In view of the controversy excited by the Exhibition of
the Post-Impressionist painters, we make no excuse for quoting the following passage from the remarkable letter addressed to the Nation of January 7th by Mr. Sargent, R.A. He states that he had declined the request of the organisers of the Exhibition that his name might be placed on the initial list of promoters, "on the ground of not knowing the work of the painters to whom the name of Post- Impressionists can be applied ; it certainly does not apply to Manet or Cezanne. . . . . The fact is that I am absolutely sceptical as to their having any claim whatever to being works of art, with the exception of some of the pictures by Gauguin that strike me as admirable in colour, and in colour only." Many visitors to the Exhibition must have said to themselves : "I wonder what Mr. Sargent thinks of it all P" Their curiosity is now fully gratified by the trenchant statement of an artist who, so far as we know, has never publicly expressed his preferences before.
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