It would seem only logical to begin our investigation with the pictures
chronologically oldest, at the same time recognizing that European art
has the right to first consideration. We are the hosts to the art of the
world. Our own art is the newest, and yet occupies a large number of
galleries most conspicuously, but it will not lose by waiting for
attention till the end.
Gallery 63.
Some of the very earliest paintings in the exhibition are found in one
of the large center rooms on the left, where a very stately Tiepolo
controls the artistic atmosphere of a large gallery. This picture has
all the qualities of an old Italian master of the best kind. Its
composition is big and dignified and in the interest and richness of its
color scheme it has here few equals. The chief characteristic of this
splendid canvas is bigness of style. In its treatment it is a typical
old master, in the best meaning of the term.
On the left of this Tiepolo, a rather sombre canvas by Ribera claims
attention by the peculiar lighting scheme, so typical of this Italian
master. While there is what we might call a quality of flood lighting in
the Tiepolo, giving an envelope of warm, mellow light to the whole
picture, Ribera concentrates his light somewhat theatrically upon his
subjects, as in the St. Jerome. The picture is freely painted, with the
very convincing anatomical skill that is manifest in most of Ribera's
work. His shadows are sometimes black and impenetrable, a quality which
his pictures may not have had at the time of their production, and which
may be partly the result of age. The Goya on the same wall is
uninteresting - one of those poor Goyas which have caused delay in the
just placing of this great Spaniard in the history of art.
The Turner below the Goya has all the imaginative qualities of that
great Englishman's best work. Venice may never look the way Turner
painted it, but his interpretation of a gorgeous sunset over a canal is
surely fascinating enough in its suggestion of wealth of form and color.
Sir William Beechey's large canvas of a group of children and a dog
probably presented no easy task to the painter. The attempt at a
skillful and agreeable arrangement of children in pictures is often
artificial, and so it is to my mind in this canvas. Nevertheless the
colouring, together with the spontaneous technique, put it high above
many canvases of similar type. The Spanish painting on the right of the
Beechey could well afford to have attached to it the name of one of the
best artists of any school. The unknown painter of this Spanish
gentleman knew how to disclose the psychology of his sitter in a
straightforward way that would have done honor to Velasquez, or to Frans
Hals, of whom this picture is even more suggestive.
Below this very fine portrait Sir Godfrey Kneller is represented by a
canvas very typical of the eighteenth century English portrait painters.
The canvas has a little of the character of everybody, without being
sufficiently individual. Reynolds' "Lady Ballington" has a wonderful
quality of repose and serenity, one of the chief merits of the work of
all those great English portrait painters of the eighteenth century. No
matter whose work it is, whether of Reynolds, Romney, Hoppner, or any of
that classic period of the painters of distinguished people, they always
impress by the dignity of their composition and colour. We do not know
in all cases how distinguished their sitters really were, but like
Reynolds' "Lady Ballington," they must often have been of a sort
superior physically as well as intellectually.
Above the Reynolds a small Gainsborough landscape blends well with the
predominant brown of these old canvases. From the point of view of the
modern landscape painter, who believes in the superiority of his outlook
and attitude toward nature, we can only be glad that Gainsborough's fame
does not depend upon his representation of out-of-doors. This small
canvas, like the very big one on the opposite wall, is interesting in
design. But neither gives one the feeling of outdoors that our modern
landscape painters so successfully impart. Historically they are very
interesting, and even though they carry the name of such a master of
portraits as Gainsborough undoubtedly was, they are devoid of all the
refreshing qualities that modern art has given to the world.
Sir Peter Lely and Sir Henry Raeburn claim particular attention on the
north wall - the first by a deftly painted portrait of a lady, and the
other by a broadly executed likeness of John Wauchope. As portraits go,
the first picture is one of the finest in the gallery. Very conspicuous
by their size, the two big Romney portraits on the east wall are not in
the same class with either the Lawrence or the Reynolds on the same
wall. The great Lawrence portrait, the lady with the black hat, is
one of the most superb portraits in the world. There is a peculiar charm
about this canvas quite independent of the very attractive Lady Margaret
represented in the picture. The luscious blacks and pale reds and the
neutral cream silk cape make for a colour harmony seldom achieved.
Reynolds' portrait of John Thomas, Bishop of Rochester, is equally rich
and full of fine colour contrasts. The shrewd-looking gentleman is
psychologically well given, although one's attention is detracted from
the head by the gorgeous raiment of a dignitary of the church.
