The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-07

the aspiration of nature. When realism
was protest against the false and unnat-
ural idealism that crept into our literature
and our art after the death of Michael An
gelo, it was a good thing. Men began to
say, LET US return to reality and to hui
manltv-let US get back to earth" Then
we got the romantic movement in France
and Germany; and the pre-Raphaelite
brotherhood in England, out of which
grew the realism of to-day. But it seems
to me that realism itself has gone into ex-
tremes. 1t has seized on the ugly, the
deformed, the vicious, as the chief mate
rails of art. and at the same time has set
its face against selection, against interpre-
tation. Some of its devotees seem almost
ready to tell US that obscenity, vulgarity,
malformation are the only realities.
Runnyrhede-Art, for me, is the ex-
preston of the imagination-that is, it's
definition. Realism in art is a misnomer.
Where realism appears art disappears.
The real relation which realism bears to
art is identical with that which exists be-
tween the modeler's clay and the finished
sculpture. The province of art is to con-
ceal and not to exhibit realism. For in
stance, there's that beautiful willow at the
foot of the hill. To the realist there is
tree-beautiful in itself, but tree only.
For me, | take the green drapery of the
tree and / see in it the weeds of broken
hearted women. l see in the leaves that
have fallen and in the broken twigs the
shattered hopes and dreams of the soldier,
the statesman, the dreamer. Then | see in
the new growth of the tree the value and
i'm portance of suffering; that without the
tears that flowed from the willow the new
growth would not be ours. That is some
thing of what the tree means to me. have
idealized it. know, but no art which does
not idealize has any value in the affairs of
men and women. The relation of a story,
which is one of the highest forms of art
may suggest sorrow, suggest all the emo
tons and passions that influence human
ity, but it does not exhibit the mere physi-
cal processes which produce those emo
tons. It is the province of art to tell
complete story with single touch of the
brush or few strokes of the pen. Art
never Celebrates. 1t creates in the minds
of those who love it the story il has to tell.
Denatella, what do you think is the place
of realism, in poetry, for instance?
Standardization in poetry do not
think it can exist and the work be poetical
The highest poetry, while based upon real
ism-while giving the acts and express
sions of real life, depends upon ideality to
make it poetry. True art is imaginative.
Dialect verse is not poetry.
Runnymede-lt is perfumed prose.
The Dilettante-Prose without the per-
tune, rather.
Runnymede-No. There are perfumes
and perfumes. All are not sweet.
Kenneth Malcolm-Donatella is right.
great art is imaginative. 1t is a revela-
non, but If the senses are allowed to tell
the whole story there is nothing for the
imagination to reveal. Our diseased real
ism Keeps too close to the facts. 1t says to
us, copy nature. Put down what you
really see" But if to copy nature is our
mission, then photograph would surpass
any canvas and no artist would be so great
as camera.
The Artist-That is the talk of the whole
realistic school. Ny good friend and
1elow-countryman the scientist is always
senolng me TO nature to paint her. After
all, nature is only a dictionary. The
painter goes 10 her as the writer opens his
tkesaurus, for words. She gives him the
words freely, but he must take them and
tell his story with them. whether he work
with brush or pen. $50 to nature INV
scientific Scotchman said to me the Other
pay. 'The idea of shutting vourseIf
in room to paint a laniscapepi
" Why" said | to him, 'look here
The other evening l was painting a sun
rise. Next morning l went out in the
early dawning and there was nature ini-
tating my picture. But she was not put
ting into her sunrise half that 1 had put
into mine. There is more in every picture
than is shown on the surface. Saw Won
have landscape-they tell us now that
we are beginning to photograph in colors
there will be no need for the painters art
Why, look at the colored photograph. and
once your curiosity is satisfied YOU will
not need to look again. But the painted
will show you something more
than the trees, the sky, the fields and