The record-union., 1899-12-11

which year by year CLOVIS with
acterized the world of Achaean heroes
of which the image, transformed by
oral tradition and singularly enlarged
by power of invention, is reflected in
the Had and the Odyssey.
New York Tribune: The death of
Giovanni Segantini, short time ago,
deprived Italian art of a pillar it could
i'll spare. He was one Of the very few
men in his country who realized that
the brittle color and fiashy draughts-
manship based on a facile and thought
less imitation of Fortuny and the His
pano-Roman school was in the last de-
gree inimical to the production of good
art. He was himself painter of sin
cere feeling and original gifts. Called
by some the Italian Millet," he had
neither the simplicity of sentiment nor
the breadth of style sufficiently to JUS
tify the appellation. He was diverted
from his straightforward study and
bold treatment of landscape forms by
strain of mysticism which he was not
poet enough adequately to exploit; and
the human figure, as he adapted it to
his symbolical designs, never emerged
from beneath his brush with the aspect
of nature that he achieved in his purely
realistic compositions. Nevertheless, if
we are disappointed in his fantastic
pictures, such as 1.-The Punishment of
Luxury or The Retribution of I'm
natural Mothers" there is nothing to
regret in such studies of familiar life as
oh nc IN
Return to the Old Home which Gre
ated a sensation in the international
exhibition at Venice in 1895. To the
last mentioned work money prize was
awarded. 1t deserved the higher honor.
which we believe it received, of being
acclaimed alike by Italian and foreign
critics masterpiece of dignified nat
uralistic art, a canvas placing modern
Italian painting in the very first rank
1t did not equal great painting by
Millet because it stopped short of ex-
pressing that quality which we can only
describe as genius; but in its direct and
strong method, in the excellence of it's
design, in its blending of human pathos
with the sentiment of noble Landscape.
IL showed that Segantini if not a great
painter, was certainly a good one. who
could not be ignored. Perhaps the OBJ
stacle between him and greatness was
the technical astringency by which he
was from first to last, afflicted. Paint
ing always with a certain vigor. he
seemed at the same time to be unable
TO achieve the fiuency and swift COM
mand winch would have lent a higher
distinction to his art. He secured We
faelty IN his textures and was right in
MS atmosphere, but somehow he seemed
to get these qualities at the expense of
spontaneity; before even his best pic
lures one longed always for a larger,
ireer touch. To recall Millet, as per
maps one is bound to do in view of the
rustic themes the Italian and French
man poth treated, is to recall. alasi
melting horizons and tender suavities
OF tone and color which were n,s+ he
yond Segantinis reach The interesting
thing is that he had merit enough to
convince the critic that in time he
would have attained far higher level
than that on which he was working
when he died. He was hardly more
than 40. And, for all his limitations,
he had done work for which Italy must
remain profoundly grateful, since it OPP
posed to the artificiality and frivolous
tone of the art of the day a genuine
emotion, true sympathy for nature
and style that was at once original and
strong.
Some time ago a bright eyed little
Fellow used to sell papers in Nassau