New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-02-13
FOUR P4INTERS.
Il Brilliant Exhibition Of american
f1't

has given to the National Gallery at Washing
ton with three lent by Colonel Hecker. They
represent four American artists 1. W. DeWing,
Abbott H. Thayer. d, W. Tryon and J. A. Nc
Neil Whistler and this is TO say 'hat they
Illustrate four of the most distinguished per
sonaIities in the history of our school. The
group is united. too. by an element which ought
to he constantly in evidence among painters,
but which as a matter of fact they often
strangely neglect-the element of sheer beauty.
Years ago, when the evangel or art 1of arts
sake" was first being preached IN TINS country,
many 4 Young man of talent was betrayed by
ardent but ignorant devotion to a eaten phrase.
a newly developed horror of "anecdotlc paint
ing threw the well meaning tyro back upon the
conviction that mere subject was necessarily Il
snare, and, since technique was all that counted
it would be fatal to give any play at all 10
thought and emotion. He forgot that theSe
things, which may find their point OF departure
in a given subject have their essential source
in the springs of character and play an indis-
pensabe part in the expression of an ARTISTS
genius. His way of handling paint is not a
question of manual dexterity alone, 1t is
question also of his way of thinking and feel
ing In the bruShwork of a true artist you
may read the very grain of his nature his
whole point of view. Some such reflections
these are bound to be provoked by the present
exhibition. for if it stands for the extraordinarily
skifUI manipulation of paint, it also stands for
qualities Of taste, of feeling, which like i'm
Rapable currents of force through insensate
pigment. causing it to vibrate with life and
eeauty. Above all, with beauty
Perhaps the most suggestive type in the
group is Mr. Thayer, because there would seem
t. be, on the surface, q clash of motives in his
work. a man of imaginative temperament, he
makes you feel in his Head for example, the
sortrait Of grave young woman, that he was
sreoccupled with impression of character
when he painted the work. His sitter. you say,
must have been interesting him than
the casual model could be. Was it not posi-
bic YOU ask that he painted the portrait with
lome more or less poetic idea floating about in
Abe back of his mind? You note, too, that there
are parts OF the canvas over which he passed
Sith momontary lapse of the painters respect
,or the medium in which he works. In short this
Is the kind of painting into with more than
one observer would be quick to import a literary
conception. Yet when you to dwell upon
H. you cannot hut conclude that that idea to
which we have alluded floating about in the
back Of Mr.. Thayers mind nothing ore
nor less than idea of loneliness, the lowell
ness that lies in form and color and that sets a
mans whole being astr. Thoughtfulness is
stamped upon the portrait. but not the thought
fulness of the old anecdotic purpose. 1t is
simply that behind the brush YOU perceive the
cnergizing influence of brains and character, a
rich individuality, a creative artist distin-
Euished from who mechanically reproduces
natural appearances Look too, at Mr.. Thayer
Portrait of Lady and examine into tire
SenSuOus charm of the sittcrs white drapeIy
and the blue background against which it is
1t is curious 70 how just these painted
faces somehow perSOnaliZed and enriched
made eloquent of beauty peculiar to this
painter and no other SO, finally, in the single
landscape of his which is shown, the superb
"Monadnock in Winter" you respond to the
eliminate appeal of nature in the approach to
She mountain through the trees in the fore
ground. you recognize the truth in the artists
representation of the great heights beyond. but
his color, filling it with his distinction
In Mr.. Dewing'S work the secrets of character
have more delicately to be pursued, for
they the more subtly fused More than any
other painter Of time he seeks create
beauty not precisely in a dry light but with a
iind of passion for its last and most elusive
essence. for the fragrance of the flower rather
than for the actual substance of leaf and petal
His figures not Wraiths; far from It. He
studies form with loving Solictude Cor it's
truths, and with what power he can grasp them
you may from the portrait of his da lighter,
especially remarking the modelling of the head
and shoulders in that work. The drawing
about the face is as sure it is exquisite. But
70 .YoJ he ia ,icb New