race of Titans, and where others would have put plants or foliage,
Angelo placed men and naked limbs to fill the space. When his subject
made some sort of herbage necessary, he invented a kind of mediæval
fern in place of grass and familiar leaves. Everything appears brazen
and hard and mighty, suggestive of Angelo's own throbbing spirit and
maddened soul. Most of his work, when illustrated, must be shown not
as a whole but in sections, but one can best mention them as entire
picture themes. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are nine frescoes
describing "The Creation of The World," "The Fall of Man" and "The
Deluge." "The Last Judgment" occupies the entire altar wall in the
same chapel of the Vatican. "The Holy Family" is in the Uffizi
Gallery, Florence.
III
ARNOLD BÖCKLIN
(Pronounced Bek'-lin)
_Modern German School (Düsseldorf)_
1827-1901
This splendid artist is so lately dead that it does not seem proper
yet to discuss his personal history, but we can speak understandingly
of his art, for we already know it to be great art, which will stand
the test of time. His imagination turned toward subjects of solemn
grandeur and his work is very impressive and beautiful.
He was born in Basel, "one of the most prosaic towns in Europe." His
father was a Swiss merchant, and not poor; thus the son had ordinarily
good chances to make an artist of himself. He was born at a time when
to be an artist had long ceased to be a reproach, and men no longer
discouraged their sons who felt themselves inspired to paint great
pictures.
When Böcklin was nineteen years old he took himself to Düsseldorf,
with his merchant father's permission, and settled down to learn his
art, but in that city he found mostly "sentimental and anecdotal"
pictures being painted, which did not suit him at all. Then he took
himself off to Brussels, where again he was not satisfied, and so went
to Paris. But while in Brussels he had copied many old masters, and
had advanced himself very much, so that he did not present himself in
Paris raw and untried in art.
At first he studied in the Louvre, then went to Rome, seeking ever the
best, and being hard to satisfy. He found rest and tranquillity in
Zürich, a city in his native country, but it was Italy that had most
influenced his work.
He loved the Campagna of Rome with its ruins and the sad grandeur of
the crumbling tombs lining its way, and therefore a certain
mysterious, grand, and solemn character made his pictures unlike those
of any other artist. He loved to paint in vertical (up-and-down)
fines, rather than with the conventional horizontal outlines that we
find in most paintings. This method gives his pictures a different
quality from any others in the world.
He loved best of all to paint landscape, and it is said of him that
"as the Greeks peopled their streams and woods and waves with
creatures of their imagination, so Böcklin makes the waterfall take
shape as a nymph, or the mists which rise above the water source
wreathe into forms of merry children; or in some wild spot hurls
centaurs together in fierce combat, or makes the slippery, moving wave
give birth to Nereids and Tritons."
Muther, art-critic and biographer, calls our attention to the
similarity between Wagner's music and Böcklin's painting. While Wagner
was "luring the colours of sound from music," Böcklin's "symphonies of
colour streamed forth like a crashing orchestra," and he calls him the
greatest colour-poet of the time.
In appearance Böcklin was fine of form, healthy and wholesome in all
his thoughts and way of living. In 1848 he took part in revolutionary
politics and later this did him great harm. Only the influence of his
friends kept him from ruin. After the Franco-Prussian war he was made
Minister of Fine Arts. In this office he rendered great service; but
because he had to witness the wrecking of the Column Vendôme in order
to save the Louvre and the Luxembourg from the mob, he was censured;
indeed so heavy a fine was imposed that it took his whole fortune to
pay it; and he was banished into the bargain. From 1892 to 1901 he
lived in or near Florence, and he died at Fiesole, January 16th, 1901.
PLATE--THE ISLE OF THE DEAD
This picture is perhaps the greatest of the many great Arnold Böcklin
paintings, and it is both fascinating and awe-inspiring.
It best shows his liking for vertical lines in art. The Isle of the
Dead is of a rocky, shaft-like formation in which we may see hewn-out
tombs; and there, tall cypress trees are growing.
The traces of man's work in the midst of this sombre, ideal, and
mystic scene add to the impressiveness of the picture. The isle stands
high and lonely in the midst of a sea.
