International studio (31.1907)

The Alexander Young Collection—Conclusion


of art. Delacroix and Turner used, it is said, to
amuse themselves with arrangements in silks and
sugarplums; and what they did in jest, or by
way of experiment, was done by the Marseillais in
sober earnest, and as the last word of art. True it
is that he has a magic—there is no other word for
it—of his own : that there are moments when his
work is infallibly decorative as a Persian crock or
a Japanese brocade; that there are others when
there is audible in these volleys of paint, these
orchestral explosions of colour, a strain of human
poetry, a note of mystery and romance, some hint

of an appeal to the mind.
As a rule, however, his art
is purely sensuous. His
fairy meadows and en-
chanted gardens are so to
speak ‘ that sweet word
Mesopotamia’ in two di-
mensions ; their parallel in
literature is the verse that
one reads for the sound’s
sake only—in which there
is rhythm, colour, music,
everything but meaning.”
An individualist, original
both in his forcible inter-
pretations and vigorous
technique, Decamps was in
some ways a disappointing
artist. At times he produced work which, in its large
and noble conception, its suggestion of the heroic,
seemed to hold promise of a success which he never
attained. His influence on his contemporaries was
proved by the number of his imitators; yet it cannot
be said that he created a school. Most of his best
work was done in the East, where he found ample
scope for indulging his imagination and satisfying his
love for light and colour. Unloading the Ship (p. 13)
is a small picture of good quality, large in treatment,
and painted with a broad, firm touch. The agree-
able tonality is enhanced rather than disturbed by


“ BY THE SEA ”
l6

BY E. BOUDIN