Evening star., 1914-12-12

and as an aid to technical proficiency,
but as a registry of vital passing i'm
pressions.
In the Paris exposition of 1900 Mr..
Brooke said that he found the room oc-
cupied by works by cotemporary Dutch
painters the most attractive-they OF
all the cotemporary painters manifest
ing a sincerely pictorial viewpoint
Later. when he went to Holland, he
discovered the reason for this in that
all the Dutch painters of that day were
inveterate sketchers. At Laren, on the
walls of the little hotel in which IT
was the habit of the artists to congre-
gate, he found charming charcoal
sketches by Mauve, embodying the
spirit of his best and now most famous
pictures. When the late Sir Alfred East.
the distinguished British landscape
painter, was in this country some years
ago. Mr.. Brooks asked him, he SAID. what
he thought of American art. His reply
was that undoubtedly our American
painters were we'll trained and skillful,
but that to him they seemed to lack
pictorial sense, which, finely expressed.
gave to paintings permanent interest
and value No doubt the criticism was
sincerely as well as frankly given, and
may we'll be pondered. Sir Alfred was
himself a constant sketcher, and ms
paintings testify to the value Of the
practice. What Mr.. Brooke urged was
sketching with this purpose in mind
seeking in everything the essence OF
truth in relation to pictorial compost
tion.
IN Monday evening the fifth bien-
~ nial exhibition of cotemporary oil
paintings held by the Corcoran Gallery
of Art will be opened with a private
view and reception. These exhibitions
are notable events not only in Wash
ington, but in the American art world.
By those who have had the opportunity
of judging this exhibition is said/to be
not only up to the standard of those
which have preceded it, but of even
greater interest.
The prize awards were announced by
the director of the gallery last Satur-
day afternoon, as soon as the jury rem
dered it's report, and were as follows:
First prize, $4,000. to J. Alden Weir, for
a portrait of a young woman: second
prize, S1,500, to Charles II. Woodbury.
for marine entitled THE Rainbow;
third prize, $1,000, to Clifford Beal, for
n painting entitled THE End of the
Street." and fourth prize, $500, to Rich
ard Blossom Farley, for painting en-
titled The Fog"
Mr.. Weir's painting, if we are not
mistaken. was shown last spring in
New York and is Il very characteristic
example of this disting uished artists
work. There is probably none among
our American painters who is more
thoroughly realist than Mr.. Weir, and
yet at the same time there are few
whose works are more temperamental.
He is one of those whose paintings
gain by aggregation. which is most
severe test of merit. A few years ago
one whole gallery at the Carnegie In
stitute in Pittsburgh was given up to
Mr.. Weir's paintings at the time of the
international exhibition and none who
had the privilege of viewing that col
lection will ever have any doubt as to
the sound worth of his art Brought
into rivalry, as it was then. with the
more insistent paintings of his con-
freres, Mr. Weir's reserved. conserva-
of nature more than held their own.
Indeed, when the others became weari-
some, his still retained interest. What
ever he paints has simplicity and SIN
certy and hence bigness
Mr. Woodbury's prize painting was
included in the most recent exhibition
held by the Carnegie Institute-that
which closed only last June-and was
remarked while there as of notable
merit 1t is a large canvas and of eN-
traordinapy beauty-a big theme nan
died with great subtlety and amazing
skill. Mr. Woodbury. is Boston paint
time at Ogunquit. where. summer after
summer, he conducts classes in outdoor
painting. He knows and loves the sea,
and he is one of our cotemporary
painters who clings firmly to old ideals
those which generations of wisdom
have confirmed.
The winner of the third prize, Clifford
Beal, is to be numbered with the
younger and more adventurous paint
ers. He is from New York and some
of his most successful pictures have
been of scenes in and around that
great city the railroad yards, the city
streets-not 5th avenue, but the East
Side. where hulnanifN teens. not tor