Moon and Sixpence

Prev | Current Page 240 | Next

Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset), 1874-1965

"Moon and Sixpence"

I try to find excuses for myself. I think
that my taste is good, but I am conscious that it has no originality.
I know very little about painting, and I wander
along trails that others have blazed for me. At that time I
had the greatest admiration for the impressionists. I longed
to possess a Sisley and a Degas, and I worshipped Manet.
His seemed to me the greatest picture of modern times,
and moved me profoundly.
These works seemed to me the last word in painting.
I will not describe the pictures that Strickland showed me.
Descriptions of pictures are always dull, and these, besides,
are familiar to all who take an interest in such things. Now
that his influence has so enormously affected modern painting,
now that others have charted the country which he was among
the first to explore, Strickland's pictures, seen for the
first time, would find the mind more prepared for them; but it
must be remembered that I had never seen anything of the sort.
First of all I was taken aback by what seemed to me the
clumsiness of his technique. Accustomed to the drawing of the
old masters, and convinced that Ingres was the greatest
draughtsman of recent times, I thought that Strickland drew
very badly.

Pages:
228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252

Apples, Ripe and Rosy, Sir (page 165) Queen Hildegarde (page 156) Ã¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery (page 270)

Crazy Radio eBooks

Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset), 1874-1965

"Moon and Sixpence"