New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-02-17
INTERESTING application to paint

j INTERESTING Application to paint
ing of what is called 'local color"
in short story writing is to be found
in the recent paintings of James R. Hop
kins, judging from an article by Ernest
Bruce Haswell in the February issue of
"The international Studio"
During the past year Mr.. Hopkins has
painted a number of pictures in the
Cumberland mountains Of Kentucky, one
of which is reproduced herewith. Mr..
Haswell's criticism of these very striking
pictures follows:
"There are those who claim that design is
the ultimate art. Consciously or uncon-
sciously the Egyptians and Japanese have
felt this. 1t is the spirit of the East. To
the Western mind, Influenced by an entirely
different philosophy Of life, this has seemed
very pagan and very immoral. Since Whistler
the Japanese print has excrted a marked in
fuence on the art Of the West. In recent
years not few have gone to Whistler's
source of inspiration.
"Ths is true of James r. Hopkins China
Japan Ceylon and Egypt have contributed
to his art, for he visited the East at a time
when an academic training in America and
Europe had given him hold on the actual
1T is not surprising that out of this combina-
ton of the two influences there should come
a beauty Of design strengthened by con-
scousness of structure and not by any
means frcassees of Whistler, though for
some time there was the same choice of sub
ject and much the same mode Of interpreter
ton When the war came, and Paris where
Hopkins had lived for some years, was no
longer a place for creative work, he re-
turned to America, and since his art career
began at the Art Academy of Cincinnati he
returned to become member Of the faculty
of that institution, with Duveneck, Barn
horn, Meakn and Vessel
"All last winter he painted nudes against
varl-colored backgrounds, and when summer
came he took studio in the Cumberlands
There he, continued the more or less decora-
tive treatment of the female figure. It was
not until the season almost gone that
his eyes were opened to the possibilities Of
the country around him. Then he began to
plan another year of work along very diff
ferent lines. The first canvas was of Andy,
a local preacher and native of the woods,
painted as he stood against the wood shed,
with axe irp hand. Quite change from
nudes to woodsmen, but the picture was i'm
mediately purchased by the Art Institute of
Chicago. Much has been written of the
Cumberlands, few facts and a great deal
OF romance concerning the primitive people
who for generations have lived and toiled
hills. The sentimental have found in the
lives of these red-faced hill people many
themes for song and story. The sociologist
mas compiled statistics and the Rockefelle
Foundation has striven to bring sanitation
into lives where none had previously existed
re" painters have gone there-none has
found IN the people themselves inspiration
for picture or sculpture, but American art
has passed that stage where the painter ig-
nores local color and paints peasants in
wooden shoes for fear of his being thought
provincial
The mountaineer is a fast disappearing
type and what Sharp and many others have
done Tor the Indian, Hopkins is now. doing
for the mountaineer.
The Circuit Rider sets down still an
other phase of life in the country where so
many different types frequent Dressed
IN 'washed-and- boiled black-and-white
SHIRT with Bible under his arm the preacher
Andy himself in the garb of his chosen
protession-sits astride a white mule Back
of him is the whitewashed barn. Perhaps
1T was strain of Spanish blood that still