New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-12-02
FRENCH ART.
|, BOOK OF LUCID CRITICISM.

and Sculpture. by w. T.. BrOwneIl. cVO. Up VIII,
go. New York Charles Scribners Sons.
II may be said of French art Voltaire said
~ Dante's poem that 10 las commentators. and for
that reason is seldom understood certain elements
in the CASE we may add, predisposng both friendly
and hostile commentators 10 dwell much more
upon what French art is not than upon what II
r. Its shortcomings are so vital that destructive
criticism is apt TO be inpatient of any discussion
of it's merits and because the hostile attitude is
so obviously justified in some respects the average
champion is stung to every possible kind Of specla
pleading. He will say, in effect, that French
art as it is is supremey right: or he Will say
that French art is what his opponents say ii is not
he will do anything except take French art
exactly as it is and give an unbiased account oil
it. Mr.. BrOwnell is not an average champion
1t ia shining virtue Of his brief study of french
art that along with the general tone Of admlra-
ton which il shares with many other studies
of the same subject it bears in uncommon dis
tinctness the stamp Of having been composed with
no other intention than that of making the
reader acquainted with the truth. That IS per-
haps, a doubtful compliment to pay an author;
but Mr.. Brownel is familiar enough with the
strenuous vehemence OF most writer's on french
art to forgive an expression of gratihcation upon
discovering that he has given us only that for
which he has prepared by his earlier volume,
French Traits" He be judicial without
being polemcal he offers judgments which do
not pretend be fats. and which need not neces-
sarly impose themselves upon the reader: and his
critcism-the Importance Of his book is that 1t
is always critical-is nterpenerated by the French
spirit, which is 10 say that, while he recognizes
that criticism must be based abstract laws. no
knows that it can never arrive at an understand
ing Of French art until ii has grasped the FIench
pOint of view With one reservation MI
Brownell may be relied upon TO put his readers
in possession of the French point OF view, and
therefore 10 give them a true understanding OF
French art. This single stumbling block as we
cannot but regard it, occurs early in the
book that may glance at it before proceeding
to consideration of Mr.. Brownell's main points
Speaking OF Chardin, page SIS, he refers to
that feeling for style and that instinct for
avoiding the common and uncean which always
seems to prevent French painters from sink
Ing with their subject as Dutch painters have
been said TO do" In the first place it seems TO
US that if there is one instinct which dominates
an ever-incrcasing number of French painters, il
is an instinct impossible 10 hide under the cloak
of style. for what is common and unclean.
Secondly, the phrase sinking with their sub
ject' although coined to express different
thought, applies very well to the debasing of fine
talents to iGnoble which is characteristic of
so many French artists. To press this point. how
ever, would be useless here. Whether an in
stinct for or against that which is common or
unclean prevails in French art-it will be re-
marked that the good instinct of which Mr..
Brownell speaks always" seems to PREVAILS
one of those problems best left TO the indi-
vidual TO solve for himself
Mr. Brownell goes 10 the root OF his subject
In stating the classic anmus pre- -eminently the
m of no Call lie IND nd
clear light upon the origin of French art an origin
In every way calculated to promise nourishing
of the classic spirit. The French school of paint
ing was founded, not by painters. but by a
king; as Mr.. BrOwnell puts il. Francis created
1t out Of hand" at Fontainebleau. The genius
of the French is critical. sclec!ivc, constructive.
logical, enamored of the concrete and of those
things which are above all precious in the con.
crete, balance symmetry, finish. sanity. The
nation has never been without the creative i'm
pulse but in the time of Francis and with the
imperative voice Of Francis in the air a course
Of choice. rather than Of creation. was
cut out for it. Approprating its art from
Italy, basing its synthcseS. to Mr. Browncls
words again, on elements already in combina
ton" France began its school of painting " in
connoisseurship" II has not forfeited its con-
noisseurshp TO this day, and therein is its re-
source, its power The artist is consciously
formative, is responsible. or he is nothing. This
responsibility a cardinal principle in French
art it is this which is felt TO undcrlie the move
ments which Mr.. Brownell chaIacterizes. in out
lining the development Of French painting, as
classic. romantic and realistic. d" 1t is a CO
rollary of the predominance OF the intellectual |
over the sensuous instinct" he says that the |
true should be preferred to the beautiful" What |
the Frenchman first of all feels bound TO re
spect in his art is the more or less accurately |
ascertaned standard of what is not alone true but
Intelligent, in good taste, in accordance with |
the best sense of his time. He will be him |
self, perhaps, but the style at which he aims |
is only secondarily the style which is to reveal
himself primarily, it is the style which is TO
give lbs work q certain cachet' OF soundness OF !
authority. very simple illustration serves 10 |
eucidate this. Consider group Of typical |
French pictures in the salon. and it is perceived
that what differcntates them one from the |
other, aside from content. is a trick of handling |
here, a note of color there. touch of within. Of |
pose Place the same pictures either in solid |
phalanX or at random in exhibition at Berlin |
or London, and what sets every one aside from |
its alien fellows is exactly the same quality, the
quality of s0undness, Of authority. The first |
sentence Of Mr.. Browncll's book is exceedingly |
true More than that Of any other modern |
people French art is a national expression" And
the national genius being for measured, well |
balanced "cDsemble,' that is what you get in |
French art. You do not get it. of course al |
ways And you very far from getting it. all |
the way from Gericault to Degas. in any literal |
academic sense, except in the case of bclatcd |
man like Dcaroche Gcromc But Just as it |
Is characteristic of the willo'-thc-Hisp paint
ers of the Louis Quinzc period Ia period. by the
bye. which we think has INSPIRED Mr. Browncll's |
most hopnily EXPRESSED chaptcrl, Just as II is |
the distinction OF Vatican. Fragonard. Van |
Ion and their comrades, 80 il is the distinction |
of romantic innovators. bent on expressing things
in their own way, like Gericault and DclacroiX;
OF a quiverpg personality like Corot: of an
of nrimitiNn like |