New-York tribune., 1910-06-05
SUNDAY. JUNE >. 1910.

Criticism has never been the most popuiar
cf the arts. and. indeed. those who nave had
ony eynerence in its practice are thoroughly
Injured to the attacks periodically made upon
IT, Those attacks are, of course, to be taken
seriously when they are directed against patent
incompetence, but surely the critic may pe pei
mitted = weary smile when some one revlveS
the threadbare assertion that he is dehcleht III
the authority Of the artist to pronounce JUG
nent lIpon a work of art. 1t is made once
more BY Sir W. B. Richmond, the EnSllsh art
ist who does not believe that the KokeDy
Venus was painted by veasquez. In the Ma
tioDal Review" he argues that the performer
il, art has qualifications to pass upon prop
lem of the sort such are rarely possessed
bv the so-called Expert" and referring TO the
committee which gave a clean bill OF heai'h
TO the Spanish masters picture he expresses
with c,lsto his belief that not more tnan one
of it's eight members has ever painted picture
in oil color. 1t is with just this KIND OF hour
;sb that the "creative' artist is forever attempt
inc 10 mt the critic in his place. How can he
dare to use dogmatic speech about picture or
q statue poem or novel, when he has never
anproyed himself painter or sculptor, poet
Oh a novelist? And yet the wickedly preSump-
tuouS critic goes critlclSlnS.
What is it that sustans him in his insolent
Intrusion, and. incidentally, persuades countless
persons of intelligence in generation after
another to look with favor and sometimes even
with gratitude upon his proceedings? 1t is the
fact of which our "creative' friends remain
Jathetically unaware, that the critical faculty,
the critical habit Of mind, are possessions by
themselves, with an organic vitality exactly sim
liar to that at the bottom of mans activities IN
science, art and literature. They may be lodged
in the being of painter as well as ID that o.
writer That this is not often the case is be-
side the point The real point is that in the
matter of criticism there is nothing talismanlc
about experience as performer An artist may
be 4 consummate master of his craft, the pro
ducer Of supremely beautiful paintings, and yet
be hopelessly ignorant of the first principles Of
criticism When he happens to be as capable LII
criticism as in art it is not because he IS an
artist but because the gods have been kind and
have added the critical faculty to his resources
1t simply means that he has an extra sense
That this not at all recondite truth is grasped
only with difficulty if grasped at all, by the
average artist is possibly due to that spirit of
narrow professionalism by which men are so
easily subjected The jealous specialization
which bound together the members of a me-
da,yal guild superinduces to this day a
strange confusion of mind. Practical experience
alone is supposed to be the source of wisdom,
and thus the painter makes a fetch Of his brush,
flrcying that it somehow automatically cOnfeTS
upon him Il brevet of artistic omniscience The
critic hailing with deep respect the judgments Of
the artist who has the critical faculty, cOntem
plates as we have said, with weary smile, the
divagations of the artist who has missed the
gift.