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ARTISTS PAST AND PRESENT
By the Same Author
=The Works of James McNeill Whistler.= Illustrated with
Many Reproductions of Etchings, Lithographs, Pastels and
Paintings, 6-3/4 x 9-1/4 Inches. Boxed, $4.00 Net.
(Postage 32 cents.)
A study of Whistler and his works, including etchings, lithographs,
pastels, water-colors, paintings, landscapes. Also a chapter on
Whistler's "Theory of Art."
=The Same.--Limited Edition de Luxe.= The Limited Edition
of the Above Work, Illustrated with Additional Examples
on Japan and India Paper. Printed on Van Gelder Hand-made
Paper, with Wide Margins. Limited to 250 Numbered
and Signed Copies, of which a few are left unsold. Boxed,
$15.00 Net. (Postage Extra.)
=The Art of William Blake.= Uniquely and Elaborately Illustrated.
Size 7-1/2 x 10-1/2 Inches. Wide Margins. Boxed, $3.50
Net. (Postage 25 cents.)
A volume of great distinction, discussing the art of Blake in
several unusual phases, and dwelling importantly upon his
Manuscript Sketch Book, to which the author has had free access,
and from which the publishers have drawn freely for illustrations,
many of which have never been published before.
[Illustration: DANS LA LOGE
_From a painting by Mary Cassatt_]
Artists Past and Present
RANDOM STUDIES
BY
ELISABETH LUTHER CARY
Author of "_The Art of William Blake_," "_Whistler_," Etc.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 1909
_Copyright_,1909, _by_
MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY
NEW YORK
PUBLISHED, SEPTEMBER, 1909
_The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A._
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. ANTOINE LOUIS BARYE 1
II. THE ART OF MARY CASSATT 25
III. MAX KLINGER 37
IV. ALFRED STEVENS 49
V. A SKETCH IN OUTLINE OF JACQUES CALLOT 61
VI. CARLO CRIVELLI 81
VII. THE CASSEL GALLERY 95
VIII. FANTIN-LATOUR 109
IX. CARL LARSSON 119
X. JAN STEEN 131
XI. ONE SIDE OF MODERN GERMAN PAINTING 143
XII. TWO SPANISH PAINTERS 165
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
DANS LA LOGE _Frontispiece_
_From a painting by Mary Cassatt_
Facing
Page
PORTRAIT OF ANTOINE LOUIS BARYE 2
_From a painting by J. F. Millet_
LION DEVOURING A DOE 6
BULL THROWN TO EARTH BY A BEAR 6
_From a bronze by Barye_
A LIONESS 8
_From a bronze by Barye_
THE PRANCING BULL 10
_From a bronze by Barye_
PANTHER SEIZING A DEER 12
_From a bronze by Barye_
THE LION AND THE SERPENT 16
_From a bronze by Barye_
ASIAN ELEPHANT CRUSHING TIGER 20
_From a bronze by Barye_
CHILD RESTING 28
_From an etching by Mary Cassatt_
ON THE BALCONY 32
_From a painting by Mary Cassatt_
WOMAN WITH A FAN 34
_From a painting by Mary Cassatt_
BEETHOVEN 38
_From a statue in colored marble by Max Klinger_
CASSANDRA 44
_From a statue in colored marble by Max Klinger_
L'ATELIER 52
_From a painting by Alfred Stevens_
PORTRAIT OF JACQUES CALLOT 68
_Engraved by Vosterman after the painting of Van Dyck_
ST. DOMINIC 84
_From a panel by Carlo Crivelli_
ST. GEORGE 86
_From a panel by Carlo Crivelli_
PIETA 88
_From a panel by Carlo Crivelli_
A PANEL BY CARLO CRIVELLI (_a_) 90
A PANEL BY CARLO CRIVELLI (_b_) 92
SASKIA 98
_From a portrait by Rembrandt_
NICHOLAS BRUYNINGH 102
_From a portrait by Rembrandt_
PORTRAIT OF MME. MAITRE 112
_From a painting by Fantin-Latour_
MY FAMILY 120
_From a painting by Carl Larsson_
A PAINTING BY CARL LARSSON 126
PEASANT WOMEN OF DACHAUER 148
_From a painting by Leibl_
FIDDLING DEATH 154
_From a portrait by Arnold Boecklin_
THE SWIMMERS 166
_From a painting by Sorolla_
THE BATH--JAVEA 168
_From a painting by Sorolla_
THE SORCERESSES OF SAN MILAN 170
_From a painting by Zuloaga_
THE OLD BOULEVARDIER 172
_From a painting by Zuloaga_
MERCEDES 174
_From a painting by Zuloaga_
ARTISTS PAST AND PRESENT
I
ANTOINE LOUIS BARYE
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art are two pictures by the Florentine
painter of the fifteenth century called Piero di Cosimo. They represent
hunting scenes, and the figures are those of men, women, fauns, satyrs,
centaurs, and beasts of the forests, fiercely struggling together. As we
observe the lion fastening his teeth in the flesh of the boar, the bear
grappling with his human slayer, and the energy and determination of the
creatures at bay, our thought involuntarily bridges a chasm of four
centuries and calls up the image of the Barye bronzes in which are
displayed the same detachment of vision, the same absence of
sentimentality, the same vigor and intensity if not quite the same
strangeness of imagination. It is manifestly unwise to carry the parallel
very far, yet there is still another touch of similarity in the beautiful
surfaces. Piero's fine, delicate handling of pigment is in the same
manner of expression as Barye's exquisite manipulation of his metal after
the casting, his beautiful thin patines that do not suppress but reveal
sensitive line and subtle modulation. We know little enough of Piero
beyond what his canvases tell us. Of Barye we naturally know more,
although everything save what his work confides of his character and
temperament is of secondary importance, and he is interesting to moderns,
especially as the father of modern animal sculpture, and not for the
events of his quiet life.
