The sun., 1903-11-19
PORTRAIT SHOW AFINEEXHIBIT
PROBABLY THE BEST OF ITS KIND
HELD ANYWHERE.
Works of the Masters OF Many Schools
Shown-A Large Represent alton OF
Americans-Openlns Day a damned
and Enthusiastic Social Success.

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
New York has Portrait Show, which
opcncd yesterday and will continue for two
weeks. which no lover of art who can reach
TIM. city during the continuance of the
exhibition can afford to miss. 1t is speak
ing moderately to say that 1t is one Of the
greatest art exhibitions arranged in this
country, and il was pronounced yesterday
by persons competent to say 80 the best
portrait exhibition ever given anywhere.
Of,hetwo similar exhibitions which might
Immediately come to mind, It was pointed
out that the Van Dyke exhibition was
onc-man show, while London's show OF
Portraits of Fair Women" had not the
range of the exhibition now filling the
American Art Galleries. 1t is far and
away ahead of the preceding loan exhibi-
,ion~ of portraits which have been held, as
tlis crc il held for the benefit OF the Ortiz
roll, Hor pital. and If 1t is proportionately
appreciated the hospital will benefit largely
N visitors to the show are bound to do,
anyway
|. is no' easy to express in comparative
terms H." impression produced by the
fr-' arg" gallery, for an American ex-
Eiitiur cannot ordinarily present such
an asscnhlGge Of old masters OF a high
order n here confront the spectator from
every wall. II is gallery OF masterpieces,
but not all Of the master works Of the ex-
Eihl'ior are housed in il by much. 1t is
room of dignity and character, beauty
and spendor embodied in pigment and
canvas l,y master lands.
Sir Joshua Revnodss Sol C,iss maker, "
from the collection of William X. vander-
bilt. a large canvas where the soldier rests
with his arm over his horses neck beneath
tree. takes its place so commandingly
on one of the corner panels of the gallery
that William NJ. Chase was impeled to ex-
claim that it looked better than in the
Vanderbilt gallery.
Carroll Beckwith was tempted into the
expression that this rooom as it exists to-
day is the finest art room in the United
States. and he had in mind as a criterion
Henry O. Havemwer's famous Rembrandt
room. as well ns he many exhibitions he
has gone over.
But instead of eAhaustng the riches of
the exhibition, the room is only the satisfy
ing and impressive introduction to an
exhibition filing without crowding nine
galleries. Indeed. one of the merits Of the
show is that such sound Judgment has been
Useu III VIC iaiIIti u iiS oi sciVStioi
for such an exhibition that although the
exhibits number nearly four hundred there
is ample spacing, no tumble, and the paint
ings may be seen and studied in fair posi-
ton Who would quarrel may do his own
searching for the occasion.
II the simple and concentrated distinc-
ton of the first gallery is in the exclusive
grouping there OF works of the Old Masters,
one of the larger upper galleries Ia dis
tinguished. but not monopolized, by an
impressive number Of canvasee by the
greatest of living portrait painters, the
American, John Singer Sargent, 1t will
be news to many admirers OF this artist,
whose int innate friends are not many, that
he has suffered some ill health in Italy,
whittier he went after his arduous work in
the United States last winter and spring.
when he was forced to do more portraits
than he wished to undertake, rapid worker
that he is.
Another gallery has a section Of peculiar
interest in an assemblage there of portraits
OF OF hs ned @s ear of the gay. ss
leries space has been taken to formulate
In a modest way something of a memorial
exhibition, within the Portrait Show, Of
works OF Albert Q. Collins, who died last
lures are assembled. and in another the
variety Of the exhibition is shown in groups
of portraits in bronze reliefs by Augustus
Saint Cat udens.
Yet these severally characteristic groups
are in no instance dominant, and the varied
interest informing the exhibition as a whole
runs through all it's parts and carries the
fortunate visitor who loves art from gallery
to gallery. with no tagging in the gratifica-
ton which each .L room Iilonaagg brings And for
and of men and women prominent in social
and literary life add to the attraction OF
an art exhibition. every room, save the
first Gallery of the. Masters. offers its
separate delight. n
No individual, no school. overshadows
the Portrait Show Of 1903 The Americans,
past and contemporary, stand on the walls
among painters of the English, French,
Dutch, Flemish and Spanish schools and
works by Venetian, Russian, Swedish and
traits that have lived worthily, although
their authors are of the unknown"
There be curious visitors to art eX-
hibitions who disdain the spectator who
dare mention frames. although the artist,
while he may yet have the say, is at much
pains of selection for the framing Of his
handiwork or of his genius. But if one
may let his eyes rove from the many fasci
mating canvases in the American Galleries
Just now he shall find there certain frames
whose art of design worthily calls for an
attention which they we'll repay.
The two weeks for which it ia planned to
keep the exhibition open will be none too
long for satisfactory study Of the art
embodied in it.
In the Gallery Of the Masters, where less
than thirty paintings hang, a Lawrence,
than which nothing finer by Sir Thomas
has been shown here in an exhibition for
a long time, anyway, occupies the centre
Of the east wall, opposite the most famous
Van Dyke owned in New York. A finer
Lawrence it would I've difficult for followers
Of New York exhibitions to say that they
had seen here. 1t is the Portrait of Mrs.
Wellesley loaned by Benjamin Altman,
a ripe canvas in which the charms OF ex-
preston and form speak in the tones of
rich gema, for the painters choice Of colors
and the ageirig of the canvas have wrought
wondrously.
It is fanked on one hand by a smaller
portrait of fairer beauty, that of the Mar
chioness of Hertford," by the same painter.
loaned by James Henry Smith, a painting
quite different in style and subject, and
pleasing not less by contrast than In com
parson as the work Of the same artist.
On the same wall, balancing in size the
Mrs. Wellesley" hang at either hand
ayan Dyke, catalogued merely as "Por-
trait loaned by Fl. Nick. Twombly y, can
vas oddly impressive, which pictures
woman and child, and Mytens, owned