The San Francisco call., 1909-02-07
Art Notes
By Lucy B. Jerome
II VERIFYING is dull" say the
= artists, and generally speaking it
L. seems to be true. One picture

L. seems to be true One picture
sold at Del Monte in three
months, dearth of sales in many of
} the city art shops and not much being
oone by the artists themselves would
seem to point to a continuation of the
stagnant period were it not that several
exhibitions are promised in the spring
that are expected to give a needed
hllip to the art market
kelths latest, on exhibition at Rab-
john & Morcom's, Oakland is one of his
most inspiring and powerful pictures
and is winning full need of praise. A
spring shower is the motif and the
foreground, broadly treated is a study
In the freshness and strength of the
sturdy grasses in a wide sweep of
meadow land leading up to low bank
or grayfsh clouds, with blue CLEANS of
a brighter sky beyond. The pool, the
low trees, the nesting Gotta ges, the
two figures and grazing cows. all
thrown out against a background of
showery sky, are Keiths own, and the
feeling of the singular freshness and
cIearness experienced after a passing
shower has frightened the air is de-
pieted to the full The composition is
nnely balanced and satisfactory to the
eye.
Xavier Martinez will hold one of his
rare exhibitions at Vickery,s some time
IN February. at a date that will not
conflict with the memorial exhibition
of the late Sidney Yards works.
which is proposed for the middle of this
month Martinez has not exhibited
anywhere since the fire and his col
lection of some twenty pictures will
be viewed with undoubted interest.
While the landscapes are largely
scenes of the Piedmont hills in their
I 2
shining bay there will be also several
fine examples of figure work. The
largest and the most interesting per-
maps viii be a setting of a long win
dow seat with the curtains OF male
amber slightly parted disclosing an
enchantinC glimpse of mountain and
bay, with the principal object in the
picture, the figure of a young girl
seated profilewise against the window.
her graceful head bent over the book
she holds. The simplicity of this fig
ure almost merits the word austere
and might not do so were it not for the
innocence, purity and charm which
breathe In every line of the pose and
In the smooth folds of dropping hair
that partly conceal the face. The pic
ture is dryad-like in its suggestion Of
wood, and sky and running streams
1t is known that the model is the wife
of the artist and that he owes to her
many of his most alluring and charm
ing conceptions.
The landscapes exhibited will be In
Martinez most felicitous manner be-
ing portrayals of nature among the
hills in her more somber moods. The
gray effects so noticeable in Califor-
MIA scenery are particularly we'll rem
dered, always with the suggestion of
mystery and savagery that appear to
mark the artists work. Lowering. sub
l lima Ii rx1f,
oring;' long lines of violent orange. or
purple, or tawny streaks of light, all
snbdued to fine harmony and melting
into each other, are characteristic of
these scenes The towering limbed
eucalyptus trees, their bending
branches reflected in still shadowed
pools, or waving against a darkening
sky, or rising in majesty into the clear
lights of sunset, their glistening leaves
radiating the prsmatic glow, are SYM
bols of forest power and strength.
Several good things are under way
or have been completed for the COM
ing exhibition of work by local artists
at the art institute in the spring
Prominent among them is an unusually
striking portrait by Emily Travis. one
of the occupants of the Studio building
A portrait of the artist herself. it has
been painted by recourse to the usual
means, that of looking in a mirror and
painting al the same time. The quality
of Miss Travis work is most admirable
Besides her usual characteristics of
strength and originality of conception
there is ip this work command of
technique which renders it an extraor-
dinary piece of modelling. The back
ground has the old master quality of
deep shadow, and against this somber
setting the head, finely drawn, with
the hair braided around the head
in Dutch fashion. stands out with
the clearness of cameo. The artist
has not only rendered her own por-
trait with fidelity and sincerity, but she
has produced work characterized by
fine modelling, beauty of line and tex
ture and satisfying to those who hold
that the chief aim of portrait is the
seizing and retaining of that quality
called soul. The picture, which has won
warm encomiums from those of the ar
tist fraternity who have seen it. will
probably be sent to the Art Institute.
where 1t may be viewed by the public
Carlo Baron. an Italian artist whose
work was seen at the last Sequoia club
exhibition, is busy at some mural deco
rations for the new quarters of the
White House and while doing them has
studio in the present White Hou~o