Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-13
NEW THINGS IN ART.
What May Be Seen in an Every Day
Trip in New York Galleries.
PAINTINGS BY C0ROT AND CAIN.
The Wonderful Pumpkin that Vollon Did
and Its Good Points.
GRACEFUL SKETCHES IN PEN AND INK
rcoRREspoNpRncE or rHE p1srArcn. I

Ao"' NO uiS SAulultloH nahSS CAhouStAhS
demands upon body and mind; the small
exhibitions are many and varied, and the
dealers shops are at their best. Here few
very good things may always be found, and
if bad ones surround them it is not in crush
ing quantities.
At the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries the
season has been unusually busy. Not since
New Years, say its managers. has there
been time to eat or sleep between the taking
down of one collection and the putting up
Of another. Mr.. William Schaus' pictures
were sold last Tuesday. Those belonging
to the Cutting estate are eSnow on view and
will be sold on the 22d. On the 29th and
30th the landscapes left in the studio of the
late Jervis McEntee will be scattered. Then
will come sale of bric-a-brac; then, on
April IA and Is, the sale of the late B. R.
Fitz's pictures, and finally, in May, the last
large exhibition of the Year, the annual col
lection of the Society Of American Artists.
Next year, one is glad to know. this associa-
tion, which represents the best and most
progressive side of American art, will ex-
hibit in its own rooms in the new building
of the Fine Arts Society.
AP.arI of Corot.
Every one took kindly interest in Mr..
Schaus' sale, for almost every one can re-
member when Schaus' and Goupils were
the only important picture shops in New
York, and only the ungrateful forget how
much good their owners did in acquainting
America with the best works of France and
breaking the reign of the long dominant
Dusseldorf school. Mr. William Schaus
some years ago left the firm, which still
bears his name. But men who deal in works
of art are like those who run horses or write
poetry; they cannot give up the business
even when they do So So Mr.. Schaus
opened o new gallery of his own, which he
called the International. But it did not
proclaim itself loudly enough as place Of
trade, it was badly situated and badly
lighted, and we were not surprised when he
decided to close it.
Its contents looked much more attractive
when transferred to the auction room, and
there were some admirable pictures among
many which had merely sound commercial
value. The most beautiful of all was small
Corot-a pearl among the paintings of him
whom all the world knows as the pearl
among painters. But a small Cazin pressed
it closely for first place. Here we had half
the arc of a rainbow spanning half the can
vas, and, SO wonderful is the craft of this
leader Of living landscape painters, We had
the shining, colored effect of the real phe-
nomenon, although actual rainbow tints had
been almost suppressed to bring it into
pictorial harmony with the yellowing
stretch of pastoral country beneath
Chief Merls Of tho Two Painters.
Synthesis in painting could hardly be
carried further than 1t was In this picture,
yet the result was infinitely more truthful
than was ever attained by the more de-
tailed methods Of an earlier day. The
an infinite patience in preliminary analysis
and beautifully wise selection Of those
facts which are most important. Details of
form may be suppressed, but the relationship
between main masses and the dignity and
grace of Leading lines, is exquisitely empha-
sized. Details of local color may be
ignored, but the harmony of all eolors and
the exact value Of each as lighter or darker
than the others are explained And by
some subtitle process, never to be understood
or initiated except by men who are really
born to paint, there is the true light
OF = nature on everything, and
the true air of nature above and around and
in everything. 'Impressionfsm" existed
a late-born band enamored of strong light
and vivid color. What Cazin shows us,
what Corot shows us, is always an impress
sion Of natural scene, not q photograph of
natural facts. That is, it is the same thing
which we see when we look at nature our
selves. Then we do not count the leaves
and follow their outlines, or trace the edges
of clouds like the contours ON a map, or de-
cipher minuti@ Of color such as We should
note in flower We see the main masses
and lines, the main effects of color, the
light and the air, the movement of the wind
and the pulsing Of the water.
Cszin and the Japanese.
And this we see if we look understandly
at a Corot or Cain. Mr.. Fenollosa, of
the Boston Museum, who probably knows
more about Japanese art than any other
man in America, once told me that he could
appreciate Cazin because he had learned to
Japanese pictures-that the aim
and feeling were in both cases practically
the same. This would sound strange at |
first, especially if one knows only the |
Japanese pictures OF commerce. But I |
think that it means that Cazfn, like the |
Japanese, cares for general truth rather |
than special truths, and feels pre-eminently |
The broad harmonies of color and the signi6- |
cance of powerful and graceful lines.
When we looked at another of Mr.. Schaus'
pictures we saw simply pumpkin. But it |
was splendid, regal, an imperial pump
kin; a czar-nay, an Indian rajah among
pumpkins; portly potentate whose
gorgeous orange sides took the life and
light and beauty out Of everything within
,yeshot and made us feel that the only
;hings in the world really worth painting
we're pumpkins. This one has been painted
~ famous artist, and it had greatly
,elped to make him famous. 1t was the
pumpkin of Vollon which,
's q technical achievement, was the star Of
! certain sParis Salon yeary ago, and is
,erpetually quoted in the studios as one of
hose supreme successes which other men
must try to work up to, but may scarcely
ven dream Of rivalling. Some pictures are
o fne that they make the tears come.
others are SO fine that only one of Homer's
niration. Vollon's Pumpkin" is picture
f the latter sort; the thing itself is so
omely, yet so superb, and the painters
interpretation is so true yet so bewilder-
ugly audacious
A Famous Picture Of . Fat Man.
Whenever see this picture cannot help
linking OF one which hangs in the museum
Berlin. It is only attributed" to Velas-
uez, but If he did not paint it there was
nee . painter as great as he whom tho
'orld has quite forgot. 1t shows an enorm-
usly fat man, with q pig-like face and .
irdle that must have been pieced together
{ two, standing with his vast convex con-
our in full relief against marble back
round and facing the world with self
atisfed air that would seem conceited
, Father Jove. This Velasquez ad-
liral is like the Vollon pumpkin-he
axes US laugh, partly from sheer de-
ght that art cnlld hA "a faithful To an |