New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-09-01

genius ia content to read the features OF the ia'
men who have sat to him. He Will see accurate
likeness and poetic insight into character Ia ,ne
same canvas. He will learn with interest tnat
most of them have been painted by Mr. watts ior
himself-painted because the men interested nun
ond he wanted TO stereotype his impressions OF
than, and live among them as he does. lie VIII
turn from picture TO picture admirng the hexiollS
Of the mind of the artist who has wrought them
all and the range of an art which can deal learhe"y
with so many topics At last, he VIII hhu n'n'ei
in the presence of those works when IL Is coi,iV"
TO speak of as allegorcal, which denote INC niS
water mark of the artists ambition ana "hich NO
chooses IN suppose the general public regards with
n certain indifference. 1.-The cares to proht 10 inc
full bv what Mr. Watts has to teach him. leu MN
surrender his son to these. Here, II anywhere mas
the artists own soul put itself into closest com
mupion with those which have any knship with
his. MANY Of them are well known; and the one
mentioned above. Love and Death is sure of that
popularity in America which even England ala not
deny to It, There is another yet unfinished when
is full of character and curiously illustrative OF the
artists endeavors Time and Death, two colossal
figures are in the foreground. Time has his scythe
and is strdng on with clearly marked steps Inc
Death by his side figure of woman, advances
with him, but by gliding movement
strangely contrasted with that of her com
panion She holds in her gathered robe a shear OF
nowers-they are her harvest The conception Is
novel and true, and one TO which nobody could re-
fuse the quality of poetic. Behind ia the rushing
form which one may call Nemesis; rcyengeiul' If
resstible, more formidable even than the TWO III
front, which are perhaps, after all, but servants W
the other You may say you don't care for TINS
sort Of art If you like But you cannot say II Is not
art of "A noble kind, and in these days all but
solitary.
Whatever may have been Mr. Watts's relations
10 the puhlic-and for my part | think him great
favorite with the best part of the public hcfe-ho
has always been prominently the admiration OF
! his fellow artists. Not long ago heard the most
| spiritual and accomplished of the younger
generation declare that he owed great deal OF
| what merit lie had to Mr. Watts, OF his technical
power M we'll as Of his delicate feeling ho expressed
| the highest opinion. 10 IN exc trained III the mod
ern French school Mr.. Wats's method VIII very
! likely be surprise His object IL very unlike
theirs. The best Of the naturasts-for that Is
their proper name IN art as well as in literature
are content when they have successfully and truth
fully reproduced certain facts of light and shade,
of relief of roundness or whatever else. They
| care nothing about surface. Mr.. Watts has
| tenderness of perception to which rOughness OF
| finish gives posItive distress. Tie VIII take any
| pains to refine il away, yet he never becomes IN
! sipid nor offers you the pomatumed smoothness In
| which one distinguished Academcan delights
| above all things. There all the difference be-
! tween Watts and this other that there is between
the ustre of comedian and the varnish of pastry
| About whatever he does there is real graceful
ness. SAID an artist TO me once: "lf You can THINK
Of a picture by Watts as torn to bits, and you
CHANGED 10 pick up of the bits, 1t might be bit
of a dress or flesh, nomattcr what, you could not
| 20 l 4,ot bel1 hand
| fragment of a beautiful work" At times his sense
of color abandons him. He is not always at his full
strength. nor perhaps always quite successful in
making his picture instructive at first sight.
| Other criticisms might be made, and will he made
| in New-York in due time, but my object is not to
clIticise so much as TO give account of the actual
| position winch Mr.. Watts holds to the art of his
| Time and to Indicate some Of the advantages to be
! gained from a study of his pictures. &c W. :.