the first time that outdoor conditions were totally different from the
studio atmosphere, and while the work of such men as Corot, Millet,
Daubigny, Rousseau, and Diaz is only slightly removed from the somber
brown of the studio type, it recognizes a new aspect of things which was
to be much farther developed than they ever dreamed. Just as Constable
shocked his contemporaries by his - for that time - vivid outdoor blues
and greens, so the men of the school of 1870, or the impressionists,
surprised and outraged their fellowmen with a type of picture which we
see in control of this delightfully refreshing gallery. We can testify
by this time that Constable, although much opposed in his day, seems
very tame to us today, and caution seems well advised before a final
judgment of impressionism is passed. The slogan of this gallery seems to
be, "More light and plenty of it!" The Monet wall gives a very good idea
of the impressionistic school, in seven different canvases ranging from
earlier more conventional examples to some of his latest efforts. One
more fully understands the goal that these men, like Monet, Renoir,
Sisley, Pissarro, and others in this gallery were striving for when, in
an apparently radical way, they discarded the attitude of their
predecessors, in their search for light. It is true they encountered
technical difficulties which forced them into an opacity of painting
which is absolutely opposed to the smooth, sometimes licked appearance
of the old masters. Many of these men must be viewed as great
experimenters, who opened up new avenues without being entirely able to
realize themselves. They are collectively known generally as
impressionists, though the word "plein-airist" - luminist - has been
chosen sometimes by them and by their admirers. The neo-impressionists
in pictorial principle do not differ from the impressionist. Their
technical procedure is different, and based on an optical law which
proves that pure primary colours, put alongside of each other in
alternating small quantities, will give, at a certain distance, a