The water seems silently to lap the base of the rocks and the trees
are in black shadow, massed in the centre. It looks very mysterious
and still. There is a stone gateway touched with the light of a dying
day. It is sunset and the dead is being brought to its resting place
in a tiny boat, all the smaller for its relation to the gloomy
grandeur of the isle which it is approaching. One figure is standing
in the boat, facing the island, and the sunlight falls full upon his
back and touches the boat, making that spot stand out brilliantly from
all the rest of the picture.
Among Böcklin's paintings are "Naiads at Play," which hangs in the
Museum at Basel, "A Villa by the Sea," "The Sport of the Waves,"
"Regions of Joy," "Flora," and "Venus Dispatching Cupid."
IV
MARIE-ROSA BONHEUR
(Pronounced Rosa Bon-er)
_French School_
1822-1895
_Pupil of Raymond B. Bonheur_
Rosa Bonheur, Landseer, and Murillo maybe called "Children's Painters"
in this book because they painted things that children, as well as
grown-ups, certainly can enjoy. To be sure, Murillo was a very
different sort of artist from Rosa Bonheur or Landseer, but if the two
latter painted the most beautiful, animals--dogs, sheep, and
horses--Murillo painted the loveliest little children.
Rosa was the best pupil of her father; Raymond B. Bonheur. In Bordeaux
they lived together the peaceful life of artists, the father being
already a well known painter when his daughter was born. She became,
as Mr. Hamerton, who knew her, said, "the most accomplished female
painter who ever lived ... a pure, generous woman as well and can
hardly be too much admired ... as a woman or an artist. She is simple
in her tastes and habits of life and many stories are told of her
generosity to others."
After a time the Bonheurs moved to Paris where young Rosa could have
better opportunities; and there she put on man's clothing, which she
wore all her life thereafter. She wore a workingman's blouse and
trousers, and tramped about looking more like a man than a woman with
her short hair. This, made everybody stare at her and think her very
queer, but people no longer believe that she dressed herself thus in
order to advertise herself and attract attention; but because it was
the most convenient costume for her to get about in. She went to all
sorts of places; the stockyards, slaughter houses, all about the
streets of Paris, to learn of things and people, especially of
animals, which she wished most to paint. She could hardly have gone
about thus if she had worn women's clothing.
Rosa Bonheur exhibited her first painting at the _Salon_ in 1841, and
this was twelve years before her beloved father died; thus he had the
happiness of knowing that the daughter whom he had taught so lovingly
was on the road to success and fortune. He knew that when fortune
should come to her she would use it well. The year that she exhibited
her work in the _Salon_ she painted only two little pictures--one of
rabbits, the other of sheep and goats--but they were so splendidly
done that all the critics knew a great woman artist had arrived.
It was then that her enemies, those who were becoming jealous of her
work, said that she was wearing men's clothing in order to attract
attention to herself.
Soon her work began to be bought by the French Government, which was a
sure sign of her power. She was already much beloved by the people. In
the meantime we in America and others in England had heard of
Mademoiselle Bonheur, but we heard far less about her painting than we
did about her masculine garb. We thought of her mostly as an eccentric
woman; but one day came "The Horse Fair," and all the world heard of
that, so the artist was to be no longer judged by the clothes she wore
but by her art. Finally, she received the cross of the Legion of
Honour, and also was made a member of the Institute of Antwerp.
She lived near Fontainebleau; her studio a peaceful retired home, till
the Franco-Prussian war came about. Then she and others began to fear
that her studio and pictures would be destroyed, so the artist was
forced to stop her work and prepared to go elsewhere. But the Crown
Prince of Prussia himself ordered that Mademoiselle Bonheur should not
even be disturbed. Her work had made her belong to all the world and
all the world was to protect her if need be.
Rosa Bonheur had a brother who, some critics said, was the better
artist, but if that were true it is likely that his popularity would
in some degree have approached that of his sister. Rosa Bonheur did
not paint many large canvases, but mostly small ones, or only
moderately large; but when she painted sheep it seems that one might
shear the wool, it stands so fleecy and full; while her horses rampage
and curvet, showing themselves off as if they were alive.
