The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-17
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- ~" 49,
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snd saa %enfneussd IN asaley fHd etseuied
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fss,s sad sHn ~ theNr fhinaa awe u
an aaperg ~ laneHHaps va aleHet
'grsaris " aliief
tta astHa daes ne a~s any sofse IN
fsrt, n mav w. that v improves Inc Ia
lel so fsel that ihe men stn n iate vesfs
hsve lmtfeaasi ~ much Il their ehsfar,ef
, y " hsve af6sH tired fheif toIas ~
vellowhess fee hsceld tnd atuerse,i naafif
~ dfy6saa The eeffsui ~ m1fbtdity dpea
me- eNerves-e ~ " usssi ~, hsN tho etlt "
CluaeiHa 10 u~ndlminished IN W. awav Hs
hleh pfleais are unitntaifed ~ ~ th~if
authority and tho only chaHse, n indeed
there h. ahy chsnae IL that iho iuetry ~
put fessrn~e 10 ~phonoemphir In ita delivery
anil hss la 10 Oil malignant s%srntahelty
Salads. ~ 10 poli,e. must leavs out tho
garlic. Tho salon without mhrcity woubi
10 polite, ami N " wore polite N would 10
negliGihle
In tho Salon for more than y quarter ~
y CENTURY The dominant note haa boon the
n,de ~ far tho twentieth century hos
bruuRh, no relief. and " Ia doubtful II u
ever will. II would he very serious matter
" the Illusions which govern the PAINTING
~ tho nude In France were 10 10 suddenly
TT ~. u.I. .....II - l-A-.a
draw. To-day there we're perhaps fifty
thousand people there; u was the fret fine
warm Sunday ~ the year, and had II not
been 40 very fine there would have been q
greater crowd. Their attention vas given
first IN the nude and NEXT 10 the abnormal
and the gross,
In quantity the supply ~ the nude IL the
same M usual and Il In distributed through
out the interminable galleries with the
usual unerring discrimination and Impair
tiality. No herding Of the unclad In the
Salon. II il impossible for the magma
ton 10 compass the probable consequences
Of assembling all this nakedness In one
large hall. Only a well organized fire
department could do II justice.
The humor Of all human frailty In the
Salons saving grace, The supreme pre-.
rogative Of the human form in art In rome
forever, and poetry is p~lacated only Ivy
suppression Of sex, Only one picture
emerges from the slough Of banality and
unconscious vulRarity, a study by a man
named Benner (dbsit nominis omen weak
technically and unsound in drawing. but
possessed Of the rare charm Of inexpensive
ness. For the rest it ia an appalling dis
play Of n~akedness for unashamedness' sake.
from the lumpy Venuses Of the porneion to
the tuberculous and neurotic models Of the
Paris ~ateliers. The workmanship is for
the most part very accomplished, often
admirable; but the achievement is base.
Depruvity cannot masquerade as art. 1t
can only draw in a popular sense In art:
and it does draw in all accessible art, even
in the art OF making newspapers.
The discerning American visitor to the
Salon, the visitor who still confesses to that
form Of Intellectual dyspepsia which is
called conscience, has serious compunc-
ions respecting his art at home. He cam
not but have qualms about his habitual
attitude toward 1t when he finds that the
two best landsoapesin the Salon are painted
by an American, not by an American in
Paris assimilating wonderfully an exotic
and alien inspiration, but by an American
VINO nNBB anu WOThs ~ UOIlt. HOW un-
affectedly agreeable it is to see an Amer
lean picture, all modesty and unpreten-
tiousness, accepted by those h~yperesthet
and marvellously sophisticated satraps OF
art and given not only hospitality, but the
very top seat of honor!
American artists Of another kind, Nour
sense Of property in whom is Trailer than
we like to admit, we're divulged with
-....G.u l;,t;no,;oo 10 Tho Dn,,aI lon Iapoy
the day before Yesterday; and what a vast
stride it is from Burlington House to the
Champs Elysses! Edwin A. Abbey has
the place of honor in the room where honor
Is impaired, with a picture which ~startles
the English mind. That is to say, it 10 a
purely new and original picture, just as
uncontaminated by precedent or example
as IL an entirely new and undreamed Of
Bottioeli had brought 1t in from Chelsea
In a hanson. John Sargent, in another
room has a picture that is his browning
achievement. 80 far, INT that might we'll
be any mans summum opus. 1t 10 TO our
time what the "Syndics" and The Lesson
in Anatomy" were to another century and
to another artists career. 1t Is a vast
dark canvas in which are concentrated the
portraits of four men Of distinction, the
faculty OI All ailotlNhH Hobpitdl u "oIlu-
wide fame; and when they are gone and
the hospital too has passed away, they will
still live and be celebrated in S%argent's
memorable canvas. 1t is the noblest work
of art that has been hung in the Royal
Academy since Sir Joshua Reynolds was
president Of it, and of its type the most
important, notable and impressive that
has been painted by any man since the
seventeenth century drew it's curtain across
the art Of Holland. To disprove this state
ment one has only to see the picture and
insta ntly and without hesitation point to
the picture which, since the "Syndics'
was painted, can dispute its supremacy.
Mr.. Abbey hiss painted the grizzled
Columbus, armed cap-a-pie, k~neeling with
uplifted hands in the sand by a tropic sea,
about him his fighting mel and behind him
his c~aravels on a sapphire food. This
background is wholly filled with crimson
iamingoes in troubled fight. Some are
near and some remote, but they fiji the
q. enc with an amazing movement and glory
of color and make the oanvas the centre