The attitude of Sargent toward a model or sitter and that of Alexander
are diametrically opposed, the one seeks to paint a vigorous
_characterization_ of the person before him, the other seeks to _create
a picture_, and to do so by a technic so different from that commonly
used it still occasions much of the wonderment it excited years ago.
Some of the portraits by Alexander are conspicuous on the walls of an
exhibition for very much the same reasons such a picture as Van Rees’s
“Maternity” would be conspicuous.
The landscape and cattle piece by Segonzac are both examples of
Virile-Impressionism. But Segonzac has painted many other pictures that
are Post-Impressionistic--arbitrary in design and execution, and still
others that are both Virile-Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic,
such as his large canvas, “A Pastoral,” shown at the International,
wherein the cattle are Virile-Impressionistic creations while the nude
figures and the entire scheme are purely Post-Impressionistic.
* * * * *
The two landscapes by Vlaminck and Charmy are good examples of the
transition state from Virile-Impressionism to Post-Impressionism.
They are sufficiently close to nature to be Impressionistic in the large
sense of the term; at the same time they are so arbitrary and decorative
in technic as to be quite Post-Impressionistic. They are about as far
removed from the average exhibition of Impressionistic pictures as they
are from the creative and abstract art of the Cubists, yet they will
hang with either without unduly shocking the spectator’s sense of the
fitness of things.
* * * * *
The three Cardoza’s are purely Post-Impressionistic; they are charming
examples of what might be called _romantic_ Post-Impressionism as
distinguished from the more _abstract_ conceptions of the Cubists; they
have no more relation to life than a fairy tale, rather less if
anything, for they are primarily decorative rather than significant.
* * * * *
Zak’s “Shepherd” is also Post-Impressionistic, romantic in feeling like
Cardoza’s, but of deeper human significance. The utter loneliness of the
shepherd’s life, the monotony of its outlook, the note of resignation,
are all as subtly indicated
[Illustration:
CHARMY
Landscape
]
as are any of the human qualities in Millet’s pictures of peasant life;
yet in technic and composition the picture is essentially
Post-Impressionistic, a decorative and musical work of the _creative_
imagination. One would not be far astray in classing it with the poetic
work of Arthur Davies.
XIII
SCULPTURE
Developments in sculpture do not always parallel those in painting.
In comparison painting is so facile that it lends itself easily to
experiments, responds quickly to moods and fancies. In short, painting
is more susceptible--more volatile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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