The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-03
.AUGUsTE RENOIR.
WhHt Ii ImpressIOnlsInf

arc their sponsors In the matters OF design.
subject. realism. study of life, new CON-
ceptions Of beauty and portraiture. Myth
ology, allegory, historic themes. the neo-
Greek and the academic are under the ban
above all the Bo-oalled grand style
lmpressionism has actually elevated genre
painting TO the position occupied by those
vast, empty, pompous, frigid. smoky, classic
pieces OF the early nineteenth century.
However, it must not be forgotten that
modern impreesionism IL only a new tech
nique, a new method OF execution-we say
new. though that is not exactly the case.
The home Of inpressionism lie in the East;
it may be found in the vivid patterns woven
in Persia or in old japan. In its latest
avatar 1t is the expression Of contempora-
neous reality. Therein is it's true power.
The artist who turns his face to the past
his work will never be anything but an echo.
To depict the faces and things n pen the
manners Of the present 10 the task OF great
painters and novelists. Actualists alone
count in the future. The mills Of the an
tiqus grind swiftly-like the rich. they will
be always with us-but they only grind
out limitations; and from pseudo classic
marbles and pseudo beautiful pictures
may the Lord Of Flies deliver us.
That able and sympathetic writer Mr.. D.
8. MacCol has tersely summed up in his
Vision Of the Century the difference be-
tween the old and new Of seeing
things, The old vision had beaten out
three separate acts-the determination Of
the edges and limits Of things, the standings
and the modelings Of the spaces in between
with black and white, and the tintings Of
those spaces with their local color. The
new vision that had been growing up among
the landscape painters simpli1es as well
as complexities the old. For purposes OF
analysis it sees the world as a mosaic Of
patches Of color, such and such a hue,
suoh and such a tone, such and such a
shape. " The new analysis looked
first for color and for q different color in
each patch OF shade or light. The old
painting followed the old vision by It's three
processes Of drawing the contours, modelling
the ohiaroscura In dead color, and finally In
ooloring this black and white preparation. The
new analysis left the contours to be determined
by the junction, more or less fused, Of the color
patches, instead Of reidly defining them as they
are known to be defined when seen near OF hand
or felt " Local color In light or shade
becomes different not only in tone but in hue
To the layman who asked, what is
impressionism'' Mauclair has given the
most succinct answer in his book Linn
pressionisme': SIN nature he declares,
mo color exists by itself. The o~oloring
OF b object is pure Illusion; the only
creative source OF color is the sunlight,
which envelops all things and reveals
them, according TO the hours, with infinite
notifications The idea OF dis
lance, Of perspective, Of volume, is given
us by darker or lighter oolors; this is the
sense Of values; a value lie the degree Of
light or dark intensity which permits our
eyes TO comprehend that one object ID
further or nearer thar another. And al
painting is not and cannot be the imitation
Of nature, but merely her artificial inter-
probation, since it has only at its disposal
two out Of three dimensions, the values
are the only means that remain for Ok
pressing depth on q fat surface. Color is
therefore the procreatrix OF design. " .
Colors vary with the intensity Of light.
. Local color is an error; a leaf is
not green. a tree trunk is not brown. . " .
According to the time Of day, L. e.. according
to the greater or smaller inclination OF the
rays scientifically called the angle Of in
cidenoe) the green OF the leaf and the brown
"a nv SiVS oio NAf' hO Will
position Of the atmosphere . . is the
real subject OF the picture. . shad-
ow is not absence OF light. but light OF a
different quality and Of a different value
Shadow is not part OF the landscape where
light ceases, but where it is subordinated
to a light which appears to us more in
tense In the shadow the rays Of the spec
trum vibrate with q different speed. Paint
;no .h1.lI thara(oHa try In diaOnuar haHa
as in the light parts, the play OF the atoms
OF solar light, instead OF representing shad-
ows with ready made tones composed OF
bitumen and black. . . In a pict-
ure representing an interior the source OF
light Iwindowsl may not be indicated;
the light circulating, circling around the
picture, will then be composed OF the re-
Elections OF rays whose source is invisible.
and all the objects, acting as mirrors for
these reflections. will consequently influence
each other. Their colors will affect each
other ever IL the surfaces be dull. A red
vase placed Upon a blue carpet will lead to a
very subtle but mathematically exact
exchange between this blue and this red;
and this exchange OF luminous waves will
create between the two colors a tone
OF reflections composed OF both. These
COHlDOSllS ItutCNlOiih WI" III n bCdlo Vi
tones Complementary Of the two principal
colors.
The painter will have TO paint with only
the seven colors OF the solar spectrum and
discard all the others; . . he will,
furthermore. instead OF composing mix
lures on his palette, place upon his canvas
touches OF none but the seven colore juxta-
posed [Claude Monet has added black and
vhite) and leave the individual rays OF each
OF these colors to blend at a certain distance.
30 as to act like sunlight upon the eye OF
the beholder.' This is called dissertation
OF tones; and here lie a new convention;
why Danish all save the spectrum? We
paint nature. not the solar spectrum.
Claude Monet has been thus far the most
successful practitioner Of impressionism;
this by reason OF his extraordinary ana
lytical power OF vision and native genius
rather than the researches OF Helmholtz,
Chevreul and Rood. They gave him his
scientific formulas after he had worked out
the problems. He studied Turner in Lon
don, 1870; then his changed. He had
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