Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-09
A r T NO TES.


Smith has confined her attention to aqua
relic. but always following the principle
that there is no satisfactory reason why
water colors may not be worked Just as
strongly as oils. The consequence is that
her work is much more vehement and
forceful than that of many artists who use
water colors merely to reproduce those
delicate and elusive effects for which a
coarser and more masculine medium is not
as well adapted. She has had the courage
to break away completely from a long
training Of lay and overlay' in oils, and
while naturally retaining many of her for
mer qualities of feeling and color she now
paints in full washes of tint from the upper
corner down over her paper in the most
direct form of the pure transparent meth
Cd. She seems most at home in her ma
rihe sketches, of which she has done
great number. They display a thorough
dcquaint ance with the various but ever
beautiful phases of nature at the seashore,
and succs ssful coping with the fascinat-
ing. but to the inexperienced almost mad
denlng, problem of the motion of surf and
the rapid cloud changes. In moonlight
studies she Is unusually fortunate, though,
unlhe most who attempt to interpret later
evening, she abandons cold shadows and
weak light and throws over the whole a
warm glow OF color that any conscientious
student of nature would be bound to see
when the full orange moon hangs low with
the red flush of few minutes earlier still
upon it. Her marines. however, are not all
moonlight and surf, but range from the
Grand canal at Venice to the salt marshes
along the New Jersey coast. She has
lately done number of those still-life
studies, conscientiously drawn and rich in
color, of which the piece now at the Water
Color Club exhibition is a very fair ex-
ample.
Mr.. Harry Bradford still keeps indefati-
gably on with his hard, self-exacting APP
plicaton. Just now he is occupied with
animals, and more particularly the African
lion. His method is to make himself thor
oughly familiar with the construction Of
the beast from anatomical charts. to go
then to the Zoo and make as accurate PEN
Gil notes as possible from the living model
and finally to work up composition, using
his pencil sketches and going as deliberately
into detail as his knowledge will allow and
the needs of the picture require OF late
he has been quite successful with his Illus
trative work.
From one point of view it Is a pity that
Mr. Mills Thompson is doing such small
amount of work in the field of creative art.
but it Is gratifying to note that in his
position as art editor of the Saturday Even
ing Post he finds task thoroughly con-
genial to his tastes and talents. The Pc
genial to his tastes and talents.
x
The labor of the jury for the selection Of
the works destined for the United States
display in the Fine Arts section of the Paris
exposition has been completed by the &C.
ceptance of $50 paintings culled from gal
leries on this side, which will leave 100 to
be chosen from among the Americans
abroad. 1t was hoped that the paintings
might have been exhibited in New York
before they were shipped to the French
capital. but this was found impracticable.
and art lovers must wait until next year
to see this exceedingly choice collection of
the best work of our painters.
Since Mr.. Richard n. Brooke left Wash
ington for Warrenton, business affairs and
the management of his estate have en-
crossed the major part of his time but
word now comes that he has just completed
a new studio adjoining his house, built en-
tirely according to those elaborate plans
which for years he has cherished, and we
may now expect to see many notable ex-
amples of his powerful style.
Prince Troubetskoy has but lately re-
turned from his country place at Castle
I1iii, NlislIld, anu is now occupying a stu
do in the Corcoran building He is engaged
upon full-length portrait of Mile. Cassini,
niece of the Russian ambassador. The can
vas promises to be one of the most impor-
tant he has yet produced, in that 1t is an
absolut ,ly direct attempt to convey his in
depreciation of character. The figure, In
evening dress of some light tulle material
over silk. Is standing gracefully. one hand
resting upon chair. The awning is per-
fectly easy and natural, and the whole por-
trait refined to the last degree of simplicity
which gives dignity to and renders highly
effective the great beauty of the subject.
x
Mrs Mary Sigsbee Ker has just occupied
a studio at 192s1a Pennsylvania avenue She
is now comfortably fitted up, and has
started work upon a large portrait of her
SELF, painted in her customary deep tones
of blacks and greens.
There has recently been put in position in
the loan collection of the Corcoran Gallery
a large sx10 canvas, Portrait Of a La
dy,' owned by Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst
Though unsigned. it is evidently an tmpor-
tant piece of work and an excellent ex-
ample of the artificial French school of the
eighteenth century. of a period probably
somewhere between the work of Charles
lie Brun and Eustache Lesseur and the
graceful extravagances of Vatican and
Greuze. A full-length figure Of a doll-Ifke
little lady, III stiff court Dress has f11st
plucked stiff little rose from stiIl stiff
fer ornamental basket of flowers, while all
around lies the palpably artificial park
scenery that recalls the well-cIeared forests
of Versailles in Louis xIV's reign The
picture is well painted, however and its
mannerisms are only those of the times:
what Is to us only quaint afectation was
to its contemporaries a stately and classic
of court life.
Since Mr.. Edward Siebert has reoccupied
his studio at 192Sts Pennsylvania avenue he
has been working very hard and has pro-
duced several pictures which will. beyond
question, come as surprise both to those
who have been constant admirers of his
work and to those who have felt that he
was too tightly bound up in the pursuit of
realism for the sake of realism No one
of the local artists can be a surer or more
accurate draughtsman than Mr.. siebert,