The San Francisco call., 1909-02-28
Art Notes.
By Lucy B. Jerome
HE Sydney Yard memorial ex-
hibition now being held at Wick

familiar pictures being shown as Well
as a number completed just before his
death. Forty-two landscapes and seven
charcoal drawings are on view, the
latter not having been offered to the
public before.
Perhaps the most pretentious of the
landscapes is the one called Unsettled
Weather. in which the atmospheric ef-
fects are delineated with Yards utmost
feeling and delicacy. wide pool OF
vclear water breaks an expanse of
marshland, while a mighty gray and
white cloud, threatening rain, sweeps
slowly over the heavens, brilliant riffs
of blue cleaning through the gather
ing storm The color. though subdued.
Is rich, and the light effects handled in
Yards own inimitable style. This pic
ture is valued at S400.
Chalk Cliffs at Devon is a water
color of great originality. 1t shows the
cleaning white of the cliffs boldly dis
played against the rich tones of red
and green which predominate in the
vegetation, making virile contrast in i
color, While over a low hill hanging
clouds betollen approaching rain, and
a brilliant bay, undimmed, shimmers
in sweeping curve of beauty.
The Uplands" is a pastoral scene,
depicting a distant vista opening be-
tween two noble oaks AS In all Yards
pictures, the intimate aspects of land
scapes are shown to the full in this
canvas.
'Lengthening Shadows" is more SOM
Der, and one feels the touch of melan-
cho1y in the creeping shadow fingers
across the yellowed grass.
The charcoal sketches are tree draw
ings in landscape setting. The
anatomy of the tree is wonderfully
McComas trees, these of Yards have
a soul" They seem the natural habi-
tation of dryad or a wood nymph,
and speak their own language to the
observer.
Two of the Yard water colors.
Brown and Gray and Oaks at Pa
cific Grove" have been sold, and a
number have been reserved So far,
the exhibition has been marked by sue
cess. 1t will continue during this week
Fusely says: Resemblance, charac-
ter, costume, are the three requisites
of portrait painting; resemblance dis
tinguishes, character classifies and
costume assigns place and time to an
individual"
The women painters of Los Angeles
are holding an exhibition of their work
at the Blanchard gallery A number
of portraits are shown which have re-
ceived praise from the southern press.
Nanette Calder, Regina O'Kane, Mary
Gay. Mrs. Helma Jannand and Blanche
Duggan Cole are among those repre-
sented.
Years ago. says A. Cary Smith in
the New York Herald, IAN artist ap-
peared in New York He had studied
abroad and had collected number of
artistic properties and sketches. His
studio was in the track of Shermans
army and some of the artistic be-
longings were found on a dung heap
when the army had passed by. Sher-
mans terse description of war had
been carried out.
When the forlorn painter appeared
in New York it was soon found that
new sun has arisen. To take adj
vantage of this sun and make hay
while the sun shone a contract was
made by a dealer to take all the pic
lures the artist could produce. Glow
ing descriptions were published of the
pictures, couched in terms dear TO the
tyro. The pictures were put on ex-
hibition Rich men f1ocked to see them,
but looked about the gallery in vain
At last the silver tongued salesman
was appealed to. He was on the watch
for just such an inquiry.
Step this way, please.
The customer was led up a dingy
staircase and through dingy rooms
piled up with pictures, and then Silver
Tongue selected a key from a bunch,
opened the door and stood one side for
the customer to precece him. The pic
ture was there aTtistically draped,
lighted from above with shaded gas
light and there was plate glass
over the shadow box. Silver Tongue
stood in statuesque silence and permit
ted the picture to exert its influence.
when the customer could stand it
no longer-the God of Silence is COM
pelling: How much will you take for
the picture?'
"Silver Tongue singeth: Fifteen
hundred dollars
"'Send it UP to my house No. -
Fifth avenue
silver Tongue. after washing his
tongue with invisible water, takes out
a notebook, jots down name and ad-
dress of the customer, and bows him
out clear down to his cab.
THE buyer rattIes down to his office
When he arrives he goes to his sane
tum tells his head man not to disturb
him and reads and rereadS the Rus
kinesque description so as to recall it
when he stands before the picture and
describes 1t to his friends after dim
ner.
''The owner thinks he has a MASTER
piece; the public is gulled; the sales
man is happy, and the artist received
$500 for his work.
Moral Know an old master when
| you see one.
Miss Evelyn Almond Withrow will
exhibit this spring number of the
so termed iridescent pictures for
which she is noted. These paintings
are charming in their originality and
idealism, and strike a new note in
exhibitions. Several OF them have
been seen at various picture collections,
but it will be the first time that they
have been shown in their entirety.
Miss Withrow Is busy with matters
concerning the Alaska-Yukon exhibit,
to be held in Seattle this spring, for
which pictures are coming in daily.
| Sculptors sometimes have hard time
| of it, as shown by the following anec-
| dote from Lippincott's:
| The husband of beloved deceased
| wife came to see her bust.
Look at it WELL" said the sculptor,
| "and as it is only in clay, 1 can alter
| it if necessary"
The widower looked at it carefully
with the most tender in crest.
"It is her very self" he said. .'Her
| large nose--the sign of goodness"
Then, bursting into tears, he added:
'She was so good. Make the nose