The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-31

green with growing crops, golden with ripen
ing grain or ruddy with autumnal unts,
frightened with cities and villages, az
streaked with railways and canalsi t.
smoother expanses of the South, its endless
wastes of pines, broad, dreamy cotton
plantations and level horiSons OF rice-felds
its orange and palm trees-these, too, offer
their thousands of combinations to the eye of
the artist and their inspiration to his touch.
Our meteoric conditions and phenomena are
equally varied and grand, and we have the
characteristics, accessories, and incidentsl be.
longing to three great and broadly defined
races Of men ana types Of human life and
civilization.
We should excel in landscape painting in a
degree corresponding with the variety and
majesty of our subjects and with that exoep-
tional favor with which this branch of art is
regarded in our country. But our artists
must be less tmid and catch more of the
boldness and vigor which made Norway and
Sweden, and even Russia, conspicuous in the
Paris Exhibition, and enabled them to take
rank as our superiors in landscape painting.
But one picture in the American gallery was
honored with an award-namely, Church's
"Niagara." (The artists medal with 500f.
in gold). This well known picture has an
established American and a considerable
English reputation, and is faithful and
effective rendering OF nature. The second aud,
perhaps, more ambitious picture exhibited by
the same artist, "TLe Rainy Season in the
Tropics" received not unmerited criticism for
the dazzling glow of its rainbow, meretri-
cious feature, which blinds the eye to
the fine effects of cliff and mountain, which
constitute the chief merit of the pic
ture. The next largest and perhaps
in all respects the most conspicuous
picture in the American gallery was Bier
stadt's "Rocky Mountains" In arrangement
of light and shadow, and in the rendering of
the water, its purity and depth, this picture
was probably unsurpassed in the entire exhi-
bition, And it derived signal advantage from
the introduction of an element too often ne
elected even when admissible in landscape,
viz, life in the foreground. The introduction
of a camp of explorers, with Indians, etc., is
not only effective but appropriate, and gives
a living interest to the picture without de-
tracing from the silent majesty of the ma
tutsl features which it was the great object
OF the painter to portray. Had the solitary
award made to the United States been left
to the su1frages of the mass of the lovers
and appreciators OF art who visited our gal
lery, it is not improbable that that doubtful
honor might have been conferred on 'The
Rocky Mountains
'rMount Washington" by Gignoux, is good
effective picture, bu, by no means one of
the Fbest productions Of that artist, and lost
much OF its real effect by being badly hung in
LuS RdllCIys AaA tAAlo plOAlllO painter U66u
consulted in the matter, the America gallery
might have been greatly enriched and the
credit of American art much elevated. Clifford
had two very excellent pictures in the Exhibi-
tiop, though but enc of them was hung, to.
gether with Hubbard's good and ll-manipu-
lated "View on the AdiTondacks," Ia the dim
passage called Avenue d'Afrique, where it
was difficult to see it at all. Lake
George in Autumn" by Kensett, a carefully
studied piece, but deficient in force in the
foreground attracted much attention and was
well appreciated. "The Symbol" by Durand,
was generally regarded as an effective picture
by competent foreign critics, as Was also "Vir-
gina in 1863" by MacEntee. "Autumn in
the Woods" by the artist last named, is by
no means one of his bsst works. These were
the principal landscapes exhibited. The re-
mainder were either mediocre or absolutely
poor, and, if their places could not have been
supplied with better works, they might, for
the credit of American art, have been omitted
from the gallery altogether,