,,masterpieces ,,in ,,colour ,,edited ,,by -- ,t4 ,,leman ,,hare ,,sargent ,,in ,,the ,,same ,,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 ,,brun4 ,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 ,,sargent ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,others in ,preparation4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i4--,,lord ,,ribblesdale4 ,frontispiece 7,in the collection of ,lord ,ribblesdale7 ,a portrait of the author of ,the ,queen's ,hounds and ,stag-hunting ,recollections3 esteemed one of the finest of ,sargent's works4 ,,sargent ,,by ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood ,,illustrated ,,with ,,eight ,,reproductions ,,in ,,colour ,illustration3 ,,in ,,sempiternum4 ,,london3 ,t4 ,c4 ,e4 ,c4 ,,jack ,,new ,,york3 ,,frederick ,a4 ,,stokes ,,co4 ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,plate ,page ,i4 ,lord ,ribblesdale ,frontispiece ,in the collection of ,lord ,ribblesdale ,,ii4 ,la ,carmencita #ad ,in the ,luxembourg1 ,paris ,,iii4 ,ellen ,terry as ,lady ,macbeth #bd ,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,millbank ,,iv4 ,w4 ,graham ,robertson1 ,esq4 #cd ,in the collection of ,w4 ,graham ,robertson1 ,esq4 ,v4 ,carnation ,lily1 ,lily ,rose #dj ,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,millbank ,,vi4 ,lady ,elcho1 ,mrs4 ,adeane1 and ,lady ,tennant #ej ,in the collection of the ,hon4 ,percy ,wyndham ,,vii4 ,the ,misses ,wertheimer #fj ,in the collection of ,asher ,wertheimer1 ,esq4 ,,viii4 ,mrs4 ,a4 ,l4 ,langman #gj ,in the collection of ,a4 ,l4 ,langman1 ,esq41 ,c4,m4,g4 ,illustration ,i ,was there ever a more romantic time than our own1 or a people who took everything more matter-of-factly8 ,the paintings of a period contain all its enthusiasms and illusions4 ,we remember the eighteenth century--at least in ,england--by ,reynolds' and ,gainsborough's art1 the seventeenth century by ,van ,dyck's2 and when we remember the eighteenth century in ,france1 it is to think of ,watteau1 who expressed what his world1 drifting towards disaster1 cared about--an illusion of a never-ending summer's day4 ,these names are expressive of their times1 and ,sargent's art1 with disillusioned outlook1 mirrors an obvious aspect of ,english life to-day4 ,above all others he has taken his world as it is1 with the delight in life1 in its everyday appearance1 with which the representative artists of any period have been gifted4 ,perhaps the next generation will feel that it owes more to him than to any painter of this time4 ,for the ephemeralities of the moment in costume and fashion are the blossoms in which life seeks expression--whatever its fruit4 ,it is agreed that everything is expression1 from a spring bud bursting to a ribbon worn for a moment against a woman's hair4 ,and who deals with the surface of life deals with realities1 for the rest is guess-work4 ,often enough this content to take the world as it is may result in things which do not charm us1 and perhaps ,sargent has never been one of those as fastidious in selection as in delineation4 ,sometimes he gives his sitters away--for there are traits in human nature1 belief in thevery existence of which we are always anxious to forego4 ,nothing escapes him that is written in the face4 ,yet he is not cynical1 but man of the world1 the felicity of living in a world where everything is charming being only for those with the gift to live in one of their own making4 ,the side of life which he expresses is that in which time seems given over wholly to social amenities1 long afternoons spent in pleasant intercourse1 hours well ordered and protected1 so that the most fragrant qualities in human nature can if they will spring to life4 ,we almost hear the teacups in the other room1 and none of his sitters seem really alone4 ,we feel they have left the life to which they belong to sit to the artist but only for an hour or so4 ,the social world to which they belong will absorb them again4 ,this world ,sargent paints4 ,even in many of his single figures we are conscious always of its existence in the background4 ,in portrait after portrait there is scarcely a suggestion of self-consciousness--but the man or the woman just at the moment of posing1 as if environed still in an atmosphere of their own1 and of the world from which they have withdrawn for the sitting4 ,for it is ,sargent's gift to remove the impression that his sitter has posed1 that the dress was arranged1 and his gift to arrest his sitter's habitual gesture1 the impression of sparkling stones1 almost the clink of bangles at the wrist in expression of the moment4 ,most unjustly was it said that he could not paint pretty women4 ,it would appear to be within his power to paint almost anything that has its existence in fact1 and if in a matter-of-fact way1 what more to the point if the facts are so beautiful that fancy itself would have to defer8 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,la ,,carmencita 7,in the ,luxembourg1 ,paris7 ,painting of a ,spanish ,dancer4 ,exhibited at the ,royal ,academy in #ahia2 acquired by the ,french ,government4 ,supreme is the art of ,sargent in its appreciation of those pleasures which would almost seem for art alone3 pearls upon the colour of flesh2 slight transitions of colour charged with great secrets of beauty2 pearls painted as they would be regarded by a lover1 as ten thousand times more beautiful than if they were lying in a box4 ,and the touches of the brush--for ,sargent shows every touch--breathe sympathy with every change of colour as the chain of pearls falls first across white silk and then across black velvet1 and the little globes take to themselves new variations4 ,a fan is opened1 and upon the ivory sticks the light like silver trembles1 a web of colour is spun across upon the open ribs2 a book is half-open1 it may be a ,bradshaw1 but we will believe it is a book of old verse1 for everything that comes into the picture1 the particular picture of which ,i am thinking1 comes into a charmed circle4 ,there are people for whom the opulent world of ,sargent's art is their everyday world--whose life competes with the splendour of day-dreams4 ,how essentially romantic--although so matter-of-fact--must be the art that leaves us with this impression6 ,to be