Charles John Holmes

“ It allowed strong effects of light and colour to be rendered with great vigour and accuracy, while the infinite number of small spots of paint suggested the natural vibration of the atmosphere. Whether Monet's work can always be called art, is another matter. Monet's aim was scientific truth, and scientific truth has no inevitable relation to art. The aim of art, however one defines it, must always be closely connected with beauty, and it is undeniable that Monet's painting, though always interesting, is not always beautiful. His spotty raw pigment is a positively unpleasant substance. ”

“ In Corot we get the modern raw pigment, the modern spottiness, the modern shapeless brushwork, but his pictures are built on a monochrome foundation in the manner of Claude, while the artist's natural taste prevents the modernity of the colour and handling from being obtrusive. Millet was the great modern master of chiaroscuro. Unity therefore came naturally to him, yet, to make certainty still more certain, his toiling figures and stern landscape are bathed in the warm atmosphere of the old masters. ”

“ If the search for dignity, simplicity, and repose may sometimes seem to have been carried too far, so that one finds oneself wishing for a wider outlook, for more deliberately planned brushwork, or a more vehement emotional impulse, it is well to remember that dignity, simplicity, and repose are not only enough in themselves to make good art, but that they have always been uncommon qualities in painting, and never more so than at present. ”

“ An eternal striving for nature and for novelty too often overstrained a technical accomplishment that was far from complete, so that he is frequently unworthy of his reputation. He lacked the stores of experience that Constable had accumulated by unceasing study of the old masters, and in their place had little more than the intention of being sincere at all costs. ”

“ The efforts of Rousseau and Courbet towards absolute realism were continued by Manet and Monet. In many respects the results obtained by Monet may be regarded as final, for his painting imitates the light and colour of nature as exactly as is possible with the artistic materials hitherto discovered. Such a remarkable degree of accuracy could only be obtained by the sacrifice of all that was usually considered essential to good painting. Design became a matter of chance, because nature was not to be altered or adapted. ”

“ The realism, however, is marked by a certain incoherence of design and colour, which prevents such work from being artistic, and the rusticity has become mechanical from lack of that intimacy and affection which made Constable the first true painter of the country.
The best work done in England of recent years has been done by the painters who have inherited the tradition of Constable indirectly through the science of Monet or the poetry of Corot. Such work may not be great art, but it is frequently good art, for its primary impulse has been the creation of something beautiful. ”

“ In their work there is a real attempt at definite design: though their conception of the world is merely pretty, their colour has too often an unpleasant tendency towards pinkness, and they always paint to catch the public eye. They certainly may claim to have inherited something of Constable's affection for English country life, and we should perhaps be more inclined to pardon their cheap graces and their sentimentality, were they not imitated and diluted by our feebler contemporaries. ”

“ English landscape has remained local, and is practically unknown on the Continent. The complex ramifications of French realism have had an enormous influence upon the art of the world, and have spread to every country where oil-painting is practised. It will therefore be best to deal with France, before surveying the narrower paths of English landscape since the death of Constable. ”

“ When we think of French culture and talent we are apt to form a false opinion of them, from associating them either with work done in periods of unusual social or political excitement, with the neurotic products of over-civilized city life, or with intellects that are French only by geographical accident. ”

“ That these amiable pot-boiling tradesmen should have appreciated the grand restraint of Titian, the vigour of Rubens, or the intensity of Rembrandt would have been too much to expect, but there is no excuse for their neglect of the noble elements in the genius of their own countryman, Constable. ”

“ The other Dutchmen paint absolutely in the spirit of their forefathers, turning out pictures of everyday life, soundly worked in the prevalent manner, of convenient size, and with no special emphasis or intention, for that might repel the average purchaser. ”