and the ear that absorbed it4 ,despite the different phases of the spectacle of ,tuesday1 at the ,closerie de ,lilas1 you had the feeling of its splendour1 its excellence1 and1 most of all1 of its reality1 its relationship to every other phase of life1 and not of the hypersensitivity of the thing as we still consider it among ourselves in general2 and if you heard the name of ,paul ,fort1 or ,francis ,jammes1 it was a definite issue in daily life1 equal with the name of the great statesmen in importance1 you were being introduced into a sphere of activities of the utmost importance1 that poetry was something to be reckoned with4 ,it was not merely to hear oneself talk that artists like ,mallarm held forth with distinction1 that artists like de ,regnier and ,fort devote themselves1 however secretly1 or however openly to the sacred theme4 ,they had but one intention1 and that to arrive at1 and assist in the realization of the best state of poetry1 that shall have carried the art further on its way logically1 and in accordance with the principles which they have created for their time2 endeavoring always to create fresh values1 new points of contact with the prevailing as well as with the older outlines of the classics4 ,it was1 then1 a spectacle1 from our removed point of view1 the gathering of the poetic multitude around the caf tables1 over the ,dubonnet1 the grenadines1 and the caf noir1 of a ,tuesday evening4 ,it gave one a sense of perpetuity1 of the indestructibility of art1 in spite of the obstacles encountered in the run of the day1 that the artist has the advantage over the layman in being qualified to set down1 in shapes imperishable1 those states of his imagination which are the shapes of life and of nature4 ,we may be grateful to ,amy ,lowell for having assembled for our consummation1 in a world where poetry is not as yet the sublime issue as it was to be felt at every street corner1 much of the spirit of the rue de ,rome1 the ,caf ,novelles ,d',athnes1 and the ,closerie de ,lilas1 as well as the once famed corner of the ,caf ,d',harcourt where the absinthe flowed so continuously1 and from which some very exquisite poetry has emanated for all time4 ,it is the first intimation we have of what our best ,english poetry has done for the best ,french poets of the present1 and what our first free verse poet has done for the general liberation of emotions and for freedom of form in all countries4 ,he has indicated the poets that are to follow him4 ,he would be the first to sanction all this poetic discussive intensity at the curbside1 the liberty and freedom of the caf1 the excellence of a divine ,tuesday evening4 ,,emily ,,dickinson ,if ,i want to take up poetry in its most delightful and playful mood1 ,i take up the verses of that remarkable girl of the sixties and seventies1 ,emily ,dickinson1 she who was writing her little worthless poetic nothings1 or so she was wont to think of them1 at a time when the now classical ,new ,england group was flourishing around ,concord1 when ,hawthorne was burrowing into the soul of things1 ,thoreau was refusing to make more pencils and took to sounding lake bottoms and holding converse with all kinds of fish and other water life1 and ,emerson was standing high upon his pedestal preaching of compensations1 of friendship1 society and the oversoul1 leaving a mighty impress upon his ,new ,england and the world at large as well4 ,i find when ,i take up ,emily ,dickinson1 that ,i am sort of sunning myself in the discal radiance of a bright1 vivid1 and really new type of poet1 for she is by no means worn of her freshness for us1 she wears with one as would an old fashioned pearl set in gold and dark enamels4 ,she offsets the smugness of the time in which she lived with her cheery impertinence1 and startles the present with her uncommon gifts4 ,those who know the irresistible charm of this girl--who gave so charming a portrait of herself to the stranger friend who inquired for a photograph3 ,i had no portrait now1 but am small like the wren1 and my hair is bold like the chestnut burr1 and my eyes like the sherry in the glass that the guest leaves1 this written in ,july1 #ahfb--shall be of course familiar with the undeniable originality of her personality1 the grace and special beauty of her mind1 charm unique in itself1 not like any other genius then or now1 or in the time before her1 having perhaps a little of relationship to the crystal clearness of ,crashaw1 like ,vaughan and ,donne maybe1 in respect of their lyrical fervour and moral earnestness1 yet nevertheless appearing to us freshly with as separate a spirit in her verse creations as she herself was separated from the world around her by the amplitude of garden which was her universe4 ,emily ,dickinson confronts you at once with an instinct for poetry1 to be envied by the more ordinary and perhaps more finished poets4 ,ordinary she never was1 common she never could have been1 for she was first and last aristocrat in sensibility1 rare and untouchable if you will1 vague and mystical often enough1 unapproachable and often distinctly aloof1 as undoubtedly she herself was in her personal life4 ,those with a fondness for intimacy will find her1 like all recluses1 forbidding and difficult1 if not altogether terrifying the mind with her vagueries and peculiarities4 ,here was ,new ,england at its sharpest1 brightest1 wittiest1 most fantastic1 most wilful1 most devout1 saint and imp sported in one1 toying with the tricks of the ,deity1 taking them now with extreme profundity1 then tossing them about like irresistible toys with an incomparable triviality4 ,she has traced upon the page and with celestial indelibility that fine line from her soul which is like a fine prismatic light1 separating one bright sphere from another1 one planet from another planet1 and the edge of separation is but faintly perceptible4 ,she has left us this bright folio of her lightning and fragrance in one1 scintillant with stardust as perhaps no other before her1 certainly not in this country1 none with just her celestial attachedness1 or must we call it detachedness1 and withal also a sublime1 impertinent playfulness which makes her images dance before one like offspring of the great round sun1 fooling zealously with the universes at her feet1 and just beyond her eye1 with a loftiness of spirit and of exquisite trivialness seconded by none4 ,who has not read these flippant renderings1 holding always some touch of austerity and gravity of mood1 or the still more perfect letters to her friends1 will1 ,i think1 have missed a new kind of poetic diversion1 a new loveliness1 evasive1 alert1 pronounced in every interval and serious1 modestly so1 and at a bound leaping as it were like some sky child pranking with the clouds1 and the hills and the valleys beneath them1 child as she surely was always1 playing in some celestial garden space in her mind1 where every species of tether was unendurable1 where freedom for this childish sport was the one thing necessary to her ever young and incessantly capering mind--hail to thee1 blithe spirit1 bird thou ever wert6 ,it must be said in all justice1 then1 that fascination was her element1 everything to her was wondrous1 sublimely magical1 awsomely inspiring and thrilling4 ,it was the event of many moons to have someone she liked say so much as good morning to her in human tongue1 it was the event of every instant to have the flowers and birds call her by name1 and hear the clouds exult at her approach4 ,she was the brightest young sister of fancy1 as she was the gifted young daughter of the ancient imagination4 ,one feels everywhere in her verse and in her so splendid and stylish letters an unexcelled freshness1 brightness of metaphor and of imagery1 a gift of a peculiarity that could have come only from this part of our country1 this part of the world1 this very spot which has bred so many intellectual and spiritual entities wrapped in the garments of isolation1 robed with questioning4 ,her genius is in this sense essentially local1 as much the voice of the spirit of ,new ,england as it is possible for one to hold4 ,if ever wanderer hitched vehicle to the comet's tail1 it was the poetic1 sprite woman1 no one ever rode the sky and the earth as she did in this radiant and skybright mind of her4 ,she loved all things because all things were in one way or in another way bright for her1 and of a blinding brightness from which she often had to hide her face4 ,she embroidered all her thoughts with starry intricacies1 and gave them the splendour of frosty traceries upon the windowpane in a frigid time1 and of the raindrop in the sun1 and summered them with fragrancing of the many early and late flowers of her own fanciful conjuring4 ,they are glittering garlands of her clear1 cool fancies1 these poems1 fraught in some instances1 as are certain finely cut stones1 with an exceptional mingling of lights coursing swiftly through them4 ,she was avid of starlight and of sunlight alike1 and of that light by which all things are illumined with a splendour not their own merely1 but lent them by shafts from that radiant sphere which she leaned from1 looking out gleefully upon them from the window of that high place in her mind4 ,to think of this poet is to think of crystal1 for she lived in a radianced world of innumerable facets1 and the common instances were chariots upon which to ride widely over the edges of infinity4 ,she is alive for us now in those rare fancies of