,,books ,,by ,,prof4 ,,john ,c4 ,,van ,,dyke ,art for ,art's ,sake4 ,university ,lectures on the ,technical ,beauties of ,painting4 ,with #bd ,illustrations4 #abmo4 ,the ,meaning of ,pictures4 ,university ,lectures at the ,metropolitan ,museum1 ,new ,york4 ,with #ca ,illustrations4 #abmo ,studies in ,pictures4 ,an ,introduction to the ,famous ,galleries4 ,with #dj ,illustrations4 #abmo ,what is ,art8 ,studies in the ,technique and ,criticism of ,painting4 #abmo ,text ,book of the ,history of ,painting4 ,with #aaj ,illustrations4 ,new ,edition4 #abmo ,old ,dutch and ,flemish ,masters4 ,with ,timothy ,cole's ,wood-,engravings4 ,superroyal #hvo ,old ,english ,masters4 ,with ,timothy ,cole's ,wood-,engravings4 ,superroyal #hvo ,modern ,french ,masters4 ,written by ,american ,artists and ,edited by ,prof4 ,van ,dyke4 ,with #ff ,full-page ,illustrations4 ,superroyal #hvo ,new ,guides to ,old ,masters4 ,critical ,notes on the ,european ,galleries1 ,arranged in ,catalogue ,order4 ,frontispieces4 #ab volumes4 ,sold separately ,nature for ,its ,own ,sake4 ,first ,studies in ,natural ,appearances4 ,with ,portrait4 #abmo ,the ,desert4 ,further ,studies in ,natural ,appearances4 ,with ,frontispiece4 #abmo ,the ,opal ,sea4 ,continued ,studies in ,impressions and ,appearances4 ,with ,frontispiece4 #abmo ,the ,mountain4 ,renewed ,studies in ,impressions and ,appearances4 ,with ,frontispiece4 #abmo ,the ,money ,god4 ,chapters of ,heresy and ,dissent concerning ,business ,methods and ,mercenary ,ideals in ,american ,life4 #abmo ,the ,new ,new ,york4 ,a ,commentary on the ,place and the ,people4 ,with #abe ,illustrations by ,joseph ,pennell4 ,,american ,,painting ,,and ,,its ,,tradition ,,american ,,painting ,,and ,,its ,,tradition ,,as ,,represented ,,by ,,inness1 ,,wyant1 ,,martin1 ,,homer1 ,,la ,,farge1 ,,whistler1 ,,chase1 ,,alexander1 ,,sargent ,,by ,,john ,c4 ,,van ,,dyke ,author of 8,art for ,art's ,sake10 8,the ,meaning of ,pictures10 8,what is ,art80 etc4 ,with ,twenty-four ,illustrations ,,new ,,york ,,charles ,,scribner',s ,,sons #aiai ,copyright1 #aiai1 by ,charles ,scribner's ,sons ,published ,october1 #aiai ,illustration ,,preface ,the painters about whom these chapters are written helped to make up the period in ,american painting dating1 generally1 from about #ahgh to1 say1 #aiae4 ,that period has practically closed in the sense that a newer generation with different aims and aspirations has come forward1 and the men who broke ground years ago in the ,society of ,american ,artists have turned their furrow and had their day4 ,indeed1 those ,i have chosen to write about herein1 with the exception of ,sargent1 have passed on and passed out4 ,not only their period but their work has ended4 ,we are now beginning to see them in something like historic perspective4 ,perhaps1 then1 the time is opportune for speaking of them as a group and of their influence upon ,american art4 ,not all of the one-time 8new movement0 originated and died with these nine men4 ,dozens of painters became identified with ,american art just after the ,centennial1 and many of those who came back from ,munich and ,paris in the late seventies and the early eighties are still living and producing4 ,but while the nine were by no means the whole count they were certainly representative of the movement1 and their works speak for almost every phase of it4 ,the value of the movement to ,american art can be rightly enough judged from them4 ,during their lives these nine did not lack for praise--some of it wise and some of it otherwise4 ,they were much exploited in print4 ,i myself joined in the chorus4 ,i had more or less acquaintance with all of them1 lived through the period with them1 and from #ahhj on wrote much about them4 ,my opportunities for seeing and hearing were abundant1 and perhaps such value as this book may possess comes from my having been a looker-on in ,vienna during those years4 ,to personal impressions ,i am now adding certain conclusions as to what the men on my list1 taken as a body1 have established4 ,they wrought during a period of great material development--wrought in a common spirit1 making an epoch in art history and leaving a tradition4 ,the pathfinders in any period deserve well of their countrymen4 ,and their trail is worth following1 for eventually it may become a broad national highway4 ,j4 ,c4 ,v4 ,d4 ,rutgers ,college1 #aiai4 ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,the ,,art ,,tradition ,,in ,,america #a ,,ii4 ,,george ,,inness #ai ,,iii4 ,,alexander ,h4 ,,wyant #dc ,,iv4 ,,homer ,,martin #fe ,v4 ,,winslow ,,homer #hi ,,vi4 ,,john ,,la ,,farge #aae ,,vii4 ,,james ,,abbott ,,mcneill ,,whistler #adg ,,viii4 ,,william ,,merritt ,,chase #ahe ,,ix4 ,,john ,w4 ,,alexander #bag ,x4 ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent #bdc ,,illustrations ,,facing ,,page ,,george ,,inness1 8,evening at ,medfield0 #cb ,,george ,,inness1 8,sunset at ,montclair0 #cd ,reproduced by the courtesy of ,f4 ,f4 ,sherman1 publisher of 8,george ,inness10 by ,elliott ,daingerfield ,,george ,,inness1 8,hackensack ,meadows0 #ch ,,alexander ,h4 ,,wyant1 8,mohawk ,valley0 #eb ,,alexander ,h4 ,,wyant1 8,broad1 ,silent ,valley0 #eh ,,homer ,d4 ,,martin1 8,view on the ,seine0 #gh ,,homer ,d4 ,,martin1 8,westchester ,hills0 #hd ,reproduced by the courtesy of ,f4 ,f4 ,sherman1 publisher of 8,homer ,martin10 by ,frank ,jewett ,mather ,,winslow ,,homer1 8,undertow0 #ajb ,,winslow ,,homer1 8,marine0 #ajd ,,winslow ,,homer1 8,fox and ,crows0 #ajh ,,john ,,la ,,farge1 8,paradise ,valley0 #acj ,,john ,,la ,,farge1 8,the ,muse0 #acd ,,john ,,la ,,farge1 8,the ,three ,kings0 #ach ,,james ,a4 ,,mcneill ,,whistler1 8,nocturne4 ,gray and ,silver4 ,chelsea ,embankment0 #aeh ,,james ,a4 ,,mcneill ,,whistler1 8,the ,princesse du ,pays de la ,porcelaine0 #afb ,,james ,a4 ,,mcneill ,,whistler1 8,the ,yellow ,buskin0 #afh ,,william ,,merritt ,,chase1 8,the ,woman with the ,white ,shawl0 #bjb ,,william ,,merritt ,,chase1 8,afternoon at ,peconic0 #bjd ,,william ,,merritt ,,chase1 8,child ,dancing0 #bab ,,john ,w4 ,,alexander1 8,the ,ring0 #bcj ,,john ,w4 ,,alexander1 8,walt ,whitman0 #bcf ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent1 8,mrs4 ,pulitzer0 #bef ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent1 8,carnation ,lily1 ,lily ,rose0 #bfj ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent1 8,carmencita0 #bfb ,i ,,the ,,art ,,tradition ,,in ,,america ,during the ,revolutionary ,period1 and immediately thereafter1 art in ,america was something of sporadic growth1 something not quite indigenous but rather transplanted from ,england4 ,painting was little more than portraiture1 and the work was done after the ,english formula4 ,america had no formula of its own4 ,there was no native school of art1 no tradition of the craft1 no body of art knowledge handed down from one generation to another4 ,west and ,copley started out practically without predecessors4 ,they were the beginners4 ,with ,cole1 ,durand1 and1 later on1 ,kensett1 that is about #ahbe1 another kind of painting sprang up on ,american soil4 ,it was the painting of landscape--landscape of the ,hudson ,river variety--and1 whatever its technical shortcomings1 at least it had the merit of being original4 ,apparently nothing of artistic faith or of accumulated knowledge or art usage was handed down to the ,hudson ,river men by the portrait-painters who had preceded them4 ,the leaders worked from nature with little or no instruction4 ,they were self-taught1 and if any inkling of how work was carried on in the painting-rooms of ,copley1 ,stuart1 or ,vanderlyn was given them1 they turned a deaf ear to it or found it inapplicable to their landscape-work4 ,if they knew of a tradition they ignored it4 ,this matter of tradition--the accumulated point of view and teaching of the craft--is of some importance in our inquiry4 ,it has gone to the making of all the great art of the past4 ,there were several hundred years of sculptors in ,greece1 with a continuous story1 before ,scopas and ,praxiteles brought their art to final maturity2 for centuries painters1 with their craftsman-making guilds1 had preceded ,raphael1 ,leonardo1 and ,titian2 countless 8primitives0 and 8early men0 went to the shades unsung before ,velasquez1 ,rubens1 ,rembrandt1 ,holbein came to power4 ,in ,america the ,copley-,stuart contingent caught at1 and in large measure grasped1 the foreign teaching handed down by ,reynolds and his school4 ,perhaps that accounts in some measure for their success4 ,a generation later ,cole and ,durand started out to paint landscape without any teaching whatever4 ,does that account in any degree for their failure8 ,they failed to produce any fine quality of art1 but they had pupils and followers in whom the ,hudson ,river school finally culminated4 ,it became a school because ,cole and ,durand established with themselves a teaching1 such as it was1 and handed down to their pupils a point of view and a body of tradition4 ,perhaps again that explains1 to some extent1 the varied successes of such followers of the school as ,inness1 ,wyant1 ,martin1 ,swain ,gifford1 ,whittredge1 ,mc,entee4 ,but not entirely4 ,some of these last-named were influenced by ,european art1 outgrew the teaching of their forerunners1 and in middle life rather forsook their early love and faith4 ,yet it would be idle to contend that they had not received an inclination1 even an inspiration1 from contact with the older men4 ,short-lived though it was1 and shallow as were its teachings1 the ,hudson ,river school1 nevertheless1 had weight with its followers4 ,even error is often helpful in establishing truth1 and a feeble precedent is perhaps better than none at all4 ,some of the pupils--,f4 ,e4 ,church and ,sandford ,gifford1 for examples--never outgrew their basic teaching4 ,to the end they carried on the ,cole-,durand tradition1 improving and bettering it4 ,they bettered it because they could add to their own view-point the observation and teaching of their masters4 ,three generations at least are supposed to be necessary to the making of the thorough gentleman4 ,is it possible to make the thorough artist in one8 ,but the ,hudson ,river school was too frail inherently to carry great weight4 ,men like ,inness1 ,wyant1 and ,martin soon began to see its weaknesses4 ,even before they went to ,europe they had doubted and after their return to ,america they were openly heretical4 ,they held allegiance only in the matter of the ,catskill-,adirondack subject1 and even that became modified to a virtual disappearance toward the end of their careers4 ,both aim and method changed with them4 ,they saw deeper and painted freer1 until finally they were wholly out of sympathy not only with the thin technique of the school but with its panoramic conception of nature4 ,so it was that in #ahgf when the ,united ,states held its first national art exhibition--the ,centennial1 at ,philadelphia--the painting of the country was in something of an anomalous condition4 ,the ,hudson ,river school was practically at the end of its rope4 ,the older portrait-painters had been succeeded by ,harding1 ,alexander1 ,neagle1 ,elliott1 ,inman1 ,page1 ,healy--each of them more or less going his own way4 ,the ,german ,leutze had been here and had blazed a brimstone trail of ,dsseldorf method1 along which some painters followed4 ,hicks and ,hunt at ,boston had introduced the ,french art of ,couture and ,millet1 and they also had a following4 ,quite apart from all of them stood some independent personalities like ,la ,farge and ,winslow ,homer1 who seemed to say1 8a plague on all your houses40 ,and they1 too1 went their own ways4 ,there was no school unity4 ,no wonder then with these conflicting individualities1 and with all traditions obsolete or unknown1 there was no such thing as an ,american school of painting at the ,centennial ,exhibition4 ,the visitor in ,memorial ,hall wandered hither and yon among the pictures and vainly strove to grasp a consensus of art opinion or even an art tendency4 ,the exhibition was more or less of a hodgepodge4 ,as a result both painter and public went away in a somewhat bemuddled condition4 ,perhaps the only thing about the exhibition that impressed one strongly was the general incompetence and inconsequence of it4 ,just at this time there entered upon the scene another generation1 a younger group of ,american painters4 ,many of them had seen the exhibition at the ,centennial and had1 perhaps1 been unwarrantably influenced by it4 ,they brought away from it a longing to paint2 but they realized that such art as that at ,philadelphia was not what they wished to produce1 and if ,american teaching was responsible for it1 so much the worse for the teaching4 ,they would have none of it4 ,once more there was a sharp break with everything that might resemble a school view or a school method4 ,the younger group left the country and sought instruction in ,european studios believing that nothing of good could come out of the ,nazareth of ,america4 ,some of this later generation had gone abroad for study just before #ahgf4 ,shirlaw1 ,chase1 and ,duveneck were at ,munich2 ,maynard1 ,minor1 and ,millet at ,antwerp2 ,blashfield1 ,bridgman1 ,beckwith1 ,thayer1 ,alden ,weir1 ,low1 ,wyatt ,eaton at ,paris4 ,after #ahgf the exodus was greater and ,paris was the goal4 ,a few years later some of these students were homeward bound1 having finished a more or less advanced course of instruction under competent masters4 ,they immediately set up studios in ,new ,york1 and1 with the enthusiasm and assurance of youth1 began to impart information to the effect that the only painting of importance was that of ,europe4 ,as for the native ,american art1 it was not worth reckoning with4 ,the ,academy of ,design was merely the abiding-place of the ossified1 and1 of course1 it would be surrendered on the demand of the younger men4 ,but the ,academy1 after a battle of words1 declined to give up the fort1 and a little later declined even to hang some of the pictures of the gifted4 ,this was regarded as unspeakably outrageous1 and swift action followed4 ,in #ahgg there was a call for the establishment of a new art body1 and out of it came the ,society of ,american ,artists1 with twenty-two initial members4 ,the younger men had not invited the academicians as a body to join them1 but they had recognized the talent of certain men1 who1 though members of the ,academy1 were not in full sympathy with it4 ,in other words1 the aloof element of the ,academy was elected to membership in the ,society4 ,these men--,la ,farge1 ,inness1 ,martin1 ,moran1 ,tiffany1 ,colman1 ,swain ,gifford--joined the new without abandoning the old1 and the ,society quickly got under way1 with its declaration of independence nailed to the masthead4 ,in ten years the ,society had grown in membership to over a hundred1 had held yearly exhibitions from #ahgh on1 and had achieved a substantial success--a success of technique1 if nothing more4 ,it is worth noting just here that this departure was a third violent break in the ,american art tradition4 ,the young men in the ,society practically proclaimed that they would start all over again and build a more worthy mansion than their predecessors4 ,had they not gone to ,europe and received the best of technical training8 ,did they not know how to draw and paint8 ,for the first time in its history ,america might congratulate itself upon possessing a body of painters that understood the technique of their craft4 ,american art would now begin4 ,lest progressive craftsmanship should die out new students continued to go abroad1 and the ,art ,students ,league was started for those stopping at home4 ,this new institution was not bound by any conventionalities2 its existence was a protest against them4 ,it had no century-old precedents to live up to2 it was free to stickle for good workmanship alone4 ,it was the training-school for no peculiar kind of art2 it stood ready and eager to adopt any new method or medium or material that was offered4 ,it was progressive to the last degree--progressive to the extent of burning every bridge behind it and starting out de novo to produce technicians 7and consequent art7 worthy of the name4 ,well1 the men1 and the institutions1 and the movement have been under way for forty years4 ,much paint has been spread on canvas in that time and hundreds of hands have been busy producing pictures4 ,the 8young men0 have become old men and many of them have dropped out4 ,the movement itself no longer moves1 though some of its best men are still painting4 ,but what is the net result of these forty years8 ,have the ,european-trained1 after all1 succeeded in producing in their one generation1 sans tradition1 an ,american art8 ,no one will question for a moment that they have produced many exceptionally good works1 even masterpieces2 that they are a competent1 even learned1 body of artists2 but has what they have said proclaimed ,american ideals and reflected ,american life1 or has it repeated the conventions and atelier methods of ,europe8 ,has not the manner of saying with them been more in evidence than the thing said8 ,is their foreign-based art entirely satisfactory or representative of ,america8 ,from a ,whistlerian point of view this matter of tradition is1 of course1 great nonsense4 ,art just 8happens0 in ,ten ,o',clock1 and the artist is that one in the multitude whom the gods see fit to strike with divine fire4 ,he is called to service by inspiration as were the prophets of old4 ,all of which no doubt explains the anointing of ,whistler but does not account for the high-priesthood of ,velasquez1 of ,rembrandt1 of ,raphael1 or of ,rubens4 ,to say that three centuries of guild-teaching in the best way to grind color1 or lay a gesso ground1 or draw a figure1 or fill a given space1 is not better than the intuition of any one man of a period is equivalent to saying that the accumulated knowledge of the world is worthless1 and each new generation should discard it and begin all over again4 ,that is substantially what ,mr4 ,whistler advocated4 ,and1 further1 that the artist should stand aloof and create independently of time1 place1 or people4 ,but out of nothing nothing comes1 and psychology assures us that there is no such thing as originality save by a combination of things already known4 ,the old is added to and makes the new4 ,the old is the tradition of the craft2 the new is the revised point of view and method plus the old4 ,it was so with ,whistler notwithstanding his pretty argument around the clock4 ,he was beholden to ,gleyre1 ,ingres1 ,boucher1 ,velasquez1 ,courbet1 ,albert ,moore1 ,hokusai1 and helped himself to them when1 where1 and how he could4 ,he would have been the last one to deny it4 ,had there been more continuity and stability in his training1 had he followed the teaching of the craft more intently1 he would not have been worried all his life as to whether his people stood well upon their feet1 and he might have produced art with the calmness and poise of his great ,velasquez4 ,his misfortune was that he had no thorough schooling1 inherited no body of taste1 and practically stood alone in art4 ,that he succeeded was owing to exceptional genius4 ,that he was never in the class with ,velasquez or ,titian or ,rembrandt was perhaps due to the fact that they had the training and the tradition and he had not4 ,the ,whistler type is not infrequently met in ,american life--the type that seeks to scale ,olympus without the preliminary of antecedent preparation4 ,in art he usually has half a dozen strings to his bow1 and paints1 lectures1 writes1 speaks1 carries on a business in ,wall ,street or elsewhere4 ,he is glib in many things1 has great facility1 is astonishingly clever2 but somehow he never gets beyond the superficial4 ,he has not depth or poise or great seriousness4 ,there is no hard training or long tradition or intellectual heritage behind him4 ,he is not to the manner born4 ,every writer in ,america knows that present-day ,american literature1 with some precious exceptions1 does not reach up to contemporary ,english literature2 that poetry or romance or criticism with us has not the form1 the substance1 or the technical accomplishment of the same work in ,france4 ,every architect in ,america must realize that with all the get-learned-quick of his foreign study1 with all his appropriations from the ,gothic or the ,renaissance or the ,georgian1 with all his cleverness in solving business needs and doing building stunts under peculiar circumstances1 there is something lacking in his productions2 that they are not so monumental as he could wish for2 that they are not firm set in the ground and do not belong to the soil and remain a part of the land and the people in the sense of contemporary ,french or even ,english architecture4 ,every musician with us must have a similar feeling about our music4 ,as with architecture and painting1 there have been some remarkable compositions put forth by our composers4 ,europe compliments us by playing them and nods approval at the endeavor1 but again they do not reach up to corresponding work in ,paris or ,berlin or ,munich4 ,why not8 ,have we not as good brains and fiddles in ,new ,york as in ,vienna8 ,what is it we lack8 ,surely we are not wanting in energy1 in resource1 in materials4 ,is it perhaps the restraint of these that we need8 ,time and patience are very necessary factors in all of the arts4 ,attitude of mind1 a sense of proportion--a style1 in short--cannot be attained in a few years of schooling4 ,to the training of a lifetime must be added a something that has been more or less inherited4 ,that something handed down from father to son1 from master to pupil1 from generation to generation1 is what ,i have called tradition4 ,it is not technique alone1 but a mental outlook1 added to the body of belief and experience of those who have gone before4 ,the skilled hand of a ,kreisler1 a ,sargent1 a ,mac,monnies is perhaps possible of attainment in a decade1 but the mental attitude--its poise and its restraint--is that something which is inherited as taste1 and many decades may go to its formation4 ,in this latter respect1 perhaps1 ,kreisler has had the advantage of both ,sargent and ,mac,monnies4 ,coming back1 therefore1 to the men of the ,society of ,american ,artists1 we cannot say that they failed in skill or were wanting in endeavor1 or had no intelligence4 ,they had all of these1 but1 unfortunately1 they were not of artistic descent1 and inherited no patrimony of style4 ,instead they tried to adopt in a few years the long story of ,french style1 and attained only that part of it relating to technique4 ,they were of the third generation in ,american art1 but each one of these generations had denied and forsworn its predecessor1 had flung its mess of pottage1 such as it was1 out of the window1 and had left the ancestral roof never to return4 ,the third generation then had nothing by descent1 not even a pictorial or a plastic mind that could see the world in images4 ,it went forth empty-handed into the highways and byways of ,europe1 became proficient in craftsmanship1 and relied upon that for success4 ,this is not merely figure of speech1 but statement of fact4 ,none of the ,american painters spoken of in these pages1 with the exception of ,la ,farge1 came from what might be called an artistic family1 or had sthetic antecedents4 ,they were boys on a farm or grew up in the atmosphere of trade or profession1 and came to art at twenty or thereabouts4 ,they then learned the technique of painting quickly1 and with much facility1 but their mental attitude toward art was untrained and remained undetermined4 ,long after they knew how to paint they knew not what to paint or how to think4 ,their point of view was superficial or commonplace1 or otherwise negligible4 ,i have excepted ,la ,farge1 for1 as we shall see hereafter1 he did have an sthetic legend behind him4 ,is that why he is now placed as the one ,olympian of the period8 ,i would also partly except ,inness1 ,wyant1 and ,martin1 who did know and follow at one time the rather feeble ,hudson ,river school tradition4 ,i ask again is that why they remain1 even to this day1 the best of our rather long line of landscape-painters8 ,is tradition then synonymous with the academic8 ,not entirely2 though the academies are usually the custodians and conservers of it4 ,unfortunately1 their practice tends to perpetuate a manner that soon becomes a mannerism1 and finally the mannerism usurps the place of style4 ,the academic in ,france or ,germany or ,italy has of recent years become a term of reproach4 ,all the rebels in art have been opposed to it4 ,when they rebelled1 their rebellion was called by them1 or their biographers1 8the break with tradition40 ,rather was it a break with an indurated method or the tyranny of a hanging committee4 ,for tradition has to do more with the spirit and style of art1 while the academic is recognized in a method or a formula which1 endlessly repeated1 finally becomes trite and even banal4 ,the art of old ,japan ran on for centuries and was excellent art notwithstanding it was academic and based in tradition4 ,it did not run into formalism and never became trite until recent years4 ,its ruin lies straight ahead of it if it shall abandon its traditions and continue to coquette with ,occidental art4 ,but the bulk of painting by the young men of the ,society of ,american ,artists became commonplace within a dozen years after their return because they had learned abroad only a manner and reproduced it here in ,america with the persistence of a mannerism4 ,they never knew the academic in its larger significance2 they never felt the spirit and style of the traditional4 ,that is not to proclaim their work worthless or their movement inconsequent4 ,on the contrary1 almost everything that one generation in art could do was done4 ,and well done4 ,they established a foundation in sound technique4 ,it remains to be seen if those who come after will build upon it or cast it down4 ,moreover1 as an expression of the individual quite apart from the time1 place1 or people1 as a representation of cosmopolitan belief about art1 it must be accorded a very high place4 ,whistler and ,sargent happen just now to be the most talked about exponents of the cosmopolitan1 but dozens of painters here in ,america since #ahgf belong in the same class and have the same belief4 ,it is all along of a new departure in art1 and how it shall work out no one can say1 but that it does not entirely satisfy contemporary needs is already manifest4 ,in spite of present practice1 and quite apart from ,ten ,o',clock and other painter extravagances1 art is still believed to be in some way an expression of a time1 a place1 and a people4 ,the world has not yet grown so small that it does not continue to exhibit race characteristics in its art manifestations4 ,that the all-the-world-as-one idea may be farther-reaching1 more universal in its scope1 and therefore loftier in its art expression than any national or race expression is very possible2 nay1 probable4 ,still1 even then1 with cosmopolitanism in the saddle1 there will be the need and the use of tradition--the consensus of opinion and body of belief as to what constitutes style in art4 ,,ii ,,george ,,inness #ahbe-ahid ,,ii ,,george ,,inness #ahbe-ahid ,a plain man of the business world1 knowing nothing of the peculiar manifestations of the artistic mind1 would be very apt to wonder over the mental make-up of a ,george ,inness4 ,an artist's way of looking at things is never quite sensible to the man in the street4 ,it is too temperamental1 too impulsive2 and ,inness was supertemperamental even for an artist4 ,when he expressed himself in paint he was very sane2 but when he argued1 his auditors thought him erratic4 ,and not without reason4 ,he was easily stirred by controversy1 and in the heat of discussion he often discoursed like a mad rhapsodist4 ,his thin hands and cheeks1 his black eyes1 ragged beard1 and long dark hair1 the dramatic action of his slight figure as he walked and talked1 seemed to complete the picture of the perfervid visionary4 ,he was always somewhat hectic4 ,as a boy he was delicate1 suffered from epilepsy1 and was mentally overwrought4 ,his physician had nothing to recommend but fresh air4 ,as a man1 one of his hearers over the dinner-table1 after listening to his exposition of the feminine element in landscape1 or some allied theme1 said3 8,mr4 ,inness1 what you need is fresh air40 ,inness used to tell this story about himself with a little smile1 as though conscious of having appeared extravagant4 ,as for fresh air in the sense of out-of-doors1 he knew more about it than all his business acquaintances put together2 but in the sense of its clearing the vision so that he could see things in a matter-of-fact light1 it was wholly unavailing4 ,he was born with the nervous organization of the enthusiast4 ,that is not the best temperament imaginable for a practical business man4 ,and yet ,inness certainly thought that his views about life1 faith1 government1 and ethics were sound and applicable to all humanity4 ,art was only a part of the universal plan4 ,in his theory of the unities everything in the scheme entire dropped into its appointed place4 ,he could show this1 to his own satisfaction at least1 by the symbolism of numbers1 just as he could prove immortality by the argument for continuity4 ,all his life he was devoted to mystical speculations4 ,he had his faith in divination1 astrology1 spiritualism1 ,swedenborgianism4 ,and he was greatly stirred by social questions4 ,during the ,rebellion he volunteered to fight for the freedom of the slave but was rejected as physically unfit2 and later he became interested in labor problems1 believed in ,henry ,george and the ,single ,tax1 and had views about a socialistic republic4 ,he never changed4 ,in his seventieth year he was still discoursing on ,swedenborg1 on love1 on truth1 on the unities1 with unabated enthusiasm4 ,to expect such a man to be 8practical0 would be little less than an absurdity1 and to expect a practical man to understand him would be almost as futile4 ,but the fever of intensity that burned in ,inness and his visionary way of looking at things were the very features that made possible his greatness as an artist4 ,there is something in the abnormal view--one hardly knows what--that makes for art4 ,certainly the 8practical0 work of the camera gives only a statement of fact where the less accurate drawing of a ,millet gives something that we call 8artistic40 ,the lens of the camera records mechanically and coldly1 which may account for the prosaic quality of photography2 but the retina of the artist's eye records an impression enhanced by the imagination1 which may account for the poetry of art4 ,whichever way we put it1 it is the human element that makes the art4 ,the painter does not record the facts like a machine2 he gives his impression of the facts4 ,inness1 with his exalted way of seeing1 was full of impressions and was always insisting upon their vital importance4 8,the true purpose of the painter10 ,mr4 ,sheldon reports him as saying1 8is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him4 ,a work of art is not to instruct1 not to edify1 but to awaken an emotion4 ,its real greatness consists in the quality and force of this emotion40 ,and he practised this preaching4 ,such nervous manifestations as enthusiasm1 emotion1 and imagination working together and producing an impression were the means wherewith he constructed pictures in his mind4 ,they made up his point of view1 and without them we should perhaps have heard little of ,george ,inness as a painter4 ,it was no mean or stinted equipment4 ,in fact1 ,inness had too many impressions1 had too much imagination4 ,his diversity of view opposed singleness of aim4 ,while he was trying to record one impression upon the canvas1 half a dozen others would rush in4 ,cleveland ,cox1 who knew him well1 said that he changed his mood and point of view with the weather1 and if he started a canvas with a storm piece in the morning1 it was likely to end in the evening with a glorious sunset1 if the weather corresponded4 ,he was never satisfied with his work2 he was always altering it and amending it1 painting pictures one on top of another1 until a single canvas sometimes held a dozen superimposed landscapes4 ,the late ,william ,h4 ,fuller used to tell the story of buying a landscape in ,inness's studio one afternoon and going to get the picture the next day1 only to find an entirely different picture on the canvas4 ,to his protests ,inness replied3 8,it is a good deal better picture than the other40 8,yes1 but ,i liked the other better40 8,well1 you needn't take it--needn't pay for it40 8,it isn't a question of losing money4 ,i have lost my picture4 ,it is buried under that new one40 ,even when not bothered by many impressions1 ,inness had great difficulty in contenting himself with his work4 ,it was never quite right4 ,there was a certain fine feeling or sentiment that he had about nature and he wished to express it in his picture2 but he found when the sentiment was strong1 the picture looked weak in the drawing1 had little solidity or substance2 and when the solidity was put in with exact lines and precise textures1 then the sentiment fared badly4 ,he knew very well where the trouble lay4 8,details in the picture must be elaborated only enough fully to reproduce the impression4 ,when more is done the impression is weakened and lost1 and we see simply an array of external things which may be very cleverly painted and may look very real1 but which do not make an artistic painting4 ,the effort and the difficulty of an artist is to combine the two2 namely1 to make the thought clear and to preserve the unity of impression4 ,meissonier always makes his thought clear2 he is most painstaking with details1 but he sometimes loses in sentiment4 ,corot1 on the contrary1 is to some minds lacking in objective force4 ,he tried for years to get more objective force1 but he found that what he gained in that respect he lost in sentiment40 ,this is ,inness's own statement of the case and it enables us to understand why many of his later canvases were vague1 indefinite1 often vapory4 ,he was seeking to give a sentiment or feeling rather than topographical facts4 ,when the facts looked too weak1 he tried to strengthen them here and there by bringing out notes and tones a little sharper with the result of making them look hard or too protruding4 ,after several passings back and forth from strength to weakness1 from sentiment to fact1 the canvas began to show a kneaded and thumbed appearance4 ,its freshness was gone and its surface looked tortured and 8bready40 ,he was hardly ever free from this attempt to balance between two stools4 ,it is a plague that bothers all painters1 and no doubt many of them would agree with ,inness in saying3 8,if a painter could unite ,meissonier's careful reproduction of details with ,corot's inspirational power1 he would be the very god of art40 ,but ,inness was much nearer to ,corot than to ,meissonier4 ,he loved sentiment more than clever technique1 and perhaps as a result left many 8swampy0 canvases behind him4 ,his studio was filled with them4 ,he used to take them from the floor and work upon them1 sometimes half a dozen in a day4 ,he never was 8the perfect master of the brush0 that we have heard him called1 though he was an acceptable1 and often a very powerful1 technician4 ,he usually began by basing a canvas in a warm gray or a raw umber tint1 afterward sketching in with charcoal or pencil the general outline of forms and objects4 ,his pigments at first were thin1 and his canvas in its general distribution of masses was little more than stained4 ,upon that foundation he kept adding stronger notes1 glazing his shadows to keep them transparent and push them back1 and placing his opaque lights on top of the glaze4 ,in this way he gradually developed the picture1 keying up first one part and then another1 until finally he drew the whole picture into unity and harmony4 ,it was most interesting to see ,inness at work in this keying-up process4 ,he always painted standing1 and would walk backward and forward1 putting on dabs here and rubs there with great expertness4 ,he was a painter in oils1 seldom employing any other medium1 and yet he would use on his canvas almost anything that the impulse of the moment told him might prove effective4 ,one day ,i watched him for fifteen minutes trying to deepen the shadows in a tree with a lead-pencil4 ,the canvas was dry at the time and he did not want to put any more wet paint upon it4 ,as he painted he talked1 argued1 declaimed1 glared at you over the top of his glasses with apparently little embarrassment to himself or detriment to his canvas4 ,painting he believed he had reduced to a scientific formula1 but he kept changing the formula4 ,rules of procedure1 too1 he had in abundance1 but they also kept shifting4 ,at one time he insisted that a picture should have three planes--the middle plane to contain the centre of interest1 the foreground to be a prologue1 and the background an epilogue to this central plane4 ,at another time he would spread a half-tone throughout the whole picture1 keeping his sky low in key1 and upon this neutral ground he would place lights and darks1 making them brilliant and sparkling by contrast4 ,others before him--notably the ,fontainebleau-,barbizon men--had worked with similar rules in mind1 but ,inness was quite original in his application4 ,and he was always moving on to something new and better4 ,ripley ,hitchcock quotes from one of his letters3 8,i have changed from the time ,i commenced because ,i had never completed my art2 and as ,i do not care about being a cake1 ,i shall remain dough1 subject to any impression which ,i am satisfied comes from the region of truth40 ,what ,inness was at the time he commenced may be gathered from another quotation from the same authority3 8,my early and much of my later life was borne under the distress of a fearful nervous disease which very much impaired my ability to bear the painstaking in my studies which ,i could have wished4 ,i began1 of course1 as most boys do1 but without any art surroundings whatever4 ,a boy now would be able to commence almost anywhere under better auspices than ,i could have had then1 even in a city4 ,i was in the barefoot stage1 and1 although my father was a well-to-do farmer1 the boys dressed very much in ,joseph's coat style as to color1 the different garments being equally variegated1 while schooling consisted of the three ,r's1 and a ruler1 with a rattan by way of change40 ,at fourteen ,inness received some instruction in drawing from a man named ,barker1 and at nineteen he was working as a map-engraver with ,sherman and ,smith in ,new ,york4 ,it is said that he engraved several plates1 but ,inness himself evidently counted this apprenticeship of little value1 for he later said3 8,when almost twenty ,i had a month with ,regis ,gignoux1 my health not permitting me to take advantage of study at the ,academy in the evening1 and this is all the instruction ,i ever had from any artist40 ,he was virtually self-taught as a youth1 but his later work was developed and somewhat influenced by the study of other painters at home and abroad4 ,at first he studied ,cole and ,durand1 and his pictures were rather panoramic in theme and hard in drawing4 ,he worked much over detail1 and at this early time must have been acquired a knowledge of form and a store of visual memories which were to serve him thereafter4 ,the brittle landscapes of ,inness's youth are seldom seen to-day4 ,what became of them no one knows4 ,he sold them for any sum that would temporarily keep the wolf from the door1 and1 passing into the hands of unappreciative people1 they have perhaps perished4 ,i never heard him so much as mention his very early work1 though in his letter to ,ripley ,hitchcock he speaks of some of his studies under ,gignoux as being 8very elaborate40 ,in #ahej he was married1 and through the assistance of one of his patrons1 ,mr4 ,ogden ,haggerty1 he went to ,italy and spent fifteen months there1 returning through ,paris1 seeing the ,salon1 and the work of ,rousseau for the first time4 8,rousseau was just beginning to make a noise4 ,a great many people were grouped about a little picture of his which seemed to me metallic4 ,our traditions were ,english2 and ,french art1 particularly in landscape1 had made but little impression upon us40 ,just when he made this statement is not apparent1 but certainly it was not his final estimate of ,rousseau and ,french landscape4 ,he was later on much influenced by ,corot1 ,rousseau1 and ,daubigny2 but with his first long stay in ,europe1 chiefly near ,rome1 it was to be expected that the romance and glamour of the place with such classical painters as ,salvator1 ,claude1 and ,poussin would sway him4 ,the second period of his development1 dating from about #ahec to #ahge1 is full of diverse influences4 ,succeeding trips to ,europe and repeated studies of ,european art rather disturbed his preconceived opinions1 and made him doubtful4 ,at one time he would work in one vein2 at another time he would reverse himself and go back to his early affinities4 ,it was a period of struggle not only with his art but with the more purely material affair of gaining a livelihood4 ,he lived during this time for four years at ,medfield1 ,massachusetts1 then at ,eagleswood1 ,new ,jersey2 and in both places painted some notable canvases1 though they were not popular with the buying public4 ,the 8,peace and ,plenty10 now at the ,metropolitan ,museum1 painted in #ahfe1 is a huge affair1 and the wonder is that it was not a huge failure4 ,it is a little too diversified in the lights1 and a bit spotty1 perhaps1 but it is rather broadly handled with a flat brush1 and1 all told1 a remarkable canvas for the time4 ,it represents him under ,italian inspiration4 ,the 8,evening at ,medfield10 also in the ,metropolitan1 painted in #ahge1 suggests ,french influence1 perhaps ,daubigny4 ,it is broader1 freer1 thinner in handling1 simpler in masses1 and has more unity4 ,none of the pictures at this period are counted his best output1 but they are not the less works of decided merit4 ,it was after four continuous years in ,europe 7#ahga-ahge7 that ,inness came into a third style of work 7the 8,evening at ,medfield0 indicates it71 quite his own1 quite ,american1 and quite splendid4 ,it was during this stay abroad that he seemed finally to find himself4 ,his brush broadened1 his light grew more subtle1 his color became richer and fuller4 ,corot had taught him how to sacrifice detail to the mass1 ,rousseau had improved his use of the tree1 ,daubigny gave him many hints about atmosphere2 from ,decamps he learned how to drive a light with darks1 and ,delacroix opened to him a gamut of deep1 rich color4 ,he was now in position to graft the ,french tradition of landscape upon the ,american stock4 ,and this he did1 but in his own manner and with many lapses1 even failures1 by the way4 ,all through this third period1 and for that matter up to his death1 ,inness was experimenting with landscape4 ,every canvas was a new adventure in color1 light1 and air4 ,in his last period he seemed to see landscape in related masses of color rather than in linear extensions2 and so he painted it holding the color patches together with air and illuminating the whole mass by a half-mysterious light4 ,it was not attenuated color--mauves1 pinks1 and sad grays--but strong reds1 blues1 greens1 and yellows keyed up oftentimes to a high pitch and fire-hued by sunlight4 ,nor were they put on the canvas in little dots and dabs1 but rather shown in large masses brought together for massed effect and made resonant by contrast4 ,illustration3 8,evening