matter-of-fact is1 we see1 far from being unromantic2 the reverse indeed is true1 for with our face turned from the world romance vanishes4 ,,ii ,i once had occasion to call on ,mr4 ,sargent1 and was shown into a room with a black carpet4 ,only a colourist loves black1 and sees it as a colour4 ,and this room1 so free from all that was novel and without associations1 helped to explain to me why1 though his method is so modern and of the moment1 his pictures of aristocrats accommodate themselves to ancestral surroundings4 ,for it is true that not only the face and the clothes of his sitters are given1 but somehow1 in the material of paint1 their social position and their distinction4 ,now this is not by any means the least of ,sargent's qualities2 it is not a common one4 ,well-bred people drive up to the door of a modern studio almost visibly cloaked in the traditions of their race1 but we are led to believe that they must have left all this behind them in the carriage when we see the portrait in an exhibition2 the artist has shown nothing of it1 has used his distinguished sitter simply as a model4 ,for lack of inspiration novelties are proffered in its place1 ,l'art nouveau on canvas4 ,sargent does not paint modern people as if they all came into the world yesterday landed from an airship4 ,no1 he is like ,van ,dyck1 who not only painted the beautiful clothes1 the long white hands1 and the bearing of his sitters sympathetically1 but also the very atmosphere of the ,court around them1 painting1 as all great painters do1 invisible as well as visible things4 ,if there is not in ,sargent's painting courtesy of touch1 if his method has not suavity in painting elegant people1 this is rather as it should be in an age which trusts implicitly to the dressmaker and tailor for its elegance4 ,and without a word here as to the worth of some of our modern aims1 at least the age is too much in earnest for a pose4 ,the poses and fripperies of the pictures of ,van ,dyck and ,kneller are done with2 and besides1 the modern baronet is not anxious to show his hands1 but is painted gloved1 and ,work goes unimmortalised4 ,meunier the sculptor and other modern artists having gloried in the war of labour1 its victories go unsung2 its victors surviving only as fashionable men4 ,the portraits of some painters suggest nothing but the foreign atmosphere of a studio1 but ,sargent seems to meet his sitters in the atmosphere of their own daily1 fashionable life1 and that is why his pictures are romantic1 for isn't there romance wherever there is wealth8 ,the people whose wealth is such that they can take as their own background all the beautiful accessories of aristocratic tradition1 are entitled to them if they like them well enough to spend their money in this way4 ,and it is the peculiar gift of our age to recognise in ourselves the heirs of the centuries of beautiful handicrafts1 which we close with our machines4 ,they certainly are the heirs to any kind of beauty who have the imagination to enjoy it4 ,and the imagination for past associations1 who have this more than the ,americans8 ,we believe in ,england that all ,americans are rich1 that they can buy whatever they appreciate4 ,so by the divine right of things going to those who appreciate them1 the rich ,american is now1 even as ,sargent paints him1 environed by old ,french and ,english things and their associations4 ,and in connection with the accessories in ,sargent's pictures1 might we not ask the question whether it could not be considered a test of the worth or worthlessness1 from a point of beauty1 of any ornament or furniture whether it would survive representation in a picture8 ,how much modern stuff we should have to sweep aside6 ,and now that one thinks of it1 modern pictures have left modern furniture rather severely alone--the painters have not been faithful to their brethren the makers of modern tables and chairs4 ,who is more modern than ,sargent--and ,i am trying to think has he ever painted a modern room--that is1 a room with modern things in it8 ,the rooms that the most modern people live in are oddly enough the ones that are most old-fashioned1 filled with eighteenth-century things4 ,this1 to reflect upon1 has arisen through thinking about ,sargent's interior paintings1 which so very vividly and accurately reflect the attitude of the modern world to its own time4 ,in that word modern1 if we are not using it too often1 we must seek the nature of ,sargent's painting1 its spirit2 it is the most interesting thing in connection with painting to come as close as possible to its spirit4 ,and what a test before any work of art1 to ask whether it is worth a search for the incorporeal element2 although in vain1 in spite of ,walter ,pater1 does painting aspire towards the condition of music1 since music is as ghostly as the ghosts that it contains4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4--,,ellen ,,terry ,,as ,,lady ,,macbeth 7,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,millbank7 ,a portrait of ,miss ,ellen ,terry purchased from the ,sir ,henry ,irving ,sale at ,christie's in #aijg1 and presented to the nation by the late ,sir ,jos4 ,duveen1 who also bequeathed a sum of money for the erection of the ,turner ,room now being added to the ,national ,gallery at ,millbank4 ,,iii ,dancing has been a theme always appealing to artists because of its rhythm1 its grace in reality1 its incarnation of femininity4 ,it contains all the inspiration for a painter in any one moment of movement4 ,no two things could be further removed from each other than ,lancret's ,la ,camargo ,dansant and ,sargent's ,carmencita1 yet some alliterative resemblance in the name and some resemblance in the dancers' costumes bring these two figures together in my mind--the one the fairy artificial dancer1 the princess of an unreal world1 the other a vivid sinuous presentment4 ,with both painters the costume has interested them as much almost as the figure1 for the dress of a dancer1 indeed the dress of any woman1 is in a ,sargent picture a part of herself1 nothing mere dead matter1 everything expressive1 the brush having come at once to the secret that no one material thing is more spiritual than another4 ,for ever ,carmencita stands1 waiting for the beginning of the