New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-21
ARNOLD BENNETT
Defends the Bourgeois Against
The Arrogant Artist.
From The London Daily Chronicle.

From The London Daily Chronicle.
I have recently been listening to i'm
passioned painters on the subject LOT the
Rokeby Venus1. I was talking to a
typical imprisoned painter about it the
other day in the third greatest art city
of the world, Florence. (Let me inter-
ject that 1 do not count London and
Paris as the first and second, but Rome
and Verice) This excellent and serious
painter was a Hungarian. He spoke no
English, and his French was limited;
but he knew the National Gallery and
the discussed picture and the particulars
of the controversy. He held, like me.
that the picture was very disappointing
as a masterpiece. He did not care g.
bilberry whether it was by Velasquez or
whether 1t wasn't. But he had a great
deal of energy for the scornfng of the
public-of the bourgeois. His violence
did me good, by reminding me of my
youth To listen to him you would
imagine that the bourgeois were gang
of criminals. that the bourgeois had COM
rnitted a horrible offence in their attitude
toward art.
THE bourgeois" he said. understood
nothing Of art! Nothing! In no country!
And never will"'
Picture galleries." he said, ARE abso-
lutely wasted on the bourgeois
Being OF q pacific disposition and
anxious TO rise at o'clock the next
morning, 1 basely pretended to agree
with him. But / was far from agreeing
with him.
If had had a defensive revolver in
my pocket and had been minded to sit
up all night L should have asked him to
define what he meant by the word
bourgeois" And when he had defined
his bourgeois I should have offered to
bring forward some specimen Of hu-
man being who. according TO his defini-
ton, was neither a bourgeois nor an
artist. For you cannot draw a line that
will divide the bourgeois from the artist
Most artists will admit that they are
bourgeois somewhere, but very few Will
admit that the bourgeois is artistic
somewhere. which is illogical: it Is more
than illogical, it is absurd My friend 8
axe-like positiveness recalled some Of
the statements OF that singular bour-
geois, John Ruskin. which in the sos
used TO be accepted with awe as the
grand utterances Of eternal wisdom.
For instance, in his annoying remarks
on Florence, Ruskin chooses small
fresco by Giotto. about four feet wide,
and. after describing It, says: eff you
can be pleased with this. you can see
Florence. But If notify all means
amuse yourself there, If you find it
amusing, as long as you like; you can
never see it."
So there you are, If you don't thrill
to this particular fresco, you are, so far
as all Florence Is concerned, a hopeless
kind Of testing is merely fatuous. 1t
serves no purpose except 10 excite
healthy laughter in the breast OF COM
mon sense Nevertheless, it is essen
TALLY the kind of test that artists are
continually applying to the non-c creative
person in art
Artists themselves would. and con-
cfaDt15y do fail tn mass SlYrh an
Piled by each other. Thus my Hungarian
could easily have convicted me Of being
bourgeois toward paintings, as could
by similar methods have convicted him
of being a bourgeois toward literature.
But if he fancied that he was going to
rule me out of the influence of the Ma
tiona1 Gallery he was mistaken.
And ii would be useless for him to say
that an artist cannot be bourgeois, for
the reason that If you really understand
one art you understand all. The great
est nonsense that I have ever heard
about painting and about literature was
talked by musicians. / have known ad-
mirable writer's who loathed music. And
have known painters. and plenty of
them. who could live quite happily amid
atrocious wall papers that would have
made William Morris take to his bed.
When It comes to the appreciation or
art, either everybody Is bourgeois, or no
body is. Let artists take their choice OF
the alternatives. In one sense Whistler
was right when he said that in no age
had there been an artistic public. But
Wagner was much more right when he
said TO the man who confessed his tech
meal ignorance OF music, MY dear fell
low. you're the very person / write my
operas for"
Wagner stated a profound truth OF