[Illustration: From the collection of the late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq.
PORTRAIT OF ANTOINE LOUIS BARYE
_From a painting by J. F. Millet_]
Antoine Louis Barye, born at Paris September 15, 1796, died June 25,
1875, in the same year with Corot and at the same age. The circumstances
under which he began his career have been told in detail by more than
one biographer, but it would be difficult rightly to estimate the
importance and singularity of his work without some review of them. His
father was a jeweler of Lyons, who settled in Paris before Antoine was
born, and whose idea of education for his son was to place him at less
than fourteen with an engraver of military equipments from whom he
learned to engrave on steel and other metals, and later with a jeweler
from whom he learned to make steel matrixes for molding reliefs from
thin metals. A certain stress has been laid on this lack of schooling in
the conventional sense of the word, but it is difficult to see that it
did much harm, since Barye, though he was not a correct writer of
French, was a great reader, keenly intelligent in his analysis of the
knowledge he gained from books, and with extraordinary power of turning
it to his own uses. Such a mind does not seriously miss the
advantages offered by a formal training, and it might fairly be argued
that the manual skill developed at the work-bench was in the long run
more valuable to him than the abstract knowledge which he might have
acquired in school could possibly have been. Be that as it may, up to
the time of his marriage in 1823 he had a varied apprenticeship. At
sixteen he was drawn as a conscript and was first assigned to the
department where maps in relief are modeled. Before he was twenty-one he
was working with a sculptor called Bosio, and also in the studio of the
painter, Baron Gros. He studied Lamarck, Cuvier and Buffon. He competed
five times for the _Prix de Rome_ at the Salon, once in the section of
medals and four times in the section of sculpture, succeeding once (in
the first competition) in gaining a second prize. He then went back to
the jeweler's bench for eight years, varying the monotony of his work by
modeling independently small reliefs of _Eagle and Serpent_, _Eagle and
Antelope_, _Leopard_, _Panther_, and other animals.
In 1831 he sent to the Salon of that year the _Tiger Devouring a Gavial
of the Ganges_, a beautiful little bronze, seven and a half inches high,
which won a Second Medal and was bought by the Government for the
Luxembourg. This was the beginning of his true career. In the same Salon
was exhibited his _Martyrdom of St. Sebastian_, but the powerful
realism and energy of the animal group represented what henceforth was
to be Barye's characteristic achievement, the realization, that is, of
what the Chinese call the "movement of life;" the strange reality of
appearance that is never produced by imitation of nature and that makes
the greatness of art. The tiger clutches its victim with great gaunt
paws, its eyes are fixed upon the prey, its body is drawn together with
tense muscles, its tail is curled, the serpent is coiled about the
massive neck of its destroyer with large undulating curves. The touch is
everywhere certain, the composition is dignified, and the group as an
exhibition of extraordinary knowledge is noteworthy.
A lithograph portrait of Barye by Gigoux, made at about this time, shows
a fine head, interested eyes, a firm mouth and a determined chin. His
chief qualities were perseverance, scientific curiosity, modesty and
pride, and that indomitable desire for perfection so rarely encountered
and so precious an element in the artist's equipment. He was little of a
talker, little of a writer, infinitely studious, somewhat reserved and
cold in manner, yet fond of good company and not averse to good dinners.
Guillaume said of him that he had the genius of great science and of
high morality, which is the best possible definition in a single phrase
of his artistic faculty. He had the kind of sensitiveness, or
self-esteem, if you will, that frequently goes with a mind confident
of its merits, but not indifferent to criticism or sufficiently elevated
and aloof to dispense with resentment. In 1832 he sent to the Salon his
_Lion Crushing a Serpent_, and in 1833 he sent a dozen animal
sculptures, a group of medallions and six water-colors. That year he was
made chevalier of the Legion of Honour, but the following year nine
groups made for the Duke of Orleans were rejected by the Salon jury, and
again in 1836 several small pieces were rejected, although the _Seated
Lion_, later bought by the government, was accepted. The reasons for the
rejections are not entirely clear, but Barye was an innovator, and in
the field of art the way of the innovator is far harder than that of the
transgressor. Charges of commercialism were among those made against
him, and he--the least commercial of men--took them deeply to heart. His
bitterness assumed a self-respecting but an inconvenient and
unprofitable form, as he made up his mind to exhibit thereafter only in
his own workshop, a resolution to which he held for thirteen years.
