express in his work the most subtle experiences of the heart and soul,
and to embody in his picture or statue an absolutely psychologic
phenomenon.

The present easy communication with all nations has awakened interest in
the life of countries almost unknown to us a half-century ago. So
customary is it for artists to wander far and wide, seeking new motives
for their works, that I felt no surprise when I recently received a
letter from a young American woman who is living and painting in Biskra.
How short a time has passed since this would have been thought
impossible!

It is also true that subjects not new in art are treated in a
nineteenth-century manner. This is noticeable in the picturing of
historical subjects. The more intimate knowledge of the world enables the
historical painter of the present to impart to his representations of the
important events of the past a more human and emotional element than
exists in the historical art of earlier centuries. In a word,
nineteenth-century art is sympathetic, and has found inspiration in all
countries and classes and has so treated its subjects as to be
intelligible to all, from the favored children for whom Kate Greenaway,
Walter Crane, and many others have spent their delightful talents, to men
and women of all varieties of individual tastes and of all degrees of
ability to comprehend and appreciate artistic representations.

A fuller acquaintance with the art and art-methods of countries of which
but little had before been known has been an element in art expansion.
Technical methods which have not been absolutely adopted by European and
English-speaking artists have yet had an influence upon their art. The
interest in Japanese Art is the most important example of such influence,