, 1875-05-30
ART GOSSIP.
Sale Of Pictures at Tho Exposition
Building.
Peoqliaiities Of the Paintings. Er-
hibited There.


|
t Cities. --... -....
! H. Visit to Ponpedt.
THE EXPOSITION PICTURE SALE.
auuJEcTs VERSES TREATMENT.
] This weak closes tha- exhibition and sale q
/ tha Exposition Building, BY tho. New York an
Philadelphia picture dealers. The ea1e. ca
| scarcely be said to have been = success, aud it
| hard to see what considerations ckn have brough
! Eastern art-dealers here with 30 large stock Q
J pictures At time when business Tetrenchmen
and domestic economy arc general. However
| whatever the occasion Of fortune Of The axhibi
ton, 1t has served useful purpose to the publ
| by giving it an opportunity to become familia
| with tho work OF considerable number OF goo
! artists, whose pictures do not often find thei
! way 40 far West. Tie artistic quality OF Ii
/! pictures MAS, On the average. unusually high to
| dealere' exhibition. 4 visitor. uho had th
| curiosity to make rough classification. report
| that in the second room ha counted suaon,
! aoyenty-tive picturea eleven Of unusual merit
J thirty that might Justly rank as good pnctures
| and would disgrace no genslaluaa'a parlors twea
ty-three ordinary, and eleven decidedly bad
sipco tho fret room was decidedly below this il
merit, and the other three somewhat ADORE it, i
! may be taken ~ fair Judgment OF .the Who'll;
collection.
There seems to have heen somo deficiency II
tho management OF tho advertising, for con
siderable proportion Of the people who ars in.
tefasted in fine art either have not heard Ut ali
ef% hnvn mt rHorHk Ind hat
waa OF more Importance than the almost weekly
auction Of machlne.made pictures, painted to
aelI tbs frames.
THE AANNEn or Aucr1oEEEn1Na
cannot BE- considered advantageous to tho sale,
1t least in the frat week. The traditions Of
auctioneesiu8 require that the auctioneer should
make parrot OF himself, and there is probably
q good reason for it founded in somo principle Of
human nature. aacertained by long experience,
But it Gan scarcely be necessary that he should
mako q bunoon OF himself, and moreover
etultify bis cuatomers--hFst, by attributiog to
them such Discrimination a5 they are we'll aware
thay do not posseas, aod than by giving them
such information about pictures "a Uonld be IN
insult to small child The greater nunber OF
buyers certainly the more ina.oraaut onea, are
peisoas who have examined tho pictures and
know something about them and who
moreover have determined pretty precisely what
they are willing to give 4 sensible and truth
full presentation OF the objects on sale would
cersatuly answer the purposes Of tLis class OF
purchasers better than tha present clap trap
method. and for the miscellaneous, chance ous-
toners, 1t would be considerable advantage II
the auctioueer should exhibit some evidence Of
knowledge OF what he MAS talking about; nor is
this SO unreasonable to expect a. it At first ap-
pears, siuce picture sales are'now frequent and
regular part OF the Anctioneer's business, and
might proatably be made specially. Yiyacity
is not objectionable but ignorance and misrep-
resentation are. It ought to BE- said that these
remarks have no especial applicability to the re-
cent sales, nor has tue FT7ter attended any OF
the last Weak. '''-
PROF. SWING RExAnKkp
in y recent sermon, that upon VISITING larEe
laate, his friend called his attention to ths poy-
erty OF subjects but the excellence OF the tectA
ncai execution With this bit of narrative the
reverend gentleman had she lmpertinencs 10 il
lustrate tha general walk and conversation Of q
large number OF our citizens, aud Of mankind
generaliy-an Immense deal OF frst-rate work
applied to very unworthy objecrs, Whether he
had iu mind the present exhibition we have 10
moans Of knowing but the remark was perfectly
applicable to it, rs well ~ to almost al art col
occasionally rise to high levels Of
have anything great to expreas. As thou
sands Of authors get to write tolerably goo
GFGH
abort Of producing ANYTHING noteworthy, 80
hosts OF artists paint well, as far IS concerns
professional skill. without expressing any 8trik-
ing or valuable ideas-beoause they havs them
not.
There Ia tl1is differences, however, in favor of
the artist: that in his wo,k the fotm aud vehicle
OF expression are indefinitely more important
than IN literature, sud \ ticture OF IN lnBSni6-
cant subject may at the least he valuable for.
decorative purposes, OF, at the boat, may give
l. ntmktS ~1 ~
eweet music does to the nuscian. Hence,
thought about the management Of colors baing
easier than Thought about abstract ideas, our ar
lists are all at work producing pictures admira-
bic chiefly or solely for -"
EXCELLENT TnEAT11EHT.
Ordinary art criticism il Bl1nost Of necessity
confined to the same qualities which tho artistS
are iutent upon. It was noticeable in letter
published in The TRIBUNE some WeekB ago con-
corning tho wator-colcrs in this exhibition, that
cess Of the artists In expressing their ideas but
purely technical, OF perhapa what might be !
called an esthetic, 1eview. This ia perfectly |
Of tho condition OF art and proba-
bly, unconscious en- the pa1t Of the writer. II !
this same collection Of wAter-colors we're tried |
by the standard Of what They express, it would |
be found that not one in ten Of them expressed |
anything at all. A cluster Of flowers, aome |
sheep eating straw. pleasant nook to the coun- |
try,-such for the most part are the subjects, |
and they find their admirers among persons |
with artistic instincts similar to the love OF !
musc-fond OF form and color for their own |
sake. The pictures Of Vibert, g Don Qui1ote"
and tho ''Duel, form an exception to this, ~ ]
the pictures OF this artist generally do, ana it |
will be noticed that when IN artist habitually |
illustrates definite ideas in his pictures he is on
Tho road to distinction. Flowers are. Of course
frankly decorative, at least one would have to, |
spend some time studying up the Language Of
Covers " to make them otherwise.
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