. The New England magazine . ment and tone, and only occasionallypossess the merit of photographic are meaningless as art. They areoutside the scope of ordinary art criticism,and can only be regarded as the manifes-tations of a growing feeling for art in acommunity for the most part chained tothe car of commerce and the common- which they have sprung, and to whichthey appeal. There is much that is piti-able in the lives of these unfortunates,feeding upon their illusions, and ekingout a precarious existence as portrait andlandscape painters in the different citiesof the Dominion. O
. The New England magazine . ment and tone, and only occasionallypossess the merit of photographic are meaningless as art. They areoutside the scope of ordinary art criticism,and can only be regarded as the manifes-tations of a growing feeling for art in acommunity for the most part chained tothe car of commerce and the common- which they have sprung, and to whichthey appeal. There is much that is piti-able in the lives of these unfortunates,feeding upon their illusions, and ekingout a precarious existence as portrait andlandscape painters in the different citiesof the Dominion. One thing that has greatly retarded thedevelopment of art in Canada is the lackof patronage. There is no home marketfor anything but portrait painting, andthis branch of art, except in the handsof the masters, pursued alone for bread,is very apt to degenerate into a mereknack. The commercial idea is stillsupreme in Canada — it excludes higherideals and interests. The Canadians, asa people, despise the arts, either painting,. The Local Stars of Pine Creek. FROM A PAINTING BY ROBERT HARRIS. place. It would be unfair to apply thecanons of art to the efforts of men whoare entirely ignorant of them, and whoseonly guides have been their own percep-tions mixed with the inherited fantasticprejudices of the bourgeois classes from music or literature, because art is not aroad to wealth; and the social schemein Canada is composed of concentric cir-cles, with the railroad hierarchy and themillionnaires in the middle. Of course,the wealthy merchants do buy pictures, but 150 CANADIAN ART AND ARTISTS. they do so through art dealers in Londonand Paris, and they buy only the worksof artists who are already buy such pictures, often, as they buyunblemished diamonds; there is no pos-sibility of risk, and there is a probabilityof gain, in any future transactions. Their
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