,,masterpieces ,,in ,,colour ,,edited ,,by ,t4 ,,leman ,,hare ,,watteau #afhd-agba ,,masterpieces ,,in ,,colour ,,series ,,artist4 ,,author4 ,,velazquez4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,reynolds4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,turner4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,romney4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,greuze4 ,,alys ,,eyre ,,macklin4 ,,botticelli4 ,,henry ,b4 ,,binns4 ,,rossetti4 ,,lucien ,,pissarro4 ,,bellini4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,fra ,,angelico4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,rembrandt4 ,,josef ,,israels4 ,,leighton4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,raphael4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,holman ,,hunt4 ,,mary ,e4 ,,coleridge4 ,,titian4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,millais4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,carlo ,,dolci4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,gainsborough4 ,,max ,,rothschild4 ,,tintoretto4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,luini4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,franz ,,hals4 ,,edgcumbe ,,staley4 ,,van ,,dyck4 ,,percy ,m4 ,,turner4 ,,leonardo ,,da ,,vinci4 ,m4 ,w4 ,,brockwell4 ,,rubens4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,whistler4 ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,,holbein4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,burne-,,jones4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,vig,e ,,le ,,brun ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,chardin4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,fragonard4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,memlinc4 ,w4 ,h4 ,j4 ,j4 ,c4 ,,weale4 ,,constable4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,raeburn4 ,,james ,l4 ,,caw4 ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent4 ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,,lawrence4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,d,,rer4 ,h4 ,e4 ,a4 ,,furst4 ,,millet4 ,,percy ,m4 ,,turner4 ,,watteau4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,corot4 ,,sidney ,,allnutt4 ,others in ,preparation4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i4--,a ,,pastoral4 ,frontispiece 7,in the ,louvre1 ,paris7 ,the attribution to ,watteau of this pretty pastoral has been questioned4 ,it is thus described in the ,louvre catalogue1 ,at the foot of a knoll1 a shepherdess1 with a yellow dress and a red bodice1 sits turning to the left1 to listen to a shepherd1 seen from the back1 wearing pink breeches and a violet vest1 who plays on the flute2 on the right a sheep and a dog4 ,landscape in the background4 ,watteau ,,by ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind ,,illustrated ,,with ,,eight ,,reproductions ,,in ,,colour ,illustration3 ,,in ,,sempiternum4 ,,london3 ,t4 ,c4 ,e4 ,c4 ,,jack ,,new ,,york3 ,,frederick ,a4 ,,stokes ,,co4 ,,contents ,page ,prologue #aa ,i4 ,his ,life #ah ,,ii4 ,his ,art #cf ,,iii4 ,his ,place in ,art3 ,predecessors and ,influence #dh ,,iv4 ,his ,critics and ,admirers #fc ,epilogue #gf ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,plate ,i4 ,a ,pastoral ,frontispiece ,in the ,louvre1 ,paris ,page ,,ii4 ,the ,ball under a ,colonnade #ad ,in the ,dulwich ,gallery ,,iii4 ,l',indiffrent #bd ,in the ,louvre1 ,paris ,,iv4 ,the ,embarkment for ,cythera #cd ,in the ,louvre1 ,paris ,v4 ,jupiter and ,antiope #dj ,in the ,louvre1 ,paris ,,vi4 ,the ,fountain #ej ,in the ,wallace ,collection ,,vii4 ,fte ,champtre #fj ,in the ,national ,gallery of ,scotland ,,viii4 ,the ,music ,lesson #gj ,in the ,wallace ,collection ,illustration ,,prologue ,the apparition of ,watteau in ,france in the early eighteenth century may be likened to the apparition of ,giotto in ,italy in the early fourteenth4 ,each was a genius2 each broke away from the herd2 each gave to the world a new vision2 each inspired a school4 ,but there the resemblance ends4 ,giotto's art was ,christian1 ,watteau's ,pagan2 or1 in other words1 ,giotto lived in an age when the aim of art was to teach religion1 ,watteau--well1 his pictures were designed to delight4 ,giotto sought to remind men of ,christianity1 to bring them humbly to their knees with representations 7marvellously fresh in those days when art was still groping in the ,byzantine twilight7 of the life of the ,founder of ,christianity1 all its pathos1 pity1 and promise4 ,watteau gave joy and exhiliration to a generation temporally dull and morose1 chilled by the academical art of the period1 and apparently content with it4 ,watteau appeared3 the little world about him looked at his pictures and1 what a change6 ,paris dressed1 posed1 picnicked1 and conversed la ,watteau4 ,poor ,watteau6 ,he gave1 he gives joy1 but he was sad1 discontented1 distrustful of himself and others4 ,sometimes ,nature makes a great effort and unites genius to the sane mind and the sane body1 as in a ,titian1 a ,leonardo1 a ,shakespeare1 a ,goethe2 more often she breathes genius into a fugitive and precarious shell1 as in a ,keats1 a ,francis ,thompson1 a ,watteau1 and ironically1 or perhaps blessedly1 gives them the phthisical temperament so that they crowd youth1 adolescence1 and age into a burst of hectic performances before they depart4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,the ,,ball ,,under ,a ,,colonnade 7,in the ,dulwich ,gallery7 ,this picture has suffered somewhat from time4 ,but how delightful it is still2 how gracious and debonair are the two dancing figures2 how fascinating the colour in the woman's green striped rose skirt1 and in the man's blue butterfly dress4 ,there are seventy-three figures in this small canvas #a ft4 #g-c_/d ins4 by #b ft4 #a_/d ins4 ,in the following pages the life and art of ,watteau are considered1 also the curious effect of that life and art upon his biographers1 also1 frightening word6 his technique1 his marvellous technique1 which is a veritable tonic to painters1 who know the almost intolerable difficulties of expression4 ,his life8 ,why1 it could be told in a page4 ,his art8 ,it is all stated in any one of his significant pictures4 ,he belonged to that class of unfortunates who are never at rest in this world4 ,life to him was a wandering to find home4 ,always beyond the hills1 any place where he did not happen to be at the moment1 gleamed the spires of the ,city of ,happiness and ,contentment1 beckoning1 waiting1 rising against the sky like the towers of ,new ,jerusalem in ,taddeo di ,bartoli's ,death of the ,virgin4 ,he fled from the boredom of his home in ,valenciennes1 yet he died longing to return4 ,watteau revealed his temperament1 on the wing as it were1 in his masterpiece ,the ,embarkment for ,cythera4 ,these ethereal and butterfly pilgrims of love should be happy enough in their enchanted garden on the border of the azure sea1 but no6 they are preparing lackadaisically to depart1 to be wafted in the ship with the rose-coloured sail to the ,island of ,cythera1 the abode of ,venus1 whom they worship for the joy of worship1 without any desire of possession4 ,on those lovely shores they will find no continuing city4 ,watteau knows that4 ,oh6 but he was a cynic was this ,watteau whose palette was a rainbow1 and whose vision was like the flash of a kingfisher's wing in sunlight4 ,do you remember his ,fte ,champtre at ,dresden1 with the little exquisite figure of a woman seated on the ground turning away from the spectator8 ,oh1 her bright hair1 and the dress--,i am a man2 but what a dress6 ,what skill and knowledge in the drawing and painting of it6 ,this little lady is essentially ,watteau1 who loved pretty clothes and budding figures1 and whose drawing was as dainty as the frocks he composed2 yet ,i do not think she is the real ,watteau4 ,cast your eye to the left of the picture where stands an elderly1 disdainful dandy4 ,you meet this looker-on again and again in ,watteau's pictures2 he is in the ,fte ,champtre and yet not of it2 he knows how little all this affectation of gaiety really signifies2 how transient is this commerce with joy1 and yet he lingers there because in ,watteau's world there is naught else to do4 ,yet he himself was always doing--a great worker4 ,he knew1 like ,zola1 that work is the anodyne for the malady of the infinite or of self1 whichever you like to call it2 but he had no wish to teach4 ,he used his art to escape from the world to a dream-realm1 where the sun always shines and where ,monday morning never comes4 ,what was he like1 this exquisite little master1 restless1 changeable1 obstinate1 irritable1 and misanthropic1 whose influence on art has been so great8 ,in his portrait