Evening star., 1926-12-09
THE NORTH WINDOW
By Leila Mechlin.

| ly true Chief among those VINO rem
dered this inestimable service 10 us
and to succeeding generations was
Claude Monet. the announcement OF
whose death in France mas iateiy
| reached US.
| On a visit to New York in the early
| nineties-much longer ago than IS
believable considering the vividness OF
| the memory-the writer first saw an
exhibition of paintings by Monet.
| Probably it was at Durand Rueis Cal
/ leries, for it was Durand Ruel who as
sumed, and has continuously assumed
the role of fairy godfather or guardian
! angel to this school Of painters. II
was the writer's Introduction to plue
haystacks and purple COWS, ana II
was something Of shock. Perhaps
| for this reason 1t became d ineiiiofy
of continuing vividness.
| What was it all about? Our eyes were
not accustomed to so much light. Tne
| landscape paintings with wnlch we
grew up and in which we found beauty
| and inspiration were of the Barolzon
and our own Hudson River schoois; we
| were not accustomed to seeing color
! in shadow: we associated the spec
trum with science. not with art. The
blue haystack and the purple cow be-
| came subjects of ridicule, godsend
to the wits and the jocular rhymesters.
But the blue haystack and the purple
| cow were real missionaries: they not
| only had come to stay, but they did
US a great service opening our eyes 10
a beauty about us which heretofore
was practically unseen.
! What did it all mean? To understand
| that, we must examine briefly the
| theory which the French impression
lists evolved.
| In his excellent little book "The
French Impressionists," Camille Mau
clair gives US to understand that Mo-
net and Manet, leaders of the impress
I sionist movement, worked for a long
time without ever thinking that theo-
ries would be built upon their paint
ings; in other words, that they did not
set themselves up as reformers; they
did not say to themselves, I'VE Will 90
something that has not been done be-
fore-something original" They hap
pened across an old truth and adapted
| it to new needs. Thus almost invari.
ably is progress made. Monet's dis
| covery was that the coloring Of OBJ
| jects is a pure illusion. the only crea-
tive source of color being sunlight,
which envelops all things and reflects
| them according to the hours with in
| finite notifications. If light disappears,
forms and colors likewise vanish. Col
or Is therefore the procreatrix Of de-
| sign" All color being simply the IRA
diation of light, it follows that all col
or Is composed Of the same elements
as sunlight, namely, the seven tones of
the spectrum. Having made this dis
covery, these clever painters. chief
among them Monet, proceeded to paint
with pure color in little comma shaped
| dashes so that, seen at a distance,
they would recompose as light and
give the illusion of vibration.
| X X * X
Claude Monet" claims Camille
Mauclair, twas the artistic descend
ant of Claude Lorrain. Turner and
Monticello" BY unconsciously join
ing hands with the scientists he
opened a new road to landscape
painting, deducing scientific state
ments from a study Of the laws Of
light. His first luminous studies date
back, we are told. to 1885. when he
began painting series Of pictures
showing the same subject under va
1ying effects of light. He is said to
| have arisen before sunrise and to
have gone out into the open with
some 20 or more canvases, which he
painted in quick succession. hour by
hour. He did several such series
"Hay-ricks," "Poplars." Cliffs Of
Etretat." "Golfe JUAN" "Coins de
Riviere,' "Cathedrals," "Water-lilies"
and finally the Thames" series. He
would begin with the picture as the
| sun rose and paint the same subject
f! in its differing light each hour, or in
less time, during the entire day. If
| he painted thus a haystack 20 times
| over he would have 20 entirely differ
| ent pictures which, exhibited collec-
| lively, would show the progress Of
| light from sun-up to sun.down. To
| see such a series Is to have ones
eyes opened to the significance Of
| the variations of color and form ac-
cording to the quality and quantity
| Of the light in which they are bathed.
| y * X X
Monet was, as many Of his early
| critics declared, a madman, but his
madness was an enthusiasm for
| beauty in nature, a worship Of light
| When he began exhibiting he was de-
rided, but he was not deferred. Today
| almost every great gallery in the world
| owns and proudly displays an ex-
| ample of his work. Not only that,
but lesser painters have learned from
| him and have followed joyously in his
| footsteps. In France there are Pts.
sarro and Sisley and host Of others.
| In this country doubtless his chief
disciple has been Childe Hassam, but
who shall say that Twachtmann and
Lawson and many others, including,
| in fact, men who no longer use his
prismatic method-Redfield, Schofield.
| Gardner Symons-have not proflted
| by his discoveries? Compare the
| paintings Of the leading representa-
| tives of our own present-day land
| scape school with the works of those
| who came before the advent Of the
| blue haystack and the purple cow
and it will be directly evident to what
great extent we are indebted to
| Claude Monet.
| It is interesting to know that the
very name "Impressionism" was de-
| rived from the title which Claude
Monet gave to one of his paintings
Impression" It was used originally
by bis opponents in derision. but it
has come to signify a new vision.
Ellie Faure, as translated by Wal
ter Pach, traces the development Of
impressionism as follows: "Manet re-
veals to Pissarro the secret Of paint
ing frankly and without shadows.
Pissarro in turn, carries Manet with
him to the fields and shows him by
his example, and especially by that
of the virtuoso Of the group, Claude
Monet, that the open air suppresses
not only modelling but the very con.
tour Of the forms and substitutes for
local tone an infinite interchange Of
dancing reflections, tangled and indi-
visible, wherein the form hesitates
and Is submerged in the tide of the
universe. Manet. following his new
friends. will. after that. paint but