The times., 1899-02-19

brooks vending their way over rocky beds.
and hummocks Of ice and snow, above
which bend snow laden branches of spruce
and pine. Often pink. late afternoon sun
shine filters through the trees and over the
snowbanks in most charming fashion
singularly real and like places one has
seen. Indeed they are such faithful tran
scripts of bits of landscape about Albany
that they are very like other parts of
York State and New England.
The writer remembers some years ago
standing before Palmers picture which had
been awarded the Clarke prize at the Water
Color Exhibition in New York, when Mr..
Hopkinson Smith came up and called his
attention TO the method, which was very
much like the one Mr.. Smith had evolved
for himself-a method of using gray pa
per, a large portion of which was left IN
painted. and thus forming the dominant
note in the picture. This gray paper and
opaque color OF Smiths had provoked
much gcod-natured criticism. which IS
comprehended entirely in A b. Frost S
caricatuIc and lines which read:
You can bet your bottom dollar
We are onto the Venice caper
A little paint a little work
And lots OF empty paper.
A Charming snow Scene.
Smith was in high glee, for here was the
prize awarded to the emptiest piece of pa
per that ever held picture. 1t was a sin
gularly beautiful most poetic and tender
winter picture. The view was down a lit
tie snow-clad valley, through which an icy
river ran. The time was sundown and the
pale pink full moon was rising slowly
above it; the ice caught glinting refiec-
tions. Vibrating colors Of lemon, pale
rose and violet ran through the scheme
~ Ns ha.1 ,taa Of, Ill
where the gray paper was apparent Moth
ing was more surprising about this picture
than its vivid look Of reality. It was
Palmers greatest winter picture, and 4
triumph of method always to be remem-
bered to the honor OF Hopkinson Smith as
well as Walter L. Palmer.
Here is a cold hard, uncomfortable fact:
Artists have hard time, so far as busi-
ness goes, who paint winter or any aspect
OF nature which is without conyentiOnally
accepted objective beauty, but who rather
invest the commonplace or even ugly with
a charm which, though great thing in
art, the uninitiated neither perceive in
nature nor in the finished picture. Paint
ers who will paint the commonplace must
teach OF paint potboiers TO make a liv
ing. and they must continue in this until
such time as their fame shall have become
so wide that the public buy their sigma
to which the collector can point with pride,
the collector posing before it observes
grandly to the artist friend whom he has
brought to inspect his new acquisition:
Yes, that is Il genuine - The col
lector notes his friends rapturOus enjoy
ment of the little picture. an enjoyment
which to the owner of the picture means
one OF two things: either that his artist
friend is mildly insane or that the picture
must be a good one. The collector is usu-
ally pleased to have thus confirmed the
Dealers claim that the picture was = line
example of the master.
Other Collectors.
There are, however, collectors, for innate
mortals. with money and this deeper in
sight who know and enjoy such a picture
precisely as the artist does. but they are
not common and form but small part of
the picture patronage, 1t is interesting to
note the effect of this upon the painter
of view. His studio abOunds in canvases
which the average visitor wonders were
ever painted, while before othsr pictures
in the same studio their enjoym, nt is
complete.
These other pictures are not bad raint-
ings necessarily, for the artist is Il man
of acknowledged skill in landscape, but
against his Judgment ne has tIkan a pret-
ty subject, a pretty season, and a pretty
time OF day for his motive. He has filled
his canvas with all the pretty things It
will hold. One observer is charmed with
the wonderfully detailed weeds in the
foreground; another is delighted with
the figures or animals in the pretty mead
ow: another perhaps is carried away with
the arrangement OF clouds or the prety y
valley and the blue mountain beyond
Unity and art is impossible with such
treatment
Unlike the mercenary artist who i'm
poses this prettiness, slightly or carelessly
painted, upon the ignorant buyer. this earn
est, capable man paints this "potboiler' as
well as he knows how. smuggling all the
art quality into it possible under the cir
cumStanceS.
Painted to Sell.
Such pictures sell readily. for they please
everybody and the dealers are glad to get
them. The intelligent critic who comes
upon 1t afterward recognizes its higher ar
tistic excellence. though he knows per
fectly that it was painted to sell. The
critic recognizes the painters position and.
although he knows the artist is on danger