of himself engraved by ,boucher1 the slight1 nervous figure1 alert1 on the point of a petulant outbreak1 looks a genius1 but a man gey ill to live with4 ,i have a keener if a sadder vision of him in a portrait drawn by himself1 frightfully thin1 almost deathlike4 ,it is called ,watteau ,laughing4 ,frightfully thin1 almost deathlike1 himself drawn by himself--laughing4 ,that is ,watteau4 ,i ,,his ,,life ,it should be an easy task to state the salient facts in the life of a world-renowned painter who lived but thirty-seven years1 and who died in #agba2 but until the discovery by the brothers ,de ,goncourt1 in a second-hand book-shop1 of the life of ,watteau1 written by his friend the ,comte de ,caylus and read by him before the ,french ,academy in #agdh1 our knowledge had to be gleaned mainly from the notes to catalogues of his collected works4 ,the little ,flemish town of ,valenciennes was ceded to ,france in #afgg--seven years before a son was born to ,jean ,philippe ,watteau and his wife ,michelle ,lardenoise4 ,this son was baptized on the #ajth of ,october #afhd and given the names of ,jean ,antoine4 ,jean ,philippe1 his father1 was a tiler1 desirous no doubt that his son should succeed him in his own sensible occupation2 but discovering ,jean ,antoine's predilection for covering everything he could find with drawings1 grotesque and otherwise1 of the strolling players and mountebanks that passed through the little town1 he submitted to fate and placed him with the official painter of the municipality1 named ,gerin4 ,under him ,watteau painted ,la ,vraie ,gaiet1 his first important attempt at a picture4 ,this was followed by ,le ,retour de ,guingette1 and then his master died4 ,the year was #agja1 the age of ,watteau seventeen4 ,it may be said that with ,gerin's death ,watteau's boyhood died4 ,his father1 seeing little return for his expenditure1 refused to continue to pay for instruction4 ,life at home became unbearable to the sensitive youth to whom his calling was as the call of the sea to the sailor-born4 ,if there was so much of interest in ,valenciennes for a painter1 what might not the capital offer of spectacular delights8 ,so one morning ,antoine left home and walked to ,paris1 where he found work with ,mtayer1 a scene-painter2 but ,mtayer's patronage soon ceased1 and ,watteau found himself alone in ,paris4 ,now began his period of penury and the making of the master2 also probably1 through hunger and cold1 the engendering of the disease1 consumption1 which was to force his genius to its rapid development and from which he was to die4 ,paris1 the marvellous ,paris of his dreams1 was beautiful1 but without heart4 ,watteau strolled by her river's bank1 crept for shelter into the great church of ,notre-,dame1 wandered out again1 and at last found work of a kind that would at least keep him from starvation4 ,on the ,pont ,notre-,dame there were shops1 exposing daubs1 painted by the dozen1 for sale4 ,necessity compelled and ,watteau sought and obtained employment at one of these picture manufactories4 ,he proved himself a facile workman1 and soon his task became so easy that he could paint from memory the head of ,st4 ,nicolas1 which it was his duty to repeat over and over again4 ,the other journeymen artists painted skies1 draperies1 heads1 hands1 saints1 angels1 to each a set task1 and the payment was proportionate to their skill4 ,watteau's remuneration for the week's work amounted to three livres--a little more than three francs--and a daily bowl of soup6 ,a less determined youth than this weakling might have succumbed or renounced his ambitions1 but ,watteau worked and waited patiently until he could extricate himself from these uncongenial surroundings4 ,the future painter of dainty and luxurious visions of wealth and breeding was ambitious1 if miserable4 ,he forgot to be hungry1 because his hours of leisure from the tyranny of the picture manufactory were filled with the joy of drawing incessantly everything that passed before his eyes1 from the turn of a head to the flutter of a tempestuous petticoat4 ,a bowl of soup for dinner is an excellent aid to work1 and this period no doubt intensified ,watteau's love of work and of ,nature4 ,the lifeless things he had to copy at the manufactory sent him into the realms of the real1 and his great gift of seeing was storing up for him innumerable observations which were to be the structure of his future fancies4 ,one lucky day ,watteau met ,claude ,gillot1 the decorative painter1 who on seeing his drawings invited him to live in his house and become his pupil and assistant4 ,so ended his period of absolute want2 henceforward ,watteau began to find himself1 even as disease had already found and marked him4 ,claude ,gillot's influence upon the formation of ,watteau's taste and talent must not be underrated4 ,he was a man of much ability1 quite unlike the cold and formal painters of his time4 ,his was a gay art3 the mythology of lovers and nymphs1 and the light life of the ,italian ,comedy--,pantaloon1 ,columbine1 and ,pierrot--strange motley--coloured family1 clothed in sunshine and silken striped4 ,gillot is certainly one of ,watteau's earliest inspirers3 his revolt against convention 7even if revolt be too strong a word7 influenced ,watteau to the end of his life4 ,with this happy rencontre began the serious development of ,watteau's art4 ,life1 no longer sordid1 became luxurious in thought and application4 ,supersensitive1 the artist mind of the pupil touched and extracted the taste of his master1 improved upon it1 and strengthened its own tendency for all that was dainty1 elegant1 and whimsical4 ,gillot's was a good influence2 a capable craftsman1 he gave freely1 but the jealous side of his nature soon recognised in his intuitive pupil not only an adaptation of his own methods1 but also an improvement upon them4 ,in ,watteau1 no doubt1 he saw his own faults1 but he also saw his own virtues made finer and rarer4 ,whatever the reason1 over-much similarity of temperament1 professional jealousy1 or irritability on ,gillot's side2 ingratitude1 sensitiveness1 fickleness1 or a sense of superiority on ,watteau's1 this mutually helpful friendship of five years ended abruptly4 ,we may never know the cause of the quarrel1 but we do know that ,watteau1 although he always warmly praised ,gillot's work and admitted his personal indebtedness1 refused to be questioned in regard to their disagreement1 and was silent about it even to his most intimate friends4 ,curious to relate1 ,gillot ceased to paint when ,watteau left him1 and became an etcher and engraver4 ,watteau certainly dated the knowledge of his own talent from his association with ,gillot1 his first real master4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4--,l',,indiff,,rent 7,in the ,louvre1 ,paris7 ,through ,watteau's dream-world trips ,l',indiffrent1 rainbow-hued1 mercurial1 his indifference assumed1 not troubling to conceal the sad thoughtfulness that lurks in his expression4 ,who can describe ,watteau's colour or his fashion of trickling on the paint8 ,the technique of ,l',indiffrent is marvellous4 ,claude ,audran1 to whom he went in #agjh at the age of twenty-four 7taking his friends ,pater and ,lancret with him71 was keeper or rather doorkeeper of the ,luxembourg ,palace1 and a painter of the ornamental decorations then in vogue4 ,garlands and arabesques were his speciality4 ,he taught his system of decoration to ,watteau1 who1 sensitive to every artistic sensation1 gleaned perhaps from ,audran the sense of rhythmic line and made it one of his own chief characteristics4 ,living in the ,luxembourg ,palace he had access to the pictures2 he studied them1 especially the works of ,rubens4 ,restlessly he would roam the gardens of the ,palace1 enchanted and inspired by the figures wandering down the paths and grouping themselves under the great trees4 ,watteau1 dallying in the gardens1 remembering the theatrical methods of ,mtayer1 the subjects of ,gillot1 the flexibility and fancy of ,audran1 the daring of the great ,rubens1 began to develop into an original4 ,gradually1 too1 he grew restless1 feeling that he was not wholly free to paint his dreams4 ,a vague nostalgia persuaded his artistic temperament that it was his home he wanted to see--,valenciennes and his people4 ,be that as it may1 this was the reason he gave for leaving ,audran1 who had always been kind and appreciative2 although the wily painter of garlands and arabesques tried to dissuade his protg from painting pictures1 fearing to lose so able an assistant in his own ornamental work4 ,before parting from ,audran1 ,watteau made his first real essay in his second manner1 a picture of ,the ,departure of the ,troops1 a reminiscence of the life at ,valenciennes4 ,this work he sold to the dealer ,sirois for sixty livres1 and with the money he started for home1 despite ,audran's protests4 ,valenciennes at that time was gay with soldiers and dames galantes and ,watteau painted several military pictures--groups marked with truth1 yet full of grace2 he also filled his sketch-books with incomparable drawings4 ,but he could not long resist the call of ,paris4 ,valenciennes seemed to have grown smaller1 less interesting4 ,the painter fretted in the narrow sphere of the provincial town2 once again his wayward feet were set towards the capital4 ,he arrived in ,paris in #agji1 and before long persuaded himself that he would like to visit ,rome4 ,with this end in view he competed for the ,prix de ,rome1 but succeeded only in obtaining second prize4 ,soon recovering from the disappointment1 he painted a companion picture to the work he had sold to ,sirois for sixty livres1 but for the companion he asked and obtained two hundred and sixty livres4 ,these two pictures he borrowed from ,sirois and hung in a room1 where he knew they would be seen by the ,academicians as they passed from one apartment to another4 ,the painter ,de la ,fosse1 impressed by their colour and quality1 paused and asked the name of the author4 ,he was informed that they were the work of a young and unknown man who craved intercession with the king for a pension in order that he might study in ,italy4 ,de la ,fosse sent for ,watteau1 whom he found modest1 shy1 and deprecatory of his work4 ,watteau stated his desire to study abroad4 ,he was told--the episode in these days seems hardly credible--to his astonishment and joy1 that there was no need for him to study with any one2 that he was already master2 that he would honour the ,academy if he would consent to become a member1 and that he had only to present himself to be enrolled4 ,this he did and was duly elected1 the inauguration fee in consideration of his circumstances being reduced to one hundred livres4 ,and so in #agab1 at the age of twenty-eight1 the poor unknown1 who failed to win the first prize in the ,prix de ,rome1 was made free of the ,academy1 was given the new title of peintre des ,ftes ,galantes1 and became1 almost in a bound1 famous4 ,ill and moody1 he worked incessantly at his drawings and the pictures which were making it possible for him eventually to produce his masterpiece1 ,the ,embarkment for ,cythera4 ,always dissatisfied with his work1 he did not ratify his election to the ,academy by sending in his diploma picture until #agag4 ,the patience of the ,academy being exhausted1 he was reminded of the rule that each newly elected member must present a picture4 ,in a brilliant dash he finished ,the ,embarkment for ,cythera1 which was accepted on ,august #bh1 #agag1 as his pice de reception4 ,no longer was there poverty to contend with4 ,success followed success4 ,the ,academy had set its seal upon him4 ,everybody wanted ,watteaus4 ,in #agaf1 the year before he sent in his pice de reception1 he had gone to live with ,m4 de ,crozat1 whose beautiful house in the ,rue ,richelieu and his country mansion at ,montmorency were filled with works of the old masters1 drawings and paintings4 ,we are told that ,crozat possessed four hundred pictures of the ,venetian and ,flemish schools1 thousands of drawings1 of which two hundred and twenty-nine were by ,rubens1 one hundred and twenty-nine by ,van ,dyck1 one hundred and six by ,veronese1 and one hundred and thirteen by ,titian4 ,in these luxurious houses of his admiring friend and patron1 ,watteau might have lived with delight and profit4 ,the park of the country house at ,montmorency became the background which inspired his ,pastorals1 the perfection of his art2 this perfection the study of the old masters aided somewhat1 no doubt1 but ,watteau was now master himself1 and in knowing them confronted his peers4 ,here too1 for the first time1 he met his models as an equal--untrammelled4 ,this man of medium height and insignificant appearance1 whose eyes showed neither talent nor liveliness1 was on familiar and friendly terms with the company gathered at ,m4 de ,crozat's house--ladies of fashion1 from whom in old days he tried to steal for his note-book a line of neck1 a turn of wrist1 furtively and hastily1 asked nothing better than to be party to his pictures in gardens gay with mondaines1 male and female4 ,he observed and painted4 ,we can almost hear the frou-frou of their garments in his pictures4 ,m4 de ,julienne1 another patron1 was full of enthusiasm and eager to possess his works2 it was for him that ,watteau painted the replica1 carried farther and more finished1 of the ,embarkment for ,cythera1 which is now at ,potsdam4 ,all the world smiled upon ,watteau1 but the world's favours only made the more capricious and melancholy this incurable brooder over the unattainable4 ,loving no woman as he loved his art1 he longed for tenderness1 yet was afraid of it4 ,cold1 shy1 fastidious1 reserved1 ill1 he shunned society now that it sought him1 and drugged himself with work as a refuge from ennui and from nostalgia for no earthly country4 ,he left ,m4 de ,crozat's house1 independence being more vital to him than luxury1 and found a companion in ,nicolas ,vleughels1 whom he had met at ,m4 de ,julienne's4 ,the two lived together until #agah4 ,once more the desire for solitude assailed him4 ,m4 de ,julienne1 who seems always to have been his devoted friend1 admonished the ailing painter and begged him to be more careful about his material welfare1 as indeed all his other friends did1 to whom he retorted1 ,at the worst there is the hospital2 no one is refused there6 ,his friends advised him to travel4 ,of all places he chose ,london1 and arrived on these shores in #agai1 finding lodgings at ,greenwich4 ,in ,london his physician1 ,dr4 ,mead1 presented him to the king1 for whom he painted four pictures1 which are now at ,buckingham ,palace4 ,his health showed no improvement1 and the ,english climate aggravated his illness4 ,in a letter to ,gersaint he wrote of ,le mauvais air qui regne ,londres cause de la vapeur du charbon de terre dont on fait usage4 ,dr4 ,mead1 aware no doubt that his condition was hopeless1 advised him to return to ,paris4 ,this he did1 and settled in the house of ,gersaint1 son-in-law to ,sirois1 for whom he painted the delightful picture called ,gersaint's ,sign1--just to limber up his fingers1 as he expressed it4 ,restlessness again seized him4 ,he believed that he would recover in the country4 ,his friend the ,abb ,haranger asked ,m4 le ,fvre to find him accommodation in a house at ,nogent1 and thither he went in #agba4 ,but the end was near1 and ,watteau1 realising it1 proceeded to set his house in order and to make amends for his shortcomings of friendship and of temper1 the importance of which the dying man magnified4 ,he sent for his townsman and pupil1 ,pater1 asked forgiveness for having in the past retarded his advancement through fear of rivalry1 and made ample amends by giving ,pater daily instruction and revealing to him his intimate knowledge of his craft4 ,pater said1 after ,watteau's death1 that this was the only fruitful teaching he had ever received4 ,his townsman no doubt brought back to the dying painter thoughts of home4 ,ever hopeful1 like all consumptives1 he was sure that a change of air would cure him6 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4--,,the ,,embarkment ,,for ,,cythera 7,in the ,louvre1 ,paris7 ,in #agag ,watteau finished1 after a long delay1 his pice de reception for the ,academy1 the famous first study for ,the ,embarkment for ,cythera4 ,this picture was painted in seven days1 and elaborated1 but hardly improved1 in the ,potsdam version4 ,behold these ethereal and butterfly pilgrims of love preparing lackadaisically to be wafted in the ship with the rose-coloured sail to the abode of ,venus4 ,on those lovely shores they will find no continuing city4 ,watteau knows that4 ,he instructed ,gersaint to sell everything1 and to make preparations for the journey home4 ,he made the journey home1 but not to ,valenciennes4 ,he died suddenly in ,gersaint's arms on ,july #ah1 #agba4 ,he was artist to the end4 ,take away that crucifix1 he said to the priest2 it pains me4 ,how could an artist dare to treat my ,master so shockingly4 ,it is said that one of the last remarks of this sensitive1 ill-balanced1 disease-stricken man of genius was to beg the ,abb ,haranger to forgive him for having used his face and figure for his picture of ,gilles4 ,so at the age of thirty-seven he escaped finally from reality--that reality which his art had always avoided so delightfully and