After the rejection of his groups in 1834 he happened to meet Jules
Dupre, who expressed his disgust with the decision. "It is quite easy to
understand," Barye replied, "I have too many friends on the jury." This
touch of cynicism indicates the ease with which he was wounded, but it
was equally characteristic of him that in planning his simple revenge
he hurt only himself. He did indeed refrain from sending his bronzes to
the Salon and he did act as his own salesman, and the result was the
incurrence of a heavy debt. To meet this he was obliged to sell all his
wares to a founder who wanted them for the purpose of repeating them in
debased reproductions. His own care in obtaining the best possible
results in each article that he produced, his reluctance to sell
anything of the second class, and his perfectly natural dislike to
parting with an especially beautiful piece under any circumstances, did
not, of course, work to his business advantage, although the amateurs
who have bought the bronzes that came from his own refining hand have
profited by it immensely. It would be a mistake, however, to think of
him as a crushed or even a deeply misfortunate man. He simply was poor
and not appreciated by the general public according to his merits. After
1850, however, he had enough orders from connoisseurs, many of them
Americans, and also from the French government to make it plain that his
importance as an artist was firmly established at least in the minds of
a few. He sold his work at low prices which since his death have been
trebled and quadrupled, in fact, some of his proofs have increased
fifty-fold, but the fact that he was not overwhelmed with orders gave
him that precious leisure to spend upon the perfecting of his work
which, we may fairly assume, was worth more to him than money.
[Illustration: From the collection of the late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq.
LION DEVOURING A DOE
("LION DEVORANT UNE BICHE")]
[Illustration: From the collection of the late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq.
BULL THROWN TO EARTH BY A BEAR
("TAUREAU TERRASSE PAR UN OURS")
_From a bronze by Barye_]
Nor was he entirely without honor in his own country. At the Universal
Exposition of 1855 he received the Grand Medal of Honour in the section
of artistic bronzes, and in the same year the Officer's Cross of Legion
of Honour--a dignity that is said to have reached poor Rousseau only
when he was too near death to receive the messengers. In 1868 Barye was
made Member of the Institute, although two years earlier he had been
humiliated by having his application refused. And from America, in
addition to numerous proofs of the esteem in which he was held there by
private amateurs, he received through Mr. Walters in 1875 an order to
supply the Corcoran Gallery at Washington with an example of every
bronze he had made. This last tribute moved him to tears, and he
replied, "Ah! Monsieur Walters, my own country has never done anything
like that for me!" These certainly were far from being trivial
satisfactions, and Barye had also reaped a harvest of even subtler joys.
One likes to think of him in Barbizon, living in cordial intimacy with
Diaz and Rousseau and Millet and the great Daumier. Here he had
sympathy, excellent talk of excellent things, the company of artists
working as he did, with profound sincerity and intelligence, and he had
a chance himself to paint in the vast loneliness of the woods where he
could let his imagination roam, and could find a home for his tigers and
lions and bears studied in menageries and in the _Jardin des Plantes_.
It is pleasant also to think of him among the five and twenty _Amis du
Vendredi_ dining together at little wineshops on mutton and cheese and
wine with an occasional pate given as a treat by some member in funds
for the moment. He was not above enthusiasm for "_un certain pate de
maquereau de Calais_" and he was fond of the theater and of all shows
where animals were to be seen. It is pleasantest of all to think of him
at his work, the beauty of which he knew and the ultimate success of
which he could hardly have doubted.
[Illustration: From the collection of the late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq.
A LIONESS
_From a bronze by Barye_]
In what does the extraordinary quality of this work consist? The
question is not difficult to answer, since, like most of the truly great
artists, Barye had clear-cut characteristics among which may be found
those that separate him from and raise him above his contemporaries.
Scientific grasp of detail and artistic generalization are to be found
in all his work where an animal is the subject, and this combination is
in itself a mark of greatness. If we should examine the exceptionally
fine collection of Barye bronzes belonging to the late Mr. Cyrus J.
Lawrence, and consisting of more than a hundred beautiful examples, or
the fine group in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington, we should soon
learn his manner and the type established by him in his animal subjects.
In the presence of so large a number of the works of a single artist,
certain features common to the whole accomplishment may easily be
traced. One dominating characteristic in this case is the ease with
which the anatomical knowledge of the artist is worn. Even in the early
bronzes the execution is free, large, and quite without the dry
particularity that might have been expected from a method the most
exacting and specific possible. Barye from the first went very deeply
into the study of anatomy, examining skeletons, and dissecting animals
after death to gain the utmost familiarity with all the bones and
muscles, the articulations, the fur and skin and minor details. His
reading of Cuvier and Lamarck indicates his interest in theories of
animal life and organism. He took, also, great numbers of comparative
measurements that enabled him to represent not merely an individual
specimen of a certain kind of animal, but a type which should be true in
general as well as in particular. He would measure, for example, the
bones of a deer six months old and those of a deer six weeks old,
carefully noting all differences in order to form a definite impression
of the normal measurements of the animal at different ages. He made
comparative drawings of the skulls of cats, tigers, leopards, panthers,
the whole feline species, in short, seeking out the principles of
structure and noting the dissimilarities due to differences in size. He
made innumerable drawings of shoulders, heads, paws, nostrils, ears,
carefully recording the dimensions on each sketch. Among his notes was
found a minute description of the characteristic features of a blooded
horse.