hers1 with no other wish in them save as memorandum for her own eyes1 and when they were finished to send them spinning across the wide garden1 many of them to her favorite sister who lived far1 far away1 over beyond the hedge4 ,you shall find in her all that is winsome1 strange1 fanciful1 fantastic and irresistible in the eastern character and characteristic4 ,she is first and best in lightsomeness of temper1 for the eastern is known as essentially a tragic genius4 ,she is perhaps the single exponent of modern times of the quality of true celestial frivolity4 ,scintillant was she then1 and like dew she was and the soft summer rain1 and the light upon the lips of flowers of which she loved to sing4 ,her mind and her spirit were one1 soul and sense inseparable1 little sister of ,shelley certainly she was1 and the more playful relative of ,francis ,thompson4 ,she had about her the imperishable quality that hovers about all things young and strong and beautiful1 she was the sense of beauty ungovernable4 ,what there are of tendencies religious and moral disturb in nowise those who love and have appreciation for true poetic essences4 ,she had in her brain the inevitable buzzing of the bee in the belly of the bloom1 she had in her eyes the climbing lances of the sun1 she had in her heart love and pity for the innumerable pitiful and pitiable things4 ,she was a quenchless mother in her gift for solace and she was lover to the immeasurable love4 ,like all aristocrats she hated mediocrity1 and like all first rate jewels1 she had no rift to hide4 ,she was not a maker of poetry1 she was a thinker of poetry4 ,she was not a conjurer of words so much as a magician in sensibility4 ,she has only to see and feel and hear to be in touch with all things with a name or with things that must be forever nameless4 ,if she loved people1 she loved them for what they were1 if she despised them she despised them for what they did1 or for lack of power to feel they could not do4 ,silence under a tree was a far more talkative experience with her than converse with one or a thousand dull minds4 ,her throng was the air1 and her wings were the multitude of flying movements in her brain4 ,she had only to think and she was amid numberless minarets and golden domes1 she had only to think and the mountain cleft its shadow in her heart4 ,emily ,dickinson is in no sense toil for the mind accustomed to the labours of reading1 she is too fanciful and delicious ever to make heavy the head1 she sets you to laughter and draws a smile across your face for pity1 and lets you loose again amid the measureless pleasing little humanities4 ,i shall always want to read ,emily ,dickinson1 for she points her finger at all tiresome scholasticism1 and takes a chance with the universe about her and the first rate poetry it offers at every hand within the eye's easy glancing4 ,she has made poetry memorable as a pastime for the mind1 and sent the heavier ministerial tendencies flying to a speedy oblivion4 ,what a child she was1 child impertinent1 with a heavenly rippling in her brain6 ,these random passages out of her writings will show at once the rarity of her tastes and the originality of her phrasing4 ,february passed like a kate1 and ,i know ,march4 ,here is the light the stranger said was not on sea or land--myself could arrest it1 but will not chagrin him-- ,the wind blows gay today1 and the jays bark like blue terriers4 ,friday ,i tasted life1 it was a vast morsel4 ,a circus passed the house--still ,i feel the red in my mind though the drums are out4 ,the lawn is full of south and the odors tangle1 and ,i hear today for the first the river in the tree4 ,the zeros taught us phosphorus ,we learned to like the fire ,by playing glaciers when a boy ,and tinder guessed by power ,of opposite to balance odd ,if white a red must be6 ,paralysis1 our primer dumb ,unto vitality4 ,then comes the crowning extravaganza4444 ,if ,i read a book1 and it makes my whole body so cold no fire will ever warm me1 ,i know that is poetry4 ,if ,i feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off1 ,i know that is poetry4 ,is there any other way8 ,these are the only ways ,i know it4 ,no one but a ,new ,england yankee mind could concoct such humours and fascinatingly pert phrases as are found here4 ,they are like the chatterings of the interrupted squirrel in the tree-hole at nut-time4 ,there is so much of high gossip in these poetic turns of hers1 and so1 throughout her books1 one finds a multitude of playful tricks for the pleased mind to run with4 ,she was an intoxicated being1 drunken with the little tipsy joys of the simplest form1 shaped as they were to elude always her evasive imagination into thinking that nothing she could think or feel but was extraordinary and remarkable4 ,your letter gave no drunkenness because ,i tasted rum before--,domingo comes but once1 etc41 she wrote to ,col4 ,higginson1 a pretty conceit1 surely to offer a loved friend4 ,the passages offered will give the unfamiliar reader a taste of the sparkle of this poet's hurrying fancy and set her before the willing mind entrancingly1 it seems to me4 ,she will always delight those who find it in their way to love her elfish1 evasive genius1 and those who care for the vivid and living element in words will find her1 to say the least1 among the masters in her feeling for their strange shapes and the fresh significance contained in them4 ,a born thinker of poetry1 and in a great measure a gifted writer of it1 refreshing many a heavy moment made dull with the weightiness of books1 or of burdensome thinking4 ,this poet-sprite sets scurrying all weariness of the brain1 and they shall have an hour of sheer delight who invite poetic converse with ,emily ,dickinson4 ,she will repay with funds of rich celestial coin from her rare and precious fancyings4 ,she had that oblique integrity which she celebrates in one of her poems4 ,,adelaide ,,crapsey ,one more satellite hurried away too soon6 ,high hints at least1 of the young meteor finding its way through space4 ,here was another of those1 with a vast fund of wishing in her brain1 and the briefest of hours in which to set them roaming4 ,brevities that whirl through the mind as you read those cinquains of ,adelaide ,crapsey1 like white birds through the dark woodlands of the night4 ,cameos or castles1 what is size8 ,is it not the same if they are of one perfection of feeling8 ,such a little book of ,adelaide ,crapsey1 surely like cameos cut on shell1 so clear in outline1 so rich in form1 so brave in indications1 so much of singing1 so much of poetry1 of courage4 ,just now1 ,out of the strange ,still dusk--as strange1 as still1 ,a white moth flew2 ,why am ,i grown ,so cold8 ,isn't the evidence sufficient here of first rate poetic gifts1 sensibility of an exceptional order8 ,contrast in so many ways with that perhaps more radiant and certainly more whimsical girl1 with her rarest of flavours1 she with her whip of diamond1 riding to meet the ,earl6 ,i think geniuses like ,keats or ,shelley would have said how do you do1 poet8 to ,adelaide ,crapsey and her verse1 lamenting also that she flew over the rainbowed edge of the dusk too soon1 like the very moth over the garden wall1 early in the evening4 ,it is sure that had this poet been allowed her full quota of days1 she would have left some handsome folios bright enough for any one caring for verse at its purest4 ,pity there was not time for another book at least1 of her verses1 to verify the great distinction conferred4 ,she might have walked still more largely away with the wreaths of recognition4 ,not time for more books1 instead of so much eternity at her bedside4 ,she would surely have sent more words singing to their high places and have impressed the abundant output of the day with its superficiality by her seriousness4 ,there is no trifling in these poetic things of hers4 ,trivial might some say who hanker after giantesque composition4 ,fragile are they only in the sense of size1 only in this way are they small4 ,those who know the difficulties of writing poetic composition are aware of the task involved in creating such packed brevities4 ,emily ,dickinson knew this power4 ,h4 ,d4 is another woman who understands the beauty of compactness4 ,superb sense of economy1 of terseness the art calls for1 excessive pruning and clipping4 ,singular that these three artists1 so gifted in brevity were women4 ,there is little1 after all1 in existence that warrants lengthy dissertation4 ,life itself is epigrammatic and brief enough4 ,no volumes needed by way of explanation4 ,the fascinating enigma diverts and perplexes everyone alike4 ,the simple understand it best1 or at least they seem to do so4 ,segregation1 aloofness1 spiritual imprisonment1 which is another name for introspection1 the looking out from bars of the caged house1 all this discovers something through penetration4 ,walking with life is most natural1 grazing its warm shoulder4 ,there is little room for inquiry if one have the real feeling of life itself4 ,poetry is that which gleans most by keeping nearest to life4 ,books and firesides avail but little4 ,secretaries for the baggage of erudition do not enhance poetic values1 they encumber them4 ,poetry is not declamation1 it is not propaganda1 it is breathing natural breaths4 ,there is nothing mechanical about poetry excepting the affectation of forms4 ,poetry is the world's1 it is everybody's4 ,you count poetry by its essence1 and no amount of studied