Evening star., 1925-06-25
THE NORTH WINDOW
BY Leila MecLin.

ing picture and the automobile are
| not going to satisfy the public as they
do today; what, then, will they have
to turn to?" said an American of
foreign birth recently, discussing the
problem of art education. To him
to see Rembrandt portrait or to ac-
quire Zorn etching were events out
weighing other pleasures Of a sum
mer holiday abroad. 1t was this
source of enjoyment which he coveted
Tor the people Of America. Undoutt-
edly he Is right, but the question
is how to convince the uniformed
Those who possess this love of art
count it of inestimable value, but to
those who are outside, who have
never experienced it, it is utterly in
comprehensive.
G. Lewis Hind, the British art crit
ic, in letter to The Outlook, pub
lished last week, discussed at some
length and in his usual engaging
manner the question of whether or
not the large picture is doomed. After
calling attention to its present dis
appearance from the great exhibitions
In the dealers galleries he suggests
as a cause the prevalent popularity
of the motor car. 1.-The Anglo-Saxon," 4"
he says. ''is not usually an art-loving
creature, and many individuals pre-
fer the unworthiest Of cars to the
worthtest of pictures" To support
this statement he quotes a London
dealer: I'm my fathers time a mer-
chant prince at this season of the
year would debate with his wife as
to whether they should buy Leigh
ton or an Alma Tadema; today they
weigh the merits of a Rolls Royce
against Daimler" Further diagnos-
ing this situation, Mr.. Hind suggests
hn I.e l.
the eXtravaganceS Of the modern
| movement. The pictures condemned
by the elder official painters are
applauded by the free-lance younger
critics. therefore the public does not
know what to believe and turns his
attention to something else" Now
Mr.. Hind was one of the advocates
| of modernism in the days which are
past. it is therefore extremely inter
| esting and significant to find him
writing as he does at this time-''I
| am tolerably catholic in my art tastes,
but must admit that 1 feel little
pleasure in the work Of those artists
| who take pride in discovering beauty
| in the horrible
X +**
Despite automobiles. moving pic
lures. and in England, high taxes,
however, the outlook for art is by no
means completely discouraging. A
well known painter. in the presence
of two of his confreres, was heard to
| remark the other day that within
the next 10 years million paintings
by American artists would be sold in
this country. His thought was that
the painters should take cognizance
of the growing demand on the part of
| the general public and be prepared
to meet 1t worthily. Mr.. Hind voices
a somewhat similar sentiment, for
while he notes with regret that the
large subject picture has disappeared,
gone out Of style, he calls attention
| to the fact that the demand for the
| small picture is far greater than it
| ever was before. Things adjust
| themselves" he says, land since we
are beginning to adapt ourselves to
small houses. with small wall space
there has arisen vogue for. small
pictCres-the lyric. They abound
they sell, they are within the range
| Of the slender purse. The demand for
lyrics. to use term employed in the
city. is healthy. This means that for
the one man who in Victorian times
bought an epic, 100 today are buying
lyrics" And. philosophically. he con-
cludes: perhaps there is more JOY
to be obtained from a dawn or a sun
set in paint than from representa-
ton Of Milton debating Paradise Lost
to his daughter
Much interest attaches to the an
nouncement recently made of the ac-
| QUESTION by the Metropolitan Museum
of the Barnard cloisters, made pos
sible by the generous gift Of $500, 900
from John D. Rockefeller, jr. These
| cloisters are at One hundred and nine.
| tieth street and Fort Washington ave.
| nue., and constitute one Of the most
| valuable collections Of Gothic art that
! has ever been got together outside OF
| France.
The story of the cloisters is the
| story Of the enthusiasm of an artist
for the great art of the past. More
than 20 years ago Mr.. Barnard was
given the commission for a series of
| monumental groups Of sculpture to
be placed on the Pennsylvania State
House at Harrisburg and went to
| France to execute the work. While
there the discovery of certain frag-
\ ments of Gothic art in unlocked for
places started him on his quest, and
| as his search was rewarded his inter
| est grew, until collecting rather
than producing became a passion with
him. Taking as center of opera
tions the,ssite of some ruined abbey
| or church, he would visit all the farms
in the neighborhood. having observed
1 that the fallen stones were often re.
| moved by the peasants to serve for
| one purpose or another on their
farms" Wherever he found a stone
| which had been cut by hand he pur-
chased 1t and often took it out of
the earth by his own effort. In one
| case a pigsty yielded the Sab of a
| n n
a forgotten statue that once graced
| an altar or church portal. Little by
little, he added to his collection and in
some miraculous way he succeeded in
| transporting his finds to this coun.
try. selling one now and then to pay
the cost of transporting the others.
| Then came to him the idea of put.
ting them together in a building, and,
| bit by bit, he reared, largely by the
| work of his own hands, a brick struc-
| ture somewhat In the form of a
| church, lighted from the roof. with
an inner and an outer cloister. Into
| this structure he built the remarkable
columns with their Gothic carved
| capitals. which he had unearthed and
| brought from abroad. The outer
cloister Is as yet incomplete, but the
columns are there, ready for erection.
| Into this interesting brick building he
| has brought and appropriately placed
! several hundred works of Gothic
| sculpture, many Of them in an excel
| lent state of preservation; and so
| thoroughly has he been imbued with
tho feeling of the Gothic that each
piece seems peculiarly at home. The
| building stands back from the street
or roadway on high land, which drops
| abruptly at the rear of the property
| somewhat as the land falls back of
| Chartres Cathedral, SO that from the
| outer cloisters one looks out over a
great ravine to the growing city on
| the opposite plateau.