The Portland daily press., 1896-11-23
ART LECTURE.
Mr.. Fox's Talk on Baudry and Mi1let, the
Artists.

Mr.. Charles Fox, at his studio Saturday
evening, spoke to an audience which filled
the loom, of 1.-TWO Sons of Peasants,
Paul BandrY and Jean Franco Millet,
justly called men of genius" Mr.. Fox
said that art like all the great princi-
Piles of life in ubjeot to evolution. 1t
is also subject to devolution or decay.
The most just method of judging a
mans work consists in hanging all his
pictures together and then, on the wall
spaces between, to write all his actions,
thoughts and private life. In this way
you will see that the man 3 mind has
evolnted or deoayed. In this way the
clever prillianoy of single picture will
not deceive us. AS the sou. Is 81 bjeot
to evolution, SO also is the hand. A re-
oe MT lecture upon the evolution of man
showed curious lack of artistic under
standing on the part of the artist. In
all but one illustration there was no diff
ference between the prehistoric man
and the present studio model; whereas
there must BIZ an actual scientific and
artistic change based upon the history
of art and the character Of the mental
change. I mean that muscular forms
evolute. BauGry and Millet are clear
examples of evolution though the form
er illustrates also the principles Of decay.
Baudry, though she son of peasant,
was trained under Greek influence.
Greek art, which is eminsntly exclu-
sive and aristooratic, when brought face
to face with the great modern prinol-
Baudry from the ideals of his youth,
from liberal life, and led him through
many fantasy, to the doorway of death
| upon whose gates we shall oil see In in
destructable bronze the story of our
whole life. When a genius enters the
world two great Glasses offer him well
come. A vigorous and seductive appea
is made to him by the exclusive or aris-
tocratio class and q mute appeal is made
to him by the great mass of humanity.
Baudry Needed the first and fell; Millet
heard the larger; and now even the
small class harksns to him.
Three times within a year have heard
| Greek culture brought before Portland
| audiences in the form of the Venus of
Milo; once rs type OF true and noble
womanhoOd.
| OF the Venus of Milo as a specimen of
healthy animal I have little criticism
| to make but of the spiritual Venus
OF Milo, have much to say. When
this goddess shall descend from her Pc
destal, when she shall walk in the COM
mon street, when she shall be jostled by
= kn rI hi
common woman sweats in labor, when
her strong limbs shall feel the cold, and
when as common working woman
her white face and white breast shall be
spattered by mud from the passing
wheels of the rich and from the cultured
who worship her now; when this and
deeper and bitterer d,sillusions shall
happen, then say the dreaminess shall
pass from her face, and depth and
strength and penetration aud tender.
ness shall arise which shall make her
face as different from the revery of the
present Venus as o white dream of past
loneliness, is to a new beauty and the
glory of resnrrected present.
The great common chord between these
two men Baudry and Millet was their
deep tenderness-the rarest of qualities
in art. Was 1t because each of them ros-
sessed gentle. self effaoing, long suffer-
ing mother? Tenderness and motherhood
run through all their works, sympathy
with the soil. sympathy with whatever
they touched, however vigorous that
touch.
A large sketch of the lives of these
two men show this evolution: Baudry
started with the earnestness of youth
and touched the sublime. Then came
the batteries and association with the
rich, title after title was conferred upon
him. Then followed decadence.
Millet on the other hand commenced
exactly opposite. He begun with a de-
sire for wealth and he painted trivial
subjects-''Venus bathing and the like
Then he descended to the obscene and
painted a 81. Anthony tempted by
woman which was 10 vile that it was re-
jsoted By the "Salon'
This was the critical point in his life.
He turned his back on wealth just as
Christ and Buddha and all true nen
turn their backs upon wealth, not despis-
ing it but seeing tn rough it. From the
obscene, Millet turned to the simple nat
ural life. From the simple, be rose to
the serious; from the serious, he rose to
the sublime.