The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-01-19

surely coAe TO the worker. ouG oL the
ground, out OF the sunshine and fresh air,
cut OF DIS Own haart-this idea Is good
and beautiful enough. We find no fault
with the So bject. This ia the day OF
.'TrinmphsAt Democracy, and arr must
help to draw her chariot Nor do we
! specially OBJECT to sym bolisn, though 1t
is carrle9 pretty far today. witness the
Oliendornan dramas OF Maeterllnok.
which proceed after this fashion; Who
knocked. y did you knock? Why, did
you knock? Obi obi oh! All of which
we are told is full of fine spir1tua! sug-
gestion. I've gladly admit that there Is
power in The Intruder and fhe Blind.
But the danger with symbolism IN
drama or picture ia that it will be worked
too hard, will be made to carry too mucn,
and that we will fairly stagger under its
load. This latest picture of Mr.. Fox Ger
tainly carries a pretty heavy burden;
mo recover, it fails to teach its lesson,
because, We cannot help feeling, the laws
which underlie all art, OF fa1tn-
| fulness to truth-even to spiritual truth,
the principle OF beauty, are seemingly y
disregardeu. This is a hard saying, bus
what seems true to the critic, to many
sober minded men and women who by no
means wish to join in 'stonlng inc
prophets" who would dearly love TO ma
the hest and highest in every picture or
ideal work. must be said. Or Is TINS, az
we We're told last year, a representative
of man in the monolithic OF neolithio or
early cave dwelling period? Apparently
not; the blue overalls are too much ID
evidence for that. And from what pat
tern of Deity descended this strange
| Working God? Is it the King Hoppe
in Aristophanes' Birds with dash
of Montezuma. the prlest-kinR OF Mexico!
We are tempted to quote JeHrey's famous
| n MT oF Dc uarths tSiThlR Will
never dol" .allgpossible allowance
for its sym bolism, for the burden OF
great idea on the heart of the artist, the
| picture remains for many of us impossl-
BILE. There is, CT course, something OF
technical excellence in the management
of this light upon the fields, with their
sc nse Of distance, and doubtless. here
and there, details are carefully wrought
| which show that the artist is able as or
old to use his generally mitted skill In
| faithful and Ineligible work.
Mrs. Fox has certainly painted strong
| picture in her large canvas: ZONES
the Woman to the Hour She, too, is
evidently much stirred by the spirit 81
socialism, and has taken it as her guild
ing impulse and motive. The picture
tells a story, and one that makes pow
erful impression. woman stands on
raised platform-it might well be
| scaffold. The light falls on her infant,
passionate, but somewhat constrained
features. Her hour, the hour when she
faces the religious stir and emanclpa.
ton of socialism" has struck. Reform,
changes, revolutions bring at first no joy
to woman. Says Goethe: woman loves
order, man freedom" She is feeling the
pang of uncertainty, the deadly fear, the
absolute, anguish at breaking away from
the soft, easy life Of the past. She is
facing stormy, turG ultuous future. But
oh ic no will fha hnnr a Il it
strikes. Her hands are pressed convul-
sively--they almost, at first sight, seem
actually tied or fettered, but 1t is only
the passion and half terror at her heart
that gives her this rigidity. She feela
dimly with Lowell that that scaffolG
swaysLL the future, and behind the dim
unknown, standeth God within the
shadow, keeping watch above his own"
Thesway in which the light falls upon
the faces of the crowd about her, at her
back, ia quite adnlira ble-the glooms
and CLEANS are fairly Rem brandtish.
A II GLASSES and conditions OF men are
here, and their faces are carefully studied;
some of them are even better than that
of the central figure. Particularly strong
are the countenanoes of the woman with
the child in her arms, telling their story
OF want and suffering; the old woman
on the wight, looking with the pathos of
an old despair for the breaking of the
new dawn. The nuns or sisters Of
charity sym bolize religion, and have pos
sibly half-contemptuous, half-stolid
attitude toward the thought which,
though they know 1t not, is to wholly
reyolutioniZs their faith. A gentleman
and lady of the conventional type
society only dimly and afar off caring to
recognize the unpopular heresy-stand
appropriately in the rear. Yet the waves
and pillows Of the fanatacism they gaze
Of ionnSjiJr thou know
su bmerge them. The picture is full of
life and passion and. artistionlly, is per-
haps the strongest thing tina artist has
given u.s. If one question a littla wheth-
or a picture ought to be loaded with
quite the burden this oarries-the bur-
den of thought that well-nigh sinks
statesmen and political economists; or
whether picture. like Millions poetry.
ought not to he more "simple'' as well
SO s:passionate;" one-sud this Is high
praise--is ready not to be too critical in
the presence of SO much that is strong
and admiral bic.
Mrs. Fox's portrait, No. 20. Is also to
the lady, the curtain, the book, all heirh-
ten the effect. The rendering OF the
face has that dynamic quality which
takes MS captive, the something which
makes us say, whether we know the per-
son portrayed or no5-How full of charao-
ter; the artist hos caught the soul, and
leta it look ous of the eyes.
Some of the best work in the exhibition
is done by Miss Helen W Brown. Her
bas-relief Of a Blind Girl is charming in
it's touching implicitly. The dear little
face, the hand gloping for its way, even
the clutched dolly. 90 straight to the
heart. There la no striving for effect; no
false note of ssntimentality: it is just
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