In painting there was the same love of display, except in the works of the Le Nain brothers, who portrayed the peasant. Simon Vouet, in the reign of Louis XIII, ushered in LeBrun. Nicholas Poussin, whose style in historical landscape is unsurpassed, lived in re tirement in Rome, where he formed the style of Claude Lorrain—a wonderful analyzer of light,— aside from this movement in which even the austere Philippe de Champagne and the suave Le Sueur took but little part, LeBrun is the artistic spirit of the 18th century in France. The position of of the Academy having been created for him, he grouped the artists as he wished. To him is due the stately gallery of Apollo in the Louvre, and his artists Lemoyne, Monnoyer, Audron, Berain, Bourdon, Coypel, la Hire, Jouvenet, Van der Meulen, Regaud and Largilliere painted por traits in a wonderful dashing style. Decorative art reached its apogee in the Gobelins manu factory of tapestries supported by the govern nient, and in the cabinet work of the Boule family.
Exceptionally original talent was now seen in engraving— that of Jacques Callot.
The 18th Century.— A very natural re action from the pompousness of the 17th cen tury resulted in the piquant grace and the sen suality of the 18th. Caprice and subtle deli cacy took the place of dull etiquette. (1Pretti nese replaced "the Beautiful." Art declined. The "Rocaille" and "Folies" styles succeeded. Nevertheless Gabriel, the architect, did not as yet abandon the deep-rooted traditions of his predecessors which he embodied in the facades of the Palace de la Concorde. Soufflot, in the reign of Louis XVI, inspired by antiquity, built the Sorbonne in that style. But architectural style now aimed rather at "comfort." Sculpture was flourishing, after the style of Jean Baptiste Lemoyne. Two eminent sculp tors, Pigalle and Houdon, partially escaped this craze, especially Houdon who made such a powerful bust of Voltaire. But the idol of the boudoirs was the voluptuous Clodion, whose very worldly creations seem to be caressed by the hand of Love itself.
Painting was in every way typical of the taste of French society in. the 18th century. The pastorals of Franc Boucher; the fasci nating "Fetes galantee of Watteau; the charm ing nudes of Fragonard, sounding the praises of woman; the great Chardin, a man of the middle class, who escaped the false manner of his time, which engulfed Joseph Vernet, Hu bert Robert, Oudry, Lancret and Pater, paint ers of marines, of landscape, of the chase and of gallantries; the sentimentality of Greuze and the archness of Madame Vigee Le Brun are offset by the keen penetration of the por trait painter Quintin Latour, a capricious pastel artist.
The 19th Another reaction took place. David revived the ancient Greco-Ro mano, and his horror of the license taken by Boucher led him to adopt a very severe style of art. His influence on his time was great.
The David school, which had its origin in the painting of 'The Crowning of Napoleon I,) includes the names of Drouais, Girodet, Gros, Guerin, Gerard, Leopold Robert and also In gres.
Jean Dominique Ingres detached himself completely from the heroic style of his master. He was a forcible and skilful draughtsman, psychological, intense, a sensual "feministe," and excelled the fascinating founder of French Classicism, but like him he confined himself to an mtheticism which sprang from his "esprit" which was inferior to his temperament. The gentle and pure Prudhon was inspired, as well as David, by antiquity, but from a different point of view, that of vague dreaminess. Ro manticism made its appearance with Gericault, the spirited and bold colorist of 'The Ship wreck of the Medusa.) Romanticism, there fore, burst forth with a flourish of trumpets. Delacroix made his appearance,— lyrical, agi tated, masterly and ever restless, an excellent colorist and a dramatic pessimist: he is Byronic, reminds one of Berlioz, ranks with Shakes peare and anticipates Wagner. Songeur Ful gurant is the embodiment of lyric art separated from schools and epochs. Almost at the begin ning of the century Delacroix foretold the end. He was ignorant of the broken tones, which had been slightly discerned by Andrea del Sarto and Watteau,— the theory of complementaries as applied to pictures. This resulted in Dela croix being (1830) fully imbued with the Im pressionist revolution which developed toward the year 1865. The feverish earnestness of his great spirit enabled him to surpass Ingres, pro duce a contrary current throughout the entire country,— a stiff breeze of independence. He repudiated codes and dogmas, and taught that the law of art is the scrupulous cultivation of individual expansion.
The struggle between Classicism and Roman ticism was violent, and it soon gave place to another enemy — Realism. Romanticism spon taneously engendered from the soil an admir able school of Romantic latidscape — Theodore Rousseau, who set his skies aflame as with pre cious stones and blood; Daubigny, self-con tained and affected; Troyon, an animal painter as vigorous as a Dutchman; and Dias, florid, the votary of a muse too studiedly grounded. These landscape painters, followers of Ruys dael and of Claude Lorrain, possessed— besides the qualities of these masters — great keenness of perception, and the new theory of the vi bration of color absorbing the contour with out losing the form; and laying less stress on the drawing of the trees and hills than on the feeling for open air values.