The New York herald., 1921-01-16
Frederick Clay Bartlett Paints
Picturesque Places in
China.
BY HENRY MCBRIDE.


death by suicide.
/ That is the "argument'--to borrow
a term from the theatre programme
of the memorial exhibition now view
able in the Folsom Galleries. The
young artist had been caught at the
parting OF the ways. Not only had
the social fabric been rent from top
to bottom but all the artistic formulas
upon which he had been building his
culture had been struck from under
him. Complete darkness enveloped the
earth and the young man saw moth
ing beckoning 10 him from the mists
but death-and, like the protagonist
of Walt Whitman's poem. he said
Come"
Death is not invariably tragic, but
this one will seem SO to those who
knew Henry Hoyt and to those who
now will see the paintings that were
left in his studio. There seemed to
be another alternative besides the two
mentioned, TO Elizabeth Shepley Ser
geant who writes the most unusual
portrait" that accompanies the cata-
logue, and 1t is also patent to the most
casual observer of the paintings that
Henry Martyr Hoyt had a fighting
chance not to be an academician. He
did not see it himself. however, and
preferred death.
Henry Hoyt was endowed by nature
with a good eye That. possibly was his
undoing. He saw the literal shapes ano
colors OF things as piercingly as, say.
Sir William Orpen. Indeed, one of his
pictures of q she'd. with loose, flapping
boards, is quite Orpenish In the way
literal facts have been gone after. But
as to the poetic use Of facts or the signi-
ficent choice OF facts. the. young man
was unaware until his bitter experiences
in the war had uprooted him from what
Miss Sergeant calls "the conventions and
traditions" But before that his mis-
guided friends and teachers doubtless
had encouraged him to the hilt in his
fatal facility for initiating surfaces.
Some of his backgrounds are like those
of Chase. and just about as good some
of his figures are like those of Tarbell.
and some OF his effects are those OF
Whistler It Is clever work from the
average teachers point of view. The
average teacher is elated to the skies
when a pupil does something fust like
somebody else. And such things get you
into the academy-if you care for the
academy But. after the war. young
Hoyt revolted from platitudes. You can
see the break IN the exhibition when the
young artist began doing things in the
new way--but haltingly, as though
troubled by all the ghosts of his own
past. 1t was an intellectual revolt and
had not yet got into the blood.
But It is time to hear Miss Sergeant.
She writes
THE war, l believe, did a great deal
to change Henry Hoy't orientation. In
the first place, 1t rather definitely up
rooted him from the conventions and
traditions OF the world in which he was
born. against which he has always half
rebelled, yet whose constraining spell he
had not before really cast off either in
life or art He was projected like
catapult into that humble, plodding.
suffering universe whose rough SAVIOR
had always excited his longing. His
dreamer's revoltS were transformed into
realities. He became the under dog
not only in Imagination but in fact And
this set him free or began to set him
free
"iike other young Americans with
curious minds and fine senslbilities he
found the process OF freedom, OF emerg-
ing from the war. very painful thing.
He began to seek some philosophy OF
regeneration for the social order. And
this seeking, this uprooting, caught him
into black whlrlpools Of unhappiness.
Then Earth smote
Thy life out with excess of joy and pain
says one of his poems. Excess OF joy
and pain were just what his friends felt
ard adorcd in Henry Hoyt even In the
eood old days. a certain superlatlve
quality colored like the orange tie.
which expressed itself in overstatement,
in passionate happiness or passionate
despair The balance for the moment
was on the side of despair. Hope died
within him. And they found him one
night dead in his Tenth street studio.
"The friends who loved him will never
forgive themselves that they were not
somehow able to make him realize in
time the strength OF their faith in hims
as a man and as painter. Just be7
cause he had gone through such deep
and bitter waters his contribution TO
American art should have been OF last
ing significance His work as II stands
is sensitive and robust 1t has poetic
fire and rare honesty OF vision Yet for
all its variety and brilliance II Is less
complete than the artist himself. Look
especially at the black and whites, which
are perhaps his most joypusly express
sive achievement. and the etchings, with
their truth and high integrity. But
don't admire any picture too much. For
IN that case the invisible Snowman Will
Step UNI and tear IL Off the wall--as he
gave me his best water color OF the
arch in his first studio show on the
south side OF Washington Square long
ago--and insist Mat you carry 1t home
under your arms"
Upon the whole Miss Sergeant pre-
sents US with q fine type in the young
artist with the "orange necktie and a
general air Of having just adventurously
landed from Spain or Italy and most
people will agree that Just because he
had gone through such deep and bitter
waters his contribution to American art
should have been Of lasting significance"
had he lived.
AMERICAN ART ON DISPLAY.