truer opinion of the real greatness of the pic ture. It is not a question as to whether there should be fine technique and colour and design. The artist is inclined to imagine that the ordinary observer neither knows nor cares about these things, and so he accentuates unnecessarily their value. There may be some truth in his idea as to the indifference of the public, but he should remember that it is the opinions of the few who know, that, gradually filtering through society, in the end influence the public and form its judgments. And so people generally come to have right views about pictures, even if they do not fully understand the reasons of their belief, nor why they should admire both Rembrandt and Whistler, Turner and Daubigny, Terburg and Degas, Watteau and Monticelli. All who think seriously about it are fully aware of the importance of the matters the artist lays such stress on, only they believe that, while these are undoubtedly essential elements of a picture, there are others as necessary, if not more so, and that sufficient attention is not paid to them. It is quite right for the artist to hold that he should paint decorative pictures, and fill the space at his disposal with graceful design and fine colour, and those on the other side entirely agree with him about this, only adding that it is not the whole truth and so does not go far enough. This decorative treatment should be seen in all good paintings. They should all be beautiful in line, form, and colour. But if they are to rise to greatness they must "Il serait inhave, besides these, a subject of interest, one that has stirred the thought of the artist and fired his imagination, and at last been recorded by him on his canvas in such a way that it has the mysterious power of communicating the feelings that animated him to others who utile d'être un excellent esprit, et un grand peintre, si l'on ne met tait dans son œuvre quelque chose que are in sympathy with his mood. In painting la réalité in this way he is usually quite unconscious n'a pas. C'est en quoi l'homme est that he is doing more than recording the scene before him to the best of his ability; and the plus intellipersonal feeling and originality expressed in gent que le these records depends just upon his ability remercie or, in other words, his genius. If we consider the works of the greatest painters among the old masters, such as soleil, et j'en Dieu." tin. Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, and Velasquez, we find that the combination of these two views is always there. From the technical and decorative standpoint they are the admiration of the artist, and by their subjects, "Let artists and their suggestive power, they fascinate the observer and draw him into sympathy is more rare with the painters' ideas. We find the same remember that nothing than that the finite should awaken the infinite. To do this they must be broad and deep, piti thing in the pictures of Turner, Reynolds, Corot, Mauve, and Whistler. The highest art idea of the contains both these views intimately combined. As we descend in the scale there is a gradual separation, the decoration sometimes, and sometimes the subject, being forced into prominence, until we reach the level of mere decoration on the one hand, and a subject inartistically treated on the other. Separated they are of little value, combined they make the world's greatest pictures. less against the seduc tive surface prettinesses." Jules Breton. CHAPTER IV NATURE AND THE POETS It is very interesting to see how the poets treat nature. They differ from the painters in the means they use, but the aim of each is to appeal to the head and the heart, and their higher efforts must reach both. The poets give many descriptions of nature and these fall into classes similar to those of the painters, as they are merely descriptive, or subjective, giving the effect of the scene on the narrator. As in painting the landscape was often found necessary as a background for the figures, so the poet describes the scenery in which the action of his story is placed. These are often passages of great beauty, but they are usually merely descriptive, appealing to the intellect but not to the feelings. Splendid as many of them are, they do not reach the highest point of art, that in which the objective and subjective are combined, and nature is moulded by humanity. For instance, take the beautiful 'The Lady of the Lake." Scott. "Paradise description of the effect of the dawn on Loch Katrine, in which the lake is depicted as bright and happy in itself, without reference to any human interest: "The Summer dawn's reflected hue To purple chang'd Loch Katrine blue; Or the following masterpieces in the use of words, describing the coming on of quiet, peaceful night: "Now came still evening on, and twilight gray |