at ,medfield10 by ,george ,inness4 ,in the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,almost all of his later pictures will be found to hinge upon color1 light1 and atmosphere4 ,he was very fond of moisture-laden air1 rain effects1 clouds1 rainbows1 mists1 vapors1 fogs1 smokes1 hazes--all phases of the atmosphere4 ,in the same way he fancied dawns1 dusks1 twilights1 moonlights1 sunbursts1 flying shadows1 clouded lights--all phases of illumination4 ,and again1 he loved sunset colors1 cloud colors1 sky colors1 autumn tints1 winter blues1 spring grays1 summer greens--all phases of color4 ,and these not for themselves alone1 but rather for the impression or effect that they produced4 ,if he painted a moonlight1 it was with a great spread of silvery radiance1 a hushed effect in the trees1 a still air1 and the mystery of things half seen2 when he painted an early spring morning1 he gave the vapor rising from the ground1 with dampness in the air1 voyaging clouds1 and a warming blue in the sky2 with an ,indian summer afternoon there was the drowsy hum of nature lost in dreamland and the indefinable regret of things passing away4 ,his 8,rainy ,day--,montclair0 has the bend and droop of foliage heavy with rain1 the sense of saturation in earth and air1 the suggestion of the very smell of rain4 ,the 8,delaware ,water ,gap0 shows the drive of a storm down the valley1 with the sweep of the wind felt in the clouds1 the trees1 and the water4 ,the 8,summer ,silence0 is well named1 for again it gives that feeling of the hushed woods in ,july1 the deep shadows1 the dense foliage that seems to sleep and softly breathe4 ,always the impression--the feeling which he himself felt in the presence of nature and tried to give back in form and color upon canvas4 ,i remember very well standing beside him before his 8,niagara0 and hearing him say what interested him in that scene4 ,it was not so much the thundering mass of the waters1 the volume and power1 the sublimity of the cataract1 as the impression of clouds of mist and vapor boiling up from the great caldron and being struck into color-splendor by the sunlight4 ,only an ,inness in the presence of ,niagara could have thrown emphasis upon so ethereal a phase as its mists and color4 ,they made the impression and he responded to it4 ,every feature of landscape had its peculiar sentiment to him4 ,he said so many times and with no uncertain voice3 8,rivers1 streams1 the rippling brook1 the hillside1 the sky1 clouds--all things that we see--can convey sentiment if we are in the love of ,god and the desire of truth4 ,some persons suppose that landscape has no power of conveying human sentiment4 ,but this is a great mistake4 ,the civilized landscape peculiarly can2 and therefore ,i love it more and think it more worthy of reproduction than that which is savage and untamed4 ,it is more significant40 ,illustration3 8,sunset at ,montclair10 by ,george ,inness4 ,that last statement of his about the civilized landscape is well worth noting1 because that was the landscape he painted4 ,his subjects are related to human life1 and some of our interest in his pictures is due to the fact that he gives us thoughts1 emotions1 and sensations that are comprehensible by all4 ,he tells things that every one may have thought but no one before him so well expressed4 ,in other words1 he brings our own familiar landscape home to us with new truth and beauty4 ,this1 it may be presumed1 is the function of the poet and the painter in any land4 ,it was the quality that made ,burns and ,wordsworth great and may account in measure for the fame of ,rembrandt1 ,hobbema1 ,constable--yes1 and ,inness4 ,when he was young there were traditions of the ,hudson ,river school in the air4 ,the 8mappy0 landscape with its crude color and theatrical composition held the place of honor4 ,inness was probably captivated by it at first sight1 but he soon discovered its emptiness4 ,it had no basis in nature2 it was not the landscape we see and know4 ,the 8,course of ,empire0 and the 8,voyage of ,youth0 were only names for studio fabrications4 ,the truly poetic landscape lay nearer home4 ,this was what ,inness called the 8civilized landscape10 the familiar landscape1 the paysage intime1 the one we all see and know because it has always been before us--its very nearness perhaps blinding us to its beauty4 ,how hard it is to believe that the true poetry of the world lies close about us6 ,we keep fancying that romance is not in our native village1 but in ,rome or ,constantinople or ,cairo2 and that the poetic landscape is not that of the wood-lot behind the house1 but that of ,arden ,forest or some ,hesperidian garden far removed from us4 ,emerson has noted that at sea every ship looks romantic but the one we sail in4 ,yet there is plenty of romance in our ship if we have the eyes to see it2 and there is abundance of beauty in the wood-lot if we have the intentness of purpose to study it out and understand it4 ,any one can admire the 8view0 from a mountain-top1 but it takes some imagination to see beauty in the quiet meadow4 ,and after you have seen it it requires a great deal of labor and skill to tell what you have seen4 ,wordsworth and ,constable made more failures with it than successes4 ,just so with ,inness4 ,he shot wide of the mark innumerable times1 but when he hit1 it was with very decided effect4 ,a love of the familiar landscape would seem to have always been with ,inness4 ,after a period of following the ,hudson ,river panorama of nature undefiled by man1 he gave it up4 ,while in ,rome he produced some semiclassic landscapes1 but he gave them up1 too4 ,not so with the ,fontainebleau-,barbizon landscape4 ,rousseau and his band had broken with the classic and were producing the paysage intime to which ,hobbema 7not ,constable1 of whom they knew nothing7 had called their attention through his pictures in the ,louvre4 ,they had done in ,france just what ,inness had sought to do in ,america3 they had abandoned the grandiloquent and put in its place the familiar4 ,inness was in sympathy with them almost from the moment he first saw their work4 ,had he been born in ,france1 no doubt he would have been a member of the ,rousseau-,dupr group4 ,again it is worth noticing in passing that all of the so-called 8men of #ahcj0 were really provincial in what they produced4 ,corot painted ,ville d',avray1 ,rousseau1 ,dupr1 and ,diaz the ,fontainebleau forest1 ,daubigny the ,seine and the ,marne4 ,none of their work represents the south or the east of ,france1 and none of it carries beyond ,france4 ,it is localized about ,paris4 ,just so with the work of ,inness4 ,it is emphatically ,american1 but limited to the ,north ,atlantic ,states4 ,the appearances which he portrayed are peculiar to the region lying east of the ,alleghanies4 ,in his pictures the light and coloring1 the forms and drift of clouds1 the mists and hazes1 the trees and hills1 the swamps and meadows may be recognized as belonging to ,new ,jersey or ,new ,york or ,new ,england1 but none of them belongs to ,minnesota or ,louisiana or ,california4 ,he pictured the ,american landscape perhaps more completely than any other painter before or since his time2 but his 8civilized landscape0 was nevertheless limited as regards its geographical range4 ,nor would we have it otherwise4 ,all the masters of art have been provincial so far as subject goes4 ,titian1 ,velasquez1 and ,rembrandt never cared to go beyond their own bailiwicks for material4 ,and ,inness--though he may not rank with those just mentioned--found all the material he needed within fifty miles of ,new ,york4 ,it was the discovery of this material1 his point of view regarding it1 what he did with it1 and what he made us see in it1 that perhaps gives him his high rank in ,american art4 ,the man and his impulsive nature never changed1 though he kept shifting his methods and his point of view from year to year4 ,he went his own pace and was always something of a recluse4 ,the art movements about him interested him in only a slight way4 ,the ,academy of ,design honored him with membership1 but he cared little about it4 ,the ,society of ,american ,artists elected him a member also1 but he cared even less for the brilliant painting of the young men than for the weak performances of the academicians4 ,he kept very much to himself and painted on in his own absorbed1 impulsive fashion4 ,his studio was only a bare barn of a room with a few crazy chairs in it4 ,wall-hangings1 stuffs1 screens1 brass pots1 shields1 spears--the artistic plunder which one usually finds in a painter's apartment--he regarded as so much trumpery4 ,in his later days he came and went to his studio from ,montclair1 seeing landscapes out of the car-window1 and in his mind's eye seeing them upon his canvases4 ,his art swayed him completely4 ,illustration3 8,hackensack ,meadows10 by ,george ,inness4 ,he had no pupils1 though he corrected1 advised1 and instructed many young painters after his own method4 ,it was a decidedly arbitrary teaching4 ,elliott ,daingerfield tells a story of one of his own landscapes in which a rail fence was running down into the foreground4 ,when ,inness was asked in to criticise the canvas1 he objected to the fence and said it should be taken out4 8,why can't ,i have the fence there if ,i want it80 ,daingerfield protested4 ,to which ,inness replied3 8,you can if you want to be an idiot40 ,his criticism of older painters and pictures was just as unqualified4 ,and in matters outside of art1 where he spoke with no peculiar authority1 his vehemence was no less4 ,crossing on the ,arizona in #ahhg1 he talked every one out of the smoking-room on the ,single ,tax question1 so a friend informs me4 ,in #ahid1 when ,i happened to be crossing with him1 he was as positive as ever about his religious1 socialistic1 and political convictions4 ,his interest and enthusiasm were in no degree abated4 ,in the mornings he sat on deck wrapped up in rugs under the lee of a life-boat1 and amused himself doing examples in vulgar fractions out of an ordinary school arithmetic2 but in the afternoon he liked to talk1 and ,i was a willing listener1 though ,i had heard him discourse many times4 ,every one remembers his caustic criticism of ,turner's 8,slave ,ship40 ,he always had a kick for ,turner1 though at heart he admired him1 and in many respects his own methods were very like that master4 ,they both worked from visual memory1 ,turner putting in what pleased him in architecture1 people1 and boats2 and ,inness putting in cows or bridges or wagons1 as pleased him4 ,neither painter resorted to the model or to a sketch for these accessories4 ,they painted them out of their heads1 and sometimes they were vague in drawing or false in lighting4 ,the only difference was that ,turner took more liberties with his text than ,inness1 and often lost truth of tone4 ,this gave ,inness his chance to say that ,turner was a painter of claptrap--his detail was spotty1 he could paint figures in a boat1 but he couldn't paint a boat with figures4 ,for ,gainsborough he had some admiration1 and in his early days rather followed him1 but he outgrew the brown-fiddle tone of ,gainsborough's foliage and came to think his work lacking in color4 ,constable1 too1 he admired1 perhaps because he painted the greens of foliage very frankly2 but his light and color were cold4 ,turner's heat and ,constable's cold he did not believe could both come out of ,england1 except through subjective distortion4 ,the pictures of ,watts1 he insisted1 looked as though dipped in a sewer1 so unhealthy and morbid were they in color4 ,this referred to the later pictures of ,watts which ,inness had seen in a loan collection exhibited at the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,he was fond of brilliant color himself1 and evidently he had never studied the earlier and middle-period pictures of ,watts4 ,wilson he liked1 though recognizing that he was merely a reviser of the old classic formula of landscape4 ,but ,wilson knew how to handle his sky and could tie things together with atmosphere4 ,corot was a very pretty painter--and by 8pretty10 ,inness meant clever4 ,he wagged his head in saying it and smiled as though the statement were incontestable4 ,the sentiment of light and air with ,corot was something that ,inness thoroughly understood4 ,and he greatly fancied ,corot's composition4 ,at one time he painted pictures that have a ,corotesque arrangement--notably the 8,wood ,gatherers10 formerly in the ,clarke ,collection4 ,what he did not understand was ,corot's monotony of color1 or1 as other painters expressed it1 ,corot's refinement of color4 ,millet was wonderful1 especially in his landscape-work1 which had attracted so little attention4 ,delacroix was one of the great gods for his wonderful gamut of color1 if nothing else4 ,and so on4 ,the steamer trip in #ahid was the last one that ,inness made4 ,he died that summer at the ,bridge of ,allan in ,scotland4 ,his funeral was held in the ,national ,academy of ,design in ,new ,york1 and the ,swedenborgian minister who officiated1 in the course of his eulogy1 said3 8,those of you who knew ,george ,inness knew how intense a man he was40 8,intense0 is exactly descriptive of the man4 ,he was keyed up all his life and worked with feverish intensity4 ,but the word does not describe his art1 for that has no feeling of stress or strain about it4 ,sometimes one is conscious of its vagueness1 as though the painter were groping a way out toward the light--a vagueness that holds the mystery of things half seen1 a beautiful glimpse of half-revealed impressions4 ,but usually his pictures are serene1 hushed1 and yet radiant with the glow of eternal sun-fires from sky or cloud4 ,they were lofty and poetic impressions1 and the loftier they were the more intense the painter's effort to reveal them4 ,the heights of ,parnassus are very calm1 but they are not reached without a struggle4 ,the great ones--those who scale the upper peaks--are perhaps the most intensive strugglers of all4 ,inness was one of them4 ,,iii ,,alexander ,h4 ,,wyant ,it was ,corot who declared that in art ,rousseau was an eagle and he himself was merely a lark singing a song from the meadow-grasses4 ,the contrast and the comparison are not inapplicable to two of our own painters4 ,wyant never possessed the wide range or the far-seeing eye of ,inness1 but he had something about him of ,corot's mood and charm4 ,he1 too1 was a lark1 or should we say a wood-thrush singing along the edge of an ,american forest8 ,he had only a few mellow notes1 yet we would not be without them4 ,they still charm us4 ,and it is not certain that in the long account of time the direct and simple utterances of ,corot and ,wyant may not outlive the wide truth of ,rousseau and the vision splendid of ,inness4 ,more than once in sthetic story the songs of a ,burns have been held more precious than the tumults of a ,milton4 ,the wonder of ,wyant's success is greater than that of ,inness1 for his boyhood surroundings1 if anything1 were less stimulating and his pictorial education far more restricted4 ,besides1 ,inness lived on to seventy years1 but ,wyant died at fifty-six1 having endured ill-health1 and for the last ten years of his life--his best working years--been paralyzed in his right arm and hand4 ,living much to himself1 something of a hermit in his mountain home1 weighed down by misfortunes and disappointments1 the wonder grows that he not only kept up and improved his technique to the end1 but that he preserved his serenity of mood and purity of outlook through it all4 ,he must have been a man with fortitude of soul beyond the average4 ,it is not every painter that can turn stumbling-blocks into stepping-stones4 ,wyant was the typical barefoot boy of the near ,west in the days before the ,civil ,war4 ,he was born in #ahcf at ,evans ,creek1 ,tuscarawas ,county1 ,ohio1 and his boyhood and early youth were far removed from anything like the madding crowd4 ,his parents were ,americans of the soil1 his father being a farmer and carpenter of ,pennsylvania extraction1 and his mother of ,dutch-,irish descent4 ,they were nomadic1 after the manner of border people1 and soon left ,evans ,creek to live in or near ,defiance1 where ,wyant learned his three ,r's in the village school4 ,there were less than one thousand people in the town at that time1 and what ,wyant got out of it by way of enlightenment or encouragement must have been meagre4 ,as a boy he1 no doubt1 roamed the woods1 fished the streams1 and trailed along the ,ohio hilltops2 and at this time1 unconsciously perhaps1 he was storing up visual memories of appearances that were to be of service to him later on4 ,that he had an eye and was an observer from the start comes to us in the tales told of his boyish sketches on the floor made with charcoal from the wood-fire4 ,at least they showed an inclination that was afterward to develop into a passion4 ,but the inclination found no immediate outlet4 ,after leaving school the youth served as an apprentice in a harness-shop1 but he did not care for harness-making4 ,he preferred to paint photographs1 cards1 signs--almost anything that could be done with a brush4 ,at twenty-one he went to ,cincinnati and for the first time saw some paintings in oil4 ,before that his ideas of art had been bounded by book illustration and the omnipresent chromo4 ,it is said that among the pictures he saw at ,cincinnati was something by ,inness4 ,the young man was impressed by it1 or by the reports about ,inness1 for he took the train to ,new ,york to consult that master about art as a vocation4 ,he found ,inness at ,eagleswood1 near ,perth ,amboy4 ,how long he stopped there and what was said we do not know1 but the master was encouraging1 and the young man went back to ,cincinnati determined to be a painter4 ,he had a right instinct about art at that early time or he never would have chosen ,inness for a counsellor4 ,the famous landscape-painters then were ,kensett and ,church4 ,inness was the most progressive1 the most ultra-modern of the time1 and had not yet won universal applause4 ,he did not paint enough in detail for the man in the street1 and evidently he must have given ,wyant his argument for breadth of view over detail1 for1 as we shall presently see1 ,wyant had it almost from the start4 ,but perhaps the most and the best that he got from ,inness was inspiration4 ,back in ,cincinnati and painting pictures after his own formula1 ,wyant found a purchaser and a patron in ,nicholas ,longworth4 ,it became possible for him shortly thereafter to move to ,new ,york4 ,there1 in #ahfc1 he saw a large exhibition of ,dsseldorf pictures that probably stirred his imagination4 ,pictures in ,america at that time were rather scarce1 and any exhibition of foreign work would be more impressive then than now4 ,the next year he exhibited at the ,national ,academy of ,design for the first time1 and in #ahfe he went to ,europe on a ,dsseldorf pilgrimage1 impelled thereto by a mountain-and-waterfall landscape of ,gude which he had seen in ,new ,york4 ,he went straight to ,gude at ,carlsruhe and put himself under his tutelage4 ,gude was a ,norwegian painter1 influenced by ,dahl1 and imbued with the ,dsseldorf method and point of view4 ,the grand landscape--panoramic in extent and mountainous in height1 with a hot sun in the heavens--was then in vogue1 and ,achenbach was its prophet4 ,from ,wyant's short stay with ,gude it seems that his enthusiasm was soon chilled down to zero4 ,in after-life he often referred to the great kindness of ,gude and his wife1 but he seemed to think that his instruction in art had been fundamentally wrong4 ,his pupil1 ,bruce ,crane1 says that he spoke of his art environment there as being 8a miserable one10 and ,wyant believed that 8environment played the greater part in the making of a painter for good or bad40 ,he left ,gude and started back to ,america1 but stopped on the way in ,england and ,ireland1 where he studied pictures and painted some of his own4 ,the old masters in the ,national ,gallery apparently did not make a strong appeal to him4 ,his work shows no sign of ,claude1 ,salvator1 ,poussin1 ,ruysdael1 ,hobbema1 or ,cuyp4 ,even ,gainsborough and the ascendant ,turner seem to have left him cold4 ,but ,constable he liked very much4 ,here at last was a man seeing things in a large way and doing them with breadth of brush4 ,moreover1 he was doing simple transcripts of nature1 not the panorama of blazing perspective4 ,in ,america ,wyant had inherited something of the spectacular from his ,hudson ,river predecessors2 ,dsseldorf had aided the conception1 and ,turner had abetted it2 but ,constable seemed to be against it4 ,wyant was inclined to renounce it4 ,constable produced the broad realistic look1 and at that time ,wyant had probably not arrived at any other conception of art than as a large transcript of nature4 ,ruskin's doctrine of fidelity to fact was in the air1 and the landscape as emotional expression1 or as a symphony1 or even as a decorative pattern1 was little known either in the studios or the critic's den4 ,there was1 however1 plenty of controversy going on4 ,and yet fresh from varying theories and impressions1 ,wyant went over to ,ireland and painted pictures that bore no earmark of any painter or any school4 ,in the ,metropolitan ,museum there is an ,irish landscape by him done in #ahff--8,view in ,county ,kerry1 ,ireland40 ,there are gray mountains at the back1 a green foreground with a pool of water1 a gray-blue and whitish sky1 a gray atmosphere4 ,at the right middle distance is a white cottage4 ,the rest is treeless upland running into mountain heights that are lost in haze and cloud4 ,the picture is not only remarkable for its simplicity of composition but its absence of small objects or distracting details4 ,though a mountain landscape1 it is broadly seen1 largely and simply massed1 and painted with a broad flat brush4 ,it may have been repainted in later years1 but ,i am willing to believe from the breadth of its composition that it was painted broadly to correspond1 and is to-day substantially as when originally done4 ,this picture is in somewhat violent contrast with another ,wyant landscape hanging in the same gallery and dated in the same year--#ahff4 ,i refer to the large 8,mohawk ,valley0 landscape--an excellent picture1 though evidencing limitations perhaps peculiar to ,america4 ,it is a huge valley view with a gorge and stream in the foreground running down to a fall from which mist is rising4 ,the stream as a pool is seen again emerging in the middle distance4 ,a half-lighted sky with falling rain at the left and warm grays of clouds and blues of distance make up the background1 while in the foreground a tall tree at the left is balanced by a group of lesser trees at the right4 ,the whole color-tone is warm 7probably from underbasing71 especially in the foreground1 which shows in grays and browns4 ,it is a symmetrical composition with a central point of sight1 and in its detailed elaboration gives no hint of selection or sacrifice4 ,the trees1 the ledges of rock in the foreground1 the water1 the clouds are all exactly drawn and realized to the last item1 each one having quite as much importance as its fellow4 ,as for the painting1 it is thin1 kept thin to allow the underbasing to show through2 but it is flatly painted1 not stippled4 ,in the latter respect it is an advance on1 say1 ,church's panorama1 8,heart of the ,andes10 in the same gallery1 where the stippling with white paint produces a glittering1 bedizened surface1 and the minute drawing of leaves in the foreground runs into petty niggling4 ,now1 the 8,mohawk ,valley0 was probably completed just before ,wyant went to ,europe2 at least in method it antedates the 8,county ,kerry1 ,ireland10 landscape of the same year4#a ,it is a very important picture and represents the culmination of ,wyant's early style--a beautiful picture for any place or period or painter to have produced4 ,it shows ,wyant's original point of view1 with some of the influences that must have come to him from the ,hudson ,river school1 from ,inness1 from various unknown ,american sources4 ,but the 8,county ,kerry1 ,ireland10 landscape shows a departure1 a widening1 and a broadening of both brush and vision which were to increase and expand thereafter into a second style--the style of ,wyant's later and nobler canvases4 ,to this style ,wyant was undoubtedly helped at first by what he saw abroad1 especially by the pictures of ,constable4 #a 8,in regard to the two pictures in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 #8,view in ,county ,kerry1 ,ireland1' and the #8,mohawk ,valley1' ,i never could reconcile myself to the idea that they were both painted in #ahff4 ,there is no doubt about the #8,mohawk ,valley' because its manner is so much like the many canvases of that period which ,wyant often showed me and which ,mrs4 ,wyant destroyed after his death4 ,the #8,view in ,county ,kerry1 ,ireland1' marks a new period in his art and the widely different handling as well as view-point are too much to have been acquired in one year4 ,there is certainly some mistake in the date--,i should say a difference of ten years4 ,at some time that picture has been cleaned and the restorer accidentally destroying the date restored it incorrectly40--7,bruce ,crane in a letter to the writer1 ,december #ac1 #aiag47 ,illustration3 8,mohawk ,valley10 by ,alexander ,h4 ,wyant4 ,in the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,this was a time of rapid production with ,wyant and he was always afire with his theme4 ,the recognition of artists was coming to him if not the large patronage of the public4 ,his picture of a 8,view on the ,susquehanna0 resulted in his being elected an associate of the ,national ,academy in #ahfh1 and he was named a full academician in #ahfi4 ,but ill-health was with him1 and in the hope of improving his physical condition and at the same time gathering material for his art1 he joined in #ahgc a government expedition to ,new ,mexico and ,arizona4 ,there were many hardships on the trip1 and ,wyant's never very robust constitution broke down under the strain4 ,he was put on the train and sent back ,east4 ,it is said that on the way ,east he passed his home town of ,defiance1 but would not get off4 ,ill as he was1 with few friends and less money1 he determined to go on to ,new ,york and fight it out4 ,the fine courage of all that becomes more marked when we understand that the illness was so severe that it had resulted at ,fort ,wingate in paralysis of his right hand and arm4 ,he was never to paint with his right hand again4 ,it was a crippled painter coming back to ,new ,york--crippled in a vital spot--but he had determined that his left hand should be trained to service4 ,and it was4 ,the ,west not only maimed him physically but apparently taught him nothing artistically4 ,the deserts that he crossed with their red porphyry mountains1 dull-yellow sands1 and gas-blue air--the most wonderful landscapes in the world in their definition of form and their quality of color--seem to have made no impression whatever upon him4 ,this is understandable only by considering the inheritance of tradition and environment4 ,in ,wyant's time a handsome landscape meant a mountain-valley with forests1 rocks1 waterfalls1 and the variegated foliage of summer or autumn4 ,the desert was unknown and remained for a later generation of painters to discover2 the plains were unpainted and thought unpaintable2 even the marsh and the meadow1 which ,corot loved1 were considered too slight for art4 ,the grand-view conception in landscape-painting died hard4 ,in ,wyant's time it was very much alive4 ,naturally enough1 he was impressed by it1 and though in later life he did many small intimate bits of nature1 he never got away entirely from the wide mountain-valley theme4 ,he was1 in fact1 always a mountain lover4 ,after his return to ,new ,york he spent much of his summer-time in the ,adirondacks4 ,he was then deeply interested in the pictures of the ,barbizon-,fontainebleau painters which were coming into the ,united ,states4 ,so outspoken was his admiration for ,rousseau that he sent a picture to the ,academy with the title 8,in the ,spirit of ,rousseau40 ,his own style was growing broader and simpler each year1 and1 strange enough1 the public was buying his pictures4 ,he became measurably prosperous1 had a studio in the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 ,building in ,twenty-third ,street1 and received a number of pupils4 ,one of his pupils1 a ,miss ,locke1 he married in #ahhj4 ,after his marriage much time was spent in the ,keene ,valley1 and in #ahhi he moved to ,arkville in the ,catskills1 where with a fine sweeping outlook from his porch upon woods1 valleys1 and hills he found enough material to last him the rest of his life4 ,he saw little of the town thereafter4 ,he had never mingled freely with his fellow man4 ,the ,society of ,american ,artists had honored him with membership in #ahgh1 he was a founder of the ,american ,water-,color ,society1 and a member of the ,century ,association1 but he always held somewhat aloof from them4 ,friendly enough with painters and people who sought him1 he was1 nevertheless1 a little shy1 which perhaps gave him the reputation of being gruff4 ,he seemed less fitted to the city street than the aisle of the forest4 ,it was in his mountain home on the forest edge that he died in #ahib1 having suffered much physical pain before his going4#b #b 8,i met ,wyant in #ahgf2 his right arm was then practically useless4 ,later on his right side was affected1 and the last six years he was compelled to walk sideways4 ,yet through all these years of suffering he worked day and night1 and during the last six years1 when his suffering was the worst1 he recorded on canvas some of the beautiful things that survive him40--7,bruce ,crane1 ibid47 ,like many another painter1 ,wyant doubtless knew infinite regrets that he could not live to complete his art4 ,for he never believed in his having reached a final goal1 and was always changing1 experimenting1 trying to better his work4 ,my first meeting with him must have been in #ahhb4 ,i seem to remember him seated before a picture with his palette fastened to the easel1 his right arm hanging rather limp1 and his left hand holding a brush4 ,there was nothing noteworthy about the meeting except that his first words were a request that ,i should tell him what was wrong with the picture on the easel4 ,he was so anxious to get a new view-point that he was quite willing to listen to a stranger1 whether he spoke with authority or not4 ,of course ,i did not venture to say anything other than in praise of the canvas1 though as ,i now remember it the picture was bothering him and looked a little tortured in its surface4 ,he worried a good deal over many of his pictures4 ,when ,inness came in to see him he relieved the strain in his impetuous way by taking up ,wyant's palette and brushes to add a touch here and there4 ,the result usually was that the canvas grew into an ,inness before the acquiescent ,wyant's eyes4 ,there was so much of this that ,mrs4 ,wyant finally forbade ,inness her husband's studio--at least that is the story told by the ,inness family4 ,but ,wyant would do anything1 submit to anything1 for the love of painting4 ,bruce ,crane writes me3 8,how that man did love to paint6 ,i often thought he worked too hard1 sometimes failing to get his breath between canvases4 ,he wished always to be alone so that he could paint1 paint1 not for praise nor emolument2 never with the thought of reward4 ,i recall ,z4 visiting the studio one day and remarking that he1 ,z1 would like to be considered the best landscape-painter in ,america4 ,after he left1 ,wyant said3 8,what a h---- of an ambition60 ,loving the mountains and the forests as he did1 it was to be expected that he would use them in art4 ,it was his earliest inheritance and his latest love4 ,any one at all familiar with the ,adirondacks or the ,catskills will recognize in ,wyant's landscapes not their topography1 perhaps1 but their characteristics4 ,the valleys1 the side-hills with outcropping rock1 the pines1 beeches1 and birches1 the little streams and pools1 the clearings with their brush-edgings1 are all there4 ,wyant arranged them in his pictures with the skill of a ,japanese placing flowers in a pot4 ,he made not so much of a bouquet as an arabesque of trees and foliage1 illuminated by sunlight filtered through thin clouds at the back and warmed with golden-gray colors4 ,atmosphere--the silvery-blue air of the mountains--held the pattern together1 lent it sentiment1 sometimes 7with shadow masses7 gave it mystery4 ,perhaps the best illustration of this in any public gallery is the 8,broad ,silent ,valley0 in the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,it is doubtful if ,wyant ever expressed himself better or more completely than in this picture4 ,it is a large upright canvas1 the very shape of which adds to the dignity and loftiness of the composition placed upon it4 ,at the left are half a dozen large trees1 at the right a rocky hillside1 in the central plane a reflecting pool of water1 at the back a high1 clouded sky1 radiant with the light beyond it4 ,simple in materials1 not brilliant in color but rather sombre in tones of golden gray1 devoid of any classic or romantic interest1 it is nevertheless profoundly impressive in its fine sentiment of light1 air1 and color4 ,it is as strong almost as a ,rousseau in its foreground and trees1 and as charming as a ,corot in its light and air4 ,but you cannot detect either ,corot or ,rousseau in it4 ,when it was painted1 ,wyant was greatly taken with those painters1 but he did not imitate or follow them4 ,his pictures were always his own--the 8,broad ,silent ,valley0 not excepted4 ,the beauty and charm of its sentiment with the wonder of its strong mental grasp are paralleled by the workmanship displayed4 ,looking closely at the canvas1 one finds it not heavily loaded1 but dragged broadly and laid flatly with pigment4 ,the ground has been underbased in warm browns1 the shadows kept transparent and distant by glazes1 the lights put in with opaque pigments4 ,the handling is very broad if thin1 and there has been little or no kneading or emendation or fumbling4 ,it is straightforward flat painting of a masterful kind4 ,and this was done with that late-trained left hand6 ,illustration3 8,broad1 ,silent ,valley10 by ,alexander ,h4 ,wyant4 ,in the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,as for the drawing1 it does not bother with the edges of objects1 but concentrates force on the body and bulk--the color mass4 ,wyant had learned linear drawing with the exactness of a ,durand and used it in his early pictures1 but he soon outgrew the fancy for photographic detail4 ,it was not effective4 ,and he could give the solidity of a ledge of rock or the lightness of a floating cloud much better with a broader brush4 ,as he grew in art his brush continued to broaden4 ,his work became more sketchy1 his brush freer and fuller1 and possibly before he died he may have heard his work referred to as 8impressionistic0--heaven save the word6 ,the general public usually regards any breadth of brush-work whatever as a sign of impressionism4 ,the term in its present meaning1 or lack of meaning1 covers a multitude of stupidities4 ,every one who paints gives an impression because he cannot give anything else4 ,realism is a misnomer4 ,the real is nature itself1 and art is the report about the real made by the painter4 ,if it is a minute report of surface detail that can be seen through a magnifying-glass the public immediately dubs it realistic2 if it is a broad report that ignores the surface detail for bulk1 mass1 and body1 it is called impressionistic4 ,but the difference is merely between the smallness and the largeness of the view-point4 ,the great landscapists have usually regarded a tree as more important in its shadow masses and volume than in its leaves1 a rock as more impressive in its weight than its veins or stains1 a bar of sunlight more striking in its luminosity than in its sharp-cut edges4 ,seeing and painting that way it is easy to comprehend how they should be set down as impressionists when in a large sense they are making more faithful record than the men who see only the surface glitter4 ,such men were ,corot1 ,constable1 ,inness1 ,wyant1 not to mention ,manet or ,monet4 ,wyant probably came to that point of view at first through ,inness and then1 later on1 through ,constable1 ,corot1 and ,rousseau4 ,it was the right point of view1 though he never gave it with quite the breadth of ,corot or with the solid painting of ,rousseau4 ,his canvases were always sufficiently covered with pigment1 but no more4 ,some of his late pictures show a freer use of pigment1 but he seldom if ever did any fat or unctuous painting1 and never painted for mere display of dexterity4 ,he had certain formulas of composition1 methods of getting certain effects that he employed continuously4 ,for instance1 he liked a dark foreground1 a lighted middle distance1 and a veiled sunlight effect at the back4 ,to avoid the obviousness of this composition he often introduced light spots from a pool in the dark foreground and dark stumps or tree trunks in the light middle distance1 or otherwise varied the contrast of light with dark4 ,but these with glazed shadows and opaque high lights were not exactly painter's tricks but rather the conventional practices of the studio at that time4 ,wyant up to the last ten years of his life painted much out of doors and directly from the model4 ,from that he got exact knowledge of forms1 lights1 and colors1 so that in after-years he was able to draw and paint largely from visual memory4 ,working directly from the model led him into much detail1 and some of his earlier pictures are burdened with a multitude of facts1 but when he worked from memory in the studio all that was changed4 ,he simplified his composition to a few large masses1 threw out detail1 and depended for effect largely upon light1 air1 and diffused color4 ,a little valley view with half a dozen beeches at the left1 a clump of bushes with a ledge of rock at the right1 a veiled distance--that was enough for him4 ,occasionally in his pictures one sees a white cottage in the background1 a road or a bridge2 but these do not occur frequently1 and ,i cannot remember any picture by him that shows man1 woman1 or child4 ,the human interest was not his4 ,he believed that nature was sufficient unto itself and needed no association with mankind to make it beautiful or interesting4 ,so long had he looked at nature and studied her appearances1 so long had he marvelled and brooded over her grandeur and beauty1 so long had he loved the veiled mountain light1 the blue air1 and the forest shadow1 that finally he came to have a way of seeing things1 a point of view about nature that by its intensity and depth was perhaps abnormal4 ,he saw not as we see but as an absorbed nature-lover sees4 ,the disturbing prose of facts was no longer there4 ,the poetry of light1 air1 and color alone remained4 ,in his first endeavors when he painted from the model he recited the beauty of the facts and perhaps thought they would be sufficient to carry the picture4 ,nature was beautiful in itself2 if faithfully transcribed on canvas why would not the beauty carry on into the transcription8 ,he found later on that it would not and could not1 that the counterfeit presentment remained only a counterfeit presentment4 ,then he began to simplify his matter and broaden his method1 seeking not to reproduce the original but to give merely the feeling or impression that the original had made upon him4 ,the result was that peculiarly poetic quality of light1 air1 and color that we associate with such pictures as the 8,broad ,silent ,valley40 ,of its kind no finer quality of pictorial poetry was ever produced than is shown in ,wyant's later landscapes4 ,it is not exactly epic1 though it has wonderful descriptive passages1 sustained effect1 and often very positive strength of utterance4 ,lyric is the term that describes it better4 ,for it is a song rather than a recitation--a wood theme worthy of a ,pan's piping1 though it gives no hint of the ,old ,world1 and belongs emphatically in this new ,western land with its unbroken soil and virgin forests4 ,in aim and effect it is not unlike the pan in praise of light by ,corot4 ,they were both painter-poets--the one painting on the outskirts of ,paris1 the other gathering his material on the outskirts of civilization here in ,america4 ,inness1 ,wyant1 ,homer ,martin1 ,winslow ,homer--no one ever questioned the ,americanism of their art4 ,they are our very own--the product of this new soil4 ,even their limitations recite our history4 ,as for their aspirations1 with their passionate love for the beauty of our own ,american landscape1 may it not be fairly claimed that in these they are representative of the ,american people8 ,in a large sense have they not been our pictorial spokesmen1 saying in art what many of us have always felt but could not well express8 ,and ,wyant--,wyant with the wood-thrush note--well1 we shall not look upon his like again6 ,for he and ,martin were perhaps rarer spirits1 finer souls1 than either ,inness or ,homer4 ,their charm of mood1 the serenity of their outlook1 the loveliness of their vision will hardly be repeated in our art4 ,they marked an epoch and belonged to a past that unfortunately is leaving no decided teaching or sequence in its wake4 ,the trend in art to-day is not toward serenity but turbulence4 ,,iv ,,homer ,,martin ,the little aloofness of manner that prevented ,wyant from being a pronounced social light was not a characteristic of ,homer ,martin4 ,from his youth upward ,martin was companionable1 had in fact something of a genius for making friends4 ,all through his life he maintained social relations with the wise and the witty of his time1 moved in intellectual club circles1 and both at home and abroad was accounted a man of mind1 a rare raconteur and conversationalist1 a most attractive personality4 ,his droll comments and quick retorts are still told at his club1 and form perhaps something of a contrast to his pictures hanging upon the walls near by4 ,for there was never anything amusing about ,martin's art4 ,he indulged in no drollery of the brush1 and no intelligent person ever got a smile out of his canvases4 ,they are serious1 almost solemn1 affairs4 ,mrs4 ,martin1 in her delightful reminiscences of her husband1 quotes ,john ,r4 ,dennett as saying that 8,martin's landscapes look as if no one but ,god and himself had ever seen the places40 ,there is1 indeed1 nothing of human interest about them4 ,a distant figure or a house is occasionally introduced as a light spot in a dark plane1 or otherwise to help out the composition2 but the figure always suggests a wraith or a spook1 and the house is deserted or haunted4 ,says ,mrs4 ,martin3 8,there is an austerity1 a remoteness1 a certain savagery in even the sunniest and most peaceful of his landscapes1 which were also in him1 and an instinctive perception of which had made me say to him in the very earliest days of our acquaintance that he reminded me of ,ishmael40 ,there is no contradiction of character in these two phases of ,martin's mentality4 ,they argue merely versatility4 ,he was exceedingly fond of the silent1 even melancholy1 beauty of nature1 as he was of the solemn seriousness of fine poetry2 but these were not themes for talk at the club4 ,mrs4 ,martin says she never heard him 8talk shop0 and that1 with several notable exceptions such as ,la ,farge and ,winslow ,homer1 most of his close friends were people in other professions than painting4 ,he never tabooed art as a topic of conversation1 but he could talk on other