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CONTEMPORARY ART 219
before a great master, but before a Philippe
de Champaigne or a Vivarini, I wonder what
he would say.
It is hard to conjecture ; for our portraitpainters
live in a world which, though not
insensitive to prettiness, and impressed by
obvious manifestations of
ability, cares nothing
for art or good painting. In such a world an
artist who is, after all, little better than a
human being can hardly be expected to
develop his critical faculty.
If some of our
gifted men were to take their talents to Paris,
where is a press and public that knows how to
be serious about art, they would, one fancies,
begin to feel dissatisfied with their facile
triumphs and appetizing confections. They
would feel, too, that they were surrounded by
people who could recognize and appreciate
conviction and science even though these were
presented in forms too recondite for the mob.
They would find that in Paris a painter can
have praise enough without stooping for the
applause of Mayfair. It is significant that,
whereas English painters once they have found
a style that hits the public taste, are not much
inclined to change it, in Paris such an artist
as Picasso, who has taken the fancy of amateurs
and dealers in at least three different manners,
goes on from experiment to experiment, leav-
ing the public
to follow as best it can.