New-York tribune., 1882-02-20
FINE ARTS.
-,r,, WATER COLOR SOCIETY.

,ect tha' eaS iO- Iii orb study on the south wall
,,ns north room there gathered group ., aas
Cor the most part small in size 10 "noH rh. hoe,
a-awn asresh oa each new WISH 10 ' - , q, u,hioh
OF then Is MI ,I sepse In dealing with IN en-
n ,.ol,co subject IL Inc NlNtor VIII
u'eH - this small square OF paper
:. the large drawing t'"' N"e'
III q Nicon, he will perhaps get notoh Vi
ivy ' - - when we insist so much on picture
,s s dsiu guished from mere porrai'ure. MI
htAAine &c ia one of the best in the exhibition.
Neon ,o the point Of view directly opposite the
n ,rom which we judge Mr. Weir Mr.. Murphy ME-
~, xsr Twachtman and half dozen others who repre-
, che artistic school Mr. Ncoll's drawing ia well put
a,her and looks as 1t looked like some particular
ooe and the color OF the water IL very true and
eahe while the bit of shore to the right is synthe
sized with good deal of vigor This IL the beat OF Mr.
Ncols drawings In the present exhibition, but all OF
Them are neat honest performances In the school tht
ares nothing in picture but report in plain prose OF
what the artist had before his eyes when he
made IT, Such drawings as this, with all their
merits cannot be made play artistic that TO say
poec part in the shows of fe and yet so long as they
are content only what they colored statement
Of facts they are entitled their place, and II is con-
adorable one in popular esteem. There will always
be found admirers OF such drawings as Mr. A. Beowss
s.Pridss Bridge" No 346; Mr.. Joseph Lyman, jr's
"York Harbor No. 43; Mr. Henry Farrers Gone hath
the Spring, etc, No. 94; Mr. James d. Smilies " De
cember Moonlight" No. l42; Mr. Samuel Colmans
"Castle Of Chillon," No. 6; Mr.. W. T. Rchardss KY
! Iance-Cornish Coast" No. S2-for all these WORKS
are clever exponents OF the system that up TO THIS
time has been the accepted one. and that Will
continue TO be such ~ long ms the great majority
Of people continue 10 think prose more digestlDie
than poetry Now, poetry Is interpretation not
reporting and up this time we in America and Eng
and have asked OF the artist nothing but reporngas we
have asked only reporting Of the poet and the novelist
And is fair say that nowhere has mere reporting
been done than has been done on this side
the water II we want to demonstrate. a class Of in
tending migrants to Utah just how the cottonwood
country looks and the ghastly region of the Colorado
thew NAV safely be referred to Mr.. Thomas Moran's
pictures the same Of which the drawings in the pres
emf exhibition rather washedOut descendants
Looked at from the side Of realism these extremely
clever works. the performances Of a man OF great
technical accom- of variety Of gifts aroused
wide popular enthusiasm, and If anything could have
kept people away from the region they represented We
should have supposed that the sight OF these drawings
would have done But when Mr.. Moran brought his
account to the Muse. she respectfully declined
20 acknowledge it, said OF her business in
sisted that her affair with beauty and not with ghast-
illness aud mere deformty, matter If Nature and not
the artist responsible for them She referred the
artist to the scientific and they had no hesitation
in awarding Moran distinguished position IN thelr
body go with Mr. Vim. T. Richards; his position as
Typographical painter Of remarkable skill will be uni
ver.av concaded-greatly should Ike 10 sec pano-
rama OF the English coast painted by the hand that drew
this and other portraits Of the Cornish coast IL Is
painted az are all this Of drawings and paintings
with a remarkable knowledge of earthsructure, ana
with full accomplishment in all the technical require
ment art try all this cold statement that leaves
nothing whatever to the imagination by the test OF
Horatio's passionate appeal to Hamlet:
d" What If it tempt you toward the food my lord
or 20 the dreadful summit OF The cliff,
That beetles oer his base into the sea
And there assume some other horrible form
Which might deprive yOur sovereignty OF reason
And draw you into madness think OF II;
The very place puts toys Of desperation
Without more motive into every brain
That looks many fathoms TO the sea,
And hears 1t roar beneath
At once Richards's drawing becomes patent for |
what it and that by dn of telling all the
physical about his landscape he has failed to tell us
anything OF its imaginative secret Yet we must beware
of doing than justice to tho scientific perfection of
this doubt such work be better done
anywhere.
Mr. Brichcrs Morning after a stormy night South |
ampton Long Isand and several others OF this artists
contribution essays in the same vein as those of
Mr. Richards and though they do not give us all the
scientihc statement wonderngly admire In Mr.
Richards, they little nearer to satisfying
the eve that asks for sentiment rather than
On overdose of fact. Yet It's only by COM
parson that Mr. give this satisfaction he Is
cold and dranshsmanke enough when brought 10 the
standard of Alden Weir j. H. Twachtman He errs as
much the side OF wooliness IN painting water as LIT
Richards does on the side OF glasstn-sS
Mr. Bellows excels Mr. Bri,her u wOoiliness by the
mere fact applying his method to everything In
Nature while Mr. Brcher employs s almost exclusively
in tho manufacture of water In Mr Bellows's chief
drawing here Pridss Bridge the texture of trees grass
clouds water. is the same not, we believe be-
cause the artist could not discriminate them II he would
but his notion Of what makes pretty comfort
able domestic picture fOrbds troubling the happy |
purchaser with the necessity for too much thinking Mr.
Bellows paints like happy, cOntented person who likes
air, -haar
10 no doubt be accOmpl3hes this; that when we have
mated his Dairy Farm and his Prides Bridge with
poetry the order of The Old Oaken Bucket we have
surely gwen it high place as it has night TO claim
iMr f. Hopkinson Smith has free, manly way with his
brush choosing his subjects with welltrained for
the picturesque and yet with air II he wasted no
time in hunting about for pcturosqueness. Yet. some
how his drawings have d dull, no. to say dead look
and TO feel at last all this artists creations
"coud not pierce beyond the bottom OF eye" The
truth this La0dcean work. neither hot nor cold, ne
ther altogether artistic yet entirely scientific of
the studio. There is plenty OF external sl plenty of
"gO " in the execution, but when the soul modesty |
steps and asks for her share she apt to turn away
with disappointed air.
The Of Mr.. Quartley will close list
OF the artists who have earned good repute by
ceavngto the old ways but In No $685. At Cold Spring
Long Island" find Mr. Quartey attempting some
thing poetic than he has aimed at in the other
drawings he has sent To the exhibition There is much
transparency in the air Of this drawing and much pleas
ant play Of light In the distance with reflections the
sandy pools it marred however by spOttnesss thar
a distance II is wanting in unity of effect Neverhe-
less MI Qnarey Is TO be commended for this sparkling
variation his ordinary work
TO return 20 one row of pictures in the North room
Mr. Thomas w. Shieldss "Pappendrecht," Holland No |
Ill is fI Of light and makes Of the picturesque
holes in the wall " which always in search of
and which such IA welcome relief to the OPAQUE
spots the wall" that abound Mr. Shiedss
drawing has not the freedom that makes Mr. Weirs
11s, so telling; is tTihe neat in execution but
II s good drawing for all that bright sunny and clear
Mr. Carleton NggnE sends tbrtc drawings In nearly
all of which there rs something worth the doing. and