I think Hogarth's portrait on the small wall to the right does not
disclose this master at his best, nor does Hoppner rise to the level of
his best work in the large portrait alongside of it. The Marchioness of
Wellesley is better and more sympathetically rendered than her two
children, who barely manage to stay in the picture.
On the whole an atmosphere of dignity permeates this gallery of older
masters. One may deplore the lack of many characteristics of modern art
in many of the old pictures. They are very often lifeless and stiff, but
the worst of them are far more agreeable than most of those of our own
time. The serene beauty of the Tiepolo, the Lawrence, and the
Gainsborough portrait has hardly been surpassed since their day. Our age
is, of course, the age of the landscape painter, the outdoor painter, as
opposed to the indoor portraits of these great masters. It would not be
right to judge a Gainsborough by his landscapes any more than it would
be to judge a modern landscape painter by his portraits. But no matter
how uninteresting these old landscapes are, their brown tonality insures
them a certain dignity of inoffensiveness which a mediocre modern work
of art never possesses, I would rather any time have a bad old picture
than a bad one of the very recent schools. Modesty is not one of the
chief attributes of modern art, and the silent protest of a gallery such
as the one we are now in, the artist can well afford to heed.
The sculpture in this gallery has no relation to the historical
character of the room, but fits well into the atmosphere. Adolph A.
Weinman's admirable "Descending Night" is so familiar to all Exposition
visitors, in its adaptation in a fine fountain in the Court of the
Universe, that no more reference need be made to it. Here in bronze on a
small scale, it is even more refined. Mrs. Saint Gaudens' charming
family group, in burnt clay, is not so well in harmony with this gallery
of older work, but infinitely more appealing than J. Q. A. Ward's
"Hunter" or Cyrus Dallin's "Indian". Both of these groups lack
suggestive quality. They are carried too far. Edward Kemeys' "Buffaloes"
lacks a sense of balance. The defeated buffalo, pushed over the cliff,
takes the interest of the observer outside of the center of the
composition, and a lack of balance is noticeable in this otherwise well
modelled group.
Gallery 91.
In this room one is carried farther back into the earlier phases of
painting by a Luini of pronounced decorative quality. The picture is
probably a part of a larger scheme, but it is well composed into the
frame which holds it. Besides, it is of interest as the only piece of
old mural painting included in the exhibition. The ground on which the
angel is painted is a piece of the plaster surface of the original wall
of which this fragment was a part. The method of producing these fresco
paintings (al fresco calco) necessitated the employment of a practical
plasterer besides the painter. The painting was first drawn carefully on
paper and then transferred in its outlines upon freshly prepared
plaster, just put upon the wall. Having no other means of making the
paint adhere to the surface, the painter had to rely upon the chemical
reaction of the plaster, which would eventually unify the paint with
itself. It was a very tedious process, which nowadays has been
superseded by the method of painting on canvas, which after completion
in the studio is fastened to the wall. Above the Luini hangs a very
Byzantine looking Timoteo Viti "Madonna" of interesting colour and good
design, but with a Christ child of very doubtful anatomy, and also two
old sixteenth century Dutch pictures - a Jan Steen and a Teniers. I have
my doubts as to the authenticity of the last two pictures. They are both
interesting as disclosing the fondness of the Dutch painters of the
sixteenth century for over-naturalistic subjects.
On wall B two pictures, without author or title, appeal to one's
imagination. They are both well painted and rich in colour. A certain
big decorative quality puts them far above their neighbor - a Dutch
canvas of bad composition with no redeeming features other than
historical interest. Jacopo da Ponte's big "Lazarus" has a certain noble
dignity. Though it is rather black in shadows, it is not devoid of
colour feeling. On either side are two old Spanish portraits of children
of royalty. They impress by their very fine decorative note, charmingly
enhanced by the wonderful frames. Another Ribera, as forceful as the one
mentioned before, easily stands out among the many pictures in this
gallery, most of which are only of historical interest. The whole aspect
of this little gallery is one of extreme remoteness from modern thought
and idea, but as an object lesson of certain older periods it is
invaluable.
Gallery 92.
Chronologically a typical old Charles Le Brun presides over a very
interesting lot of pictures, mostly French. This academic canvas, of
Darius' family at the feet of Alexander, has not the simplicity and
decorative quality of the Italian pictures of that period, and it is
entirely too complex to be enjoyable. The beautiful Courbet on the left,
while suggestive of Ribera in its severe disposal of light and shadow,
has also a quality of its own, a wonderful mellowness which gives it a
unity of expression lacking in its turbulent neighbor on the right.
