A certain importance attaches to the views on art of painters, and this is the natural place for me to set down what I know of Strickland’s opinions of the great artists of the past. I am afraid I have very little worth noting. Strickland was not a conversationalist, and he had no gift for putting what he had to say in the striking phrase that the listener remembers. He had no wit. His humour, as will be seen if I have in any way succeeded in reproducing the manner of his conversation, was sardonic1. His repartee2 was rude. He made one laugh sometimes by speaking the truth, but this is a form of humour which gains its force only by its unusualness; it would cease to amuse if it were commonly practised.
Strickland was not, I should say, a man of great intelligence, and his views on painting were by no means out of the ordinary. I never heard him speak of those whose work had a certain analogy with his own—of Cezanne, for instance, or of Van Gogh; and I doubt very much if he had ever seen their pictures. He was not greatly interested in the Impressionists. Their technique impressed him, but I fancy that he thought their attitude commonplace. When Stroeve was holding forth3 at length on the excellence4 of Monet, he said: “I prefer Winterhalter.” But I dare say he said it to annoy, and if he did he certainly succeeded.
I am disappointed that I cannot report any extravagances in his opinions on the old masters. There is so much in his character which is strange that I feel it would complete the picture if his views were outrageous5. I feel the need to ascribe to him fantastic theories about his predecessors6, and it is with a certain sense of disillusion7 that I confess he thought about them pretty much as does everybody else. I do not believe he knew El Greco. He had a great but somewhat impatient admiration8 for Velasquez. Chardin delighted him, and Rembrandt moved him to ecstasy9. He described the impression that Rembrandt made on him with a coarseness I cannot repeat. The only painter that interested him who was at all unexpected was Brueghel the Elder. I knew very little about him at that time, and Strickland had no power to explain himself. I remember what he said about him because it was so unsatisfactory.
“He’s all right,” said Strickland. “I bet he found it hell to paint.”
When later, in Vienna, I saw several of Peter Brueghel’s pictures, I thought I understood why he had attracted Strickland’s attention. Here, too, was a man with a vision of the world peculiar10 to himself. I made somewhat copious11 notes at the time, intending to write something about him, but I have lost them, and have now only the recollection of an emotion. He seemed to see his fellow-creatures grotesquely13, and he was angry with them because they were grotesque12; life was a confusion of ridiculous, sordid14 happenings, a fit subject for laughter, and yet it made him sorrowful to laugh. Brueghel gave me the impression of a man striving to express in one medium feelings more appropriate to expression in another, and it may be that it was the obscure consciousness of this that excited Strickland’s sympathy. Perhaps both were trying to put down in paint ideas which were more suitable to literature.
Strickland at this time must have been nearly forty-seven.
1 sardonic [sɑ:ˈdɒnɪk] 第10级 | |
adj.嘲笑的,冷笑的,讥讽的 | |
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2 repartee [ˌrepɑ:ˈti:] 第11级 | |
n.机敏的应答 | |
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3 forth [fɔ:θ] 第7级 | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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4 excellence [ˈeksələns] 第8级 | |
n.优秀,杰出,(pl.)优点,美德 | |
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5 outrageous [aʊtˈreɪdʒəs] 第8级 | |
adj.无理的,令人不能容忍的 | |
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6 predecessors [ˈpri:disesəz] 第8级 | |
n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 );前辈;(被取代的)原有事物;前身 | |
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7 disillusion [ˌdɪsɪˈlu:ʒn] 第7级 | |
vt.使不再抱幻想,使理想破灭 | |
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8 admiration [ˌædməˈreɪʃn] 第8级 | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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9 ecstasy [ˈekstəsi] 第8级 | |
n.狂喜,心醉神怡,入迷 | |
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10 peculiar [pɪˈkju:liə(r)] 第7级 | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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11 copious [ˈkəʊpiəs] 第9级 | |
adj.丰富的,大量的 | |
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12 grotesque [grəʊˈtesk] 第8级 | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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13 grotesquely [ɡrəʊ'tesklɪ] 第8级 | |
adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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