New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-02-09

a better impression If he had shown only
MS three portraits of men, the portraits OF
Mrs. Inge and Mrs. Gilbert. the Lady in
Black and The Girl and Horse
Mr. F Ballard Williams. at the Macbeth
Gallery, exhibits eighteen new paintings
which are very agreeable TO see, though
they stand for type of art which is open
TO some grave objections How far is an
artist justified in departing from the truth
Of nature and substituting therefor con-
vention of his own? Before figure sub
iect by Diaz Zone of his thoroughly success
ful figure subjects or before one OF those
curious garden scenes which Monticello vas
wont 10 paint. you are easily persuaded
that the artist who chooses to make his
canvas resemble food CT Jewels Is only
TO be applauded for SO doing. The work Is
too beautiful to be questioned, one IS con-
tent simply TO enjoy it. Genius, you say,
should be left a liberty 10 do as IL chooses.
What OF the man OF talent. and Of very in
teresting talent at that. who claims some
thing of the same license You delight in
hjm-and you doubt.
There is not a picture in this collection of
Mr.. Williams's which fails to touch you
with a certain romantic glamour. The
women in his compositions are sumptuous
figures. gracefully presented against beau
tiful backgrounds His landscapes are
broadly painted in a very workmanlike
manner. and they are filed with a poetic
sentiment Individually authentic. His color
everywhere is rich, mellow and most dis
creetly handled Why. then, does his work
nevertheless give US pause? Because IN his
treatment alike of landscape and the figure
he seems 20 he moving in a shadow, unreal
world a place of airless tapestries rather
than Of sunny winds. living foliage and
warm flesh and blood. This, II might be
argued. is Just what he Is driving at and
We have no right, when an artist is trying
for one thing, 10 blame him because he does
not try for something else. On the other
hand, We might plead that the practical OK
clusion of nature from painters work IS
inimicaI to high achievement. save in the
rarest instances If it is ever at all defensi-
BILE, and, in any case, We may fairly protest
that Mr., Williams. for all his sensuous and
imaginative charm, is not enough the mas
ter TO carry absolute conviction. He is be
quilting but his work smacks of artifiCe to
an extent that in the long run threatens 10
destroy the charming illusion which il is
his aim 70 create. At the same gallery Mr..
T Luis Mora is exhibiting number OF
pictures painted in Spain, They are sincere
painsta king performance but somehow
lack fire and originality Only one piece in
the collection, the little sketch OF The
Beach at Tossa. Catalina makes the ap-
peal Of really clever painting, though the
trea inert Of the shawl in Mercedes" should
possibly invite word Of favorable COM
ment on that picture as we'll
Portraits and other paintings Of the
5-b+ Eve eI,
current exhibition at the Enrich Gallery
The portraits Of men notably serve 70
strengthen the little collection of some
Twenty-Five or thirty canvases. Beechey's
Sir Water Scott is an interesting soUve-
mir of the great novelist. handsome, i'm
posing picture illustrating the dignifed
simplicity which belonged we'll TO the
minor members Of the old British school
10 its shining lights. A good companion to
this is Hoppner's Sir Robert WigTam, the
strs light forvar I'd and peculiarly sy1mpa thetic
study of sterling type There are various
decorative portraits of women IN the show.
the handsomely painted Scotch Lady" of
Sir ] W Gordon. the dainty "Milady' of
Po77uey and the polished Lady Charlotte
Johnston OF Francis COtes, but the honors
arc emphaticaIIy carried off by the two
ror+raits Of men Just cited The most inter
eStlUE OF inc landscapes - LlS S>ileTliPE+iS
of George Morland, q spacious canvas T.
which the composition IS perhaps d little
scattered, but in which there is some lovely
painting The group of buildings IN the
centre make by themselves delightful cpl
gode. Hogarth and GainsDorough, Consta-
bic and Reynolds, Raeburn and Lawrence.
are among the others represented
The eighteenth century school Of British
engravers is brilliantly illustrated in the
collection of mezzotints now on exhibition
at the Wunderlich Gallery. These famous
plates have had an ever increasing vogue
in America and have steadily become more
and more familiar. but their charm only
increases on closer acquaintance and its
potencv is signaIIy heightened by such an
exhibition as this one, which brings for
ward many Impressions OF great beauty
and rarity a group OF mezzotints like
these constitutes. as II were. a Georgian
PORTRAIT gallery. showing us in little the
whole broad movement of that art of eIe-
gance which was practised by Sir Joshua
and his fellows. A wonderful urbanitv pre-
sided over their labors. The genre subject
was cultivated with certain freedom in
that period, as witness some Of the designs
OF Morland. but an essentially refined senti-
rent prevailed. Look, for example. AZ
The Promenade at Carlisle House - in the
plate designed and engraved BY j. r. Smith
That resourceful artist knew how To de
I!neate the social movement OF his dav viii,
animation. but he jealousy preserved his
sense OF measure and there IS sometime
winningly ceremonious and dignifed about
his seemingly careless types OF fashion.
REYNOLDS, in his portrait of Mrs. Pelham
Feeding Chickens" which may here be seen
in the beautiful plate engraved by Dickiu-
son, envelops his pretty pastoral in A posi-
lively courtly atmosphere, and when he
portravs the valorous Colonel Tarleton ne
invests his sitter with an incomparsbIa
Eaillard grace. The exhibition is full of the
fascination OF this brilliant artistic habit
which made both painters and engravers
not only masters OF pictorial beauty, but
vivid social historians To visit this exhi-
bition is not only TO apprehend The traits
OF great school OF art, but TO be In the
company of the leading personalities. men
and women. OF an era trimming over with
human interest"
Mr. Courtney Pollock. the English sculp-
tor. who has placed a number of his works
on view al the Scott Fowles Gallery he's
an ebullient. exhilarating way with him
Ills husts are Enthusiastically good portraits.
full Of character. and fairly tinging with
vitality. lie is a skilful altogether AIDE
auste, modeller. giving the structure Of