The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-12-25

intend, all the same, TO COn1ine this talk
II the younger ones on our first visit 10
The art gallery. We shall see the great
est exhibition OF up-to-date American
paintings in this country this winter.
II is the Corcoran Gallery's third bien-
NAL exhibition OF oil paintings by con-
temporary American artists" A Ions
name. / admit but you must not forget
II; and remember what you see there,
too. for when you are grown men and
women you win be proud to recall that
you saw this epoch-making exhibition of
native art.
Here We are in the stately vestibule.
AS we stand and view the interior, with
its superb marble stairway, in the very
center of the gallery we are impressed
by its massive proportions, architectural
beauty and dignihed simplicity. With
these venerable white sculptured master
pieces of Greek art about US. before We
so upstairs where the pictures are, 1
wish 10 explain 70 you what impression
ism''-the new kind OF paintings, for
you must understand something of II If
you are TO comprehend the differences
between the 'old school, and the 'new
school, OF painting.
The pictures upstairs are almost all
new school" and the new-school art
ISIS are 'impressionistc" painters-'plain
air men" they are sometimes called-but
that term Is not so comprehensive.
Explaining ExpressiOnism.
r. for instance, on a canvas is painted
three round spots, two red and one yell
low. against a background. the upper half
of which is dark green and the lower half
white, that might be an impressionistic
picture of three apples, two red and one
yellow, lying on white tablecloth, and
the wall paper behind them a dark
green. Those two red and one yellow
spots stand for the apples, and the green
tint for the background and the white for
the table cover. This impressiOnistic
picture only tells a few facts.
The apples are circular and the wall
green. The back Of the table is a straight
horizontal line Two apples are red and
one yellow, and the table cover white
Now, some artists think that quite
enough 20 tell about the natural objects
they are representing. while other artists,
particularly the older school. would paint
those apples, that table. and the back
ground so litelike YOU might think they
were real and try 10 pick up the apples.
Painting things so real that they seem
TO exist right before you is very old
fashioned art. and considered unworthy
nowadays, but when your parents were
little children pictures painted so real
were the only kind anybody tried 10
paint.
Change of Art FnshionS-
Hats and clothes go out Of fashion and
look so funny TO US. Hats and clothes
change fashions without reason. bat for
this change in the art fashion" there
is the very best of reasons. Good ar
fists paint only the beauty they see in
the things they look at-the beautiful
forms, colors, hues. tints, and tones they
see in nature, and do not Try 10 make
things so real thar they are more fun of
reality than of beauty We must be the
judges OF whether the artists here have
been successful or not
So, you sec, impressionism and realism
make mighty differences in pictures.
Furthermore if artists painted nature
only "dreadfully real" they would be
nothing more than a lot of machines. and
pictures would be as much alike as snap
shots with kodak in the hands of a
novice. It is this ability to discover the
beautiful in nature and suppress all that
is not beautiful which lifts a painter
from the class We call mechanics and
places him with the great original poets
and musicians
Interpreters of Nature.
We call them Interpreters Of nature"
and when they show real genius for dis
covering beauty We say they are "in-
spired."
No one ever said that of Preyer. the
famous German fruit painter, who paint
ed fly so natural on grape leaf you
would not believe il painted til you tried
10 brush il away. and failed Nor of the
man who painted pictures of dollar
bills so real that you were sure that if
the glass were removed, you would find
the bill actually there Such painters
were skilled mechanics
Among some of the old Dutch painters
who painted with this minute mimetic
skill, there were some few exceptions
who added 10 this perfect work. tnterpre-
tatiOn and qualities Of color. which have
impaired TO their pictures a compelling
and enduring charm.
Realism vs.. InpressiOnism.
Do you see the difference between real
ism and impressionism? Well. there is
just one thing more to be made clear be-
fore We ascend the beautiful stairway
TO where the eight galleries are filed with
pictures-S52 Of them-and that is the
plain air school," which. after all the
involved talk one hears, is nothing more
than painting in true, natural key
normal nature justfes these painters.
Think of the brown, yellow tone, varnish-
Cd OF paintings all had, until very re-
Gently. No one expected them 10 look
otherwise until the great FTenchman
Monet came along and painted straw
stacks in the sunshine with blue shad-
OWs and skies rs white as chalk.
OF course there was great protest.
but he was right Nature did look that
way, and of a sudden there was a great
rush among the students and painters to
so hack TO nature and begin all over
again.
Notions of Good Art Discarded.
The notions about the old dinsy. brown.
aTnber-toned pictures-so many Of
the worlds masterpieces among them
being good art was discarded. And what
freaks some Of these new painters did!
II makes one shudder 20 think of them,
but the movement was in 80 right direc-
ton and the pictures upstairs seem like
hundreds OF open windows looking out
upon some of the loveliest scenes one
ever beheld, And, as the best painters
have only given US the beauty they saw
and enough realism TO make us forget
that it is painted canvas we are look
1ns at we are thrilled with delight and
feel the joy known only in the open air
IN beautiful places.
Ii is the same with pictures of scenes
indoors The fresh, clear colors are true
70 the real atmosphere. and the smoky
brown piCtura that loobs as fbouuh il