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If the eighteenth century was for Spanish painting an epoch of external influences, the nineteenth century, especially its second half, must be characterized as one which sought for foreign direction. During this period the greater number of painters of talent sought for inspiration from foreign masters. This was a grave mistake, not because in Spain there were artists of much ability or even good instructors, but because this exodus of Spanish painters was a sign that they had lost faith and confidence in themselves and were strangers to that native force which in the end triumphs in painting as in everything else. First Paris, then Rome, the two most important centres of the art of this period, were undoubtedly centres of a lamentable distortion of Spanish art.

The organizing committee did not wish the London exhibition to be lacking in examples of this period of prolific production, to which they dedicated a room in which were shown examples of the painters of the nineteenth century. We mention some of the many artists of talent of the Spain of those days, and indicate their individual characteristics; but we are unable to allude to their general outlook and the characterization of their schools, which we do not think existed among them to any great extent.

The most famous painter who succeeded Goya was Vincente L?pez, better known for his portraits than for his other canvases, a skilful artist with a perfect knowledge of technique, conscientious, fecund, minute in detail, who has left us the reflection of a whole generation.

Classicism arrived in Spain with all the lustre of the triumphs of Louis David, under whose direction Jos? de Madrazo placed himself, the first of those artists of this type to maintain a position of dignity throughout three artistic generations. He held an important place among contemporary painters at a difficult time during which, in consequence of the political disorder which reigned, the commissions usually given by the churches and religious communities ceased, private persons acquired few paintings, and the academies decreased in the number of their students. It was a time in which art offered but little wherewithal to its votaries.

Studying at first under classical influences, but regarded as romantics in their later development, were remarkable portrait painters like Esquivel and Guti?rrez de la Vega, and a landscape painter of especial interest, P?rez Villamil, who may in a manner be compared to the great English landscape painter Turner, though he had no opportunities for coming in contact with him or any knowledge of his work. Both men, each in his own environment, breathed the same atmosphere; and, although reared in lands remote from one another, thought in a like manner because they both reflected the period in which they lived. Becquer and others adequately maintained the descriptive note which now entered into the making of popular subjects.

In this period culture, which in Spain had formerly been the preserve of a limited class, now spread itself more widely, and in the sphere of art was greatly fostered by exhibitions of painting, open to all and sundry, without distinction of social status. Pictures and sculpture, which in other times had been dedicated solely to art and to religious piety, the possessions of kings and grandees, now came into public view, were alluded to in publications of all kinds, and the people, enthusiastic and critical, were brought face to face with their native art. Many artists, perceiving this, hoped to gain popular applause, and consequently worked upon their subjects as seemed most agreeable to the masses. The historical picture in such circumstances seemed to offer the greatest possibilities for achieving a popular reputation.

Rigurosamente, a contemporary of Rosales, was another exceptional artist of unusual gifts, likewise Mariano Fortuny, who unfortunately died in his youth. Fortuny, though he may appear quite otherwise to-day, was in his own time considered a progressive innovator. When he visited Madrid for the first time, drawn thither by youthful enthusiasm, he did so with no other idea than that of copying from Vel?zquez. But seeing in the Prado Museum the works of Goya, which were totally new to him, he received a revelation. He copied from Goya, and later, going to Africa, he painted many studies and pictures replete with light. Light as a pictorial factor, as an element in a picture, the study of light, the reflection of it in his own works--that is the progressive element which we find in Fortuny. The rapid success of his first works, their triumph in Paris and Rome, was due to an agreeable style, gracious in touch, suggestive, which appealed to collectors and dealers. At the same time we do not believe this to have been altogether his ideal, since a few years before his death, which took place in his thirty-seventh year, we see him betaking himself to the shores of Italy, where he made new studies of light and air. Was it reserved to Fortuny to be one of those of whom it will be said that he assisted the development of the study of atmosphere and light? We firmly believe this to be so, but the work of the critic has nothing to do with prophecy, and we must deal only with that which Fortuny has left us, which is indeed sufficient. It must not be forgotten in judging his work to-day that its defects, or what seem to be its defects, were those of his time and were not personal, and that what is personal to him was his good taste, his mastery, and a series of innovations and bold essays in colour obvious to those who study his works. Fortuny was not a Spanish painter in the sense that he did not preserve the traditions of our School. He certainly took the elements of his palette from Goya, but his traits of manner show no sign of the typical qualities of Spanish painting.

