Studio: international art (28.1903)

Impressionist Pain ting

First comes the practice of painting and finishing etc. Yet, to-day, it finds honoured place in the

pictures entirely out of doors. Constable, Turner, Royal Academy, and justifies itself in the eyes of

and many men of their time occasionally did all beholders. Public taste has now become

this also. tolerant, if not wholly appreciative of impres-

Secondly, the placing side by side upon the sionist work. Like many another painter in

canvas of spots, streaks, or dabs, of more or less pure advance of his time, Constable found greater

colour, in accordance with certain scientific prin- appreciation in Paris than in London, and the

ciples. Turner, and especially Watts, made habitual Salon gave hearty welcome to works rejected by

use of this powerful method of work. Then the use the Academy, as it does to this day.
of pure white, in impasto, throughout the picture, Bonington's Boulogne Fish Market, shown in

high light and shadow equally; Constable and the same Academy Winter Exhibition, must have

Turner did this long before the advent of these had an enormous influence, especially upon Manet;

Frenchmen, as witness, one instance among many, its blonde harmony and distinct flat rich values

the large Opening of Waterloo Bridge, by Constable. within a general tone being such a distinguishing

Here almost the whole surface of the canvas, and feature of the Frenchman's style,
particularly the foreground, is dragged over by a The modern impressionist worships light, and is

full-charged brush of pure white paint, which, never so happy as in recording some beautiful

catching the rugosities of the underlying dry atmospheric effect or coup de soleil. The same

impasto work, produces an illusion, and the applies to Turner, as many a fine canvas proclaims,
vibratory effect of brilliant light is simply and What, then, will be asked, have the Frenchmen

successfully attained. History records the manner done to justify our admiration and the honoured

in which that particular work was received by the and pre-eminent position they now hold? In the

contemporary press and public. It was regarded first place, to them belongs the great merit of having

as a bad joke, called a snowstorm, and likened perceived the value of the Englishmen's discovery,

unto Berlin woolwork—a frequent and favourite of having revived its practice, of having carried it

simile this—the creation of a disordered brain, to its logical conclusion, whilst grafting on to

1 SAinte adresse" (By permission of M. Durand-Ruel) by JONGKind-

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