New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-04-29
ACADEMY OF DESIGN.
FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL ExHIBITIoN.
tFouriA Yotice.l

Ing" Il W0ul-Nc hOpe-puLlS the ACHIEVEMENTS 10
say why this adys contribution TO tho present exhihi-
ton has been accepted, and hung in one Of the best
places in the best ROOM If IL right last year to refase
20 receive her contribution at all We say We hope 1t
would puzzle The Academcians say why, because their
answer question: il il the true one, could not
any cret TO their intelligence put he as artists
In graceful attitude TO "a fellow artist For Miss
Oakeys OF this year IS in some respects no bet
ter than her picture OF last year. 1t difficult TO com
pare the two and this Oh culty involves consideration
credabie 10 the artist for 1t arises iron the
great difference between the two pictures and it is
encouraging the very beginning to an artist who
has had success, who has made mark with certain
subject, not repeating himself straight Of visitor to
% successive Academy exhbitions TO say nothing OF
outside exhibitions and pictGre-saes innumeraoIe' De-
rather weary Of seeing many painters truDoh@
their o-crs along in the rut year after year win
never a stray look 30 the right or the lett on course IL
isn't peculiar TO men, though some OF thcm ana
they not the least clever either great sinners IN TINS
respect We all, it is to be supposed, ge,'ing tue
tired OF scheyeF and his clumsy horses Of NeIbceckDo'eh
and his sheep WHO evidently Brought upint the asts
drawug-?oom and 20 through course OF Turkish BATH
aud shainpoOing daily; OF Meyer Won Bremen with ms
moon faced little girl ont OF a Sunday book II
course it is natural enough, when one has been success
fu tempt Fortune by choosing the same number III her
lottery again, but who does this too often finds that
it does take long 10 break tie ercupiers bank Miss
Oakley has made "a good beginning by taking subject
10 recall her Of las year by adopting All entirely
different chord OF COLOR or rather, working ts year IN
color, aud not last year, in tone alone Last year h
picture was the lifcsize fu-length portrait OF young
boy dressed in black velvet le2nnS AGAINST the arm OF
carved chair and with curtain OF rch hut sober hue
filing the background Tbore undoubied promise
in this picture more perhaps than find fulfilled in the
oneia tie present exhibition hut this somewhat owing,
think, to the artist having committed an error IN
judgment by setting herself task beyond her present
power also in not Ia ig reasoned sufficiently about
hersuhjoct In important POINTS, in the modelling OF
the head aud neck and in the painting OF these
parts of the picture, also in the painting OF the
drapery, aud the management OF the pattern on
the adys dress, the artist shows skill much increased
and determination not to shirk difficulties. The color
throughout is harmonious, and just fails OF being nch
but the effect OF the picture is highly decorative and
would fiji stately panel the man,epiece Of some
dining-room In fact. looked at merely us piece OF
decoration Miss Oakcys pictre leads the exhibition,
and those VINO disposed question the right OF
picture to be praised for its decorative qualities need 10
he reminded OF what number OF famous pictures ihe
word decorative" The pictures OF all the men
we call cooriss, including almost all the carly laanS'
seem TO have hal this chiefly for their being; 50
did the great tOnlss"-the NelasIUez, the Rem
brandtsand it until the didacc era began. ana
people insisted that picture should play pedagosue ana
be instructive and helpful" first OF all, that the deco
raye of pictures their use primarily TO delight the
eye, was lost sight of, and finally denied or
course, this is not their chief nor tner only
use, nor is there any reason why, because
picture decorative, it should not $50 address ITSELF to
something IN us higher than but Ousht 10
do this and be decorative too and IN fact II IT be not
decorative il must come FORGETTING its night 10 be
considered art at all II 1t is only moral or didtetc
It slips from art to literature and mast be judged
by another canon than the apply to The carly
Italians-the Giotos, and Gadd.s, and Melnmis, and
Orcagnas, whose reseoes cover The vast walls OF Their
churches with the most delicate a. hues or the later
Veroneses and Titians and Tntorctos who exchanged
the loses and lles and Violets Of lhe splingEe OF
their native art FOR the scarlet and gold, the crimson
and purple OF its Sunptuous S1umer. 1t is easy to sea
that either theory may be- pushed % extremes and We
may havea Veronese painting the Miracle nj ana and 50
delighted with The rich Venetian architecture and the
robes of her Senators and merchants and ordy ladies,
and generally with the festival spicniOr Of the life he
saw about him as to III his picture with these things,
and crowd OF sight and mcmOy the face and figure
OF Him presence in the scene was the oniY reason
for its being chosen the subject Of his picture The
only way not disturbed by The intrusive thought Of
this absurdity is to look at the pctare merely ban-
ouet In the old Venetian days and enjoy the life and
movement aud delightful color, with the mighty sense OF
air and space in which the s set S with ali its
sins we would far rather have Neonese's picture than
any enc Of Kaubacs tedious alegpres, or poemcs, or
his dreary historic revivas where art IS swampsd be-
ycnd all memory in a.quasmhe Of science ana ped
agogy
II the visitor TO the Academy wiz look about him with
the intent to discover pictures that VIII add TO the
beauty, the cheorGlness the general effect Of any
rooms in which they might be hung be win perhaps be
surprised to find how few there Of SUCH Surely no
portrait III this south Room w0ald 10 50, neither Mr
Pages President Eliot" nor Mr. Alexander IAuries
"Portrat Of a Lady," nor any Of Nj HuniinsiODs,
nor Mrs. Loops, clever this Is. and clever as
all these are Mr. Pages and Mr. Laur.'s viii simply
make "spots upon their wasshouettes we IL ght al
most have saiG-Mr HuutnglOus are this year unHsu
ally crude and coarse and Mrs Loops ionincss for
white and her inability TO MAKE us forget that it Is
white have united this year well as last 10 take two
excellent pieces of drawing. aud no doubt capital Ike
pesses out OF the category Of pictures altogether In
drawing in sodity in ali that goes make up what
we mean by rcality" Miss Oaseys picture i, not equal TO
any ore Of tose ust mentioned unless 10 be lr Laures,
which Is very unfortunate both nthe the head is set
upon the shoulders and in the drawing OF the hands
squeezed into gloves too small aud badly lifting; but
even he las "body" in bis dress, aud that Miss lkey
has She has also crowded the tray too much either
for handsomness for cold and the bearer Of
II cannot carry il far for fault of not having hands
70 hold IL and for not having hold o! 1t
well with such hands "a she has Nevertheless as a
whole the picture is far more OF picture than any
figure piece OF It's slzepOrlraits included-on these
walls and whoever has the good fortune 10 see 1t crown
ing his diningroom fireplace will fnd his room the
richer for il II rich one If it be plain one,
such frame as this VIII make It's painncss forgotten.
1t Is difficult to guess what would have become OF
certain artists II what known az "studo prop
critics" hal never been invented Mr.. Geo. H. Hili Mr..
Water satterlee, Mr. Edwin White-what would have
been their fate al the costumes. hricahrac, ana ola
fun cure OF which their pictures and those OF their KIND
are made mp had never beonl Above all, what woald
they have done II the lay figure had been devised
by some early Italian or oih,ri We fancy Mr.. Edwin
v1ta ,oking abou. his Eden ike another Adam bored