New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-03

These are not few in art. He shed a
comparatively new coat for a newer one
readily enough. He became a pupil, one
of the first, Of Matisse. But there was
Cezanne. The pictures we see by him
to-day are as capable as those he
painted in other manners, as capable
or more so, and not whit thinner.
There is a strain of human interest,
sometimes grotesque, in the Chinese
works of art that have captivated Mr..
Bahr. They come of period that was
only as primitive as we may like to
believe. In them turks a lesson or two
TO be acquired with little difficulty by
the student who may be the only man
in quest of lessons. We wish We knew
more of the history of art. of the way
in which influences have skipped noun
tains to nestle in countries racially un-
related. Meanwhile we bow to the Chi
nese. A Tang pottery horse here might
very well have been the inspiration
for those horses done in bronze by
Paduan artists at the end of the If
teenth century. The Tang dynasty
by the way-existed from 61S to 906
a. d. But then time-which may be as
Irish a paradox as any from the pen
of George Bernard Shawn passing
draws the two ends of itself closer. II
that Is fault it is science's--a matter
of ships and railways. Without the
wanderlust Of the explorers, and the
ever increasing facilities offered them,
would We ever have had the spectacle
of a acknowledgements In
tho meshes of influence set, uncon-
sciously, by savages Of darkest Africa 7
The Chinese, however, producing works
Of no uncertain art as far back as the
Chow dynasty, 1122-255 B. c., are a
long time civilized. There is grandeur
of manner in "The Portrait of a
Nobleman" Early Ming, in a red
robe, and Of Scholar" in a green
robe, a fine sweeping line and wealth
of color. despite the subtractions of
time. And then in the heads of the Wei
dynasty. 220-264 A. D.-three in the
Bahr collection--we find the matter OF
aesthetic proportion, mathematical
problem, attacked with a purity, which
would mean a success, not unequal TO
that reached by the Greeks; not un-
equal though we view them with for
eign eyes accustomed TO another relig-
ious belief respecting the constitution
of beauty.
In the exhibition at the Arden Gallery
Of portraits of children, the best are
those of the artists children, portraits
incepted by sense Of proprietorship
which certainly is also sense OF pride.
Ben Ali Haggin gives US purple baby,
purple and his own. Daumier has sat.r-
lied parental blindness. We refuse 70
follow him. DIR. Everett Shinn's child,
carrying an enchanting toy, was born
long enough after Fragonard TO have
resembled his mannerisms less. Three
or four strokes Of loaded brush, even
when in especially deXterous fingers,
may rarely be made 10 reproduce that
intricate stumbling block of subtleties
which is BABY, a problem doubled in
difficulty by the absence OF salient
features. George Bellows's "Anne." his
oldest. may be parental anomaly. II
is painted broadly and seen with a
vision rather painterlike than father
like. Avoidance of prejudice here
proves the possession of judicial
mind. We have admired il often in the
work of this sometimes amazing crafts
man. The late William NJ. Chase, in
the portrait Of his boy wearing pink
rOmpers-no newcomer 20 exhibitions
with a drawing not sound through.
out, has shown a delicacy Of feeling
an appreciation Of childhood's com.
bination Of ruggedness and fragility
wanting in most OF his neighbors here
And yet the babies Of the art Of oul
time are sweeter than those Of IN,
past-the conventional cupids OF 1
Murillo OF Of Boucher. done after 1
prescription, or Of the too honest early
Italian, German and Flemish painters
We search here almost frpitlessly