DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51520#0026
of judging things.” These were his words,
or very nearly, and I think this anecdote
throws a light upon Manet’s painting. He
saw quickly and clearly, and he stated what he
saw candidly, almost innocently. It was not
well-mannered perhaps to speak to a brother of
his sister in those terms, but we have not
come here to discuss good manners—what are
manners but the conventions that obtain at a
certain moment, and among a certain class ?
Well-mannered people do not think sincerely,
their minds are full of evasions and subterfuges.
Well-mannered people constantly feel that
they would not like to think like this or that
they would not like to think like that, and, as
I have said, whoever feels that he would not
like to think out to the end every thought that
may come into his mind should turn away from
art. All conventions, of politics, society, and
creed, yes, and of art, too, must be cast into
the melting-pot ; he who would be an artist
must melt down all things ; he must discover
new formulas, new moulds, all the old values
must be swept aside, and he must arrive at a
new estimate. The artist should keep himself
free from all creed, from all dogma, from all
opinion. As he accepts the opinions of others
he loses his talent, all his feelings and his ideas
must be his own, for art is a personal re-
thinking of life from end to end, and for this
reason the artist is always eccentric. He is
almost unaware of your moral codes, he laughs
at them when he thinks of them, which is
i 6
or very nearly, and I think this anecdote
throws a light upon Manet’s painting. He
saw quickly and clearly, and he stated what he
saw candidly, almost innocently. It was not
well-mannered perhaps to speak to a brother of
his sister in those terms, but we have not
come here to discuss good manners—what are
manners but the conventions that obtain at a
certain moment, and among a certain class ?
Well-mannered people do not think sincerely,
their minds are full of evasions and subterfuges.
Well-mannered people constantly feel that
they would not like to think like this or that
they would not like to think like that, and, as
I have said, whoever feels that he would not
like to think out to the end every thought that
may come into his mind should turn away from
art. All conventions, of politics, society, and
creed, yes, and of art, too, must be cast into
the melting-pot ; he who would be an artist
must melt down all things ; he must discover
new formulas, new moulds, all the old values
must be swept aside, and he must arrive at a
new estimate. The artist should keep himself
free from all creed, from all dogma, from all
opinion. As he accepts the opinions of others
he loses his talent, all his feelings and his ideas
must be his own, for art is a personal re-
thinking of life from end to end, and for this
reason the artist is always eccentric. He is
almost unaware of your moral codes, he laughs
at them when he thinks of them, which is
i 6