Studio: international art (14.1898)

The International Society

have borne, the woik that has developed from
them. You find here pictures of every denomina-
tion : impressionism, naturalism, mysticism, sym-
bolism, romanticism, and every other ism which
ingenious people
have invented.

Of course every
new-born baby
must for conveni-
ence receive a
name. But how
seldom will a true
work of art be found
to fit completely
into any class or
formula ! It is the
personal expres-
sion of an indivi-
dual, and the
stronger the indi-
viduality the
stronger the ex-
pression, and the
more difficult to
classify. All these
superficial classifi-
cations hinder,
rather than further,
an understanding
of art. Why do
we not apply them
to the old masters ?

Are they perhaps
not equally varied
in their modes of
expression ?

It is the recog-
nition of, and re-
spect for, indi-
viduality, which
the International
Society is aiming
at.

Individuality —
character — can
never disregard
the all-pervading
power and richness of Nature which surrounds it,
though the stronger it is the more it will absorb it
and mould it to its own use.

Hence there is individuality of country as well
as of the man, which must be recognised. Men
born and educated in England, Germany, France,
America, or elsewhere, will each receive very dif-
116

ferent impressions of life and nature from the
outset.

See what different work the gay, clear, limpid
sunshine of France has produced in Le Bassin

d ’A rgen teuil., by

Claude Monet,
from that of Mac-
gregor in An
Upland Landscape,
with its sombre
strength, where
you feel the in-
fluence of the
northern skies.
An Englishman, I
dare say, would
hardly have the
courage to paint
Sin as Stuck has
done, or scenes
such as that by
Toulouse de Lau-
trec at the Moulin
Rouge, — “ and a
good thing too,”
he may say.

But this repul-
sion seems to the
foreigner to spring
from a desire in
the English to veil
facts. The Eng-
lish painter would
express it in a
roundabout way,
would perhaps
think too much
what his family, or
his friend, or his
“people” will say;
he will feel the
constraint of con-
vention tearing at
his brain, which
makes him paint
the nude very
often more like
wax than like flesh and blood.

Nature—there is none but this mighty authority
to which real character will bow. Nothing but
this could move Whistler, Manet, Ddgas, nothing
but this could move Boecklin, Menzel, Thoma.
They have withstood all attacks, but how they them-
selves have moved, changed, and opened the eyes


“ MUSIC ” BY G. SAUTER

(From a photograph by Carl Hentschel &• Co.)