Evening star., 1939-01-29
Water Color Exhibitions
On View at Arts Club
Auriel Bessemer's Landscapes
And Figures Displayed at
GEORGETOWN Galleries

painting most of her Norwegian
water colors, which suggest solitude
and faithfully record the dramatic
snow-capped mountains rising from
mirror smooth fjords, the sod-cover-
ed barns of the peasants, and the
little clusters Of houses on some
meager stretch of land at the foot
of mountain. She also shows a
few water colors of Bergen, depicting
the old Hanseatic merchants houses
along the quay. and the closely built
warehouses, with their picturesque
jutting garrets.
OF her water colors painted else
where, Deserted House" 1.-The Hur-
ricane," Jamaica" Native Huts"
and White Birches" are particu-
larly engaging. The Aforementioned
presents the birches in all their airy,
fragile grace, recalling the poem
about trees like ladies'"
Miss Stroud's water colors include
various subjects, tropical swamps,
animals and birds, roadside fruit
stands and architecture. She seems
to be at her best in the paintings
which include great gnarled, bent
trees with distant glimpses Of palm
fringed rivers. Her compositions
draw strength from these massive
forms, as well as from tall, graceful
palm trees, and the strange, bulbous
swamp cypress. Among these out
standing works are "Myakka Jungle"
Southern Sea, ""Deep Hole Myakka"
and From the Jungle" which in
PRODUCES tropical birds and jade-blue
pools.
Although now q resident Of New
Jersey, Miss Stroud was born in New
Orleans. and must have grown u
with a love for and understandirT
Of these exuberant forms and br:'-
liant colors Of the deep South and
the tropics.
Auriel Bessemer
At Georgetown Galleries.
Auriel Bessemer, who is impresario
for many painters at his own gal
lery at Dupont Circle, is himself
honored with the current exhibition
at Georgetown Galleries. 1t opened
last Tuesday evening with a preview
and will remain until February IA.
Although the exhibition includes
paintings and drawings by three ar
lists who have worked in his studio,
the show is really Mr.. Bessemer's,
by virtue of amount and quality OF
his work shown. OF 80 catalogued
items, "a are his, and some of these
are in three panels.
Prominently placed is a large
photoprint of a mural painting,
Destruction, Regeneration and Re-
demption of Man" which Mr.. Bes-
semer began under P. w. A. P. in
1888, when he first came to Wash
ington. In the same gallery are
hung original pencil, pen and ink
and crayon sketches for this mural.
1t is matter of regret that original
murals are almost never exhibited
because of their size and one can
obtain only comparative idea from
O IA OldSh nAAo ~AAlOSs
In the present instance the photo
print suffices to indicate the admir-
able balance of the composition, the
interplay of innumerable figures
and the elaborate symbolism.
Mr.. Bessemer has executed murals
for the American Museum of Nat
ural History, New York City; for
the United States post Office at
Winnsboro, S. c.; for Lee House,
Washington, D. c., and several other
places, most recently the post Of.
fees of Hazelhurst. Miss, and Ar
lington, Va. He shows preliminary
sketch for the Mississippi mural In
the present exhibition, Life in the
Cotton Belt" horizontal panel de-
picting cotton pickers, river boat
and some industrial activity. This
sketch and a three-panel work en-
titled Life Patterns in Maryland"
appear to be well adapted to small
public buildings.