New-York tribune., 1919-06-11
Cdr,ada's Var Memorial
The First Part of q Portentous
Collection of Pictures
By Royal Cortissoz

pubic at Burlington House, in Lon
don, and yesterday the same exhibi-
tlon was opened in New York with a
private view at the Anderson Galleries.
1t may be seen at this place every day
until July 81. The show comes at the
end OF the season, but it promises to
be generously supported, nevertheless.
1t should be successful because it pre-
sents a really interesting panorama of
certain aspects Of the war.
Like our Allied War Salon of last
December, and the two exhibitions of
British and French pictures held here
IN February, it makes a poignant ap-
peal of realistic Recommendation. It's
special claim upon attention is that of
truly monumental scheme Canada
was early in the field with her artistic
plan and has sought to give it COM
prehenslve scope. Many of the paint
lngs now shown are mural decorations,
done with particular reference to the
building just mentioned. One canvas
IN the collection, not brought to New
ork because of the difficulty of deal
ing with its bulk, is work by Angus
tus John, The Canadians Opposite Lens,
i9lI-1S," a composition forty-fve feet
long The scale of this painting is
symbolical of the grandiose manner in
which the whole memorial has been
ojected.
Changes in War Art
grandeur is purely a matter of scale
IN TINS exhibition, a circumstance due
IN part to the characteristics Of the
artlsts employed, but attributable also
as we nave before this had occa-
sion to remark, to the nature Of
the war itself. When open warfare
went out the canonical mode of
military painting went out with
II. The trench, as an institution.
knocked the traditional battle picture
into cooked hat You cannot drama.
tie on canvas fight in which bar
rage laid down by invisible cannon
makes a path for the infantry across
oarrens streaked by barbed-wire en-
tanglements. The grand style in these
matters, if it does not require a grand
view, must have, at all events, a GER
TAIN depth of perspective. But as this
war has been fought even major opera
tlcns take on, pictorially, what can
only be described as a crudely episodi-
cal aspect.
lake, for example, huge canvases
like Major Richard Jacks Second Bat
Tie OF Ypres" or Captain Louis Weir
ter's Taking of Courcelettc." Both
themes are of the heroic order, but
IN the nature Of things both painters
nave felt obliged to sacrifice compo
sltlon to actuality and have produced
not unified designs but cross-sections
OF the battlefield, essentially photo
graphic in quality. The aesthetic mo-
tive is shouldered aside. The loss is
heavy, as it is in many instances here
to be noted, but the fairminded OBJ
server Will be careful to recognize
what is salvaged from the wreck-an
often impressive reality.
From Historians Viewpoint
From the point Of view of the his
torlan this exhibition possesses a high
value. There is compensation in the
disappearance Of the tradition to which
we have alluded. While we crave the
picture that is painted for the pictures
sake and on aesthetic grounds deplore
Its absence, we are constrained to feel
measure of gratitude for what these
paintings and drawings do in bringing
back the everyday atmosphere of the
actions in Flanders. They have been
painted, too, for the generations to
come, for those removed from what
daily immersion in the newspapers has
meant to the civilians of TODAY.
Spectators in the future, as they go
through the rooms at Ottawa, will have
brought home to them the prosaic
color and movement of trench life, the
horrors of battle-scarred plains, the
more grewsome appearance of ruined
cities. Here and there, too, they will
derive from the painted record an i'm
preston not to be gained from the
camera. Witness Major Kerr Lawsor.'s
"Footprint of the Hun" a picture of
the wrecked Cloth Hall at Ypres. This
is one of the few canvases in which
design strengthens the careful repro
ductlon of fact. The tragic ruins, with
helmeted horsemen moving slowly at
their base, are handled with the judg-
ment as we'll as the skill Of an accom-
plished artist.
Not All Are inspired
1t would be pleasant il we could say
that Major Lawson had host of COL
leagues as well inspired as he has been,
but this, to be candid, is not the case
The Canadian authorities have had
the same experience as that which
visited their English rivals in this
noble process of CONNIE emorating the
war. They began by commissioning
artists of the Royal Academy type. AS
they went on they employed men of the
newer, more Independent movements.
They drew few prizes in the lottery.
But there is no blinking the fact that
an affair of this kind necessarily re-
mains a lottery.
An artist cannot paint good war
picture simply because he is an artist.
He must be a good artist and ne must
have fair for the making of a good
war picture. 1t has been SO from the
time of Leonardo's Battle Of Anghiari"
down. The record, valuable as record
alone, will always have but mixed
status. Consider how the French mill
tary painters like De Neville, De-
taille and Meissenier, have, artistically
speaking, lost their vogue. The classi-
cal, Illuminating anecdote on The sub
ject is that one which recalls Degas be-
fore one of Meissonier's meticn,ously
painted battle scenes. "Everything," he
said, gave the swords is of steel"