Since Cézanne | Page 2

though not
disdaining to pay homage for what they hold from the new theories, are
as independent as feudal princes. But the more I consider the period the
more this strange and restless alliance of doctrine with temperament
appears to be of its essence; wherefore, I shall not hesitate to make of it
a light wherewith to take a hasty look about me. Here are two labels
ready to hand--"temperamental" and "doctrinaire." I am under no
illusion as to the inadequacy and fallibility of both; neither shall I
imagine that, once applied, they are bound to stick. On the contrary,
you will see, in a later chapter, how, having dubbed Matisse
"temperamental" and Picasso "theorist," I come, on examination, to

find in the art of Matisse so much science and in that of Picasso such
extraordinary sensibility that in the end I am much inclined to pull off
the labels and change them about. But though, for purposes of criticism
coarse and sometimes treacherous, this pair of opposites--which are
really quite compatible--may prove two useful hacks. As such I accept
them; and by them borne along I now propose to make a short tour of
inspection, one object of which will be to indicate broadly the lie of the
land, another to call attention to a number of interesting artists whose
names happen not to have come my way in any other part of this book.
I said, and I suppose no one will deny it, that Paris was the centre of the
movement: from Paris, therefore, I set out. There the movement
originated, there it thrives and develops, and there it can best be seen
and understood. Ever since the end of the seventeenth century France
has taken the lead in the visual arts, and ever since the early part of the
nineteenth Paris has been the artistic capital of Europe. Thither painters
of all foreign nations have looked; there many have worked, and many
more have made a point of showing their works. Anyone, therefore,
who makes a habit of visiting Paris, seeing the big exhibitions, and
frequenting dealers and studios, can get a pretty complete idea of what
is going on in Europe. There he will find Picasso--the animator [A] of
the movement--and some of the best of his compatriots, Juan Gris and
Marie Blanchard for instance, to say nothing of such fashionable
figures as MM. Zuloaga et Sert. There he will find better Dutchmen
than Van Dongen, and an active colony of Scandinavians the most
interesting of whom is probably Per Krohg. The career of Krohg, by the
way, is worth considering for a moment and watching for the future.
Finely gifted in many ways, he started work under three crippling
disabilities--a literary imagination, natural facility, and inherited
science. The results were at first precisely what might have been
expected. Now, however, he is getting the upper hand of his unlucky
equipment; and his genuine talent and personal taste, beginning to
assert themselves, have made it impossible for criticism any longer to
treat him merely as an amiable member of a respectable group. What is
true of Spain and Scandinavia is even truer of Poland and what remains
of Russia. Goncharova and Larionoff--the former a typically
temperamental artist, the latter an extravagantly doctrinaire
one--Soudeikine, Grigorieff, Zadkine live permanently in Paris; while

Kisling, whom I take to be the best of the Poles, has become so
completely identified with the country in which he lives, and for which
he fought, that he is often taken by English critics for a Frenchman.
Survage (with his eccentric but sure sense of colour), Soutine (with his
delicious paint), and Marcoussis (a cubist of great merit) each, in his
own way, working in Paris, adds to the artistic reputation of his native
country. In the rue La Boëtie you can see the work of painters and
sculptors from every country in Europe almost, and from a good many
in Africa. The Italian Futurists have often made exhibitions there.
While the work of Severini--their most creditable representative--is
always to be found chez Léonce Rosenberg, hard by in the rue de la
Baume.
[Footnote A: For this word, which I think very happily suggests
Picasso's role in contemporary painting, I am indebted to my friend M.
André Salmon.]
However, most of the Futurists have retired to their own country, where
we will leave them. On the other hand, the most gifted Italian painter
who has appeared this century, Modigliani, was bred on the Boulevard
Montparnasse. In the movement he occupies an intermediate position,
being neither of the pioneers nor yet of the post-war generation. He was
not much heard of before the war, [B] and he died less than a year after
peace was signed. In my mind, therefore, his name is associated with
the