The Life of an Artist; An Autobiography 12+

📕 This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... ral bent, without any other care than that of seeking to attain the ideal I had formed, without vain longings or too exalted an ambition. This is what I had done, without suspecting it, when I painted my first pictures at Courrieres; this is what I strive to do, less unconsciously, now. But how settle the account with one's conscience, exacted by a sense of responsibility? I have always had a passion for the Beautiful. I have always believed that the aim of art was to realize the expression of the Beautiful. I believe in the Beautiful--I feel it, I see it! If the man in me is often a pessimist, the artist, on the contrary, is pre-eminently an optimist. More than this, I affirm that life would seem to me absolutely miserable and contemptible if we had not continually before our eyes the enchanting splendors of the Beautiful. In affirming this, I speak of moral as well as physical Beauty. But what is the Beautiful? Where is it? What are its attributes? Reason is powerless to answer this question continually propounded, and to which the response of Plato, vague though it be, is yet the best: "Love is the only light that can guide us in a region where all is mystery." One might add to the definition of Plato that the Beautiful is not only the sp...