Dunoyer de Segonzac is now sober and solid if a little dismal. Andre Derain, influenced by the Cubists, is found to be somewhat Spanish in the sobriety of his still-life paintings and somewhat classical in his solid stylistic landscapes with their limited range of colours. Marquet, another stylist, founded on Matisse, is noted for the economy of his means and his restraint; Dufresne is a ro manticist and an interesting painter who has gathered much from many sources. Raoul Dufy is a pattern maker, with a calligraphic style, and a frank imitator of Matisse. Vlaminck's work, often violent and crude in his landscapes, has developed something of the qualities associated with pavement artists. Van Dongen disguises the mediocrity of his mind under a certain flamboyant extrava gance. All these artists are now well-known and accepted, and it has become extremely difficult to be revolutionary.
Although it is natural that strange movements by their novelty and violence should attract most attention, the current of art moves on inevitably and certain painters of established reputations have pursued their paths unperturbed though, perhaps, not en tirely uninfluenced, by the ebullitions of the more youthful elements.
Such painters as Bonnard and Vuillard, derived originally from Degas and the Impressionists, produce works of an intimate beauty. Aman Jean, the gentle sentimentalist, with his refined and delicate colour; Lucien Simon, with his appreciation of native character and a fluent and vivid style, are still painting. Prinet, a Degas without poetry, Milcendeau, Desvallieres, with his confused symbolism ; Pierre Laurens ; Odilon, with his exquisite flower pieces and mystical paintings ; Maurice Denis, the symbolist ; K. X. Roussel, with his charming lyrical spirit; Lebasque, the warm colourist of the South ; Charles Guerin, Jean Puy and Flandrain are the best of what may be called the older school of painters.
Matisse, who started as a realist of a more or less academic kind and has developed a simple crystalline form of expression with the strictest economy of means, has shared with Cezanne the honour of having the most vital influence on the younger school.
In English art, although it was influenced by France and, later, by the general state of affairs, the agitation was less extreme. Compared with the placidity of the i9th century, when the Pre Raphaelite movement seemed a desperate revolution, the time would have appeared full of turmoil. The Royal Academy pursued its dull path without excitement and without change. The bril liant if superficial cleverness of J. S. Sargent had a certain in fluence but not a salutary one. The New English Art Club, founded by W. J. Laidlay in 1886, offered an opposition to the Academy and provided a place of exhibition and a point of con centration for the more independent and younger painters. The main influence, at the time, was that of French Impressionism although it was neither strong nor extensive in England.
Some years later, about 1910, a number of painters combined to form a centre and meeting place for painters of a more modern tendency, and their friends. They held weekly exhibitions at a studio at 19 Fitzroy St., London. The chief promoters were Walter Sickert and Spencer Gore. Lucien Pissarro joined them later and Augustus John was a member at one time. Other members in cluded Gilman, Ginner, Manson, Bayes, Drummond. The influ ence of the group, although not immediately apparent, led to other things. Lucien Pissarro brought from France a new in fluence, that of French Impressionism, which, previously, had had little effect on English art. Walter Sickert, now known as Walter Richard Sickert, one of the most genuine and most personal of modern artists, had practised a form of Impressionism (not strictly based on colour values) which was nearly akin to that of Degas and related to that of his artistic French cousins Bonnard and Vuillard, who, however, were looser, both in perception and handling, and more inclined towards a lyrical expression of colour. And P. Wilson Steer, one of the leading artists of the New English School had exploited French Impressionism in the 1890's to aban don it, soon after, for the native English form which derives from Constable and Turner.
The fine exhibition of the French Impressionists held at the Grafton Galleries in 1905, which contained splendid examples of all the masters of the school and included pictures such as "La. Loge" by Renoir, Manet's "Eva Gonzales," "Wandering Musi cians," etc., Degas' "Carriage at the Races," which have since become world-famous, attracted attention but had little influence.
In 1911, the members of the Fitzroy Street Group, desiring to obtain wider publicity for their work, formed the Camden Town Group, with Spencer Gore as president. The desire to enlarge the group, in order to include other and more modern phases of art, led to the formation, in 1913, of the London Group and its first exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in 1914. The Group has now con siderably increased in size and influence and includes in its mem bership the more prominent of the "advanced painters." A remarkable exhibition, which had an immediate and definite influence on the younger English painters, was the Post Impressionist Exhibition held at the Grafton Galleries from November 1910 to January 1911. Many artists, who have since been recognized as masters, were introduced to the majority of English painters for the first time. Cezanne, Gauguin, Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse were remarkably well represented and Manet, more familiar, was seen in many phases of his development. His pictures included the famous "Bar aux Folies Bergeres," now in Mr. Courtauld's private collection.