New-York tribune., 1912-12-14

we would even say Rrtlessly II 1t were
i not that, with his genius, LaFarge
could not have kept the artists skill
and instinct out Of anything he did II
he had tried What he could do was
10 avoid doing too much, to avoid CIV
ing his pictures too full and elaborate a
finish" If l do not refrain and cut
short at once" he says. II shall be-
come entangled in trying to give you
word pictures that are utterly made
ouate. I feel, too, that the drawings
and paintings 1 have made are so
stupid from their freezing into atti-
tudes the beauties that are made Of
sequence" lie ended by getting the
sequence, because he ended by writing
with the spontaneity of talk. The
"Reminiscences" make one Of the most
personal souvenirs of the man and the
artist we could possess.
Miss Barnes has prepared them per-
fectly for the press. setting them in
their order. but leaving the author
throughout to speak for himself One
result Of this tactful editing is that we
get what LaFarge meant us to get
not a crassly systematic record, but
sheaf Of discursive impressions. After
all. the artist in him would not down.
He and Mr.. Adams took with them to
the islands the broad habit Of mind
which belongs to men Of the world.
They were interested in politics as we'll
as In color. More than once LaFarge
brings in his conviction that "tie Pa
cifc Is our natural property" and he
was always. after his scholarly fash
ion, seeing those far-ofr, exotic places
In q perspective embracing the whole
fabric of civilization. Nevertheless, X
Is beauty that is forever Turing him
and Il Is beauty that he pours into his
book.
exquisite spectacle perpetually unrolled
before his eyes. Setting down note
after note-"If 1 could only send you
the color!" he exclaims-he seeks to ex
press in them all his sense Of the Greek
Ioveliness in South Sea life. The
Samoan youngster who rises shining
from the sea, "all brown and red, with
a red hibiscus fastened in his hair by
grass knot as beautiful as any carved
ornament" is to him ''the Bacchus of
Tintoretto's picture, making offering TO
Ariadne." Yet never for q moment
does he paint the South Seas for us in
factitiously classical terms. His i'm
pressions go to the root Of the matter
and give us the very SAVIOR Of the life
he saw. Witness this passage on a
native dance:
So those lovers OF form, the Greeks.
must have looked, anointed and crowned
with garlands, and the so-called dance
that We saw might not have been mis-
placed far back In some classical an
fiquity. The girls sat in row before u.s.
grave and collected, their beautiful legs
sculptures, and Sifa began a curious
chant AS all sang with her together,
they moved their arms in various ways
20 the cadence and In explanation OF the
song; and with the arms. now the waist
and shoulders, now the entire body. even
10 the feet. rising apparently upon the
Thighs to the time of the music Indeed,
STA spoke with her whole tremulous
body. undulating 10 the fingers in
rhythm, as the sea runs up and down on
the beach, and is never at rest, but seems
20 obey one general line on curve. 30
she and the others turned TO one sice ana
stretched out their arms or crossed them
and passed them under the armpit and
pressed each others shoulders and lifted
fingers In some sort of tale and made
gestures evident OF meaning or obscure
and swayed and turned; and, as II swim
ming upon their sides. while all the time
the slender waist swayed and the legs
and thighs followed the rhythm through
their muscles without being displaced.
The artist is disclosed not only in
the enthusiasm for plastic beauty here
expressed, but in the just exposition
Of concrete details Therein the pas
sage Is deeply characteristic Of La
Fargo and illustrates the sharp dis
tinction 10 be drawn between him and
an impressionist like Lott. Tho
r-renchman seeks the nuance In the
realm of subtle, evanescent things. La
rerge. almost tremulously sensitive TO
the elusive elements in Ghe beauty or
,hs visible world, was never long IN
eating at the hard facts beneath them.
His descriptions OF the natives at their
sasks and pleasures bring the romantic
saoxurssoususss Of these Into the fors-