Studies in pictures; an introduction to the famous galleries . tthey are not to be compared with the black-and-white illustrations of Charles Livingston Bull thatappear from time to time in the American maga-zines. Perhaps the ablest painter of birds and wildanimals at the present day is the Swedish artist,Bruno Liljefors. His ducks and geose and pheas-ants are life-like to a startling degree; and hispainting of such animals as foxes trotting throughthe woods or jumping over fences is worthy of thehighest praise, not only for its originality of themebut for its skill in execution. An American
Studies in pictures; an introduction to the famous galleries . tthey are not to be compared with the black-and-white illustrations of Charles Livingston Bull thatappear from time to time in the American maga-zines. Perhaps the ablest painter of birds and wildanimals at the present day is the Swedish artist,Bruno Liljefors. His ducks and geose and pheas-ants are life-like to a startling degree; and hispainting of such animals as foxes trotting throughthe woods or jumping over fences is worthy of thehighest praise, not only for its originality of themebut for its skill in execution. An American painterof high rank, Wiuslow Homer, occasionally does some-thing of this kind (Plate 35) that is comparable inits strength and beauty to the work of Liljefors. Aside from the recording of churaeter in beastand bird there is, or should be, a deajxati^^jnotivebehind all animal painting. Cattle, for instance,apart from indolence, or cud-chewing, or stampingflies, or standing in pools of water, often have beau-tiful color, with forms that lend themselves to iiu-. UJ ?^ o 5: o 5: ; XXX THE ANIMAL IN ART 123 pressive drawing. Troyon (as also Willem Maris),saw in the shadowed sides of Holland cattle spotsof red that were as deep and as fine in quality asold mahogany; and his barnyard chickens, paintedin huddled groups at feeding time, are often charm-ing combinations of variegated hues. Just so with the horses that Degas has shown uson the race track, and that Besnard has paintedwading in the water, or moving along the red hillsunder the bright sunlight of Morocco. They arenot only beautiful in form and graceful in move-ment, but they have hTre-«iid texture, and make updecorative patterns on canvas quite as worthy to beframed in gold and hung in the drawing-room aspictures of landscape or of humanity. Why not?We may arrogantly take away all reason from thebrute, but we cannot change the beauty of theleopards spots, nor deny the serpentine grace of hisfinely modelled body. The an
Size: 1197px × 2088px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublish, booksubjectpainting