effect1 or bulging erudition will create that which is necessary1 that which makes poetry what it is4 ,the one essential is power to sing1 and the intelligence to get it down with degrees of mastery or naturalness1 which is one and the same thing4 ,real singing is unusual as real singers are rare4 ,adelaide ,crapsey shows that she was a real singer1 essentially poet1 excellent among those of our time4 ,she impresses her uncommon qualities upon you1 in the cinquains of hers1 with genuinely incisive force4 ,she has so much of definiteness1 so much of technical beauty1 economy1 all very valuable assets for a true poet4 ,she had never been touched with the mania for journalistic profusion4 ,she cared too much for language to ride it4 ,she cared too much for words to want to whip them into slavery4 ,she was outside of them1 looking on1 as it might be1 through crystal1 at their freshness4 ,she did not take them for granted4 ,they were new to her and she wanted the proper familiarity4 ,she worked upon a spiritual geometric all her own4 ,she did not run to the dictionary for eccentricities1 she did not hunt words out of countenance4 ,they were natural to her4 ,she wanted most their simple beauty1 and she succeeded4 ,she had dignity1 a rare gift in these times4 ,she raises herself above the many by her fine feeling for the precision4 ,that is her artistry1 the word1 the thing of beauty and the joy forever with her4 ,it is to be regretted that ,adelaide ,crapsey had no more time for the miniature microscopic equations1 the little thing seen large1 the large thing seen vividly4 ,she might have spent more hours with them and less with her so persistent guest1 this second self at her side2 ironic presence1 when she most would have strode with the brighter companion1 her first and natural choice4 ,her contribution is conspicuous among us for its balance and its intellectualism tempered with fine emotions4 ,she had so much to settle for herself1 so much bargaining for the little escapes in which to register herself consistently1 so much of consultation for her body's sake1 that her mind flew the dark spaces about her bed with consistent feverishness4 ,reckoning is not the genius of life4 ,it is the painful1 residual element of reflection4 ,one must give1 one must pay4 ,it is not inspiring to beg for breath1 yet this has come to many a fine artist1 many a fine soul whose genius was far more of the ability for living1 with so little of the ability for dying4 ,you cannot think along with clarity1 with the doom of dark recognition nudging your shoulder every instant4 ,there must be somehow apertures of peace for production4 ,adelaide ,crapsey's chief visitant was doom4 ,she saw the days vanishing1 and the inevitable years lengthening over her4 ,no wonder she could write brevities1 she whose existence was brevity itself4 ,the very flicker of the lamp was among the last events4 ,what1 then1 was the fluttering of the moth but a monstrous intimation4 ,if her work was chilled with severity1 it was because she herself was covered with the cool branches of decision4 ,nature was cold with her1 hence there is the ring of ice in these little pieces of hers4 ,they are veiled with the grey of many a sunless morning4 ,these be ,three silent things2 ,the falling snow1--the hour ,before the dawn1--the mouth of one ,just dead4 ,here you have the intensity once more of ,adelaide ,crapsey4 ,it haunts you like the something on the dark stairway as you pass1 just as when1 on the roadway in the dead of night1 the twig grazing one's cheek would seem like the springing panther at one's throat4 ,dramatic vividness is certainly her chief distinction4 ,no playfulness here1 but a stout reckoning with austere beauty4 ,the wish to record the element at its best that played so fierce a rle in her life4 ,she writes her own death hymn1 lays her own shroud out1 spaces her own epilogue as if to give the engraver1 who sets white words on white stone1 the clue1 stones the years stare on1 leaving the sunlight to streak the old pathos there1 and then settles herself to the long way of lying1 to the sure sleep that glassed her keen eyes1 shutting them down too soon on a world that held so much poetry for her4 ,the titles of her cinquains1 such as ,november night1 ,the guarded wound1 ,the warning1 ,fate defied1 and the final touch of inevitability in ,the ,lonely ,death1 so full of the intensity of last moments1 intimate the resolute presence of the grey companion of the covering mists4 ,it must be said hurriedly that ,adelaide ,crapsey was not all doom4 ,by no means4 ,the longer pieces in her tiny book attest to her feeling for riches1 and the lyrical wonders of the hour4 ,her fervour is the artist's fervour1 the longing1 coming really to passion1 to hold and fix forever the shapes that were loveliest to her4 ,that is the poet's existence1 that is the poet's labour1 and his last distress4 ,no one wants to give in to a commonplace world when the light that falls on it is lovelier than the place it falls on4 ,if you cannot transpose the object1 transport it1 however simply1 however ornately1 then of what use is poetry8 ,it is transport6 ,adelaide ,crapsey was efficient in her knowledge of what poetry is1 as she was certainly proficient as workman4 ,she was lapidary more than painter or sculptor4 ,it was a beautiful cutting away1 and a sweeping aside of the rifts and flaws4 ,that is to say1 she wanted that4 ,she wanted the white light of the perfect gem1 and she could not have been content with just matrix1 with here and there embedded chips4 ,she was a washer of gold1 and spared no labours for the bright nuggets she might get1 and the percentage of her panning was high4 ,but the cloud hung on the mountain she clomb1 and her way was dimmed4 ,in the cold ,i will rise1 ,i will bathe ,in the waters of ice2 ,myself ,will shiver1 and will shrive myself ,alone in the dawn1 and anoint ,forehead and feet and hands2 ,i will shutter the windows from light1 ,i will place in their sockets the four ,tall candles and set them a-flame ,in the grey of the dawn2 ,and myself ,will lay myself straight in my bed1 ,and draw the sheet under my chin4 ,there could be no more of resolute finality in this chill epilogue4 ,there is the cold of a thousand years shuddering out of this scene1 it is the passing1 the last of this delicate and gifted poet1 ,adelaide ,crapsey4 ,if she has written more than her book prints1 these must surely be of her best4 ,she took the shape of that which she made so visible1 so cold1 so beautiful4 ,with her white wings she has skirted the edge of the dusk with an incredible calm4 ,no whimpering here4 ,too much artistry for that2 too much of eye to let heart rule4 ,the gifts of ,adelaide ,crapsey were high ones1 and that she left so little of song is regrettable1 even though she left us a legacy of some of the best singing of the day4 ,it is enough to call her poet1 for she was among the first of this hour and time4 ,she had no affectations1 no fashionable theories and ambitions4 ,she simply wrote excellent verse4 ,that is her beautiful gift to us4 ,,francis ,,thompson ,if ever a meteor fell to earth it was ,francis ,thompson4 ,if ever a star ascended to that high place in the sky where sit the loftier planets in pleasant company1 it was this splendid poet4 ,stalking through the shadows of the ,thames ,embankment to find his clear place in the milky way1 is hardly the easiest road for so exceptional a celebrity4 ,it is but another instance of the odd tradition perpetuating itself1 that some geniuses must creep hand and knee through mire1 heart pierced with the bramble of experience1 up over the jagged pathways to that still place where skies are clear at last4 ,thompson is the last among the great ones to have known the dire vicissitude1 direst1 if legends are true1 that can befall a human being4 ,we have the silence of his saviour friends1 the ,meynells1 saying so much more than their few public words1 tender but so careful4 ,what they knew1 and what the walls of the monastery of ,storrington must have heard in that so pained stillness1 there1 is probably beyond repetition for pathos4 ,de ,quincey had taught him much in the knowledge of hardship4 ,whether it is just similarity of experience or a kind of imitation in nature1 is not easy to say4 ,it was hardly the example to repeat4 ,it is singular enough also1 that ,de ,quincey's ,ann should have become so vivid a repetition to ,thompson1 in just the same terms4 ,london has no feeling for the peace of poets4 ,they are the little things in the confused maelstrom of human endeavor4 ,poets are taught with the whip4 ,they must bleed for their divine idea1 or so it was then4 ,sometimes it seems as if a change had come1 for so many poets sit in chairs of ease these days4 ,science produces other kinds of discomfort1 and covers the old misery with a new tapestry of contrasts4 ,i doubt if many poets are selling matches these days1 living on eleven pence a day4 ,there is still the poet who knows his cheap lodging4 ,there seems enough of them still for high minds to crawl into1 and yet there is another face to the misery4 ,thompson was seraph from the first4 ,you see the very doom burning out of his boy's eyes in the youthful portrait1 and you see the logical end in that desperate and pitiful mask1 the drawing of the last period in the ,meynell ,book4 ,his was certainly the severed head1 and his feet were pathetically far away1 down on a stony earth4 ,that he should have forfeited the ordinary ways of ease1 is as consistent with his appearance1 as it was necessary to his nature4 ,that he should find himself on the long march past the stations of the cross1 to the very tree itself1 for his poetic purpose1 if it is in keeping with tradition1 is not precisely the most inspiring aspect of human experiences4 ,human he was not1 as we like to think of human1 for he was too early in his career marked for martyr4 ,there is the note of cricket-time in his earlier life1 and how long this attached to the physical delights of his being cannot be told here4 ,his eyes were lodged too far in heaven to have kept the delights for long1 to have comprehended all that clogged his impatiently mercurial feet4 ,the abashless inquisition of each star was the scrutiny that obsessed his ways1 the impertinence that he suffered most2 for he had the magnitude of soul that hungered for placement1 and the plague of two masters was on him4 ,huntress and ,hound he had to choose between1 beauty and the insatiable ,prince2 harsh and determined lovers1 both of them1 too much craving altogether for an artistic nature4 ,the earth had no room for him and he did not want heaven so soon4 ,he was not saint1 even though his name followed him even1 for recognition4 ,stood bound and helplessly1 for ,time to shoot his barbed minutes at me1 suffered the trampling hoof of every hour1 etc41 all this confided to some childish innocent in ,the child's kiss4 ,whom else should he tell but a child8 ,where is the man or woman with understanding but has the child lodged somewhere for sympathy1 for recognition8 ,the clearest listener he could find1 and the least commiserative1 happily4 ,the heart of childhood1 so divine for me1 is but typical of a being so dragged1 and emaciate with the tortures of the body1 in earth places where no soul like his could ever be at home4 ,what was ,preston1 or ,ashton-under-,lyne to him1 more than ,kensall ,green is to him now8 ,what is such dust in his sky but some blinding and blowing thing8 ,what is there for singer to do but sing until the throat cracks8 ,even the larks and the thrushes do that4 ,they end their morning and evening with a song4 ,he was brother to these birds in that loftiness4 ,he sang1 and sang1 and sang1 while flesh fainted from hunger and weakness4 ,had not ,storrington come to him in the dark places of ,london1 we should have had no ,hound of ,heaven1 and without that masterpiece what would modern poetry do8 ,he sang to cover up his wounds with climbing music4 ,that was his sense of beauty4 ,he filled his hollowing cheek with finer things than moaning4 ,he might have wept1 but they were words instead of drops4 ,it will be difficult to find loftier song as to essences4 ,we shall have room for criticising stylistic extravagances1 archaisms of a not interesting order for us1 yet there will be nothing said but the highest in praise of his genius4 ,excess of praise may be heaped upon him without cessation1 and it may end in the few cool yet incisive words that fell from the lips of ,meredith1 with the violets from another's worshipped hands1 a true poet1 one of a small band4 ,poets of this time will have much to gather from ,thompson in point of sincerity4 ,there is terrific mastery of words1 which is like ,shakespeare in felicity we do not encounter so often it seems to me4 ,thompson has scaled the white rainbow of the night1 and sits in radiant company among the first planetary strummers of song4 ,his diamond is pure1 and the matrix that hid him so long from showing his glinted facets is chipped away of miseries carried down with death4 ,they will soon be forgotten by the multitude as death itself made him forget them4 ,we have his chants and his anthems and plainsongs to remind us of the one essential1 of how lofty a singer passed down our highroad4 ,dusty with tumbling about amid the stars6 ,that is what he is for us now1 if he rolled in too much clay of earth4 ,shelley might have turned his own handsome phrase on him1 for they both strode the morning of their bright minds like sun the sky1 with much of the same solemn yet speedy gait4 ,there are times when they are certainly of the one radiance1 lyrical and poetical4 ,their consuming intellectual interests were vastly apart1 as were their paths of spirit4 ,i think we shall have no more dread of height4 ,poetry has passed into scientific discovery4 ,intellectual passions are the vogue1 earth is coming into its own1 for there is no more heaven in the mind4 ,we are showing our humanities now1 and the soul must wait a little1 and remain speechless in some dull corner of the universe4 ,thompson was the last to believe4 ,we are learning to think now1 so poetry has come to calculation4 ,rhapsody and passion are romantic1 and we are not romantic4 ,the last ,rhapsodist was ,francis ,thompson1 and in the sense of lyrical fervour1 the last great poet was ,francis ,thompson4 ,,ernest ,,dowson ,it is late to be telling of ,dowson1 with the eighteen-nineties nearly out of sight1 and yet it is ,dowson and ,lionel ,johnson that ,i know most of1 from the last of this period4 ,poles apart these two poets are1 the one so austere and almost collegiate in adherence to convention1 the other too warm to let a coldness obsess his singing4 ,there doesn't seem to be anything wonderful about ,dowson1 and yet you want to be saying a line of his every now and then1 of him that lived1 and sang1 and had a beating heart1 ere he grew old1 and he grew old so soon4 ,worn out by what was really never life to him1 is a prefatorial phrase ,i recall4 ,there was a genuine music in ,dowson1 even if it was smothered in lilies and roses and wine of the now old way of saying things4 ,come hither child1 and rest--,behold the weary west1 might have been the thing he was saying to himself1 so much is this the essence of his lost cause4 ,there is a languor and a lack of power to lift a hand toward the light1 too much a trusting of the shadow4 ,i have flung roses1 roses riotously with the throng1 to put those pale lost lilies out of mind4 ,always verging on a poetic feeling not just like ourselves in these days1 and yet ,dowson was a poet4 ,he caressed words until they sang for him the one plaint that he asked of them4 ,that he was obsessed of the beauties and the intimations of ,versailles1 is seen in everything he did1 or at least he imbibed this from ,verlaine4 ,he was himself a pale wanderer down soft green alles1 he had a twilight mind struggling toward the sun1 which was too bright for him1 for the moon was his brightest light4 ,echoes of ,verlaine linger through his verse and a strain of ,poe is present1 poet whom he with his ,french taste admired so much1 two very typical idols for a young man with a sentimental journey to pursue4 ,lost ,adelaides1 to keep him steeped in the sorrow that he cherished1 for he petted his miseries considerably2 or was it that he was most at home when he was unhappy8 ,he would rather have seen the light of day from a not quite clear window1 for instead of a clear hill1 he might see a vague castle of his fancy somewhere4 ,he hadn't the sweep of a great poet1 and yet somehow there was the linnet in him1 there was the strain of the lute among the leaves1 there was the rustle of a soft dress audible1 and the passing of hands he could not ever hold4 ,he was the poet of the lost treasure4 ,studies in ,sentiment is1 ,i think1 the title of a small book of prose of his4 ,he might have called his poems ,studies in sentimentality4 ,and yet1 for his time1 how virile and vigorous he sounds beside ,posies out of ,rings1 of his friend ,theodore ,peters1 of the renaissance cloak1 the cherry coloured velvet cloak embroidered in green leaves and silver veinings1 so full of the sky radiance of ,dowson himself1 this cloak4 ,cherry sounds red and passionate4 ,but it was a cherry of olden time1 with the bloom quite gone1 the dust of the years permeating its silken warp4 ,it reposes here in ,america1 the property of an artist of that period4 ,one likes ,dowson because of his sincerity1 and a clear beauty which1 if not exactly startling1 was in its way truly genuine4 ,it was merely too late for ,dowson1 and it was probably too soon4 ,swinburne had strummed the skies with every kind of song1 and ,verlaine had whispered every secret of the senses there was1 in the land of illusion and vaguery4 ,dowson was worshipper of them both1 for it was sound first and last that he cared most for1 the musical mastery of the one and the sentimentality of the other4 ,he was far nearer ,verlaine in type4 ,he had but the one thing to tell of1 and that was lost love1 and he told it over and over in his book of verse4 ,his ,pierrot of the ,minute was himself1 and his ,cynara was the ever vanishing vision of his own insecurity and incapability4 ,he perished for the love of hands4 ,he is so like someone one knows1 whom one wants to talk to tenderly1 touch in a friendly way1 and say as little as possible4 ,he comes to one humanly first1 and asks you for your eye to his verse afterward1 something of the ,little boy ,lost1 in his so ineffectual face1 weak with sweetness and hidden in shyness1 covered with irresponsibility1 or lack of power to be responsible4 ,he was a helpless one1 that is certain4 ,he resorted to the old-fashioned methods of the decadents for maintaining the certain requisite melancholy apparently necessary to sing a certain way4 ,in the struggle of that period1 he must have seemed like a very clear1 