New-York tribune., 1910-01-05
ART EXHIBITIONS
Ne50 Works by Se0erai Amer-
icdR Painters.

so forth summer after summer with can
vas and brushes, it is so easy to believe
that one is doing his best-and it is so
easy lust TO mark time. There are paint
srs-as there are, for example, novelists
from whom something new is to be ex-
pected as regularly as the winter comes
around Sometimes it is very much worth
having. Mr. Willard l. AIetcaIf is one Of
hose artists whose annual reappearances
have come TO possess 3 really serious sig
aificance. He has at the Montross Gallery
mother collection Of new landscapes,
eleven in all and they are marked by the
fresh and vivid qualities belonging to
work which IS produced not out of rou-
line but out OF an unforced zest for nat
ure. His talent unfailingly responds to
the problems Z -4ated by nothing more nor
iess than a love for life out of doors.
If we are inclined to put Mr. Metcalf's
substance Immediately in the foreground,
making much OF his delight in his subject
II is because the broad Impression he
leaves is. above all things one of the truth
sensitively observed. He does not attempt
10 romanticize landscape or TO express his
temperament in terms of light and shade
InS color more or less arbitrarily ar
ranged" His purpose is. rather. to give
the thing seen its full weight. wreaking
his constructive faculty on composition
alone Where that important element IN
art Is concerned he uses, perhaps, great
er skill than is apparent upon the sur
face His pictorial schemes are charm
ingiy spontaneous, and seem, indeed, to
have been casually discovered rather than
carefully worked out At all events there
Is nothing in his work suggestive OF coldiy
academic design. Yet to see how shrewdIy
ne balances his motives. how earnestly he
Mo
stead Of the ..hit or miss" sketch, the OBJ
server has only TO analyze some such
Landscape of his as the one called I'm
folding Buds" Look first at the felicitous
disposition of the masses in this land
scape and then trace the judicious touches
which account for an unusual number Of
pretty substantial details, but somehow
weld them all together, keeping every one
in It's proper relation to the whole. Note
the treatment of the rocks of the sheep,
and the various trees or shrubs here and
there. The artist has. first and last a
good deal 10 tell US bat he labors no
single point, and, in the long run. brings
US quite naturally back 70 the thing which
counts most in his work the simple senti-
ment and charm of the American country
side. Admirably does he conceal the tech
nical adroitness which is one OF his best
resources
Does he, perhaps, conceal II z shade too
well? In the presence Of a single picture
OF his one would scarcely be moved to ask
The question, but if forms itself on the lips
as one turns to number of other pieces
and especially TO those which are in much
the same key, Landscapes like the May
Time" or the '-BIossoming Maple" 1t
might seem unreasonable to wish that an
artist gave US. occasionally, something less
than has best; but. to put It in another
way, We now and then find ourselves re-
GREETING that Mr.. MetcaIf does not more
frequently let himself go. sacrificing the
GOOD craftsman's hatred of loose ends
10 one of those gusts of emotion in which
wei ordered truths, no matter how valua-
bic, are swallowed up in the beauty of one
hold effect. II he has a tendency which
those VINO admire his work would care TO
see modified IL is toward too great a re-
lance upon the very sureness and delicacy
OF hand TO which he owes 50 much II
means an amazing fidelity in the repre-
sentation Of natural objects. but to this
one would like 10 see added more of the
interpretative quality which enhances and
even transforms given theme II is plain,
too. that this larger and richer effect lies
veil within Mr.. AIetcalfs grasp. Compare
for example the beautiful picture of THE
his more conventional manner, with the
far more beautiful pictures called Ice
Bound and The Brook" In the last
mentioned work especially ne gets all of
the intimacy, all of the sheer landscape
quality, which one enjoys in The PreI-
ude.' and gives US. besides, freer more
robust painting. II il was the subject, pure
and simple, that gave him the stronger
stimulus, then We hope he viii paint more
and more Of such material as he has paint
e. in 1.-The Brook" i would be difficult
TO praise too warmly the enchantment Of
this canvas, an enchantment depending in
equal measure upon the scene itself and
upon the strong, fluent execution Another
painting 10 be cited with this is the large
Spring Fields in which sea and sky
count as heavily as does the landscape II
Is in the deeper mood TO which this points
that he Is doubtless to find the secret of
further progress Meanwhile, alike in his
dainty pastorals and in his more powerful
motives, he offers a rich satisfaction TO
those who crave in painted landscape the
very SAVIOR and fragrance Of the earth. De-
cidedly. it is good TO see his work year
by year. II has a rare reality.
Mr.. George mness. jr, the son Of one of
the modern masters Of landscape. has often
not recall any demonstration of his char
acteT1stics as a painter quite so exhaustive
as that which he is now making at the
Brandus Gallery. He shows there a collec-
ton Of about forty pictures, and these it
Is u be presumed. illustrate his art at full
length Animals and, now and then.
human figures diversity his COMPOSITIONS.
hut be is, like his father, primarily a stu
cent OF Landscape. To his father also he
ewes his distinguishing traits which are
breadth OF handling and a pronounced feel
ing for color Ia some Of his pictures as
for example, Through the Woods" "Oc-
tober' and The Race the influence of the
elder lnnesE particularly as regards the
generalization Of foliage and the modelling
Of tree trunks. is clearly visible Purely
instructive with him, however, since it is
so freely exploited, must be his feeling
for sylvan charm, for the poetry of the
woods and fields In this respect Mr.
Inness has Enthusiastically q gift OF his own
What we miss in his work is a certain ner-
gous force, certain freshness Of atnos-
phere and Of tone. The light IN these Dict-
Ures IL uot precisely suggestive Of arti-
hcial conditions, is at any rate wanting in
the glow and purity OF nature His art
aints mucn Of the studio for all that. as
Ne have said the poetry Of landscape Is in
his temperament Perhaps he has dwelt a
little more on the poetry than on the solid
facts Of outdoor lie