Jongkind and Rodin
ART
IN writing of a painter the critic is faced with three problems some or all of which he may think it his business to answer. First he may define the historical position of the artist, saying what influences went to form him, what kind of society produced him, and what other artists were influenced by him. Secondly he may analyse the exact achievement of the painter, and in technical terms explain of what kind his painting was, what his particular aims may have been, and in what degree he achieved them. Thirdly he may attempt to convey his own reactions in front of the paintings, in the hope, presumably, of helping others to feel the same thing. The great painters lend them- selves to all these kinds of analysis, and it is possible to say something of interest about them under all of the above heads. But there remain certain minor men whose importance consists only in their being a link in a chain between greater men, and of them little can be said in any but the purely historical field. On the other hand, there are other painters who are freaks ; they may by some chance catch one's fancy, but there is no great historical analysis to be applied to them.
Jongkind, whose works are at present to be seen for the first time in any sort of systematic exhibition at Arthur Tooth's, belongs emphatically to the first class. His historical position is important. Monet referred to him as le grand peintre, and most of the Impressionists were influenced by him in a greater or less degree. He can be described as the link between the Barbizon School and the Impressionists ; his relationship to Boudin can be analysed, and it can well be made out that his position in the development of modern landscape is one of considerable importance. Further, it can be said that his aims in painting were those of the Impressionists, that he tried to render the vibrating effects which moving lights produce on land and water, that, though he never got as far as the capital discoveries of Monet he made a courageous attempt at rivalling him by more direct methods. All of which is perfectly true. But I should then feel forced to add, if I wanted to give a complete analysis according to the modern tradition of criticism, that as a matter of fact I found Jongkind the most tedious painter that I could imagine, and that it was only with the greatest effort that I kept myself in front of his paintings long enough to write this article on them at all. What is not clear is what will have been gained by this addition. Certain people who have in general found that their taste agrees with mine will perhaps not now visit the exhibition, and many others will go, enjoy the paintings, and conclude that I have no taste. Certainly the historical method is the safer, but unfortunately modern fashion demands the other as well.
Rodin's drawings are a puzzle. The group of them on view at the Adams Gallery is perfectly representative, but it is hard to see how they can be by the same man that carved the romantic marbles for which Rodin is principally known. It is incom- prehensible that an artist whose main purpose seems to have been to introduce into sculpture as much as possible of the vague suggestiveness of romantic painting should have produced drawings which are almost unsurpassed for purity of line and precision of notation of movement. What, one wonders, was the transition from these sketches to the final statue ? At what stage does the artist change his whole attitude towards his art, and give up realistic for emotive values ? But the draw- ings also present other problems. What was Rodin's precise intention in colouring them ? In some the single wash over the whole body gives at any rate a certain unity to the figure, even if it tends to cover up the form indicated by the line with which it apparently has no close connexion ; but when he varies the wash, adding a great blot of colour for the hair, which forms no kind of whole with the rest of the drawing, what was his intention ? The few drawings that are not touched with colour at all seem to lose very little, and in many ways to gain. But in all the observation of unusual poses, the lightning touch of the rendering make these drawings master- pieces of a kind which would put to shame Matisse and many
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