Excerpt from The Men of 1830
Few saying of the witty Mr. Whistler have been more quoted or questioned than his "Art happens" of "The Ten o"Clock," yet no delight in epigram can blind us to the fact that art has usually been representative of social and intellectual conditions existing at the time of its appearance. It may seem to come and go like the wind, but is still subject to laws, less known, but as sure in their operation as those which govern the return of the seasons through the rounding years of the physical world. To understand the character of any great movement or manifestation of art, we must therefore study the conditions that have preceded it.
The excellence of French painting and engraving during le grand siecle under Louis XIV was achieved by the perfecting of what already existed under Henri IV and Louis XIII, and such high skill is rarely long sustained. The more licentious period of Louis XV demanded the satisfaction of its frivolous whims, as well as the consecration of its love for pompous display. Art, for the most part, followed society, till not even the good intentions of Louis XVI could save either from the tragic catastrophe of the French Revolution.
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