music1 just as ,la ,camargo is caught upon the wing of movement1 seeming to revive the music that was played for her and cheating us with a sense of a world happier than it is4 ,in ,carmencita we have that living beauty from which1 after all1 a dreamer must take every one of his dreams4 ,it is ,sargent's wisdom to stand thus close to life4 ,in the sense of this reality1 and the difficulty of approach to it with anything so constitutionally artificial as a painter's colours1 do we apprise the real nature of his gifts4 ,the roses on ,la ,camargo's dress are artificial roses1 but not more artificial than her face and hands4 ,this figure is only a little nearer to nature than a china shepherdess1 it is the fancy of a mind cheating itself with unrealities as realities4 ,sargent himself has painted artificial things1 the rouge on lips1 the powder on a face2 since it is natural for some folk to rouge1 that is the nature which he paints4 ,only an imaginative woman makes herself up4 ,a painter with more imagination than ,sargent would enter into the spirit of her arts4 ,sargent's betrayal of his fashionable sitters has frightened many1 but if anything it has increased his vogue2 for above everything an imaginative woman is curious to know what she looks like to others1 and a ,sargent's portrait is intimate1 unflattering1 perfectly candid but perfectly true as an answer to her question4 ,everything on the stage is artificial2 what will this art1 that has had of the reality of things all its strength and life1 make of a purely theatrical picture--,miss ,ellen ,terry in a famous part8 ,the artificiality of the stage always presents two aspects1 that one in which we forget its artificiality and that other in which we remember it4 ,and this latter1 to my mind1 is the aspect in which ,sargent has painted this picture1 without1 as it were1 ever stepping over the footlights into the world that only becomes real on the other side of them4 ,but the exactness of his interpretation beautifully explains the scene4 ,carnation ,lily1 ,lily ,rose was painted in a garden by the ,thames4 ,two children are lighting up the ,chinese lanterns1 and in their light and with flowers surrounding1 ,sargent sees for a moment life itself by accident made idyllic4 ,the picture is ,japanese in its sense of decoration1 as if decoration and idyllic moments always went together4 ,it would almost seem so from the study of art1 for without exception1 those painters who have been conscious of the ideal and idyllic element in life1 have always shown this through composition which1 whilst dealing with a real scene1 has taken a little of the reality from it4 ,there must be an essentially musical element in the art which takes a mood as well as a scene from nature1 and brings us by way of real scenes to that imaginative country which exists in every nature-lover's mind2 a country partly made up of the remembrance of other places which have been like the place where he now stands4 ,great tiger-lilies hang over the children4 ,we almost expect in these surroundings pierettes or fantastic lovers1 but we are kept close to the beauty of reality by the naturalism with which the children have been painted4 ,not one touch is given as a concession to their fairy and dramatic background1 not one ribbon1 nothing in the costume to enable them to enter into the patterned world of art as part of a design4 ,for above everything the painter has wished to persuade us of life itself as a picture1 and not of his ability to make these children the motifs of design4 ,their ordinariness irritates me personally1 they do not seem quite to belong to their fairy land1 but ,i recognise that this matter-of-factness peculiarly belongs to ,sargent's art and am interested in the attitude that takes beauty so matter-of-factly4 ,,iv ,no one has encountered the beauty of woman's face more casually than ,sargent1 no one has made us realise more fully its significance as a fact in the world4 ,after all we had thought perhaps we were partly deceived in this matter by the illusions of poets and love-sick painters1 but approaching it without ecstasy1 art has not been closer to this beauty than here4 ,i am looking at a half-tone reproduction of a lady by ,sargent1 wondering whether in the history of ,english portrait painting an artist has approached as closely to the thoughts of his sitter4 ,the expression of the face is determined partly by thoughts within1 partly by light without4 ,and it is as if with the touch of a brush a thought could be intercepted as it passed the lips4 ,this is the nearest approach that thought has ever had to material definition4 ,thought is the architect of her expression1 by accuracy of painting it is copied1 just as the back of a fan or bracelet is copied--things so material as that4 ,so after all thoughts are not so far away from the material world with which we are in touch2 are scarcely less visible than air4 ,the impressionists have rendered air2 and would it be too far-fetched to hint that the shadow on the lips almost serves to bridge one province with another1 the atmosphere without and that which reigns within the sitter's mind4 ,it is when ,sargent's brush hesitates at the lips and eyes1 at the threshold of intimate revelation1 that we really begin to form an adequate conception of his genius4 ,yes1 of things fleeting1 a thought flitting across the face1 interrupted gestures--and the mysterious suggestion of conversation hanging fire between the sitter and ourself1 ,sargent is the master4 ,sometimes a portrait painter will create a face on canvas1 of pleasant expression1 which is not like his sitter1 and it is as if with every touch he could change the thoughts as he changes the expression in the face he is creating4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4--,w4 ,,graham ,,robertson1 ,,esq4 7,in the collection of ,w4 ,graham ,robertson1 ,esq47 ,a portrait of the writer of the children's play ,pinkie and the ,fairies and many charming children's books illustrated by their author1 himself an artist of high attainment4 ,sargent's accuracy is such that the expression that passes over the face in his portraits is one which all the sitter's friends recognise2 so close is he in touch with the delicate drawing1 especially round the lips1 