224 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



Another painter on the confines of the art 

 of our own time, Rubens, should not perhaps 

 go unmentioned here. His landscapes have 

 all the vigour and powerful colour and light of 

 his figure-subjects. His trees, though lacking 

 in detailed truth, have much individuality and 

 force of character ; and many artists of later 

 date have gained by coming under his in- 

 fluence. I must go back in date to mention 

 also among the Northern artists, Albert Durer, 

 who, for his day, was keenly observant of 

 nature and of trees as conspicuous features in 

 the landscape, rendering them with sympathetic 

 truthfulness. 



This has been but an incomplete survey. 

 But it will have served its purpose if it has 

 shown how, from using mere signs or symbols 

 for trees, art had progressed, so far, until it was 

 prepared for the fullest interpretation of tree-life 

 and character. We have now to see how this 

 progress has been continued down to our own 

 day. 