themes quite as well4 ,the mental facet that reflected him as a man of the world gave out a different light from that which proclaimed him a poet in landscape4 ,his was not a one-facet mind4 ,what part heredity played in his equipment may only be guessed at4 ,his father was a mild-mannered carpenter of ,new ,england descent1 his mother a strong-willed1 quick-witted woman belonging to an old ,albany family4 ,it is usually assumed that ,martin derived from his mother and got his artistic instincts from her4 ,these latter1 it seems1 developed early--the mother testifying that before he was two years old she was accustomed to quiet him by giving him pencil and paper4 ,at five he did what has been called a 8spirited0 drawing of a horse4 ,doubtless every one can remember something of the same sort told about his own infancy4 ,the drawing habit is common to almost all children and usually means little4 ,but ,martin was to demonstrate shortly that he could do nothing else but draw and make pictures4 ,at school in ,albany 7where he had been born in #ahcf7 he was not a shining success4 ,he said himself that his school-days had been spent in looking through the windows at the ,greenbush ,hills and longing for the time when he could get over there and draw them4 ,at thirteen his schooling ended1 much to his after regret4 ,he then went into his father's carpenter-shop1 but that proved as little attractive as the schoolroom4 ,a clerkship in a store ended disastrously owing to his non-recognition of the amenities of business life4 ,then he entered an architect's office and failed there because of defective eyesight4 ,he could not see or draw a vertical line properly4 ,later on he was eliminated from the ,civil ,war draft because of this same defective vision4 ,his special fitness for the painter's craft was not very obvious at this time1 and yet he was headed strongly that way4 ,it was ,e4 ,d4 ,palmer1 the sculptor1 who persuaded the father to allow ,martin to go on with art4 ,palmer was then the art oracle of ,albany1 with a little coterie of painters about him consisting of such men as ,james and ,william ,hart1 ,george ,h4 ,boughton1 ,edward ,gay1 ,launt ,thompson4 ,martin knew them as a boy2 and1 after sixteen1 doing pretty much as he pleased1 he frequented their studios1 and for two weeks was a pupil of ,james ,hart4 ,that is the only direct instruction he ever received4 ,before he was twenty he had opened a studio of his own in ,albany1 was quite well known as a youthful prodigy1 and was generally thought to have in him the making of an artist4 ,it was in ,albany that he met and married in #ahfa ,elizabeth ,gilbert ,davis1 a clever woman who afterward developed much literary ability and became well known not only as a reviewer in ,the ,nation and other periodicals but as a novelist and magazine writer4 ,the marriage was altogether fortunate and happy1 though at times pecuniary difficulties incident to the artistic and literary life weighed heavily upon them4 ,she was a rod and a staff to comfort him1 and there is no record that she ever flinched or failed or regretted her choice4 ,in their early married life there were few trials1 she recording that they were fairly prosperous1 that he received numerous commissions for pictures1 and that they had made many friends4 ,they had stayed on in ,albany until the winter of #ahfb-ahfc1 and then had moved to ,new ,york4 ,in #ahfd he had a studio in the ,tenth ,street ,building1 and his near neighbors were ,sandford ,gifford1 ,hubbard1 ,griswold1 ,j4 ,g4 ,brown1 ,mc,entee1 ,eastman ,johnson1 and1 later1 ,john ,la ,farge4 ,this was a time of comparatively rapid production with ,martin and also a time when many influences might be supposed at work upon him2 but in reality none of the influences seems to have made much of an impression4 ,his early work is now infrequently seen1 but what there is of it1 though small1 bright1 and a little crude1 is nevertheless quite distinctly ,martinesque4 ,he had1 of course1 inherited from the ,hudson ,river school 7a name that ,professor ,mather declares ,martin originated7 the 8view0 in landscape4 ,with the panorama had come down the studio method of small detailed treatment1 and ,martin at first paid it allegiance but he very soon saw its defects4 ,as a boy he could speak of a picture by his master1 ,james ,hart1 as 8a scene of niggled magnitude10 and ,mr4 ,brownell tells me that he had always talked much of 8generalization0 in landscape4 ,his early pictures show this generalization not so much perhaps in breadth of handling as in breadth of view4 ,he was even then seeing the large elements of earth1 air1 water1 and sky4 ,naturally enough1 his brush was a little fussy with foliage1 dead-tree trunks1 rock strata1 and foreground properties in general2 but he could see the unity of mountain ranges1 the continuity of air1 the omnipresent radiance of light1 the great heave of the sky4 ,he already had the vision but not1 as yet1 the full means of revealing it4 ,it was practically the same nature that ,cole and ,church had seen1 but they saw it in its surface aspect1 where ,martin saw it in its depth4 ,the difference between them was the wide difference that divides the superficial from the profound4 ,with his early pictures ,martin had made considerable success4 ,as far back as #aheg he had exhibited at the ,national ,academy of ,design2 in #ahfh he was elected an associate of the ,academy1 and in #ahgd he was made a full academician4 ,his landscape material at first had been gathered in the ,berkshires1 then he seems to have tramped and sketched with ,edward ,gay in the ,catskills4 ,in the early sixties he went to the ,white ,mountains1 and from #ahfd to #ahfi he was every summer in the ,adirondacks4 ,in #ahga he went to ,duluth1 ,minnesota1 at the invitation of ,jay ,cooke1 but the next year found him in the ,smoky ,mountains of ,north ,carolina4 ,he was a mountain lover1 almost exclusively so1 at this time1 and apparently not quite happy away from them4 ,professor ,mather1 who has closely traced ,martin's career in a notable monograph1#c says that his sketches in this early period were made with a hard pencil on sheets of gray paper4 ,they were minutely done1 drawn in outline1 without color1 and with no dash or smudge or mere suggestion about them4 ,the pictures painted from them in his studio were perhaps less detailed than the sketches1 and as for their color1 he no doubt relied upon his visual memory or his instinct for tone and harmony4 ,after #ahgf he began to use charcoal in sketching1 and later on he took up water-colors and made drawings with them along the ,saguenay and elsewhere4 ,doubtless these later sketch mediums had come to him on his first trip abroad in #ahgf4 #c ,homer ,martin3 ,poet in ,landscape1 by ,frank ,jewett ,mather1 ,new ,york1 #aiab4 ,the climax of his early work--that is1 before #ahgf--seems to have been reached in such pictures as the 8,lake ,sandford40 ,it was shown at the ,centennial ,exhibition at ,philadelphia in #ahgf1 but painted probably as far back as #ahgj4 ,the scene is in the ,adirondacks1 and ,martin has pictured the lake looking down from a distant height4 ,there is a dark foreground of outcropping rock1 then the light-reflecting surface of the long lake1 then a ridge of dark mountains1 and back of that the light sky--four planes in alternations of dark and light4 ,it is woods1 rock1 water1 and sky--no more4 ,the largeness of ,martin's view1 with its grasp of such essential elements as light1 air1 and space1 is quite apparent notwithstanding a handling that seems too small for it4 ,there is no petty puttering over leaves and stones1 but the small catches of light-and-dark in the foliage1 the tree trunks1 the rocks1 the sharp1 clean-drawn outlines conceal rather than reveal the conception4 ,moreover1 the smooth1 enamel-like surface seems to act as a binder and a restraint4 ,an excellent picture1 as many another that he painted during this period2 but ,martin had not yet entirely emerged from his early manner1 was not yet expressing himself fully and freely4 ,at this time1 no doubt1 he had seen in ,america some works by ,corot and the ,barbizon men and had been impressed by them1 but a new period was to begin for him with his first trip to ,europe4 ,this was in #ahgf4 ,he went to ,england1 where he met and became intimate with ,whistler and ,albert ,moore1 then to ,france1 where he visited ,barbizon1 though ,millet and ,rousseau were dead4 ,he also went to ,st4 ,cloud to see ,corot's sketching-ground1 and sketched there a bit himself4 ,he did not do much painting4 ,all of his sojourns abroad were times of study and observation4 ,mrs4 ,martin says that his working periods were very irregular1 that he absorbed things by a slow means rather than painted by wilful effort2 and he himself insisted that he could not paint without the impulse4 ,of course all this was set down to him as indolence by the hypercritical1 but at the present time it is well understood that mental preparedness is necessary for the production of any great work1 and that periods of long reflection are not periods of idleness4 ,he returned to ,new ,york in ,december of the same year and took up his painting1 but he was now making some decided changes in both his matter and his manner4 ,the generous expanse of the panoramic view was cut down to more modest landscape proportions4 ,no doubt that had come to him from seeing the paysage intime of ,corot1 ,rousseau1 and ,daubigny4 ,possibly1 too1 he had been persuaded by the broad1 simple landscapes of ,georges ,michel1 whose pictures were then well known not only in ,paris but in ,new ,york4 ,at any rate it is quite apparent in ,martin's work after #ahgf that he was gradually discarding the 8view0 for something smaller and more intimate4 ,it was still a mountain landscape known only to ,god and himself and had no human appeal1 but it expressed ,martin's thought and feeling much better than the earlier affair4 ,his brush1 too1 was broadening4 ,it was beginning to sweep over details1 spots1 and sparkles1 and to emphasize masses of light or dark or color4 ,exactness of statement1 sharpness of line1 emphasis of drawing were hindrances rather than helps to expression4 ,later on1 no doubt1 he would have agreed in toto with a remark attributed by ,charles ,ricketts to ,puvis de ,chavannes3 8,la perfection bte qui n'a rien faire avec le vrai dessin1 le dessin expressif60 ,it was not until near the end of his career1 when his eyesight had nearly gone1 that ,martin felt himself free from the restraint of method and materials4 ,he then said to his wife in reply to some praise of a picture on the easel3 8,i have learned to paint at last4 ,if ,i were quite blind now and knew just where the colors were on my palette ,i could express my self40 ,but long before he thought himself able to paint he had arrived with painters and paint-lovers4 ,in #ahgg he was asked in at the birth of the ,society of ,american ,artists1 and was an initial member of that organization4 ,the next year he went to ,concord for ,scribners ,monthly#d to do some illustrations for an article on that place1 and in #ahha he was sent to ,england by the ,century ,magazine#e to prepare some illustrations of ,george ,eliot's country4 ,martin did not altogether like making the illustrations and considered it as only hack-work4 ,and it seems that the ,century people did not particularly care for his work1 though just why would be hard to discover4 ,to the casual critic of to-day looking at these drawings in the magazine they seem excellent1 and1 moreover1 they are decidedly ,martinesque though worked over by an engraver4 #d ,scribners ,monthly1 ,february1 #ahgi4 #e ,century ,magazine1 vol4 #cj1 #ahhe4 ,in ,london once more1 the ,martins saw much of ,whistler and something of such literary people as ,henley and the ,gosses4 ,after the illustrations were made they crossed over to ,france4 ,it was planned to return soon to ,new ,york1 but some unexpected money arrived and they stayed on at ,villerville in ,normandy4 ,there and at ,honfleur they remained until late in #ahhf4 ,it was perhaps the most enjoyable period of their lives1 for though they were poor in purse they were well-off in friends1 and ,w4 ,j4 ,henessey1 ,duez1 ,reinhart1 the ,forbes-,robertsons1 the ,brownells1 and others came to see them4 ,life in ,normandy was very attractive--perhaps too attractive for ,martin's work1 for he seems to have completed few pictures while there4 ,it was another period of absorption during which he sketched and laid in many pictures which were afterward finished in ,america--such pictures as 8,low ,tide1 ,villerville10 8,honfleur ,light10 8,criquebuf ,church10 8,normandy ,trees10 8,normandy ,farm10 8,sun-,worshippers10 and the 8,view on the ,seine40 ,he was not a painter to do a picture at one sitting4 ,he required time and much musing before production4 ,back once more in ,new ,york1 ,martin took a studio in ,fifty-fifth ,street1 where he completed many of his ,normandy canvases4 ,after #ahij he had a painting-room in ,fifty-ninth ,street1 where he did the 8,haunted ,house0 and the 8,normandy ,trees40 ,in #ahib he made a last trip to ,england1 and spent some time at ,bournemouth with ,george ,chalmers4 ,returned again to ,america1 he went to ,st4 ,paul to join ,mrs4 ,martin1 stopping on the way at the ,chicago ,fair1 where a number of his pictures were shown4 ,at ,st4 ,paul his eyesight began failing to an alarming degree4 ,a famous oculist declared the optic nerve of one eye dead and the other eye clouded with cataract4 ,but ,martin now painted on with redoubled energy1 as though conscious that his time was short4 ,he finished a number of pictures and sent them on to ,new ,york1 where he had a selling arrangement with a dealer4 ,but alas6 the pictures did not sell1 and shortly afterward the painter laid aside his brushes4 ,he was fatally ill with a malignant growth in the throat1 and death came to him as something of a relief in #ahig4 ,illustration3 8,view on the ,seine10 by ,homer ,d4 ,martin4 ,in the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,it was in these latter years only that ,martin said that at last he had learned how to paint4 ,mrs4 ,martin had been lauding a picture called 8,the ,adirondacks10 saying that if he never did another stroke he would go out in a blaze of glory1 and it was his answer to her4 ,he probably meant by the remark that he had arrived at a method of handling that fully expressed his thought4 ,in reality it was the same old method1 only it had been broadened and simplified4 ,except in his very early works1 ,martin had never been given to excessive surface detail4 ,he painted with a comparatively broad brush almost from the start--painted with a flat stroke rather than with a stippling point4 ,the 8,white ,mountain0 picture in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 painted in #ahfh1 shows substantially the same brush-work as the 8,lake ,ontario ,sand ,dunes0 of nearly twenty years later4 ,the sand-dunes picture seems to have been done largely with a palette-knife4 ,apparently it is trowelled across the canvas1 with one tone or color laid over another1 flattened down1 compressed1 blended4 ,this applies especially to the sky2 only the dead trees in the foreground are painted with a brush4 ,in the 8,view on the ,seine10 also in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 the foliage and rocks are painted with the brush1 but1 again1 the sky and water seem laid down in layers of paint1 put on in long bands1 and flattened to a lacquered surface4 ,these bands of color in the sky1 superimposed one upon another like platings of glass in a ,la ,farge window1 appear again in the 8,honfleur ,light40 ,all the hues seem blended by superimposition to produce a golden opalescent glow in the sky4 ,mrs4 ,martin said he used colors as a poet does words1 and here1 no doubt1 he was getting orchestration in his sky by fusing many colors together4 ,but back of the method was the point of view which perhaps unconsciously begat the method4 ,martin always had a fancy for the great1 the essential1 elements of nature4 ,and he saw things in their large relations1 but at first was bothered by their protrusive and petty facts4 ,when finally he came to paint only what he loved and let the rest go1 he arrived at full expression4 ,to paint space1 air1 pervasive light1 color--to paint these alone--was to emphasize them1 to characterize them by isolation1 as though the painter should say3 8,i mean you to look only at the things ,i love and you shall see that they are lovable4 ,never mind the bright autumn leaf1 the woodchuck on the rock1 or the open cottage door4 ,look at the glory of light coming through thin clouds1 the great lift of the sky1 the splendid reflection of the water1 the abiding beauty of color in the forests and hills40 ,it is doubtful that ,martin had any positive theory of art which he was trying to work out in practice4 ,he probably painted instinctively or unconsciously toward a given goal1 as most painters do4 ,that he knew emphasis could be given certain features of landscape by suppressing other features is to say that he knew the old law of dramatic effect4 ,but there is a shade of difference perhaps between negative suppression and positive assertion4 ,to emphasize a certain quality or element by putting forward its most commanding feature was to characterize it and make it dominant4 ,and that1 ,i think1 was ,martin's aim4 ,he knew mountain fight1 air1 and color as few painters have known them2 he knew the glamour of their poetry quite as well as the prose of their facts4 ,from much knowledge and long contemplation he had come to know the abiding character of mountain landscape4 ,and when at last he had simplified his composition and his handling1 it seemed an easy matter for him to put the characterization upon canvas4 ,his remark to ,mrs4 ,martin1 8,if ,i were quite blind now and knew just where the colors were on my palette ,i could express myself10 was not an empty boast4 ,this is perhaps reducing theories of painting to a very elementary basis4 ,the formula prescribes merely an omission of what you do not care for and a strong characterization of the things you do care for4 ,but as a matter of fact is that not the process common to most painters8 ,the ,meissoniers and ,grmes who paint the shoe-button and the eyelash do so because they love shoe-buttons and eyelashes just as ,durand and ,church loved birch bark and trailing ivy4 ,almost all of our early landscapists made no discrimination whatever in what they liked or disliked4 ,a red sun in the background was of no more artistic importance than a red ,september maple in the foreground4 ,they took nature in its entirety1 omitting nothing1 adding nothing4 ,in result they produced something only a grade above the colored photograph4 ,but ,corot1 ,inness1 ,wyant1 ,martin had a more intelligent view-point4 ,to them there were certain features of nature that were characteristic in their universality and permanence1 and other features that were merely casual or accidental4 ,the introduction of the merely casual they found did not lend to the characterization of the permanent1 so they discarded it and threw their strength into that which signified the most4 ,what are the significant and permanent features in landscape8 ,well1 above all is light--the first of created things1 and to this latest day the most beautiful of nature's manifestations4 ,corot spent his life painting it and even on his deathbed was raving about it in delirium4 ,no wonder ,martin was a great admirer of ,corot1 for he1 too1 was devoted to the splendor of light4 ,in all of his later pictures it is a leading feature1 and the eye is inevitably drawn at once to this beauty of the sky4 ,he greatly disliked anything like a story in his landscapes or any literary climax dependent upon figures or houses or animals4 ,they would detract from the tale of light and were discarded4 ,nature was beautiful enough by itself considered4 ,no wonder he chose the uninhabited mountains for his subjects4 ,they were not only devoid of humanity1 but up there beyond the peaks was the most splendid manifestation of the light he loved--the pure mountain light4 ,what are the other abiding features of landscape8 ,well1 shadow or half-light--light partially obscured by opaque bodies4 ,it could be used as a contrast and by cunning application could be made to enhance the luminosity of full light4 ,moreover1 interior depth and penetration could be obtained with it4 ,best of all1 its uncertainty lent itself to suggestiveness and the mystery of things half seen4 ,inness was greatly in love with it4 ,many of his late canvases are called 8vague0 or sometimes 8swampy10 because they are saturated with shadow masses out of which loom or glow mysteriously half-seen forms and colors4 ,martin made no such use of it as ,inness1 though many of his foregrounds are in shadow through which one looks to a lightened middle distance or sky4 ,he was very fond of a light broken by being filtered through thin clouds1 and he carried this out by employing a diffused thin shadow such as obtains under broken light4 ,it is not often that one meets with dark shadows in his later pictures4 ,he seemed to shy at anything like blackness1 and in one of his pictures now in the ,metropolitan ,museum--the 8,view on the ,seine0--the luminosity is so marked that the picture has the look of a water-color drawing4 ,it was not the black and the 8woolly0 in ,corot that he loved but the luminous and the radiant4 ,another omnipresent and universal feature of landscape is color4 ,it is an emanation of light1 is1 in fact1 no more than its dispersed beams4 ,if the light is direct and unclouded1 the color will leap to very high pitches1 such as we see in the landscapes of ,inness or the ,algerian scenes of ,delacroix or ,regnault or ,fromentin2 if the light comes from below the horizon and is reflected down to earth from the upper sky1 the color will be subdued in mellow tones of saffron1 rose1 and grays such as we see in the dawns of ,corot2 if the light comes from above the horizon at sunset and is filtered through filmy forms of cumulo-stratus clouds1 the color will be delicate broken tones of gold1 azure1 sad grays such as we see in the 8,honfleur ,light0 or the 8,criquebuf ,church0 of ,martin4 ,he revelled in these subdued tones of broken light4 ,they were not only the eternal coloring of nature but they were the means wherewith he expressed his own sentiment or feeling about nature4 ,still other and not less universal features of landscape to ,martin were enveloping atmosphere which bound all things together and made harmony2 space which lifted above the reach of the earth and was limitless2 heave and bulge in the mountain ranges with continuity in their interblended lines and massive strength in their rock strata2 a limitless expanse to the mountain forests2 a splendid broken reflection from the surface of river1 pond1 and pool4 ,these features appear in such different pictures as the 8,lake ,champlain10 the 8,lake ,sandford10 the 8,adirondacks10 the 8,normandy ,farm10 the 8,mussel ,gatherers10 the 8,haunted ,house10 the 8,westchester ,hills0--this last1 perhaps1 the simplest and the best of all4 ,illustration3 8,westchester ,hills10 by ,homer ,d4 ,martin4 ,in the ,daniel ,guggenheim ,collection4 ,a final characteristic of nature may be noted because ,martin seems to have known it well4 ,it appears in almost all of his pictures1 and is perhaps more pronounced with him than with any other landscape-painter4 ,i mean nature's great serenity4 ,the word has been so carelessly used in criticism that one has difficulty in enforcing more than a careless meaning for it1 and yet whatever of serenity there may be in fretful civilization or its art is merely a poor imitation of the eternal repose of nature itself4 ,by that ,i imply nothing very profound4 ,the mad plunges of ,niagara1 the explosions of ,colima and ,krakatoa1 the inundation of tidal waves1 or the shakings of earthquakes are mere accidents from which nature straightway recovers4 ,the winds1 the storms1 the great sea-waves again are only momentary incidents4 ,after they have passed1 nature once more returns to herself4 ,she is ruffled merely for a moment and then only in a small localized area4 ,her normal condition is repose--that immobility which we associate with the realms of space4 ,in the arts some attempt has been made to give this quality of supreme restfulness4 ,the early ,egyptians in their colossal ,pharaonic statues attained a formal repose by the bulk and weight and hardness of the granite and the calm attitude of the figure seated in its great stone chair4 ,the ,parthenon as a building and the ,phidian sculptures of the pediment1 now in the ,british ,museum1 again have a poise and style not inaptly called restful4 ,once more in painting serenity has often been attributed to the landscapes of ,claude and ,corot and not without good reason4 ,martin liked that feature in both these landscape-painters4 ,standing before the paralleled and contrasted ,claude and ,turner in the ,national ,gallery1 he called ,george ,chalmers's attention to the serene dignity of the ,claude and the fussiness and labored work of the ,turner4 ,but before ever he saw ,turner or ,claude or ,corot1 he was picturing this attribute of nature with marked effect4 ,his critics and admirers called attention to the absence of anything dramatic in his art2 they noticed that his landscapes were deserted of man1 that they were silent1 forsaken places with a solemn stillness about them4 ,nothing stirred in them2 ,god and ,martin only had seen them4 ,but was not all this merely another way of describing nature's eternal repose which ,martin had grasped and pictured8 ,there is no stillness like that of a deserted church or a haunted house1 and are not all ,martin's churches deserted and all his houses haunted8 ,there is no hush like that of a mountain forest1 and are not all his forests motionless8 ,there is no rest like that of a mountain lake caught in a cup in the hills1 and are not all ,martin's lakes still waters that throw back the reflection of serene skies8 ,we speak of his poetry1 of his sentiment and his feeling about nature1 and these he had in abundance1 but do we always credit him with a knowledge of nature's profundities8 ,had he not an intellectual grasp of the great elemental truths of nature1 and was his art not largely a calm1 supreme1 and splendid exposition of those truths to mankind8 ,a seer and a poet he was2 but also a thinker4 ,his long fallow periods when he did not1 could not1 paint were periods of intellectual reflection that brought forth after their kind an art which was at least unique4 ,martin's pictures never were very popular4 ,during his life the great public passed them by and the picture-collector bought them only with caution and at very modest prices4 ,it was to be supposed that after bravely living and dying in poverty his pictures would finally come into the market and sell at factitious prices4 ,such indeed has been the case4 ,some of them shortly after his death fetched over five thousand dollars apiece1 and to meet an increased demand for them the genial forger came to the rescue4 ,spurious ,martins were made and sold to picture-collectors until finally the scandal of it had an airing in open court4 ,what a commentary on an age and a people that would appreciate and patronize art6 ,the real jewel lying unnoticed in the dust for years and then a quarrel in court over its paste imitation6 ,verily the annals of art furnish forth strange reading1 and not the least remarkable page is the story of ,homer ,martin and his pictures4 ,v ,,winslow ,,homer ,i never had more than a nodding acquaintance with ,winslow ,homer4 ,several times at opening nights of the ,national ,academy of ,design or elsewhere1 there was a word of greeting or comment but no more4 ,he sent me1 in #ahic or thereabouts1 a signed copy of a reproduction of his 8,undertow10 and letters were exchanged about it2 but nothing noteworthy was in the letters4 ,my impression about him1 if ,i had one1 was perhaps not different from that of his contemporaries4 ,he was always thought a diffident1 a taciturn1 even at times a brusque1 person--one who preferred his own silence to any one else's loquacity4 ,chase once remarked that he would thank no one for entertainment because he liked his own art better than any one's society1 but that was mere scorn he was just then flinging out at a ,philistine millionaire4 ,the remark would fit ,homer much better4 ,for ,homer lived it and ,chase did not4 ,much of ,homer's brusqueness of manner found its way into his art4 ,there is no grace or charm or polish about it4 ,the manner of it repels rather than wins one4 ,the cunning1 the adroit1 the insinuating are hardly ever apparent1 but in their place we have again and again the direct1 the abrupt1 the vehement4 ,he states things without prelude or apology in a harsh1 almost savage1 manner1 and the chief reason why we listen to him is that he has something to say4 ,he has seen things in nature at first hand and his statement about them brings home fundamental truths to us with startling force4 ,there is no sentiment or feeling in or about the report4 ,the man never falls into a revery as ,martin1 or a mood as ,wyant1 or a passion as ,inness4 ,he is merely a reporter and is concerned only with the truth4 ,but it is a very compelling truth that he shows us4 ,he came out of ,boston1 where in #ahcf he was born of ,new ,england parents4 ,his father was a hardware merchant and his mother a ,maine woman who is said to have had a talent for painting flowers4 ,the inference has been that the son got his first fancy for painting from his mother1 though one can hardly imagine anything farther removed from ,homer's liking than the anmic flower-painting of ,new ,england ladies in the #ahdj's4 ,on the other hand1 his grandfathers had been seafaring men and it is quite possible that he inherited from them that love for the sea that developed in his later life4 ,but then it is difficult to make out that ,homer derived anything from any one4 ,he seems to have just grown rather than developed from a stalk or stock4 ,when he was six his family moved to ,cambridge2 and thereabouts1 in the woods and streams1 he hunted1 fished1 and developed a love for out-of-door life that never left him4 ,there1 too1 he went to school and put forth his first drawings4 ,there is a drawing extant1 done when he was eleven years old1 called the 8,beetle and the ,wedge0#f--;a drawing of boys at play--that ,kenyon ,cox praises highly1 saying that 8the essential ,winslow ,homer1 the master of weight and movement1 is already here by implication40 ,it is certainly a remarkable drawing1 for it shows not only observation but skill of hand beyond a boy of eleven4 ,moreover1 one is rather surprised at the economy of means employed4 ,it is done easily1 with a few strokes1 as though the boy-artist had unusual knowledge of form4 #f ,published in ,downes1 ,life and ,works of ,winslow ,homer1 ,boston1 #aiaa4 ,the father was evidently pleased with the son's after-efforts1 for at nineteen the youth was apprenticed to a ,boston lithographer by the name of ,bufford4 ,he started at work without any lessons in drawing and was soon making designs for title-pages of sheet-music and working somewhat upon figures4 ,a wood-engraver named ,damereau gave him some hints about drawing on the block1 and in the two years that he remained with ,bufford he must have picked up much information about drawing for illustration1 for at twenty-one he had set up a shop of his own and was making illustrations for ,ballou's ,pictorial1 ,harper's ,weekly1 and other periodicals4 ,the experience as an illustrator no doubt taught him exact observation1 precision in outline drawing1 conciseness in statement1 and the value of the essential feature4 ,so impressive was this early education that it remained with him and influenced him to the end4 ,he was always an observer and an illustrator4 ,one of his canvases left unfinished at his death1 8,shooting the ,rapids10 now in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 is primarily an illustration of ,adirondack life4 ,it is something more1 to be sure1 but the point to be noted just here is that the early inclination was never wholly changed4 ,he never became subjective1 never intentionally put himself into any of his works4 ,he merely reported what he saw from the point of view of an illustrator4 ,he came to ,new ,york to live in #ahei and attended the night classes at the ,academy of ,design4 ,there he no doubt improved his drawing4 ,it is said that he also received instruction from ,rondel1 a ,frenchman1 and in the ,paris ,exposition of #ahij he was catalogued as a 8pupil of ,rondel02 but there must have been some jest behind it1 for ,homer received only four lessons from ,rondel4 ,he was not the man to take lessons from any one4 ,from the beginning he was too self-reliant1 too self-centred1 to be led very far afield by another's method or opinion4 ,in #ahfj1 while still a very young man1 he exhibited at the ,academy of ,design his picture called 8,skating in ,central ,park40 ,the next year he went to ,washington to prepare drawings for ,lincoln's inauguration2 and the year following he was the special war-artist of ,harper's ,weekly with ,mc,clellan in the ,peninsular ,campaign4 ,his first war-picture done in oils is said to be a 8,sharp-,shooter on ,picket ,duty40 ,it was soon followed by 8,rations10 8,home1 ,sweet ,home10 and 8,the ,lost ,goose0--two of them shown at the ,academy of ,design in #ahfc4 ,the next year he sent 8,the ,briarwood ,pipe0 and 8,in ,front of the ,guard ,house40 ,in #ahfe he was made an academician for his picture called 8,the ,bright ,side10 and shortly afterward his very popular painting 8,prisoners from the ,front0 was shown4 ,there is nothing remarkable about any of these works4 8,the ,bright ,side10 which won ,homer the title of ,n4,a41 shows some negro soldiers sprawling on the sunny side of an army tent4 ,like 8,rations0 and 8,prisoners from the ,front10 it is just a passable illustration that if made to-day would run small risk of applause4 ,we wonder over the achievement of ,homer's later years1 but one is not sure that the lack of achievement in his earlier years is not the more surprising4 ,how could he do such commonplace little pictures6 ,occasionally something like 8,snap the ,whip10 which has large drawing comes in to break the monotony2 but the dull trend is soon resumed4 ,his audiences and editors must have been decidedly uncritical or else extremely good-natured4 ,and at this time ,homer had practically finished with his apprenticeship to art4 ,he was thirty years old and had already developed aloofness1 not to say taciturnity4 ,he kept much by himself1 would not look at other people's pictures or discuss them1 would not take advice from any one4 ,this was not because his head had been turned by his popularity2 but possibly because he thought he could work out better results alone than with the aid of others4 ,in spite of a little noisy success1 he must have known that his paintings up to this time were of small importance4 ,they were hard in drawing1 brick-like in color1 cramped in handling4 ,their illustrative quality and the fact that ,homer did them are the only interesting things about them to-day4 ,in #ahfg he went to ,france and spent ten months in ,paris1 but what he did there can only be guessed at4 ,he evidently attended no schools1 haunted no galleries1 made no friends among painters4 ,he did some drawings of people copying in the ,louvre and dancing in the ,students ,quarter--that is about all4 ,the inclination of the illustrator was with him rather than the prying instincts of an art student4 ,what cared he about ,titian's nobles or ,watteau's gallants or ,chardin's cooks6 ,they were not themes for him to conjure with4 ,what to him was the ,ecole des ,beaux ,arts or the atelier of ,couture6 ,he was well past the student age4 ,he might have thought highly of the works of ,millet or ,courbet had he studied them1 but there is no hint in his work that he had even seen them1 though ,john ,la ,farge said that ,homer was largely made by studying the lithographs of the men of #ahcj4 ,he came back to ,america and continued painting ,american subjects in his own hard1 dry1 and hot manner4 ,he did some shore themes at ,gloucester showing a first interest in the sea1 some pictures of girls picking berries or grouped in a country store1 some sketches of boys swimming1 and men in the hay-fields--all of them showing an interest in country life4 ,but none of them was in any way remarkable4 ,his 8,sand ,swallow ,colony10 with boys robbing the nests under the bank's edge1 is the best type of his illustrations done at this time4 ,it appeared in ,harper's ,weekly1 served its purpose1 and went its way without making any perceptible impression upon ,american art4 ,in #ahgd ,homer made a first trip to the ,adirondacks1 as though searching new magazine material4 ,he found it in the ,adirondack guides and in hunting-scenes4 ,in #ahgf he went to ,virginia1 once more looking for painter's 8copy10 and finding it in the ,american negro4 ,such pictures as 8,the ,carnival0 and a 8,visit from the ,old ,mistress0 were the result4 ,it was a genre interesting only in theme1 for ,homer's workmanship was still without any great merit or impressiveness4 ,he flung back to the ,american farmer for a subject1 and then once more went to ,gloucester to do schooners and ships4 ,in #ahgc1 while staying on ,ten ,point ,island1 in ,gloucester ,harbor1 he had drawn some water-colors notable for their high light and their absence of shadow4 ,they seemed to have some purely pictorial quality about them1 but the illustrative motive was still behind them4 ,he did not give up work for ,harper's ,weekly until #ahge1 and it was #ahhj before he finally abandoned all work for reproduction4 ,up to this time ,homer had not painted a single epoch-making picture4 ,as ,kenyon ,cox quite truly says1 had he died at forty he would have been unknown to fame4 ,one might draw out the number of years and make them fifty without extravagance of statement4 ,indeed1 it was not until he was sixty that he began to paint his pictures of barren coast and sea upon which his enduring fame must rest1 though before that he had given indication in many pictures of fisherfolk1 whither he was trending4 ,the blood of his sailor ancestors was coming to the fore at last1 and the sea was to be his main theme thereafter4 ,if we believe in genius that is born rather than made1 then that1 too1 began to crop out in his later life4 ,he went to ,tynemouth1 ,england1 in #ahha1 and stayed there for two years in close contact with the fisher people of the coast4 ,this produced a decided change in his art4 ,the large1 robust type of ,english fisher lass1 the strongly built sailor in oilskins1 appealed to him and remained with him4 ,they were rugged1 forceful people that well met his hard drawing and severe brush4 ,there1 too1 he began picturing the gray sky and mist and sea of ,england4 ,the heavy atmosphere that hangs like a pall upon the ,north ,sea in stormy weather caught his fancy1 and the gray-blue1 gray-green waters gave him a new idea of color4 ,the old airless1 brick-colored picture of his early days was never taken up again4 ,he dropped readily into cool grays1 which in themselves were perhaps no nearer a fine color-harmony than his earlier hot colors1 but at the least they were neutral and they were emphatically true of the sea in its stormy phases4 ,even ,homer's rigid method of painting began to break a little at ,tynemouth4 ,he was working then in water-colors1 and perhaps the lighter medium lent itself more readily to a freer handling4 ,his brush loosened1 his drawing seemed less angular1 less emphasized in outline1 and his composition became more a matter of selection and adjustment than of mere accidental appearance4 ,mr4 ,cox1 whose excellent monograph on ,homer ,i am glad to quote1#g thinks that ,homer quite found himself at ,tynemouth1 and points out in the 8,voice from the ,cliff0 his 8rhythm of line0 whereby he holds the three figures together2 but ,i am not sure that ,homer did not get a suggestion of that rhythm of line up in ,london town on his perhaps occasional visits there4 ,a hint of the types of the fisher girls1 the repeated lines of the arms and dresses1 with the strength gotten from the repetition1 ,i seem to remember in ,leighton's picture called the 8,summer ,moon40 ,albert ,moore1 too1 was turning out rhythmical repetitions at that time and using models that remind us somewhat of those used by ,homer1 though1 of course1 slighter and more fanciful4 ,the fisher girls in the 8,voice from the ,cliff0 and the 8,three ,girls0 are a little too pretty to be wholly original with ,homer1 and yet it must be acknowledged that such water-colors as 8,mending the ,nets0 and 8,watching the ,tempest0 give warning of the coming man4 ,the two women seated on a bench in the 8,mending the ,nets0 are young-faced1 large-boned1 big-bodied types that have a sculpturesque quality about them2 and the 8,watching the ,tempest0 throws out a suggestion of the ,homeric sea that is to be4 #g ,winslow ,homer3 ,an ,appreciation1 by ,kenyon ,cox1 ,new ,york1 #aiad4 ,it was in #ahhd that ,homer finally went to ,prout's ,neck1 near ,scarborough1 where he built a cottage on the shore and lived for the rest of his life1 quite alone1 practically shut out from art and artists1 a recluse and a hermit yet within gunshot of a crowd4 ,he lived there much as ,thoreau at ,walden ,pond1 cooking his own meals1 doing his own gardening1 raising his own tobacco1 and rolling his own cigars4 ,the city had never been attractive to him1 and from first to last he preferred picturing the open spaces rather than streets and houses4 ,it was from the isolation of ,prout's ,neck that he began sending forth the pictures that made him famous4 ,one of the earliest was the 8,life ,line0 of #ahhd4 ,it is a most dramatic illustration of a rescue at sea--a girl being brought ashore by a life-saving-station man4 ,the two are swung in a buoy from the taut life-line and are being windlassed through the great waves4 ,the girl is unconscious1 and1 lying helpless1 catches the eye and the sympathy at once4 ,that our interest in her might be all-absorbing1 the painter has hidden the man's face by a woollen muffler blown out by the wind4 ,now the 8,life ,line0 is very forceful story-telling with the brush1 but let it not be overlooked that it is story-telling--illustration4 ,the illustrator1 with an eye for the critical moment and the appealing interest1 is just as apparent here as in 8,snap the ,whip0 or 8,prisoners from the ,front40 ,winslow ,homer1 the pictorial reporter1 is still present4 ,all along he has been answering the question3 8,what does it mean80 ,he is still interested in that1 but he is now beginning to think about the artist's question3 8,how does it look80 ,he is just a little concerned about his form and his color1 his composition1 and his general pictorial effect4 ,they are not what they should be4 ,the wet1 clinging garments of the girl reveal a large and very hard figure4 ,it is rigid in its outlines and stony in its texture1 as though reinforced for purposes of mechanical reproduction4 ,the man is little more than so much tackle and line1 so ropelike is his treatment1 and the enormous hollow of the sea is merely a perilous background4 ,as for color1 the picture is gray and would lose none of its fetching quality if done in black-and-white4 ,there is no love for color as color nor for painting as painting here4 ,the handling was evidently as little pleasure to the painter as it is to us4 ,it is as flat1 as monotonous1 and as negative as the