New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-01-25
EUROPEAN ART.

CHARl.ES BbANC ON COIEMPORARf Akl.
vlIr EMINENT FRENCH CRITIC RESTRICTS THE
REALM OF ART To FRANCE BELGIUM, AND
PARTS OF GERMANY-HE FINDS FAULT WITH
MIILns, AND DEEMS BRITISH ART OF NO AC-
CoU>T-GKNERAL MERITS OF NJ. BLANCs BOOK.
IrRoN THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRIBuNE.l
LONDON, Dec. 21.-M Charles Blanc's Les Ar
tistes dc Mon Temps is book likclyto attract
some attention in England if for no other reason
than its section English Painting. This section
is mostly devoted to a criticism on English pictures
exhibited at the French Exposition OF 1867, but it
contains some general remarks English art of
kind not unlikely TO provoke indignant reply as
well as attention. NJ. Charles Blame is well known
here and IN France he ranks among the first, If not
the first, of living writer's art. He has been
Director Of Fine Arts. member for many years of
the Academy of Fine Arts and was lately elected to
The Academy in deserved recognition OF his many adj
n,irlble contributions to the Literature of Art The
English are in the habit of expressing certain con-
tempt for foreign opinion English matters Art,
however. is of no country and NJ. Charles Blanc can
make himself heard when he chooses to. What he
says about the 1867 Exposition is not new 1t is
reprint of articles Published at the time but
newspaper criticism is one thing criticism which
makes part of o large and important book is an
other, by virtue merely of its different surround
ings
The remark that art is of no country, though true
enough IN one sense. might perhaps have been left
for a more suitable occasion, since NJ Charles Blanc
il of opinion that locality has much TO do with the
existence or non-existence of art The cause of this
he does not attempt TO give but invites the pilOso-
pher 10 explain why race has capacity for art
and another has not declaring that whatever the
reason may be- the fact is beyond dispute. Art he
insists is question Of latitude and longitude and
there is no appeal from the material considerations
which seem to determine question so essentially
incCrporeal. The observation Is, indeed, only a
paIaphraSc of PascaPs respecting Justice-that
Justice aud Injustice exchange places with change
of climate and that three degrees of elevation of
the pole ovcrturn whole system of jurisprudence.
Ii may be climate says NJ. Charles Blanc, it may be
religion il NAV he ideas and manners, it may he
institutions but whatever it be 1t is clear that to
certain nations the feeling for art is absolutely I'M
known. once heard an American, an acute art
critic assert with some vehemence that no InaIiborn
in New England ever knew what art meant. He
WAS himself "A New-Englander by residence, but
about bis birth / am not quite sure. America, i
suppose sent no pictures 10 Paris IN 1867; AT any
rate NJ Charles Blanc, who devotes separate essays
t. the French, English, Belgian Spanish, ltalian
German. and even Portuguese painters, has nothing
70 say about u.s. We may perhaps be thank
abont. We in any case, must include ourselves IN
fle general remark that outside of France Belgium,
aud some parts of Germany, such art as exists IS
worth very little. Ii is of the present day only that
this said Italy, Spain, and Greece have had great
artists and may have again. Not so England. En-
gland if we are to believe her French censor has
never had either painters or scuptors OF really SUI
perior talent and since this remains true even since
her ACQUISITION of the marbles of Phdlas and since
her entry upon period of ncXamplcd prosperity
and riches the naturalization OF high art Ill that
country must be deemed all impossible tnlng There
have been. and there are English painters some of
them happy enough to earn, with certain limitations,
high praise from Nj. Charles Blanc but he is doubt
full whether it can properly be said that there ever
was an English school. The English contributions
10 the Exposition consisted of small genre pieces
scenes out of English novels incompreheIislble by
ANYBODY who had not read the novels; weak por-
traits always wanting i'll something or other mat
might have made them excellent; landscapes with
out poetry without feeling, matter OF fact, and sen
eatona water colOrs of prodigiOus technical skill
and absurdy big busts in marble or plaster which
even the artists friends could hardly praise ;-ahd
that was all. Yet among the English eXhlp-
itors were Sir Edwin Landscer, Milals, Faed'
Webster. Leslie, Frederick Leighton, Orchardson,
and others. who then and since have been reckoncd
dealers and English critics call the modern English
school One important section of that school, OF
which Burne Jones and the ROssettis are now per
hans the leaders was absent. Yet in 1888 Ml!lals
and Holman Hunt in the early fervOr OF Their con-
version had represented the pre-Raphaeltes, and
though the theory they had adopted was repughaht
10 French ideas, their work rs 1t was then seen
obtained far more respectful mention from Our
French connosseur than what he saw IL years
infer Some wears later still walked through Royal
Academy exhibition in London in 81. Charles Biapcs
COMPANY. 70 whatever uttered at that time
must refer with all reserve but may be permitted
to say that he found much to praise, and praisedlt
struck me- almost eagerly, if reluctant toapply to
the works that hung the walls of Burlington
House the canons by which the pictures of the Salon
would he Judged He wax always polite and cor
dial: not a word of spoken contempt for anything
or ANYBODY; hut cannot recall a single remark that
eecns inconsistent with this view Of English art as
above stated. | fear il must he sad that
view not dissImilar prevails not among frenchnen
only but on the Continent ger lily.
Mr. Nhllais was Therein AS VI. Charles
Blanc calls him. the pre-Raphaelite par excellence
lie is to-day If popularity and the prices OF his PIE
turcs be accepted as proof the leading English paint
en- Yet il is hardly too much 10 say that III France
M Millais is unknown unknown by the great
majority of cultivated Frenchmen 10 whom the works
of every proved painter of eminence are familiar ana
. but slightly valued by those whom their foreign
stude, or foreign travel nave made acquainted with
his peculiar style. Nobody would think OF sending
a picture by Miais 10 be sold in Paris. On the other
hand the best French artists-and not few second
aud third Lcst-are almost a. well known in London
IA in Paris Pictures by living Frenchmen are always