International studio (51.1913/1914)

Modern Floro er-Paint mg


combinations and

the presence of outlines as from the spectacle of a
spirit imprisoned in a body too small for it. There
are some whose life-work seems the destruction of
barriers, of delimiting lines; whose consciousness
of life is of something immanent, but not imprisoned
at any point. They will, I think, if art has a
meaning for them, turn at once to impressionism,
the most subjective form that art has taken. But
perhaps we are in danger of over-subtlety if wre
follow such a train of thought further here.
People who are not artists may almost be divided
into two classes in regard to their attitude towards
flowers—we are thinking now of gathered flowers.
Some people can establish the relationship of actual
friendship with two or three flowers in a vase on
their writing-table; to others flowers are simply
the most beautifully manufactured ornamentation in
the world. Those people who have the sense of
the great perfection of beauty of floral ornaments,
if they pursue the art of painting, will, naturally,
we think, tend to exploit the decorative aspects
of their subject. In the grouping of flowers it is
so easy to achieve distinctive
effective contrasts that
from this source the imagi¬
nation of the painter is
unceasingly prompted in
composition. But we must
remember that in this
interest in the opportunity
flowers afford for highly
decorative composition we
have only one side of the
art, as it is at present prac-
tised. It is the side re¬
lated to that regard for the
ornamental character of
flowers which is common
among many people who
are not painters, and
is especially shown in the
adornment of rooms with
flowers and in table-
decoration. People highly
trained do not find it
difficult to develop a con-
sciousness of the decora-
tive aspect of things, which
in the end shows them
almost every objective
detail, in the world present
to vision, as an incident in
one great scheme of de
coration. It gives them

particular pleasure to discover and insist upon the
instances where accident contributes to such a
scheme. Of this order of mind the Japanese are
the great example, and their art has used the whole
of its immense resources to insist upon the decora-
tive element in life. In this wider sense of decora-
tion, of course, every picture in its set frame, with
its contrast of colour and the rhythm appertaining
to it, contributes to decoration.
In this article we have' to contrast with the
consciously decorative flower-picture that kind of
picture of flowers which seems to express friend-
ship with flowers and intimacy with them rather
than regard for their character as natural ornament.
This attitude towards them has been particularly
represented by the Impressionists, and most ad-
mirably by Fantin Latour. At first sight, indeed,
there seems an antagonism between Impressionism
and decoration, emphasised by the historical fact
that one of the first departures of the original Im-
pressionists was from that “ conscious ” art of com-
position which is the soul of decoration.
We must come now to the point of view from

“FORGET-ME-NOTS." FROM AN OIL PAINTING BY H. DAVIS RICHTER, R. B.A.

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