that his brush never strays by one little bit into the realm of invention4 ,there are other painters painting as carefully1 faces as full of expression1 who do not come near a likeness of their sitter4 ,in what provinces close to nature are they wandering1 since1 striving to paint the face before them1 they paint another face8 ,we must not forget1 in thinking of ,sargent's greatness1 that he unfailingly is in close touch with his sitters' expression1 that is1 almost with their thoughts4 ,although ,sargent has proved in many landscapes his powers in that direction1 he too well enters into the spirit of the portraiture to which he has put his hand to attempt to introduce naturalistic effects into backgrounds obviously painted in a ,london studio4 ,the landscape background is sometimes charming if under these circumstances it remains a convention2 for there are moments when nature herself is out of place1 pictures in which human nature must be the only form of life1--with the exception perhaps of flowers1 for these accompany human nature always1 to revelries where sunlight is excluded1 and even to the tomb4 ,it is art of little carrying power that is exhausted upon some transcript of beautiful detail1 colour of the glazes of a vase1 a bunch of flowers4 ,sargent embraces difficulties one after another with energy unexpended4 ,physique1 but never genius will give out4 ,energy of this order always goes with a generous1 because very human1 outlook2 success on occasion being modified not through failure to accomplish1 but through failure to respond4 ,v ,the life of a busy portrait painter1 with its demand for inspiration every morning1 is of the most exacting nature1 and the quality of the painter's output must of necessity vary4 ,the nervous strain is great1 for sitters are capricious1 and always is the temptation present to the one sin that is unforgivable1 compromise with the ,philistine--the concession of genius to stupidity1 of perceptions nearly divine to ignorance4 ,genius has always had difficulty in working to order1 yet nearly all the great portraiture work in the world has been done to order4 ,but one imagines that the conditions under which the masterpieces of a modern painter1 with so great a vogue as ,sargent's1 have been produced must be unparalleled by anything in the history of ancient painting4 ,a crowd streamed through the studios of ,gainsborough1 ,reynolds1 and ,romney to be painted1 but the world was smaller then1 and their art was more easily done4 ,they worked within a convention narrower than ,sargent's1 compromising with nature at the very start2 a convention more beautiful than his1 a garden1 beautiful because it was confined and seen in an accustomed light4 ,if things are beautiful at all they become more so when they are no longer unaccustomed1 when they fit in with an old frame of mind4 ,sargent deals with the unaccustomed--in which at first perhaps we always see the ugly--whilst1 as we have said1 he does not destroy1 as the vandalistic art of some painters does1 the connection between the past and present4 ,it is the present which his art embraces1 but we might almost say we are never thoroughly accustomed to the present until it has become the past4 ,so to us ,sargent's art is not as beautiful as ,gainsborough's1 for it has constantly to throw over some old form of perfection to embrace a new difficulty4 ,in the eighteenth century there was less variety in the life which art encountered4 ,the life of even a ,gainsborough or a ,reynolds would be circumscribed in just the same way that their art is circumscribed1 uninterrupted in its mood1 and beauty is to be found in uninterrupted moods4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4--,,carnation ,,lily1 ,,lily ,,rose 7,in the ,national ,gallery1 ,millbank7 ,this painting was bought for the nation under the terms of the ,chantrey ,bequest in #ahhg1 seven years previous to the painter's election to associateship of the ,royal ,academy4 ,,vi ,something should now be said of ,sargent's method--of that which is spoken of as his technique4 ,and of method1 it is not something to be separated from the painter's temperament1 it is always autographic4 ,somehow1 temperament shows even in a person's handwriting1 giving it what is really its style1 though the fashion of writing imposed upon a pupil by his master is also called a style4 ,in art there is no word that is oftener debated4 ,and of those who speak most of style in their own work1 the measure of their self-consciousness in the matter is often the measure of their distance from it4 ,they are in the position of a schoolboy taking writing lessons1 and their style1 if ever they are to have one1 does not begin until thinking and painting have become for them almost one process4 ,but this is a difficult matter to make clear1 and apology should perhaps be forthcoming for touching on so debatable a point thus hurriedly4 ,i may have said something perhaps to convey to the lay reader the significance of the particular method of treating his subjects which we identify with ,sargent4 ,the pupil of ,carolus ,duran1 his method was formed under the most modern influences2 whatever effect quite another kind of training might have had on ,sargent1 still nothing but the traceable element of self would have determined for us his style4 ,the method of applying paint to canvas has always resolved itself into more or less a personal question1 though certain schools are to be identified with different ways of seeing2 every method is a convention1 and the difference of conventions always one of vision1 affecting handling only in the sense that it has to be accommodated to the vision4 ,it would be out of place here1 perhaps1 and far too technical1 to define the difference between such a method as ,sargent's and say that of ,pre-,raphaelitism4 ,but roughly1 the ,pre-,raphaelite concentrates on each object4 ,for each object1 say in a room1 is in turn his subject as he paints that room4 ,the impressionist1 ,sargent1 only has the one subject1 that room1 the different objects in it explaining themselves only in so far as their surfaces and character are defined in the general impression by the way they take the light--in short1 almost an impression as it would be received on a lens4 ,if