SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 359 



The rich salmon coloring of the wheat inspires the feeling of 

 hope in the human breast, and encourages the struggle of toil. 

 The sky above echoes this happy thought of effort being re- 

 warded. The few red poppies at the sides of the immediate 

 foreground add to the brilliant scene of the present, and it 

 seems as if for the minute nature had relented, and given 

 promise to the weary worker of a haven of eternal joy. The 

 strong red hues of the foreground, tinged with this most potent 

 of colors, are suggestive of the vigor of life, the plentitude of 

 the powers; and soon they fade into the uncertain shades, 

 the feebler tones of the farther distance. 



The eye travels beyond the wheat, past trees and green 

 fields, to the distant blue hills, and just beyond the salmon- 

 pink color is discernible, also suggesting the thought of toil. 

 The pinkish haziness of the far distance suggests a town and 

 busy industries, they in turn some day to be silenced and dead, 

 even as the wheat-field after the harvest will leave only stub- 

 ble and straw. The wheat will relieve the immediate hunger 

 of man, and the industry that of his soul's longing, but only 

 as a temporary aliment. This picture, a color poem, is a step 

 in advance of art; it is the cry of humanity. 



Wagner, in his operas, has used with telling effect his tone 

 motifs. Our ear always tells us what our eye should see on 

 the stage ; the motif is indicative of the personality of his char- 

 acters, or forewarns us what we have to expect. So with these 

 creations of Monet, his tone motifs are his combinations of 

 colors. He has certain color-scales which he uses, and to 

 which the mind responds. This is too well marked to be passed 

 over, and in so many of his pictures, which are eminently 

 philosophical studies, his use of reds and peculiar greens is 

 constant. 



"A Farm," No. 135 of the catalogue, is a study in red-orange 

 tones. The axes of dissymmetry are the lines, lights and shad- 

 ows of the picture, and are so used as to be suggestive of mo- 

 tion. The key-note of the scene is force. In the foreground 

 is a marshy pond, on which are floating some ducks; a road- 

 way limits the extent of the water, and the row of piles which 

 support the side of the road is one of the diagonal lines. The 





