In our
work-a-day, materialistic age, like a thrush singing in a boiler-shop,
he is the quiet but triumphant vindication of the truth that all
great art has its roots firmly implanted in the earth of Hellenic
civilization, though its expression may be, as in Corot's case,
through an art unknown to the Greeks, and even, as in the case of
the one greater man of this century than Corot--Millet--by the
presentation of types which the beauty-loving sons of Hellas disdained
to represent.
Millet's work must be considered later in these papers, but it
is useful here to make this passing comment, that with Corot he
represents what is best in our modern art; that the greatest quality
of our modern art is its steadfast reliance on nature; and that,
paradoxical as it may seem, they are alike in taking only that from
nature which is serviceable to the clarity of their expression, being
in this both at odds with the common practice of modern painting,
which usually adopts a more servile attitude towards nature. Corot
painted out of doors constantly; but in the maturity of his art his
work was only based upon the scene before him, a practice dangerous to
the student, and fraught with difficulty to the master. In the fever
of production; in the almost childish joy which the long neglected
painter felt when dealers and collectors besieged his door; and,
finally, in the necessity which arose for large sums of money to carry
on works of charity, which were his only dissipation, and which it
was his pride to sustain without impairing the patrimony which in
the course of time he had inherited, and which he left intact to his
relatives, Corot undoubtedly weakened his legacy to the future by
over-production.
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