laid on with a delicate touch. Notice that green of the trees shot
through with red tones, penetrated with quivering air, and the vaporous
light of autumn. Notice the delicate water-colour effect of thick oil,
the general smoothness of the canvas, the relief of this pouch or hood;
notice the full modelling of the little faces with their glances in the
confused outlines of the eye and their smiles in the suggested outlines
of the mouth. The beautiful and flowing sweep of the brush over those
_décolletages_, the bare flesh glowing with voluptuous rose among the
shadows of the wood! The pretty crossings of the brush to round a neck!
The beautiful undulating folds with soft breaks like those which the
modeller makes in the clay! And the spirit and the gallantry of touch of
Watteau's brush in the feminine trifles and headdresses and
finger-tips,--and everything it approaches! And the harmony of those
sunlit distances, those mountains of rosy snow, those waters of
verdurous reflections; and again those rays of sunlight falling upon
robes of rose and yellow, mauve petticoats, blue mantles, shot-coloured
vests, and little white dogs with fiery spots. For no painter has
equalled Watteau in rendering beautifully coloured objects transfigured
by a ray of sunlight, their soft fading and that kind of diffused
blossoming of their brilliancy under the full light. Let your eyes rest
for a moment on that band of pilgrims of both sexes hurrying, beneath
the setting sun, towards the galley of Love that is about to set sail:
there is the joyousness of the most adorable colours in the world
surprised in a ray of the sun, and all that haze and tender silk in the
radiant shower involuntarily remind you of those brilliant insects that
we find dead, but with still living colours, in the golden glow of a
piece of amber.

This picture, the _Embarquement de Cythère_, is the wonder of wonders of
this master.