so convincingly4 ,,ii ,,his ,,art ,watteau's art appeals to everybody1 and fascinates all who study it attentively4 ,the lovely decorative pictures tell their own story2 and for those who require more than a story in a picture1 there is his craftsmanship1 his originality1 his personality2 the delight of comparing one alluring achievement with another1 and the interest in noting the inferiority of his followers--,lancret1 ,pater1 and the rest--who annexed his manner but who could not annex the flame of his genius4 ,visit the ,dulwich ,gallery1 study and enjoy ,watteau's ,ball under a ,colonnade1 then go to ,hertford ,house and examine ,pater's copy of ,watteau's ,ball4 ,the fire of genius and glory of colour are gone4 ,it is as stolid as ,paul ,potter's ,bull4 ,i have an especial affection for ,the ,ball under a ,colonnade at ,dulwich2 for until the regal gift of ,hertford ,house to the nation1 with its nine ,watteaus1 this little ,ball under a ,colonnade1 and in a lesser degree its companion picture at ,dulwich1 a ,fte ,champtre1 were my first wanderings in the lyric land of ,watteau4 ,the ,national ,gallery which1 before the present ,director came into office1 treated the ,french school with an indifference that almost amounted to disdain1 does not possess a single ,watteau4 ,edinburgh1 ,glasgow1 and ,cambridge own examples of varying merit1 and there is one in that treasure-house of rare and strange things1 ,sir ,john ,soane's ,museum in ,lincoln's ,inn ,fields4 ,it is probable that the nation possesses yet another example4 ,a ,watteau in the ,jones' ,collection was the surprising heading of an article in a recent number of the ,burlington ,magazine by ,mr4 ,claude ,phillips1 who claims that the little ,watteau-like picture called ,the ,swing in the ,jones' ,collection at ,south ,kensington is a veritable ,watteau4 ,germany is rich in ,watteaus1 with ten at ,potsdam and five in ,berlin4 ,france1 which should be the richest1 is poorer in number and importance than either ,germany or ,england1 although there are ten examples in the ,louvre1 including the original ,embarkment for ,cythera1 ,l',indiffrent1 and ,jupiter and ,antiope4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4--,,jupiter ,,and ,,antiope 7,in the ,louvre1 ,paris7 ,jupiter and ,antiope suggests ,titian and ,rubens filtered through ,watteau4 ,this nude studied from life1 not painted from his drawings1 is more laboured than his other pictures1 but the loss of spontaneity in the colour is compensated by the truth and beauty of the abandon of the beautiful limbs in repose4 ,brown ,jupiter1 blonde ,venus--no attenuation of the truth here--lights loaded1 browns rich with pearly reflections on the fair skin4 ,let us return for a moment to ,the ,ball under a ,colonnade at ,dulwich1 which from its own inherent charm and from its position in that quiet and reposeful gallery may fitly serve as an introduction to the art of ,watteau4 ,take a chair--they permit it at ,dulwich--and seat yourself before it4 ,the picture has suffered1 alas6 somewhat from ,time1 which has almost obliterated the fairy-like fountain4 ,but how charming the picture is still2 how gracious and debonair are the two dancing figures2 how fascinating the broken colour in the woman's green-striped1 rose skirt and in the man's blue butterfly dress4 ,there are seventy-three figures in the small canvas1 #a ft4 #g-c_/d in4 by #b ft4 #a_/d in4 ,you can almost hear the musicians playing1 the fall of water from the fading fountain1 the rustle of leaves1 and the ripple of laughter4 ,think of the painters1 dead and gone1 who have loved this ,ball under a ,colonnade4 ,constable was one of them4 ,he was not afraid to praise a picture when he liked it4 ,listen to this--,constable's criticism of a copy that ,leslie had made of ,watteau's ,ball4 ,he asked ,constable what he thought of the copy1 and the great man answered3-- ,your copy looks colder than the original1 which seems as if painted in honey--so mellow1 so tender1 so soft1 and so delicious2 so ,i trust yours will be2 but be satisfied if you but touch the hem of his garment1 for this inscrutable and exquisite thing would vulgarise even ,rubens and ,paul ,veronese4 ,the amount of work done by ,watteau1 accused by his friend ,de ,caylus of idleness1 was enormous4 ,a chronological list is almost impossible1 because many of his works are lost or were destroyed during the ,revolution4 ,watteau painted anything and everything1 during his connection with ,gillot and ,audran1 from pictures to powder-boxes1 never considering that his art was too high and lofty for the embellishment of any object suitable for painting upon4 ,his work may be divided into three classes3 first manner--,italian ,comedy and decorative work2 second--,military ,scenes2 third and finest manner--,the ,pastorals4 ,as a boy he produced some military pictures1 and he reverted to them while with ,audran4 ,it is difficult to place chronologically any given subject1 for while we may arbitrarily classify a picture as belonging to one period or another1 his ,italian ,comedy scenes1 belonging to the first period1 persisted to the end4 ,with the exception of his boyish endeavours1 inspired by ,teniers before he visited ,paris1 his first manner was almost entirely decorative1 and included paintings on screens1 coach panels1 and furniture4 ,the military pictures belong to a short period dating from his success in selling them to ,sirois and their approval by the ,academy4 ,they are few in number--thirteen only were engraved4 ,the year #agab was the beginning of his recognition and the end of poverty4 ,between this date and #agaf he produced his marvellous nudes4 ,of all ,watteau's pictures the nudes seem undoubtedly to have been painted from ,nature and not from drawings4 ,they are too true to life1 too well observed4 ,all his other pictures1 even the greatest of his ,pastorals1 have the air of being imagined4 ,his drawings were his documents1 and these1 like the nudes1 were of course made direct from ,nature4 ,the fantasy of his pictures is founded on fact1 but it is fantasy which sees only what it wishes to see--the rhythmic line1 the rainbow colour1 the happy melancholy4 ,the year #agaf was big with significance to ,watteau2 he awoke in his own land--dream-land of his ,pastorals4 ,then he began to live1 and there were before him but five short years of life4 ,he never again left this land of fantasy--except when1 on his return from ,london1 he painted ,gersaint's ,sign1 that model of modishness and grace1 painted in eight mornings1 representing ,gersaint's shop where lgantes buy masterpieces from shop-keepers as elegant as themselves4 ,this picture1 which is now in the possession of the ,german ,emperor1 has for some mysterious reason been divided into two portions4 ,in #agag1 as ,i have related1 he finished after a long delay his pice de reception for the ,academy1 the famous first study for the ,embarkment for ,cythera4 ,what can be said of this picture1 or of the more finished replica at ,potsdam1 that has not already been said a score of times8 ,it is referred to and described in the ,prologue to this book as one of his significant pictures4 ,it moves in a rhythm of life1 of love1 of colour2 rose reds1 golden yellows1 faint purples1 greys of every gamut1 meeting and melting--one perfect whole1 and over all is a lingering regret of ,i know not what4 ,this picture was painted in seven days1 and elaborated1 but hardly improved1 in the ,potsdam version4 ,turn from this consummate work to his early ,la ,vraie ,gaiet1 inspired by ,teniers1 which in essence is the same picture as ,the ,ball under a ,colonnade at ,dulwich1 and even the ,amusements ,champtres and the ,champs ,elyses at ,hertford ,house4 ,the clothes are changed1 the handling has become lighter and more accomplished--that is all4 ,the observer1 that saturnine1 detached1 cynical figure1 who appears in so many of ,watteau's pictures1 is already present in ,la ,vraie ,gaiet4 ',this solitary figure is1 as ,i have already said1 the symbol of ,watteau himself1 ever aloof1 ever contemptuous1 even when sharing in the scenic world of ,watteau1 where life1 if not really true1 is certainly not false4 ,his people are lotus-eaters1 who are come to a land where it is always afternoon1 where the charmed sunset lingered low adown in the red west 444 and many a winding vale and meadow1 set with slender galingale4 ,a mild melancholy possesses the inhabitants of this dream-world1 for they are happy and yet a little sad1 musing on what can never be4 ,through this dream-world ,l',indiffrent trips lightly1 typical of ,watteau1 rainbow-hued1 mercurial1 his indifference assumed1 not troubling to conceal the sad