The Washington times., 1902-02-09

The modern critic would seem to be
man out in the road, shading his eyes
with his hand, and peering far down the
ways for approaching figures He seeks
the coming man in art, the coming
man in literature" and is ready with
prophecy or a doubt at every little
cloud of dust stirred by the feet of chance
pedestrians. Some day. no doubt, he will
be greatly surprised to find that he has
down the beaten road.
One may easily arrive at the conciu-
sion that a great deal of the current art
is ephemeral In its character. Much OF
it is perfunctory and much erratic and in
sincere. Men take up the profession OF
painting for various reasons rather than
for the one valid one. an irrepressibie de-
sire to do the work. and so paint pictures
as one makes shoes, having learned the
trade and secured customers for his
wares. But the inevitable painters, thpse
who must paint at any cost, are not al
ways satisfactory painters. The impulse
is generally in nature that cannot di
rect or control it and so VIC have the mel
ancholy spectacle of an ineffective mar
tyrdom.
One thing is certain, there are many
who can paint and paint well, who know
their trade. can handle their tools with
confidence and facility. who can. indeed,
give odds to their betters in the mechaf-
les of their art. If one of these trained
painters should happen to become pos
sessed of an interesting and personal ideal
we might suddenly be surprised by the
advent OF a master. There are cotem-
porary painters, Americans. who have
this personal quality. who have worthy
ideals to which they are loyal at all
times: but as a rule they are not the
men who have mastered the mechanics OF
their art: they are, however. interesting
and important factors in the development
of this American art that the critics are
worrying over.
Old Masters and Modern Painters.
marked difference in the work OF the
cid masters and the current painters is
this:.Thc old masters were men of ideals
moved by positive impulses. and at the
same time were masters OF their craft.
The current painter is master CT his
craft with restricted ideals, or a man OF
ideals, restricted in his means OF express
sion. Here in America we have arrived
at point where the assured use of the
tools is commonly insisted upon and the
assumption of technical mastery which
can never be real mastery without an
adequate motive for the technique, gives
a curiously perfurctory character to the
mass of canvases in current exhibitions.
Here and there at rare intervals we pause
before picture that commands our
interest as we'll as our attention, and
Passing out of the galleries we carry
with us hope based on that which is new,
vital, and persuasive in the one canvas
that arrested us as we scanned the exhi-
bition walls.
But in the midst OF all this mass OF in
effectively clever york, We would do we'll
to remember one or two things. 1t is |
essential that the painter should be
good craftsman. We are rapidly meeting
this requirement II is essential that The /
painter should have worthy ideal. Now,
the next thing to having an ideal OF ones |
own is to believe in some man who has /
an ideal: for faith in something is essen (
tial to the salvation of a painter and faith I
in another mans faith is better than nc
faith at all. The young American painter
makes a god of Whistler, and after all .
has been said for and against that gifted /
and erratic painter it must be admitted 1
that he has ideals. and that there is an /
intensely personal quality in mis- work.
Whistler's Technique.
A Whistler canvas in an exhibition
makes apparent the common lack of this /
personal charm in current work. Whist |
ler's work commends itself for its quail /
ties of technique, but enchains us by /
something that is quite beyond and above /
the intelligent manipulation OF the pig (
ments. 1t is the Whistler who observes I
rather than the Whistler who paints, who (
arrests us before his canvases.
1t is not an art that appeals to the
lover of incident; it is an exquisite ap-
probation of the charms inherent in /
things themselves. A fabric a porcelain (