Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-21
GOya as an
Efcher and
as Painter
Spanish Master, in Genius, Yer
satility and ProductiVeness,
Cruikshank's Superior.

! Art, the highest expression of art.
may be the aim of the cartoonist or
satirist. but he is often too much
under the influence and direction of
the news editor of a newspaper to be
able to produce work which would
| illustrate this high aim. The car
| toonist. like the editorial writer, is
only a slave, and his own high ideals
do not always appeal to the proprie-
tor of the newspaper unless they
serve to increase its circulation.
However, when it is genius that
produces the cartoon or the satirical
pictorial editorial, it is another mat
ter. No editor would d ,ictate to such
craftsman as Cruikshank, of whom
l wrote few weeks ago, nor would
he to such a satirist as Francisco
| Goya, Spanish artist and etcher.
His Life and Works.
Recently. Mr.. Hugh Stokes, a we'll
known writer on art, wrote a study
on the work and personality of Goya,
who in this day is far more highly
regarded than he was in his life
time.
AS Mr.. Stokes says, Goya was as
remarkable a figure in the history of
art as Cruikshank himself and far
his superior as painter. He was one
OF those mem whom it is pronounced
in the expressive American slang of
the day-he was a good mixer"
Wherever he found himself, and he
was equally at home at court in the
public house, in his studio, or in the
arena-he was at once en- rapport
with the life around him. He watched
it, lived it and momentarily stored
, up Impressions, like Cruikshank. aft
erwards to be transferred to copper
or canvas.
Again, like Cruikshank, there were
no bounds to his versatility and no
limit to his vitality. The stories of
his amorous adventures are as lively,
almost, as those of Casanova This
| makes the record of his life as inter-
esting as the memoirs of the tragic
dramatist, Alferi, or the annals of
that splendid genius and maginifi-
cent figure of manhood, Benvenuto
Cellini.
When Goya was seventy-efgh he
journeyed from Madrid to Paris
Ito see the world''-alone and totally
deaf, and he gave way to the charms
of the gay capital with all the en-
thusiasm of a youth.
Late in life, at forty-seven, like
Alfieri, with his enamorata, the cele-
brated Countess of Albany, he had
a "Grande Passion, and the part
| played in Goya's life by the Duchess
of Alba was not inconsiderable. Thus
the pictures painted from the duchess,
as model, or inspired by her memory,
as La Maja Vestida' and La Maja
DeSnuda,' show -delicacy of form and
grace of action which in others of
his pictures certain critics say that
he sacrificed to vigor, and force of
light and shade.
"Los Capriehos"
OF the etchings known as Los
Caprichos," Mr.. Stokes speaks some
what obscurely, but, in general, in
terms of praise He is especially in
dignant at Ruskin for destroying a
whole set and he denies that they are
coarse or vulgar. Yet in another
passage the author says that some
times one cannot but feel that the
satirist is of lower nature than the
creature he flays.
1t is certain that to thoroughly ap-
preciate the genius of Goya, to un-
derstand how deeply the artist was
moved by the horrors of war at all
times waged around him, one must
know a great deal about the courts
of Charles III. and Charles ". and
Ferdinand VII.
One observation which Mr. Stokes
makes is sufficient to show how pro-
foundly he has studied his subjects
He says that the master set no
limits to the tasks he undertook.
This led to astonishing inequalities
ir his work. When he succeeded he
produced a masterpiece, instinct with
life; when he failed it was the failure
Of man relying too much on his
genius and too little on his craft.
Goya's productiveness was greater
than that of Cruikshank He left
nearly six hundred paintings and he
etched two hundred and fifty plates.
1t is probable, also, that he destroyed
or abandoned as many more. for he
was singularly experimental in his
method.