DOI issue:
No. 151 (October, 1905)
DOI article:Halton, Ernest G.: The Staats Forbes collection, 1, The Barbizon pictures
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20713#0054
The Staats Forbes Collection
It is only to be expected that a collector so far-
seeing and judicious as Mr. Staats Forbes should
have secured many works which have greatly
increased in money value. But it would be far
from true to say that this was the main object of
his extensive purchases. The ethereal beauty of a
Corot, the breadth and grandeur of a Rousseau, and
the unaffected simplicity of a Millet inspired him
with a desire which, happily, he was in a position
to gratify. The works of these and other great
artists which he brought together gave him intense
pleasure, which, with characteristic generosity, he
was ever ready to share with others by lending his
most important pictures to public exhibitions.
Mr. Staats Forbes did not confine his interest to
the French Romantics. He was an ardent admirer
and collector of the works of the modern Dutch
artists, a school owing much to the French land-
scape painters of 1830. This portion of the
collection will be treated in another article.
Before discussing the works of the French
Romantics, which form the most interesting feature
of the collection, it is desirable to call to mind the
circumstances and influences under which the art
of these great painters first saw the light.
During the early part of the last century land-
scape painting in France had sunk into a state of
decadence even lower than that of the figure
painters. The conventional and anaemic art of the
pseudo-classics was the only style that was accepted,
either by the public or by those who were con-
sidered to be the leaders of Art in France.
But towards the end of the eighteenth and the
beginning of the nineteenth centuries were born
a number of artists who were destined to play an
important part in one of the most remarkable
upheavals ever known in the world of Art. Under
the leadership of Gericault, and later of Delacroix,
these young painters entered into a bitter struggle
against the official academic style which prevailed.
They fought for liberty, truth, and individuality,
and out of the movement sprang a group of
“donkeys on heath”
36
BY J. F. MILLET
It is only to be expected that a collector so far-
seeing and judicious as Mr. Staats Forbes should
have secured many works which have greatly
increased in money value. But it would be far
from true to say that this was the main object of
his extensive purchases. The ethereal beauty of a
Corot, the breadth and grandeur of a Rousseau, and
the unaffected simplicity of a Millet inspired him
with a desire which, happily, he was in a position
to gratify. The works of these and other great
artists which he brought together gave him intense
pleasure, which, with characteristic generosity, he
was ever ready to share with others by lending his
most important pictures to public exhibitions.
Mr. Staats Forbes did not confine his interest to
the French Romantics. He was an ardent admirer
and collector of the works of the modern Dutch
artists, a school owing much to the French land-
scape painters of 1830. This portion of the
collection will be treated in another article.
Before discussing the works of the French
Romantics, which form the most interesting feature
of the collection, it is desirable to call to mind the
circumstances and influences under which the art
of these great painters first saw the light.
During the early part of the last century land-
scape painting in France had sunk into a state of
decadence even lower than that of the figure
painters. The conventional and anaemic art of the
pseudo-classics was the only style that was accepted,
either by the public or by those who were con-
sidered to be the leaders of Art in France.
But towards the end of the eighteenth and the
beginning of the nineteenth centuries were born
a number of artists who were destined to play an
important part in one of the most remarkable
upheavals ever known in the world of Art. Under
the leadership of Gericault, and later of Delacroix,
these young painters entered into a bitter struggle
against the official academic style which prevailed.
They fought for liberty, truth, and individuality,
and out of the movement sprang a group of
“donkeys on heath”
36
BY J. F. MILLET