though a very sad singer4 ,there were no lilies or orchids in his buttonhole1 and no strange jewels on his fingers1 for you remember1 it was the time of ,monsieur ,phocas1 and the art of ,gustave ,moreau4 ,he was plain and sincere1 and pathetic1 old-fashioned too in that he was bohemian1 or at least had acquired bohemianism1 for ,i think no ,englishman was ever really bohemian4 ,dieppe and the docks had gotten him1 and took away the sense of mastery over things that a real poet of power must somehow have4 ,he was essentially a giver-in4 ,his neurasthenia was probably the reason for that4 ,it was the age of absinthe and little taverns1 for there was ,verlaine and the inimitable ,caf d',harcourt1 which1 as you saw it just before the war1 had the very something that kept the ,master at his drinks all day4 ,murger1 ,rimbaud1 ,verlaine had done the thing which has lasted so singularly until now1 for there are still echoes of this in the air1 even to the present day4 ,barmaids are memories1 and roseleaves dried and set in urns1 for that matter1 too4 ,how far away it all seems1 and they were the substance of poetry then4 ,sounds were the important things for ,dowson1 which is essentially the ,swinburne echo4 ,significant then1 that he worshipped the viol1 the violet1 and the vine of ,poe4 ,there was little else but singing in his verse however4 ,his love of ,horace did less for him than the masters of sound1 excepting that the vision comes in the name ,cynara4 ,but it was all struggle for ,dowson1 a battle with the pale lily4 ,it was for this he clung to cabmen's lounging places4 ,he was looking for places to be out of the play in4 ,he couldn't have survived for long1 and yet there is a strain of genuine loveliness1 the note of pure beauty in the verse of ,dowson4 ,he was poet1 and kept to his creed with lover-like tenacity4 ,he helped close a period that was distinguished all over the world1 the period of the sunflower4 ,apart from its wildest and most spectacular genius1 it has produced ,lionel ,johnson with his religious purity1 and ,aubrey ,beardsley4 ,it was the time of sad and delicate young men4 ,they all died in boyhood really4 ,these were1 ,i think1 with ,dowson the best it offered4 ,we never read ,arthur ,symons for his power in verse1 he with so much of the rose-tinted afterglow in him1 so much of the old feeling for stage doors and roses thrown from the boxes1 and the dying scent of lingerie4 ,his essays will be a far finer source of delight for a much longer time1 for therein is the best poetry he had to offer4 ,dowson was1 let us say not mockingly1 the boyish whimperer in song4 ,he was ineffectual1 too much so1 to take up the game of laughter for long4 ,that would have been too strenuous for him1 so he had to sit and weep tears of wordy rain4 ,il pleut dans mon coeur was the famous touch of his master1 it was the loudest strain in him4 ,that was the lover-strain1 and ,dowson was the lover dying of love1 imaginary love probably1 and saw everywhere something to remind him of what he had pathetically lost4 ,if there had been a little savage in him1 he would have walked away with what he wanted4 ,he maybe did have a try or two1 but they couldn't have endured1 for he wasn't loving a particular ,adelaide4 ,that was the name he gave to love1 for it was woman's lips1 and eyes and hands that he cared most for1 or at least seemed most to care4 ,it was in the vision that crossed his ways in the dark and boisterous taverns where love finds strange ways for expression1 that the singleness of feeling possessed him4 ,it was among the rougher elements of dock life that his refinements found their level4 ,dowson sang and sang and sang1 until he grew old at thirty-three1 worn out by what was never really life to him4 ,aged pierrot1 gone home to his mother1 the ,moon1 to bask forever in the twilight of his old and vague fancies4 ,there might he strum his heart out in the old way1 and the world would never hear1 for it has lost the ear for this kind of song4 ,perhaps in two hundred years1 in other golden treasuries there may appear the songs of ,dowson as among the best of those early and late singers of the nineteenth century4 ,we cannot say now1 for it cloys a little with sweets for us at this time1 though it was then the time of honey and jasmine1 and the scent of far away flowers4 ,pierrot of the glass1 with the hours dripping away in fine1 gold rain4 ,that was the genius of poets like ,dowson1 and pierrot was the master of them all4 ,,henry ,,james ,,on ,,rupert ,,brooke ,henry ,james on ,rupert ,brooke6 ,here is certainly a very wide interval1 separated1 artist and subject1 by the greatest divergence of power1 and one may be even amazed at the contrast involved4 ,he is surely1 ,james1 in all his elaborateness1 trying to square the rose and compute the lily1 algebraical advances upon a most simple thesis4 ,brooke--a nature so obvious1 which had no measure at all for what the sum had done to him1 and for all that about him1 or for those stellar ecstasies which held him bound with fervour as poet1 planetary swimmer1 and gifted as well with a fine stroke for the sea1 and runner of all the beautiful earth places about the great seas' edge4 ,for me1 there is heaviness and over-elaboration paramount in this preface to the ,letters from ,america1 excess of byword1 a strained relationship with his subject1 but that would of course be ,jamesian1 and very naturally1 too4 ,it is hardly1 this preface1 the tribute of the wise telling of beautiful and blinding youth1 surely more the treatise of the problemist forging his problem1 as the sculptor might2 something too much of metal or stone1 too ponderous1 too severe let one say1 for its so gracing and brightening theme1 something not springing into bloom1 as does the person and personality of the young subject himself4 ,only upon occasion does he really come upon the young man1 actual1 forgetful of all but him4 ,there is no question1 if the word of those be true who had relation however slight or intimate with ,brooke1 that he was an engrossing theme1 and for more than one greater than himself1 as certainly he was for many much less significant than ,james4 ,it is distinguished from the young poet's point of view that he was impressed1 and that as person to person he really did see him in a convincing manner1 as might one artist of great repute find himself uncommonly affected by the young and so living poet with more than a common gift for creation4 ,it seems to me however that ,james is not over certain as to how poetic all things are in substance1 yet all the while treating ,brooke coolly and spaciously as an artist should4 ,i did not know ,brooke1 and ,i know nothing of him beyond various photos showing him one way1 quite manly and robust1 and ,i feel sure he was so1 and in another way as neither youth nor man1 but something idyllic1 separate and seraph-like1 untouched mostly with earthly experience4 ,these pictures do show that he was1 unquestionably1 a bright gust of ,england1 with an almost audible splendour about even these poor replicas1 which make it seem that he did perform the ascribed miracle1 that ,england really had brought forth of her brightest and best1 only to lay away her golden fruitage in dust upon the borders of a far and classical sea1 with an acute untimeliness4 ,but respectfully let me say1 ,i think much in these hours of the incongruity and pathos of excessive celebration4 ,there shall not be for long1 singers enough to sing high songs commensurate with the delights of those numberless ones who lived1 and sang1 and had a beating heart1 those who have sped into the twilight too soon1 having but a brief time to discover if years had bright secrets for them or clear perspective4 ,there shall always lack the requisite word for them who have made many a dull morning splendid with faith1 they who have been the human indication immeasurably of the sun's rising1 and of the truth that vision is a thing of reason4 ,of ,brooke and the other dead poets as well1 there has1 it seems to me1 been too much of celebration4 ,but of ,brooke and his poetry1 which is a far superior product to these really most ordinary ,letters1 there is in these poetic pieces too much of what ,i want to call ,university ,cleavage1 an excess of old school painting1 too much usage of the warm image1 which1 though emotional1 is not sensuous enough to express the real poetic sensuousness1 to make the line or the word burn passionately1 too much of the shades of ,swinburne still upon the horizon4 ,rose and violet of the eighteen ninety hues have for long been dispensed with1 as has the pierrot and his moon4 ,we have in this time come to like hardier colourings1 which are for us more satisfying1 and more poetic4 ,we hardly dare use the hot words of ,anactoria in our day4 ,to be sure rose is ,english1 for it has been for long a very predominant shade on the young face of ,england1 but in ,brooke there is an old age to the fervour1 and in spite of the brilliant youth of the poet1 there is an old age in the substance and really in the treatment as well4 ,we are wanting a fresher intonation to those images1 and expect a new approach1 and a newer aspect4 ,it is not to adhere by means of criticism to the prevailing graveyard tendency1 nor do we want so much of the easy and cheap journalistic element1 as comes so often in the so named free verse4 ,what is really wanted is an individual consistency1 and a brightness of imagery which shall be the