724 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



to evolve new principles for the use of colors which would serve as 

 a guide to all ; nor, indeed, was such an evolution possible until some 

 progress had been made in the scientific interpretation of color. 

 This progi'ess is itself only of comparatively recent date. 



At the present day there is an unrest in the world of art, an unrest 

 which has resulted in the creation of innumerable schools, each en- 

 deavoring by some peculiar method of its own to inculcate new prin- 

 ciples and to establish new ideals. Within a short period of time 

 realism has given place to impressionism, impressionism to post- 

 impressionism, and this again has become parent for so many other 

 " isms " that to follow them luis become almost impossible. How- 

 ever unpictorial from our ordinary viewpoint the creations of some 

 present-day artists may appear to be, there is nevertheless in many of 

 them some ncAvly discovered truth ; they are the steps in an evolution, 

 and we may hope that some day the evolution will be consummated 

 and that fi-om out of the apparent chaos which at present exists a 

 really compelling picture will be created. 



It is most of all in landscape painting that the evolution of modern 

 art can be seen. The old landscapes of Claude Lorrain and Constable 

 are no doubt full of charm, but they entirely lack the atmosphere and 

 force of the so-called impressionist paintings of Monet, Sisley, Pis- 

 saro, etc. In the older landscapes an attempt was made to copy 

 everything that could be seen by prolonged study, and the canvas was 

 covered with detail to its ver}^ edges; in impressionism it is merely the 

 flash, the fleeting effect of the landscape which it is attempted to re- 

 produce. There may indeed be considerable detail in certain portions 

 of the picture^ but the greater part is merely a color pattern. But 

 after all such an imp)ressionistic picture can occupy our attention for 

 a moment only. We do indeed receive an impression more or less like 

 that which the artist received on viewing his object, but closer study 

 of the picture does not carry us further; there is something absent 

 from it with which nature abounds, something that compels us, as 

 when viewing a landscape, to keep shifting our gaze from point to 

 point, a restlessness, a constant source of interest and fascination. 

 In post-impressionism the attempt is being made to supply this want, 

 to compel us namely to regard more than the fleeting impression. 

 The closer we study such a picture, if it be successful, the more comes 

 out of it, colors by their influence on one another become changed in 

 hue and saturation, a curiosity develops and, subconsciously, we are 

 compelled to continue our study, with the result that we get ever other 

 and other effects. It is kinetic, not static, art; it is a pattern of 

 nature designed to create visuopsychic impressions expressing an idea 

 rather than an object, subjective rather than objective. 



There is a physiological reason for this visual restlessness and 

 before we go into the science of colors it may be well to explain what 