It is fitting to allude here to artists of different types and talents in some of the cities of Spain, and others living abroad, who laboured during the last years of the nineteenth century--the Madrazos, Raimundo and Ricardo, sons of Don Federico de Madrazo, who studied under the direction of Fortuny; Plasencia, Dom?nguez and Ferr?n, who distinguished themselves in work of a decorative character in the Church of Saint Francisca the Great in Madrid; Pradilla and Villegas, who have obtained the greatest triumphs during a long career; the brothers M?lida, Enrique and Arturo, the first working in Paris for many years, and the second a famous decorative artist; Egusquiza, painter and engraver; Moreno Carbonero, who, more a historical and portrait painter, found a popularity for his pictures inspired by episodes in literature, especially those of Quixote, in which he has coincided with Jim?nez Aranda. We may also mention a group of artists, all of Valencia, a city which in times past, as in the present, enjoyed notable artistic prosperity: Sala, Mu?oz Degrain, Pinazo Camarlench, Jos? Benlliure and many others. Nearly all of them were represented at the Exhibition at Burlington House in the Salon set apart for the painters of this epoch.

In the second half of the nineteenth century the study of nature in the form of landscape arose as a creed, the artist coming face to face with the scene which he desired to transfer to his canvas. It has been said "what the landscape is, so is he who praises it." Until then the landscape had been nothing but a background for a composition or figure, and those who called themselves landscape painters, when they undertook to paint a scene used it as a peg on which to hang poetical ideas, embellishing it, but never treating it as a true rendering of nature. Now the artist came to the country, felt the influence of nature, and faithfully copied it. The object of his work was to be as natural as possible, without embellishing or poetizing his subject, but to portray it, as one might say. This was a new idea to the painters of the time.

P?rez Villamil, a follower of romanticism in painting, also practised landscape art in Spain until it underwent the change mentioned above through the arrival of a Belgian, Charles de Haes, who succeeded P?rez Villamil as professor of landscape at the School of Painting. Haes broke with tradition. He would have no conventionalisms, no studied compositions, nor preconceptions. He took his pupils to the country and there told them to copy Nature herself, leaving them without any further inspiration than that with which God had endowed them. To-day the studies of this master and of his disciples, generally executed in strong contrasts of light, seeking, doubtless, the effectiveness thus produced, appear to us, although they have a sense of luminosity, poor in colour, obscure and hard. But what progress is represented in them in comparison with all former art! And it is clear that they express the tendency which, modern in that time, everywhere governed the advance of art.

Shortly afterwards a Spanish landscape painter, not a disciple of Haes, Mart?n Rico, a companion of Fortuny, but who, having lived longer than he and reached a more mature age, advanced a further step in the art of landscape painting. If the chief aim of this painter had not been the rapid translation of his gifts into money, and had he not striven to please the public, he might have achieved lasting fame.

Casimiro Saiz, Mu?oz Degrain--whom we have mentioned already as a painter of the figure--Urgell, Gomar and others devoted themselves to landscape; but the most salient examples of Spanish landscape painting are to be found in the work of three artists who developed with the rapid evolution of their time--Beruete, Regoyos and Rusi?ol. Of these three sincere and individual painters, Beruete, in his youth a disciple of Haes, and later of Rico, evinced a very decided modern tendency. He devoted the years of his maturity to the making of a large number of pictures of Spanish cities, especially of Castile, paintings truthful and sincere in character, and revealing a very personal outlook. Regoyos was influenced by impressionism, to which he was strongly attracted, and in the North of Spain he inspired many by his numerous works. Rusi?ol is, perhaps, more a poet than a painter. He still lives and works. He used to find in the gloomy and deserted gardens of Spain subjects for his pictures. One of the most remarkable figures in Catalonia to-day, both as a litterateur and painter, he has also sought inspiration in the scenes and countryside of this, his native province.

