Alphonse Legros
in accordance with their ideals, and so become feel with him in his handling of subjects which are far
imaginatively their kinsman, their contemporary. remote from our everyday experience. His point
But this way of studying the past is so difficult that of view must become ours, and we must never for
it has only a few devotees. It requires from all a moment hold the conceited opinion that it is a
who would follow it such histrionic gifts of imagi- part of his business to please us at a first glance,
nation as must needs be very rare, so enslaved are To him all prettinesses of style, all kickshaws of
we ordinary men by the habits of mind peculiar to boudoir sentiment, are detestable—as detestable as
our own brief time. And this is partly why one has they were to Holbein, to Diirer, to Michael Angelo,
dwelt so long on the historic feeling expressed with to Titian, to Ingres, to J. F. Millet, and to all the
dramatised truth in the Death of St. Francis. other men of genius whom he loves best, and with
The same qualities are to be found elsewhere, in whom he dwells in the upper regions of art. Men
many of the best etchings produced by Mr. Legros; of this dominant and austere trend of thought are
and hence we must either be content to misunder- rarely to be found among artists of British birth;
stand the master's aims and results, or else we must indeed, to find a parallel to Legros among our
British countrymen of the
nineteenth century, we
must pass from the history
of art to that of letters, and
find in Carlyle the very
. man we need. They have
certainly much in common,
i these two, Carlyle and
Legros, not merely in a
| '^^^^^jm'>' >~ certain kinship of style,
\J but also in their habit
of dramatising everything,
> and of intensifying pity
and terror and pathos with
contrasts of humour some-
what grotesque in kind.
Both, again, speak to us
in many voices not their
own, yet the work of each
can never be called an
exercise in the ventrilo-
quism of art. Always in-
tensely individual, it is
known at once; no critic
could ever mistake it for
• 1 the work of anyone else.
Kb Last of all, Mr. Legros is
like Carlyle in his isolation
among his contemporaries
—an isolation caused by
stern convictions, which
to most people seem out
of date; but Mr. Legros
does not lose his temper
over it, as Carlyle did
frequently. Never once
has he departed from
" HHHHHHHH the austere dignity and
calm of his favourite
PORTRAIT OF AUGUSTE RODIN, No. 23J FtOM THE ElCHItsG
by alphonse legros masters.
2S4
in accordance with their ideals, and so become feel with him in his handling of subjects which are far
imaginatively their kinsman, their contemporary. remote from our everyday experience. His point
But this way of studying the past is so difficult that of view must become ours, and we must never for
it has only a few devotees. It requires from all a moment hold the conceited opinion that it is a
who would follow it such histrionic gifts of imagi- part of his business to please us at a first glance,
nation as must needs be very rare, so enslaved are To him all prettinesses of style, all kickshaws of
we ordinary men by the habits of mind peculiar to boudoir sentiment, are detestable—as detestable as
our own brief time. And this is partly why one has they were to Holbein, to Diirer, to Michael Angelo,
dwelt so long on the historic feeling expressed with to Titian, to Ingres, to J. F. Millet, and to all the
dramatised truth in the Death of St. Francis. other men of genius whom he loves best, and with
The same qualities are to be found elsewhere, in whom he dwells in the upper regions of art. Men
many of the best etchings produced by Mr. Legros; of this dominant and austere trend of thought are
and hence we must either be content to misunder- rarely to be found among artists of British birth;
stand the master's aims and results, or else we must indeed, to find a parallel to Legros among our
British countrymen of the
nineteenth century, we
must pass from the history
of art to that of letters, and
find in Carlyle the very
. man we need. They have
certainly much in common,
i these two, Carlyle and
Legros, not merely in a
| '^^^^^jm'>' >~ certain kinship of style,
\J but also in their habit
of dramatising everything,
> and of intensifying pity
and terror and pathos with
contrasts of humour some-
what grotesque in kind.
Both, again, speak to us
in many voices not their
own, yet the work of each
can never be called an
exercise in the ventrilo-
quism of art. Always in-
tensely individual, it is
known at once; no critic
could ever mistake it for
• 1 the work of anyone else.
Kb Last of all, Mr. Legros is
like Carlyle in his isolation
among his contemporaries
—an isolation caused by
stern convictions, which
to most people seem out
of date; but Mr. Legros
does not lose his temper
over it, as Carlyle did
frequently. Never once
has he departed from
" HHHHHHHH the austere dignity and
calm of his favourite
PORTRAIT OF AUGUSTE RODIN, No. 23J FtOM THE ElCHItsG
by alphonse legros masters.
2S4