Studio: international art (23.1901)

Jean-Francois Raffdelli

So, we see, the artist of to-day must not cast his
eyes in the direction of our great men, those whom
Carlyle has so graciously saluted with the name of
"hero" ; but, to continue the quotation, "let him
who feels his soul 'exalted and his heart stirred by
the supreme Beauty of his race, turn his gaze on
the humblest around him—on the bare-footed, on
the poorest of the poor. For all these have fought,
and all have conquered in one way or another,
according to their capacity, scarce knowing what
they were doing. Therefore let us admire them.
I can see but one thing standing erect: man—
tall, upright, and bold !"

Excellent sentiments, these, and creditable to
the man whose brain they have haunted; but it
must be confessed that many, even superficial,
minds would hesitate to accept them as the basis
of a modern scheme of aesthetics, for they are
lacking in solidity and in scope. However, it were
best perhaps to attach only a relative importance
to them, as showing the ktat (Fame of the artist
whose work we are about to consider. For, by
knowing his innermost feelings and ideas, we shall
be the more easily enabled to get at the true

DRAWING FROM BY JEAN-FRANCOIS RAFFAELLI

" TYPES DE PARIS "

(By permission of MM. Plon, Nourrit et Cie.)

IO

meaning of his efforts and the better qualified to
criticise his practice of the theories he holds
so dear.

" The Painter of the Poor "—I suppose the artist
would not object to be so styled in the future; for
though in the course of his career we have seen
him at times devote himself to that which is
elegant and graceful and refined, his preference—
I had almost said his tenderness—has always been
towards the outcast and the unfortunate. And
the same with the backgrounds to his pictures.
His landscapes are suburban landscapes, with bare,
litter-strewn grass and anaemic trees fringing the
muddy roads; with a horizon of high factory
chimneys, and strange little gardens, lovingly
tended by small, retired shop-keepers; with poor
cottages built of refuse—all this observed with a
melancholy eye which fully grasps its sad, significant
beauty; all this transcribed with a skilful brush
which unerringly fixes both colour and character
without conventionality or trickery of any sort, but
with just that precision, just that marvellous know-
ledge of what to leave out, that faculty of generalisa-
tion which mark the highest art work and invest
it with a human interest, a philosophic
charm of its own.

" Everything has been painted, since there
have been men and painters." Thus might
one paraphrase La Bruyere's celebrated
words ; but only to deny their truth imme-
diately, for does it not seem, on the contrary,
when we come across a fresh and original
writer or painter, as though nothing had
been written or painted previously, since he
has something to tell which no one before
him had told ? And so the world's picture
is enriched and enlarged indefinitely ? Year
by year we are happily increasing the distance
separating us from the days when, under
the oppressive influence of the academical
idea, with its spurious "grand traditions,"
the artist was constrained to " make up "
Nature and Truth with a mask, either heroic
or sentimental; when this or that branch of
subject or study was interdicted, and when
a painter was esteemed great in proportion
to the dimensions of his canvases and the
grandeur of the ideas expressed thereon.
This antiquated " School" tyranny survives
to some degree even to-day, and has more
influence than might be imagined. For it
is the rulers of the Institut and the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts who have the distribution
of the medals and travelling scholarships,