Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-12-28
Spanish Paintings Exhibited in This City
Long Treat for Art Lovers-Worl of Angada
Camasara and Tito Cittadini-New Portrait of Mrs.
Cooidge-News of Art World
BY LEILA MECHLIN.
-HE Compromised exhibition
of modern Spanish paintings

of modern Spanish paintings
= opened in the Vandyck Gal
Ieries, 1911 Connecticut ave-
nue., December % and will
continue to January 10. Two galleries
are devoted to the work of H. An
glada Camasara, the most conspicu-
Gus figure in the art world of Spain
today, a name to conjure with in
Spain and in every other country to
which his fame has reached.
"Anglada,'s said Jose Frances in the
catalogue of the Carnegie Institute S
most recent international exhibition,
'is the soul of Spain. His canvases
abound in brilliant contrasts of mas
culine, almost brutal, strength of con-
ception, strangely mingled with al
most feminine delicacy of execution
Anglada is the supreme inebriation of
color for color's sake. All processes
are lost sight of, and there is evoked
the illusion that 1t is not a painted
canvas we have before US, but work
in ceramics, in tapestry, In Japanese
lacquer or Persian silks. woven into
u splendid richness Of design" Here
is new sort of painting, something
different, entirely different from
anything we have seen before.
Homer Saint Gaudens, director of
the Carnegie Institute, felt that he
had scored something of triumph
when he secured for his international
exhibition five paintings by this ma
giCian in the field of painting. Mr..
Cunningham of the Vandyck CAL
3eries visited Anglada at his home, on
the Island of Mallorca, last Summer
and secured several additional works,
becoming at the same time Anglada
representative in the United States.
So highly is the art of this painter
E,n1l Nv hi 1frX- MOI, q
Spanish government has obtained an
option on all he paints, in order that
his masterpieces may certainly be
secured for the national collection.
Has ever painter before been paid
such tribute?
Knowing all this, the visitor who
sees Anglada's work for the first
time will probably be amazed and
confused. He paints large canVases,
figures and groups of figures life
size, usually in a very high key, but
not invariably so. His treatment is
extremely fiat, for he employs little
shadow and hence shows little
modelling, but his modelling is of a
subtle sort which carries conviction,
and his relation of light to shade so
nicely adjusted that the illusion of
light and atmosphere is perfectly
produced. Above all things Anglada
is not a copylst. He does not at
tempt to paint things as they are.
It is not the substance but the spirit
of things seen which he represents.
and this he accompltshes almost as
It were, by necromancy.
One large canvas in the present
exhibition shows a young woman in
a pink dress of sort of soft, fluffy ma
terial and many ruffles, seated on the
bough Of a tree, the foliage of
which creates the background. The
canvas is flooded with light The
line of the figure is repeated in the
lines of the boughs. The pink of the
dress, faded almost to Wilderness, is
crossed and re-crossed by delicate
shadows. There is no suggestion of
pigment. 1t is all air and light and
illusiveness. The face is smoothly
but firmly painted, very simply, yet
quite expressive; and then touched in
with startling insistence are little
black rings on the third finger
of each hand. Again in striking
contrast, is a picture of young
woman all IN black. From beneath
the voluminous black mantilla peers
out a little mouse-like white face,
and sharply silhouetted on ono side
Is startling white arm. The back
ground Is a landscape, rich in blue
and green, and distant views of sky
and plain and mountains. The
black of the gown and the mantllIa
seems to echo and re-echo resonant
tones of purple and blue. It is
startting1y insistetnt-a personality
portrayed.
The Sybil' is somewhat in the
same character-monumen but hor-
rfble, Intentionally so. In the great
canvas of 1.-THE fiesta" Anglada's love
of color is seen in full riot, and yet
If one pauses long enough to look
there is that insistent pervasive per-
sonality in the faces and in the pose
of the peasants on their gayly be-
decked steeds that speaks the true
language of Spain. The Valencien-
mes Bride" Is a typical work and per-
haps most frank and understandable,
lovely piece Of color decoration.
Anglada is a consummate draughts-
man and his clean-cut silhouettes are
full Of fascination. He is master Of
line. His technique Is unique; his
method of working different from that
OF any painter who has come to our