New-York tribune., 1922-01-05
Sale of Peacock
Collection First
Of the Season
tuesday Night at the Plaza
Forty-four Paintings Rep.
resenting Different View
points Will Be Shown
French School Foremost
Canvases To Be Offered Now
Are OH Display at the
American Art Galleries
By Royal Cortissoz

Inc first picture sale Of the season
- enVeloped in an auspicious atmos-
pherc. 1t is that of the Alexander r
feacock collection, from Pittsburgh
which Is scheduled for next Tuesday
evening IN tho grand ballroom of the
fiaza' In the mean time the forty
lour paintings may be seen at the
american Art Galleries. They illus
trate two curiously different points Of
V'e"' AT some stage of his career as
an amateur, presumably at the begin
n'ng, Mr.. Peacock brought together
works which have since been decided
~ outmoded, works bv Vibert Bou-
euereau. Chelmimski, Schreycr and
Martin Rico. They are good of their
KIND, but their kind has lost it's once
strong appeal. Then this collector
would appear to have seen great light
and his gallery took on new aspect
lt IS the aspect given by the romantic
natnrallsm of the French school AS it
was embodied in the Barbizon men.
They painted the visible world with
touch illumined from some inner
imaginative source. The theme is not
translated into something utterly new
and strange. This group was veracious
or nothing. But what it observed ac-
curately it heightened by feeling for
beauty. Imagination, temperament.
lifted ordinary fact to an extraordi-
nary plane. Mr.. Peacock managed to
secure most if not all of the charac-
ter'stic notes in that old and gracious
harmony. Rousseau, to be sure, is
missing. So is Millet and there is moth
ing of Decamps. But the others are
present in good form.
Maris Will Be Admired
The Daubigny, "On the Marne," is
fno example of his freshness and
serenity. The -crg, low canvas is per-
feet in composit' IN. The two Corots
are nominally unimportant, that is to
say, they are small and not particularly
brilliant. But they are both authentic,
and one Of them, the "Bcrgere apres
dune Saule," is charming design
Diaz, in "The Forest Of Fontainebleau,'
makes his familiar web of tree trunks
and thick masses of foliage and catches
in it his inimitable light. The spec-
men Of Dupre is typical and hand
some little marine.
In the pendants, to his company Of
Barbizon pictures Mr.. Peacock has
been unusually Fortunate "The Forest
Pasturage' is the best Jacquc we have
seen in years, superbly composed, with
much in its lines and in its dramatic
sky suggestive Of Rembrandt's "Threc
Trees" The two other pictures by
this artist are Of the conventional
order We are inclined to make the
same comment on the "Pool at Herri-
SON." by Harpignies, but to redress the
balance there is another canvas from
the same hand, "Herrison: Evening"
which is as poetic as the other is
prosaic. Holding it's own masterfully
at this point is "a Bit of Amsterdam
by Jacob Maris. A clutter of old
houses rises above the bridge that ap-
pears in the foreground. The subject
is picturesque, but it is the style that
counts, the personal charm with which
Maris handles his tones of red and
gray. His "Lee Shore" is excellent
too, though nothing like so impressive
as the Amsterdam study.
lnnesses in the Collection
The Americans represented are in the
same key as the Barbizon pal, tcrs, and
though there is nothing momentous
about the two landscapes by Inness or
Wyant's charming "Golden Hour" all
three canvases are welcome. The col
lection is completed by few interest
ing Dutch pictures, works by Mauve
1sraels and Weissenbruch, and good
landscapes by Thaulow and Domingo.
The Turner is little water color.
In the upper rooms Mr.. A. W. Bahr
assemblies a collection of about six
hundred Oriental art objects which are
to be sold next Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday afternoons. 1t is a most
miscellaneous array of things, not all
Of them exciting. But every here and
there some piece OF interest crops up, a
bit of sculpture in stone or porcelain.
a fine example of single color glaze;
beautiful jades and necklaces. group
of blue and white. There is striking
lot of the jade floral decorations which
have established so firm a vogue in this
country. The paintings and textiles
leave US cold. A rather mixed collec-
ton, in short, with opportunities in it
for the discerning.