He was never content with merely an external observation of a subject
when he had it in his power to penetrate the secrets of animal
mechanism. He first made sketches of his subjects, of course, but
frequently he also modeled parts of the animal in wax on the spot to
catch the characteristic movement. His indefatigable patience in thus
laying the groundwork of exact knowledge suggests the thoroughness of
the old Dutch artists. He followed, too, the recommendation of
Leonardo--so dangerous to any but the strongest mind--to draw the parts
before drawing the whole, to "learn exactitude before facility."
[Illustration: From the collection of the late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq.
THE PRANCING BULL
("TAUREAU CABRE")
_From a bronze by Barye_]
A story is told of a visit paid him by the sculptor Jacquemart: "I will
show you what I have under way, just now," said he to his friend, and
looking about his studio for a moment, drew out a couple of legs and
stood them erect. After a few seconds of puzzled thought he remembered
the whereabouts of the other members, and finally drew out the head from
under a heap in a corner. And the statue once in place was conspicuous
for its fine sense of unity. It was not, of course, this meticulous
method, but the use he made of it, that led Barye to his great results.
His mind was strengthened and enriched by every fragment of knowledge
with which he fed it. It all went wholesomely and naturally to the
growth of his artistic ideas, and he does not appear to have been
interested in acquiring knowledge that did not directly connect itself
with these ideas. By his perfect familiarity with the facts upon which
he built his conceptions he was fitted to use them intelligently, omit
them where he chose, exaggerate them where he chose, minimize them where
he chose. They did not fetter him; they freed him; and he could work
with them blithely, unhampered by doubts and inabilities. It is most
significant both of his accuracy and his freedom that in constructing
his models he dispensed with the rigid iron skeleton on which the clay
commonly is built. Having modeled the different parts of his
composition, he brought them together and supported them from the
outside by means of crutches and tringles, after the fashion of the boat
builders, thus enabling himself to make alterations, corrections and
revisions to the very end of his task. The definitive braces were put in
place only at the moment of the molding in plaster.
[Illustration: PANTHER SEIZING A DEER
_From a bronze by Barye_]
For small models he preferred to use wax which does not dry and crack
like the clay. He also sometimes covered his plaster model with a layer,
more or less thick, of wax, upon which he could make a more perfect
rendering of superficial subtleties. Occasionally, as in the instance of
_The Lion Crushing the Serpent_, cast by Honore Gonon, he employed the
process called _a cire perdue_, in which the model is first made in
wax, then over it is formed a mold from which the wax is melted out by
heat. The liquid bronze is poured into the matrix thus formed, and when
this has become cold the mold is broken off, leaving an almost accurate
reproduction of the original model, which is also, of course, unique,
the wax model and the mold both having been destroyed in the process.
Upon his _patines_ he lavished infinite care. Theodore Child has given
an excellent description of the difference between this final enrichment
of a bronze as applied by a master and the _patine_ of commerce. "The
ideal _patine_," he says, "is an oxydation and a polish, without
thickness, as it were, a delicate varnish or glaze, giving depth and
tone to the metal. Barye's green _patine_ as produced by himself has
these qualities of lightness and richness of tone, whereas the green
_patine_ of the modern proofs is not a _patine_, not an oxydation, but
an absolute application of green color in powder, a _mise en couleur_,
as the technical phrase is. In places this _patine_ will be nearly a
millimeter thick and will consequently choke up all delicate modeling,
soften all that is sharp, and render the bronze dull, _mou_, heavy. To
produce Barye's fine green _patine_, requires time and patience, and for
commercial bronze is impracticable. Barye, however, was never a
commercial man. When a bronze was ordered he would never promise it at
any fixed date; he would ask for one or two or three months; 'he did
not know exactly, it would depend on how his _patine_ came.'"
His patines are by no means all green; some of them are almost golden in
their vitality of color--the "_patine medaille_," as in _The Walking
Deer_, which is a superb example; some are dark brown approaching black.
