Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-11-27
The North Window
BY LEILA. sIEeHLIN

The Landscape Club of Washington
Is holding In it's clubrooms, 1921 Fiji
tenth street northwest, an exhibit
ton OF members works, which Is
open to tte- publio at hours when
most exhibitions are :closed--from
to pm. This. fact alone should
arouse a@,suspicion that 5thei exhibit
Ing organization is of unique char
acter The fact is that it Isl COM
posed chiefly of men who follow art
Is an ayocatfon, who arm TO it as a
pastime, earning their living through
some other form of activity. 1t Is
not the only organization of this kind
in the country, however. Chicago and
other cities have similar business
mems art associations. In some in
stances the members Of these clubs
have gone far toward attsining pro-
fesslonal standing as artists through
the merit of their works. Such is
the case with a number of the mem
bers of our local Landscape Club.
Granville Barker once said in a
lecture given In this city before the
Washington Society of the Fine Arts
that we as a people. would have no
right to consider ourselves musical
or artistic until the majority played
on some instrument and produced
through some Of the graphic art
notwithstanding to concerts and Wis
iting exhibitions was not sufficient
even though we did these in crowds
10 patronize art was not enough, we
must produce art. And IL is very true
that through production one acquires
a knowledge and a keenness of ap-
probation which can be had In no
other way. Some have complained
that out Of the hundreds, indeed.
thousands. who study art, only a
very Few attain distinction This is
true in other professions, and in art
what might be called the ,by-product
those who only go a little way
IS greater perhaps than in law or
medicine or in the sciences For this
reason. even slight Knowledge of
the artists way Of; working opens
ones eyes to latent beauty in nature
and leads to more correct appre-
cation OF artistic values
More than many would suppose
nave men OF distinction I'm other fields
Iound recreation in art. Seymour
I1ayaeh' Tor instance, was great
British surgeon and many Of his best
plates were etched while in attend
ance upon a patient at distance
awaiting the outcome Of crisis.
LIT. Robert Able of New York. one
OF our great American surgeons
sketches in water colors and models
low reliefs with extraordinary sure
ness as we'll as delicacy of touch
ana artistic feeling. These are but
two of many instances.
Appreciation Of art may come. how
ever, not only through production.
but through the study OF the works
Of others. From Chicago has come .
delishtful letter from business man
Written TO an artist friend, telling
now his interest in art was awakened
through a conversation he overhea I'd
between another business man. and
.he artist, and the revelation it has
neen TO him. He wrote in part az
follows: From your conversation
win MT. s. l had a bszy notion that
1 mad overlooked something in life
SO the next time / went to the Art
institute took a good look. and did
me same thing at the club. and re-
peated 1t. and the more | looked the
more saw or thought I saw in the
pictures Then began reading about
IL The thing that has astonished me
during the short time ! have been
studylng the subject Is the revelation
OF the beautiful things I had been
missing in life, not in pictures. but
In nature. When I look out now 7
see the deep blue of the sky and the
i'shter blue near the horizon and the
beautiful blending of the two. When
l look AT a tree see lights and
shades and shadows: I see simmer
ing eHeets on the water and on the
landscape and things in the sky that
4 never knew were there. And this
applies to the night as we'll as to the
day. Even a row of old willow.
stumps that l wouldn't so much 90
glance at before are beautiful be-
cause tney are rugged and strong.
perfection of their kind, and because
IL would take a ton of dynamite to
blow out their everlasting roots
When look at a man l see the lights
and shades of his face. or hand. that
never saw before. Actually never
saw them before. and 1 have been
looking al people for 46 years. as
sumo, therefore, that the greatest
thing in art is not pictures, thew are
secondary. but il is the sleeping
thing that they awaken in people
that causes them to get out and en-
JOY nature. And how free and easy
ana inexpensive a pleasure 1t is. lust
iooH ng. If people will only learn from
the artists and from their pictures
no" to do it," If they only would.
* y * X
Chicago Is setting US an example at
the present time in more WAYS than
one. The Board Of Education of that
city has lately by formal action de-
termined that all school buildings to
be erected hereafter shall provide
In each classroom space on the wall
racing the students for placing a
picture or other work of art, and. in
ADDITION, one room is to be set aside
and properly equipped for the showing
OF pictures and other museum exhib-
It's. The understanding is that these
exhlbits will be lent by the City Mu-
scum and art associations. This will
mean that the children of Chicago
in the future will be brought into close
contact with art. that it will become =
part of their everyday lives, and the
result will be a finer appreciation Of
beauty and a higher standard of citi-
censhfp.
AS the Chicago business man, whose
letter has been quoted. suggests, the
real end and aim of art is not in the
thing produeed, but Its power to
awaken. imagination in the individ :
usl. and imagination, as Hamilton
Mabie pointed out in his delightful
little essay entitled "An Undiscovered
Island" Is the key to the Kingdoms
of the mind. to all those worlds of
snpernal loneliness" to which man as
pres. These worlds. Mr.. Mabie has
said, 'have their roots in the same
earth whence the commonest weed
grows, but the light and life of the
heavens are theirs also. In them the
visible and the Invisible are harmon
lied; in them the real finds its COM
pletion In the ideal. The common
earth Is common only to those who
are deaf to the voices and blind to
the visions which wait on 1t and
make its flight a music and it's path