Page 46 - The Studio First Edition - April 1893

Studio Gossip

Ruskins for ever. They have chosen their own
STUDIO GOSSIP.
gods—gods whom their fathers never admitted
even within the gates. Our Philistine, on the
AT no other period of the aesthetic history of this other hand, bears upon his shoulders the weight of
country has there been such an intelligent apprecia- a waggon-load of Ruskinian and other theories.
tion of the Fine and Applied Arts. The old gods Art to him must still be beautiful, which generally
have been displaced, and in picture-galleries, in means that the subject must be beautiful, spiritual,
public buildings, and in private houses we are met an incentive to holy living. He is not above
everywhere by a standard of taste, which a decade admiring deft workmanship, but the Ansidei
ago was only reached by a minority so small as Madonna remains his standard.
as hardly to be considered. Lately we have learnt
much that is good about decoration and painting We, and that pronoun includes the vast number
—that is, we have adapted and assimilated ideas who are neither of the Old nor the New, amuse our-
and theories from a nation more accomplished, selves with the thought that the Laodiceans in art
more various, and more logical. matters see most of the game. While denying
ourselves the terrible joy of going to the violent
The effect of this assimilation is upon us.
Already are there signs that the Philistine is extremes that the New Critics permit themselves,
lowering his head to butt. Only the other day he a course which often means abuse of everything in
remonstrated through nigh a couple of columns of a gallery, except two or three creations by " the
few and fit," whom the New have taken to their
a contemporary against " The New Art Criticism." barren breasts, we freely acknowledge the service
This " Philistine " (he is a capable Philistine)
deserves our sympathy. He has been brought of their pens to art during the last decade. They
up to " consider that dignity of subject and the are always forcible and generally brilliant, and if
endeavour to portray a thing of beauty are of now and then we find ourselves comfortably in
harmony with the older criticism (not the oldest,
the essence of art." The New Criticism tells him, for that would mean fellowship with the Daily
at the point of a rapier pen, that the great painter
is he who can cut the most agile, and the most con- Telegraph), the glamour and glory of the Rus-
kinian prose we learnt at the knee of Mr. George
vincing capers upon canvas.
Allen, of Orpington, Kent, must stand as our
" What is truth ? " asked Pilate. " What is Art " ? excuse.
asks the Philistine. Art is Degas's L'Absinthe
answers the New Critic. " It is the inexhaustible The New Critics flourish in our midst, like prickly
picture. It sets a standard." Whereupon the New pear trees, because the dough of Philistian art
Critic lifts up his voice in lamentation and disdain. criticism is still a little heavy. And THE STUDIO
A more typical work than L'Absinthe for the is not encouraged to say, beware of the leaven of
new and the old schools to tight over could not the National Observer, the Pall Mall Gazette, the
have been found. It is to be seen in the last room Spectator, and the Speaker. The end, let it be
at the Grafton Gallery. Subject—A man and a said, justifies the means. We do not use a silver
woman, middle-aged, sodden, dulling themselves tooth-pick to pull down a bad building.
with absinthe outside a third-rate Parisian cafe. LAODICEAN.
" It sets a standard," cries the New Critic; to which
the Philistine replies : " When a work like this is
set up as a standard of beauty, I think I discern It is pleasant to note the interest in the technique
the cause of the vulgarities and flippancies which of "black and white" drawing the Pall Mall
are spoiling so many young painters." Budget is showing under its new editorship. It is
an open secret that Mr. Lewis Hind, who was one
Well, what is the truth about this "inexhaustible of the founders of THE STUDIO, although he has
picture that draws you back and back again." left the field of Art for a wider domain, intends to
The truth about it is that it is true. We see the give his paper a cachet of its own. Degas, Wilson
absolute impression of an incident. The incident Steer, Walter Sickert, Aubrey Beardsley, Raven Hill,
is unpleasant, and like many unpleasant things of H. Sullivan, to pick a few names at random from
fascinating interest, it is painted by a painter recent issues, are distinctly unlike the conventional
of genius. In the hands of a lesser man it would illustrators for the weekly press; each has some-
have been naught—even contemptible. Therein thing definite to express, and whether with the
is the reason why L'Absinthe has got hold of superb facility of a Degas, or the tentative efforts
the New Critics. They, at least, understand and of a younger artist, each illustration is conceived in
appreciate the syntax of art. In a picture they the spirit of a work of art, and not merely as an
look for style, and the way an artist handles his ephemeral illustration for a periodical.
material. And in L'Absinthe they have before
them an example by a master who can use line We have received, too late for reproduction in
and colour with the facility and the disregard of this issue, photographs of a very fine cabinet in
conventions that Louis Stevenson, shall we say, carved wood, made by Messrs. Howard & Sons, of
uses words. Place Leonardo or Raphael before 26 Berners St., W., at whose show rooms the
L'Absinthe and it would find them breathless.
fittings of Mr. Vanderbilt's yacht, said to be the
The New Critics have this advantage. They finest in the world, are, also, now on view. We
have burned their ships. They have closed their hope to illustrate the cabinet next month.
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