Last Saturday afternoon, at Willis's Rooms, Mr. Selwyn Image delivered
the first of a series of four lectures on Modern Art before a select and
distinguished audience. The chief point on which he dwelt was the
absolute unity of all the arts and, in order to convey this idea, he
framed a definition wide enough to include Shakespeare's King Lear and
Michael Angelo's Creation, Paul Veronese's picture of Alexander and
Darius, and Gibbon's description of the entry of Heliogabalus into Rome.
All these he regarded as so many expressions of man's thoughts and
emotions on fine things, conveyed through visible or audible modes; and
starting from this point he approached the question of the true relation
of literature to painting, always keeping in view the central motive of
his creed, Credo in unam artem multipartitam, indivisibilem, and dwelling
on resemblances rather than differences. The result at which he
ultimately arrived was this: the Impressionists, with their frank
artistic acceptance of form and colour as things absolutely satisfying in
themselves, have produced very beautiful work, but painting has something
more to give us than the mere visible aspect of things. The lofty
spiritual visions of William Blake, and the marvellous romance of Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, can find their perfect expression in painting; every
mood has its colour and every dream has its form. The chief quality of
Mr. Image's lecture was its absolute fairness, but this was, to a certain
portion of the audience, its chief defect. 'Sweet reasonableness,' said
one, 'is always admirable in a spectator, but from a leader we want
something more.' 'It is only an auctioneer who should admire all schools
of art,' said another; while a third sighed over what he called 'the
fatal sterility of the judicial mind,' and expressed a perfectly
groundless fear that the Century Guild was becoming rational. For, with
a courtesy and a generosity that we strongly recommend to other
lecturers, Mr. Image provided refreshments for his audience after his
address was over, and it was extremely interesting to listen to the