PLATE--THE HORSE FAIR
This picture was exhibited all over the world very nearly. It was
carried to England and to America, and won admiration wherever it was
seen. Finally it was sold in America. It was first exhibited in 1853,
the year in which the artist's father died. Mr. Ernest Gambart was the
first who bought the picture, and he wrote of it to his friend,
Mr. S.P. Avery: "I will give you the real history of 'The Horse Fair,'
now in New York. It was painted in 1852, by Rosa Bonheur, then in her
thirtieth year, and exhibited in the next _Salon_. Though much admired
it did not find a purchaser. It was soon after exhibited in Ghent,
meeting again with much appreciation, but was not sold, as art did not
flourish at the time. In 1855 the picture was sent by Rosa Bonheur to
her native town of Bordeaux and exhibited there. She offered to sell
it to the town at the very low price 12,000 francs ($2,400). While
there, I asked her if she would sell it to me, and allow me to take it
to England and have it engraved. She said: 'I wish to have my picture
remain in France. I will once more impress on my countrymen, my wish
to sell it to them for 12,000 francs. If they refuse, you can have it,
but if you take it abroad, you must pay me 40,000 francs.' The town
failing to make the purchase, I at once accepted these terms, and Rosa
Bonheur then placed the picture at my disposal. I tendered her the
40,000 francs and she said: 'I am much gratified at your giving me
such a noble price, but I do not like to feel that I have taken
advantage of your liberality; let us see how we can combine in the
matter. You will not be able to have an engraving made from so large a
canvas. Suppose I paint you a small one from the same subject, of
which I will make you a present.' Of course I accepted the gift, and
thus it happened that the large work went travelling over the kingdom
on exhibition, while Thomas Landseer was making an engraving from the
quarter-size replica.
"After some time (in 1857 I think), I sold the original picture to
Mr. William P. Wright, New York (whose picture gallery and residence
were at Weehawken, N.J.), for the sum of 30,000 francs, but later I
understood that Mr. Stewart paid a much larger price for it on the
breaking up of Mr. Wright's gallery. The quarter size replica, from
which the engraving was made, I finally sold to Mr. Jacob Bell, who
gave it in 1859 to the nation, and it is now in the National Gallery,
London. A second, still smaller replica, was painted a few years
later, and was resold some time ago in London for £4,000
($20,000). There is also a smaller water-colour drawing which was sold
to Mr. Bolckow for 2,500 guineas ($12,000), and is now an heirloom
belonging to the town of Middlesbrough. That is the whole history of
this grand work. The Stewart canvas is the real and true original, and
only large size 'Horse-Fair.'
"Once in Mr. Stewart's collection, it never left his gallery until the
auction sale of his collection, March 25th, 1887, when it was
purchased by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt for the sum of $55,000, and
presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art."
And thus we have the whole story of the "Horse-Fair." The picture is
93-1/2 inches high, and 197 inches wide, and it contains a great
number of horses, some of which are ridden, while others are led, and
all are crowding with wild gaiety toward the fair where it is quite
plain they know they are about to be admired and their beauty shown to
the best advantage. Other well-known Rosa Bonheurs are "Ploughing,"
"Shepherd Guarding Sheep," "Highland Sheep," "Scotch Deer," "American
Mustangs," and "The Study of a Lioness."
V
ALESSANDRO BOTTICELLI
(Pronounced Ah-lays-sahn'dro Bo't-te-chel'lee)
_Florentine School,_
1447-1510 (Vasari's dates)
_Pupil of Filippo Lippi and Verrocchio_
Botticelli took his name from his first master, as was the fashion in
those days. The relation of master and apprentice was very close, not
at all like the relation of pupil and teacher to-day.
Botticelli's father was a Florentine citizen, Mariano Filipepi, and he
wished his son to become a goldsmith; hence the lad was soon
apprenticed to Botticelli, the goldsmith. As a scholar, the little
goldsmith had not distinguished himself. Indeed it is said that as a
boy he would not "take to any sort of schooling in reading, writing,
or arithmetic." It cannot be said that this failure distinguished him
as a genius, or the world would be full of genius-boys; but the result
was that he early began to learn his trade.
Fortunately for him and us, Botticelli, the smith, was a man of some
wisdom and when he saw that the lad originated beautiful designs and
had creative genius he did not treat the matter with scorn, as the
master of Andrea del Sarto had done, but sent him instead to Fra
Filippo (Lippo Lippi) to be taught the art of painting. So kind a deed
might well establish a feeling of devotion on little Alessandro's part
and make him wish to take his master's name.
Fra Filippo was a Carmelite monk, merry and kindly; simple, good, and
gifted, but his temperament did not seem to influence his young
pupil. Of all unhappy, morbid men, Botticelli seems to have been the
most so, unless we are to except Michael Angelo.
