GENRE PAINTING, in art, from the French genre (sort or kind), which was originally employed to designate pictures of which the subjects were copied. directly from nature, such as landscapes, scenes of every-day life, animals, fruit, and even portraits; in con tradistinction to those which were more the product of the imagination, such as historical, religious, and purely ideal paintings. The term is now restricted to denote scenes of every-day life, such as Hogarth and Wilkie loved to depict. A genre painter is not confined to low subjects, nor need his paintings be vulgar in the ordmary acceptation of the word, though the great mod ern masters in this style, the Dutch, have owed their inspiration and fame to scenes of very humble and often coarse life. In short the human element is the dominant note in genre painting. This style of painting was not un known to the ancients. Fyreicus, a Greek painter of the tinte of Alexander the Great, painted barbers' shops, cobblers' stalls, and the like, and according to Pliny, his pictures prized. Genre painting had become pop ular m the late Greek and Roman periods, and the excavation of ancient classical cities has brought to light numerous fine examples of the work of the artists of these later classical periods. In Italy the painters who have worked in this style are Caravaggio, Manfredi, Salvator Rosa, Benedetto Castiglione, etc. But the art received
its highest development in the Netherlands; Teniers the younger, Jan Van Mill, D. Ryckaest, Rembrandt, Nicholas Maas, Gerard Dow, Jan Steen, the Van Ostades, Brauwer and Bega, are among the best exponents of the style. In Great Britain, after Howarth and Wilkie, al, ready mentioned, come Leslie, Mulready, lice, Egg, Millais, Faed and others. The British school has sought to lend a dignity to the style by the introduction of the dramatic element. But genre painting has never been neglected in any of the European countries since the days of the early Netherland masters who depicted every phase of the life in which they lived. In the 18th century the French artists carried out the traditions of the getire masters and elaborated them in their own distinctly national way. Among these who acquired an international reputation were Boucher, Chardin, Fragonard and Lancret. Since then France has never lacked genrepainters. Bargue, Meis sonier, Roybet and Vibert were brilliant ex ponents of the art in the middle of the 19th century; and they had many followers and imitators. See PAINTING.