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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE EXHIBITION OF PICTURES OF 1843- Paris, May 7, 1843. The Exhibition of pictures for this year excites unusual interest, yet it is impossible for me to pass even a half-way seasonable opinion as to the vaunted pre-eminence of this Salon. So far, I have only felt discontent beyond comparison when I wandered through the balls of the Louvre. These delicious colours which all burst loose screaming at me at once, this variegated lunacy which grins at me from every side, this anarchy in gold frames makes a painful, evil impression on me. I torture myself in vain in trying to set in order this chaos in my mind, and to find therein the thoughts of the time, or even the allied mark of common character, by which these pictures show themselves as the results of our time. For all works of one and the same period have a trace or trait of such character, the painter's mark, which we call the spirit of the age. Thus, for example, the canvases of Watteau, Boucher, Vanloo,1 reflect the graceful, powdered playfulness of pastourelles and fetes, the rouged and frivolous emptiness des fadaises galantes, the sweetish hooped-petticoat happiness of the prevalent Pompadour rule, in which we see everywhere gaily-ribboned shepherds' crooks, and never a sword. On the other hand, the pictures of David and his school are only the coloured echo of the Republican virtuous period which laps over into the Imperial glory of war-time; and here we find a forced inspiration for the marble model, an abstract frosty intoxication of reason, the design being correct, severe, and hard, the colour turbid, harsh, and indigestible? a Spartan broth. But what will manifest itself as the real character of the age (die zeitliche Sifj- natur) to our descendants when they study the pictures of our present painters ? By w...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217144964 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217144969 |
| Weight | 0.64 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.44 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 192 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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