thoughtfulness that lurks in his expression4 ,we do not believe in his snapping fingers and his jaunty air4 ,what colour are his beautiful garments8 ,rosy white1 greeny white1 lavendar white with rose red knots1 and rose red mantle lined with bluebell blue1 white frills falling over the sensitive hands1 his butterfly decorations rustling as he passes--,l',indiffrent4 ,the technique of the picture1 in its modern chromatic use of colour1 is marvellous4 ,the hues of the rainbow meander through it all4 ,who can describe ,watteau's colour or his fashion of trickling on the paint1 as fascinating in its way as the method of ,frans ,hals1 whose seduction is the way he paints1 not what he paints8 ,hals1 the great master of character1 frank1 open1 plebeian1 is akin in technique to ,watteau4 ,what sthetic joy these masters of technique give us as we study the manipulation of their paint4 ,hals flicks on his ruffles frankly1 joyously--brutally4 ,watteau1 seemingly just for joy in the colour1 trickles--there is no other word for it--one luscious colour over another1 like liquid jewels embedded in gold4 ,one may stand for hours at ,hertford ,house in front of any of his pictures and quite forget the subject in delight of the workmanship4 ,consider ,the ,music ,lesson4 ,in colour it is rose and white4 ,the man's garments are neither rose1 nor white1 nor yellow1 and yet they are all three4 ,the rose of the woman's rosette repeats the carmines of her complexion4 ,the composition is charming4 ,the movement1 pose1 and costume of the players is the same as the musicians in the ,musical ,party1 also at ,hertford ,house4 ,delightful too in ,gilles and ,his ,family4 ,gilles is dressed in thin1 white1 supple satin1 lined with rose and striped with faint blue1 and his white mantle is lined with blue4 ,the dark bias of the guitar binds the group of people together1 all of whom it touches or crosses4 ,a seated woman nurses a little black and white dog1 while a child nestles up to her1 peeping beneath the guitar2 the faces are more alert and smiling than usual1 and the picture1 although less pearly than ,the ,music ,lesson1 is not less beautiful in colour4 ,jupiter and ,antiope at the ,louvre suggests ,titian and ,rubens filtered through ,watteau4 ,this nude studied from life1 not painted from his drawings1 is more laboured than his other pictures1 but the loss of spontaneity in the colour is compensated by the truth and beauty of the abandon of the beautiful limbs in repose4 ,brown ,jupiter1 blonde ,venus--no attenuation of the truth here--lights loaded1 browns rich1 with pearly reflections on the fair skin4 ,the attribution of the delightful ,pastoral at the ,louvre1 although generally accepted1 has been questioned4 ,the elegant little lady shepherdess is in rose red1 a red that seems to belong only to ,velazquez and to ,watteau2 she sits watching1 not the flock of one sheep and one wondering dog1 no6 she is listening to the ,arcadian shepherd playing his flute4 ,very ,watteau-like is the landscape4 ,turn from these little works to the larger pictures1 such as ,the ,return from the ,chase1 painted for his patron ,m4 de ,julienne towards the end of his life--a marvel of rhythmic line and tone2 and to ,les ,amusements ,champtres--a bouquet of colour like no other colour1 old rose1 old blue1 silvery yellow1 prune purple1 all partaking one of the other4 ,in the distance people are sitting and standing and dancing in colours unrivalled4 ,so we may pass through the whole range of his production finding constantly some new surprise of colour1 some new mastery in the weaving of his webs4 ,call ,watteau1 if you like1 a painter of the frivolous side of life1 but you must also call him one of the few originals whose pictures vivify because they stimulate1 and because they excite interest in his method which marked a new epoch in art4 ,we consider ,watteau1 says his countryman1 ,m4 ,camille ,mauclair1 the most original and most representative master of ,french art2 ,watteau1 ,delacroix1 and ,monet are the three beacons of that art4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,the ,,fountain 7,in the ,wallace ,collection7 ,one of his smaller pictures1 #ag-a_/b ins4 high by #ac-a_/d wide1 called also ,la ,cascade4 ,it attracts attention by reason of the somewhat theatrical way in which the dainty silhouette of the figures is set against the opening between the trees4 ,but how charming are these figures bathed in light and mirrored in the pool that ripples at their feet4 ,,iii ,,his ,,place ,,in ,,art3 ,,predecessors ,,and ,,influence ,if ,i were asked what new thing ,watteau gave to the world1 ,i would answer that he humanised the art of his country and century1 and drew men from pomposity to his own intimate and dream-like reality under the symbols of gallantry and masquerade4 ,he was also the pioneer of impressionism1 the discoverer of the decomposition of tones1 and the link1 to quote ,m4 ,mauclair1 that connects ,ruysdael and ,claude ,lorrain with ,turner1 ,monticelli1 and ,claude ,monet4 ,the eighteenth century in ,france which he inaugurated is a sunlit garden full of flowers compared to a cold court in some prison palace1 to which the seventeenth century of academic imitation of the lesser ,italians may be likened4 ,correct1 pompous1 lifeless1 ,le ,brun1 ,le ,sueur1 and his other forerunners1 have left us little but a sense of boredom1 a warning how not to paint1 and the assurance that1 unless a school is founded on a personal study of ,nature1 that school dies with its founder4 ,the decadence of ,italian art is said to date from ,raphael4 ,certain it is that bombastic art dates from the greatest artist--,michelangelo4 ,the father of the chromo is ,correggio4 ,watteau1 a little master1 as some are pleased to call him1 has had an influence on art that persists to-day1 an influence intimate and human4 ,certainly he made life more beautiful4 ,departing for ,cythera with ,watteau's dames and gallants means more to us of intelligence in art than acres of classic pictures of gods1 temples and heroes untouched by the warmth of personality and incisiveness of observation4 ,we are fatigued and unconvinced in the rooms at the ,louvre devoted to ,le ,sueur's series of pictures depicting the life of ,st4 ,bruno4 ,we are glad before the little earnest portraits of ,corneille1 ,clouet1 and ,fouquet hanging in the next room4 ,the love of beauty and the simple religion of the ,primitives is transferred to us4 ,we feel it to be true that ,nothing can wash the balm from an anointed king1 in looking at the portrait of ,charles ,i41 king1 dandy1 and gentleman1 touched as it is with ,van ,dyck's great gift of personal vision2 but ,le ,sueur and ,le ,brun say nothing1 except perhaps to make us grudge the wall space their pictures occupy4 ,watteau is the lure that led ,france back to ,nature2 his real-unreal pleasances are the gardens where grew the flowers 7slips from older stock1 if you will7 called ,modern ,movement1 ,impressionism1 and ,pointillism4 ,the ,embarkment for ,cythera has been called the first impressionist picture4 ,once again through ,watteau the natural art of the ,north prevailed over the art of the ,south as in the time of the ,burgundian ,franco-,flemish renaissance4 ,watteau is true successor to his masters ,teniers and ,rubens4 ,teniers' subjects may be said to persist to the end of his short but full artistic life1 and his ,ftes ,galantes1 those perfect expressions of his matured art1 are ,teniers' subjects made his own2 but the uncouth ,flemish peasants become graceful dames and gallants4 ,teniers' boors rollick through the day and night boisterously1 leaving nothing for to-morrow1 unless it be a headache4 ,watteau's dames and gallants are touched with happy melancholy4 ,their light malady of heartache for unattained desires is obviously more beautiful pictorially than the headaches of hilarious boors4 ,your true artist has delicate antenn and is sensitive to everything that he sees and feels2 but when he retires within himself1 the memory of all that he felt1 of warmth or cold1 fine or unfine1 returns to him4 ,the influence of many men ,watteau felt4 ,i place them in the order of their influence--,teniers1 ,rubens1 ,gillot1 ,audran1 ,titian1 and ,veronese4 ,the example of each taught him something1 but the artist in him selected ingredients of their genius and combined them into a new and original one--his own4 ,the wholesome influence of ,rubens on painters has been enormous4 ,he did not make imitators1 but he inspired many great men to get the look of their own eyes1 not the look of his2 robust1 normal1 and generous of nature1 the contagion of his truth is so immediate that all who come in contact