The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-10-13
AT THE ART PALACE.
A FEW POPULAR PAINTINGS AT THE
WORLDS FAIR.

WORLDS FAIR.
A Collection of Good, Bad and Indifferent
Works-SIere vagaries of a Capricious
Imagination-How Painting Is Taught
In Japan.
WORLDS FAIR. Sept. 10. Special j
Sunday is the day to visit the Art palace
now. On all other days, since the people
really began to visit the fair, the rooms are
unpleasantly full, and as the ventilation is
bad the afternoon air is almost insufferable.
Last Sunday, therefore, the first on v hich
have entered the grounds, our little party
put in the afternoon there, each agreeing
to select his three favorite pictures and give
his reasons for preferring them. The first
was easy; the second, confessedly difficult
| at the start, was soon admitted to be i'm
| possible. Few indeed are there who can
tell why they like any particular work OF
art.
My favorites were easily named, and the
first was "The Foreclosure of the Mort
gage" by G.. A. Reid, Toronto. 1t has often
been described, and like it for the express
sion of sentiment in it, not knowing enough
about the art to like it for that. My second
choice is No. 100 in the Russian section, by
Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovosky, and
bearing the long title "The Santa Maria
on It's Way to America When Columbus
During q Heavy Storm Was Surrounded
by the Revolving Crew." 1t is all action,
life, vivid presentment of nature For that
like it, but am delighted to find that
the artists agree with me as to its mer-
its. They say the coloring is even more
wonderful than the movement. Like all
great Russian pictures here, it has an ele-
ment of terror in it. One almost expects to
see the caravel overbalanced the next in
slant, so natural are the waters ut makes
me seasick," is common saying among
the gazers.
AS to my third favorite, am still in
doubt between many classical scenes, and
must go again. Our leading lady Gin art
knowledge, that is, and her name is well
known among writers) found her favorites
in the French section. Her reasons were
the perfect combinations of form and color
with grace of pose or motion. And first Of
all was 1.-The Wasps' Nest" but when we
saw it there was a general laugh-the title
is so ingeniously misleading. To q man
reared in the country such a nest may ba
curious, but it certainly is not attractive.
This particular 'nest, )" however (No. $500,
presents maiden of surprising loneliness
in all the building there is not a sweeter
face or one that looks more like real por-
trait-pursued and partly surrounded by
swarm of Cupids, who are kissing her
cheeks and neck, fastening their little fin
gers in her hair and tangling her dress
about her limbs. Away in the distance
trails the long line of pursuers till it fades
into mere cloud. But every form is per-
feet both in outline and color and there is
q touch of the humorous which heightens
instead of obscures the art. cts love of
a thing indeed" as all the ladies agreed.
Her next selection was 1.-The Death of Eu-
rydice" (No. $780, but the rest of us could not
join with her so enthusiastically as before.
The dead woman looks natural, suppose
that is, naturally dreadful-and the snake
certainly looks an exact portrait of q dia-
mond rattler from Florida. But dead
woman with a rattlesnakc crawling over
| her is not a subject to attract the common
mind. You all remember the story-how
| Orpheus was the greatest musician that
ever lived and tanned the wild beasts with
his music, and how he married the lowell
est woman to be found in those primitive
| days, and how as the poet tells us
1t Glanced as near as can determine,
BY one of those vertebrated vermn,
Which lie i'll the grass so prettily curled,
Waiting to snake you out of the world,
That she died and went to the shadowy
realm of Pluto. Then Orpheus played and
sang his way to Olympus and got an order
for her recovery on the usual conditions
of not tasting anything in hell or looking
back. So he played till the three headed
dog at the mouth of hell went to sleep, and
! the Furies wept over his plaintive melody.
| Well, he got Eurydice and started out, but
in his anxiety looked behind him, and she
vanished forever. Orpheus can be seen in
| many places in Che building, and one of the
| prettiest OF the large pictures SHOWS him
saluting the dawn and rousing the animals
with his Tyre.
The lady prudently forcbore to name her
third choice till she had looked further.
The rest of the company preferred plain
United States-such pictures as we can
understand without studying over them
week or two" Among the general favor.
ties were: Passage of the Red Sea" (201),
1.-THE Sculptor and the King (225), the
scene being laid in Mexico in Aztec times;
Charging the Battery (46D, "Tempta-
ton of st. Anthony" (50S), 1.-THE Strike"
(64T, 1.-THE Witches" (70G), and others OF
like suggestiveness.
| And, strange as it may seem, there are
| pictures here which are absolutely bad-not
merely coarse in suggestion, but thorough
ly and irredeemably bad in art; so bad that
the most ignorant notes the badness at
sight, and artists laugh or sigh. How the
mischief did they get up here? There is
one Of q "Psyche''-and in charity will
not give section or number-which must
have been put up for joke. She is shown
leaning forward, side view, and a carpen-
ter's rule placed on the back of her head
would touch evenly all the way down her
body. All who have seen it will remember
it by this description.
From the United States to Japan in art is
indeed far cry, and these are the extremes.
In the former, nearly all the paintings are
attempts at exact representations of nature,
while in the latter-well, cannot fit them
with descriptive phrase, but they are GER
tainly not nature at first hand. The first
impression is that their peculiarities are
the mere vagaries of capricious imagina-
ton, but our best art critics say not. One
of the leading exhibitors who is now here
Beisen Kubota, who speaks of 1.-THE great
| II. I'll. ..fL L .1tot l.