New-York tribune., 1921-01-23

AP
(From the painting by C. W. Ha
designate the spirit in which most of
! the portraits have been produced and
II signifies, upon the whole, wise
choice. The function of these painters
was to register facts, and they have
registered them. Admiral Sims, in the
no' trait by Mr. Irving r. Wiles; Her
! pert Hoover, in the portrait by Mr..
Iarbell; Premier Lloyd George. in The
portrait by Mr.. Volk; Premier Orlando
and General Diaz, in the portraits by
MI. Johansen, have all profited in so
lar as efficient craftsmanship makes
good portraiture. But in saying this
we come to that aesthetic point of view
to which reference has been made. and
ir examining these particular portraits
lind ourselves rejecting on the question
OF American portraiture at large. The
process does not land US in UNQUALIFIED
contentment.
1t is worse than mistake, it is stupid
to ask of an artist something which he
did not set out to do. Not merely was
it the function of these portrait paint
ers, as we have said, to register fact
it was, in the circumstances, their duty,
and we are really glad that they re-
trained from building up pretentious dc
signs which might so easily have been
made spcciously theatrical. But thera
IS another resource, one that is of the
very essence of portraiture, which seems
to have failed them. 1t is that resource
which, lying in character, inspires Z.
painter to what we must describe as
creative Interpretation. He grasps those
traits of his sitter which do not lie or
the surface and out of those inner ec-
ments he fashions portrait having the
freshness and force Of an invention
There are in this collection one or two
instances of the effective exploitation Of
this resource Miss Beaux supplies on
Of them in her portrait of Premier Gle
menceau. She paints not only fguro
but an idea, the idea Of Clemenceau as
he faces his listeners, many of them his
opponents, in the chamber The char
acter in the head is q living character
and so is that Of the attitude. This is a
portrait painted from within. We have
the same feeling before the portraits
painted by Mr.. Charles Hopkinson of
Premier Bratiano of Rumania, Premier
Pashich of Serbia and Prince Saionji, of
Japan. The inner influences are there.
These men seem to have fallen into their
respective postures because it was nat
ural for them to do so, and in their
faces there is the same force Of individ-
uality. Too many Of the portraits
smack purely of the studio, having char
acteristics which seem to have been
determined from the outside and by the
volition Of the craftsman rather than
that of the interpreter. Nor is the
craftsmanship always carried beyond
certain point of humdrum adequacy.
Efficiency, as we have limited above,
! ID ou1Ciy NV UHWCiSOAuCt OAV tiO AONSA
Of painting Graves something more.
He Graves, to put it bluntly, distinc-
tion, and this is where we come to
close quarters with the relation Of the
war portraits to our American school.
We are weak in originality and felicity
of design; we are weak in style, and
frequently that craftsmanship in which
we are so facile falls short, we repeat,
Of possessing the personal weight
which alone will take it out Of routine.
Look, for example, at Mr.. Johansen's
portraits Of Orlando and Diaz. In both
cases he seeks through pose and back
ground to achieve something like pic
torial charm; but there is no charm
there, for the reason that pose is too
obvious, background remains curiously
artificial and craftsmanship is thin.
Mr.. Johanscn's workmanship is not so
thin in his portraits as it is in his
big picture of the Signing Of the Peace
Treaty. That is positively papery. But
only in the portrait of Joffre does his
technique take on any interest and
even there the appeal is but superficial.
Miss Beaux, again, goes deeper. She
has mado n persuasive composition in
her portrait Of Cardinal Mercicr and
to the same merit she adds d strong
technique In her portrait Of Admiral
Beatty. We return also in a friendly
mood to Mr.. Hopkinson and to Mr.. De
Camp, who achieve fine unity in their
designs, and wc must reitcrate on the
same grounds our appreciation Of Mr..
Wiels's portrait Of Admiral Sims and
Mr.. Tarbeli's portrait Of General Le-
man. Mr. Tarbells moro ambitious