with it must look at ,nature unblinkingly1 and receive a fresh impulse from his bravery4 ,velazquez was a better painter after he had talked and worked on the hillside above the ,escorial with ,rubens2 ,van ,dyck was his pupil1 and ,watteau is of his artistic progeny4 ,the feminine taste of ,velazquez1 ,van ,dyck1 and ,watteau was made more virile by contact with ,rubens1 whose taste many of us may condemn1 and whose influence for good we are so apt to overlook4 ,from ,titian ,watteau borrowed warmth1 and from ,veronese coolness of colour2 ,gillot1 the decorative painter1 showed him his own inherent power2 ,audran1 too1 helped him1 and the ,luxembourg ,gardens and ,gallery aided his artistic development4 ,no doubt the great artist might be shut in a cell1 and still his genius would bring forth its work unnourished by influence or propinquity to other talents2 it might even show a rarer quality4 ,but ninety-nine in a hundred derive from their forebears1 and it is interesting to follow the career of a great man1 to pursue the influences that formed him1 and to see in the end how his individuality asserted itself4 ,it were churlish in any student and lover of ,watteau not to know and acknowledge the happy effect upon him of the masters he admired4 ,watteau was of ,flemish origin1 for ,valenciennes1 where he was born1 became ,french only seven years before his birth4 ,conquest cannot in seven years change the characteristics of a people4 ,watteau's art is consequently distinctly ,flemish1 but modified by ,french taste2 he became an artistic composite of ,flemish technical sanity and ,french intelligence and fervour4 ,he was an exotic that shot up in the forcing-house of his exacting genius1 extracting vitality from ,rubens the fertiliser1 inspiration from ,teniers1 colour from ,titian and ,veronese1 and encouragement from ,gillot and ,audran4 ,genius is a great gift lent by ,nature to the few2 but ,nature is inexorable in demanding the return of the fruits of the gift1 as if man were but a casket for its safe keeping2 when the end comes he must have proved his worth as custodian1 be the time long1 as in the case of a ,da ,vinci or a ,michaelangelo1 or short1 as in the case of a ,raphael or a ,watteau4 ,the shorter the time given for the justification of the gift the stronger often is the capacity for effort1 so that the sum total of the achievement of the short life often seems to exceed that of the long life4 ,michaelangelo lived to be very old4 ,when this greatest artist died he left his work unfinished4 ,raphael died young1 but his achievement was prodigious4 ,watteau's short sad life of illness and discontent produced more than twelve hundred items4 ,watteau began his artistic career influenced in technique by the petits toucheurs1 the sympathetic little masters of the ,netherlands to whom he was kin 7,m4 de ,julienne calls him in his catalogue peintre ,flamand de ,l',academie ,royale74 ,soon the big touch of ,rubens intrudes and the technique broadens2 next ,titian obsesses him1 and the shadows under the trees in the ,luxembourg ,gardens as he watches grow warmer to the watcher1 and colour begins to glow2 ,veronese intervenes1 and cooler tones are apparent--and these three great masters of breadth and truth1 of warmth and temperament1 of chill stateliness1 combine in the mind's eye of ,watteau4 ,the pleasant places in the gardens of the ,luxembourg are peopled with ladies and gallants and little ladies and little gallants1 and1 as he walks and watches1 ,teniers' subjects flit across his vision1 and the forms of ,rubens' rosy and ample matrons4 ,how would ,titian have painted yonder dark woman of the warm colour and deep red hair walking down the glade8 ,the leaves on the trees rustle in the summer air4 ,light flickers on silken frocks1 cold reflections on green4 ,something whispers to his discontent paint the scene as you see it1 draw the lady sitting on the grass1 her back toward you1 in the shot silk frock of bronze and green1 and the other standing near1 tall and elegant1 in rose and yellow4 ,what colour is it8 ,the colour of a sun-browned wood-nymph's thigh4 ,and her hands behind her back4 ,what hands6 ,hands must be better painted than heads1 being more difficult4 ,beyond in the gardens fountains and little children play2 tall trees throw shadows on beauty pouting1 the indifferent lover tip-toes away1 not so indifferent as he would have the pouting one believe4 ,there is movement toward the gates of the ,palace ,gardens2 children run tripping over tiny dogs led by lute string ribbons2 soldiers and music4 ,watteau finds himself1 not wholly perhaps1 but the formative period has passed4 ,the artist is made2 is himself1 gives himself4 ,no longer will the classicists prevail2 no longer will art be cold and eclectic4 ,the youth from ,valenciennes will call ,paris back to ,nature1 and through a temperament will show the world familiar things1 will let his imagination play1 taking his good where he finds it1 but resolving it into something that is his own4 ,he will see with his own eyes4 ,he will paint pictures as he pleases4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4--,f,,te ,,champ,,tre 7,in the ,national ,gallery of ,scotland1 ,edinburgh7 ,bleak ,edinburgh is rich in the possession of this picture of dreamy colour4 ,the hour is sunset2 the place is where you will1 but the title1 ,fte ,champtre1 suits the scene of dalliance quite as well as any other name2 a similar picture at ,dresden is called by ,m4 ,mauclair ,the ,terrace ,party4 ,you perceive here the typical ,watteau figures1 and behind is a landscape that has all the idealistic charm of his rendering of ,nature4 ,when ,watteau1 perhaps unknown to himself1 resolved to be himself1 a new school was born in ,france1 a school whose influence still prevails4 ,we are fond of taking credit to ourselves for the initiation of the modern school of landscape4 ,we remember with pride the day in #ahbd when the ,french ,salon was illumined with three of ,constable's pictures2 we also remember the acknowledgment by ,french painters of the inspiration of ,turner and ,bonnington2 but it would be interesting to follow back their inspiration2 and it would not be difficult to trace ,monet's division of tones and envelope of air to ,watteau4 ,influence in art and inspiration is a ball that is tossed back and forth4 ,if ,constable1 ,turner1 and ,bonnington influenced the ,french school they owe allegiance to ,watteau1 and through him to the bull in art1 ,rubens1 who was master to ,van ,dyck1 the founder of the ,english school4 ,does ,gainsborough's lovely ,perdita in the ,wallace ,collection owe nothing of its exquisite femininity1 sweet melancholy1 and woodland background1 to ,watteau8 ,constable and ,turner were but paying old debts1 for the painter of the ,ftes ,galantes had shown the beauty of landscape and made it something more than a setting for figures4 ,he taught also that ,nature is intimate and familiar with accidental beauty of sunlight and twilight1 misty horizons1 and lovable little things near to us2 not swept and garnished and coldly unreal1 but a world where human beings may wander happily with ,nature on a level with their own eyes2 not a world where only ,titans and gods roam through pseudo-classical scenes4 ,in ,watteau's pictures poetry and reality dwell in harmony4 ,he proved their compatibility2 he showed that all the world is a vision seen through a temperament4 ,it is unjust to attribute to ,watteau's influence only the frivolous school of painters which immediately followed him2 they were incidents of the reaction of their time against the dull and the pedantic4 ,they copied him1 but they missed his sincerity2 they lacked his genius2 they were begotten of their age when dulness tired of being good and grew wanton4 ,but even his followers have more of life and warmth and beauty than his predecessors1 the frigid and attenuated school of ,le ,brun4 ,fragonard is a master and lives2 we are rising to a new appreciation of him2 and ,pater and ,lancret do not tire us even if they are soulless ,watteaus4 ,le ,brun and his school are dead1 and must one day be buried in the cellars of the ,louvre to make way for their betters--the painters inspired by the ,flemish ,frenchman--,antoine ,watteau--who made possible the modern school4 ,from him ,constable1 ,turner1 ,gainsborough1 ,corot1 ,manet and ,monet derived4 ,what an achievement for a short life of thirty-seven years6 ,,iv ,,his ,,critics ,,and ,,admirers ,most critics of ,watteau allow something of his rhythmic sense and beauty of colour to tinge their appreciations4 ,ordinary statements of facts seem inadequate to express the feeling he evokes1 whether the