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Excerpt from Art and Criticism: Monographs and Studies<br><br>The following monographs and studies have been collected and published in a volume in the hope that they may be of use and of interest to the many refined minds which arc seeking guidance or confirmation in their theoretical or effective admiration of works of art. Their chief merit, supposing that they have merit at all, is the fact that they are free from verbiage. In art criticism, in the opinion of the writer, the qualities to be most desired and esteemed arc sympathy, delicacy of observation and appreciation, and intelligent, reasoned, and lucid admiration.<br><br>The appreciative and the Creative intellect have certain points in common. No one can ever be taught to see nature, to feel nature, and to express it. The painter of genius will show you how he applies his brush, saying: "See how I do it; go and do likewise, and may God help you!" And if God does not help you, your painting will not be worth talking about. The really great painters arc their own masters; they are men of rare and special temperament, and through this temperament they look at Nature and sec beautiful personal visions such as none have ever before behold. Artists of this high rank are born at rare intervals in the course of the world's history ; they fix their visions in color or in marble, and then disappear forever, carrying away with them the secrets of their mysterious intellectual and visual processes.<br><br>The first aim of the painter is beauty, or, so far as the portrait is concerned, at least character; the only model and the only Standard is Nature, and the whole theory and practice of painting is subordinated to the largest and the most difficult of all the arts, namely, learning to sec. Nor is the summum of art the literal imitation of Nature. The finest human model, the most charming Landscape, cannot be well imitated except it be interpreted by the intelligence of the artist.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Fo