THE CRAFTSMAN


genius of William Morris. But if insur-
rection arose then against the frightful
ugliness of contemporary productions, it
did not declare the imperative need of a
renewal of youth conformable to the mod-
ern spirit. Highly aristocratic natures,
who would willingly have witnessed the
destruction of railways guilty of killing
the beauty of the landscape-such as these
necessarily produced works echoing the art
of primitive times dominated by the poetry
of an abstract dream. They projected
over the world a soft light, full of charm
indeed, but which, as a distant reflection of
extinct suns, could not have a prolonged
existence, nor even a warmth sufficient to
light new centers. This episode will re-
main in the history of art as an attractive
chapter too rapidly closed. Latterly, Eng-


Plate: "Porcelaine Leueono6"; designed by Colonna
land has taken a new direction under the
guidance of numerous artists, the most
noted of whom are mentioned by Professor
Hamlin. Among them only a fraction are
faithful to the Morris traditions.


   To Belgium belongs in all justice the
honor of having first devised truly modern
formulas for the interior decoration of
European dwellings. *
   In the year 1894 there was founded at
Brussels, under the guidance of M. Octave


Plate: "Porcelaine LeuconoV"; designed by de Feure
Maus, a society, of artists designated as
La libre Esth9tique, having as its object to
assemble in an annual exhibition all works
of essentially modern character. This was
the first occasion when the aristocratic arts
of painting and sculpture admitted without
blushing to their companionship the com-
monalty of industrial productions. Al-
ready there appeared manifestations of a
real value, the outcome of reflective minds
steadily pursuing individual aims. I have
always retained a most favorable memory
of certain model tenements exhibited at
  * In order not to extend unduly the length of
this article, I must set aside architecture, which,
it must be said, has not sufficiently acknowledged
the progress of other branches of art which it
should have assisted, since it had not, as leader
and chief, been able to guide them by a bold initi-
ative.


S