DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61635#0137
price asked elsewhere. I hope the charges for
artists living in Barbizon are not the same as
those for an artist passing through, disguised as a
tricycler.—But Siron’s, with its elegant waiter and
prices, and its Exhibition open to the public, was
not the Siron’s we had expected. We had thought
to find a true artists’ inn, like certain Venetian and
Florentine dens we knew of;—we had come instead
to a show for the tourist.—And indeed all Barbizon,
with its picture galleries and studios to let, and
posing peasants, seemed no better than a con-
venient stopping - place, to which drivers from
Fontainebleau could bring travellers, and allow
them to spend their francs for the benefit of Bar-
bizonians.—Thus, from Millet’s misery the people
have reaped a golden harvest.
Stranger still is the fact, that the country where
Millet could see but suffering humanity, with a
forest or open landscape in harmony with it, is now
recommended as a place in which to learn mirth
and vivacious contentment.—Millet’s portion in
Barbizon was headache and heartache, so that now
and then, in his despair, he cried out to his friends'
that, physically and morally, he was going down
hill. Over the way at Siron’s other men stayed on
in the village, because near the forest they were
sure of physical and moral good health, air, light,
perfumes,
artists living in Barbizon are not the same as
those for an artist passing through, disguised as a
tricycler.—But Siron’s, with its elegant waiter and
prices, and its Exhibition open to the public, was
not the Siron’s we had expected. We had thought
to find a true artists’ inn, like certain Venetian and
Florentine dens we knew of;—we had come instead
to a show for the tourist.—And indeed all Barbizon,
with its picture galleries and studios to let, and
posing peasants, seemed no better than a con-
venient stopping - place, to which drivers from
Fontainebleau could bring travellers, and allow
them to spend their francs for the benefit of Bar-
bizonians.—Thus, from Millet’s misery the people
have reaped a golden harvest.
Stranger still is the fact, that the country where
Millet could see but suffering humanity, with a
forest or open landscape in harmony with it, is now
recommended as a place in which to learn mirth
and vivacious contentment.—Millet’s portion in
Barbizon was headache and heartache, so that now
and then, in his despair, he cried out to his friends'
that, physically and morally, he was going down
hill. Over the way at Siron’s other men stayed on
in the village, because near the forest they were
sure of physical and moral good health, air, light,
perfumes,