Representative Painters of the Xixth Century Volume 190 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... HANS MAKART ANS MAKART, who has been likened by his admiring fellow-countrymen to Rubens, and by the critic Eugene Muntz to what Wagner was in music, was a revolutionist in painting, who won by his ambitious compositions a European reputation not altogether justified by their merit. Of very humble origin, he was born at Salzburg in 1840, when German artists were at last beginning to free themselves from the stern restrictions to which their predecessors of the first half of the century had voluntarily submitted. The doctrine of art for art's sake was now beginning to be preached, and the theory advocated by the Nazarenes, that its mission was merely to be a handmaid to religion, to die out. German artists began to flock to Paris, to Antwerp, and to Brussels, to study under the various masters there the secrets their fellow-countrymen were unable to teach them; and, although Hans Makart was not one of them, he was very seriously influenced by the pictures they exhibited on their return home. From 1861 to 1865 he worked in the studio of Piloty, the founder of the Munich school, who was the first German to restore colour to its true importance in painting. Before that celebrated master produced his brilliant historical compositions, such as " Seni gazing at the dead body of the murdered Wallenstein" and the "Girondists on their way to the Guillotine," the so-called "colourists" were looked down upon with the greatest contempt as unworthy of the name of artists; but the revolution once inaugurated, the change was rapid and complete. It was, in fact, at first too thorough, for in the new enthusiasm for colour it was for a time set above correctness of drawing and truth of expression. The more sensuous and voluptuous the general effect of a...