The most beautiful in color and delicacy which I have seen is that on
Mr. Lawrence's _Bull Felled by a Bear_ (_Taureau terrasse par un ours_),
a bronze which seems to me in many particulars to remain a masterpiece
unsurpassed by the more violent and splendid later works. Another
remarkable example of the effect of color possible to produce by a
_patine_ is furnished by the _Lion Devouring a Doe_ (_Lion devorant une
biche_), dated 1837. The green lurking in the shadows and the coppery
gleam on the ridge of the spine, the thigh, and the bristling mane, the
rich yet bright intermediate tones, give a wonderful brilliancy and
vitality to the magnificent little piece in which the ferocity of nature
and the charm and lovableness of art are commingled. In his interesting
book on Barye, published by the Barye Monument Association, Mr. De Kay
has referred to this work as an example of Barye's power to reproduce
the horrible and to make one's blood run cold with the ferocity of the
destroying beast. It seems to me, however, that it is one of the pieces
in which Barye's power to represent the horrible without destroying the
peace of mind to be found in all true art, is most obvious. With his
capacity for emphasizing that which he wishes to be predominant in his
composition he has brought out to the extreme limit of expression the
strength of the lion and its savage interest in its prey. The lashing
tail, the wrinkled nose, the concentrated eyes are fully significant of
the mood of the beast, and were the doe equally defined the effect would
be disturbing. But the doe, lying on the ground, is treated almost in
bas-relief, hardly distinguishable against the massive bulk of its
oppressor. The appeal is not to pity, but to recognition of the force of
native instincts. Added to this is the beauty, subtly distinguished and
vigorously rendered, of the large curves of the splendid body of the
lion. Even among the superb later pieces it would be difficult to find
one with greater beauty of flowing line and organic composition.
In the illustration we can see the general contour from one point of
view, but we cannot see the rhythm of the curves balancing and repeating
each other from the tip of the uplifted tail to the arch of the great
neck. Nor is a particle of energy sacrificed to these beautiful
contours. The body is compact, the head large and expressive of power,
the thick paws rest with weight on the ground. There is none of the
pulling out of forms so often employed to give grace and so usually
suggestive of weakness. The composition is at once absolutely graceful
and eloquent of immense physical force. In the _Panther Seizing a Deer_
(_Panthere saississant un Cerf_), one of the largest of the animal
groups, we have again the characteristic double curves, the fine play of
line, and the appropriate fitting of the figures into a long oval, and
also the minimizing of the cruelty of the subject by the reticent art
with which it is treated. We see clearly enough the angry jaws, the
curled tail, the weight of the attacking beast falling on the head of
its victim, dragging it toward the ground. Nothing is slighted or
compromised. We see even the gash in the flesh made by the panther's
claws and the drops of blood trickling from the wound. But we have to
thank Barye's instinct for refined conception that these features of the
work do not claim and hold our attention which is absorbed by the vital
line, the gracious sweep of the contours, the lovely surface, and the
omission of all irrelevant and unreasonable detail.
Many of Barye's subjects included the human figure and in a few
instances the human figure alone preoccupied him. Occasionally he was
very successful in this kind. The small silver reproduction of _Hercules
Carrying a Boar_ has the remarkable quality of easy force. The figure of
Hercules is without exaggerated muscles, is normally proportioned and
quietly modeled. His burden rests lightly on his shoulders, and his free
long stride indicates that the labor is joy. This is the ancient, not
the modern tradition, and the little figure corresponds, curiously
enough, with one of the male figures in the Piero di Cosimo mentioned at
the beginning of this article. In the latter case the strong man is
engaged in combat with a living animal, but he carries his strength with
the same assurance and absence of effort in its exercise. Barye,
however, does not always give this happy impression when he seeks to
represent the human figure. If we compare, for example, the bronze made
in 1840 for the Duke of Montpensier (_Roger Bearing off Angelica on the
Hippogriff_) with any of the animal groups of that decade or earlier, we
can hardly fail to be amazed at the lack of unity in the composition and
the distracting multiplicity of the details. If we compare the _Hunt of
the Tiger_ with the _Asian Elephant Crushing Tiger_ the great
superiority of the latter in the arrangement of the masses, the dignity
of the proportions, and in economy of detail, is at once evident. The
figures of the four stone groups on the Louvre, however, have a certain
antique nobility of design and withal a naturalness that put them in the
first class of modern sculpture, I think.
[Illustration: From the collection of the late Cyrus J. Lawrence, Esq.
THE LION AND THE SERPENT
("LION AU SERPENT")
_From a bronze by Barye_]
One point worthy of note in any comparison between Barye's animals and
his human beings is the intensity and subtlety of expression in the
former and the absence of any marked expression in the latter. His men
are practically masked. No passion or emotion makes its
impression on their features. Even their gestures, violent though they
may be, seem inspired from without and not by the impulse of their own
feelings. His animals on the contrary show many phases of what must be
called, for lack of a more exact word, psychological expression. A
striking instance of this is found in the contrast between the sketch
for _The Lion Crushing the Serpent_ and the finished piece. In the
sketch there is terror in the lion's face, his paw is raised to strike
at the reptile, his tail is uplifted and lashing, the attitude and
expression are those of terror mingled with rage and the serpent appears
the aggressor. In the finished bronze the lion is calmer and in obvious
possession of the field. The fierce claws pushing out from their
sheathing, the eyes that seem to snarl with the mouth, the massive paw
resting on the serpent's coiled body combine to give a subtle impression
of certain mastery, and the serpent is unquestionably the victim and
defendant in the encounter. It is by such intuitive reading of the
aspect of animals of diverse kinds, that Barye awakens the imagination
and leads the mind into the wilderness of the untamed world. He is
perhaps most himself when depicting moods of concentration. The fashion
in which he gathers the great bodies together for springing upon and
holding down their prey is absolutely unequaled among animal sculptors.
