New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-03-09
Bv ROYAL Cortissoz

By koyai NortlssoA
Moro ,han once, when tho Macbeth
-,lisry has made miscellaneous but
carefully arranged exhibition of
,n.-;can pictures. we have described
49,. show. as miniature academy The
.4-aze has never been so we'll justified
+. is now, when thirty cahvases b
-v artists are displayed in Il
s.rTar rooms. What, after all. is the
..r,.on Of the Academy? To reeist r
Estate Of American att. Why does it
oftau fail to DO this in clear and
..,,ss.;ae- manner? Because repre-
..,.asve works are smothcred in a
..,s Of ncaiocre material The solu-
ian Of the problem would appear to
..s. IN the hands Of the jury, but as a
latter Of fact there is something in
.se nature Of things to make the jury's
task wellngh impossible Now, the
.rosent exhibition could hardly be said
- do all that we have assumed it to
bs the duty Of the Academy to do.
Tho thirty artists who figure in the
dialogue do not cover the whole field
.,5. besides. there are two or three Of
,sem-Inncss, Whistler and Ryder
aao arc not Of the contemporaneou
Movement at all Nevertheless, this
rte show might claim the status of
an almost Official affair 1t is so diver
.aed. so good, so richly illustrative OF
some Of the leading elements in our
school.
The lnnoss, Golden Sunset, Med
e,ldr was wise choice for the place
o honor It is a landscape painted
Yearly forty wears ago, q souvenir OF
Tia; period in which the master was
leayine behind him the more closely
analytical manner of MS formative
years and using the magnificent
breadth Of his prime. The composition,
as was characteristic Of him in his best
vein, is balanced but essentially in
formal, spontaneous. He shows us q
more or less watery pasture hemmed in
rs trees. A farmers boy waves his
stick as ne goes after the cattle. in the
middle & stance. Birds dot the, skv.
There Is color in the picture, an album
lance Of it. but Inness is not here the
rir.uoso in glowing sensuous effect
which ho sometimes was in his sunset
scenes Tie thinks nothing at all OF
ryro.echnies. but gives himself utterly
70 tae spirit and beauty Of an American
rastor4l u is in its racy sincerity
dat this is a fine picture, and it is in
that tast it deserves, as We say, the
race of honor 1t is as though 1T
s.aead the sanction Of the fathers upon
he landscape art that is elsewhere
rpresented IN the show. What is the
specific virtue Of that art if it is not its
-stnes. It's freshness, its avoidance
Of s.a1eotyped motives. its fortnight
arsrcanism And the Inness is sig
riatans, -oo in its illustration Of the
ssnpa,.a .ty of all this, with IN,
sasates claim Of personality.
Cur best painters carry on the
iHnsss tradition without sacrificing en-
ii their original traits. A. ?. Ryder.
lis contemporary, supplies an interest
ile case iu point. His Marine Moon
isa,' could not have been painted
Fiisou- the influence Of that natural
sm WHICH the Barbizon men broueh
rio vogue and which Inness develoDea
q his own way The free handling
the deep. mellow tone, al testify 10
's great stride which RYDER made be
/ I'D tho narrow habit o. the Hudson
RIVER school Hat that technical libel-
sion we take. as it were, for granted
-a .ndF.aaa, achievement to be roted
| Ryder's decentralization of his theme.
be va which he turns the oh
| erred facts Of nature into poetry OF
s' own. For another kind Of trans
| a'grifcation we would cite the zoe
''5sr Day. Of D. ". Tryon. He, too,
IN step wi'h the modern movement
f'' The gray light familiar In works
y the Paris Salon he long ago sub
".iuted the vibrating atmosphere Of
k'nd Of inpressionsm. The brush
'sd the fences in his composition are
'stsed wita a Rousseau-like touch.
81 then comes in his personal contri-
'auon the placing Of his trees in
hz.e'y RAM, an effect as Of a rather
Il 41~r2l