Cubists and Post-Impressionism

by Arthur Jerome Eddy

Still he and his followers were primarily interested in the aspect of things, the characteristics as distinguished from the fundamental character of things. He penetrated far deeper than Monet, so much deeper the two had little in common, but he did not get so close to the heart that he forgot the skin; he was always a painter of appearances, but in a big as distinguished from a superficial way.

The realistic Impressionism of Manet has by no means run its course. Some of the finest painting in the world has been done and is being done along this line. It is the line of Franz Hals and Velasquez; it is the line of men so different as Whistler and Sargent in their best portraits.

The natural reaction from perfection in this line is higher accentuation of characteristics—in the extreme caricature.

That is, given the last word in the painting of character by great men in a solid way, the logical attempts of new men or lesser men will be the indication of character in a lighter and more superficial way. The penetrating observation of the older men gives way to the keen and playful fancies of the younger. The same sitter yields with the former a powerful portrait, with the latter a fascinating picture which may be quite as revealing both as a likeness and as a characterization.

C. Substantial Impressionism is not so easy to define and differentiate. It is far from superficial but has much in common with realistic.

It is easiest to simply say it is the Impressionism of Cézanne and those who have read what has already been said about Cézanne will understand.

Cézanne was not content to paint either the surface or the characteristics of things or people; he sought to go deeper, to get at the very substance and to place on canvas their elemental qualities.

As a natural result the longer he painted the less interesting his pictures became superficially, but the greater their interest fundamentally.

While Monet became more and more a popular painter, a painter for the dealer and the buyer, Cézanne became more and more a painter’s painter, doing things that only the technically skilled could rightly appreciate.

Interested solely in the profoundest problems of his art and painting only for those who had a very great knowledge of art, he attracted comparatively few followers; the path he followed promised little in the way of immediate fame and rewards.