The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1908-01-04

1.-The Story of American Painting" The
evolution of painting in America from
Colonial times to the present. BY
Charles H. Caffln. Frederick A. Stokes
Company, publishers.
Mr.. Caffin has produced a book that will
interest the general reader, and that is
what he has aimed to do. ItNis written
with such clarity and simplicity and in
telligence that one uneducated in the art
of painting or artistic appreciation may
easily digest 1t and receive mucn ple1s-
IRE as well as instruction and information
from its i~mpartments. In what manner
better than by a perusal of this book, the
layman could gain a more succinct and
comprehensive idea of American art from
it's scant beginnings to its fruitful present,
we cannot easily see. To those informed in
The art ii should appeal also. Mt least, as a
handy work of reference.
The author traces the growth Of Amer
can painting from the very earliest painter
IN the country. who was Gustavlis Hes
selius, arrived in 1913, through all the vari-
rus movements and influences which have
shipped it In the somewhat less than two
centuries following He discusses the col
opial and revolutionary conditions sur
rounding tho work of Benjamin West,
John Singleton Copley, Charles Wilson
Peald and Gilbert Stuart. He seeks out
Inc re11ectlOnS IN art OF lue beSiiliinB VI
4 national spirit in Jonathan Trumbull.
Washington Allston and John Nanderlyn.
He describes the first efforts in landscape
painting by the Hudson River sehool'
of artists, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty,
William Hart, Asher h. Durand and oth-
ers. Charles Loring Elliott, the foremost
painter of the middle nineteenth century,
and Henry Inman. of the same period re-
ceivc due appreciation. The popular news
boy and bootblack paintings OF John u.
Brown are extolled for their surface pref
liness and storytelling properties but con-
1emned for their lack of real character
and Imagination. The influence success
sively of Dusseldorf. Munich and Paris
is then taken up. Special chapters are de-
voted to the work OF John La Fargo ana
Whistler. and attention is carefully given
10 William Morris Hunt, George inness'
George de Forest Brush, Winslow Homer
Edwin A. Abbey, Home d. Martin
Horatio Walker, John S. Sargent, john H.
Twachtman and many others. In the case
Of most of the artists brief biographies are
given, the influences under when they
worked are discussed and the quality ana
value of their work Analysed. Admirable
half-tone reproductions Of Characteristic
examples of the artists to the number OF
i43 accompany the test ana add NUN
value, point and interest.
Fvan more thar with individuals. how
ever. Mr.. Caf1n's aim has been to ac-
quaint his readers with motives ana
methods, studying the evolution OF the ART
from the mere exact copying OF externals
In the period of crudity to the artists eX-
preston of himself spiritually in his work
in the period of highest fulfllment. HIS
ATTEMPT has been not Only to familiarize
tho reader with individual painters,
but to enable him and encourage him to
form iudgments for himself on the work
that is being done by American artists to-
day.
As regards his own opinion of American
art of the present, Mr.. Caffin finds a gen
eral high standard of craftsmanship
sanity. capabiIity and moderation. The
trouble is, he thinks, that there is too
much of moderation and too little OF pro-
found conviction. AS a group, and with
notable exceptions, American painters DO
not suggest marked individuality. This
failing he attributes to the remnants OF
Puritanism In American character gener-
ally. which still hampers the free express
sion of the artists self not only in paint
ing. but In literature. Our old-womanish
confusion of purity with prudishness, our
superficial sentimentality and our half
baked, childish notions about such sub
iects. for instance, as the nude In art
have much to answer for in the crampinS
of the artists means of expression. fQr
few artists. however trained, are entirely
independent or. indeed can afford TO De,
of the united thought of their neighbors.