Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-04
ART IN NEW YORK
The Waggaman Sale Created
Quite a Sensation.
GOOD PRICES PAID
NOTABLE WINTER EXHIBITIONS
AND SOME OF THEIR GEMS.
Well-Known Washington Artists Who
Have Their Studios in the
Metropolis.
GOOD PRICES PAID
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, February 3, 1905.
This Is the high tide Of the art season.
and of picture exhibitions and of sales
there seems to be no end.
The exhibition and sale of the Waggaman
art collection has attracted unusual atten-
ton for the past fortnight The price
brought by the Mauve O,2O0) and the
aggregate amount paid for the ninety-six
paintings which were sold last Friday
night In Mendelssohn Hall are considered
phenomenal and have created no small
sensation In New York art circles. That,
as some one has said, was 1.-The day of the
Dutchman," for, relatively speaking, the
enthusiasm of the would-be purchasers was
expended upon the works of the lowland
painters. This was in itself a high tribute
to the discriminating judgment of Mr.
Richard N. Brooke of Washington, who Is
proud to have selected and purchased most
OF these paintings for Mr.. Waggaman.
Aside from the pictures, however. the col
lection has excited much interest. The sale
of the oriental art objects opened most in
auspiciously on the afternoon of the bliz-
Zard, when all the surface cars were tied
up and walking was wellnigh impossible
Yet even then there were enough bidders
to insure a fair price for the articles which
were sold On Friday night when the pic
lures were dispersed, traffic was still i'm
peded and the cold was intense, but the
apacity Of Mendelssohn Hall was strain
ed to the utmost and many were in at
tendance before the doors were opened.
1t would be scarcely possible to imagine
a more attractive setting for picture sale
than the music hall, with its pleasing pro-
portions and interesting decorations, or to
fancy a more acute audience than the
thousand artists, collectors, dealers and
connoisseurs who gathered there that night.
The Israels, the Mauve, the Wyant, the
Maris and few other canvases were greet
ed with enthusiastic applause, and the bid
ding was sufficiently spirited to keep the
excitement at a high pitch. 1t was, per-
haps, not until then and later. when the
beautiful art objects of Mr.. Waggamans
choice collection were seen in the delight
full environment of the American galleries,
that Washingtonians realized the value of
this collection and the loss it's disposal
meant to their home city.
A Notable Collection From st. Louis.
Following Immediately upon the sale of
the Waggaman paintings and occupying the
space they had held in the American gal
leries came a collection OF pictures got
together by the late J. w. Kaufman of st.
Louis. These were more popular paintings
and formed a more usual collection but
In the midst of the many several fine works
were to be found. There was a charming
little water color by Israels, an interesting
oil by Jacob Maris, a cleverly rendered pas
tel by L'Hermitte, delightful little Jacque,
an uncommonly attractive Detaille, an ap-
pealng Chialiva, a peculiarly pleasing Har-
pignies and several admirable examples of
the poet-painters of the Barbizon school.
The National Academy Of Design.
The eighteenth annual exhibition of the
National Academy of Design occupied the
Fine Art Galleries until the first of this
week. when it gave way to the Architec-
tural Leagues show, which is soon to open.
In the meanwhile there are special exhibit
tons at almost all the dealers galleries and
loan collections of paintings on view at the
several clubs. The academy exhibition was
disappointing this year and decidedly below
the average. There was a good Jury and
more than a fair list of contributors but
takenS collectively the work was very lnedi-
OGRE, and individually even the strongest
men we've not seen at their best The paint
ingS We're largely pictorial, pretty and over
worked archaic rather than modern-Doru-
lar and in no sense profound. There were,
of course, exceptions. William NJ. Chase
sent an admirable piece of still-life paint
ing Louis Loeb showed AN excellent por-
trait of Miss Eleanor Robson as Merely
Mary Ann John W. Alexander exhibited a
charming little figure study called AN In
teresting Book George Innes jr., was rep
resented by a write painting of sheep, and
Francis Murphy, H. r. Poore, Cullen Yates,
w. L. Lathrop and Francis G. Jones con-
tributed attractive and well-rendered land
ScapeS, while to the credit of Henry S. Hub
bell and Louis Mora were two exceedingly
charming genres. There was great deal
of extreme work shown-paintings which
distorted individuality into freakism and
discarded academic rules to become law
unto themselves; pictures which strained
for originality at the cost of the sane and
equally valuable qualities of truth and
beauty.
Prize Winners.
Two of the prize winners belonged in
measure to this class-"The Lorelei," by
Childe Hassam, and Thomas Eakin's por-
trait of Prof. Leslie W. Miller. To the
former was awarded the Thomas b. Clarke
prize of $500 for the best American figure
composition painted in the United States
by an American citizen, and to the latter
was given the Thomas r. Proctor prize of
$500 for the best portrait in the exhibition.
The Lorelei'' painted in Mr.. Has
sans characteristic manner-dashes and
dots of pure, dry color, which near to are
less than meaningless, but at distance
"recompose" into light and air and mat
ter" 1t is interesting and curious, clever
without doubt, brilliant in execution.
chaste in feeling. yet withal unappealing,
and possessed of little lasting charm The
Eakin portrait was even more clever and
less worthy 1t was admirably done and
ar excellent irnpersonation. but SO stripped
of every remnant of possible charm that it
became through its negation a positive Of
tense. The color was duh and uninterest-
ing the brush work dry and harsh and
even the pose of the figure was nonchalant
and ungra ceful. And this is unnecessary
Art is something bigger and more profolaad
than clever execution. Rembrandt and
Raeburn painted men with the utmost
simplicity and strength, but their works