plaster on a kitchen wall4 ,there is no suspicion of subtlety1 facility1 or suavity in it4 ,but when all that is said1 there is a large something left behind unaccounted for--a grip and knowledge and point of view--that we respect and admire4 ,illustration3 8,undertow10 by ,winslow ,homer4 ,in the ,edward ,d4 ,adams ,collection4 ,a second dramatic and harrowing picture finished at ,prout's ,neck was 8,undertow40 ,it is a rescue of two girl bathers by life-savers1 something that the painter had seen in the surf at ,atlantic ,city4 ,it appealed to him4 ,why8 ,because it was beautiful in itself8 ,hardly that2 but because it had great illustrative possibilities4 ,there once more was the critical moment and the appealing interest4 ,he could not resist such 8copy0 as that4 ,but now in putting the picture together he is something more than a reporter of the fact4 ,he embellishes the fact to make it not only more effective but more attractive4 ,he places the figures on the canvas in a diagonal line that echoes the diagonal of the incoming wave at the back4 ,the lines give a swing and surge forward not only to the sea but to the figures4 ,the four figures are locked in a long chain--almost a death-grip--with clutching hands and arms and much use of angle lines4 ,the angle lines repeat one another1 interlock1 and run on until the whole group is of a piece--moves as a piece4 ,all this1 of course1 helps on the literary but it also indicates a growing sense of the pictorial4 ,the four figures begin to have the monumental quality of a ,greek pedimental group4 ,the very sharpness of their drawing and the hardness of their texture seem to help out the plastic feeling4 ,homer seems rising to the difference between the merely illustrative and the picturesque in design2 but his color sense stirs only sluggishly4 ,the 8,undertow0 is pitched in neutral grays and greens1 and one cannot rave over it4 ,at this time the painter was spending his winter months not on the ,maine coast but down in the ,bahamas or ,cuba or ,bermuda4 ,while in those places he did a great many water-colors--glimpses of palm and sand and sea with white houses glaring in the sun4 ,they were done with much freedom1 with a sense of blinding light1 and some realization of color4 ,the quality of mere 8copy0 drops out of them1 or perhaps was never in them4 ,they seem scraps of pictures1 delightful glimpses of such pictorial features as sun and shade and bright hues4 ,it looks from them as though ,homer would finally emerge as a great painter and forget his early point of view4 ,and at times he does4 ,but he has lapses1 and the bias of his early days returns to him4 ,from his ,southern trips came the material for 8,the ,gulf ,stream0 done about #ahhf4 ,once more the painter has grasped the psychological moment4 ,a shipwrecked1 starving negro is lying on the deck of a dismasted schooner drifting in the ,gulf ,stream4 ,in the shadowed water of the foreground sharks are playing1 beyond the boat are whitecaps and running seas1 in the distance is the suggestion of a waterspout under a blue-gray sky4 ,there is quite a display of color4 ,it is in the sea and sky1 but its breadth is somewhat disturbed by being flecked with white in patches4 ,the picture is spotty in the foam and the clouds1 and does not sum up as a complete harmony4 ,it seems as though color were not an integral part of it but something brought in as an afterthought--color added to design rather than design in color4 ,illustration3 8,marine10 by ,winslow ,homer4 ,in the ,emerson ,mc,millin ,collection4 ,this is not the case1 however1 with the very beautiful 8,herring ,net10 done at about the same time4 ,it is another open-sea piece with fishermen drawing into a boat a net full of wriggling fish caught in the meshes4 ,herring1 as they come out of the water1 are brilliant in iridescent hues1 and no doubt that in itself appealed to ,homer and was the reason for the picture's existence4 ,the color at once became the illustrative motive--became the picture4 ,there is no feeling now of color as an afterthought or as playing second part to the men or the sea4 ,the eye goes to the glittering herring at once4 ,you comprehend at a glance that this is a color scheme per se1 and that the gray men and the gray sea are only a ground upon which the iridescent hues appear4 ,whether ,homer realized how beautiful the color was1 whether he had any emotional feeling about it1 or saw any fine pictorial poetry in it1 who shall say8 ,in life he was disposed to deny such things4 ,he said to ,john ,w4 ,beatty3 8,when ,i have selected a thing carefully1 ,i paint it exactly as it appears40 ,was that his procedure with the 8,herring ,net08 ,was it merely a color report of what he had seen8 ,if so1 he never saw anything so beautiful again4 ,it is his high-water mark as a colorist4 ,homer was now producing his best-known pictures of fishermen1 sailors1 and sea1 such as the 8,fog ,warning0 and 8,eight ,bells40 ,a literary half-illustrative quality marks them1 but perhaps we should not feel this did we not know the painter had served time at that side of art4 ,they can stand as great pictures all by themselves1 simply because they are powerful characterizations of the sea4 ,they have a driving truth about them that sweeps away any demurrer on account of their method4 ,and in them all there is indication and suggestion of an expanding pictorial sense4 ,it came late1 for ,homer was fifty4 ,it was never to become a complete expansion1 it was always more of a suggestion than a realization2 but it was a welcome addition and showed the painter's active and receptive mind4 ,while in ,cuba ,homer got the material for his 8,searchlight1 ,santiago ,harbor10 which he put in picture form about #ahii4 ,there is a great dark gun in the foreground--the dramatic catch-point1 again--with a suggestion of a mason-work fort around it4 ,a search-light flares up the sky2 the sky itself is a gray-blue night effect4 ,the arrangement is large1 big in simplicity of masses4 ,the color is the usual gray-blue1 but there is a fine note about it1 with a light and an air that would count for little in reproduction but are very effective in the picture itself4 ,the canvas comes precious near being a great affair of form1 light1 and air4 ,it is as sharp in drawing and as flat and dull in its surface painting as his other works4 ,the nave simplicity of the brush-work is astonishing4 ,homer knows no tricks of handling1 and will resort to no glazes1 scumbles1 or stipples4 ,he makes his statement so unadorned that it seems almost crude or immature4 ,and yet with these shortcomings we still have an unusual quality of light1 a rare night sky1 and a suggestion1 at least1 of fine color4 ,if the artistic sense seemed to be growing with ,homer in his late years1 the early illustrative sense was not exactly dead or dying4 ,from first to last he knew how to characterize things--to catch and give the salient features with force4 ,nothing he ever did shows this better than his 8,fox and ,crows10 now in the ,pennsylvania ,academy4 ,a red fox is trailing through soft1 deep snow and some crows are hawking and dipping at him1 as is their wont4 ,off in the distance is a glimpse of the sea under a gray sky4 ,it is composition1 characterization1 and illustration all in one4 ,nothing could be more original or more truthful4 ,from this picture alone one might think ,homer an experienced animal painter1 but it happens to be his one and only animal picture4 ,it is practically an arrangement in black-and-white1 well massed and effectively placed on the canvas4 ,the blacks of the near crows are repeated in the far crows and in the ears and forepaws of the fox2 the white of the snow is repeated in the sea and sky2 the gray half-tones are echoed in the fox and rocks and clouds4 ,it is not only an excellent design fully wrought but the effect of the skill is apparent in the convincing truth of fox and snow and winter shore4 ,finally came a series of pictures in which bird and beast and man are left out and only the great sea and its fearsome fret on the shore remain4 8,cannon ,rock10 done about #ahie1 shows a section of rocky coast with blue-green waves pushing in and curling in white crests4 ,in the 8,northeaster0 a green-and-white wave is breaking over a rock and the spray and foam are flung high in air4 ,the 8,maine ,coast0 is a wild day along shore with rain and mist and spindrift and flying scud in the air2 there is blue-gray sky and sea1 and far out the huge waves are lifting and rolling shoreward with irresistible force4 ,on the rocky coast the foaming crests are falling amid split and shattered rock strata4 8,high ,cliff0 and the 8,great ,gale0 are variations of the same theme4 ,illustration3 8,fox and ,crows10 by ,winslow ,homer4 ,from a copyrighted photograph of the painting1 reproduced by courtesy of the ,pennsylvania ,academy of the ,fine ,arts4 ,of course these pictures are illustrative in a way of the ,maine coast1 but one does not think of them as such but rather as descriptive or creative4 ,they are reports of the power of the sea1 wonderful view-points of a great element4 ,in that sense they are epic1 tremendous characterizations1 all-powerful statements that startle and command4 ,you cannot get away from them4 ,they fascinate1 and yet are not attractive in the sense that you would like to have one of them in your drawing-room4 ,they are elemental rather than ornamental4 ,as ,kenyon ,cox well puts it1 you might as well let the sea itself into your house as one of ,homer's sea-pictures4 ,the picture would sweep everything before it1 put everything else out of key1 make a black spot on the wall1 and continually irritate you with its harshness of method4 ,from his youth upward ,homer seems to have had a scorn for the decorative4 ,charm either in his personality or his art seems to have been a gift withheld by the fairy godmother4 ,he had the giant's strength and with it he had to accept the limitations of that endowment4 ,the gentler side of the sea--the flat summer plains of glorious color and light--he did not care for1 and even such features of the stormy sea as the flashing1 foaming crests he could not do except in hard1 immovable form4 ,the crests in the 8,woods ,island ,light0 look like inlays of white marble on lapis lazuli4 ,the bubbling surge full of color and evanescent as champagne was too charming1 too lovely for him4 ,there were returns to the illustrative during his later years in such pictures as 8,the ,wreck10 8,kissing the ,moon10 and in ,adirondack scenes1 but by #aijj he had reached his apogee and thereafter changed little4 ,he was not to break out any new sails4 ,nor was there need of it4 ,his great ability and originality had been abundantly displayed and universally recognized by both painter and public4 ,honors1 enough and to spare1 were his4 ,in #ahic1 at ,chicago1 he had been awarded the gold medal1 and everything that art societies could do or artists and critics could say had been done and said4 ,up at ,prout's ,neck1 where he had shut the door after him and kept it closed for so many years1 these echoes of the world's recognition were received with indifference4 ,miss ,mechlin quotes from a letter of his in #aijg3 8,perhaps you think ,i am still painting and interested in art4 ,that is a mistake4 ,i care nothing for art4 ,i no longer paint4 ,i do not wish to see my name in print again40 ,he wrote that perhaps on one of his bad days1 for he did take up the brush again1 but with no great spirit or effectiveness4 ,in #aijh he was seriously ill and quite helpless1 but he insisted upon living on in his lonely house with entrance forbidden to all but his brother's family4 ,and there quite by himself he died in ,september1 #aiaj4 ,he had lived a strange life1 produced a strong art1 and then died1 like a wolf1 in silence4 ,one often wonders regarding such a character as ,winslow ,homer what would have been the result if the strange in both his life and his art had been eliminated4 ,would it have helped matters or would his strength have been dissipated thereby8 ,and wherein lay the strangeness of ,homer if not that he never inherited a single social or artistic tradition nor would adopt one in later life8 ,he made his own manners and his own methods1 in life as in art1 with the result that in both he was always a rough diamond4 ,he never received anything of importance by teaching or training4 ,culture of mind and hand1 emotional feeling or romance1 were practically unknown to him4 ,he was as far removed from romanticism as classicism1 and cared nothing about any of the isms of art4 ,we keep flinging back to an early conclusion that he was a wonderful reporter rather than an interpreter1 a reporter who saw unusual things in the first place and reported them with unusual characterization in the second place4 ,the result was about the largest nature truths of our day4 ,truth was his avowed aim--the plain unvarnished truth4 ,he never intentionally departed from it4 ,homer is an excellent illustration of what a man cannot do entirely by himself4 ,with his initial force and his keen vision he could make a very powerful report4 ,had he been educated1 taught restraint and method1 given a sense of style1 schooled in decorative value1 he might have risen to the great gods of art4 ,but perhaps not4 ,even pedagogues1 in their late years1 begin to doubt the worth of training4 ,it might have ruined ,winslow ,homer4 ,yet1 nevertheless1 it is the thing that his admirers always feel the lack of in his pictures4 ,he has no comeliness of style1 no charm of statement1 no grace of presentation4 ,to the last he is a barbarian for all that we may feel beneath his brush 8the surge and thunder of the #8,odyssey4'0 ,unfortunately1 much of ,homer's barbarism of the brush lives after him while his splendid vision and stubborn character are in danger of being interred with his bones4 ,he himself has become a tradition1 a master to be imitated1 for though he founded no school and had no pupils1 a great many young painters in ,america have been influenced by his pictures4 ,the majority of these young men have concluded that ,homer's strength lay in the rawness and savagery of his method2 they have not gripped the fact that his compelling force was a matter of mind rather than of hand4 ,an imitator can always be counted upon to clutch at a mannerism and neglect a mentality4 ,so it is that many a young art student of to-day1 with just enough imagination to conjure up an apple-blossom landscape is painting with the crude color and gritty brush of ,homer1 thinking thereby to get something 8strong40 ,what a dreadful mistake6 ,a surly surface of heaped-up paint minus the drawing that is ,homer6 ,and the juvenile error of supposing that the knowledge of a lifetime can be picked up and handed out by a glib imitator in the few hours of a summer afternoon6 ,the attempt presupposes art to be merely a conjurer's trick--a supposition that history does not sustain4 ,homer cannot be counted fortunate in his followers4 ,accepting a surface appearance of strength as the all-in-all of art1 they have abandoned grace of form with charm of color--flung the decorative to the winds4 ,we are now asked to admire this or that because it is 8real0 or 8just as ,i saw it10 or 8absolutely true0--as though such apologies in themselves were sufficient reasons for fine art4 ,but ,homer long before he died withdrew to ,prout's ,neck and abandoned his fellows of the brush4 ,he no doubt thought them quite hopeless4 ,perhaps there was reason behind his thinking4 ,of course he cannot be held responsible for their paint pretenses4 ,his rank as a painter will be made up from his own works4 ,by them he will be judged and they will surely stand critical estimate4 ,for nothing more virile1 more positive1 more wholesome has ever been turned out in ,american art4 ,he had something to say worth listening to4 ,and he said it about our things and in our way4 ,no one will question for an instant the ,americanism of his art4 ,the very rudeness of it proclaims its place of origin4 ,reflecting a civilization as yet quite new to art1 a people as yet very close to the soil1 what truer tale has been told6 ,the fortitude of the pioneer1 with the tang of the unbroken forest and the unbeaten sea are in it4 ,homer was not the ,leonardo but the ,mantegna of ,american art4 ,he came too early for perfect expression1 but1 like many of the rude forefathers1 he had the fine virtue of sincerity4 ,you cannot help but admire his frankness1 his honesty1 even his brutality4 ,there is no pretense about him2 he makes no apology1 offers no preface or explanation4 ,he presents a point of view1 and in the very brusqueness of his presentation seems to say3 8,take it or let it alone40 ,he must have known his expression was incomplete4 ,did he realize that art was too long and life too short to round the whole circle8 ,the majority of painters move over only a small segment of the span4 ,at sixty1 ,homer had no more than found his theme4 ,it would have taken another lifetime to have given him style and method4 ,and even then1 grace of accomplishment might have weakened force of conception4 ,he had his errors1 but perhaps they emphasized his fundamental truths4 ,so perhaps we should be thankful that he was just what he was--a great ,american painter who was sufficient unto himself in both thought and expression4 ,,vi ,,john ,,la ,,farge ,la ,farge is an exceptional man in ,american painting--the exception that will perhaps prove the value of tradition and education in the craft4 ,more than any other in our history he was born to art4 ,he did not live through a barefoot stage on a farm and then by chance come to a speaking acquaintance with painting at twenty or thereabouts2 he could not boast of a struggle against adverse circumstances in an uncongenial environment4 ,on the contrary1 he was rather luxuriously raised in a city1 and as a child found art in the family circle and a part of the family life4 ,he had begun to see1 hear1 and think about it at six years of age4 ,at thirty1 when he definitely decided to accept painting as a vocation1 he knew the tale quite well1 was highly endowed intellectually1 and had the insight and the imagination to see things in significant aspects4 ,what wonder that he made an impression and left a body of work that voiced authority6 ,he himself became a master1 caught up the torch and carried on the light1 spreading it and diffusing it in this new world4 ,he was an inheritor and transmitter of art as well as a creator of it4 ,by that ,i do not mean that ,la ,farge was raised in a studio and trained in hand and eye like a ,florentine apprentice1 but rather that his family1 with its collateral branches1 was made up of highly educated dilettanti1 and art as a theme was ever up with them for discussion and appreciation4 ,he grasped it historically and sthetically long before he took it up professionally4 ,the practical processes were taught him1 to some extent1 even as a child2 but the philosophy came first and remained with him to the last4 ,it was the ,french philosophy of taste--the best of the time--and ,la ,farge himself was ,french save for the accident of his birth here in ,new ,york4 ,it was the tradition of ,delacroix that he finally accepted and transplanted here in ,american soil1 adding to it1 of course1 his own profound thought and fine feeling4 8,he prided himself on faithfulness to tradition and convention10 according to his long-time friend ,henry ,adams4 ,the story of his birth and education reads somewhat romantically to-day1 though it was only yesterday that he was here4 ,his father as a young man was an officer in the ,french navy and had been sent to ,santo ,domingo1 during an uprising there1 to seize ,toussaint the revolutionist4 ,the enterprise went against him1 but he escaped the general massacre that followed and eventually found himself a refugee in the ,united ,states4 ,he did not return to ,france1 but instead went into sugar-growing in ,louisiana1 acquired property in ,new ,york1 and married there a daughter of ,m4 ,binsse de ,st4 ,victor1 a ,santo ,domingo sugar-planter1 who1 like himself1 had been driven from the island by the uprising under ,toussaint4 ,these ,french refugees were ,la ,farge's parents and he1 himself1 was born in ,beach ,street1 near ,st4 ,john's ,church1 in #ahce4 ,the house was in what has latterly been called old ,new ,york and ,la ,farge never entirely got out of that quarter4 ,during his life he did not live above ,tenth ,street4 ,his parents were very cultivated people and as a boy ,la ,farge's education was precisely guided4 ,his father was a rather severe type and instilled rugged principles4 ,he was a good teacher1 and the pupil was brought up to do exact thinking4 ,in his reading he was not permitted to roam at large4 ,he tells us in his letters and communications to ,mr4 ,cortissoz1 whose admirable account ,i am paraphrasing1#h that as a child he read ,french and ,english1 read ,st4 ,pierre1 ,rousseau1 ,bossuet1 ,homer1 ,de ,foe1 ,voltaire--certainly an odd lot of authors for childish consumption4 ,the house was full of books--,molire1 ,racine1 ,corneille1 ,cervantes1 ,byron--some of them illustrated with handsome ,turneresque engravings1 which no doubt had quite as much influence on the boy as the printed texts4 ,the outlook of his parents was large and ,la ,farge grew up in an atmosphere of liberal ideas4 #h ,john ,la ,farge3 ,a ,memoir and a ,study1 by ,royal ,cortissoz1 ,boston1 #aiaa4 ,as for the house1 he speaks of it as being 8really very elegant0 and regarding the pictures on the walls1 he says3 8,the influences which ,i felt as a little boy were those of the paintings and the works of art that surrounded me at home40 ,there were examples in the house of ,vernet1 ,le ,moyne1 ,salvator ,rosa1 ,sebastiano del ,piombo1 many ,dutch pictures1 particularly 8a beautiful ,salomon ,rysdael40 8,it so happened that my very first teachings were those of the eighteenth century and my training has covered almost a century and a half40 ,at six he had wished to draw and paint1 and was handed over to his maternal grandfather to be taught4 ,the grandfather had been ruined by his ,santo ,domingo losses1 and in his age had no other resource than to fall back upon the polite learning he had acquired in his youth4 ,he took up miniature painting and gave drawing lessons because1 as ,la ,farge explained it1 8it was in the family40 8,on a small scale he was an exquisite painter4 ,he was also a good teacher and started me at six years old in the traditions of the eighteenth century4444 ,the teaching was as mechanical as it could be and was rightly based upon the notion that a boy ought to be taught so as to know his trade4 ,there was not the slightest alleviation and no suggestion of this being #8art4'0 ,he was taught to sharpen crayons1 to fasten paper1 to draw parallel lines1 and produce a tint4 ,gradually he came to copy such things as engravings4 ,the work became more interesting1 and at eight he could do something that had resemblance to an original4 ,later he copied everything that came to hand and was free to do as he pleased4 ,in the meantime his general education was not neglected4 ,his grandmother ,binsse de ,st4 ,victor had opened a school for young ladies which was very successful4 ,la ,farge as a boy took lessons under her1 and in his reminiscences recalls the severity of his drilling in eighteenth-century ,french4 ,he got ,english from an ,english governess1 and some ,german from an ,alsatian nurse4 ,then came books and school and the dreariness of lessons on dry themes4 ,he was sent to ,columbia ,grammar ,school1 passed into ,columbia ,college1 changed over to ,fordham1 and finally1 in #ahec1 graduated at ,mount ,st4 ,mary's in ,maryland4 ,he recalls that during his school-days there was much reading of history1 literature1 and archology4 ,in ,english his professor led him to read ,newman and ,ruskin--the two great masters of style1 though the one was classic and the other romantic4 ,in ,french there was ,de ,musset1 ,balzac1 ,heine4 ,he was familiar with ,greek and ,latin--he could not have graduated from a ,catholic college without knowing ,latin--and had early gone over the classical writers in the original languages4 ,as for art1 he studied engravings of ,drer and lithographs of the old masters4 8,an ,english water-color painter had been found who gave me thoroughly ,english lessons40 ,after college days he got lessons from a ,french artist4 ,in later life1 looking at his drawings made in the early fifties1 he thought them 8respectable40 8,they were largely based on line and construction1 which of course gives a basis of seriousness40 ,after graduation he entered a lawyer's office and began studying law1 though he still held his interest in art4 ,some pictures of the men of #ahcj were beginning to come into the country and he recalls buying for a few dollars a ,diaz1 a ,troyon1 and a ,bargue1 and his delight in them4 ,he met artists like ,inness1 talked art and thought much about it1 but he was not yet prepared to embrace it for better or worse4 ,in #ahef1 when he was twenty-one1 he went to ,europe1 not minded even then to study art professionally1 but merely wishing travel for travel's sake and to be for a time a looker-on4 ,he went directly to ,paris and joined his cousin1 ,paul ,binsse 7or ,bins71 ,comte de ,st4 ,victor1 who was just then holding prominent place in literary and journalistic ,paris4 ,the cousin was writing in a brilliant style dramatic1 literary1 and art criticism for ,le ,pays1 ,la ,presse1 and ,la ,libert1 and publishing books such as ,hommes et ,dieux1 ,barbares et ,bandits1 ,les ,dieux et les ,demi-,dieux de la peinture4 ,he was in association with the ,goncourts1 ,sainte-,beuve1 ,thophile ,gautier1 ,victor ,hugo1 ,flaubert--all the great gods of little ,paris4 ,the father1 ,jacques ,benjamin ,maximilien ,binsse1 ,comte de ,st4 ,victor1 had had a literary and artistic vogue before the son4 ,he had been the editor of ,la ,france and the ,journal des ,dbats1 had written for the stage and the opera1 and was the author of numerous books of poetry1 archology1 and history4 ,he was still alive and flourishing when ,la ,farge reached ,paris1 and his house was open to the young man from ,america4 ,it was the house of a collector of paintings2 the most famous artists and literary men met there2 there was much comment and criticism in the air--much roaring of the lions4 ,la ,farge was in the midst of it4 ,as he expressed it3 8,art and literature were there at my hand1 in rather an ancient form1 but with the charm of the past1 the eighteenth century1 and the wonderful beginning of the nineteenth40 ,the great uncle was in sympathy with the classic and the academic1 stood up for ,david and ,gurin1 and looked askance at everything new2 but the cousin1 ,paul de ,st4 ,victor1 was the champion of the younger men4 ,la ,farge was between two fires in the home and listened to both sides when he went abroad4 ,he met ,grme1 then a young man1 frequented the house of ,chasseriau1 heard much of the controversy between ,ingres and ,delacroix4 ,he never met ,delacroix1 but was profoundly impressed by his works4 ,he was also much impressed at this early time by the glass in the ,paris churches1 and during a trip to ,brussels met ,henry ,le ,strange1 who had decorated ,ely ,cathedral1 and through him became interested in methods of mural painting4 ,the father in ,america thought that his son was wasting his time and wrote him urging that he take up art seriously4 ,the result was that ,la ,farge went to ,couture's studio and had a talk with the master4 ,he did not even then think of art as a profession1 and wanted from ,couture not so much technical education as general education in art4 ,he spent only two weeks in the studio and then set about copying the drawings of the old masters in the ,louvre4 ,presently he went to ,munich and afterward to ,dresden1 copying in each place more of the drawings of the old masters4 ,he thought this a logical and very serious way of learning art4 ,and so it was4 ,in copying the drawings he got at the understructure whereas in the paintings he got only the surface4 ,la ,farge from first to last was always seeking the logical1 philosophical1 and scientific bases of things4 ,and meanwhile thereby 8,i kept in touch with that greatest of all characters of art1 style--not the style of the academy or any one man1 but the style of all the schools1 the manner of looking at art which is common to all important personalities1 however fluctuating its form may be40 ,in ,copenhagen he made a copy of a ,rembrandt4 8,i was enabled to learn a great deal of the methods of ,rembrandt and to connect them with my studies4444 ,rubens ,i followed in ,belgium1 trying to see every painting of his throughout the whole kingdom and as many of his pupils' as ,i could gather in40 ,he had an admiration for the severe training of ,rubens and for his later prodigal expenditure of energy and paint on canvas4 ,in the autumn of #aheg-aheh he was studying ,titian1 ,velasquez1 and many others of the famous masters at the ,manchester ,exhibition in ,england4 ,there also he saw and studied the ,preraphaelite painters and became acquainted with several of them4 8,they made a very great and important impression upon me1 which later influenced me in my first work when ,i began to paint40 ,when ,la ,farge returned to ,new ,york 7his father's illness had hastened his return7 nothing as to art had been decided upon and no method of painting had been definitely learned4 ,he had had a unique and very wonderful experience for a young man1 had gathered up much information1 and perhaps unconsciously had developed an inquiring attitude of mind4 ,this latter became his habitual attitude2 he was always contemplative1 meditative1 disposed to question4 ,perhaps that is the reason why he still hesitated about embracing art as a profession4 ,at any rate1 he went back to the study of law1 though not forsaking his interest in painting and architecture4 ,the following year he took a room in the ,tenth ,street ,studio ,building1 where he was accustomed to go to make little drawings and paint 8in an amateurish way40 ,he recognized that he needed technical training and once more thought of returning to ,europe to get it4 ,in #ahei he went to ,newport to study painting under ,william ,m4 ,hunt1 whose methods he did not altogether like1 though he was fond of the man4 ,hunt was then devoted to ,jean ,franois ,millet1 and1 through ,hunt1 ,la ,farge came to know that painter's work4 ,he copied two or three of ,millet's pictures but could not accept him wholly any more than he could ,hunt4 ,the truth was that even then ,la ,farge was an original and would follow no one4 ,he could not abide recipes for doing or making things1 though eventually he invented a recipe of his own and followed that4 ,at ,newport he did some landscapes looking through a window to show the difference in light between the inside and the outside4 ,it was for educative purposes1 not for picture-making4 ,in the same way he painted flowers in a vase at haphazard1 or did the corner of a table1 with no idea of composition but merely to get acquainted with all phases of light1 texture1 and surface4 ,the next year he was back in ,new ,york1 painting was temporarily abandoned1 and presently he departed for ,louisiana4 ,he could not1 however1 keep away from painting wherever he went1 and he soon returned to ,new ,york to start a picture of ,st4 ,paul ,preaching for the ,church of the ,paulists4 ,with ,john ,bancroft he next took up the question of light and color1 then being investigated by scientific men4 ,that1 he declares1 had an important influence on his later work4 ,but probably the event that definitely decided him for an art career was his marriage in #ahfj to ,miss ,margaret ,brown ,perry1 a great-granddaughter of ,benjamin ,franklin4 ,i have helped myself largely to ,mr4 ,cortissoz's book 7for which ,i am sure he will not quarrel with me7 regarding these educational happenings of ,la ,farge's early days1 because they point to an unusual acquaintance with philosophic1 literary1 and artistic traditions4 ,la ,farge was saturated with them at twenty-two4 ,his education was extraordinary when compared with his ,american contemporaries--,inness1 ,wyant1 ,martin1 ,homer4 ,he had found himself before he was thirty and knew what he wanted to say and do1 whereas ,homer at sixty was still uncertain and groping4 ,art had come to ,la ,farge almost as a child learns to talk1 that is1 unconsciously1 without great effort4 ,the formulas had been largely thought out for him and he had merely to accept them4 ,with ,inness1 ,wyant1 and ,martin it was necessary to make their own formulas1 work out their own philosophy1 establish their own premises4 ,and that1 too1 after they had come to man's estate4 ,la ,farge had a great advantage over them4 ,he was not only born to art but had it thrust upon him4 ,with his fine natural endowments of mind and eye it is not1 perhaps1 remarkable that he afterward was able to achieve art in a large way and in more than one department4 ,but he did not rest content with his early experiences4 ,he took up new problems and remained a student to his latest day4 ,his mental curiosity was remarkable4 ,he was always trying to get at the cause or sequence of things4 ,i remember very well arguing at him one day1 with undue vehemence perhaps1 about some question of the hour1 and hearing his quiet answer that it made no difference which of us was right1 but that we should go along together and try to get at the truth4 ,that was his ,gallic cast of mind4 ,he had no wish or care to put the other fellow in the wrong1 and as for disputatious argument1 it was not intellectually good form4 ,in this respect ,ruskin had amused and vexed him during his early years4 ,the great critic was not only wrong in matter but in the method of presenting it4 ,fromentin1 on the contrary1 pleased him much4 ,the ,french critic's mind was of the same order as his own4 ,la ,farge had evidently heard of ,japanese art in ,paris1 for in #ahfc he began collecting ,japanese prints1 sending directly to ,japan for them4 ,he records that he imported at that time many for himself and his friend ,bancroft4 ,he was interested not only in their linear patterns but in their color relations1 particularly as shown in landscape4 ,he was painting landscapes at this time and working out-of-doors4 8,my programme was to paint from nature a portrait and yet to make distinctly a work of art which should remain as a type of the sort of subject ,i undertook40 ,almost the whole of his theory of art lies in that sentence4 ,it will apply to his painting of water-lilies as well as to his figures or landscapes4 ,he was after a type of the species--something typical and universal rather than something odd or singular4 ,perhaps the most notable result of his theory and practice at this time was the landscape called 8,paradise ,valley10 painted between #ahff and #ahfh4 ,the material for the 8,paradise ,valley0 was found along the ,rhode ,island coast near ,newport4 ,it is a bare1 almost treeless1 scene1 looking down toward the sea1 and is cut up somewhat in the middle distance by the angle lines of stone fences4 ,there is nothing about it of 8the view10 nothing that a ,hudson ,river painter would have looked at the second time2 yet ,la ,farge added beauty to its bare truth in such degree that it became a masterpiece4 ,all of the painter's studies in light and line were put into it and yet kept from attracting too much attention in the exposition4 ,and all of the infinite variety of tone and color common to the ,atlantic shore landscape were added and blended together as one4 ,the type as a whole emerged--the universal came out of the commonplace4 ,a more perfect piece of work1 a more beautiful picture of landscape1 had not then1 and has not since1 been produced in ,american art4 ,of its kind it is unequalled4 ,illustration3 ,copyright by ,john ,la ,farge4 8,paradise ,valley10 by ,john ,la ,farge4 ,in the ,collection of ,general ,thornton ,k4 ,lothrop4 ,the last time ,i saw this landscape was many years ago at an exhibition in the gallery of the ,century ,club4 ,it held the place of honor on the wall1 and ,i was looking at it1 praising it unstintedly to a friend standing beside me4 ,after ,i had exhausted my adjectives1 ,i became aware of some one in the room behind me4 ,i turned and saw ,la ,farge standing there4 ,whether or not he had overheard me ,i did not know1 but there being nothing to conceal1 ,i told him just what ,i had been saying to my companion4 ,he smiled and bowed and seemed greatly pleased4 ,he was always too polite to question the compliments of his admirers1 and much too broadminded to scoff at praise1 however unintelligent he might think it4 ,but the point of my story is further along4 ,after his telling me how he came to paint the landscape and what he had sought to make out of it1 ,i asked him why he had not continued with work of that kind--why he had not painted more ,paradise ,valleys4 ,his answer was that he had done a number of landscapes similar in character but that no one seemed to care for them4 ,there was no audience1 no demand for them1 and1 worst of all1 no one would buy them4 ,he was forced to do something that would produce a revenue4 ,that seemed to me at the time deplorable1 but perhaps it was not all sheer loss to art1 for his lack of pecuniary success with easel pictures probably had much to do with his taking up mural decoration and glass-work4 ,with a select public1 however1 ,la ,farge had already won recognition4 ,his landscapes and flower pictures--especially the latter with their lovely color1 texture1 and surface1 and that indefinable feeling that is ,la ,farge--met with appreciation from artists and amateurs4 ,the ,academy of ,design elected him to its membership1 and1 a little later1 a firm of ,boston publishers began publishing some of his illustrations made for ,browning's poems4 ,he had planned some three hundred drawings for ,browning1 and for an edition of the ,gospels many more4 ,these were ,la ,farge's romantic days1 and the influences of ,french romanticism intellectually and his ,japanese prints technically were rather strong with him4 ,in fancy he was harking back to ,greek and medival myths1 ,bible legends1 and ,arabian ,nights tales4 ,but only a few drawings from each field finally found their way into print4 ,they appeared in the old ,riverside ,magazine and were accounted very effective1 even after the engraver had translated them4 ,every one who has written about ,la ,farge has devoted a page or so to an analysis of his 8,wolf ,charmer0 and 8,piper of ,hamelin40 ,criticised they were for what has been declared faulty construction and drawing but never for their lack of life4 ,they were excellent examples of naturalistic drawing wherein accuracy is often sacrificed to vitality4 ,but the telling quality of the illustrations was not so much their technique as their imagination4 ,la ,farge had inner as well as outer vision1 and the conception of the wolf charmer1 for example1 as half-wolf himself1 gnawing rather than playing his pipe1 was perhaps the better part of its excellence4 ,but illustration was to engage his attention for only a short period4 ,he was interested in things of larger decorative significance4 ,describing one day some work of art that ,i cannot now recall he used the word 8decorative0 and ,i remember his pausing and saying rather emphatically in parenthesis3 8,and when ,i say decorative1 ,i am saying about the best thing ,i can about a picture40 ,imagination he had in abundance1 but perhaps it was manifested stronger in the light and color of his decorations than in such literary readings as the 8,wolf ,charmer40 ,his glass was the finest flight in color of modern times4 ,it remains so to this day4 ,the same creative sense of hue on a large scale was shown in his mural work4 ,his panels and lunettes have their individual meaning and their imaginative presentation of the type1 but these are only parts of a whole which carries again by its decorative color sweep4 ,his first wall decorations were those for ,trinity ,church1 ,boston1 in #ahgf4 ,they were done under time pressure in less than six months--done in winter with open windows and everybody clad in overcoats and gloves4 ,ten or a dozen painters worked under him and with him1 among them ,frank ,millet1 ,francis ,lothrop1 and ,george ,maynard4 ,it was the first attempt in ,america to do church decoration on a large scale with a group of painters directed by one head4 ,the unusual conditions and requirements limited its success1 and yet it was quickly recognized as being an initial step of much importance and ,la ,farge was acclaimed as the leader of the new order4 ,thereafter commissions for churches1 public buildings1 and private houses came to him and did not cease to come up to his death4 ,he at first did panels for the ,church of the ,incarnation1 decorations for ,st4 ,thomas's ,church1 afterward destroyed by fire1 and for the ,reid house in ,new ,york2 in his late years he painted great lunettes for the capitol at ,st4 ,paul4 ,perhaps the climax of these wall-paintings is the picture of the 8,ascension0 set up on the chancel wall of the ,church of the ,ascension1 in ,new ,york4 ,it is his chief work1 and is picture-making1 wall-painting1 and church decoration all in one4 ,the 8,ascension0 had its origin in one of ,la ,farge's drawings for a western chapel4 ,it was enlarged to meet the new need by putting in at the back a high and wide mountain landscape4 ,the architectural place for it was simplified by placing on the chancel wall of the church a heavily gilded moulding1 deep-niched1 and with an arched top which acted at once both as a frame and a limit to the picture4 ,the space was practically that of a huge window with a square base and a half-circle top requiring for its filling two groups of figures one above the other4 ,la ,farge placed his standing figures of the apostles and the holy women in the lower space and their perpendicular lines paralleled the uprights of the frame2 at the top he placed an oval of angels hovering about the risen ,christ1 and1 again1 the rounded lines of the angel group repeated the curves of the gilded arch4 ,illustration3 8,the ,muse10 by ,john ,la ,farge4 ,in the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,there was no great novelty in this arrangement4 ,it was frankly adopted from ,italian ,renaissance painting and had been used for high altar-pieces by all the later painters--,andrea del ,sarto1 ,raphael1 ,titian1 ,palma4 ,they had worked out the best way of filling that upright-and-arched space1 and ,la ,farge followed the tradition because he recognized its sufficiency4 ,but when all that is said it should be added that his 8,ascension0 is no close following of ,italian example4 ,the grouping is different and the setting is quite the opposite of the ,italian4 ,this is an open-air ,ascension1 not a studio-lighted gathering of academic figures posed merely to repeat each other's linear contours4 ,the apostles stand in a great valley plain with mountains at the sides and back4 ,they stand in1 not out1 of the landscape4 ,the angels are in a huge floating oval about the risen ,christ4 ,what beautiful moving circling figures they are6 ,with what superb recognition of light1 air1 and space they are given6 ,and how they hold their exact place in relation to the background and to the figures below them6 ,all of ,la ,farge's knowledge and skill came into play in painting these two groups that contrast with and yet complete each other4 ,they are his highest achievement in figure-painting4 ,it may be merely provincial pride that makes one think they do not suffer by comparison with the groups of the great ,italians1 yet there are