New-York tribune., 1918-02-24

lmpressionists, to Manct and the rest.
The Mancts will make a sensation at
The sale. They include a number Of
works that are important" as the jar-
gon of criticism has it, stunning. fin
lshed pictures like the "lndiennc Flu
mant,' or the half humorous "Portrait
OF NJ. Brun," mastery still lifcs like
the "Jambon" and the "Poire" (Which
in the photograph has the air of
mlracle), and SO on through a group of
paintings, studies and pastcls. twenty
pieces in all. There arc in this little
collection some items of quite extraor-
binary interest, a strange, fragmentarv
version of "Thc Execution of Maximil-
lan,' portrait of Berthe Morisot that
is like a sudden hashlight effect thrown
upon a screen.
We nave heard from Moore and
others Of the deep rooted affection
pcgas had for Manet These pictures
seem echoes of it. Some, possibly all
OF them, may have been purchased, but
from their quality one takes them 70
have been fraternal gifts or exchanges.
They have the character of personal
souvenirs. AS in the case of Corot we
feel in the presence CT the essential
artist. No one else in the Impressions
istic c6ndcle appears to have had any
thing like the same hold upon Dcgas.
Plssarro turns up with four or five
landscapes, Sislcy with one, and there
arc traces of Caillebotte and John
Lewis Brown. BY Berthe Morsot there
Is good sketch, and by the American
disciple of Manet, Mary Cassatt, there
arc no fewer than four pictures.
Boudin is present in a couple of sky
studies and a water color. and Renoir
in good head of a woman. Of Claude
Monet there is, suggestivcly no sign at
all. Had they some personal cause of
disagreement, or did Dcgas, painting
ballet girls over and over again, in
what monotonous tendency in his con-
tcmporary's Similar devotion to hay
stacks and cathcdrals? The omission
is indubitably little odd.
He took with a good will the step
from imprcssionism to post-impres-
sionism. One of his Gauguins is
curious memento of the point of con-
tact between the two, a copy of Manet'S
"Olympia," which in the photograph
would easily pass for an original study.
He had at least ten of Gauguin's paint
ings, most Of them relics of the paint
cr's sojourn in Tahiti. Cezanne is al
most as fully represented, with por-
traits, figure subjects and still life, and
Van Gogh also has his modest place,
being given three numbers in the cata-
loguc. Turning over the photographs
king can do no wrong, we realize that
we ought to be deeply impressed by
the inclusion of these things in the
collection of Degas. In some pious
quarters, we know, it could only be
taken as KIND of pontitical ratitica-
tion, and we are quite sure that the
episode will serve, in those quarters,
to give the post-impressionist hypothe
sis a new lease of life.
For our own part we can only look
upon this small section in the mass as
an incongruous pendant, difficult to
reconcile-even for the thinking
artist" to whom we have rcferrcd-
with the atmosphere and principles
otherwise disclosed. The "going,' so
to say, is easier when We pass to the
remaining pieces in the list, the paint
ings by Daumier Puvis and Lcsros.
The dozen drawings by Forain--onc Of
the masters peculiar admrations -
ard few oddmcnts by Jeanniot, Gull
laumn, Eicard, Barthclomc ithc
sculptorl. and the portrait painter Of
the Second Empire, Helm. There is