New-York tribune., 1920-01-10
Claude Monet
Pictures TOBe
Put on Sale
Brilliant Collection From
Various Sources Will Be
Sold by American Art
Association Next Week
MANY Owners Contribute
Souvenirs of the Barbizon
School, OF French impress
sionists andBritish Artists
By Royal Cortissoz


The extremely diversified exhibition
= aid and modern paintings which was
opened yesterday at the American Art
Galleries is q triumph of good hang
ing
The pictures come from various
..,rres There are French impress
.ionists from the collections of Mr.. Ar
,bur B. Emmons, of Newport, and Mr..
Joseph F. Flanagan. of Boston There
are examples of the Barbizon school
+rom the estate of the late Mr.. Henry
s.yles, and eighteenth century British
uortraits from that of the late Mr..
Thatcher 81 Adams, of this city. Other
owners contribute smaller groups or
individual paintings. The mass of 169
works catalogued might easily have
nromoted confusion on the walls. But
the Barbizon and miscellaneous ex-
smples are fitted perfectly In two small
rooms. the old masters make sedate
ensemble by themselvs, and in the main
gallery the impressonists form a solid
and glorious company. The effect is
even better than that of museum. 1t
ia akin to that of we'll organized
private gallery.
The sale, which will occur in the
grand ballroom of the Plaza on
Wednesday and Thursday evenings of
next week, will seem like the breaking
up Of single collection.
II is . brilliant collection, one of the
finest ever brought to the hammer in
New York, and though, as we have in
dicated, it is SO we'll balanced, it is
magnifcently dominated by one man,
Claude Monet. To traverse the show
as whole and then to return to him
is to feel that it is a case of Eclipse
first and the rest nowhere. Paris
would thrill with excitement over
group of Monets like this one, a group
consisting of no fewer than twenty
seven paintings of the first class. They
represent something like the cream
Of his art. 1t is a superstition of the
zealots that Monet struck twelve the
moment he began to paint. AS a matter
Of fact, it took him some years to
work out his hypothesis. The curious
ly ugly canvas by him which figures
in the French exhibition at the Metro
potan Museum shows how unin-
spired he could be in his earlier period
Even when he got his stride he would
sometimes stumble. Fortunately, as
me present writer knows from talk
With Monet himself, this great painter
as always been a stern critic of his
ogn performances. He has never
tainted series Of pictures, after his
Nonted habit OF studying the same sub
ject under different conditions OF light,
without destroying as many Of the
resultant canvases as he has pre-
served.
Magic of Monet Is Spontaneity
The habit just cited savors of the
formula, the program. 1t would seem
as If the artist, returning methodically
10 the same theme, day after day, musi
necessarily be an artist painting ir
cold blood. AS matter of fact, the
magic OF Monet is essentially one o1
spontaneity and freedom. His pictures
here are too numerous to be traversed
one by one. Their qualities can only
bs generalized in this place. Thus
briefly summarized, they may be char
acterized as pages from certain chap
tsrs In the history Of a life's work
inere are Venetian pages, some from
the Thames and some from the poppy
hsids Of France; pages from the Medi.
sefranean coast, and others from tbs
artists garden at Giverny, in which he
nss painted his beloved "Nympheas.
These last, the lily pictures, have {
decorative elegance. But it is not due
10 the forcing of nature into a conven
''onalized pattern; it is due to the ac
eidsnt that the flowers themselves fal
naturally into a kind Of decorative de
sisn. At bottom they disclose the same
@Feecem which is apparent in all th'
esner pictures, the freedom of truth
caught on the wing and made enchant
'ns erough the glamour OF atmosphere
ahd color. Those are the two grea
springs Of joy in Monet's work. HI
sas composition, the pictorial unit!
shieh subordinates the phenomena O.
'as visible world to the painters con
''suctise tense of things. But he use
'a's element a. an underlying warran
''r his dnai effect. You rest upon ii
'axing 1t for granted. The importan
a'as, the charm that holds one il
a'a'i, il the impalpable fabric Of ligh
ana color thrown over the pictoria
'''ue'urs, the beauty that Is both seel
aad fsIt
~ sny one who has analyzed Monet
asssf eafonslogically, and especiail,
a~s watched his production Of one i'm
DsEssas s<riss Of pictures after anothe
~ last thirty years, there is on
s.nnasrssicn 70 which an exhibition
ss 'a's gives particular interest.
'as sonsideration Of what time doe
''' hin, He has never been man 10
Fermentation or for varnishe'
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