Cañon City record., 1910-03-31


his son, who is now well along toward
fifty, does not come into his kingdom
during the early part of the next de-
cade.
Among other things which have
changed and are changing, is British
art. We saw nearly all the pictures
in the public galleries worth seeing
and got definite impression that
the point of view of the artists-or
the point of view of the public to
which the artists were appealing
is changing from the upper to the
middle classes
In France it is becoming more DEM
ocratic; but England has been CEN
tury behind France in her political
progress and England is doing pretty
well to be even republican in her ten
denotes 1t is of course true tnat
Hogarth and Constable in an early
day gave British art view of middle
class life. But some way they seem
to be laughing at their subject-per-
haps sneering at them in some cases.
rather than laughing with them or
sympathizing with them.
But modern British paintings are
apreciative of n.iddle-class life And
they are interesting more than any
others that we saw in Europe. For
these modern British painters are
men of ideas. Their portraits reveal
real men and women. Sir Peter Le-
ley made court beauties and cour-
tesans and knights and kings and
princes-all with the same simpering
faces; 1t is a great advance from him
to Watts. who made men just as they
were. souls all naked to the truth OF
their lives. Leley's subjects are au-
thors, Commoners, artists and preach
ers-people from the middle walks oil
life. His cartoons are serious, somber
and beautiful; but they are not the
sort of thing that could come out
of an aristocracy; they are from the
people-not the very poor. but the as
piring middle classes. The next gen.
Grafton will paint the hearts and souls
of the poor.
In this connection and speaking IN
general of British art galleries II Is
lust as we'll to tell the traveller that
except for British painter the Lon
don galleries have nothing OF much
value. There is the famous Holbein
portrait of the Duchess OF Milan and
a few other canvasses of Dutch and
Italian painters. but generally speak
ing the foreign pictures in the London
galleries are mill ends" "tailings,
odds and ends, and second rate stuff-
The place to see good italian pictures
is in Italy. and the place 10 see good
French pictures is In Paris, and the
place to see good Dutch canvasses IL
in the Netherlands. Transplanted art
doesn't seem to thrive. And the worst
lot OF old artistic junk in Europe Ia In
Hampton Court-a royal cutlery out
side of London. Though II represents
a lot of money II is OF no Importance
al all.
But Hampton Court itself ls q most
interesting place. II was a royal
palace In Henry Wits time aid down
until one of the Georges moved to
Windsor. There at Hampton Court
are all the old trappings OF feudal
England The place is laid out with
regal splendor almost rivaling the
grounds at Versailles. where the pow
erful Bourbon Louis made the most
sumptuous desreputable resort the
modern world has known.
And Hampton Court under the
Charleses was another OF the same
kind. On the walls of Hampton
Court hang the pictures OF the women
who made the English court a shame.
The place Is filled with traditions OF
intrigue and vice And now that II
is all gone and the court 10 q sort OF
boarding house for poor royalty-the
shabby genteel of the present reig-
ing house of England. its beautiful
gardens and wide sweeps of lawn and
woodland seem like leftover dreams.
that persist In the clay and color real
life with their unreal images.
Windsor. the home of Victoria and
OF the Georges. has its traditions. but
they are mostly confined TO plain
murder and are not complicated with
Illicit love affair. Indeed. Victoria and
her domesticity have given a tone Of
honest decency to the place that the
cruelty and war and murder that