Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-17
STORIES ON CANVAS
Remington's Vivid Pictures
of the West
I'm CoRCoRAE GALLERY
BEST EXAMPLES OF MLusTRA-
TORS STYLE.
Paintings of Remington and Maxfeld
Parish Excellent Illustrations
of Color Work.
m CORCORAE GALLERY

/
constitutes a section of the Collier exhibit
ton now in progress at the Coreoran Gal
| lerv of Art, Is attracting considerable at
| tention and calling forth much praise. For
| many years Mr. Remington's pictures of
! the west have been familiar and popular
| but never before has so comprehensive a
collection of his work been shown in this
city.
Mr.. Remington Is both sculptor and q
painter-the Coreoran allery, by the way,
| owns two of his small bronzes-but he is
| first and always an illustrator. His pic
lures and his sculptures are invariably mar
| rative In character; they tell a story, or at
least relate an incident. They do not. as
| rule, illuminate a text, but are in them
selves a combination of literature and art.
Again and again he has retold In pictures
the story of the redskin and the cowboy;
times almost without number he has
brought home to those of the east the life
OF soldiers and pioneers the western
plains. His subjects have been taking-his
sentiment good
Remington might be declared the most
American of all the Illustrators. for he has
chosen for his themes those things which
America boasts as unique possessions.
What small boy does not take patriotic
pride in Buffalo Bill, and what boy of ma
ture years does not recall with a pleasant
thrill the days when he played Indian and
took part with his comrades in wild west
show? There is fascination in the big,
untamed west, romance in the life of the
vanishing aborigines which cannot be gain
said, and this Mr. Remington has got into
his pictures.
A Story in Colors.
1.-THE Parley,' large canvas painted in
oils, which has been given q prominent
place, will be found to be a characteristic
example. 1t pictures AN interview between
an Indian and q white man. Both are
mounted, and, riding toward each other,
have apparently met and drawn rein. The
white man, bearded and of heavy build
faces the observer, but the Indians back is
turned. They are evidently in earnest con-
versation and needless of the glaring sun
light which sleeps the plain. AT a distance
there is line OF purplIsh hills and In their
grateful shadow half dozen horsemen are
awaiting their ENJOYS return. The interest
is well focused upon the chief actors IN the
scene to whom the bald Dlgness OF the
country but adds dignity and significance.
To the right of this in somewhat the
same coloring and spirit hangs The Fight
for the Water Hole, representation OF
five ranchmen entrenched in the basin OF
a desert spring covering with their rifles
every line of approach and boldly deriving
the enemy This is not only an interesting
incident, but the record OF a curious geo.
logical freak.
To the left and likewise a picture OF
western hardship and sunshine, is a paint
ing entitled THE Unknown Explorers,
which pictures two elderly men mounted
on ponies feeling their way downward
through a rocky defile. They are IN shad-
ow and are in measure wrapped In mys-
terry but on the opposite wall of the guicn
the sunlight lays with dazzling brllllancy
Historic Subjects.
Historic characters figure conspicuously
in a number of Mr. Remingtons compost
lions. One of the most painterlike and de-
lightful of all his cslnvases Is, for instance,
a picture of Coronado, the Spanish soldier
who in 1910 crossed the plains from Mexico
to the present state of Kansas, and his
valiant party Another, with decorative
erect shows Pierre Radson and Groseil-
lier journeying in q canoe with eight indian
paddlers west from Lake superior toWard
Lake Winnipeg In 1859. Lewis and clark
are pictured on their famous expeditlon;
Zebulon Pike Of the United States army,
who In 1907 was held a prisoner by the
Mexicans, is seen riding through one OF
their primitive villages. There Is a tran
scription, based on the tradition of De Soto
with his little company of dauntless eX-
plorers wading through dark and gloomy
swamp; dramatic presentation OF Cabeca
de Vaca in the desert with his captors, and
spirited Interpretation of Jedediah Smiths
progress across the continent In 1876.
Savoring more Of modern times and pres
ent possibilities are "A Reconnaissance
ana me Ben hare. DUH aio nv u nes
and pictures of army life. The first shows
a cavalry officer and his white scout view
ing by moonlight from the protection of
trees hostile Indian country; the second
sets forth government pack-train led
down q steep and rocky path through
grimmy darkness by faithful gray mare
wearing as the signal of her captaincy
bell at her neck. Both Of these are dis
tinctly nighttime pictures. The one Is
flooded with moonlight; the other is weirdly
dark.
More decorative, yet perhaps less charac--
teristic, than any of these is the poster
like painting entitled Coming to the Call
in which bull moose is seen to have re-
sponded unwittingly to the cry OF the hunts
man. Splendid in color. simple in compost
ton, it stands forth with much strength
and sincere dramatic feeling.
Maxfeld Parish.