Among the other bigger pictures in this small gallery, a very poetic
Cazin, "The Repentance of Simon Peter," commands attention by a certain
outdoor quality which faintly suggests the Barbizon school. One does not
know what to admire most in this fine canvas. As a figural picture it is
intensely beautiful, and merely as a landscape it is of convincing
charm. It is to my mind one of the finest paintings in the exhibition,
and a constant source of great pleasure.
The big Tissot offers few excuses for having been painted at all. It is
nothing but a big illustration - all it tells could have been said on a
very small canvas. There is no real painting in it, nor composition -
nothing else, for that matter. The two Monticellis on the same wall make
up for the Tissot. Rich in colour and design, the one to the left is
particularly fine. The Van Marcke on the same wall is typical of this
painter's methods, but does not disclose his talent for very interesting
pictorial compositions, for which he was known.
On the opposite wall an older Israels gives lone a good idea of the
earlier period of this great Dutch painter, justly counted as one of the
great figures of the second half of the last century. While of recent
date, his art belongs to the older school - without attaching any odium
to that classification. The Barbizon school, the most important of the
last century, is very fitly represented by two charming and most
delicate Corots on either side of the Israels. The one to the right is
particularly tender and poetic. While by no means an attempt at a
naturalistic impressionistic interpretation of nature, like a modern
Metcalf, for instance, their suggestive power is so great as to overcome
a certain lack of colour by the convincingness of the mood represented.
Daubigny and Rousseau, of that great company of the school of 1825, are
merely suggested in two small and very conscientious studies.
Gallery 62.
This will always be remembered as the gallery of the "Green Madonna".
Whatever caused this "Green Madonna" to be honored by a Grand Prix at
Paris will always remain one of those mysteries with which the world is
laden. Of all disagreeable colour schemes, it is certainly one of the
least appealing ever put upon a canvas. It is hardly a scheme at all,
since I do not believe the juxtaposition of so many different slimy
greens, nowhere properly relieved nor accentuated by a complementary
red, can ever be called a scheme. Technically speaking, the canvas is
well painted, but it is hardly worthy of the attention its size and
subject win. Dagnan-Bouveret has rendered good service as a teacher and
also as a painter of animal life, but in this canvas he surely is not up
to his best.
The Barbizon men continue to hold one's attention by a splendid Troyon.
It is one of the best of his canvases I have ever seen. The little Diaz
alongside of it is also typical of this very luminous painter, who often
attains a lusciousness of colour in his work not reached by any other of
the Barbizon men.
Fortuny, in an Algiers picture, shows the same brilliant technical
quality which is so much in evidence in a small watercolor in the
preceding gallery. Jules Bastien-LePage's studio nude seems very
unhappily placed in a naturalistic background into which it does not
fit, and Cazin's big canvas, while very dignified, hardly comes up to
the level of his repenting "Simon Peter", in the other gallery.
Pelouse's landscape, of singularly beautiful composition and colour,
should not be overlooked. It is alongside the Cazin.
While almost all the pictures referred to so far are of the French
school, there are three pictures of the older German school - two
Lenbachs, one a very accurately drawn portrait of the German philosopher
Mommsen, and the other a portrait of himself. They show this powerful
artist in two different aspects. While the Mommsen is one of his later,
broader pictures, the portrait of himself is of an earlier date, showing
the artist as the serious student he has always been. Adolph Schreyer,
another German, with his Bedouin pictures, was the pet of the art lovers
in his day, and pictures like this can be found in almost every
collection in the world.
The miscellaneous sculpture in this gallery is full of interest and
gives one a good suggestion of the great mass of small modern sculpture
found throughout the galleries. Mora's Indian figures are particularly
interesting from their originality of theme. Mora tries hard to be
unconventional, without going into the bizarre, and succeeds very well.
Gallery 61.
