And Knaus has remained the same ever since: a separate personality which belongs to history. He painted peasant pictures of tragic import and rustic gaiety; he recognised a number of graceful traits in child-life, and, having seen a great deal of the world, he made a transition, after he had settled in Berlin, from the character picture of the Black Forest to such as may be painted from the life of cities. He even ventured to touch on religious subjects, and taught the world the limitations of his talent by his "Holy Families," composed out of reminiscences of all times and all schools, and by his "Daniel in the Lions' Den." Knaus is whole-heartedly a _genre_ painter; though that, indeed, is what he has in common with many other people. But thirty years ago he had a genius for colour amid a crowd of narrative and character painters, and this makes him unique. He is a man whose significance does not merely lie in his talent for narrative, but one who did much for German art. It may be said that in giving the _genre_ picture unsuspected subtleties of colour he helped German art to pass from mere _genre_ painting to painting pure and simple. In this sense he filled an artistic mission, and won for himself in the history of modern painting a firm and sure place, which even the opponent of the illustrative vignette cannot take from him. [Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ KNAUS. BEHIND THE SCENES.] _Vautier_, who must always be named in the same breath with Knaus, is in truth the exact opposite of the Berlin master. He also is essentially a _genre_ painter, and his pictures should not be merely seen but studied in detail; but where Knaus has merits Vautier is defective, and where Knaus is jarring Vautier has merits. In technique he cannot boast of similar qualities. He is always merely a draughtsman who tints, but has never been a colourist. As a painter he has less value, but as a _genre_ painter he is more sympathetic. In the pictures of Knaus one is annoyed by the deliberate smirk, by his exaggerated and heartlessly frigid observation. Vautier gives pleasure by characterisation, more delicately reserved in its adjustment of means, and profound as it is simple, by his wealth of individual motives and their charm, and by the sensitiveness with which he renders the feelings and relationship of his figures. A naïve, good-humoured, and amiable temperament is betrayed in his works. He is genially idyllic where Knaus creates a pungently satirical effect, and a glance at the portraits of the two men explains this difference. [Illustration: _Kunst für Alle._ BENJAMIN VAUTIER.]