Evening star., 1936-08-08
By Leila MechIin.

| held In the Corcoran Gallery OF Art.
First, that of paintings of THE Sea
and Ships" by Gordon Grant, and
then, almost Immediately thereafter,
the more comprehensive showing Of
paintings, prints and models of ships
of many kinds, collected and loaned by
the President of the United States.
In almost every instance in both of
these exhibitions interest was centered,
however, not on the sea, but the YES
sells which sail or steam or through
| other means navigate it. This is the
interest of man and his conquest of
one of the greatest of the elements
But there are those who love the sea
for itself and who paint and other
wise picture it in its many moods for
the sheer fascination it has and its
profound beauty. 1t may surprise
some to know that in marine paint
ing America is perhaps the foremost
Nation of the world.
Undoubtedly Winslow Homer was
our greatest painter of the sea, and
| his greatest painting-at least that
which he himself considered his mas
terpiece-"High Cliff, Coast of Maine, +"
is here in our National Gallery of
Art, having been included in the COL
lection given by the late William T.
Evans of New York.
This Is a superb canvas, showing a
section of our rock-bound Northern
coast, with an angry sea at its feet
On top of the cliff, silhouetted against
a narrow strip of gray sky, is a group
of three figures, SO small as to be
scarcely diScernible, but introduced to
give scale and suggest the puniness Of
man in comparison with the works Of
nature and natural forces.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art has
his painting entitled "a Light on the
Sea-; in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art New York. is group of his paint
ings portraying the sea in many varied
aspects; the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston. can claim both his "All's Well"
and The Fog Signal; his other mas
terpieces are to be found in other
museums and in a few instances pri-
vate collections throughout the United
States. There is none like him in un-
derstanding and power.
All Of Homer's paintings are gravely
realistic. No one can doubt that his
| effort was to record that which he saw
with the utmost veracity. Homer
wasted no time in feeling his spiritual
muscles or theorizing about art. Pri-
marily he was painter, and he paint
i ed with great singlenesS of purpose
and fidelity to truth. His paintings
are objective, but in so big way that
they convey the impression of the ele-
mental. Many are epic in quality; all
have style and dignity. And how does
he picture the sea? Chiefly in its
power and might-magnificent in its
majesty, but fearsome. Better than
others he has set forth the weight of
water and the powerful swing Of the
waves. One is especially conscious of
this feature of his painting kissing
the Moon" In this and in his tragic
"Castaway" there is great sense of
motion-the endless, meaningless mo-
ton of the open sea. And in his paint
ings of the sea, as it breaks on the
rocky shore, there is so much Of the
elemental that one can almost hear
the boom of the breakers dashing
against the impregnable wall and
leaping high in air in foam. And yet
none has ever suggested that Winslow
Homer was merely an illustrator, nor
a painter without imagination and
emotion. In the estimation Of tradi-
tionalists and modernists alike Wins
low Homer was a great master.
GONE one has said that it is the
blood of our sea-roving and
piratical ancestors in our veins which
accounts for our American excellence
in marine painting. Be that as it
may, the inheritance, such as it IS,
seems to have worked to our ad-
vantage. Frederick j. Waugh, who is
represented in the National Gallery
/ of Art by two powerful marine paint
ings, did, once upon time. go to
Gloucester with a chestful of pirate
costumes, intending to paint pic
ture of these highwaymen of the sea,
but so fell in love with the sea itself
that his original intention was COM
pletely forgotten. None has made a
more searching study of wave forms
that Mr.. Waugh, and the pictures of
the sea that he has painted, year after
year, have not only great beauty, but
gripping quality.
Waugh was born in Bordentown,
N. j., in 1861. His father was portrait
painter of ability and standing. He
studied first at the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts and then
Successively in France and England.
His first work was of an illustrative
character. Included in the Evans Ma
tional Gallery collection is an early
canvas by Waugh utterly unlike his
later works It is of THE Knight OF
the Holy Grail" an elaborate figure
composition, set forth on huge can
vas, in a broad. simple manner, such
as might have been employed for the
painting of mural. In fact, for such
decorative use this painting is pecu-
liarly suitable. In color it is charm
ing; it shows imaginative gift, but it
is an oversize, illustrative work. To
associate it with the vigorous and very
boldly rendered transcriptions of the
sea by this artist is very difficult
But, after all, to be any kind of q
specialist in art, one must first be an
artist, possessed of the seeing eye
capable of correct perception and in
command of ones medium. A great
portrait painter, asked why she did
not attempt landscapes, replied in all
seriousness, "I cannot draw well enough
to do tree" Sargent, sketching a
boat in construction on the New Eng
land shore, is said to have tossed his
drawing aside and declared it too diff
fcult; good craftsmanship is essential
to clarity of expression.
Waughs paintings of the sea are in
some respects like Homer's, but little
less epical and without the human
element that the latter so commonly
introduced. 1t is the sea of shore