I

THE POINT OF VIEW





I have lately come to perceive that the one thing which gives value
to any piece of art, whether it be book, or picture, or music, is
that subtle and evasive thing which is called personality. No
amount of labour, of zest, even of accomplishment, can make up for
the absence of this quality. It must be an almost wholly
instinctive thing, I believe. Of course, the mere presence of
personality in a work of art is not sufficient, because the
personality revealed may be lacking in charm; and charm, again, is
an instinctive thing. No artist can set out to capture charm; he
will toil all the night and take nothing; but what every artist can
and must aim at, is to have a perfectly sincere point of view. He
must take his chance as to whether his point of view is an
attractive one; but sincerity is the one indispensable thing. It is
useless to take opinions on trust, to retail them, to adopt them;
they must be formed, created, truly felt. The work of a sincere
artist is almost certain to have some value; the work of an
insincere artist is of its very nature worthless.