demonstrate this. Almost to a man the younger painters show Impressionistic tendencies, whilst not a few of the older generation have revised their practice. Closely following "Les Meules" came "Les Peupliers," exhibited in March 1892. They differ from "the haystacks" in this, that whilst the former recounted the history of the four seasons, this series of poplars showed us their varying aspects under the atmospheric influences of almost a single day. The subject is again of the simplest. A rivulet sluggishly meandering through marshy ground, seven great Normandy poplars face us, mirrored in the turgid waters; whilst the rest of the serried column of elegant trees lose themselves in the distance, ever diminishing, as they mark the sinuous course of the stream. Crowning these rows of pollarded tree-stumps floats a mass of leafy verdure. No nobler subject, or more gracefully composing landscape lines, could have been imagined; they are rare poems of the beauty of nature and of light. Poplars on the bank of the Epte, Autumn. In some of the pictures is visualised the dim light of early morn. Tree-trunks, leaves and grass, dank, obscure, and water-logged; around and through them, and expanding on the icy water, floats a chill, whity-blue mist, precursor of a lovely day, touched here and there with the gold of a rising sun. Later the mists have cleared away, and morning breaks in full glory; details are visible, each dewdrop a diamond and each leaf a shimmering jewel; roseate tints abound, the fresh cool air is almost felt, and the streamlet is glorified in sheens of silver and of gold. Then comes high mid-noon, unmistakable; the blue dome of hot unclouded sky, reflected in deeper tone upon the placid waters beneath, the ground and trees /-IMPRESSIONIST dusty, lifeless, almost colourless; the vibrations of a heat-parched atmosphere are visible,-Nature has succumbed to a welcome siesta. Again: night falls gently and solemnly upon the land, obscuring, as with a veil of rich and sombre colour, the trees, leaves, and vaporous stream-then oblivion. From the photographs herewith, for which I am indebted to the courtesy of Messieurs Claude Monet, Durand-Ruel, Paul Chevallier, and Georges Petit, little idea can be gathered of the extreme beauty and novelty of the original works. The colouration and, technique of Impressionist pictures seem unfortunately to be insuperable barriers to their satisfactory reproduction in monochrome. On this account it has been thought inadvisable to publish photographs of any of the "Haystack" or "Cathedral" series, much as we should otherwise have wished to do so. Who that has seen them can ever forget those admirable " Marines," in which is so marvellously realised-"the throbbing, swelling, deeply sighing sea, the trickling rills of water that follow a retreating wave, the glaucous hues of the deep ocean, the violet transparency of the shallows over a sandy bottom, and all the transient glories of ever-changing colour, all the fairy play of moving light"? Or the "Matins sur la Seine," views painted from the river bank, from the artist's houseboat anchored amidstream, or from the various islands of the backwaters between Vétheuil and Vernon? The handling is free, loose, masterly. The wind can assuredly blow through those trees, and birds perch upon the branches thereof, and the leaves rustle, whilst reflected in and around all is the radiant light of a spring morn. Never has Art suggested anything finer, daintier, or more virile, never were ideas more frankly expressed, fresher or or more brilliantly painted, than in these transcripts of the ever-beautiful river Seine. Coming now to the last exhibited group of "effects," "Les Cathédrales de Rouen," at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in the spring of 1895, Monet writes to me: "Les Cathédrales de Rouen,' je les ai faite avec le plus grand mal d'un fenêtre d'un magasin situé en face la cathédrale donc rien d'intéressant là si ce n'est le mal énorme que m'a donné cette œuvre, que cela m'a pris trois années." Despite the immense material difficulty involved in their production, Monet considers these to be his finest works, whilst, on the other hand, it is the series least understood or appreciated by the public. Here were shown no fewer than twenty-five huge canvases; such a tour de force as only the greatest physical resources and indomitable resolution could have accomplished. In each and all is once again demonstrated the possession, by the painter, of eyes marvellously sensible to the subtlest modulation of light, and capable of the acutest analysis of luminous phenomenon. The façade of the ancient Norman church is depicted rather by the varying atmospheric effects dissolved into their relative values of coloured molecules, than by any actual drawing of correct architectural lines. They are a truly marvellous and most uncommonly beautiful suite of pictorial visions; and it was very regrettable, and a rare chance lost, when the French Government neglected to purchase them en bloc, or failing that, that no patriotic millionaire came forward to justify possession of his millions. They realised enormous prices, and are now dispersed to the four quarters