Evening star., 1925-06-11
THE NORTH WINDOW
By Leila MechIin.

How much does a knowledge OF art
contribute to the pleasure of Sum
mer holiday? This is a fair question.
Summer Is not the season Of exhi-
billions nor as rule for visiting art
galleries, therefore whatever pleas
ure Is derived from this source at this
time must be to a geat extent a. by.
product
Barrie, the playwright and novelist.
has told us that the chief end and
aim of all art is to open the eyes to
beauty. This Is commonly interpreted
as meaning beauty in the work of art
itself, but it may well be given broader
significance. Surely the great land
scape painters of the past century
have taught us to see much more
loveliness in the outdoor world than
was seen before. How frequently on
our Summer journeys we find our
selves exclaiming: How like a Corot,
or IAN Inness," or "a Tryop.'
Corot was essentially romanticist.
He loved the half light of early morn.
ing and late evening, when his beloved
in mist and more silvery and grace
full than under the relentless glare
of midday sunlight. Inness, on the
other hand. taught us to see beauty
In our own sun-steeped Midsummer
landscape-the hot green fields. the
heavy foliaged trees-that subject
which so many painters have declared
unpaintable yet which he rendered
with real appeal. Albert Groll was
one OF the first to show us the beauty
of our Western desert, which John
Van Dyck has described so exquisitely
in words Then there are the painters
of the sea-Winslow Homer. who has
shown us the stern rockbound coast
of Maine in all it's grandeur; Emil
Carlson, who has painted the ocean
in it's most winsome, gracious moods;
Woodbury., who has given us both
epics of the sea and Of mountain
heights, suggesting to the thoughtful
their similarity in unspeakable beauty.
1t was Childe Hassam who opened our
eyes to the jewellike quality Of the
rocks and the sea as they lay like a
colorful mosaic under a blue, cloud.
f1ecked sky. Murphy and Davis and
Metcalf and Schofield have each dis
covered some new, unrecorded lowell.
ness and manifested 1t to US. How
much they have added to the enjoy
ment of the Summer holiday for those
who have become their friends!
Some Of the modernists argue that
art should no longer concern itself
with the copying of nature. Very
true, great art has never done this.
The grapes that were painted so well
and the birds that were deceived and
came and pecked at them, the picture
of the rabbit hanging on the barn door
that, through Its realism, fooled the
farm boy. were not great art. Art Is
interpretation, creation. Just as st.
John Ervine said that the real test of
greatness In a novel was whether or
not 1t gave the reader a better under.
standing of his fellow men, or life, so
the test of greatness in work OF art
Is its power to interpret beauty in
the world. to give added significance
to that which we see. The great por.
trait interprets character; the great
landscape, nature; the great still life
painting, beauty in textures. relation
ship of color and tone, harmony and
rhythm. During the war one Of our
modern musicians composed music
which graphically set forth the noise
OF battle, its crash and thunder, the
devastation wrought in the clatter of
broken glass, the thud of falling stone
but this was not great music; 1t
was imitation. amusing imitation.
There are many people today who
are attracted to a work of art without
knowing why; instinctiveiy they are
drawn to that which is good and re.
pulsed by that which is poor. but
they cannot explain either. hence
ma I,a% -ts T. l.
merely matter of personal prefer
ence. Obviously. there is difference in
taste, individually in choice, but all
great art Is built upon the same fun.
damental principles, and knowledge
| Of these gives the key to understand
ing. There are a few simple rules
which any one can learn-rules of
composition, of color arrangement and
of tone values-and once learned, they
greatly add to ones pleasure, not only
In looking at pictures. but in discover
ing beauty in nature. Said an artist
looking across the water at Cold
Spring Harbor, Long Island: There
Is a ready.made composition" BY
which he gave emphasis to the fact
that nature as a rule seldom produces
a perfect picture. 1t is the business
Of the artist, as Sir Alfred East used
to insist, to complete natures inten.
ton.
4 II
It is the necessity of accepting ma
| ture as he finds 1t which constitutes
one of the greatest handicaps Of the
pictorial photographer. Unlike the
| painter, he may not move a tree this
way or that In order to balance his
composition: he may not leave out
| this or that; he must find precisely
the right point Of view and then pa.
| tiently await the ideal combination of
| light and atmosphere to register on
his plate the loveliness of the scene
which he has discovered. One pictorial
photographer told a friend that in or
| der to secure a plate setting forth a
particular ocean headlight he had had
| to wait weeks and stand for hours
| until finally that which had happened
| once happened again. With care IN
| composition and little study in the
| matter OF light and shade, the amateur
photographer can accomplish wonders
| and bring back from q holiday trim
| some real works Of art.
Whistler is credited with savJnr
that art happens" but it does NOT
happen all by itself; back of It In.
variably is sensitive perception and
skiiiful rendition. Whistler perhaps
! more than any other, realized this
fact. To him early came the com.
| prehension that art was not a mere
copying of nature, but interpretive,
He was, Of course, marvelously en-.
dowed with genius; whatever he did
| was indicative of art from the merest
| sketch to the most elaborate painting
or, indeed, the decoration Of the great
Peacock Room. But 1t was the way