International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

William Keith of California

with its clear, original, unmuted vibration some
fleeting “impression,” some “moment without
date,” magical and transitory, deeply felt, in the
shadow of the woods—in the fretted mirror of the
meadow stream, or in dewy morning pastures—and
the motive rather than the rest seems the clue to
his place in modern art.
The first glance at any group of Mr. Keith’s
paintings clearly indicates his attitude toward nature
and art. They deal with emotions aroused or
suggested by landscape under certain conditions
of light and atmosphere.
He himself says: “ Broadly speaking, there are
but two schools of landscape painting: one that
has to do mainly with facts, workmanship and
technique; the other with emotions so subtle, so
elusive and evanescent, that they are almost
beyond mortal reach.” His own point of view is
purely the latter, but his work illustrates his further
statement, that to express the higher beauty one
must deeply know the elementary and fundamental
“facts.” This is apparently what some of our
younger painters forget, and in the effort to pass
at once to what they rightly feel is the higher
plane, they skip or neglect the intermediary
evolutionary stage. That this cannot be, the
Japanese artist well knows, and the delicate
and emotional suggestion of his work is the
fruit of the most gradual and thorough study of
nature—so many years’ drawing of leaves, so
many of insects, birds, and animals, until finally,
with no suggestion of effort, the hand achieves
what the spirit dares. This necessary preliminary
labour and training Mr. Keith has gone through,
and now in his latest and
ripest work, more and
more we find that final
touch of spirit upon matter,
that apparently almost
accidental inspiration and
unpremeditated art which
are really the harmonic
and overtone of long in-
sight and labour.
The visit of George
Inness to California in
1890 brought together two
men who had much in
common through their art,
although their methods
were radically different.
Mr. Inness came West
for health, and spent his
entire two months daily

in Mr. Keith’s studio, painting and discussing
painting. In his theory, that a canvas before it can
be considered complete must necessarily go through
a definite and prolonged number of stages and treat-
ments, he differed from Mr. Keith, who usually paints
under a high pressure of feeling which brings all his
faculties to a focus, and obliges them to work with
the greatest rapidity and concentration. Illustra-
ting his method, Mr. Inness painted a picture,
watched day after day throughout its gradual
evolution by Mr. Keith with the keenest interest,
and when the last touches had been given and the
painter turned and laid down his brush, Mr. Keith
pronounced his verdict: “Nevertheless, the picture
is absolutely the work of to-day.” It was true, and
admitted by Inness; the soul and essentials of the
work had been the contribution of the last day.
And the effect was not more solid, nor its unity
more complete than in Mr. Keith’s swift and sure
progress to his goal. This vivid purpose and defi-
nite aim are characteristic, and account for the
speed and certainty with which his conception is
embodied. Mr. Inness said later, “Not one of us
(including the great Frenchmen of his own date)
can carry a picture so far by the first intention,
except perhaps Rousseau.”
With this same concentration and energy, and
the labour of omission, must some of the older
men have worked, whose incredible aggregate is
spread through the galleries of the world; not
uncertainly, but with every faculty bent upon the
realisation of the inner vision—“one thing, done
at one time—in a momenti ” as Mr. Keith, with
permissible exaggeration, has expressed it.


“THE CROWN OF THE SIERRAS” BY WILLIAM KEITH

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