writer be concerned with the outwardness of his genius1 like the brothers ,de ,goncourt1 or the inwardness of it1 like ,m4 ,camille ,mauclair4 ,instinctively language becomes flowery1 and light and lovely words rise spontaneously to re-echo in another medium the music of his pictures4 ,according to our temperament and taste we are influenced by the familiar-and-candid friend standpoint of ,de ,caylus2 by the ,de ,goncourts' searching analysis clothed in apt and sparkling words2 by ,m4 ,camille ,mauclair's soul-search into the effect on ,watteau's life of the disease from which he suffered1 or by the calm and cultivated mind of ,walter ,pater with its rare and sympathetic insight1 and that tact of omission which he extolls in ,watteau4 ,the source of all the biographies is the memoir of the ,comte de ,caylus1 which was lost from the archives of the ,academy1 and discovered by the brothers ,de ,goncourt in a second-hand book-shop4 ,while we are grateful for the information ,de ,caylus's memoir contains1 we can but smile at the judgment of a friend and admirer on a contemporary so far in advance of his age as ,watteau4 ,solemn ,de ,caylus entirely failed to understand the real man and artist4 ,apart from the details he gives of ,watteau's life1 the passages which describe his method of work are the most interesting4 ,he informs us that ,watteau could never be an heroic or allegorical painter 7thank ,heaven671 not being trained academically2 he also tells us that his reflections on painting were profound1 and that his execution was inferior to his ideas2 that he had no knowledge of anatomy1 having hardly ever drawn from the nude1 so that he neither understood it nor was able to express it4 ,de ,caylus also calls ,watteau mannered1 but admits that he was endowed with charm1 and so on1 and so on4 ,watteau's nudes are studied1 and1 what is more1 achieved4 ,recall any one of them1 ,the ,toilet1 ,antiope1 ,the ,judgment of ,paris--they are as documentary as his drawings4 ,the values and reflected lights of his nude bodies are academic enough to satisfy a modern student at ,julian's1 the most carping and exacting of critics4 ,de ,caylus1 while deploring ,watteau's methods of technique1 contributes the interesting information that he preferred to use his paints liquid2 that he rubbed his pictures all over with oil and repainted over this surface2 also that he was slovenly in his habits1 rarely cleaning his palette1 and allowing days to pass without setting it afresh2 that his pot of medium was full of dirt and dust and the sediment of used colours1 and that he was idle and indolent4 ,well1 as to ,watteau's methods1 ,i prefer to think that the surface of oil while it mellows preserves also4 ,the worst artists are often the most solicitous of their mediums1 and the laborious industry of the mediocre painter is often laborious idleness4 ,a man who can leave behind him1 after a short life1 the quality and quantity of work bequeathed to the world by ,watteau refutes1 by that work1 accusations of indolence and idleness4 ,neither can ,i admit that he was mannered4 ,his manner was different from the clique of painters then in vogue1 and it is obvious that he had a manner1 but this very manner is his originality4 ,of course his pictures are invented1 but invented from the accumulated facts of his own drawings1 wrested from life hurriedly1 for he had very little time1 and yet showing no marks of haste4 ,if1 as ,m4 ,mauclair says1 ,there exists in intellectual consumptives a condition of mind which seems to concentrate all those preceptions of supreme delicacy conferred on noble minds by the presentiment of approaching death1 we need not grieve that the lives of such men as ,keats1 ,watteau1 and ,schubert were short4 ,the body's disease caused a mystic exaltation in the soul1 whose productions1 far from being touched by debility or decadence1 are rather the concentration of extreme power and violent emotion4 ,this intelligent and sympathetic critic goes on to say that the very unwholesomeness of body is marked by unmistakable health of mind1 which may indeed be a courageous facing of earthly finality1 but is also a fertile field in which great enterprises are undertaken and achieved4 ,as ,i have said1 according to your temperament you may take ,watteau seriously1 lightly1 joyously or sadly4 ,there is recompense whether you feel that he is the great and profound master ,m4 ,mauclair calls him1 or whether you range yourself with the ,de ,goncourts1 who describe him as a painter of ,utopias1 a beautifier1 the most amiable and determined of liars1 a painter of pictures where the fiddles of ,lrida play marches that lead the way to death1 where smart ,la ,tulipe struts and swaggers1 and ,manon flirts between two gun shots1 and a host of little love-birds flutter1 light-heartedly1 into war's stern discipline4 ,the ,de ,goncourts note that there is in ,watteau's work murmurs of vague and slow harmony behind the laughing words1 and that a musical sadness gently contagious exhales from these ,ftes ,galantes4 ,like the seduction of ,venice1 ,i know not what veiled poetry breathes sweet and low to our charmed senses4 ,m4 ,mauclair asserts that no one has ever understood ,watteau so well as ,verlaine1 and that his exquisite little volume of poems ,ftes ,galantes is an absolute transposition of the painter's work2 but it is the brilliant appreciation of the ,de ,goncourts that has had the strongest influence on subsequent writers1 so admirably do they reveal ,watteau1 so like the colour of his pictures are the colours of their words1 so adequate is their exposition of one side of ,watteau's fascination4 ,they claim ,watteau as the great poet of the eighteenth century1 and then proceed to give in glittering prose a penetrating and persuasive criticism1 apostrophising ,watteau's art as a country refreshed by fountains1 decorated with marbles and statues1 and peopled by naiades1 a country lovable and radiant1 far from a jealous world1 where baskets of flowers swing from bending trees2 where fields are full of music1 gardens full of roses and tangled vines2 a ,france where the pines of ,italy grow1 where villages are gay with weddings1 coaches1 ceremonies and festal attire1 and violins and flutes conduct to a temple ,jesuite the marriage of ,nature and the ,opera4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4--,,the ,,music ,,lesson 7,in the ,wallace ,collection7 ,watteau1 seemingly just for joy in the colour1 trickles--there is no other word for it--one luscious colour over another1 like liquid jewels embedded in gold4 ,the colour fascinates4 ,is it rose and white8 ,the man's garments are neither rose1 nor white1 nor yellow1 and yet they are all three4 ,the rose of the woman's rosette repeats the carmines of her complexion4 ,the composition is charming4 ,la ,mode de ,watteau--that divine tailor whose artist scissors have fashioned playfully the delight in disorder1 the morning nglig1 and the beautiful ceremonious garments of the afternoon4 ,fairy scissors dowering the times to come with fashions from the ',thousand and ,one ,nights4' ,beribboned scissors of ,watteau1 what a delightful realm of coquetry you cut from the bigoted realm of the ,maintenon6 ,how different in manner and method is ,walter ,pater's ,imaginary ,portrait1 called ,a ,prince of ,court ,painters3 ,extracts from an old ,french ,journal4 ,calmly this subtle analysis begins1 which shows a deeper insight into the personality of ,watteau than either the brothers ,de ,goncourt1 or ,m4 ,mauclair1 who calls ,pater's ,imaginary ,portrait a whimsical interpretation4 ,i have read many books about the painter of the ,ftes ,galantes1 but ,i always return to ,pater's whimsical portrait1 for it gives the very atmosphere of his artistic descent and development1 from the age of seventeen to the last year of his life4 ,missing no dominant event1 misusing no legends1 cast in the form of a diary1 the narrative is made convincingly real by ,pater's sympathetic imagination4 ,these extracts are from an imaginary old ,french ,journal1 kept apparently by an elder sister of ,jean ,baptiste ,pater1 ,watteau's pupil4 ,this lonely and sensitive lady1 who has evidently lost her cloistral heart to the unconcerned painter1 is living in ,valenciennes1 ,watteau's birthplace4 ,the first entry is dated3-- ,,valenciennes1 ,september #agja4 ,they have been renovating my father's large workroom4444 ,among old ,watteau's work-people came his son1 'the genius1' my father's godson and namesake1 a dark-haired youth1 whose large1 unquiet eyes seemed perpetually wandering to the various drawings which lie exposed here4 ,my father will have it that he is a genius indeed and a painter