The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-06-16
ART In NEW YORK.
A VISIT TO THE ACADEMY ExHIBI-
TON ON VANISHING DAY.

Wandering from Picture TO Picture-On
Buyers Day--The Superb Repose Of
the Man Who Is Rich Enough to Blu,
Costly Pictures
vanishing day is perhaps the most inter-
esting day of the spring exhibition You
are hidden by small piece of pasteboard
The day is stormy-it always storms the
first week In April Instead of going up
the classic steps of the academy. YOU slide
through the melancholy basement where the
School of Design abides, and steal up a
dark stairway like thies in the night, or
like husband comia, home from lodge
Member OF the pres. asks wise looking
woman taking your measure. Here's
your catalogue What is there to do but
to take it and go marking away with
pencil, as do the 9th rs,-eniy, as l could
never make anything out of ideas held on
margin. simply scfaw away in an un
professional fashion, making notes pictorial
and generally too brief to be available, of
what goes ON as the afternoon wakes AMI
waneS
WANDERING FROM PICTURE TO PICTURE
On vanishing day there is no crowd.
You can wan Ter from picture to picture
with nothing but an occasional ladder to in.
telcept the view As rule the best artists
have finished with their pictures and the
poorer ones are vanishing ostentatiously
Conversation is brisk and general People
meet in knots and then diverge to meet
again. Almost as many women as men
all of the former business like ami the
larger percentage young and pretty-thsy
are pegging away, taking notes, the ono
half artists AMI the other correspondents
Most of the men are smoking. Dude artist
with silk hats, stitched gloves and var
| nished boots wave their Hayanas condo
seemingly, shedding ashes and tender
smiles on the more attractive women pres
ent
On vanishing day the night felI-the sun
couldn't go down, because they have no sun
in New \ ork inst now on S4J works of art,
the largest number the AGA temy has yet
| held. 1t is the correct thing TO he sarcastic,
| ii not abusive, when referring to the acad-
emicians and the hanging committee II
You cont feel any moral responsibility for
what you say, it is both popular and easy
TO be amusing at their expense But to al
1 uhbitiuliNcu NISol Nti ~ SStuiS ludb tllt
academcians are unduly sensitive to this
absurd vituperation. They own the whole
thing-builling, exhibition and all-but
that seems TO be a negative advantage BY
| vi rtue of their position, academicians, cut
off from all pri es, have reached the end o!
all preferment They are so afraid of moi
doing justice to art and the public that, by
actual measurement, wo-thirds of the spaces
| on the line is given over to outsiders in the
present exhibition What is the use of be-
ing an academician, No advantage that
| can see.
| Vanishing day over, tho critics having
departed sta ;gerlng under accumulated in
formation, the artists being disperSed-somt
10 swear and some to smile-the next turn
OF the clock brought round buyers day A
crowded day it proyed. albeit the weather
was vile. day of portly paunches, grizzled
hair, gold headed canes, private carriages
and stylish suits; day that did not bel L
its name, Tut left the exchequer something
over SIe.Oi ahead
THE CROWD on BUYERS DAY.
Buyers day takes place the afternoon
following vanishing day. The evening o
buyers day-it fell on IA Saturday thi
year perhaps IT always does-ls given owe
to the artists. their patrons and friends
This latter is supposed to he a fulldress al
fair-string band under the stairs, maids il
attendance in the cloak room light an
hustle everywhere. 1t is called 'recep
ton and private view and only those bid
den 10y card may come. The women wea
bonnets and pretty walking dresses; tn
men, except in isolated and conspicuous in
stances, evening dress The crush is some
thing past belief Every one who has eve
been interested in art or ever expects to b
must be there, and invitations are wrun
from the academicians right and left Ono
up the grand stairway, you find yoursel
, sandwiched into a dense mass of polite
: well dressed humanity. For three hours
Is impossible to move faster than an inch a
time. By Herculean efforts you ma
work your way from one room TO anothe!
only to find each more crowded than til
last 1t is good change to drift abou
with inconoeivable slowness and study on
kind of New York crowd Tie riches
people go OH buyers day, and avoid tn
crowd of the reception and private view
Still there are some you can tell them by
certain air of possible ownership they a!
suine when looking at an attractive picture
Again, there is no installing the superb re
pose which a man who is rich enough to bu
pictures possesses
Certain men there are who like to hinge
in crowd and hear what is said about th
pictures they think of buying They Lib
to get unbiased opinions to prop falterin
| Judgment There are the people of cultur
the genuine kind-quiet men and wome
who understand the world and themselv'
and take in all they see with tranquil cas-
enioymen There are the old academ
cians-courtly old fellows-some gra,
some bald, many of them handsome, an
three four who look like Papa Brook
the stilllife painter of San Francisc
There are certain young artists and the
wives The men incline to pointed bear,
and disheveled hair. Some of them seel
to have married models-pretty girls wi
look like fury with their clothes on and Al
painfully embarrassed at being, as they il
nocently suppose. in society. These cir
are given to big masses Of curls on Il
forehead, no corscts, u queerness IN u
matter Of collars, and depressing depre
sions where the hustle ought to be. b
they make, have heard, the best of wiz
and mothers and save their husbands u
told money for models. There al
may be seen the young unmarried artist
the prosperous kinda dude of the most q
tractive type; skin shining as if from
Turkish bath, mustache curled, trousers
the latest cut, dazzling shirt front, big KIN
of violets in button hole and a general
brisk, breezy, man-of the-world styl
There are artlsts and artists, as you ms
JUDGE And man who can paint is t
man we want to sce no matter what ella
he belongs to-Minnie Buchanan in S,
Francisco Chronicle,
ie Balls Found in Swiss Lakes.
O - .
ig Leaves OF larch winch had been roll
Vi N A. -. 1900, .L.,. =. r..