intelligent people who believe that4 ,but after one has studied and wondered over these figures1 he begins to look further1 and finally comes to question if the enveloping landscape is not the more beautiful part of the picture4 ,no such landscape was ever painted by any old master1 not even by ,titian in his 8,presentation0 picture in the ,venice ,academy4 ,and thereby hangs a tale4 ,la ,farge could not at first get the right landscape for it1 and in the middle of the work1 that is in #ahhf1 he and his friend ,henry ,adams went on a long trip to ,japan4 ,it was in the mountains of ,japan 7or was it1 perhaps1 later in the ,south ,sea islands87 that he saw and sketched the superb landscape that now does service in the background of the 8,ascension40 ,it fitted the figures exactly and is their natural and proper environment4 ,figures and groups from ,italy that are not ,italian and landscapes from ,japan that are not ,japanese blend together perfectly because translated1 transmuted1 by the genius of ,la ,farge into something that is peculiarly his own type of the ,ascension4 ,in such fashion1 and of such materials1 is great art brought into being4 ,la ,farge's glass-work carried over the greater part of his artistic life4 ,mr4 ,cortissoz tells us that he did several thousand windows of various patterns and designs4 ,for many years1 and up to his death1 he had a shop in ,south ,washington ,square where1 with assistants and workmen1 the more mechanical part of window construction was carried on4 ,but he looked after every part of it from start to finish4 ,he never let go of his workman1 never allowed himself as a designer to be eliminated by turning his design over wholly to the shop4 ,he followed up everything and exacted results while inspiring enthusiasm and intelligence in his men4 ,the result was that the work1 in spite of the touch of others1 remained peculiarly that of ,la ,farge and bore his individual stamp4 ,in window-making he tried dozens of different experiments to get depth1 variation1 and complement of tone by repeated platings of pot-metal glass4 ,as a result he produced brilliant jewel-like glass theretofore never dreamed of4 ,with iridescent and opalescent sheets at hand in countless tones and shades he began the construction of his window1 not in patches of color1 but with a crayon cartoon1 just as he had designed pictures4 ,he made a pattern1 filled the spaces rightly1 and thought of the colors afterward4 ,the lead lines helped out the design and did not break or block it by haphazard crossings at stated intervals4 ,in other words1 his radiant color schemes were every one of them based in design and had a foundation of drawing under them4 8,this1 then1 is a study of line and is different from the notion of some intellectual friends that the line is to be put on afterward40#i #i ,la ,farge in a letter to ,mr4 ,cortissoz4 ,and yet there was no attempt to do in glass what could be better done on canvas4 ,the brilliant transparent tones were peculiarly fitted for glass because they could not be squeezed out of a tube or laid down with a brush4 ,i recall seeing in his shop years ago a tall narrow window1 done1 if ,i remember rightly1 for the ,whitney house1 showing a robed female figure scattering autumn leaves upon a pool4 ,the brilliant autumn tints1 the light from the reflecting water1 would have been impossible to render fully with pigments1 and the blending of light and air seemed attainable only with ,la ,farge's delicate opaline glass4 ,it seemed to me at the time a quite wonderful window1 and yet he did many of them pitched in the same key of splendor4 ,in the midst of wall and window decorations ,la ,farge found little time for easel-painting--something he regretted but could not help4 ,twice1 however1 he broke away from the shop and went upon long trips4 ,the first was to ,japan with ,henry ,adams in #ahhf4 ,out of that came many water-color sketches and drawings1 besides a charming book1 ,an ,artist's ,letters from ,japan4 ,to some the book is of more interest than the drawings4 ,the temple-doors and interiors and ,buddhas of his sketches are1 no doubt1 truthfully illustrative1 and that is perhaps their failing as pictures4 ,the model was too apparent and the artist not so much in evidence as could be wished for4 ,his own negative definition of art applies just here3 8,it is never the mere representation of what we see40 ,some of the mountain landscapes1 however1 are very fine1 and his garden bits recall the early ,la ,farge of the pond-lilies and the 8,paradise ,valley40 ,illustration3 8,the ,three ,kings10 by ,john ,la ,farge4 ,in the ,boston ,museum of ,fine ,arts4 ,his second long trip was again with ,henry ,adams and this time to the ,south ,seas4 ,he was gone for a year or more1 from #ahij and on1 and out of this trip came another engaging book1 ,reminiscences of the ,south ,seas1 besides many water-color drawings4 ,the water-colors were again illustrative1 but perhaps they were more animated than the ,japanese series1 had to do more intimately with the island life1 and were often strikingly picturesque in theme and movement4 ,with them came also a number of small sea-pieces showing bays1 harbors1 and islands done with the greatest simplicity and yet having a satin-and-silk quality about them quite indescribable in its beauty4 ,these silvery sea-pieces are in the same class with ,la ,farge's early violets and roses--things that are exquisite in their surface texture and their color beauty4 ,his mountain landscapes of the ,south ,seas are again superb in their greens and blues4 ,a love and a gift for landscape always remained with him1 and one often wonders1 had he devoted himself to this alone1 what new revelations of the world about us he might have handed down in art4 ,the groups of natives in dances or games or ceremonies naturally attract the most attention in the ,south ,seas water-colors4 ,technically they are interesting because of their hark back to ,delacroix4 ,not only the reds1 blues1 greens1 and flesh notes are like ,delacroix1 but the drawing of the hands and feet1 the movement of arms and legs are much like that master4 ,all his life ,la ,farge had carried that impress about with him4 ,a few years before he died one of his pictures1 at an exhibition or sale1 was so like a ,delacroix that at first1 from across the room1 ,i thought it by the great romanticist4 ,some time later in mentioning the fact to ,la ,farge he nodded his head and said that he had been very much influenced by ,delacroix and no doubt unconsciously did things in his style or manner4 ,to say that one prefers ,la ,farge's travel books to his travel sketches is not to disparage the sketches1 for the books were extraordinarily good4 ,he had a great admiration for ,fromentin's ,une ,anne dans le ,sahel1 and perhaps that volume had not a little to do in suggesting the form of the volumes on ,japan and the ,south ,seas4 ,they are impressionistic in that they record moods1 thoughts1 and talks that make up a quite perfect text for his sketches4 ,they are both grave and gay1 profound and volatile1 forceful and yet charming4 ,la ,farge had the literary sense quite as much as the pictorial1 and had he chosen to make a profession of letters he would perhaps have risen to as great a height as he did in painting4 ,while a student under ,hunt at ,newport he became well acquainted with ,henry ,james1 whom he later on advised to take up literature4 ,in the light of subsequent achievement that must be regarded as good advice1 and yet ,james had the pictorial cast of mind and might have made a fine painter4 ,at any rate1 some of his best work in writing was his criticism of painting4 ,la ,farge1 too1 with a mind pictorially inclined1 put out some of his best thoughts in a book of art criticism entitled ,considerations on ,painting4 ,it was delivered originally as lectures to art students1 but it must have shot far over their little heads4 ,it is too profound to be grasped at once and often requires a second reading to apprehend the meaning1 but it is the best piece of art criticism put forth in ,america4 ,in kind and excellence it ranks with ,fromentin's ,les ,matres d'autrefois--the classic of the craft4 ,fromentin was about the only writer on art that ,la ,farge cared for4 ,he was kind enough to send me a copy of his ,considerations on ,painting when it was published1 and later1 in talking over the book with him1 he took occasion to remark 7as afterward in print7 that he had read thousands of pages of art criticism 8without finding anything that a person seriously devoted to his profession of art could find of the slightest use40 ,at the time ,i ventured to suggest to him that aid to artists was not the object of art criticism1 that an attempt to instruct professionals would argue greater knowledge in the critic than in the artist and be presumptuous1 that the critic wrote for the public and thought to be of service by calling attention to and explaining certain things that might otherwise be overlooked or misjudged4 ,moreover1 it was suggested that the writer1 too1 had his design and pattern in words which he was trying to work out artistically and decoratively1 and that the subject1 whether criticism1 history1 poetry1 or fiction1 was of as little importance with him as with the painter4 ,ruskin in art criticism1 ,newman in sermons and lectures1 and ,carlyle in history and essay were possibly greater artists than ,dickens and ,thackeray in fiction4 ,there was nothing new about that to ,la ,farge1 but he acquiesced in it by bowing and smiling a little1 especially over ,ruskin1 for whom he came as near having contempt as for any one4 ,not only ,ruskin's ideas but his vehemence of style were not to ,la ,farge's fancy4 ,he wrote in no such hectic vein in his ,considerations on ,painting4 ,the whole treatise is an inquiry1 not an argument1 and through it all you feel the evenly poised1 well-balanced mind that is weighing the question and is not to be stampeded by rhetoric or eloquence of any kind4 ,he was too intelligent for enthusiasm or emotion4 ,he thought out everything very calmly1 and in the midst of conviction often doubted or questioned his own conclusions4 ,it was his normal attitude of mind--a mind that indulged in subtleties1 that saw as many meanings in a problem as a rug-weaver's eye sees colors in a pattern of tapestry4 ,it was the attempt to put these subtleties in parenthesis that sometimes makes his ,considerations on ,painting hard reading1 and yet no one would wish them deleted4 ,they are side-lights that illumine the quest4 ,the book is an epitome of ,la ,farge's method of thinking and is a type of its kind in literature as truly as his 8,paradise ,valley0 is a type in painting4 ,as for the philosophic mind1 he practically describes himself in one passage in an article in ,scribner's ,magazine#aj on the 8,teaching of ,art40 ,it is worth quoting3 8,the noblest of all the gifts of the great institutions of learning is a certain fostering of elevation of mind4 ,it is not so much by what he knows that the man brought under the trainings of the great academies is marked2 it is by his acquaintance with the size of knowledge2 with1 if ,i may say so1 the impossibility of completing its full circle2 with the acquaintance of the manners of enlarging his boundaries2 with the respect of other knowledge than his own2 with a certain relative humility as compared with the narrower pride of him who knows not the size of the spaces of the world of knowledge4 ,and such an attitude of mind1 such an elevation above petty prides1 such a belief in something larger than one's self1 such an openness to the world1 is the privilege of a full artistic development40 #aj ,scribner's ,magazine1 vol4 #fd1 page #aha4 ,la ,farge as a painter1 as an inventor of precious glass1 as an illustrator of ,oriental life1 as a writer of books1 was a great success2 as a student1 a man of learning1 a philosopher and a talker he was not less so4 ,he had been born of cultivated parents and all his life had been saturated with the intellectual4 ,he knew how to think1 weigh1 and judge matters1 and he knew how to express himself in paint1 in letters1 and in words4 ,his mental poise was remarkable for its stability1 though he was not stubborn and was always open to new light4 ,his conversation was serious1 and his manner grave1 courteous1 calm as that of a ,french academician4 ,certain eccentricities--mental habits that indicated the questioner--were peculiar to him1 and ,henry ,adams1 his travelling companion1 was led to speak of him as a wonderful mind and a wonderful contradiction4 ,by that1 perhaps he meant that ,la ,farge always stopped short of the positive conclusion4 ,he guarded himself with qualifying clauses1 as though conscious of another side to the question4 ,his talk was quite as delightful as his books4 ,he had read almost everything1 knew almost every one in the modern art world1 and his fund of information seemed as exhaustless as his charm of manner4 ,and yet withal he was rather a shy man and had to be sought out4 ,for many years he dined regularly at the ,century ,club1 and more often alone than with company4 ,if any one sat opposite to him at his little table1 the chances were two to one that the visitor was self-invited4 ,he held as intimates for many years ,clarence ,king1 ,john ,hay1 and ,henry ,adams4 ,they must have proved a rare quartet of wits around a dinner-table1 for all of them were exceptionally brilliant talkers4 ,but ,i never heard of a fifth at the table4 ,honors had come to ,la ,farge from the beginning4 ,he had received medals and prizes and degrees1 he wore the ,legion of ,honor in his buttonhole1 was president of the ,society of ,american ,artists1 and an initial member of the ,american ,academy of ,arts and ,sciences4 ,he took them all very calmly4 ,they were recognitions that he did not despise2 neither did he count them as crowns of glory4 ,his well-poised mind1 with its ,oriental sympathies1 could rise above praise1 and yet he was human enough to like it4 ,when the gold medal of the ,architectural ,league was presented to him he startled the honor-bearers by suggesting that it was late in coming4 ,that was not so much egotism as the bald truth1 and he could not refrain from pointing it out4 ,la ,farge had never been physically robust1 and during his latter years he had known much illness4 ,there were periods when he was totally incapacitated and could do no more than lie still4 ,he took that calmly1 too4 ,he was a philosopher always and made the best of things4 ,perhaps that is the reason why with his frail body he lived on to seventy-four1 not dying until ,november1 #aiaj4 ,he lived his character to the last1 and when he died the painter-world1 if no other1 knew that a master mind as well as a master craftsman had passed out4 ,in the arts he was our first great scholar and spoke as one having authority4 ,with his learning1 his imagination1 and his skill he gave rank to ,american art more than any other of the craft4 ,for that reason he is to-day hailed as master and written down in our annals as belonging with the ,olympians4 ,he deserves the title and the separate niche4 ,,vii ,,james ,,abbott ,mc,n,e,i,l,l ,,whistler ,after considering ,la ,farge1 it is difficult to think of ,whistler other than in terms of contrast4 ,they were of the same time1 their tastes were not dissimilar1 and many features of their theory and practice were in agreement2 but ,whistler's impetuosity and contentiousness seem magnified when set over against the gravity and reticence of ,la ,farge4 ,he had not the latter's mental poise1 nor philosophy1 nor tenacity1 nor patience4 ,the seriousness of his art always suffered from the acrimony of his talk or the cleverness of his writing or the flare of his conduct4 ,he was a wit1 to be sure1 but not a wise one2 a brilliant writer but not a profound one2 an sthetic bravo but not a discreet one4 ,his social activities gave his art a wide notoriety1 but that rather harmed than helped its permanent fame4 ,the mob enjoyed his caustic utterances but continued to look askance at his symphonies and nocturnes4 ,what else could have been expected8 ,art explains itself or it falls4 ,talk may make it talked about but does not establish its final worth4 ,and so one1 at times1 wishes that ,whistler had said nothing1 written nothing1 explained nothing4 ,his art standing alone would eventually have vindicated itself as did that of ,hals and ,rembrandt and ,velasquez4 ,there is not the least bit of flippancy or irritability or waspishness about it4 ,if we knew naught of his life and had never read ,the ,gentle ,art of ,making ,enemies and the ,ten ,o',clock1 we could not have derived the militant ,whistler from his pictures4 ,they are cast in a vein of decorative beauty and done not only with the greatest seriousness but with the greatest tranquillity4 ,with their simplicity and largeness of vision1 their fastidiousness of arrangement1 their charm of mood and loveliness of color they would point to an ,ariel-like creator who was in love with color refinements1 a devotee of nature's minor chords1 her shadowy manifestations1 her evanescent harmonies4 ,and that would have been the true ,whistler--the ,whistler that fame will not allow to die4 ,but his clarification is still some distance away4 ,appreciation is clouded by the presence of the egotist1 the dandy1 the bitter-tongued wit1 the maker of paradoxes--passing phases of temperament quite aside from his reckoning as an artist1 mental poses forced upon him by circumstances which he doubtless felt he had to meet and overcome4 ,that is not to say that the capacity for verbal fisticuffs was not born in him1 though he did not show it in his early days1 nor while a student in ,paris4 ,it was only after he took up life in ,london and was reviled by ,british criticism that he stepped outside of his art to defend himself4 ,perhaps he took to words as readily as ,cellini to throat-cutting or ,goya to bull-fighting1 but it was not the less unfortunate4 ,that ,cellini was a bravo and ,goya a roysterer and ,whistler a maker of enemies merely suggests that artists may have dual natures like other people and not be the better for them4 ,their art is not improved thereby4 ,but it is perhaps useless to argue against the admission of the irrelevant4 ,the world likes it and will have it4 ,that ,bacon1 ,titian1 ,goethe were mean in spirit is inconsequent backstairs gossip1 but it is taken as a relish along with their vision and their wisdom4 ,just so with ,whistler4 ,the present generation of painters thinks his ,ten ,o',clock the law and gospel of art1 and a dozen biographies of him record his epigrams and corrosive remarks along with his epoch-making pictures4 ,we shall have to take the chaff with the wheat4 ,perhaps the chief infirmity of ,whistler's make-up was his lack of patience4 ,nature had endowed him with a bright1 alert mind that flashed and scintillated but wavered perhaps in continuity of purpose4 ,it was a true-enough ,american mind in that at first it balked at effort and sought to vault over obstacles by bursts of speed or sudden inspiration4 ,the average ,american believes more in inspiration than in work1 though as applied directly to ,whistler we must not push that point too far4 ,there were periods when he labored hard but there was no prolonged patience1 no calm philosophy of enduring and biding his time4 ,as a boy he would never submit entirely to education1 and as a young man the rigor of studio-training fretted him4 ,he took as much of each as pleased him and let the rest go4 ,he resented guidance and resisted discipline as more or less of a restraint on individuality4 ,the story of his birth1 family1 and early education is told minutely in the excellent biography by the ,pennells4#aa ,from their account it appears that ,whistler was born in ,lowell1 ,massachusetts1 in #ahcd4 ,he was reported to have been born in ,baltimore1 and he did not deny the report4 8,if any one likes to think ,i was born in ,baltimore1 why should ,i deny it8 ,it is of no consequence to me40 ,his parents were refined1 educated people1 the best that the ,united ,states at that time was capable of producing4 ,his father was a ,west ,point graduate1 a major in the ,united ,states army1 and1 at the time of ,whistler's birth1 an engineer1 building locks and canals at ,lowell4 ,in #ahdc the whole ,whistler family went to ,russia1 where the father had been called by the ,czar to build the ,st4 ,petersburg-,moscow ,railway4 ,in ,st4 ,petersburg the children were carefully tutored1 especially in such polite learning as the languages and the arts4 ,whistler was already drawing in a boyish way1 and was no doubt receiving impressions of art from various sources4 ,in #ahdg he was in ,england for the summer with his mother1 and again in #ahdi he went there for the winter because his health could not stand the ,russian climate4 ,in the latter year his father died1 and shortly thereafter ,mrs4 ,whistler1 with the children1 returned to ,america4 ,whistler the boy was sent to school at ,pomfret1 and his mother records that he was still 8an excitable spirit with littler perseverance10 and had 8habits of indolence40 #aa ,the ,life of ,james ,mc,neill ,whistler1 by ,e4 ,r4 and ,j4 ,pennell1 ,philadelphia1 #aiaa4 ,two years of ,pomfret and he was entered as a cadet at the ,west ,point ,military ,academy4 ,he remained there three years1 and was dropped in #ahed because deficient in chemistry4 ,besides1 he could not remember dates1 and at cavalry drill he had difficulty in keeping on his horse4 ,these seem slight reasons for dropping his name from the rolls1 but the ,west ,point requirements in those days1 as now1 were rather rigorous4 ,he appealed to ,washington for reinstatement but was denied4 ,in its place a job was offered him in the ,coast ,survey4 ,he accepted and drew on government maps for some months1 resigning in #ahee4 ,the same year he went to ,paris to study art and entered the studio of ,gleyre1 one of the leading semiclassic painters of the time4 ,whistler's boyhood and youth suggest little out of the ordinary except that he was better born1 better educated1 and had better advantages than the average aspiring youth4 ,in art he had left only the usual record of desultory drawings4 ,professor ,weir at ,west ,point had given him lessons1 but nothing remarkable resulted therefrom4 ,some of the sketches of his ,west ,point days are preserved1 and while they are not astonishing1 they are nevertheless moderately indicative of the coming master4 ,two drawings called 8,the ,valentine0 and 8,sam ,weller and ,mary0 have the same small delicate line and an attempt at tone by shadings and hatchings that characterize his etchings and lithographs of later date4 ,but ,whistler's career does not begin for us until he reached ,paris in #ahee--the year before ,la ,farge's arrival4 ,there are conflicting stories about what he did or did not do under ,gleyre4 ,he must have learned something of drawing and construction besides such small studio devices as arranging colors on the palette1 preparing the canvas1 using ivory-black as a base of tone--a method which he retained all his life4 ,in actual handling of the brush he seems to have gotten something from his associates1 ,fantin-,latour and ,degas1 who were then following ,courbet4 ,evidently he did not care for the routine of the atelier4 ,drouet1 the sculptor1 who was one of his intimates1 did not think that he worked much but was well disposed toward jokes1 pranks1 and a good time4 ,by way of interlude during his two years with ,gleyre he went with a companion on a trip through ,alsace and did some etchings1 known as the ,french set4 ,in #aheg he made a trip to ,england and studied pictures at the ,manchester ,exhibition4 ,returned to ,paris1 he remained there until #ahei1 living in the ,latin ,quarter1 copying pictures at the ,louvre1 and doing original work of his own4 ,his first notable picture1 8,at the ,piano10 was sent to the ,salon of #ahei and rejected1 though two of his etchings were accepted4 ,sent to the ,royal ,academy the same year1 the picture and the etchings were well received and praised4 ,there were many journeyings backward and forward from ,london during this year4 ,whistler's sister had married ,seymour ,haden and was living there2 his student friends of ,paris days--,poynter1 ,armstrong1 ,ionides1 ,du ,maurier--were there and he had not as yet quarrelled with them2 above all1 the ,thames was there4 ,so finally he took up his residence in ,london and began work along the river4 ,he did eleven etchings of the ,thames set1 and the next year painted the 8,wapping10 the 8,thames in ,ice10 and later in the year 8,the ,music ,room10 besides a number of portraits4 ,in #ahfa he was in ,brittany doing the 8,coast of ,brittany0 in the style of ,courbet1 then in ,paris at work on 8,the ,white ,girl10 and later at ,biarritz painting 8,the ,blue ,wave10 again in the style of ,courbet4 ,up to this time everything had gone fairly well with him4 ,he had had an artistic success at the ,english exhibitions1 though his 8,white ,girl0 had been rejected2 many friends--,rossetti1 ,burne-,jones1 ,swinburne1 and others--recognized his ability2 there was as yet no marked denunciation from press or public4 ,it was not called for1 even from a ,philistine point of view4 ,nothing very ultra or bizarre showed in his painting4 ,it was modern1 but it was the modernity of ,gleyre1 ,courbet1 ,fantin--the advanced painting of the times4 ,the pattern of his pictures was perhaps something of an innovation1 because already he had begun flattening it4 ,that may have been the reason for the rejection of 8,at the ,piano0 and 8,the ,white ,girl40 ,but there could have been nothing very forced about the flattening then1 for to-day the pictures look just a little old-fashioned4 ,for the realistic requirements of #ahfj they were extremely well planned and executed1 and the wonder now is that every one did not give them positive recognition at once4 ,perhaps the handling was a little too free and the modelling of the figures too low in relief for the man in the street1 but on the whole there was small cause for complaint on the part of the young painter4 ,if there was little question at this time about ,whistler's pictures1 there was none at all about his etchings4 ,every one1 even the stodgiest of ,britons1 liked them4 ,perhaps that was due again to their conformity to custom4 ,there was little about the early work very different from that of other etchers except that it was freer1 surer1 and better4 ,the long swinging line1 as in the dry point of 8,jo10 or the sharply contrasted blacks1 as in the 8,drouet10 were given with emphasis4 ,contrast rather than uniformity was the aim and there was little attempt at pronounced tone effect1 or flattening of the figure1 or disturbance of perspective--the thing most dear to the viewing public4 ,in fact1 ,whistler's etchings have always been exempt from the denunciation of his paintings4 ,people could see in them things realistic and representative2 the decorative pattern did not bother them4 ,there was no hue and cry raised in ,england over ,whistler's early work because it was not vehemently radical or audaciously assertive4 ,he had accepted and followed the classic tradition of ,gleyre1 had modified it by studies of ,rembrandt1 ,courbet1 ,fantin1 ,manet1 had bettered it by observations and methods entirely his own2 but he was going with the tide1 not against it or across it4 ,had he died at1 say1 twenty-seven1 and the world had only his early etchings1 8,the ,white ,girl10 8,at the ,piano10 and 8,the ,music ,room10 to go by1 it is doubtful if his dozen biographies would have been written1 or that he would have held more than a modest niche in the hall of fame4 ,it was when he became a great innovator that he met with vituperation1 and1 by the same token1 it was only then that he became a really great artist4 ,the innovation came with his modification of the realistic tradition of the ,western world and his introduction of the decorative tradition of the ,eastern world4 ,the latter was a better-based1 a fairer1 a more alluring tradition than the one he had been reared in2 but he did not1 could not1 go over to it in its entirety and turn himself into an ,occidental painter on silk4 ,that would have been mere forceless imitation4 ,instead of doing so1 he strove to graft the ,eastern shoot upon the ,western stock1 to take what was best of ,japanese art and blend it with ,french art1 thus harmonizing the two traditions4 ,representative figures from the ,western world were put into an ,eastern pattern and made to do decorative service4 ,the ,thames was turned into nocturnes1 portraits were changed to arrangements in grays or browns or blacks1 and ,london genre became so many symphonies or harmonies in gold1 blue1 or old rose4 ,the result was a rare bouquet of orchids which the ,english public1 reared on primroses and daisies1 did not find in its botany book and could not understand4 ,no wonder there was confusion1 misunderstanding1 and denunciation4 ,with his ,oriental gospel ,whistler in ,london was scoffed at and reviled4 ,he had brought a new faith to ,english art1 but no one believed in it or would receive it4 ,there was nothing to do but stone the evangelist4 ,the stoning roused his ire4 8though young he was a ,tartar ,and not at all disposed to prove a martyr40 ,and so the quarrel began and ran on for forty years1 until the painter died1 and the ,british public bought his pictures and hung them in its national galleries1 and the incident was declared closed4 ,the story is old in art but this one possesses distinctly modern variations4 ,illustration3 8,nocturne4 ,gray and ,silver4 ,chelsea ,embankment10 by ,james ,a4 ,mc,neill ,whistler4 ,in the ,freer ,collection1 ,smithsonian ,institution4 ,whistler had probably begun the study of ,japanese art before #ahfj1 and there is equal probability that in ,paris he saw not the best examples of it1 but only its latter-day manifestations in the color prints of ,hokusai1 ,utamaro1 and ,hiroshige4 ,however that may have been1 he saw enough to change his ideas about pattern and to turn him half-way round1 at least1 from the representative to the decorative4 ,that was the beginning of the misunderstanding4 ,time out of mind artist and public had been conscious that painting possessed the dimensions of height and breadth1 and1 by illusion1 was capable of a third dimension in depth or thickness4 ,the illusion was produced by variations of light1 shade1 or color which gave modelling4 ,from long custom a preference grew up for figures modelled out--a depth by protrusion rather than by recession4 ,when1 therefore1 ,whistler came to the fore and insisted that the third dimension was something of a vulgarity and that figures should not be round and stand out but be flat and stand in1 there was instant disagreement4 ,he went further4 ,linear perspective was a cheap accomplishment and the delight in it was unintelligent4 ,there was infinitely more distinction in aerial perspective whereby recession and depth were produced by a degradation of values4 ,aerial perspective was1 in fact1 the only perspective worth while4 ,there should not be too much depth4 ,the pattern should be kept flat and the picture should not 8break through the wall0 but be a part of it4 ,moreover1 contrast of color was less decorative1 less charming1 than accord4 ,a picture should be pitched in a certain tonal key and maintain the tone throughout4 ,the minor chords were more refined than those of higher pitch and greater resonance2 a twilight or a midnight was more lovely than 8a foolish sunset40 ,finally the picture was finished when its decorative pattern was complete4 ,the whole meaning of the picture was in its look4 ,it should make no other appeal4 ,piety1 patriotism1 sentiment1 emotion1 story were all barred out as beside the mark--foreign to the medium4 ,all this ,whistler said in his pictures and it irritated him that the public would not recognize his point of view1 but chose instead to judge his work by the standards of a ,leighton and a ,millais4 ,by way of supplement he sought to explain with tongue and pen1 but he used too many metaphors1 paradoxes1 and sophisms1 with the result that the audience was more mystified than ever4 ,he achieved a reputation for insincerity2 was derided as a coxcomb1 a mountebank1 an impostor1 a charlatan4 ,finally it was discovered that some of the things he said were sharp-pointed1 that he was a wit1 a dandy1 a gay fellow4 ,and they laughed4 ,they would not take either his word or his art seriously4 ,it was admitted1 with some complacency1 that he was a good etcher1 but as a painter he had not fulfilled expectations4 ,the prophet had arrived ahead of his time4 ,the ,japanese influence--the most potent of all in ,whistler's art--began to show itself gradually and did not come out entirely in the open until such pictures as the 8,lange ,leizen10 8,the ,gold ,screen10 8,the ,balcony10 and the 8,princesse du ,pays de la ,porcelaine0 appeared4 ,with them not only the flat pattern but ,tokio porcelains1 fans1 screens1 robes were shown4 ,there was some incongruity in the appearances1 which ,whistler did not seek to conceal4 ,the figure in the 8,lange ,leizen0 is ,english1 sits on a chair like an ,english model1 and is in an ,english interior2 but ,japanese costume and blue-and-white pots and jars are introduced4 ,whistler regarded it as a color scheme and called it 8,an ,arrangement in ,purple and ,rose10 but his audience saw only the incongruity4 8,the ,balcony0 again was mystifying4 ,there were four figures in ,japanese robes on an iron-railed platform with an outlook on the ,thames4 ,there were bamboo screens and potted azaleas and blue-and-white tea things4 ,again there was the impossible--,japan set down in ,london4 ,the subtitle1 8,a ,harmony in ,flesh ,color and ,green10 explained nothing4 ,the picture was judged by its meaning1 not by its appearance1 and1 of course1 it meant nothing in an ,english sense4 ,the 8,princesse du ,pays de la ,porcelaine0 was even more startling4 ,every one knew it was a young ,greek girl who posed as the ,princesse1 and the masquerade of ,japanese robe and rug and screen and fan was only a pretense4 ,the subtitle of 8,rose and ,silver0 again did not enlighten4 ,what was wanted was the common sense of it and not the harmony or the arrangement4 ,but it had no common sense2 it was merely a fantasy in color4 ,persistently they looked for the wrong thing and would not see what the painter wished them to see4 ,it was just so with 8,the ,little ,white ,girl0--a beautiful symphony in white showing a young girl in muslin leaning against a white mantel with her face reflected in a mirror4 ,it was ,japanese only in the fan1 the flowers1 and the vase1 but the arrangement was too flat for public appreciation1 and the girl was declared the 8most bizarre of bipeds40 ,illustration3 8,the ,princesse du ,pays de la ,porcelaine10 by ,james ,a4 ,mc,neill ,whistler4 ,in the ,freer ,collection1 ,smithsonian ,institution4 ,all through the sixties this misapprehension of purpose and aim persisted1 and toward #ahgj another riddle was presented with the appearance of the nocturnes4 ,they were things done along the ,thames at dusk and were revelations of that blue-air envelope which forms when the shadow of the world begins to creep up the ,eastern sky4 ,the idea had perhaps been suggested to ,whistler in the color prints of ,hiroshige and he had afterward found its reality in ,english twilights4 ,such a motive was quite the opposite of ,turner's blazing sunset upon which the generations had been reared4 ,everything was muffled1 vague in outline1 half seen as to place4 ,much was left to the imagination1 and as for the composition1 it was arranged with the greatest simplicity4 ,indeed1 it was so simple that people thought it must be foolish and said so without hesitation4 ,again the subtitles of 8,blue and ,gold0 and 8,black and ,gold0 carried no meaning4 ,even the experienced ,ruskin could see nothing in the later 8,falling ,rocket0 but 8a coxcomb flinging a pot of paint in the public's face40 ,it was 8cockney impudence0 and 8wilful imposture40 ,that was more than ,whistler could stand1 and he began a libel suit against ,ruskin in the course of which the ,attorney-,general of ,england said he 8did not know when so much amusement had been afforded the ,british public as by ,mr4 ,whistler's pictures40 ,the trial was a farce and the laugh went against ,whistler4 ,but he laughs best who laughs last1 and it has not been the ,british public that has done the latest laughing4 ,there had been merriment before that1 and--incredible as it may seem--over ,whistler's now celebrated portrait of his mother4 ,it was admitted to the ,royal ,academy ,exhibition of #ahgb only after a well-known academician had threatened to resign if it were rejected4 ,it was not wanted1 but having been received1 it was treated as a joke4 ,london revised its opinion about the portrait later on4 ,after the ,french ,government bought it for the ,luxembourg it was thought1 even by the hosts of ,philistia1 to be ,whistler's best effort1 and there was much talk of its refined motherly spirit and decent air--praises that the painter resented1 telling the public that the sitter was no affair of theirs and that their only interest should be in 8the arrangement in gray and black40 ,the portrait of ,carlyle followed1 and was not unlike the mother portrait in its color scheme and pattern4 ,nothing was round in modelling1 or projected1 or stood out in the canvas4 ,the wall1 the chair1 the figure1 even the head1 were flattened1 and to that extent rendered incomprehensible to the general4 ,the ponderous ,times proclaimed that 8before such pictures 444 critic and spectator are alike puzzled4 ,criticism and admiration seem alike impossible1 and the mind vacillates between a feeling that the artist is playing a practical joke upon the spectator or that the painter is suffering from some peculiar optical illusion40 ,eventually the ,carlyle won its way1 and is now one of the treasures of the ,glasgow ,corporation ,art ,gallery4 ,but for years no one would touch it with a pair of tongs4 ,both the ,carlyle and the mother portraits had their prototypes in the groups of ,frans ,hals at ,haarlem4 ,whistler much admired ,hals's late portraits of ,women ,regents there1 and found in them his 8arrangement in gray and black40 ,but about the same time with the ,carlyle he painted a portrait of ,miss ,alexander1 the like of which had never before been seen4 ,it was the portrait of a little girl1 hat in hand1 standing at full length in a room1 with daisies at the side and butterflies at the back4 ,the title of it was a 8,harmony in ,gray and ,green40 ,the pattern was beautiful1 the color delightful1 the pose childlike1 and even realistic4 ,but ,london would not have it4 ,it was 8gruesomeness in gray10 8a rhapsody in raw child and cobwebs10 8a disagreeable presentment10 and 8uncompromisingly vulgar40 ,not even in the turbulent times of ,delacroix and 8the drunken broom0 had criticism so cheapened its array and shot so wide of the mark4 ,in spite of abuse ,whistler continued producing portraits--one of ,leyland in evening dress standing at full length1 an 8arrangement in black02 one of ,mrs4 ,leyland1 never entirely completed1 a very beautiful 8symphony in flesh color and pink02 one of ,mrs4 ,huth in black velvet1 another 8arrangement in black40 ,they were all realistic enough as regards the likeness but decoratively arranged as regards pattern and color4 ,they were1 once more1 the blended view of the ,west and the ,east1 and ,whistler never tried to disguise the fact4 ,he sought to place the figure in the canvas as far as he stood from the sitter when painting the picture1 but otherwise he adhered to the flattening of the pattern1 the simplicity of the arrangement1 and the predominance of a tone of color4 ,in #ahgf ,whistler was given carte blanche to produce one of his tone effects in a room at the ,leyland house4 ,this afterward became known as the ,peacock ,room4 ,it held the picture of the 8,princesse du ,pays de la ,porcelaine0 at one end1 was decorated elsewhere with peacocks1 furnished with cabinets of blue-and-white china1 and set off with blue and gold in the walls and ceiling4 ,the idea of the peacocks had probably come to ,whistler from some ,japanese master1 perhaps ,okio1 and the rest of it was his own arrangement of color4 ,the next year was that of the suit against ,ruskin4 ,london laughed and ,whistler shortly thereafter went into bankruptcy4 ,everything was seized and sold1 bringing little or nothing4 ,the tide was at its lowest ebb1 and the painter was left stranded1 but by no means dead or even moribund4 ,when he had sufficiently recuperated he went off to ,venice1 where he gathered a little coterie of admirers about him who referred to him as 8the master10 and where he talked much1 and did some etchings and some pastels on colored paper4 ,the first series of ,venetian etchings1 twelve in number1 were done in the summer of #ahhj1 and possibly he never went beyond such plates as 8,the ,rialto10 8,the ,bridge01 and 8,the ,traghetto40 ,they seem the most flawless of his etched work4 ,as for the pastels1 they were largely notes of color1 line1 or movement1 and while charming as notes1 they were not impeccable in drawing4 ,they were never intended to be realistic in any modern sense2 they were1 in fact1 mere flying autumn leaves that meant nothing aside from form and color and their airy lightness4 ,in ,november ,whistler returned to ,london1 and the sniping and sharpshooting began again4 ,it was temporarily interrupted by the death of his mother in ,january1 but soon broke out anew4 ,portraits were being painted--that of ,duret in evening clothes with a domino on his arm1 and one of ,lady ,archibald ,campbell1 called 8,the ,yellow ,buskin10 an 8arrangement in black10 being the most notable4 8,the ,yellow ,buskin10 now in the ,fairmount ,park ,gallery1 ,philadelphia1 appeals to many people as perhaps ,whistler's most spirited and effective portrait1 but ,london criticism viewed it lightly4 ,the ,morning ,advertiser said 8its obvious affectations render the work displeasing10 and another critic stated that 8he has placed one of his portraits on an asphalt floor and against a coal-black background1 the whole apparently representing a dressy woman in an inferno of the worldly40 ,the public was equally unconvinced4 ,so in #ahhd ,whistler mounted the platform at ,princes ,hall and in his ,ten ,o',clock set forth not only his philosophy of art but his scorn and contempt for almost everybody and everything excepting art and artists4 ,the lecture created a stir1 was repeated at ,oxford and ,cambridge1 and ,whistler became famous as one who could write even if he could not paint4 ,oddly enough1 his lecture seemed to command more respect than his pictures1 though it had not a tithe of their sincerity4 ,at any rate1 the painter's fortunes now began to mend4 ,he joined the ,society of ,british ,artists1 and two years later became its president4 ,in #ahhh he was married to ,beatrix ,godwin1 widow of ,e4 ,b4 ,godwin1 the architect1 afterward moving to ,no4 #ba ,cheyne ,walk1 where many orders for portraits came to him4 ,success and honors came also4 ,france gave him the ,legion of ,honor1 ,bavaria made him an academician1 he had the ,cross of ,st4 ,michael1 and later on ,glasgow ,university gave him an ,,ll4,d4 ,his pictures at auction increased in price five and ten fold2 his commission prices were in proportion4 ,he grew so affluent that he could even decline to paint a ceiling for the ,boston ,public ,library4 ,at last the light was beginning to dawn--a trifle late1 to be sure1 but nevertheless it was welcomed by the painter4 ,illustration3 8,the ,yellow ,buskin10 by ,james ,a4 ,mc,neill ,whistler4 ,in the ,w4 ,p4 ,wilstach ,collection1 ,fairmount ,park ,gallery4 ,the rest is soon told4 ,in #ahib he moved to ,paris and lived in the rue du ,bac4 ,a studio was opened for pupils in ,paris at which he agreed to give lessons4 ,it was popular at first1 but did not last long4 ,he travelled back and forth to ,london a good deal1 and finally returned to ,england to live4 ,quarrels had followed him to ,paris and the ,eden trial had taken place there4 ,it was unfortunate4 ,trilby had been written and ,whistler was parodied in it1 which caused another tempest in a teapot4 ,then ,mrs4 ,whistler died1 and that was not only a great shock but a lasting grief4 ,he never quite got over it4 ,he wandered to ,paris and ,rome1 but he cared little for them2 he kept at work with feverish energy1 but he accomplished little4 ,he was evidently broken1 not only in spirit but in body2 and his death in ,july1 #aijc1 was hardly a surprise to his more intimate friends4 ,the overstrung bow at last had snapped4 ,for many years ,whistler had been wrongly estimated alike by friend and foe4 ,that one admired and the other condemned did not change the measure of extravagance4 ,there was exaggeration on both sides4 ,since his death his critics have held their tongues1 but many of his admirers have burst into print with impressions and reminiscences that are quite out of proportion and give a misleading idea of the man and the painter4 ,the best account of him is that of the ,pennells4 ,they were devoted to him and wrote enthusiastically about him1 as they should2 but they did not fail to give the pros and cons in parallel columns4 ,moreover1 they did not make him out a jester with cap and bells1 a poseur1 a wit1 and a fop1 but a very sincere and serious artist stung to resentment by the stupidity and studied insults of a perverse generation4 ,that is precisely the right point of view1 but unfortunately the ,pennells are about the only ones who have consistently held it4 ,the other accounts1 for the most part1 deal with his personal appearance1 his witticisms1 his eccentricities1 his quarrels1 and let his art go with a few rhapsodic generalities4 ,as for the descriptions of ,whistler's personality1 they give a false impression by undue emphasis on certain appearances4 ,my acquaintance with him was after #ahij1 though ,i had met him some years before4 ,at no time was ,i impressed with his 8flashing0 eye1 or his 8claw-like0 hands1 or his 8white lock10 or his 8dandified0 costume4 ,they were not marked features unless one were looking for them4 ,he was slightly built1 refined-looking1 and carried himself well1 even gracefully4 ,the ,chase portrait of him is so foolish that even ,chase could not show it without apologies and explanations2 and as for the ,boldini portrait1 it is thoroughly ,mephistophelian4 ,about the latter1 ,whistler said3 8,they say that looks like me2 but ,i hope ,i don't look like that40 ,the portrait is a typical ,boldini1 with all that that implies of vulgarity and insinuation4 ,but ,whistler looked like a gentleman1 not like a boulevardier4 ,his manner was courteous and his disposition usually good-natured4 ,i never saw anything of his waspishness1 nor heard any of his vitriolic retorts4 ,he talked soberly and very sensibly unless aroused or driven into a corner by argument4 ,then he would fight back viciously enough and with excellent wit4 ,from some quick answers to foolish people he finally became known for repartee and his name was used as a peg upon which many sharp sayings were hung1 and he quite innocent of them4 ,the only bright retort from him that ,i ever heard was made at my own expense4 ,i recount it as illustrative of his brightness4 ,one night at the ,pennells'1 ,whistler had been grumbling in an amusing way over art criticism and art critics4 ,no one answered him4 ,he had the floor entirely to himself and the rest of us were content to smile4 ,near eleven o'clock1 as ,i rose to go1 and ,whistler and ,pennell went with me to the door1 ,i ventured to say that art critics were not very different from other people1 that they did the best they could1 but were human and often erred4 ,it was good-natured deprecation of his point of view1 which he met by putting his hand on my shoulder and saying with equal good nature3 8,oh1 my dear ,van ,dyke1 don't misunderstand4 ,we none of us think of you as an art critic40 ,everybody laughed1 myself included4 ,there was not a particle of venom in it4 ,i had written about him in praise in the early eighties when others were abusing him and he had thanked me for it2 ,i was in his good books4 ,to be sure1 the retort was hardly new4 ,john ,brougham had launched it at ,lester ,wallack many years before4 ,but the cleverness of it lay in its application4 ,whistler liked to talk1 especially if there was an audience of half a dozen4 ,he was then very willing to fill space in the spot-light and conduct the session1 especially if art was up for discussion4 ,another night1 at a ,pennell dinner1 a very clever man--one of the editors of the ,daily ,telegraph--was present4 ,he had recently returned from the far ,north--beyond ,spitzbergen--and had been telling us about the brilliancy of the ,northern color4 ,whistler1 beside whom ,i sat1 was not interested and kept tugging at my arm1 telling me that it was mere raw color and not art4 ,to that ,i finally had to make reply that ,i cared not a rap whether the color was artistic or not1 that ,i was interested in the mere fact of its brilliancy4 ,with that he flung around in his chair1 turning his back on me1 much as a child might do1 and remained silent until the subject changed4 ,but it is an error to infer that because he was often witty and occasionally petty1 wit and pettishness were his outstanding characteristics4 ,by setting forth unrelieved chapters of his stories and sayings the impression has been produced that he started a new quarrel each morning before breakfast and shot envenomed shafts until sunset4 ,that his witticisms were scattered over a period of forty years is neither stated nor implied4 ,as a matter of fact1 he was almost always in a serious mood1 and1 with his knowledge and gift of language1 talked most sensibly and persuasively4 ,i remember many interesting and informing talks with him when there was no jesting and not even smiling4 ,in his own studio1 with his own pictures on the easel and he explaining his intention and its development on the canvas1 he was at his best4 ,he was then a reasonable1 sensible painter1 with none of the pose of the ,ten ,o',clock and none of the vanity of ,the ,gentle ,art of ,making ,enemies4 ,i have never met a more striking contradiction in an individual1 and it always seemed to me that the ,whistler of the sharp tongue and pen was not the true ,whistler but merely a character assumed for the occasion4 ,his published writings1 as one reads them to-day1 are extravagantly brilliant1 but hardly sincere1 even from a ,whistlerian point of view4 ,take from the ,ten ,o',clock1 for instance1 the oft-quoted sentence3 8,there never was an artistic period1 there never was an art-loving nation40 ,a measure of truth lies under that1 but ,whistler knew that he exaggerated it1 overstated it4 ,again the statement that 8,art happens--no hovel is safe from it1 no prince may depend upon it1 the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about1 and puny efforts to make it universal end in quaint comedy and coarse farce40 ,here is another half-truth1 but so arbitrarily insisted upon that one infers that art is really an isolated and unrelated phenomenon on the earth4 ,whistler knew better than that4 ,nothing 8happens0 in this world4 ,there is a cause for every effect4 ,once more the remark about 8the unlimited admiration daily produced by a very foolish sunset40 ,but he himself never was so foolish as to believe such nonsense4 ,it was merely a rococo way of saying that art could not handle a sunset in a satisfactory manner1 and that his art1 in particular1 preferred a twilight or a midnight4 ,the ,ten ,o',clock indeed explains ,whistler's art better than any other1 and1 of course1 that was why it was written4 ,his own limitations and necessities could not have been better set forth than by the sentence3 8,nature is very rarely right2 to such an extent even1 that it might almost be said that nature is usually wrong40 ,he wanted to put a conventionalized nature into a decorative pattern1 and he justified it by saying that a realistic nature is 8usually wrong40 ,it is somewhat of a piece with his remark that 8there are too many trees in the country40 ,there were--for ,whistler's art4 ,but it is useless to point out the superficial in the ,whistler arguments--the falseness of analogy1 for instance1 in comparing national art with national mathematics4 ,that statement was made to produce a laugh1 and it succeeded4 ,it is even stupid to point out the want of logic or historical truth in the ,ten ,o',clock4 ,one might as well try to break ,whistler's own butterfly on a wheel4 ,the lecture was written and delivered to astonish the natives4 ,and it did4 ,it was a charming bit of extravagance1 beautifully written for platform delivery1 and a delightful piece of literature for fireside reading4 ,had it been logical1 temperate1 well-guarded in its utterances1 it would have fallen flat4 ,it fitted the occasion1 was a work of art in itself1 and no more 8happened0 than ,whistler's pictures and etchings4 ,that he wrote extremely well makes it all the more unfortunate that he wrote at all4 ,the letters of ,the ,gentle ,art of ,making ,enemies are amusing1 but leave an impression of flippancy and mere cleverness4 ,these were qualities rightly enough used in a rough-and-tumble newspaper quarrel1 but the reader does not leave them there4 ,unwittingly he looks for the same qualities in ,whistler's portraits and pastels1 perhaps reads them into the art itself4 ,worse yet1 he possibly arrives at the conclusion that the art is of less interest than the quarrels1 of less moment than the passing gibe of the 8foolish sunset10 or the casual irrelevance of 8dragging in ,velasquez40 ,once more1 it is a pity that ,whistler the painter has to be confused with ,whistler the critic-baiter4 ,however well one comes out of a fight1 it is generally with rumpled plumage and a lack of dignity4 ,whistler could well have afforded to go his way in silence4 ,why did he have to kick at every cur that barked at his heels8 ,degas said he acted as though he had no talent1 and ,degas was right4 ,after these books of bickerings one comes back to ,whistler's pictures with relief1 for they at least are serious4 ,that is not1 however1 to say that they are the greatest this1 or the most wonderful that1 in all painting4 ,they are far from being impeccable1 but they are not the wherewithal to suckle fools and chronicle small beer4 ,no competent person nowadays thinks them other than very sincere art4 ,his brothers of the craft have1 indeed1 so elevated them and him1 so pedestalled and niched them both1 that it is very doubtful if they can long hold out in their rarefied atmosphere4 ,again and again has the world been told that he was a faultless draftsman1 that his brush was equal to that of ,velasquez1 and that his needle outdid ,rembrandt4 ,he did not believe so himself1 nor1 soberly considered1 does his art affirm it4 ,the ,pennell book contains photographs of a number of pictures labelled 8destroyed10 and there were scores of canvases that never got so far as even to be photographed4 ,many of the pictures that escaped destruction are faulty in drawing1 lacking in construction1 out of proportion1 or smitten with stiffness in the joints4 ,connie ,gilchrist on the stage skipped the rope delightfully1 but in ,whistler's portrait called 8,the ,gold ,girl0 she is petrified4 ,the 8,sarasate0 seems pinched in scale1 the 8,irving as ,philip0 is unbelievable in construction1 the 8,leyland0 legs had to be redrawn from a model4 ,whistler glorified the people of ,velasquez because 8they stand upon their legs40 ,in his studio1 showing his own portraits1 his first question about each figure was3 8,how does it stand80 ,and then3 8,does it stand easily1 stand firm1 stand in8 ,is it placed right on the canvas1 has it enough body1 enough atmospheric setting80 ,these were questions that had to do with realistic or representative appearance4 ,again and again he rubbed out the whole day's work or destroyed the picture entirely4 ,and he could write of himself to his printer in the severest terms1 thus3 8,no1 my drawing or sketch or whatever you choose1 is damnable and no more like the superb original than if it had been done by the worst and most incompetent enemy4444 ,there must be no record of this abomination40 ,this1 in measure1 is the experience of every artist4 ,he produces with difficulty and has scores of failures4 ,it was not to ,whistler's discredit that he was so severe a judge of himself1 but perhaps it dispels the delusion of his being an impeccable craftsman4 ,besides1 there was an unusual reason for his lack of success with many pictures4 ,it has been already suggested that he strove to harmonize the conflicting traditions of the ,west and the ,east4 ,he was born and bred to the realism of the third dimension--to the protrusion or recession in space of planes1 figures1 lights1 and colors4 ,midway in his career he took up with the decorative in ,eastern art and strove to show the representative figure of the ,french with the flattened formula of the ,japanese4 ,whistler was thus on a seesaw the greater part of his artistic life1 trying to maintain a balance between these two formulas4 ,with almost every picture it was too much realism or too much decoration4 ,to make the union more perfect he began the remorseless cutting down of the subject1 reaching a limit in his nocturnes which were finally reduced to little more than night-sky effects4 ,he cut out modelling and outline until the portrait of 8,mrs4 ,leyland0 became a mere tonal scheme1 as flat almost as the wall at the back4 ,light1 too1 was dimmed and color lost its brilliancy in a prevailing harmony of low tones4 ,finally1 the brush which had been heavily loaded in his ,courbet days and ran freely 7as witness the dress patterns even in the later 8,lange ,leizen07 became thin1 watery1 absorbent1 almost diaphanous in its feathery imperceptible touch4 ,on top of all this1 and to further blend the representative into the decorative and draw the picture together1 there occasionally came a thin wash of transparent gray or brown1 covering the whole canvas and binding the drawing1 the light1 the color into one tonal envelope4 ,in the final analysis1 the canvas was rightly enough called an arrangement1 a harmony1 a symphony1 a nocturne--what you will4 ,anything else was merely suggestion4 ,the etchings were not so amenable to ,japanese pattern as the paintings1 water-colors1 and pastels1 yet even in them there was the disposition1 not so much toward flattening the planes as eliminating details1 making suggestion answer for realization1 and1 later on1 the further attempt to produce a tone effect by small scratchings and hatchings on the plate4 ,the inclination is perhaps better shown in his lithotints1 such as that of 8,the ,thames0 7,lithotint ,w4 #abe71 than in the etchings4 ,the decorative arrangement was his view of what art should be and was more or less manifested in everything he did4 ,even the ,ten ,o',clock is more decorative than realistic4 ,the arrangement of the sentences and paragraphs is charming1 and whether they mean anything or not is of small importance4 ,of course ,whistler would have objected to being thus hung by his own rope1 but he deliberately subordinated the sense of his sentences to their rhythm and tone4 ,people who write 7even art critics7 are aware of what constitutes pattern and color in words and they are well pleased that the ,ten ,o',clock was not representative but just as it is--that is1 decorative and delightful4 ,the painter people1 however1 seem to regard it as the inspired gospel of art and every word of it true4 ,from which one may infer that the artist1 when outside of his mtier1 can look at the wrong thing with that persistence sometimes thought peculiar to the unattached writer4 ,in the final analysis ,whistler's fame must rest upon his pictures1 though a certain amount of notoriety will probably always be given his sayings and a proper admiration accompany his writings4 ,as a painter and an etcher he has a now-unquestioned place and he will hold it4 ,nothing in nineteenth-century art is quite of a kind with his4 ,it stands alone in its aim and purpose1 belongs to no art movement of the time1 proclaims the ideals of no race or people4 ,as for the usual motives of painting1 ,whistler scorned them or denied them4 ,he cared nothing about classicism or romanticism1 nothing about sentiment1 feeling1 passion1 or action4 ,the dramatic1 the tragic1 the domestic1 the illustrative were foreign to him4 ,even nature put him out4 ,the country bored him1 and the sea was only so much blue paint in a pattern4 ,he was a maker of beautiful schemes of color and line1 with just enough of human interest about them to lend a meaning and occasionally a touch of intimacy4 ,that seems like reducing his art to a very simple affair1 but1 on the contrary1 within the self-imposed limitations there was room for the greatest variety4 ,he did portraits1 figures1 genre pieces1 sea-pieces1 river-views2 he worked in oils1 water-colors1 pastels2 he etched many plates that are to-day the joy of connoisseurs1 and he vastly improved the almost forgotten art of lithography4 ,the breadth of his accomplishment was wide and the excellence of it high4 ,nothing that he ever did but has some note of color1 some wave of line1 some fastidious arrangement or grouping that serves as a mark of distinction4 ,he did hundreds of pastels and water-colors no larger than one's hand1 that contain lovely figures and draperies1 as1 for example1 the 8,annabel ,lee02 or gave suggestions of the sea or shore akin to 8,the ,blue ,wave10 or spread sky patterns comparable to the 8,battersea ,bridge40 ,these pictures are now widely scattered1 and one does not realize how truly decorative their planning until he meets them to-day1 hanging singly or in pairs1 in some drawing-room4 ,there they put other modern work out of countenance by the way they do not 8break through the wall0 but enhance and beautify it4 ,it is household art of a most distinguished character in that it goes in the household and takes its place without quarrelling with everything about it4 ,i have already quoted ,la ,farge to the effect that in using the word 8decorative0 he was saying the best thing he could about a picture4 ,there he and ,whistler were in perfect agreement4 ,the deriding of ,whistler was not indulged in by press and public alone4 ,the painter people--the inspired ones1 who by reason of their calling are the only ones competent to judge of art--stoned him1 too4 ,royal academicians dealt him harder knocks than plebeian critics4 ,but he always had a following of his own1 and before he died the following had grown into a procession4 ,since his death his influence has been more far-reaching than that of any modern4 ,his pictures were not only adopted1 assimilated1 imitated in ,england and ,france but all over ,europe4 ,here in ,america the exhibitions still show his color schemes and arrangements as comprehended by his admiring young converts4 ,without taking on pupils1 as ,couture and ,gleyre had done1 he nevertheless became far more of a chef d',ecole than either of them4 ,that is what he would have called perhaps handing on the tradition4 ,he believed that he himself was an inheritor and a transmitter--one of the links in the great art chain4 ,but it was not the ,american tradition that ,whistler handed on4 ,we claim him as one of us because he was born here1 but his art does not represent us in any way4 ,his ,thames nocturnes are not those of the ,hudson1 his portraits are not of our people1 and his decorative patterns never were seen in ,american life or art4 ,he handed on the blended traditions of ,gleyre and ,hiroshige1 not the legend of ,copley and ,stuart and ,durand4 ,that may be matter for regret in history but it surely is not to be regretted in art4 ,for ,whistler gave us a new and a beautiful point of view in painting4 ,realist1 idealist1 impressionist1 cubist1 futurist--none of the terms describe him or even suggest his work4 ,as an artist he was unique1 and his art1 instead of reproducing a species1 stemmed out into a new variety of surpassing loveliness and beauty4 ,we would not be without it4 ,we are not sure that its 8name and fame will live forever10 as the ,pennells put it1 but it will live4 ,,viii ,,william ,,merritt ,,chase ,a distribution and pigeonholing of our nine ,american painters as regards aim and tendency would perhaps place ,inness1 ,wyant1 and ,martin among the most intelligent and sympathetic of the earlier men2 ,homer1 ,la ,farge1 and ,whistler the most detached and self-sufficient of the middle men1 and ,chase1 ,alexander1 and ,sargent the most facile and best trained of the younger men4 ,the last three may1 indeed1 stand as epitomizing the art movement which took form and gave tongue in the ,society of ,american ,artists4 ,that movement was epoch-making4 ,there was awakening to the fact that painting in ,america as a craft was not technically understood1 that it was not properly taught--could not be taught in ,america4 ,with that came the departure for ,europe of many young students and their training in the studios of ,munich and ,paris4 ,when the ,society of ,american ,artists finally got under way in the early eighties its initial reason for existence was that its members at least knew how to paint4 ,they had been abroad and learned the grammar of their art and were now returned to show their countrymen the finished craftsman4 ,sargent's influence was largely through the example of his portraits and ,alexander's vogue was to come a little later2 but ,chase was the one that arrived early in the day1 carried the banner1 and announced that art had come to town4 ,all three of these men grounded themselves in technical method which seemed the necessity of the hour1 and all three of them have remained so bedded in method that their art has rarely risen above it or beyond it4 ,chase1 more radical than the others1 proclaimed his belief that method was art itself and that a brilliant1 dashing manner took precedence over matter4 ,he would not admit that art was more than a surface expression4 ,his belief was1 of course1 properly adjusted to his own mental equipment4 ,he and ,whistler1 with many another artist1 could cleverly compound for qualities 8they were inclined to ,by damning those they had no mind to40 ,unconsciously1 no doubt1 every one's tendency is to regard his own limitations as self-imposed and his work right in kind if not in degree4 ,perhaps that is what ,chase meant in a talk at the ,national ,arts ,club some years ago when he said3 8,they say ,i am conceited4 ,i don't deny it4 ,i believe in myself4 ,i do and ,i must40 ,as philosophy that may not be very profound but as a working faith1 paint-brush in hand1 it is superb4 ,with such faith and purpose ,chase produced scores of pictures that showed his declared point of view1 and trained hundreds of pupils not only in his enthusiasm but in his own crisp1 clean handling4 ,he was a painter from beginning to end1 and exemplified the aim and carry of the ,society of ,american ,artists better than any one artist of his time4 ,he came out of the near ,west1 having been born in ,williamsburg1 ,indiana1 in #ahdi4 ,the village was a small one1 less than two hundred inhabitants when ,chase was a boy1 and what elementary schooling he received there may be imagined4 ,his parents were ,indiana people1 and the home influence probably did not incline him to art4 ,he saw illustrations in magazines and books and that put the childish wish in his head to 8make pictures for books40 ,he drew with colored pencils1 had the little water-color cubes known to all children1 and soon made a local reputation among schoolmates and family friends for drawing portraits4 ,at twelve his parents moved to ,indianapolis1 and at sixteen he entered his father's shoe-store as a clerk4 ,the biographies of painters#ab almost always afford such incidents as these4 ,they are supposed to indicate genius trying to orient itself1 but perhaps they are no more than vacillations of the youthful mind4 ,at that time ,chase had not definitely decided upon art as a career4 ,at nineteen he thought to be some day a naval officer4 ,as a preliminary step he enlisted as a sailor at ,annapolis1 and was assigned to the training-ship ,portsmouth4 ,he probably did not know what else to do and it was an adventure at least2 but he soon discovered that it was also a mistake4 ,his father got him out of it and together they went back to the family shoe-shop in ,indianapolis4 #ab ,there is an excellent biography of ,chase--,the ,life and ,art of ,william ,merritt ,chase1 by ,katharine ,metcalf ,roof1 ,new ,york1 #aiag4 ,there was some more experimental portraiture1 with members of the household and the family calf as models1 and then ,chase was sent to a local painter by the name of ,benjamin ,hayes1 who accepted him as a pupil4 ,art definitely began for him then and there4 ,he was with ,hayes several months--long enough to take a studio and set up as a painter on his own account4 ,at twenty he went to ,new ,york with a letter to ,j4 ,o4 ,eaton1 whose pupil he became and with whom he remained for two years4 ,he seems to have had an early liking for independent quarters1 for while a student in ,new ,york he set up another studio in ,twenty-third ,street4 ,after his two years with ,eaton he once more went back to the paternal roof1 then in ,st4 ,louis4 ,here he occupied a studio with ,j4 ,w4 ,pattison1 and for a year painted pictures1 principally pictures of still-life4 ,then he happened to see a picture by ,john ,mulvaney1 and that gave him the idea of going abroad for study4 ,some ,st4 ,louis patrons advanced money to him and he went to ,munich--a city at that time perhaps more frequented by art students than ,paris4 ,duveneck1 ,dielman1 ,currier1 ,shirlaw were there1 and ,chase at once entered into the student life of the city4 ,he was enrolled in the school of the ,munich ,royal ,academy1 with ,kaulbach at its head1 and he was also a student under ,piloty2 but the outside influence of ,leibl was potent upon all the ,munich students at that time1 ,chase included4 ,in addition he studied to his profit the old masters in the ,alte ,pinacothek1 especially ,van ,dyck1 and was susceptible to impressions from ,duveneck and perhaps ,habermann1 a ,german student friend4 ,some years ago in a ,european retrospective exhibition ,i was struck by a ,habermann portrait that was practically a duplicate of ,chase's 8,ready for the ,ride10 but whether it was ,chase following ,habermann or ,habermann following ,chase1 ,i could not determine4 ,with his various activities ,chase cut quite a figure in the student world of ,munich and was regarded as a coming man4 ,he won competitions1 painted ,piloty's children1 painted 8,the ,turkish ,page10 the ,duveneck portrait called 8,the ,smoker10 8,the ,jester10 8,the ,dowager10 8,the ,apprentice ,boy10 8,the ,broken ,jug10 and other works4 ,a chance to review some of these pictures was recently afforded at the ,panama-,pacific ,exposition at ,san ,francisco1 where ,chase was represented by a roomful of pictures1 and many people were astonished to find how very solidly and beautifully painted were these early examples4 ,they were1 of course1 dark in illumination with some bitumen in the shadows4 ,it was studio light1 not plein air that ,munich taught4 ,it took ,chase a number of years to arrive at a higher key of light1 but in other matters of technique he had become something of a master before leaving ,munich--so much so that he was asked to remain as an instructor in the ,bavarian ,academy4 ,he declined1 however1 and in #ahgg went to ,venice1 where he joined ,duveneck and ,twachtman and remained for nearly a year4 ,venice meant not a great deal to ,chase4 ,he painted it1 but in the formal ,munich manner1 and with little of the local light or color of the place4 ,while there he fell upon hard times1 was in financial straits1 and became ill1 possibly as the result of privations4 ,but he continued painting1 and1 what is more astonishing1 while in dire poverty he began collecting all sorts of artistic plunder4 ,this was the beginning of a taste that he indulged in all his life4 ,he bought pictures1 rugs1 brocades1 silks1 brass1 guns1 swords1 jewels1 rings--anything that was beautiful or artistic in design or color4 ,at different times he had large collections of antiquities1 and was ever hunting for more4 ,at ,venice he added two monkeys to his possessions1 and when a few months later he returned to ,new ,york and took his ,tenth ,street studio he had several strange parrots and odd dogs as adjuncts to the place4 ,the high walls of the big studio were hung with bits of tapestries1 old velvets1 pictures2 the floor was covered with ,oriental rugs2 the tables were littered with clocks1 pistols1 old books1 brass bowls2 and the screens were draped with silks and brocades4 ,it was the first 8artistic0 studio in ,new ,york4 ,this was in #ahgg and ,chase had returned to ,new ,york to become a teacher in the newly established ,art ,students ,league4 ,that was the beginning of his long and very useful career as a teacher4 ,the ,art ,students ,league and the ,society of ,american ,artists were started about the same time1 the ,metropolitan ,museum having preceded them by a few years4 ,the movement for art was under way and ,chase had arrived at the psychological moment4 ,associated with ,beckwith1 ,blum1 ,shirlaw1 and others he immediately took a positive interest in current art matters4 ,the big studio became the gathering-place of the young men1 where resolutions were passed and committees were set in motion4 ,society also found its way there1 for ,chase gave ,saturday receptions when the door with the vibrating lyre on the back of it was swung open by a colored servant in fez and gown1 and pictures and antiquities were displayed and talked about by the painter himself4 ,at other times dinners and dances were given there1 to which came many notables4 ,people from the opera sang1 ,carmencita danced1 and society people posed in picture-frames for the characters of ,titian and ,van ,dyck4 ,chase had a decided vogue1 social as well as artistic1 almost from the very start4 ,as a painter he was taken seriously and received his meed of praise with few dissenting voices4 ,almost every one in the press and magazines hailed him as the much-needed person--the man who technically knew how to paint4 ,his pictures at no time ever sold very well1 but that was for the reason perhaps that they never possessed an intimate human interest1 not because they were indifferently painted4 ,on the whole1 though some of the elders looked askance at his broad brushing1 or thought his themes somewhat material and superficial1 he had no grievance of a ,whistler kind against either critic or public4 ,the art clubs elected him to membership1 he spent his first summer after his return in a trip through the ,erie ,canal with the ,tile ,club1 in #ahhj he became a member of the ,society of ,american ,artists1 and in #ahhc its president4 ,the same year he had organized and sent to ,munich the first group of ,american pictures for exhibition there4 ,a curiosity as to how art had been produced by other people1 in other times and countries as well as our own1 was always with ,chase4 ,he was a great traveller1 a great student of art1 a great haunter of galleries and museums4 ,in the thirty or more years that ,i knew him ,i had met him at different times in almost every gallery of ,europe4 ,only a year or so before the ,great ,war ,i was working in the ,uffizi one hot ,july afternoon after every one had left the place4 ,i had been alone for several hours when ,i heard steps approaching me down the long corridor4 ,it was late and one of the attendants was probably coming to tell me it was time to close4 ,but no2 instead of that ,i heard in very good ,english3 8,at it again1 ,i see6 ,at it again60 ,i turned around to find ,chase standing there4 ,he1 too1 had stayed on in the heat after the crowd had gone1 and had no doubt been prying into some ,titian or questioning some ,rembrandt or ,rubens6 ,for many years he kept voyaging to ,europe summer after summer4 ,i never chanced to cross with him1 but one spring1 while bidding farewell to some friends who were sailing1 ,i saw ,chase jump out of a cab and scramble up the landing-stage--the last man to arrive--and still giving some directions over his shoulder to his colored man1 who remained on the dock4 ,on every steamer he sailed in he organized art1 painted the cabin or smoke-room panels1 sketched the captain1 and made a portrait of the ship's beauty4 ,arrived in ,europe1 he went to see not only exhibitions and museums but brothers of the craft in their studios4 ,he spoke no ,french1 ,spanish1 or ,italian1 and had only a limited vocabulary in ,german1 but that made no difference4 ,he got on better with ,boldini and ,alfred ,stevens in ,paris using the sign language than with ,whistler in ,london exchanging biting ,english4 ,everywhere he was welcomed and treated as a man of distinction in his profession1 and everywhere he saw something new and was perhaps influenced thereby4 ,he was eager to learn and susceptible to impression--so much so that he was said to have followed at different times ,leibl1 ,stevens1 ,rico1 ,fortuny1 ,whistler2 but the things which ,chase followed were minor matters of handling or arrangement and did not affect his personal point of view4 ,they were superficial fancies and were soon merged1 fused1 or abandoned4 ,some of the old masters1 ,velasquez1 ,titian1 ,hals1 ,rembrandt1 had a stronger influence upon him1 but these men he never tried to follow4 ,it was their high artistic plane that gave him inspiration4 ,standing before ,titian's 8,young ,englishman0 in the ,pitti1 his admiration for its superb poise and lofty dignity was unbounded4 ,it was faultless and flawless intellectually and technically4 ,the left eye was out of drawing1 but ,titian intended it so4 ,it gave the face more character4 ,he never even wanted to suspect that the restorer in the cleaning-room was perhaps responsible for the bad drawing of the eye4 ,titian was above criticism4 ,chase was never mean in his enthusiasms4 ,he loved whole-heartedly4 ,before ,velasquez at ,madrid everything was just as it should be4 ,he was the greatest of them all--the master craftsman of the craft2 in the ,louvre he protested that no one had ever equalled or approached such still-life painting as that of ,chardin2 at ,haarlem he was just as unstinted in praise of ,frans ,hals4 ,and he was right about them all4 ,he was a very good judge of pictures and picked out no questionable masters for admiration4 ,where he found a great masterpiece in a gallery1 there he unslung his kit1 sat down1 and made a copy4 ,he at different times produced very remarkable copies of ,velasquez1 ,hals1 ,rembrandt1 ,rubens1 ,van ,dyck1 ,ribera1 ,watteau4 ,whatever past art had to teach1 ,chase was eager to learn4 ,he kept a receptive mind and a live interest in all phases of painting1 and had more inherent knowledge of craftsmanship than any of his contemporaries4 ,the literary history of art he knew nothing about1 and probably could not have told within a hundred years when ,velasquez or ,hals was born4 ,that side of art has small interest for artists1 and for ,chase it was more or less of a blank space4 ,his summer trips to ,europe began in #ahha1 when he went to ,paris and ,madrid1 making in the latter city a copy of the 8,tapestry ,weavers40 ,the next year he was again in ,spain with ,blum and ,vinton4 ,at that time ,madrid was a great place for brass1 pictures1 stuffs1 curios1 and ,chase bought without stint4 ,he needed materials for still-life pictures and1 besides1 the big ,tenth ,street studio absorbed no end of furnishings4 ,the summer of #ahhc found him in ,holland1 living at ,zandvoort with ,blum1 and painting ,blum in a large garden-picture called 8,the ,tiff40 ,in #ahhe he went to see ,whistler in ,london4 ,they started out on terms of mutual admiration1 painted each other's portraits1 travelled in ,holland together1 but finally ended up by quarrelling4 ,the ,whistler portrait of ,chase has disappeared1 or at least its whereabouts1 if it still exists1 is unknown2 but the ,chase portrait of ,whistler is extant and now in the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,whistler declared it 8a monstrous lampoon10 and he was about right in saying so4 ,it is ,whistler the poseur1 not the real man4 ,certain eccentricities or personal peculiarities were so extravagantly presented that the characterization became little less than caricature4 ,in #ahhf ,chase was married to ,miss ,gerson and for a few years the ,european trips were abandoned4 ,he was still teaching in the ,league1 was president of the ,society of ,american ,artists1 and was holding exhibitions of his work at the ,boston ,art ,club and elsewhere4 ,he began doing some open-air pastels in ,prospect ,park1 ,brooklyn4 ,a small club called the 8,painters in ,pastel0 had been organized in ,new ,york with ,blum as president1 and ,chase1 ,beckwith1 ,la ,farge1 ,twachtman1 ,weir1 ,wiles as members4 ,chase became interested in the gay color-possibilities of the medium and proceeded to apply it to park scenes with children1 flowers1 water1 and trees4 ,years before1 ,alfred ,stevens had told him that his ,munich scheme of light was too dark and ,chase immediately began to lighten it4 ,perhaps the medium of pastel finally drove out the last vestige of ,munich1 for certainly his open-air pictures1 without suggesting pointillisme or impressionism or optical mixture of any kind1 took on very light and brilliant colorings4 ,they were charming expositions of color and sunlight1 and were regarded at the time as something of a departure4 ,his works in oil measurably responded to the newly discovered brightness of his pastels1 but they were always somewhat lower in key4 ,something of ,munich method clung to his portraits even into the nineties4 ,the 8,lady in ,black0 7a portrait of ,mrs4 ,leslie ,cotton7 in the ,metropolitan ,museum is an illustration to the point4 ,it is excellent if somewhat sombre portraiture4 ,both ,chase and ,sargent painted ,carmencita1 the dancer1 in #ahij1 ,sargent's picture being now in the ,luxembourg and ,chase's in the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,the ,chase shows very well his illumination1 his color scheme1 his drawing1 and his brush-work at that time4 ,without radically changing them1 he varied them from year to year to an extent that might almost be called a new manner or style4 ,he was always changing1 as became a painter who counted his education as never complete while he lived4 ,he was widely known at this time through many pictures in annual exhibitions and by separate exhibitions of his works1 as1 for instance1 that at ,buffalo in #ahia4 ,the ,academy of ,design had overcome what prejudices against him it may have had and elected him to membership1 he had started teaching in ,brooklyn1 and the same year his idea of a summer art school at ,shinnecock1 ,long ,island1 came to realization4 ,a house and studio1 a class and a cottage colony were all started and completed out there in the sand-dunes by the sea1 and one of the most picturesque art schools in ,america was soon under way4 ,it was then and there that ,chase did perhaps his best teaching and painted his best work not only in landscape1 shore piece1 and marine1 but in portraiture1 genre1 and still-life4 ,the portrait of his mother1 done at ,shinnecock1 was almost certainly inspired by the fine early ,rembrandt of an aged woman in the ,national ,gallery1 and yet there is hardly a line of resemblance that can be traced4 ,the ,chase portrait is very sober1 serious1 almost severe in its white cap and black silk dress4 ,it has no flourish of brush nor flare of color1 and1 like the ,whistler portrait of his mother1 seems to have more fine feeling about it than any other portrait of his that comes to mind4 ,this1 one can imagine1 came about in both cases because the subjects were intimately known to the painters1 and their appearances had been under long reflection before either painter put brush to canvas4 ,it was perhaps a shortcoming of ,chase's art that he insisted upon merely seeing his subject and not thinking about it4 ,the appearance to him was everything1 the reflection or thought about it nothing4 ,yet the pictures of his that people like best are the ones where some thinking was done4 ,the mother portrait is the instance just given1 and better still than that perhaps is the 8,woman with a ,white ,shawl10 now in the ,pennsylvania ,academy of ,fine ,arts4 ,the latter is beautifully drawn and painted1 rightly placed on the canvas1 true in values1 technically as nearly right as anything ,chase ever did1 but1 oddly enough1 one does not think of it technically nor regard it at first decoratively4 ,it is the fine humanity of it--the eternal womanly--that catches the fancy4 ,it is the portrait of a sensitive1 refined ,american woman--in a way the ideal of a type that every ,american has seen or at some time has known about4 ,chase1 with all his talk about dealing with surfaces only1 sometimes talked the other way and expanded on character4 ,he knew the paint-brush could go beneath the surface1 for his own brush occasionally brought up astonishing results4 ,the 8,woman with a ,white ,shawl0 in its fine sympathy and inherent refinement of character may be regarded as ,chase's high-water mark in portraiture4 ,his portraits of men like those of ,louis ,windmuller1 ,dean ,grosvenor1 ,robert ,underwood ,johnson1 hardly reach up to it4 ,they lack interest4 ,at the same time with the 8,woman with a ,white ,shawl0 he did the 8,alice10 now in the ,chicago ,art ,institute--a young girl with a ribbon thrown back of her shoulders almost like a skipping-rope4 ,but this is just the ordinary ,chase--that is1 an excellent and well-drawn and rightly painted girl of twelve moving across the room with a smiling1 somewhat unintelligent1 face4 ,the only thinking that ,chase put in this picture was in regard to the action or movement of the figure4 ,the rest was merely so much still-life painted for its surface texture as one might paint a brass bucket or the scales of a fish4 ,and yet the 8,alice0 is an excellent picture and exhibits ,chase's theory of art quite perfectly4 ,but it also demonstrates the truth that the sum of art does not lie on the surface1 that the model alone is possibly not sufficient in itself to make up the highest kind of pictorial beauty1 and that the intellectual and emotional nature of the painter is a potent factor in all great art4 ,chase at heart knew that4 ,titian's portraits had convinced him of it years before4 ,illustration3 8,the ,woman with the ,white ,shawl10 by ,william ,merritt ,chase4 ,in the ,pennsylvania ,academy of the ,fine ,arts4 ,honors1 prizes1 and medals were coming to him1 his teaching was very successful1 he had a large following1 and was thought the most considerable of our art leaders2 but beneath the surface all was not so placid or so pleasant4 ,in #ahie he was no longer president of the ,society1 he gave up his ,brooklyn class1 and also his ,tenth ,street studio4 ,artistic extravagance or want of revenue or some other financial disability had placed him in straitened circumstances4 ,all of his pictures and