The Portland daily press., 1884-03-11
Falnt AMI Clay Club.
You are invit,d with ladies.

PSoo1ooiOAA
The wording of tn. invitation was in old type
and ran like this
"Paint AMI Clay Club.
You are invitsd with ladies.
"Wednesday evening, Dec 10,
AIS o'clock.
Top Floor, Ale Washington street. Boston"
The stop floor" at once excted the ouestion
and curiosity of the Philistines This must be
the very den of Bohemia. Ths "Paint and
Clay Club" had a wild and irregs~ss.e sound.
but that stop floor" suggested pains and poyer-
ty and pipes-in short, Bohemia, the Bohemia
they had heard Of To get card then to 90
to that top floor became the desire of the Phil
istine heart. What beyond paint and clay
they expected to see, I don't know. What
they found was the usual order Of reception
and the usual display of art dare say il
they could have gone into the informal meet
ings on that top floor they would have been
better neutrality-suspicious. at these meetings
they might have met the Pagans that Mr.
Bates is making famous, but as they only met
proper young gentlemen dressed in their good
clothes, doing the honors of the top floor as if
it had been the first, they had secret sense of
disappointment, az if promise had been I'M
fulfilled. The latest reception and exhibition
invitations of the Paint and Clays did not de-
lude the Philstines, for the cards were like all
other invitation cards, small and simply ele-
CANT in the approved PhilistiHe fashion. That
the general reception night was a success-the
great art ubsgallery being thronged from to
10, though the Italian opera and the Ideals
were in full swing-shows that the Paint and
Clay Club excites general and particular in
terest even though it has come down from its
height of irregular originalities to the tanner
ways and means of ordinary folk. On entering
the Art Club gallery Monday evening, we were
confronted with Mr. Vinton's life-like repre-
sentation of Wendell Phillips. l saw this por-
trait when it was first painted, some foar years
ago, and had always since then remembered
it as the most perfect likeness of Mr.. Phillips
had ever seen. The lapse of these few years
has not changed the portrait nor my opinion of
it. The flesh tints are remarkable-frm, yet
soft and full of vitality. Tho attitude caught
was that very familiar one to the many who
have seen him SO often o. the platform, his
left hand held behind his back, his right rest
ing on the table beside aim The expression
ON the face is as happily caught-that rather
imperious expression which pushed the proud
under lip in sortof scorn, little forward
and upward, to tbs upper, leaving STILL wait
ing repose, as if ne had just uttered one of his
most startling sentences, and was waiting for
the storm to pass ere he spoke again. have
seen other pictures and photographs innumer-
able of NV Phillips, but have never seen any
that satisfied me like this 1t is the Phillips
we all knew and admired-the Phillips who
couldfing down his dynamite theories straight
in the teeth of the Harvard faculty, on sum-
ner day when they sat quietly expectant of
what they had supposed they had invoked-a
scholarly and purely literary feast; it is the
Phillips who could face Kissing mob, calm
and intrepid in the midst of the tumult; and
the Phillips also, who could lend sympathiz-
ing ear to the humblest tale of suffering and
woe. The Phillips, too, who could listen def
in drawing room, and give back
quick repartee that had no sting in its velvet
wit. The portrait is owned by Mr.. Phillips's
nephew, Mr.. John G. Phillips 1t is to be en-
graved from, if not photographed, and copies |
will very likely be before the public in short |
time.
No other canvas excited quite SO much atten- |
ton as this as matter of course. All through |
the evening there was greater throng about |
this portrait than anywhere else. 1t was as If |
the silent presence which seemed TO look be- |
hind those speaking eyes was holding its court
in the multitude, as of old. Il
OF the notable landscapes that called forth |
and criticism were those of Foxcroft
Coles. "The Marshes of Pennedepie" was
5he largest and most striking OF these. PEN
ledepie is small place in Normandy on the
coast below Havre. Tom Robinson has some
# his best work here-mostly cattle represen-
ations of course, and he has done nothing
liner.
Mr.. Enneking had charming group of pic
ures of very varied subjects. "Low Tide"
md Return of Fishermen and "Hillside
n November" offering contrasts TO an interior
# Gan Old Kitchen"
The young favorite of Boston, Mr.. Gaugen-
,igl has four of his clever little canvasses hung
n one of the best places. Anyone who is at all
amiliar with this artist, and who is not that
las attended the art exhibitions of the last few
ears, would at once recognize these subjects
S those of Mr.. Gaugengigl's arch and coquet-
ish brush. One specially-"Une Petite Rep
one of his most characteristic
tudies. 1t is lover of the olden time Gliding
lis sweetheart, who turns pretty, scornful
title chin half away from him. as if she could
ay "Don't go too far, my lord, or you may
ind that Pm for your betters."
Some of the marine pictures are delightful
Dutch Boats Bleaching in Gale" by S. S.
is full of the whirl and whirr OF
he storm, and IS story SO well told in every
troke of the brush that one hardly needs to
ook for title in the catalogue. Mr. Halsall has
ONE good things, too-"The Pilgrim Ship"
nd "On Lee Shore" the latter off Cape Cod,
re full of reality and spirit. Mr.. Halsall had
picture in the exhibition two years ago that
vas greatly talked about. 1t vas a wreck in
aid ocean. Not scene one would want to
lang before one in a library in stormy night,
'ut a wonderful picture nevertheless. His