Evening star., 1935-10-27
Bv Leila Mechin.
|HE Corcoran Gallery Of Art has,
/ during the past week, added
to its permanent collection q
>ai~%;~,r l,., tho 1ate Eyy,il Carl.

L painting by the late Emil Carl
sen. 1t is a still-life entitled "The
White Jug" which was included in the
gallery's Eighth Biennial Exhibition,
held in 1921, and is given by the art
lists widow. Emil Carlsen won re-
liown as q painter Of the sea and OF
still-life; the Corcoran Gallery Of Art
some years ago acquired through pur-
chase one Of his sea pictures. but 1t
had no example of his still-life paint
ing which deficiency now, through
Mrs Carasen's generosity. has been
remedied. 1t is notable gift.
Born In Copenhagen, Denmark, IN
1853. Emil Carlsen came to this coun-
try in 1872 and completely identified
himself with American life and Gus
toms. At the Danish Royal Academy
in his youth he studied architecture
and from this study certain character
istics in his work may have been de-
rived-such as monumental quiet and
dignity. He received many awards and
his paintings were sought and ac-
quired by the leading museums, but he
was always reticent, retiring, living
completely for and in his art. He was
q great craftsman and his standard
was invariably one of perfection, but
only as a means to an end, and that
end fuller and more adequate express
sion. Especially sensitive to beauty,
afis great desire was to make 1t mani
fest, not as with blare of trumpets,
but rather as the whispering OF the
wind in the trees. 1t was the calm
sea he liked best to paint, in all its
loveliness, and the still-life group
made up of homely things made beau
stiful through subtle nuances Of color.
Whatever he produced was the ex-
preston of himself, not conscious and
never forced, but spontaneous and
very sincere. It could not have been
otherwise; 1t was himself.
Arthur Edwin Bye in his delightful
book entitled Pots and Pans" de-
voted to the subject of still-life paint
ing, refers to Emil Carlsen as 'un-
fquestionably the most accomplished
master of stiil-lfe painting in Amer
ica," and says that to the obServant it
is evident that he lifted his art to a
height it had never reached before.
Admitting that Carlsen based his art
on the Dutch and on Chardin, Mr.. Bye
insists that Notwithstanding he was
q modern-"as independent as any
body"-and with old materials had
given new interpretations.
"One cannot help but feel" he con-
tinues, after studying several ex-
amples of Carlsen's still-life that the
painter experiences in his work emo
tions of an esthetic character more
profound than those of the great mas
tiers of still-life paintings, from Chase
and Vollon back through Chardin to
the Dutchman. Objects delighted the
eyes of these men, but objects have
a more mystical meaning to Carlsen;
they delight his outward eye. but also
his discerning inward eye, so that he
saw not only appearance, but rhythm.
music, poetry-serenity, dignity sub
limity-it Is this additional power
which make his still-life groups clas-
SIC" And again: He shows us not
literal things, dead, prosaic; but forms
which we cannot define. which elude,
mystify and ensnare U.s."
All this was written the very year
that THE White jug" was first exhib-
tied in the Corcoran Gallery Of Art
and it is equally true of and applicable
to it today. In fact. when nearly three
years after Mr. rCarlsen's death, which
occurred in 1882, a retrospective ex-
hibition of his work was held in the
Macbeth Gallery. New York. Edward
Alden Jewel restated somewhat the
same conviction in an article in the
Times. He said: THE beauty of Carl
sens work seems to grow with the
passing of time. 80 - He could produce
wonderful results with such reticent,
unasSertiye colors as gray and cool,
dun silver. with delicately grayed
whites and warm though low-keyed
earth-browns. The quiet magic thus
wrought Is unforgettably exemplfied
by such still-hfes as Iron Kettle" and
"White Jug"
THE White jug" is indeed SYM
phony in grays and browns-a basket,
q few brown-coated onions, white
jug-that is all-yet out Of these he
has wrought masterpiece in beauty
and significance. The longer one lives
with this work the more it has to say
the greater it's fascination is to the
eye, the allure to the understanding.
Paintings of this kind are reaSsuring.
The catalogue of the Carlsen ex-
hibition at Macbeth's in its foreword
had this to say Of Carlsen's attitude
toward contemporary trends in paint
ing: while he had on quarrel with
the theory that an artist should re-
fleet or interpret the life of his time,
he was very impatient at much of the
Sloppy work produced by some of
the younger painters in their haste
to express themselves'-buth he, him.
self, kept on his even way. searching
out beauty as it appeared and ap-
pealed to him and reproducing it
with infinite care, understanding and
affection" The justification of all
these statements Is to be found in
the newly acquired painting.
THE group of original illustrations
by Charles Stanley Reinhart.
placed ON exhibition last week in the
Library Of Congress, is not only inter-
esting in itself but as recalling a
field in which American artists made,
during the late years Of the nineteenth
and early years of the twentieth CEN
tury. very worthy contribution. The
public was picture-loving then as now,
and, to meet demand, books and maga-
zines were lavishly illustrated. To
this work some Of the great painters
OF the day turned their attention.
John w. Alexander's splendid por-
trait Of Walt Whitman, now In the
Metropolitan Museum Of Art. New
York. was painted for reproduction in
the Century Magazine; Edwin A. Alb
hey first undertook his Shakespearesn
themes as illustrations for Harper's
Monthly; Winslow Homer was "spe-
cial artist" for Harper's Weekly dur
ing o part of the Civil War. But
perhaps more important than this
is the fact that many Of the illustra-
l. ukA