collections had to be sold to pay his debts4 ,with characteristic indifference he gave a farewell dinner in the big studio before leaving it1 gathered together what possessions remained to him in a house in ,stuyvesant ,square1 and shortly thereafter1 with his family and a number of pupils1 went to ,spain4 ,in ,june he returned to ,shinnecock1 and in the autumn took a studio at ,fifth ,avenue and ,thirtieth ,street1 and opened at ,fifty-seventh ,street the ,chase ,school4 ,this school soon became the ,new ,york ,school of ,art1 and ,chase was at its head for eleven years4 ,he also went on teaching at the ,pennsylvania ,academy of ,fine ,arts1 going over to ,philadelphia every week for the purpose4 ,then for half a dozen years he taught and painted at ,shinnecock with little travel interspersed4 ,it was during these years that he did the 8,grey ,kimono0 and the 8,red ,box10 portraits arranged with ,japanese accessories that showed brilliant coloring1 swift handling1 and rather superficial characterization4 ,there was none of the ,japanese spirit or even method about them4 ,then1 too1 he did many shore pieces and views of the sea with the ,shinnecock dunes in the foreground4 ,in these pictures he often placed in the first plane small children in white1 with a note of color in hats or ribbons1 or a reading woman with a bright parasol4 ,the bright spots of color lent brilliancy of effect and the white dresses gave a high pitch of light4 ,they were very attractive pictures1 and some of the seas put in the backgrounds had notes of power about them2 but usually the product was merely a handsome decorative pattern--just what the painter intended it should be4 ,occasionally1 too1 while at ,shinnecock1 ,chase painted views of the sea1 unadorned or unalloyed by beach or shore or people1 that were very effective in wave movement and color4 ,he had a finer feeling for color and texture than ,winslow ,homer but he never had ,homer's grasp of power4 ,in his studio at ,shinnecock he painted portraits1 genre1 and still-life--some of the last being fish4 ,here1 in still-life1 with his cunning handling and with color and texture as the chief motive1 he appeared to great advantage4 ,by many people his fish-painting is regarded as his highest achievement4 ,in no less than half a dozen museums in the ,united ,states he is represented by still-life pictures in which the bulk1 the weight1 the limpness of dead fish are convincingly shown1 but where perhaps greater emphasis is thrown on the slippery wet surfaces with their iridescent colorings4 ,a few years before he died1 in showing a new fish-picture in his studio he remarked to me with some deprecation in his manner that he supposed after he was gone he would be known as a fish-painter6 ,he had made the same protest to others4 ,illustration3 8,afternoon at ,peconic10 by ,william ,merritt ,chase4 ,a short trip to ,london was taken in #aijb4 ,his pupils had asked him to sit to ,sargent for his portrait and he did so4 ,the portrait was afterward given to the ,metropolitan ,museum1 where it now hangs4 ,chase greatly admired ,sargent's sureness and facility and often referred his students to ,sargent's portraits for their study4 ,he was always generous in recognition of good work1 even where perhaps he did not like the worker's point of view1 as with ,boldini1 for example4 ,sargent and ,boldini could outfoot him on his own ground1 but that did not matter4 ,he could still cheer for them4 ,it was during #aijb that ,chase conceived the remarkable idea of not only going to ,europe himself for the summer months but taking with him his entire class of students4 ,the first contingent went with him to ,holland1 and at ,haarlem one night at dinner he gave me an account of the venture and its success4 ,his pupils had not only profited by foreign scene and museum but he had taken them to see certain well-known painters in their studios and shown them the modern methods of painting4 ,the next year he took the class to ,england1 located it on ,hampstead ,heath1 and introduced it at the studios of ,sargent1 ,abbey1 ,lavery1 ,alma-,tadema1 ,shannon4 ,the year of #aije the class was in ,madrid and after that for a number of years in ,florence4 ,chase bought a villa in ,florence1 but apparently it was little more than a storehouse for objects of art which he was still collecting4 ,he spent much time at ,venice1 and both there and at ,florence would take his pupils to the great galleries and point out to them what was excellent in the old masters4 ,it was a new method of art teaching and satisfactory results came from it4 ,chase's winters had been spent in ,new ,york and he kept moving in both his habitations and his occupations4 ,he left the ,fifth ,avenue studio for a large rambling place on ,fourth ,avenue1 where rooms opened into rooms1 and where he continued painting people and fish4 ,he again took up teaching at the ,art ,students ,league1 sent pictures to the ,international ,exhibition at ,berlin1 held an exhibition of his own at ,cincinnati1 went to ,california where he had a summer school at ,carmel-by-the-,sea1 served as a member of the ,panama-,pacific ,exposition jury4 ,his energy and his interest were unflagging4 ,he painted and taught and talked1 he came and went and came again1 as no other painter in ,american art-history4 ,his industry alone would command respect4 ,even when he fell into his final illness and was taken to ,atlantic ,city for change of air he had canvases and brushes packed and sent with him4 ,he might be able to paint down there4 ,at the last1 when too weak to read1 it pleased him to go over1 with his wife1 all the beautiful pictures they had seen together and compare their likings4 ,his enthusiasm was always something to be remembered2 and when in ,october1 #aiaf1 he died1 there was a pronounced feeling in art circles that not only a torch-bearer1 but a devoted lover of art had gone on4 ,there was nothing complicated or hidden or mysterious about either ,chase or his art4 ,he frankly stated his aim1 faith1 and practice more than once and adhered to his beliefs for more than forty years4 ,he cared nothing about theories or philosophies or ideals and was not led off by realism1 impressionism1 or cubism4 ,he talked much on art1 not only to his classes but to miscellaneous audiences2 but he indulged in no metaphysical flights and spoke a language that all could understand4 ,as a practical painter his primary concern was with the ability to paint4 ,the picture should be technically and mechanically a good piece of workmanship4 ,the grammar of art first1 and what you may have to say with it afterward4 ,at times he intimated that things1 by no means technical1 could be said with the paint-brush1 as1 for example1 this utterance3 8,the value of a work of art depends simply and solely on the height of inspiration1 on the greatness of soul1 of the man who produced it40 ,but1 generally speaking1 ,chase cared not too much for 8soul0 in art and produced little of it in his own pictures4 ,his creed of painting was better stated in another sentence4 8,the essential phases of a great picture are three in number1 namely3 truth1 interesting treatment1 and quality40 ,by truth he meant that the picture should give the impression of a thing well seen4 ,by interesting treatment he meant verve1 spirit1 enthusiasm1 the interest of the artist--an interest which should express itself in his manner of treatment4 ,regarding this he continued3 8,to my mind1 one of the simplest explanations of this matter of technique is to say that it is the eloquence of art4 ,when a speaker has the gift of fine oratory we hang upon his words and gestures1 we are spellbound by his intensity and his style1 no matter on what subject he chooses to address us4 ,i fear some people confuse technique with the use of a slashing brush and big rough strokes of paint4 ,let me refer them to the works of the ,primitives or to ,holbein1 whose calm surfaces show us one of the world's greatest masters of the technical side of art40#ac #ac 8,notes from ,talks by ,william ,m4 ,chase0 in ,the ,american ,magazine of ,art1 ,september1 #aiag4 ,it will be noted that ,chase in his pertinent likeness of painting to oratory eliminates the content or thing said and puts the art and the oratory all in the manner of saying4 ,and therein he is perhaps right so far as the matter can be separated from the manner4 ,he puts the subject aside as one might say there is no poetry in ,darwin1 nothing sthetic or artistic1 though he says much of great value1 whereas there is poetry in ,swinburne though it is often difficult to find out whether he is saying anything at all or merely putting out a pretty run or rhythm of language4 ,it was a pretty run of the brush that ,chase fancied above everything else4 8,subject is not important4 ,anything can be made attractive4 ,not long ago ,i painted a pipe1 a loaf1 and a bowl of milk4444 ,i would not be unwilling to rest my reputation on it4444 ,let your brush sweep freely4 ,better to lose it than to give way to timidity which soon becomes a habit4444 ,better be dashingly bad and interesting40#ad #ad ,ibid4 ,it was thus he talked to his pupils trying to convince them that art lay in an enthusiastic individual manner4 ,he believed that--believed that the art of painting lay in clever manipulation1 in gusto1 in manual dexterity4 ,but that did not mean a slashing about at haphazard with a heavily loaded brush4 8,too many are hurrying on to give what is called #8finish' before they have grounded their work in the truth which must inform and uphold the entire structure4444 ,digest the subject fully before beginning4 ,see it fully done and well done--perhaps as some special painter whose work you admire would do it4 ,to begin to paint without deciding fully what your sketch is to be1 would be like a lecturer beginning to talk before knowing what he was going to say40#ae #ae ,ibid4 ,now that is excellent doctrine and ,chase himself followed it in his own practice4 ,in #ahij ,i sat to him for a portrait and ,i recall his saying then before he put brush to the canvas3 8,i try to see you on the canvas all finished and then ,i start in to paint you as ,i see you in my mind40 ,later on in the painting he was fussed by the collar being askew2 he damned it1 said it was not rightly seen or drawn1 scraped it out and did it over again4 ,he was concerned about getting a certain amount of realistic truth as well as easy brush-work1 and talked much about the right seeing of the model4 ,but there was a contradiction in temperament just here that came in to invalidate his aim only too often4 ,enthusiasm is usually impatient of delay or restraint2 it is always eager for action4 ,yet one cannot fully understand even so obvious an object as the model on the stand without reflection4 ,it must be seen and thought over and contemplated before one takes up the brush4 ,nothing very great comes from dashing down on canvas something seen for an instant only4 ,but ,chase1 in spite of his talk1 was not one who reflected long or had the contemplative mind4 ,he seldom fell into a revery or lost himself in a labyrinth of thought4 ,he had virtuosity and was an improvisateur4 ,the lilt and fling of his work were brilliant in the extreme2 and it is perhaps foolish to criticise it because lacking in thought or reflection1 and yet that is the comment oftenest heard regarding it4 ,his pictures are declared to have neither depth of feeling nor depth of thought1 and the works that are accounted his best are the exceptions that prove the rule4 ,it has been noted also that ,chase's paintings were never very elaborate in composition4 ,he did nothing of a historical or academic nature--nothing even in figure-painting beyond two or three figures4 ,putting figures together with line and light1 in plane and pattern1 perhaps called for too much reflection4 ,it was easier to place a model in a kimono against a screen or to arrange a fish in a plate or on a table1 or to put together a pipe1 a loaf1 and a bowl4 ,he was in a hurry to get at the canvas1 and wanted none of the enthusiasm to evaporate4 ,just so with his color scheme4 ,he would not think over it until he could feel it swell like a symphony1 but instead put in unconsidered colors that were perhaps agreeable enough in themselves1 and then added a dash of sharp red to catch the eye and make the picture 8sing40 ,but it was usually a common enough song that it sang4 ,distinction of color is not obtained by merely arranging studio properties on canvas4 ,some instinct and a good deal of feeling go to the making of the finest color projects4 ,so1 again1 we find that perhaps the common objection to ,chase's color that it has no quality is more or less well-founded4 ,he knew how to draw1 for he had a severe enough schooling at ,munich1 but in later life he oftentimes ran over drawing1 hid it under that easy brush-stroke which he liked so much and which he usually handled so effectively4 ,sometimes it went astray4 ,it was not the premeditated sweep of ,rubens or the infallible touch of ,velasquez4 ,it was more like ,goya or ,stevens or ,vollon--painters whose brushes were not always impeccable4 ,however1 the brush of ,chase was sure enough1 and with its spirit and swift movement it certainly gave that oratorical effect to which he compared painting4 ,it is vivacious and with its facility creates the feeling of knowledge and mastery4 ,that was something achieved at least4 ,a surface by ,chase usually shows that a skilled workman has left his mark upon it4 ,his idea about quality in art was that it came3 8,as a result of perfect balance of all the parts and may be manifested in a color or tone or composition4 ,in the greatest pictures it is found in all three1 and then you may be sure you are before the most consummate of human works40#af #af ,ibid4 ,illustration3 8,child ,dancing10 by ,william ,merritt ,chase4 ,the definition is not a good one1 and he apologized for his inability to define quality by saying that it is like trying to 8tell the difference between music and mere sound40 ,but quality is not precisely either melody or harmony1 though it is the difference between music and mere sound4 ,it is the difference also between silk and gingham1 between an air blue and a baby-blue1 between a luminous shadow and gray paint1 between a forceful1 telling line and a halting1 rambling one4 ,quality is the badge of distinction--that something which puts a cachet of authority upon a work of art and places it among the masterpieces of all time4 ,did ,chase have it8 ,yes1 occasionally4 ,such works as the 8,woman with a ,white ,shawl0 possess it4 ,from which it may be inferred that quality is more or less dependent upon thinking1 reflection1 mood--things which were not always apparent in ,chase's art4 ,yet he did much thinking along certain paths and had something very important to say to his age and generation about sound technique1 good workmanship4 ,in a literary or illustrative sense he recorded no more romance1 history1 passion1 power1 or pathos than ,whistler4 ,he told no story in paint1 indulged in no dramatic climaxes1 was guiltless of emotion1 and perhaps incapable of poetry4 ,he was a workman1 a consummate craftsman in a goldsmith sense1 and he did his thinking about his work1 put his storm and stress and soul into his palette and brush4 ,as a workman he was distinguished by a manner of his own which is sometimes referred to as his style--his individual style4 ,his method1 rather than his style1 he passed on to his pupils1 and his influence upon them was perhaps greater than upon the community at large4 ,he taught more young people how to handle a brush than any painter of any time1 not excepting ,rubens4 ,several thousand pupils came under his influence1 were stimulated by his enthusiasm1 and encouraged by his words4 ,he was an excellent teacher1 and ,american art is perhaps more beholden to him for what he taught than for the things he painted4 ,for the pupils now carry on the teaching1 and perhaps from them may come a greater and a loftier art than ,chase himself was able to produce4 ,the force of good teaching is cumulative and eventually it develops into that body of belief and practice which ,i have called tradition4 ,chase1 like ,whistler1 was not an inheritor of any ,american tradition1 but he established one of his own and passed it on to his followers4 ,he based his pupils in good technical workmanship and taught the fundamental value of craftsmanship4 ,it was a teaching badly needed in his ,america2 he gave it importance and place in the schools and became1 perhaps without his knowing it1 a master leader in the craft4 ,chase's painting is the concrete embodiment of his teaching--the illustration of it4 ,it has the obvious limitations of his method and belief4 ,to pass it by because it has not the romance of a ,ryder or the poetry of a ,martin or the significance of a ,la ,farge is to miss its meaning entirely4 ,he is just as frankly dealing with the surface as ,whistler1 with the mere difference that ,whistler asks us to regard him decoratively and ,chase desires to be looked at technically1 as one might consider a ,stevens1 a ,vollon1 a ,fortuny1 or a ,boldini4 ,we surely are not so narrow in outlook as to deny admiration and high rank to such masters of the brush as these4 ,they are artists in the narrow sense that they deal with art alone and consider painting only from the sthetic point of view1 but who shall say they are not precisely and exactly right8 ,each turn of the screw1 each new generation in art1 pins us down more narrowly and positively to the material4 ,perhaps ,whistler and ,chase were wrong only in being ahead of their time4 ,at any rate1 the belief in material and method as art per se1 however it may jar preconceived notions1 will have to be reckoned with4 ,and here in ,america its most considerable advocate will have to be taken seriously4 ,by certain standards we may judge his art as merely clever1 but he conceived it and wrought it in all seriousness4 ,does a sword-hilt by ,sansovino1 or a salt dish by ,cellini1 or a screen by ,utamaro lack in either seriousness or art8 ,why not then a canvas1 in the same spirit of the skilled workman1 by ,whistler or ,chase8 ,why not8 ,,ix ,,john ,w4 ,,alexander ,chase and ,alexander were of the same faith in art though they varied in ritual4 ,they both believed in the finality of good workmanship decoratively displayed4 ,they had differing views of what constituted design and color1 their atmosphere and light were not the same1 and each had his peculiar handling2 but with all this latitude for variation in method there was no essential difference in sthetic aim or purpose4 ,the portrait of a lady was to both of them not primarily a revelation of the lady but a presentation of a decorative pattern in which the sitter and her garmenting held large place because conforming happily to an 8arrangement40 ,this1 of course1 was the ,whistlerian point of view with which ,chase and ,alexander were in sympathy4 ,all three of them frequently rose above their creed and told tales of the lady's charm1 or womanly instincts1 or perhaps gave suggestion that she was a lady and not merely a studio model dressed for the part2 but usually they were content with arranging her in a pattern as an entomologist might spread and pin to advantage a golden butterfly on a blue-green ground4 ,to question their practice is to take sides in a very old quarrel in art4 ,for they were the ,david and ,ingres of the new dispensation4 ,their works were based in method1 though the method was brush-work rather than drawing1 and they were pronounced in arrangement though the arrangement was a pattern of light and color instead of line and group composition4 ,set over against them are the ,delacroixs and ,millets of to-day who are no longer romantic and dramatic1 but lay stress on sentiment1 feeling1 significance1 character1 strength rather than mere pattern4 ,it is not necessary to name them1 for every one will recognize the species and call to mind the types4 ,there are always two sides to a quarrel1 and there are several sides to art4 ,it may be a symphony of color as ,whistler insisted1 an arrangement of line or a matter of facile workmanship as ,alexander and ,chase contended4 ,no one will deny that4 ,in fact there is a modern disposition to locate the art of a picture strictly within the limits of craftsmanship4 ,but a picture may express something more than the skill of the painter4 ,many of the craft have shown that it is a means of expressing moods1 passions1 feelings1 sentiments1 emotions2 they insist that line and color1 and all the what-not of technique1 are merely the means to an end and not the end itself4 ,both arguments have merit and are abundantly exemplified in practice4 ,and why not something worth while1 something acceptable1 in both8 ,there was good reason why ,chase and ,alexander should be accepted1 because they came at a time when method in ,america was in sad need of reconstruction4 ,modern craftsmanship was practically unknown4 ,they brought it into vogue1 established it as the grammar of art1 gave it the prominence it deserved4 ,it was then1 as now1 the sine qua non of art4 ,one must know how before he can say very much of moment4 ,there have been painters and poets with very limited skill who have said things the world is glad to remember1 but they are the exceptions rather than the rule4 ,the ,shakespeares1 ,goethes1 ,titians1 and ,rembrandts were all highly trained craftsmen4 ,they had great things to say1 surely2 but should we have heard them had they belonged to the unskilled8 ,how many in all the arts have had 8,the vision and the faculty divine ,yet wanting the accomplishment of verse60 ,we need not1 then1 think lightly of the craftsman in ,american art4 ,he has proved a much-needed person in the school4 ,and his work has also turned out to be a very agreeable factor in the home4 ,art of a decided quality does lie in the eye and the hand4 ,it can be greatly enhanced in significance by the addition of a mind and a soul1 but these latter must be approached through the former to attain their full expression4 ,for1 to repeat1 technique or craftsmanship is at the bottom of all artistic expression4 ,alexander learned to paint in practically the same roundabout way as ,chase4 ,he was born in ,alleghany ,city in #ahef1 and as a child was reared by his grandparents1 his father and mother having died early4 ,at twelve he was a telegraph messenger1 and shortly afterward1 with the death of his grandparents1 he came under the guardianship of ,colonel ,edward ,j4 ,allen4 ,he was persuaded to give up the telegraph work and go to school1 but at eighteen he broke away and went to ,new ,york4 ,he had given signs as a boy of artistic tendencies1 his drawings had attracted some attention1 and he went to ,new ,york to make illustrations for the ,harpers4 ,there was some disappointment at first4 ,the ,harpers had not heard of him and did not want his artistic services1 not even as an apprentice4 ,but they needed an office boy4 ,he accepted the place1 and through it got into the art department1 where he finally came to work upon blocks and plates4 ,charles ,parsons was then in charge of the department1 and ,e4 ,a4 ,abbey1 ,stanley ,reinhart1 and ,a4 ,b4 ,frost were there4 ,alexander learned much from their counsel and example4 ,from #ahge to #ahgg there appeared in ,harper's ,weekly an occasional political cartoon signed 8,alexander10 and in #ahgg during the great strike in ,pittsburgh there were a number of large sketches and illustrations signed 8,j4 ,w4 ,alexander40 ,later on he did for the ,harper publications and also for the ,century ,magazine various illustrations signed 8,j4 ,w4 ,a402 but this was after he had been to ,munich and had had some exact training4 ,he remained with the ,harpers three years1 and then with ,albert ,g4 ,reinhart he went to ,europe4 ,the pair had intended to study art in ,paris at the ,ecole des ,beaux ,arts1 but on arrival there they found the school closed for the summer4 ,with no ,french to their name1 ,paris was a little dreary1 and they drifted on to ,munich--because ,reinhart understood a little ,german1 it is said4 ,the ,munich ,academy was open1 and ,alexander entered the classes of ,professor ,benzcur and remained there for some three months4 ,the teaching proved too academic and the living in ,munich too high for him1 and he went to ,polling1 a small town in ,bavaria1 where there was an ,american art colony under the shepherding of ,frank ,duveneck4 ,shirlaw1 ,currier1 ,joseph ,de ,camp1 ,ross ,turner were of the group4 ,alexander fell into good company and began at once to profit by the association4 ,while at ,polling he sent sketches to the student's exhibition at ,munich and won for them a bronze medals--his first honor4 ,two years were passed in ,bavaria and then he joined ,duveneck's class to study art in ,italy4 ,there were twenty-three in the class1 and ,alexander with ,duveneck went ahead to ,florence to engage studios for them4 ,two winters were spent at ,florence--the summer months being more agreeably put in at ,venice4 ,it was at ,venice in the summer of #ahhj that ,alexander met ,whistler and received counsel and direction from him4 ,the advice was very potent in helping him out of the dark ,munich rut and suggesting that the decorative was perhaps more important than the merely realistic or representative4 ,indeed the ,whistler influence was the most compelling the young student had yet encountered4 ,it made a decided impression upon him and changed perhaps the whole trend of his art4 ,for while ,alexander never imitated ,whistler's schemes or patterns1 he accepted the decorative point of view1 giving it out in his own way with many changes and modifications brought about by later observation in ,paris4 ,he was always impressionable and quick to adopt new ideas1 and yet it is almost impossible in his work to trace home any feature to a given source4 ,in that respect he was perhaps more original than ,chase or even ,whistler himself4 ,while in ,florence he supported himself by sending drawings to the ,harper publications and teaching a class of students2 but he soon realized that he was holding back his own progress by such work1 and in #ahha he decided to return to ,america4 ,arrived at ,pittsburgh1 he made a trip down the ,ohio and the ,mississippi with ,fred ,muller to illustrate an article on 8,king ,coal's ,highway40 ,the article appeared in ,harper's ,monthly for ,january1 #ahhb4 ,the illustrations were realistic enough1 but not remarkable in any way4 ,they created no furor4 ,alexander came on shortly thereafter to ,new ,york1 took a studio in the ,german ,bank ,building1 at ,fourth ,avenue and ,fourteenth ,street1 and soon was doing a portrait of a little daughter of ,henry ,harper4 ,he moved to the ,chelsea ,studios in ,twenty-third ,street1 continued with portraiture1 and became interested in the art movements of the time4 ,people looked upon him as a young man of ability4 ,he had not ,chase's vogue but he1 nevertheless1 had his group of admirers4 ,in #ahha he was in ,spain and ,morocco1 and in #ahhf he went to ,england for the ,century ,magazine1 having been commissioned to do certain portraits of literary men--,george ,bancroft1 ,thomas ,hardy1 ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 ,he did ,stevenson at ,bournemouth1 stopping with him while sketching him4 ,he also did ,austin ,dobson1 and went to ,ireland to draw some illustrations for articles by ,charles de ,kay4 ,the portraits were apparently sketches in charcoal and gave only a summary of the heads4 ,they were well done and rightly emphasized for reproduction4 ,the illustrations for the ,ireland articles were decidedly good in the landscapes--something for which ,alexander had a talent1 but which he never cared to follow up until late in life and then apparently for his own pleasure4 ,this work and1 in fact1 that of the next half-dozen years did not bring ,alexander into any great prominence in ,america4 ,he had not found himself--he had not 8arrived0 in a large sense4 ,up to #ahij his work had hardly so much as suggested his later bent or method4 ,the 8,head of a ,boy0 and 8,sketch of a ,boy10 shown in a recent memorial exhibition at the ,century ,club1 are both of them early efforts done at ,polling4 ,they are in the dark ,munich style of ,duveneck and not unlike things that ,shirlaw and ,chase were doing a few years earlier4 8,old ,cole0 in the same exhibition1 done in #ahha1 again indicates ,munich teaching4 ,the lights are surrounded by darks and the darks are darkened by bitumen4 ,there is no attempt at fine color or decorative pattern1 but rather a desire for the realistic largeness of the model with a resultant brusque modelling and some dragging of a heavily loaded brush4 ,the portrait of 8,thurlow ,weed0 gives a big strong head relieved by being in high light and again surrounded by darks4 ,one might think from a casual glance that it had been inspired by ,lenbach4 ,the portrait of 8,jefferson as ,bob ,acres10 while it still shows ,munich methods1 is something of a departure4 ,it is a costume and footlight portrait with the lights very high1 the shadows pronounced1 the color very gay4 ,it was well set1 well drawn1 easily painted upon ordinary canvas1 and in the usual oil medium4 ,the portrait had spirit and life about it and yet gave small indication of what ,alexander's style would ultimately become4 ,just so with the rather fine portrait of 8,walt ,whitman10 now in the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,the hark back to ,lenbach in the insistent relief of the head and hands as spots of white surrounded by dark is quite apparent4 ,perhaps here there is a pose of the figure and a sweep of the beard that suggest ,alexander's later swing and swirl of lines1 but it is not very marked4 ,this work1 done for the most part before he was thirty1 was talked about and praised in ,new ,york art circles1 but it was really ,paris that gave ,alexander rank4 ,he had been married in #ahhg to ,miss ,elizabeth ,alexander1 and in #ahij they went abroad for a few months that he might recuperate from an attack of the grippe4 ,they remained away eleven years4 ,the time was spent chiefly in ,paris1 and it was to the ,socit ,nationale des ,beaux ,arts that he sent1 in #ahic1 three portraits that made a decided hit4 ,they were entitled 8,portrait ,gris10 8,portrait ,noir10 and 8,portrait ,jaune40 ,the titles suggest color schemes1 qualities of tone1 garments arranged gracefully to fill space and make a decorative pattern--in short1 the things that thereafter gave individuality to ,alexander's art4 ,paris immediately took notice of them2 the ,socit elected him an associate member1 and the next year1 when he sent a panel of five portraits1 he was elected a full member4 ,his reputation and his commissions from that time increased rapidly4 ,he was a success4 ,alexander has been called 8the most ,parisian of the ,americans10 and yet just why one hardly knows4 ,his refined taste1 his sensitiveness1 his animation are less ,french than ,american1 and it must be his method that suggests ,paris4 ,but whom in ,paris8 ,what painter can you point to as the original or even the inspiration of his style8 ,carrire1 ,besnard1 ,la ,touche--you think of them only to dismiss them from mind4 ,whistler1 ,albert ,moore1 ,burne-,jones1 the ,japanese1 afford little clew4 ,perhaps the obvious explanation is that ,alexander merely followed his own inclination and developed a method and a style quite his own4 ,others have done so before him and why not he8 ,very likely some one suggested a coarse absorbent canvas with thin petroleum or turpentine as a medium1 or he may have seen the results obtained by such materials in pictures at the ,salon or elsewhere4 ,paris has always been replete with new mediums and methods and has had its generations of painters who could do no more with the new than with the old4 ,but ,alexander's painting was something more than an absorbent canvas4 ,he had an original point of view and the new materials merely helped him to reveal it4 ,perhaps his originality grew out of many observations and developed from many sources4 ,duveneck in the realistic and ,whistler with the decorative each had their day and sway with him4 ,something of the ,japanese becomes apparent in a flattening of the canvas1 in elimination of non-essential features1 in gaining a sketchy effect by filling in large spaces with flat tones and throwing emphasis upon salient points of high light and color4 ,finally comes an unusual employment of dress in making a pattern of swirling lines which not only contrast with the angles of the canvas but lend movement and life to the figure4 ,the use of drapery for line effect is1 of course1 apparent all through art4 ,alexander may have taken suggestions regarding this from ,greek marbles or ,italian pictures or ,pre-,raphaelite glass4 ,but so vague and shadowy are all these sources of influence that one cannot trace them home4 ,such pictures as 8,the ,green ,gown10 8,a ,rose10 8,the ,gossip10 8,the ,ring10 have no counterpart in any painting1 ancient or modern4 ,one comes back again to a former conclusion that they are ,alexander's own creations--his distinct contribution to art4 ,how far does the contribution carry8 ,well1 little farther than the decorative face of the canvas4 ,the handsome1 well-gowned1 and well-bred young woman who holds the rose or ring or bowl is only part of a color pattern on the canvas4 ,she does not symbolize or signify much of anything beyond that4 ,you could not guess if she has a brain or a heart or a soul4 ,she is not a document or a problem or even a character4 ,alexander did not believe that painting was a means of epitomizing abstract ideas but merely a way of revealing graceful color patterns that please the eye and hang harmoniously upon the wall4 ,there is nothing intensive or dramatic or even narrative about his work4 ,it is not sentimental or emotional or passion-strung4 ,a late canvas like that entitled 8,husband1 ,wife1 and ,child0 may suggest sentiment1 but only as a superfluity4 ,the painter meant to stop with the completed pattern4 ,almost always the pattern is agreeable and sufficient in itself as art4 ,the space is happily filled with one figure1 sometimes two1 but seldom more4 ,the linear design meets the upright of the frame with flowing lines in which repetition plays more of a part than contrast4 8,the ,blue ,bowl0 is a good illustration4 ,the figure is placed diagonally upon the canvas1 the bowl lines are repeated in the head and shoulders1 the dress is spread in fan-like lines toward the far corner of the canvas4 ,the whole design is unusual and extraordinary but very graceful4 ,so1 too1 with 8,the ,ring10 in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 where a young woman seated on a lounge with a large straw hat in her lap is holding up a ring for admiration4 ,the round hat somehow suggests a repetition of the round head1 and the dress lines repeat its curves4 ,great care is taken with the linear arrangements of all these single figures4 ,the composition is carefully thought out1 wrought out1 brought out4 ,illustration3 8,the ,ring10 by ,john ,w4 ,alexander4 ,in the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,just as important as the design is the color scheme4 ,it is1 in fact1 so prominent that the title of the picture is often derived from it4 8,the ,green ,gown0 or 8,the ,blue ,bowl0 are hints that green or blue is the key in which the picture is pitched4 ,the continuance or repetition or perhaps slight variance of the green or blue runs through the whole picture and produces what is called a tone or harmony or symphony in green or blue4 ,the aim with ,alexander is precisely as with ,whistler4 ,neither of them harps on the one note to the exclusion of every other1 but the one note nevertheless prevails throughout4 ,the picture by ,alexander called 8,the ,rose0 shows a young girl in dull green which would be monotonous if insisted upon everywhere4 ,it is relieved by the pink of the flesh1 the dark hair1 the white linen1 but above all by the rose which the girl holds in her hand4 ,the rose hue is in the same tone of light as the green and emphasizes the latter because red is the complementary color of green4 ,the appearance of complementary or slightly varying colors in the central high lights argues the prevalence of a large half-tone in the background and intermediate spaces4 ,this half-tone when prepared in a thin medium like petroleum and used upon a soft or absorbent canvas sinks into the canvas1 becomes an atmospheric depth1 becomes vague1 indefinite1 mysterious4 ,to avoid too much monotony of half-tone ,alexander very often introduced a burst of light upon the figure4 ,this sounds like the old ,rembrandt-,lenbach formula which he followed in his early student days at ,munich1 but his later practice diffused the illumination1 made it less hard on the edges1 and more atmospheric4 ,even in certain pictures where a ray of sunshine is shot into a dark room through an unlatched door the ray is not hard and the half-tone gives it an atmospheric setting quite extraordinary4 ,under these peculiar conditions of canvas1 of tone1 of illumination1 the drawing is often flattened1 even abbreviated4 ,the heads and costumes are brushed in broadly1 the hands are sometimes passed over with a mere suggestion of form or value1 the accessories are still more vague in line1 in bulk1 in texture4 ,nothing but things of vital importance are given4 ,by suppression of the parts the painter gets concentration on certain salient features of surface1 or light or color4 ,with thin painting in the ground and shadows and fat painting in the high lights the picture takes on the look of a large and easily done sketch4 ,a feeling of freedom1 of spontaneity1 is apparent1 and with it life1 spirit1 gusto in the recital4 ,there was more or less variation of this sketch-appearance in all ,alexander's late canvases4 ,sometimes he drew with sharper edges and more protrusive modelling and produced a more realistic effect2 but far oftener he gave merely a suggestion of form or created an atmospheric nimbus with his tone that surrounded and enveloped the figure4 ,it has been frequently noted in these pages that almost every painter oscillates between too much drawing and not enough4 ,when ,alexander dismissed his form rather summarily for a tone or a texture1 his critics declared him vague1 shadowy1 merely decorative2 when he insisted upon the drawing and perhaps minimized his tone1 he was declared prosaic4 ,he did not have to be told that he was between the devil and the deep sea4 ,every painter knows it1 or comes to know it1 before he has struggled through many canvases4 ,a more frequent comment on ,alexander was that he was a painter of attitudes and draperies--nature plus a pose4 ,to avoid the conventional he chose the accidental and the momentary rather than the characteristic or permanent4 ,he was seeking the decorative1 and his girl in green or gray or yellow was just a little more elegantly disposed than in nature4 ,it was frankly an 8arrangement0--a placing of the figure and a disposition of the accessories to the best advantage4 ,the robes were swung in gracefully with no sharp angle lines or crabbed pothooks to break the flow4 ,the photographer of to-day seeks to produce the same graceful exaggeration but with less success4 ,and the realist who depicts the charwoman bending over the ash-barrel usually exaggerates more positively the other way4 ,if the beauty of the ugly in an awkward pose may be accounted art1 why not the beauty of the charming in a graceful pose8 ,alexander got what he could out of his handsome model1 making her a little more graceful than reality1 to be sure1 but did not ,van ,dyck1 ,reynolds1 ,gainsborough1 ,lawrence1 do the same thing with marked success8 ,his portrait sitters differed from his abstract types holding a ring or a blue bowl or a rose chiefly in the matter of a facial likeness4 ,the 8arrangement0 was carried out with the one as with the other1 though it was usually not so conspicuous in the portrait as in the type4 ,perhaps because the costume and coloring of women were more adaptable to the 8arrangement0 than the costume and coloring of men1 the painter achieved the reputation of being more successful with the former as sitters than with the latter4 ,certainly in his most attractive portraits of women he has not failed to use graceful composition1 and has gotten much pictorial effect out of his color1 tone1 and light4 ,the 8,mrs4 ,hastings10 for instance1 is both portrait and picture4 ,it is expectant in look and lively in spirit4 ,the pose in profile1 which is repeated vaguely in the ,winged ,victory back of the figure1 is complemented by a color and a tone quite in keeping4 ,it is one of the painter's best efforts4 ,the 8,mrs4 ,duryea0 is perhaps a little more conscious in its formality4 ,the space is not so well filled and the dress spreads too obviously4 ,with the 8,mrs4 ,ledyard ,blair0 the dress again spreads for decorative effect and becomes pronounced in importance4 ,a similar result is apparent in the portrait known as the 8,woman in ,gray0 now in the ,luxembourg4 ,all of these last-mentioned portraits have excellences quite aside from their decorative planning1 and the 8,woman in ,gray0 had much to do in creating ,alexander's vogue in ,paris2 but one turns from them to the refined simplicity of the 8,miss ,dorothy ,roosevelt0 with some relief4 ,sometimes nature is not the better for being 8arranged40 ,when it was necessary to insist upon characterization ,alexander could do it1 and do it well4 ,the 8,mrs4 ,wheaton10 an old lady with gray hair and lace cap1 done in #aijd1 is excellent in its gentle 7not brutal7 realization of the model4 ,it is quite in the class with the ,whistler and ,chase mother portraits1 and in refinement is perhaps superior to either of the others4 ,the children canvases of 8,eleanor ,alexander0 with the doll in the chair or 8,geraldine ,russell0 standing at full length are equally good4 ,it is true enough that the grace and charm belonging to women and children seemed to appeal to ,alexander more than the sturdier qualities of men4 ,he painted many men but they were not always as forceful as the 8,fritz ,thaulow40 ,that figure has bulk and body to it but again no brutality4 ,it is more forceful than the 8,walt ,whitman10 which is just a little too much ironed out and smoothed down for the vociferous original4 ,the beard and hair and soi-disant look are those of a poet rather than ,whitman--a distinction with a difference to some people4 ,the 8,dr4 ,patton0 in academic robes as president of ,princeton is probably as satisfactory as any of ,alexander's portraits of men4 ,it is a simple1 well-drawn1 convincing presentation1 not surprising in any way nor again falling short in any way4 ,all of this work is simple1 large in design1 not confused with detail or small objects1 and always with ample breathing room4 ,alexander attempted no elaborate grouping or historical composition except in his designs for mural decoration4 ,the earlier pictures such as 8,pandora0 and 8,the ,pot of ,basil0 are merely single figures4 8,the ,piano0 is a single figure with a piano1 the 8,memories0 is two figures1 as is also the 8,music ,panel40 ,they are all spacious and do not crowd the canvas or the frame4 ,occasionally he did landscapes--some of them up in the hills about ,cornish1 ,new ,hampshire--in which there is the same simplicity of design and feeling of space in hillside1 valley1 and sky4 ,his landscapes have a decorative swing of line similar in kind to his figure pictures1 and there is something of the same tonal effect1 though less pronounced4 ,in other words1 the painter saw or read the decorative into landscape as into figures1 which