Evening star., 1936-07-04

tefE Ar Gallery OF Ball1more
has Just issued . handsome,
~ illustrated handbook Of Its
collection, which not only affords In
structtve reading, but invites inspec-
ton. In this gallery, on North Charles
street at Mount Vernon place, in the
center Of which stands the Washing
ton Monument, the entire history Of
art from 5000 years before Christ to
the present time Is traced by original
examples.
Comparatively speaking. 1t is little
gallery. One can walk through Il n
less than half an hour, but one ooHld
spend days and weeks in study Of Its
collection. 1t is to facilitate such
study that this handbook has been
issued.
The inception Of this great collection.
Of which, by the way, only about
one-sixth Is on view because of the
limitations Of space Francis Henry
Taylor. director Of the Art Museum of
Worcester, Mass, and chairman Of
the Walters Gallery Advisory Commit
tee, describes in his introduction to
the handbook as follows:
The Walters Art Gallery, one Of
the great new treasure houses Of
America. and certainly as catholic In
its scope as any other collection ever
| formed upon our shores, was begun
In 1850 by William T. Walters. who
founded the railway system which
his son Henry was to carry on and
perfect. To the elder Walters COL
lecting was the polite avoca ton of
the man Of wealth: to the son 1t be-
came consuming passion, an al
most primary interest which was to
color a long and active career
While he was living in France
during the Civil War, because of the
secessionist sympathies Of his father,
the young Walters became intimate
in the class room Of the lycee with
Durand-Ruel. A lifelong association
was formed which, together with q
| natural taste for art and an easy ia
miliarity with artists. gave this
American an interest In the artistic
| movements of the nineteenth century
that was unique in its day"
William r. Walters died in 1894,
and from then until the day Of his
own death, Henry Walters spent q
large part Of his fortune in the ac-
QUESTION Of works Of art. Again. to
quote Mr.. Taylor, Few public collec-
tions in America, perhaps only the
Metropolitan Museum in New York.
or the Fine Arts in Boston, can claim
so prodigal a record Of purchases or
so able performance" The num-
Der of items in the collection is in ex-
cess of 10000, among which are some
OF the rarest treasures ever brought
| together by any one person.
The elder Walters collected paint
ings, mostly of the mid-nineteenth
century, and Chinese porcelains, be-
sides which he acquired the largest
and most complete collection of
bronzes by Barge, the French sculptor
OF animals, that exists. For the dis
play of his paintings he built large,
stately gallery as an addition to his
home on Mount Vernon Square: other
rooms adjacent to this were set aside
| for the display of his porcelains,
among which was. and still is. the
| famous Peach-blow vase which
brought q sensational price at the
Stewart sale in New York.
1t may be. as Mr.. Taylor says, that
to William T. Walters collecting was
"a polite avocation." but, turning the
pages Of the little catalogue of the
paintings in the Walters collection.
published in 1892, one cannot doubt
that it was to him. as later to his son,
an absorbing interest. In this little
book, small enough to slip conven-
iently into ones handbag or pocket,
are notations in regard to the several
works. when and how they were pur-
chased, with, in some instances, letters
from the artists indicative of friendly
intercourse and genuine appreciation.
There Is no mention of prices, but for
some Of these paintings Mr. Walters
must have paid the equivalent of a
kings ransom.
THE original Walters collection was
rich in works by Millet, Daubigny,
Dupre. Diaz, Corot, Rousseau, Troyon,
Van Marcke, Delacroix, Gerome, De-
taille. De Neuville, Meissonier, Fortuny
and others. Quite a number of these
paintings were included in the One
Hundred Masterpiece" a notable ex-
hibition held in Paris In 1883. A few
were painted especially for Mr..
Walters. The majority were genre,
pictures which were primarily illus
trative. pictures which told stories
for this was the type Of painting in
vogue in that day, but they were by
the leading masters. For instance,
there was Gerome's famous painting.
''The Christian Martyrs-the Last
Prayer" upon which he declared he
had worked 20 years, as well as his
"Duel After the Masquerade" and
''Diogenes." There were paintings by
the great romanticist, Delacroix,
among them his dramatic rendition of
Christ on the Cross" Alma Tad
ema's illustrative but exquisitely rem.
dered paintings Of ancient Greek and
Roman life. THE Roman Emperor,
Claudius," "The Triumph of Titus"
and "Sappho." were outstanding fea-
lures of this collection, as were the
charming child pictures by Frere and
Knaus. the military paintings of De-
taille and De Neuville, and the works
of Meissonier and Fortuny, to men,
ton only a few. Here, too, was evil
dence of the birth of q new spirit in
such works as Winter Solitude" by
Rousseau, produced under intense
emotion in eight days" and waiting
20 years to find o purchaser; in Mil
let's "Sheepfold Midnight" and his
other strong, simple pictures of peas
ant life. The only American artists
represented were Ashur B. Durand
and James M. Hart of the Hudson
River School. and Elliott and Stone,
portrait painters, the latter by q por-
trait Of w. w. Corcoran.
William r. Walters was . close
friend Of Mr.. Corcoran and during
his sojourn abroad made many pur-