DOI Heft:
No. 296 (November 1917)
DOI Artikel:Wood, T. Martin: Modern French pictures at the National Gallery
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21264#0070
Modern French Pictures at the National Gallery
Instead of removing things one stage from
reality, it seems to intensify reality. Degas’
interpretation of objects suggests much more
than a merely visual impression. Things as
well as people and places have souls, and Degas
reveals them.
The Degas in this collection, which was bought
by Sir Hugh Lane at the Rouart sale for £3200,
is an early one, and the composition seems
somewhat pieced together ; it is not infused
with a single passionate intention like later
work by the master. The Monet is highly
characteristic, and I believe it was one of the
first pictures that the collector acquired with
Dublin in view. The Berthe Morisot, Un Jour
d’Ete, is a true specimen of the lady’s spirited
dainty style, formed under the influence of
Manet, and sometimes as sensitive as his own.
The Renoir is important. It lacks the assurance
of handling that we associate with some of his
pictures, but it yields to few in the feverish
eagerness with which nature is approached.
Renoir’s art becomes unlike the work of any
other painter, past or present, from sheer
anxiety not to take a prepossessed view of
appearances. The beauty of his art will seldom,
perhaps, be found in the qualities of which he
was most conscious. Impressionist art was
never, at least in the ordinary sense of the term,
“ conscious art ”—that description can be ap-
plied with more fairness to what is academic—it
was almost unconscious of itself in its attitude
of humility to nature. It was “ conscious ” only
in the sense of representing a state of mind
tuned to receive every faint impression.
With Corot we have something different from
this attitude of sensitive receptivity. Corot
improvises, and in spirit his art does not so
widely differ from that of preceding schools. Sir
Hugh Lane was always attracted to a picture
that showed a well-known master’s work in an
unusual aspect, and he was therefore attracted
to the uncharacteristic but exquisite picture
Avignon: the Pope’s Villa (see page 60).
BY J. L. FORAIN
Instead of removing things one stage from
reality, it seems to intensify reality. Degas’
interpretation of objects suggests much more
than a merely visual impression. Things as
well as people and places have souls, and Degas
reveals them.
The Degas in this collection, which was bought
by Sir Hugh Lane at the Rouart sale for £3200,
is an early one, and the composition seems
somewhat pieced together ; it is not infused
with a single passionate intention like later
work by the master. The Monet is highly
characteristic, and I believe it was one of the
first pictures that the collector acquired with
Dublin in view. The Berthe Morisot, Un Jour
d’Ete, is a true specimen of the lady’s spirited
dainty style, formed under the influence of
Manet, and sometimes as sensitive as his own.
The Renoir is important. It lacks the assurance
of handling that we associate with some of his
pictures, but it yields to few in the feverish
eagerness with which nature is approached.
Renoir’s art becomes unlike the work of any
other painter, past or present, from sheer
anxiety not to take a prepossessed view of
appearances. The beauty of his art will seldom,
perhaps, be found in the qualities of which he
was most conscious. Impressionist art was
never, at least in the ordinary sense of the term,
“ conscious art ”—that description can be ap-
plied with more fairness to what is academic—it
was almost unconscious of itself in its attitude
of humility to nature. It was “ conscious ” only
in the sense of representing a state of mind
tuned to receive every faint impression.
With Corot we have something different from
this attitude of sensitive receptivity. Corot
improvises, and in spirit his art does not so
widely differ from that of preceding schools. Sir
Hugh Lane was always attracted to a picture
that showed a well-known master’s work in an
unusual aspect, and he was therefore attracted
to the uncharacteristic but exquisite picture
Avignon: the Pope’s Villa (see page 60).
BY J. L. FORAIN