The sun., 1919-01-27
STILLLIFE EXHIBIT
BY SAMUEL HALPERT
An American Who Paints
Bowls Of Fruit With a
Savage Sureness.
FORCE HIS MAIN RELIANCE
Whimsicalities of Perspective
Distortion That Are Sug-
gestive of Cezanne.

Samuel Halpert. who is one OF the
strongest of the younger group among
our artists. is showing his latest can
vases in the Daniel Galleries. and hav-
Ing his usual success with his confreres-
sort OF success that usually preludes
the success with the larger public.
This artist confines himself to still life
and landscape themes. Although one Of
the largest and most striking Of the still
life pictures contains the figure Of a
young women in the mposition she Is
very much in the background, and the
picture is a still life just the same.
Mr.. Halpert's most striking attribute
IS force. His second conspicuous quality
is color, but many OF our young paint
ers have good colors at their command.
although none of them seems to have
such vehemence of utterance as has Mr..
Halpert. Few Of his rivals put the, ele-
ments of their pictures together with
such savage sureness, and so his pic
lures seem immune from the petty diff
cuties that hedge in and stiae the less
masculine paintings that so crowd our
exhibitions. For them the lights must be
arranged Just 10 and must only be seen
through squirting eye or from this
corner OF the ROOM &c. But Halpert's
soiid still lifes dominate their surround
ings anywhere.
Bowls of Fruit and Roof Tops.
II would seem surely as though Mt.
Halpert would soon exhaust his own en-
thusiasm for bowls of fruit and glimpses
Of roof tops seen from a window, for he
has done many such things. But as en-
thusissm for the subject is the main thing,
and his still fingers in full force. there
can be no real quarrel with him on the
subject; and In the present exhibition
his best work Is again on such themes.
The still life with the figure in 1t
Is one OF the largest and in some ways
most attractive of these pictures It
has more of those attributes that are
hard to define precfSily but we have
gradually learned to recognize as up TO
date. 1t is admirably decorative and
almost broad enough to be called mural.
II has few of the whimsical distor-
tons of perspective that came into
Vogue with Cezanne, and such as
there are fairly we'll disguised.
The multitude. for instance. scarcely
will notice that the red table in the
foreground that bears so much attrac-
tive fruit. could not possibly rest in
perspective upon the black and white
not object. we need not; for after all
Il is unimportant.
Temperamental Liberties.
Cezanne distorted his constructive
and perspective lines because he was
emotional and quite forgot them In the
wild search for the solution of the un-
earthly problems he set for himself, but
Halpert is not emotional and proceeds
always in an orderly and self possessed
fashion. When he violates the rules
OF construction that the pedantic hold
sacred II is not because brain storm
has befuddled him, but simply that he
thinks that the emphatic and the large
free lines that he effects can be bought
only at the expense of mechanical ex-
sctness.
1t is probably Halpert's love for the
large. free and abstract effects tina,
With the uncertainties and fear that
10 with an important heretofore untried
subject. boldness of utterance would
he impossible. When one knows ali
Ground ones subject one may shout 1,
from the housetops.
So it happens that the painting tina,
presented him with the slightest Of tech.
Meal problems, the small NO. Bowl OF
1ruit." shows him at his most impec-
cable best II Is more certain, techni-
caily. than the big decoration first men,
toned II Is so certain, In fact, and
so soldly painted that 1t Is difficult to
imagine any other American Of the day
who could do 1t as we'll. II Is. however
g. trife hard. and Just because the