Or rather painting developed along two distinct lines--one the more perfect representation of objects _for the sake of the representation_; the other compositions of line and color--not [Illustration: BLOCH Summer Night] [Illustration: BLOCH The Duel] imitative--for the sake of the pleasure afforded _by the pattern and the color scheme_. This second development parallels that of music--compositions of line and color, like compositions of sound for the pleasure they give, and not for the associations they arouse. Strange as it may sound, it is nevertheless true, that four-fifths of the pleasure we get in our daily lives out of line and color is not from the _imitative_ development, the _picture_ side, but from the _non-imitative_, the _abstract_ side. Our clothes, our homes, our public buildings, our cities, our landscapes are made beautiful by the use of line and color in patterns and masses--in harmonious composition. It is only here and there that we come in contact with either line or color used imitatively. We all know how distressingly tiresome a wall-paper becomes if it is made up of imitative scenes--that is, a series of pictures, and the better the pictures the sooner we tire of the paper. While a paper that contains no imitative spots, or in which the imitative features are so subdued and conventionalized we _feel_ them rather than _see_ them, may be restful and pleasing; and a wall that is a monotone if bordered by wainscoting and frieze in monotones, may wear the best of all. * * * * * But while the great, the practical use of line and color followed parallel lines with sound and got farther and farther away from imitative features, _the art_ of painting, as it is commonly called, developed in just the opposite direction, it became more and more imitative, until of late years it would seem that the last word has been said in the reproduction of natural objects and natural light and color effects. Of course the _last_ word has not been said, and never will be said so long as _individuals_ are born, but _so much_ has been said that it is not surprising there is a reaction, nor is it surprising that one phase of this reaction should be an attempt to use line and color as the decorator and the dressmaker and a thousand others use them, to express and kindle pleasurable emotions. In short it is not surprising that the painter of pictures should awaken to the realization of the fact that others use and have used, from the beginning, line and color to make delightful compositions that have no relation to natural objects, as the musician uses sound to make delightful compositions that have no relation to natural noises. * * * * * As a rule women have a finer instinct for the use and arrangement of color than painters. Few wives of painters would trust their husbands to decorate their dinner tables.