It will be necessary to retrace our steps to take up a series of
galleries all along the outer curve of the building. They are devoted to
illustrations, miniatures, stained glass, plaques, and the many
expressions of graphic art we know as black and white, charcoal and
pencil drawing, monotypes, lithotints, etchings, and so on. With
Whistler's etchings on one end of the arch, we find Howard Pyle at the
other.
Gallery 42.
Pyle, since his death a few years ago, is recognized as the most
important of American illustrators. His art is most intellectual. It
commands immediate respect for its historical interest, which is based
on more than mere knowledge of the story illustrated. His milieu is
always right, distinctly so when he deals with the West Indian
buccaneers. His sense of colour is simple and dignified. It has the
typical breadth and decorative feeling that men like Jules Guérin and
Maxfield Parrish developed. Pyle was not an ordinary illustrator. His
interest in his work showed much depth and great originality. There is
nobody to take his place. In the small adjoining gallery (41) his black
and white drawings strengthen one's impression of this versatile man's
art.
Gallery 40.
Here we have Guérin in all the glory of his rich colour harmonies, which
have made the Exposition famous. Painstaking and conscientious as his
art is, it is always full of power of suggestion. Every square inch of
his most agreeably framed decorations is well considered, with nothing
left to accidental effect. Still, they are full of freedom, very loose
in handling, and always convincing. To choose the best among his eight
is very difficult, although his "Cemetery on the Golden Horn" on longer
study does not seem to be free from a certain artificiality of colour,
in the reddish hue of the reflected sunlight on the cypresses. The "Blue
Mosque at Cairo" is wonderfully poetic, and his "Temple of Sunium" has
all the tragic feeling of the classic ruins of Asia Minor. Opposite
Guérin Mr. and Mrs. Hale display unusual refinement and grace of form in
a unit wall of drawings and pastels. Mrs. Hale's drawings are the
quintessence of delicacy, without possessing any of the sugary
disagreeable sweetness of so many of our popular illustrators. Mr.
Hale's pastels are no less enchanting in his outdoor compositions in
many soft greens - a difficult colour to deal with. The many other
things in this gallery are all worth studying in their conservatism and
radicalism.
Miniatures abound here and endless sighs are heard of entranced ladies
who have succumbed to the sentimental insipidness of these misplaced
artistic efforts. Miniature painting holds no charm for me. Most of them
are technical stunts and concessions to a faddism which has never had
anything to do with the real problem of painting. Practically all of the
miniatures in the cases are very well done, but when I think of the
physical discomfort of adjusting one's eyes to this pigmy world, then I
cannot help feeling that, considering the low cost of canvas, a great
effort deal of fine effort has been wasted. Looking at miniatures, I am
always reminded of the man who spent several years of his useless life
in writing the Old Testament on the back of a postage stamp.
Gallery 39.
McLure Hamilton has a fascinating group of anatomical sketches in this
small gallery. They are all charming fragments of a lady one would like
to know more about. As drawings they are spirited and full of rhythmic
linework. Their fragrant rococo style brings one back into that original
atmosphere the destinies of which were so largely controlled by similar
attractions. The apotheosis in his collection is furnished by a drawing
of a recently abandoned or to-be-occupied nest, presented in a most
suggestive manner. In the cases plaques and medallions abound, the
interest of which is largely attributable to Fraser's excellent work.
Gallery 38.
This room continues to hold one's interest, with some small pieces of
plastic art, all of great merit.
Gallery 37.
Watercolours make up the chief problems of study in this long room,
without convincing one that we have any too many great painters in this
medium. The best thing among the many commonplace paintings is a marine
by Woodbury which takes you far out on the open sea. In spite of its
size it is a big picture, one of the really big ones in any medium in
the whole exhibition. All of Woodbury's paintings are big in their way,
and prove what can be done in this medium. Many other things here are
only coloured photographs and technical experiments, the exceptions
being Dawson's clever flower studies, Miss Schille's market scenes, and
Henry McCarter's "King of Tara". Murphy's small Venetian sketches are
not so good as they seem at first.
Gallery 36.
Things look up considerably in the last of the galleries on the north. A
fine watercolour by Mrs. Mathews, good drawings by Sandona and Fortune,
exposition sketches by Donna Schuster, decorative designs by Lucy Hurry,
are all compelling in their way, while in the cases are any number of
good caricatures, and especially worthy of mention the bird designs by
Charles Emile Heil.
Gallery 34.
Across the vestibule the graphic arts are continued, beginning with
colour lithographs and monotypes, and continued with etchings. George
Senseney, Arthur Dow, Helen Hyde, Pedro Lemos, Clark Hobart, and others
too numerous to mention excite considerable interest. A battle of
elephants by Anna Vaughan Hyatt is worthy of study on account of its
unusual subject, so handled.
Gallery 55.
This room is entirely devoted to etching and is full of good people.
Auerbach Levy has some portraits splendidly characterized. Arthur Covey,
Mahonri Young, Lester Hornby, Clifford Addams, and Robert Harshe are all
equally well represented, in their many fine etchings, and Perham Nahl
with some monotypes of fine quality.
Gallery 32 contains George Aid, Frank Armington, D. C. Sturges
(reminiscent of Zorn), and Ernest Roth. Franklin T. Wood's dry-point
portraits are noteworthy as examples of a very difficult technique.
Galleries 31 and 30.
Pennell's admirable lithographs and etchings of various scenes are so
descriptive, aside from their technical excellence, that they are not in
need of further recommendation. And neither are Mullgardt's lithographs
nor those of Worth Ryder next door.
The general character of all of these somewhat inconspicuous galleries
is most satisfactory. They contain in well-arranged fashion the real art
of the people, the things that people who cannot afford to buy paintings
can easily afford to own. Original etchings, mezzotints, and wood block
prints and other process work often more truly contain the real point of
artistic effort than big paintings done laborously with no other
interest than to make a large painting for some show. It is gratifying
and it speaks well for our public to see so many of these small works of
art sold and scattered among the public. Only in this way can we hope to
make our exhibition useful to artist and public alike. Mr. Harshe, Mr.
Trask's able and conscientious assistant, has put much labor and thought
into the arrangement of these many cases and wallspaces, in a really
instructive way. It does not seem necessary to go into the meaning of
the many examples of graphic art. They are often self-explanatory,
particularly where used for illustration, and so far as their technical
production is concerned, it is too big a subject to fit into the
physical confines of this book.
Much of this work to all indications, is going to remain with us, and
the success of our exposition can hardly be measured better than by the
ever-increasing number of purchasers. Art has to live, and in our
country it exists only by the patronage which comes directly from the
people, since federal, state and municipal governments seldom contribute
toward its support. Not until the community feels it a privilege rather
than a duty to give substantial encouragement to our artists will they
ever feel completely at home or will they be able to do their best work.
Art is becoming more of a necessity in our midst, while not so long ago
it was more or less an affected interest of the rich. We have all the
conditions and the talent to allow us to push ahead into the front rank
of the art of the world, and an exposition like this gives more than
encouraging evidence of the awakening spirit of national American art.
May this exposition mark an epoch in the art of America! - and
particularly of the West, as other expositions have in the westward
march of civilization, which has now found its goal where it must either
achieve or perish. For us to stand still or to return to the
pre-exposition period would be calamity. We have here in California, of
all the states of the Union, conditions to offer, which, if properly
availed of, would give us a unique position on the continent.
Climatically and historically we have all the stimulating necessities
for a great art, and it is our duty to take advantage of them.