poet's own by reason of his own personal attachment1 and not simply the variance of the many-in-one poetry of the day4 ,it is not enough to write passably1 it is only enough when there are several1 or even one1 who will give their or his own peculiar contact with those agencies of the day1 the hour1 and the moment1 who will find or invent a style best suited to themselves4 ,attempts at excessive individualism will never create true individualistic expression1 no affected surprise in personal perversity of image or metaphor will make a real poet1 or real poetry4 ,there must be first and last of all1 a sure ardour1 the poet's very own1 which will of itself support obvious1 or even slightly detectable1 influences4 ,it is not enough to declaim oneself1 or propose continually one's group4 ,the single utterance is what is necessary1 a real freshness of vocalization which is1 so to speak1 the singer's own throat4 ,if he be original in his freshness1 we shall be able to single him away from the sweeping movements of the hour by his very specialness in touch1 that pressure of the mind and spirit upon the page1 which is his4 ,we shall translate a poet through his indications and intentions as well as through his arrivals1 and we must condemn no one to fame beyond his capacity or deserts4 ,we have never the need of extravagant laud4 ,it is not enough to praise a poet for his personal charm1 his beauty of body and of mind and soul1 for these are but beautiful things at home in a beautiful house4 ,in the case of ,brooke1 we have ringing up among hosts of others1 ,james's voice that he was all of this1 but ,i would not wish to think it was the wish of any real poet to be condemned to sociability1 merely because he was an eminently social being1 or because he was the exceptionally handsome1 among the many less so2 or be condemned to overpraise for what is after all but an indication to poetic power4 ,if ,i should die1 is of course a very lovely sonnet1 and it is the true indication of what ,brooke might have been1 but it is not the reason to be doomed to find all things wonderful in him4 ,for in the state of perfection1 if one see always with a lancet eye1 we really do accentuate the essence of beauty by a careful and very direct critical sense1 which can and should1 when honorably exercised1 show up delicately1 the sense of proportion4 ,it is as much a part of the artist's equipment to find fault as it is to praise1 for he wants by nature the true value with which he may relate himself to the sense of beauty4 ,it seems1 perhaps only to me1 that in ,brooke's poems there is but a vigorous indication to poetic expression1 whereas doubtless the man himself was being excessively poetic1 hour and moment together1 and spent much energy of mind and body poetizing sensation4 ,for me1 there is a journalistic quality of phrasing and only very rarely the unusual image4 ,as for the ,letters1 they are loose and jotty in form1 without distinction either in observation or in form1 without real felicity or uniqueness4 ,art is nothing if it is not the object1 or the idea1 or experience seen in review1 with clarity4 ,in ,brooke1 ,i feel the superabundance of joy in the attractiveness of the world1 but ,i do not feel the language of him commensurate or distinguished in the qualities of poetic or literary art4 ,there seems to me to be too much of the blown lock and the wistful glance1 too much of the attitudinized poet1 lacking1 ,i may even say1 in true refinement1 often4 ,a too comfortable poet1 and poetry of too much verve without incision1 too much gesturing1 which is an easy thing for many talented people1 and there is also missing for me the real grip of amazement4 ,you will not find anything in the letters that could not have been done by the cub reporter1 save possibly in the more charming of the letters with reference to swimming in the ,south ,seas4 ,here you feel ,brooke at home instantly1 and the picturing is natural and easy4 ,but other than this1 you will find no phrasing to compare with passages of ,james's preface1 such1 for instance1 as the sky-clamour of more dollars1 surely a vastly more incisive phrase regarding the frenzies of ,new ,york1 than all that ,brooke essays to tell of it4 ,brooke is distinctly not there too often in these so irregular letters of his4 ,letters are notably rare in these times anyhow1 and so it is with the letters of ,brooke4 ,we look for distinction1 and it is not to be found1 they have but little of the intimacy with their subjects that one expects4 ,as to his poetry1 it seems to be a poetry rapidly approaching state approval1 there is in it the flavour of the budding laureate1 it seems to me to be poetry already in orders4 ,brooke was certainly in danger of becoming a good poet1 like the several other poets who perished in the throes of heroism4 ,like them1 he would1 had he lived1 have had to save himself from the evils of prosperity1 poetically speaking4 ,he would have had to overcome his tendency toward what ,i want to call the old-fashioned gold and velvet of his words1 a very definite haze hanging over them of the ill effect of the eighteen-ninety school1 which produced a little excellent poetry and a lot of very tame production4 ,poetry is like all art1 difficult even in its freest interval4 ,brooke must rest his claim to early distinction perhaps upon the ,if ,i should die sonnet alone1 he would certainly have had to come up considerably1 to have held the place his too numerous personal admirers were wont to thrust upon him4 ,unless one be the veritable genius1 sudden laurels wither on the stem with too much of morning4 ,this poet had no chance to prove what poetry of his would have endured the long day1 and most of all he needed to be removed from too much love of everything4 ,the best art cannot endure such promiscuity1 not an art of specific individual worth4 ,in the book which is called ,letters from ,america1 the attraction lies in its preface1 despite the so noticeable irrelevancy of style4 ,it seems to me that ,james might for once have condescended to an equal footing with his theme1 for the sake of the devoutness of his intention1 and have come to us for the moment1 the man talking of the youth4 ,he might then have told us something really intimate of ,rupert1 as he so frequently names him1 for this would indicate some intimacy surely1 unless perchance he was ,rupert to the innumerables whom he met1 and who were sure of his intimacy on the instant's introduction1 which would indeed be condemned to sociability4 ,this book is in two pieces1 preface and content1 and we are conscious chiefly of the high style and interest of the preface1 first of all1 and the discrepancy inherent in the rest of the book accentuating the wide divergence between praiser and praised4 ,it is ,james with reference to ,brooke1 it is not ,henry ,james informing of the young and handsome ,rupert ,brooke4 ,apollo in the flesh must do some mighty singing4 ,brooke had not done much of this when they laid him by on the borders of that farther sea4 ,he had more to prove the heritage laid so heavily upon him by the unending host of his admirers and lovers4 ,he needed relief from the popular notion1 and we must relieve ourselves from his excessive popularity if we are to enjoy him rightly1 by being just with him4 ,a little time1 and we should have learned his real distinction4 ,it is too soon for us1 and too late for him4 ,we must accept him more for his finer indications then1 and less for his achievement in the sense of mastery4 ,,the ,,dearth ,,of ,,critics ,there is just cause for wonder at the noticeable absence of critics in the field of painting1 of individuals who are capable of some serious approach to the current tendencies in art4 ,we have witnessed a very general failure to rise above the common or high-class reportorial level in this particular sphere4 ,why do so many people who write specifically about painting say so little that really relates to it8 ,it is because most of them are journalists or men of letters who have made emotional excursions into this field1 which is in most instances foreign to them2 well-known literary artists1 occasionally1 intent upon varying their subject matter4 ,we read ,meier-,graefe1 for instance1 on the development of modern art1 and we find his analogies more or less stimulating1 but taken as a whole his work is unsatisfactory from an artist's point of view2 not much more than a sort of novel with art for its skeleton1 or rather a handbook from which the untutored layman can gather superficial information about group and individual influences1 a kind of verbal entertainment that is altogether wanting in true critical values4 ,i have listened to lectures on art by people who were supposed to know about it1 merely to see how much this type of critical study could satisfy the really artistic mind somewhat conversant with true relations1 and ,i have found these lectures of but the slightest value1 resums compounded of wearisome and inappropriate detail4 ,there is always an extreme lack of true definition1 of true information1 there is always too much of the amateur spirit passing for popular knowledge among these individuals who might otherwise do so much to form public taste and appreciation4 ,thus we find that even the chatty ,meier-,graefe stops without going any further than ,czanne4 ,it is possible that after writing two very heavy volumes upon the development of modern art1 he has to remain silent on modern