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�����������c����ʿ��Ӣ�İ棩��������I confess that when first I made acquaintance with Charles Strickland I never for a moment discerned that there was in him anything out of the ordinary. Yet now few will be found to deny his greatness. I do not speak of that greatness which is achieved by the fortunate politician or the successful soldier�� that is a quality which belongs to the place he occupies rather than to the man�� and a change of circumstances reduces it to very discreet proportions.����The Prime Minister out of office is seen�� too often�� to have been but a pompous thetorician�� and the General without an army is but the tame hero of a market town. The greatness of Charles Strickland was authentic. It may be that you do not like his art�� but at all events you can hardly refuse it the tribute of your interest. He disturbs and arrests. The time has passed when he was an object of ridicule�� and it is no longer a mark of eccentricity to defend or ofperversity to extol him. His faults are accepted as the necessary complement to his merits. It is still possible to discuss his place in art�� and the adulation ofhis admirers is perhaps no less capricious than the disparagement of his detractors�� but one thing can never be doubtful�� and that is that he had genius. To my mind the most interesting thingin art is the personality of the artist�� and if that is singular�� I am willing to excuse a thousand faults. I suppose Velasquez was a better painter than El Greco�� but custom stales one's admiration for him�� the Cretan�� sensual and tragic�� proffers the mystery of his soul like a standing sacrifice. The artist�� painter�� poet�� or musician�� by his decoration�� sublime or beautiful�� satisfies the aesthetic sense�� but that is akin to the sexual instinct�� and shares its barbarity�� he lays before you also the greater gift of himself. To pursue his secret has something of the fascination of a detective story. It is a riddle which shares with the universe the merit of having no answer. The most insignificant of Strickland's works suggests a personality which is strange�� tormented�� and complex�� and it is this surely which prevents e'ven those who do not like his pictures from being indifferent to them�� it is this which has excited so cunous an interest in his life and character.����It was not till four years after Strickland's death that Maurice Huret wrote that article in the Mercure de France which rescued the unknown painter from oblivion and blazed the trail which succeeding writers�� with more or less docility�� have followed. For a long time no critic has enjoyed in France a more incontestable authority�� and it was impossible not to be impressed by the claims he made�� they seemed extravagant�� but later judgments have confirmed his estimate�� and the reputation of Charles Strickland is now firmly established on the lines which he laid down. The rise of this reputation is one of the most romantic incidents in the history of art. But I do not propose to deal with Charles Strickland's work except in so far as it touches upon his character. I cannot agree with the painteris��who claim superciliously that the layman can understand nothing of painting�� and that he can best show his appreciation of their works by silence and a cheque-book. It is a grotesque misapprehension which sees in art no more than a craft comprehensible perfectly only to the craftsman�� art is a manifestation of emotion�� and emotion speaks a language that all may understand. But I will allow that the critic who has not a practical knowledge��������