ABSTRACT
It is generally the fate of new movements to bring down upon themselves the derision of the majority, and in painting this is more universally true than in the case of the other Arts. Literature of quality appeals first to its own cultured audience and music is judged more by the emotions than by the intellect. Merely by submitting his work to public exhibition the painter lays himself open to attack by the motley host of ignorant people who drift into picture galleries and exhibitions much as they drift into a racecourse enclosure or a fashionable restaurant. Even the critics, who ought to know better, usually judge new work by old standards, which often do not apply at all. The vulgar and the instructed thus join forces to decry what they do not understand, so that to-day it is counted almost a public offence to show work which is not easily within the general comprehension. Two years ago, if the early days of Post-Impressionism as a self-conscious movement may be ascribed to so recent a date, public indignation vented itself not on one man only but on the work of a body of painters who were striving, each in his own way, to gain a common end. The whole movement was promptly denounced as either insanity or charlatanism by an overwhelming majority of the critics who thus expressed the feeling of the public and avoided, at the same time, the irksome process of setting their minds to the understanding of a new artistic idea. It was obvious at least that the well-worn phraseology of journalistic criticism was inadequate to the occasion; the old stereotyped phrases could no longer be made to serve their turn, and new ‘cliches’ were yet to be made. Criticism and public opinion formed a kind of unholy alliance and did their best to kill the new painting with abuse and ridicule. Even to-day there are not more than two or three critics in England who make any attempt to do justice to Post-Impressionism. And yet this despised development of painting is increasing its influence day by day, in spite of the newspaper critics and in spite of the hostility and laughter of the crowd. Its influence is slowly making its way into public opinion, removing gradually the barriers of ignorance and prejudice. More than anywhere else it is making itself felt directly in the art of painting. Post-Impressionist works are hung at all the chief exhibitions on the Continent: names of Post-Impressionist painters are becoming as well known as those of the Academicians. It is becoming increasingly evident that youth is with the new movement; that the vital work of the day is being done by young men who are under the Post-Impressionist influence; that their work draws its sustenance from life and not from imitation of the great pictures of the past. On the other hand it is becoming known that Post-Impressionist painters have studied the old masters ardently; that they have copied old pictures reverently in the galleries of Europe and that they do not despise the past because they are fired with the spirit of the present. But where the artist is concerned there comes a time when book-learning must be left behind and a fresher impulse sought in the actual experience of life which reveals itself in new forms to each generation of men. The old charge of notoriety-hunting is still heard, it is true, but it has become much less general. Increasing familiarity with the new mode of expression has softened the shock which the public mind always suffers when grappling with the unknown.
