The Washington herald., 1922-08-06
By Any D. PUTNAM.

There Is always something In
teresting and new in the Prints
Room OF the Library of Congress.
They have there something like
100000 original etchings. photo
graphs Of fne etchings.' paintings
and great art works. from all parts
of the world.
This room is located in the
southeast corner of the building.
on the second floor. and Is ap-
preached through the corridor
which houses the collection of
people of the United States quite
recently by Mr.. Joseph Pennell.
This collection. too. is well worth
some attention, not only by special
lovers Of Whistler. but by the or
dinary intelligent man or woman
as well. for one does not have to.
know a great deal of Whistler's
work to get enjoyment out Of these
originals and memorials of the &C.
centric American artist.
As we enter the Print Room we
find two sheets of whistler's work
among the etchinRs displayed on
the cases. One of these Is The
Evolution OF the Butterfly" This
is very interesting set of engrav-
ings. representing half fact and
half fantasy. Below IL Is "Old
Hungerford," one OF his scenes
which brings in boats and an old
bridge. Below II are pasted clip
pings from the newspaper accounts
of some of whistler's works. /
am afraid that in this day we
would accuse Whistler of being a
good publicity agent for himself:
also. perhaps, of being -sensa-
tional.'
Farther down. on one OF the
right-hand cases. facing us, we
find an etching by Joseph Pennell.
who recently appeared in Wash
igton to give a special talk on his
friend whistler to a group Of lit
erary and artistic people gathered
in the Old Capitol. This etching is
of st Faiths" 1t is an oblong
picture Of the quaint church tower
seen through a narrow street
Many Old Etchines.
Here is an etching by Herman
Saftleben. of the seventeenth CEN
tury Dutch school. The Big Tree"
This immense old tree, knotted and
gnarled. with many dead limbs.
overlooks the valley below, for
miles and miles. with several viii
lagos. and a road in the foreground,
which is below the bank, and has
moving figures on IL.
Niccolo Verdura. OF the first half
OF the seventeenth century in Italy.
has etched a drawing by Raphael
Of the Holy Family, with Sta
John"
Anton Mauve. a Dutch etcher
who fourished In the last half of
the nineteenth century. is repre-
sented by his Towing Path" Ex-
stead of our Washington mules.
this might be a scene on our own
canal. at about sundown.
There are several wild water
bird scenes showing ducks and
yellowlegs at rest and In night. by
a contemporary American artist
Frank w. Benson. These are hne
nature studies. OF interest to stu
dents of various kinds as well as
to everyone who is Interested IN
the life about him. Frank w. Ben
son has an exhibition in the Cor
coran Gallery at present. eompris-
ing water colors.
A quaint. old. rambling set OF
buildings is shown in John knoNs
House" by A. P. Thompson. of the
contemporary British school. The
inscription above the doors and
windows on the first moor reads:
'Luve God abufe al and VI night
bor as vi self" On the other cor
ner. on the 'front.' wall Of the first
floor, we read: Knox House-old
Curiosity"
There are great many works
here by Donald Shaw Mclaughlin.
Of the contemporary school or
American etchers. One Of his Sc
ries is called River Song" giving
different aspects of a brook. a sort
of companion piece to Tennyson
interludes in The Brook" These
brooks. too, "bicker down a val
ley,"-chatter over stony ways,
and slip between the ridges.
Song from Venice" and Cornish
Landscape Series" each have sew
eral pictures in them. He mas
scenes from Brittany. rural Eng
land. and several places on the
continent. Then there is an inter-
esting one on The Tannery." with
its four stories of skins hanging
up in different states OF preparation
Miss Julia C. Severance. of the
contemporary merican school. has
a soft-ground etching of "Poplars."
Louis Orr, 1873. American. has
NJ
This is half-ruined, and the light
of day is coming through the roof
in many places. Piles Of debris are
on the floor. and have broken down
the iron railings.
Scenes from Europe.
There are many scenes from Eu-
rope by Albany E. Howarth. a pres
ent-day British artist.
The titles Of william Auerbach
Levy's works run: "Old Rabbi"
The Blind Beggar," The Cabman."
"A Young Pole" and The Jour-
ney's End. 1916" the last-named be-
ing a sad picture of an old Jewish
man.. All of these pictures show
much good character-study. and an
insight into the psychology OF the
laboring classes and the unfortun-
ate.
Eugene Higgins also gives us
many pictures from very humble
life, notably a bit OF almost ludi-
crous sadness and decrepitude. in
"The Wandering Jew"
Ernest David Roth. OF the pres
ent American school. shows the
"Theater of Marcellus. Rome. 1914"
A very charming little ''View on