Evening star., 1935-11-24
Bv Leila Mechlin.

vember IA with private view in the
American Academy of Arts and Letters,
New York. Forty-flve paintings and
Is drawings compose the collection on
display, and of the former no less than
six come from Washington.
The National Gallery of Art has
lent the three war portraits painted by
Miss Beaux, as commissions from q
special committee headed by Mr.. Her.
bert Pratt of New York. These are of
Cardinal Mercier, Premier Clemenceau
and Admiral Lord Beatty.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art has
lent "Sita and Sarita," sometimes
known as Girl and Cat" of which the
original hangs in the Luxembourg coll
lection, having been purchased by the
French government. Canon Anson
Phelps Stokes has lent portrait of
his mother and father. and Dean
Bratenahl has lent portrait of him
self painted a few years ago at
Gloucester.
One of the portraits in the collection
was painted in this city and for time
hung in the White House. 1t is of
IIID, INOOSCNClb IICl
daughter Ethel, then little girl, now
the wife of DR.. Richard Derby. Loans
have come from almost every impor-
tant museum in the country. The Met
ropolitan Museum of Art has lent
"Ernesta"; the Chicago Art Institute,
'The Dancing Lesson; the Brooklyn
Museum, Man with Cat; the Penn
sylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
''New England Woman; the Toledo
Art Museum, After the Meeting" and
so on.
The earliest Of the portraits shown
IS of the painters sister. Mrs. Henry
Drinker, with her little son seated on
her lap, painted when the artist was
still in her student days in Phila-
delphia, feeling her way, but with
amazing wisdom, exhibited in the
Pennsylvania Academy and then in the
Paris Salon, before she herself went
to Europe.
Later in date, but still early, are the
portraits of Mother and Daughter"
lent by Miss Frances Griscom, painted
in Paris, and of Mrs Alexander
Sedgwick and Christina" lent by Mrs
Sedgwick Marquand-to both of which
places of honor have been accorded.
But as Royal Cortissoz remarks in his
admirable introduction to the cata-
iogue, despite changes in costume,
which handicap many members of her
guild, Miss Beaux's portraits do not
"date."
What is more Cecilia Beaux's work
gains by aggression. In this large COL
lection, shown in single gallery, her
inmeasurable genius and strength are
manifest as in no one canvas. There
Is no monotony, no repetition. Her
dexterity and command of medium
are astounding. but never does she
evince trace Of self-consciousness or
the least spirit of bravura.' Strangely
enough one finds on studying her work,
as here set forth, that to great ex-
tent this painter, who derives from
the so-called academic school," has
achieved that which is supposedly the
ambition of modernists- notification
directness, spiritual content-and
with supreme success But to gain
this end she has sacrificed neither
veracity nor intrinsic beauty. Indeed,
through her skill and clearness OF
conception, she has enhanced and
exalted these qualities.
The way she paints is to the
initiated, consciously, and the un-
initiated, unconsciously, delight. 1t
seems very simple-it completely
achieves its end. But beyond this
matter of craftsmanship are both per-
ception and design-the power to COM
prehend as well as see, coupled with
the profound knowledge of the funda-
mentals of art.
Those whom Miss Beaux has painted
she has endowed with life-they are
not posing-they are alive. Because
of this she may dress them as she |
pleases and render as beautifully as
she may wish land but few know how |
the textures: she may disregard many |
rules and conventions without hurt |
or detriment.
That Cecilia BeauX has fair for |
color, none who sees her exhibition in
the American Academy, New York,
can doubt. Her handling Of white is
exquisite and unusual her rendering
OF delicate shades of color in combi-
nation is fascinating beyond words;
her accented strokes of strong color
quite splendid, but that she is not de-
pendent upon color for effect is shown
by some of her canvases in low-toned
browns and grays. Take, for instance,
her portrait of little boy, Cecil
Kent Drinker." in brown coat and cap,
holding whip, or crop, in his right
hand-a solitary little figure against
an expanse of background without
decoration, but needing none, a paint
ing in the manner of Manet, but with
greater reserve. In this portrait.
vivacity is given by dash of red: a
tiny ribbon tied on the stick so firmly
held. It is in precisely the right key,
1t sings.
Equally brilliant is that other child
portrait which for long hung in the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a por-
trait of little girl Harriet Sears
Amory," In kimono and sandals. the
embodiment of childhood, flashed on
the canvas with inimitable knowledge
and skill, masterpiece. On these
two paintings alone reputation might
well rest. But they are not alone in
this collection. Many others share
their distinction.
It is said, and not without reason,
that this is not a painting age, that
the art of painting is in eclipse, and
SO at times it would seem, on which
account great leniency is shown to-
ward the incompetent and immature.
1t is we'll. therefore, to know that we
still have giants among us, and that
in our own time great work of this
caliber has been and is being done
work which not only calls forth ad-
miration but conforms to the highest
standards established by successive
generations.
Miss Beaux began her career by do