New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-06-19


NAL sTYMsTs-wHAT WE OWE
AND DO NOT OWE TO FRANCE.
lrpov A STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF The TRIBUSg.)
C.h;caoo June l3-It is to the honor Of the
American section in the Art Building that the
last DAYS acquaintance with it takes nothing
away from, but instead dccpcns the ausplcious
;mnresson of the day before. BESIDES being one
If the best it is one of the largest exhibits at the
Fair Over thousand oil paintings are hung ana
about two hundred water colorS There are co.,
lections equally large in extent, proportionatcly,
of pastes black -and-whitcs prints and sculpture.
Three of the nations fifteen rooms filled with
foreign pictures loaned by private collectors
There could he no more expressive reflection on
the character of the native work in color than the
difficulty of detaching from il, for the purposes OF
SO necessarily brief a review as the present, the
richer lines of its development. II l. not because
they are lost in the mass of work visible. 1t is
because there are so many of them. And that is
the completcst answer to the allegations which
might reasonably survive from the last Paris en-
Iihition 1t was said then that the Americans
who exhibited were chiefly pseudo-lrcnchm"n
There was some truth in the remark and some
fasity. 1t has never been taken seriously enough
here 10 require a reflltaton of the charge point
by point Such Il rcfutatiOl not prcignr"d
in the recent reference 70 the matter in The Irlb-
unc. nor is il intended now But for the benefit
of any with whom the criticism and its attendant
prejudice may lnccr il needs TO he emphasized
that when all the requisite copouS deductions
have been made our ar, exhibit az Chicago l.
still fine and still Amcrici m How fine and how
national il is is surprising even in the light OF
familiarity with the elements, which have gone
to give il both those qualities.
II wonld have been rendered easier for the pub
lie 10 calculate the status OF each artist had the
hanging of the pictures been accomplished under
different policy than that pursued by Mr. kur'z
the deputy of Mr.. Ives the director. in this mat
ter. 1t goes without saving that there Is strength
in concentrations and artist al least every
artist above a certain grade should have been
assigned space with view 10 grouping his PIE
lures As matter of fact tho paintings of this
man and that have been scattered far and wide.
and through this ill-advscd method the work Of
such a andscapist as George Inness, for example
ia permitted 10 lose degree of its effect In tn"
long run, however, the hanging does no serious
harm: especially when the artist is one of the
stamp of George 1nness.
AN AMERICAN SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE ART
The suprernely we'll done work of Sargent.
Whistler and others will naturally fasten som"
Of rhe freshest laurels of this exhibition upon
acteristic product 90 American art nevertheless
remains our landscape work. This fact does
not lie on the surface. There too many
brilliant painters of tho figure for that 10 he
the case But il is a conclusion 10 which de-
hberate criticism is bound 10 he mpellcd. In IN"
first place il is among the landscap'S's tha'
echoes are few'est This is said with perfect
consciousness of the debt which American land
scape owes in broad sense to the Fontainebleau
school, and of the direct temperance of the
recent theories of Monet among group Of paint
ers here which is steadily increasing. All this
is true Yet il is plain that a school of land
scape exists with that is based on founda-
tons going deep down into the soil In George
Inness is It's present most imposing figure. Tn"
fifteen pictures by him which distributed
through the American section are the expression
not of talent hut OF genius. Coming at an
advanced stage in period OF evolution, who'"
beginnings were sown amid the now antiquatcl
fenets of the Hudson River school, the art OF
Mr. Inness is 50 far released from the analytic
shackcs of the latter that il rivals III" great
landscare work Of France on its own ground
II is not Improbable TO 90 from these land
scapes of Inness TO the masterpieces by Corot, with
which the loan collection in the American section
has been adorned There is necessity for
the comparison, which is odious. IL would bc
q waste of time to pit Corot, who was chiefly
a poet against Inness, who is chiefly colorlst
But il is instructive 10 observe that with thcso
two masters so famous and the other pos
scssed of only modest celebrity. the keys to
success. are tho same They are observation, I'M
agination selection, tvnthesls, ana that pro-
found constituencies TO the spiritual content OF
natural fact which insures vitality to work which
NAV be further illuminated, as Corots is, by
noetic feeling. but which is first and last of
is
of the great Frenchman are. in short IN the
toen;no If an American who il also great.
What this exhibition further proves is that
The same secrets, more or less are in the hands
OF numerous other Americans. There we can
furnish forth a school that is AT Work VIII"
the very nnermost truths OF It's ART anu coh'r"'S
them There we most creative III our ART
The degree of power varies, OF course an" ~
also does the degree of Independence There are
landscapists far beneath lnncss n ln'rihsi
mort and there are others, like Weir, Twarht-
man. Steele, EnneI1ng and ROBINSON who' "h'ie
much nearer him in caibre have yet chosen
70 seel, their coal along a road blazcd by Monet.
Put n greater number of the landscapsts are a.
ORIGINAL as they are artistic and velaclons III
no other direction is American art more pr
sonal Sargent himself IL no more III" "o"'
"reminiscences of other men than are ilh'SN' i'S'''
Homer Martin and Ochtman. eNe'ilp'a'S Vt
school whose worthy members are :" h'"'''
that il would be impossible 10 approach 'he'' al
closely The point that it is SUFFICIENT 10 "iINo
is that highly developed landscape 'acu''s
is the most widely diiused and apparently h'"s'
indigenous characteristic Of American art
add that in those manifestations OF II at u"
Fair we have the most substantial evidence Oh
our equality with European schools Is 10 iN'''
the subject not unfairly sumnlariZco'
INTERESTING FIGURE PAINTING
Without abating in the slightest degree INC
warmth of these reflections the orI2IidiN VI
American lands"apsts, there may he urd"n
striking distinction between their work ana ''','
of the best American figure printers. In" h'h"-