born4444 ,and just where the crowd was busiest young ,antony was found1 hoisted into one of those empty niches of the old ,htel de ,ville1 sketching the scene to the life1 but with a kind of grace--a marvellous tact of omission1 as my father pointed out to us1 in dealing with the vulgar reality seen from one's own window--which has made trite old ,harlequin1 ,clown1 and ,columbine seem like people in some fairyland4444 ,his father will hear nothing of educating him as a painter4 ,october #agja4 ,chiefly through the solicitations of my father1 old ,watteau has consented to place ,antony with a teacher of painting here4444 ,ah6 such gifts as his1 surely1 may once in a way make much industry seem worth while4444 ,he is apt1 in truth1 to fall out too hastily with himself and what he produces4444 ,yes6 ,i could fancy myself offended by a sort of irony which sometimes crosses the half melancholy sweetness of manner habitual with him2 only that1 as ,i can see1 he treats himself to the same quality4 ,so this gentle woman continues to record in her diary1 as if musing on the life of one she loved1 the salient happenings in ,antony ,watteau's career4 ,nothing escapes ,walter ,pater's sympathy and understanding1 so that at the end we come to a perfect appreciation of his reading of ,watteau4 ,this essay1 in the form of a journal1 is a little masterpiece about a little master4 ,under ,august #agje we find the following3-- ,antony1 looking well1 in his new-fashioned1 long-skirted coat1 and taller than he really is1 made us bring our cream and wild strawberries out of doors1 ranging ourselves according to his judgment 7for a hasty sketch in that big pocket-book he carries7 on the soft slope of one of those fresh spaces in the wood1 where the trees unclose a little1 while ,jean-,baptiste and my younger sister danced a minuet on the grass1 to the notes of some strolling lutanist1 who had found us out4 ,he is visibly cheerful at the thought of his return to ,paris1 and became for a moment freer and more animated than ,i have ever yet seen him1 as he discoursed to us about the paintings of ,peter ,paul ,rubens in the church here4 ,under ,august #agag she writes3 ,methinks ,antony ,watteau reproduces that gallant world1 those patched and powdered ladies and fine cavaliers1 so much to its own satisfaction1 partly because he despises it2 if this be a possible condition of excellent artistic production--he dignifies1 by what in him is neither more nor less than a profound melancholy1 the essential insignificance of what he wills to touch in all that1 transforming its mere prettiness into grace4 ,it looks certainly very graceful1 fresh1 animated1 'piquant1' as they love to say--yes6 and withal1 ,i repeat1 perfectly pure1 and may well congratulate itself on the loan of a fallacious grace not its own4 ,we are shown his restless nostalgia1 his progress1 success1 and journeying to and fro1 his broidery of the world he painted1 until1 as she says of a summer1 a kind of infectious sentiment passed upon us1 like an efflux from its flowers and flower-like architecture4 ,january #agbj4 ,those sharply-arched brows1 those restless eyes which seem larger than ever--something that seizes on one1 and is almost terrible1 in his expression--speak clearly1 and irresistibly set one on the thought of a summing up of his life4 ,and then the end under date ,july #agba3-- ,antony ,watteau departed suddenly1 in the arms of ,m4 ,gersaint1 on one of the late hot days of ,july4 ,at the last moment he had been at work upon a crucifix for the good cur of ,nogent1 liking little the very rude one he possessed4 ,he died with all the sentiments of religion4 ,he has been a sick man all his life4 ,he was always a seeker after something in the world that is there in no satisfying measure1 or not at all4 ,,epilogue ,the greatest gift in art is personality4 ,but all masters are not of equal personality4 ,indeed1 so rare is the gift in its fulness1 that in the whole field of art there are but a few who appear as planets in the monotony of sidereal excellence4 ,luminous examples of this quality of personality are such originals as ,donatello1 ,holbein1 ,vermeer of ,delft1 and ,watteau1 to mention only a few of the most lovable4 ,that something in an artist which finds a new way to express an old thing is the rarest and most to be desired of gifts4 ,this gift ,watteau had in the highest degree4 ,he originated a grace unsurpassed in its way--dare ,i say it8--even by the ,greeks4 ,attic simplicity of grace is grander1 but not more beautiful1 not more intimately beautiful4 ,the ,greeks gave us the grand beauty of form2 ,watteau gives us the beauty of caprice1 of frills and fripperies2 but his people are adorned by garments that lend them grace2 his women walking are rhythmical lines1 sitting they are silhouettes of delight1 their garments enhancing beauty1 not hiding it4 ,watteau is the great master of the eighteenth century in ,france1 a century distinctly feminine4 ,to say that he is the most feminine painter that ever lived is in no sense a disparagement1 for to this quality of grace and daintiness1 of coquetry and caprice1 of melancholy and longing1 was united a very masculine quality of craft and originality in craft4 ,we tingle with delight in looking at his luscious colour and studying the mastery of its application4 ,what artist has not known the envious desire to possess one of his drawings1 the part of his achievement which entitles him to be ranked with the greatest1 so truthful1 so full of subtle distinction of line1 whether it be a blackamoor's face or a beauty's back4 ,the origin of the broken tone in modern art is his4 ,from him we may trace the modern impressionist movement1 and from him modern pointillism4 ,what is impressionism1 and what is pointillism8 ,impressionism is the elimination of the little1 the giving of the large truth1 the instantaneous impression of vision2 but all vision is not the same1 and as the lens of the looking eye varies1 so the impression will vary4 ,we may teach ourselves to see little or much1 our memory may be accurate or false1 according to our gifts4 ,emerson says3 ,our difference of wit appears to be only a difference of impressionability or power to appreciate faint1 fainter1 and infinitely faintest voices and visions4 ,this faculty of seeing at the first glance faint1 fainter1 and infinitely faintest1 the impressionist claims4 ,he may be so impressionable1 or so little capable of sensitiveness to impression1 that his picture in one instance may be fuller of fine truths than the most laborious idleness of finish can make it1 and in the other his lack of sensitiveness to impression may be a mere jumble of decomposed colour understood only by himself4 ,pointillism is the application of pure colour to the canvas in small streaks or dots1 and has become part of the doctrine of the impressionists4 ,to them it represents the decomposition of light2 the streak and dot--broken colour--is used to increase the appearance of the vibration of light1 which it does in a marvellous manner4 ,the use of broken colour was one of ,watteau's characteristics1 and is part of the charm and originality of his technique4 ,even his inconsistencies have charm4 ,his drawings were from the life2 his nudes were also from the life1 so true to ,nature are they1 so very modern as to reflection and value1 with the added ,watteau grace4 ,but1 let me confess it1 the modern craftsman more wedded to truth than inspiration may feel less conviction of his greatness in examining his pictures because1 admire his colour and technique as much as we will1 we cannot but feel that in his invented pictures ,watteau's inspiration is what the student in ,france calls chic4 ,and yet who would have them different8 ,his ,pastorals may be chic'd1 but there they are1 done--unrivalled1 supreme4 ,eighteenth-century art in ,france means1 for most of us1 ,watteau4 ,he is the fitting master of a century in which women played so great a part4 ,he did not immortalise any woman4 ,no ,mona ,lisa1 no ,giovanna ,tornabuoni1 no ,emma ,lady ,hamilton1 lives through his brush4 ,he immortalised women--not any particular woman2 he created a type1 the ,watteau type--adorable1 dainty1 and fragrant as a flower4 ,she has no name1 no place of abode since ,watteau died4 ,he saw her in his dream-life1 held her for a moment as she flitted past1 so she remains3 eternally young1 eternally free4 ,fair youth1 beneath the trees1 thou canst not leave ,the song1 nor ever can those trees be bare2 ,she cannot fade1 444 ,for ever wilt thou love1 and she be fair6 ,the plates are printed by ,,bemrose ,,sons1 ,,ltd41 ,derby and ,london ,the text at the ,,ballantyne ,,press1 ,edinburgh