Evening star., 1925-12-06

Lower, tight. TOTITdH Oh StepIlt
Van Rensselaer,, painter unknown
lent by James Carroll Frazer.
as the inventor of the telegraph. but
his portrait Of Mrs. Elisha King, loan
ed by Mrs. Nicholas Luquer. in this
exhibition, teStifieS admirably to his
great gift as an artist.
John NeaGle of Philadelphia, an in
teresting personality, who is said to
have painted the best portrait of Gill
bert Stuart from life, and of whose
work a comprehensive exhibition was
lately held at the Pennsylvania Acad
emy of the Fine Arts, is twice repre-
sented in this collection-once by d
chaming portrait of little Miss Kate
Phillips, loaned by Mrs. G. T. Dunlop,
and again by a vigorous portrait of
Col. Richard NJ. Johnson, loaned by
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Harding Portraits.
There is a certain kinship between
the work of Neagle and Chester Hard
ing, the latter a rough backwoodsman
who took To painting as a trade and
developed into one of the best of our
early American artists. 1t is interest
ing to compare his portrait of John
Randolph, lent by the Corcoran Gal
lery of Art, painted in later life, with
that of the boy John Randolph paint
ed by Stuart. and to the honor of
Harding be it said that his work well
stands the test. There are five excel
lent Harding portraits in this exhibi-
ton
Other painters represented include
John Hesselius. earliest Of all; Sharp
les, Matthew Pratt, Joseph Badger,
Ralph Earl, John Wollaston; and,
among the later painters, William
Dunlap, Jarvis. Jouett. King, Sully.
Waldo and Wertmuller.
Miniature in portraIture, Albert
RoSenthal the painter Of Philadelphia.
has said. is at once the most difficult
and beautiful of the arts. and few are
endowed with the unusual talent nee
eSSary 10 create on ivory the essen
tialS of a fine miniature" Yet through
some fairy gift or mysterious inherent
talent. many attained distinction in
this field in America in the early days.
Possibly the demand called forth the
talent. Pride of family created a de-
sire for portraiture. The only way of
securing a portrait was to have it
drawn or painted. Probably never be-
fore has as comprehensive collection
of early American miniatures been got
together as that now on view in the
National Gallery Of Art.
This collection has come not only
from local homes and collectors, but
from owners in Boston, New York,
Philadelphia and Baltimore. Fifty
three miniature painters are repre-
sented therein. Malbone. of all the
American miniature painters sur
passed by none, is represented by no
less than IA examples. In the portrait
section there is a portrait of Malbone
by himself.
Other Miniatures.
Next to Malbone in distinction stood
perhaps, James Peale. of whose work
there are 25 examples. Raphael Peale
is represented once; Rembrandt Peale
eight times. There are seven minia-
lures by Suly. There is one quaint
and interesting miniature in wax of
Gen. Abercrombie, loaned by his
granddaughter. Mrs. Thomas Hamil-
ton Wilson, which is the work of
Patience Wright, who was born in
Bordentown, n. j., in 1925, and is set
down in the History of American
Sculpture as one of the earliest, If not
the earliest, to model in this country.
There are four miniatures by John
Trumbull and one by Benjamin West,
a portrait of himself. the last loaned
by Mrs. John Hill Morgan of New
York. There are two interesting
miniatures. by ST. Memin. There are
three Gilbert Stuart miniatures which
are great rarieties. There are several
by Malbone's colleague, Charles Fraser,
whose works, in quality and number,
some say. reached his own. There are
no less than IL miniatures by Robert
Field and four by Dunlap, to say
nothing of six by Copley-one, by the
way, a portrait of Mrs. Paul Revere,
wife of the patriot, and one of Alex
ander Hamilton in boyhood. 1t IS a
renS ka BILE showing.
In his preface to the catalogue of
the Clearwater collection of silver in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, R.
T H. Halsey says: Our knowledge of
the beauty and the fascination OF
colonial silver is but a recent one.
Scarce two decades ago the fact that
our country in the early days nurtured
a remarkable set of workers in the
precious metals was practically un-
known" A book on Paul Revere
and His Engraving" by William Lor-
ing Andrews, turned attention in this
direction. The possibility of other
gifted silversmiths gradually dawned
upon the consciousness OF collectors.
In 1906 the Boston Museum OF Fine
Arts assembled and set forth mag
nificent exhibition of colonial silver
a collection, however, which in size
and in diversity Of pieces, scarcely
excelled the present showing at the
National Gallery of Art. In 1911 a
showing of early American church
silver was held at the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston, and these exhibitions
and their catalogues have done much
to create a widespread interest in the
work of these early craftsmen and to
establish a high value for the silver
which they wrought.
Rare Silver Contributed.
To this exhibition in the National
Gallery of Art the leading collectors
of American silver in this country
have contributed most generously