XXIX

All the young men of this school of Ingres have something of the pedant
about them; they seem to think that merely to be enrolled among the
party of serious painters is a merit in itself. Serious painting is
their party cry. I told Demay that a crowd of people of talent had done
nothing worth speaking of because of all these factious dogmas that they
get enslaved to, or that the prejudice of the moment imposes on them.
So, for example, with this famous cry of _Beauty_, which is, according
to the world's opinion, the goal of the arts: if it is the one and only
goal, what becomes of men who, like Rubens, Rembrandt, and northern
natures in general, prefer other qualities? Demand of Puget purity,
beauty in fact, and it is good-bye to his verve. Speaking generally, men
of the North are less attracted to beauty; the Italian prefers
decoration; this applies to music too.

_Delacroix._


XXX

At the present time the task is easier. It is a question of allowing to
everything its own interest, of putting man back in his place, and, if
need be, of doing without him. The moment has come to think less, to aim
less high, to look more closely, to observe better, to paint as well but
differently. This is the painting of the crowd, of the townsman, the
workman, the parvenu, the man in the street; done wholly for him, done
from him. It is a question of becoming humble before humble things,
small before small things, subtle before subtle things; of gathering
them all together without omission and without disdain, of entering