of the globe. In later years, visitors to Rouen will be shown with pride the drapery establishment "Au Caprice," on the north side of the "Place," from the windows of which Claude Monet evolved those world-famous poetic visions of "notre Cathédrale." What, then, has been the attitude of the press and public, in face of this glorious manifestation of a newly created art? As usual under the circumstances, as it ever has been and will be: distinctly and actively antagonistic, even to the point of threatening personal violence to the innovators and of injury to the offending canvases. In the light of recent pæans of praise and adulation, such manifestations seem almost incredible; yet that it was so, the daily and magazine press of the period only too amply prove. Just as subscribers to the Cornhill, in the days of Turner, revolted against Ruskin's Utopian Art Philosophy, so readers of the Figaro discontinued their subscriptions and advertisements because the band of "lunatic visionaries" were so much as mentioned in its strictly orthodox columns. It required also no little courage on the part of dealers to risk their own reputation in exposing for sale the "aberrations of disordered imaginations." How monotonously does history repeat itself!-and is it to be ever thus? The great spirit goes down broken to the grave ere the world awakes to the value of its creations. Paris, "la ville luminaire," birthplace of so many revolutions, artistic and political, from whence one might naturally expect better things, has almost invariably shown herself bitterly hostile to the "New" in Art. Was it not in One need not search far in the files of the past for evidence. 1833 considered the correct thing for merry Parisians to assemble, jeer at, and mud-bespatter that noble work, "Le Lion," Barye's masterpiece, now ornamenting the Jardin d'Acclimatation? Rude's chef-d'œuvre, “Départ des Voluntaires de la République," decorating one of the pillars of the Arc de Triomphe, met a similar reception. In 1844 the exquisite paintings of Eugène Delacroix, now in the Louvre, were greeted with such a storm of ridicule and buffoonery as drove the poor artist well-nigh to despair. Is it not also recorded how Carpeaux's elegant sculptural group "La Danse," embellishing the façade of the Opera House, suffered the ordeal of a nightly bombardment of inkpots, and how the same immortal sculptor was broken-hearted in having to polish the figures of his magnificent "Fontaine des Heures," facing the Observatory? How were Millet and the men of Barbizon received? and had not those admirable and most poetic works of Puvis de Chavannes in the Panthéon, the Sorbonne, and the Luxembourg to be double guarded for fear of brutal assault from an ignorant and exasperated public? Finally will be remembered by all interested in the fine arts, the furore of indignant vituperation which last year assailed the greatest living French sculptor Rodin, for having had the audacity to perpetrate another work of genius-the life-sized statue of the immortal Balzac. Having noted the great revulsion of public opinion in its attitude towards Impressionism, it may be interesting to turn for a few moments to the financial aspect of the same. On the 24th of March, 1875, was held in the public auction-rooms of the Hotel Drouot, the first sale of pictures by Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, and other members of the then small and struggling body of Impressionists. As a preliminary caution the police were called to expel by force several hare-brained rascals ready with knives to cut to pieces the canvases exposed for sale. This disturbance quieted, business proceeded: chefs-d'œuvre of Monet's fetched between £8 and £13, Sisley's £3 to £15, Renoir's £4 to £15, and so the disastrous day wore on. It will be clearly seen that at these ridiculous figures nothing but financial ruin and starvation faced the discouraged painters. The hostile attitude of old-established schools and cliques of artists, ever jealous of the innovator, together with the foolery of the press, had done its work in discouraging buyers. The luckless artists' audience had yet to be created. This state of things continued for many weary years, and the struggle for mere existence was decimating the ranks of the Impressionists, only the strongest surviving. Gradually, however, the intelligent public, through the medium of such dealers as M. Durand-Ruel, and of yearly exhibitions of Impressionist pictures, were becoming familiarised with, and appreciating, the evident beauty and sincerity *of the new school. The last public sale by auction of their work was "La vente Chocquet," at the Petit Galerie Paris, July 1st to 4th, 1899. A few days previous to this sale, I had the pleasure of a long chat with Monet in his magnificent studio at Giverny. Discussing the coming event, which was already exciting much press comment, Monet told me how the late Père Chocquet, as he was affectionately styled, "chef du Bureau" in the Governmental Department of Finance, had been a tower of strength to the early Impressionists; how he had encouraged them, had foreseen ultimate triumph, and had joyfully invested every franc of his savings in the |