new and very noble idea of
impressionism. That Robinson succeeded in a not startling but
nevertheless honorable and respectable fashion, must be conceded him.
I sometimes think that Vignon, a seemingly obscure associate of the
impressionists, with a similar impassioned feeling of realism, outdid
him and approached closer to the principles as understood by Pissarro:
probably better by a great deal than Monet himself, who is accredited
with the honor of setting the theme moving in a modern line of that
day. And Pissarro must have been a man to have so impressed all the
men young and old of his time. After seeing a great number of Monet's
one turns to any simple Pissarro for relief. And then there was also
Sisley.

But the talk is of Theodore Robinson. He holds his place as a realist
with hardly more than a realist's conception, subjoined to a really
pleasing appreciation of the principles of impressionism as imbibed by
him from the source direct. Here are, then, the two true American
impressionists, who, as far as I am aware, never slipped into the
banalities of reiteration and marketable self-copy. They seem to have
far more interest in private intellectual success than in a practical
public one. It is this which helped them both, as it helps all serious
artists, to keep their ideas clean of outward taint. This is one of
the most important factors, which gives a man a place in the art he
essays to achieve. When the day of his work is at an end it will be
seen by everyone precisely what the influences were that prompted his
effort toward deliverance through creation. It is for the sake of this
alone that sincere artists keep to certain principles, and with
genuine sacrifice often, as was certainly the case with Twachtman. And
after all, how can a real artist be concerned as to just how salable
his product is to be? Certainly not while he is working, if he be
decent toward himself. This is of course heresy, with Wall Street so
near.

ARTHUR B. DAVIES

If Arthur B. Davies had found it necessary, as in the modern time it
has been found necessary to separate literature from painting, we
should doubtless have had a very delicate and sensitive lyric poetry
in book form. Titles for pictures like "Mirrored Dreaming,"
"Sicily-Flowering Isle," "Shell of Gold," "A Portal of the Night,"
"Mystic Dalliance," are all of them creations of an essentially poetic
and literary mind. They are all splendid titles for a real book of