made a considerable mark in art-bistory. It was tbat the man had a seeing eye, and a great love for things with which be bad all his life been familiar. It is not a comic countryman, nor a sentimental countryman, as seen from a townsman's point of view, but bis own bome life that be paints — one feels in his work a deeper penetration, and a greater intimacy with his subject tban in the work of other men. Tbis I tbink is proved by bis London pictures, in wbich, althougb as work they are masterly, one misses the intimate sympathy of his pictures of village life.
In spite of all tbat, justly or not, may be said asainst the French Scliools, the fact remains that wlien a man of exceptional natural gifts goes through their course, be comes out much stronger than such a man does here, or anywhere else. Now it seems to me comparatively an easy matter, with a very moderate skill and knowledge of the usual painter's artifices, to produce work, acceptable to the public and in exhibitions, if one steers clear of the present time. Paint your model in knee-breeches and a 'George' wig — lie's a picture at once. Paint him as he is, and immediately, as we have no illusions in these matters, we all become critical and fastidious. It follows from tbis that the more we study our own times and surroundings, the better must our work be, to rank as fine art. I do not mean to imply that painting should be confined to modern subjects, there are ' subjects ' good for all time; but still it is to me unquestionable that the main business of painting — indeed, of all art — is with our own times. It was so with the old masters, and was one main source of their strength, and in those days art was of use. And the great development of portrait-painting with us of late years shows that it is beginning to be felt that painting should be useful. May it not in time again become so? It is difficult to say bow, if not by resolutely facing the conditions of our everyday life. Surely we are all too self-conscious; and perhaps — in spite of our great achievements in material ways — a little bit ashamed of ourselves, as compared with the simpler lives of our ancestors. And yet our real progress has been great, and of benefit to all — to artists in particular the conditions of existence are more favourable tban ever before. But are we nearer to any solid result? Our business men, whose sole thought apparently is the making of money, have still a lurking feeling for tbe primitive and romantic virtues of years ago. But would it not be better, and if it were possible, to recognise that they may exist to-day among us? Tbe work of Lepage, I think, has this bearing, indirectly, for on the lines be worked who knows what advantage may arise from a fuller understanding of what is still beautiful amongst us? For one thing, it would add greatly to the enjoyment of life. And in how many ways is the road still untrodden? Is there notliing worthy in the immense and complex life of our cities, for instance? But for those who would lead to fresh fields — for the last word has not been said in art in any direction — there pro- bably awaits a martyrdom, harder perhaps tban bullets, and perhaps without reward, for daring to paint 'the unpaintable.'
George Clausen.
MODERN ITALIAN ART.
WHETHER we like or detest 'Old Masters,' we in England have at any rate a reasonable chance of seeing them at times; for have we not a National Collection in our midst, in which it is possible to study the difference in thought, style, colour, and general development of the art of Italy, from its crude and intense conceptions, born of the Middle Ages, right up to its brilliant culmination in the Renaissance? But nowadays opportunities rarely occur in which we can arrive in England at any just idea — in a collective sense — of the nature of modern Italian Art. Now for the first time in London a representative collection of that art, both plastic and pictorial, is brought together at the ' Italian Exhibition ' at Kensington, which on more than one count is fraught with interest to all who care for artistic doings. And if in view of the vitality and mastery of technical difficulty which is evinced for example in the panoramic and historic displays by Professor Sciuti and many another able executant, there is not such an abundant yield of intellectual variety, of spontaneity, and specific artistic qualities as might have been expected, nevertheless some among the painters of an important section— the Milanese— show an independence of method, an individuality of thought, which at once stamps their work as unique in its bent, and raises it high above the level of the commonplace
