Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-11-11
SIudYin@ Ar Ahroad.

iDr. John C. Van Dyke in Harper's Msgazine.l
To begin art in France usually means TO
end as French artist. When the young
man from Denver, with that poor judg-
ment which youth generally possesses,
reaches Paris, he very likely goes at once
to the Beaux Arts and enters as a pupil.
He may have positive ideas OF his own
about art, but week by week, month by
month, they gradually fade before an
overpowering sense of the beautiful in
academic composition and well turned
form. To be sure the professors there do
not teach the absoluteness of line as in
the days of David and Ingres; int little
by little the impression grows upon the
student that the chief beauty in art lies in
good drawing and modelling The tradi-
tions of the place, the paintings of its
professors, the works of the PriX de Rome
men that hang in the school, the statuary,
the buildings, the very air, seem to breathe
forth classicism which died with the
Greeks and the true spirit of which no
subsequent nation has ever been able to
revive. Perhaps instead of the Beaux
Arts he goes to the Julien, where the va
porizing of a noisy clique may lead him to
an exactly opposite eztreL'e. He knows
very little about art, and when Modernity
at the Julien informs him that the works
cf the old masters are admired only be-
cause they are old and covered with var
nish, that they would not stand a ghost of
chance of getting into the Salon if
painted to-day, and that the great men are
Besnard, Deges and Claude Monet, he is
only too likely to believe it. In either or
any case it is generally the cleverness of
technique, brilliancy of touch and facility
in handling that claim his attention. The
particular idol he worships is manner, and
when the time comes for him to give forth
| matter, the world discovers that he is a
technician, but nothing more. He knows
how to say things, but the things he says
are only studio receipts for relieving a
black against black, or making twilight
and freight unite into one tone, or paint
| ing a dress with few broad sweeps of the
| brush. And all this time he has been
| close to great art, both ancient and mod
| ern, but he has not studied it. He al
ways thinks to do so when he has finished
| with this, that or the other thing; but af-
| ter few years the intention has taken the
| place of the deed. The closeness of
things has rendered them too familiar for
| study; and even if he make trip to Ven
| ice, it is nine times out of ten to do Pi-
azzetta like Favretto, or q Ca dora like
Rico, not to see the masterpieces of Belli-
| nj, Titan, Tintoretto and Veroness. Mo.
| dernity claims him a vassal, and in
| stead of using his power to say something
that is distinctly his own and worth lis
| tening to, he bends his energy to technical
| problem, and he hopes to do ga stunning
thing" for the Salon. He has the painters
knowledge, but he lacks the artist.
breadth of view; he lacks culture.
Perhaps it were just as we'll for our sup
| posititious Denver youth did he learn the
| elements of his art here in America, where
Modernity's quips and fsds are not so pre-
| valent If he chose thereafter to com,
| plete his training abroad he would at least
| have some experience to guard him against
| fashion in art. 1t is not worth while IL
claim that the art training here in New
| York is superior TO that of Paris, though
| French artists-M Benjamin Constan
among others-have declared the art stu
dents league quite as thorough in it
teaching as any Paris atalier. 1t is suffi
cient to say that the elements of art ar,
taught here with knowledge and thorough
ness. When the student has finished will
such a course as the league provides, theI
it is perhaps advisable for him to 81
abroad, to supplement his technical edu
cation, if need be, but primarily to SCI
how and what the great artists of the an
cient and modern world have produced il
art. To go abroad with the idea of learn
ing to draw like Bougueresu or paint hk
Vollon is only to make of the student al
undesirable imitator of other mems meth
DDS; but he should see the work of thes
men, and should profit not alone by thei
technique, but by their point of view.
Passing from the workshop directly +
the studio is very likely to carry into ar
merely workshop methods, whether it b
in New York or Paris. The period o
training should be followed by period o
production, and no one cares for an ar
lists reproduction of what he has beel
taught. He must learn to originate, thel
to recombine. To do this he should sc
how others have done it before him. Fo
that purpose, and for giving breadth o
view and general culture, the advantage
of foreign study are undeniable. Tn
French long ago recognized this by estah
fishing the well-known Prix de Rome; ant
} in this connection it is interesting TO not
that some progressive Americans at tn
present time are trying to establish som
travelling art scholarships with simila
object in view.