Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-26

WENTY- EIGHT portraits by
Wilhelm Funk of New York
constitute an exhibition which
III opened in the hemicycle hall of
the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Wednesday. Mr. Funk is without doubt
one of the leading American portrait
painters and his work makes a dis
tinguiShed showing. The interest in
portrait is invariably twofold-subjectiye
and technical. AS we'll known essayist
has said, the most interesting thing to
mar is man. In portraiture the personal
equation is dominant. Forms and SYM
bols may be very engaging, but they
cannot get the same grip on the 1mas-
nation emotions as life.
1t is for this reason that a mere re-
production of features does not s%ffice
and that portrait painting is given first
rank above all other kinds of painting
Confusion often seems tn arise concerning
likeness with which the majority seeking
portrait are inclined to be content.
Likeness is certainly essential to por-
traiture. but ii is by no means its entire
sum and substance Witness, for example.
Rembrandt's portraits. No one can doubt
that they like the originals, but they
go farther than this and become human
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of art Or consider
the portraits of the painters of the great
English school, Reynolds, Romney and
Gainsborough. which combine with the
interest of personality much pictorial
charm. In each instance the people who
are portrayed are Observation-Disclosures
if not perhaps inherently interesting. they
become through the artists skillful
Interpretation. In other words. while the
personality of the sitter is of chief inn
portance the art of the painter is eS-
sential to its transcription. With these
two forces Mr. Funk maintains a fair
ba lance allowing neither to outweigh the
other Primarily ne has a keen sense of
the pictorial, a love of color, yet in all
his paintings the subjective interest is
paramount. AS technician he is clever
dangerously clever-but rarely does he
use facile brush work for the purpose OF
mere display
The first impression upon enterine
the hemicycle hail. in which these pic
lures are hung, is favorable. The por-
traits decorate the gallery and invite
inspection. The color scheme en- maSse
is good and the arrangement attrac
tive. In the center on the semicircular
wall. i'll the place of honor. hangs
large portrait of Mrs. Ernest Wilts-e
and her little son. rollicking baby
boy. To the right and left. as pendants,
are four portraits of children. little
Ann Seton. the daughter of Ernest
Thompson-Seton: little Dorothy Gould.
"a little Breton Peasant Girl and
Little Marie" small lass with a big
red apple pictured against a red back
ground. The little Gould girl wears a
pink bonnet and is dressed in white.
carrying even a muff Of white fur. Ann
Seton is in quaint costume and is
painted with more elaborate detail and
greater variation in color scheme Lit
tie Miss Barbara Holt is portrayed
somewhat in the same vein. pictorlally.
but with less naive suggestion.
Mr. funk. with Shannon and Irving
Wiles, has been declared painter OF
fashion. attaining some say. his best re-
suits as an Interpreter of femininity, and
il is true that his portraits of women are
of notable interest. The women he paints
have as their chief asset charm, and this
finds expression in his canvases- \ Wom-
ans portrait, he claims. must be primar-
lily decorative. whereas mans, as III
the eyes of the English law, may be con-