The Moon And Sixpence 44.1

A certainimportance attaches to the views on art of painters, and this is the naturalplace for me to set down what I know of Strickland's opinions of the greatartists of the past. I am afraid I have very little worth noting. Stricklandwas not a conversationalist, and he had no gift for putting what he had to sayin 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 hisconversation, was sardonic. His repartee was rude. He made one laugh sometimesby speaking the truth, but this is a form of humour which gains its force onlyby its unusualness; it would cease to amuse if it were commonly practised.Strickland wasnot, I should say, a man of great intelligence, and his views on painting wereby no means out of the ordinary. I never heard him speak of those whose workhad 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 greatlyinterested in the Impressionists. Their technique impressed him, but I fancythat he thought their attitude commonplace. When Stroeve was holding forth atlength on the excellence of Monet, he said: "I prefer Winterhalter. "But I dare say he said it to annoy, and if he did he certainly succeeded.对于其他大师的绘画艺术看法如何，是一件相当重要的事；我在这里自然要记叙一下思特里克兰德对过去一些伟大艺术家的意见。我怕值得我写下的东西实在不多。思特里克兰德不善讲话，他根本不会把自己想要说的用精辟的言辞讲出来，给听的人留下较深的印象。他说话没有风趣。如果说我多少还成功地记录下他的一些话语，从中可以看出他的某些幽默感，这种幽默也主要表现为冷嘲热讽。他辩驳别人话的时候非常粗野，有时候由于直言不讳，会叫你发笑；但是这些话之所以让你觉得滑稽，只是因为他的话说得不多。如果他一开口就是这样的话，人们也就不觉得有什么好笑的了。我应该说，思特里克兰德并不是一个智力超群的人，他对于绘画的见解也丝毫没有什么独到之处。我从来没有听他谈论过那些绘画风格与他类似的画家，例如塞尚，凡·高等人；我很怀疑他是否看过这些画家的作品。他对于印象派画家似乎不怎么感兴趣，这些人的技巧留给他一定的印象，但是我猜想他也许认为他们对待艺术的态度是平庸无奇的。有一次施特略夫正仔细评论莫奈的卓越艺术，思特里克兰德突然插口说：“我更喜欢温特尔哈尔特①。”我敢说他说这句是有意气一气施特略夫；如果他确实有这个意思，他算成功了。①弗朗兹·伊可萨维尔·温特尔哈尔特（1805？— 1873），德国宫廷画家。