the hypothesis. For anyone of my generation to write a book about art
that said nothing of the movement dubbed in this country
Post-Impressionist would be a piece of pure affectation. I shall have a
great deal to say about it, and therefore I wish to see at the earliest
possible opportunity how Post-Impressionism stands with regard to my
theory of aesthetics. The survey will give me occasion for stating some
of the things that Post-Impressionism is and some that it is not. I
shall have to raise points that will be dealt with at greater length
elsewhere. Here I shall have a chance of raising them, and at least
suggesting a solution.

Primitives produce art because they must; they have no other motive than
a passionate desire to express their sense of form. Untempted, or
incompetent, to create illusions, to the creation of form they devote
themselves entirely. Presently, however, the artist is joined by a
patron and a public, and soon there grows up a demand for "speaking
likenesses." While the gross herd still clamours for likeness, the
choicer spirits begin to affect an admiration for cleverness and skill.
The end is in sight. In Europe we watch art sinking, by slow degrees,
from the thrilling design of Ravenna to the tedious portraiture of
Holland, while the grand proportion of Romanesque and Norman
architecture becomes Gothic juggling in stone and glass. Before the late
noon of the Renaissance art was almost extinct. Only nice illusionists
and masters of craft abounded. That was the moment for a
Post-Impressionist revival.

For various reasons there was no revolution. The tradition of art
remained comatose. Here and there a genius appeared and wrestled with
the coils of convention and created significant form. For instance, the
art of Nicolas Poussin, Claude, El Greco, Chardin, Ingres, and Renoir,