An approach to the rest of the American section might be made through
the one-man rooms, and since we are on the south side, and for other
perfectly good reasons - not the least, that of importance - we might
start with Whistler.
Gallery 28.
Whistler.
No gallery reflects so much the really serious artist, in his eternal
struggle to express himself simply and exhaustively in line, form, and
colour, as does this Whistler group. A feeling of dissatisfaction,
expressed by many indications of experimentation and change, of
searching for the right line, is clearly indicated in all of these
paintings. He often gives you a chance to choose between a number of
tantalizing forms and lines. It is very apparent that he set himself a
high, almost an unattainable standard, toward which he worked with
varying success. His emotions must have been constantly swinging between
the greatest heights of joy and the abyss of despair.
The numerous Whistlers in this gallery show him in many periods and many
styles. On wall D, at the lower right, a portrait of an auburn girl, one
of his many fascinating models, shows Whistler more as a pure painter
than any of the other canvases. This doubtless belongs to the period
when he was under Courbet's influence. The richness of pure paint,
dexterously applied, is scarcely found in the many portraits on the same
wall, in which a certain thinness of paint is too much in evidence, no
matter how distinguished and suggestive these canvases are. His sense of
composition, of the placing of areas of different tones and colour, is
markedly evident in all of his work, no matter how experimental and
casual it may be. The "Falling Rocket" is the most wonderful example of
this quality of design. If it is true that it hung for weeks upside down
in the present owner's house, then most decidedly this fact speaks well
for its excellent quality of design, irrespective of its pictorial
meaning. The many small sparks descending rhythmically from an
impenetrable sky are carefully considered in their relative position and
size so as to insure that feeling of pattern which he almost
instinctively gave to everything he did. This picture of the "Falling
Rocket" is of particular interest as the picture which made John Ruskin,
the Slade Professor of Art at Oxford, accuse Whistler of flinging a pot
of paint at the face of the public and having the impudence of a coxcomb
to ask two hundred guineas for it. Surely this carefully and cleanly
painted picture shows Whistler as hardly a flinger of paint, and we can
only rejoice over the kind fate which saved Mr. Ruskin from extending
his career into the present age of paint flingers, who, had they lived
in his day, would have proved fatal to the learned professor. The
farthing damages which Whistler received in a mock trial were scarcely
as valuable as the universal admiration this picture receives.
There never was a painter who manipulated paint with more regard for the
medium than did Whistler. His portrait of Mrs. Milicent Cobden has a
noble beauty of restraint. It is very sensitively painted, and tender
almost to the point of thinness. It fascinates in its subtle appeal,
which the observer is induced to supplement by his own emotion. This
quality of subtlety is the one attribute which makes his work so beloved
by the artist and so difficult of understanding for the layman, who, try
as he may, is not equipped with sufficient technical insight to do
Whistler's paintings full justice. Uneven as his work is, as every
painter admits, it will always be more and more cherished by the
profession and remain more or less of a mystery to the puzzled public,
who would like to follow this painter into the realm of his interests.
The six figural compositions on the opposite wall show Whistler as
concerned with design pure and simple, rather than meaning or
psychological expression. They are beautiful for the fragrant looseness
of their spacing of delightful, tender areas of neutralized colour,
emphasized here and there by a stronger note of vermilion. Things like
these express his attitude far more than any other thing he ever did.
They show his understanding of the fundamentals of painting - a small
part in the whole unity of beauty of which the world consists. His work
as a painter is, after all, negligible in comparison with the principles
he preached by his many artistic activities. His historical position, as
time goes on and as his associates die, becomes more and more mystical,
and even at this moment his personality has assumed an almost
mythological character.
Gallery 93.
Twachtman.
It is not a far cry to Twachtman, who presents a peculiar combination of
Whistlerian tonality with the methods of the modern impressionist. His
work is relatively high in key, and devoid of any colour resembling
black. The covered skies of early morning, before the breaking through
of the sun, are his chief motives. Snow plays also an important part in
his work, which is most suggestive in the tender beauty of the few
values and colours it is composed of. There is absolutely nothing of the
sensational about his work. To most people of not sufficient interest on
first acquaintance, on better familiarity they yield to the serious
student and sympathetic lover of nature unlimited pleasure. His poetry
is of the true sort, and in finished work like "October", "View on the
Brette", "Bridge in Spring", and "Greenwich Hills", he rises to a very
high level.
Manship's small statuettes are very effective features of this gallery.
Their linear decorative architectural quality has put Manship into the
front rank of our younger men, and he will have no trouble to
maintain his place.
Gallery 89.
Tarbell.
In an adjoining gallery, Edmund Tarbell is much more striking, in a
number of canvases containing certain qualities, which easily account
for the great popularity he justly enjoys as one of the best of our
American painters. To the student of pictures who does not care whether
they are well painted or not, they are intensely interesting subjects,
reflecting the happy domestic atmosphere of the painter's home, which
has furnished him for years inexhaustible material for many delightful
interpretations of similar subjects. This ability to produce so many
things of equal excellence in a relatively small circle, in one way
proves his greatness. In the last analysis, he has practically
everything in his work one looks for in a work of art. In addition to
having an easily understood idea, his pictures are well composed,
without showing the consciousness of it, as does Whistler. Fine in
colour and handling, beside the idealization of everything he includes
in his work he achieves a certain something which we recognize as style.