After studying with the monk, Botticelli was summoned by Pope Sixtus
IV. to Rome to decorate a new chapel in the Vatican. Before that time
his whole life had been greatly influenced by the teachings of
Savonarola who had preached both passionately and learnedly in
Florence, advocating liberty. From the time he fell under Savonarola's
wonderful power, the artist grew more and more mystic and morbid. In
Rome it was the custom to have the portraits of conspirators, or
persons of high degree who were revolutionary or otherwise
objectionable to the state, hung outside the Public Palace, and in
Botticelli's time there was a famous disturbance among the aristocrats
of the state. In 1478 the powerful Pazzi family conspired against the
Medici family, which then actually had control. It was Botticelli who
was engaged to paint the portraits of the Pazzi family, which to their
shame and humiliation were to be displayed upon the palace walls.
One peculiarity of this artist's pictures was that he used actual
goldleaf to make the high lights upon hair, leaves, and draperies. The
effect of the use of this gold was very beautiful, if unusual, and it
may have been that his apprenticeship as a goldsmith suggested to him
such a device.
Also it was he who created certain characteristics of painting that
have since been thought original with Burne-Jones. This was the use of
long stiff lily-stalks or other upright details in his compositions.
Examples of this idea, which produced so weird an effect, will be
found in his allegory of "Spring," where stiff tree-trunks form a part
of the background. In the "Madonna of the Palms" upright lily-stalks
are held in pale and trembling hands. Like Michael Angelo, who came
years afterward, Botticelli was a guest of the great Lorenzo the
"Magnificent," in Florence. It was by Botticelli's hand that the
greater painter sent a letter to Lorenzo from a duchess friend who was
also his patron. This was in Angelo's youth; in Botticelli's old age.
All his life was a drama of morbid seeking after the unattainable, and
finally he became so poor and helpless that in his old age he would
have starved had Lorenzo de' Medici not taken care of him. Lorenzo and
other friends who in spite of his gloominess admired his real piety,
gathered about him and kept him from starvation.
On his "Nativity," Botticelli wrote: "This picture I, Alessandro,
painted at the end of the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy, in the
halftime after the time, during the fulfilment of the eleventh of
John, in the second woe of the Apocalypse, in the loosing the devil
for three and a half years. Afterward he shall be chained according to
the twelfth of John, and see him trodden down as in this picture." All
of this is interesting because Botticelli himself wrote it, but it is
not very easily understood by any child, nor by many grown people.
Botticelli did some very extraordinary things, but whether they are
beautiful or not one must decide for himself. They are paintings so
characteristic that one must think them very beautiful or else not at
all so.
PLATE--LA PRIMAVERA
_(Spring)_
In this picture we have the forerunner of a modern painter, because we
see in it certain, qualities that we find in Böcklin. Look at the
effect of vertical lines; the tree trunks, and the poses of the
slender women. Over all hovers a cupid who is sending love-shafts into
the hearts of all in springtime.
Notice the lacy effect of the flowers that bestar the wind-blown gown
of "La Primavera," the fern-like leaves that fleck the background; the
draperies that do not conceal the forms of the nymphs of the lovely
springtime.
The very spirit of spring is seen in all the half-floating,
half-dancing, gliding, diaphanous figures of the forest. The flowers
of "La Primavera's" crown are blue and white cornflowers and
primroses. She scatters over the earth tulips, anemones, and
narcissus. The painting is allegorical and unique. Never were such
fluttering odds and ends of draperies painted before, nor such
fascinating effects had from canvas, paint, or brush. The picture
hangs in Florence in the Uffizi Gallery. A German critic tells us that
the "Realm of Venus," is a better title for this picture, and that it
was painted after a poem of that name.
Other pictures by this artist are: "The Birth of Venus," "Pallas,"
"Judith," "Holofernes," "St. Augustine," "Adoration of the Magi," and
"St. Sebastian."
VI
WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU
(Pronounced W. A'dolf Bou-gair-roh)
_French (Genre) School_
1825-1905
_Pupil of Picot and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts_
Bouguereau's business-like father meant his son also to be
business-like, but he made the mistake of permitting him to go to a
drawing school in Bordeaux and there, to his father's chagrin, the
youngster took the annual prize. After that there seemed nothing for
the father to do but grin and bear it, because the son decided to be
an artist and had fairly won his right to be one.
