DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51520#0019
REMINISCENCES OF THE
IMPRESSIONIST PAINTERS.
It is to Mr. Lane’s extraordinary enthusiasm,
energy, and love of art that we owe the plea-
sure of this beautiful collection of pictures,
and, that it may not be but a passing pleasure,
it is his proposal to collect funds for the
purchase of these pictures, and to found a
Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin. A few
days before the Exhibition opened he came to
ask for an article about these pictures, but it
seemed to me that all I had to say about
pictures in the form of articles I had already
said ; and I did not dare to accept his proposal
to deliver a lecture on French art until it
occurred to me that being probably the only
person in Dublin who had known the painters
whose works hang on the wall, I might,
without being thought too presumptuous, come
here and—I will not say discuss French art—
I prefer to say talk about Manet, Degas,
Renoir, Pissaro, Monet, and Sisley, and in
doing so to discuss French art indirectly.
Yes, it was my good fortune to know these
men when their talent was beginning, before
they were known to the rest of the world.
When my mother offered me my choice of
Oxford or Cambridge, I told her that I had
decided to go to Paris. “ My dear boy, your
education—you learned nothing at school.”
“ That is why, my dear mother, I intend to
devote myself entirely to my own education,
B 9
IMPRESSIONIST PAINTERS.
It is to Mr. Lane’s extraordinary enthusiasm,
energy, and love of art that we owe the plea-
sure of this beautiful collection of pictures,
and, that it may not be but a passing pleasure,
it is his proposal to collect funds for the
purchase of these pictures, and to found a
Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin. A few
days before the Exhibition opened he came to
ask for an article about these pictures, but it
seemed to me that all I had to say about
pictures in the form of articles I had already
said ; and I did not dare to accept his proposal
to deliver a lecture on French art until it
occurred to me that being probably the only
person in Dublin who had known the painters
whose works hang on the wall, I might,
without being thought too presumptuous, come
here and—I will not say discuss French art—
I prefer to say talk about Manet, Degas,
Renoir, Pissaro, Monet, and Sisley, and in
doing so to discuss French art indirectly.
Yes, it was my good fortune to know these
men when their talent was beginning, before
they were known to the rest of the world.
When my mother offered me my choice of
Oxford or Cambridge, I told her that I had
decided to go to Paris. “ My dear boy, your
education—you learned nothing at school.”
“ That is why, my dear mother, I intend to
devote myself entirely to my own education,
B 9