The sun., 1909-02-28
A FAINTER VISIONARY.

Galleries, $50 Fifth avenue. Never has
the Davies harvest been 30 abundant,
though his field OF art is not without its
tares. At his best he In stumbling
block for most OF US, at his-he has no
worst cloudiest he is an interrogation
mark. There are some pictures which
explain the myetifcation with which his
work is received by the public. The re-
versed legs and upturned soles OF that
man in a certain picture surely IL must
be difficult for the unregenerate TO keep
the face straight when facing 1t. Yet
it's painted imagery might be from Dante,
from that unforgettable canto which
Dord 30 smugly illustrated. The height
OF the wide hpped Davies female, too,
puzzles. Why should the Moonstone lady
tower forty feet above mother earthp
Why is a decoration a decoration? And
the Davies colorl Was 1t ever seen on
sea- sky or land? That clear. flame hued
sky, with the sun below the horizon. yet
sending up as IL from an incandescent
pit vibrations OF mingled saffron and
sulphur while silhouetted against the
west are church spires like sharpened
lead pencils, gables or vast castles, and
the cliffs Of some strange city by the sea -
where, we ask, could MIR. Davies have
viewed such a picture? Perhaps he
didn't, but many New Workers last Thurs
day evening did so after the sharp winds
had broomed the sky clean Of clouds
and let US witness the glory Of the setting
sun over Hoboken. Yes, prosaic Hobo
ken; yet from the New York shore glori-
hA ~ "A
monastery above, a black mass suspended
in the air.
There are several pictures at Macbeth's 8
which may have been Hoboken once.
though so transhgured by this dreamer
that they are seemingly Of No Mans
Land. TRANSPORTING Imagination Da-
vies possesses, coupled with mas
terry Of technical means. His art is often
glass obscure for us, but there is no
sign Of faltering in the brush work. Those
giants OF the strenuous sex have their
meaning for the painter, puzzling as they
are to the locker on in New York. BE
sure that IL the anatomy is agonized it Is
to force into an arbitrary harmony some
interior vision. Instead Of mocking this
painter visionary let us rather see him as
man in the grip Of his temperament.
Last June in these columns we spoke Of
Davies as being both mystic and realist.
At the first plunge into his misty mid
region the shock to eye and intellect
ia 50 sharp that it may seem a mere
paradox. this assertion Of ours. We
maintain il. Despite the novelty Of his
arabesques- for he is as decorative as
poetic-his actual workmanship plants
his dramotis persona on mother earth.
They may be uncsnnily large, these I'M
clad ladies and gentlemen. but they are
human. They possess very earthly emo
tions when you study them. IL is the
slight. perpetual shock administered by
the fresh vision OF Davies that 80 exslts
SOME. startles others. You like him or
hate him. There is no middle ground.
To say that his art recalls the Primi-
tives. Botticelli, Blake, Burne-Jones.
Boecklin, Moreau. is to spe1k the truth;
but it is always Arthur B. Davies who has
the chief say in his work
Half dozen pictures haunt at this
exhibition the memory like the sound Of
dream music. or rare distilled perfumes
or the cadence of poetry uttered in an
absolute beauty Of the composition and
its beautiful presentment. Consider
picture not in the catalogue IL hangs
in the first gallery. IL is a landscape, the
solitary picture of the exhibition in which
NJ human form is to be found. Its rich
emerald tones. its profoundly stirring
tree shapes. the diapason OF sentiment
and the dark. luminous atmosphere. pro-
claim this the canvas OF a master. We
care not whether he saw it in Hoboken
or Pasadena, or whether it was painted
from memory or in the open. II is beau
tiful. Near by is a sinister picture;
giant is carrying of a woman. Il nguard-
ed Night is the title 1t might have come
from Courbet, or trzanne the early
IGzanne of IL Enlt vement," which he
painted under the influence OF DelacroiS.
This ls one OF the few inventions Of
Da ries that sci US 10 wondering il he has
circumnavigated the coasts OF evil as did
Baudeaire. few feet away is that fair,
smiling fantasy The Choral Sea-
vision Of the poets Greece. with its W bite
nubile creatures; ecstasy is in the air,
joyful is The rhythmic life. Ii Is a study
in tonal values. The Uncouth Shep-
herd is too much Boecklin for our taste:
better Boecklin is Alchemy" in which
is expressed the perfect fusion OF the soul
with a lovely scene the sky Of which
Boeckin himself would have envied be-
cause OF its translucent depths. Another
sky. with clouds. which 10 be enjoyed in |
all its massive serenity should be seen
from the inner gallery, is the picture
called Homage TO the Ocean There !
Is a Sheleyiike touch OF rhapsody here |
which to describe would be to end in un-
critical rhapsody. By this is meant that |
no attempts in the doubtful region OF |
verbal virtuosty should be made in writ
ing Of the Davies compositions. Let us
not wriggle on the tripod OF divagation |
let us not read in or out Of his canvases |
meanings. II you cant fathom |
the painters riddle and il may be con.
fcssed that Browning, Mallsrmt or De- |
busy never offered such riddles as his |
titles there remain the problems OF |
handling, of lovely surfaces, OF exotic
tints, of terrific anatomizings for your
edifcation
Wha. does -Avatar" mean? Its para
BILE. is II so knotty to decipher? A chain
OF humans in poignant involutions lie
supine or struggle desperately on the
hither side of the Elysian Field in which
stands an august figure. I'm Vishnu
land what Avatar;" asks Browning. The
uncoiling from the mortal self OF the
imperishable part would be an interpre-
tation easy TO graft uDon the Dayies