ART.
THE GRAFTON GALLERY.
THE BARBIZON AND DUTCH SCHOOLS.
THE influence of Constable diverted French landscape art from the dreary Arcadia of the classical painters into the channels of Romanticism, and with this diversion came a truer perception of the beauties of the real world and of the open air. But though the impulse was derived from English painting through Constable, the result was something new and different. Here is a middle point between the art of the North and of the South. In the former the tendency seems always to be in the direction of obtaining expression by means of a variety of ideas grouped round a central theme, the dominance of theme giving that coherence with- out which no work of art can exist. With Southern art, especially among the Italians, it is different. With them the main object of the artist seems to be to make his central idea intelligible with as few side.issues as possible. Hence,
the parts being few in number, it is all-important that they should be in absolute harmony with each other. A hundred small pieces of mosaic put together haphazard will make a kind of pattern, but two or three large pieces filling the same space, to be coherent, must have a strict and dis- tinct reference to, and dependence upon, each other. Broadly speaking. then, we may take expressive detail in the parts to be characteristic of Northern art, and ihythm of structure to be so of Italian. The supreme interest of the art of Corot, Millet, and their followers lies in the fact that in their work these two elements are fused and combined.
It is impossible not to feel, while looking at the Pollard Willows (No. 20), by Corot, that we are in the presence of this combination. The beautifully balanced composition, the care- ful suppression of all that did not bear directly on the central idea reveal the influence of Southern art. But as strongly is the North suggested by the way in which the near willows are characterised. The feeling of portraiture exists in the differences between the two large trees in the front. The whole picture is bathed in a dewy twilight of extraordinary subtlety and beauty. The long row of distant willows thickly congregated together on the farther side of the water are a good example of Corot's power of giving in great detail the varied beauty of a number of different trees of the same growth, but it is so quietly done that the careless onlooker thinks, How little trouble to have put that faint grey stain on the canvas.' In the Arcadia (No. 37) the Southern influence is strongly felt. This picture must be reckoned the finest of the thirty-three by the master to be seen in the Gallery. The picture shows an upland meadow where nymphs are dancing under the twilight of great trees,— trees which have a living personality, and seem in sym- pathy w:th the shadowy dance. Below in the valley a lake glimmers, above it a distant steep crowned with buildings, rises purple-grey against the sunset sky. This sky is of extraordinary beauty. It is the moment when the sun has gone down and the gorgeous colour has faded, to be succeeded by the enchanted time which lasts so short a while before grey twilight sets in. Not only is this moment felt in the sky, but in every part of the picture. It is in this unity that we feel the Italian influence. Every line and all the masses are pervaded by the same sense of rhythm. No part exists for itself, but merely for the idea of the whole ; and what is the idea? Corot himself could not have put it into words, or else he would have written a poem. It could only be expressed by painting.
The art of Jean Francois Millet rose like the larks from the furrows. His inspiration was drawn from the homely life of the people from whom he sprang. But in spite of this, the influence of Italy is as marked in his case as in that of Corot. But grace and idyllic beauty give way to a note of passion and tragic force. Among the drawings and pastels by which Millet is chiefly represented in this Gallery, the woodman binding his faggot (No. 51) is to be noted for the way in which the energy of the movement is given. The figure is drawn with strong decided lines, simplified to the verge of baldness,—only those expressing the action are left. The Washing Ground (No. 53) is differently conceived. The women standing by the water's edge are treated in solemn, flat masses, and no lines of movement are insisted on. The com- position is of great charm, and most subtly balanced. To feel this, one has only to consider what it would be without the moon in the corner. Leave out the moon, and the picture falls to pieces. The two drawings of shepherdesses (Nos. 60 and 73) are interesting when taken together. In the former, the uncompromising line of the horizon, the upright figure of the girl, the sheep, and the lines of the ground, are all separate, and do not react upon one another. There is no harmony. But in No. 73, made up out of the same materials, what a difference. Here all the elements are at one and play together in concord. The finished pastel of the Angelus (No. 61) is most noteworthy; on account of the upper part of the figure of the woman. The grandeur and the beauty of her bowed head and folded arms recalls the impression produced by Michelangelo's Madonna, in the sacristy of San Lorenzo, nothing less. There is a fine drawing (No. 69) of a shepherdess and her dog, standing on a knoll backed by trees, while below the sheep surround her. The composition is remarkably grand, and the shepherdess seems enthroned on the rising ground, yet all is perfectly naturaL How many painters have tried a like composition for Orpheus, but have not attained such dignity ? The New- born Calf (No. 64) shows how completely Millet entered into the spirit of the country-life, and understands the seriousness of the simple events of the farm. Two men gravely carry the calf on a litter to the stable, while behind follows the cow. Two small pictures in oil show Millet's treatment of paint. One of them, The Shepherd (No. 71a), glows with the colour of the Venetians. Only a. real colourist could have balanced the mass of warmth, with the one cool colour in the picture,—the blue trousers of the shepherd.
