The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-05-27
end OF The ART SEASON
School Commandments at the Cor
coran and the League.
Extension of the Fischer Galleries
Echoes From the Recent Hemicyclc
Exhfbftion-Ffnc Display md Nalu-
ablc Prizes Awarded-Other Events
Which Mark the Seasons Close.

There is great activity among the stu
dents in the league and the Corcoran Art
School. Drawings and paintings are being
finished, and preparations are on for the
school exhibitions. which will take place
next week. Three distinguished American
artists from out of town will be here TO
award the Corcoran gold medal and other
prizes. The nervous tension among the
students has been very great, but those
pupils Jared best who ate heartily, slept
well, and did their utmost to make their
drawings as nearly perfect as possible. This
year. through the generosity of the d.
rector of this art school, there will be an
additional prize of SIS in gold awarded to
the student in the water color class who
shall show TIE best collection of water
colors made during the past year. This
class exhibit will be made in the Henri
cycle. and the work of each student VIII
be shown in groups. The competition draw
ings in the gold medal class, with the por-
trait and other school work in various
mediums. will be shown in the Atrium, as
was done to the great satisfaction of every
one last year. The. prizes will be awarded
These interesting exercises will take place
next Thursday night, and be followed with
a reception by the students to their friends.
At the league there is also great
promise of an interesting eXhibitlon Oh
school work for the affairs Of this insu-
tuition are in a most prosperous condition.
The large corps of able teachers ana the
atmosphere of serious intention and earn
estness is conspicuous in this school which
rnf, Uad a
group of earnest and progressive students
The New York Art Students League
far and away the best of American art
schools-builded better than it knew. The
little group of-protestors who laid the
foundation OF this school twenty-five years
ago have revolutionized art teaching in
America. When the league appeared the
Academy and other schools we're COM
mitted to formal academic and conyen-
tional methods OF teaching far behind the
times. Progress was Impossible. News
paper accounts of the New York Leagues
recent exhibition and celebration OF its
twenty-fifth anniversary reads like ro-
nance. No better influence has the New
York League exerted on the art interests
of America than its inspiration of other
leagues-under similar management-which
have sprung up in all parts of the coun-
try. These are doing incalculable good in
the discrimination of the mos; advanced
and up-to date art information and impsrt-
ing instruction CT that wholesome kind
which has not to be unlearned when the
student reaches the beaux arts.
The Fischer Galleries.
An art event of the first Importance last
week was the opening of an addition to
the Fischer establishment. Having OBJ
tanned the room just south of the we'll
known and long-established galleries in
Fifteenth Street, Mr.. Fischer has with
characteristic taste and sensitiyeness re-
arranged and decorated the place This
is a distinctly commercial establishment,
but like the great shops of Paris, Lon
don, and New York is almost more
difficult to enter as an exhibitor than
either the salon or the Royal Academy.
These dealers have clientele SO culti-
waited and exacting that only the choicest
art objects from the great exhibitions are
submitted for their consideration. Fisch-
er's is no longer merely local art gal
lery. Its reputation is even more than
national. Gems from the great art GEN.
tres from time to time reach Fischer's.
Collectors there seek and find prizes just
as they do in the leading Paris, London,
and New York places. Many famous pic
lures and other costly works OF art find
their way from Fischer's to the homes of
some of the more discriminating collect
ors here, but II is an interesting fact that
of the great business annually done by
this firm not over II per cent can be cred
tied to Washington. There is a deep sig
nificance in this, for the local connoisseur
Is enabled TO see at Fishers articles of
rare excellence and quality which are
there for world market. Were the es-
tablishment dependent upon this small Il
per cent patronage mentioned it would be
obviously impossible TO present annually
in Washington SO carefully selected and
valuable collection of art objects.
The additional room obtained by this !
progressive step on the part of Mr. Fischer |
will enable the visitor 10 enjoy the articles |
displayed there in something of the quiet |
and reposeful atmosphere of private GAL 1
lery. What is known as the "old store
has been entirely closed, the door having |
been replaced by a full plate glass window |
A passageway Of severely classic lines has |
been cut through the centre of the south |
wall connecting the two main rooms. The |
street entrance to the second and smaller |
one will be retained and used the only |
street entrance The old store is now quite |
as much gallery as the little sky-lighted |
gallery where SO many fine paintings have |
been shown the past few years.
The store proper is not SO large. but quite |
5ects and the transaction Of business, while |
the old store becomes large gallery that |
may be kept exclusive and apart from the |
store and business office. The little sky |
lighted gallery which has been the scene Of |
so many successful high-class exhibitions, |
will become the private gallery, in which |
will only be shown to connoisseurs those |
choicer, rarer gems of art which may come !
to Fischer's from time to time.
This new arrangement developes an art |
store that while not large as some of the
great dealers go is net excelled in point
of attractiyeness and atmosphere by any.
There is much more in appropriate sur
roundings for the proper appreciation of
work Of art than most people imagine, and
Mr.. Fischer is to be congratulated upon
his beautiful new galleries, store, shop,
or whatever one may be pleased to call IL,
for II is notably complete and agreeable
In every respect. The writer finds a deep
personal enjoyment in the great advance
ment In this establishment. for his sin
ceritr and higher afms in the field OF art i
had no more encouraging friend than Mr..
Fischer The writer's beginnings as a
painter in water color may be said 10 date
nth his annual exhibitions held there
J ears ago, and IL was Mr.. Fischer perhaps !
more than anyone else who kept before
Rim the thought that only conscientious art
could bring a reward which might be relied
upon ae holding qualities that endure.
HcmfcycIe Echoes.
That a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing never was more humorous.y demon
strated than in some OF the out-of town
newspaper comments on the recent Henri
cycle exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery.
This modestly planned affair Of Mrs. Hen
o,,d hor fri N ha nj nf |