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222 CONTEMPORARY ART
never so grandly independent, can make himself
impervious to its judgments. It is an
unofficial areopagus which imposes its decisions,
unintentionally but none the less effectively,
on the rich floating snobisme of Paris and of
continental Europe. Those who go to the
Salon for their art or invest in Henners and
Bougereaus are reckoned hopelessly bourgeois
even by the cultivated pressmen. It is a
fastidious public, intelligent, learned, and
as an
extremely severe : painting it regards
end in itself, not as a branch of journalism or
a superior amenity ; and no artist can begin
to abuse his talent or play tricks with the
currency without getting from this formidable
body the sort of frown that makes even a
successful portrait-painter wince. Indeed,
many popular continental likeness-catchers,
some of whom enjoy the highest honours in
this country, having come under its ban, are
now ruled out of contemporary civilization. 1
In England, on the other hand, the artist's
public consists of that fringe of the fashionable
world which dabbles in culture and can afford
to pay long prices ; from it the press obsequiously
takes the cue ; and any honest
1 Since these words were written the British Press, or
the Government maybe, has had the bright idea of interning
one of them. To be sure he was a very bad painter; but
the punishment seems rather severe for an offence which
usually incurs nothing worse than a knighthood.