International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

The Staats Forbes Collection

composition which appealed strongly to his severe
realistic instincts. Neither of these landscapes can
be said to compare with his superb JO Immensite,
so unfortunately skied in the Ionides Collection at
South Kensington.
The influence of the painters of the Barbizon
School, especially the landscape painters, on the
English artists of the present day is unmistakable.
It is seen in the work shown at the leading exhibi-
tions, and, what is more, it seems to grow year by
year in a remarkable degree, until we find, not only
in the pictures of such prominent men as Mr. Alfred
East, Mr. A. D. Peppercorn and Mr. Bertram Priest-
man, but in those of many lesser-known painters, a
strong and intelligent leaning towards the teachings
of the masters of Fontainebleau. And this cannot
but be regarded as a healthy and gratifying sign by
those vvho have at heart the preservation of the
best traditions of English landscape painting. In
our second article on the Staats Forbes Collection
we drew attention to the fact that the ait of the
Barbizon painters was based upon that of our own
great landscapists, on Constable and the Norwich
School, and, therefore, the artists of to-day, in
following the French masters, are indirectly up-
holding the teachings of the men who won for
England her great reputation in landscape painting.
In France to-day the influence of the Barbizon

School is hardly perceptible, in spite of the fact
that M. Harpignies still survives. Born in 1819 he
worked with the men of the revolutionary movement,
and he has continued loyal to the doctrines they had
expounded. In his landscapes he concerns him-
self with the simple effects of nature without
attempting to secure exact and detailed realism.
His work is vigorous and broad, sometimes inclined
to be heavy, and he excels in painting masses of
dark trees against a light or vivid sky. That he
has a fine feeling for the disposition of light and
shade is seen in his landscape By the River in
the Staats Forbes collection. It is a simple and
direct transcript from nature, and the freshness
of the green turf, the quiet stream glistening
in the sunlight, and the dark trees silhouetted
against the summer sky form an attractive
composition. The Souvenir of Meudon also dis-
plays M. Harpignies’ best qualities, especially in
his treatment of the two trees touched here and
there by the brown tints of autumn. The compo-
sition is dignified and reveals a full appreciation of
the forms and subtleties of nature. The View
taken from the Garden of Mr. Livesey at Beaulieu
is full of sunlight and truthfully interprets the
beauty of the district, but the darkened outlines of
the trunks ot the trees, often seen in M. Harpig-
nies’ landscapes, detract somewhat from the


“ THE CORNFIELD ’
228

BY LEON L’HERMITTE