Studio: international art (57.1913)

Studio-Talk

supple hand, and above all fidelity to Nature, who
herself alone was to be his teacher. Of course this
despatching of the drawing-master is far too sum-
mary, but the reasons assigned for it are excellent,
and if we cannot accept the letter of Rousseau’s
teaching the spirit of it is the same as that which
animated Ruskin, who boasted that he was of
Rousseau’s school.

the beauty of Switzerland and Alpine scenery
entered into literature, and in drawing man away
from an artificial society and bringing him face to
face with nature he prepared the human imagina-
tion and eye for the great modern landscape-
painter’s appeal. Thus he was as truly the
precursor of Turner as of Ruskin.

Then, too, the author
of “ La Nouvelle Heloise ”
and “Les Reveries du
Promeneur Solitaire” will
always touch painter as
well as writer by that pro-
found feeling for nature
which is the spring of his
inspiration. Through him
62

Rousseau was a great artist in his own medium.
While confessing his inability in the art of drawing,
he was a master-painter of nature when wielding the
pen, and may be fairly regarded as the precursor of
all the eminent modern descriptive writers, many
of whom, however, have carried word-painting far
beyond the limits he would have assigned to it.
Prof. Babbitt in his “ The New Laokoon ” remarks
with truth that no one before Rousseau had ever
shown such preternatural keenness either in re-
ceiving or recalling im-
pressions. Describing a
scene of his youth, Rous-
seau himself writes : “ Not
only do I remember the
time, the place, the per-
sons, but all surrounding
objects—the temperature
of the air, its odour, its
colour, a certain local im-
pression felt only there, the
vivid recollection of which
carries me back anew.”

And Mr. Babbitt thinks
that this sensitiveness to
“local impression” in
Rousseau “relates the
whole tendency he repre-
sents to that modern im-
pressionism of. which it is
only one aspect.” How-
ever this may be, it reveals
the intense artistic tem-
perament of Rousseau
himself.

When we turn to consider Rousseau’s care for
the productions of art we find that he had a genuine
taste for prints and “ adored les belles epreuves.” In
one of his letters, in which he writes with satisfaction
of proofs of engravings sent him for the illustration
of “Emile,” he goes on playfully to remark: “Je suis
comme les enfants fort jaloux des belles images.”
And in another note referring to prints he has in
books and which he desires to have separately for
his portfolio he shows a fastidious taste in his choice
and insists on having “ good proofs if possible.”

PORTRAIT OF JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. FROM THE ENGRAVING BY DR. MARTIN-

AFTER RAMSAY