The New York herald., 1922-04-09

toll here to New York with still some
thing upon his face of the ecstasy he
felt when studying lntrammeled, if saw
age, life.
His exhibition gave him gratifying
prestige and the people who came to see
the show were uniformly kind. But after
the show came the necessity to create.
The habit was there and the technical
skill, in abeyance for several months, II
is true. would awaken at the first en-
thusIasm. What was it to be? Sky
/ scrapers? Elevated railways? Squab-
bling brokers on the curb portraits of
the socially eminent. baseball incidents,
scenes in low life, religious revivals
what phase of beauty was Maurice
Sterne to respond to in American life?
There is beauty here, 1t Is generally
conceded. But somehow II was not for
Maurice Sterne. or at least 1t was not
palatable so Immediately after Java. The
hiatus occurred. There was an exceed
ingly unhappy Maurice Sterne for two or
three years and then he went away to
Italy
Here he found village made to his
type and to his mood. 1t is called Anti
coli and ii lies deep in the Sabine Hills.
He says OF 1t: Elsewhere life changes :.
here 1t is ever the same elsewhere life
vanishes before ones eyes here there
is leisure to observe it. to contemplate
its meaning, to feel ii. Here the grain
is threshed by the feet OF oxen as It was
In the days of Methuselah: the ripe
grape Ia squashed by the stamping feet
of youths, just as in the bygone days
of Dionysos.
He was practically back in the Re
naissance. Everything that generations
OF artists had accepted as material for
art was here before ones eyes. not dry
and faded as 1t seems to be in the books
In our libraries, but a living, usuable
force. Murder and sudden death are
not as frequent in Italy now as in the
Renaissance. but emotions run just as
large. Drama is played out at the street
corners on a large scale and by great
actors.
A woman OF the class from which
Duse sprang can carry a basket of eggs
home from the shop with a seriousness
that would not be wasted upon the in
depreciation of one of Euripides's roles.
Fancy then what tragedy emanates from
the same woman when she descends
from the butcher shop bearing cups of
warm blood from the lambs that have
just been sacrificed. 1t was. of course.
a very good place for Maurice Sterne.
1t stirred him to draw. Maurice
Sterne is the best craftsman in the
country. There are no others here who
come within hailing distance of him
when II comes to craftsmanship. He
challenges comparison with Sir William
Orpen and Augustus John, although both
Britishers have the advantage of being
able to be light upon occasion. Maurice
Sterne is never light. Tt is his great
fault. He demands OF life incessant
tragedies. and his own tragedy is that
he has to go to Italy to get them.
Much might be said about the neces-
sity for a tragedian to have a sense Of
humor, and much about the willful exile
of our artists in foreign lands. but 1t Is
wiser to go lightly just at present
especially as 1t Is all in the files of The
NEw YORK HERALD several times over.
And Maurice Sterne has just come home
to us and perhaps we may be able to
scare up something .terrifically serious
of our own this summer for him to
paint.