Every artist of high degree carries within himself the ideal type whose expression he pursues without pause.  This search imprints upon each of his works the characteristic mark of genius:  originality.  Thus we recognize at the first glance the giants that sprang from the brain of Michael Angelo, the enigmatical sirens of da Vinci, and those superhuman figures with which Raphael has peopled his immortal compositions.  Titian lived in a world of kings and magnificent princes.  Correggio’s individuality is grace of form and charm of colour; his portion is not to be scorned.  The exuberant nature of Rubens betrays itself in his least important canvases.  The personages of his innumerable pictures share in common the affinities of race and family which make them recognizable everywhere.

Anthonius Van Dyck obeys, likewise, the common law.  Each of his works is marked by that sign of originality, which in him consists of the incessant pursuit of elegance and distinction.  Distinction,—­that is the gift par excellence, the dominating quality of this artist, that which constitutes his individuality, that which marks with an indelible imprint all his glorious works, from the first gropings of the pupil of Rubens to those immortal images of Charles I., his family, and his court.

Whether he belongs to the highest spheres of society or whether he comes from the simple bourgeoisie of Antwerp, the model receives from Van Dyck’s brush the most aristocratic mien.  One would insist that the painter spent his life only in a world of gentlemen and patricians.  Never does he surprise even the men that he knows the best, his most intimate friends, in the familiar carelessness of their daily occupations.  Rarely, very rarely, does it come into his mind to group them in some intimate interior scene.  Everybody is made to pose before posterity; each sitter has the smile to give his or her descendants the most exalted idea of his or her station and manners.  Not one is vulgar, not one dares to show himself in his ordinary work, or in the careless good nature of daily life.  Nothing alters their immutable serenity; nothing troubles the unalterable placidity of their physiognomy.  Let others paint the people of taverns, the world of kermesses and peasants!  Van Dyck wished to be and to live for ever the painter of aristocracy.

    Antoine Van Dyck—­sa vie et sonnoeuvre. (Paris, 1882).

THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE TUGGED TO HER LAST BERTH TO BE BROKEN UP, 1838

(TURNER)

JOHN RUSKIN

  “The flag which braved the battle and the breeze
  No longer owns her.”