we remember all this we can appreciate the extreme sensitiveness both of ,sargent's vision and touch4 ,for his brush conveys almost with the one touch--so spontaneous in feeling is his work--not only the amount but the shape of the light on any surface4 ,thus the shapes of everything in the picture are finally resolved1 and we might also say without curiosity as to their causes4 ,we are given the impression1 which would have been our own impression3 since in regard to a portrait1 for instance1 when we meet a person our curiosity does not immediately extend to such details as the character and number of buttons on his coat4 ,with this method always goes spontaneity1 ,sargent's pre-eminent gift4 ,he values it so highly that he does not scruple to recommence a picture more than once and carry it through again in the one mood1 if in the first instance his art may have miscarried1 not permitting himself to doctor up the first attempt4 ,to the constant sense of freshness in his work which such a way of working must imply1 ,i think a great measure of his vogue is to be attributed1 though others have coloured more prettily1 flattered more1 and subordinated themselves to the amiable ambitions of their sitters4 ,,vii ,is it a fancy8--but ,i see a resemblance between the art of ,sargent and that in writing of ,mr4 ,henry ,james4 ,the same pleasure in nuances of effect in detail1 and the readiness to turn to the life at hand for this4 ,to enjoy ,sargent is above all to appreciate the means by which he obtains effect in detail1 the economy of colour and of brush marks with which he deceives the eye1 and the quality of subtle colour in the interpretation of minor phenomena4 ,on the large scale1 in the general effect1 the quality of his colour is sometimes uninviting4 ,but when at its best it takes the everyday colour of things as if it was colour1 without the hysterical exaggeration with which so much youthful contemporary art attempts to cheat itself and other people4 ,if ,sargent's admirers do not claim that he sees all the colour there is in things1 they claim for him that he sees colour and has the reverence for reality which prevents a tawdry emphasis upon it for the sake of sweetness of effect4 ,and after the sweetmeat vagaries1 which have followed in the wake of ,whistler1 by those without that master's self-control1 this is refreshing4 ,sargent's brush seems to trifle with things that are trifling1 to proceed thoughtfully in its approach to lips and eyes4 ,in painting accessories around his sitters there is the accommodation of touch to the importance of the objects suggested1 and nowadays1 since interior painting is the fashion--to suit the taste of a young man of genius imposing his peculiar gift upon the time--there are many portraits where the sitter is brought into line with an elaborate setting out of objets d'art1 the painter's pleasure in the treatment of these manifesting itself sometimes at the sitter's expense4 ,translating everything by the methods we have described1 ,sargent preserves throughout his pictures a certain quality of paint4 ,the impression of the characteristic surface of any material is made within this quality1 by the responsiveness of his brush to the subtlest modification of effect which differentiates between the nature of one surface and another1 as they are influenced by the light upon them at the moment4 ,there are painters who do not translate reality into paint in this way1 but who have striven to imitate the surface qualities of objects by varying1 imitative ways of applying their paint4 ,sargent is not this kind of realist4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,lady ,,elcho1 ,,mrs4 ,,adeane1 ,,and ,,lady ,,tennant 7,in the collection of the ,hon4 ,percy ,wyndham7 ,a portrait group of the daughters of the ,hon4 ,percy ,wyndham4 ,in the background is the famous portrait of ,lady ,wyndham1 mother of the ,hon4 ,percy ,wyndham1 painted by the late ,g4 ,f4 ,watts1 ,o4,m4,r4,a4 ,he is a realist in the sense that ,goya1 the great ,spanish painter of the eighteenth century1 was one1 for the ,spaniard had just such an eagerness to come closer to the sense of life than the close imitation of its outside could bring him4 ,sargent is more polite1 less impetuous1 but still it is life as it is1 that quickens his brush and informs all his virtuosity4 ,his technique presents life vividly1 but presents it to us with a sense of accomplishment in art1 the equivalent of the accomplished art of living of the majority of his sitters4 ,i am thinking of a portrait of a lady1 and she is turning the leaves of a book1 and in the lowered eyes1 and the movement of the hand1 there is more than arrested movement1 there is an expression of an attitude consciously assumed which ordinarily would have been an unconscious one1 and so accurate is the painting1 that the sitter is detected as it were in this self-consciousness4 ,in portraits of a ceremonial order1 for people to sit in a group with a pleasant indispensable air of naturalness1 is of course an affair on the artist's part of very thoughtful arrangement4 ,but while composition should not betray the affectation of natural movement1 movement must not be conveyed in a merely sensational1 snapshot manner4 ,for the slightest reflection on this matter will betray to us that in the latter pretension we are cheated1 since we cannot fail to remember that to complete the canvas the sitter must have recovered the pose day after day1 hour after hour1 in the studio4 ,sargent's instincts are so tuned to the appropriate1 having the tact which itself is art1 that whilst in this kind of portraiture we do not question the grouping or the movement of his sitters as unreal1 we do not accept it as quite natural4 ,we instinctively know that in proportion as it is made to look too natural it would be unreal1 untrue to the conditions which the painter's art actually encountered4 ,sargent1 who permits nothing to stand between him and nature1 will not permit such an inartistic lie to stand between us and the sincerity of his painting4 ,he does not betray us in his love of what is of the moment1 by giving us sham of this kind instead of the real thing4 ,at every point at which we take his art and examine it1 the evidence all points to one form of