. John La Farge : a memoir and a study . at theartist might make his sketch. But he makesmore than a sketch. His sitters are types andin their lovely landscape the suggestion theyconvey is as of a page from Fijian life. Thereis something dark and sinister about thegroup. There is nothing of the company ofdocile models, posing as so many types ofform and color. There is everything of acurious state of savagery, of men in whosetraits and demeanor you recognize the marksof a peculiar social state. So it is with all ofLa Farges exotic studies, exotic for us butnot for him, for it always has seemed
. John La Farge : a memoir and a study . at theartist might make his sketch. But he makesmore than a sketch. His sitters are types andin their lovely landscape the suggestion theyconvey is as of a page from Fijian life. Thereis something dark and sinister about thegroup. There is nothing of the company ofdocile models, posing as so many types ofform and color. There is everything of acurious state of savagery, of men in whosetraits and demeanor you recognize the marksof a peculiar social state. So it is with all ofLa Farges exotic studies, exotic for us butnot for him, for it always has seemed to methat he was completely and restfully at homein the lands of the lotus-eater, amongst long-robed, suave Japanese priests or amongst thestalwart chiefs and laughing maidens of thePacific. It is with a wrench that we retraceour steps to follow him upon the busy pathof the mural painter, collaborating with archi-tects, facing conditions of the most prac-tical nature, and adapting his wayward, ad- Moses receiving the Law on Mount Sinai. C 151 ] venturous genius to the discipline of per-haps the most exacting of all the arts of de-sign. As usual with him the new opportunitywas not deliberately sought but arose in slow,inevitable fashion out of his personal associa-tions and out of the intellectual processeswhich were always extending his horizon. Ilay stress upon the point, for one of the most in-teresting and revealing things about La Fargeis his freedom from anything like maliceaforethought, from preconceived resolution,in his different undertakings. He was a manof inspiration, not necessarily sudden leapsinto new spheres, but ventures implying theguidance of that familiar so often en-countered in the history of genius. He goeswhole-heartedly along through one channelof endeavor and then, when the appointedtime comes, he invades another. I say in-vades, for at these moments you feel that hehas had all along just the right preparationand is somehow equipped for whatever re-spo
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