The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-10-12
EXPOSITION LETTER.
written for the Citizen.)
PARIS, September "a, 1900.

III SClCuCC; Ill pOllUlCS; III aus,
has been painted by him, and
his portraiture has aroused univer-
sal admiration. His works are
not only models of exactness, but
of penetration, of analysis and of
finesse His series of portraits Of
Bismark are famous. He has
painted him, in the last twenty
years of his life, more than ten
| times and in each canvas is shown
a distinguishing trait. There is
always the same countenance
bearing the expression of a mask,
the same cold eyes beneath their
heavy brows, but each picture
bears a characteristic of his men,
tai condition at the time. In the
first, the man satisfied with his
work and in the full possession of
power as uncontested as supreme;
again, the father of family, en-
joying temporary repose in the
country, in the cOmpanionship of
those dear to him; later, the man
disappointed, embittered, fallen
into the most Notifying disgrace;
later still, the feeble octogenar-
ian, with suGken cheeks, fixed
eye and debility enshrined in his
inhamed eyelids. 1t is impossible
to imagine representation more
truthful and more analytic. No
history of contemporaneous Ger
many could be written without
reference to these ef1igies of the
period.
What Lenbach has done for
Bismark he has also done for the
German Emperor, for MOltke, for
the ruler of Austria, for the
POpe-in short. for all the emf
nent men of his generation-and
always with the same insight and
skill. The collection of his por-
traits at Paris includes priests,
sculpteurs, painters, musicians,
chemists-all lines OF work. Each
bears distinguishing characteris-
tics. The execution, too, is be-
You'd criticism. Lenbach employs
only neutral tints in his portraits
of men; the shades are mono
chrome. Dark browns. golden
browns, soft browns predominant.
He suppresses everything in the
clothing that can detract from
the interest i'll the cOuntenance,
where the light is concentrated.
In his pictures of women, the
artist is not so happy. The sub
ject does not demaud exclusive
attention, as in the representa-
tiOns of famous men. There is
freer play for the imagination,
opportunity for arrangement of
draperies, backgrounds, etc, and
these are not always successful.
One misses simplicity and SINGER
ity; there is even, at times, ex-
cessive pretenSiOn. Lenbach, al
so, usually fails in his use of
color; when he leaves mono
chrOmes, he is apt to lose himself.
One portrait, it is true, is very
good combination of black, milky
white and dark red. Another. of
a young woman, is treated in
shades of old gold, black and
gray, relieved by a narrow blue
ribbon at the breast. The head,
leaning pensively on the hand,
may be said to pose a little for
the benefit of the observer, but
there is no eXaggeration, and the
harmony or the picture is not dis
turbed. On the other hand, a
young woman with a dog appears
in bad taste, i'll scarlet velvet
waist whose cOlOrs do not blend at
all with the gray of her drapery
or the white hair of the animal.
The same may be said of little
girl, in the robe of red muslin.
Perhaps in these portraits, Len
bach takes occasion to recon-
pense himself for the enforced
quiet of his representations of
men. He has a passion for the
brilliant, for the iridescent shades
of mother of pearl, for the vivid
and yet harmonious colOrs that
appear on a butterfy's wing. 1t
is said that he has in his studio a
glass case Of butterflies, and that
his eye, in the intervals of work,
rests constantly upon them. But
his effort to rival them is vain:
there is between them and his
palette an abyss all the more i'm
passible as Lenbach is by nature
a designer. The instinct for color
cannot be acquired ; it must be
Unborn.
Lenbach's style is followed with
considerable success by Kaulbach,
nephew of the illustrator whose
works were famous under the
second empire. He, also, is ex.
cellent Ill portraits of men and in
the use Of the monochrome tints,
but much less successful with
women. Two specimens of his
work at the Grand Palace accen-
tuate this; one shows a man
seated, in profile, draped in a
dark garment with a border of