Evening star., 1897-01-23
A R T AN ARTISTS

The principal art event OF the week was
the sale of paintings belonging to the
| estate of the late Marshall O. Roberts
which took place in New York on Tuesday
Wednesday and Thursday evenings. 1t
was an eminently remiscent event, both in
the names included in the catalogue and
the style of the works offered and was
notable. Furthermore. for the low prices
realized. instead of for extravagant figures
paid, as has usually been the case in pic
ture sales during recent years. OF the
threc hundred and thirty odd numbers sold
IL Is doubtful ii single piece brought as
much as 1t cost, or anywhere near it, Less
tnah half, and probably even less than
cne-fourth. of the original price was only
reached in many instances. and in some it
would seem that not ten per cent was real
! lied. This unusual result was largely due
| 10 two causes. MIR. Roberts was very
rich ana public-spirted man, and II is
| lkeiy that he bought paintings partly he
Sa' Sause IL was the thing for rich man to
| courage artists. rather than because he
mad a deep feeling for or profound knowl-
eage OF art 1t is probable therefore that his
purcna:es were often made without the
exercise of sufficient judgment and dis
examination. Then. again. the collection
was largely made up of pictures by artists
]
| Hudson River schools and by Others whose
| names ana styles are no longer fashion
aoie Not that there were no good paint-
!nss IN the collection. On the other hand
! tnere were many canvases painted by men
OF hish and deserved reputation and of
real merit and enduring quality as works
OF arr. But there was nothing from the
barhazon school; examples by modern
Dutch masters: nothing from the pencils
of the early English masters of portrait-
ure' no pnzziing products of Impression
asn''Inothing' In short. in the lines that
| are being doomed just now by picture de al
ers' or tnat are in vogue with the million
| alre collectors of the day. Hence these
important factors staid away from the
| SAFE, and between that circumstance and
| the prevailing hard times many good
| things were picked up by connoisseurs for
d son3.-for a mere stave in fact The two
most important pictures in the collection,
or at least the two that are best known
| were washington Crossing the Delaware"
by Leutze, and "Merey's Dream" by Hun:.
! lngton. replica of the one of the same
| name in the Corcoran Gallery. The first
named is an immense canvas, being 21 feet
| In width by II feet. ! inches i'm height. and
most deliberately framed. 1t was sold for
si6.lW to Mr j. s. Kennedy. a banker of
I New York. for presentation to the Metro
poiitan Art Museum in that city. What
| Mr.. Roberts paid for it is not known, but
1t probably cost him considerably more
! than the sum it brought. ''Mercy's Dream
went for s525. which was also much less
! than was paid to the artist for it, Its pur-
chaser was not announced but most likely
! it was bought for some museum or public
| gallery.
|
I 1t must not be supposed from experience
| in this case that the purchase of works of
! art is always bad thing as AN investment
pure and simple. Directly the contrary
! very frequently happens. In a large num-
| Ter CT Instances more than double their
/ ha han Ca.
we'll selected paintings by artists of merit
| ana established reputation. Indeed the
| rule may be said to be handsome ad-
I vance in prices in such cases, and espe-
| clally for works by artists no longer living
! and for which there is steadily increasing
demand corresponding with the increase
| OF wealth and growing interest i'm art As
| an example in this direction, it NAV he
mentioned that tentative offer of twenty
! thousand dollars has recently been made
iIr small canvas in the Corcoran Gal
/ ierS, which was bought a few years ago
fCr little more than half that sum the
! offer has not been accepted and perbaps
not seriously considered as yet but il Is
oy TO means impossible that later on If
/ may he thought wise to use SO handsome a
sum IN some other direction when an On
Portunity to procure something else nuite
| as desirable and for less money might pra-
/ sent itself.
| Mr. HUBER Fos arrived in th., CITY sey-
efai uayS ago and has fitted up plea asant
| studio IN the Everett He will probably re-
hiaih mere Tor two months or longer. as he
has number of commissions to execute
| The most notable of these is the portrait
of Secretary Olney. which he is to paint
| Tor the State Department. and it is under
stood that he plans to make it one of
MS most important works. In short
tfyp,a h.,x
ness of Mrs. Carroll Mercer Mr.. Vos' nor
| trait of Senator Brice which he COM
nenced when he was here last sprine was
recently On exhibition at Veerhoff's. where
/ 1t attracted much attention The can
vas Is 4uitc large and three-quar-
! 'er-lenSth view of the figure is given the
! attitude being easy and natural II is tho
| treatment of the head however. thar lifts
| the painting at once into the highest plane
/ and the genial expression of tho face Is
| especially we'll rendered The impressi,n
I that II gives one is that it is not th., ex-
! preston OF any one moment but an ax-
preston which is characteristic of the
man, and for this reason the portrait gives
the observer a clear idea of Senator Brice's
personality. The painting is very fine in
color and shows careful and conscientious
work throughout.
The bronze doors which the late DIN T.
Warner designed for the new Congressional
Library are now in position. and the two
panels containing the figures representing
Memory and Imagination have been much
admired. This pair of doors has been
placed III the doorway the left of the
center. and the other two doorways are
still filed with temporary woodwork In
the spandrels above the doorways are fe-
male figures designed by Bella l.. Pratt of
Boston When the other bronze doors by