The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-31
SARGENT M A, ONE-MAN SHOW.
Brilliant Artist ~ self.Revealed In
Lone Exhibition In London.

in this country has just opened to the
public at the Carfax Gallery. This is
, quite little gallery in Ryder street, st.
Jamess, where there Is not room for many
pictures at time, but where such as arc
shown usually possess some real artistic
interest, and often are not easily to be
seen elsewhere
Thus, though you may gaze on Sargent :
exhibition work at the Royal Academy
or in any other prominent art pil)ory, and
find ii bulling large in national or civic
collections, you will not readily get to sec
are mostly genuine expressions Of his per-
sonal note. They are done to express
himself or help himself, or please himself.
at any rate, primarily. for himself. and not
with one eye anxiously considering cap
tious patrons of "A capricious public. This
is where the Carfax Gallery comes in.
They are aware that artists pictures are
affected by such temporal considerations,
and what they have now succeeded IN
placing before the public is a loan exhibition
of thirty sketches and studies in OIL water
color and black-and-white. selected from
the quantities that lie around the artists
studio in lite street, Chelsea,
What strikes you first about these sketches
is, Of course, the amazing technical skill
of Mr. Sargent And, secondly. that you
here see well-marked stages in the evolu.
ton of that skill. And, thirdly, that it
seems impossible to trace personal note
at all, save in that skill.
AS to the first point: All the world over
people are now familiar with that skill.
1t has cleft a way through the ranks and
to the very forefront Of one Of the most
conservative institutions in the universe,
the English Royal Academy Of Arts. II
has brisked that institution up and leav-
ened it and made it envious and sometimes
enulous, and generally it has done it lots
Of good. 1t is known throughout these
islands and their globe-encircling colonies,
talked of long ago in Paris. blown about the
Bosphorus, patent to st. Petersburg, and
credibly reported to have reached Berlin.
In fact, as far as John Sargents energy
and dexterity are concerned, If the Ameri-
can papers were to state that, having a
certain room to decorate as best he could
in five minutes. he had stood upside down,
painted the floor with his head, the walls
with his hands, the ceiling with his feet
and had al the same time winked off a
bright little series of sketches with his
eyelashes, nobody over here would feel
surprised That reni-ridi-rici skill is uni
versally recognized and ungrudgingly
admitted.
As for the second point: In just about
the place where eighteen months ago there
hung one of Max Reerbohm's funny carl
catures, representing John Sargent as the
Strong man Of the Royal AGA denny"
dressed in tights and strutting before a
little showmans booth with r. A. upon
it. there now hangs the head Of young
Italian girl This is profile. possibly
cut out Of a larger study, and it must have
been painted long time ago. 1t is very
modelled, we'll suded--just the work of a
good student, showing no particular in
dividuality. Next TO 1t comes a portrait
Of young man. also in oil, which seems
stage between the student and the dash
ing painter of to-day; The model was evil
IDENTIFY fine one clear-cut, mobile feat
nres. the head thrown slightly back and
we'll poised on a long columnar neck.
with white bordering, seemingly OF lace.
Here you see the long brush strokes
sweeping down the curves Of the neck,
| powerful. as they are now. but with a re-
straint and purpose!ulness which they
90 not always now possess ana the
of the cheek against the background are
firmly gripped, completely understood
set down unhesitatingly, as now, without
the harshness which they sometimes now
! display. This study, though, far from
| later portraits, Possesses qualities which
| in some Of these approach, or actually
become, defects. In like manner may
strength approach, or actually become,
| brutality, and delicacy weakness, You
may see both in sketch Of Eleonora Du.e,
where too heavy shadow, being brutal,
| makes the delicacy of the face seem weak,
There is a slapdash sketch Of jefferson,
| blue-eyed. humorous. in which, however,
you notice the brush strokes more than
ANYTHING else, M, There r s, j. precapi41a,e
beasts lie apparently on a quay and beyond
them show barges and strip of blue ocean.
Some of the whites are out of tone, the
consequence being that these hastily
constructed cattle seem to have swallowed
lighted lamps. and hence to be distinguished
from all other cattle by a mild abdominal
efulgence
To speak of such matters, slight in them
selves, involves consideration of the third
point Why, after having admired the
skilful handicraft, and coming then to try
nficently equipped has got to say, should
the attention wander to such trivialities?
1t is much az though, when listening to a
musician playing one of his own compo-
sitions. you should first Of all admire the
execution and find your attention claimed
next by the piano.
so you try again, and look for instance.
at another water color sketch. @The Per-
seus of Cellini." This liz one of the most
famous bronzes in the world. Most peo-
pie concerned with art know the Loggia
di Ianzia. in Florence, and have seen the
famous statue for themselves. Most have
read the stirring life of Benvenuto Cellini
and know the story Of the casting of that
bronze--how, amidst raging storm of wind
and rain, the sculptor's workshop caught
fire. how the work people proved ncapable,
how the furnaces blew up, how the artist
was seized with fever, how he cursed and
prayed, and by sheer grit triumphed over
everything. no that of the 27th of April,
1854 he was able to write
-Now it pleased my glorious Lord and
immortal God that at last ! brought the
whole work to completion. and on certain
Thursday morning exposed it to tie public
gaze Immediately, before the sun was
fully in the heavens. there assembled such
a multitude of people that no words could
describe them. All with one voice con-
tended which should praise it most The
Duke was stationed at window low upon
the first f lor of the palace; there, half hidden
he heard everything the folk were saying
of my statue.
Now, when an artist comes himself to