New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-10
| Harmonious Color Note Seen
in DR.. Humphreys Art Gems
Americans Most at Home in Field Ruled by Landscapes
I66 Numbers in Coection-To Be Sold Next
Wednesday and Thursday

American pictures, the collection OF
DR.. Alexander c. Humphreys, dean Of
Stevens Institute of Technology, are
shown in the galleries Of the American
Art Association. They are to be sold
on the evenings Of February "A and Is
in the grand ballroom Of the Hotel
Plaza The catalogue Of the collection
contains l66 numbers, and the collec-
ton sounds an harmonious note through
repetition in its canvases Of quality
painter virtue this-of the tOnalist or
der. assailed only by the most rabid o.
the moderns. Landscape subjects are
the rule. Americans are most at home
in this field. Our psychologists in art
ore rare We admire Daumler, Degasr
Toulouse Lautrec. without emulsting
their examples. Elsewhere, in express
sion our painters are not 50 slow to
get on the colloquial and symbolic band
wagon. We follow Monet, Manet and
Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh and eau
gum. or, further back. Corot. Rousseau,
Daubigny.
The three masters Of the Humphreys
collection. however, may owe more 10
the inspiration Of the national land
scape than 10 the influence of a French
manner. Ready made manners were to
be adopted later by men who sought a
path TO success. Inness, Wyant and
Martin may be more American than
their followers. their disciples 10 some
extent. but diverted from complete sub
servieney by French masters. Wlnslow
Homer set a standard for our marine
pfinters which France has not upset.
We may study a trend here which the
modernists are seeking to divert. The
cenvases of this collection have not
been loaded with pure color put on In
accordance with rules OF an exact
science. The painters speak IN modulat-
ed voices of an even tenor. They are
gentlemen. Nature can be strident-
but why should thew
The Humphreys collection covers but
a short span Of our painting and within
that span covers but limited scope,
but covers it thoroughly. From Samuel
Colman's "Saw Mill River" to John II.
Twachtman's "The Frozen Brook" is the
stretch of the collection. Between these
two our painting grows in linguistic
freeio becomes more fashionable
less serious. perhaps for there is added
a note of the play instinct. q love Of
paint as paint. with sometimes a mega
ton Of nature, a theatric setting. But
this last occurs throughout the collec-
ton. We find il in Thomas Moran'a
THE Teton Range-ldaho' and in
Louis Paul Dessar's Changing Pasture
October Conventions change in de-
sign. but not in heart.
Mr.. Noran's picture dates from the
Hudson River school, which lnness so
readily grew out Of; MIR Oessar's from
the men of 1880. Over the Dessar. in
the main gallery. is Arthur Parton's
"The Passing Shower" painted with a
csmera-like record OF detail which the
Dessar scorns, but with love of the
thing which the Dessar, as a stage set
ting, an unreality, also might be said
20 scorn.
Style is but a small part Of express
sive quality. Homer Martin, in "Au-
tumn on the Susquehsnna,' and Alex
ander II. Wysnt, in County Kerry, Ire
land" sought with tremendous con-
scientiousness TO repeat, detail for de-
tail. the subjects before them. They
were quite humble. They dared TO re-
ject not the least Insignificant incidents,
and yet they have given US here the
real poetry in nature. so likely 70 hide
from the casual observer lnness found
il. too. in Near Montclair," but not 70
so full an extent. His other pictures
here are Leeds, New York" Returning
from Pasture Milton" and "On the
Sainte-Croix River, Canada" which are
perhaps not so significant, although
there is much to be said for the atmos-
pheric quality OF the Canadian land
scape.
There are to represent Wyant nine
canvases; Martin, eight; Winslow