Another artist who has a notable place amongst the original and inventive spirits of the end of the century, Paul Gauguin (1848 1903), also rinds his point of departure in the combined influences of Puvis and of Impressionism. His character, his life and his work are nothing but contrasts. Gauguin only came late in life to painting: he threw himself into it with a wild vehemence and 1 with that mixture of brutality, refinement, impulsiveness and reflection which he brought to all his undertakings. The primitive and savage he boasted of being gained the upper hand in the end and Gauguin settled in Tahiti where, after years of rage and disillusionment, he died miserably. But it was not only idyllic savagery that he went so far to find, but also order. Introduced by Pissarro to Impressionist vision and technique, he might have remained faithful to this teaching but for the meeting at Pont Aven, in 1886, with Emile Bernard, then only 18, who had already invented what he called Syntheticism or Cloisonnisme, a method founded upon the simplification of design and colour in which flat tints with shaded contours are used in imitation of enamels or stained glass work. Thus Gauguin, like Seurat, but with widely different methods, reacts against the inorganic. His inherited taste for the exotic and primitive gave him the elements of a decorative style. Even in the works composed during his Tahiti period the colour scale which he uses for synthetic effects is traceable more or less directly to that handed down by Pissarro as an instrument of analysis. But, in proportion to the develop ment of his singular personality he withdrew farther and farther from Impressionism, whilst, underneath the brown skin of the South Sea "Vahines," the relationship of his Maori dream with the imaginary world of the Greco-Latin Puvis shines through.
From Gauguin more than from Cezanne sprang the movement called at its beginning "Symbolism" and composed of young painters associated in close friendship—a decorator with virginal imagination, Maurice Denis, and the charming "intimistes," Bon nard Vuillard, and Roussel, finding there a milieu favourable to new and unusual ideas. Henri Matisse, while not belonging to this group, appears to have received some useful inspiration from Gauguin. The influence of Puvis was at least as apparent as that of Gauguin in the early efforts of Maurice Denis, and Degas, with the sometimes strident, sometimes subdued harmonies of his pastels, and his original type of composition is largely respon sible for the personal experiments of Vuillard and Bonnard.
In Gauguin's generation two men represent another form of reaction against Impressionism: Eugene Carriere (1848-1906) tries to give sentimental order the first place and Paul Albert Bernard (1849-1934), colourist, uses a somewhat impressionistic palette, but he only wishes to display the unrestrained elegance and fantasy which were in him.
As for Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90) and Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901) it is quite apparent how much they owe to Impressionism. It is only necessary to study their palettes and their methods of painting in order to convince oneself of this: in the case of the one the colour is heavily applied, in that of the other it is as light as pastel—but here and there are stripes and tone-hatching. It is elsewhere however that the dazzling and irreducible originality of the "grand" style draughtsman and biting ironist whom we know as Lautrec resides, or that of Van Gogh the peerless colourist, ingenuous creator of powerful pic torial hallucinations.
At the close of this summary review of a turbulent epoch, it seems to us that in spite of the theorists the chief interest of the history of Painting in the second half of the 19th century is centred in individuals not in Schools. Has there ever been, can
there ever be in our time real "Schools"? No, not in the old sense, when the traditions of this noble profession were handed down and perpetuated from master to pupils, for these days will never return. Nothing good, nothing durable will be done except by individuals. And, these so far as their personality is concerned, have not been the losers, for that personality is brought out more sharply than ever before and often has with it something of the abrupt and stern.
We might say that the individual has as his mission the re invention of Art and the duty of creating a new formula of all the parts, new in sentiment, new in technique. In so far as he does this, he represents the head of a School; but it is a School which lives only through him—and dies with him.
Thus we see how painting has been transformed in the course of the centuries, since the time when it was scarcely a thing apart from sculpture and architecture. Governed by fundamental laws, sculpture has scarcely changed; neither has architecture for the same reasons. The material with which music and painting work is infinitely more supple, more vague, and also more vast. Under the influence of the Christian faith at first, then of the modern spirit, they have grown and expanded with influence coming from all parts of the compass. It is now a question of suggestion rather than of expression. It would seem that the field of sug gestion opens itself without limits or hindrance to painting as to music, and at the stage of evolution where we now are, painting has become music, and music painting. (P. JA.) BIBLIoGRAPnY.—Dictionaries: E. Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documen,taire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays (1911-23) ; Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers (1903-04) ; J. D. Champlin, Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (1886-87) ; Thieme und Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenkiinstler (1907-1928 not yet complete). General History: Andre Michel, Histoire de l'Art depuis les premiers temps chritiens jusqu'd nos jours (1926) ; Richard Muther, History of Painting (1907) ; Joseph Pyoan, History of Art (1928) ; Elie Faure, History of Art (1921) ; John Van Dyke, History of Painting (1922); Prehistoric painting; Les peintures rupestres de Coqul. L'abri du Cap Blanc (l'Anthropologie) ; Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de l'Art dans l'antiquite (1882-1914) ; Girard, Histoire de la peinture antique: Greek painting; Furtwaengler und Reichold, Griechische Vasenmalerei (1900-04) ; Pottier, Les vases antiques du Louvre (1922) ; Early Christian art:— Kraus, Geschichte der christlichen Kunst (1895-190o) ; Mehl, Manuel d'art byzantin (1926) ; Hourticq, La peinture des origines au XVIe siecle (1908) ; L. Dimier et L. Reau, Histoire de in peinture francaise (1925) ; M. Dieulafoy, History of Art in Spain and Portugal (1903) ; S. Isham, History of American Painting (1905) ; T. H. Shepherd, History of the British School of Painting (1891) ; E. Frovaert, La Peinture en Belgique (1908-12) ; C. Heidrich, Die altdeutsche Malerei (1909) ; A. Venturi, Storie dell' Arte Italiang (1902-04) ; Von Marle, Development of the Italian schools of painting (1923) ; Hautecoeur, Rome et la Renaissance de l' Antiquite (1912) ; F. Benoit, L'Art francais sous la Revolution et l'Empire (1897) ; L. Gillet, La peinture, XVIle et XVIIIe siecles (1913) ; H. Fouillon, La peinture de XIX siecle a nos jours; B. Berenson, Italian Painters of the Renaissance (1930).