Page:Scottishartrevie01unse.djvu/112

naturalistic school of painters. What these men claim is the right of the trained artist to represent what he himself feels to be pictorial in nature, not merely what was felt to be so by Turner or William Hunt, Corot or Daubigny, or indeed by any other artist however great. Doubt has recently been thrown on the claims of Constable to have been the unconscious aj)ostle in France of this development in modern landscape painting. It is a remarkable fact that at home, until lately, his lead was not followed, while in that country his example exerted an enormous influence. Regarded in England in his own day as a barbarian, his great genius is not yet sufficiently recognised by his countrymen. It would be absurd to imagine that naturalistic painting is the only way in which fine pictorial art is or has been possible, but it has surely claims to be treated with respect, and to receive careful con- sideration. It would appear as if the original impulses from which all national developments in art sprang into life have come from alien peoples. Light spread from Egypt to Phoenicia, from Phoenicia to Greece, from Greece to Rome. The Renaissance was borne from Italy to France and England. Japan owed its art in the first place to China. These are but a few instances of an almost universal experience. In all cases the new thought was modified and vivified by the genius of the country which received it. At first, doubtless, the novelty and strangeness attendant on a breaking away from old traditions were ever received with suspicion and dislike, but the faith of the new believers in time prevailed, and the development at length attained the dignity of being regarded as national. What would Scottish Architecture have been had it not learned from France . Do we look with less satisfaction on the alas ! too few remains that we have seen somethina: similar abroad ? Ai-e our musicians to shut their ears to the productions of German genius .? Sir John Millais himself, in the article already alluded to, congratulates the sculptors of England that they have not scrupled to learn from Carpeaux and his great countryinen. Why should painters be com- pelled to cling to their insularity ? The men who are so well abused yield to none in their admiration of the great aiiists of the past. What they condemn are the respectable, preten- tious, commonplace productions, so popular with the general public, which crowd our galleries and claim the credit of being if not artistic, certainly national. Men of reputation may preach, academies may neglect, critics may sneer, but this new renaissance develops despite the clamour. Amid warnings and reproaches, the man who is true to his intuitions will continue to paint what he loves, and in the way he sees it to be beautiful, not what he is told he ought to love, and in the way some one else has seen it. Training, however well directed, will not make an artist, familiarity with the works of genius does not imply the hidden gift. From time to time a man appears, often from among the most unpromising surroundings, who has something to say which can only be expressed in pictorial form. He sacrifices everything, over- comes every obstacle, spares no pains in the endeavour to acquire a mastery over the means of expression, through which alone he can reveal himself to those who can understand his message. He will learn from every teacher, and seek truth wherever it is to be found. Whether a native of Scotland, America, or Italy, he speaks to all the world, for his language is the universal one which appeals to all who have the eye to see. James Paterson. SCULPTURE AT THE GLASGOW EXHIBITION. IV. THE work of George Tinworth, if not great, is most interesting and original. It is a naive attempt to enter the province of painting without the aid of atmosphere, to present in sculpture dramatic incidents treated in a picturesque and realistic manner. Although in nature an act may be performed by a company of persons representing a set of different individualities and views, in art only the single view of the spectator is to be considered, and the artist, in order to meet it, must make ideas and actions converge to a point or climax, and allow the mind to rest in contemplation of unity or harmony; but Mr. Tinworth, in his earnest and eager pursuit of expression throughout every detail, loses sight of this matter ; on his stage the dramatis persona: all speak at once, and the result is a confusing violation of all that is classical in the art. The Songster, by G. G. Frampton, is