Spanish painting was completely modernized during the last years of the nineteenth century. Three great international events took place during that period--the three exhibitions in Paris of the years 1878, 1889 and 1900. At these Spanish painting was fully represented. At the first was shown a varied collection of the works of Fortuny--one of the most famous artists of his time--who had died shortly before. In the second we experienced a rebuff, for a number of historical paintings of enormous proportions, full of the inspiration of the past, were not admitted, nor, indeed, were some of these worthy to hang in the exhibition. But in the years between 1889 and 1900 the development of Spanish painting was most marked, and in the last of the exhibitions alluded to the Spanish salons revealed a high level of excellence and a significant modernity. Moreover, there emerged the personality of a young painter, hitherto unknown, who by unanimous consent was regarded as well-nigh qualifying for the highest honours. This was a man whose name shortly afterwards became famous throughout the world--Joaqu?n Sorolla, one of those personalities who from time to time arise in Spain quite unexpectedly.

Sorolla, who was of humble origin, was born in Valencia, and in his youth was naturally influenced by the paintings of the old masters in his native city. He went to Madrid, later to Italy, and finally to Paris, where his work of a wholly realistic character was admired, for actuality was to this painter as the breath of life. A French advocate of naturalism has said "one rule alone guides the art of painting, the law of values, the manner in which the light plays upon an object, in which the light distributes colour over it; the light, and only the light is that which fixes the position of each object; it is the life of every scene reproduced in painting." This statement Sorolla seems to have taken greatly to heart, even while he was still under the influence of old traditions and standards of thought.

Possessing a temperament of much forcefulness, and of great productive exuberance, enthusiastic about the scenery of the Mediterranean, and especially enamoured of the richness of colour of his native soil, the ruddy earth planted with orange-trees, the blue sea and the dazzling sky, Sorolla, oblivious of what he had done before, felt a powerful impulse to paint that which was rich in colour, so greatly was he moved by the eastern spirit. The coasts of Valencia, the lives of the fishermen, those children of the sea, the bullocks drawing the boats, the scenes beneath the cliffs and other analogous subjects, painted in full sunlight--the sunlight of July and August for preference--these are the subjects on which Sorolla laboured for several years, producing canvas after canvas, now famous both in Europe and America.

We do not say that this outlook is ideal, but the study of light and atmosphere was a contribution to the history of modern art, and was among the elements which will be handed down to posterity as the original note of the painters of the last years of the nineteenth century. Of these Sorolla was one of the most forceful, and we lay stress upon his work, as in our judgment its importance demands especial notice. We have not alluded to his great talent as a portrait painter, nor to the decorative works which he has dedicated to the Hispanic Society of America in New York, and which, although they are completed, are not yet installed in place. Some few years after the appearance of Sorolla, there arose almost simultaneously two Spanish painters of other tendencies, equally noteworthy, and whose names are universally known--Zuloaga and Anglada. Zuloaga must be regarded in a very different manner from Sorolla. In no sense does he go to nature merely to copy it in the manner in which it presents itself to our vision, but he seeks, both in nature and humanity, for types, for characteristic figures of a representative and realistic kind. His work has developed with robustness and force, and attracts the attention of the modern critic eager for characteristic and singular qualities. To his reception in the universal world of art it is not necessary to allude here. The reviews and periodicals of all countries have commented with praise upon the achievements of this master, who is still busily at work, constantly engaged in the representation of popular types in the characteristic costume of many regions, especially his own people, the Basques, and the Castilians, for whom he appears to have a special predilection.

Those landscapes which he takes for the backgrounds of his pictures also seem to be inspired by that love of character which animates all his productions. In his latest phase, too, he has executed numerous portraits of people of different social categories. In technique it is noticeable that Zuloaga strives to preserve those tonalities which characterize the Spanish School; and the study he has made of the works of Vel?zquez and Goya is manifested in the lively reminiscences of these masterpieces displayed at times in his pictures, which exhibit, nevertheless, a relative modernity.

Anglada is, in our view, completely distinct from Sorolla and Zuloaga. Enamoured of the charm of colour, his work has no connection with schools or traditions. Aloof from every influence, he aspires to nothing so much as rich colour-schemes and harmonies, and seeks inspiration in night-bound gardens, brightly illuminated, in subjects which reflect electric light, and in figures which appear all the more distinct as the background is often the sea beneath the radiance of the Mediterranean light. These unusual sources of inspiration appear strange at first sight; but it is noticeable that they manifest on the part of the painter always the same idea of seeking for rich colouring. We must regard Anglada as one of the most remarkable and most original of modern painters. It is a great pity that he was not represented at Burlington House. His absence, like that of Sert, the great decorative painter, Beltran, Miguel Nieto and others, was accounted for by the fact that the pictures were received too late to be included in the Exhibition.

