Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-24
: HE exhibition Of paintings of
Alaskan scenery by Leonard
NJ. Davis, which opened Mon
day in Hubbard Memorial Hall,

vi.
day in Hubbard Memorial Hall,
under the auspices Of the Ma
tional Geographic Society, possesses quite
unusual interest. These paintings, which
occupy not only the lecture hall. but a
room on the main floor, are essentially
pictures of place, and 1t is from this fact
that they derive their chief significance.
The painter knows the country well. He
has lived the greater part of sixteen
years in Alaska, he knows its hardness as
well as its grandeur, he has seen 1t de-
velop from a wilderness and waste, he
knows its possibilities and feels Its at
traction, the lure of the land, this great
new land of promise" draws him back
again and again until his Imagination has
been fired and his determination set to
interpret to others Alaska's profound
book of nature. For this reason Mr..
Davis has painted not as one who was
just a painter might, but as the biogra-
pher, the historian. He has pictured not
merely that which appealed to the eye,
but a variety of scenes and succession
of aspects. The subjective interest Is al
ways first. He does not busy himself
with mere combinations of color, or ef-
fects of light and shade, or relations OF
tone-he has a big theme and these other
matters of art are incidental He has
had something to say and he has said It
with apparent directness.
The scenes, to many, are strange and
in some instances unreal. The noun
tains, the rivers and the valleys are not
so very different in Alaska from what
they are in other northern mountainous
countries, but there is peculiar soii-
tary suggestion. a feeling Of uninhabit-
ability, which sets them apart. Alaska
is not as yet a land OF welcome or Of
traditions And then there are the mid
night sun and the arctic noon:
strange sights, indeed.-and the wonderful
northern lights .zig-saSg1ng- across the
sky Hike fiery dragons. Everything seems
on grand scale. even the showers which
sweep across the inland waters. Mr..
Davis has. pictured many aspects-not all.
for no life would be sufficiently long for
such a.ftask, and he has succeeded ex-
ceedingly well in suggesting the indi-,
vidualfty Of sthe place. His pictures of
AIasHa could not have been painted in
the east. or anywhere else They carry
conviction.
Technically they are also interesting.
1t does not matter how an artist maIip-
ulates his pigment; it is the result that
Is judged. DuC the way Is sometimes
worth noting. Mr.. Davis paints ex-
clusively with a palette knife. and in q
manner which he claims to be entirely
his own. He could not, he AYERS, pro-
duce the effects he shows in any other
way. These effects are not what might
be expected. The paint Is piled on very
heavily, and then smoothed down to an
almost CLASSY surface. At a distance
the impression Is Of broad effect, but
upon close inspection it Is found that
detail is rather infinitely treated.
Mr.. Davis produces his work theoreti-
cally, even scientifically, by which means
he feels confident that the element OF
chance In result is eliminated and sue
cess invariably assured. The scientific
theory of painting does not interest many.