New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-04-13

minds eye the finest picture that
Frenchman ever painted, his picture OF
st. Francis of Assist taking from his
litter a last look upon the little hill
town he loved SO well. Something OF
the very genius of Italy is preserved in
the famous painting to which we refer,
and il is there that we feel the tie Dc-
tween Mir Crowninshield and his dis
tinguished teacher of long ago. All
his life this highminded American an
fist has kindled TO the inspiration mat
lies i'm the Italian scene. The more
realistic. more prosaic movements o.
his time have left him untouched. His
has ever been serious and reflective
outlook upon life and art. In easci
pictures and mural decorations, with
out paying any routine tribute 10 dca-
demic conventions, he has yet pre-
severed the serenity. the well pondered,
orderly quality which we ASSOCIATE
with the classical ideal. He has cared
for that simple beauty of line which IS
characteristic of Rome, both In nature
and in the works of man. He knows
how To make a swift sketch, but we
venture the surmisc that he has never
made even the most spontaneous study
without getting into it the unity Of
well balanced picture. We have felt
this always, and we feel 1t again IN
the presence of his latest works.
Most of these were painted during the
two years of his stay in Rome as di-
rector of the American Academy.
Some of the others date from his sub
sequent holiday in Sicily. few OF the
canvases here were done in Stock
bridge not long before he went TO take
up his duties at the Academy, ana
among them there are one or two
pieces, notably the bold study of trees
in dark tones (No. -, which illustrate
his method and his spirit at their best
But it is with his Italian motives, first
and last, that he takes us captive. He
does so through certain solid technical
merits and through subtler processes.
As a craftsman Mr.. Crowninshield eX-
GELS in composition. His tone might be
finer in quality, finer and more trans
Larent. There are passages, as in the
ROSY glow of his Sunrise on Etna,' in
which, as a colorst. he lacks the right
tenderness and beauty. But in the
workmanlike putting of his picture to-
gether he uses an easy and conclusive
authority which exctes our full adj
miration. These are the paintings OF
an artist who knows what he is about
whose choice Of theme is wonderfully
felicitous. and whose sense of design is
so sure that there is never loose end
about anything he does. Neither by
the same token, is there anything
pedantic or crassly immObile about his
conceptions. Though they fill a given
space so justly. they are not forced
into it, on the contrary, Mr.. Crownin-
shields compositions are, in essence, no
less spontaneous than well poised.
Witness, for example a water color like
the est. Peters from the Palatine,' or
an oil like THE Studio Wall, Villa
Mirafiore." Along with the deity de-
veloped pictorial note YOU get the
broad. free spirit of the artists subject
1t is that genius Of Italy TO which we
have already referred that is always
pervadng his work, enriching it with
the life of landscape and its charm.
The spell Of Rome is never more com
plex than in its great gardens. At the
Villa Mirafiore Mr. Crowninshield has
had before him both the tangle of the
wildwood and the formal. even monu-
mental, simplicity of hedge and cypress.
And i'm some subtle haunting fashion,
which is, indeed, beyond definition, the
grandiose strain turks everywhere, the
beautiful strain which comes from
space, from the poets green silence
and from the pressure of intangible but
irresistible memories. Ones impress
sion i'm Rome is never visual alone II
is imaginative, intellectual. besides.
For its proper expression it needs pre-
cisely the faculty Of design in which
Mr.. Crowninshield is so rich. He has
nut some light things into his work, the