Evening star., 1921-03-20

The exhibition of portraits by Phil
lip A. de Laszlo. which has been at
tracting so much attention in the
Corcoran Gallery of Art for the past
three weeks. closes today. and on
Thursday will be replaced by no
less notable collection of works
paintings, etchings and wash draw
ingS by Frank W. Benson. one of the
foremost of our American artists.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art owns
two of Mr. Benson's paintings, his
portrait of his daughter and his pic
ture entitled open Window" to
which the first Clark prize and the
Corcoran gold medal were awarded
at the latest of the Corcoran gallery S
great biennial exhibitions. The Cor
coran Gallery of Art is. however. not
alone in appreciation of Mr.. Benson
art. He is represented in almost
every art museum in this country.
And to this particular exhibition the
Art Institute. Chicago: the Carnegie
Institute, Pittsburgh: the Cincinnati
Museum. the Metropolitan Museum.
the Museum of the Rhode Island
School of Design and the Worcester
loans. as well as many private col
lectors.
MIR. Benson studied in France about
the time that French impressionism
was attracting first attention. and
undoubtedly his interest in problems
from his contact with the leaders of
this school. But MIR. Benson did not
adopt impressionistic methods: that
is. he did not attempt through the
use of short strokes of pure color
TO recompoSe light; his color has al
ways been held in large masses and
his effects have been gained through
choice of color and careful adjust
ment of the relations of light and
shade. This is the method employed.
likewise. by Sorolla. the great Span
ish painter. than whom none has so
perfectly rendered the impression of
sunlight.
Mr.. Benson. however, is essentially
an American painter. He has alb
sorbed the best that he found in
the art of other nationalities. and
has made it his own. He has. fur
thermore. painted those subjects
which were closest at hand, and found
in them exceeding latent loveliness.
and children out of doors are en-
chanting-not weakly pretty, but
characterful and lovely.
Like Mr.. Tarbell, he has interpreted
American life at it's best and made
the social relations of people with
alluring. This is no small achieve
ment. 1t should not be thought, how
ever, that Mr.. Benson's pictures.
painted either indoor or out. yield
artistic merit to subjective interest.
for they do not. In not a single in
stance will they be found merely
illustrative. They are first and last
and always interpretations of beauty
as it has made direct appeal to the
artist. In this sense they are emo
tionaL joyous and interpretive-not
simply good paintings, but paintings
which carry significance and offer re-
freshment both to vision and spirit.
That Mr.. Benson Is a lover of the
outdoor world goes without saying.
He is more than this; he is an ardent
sportsman, and his etchings and wash
drawings OF birds testify to know1-
edge and quick perception. as we'll
as artistic ability. They rank high
technically, but they rank still high
er artisticaIly and scientifically. No
doubt Mr.. Benson in these render
ings has been influenced by the art
of the great masters of the east
Japan and China-but his method is
again entirely his own, and UP to
the present time he is without rivals.
He has a keen sense of decorative
values and his compositions, without
exception, have pictorial quality. Be-
cause of the variety of the themes
as well as their character. this ex-