His mind handled monumental compositions with greater success, I think,
than compositions of the lighter type in which the subject lay at ease
or exhibited the pure joy of living which we associate with the animal
world.
Two exceptions to this statement come, however, at once to my mind--the
delightful _Bear in his Trough_ and the _Prancing Bull_. The former is
the only instance I know of a Barye animal disporting itself with
youthful irresponsibility, and the innocence and humor of the little
beast make one wish that it had not occupied this unique place in the
list of Barye's work. The _Prancing Bull_ also is a conception by itself
and one of which Barye may possibly have been a little afraid. With his
extraordinary patience it is not probable that he had the opposite
quality of ability to catch upon the fly, as it were, a passing motion,
an elusive and swiftly fading effect. But in this instance he has
rendered with great skill the curvetting spring of the bull into the air
and the lightness of the motion in contrast with the weight of the body.
This singular lightness or physical adroitness he has caught also in his
representation of elephants, the _Elephant of Senegal Running_, showing
to an especial degree the agility of the animal despite its enormous
bulk and ponderosity.
While Barye's most important work was accomplished in the field of
sculpture, his merits as a painter were great. His devotion to the study
of structural expression was too stern to permit him to lapse into
mediocrity, whatever medium he chose to use, and the animals he
created, or re-created, on canvas are as thoroughly understood, as
clearly presented, as artistically significant as those in bronze. With
every medium, however, there is, of course, a set of more or less
undefinable laws governing its use. Wide as the scope of the artist is
there are limits to his freedom, and if he uses water-color, for
example, in a manner which does not extract from the medium the highest
virtue of which it is capable he is so much the less an artist. It has
been said of Barye that his paintings were unsatisfactory on that score.
About a hundred pictures in oil and some fifty water-colors have been
put on the list of his works. Mr. Theodore Child found his execution
heavy, uniform, of equal strength all over, and of a monotonous impasto
which destroys all aerial perspective. I have not seen enough of his
painting in oils either to contradict or to acquiesce in this verdict;
but his water-colors produce a very different impression on my mind. He
uses body-color but with restraint and his management of light and shade
and his broad, free treatment of the landscape background give to his
work in this medium a distinction quite apart from that inseparable from
the beautiful drawing. In the painting that we reproduce the soft washes
of color over the rocky land bring the background into delicate harmony
with the richly tinted figure of the tiger with the effect of variety in
unity sought for and obtained by the masters of painting. The weight
and roundness of the tiger's body is brought out by the firm broad
outline which Barye's contemporary Daumier is so fond of using in his
paintings, the interior modeling having none of the emphasis on form
that one looks for in a sculptor's work. In his paintings indeed, even
more than in his sculpture, Barye shows his interest in the
psychological side of his problem. Here if ever he sees his subject
whole, in all its relations to life. The vast sweep of woodland or
desert in which he places his wild creatures, the deep repose commingled
with the potential ferocity of these creatures, their separateness from
man in their inarticulate emotions, their inhuman passions, their
withdrawn powerfully realized lives, their self-sufficiency, their part
in nature--all this becomes vivid to us as we look at his paintings and
we are aware that the portrayal of animal life went far deeper with
Barye than a mere anatomical grasp of his subject. Corot did not find
his tigers sufficiently poetic and altered, it is said, the tiger drawn
for one of his own paintings until he succeeded in giving it a more
romantic aspect. Barye's poetry, however, was the unalterable poetry of
life. He found his inspiration in realities but that is not to say that
his realities were external ones. He excluded nothing belonging to the
sentiment of his subject and comparison of his work with that of other
animal sculptors and painters deepens one's respect for the
penetrating insight with which he sought his truths.
Since Barye's death and the great increase in the prices of his work,
many devices have been used to sell objects bearing his name, but not
properly his work. For example, he produced for the city of Marseilles
some objects in stone (designed for the columns of the gateway), which
were never done in bronze; since his death these have been reduced in
size and produced in bronze as his work. Works of the younger Barye
signed by the great name are also confused with those of the father.
Further still, to the confusion of inexperienced collectors, the bronzes
of Mene, Fratin, and Cain, all artists of importance, but hardly
increasing fame, have had the signatures erased and that of Barye
substituted. It is therefore inadvisable to attempt at this date the
collection of Barye's bronzes without special knowledge or advice. The
great collections of early and fine proofs have been made. At the sale
of his effects after his death the models with the right of reproduction
were sold, and in many instances these modern proofs are on the market
bearing the name of Barye, with no indication of their modernity. Some
of these are so cleverly done that great knowledge is required to detect
them, and if they were sold for a moderate price, would be desirable
possessions. Certain dealers frankly sell a modern reproduction as
modern and at an appropriate price, but I know of one only, M.
