by a sensuous love of colour for its own sake, were abandoned
for more scientific statements. The colder and cruder tone studies
of the modern Frenchman became the models upon
which the younger artists based themselves, and the standards
against which they measured their own success. " Actuality "
was gained, but much of the poetry, the delicacy, and the
subtle charm which had distinguished British colourists were
lost.
For some while there was a danger that the art of Great Britain might become hybrid, with the French strain predomi-Danger of nating. So many students had succumbed to the theFreacb fascination of a system of training which seemed to Influence, supply them with a perfect equipment on all points, that they were inclined to despise not only the educational methods of their own country, but also the inherent characteristics of British taste. The result was that the exhibitions were full of pictures which presented English people and English landscape in a purely arbitrary and artificial manner, strictly in accordance with a French convention which was out of sympathy with British instincts, and indeed, with British facts. Ultimately a discreet middle course was found between the extreme application of the science of the French art schools and the comparative irresponsibility in technical matters which had so long existed in the British Isles. In the careers of men like Stanhope Forbes, H. S. Tuke, Frank Bramley, and other prominent members of the school, many illustrations are provided of the way in which this readjustment has been effected. Their pictures, if taken in a sufficiently long sequence, summarize instructively the course of the movement which became active about 1875. They prove how valuable the interposition of France has been in the matter of artistic education, and how much Englishmen have improved in their understanding of the technique of painting.
One noteworthy outcome of the triumph of common sense over fanaticism must be mentioned. Now that the exact Weakenlag relation which French teaching should bear to British of the thought has been adjusted, an inclination to revive
the more typical of the forms of pictorial expression which have had their vogue in the past is becoming increasingly evident. Picturesque domesticity is taking the place of theatrical sensation, the desire to select and represent what is more than ordinarily beautiful is ousting the former preference for what was brutal and ugly, the effort to please is once again stronger than the intention to surprise or shock the art lover. Even the Pre-Raphaelite theories and practices are being reconstructed, and quite a considerable group of young artists has sprung up who are avowed believers in the principles which were advocated so strenuously in 1850.
To French intervention can be ascribed the rise and progress of several movements which have had results of more than Groups ordinary moment. There was a few years ago much within the banding together of men who believed strongly in the importance of asserting plainly their belief in the doctrines to which they had been converted abroad; and as a consequence of this desire for an offensive and defensive association, many detached groups were formed within the boundaries of the British school. Each of these groups had some peculiar tenet, and each one had a small orbit of its own in which it revolved, without concerning itself overmuch about what might be going on outside. Roughly, there were three classes into which the more thoughtful British artists could then be divided. One included those men who were in the main French in sympathy and manner; another consisted of those who were not insensible to the value of the foreign training, but yet did not wish to surrender entirely their faith in the British tradition; and the third, and smallest, was made up of a few individuals who were independent of all assistance from without, and had sufficient force of character to ignore what was going on in the art world. In this third class there was practically no common point of view: each man chose his own direction and followed it as he thought best, and each one was prepared to stand or fall by the opinion which he had formed as to the true
French
Influence,
British
School,
function of the painter. Necessarily, in such a gathering there were several notable personalities who may fairly be reckoned among the best of English modern masters.
