FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  
seeing her droop with fatigue. Her face changed and lit up. 'Well, what did you see?' 'The two Academy pictures--several portraits--and a lot of studies.' 'Isn't it fine--the "Polyxena"?' Fenwick twisted his mouth in a trick he had. 'Yes,' he said, perfunctorily. She coloured slightly, as though in antagonism. 'That means that you don't admire it at all?' 'Well, it doesn't say anything to me,' said Fenwick, after a pause. 'What do you dislike?' 'Why doesn't he paint flesh?' he said, abruptly--'not coloured wax.' 'Of course there is a decorative convention in his painting'--her tone was a little stiff--'but so there is in all painting.' Fenwick shrugged his shoulders. 'Go and look at Rubens--or Velasquez.' [Illustration: _Eugenie_] 'Why not at Leonardo--and Raphael?' 'Because they are not _moderns_--and we can't get back into their skins. Rubens and Velasquez _are_ moderns,' he protested, stoutly. 'What is a "modern"?' she asked, laughing. It was on the tip of his tongue to say, 'You are--and it is only fashion--or something else--that makes you like this archaistic stuff!' But he restrained himself, and they fell into a skirmish, in which, as usual, he came off badly. As soon as he perceived it, he became rather heated and noisy, trying to talk her down. Whereupon she sprang up, came down from her pedestal to look at the picture, called mademoiselle to see--praised--laughed--and all was calm again. Only Fenwick was left once more reflecting that she was Welby's champion through thick and thin. And this ruffled him. 'Did Mr. Welby study mostly in Italy?' he asked her presently, as he fetched a hand-glass, in which to examine his morning's work. 'Mostly--but also in Vienna.' And, to keep the ball rolling, she described a travel-year--apparently before her marriage--which she, Lord Findon, a girl friend of hers, and Welby had spent abroad together--mainly in Rome, Munich, and Vienna--for the purpose, it seemed, of Welby's studies. The experiences she described roused a kind of secret exasperation in Fenwick. And what was really resentment against the meagreness of his own lot showed itself, as usual, in jealousy. He said something contemptuous of this foreign training for an artist--so much concerned with galleries and Old Masters. Much better that he should use his eyes upon his own country and its types; that had been enough for all the best men. Madame de Pastourelle
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Fenwick

 

moderns

 

Velasquez

 
Vienna
 
Rubens
 

painting

 
coloured
 

studies

 

fetched

 

presently


morning
 

rolling

 

travel

 

Mostly

 

examine

 
Pastourelle
 

mademoiselle

 

praised

 

laughed

 
reflecting

ruffled

 
Madame
 

champion

 

concerned

 

secret

 

exasperation

 

roused

 
experiences
 

purpose

 

galleries


called

 

resentment

 

foreign

 

contemptuous

 

training

 

showed

 

artist

 

meagreness

 

Masters

 

Findon


friend

 

country

 

apparently

 

jealousy

 

marriage

 

Munich

 
abroad
 

dislike

 

admire

 

antagonism