Barbedienne, who puts a plaque with his initials on each piece produced
by him.
[Illustration: ASIAN ELEPHANT CRUSHING TIGER
_From a bronze by Barye_]
During Barye's lifetime he had, however, in his employ, a man named
Henri, who possessed his confidence to a full degree. A few pieces are
found with the initial of this man, showing that they were done under
his supervision and not that of Barye, but whether before or after the
death of the latter is not yet determined.
THE ART OF MARY CASSATT
II
THE ART OF MARY CASSATT
Some fifteen years ago, on the occasion of an exhibition in Paris of
Miss Cassatt's work a French critic suggested that she was then,
perhaps, with the exception of Whistler, "the only artist of an
elevated, personal and distinguished talent actually possessed by
America." The suggestion no doubt was a rash one, since, as much
personal and distinguished work by American artists never leaves this
country, the data for comparison must be lacking to a French critic; but
it is certainly true that, like Whistler, Miss Cassatt early struck an
individual note, looked at life with her own eyes, and respected her
intellectual instrument sufficiently to master it to the extent, at
least, of creating a style for herself. Born at Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, she studied first at the Philadelphia Academy, and later
traveled through Spain, Italy, and Holland in search of artistic
knowledge and direction. In France she came to know the group of
painters including Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Degas, and especially
influenced by the work of Degas, she turned to him for the counsel she
needed, receiving it in generous measure. It was a fortunate choice, the
most fortunate possible, if she wished to combine in her art the
detached observation characteristic in general of the Impressionist
school with a passionate pursuit of all the subtlety, eloquence and
precision possible to pure line. The fruit of his influence is to be
found in the technical excellence of her representations of life, the
firmness and candor of her drawing, her competent management of planes
and surfaces, and the audacity with which she attacks difficult problems
of color and tone. The extreme gravity of her method is the natural
result of working under a master whose intensity and austerity in the
pursuit of artistic truth are perhaps unequaled in the history of modern
art.
Her choice of subject is not, however, the inspiration of any mind other
than her own. She has taken for the special field in which to exercise
her vigorous talent that provided by the various phases of the maternal
relation. Her wholesome young mothers with their animated children,
comely and strong, unite the charm of great expressiveness with that of
profoundly scientific execution. The attentive student of art is well
aware how easily the former quality unsupported by the latter may
degenerate into the cloying exhibition of sentiment, and is equally
aware of the sterility of the latter practised for itself alone. With
expressiveness for her goal and the means of rendering technical
problems for her preoccupation, Miss Cassatt has arrived at hard-earned
triumphs of accomplishment. One has only to turn from one of her
recently exhibited pictures to another painted ten or twelve years ago
to appreciate the length of the way she has come. The earlier painting,
an oil color, is of a woman in a striped purple, white, and green gown,
holding a half-naked child, who is engaged in bathing its own feet, with
the absorbed expression on its face common to children occupied with
such responsible tasks. The bricky flesh tints of the faces and hands,
and the greenish half-tones of the square little body are too highly
emphasized, but a keen perception of facts of surface and construction
is obvious in the well-defined planes of the child's anatomy, in the
foreshortened, thin little arm pressing firmly on the woman's knee and
in the stout little legs, hard and round and simply modeled. There is
plenty of truth in the picture, but in spite of an almost effective
effort toward harmony of color, it lacks what the critics call "totality
of effect." The annotation of the various phenomena is too explicit, the
values are not finely related, and there is little suggestion of
atmosphere.
In the later picture this crudity is replaced by a beautiful fluent
handling and the mastery of tone. The subject is again a woman and
child, the latter just out of its bath, its flesh bright and glowing,
its limbs instinct with life and ready to spring with uncontrollable
vivacity. The modeling of the figures is as elusive as it is sure, and
in the warm, golden air by which they seem to be enveloped, the
well-understood forms lose all suggestion of the hardness and dryness
conspicuous in the early work. Another recent painting of a kindred
subject, _Le lever de bebe_, shows the same synthesis of detail, the
same warmth and richness of tone, the same free and learned use of line.
Obviously, Miss Cassatt has come into the full possession of her art and
is no longer constrained by the struggle, sharp and hard as it must have
been, with her exacting method--a method that has not at any time
permitted the sacrifice of truth to charm. Since art is both truth and
charm, record and poetry, there is a great satisfaction in watching the
flowering of a positive talent, after the inevitable stages of
literalism are passed, into the beauty of intelligent generalization. In
all the later work there is the important element of ease, a certain
graciousness of style, that enhances to a very great degree the beauty
of the serious, dignified canvases. And from the beginning these have
shown the admirable qualities of serenity and poise. There is no
superficiality or pettiness about these homely women with their deep
chests and calm faces, peacefully occupying themselves with their sound,
agreeable children. The air of health, of fresh and normal vigor, is
the characteristic of the chosen type, and lends a suggestion of the
Hellenic spirit to the modern physiognomies.
