New-York tribune., 1919-03-23

! uneven character. Sometimes, espe-
cially in his vases, M. Lalique has the
dignity of an old master. In other
pieces he seems to be producing only
the light, flashing article de Paris, a
fabric of elegance having nevertheless
no lasting charm. He is, in short, an
artist and a fashionable decorator in
turn. AS an artist he is an ingratiat-
ing visitor.
There are groups and groups. We
like the designation adopted by the
latest to swim into our ken. This is
"The Temporary Group" and the ar
lists banded together under that title
announce that they will hold their an
nual exhibition at the Penguin gal
lery for three weeks, beginning
April 7.
Miss Lillian Genth has repeatedly
figured with credit in the exhibitions,
winning respectful attention through
the skill with which she has painted
her nudes, set against landscape back
grounds. The steady recurrence of her
familiar motive has contained one
troublous suggestion. This has been
that she might prove, in an exhibition
of her own, too dependent upon a
single picturesque effect. Now that
she makes an exhibition Of her own,
at the Mich gallery, where she hangs
some twenty-five or thirty pictures, she
fortunately dispels this fear. Her
scope is still not as wide as it is to
be hoped it may some day be, but at
all events it Is wider than a formula.
One of the best things she shows is
the "Quiet Mood" which is a portrait,
the profile of pretty head posed near
mirror. 1t emphasizes this artists
chief merit, a vigorous breadth of
style, proving her ability to make an
impression regardless Of her theme.
Yet we would not underestimate the
place which a graceful theme has in
Ser equipment.
Her nudes may not always disclose
strong grasp upon form-some of
them, in fact, like the "Morning," are
decidedly wanting in structural in
terest-but almost invariably they
have the virtues of supple line, of
warm tone and of that piquancy which
is gained by sunny light sifted through
LEAKAGE. Miss Genth does not need
any great imaginative purpose to
justify these agreeable figure studies.
When she would import symbolical
meaning into her designs, as in "The
Coal" or the beyond Life's Vale of
Tears" wherein nominally tragic types
are portrayed amid gloomy rocks, she
does not quite carry conviction. In
purely sensuous harmonies of form and
color she is far more successful. Be-
fore "The Oriole," the "Children of
Nature" the reflections" and divers
other examples of the kind of compost
tion with which she is most at ease,
we think only Of the beauty of light
glancing against rosy forms, Of the
freshness in shimmering trees and
swirling waters, Of the charm lying in
romantic sylvan episodes interpreted
with some emotion but at bottom with
nothing more nor less than an ac-
complished brush. Which is one way
Of saying that quite apart from her
ideas, which are often entertaining,
Miss Genth is capable workman.
The collection\of small sculptures at
| the Arden gallery presents the work of
two uncommonly good artists, Miss
Frances Grimes and Mrs. Laura Gar
din-Fraser. Miss Grimes is type of
exquisite, concentrated feeling. She
and busts, and Of the latter there is
one (No. 10) which makes it suf-
ficiently plain that she has mastered
construction as we'll as the mystery of
delicate line and the still more deli
cate surface. Nevertheless, it is in her
reliefs that we would identify her most
characteristic traits, her delicacy of
line, again, and with that technical
merit a quality intensely personal.
Her profiles are modelled with positive
| tenderness in definition; she has the
eloquence of a subtle craftsman, one
for whom line is an idiom having in it
something like inspiration. One par
! ticularly fine specimen may be cited,
the portrait of "Mrs. Clinton H.
Crane" but all her reliefs have this
distinction of linear refinement and
suppleness. Miss Grimes has fairly
wide range. She can model in the car
thur Whiting" relief full of char
acter, forcibly and even crisply ex-
pressed; she can be lightly decorative,
as in her fountain panels of "Girls
Singing" and from her studies of men
and women whose physiognomies touch
her imagination she can pass to the
pure sweetness of childish faces, where
her task is in sense easier and vet
perhaps more difficult. Whatever she
does has certain white, fower-like
quality. Not in long time have we
met work SO appealing.
Mrs. Gardin-Fraser makes sympa.
thetic colleague. She, too, is delight
full in portraiture. Consider her two
busts, the "Susan" and the eugene" /"
They match the portraits of childhood
by Miss Grimes in their sensitive feel
ing, their equally firm and suave mod