Produced by Chuck Greif, Beginners Projects and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) MODERN FRENCH MASTERS MODERN FRENCH MASTERS BY MARIE VAN VORST WITH PREFACE BY ALEXANDER HARRISON PARIS BRENTANO’S 37 AVENUE DE L’OPERA AND UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK 1904 Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. At the Ballantyne Press IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION OF THE HOSPITALITY OF THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE I INSCRIBE THIS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS WHICH HAVE ALREADY APPEARED IN ITS PAGES TO MY FRIEND GEORGE R. HALKETT PARIS, 1904 90 RUE DE VARENNE PREFACE The source of art is the fountain of Love: the winged spirits, Painting, Sculpture, and Poetry, spring from it hand in hand. With affectionate leave-takings and cries of joy at their liberation, they soar into space, the angel of Music out-winging the rest because of more lambent fibre, but she is no more vital nor pulsating than her sisters. Genius is Love, Talent is the sure perception of essentials combined with the power of expression. Talent, coupled with genius, produces the Love-Child that men call a Masterpiece. The love-child in Art is the most perfect of all human creations, whether the artist lover be conventional or academic, or rebellious against form and schools, or capricious and eccentric. Emerson said: “Write above your door the word, ‘_Whim_.’” This, Alfred Stevens, Besnard, Dégas, and the great sculptor Carries would have applauded, and above all--Whistler! Whether the lover be brutal and aggressive (Courbet and at times Besnard), shy and distinguished (Puvis de Chavannes), dreamy and caressing (Corot and Cazin), alert and pulsating (Sargent, Zorn), retiring and retrospective (Millet-Lobre), nobly dominating (like Rodin, who says “_il faut planer_”)--or varied in impulse--one might say capricious--like Whistler, Bastien Lepage and Monticeli--the obsession of the _motif_ will infallibly assert itself in convincing form, the vital impulse of loyal desire will in every case assume masterly shape, and if sequent be great. And as all the world loves a lover, so all the world sooner or later will love the lover’s work.