Contemporary masters more or less proved their position, and convinced
the world by something of demonstration; the first Impressionist simply
asked that his word should be accepted. To those who would not take his
word he offers no bond. To those who will, he grants the distinction of
a share in his responsibility. Somewhat unrefined, in comparison to his
lofty and simple claim to be believed on a suggestion, is the commoner
painter's production of his credentials, his appeal to the sanctions of
ordinary experience, his self-defence against the suspicion of making
irresponsible mysteries in art. 'You can see for yourself,' the lesser
man seems to say to the world, 'thus things are, and I render them in
such manner that your intelligence may be satisfied.' This is an appeal
to average experience--at the best the cumulative experience; and with
the average, or with the sum, art cannot deal without derogation. The
Spaniard seems to say: 'Thus things are in my pictorial sight. Trust me,
I apprehend them so.' We are not excluded from his counsels, but we are
asked to attribute a certain authority to him, master of the craft as he
is, master of that art of seeing pictorially which is the beginning and
not far from the end--not far short of the whole--of the art of painting.
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