art itself1 that he really feels he is not qualified to speak upon ,czanne and his successors2 or does he assume possibly that there is nothing this side of ,czanne8 ,how many writer people are there who really do understand what has taken place since then8 ,i have heard these characteristic remarks among the so-called art writers who write the regular notices for the daily journals--,you see ,i really don't know anything about the subject1 but ,i have to write6 or--,i don't know anything about art1 but ,i am reading up on it as much as possible so that ,i won't appear too stupid2 for they send me out and ,i have to write something4 ,their attitude is the same as if their subject were a fire or a murder3 but either of the latter would be much more in their line1 calling for nothing but a registration of the simplest of facts4 ,just why these people have to write upon art will never be clear4 ,but because of this altogether trivial relationship to the theme of painting we find it difficult to take seriously at all what we read in our dailies1 in every case the barest notation with heavily worded comment1 having little or no reference to what is important in the particular pictures themselves4 ,how can anyone take these individuals seriously when they actually have no opinion to offer1 and must rely either upon humor or indignation to inspire them8 ,if we turn to the pundits of criticism we find statements like this of ,ruskin on ,giotto3--,for all his use of opalescent warm color1 ,giotto is exactly like ,turner1 as in his swift expressional power he is like ,gainsborough6 ,again1 speaking of ,turner's ,fighting ,tmraire1 he says3 ,of all pictures of subjects not visibly involving human pain1 this is1 ,i believe1 the most pathetic that was ever painted--no ruin was ever so affecting as this gliding of the vessel to her grave4 ,journalism of the first class certainly1 but at the farthest stretch of the imagination how can one possibly think of ,gainsborough or ,turner in connection with any special quality of ,giotto8 ,as for the pathos of an aged ship1 that belongs to poetry1 as ,coleridge has shown2 sentiment of this kind has never had any proper place in painting4 ,a far worthier type of appreciation in words is to be found1 of course1 in ,pater's passages on ,la ,gioconda and ,botticelli's ,birth of ,venus4 ,but these belong to a different realm1 in which literature rises to a height independent of the pictures themselves by means of the suggestion that is in them1 the power of suggestion being a finer alternative for crude and worthless description4 ,we shall always dispute with the writer on art as to exactly what symbol is inherent in the presence of a rose in the hand or a tear upon the cheek1 but we cannot quarrel when the matter is treated as sublimely as in the case of a literary artist like ,pater4 ,it is in the sphere of professed critical judgment that the literary authorities so often go astray4 ,thus between the entertaining type of writer like ,meier-,graefe and the daily reporter there is no middle ground4 ,the journalist is frank and says that he doesn't know but that he must write2 the other writes books that are well suited for reference purposes1 but have scant bearing upon the actual truth in relation to pictures4 ,are there any critics who attempt seriously to approach the modern theme1 who find it worth their while to go into modern esthetics with anything like sincerity or real earnestness of attitude8 ,only two that ,i am aware of4 ,there is the intelligent ,leo ,stein1 who seldom appears in print1 but who makes an art of conversation on the subject2 and there is ,willard ,huntingdon ,wright1 who has appeared extensively and certainly with intelligence also1 both of these critical writers being very much at variance in theory1 but both full of discernment whatever one may think of their individual ideas4 ,we are sure of both as being thoroughly inside the subject1 this theme of modern art1 for they are somehow painter people4 ,i even suspect them both of having once1 like ,george ,moore1 painted seriously themselves4 ,nevertheless there is a hopeful seriousness of interest developing in what is being done this side the sea1 a rediscovery of native art of the sort that is occurring in all countries4 ,the artist is being taught by means of war that there is no longer a conventional center of art1 that the time-worn fetish of ,paris as a necessity in his development has been dispensed with2 and this is fortunate for the artist and for art in general4 ,it is having its pronounced effect upon the creative powers of the individual in all countries1 almost obliging him to create his own impulse upon his own soil2 it is making the artist see that if he is really to create he must create irrespective of all that exists as convention in the mind4 ,how will this affect the artist8 ,he will learn first of all to be concerned with himself1 and what he puts forth of personality and of personal research will receive its character from his strict adherence to this principle1 whether he proceeds by means of prevailing theories or by departure from them4 ,the public will thus have no choice but to rely upon what he produces seriously as coming clearly from himself1 from his own desire and labor4 ,he will realize that it is not a trick1 not a habit1 not a trade--this modernity--and that with fashions it has nothing to do2 that it is explicitly a part of our modern urge toward expression quite as much as the art of ,corot and ,millet were of ,barbizon1 as the art of ,titian1 ,giorgione and ,michelangelo were of ,italy2 that he and his time bear the strictest relationship to one another and that through this relationship he can best build up his own original power4 ,unable to depend therefore upon the confessedly untutored lay writer or even the better class essayist to tell him his place1 he will establish himself1 and his place will be determined in the rgime of his day by precisely those qualities which he contributes to it4 ,he will not rely too insistently upon idiosyncrasy2 the failure of this we have already seen1 in the post-impressionists4 ,the truth is that painters must sooner or later learn to express themselves in terms of pure language1 they must learn that creation is the thing most expected of them1 and1 if possible1 invention as well4 ,oddity in execution or idea is of the least importance4 ,artists have a more respectable service to perform than this dilettantist notion of beauty implies4 ,since the utter annihilation of sentimentality1 of legend1 of what we call poetry has taken place1 a richer substance for expression has come to us by means of which the artist may express a larger1 newer variety of matter1 more relevant to our special need1 our modernity4 ,the war disintegrated the art habit and in this fact lies the hope of art4 ,fads have lost what slight interest they possessed1 the folly of imitation has been exposed4 ,as a result of this1 ,i like to think that we shall have a finer type of expression1 a richer kind of personal quality4 ,every artist is his own maker1 his own liberator2 he it is that should be the first to criticise1 destroy and reconstruct himself1 he should find no mood convenient1 no attitude comfortable4 ,what the lay-writer says of him in praise or blame will not matter so much in the future2 he will respect first and last only those who have found the time to share his theme1 at least in mind1 if not in experience1 and the discerning public will free itself from the temporary influences of the confessedly untutored critic4 ,the artist will gain its confidence by reason of his own sincerity and intelligence4 ,it is probable1 too1 that in time criticism in the mode of ,ruskin will utterly disappear and the ,meier-,graefe type of critic will have found a fitter and true successor1 someone who1 when he calls himself a critic1 will prove a fairly clear title to the distinction and will not have to apologize for himself or for his occupation4 ,,afterword ,,the ,,importance ,,of ,,being ,,dada ,we are indebted to ,tristan ,tzara and his followers for the newest and perhaps the most important doctrinary insistence as applied to art which has appeared in a long time4 ,dada-ism is the latest phase of modernism in painting as well as in literature1 and carries with it all the passion for freedom of expression which ,marinetti sponsored so loudly in his futuristic manifestoes4 ,it adds likewise an exhilarating quality of nihilism1 imbibed1 as is said1 directly from the author of ,zarathustra4 ,reading a fragment of the documentary statement of ,dada-ism1 we find that the charm of the idea exists mainly in the fact that they wish all things levelled in the mind of man to the degree of commonplaceness which is typical of and peculiar to it4 ,nothing is greater than anything else1 is what the ,dada believes1 and this is the first sign of hope the artist at least can discover in the meaningless importance which has been invested in the term ,,art4 ,it shows best of all that art is to betake itself on its own way blandly1 despite the wish of its so ardent supporters and suppressors4 ,i am greatly relieved as artist1 to find there is at least one tenet ,i can hold to in my experience as a useful or a useless human being4 ,i have always said for myself1 ,i have no office1 no obligations1 no other mission1 dread-fullest of all words1 than to find out the quality of humor that exists in experience1 or life as we