When a man stands before a cubist painting or an improvisation by Kandinsky and says he sees all sorts of things in it, do not take him too seriously; he is like members of those extraordinary Browning Clubs who destroy our enjoyment of the poetry by reading into each line things the poet never dreamed. * * * * * The Cubists and most of the moderns are very young men, what they _think_ is of far less interest than what they _do_. What a young man does is often of vital importance, what he thinks may be of no importance at all--save to himself. Moved by the most naive theories and enthusiasms youth [Illustration: CHABAUD Cemetery Gates] will do wonderful things, things the sober reflection of age would fear to do. One of the charms of the Cubists is their child-like faith in the absolute supremacy of their art; this faith is interesting in them because it leads them to produce works that cause us to stop and look and think, but when their followers indulge the same blind faith in print their utterances are mostly incoherent and boresome. * * * * * The violent partisan who sees all sorts of things in the modern painting is at one extreme, the violent opponent who sees nothing at all is at the other--let them fight it out. The truth lies midway, that there is _something_ worth finding in even the most extravagant attempts of the new movement no thoughtful man will deny. The very fact the paintings attract such crowds and excite so much controversy proves there is _something_ for serious investigation; the something may not turn out to be of overwhelming importance, but it will have its influence upon the future of art. No one for a moment doubts that the exhibitions held in New York, Chicago, and Boston are destined to have a very great effect upon American art, especially upon the art of the men most bitterly opposed to Cubism, and everything akin to Cubism. The academic has received a severe but healthful jolt. Whatever affects us has, at least, the merit of _affecting_ us, and whatever moves us to do better work, whether in an old way or a new way, has the merit of _affecting us for good_. VII THE NEW ART IN MUNICH “WE cling more closely to the old masters; what we are doing is simply the natural development of their principles and their methods,” said a well-known painter of Munich while speaking of the Cubists and other moderns of Paris, and the words had direct reference to the head of a woman, by Jawlenski, reproduced herein in color. It would be difficult to convince the casual observer that this head has any relationship to portraits by Titian, _and yet_-- * * * * * The Cubists are also equally quick to demonstrate the logical connection between their works and those of the old masters, tracing the connection through Courbet, El Greco, and so on.