New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-25

it developed at the time, lived in
Paris. lie was Of the cosmopolitan
type Of Russian.
VI. Benois has 10 illusions about his
countrymen, and with delightful candor
puts his finger upon the true sources of
their disability. "One Of the peculiar
traits of Russian realism" he says,
was that the boldest and most resolute
followers Of an art based on the study
of the surrounding world very willingly
abandoned this reality and turned to
history-that is, 20 a domain where the
immediate connection with actually is
naturally lost" Accompanying him OF
ais survey and. with the aid OF mis- illus
trations, seeking the elements Of style
beaten out from the time Of Levitski
I down, we see that the literary tendency
Of the school not only withdrew its
members from life but kept them from
catching up with modern developments
+ in their art. While the rest Of the
world was interesting itself in the
/ science Of the profession, discovering
7 impressionism. for example, and max
ing more and more Of technique, Russia
was absorbed in its emotions, in old
, national legends and the like. 1t was a
not ignoble absorption. One must al
ways have certain weakness for the
painters who think. But one must al
ways come back with certain graft
tude to the painters who (also) paint.
/ VI. Benois is not at all certain of the
; existence to-day Of Russian School
He is inclined to say rather. that I'VE
have as many movements and schools
as individual painters" This is good, if
/ by School" we mean "a uniform sys-
TEN or a programme" But IL might
mean a greater solidarity than is per
/ ceptible in the matter and still escape
/ the burdens Of the dry. officially organ
) lied affair. In other words, the thing
we regret to miss in this account of the
modern Russian painters is the sign OF
some racial gift for painting, some in
bred instinct which will do more than
anything else 20 lift the artists of a
country into the unified mass that we
! think Of when we talk Of a national
school. There Russia, in spite of all the
more or less interesting individuals
cited by VI. Benois, has still to affirm
itself. One surmises that the afiirma-
tion is only delayed. But that is con-
fdencc bred rather by the spectacle of
Russian energy and genius at large,
cropping out in art. music, literature,
dancing and action, than by the actual
performances Of the painters.
/ What is it that holds the painters
back? The answer requires more
knowledge Of Russian conditions than
we possess, but in the things Of the
mind explanations sometimes offer
themselves very simply, and with next
TO no reference at all to the complicat-
ed machinery Of social life. One sa-
Hent impression has been noted by
travellers in Russia. Everything there
is big and oyer-colored, especially over
colored. This points to crudity OF
taste, and, carefully considered, it is
significant of much in Russian paint
ing. The artists lack nothing so much
as they luck taste. I'm an art in which
4 as in poetry, according TO Verlaine-
the nuance is everything, they are al
most unbelievably insensitiye TO the
{ fine shade. The particular traits that
reflection on Russian painting brings
TO the memory are force-badly con-
, trolled-violence IN color. and rude
ness i'm the handling of surface almost
amounting to brutality. \ man like
Repin matches the dramatic intensity
Of his compositions by harshness in the
treatment of them. Excess is the note
of the school-if school we must call
il. These artists have manual dexter
ity, but it is employed as if by main
strength. The delicacy which is some
how inseparable from the idea of art
is rarely disclosed by them, few Of
the landscape painters alone suggest
ing it. On the other hand, at the bot
tom of nearly all Russian art there
is ono golden quality justifying almost
any favorable eXpectation-th sublime
virtue of sincerity. Painting there is
young yet, unawakened to its true des-
tiny. But ii one can have faith in its
ultimate success it is because, along
with its immaturity there goes in some
subtle fashion the assurance of it's
truth, its honesty, its happy alliance
with homely human nature. When Rus
sian realism comes into its own there
ought to be something very fine and
sympathetic about it.
The conspicuous motive in Russian
art. as we have recently heard most
I about it, has been the decorative mo-
tive, transcendantly embodied in the
talent of VI. Leon Bakst. There be
those. we gather, who hail in him the
harbinger of a new and glorious move
/ ment. You cannot, to be sure, reason
with people who have gone mad over
his stage settings; they are beyond
reason. Thoughtful observers. we be
iieve. will regard him with apprecia-
ton as a useful dissemination of gayety
and elegance, rather than as the savior
of Russian art. His brilliance Is an
essentially urban. mundane thing. shot
through and through with sheer arti-