New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-06-06
THE ART OF HOBBY RIDING.
SOME DIvERTING ANECDOTES-wITH 4
MORAL.

THE CONNOIssEUR. Essays on the Romantic
and Picturesque Associations OF Art and Artists.
BY Frederick S. Robinson Octave PIP vii. 90
Longmans, Green & Co.
For many years two private houses in Paris
were visited with delight by every fortunate
enough to gain access to them Ore, the mansion
OF q celebrated dealer and connosseur. a
kind Of transmogri1ed museum 1t was packed
with works OF art, closely packed indeed, that
although the man who had brought the treasures
together had arranged them with consummate
artlessness, 1t was impossible to avoid. in ira
versing the gorgeous rooms, the feeling that they
were somehow an annex to the Louvre The
other house to which reference is made was stu
ated in the old cite" where no one would ever
have suspected its existence. 1t also filled
With priceless relics of the great epochs in art
pecially of the Italian Renaissance, but the owner
had not arranged" them at all He literally
lived with them, and behind the bare facade
which suggested a warehouse. he had erected
veritable home in the style of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. No thought of the Louvre
entered into the impression received from this
noble dwelling. Adorned with many a painting
and mantle-piece and bedstead that museum
would have rejoiced in, it remained essentially a
home. The distinction which we have indicated
between two kinds of connoisseurship is fruitful
Of suggestions. aud they are added to by this book
of Mr.. Robinsons. He has not asked to be taken
cry seriously. lie tells stores ne fnarSnalS I'M
important data from the ledgers of the auction
.. loom, well from the history of art. But he
IS his moral. which is-if you wish to commence
,nnoisseur you must do some hard studying, be-
,.des getting yourself born to the purple. In fact
the instinct is not in 4 mans blood he might as
N.Il give up connoisseurship first last This
lay be discouraging, but it is just If we admit
that the poet is born not made that the artist,
he architect, the perfect artisan, belong in the
IA n ha Inv
sumo that the connosseur. who must be poten-
tally all of these things can be developed out of
"A soulful yearning and plethoric bank account?
The connoisseur is called to n very high office.
Emulating the spirit of Fletcher of Saltoun he
might we'll say that he cares not who makes
the laws of his nation so that he may at least
conserve its arts. Upon him, quite as much as
upon the artists themselves, devolves the task of
keeping the nation straight in matters of art
Moreover. his connection with the artist is very
close. He can do much to teach a medocrty his
level He be OF precious assistance in fixing
the fame of the deserving. He can, in a word.
keep the picture market pure and fertile, not by
the mere spending of money, but by the uphold
ing Of a high sta 1dard of taste. All this sounds
very piatitudinous doubt. But perusal of
Mr. Robinson's book will convince the reader that
the connoisseur rarely has the true sense Of his
responsibilities, that he buys far too often what
he likes" and not half often enough the things
that he knows are good. The trouble Is that he
does not know. He follows fashion. tradition,
the commercial trend he follows everything save
an independent line of judgment fOstered by ex-
perience and loving study. When he has had
those last qualifications how happy are his tri-
umphs! 1T is in the smaller Sales" says Mr..
Robinson when several properties are sold to-
gether and the dealers are at faut-having
only their own judgment to go by-that the true
connoisseur will find the unnoticed gem. 1t may
be the only genuine picture in a crowd of worth
less copies but, at any rate, 1t will be so dirty
and have been hung so high in a corner on the
viewing days that no one notices its existence
Then, II he has marked it, many an anxious hour
will he pass before the sale day arrives and the
bitding shows whether the keen-scented have
discovered 1T, too. If they have, the price will 60
up by leaps and bounds. and the connoisseur may
he left lamenting. If they have not it may go
for a song and he will bring home his prize in
triumph. Perhaps few days after it may leak
out that some one with two eyes in his head
picked up q Rembrandt for f2O at such and such
sale"
1t is wrong to call this mere coura ge 1t means
knowledge Mr.. Robinson recalls that .ip
Elegsnce the Medici. between the years 1884