The art of painting in the nineteenth century . we do not rankthem lower than those of our own artists whohave technical skill but fail to give indications ofnobility of conception. In recent years a school of open-air (plein air)painters has risen in Germany,— the so-called Im-pressionists, or, as they are better known, Seces-sionists, because since 1883 they have withdrawnfrom participation in official exhibitions. None oftheir works, unfortunately, were seen in St. Louisin 1904 because of the antagonistic attitude of thegovernment. Their point of view is very muchakin to that prevalent in A
The art of painting in the nineteenth century . we do not rankthem lower than those of our own artists whohave technical skill but fail to give indications ofnobility of conception. In recent years a school of open-air (plein air)painters has risen in Germany,— the so-called Im-pressionists, or, as they are better known, Seces-sionists, because since 1883 they have withdrawnfrom participation in official exhibitions. None oftheir works, unfortunately, were seen in St. Louisin 1904 because of the antagonistic attitude of thegovernment. Their point of view is very muchakin to that prevalent in America, so that an ex-hibition of their paintings would have done muchto increase the American estimate of German art. The classic enthusiasm kindled among Germanartists in the eighteenth century by Carstens andMengs continued in the early nineteenth centurywith Genelli, Preller, and Rottmann, all of whomsought inspiration in the study of the antique. Genelli (1798-1868) was the only one of thistrio who was not interested in landscapes. His. o o H H o C OC c C 4 GERMAN PAINTING 39 forte was the human figure, especially in the best works by Preller (1804-1878) thefigures are only insignificant parts of the they are disturbing, for Preller did notknow how to make them necessary to his com-positions. He was a man of vivid imagination,who in his mind peopled the rocks and coastswhich he studied on a journey to Naples, anddrew from them his famous illustrations to theOdyssey, Rottmann (1797-1850) was the greatestof the heroic landscapists, but he also suffered attimes from the erroneous notion that a landscapewithout figures cannot arouse in the spectatorproper emotions. Without being familiar withthe much later school of open-air artists, hedelighted in phases of nature which are charac-teristic of them, — sunsets, storms, and moon-light. With him they were means of appealing tothe emotions, owing to the things which they sug-gested, — the grandeur of
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