may be considered a mistake if one is looking for a realistic presentation1 but is just as certainly a success if one is looking for something to hang upon the wall that shall not clash with every other object in the room4 ,illustration3 8,walt ,whitman0 by ,john ,w4 ,alexander4 ,in the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,therein lies a marked feature of ,alexander's work4 ,it is art that can be lived with4 ,it takes its place in the household and accommodates itself to almost any color scheme because of its neutral tone and lack of glittering notes4 ,how many modern easel pictures are keyed up to the shrieking point1 and are planned to outshriek their neighbors in an exhibition6 ,they are ,salon pictures--8machines0 that make a clatter and having served their purpose go back to the studio and are faced against the wainscoting4 ,but ,alexander's pictures could be taken home without danger of a family quarrel4 ,they are delicate enough in pattern to go in the drawing-room and refined enough in manner to be seen and not heard4 ,perhaps this very quality of refinement1 so acceptable in his easel pictures1 was something of a defect in his mural decorations4 ,the greatly enlarged wall space of a public building called for more intensity of color1 more sharp contrast of angle lines1 more loftiness and elaborateness of composition than the painter dreamt of in his art philosophy4 ,his attempts at mural painting were somewhat sporadic4 ,it was not exactly his mtier1 and though he took it up with energy when asked to do so1 he succeeded in producing little more than an enlargement of his easel pictures4 ,the same tone1 light1 and color of his portraits and single figures went into the groupings in the ,congressional ,library1 the ,harrisburg ,capitol1 and the ,carnegie ,institute at ,pittsburgh4 ,the ,library decorations gave the 8,evolution of the ,book0 in six lunettes that illustrated the stages of book-making rather than symbolized or epitomized them4 ,at ,harrisburg the theme was the 8,evolution of the ,state10 another set of fourteen lunettes4 ,the decoration at ,pittsburgh was the most ambitious performance of the three and sought to tell the story of ,pittsburgh--the story of steel and labor4 ,it is called the 8,apotheosis of ,pittsburgh10 with the city personified by a knight in armor with a flaming sword in his hand instead of the large female figure of conventional decoration4 ,the panels carry over three stories of the entrance-hall of the ,carnegie ,institute and some five hundred figures are used4 ,the first floor shows the half-naked furnacemen at work amid smoke1 steam1 and fire glare4 ,the smoke and steam rise up and envelop1 make an atmospheric setting for1 the allegorical figures of the second floor that from all sides are bringing tributes to the mailed figure of ,pittsburgh4 ,the allegorical figures are winged1 robed in long trailing garments1 and drift lightly through the air or upon clouds4 ,the third floor contains lunettes typifying the arts and sciences4 ,the whole decoration is well thought out1 and is put together1 within its framings of yellowish marble1 with a distinctly decorative effect4 ,the tone of it is quiet1 subdued1 restful--perhaps too much so4 ,the figures are graceful1 even the men--again1 perhaps too much so4 ,one is not sorry that ,labor is shown with cheerful face and normal body rather than sad-browed1 nerve-racked1 and body-wrecked1 after the ,zola-,meunier formula4 ,that exaggeration has become just as conventional and wearisome as the prettiness of ,bouguereau1 or the pettiness of ,meissonier4 ,but ,alexander's workers are perhaps too elegant for reality as his floating figures are too graceful for allegory4 ,there is a feeling that there is not enough mental grip about them4 ,it is paradoxical to say that the decoration is too decorative1 but that states the case quite rightly4 ,the pattern and the color that set off an easel picture appropriately fail to carry when employed on so vast a scale of wall decoration--fail to carry from sheer attenuation of motive and design4 ,the ,pittsburgh decoration has not enough strength behind it to spread over five thousand feet of painted surface4 ,strength was never a quality of ,alexander's art4 ,he had skill1 grace1 refinement1 charm1 style1 but he never attempted to win by force or power4 ,after his return from ,paris in #aija he took up his permanent residence in ,new ,york and immediately entered into the art life of the city and the country4 ,he had received gold medals at ,paris and ,st4 ,louis and the ,legion of ,honor from ,france1 had placed his pictures in public galleries all the way from ,st4 ,petersburg and ,odessa to ,chicago1 and had become a member of some twenty art societies4 ,in addition to the ,mc,dowell ,club and the ,school ,art ,league he was the head of the ,federation of ,fine ,arts1 the ,society of ,mural ,painters1 and from #aiji the president of the ,national ,academy of ,design4 ,his interest in art movements was great and the energy he gave to them was at the expense not only of his painting but his health4 ,as president of the ,academy of ,design his devotion was unflagging even though it met with almost everything but encouragement and success4 ,during his presidency he took up anew the problem of a building site which had been dragging along for years4 ,there had been failure in ,fifty-seventh ,street in #ahif1 and over the ,lenox ,library plot in #aijd1 but ,alexander failed four further times with the sites of the ,arsenal1 the ,central ,park1 ,bryant ,park1 and the ,railroad ,yard4 ,this with many other burdens he was carrying helped to wear him out4 ,he had never been robust4 ,on the contrary1 he was of delicate1 refined physique and possessed of a mental energy that far outran his bodily strength4 ,moreover1 he never knew how to spare himself4 ,in his last years with many overhead burdens to carry he could still take on new enterprises4 ,at ,onteora1 where he had a summer home1 he became much interested in costuming and decorative settings for the theatre1 and later1 with ,mrs4 ,alexander1 made many designs for ,miss ,maude ,adams's productions of 8,jeanne d',arc10 8,peter ,pan10 8,chantecler10 and 8,the ,little ,minister40 ,in ,new ,york he presided over the ,national ,institute of ,arts and ,letters1 spoke at every gathering of art people1 and was at the beck and call of society whenever anything of an artistic nature was desired4 ,at the last--that is1 in #aiae--;death came to him quite suddenly4 ,both socially and artistically ,alexander had become a man of distinction4 ,every one liked his refined1 gentlemanly personality1 admired his art1 and listened to his counsel4 ,for these reasons and because of his commanding position he came to have a strong influence in all art matters4 ,he had set a pattern that many of the younger painters followed1 and1 like ,chase1 had helped to establish the latter-day tradition of craftsmanship here in ,america4 ,it was not the exact craftsmanship of ,chase or ,alexander or ,sargent that was established1 though each of them has had his imitators4 ,the movement for sound technical education in ,american art was of no one painter's devising4 ,the three were typical of the movement1 but there were others--,weir1 ,twachtman1 ,beckwith1 ,blum1 ,brush1 ,thayer1 ,dewing1 ,cox1 ,blashfield--who were of the same faith and who added their quota of strength4 ,all of them working together1 with a common energy and enthusiasm1 have created a body of belief as to what constitutes style and skill in art4 ,they have established a tradition based in sound craftsmanship than which nothing could be safer or better for the future of ,american art4 ,it was ,alexander's part to help lay the foundation-stones4 ,war or national madness or economic change may prevent any splendid palace of art arising therefrom1 but at least ,alexander and his contemporaries builded the firm foundation--builded perhaps better than they knew4 ,x ,,john ,s4 ,,sargent ,the major events in ,mr4 ,sargent's life as we read them or hear them told to-day seem in no way striking or startling4 ,he has moved along well-trodden paths1 in a well-ordered career1 responsive always to the teaching of his youth1 and reflective of his social and intellectual surroundings4 ,he did not wholly achieve art1 for some of it was born to him and some of it1 perhaps1 was thrust upon him4 ,he came to it early1 grew up in its atmosphere1 and was under its spell at an impressionable age4 ,which is to say that he is not a self-made painter in the ,inness-,wyant sense1 but something of a traditional painter in the ,la ,farge sense4 ,training started him aright1 but his great success is1 of course1 not wholly due to that4 ,genius alone can account for the remarkable content of his work4 ,he was born in ,florence in #ahef4 ,his parents were ,americans residing in ,italy at the time of his birth4 ,the father was from ,gloucester1 ,massachusetts1 and had studied medicine in ,philadelphia1 afterward remaining in the latter city to practise his profession4 ,he had met and married a ,miss ,singer of an old ,philadelphia family1 and later they had gone to ,florence to live4 ,legally1 therefore1 the painter is an ,american1 but the legal tie is about all that binds him to us4 ,we like to claim him because he is a celebrity1 but in reality he is an ,american only in a nominal way4 ,he was not reared or educated here1 he has not lived here1 he has not fought in our quarrels or failed in our failures or succeeded in our successes4 ,the greater part of his life has been passed abroad amid other scenes and other peoples4 ,as a boy he travelled about ,europe with his parents1 speaking ,german as his first acquired language1 if ,i report him aright1 and gaining the bulk of his schooling in ,italy and ,germany4 ,at eighteen he went to ,paris and entered the atelier of ,carolus ,duran--at that time perhaps the most famous of the ,french portrait-painters4 ,it was not until #ahgf1 when ,sargent was twenty years old1 that he saw the shores of the ,united ,states4 ,that was his first visit4 ,he did not stay for any length of time1 and what were his impressions of the land and the people we do not know4 ,several times since then he has been here for short periods1 but one or another of the large ,european capitals has been his residence4 ,since #ahhd his permanent abiding-place has been ,london1 though he lived for a time in ,paris1 and just now 7#aiah7 he is again here in ,america4 ,it would seem then that however much pride we may take in ,sargent's achievements we can hardly be proud because he is peculiarly our own4 ,he is not ,american in the sense of knowing the land and the people and reflecting our life and civilization4 ,just as little has his birth in ,italy made him ,italian or his residence in ,france and ,england made him ,french or ,english4 ,no country can claim him1 no people can appropriate him1 for in reality he is a citizen of the world at large--the manner of man we sometimes call a cosmopolite4 ,if there is one place above another that he can be traced to and said to emanate from it is ,paris2 and ,paris is no longer merely the first city of ,france4 ,it1 too1 has become cosmopolitan--the centre of modern life and the gathering-place of the world's knowledge1 intelligence1 and fashion4 ,sargent reflects its taste and its skill1 but not anything else that is peculiarly ,french1 not anything that smacks of the ,french soil4 ,the accomplishments of ,paris are his1 but without the sentiment or the feeling that is ,french4 ,it is questionable if a man who is equally at home in ,london1 ,paris1 ,florence1 and ,new ,york will or can have a very strong sentiment about any one of those places4 ,he can hardly spend a winter in the ,united ,states and become vitally interested in democracy1 and the next winter go to ,england and fall deeply in love with aristocracy4 ,nor can he live for a few months in ,spain or ,germany and penetrate to the quick the life and character of its people4 ,the cosmopolite who moves hither and yon about the globe hardly ever takes to heart the affairs and interests of those with whom he is temporarily sojourning4 ,on the contrary1 it is rather his attitude of mind that nothing is to be taken too seriously4 ,to ruffle one's composure with an emotion or to worry one's self about a sentiment is the very thing he seeks to avoid4 ,he accepts the facts as facts1 concerns himself with the appearance of things1 is a stickler for the refinements1 and a great student of manners1 methods1 and styles4 ,he quickly absorbs whatsoever is artistic or intelligent or learned1 his perceptions are very acute1 his knowledge and manner are polished to the last degree2 but the strong feeling that1 after all1 lies at the bottom of great endeavor finds no utterance in his work1 and the national beliefs that are really the insistent and persistent things in both literature and art are not the mainspring of his action4 ,so much may be said in a general way about the painter we are considering2 and so much without a thought of either praise or blame4 ,mr4 ,sargent's life has been the result of peculiar circumstances--fortunate circumstances some may think1 or perhaps unfortunate1 as others may hold4 ,at least they have been instrumental in bringing forth an accomplished painter whose art no one can fail to admire4 ,that his work may be admired understandingly it is quite necessary to comprehend the personality of the artist--to understand his education1 his associations1 his artistic and social environments4 ,for if the man himself is cosmopolitan his art is not less so4 ,it is the perfection of world-style1 the finality of method4 ,it is learned to an extraordinary degree1 accurate1 scientific1 almost faultless2 but it belongs to no country1 reflects no people1 discloses no sentiment1 and causes no emotion4 ,it is calmly intellectual and begets enthusiasm only for its absolute truthfulness to appearance and the brilliant facility of its achievement4 ,to behold and to accomplish--that is to see and to paint--seem to have been ,sargent's ambition from the start4 ,what gave his original impetus toward art is not disclosed1 but his mother was a clever person with water-colors1 and she may have prompted his interest in painting4 ,at any rate1 he early became proficient in drawing4 ,as a boy1 sketching in the ,tyrol1 ,leighton saw his work and remarked its skill4 ,later on he was entered as a pupil in the schools of the ,florence ,academy4 ,travelling at vacation times with his parents he saw many pictures and doubtless studied the old masters from many angles4 ,everywhere among the ,renaissance painters he must have remarked the skilled craftsman1 and perhaps his early aspirations were to excel as they had excelled4 ,certainly it was with no little knowledge of drawing that he presented himself at the ,paris atelier of ,carolus ,duran in #ahgd1 aged eighteen4 ,carroll ,beckwith1 one of the earliest and best-loved of the pupils in the atelier and a life-long friend of ,sargent1 has often told me the story of ,sargent's arrival4 ,he came with his father1 and when ,beckwith opened the door he found a refined-looking gentleman and a tall1 thin son standing there4 ,beckwith1 as the massier of the class1 presented the pair to the master4 ,the portfolio of sketches1 which ,sargent had under his arm1 was presently examined1 with the class forming an admiring half-circle at the back4 ,it is reported that ,carolus observed that the nouveau had much to unlearn1 but ,beckwith says the class was astonished at the pencil-drawings and the facility of the water-colors4 ,the nouveau was accepted by the master and was a marked success from the start4 ,carolus was a good teacher after his kind and impressed his method upon ,sargent1 who accepted and bettered it4 ,the method in brief did not start with the carefully prepared sketch of ,ingres or even a charcoal-drawing upon the canvas1 but a full brush of color laid on in mass4 ,pupils were to draw1 model1 paint at one and the same time4 ,in blocking in a figure the paint might be thick and the edges at first sharp1 but the values1 the tone1 the properly constructed body were to be absolute4 ,underlying structure was a necessity4 ,sargent learned that early in his career and never forgot it4 ,his brush-work has been thought his greatest technical feature1 but that of itself would be for nothing holden did it not by its certainty produce absolute drawing4 ,he has always been a consummate draftsman4 ,yet it was ,carolus who taught facility and ease with the brush and preached ,velasquez to his pupils4 ,no doubt the master saw great qualities in the ,spaniard where his pupils saw only great dexterity1 but at any rate their attention was called to the fact that a picture may be made interesting in its surface and be the better therefor4 ,sargent was a quick convert to this idea1 and he very soon developed a breadth and truth of brush-work that astonished his master and set ,paris talking4 ,all his life it has been one of the pronounced features of his technique1 and yet not a feature by which his art stands or falls4 ,one of his latest portraits--that of ,henry ,james--does not noticeably show it4 ,the surface is almost smooth so inconspicuous is the brushing1 and yet there are few who will not count the ,james as one of the best considered1 cleanest cut1 and most profound of ,sargent's portraits4 ,he remained under ,carolus for several years1 assisted the master in some of his decorations1 and soon began to produce noteworthy work of his own4 ,one of his earliest portraits was that of ,carolus himself1 which at once became talked about1 not only as a likeness of the famous master but as the work of a remarkable pupil4 ,in #ahgh he painted ,en route pour la pche1 a figure composition which attracted much attention in the ,salon4 ,the next year he went to ,spain1 and from that journey came 8,el ,jaleo10 now in the ,boston ,museum1 and a number of other ,spanish pictures4 ,these theme pictures1 much as they were praised1 did not1 could not1 determine the painter's bent4 ,like other young men1 he probably had determined nothing1 and eventually let circumstances settle the matter of subject4 ,he did not have to wait long4 ,in #ahha he put out a full-length portrait called a 8,lady with ,rose0 that had so much vitality about it1 as well as charm1 that it far outran all his earlier performances4 ,the success of it1 followed by the 8,hall of the ,four ,children10 in which four of the ,beit children were shown1 and then the portrait of 8,madame ,g----10 seemed automatically to place him among the portraitists4 ,the last-named picture1 a full-length in profile1 now in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 set all ,paris by the ears4 ,the wonderful if somewhat sharp drawing of the face and head1 the equally fine portraiture of the hands1 arms1 figure1 and dress1 commanded instant attention4 ,the subject was a great beauty1 and the painter1 painting precisely what he saw1 had dealt with her remorselessly4 ,even then they began to discuss ,sargent as a character reader1 an anatomist1 a psychologist1 a physiognomist--great nonsense to be sure1 but nevertheless suggestive of his remarkable truth of observation4 ,it was perhaps this very quality that soon brought him more commissions for portraits than he could fill and possibly led to the virtual abandonment for the time being of other themes4 ,in taking up portraiture as the field of his endeavor ,sargent was perhaps wise as well as fortunate1 for it requires the keen1 cool observer1 the man who can record the fact without romance1 to make a good portrait-painter2 and ,sargent has proved himself an observer above all4 ,he is not a poet in paint1 nor does he indulge in sentiment1 feeling1 or emotion4 ,he records the fact4 ,if ,i apprehend him rightly1 such theory of art as he possesses is founded in observation4 ,one night in ,gibraltar some fifteen years ago ,i was dining with him at the old ,cecil ,hotel4 ,we had been on ship for a dozen days and were glad to get ashore4 ,that night1 as a very unusual thing1 ,sargent talked about painting--talked of his own volition4 ,he suggested his theory of art in a single sentence3 8,you see things that way0 7pointing slightly to the left7 8and ,i see them this way0 7pointing slightly to the right74 ,he seemed to think that would account for the variation or peculiarity of eye and mind1 and1 with a manner of doing--a personal method--there was little more to art4 ,such a theory would place him in measured agreement with ,henry ,james1 whose definition of art has been quoted many times3 8,art is a point of view and genius a way of looking at things40 ,but whether ,sargent has followed ,james1 or ,james followed ,sargent1 in that definition1 ,i am not able to record4 ,james1 however1 did not stop on that precise line4 ,in #ahhg in writing about ,sargent he said3 8,the highest result is attained when to the element of quick perception a certain faculty of lingering reflection is added10 and he continued1 8,i mean the quality in the light of which the artist sees deep into his subject1 undergoes it1 absorbs it1 discovers in it new things that were not on the surface1 becomes patient with it1 and almost reverent1 and1 in short1 elevates and humanizes the technical problems40 ,james certainly meant by that sympathy1 deep human interest1 if not sentiment1 feeling1 and emotion2 but ,sargent never showed these qualities in his work and has more than once repudiated them by word of mouth4 ,it is a popular contention that he does see 8new things that were not on the surface10 that he is a character reader2 and that he is a bitter satirist in paint4 ,again the painter has denied these alleged accomplishments1 and with some warmth into the bargain4 ,frank ,millet told me years ago that ,sargent1 painting at ,broadway1 ,england1 needed a white marble column in a picture he was then working upon4 ,there was none at hand1 but1 at ,millet's suggestion1 he got a carpenter to make a wooden column and had it painted a clean white4 ,this was set up and ,sargent tried to paint it in the picture as a marble column1 but with the unexpected result that on the canvas it looked not like marble but like a wooden column painted white4 ,he could not get below 8the surface10 though he tried to do so4 ,and ,kenyon ,cox in a strikingly just estimate of ,sargent#ag tells this story3 8,he had painted a portrait in which he was thought to have brought out the inner nature of his sitter1 and to have #8seen through the veil' of the external man4 ,when asked about it he is said to have expressed some amazement at the idea1 and to have remarked3 #8,if there were a veil ,i should paint the veil2 ,i can paint only what ,i see4'0 ,and ,cox adds3 8,whether he said it or not1 ,i am inclined to think that this sentence expresses the truth40 ,it does2 and also ,sargent's self-imposed limitation4 ,he does not want to see below the surface2 he thinks the surface in itself1 if rightly handled1 is sufficient4 ,but there is an explanation that may reconcile these different contentions4 #ag ,old ,masters and ,new1 by ,kenyon ,cox1 ,new ,york1 #aije4 ,a painter who has been looking at human heads for many years sees more than the man who casually looks up to recognize an acquaintance on the street4 ,i do not mean that he sees more 8character0--that is more scholarship or conceit or pride of purse or firmness of will or shrewdness of thought2 but merely that he sees the physical conformation more completely than we do4 ,well1 every one sooner or later moulds his own face4 ,it becomes marked or set or shaped in response to continued methods of thinking and acting4 ,when that face comes under the portrait-painter's eye he does not see the scholar1 the banker1 the senator1 the captain of industry2 but he does see1 perhaps1 certain depressions of the cheek or lines about the eyes or mouth or contractions of the lips or protrusions of the brow or jaw that appeal to him strongly because they are cast in shadow or thrown up sharply in relief of light4 ,these surface features he paints perhaps with more emphasis than they possess in the original because they appeal to him emphatically1 and presently the peculiar look that indicates the character of the man appears4 ,what the look may indicate1 or what kind or phase of character may be read in or out of the look1 the portrait-painter does not usually know or care4 ,it is not his business to know4 ,he paints what he sees and has as little discernment of a character as of a mind4 ,he gives1 perhaps without knowing their meaning1 certain protrusions and recessions of the surface before him and lets the result tell what tale it may4 ,illustration3 8,mrs4 ,pulitzer10 by ,john ,s4 ,sargent4 ,in the production of the portrait accurate observation is more than half the battle4 ,if a painter sees and knows his subject thoroughly1 he will have little trouble in telling what he sees and knows2 and to say of ,sargent that he observes rightly and records truly is to state the case in a sentence4 ,nothing in the physical presence escapes him4 ,the slight inclination of a head1 the shyness of a glance1 the mobility of a mouth1 the uneasiness of a hand1 the nervous strain of a gesture are all turned to account in the ultimate result4 ,every tone of color in itself and in its relation to the other tones1 every light in its relation to its shadow and to the other lights1 every melting contour in contrast with every accented contour1 and every texture in relation to every other texture--all are caught within the angle of the painter's focus4 ,his portraits are the complete demonstration of his observation4 ,they may not be all that could be wished for in soul1 but they are not lacking in physical life--in that which can be seen4 ,you will not be able to look into the eyes and seem to know the inner consciousness of the sitter1 as in a portrait by ,rembrandt 7the 8soul0 is ,rembrandt's1 not the sitter's72 but you will feel the bodily presence1 the physical fact1 as you do in a portrait by ,frans ,hals4 ,there is the ,marquand portrait at the ,metropolitan ,museum to which reference may be made4 ,how well he has emphasized the facts of the spare figure1 the refined if somewhat weary face6 ,how very effective the placing of the figure in the chair1 the turn of the head1 and that thin hand against which the head rests4 ,every physical feature is just as it should be4 ,look at the bone structure of the forehead1 the setting of the eyes1 the protrusion of the lower lip1 the modelling of the mouth and chin4 ,could anything be more positive6 ,the painter has given you only what he has seen1 but can you not get out of these physical features--even from the thin1 patrician hand--some indication of the man's character8 ,the painter does give the character of the sitter but not in the way the populace supposes4 ,the effort is not conscious4 ,the character is merely the result of accurately seeing and drawing the surface appearance4 ,all ,sargent's portraits of men are revelations of things seen and they are all based on the physical presence4 ,the 8,speaker ,reed0 and the 8,mr4 ,chamberlain0 are likenesses of men in the flesh1 done apparently without a thought of their being statesmen4 ,there is nothing of the official about them and you would not be able to say that they were political leaders4 ,they did not look the politician in life and the painter would not go behind the facial report4 ,sometimes a knowledge of what the man really was may have proved bothersome to him4 ,he told me in #aijc that he had done very little satisfactory work that year with portraits of officials at ,washington4 ,he liked his head of 8,general ,leonard ,wood0 and was much interested in the type1 but the standing portrait of 8,president ,roosevelt0 he did not think any too successful4 ,the 8,president ,wilson0 done in #aiag is of a piece with the ,roosevelt portrait and probably both were handicapped by shortness of time--insufficient time for complete observation4 ,but aside from being hurried1 the thought that he was painting people high in office and much was expected of him1 must have had a deterrent effect upon his brush4 ,for he could no more paint the office than he could paint behind the 8veil0 or get at the 8soul40 ,john ,hay1 ,edwin ,booth1 ,richard ,m4 ,hunt were very distinguished characters1 but ,sargent had no recipe for painting distinction and had to paint what was before him4 ,the result was that the ,hay and the ,hunt were in no way remarkable portraits1 whereas the ,booth was exceptionally fine4 ,it was not the characters that ,booth had played but his own gentle1 refined nature that had left its mark upon his face4 ,sargent saw it readily enough and had no need to plough beneath the surface for it4 ,his method of procedure with women's portraits is not different from that of men4 ,he seeks the personal presence1 sees keenly every physical peculiarity1 and gives as truthfully as is consistent with pigments the facts as he sees them4 ,there is no romance of mood1 no reflective musing1 no idealizing or prettifying of the likeness4 ,all phases of fashionable life have come to his studio and he has painted a host of social celebrities1 some of them more worthy of his brush than others4 ,many times he has painted the grand lady in flashing jewels and gorgeous robes and been accused of vulgarity in the doing of it4 ,but the accusation will not hold4 ,the vulgarity has been in the sitter and has been shown by the painter without feeling or perhaps quite unconsciously4 ,many times the lady1 the robes1 and the jewels have been given without a suspicion of vulgarity because there was none in the model4 ,that wondrous creation that appeared in the4 ,salon so many years ago--the tall lady in the magenta gown--was something bordering on the bizarre2 it was flashing1 glittering1 noisy1 but not unrefined in any sense4 ,the portrait of 8,miss ,terry as ,lady ,macbeth0 is 8stagey10 as perhaps it should be1 for again the staginess was before the painter2 but surely it is not wanting in taste4 ,and for refinement1 distinction1 sensitiveness1 what could be better than the beautiful portrait of 8,lady ,agnew08 ,whatever may be the qualities or defects of the sitter1 ,sargent may be trusted to record the facts before him exactly as they are1 and let the burden of their explanation fall on the friends or the family1 if it must4 ,illustration3 8,carnation ,lily1 ,lily ,rose10 by ,john ,s4 ,sargent4 ,in the ,national ,gallery of ,british ,art1 ,london4 ,his successes in other fields of painting than portraiture are due to the same keenness of observation and are perhaps merely manifestations of the portrait instinct4 ,the lovely 8,carnation ,lily ,lily ,rose0 is little more than the portrait of two little girls lighting ,chinese lanterns in a flower-garden4 ,it is of course carefully arranged1 and told with great beauty of color and light2 but the painting of the lilies shows the same exactness of observation that characterizes the faces4 ,they are portraits of lilies4 8,carmencita0 is again a portrait of a dancing-girl in costume1 with powder on her face and rouge on her lips4 ,she has paused a moment from dancing and is breathing quickly and ,sargent chose that moment to paint her4 ,his ,venetian scenes1 including the later water-colors1 are again portraits of places just as his alligators lying in the mud1 or his 8,st4 ,jerome0 lying in the wood1 or his marble quarries lying in the sun are striking likenesses of the objects themselves4 ,they are all treated in the portrait spirit--that is1 from the point of view of an observer and a recorder rather than a rhapsodist or a lover4 ,sargent does not rhapsodize1 at least not in his works4 ,the decoration in the ,boston ,public ,library is possibly an exception4 ,it evidently cost the painter much time and thought1 but the symbolism of it bewilders and its excellence lies less in meaning or appropriateness than in masterful execution4 ,it does not enthrall or sway or charm2 it astonishes by the brilliancy of its coloring and the supreme excellence of its workmanship4 ,it is something that one marvels over but cannot fall in love with4 ,and the most satisfactory part of it is perhaps the panel of the prophets1 which is essentially portraiture again--that is1 something painted from the model4 ,if ,i have not misstated the case it would seem as though ,sargent's painting could be epitomized as nature plus an eye and a hand1 external nature at that4 ,he has never pretended or suggested that he delves beneath the surface1 that he dreams or poetizes or evokes loveliness out of his inner consciousness and infuses it into his canvases4 ,it is doubtful if he has even indulged to any great extent in that elevation of the technical problem by long reflection which ,henry ,james refers to4 ,from sheer truth of observation his children1 as in the 8,carnation ,lily ,lily ,rose0 or the 8,beatrice10 are childlike1 and perhaps shy1 his young women graceful and possibly nervous or affected1 his men forceful1 mentally alert1 occasionally posing for posterity4 ,he tells the truth and knows not how to do otherwise4 ,how radically different in result are the portraits of ,lady ,ian ,hamilton1 ,mrs4 ,pulitzer1 ,mrs4 ,marquand1 of ,colonel ,bruce1 ,mr4 ,chase1 and ,mr4 ,rockefeller6 ,yet who that has known the originals will say that they are not true to the originals6 ,illustration3 8,carmencita10 by ,john ,s4 ,sargent4 ,in the ,luxembourg1 ,paris4 ,a limitation6 ,yes1 but what artist has not limited his endeavors6 ,it is by not trying to do everything that occasionally one succeeds in doing something4 ,and if in painting one chooses to be a recorder of facts rather than a concocter of fiction1 why should we grieve6 ,how very little ,sargent can concoct anything1 even composition1 is apparent in his group-portraits of two or three people--the ,misses ,hunter1 for an example4 ,the pattern bothered him1 he could not 8arrange0 the sitters satisfactorily1 and1 finally having crowded them into the canvas1 he painted them as he saw them1 with the result that they look crowded4 ,the fresco at ,boston is decorative1 to be sure1 by virtue of its coloring and gilding1 but as a composition it will hardly pass muster4 ,it is a curious gathering of jewel-like hues1 but it can make small pretense to a satisfactory mural composition4 ,sargent has never demonstrated great ability in arrangement1 and so far as the public knows has never tried for historical composition4 ,the portrait of the single figure is his greatest success4 ,placing it upon the canvas calls for no great imagination or change in the model2 and the opportunity for good drawing--his strongest technical accomplishment perhaps--is present4 ,how well he draws6 ,his light is in no way remarkable2 it lacks subtlety1 mystery1 and all that cookery of the brush whereby light and shade are distorted and made to suggest the existence of things unseen2 but his drawing is so profound that at times it is almost uncanny4 ,it is impossible to separate it from the swift handling of the surface1 for he gets the underlying structure and the overlying texture with one and the same stroke4 ,by a twist of the brush he may give drawing1 texture1 value1 hue1 all at once4 ,in this respect--his wonderful facility with the brush--he is in the class with ,rubens4 ,it is this latter feature of his work that excites the greatest admiration of his fellow artists4 ,the final result of his handling is to give one the impression of work done easily1 in fact1 rather improvised than premeditated4 ,but the impression is somewhat misleading4 ,every stroke is calmly calculated1 every touch is coolly designed4 ,if the effect looks labored1 the palette-knife is used to clean the canvas and the work is done over again4 ,infinite pains are taken that infinite pains shall not appear4 ,there is no excitement or feverish haste1 however swift the brush may seem to travel4 ,the nimble hand obeys a well-trained mind1 and if the work is easily and accurately done1 it is not through any burst of inspiration or preternatural facility of the moment1 but through long and careful training4 ,least of all is there any trickery about it4 ,the painting is just plain painting with ordinary canvases1 brushes1 and pigments squeezed out of lead tubes4 ,it is the simplest and most direct kind of brushing4 ,sargent has never been led astray by any of the technical phases or crazes4 ,his method of handling is perhaps ,parisian though it harks back to ,hals1 ,velasquez1 ,goya1 ,tiepolo1 without exactly resembling any one of them4 ,in its fluid quality perhaps it has more affinity with the work of ,rubens1 though again there is no positive resemblance4 ,it is ,sargent's own way of expressing himself4 ,that there are defects attending this quality of expressiveness will not be denied1 but they are comparatively unimportant4 ,in the simple spreading of wet liquid paint certain results of depth or hue or texture are likely to be sacrificed4 ,often a profound shadow depth is produced by repeated glazings2 thumbing and kneading of pigments on the canvas frequently result in a quality of color that cannot be directly spread with a brush2 and1 again1 there are peculiar effects produced by underbasing that are not obtainable by surface manipulation4 ,kenyon ,cox thinks that ,sargent perhaps loses somewhat in textures by his direct method and cites as illustration his flesh painting4 8,the sweeps of opaque color laid on with a full brush are apt to give a texture as of drapery1 no matter how accurate the particular tints may be2 and if we are to have the pleasure of instantaneous execution1 we must generally accept it with some diminution of the pleasure derivable from beautiful flesh painting4444 ,indeed1 it may be said that the highest beauty of coloring is always more or less incompatible with too great frankness of procedure and demands a certain reticence and mystery40#ah #ah ,ibid4 ,there may be1 probably is1 considerable truth in that statement though ,i cannot for the moment get away from ,rubens--one of the most direct painters in all art and yet a great colorist and a splendid painter of textures1 especially the texture of flesh4 ,sargent is no such colorist as ,rubens1 but the lack is perhaps inherent in the man rather than in the method4 ,at the same time ,mr4 ,cox is right in degree4 ,perhaps the most engaging quality of flesh coloring1 to return to the illustration1 can be obtained only by additions and overlayings of paint which give the feeling of the coloring coming up from below to the surface4 ,the direct method will not answer save in the hands of a ,rubens4 ,but the end justifies the means with ,sargent4 ,precision in drawing immediately begins to evaporate when one starts to knead or overlay the surface2 and to weaken ,sargent's accuracy in drawing would be to imperil his authority and dispel such a thing as conviction4 ,one cannot imagine it4 ,if he should now deliberately try for subtlety or depth of color or seek to obtain a mysterious or illusory or enamelled surface1 his friends in art would immediately declare him in decline and roll their eyes heavenward in despair4 ,but fortunately there is no immediate prospect of such a thing4 ,the painter's inclination seems well settled1 and neither his eye nor his hand has lost its cunning4 ,on the contrary1 since he practically abandoned portrait-painting more than a dozen years ago and turned his attention to landscape and effects of direct sunlight1 he has been producing the most astonishing pictures of his career4 ,the things that he sees and draws would have been thought as wild as cubist fancies thirty years ago4 ,and yet they are the most positive pronouncements of elemental truths that he has yet put forth4 ,that does not mean that there is anything weird or queer about these later doings4 ,they are merely appearances of form1 color1 and light presented with astonishing breadth1 force1 and simplicity4 ,sargent has never evidenced any liking for things queer4 ,he is too intelligent for fads and fancies1 too sane for mad movements in art4 ,there is not the slightest indication of impressionism1 futurism1 or cubism in his work4 ,the fashions have never interested him2 but style--the best way of presenting a thought or theme--has no doubt been in his thought since boyhood4 ,perhaps it was his early acquaintance with the works of painters like ,titian1 ,tintoretto1 and ,paolo ,veronese that led him to base his own style in largeness1 simplicity1 and directness4 ,he could not have built on a better foundation4 ,whatever gimcrack or scrollwork bad taste may add at the top1 there never yet has been any great art that did not have a plain and firm foundation at the bottom4 ,and in these days1 when all painting seems going to the dogs with new and incomprehensible conventions put forth by first one group of painters and then another1 it is a pleasure and a relief to know that there is a large body of the younger men who subscribe to ,sargent's formulas and methods4 ,so far as ,i know he has never done any teaching nor had any pupils1 and yet the influence of his works has been great not only in ,england but in ,france and ,america4 ,for many years his method of handling has been held up for admiration in the schools and every new work of his shown in an exhibition has had its chorus of students to pay it homage4 ,they could not follow a better master4 ,sargent1 ,alexander1 ,chase1 with many other painters who came to the front with the founding of the ,society of ,american ,artists1 have helped form the new ,american tradition of the craft4 ,as ,i have indicated many times in the course of these pages1 that tradition is not based in any mere theory or fancy of art but primarily in the calm1 cold practice of good workmanship4 ,in other words1 the craftsman first2 the great artist afterward--if such thing may be4 ,there could be no wiser teaching1 no more enduring tradition4 ,with it the painter can rise to what eerie heights he will2 without it he forever moves on leaden wings4 ,it remains to be seen what the present generation will do in art4 ,so many strange idols are set up in art places from day to day that one wonders if faith and purpose shall last4 ,but whatever path the new group may follow or movement it may pursue1 it cannot complain that its hands and eyes have not been trained2 it cannot say that it inherited no artistic patrimony1 was given no schooling1 was taught no craftsmanship4 ,the men of #ahgh were perhaps handicapped by starting late and having to get their technical education in foreign lands1 but the men of to-day have no such excuse4 ,they can be technically well educated on their own native heath2 they are practically not handicapped at all4 ,will their success be the greater for that8 ,who can tell8 ,there is always a tearing-down process going on in art almost exactly commensurate with the building-up process1 and our country and its art may be on the threshold of such an epoch4 ,again1 who knows8 ,many a generation has prepared and builded for its succeeding generation--prepared and builded apparently in vain4 ,but whether the period is one of progress or recession it will not be the worse for the presence of competent builders4 ,the tradition of art is now deep-rooted4 ,it will continue to grow and assert itself even though there be no historic sequence in its results4 ,and so the thought is perhaps worth reiterating that the men of #ahgh really have builded and prepared1 with a will and in a way that will not soon be forgotten4 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,italics are shown thus3 sloping4 ,variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained4 ,perceived typographical errors have been changed4 ,repetative chapter headings have been removed4