. John La Farge : a memoir and a study . was the capstone of his career,the fruition of his long labors — wis-dom, and a clairvoyance which made him freeof all the real things. If this were a formal bio-graphy I suppose I would occupy myself inreciting quantities of external incidents,—thecommissions given to La Farge, the medalswon, the degrees conferred upon him bylearned institutions, and all the other miscel-laneous details of a long life. But this is not aformal biography. What I have endeavoredto do has been simply to portray the La FargeI knew, a personality, a mind, an artistic
. John La Farge : a memoir and a study . was the capstone of his career,the fruition of his long labors — wis-dom, and a clairvoyance which made him freeof all the real things. If this were a formal bio-graphy I suppose I would occupy myself inreciting quantities of external incidents,—thecommissions given to La Farge, the medalswon, the degrees conferred upon him bylearned institutions, and all the other miscel-laneous details of a long life. But this is not aformal biography. What I have endeavoredto do has been simply to portray the La FargeI knew, a personality, a mind, an artistic is for this reason also that I have refrainedfrom the analysis of scores of works of his,very familiar to me and full of material tempt-ing to discuss. In any case the recording anddescribing of all of a mans productions is adoubtful enterprise, far more doubtful than weare wont to think, with our modern infatuationfor what we are pleased to regard as historicalcompleteness. It is the notion that to be criti- John La Farge in 1902. C 207 ] cally exhaustive we must count all the leaveson the tree that explains the frequent preser-vation of stuff which a great artist would de-stroy if he knew the moment in which he wasto die. It has been responsible, too, for thetransformation of many a biography into awearisome catalogue. The greatest of artists has his lapses and hislongueurs, not moments merely but days inwhich inspiration fails and something likegaucherie descends upon him. La Farge him-self has said that hero worship is not the bestkey to understanding. True appreciation ofWhistler, for example, has been seriously ar-rested in many quarters by the ululations ofthe fanatics who would have it that everytouch of a masters hand is priceless. Some-times it is almost valueless, being withoutnervous force or purpose. La Farge knewwell enough that a work of art is not to bemeasured by a foot rule and then to be sum-marily dismissed as good or bad. He knew alsothe weight and pr
Size: 1240px × 2014px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherbostonhoughtonmiff
