St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-19

GuC It'll lcSoCy iClC Wy tilaV mdoICIs
The figure painters in the English ex-
hibit show the combined influence of
Italy and France in color and of the last
century of French painting in compost
ton. The English have been thought
full in not including too many
portraits. These portraits, however,
command universal attention. The
Gladstone of Sir John Millais is an ire
proachable performance, being simple
and free Of any Offense Of ostentatiOn,
but it fails to satisfy those who have
seen it's subject In his hours of mighty
effort. The face which lights up like a
mountain at sunset when SURPRISING
intelligence is at work is here
weary and depressed. Ouless' por-
trait of Cardinal Manning is disap-
pointing in a wholly different way. The
cardinals robes are made greater than
the cardinal, whose thin and majestic
figure is best seen in the threadbare
s0utane of his house, and the elevation
OF his character would have been better
depicted in the surroundings most ia
miliar to his walks-the squalOr of Lon
ages. WhiStler'S dramatic and remark
able portrait of Lady Archibald Camp
bell represents the highest stroke Of
portraiture in the exhibit.
THE AMERICAN EXHIBIT,
it must be admitted, is entirely credita-
BILE to national pride if taken compare
lively, and only from the artists way of
examining canvas. There are in all 341
oils, the subjects being fairly divided
among Ian escapes, figures, portraits,
marine views, cattle and descriptive
and decorative works. The artists who
study in Holland and finish their work
in Paris stand at the head of
the foreign residents. Among
the most notable are Charles
Sprague Pearce, the HarriSons.
Carl Metchers and Walter MacEwen.
The Americans who study everywhere
and paint at home are not inferior to
these in any intrinsic virtue. So far as
as the present collection of American
works is a fair test. no better work is
seen here than Chase's. No more sue
cessful portrait is exhibited-although
torce and audacity-than Wyatt
Eaton's of Mrs. Glider. There is
no landscape equal in sentiment
and feeling to solitary work by George
Inness. But with country of unsur-
passed scenery, with moral history
deep enough to afford that ideal per-
Spective essential to art, and with incl
dents to inspire legitimate scenic ambi-
tion, the American exhibit may be said
to be devoid of national self-respect.
Our artists are as yet unable to dis
criminate between a parish and
a nation. They fear they
will become parOchial If they
dare undertake to be national. Every
other country pr0claims to the assem-
blages of persons who gather here from
all quarters of the globe that it has
national story, national landscape,
and moral elevation. We show for
the sculpture and history of one war,
st. Cauden's portrait of Gen. Sherman.
For the moral and brutal side of
the same epoch we have Woven
den's John Brown" and for
the colonial period Walter Mac
Ewen's admirable .'Stadt House in New
our history still less glorious, there is,
Quadroon," by George Fuller, the first
American painter who did not find it
necessary to ALLEVIATE either his heart or
his brush, and whose beautiful
work, modest and characteristic,
but rich in color and sumptuous
in tone, will make every Amer
ican feel little better after see
ing to the full the abject submission of so
many of our ablest men to the dOmi-
nance in them. as we'll as in the craft
of even the best of the schools, of the
grammar of their art. American
painters are the peers of our best
writer's, but there is not among them a
spirit of lofty and courageous, serene
and living Americanlsm corresponding
to the character given to our litera-
ture by Longfellow, Hawthorne, Holmes.
Whittier and Lowell. Yet the very
material which has stamped their pro-
ductiOns at once with permanent fame
and national character, is peculiarly
suitable for pictorial art. Some of the
strongest work on the walls IS that of
women, especially in the Holland ex-
progress in art is not imposing. Al
though in execution her status is excel
lent, in imaginative or creative force
she is practically without position.
In the French exhibit, of total of 532
artists in oil. only tWenty-Seven are
women. OF these only three can be said
to show creative force. One is sister
of Rosa BOnheur, another is Virginie
Demont Fremont. whose artistic in
stinct, like BOnheur's, is direct in-
heritance. All the others are represent
ed by portraits or still life or other
initiative or decorative forms of art.
In total of 272 exhibits of sculpture
twelve of the exhibitors are women.
Only one shows original creative work.
Among ia exhibitors of water colors,
charcoal sketches, pastels and pOr-
celains twenty-nine are women. Among
200 exhibitors of engravings and litho-
graphs fourteen are women. None of
them exhibit original work.
MARGARET F, SULLIVAN,