The neighbouring room was dedicated to those who may be called painters of character, for such was the exclusive note of all the works shown there. It would not be easy to say who occupied the place of honour here, Zuloaga, Romero de Torres, an artist of Cordova, who has tried to create a type of female beauty famous throughout Spain, the brothers Zubiaurre, peculiarly Basque in feeling, and now well known everywhere, Salaverria, Ortiz Echag?e, Arr?e, Juan Luis y Arteta, a delicate and emotional painter who has found on the Basque shores subjects for pictures unusually simple, in which is displayed a delicacy of technical expression together with the significance of an idea, inspired, like his subjects, by a simple poetry.

Following these, in still other rooms, were hung works similar in type, but bolder, perhaps, such as those of Solana, whose three canvases, painted in low tones, were of great interest and excited much remark in the exhibition; V?zquez D?az, so various in his subjects, but always individual; Maeztu, the consistent exponent of a colossal and decorative style; Castelucho, Urgell, Guezala; and Astruc y Sancha, who combines caricature of consummate mastery with the painting of landscapes of manifest originality.

In another room were exhibited smaller landscapes. These included examples of Rusi?ol, Beruete, Regoyos, Meifren, Forns, Raurich, Colom, Grosso and Mir. Among the work of other young painters of promise but as yet little known, we must mention the seascapes of Verdugo Landi and Nogue.

The next salon, known as the Lecture Room, formed a kind of overflow for the last, and contained pictures by Hermoso, Garnelo, Simonet, Morera, Marin Bag?es, Canals, Cardona, Villegas Brieva, Oroz, Madrazo-Ochoa, Covarsi, Bermejo, and many other artists, a list of whom would be much too extensive for inclusion here.

We do not think that the assertion that Spanish painting has been a powerful factor in the history and development of universal art will be regarded by anyone as a discovery, nor will such a statement appear as a result of patriotic enthusiasm. Spanish painting to-day follows its brilliant traditions; and although we believe this present period to be one of gestation, it occasionally reveals qualities of splendour and greatness. It is indubitably lacking in marked and decided outlook, but it is, nevertheless, universally respected and suffers, at the most, merely from the exigencies of the time. Moreover, not a few critics of distinction in the Peninsula, who concern themselves with the study of particular movements, see in it a tendency to the formation of regional groups. The central one naturally has its focus in Madrid, and radiates thence over the whole of Spain; but a large output is always forthcoming from the cities of Seville and Valencia, which appear, by the light of tradition, as the most brilliant centres of pictorial art. There are, moreover, two other regions which have produced rich and flourishing art--Catalonia and the Basque provinces, with their two capital cities, Barcelona and Bilbao.

Catalan art is no new thing in Spanish tradition, and is in a measure descended from that which was formerly the art of the Kingdom of Aragon before the national union. The Catalans have confined it entirely to their territory, have cultivated it with enthusiasm, and have created a Catalan school of Spanish Art. It is a great pity that they have not tried to preserve a more national spirit and have frequently sought inspiration from foreign sources, especially from France. But, this notwithstanding, Catalan achievement is indeed most worthy of praise.

The artistic production of the Basque provinces is forcible and original. The Basques, with a scanty pictorial tradition, have shrewdly sought for inspiration in the Spanish sphere without distinction of locality, and have produced an art of undoubted interest.

But apart from this there exists at the present time a movement of worldwide character, which seems to have a literary origin and which may, perhaps, be called, for want of a better name, the new spirit. Though still in a chaotic state, this movement, varied in its aspects, may in all lands be identified by an underlying intention to revolutionize everything, creating a new aesthetic code and turning its back on the past and on all tradition.

It is not our intention to deal with this movement or to discuss its importance. Spain does not appear to be the country best fitted to lead it. Its history seems to show that while it is ready of acceptance, it is not to be hurried in its advance; nor is it eager to seize upon radical ideas. But this notwithstanding, it has painters who understand and cultivate art of this kind, and it must not be forgotten that one of the outstanding figures in the ultramodern movement is the Spaniard Picasso, who has shown once more that in all phases of artistic effort the Spanish temperament significantly reveals itself.

A. DE BERUETE Y MORET.

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