United States or Nicaragua ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But whatever the aberrations of these, the true Post-Impressionists whatever the ugliness, the eccentricity, or the moral dinginess into which they were betrayed I believe them to have been, in the main, honest if unbalanced and ill-regulated minds. Whatever their errors, they paid the price of them in poverty, in neglect, in death.
But I should say their attitude to life is that of the man who is looking at the moon reflected in a lake, but can't see it; he sees the reflection of a coal-scuttle instead. 'Ah yes. They see things wrong, you mean. They're not so real, not so logical, as the Post-Impressionists. 'Yes, the Futurist is off the rails entirely, and he seems to see hardly anything but railways.
Impressionists and post-impressionists came down occasionally to stay at Flood for Sir Arthur liked to play Mæcenas and were allowed to deal quite frankly with the pictures, as they wandered round the room at dessert, cigarette in hand, pointing out the absurdities of the Cuyp and the Titian.
Now they are installed, and beautifully hung and set. Though France is the home of the Post-Impressionists, and Italy that of the Futurists, the flagrancy of neither of these schools is on view here. Both countries show their best balanced art since 1905. In the French exhibit, the mode of the day prevails, color, luminosity, richness of texture.
The æsthetes had a doctrine; the Impressionists had a method and a technic. The Post-Impressionists had nothing, and were driven to the attempt at pure self-expression to the exaltation of the great god Whim. They had no training, they recognized no traditions, they spoke to no public.
From the point of view of the spectator the Post-Impressionists have been particularly happy in their simplification. As we know, a design can be composed just as well of realistic forms as of invented; but a fine design composed of realistic forms runs a great risk of being aesthetically underrated.
In the same way I am only drawn to the Post-Impressionists when I want, not beautiful pictures, but an agreeable sense of the impudence and imbecility of professional craftsmen.
There had been those stripey, streaky creations of Monet's, which had turned out such trumps; and then the stippled school; and Gauguin. Why, even since the Post-Impressionists there had been one or two painters not to be sneezed at.
Whoever may have rescued European painting from the charming disorder of the age of reason, there can be no question as to who saved it from the riot of impressionism. That was the doing of the Post-Impressionists headed by Cézanne.
There had been those stripey, streaky creations of Monet's, which had turned out such trumps; and then the stippled school; and Gauguin. Why, even since the Post-Impressionists there had been one or two painters not to be sneezed at.
Word Of The Day