New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-11-12

tiers, too, the ancient leaven works and
they pay tribute if only in the rectitude
of their craftsmanship, to an ancestral |
law
II is the law of construction, the law
that is unalterably opposed to caprice,
to falsity, to fumblng idiosyncracy. The
Frenchman may have his rapture, as in
the case Of a Gustave Moreau; his senti-
ment. as in the case of Carriere; his sci
entific curiosity, as in the case of Monet.
But he must paint the truth and paint 1t
with certain innate propriety, GER
tain respect for his technique. He must
know what he is about, as the Gothic
builders knew when they established a
delicate equilibrium in their architecture;
vision and hand must be in tune with
the world i'm which he lives and not
lured away by the light that never was
on sea or land. For the representative
Frenchman that light is a will o the
wisp. He wants to feel the solid earth
under his feet. We make much, as we
ought to do, Of the modern revolution
mulae and justified themselves in the
process. But book like NJ. Hourticq's
reminds us not to forget the past and
rot 10 think of the revolutonaries afore-
said as the only custodians Of the secret
Of art. What n great race has practised
for centuries, and practised gloriously,
must have in it something beneficial Tor
rs Fidelity to nature, honest drafts
manshlp and modelling, sound design.
an al! perva ling sanity-;hese are the
things that the French have stood for
in their art since their earliest days
Of aesthetic consciousness.
incidentally, of course, they have also
stood for any number of those special
personal traits without which all of the
basic virtues in the world would go for
naught. II requires the man 10 enrich
the school and extend its influence. Co.
ing through NJ. Hourticq's volume we
are forever encountering one master or
another whose work is a separate monu-
ment and inspiration. In all the Ions
list no painter has so needed to be made
the hero of a biography as has Chardin.
Al last a book has been made dbout
him by Mr.. Herbert b. a. Furst and
published by the Scribners in the now
wei known series which has hitherto
given us Beruete's "Veasquez," BODIES
"Tlorentine Sculptors" and divers other
useful monographs. We wish we could
-, Ar Eurct had rpaIlV IoDa ms
tice To his subject, but the truth is that
he talks aboIt and about liberating
quantity Of his ideas on art in the broad
sense but not talking to any great pur-
pose on Chardin in particular. He is
enthusiastic. ard that is something, but
as a biographies he is Disappointing on
the ether hand. he gives reasonably
fulI account of the facts. and we are
grateful for his many handsome full
mage Illustrations, as well as for his
list of the masters paintings and draw
ings
Diderot. describing the painting OF
basket of plums which Chardin sent to
the Salon of 1863, permitted himself a
famous outburst. This man is the
greatest coorist of the Salon." he ex-
claimed, perhaps one of the greatest
colorists in the whole realm of art"
Modern criticism accepts the statement
with no disposition to qualify its lauda-
torv tone. In fact. modern criticism
balls Chardin as one OF the leading infu-
ences i'm modern art. He ranks with