The difference of appearance in the four older galleries discussed and
the one now visited is so marked as to lead one to believe that our
investigations have not been conducted in the proper chronological
order. All the art of the world, up to and including the Barbizon
school, is characterized by a predominant brown colour which, on account
of its warmth, is never disagreeable, although sometimes monotonous. The
daring of the Englishman Constable in painting a landscape outdoors led
to the development of a new point of view, which the older artists did
not welcome. Constable and the men of the Barbizon school realized for
the first time that outdoor conditions were totally different from the
studio atmosphere, and while the work of such men as Corot, Millet,
Daubigny, Rousseau, and Diaz is only slightly removed from the somber
brown of the studio type, it recognizes a new aspect of things which was
to be much farther developed than they ever dreamed. Just as Constable
shocked his contemporaries by his - for that time - vivid outdoor blues
and greens, so the men of the school of 1870, or the impressionists,
surprised and outraged their fellowmen with a type of picture which we
see in control of this delightfully refreshing gallery. We can testify
by this time that Constable, although much opposed in his day, seems
very tame to us today, and caution seems well advised before a final
judgment of impressionism is passed. The slogan of this gallery seems to
be, "More light and plenty of it!" The Monet wall gives a very good idea
of the impressionistic school, in seven different canvases ranging from
earlier more conventional examples to some of his latest efforts. One
more fully understands the goal that these men, like Monet, Renoir,
Sisley, Pissarro, and others in this gallery were striving for when, in
an apparently radical way, they discarded the attitude of their
predecessors, in their search for light. It is true they encountered
technical difficulties which forced them into an opacity of painting
which is absolutely opposed to the smooth, sometimes licked appearance
of the old masters. Many of these men must be viewed as great
experimenters, who opened up new avenues without being entirely able to
realize themselves. They are collectively known generally as
impressionists, though the word "plein-airist" - luminist - has been
chosen sometimes by them and by their admirers. The neo-impressionists
in pictorial principle do not differ from the impressionist. Their
technical procedure is different, and based on an optical law which
proves that pure primary colours, put alongside of each other in
alternating small quantities, will give, at a certain distance, a
freshness and sparkle of atmosphere not attained by the earlier
technical methods of the impressionistic school, which does not in the
putting on of the paint differ from the old school. Besides, this use of
pure paint enabled them to have the mixing of the paint, so to speak,
done on the canvas, as the various primary colours juxtaposed would
produce any desired number of secondary and tertiary colours without
loss of freshness. In other words a green would be produced, not by
mixing yellow and blue on the palette, but by putting a yellow dot and a
blue dot alongside of each other, and so ad infinitum. According to the
form of their colour dots they were called pointillistes, poiristes, and
other more or less self-explanatory names. The service of these men to
art can never be estimated too highly. The modern school of landscape
painting particularly, and other art involving indoor subjects, are
based entirely on the principles Monet discovered to the profession.
Pissarro, on either end of the wall opposite the Monet, appeals more in
the new method of the neo-impressionists than Monet, by reason of much
more interesting subjects. The one Pissarro on the right is of the first
order from every point of view, demonstrating the superiority of the
neo-impressionistic style applied to a very original and interesting
subject. "The River Seine," by Sisley, is also wonderfully typical of
this new style, while of the two Renoirs, only the still-life can really
be called successful. There is an unfortunate fuzziness in his landscape
which defeats all effect of difference of texture in the various objects
of which this picture is composed.
There are a number of canvases in this gallery which have nothing to do
with the predominating impressionistic character of the gallery. The
Puvis de Chavannes gives one a very fine idea of the idealistic outlook
of this greatest of all modern decorators. His art is so genuinely
decorative that to see one of his pictures in a frame seems almost
pathetic, when we think how infinitely more beautiful it would look as
part of a wall. Eugène Carrière is very well represented by a stately
portrait of a lady with a small dog. Carrière's mellow richness is
entirely his own and rarely met with in any other artist's work.
On the west wall opposite the Puvis four very different canvases deserve
to be mentioned. In the center a young Russian, Nicholas Fechin,
displays a very unusual virtuosity in a picture of a somewhat
sensual-looking young creature. Aside from the fascination of this young
human animal, the handling of paint in this canvas is most
extraordinary, possessing a technical quality few other canvases in the
entire exhibition have. There is life, such as very few painters ever
attain, and seen only in the work of a master. This work is not entirely
a Nell Brinkley in oil, either. I confess I have a strange fondness for
this weird canvas.
The international character of this gallery is most pronounced. Directly
above the Fechin, Frits Thaulow, the Norwegian, justifies his reputation
as the painter of flowing water in a picture of great beauty. Gaston La
Touche faintly discloses in a large canvas his imaginative style,
carried so much farther in his later work. Joseph Bail, the Frenchman,
got into this gallery probably only on the basis of size, to balance the
La Touche on the other side. To all appearances Bail has very little in
common with the general modern character of this gallery. Nevertheless
his canvas has merit in many ways.