The New York herald., 1921-01-09
Picture Lane Offers Many
Other Attractive Winter
Displays.
BY HENRY Mcbride.

TIFTH AVENUE appears to be
It still celebrating Christmas and
the big galleries apparently are
as reluctant as the big industrial
plants, TO reopen for business. Those
of our readers who live from sensation
10 sensation are at the last gasp, and
desperate as their situation is. THE
NEW York HERALD has nothing better
10 offer them than the choice between
extreme JUNCTION and n visit to the
Forain exhibition at KeppePs.
Forain a%a sensation is not new.
1t will be difficult - pretend other
wise even to the dying HOW old? A
generation? More likely three. But it is
as a shred of a sensation that Forain
now appears, not as the miraculous
manipulation of the three strokes Unjust
i explain that that is an eXaggeration
and that Forain at his briefest prob
ably never got away with a caricature
under less than twelve strokes?), but
as an accredited etcher with an ap-
preciable appeal TO the collectors. How
did this come about? You may search
me. do not know how il came about
used up entire .typewriters in times
past inditing what Henry James called
"fiercely legible" eulogies of the great
man, and all TO no avail. If ! We're
vain, I might insist it has at last
availed-but that's nonsense, for what
vanity can attach to being one OF an
army OF praisers? And when did in
telligent praise ever sway collectors
Collectors are curious beasts and act
cautiously up to a certain point. They
stampede only when they see the en-
tire group can make the jump in
unison, and until that psychological
moment comes critics and dealers, too,
can talk their heads off, to little pur-
pose.
But collectors now are aware OF
Esorain. Exhibitions of his work grow
more frequent and bigger. The present
one Is the largest yet. Artists interested
in methods will not find in the etchings
80 many revelations of how to do 1t
simply as they found in the famous
drawings. Sometimes the stroke Is ac-
tually fuzzy, but for the most part 1t il
Forain, the great Forain q1i vous pdrte,
and when the great Forain speaks lesser
persons have to listen.
Forain made famous in another medium
occurs in the "Evanoulssernent TAU
dience" where the lines are sharp enough
to have been sliced in with razor. II
il FIRST state" very remarkable for
craftsmanship and drama. One of the
series of prints devoted to Christ at
Emmaus' exhibits a fervor of another
sort, and the Principal Parsonage is de-
picted with an elevation OF spirit rare in
modern etching. 1t clearly shows the
spiritual heights the artist might have
trod but for the constant demands made
upon him by the Partisan journals for
"actualities"
When given carte blanche Forain
usually found his entertainment in the
French court rooms, which, it is true,
eclipse the theatres in the amount OF
comedy they provide. The prisoner at
the bar was almost the last of those
present that Forain was interested in.
and more often than not IL was the
magistrate upon the bench tsat was con-
victed of sin by the time the artist ha1
finished his drawing. With such pre-
dilection. 1t is not surprising to find
Forain becoming the recognized official
recorder of famous trials of which, IN
ordinary peace times Paris always had
one on her hands. The last occasion
upon which Forain assisted" was the
celebrated case OF Mr.. Caillaux. for
which he made daily sketches for
Figaro. "F
The present exhibition is practically
dominated by this passion of the artist
for the court room.