New-York tribune., 1907-01-08
ART EXHIBITIONS.
Pictares By J. Alden Weir, the Late
J. II. Tscdchtnan and Others

s pyitb
temperament. painter having something To sa.-
vi r1ove thst therc is rothny or,+e so ;r.a-a,t
,nz 20 tire student OF modern art as collection ~
p.1sTes from single brush. He will give to q
email roo'n thus filed character of remarkable
r!ehze1, snd distinction. This is what Mr. 7
Alden Weir has done at the Montross Galleries
His collection is sman-running, in fact TO only
tweat5'tAree 1aintings-but it makes as important
end as suggestive an exhibition any that we are
lR.iy 20 have this season. He leaves this I'M
preston parity Because he brings forward certain
beautiful things. end partly because he does nor
sssr able under any circumstances to be roediocre
or dull. TO throw off the charm, Of stv1a 1bot q,
evidently as natural TO him breathing There
are artists who please you or not as their work ,s
veil or III done. There are others who con7n,un,-
cate note of interest even TO their failures Mr.
Weir belongs to this latter class
There paintings in this show rac.,+rv
executed. and there are others dating from ten
wears or earlier. Looking at the collection ss
whole, and at the clear illustrations of progress
that g contains, we nevertheless think of the
ps!nter not much of tyne of steady
growth but as Of one whose ups and downs baya
corresponded with his moods. Ar moment he
appears to have surpassed himself In the next to
have reiapsed. then to have picked Up the thread
OK his inspiration more, and so on STbe
thins that endures through all these rnischances
Is tie refined original, personal quality at which
have already hinted. Take for example the
portraits. There IS here THE Rose-Pink
before.
glad TO praise again for the success with which
nne workmanship and fine feeling are blended in
IT, Indeed the ottener this IS the deeper does
II impress the beholder; the suggestion that It
hoids OF eighteenth century English portrsiture
IS the more and more subordinated TO the individ-
usl style of the painter. II would seem as though
The maker of this portrait could do almost any
thing. Mr.. Weir can do almost anything. He
can put something OF the Same tender quality OF
this portrait into another. the called Memo
Res: he can effectively work a more solid vein,
in THE Black Hat and he give
d-ey different turn to his talent. practising
Hveler, more direct touch. in a portrait like The
Gray Gown But, then, IN several other portraits,
two OF them large scale, Cora" The
Donkey Ride IAN Afternoon Stroll and Figure
in Sunlight" he positively you by the
cold ineas.icity of his surfaces. It is as though
an expert technician. accustomed to easy control
his pigments suddenly found them unac-
countably stubborn In far they Yield the
quality aimed at they seem to yield It TO main
strength and TO preserve signs OF the struggle
in an unlovely heaviness and opacity.
Among Mr.. Weirs portraits the contrasts are
sharp. He is fecitous he is quite the contrary.
In his landscape work the differences subtler.
The Factory Village painted ten years ego-and
somewhat improved in tone since then-is far less
delicate and luminous than the two three
new landscapes in the show. At the time. the
new and the old have points OF contact; there is
admirable power OF generalization shown at both
ends of the scale Where Mr.. Weir has gained as
light and air. and even more in what we can only
describe the sweetness of nature. There is ex-
qusita sentiment IN "a Day in June THE Black
Birch Rock and "Ths Return of the Fishing
Party" All OF these landscapes, and especially the
first have mentioned. simply saturated in
beauty. Truth is in them but 1t is truth enveoped
in charm. 1t is set forth with perhaps less emo
ton, but, the other hand with perhaps shade
strength, in the little scene. The Farm
in winter Some of the landscapes-"The Red
Bridge" for e<ample-direct attention again to the
painters odd way of every and then failing to
hit the mark: but these 700. Ike the less salts
factory portraits have that saving grace which
temperament viii stamp upon painting This ia
one way of saying that, however the works in It
may vary in merit, Mr.. Weirs exhibition is worth
seeing.
II is a pity that the monthly exhibitions at the
Lotos Club extend only two or three days.
The Jenuary show will not be visible after to-day.
yet It is one which could easily hold attention for
q fortnight 1t is devoted to works by the
late John H. Twachtman. paintings and pestels
loaned b. various collectors and by his widow.
Some Of his best things here, things which
have been in public more than once, but which
wear well and altogether welcome. The very
durability OF Twachtmans art is indeed p matter
of special interest He sought subtle effects and
he expressed them with great delicany. Hin finest
pictures, like The Snow Storm The Hem
lock Pool have in their light. fresh beauty
thing akin to the evanescence of the atmospheric
phenomena he studied. 1t is good 10 see pct-
by him appear and reappear in local exhibit
tons, how they keep their bloom how they exert
and over again the spell OF truth and of A
really vtalized artistic gift. 1t q mistake TO
make this exhibition quite large There
arnp:es in * OF that merely experimental process
which Is Of profound interest to the artist himself
but which scarcely does him Justice when It is
uaJAv exposed in a public exhibition Especially
b-Ief exhibition like this should the selection
be confined to the perfect manifestations OF a
mans gift. Twachtman always experiment
ing. When the influence of Monet started him
upon the study OF open-air problems he had slowly
10 beat out for himself the method at which he
finally arrived. and. ike every disciple OF the
French impressionst. he frequently went wrong,
landing in formlessness and obscurity. Again and
again. however. eye and hand worked in harmony.
and he transferred the very essencs of
the misty lights ths superlne vibrations OF color.
by which his most intimate emotions were salts
fed When he is in complete command of himself
and his material. he is in a fair number Of the
pictures a. tie IIotos Club he Is sngulariy win
ming figure.
At the Noe Galleries there is collection Of
water colors by Mr.. F. Hopkinson Smith. more OF
those picturesque Venetian. French and English
studies which he has been executing every year for
long period. No note is struck upon this
occasion unless It is that fn Of the Venetian
water colors 'Old Boatysrd-San Trovaso." Mfr.
Smith has got little richer. solder color into his
work than he usually seekr. IN Venice he continues
TO paint as We have him painting there for SO
many years and he has lost nothing Of his skill or
sentiment I'm his wanderngs along the banks of
English ctreans. His French subjects make a
sighter appeal. They may have been painted with
The same enthusiasm. but they leave the spectator
indifferent
Three different collections view at the
American Art Galleries. The first Is composed OF
orientalia-prints, objects IN metal bronzes. and
80 on-Ieft by the late DR.. 8. M Burnett OF wash