[Illustration: CHILD RESTING
_From an etching by Mary Cassatt_]
If, however, in her technique and in the feeling of quietness she
conveys, Miss Cassatt recalls the classic tradition, she is intensely
modern in her choice of natural, unhackneyed gesture, and faces in which
individuality is strongly marked and from which conventional beauty is
absent. Occasionally, as in the picture shown at Philadelphia in 1904,
and in the fine painting owned by Sir William C. Van Horne, we have a
face charming in itself and modeled in a way to bring out its
refinement, but in the greater number of instances the rather heavy and
imperfect features of our average humanity are reproduced without
compromise, with even a certain sense of triumph in the beautiful
statement of sufficiently ugly facts and freedom from a fixed ideal.
Nothing, for example, could be less in the line of academic beauty than
the quiet bonneted woman in the opera-box shown at the Pennsylvania
Academy in 1907. She has her opera-glass to her eyes and her pleasant
refined profile is cut sharply against the light balustrade of the
balcony. Other figures in adjoining boxes are mere patches of color and
of light and shade, telling, nevertheless, as personalities so acutely
are the individual values perceived and discriminated. The color is
personal and interesting, the difficult perspective of the curving line
of boxes is mastered with amazing skill; the fidelity of the drawing to
the forms and aspects of things seen gives expression to even the
inanimate objects recorded--and to painters who have tried it we
recommend the subtlety of that simply modeled cheek! The whole produces
the impression of solid reality and quick life and we get from it the
kind of pleasure communicated not by the imitation but by the evocation
of living truth. We note things that have significance for us for the
first time--the fineness of the hair under the dark bonnet, the pressure
of the body's weight on the arm supported by the railing, the relaxation
of the arm holding the fan, and very clever painting by artists of less
passionate sincerity takes on a meretricious look in contrast with this
closeness of interpretation.
This, perhaps, is the chief distinction of Miss Cassatt's art--closeness
of interpretation united to the Impressionist's care for the transitory
aspect of things. She follows the track of an outline as sensitively if
not as obviously as Ingres, and she exacts from line as much as it is
capable of giving without interference with the expressiveness of the
whole mass. She takes account of details with an unerring sense for
their appropriateness. She selects without forcing the note of
exclusion, and she thus becomes an artist of sufficiently general appeal
to be understood at once. She is not merely intelligent, but
intelligible; her art has no cryptic side. It is only the initiated
frequenter of galleries who will pause to reflect how tremendously it
costs to be so clear and plain.
In her etchings and drawings Miss Cassatt early arrived at freedom of
handling. The more responsive medium gave her an opportunity to produce
delightful studies of domestic life while she was still far from having
attained an easy control of pigment and brush. Her dry-points, pulled
under her own direction and enriched with flat tints of color, are
interesting and expressive, rich in line and large and full in modeling.
The color was not, however, wholly an improving experiment. Under the
friendly influence of time it may become an element of beauty, since in
no case is it either commonplace or crude, but in its newness it lacks
something of both delicacy and depth. The later etchings without color
are more nearly completely satisfying. The three charming
interpretations of children recently sent over to this country are full
of freshness and life, and are admirable examples of the brilliant use
of pure line. The attitude of the child in the etching reproduced here
is, indeed, quite an extraordinary feat of richness of expression with
economy of means. The heavy little head sagging against the tense arm,
the small, childish neck and thin shoulder are insisted upon just
sufficiently to render the mood of light weariness, and the little
face, full of individuality, is tenderly observed and modeled with
feeling. The psychological bent of the artist, her interest in the
portrayal of mental and moral qualities, is nowhere more clearly
revealed than in her drawings of children. She has never been content to
reproduce merely the physical plasticity and delicacy of infancy, but
has shown in her joyous babies and dreamy little girls at least the
potentiality of strong wills and clear minds. Great diversity of
character and temperament are displayed in the expressive curves of the
plump young faces, and the eyes, in particular, questioning, exultant,
wondering, reflective or merry, betray a penetrating and subtle insight
into the dawning personality under observation.
[Illustration: From the Wilstach Collection, Philadelphia.
ON THE BALCONY
_From a painting by Mary Cassatt_]
One of her earliest works recently has been added to the Wilstach
collection in Philadelphia. It shows a man and two women on a balcony.
The straight line of the balcony railing stretches across the foreground
without any modification of its rigid linear effect. The man's figure is
in shadow, barely perceptible as to detail, yet indicated without
uncertainty of drawing or vagueness of any kind, a solid figure the
"tactile values" of which are clearly recognized. One of the women is
bending over the railing in a half-shadow while the other lifts her face
toward the man in an attitude that makes exacting requirements of the
artist's knowledge of foreshortening. The whole is duskily brilliant
in color, full of the sense of form, simple, dignified, sturdy, opulent.
It shows that Miss Cassatt held at the beginning of her career as now,
valuable ideals of competency and lucidity in the interpretation of
life.
[Illustration: WOMAN WITH A FAN
_From a painting by Mary Cassatt_]
MAX KLINGER
III
MAX KLINGER