New-York tribune., 1905-01-04
ART EXHIBITIONS.
american Landscapes By the Late
John HI. T1eachtmdn.

The art OF the late John H. Twachtrnan has been
made thoroughly familiar TO connosseurs Of land
seape painting In New-York- AS one of the Ten
American Painters he always figured in the ex-
hibitions OF that organization. About four years
ago he had exhibition OF his own uptown and
early in 1893 nearly a hundred Of the pictures he
left at his death were sold at the American Art
Galleries But it has been left to the little society
of which he effective member. co-operat-
Ing with number of well known art lovers to
bring forward in a memorial exhibition now open
the Knoedier Galleries. works which enforce his
claim upon the attention OF the public with Pc
culiar felicity Never before have his gifts left
quite the impression they leave in this collection
of fifteen twenty canvases. Realizing that an
artist should be judged his best productions his
friends selected the pieces for this exhibition
with Jealous care, and there is scarcely thing In
it which fails to do him justice.
When this artist forsOok his earlier manner
which not without individuality, but was not
deeply interesting turned for inspiration TO the
example of Monet, he took plenty OF time in which
TO form himself He had no intention of crassly
initiating the French tmpressionist. His idea was
rather to beat out method Of his own in the Hight
of that painters principles Much of his work
thencefOrth obviously experimental and
amorphous. and down to the day his death il was
curiously uneven. In the same year he would pro-
dUce some beautiful pictures and some that were
obscure to the point OF dulness Since he often
showed the public both, he apt to convey a.
mixed impression. The present exhibition which
illustrates only those moments in which he was
thoroughly in control OF his resources has a kind
OF clarifying influence upon the question OF lust
what his essential merits were. They were the
merits OF a painter who found that the best an
proach to beauty was along the road OF truth and
indeed, gave himself up to the apprehension OF the
latter with so much zeal that the presence OF a
subjective element in his art is rarely discovered
II 1t Is discovered at all it as IL il must have
got there by accident The question Of what he felt
In the contemplation of beautiful scene does not
present itself The question is simply one OF what
he saw In IT, as matter OF visual experience alone
He saw much more than is commonly visible 10 the
painter OF his school. because his vision was
extraordinarily delicate and in its wav SUBTLE II
he rejected the light that never was on sea or
land. 1t was. after all in favor OF a light so ex
quisite as to possess poetry OF it's own There
are two pictures here of water scenes sSaiIing,.
and Sailing in the Mist Neither stands for ary
thing more than a careful notation OF natural
phenomena, vet both have positively romantic
charm The opalescent color IN the second of tbasa
paintings is as potent to leave tho beholder IN a
state OF bewitchment as though the artist had de-
hherately set out TO exercise an imaginative smell
As a matter OF fact. Twachtman never con-
seiously dramatized or poetized the materials he
found in our informal landscape His detsehnent
from constructive theories. in the academic Sense
was complete. As we have more than once pointed
out MS compositions we're not invented but divinea
Whether out Of respect for the freedom OF "a