New-York tribune., 1918-04-07

scape character. He has been extend
ing his scope. The group contains q
V'Vaciously handled marine and flower
subject whose success is only OH
structed by the harshness Of surface to
"hich we have alluded. Mr.. Davis. in
MS turn, would appear to have been
seeking effects slightly different from
.nose we have generally associated with
ms work He was won't to paint vividlv
oIue skies, marked by feecy clouds.
ana TO give the rich tones in his land
scapes their fullest value. Now he is
evidently romanticizing his art to some
extent, restraining the key. He makes
MS report Of the fact less crisp. less
soma than in earlier pictures Of his
winch we recollect. On the other hand.
ne paints now with moro delicate
touch and communicates q finer emo
tion. The slight notifications of style
we observe in his work denote, on the
whole, an improvement, step toward
more imaginative and more personal
treatment of landscape.
The special qualification which an
artist gives to the commentator when
ne registers definite progress in his
work Is supplied by Mr. Hayley Lever,
who has an exhibition of recent pict-
ures at the Daniel gallery. When this
clever Australian first appeared here a
lew years ago, coming after some ex-
! perlence in England, he imme ediately
attracted attention as a man of slight
1 but genuine talent. His work wore
fairly we'll, too, though it presently
conveyed an impression of mannersm.
The turgid surfaces characterizng him.
at first ascribed to an imperfect COM
mand over his medium, seemed in the
long run to be cultivated, rather, as
though he thought them admirable in
themselves. Now, whether from taste.
or, as we incline to think, from puri
tcation of his technique, he paints
with looser brush, breaks up his
old opacities and makes an altogether
finer type of picture. The suave tones
of the eastern Point" mark a substan-
tial advance. Mr.. Lever is winning
now where he was formerly almost
brutal. His local color no longer re-
sounds raucously from the canvas. 1t
has been refined into really charming
tones. He is richer, too, ir light and
air. In broadening his technique he
has deepened the force of his observa-
tions upon nature. There is more life,
as there is better workmanship. in
these spirited impressions.
Mr.. Randall Davey, at the Montross
gallery, gives us curious and rather
disconcerting intimation of the man
ner in which a painter may sometimes
tackle an auspicious opportunity. He
has been in Cuba, part of the world
which should surely have yielded him
some inspiriting themes. One or two
of his scenes suggest that the play of
light and color in the tropics was not
lost upon him. But the portraits which
predominant in his exhibition, studies
of Cuban types, mostly colored, wake
no thought Of the stimulus that his
travels might have been presumed to
provide. They are heavy-handed in ex-
ecution, they are crude, without quail
ity, in color. If Mr.. Davey found any
thing picturesque in these models Of
his he has strangely failed to pass il
on in his work. And the oldest part of
the whole affair is that the fun OF
painting these people (for we suppose
he painted them for the artistic fun of
it, has moved him to show practically
nothing of the deft, facile brushwork
which We recall as typical of him in
other things. He has had an adventure,
and instead Of stirring him to progress
it mas left him prosaic, uninteresting.
Apropos of the question of what ad-
venture may or may not do for the
painter, it is worth while to glance at
another new picture now shown at the |
Montross gallery, the latest work of
Mr.. T. w Dowing. He calls it simply
"An Interior" The scene is that big
bare room which has so often figured
in his compositions. The wall filling
the background is broken only by
inantel and a mirror. The two women |
seated before these accessories are idle,
like so many Of their predecessors.
They toll not, neither do they spin.
But they are truly as lovely as the
lilies of the field. Their gracious form
accounts for this, and they owe much |
to the exquisite web Of color in which |
they have their being. Their vitality |
is chiefly due, however, to the magic
Of the artists style. He does not need
to 20 TO Cuba for sensations. The
beauty in which he deals is spun out
Of his inner consciousness. 1t Is the
Kind Of beauty that in art Immediately
takes us captive with a charm that en-
dures.
The number Of art dealers in New
York. always steadily increasing, has
been notably enlarged since the begin
ninc Of the war. Ordinarily the new
comers have simply added their quota
10 familiar fields, but the latest, tho
parlsIan house Of Denote. makes an
appsal OF It's own, This firm has
opened In East Fifty-seventh Street
gallery devoted exclusively to medi@val
art. 1t is a brave and interesting vent
,.a American collectors long ago