Shepherds say the faces of their sheep differ as much as those of human beings. Certainly sheep as Jaque painted them are individuals, not types. In his Sheep under Trees (No. 87), nothing could be happier than the flock with their shepherd by the pool. That opportunity for artists, the French peasant's blue trousers, here, as in the Millet just referred to, are of commanding importance in the colour arrangement. The reflections of the sheep in the pond are painted with the greatest skill. A living surface of water receives the image,. not a dead looking-glass. A certain depression and gloom pervade the works of Georges Michel. Harmonies of ink and. treacle, rather than of colour and air, oppress us, though no doubt a certain distinction exists in them. More interesting are the pictures by Diaz. The little one (No. 120) of the homestead and its trees dark against the late evening sky has a grave beauty of its own. It is hard to account for the Eastern Garden (No. 113) except by considering it to be a congregation of the characters out of Sunday picture- books gathered in an Oriental tea- garden, — the oleo. graphic colour and painting help to suggest the thought. The Lake, by Courbet (No. 146), is very impressive. It is impossible to set forth the charm of the picture in words, for its attraction depends on that feeling of im- persenal solemnity aroused by certain stern yet beautiful landscapes.
Rousseau was not interesting when he painted red and orange sunsets seen through a tangle of bare branches and tree-stems apparently painted with pitch. But when we look at the Mountain View (No. 166) we see that he had learnt the secret of mountainous country. Looking down from a height one sees the mountains gradually lose their ruggedness, till below the "knees of the hills" lies a little patch of meadow-land. This appreciation of the life of man as filling so small a space amid the desolation around, is se, striking in its effect.
When considering the pictures by Josef Israels, we at once feel that no Italian influence is to be found in them. The composition of the pictures, although beautifully constructed, is the beauty of prose, not of rhythmic verse. The Sewing School (No. 4) is an interior where a delightful old woman is teaching a number of fresh-faced peasant-girls, who sit round with their feet on those little footstools that have lighted charcoal inside. The clear, strong daylight, flooding into the room from the big window, is very effective. When an artist has been preoccupied with minute study of character in a. face, how often the beauty of the painting suffers. He is like a man who has so many things to say that his language gets overcharged with facts. Although we may understand his case, his statement of it, having no felicity of expression, gives no pleasure. The subtle painting of the faces of the Churchwarden (No. 9) and his wife going over the parish books, is as much to be commended as is their truthfulness of expression. What could be better expressed than the wife's face as she looks trustfully at her old husband in all the glory and complication of his official accounts? Many other good things are to be seen besides those we have noticed. There are several fine pictures by Daubigny, also a good Jacob Mans (No. 127). In conclusion, we must congratulate the management of the Grafton Gallery upon securing for their exhibition this wonderful private collection. Also we must note the excellent arrange- ment by which each artist's works are hung together, —an arrangement adding greatly both to the effect of the pictures and to the convenience of the visitor.
H. S.
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