DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51520#0033
painted in Holland in the seventeenth century
were painted black first and then glazed with
crimson lake. Even down to Boucher’s day,
to the end of the eighteenth century, we find
no trace of what we moderns know as solid
painting. Strange as it may seem, Greuze
was the inventor of modern painting. If
anyone doubts that the modern mind is
dependent upon its artistic methods, let him
paint a landscape in black and white and then
glaze it, as the ancients did, and he will find
that he has painted, if not an archaic picture,
at least a picture wearing a slightly archaic
air. The ancient painters, perhaps owing to
their method, saw nature in large aspects ;
we are interested in detail, and we are eager
to note every passing effect of rain or shine;
we desire light above all things, and chiaroscuro
bores us ; we do not omit a stone in the fore-
ground, though its value is the same as the
value of a bit of wall in the middle distance.
To explain myself in a way that will make
my meaning clear to everyone, I will say,
“ Our pictures are no longer vignetted.”
The first thing we note in Claude Monet is
his escape from the vignette of Turner and
Constable—so a vainer suggestion was never
put forward than that the impressionists
derived their art from England. It will be
noticed that I have attributed the modern
mind to the modern method; some may
prefer to think that it was the modern mind
that invented the modern method—well,
23
were painted black first and then glazed with
crimson lake. Even down to Boucher’s day,
to the end of the eighteenth century, we find
no trace of what we moderns know as solid
painting. Strange as it may seem, Greuze
was the inventor of modern painting. If
anyone doubts that the modern mind is
dependent upon its artistic methods, let him
paint a landscape in black and white and then
glaze it, as the ancients did, and he will find
that he has painted, if not an archaic picture,
at least a picture wearing a slightly archaic
air. The ancient painters, perhaps owing to
their method, saw nature in large aspects ;
we are interested in detail, and we are eager
to note every passing effect of rain or shine;
we desire light above all things, and chiaroscuro
bores us ; we do not omit a stone in the fore-
ground, though its value is the same as the
value of a bit of wall in the middle distance.
To explain myself in a way that will make
my meaning clear to everyone, I will say,
“ Our pictures are no longer vignetted.”
The first thing we note in Claude Monet is
his escape from the vignette of Turner and
Constable—so a vainer suggestion was never
put forward than that the impressionists
derived their art from England. It will be
noticed that I have attributed the modern
mind to the modern method; some may
prefer to think that it was the modern mind
that invented the modern method—well,
23