success4 ,the sitters posing are really posing1 their action is not even made unnaturally real as we have shown1 and in the distances in the room round them1 there is the reality of space dividing them from things at the other end of the room4 ,reality1 within the confines of the particular truths to which his method is subject1 has been the evident intention all through his art4 ,from this standpoint it often compels admiration in cases where it would have to be withdrawn were we substituting in our mind another ideal1 examining his work1 for instance1 only in the light of a sensitive colour beauty which the painter has not put first and foremost4 ,some artists have embraced reality only as it justified their imagination4 ,if we look on ,sargent's art for anything inward except that which looks through the eyes and determines the smile of his sitter1 we shall find our sympathies break down4 ,unnecessary perhaps to say this1 yet it were as well to make quite clear the light in which we should regard the work of an artist who has wholly succeeded in self-expression1 the only known form of success in art4 ,in analysing some men's work1 we wish above all to know them1 to know the mind that thus environs itself4 ,with others it is their art which tempts us to further and further knowledge of its truths while1 as with ,shakespeare1 the artist behind it becomes impersonal4 ,thus it is with ,sargent's art4 ,it is true that if we wish to know an artist we can never under any circumstances become more intimate with him than in his art1 whether we find him in it far away in remote valleys or at the centre of fashionable life4 ,and this though the dreamer may be a man of fashion and the painter of society live a life retired4 ,of ,sargent's water-colours1 much might be said4 ,to some extent they explain his oils1 yet he seems to allow himself in them a greater freedom1 just as the medium itself is freer than that of oils--more accidental1 and the masters of this art control its propensity for accidental effect as its very spirit1 guiding it with skill to results which baffle and perplex by the ingenuity with which they give illusion4 ,first1 as last1 a painter has to accept the fact that he conveys nothing except by illusion2 that he can never bring his easel so close to the subject1 or his materials to such minuteness of touch1 that his art becomes pure imitation2 nor can he secure the adjustment of proportion between a large subject and a small panel which would give in every case such imitation4 ,the supreme artist accepts the standpoint first instead of last1 and the greater his art becomes1 the greater his power in its mysterious control of effect4 ,,viii ,there are some painters whose work we may personally wholly dislike--dislike their outlook--even our favourite subjects becoming intolerable to us in their art4 ,it is something in their nature antipathetic to our own4 ,of course1 mediocre work does not assume such proportions in our mind4 ,then there are painters who1 through some affinity of temperament with our own1 make everything their art touches pleasant to us4 ,and then there are the impersonal artists1 ,velazquez1 ,millais1 and ,sargent1 taking apparently quite an impersonal view of life4 ,sargent's world is everybody's world1 and if we are affected one way or another by it1 it is as life affects us4 ,one has heard a painter say1 ,i can paint those things because ,i love them4 ,judged by his treatment of so many things1 of nearly everything1 how much must ,sargent love life4 ,one man can paint flowers and another marble--,sargent paints everything2 and1 to paraphrase1 almost it might be said that what he doesn't paint isn't worth painting4 ,but all this is nothing if he never penetrates1 as ,meissonier and others never penetrated1 below the surface2 if he gave no symbols in his art of things invisible4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4--,,the ,,misses ,,wertheimer 7,in the collection of ,asher ,wertheimer1 ,esq47 ,portraits of the daughters of ,asher ,wertheimer1 ,esq41 the eminent art-expert4 ,mr4 ,wertheimer is himself the subject of one of the best of ,sargent's portraits4 ,we like some of the subjects he has painted1 others we dislike so much that we wonder he has painted them2 just as in life there are people and surroundings to which we are attracted1 and others from whom we keep away4 ,to the realist by temperament the effect of the details of any scene accepted direct from nature provide exciting inspiration1 and he least of all is likely to turn to decorative composition1 which1 with its resemblance to a form imposed in verse1 only aids in the interpretation of the subject in proportion as it is imaginatively inspired4 ,a painter pre-occupied with the opportunities which any incident may offer for the interpretation of subtleties1 will often accept any scene from nature and almost any point of view as composition4 ,for the old formulas of composition--of the time when composition was regarded as something to be taught--went with a decorative conception of things1 was in itself a form of decoration4 ,and whilst it has been said that all art is decorative1 it will perhaps be found that the naturalistic painter is too much excited with incident to scheme much for a rhythmic presentation of it in the frame4 ,such a canvas as ,sargent's ,salmon ,fishing in ,norway1 lately exhibited in the ,mc,culloch collection1 a portrait painted in the open1 of a youth resting on the bank of a river with caught salmon and tackle beside him1 the centre of a skilfully painted piece of landscape1 is a case in point4 ,the difficulties which subjects have presented have often seemed ,sargent's inspiration in landscape3 rocks presenting surfaces to the light with a thousand variations2 the wet basins of bronze fountains receiving coloured reflections and the diamond lights in the fountain splashes2 grey architecture with its soft shadows1 architecture white in the sun with its cool blue shadows1 like fragments of night in the doorways4 ,it is this mysterious sensation of light and shadow alternating everywhere1 changing the colour of the day itself as the day advances1 which ,sargent meets4 ,he is one of the few painters who have faced the noon4 ,he has this great command of art's