The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-05-21


tastic. a calculating visionary. In his por-
trait Of himself one aces a sickly dreamer.
hcsitating before his own dreams. Hts
effects are combined mentally. ns By q
voluptuary who Is without passion. PTS
painting IL scSiess and ycarning and rem.
ders the legends Of sex with a kind OF
impotent alluremcnt. Lcda and the swan
rccur as a motive. hut in the rendering
NJ that intense nottve there Is no more
Than decorative toying. within pes
cracking with Intellectual fire. Sometimes
color IL sought. sometimes line. never the
Kernel and passion OF the story. And II
Is the same with Helen. Bath.heba, Mes.
salina. Eve and the serpent, and the etcr-
nal Saloine. always tho same s;rengthiess
perrersity. fumblins In vain abou, the
skirts OF evil. Of beauty and of mystery.
What he tries to suggest he has not
realized: what he realizes ne has not seen:
his emotion Ii never fundamental. bu.
ccrebral: and II Ia only when he shuts II
wholly within his color. and forces his
color for once to obey his emotion las In
a little "MaEdalen on calvary" with tho
three crosses black against hills corroded
out OF sunsets). tina, no Is able to produce
Q single Imaginative effect. that nc Is able
u" please the eye BY more than some
square or corner OF jewelIed surface Into
which life comes surreptitiously.
A good critic writes somewhere Of
Poe that he vas undoubtedly made OF
chemicals and that ink flowed In his
veins; he, too. invented a little brio.
a-brac world Of meanings and NOON
light; OF madness. irreparable fare
wells. premature burials. exotic musi-
cal Instruments. prophetic night birds
and orchids. The description would
almost exactly At Moreau II one added
on massed semi-precious Jewels. with
out which Moreau would have been
incapable Of conceiving a picture.
The essay on Watts seems to rate
him rather more highly than he Is
rated to-day with his obvious moral
platitudes. and again one Of the most
striking pictures IL omltted--the Mino.
taur gazing with humanity saddened
yes across the landscape to the se.-
ting sun.
Whistler is an endlessly fruitful sub
jet for literature. and the portrait Mr..
Symons draws Of the little old man,
90 feverishly alive. with his bright
withered checks and darling eyes. adds
n more 10 our delightful remem
brances OF him. His hands. SAYS Nj.
Symons. were above all exquisite:
He had the most sensitive fingers I have
ever seen. long. thin. bony, wrinkied. every
finger alive TO the tips. like the fingers Of
a mesncrist. He was proud Of his hands.
and they were never out OF sight: they
travelled TO his mousta che. crswled over
tho table. gr.maced in little gestures. n
ever a painter had painters hands II was
Whistler.
Beethoven Is a beautiful exposition
OF the serene musical quality OF that
stormy genius. bounded by DESTINY
from misery TO misery. The Ideas u
Wagner's two monographs. "A Com
munication to NJ Friends and his
"Artwork Of the Future" Us49):
Wagner ooked upon genius as an I'm.
menss rsceptivi,y. a receptivity 50 I'm.
r,cnss that II fl,ed and overToved the
being. thus forcing upon II the need .c
create. And he distinguished between the
two kinds Of artist. feminine and ma.cu.
line: the feminine who absorb. only a-,
and the masculine who absorbe life Itself
and from nfe derives the nev ma.er,aI
which he will turn into a new and Twins
art. He shows us. In his own work. the
gradual way In which imitation passs,
into production, :he unconscious mould.
Ing Of the stun OF his art from within
a. one need after another arose: the "a,
In which every innovation In form cam.
from a single cause: ,he necessity "tc
convey N others AZ viv,aIy s-d ','.''ei
bly, az possible what his o~n mind. ey.
had seen"
1t is when we come to such an
essay as that upon THE Problem OF
Richard Strauss for example, that
we realize the destructive power OF
time. Ten years ago Strauss was writ.
ing in an unknown idiom. and Symons
Ike all critics confronted by the un-
expected. the inexpl!cable. ccuse !,
Of lacking vital sincerity. direct en-
ergy Of life. He finds in il only fore,
and tcnacity. He wonders that he
could be detained Cor a moment bv
such music. Well. Byron complained
of Keats's fantastic fopper!es, and the
time was when Wagner was accused
OF never composing a melody. Time
and the hour change all these things.
Strauss is not too intellectual now
when we compare him with Teneie1
To n younger generation than Mr.
Symons's Strauss message is peg
fectly enunciated. There was once n
young musician who had never heard
anything OF strauss. II. had been
some years away from civilization az
then had had a prolonged nervous
breakdown. He wandered in to =
Philadelphia symphony concert. IIs
was still excessively nervous. afraid
Of a crowd. afraid OF his seat high u,
in the balcony. II was dark and II
did not see the programme. The muse