think we are entitled to call it4 ,i have always felt the underlying fatality of habit in appreciation1 because ,i have felt1 and now actually more than ever in my existence1 the fatality of habit indulged in by the artist4 ,the artist has made a kind of subtle crime of his habitual expression1 his emotional monotonies1 and his intellectual inabilities4 ,if ,i announce on this bright morning that ,i am a ,dada-ist it is not because ,i find the slightest need for1 or importance in1 a doctrine of any sort1 it is only for convenience of myself and a few others that ,i take up the issue of adherence4 ,an expressionist is one who expresses himself at all times in any way that is necessary and peculiar to him4 ,a dada-ist is one who finds no one thing more important than any other one thing1 and so ,i turn from my place in the scheme from expressionist to dada-ist with the easy grace that becomes any self-respecting humorist4 ,having fussed with average intelligence as well as with average stupidity over the various dogmatic aspects of human experience such as art1 religion1 philosophy1 ethics1 morals1 with a kind of obligatory blindness1 ,i am come to the clearest point of my vision1 which is nothing more or less than the superbly enlightening discovery that life as we know it is an essentially comic issue and cannot be treated other than with the spirit of comedy in comprehension4 ,it is cause for riotous and healthy laughter1 and to laugh at oneself in conjunction with the rest of the world1 at one's own tragic vagaries1 concerning the things one cannot name or touch or comprehend1 is the best anodyne ,i can conjure in my mind for the irrelevant pains we take to impress ourselves and the world with the importance of anything more than the brilliant excitation of the moment4 ,it is thrilling1 therefore1 to realize there is a healthy way out of all this dilemma of habit for the artist4 ,one of these ways is to reduce the size of the ,a in art1 to meet the size of the rest of the letters in one's speech4 ,another way is to deliver art from the clutches of its worshippers1 and by worshippers ,i mean the idolaters and the commercialists of art4 ,by the idolaters ,i mean those whose reverence for art is beyond their knowledge of it4 ,by the commercialists ,i mean those who prey upon the ignorance of the unsophisticated1 with pictures created by the esthetic habit of1 or better to say1 through the banality of1 artistic temperament4 ,art is at present a species of vice in ,america1 and it sorely and conspicuously needs prohibition or interference4 ,it is1 ,i think1 high time that those who have the artistic habit toward art should be apprised of the danger they are in in assuming of course that they hold vital interest in the development of intelligence4 ,it is time therefore to interfere with stupidity in matters of taste and judgment4 ,we learn little or nothing from habit excepting repetitive imitation4 ,i should1 for the benefit of you as reader1 interpose here a little information from the mind of ,francis ,picabia1 who was until the war conspicuous among the cubists1 upon the subject of dada-ism4 ,dada smells of nothing1 nothing1 nothing4 ,it is like your hopes3 nothing4 ,like your paradise3 nothing4 ,like your idols3 nothing4 ,like your politicians3 nothing4 ,like your heroes3 nothing4 ,like your artists3 nothing4 ,like your religions3 nothing4 ,a litany like this coming from one of the most notable dada-ists of the day1 is too edifying for proper expression4 ,it is like a window opened upon a wide cool place where all parts of one's exhausted being may receive the kind of air that is imperative to it4 ,for the present1 we may say1 a special part of one's being which needs the most and the freshest air is that chamber in the brain where art takes hold and flourishes like a bed of fungus in the dark4 ,what is the use1 then1 of knowing anything about art until we know precisely what it is8 ,if it is such an orchidaceous rarity as the world of worshippers would have us believe1 then we know it must be the parasitic equivalent of our existence feeding upon the health of other functions and sensibilities in ourselves4 ,the question comes why worship what we are not familiar with8 ,the war has taught us that idolatry is a past virtue and can have no further place with intelligent people living in the present era1 which is for us the only era worth consideration4 ,i have a hobby-horse therefore--to ride away with1 out into the world of intricate common experience2 out into the arena with those who know what the element of life itself is1 and that ,i have become an expression of the one issue in the mind worth the consideration of the artist1 namely fluidic change4 ,how can anything to which ,i am not related1 have any bearing upon me as artist8 ,i am only dada-ist because it is the nearest ,i have come to scientific principle in experience4 ,what yesterday can mean is only what yesterday was1 and tomorrow is something ,i cannot fathom until it occurs4 ,i ride my own hobby-horse away from the dangers of art which is with us a modern vice at present1 into the wide expanse of magnanimous diversion from which ,i may extract all the joyousness ,i am capable of1 from the patterns ,i encounter4 ,the same disgust which was manifested and certainly enjoyed by ,duse1 when she demanded that the stage be cleared of actors in order to save the creative life of the stage1 is the same disgust that makes us yearn for wooden dolls to make abstract movements in order that we may release art from its infliction of the big ,a1 to take away from art its pricelessness and make of it a new and engaging diversion1 pastime1 even dissipation if you will2 for all real expression is a phase of dissipation in itself3 ,to release art from the disease of little theatre-ism1 and from the mandibles of the octopus-like worshipper that eats everything1 in the line of spurious estheticism within range1 disgorging it without intelligence or comprehension upon the consciousness of the not at all stupid public1 with a so obviously pernicious effect4 ,dada is a fundamentally religious attitude1 analogous to that of the scientist with his eyeglass glued to the microscope4 ,dada is irritated by those who write ,art1 ,beauty1 ,truth1 with capital letters1 and who make of them entities superior to man4 ,dada scoffs at capital letters1 atrociously4 ,dada ruining the authority of constraints1 tends to set free the natural play of our activities4 ,dada therefore leads to amoralism and to the most spontaneous and consequently the least logical lyricism4 ,this lyricism is expressed in a thousand ways of life4 ,dada scrapes from us the thick layers of filth deposited on us by the last few centuries4 ,dada destroys1 and stops at that4 ,let ,dada help us to make a complete clearance1 then each of us rebuild a modern house with central heating1 and everything to the drain1 ,dadas of #aibj4 ,remembering always that ,dada means hobby-horse1 you have at last the invitation to make merry for once in our new and unprecedented experience over the subject of ,,art with its now reduced front letter4 ,it is the newest and most admirable reclaimer of art in that it offers at last a release for the expression of natural sensibilities4 ,we can ride away to the radiant region of ,joie de ,vivre1 and find that life and art are one and the same thing1 resembling each other so closely in reality1 that it is never a question of whether it shall or must be set down on paper or canvas1 or given any greater degree of expression than we give to a morning walk or a pleasant bath1 or an ordinary rest in the sunlight4 ,art is then a matter of how one is to take life now1 and not by any means a matter of how the ,greeks or the ,egyptians or any other race has shown it to be for their own needs and satisfaction4 ,if art was necessary to them1 it is unnecessary to us now1 therefore it is free to express itself as it will4 ,you will find1 therefore1 that if you are aware of yourself1 you will be your own perfect dada-ist1 in that you are for the first time riding your own hobby-horse into infinity of sensation through experience1 and that you are one more satisfactory vaudevillian among the multitudes of dancing legs and flying wits4 ,you will learn after all that the bugaboo called ,,life is a matter of the tightrope and that the stars will shine their frisky approval as you glide1 if you glide sensibly1 with an eye on the fun in the performance4 ,that is what art is to be1 must come to in the consciousness of the artist most of all1 he is perhaps the greatest offender in matters of judgment and taste2 and the next greatest offender is the dreadful go-between or middleman esthete who so glibly contributes effete values to our present day conceptions4 ,we must all learn what art really is1 learn to relieve it from the surrounding stupidities and from the passionate and useless admiration of the horde of false idolaters1 as well as the money changers in the temple of success4 ,dada-ism offers the first joyous dogma ,i have encountered which has been invented for the release and true freedom of art4 ,it is therefore most welcome since it will put out of use all heavy hands and light fingers in the business of art and set them to playing a more honourable and sportsmanlike game4 ,we shall learn through dada-ism that art is a witty and entertaining pastime1 and not to be accepted as our ever present and stultifying affliction4 99 99 99 99 99