DELACROIX.*
MADAME Bussy asks in the introduction to her book, Why is it that in this age of artistic monographs no one has thought it worth while to write about Delacroix ? This painter should be particularly interesting to English people, for he it was who broke down the classical style of painting in France,—a style which had never been admired in England. Also this artist was the direct outcome and most characteristic product of the Romantic movement, which owed its inspiration so largely to Shakespeare, Scott, and Byron. Moreover, he was greatly influenced by English painters, and in 1858 he wrote thus of Constable to a friend :—" Admirable man! he is one of the glories of England. He and Turner are true reformers. They have got out of the rut of the old landscape painting. Our school has greatly profited by their example." The explanation given by Madame Bussy of this neglect—and it is no doubt the right one—is that the official directors of taste in England have persisted in ignoring the great French painters of the middle of the nineteenth century. Apart from the interest of the subject, this book is particularly welcome, and for this reason. Of late the Press has deluged us with Lives of painters, great and small,—yet how few of these books stand out with any distinction. The charge of ignorance, however, or want of industry cannot be brought against their authors and compilers. Our complaint is that accumulation of facts takes the place of analysis, and the statement of insignificant details that of insight. With Madame Bussy it is different. She is able to bring an accomplished critical faculty to bear on such subjects as the influence of the theatre, and its bad result in some cases, on the work of Delacroix. She is also able to enter into and appreciate the purely artistic problems which it was the mission of this painter to solve. Delacroix swept away the dreary school of David, and brought back to French art light and colour and individual feeling. How he achieved this the reader will discover in the pages of this interesting book.
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