He may be a realist in every sense, but he shows how to deal arbitrarily
with his figures in such a way as to endow them with admirable
distinction, without losing the expression of reality. His recent
outdoor work has not the unity of expression of his indoor subjects. It
is difficult, and not really necessary, to single out any work in a
one-man representation of unusual uniformity of excellence. Every one of
his pictures has the earmarks of having been carefully studied.
Bela Pratt's statue of Nathan Hale is much less academic than the other
sculptures arranged in this gallery. Compared with the high standard of
American small plastic art his works are somewhat dry, though always
conscientiously done.
Gallery 88.
Redfield.
As a realistic painter of the outdoors, E. W. Redfield holds an enviable
position in the field of American art. He is the painter par excellence,
without making any pretension at being anything else. The joy of putting
paint on canvas to suggest a relatively small number of things which
make up the great outdoor country, like skies, distance, land
foregrounds, is his chosen task. He is the most direct painter we have.
With a heavily loaded brush, without any regard for anything but
immediate effect, he expresses his landscapes candidly and convincingly.
He is plain-spoken, truthful, free from any trickery - as wholesome as
his subjects. His a la prima methods embody, to the professional man,
the highest principle of technical perfection, without falling into a
certain physical coarseness so much in evidence in most of our modern
work. His sense of design is keen, without being too apparent, and the
impression one gains from his works is that they are honest
transcriptions of nature by a strong, virile personality. Winter
subjects predominate in his pictures, and he expresses them probably
more convincingly than others - though his Autumn is marvelous in its
richness of colour, and in the two night effects of New York he shows
his acute power of observation in two totally different subjects. His
art is altogether most refreshing and free from all artificialities.
Gallery 87.
Duveneck.
Paradoxical as it may seem, Duveneck's art is carried by the same
painter-qualities found in Redfield. From his dark colour it is
self-evident that he belongs to an older German school - a school which
has been superseded in the affection of Americans by French methods. We
know relatively little, entirely too little, about the generous methods
of the best men of the Munich school, of which Duveneck is so
conspicuous a member. His importance in the history of art can hardly be
set too high, for the soundness of his methods alone. Only the greatest
ever attain the capacity for direct painting which characterizes this
astonishing collection of his pictures. Juiciness is the only word which
will adequately express the result of his brush. The pictures here are
most interesting for the reason that they were all done while he was not
yet twenty-five and while he lived in an atmosphere of workers of whom
Leibl was probably the most famous. There are few paintings - and then
only the greatest - which give one the same satisfaction at a big
distance as well as at close range as Duveneck's do. Men of his caliber
appear only at great intervals. This Duveneck collection, if brought
together permanently, as we are fortunate enough to see it temporarily
here in San Francisco, would become the Mecca of all painters who want
to refresh their memory as to what constitutes real painting.
Unfortunately these canvases are owned by different people, and to think
that they will all have to be scattered again among individual owners is
a shocking thought. The uniformity of excellence in the Duveneck room
forbids any attempt at picking out individual works; however, Duveneck's
equally great accomplishments on another wall, in the field of etching,
are apt to be easily overlooked. The sarcophagus of his wife, done by
his versatile hand, increases the admiration that we, must hold for this
liberal genius. Duveneck's art, no matter how much it is rooted in
foreign soil, will forever make its influence felt for the best of
American art.
Gallery 79.
Chase.
Balancing Duveneck's gallery on the south, William M. Chase continues
the Munich traditions, in the successful treatment of a variety of
subjects for which he has always been famous. Closely associated with
Duveneck, and showing all the rich qualities of the Munich men, Chase's
picturesque personality finds a reflection in his subjects, which all
seem to have been chosen to give him an opportunity to display a certain
bravado of handling which characterizes all of his work. The Chase
collection gives a good idea of the career of this most useful of all
American painters, who in an astonishingly active life has been teacher,
friend, and counsellor to hundreds of the younger people in the field of
art. His life has been most useful - always in the interest of the very
best, with conspicuous success in aiding the uplift of American art. His
still-lifes have for years been famous for their fidelity of
interpretation of a variety of contrasting things, like fishes, copper
bowls, and onions. No less interesting have been his portraits of the
great mass of people who have sat for him. He has never been afraid of
painting anything, and whatever it may be, he has treated it with great
breadth, fine pictorial feeling, and charm of colour. His "Woman with
the White Shawl" has become a classic during his lifetime, and some of
his still-lifes are sufficient to serve as a permanent solid foundation
for his reputation. Chase's art, while decidedly academic, excels in
esprit, in a certain elegant yet energetic expression which after all is
nothing but the painter's own personality reflected in his work. The
delightful set of small landscapes of Italian and American subjects adds
much interest in this collection, which is very well hung against an
effective blue background.
Gallery 78.
Hassam.
