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220 CONTEMPORARY ART
But this difference between the atmosphere
of London and of Paris brings up a question
that had best be stated at once. What are
the causes of British ? provincialism Though
its existence is a fact that runs right through
the history of British art, it would be rash
to assume that the causes have always been
the same. For instance, the geographical
isolation of England may at one time have
been a cause that has been removed ;
by railways
and steamboats. It will be sensible to
speak in this article only of present causes of
present ills.
Some people will have it that the insignificance
of English art is very simply to be
explained by a complete
absence of native
talent ; but the mere inspection of English
children's and students' work suffices to dispose
of this too convenient hypothesis. In no
country, perhaps, except France, is there more
of that raw material from which good art is
made. More plausible is the theory that the
vast and towering greatness of English litera-
ture overhangs and starves all other forms of
expression. In such a land as this it seems
natural that any sense of art or power of
creation should drift towards literature, and
almost inevitable that the painters themselves
should be half poets at heart, hardly convinced
of the intrinsic value of their own medium,