Young Bouguereau had no money, and therefore he went to live with an
uncle at Saintonge, a priest, who had much sympathy with the boy's
wish to paint, and he left him free to do the best he could for
himself in art. He got a chance to paint some portraits, and when he
and his uncle talked the matter over It was decided that he should
take the money got for them, and go to Paris. It was there that he
sought Picot, his first truly helpful teacher; and there, for the
first time he learned more than he already knew about art.
All Bouguereau's opportunities in life were made by himself, by his
own genius. No one gave him anything; he earned all. He longed to go
to Italy, and in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts he won the Prix de Rome,
which made possible a journey to the land of great artists. The French
Government began to buy his work, and he began to receive commissions
to decorate walls in great buildings; thus, gradually, he made for
himself fame and fortune.
When this artist undertook to paint sacred subjects, of great dignity,
he was not at his best; but when he chose children and mothers and
everyday folk engaged about their everyday business, he painted
beautifully. Americans have bought many of his pictures and he has had
more popularity in this country than anywhere outside of France.
Some authorities give the birthplace of Bouguereau as La Rochelle; at
any rate he died there at midnight, on the nineteenth of August, 1905.
PLATE--THE VIRGIN AS CONSOLER
The main distinction about this artist's pictured faces is the
peculiarly earnest expression he has given to the eyes. In this
picture of the Virgin there is great genius in the pose and death-look
of the little child whose mother has flung herself across the lap of
Mary, abandoned to her agony. This painting is hung in the
Luxembourg. Others by the same master are called "Psyche and Cupid"
"Birth of Venus," "Innocence," and "At the Well."
VII
SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES
_English (Pre-Raphaelite) School_
1833-1898
_Pupil of Rossetti_
This artist has been called the most original of all contemporaneous
artists. He has also been called the "lyric painter"; meaning that he
is to painting what the lyric poet is to literature. His work once
known can almost always be recognised wherever seen afterward. He did
not slavishly follow the Pre-Raphaelite school, yet he drew most of
his ideas from its methods. He was, in the use of stiff lines, a
follower of Botticelli, and not original in that detail, as some have
seemed to think.
PLATE--CHANT D'AMOUR
_(The Love-Song)_
This is a picture in the true Burne-Jones style: a beautiful woman in
billowy draperies, playing upon a harp forms the central figure of the
group of three--a listener on either side of her. There is the
attractiveness of the Burne-Jones method about this picture, but after
all there seems to be no very good reason for its having been
painted. The subject thus treated has only a negative value, and
little suggestion of thought or dramatic idea.
Another picture of this artist, in which his use of stiff draperies is
specially shown, is that of the women at the tomb of Christ, when they
find the stone rolled away and, looking around, see the Saviour's
figure before them. The scene is low and cavern-like, with a brilliant
light surrounding the tomb. This artist also painted "The Vestal
Virgin," "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," "Pan and Psyche," "The
Golden Stairs," and "Love Among the Ruins."
VIII
JOHN CONSTABLE
_English School_
1776-1837
_Pupil of the Royal Academy_
John Constable was the son of a "yeoman farmer" who meant to make him
also a yeoman farmer. Mostly we find that the fathers of our artists
had no higher expectations for their sons than to have them take up
their own business; to begin as they had, and to end as they expected
to. But in John Constable's case, as with all the others, the father's
methods of living did not at all please the son, and having most of
all a liking for picture-making; young John set himself to planning
his own affairs.
Nevertheless, the foundation of John's art was laid right there in the
Suffolk farmer's home and conditions. He was born in East Bergholt,
and the father seems to have believed in windmills, for early in life
the signs of wind and weather became a part of the son's education. He
learned a deal more of atmospheric conditions there on his father's
windmill planted farm than he could possibly have learned shut up in a
studio, French fashion. As a little boy he came to know all the signs
of the heavens; the clouds gathering for storm or shine; the bending
of the trees in the blast; all of these he loved, and later on made
the principal subjects of his art. He learned to observe these things
as a matter of business and at his father's command; thus we may say
that he studied his life-work from his very infancy. All about him
were beautiful hedgerows, picturesque cottages with high pitched roofs
covered with thatch, and it was these beauties which bred one other
great landscape painter besides Constable, of whom we shall presently
speak, Gainsborough.