New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-06-21
LIFE IN PARIS.
LETTER FROM ARsENE HoUssAYE.

Isr pRrNCIpLEs-MARRIAGE AND DIvoRCE-sOC- |
RATES AND xANTHIPPE.
(rRoM REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUNE.l
PARIS, May Elm connection with the Exposition
of 1876 which gives rise to 80 many absurd para
aoxes about Art its aims and its destnies, remem
her book of the apostle Proudhon an unfortunate
philosopher who must not be COMPOUNDED with our
admirable Neo-Grecan, Peter Paul Prudhon, the
painter of poets and the poet Of painters.
Ii is hard TO conceive follies that have been
uttered by the philosopher Proudhon under the pre-
text that philosophy is akin TO wisdom. He wrote
400 pages entitled The Principle of Art" Can
you imagine what is the principle of this celebrated
cloud-collectorf It is simply that Art should be
suppressed. But Plato invented that before him.
II is true that sagaciOus spirits who to the bottom
of things saw that though Plato banished artists
from his Republic, il was because they would have
been miserable there; fraternal idea, you see,
because Plato the first artist in eloQuence of his
time.
Victor Hugo said in 1850, "Do you know what
the Socialists would do if they couldf They would
tear down she Vend6me Column to make pennies OF
it.r In his book on Art Proudhon does not conceal
his profession of faith. Listen 81 would give the
Museum of the Louvre, the Tuileres, Notre Dame,
and the Column into the bargain, to be lodged at
home in little house which should occupy by my
self, in the center of an Enclosure of thousand
yards where might have water, shade grass and
silence" 1t was for this, then that he made such
disturbance, this inheritor of the pride OF D. j.
Rousseau If this little house is his ideal. what be-
Gomez of his famous thesis Property is theft !"
Contradiction of contradictions. The ideal of
Proudhon in Art is little house where he shall live
all alone and he adds that he shall take to put
in il no statues pictures. Now, who hindercd
him from having this little house In his country
that would not have cost much. Armand Barthet,
the author of "Lesbias Sparrow wiser than the
philosopher because he was poet bought himself a
little house there for three four thousand francs.
But everybody knows that the citizen Proudhon,
who was forever singing the joys of silence, would
only live in q continual row.
You cannot imagine what stupidites this book of
Proudhon contains. Here Is another. art has done
nothing for the Greeks the Italians the Spaniards.
We must measure the degree of alasement among a
people by the exaggeration of its works of art. 1t
has been the secret of priests and despots to cheat
the poverty of the masses by the prestige of monu
mcnts Could the Egyptian complain while he saw
rising around him those obelisks, those sphinxes,
those pyramids, those gigantic temples' When Art
seizes upon the Greeks they are lost. The Romans
call them only Greclons the Belgians call us
HanoeQillons As soon as the great monuments be-
gin to rise in Rome nothing is left but corruption and
degeneracy."
You think perhaps that this escaped lunatic could
70 no further in the domain of Art Then read these
lines: Would to God that Luther had exterminated
the Raphaels, the Michael Angeles and all their RI
walls all those decorators of palaces and churches,
natural allies of priesthood and despotism against
the liberty of the people, ministers of corruption,
professors of pleasure. the agents of luxury; it is
they who have taught the people to endure their ig
noniny and their Indulgence by the contemplation of
their achievements" ProudhOn does not stop there;
he further says to the artists that through
them we have found means TO live in proud pau
perisIn. lie RACES against glory, having enjoyed
nothing but notOriety. "Glory ~ he says; this is
our daily bread-the daily bread of vain and cow
ardly races wbo after shining for moment in the
front rank, become the derision of nations" The
motive of all this wrath in book which Onght to
preserve always the sentiment of dignity, since Art
Is the school of the beautiful and the good that in
ProudhOn's opinion his gossip Courbet is not yet
recognized the first painterof the Nineteenth Cen
tury.
To Proudbon what are De la CrOx and Ingres, those
masters of cOors and design, those fine ntellgcnces
controlled by the religion of Art They nothing
but slaves of despOtsm and virtuosOs OF the priest
hood In like manner we French are nothing but
Francequilons since the Begians from the hight of
their dignity have said so Doubtless PrOudhon
thought that the Belgians do not speak of Rubens
who is UNIVERSAL surpassed us by their little pic
lures. Yet Louis XIV. royalty said, looking at some
Teniers, "Take these frightful clowns away" This
meant 81 like only grand art"
At mage 374 of his book ProudhOn declares that
the marvels predicted by Fourier will one day be
realized. "The true monuments of the Republic in
contradstinction to those of the Empire will be i'll
the convenience, the salubrtv and the cheapness OF
its habitations. NJ. Proudhon, you came into the
world poor. You have said that property is theft
because you had not the courage to buy the three
acres of Plato. You have regarded the beauties of
nature without understanding them, aud hence you
have decrced the uselessness Of God. You have re-
earled the masterpieces of Art with eye of envy
that YOU could not possess them initiate them and
Won have decreed the uselessness of Art Wishing to
be famous yOu would burn the Alexandrian library.
You may be consoled in your tomb, since your gOs
sip Courbet has overthrow the Vend6ne Column
and yOur friends, the Socialists have burned the |
library of the Louvre You need not be afraid that
sny one will ever take the trouble to burn your book
If your congeners ever come to power they may &C
eOrdng to your wish, burn Homer and Raphael, the
Vatican and Notre Dame de Paris, everything grand
OF beautiful which remains on dhrth But am
sorry for you, NJ. ProudhOn. They can burn neither
the blue sky nor the golden stars The sun viii still
light up their folly, and the roses and the nightn
gales those poems of the greatest of Artists, will
laugh to scorn eternally the man who would try TO
suppress poetry in the world. 1t was an earlier |
Proudhon who said to the nightingale Ugly beast
cannot sleep for your chattering."
Fortunately nobody reads Proudhon and we still |
70 10 the exhibitions of pictures as people went in |
the morning Of Art 1t is now 200 years since |
France began TO enjoy this spectacle, as the first |
exhibition took place in 1878. In spite OF the fact
that NJ Courbet longer exhibits, people still go to
mediate or laugh at the developments OF French |
painting. Whatever NJ. PrOudhon may say, 1T is
better to attend this school than his Painting and