e of the conservatives of French art. Laurens
(1838-) has been more of a historical painter than the others, and has
dealt largely with death scenes. He is often spoken of as "the painter
of the dead," a man of sound training and excellent technical power.
Regnault (1843-1871) was a figure and _genre_ painter with much feeling
for oriental light and color, who unfortunately was killed in battle at
twenty-seven years of age. He was an artist of promise, and has left
several notable canvases. Among the younger men who portray the
historical subject in an elevated style mention should be made of Cormon
(1845-), Benjamin-Constant (1845-[14]), and Rochegrosse. As painters of
portraits Aman-Jean and Carriere[15] have long held rank, and each
succeeding Salon brings new portraitists to the front.

[Footnote 14: Died, 1902.]

[Footnote 15: Died, 1906.]

THE REALISTS: About the time of the appearance of Millet, say 1848,
there also came to the front a man who scorned both classicism and
romanticism, and maintained that the only model and subject of art
should be nature. This man, Courbet (1819-1878), really gave a third
tendency to the art of this century in France, and his influence
undoubtedly had much to do with modifying both the classic and
romantic tendencies. Courbet was a man of arrogant, dogmatic
disposition, and was quite heartily detested during his life, but that
he was a painter of great ability few will deny. His theory was the
abolition of both sentiment and academic law, and the taking of nature
just as it was, with all its beauties and all its deformities. This,
too, was his practice to a certain extent. His art is material, and
yet at times lofty in conception even to the sublime. And while he
believed in realism he did not believe in petty detail, but rather in
the great truths of nature. These he saw with a discerning eye and
portrayed with a masterful brush. He believed in what he saw only, and
had more the observing than the reflective or emotional disposition.
As a technician he was coarse but superbly strong, handling sky,
earth, air, with the ease and power of one well trained in his craft.
His subjects were many--the peasantry of France, landscape, and the
sea holding prominent places--and his influence, though not direct
because he had no pupils of consequence, has been most potent with the
late men.

[Illustration: FIG. 67.--CABANEL. PHAEDRA.]

The young painter of to-day who does things in a "r