Childe Hassam's art at first is very disconcerting, particularly under a
strong midday light. One has at first the feeling that a religious
adherence to a certain impressionistic technique is of more importance
to him than anything else. Entering his gallery from the Chase
collection, one is almost overcome with the contrast of light and dark
presented by these two masters. The contrast of the classic academic
atmosphere of Chase's room shows Hassam pronouncedly as the most radical
impressionist we have. His interest is light, and always more light,
vibration at any cost; which contrasted with Chase's art, or for that
matter anybody's else, Duveneck's, or, for instance, even Whistler's,
becomes almost irritating in its lack of simple surfaces. He does not
eliminate in the sense of the older men, who care more for a unity of
expression than for an approximation to the actual outdoors. There is
sunlight in his work, without a doubt, but it is not always spread over
agreeable subjects. The wooden quality of his figures and the frugal
aspects of his fruit, to us Californians are particularly painful. Of
all his oils in this gallery the two on either side of the "Aphrodite"
on the east wall are by far the best. In them he succeeds in carrying
his point agreeably and convincingly. They are both lovely in colour,
and they give you the feeling of having been well studied. The two
groups of watercolours and gouaches on the side walls are, with the
exception of a wash blue sea, very discreet in quality of paint and most
intimate in feeling, and to my mind do Hassam more credit than the many
other canvases, which seem to be painted for expounding a technical
principle rather than to reveal his innermost feelings.
Gallery 77.
Gari Melchers.
Melchers' style is much more sympathetic than Hassam's without being
less personal. Of modern painters I confess to a particularly great
fondness for Melchers' art. While standing firmly on classic tradition,
it is modern in every sense. One can say everything of good and find
little fault with any of these most conscientiously painted canvases
which make up his contribution to the exhibition. Beginning with his
"Fencing Master", one of his older works, he shows in a great number of
similar subjects his loyalty to Egmond aan den Hoef, a little Dutch
village where he has worked for years. The quality of pattern and colour
in his work is very pronounced, and this, combined with a fine
psychology, makes his work always interesting. He is no radical; the
best as he sees it in any school he has made subservient to his purpose
without any loss of individuality. His pictures yield much pleasure to
public as well as to artist, even in sentimental stories like the
"Sailor and His Sweetheart", or the "Skaters". His finest note he
strikes undoubtedly in the many sympathetic glorifications of motherhood
in his fine modern Madonnas. These works will be the sure foundation of
his fame. No matter whether he calls them "Madonna of the Fields",
"Maternity", or simply "Mother and Child", he presents this greatest of
all subjects as few have ever done. His art is wholesome and sane, but
endowed with a subtle quality of insight into his subjects that will
always assure him a very high place in the history of art. For years he
has been one of the reliable painters of the world, and to meet with his
work at intervals is always a source of great satisfaction.
Gallery 75.
Sargent.
A small adjoining gallery is given entirely over to a few Sargents which
are quite sufficient to maintain this great stylist, whom many believe
the towering giant of the profession. One thing is evident from this
work - that for surety of touch and technical directness he stands
practically alone, though he does not possess the deliberate ease in
which Duveneck rejoices. Sargent's "John Hay" and "Henry James" are
absolutely exhaustive as character studies. His "Nubian Girl", however,
is woody, no matter how interesting in posture. In nothing does he
disclose his marvelous precision of technique so completely as in some
of the outdoor studies, like the "Syrian Goats" and the "Spanish
Stable". There is nothing like them in the exhibition anywhere, and
these two things alone make up for what is really not a comprehensive
display of one of the greatest of modern living painters. However, a man
whose standard of excellence is relatively very even does not need a
large representation.
Gallery 90.
Keith.
In two other small galleries of similar size three California painters
have their inning. While all these are of different caliber, they have
something in common which ties them closely together. It seems peculiar
that a country famed for its sunshine should produce men like Keith,
Mathews,, and McComas, who surely do reflect a rather somber atmosphere,
in a type of work which must be called tonal and arbitrary rather than
naturalistic.
Keith's collection, with the mass of modern landscape all around, and
even compared with other followers of the Barbizon school, seems
somewhat somber, as compared with the vital buoyancy of Redfield and
others of Redfield's type. His range of idealistic landscape subjects is
intimate, but not characterized by the stirring suggestion of outdoors
which Inness, Wyant, and others of his school possess. Keith's marvelous
dexterity of brushwork really constitutes his chief claim upon fame, and
some of his best things are gems in easy-flowing methods of painting
which the best men of the Barbizon school seldom approached. Keith must
not be looked upon as a painter of nature nor even an interpreter of
nature. He used landscapes simply to express an ever-changing variety of
personal emotion. His attitude toward nature in his later work was of
the most distant kind, although his early career was that of the most
painstaking searcher for physical truthfulness.
Gallery 76.
Mathews and McComas.
Mathews and McComas do not exactly make good company. While closely
related in the decorative quality of their work, they are not alike in
any other way. Mathews' art is emotional. It tells something beyond mere
colour, form, and composition, while McComas' art is mostly technical,
in the clever manipulation of a very difficult medium. His sense of
construction and feeling for effect is very acute. He is becoming so
expert, however, in the handling of watercolour that one sometimes
wishes to see a little more of that accidental charm of surface that his
older work possesses.