350 LITERARY PAPERS 



with such consummate skill as to form a combination in the 

 highest degree complex. These pictures are the work of a 

 genius, of a master thinker, who feels the power of the infi- 

 nite, and can reflect it to others. This familiar association 

 with the eternal problems, is where the master spirit of Claude 

 Monet manifests itself. None in art before him has ever ap- 

 proached so near the domain of the philosopher. The inflex- 

 ible principles of geometry give the form to his charming color 

 harmonies. The line between the aesthetic and the intellectual 

 is so lightly traced in his creations, that the slightest touch 

 effaces it, and thus almost proclaims their identity. Nature 

 is rendered more lovely by this revelation of her mechanism 

 and the sources of her activity, which are clearly brought out 

 by study of his pictures; though to those minds unprepared 

 for and incapable of grasping the laws of the universe, these 

 pictures will offer little of interest. But to the thinker, the 

 canvases of Claude Monet are records of what the sensitive 

 mind sees in nature. It is not the pitiless laws of growth and 

 decay which present themselves, but humanity with its hopes 

 and fears shining forth, with which the true soul alone can 

 sympathize. 



The compositions of Claude Monet are animated evidences 

 of what some one has said, that the true source of knowledge 

 can be derived alone from the subjective. He does not paint 

 what nature is, or as she presents herself to the ordinary mind 

 through the medium of the imperfect senses, but he paints 

 those thoughts which she impresses upon him by means of 

 subtle forces to which only the sensitive mind responds. 



The idea of triangulation is clearly expressed in the works 

 of most of the followers of the Impressionist school. It would 

 be difficult for one unacquainted with this school's teach- 

 ings to say if this is purely unconscious or by design. It is not 

 accidental. Of this there can be no doubt ; for in each pic- 

 ture of Monet's, as well as of those other painters whose pic- 

 tures have been studied, the same theory is expressed. The 

 attention of the observer is, as a rule, directed along the 

 hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle. This line is used as 

 a framework upon which to construct the picture. The lights 