Perhaps the most conspicuous of the groups was the gathering of painters who established themselves in the Cornish village of Newlyn (q.v.). This group— " The Newlyn School, " as jhe Newlyo it was called — was afterwards much modified, and school many of its most cherished beliefs were considerably altered. In its beginning it was essentially French in atmosphere, and advocated not only strict adherence to realism in choice and treatment of subject, but also the subordination of colour to tone-gradation, and the observance of certain technical details, such as the exclusive use of flat brushes and the laying on of pigments in square touches. The colony was formed, as it were, in stages; and as the school is to be reckoned in the future history of the British school, the order in which the adherents arrived may here i)e set on record. Edwin Harris came first, and was joined by Walter Langley. Then, in the following order, came Ralph Todd, L. Suthers, Fred Hall, Frank Bramley and T. C. Gotch, and Percy Craft and Stanhope Forbes together. H. Detmold and Chevallier Tayler next arrived; then Miss Elizabeth Armstrong (Mrs Stanhope Forbes), F. Bourdillon, W. Fortescue and Norman Garstin. Ayerst Ingram, H. S. Tuke, H. Martin and F. Millard were later visitors. Stanhope Forbes (b. 1857) was trained at the Lambeth School and at the Royal Academy, and afterwards in Bonnat's studio in Paris. His best known pictures are " A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach " (1885), " Soldiers and Sailors " (189O, " Forging the Anchor " (1892), and " The Smithy " (1895). He was elected A.R.A. in 1892, and became full Member in 1910. Frank Bramley (b. 1867) studied art in the Lincoln School of Art and at Antwerp. He gained much popularity by his pictures, " A Hopeless Dawn " (1888), " For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven " (1891), and " After the Storm " (1896J, and was elected an Associate in 1894. Of late years he had made a very definite departure from the technical methods which he followed in his earlier period. T. C. Gotch (b. 1854) had a varied art training, for he worked at the Slade School, then at Antwerp, and finally in Paris under Jean Paul Laurens. He did not long remain faithful to the Newlyn creed, but diverged about 1890 into a kind of decorative symbolism, and for some years devoted himself entirely to pictures of this type. The other men who must be ranked as supporters of the school adhered closely enough to the principles which were exemplified in the works of the leaders of the movement. They were faithful realists, sincere observers of the facts of the life with which they were brought in contact, and quite earnest in their efforts to paint what they saw, without modification or idealization.
Another group which received its inspiration directly from France was the Impressionist school (see Impressionism). This group never had any distinct organization like that of j-^j^ ^^, the French Soci^te des Impressionistes, but among the presslonlst members of it there was a general agreement on points school. of procedure. They based themselves, more or less, upon prominent French artists like Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Claude Monet, and owed not a little to the example of J. A. M'N. Whistler, whose own art may be said to be in a great measure a product of Paris. One of the fundamental principles of their practice was the subdivision of colour masses into their component parts, and the rendering of gradated tints by the ju.xtaposition of touches of pure colour upon the canvas, rather than by attempting to match them by previously mixing them on the palette. In pictures so painted greater luminosity and more subtlety of aerial effects can be obtained. The works of the British Impressionists have been seen mostly in the exhibitions of the New English Art Club. This society was founded in 1885 by a number y^, ^ ^^^ of young artists who wished for facilities for exhibition EagUsh which they felt were denied to them in the other ^^ Club. galleries. It drew the greater number of its earlier supporters from the men who had been trained in foreign schools, and a complete list of the contributors to its exhibitions includes the names of many of the best known of the younger painters. It was the meeting-place of numerous groups which advocated one or other of the new creeds, for among its members or exhibitors have been P. Wilson Steer, Fred Brown, J. S. Sargent {q.v.), Solomon J. Solomon, Stanhope Forbes, T. C. Gotch, Frank Bramley, Arthur Hacker, Francis Bate, Moffat Lindner, J. L. Henry, W. W. Russell, George Thomson, Arthur Tomson, Henry Tonks, C. W. Furse, R. Anning Bell, Walter Osborne, Laurence Housman, J. J. Shannon, W. L. Wyllie, H. S. Tuke, Maurice Greiffenhagen, G. P. Jacomb Hood, Alfred Parsons, Alfred East, J. Buxton Knight, C. H. Shannon, Mark Fisher, Walter Sickert, W. Strang, Frank Short, Edward Stott, Mortimer Menpes, Alfred Hartley, William Stott, J. R. Reid, Mouat Loudan, T. B. Kennington, H. Muhrman, A. D. Peppercorn, George Clausen and J. A. M'N. Whistler, and a number of the Scottish artists, like J. Lavery, J. Guthrie, George Henry, James Paterson, A. Roche, E. A. Walton, J. E. Christie and E. A. Hornel. A number of the men who have been more or less actively identified with it have been elected members of the Royal Academy, so that it may fairly claim to have e.ercised a definite influence upon the tendencies of modern art. It has .certainly
