New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-04-12
TNIONLEAGUECLUBPIC PICTURES
EARLY AMERICAN PAINTINGS AND EAR
LIER JAPANESE PRINTS


This month the artistic interests of the Union
1e,ere Club make their last demonstration Tor the
s,,e3n The committee suspends its labors TO re-
s,,,no them in the fan. The members of the com
ro,,tee can look back upon winter of worthy ac-
,or,ulishment and especially upon fitting terminal
i,, 10 their work. The exhibition arranged for the
,,resant month is very interesting II has wisely
,ocn decided to keep the galleries open day longer
,hon usual. Monday will be set aside for the STU
l.2s who have been invited 10 come from the VarI-
1..s artistic institutions of the city 1t was good
iiea to place this particular collection at the as
.,sal of students for il is in peculiar sense edu-
,,IonaL The main gallery is filed with paintings
-. mon born in America prior to 1890 and 1t IS
therefore historically Illustrative collection fruit
,,l of suggestion to those who seek the beginnings
- orr art In the annex which has recently become
. feature Of the clubs exhibitions number OF
Iananese prints have been hung. In neither case
Il. current appreciation likely to be founded on pre-
.i,,s knowledge The prints OF the Orient are
.c,ent enthusiasm here and our older painters are
-. often familiar 10 the amateurs OF this genera
don.
J., is not unlikely that this generation would
s,,N at the American artists chiefly Represented
}, this exhibition. Their thinly painted canVaseS
o,,, lemons and ti,nid beside the thick impasto
and forcible brushwork which are most IN faVor
now Their color is more than moderate peslde Inc
chromatic audacity of men whose pictures are re-
car,lel as quite the average style to-day Ana II
svnthesis their analytic method is trife too mi
,n,o too copons too insistont. Yet 1t would be
narrow taste which failed 10 find pleasure III the
pictlIres here displayed, and in most OF them at
mat Thomas Cole, for example, in his pensVe
classic landscapes gives you a conception OF nat
ure which seems dry. impersonal. compared with
more recent work. but Cole had something OF that
elegance and dignity which YOU find in his English
prototype Richard Wilson. and. like Wilson, whom
in other respects he failed to equal he provokes
sympathy which is none the less spontaneous De-
cause given to an academic work Of art. The OBJ
server may not be moved deeply, but in quiet
thoughtful way he is charmed 1t is 50 with all
the elder landscapists whose works figure in this
collection. Clifford. Church. Durand Whttredge
al suffered from a too close application to non-es-
sentias in nature, and their preoccupation with
minutae led them to a metculous fashion OF exc
cutting their designs inevitably destined TO make
them appear nerveless and thin But truth. as they
cared 10 pursue il, they certainly achieved. and
with their facts they got also those qualities OF
sober taste thorouGhness and balance which are
hard to turn from after new dispensation has
shown the fallacies Of the old. And there were
some of these pioneers 10 whom breadth of tone
and of handling rot at all foreign George
Fuller had it, may be seen from the two inter
esting examples OF him here presented. ana JerVls
McEntee, r. w EdmunGs w >. Mount Eastman
Johnson and John T. Peele were all in accord with
the wider sweep which began 10 come IN FAVOR as
even ever, sgrpassdd some Of his followers in giving
breadth and solidty to style OF genre which IN
own day is too frequently marked by ponsh
amounting 10 hardness. Irving cardinal Nosey
and Friends, in the style OF MISSIONER or Hafna
co.'s, approaches the great deNterty ana lheSse 81
those masters without losing freedom and large
ness OF manner when they did not aIWa!S cquai'
Indeed. there is many an Hllcauoh IN inns cor,
lection that the earlier men WAC form IL, mos %
them dead but some Of them s'in LNhs' VT am
they started out IN their work. Their difficulty was
that they We're 6ounded IN framing ama gue S
which prevalent everywhere in the mrs, ic"
p1dia;e ths knsoitori n3S Tradition 1hsy had
not vet realized the vast elasticity which belongs
70 the men OF our time by virtue or me gen
erai movement Of CIVILIZATION, Hire and there a
boldly. lnness, who OF course comes Wlth.N me
scope OF the exhibition and may be seen in several
fne specimens OF his work. seems never to have
suffered from the barren example set him at ne out
set OF his career The res, Uere less courageous;
ne and Fuller were far more daring than the ma
jority Of their contemporaries That majority now
ever. had some intrinsic merits wHicn II MAY be
pleasure. They worked with 50 much care ana ear
long after their works have become merely curious
they Will command more than perfunciory re-
The Oriental exhibit made by the club IS small,
but valuable. Nh. samuel COl1an lends some three
score carefully selected prints, anu rom b1ussol
Valadon & CO. there thirty more The prints
vey OF the art from the seventeenth century TO 1880
Or lS40. The most noted men are Illustrated II Ia
ar is shown in beautifully preserved examples.
There is Quantness TO be enjoyed in these prints,
esque dement's in them as OF primal Importance.
but close scrutiny OF the pictorial art Of the Easi
reveals as most I.!l ant the felicity OF design.
the caarm Of color, the skill OF Notwithstanding
and The truth 70 nature which give the purely fan
taste side Of the work is point The japanese art
lists would never have been able 70 achieve such
Original effects without exciting mirth II they had
not frs: take.l the pains 10 make themselves mas
te;s o. craft L. nnicians OF immense fertility ana
case Tl.r productions run up into incredible num-
bar3 a.l what % choose is hard for any but an
export - say when the formation Of an exhibition
s. CcatC nplat,d. In the present Instance the co.
q. d.
and the collection has even quality which Is not
the least OF It's strong points. Altogether, the Art
COMMITTEE II the Union League Club deserves TO be
Congratulated as {. retres 70 the background for
fcw months lis return will be awaited with eager
Interest.
WEDDING