no one but a master of all the resources that technical skill can give, could paint the suggestions of the scenes that pass before his mind in the way that he does. Their charm is elusive and indefinite, yet very real. They are a source of pleasure that is ever renewing itself, and you never seem fully to realize all that they have to disclose. Art has not produced before his time just this form of weird mystic beauty.

To have painted such brilliant pictures in his earlier years, and such ethereal conceptions of the triumph of the spirit over the world, of mind over matter, in his later works, is Matthew Maris's peculiar distinction, and no artist could have a more real or abiding claim to lasting fame.

CHAPTER XI

Born 1844

WILLIAM MARIS

LIKE his brothers, William Maris early showed signs of ability, and was an industrious student. He chose for his special subjects the cattle in their haunts in the soft meadows of Holland, with their willow trees and lagoon-like shallow waters, or broad rivers bordering them. In addition to this he paints his favourite ducks in their cool, shadowy homes in the streams under the green trees, and sometimes he gives us views of the River Merwerde, with boats sailing on its waters and windmills built on its banks. Some people complain that in his later work the cattle are not carefully enough drawn. This is done with an object, and not from want of knowledge or ability to draw them, for these he undoubtedly has. He studied cattle for years, in the most painstaking way, and if he wished to do so his pencil sketches abundantly prove that he could paint them with

photographic accuracy. But that would destroy his object, which is to represent the landscape as a whole, bathed in atmosphere, and to get this result sacrifices have to be made. The lower truth of photographic accuracy must be dispensed with, but the whole character of the animals is always perfectly kept in view, and the way in which they are put in his pictures shows absolute knowledge of their forms and habits and perfect executive skill.

There is in fact no deficiency in the drawing, but on the contrary, though details may be wanting, the greatest attention is given to representing the essential features of the forms of the cattle, and the very weight of them as they press down the grass. It is all very boldly and skilfully done, and the real truth about them, as they appear reflecting the light and modified by the atmosphere and forming part of a country scene, is much better shown in this way than by painstaking drawing of the anatomy. It is in short the truth of the impression on the eye that is given, and that art should always present, and not the latest scientific knowledge.