ART.
THE GRAFTON GALLERY.
IN spite of the special pleading of the preface to the catalogue of this strange collection, it seems unjust to make Monet in any way responsible for the excesses of what are now called the Post-Impressionists. Mallet was a great painter, and here are to be found some fine examples of his art. There is a whole world of difference between such a work as his Au Café (No. 17) or the Baigneuse (No. 19), with their finely modelled forms, and the pictures whieh seem painted under the inspiration of the pavement pastelist or of the painter of pictures outside the booths at a fair. Post-Impressionism apparently consists in forgetting all past art, and attempting to see the world as it appears to a child when it first begins to draw. Cesanne, who has been hailed as a prophet, and as a discover like Masaccio, is represented here by a number of canvases. So is Gauguin, that painter of mixed French and Peruvian blood who painted in Tahiti. The apologists of this school would have us believe that the works of these men are what thsy call decorative; but the term in its new application wants defining. If decoration means the antithesis of realism, this may be true ; but if reality has been cast aside, so too has beauty. But Caanne and Gauguin are mild and tame in the assault they make upon our eyes compared to M. Matisse and many others. Indeed, there is in the painting of Gauguin a sense of form, both large and simple, which is impressive, and quite unlike anything to be found in the more recent works of the school. The advocates of the Post-Impressionist painters no doubt would remind us that the Pre-Raphaelite Brethren, Whistler, and Wagnet%were all received with incredulity and scorn by their generation. Bat there is this difference. Fifty years ago deviation from orthodoxy was considered a crime not only in art but in all departments of life. This is not the case now, and this fact must be taken into account when we try to value new departures. There is really nothing exceptional about these latest examples of French art, granted that a revolution is in progress, for in France a reform move- ment always has its section who are for barricades, the guillotine; and the Anarchist's bomb. Van Gogh and M. Matisse may be prophets; the future will decide. "Well if it is so, so it is you know ; and if it be so, so be it." But while the High Court of time is trying the issue we may refuse to be intirnidated into admiration by critics on the look-out for a new sensation.
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