WILLIAM McTAGGART.* THE art of painting is complicated by the
possibility of groat diversity of aim. It is constantly fluctuating between ideals of creation and representation. Painters are obliged to express themselves in terms of the visible world, and too many people, both those who paint and those who look at pictures, are content when something recognizable has been attained. Hence it arises that painting in its lower branches becomes merely the art of reminiscence. A landscape is admired because we remember a scene like the one represented when we were enjoying a holiday, or a figure subject pleases because we have seen people " just like that." In fact, the pleasure derived from the painting is at second hand. The memory of some pleasant emotion is revived ; no new sensation is created. But in art in its highest forms the creative element is dominant. We do not admire Michelangelo because his figures remind us of something we have already seen in the world, but because he exalts our spirit by the sense of a new-created world. This applies equally to landscape art. Turner in his " Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus " appeals neither to our memories of the ruins of Rome, nor to archaeological reconstructions. The picture produces what Mr. Berenson calls " aesthetic ecstasy," and in the joy of experiencing this sensation every other consideration vanishes. The late William MoTaggart could hardly claim to be classed among the great creators of painting ; his art was that of reminiscence, not merely the reminiscence of locality, for he reached a good deal higher than this lowest form of landscape-painting. This painter in his later work aimed at recalling in us by means of his pictures the emotions felt before a given phase of Nature. This he succeeded best in doing in the case of sea pictures, vividly calling up the feeling of the freshness of the sea with its purity of light, colour, and movement. He achieved this by simple means, for he avoided elaborate compositions, and latterly painted even his big pictures out of doors, gaining thereby, owing to his great technical accomplishment, the freshness and accidental charm of a sketch. McTaggart relied chiefly on light and colour for his effects ; design played very little part in his work, which is almost elementary in composition. This was perhaps inevitable, as he seems to have used dark masses with the greatest reluctance, thereby limiting his resources. This limitation was, of course, done with the purpose of enforcing his use of luminous colour. Mr. Caw has written a most sympathetic study not only of the painter's art but also of his character, and brings out the charm and good-heartedness of his friend.
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