CHAPTER II

REVIVAL OF DUTCH ART

O'Clock."

WHISTLER in his customary brilliant style has stated the theory that there is no such thing as a national art, but that all art is purely personal to the individuality of the artist, and has nothing to do with his environment, or the history of his country, or the special conditions prevailing at the time. It is in fact a matter of chance and accident. "Listen!" he says. "There never was an "Ten artistic period. There never was an artloving nation." The genius of art, he tells us, flies hither and thither over the earth. one time she touches the far-off dweller in the Celestial Empire. It is then that he produces those wonderful vases painted with the "blue of the sky after rain," or the deep dazzling reds of the Ming dynasty, the despair of all imitators, or the delicate apple green of the tender leaves that deck the trees in early spring, or the celadon colour of the sea, as the wave breaks into foam and reveals under

At

"The Philosophy of Art." H. Taine. Translated

by John Durand.

neath its white crest the glittering sheen of depths of pure green; or again she dwells with the great Spaniard; or comes to live with the artists of Italy and France; or with Rembrandt and Ruysdael, or the painters of Germany and England. And in every case Whistler holds that it is the individual she stays with and inspires, and when he passes away she sadly departs. Her course through the world is without reason, her ways those of mere caprice.

What truth there is in this lies in the fact that all great art is individual, and that artists do not reproduce each other's ideas, but must have originality. It is right to insist on this, and to emphasize the personal element. And there may not be such a thing as a national art, though each nation has certain peculiar characteristics in its art which assert themselves and are easily recognized. But history* does

*"In order to comprehend an artist or a group of artists we must clearly comprehend the general social and intellectual condition of the times to which they belong. It is their voice alone that we hear at this moment, through the space of centuries, but beneath this living voice which comes vibrating to us we distinguish a murmur and as it were a vast low sound, the great infinite and varied voice of the people chanting in unison with them."

not bear out Whistler's theory that nothing is of importance except the temperament of the artist. It shows, on the contrary, that there are times in the lives of nations when a genuine and general feeling for art arises, after the people have successfully passed through some great crisis. The time in which their endurance was tested, and their ability to cope with opposing circumstances proved, is followed by a period of intense mental vigour and of material prosperity. A general feeling for art, which may have been lying dormant, awakens, and great writers, painters, and sculptors appear about the same time, and are called, for want of a better term, a school.

Such a spirit is found in Greece after the great struggle between culture and liberty on the one hand, and barbarism and slavery on the other, resulting in the overthrow of Persia, and the rise of Athens to supreme power, when those mighty works of art that are still the wonder of the world were produced by Pheidias and the other artists of the brilliant age of Pericles. Such a period is seen in Italy after the dark ages, when the revival

of learning spread through the land and the long line of artists from Cimabue to Tintoretto was its chief glory. Later, in the north, came the fight for freedom of thought, when Caxton was setting up his printing press, when Luther was struggling for liberty, and Columbus discovered a new world; and again there is a similar period under the leadership of Durer and Holbein. And in Holland, Rembrandt, Ruysdael, and Hals appear after the years of patriotic endurance and courage shown in the war with, and the defeat of, the mighty power of Spain.

Similarly we see in England that its greatest artistic period when Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, Turner, and Constable were painting their masterpieces, followed the expansion of the empire after the war which resulted in the rise of Prussia, and the conquest by England of Canada and India; a time when the victories of Minden, Quiberon, Quebec, and Plassey were fresh in the memory, when the nation was inspired by the grand spirit that animated Chatham, and had imbibed his ardent belief in its destiny.