The earlier
pictures were studies in the forest of Fontainebleau, whose venerable
tree-trunks, moss-grown; whose lichen-covered rocks, and gleaming
pools reflecting the sky, he rendered with force of color and strength
of effect. Gradually he began to attempt the figure, which in his
hands never attained a higher plane than an assemblage of charming
though artificial color; and these little _bouquets_, which
superficially imitated Correggio, Da Vinci, or Prud'hon, as the fancy
seized the painter, bathed in a color that is undeniably agreeable,
were and are to this day loved by the collector. Of a whimsical
temperament, Diaz was the life of artist gatherings; and his facility
in work, and its popularity, gave him the means of doing many generous
acts, the memory of which lives. But of the group of men of his time,
he has exercised, perhaps, the least influence.
[Illustration: THE STONE-BREAKERS. FROM A PAINTING BY GUSTAVE COURBET.
One of Courbet's early pictures, which, when exhibited at the Salon,
excited considerable discussion, certain adverse critics finding in it
an appeal to the socialistic elements. It represents a scene common in
France, where stones are piled by the roadsides, to be broken up for
repairing the route.]
Jules Dupre rises to a higher plane. But his work, freed from the
colder academical bondage, is pitched in a key of color which takes us
to a world where the sun shines through smoke; where the clouds float
heavily, filled with inky vapors; and the light shoots from behind the
trees explosively.
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