called "Work" and "Rest," but they were not purchased. One day a gentleman entered the studio, saying, "I saw your pictures War' and 'Peace' at the Salon and was much impressed by them. If you have not sold them I think I can place them for you." This was indeed good luck, for the gentleman was the architect of a new museum and the pictures were purchased. Now, if Puvis de Chavannes' pictures looked well at the Salon how much better did they look when placed as a decoration on the wall of a public building! They had been painted for that and every thought bent upon their future intended use. As pictures in a gallery they were not so successful but as decorations they made a great hit. From now on his work was appreciated and his success assured. In person Puvis de Chavannes was tall and robust, his fine head set on broad shoulders. His private life was quiet and uneventful save for his work. Although sociable and fond of friends and pleasures in their places, he was very jealous of his working hours. He would not admit visitors nor allow any criticism of a work until it was finished, holding that the first condition of success in art was that the artist should be wholly himself. A LITTLE GALLERY OF PUVIS DE CHAVANNES' The Legend of St. Geneviève... Inter Artes et Naturam.. Winter The Poor Fisherman. Letters, Sciences and Arts. History and other Decorations. The Pantheon, Paris, Rouen Museum. .Hotel de Ville, Paris. Luxembourg Gallery, Paris. Sorbonne, Paris. Public Library, Boston, GENRE AND STILL-LIFE PAINTING Genre is that kind of painting which portrays everyday life either indoor or outdoor. It is most commonly applied to the works of the great Dutch and Flemish painters of the seventeenth century which portrayed scenes from the real life of those times. The scenes were mostly of the homes of the common people in city and country and of the taverns and streets. Hence we hear of "The homely art of Holland," as distinguished The Water-Mill, by Meindert Hobbema. Full of detail and typical of the early Dutch landscape painting. from "The royal art of Spain." The great names in Dutch and Flemish art include Franz Hals, Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Dyck, but the artists who are chiefly known as genre painters were Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch, Jan Vermeer of Delft, David Teniers (father and son), Nicholas Maes, Gerard Dou and a few others. Succeeding centuries have brought many genre and stilllife painters, but none to excel these early men. Pictures of fruits, flowers, game, furniture, bowls, dishes and the like are called still-life. When a student begins to learn to paint, a still-life is usually the first thing given him to do. It is less difficult to get a fairly good result from a simple still-life arrangement where the objects remain unmoved and the light fixed, than in other kinds of painting. Yet some artists have become world-famous by their still-lifes alone, and examples of their work hang in the great museums of the world. Thus in the Louvre we find the canvases of Chardin, the greatest of all the purely still-life painters. There is hardly an artist of any grade, high or low, who does not love occasionally to paint a still-life. It may be the rich bloom of a peach or a plum, the brilliancy of wine in glasses, or the wonderful effects of brass work, or again of satin or plush, or the hues of flowers that tempt him. Some of the best of all stilllifes are of old pots and kettles and of things in which only an artist would first see the beauty. Some people, even those who are picture lovers, say: "Of what special interest can a copy of some pots or vegetables be?" But true artists often see great beauty in them and by producing a beautiful painting make us understand something we had not understood before. So far as the technical part of painting goes, a stilllife may have splendid qualities. It may, for instance, have rich colors, beautiful symmetry and grouping and wonderful texture. Texture, in fact, is a quality that usually is preeminent in good still-lifes. That is, the surface of objects is in such perfect imitation of the original that to look at it, gives us the feeling almost of touch, or the feeling of hardness or softness. Ruskin gives three kinds of textures: the lustrous, as water or glass; the velvety, as the peach; and linear, as fur. Much of the beauty of flowers is in their delicate satiny or velvety texture. People who take delight in flowers or pottery or brassware or any still object that is beautiful in itself will take delight in a fine rendering of such objects in pic tures. THE ALCHEMIST By David Teniers, the Younger, of the Flemish School (Born 1610, died 1690) A country famous for its linens, silks and velvets would naturally have artists who were interested in showing the beauties of such things and a nation whose men manufactured many textiles and other articles with their hands would be interested in seeing such pictures. The old Dutch and Flemish artists were the first great masters in still-life. Many of the early genre paintings |