New-York tribune., 1920-03-04
Mesdag Collection
Of Art To Be Sold
Here Next Week
Noted Member of Dutch
School Gathered Intimate
Views of Many Famous
Masters i'm Their Painting
By Royal Cortissoz

Tho collection Of the late Hendrix
Willem Mesdag, who made for himself
place in the Dutch school, was yesterday
placed on view at the American Art
Galleries. Two sessions of the sale
will be held there next Monday and
Tuesday evenings. The third and last
takes place on Wednesday evening at
the Plaza. Studio effects are included.
among them an interesting group of
old carved wood panels and some hand
some French and Flemish tapestries.
But chiefly the catalogue of nearly 400
numbers describes paintings, drawings
and prints, voluminous body Of mod
ern art, diversified by generous hand
full Of old masters.
An artist who buys the works of
other men has certain advantage over
the ordinary lay collector. He starts
with an instructive appreciation of
things which such collector seldom
appreciates, or has the courage to ac-
quire, the things which have no con-
ventional Importance, but possess q
peculiarly personal value. He buys
the sketch which his more ambitious
rival in the market regards as either
negligible, or at any ratio inferior to
the "dress parade" picture AS mat
ter Of fact the sketch, the unfinished
work, often has charm which evapo-
rates from the completed work Of art.
Mesdag had this professional fair, this
love Of painting for its own sake. It
gives an uncommonly high status to
his collection.
Intimate Views of Masters.
The Barbizon works displayed we'll
illustrate the point. Take, for example,
the case Of Rousseau. The special con-
tribution he made to the art Of his
time consisted in a structural interpre-
tation Of landscape. He had other i'm
portant traits, but the thing he did
better than any other member of his
circle was to give tree and ground
forms an impressive validity. He drew
like veritable anatomist Of nature.
This quality is apparent in his most
finished compositions, but nowhere is
the special SAVIOR Of his great gift so
enchantingly revealed as In those studies
which enable US to look over his shoul-
der as he paints.
Mesdag bought two canvases which
bring us to close quarters with the
most intimate aspect of Rousseau s
art, the Forest Road" and the "Fon-
tainebleau Forest" They are precious
in the light they throw upon the art
lists method and personality So it is
with the two little fragments by Corot
(Nos. 294 and 1869. These are not by
any means masterpieces" They are,
instead, lovable souvenirs of master
There Is further reason, too, for set
ting in place by themselves examples
such as Mesdag preferred. They are
often commemorative of the experiment
the mood, in which the given painter
indulged rarely and then only to please
himself. We may cite here Daubigny' 8
Dams les Dunes" The subject was
not, for him, altogether novel. But the
composition was. One can imagine his
making this beautiful study in happy
moment, putting it aside to develop on
later day, and then forgetting all
about 1t. Ultimately, perhaps, he 1e-
jected It., but he left on the canvas
something like the inner grain of his
artistic character.
Fascinating Treasures
If Mesdag's judgment guided him
Alright in the matter Of paintings by
the Barbizon men, it was no less sound
whom he turned to their drawings. A
gusto for great craftsmanship is re-
source by itself. Drawing is like the
color and intonation Of an individuals
voice, an sinalienable and unmistakable
possession. That is why even the
scribblings Of great draftsman's boy
hood will have some ething vaguely in
tcresting about them. AS he natures
he will beat out style, but the germ
of style is present with him from the
beginning. And as he goes on his draw
ings will maintain personal quality,
a nuance, losing something of Its fresh
ness and intensity as he translates it
into the more stubborn medium of pig
ment.
There are treasures in the Mesdag
collection which bring the subject to
the point of fascination. There are
drawings by Rousseau and Daubgny,
there is magnificent group of four
teen drawings by Millet, there are
quantities of drawings by Mauve and
Bosboom. They are thoroughly charac-
teristic works, drawings in which the
fundamental fact of authenticity is en-
riched by the indefnable qualities
making true thing beautiful. A sale
Of drawings like these is almost never
held in the United States. The wise
connoisseur will give it the closest at
tention
The modern Dutch paintings in the
exhibition set one to thinking Of Gu
rious phenomenon in the history of
art. In most Of the schools an mex
r.icable gulf is fixed between the old
and the new. Spanish painting culmi-
mates in Velasquez, and in our own
time it is revived in types like Fortuny
or Sorolla, brilliant in their ways, but
scarcely to be counted as descendants.