slender resources1 and he is matter-of-fact enough to be happy at this uncompromising time of day1 unbelieved in by the workers1 so inconsiderate to the lazy with its heat4 ,the noon has not many with its praises1 and all great art is praise4 ,painters have got up at dawn to communicate to us its everyday recurring freshness1 as of an eternal spring1 and has not evening always been the painter's hour8 ,sargent has faced the noon1 which demands so much sensitiveness that the over-sensitive shrink4 ,his brush has given it in water-colours the finest interpretation it has yet received4 ,,ix ,to go back to the matter of composition again4 ,in his portrait groups1 where the mere fact that the sitters have to be grouped implies that he is not dealing from the start with an impression direct1 we find he is a master of the finest composition1 as in his group of ,mrs4 ,carl ,meyer and children4 ,and yet to one who will take not one touch with his brush from what is not before him1 such a view of his subject must be incalculable in its difficulties4 ,the painter has never made a passage of painting the excuse for incongruity4 ,the arrangements in his pictures are always probable4 ,it is legitimate in many cases that they should only be imaginatively probable4 ,any arrangement is probable in a studio1 and affording themselves too much licence in this respect some painters wonder why the public are inclined to discredit most of what they do4 ,the logical quality1 the sanity of ,sargent's art is yet another reason for its vogue2 it has not the unreasonableness of studio production1 it commends itself to a world that perhaps is not wrong in assuming that the artistic licence is applied for by those who are not sane4 ,sargent has on occasion had to resort to all sorts of devices to obtain effects and composition that he has desired1 but he has always kept faith with the public1 and had the true artist's regard for their illusions4 ,he allows his sitters to wear their best clothes1 but he never dresses them up2 no1 to please him they must wholly belong to the life of which they are a part1 it is the attitude in which they interest him and all of us4 ,we have then to think of ,sargent not only as a painter1 but as the maker of human documents--like ,balzac1 the creator of imperishable characters--with this advantage over ,balzac1 that all his characters have especially sat to him4 ,it is how posterity will undoubtedly regard this array of brilliant pictures4 ,of the people they will know nothing but the legend of their actions and ,sargent's record of their face4 ,we have undoubtedly felt that when a man of real distinction of mind has worn them1 the top hat and cylindrical trouser leg were not so bad4 ,they have indeed1 under the influence of personality1 seemed on occasions the most august and distinguished garments in the world4 ,but there must come disillusion1 the humour of it all will some day dawn1 but it will not be before a ,sargent picture4 ,he has at any rate immortalised those things1 just as ,velazquez has made beautiful for ever the outrageous clothes in which his ,infantas were imprisoned4 ,we are reconciled to such things in art by the same process as we are in life1 in ,sargent's case by the unforgettable rendering of the distinction of many of his sitters4 ,x ,it is the work of the secondary artist that is always perfect--of its sort2 for it will not accept its reward1 to wit1 the finished picture1 until the last effort has been expended4 ,with the masters of the first order1 it is otherwise4 ,we have said they paint as they think2 who but the amateur always thinks at his best8 ,when a man's art has become a part of him1 it suffers with his moods4 ,he always works1 and his work is always his companion1 an indulgence4 ,in his exalted moments it rises to heights by which we estimate his genius1 but which sensible criticism does not expect him to live up to1 any more than we expect a brilliant conversationalist always to be equally brilliant4 ,this is why a master's work is always so interesting4 ,that it has become so flexible an expression of his own nature is its charm1 if we really regard it as art1 and do not look upon the artist as a manufacturer who must be reliable1 who having once turned out of his workshop a work of surpassing perfection1 must be expected to keep to that standard or be classed with the defaulting tradesman whose goods do not come up to his sample4 ,a painter makes or mars his own reputation by the care or carelessness of his work1 but it is his own work1 and he is not under any obligation to us to keep it up to a certain standard if it does not interest him to sacrifice everything for that standard4 ,sargent's work has been splendidly unequal4 ,sometimes it has been disillusioned1 tired1 at other times all his energy has seemed gathered up into a tour de force4 ,an intensity there is about ,sargent's earlier work which we cannot find in some of his later pictures1 sureness of itself has brought freedom and with it freedom's qualities1 which we must take pleasure in for their own sake4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4--,,mrs4 ,a4 ,l4 ,,langman 7,in the collection of ,a4 ,l4 ,langman1 ,esq41 ,c4,m4,g47 ,a portrait of the wife of ,a4 ,l4 ,langman1 ,esq41 ,c4,m4,g41 who served with the ,langman ,field ,hospital1 in connection with the equipment of which for the ,south ,african ,war his father1 ,sir ,john ,langman1 ,bart41 is remembered4 ,it is frequently enough the weakness of painters to return constantly in their art to some particular gesture or arrangement in which their mastery is complete4 ,this has not been the case with ,sargent2 instead1 his mastery has completed itself only through a constant encounter with new difficulties4 ,a quality of all great art is reticence1 something which will never let the master1 to whom it is not disastrous to be careless1 be so2 for carelessness nearly always means over-statement1 and exaggeration4 ,ah6 just the qualities if a work of art is to arrest attention in a modern exhibition4 ,a common question at the ,royal ,academy is ,where are the ,sargents8 by some enthusiastic visitor who has passed them several times4 ,no1 ,sargent's victories do not startle1 winged victories do not1 but advertisements do4 ,,xi ,sargent was born of ,american parents in ,florence in #ahef1 and passed his boyhood there4 ,no art1 it would seem at first1 is further away than his from all the ,florentine traditions1 and yet in the decorative colour values1 which give distinction to his finest works1 he is the child of ,florence4 ,the ,renaissance attitude towards life itself was highly imaginative1 so into visionary art reality was carried4 ,consulting the origin of all their visions1 the ,florentines returned imaginatively to what was real4 ,it is the beauty of reality which is the fervour of their great designs1 and as a humanist1 ,sargent is their descendant4 ,when1 at the age of nineteen1 he came to ,paris1 he was already1 we are told1 an artist of promise1 and he went to ,carolus ,duran with youth's conscious1 ardent necessity of embracing a fresh view of the world altogether4 ,the lighter touch of ,carolus ,duran1 the worldly painting1 the lively art of things living1 if a superficial art1 was refreshing1 no doubt1 to one accustomed only to the beautiful memories of ardour expressed five centuries before4 ,and superficiality1 demoralising to the superficial1 could only give some added swiftness to a brush inclined to halt with too much intensity whilst life1 its one enthusiasm1 was racing by4 ,he never experimented under ,carolus ,duran4 ,he was beginning that unerring sensitiveness of painting1 which is only learnt by drudgery1 the almost luxuriously easy virtuosity1 before the acquirement of which1 complete freedom of expression cannot begin1 or sympathy declare itself as from a well-played instrument4 ,an artist with individuality is careless of asserting it1 and it is perhaps just the one thing in the world which cannot but assert itself4 ,those who strive for originality through the unaccustomed may without hesitation be put down as those who are without confidence in their own nature4 ,the individuality of ,sargent1 as striking as any in his day1 is unself-consciously expressed4 ,if we could strain from a work of art the self-conscious1 which is always the unnatural element1 all that ever gave it any force would still be left in it4 ,submitted to this test1 how much so-called originality would crumble1 while the individualism of ,sargent still remained4 ,when leaving the studio of ,carolus ,duran1 he painted a portrait of that painter1 a summing1 as it were1 of all he owed to him before he courted another influence4 ,he went to ,madrid1 there to study the living elements of art in the school of a dead master1 ,velazquez1 in whose life encompassing art nothing has gone out of fashion--no1 not even the farthingale which the children wear4 ,it was early in the eighties that the ,spanish visit ended and ,sargent worked in ,paris1 already a man of note1 for the ,carolus ,duran portrait had been followed by ,portrait of a ,young ,lady1 exhibited in #ahha1 and ,en route pour la ,pche and ,smoke of ,ambergris4 ,in #ahhb he exhibited the tour de force ,el ,jaleo1 the sensation of the season1 and immediately afterwards the ,portraits of ,children--the four children in a dimly-lighted hall1 one of the most well-remembered of his pictures of that time4 ,then came the wonderful ,madame ,gautreau4 ,paris was his headquarters but his visits to ,england were frequent1 and they grew more frequent as the time went on and as his reputation grew in ,london4 ,it was about half-a-dozen years after the ,spanish visit that he came to this country to live here permanently and make his art our own4 ,he was elected an ,associate of the ,royal ,academy in #ahid1 a ,royal ,academician in #ahig4 ,,xii ,we should say something of ,sargent's influence on contemporary art1 which has been immense4 ,it has been thought that1 deceived by the brilliance of his results1 with their great air of spontaneity1 younger painters have been led astray4 ,this1 we believe1 is a mistake4 ,the weakest go to the wall1 but it is probable that the example of ,sargent has succeeded in lifting the whole standard of painting in the country1 bringing--even the great incompetent1 within measuring distance of a useful ideal2 an ideal of sympathy disciplined with every touch1 and an ideal of difficult things4 ,is not ,art always difficult8 ,it has been so to ,sargent1 with everything at his fingers' ends2 with everything so much at his fingers' ends that under special circumstances he once completed a life-size three-quarter length portrait in a single day4 ,he was in ,america1 and had promised to paint the portrait4 ,the sittings were put off1 and at last the friend who was to sit was suddenly called away2 but ,sargent came with his materials in the morning1 and the sitter gave him the day4 ,they were probably both nearly dead at the end of it1 but a large finished painting had been begun and ended4 ,sargent's countrymen have appreciated every manifestation of his gifts4 ,lately he exhibited eighty-three of his water-colours in ,brooklyn4 ,he will not part with them singly4 ,brooklyn enthusiastically bought the whole collection for its ,art ,museum4 ,fame has not spoilt his retiring nature1 and even by his art a barrier is raised1 in front of which the master will not show himself1 but ,i hope it is an intimacy that we have established with him in his art4 ,mine is but the privilege of murmuring the introduction1 and any charges to be brought against me must be laid at ,sargent's door4 ,for a great artist creates not only his art1 but that which it inspires4 ,this is indeed the mysterious province of artistic creation2 the artist creating beyond his art that which comes into our minds through contact with it2 so framing our thoughts and setting in motion waves infinitely continued in the thoughts that pass through every man to his companions4 ,the plates are printed by ,,bemrose ,,sons1 ,,ltd41 ,derby and ,london ,the text at the ,,ballantyne ,,press1 ,edinburgh ,transcriber ,notes3 ,passages in italics were indicated by underscores4 ,small caps were replaced with ,,all ,,caps4 ,throughout the document1 the oe ligature was replaced with oe4 ,the illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate4 ,thus the page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the ,list of ,illustrations4 ,errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted4