The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-25
Y AS Art CRITIC.

As q critic OF painting the late Joris-hari
Huysmans revealed himself the possessor
Of n temperament that wal positively
ferocious In the presence Of an unsympa-
thetio iva His vocabulary N peculiar
gift OF invective were then exercised with
astounding verbal II not CRITICAL results.
~Singularly narrow In his Judgments for a
man Of his general culture. his intensity
OF vision concentrated itself upon a few
painters and etchsrs; the latter part OF his
life only religious art Interested him, as
did the exotic and monstrous in earlier
years. And even In the former sphere he
restricted his admiration. rather say idol
airy. 20 a few men; he sought for charac-
ter. an ascetio type OF character. the Lean
and meagre saviors and saints OF the
Flemish primitives arouslng in him a FIRE
almost ~fanRtical. Between a Roger VAh
der Weyden and a Giorgione there was
little doubt as TO Huysmans's choice; the
golden color music OF the great Venetian
harmonist would nave reached leaf ears.
His Flemish ancestry told In his sstbetio
tastes. He once said that he preferred n
Leipzig man to q Marseilles man. the big,
phlegmatic. taciturn Germans to the gestio-
ulating and rhetorical people Of the south"
Huysmans never betrayed the slightest
interest In doctrines Of equality; for him, a
for Baudelaire, socialism. the education Of
the masses or any democratic prophylactics
were anathema. The virus Of the -exoep-
tional soul" vas in his veins. Nothing
was more horrible TO him than tho idea of
universal religion. universal speech, univer-
sal government, with their c~oncomitant
universal monotony. The world is ugly
enough without the ugliness Of universal
sameness. Variety alone makes this globe
bcarable. He did not believe In art for the
multitude. and the tableau Of a billion
humans believing to the moon the hymn Of
universal brotherhood made him shiver-as
well it might. Tolstoy and his semi-idiotio
mujik. to whom Beethoven was impossible.
aroused in Huysmans righteous indigna-
ton. Art Ia to those who have the brains
and patience { understand il. It 10 not
a free port Of entry for poet and philistine
alike. To 1t many are called though few
are chosen. So 10 it with religion. That
marvellous specimen Of psychology En-
Route" gave more offence to the authors
coreligionists than IL did to sectarians of
other faiths. Huysmsns was a mystic,
and to his temperament, as taut as a finely
attuned fiddle, the easygoing methods Of
the average worshipper were absolutely
blssphemous. So he could write in EN-
Route: And he-Durtal-c called to mind
orators petted like tenors, Monsabre. Didon,
those Coquelins Of the Church, and lower
yet than those products Of the Catholic
training school, that bellioose BOBBY the
Able d'Hulst."
-L'Art Moderne" was published between
covers in 1888. 1t deals with the Official
salons Of 1879. lSs0-si and the Exposition
of the independents. isS0-sl. The appen-
dix. 1882. contains thumbnail sketches OF
Caillebotte. whose bequest to the Luxem-
bourg Of impressionistic paintings. including
Manet's ~Olympe.' stirred all artistic and
inartistio Paris; Gauguin. Mile. Morisat.
Guillaumin, Renoif. Pisssro. Sisley. Claude
Monet. the marine painter par excellence;
Manet, Roll. Redon. all men then fighting
the stream Of popular and academic dis
favor. Since Charles Baudelaire's salons.
now as classic as Diderot's. no volume on
the current Paris exhibitions has appeared
Of such solid knowledge and literary power
as Huysmans's. Admitting his marked
prejudioes. his numerous dogmatic utter
snoes, there 10 nevertheless here an at
t~ractive artistic quality backed up by the
writer's stubborn convictions that per-
susde where the more liberal and brilliant
Theophile Gautier never does. -Theo.'
who said that II he pitched his sentences
in the air they always fell on their feet,
like a cat. leaned heavily on his verbal
magic. But even in hat particular he is
no match for Huysmans, who, boasting
the blood Of Fleming painters. sculptors
and architects. uses his pen as ar artist
his brush. Take this bit from his study
of Gustave Moreau's famous -Salome":
"A throne, like the high altar Of a csthe-
dral. rose beneath innumerable arches
springing from columns, thickset as Roman
pillars, enamelled with v~aricolored bricks,
set with mosaios. incrusted with ~lApis-lazuli
and sardonyx in a palace like the basilica Of
an architecture at onoe Mussulman and
Byzantine. In the centre OF the tabernacle
surrounding the affairs. fropted with rows
Of circular steps. sat the Tetrarch Herod.
the tiara on his head. his legs pressed to-
gether, his hands on his knees. His face
was yellow. parchmentlike, annulated with
wrinkles. withered by age; his long beard
fioated like q cloud o. the iewelled stars
that consolidated the robe OF netted gold
across his breast. Around this statue.
m~otionless. frozen in the sacred pose Of a
Hindu god. perfumes burned. throwing
out clouds Of vapor. pierced. az by the
phosphoresoent eyes OF animals. by the
fire Of precious stones set in the sides Of the
throne; then the vapor mounted. unrolling
itself beneath arches where the blue smoke
mingled with the powdered gold Of great
sun rays fallen from the dome" = =
And Of SaIome he writes: in the work OF
Gustsve Moreau. conceived On nc Scrip
turai data. Dos Esseintes saw at last the
realization Of the strange. superhuman
Saloms that he had dreamed. She was no
more the mere dancing girl 80" abe had
become the symbolic deity Of i~ndestructible
Lust, the goddess Of immortal Hysteria;
the imonstrous. Indifferent. irresponsible.
insonsible Beast. poisoning like Helen OF old
all that 60 near her, all that look upon her.
all that she touches"
Not only is there an evocation Of material
splendor in the above passages taken from
"A Rebours," but q profound philosophy
and note Of oenobitio contempt for woman's
beauty, which sounds throughout the
books Of Huysmans. II may be heard
at its deepest in his study of Felicien Rops,