New-York tribune., 1906-01-21

| ing invention in design; but they and all the
| rest, including followers like Burne-Jones' VIII
| be denied immortality on the charge OF not nav
ing developed a sound style, of not having
achieved a perfect balance between substance
| and form.
1t is tempting to illustrate the point by rel
erence to one Pre-Raphaelite after another, and'
indeed. Mr. Hunts book practically invites these
excursions but 1t must suffice to pause upon
| this occasion on his own career He IS a posi-
| tive hero of art From the beginning ne Ills
Iabored with almost religious zeal, and IN theSe
materiaIistic days it is pleasure to follow the
narrative of his idealistic struggle against heVy
odds He has never wearied Of taking pains
He has never sacrificed a conviction The story
| of his Journeys in the Holy Land, undertaken
with a high resolution to make his paintings OF
Biblical subjects as truthful possible. is alone
enough to win sympathy for the man a char-
acteristic episode relates to a detail In one Oh
his best known pictures. "The Light OF the
| World" Of this he says:
One of my first duties now was to I'd dessR 2ouf {n'
| the windows and openings had to De careIuiii!5
studied in relation to the rays OF . gh5 6 m e made IL
metal it seemed to me that tin might serFe It IN
4 metal worker agreed to make it for a small sum I'M
but afterward rePTesented& Ina Ias and as this seenec
tring to be aGe6talv at having to pa
| over seven pounds.
| An elaborate drawing of the lantern accom-
panies this note The artists attitude Of thor
ough" is unimpeachable, but the trouble is that
it springs not alone from the passion Tor truth
which all great artists have shared but from
kind of uninpassioned care for detail which no
great artist ever felt. He put his whole soul
into the picture in questioned that there can
be no doubt; yet in its tormented realism 1t
leaves much the same impression upon critical
observer that it left. for different and at the
same time kindred reasons, upon Ae central
figure of the following story:
1t was CarIyle's second visit to my studio that
best revealed the inner nature Of the & man 4E MheF en-
the World were just completed He spoke ap-
derstanding of the effect Che pointed to the reec-
ton of the green foliage into the shinlng table
to the other. he spoke in terms of disdain: You
Sow tn5 Io caRnot Safn any prot to yoursef ex
cept in pecuniary sense profit any one else
fantasy like that, for it only be an inanty or
is poor, misshaped presentation of the noblest,
the brOtherlest and the most heroic minded Being
pose that Jesus walked about bedizened priestly
AND and e uaeoe nnd round oH His
crown pOntfical robe did the world e'er give
sent Him % as the spiritual Christ YOU have chosen
the form in which He has been travestied from
their own ambitions as His. repeating Judass be
ly of His antique, heroic soul; if you realized His
character all you wouldn't try to NAL ke people
go back and worship the image that the priests
have invented of Him 10 keep mems silly souls in
meshes of slavery and darkness. Don't YOU
that you're helping to make people believe what
you know TO be false, what y don't believe your
the shallow idle fool and his wretched victim had
to do with reality; this is only empty maxi
believe mere pretended fancy. 10 do the like OF
which is the worst of occupations for a man to
take to- tried here to declare that did firmly
believe In the idea that had painted more than
anything L saw with my natural eyes. and that 7
could prove from his writings that he did also: but
Carlyle, standing behind. put up her emphatic
nhger and shook her head signing to me.
Subtract all elements of bias from CarIyIe's
outburst. and it nevertheless embodies a fair
Judgment upon Hunts picture, inasmuch as 1t
testifes to the failure of the latter to carry con
V1ctlon. That is the great defect of the pre-
Raphaelites. 1t may be said of painting as 1t
has been said of poetry. that it is the Illusion
that counts, the divine Illusion. and nothing like
that was ever achieved by any of the pre-Fia-
phaehtes- Hunt came nearest to the goal in his
best picture. THE Lady of Shalott." which
invention is superb, yet it is worth noting that
this beautiful Tennysonian illustration is almost
more effective in the simple wood engraving OF
Moxons old edition of the poet than in the
painting. which loses something of its broad
dignity through the arduous reproduction Of al