THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN ART
individuality of the artistic result. If he be a poet, like Corot, the result will be a poetic and delicate interpretation of nature. If he be a colorist, like Monticelli, the result will be some such gorgeous mosaic of splendid color as that wonderful painter gave us. If he be a purist of the fine, clean-cut intellectual type, such as Saint- Gaudens, the result will be something akin to the Sherman monument that dignifies the entrance to Central Park in New York.
But just here comes the dividing line between the contending factions. What is personality? One group declares that personality is simply temperament which plays freely within the artist's soul; and, working upon whatever chance material its environment affords, transmutes this crude material into the fine gold of art. The opposing group, while admitting that the basis of artistic
[237]
