New-York tribune., 1921-02-27

s''NAASAA aAS maui SuGCLLVC when
WORKING on vast wall spaces, meant to
be observed at a distance, were not in
variably successful in those DESIGNS
winch he executed on modest scale
Ills feeling for beauty disclosed itself
as though In spite of self assumed
handicap. In his latest pictures there
Is better fusion of brush strokes,
and IN consequence his subjects have
liner development, truer unity.
The point comes out with particular
force in the landscape which we would
call not only the best in the show, but
the best thing he has ever done, the
study painted in the Canadian noun
tains, Near Laggar." Mr.. Tack has
always been a sensitive colorist, but. as
we have indicated, he has sometimes
obscured his own light. In this case
nothing lies between us and his roman
tic perception of a soft, opalescent effect.
HIS majestic peaks are somehow
humanized through being brought with
IN the scope of emotional tenderness
The broad masses of color with which
he deals, like the great natural FORMS
in which they are embodied, are modu-
lated into exquisiteness. Never has he
painted with such subtlety or with
such sure skill. Also, looking at the
exhibition as whole, we are inclined
TO say that he has never before been
so varied. He has painted the noun
tains and valleys and the sea, too, in
many moods. Sometimes he is poetic,
as in the "Near Laggan." Sometimes
he is more objective, as in the Noun
tain Outposts" or the Coates of the
Sea" Everywhere in his work there
are imaginative traces.
In one painting, the Court of Ro-
nance" an over-mantel, we have a.
specifically imaginative conception.
The few figures in it are placed in al
environment echoing Renaissance
Rome. The pavilion on one side of
the court at once wakes memories of
the famous villas. The scene might
easily be pastiche of Italian impress
sions. But the sky is the sky of ro-
nance, the color is the artists own,
fit investiture of dream. A certain
vagueness was legitimate in the COM
position. There is no romantic story
told, There are no obviously romantic
accessories. Mr.. Tack simply inter
prets the spirit of place, place of
his own poetic devising. He does it
beautifully,
Since the lamented death of Alden
Weir it has been good to note the fire.
quency with which his work has been
brought forward in local galleries.
There was memorial exhibition of his
etchings in the Print Room at the Pub
lie Library and now similar display
has been arranged at the Metropolitan |
Museum, display more complete, how
ever, than any hitherto planned. There
were some fine Weirs in the Duncan
Phillips collection shown at the Cen
tury Club, and some peculiarly delight
full souvenirs of the artist have been
exhibited at the Ferargil gallery. Every
fragment of his work is interesting
and we hail each new one as it comes
into view. The latest is landscape
at the Folsom gallery, "Wyndham,
From Mullen Hill"
The significance of this picture lies
in it's departure from the vein which
was perhaps the most characteristic of
Weir i'll his later years. He was much
absorbed then in the problems involved
in the diffusion of light amid vibrating
foliage. Out of his work upon them !
flowed that "silvery" Ioveliness which
we have so often cited. But he vas
never man of one note. Other phe-
nonlena appealed to him and the pres
ent canvas offers a case in point. 1t is
the study of panoramic scene, pam
oramic not in the old Hudson River
sense, but more as the idea was under
stood by, say, Michel. The foreground
defines a bare slope in the simplest
terms. Beyond the treetops in the mid
die distance is spread a considerable
plain. Thence the land rises again and
above the horizon the sky is general
lied as is the foreground. The impress
sionist of poetic emotions gives place
to the geographically the distinction
of the artist who sought beauty no
matter what his theme triumphantly
remains. One quality should be espe
cially noted, the strong even forcible,
way in which the composition is
blocked out and held together. This
is an example of Weir at his best, the
painter having large masculine grasp
upon truth.
1t appears, by the way, in singu-
larIy agreeable little show of about a
dozen landscapes. These so back,
chronologically, as far as Wyant-and
we are glad of it, for his After the
Storm" is one of those rich, deep
canvases, affiliated with the robust
naturalism of the Barbizon school, to
which it is not at all improbable TO